Copyright © 2000 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

San Carlos Apache Moccasin, Glove, Arizona

Dear Editor:

        The desecration of a sacred Apache mountain, Mount Graham, and the NASA/Mars failures have much in common.

        U.S. Congressman Jim Kolbe of Tucson, master of astronomy pork for the University of Arizona (UofA) inserted clandestine language in a 1997 bill designating $10 million in NASA funds for the UofA large binocular telescope on Mt. Graham. This would have diverted money from ongoing quality NASA research in Hawaii and spent it on junk science using a marginal UofA Mt. Graham telescope still years from completion. Clinton smelled the pork and vetoed it, but Congress retaliated by removing Clinton's line-item veto.

        Congress funnels as much NASA cash as possible to their back-home universities, even when it means bad science NASA doesn't want.

        Scientists knew Mt. Graham was a science blunder early on. It was abandoned by 20 key, leading U.S. universities because of its heavy cloud cover, monsoons, snowstorms, and poor optical quality. Furthermore, construction failures and delays have habitually plagued UofA-built telescope mirrors.

        UofA now languishes in 11th or last place in the world race to build the giant eight-meter telescopes. UofA falsely advertised Mt. Graham to Congress as a science breakthrough just so Congress would exempt it from U.S. environmental and religious protection law. Withouth qualms, UofA rode roughsod over the cultural beliefs and many protests of the Apache.

        Let us hope Congress and NASA have better sense than to again sponsor bonzo science on Mt. Graham. No wonder they never got to Mars.

Elise Lauster
Phoenix

Reduce Cynicism

        With the year and the millennium coming to a close, I find myself reflecting in my own cynicism. Where did it come from?

        I've blamed it on the politicians. I've blamed it on the president. Then I blamed it on the press.

        In my wildest dreams, I never would have thought of blaming institutions of learning for my cynicism. Yet the evidence seems overwhelming.

        Take for instance the recent news of the Amphitheater School District fighting tooth and nail to destroy desert habitat.

        When it won the owl suit, it fired up the bulldozers before the ink dried on the court's ruling. What a great message to pass on to school kids!

        Amphi not only made me cynical -- it managed to teach generations of kids to be cynical, as well. Kids now know that above all else, money talks!

        Of course, this is just the most recent manifestation of that line of thinking. This proud tradition goes back to the Uiversity of Arizona's rabid attack on the Endangered Species Act; it converted Mount Graham's summit from prime red squirrel habitat to prime astronomer habitat.

        Never mind the biological evidence; never mind the Apache claims; and above all else, never mind doing "the right thing".

        The message we seem to want our children to hear is: Win at all costs. We create monuments to education by creating monumental destruction.

        I think we can do better and perhaps have fewer reasons to be cynical in the new millennium.

Jack Dykinga

Disrespect matched only by U of Arizona

Dear Editor,

        We Apaches are being told to give up our water rights to the nearby towns of Safford and Globe. These are the same communities that have systematically dismembered and disregarded our reservation since 1871.

        Anglo settlers took from us the rich farmland where Safford is today, claiming we were undeserving primitives.

        In fact, U.S. Indian Agent Michael Steck, in 1860, remarked upon the Apaches' "advanced state of agriculture" there. For generations we had grown corn, squash and specialty crops there. Our fields extended as far as the eye could see according to early military accounts.

        The first thing the army did was burn our crops so we would be dependent on reservation hand-outs. Within two years after we were forced on to the San Carlos Reservation an Order of President Grant took away our farmlands.

        Miners in Globe and elsewhere obtained Presidential Orders devouring huge portions of our reservation in 1874, 1876 and 1902.

        Adding insult to injury, Safford has spent thousands promoting telescopes on top of our sacred Dzil Nchaa Si An (Mount Graham). Incredibly, Safford built a telescope museum glorifying this open disregard for our beliefs.

        It took the Civil Rights Act of the 60s to start to get rid of the NO DOGS HERE, NO APACHE signs in Globe and Safford.

        Arizona was essentially the last state to allow Indians to vote -- even after we gave our lives in two World Wars.

        This disrespect is only matched by the University of Arizona being the first and only U.S. university to sneak a rider through Congress exempting a Native American people from all cultural and religious protection laws.

        Manifest Destiny is alive and well in Arizona.

Audrey Johnson
Arizona