Native
Americans say it is time for America to re-examine itself
Native
poets, filmmakers and spiritual leaders say war is no remedy for hatred
By
Brenda Norrell
Independent
journalist
December,
2001
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 gung-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 border was lost after 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 border
zone 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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