Some thirty years ago, when their ancestral lands were (once again) in danger of desecration by the white man, Apache medicine men from the San Carlos Reservation stepped forward for the first time since
internment to protect and defend what they held to be sacred.
I knew this because the Vatican (yes, the Vatican) was seeking money and support from anywhere they could get it, including from the universities in my state, Pennsylvania. The Vatican Bank was apparently strapped for cash. They needed money for construction of what was being billed as "the largest telescope in the world," to be placed on top of a mountain thousands of miles away in Arizona - and taxpayers in the Keystone State were none too pleased to pony up the millions they were being asked to donate to the cause.
I knew because defiant posters with the image of a fierce-looking red squirrel, baring its teeth with the words "Don't Mess With Me!", were plastered around campus one day. So naturally, it caught my attention. This petition should catch yours.
Why a squirrel was the symbol of the fight to save Big Mountain is really none of our business. It had to do with Apache religious rites and rights. But it certainly attracted the attention of a student caught up in the social movement to divest from all who supported the Apartheid government of South Africa. I was young and all fired up to change the world - back then, we learned that was possible by standing up for what you know is right and through nonviolent protest. It worked; South African Apartheid is no more. But I really wasn't prepared for what I read on that Big Mountain poster.
The Church would be obliged to address the question of whether extraterrestrials might be brought within the fold and baptized...
These were the words of Father George Coyne, lead astronomer for the Vatican and clearly an alcoholic. He went on to say:
One would need to put some questions to him [the alien, of course], such as: ‘Have you ever experienced something similar to Adam and Eve, in other words, original sin? Do you people also know a Jesus who has redeemed you?'
A Jesus? Is there more than one? That's not what I learned in church.
Did you sign that petition yet?
Whatever was going on between the Apache medicine men and an endemic red squirrel found only on the top of that mountain, Father Coyne was clearly a believer. As spokesman and fundraiser for the giant telescope, he was able to convert enough well-heeled followers to join the Vatican, the Max Planck Institute of Germany, and the University of Arizona in funding construction of a new theme park that was partially built without the required EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) or enough marbles to fill a fishbowl. Who could fail at raising money with a name like Coyne? The project eventually became part of the University of Arizona's Mount Graham International Observatory: the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT), brought to you by the Vatican Observatory.
Now, that was a weird story. I have to say, if Pennsylvania - a state where more people believe in angels and ghosts than in climate change, a state that still clings to an archaic (and unconstitutional) clause in its state Constitution barring atheists from holding public office - wouldn't jump on board to bring little green men into the fold, it wasn't just weird. It was an astronomical amount of money we just couldn't afford.
Joking aside, when the VATT was built in the Pinaleño Mountains of southeast Arizona, the rights of the San Carlos Apaches to practice their religion in their traditional way were wiped off the face of the Earth. You can read more about this in Peter Warshall's 1997 article from Whole Earth, The Heart of Genuine Sadness - Astronomers, politicians, and federal employees desecrate the holiest mountain of the San Carlos Apache. Please see also Kos member Ojibwa's diary on Indians 101: Apache Religion vs Astronomy.
Now fast forward thirty-odd years to last Thursday, December 4, when the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which included a provision to transfer 2,400 acres of Apache ancestral and ceremonial lands to a foreign mining company. The Senate is expected to take a vote any minute now. Will there be no end to the disgraceful and deliberate desecration of Apache land?
Terry Rambler, chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, says:
Since time immemorial people have gone there. That’s part of our ancestral homeland. We’ve had dancers in that area forever – sunrise dancers – and coming-of-age ceremonies for our young girls that become women. They’ll seal that off. They’ll seal us off from the acorn grounds, and the medicinal plants in the area, and our prayer areas.
This is no surprise, and a surprise at the same time. According to the
Last Real Indians:
Apache leaders learned of the inclusion of the provision to the NDAA while attending, ironically, the White House Tribal Nations conference. Republican lawmakers have tried for years to secure the transfer of these lands, but have always run into strong opposition from the San Carlos Apache Tribe and Democratic lawmakers. [P.S. ~ Public lands having religious or cultural importance are protected by law in the USA.]
But it doesn't stop there. According to
RT News:
The 2015 NDAA contains other land deals, including one that would subject 70,000 acres of Tongass National Forest in Alaska to logging and another provision that would give 1,600 acres from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State for purposes of industrial development, a plan that has spurred tribal protest.
Thank you
John McCain. I never understood before now why you thought that loon from Alaska would make a decent running mate.
If you haven't signed the petition yet, I'd like you to consider more of the words of that fundraising wizard Father Coyne:
Nature and the Earth are just there, blah! And there will be a time when they are not there... It is precisely the failure to make the distinctions I mention above [between Nature, Earth, Culture, and Human Beings] that has created a kind of environmentalism and religiosity to which I cannot subscribe and which must be suppressed with all the force that we can muster.
Now,
sign that petition, and pass it to all your friends. Make it go viral. We will not be tricked into a land grab and religious war masquerading as the National Defense Authorization Act. This is not the Vatican City of thirty years ago. This is the United States of America, where the rights of all people to practice their religion is protected and held sacred by us all.
P.S. ~
Public lands having religious or cultural importance are protected by law in the USA.
~