They stole his ancient homeland, shattered and scattered his remarkable, peace-loving people, then 350 years later they abused him in Catholic schools and taunted him for his religion. After racists murdered his wife and baby son, they sent this 18-year-old young man to Vietnam, behind enemy lines where this Green Beret witnessed atrocities which no young man should ever see. To the government, Iron was just a tiny relic of an almost-exterminated indigenous peoples who had been under attack physically, religiously, and culturally for over 350 years. Iron was an expendable, but gifted and useful, cannon fodder.

This young man, however, managed to maintain his integrity of character even in the Mekong Delta and refused to lead his men to follow an order to neutralize our own boys, when a government drug experiment went wrong. He saw too much, knew too much, and their attempts to brainwash failed, so he refused to become an undercover operative in the states. Instead, he studied law in California and became a street lawyer to help right the wrongs wreaked upon indigenous peoples through almost four hundred years of oppression and ethnic cleansing. He tried to help anybody he could who faced injustice, regardless of race or religion.

About 1976 there was an apparent attempt made on his life, so he moved to the Texas-Oklahoma border and started a business with his Vietnam buddies. In 1977 he was arrested in Texas and held incommunicado for ten months, moved from jail to jail surreptitiously at night, until some serious crimes were committed by a local man who resembled Iron in appearance. Then he was charged, railroaded, and wrongfully convicted of heinous crimes. He fought them in propria personna for years, winning some major victories, pleading guilty to two lesser charges (in order to devote time to the major charges), finally taking the kidnapping sentence of 5 to 99 years all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court during the 1980's and, according to a newspaper account, having it overturned. From that time until 1997, the 99 years did not appear on Iron's time sheet, but when he came up for parole, suddenly there it was, without explanation. By that time the Texas legislature had passed laws to make inmate records off limits to the inmates whose lives they affect, so he cannot prove that this is a mistake.

In 1981 he testified in the RUIZ vs. ESTELLE litigation to help make the Texas prison system less barbaric, but that resulted in six retaliatory assassination attempts on his life. In order to set him up for one assassination attempt, he was placed on Death Row without having a death sentence. He was young, strong, and well-trained as a Special Forces operative, so he successfully defended himself and did not accept the offer to be transferred to a federal prison for protection as did others who testified.

Now, in 2005, Iron is legally blind, severely disabled with a right arm that is practically useless and painful, a frozen shoulder, back injuries, hypertension, and other health problems, some Agent-Orange-related. During 2003-2004, Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) violated every provision of out-of-court settlements and negotiated legal agreements and stripped him of every sacred item and every religious right. In November 2004 he filed suit under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), the evidentiary hearing was held in April, and the retaliation began in earnest on May 18, 2005. Ranking officers violated TDCJ's own rules and began a systematic process of abuse, harassment, intimidation, and even torture, in violation of Iron's civil, religious, constitutional, and religious rights. On May 18, his fan was confiscated in extreme heat, until he passed out and the doctor ordered the fan returned. About May 19, he was banned from chow hall.

On May 30, he filed a Life Endangerment Request to be transferred to a safe place. In violation of TDCJ policy, the request was ignored and, on June 7th, the ranking officers did what they had been threatening since May 18. A lieutenant and his men attacked Iron with premeditation and malice of forethought when he tried to go to chow hall for breakfast. They knocked off and destroyed his eyeglasses and UV shields, then deliberately and profusely sprayed oc pepper spray directly into his eyes from all directions, in violation of the MSDS. They wrenched his disabled arm behind his back in violation of a medical front handcuff pass renewed consistenly for the past 13 years because of a federal judge's order. The lieutenant ordered a second unnecessary video from the other side of the unit in order to give his men another thirty minutes to kick, spit on, curse, and threaten Iron while he lay writhing in agony on the ground, in excruciating pain both from the handcuffing in back and from the pepper spray in his eyes (which cannot produce tears and so the eyeballs swell).

Then the lieutenant and his men refused to permit the nurse to decontaminate Iron or give him any medical attention; refused to permit him to shower to decontaminate himself; and then shut off the water to the isolation cell before placing him there, leaving him to be in agony from the pepper spray for another 12 hours. All in violation of the MSDS, medical, and TDCJ guidelines.

They confiscated his ID and destroyed it to prevent him from buying stamps at commissary, then the mail room refused to permit him to use his handicapped stickers for mail, - to keep him incommunicado for weeks (they also would not allow any visitors for a month). Another lieutenant confiscated all his medical passes and would not return them. For weeks, guards never showed up to escort him to medical appointments. He received no medication for the shingles outbreak resulting from the attack. Nurses discontinued medical passes issued by M.D.'s in violation of the rules and forged signatures of doctors on passes they rewrote. Finally in July, the guards pressured the MD into discontinuing his court-ordered front handcuff pass.

In October his critical blood pressure meds "disappeared" for a week. About November 1 his meds for high cholesterol were discontinued. As of November 21, he still does not have his eyeglasses, UV shields, or navigational cane.

Consistently, since the lawsuit was filed, TDCJ has interfered with legal mail, with some personal mail, and has refused to permit a Native American spiritual advisor visit and refused to permit a NY Medicine Man's letters and affidavits to be delivered to Iron.

Iron's life is in constant imminent danger. His health and well-being have deteriorated drastically since June 7th. Iron desperately needs an attorney to save his precious life by getting him moved out of the TDCJ system, where we can focus on proving his innocence. A fellow-Vietnam Vet, himself suffering with cancer and visual problems, has begun a fund-raising effort to obtain urgently needed legal assistance.

If you can contribute any amount, please know that whatever you send will be appreciated more than you know. Please join us in prayer for Iron's safety.

If you can send even a dollar or two, please make checks payable to "ACQTC, Inc. - ISL legal fund" and mail to International Support League, P.O. Box #787, Huntsville, TX 77342-787, to the attention of Chairman of the Board, Ruth Thunderhorse. The Algonquian Confederacy of the Quinnipiac Tribal Council (ACQTC), Inc. is a non-profit IRS-approved 501(C)(3) organization (see http:// www.acqtc.com). Donations are tax-deductible.

The legal fund account is through Guaranty Bank of Huntsville, TX. For additional information and updates, visit http://www.saveironthunderhorse.com. ARUMSHEMOCKE (THANK YOU KINDLY.)

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