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Osage Nation

Death Is Swallowed Forever (Isaiah 25:8)

November 5, 2021 by Peg Leave a Comment

Barbara Taylor Pease & Jim at Echoes of Our Ancestors: The Secret Game Book Signing OCHS

Barbara (Taylor) Pease passed away ten days after my brother Phil Redwine. Their Baptist Christian services were similar in several comforting ways. They were also differing as Phil’s funeral was in Norman, Oklahoma and Barbara was honored as a member of the Osage Nation in Indian Camp in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. Peg and I had attended Barbara’s mother, Judy Taylor’s, funeral in 2016 and were moved by the Osage graveside rites. Perhaps the coincidence of my appointment as a Special Judge in a recent Indian law case made Barbara’s services even more impressive to Peg and me. I know I was surprised about how little I knew of Osage traditions even though I was born and raised in Pawhuska.

As part of my legal research into an area of the law completely new to me I went to my personal library and reviewed my autographed copy of John Joseph Mathews’ book, The Osages, Children of the Middle Waters. Mr. Mathews was well known to my parents and, at our mother’s request, Mathews signed a copy of his book “with special pleasure” to my brother Phil and me. Mathew’s extensive scholarship into Osage traditions brought out the beauty and solace of Osage burial rites.

Barbara’s services included former Osage Chief Johnny Red Eagle fanning over Barbara’s body with an eagle-tail fan. This impressive ritual reminded me of the following passage in Mathews’ book that described a burial of several Osage members of a hunting party who were killed by a lightning strike:

“The survivors came into the village carrying their comrades and singing their song of death. The Little Old Men looked at the sky in fear, then fanned away the evil spirit from the bodies with an eagle-tail fan…”

See Page 68

At Barbara’s services Palee Redcorn sang beautiful, haunting and comforting acapella renditions of hymns in the Osage language and then transitioned seamlessly into English versions. One of those death songs was the traditional Christian hymn, “Amazing Grace”. At my brother’s funeral his youngest son, Ryan, who is an ordained Baptist minister, sang a deeply felt acapella version of “Amazing Grace” from the pulpit.

Of course, Ryan also gave a marvelous and inspiring message under the most difficult of emotions to honor his father much as Reverend Scott Kohnle of the Indian Camp Baptist Church spoke for Barbara. I do not know if Ryan’s mother’s Native American heritage influenced Ryan’s message for his Dad, but I do know Ryan and Scott both captured the essence of Barbara’s family’s and our grief and pride in our loved ones. Barbara and Phil were similar in their kindness and generosity and in their steadfast pride and support of their numerous grandchildren.

To lose two such priceless members of our small circle within ten days of one another was a lot to bear, but the thoughtful and heartfelt services helped. Peg and I now better understand the communal support of family and tribe.

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Filed Under: America, Family, Friends, Funerals, Gavel Gamut, Language, Oklahoma, Osage County, Pawhuska, Respect Tagged With: Baptist, Barbara Taylor Pease, eagle-tail fan, funeral, Indian camp, James M. Redwine, Jim Redwine, John Joseph Mathews, Judy Taylor, Osage burial rites, Osage Chief Johnny Red Eagle, Osage graveside rites, Osage Nation, Osage traditions, Palee Redcorn, Pawhuska, Philip W. Redwine, Reverend Scott Kohnle, Ryan Redwine, Special Judge, The Osages Children of the Middle Waters

Judicial Bias

June 16, 2018 by Peg 1 Comment

The National Judicial College has asked me to submit an article on Implicit Judicial Bias for inclusion in its magazine, Judicial Edge, because unfortunately, as proven by the #MeTooMovement, Ferguson Missouri, and our current political climate, implicit bias is all too explicit in the good ‘ole U.S. of A even in our courts. Therefore, I have submitted the following article to NJC and since judges throughout America may be wasting their time reading it, why, Gentle Reader, shouldn’t you? Here it is.

A syllogism: All sentient humans have learned implicit biases, all judges are sentient human beings, ergo, all judges have implicit biases. The issue is not are judges biased. The issue is how can judges guard the people affected by the judge from her/his particular biases.

Bias is a learned characteristic. Churches, mosques, synagogues, schools, news media, entertainment, sports organizations, hobbies, political parties, legal institutions, families and friends are just some of the many teachers. I discovered some of my own predilections as a law student at Indiana University School of Law in Bloomington. In the entire student body there was one African American male, three white females, fewer than five Jews, no Arabs and one Oriental male. In 1968-1970 that mix seemed fine to me. Most students looked and sounded like me. Those who did not did not raise any issue about it nor did I.

As a practicing attorney for ten years I never appeared in front of a female, Black or Asian trial judge. I did appear in front of one Jewish trial judge a few times; it was okay. I realize the demographics of law schools and trial courts have changed greatly in fifty years. My concern is the learned biases may have survived the new order, at least in the general behavior of the judiciary. Or, if some implicit biases have withered in the face of changing faces, have those prejudices morphed into others?

When faced with trying a case with a Black protagonist or antagonist I sometimes remind myself of a case I prosecuted in 1974. The defendant was a coal-black, dreadlock wearing frequent flyer whom I had prosecuted for two prior felonies. His experienced white attorney pleaded for the defendant to not take the stand in front of the white judge and white jury and subject himself to my fiery cross-examination and the exposure of his unappealing rap sheet. However, the defendant loudly professed his innocence, of at least the crime in question, and demanded to tell his story. I was salivating.

George Willie …, the defendant, took the stand, looked each juror in the eye and said, “I may be a criminal, but I did not break into that building and steal that television.” Then he turned to me and said, “Redwine, why is you always after me? We should be on the same side, the white man stole your land!”

Well, the jury agreed with George Willie and I learned a lesson about my own implicit bias and George Willie’s. I just hope I never forget to apply this knowledge when I am judging others. I must acknowledge my implicit biases, bring them up in my analysis and then prevent them from affecting my judicial behavior and judgments. Of course, the knowledge a problem exists and the understanding it should be addressed do not guarantee a sentient judge will apply lessons learned to learned biases.

George Willie’s bias as represented in his assumption I was a Native American and therefore must be prejudiced against the white power structure was a revelation to me. I was born on the Osage Nation where Indians were an assimilated part of the power structure. My friends were Indian and white but to me they were just friends. Until George Willie’s bias placed me in a minority, I had never experienced the sense of being different or less than the majority. Thanks, George Willie. It was instructive that where I saw no difference in whites and Indians, I had learned in the segregated culture of Oklahoma in the 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s to make negative judgments about African Americans.

The following is another example, there could be many, of my own implicit biases. I served in a case in which a twelve-year-old African American girl claimed she was raped by five teenaged African American males. My instincts led me to believe her in that case of sexual misconduct because she was first of all female and secondly young. But, I regret to admit, because the defendants were young, Black males, I found myself almost apoplectically unable to fairly judge the young men who had been waived to adult court and faced many years in prison. Fortunately, the local Black community was not subject to my particular biases. Several Black witnesses stepped up and established the girl was more a juvenile Jezebel than an ingenue. As the evidence developed, I realized I could have easily allowed my prejudices to help create several grave miscarriages of justice. Fortunately, the jury saw things more objectively.

So, as a judge I endeavor to remember the all-white church where I spent my first eighteen years, the mostly white law school where I studied precedent while failing to recognize prejudice and the practice of law in which what I thought was open mindedness was nearer myopia. Today when judging I strive each day to unlearn those lessons.

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Filed Under: Gavel Gamut, Indiana University, Judicial, Law, Law School, Osage County Tagged With: #MeTooMovement, African American, Arabs, Asian, bias is a learned characteristic, Black community, current political climate, Ferguson Missouri, Gentle Reader, Implicit Judicial Bias, Indian, Indiana University School of Law in Bloomington, James M. Redwine, Jews, Jim Redwine, Judicial Edge, National Judicial College, Native American, Osage Nation, segregated culture of Oklahoma, the white man stole your land, white females

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