No fooling! An elite corps of Native American trackers, called the Shadow Wolves, is being deployed to Central Asia to help in the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Their normal turf, border patrol on the Tohono O'Odham Reservation in Arizona, is challenging:
The Sonoran Desert landscape south and west of Tucson is characterized by blistering hot summers, cool winters, scrub brush, sand and rocks. It is filled with plant and animal communities which, as naturalist Edward Abbey said, could be counted on to "stink, sting or stab." The ancestral home of the Tohono O’odham Indians – and today’s site of the tribe’s reservation – it has deep prehistoric and historic roots.
The Bush Administration is returning the favor in Indian country, by moving to strip federal services to native people who live off-reservation.
In a diary last fall, I talked about border issues on the Tohono O'odham reservation along the Arizona-Mexico border, including an elite corps of Native American desert trackers called the Shadow Wolves.
Damage to the spines of saguaro cactus, reveals the direction in which a backpacker is traveling. (from Smithsonian)
Combining the most ancient of handed down tradition with state-of-the-art technology, the Shadow Wolves are reputedly the most elite tracking unit in the world. That may or may not be hyperbole, but they're damned good:
The Shadow Wolf unit is a one-of-a-kind amalgam. There’s "senior wolf" Bryan Nez, who calls on his experiences in more than a decade in the field to help train some of the newer members in the old ways of tracking. There are the younger agents, part of the computer generation, who return the favor by showing Nez how technological innovations such as motion detectors, heat sensors and night-vision goggles offer sophisticated new ways to track the smugglers.
Like Nez, most Shadow Wolf agents grew up in rural areas, where tracking game and livestock have long been part of daily life. Tracking skills have been handed down from generation to generation for centuries. "Older trackers can look at desert vegetation and tell you how recently a blade of grass has been touched by a human," Andreu says. "Officers here can track for hours and all of a sudden stop and say, ‘They’re in that thicket up ahead.’ It’s uncanny, but the old-timers can do that."
I detect a sardonic tone in a report from an English language service out of Turkey:
America, with all kinds of technological power has resorted to using Indians after its inability to find the location of the Al Qaida leader. The 'Shadow Wolves' military team, consisting of Apaches specialized in tracking with their traditional and primitive methods, is now placed in the border of Afghanistan.
This story has, for the most part, escaped the notice of the American press, except for a brief mention in yesterday's USA Today. Perhaps not surprising as Afghanistan is a "forgotten war" by and large.
According to The Australian, the unit is being sent to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to help train to local border units in the ongoing hunt for terrorists crossing into Afghanistan.
Robert MacNeil, in the Scotsman commented with a bit of snark:
I see the Sioux have been sent to track the Taleban in Afghanistan. It was only a matter of time before native American trackers were brought in to save the West, which has been driven wild by goonie-wearing loonies sporting rocket-launchers. Hitherto, the so-called Shadow Wolves have had little to do since cowboys were made redundant and the cavalry were swapped for nuclear weapons. ...
Top US military strategists are praying that the Sioux, or perchance the Navajo (the "j" is pronounced "h", as in "fajitas"), will also pick up the trail of Osama Bin Laden. In this day and age, when Google World can pinpoint a mouse tiptoeing across a lawn, it's an outrage that Mr Laden remains at large.
Surely, it's only a matter of time before the Sioux trackers pick up a broken sandal, a Mars Bar wrapper, or an unopened beard trimmer. The latter might have been an unwanted present, as Osama celebated his 50th birthday on Saturday.
An in-depth story on the Shadow Wolves' methods was published in the Smithsonian magazine a few years back. It's a good read, with great pictures. Definitely worth a look.
So, if the Apache & Navajo & Tohono O'odham trackers catch Bin Laden where all others have failed, will the feds direct the $25 million reward for his capture to the Indian Health Service Clinics they're moving to close in America's cities? Because while the US is calling on the Indians to help the military in Central Asia, Gonzalez's DoJ has gone on the warpath here in the U.S., arguing that funding urban health clinics for natives is unconstitutional.
The Bush administration's push to eliminate the urban Indian health program comes with a much heavier price tag than reduced services and shuttered clinics.
As part of its long-standing objections to the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, the Department of Justice is questioning whether urban Indians, lineal descendants and certain Alaska Natives can receive federal services at all. The stance threatens health care for the majority of Native Americans who live away from reservations.
Although federal law, treaties and the trust responsibility have provided the legal basis for Indian health care, the Bush administration now argues such services must be tied to membership in a recognized tribe. Otherwise, the programs could be struck down by the courts as unconstitutional because they are based on race, according to DOJ.
So, the best trackers previously protecting our Mexican border are being redeployed to Central Asia. The Administration's moving to close Urban Indian clinics (not for the first time). The question remains: Will the dearth of parts for white guys - in the days when Robert Blake in make-up won't do anymore - mean that we won't be seeing the movie version of "Shadow Wolves"? Except, if they get bin Laden, there'll have to be a movie!