Notes from Big Mountain

September 1999; 150 days till the final solution

Ya'a'tee

It seems I am suffering from a bout of verbal diarreah this month, and View From The Hogan is a little longer than usual. Might I respectfully suggest (if you don't already do it) that you print it out and read it later, away from this infernal screen?

As well as the "raid" on Paulines cornfield, we hear that my Grandma, Rena, is being threatened and intimidated. We hear also that the cows of one non-signing family have been snatched. Summer recess is over, Warmakers minions are back in the saddle with the daily grind of low-intensity warfare and siege tactics. The attack on Rena is grossly disturbing. I know the land she herds her sheep on, I have walked it every day for many, many, moons. The Hopi Tribal Council do not graze any of their animals there. The land has not been grazed by any animals for many years. This is not good for the health of the land as any Range-Management expert will tell you. By taking her animals across the fence to another "grazing district" her animals are doing the lands "owners" a favor. To continue to claim that the harassment of these grandmas is to protect the land is blatantly, and verifyably untrue. By the way, the fence Rena and her animals crossed was not between HPL & NPL, but between "grazing districts" of the HPL. As more details came in about the raid on Paulines cornfield, I was aghast ( a word I've longed to use) at the depth of the disrespect perpetrated. Bahe has , as usual, done an excellent job of translating Paulines statement about the incident. If you haven't read it, and I would highly reccomend you do, let me know and I'll pass it on.

A recent visitor to the land made the following comment: " I think what's going on here is criminal." Those eight words contain volumes of truth. Let's begin with International Law, because there is such a thing, though currently the biggest "outlaw" on the world stage is the U.S. of A. What follows is by no means a complete list of laws that are, or have been, broken here at Big Mountain, but I would urge you to find copies of them yourselves and draw your own conclusions.

Article II (c) & (e). Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Articles 21 (2) and 22 (5) of the American Convention on Human Rights.

Principles I, II, III, &V of the Helsinki Final Act.

Paragraph 6 of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries & Peoples.

Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Article 12 of the American Convention on Human Rights.

Principle 7 of the Helsinki Final Act.

Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Article I of the International Covenant on Economic, Socail, & Cultural Rights.

Article I of the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights

Principle I of the Helsinki Final Act

Paragraph I of the General Assembly Resolution 1803 (XXII) Concerning Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources.

Paragraph 2 of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries & Peoples.

And then of course, there are the Treaties. Is there anyone out there who does not know that of the many hundreds of treaties made between the U.S. and the inhabitants of this continent, not a single one has been honored? Co-signors of such treaties as GATT and NAFTA would be naive in the extreme to believe that the US will honor them if they become inconvenient.

Then there is Domestic, Federal, and Constitutional law. Check out:

U.S. Constitution, Amendments I, IV,VI,XIV, and XV.

Native American Religious Freedom Act

Native American Graves Protection Act.

I'm not even going to touch the many Environmental Laws that are broken here with impunity.

If any of you are familiar with U.S. Contract Law, check out the Accommodation Agreement. I'm not a lawyer, but I recognize a good joke when I see one.

But, to be fair, I must also report on the other side of the coin.

With my very own eyes I have seen "illegal" and "undocumented" sheep grazing.

With my very own eyes I have seen roofs, hogans, & corrals be built and repaired, "without permission".

With my very own eyes I have seen firewood collected "without permission".

With my very own eyes I have seen elderly women "trespassing" on land composed of their ancestors bones.

There are those that live in some of the large cities that take a perverse pleasure in claiming to be the "Crime Capital" of the country. Hah! There is more crime here "per capita" than anywhere I know.

But in a very real sense all of the foregoing is irrelevant.

It's not the issue.

Let me try to explain.

In navigating my way through lifes sometimes complexity I have always found it extremely useful to distinguish between two things, Rules and Laws. The distinction is simple, rules have exceptions and change rapidly, laws are absolute and change slowly, if at all. In any conflict between the two, I will hopefully opt for THE LAW everytime. I admit to the necessity and wisdom of rules some time, but I think to confuse rules and laws is the cause of much misunderstanding. Much of the mythology called science is rules. And, this is the point, much of the dominant societies "laws" are rules. These rules are owned and created by those with power. I do not believe there is a single reader who has not had personal experience of this fact. As Corbin Harney puts it "These so-called laws that we've got today, they make them every hour on the hour. Then they keep changing the law, because whoever presents it doesn't like the law of whoever presented it before, so they make another law to replace the first one."

So what is THE LAW?

Some would call it the Creators Law, some would call it Natural Law or the Law of Life, some might say Conscience. Yet another might call it Original Instruction. Leonard Peltier astutely perceives 3 levels of Original Instruction. The first is the Original Instruction given to humanity, all 2 leggeds. Then there is the Original Instruction given to each of the many different Peoples, and then there is the Original Instructions given to each of us as individuals.

I can't tell you what the LAW is; we must each come to it ourselves, by paying attention to how the world works, by listening to our hearts, and by listening to those with wisdom, the Elders. On this last point I offer the following pearls.

Whenever the subject of the Whitemans law came up, my Grandma would always say "when they can make it rain, when they can make the grass grow, THEN I'll listen to their law"

Robertas well known statement "The Creator is the only one who will relocate me" cannot be surpassed for simplicity.

My current favorite though is another anecdote from Pauline. Seems that one day yet another official came by with yet more paperwork. " It's the law" he told her. Pauline took the offered paper and asked "This is the law you say?". "Yes, yes!" answered the official eagerly. Pauline opened the door to her woodstove and placed the paper inside. Within seconds it was reduced to ashes. "Oh well " she sighed, "it failed the first test".

Pauline has been "deprived" of the "benefit" of a school education.

She has the sharpest mind I have ever encountered.

Could these two facts be related?

If it were possible for me to communicate just one thing, if it were possible for me to pass on to you just one simple truth, it would be this: THE NON-SIGNING GRANDMOTHERS HERE AT BIG MOUNTAIN WILL CONTINUE TO PROTECT AND DEFEND THE LAW WITH THEIR LIVES. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US, AND THE GENERATIONS YET UNBORN, BENEFIT BY THIS.

If as Katherine Smith suggests there are 7 non-signing grandmas, surely they must be known as the Magnificent Seven?

It continues to rain and rain here. I have never seen the Mesa so green. For some years now the BIA/HTC has been claiming that the drought is the reason for the continued reduction of the peoples small flocks. What are they going to do now? Maybe it's too wet for livestock? Recently I heard murmurings that actually its going to take "years" to recover from the drought. Yeah right.....It's hard to exaggerate what a blessing the rains are. We do not live in a climate of abundant rainfall. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesnt. We do not have rivers we can divert for irrigation. We cannot turn a spigot and turn on sprinklers or drip irrigation for pasture or the cornfields.( For those of you with plumbing, do you not feel as Gods & Goddesses to have such power over the water of life?) We must depend on THE LAW. So when we have a really wet summer like this year, it is impossible not to experience it as a gift The sheep are fat with the abundant grass. This is good for the new life growing inside them. We 2-legged are eating plenty of delicious fresh corn, potatoes, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes etc. This is a great help in dealing with the daily grind of low-intensity warfare and siege tactics.

At the end of the last VFH I told you of the "raid" on Paulines cornfield, and that I couldn't understand how a few women growing corn could be a threat to the HTC. Well, obviously such a thing as women working together in life-sustaining acttivities is a threat to any patriarchal institution such as the Hopi tribal Council, but I think the real reason may be simpler, I think I've surmised the real reason the HTC wants the cornfield left unguarded. The cornfield is right beside the road. Every day Hopi "Law enforcement officers" (I'm sorry, but it is impossible for me to write those words and not laugh) travel the road, making sure the land is safe for their bosses cows. Now, I don't know how many of you have seen Hopi cops, but like most cops I know, the kindest thing that can be said is that from their appearance they certainly seem to enjoy their food. There are no donut shops round here. A field full of fresh corn may be just a little too much temptation. Fortunately 2 women are still standing guard.

For those of you who do not live in Northern Arizona, and as one of View From The Hogans aims is to bring you the words of the Grandmas directly, I include a letter written to the Navajo Times. Any of you who have seen "Broken Rainbow" will be familiar with Katherine Smith. Like all of the elders here, her oral tradition leads to a simplicity and poetic power in her words that is lacking in much of the way the Whiteman speaks. No words are wasted. So I urge you to read her letter "slowly and carefully", which is always the best way to listen to Elders..

Editor July 29th

Navajo Times

We heard of a law called PL 93-531 about twenty three years ago. At that time, the people within the HPL were peaceful, all of our people smiled with nice faces and they were polite and helped each other. At that time, this crazy law came, we didn't even know that this law was made and what it did to us.

We didn't see the judge that passed this law , and we didn't go to court at that time. They passed this law in Washington, not on Navajo land.

Now, not only one law has been passed, more laws have come to us. I'm still here yet on the Big Mountain. I have fifty grandchildren, four generations. What happens to them now that the Hopi and the Whiteman have swallowed our land. They have swallowed our livestock and our big cornfields. Now they want to swallow our life, our body.

I've seen a lot of police around Big Mountain, because we have the Sundance. We left the gates of the dance and police chased us, stopped us and ticketed us. I think these police are so hungry, nothing to eat, they want to swallow us after they have eaten our land and livestock. After I am gone what are they gonna swallow next.

So police harassment is going on in the HPL today. The policemen have a badge, so they tell the jailor at the office lies about us on their land. Their words and stories are not true. The police want to capture me like they did Peter McDonald. If the big trouble comes, with large crowds and a lot of police, then somebody gets killed, then they will quickly capture the seven ladies who didn't sign the agreement and take us to prison.

We are already in prison, but they won't lock us up. I think thats why they are really bothering us. We can not support or let policemen make up stories to scare people.

Please read this letter. This is a true letter.

Katherine Smith

Big Mountain

I have received enquiries as how to support ceremonies here, and before answering I wanted to clarify some points with the Bosses, so I paid a visit to Robertas. As usual Unclejake was out with the sheep. As usual I found this Great Grandmother cross-legged on the floor weaving. Not just one rug though, she was surrounded on 3 sides by looms with unfinished rugs. Without interupting the rhythmn of the weaving, without taking her eyes from the rug, she answered my questions. One of the things she said was "tell them to use their own ways, to use their own ceremonies, and to pray for Big Mountain." A point so obvious that I had forgotten to mention it to you.

I'm a sheepherder.

I spend vastly more time with sheep and goats and dogs than I do with 2-leggeds.

Most of you reading this do not, therefore I'd like to tell you a little about sheepherding, and by implication, sheep, as they are as an integral part of what is going on here as the Grandmas, and also because someone wrote me and said I "seemed intelligent for a sheepherder". I don't feel competent to judge wether I am intelligent or not, but the people I live with have been sheephereders all their lives, usually from even before they could walk, and these sheephereders are the wisest people I have ever met, so I remain hopeful.

Some years ago, when I was living with my Grandma and Grandpa, we went through a rather "lean" period one winter of being "cash poor".

Breakfast was mutton soup, frybread, and coffee. Lunch was mutton soup, fry bread, and coffee. Supper was, well, you figure it out. This went on continuously for eight days. Each day the soup got thinner. I have to ask you to trust me that you cannot imagine how tasty mutton soup is to me since that time. I now experience "Mutton Hunger", a curious complaint that afflicts Traditional Dineh. When I visit Babble-on, after a few days I start to yearn for mutton. Store bought, Whiteman-raised mutton can relieve the condition slightly, but only mutton from the land I live on will bring relief. It's a very real form of homesickness. The sheep and goats we live with eat a whole variety of food and medicine plants that give a unique flavor to the meat. In a different area, the plant life varies in different ways, the sheep eat a diferent diet, the sheep taste different. To eat the mutton is to partake of a sacrament, an acknowledgement of connection to an area of land, the source of our lives, our home.

At the time of this "lean period", I'd only been herding sheep for six months. In many ways it was a "chore". I did it because my Grandma and Grandpa shouldn't have to do it at their age. It was something of an inconvenience. One day soon after, I was standing on a rock watching the flock, and I was invaded by the statement " A happy sheep is a tasty sheep". Maybe the flock had been collectively psyche-bombing me with that notion, but I realized, and have since found it impossible to forget, that in a most real way I owed my life to the sheep. From that moment on , my attitude to the sheep altered. As a sheepherder, my function, my "job", is to serve the needs of the flock, not vice versa. I hasten to add that their "needs" don't always match their "wants", but mostly they do. My job is to assist them to do what they want, but pretty much it means I just follow them around, and be on-call 24 hours a day for them. These are not "resources" in the Whiteman sense, they are not "economic units". We let them do their thing. No drugs, dipping, controlled breeding,.... we let the Men sheep and the Lady sheep do what comes naturally to them. Consequently the flock is composed of all sizes, shapes, colorings, and personalities. We know the lineage of each animal, its mother, grandmother, great grandmother,.... sometimes we know the father. We know them as individuals. There is little "control" imposed on them. This makes it in some ways much more work for us. The old sheep, the grandmas, are not killed beacuse they are no longer productive. They are looked after with care, in gratitude for their offspring that will sustain us, even though it means more work for me, picking the medicines for their ailments, slowing the whole flock down so they can keep up.etc. Lambing is the time that is most work for sheepherders. The weather is usually at its worst, mid winter, and any weak or sickly lambs must be bought into the hogan, kept warm, bottle fed, etc. Pre and Post-natal care is my job. We cannot afford to lose any, especially as the flocks are so small nowadays. The flock must be checked several times a night to see if there is any problem births. Every single lamb that makes it is an affirmation that life will go on, at least for now. It is a gift we cannot presume the right to, but must earn by following THE LAW. I love "my" sheep. I cannot ignore that they are relatives. With each passing day, they teach me new things about life. I guess the sheepherders life is not for everyone, but I remain the richest man I know. When the BIA take the peoples sheep it is much more than economic terrorism, it is an assault on the very source of life for these people. We know it is not done to protect the land, but out of greed and a kind of fear-based hatred. Every winter the Grandmothers need help to protect and defend their flocks. This coming winter will be no exception.

I note with curiosity that the majority of emails I'm receiving are coming from females. I further note that among the sheepherding/support community, females again predominate. The frontlines here at Big Mountain are occupied by Grandmothers. With them stand mothers, and daughters, and sisters. This seems to be so in so many of the other places around the world where the war against life rages.

Where are the men?

(a cry heard too often, I fear)

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

"Disobedience is the first step towards freedom"

I thank you for taking the time to read my words.

Your prayers, support, and correspondence are invited.

For all my relations

Bo Peep

Consultant to SDN (Sheepherder Defense Network)

Probationary Member, Union of Sheepherding Philosophers, Local 101.

reachable via unclejake74@hotmail.com

P.S. To all those who have written to me, please be aware that owing to the pressing needs of the flock, the corn, and the Grandmas, the office is sometimes left unattended for days at a time. It may take as much as a half moon between when you write, and when you hear back from me. Around here the information superhighway is a muddy jeep trail. Please be patient, you will hear from me.

If you have received this update as a forward, but want to sure of getting them in the future, please let me know and I will add you to the list. Also if there are any "back issues" you don't have, again, let me know.

SADLY, ANOTHER STOP PRESS

September 9th. The View From the Cornfield.

It is with a heavy, heavy heart, and with a growing sense of outrage that I must report to you that Paulines cornfield has been raided yet again.

As soon as the news reached us, I jumped in the SNN (Sheepherder News Network) Mobile Unit ( a fully loaded 99 Suburban Deluxe with a totally cool camouflage paint job) and headed straight to the scene of the crime. By the time I got there the thugs had already left.

Let me recap, and place all this in context. Paulines cornfield is way out in the middle of nowhere, miles from witnesses or help. 2 large men (and I use the word men very loosely), employees of the U.S. Government, with firearms in their truck if not on their person, invaded the camp of Paulines female helpers, and systematically began harassing the women and children, taking dozens of photos.

The first time they came (august 18) they desecrated a very sacred female ceremony, the collecting of the corn pollen. This was rightly felt by Pauline to be a case of sexual harassment. As she says, when men repeatedly invade a female camp, bad things must follow. That they come again and repeat their obnoxious behaviour makes it obvious that they have absolutely no respect for women, or for U.S sexual harassment law, or for even basic human rights. When one enters a Hopi village one sees huge signs demanding that visitors do not take pictures or in any other way interfere with the inhabitants. Yet they feel it perfectly OK to harass elderly women and children way out in the middle of nowhere. Oh how proud their mommas must be of them.

And what is the logic of their behaviour? It seems that a single tent, with an outhouse and a cooking fire somehow constitutes a "permanent structure". When I hear the words "permanent structure" I think of the Pyramids, or the World Trade Centre, or some such structure. I feel somewhat honored, as it was I who helped build the outhouse in question, and let me tell you, a carpenter I ain't. That they would consider my humble attempt to provide shelter from the weather for one of lifes necessary activities a "permanent structure" is flattering. To the long list of crimes being perpetrated here at Big Mountain, must now be added " possession of an outhouse". And of course, in the middle of one of the wettest summers on record, a cooking fire is also illegal. There is an elegance to their logic though. If an outhouse is illegal, and to take a shit in the open is illegal, then the only way to prevent such crimes is to make it illegal to eat, therefore cookfires must also be illegal.

Surely, somewhere out there is a Radical Feminist Lawyer, with experience of leading-edge sexual harassment lawsuits that would be very interested in what is happening here? Surely it would be a very simple procedure to slap an injunction on the Hopi BIA so that if they felt it absolutely necessary to continue to harass these old women and children that they at least keep the thugs in their cage and send female cops?

There is little harassment of men here,.... when there are men around the armed hooligans run away. What is going on is the worst kind of sexual harassment. To repeat the last sentence of VFH6, "where are the men?". They seem few and far between.... boys there are aplenty..... sitting around in groups talking about how "cool" it would be to make yet another video, how "radical" it would be to put together yet another newsletter. In the meantime the grandmothers ask for help to protect the cornfield, to chop wood to stay warm through the impending winter, and no-one is to be seen. I am angry right now, so please excuse if these words seem critical, but I simply do not understand. Each one of these women and children are my relatives and friends, and I am feeling very much alone.

US GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES ARE SYSTEMATICALLY HARASSING AND TERRORIZING DEFENSELESS WOMEN AND CHILDREN WITH IMPUNITY. Who cares? If y'all are going to wait till the Feb 1st deadline to come and help, don't be surprised if its all over.

With sadness and anger

For all my relations

BoPeep

reachable via unclejake74@hotmail.com

P.S. September 10th

Today a Hopi Ranger (The Men in Black) delivered an "official" notice for the camp to be abandoned. For those of you that are only recently becoming familiar with the situation here, let me give you a little history. For over 30 years Pauline, and the other resistors have been forbidden from repairing their homes, or building new ones. As their children have grown and started families of their own there is therefore nowhere for them to live, therefore they have to move away. This is called (by the U.S. Government) "voluntary" relocation. Left on their own, these elderly people need visitors to come and help them with the simple chores of life. These visitors must stay in tents. Therefore the U.S. government (and their lap-dog the HTC) makes tents illegal. If you are visiting the Hopi reservation, and it starts to rain, DO NOT use an umbrella. You will be cited for constructing an illegal permanent structure.

When the 2 goons came yesterday, one of them said "hey, I know youre not doing anything wrong, but I have to enforce the law". That this did not work for Nazi concentration camp guards is well accepted, so I will leave you with Paulines thoughts on the law. "No attorney will ever adequately represent my concerns. How would they represent the ancient conditioning that my great grandmothers set forth for me and our people on these lands? Is a lawyer supposed to be able to interpret the Supreme Chants that my father, a medicine man, provided to the sacred shrines throughout this land?"

I would have liked to have sent this message out straight away, but unfortunately no-one could give me a ride to the phone. Things are hard here at Big Mountain.