John Edwards Nance
NANCE John Edwards Nance, writer and photographer, who chronicled the Tasaday tribe of the Philippines, died Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at his home in Columbus, Ohio. He was 74. Nance spent 40 years photographing and writing about the Tasaday, a group of cave-dwelling people discovered living in the Philippine rainforest in 1971. He authored three books and took tens of thousands of photographs of the tribe. He also established Friends of the Tasaday, a foundation that helped preserve their rainforest home, provided them with education and health care, and taught them sustainable agriculture. A graduate of the University of Oregon, where he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and pitched for the university baseball team, Nance left Oregon in the late 1950s to travel the world, and eventually landed a job with the Associated Press, covering the war in Vietnam with an outstanding group of journalists and photographers, including Pulitzer Prize winners Horst Faas, Nick Ut and Eddie Adams.

His work took him throughout Asia, and in 1968 he was assigned to Manila as AP Bureau Chief. It was there that he covered a story about aviator Charles Lindbergh on an expedition to meet a group of 26 people discovered by a trapper living in isolation in the rainforest. John's articles and his subsequent book, The Gentle Tasaday, published in 1975, helped catapult the group to worldwide attention. The peaceable Tasaday, whose unique language did not include words for enemy or war, were studied in the caves by dozens of social scientists, who determined that they lived a stone-age-like existence, subsisting on roots and tadpoles. Nance eventually left the AP, moved back to Oregon, and authored two more books, The Mud-Pie Dilemma, and a history of the Philippines. In addition to The Gentle Tasaday gaining worldwide acclaim, his children's book, Lobo of the Tasaday, was a Horn Book Award Honor Book of 1982. His photographs were represented by Magnum and he designed a curriculum for the Oregon schools, based on the Tasaday story. In the late 1980s, the Tasaday fell victim to political intrigue, when interests eager to claim their rainforest for mining and logging exploitation engineered an elaborate scheme to declare them a hoax. Despite the fact that the Aquino government conducted an official inquiry and eventually declared the tribe authentic, worldwide media and scientists using second-hand studies pronounced them fake. Linguists eventually proved their authenticity. Nance spent the next 25 years working in behalf of the Tasaday, whose rainforest preserve shrank from 45,000 to 4,000 acres.

Most recently, Friends of the Tasaday was successful in a many-year effort to have the preserve mapped and government-certified as an Ancestral Domain, protecting it in perpetuity for the indigenous people who live there. In addition to his work for the Tasaday, Nance continued to write and take pictures and gave lectures for several organizations and institutions, including Esalen Institute, the Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation and the Pacific Program. John loved sports, and particularly favored the Blazers, the Cavs, and the Yankees; this year's Rose Bowl was a tough call for him. In the late 1990s, he moved to Ohio, where he had been a Writer in Residence at the Thurber House literary center and where he met his second wife, Sally Crane. In addition to Crane, Nance is survived by his children Gillian Nance (Robert Lyons) of Portland, Oregon, and Christopher Nance of San Diego; his stepchildren, Cameron MacPhail, Alastair MacPhail and Elinor MacPhail of Columbus; his first wife, Joyce Nance, of Portland; and numerous loving in-laws. Calling hours will be held Friday, March 12, from 4-7 p.m. at the Thurber House, 77 Jefferson Avenue, in Columbus; a memorial service will be held 11 a.m. Saturday, March 13 at SCHOEDINGER MIDTOWN CHAPEL, 229 E. State Street. Another celebration of John's life will be held in Portland on Sunday, March 28, at 2 p.m. at the Multnomah Arts Center, 7688 SW Capitol Highway. In lieu of flowers, friends are encouraged to make a donation in John's memory to the Tasaday Archive Program, c/o So-Hum Foundation, 4894 Lone Mountain Road, #170, Las Vegas, NV 89130. Visit www.schoedinger.com to send condolences.

March 8, 2010
After more than a year in the saddle, we prepare to ride into Phily and our last 6 or so days headed to New York City and the UN.

Floyd Red Crow Westerman sings it like it is

A song about missionaries.
Floyd Red Crow Westerman - "Missionary"

The Ant in the Queen's Tea Cup

March 3, 2010
We heard that calls to the Thai Embassy about the Ride for Freedom and the Queen of Thailand taking Akha land went unanswered. Oh, so so sorry there is an ant in the Queen's teacup. And sorry she had to take her website down:
Queen's Highland Development Project

Maybe it was because she got caught, as mentioned here:
Letter of Allegation

Even an ant can load enough small pebbles into the Royal Yacht to capsize it.

We Cross the Mason Dixon Line into Pennsylvania

March 3, 2010
Last night in falling snow and sleet I and Hampton crossed the Mason Dixon line from Maryland into Pennsylvania. No, the snow can't hold us now. Huge drifts along the road reached out with icy fingers, inviting us to a banquet of cold love. A long hike back to Maryland and a great ride from Steve Schultz late at night, back to the bus. About five days crossing Pennsylvania, four days in New Jersey, into New York and to the UN.

Right now we need diesel, grain and propane. We are out of all three. Thanks for helping. Soon we reach our second goal.

We also made the Silver Springs Gazette, a paper published by the Washington Post.:
Activist-Cowboy Travels Through Silver Springs on Way to UN Forum

Wash. DC.

I rode into Washington DC on the 22nd of February, 2010, some 354 days after I rode out of Salem, Oregon on March 6, 2009. I was surrounded by narrow shoulders cluttered with ice, sidewalks that are no longer shoveled, snowed on, frozen, snowed on again. That really surprised me, that so few people shoveled the walks out front of their houses or businesses. This all added a lot of stress for Hampton and myself, we had to pick our way very carefully and switch the side of the street or pick a different street. We stopped at a grocery and I got enough oats, carrots, apples and brown sugar to give Hampton a good meal. After a cup or two of coffee to warm me and a sandwich, I headed for the Capital Mall in a rain, cold, wet, foot sore. We rode across the Potomac and around to the front of the Lincoln Memorial. Then a Park Police cop through us out, said horses weren't allowed in all of DC, but couldn't cite the law to save his life. Neither could the watch commander over the phone. "Oh, look it up on the internet" he said, Badge Number 251. Anyway, we headed back for downtown Arlington, and spent the night waiting for the sun to rise.

We then headed north and crossed the Potomac again, I had to dismount and run Hampton across on foot, a very long run, as fast as I could go, then I rode to Walter Reed Army Medical Center where I had told a woman I would visit her son, injured in Afghanistan. After that I rode north to Silver Springs and a man put the horse up for me, and gave us excellent hospitality. I had been up for 60 hours. I got back to the bus and moved the bus from Manassas, Virginia to Silver Springs. The next day the whole family went back into DC and spent the day visiting our Senator Merkley's office, Senator Leahy's office, touring the capital, and visiting the different monuments. There is an incredible lot to see in DC, I'd recommend four or five years.

We got to the Air and Space Museum, the Native American Museum, the Museum of Natural History, the Washington Monument, and the White House.

We have a few weeks left of the ride to freedom, battling cold and more snow coming down even tonight, Phily got 16 more inches, New York got more snow, so winter will not let us out of it's frozen windy grip.

Reflections Before Wash. DC.

Feb. 16, 2010
As I begin circling towns on the map that lead into Wash. DC, I reflect on this long journey as our two end goals come into view, Wash. DC and New York city at the UN. I hope to compress all the videos into a Ride for Freedom DVD. As well, I plan to write a book, looking long months across the US into the many towns that we rode through. The brutality of the long walks back towards the bus are engraved in my mind, and many pairs of totally destroyed boots. Hampton has been a wonderful horse and companion on this trip, so dependable, so steady, and has given a lot of children joy who never touched a horse before.

From the woods of Oregon, to the beautiful California coast, across a boiling desert, and into the great expanses of New Mexico and Texas the miles went by.

I wish I could have taken the trip to just take photos alone, so many pictures I wanted to take, but there wasn't time to get off the horse, or cross the fence, or walk up that other hill to get there and take the photo. Sometimes in towns I wasn't able to get the camera out or investigate something further, that I really wanted to do. I would have liked to have spent more time talking to people, stopping in great downtowns that were still surviving, just to hear the local stories, something that would have taken a couple years longer had I done that.

Most impressive were all the people I met who came out to tell me something of the area, of their lives, and find out what we were riding for. Many people asked how they could help, and they did. We really appreciate that.

The rides that I got back to the bus, each one every night happened a different way, the people were unique, and I got about 20-30 minutes to find out what THEIR life was about too, and tell them more about the Akha.

The kids have seen more of the US than most kids, and will see more yet.

A Long Day Into Charlottesville, Virginia

Feb. 14, 2010
A long day down narrow Hwy. 29 we can't wait to get onto another road for at least a while. We finally make Charlottesville in the evening, ride to the north of town, then walk back 8 miles to the highway, where we get a great ride back to the bus, its only 5am.

And we get a great story on NBC Channel 29 Charlottesville:
NBC Ch. 29 Charlottesville, Virginia

Great Visit in Nelson County

The sun is out again, the snow has stopped for a moment, and we press on through friendly Nelson County.

Chilhowie, Virginia Police Chief Steve Price Says Investigate

Feb. 11, 2010
The police chief of Chilhowie, Virginia says that I should be investigated (for talking about Chilhowie apparently) and wanted to know at Thursday's City Council meeting who was sending me photos and information (about corruption in Chilhowie).

This is the town that people are still writing me from, telling me how corrupt the city officials are. The Chief of Police should tell the towns people to stop telling anyone how corrupt the place is. Citizens write me about rapes, about how all the corruptions gets swept under the carpet, about how the cops are like in the town, about the power elite running the place, most of whom are said to belong to the Baptist Church. I wonder if Dear Whoever will get arrested too?

A lot of people wrote me about a cop they call "Rick the Prick" because of how he treats people in the town and because of allegations they would like to level against him.

It is time the people went to the next City Council meeting with their pitchforks.

Channel 13 Lynchburg and the Lynchburg News Advance

Feb. 10, 2010
ABC Ch. 13 Lynchburg TV

Lynchburg News Advance Article

Haiti:Haitian lawyer for jailed U.S. missionaries fired
Missionary Lawyer Tried To Bribe Court

Missionary Lawyer Fired in Haiti

People have written us questioning that these missionaries were involved in any wrong doing.
We quote the current article:
"The Dominican consul in Haiti, Carlos Castillo, has said he warned Silsby on Jan. 29, the day the group was detained at the border, that she lacked the required papers and risked being arrested for child trafficking."

The missionaries use various stories to get the children:
"But at least 20 of the children had living parents. Some told the AP they gave the kids to the group because the missionaries promised to educate them at an orphanage in the Dominican Republic and said they would allow parents to visit."

These are the same tactics that missionaries use to get children from Akha parents, because they must have the children if they are going to build their orphanage franchises. These franchises produce a vast income for the missionaries. But in Thailand, no one will ask you if you have the documents for the children. The situation in Thailand is basically anything goes.

Stop Baptist Predators

Here is a link to a website that tracks sexual predators in the Baptist Church. The Baptist Church turned down the opportunity to set up a national data base about these people in their churches.
Stop Baptist Predators

Missionaries Steal Akha Children in Thailand

Missioanries Haiti - Missionaries Akha
While the uproar continues in the news about ten US Baptist missionaries having become victims because they were caught trafficking children, little is said that the Protestant and Catholic missions in Thailand have been busy doing this for more than two decades. Its far away, people can ignore it. But the story is the same.

One missionary assures the others there are documents on the kids. Rotary international goes along with it, now Kristi Halvorson Gov. of Rotary District 5100. The children are abandoned, the children deserve to live different, the children come from an "dark culture". Look at Vern's video on youtube about Eden House Children's Home. The stories about why the white missionaries are justified in taking native children goes on from the last four hundred years, the same story that was used to take Native Amerians away from their families, Canadian Indians in Canada, Aborigines in Australia. David Stevenson of Childrengoldentriangle.com brags he has 500 children. The Australian Federal Police don't think they will be able to find any irregularities in all these missing children.

The children are seperated from their families, their language, their culture, sexually abused, traded between homes like they were a stock on the market. The Catholics told us they trade kids back and forth with the protestants all the time. Camillion Social Center.

Now will Clinton, the twin biscuits, stand up and defend these missioaries like it is one big misunderstanding? Leave our criminal white supremacists alone? Boy, their wisdom takes another hit.

What can you do about it? Blog it, pass links on facebook, tell your friends, go to Thailand and take a first hand look yourself. Come to understand the issues and context of these events and the implications for the Akha and other children who are victimized by these people.

Recently I got a newsletter, that Bobby Morse, accused by several Lisu girls in Thailand of raping them, well he says it was ALL a BIG misunderstanding, that the girls lied, that it was a joke, that the name of Jesus has been vindicated. People tell us there was a whole lot of cash flying around.

No one has a copy of the police report, there was no oversight at his mission to prevent those events in the first place, so it is only what he tells us.

Uproar in Czech Republic: "Prisoners of a White God" - Screens on Czech TV

Czech TV

The video Prisoners of a White God, which speaks of missionary abuse of the Akha people, has gone balistic in Czech Republic after screening on the TV there. The church will have to respond. The issue is heating up the world over, and it is time people see missionaries for what they are really up to and what they are really about.

Big Snow Storm a'comin

We brace for up to two feet of new snow to be coming here tomorrow. Trucks, salt trucks, tractors, and road equipment are prepped in the region. We have a lot of hay and grain. The winter is going to fight us for every mile to Wash. DC and NY.

Roanoke Star-Sentinel Carries Article on Ride for Freedom

Another good article.
X Country Trek Passes Through Valley

Salem Times News, Virginia

Another good article about the ride for freedom.
Horseman Rides Across Nation for Thai Natives Rights

Is Clinton trying to get a bunch of Baptist child stealing missionaries off the hook?

The children were picked up last week by members of an Idaho-based Baptist group called New Life Children's Refuge who tried to take them across the border to the Dominican Republic where they planned to establish an orphanage.

This is ALL the missionaries in Thailand do, steal Akha children and take them to town to "establish orphanages". There needs to be a bounty put on these people, and we need to hunt them with dogs.

Clinton terms Haiti child smuggling case 'unfortunate'

Blog Archives Here

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ONGOING CASES

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The Drug War Against the Akha

Index of the Drug War
Drug War Overview Jan. 2006
The Drug War Creates Mass Death of the Akha From Disease and Starvation. Death Rate As High as 20% in Some Villages. Forced Relocations, No Land, No Food, No Jobs. Data Supported by Independent International Reports.
The Drug War has a violent effect on Akha communities that goes beyond just police prosecution of would be offenders. Military and police violence against the Akha has been a standard event in Thailand. Extra-judicial killings and killings for no reason are what the Akha expect.
Use Google to Search This Site. There Are Hundreds of Drug War Articles in News
DRUG WAR DEATH PICS - Killings Paid For With YOUR Tax Dollars
Death Pics with Many Captions

Creates Mass Death of the Akha From Disease and Starvation. Death Rate As High as 20% in Some Villages. Forced Relocations, No Land, No Food, No Jobs. Data Supported by Independent International Reports. has a violent effect on Akha communities that goes beyond just police prosecution of would be offenders. Military and police violence against the Akha has been a standard event in Thailand. Extra-judicial killings and killings for no reason are what the Akha expect.

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The Queen's Royal Project Seizes the Land of Hooh Yoh Village

Royal Project Should Give Back the Land at Hooh Yoh

Project Tries to justify taking the land
Theft of Akha Land
Update - Volunteers Harrassed by Thai Army
Tourists in one village were harrassed because a foreign tourist had gone and taken a picture of the Project at Hooh Yoh. The Thai Army said "no one can take pictures of this project"
The Army proceeded to go through the inside of the house where tourists were staying, took their photos and checked their passports.
Your Support URGENTLY Needed to Back Up Hooh Yoh Akha
Contact your nearest Thai Embassy. Request that these details be investigated.
Information and Pictures
High Resolution Pics Of Hooh Yoh!
Activist Contact Data for the Queen
In 2003 the Project took away all the land of Hooh Yoh Akha, some 4500 acres (8500 Rai) of land. 1500 Akha villagers are displaced and they are made to work at half minimum wage on the land that belonged to them.
We need volunteers to continue to protest to the Thai Government and Embassies about the seizure of this land.
In addition to this seizure of Hooh Yoh land, the project has gone on to seize tea lands of Pai a Prai Akha village, in the same district, Ampur Mae Fah Luang, Chiangrai Province.
The Thai government terrorizes the Akha in order to keep them suppressed. The occasional brutal murder works to this end. Though there are many Akha who would gladly have their photos on this website, or run a column here, they can not speak out in such a public way if they want to stay alive.
Your protest supports and strengthens the Akha people.

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Activism For Helping the Akha People

Akha Human Rights
What You Can Do To Help

Areas of Focus: 1. Missionary removal of Akha children and coerced conversion.
2. Thai seizure of rice lands, forced relocations, extra-judicial executions
3. The US Supported Drug War in Thailand which rubber stamps profiling and violence against the Akha and other ethnic groups.
4. Missing Akha Refugees in the US, Sacramento area.

Your volunteer time and energy is needed to protect the Akha people.

Approximately 70,000 Akha reside in Thailand. 320 or more villages. The Akha have the least rights in Thailand of any country, suffer the greatest level of abuse and imprisonment. Their culture is destroyed by US missionaries.

Protect the Akha Peace and Justice Center
The Akha Peace and Justice Center, set up in 2004 (after the slaughter of the 2003 Drug War) to protect Akha villages in the regions of Chaingrai Province, has been a steady destination for western volunteers seeking to assist the Akha people with direct action to protect their human rights. You can visit the center and assist the villagers. Bpah Mah Hahn and Pah Nmm Villages, Ampur Mae Fah Luang, Chiangrai Province! Write us for details.
We call on all supporters of the Akha to protest in the strongest
terms to the nearest Thai Embassy.
Your Assistance and Action Will Help the Akha People.
List of Thai Embassies and Consuls World Wide.
List of Thai Consuls and Embassies World Wide
If any of the Thai Cosul or Embassy addresses bounce then go to another embassy or look also on this page:
Full List of Thai Government Sites
Contact Your MP and Embassy HERE!
MP List
Post to any indymedia site and for your local area.
Indy Media

Suggestions for Action
Sign Akha Petition #1 (500 plus signators)
1. Get an article published, air a radio interview, get a spot on TV.
2. Write letters to Thai Embassies.
3. Post our link on your website
4. Do volunteer work, research.
5. Plan a trip to do photography and video documentation.
6. Write protest letters to missionary groups.
7. Do a fundraising project.
8. Host a presentation in your area.
9. Pay for literature to be printed.
10. Hand out literature at your library, university and church.
11. Post to any Indymedia site and for your local area.
Indy Media

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Ongoing Projects

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Akha Video Project

Videos with the Akha people.

3rd Akha Journal

Currently Assembling

Laos Bed Net Project

Providing Mosquito Nets to the Akha of Laos

Akha TV

Akha TV presentations in the Akha Daily Video Section

Activism and Publicity

Promoting accurate knowledge of the Akha, their lives, culture, and human rights situation.

Prisons

Thai Prisons are a cruel life for the Akha people. The Thai government imposes many harsh conditions on the Akha people, and takes their land. Then when the Akha make any infraction of the law they are sent off to prison for many years. There are many old Akha in prison, both women and men, who were imprisoned for such infractions years ago. We believe that the Thai people should receive similar harsh treatment at the hands of the international community be they business people or tourists.

Bang Kwang Prison Web Site Bang Kwang Net 

Save a Life

Alternate Akha Prisoners Site

Alternate List Site

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The Choice
After considering the facts as a human rights activist, when it comes to choosing between following the teachings of christianity or following Jesus Christ, I have decided to follow Jesus Christ.
Matthew McDaniel

Full Redemption
Jesus Christ offers full redemption, in all spheres of human life, justice, land, food and the rights to one's own children. We should not ignore or overlook any aspect of human existence and fail to mention it in the redemption of the human condition. This includes the Akha and their need for security and the protection of rights. It does no good to claim that redemption only applies to the life here after, while ignoring the incredible suffering inflicted on these people. Individuals who claim that the great difficulties that the Akha face helps convert them, have distorted and deformed the gospel.