Peoples Bark News - 10/25/00 (Part 2/4)

[ale...@jps.net]

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9. A JOURNEY/ SEMINAR
in the ECUADORIAN AMAZON

Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2000 22:28:43 -0700

From: Sonya Mustad Bjorn-Hansen
<bjor...@usfca.edu>
Subject: *OCTOBER 31 ­ NOVEMBER 11* A JOURNEY/
SEMINAR in the ECUADORIAN AMAZON

* Will you please network this event to your friends,
colleagues, and family?
Thank you very much. Muchas Gracias.
********
SENTIENT EXPERIENTIALS
( http://www.experientials.org )
academically co-sponsored by The School of
Consciousness & Transformation at The CALIFORNIA
INSTITUTE OF INTEGRAL STUDIES (CIIS) is pleased
to host "NATURE as TEACHER, INDIGENOUS WISDOM
& RAINFOREST CONSERVATION STRATEGIES"
in the ECUADORIAN AMAZON
OCTOBER 31 ­ NOVEMBER 11, 2000

An experiential wilderness journey/seminar deep into the
heart of the Ecuadorian Amazonian Rainforest, with the
Secoya People will be led by Sentient Experientials.

Joined in Ecuador by Guest Teacher PABLO AMARINGO
renowned Peruvian Visionary Painter & co-author of
"Ayahuasca Visions;" JONATHON S.M.W., ethnobotanist,
naturalist guide, coordinator and primary translator. A
community of SECOYAS, spanning three generations, will
be our primary forest guides.
The intent of this journey into the Ecuadorian Amazon with
Sentient Experientials is to offer international
participants a
significant, rich life experience, an intercultural
exchange,
personal transformation, healing and profound learning
through exposure to an Indigenous world-view, interacting
with and learning from forest masters deep in the Amazon
Forest.
This is an opportunity to experience the beauty of the upper
EcuadorianAmazonian Rainforest and her people while
acting in solidarity to their survival. Sentient
Experientials
channels funds towards ground-level rainforest conservation
and cultural heritage projects via Grupo Osanimi
(http://www.osanimi.org) in Ecuador and The Usko Ayar
School for Amazonian Painting in Peru, directed by Pablo
Amaringo.
An endorsement for Sentient Experientials: "I directly
experienced the spiritual depth, beauty and living presence
of the rainforest-- the power and beauty of the earth,
Pachamama, as a living being. I recommend this journey
for all conscious individuals seeking to connect with their
original nature-- exploring potential for greater healing
and
wholeness." - Dr. Vernice Solimar, Chair of The
Consciousness Studies master's degree program at John
F. Kennedy University in Orinda, California.
An endorsement for Grupo Osanimi: "Grupo Osanimi is
doing courageous and innovative work. By seeking out
ways to assist in the cultural transmission of traditional
knowledge while organizing to protect Ecuador's forests,
they are working to preserve ancient botanical wisdom,
not on some dusty bookshelf, but in the hearts of
Indigenous youths and in the forest itself.
This is a bold and crucial step in these times." -
Dr. Robert Hass, United States Poet Laureate
In Ecuador, participants will be introduced to an Indigenous
World View & Rainforest Ecology. Don Pablo Amaringo
will share some of his experiences as a once practicing
Shaman, his life as a visionary painter and the healing
uses of color and light. He will introduce participants to
dream interpretation and cosmology from an Amazonian
perspective.
Jonathon will introduce participants to ethnobotany,
rainforest survival, conservation strategies, nature as
teacher, and the important role plants play, with an
overview of the area's bioregion. The journey will include
an understanding of the "plight" of the rainforest and the
Secoya People, the effects of colonialism; the exploitation
of forest resources, the quest for oil, rubber and causes &
effects of deforestation; and rainforest ecology. The plants
will teach us Amazonian Psychology and mores.
Special Interests & Activities while living 12 days with a
community of rainforest people: ethnobotanical forest hikes;
river trips; painting with Don Pablo Amaringo, healing
ceremonies; tree climbing; jungle flora & fauna-watching;
swimming; camping; indigenous face painting; mythology,
cosmology, story-telling, dream interpretations.

The learning objectives this journey holds:
* Deepening understanding of our interconnection as a
species with the biosphere as an open living system through
a direct experience of the Amazonian Rainforest and
holders of its wisdom, the Secoya People.
* Consider indigenous wisdom as cultural practices of
sustainability, deep insight and healing, necessary for
planetary survival. Nature as teacher, exploring the
stories and teachings of rainforest plants.
* Introduction to Amazonian cosmology, myths and
dream interpretation by practicing Shamans along with
the visionary Peruvian painter, Don Pablo Amaringo.
* Familiarity with the history of exploitation & colonialism
in the Amazonian rainforest and the impact on its
inhabitants.
* Gain an awareness of Rainforest conservation, survival
strategies, and issues of social and environmental justice
in solidarity with the Secoya people.
We intend this event to be an unforgettable experience
with unforgettable people, that in some way will enrich,
nourish and strengthen the root of your life.
Ho ho the great Ceiba tree, ho ho
"...and it was at the base of the mighty Ceiba tree that
the people were saved. Long long ago when the sky
was in flames, everywhere there was falling boulders.
The fires and rocks deflected around the great tree and
like this the people were saved."
From an Amazonian origin myth.
********
To order the detailed information packet ­ Sentient
Experientials¹ Journey Manual and Grupo Osanimi¹s
Rainforest Conservation and Cultural Heritage Projects
- please send $12 to:
Sentient Experientials
PO Box 1004, El Cerrito, CA 94530, USA
OR download and print from our websites:
Webpages:
http://www.experientials.org and http://www.osanimi.org
CONTACT PERSON/LIAISON: Dahlia Miller
Tel: (510)235-4313; Fax: (510)215-9840;
e-mail: sent...@experientials.org
* Academic credit is available through The California
Institute of Integral Studies, an institution of higher
education promoting spiritually engaged fieldwork in
anthropology, philosophy, psychology and organizational
development. Call Gabriele Schilz at CIIS at
(415) 575-6256 or
gsc...@ciis.edu.
* Para informacion en español,
por favor escribe a dah...@igc.org.
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10. Say No to Dianne Feinstein's Drug War

Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2000 11:24:19 -0700
From: Dale Gieringer <dp...@igc.org>
Subject: Say No to Dianne Feinstein's Drug War

{}

An advertisement exposing Sen. Dianne Feinstein's
abysmal record on marijuana and drug reform issues
ran in the San Francisco Bay Guardian this week
(for a view, see http://www.stopdianneswar.com/)
The sponsors are looking for additional supporters to
run a similar ad in the west coast edition of the New
York Times. So far, they have raised one-half of the
$5,800 needed to run the ad.
If you would like to contribute or add your own name
to this ad, contact Wayne Haythorn at:
hayt...@gorge.net (503) 819-7540. Contributions
(minimum $100 to sign on) should be sent to Right
of the People, PO Box 1716, El Cerrito CA 94530.
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11. Big Mountain Article

From: redo...@theofficenet.com
Subject: big mountain article
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 12:05:38 -0700
Reply-To: redo...@theofficenet.com

Moderator's Note: Please send corrections directly to
"yael grauer" <starli...@hotmail.com> and not to
me or the list.
--Bob Dorman

Subject: big mountain article
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 14:41:34 CDT
From: "yael grauer" <starli...@hotmail.com>

Greetings! What follows is a copy of this article i wrote
about Big Mountain that was supposed to be published
in September '98. The magazine I wrote for folded, and
now they are publishing a book and want to print this
article.
HOWEVER IT IS VERY OUTDATED and I haven't been
actively involved in this campaign for quite some time, so
I need your help in making changes to it AS SOON AS
POSSIBLE (since the print date is scheduled for next
week). If I do not receive corrections within the next few
days, it will likely be printed as is, referencing the
reader
to a website for more info.
Thanks for your help. Yael

Trouble at Big Mountain
In Arizona, near the Big Mountain area, live two Native
American tribes-the Hopi and the Navajo (or Dineh, as
they call themselves, which means “the people” in their
language). The Dineh are facing the largest forced
relocation
of Native Americans in this century. They believe the
relocation is a breach of civil and human rights. Lawrence
Altsisi and his nephew Chris Interpreter, both Navajo, met
with me to explain.
“The current situation is that at least 2,000 of the Native
people are still at Big Mountain, which is a shrine to both
of the tribes that are living there,” Chris informed me.
“And
the strip mining companies around that area want to mine
it up. Many of the elders have until the year 2000 to move
out of that area or they will be evicted by any means
necessary. That’s what the government said, ‘by any
means necessary.’”
A fake range war was staged to convince Congress that
there was a land dispute between the Hopi and the Dineh.
However, the dispute exists only between the Native
Americans and the people who want to take their land -
the strip mining companies. They are taking millions of
gallons of the pure, clean aquifer water that is under the
earth, and as a result, many of the wells and springs have
dried up.
“This is not a land dispute between the Hopi and the Navajo,
it’s the corporation against the Navajo and the Hopi that
they
are trying to divide and conquer,” Lawrence explained.
Sacred sticks were broken to build fences, and ancestral
bodies were uncovered. Religious sites were desecrated by
the construction of the fences.
How can something like this happen in our democratic
country, where government is for and by the people?
Apparently both tribal councils are being paid millions of
dollars-the Hopi Tribal Council to relocate people and the
Navajo Tribal Council to stay out of it. In fact, over $350
million has been spent to fund this. “Most of it is just
puppet
government politics, and everything else in the middle is
the
people,” Chris explained. “The people are very opposed to
relocation.” A law passed allows the Dineh to sign an
“accommodation agreement” to lease the land from the Hopi.
The Accommodation Agreement, however, does not allow
the Dineh to pass on home-sites to descendents or even
bury their dead. They must receive permits for religious
ceremonies, and elders cannot be taken care of by their
family in a traditional manner. The tenants will not have
representation on the Hopi Council, but are required to
abide by Hopi law. They cannot cut wood or let their sheep
graze without a permit, and the number of sheep they are
allowed to own is simply not enough for each family. And
if they break three laws, they are relocated.
The Dineh are being relocated to “New Lands,” Arizona.
This is a national toxic waste Superfund site near the Rio
Puerco River. “They didn’t tell these people that there was
a [toxic waste] spill in 1979, and as a result of that, 25
percent of them have died already or are dying now. And
because of that, the Navajo Nation has the highest rate
of birth defects in this country alone,” Chris explained.
There was no compensation for this loss at all.
“Many of the homes that were built for those 10,000
people were built by the Relocation Commission, which
hired basically the cheapest homebuilder in this country,”
Chris continued. “They had their licenses revoked
because they didn’t build the homes properly. Many of
the houses were built with no foundations, inaccurate
measures of the walls and ceilings. Because of that,
many are cracking and falling apart.”
Although the Dineh have taken legal action against this,
their case has been dismissed several times by the same
judge. Currently, the Dineh are being arrested for
“trespassing.” Hopi Tribal Rangers approach the Dineh
with permits to take away their livestock. The
impoundments cost $50 a head each day to get the
sheep back, and if it is not paid within five days, the
sheep can be auctioned off. A law called the Bennett
Freeze, passed in 1964, prohibits the Dineh from
making simple repairs on their hogans, the traditional
Navajo Indian dwelling. It also included a law that
forced the people to reduce their livestock by 86 percent.
Lawrence mentioned that there are many ways average
people can get involved to help the Dineh. You can
organize support groups, donate food, clothes, blankets,
and educate others about what is going on. You can
also write letter to your congressperson, senators, and
other elected representatives including U.S. Attorney
General Janet Reno, Secretary of the Interior Bruce
Babbitt, the Hopi Tribal Council, the Navajo Nation, and
President Bill Clinton.
[SIDEBAR]: Chris Interpreter’s Explanation: “The job of
the [Bureau of Internal Affairs] and the [Federal Bureau of
Investigation] is to keep us conquered. It even says so in
their law books ‘dealing with Indian affairs’ that if the
people
ever came together and had a voice, they would bring out
an army and massacre people if need be. That’s the
governmental policy. “It started back before the arrival of
the Spanish people and the United States when the
[Navajo] people came into the Hopi land, and they were
welcomed by the [Hopi] people. My people were warriors
and gatherers. There were lots of disagreements between
the two tribes, and the Navajo fought a war with the Hopi.
That is when the government came in, and the Spaniards
came in and introduced sheep as a livestock to my people.
So my people lost their warrior ways and became nomads
and herders.
“Right after that, the government came in, and the Hopi
people complained that my people were encroaching on
their land. So they were taken to a placed called Fort
Sumner right over in Bosque, Redondo, New Mexico.
After that they stayed there for about five years. This was
America’s first concentration camp. A third of our
population
died in that camp with other Indian tribes. My religious
leaders went to the Hopi villages where they pleaded with
Hopi tribal leaders. We had to sacrifice something that was
very sacred to our people..When we put that in the hands of
the Hopi people, they performed a ceremony that brought
the two tribes together and created a clan within these two
tribes called the Tobacco Clan. They told the Navajo people
that the only reason they were being brought back and
welcomed back to the Hopi people was to surround the
Hopi people and protect them form any other intruders who
would try to come in and exploit their land. “After that
happened, the government let my people go-not because
the Hopi had asked them to-but because the U.S. was
facing a scandal in which the Confederate army was being
brought up on charges for the same treatment of my people
as they were doing at that time. So they had to let them
go. Plus, it was costing Congress 1 million dollars just to
keep the facility running. So after that had happened, my
people were let go and taken back to the Hopi lands.
When they were taken back to Hopi lands, many of the
children were stolen from their families and given haircuts,
and were punished severely if they even spoke the
language. They came back to their families, and their
families could not recognize them.
They were chased out of their villages, and the government
went over and handpicked those individuals who were
taught Judeo-Christian morals and knew nothing about
their culture. They were put into the Hopi Tribal Council
seat and the Navajo Tribal Council Seats.
“The Hopi traditional elders speak against relocation. The
land we are on is rightfully Hopi land, but the Hopi brought
us to live there, and that’s what a lot of the people
themselves don’t understand. Many of them don’t know
their own cultural identity. They don’t know their history.
Hence, they think it’s just a dispute between two tribes.
They’ve seen the headlines for 30 years. They start to
believe it after awhile.”

Please visit
http://www.theofficenet.com/~redorman/pagea~1.htm
for more background on this relocation issue.

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peace and justice,

john vance, Editor
Peoples Bark News
(510) 287-9406

A project of:
A First Amendment Center
PO Box 4851
Berkeley, Ca 94704
http://www.freezepeach.cjb.net

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