Copyright © 2002 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

The Christian Peacemaker Team movement should be ashamed of the comments made in the media by its members last weekend, and we ask that the organization investigate their irresponsible claims. The team members were part of an orchestrated protest by mostly non-Indian outsiders on Oneida Nation lands recruited by Danielle Patterson, whose trailer home has been legally condemned by the Nation Court.

Anne Herman, a Binghamton woman who is a member of Christian Peacemakers, likened a simple condemnation proceeding to the plight of people in the Middle East who have lost their homes because of the fighting in that region. This is sensationalism at its worst. It illustrates her lack of understanding of the situations in Oneida and the Middle East, and demeans the lives lost in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Ms. Herman also likened Oneida Nation police to security forces in Mexico. Again, she overstates her case and trivializes the plight of Mayan farmers by comparing their fight for equal rights to Ms. Patterson insistence that she and her children be allowed to live in unsafe and unsanitary conditions.

Another Christian Peacemaker, John Finley from Ontario, Canada, claimed the situation has become violent simply because Ms. Patterson was arrested when she attacked police when her trailer home was inspected in the past. Ms. Patterson instigated the violence and was arrested for it ... as one would expect to be for assaulting a police officer. Mr. Finley should look at the potentially violent situation Ms. Patterson and her family have created by inviting outside agitators and professional malcontents to trespass and disrupt life on Nation lands. A report issued by the Christian Peacemakers raised the question of the Nation police having lost deputization agreements with Madison and Oneida counties. What they failed to mention is that the agreements were cancelled by the counties for purely political reasons and had nothing whatsoever to do with the conduct of the Nation police. (We trust they also failed to mention in their report that Ms. Patterson has refused a job offered her by the Nation, as well as the offer of alternative housing.)

Hyperbole, overstatement and half truths are the tactics of disinformation ... not the basis of good faith; Ms. Herman and Mr. Finley may wish to revisit the commandment against bearing false witness. The Christian Peacemakers have been duped by Ms. Patterson and her relatives into thinking that this is about her rights as an American Indian. It is not.

All this is about is her abrogation of responsibility as a mother and a homeowner to provide safe housing for her children and to properly maintain her home. Anywhere else, the condemnation of a dilapidated trailer home for numerous housing code violations would not interest Christian Peacemakers or anyone else, including the media.

Ms. Patterson and her relatives have once again distorted the facts, and non-Indian outsiders with no understanding of the situation have swallowed their bait. Shame on them all.