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331 Will the Winters Commitment to Justice Endure? It Depends on Us  Regis Pecos Editors’ note: Mr. Pecos began his talk in his native language of Cayuse. Ibegan my presentation in my native language of Cayuse because it’s only appropriate, as I try to articulate one cultural perspective with regard to something as precious as water—the giver of all life—is, that I recognize all those who have gone before as I begin this presentation. I want to begin at a point important to us as native people. And that is to go back to that time of creation. When the Creator gave us all of the tools, all of the various gifts that include land, that include people, that include a way of life—water was one of those special gifts of the Creator that defines for us our core values. There is a story—people may reflect it as a myth or a legend—but a creation story that speaks about two spirits that upon the creation would walk with the people through their journey of life. Spirits that represent the very fundamental level—one that has to do about love and the other spirit the opposite, about hate; one spirit about peace and the other spirit that we might define as war; one spirit about proper stewardship and the other spirit about exploitation; one spirit about community, the other spirit about individualism; one spirit about compassion and the other spirit about the lack thereof; one spirit about respect and the other spirit about disrespect; and on and on and chapter 17 332 PART IV on. But forever these two would come at different parts along this journey to sometimes clash in ways that create incredible challenges. I want to come back full circle to that point and the way in which our forefathers over time have given their lives to fulfill that responsibility in sustaining all of the core values that the Creator gave us. And as our forefathers have taught us, when colonizers came from the east, from the north, from the west, from the south and began the imposition and the infringement of redefining the perspectives and attitudes toward those core values. As a classic example here among our Pueblo people, as the Spanish colonizers forced their values upon the Pueblo people, the Pueblo leadership in their wisdom and vision, in order that their form of government would survive, embraced the Spanish form of government. That results in many of us carrying the names of Spanish governors, lieutenant governors, but the framework of what is internal to our communities is still represented in a very strong way that cares for the traditionalcalendar -yearround,thatengagesallofustosustainthosecorevalues.As forcedasitmighthavebeen,theleadersatthattimeembracedCatholicism,that the traditional way of life might be preserved. Today and since that time, that union resulted in the formation of theocracies; there is no separation of church and state in our carrying out our responsibilities to fulfill the sustaining of those core values. Over time that has resulted in the change in our communities internally in regard to our own perspectives of our core values and the treatment there of those core values that results in the kind of challenges we face today. In the past several days there have been incredibly profound discussions on the topic of water and water rights. But significantly absent from those discussions is a perspective of the people with regard to the meaning of water, and I hope that I can share some insight with regard to the way in which federal policies over time, beginning with boarding schools and the assimilation policies, resulted in a very fragile set of circumstances in which we find ourselves today. As we take a look at the Winters doctrine in 1908, New Mexico became part of the union in 1912, when various degrees of prohibition of the practice of native religion were still in place. As we moved through the 1930s and the Indian Reorganization Act, imposing a constitutional framework that results in elections, the lasting impact of that democratic process is the kind of fragmentation of people that drives a wedge in our communities. It separates church and state in ways that have lasting impacts with regard to our own internal views of our core values. In times of war, the diminished level of support in fulfilling the government ’s responsibility to Indian people resulted in the kind of policies that [18.191.41.236] Project MUSE (2024-04-26 11...

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