News from Indian Country
Page 8 Spilyay Tymoo September 16, 2004
German scholar lives
GALLUP, N.M. (AP) - The
sandy-haired boy sat in the pub
lic library in Berlin, swallowing
whole every book he could find
about America. The books he
liked best told of Indians, Indi
ans rode horses, raised animals,
lived romantic, adventurous
lives. The boy's life, on the other
hand, was spare and lonely. His
father had abandoned the fam
ily, and his mother and stepfa
ther were strict as stone tablets.
As he read, the boy dreamed
that one day he might visit
America, perhaps meet some
Indians, maybe even ride a horse.
In 1961, when he was 17, the
boy left Germany and came to
, the United States - to live. When
he got off the plane in New York
, City and saw no bows and ar-
' rows, he asked, "Where are all
the Indians?"
, The boy, Peter Handeland, is
' now 60 years old and he is talk
; ing to a classroom of students.
Handeland's students this
evening are mostly Navajo, and
iMarch for unity in Hawaii
j HONOLULU (AP)-A unity
; march through Waikiki on Mon
' day drew some 20,000 Native
; Hawaiians and their supporters,
; police said.
! The marchers - representing
'various groups and mostly
dressed in red T-shirts - called
attention to a number of issues
they said threaten Native Hawai-
! ian rights, entitlements and ben-
efits.
! The areas of concern included
; forced leasehold conversions, a
challenge to Kamehameha
Chickasaw Nation airing TV ads
' ADA, Okla. (AP) - The
; Chickasaw Nation is airing a
' series of television ads across the
j state in an effort to strengthen
I the tribe's economic position.
! Although the ads are airing
j just months before a key vote on
! a state question on Indian gam
; ing, tribal officials said the ads
!are designed to uplift tribal
; members and are not politically
j motivated.
' "This is unrelated to any state
question," said tribal spokes-
Tribe works to restore
native oysters and culture
SQUAXIN ISLAND, Wash.
(AP) - The mud sucks at Brian
Allen's hip-boots as he walks
across the beach, searching for
the elusive Olympia oyster.
The tiny, tasty oyster once
covered south Puget Sound
beaches like a white blanket, and
played a starring role in local
Indian tribes' diet and economy.
', But pollution drove the Olym
pias to the brink of extinction
during the 20th century.
Now the Squaxin Island Tribe
is working to restore Olympias
to their rightful dominance, both
on the beaches and on their din
ner tables.
Allen, a tribal shellfish biolo
gist, liked what he saw one morn
ing this summer on the eastern
shore of Squaxin Island.
"They're all over the place.
This is dynamite," he said. The
Olympia oysters the tribe
planted two years ago have
spawned a successful wild oys
ter bed. But why the fragile, fickle
Olympias thrive on one beach
and wither on another remains
a mystery.
For biologists, it's a scientific
puzzle. For tribal members, sav
ing the Olympia oysters may be
the key to preserving an impor
tant part of their culture.
Salmon are the iconic animal
for Puget Sound tribes. Tribes still
celebrate the big yearly runs of
salmon from the ocean to the
he is their German instructor at
the Gallup branch of the Uni
versity of New Mexico.
If you wonder what a Navajo
might gain from learning Ger
,man, you've never been in a Pe
ter Handeland class. He clearly
is the center of attention, stud
ied as closely as a list of vocabu
lary words.
The boy who yearned to ex
perience the mysteries of Indi
ans today has become a part of
Indians, and they a part of him.
"It was my destiny," he likes
to say.
After English classes in Mas
sachusetts, the German boy,
now a young man, enrolled at
Texas Lutheran College. Most
Indians were out West, he
quickly realized. In Texas he read
an article in Life magazine about
a blizzard in New Mexico that
left hundreds of Navajos stranded
in 6-foot drifts, their livestock
lying in the snow like frozen
logs.
"That sealed things for me,"
Schools' Hawaiians-only admis
sion policy and homelands is
sues. "Right out from under us, in
our own homelands, our lands
and our benefits are being sto
len from us. And we say, 'No
more,'" said Victoria Holt
Takamine, president of
Ilio'ulaokalani, a cultural pres
ervation coalition.
The marchers set out from
Fort DeRussy and walked along
Kalakaua Avenue to the Waikiki
Shell, where a rally was held.
wdmaftjftobyn Elliot, tref f
looking at how we work with
Oklahoma, and this is how we
do that on a broad scale."
Former Bureau of Indian Af
fairs head Neal McCaleb and
tribal legislator Judy Goforth
Parker are among those featured
in the spots. Future ads will fea
ture other well-known
Chickasaws. McCaleb said the
ads are intended to focus on the
Ada-based tribe's economic
growth and unity.
rivers with ceremonies and
feasts. But if salmon are the spe
cial guest stars, oysters were the
daily bread.
among Navajos out of
says Handeland. "I would go to
New Mexico to live with Nava
jos. He took a Greyhound bus
from San Antonio and arrived
in Gallup in August 1970.
It was not easy being a
stranger in a strange land. But
Handeland's kindness, his
strong work ethic and great cu
riosity quickly won him fans.
Most important, Navajos de
tected from him a genuine in
terest in their lives. He didn't
seem to want anything at all
from them except to try to un
derstand. One day a Gallup High
School student, a Navajo, asked
Handeland if he'd like to visit
his home.
Eyes widening, Handeland
said yes.
The Hudson Ranch is located
in Tse Yah To, about 20 miles
west of Gallup.
"One look," says Handeland,
"and I saw the land I had read
about and dreamed of as a boy."
too
T"
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October 27th - 28th, 2004
Embassy Suites Portland Airport, Portland, OR
See www.ONABEN.org
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Trade Show hosted by the Oregon Native American Chamber of Commerce
Flirdbuflsteirs Ss
JUSTER
He returned the following
weekend, and the one after that.
The Hudsons Tom and Dor
othy and their nine kids - intro
duced him to herding sheep and
cattle. They took him to a ro
deo and fed him mutton stew
and fry bread. They even put him
atop a horse.
After a while, the Hudson
boys asked Handeland if he
wanted to live with them on the
ranch. He moved into a hogan
that had no electricity or run
ning water. Each morning he
rose at 5:30 to haul water for
the family.
After classes in Gallup, he
came back to ride, round up
animals, chop wood. Late at
night, he did his lesson plans by
lantern in the hogan.
"Being out there built up my
stamina," he says. "It made me
more sensitive to Navajos."
After four years on the ranch,
Handeland moved on. Anxious
to teach on the reservation, he
took a job at Tohatchi High
at
October 4th - 8th
Kids - be sure to watch
Z21 News at 6 p.m.
each night for answers
to Buster's questions about
fire safety in Central Oregon,
affinity for Indian life
School, where he stayed two
years. From there he went to the
College of Ganado, in Arizona,
then for 24 years he taught at
Window Rock High School, in
troducing students to verb con
jugation and German potato
salad. Four years ago, he retired
to Gallup, where he had started.
He took an adjunct teaching
post at Gallup-UNM. He be
came Herr Professor.
One recent afternoon after
class, Handeland traveled to the
Hudson Ranch. He hadn't been
- to Tse Yah To in some time and
he wanted to see old friends.
"It still looks the same," he
says as he peers into the log and
mud hogan where he lived in the
early '70s.
The hogan is now a guest cot
tage, used mostly for storage.
When Handeland lived here, he
witnessed a Blessing Way, a
spirit-lifting ceremony, and he
learned the role of a medicine .
man. When the Hudsons told
him of the Long Walk, he told
th
inrDDDU
I
them of the Holocaust.
"He was such an influence
here," Anthony Hudson said.
"He made me feel comfortable
about the outside world. I hadn't
spent much time around a white
man. I was about to enter el
ementary school in Gallup and
I was worried. He got me to stop
worrying."
If life on the Hudson Ranch
gave him an education, the years
he spent in Window Rock gave
him purpose. So many young
Navajo men there were without
fathers, just as he had been as a
boy. In response, Handeland
became godfather to a dozen
young Navajo males. In turn, his
"sons" became devoted to him
and remain so.
When one of his sons asked
Handeland to be godfather to his
soon-to-be-born child,
Handeland said, "When do I
start?" Handeland was there
soon after a tiny girl came into
the world two years ago in Fort
Defiance. '
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