Another response to Hopis vs. Big Mountain Trespassers and the Statement from Chief Arvol Looking Horse:

>> we have two sides who both believe they are right—and instead of acting in the accepted, honored, traditonal way to iron things out at least to some extent, the actions are, as i said to you—storm trooper mentality, and not the way of Native people. <<

Maybe, but the positions of the two sides weren't symmetrical. The US courts have ruled that the Hopi position is right and the Navajo position is wrong. The Navajo were disobeying the law by holding an illegal ceremony on land that wasn't theirs. The Hopi were obeying the law by exercising their sovereignty to enforce their rights on their land.

>> Either you are responsible and traditional in all things, every single day, or you are not— <<

Getting an education in US schools, becoming doctors and lawyers, using the courts as they're intended to be used—all Native people do these things these days. You've said there are no full-blooded Indians anymore. There are also no purely traditional Indians anymore. They're all US citizens living in the modern world and using modern institutions to help preserve their livelihoods.

>> too many think from without, not from within. <<

The Hopi have tried to negotiate with the Navajo for decades. The Navajo essentially refused to budge from their untenable position. No other people would accept a stalemate that denied them the lawful use of their land for decades.

In "traditional" days people went to war over much less. Now they can turn to the courts to seek justice. In some cases, like this one, justice occurs.

Another correspondent responds
>> I would ask your correspondent: "Not the 'accepted, honored, traditonal way' of WHICH Native People and WHEN?" <<

Good point. As we all know, Indians embraced every system from democracy to monarchy, from capitalism to socialism. Some were peaceful, others were warlike. To say there was one traditional way for thousands of tribes is simplistic or wrong.

I think the correspondent is one of those non-enrolled Indians who embraces the idealized image of Native people more ardently than enrolled Indians do. Also, she's from the East Coast, so she may not know much about the Navajo and their documented history of antagonism toward others.

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