ALL-HPL MEETING POSTPONED
Lee Phillips indicated he would not be able to make the big
meeting scheduled for March 19 at Teesto. The Dine' Bikeya
Committee has rescheduled for Saturday. March 26. Lee also wants
to set up a few meetings at other locations as well. The new
meetings will be announced on KTNN.
Religious Freedom
Next week there are hearings and meetings in Washington to
discuss the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. This law will
protect the Native American Church and its Sacrament. It also has
some protection for Native American prisoners. Elmer Clark left
Friday, driving. He said he might go up through South Dakota and
pray there with his brothers, maybe take some extra people, he
wasn't sure. There will be an NAC prayer service in Washington, I
wish I was going too. We are all praying for a good outcome.
Freedom of Information Act Request.
In September 1991 I sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request to the Relocation Office. I asked for all documents on
file since January 1, 1986, relating to forced relocation. As you
know, there is a section of Public Law 93-531 which provides for
"non-voluntary" relocation.
Forced relocation is encoded in law at 25 U.S. Code Sec. 640d-
14(d)(3). In case any of you thought it couldn't happen in
America! So i requested all correspondence between ONHIR and the
U.S. Interior Solicitor's Office, since this is the office that has
to serve as a clearing house if they are going to evict. I chose
the date to include the correspondence leading up to the July 1986
relocation deadline which was in P.L. 93-531.
Any agency will have plans for implementing its program, so I
requested theirs. The official line is that there are no such
plans.
The Relocation Office has never complied with this request.
I got one letter asking how much we would be willing to pay, so I
answered that one. It was just a stalling tactic, I think. Peter
Tasso, the attorney here that deals with ONHIR told me that their
attorney had brought this FOIA up, and that they seemed pretty
worried about it. In any case they have never provided the
information, or denied the request, either one. This is in spite
of the requirement that they reply within ten days.
I have heard from two sources that the documents exist: an
Apache guy who used to work for them said they were filed under
XXXX, and only senior staff had access. George Joe told me that
Navajos working at ONHIR had told him the senior staff (all white,
of course) joke among themselves about these files. It's an open
secret. So this has gone on long enough. The relocation Office is
under the President, so the next step is an appeal to the White
House FOIA officer.
I have never gotten actual documents on these issues, but I
HAVE gotten lists indicating the documents exist, and lists of
recipients. Knowing WHO is almost as good as knowing WHAT,
sometimes better. The mid-level federal officials who usually
serve as agency FOIA Officers WILL lie about documents, often
clumsily and in ways that provide you with information. An FOIA
appeals officer, on the other hand, will deny your request on legal
grounds.
I know this stuff is in there and I bet it's ugly. My hope is
that senior people will ask for copies of these documents, even if
I don't get them myself. Meanwhile, the FOIA creates a paper trail
which will make it a lot harder for the people who are sitting on
these documents to shred them. And sooner or later, the truth will
come out.
Weather
Into last week it had been warm and sunny, got up to 60
degrees a few days. Then last Thursday when I got up it was cold,
with a sharp smell of ice in the air. Sure enough, the wind
started coming from the north and west, it got cold and started
snowing. Yesterday morning there was a couple of inches of soggy
snow and it was bone-chilling cold all day. I know those elders
out on the land are suffering in their broken-down houses and
hogans when it's like that. Its the kind of cold you just can't
escape no matter how many layers of clothes you put on.
This morning I had to get up and pick up the trash, the horses
got into the garbage cans again and dragged stuff all over. It was
weather changing. Sure enough around 11 the still air started
moving again, this time from the south. The neighbor, Vivian, came
out to chat, I worked on some bicycles I'm painting, my boy played
with his new, black basketball. Then Vivian and her son brought out
her pipe and burned some cedar for it. It's one she got from Fools
Crow when she lived up at Pine Ridge and it just came back to her
after many years being gone.
The snow is all gone, melted right into the dry ground. We
need a lot more, but this will at least keep the grass alive.
jon norstog