MARTHA ALVAREZ SPEAKS OF ABUSE FROM CHIEF BERNARD RED CHERRIES

To learn more about this issue please read  THE ABUSE PAPERS.

I had to take a break from this issue due to vacation and work issues….plus I have had a lot of personal turmoil about the issue. My head spins sometimes from the multitudes of personalities and lies put forth by Lisa/Eaglewingwoman/Beverly H. I have a tendency to believe people when they comment on a situation not being used to the idea that people are not always as they portray themselves online. Someone has to keep reminding me that I may be dealing with a man who has mental problems and that most of the things that the personalities say is not true. I sometimes feel like there should be a support group for people confused and confounded by Bernard Red Cherries and his supporters.

Martha Alvarez  is a young woman who spent part of her childhood with a man who calls himself Chief Bernard Red Cherries 6th Generation Spiritual Leader and Sundance/Arrow Priest, Chief of the Northern Cheyenne Elk Society
Chief Headsman Northern Cheyenne Elk Society. This is an e-mail that was sent to Eugene Johnson and read on Sal Serbin’s radio show INDIGENOUS SOUNDS on WSLR 96.5 fm in Sarasota Florida.

Robert was a controlling man. When I was a little girl, I remember him being nice, almost like a savior when we moved to Montana. We were in a group home in Warm springs and apparently it was Robert’s idea to come and get us. He told my mother to get the kids and bring them back here. She did. After a while that man went away. As to the extent of our abuse, I remember the most because I was older about 7 or so. My little brothers were 2 and 5 when we moved there. He abused us in every form except sexual. He whipped us with anything, 2x4s, extension cords, belts. And not just our butts. I know the difference. I recall being drug through the house on numerous occasions, pulled up off the ground by my hair, yelled at, threatened, belittled, etc.

The worst for me was the mind games. he would always tell us to go to our room…the back room and we would know what was coming, almost like walking down Death Row. And most to the time we didn’t even know what we had done. On one occasion, my brother Tommy Joe and I were in the back room and  Robert walked in with his belt in one hand. We were both crying, of course, and he holds out his finger to me and says “Pull it”. Tommy looks at me and vice versa. We look at him. I just stood there looking at him. He turns to my little brother and says “Pull it.” Tommy still crying, put out his hand and pulled his extended finger. Robert farted and started laughing and said “Get out of here.”

He also liked to use guns, rifles on my mother. I actually saw this. My mother has never really mentioned anything else but that about what happened to her behind the doors. We were made to call him Dad. I didn’t want to but we didn’t have a choice. When people use the expression “walking on eggshells,” we really did. He would tell us not to go outside when he wasn’t there and we would listen. That’s the type of control he had over us. We weren’t allowed to talk at the dinner table, only he was. We were the family that has been seen and not heard, truly. It felt like we were there for appearances. Looking back now, I was always the defiant one. I don’t think I realized that until now.

Here is another statement made by Martha Alvarez.

I want to thank Eugene and Rhonda for everything they are doing. Thanks to anyone else that has come forward, for standing up to persons not mentioned. I truely appreciate it.

As to those organizations or persons protecting him I’m not hiding, and why would you conceal something so wrong! I’m not afraid. Why don’t you ask me what happened? This issue truely is one sided, you don’t have my side, my mothers, or even truely my little sisters, if in fact she has been contacted. Every thing I have done is out of love even if you don’t see it that way.

It has been many years but I remember and I’m not a liar. We are not the only family.

Eugene is right I never said anything about sexual assault, I don’t know where that is coming from.

I’m here and I’m standing up for what I know is true. You can’t erase what happened to us, or anyone else for that matter. Your big performance isn’t going to hide the truth much longer. It’s all just an act, a show, and you enjoy it. The thrill, power, and attention. This is truely my life, my memories.

I wonder if you protect all corrupt persons in places of leadership or athority to this extent. Does the issue of abuse of children, women, families mean nothing? No matter how long ago it was. Does his position entitle him to hurt people with out any consequences?

Were we not wronged in all of this? Don’t you even consider all the pain this has done to us and then to insult us by calling us liars, to say it never happened would be the lie. I’ve tried to let it go, live my life, but it still affects me to this day. I’ve never even got an apology or a sign of remorse which confirms he has not changed since then, at all.

I’m not going to stay silent any longer. I played that part of obedient daughter. I’m not backing down. I do have a past and I’m not afraid of it.

My motivation in all this is my family and for me. I’m taking back my power that was stolen from me all those years ago. For every thing I heard, saw, experienced, and for the ones that endured it with me. For those who aren’t strong enough yet.

You won’t scare me away, the pain of that life is to strong to let you!

Martha Alvarez | Homepage | 05.15.09 – 2:34 pm | #

I am adding this because it is a beautiful comment from Martha’s mother.

MAYBE NOT THE FIRST BUT DEFINATELY NOT THE LAST! AS I SIT HEAR AND READ ALL OF THESE PEOPLES TRUETHS AGAIN IN MY MIND – I THINK “MY DAUGHTER MARTHA ONCE AGAIN STOOD UP FOR NOT ONLY HER MOTHER, SISTERS & BROTHERS WHILE LIVING IN BERNARDS HOME IN LAME DEER BUT SHE HAS THE COUARGE TO SHOW ME ONCE AGAIN THAT THIS WAS THE TRUTH AND I DONT HAVE TO BE AFRAID TO SAY IT, PUBLICLY. SORRY I AM NOT VERY EDUCATED, OR INTUITIVE BUT I DO HAVE ALOT OF FEELINGS. I M SORRY TO SAY MY DAUGHTER: DELLA ANN RED CHERRIES IS NOW IN COFFEE CREEK – STATE PRISON IN OREGON. I AM SAYING THANK YOU MARTHA FOR ALWAYS BEING THE LEVEL HEADED, STRONG & PAINFULLY HONEST WOMEN YOU HAVE GROWN INTO. MY GRANDSON IS LUCKY TO HAVE YOU HELPING HIM ALONG NOT LETTING ANY HURT HIM FOR ANY REASON.

MY NAME IS LOIS AND I AM MARTHAS MOM.

BERNARD HAS NEVER EVER SAID HE WAS SORRY TO ME OR MY CHILDREN AFTER ALL THE FIVE(5) YEARS WE SUFFERED FOR “THE CHEYENNE PEOPLE” LIVING IN LAME DEER, MT.

THANK YOU WE ALL NEED PRAYERS…

ONE OF THE EX’S | 04.26.09 – 3:00 pm | #

And this precious thank you.

I’m really taken back by what one little e-mail has generated. Honestly I’m shocked people took time to listen. It’s been many many years coming and I’m glad people are finally seeing what we saw all those years. Thank you, all of you. I never thought of my self as a strong person I’m only doing what I thought was right for my family. For me it is justice just having people acknowledge what he has done not only to my family but others as well. I can remeber one to many times people of authority turned their backs on us because Robert was a medicine man to his people. To young children it destroys a sense of trust in those figures. Any of those who know him like I do understand it’s not easy facing those memories but I’m not seven anymore and I’m not going to let him have that hold on me any longer. I will never forgive or forget but I will pray for him. As to my little sister I’m only sorry I couldn’t help her more than what I’m doing right now. To my mother, wow, I never knew you saw me like that. To Rhonda thank you once again for seeing both sides of the story. For everyone else thanks for outing Bernard Redcherries, Robert Coltte, or whatever name he chooses to go by now or in the future.

Thanks once again for simply listening

Martha | Homepage | 04.28.09 – 3:02 am | #