Prison Puzzle Pieces 3. Dave Basham
ceremony looked a lot like a Sunday afternoon barbecue. They push each other around a lot and do a lot of fake fighting. Some of these Indians look more like white guys. A couple of them are black Indians. Totally black, I guess they must've been members of the Blackfoot tribe.
There was a large circular area about 20 feet across. Rocks created the outside of the circle. They started a large fire in the circle and put some rocks in the fire to heat them up. They use only rocks that haven’t yet broken from the heat because they hold the heat better. The circle of rocks was made up of broken rocks that were no longer good for heating. The hot rocks were used in the sweat lodge to pour water on like in a sauna.
The sweat lodge was created by laying tarps over a circular frame that was about 15 feet across and about 3 feet high. Before the tarps were put on, someone crawled inside of the sweat lodge frame and smoothed out the dirt. This guy looked like the Norge repairman from the early days of Saturday Night Live. For those of you too young to know what that means; another way to describe it is that the moon came out early this day. The hot rocks were moved from the fire into the sweat lodge. They lifted up a small portion of the tarp to get the rocks inside. As the rocks cooled down they exchanged the cool ones with hot ones and reheated the cool rocks.
Before anyone striped down to go in, they all stood in a circle. The leader did some yelling as he held the pipe up to the sky. He smoked it and then he went around the circle holding the pipe himself, never letting anyone else hold it, letting the others smoke it for up to about a minute. A few didn’t smoke it at all and most smoked for around 30 seconds.
The ones designated to get their sauna, striped their clothes off in the shed before entering the sweat lodge. About 10 Indians went in. Some dumped a ladle of hot water over their head before going in. Each entered with a blanket to sit on. One had underpants on that were as brown as the rest of his body. When they lifted up the flaps to go in, steam poured out. Some stayed in about one hour, some left after about two hours. I was sitting and watching a group of naked fat Indians running around in the snow. I can tell you it was a scene I could’ve lived without ever seeing. When they came out of the sweat lodge, their bodies steamed for a long time. One guy decided to lie on the ground. Around the time that they came out, a group of them sat around the drum beating on it to the same rhythm that you would hear on an old western movie. They sang the “Hey Ya Ya Ya” song.
(About five years later, I read a memo that stated that one of the purposes of pipe and drum was to teach them songs. The institution was getting them a CD of their traditional songs. They would be allowed to use a CD player so they could learn more songs to sing other than just the one that I had heard them singing all of the time. Hey, how about getting them a few more CD's, Bobby McFerrin - Don't Worry Be Happy, Elvis - Don't Be Cruel, Pharrell Williams - Happy... MC Hammer has one called U Can't Touch That which would be great for thieves to learn. They could pick up on a few of his dance moves too.)
It seemed like cracking a moon when they bent over was part of their ceremony. They must have been worshipping the night skies.
A couple of days later I was working in the same block as the tribal leader of the institution. I tried to find out more about what they were doing and why. He wasn’t very communicative. I then asked him why they were upset with sports teams being called things like the Warriors, Braves, etc. I explained to him that to me it seemed like a thing of honor. He wouldn't answer that question, but he did say that they get pissed off when they go into a bar and some "smart ass white guy" sitting in the corner starts saying, “Hi how are ya. Hi how are ya.” I told him that he should be pissed off at one of his own instead. I informed him that a very funny Native American comedian from Wisconsin named Charlie Hill first did that on the Richard Pryor Show in 1977. I told him he might enjoy life a bit more if he tried adopting some of Charlie’s humor. After that he wouldn’t speak to me at all and walked away.
My questions weren't meant to degrade their religion. If I was going to be working in the prison with these different cultures that I was naive about, it would be best if I could understand and relate to them. At the same time, don't expect me to buy into just any happy horse shit you try to feed me.
A chief is allowed into the prison every once in a while to be involved in their “ceremony.”
Indian sub culture is one of the strongest in the prison. Their chief has total control and no one will defy him. They are allowed time in and around their smoke lodge. Burning the sage is supposed to drive away the evil spirits. Next they burn sweet grass to draw in the good spirits. They received this right by getting the courts to rule in favor of them on religious principles. This proves how far off base our court system has become. These people can’t be very religious if they murdered, robbed or molested someone. If an officer needs to retrieve someone from the sweat lodge area, we don’t just go get them or we may no longer exist. We must never show any disrespect for this ritual or we will be taken care of by them. We walk toward the area and stop. The chief will come to meet us and turn over the person to us. From their actions, you can tell that most of them are just taking advantage of the system. They are rough housing and enjoying privileges the other inmates don’t have.
PIPE & DRUM BUST
At one point, we were told that the natives pipe and drum ceremonies were revoked forever.
A tip was received that something was up out there; as if it was a surprise. Three inmates were found with shanks and three others were found with drugs. Their shack and everything was gotten rid of for a while. With the power that the natives have with their casino money being able to hire high buck lawyers, they eventually got their privilege to this event back.
I’LL EXPLAIN, BUT YOU HAVE TO LISTEN
No matter how hard I try to explain policies to some of these guys, some just refuse to follow them. I guess that’s why they are locked up inside this place. A Native American inmate was leaving the unit for breakfast with his medicine bag hanging on top of his shirt. Nothing aligning you with any group is allowed to be visible on any inmate, religion included and even Native Americans included. I had spoken to this inmate about this several times before. I directed him to take it to his cell. Keeping it under his shirt was also acceptable. He was uncooperative, so we went to the bubble to get a print out the policy. During this time he became disorderly and loud. It became necessary for me to secure him in his cell. He would have to listen to the lieutenant explain the policy to him the next day. He would then argue with the lieutenant until the lieutenant would draw the line and tell him he would send him to the hole. This is when disruptive inmates generally shut up for a while, so they can be out of their cell to violate the policy again.
PERVERT & THE PRICK
Soon after I started working in the prison, inmates were coming back from lunch in A-West. I was working the door post watching them from outside of the cellblock and doing my required pat downs of the offenders as they entered the unit.
All of a sudden an alarm went off. A fight had broken out inside the cellblock. I am not allowed to leave my post under any circumstances. About three fourths of the inmates were through the door. I held the rest of them outside of the cellblock and had them step to the sides so that the A-Team could get through. The last thing we needed were more inmates inside the cellblock watching the fight and possibly joining in.
I swung both doors wide open to give responding officers the most room possible to get inside the block. The inmates being held outside by me kept closing the gap because they were trying to see the fight. I had to keep telling them to stay back.
It was impossible to see what was going on inside of the block because of all the inmates that had come back from lunch. Within seconds the first of about a dozen officers came flying into the unit. After a short period of time a couple of officers started to clear the flag and get the inmates to their cells.
A hyper freaked out black A-Team officer, with a know it all god complex, yelled at me to get the inmates, that I was holding outside of the cellblock, inside the cellblock. I told him I would not do that as it would create more of a problem. Here I am a new guy refusing