Black Helicopters
The conspiracy, the story begins, started when the Government
and its rich Fat Cat partners found untold wealth and riches under
Black Mesa. The Navajo and Hopi Tribal Councils were formed to
lease the minerals, and, ever since, Peabody Coal has fostered a
"range war" between the two tribes.
It is a very complex mish-mash of truth and falsehood, based in
no small part on the listener's willingness to believe in
bogeymen: the "Government" (one monumental entity, rather than
hundreds of thousands of competing and fractious political
interests and jurisdictions); "Big Business" (Peabody Coal Company
as the archetypal Robber Baron embodied in an all-powerful company
the reality is, ironically, Peabody is so lucrative that its been
bought and sold several times in the past few years: twice in the
past three); "the BIA and the FBI" (both bogeymen holdovers from
1973 Wounded Knee); "black helicopters" and jet fly-bys (jet
fly-bys are a problem in many back country western locales, i.e.
lily-white Bridgport, California), and 'evil' old Senator Barry
Goldwater and his 'racist' ways (now it's Senator John McCain, who
has, seemingly, inherited the dubious mantle.)
| These few Navajo individuals who call
themselves resisters, with the help of outside agitators,
blatantly refuse to respect and abide by the laws of the
Hopi Tribe. The have brought civil unrest to the Hopi
people, terrorized our villages with violence and threats,
and continue to destabilize the peace and security of the
Hopi people. |
Over the years, the following elements have entered in: "they"
want the uranium under Black Mesa (the uranium is near Church
Rock, New Mexico, far from Black Mesa); there is oil (no one's
found any), the Peabody Coal mine is on the largest coal reserve
on Earth (not even close. And since when has coal been highly
valuable? The mining began in the 1960s, long after the fall of
'King' Coal, and was profitable only if it could be slurried ....)
"Relocation is genocide" runs the hyperbole, often spray-painted
on stock tanks in the back country -- tanks that are regularly
shot-gunned, even though the self-same parties complain that they
are being denied water.
But wait.
This is the SDN's game: save-the-whales, save-the-trees, or
save the Earth, or save the Indians, or save the 'noble savages.'
Contributions are collected through charitable donations, in
violation of 501(c)(3) rules about tax-deductible non-profits (who
change every couple of years, formerly, it was Don't Waste
Arizona, Inc. Now its SEE out of Malibu, California). The single
most important point of the SDN's tale, the Achilles heel, is that
the Hopi Tribal Council is not actually the Hopi Tribe, since the
"renowned" Thomas Banyacya ("Mr. Hopi") said they're illegitimate,
and "traditional" Hopi say it's ok for the Navajo to remain on the
lands. The HTC are merely the stooges of the "Government" and
Peabody Coal.
Meddling in Hopi Religious Affairs
The problem is that one notices very quickly that both the Hopi
"traditionals" and the SDN resisters often use the same 501(c)(3)
charities to accept donations. No one seems to know how much money
is collected, but it seems to be substantial.
Now that Banyacya has passed away (1999), it is possible to
tell what was reluctantly told again and again on the Hopi mesas:
that Banyacya was NOT held as a figure of high esteem in Hopi
circles; to the contrary, he was seen as an opportunist, "selling"
the Hopi religion to the Bahanna (Hopi term for whites) in
exchange for being flown around the world, feted and admired. This
was difficult to get anyone to go on record about, because there
is a deep and abiding prohibition within Hopi etiquette about
speaking ill of another Hopi to an outsider. But the story was
repeated off the record over and over with very little coaxing.
In 1997, the religious leaders of Hotevilla took the
unprecedented step of releasing a press release on the internet
telling people NOT to give any money to Hopis Thomas Banyacya, Dan
Evehama, Martin Gasweseoma, Emory Holmes, and non-Hopis Katherine
Cheshire and Thomas Mails, among others. They were as much as
accused of Hopi "heresy" and denounced. When I arrived in
Hotevilla, deeply skeptical of the press release it was found,
push-pinned to the wall in the Hotevilla Community Centers
offices. It was, I was assured, authentic.
The names named happened to coincide precisely with the
so-called "traditionals" upon whom the whole de-legitimization
case depended. Because of the Hopi taboo against speaking ill of
another Hopi, the tribe had, for years, maintained a stony silence
in the face of the outrageous claims of Banyacya and the other
self-appointed "ambassadors" who traveled the globe preaching the
"Hopi message."
The irony which invariably seems to escape the SDN resisters
and their supporters is that traditionals (whatever they might be)
are, according to everything known about the schism (circa 1900)
of the Hopi tribe over contact with Bahannas, virulently opposed
to ANY contact with Bahanna culture. Walpi, on the first mesa,
adamantly refuses electricity to this day.
| The Hopi Agency BIA Law Enforcement and
Hopi Rangers are not renegade bullies who kidnap people and
mistreat or deliberately frighten them. They are
professionals who are responsible for enforcing the law.
They use professional judgment to evaluate threats. John
Benally's threat to shoot anyone who tried to stop the
Sundance from continuing was determined to be serious.
|
So, how could a traditional Hopi spend virtually all of his
time exporting Hopi "prophecy" and "religion," and lobbying
Bahannas for changes in Hopi tribal practice? It makes no sense at
all. Indeed, in the final winter of Dan Evehama's life, a TV
satellite dish sprouted on his rancho: hardly a "traditionalist"
practice.
Ultimately, the resisters have been able to prey on the
guarantee that Bahannas will interfere as long as its about noble
NDNs and Bogeymen, and not about non-violent Hopi against bullying
Navajo. Indeed, to read the material, you would think it was the
other way 'round: the peaceful Navajo against the "head-banger"
Hopi Rangers and the BIA - rarely, if ever, is it pointed out that
the BIA cops on the Hopi Reservation tend to be Hopi, just as no
one ever notices that the employees of Peabody Coal Companys mine
are nearly exclusively Navajo!
[Side-note: one of the conditions of the mining lease, dating
from the 1960s, is that Navajo and Hopi would be hired in
approximately even numbers. But, due to a lack of a decent
highway, Navajo have enjoyed a 30+ year monopoly on jobs at the
mine. A highway, the "Turquoise Highway" has been proposed, but
the Navajo Nation has held up its construction for years,
currently demanding that 100% of all workers on the NPL portion be
Navajo, and that 50% of all workers on the Hopi side be Navajo. It
benefits the Navajo Nation not at all for the construction of the
highway, but might well create an economic boom for the Hopi.]
Conclusion
Finally, the problem seems rooted in the need to mythologize
the Hopi. When I was a kid, growing up in Laramie, Wyoming,
Easterners who came to visit my parents would invariably wait a
while, then ask, in hushed tones, "Where are your horses?" and
"When do the Indians attack?"
The Hopi know this syndrome. Dennis, a Lakota Sioux married to
a Hopi woman on First Mesa managed the Texaco station in Polacca
when I last visited. I asked Dennis what the most outrageous
question was he'd been asked that summer. He answered, laughing,
"Where are all the teepees?"
Several Hopi pointed out that Bahannas aren't willing to accept
that the Hopi own pickups, that they have one of the highest
incidences of college education (with a high proportion of
advanced degrees) in the Southwest, and that they, too, are
adaptable.
The irony remains that the "selling" of the SDN depends on
preserving a "traditional" way of life that didn't even exist 150
years ago - giving an entirely new spin to the term "ancestral."
On the other hand, every attempt by the Hopi to accommodate the
modern world is attacked and subjected to lawsuits from "green"
Phoenix lawyers in air-conditioned offices: the late 1990s
controversy over sewer lines in Hotevilla is just one example.
(Supposedly, the traditional Hopi said it would cause the end of
the world. The world seems to be going its usual bumbling way, at
present.)
| Throughout their lives , residents at Big
Mountain have seen that strangers can show up at their
homes, and then proceed to do things which can erupt into
acts of aggression, acts which MUST be documented for the
world to know what is possible in Dine' land.
|
The greatest lesson that this reporter took away from the Hopi
mesas was that Bahannas have no compunction about coming onto Hopi
land and lecturing the Hopi ("white girls from Oregon," I was
told, had come into Hotevilla to use the showers, and screamed at
the Hopi women in the Hotevilla Community Center about "their"
treatment of the SDN "grandmothers" and "elders" on HPL) about how
the Hopi live their lives. Every Hopi who contacted
passers-through on a regular basis had a similar story.
The current Tribal Public Relations officer, Claire Heywood (a
South African, mistakenly identified as "British" by another
reporter on this site) repeated prior PR Officer Kim Secacaku's
complaint that people called from all over the world on a regular
basis to scream insults at the Hopi. (Hopi Tribal policy is to
always be polite, no matter how hateful the caller.)
The simple fact is that the Hopi, whether "traditional" or
"non-traditional," are surrounded by a hostile tribe, and cannot
acquire additional farming lands, or even, as Arnold Taylor,
manager of the Hopi Tribe's Department of Natural Resources,
explained, preserve their own back country, which, according to
Taylor, the Hopi regard as a national park. The Hopi purposely
leave certain of their lands wild.
Part and parcel to the endless stream of lawsuits by the SDN
was a judgment, entered at the very end of the Twentieth Century,
awarding the Hopi Tribe damages for the horrific overgrazing of
the HPL. The federal court found that the HPL had been overgrazed
as much as seven-fold, but the self-same resisters who now scream
for additional grazing permits, and claim the Hopi are trying to
"starve" them out, present themselves as environmental priests and
priestesses, "preserving Mother Earth." [Hopi grazing land is
extremely marginal range land, and there is virtually no grazing
animal that could MORE harm it than sheep. ]
But the mythology won't let the Hopi escape. They must be the
last "mystical people" ever since the Tibetans turned out NOT to
be able to levitate Chinese tanks. The idea that Hopis might own
Ford Explorers, hold advanced degrees in range management, or
complain that the BIA and EPA are dropping the ball on range
issues, that idea runs counter to New Age dogma (shouldn't they be
running around half-naked, and wild haired?) -- as does the
"insulting" idea that as a non-Hopi, you CAN'T participate in Hopi
religion. And that you aren't invited.
While he was alive, Thomas Banyacya proved that there was a
good living to be had in selling Hopi religion to the Whites, as
does one of Banyacya's disciples, an old-time (White) activist,
who recently toured Australia teaching secrets of Hopi prophecy to
the gullible. (Currently, the internet reveals, he's touring
Germany, wearing a Tsakurshovi "Don't Worry, Be Hopi" t-shirt to
"prove" he's a Hopi.) Note the Navajo
Eagle Kachina to the left.
On the other hand, the SDN resisters are happy to let you
"sing" and "dance" with them, to provide "ceremonies" and
"rituals" for you - even if those rituals are Sioux sundances,
overseen by fellows (Joseph Chasing Horse and Arvol Looking Horse)
who make their living traveling the world attending conferences
and sitting on panels at such venues as Yale and the University of
Oregon.
The Hopi have no real way of countering these claims. They have
a tribal Public Relations officer, while the SDN has literally
dozens of web sites, at least two P.R. firms, movies (Broken Arrow
cluelessly was awarded an Oscar) and books, including the soppy The
Wind Won't Know Me, by Easterner Emily Benedick and now,
Arizona Republic reporter Jerry Kammer's 1980, The
Second Long Walk, written when he was a reporter in Denver,
Colorado. Both books are notable for their shallow analysis and
excess of pathos for the "noble savages" squatting on HPL. After
Kammer's January 2000 investigative report for the REPUBLIC, Hopi
complained that Kammer had come out, asked them questions, and
promptly ignored all answers so that he could reiterate all his
1980 conclusions (sleazy Mormon lawyers, et al).
The Arizona Republic was not interested in running any
corrections or retractions, and even assigned a Navajo reporter,
Betty Reid, to write a series of sidebar articles on the sweet and
lovable Navajo and their sweet and lovable ways.
As one digs back in the bibliography, the same story is
repeated again and again, with minor changes according to
then-prevailing left-wing manias. Complex issues fare poorly in
the superficial world of "big-time" media reporting. Make a few
calls, quote a few experts, and voila, a "major article," or 60
Minutes piece. The SDN has won the bibliographical war, hands
down, but a mere plurality of pages does not truth make.
No. The Hopi religion is closely tied to the land, that much we
do know. But the second the Hopi try to get their lands back
(after the 1882 reservation boundary botch, a delegation traveled
to Washington, D.C. in 1890, beginning a 111-year odyssey for
return of some lands), the Hopi are accused of despoiling it (a
water-rights plan for mining, filed to retain water rights,
without ever necessarily intending mining, has recently been dug
out of long-time SDN supporter Walter Epp's closet in San
Francisco, and, claiming that Banyacya gave it to him, Epp passed
it throughout the on-line Resistance community as proof that the
Hopi only await the removal of the SDN before they strip-mine
everything). The Hopi are accused of Nazi-like behavior, but then,
if anyone protests, it is pointed out that these aren't the true
Hopi. The "traditional" Hopi are - even though it's getting
extremely difficult to find any.
The protesters and the resisters have signed statements and
proclamations from the Hopi "traditionals" that say so. At any
staged event, such as the 1999 visit by UN Special Rapporteur
Abdelfattah Amor to investigate religious oppression the
"traditionals" are dutifully trotted out like prize livestock at a
State Fair. In 1999, 
it was Dan Evehama, Martin
Gasweseoma and Emory Holmes. Dan is now deceased. Martin and Emory
will no longer identify themselves publicly -- the SDN now claims
that they fear "reprisal."
All three names were on the Hotevilla press release warning
Bahannas not to give them any money. Nonetheless, it seems
apparent that Hopi religious practice is so complex and difficult
to understand that only an SDN Navajo can tell you how it works.
Fake
kachinas, anyone?
Virtual Still Sheet :
Factory
Grants, New Mexico. Hopi katsinas ("kachinas") are widely
forged with Navajo sales of "authentic" kachinas around the
land-locked Hopi Reservation a long-time source of resentment.
Similarly, "Kokopelli" artwork has been arrogated for profit by
non-Hopis -- both "native" and white -- throughout the Southwest
during the 1990s. (photo: jayne williams 1997)
Seen from space
Disputed area as seen from space (NASA)
Surrounded
The Hopi reservation is completely surrounded by an
historically hostile tribe: the Navajo (graphic adapted by
author)
Fake eagle kachina
Fake kachina from eBay: This is the "Dancing Eagle" Kachina.
He stands 17" tall and has a 19" wingspan. He is a masked
kachina and has a regular face underneath the mask. These
Kachina Dolls are the most beautiful I have ever seen. The
artist is 100% Navajo, No Knock Offs!! Each One is signed and
numbered!!! (eBay)
Fake clown kachina
Fake Kachina from Gallup, NM (factory made?) listed on eBay:
By Navajo artist, Sharon Woody, from Gallup, New Mexico. The
Clown Kachina is bright cheery, funny and colorful. Always the
entertainer. Hand painted in bold basic colors. The clown is the
joker, which brings happiness to other members of the tribe. He
is a trickster who is often disciplined for his actions. You may
find him often with a piece of watermelon in his hand.
hand-carved, hand-painted, indian kachina doll!!!!(eBay)
Note: eBay photos have been enhanced, etc. Author accepts all
liability and responsibility for borrowing photos of unethical
and/or illegal merchandise.
Also see:
Statement of Cedric Kuwaninvay
Sacred Ceremony Used For Political Motives
History Of Many Morning Raids
Camp Anna Mae Sundance
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