8 OCTOBER 1, 2002
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By Ron Karten
"I can tell you a year later the vi
sion of that morning is still very
clear in my mind, something I'll
never forget," said Tribal Council
member Valorie Robertson.
"I felt that our freedom, as we
know it, would never be the same,"
said Confederated Tribes of Grand
Ronde (CTGR) General Manager
Cliff Adams.
"This is an example of what hu
manity can do to humanity at its
worst," said June Olson, Cultural
Resources Manager. "As Indians,
we've had our issues, but no issue
is so big that terrorism is ever (an
acceptable) way of dealing with these
issues."
The event strikes many similar
and many different chords among
those in Indian Country.
"I still feel for those people," said
Tribal Council member Val Grout.
"There are families that haven't
healed yet."
"We still suffer over the Trail of
Tears the same way the U.S. will
always suffer from 911," said Tribal
Council member Jan Reibach. "We
simply had different aggressors, but to
our people, the terror was the same.
What we need to remember is that
these people in Arab nations have chil
dren, grandparents, mothers, fathers,
sons and daughters."
Tribal Elder Claudette Parazoo took
the parallel back even further than the
Trail of Tears. "Western hemisphere
terrorism began in 1492 with the dis
covery made by Christopher Colum
bus." "The impact of 91 1 on you and your
community is the same impact emo
tionally as post colonialism has on
Tribal people every day of their lives,"
said CTGR Behavioral Health Direc
tor Dr. Joseph Stone. He was address
ing an upscale group of non-Indian pro
fessionals the week after 911. "It
freezes an image in your mind and
pretty soon you find that you're feel
ing depressed. That's exactly post
traumatic stress disorder. Conse
quently, the general experience of 9
11 is the same as post colonial stress
that Indian people have faced over and
over."
American history provides other par
allels between the American war on ter
rorism and the American war on the
Indian. The underpinning for both is
a belief in U.S. superiority over oth
ers. At the time of the Indian wars,
the idea was called, "manifest destiny,"
a concept that it was destiny that the
European Americans spread west to
take over the land from sea to sea, re
gardless of the human toll, as Reibach
described, that this destiny entailed.
"Manifest destiny" has morphed into
a global notion called, "unilateralism."
In short, according to an article in the
October issue of Harper's Magazine,
"The plan is for the United States to
rule the world. The overt theme is
unilateralism, but it is ultimately a
story of domination."
According to Vice President Dick
Cheney's papers, the magazine re
ported, "...we will retain the preemi
nent responsibility for addressing se
lectively those wrongs which threaten
not only our interests, but those of our
allies or friends." Among those inter
ests are "access to vital raw materi
als, primarily Persian Gulf oil..."
Claudette Parazoo put it another
way: "How many people have to die so
I can have gas for my car?"
THE QUESTION OF EVIL
Education Specialist Richard
Sohappy pointed to an article entitled,
"To End Terrorism, End State Terror
ism" printed online for the Nuclear
Age Peace Foundation. "Some days
after September 11," the article said,
"a psychologist gave advice on CNN
to parents with children asking diffi
cult questions. One young boy had
asked "What have we done to make
them hate us so much that they do
such things?" A mature question,
unlike the answer: 'You could tell your
child that there are good people in the
world, and evil..."
In using the word, 'evil,' said Dr.
Stone, "there's also an implied good. . .If
they are evil, we must be good. There
fore, we need to destroy them before
they destroy us." Such a proposition
leaves us afraid and "unwilling to get
to know them as they really are."
"It is much easier to fight an un
known enemy than to battle a famil
iar face," said Lindy Trolan, a Pales
tinian who is also CTGR Cultural
Collections specialist. "Today, my
Palestinian family living in the West
Bank faces military occupation, forced
curfews, potential home demolitions,
and scanty access to essential re
sources such as food, water, and medi
cal treatment... On September 11th,
Gandhi once again comes to mind:
'What difference does it make to the
dead, the orphans and the homeless,
whether the mad destruction is
wrought under the name of totalitari
anism or the holy name of liberty or
democracy?'"
Fighting an unidentified "evil" en
emy also generally results in casting
a wide net and targeting innocent
people who look like those responsible.
A NOBLE AND HEROIC EN
TERPRISE
Defense of one's country and people
is a noble and heroic enterprise. Tribal
Elder Marce Norwest, a leading Veter
ans' advocate for the Tribe as well as
proud Veteran of war, noted the hard
realities of war - "The young are fight
ing for us now. Some are dying this
very day."
"For a country to do this to a coun
try like ours that has tried to help so
many others. . .It's a shame that they've
affected people's lives like this," said
Tribal Council member Ed Pearsall.
Tribal Council members June Sell
Sherer and Ed Larsen noted the self
less, generous side of human experi
ence that inevitably follows such cata
clysmic events.
"It was a terrible tragedy but one that
has brought our people closer together,"
said Sell-Sherer. "We are more aware
of our patriotism to one another and
our ties to the outside."
The Grand Ronde Tribal Council
chose to honor those lost in the trag
edy by declaring September 11th a day
to think about what happened and to
think about how those events changed
our world.
"I guess we have enough feeling and
compassion for the people in New York
that we decided to have a day of re
membrance," said Larsen.
For Tribal Council Vice Chairman
Reyn Leno, however, 911 brought
Americans back to reality.
"It amazed me, as a Vietnam Vet
eran," said "that it took something like
91 1 for people to realize what we had
here. And it makes you wonder how
long before we slide back into that.
"If you went to war," he said, "you
know what you had here."
For CTGR Director of Public Works
Eric Scott, there is reason to question
the administration's motives. "I think
we're getting scammed," he said. "The
Bush administration wants to milita
rize the United States to such a de
gree that we do not need to work bi
laterally with the United Nations and
other governments or within the con
fines of international law. I think it's
a sign of arrogance."
Recognizing problems and citing is
sues ought to be part of a larger pro
cess, however, according to some. "9
11 should be a wake-up call to Ameri
cans to being to assess how interna
tional political and economic decisions
that we make affect other nations and
societies," wrote Charles Haller II.
"Until we do, we will always risk the
repercussions of those decisions that
we by our silent accord condone."
When Lummi Carver Jewell "Pray
ing Wolf James was asked why, in
the face of the great wrongs Indians
have suffered at the hands of the U.S.
government, he put so much effort into
the Healing Pole that he designed, and
with others, carved and accompanied
across the country for a dedication to
the victims of 911, James responded
in a quote from a recent issue of In
dian Country, "...all healing has to
begin from within," he said. "By help
ing the U.S. heal from the terrorist
attacks, Indian peoples are making
themselves whole."