URGENT ALERT to Big Mountain Supporters,
Carlos Begay told me that he went to see Pauline Whitesinger,
an elder
matriarch of the Big Mountain Community yesterday, Sunday, April
25.
He relates the following, Pauline, unable, to speak, read or
write
English, showed him that she had circled the dates, April 18-20
on her
calendar. She says, this is when the US Department of the Interior's
Hopi Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Area Agency confiscated her
cow
and killed her horse.
When Pauline saw a lot of tracks from impoundment vehicles
she feared
that some of her animals might have been confiscated by the BIA
and
traveled to the Hopi BIA Area Agency in Keams Canyon. While there
she
saw her cow in the impoundment yard along with 3 other animals
belonging to someone else. They told her that since her cow had
no
brand (it was too young to brand) she could not prove its ownership
and could not get it back. Impoverished and unable to pay for
the
release of her cow, and unable to prove its ownership, she was
forced
to leave it there.
That same day, when she returned home, her granddaughter told
her that
she heard a high powered gun shot while she was out sheepherding.
Pauline and her granddaughter set off to investigate. What they
found
close to where her granddaughter was sheepherding was her horse
was shot, laying there dead. Pauline says that she believes it
was the
BIA Ranger that shot her horse because she saw a lot of tracks
of a
BIA Ranger on horseback and an impoundment trailer.
Pauline said the quantity of tracks indicated that her horse
must have
been running not walking and when the BIA Ranger and impoundment
trailer were unable to catch her horse they must have just shot
it and
left it there to die. Currently, her horse is still lying where
it
was shot, its remains mostly gone, devoured by hungry coyotes.
Members of her family are currently traveling to the BIA in
Keams
Canyon to find out why they shot Pauline`s horse.
Judith Nies in a "Native American History" states,
"1863-1864. The
war against the Navajo. The Navajo Long Walk and imprisonment
at
Bosque Redondo. Kit Carson drove the Navajo from their lands by
destroying their means of survival. His army killed thousands
of
sheep, poisoned wells, burned orchards and crops, destroyed hogans
and
livestock shelters, and anything else that was of value to the
Navajo."
The elders believe that the starvation policy imposed upon
them by the
BIA continues the tradition of Kit Carson and the Long Walk.
We need your help to pressure the BIA.
Please call, fax and send letters to the following:
Robert Carolin, Acting Supertindent
U.S. Department of the Interior
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Hopi BIA Agency
P.O. Box 158
Keams Canyon, AY 86034
USA
Phone: 001 (outside the U.S.)
Phone: (520) 738-2249
Fax: (520) 738-5187
Hilda Manuel
U.S. Department of the Interior
Bureau of Indian Affairs
1849 C Street, NW
Mail Stop 4140
Washington, DC 20240
Phone: 001 (outside the U.S.)
Phone: (202)716-3602
Fax: (202) 208-5320
Wayne Nordell
U.S. Department of the Interior
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Phone: (602) 379-6600
Fax: (602) 379-6835
Thank you for your help.
Posted by Marsha Monestersky, Consultant to Sovereign Dineh
Nation
Temporary e-mail in Europe: mmonestersky@hotmail.com
From: Hamburg Germany with Glenna Begay and Leonard Benally