More News from Indian Country
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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.
They learned that an Indian
m an who had a federal perm it
to use parts from dead eagles for
religious p u rp o s e s had p e r
form ed a ceremony.
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