Posted on 03/10/2007 9:52:57 PM PST by Flavius
AN ELITE group of native American trackers is joining the hunt for terrorists crossing Afghanistan’s borders.
The unit, the Shadow Wolves, was recruited from several tribes, including the Navajo, Sioux, Lakota and Apache. It is being sent to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to pass on ancestral sign-reading skills to local border units.
In recent years, members of the Shadow Wolves have mainly tracked drug and people smugglers along the US border with Mexico.
But the Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan and the American military’s failure to hunt down Osama Bin Laden — still at large on his 50th birthday yesterday — has prompted the Pentagon to requisition them.
Robert M Gates, the US defence secretary, said last month: “If I were Osama Bin Laden, I’d keep looking over my shoulder.”
The Pentagon has been alarmed at the ease with which Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters have been slipping in and out of Afghanistan. Defence officials are convinced their movements can be curtailed by the Shadow Wolves.
The unit has earned international respect for its tracking skills in the harsh Arizona desert.
It was founded in the early 1970s to curb the flow of marijuana into the US from Mexico and has since tracked people-smugglers across hundreds of square miles of the Tohono O’odham tribal reservation, southwest of Tucson.
Harold Thompson, a Navajo Indian, and Gary Ortega, from the Tohono reservation, are experts at “cutting sign”, the traditional Indian method of finding and following minute clues from a barren landscape. They can detect twigs snapped by passing humans or hair snagged on a branch and tell how long a sliver of food may have lain in the dirt.
Some military experts want the Shadow Wolves to help to track down Bin Laden. Despite a $25m bounty on his head and the use of billions of dollars worth of sophisticated equipment — including pilotless drones, electronic sensors, infrared cameras and satellite surveillance — US forces have so far failed to fulfil President Bush’s promise to capture Bin Laden “dead or alive”.
But a senior US official insisted last week that Bin Laden’s trail had “not gone stone cold”.
Vice-Admiral Mike McConnell, the new US director of national intelligence, told a Senate committee that Bin Laden and his lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, were setting up new training camps in northwestern Pakistan.
A legacy of murder and rape and brutal enslavement would be well respected in the Hindu Kush.
Lacking vital supplies, Scurry could no longer continue his march on Fort Union so he retreated to Santa Fe. Two weeks later, General Sibley ordered his army to retreat from Santa Fe and relinquished control of Albuquerque. There was no further Confederate attempt to invade the western territories. The Battle of Glorieta Pass had decided conclusively that the West would remain with the Union.
I was born in America. I'm a Native American. If you really want to be PC, you can call the remnants of the aboriginal peoples of the western hemisphere First Nations.
Nothing like playing fair. Telling the enemy what we will do before we do it. We are hunting you Osama and here are the people who are going to sniff you out. The media needs to stop passing the enemy cheat notes.
Just give them free reign, no restrictions, let them kill whom they wish, and give them the reward plus all the honor and thanks we can bestow.
I have always been interested in my heritage... But all I was ever told was that I had Cherokee and Irish blood in me... (something like 1/8 to 1/16 Cherokee)... and was told of the 'trail of Tears', not much of it though... There was also something mentioned about having 'Black Dutch' in me... but I have NO idea what that is; (I am as Caucasian as anyone can get)...
Would love if anyone could help me trace my family line... if anyone is interested, please PM me :D
Maybe we can borrow Florida State's eagle feather lance.
I second your wish re Osama.
Well said C No. 4. Until the leadership understands and adapts to these cultural complexities we're gonna keep shootin' at shadows.
I read the book "Ride The Wind" about Cynthia Ann Parker. It was supposed to be a true story. According to the story she did die of a broken heart. Best book I ever read and I've read it several times.
I was under the impression those skills were largely lost, I mean driving to the local Albertsons, Safeway, or Kroger store for groceries isn't exactly like tracking game. As far as tracking drug and people smugglers along the US border with Mexico just follow the litter trail.
You've said it all here bro.....and your words are dead on correct.....
Tonto smiles.
And of course "we" were so noble in our actions, and so honest in our treaties?
I'll bet that picture is just as cute, viewed from the other side!
Exactly my thoughts!
Actually, I wouldn't be at all surprised if any of our more dedicated troops couldn't do this job. The biggest obstacle is our own political correctness and our own ability to blab our plans. The boys are more afraid of liberal lawyers than they are the enemy. Sending Native Americans in sounds nice but if they do get sent in, someone better change the rules of engagement and allow a little ruthlessness or they won't be any more successful than anyone else. Also, the mission better be top top top secret.
You might want to check out this Comanche's web site.
He is a university professor and a staunch conservative warrior.
Only two years earlier the great Sioux uprising in Minnesota had left as many as 800 Whites dead, old men, women and children. Many more were taken captive. Each morning the captors would walk through the encampments and select the women who were to be taken out and raped all day. Husbands and fathers watched helplessly. To the south Navajo mayhem in the Rio Grande Valley has resulted in Kit Carson herding them to the Bosque Redondo. The civilians on the Santa Fe trail were under constant attack. Texas was aflame and drenched in blood, forcing the line of settlement to recede 200 miles. There were graves of families the length of the Platte. This was the setting in Denver, 1864.
After several particularly brutal murders of families on the outskirts if Denver itself, the citizens there demanded relief. With few regulars available, a force of volunteers was recruited by Chivington (an avowed Indian hater) from the saloons and mining camps around Denver, the dregs of the dregs. They headed east, looking for trouble. They cut the trails of at least four war parties headed for Black Kettle's camp. Black Kettle had surrendered and was camping as directed. There were few men in camp, the rest “hunting”. Black Kettle was to admit later that he knew that raiders were hiding in his camp but claimed that he could not control them..
What happened next was understandable and yet inexcusable. The camp was attacked and between 70 and 250 Indians were killed. Some whites, including most of the regular army refused to participate. The drunks and derelicts murdered innocents and children and in some cases mutilated the bodies in horrendous manners. It was unquestionably an atrocity.
When the story of what really happened got out, even the people of Denver were outraged. The resulting hearings cost Governor Evans his job and Chivington his reputation but no prison time was afforded to anyone. The whole nation recoiled at what they had done. The Cheyenne went on a killing spree of retaliation and another 200 or so whites were murdered. The only nobility in the whole episode was in the men who refused to participate.
Dee Brown's books are an agenda driven portrayal. They opened the door for people like Wade Churchill. They are good history but not great history.
Badeagle.com is a outstanding site. I thank you for it and have "book marked" it.
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