From: northcoastjournal.com/100407/...004.html

October 4, 2007
Money On Trees

Big cash nearly fell into Shunka Wakan's lap. Other Earth First!ers are kinda happy it didn't.

by Heidi Walters


As the jury trial for the civil suit Kathryn Miller v. the Trees Foundation puttered to a start last week inside Courtroom 3 at the Humboldt County Courthouse, Shunka Wakan — a key witness for the plaintiff — spent mornings sitting on the hard wooden benches in the long hallway outside the courtroom. During breaks, Miller's attorney Linda Mitlyng, would come out of the courtroom to join him. But otherwise, as other people and their legal affairs swirled around him in a warm, odiferous bath of humanity, Shunka sat alone. Or, sometimes, he stood alone, straight-spined, his small, stocky body swallowed by the huge, stiff blue suit out of which his newly shorn, razor-scraped bald head poked vulnerably — as if, at any moment, the suit could gulp once more and he'd disappear completely. Always, he clutched a paper folder with a wolf's face on its cover.

The North Coast Earth First! Media guru had shaved off his woolly rust-tinged brown hair and beard the night before jury selection started, after discussing it with attorney Mitlyng. Now, it took an uncertain moment to recognize him. Then, of course: Shunka's light blue eyes in the pink-pale face, Shunka's closed-lip smile, Shunka's trademark husky murmur, "Mm-hmm, for sure," in response to a comment.

In Courtroom 3, the amiable but no-nonsense Judge Christopher Wilson's domain, the fate of a $185,000 donation dangled. Would the plaintiff, donor Kathryn Miller, prevail in her claim that the defendant, the Trees Foundation, was not in fact the intended recipient of her generous gift? That Shunka Wakan's NCEF! Media Center and the treesitters were? Or would the Trees Foundation convince the jury that, in fact, the money was intended all along for Trees, with no instructions attached for funneling it elsewhere?

Richard Idell, left, who is defending the Trees Foundation against a lawsuit filed by Kathryn Miller, confers with Doug Wallace, community support coordinator for Trees. Photo by David Lawlor.

In her opening arguments, Miller's attorney, Mitlyng, said the case came down to "fraud and broken promises." "She believed [Trees] would hold [the money] in trust, for the benefit of North Coast Earth First!" said Mitlyng. The defense's attorney, Richard Idell, countered in his opening argument that the donation was an unconditional gift and Miller never wrote letters of instruction — as Miller claims she did. "Ms. Miller ... didn't do anything. She took the check [from her mother's estate] and flipped it over and wrote on the back, 'Payable to the Trees Foundation,'" said Idell.

Miller's claim sought the return of her $185,000, plus interest.

Out in the hallway, Shunka waited to tell his side of the story. Maybe he thought about the magical donation that never materialized, and now probably never would. Maybe he thought about the other times he'd been in this courthouse — dozens of times, along with other activists, often before Judge Wilson, answering to charges of trespassing and other forms of civil disobedience in the woods. Likely, he wondered when they were finally going to call him in to testify — it was taking forever in there. He'd even sent out an e-mail prematurely to the several hundred subscribers to his NCEF! online group erroneously announcing he would be first up to testify.

By the end of Friday's court session, Miller was still on the stand. Perhaps Monday it would be Shunka's turn. Whenever it was, he would be testifying on Miller's behalf; but he wasn't a party to the lawsuit. And in the end, after hearing all of the evidence, the jury would be determining who was telling the truth about intentions and letters of instructions. Shunka was just there to provide context and evidence in a contract dispute.

But to a number of forest activists, including a half dozen or so who appeared in the audience last Friday to watch the trial unfold, that context matters more to them than the legal questions. They say this lawsuit has placed a strain on the environmental community that could do as much damage as an ill-felled redwood that takes down other giants in its descent. They disapprove of the lawsuit, and they blame Shunka for it. And, they say, it's just another example of how Shunka has commandeered the North Coast Earth First! identity and used it for purposes that nobody else in the amorphous but consensus-driven local Earth First! movement has agreed to.

"For a lot of us, when we read about the lawsuit, this is kind of like Shunka on trial," said long-time forest activist Deane Rimerman last Friday, calling from Olympia, Wash. "And, to what extent is he worthy of that money?"

Kathryn Miller wanted her money to go toward saving trees, she said on the witness stand last Thursday. The slender 59-year-old was dressed in a pink print skirt and white sweater, with her gray-streaked dark hair pulled back into a neat, thin braid tinted slightly green. (Little did the jury know that Miller had spent the night in jail, in blue jail duds, and then had been "dressed out," in court lingo, in her street clothes before being escorted into the court by the bailiff. Miller had been arrested the week before, on Sept. 17, when she arrived in civil court for the pre-trial readiness hearing; according to the misdemeanor criminal charges filed against her, Miller allegedly had made annoying phonecalls to Barbara Ristow of the Trees Foundation all hours of the day and night.)

On the stand, Miller described how she became an activist. She remembered how, when she was a child in Orinda, her mother decided to stop spraying the beautiful oak trees on their property after reading Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. "And then, when my son was 9, we were watching the news on TV about the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown. And my son said to me, 'I wish I'd never been born. I don't think I'll get to live a full life.'"

She protested the building of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. She started a peace action group in the late 1980s in San Jose. She did nonviolent protests at the Nevada Test Site. And in 1990, she came up with some of her fellow protestors to help set up the camp for Redwood Summer, and to take part in demonstrations. She's been on and off involved in Earth First! actions in Humboldt ever since, she said, including huffing in supplies for treesitters and huffing out their garbage. She'd also, at one point, bought a condo in Arcata.

In 2004, Miller sold her condo and bought an acre of farmland, already planted with coffee, in Guatemala. She put in fruit trees to shade the coffee. That same year, her mother, who lived in Sonoma, died. "The last time I saw her was in 2003," said Miller. "She told me when she died, she was going to leave me some money. I told her I'd use it to further my work for the forest. And she was pleased, because she loved the treesitters and the forest."

Shortly after learning of her mother's death, Kathryn Miller sought out Shunka Wakan in front of the food co-op in Arcata, where he "tabled" to raise funds for the North Coast Earth First! Media office — selling T-shirts, and stickers, offering pamphlets, accepting donations. She'd known Shunka for about five years, she said.

"I said to him, I was going to inherit some money: What was the best way to get that to the North Coast Earth First!?"

In the spring of 2005, Shunka Wakan was floating above the treetops. "I was so excited," the 32-year-old said in an interview a few weeks ago, sitting inside his tiny but colorful North Coast Earth First! Media office in Arcata, walls covered in art and topo maps — including one of Buckeye Mountain, where in 2000-2001, during the "Mattole Free State" action, Shunka and others hiked 14 miles through waist-high snowdrifts to save trees.

Kathryn Miller, he recalled, had come up to him excitedly as he walked along the sidewalk outside the Arcata Co-op and said, "I just donated $185,000 to North Coast Earth First!'"

She'd talked to him the year before about making the donation — she'd said she was anticipating an inheritance from her mother's estate, and she wanted to make a big donation to his group. He'd told her to make it through the Trees Foundation, which handled the NCEF! Media office's finances through an arrangement that had been established years ago. (The Trees Foundation is an umbrella organization formed in 1991 to assist smaller environmental groups. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, it can accept large, tax-deductible donations on behalf of affiliates, and provide professional resources. And it can lead large campaigns, like the one to save the Headwaters Forest back in the '90s.)

Well, now she'd finally done it.

Miller and Shunka agreed to meet at Fiesta Café in Sunny Brae, so she could tell him how she wanted the money spent: She wanted, straight away, for someone to organize a mediated workshop for the local Earth First! activists on ageism and sexism, issues she thought were fracturing the movement. And, she wanted the bulk of the donation to help support the forest activists who blockade logging roads and hunker up in ancient redwoods to fend off loggers' saws.

Not long after, Shunka was on his way to have lunch with some folks from the Trees Foundation, where they'd talk about Miller's wishes.

"Our media outreach was going to get a big boost," Shunka said. "The donation would keep the EF! office going for many years. So I walked into the Wildflower Café feeling elated, thinking we got all this money."

Barbara Ristow and Doug Wallace of the Trees Foundation were there. "I was super excited," Shunka said, "and I said, 'This is great, this big donation. Isn't it wonderful?' We ordered food, and still I'm all excited, talking about the money, but I notice they're looking nervously at each other. [Finally], they said, 'Well, we're just shocked that you think this money was for you.' And I was like, 'I just met with the donor, and that's what she said.' And they're like, 'Well, let's go ahead and plan the workshop and deal with that later.' I remember that, because it put me at ease."

After that, Shunka said he gave Trees a list of people he thought might benefit from the mediator-run workshop. "Some were people I knew had beefs with me, but I was willing to bring 'em into the circle and talk about it."

According to some vague accounts, the workshop was a disaster. One person who was there claims that Shunka, at one point, pounded his fists on the floor, blustered, then got up and stormed out, yelling as he walked away. Shunka says that's overblown.

"The letter from Kathryn Miller to Barbara Bristow said she wanted the mediation to be a safe place, safe to be emotional," he said. "And I think people are saying 'I freaked out.' The freak-out reports are exaggerated. It's just part of this ongoing character assassination. People say I was 'red-faced.' But my face is naturally red."

In late 2005, while Shunka was in Seattle, a friend called him from Arcata to say a woman had come by asking for the office key. She had a list of equipment she wanted to take away. The friend didn't give her the key.

When Shunka got back from Seattle, he discovered his reimbursement funds from Trees had been "frozen." He also learned about a letter someone in the NCEF! movement had circulated for signatures and then sent to Mark Knipper, who handled the Trees Foundation transactions for the NCEF! Media office. It said, in essence, "We don't want Shunka running EF!"

"I called the Trees Foundation," Shunka recalled. "I was sick, it was the middle of the winter, I'm trying to table, it's raining, it's cold. And Barbara Ristow told me, 'You just need to have a meeting [with the other Earth First!ers] and come to a group consensus on what the Trees Foundation funding should be used for."

The meeting never happened — nobody could agree to meet, said Mark Knipper, also in an interview last week. Knipper is a social worker and a long-time activist who had been the contact person between Trees and NCEF! Media. "So it ate itself," Knipper said. "And although I'm former Navy, a mariner, I said I'm not going down with this ship. So I divorced myself from it ... and signed it all back to Trees."

The NCEF! Media office was dropped from the Trees Foundation altogether.

Shunka and the NCEF! Media office never did see any of the big donation. Miller didn't even know that, he said, until she phoned him up in the summer of 2006, more than a year after she made the donation, to ask about a guy named "Jungle," who had been reported as missing on the NCEF! hotline. Miller was spending much of her time in Guatemala now, where she was raising fruit trees; after she'd made her big donation, Hurricane Stan had struck — she spent the ensuing year mopping up the mess.

First, Shunka told her Jungle was still missing. Then he told her about the money.

"I said, 'Yeah, they told me it wasn't for us,'" said Shunka. "And she said, 'I meant for all of it to go to you guys.' She sounded real upset. And I was like, 'I knew it! I knew it!'"

Shunka tried to sue Trees in small claims court, but it went nowhere.

Miller filed a claim against the Trees Foundation on Oct. 5, 2006, in Humboldt County Superior Court, seeking the return of the $185,000 plus interest so she could distribute the money herself.

And if she wins? "She may just spread it out more," said Shunka. "She's got tree planting ideas. Maybe she could buy a grove. She'd maybe not give it all to Earth First! this time. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that Trees blew for us."

On an uncomfortably hot afternoon last week, four forest activists who'd agreed to an interview for this story — Jeff, Shaggy, Sparrow and Farmer — sat on the ground at the Arcata Marsh next to a log bench on which a teeming crew of red ants worked a splintered notch. Someone had come along here in 1999 and carved a grouping of faces — bearded, grimacing, possibly mourning faces — onto the log and signed it Daniel. The carving had been drenched in red paint, and burnished by years of sitters.

"It kind of reminds me of the memorial for Gypsy," said one of them. "With the red paint."

Gypsy was the forest name of David Nathan Chain, who in September 1998, during an Earth First! action at Grizzly Creek, was crushed to death by a tree felled by an enraged logger. Farmer, actually, was there — he was just 16, but had a year of activism already under his belt. And Shunka was there — it was Shunka's first forest action.

Farmer, Shag, Sparrow and Jeff first made it clear that they spoke for themselves alone, although they participate in various forest defense affinity groups: Farmer works for the Mattole Wildlands Defense Group now, watchdogging the California Department of Forestry for new timber harvest plans, and keeping an eye on a Pacific Lumber Co. watershed analysis. Shag, who saw his first redwood about five years ago, helps keep the Fern Gully treesit village in Freshwater functioning. Jeff, who grew up in the high desert, and fell in love with the woods, works with the Nanning Creek treesit just outside of Scotia, as well as other groups. Sparrow, who was drawn to forest action because the cultural landscape was "like a folktale" he couldn't resist, is with the Fern Gully affinity group. These groups are all part of the Humboldt Forest Defense Association, a collective with a website but no formal structure.

The HFDA sprang into being six years ago — about the time the entity called North Coast Earth First! had essentially dissolved. It would take a book to describe that drawn-out dissolution — a book of lost causes, won causes, waning media interest, Judi Bari's death, Gypsy's death, ego-spurred squabbles, interpersonal catastrophes, a war overseas, hurricanes. And while the HFDA activists might still cherish the Earth First! name — the movement — in their hearts, it's now been further complicated by what you might call the Shunka effect.

"I still feel in many ways solidarity with the greater Earth First! movement abroad," said Farmer. "But in this county, in this climate, if you say you're with the North Coast Earth First!, many people associate you with North Coast Earth First! Media."

Shunka revived the North Coast Earth First! office around 2002. And he did what previous office managers had done — tabled, put out news releases, wrote articles for other publications. But it wasn't like the old days, in the '90s, when hundreds of people were getting arrested in forest actions and the jail support phone and legal resources were in constant use.

Shunka first worked in an office in Eureka, then later moved to Arcata. He called his outfit the NCEF! Media Center. For a time, he and other "affinity groups" tried to work together. But he alienated some people. He took over the North Coast Earth First! website. He controlled the North Coast Earth First! email list of 300 or more subscribers to the news alerts. He sent out press releases on his own.

"I felt the North Coast Earth First! Media Center was a unilateral effort on Shunka's part," said Farmer. Whereas, in the old days, "spokespeople were decided on by the group. And if you wrote an article it was passed by everyone. I feel Shunka appointed himself spokesperson at some point."

Many also claim they've been subject to a lashing anger from Shunka.

"I won't work with him because I pledge nonviolence in my actions," said Shag. "I don't believe he pledges the same thing. He has exhibited violent behavior towards me and towards other activists in my presence."

"He's a bear," said Jeff, making claw-fists with his hands.

But the sad thing is, all of this infighting probably has done nothing to help the actual trees. And the mediation workshop Kathryn Miller wanted didn't fix matters. Now, there was her lawsuit.

"When I heard about this lawsuit, I thought, the Trees Foundation does not deserve to be attacked in that way," said Farmer. "There's much bigger issues that need to be dealt with — with Maxxam and old-growth logging. ...If you look at Fern Gully and Nanning Creek (the Bonanza timber harvest plan), there's hundreds of old growth acres still standing whose fate is unclear."

Shag put it more bluntly: "If [Miller] knew Shunka and wanted to get the money to North Coast Earth First! Media, she should've given it to Shunka. But if she was trying to get it to treesits and forest defense, then the money went to the right place.

"My problem is this whole representation thing. There's people in the trees — how do you know who to get the money to, to help them?"

Shunka knows that a lot of fellow activists aren't happy with his role in the donation dispute. He also knows how some people talk about him and say he's hard to get along with. "I'm just standing up for the truth," he said. "And people don't like it. To me, it feels like a small clique of people who don't like me. I feel a lot of love and support in this community."

He certainly doesn't come off right away as someone who's angry, or who lashes out, or who locks the office and doesn't let people in. Why, recently, he helped a young woman hook up with the treesitters so she could learn the ropes. (Shaggy said that's proof Shunka doesn't have direct connections with the people doing direct action; but you can't deny it's a connection.)

It's probably a bad idea to ask Darryl Cherney, one of the founders of the local Earth First! movement, what he thinks of Shunka Wakan, whose real name is Jason Wilson. (Shunka tells a story of how he was named by a Lakota medicine man on the banks of the Cheyenne River in South Dakota in 1995. "Shunka Wakan," meaning "great dog," is only part of it. There's a secret part after that — altogether, his name means "the humble man called horse.")

"Shunka's a wingnut," Cherney said over the phone last Friday, sounding cheerfully vitriolic. "I have a 10-verse song about Shunka."

Here are the last few verses:


Who's at the co-op spanging a donation
Shunka, Shunka
Who's got a lawsuit 'gainst the Trees Foundation
Shunka, Shunka
Shunka, Shunka
Who's gonna keep on fighting the fight
Shunka, Shunka
With four of his friends at swimmers delight
Shunka, Shunka
Shunka, Shunka (Shunka voice: It's the last of the revolution)


There's no other word for it but "mean." But Cherney and Shunka have history — not all of it sour. Cherney said Shunka laughed when he heard the song, at least the first time.

"I met Shunka in 1998," Cherney said. "And I know he knew Julia ["Butterfly" Hill, whom Shunka had come west to find]. That was a good thing, helping Julia. That was good Shunka."

Cherney had even pushed for Shunka to go to Houston to talk with Charles Hurwitz, whose Maxxam Corp. bought out the old Pacific Lumber company back in 1985 and quickly became the forest activists' number one villain. Shunka went.

But now? "The current status of Shunka and me," Cherney said, "is that Shunka has sent me five or eight or nine e-mails threatening to sue me. Shunka is a joke."

Cherney can talk for hours about the problems he's had with Shunka over the years. His main point, though, is what has Shunka done for the trees lately?

"My question is, where's your topo maps?" he asked. "Where's your wilderness preservation proposal? Where's your lobbyist team in Sacramento?"

It has to be that, on some level, even the people in the movement who don't like Shunka understand somewhat where he's coming from. So he's emotional. Passionate. Perhaps he's caught up so completely in the cause he can't let go. Or, who knows — maybe he's a phony, like he accused Knipper of being back in 2005.

But being a forest activist comes with perils beyond the obvious physical ones.

"I'm really trying to have compassion for Shunka, even though he's kind of attacked us," said Susy Barsotti by phone from Laytonville a couple of weeks ago. Barsotti is president of the Trees Foundation board, and she says the lawsuit has held Trees hostage, unable to function fully. "I've been mystified and dismayed that he's participated like this in the suit. But Shunka witnessed Gypsy's death. And I think he may have post-traumatic stress syndrome. I don't think he's recovered from it. And that can affect your behavior."

A number of people mentioned this, actually, about Shunka. And he often refers to Gypsy's death himself. In an article titled "What Luna has taught me," posted on the website of Julia "Butterfly" Hill's organization, Circle of Life, Shunka writes: "I decided to commit to doing ground support after witnessing the death of David Nathan "Gypsy" Chain on September 17, 1998 ... I remember looking across the valley as we hiked up that day, seeing the rolling hills of forests and clear-cuts, and thinking out loud, "That's why we're here!" Seeing Gypsy's life taken from him, and then seeing the corruption and lies of the Humboldt County Sheriffs ... really opened my eyes to the situation our old-growth forests face."

Later, he did ground support for Hill in her second year in Luna. And in the same article on her website, something else Shunka writes indicates how ready he was to devote himself to a cause: "Being on the support team was the top priority in my life, and I was happy knowing that everything else revolved around when I'd be needed for the next supply run. I never felt lost because I knew what I was doing. That was a feeling I had not felt in years, between feeling dissatisfaction with life in college, and then more dissatisfaction with life as a minimum-wage worker after college. Before joining Julia's ground support team I was unhappy, even to the point of tears, wondering if my entire life was going to be a minimum-wage nightmare ...."

Pure devotion, without benefit of a little hypocrisy, could drive anyone batty. Deane Rimerman, the activist from Olympia who said it is Shunka who is on trial, said it's not uncommon for intense, stressful movements like Earth First! to produce an army of walking wounded. And he's been around, in forest actions up and down the coast, for long enough to know; he was the one, in fact, who "got the maps and led the first hikers up to the hill" to the Gypsy Mountain campaign and Luna treesit.

"In the forest activist movement, there's very little that's rewarding," Rimerman said. "There's a lot of post traumatic stress syndrome. All of us get it. Once you've been through the court process, and the jail process, and seen 1,000-year-old trees get cut down that you really cared about and thought you could save — it's devastating."

That alone, setting aside the troubles with Shunka, could explain the many rifts that have occurred within the local EF! ranks over the years. Josh Brown, who moved to Humboldt in 1995 right before the peak of the Headwaters campaign, said one of the unique qualities of Earth First! is that it "is primarily a youth movement."

"A lot of people that come through are young, are passionate — and it's a wonderful thing," he said. They get thrown into leadership positions quickly — and then they get burned out. Many move quickly on to other things. Brown stayed in longer than most. "When I left [in 2001], I was 30 years old. And I'd been a full-time activist since I was 18."

Paradoxically, said Brown, the youthful draw and the departure of seasoned activists leaves the movement with "no elders to kind of sit around and coach the [new kids]."

The movement also draws strong personalities, he said. Tenacious ones, too, like Shunka's.

"Shunka, I think he really does have a big heart," said Brown. "And I think he does care for the forest."


Last Friday, following the morning session of Miller v. Trees, a group of the Humboldt Forest Defense Association activists stood on the courthouse steps talking. The door opened, and Shunka walked out and down the steps toward the group. They didn't greet him. After a time, he tried to talk to one of them, Jeff. Jeff walked away. Shunka followed him, then stopped and talked to another guy. Then he stood alone again.




From: northcoastjournal.com/101107/...011.html

Trees Foundation Wins

October 11th, 2007


The jury in the civil case Kathryn Miller v. the Trees Foundation decided in favor of Trees, after deliberating all day Tuesday. (See "Money on Trees," Oct. 4).

Miller is the long-time forest activist who inherited a bundle from her mother and then signed $185,000 over to the Trees Foundation. In her lawsuit, she claimed she had intended the money to be passed through Trees to one of its affiliates, North Coast Earth First! Media, run by Shunka Wakan. She claimed she had made her intentions clear, verbally and in writing, and that Trees had agreed to the conditions, then broken its promise and kept the money. Trees denied making such promises, and said it had never seen any letters or heard of instructions to give the money to NCEF! Media. (Also, somewhat relatedly, in criminal court on Tuesday Miller pleaded no contest to charges that she had made annoying phonecalls to Barbara Ristow of the Trees Foundation.)

So, that's that. Now, there are only the pieces to pick up.

For Shunka Wakan — featured in last week's Journal as a central figure in a messy nest of infighting that has fractured the current ranks of local Earth First!ians — it could be a long, lonely patching together of lost friends and broken alliances. Not only did he and Miller lose their attempt to retrieve her donation, but now he's been banned from the North Coast Co-op.

Yes, that happened last week. It was Thursday, around 4:15 in the evening, and two activists with the Humboldt Forest Defense Association were tabling — hawking brochures and such — outside the Co-op. It's an activity Shunka himself has spent many a day doing in that very same spot, raising cash to pay for his NCEF!Media outreach work and other causes. And, well, these two fellows, Jeff and Farmer, were on Shunka's shit list, now. They'd spoken gently, but unfavorably, about Shunka's doings in the North Coast Earth First! arena — said he lashed out at people, said he commandeered NCEF! resources, and so forth. Here's a snippet of Jeff's account of what happened, which he sent to the NCJ in an e-mail on Friday:

"Shunka was removed from the Arcata Co-op yesterday after a scuffle with myself and another activist around 5 p.m. Well, he wasn't exactly removed, but APD was called. He was asked to leave after threatening to flip over the HFD donation table while stating he was 'like Jesus in the marketplace ...'"

Sue Coulter, manager of the Arcata Co-op, recounted on Friday how an employee walking by heard the argument and went inside to get her. "So I went out to talk to [Shunka], because it's not the first time we've had problems," she said. "Most of the time, he's fine. Most of the time, I stick up for him." One time, she said, she even called the police to protect Shunka after someone had threatened him. "But he gets into arguments. I tried to talk to him. I told him to leave. ... He was causing a scene, right by the door, and I can't have it. He refused to leave. ... I said, fine. I went into the store. He followed me into the store, and he was still yelling at me, 'Oh, now you're going to call the police on me.'" Coulter called the police, but Shunka left before they arrived.

Shunka, waiting in the courthouse for the jury verdict Tuesday, said Coulter did indeed ask him to leave and he did, indeed, refuse to. As for the HFD tablers, he said he merely asked them why they had Trees Foundation literature on their table. "I said, 'Why do you want to represent these people?'" And then, he said, "Jeff accused me of embezzling — he said this in public. He said, 'You've embezzled thousands of dollars from the Earth First! movement through the years.' And I complained to one of the employees who was walking by. Because that's serious, accusing someone of embezzling."

But Shunka said the whole thing's yet another attack on him. "I don't consider I was yelling. We were talking. I'm an emotional person, I concede to that. I speak from my heart. I don't scream at people. I would love to — but I don't."

In his email, Jeff with HFD predicted Shunka would leave town within weeks, if not sooner. But at the courthouse, even before the verdict, Shunka said he wasn't going anywhere.

"I'm just going to continue to run the Earth First! office and continue to call Humboldt County home," he said. He's also going to write a letter to the Co-op, complaining about how he gets scapegoated and booted out of there even when other people, he says, are the culprits. And, as for the Miller v. Trees case, he said, he and Miller may now take their complaint to another venue.

-- Heidi Walters

error

There's always what's legal, and then there's always what's right. I've been reading about this and it seems to me that a women who donates a large amount of money and then finds that it's being abused DOES have the moral right to demand that the money be returned so that it can be used the way she wanted it to be used.

The drama played out between Shunka and others in forest defense activism isn't anything new, especially in the ways that professional disrupters (FBI, hired thugs, etc..) are able to heighten divisions between other activists. Backing anyone into a corner, whether male or female, will result in said person changing their behavior and responses in an increasingly negative manner. The tactic of "shunning", popular in certain treesitter circles, is effective at increasing pressure on the person targeted for isolation. As shunning increasingly backs people into corners, their behavior naturally becomes more paranoid, hostile and abnormal. Thus the shunning has shown to be effective at isolation from the community by "proving" the person's emotional instability in public episodes of frustration. Shunning can also be distributed to anyone else who choses to break the code of shunning and talks to the person targeted for isolation..

Though i am not defending Shunka's choices to prevent access to the NCEF! media office space to a majority of activists, it also had the reverse effect as many activists did not want to be seen talking/walking with Shunka to the office for risk of violating the shunning taboo against Shunka..

What NCEF! was before all the splintering and Shunka's lone reign at the office does not need to be forever banished to the memeory of "shunkadom", as any name or office space is public commons, and there is no copyright on the name NCEF!!

Neither is Shunka the only eco-activist whose behavior and ego have been unchecked over the last few years, we're ALL guilty of bringing our own egos into the fray as the most noble, brave and dedicated activist against the Maxxam/PL corporate wheel of destruction. However, we cannot continue to resist the incredible financial power of Maxxam Inc. if we ALL can't learn a bit more of the humble modesty traits that acknowledges we're all special and part of something, a leaderless resistance against corporate tyranny. While we cannot ignore differences and wrongs enacted on one another, it is essesntial that we refocus our collective (and individual) energies on combating the initial source of the problem, Maxxam Inc. in Houston and their PL bankruptcy trial. The majority of forest defenders (including Shunka!) agree, Houston based Maxxam corporation is not welcome to continue logging operations in Humboldt county, CA..

Maybe if Shunka can gracefully step down from the current heights of NCEF! office occupation, the shunning and isolation from other activists can also be stepped down. We ALL have feelings and are vulnerable to tactics of shunning, even Shunka with all his pride may be walking wounded deep inside. Surely we cannot expect to pin the problems of Maxxam/PL over the last few years on one lone wingnut??

Let's revisit the earlier conflicts within NCEF! and the direct role played by the FBI in enhancing disputes within the activist circles..

"What they did to us was — the term for this in the FBI is COINTELPRO, counterintelligence program. This was a program started by J. Edgar Hoover back in the bad old days, and now in the bad new days they still do it. It is a way of targeting domestic radical groups that they think are a threat to the U.S. government. I guess that is quite a compliment for us. I guess we are a threat to Charles Hurwitz, and he is more powerful than the government, so maybe it all adds up.

J. Edgar Hoover described COINTELPRO as a program “to expose, misdirect, isolate, and neutralize” political groups that he didn’t like. That is what has been done to Earth First! The methods that they used in COINTELPRO include disinformation, fake documents, infiltration, agent provocateurs, fomenting infighting within a group, getting the group to do things so that they will be discredited, and also framing and assassinating leaders.

The most famous victims of COINTELPRO were Martin Luther King, who was spied on in his motel room, and in the Black Panther movement there were 32 killed in all. Fred Hampton was a famous victim of COINTELPRO, murdered in his bed. Geronimo Pratt, framed by the very same guy, Richard W. Held, who was in charge of our case at the FBI. Leonard Peltier is another well-known victim of COINTELPRO. They did not just frame Geronimo. Before they framed him and put him in jail, they fomented infighting within the leadership so that people in Black Panthers thought Geronimo was an FBI agent. Then, when he was framed, the other Panthers would not testify in his behalf."

review @;
http://www.prisonradio.org/revolutionary-ecology.htm

Fomenting infighting within the group is certainly an easier and less traceable method of neutralization than car bombs. Of course Shunka and Judi Bari is like comparing apples with oranges, the two situations are very different. However, we have Shunka resembling a mountain lion backed up into a tree, claws and fangs bared to fight anyone seeking to pull him down. Judi Bari was more of a centrally located old growth tree, linking many different habitats with her wide range of branches. This effectiveness of Judi's central positioning of joining forces between labor and environment was "neutralized" by unknown assailants (Maxxam's hired goons?) in the form of a car bomb. Following the bombing, Judi's health worsened and her activism eventually diminished as her cancer consumed her time and energy. In this case the use of (government sanctioned) violence interfered with Judi's role as central organizer and peacemaker between the ecoactivists (treesitters) and the loggers. We use the term "government sanctioned" because the FBI has shown being obstructionary, ineffective and uncooperative in their investigation of Judi's bombing..

In Shunka's case, there is no central positioning, only a mountain lion (Shunka) being backed into the tree, in this case the tree being the NCEF! media resource office. In this case, neutralization only required that Shunka remain treed indefinitely, with the angry "mob" below at times both coaxing and threatening the treed cat, adding to his panic and confusion. Scapegoating and shunning provided the fuel to keep Shunka in his tree, with Shunka's independent personality counteracting the mob below into a stalemate. Enter the Trees Foundation lawsuit, and we witness the "perfect storm" of personality conflict. Result? Virtual neutralization of NCEF! and a frequent and steady disruption of resource flows to forest defense activists, NCEF! affiliated or otherwise..

Nobody likes to be accussed of being a paid disrupter, informant or other evil agent of U.S. imperialisms though we should all be aware of how our actions effect others, and how shunning can be counterbalanced indefinitely by dominant personalities. Just another problem to be worked out with dialogue and increased awareness. Thanks for everyone's participation. Peace be upon you all..

Interesting analysis, although not quite accurate, in my opinion. The main flaw in your painting of the situation is that people still come to the office, and the pressure to "shun" is only coming from a small clique of people within the forest defense and overall community. I'm still surrounded, every day, by people who support me as a person and know that I'm an honest and upstanding individual. It makes sense that I would be targeted in a character assassination campaign, because I hold the keys to a lot of truths that others don't want taken seriously.
When we witnessed the murder of David "Gypsy" Chain, on September 17th, 1998, we were painted as "hippies" and the lies abounded in efforts to pin Gypsy's death on us, the eyewitnesses. Maxxam/Pacific Lumber and the Humboldt Co. Sheriff's Dept. didn't want the truth to get out about the circumstances surrounding Gypsy's death, yet those of us who were there, or at least I, knew what had happened, knew that the logger was intentionally falling trees in our direction, and had seen the videotape confirming the death threats made less than an hour before Gypsy's death. I knew, for a fact, that Gypsy's death was not an accident, no matter what the media and other people in the community might say, based on what they had heard, not on what they had seen.
In the same way, I will always know what happened in the Trees Foundation situation, will always know that the donor came to me initially, and that the Trees Foundation lied when they promised to contact the donor to clear thing up, "before we spend any of the money." I will always know that they lied, several times over, in the course of the lawsuit and events leading up to the lawsuit. I was there from day one, and literally sent the donor to the Trees Foundation, when I could have (should have) just accepted the donation myself, on behalf of North Coast Earth First! I trusted the Trees Foundation, which was my biggest mistake of all...lesson learned, and in the course of it all I saw the true colors of a few more folks, and know not to trust them, either. That's fine...expensive lesson, yet it's always worth knowing who you can and cannot trust in this world, and life goes on....
I've never denied access to the office to any activist in good standing with the local movement. I've denied access to dogs before, because the offices I've run have been in professional buildings, and that, apparently is grounds for a boycott in and of itself...seems a bit reactionary to me. I could go into the long stories about why I don't trust this person and that person, yet I don't think it's appropriate at this venue, so I'll just say that life happens, and there's a lot of water under the bridge from over nine years of activism in this small community of Humboldt County. Things are bound to get a little sticky, if you know anything about small-town politics, and I suppose I'm a bit used to it, after witnessing it for a majority of my life. I don't let it get to me, which the former poster calls "mountain lion" energy...I like mountain lions, yet I disagree that I'm "treed." LOL I'm doing what I'm called to do, which is run a support office for the local North Coast Earth First! movement, and I have a lot of friends and supporters, both within and the movement and within the larger community, spanning worldwide.
It's interesting to me when people take a crack at psychoanalysis, or sociological analysis, when they don't really know the facts, when they're not really close enough to the situation to really understand it. It all sounds so intelligent, yet it's so academic, which is why academia often falls short. "Cultural Anthropology" usually doesn't get you to the core of the culture, because there's an inherent distance between the culture and the anthropologist. The previous post was most likely written by someone who doesn't see my day-to-day life, doesn't see how much support I actually do have, doesn't realize how invented their reality actually is.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions...go to the source.

P.S. If anyone's acting like a COINTELPRO agent, it's the people spreading all kinds of lies about me. Makes sense, though, you have to discredit any witnesses as fast as you can, right?

Shunka wrote;

"It's interesting to me when people take a crack at psychoanalysis, or sociological analysis, when they don't really know the facts, when they're not really close enough to the situation to really understand it. It all sounds so intelligent, yet it's so academic, which is why academia often falls short. "Cultural Anthropology" usually doesn't get you to the core of the culture, because there's an inherent distance between the culture and the anthropologist. The previous post was most likely written by someone who doesn't see my day-to-day life, doesn't see how much support I actually do have, doesn't realize how invented their reality actually is."

Mysterious "COINTELPRO" anthropologist responds;

Yes, this author is guilty of all of the above. However, to avoid any further accusations let me clarify a few points in the above piece;

To claim Shunka is a "treed" mountain lion is an observation of divisiveness within the greater Arcata activist community, in particular forest defense. The aspect of Shunka being "treed" is in response to an equal and (possibly greater) opposite force that pushes back, both sides pushing against one another into equilibrium. Being backed into a corner or "treed" encourages defensive responses, thus escalating tensions indefinitely. Since we're not able to live inside the minds of each and every person we psychoanalyze, we can only rely on limited facts..

Yes, when Shunka tables there are plenty of people in the Arcata community who support his efforts. Since Shunka is a friendly person, of course the supporters will be allied with Shunka as an individual. However, when other people table for forest defense there is also a great deal of support. This is based on limited yet consistent observations over several months. What this support of forest defenders (NCEF!, wesavetrees, mattole restoration, etc..) indicates to this 'outsider cultural anthropologist' is an overall dissatisfaction from the Humboldt community with the logging practices of Pacific Lumber under the control of Maxxam, Inc., and resulting support of the forest defense community..

Not everyone in Arcata or elsewhere has the time or desire to sort through the feuding between various factions of the greater forest defense movement(s) in Humboldt county. Maybe we should take some advice from Moqtada Al-Sadr, who advised Shia/Sunni Muslims to cease fighting one another and focus their resistance on the U.S. military occupation forces as the main problem. (Am NOT advocating violence against Maxxam/PL contract loggers, simply apply Moqtada's unification theme to forest defenders minus the grenades, bombs and such, or replace incindiary devices with lock boxes, black bears and helicopter lines, etc..). We need to restore the themes of unification between recently unemployed loggers and forest defense activists begun by Judi Bari prior to the planted car bomb that wounded her severely enough that it resulted in her illness and death. How can forest defenders reach out to loggers if we cannot even get along with one another??

Would Moqtada Al-Sadr's plans for Shia/Sunni unification reduce violence in Iraq if there was a concerted action in the resistance to sabotage U.S. petroleum extraction infrastructure instead? Maybe the recent decrease in the Iraqi death toll is a result of people on both sides of the Shia/Sunni conflicts hearing the wisdom of Moqtada's request for unification and placing down their arms simultaneously??

Infighting amongst activists is a great loss of potential energy that could be used for resistance. Why did U.S. foreign policy promote arming both Iran (Ollie North Iran-Contra) and Iraq (Reagan-Rumsfeld-Saddam) at the same time, and watching Iraqi/Iranisn soldiers kill one another off over several years? Maybe to tire both nations out so a future invasion of both Iran/Iraq and oil heist would be possible in paranoid post-9/11 U.S. political culture??

In this case the occupation forces in Humboldt is Maxxam Inc., with CEO Hurwitz filling in as Commander in Chief GW Bush. Instead of oil we have giant redwood trees. We are not bombed by U.S. military planes with white phosphorus, shelled with radioactive depleted uranium, though tear gassing and felling trees on top of people (David Chain) is rather brutal treatment for U.S. residents from domestic authorities (Humboldt sheriffs)..

Am hoping these comparison can help people understand that there is a bit of urgency in resolving these internal disputes as the forces of occupation are intent on doing a great deal of additional damage to the region (Iraq and Humboldt) if not met with a well organized resistance..

If an observer can attempt to claim neutrality for the simple reason that these internal conflicts between forest defenders needs to somehow become resolved with quickness, fairness and equity for all involved, and the "greater good" (Uh, oh, that's beginning to sound a bit dictatorial, eh?) of the forest defense movement, are we disconnected to the culture and thus less observant? If we are submerged into the culture, does that not influence our bias in any direction as we have greater difficulty maintaining neutrality??

Acording to some folks in the community, even maintaining neutrality with this NCEF! office situation is to side with the oppressor (Shunka) against the oppressed (activists opposed to Shunka's control of NCEF! office/resources), and then we are labeled quislings??

Meanwhile this activist "drama detail" takes up needed space that could be used to write about the process of the Pacific Lumber bankruptcy trial taking place in Maxxam's home state of Texas, a land far, far away from infighting activists, laid off loggers and flooded out homeowners. That leaves us with getting any updates from the folks at ASJE, EPIC, etc..

Latest update on PL "Chptr 11 reorganization" plan;

"PL has filed their plan of reorganization, seeking to sell the Marbled Murrelet Conservation Areas for the inflated price of $400 million, convert 21,800 acres for low-density development, sell the town of Scotia, and hold on to the remaining 181,000 acres. PL's plan tremendously overvalues these lands, sometimes by as much as 10 times the assumed value.

PL had claimed that Maxxam would make a 'significant contribution' to the reorganization, but all that Maxxam offers is to forgive $40 million inter-company indebtedness (a claim by Maxxam against PL!) and to offer the company's real estate expertise, as well as shouldering some tax burden from future development."

article found @;
http://www.asje.org/PL_Bankruptcy.html

So in that sense we in CA all share the common ground of being left out of the process of the PL bankruptcy trial and the future of Humboldt's forests are being decided in a Texas courtroom??

Isn't that enough for people in forest defense actions to put aside their differences with one another??

It is no secret that recently revived (Homeland Security FBI) COINTELPRO tactics encourage divisiveness within activist communites far and near, the secret is in finding ways to mediate internal conflicts without tearing apart the people who are in the forest defense activist community..

Any suggestions for unity within the community??

I could also say that I've been oppressed by the Trees Foundation and by other activists who I consider to have alterior motives, other agendas that they bring to the Earth First! "table," and that consensus process is out the window when it comes to people and their dealings with me. I've had two activists come to the office, while I was out of town, who were trying to loot the office in my absence; a long-term tree-sitter was very upset about it, and was very upset that a decision had been made to cut Trees Foundation funding to the NCEF! Media office. This was a long-term tree-sitter and a friend of mine, who still respects me and got a lot of good use out of this office.
I still believe that you're talking from a distance, and getting your information from just a few people, who may have a personal vendetta against me for one reason or another.
Through the Trees Foundation trial, it became very clear to me who I can and cannot trust. I'm happy to not work with people who I feel I cannot trust, and happy to work with people who I believe I can trust.
It's really that simple, and I will continue to work with the people I can trust, and will continue to happily keep a distance between me and the people who I have now realized cannot be trusted.
I will always stand up for the truth, no matter how unpopular it may be, and I stand by my words...Earth First!
I'm moving on, posting proactive stuff, and I have people sending me threatening e-mails, talking about stalking me around town and stuff, so I'm the one being harassed and oppressed, although I don't let it get to me, because I'm not afraid of them, or anyone/anything else, for that matter.
You live 'till you die, so what's there to be afraid of?
I will never be a slave to fear, nor will I ever compromise the Truths I know to be Fact.
People can talk all the trash they want, I am an honest man.

Forever Wild,
Shunka Wakan
North Coast Earth First!

this guy is crazy he thinks everyone should live like him ,or at least his idea of how he is living. First off the ncef office is his bedroom and donations pay his rent and personal dsl and phone and pg&e. if the trees have been saved why does he still need your money?
In talking to him he claimed i was living my life wrong because i believe in freedom and personal choice and not a activist. He has been warped and no longer sees clear is caught up in his ego and will do anything to protect it .please direct all donations to a real viable charity NCEF media office is a rip-off DO NOT SEND SHUNKA MONEY TO PAY HIS RENT!!!!!!!!