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THE TORTURE OF CHIEF IRON THUNDERHORSE<br>
by Tom Big Warrior<br><br>
On June 7th, 2005, ranking officers of the Texas Department of
<br>
Criminal Justice (TDCJ), at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas,
<br>
attacked an elderly and legally blind inmate, Iron Thunderhorse,
<br>
while he was attempting to go to the chowhall. They knocked the
<br>
glasses and UV shields from his face and sprayed chemical pepper
<br>
spray directly in his eyes. They proceeded to spray him all over
<br>
with the chemical irritant, kicking him and wrenching his crippled
<br>
arm behind his back.<br><br>
For weeks, Iron had been denied entry into the chowhall, or any
<br>
food at all, as the TDCJ was attempting to starve him into <br>
complying with an order to submit to a haircut, despite the fact
<br>
that a federal court had recently upheald that his civil rights
<br>
were being violated. This was the latest outrage in a struggle that
<br>
has been going on for almost thirty years.<br><br>
After being railroaded by the FBI's COINTELPRO program, along with
<br>
many other dissidents and activists around the country, in the
<br>
early 70s, Iron went to court to assert his rights as a Native
<br>
American spiritual practicioner. He got off the bus from jail to
<br>
prison armed with a court order requiring the TDCJ to respect these
<br>
rights, including his right to wear long hair. He was met by the
<br>
warden and a "goon squad" of inmate "building
tenders" armed with <br>
baseball bats and axe handles. The warden tore up Iron's court
<br>
order and had his "goons" beat Iron unconscious and then
forcibly <br>
cut his hair.<br><br>
Year after year, Iron has suffered repeated beatings and torture,
<br>
including years in solitary confinement in the sweltering Texas
<br>
heat. His blindness stems from repeated gassings and being sprayed
<br>
in the eyes with pepper spray. His body is covered with scars, only
<br>
a few of which he received as a soldier in Vietnam.<br><br>
Iron is the hereditary chief of the Quinnipiac Renapi, a branch of
<br>
the greater Lenape Nation, whose homeland runs along the Quinnipiac
<br>
River in Connecticut. His people have the dubious distinction of
<br>
being the first North American tribe to be placed on a reservation
<br>
by the English settlers at New Haven, in the early 1600s.<br><br>
Iron's long ordeal began when he stopped at a diner for a cup of
<br>
coffee on his way home from work, more than thirty years ago. Some
<br>
of the local Connecticut white boys, who saw him pull up on his
<br>
classic Indian motorcycle, thought it might be fun to give this
<br>
long-haired Indian a hair cut.<br><br>
After years in the rough and tumble Indian boarding schools, his
<br>
muscles now hardened by long hours of construction work, Iron <br>
defended himself well. It was a clear case of self-defense, but the
<br>
white boys were sons of the local establisment, and so the cops
<br>
arrested Iron. But this was the least of his problems, as the white
<br>
boys, enraged by their deserved ass-whipping, began to stalk Iron
<br>
waiting for a chance to get revenge. It happened one winter night
<br>
when two of them spotted his car and gave chase. They ran the car
<br>
off the road, but Iron wasn't in it.<br><br>
After the highway patrol informed him that his young wife and child
<br>
had been killed in the resulting "accident," Iron begain
drinking <br>
heavily. Then he donned his war-paint, got on his motorcycle, and
<br>
went looking for revenge. He found the boys before the police did,
<br>
and when they arrived, they arrested Iron for aggravated assault.
<br>
It was then that the Army stepped in, and Iron was released into
<br>
the custody of a coloniel recruiting for special service in
Vietnam.<br><br>
Having frequently run away from boarding school, Iron fine-tuned
<br>
the woodlands skills he had been taught as a child by living off
<br>
the land in wilderness areas. These skills, coupled with the rage
<br>
he was going through, made him an ideal candidate for the covert
<br>
operations he was groomed for at Fort Bragg and other army training
<br>
schools. Placed under the direction of the CIA, Iron was sent to
<br>
Vietnam, where he took part in secret operations, as well as <br>
elsewhere in S.E. Asia. But eventually, he and his team refused to
<br>
obey an illegal order, and they were sent back to California and
<br>
discharged.<br><br>
Iron gravitated to the American Indian Movement (AIM) and to others
<br>
standing up to the system, and he became a target of COINTELPRO,
<br>
the FBIs illegal campaign to infiltrate, entrap, frame-up, <br>
assassinate and otherwize suppress activists in the anti-war and
<br>
other movements for social justice that had emerged in the 60s.
<br>
Their intent was to lock him up and throw away the key.<br><br>
Iron went into prison in top physical condition and highly trained
<br>
in martial arts. Over the years, he fended off several attempts to
<br>
assassinate him, but now his health is precarious and he is <br>
virtually blind. "I suffer from corneal dystrophy and have
<br>
cataracts and open angle glaucoma, my corneas no longer produce
<br>
tears," Iron wrote in a complaint over the June 7th attack,
<br>
explaining the excruciating pain he was in when he was at last
<br>
taken to the medical unit. "Lt. Lawrence and Sgt. Sheffield
refused <br>
to allow the duty nurse to conduct a proper PHD exam....Officers
<br>
refused her admonishment to un-handcuff me due to excruciating pain
<br>
in [my] shoulder." Iron had a pass, repeatedly renewed by
doctors <br>
since 1992, prohibiting his being cuffed behind his back due to his
<br>
crippled arm. This was confiscated after the attack.<br><br>
"Officers refused to allow the nurse to flush my eyes with water
or <br>
otherwise decontaminate my person from the pepper spray. The OC
<br>
pepper spray saturated both eyes, face, head, ear canals, neck,
<br>
torso, arms, palms, buttocks and thighs. Officers kept saying, 'LET
<br>
HIM BURN!'"<br><br>
Iron also suffers from rhinitis and sebhorric dermatitis, both of
<br>
which are specifically mentioned on the precautions list for use of
<br>
OC pepper spray. This was known by the officers prior to this <br>
premeditated attack, and Iron had reported that he had been <br>
repeatedly threatened with this type of assault. It was obvious
<br>
that an allergic reaction was taking place to the pepper spray, yet
<br>
Iron was prevented from showering until more than 12 hours
later.<br><br>
This torture is compounded by medical neglect. Iron suffers from
<br>
high blood preasure, heart arrhythmia, sleep apnea, recurrent <br>
shingles and only has one functioning lung. All of these conditions
<br>
were aggravated by the assault, yet his requests to see a doctor
<br>
were not only denied, so were his regular prescribed medications
<br>
for these conditions.<br><br>
According to his wife, Ruth Thunderhorse: "The warden tells me
that <br>
Iron's glasses were lost in the property confiscation after the
<br>
'assault,' but if they cannot find them, they will get new ones.
<br>
Anything to keep Iron from his legal work, I assume. Since the
<br>
warden hemmed and hawed when I asked if Iron had his fan, that
<br>
probably is not in his possession, either. He also ignored my <br>
question as to whether Iron has his magnifier." Meanwhile,
Iron's <br>
glasses, UV shields and his navigational cane, which were <br>
confiscated, have not been replaced, and his typewritter has been
<br>
confiscated. Basically, the TDCJ is doing all it can to frustrate
<br>
Iron's efforts to defend his civil rights, including deliberately
<br>
endangering his health.<br><br>
President Bush, who was formerly the Governor of Texas, can claim
<br>
all he wants that, "We do not condone torture," but the facts
show <br>
otherwise. The torture of Iron Thunderhorse continued throughout
<br>
his term as governor and it continues today. The federal court had
<br>
more than enough justification to put Iron in federal protective
<br>
custody while he is litigating against the TDCJ. The very essence
<br>
of this case is the suppression of religious freedom for Native
<br>
Americans here in the USA, the history of which spans the whole
<br>
history of the US.<br><br>
Ruth asks for letters of support addressed to Iron. His adddress
is:<br><br>
Iron Thunderhorse, #624391<br>
Polunsky Unit, 3872 FM 350 South,<br>
Livingston, TX 77351.<br><br>
<br><br>
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