And now:LISN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Subject: Fwd: An elder's Update of Aug. 99...
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 12:49:49 PDT
From: "Janet Cavallo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <<clipped>>
>Greetings Supporters,
>
>First of all, I apologize that I don't have any great news about my
>contribution to the resistors. I visited some of the key Non-Signers this
>past weekend, and I only brought to them my jesture of support but I wish
>I would have brought them hay or tons of donation. Oh well, I was very
>glad to see them and likewise they were because I rarely have the chance
>to visit them. I sort of hitched a ride up there and also, was very glad
>to visit and stay with my parents up there.
>
>I'm writing this forgoing translation mainly because Pauline Whitesinger
>expressed to me that what she had to say should be known. She felt it was
>urgent that everyone know of current activities by the BIA and its
>"Indian" agents who are continuing to intrude on her ancestral homeland
>despite her disapproval. I feel that besides these elder words being just
>updates it should be taken as what wishes and thoughts of the elders are
>as February 2000 nears. Furthermore, Uncle Jake's 'View from the Hogan'
>has already touch upon what Pauline has to say but she has suggest that I
>further restate her concerns and call.
>
>Special thanks to Uncle Jake for caring for the elders and trying his best
>to make assurance that they have water, and also, making sure that the
>support harvest camp (near Pauline's) has its needs met. Many thanks to
>all who still say prayers for the survival of the ancient Dineh and Hopi
>cultures of Black Mesa.
>
>In the Spirit of Chief Barboncito, Bahe
>
>
>PAULINE WHITESINGER (August 20th 1999):
>
>The meeting today at the Hard Rock Chapter was only for those resistor who
>signed the Accomodation Agreement. It was not for us and we had no purpose
>in attending accept to be humiliated again by the Justice Department and
>the BIA Attorneys for the Hopi Progressives. Also, I have come to realize
>again that this Chapter (Navajo Nations' Sub-districts) is invalid as far
>as being a representative of all the surrounding Dineh communities. It is
>nonexistence because there were no Navajo elected official at this Chapter
>House. There was only the Hopi Vice Chairman who I mistakenly thought he
>was the Chapter's Council delegate, Lorenzo Bedoni. I even called him,
>Lorenzo Bedoni, until someone told me that he is the Hopi Vice Chairman,
>Eugene Kaye. The other official attendentees were the Navajo Nation's
>"Land-dispute" Office director, Roman Bitsui, one of the BIA Police who
>has been out here all the time this summer --the one with the mustache,
>and others who were supposely attorneys for the Hopis and a representative
>from Washin'don' (Washington D.C.).
>
>The podium was continuously dominated by Betty Tso who translated what the
>Official wanted this meeting was for. According to Betty Tso's
>translation, she said 'this Law' is unchangeable, and it can't be argued
>at all. Resistors or anyone else should not attempt to waste their time to
>confront the processes of this law (Accomodation Agreement). It was said
>also there will be a new law/policy soon to be implemented and that
>everyone will have to be aware of it and accept it. So to me, basically
>that meeting was to tell the traditional Dineh that, This is the law, The
>law will be implemented, This law will apply to you, and A law you all
>have to go along with. Once in a while she would let her mom, Mae Tso,
>come up and all she repeated was that the Signers' willingness to
>cooperate with BIA-Hopi's Lease Agreement and she hopes to welcome Hopi
>jurisdiction and its protections.
>
>I absolutely felt then, at this meeting, that I didn't need to hear this
>or that none of us traditional Dineh should continue to just accept these
>types of humiliations. So, I casually took the microphone from the podium
>and told the official about the recent incident. I told and reminded the
>BIA Progressive Hopis that they are violating many sacred laws of the
>Mother Earth. They have violated many sacred laws of the Five Finger Race
>(Human Rights). As you violate more of these sacred laws, you and your
>attorneys have gained millions of dollars every time our traditional Dineh
>population is decreased. The federal government awards you all for making
>way for future mining. Surely, many of you or nearly your whole nation
>will gain maxium profit but we Indians don't realize how heavy the money
>can become, and what other options are there for depositing it besides the
>BIA Trust? You the progressive Hopis will just carry this load of money
>for a short time until it breaks your backbone and eventually, you will be
>buried by this heavy load of money. I said this because I want everyone to
>know how I felt about their succress of their implementations of 'the
>Law.'
>
>[Author's Note: Concerning this next piece of words from Pauline, it
>should be understood that a ceremony was disrupted, more severely than
>this summer's Anna Mae Camp Sundance. The corn pollen is the initial
>sacred offering used in all Chant Way ceremonies of the Dineh. Only a
>woman can collect such pollen from the corn fields. This woman often
>prepares for this time of collecting the pollen as she will pray and
>mediate days prior to it. The day of the collection of the sacred Corn
>Pollen she will cleanse herself and put on clean clothing, and as she
>enters upon the sacred corn field she will chant the Beauty Way Chants.
>After the collection of the pollen the ceremony will not end until the day
>the pollen is sifted, dried and put into its buckskin pouch. BYK]
>
>PAULINE, August 20th 1999: (continued)
>
>On August 18th just two days ago, I was in the middle of loseing the
>pollen off the corn stalk tassels into the pan when a disturbance
>distracted me to look up. I noticed that there was a BIA Police officer
>confronting my Non-Indian supporters who were hoeing the weeds at the
>other end of the field. I quickly stopped the collection of the pollen and
>sat the pan down, covered it with a clothe and hope that the pan of pollen
>doesn't tip over. Then, I rush down to where the comotion was. I place
>myself before the Police officer who was now following the support women
>and a little girl. He had a video camera and the supporters were merely
>trying not to be taped. I stopped him and told him why is he harrassing
>the women and why does he want them on video tape so bad to be chasing
>them around the field. I told him if he is Hopi he should understand his
>own culture that the Corn Field is a sacred place where both sex must
>respect each other. Because he is chasing these women around can be
>justified as 'Sexual Harrassment!' I told him. He kept recording and still
>trying to aim the camera at the ladies who had distanced themselves from
>him. I wave my hands in front of him and said Stop! When he didn't listen
>I slapped the camera upward and the camera flew up into the air and landed
>in the dirt near by.
>
>As he was dusting off the camera I told him, 'I, like any other
>traditional resistor, will from hereon take action upon your
>BIA-Washington D.C. intrusions. I hope to Great Spirit that will not have
>to harm each others' physical being because if we do harm each other, we
>humans are irreplacable or irrepairable. That camera can easily be
>replaced, but I have wished already not to hit you because it is not you
>who dictates the laws you are enforcing, today.' This is what happened and
>the ceremony of Corn Pollen Collection was interrupted in this manner, and
>I just have this weird feeling now. They (BIA Agencies) are taking more
>vigarous means to intrude and are really becoming aggressive in their
>continuous presences on my land because of my support for having witnesses
>on my land.
>
>Please, tell the supporters and concerned individuals to tell the Hopi BIA
>Agency personnel that we traditional Dineh resistor see them as those
>intending to sexually harass women in the middle of the sacred corn field.
>Also, they must begin to listen to what the Non-Signers have to say and
>they must not just go as they please upon our ancestral lands. We will
>take action if they continue these types of harassment and intimindations.
>I guess it is just me saying this but please understand that I've been
>targeted all summer and previously as well, and I have become more extreme
>in my confrontations these days.
>
