Debate With USA Raptor Education? Foundation
The following are from an email exchange I had with USAREF Board of Director Peter Reshetniak, who never would identify himself by name or his function (of course if I had made such racially inflammatory statements, blindly repeated misinformation, and immaturely replied in all caps I wouldn't want anyone to know who I was either)
but a bit of "legwork" on my part made it clear who I was talking with. Sadly people like Peter are actually teaching this kind of misinformation and cultural/religious abolition to school children in Colorado.
After seeing USAREF's website with such outrageous, racially insensitive, and inflammatory remarks, such as claiming the US government was sponsoring the Hopi religious beliefs, comparing the Hopi religion to human sacrifice,
calling for a ban on Hopi religion(and not just from Wupatki National Monument which ironically is a Hopi name and former village never ceded by them to the US) to include even eaglets captured on Hopi and Navajo land (which USAREF or anyone else have NO say in), accusing the Hopi of "theft and butchery" and other rhetoric more commonly used by anti-Indian/anti-treaty organizations and/or White Supremacist groups.
USAREF printed my original letter but cowardly never printed their obscene reply or any of my follow up replies, but then again they probably don't want the educators that ask them to their schools to see what USAREF really thinks beneath the (not so hidden) rhetoric on their website.
My Initial Letter to USAREF
Dang, you people are quite racially insensitive and ignorant
of the facts to boot ...
Fact: The Hopi get NO money from the government to take
Golden Eagles, it costs you zip, zero, nada .... stop
inciting racial hatred based on money, that's even worse
than the initial crime ....
Fact: The land they are taking them from is HOPI land, it
was stolen and you'll find NO treaty that ceded that land
..... if you *really* had a sense of justice you would
demand the US gave it back to the rightful and lawful owners
who never ceded the title to that land, the Hopi (I suppose
they can go to court and just win it back but the present
*compromise* of allowing them a small number of eaglets per
year seems a more than fair bargain for you) .....
Fact: The Hopi take eaglets ONLY from nests with two
eaglets, as one of those eaglets will be KILLED ANYWAY by
the dominant one sibling ...... I would think you so-called
"experts" would know this (You probably do but *that*
wouldn't fit into your agenda, while ignoring this fact
will) .....
Fact: Comparing this to the sacrifice of virgins would be
considered racist if said about any other race than American
Indian (What can be expected from a nation whose football
team in the capital city is called "Redskins", calling
Indians "redskins" is the equivalent of calling Blacks
"n*ggers")
Fact: You people need to get your priorities straight and
fight the *real* environmental problems that are *really*
harming eagles (selling your cars and computers would be an
excellent start) and leave the Hopi, who haven't started a
war in several hundred years(I bet you wish you could say
that about *your* nation huh, you can't even make it a
decade) to what they have always been, a peaceful people who
by your own figures have taken on average less than 15 birds
per year, birds that would have died anyway from their own
sibling ...
John Russell
Council Circle (Board of Directors)
CERTAIN - Coalition to End Racial Targeting of American
Indian Nations
www.certain-natl.org
Below is the first response from USAREF (actually from Peter Reshetniak) and further responses to it from myself and also a couple from Bill Havens, a former employee of the Hopi Nation. Bill's comments aren't official Hopi response, nor does he make that claim, but included because Bill, as a former employee of the Hopi, is very familiar with the Hopi and the facts surrounding their beliefs, ceremonies and traditions.
Mr. Reshetniak's reply is easy to spot as he somehow felt the need to "yell" by using all caps in everything he wrote (All caps is commonly considered yelling and very rude in email usage) My replies will be in bold black, Bill Havens' replies in red and addition notes I added will be in blue.
Dang you people are quite racially insensitive and ignorant of the facts to boot ...
EVERYBODY IS QUICK TO YELL RACISM WHEN - JUST DON'T GET CAUGHT TELLING THE
TRUTH ABOUT A DEPLORABLE PRACTICE - BUT THEN YOU ARE OBVIOUSLY SO SENSITIVE(Note: I never said he was a racist but was being racially insensitive, but if the shoe fits...)
People who yell the loudest about the "truth" and deny
others their right to have opinions are usually just
mouthing propaganda because they're too stupid,
bigoted, or narrow minded to have an original thought.
Fact: The Hopi get NO money from the government to take
Golden Eagles, it costs you zip, zero, nada .... stop
inciting racial hatred based on money, that's even worse
than the initial crime ....
WRONG: BEING GIVEN PERMISSION BY THE GOVERNMENT TO TAKE A
RESOURCE FROM ITS
CITIZENRY IS A DIRECT SUBSIDY, THAT IN THIS CASE IS
INVALUABLE -- AND THE
GOVERNMENT'S OWN VALUATION FOR THIS TYPE OF CRIME IS
$500,000--
Talk about circular and specious arguments, this one takes
the cake, because the Hopi are given the right to take
eaglets the loss of a fine that doesn't apply now anyway is
somehow a loss to the taxpayer??? Sheesh ....
John is right here. And, the government is not
"giving permission" to the Hopis, it is actually
trying to expand its authority by claiming to have the
right to "give permission." The denial of access to
Wupatki for eagle gathering purposes is only a recent
phenomenon. It's an obvious attempt on the part of the
Park Service to flex its muscles. Now, they want to
permanently extend their authority over the Hopis by
creating the legal myth of "giving permission."
Fact: The land they are taking them from is HOPI land, it
was stolen and you'll find NO treaty that ceded that land
..... if you *really* had a sense of justice you would
demand the US gave it back to the rightful and lawful
owners who never ceded the title to that land, the Hopi (I
suppose they can go to court and just win it back but the present
*compromise* of allowing them a small number of eaglets
per year seems a more than fair bargain for you) .....
WRONG:MAY HAVE BEEN HOPI LAND, BUT THEY COLLECT FROM
NAVAJO LAND, BLM LAND ETC...SMALL NUMBER OF EAGLETS, TO THE POINT THAT NO MORE
EAGLES ARE AVAILABLE IN MANY OF THE AREAS THEY COLLECT FROM, NOW THEY
ARE TRYING TO EXPAND THAT AREA--CHECK YOUR FACTS
They can legally and have permission to take eaglets on
these lands and since they are American Indian lands by
treaty YOU HAVE NO SAY in those lands anyway, again short on
facts. There is only one SMALL area out of American Indian
jurisdiction they take eaglets and that are the stolen Hopi
lands never ceded. CHECK YOUR FACTS, the Hopi have taken
eaglets from what is now stolen National Park land for
hundreds of years before there was a US or Eurocentric
cultural imperialists to try to tell them they can't ....
notice throughout those centuries the eagles weren't in
danger, that is YOUR fault as a society NOT the Hopi .....
(Note: Three times as many eagles are killed at Altamont Pass Wind Generating station in California and dozens of times as many eagles are killed by high voltage transmission lines as taken by the Hopi, no where on the USAREF site is this EVER mentioned. The Question is WHY and why are they only concerned with the few the Hopi take when hundreds more are being killed yearly elsewhere?)
Your information is wrong. This is NOT an expansion.
In reality, eagle gathering at Wupatki and the entire
aboriginal territory of the Hopis has been going on
for hundreds of years without damaging the eagle
population, to the extent that the Hopis are actually
part of the ecological balance of the area.
If there is any truth to the claim that the eagle
population in the region is depleted, it is certainly
not the Hopis who are the culprits. If there are any
culprits contributing to depleting the eagle
population, it's the Navajos with their overgrazing
tendencies and the encroaching non-Indian communities.
By destroying the habitat of the primary food supply
of the eagles by overgrazing, eagles have to move on
to greater food supplies. But, I don't believe that
the eagle population has been depleted.
Fact: The Hopi take eaglets ONLY from nests with two
eaglets, as one of those eaglets will be KILLED ANYWAY by
the dominant one sibling ...... I would think you
so-called "experts" would know this (You probably do but *that*
wouldn't fit into your agenda, while ignoring this fact
will) .....
WRONG AGAIN--READ THE AUDBON STORY IN OUR WEB SITE, AND
THEY ADMIT TO TAKING BOTH-READ THE BIOLOGISTS SURVEYS THAT SHOW THE EAGLES ARE
NOT THERE FOR THE TAKING..
Sheesh the Audubon story was so fraught with error that I
can't go into them all, it would take more space than the
original error filled article. First and foremost the
"source" was a white guy who owns a business trading
American Indian style of goods and secondly the author is a
pro-hunting writer and has long had a outside agenda against
American Indians ie. - white hunter like him good, Indian
hunters bad .....
(Note: The Audubon story is addressed elsewhere on this site)
Fact: Comparing this to the sacrifice of virgins would be
considered racist if said about any other race than
American Indian (What can be expected from a nation whose football
team in the capital city is called "Redskins", calling
Indians "redskins" is the equivalent of calling Blacks
"n*ggers")
ANTHROPOLOGISTS HAVE INFERRED, THIS SMALL GROUP OF HOPI
ARE USING EAGLE SACRIFICES IN PLACE OF SACRIFICING CHILDREN--SUPPOSE YOU
WANT THEM TO CONTINUE THAT GREAT TRADITION?
Oh they "inferred" but no where in Hopi legends or
traditions is this ever said. It's pure speculation based on
scant evidence and mostly conjecture. It's pure 100%
all-American bull and I think you know that is true ... simply repeating such a lie doesn't make it any more true.
"Anthropologists have inferred..." Oops, sorry. That
shouldn't get quotation marks. Maybe this is better:
"ANTHROPOLOGISTS HAVE INFERRED..." Whoa, that's
really going to turn me around, straighten me out and
put me on the right track. Now there's proof
positive. The anthropologists are so reliable and
trustworthy and scientific. You people really are a
bunch of idiots. You believe this shit? Just what
"anthropologists have inferred?" Who are they? I'd
sure like to confront them!
This is the most outrageous stuff I have ever heard
thrown out about the Hopis. Sacrificing children!? I
have never known a people who care more about children
than the Hopis.
You know, I sure get tired of morons who are too lazy
to do their own research making stupid claims based on
the idiotic statements of other morons. I have lost
any respect I may have had for the Audubon Society.
Fact: You people need to get your priorities straight and
fight the *real* environmental problems that are *really*
harming eagles (selling your cars and computers would be
an excellent start) and leave the Hopi, who haven't started a
war in several hundred years(I bet you wish you could say
that about *your* nation huh, you can't even make it a
decade) to what they have always been, a peaceful people
who by your own figures have taken on average less than 15
birds per year, birds that would have died anyway from their own
sibling ...
THIS SMALL GROUP OF HOPI ARE WARRING AGAINST A DEFENSELESS
POPULATION OF RAPTOR- CHECK YOUR FACTS AND READ THE COMMENTS OTHER
NATIVE AMERICANS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS DEPLORABLE PRACTICE....DELUSIONS ABOUT
ANYBODY (INDIAN OR OTHERWISE) AND SOME OF THEIR PRACTICES IS TYPICAL OF THOSE
INVERTEBRATES AMONG OUR SPECIES WHO CANNOT ADMIT SOMETHING THINGS ARE
JUST PLAIN WRONG...SORRY- KEEP TRYING- BUT IT IS NICE TO SEE YOU
STILL HAVE NOT GIVEN UP YOUR COMPUTER OR DID THIS COME VIA SMOKE SIGNALS.
Hopi are warring against NO ONE and if you think a Golden
Eagle is defenseless *you* try going near their nests. Again
note that the Hopi take only from nests with two eaglets (exactly
why they have to use a wide area so as to not harm the
overall populations) and one of those eaglets is GOING TO
DIE ANYWAY from it's own sibling. That's a fact and I think
you know it's a fact, I can cite several sources from well
known and respected authorities on the behavior of Golden Eagles
that will back up this FACT, the dominant eaglet in a two
eaglet nest will kill it's own sibling. All the Hopi do is
take an eaglet that is already going to die soon and use it
in a ceremony you have NO RIGHT to condemn simply because it
isn't part of *your* culture. I suggest you go look up the
term "cultural imperialism" so you are more able to
recognize it in yourself ....
You claim not to be a racist and then attack me by using
racial stereotypes about "smoke signals". Are you *really*
this blind to how racially insensitive *that * is? Cute but
not very good politics or public relations, I've forwarded
this to several other groups that fight racism as well as a
couple of my local papers.
Aaahh, the pitfalls of trying to create your own
propaganda. You're not very good at it are you?
"Warring against defenseless......" It reeks of
nauseating sentimentality. Cheap analogies. You may
have for your own reasons put "raptors" on a pedestal
to be revered and worshiped. It may be self-evident to
you that they deserve special protection. I would
really like to know why they are more deserving than
any other of God's creatures.
CHECK YOUR FACTS
Give me the facts. Obviously, your "facts" are
different than my "facts."
Our society has been indoctrinated to revere the great
birds of prey. I too think they are deserving of our
respect, admiration, and protection. But, please
remember why this happened, why they need our
protection, why they were brought to the brink of
extinction; it was us. It was "we" non-Indian
Americans who made a sport out of killing them off.
First we demonized them, then we trapped, shot, and
poisoned them almost to extinction as vermin, pests.
Then we proudly displayed their carcasses on our
barbed wire fences to prove what great and powerful
men we were. This is why the great birds of prey need
protection; they need protection from us, NOT from the
Hopis.
"We" are the last people who should be "giving
permission" to the Hopis for anything, least of all
for eagle gathering within their own aboriginal
territory.
Let's see, it's "barbaric" to kill for one's gods but
it's righteous to kill millions upon millions of
creatures for a holiday commemorating our invasion of
this continent.
And don't give me the "turkeys aren't an endangered
species" line. Golden Eagles are no longer endangered,
either. How do you determine which lifeform deserves
more protection than another. Is it because eagles are
the sacred symbol of our nation? How do we get to the
point of making a sacred icon out of one creature
while we slaughter others by the billions? (Chickens,
Turkeys, Beef cows, Calves (Veal), Lambs, etc.)
Who can really say that satisfying our craving for the
flesh of other creatures is somehow more acceptable or
righteous behavior than an occasional sacrifice of a
bird.
John Russell
Council Circle (Board of Directors)
CERTAIN - Coalition to End Racial Targeting of American
Indian Nations
www.certain-natl.org
And at least have the guts to sign your responses to me
like a responsible person would do and it's considered rude
and childish to print in all caps, it's the equivalent of
yelling and quite frankly, totally unbecoming from *any*
group that claims to be working in anything's best interests
....
John Russell
Final Responses
Final Response from USAREF (or more of the same racial rhetoric and personal insults to detract from the facts)
CAPS ARE TO INSURE SURE YOU DON'T CONFUSE MY RESPONSES--YOU ARE VERY GOOD AT
CONFUSING FACTS... AND SO SENSITIVE TOO, CONFUSING CAPS WITH YELLING- IF
YOUR COMMAND OF THE ISSUES WAS HALF AS WELL RESEARCHED AS THE AUDUBON
ARTICLE, YOUR ARGUMENTS MIGHT COMMAND A LITTLE RESPECT, BUT THE WAY YOU
PRESENT THEM, IT IS VERY OBVIOUS YOU ONLY LOOK AT FACTS THAT SUPPORT YOUR
DELUSIONAL PREMISES. I'LL STICK WITH MY RESOURCES AND EXPERIENCE-THANKS.
YOU PRESENT YOURSELF LIKE THE TYPICAL EUROPHOBE LIVING IN THE PAST WHICH YOU
USE TO JUSTIFY EVERYTHING-WHITE GUY BAD, EVERYBODY ELSE GOOD-WE WILL POST
YOUR RESPONSE ON OUR WEB SITE- AS WELL, IN THE APPROPRIATE SECTION- LET
PEOPLE DECIDE WHOSE REASONING IS REASONABLE........THANKS FOR THE RESPONSE,
IT IS A PLEASURE TO SEE THAT "CULTURAL IMPERIALISM" EXISTS ON YOUR SIDE AS
WELL--BY THE WAY, YOU STILL HAVE NOT DUMPED YOUR COMPUTER, BUT IT APPEARS
THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE THE 'GUTS' TO OPERATE BY YOUR CONVICTIONS....
AND NO WHERE IN ANY OF YOUR ARGUMENTS IS THERE A RESPONSE TO THE FACT, THAT
ON ITS FACE, LIVE SACRIFICES BY ANYONE IS BARBARIC, INSENSITIVE, SPECIES
PROFILING- OR SPECIESIST, ARGUE ALL YOU WANT-ANYBODY WHO HAS TO KILL
SOMETHING TO SATISFY THEIR GODS IS LIVING IN A VERY SAD PAST, BUT I GUESS I
SAID THAT ALREADY...
GREETINGS FROM PETER
My final response to USAREF (I did send them several other emails with *real* facts on eagles, their *real* threats and the Constitutionally and United Nations recognized rights of American Indians to freely practice their religion protected from harassment from the dominant culture.)
Hey I was going to post your answers on our web site also as
yet another example of racism and racist rhetoric amongst
the animal rights Nazis (thanks for using racial
stereotypes/epithets like "smoke signals" and "barbaric",
gee you forgot savage ay?) Facts are the Audubon article
was pathetically researched, had ZERO backing evidence
(official golden eagle counts, names of *real* people, etc)
and was mostly based on hearsay, conjecture and the usual
emotionalism used to bash American Indians. It had little to
do with the 16 eaglets the Hopi take yearly or the one or two they want to take from the park and instead concentrated on "red herring" issues like
poaching which are totally *unrelated* to the Hopi eaglet
rituals. I've noticed the recent trend from the
environmental/animal rights fringe groups that seem to need
to bash American Indians and allude that we are less than
"connected" with the earth and her environment now that we
as a people don't goose step to your fascist little tune.
And the most important fact I have to teach you .... We as
American Indians have the most important "weapon" for saving
the environment, our treaties. And you, by your ignorance
and racial biases, are going to be left out of the picture.
In Minnesota *our* treaties were used to save the wolves
that *your* culture nearly wiped out. In Wisconsin *our*
treaties were used to save the walleye from your culture's
mining practices. In Washington state *our* treaties are
currently being used to save the salmon from the dams *your*
culture erected. In California, Arizona, Montana, Utah, and
several other states *our* treaties are being used to save
the rivers and groundwater *your* culture has polluted or
overused. We didn't wipe out the buffalo but it was mostly
us that brought them back from near extinction. Instead of
joining us in these things that will save infinitely more
eagles than your racist ban on Hopi spiritual beliefs that
you don't understand nor have any right to judge, you
instead choose to concentration on 15-16 eaglets per year
because the emotionalism and racial bias that goes along
with it is helluva a way to gain monetary support and push
the right "buttons" on people who are looking for any and
all excuses to bash American Indians. Facts are we are the
victims of racial violence at a level 2 1/2 to 3 times
higher than the rest of the population. The rates of racial
violence against us has been continuously on the rise in the
last 10 years while it has gone down for every other group.
People like you are only adding fuel to this fire of racial
violence by playing to people's base emotions with issues
like this with your use of racially based rhetoric ......
We are going to move forward without you as we really don't
need another group of imperialists telling us how we should
do things, we managed on our own for several millennia and
we will manage fine without you now. I know it pains you to
no end that you can't control us any longer but there it is
.... You can stand with us or you can stand against us but
either way you have NO RIGHT to tell us how to live
spiritually or culturally ....
I did notice that my quip on cars and computers, two of your
culture's most valued objects, sure made you pissangry
kinda know how we feel now when *you* tell us how to live
... difference is I don't attack *your* religious and
spiritual beliefs, too bad I can't same the same about you.
Here's my final fact. FACT: American Indian religions and
spiritual beliefs were illegal until 1978 but we got the
American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 into law and
restored the rights which you have for over 200 years taken for
granted. We sure as hell aren't going to give up or
compromise those rights to a handful radical and racially
insensitive goons ......
John Russell
PS. - Lose the caps, they make you look childishly immature
and that you feel a need to yell when you have little
backing facts for your arguments .....