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.
Banyacya then announced that in
the event o f nuclear war, the Hopi
reservation would be open to every
one as a refuge.
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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
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Reg »23.95
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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.”
■
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