Halftown
Must Go

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So for somebody who hasn't heard anything about what's been going on

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between you guys and Clint Halftown could you summarize that situation

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and how it relates to the march that happened today? OK. How much time you got?

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Start wherever you feel comfortable.

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Okay I'll give you a Reader's Digest version of what happened.

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My uncle, who was chief at the time back in the late 90s, got sick,

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and he appointed some people to be representatives of their clan,

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Clint happened to be one of them for the Heron Clan, Chuck was another one, and anyway, I

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missed that meeting so I wasn't able to get the Bear Clan representative, and I found that out later.

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So what happened was that his mother, who was secretary at the time, wrote a little letter saying that

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they needed to have a representative for the Nation, and Clint went and took that letter and

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asked the other guys, the representatives, to sign it, they all signed it, he was only

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supposed to be a contact from what I understand, but then they put in "Federal Representative."

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And the last line said "to deal with all governments," and that's not what was signed the

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first time. That's what was given to the government, and the government from that point on has recognized

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Clint Halftown as a federal rep for the Cayuga Nation and we fought that, we've been fighting it for--

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since 2005 anyway. When Chuck and I became chiefs, what we wanted to do was take

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that title away because we know that it's bad, and that's not what we're all about.

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My uncle was just a point of contact to sign a check so that we could have an office;

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there would be all kinds of information for all the rest of our people to come to

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and gather information about who they are, what they are, and where we come from, and whatnot--the whole

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history. But after he became representative that stopped. Now it was a matter of

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fighting what they were trying to tell people what the truth is, and we've been doing

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that for a lot of years now, and he continues to tell the lies. He's trying

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to say there's no Chiefs and Clanmothers, and that his aunt is the only Clanmother,

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which I couldn't believe when I read that, I saw that, anyway. So it's been an internal

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dispute for many years, the traditional leadership against what

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we call now a domestic terrorist, because of what he did to our community back in February of 2020;

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that was caused by the government also,

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because Tara Sweeney who was Assistant Secretary of the Interior at the time

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wrote a letter that backed up Michael Black who was the Interior before him,

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but her wording was that--the wording that got him to do what he did was,

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he has "all," in big black letters, the power to do whatever he needs to do.

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That caused him to do what he did. That's what he's using; he's using all kinds of lies about

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the people themselves you know, and trying to justify himself, but it's not going to happen,

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he's already done the damage. Now he's going to have to go pretty soon, the government

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asked for some investigation, the Supervisors here asked the same thing,

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that was in 2020. Everybody was against him, didn't understand how he could do that to his people.

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The chiefs got together and we made a statement, a press release, a week later saying that

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we don't do that to our people; we don't treat our people that way. So we declared that his

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Cayuga Nation of New York is no longer an entity, and that anything and everything that anybody does

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from this point on, if it doesn't have our name on it, it's not true.

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And what name is that?

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Our name is Chief's Council of the Cayuga Nation. And we have seven signatures on two papers so far,

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and we're going to be presenting those to the legislature tonight again to clarify,

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to tell the truth again, because he's still telling lies and how he's the voice of

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the Nation and he's the only Nation--he's not even a Nation member anymore according to us.

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He's committed treason. He's committed a terrorist act against his own people, and he's no longer

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inside our circle. That's how we presented it in our press release and

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the announcement we just made about a month or so ago. So that's where it stands, since that

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point he's still trying to spend all our money as much as he can, because that's what

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he's been doing is spending our Nation money on whatever he wants to do or she wants to do,

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when I say "she" I mean his mother. So that's where we're at right now. Hopefully the government will

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do something other than what they've already done, by taking that title away from him.

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I'm still looking for somebody to do something about the funding that he's spent,

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the misappropriation of funds, whatever you want to call it, whatever the worst

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case can be against him, with their money.

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Because he certainly has destroyed a lot of things with it. He's a sick man.

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Would it be all right with you if I took my mask off so that people watching the video can see what I'm saying?

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Sure.

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Thank you.

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So I'm just gonna ask a couple more specific questions based on some of the

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stuff that came up in there. So, and for these, more just like, I don't know, specific

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questions with specific answers. So how did Clint Halftown come to power and when did that happen?

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Two-thousand...late 2003, early 2004,

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when that letter was sent in to the BIA recognizing him as a federal rep. That's when it started. And who signed that letter?

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Sharon Halftown, his mother, Secretary of the Nation, supposedly.

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And in the 20 or so years that Clint Halftown has been in his position has the United States

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government given you the opportunity to have democratic say over a change in leadership?

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Once--any time you send a piece of paper in, because what happened was that we had a Grand Council on the

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same thing that was going on and Grand Council said, We're not going to let this happen again,

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because it happened in Oneida before this. So they said they weren't going to let it happen again so

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they wrote a letter, we're going to go down to BIA, explain everything that happened, who's the

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people that we contacted with, and that's the way it was going to be. And at the end of that meeting,

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there was a line that somebody said, Well where's the paperwork?

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So ever since then we've been creating that paper trail.

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Anyone can find out how we've been trying to fight him for the last 20 years.

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Once, I think it was in 2015, there was a guy named Keel who happened to be at the BIA office and

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he decided to recognize us because of what the Clanmothers had said at that time.

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And as soon as he said that, he disappeared from the office, and Clint Halftown again,

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his appeal won, got back his recognition, from the other, the one that took his place.

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In that 20 years how has he used your people's money without your consent?

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Well in two-thousand, I think it was early 2006, the five of us got together, the two Herons, two Bears, and

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two Turtles--well, not two Herons, but one of the Herons--two

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Bears and two Turtles, because that's all we had at the time, signed the paper,

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sent it in to the government that he is no longer whatever he basically called himself, and

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that lasted about two weeks and then the two Turtle representatives--

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how I say it is that they were bought: Clint gave them $150,000

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and said, Hey you want to take back your words, you don't want to be--if you come and join me, I'll give you more money.

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And that's what they were after, so that's where they went, and then that whole thing was thrown,

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again, back to Clint Halftown. You mentioned something that had happened in February of last

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year, would you be comfortable going into more detail about what happened then?

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Well we were--Friday we all did what we always do, we had our class, we had our food,

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nothing seemed to be disturbing except for you know there was a couple of people that didn't

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want to be a part of us anymore, and they were raising a little heck, but it was nothing serious.

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So we left Friday, thinking you know, everything's going to be OK,

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and I get a call at 3:30 or 4:30 in the morning that he's tearing down the buildings.

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And I didn't know what the heck that meant until the next day. What did it mean?

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He tore all the buildings--he tore our schoolhouse down, the day-care center, the seven, the six cabins that we had back there--

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well there was seven, but only six were being used for people--and the store, the gas station,

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across the street was a Sugar Shack (a little putt-putt that sold ice cream) and what used to be a

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cannery, but we turned it into a place where people can go and eat, like a kitchen.

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So he tore all those buildings down, and some of the guys, one of the guys here,

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I don't know if he'll say anything, but one of the guys that was watching was on duty for night watch,

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and he was waking up with a gun pointed to his head, told to get out of the truck. He was zip-tied.

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He was taken over to a van where everybody else was, there were two other guys there

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in the same situation. They all woke up to the gun to their head

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and zip-tied and put in to watch the destruction of the buildings that were going on.

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So within the days after that

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he had--

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according to the town, he hadn't gotten a permit to do that, to do the destruction of the buildings,

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so he has, he has other people working for him that

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can go get these permits that they want now for cleanup, so they went and

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sent her over there to get the permits. From who? From the town. And

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that's when they cleared out all the buildings; they just put them in dumpsters. They destroyed

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our garden. I think they destroyed our chicken coop, our pigs, we had some pigs back there.

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We had planted some trees--I don't know if they're all gone, but

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we had planted some peach trees, apple trees. I think the apple trees are gone.

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But they wiped out everything, everything's gone except for the main building, that's the white

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building over there--we call it the boathouse. We were turning that into a day care when this happened,

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so it's still there. And the other two buildings across the street, he doesn't

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bother cleaning them up, because he wants them to be there to remind people of what he can do.

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What have those demolitions meant for the community?

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Well first of all, that's where we all met, right? That was our home, that was our life at the time.

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And with no place to go, no job to go to, no--nothing to do for the day or whatever that we did,

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we had classes, we all went to classes and took care of that garden, we took care of our cornfield,

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pigs, chickens, we did those things up on a daily basis. Oh, with all that gone, where do we go?

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So everybody's been, I would say, devastated from what happened.

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He really put, he hurt people rather than help them. That's why they were yelling that

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thing about, you know, he doesn't care about children. So, since then it's been a struggle

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for the community to come together to work together. For a little while after that there

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were people helping us to maintain food for everybody and cooking meals for everybody still, so.

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But it's been a rough, it's been rough going back to

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having to deal with a domestic terrorist, that's what I call him.

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How has that manifested since February of last year? I understand that folks have been

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camping out, worrying about possible evictions. That started with the evictions back in March, I believe it was.

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Of this year? I think it was this year, yeah. And you start with the evictions,

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and people said, What the heck is this all about? And I said,

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Well he's done this three times, two times, before, and he lost both times. He doesn't have any jurisdiction.

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Don't take any of the papers, and if we don't take them, we don't--we don't acknowledge

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that court system anyways because that in itself was--that's part of that money that you

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were talking about earlier. Yeah. He bought himself a police department; he bought himself a judge, a

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prosecutor, and a defender from what I understand, and a jail. Wow! Yeah. So he's been spending a lot

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of our money on--oh yeah, and he bought them all new vehicles. So, what's that, $50,000 a piece? At least.

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So those are some of the things that we see him spending our money on that we don't get any part of.

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There was an interaction today between the marchers and a local police force. Was that

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his police force that you just spoke about?

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The ones that were on the side of the road with the black and-white cars? No, those are town cops.

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The fake police were the ones on the corner down there on the right-hand side protecting their

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store down there. With the red letters on their cars? They can't do nothing. They can't do anything.

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They're just bodyguards, or store guards, that's how we call them. How many of them are there? Thirteen, last I knew.

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And none of them are Indigenous. They're all ex-state troopers, city cops,

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sheriffs. And are those the ones who were involved in the demolitions last year, in

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the evictions this year? Oh yeah, definitely. They were given orders to clear out everybody, tie up everybody,

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make sure nobody was inside the buildings because they were going to be destroyed.

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We do have video on them coming in to the store with guns drawn.

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I don't know if you've ever seen these shows on TV where the cops come in with their guns

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drawn, you know, trying to find somebody and make sure they don't get shot first. And a week after

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that one of their lawyers said, Oh no there was no guns involved. And so we showed them the video, and they shut up about that.

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So I'm going to change directions of questioning a little bit.

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There was a banner that was held at the front of the march today

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that said Remember the Children. What does that mean to you in the context of this march?

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That's a reminder of all the--of what happened to our ancestors,

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how the children were taken away from the families back then.

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From what I understand from Carlisle, the guys that took them--take the Indian out and save the

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man. And that's what they've been trying to do. But then I saw another video, Unseen Tears,

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with a couple of elders on there, talking about when they were there and what happened to them.

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And it's a sad, very sad story about the abuse that they had to go through.

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And it makes me angry at the nuns now and the preachers and everybody else that

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had anything to do with that. They're all trying to say that they were doing it for the

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right way to live.

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So what they found was, the first 215, it's a reminder that there's a lot more to be found that were taken away, and never made it to anything.

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They probably didn't even get to speak their language because they were taken at a young age.

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From your perspective, how does what happened with the residential schools connect to what's happened

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with Clint Halftown in the last 20 years and the United States government's involvement in that?

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Same thing, nothing's changed much. BIA still has to do their assimilation, whatever they can do to

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assimilate people. Right now they're using Clint Halftown to do that, and because of Clint Halftown's

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damage by the residential schools, he doesn't know any better, and she don't know any better either, so

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this is what they believe, they probably believe this is the right way to go. And now they got all

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that money, and, from what I understand--I had $500 in my pocket one time, and I felt really powerful.

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I could buy many friends that way, you know? Then I said, Oh, so that's what happened to them. They're sick. They've got all that money, and have

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control of it, and now they can do whatever they want to do. So they think.

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So they try to do the same thing here. We're a Nation that was scattered anyway

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from the beginning, I forgot to tell you that part about us. We're the only nation that doesn't have a

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a regular reservation, you know, where it's outlined, This is where your reservation is. We don't have

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that. The Canandaigua Treaty gives us reservation status and gives us 64,000 acres--

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44 on this side and 20 on that side of the northern end of

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the lake, but doesn't go all the way to the northern end of the lake.

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So it's always been a question of mine of who made those lines. Why did they only give

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us that much, and again, who made the lines, but like anything else, it's a matter of assimilation, right?

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So we do have reservation status.

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Clint Halftown has a reservation. I see.

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We laugh at that too, because it's only two houses.

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There was a lot of chanting today that Clint Halftown has to go. Oh definitely. What needs to

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happen next in order for that to happen? What needs to happen next is that the government has to step up and do their part on

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turning this around before something else really happens.

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And it's not going to be good. Have they shown any interest in hearing? The Justice Department, from

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what I understand today, the Justice Department did not know anything about this.

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So that tells me the new Secretary of the Interior doesn't know about it. The new guy who just got

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in to be Assistant Secretary of the Interior doesn't know about it. The head of the BIA does

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know about it, but can't do anything about it until he gets an OK from the other two.

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So that's how I guess it works, but we are making them aware. There's things that happen.

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We do have some paperwork that we can send in; we have some videos that we can send in;

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we have declarations that we can send in. And yeah, we're looking for him to be gone.

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If I can editorialize for a second, I've noticed that you've spoken a lot about--

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knowledge about the structure of the federal and state governments of the United States here; has

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that same sort of interest and understanding of governmental structure been extended to you

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guys? Do they understand how decisions are made and just choose to ignore them, or do they just

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not understand how decisions are made? They have knowledge of our way because we've been sending

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papers for the last 20 years telling them who we are, and what we are, and why we are,

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and how we became chiefs, and how our government works, and all they had to

0:22:58.880,0:23:07.840
do was to look into that. But if they do that, then that means that they made a mistake. Right.

0:23:08.560,0:23:12.080
Somebody had pointed that out to me, and I just said, Well,

0:23:12.080,0:23:17.280
why don't they just correct it? Well it's been 20 years--what do you think's going

0:23:17.280,0:23:23.360
to happen to the BIA office? Why should we be there anyway? It needs to go, just like him.

0:23:29.360,0:23:35.840
What can people who live nearby and maybe watch or listen to this do from where they are that would

0:23:35.840,0:23:42.240
be the most helpful for you? I've been asked that question ever since I've been here, since 2014.

0:23:44.480,0:23:47.760
To make people aware there's different groups that happen, you know.

0:23:49.520,0:23:54.160
There's Catholic Charities, I guess, from Ithaca, they had signed a letter and had people sign it themselves

0:23:54.160,0:23:59.520
to send it in to the government, get a hold of your congressman, get a hold of your legislatures,

0:23:59.520,0:24:05.200
get a hold of anybody that has a title, let them know what's going on and how you're not

0:24:05.920,0:24:14.240
happy about it, even though they may--it may someday be a better thing to do for everybody.

0:24:16.720,0:24:23.360
But like that lady said out there I heard, "I pay my taxes why don't you pay yours?" Well,

0:24:23.360,0:24:28.560
see the difference between us and them is that they have to because they don't know any better.

0:24:29.840,0:24:37.280
Right? We don't. We know better. If you were to pay those taxes would you see anything

0:24:37.280,0:24:43.280
come back to you from that? No, I don't, no. That's not what's going to happen.

0:24:44.240,0:24:50.000
We can help them out, we can pay for our electric, we can pay for our water, but

0:24:51.440,0:24:55.840
no, we're not going to pay no taxes. We don't pay taxes. That's what all the treaties are

0:24:55.840,0:25:01.680
about. We've been trying 20 years of--treaty, telling them about treaties, the Two Row,

0:25:01.680,0:25:09.280
the Gaswęnta⁷ and the friendship. All these treaties that were made, all saying the same thing:

0:25:11.680,0:25:17.840
as long as the grass is green, the water flows, and the sun shines. They all say the same thing.

0:25:20.400,0:25:23.440
And they haven't, and they've ignored every single one of them.

0:25:23.440,0:25:27.840
But we keep reminding them of the Two Row, and that's what's been working so far.

0:25:30.240,0:25:35.040
Is there anything else that you'd like to let people know about, or any other history

0:25:35.040,0:25:40.005
details that you'd like to fill in to help people understand the story?

0:25:40.005,0:25:45.040
Well, like I said, I've been around the lake a couple times and now I keep saying this over and over, and--I haven't

0:25:45.040,0:25:51.200
seen the map yet--I only saw it once, where our original territory is, from Lake Ontario

0:25:52.080,0:25:58.960
on down both sides of the lake, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio was our original territory.

0:25:58.960,0:26:03.120
The ones around the lake are starting to acknowledge that part that they're on our territory.

0:26:05.920,0:26:11.236
And our lawyer says, "well that's not the Canandaigua Treaty." I say that doesn't matter. It's still our territory.

0:26:11.236,0:26:17.760
What have those acknowledgements meant for you? I think it means that some people are paying attention

0:26:18.400,0:26:25.360
and want change. They want to be part of the good things that are happening. They want to be part of that

0:26:27.120,0:26:30.400
because they're sick and tired of that salt mine down there and some of

0:26:30.400,0:26:33.600
these farmers dumping their stuff into the lakes, damaging the water.

0:26:37.120,0:26:40.932
I think that's everything I can think of. Is there anything else I should cover? There's one more thing, which is,

0:26:40.960,0:26:47.405
it's funny to do it right now, but could you just introduce yourself and your title?

0:26:49.040,0:26:51.840
I was born in 1952.

0:26:53.520,0:26:58.320
I was given the English name, or sometimes called the slave name, of Sam George.

0:26:58.320,0:26:59.920
0:26:59.920,0:27:07.440
In 2004, my Clanmother came to me and said, "You're next." That's after my uncle passed away.

0:27:09.280,0:27:14.480
And I tried to get out of it, but soon--people say when your Clanmother tells me you're next, you're

0:27:14.480,0:27:22.880
next. So from that point on, I got recognized at the Tonawanda Reservation, because that's how the

0:27:22.880,0:27:27.840
system works: you get recognized, everybody comes from all different nations to come and greet you,

0:27:29.200,0:27:33.840
and then you send it over to the other side, the older brothers,

0:27:36.240,0:27:38.880
for getting a Condolence, being put in,

0:27:40.560,0:27:53.840
put in place and given a title. My uncle's title is Shoyǫ:we:s. Shoyǫ:we:s means "pulling guts." I found

0:27:53.840,0:27:59.120
that story, I heard that story a couple of years later after that, why it means pulling guts. And

0:28:00.960,0:28:04.640
they said back when the Peacemaker came up from the south end of the lake

0:28:05.360,0:28:11.040
in this canoe that they were in, he saw these fishermen on the side of the lake and he wanted to

0:28:11.040,0:28:16.800
know what they were doing. So they rode over there, and what they saw was one guy, the first

0:28:16.800,0:28:25.600
guy was taking the fish, hitting him on the head. I think that's the title that he carries. Then

0:28:25.600,0:28:33.360
he hands it to me, and I pull out the guts--that's Shoyǫ:we:s. I hand him to the next one and that's--

0:28:33.360,0:28:41.440
he puts him on the pole to dry out. That's his title name, too. I asked how to say that

0:28:41.440,0:28:48.000
I can't say it right now, because I only know mine for sure, so that's the title I have today.

0:28:51.120,0:28:54.160
That title's been here time, time immemorial.

0:28:57.280,0:29:00.560
But that's it. If you want to know I just say Hoya:neh Shoyǫ:we:s

0:29:03.040,0:29:06.080
when it comes time to introduce myself to anybody else.

0:29:08.080,0:29:14.960
All that means is that, from what my teacher says, it's, Here's a good person who pulls guts.

0:29:17.360,0:29:21.120
So hang onto yours, I may be pulling yours next!

0:29:23.760,0:29:25.840
Thank you. Nya:węh. Da:ne⁷toh.

0:00:24.034,0:00:36.034
Hi. My name is Teresa Longboat John. I'm of the Turtle Clan, the Gayogo̱hó:nǫ⁷ community.

0:00:38.034,0:00:49.034
And I'm just here because I feel there needs to be a face to let everybody know

0:00:52.034,0:00:52.700
who

0:00:55.034,0:01:03.034
we're asking you to help and to protect us from the Halftown faction.

0:01:03.034,0:01:04.034
And I believe that it's important for us to get out there and show our face, and share a little

0:01:14.034,0:01:23.034
bit of our story--not the whole thing, but just a little bit of our story--with you to explain to you

0:01:25.034,0:01:34.034
why we're up here, how we got up here, and why we continue the fight.

0:01:36.034,0:01:39.034
I came up with my son in 2010,

0:01:42.034,0:01:43.034
and

0:01:46.034,0:01:52.034
it was nice. It was amazing to be up here in our homeland.

0:01:56.034,0:01:59.034
For me, it was my ma's dream come true,

0:02:00.034,0:02:07.034
because she told us to get to our homeland when it was

0:02:09.034,0:02:10.034
available to come to us.

0:02:13.034,0:02:19.034
So I came with my son. My son came first, and then I came

0:02:20.034,0:02:30.034
like a month later. And at the time, I was the eldest.

0:02:32.034,0:02:36.034
And we all worked. We all worked,

0:02:38.034,0:02:39.034
lesser wages,

0:02:42.034,0:02:48.034
but to me it was just the idea that I was up here on my own land, my own house,

0:02:52.034,0:02:58.034
and it was amazing. It was just amazing. I live on the lake,

0:03:01.034,0:03:02.034
and

0:03:05.034,0:03:08.034
I just wanted to give a little bit of history of

0:03:11.034,0:03:13.034
how I was brought up in

0:03:17.034,0:03:24.034
the whole Cayuga Nation, I should say.

0:03:24.034,0:03:32.034
At 16, I started 

attending meetings with my mom, because

0:03:32.034,0:03:37.067
she said it was very important for me to learn what was going on with my Nation.

0:03:40.034,0:03:44.034
So at 16, I started learning

0:03:46.034,0:03:56.034
about what was happening and everything, and the fight--the fight then to hear from Clint Halftown

0:03:58.034,0:03:59.034
and Tim Twoguns

0:04:02.034,0:04:08.034
what was happening.

0:04:22.034,0:04:28.034
Hi Buzz! Hello! My son Buzz from work.

0:04:31.034,0:04:35.034
But yeah. And

0:04:36.034,0:04:42.033
so we've been fighting for a long time, with me being an elder now,

0:04:45.033,0:04:47.033
and what is very important to me

0:04:48.033,0:05:05.033
is, I don't want my children to fight, and I don't want my grandson to fight.

0:05:05.033,0:05:08.033
And that's all they're seeing,

0:05:10.033,0:05:15.033
is just all this fighting.

0:05:16.033,0:05:24.033
For us it's about the land, the land and our children, because we have that posterity.

0:05:27.033,0:05:33.033
Clint Halftown doesn't have any; he doesn't have any lineage to carry on.

0:05:34.033,0:05:46.033
And for him it's all about greed, and it's all about the money.

0:05:47.033,0:05:48.033
And

0:05:51.033,0:05:53.333
as far as our homes go?

0:05:55.033,0:05:57.131
That comes with that settlement.

0:05:58.033,0:06:05.033
That settlement that he said all the Cayugas voted on, to let him handle.

0:06:08.033,0:06:10.033
Well.

0:06:11.033,0:06:20.033
Cayuga people--this is how he's handling it. And he bulldozed down a store, a day care,

0:06:21.033,0:06:32.033
a schoolhouse that brought the language and the traditional ways back, the gardens that supplied food.

0:06:34.033,0:06:44.033
And people were employed, and we were living in peace. We did not go out of our way to harass him.

0:06:48.033,0:06:50.033
And then this was all done,

0:06:52.033,0:06:54.033
starting at two o'clock in the morning.

0:06:56.033,0:07:03.033
And I was away on vacation, and I came back to this--and I live right next door to this!

0:07:04.033,0:07:10.033
And that's what I see every day. Every day I see it.

0:07:13.033,0:07:17.033
We get drive-bys by his illegal,

0:07:20.033,0:07:29.033
fake police force. We get papers by his illegal police force.

0:07:32.033,0:07:39.033
We get followed by his illegal police force.

0:07:39.033,0:07:46.033
And

0:07:49.033,0:07:52.033
it's got to stop; it's got to stop.

0:07:55.033,0:07:58.033
He's got to stop. His mother's got to stop.

0:08:03.033,0:08:08.033
It's driving the people all apart. And we

0:08:11.033,0:08:25.033
can be, should be, we want to be very strong together, united as one, as it should be.

0:08:31.033,0:08:34.033
And it's for the children.

0:08:35.033,0:08:40.033
Oh! It's for the children. It's for our generations to come.

0:08:45.033,0:08:49.033
So if you can, please share this.

0:08:51.033,0:08:53.033
I would appreciate it.

0:08:55.033,0:09:02.033
And once again, I would like to thank everybody that's helped us--the campers that have come out.

0:09:04.033,0:09:15.033
We have received donations from people, different tribes.

0:00:25.092,0:00:30.131
My name is Judy Jimerson. I live

0:00:32.600,0:00:42.943
here in Cayuga Lake. I'm a Cayuga, Cayuga Bear. I'm from Six Nations in Canada.

0:00:46.647,0:00:58.692
And I came here 7 years ago, when I read it in a newspaper that the Cayuga people needed help. And

0:01:01.729,0:01:09.069
I came, I came for just a couple of weeks, to see if I could help, if I could be of any service,

0:01:09.069,0:01:18.179
anything. And I did, I held down Union Springs for a little bit, and

0:01:19.680,0:01:26.587
then they took over--Clint's goons came and took it over. And I remember that night,

0:01:27.688,0:01:37.798
I remember them screaming that the Canadian Cayugas weren't real Cayugas, and that we had

0:01:37.798,0:01:44.171
no say, and we weren't supposed to be here. And we were disgusting, and we ran away, and

0:01:44.171,0:01:50.878
everything like that. I remember them screaming that, and then I remember them trying to get

0:01:50.878,0:02:02.823
into the store and take everything back over. And I think it was Timothy Twoguns screaming

0:02:04.191,0:02:14.368
how much, like, Canadian Cayugas weren't real Cayugas, and things like that.

0:02:14.501,0:02:20.641
And then the mercs came in, and they started to like swarm us--oops, sorry--they started to

0:02:20.641,0:02:26.013
like swarm us, and be like all around us, and I remember getting punched in the face by one of

0:02:26.013,0:02:33.387
them, and just like looking at him shocked that a man would punch me, and then I jumped on the ball

0:02:33.387,0:02:39.960
of men, and like tried to swim over everybody into the store. That didn't work out very well.

0:02:41.261,0:02:48.669
But after I couldn't hold the front of the store, we went to the back of the store, trying to help,

0:02:48.669,0:02:55.309
and it just fell. It was chaos from there. And then they got Union Springs back.

0:03:00.814,0:03:09.390
So then I came over here to 89 after that, to see if I could help protect this store,

0:03:09.390,0:03:12.860
make sure that we could--make sure that the Cayuga people could keep it,

0:03:13.961,0:03:20.200
and I ended up meeting my husband and

0:03:22.669,0:03:27.941
got married, and I've been here ever since. Kind of married into the fight, and

0:03:30.644,0:03:31.145
I learned

0:03:33.213,0:03:40.821
more and more about this fight every day, how

0:03:41.789,0:03:46.293
Clint's cops aren't real; they don't have

0:03:46.293,0:03:52.299
no contracts. They don't have any say or jurisdiction, and what--

0:03:53.801,0:04:01.141
on this territory, and they're white men trying to boss around Native people. How is

0:04:01.141,0:04:10.417
that right? How is Clint hiring Native people--or, non-Native people--to boss Native people around?

0:04:13.520,0:04:14.021
It's just--

0:04:16.423,0:04:19.159
it just disgusts me and makes me

0:04:20.127,0:04:26.433
very angry and upset and frustrated. And I wish I could do more, and I wish I could--

0:04:29.203,0:04:36.810
it's that feeling of hopelessness, of not--feeling like you're not doing enough.

0:04:42.983,0:04:43.483
It just--

0:04:45.919,0:04:50.824
it's overwhelming and it sucks.

0:04:51.658,0:05:04.805
And

0:05:05.539,0:05:06.039
I don't know.

0:05:12.012,0:05:18.819
I'm at a loss for words now, sorry.

0:05:47.214,0:05:50.984
There's so much that's gone on, and so much that's happened, it's just--

0:05:54.187,0:06:00.460
it's a lot of emotions, and a lot of--a lot of crap to dig through, and I'm

0:06:02.996,0:06:06.533
trying really hard not to sit here and just bawl my eyes out.

0:06:18.345,0:06:24.317
But I know one thing that could help us—Cayuga Nation, the Cayuga people,

0:06:24.985,0:06:31.491
the Gayogo̱hó:nǫ⁷ people--is if maybe one person could just call

0:06:32.692,0:06:37.798
and just say that this isn't right--you know, what Clint is doing.

0:06:40.300,0:06:44.004
It isn't right, and it's so wrong.

0:06:47.441,0:06:49.209
And it's just evil.

0:06:50.744,0:06:58.585
How can you do this to your community members, to your people, to children?

0:07:01.788,0:07:10.831
How can you do that? How can you tear down a whole community and just get away with it?

0:07:13.733,0:07:15.702
How is that right in any sense?

0:07:21.441,0:07:25.545
And I just hope that one person sees this,

0:07:26.813,0:07:38.859
and just gives us one call, that might be the one thing that we need.

0:07:40.760,0:07:45.632
Thank you. Thanks for listening.