Warrior Poets

In April of 1998 an ancient forest defense campaign began on public lands in Fall Creek Oregon.

This campaign built a tree village 200 feet off the ground, which combined with successful legal challenges in the courts, led to the protection of this forest.

After successfully repelling one removal attempt after another the tree sitters began to call themselves Red Cloud Thunder.

This is the campaign that Steve Toth heard about on the late night radio show Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell. So Steve started mailing his poems to the tree sitters. This led to his working with the warrior poet community ever since.

~

Red Cloud (Lakota: Maȟpíya Lúta), (1822 – December 10, 1909) was a war leader and the head Chief of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux). His reign was from 1868 to 1909. One of the most capable Native American opponents the United States Army faced, he led a successful conflict in 1866–1868 known as Red Cloud’s War over control of the Powder River Country in northeastern Wyoming and southern Montana. After the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), he led his people in the important transition to reservation life. Some of his US opponents thought of him as overall leader of the Sioux, but this was mistaken. From Wikipedia

~

 
We all have seasons
when nothing goes fast enough
except the things that go too fast.
 
Something works in the depths
of reality to create crisis

Make a big splash
& ride the resulting wave

Be relentless like the ocean
& you’ll never run out of waves

Be relentless like the sun at midnight
like the secret rings of trees in winter

Every tree is another form of awareness

There’s something wild
in the way they keep growing
If the only dinosaurs left are birds

what does that say about the future?
You’d think that evolution of life itself
would be enough to capture any imagination

Be the lightning that exposes
the darkness of a stormy night

Be also the thunder
that tells the story
 
Steve Toth

March-April 2002 Earth First!