Re: Prof. Alfonso Ortiz Death
Pauline Turner Strong (pstrong@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu)
Thu, 06 Feb 1997 12:11:31 -0600 (CST)
Tom Kavanagh is right that the national press did not entirely ignore
Alfonso Ortiz's passing, but the New York Times's obituary of January 31st
ignored most of his activities on behalf of Pueblo and other Native people,
including his presidency of the Association of American Indian Affairs and
his chairmanship of the D'Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the
American Indian at the Newberry Library. Both local papers (the Santa Fe
New Mexico and the Albuquerque Tribune) did much better because they
contacted and quoted Native leaders and scholars. No single description
can begin to convey Alfonso Ortiz's complexity, but Mark Trahant's
"peacemaker" is a very good place to begin.
Pauline Turner Strong
University of Texas at Austin