What I once thought was a... «The Pale-Faced Lie»
cat_on_the_shelf22 января 2022What I once thought was a useless profession now fascinated me. It occurred to me that the Navajo people were victims of the worst of the political system, and even the people who wanted to help them didn’t have a clue what they were about. These misguided civil servants reminded me of the easterners who came to the reservation to experience the pure Native American spirit, to touch Mother Earth and Father Sky, only to find that Navajos lived in third-world poverty with little hope of better lives. They left as soon as possible, never to return.
I grew up hating the BIA. Bureaucrats controlled every aspect of Navajo life, taking away most of their freedom under the guise of knowing what was best for them. It hadn’t worked. Surely there had to be a better way.
No one influenced me more than Mr. Ashcroft. During our many afternoon conversations at the trading post, he’d tell me about the Navajos, how they were butchered like animals during the Long Walk, similar to what Evelyn had told us. When the Navajos were allowed to go back to their sacred lands, Mr. Ashcroft said the government rounded up their sheep, their greatest source of pride and income, and burned them in pits while they stood and wept. The BIA said they got rid of the sheep to prevent erosion, but all they needed to do was return the land to the rightful owners—the Navajos—and they would have solved the problem.
The Anglo government took away the Navajos’ livelihood and dignity, giving them welfare and unemployment instead.
“Be careful whenever everything is given to you,” Mr. Ashcroft said. “Because then you’ll be totally beholden to your masters.”
What he said was true. His stories made me understand the unhappy faces I saw. Nothing about the rules helped the Navajo people.
An even more blatant example of the government’s hypocrisy was their role in regulating alcohol. The politicians and bureaucrats pretended to care about alcoholism but allowed minors to drink with adults all day and all night. They just opened more jail cells and operated additional paddy wagons, letting the drunks back out in time for Sam and me to fire cherry bombs at them. As Dad said, “Half the PhDs in the country study Indian alcoholism, but nothing changes. No one in the government really gives a shit. They just want the tax revenue.”
Things always seemed to get worse when the government took on too big a role. I wanted to work to change that.
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