In
Memory of Michael Two Horses
1953 - 2003
Michael Two Horses, Lakhota, passed away recently at his home
in Blacksburg, Virginia.
He was fifty years old. His death was unexpected and peaceful.
Mr. Two Horses was Visiting Instructor in the American Indian
Studies Program and the Humanities Program,
within the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Virginia
Polytechnic Institute.
He was also a member of the Virginia Tech Commission on Equal
Opportunity and Diversity.
He was a doctoral student in the University of Arizona American
Indian Studies Programs.
His emphasis was on societies and cultures, law and public policy,
American Indian history.
He served in Viet Nam with Military Assistance Command Vietnam
Studies and Observation Group,
stationed first at Tay Ninh, then at Long Tranh, with a rank
of Petty Officer 2nd.
He is survived by his father, Edward Tieri of Fort Lauderdale,
Florida, his brother, Albert Tieri of Palm Springs, California,
and a large community of friends and colleagues.
Mr. Two Horses will be remembered for his exhaustive research
and writing and his passionately honest
dedication to human rights, particularly with respect to American
Indian treaty rights, spiritual rights,
and cultural rights. During the Makah whaling controversy, he
formed CERTAIN, the Coalition to
End Race-based Targeting of American Indian Nations. He went
repeatedly to Neah Bay while
anti-whaling forces were threatening school children, harassing
the Makah people, and threatening the
lives of the whalers. With CERTAIN, Mr. Two Horses engaged the
opponents of the Makah's treaty rights in dialogue,
countering their arguments in the media, taking photographs
and witnessing to protect the
Makah from further physical attack, and acting in conjunction
with the Washington Human Rights
Commission and the US Coast Guard to protect the lives and rights
of the Makah people.
Mr. Two Horses was equally engaged in expanding the scholastic
dialogue. He persistently pointed out
elements of racism in the dominant cultural perspective on American
Indians. He investigated the growing rift between
mainstream environmentalists and tribal nations across the US
and Canada, and the way much environmental writing fails to
consider the role of indigenous peoples in
shaping the so-called "wilderness." "They did
not want to acknowledge," he wrote, "in much the same
way
as colonial writers did, that the human hand has always shaped
this continent, and that in creating false
constructs of 'pristine wilderness' and of cities as 'fallen'
areas, such writing tends to avoid completely the contested
lands where members of marginalized races or classes live, and
fails to deal with the concept of 'national sacrifice areas'
in human terms, inasmuch as the Indians, Hispanics, Blacks,
Asians, and poor Whites living in those areas are sacrificed
as well. These are zones where uranium mines and coal mines
and their pollution of groundwater, or toxic waste dumps are
located, without exception in proximity to marginalized peoples)."
He was ruthless toward "plastic shamans," people white
or native who hawk Indian spirituality.
"They abstract bits of our culture," he said, "and
then they sell them as the genuine article, something
along the lines of taking parts of the Catholic liturgy and
extracting the 'cool parts' and then performing
those parts for money. This is the deepest essence of what they
do, and it is comprised of both
'snake oil sales' and of a deep disrespect for Native cultures."A
memorial service for Mr. Two Horses will be held on January
19, 2004 at 5:30 p.m.
in the War Memorial Chapel at Virginia Tech. The Corps of Cadets
will play taps.
Ben Dixon, Virginia Tech Vice President for Multicultural Affairs,
has announced the University's January 19th Diversity Summit
will be dedicated to Mr. Two Horses. The Diversity Summit is
a major university gathering intended to promote a climate of
diversity on campus. A scholarship in Mr. Two Horses' name for
American Indian Studies will be initiated, said Interdisciplinary
Studies Department Chair Dr. Elizabeth Fine. Contributions can
be made to the Virginia Tech Foundation for the Michael Two
Horses Scholarship in American Indian Studies.
In lieu of flowers, it is requested that well-wishers make contributions
to the social activism causes of their choice, in the spirit
of thinking globally and acting locally, the philosophy which
Mr. Two Horses practiced.
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