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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (July 16, 2009)
More News from Indian Country p<gt, Cochiti dam changes pueblo way of life C O C H IT I PUEBLO, N.M. (AP) — C ochiti P ueblo Gov. F loyd P ecos, Lt. Gov. P ete Trujillo and council m em ber Joseph H enry Suina stood by the edge o f the alm ost-over flowing Rio G rande on a May m o rn in g . T h e riv e r flow s through the heart o f Cochiti Pueblo land and several miles w est o f Interstate 25. In the 1950s, this was their playground as boys. They would swim in the river, hunt birds and scoop up Rio G rande silvery minnows by the bucketful. “We used to fry them up. They were really good,” Pecos recalled, as the river water lapped almost to his shoes. T he m en are old enough to rem em ber picking fruit all sum m er and fall apples, apricots, plum s, cherries from pueblo family orchards along the river. “Every family had a plot o f land by the river,” said Suina. “Life was out there on the farm.” “E very o n e h elp ed during harvest,” Pecos said. “Everyone shared food. That's w hat kept the community together.” It all changed in a generation. First the federal governm ent cam e in a n d b u lld o z e d th e f a r m s ,. o rc h a rd s a n d sm all homes by the river in the late 1950s. In those days, m ost o f the pueblo people living on the almost 54,000-acre reservation h ad tw o h o m es o n e in th e pueblo and one by the river. The m en can't rem em ber why the lands were bulldozed, maybe to make the farms larger. “T hat was a big mistake,” said Suina, a retired University o f N ew Mexico education profes sor and fo rm er U.S. M arine. “ E v e r y o n e still r e m e m b e r s where (everyone else’s farm) was at the time w hen it happened.” T hen came the dam. Pecos looked to the northern horizon and the dark outline o f the five-mile long dam holding back billions o f gallons o f wa ter in the Cochiti Reservoir. T h e U.S. A rm y C o rp s o f Engineers began building it in the mid-1960s and finished it in 1975. A t capacity, the reservoir can hold m ore than half a mil lion acre-feet o f water collected fro m a 1 1 ,6 9 5 -sq u are-m ile drainage area and sources like the Santa Fe River. T he dam loom s 251 feet above the river bed. I t was b u ilt to c o n tro l flooding and sediment, an im p ortant tool for managing Rio G ra n d e flo w s to m iles o f ditches and hundreds o f farm ers in the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District. Congress later added recfeation to the reservoir's purpose. “T h e p u eb lo d id n 't know (upfront) it was also for recre ation,” Suina said. D u st an d no ise fro m th e dam 's con stru ctio n disturbed th e u su al q u ie t a ro u n d th e pueblo for a dozen years. “It re ally disru p ted th e peace and quiet o f the pueblo,” Suina said. The waters covered a canyon. T he sides o f the spillway-outlet were anchored to a rock o ut cropping, destroying it. “T hat was one o f our sacred sites, n o t just to Cochiti, but to o th e r p u e b lo s,” S uina said. “T hejj blamed Cochiti w hen it was destroyed. Even today some still blame us.” River banks, once lined with cottonwoods now have a forest o f nonnative Russian olives. “T he dam created the Russian olive p ro b le m ,” P ecos , said. “Seasonal floods on the river use to clean everything out.” T he m en also say the little silvery m innow w asn't endan gered until the dam interrupted the natural ebb and flow o f the Rio Grande. Many bird species that once flocked to the small farms and orchards stopped coming. Pecos said the grading o f the farms and the dam construction a lo n g w ith o th e r fa c to rs changed the pueblo's relation ship to the land. T he arrival o f electricity and a tourism indus try at about the same time fur th e r en ticed C o ch iti P u eb lo people into a new way o f life, he said. T he last blow to farming oc curred after the dam was fin ished. W ater seeped along its sides constantly and flooded pueblo farmlands downstream. “You could cup your hand along the side and it would fill with water,” Suina said. T he farmers couldn't plant w hen the fields were flooded with three to four feet o f water. W hen w ater did dry off, salts rose to the top, killing vegeta tion and poisoning the fields, Trujillo said. S u in a said so m e o f th e pueblo elders traveled to Wash ington, D.C., to draw attention to the seepage. T he pueblo eventually sued the federal governm ent over the dam seepage. T he federal gov ernm ent settled with the tribe. In 1994, the tribe used the settle m ent funds to contract o ut and build a subsurface drainage sys tem to take the seepage away from the fields. B ut the damage was done. For almost a quarter o f a cen tury, there was no farming. ‘W e had a w hole g en eratio n th at w ent w ithout farming,” Suina said. ‘‘T he older m en say the young ones don't know how to work hard and work with their hands.” T he cultural shift was dra matic. “It changed the whole rela tio n s h ip n o t o n ly b e tw e e n Diabetes concern at American Indian summit D E N V E R (AP) - F o r H enry Sun Eagle, this week's In d ian H ealth S um m it in D enver gave him a chance to share ideas and learn from o th e r A m e ric a n In d ia n health officials from around the nation. “I'm basically a fitness trainer for Indian diabetics,” said Sun Eagle, the special programs coordinator for the Southern Ute Shining Moun ta in D ia b e te s p ro g ra m in Ignacio, Colo. “B ut I learned some new games and other ex ercises to use w ithout actually making the patients think they are exercising, which is great.” More than 1,500 American Indian health officials and tribal leaders like Sun Eagle attended th e th ree-d ay co n feren ce in D enver th at ended T hursday that focused on, among others, obesity and diabetes treatm ent and prevention. T h e American D iabetes A sso c ia tio n re p o r ts th a t nearly 57 million Americans are prediabetic, with another 6 million m ore Americans w ho have th e disease b u t don't know it. Type 2 diabe tes, which accounts for about 90 to 95 percent o f diabet ics, is directly Enked to obe sity. p eople and th e land b u t th e (helping) relationship o f people to each other. We became m ore private,” said Suina. ‘W e still get together for ceremonies, but it's different.” T he three m en rem embered th at w hen the Cochiti people w ere working farms, hunting, fishing and harvesting, m ost o f them were slim. As they shifted to making crafts, eating chips, drinking sodas, watching televi sion and enjoying the other trap pings o f a m odern Efe, their physical fitness declined. Meanwhile, the Cochiti Res ervoir filled up and became a new d estin atio n fo r anglers, swimmers, boaters and partyers. Visitors traipsed across Cochiti Pueblo land without permission, Pecos said. Every weekend, they left behind trash and beer cans scattered near the reservoir and along the river. T h e p u e b lo an d th e U.S. Army Corps o f Engineers have worked to repair relations in the last several years. T he corps be gan consulting the pueblo about decisions with the reservoir. In 2008, C o ch iti P u e b lo signed a historic agreement with the corps to participate in over all management o f the Cochiti Lake area. T he pueblo tried with vary ing success to grow alfalfa once the seepage was drained from fields, Pecos said. Still, the governor said he's encouraged by a recent new in terest in farming from about a dozen o f the pueblo's young men. “T hey're com ing to the council asking for plots o f land, they w ant to grow crops,” he said. ‘W e encourage them.” “ I t ’s g o o d ,” P e c o s said , watching the river roll by where he used to play as a boy. - Jnly<0 200, Man accused of threat in artifacts theft case SALT LA K E CITY (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a Utah man planned to tie an undercover inform ant to a tree and beat him with a base ball bat over his involvement in a large-scale investigation into the theft and illegal traf ficking o f American Indian artifacts. In a complaint filed M on day, federal officials say 44- y ear-o ld C harles D e n to n Armstrong, o f Blanding, told a witness that he was once a p a tie n t o f Jam es R edd, a Blanding doctor indicted last m onth after a two-year sting operation. Redd com m itted suicide a day afte r the in d ictm en ts were announced. According to the federal com plaint, A rm strong told the witness that he blamed th e in fo rm a n t fo r R edd's death. A rm s tro n g is ch a rg e d with retaliating against an in formant. H e was scheduled to appear in federal court Monday afternoon. FBI investigates shooting P IN E R ID G E , S.D. (AP) - The FBI and Bureau o f Indian Affairs are investigating a shoot ing on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. FBI A gent Boh Perry says a tribal police officer shot a male o f unknown age about 4 p.m. Sunday, in a housing area in the tow n o f Pine Ridge. Perry says the person w ho was shot is being treated at a Rapid City hospital. T here's no word on the person's condition. Perry says he also does not yet have any details on w hat led to the shooting. Advocates discuss use of bald eagle parts B O U L D E R , Colo. (AP) - Native American advocates and m em bers o f the Oglala Sioux Tribe are responding to issues raised w hen a headless bald eagle used in a religious cer emony was recently found in a Boulder County park. The Native American Rights Fund, Colorado Commission on Indian Affairs and the tribe have scheduled a news conference at 2 p.m. Monday at the fund's of fice in Boulder. They say they w ant to raise awareness about A bove ¿9 c, Native American beliefs. A bald eagle w ithout a head, talons or feathers was found wrapped in a cloth over M em o rial Day weekend. State authori ties were concerned the eagle might have been poached and its parts sold on the black m ar ket. 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