Notes from Big Mountain

July 1999; 190 Days till the "final solution"

Unfortunately the Hopi Tribal Council has gone ahead with its planned disruption of the Sun Dance at Camp Anne Mae. When I drove in several evenings ago we had to run a gauntlet of SEVEN police vehicles parked just outside the entrance. At this time the cops were doing nothing but standing around chatting with each other. It was a Sunday so they were probably discussing the overtime they were getting paid. 2 days later when I next visited, I was told by visitors that the cops at the entrance were now taking down the license plates of all visitors and informing them that there will be a $500 a day fine for people attending! Whether or not they will go ahead and actually fine these people is somewhat irrelevant, as the threat itself is harassment and intimidation. While I was at the Sundance 2 Hopi "monitors" were allowed to enter the camp. "We just want to check the sanitation arrangements" they said. However I overhead them report in on their radios to their bosses that the Sun dancers were going to cut down a tree for the ceremony and that green boughs have been cut down. According to HTC "law" it is illegal to cut down trees and green boughs (green boughs are a necessary part of many Navajo ceremonies, so the HTC makes it illegal to cut them. Sheep are an integral necessity for Navajo life, so the HTC makes it illegal to own them. Many of the Families here depend on visitors for help with chores, so the HTC makes it illegal for them to be here, the annual Sundance brings spiritual solidarity and thereby strengthens the people here, so it is made illegal. Is there a pattern here?). Several years ago Crow Dog, the leader of another local Sun Dance, was fined $10,000 for cutting down a tree!!!! Of course, 15 miles north of here thousands of trees are uprooted with the HTC's blessing in preparation for strip-mining, and the way people here cut green boughs from trees does no harm to the trees, so if and when they try and fine the people for these activities it is purely as a way of punishing and persecuting the people here. Later in the afternoon visitors told us that 20 miles away at the main road the Hopis had set up a road block and were turning away non-native visitors. This act is again a blatant attempt to disrupt this sacred ceremony. Many non-natives have made the commitment to support the Sun Dancers both spiritually and practically. Another affect of putting up the road block so far away is that many local people not connected to the Sun Dance also get to feel harassed and some may blame the Sun Dance for this. One friend of mine who was stopped told the "officers" that it reminded her of her recent trip to Chiapas. Oh how true.

And what is the HTC's justification for all this? The following are quotes from an official press release from them titled "Navajo resisters plan to defy Hopi Tribe."

"In a well orchestrated effort to bait the Hopi tribe into a hostile media situation, resistors are planning to host a Sun Dance activity on the Hopi Partitioned lands"...... what the hell is a "hostile media situation"?, and as for it being "well orchestrated", that's a joke,.. the people here do not have a well funded organization with faxes, phones, press releases, etc,... a couple of individuals using a pay phone to tell friends what is happening here is all we have to communicate with the outside world. And why define the Sun Dance as an "activity" and not a sacred ceremony? Do they honestly believe the Sun Dance is used to "bait" the Hopi Tribe? When the Tribal Council goes to their churches on Sunday is it to pray or is it a well orchestrated political activity?

"Not every Navajo family is happy about Sundance because they know it tears up the land and diminishes their grazing".... Deep within the bowels of the Hopi Tribal Council Bunker there must be a competition going on to see who can come up with the most absurd and ridiculous statement. This one must be in the running for the Grand Prize. Why do they not quote one of these families? While I'm sure there may be one or two Navajo individuals who do not approve of the Sundance because they have chosen to embrace a religion that views all other spiritual practices as evil, there can be no-one who believes that the Sundance is tearing up the land. The simple truth is that the Sundance grounds takes up about 10 to 15 acres of one family's home site. The other afternoon as I arrived at Sundance I saw that families flock contentedly grazing not 200 yards from the Sundance arbor. The Hopi Tribal Council Offices take up more acreage than the Sundance grounds. Maybe they should bulldoze those buildings and liberate that land for their cows to graze on. To claim a concern for the state of the land, while their wages are being paid by the strip mining of 103 square miles is hypocrisy. The sad thing is that the local NPR station used this quote verbatim in a piece they did.

"Some of the resistors take every chance to politicize events, even those events they say are religious in nature"......Surely to demand that a sacred ceremony needs a permit is to politicize the event? And surely to deny that permit politicizes it even further?

"the tribe is also concerned about the condition of the land and the high fire danger caused by the extended drought.......Participants at Sundance activities are known to have open fires, increasing the chances for range fires."...... I guess they must be worried that their Fire trucks would not be able to get through the mud!! For the week prior to, and during, the Sundance we have been blessed with monsoons. It has poured with rain. The last time the HTC used fire danger as an excuse was 3 years ago when they blockaded the roads to turn back visitors to the Spring Gathering. On the first day of that event it poured with rain and hail. The Grandmas were in no doubt that the Creator was making his position clear.

"people on the outside don't have the slightest clue that these few Navajo individuals and their so-called friends harass and intimidate Hopi people"....... Whoooaaa!!! now we're entering the Twilight Zone. Of course people out there don't know that it is going on because it simply isn't. Surely with such an allegation they could furnish some evidence? The people here on the land invite you to come here to Big Mountain and see for yourselves what is going on. The HTC will try and stop you. Does this not indicate something? That the HTC must continue to resort to deception and lies is surely a sign of the weakness of their position. And what's with this "few" Navajo individuals? At Sundance there were many hundreds of Navajos. And what's "so-called friends" all about? This quote is attributed to a certain Lenora Lewis of the Hopi Lands Team, the same woman who wrote the particularly nasty letter to the editor that I mentioned in VFH3. There is a bitterness to her words that suggests to me that maybe she has not experienced real friendship.

"It is time for the Hopi people to speak out against this type of mistreatment"..... Well, the Hopi people have spoken out, though once again it is against the harassment and mistreatment by the HTC. There is an excellent letter expressing the point of view of the Traditional Hopi that was distributed on BigMtList. If any of you have not seen it, let me know and I will forward it. One of the many points made in it is that the Hopi people are ashamed at what the HTC is doing in their name. Also, as they do every year, groups of Traditional Hopi attended Sundance and shared in the Pipe Ceremonies.

I have dwelt at length on this press release because it unfortunately is indicative of what is passed off as news "out there". A journalist sits in his office, pulls a press release from some Governmental agency or Corporation from his fax machine, changes a couple of words and then puts it out as "news". At worst these press releases are downright untruths, at best a narrow interpretation of events that serve entrenched interests. Surely the purpose of "News" is to allow us access to the facts so we can make informed decisions in our lives so that we may create the world we wish for? Contrary to a popular belief, we are not powerless. We have a choice, we can lie back and passively consume the toxic, mind numbing, sludge put by the corporate media, or we can actively pursue the truth, the facts are out there, but it necessitates a little effort on our behalf to sift through the overload of information we are subjected to. For the sake of the generations yet to come we need to make the right choice. I would not be bold enough to presume that I knew what the purpose of our minds was, but surely to seek the truth must be part of it? Here at Big Mountain we do not have TV., billboards, newspapers, etc. Are we deprived or what?

In all events, the Sundance went ahead and was, as usual, a beautiful and powerful ceremony. My thanks go out to all the dancers and to all those that supported them.

So why the hell should you be concerned what is happening to a bunch of "Indians" in the middle of nowhere? Firstly, when anyone's Human, Civil, or Religious rights and freedoms are attacked and suppressed we are each and all of us diminished. If you do not understand that then I am afraid I am unable to explain it. Secondly, and this may be easier to understand, it's the thin end of the wedge. Some years ago I came across a quote from a victim of the Nazi terror. Unfortunately I did not write it down, so I hope you will excuse the crude paraphrasing. "When they came for the Jews I did nothing. When they came for the Slavs I did nothing. When they came for the Gypsies I did nothing. When they came for the handicapped I did nothing. When they came for the communists I did nothing. When they came for the homosexuals I did nothing. When they came for me there was no-one left to help me." The point is clear enough I think. If you live in the southwestern U.S. there is yet another reason you should be concerned about what is going on here,.. what is happening is so that you may continue to overconsume cheap electricity and water.

Meanwhile, back in the real world the big news is that the monsoons have come. For over 3 weeks we have been blessed with an abundance of rainfall. Dark, heavy clouds, peals of thunder, flashes of lightning. To the Dine these are "male" rains. Almost everyday rainbows arch through the sky. The mesa has turned green. The sheep delight in their smorgasbord. Every morning the corn, squash, potatoes, tomatoes, and tobacco have visibly grown. Life is assured till then next stage of the yearly cycle. The sun is once again on its way south. The days are noticeably shorter. Soon be time to get out the axes for sharpening in preparation of firewood collecting (another life-sustaining activity that the HTC has declared "illegal").

You may find it strange that I would talk about the weather in a missive from a political hot spot, but for us here the weather has, by and large, a far greater impact and meaning in our lives than "out there", where to a large extent you are insulated from the weather and its effects. Let me tell you a story that may give some explanation of this.

Some years ago I was living with an Elderly couple of resisters, my Grandma and Grandpa. It was several years into a drought. We watered the flock at several ponds that were made by building check dams across washes. Our domestic water we hauled in 50 gallon barrels from "town". 20 miles away. The little water that had collected in the ponds from the winters snowmelt had dried up. We had 120 sheep, 12 cows, 2 horses, 5 dogs, and three humans, and no water. 12 miles away was a windmill, so there is where we hauled the animals water from. Now 12 miles may not sound like a long distance, but I ask you to bear in mind our "roads". "Out there" it would involve a stretch of the imagination to call them jeep trails, consequently it took my Grandpas and me the best part of half of each and every day to make the two trips necessary to fetch the water. Again, I ask you to bear in mind that we were, as usual, cash poor, so most of our cash reserves were going on gasoline. Our diet suffered as a result, the animals need for water outweighed our desire for bacon, eggs, etc. One day in early august I was out with the sheep (something I do every day) and a big ole black cloud came over, and it started to rain. And it rained. It poured. For those of you who haven't experienced a desert monsoon its hard to describe,.... as I sat under a tree (which afforded absolutely no protection whatsoever) it looked as if the whole mesa was being washed away. It rained for only 40 minutes, but it was several more hours before I could get home as every wash was running. The upshot of this 40 minutes of rain was that the ponds were filled to the brim with enough water to last at least a year. Less than an hours rain changed our lives dramatically. We now had 4 or 5 hours a day to get on with all the other chores that needed doing, and we now had money to spare to buy such luxuries as store-bought food.

The cycles of moisture,... the passage of the sun,... the rhythms of the moon,... these are the things that structure our lives here at Big Mountain.

I have had several friends say to me "well. yes, what is going on at Big Mountain is a shame, BUT THAT'S PROGRESS". The United States is founded on genocide, theft, and slavery. One of the methods employed in this heinous process was the suppression and outlawing of Indigenous spiritual practices. In the nineteenth century the justification was "Manifest Destiny". In the closing months of the twentieth century these crimes are still being perpetrated, though now their justification is "Progress". Same old same old.

But then what the hell do I know, I'm just a sheepherder.

"The success of the system is to make unthinkable the possibility of alternatives."

For all my relations

Your prayers, support, & correspondence are invited

Bo Peep

reachable via unclejake74@hotmail.com