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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 1985)
Page 2, Portland Observer, April 17, 1906 CASCADE NATUROPATHIC CLINIC Navajo, Hopi fight for homeland by Hobart Lothian A group o f native Americans par ticipating in the "Freedom Express" said in Portland last week that the U.S government and big energy cor porations are teaming up to relocate thousands o f Navajo and Hopi peo ple in Northeast Arizona. A fter a five-hour program at the Northwest Service Center Thursday night, about 25 native Americans and supporters demonstrated in front o f the Federal Building on Friday. Their car caravan stopped in P ort land on its way from Seattle to a gath ering at the end o f A p ril at Big M oun tain, Arizona. Big Mountain is the focus o f a dis pute involving Navajo and Hopi land rights. The Indians say the govern ment is trying to pit the Navajos and Hopis against each other as it at tempts to determine reservation boun daries Meanwhile, companies like Pea body Coal Co. are taking advantage o f the situation to exploit billions in coal and uranium deposits, they said The Navajo-Hopi Resettlement Act authorizes the relocation o f thousands o f native people from ancestral home lands by July, 1986. A Freedom Express spokeswoman said that 14,000 native Americans bving in this remote area face the loss o f their traditional way o f life as they are removed to urban areas. Many live as their ancestors did, in round skin-roofed hogans or stone pueblos, tending corn or sheep. The Freedom Express is bringing relief supplies to the Navajo and Hopi, some o f the ptxxeM people in America, she said. " A ll Reagan has to do is repeal the law and that would be the end o f it , " said H opi elder Thomas Banyacya, speaking at the Northwest Service Center. Thomas Banyacya. Hopi aider, spoke in Portland on threats to traditional homeland as Freedom Express passed through (Photo Richard J. Brown) Banyacya. 65, dressed in a colorful vest with a red sash tied around his braided hair, said he was sent on the car caravan by Hopi elders to educate the public about the utuation in A ri zona. "O u r elders are holding onto the land through prayer, meditation, singing and drum m ing,” he said. The Hopi area has been surround ed by the Navajo reservation since the late 1800s, he said. Before the white man, he said, the boundaries were known inform ally and the Navajo and H opi lived in harmony. But as the land became more valu able, the government has sought to move the Indians o ff and lease it to energy companies, he said. The latest ruse is the resettlement act o f 1974, which demarcates which land is for the Hopis and which is for the Navajos in certain disputed areas, said Banyacya. As the Indians are moved o ff, he said, some o f the land is leased to the energy companies. Peabody Coal buys coal mined on Indian land at 25 cents a ton and then sells it for $50 a ton, said the spokes woman. "T h e y ’re trying to force us into a small area so they can take it o ve r," said Banyacya. “ We don’t want any corporations coming in there. We had no part in making this law.” Huge fences are being built, but in the Big Mountain area, Indian women threw dirt clods at construction w o rk ers and drove them away This is the only area which hasn't been fenced, said the spokeswoman. "W e almost stripped ourselves naked to welcome the white brothers." but the white brothers have always abused their power, said Banyacya Banyacya held up a drawing de picting “ the story o f the old people” — the grand design o f the Great Spirit. We are now in the time o f judgment, according to this plan, he said. 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NAOMI S M S ANOAt OOUGCAS N A T A l« C O ll » M K M A It W f O S Purchase your Ebony Fashion Tickets Here Reagan wants free hand in Central America____ by A rth u r Schmidt The upcoming vote in the House and Senate on another $14 m illion for the Nicaraguan counterrevolution aries, or contras, may prove to be the single most important Congres sional decision on Central America since Ronald Reagan became presi dent. What are the issues at stake in this vote? Clearly they arc much more than money. Since the United Stales has appropriated dose to $4 billion for Central America since 1980, another $14 m illion cannot be a question o f any monetary significance. Nor is the Reagan administration really worried that the contras w ill die on the vine without these new funds. Whatever the outcome o f the vote, the administration could con tinue to encourage private funding efforts and channel money through the governments o f Honduras and El Salvador as it did during 1984 Why then has the President, often against the wishes o f fellow Republi cans, gone out o f his way to support the contras? Why has he lauded the contras as the "m o ra l equivalent o f founding fathers" and openly pro claimed his wish to “ remove the pres ent structure” in Nicaragua by mak ing the Sandinistas "say uncle” ? The answer is that the President wants a totally free hand in Central America and intends to make the contra appropriation vote a ratifica tion o f his policies for the region. Ever since the 1983 passage o f the Boland Amendment, which prohibits the expenditure o f U.S. funds for the purpose o f overthrowing the Nica raguan government, the administra tion ha been frustrated by the depth o f Congressional and public resist ance to its policies toward Nicaragua. I asi fall, just weeks before the U.S. elections, Congress voted against re-funding the contras. Should the President now be able to reverse that decision, he will have overcome the adverse political legacy o f the Nica raguan harbor mining, the C I A psychological warfare manual, the U S. withdrawal from the W orld C ourt, and the revelations o f contra terrorist activities. A favorable vole for the contras would be a defeat for those opposed to U.S. intervention in Central Am er ica. President Reagan would use an uphill victory in Congress on the contra issue to legitimize whatever future actions he wished to take in Central America, much as l.yndon Johnson employed the 1964 G u lf o f Tonkin Resolution to expand the war in Vietnam. The administration would be con vinced that it had a mandate to achieve military victory in Central America. W ith such a mandate the President would likely move to escalate U.S. m ilitary activities in the region, in cluding further aerial bombardment in El Salvador, a more extensive buildup in Honduras, new com m it ments in Guatemala, and new pres sures toward m ilitarization in Costa Rica. Stronger measures to oust the San- dimstas could be expected including a termination o f Nicaragua's access to U.S. markets, a naval blockade against Soviet and Cuban shipping to Nicaraguan ports, and the recognition o f a contra government in exile. Sena tor Durenberger o f the Senate Intel ligence Committee has openly sup ported some o f these options. Administration success on the con tra vote could also further increase the power o f the executive branch, at the expense o f Congressional prerogative and oversight, and give the adminis tration a freer hand to intervene m ili tarily anywhere in the world it per ceives a threatened " v it a l" U.S. inter est. While this could not necessarily lead to the prompt introduction o f U.S. troops into combat against Nica ragua or against the Salvadoran guer- nllas, it would heighten that possi bility in the long run by killing present efforts to promote peace negotiations in Central America. A reversal o f current Congressional attitudes toward the contras would severely damage, perhaps fatally, the attempts o f Colombia, Mexico, I’ana ma. and Venezuela to revive the Con tadora peace process, (untadora was intended as a means o f preventing precisely the type o f outside inter vention that U.S. funding for the contras represents. Clearly, the C entral America con flicts are sufficiently complex that one Congressional vole, however im portant, will neither reverse President Reagan's policies in the region nor destroy ongoing domestic opposition to them However, members o f Con gress should be aware that a vote for contra appropriations is a vote against peace talks, not a form o f "pressure” to encourage Nicaragua to negotiate. The Reagan administration, not the Sandinistas, terminated the U.S.- ing W ith Our Children About Sexual ity and A rrive Alive: The Seat Belt Project Shirley Cupery, National PTA leadership Vice President, will be the keynote speaker on "C aution, Kids Under Construction.” Also scheduled are workshops for units officers. Convention delegates will elect a new president, vice president o f lead ership services and six service area representatives. A resolution on man datory seat belts in school buses is expected to be presented . • A : $*|K 00 N ow I SOE95 N ow W h less 10% Reg $32 00 Reg »23.95 M RS. C ’s W IGS 7 0 7 N.E. Fremont 2 8 1 -6 5 2 5 Renewed contra appropriations can only constitute a signal to the Central American right that the U.S. is com mitted to m ilitary escalation and op posed to negotiations. This w ill en courage even w ider violence and more opposition to internal political free dom and reform in the region. Promoted by President Reagan as an inexpensive means to democracy and freedom in Central America, the contras are instead a costly instru ment o f terrorism and destruction. Congress has recognized this before. It must do so again by refusing any further appropriations for the contras Closed Sun. 5 Man. 0 F IN Tuet. thru tat. 11:90 AM to 5:00 FM honored at awards banquet The Oregon Alliance o f Black School Educators w ill host its third annual Student Achievement Awards Banquet on Saturday, A pril 20 at 6:30 p.rri. at Westminister Presbyter ian Church, 1620 N.F.. HanciKk St This event was hailed last year as the "best local effort to recognize African American youngsters that a chapter o f the national organization has," according to Dr. Asa H illiard, consultant to the Portland School District. DR ALICE V HOUSTON The event is open to the public and w ill feature dinner and special guest speaker. Dr. Alice V. Houston, Assistant Superintendent for the Seat tle Public Schools. Dr. Houston is the Assistant Sup erintendent for Curriculum and In- i ■ LAWRA K 1048 Black student achievement Oregon statewide PTA to meet Two hundred delégales from around Oregon w ill attend the 72nd Annual Convention o f the Oregon P TA set for A p ril 19-20 at the Greenwood Inn, Beuverton. Oregon. Two o f the featured speakers w ill be Ellen Rosenberg, author o f "G ro w in g Up Feeling G o o d " and "W h a t Your C hild May Never Tell,” and Bert Simmons on "Asser tive Discipline for Parents.” Some current State and National P TA p ro j ects w ill be workshop subjects in cluding A lcohol/D rug Abuse Pre vention, Child Abuse. Commumcal- Nicaraguan meetings at Manzanillo. Nicaragua has long indicated its w ill ingness to discuss U.S. security con cerns. Nicaragua remains disposed to sign the September, 1984, Conta dora treaty that would lead to the re moval o f foreign military advisers from (e n tra l America and to a reduc tion in the size o f armed forced in the region. M • . ** ’ • t 7 mb struefion and has served in that ca pacity since 1982 Before coming to Seattle she held the position o f Direc tor o f Curriculum in Oklahoma City Public Schools, Oklahoma C ity, Oklahoma, and teacher, principal and supervisor in East Baton Rouge Parish Public Schools in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Dr. Houston re ceived her B .A. in Elementary Edu cation from Southern University, a Master's Degree from Louisiana State University, and a Ph.D. in C u r riculum and Instruction from the University o f Texas. She has served in various capacities at the local and national levels in educational organi zations including the Executive C oun cils o f the Association fo r Supervision and Curriculum Development and the National Alliance o f Black School Educators. She was recently nominated as President-elect for the ASCD. Tickets to the event w ill be on sale at the door for $10, including the dinner and program. Students from throughout the Portland area w ill be presented with awards for outstand ing school achievement. This prom ises to be a fine program and an op portunity to support achievement in education. President o f OABSE Terry Payne expects a large crowd and appreciates the “ warm and growing support for educational excellence in our com m unity.” ■ Pork Blade Steaks..»..... «,1.39 Sliced Bacon ¿XT'"''- ». 1.59 Pink Grapefruit Dole Mushrooms California I 3 /> 9 9 S n o w W h ite wla / 9 SE 20th b D IV IS IO N FotettUrov« 2329 PACIFIC 14410 SE DI V ISIO N SE 72nd H FLAVEL OtegonCity 878MOLALLA 3956 SE POWELL NE 16th b FREMONT Canby 1061 SW 1st 74,h b QLISAN W BURNSIDE at 21»! LLOVDCFNTER HILLSBORO 960SEO A X SAN RAFAEL 1610 NE 122nd nnnnn :
