April 26, 2011
Dear Columbia Faculty:
I am writing to all of you to ask why I am being patronized, dismissed and disrespected knowing that a huge mistake has been made and continues to grow. I want you to know that I am now seeking legal counsel on this matter as now you are infringing on my right to speak with the students privately. Why do you wish to monitor my emails as though I was a terrorist or something?
I have asked to be flown there immediately to address this situation and Marion has stated that the university cannot pay for my hotel for so many days. She also said that students would not be around for me to speak with them. After talking with them I understand that this is the week they are all around even if they have to work in the field. Is it the practice of faculty members to tell lies? DO NOT PATRONIZE ME! Do you think this matter is not important enough to address it professionally? You are asking the students to be professional yet you dismiss any productive communication that might take place and proceed to ask the students to violate our personal communication. I have been asking to be there to get this resolved quickly and yet this is no response from the faculty.
Is my person of any significance to this university or am I just an uneducated Native Woman who should be used to being exploited for the betterment of the whole? After all, academics know what is good for my class of people, right? Colonialism still happens, I see, as I am the experiment for 400 students. Did the committee have a protocol for such an experiment that would see to my safety?
I am told that the students are willing to take away your university responsibility to fly me there so that they can deal with this situation. I plan to accept this flight seeing that they are being very professional about this whole thing; they are not remaining silent about this violation; they are practicing what you taught them. Is it wrong for them to do the right thing?
If you want to know what I wrote or said to them then perhaps you should ask me for that information. What you are doing is divisive and splitting. I am outraged at the continued dismissal I am receiving from you and your faculty.
Again, if you will not fly me there immediately then I will accept the flight from the students and hope that you will have the integrity to reimburse them. I’m sure that the students will find accommodations for me as well. Perhaps I can stay with one of them and have a greater opportunity for learning. I am open to that.
This could have been resolved through conversation and communication, as Marion put in one of her emails. However, it seems that I do not deserve the respect to receive that. I continue to be violated as this grows. Now my spirit and my being is being raped by an institution designed to put helpers into the field.
I do have PTSD and it is being triggered greatly by this faculty's actions (or non actions should I say). This damage to my being continues and I can only guess it may be out of fear, I'm not sure. If it is so then I put before you the same question that I put before the students. Will your fear not allow you to do the right thing?
I may not be an academic but I am a human being and I did not like being patronized by Marion and now dismissed by you. Do not assume to know what is respectful to me without asking me what that looks like. Your letter to the students is offending and this wound continues to grow.
How will all of you make this right? If you cannot answer that then I will seek legal counsel to answer that question. I am not going away and I will not be silent. I am tired of being oppressed and treated as a lower class individual worthy of dissection without my permission. You are again intervening in my life without my permission. What do you not understand here? Closing this letter in my culture’s way, “I am Eli PaintedCrow and I have spoken”.
Eli PaintedCrow
Eli PaintedCrow
SFC, US Army, Ret.
Advocate for soldiers
Advocate for Peace