Lately, my inbox has been filled with e-mails from people who are livid about the latest comments from Butcher, a Republican from Winifred who has served in Montana's Legislature - first the Senate and now the House - for nearly eight years.
Unfortunately, he's getting media attention for all the wrong reasons. Instead of being noteworthy for legislating meaningful laws, Butcher is noted, once again, for making disparaging remarks. He's an all-around abuser, having dumped on fellow lawmakers, disabled youths, and - repeatedly - the indigenous people of Montana.
He moved on to call severely mentally disabled kids “vegetables.” Twice, Butcher's colleagues forced him to apologize from the House floor. Last month, there was even a rare call for censure - for the full legislative body to reprimand him. The effort failed.
Meanwhile, Butcher's apologies have come out of necessity rather than sincerity. Early in this year's legislative session, he referred to a gavel as a tomahawk and made reference to “Chief Windy Boy,” instead of Rep. Jonathon Windy Boy, a Chippewa Cree from the Rocky Boy's Reservation. Butcher insists he didn't say anything wrong. Behind the scenes, he told those who complained to “get a life.”
Butcher called the situation with Windy Boy “ironic,” given the fact that he adopted a baby girl from the Chippewa Cree Tribe. That's not ironic. That's disturbing. Anyone aware of his Native track record would understand why. People like Butcher have spurred child advocates to create the Indian Child Welfare Act as a way to keep Native children connected to their tribal communities. No one seems more disconnected with indigenous people than Butcher.
He's kicking up dust today among Indian education advocates for sabotaging attempts to teach contemporary and historical Native issues to public school students. The effort is mandated by the Montana Constitution, but for 30 years, lawmakers failed to support it. It wasn't until the state was sued that legislators finally designated the first dollar bill for Indian education in 2005.
But Butcher believes it's enough.
Last week, Dorothea Susag, a retired Montana teacher, e-mailed Butcher, who sits on the House Education Committee. She asked him to support funding for an Indian education bill now before the state Legislature. She also asked him to help get culturally relevant teaching material into teachers' hands, material written by Native sources.
He could have dismissed her, and simply thanked her for writing.
Instead, he e-mailed her, embarking on a diatribe.
His told her whites wrote everything because Indians never had a written language and didn't even know how to communicate beyond sign language before grabbing hold of farm tools. “One thing that anyone who has knowledge of the stages of human development understands is that ‘hunter-gathers cultures' had a very limited vocabulary which increased as they progressed into an ‘agrarian culture.' ”
Butcher appears to be a victim of his own lack of Indian Education for All. His own vocabulary needs enhancement. The anthropological lexicon refers to a “hunter-gatherer” culture, not “hunter-gather.” Perhaps he's read too many outdated history textbooks, most of which were written at the nadir of racism, dating to 1890-1940.
It's the same material being used to teach high school kids today.
Butcher went on to call Indian education efforts as “this little anthropology project,” and a program that was on the “fringe” and nothing more than “poor educational policy,” to infuse all levels of curricula with Native history.
Butcher argued he was a history professor for 10 years who minored in anthropology as a graduate student. “So I have a significant amount of cultural studies, including various Native American cultures.”
Butcher reminds me of the reasons I like Montana. It's beautiful. It's a Northern Plains and Rocky Mountain state. And Indians are the majority minority.
I like to call states like Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota “cowboy-and-Indian states,” meaning other racial or ethnic groups exist in minute numbers, leaving Natives with a distinct identity.
But being in a cowboy-Indian state is also a reminder that the Old West mentality is alive and well, and that a few gunslingers still exist.
Butcher wears his ignorance like a badge of honor. And he does so while making laws for the rest of us.
Columnist Jodi Rave can be reached at 800-366-7186 or jodi.rave@lee.net
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