RE: About face! Former AIM activist battles tribal sovereignty in Navajo Nation case

["Craven, Jim" <jcraven@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks to Hunter for this but it shows so many contradicitons unfolding in
Indian country.

For one thing, the Navaho "Officials" going to the U.S,. Courts to define
how much "sovereignty" and legal authority on the Rez that they have is like
the Jewish "Officials" in the territories occupied by the nazis going to the
nazis to define how much "authority" and "independence" they have. If you
have to ask non-Navaho how much "sovereignty" you have, any "granted"
sovereignty and legal authority ain't real.

Russell Means on the other hand, is not taking the position that the
[BIA-sanctioned] "Officials" [as opposed to "Traditionals"] are not the real
authorities of the Navaho, he is taking the position that they have no legal
"authority" over him as he is non-Navaho. I can assure him and others that
if they come to Blackfoot Country and are alleged to have committed crimes
against Blackfoot, we will assert [not ask anyone for] sovereignty and legal
authority just as the U.S. or Canada would have authority to try and
incarcerate foreigners alleged to have done crimes on U.S. or Canadian soil.

Part of this has to do with the longstanding feud between the mythical
"national AIM" versus the traditionals making up the local AIMs. The
Bellecourts have their own problems to deal with and some of this has more
to do with personalities and feuds than the sovereignty implications of
either the Means position or that of the Navaho "Officials".

Finally, with the release of the new movie "Windtalkers" it gives rise to
what we might call the "Windtalkers Paradox or Contradiction": The Navaho
code (actually it was a triple code in that not only Navaho language was
used, but a particular dialect was used with further codes in replacing
words for another concept or word) was so effective because Navaho language
had been made so rare by the very forces (U.S. imperialism) in whose service
the code was being used (the anti-fascism is also very important).

Jim Craven


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