Posted on 01/26/2004 9:09:31 AM PST by chance33_98
Squaw no alternative for Piestewa Peak in Arizona
Leaders warn Arizona not to regress to racist insult
Posted: January 23, 2004 - 3:40pm EST by: Brenda Norrell / Correspondent / Indian Country Today
PHOENIX - Arizona Indian leaders warned Arizona legislators from the floor of the House of Representatives that changing the name of Piestewa Peak back to Squaw Peak would cripple tribal and state relationships, returning them to conditions of territorial days.
"The term is degrading and racist," said Fort Mojave Chairperson Nora McDowell, among Arizona Indian leaders speaking on Indian Nations and Tribes Legislative Day.
McDowell refused to even say the word in her address to the state legislature.
"I’m not going to say it because it is offensive to us as Native American women," said McDowell, president of the Intertribal Council of Arizona.
With a united voice, tribal leaders said Hopi Pvt. Lori Piestewa of Tuba City killed in Iraq, represents all Arizonans fighting for this country.
Hopi Chairman Wayne Taylor Jr., said the state legislature has already chosen to honor Piestewa as the first American Indian woman killed in action.
"Damaging and offensive," is how Taylor described the word "squaw."
"Such action does not speak well for Arizona." He said if the name is reversed it would affect future successes between the tribes and the state, resulting in a fractured relationship that the state and tribes have not seen since territorial days. We cannot afford this step backward," he told the state legislature.
Rep. Jack Jackson Jr., D-Window Rock, described the bill he has presented, H.B. 2500, which prohibits places in Arizona from being named "Squaw." This includes geographic features, landmark historical sites, highways and publicly-funded facilities. Any place currently named Squaw would have to be changed by 2007.
Earlier, Rep. Phil Hanson, R-Peoria, and 38 other legislators presented a bill which would revamp the board that changed Squaw Peak and Squaw Parkway to Piestewa Peak and Piestewa Parkway.
If Hanson’s bill, H.B. 2007, passes, the legislature instead of the governor would make most appointments to the board and most state employees would be unable to serve. Currently, one American Indian board member serves on the board and is employed by the Arizona State Museum.
Navajo President Joe Shirley spoke against renaming Piestewa Peak.
"Native Americans from throughout the state of Arizona felt very proud when they decided to make the change from Squaw Peak to Piestewa Peak.
"It stands for something. It makes the Native American citizenry proud." Shirley said Navajos have fought for this state and country.
"We have gone to battle for its sovereignty, its greatness. That is what it signifies," he said. "Please continue to listen to us and keep the name of Piestewa Peak."
Meanwhile, speaking of the Hopi Tribe’s economic struggle, Taylor told the legislature that the issue of taxation must be addressed as well as the water crisis.
Currently, the State of Arizona receives $15 million a year from Peabody Coal’s two mines on Black Mesa in northern Arizona. It is more than the Hopi Tribe receives from Peabody for the sale of its coal based on the lease.
With Hopi springs drying up, Taylor also pressed the state to assist in identifying an alternative water source for Peabody Coal, which uses N-aquifer water on Black Mesa to slurry coal to Nevada for electricity production. An alternative water supply must be found before 2005, he said.
That is the date set by the Hopi Tribe and the Navajo Nation for Peabody to halt the use of the N-aquifer water or cease operating mines on the tribes’ lands, he said.
Speaking to the legislature, Tohono O’odham Chairperson Vivian Juan-Saunders said gaming is allowing her tribe in southern Arizona to become self-sufficient. "Tribes have become major economic engines for the economy."
The Tohono O’odham Nation is now the 10th largest employer in its region. Yet, she said, Tohono O’odham still have 40 percent unemployment and many O’odham live in substandard housing without running water and electricity.
Juan-Saunders said the tribe’s funds are being drained by protecting the border of the United States and Mexico and repairing Highway 86, the major highway that runs east and west through Tohono O’odham land.
Since the attack of Sept. 11, the United States has tightened security at ports of entry along the international border. It has created a funnel effect, with 1,500 immigrants daily entering the United States through Tohono O’odham land. The funnel effect has also increased the threat and number of drug traffickers.
"Our gaming dollars should be used to address poverty and unemployment."
Further, she said the international border dissects Tohono O’odham lands. The 1,700 O’odham living across the border in Mexico are suffering because it is more difficult now for them to come across for health care with tightened security.
Senate President Ken Bennett extended a warm welcome to tribal leaders, councilmen and tribal members who packed the House of Representatives for the joint session with tribes, followed by Indian taco lunches on the lawn and joint committee meetings with tribal leaders.
Bennett said he grew up with Yavapai at Prescott and neither he nor his friends made distinctions. "We just thought of each other as friends."
Speaking to legislators, he said, "Everything we do should be done under the auspices of the great word ‘neighbor.’ We greet our neighbors at the front door, not at the back door."
Addressing tribal leaders, he said, "Thank you for being here today to move that effort forward."
Rep. Sylvia Laughter, I-Kayenta, said she has presented six bills, seeking health care reform and funds for Indian senior centers, education opportunities for children in juvenile detention centers and highways in rural areas of Indian lands.
Taylor implored lawmakers to change state laws requiring autopsies, which conflicts with the Hopi custom of burying their dead within 24 hours. Further, Hopi tradition requires that all organs be intact for the journey.
While Arizona landscapes on Indian lands are beautiful, Taylor pointed out that Hopi have no gaming revenues and are in need of jobs. "Many of our reservations lack the raw materials of industry.
"Tribal dollars need to circulate several times on the reservation before going off."
Taylor also urged swinging wide the doors of opportunities for education for Hopi youths and improving the road conditions of Route 60 which endangers school children in northern Arizona.
Rep. Jackson said he is working toward an executive order for a government-to-government relationship between tribes and the state. He praised Gov. Janet Napolitano for appointing 14 American Indians to boards and commissions.
Gov. Napolitano has also voiced support for the naming of Piestewa Peak.
Hopi springs not eternal?
Change the name of anything else you want to Piestewa (and rename some other stuff after the other Arizonans killed in Iraq). But bring back Squaw Peak.
This argument here is with the leftists, not with Arizona's Native-Americans.
Almost nobody liked the name "Squaw Peak". Even if you ignore the pejorative connotations, it's an Algonquin word that has no meaning to any of the local languages.
I was one of the many who had been hoping for "Goldwater Peak" - then Dammit Janet jumped the line and applied a name of her own preference.
They renamed "Pissant Butte" to "Ant Butte" at the same time. Our culture took a horrifying blow...
Squaw Peak by any other name is still Squaw Peak. If the Republicans try to restore the name they will guarantee that even Dennis Kucinich could take the state in November. Napolitano has us skunked.
There is a way, though, to even the score, piss off the liberals, and have the whole state snickering. There are any number of prominent flood control projects in Maricopa County that could be renamed Napolitano Dike.
Hopi springs not eternal?
Dont make me come over there....
No, and they "Squaw no alternative."
(And the squaw of the hippopotamus equalled the sons of the squaws of the other two hides...)
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