Native Americans say it is time for America
to re-examine itself
Native poets, filmmakers and spiritual leaders
say war is no remedy for
By Brenda Norrell
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Native American poets,
filmmakers and spiritual
leaders say America is being deceived by
the national media about the
intent behind the bombing of Afghanistan.
It reflects the deception and murder of
the voiceless that Indigenous
peoples have long known.
Simon Ortiz, Acoma Pueblo N.M. poet and
professor in Canada, said
images of the bombing of Afghanistan are
the nightmares Indigenous
peoples have always lived with.
Ortiz said it is now carried out in the
conquest for oil.
"When I've seen the few photos of the destruction
and killings caused
by U.S. bombs in Afghanistan, I immediately
think of what Acoma and the
other Pueblos would look like if the same
hellish madness were ever
visited upon them," Ortiz said.
"People standing amidst the ruins and rubble
of their adobe and stone
homes. Children and old men and women stunned,
weeping quietly. It is
horrible to envision.
"This is victory over the enemy?
"And then I think of January 1599 when Acoma
was laid to waste and
hundreds of Acomas died at the hands of
Spanish conquistadors under Don
Juan de Onate.
"That was victory over the enemy?
"No, that was an obscenity of death and
conquest committed so that
Native land and its resources could be
gained, just like what is taking
place now in Afghanistan and the Mideast
-- obscenity of death and
conquest committed so that control
over oil resources can be gained."
Ortiz, internationally-known author of "Woven
Stone," and dozens of
other books of poetry and essays, like
Navajo filmmaker Arlene Bowman,
relocated to Canada because of professional
opportunities for
Indigenous peoples.
Bowman, independent filmmaker living in
Vancouver, British Columbia,
said the war on Afghanistan is an energy
war and at home, President
Bush is rapidly undoing the preservations
of sacred lands put in place
by the Clinton administration.
"I observe mostly the drive by the federal
government to get to the
energy sources in Canada and the United
States fast!"
"Bush is definitely a redneck of a president."
Bowman, producer of "Navajo Talking Picture,"
shown in international
film festivals and "Song Journey," shown
on PBS, was born in Fort
Defiance and grew up in Phoenix. She is
concerned for Navajos at home.
and elsewhere.
"Probably Bush doesn't care about Aboriginal
peoples and is racist.
What else is new?
"He doesn't care if the Dineh people will
not get enough water on
their land and if digging for uranium will
affect Dineh people, leaving
them with cancer and radiation."
"It's not his brain and body or children.
Has anything really changed
for us?"
Bowman said Bush has become an opportunist
by way of the tragedies of
others, "ramming through" his energy policy
while the mainstream media
has acted with complicity in a crime against
humanity.
"The opposition voice is censored
out literally. The United States is.
becoming a 'banana republic,' a police
state."
Bowman said racism towards people of color
has not diminished, but
major networks refuse to cover America
as it is.
"Just observe the major television news
networks. It's all 'Rah! Rah!'
for the flag and gun-ho flag waving.
"The censorship bothers me a lot. Big Brother
is watching and it's
real."
Meanwhile, at the southern border of the
United States, Pascua Yaqui
border rights activist Jose Matus says
all of the work done in recent
years to halt abuse of Indigenous at the
attacks in New York.
"We have lost whatever little ground we
gained in our fight and
struggle to stem the tide of law enforcement
abuse of authority and
violations of rights," said Matus, a Yaqui
ceremonial leader.
While the militarization of the United States
and Mexico border
intensified, Matus said the so-called war
on terror has terrorized
Indigenous people crossing the border with
an intensified climate of
"racism, hatred, xenophobia and vigilantism."
Matus and other members of Derechos Humanos
in Tucson have documented
assaults and harassment if Indian people
by border and immigration
officials. The human rights organization
has also pressed for the
easing of visa requirements for ceremonial
leaders. With more than
30,000 Yaqui living in Sonora, Mexico,
the border has divided families
and is a barrier to cultural and spiritual
gatherings.
Matus said Bush continues to press for legislation,
which will endanger
Indian people and result in further abuse
of civil and human rights.
"The September 11 attacks have taken away
whatever little civil
liberties we had and have given rise to
hatred and xenophobia against
immigrants of color more than ever before."
The profiling of people of color is a violation
of rights Indigenous in
the borderzone have long known.
"Why are people of color always profiled
and not whites?" Matus asked.
American Indians have long warned it is
time for America to reexamine
itself and its treatment of Indigenous
peoples and Mother Earth.
In April, a presentation to Lehman Brothers
stockholders at the World
Trade Center was censored by the media.
Following a protest outside, a delegation
of Navajo, Hopi and Lakota
elders and spiritual leaders addressed
a stockholders meeting of Lehman
Brothers, the parent company of Peabody
Coal which mines coal on Navajo
and Hopi lands on Black Mesa, Arizona.
Joe Chasing Horse, Lakota, told stockholders,
"You have taken all of
our land, now we have come to show you
how to take care of it."
A traditional Hopi elder told stockholders,
"Lehman Brothers, even
though we are just a few here, we speak
for the Creator, who is the
majority."
In comments never publicized by the mainstream
media, the Hopi elder
said, "Therefore we demand you to stop
the Peabody coal mining and the
slurry. We demand again," said the Hopi
elder who asked that his name
not be published.
"Traditional and priesthood people don't
want this mining. The Hopi
prophecies say that we have to protect
land and life. If we don't
protect our beautiful Earth -- our Heaven,
our Mother, we will suffer
with her."
"Our ancestors warned that someday this
would happen. White men will
say that it is our own people that sold
this land. I will not accept this.
"Our roots are rooted in our villages and
it goes up to the whole
universe. If we break these roots the world
will get out of balance.
"I pray for you and hope that we open your
eyes and you find the
majority in your heart."
Before their deaths, Hopi elders Thomas
Banyacya and Dan Evehema
warned that calamities would befall all of humanity
if Navajos were
forced to relocate and the Earth was desecrated with
further coal
and uranium mining on Black Mesa.
After returning from New York to Big Mountain,
Ariz., in the so-called
Navajo-Hopi land dispute area, John Benally
said the people have been
struggling for 32 years because of the
turmoil created by Hopi and
Navajo tribal leaders intent on making
money from the 92 billion tons
of coal beneath the ground at Black Mesa.
Benally said the resistance actually goes
back 500 years to the Spanish
invasion, followed by invasions of Europeans
and Kit Carson.
Benally said the Navajo, Hopi and Lakota
delegation moved in solidarity
with the Zapatistas whose caravan through
Mexico in the spring gave
them hope.
"We felt the wind, it came from the South.
It is telling the Indigenous
people to rise up for their beliefs, their
culture. These things are
not being respected by anyone but the Indigenous
people."
posted with permission from Brenda Norrell
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