People’s Choice Best Local Political Activist (Willamette Week’s “Best of Portland” polls 2002, 2004), Tre Arrow fights extradition from a jail cell at the North Fraser Pre-Trial Centre near Vancouver, B.C. The following interview was conducted February 18, 2005.

MG: Tre, I know you went on a hunger strike in prison. Could you talk about that, and the resolution?

TA: Yeah, I was arrested on March 13, 2004. For the next 44 days, I was on a hunger strike, and consumed solely water. I did it for a few key reasons. Mostly, it was a political protest, to call attention to the lack of justice within the U.S. judicial system, and how the FBI is targeting me, and how they’ve targeted countless others who have chosen to dissent.

The second reason was that I didn’t want to consume the toxic stuff they were serving, the food and the chlorinated water. The first few days I didn’t even drink any water. Then they made me start drinking, but I was able to boil the water and get rid of the chlorine and stuff.

The third and most important reason was to call attention to the unnecessary obscene suffering of the planet. Having been involved with Food Not Bombs and other groups that help reclaim food before it’s tossed, and serve it to people that need it—it’s really saddening, to see how much food is wasted while millions of people are starving. It was a move of solidarity for all those that are suffering.

On April 27th, 45 days from the initial incarceration, I started to eat again. I’ve been eating exclusively a vegan raw food diet for many moons. It’s not a question of choice, it’s part of my spiritual path, my lifestyle. And after a certain amount of time, it becomes an imperative situation, a medical condition. A raw food diet is an optimally healthful diet, and over time, it acts as a purification of the body. To eat cooked food, after eating raw food for a long time, would be like going on a 10-day fast and then eating 10 donuts. It’s literally poison.

So, I was adamant that I can consume only raw food, and please honor my diet. The administration said, ‘there’s two diets here, the cooked dead animal diet and the cooked vegetarian diet, and we’ll give you the vegetarian diet.’ I told them that was not even close to sufficient, that not only do I not eat anything cooked, I don’t eat anything from any parts of animals. They didn’t care. They were very concerned that if they made an exception for one person, everybody would want their own specific diet.

So they kept giving me cooked, dead food. Although raw foods are available in the kitchen at all times, only specific meals and days do we receive fresh food.

I was forced to trade my cooked meals with other inmates, who would give me their raw food that came only occasionally.

By August I was down to about 80 pounds. When I was arrested, I was about 150. I couldn’t gain any weight after the fast, because what little food I was getting was basically water and some nutrients, but no substantial quantity of fat or protein.

On top of that, rules here prohibit inmates from keeping fresh food. You can order processed food through the canteen, and keep that in your cell. But, heaven forbid, anything fresh cannot be stored in your cell.

So a week would go by, and I would get hardly any food. Then at one meal, we’d get a piece of fruit and veggie sticks, and everyone I had done meal trades with would give me theirs, and I’d end up with a big pile of veggie sticks and fruit. I was trying to keep some, so I could have something to eat every day.

The whole food issue culminated one of those days I received a bunch of fruit and veggie sticks at lunch. They stormed my cell and threw me in the hole, the most restricted punishment-type of setting, deeming I had too much food.

My family was outraged, they were livid. I was probably about 86 pounds. Then I was put under medical observation, and a couple days later they sent me to the hospital. I was 80, 81 pounds, at my lowest.

In the hospital, they allowed my family and some of my amazing support group, too—at that time, figs were my favorite food, they were ripe on the trees [laughing], and they went around picking figs and brought ’em to the hospital. They made me amazing food with awesome guacamole, filled with fat —and nuts and seeds for protein and lots of fruits and veggies. The doctors and nurses were supportive, and I was able to get raw food every meal.

I was in the hospital for three weeks. I was very very close to death. Staff people said I looked worse than pictures they’d seen of concentration camp victims from Nazi Germany. It was a pretty intense time.

My doctor wouldn’t release me until she was assured that I was gonna get the food I needed. Since then, I’ve been receiving raw food every meal. It took many many moons, and me sticking to my convictions. I’m now back up to my ideal weight, around 145, and I’ve been renourishing my body and healing.

MG: Good! Tre, when the media reported that you’d been arrested, they had this whole blitz about you taking some bolt cutters. Why in the world did you risk your freedom over bolt cutters?

TA: I know. It’s not an easy answer. On a subconscious level, I wanted it to be over. As much as I didn’t want to be locked up, it was—grueling, to be in hiding and disconnect myself 100 percent from everyone I had known. I wanted all the grief and stress of living underground to end.

MG: How long were you on the run?

TA: Almost two years. The indictments came down August 2002, and I left the States shortly after that. Knowing how the FBI persecutes and frames activists that stand in the way of the corporate agenda and government policy, I felt this was another part of their repertoire. I was arrested in March 2004, so I was on the run—19, 20 months.

MG: Did you get advance notice of the indictments?

TA: I was on the computer regularly. Someone sent me an e-mail, ‘uh, yo, these indictments came down, check it out.’ And I was like, Oh, wow! That’s interesting. Maybe it’s time to see Canada. [Laughs.]

MG: How did you survive?

TA: Well, I’m pretty resourceful. I’ve lived a long time in a frugal fashion. So to not have income or anyone to stay with, there are ways around that. It’s a very disconcerting reality that our culture wastes so much. I can easily live off the waste of our culture, food and clothing-wise. Even before I was on the run, I engaged in a barter system to help circumvent dependency on money.

I talked to the produce manager at one store, said ‘can I grab some of the produce that’s gonna be tossed, before it’s tossed?’ And he’s like, ‘Sure.’ I had an instant hook-up of raw food. I’m used to living with the trees and nature, so I had enough—I built a little teepee in the woods. I had a sleeping bag. And clothing was available from churches and nonprofit organizations.

But it was cold, and I wasn’t prepared. When I arrived, it was summer, and I wanted to travel. I wanted to be somewhere warmer for the winter, but I ended up trapped in Nova Scotia. I realized there’s no way I’m gonna get out of Canada, I might as well try to make the most of it. It was the most miserable winter of my life. I was living outside in negative 30 degree weather. My sleeping bag was warm, but not that warm.

MG: You had the shoplifting charge in Canada. What was the outcome?

TA: I was arrested on Marc