Posted on 06/08/2002 12:37:04 PM PDT by CedarDave
Friday, June 7, 2002
AIM Disavows Church Burning
By Brendan Smith Journal Staff Writer
TESUQUE PUEBLO — An American Indian Movement leader said Thursday he understands the motivations for the burning of the San Diego Catholic Church here, which resulted in federal arson charges against an AIM member and another Tesuque Pueblo man.
"It's easy to understand that someone may want to retaliate in the way these young people have," said Vernon Bellecourt, director of international affairs at AIM headquarters in Minneapolis, Minn.
"Our young people have been the victims of the most horrendous abuse by satanic nuns and pedophile priests" at former mission schools, he said. "When you look at the history of the (Catholic) church continuing today, it does not serve the best interests of our people."
Regardless of those sentiments, Bellecourt said AIM is now a nonviolent organization that does not condone the burning of the church, which was built in 1915 on the pueblo plaza.
"They should not say they are members of our movement when they get in this sort of trouble," he said about the two arson defendants. "That fortifies a lot of ignorant stereotypes of Indians burning out the settlers."
Two Tesuque Pueblo members — 20-year-old George Victor Downey and 19-year-old Jason Tapia — were charged with arson Wednesday in U.S. District Court after they confessed to burning the small adobe church early Monday, criminal complaints stated.
Tapia told investigators that Downey talked about burning down the church two weeks earlier because Downey is an AIM member who does not like Catholicism, the complaints stated.
"That ain't my (expletive) religion. It's a slave religion," Downey reportedly told investigators who questioned him about the church fire.
A tribal police officer saw a shirtless Downey laughing and acting nervous while he watched the church burn early Monday, the complaints stated.
Downey and Tapia later confessed that they had used matches and candles to ignite Downey's shirt and piles of vestments and robes inside the church, the complaints stated.
The two men also stole the metal tabernacle from the altar because they mistakenly believed it contained money, but it was recovered with the help of Downey's mother, the complaints said.
The San Diego church is operated by the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, but Archbishop Michael Sheehan was on retreat Thursday and couldn't be reached for comment.
The Rev. Dale Jamison, pastor for the San Diego mission, would not say whether the church will be rebuilt. He referred all questions to the tribal council.
"It is totally destroyed," he said about the church. "Everything else is on hold."
Downey and Tapia are being held without bond in the Tesuque Pueblo jail pending a detention hearing today in U.S. District Court. If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Tesuque Pueblo Gov. Paul Suazo met with the tribal council Thursday, but he couldn't be reached for comment about the fire or the two defendants.
San Diego, or Saint James, is the pueblo's patron saint.
Tesuque messengers and warriors played an active role in the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, which was triggered in part by the Catholic Church's efforts at that time to extinguish native religions in New Mexico.
The first Spaniard killed in the revolt was Fray Juan Pío, a Franciscan priest who had walked from Santa Fe to Tesuque Pueblo on August 10, 1680, to say Mass. He was shot with arrows at the pueblo, but his escort, who was on horseback, escaped to Santa Fe and reported the attack.
Centuries later, many pueblo tribal members in New Mexico practice a mixture of Catholicism and native religion. But some Indians want to see a return to their own religion free of Catholic influence.
An AIM Web site for the Southern California chapter states: "Do not mix religions; it is a conflict, you can't do both."
AIM, which has about 20 chapters in America, does not keep membership lists or charge dues. Anyone who agrees with AIM's basic tenets can call himself a member, Bellecourt said.
As an activist group formed in 1968 in Minneapolis to confront police brutality, AIM later took part in the 19-month occupation of Alcatraz Island beginning in 1969. AIM members exchanged gunfire with federal agents in 1973 during a 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
In recent years, AIM has focused on nonviolent means to promote Indian rights, including efforts to change names of sports teams and mascots that demean Indians, Bellecourt said.
The Catholic Church is now recognizing sexual abuse of youth by priests, but Indians forced to attend mission schools run by the Catholic Church, other denominations and the federal government suffered similar abuse in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Bellecourt said.
"For years and years, nobody seemed to be too concerned about that," he said.
Copyright 2002 Albuquerque Journal
I would not be surprised to see them get away with time served or probation. I saw a 17 year-old get probation after murdering the infant child of his girlfriend in NM. The excuse was--he was too young to be put in the position of being a father--he couldn't handle the responsibility. He was tried as a juvenile.
I lived there for almost a year, couldn't take it anymore and moved back to America Texas as a newly forged conservative. I guesss I could thank NM for that...
Ask Russell Means, Dennis Banks, and Leonard Peltier. They're as nonviolent as the Black Panthers.
Means Taps Land-Grant Advocate as Running Mate
Saturday, June 8, 2002Means Taps Land-Grant Advocate as Running Mate
Albuquerque Journal--> By Barry Massey The Associated Press
SANTA FE — American Indian activist Russell Means, who is campaigning for governor as a third-party candidate, announced Friday that an advocate for land grant claims will serve as his running mate.
Carmen Quintana, 65, of Santa Fe, joined Means for the announcement in the Capitol rotunda. Means said he has known her since the 1970s.
"She is a long-standing activist like I am. We make an excellent team," he said.
Means plans to file in July as the gubernatorial nominee of a newly formed political party — the Independent Coalition Party.
A major focus of the campaign, Means said, will be the land-grant claims of New Mexicans that date back more than a century and involve the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. The treaty ended the Mexican-American war and made New Mexico a U.S. territory. New Mexico became a state in 1912.
Land grant heirs and others say the federal government failed to fulfill its obligation. Much of the disputed land is managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.
"Every single federal agency that deals with land, water and natural resources is here unconstitutionally," Means said.
Means contends that he can qualify as a candidate in New Mexico despite a 1975 felony conviction in South Dakota. He was convicted of "rioting to obstruct justice" for his role in a courthouse clash between American Indian Movement supporters and police.
New Mexico law bars convicted felons from holding office unless they have a pardon or a certificate from New Mexico's governor restoring their citizenship rights.
Means has submitted a document to the secretary of state's office showing that his citizenship rights to vote and hold office were restored in South Dakota when he completed his sentence and probation in 1980. The attorney general's office is reviewing the legal question of whether Means can qualify as a candidate.
Yes. And Alcatraz caught fire from a case of
spontaneous human combustion.
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