My Dad recently asked me what I meant, in a LA Times article I wrote back in 2000, when I wrote that he was the smartest man I ever knew. And here is what I told him. You had to fight the Genocide exerted against us and you survived. Everyday that you refused to go to school and the truant officer brought you back, you were sending a message. They wanted to brainwash you into believing that school would teach you something valuable, when here in the USA, it's sole purpose is to teach Indigenous people how to maneuver in the colonizer's world. Their methodology is to make us into good obedient slaves and forget all about our Ancestors, but you refused. In the 7th grade you went to work. And throughout our lives I witnessed what you went through. I watched you when the USA government sent us $150 for all the land stolen from us. I heard you scream when they gave us $625 for all the mineral rights. I remember every time we filled out papers to convince the USA government that we should be federally recognized, but were never. I watched you get enraged when we were dis-enrolled by our own people, as they tried to please the white definition of our tribe. But you persevered in face of this Genocide, this cruelty and white supremacy. Only a smart person, a person with great intellect, with the ability to stay strong in the eyes of constant massacres could have survived and advanced as you did. Happy Fathers Day to my Acjachemen father, and to all the Nican Tlaca Fathers.  Bob Black Crow