Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Fighting for Oak Flat/Chi Chil Bildagoteel
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
20 Oct 2021
🖨️ Print Article
Fighting for Oak Flat/Chi Chil Bildagoteel
Fighting for Oak Flat/Chi Chil Bildagoteel

Fighting for Oak Flat/Chi Chil Bildagoteel

“Nobody made a greater mistake than he

who did nothing because he could only do little.”

—Edmund Burke

I.

By the time I get to Phoenix

they’ll be risin’—

oh, resisting, planning and

Organizin’…

 

They’ll scoff at the judges

owned by the mine—

and rally us ‘round an ol’

Apache shrine…

 

By the time they make SF

we’ll be waitin’—

In solidarity and agitatin’…

 

II.

Protect Oak Flat—Chi Chil Bildagoteel—from the

“Doctrine of Discovery” dressed in Forest Service

uniforms. Dressed in war criminal McCain Brooks

Brothers suits; Black robes of Bassackwards Tribes-

men of Thom-ass Clarence-type—fluent in Forked

Tongue; Facile tearing up treaties, temporary in-

junctions, preliminary restraining orders—pen

point/gunpoint…

 

Apache Land! 1852 treaty never Amended;

Never rescinded—Must be defended against

copper barons of London/Sydney—

Extractor’s blind to sacred springs flowing profit-free…

Person Hoods who blew up aboriginal Australian rock

shelters; confess in corporate catechism that

Straight, no chaser, “focuses on finding, mining,

processing the Earth's mineral resources…”

 

Protect Oak Flat—Chi Chil Bildagoteel—from

copper-coated vampires with wet dreams of sinking

fangs 7,000 feet deep in soil to hurry slurry—drilling

and spilling—Spilling accidentally on purpose into river;

into aquifer; leaving their Eiffel Tower-sized bite mark

 

Apache Land! 1852 treaty never Amended;

Never rescinded—Must be defended against

copper barons of London/Sydney—

who give less than a mine tailings’ damn

About acorns, cactus, yucca; About bobcats, black bears,

mountain lions and deer; About Apache prophets, prayers,

religious rites—Removed from Holy shareholders’ wealth—

The Gospel of Greed…

 

Protect Oak Flat—Chi Chil Bildagoteel—from hearings—

Hearings hearing what’s been heard over and over and

over again: “Bovine dung-Bovine dung-Bovine dung-

Bovine dung—Bull bleep-Bull bleep-Bull bleep-Bull bleep-

Bull bleep—“ or, the sweeter scented and sounding version:

“Blah-blah-blah-blah…”

 

Inspired by the great Isaac Hayes’s version of the great Jim Webb’s

composition, “By The Time I Get to Phoenix.”

 

Š 2021. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Former forklift driver/warehouse worker/janitor, Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet;  BAR's Poet-in-Residence; and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can Vote for his work at:  

GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-town-criers-big-tooth-fund

PayPal: paypal.me/towncrierRNT

Oak Flat
Indigenous
Apache

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Shasta people
Zach Frye
No Green For Go: How Settler-Colonialism Kills More Than Just People
27 March 2024
Settler colonialism has caused the destruction of indigenous lands around the world and, as a result, the environment in which we all live.

More Stories


  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    INTERVIEW: Fatima Bernawi: The Tragedy of a People, 1978
    13 Aug 2025
    “The reason for these military operations was, and still is, to tell the Israeli occupation that we defy it and are willing to resist and go anywhere to express our defiance.”
  • Isaias Afwerki
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Isaias Afwerki: My Struggle for Eritrea and Africa
    13 Aug 2025
    Michel Collon has interviewed Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and says the world must listen to him.
  • Jon Jeter
    Black People Who See Themselves in Palestinians Find that Israel Sees the Same
    13 Aug 2025
    Israel's brutal treatment of Black solidarity activists proves the truth that resistance to settler colonialism comes with a price. For Black Americans standing with Palestine, that price has always…
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    For a young labor leader leading by example
    13 Aug 2025
    "For a young labor leader leading by example" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Black Alliance For Peace
    End the Colonial Occupation of Washington D.C.: The People Demand Self-Determination and Self-Governance
    13 Aug 2025
    Washington, D.C.'s political subjugation exposes America's democratic facade. While claiming to champion self-rule globally, the U.S. increases repression and lays siege on the residents of its own…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us