The View from the Hogan 4   July 1999           Days till the "final solution"

Notes from Big Mountain


    Unfortunately the Hopi Tribal Council has gone ahead with its planned
disruption of the Sun Dance at Camp Anne Mae. When I drove in several
evenings ago we had to run a gauntlet of SEVEN police vehicles parked just
outside the entrance. At this time the cops were doing nothing but standing
around chatting with each other. It was a sunday so they were probably
discussing the overtime they were getting paid. 2 days later when I next
visited, I was told by visitors that the cops at the entrance were now taking
down the license plates of all visitors and informing them that there will be
a $500 a day fine for people attending! Whether or not they will go ahead and
actually fine these people is somewhat irrelevant, as the threat itself is
harassment and intimidation. While I was at the Sundance 2 Hopi "monitors"
were allowed to enter the camp. "We just want to check the sanitation
arrangements" they said. However I overhead them report in on their radios to
their bosses that the Sun dancers were going to cut down a tree for the
ceremony and that green boughs have been cut down. According to HTC "law" it
is illegal to cut down trees and green boughs (green boughs are a necessary
part of many Navajo ceremonies, so the HTC makes it illegal to cut them.
Sheep are an integral necessity for Navajo life, so the HTC makes it illegal
to own them. Many of the Families here depend on visitors for help with
chores, so the HTC makes it illegal for them to be here, the annual Sundance
brings spiritual solidarity and thereby strengthens the people here, so it is
made illegal. Is there a pattern here?). Several years ago Crow Dog, the
leader of another local Sun Dance, was fined $10,000 for cutting down a
tree!!!! Of course, 15 miles north of here thousands of trees are uprooted
with the HTC's blessing in preparation for strip-mining, and the way people
here cut green boughs from trees does no harm to the trees, so if and when
they try and fine the people for these activities it is purely as a way of
punishing and persecuting the people here. Later in the afternoon visitors
told us that 20 miles away at the main road the Hopis had set up a road block
and were turning away non-native visitors. This act is again a blatant
attempt to disrupt this sacred ceremony. Many non-natives have made the
commitment to support the Sun Dancers both spiritually and practically.
Another affect of putting up the road block so far away is that many local
people not connected to the Sun Dance also get to feel harassed and some may
blame the Sun Dance for this. One friend of mine who was stopped told the
"officers" that it reminded her of her recent trip to Chiapas. Oh how true.
     And what is the HTC's justification for all this? The following are
quotes from an official press release from them titled "Navajo resisters plan
to defy Hopi Tribe."
    "In a well orchestrated effort to bait the Hopi tribe into a hostile
media situation, resistors are planning to host a Sun Dance activity on the
Hopi Partitioned lands"...... what the hell is a "hostile media situation"?,
and as for it being "well orchestrated", thats a joke,.. the people here do
not have a well funded organisation with faxes, phones, press releases,
etc,... a couple of individuals using a pay phone to tell friends what is
happening here is all we have to communicate with the outside world. And why
define the Sun Dance as an "activity" and not a sacred ceremony? Do they
honestly believe the Sun Dance is used to "bait" the Hopi Tribe? When the
Tribal Council goes to their  churches on sunday is it to pray or is it a
well orchestrated political activity?
    "Not every Navajo family is happy about Sundance because they know it
tears up the land and diminishes their grazing".... Deep within the bowels of
the Hopi Tribal Council Bunker there must be a competition going on to see
who can come up with the most absurd and ridiculous statement. This one must
be in the running for the Grand Prize. Why do they not quote one of these
families? While I'm sure there may be one or two Navajo individuals who do
not approve of the Sundance because they have chosen to embrace a religion
that views all other spiritual practices as evil, there can be no-one who
believes that the Sundance is tearing up the land. The simple truth is that
the Sundance grounds takes up about 10 to 15 acres of one families homesite.
The other afternoon as I arrived at Sundance I saw that families flock
contentedly grazing not 200 yards from the Sundance arbor. The Hopi Tribal
Council Offices take up more acreage than the Sundance grounds. Maybe they
should bulldoze those buildings and liberate that land for their cows to
graze on. To claim a concern for the state of the land, while their wages are
being paid by the strip mining of 103 square miles is hypocrisy. The sad
thing is that the local NPR station used this quote verbatim in a piece they
did.
    "Some of the resistors take every chance to politicize events, even those
events they say are religious in nature"......Surely to demand that a sacred
ceremony needs a permit is to polticize the event? And surely to deny that
permit politicizes it even further?
    "the tribe is also concerned about the condition of the land and the high
fire danger caused by the exetended drought.......Participants at Sundance
activities are known to have open fires, increasing the chances for range
fires."...... I guess they must be worried that their Fire trucks would not
be able to get through the mud!! For the week prior to, and during, the
Sundance we have been blessed with monsoons. It has poured with rain. The
last time the HTC used fire danger as an excuse was 3 years ago when they
blockaded the roads to turn back visitors to the Spring Gathering. On the
first day of that event it poured with rain and hail. The Grandmas were in no
doubt that the Creator was making his position clear.
    "people on the outside don't have the slightest clue that these few
Navajo individuals and their so-called friends harass and intimidate Hopi
people".......  Whoooaaa!!! now we're entering the Twilight Zone. Of course
people out there don't know that it is going on because it simply isn't.
Surely with such an allegation they could furnish some evidence? The people
here on the land invite you to come here to Big Mountain and see for
yourselves what is going on. The HTC will try and stop you. Does this not
indicate something? That the HTC must continue to resort to deception and
lies is surely a sign of the weakness of their position. And whats with this
"few" Navajo individuals? At Sundance there were many hundreds of Navajos.
And whats "so-called friends" all about? This quote is attributed to a
certain Lenora Lewis of the Hopi Lands Team, the same woman who wrote the
particularly nasty letter to the editor that I mentioned in VFH3. There is a
bitterness to her words that suggests to me that maybe she has not
expereienced real friendship.
    "It is time for the Hopi people to speak out against this type of
mistreatment"..... Well, the Hopi people have spoken out, though once again
it is against the harassment and mistreatment by the HTC. There is an
excellent letter expressing the point of view of the Traditional Hopi that
was distributed on BigMtList. If any of you have not seen it, let me know and
I will forward it. One of the many points made in it is that the Hopi people
are ashamed at what the HTC is doing in their name. Also, as they do every
year, groups of Traditional Hopi attended Sundance and shared in the Pipe
Ceremonies.

    I have dwelt at length on this press release because it unfortunately is
indicative of what is passed off as news "out there". A journalist sits in
his office, pulls a press release from some Governmental agency or
Corporation from his fax machine, changes a couple of words and then puts it
out as "news". At worst these press releases are downright untruths, at best
a narrow interpretation of events that serve entrenched interests. Surely the
purpose of "News" is to allow us access to the facts so we can  make informed
decisions in our lives so that we may create the world we wish for?  Contrary
to a popular belief, we are not powerless. We have a choice, we can lie back
and passively consume the toxic, mind numbing, sludge put by the corporate
media, or we can actively pursue the truth, the facts are out there, but it
necessitates a little effort on our behalf to sift through the overload of
information we are subjected to. For the sake of the generations yet to come
we need to make the right choice. I would not be bold enough to presume that
I knew what the purpose of our minds was, but surely to seek the truth must
be part of it? Here at Big Mountain we do not have T.V., billboards,
newspapers etc. Are we deprived or what?

    In all events, the Sundance went ahead and was, as usual, a beautiful and
powerful ceremony. My thanks go out to all the dancers and to all those that
supported them.

    So why the hell should you be concerned what is happening to a bunch of
"Indians" in the middle of nowhere? Firstly, when anyones Human, Civil, or
Religious rights and freedoms are attacked and suppressed we are each and all
of us diminished. If you do not understand that then I am afraid I am unable
to explain it. Secondly, and this may be easier to understand, it's the thin
end of the wedge. Some years ago I came across a quote from a victim of the
Nazi terror. Unfortunately I did not write it down, so I hope you will excuse
the crude paraphrasing. "When they came for the Jews I did nothing. When they
came for the Slavs I did nothing. When they came for the Gypsies I did
nothing. When they came for the handicapped I did nothing. When they came for
the communists I did nothing. When they came for the homosexuals I did
nothing. When they came for me there was no-one left to help me." The point
is clear enough I think. If you live in the southwesten U.S. there is yet
another reason you should be concerned about what is going on here,.. what is
happening is so that you may continue to overconsume cheap electricity and
water.

    Meanwhile, back in the real world  the big news is that the monsoons have
come. For over 3 weeks we have been blessed with an abundance of rainfall.
Dark, heavy clouds, peals of thunder, flashes of lightning. To the Dine these
are "male" rains. Almost everday rainbows arch through the sky. The mesa has
turned green. The sheep delight in their smorgasbord. Every morning the corn,
squash, potatoes, tomatoes, and tobacco have visibly grown. Life is assured
till then next stage of the yearly cycle. The sun is once again on its way
south. The days are noticeably shorter. Soon be time to get out the axes for
sharpening in preparation of firewood collecting (another life-sustaining
activity that the HTC has declared "illegal").
    You may find it strange that I would talk about the weather in a missive
from a political hot spot, but for us here the weather has, by and large, a
far greater impact and meaning in our lives than "out there", where to a
large extent you are insulated from the weather and its effects. Let me tell
you a story that may give some explaination of this.
    Some years ago I was living with an Elderly couple of resisters, my
Grandma and Grandpa. It was several years into a drought. We watered the
flock at several ponds that were made by building check dams across washes.
Our domestic water we hauled in 50 gallon barrels from "town". 20 miles
away.The little water that had collected in the ponds from the winters
snowmelt had dried up. We had 120 sheep, 12 cows, 2 horses, 5 dogs, and three
humans, and no water. 12 miles away was a windmill, so there is where we
hauled the animals water from. Now 12 miles may not sound like a long
distance, but I ask you to bear in mind our "roads". "Out there" it would
involve a stretch of the imagination to call them jeep trails, consequently
it took my Grandpas and me the best part of half of each and every day to
make the two trips necessary to  fetch the water. Again, I ask you to bear in
mind that we were, as usual, cash poor, so most of our cash reserves were
going on gasoline. Our diet suffered as a result, the animals need for water
outweighed our desire for bacon, eggs, etc. One day in early august I was out
with the sheep (something I do every day) and a big ole black cloud came
over, and it started to rain. And it rained. It poured. For those of you who
haven't experienced a desert monsoon its hard to describe,.... as I sat under
a tree (which afforded absolutely no protection whatsoever) it looked as if
the whole mesa was being washed away. It rained for only 40 minutes, but it
was several more hours before I could get home as every wash was running. The
upshot of this 40 minutes of rain was that the ponds were filled to the brim
with enough water to last at least a year. Less than an hours rain changed
our lives dramatically. We now had 4 or 5 hours a day to get on with all the
other chores that needed doing, and we now had money to spare to buy such
luxuries as store-bought food.
    The cycles of moisture,... the passage of the sun,... the rhythmns of the
moon,... these are the things that structure our lives here at Big Mountain.

    I have had several friends say to me "well. yes, what is going on at Big
Mountain is a shame, BUT THATS PROGRESS". The United States is founded on
genocide, theft, and slavery. One of the methods employed in this heinous
process was the suppression and outlawing of Indigenous spiritual practices.
In the nineteenth century the justification was "Manifest Destiny". In the
closing months of the twentieth century these crimes are still being
perpetrated, though now their justification is "Progress". Same old same old.

    But then what the hell do I know, I'm just a sheepherder.

        "The success of the system is to make unthinkable the possibility of
alternatives."

            For all my relations

            Your prayers, support, & correspondence are invited


                Bo Peep
               
reachable via unclejake74@hotmail.com