Bordertown
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The following article was received and is posted here without editing
Article by: Swaneagle Harijan
Wednesday 13 Sep 2000
Email: frontlinemom@yahoo.com
Summary: Are Kevin Gover's words just that?
WHO
WILL STOP THE MURDERS?
Article:
Kevin Gover's words are inspiring and could incite
ourtight hope if the current face of genocide against
Indian people is truly addressed.
The atrocities endured by American Indians are horrendous
deserving of intense scrutiny by both mainstream and
alternative press. The lack of such attention is a
blatant display of racism on the part of "good
hearted" citizens from the mainstream to the most
radical.
Bordertowns in New Mexico surrounding the Navajo, Hopi,
Ute and Pueblo reservations have been the scenes of
grisly torture murders of Indian people since the early
70\'s. (See Rodney Barker's "The Broken
Circle") Rolling vulnerable Indian people who drink
in the back alleys of Farmington, Shiprock and Gallup has
been a "rite of passage" for young white men
for decades. Too often this activity has led to cruel
disfigurement and killing of the Indians victimized.The
murders are not limited to Indians drinking. The lack of
action on the part of police as well as racist comments
made to families of victims furthers the powerlessness
and vulnerability of people plagued by centuries of the
worst forms of colonialist bigotry,theft and genocide.
Indian families are discouraged from protesting by
offcials who wish to keep the scope of the problem under
wraps. Yet the violation is worsening as murders in the
small Arizona bordertown of Winslow reached nine within a
year.The climate of terror such crime creates is akin to
what is happening to Mayan Indians in Chiapas, where
international human rights observers have established
peace camps to bear witness to Mexican army and
paramilitary incursions as well as having such presence
lessen attacks.
Ramona Tewangoitewa, a young Dineh Hopi woman, lost her
brother to murder over 2 years ago. (See Indian Country
Today, March 8, 2000) She has been a lone, courageous
voice of outrage against the racist institutions that
continue to fail Indian people whose lives do not equal
the value of it\s white citizens. In the few phone
conversations I have had with her, I have been deeply
moved by her determination to see that something is done
to resolve the situation. She has organized several
vigils in an effort to bring attention to this genocide.
It is time that activists focused on what is happening
here as well as in other communities of color.
On June 11, 2 young white men were finally arrested after
the murder of an Indian woman June 9. The 2 have also
been charged with the torture murder of a Navajo man 2
years ago. Ties to the ku klux klan have been downplayed,
but evidence belies this.
Since 1984, I have been living with traditional Dineh
grandmothers for 3 weeks to 4 months at a time because of
their request that nonIndians bear witness to their
nonviolent resistance to the largest forced relocation of
Indian people in the 20th century, now going into this
new millennium. Hidden behind the fascade of the Navajo
Hopi Land Dispute is the reality of expanding the largest
coal strip mine in North America. Peabody Coal Company
has been responsible for destroying ancient kivas, burial
sites, occupied hogans,ceremonial,herb and food gathering
areas, water sources, as well as providing fuel for the
power plants contributing most significantly to green
house gases. Peabody also sucks up over 3 million gallons
of water a day from the Black Mesa acquifer to transport
the coal in a 300 mile long slurry line to the Mojave
Generating station in Laughlin, Neveda.
Life for those resisting is harsh due to constant
harassment and surveillance by armed Bureau of Indian
Affairs police, Hopi Tribal Rangers and other federal
officials. Low overflights by fighter jets and attack
helicopters create fear, scatter livestock and disrupt
ceremonies. A few days ago, I received a phone call from
the family I have worked most closely with for 16 years.
I was told that a helicopter landed on a sacred site by
the home of a resister family. 6 armed police got out and
walked around, got back in and flew off only to land
again a ways off before leaving. This occurred several
times within a few days. Also, the BIA is hiring more
police to escort impoundment crews that take the
livestock of resisters. The children of resister families
are harassed in school forcing some to stay home and risk
losing food stamps due to lack of attendance. Over $35
million has been sent to 27 reservations for more law
enforcement. How much has been sent for education? I have
seen the conditions resister children face during years
when most are receiving the education all deserve. Can
the BIA be transformed into actually being of service? I
fear the damage it has wreaked is far too great.
The fate of those relocated will be seen in retrospect as
a major human rights violation of the late 20th centurty
within U.S. borders. Thousands of relocatees have died
over the past l5 years. Thousands are homeless and then
there are those forced to live on the \"New
Lands\" where the suicide rate is among the highest
in the nation. The water source has been tainted by the
largest nuclear spill in U.S. history when United
Nuclear\'s Churchrock damn broke in 1973 spilling 97
million gallons of highly redioactive contaminants into
the Rio Puerco. The barren landscape is not conducive to
the raising of corn or the herding of sheep. People live
in misery awaiting death. The promised training and jobs
never materialized. Assimilation is no success story.
What is happening in the southwest is replicated in
diverse variations in many towns bordering reservations.
News of murders of Lakota people in Rapid City, South
Dakota and White , Nebraska has hit some national
press, but fails as well to draw the outrage of activists
who appeared in numerous cities since the WTO
demonstrations kicked in the new wave of resistance in
November and December of l999.
If the BIA has failed Indian people and has continued to
do so under the auspices of Kevin Gover, how will it
change now? Can it become an agency of human rights when
it\'s very purpose has been to further genocide? How will
tribal councils (formed under the Indian Reorganization
Act in the 30's to create legitimized governing bodies
serving to access corporations and the federal government
to the resources surprisingly discovered in unwanted
lands)address grievances created by corporate rape and
pillage? When will traditional voices ever be given a
chance to be heard? The spirit of those who hold land and
life to be sacred is continually silenced by the forces
who claim authentic representation while pocketing profit
by selling out the future from under their own children.
Activists further the silencing by refusing to learn
about genocide's uninterrupted flow that will take us all
down with it. Urgent action is necessary. How will the
peoples of Chiapas, who know of Big Mountain, Leonard
Peltier and other Indian struggles, feel solidarity with
American activists if we fail to do effective solidarity
work?
Will global upholders of conscience be inspired,
surprised by the new levels of courage, truth and action
on the part of Kevin Gover, the BIA and the post WTO
actions? We'll just have to see....
In Peaceful Struggle,
Swaneagle Harijan

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