John Dougherty’s article
“Problems in Paradise” paints an unfair picture of the
Havasupai people (HCN, 5/28/07). He and another writer, Annette
McGivney in Backpacker magazine, make us sound
like a lawless community, with gangs running amok. Supai Village is
a community where all of us feel safer letting our children out of
our sight to play or go to school than we would feel even in
Flagstaff. This is a place where we and our visitors don’t
have to worry about ourselves the way we would in Phoenix or Los
Angeles.
One year ago, the terrible murder of Tomomi
Hanamure took place on our reservation. It shocked and grieved us,
and even more when we learned one of our people might have done it.
Never once in more than 200 years of contact with non-Indians had
any of us taken one of their lives, whatever the provocation. We
were very proud of that fact.
We are a private people,
and suddenly dozens of reporters were clamoring to see the
“savages” and point cameras at us. They threatened to
disturb the crime scene to the point that the FBI asked us to keep
them out. None of us knew what to say or how to handle it. We were
in shock. All we wanted was for people to leave us alone to come to
terms with this horrible loss while the investigators did their
job. We prayed for Tomomi Hanamure’s soul to send her home to
her people.
We strive to make our lives the best that we
can and to keep our home a place that we are proud to share with
our visitors. Your readers need to understand that we would not
want to live in an unsafe place. Maybe people think because we are
Havasupai and we live on the bottom of a canyon that we are
different. We are not. We love our families and our children the
same as you, and we feel blessed to live where we do.
Terrible acts take place every day in the cities of the world. Here
it happens one time and reporters are still coming after us a year
later, trying to make us look as if we are all at fault. What are
they after? Do they crave recognition whatever the cost to us? When
do we say our own people can no longer swim at the falls, even on
our own land, because reporters like Dougherty and McGivney make
people afraid of us?
Anything that happens in the country
and the world affects us. If the president should decide to divert
money and manpower to the borders or to Iraq, it affects how many
police we can have or whether we get better health care or support
for our school. When American youth begin making and using
amphetamines, before long they arrive here. When American
television shows hour after hour of violence, it appears on our
screens, too. Influences like this do not fit our culture and hurt
our young people. These issues face many communities, including
yours. We are well aware of them, and we have been working to deal
with them. Last year, we approached the Bureau of Indian Affairs
for more law enforcement officers, but met delays and excuses.
While we are still hoping they will honor their obligations to help
us keep our community a good place, we are also looking at whether
we need to operate our own law enforcement program.
Law
enforcement, however, only makes a partial solution for our young
people in trouble. Even if they are a small number, we care about
them. Substance abuse counseling, mental health services and
conflict resolution all offer ways to recover these young people.
Our school needs to reinforce our values. We are not a wealthy
community, so it is not easy to put everything we want in place,
but we are making every effort.
We feel blessed to be
born Havasupai and see a bright future for our people. Visitors
have always come to us for who we are. We welcome them, proud to
share our canyon home with the world.
Havasupai
Tribal Council
Edmond Tilousi, Bernadine Jones, Colleen
Kaska, Carletta Tilousi, Joe Watahomigie, Leandra
Wescogame
Supai, Arizona
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Blessed to be born Havasupai.
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