Honolulu, and Even More Snow in Oklahoma

This was taken the morning I flew out of Honolulu.







A few hours ago in Glenpool, Oklahoma in the predicted "light snow". We'd just passed a car that was upside down in a culvert.






Yesterday in the tribal complex. Three Muscogee Nation News columnists, all with overdue columns: Alfred Berryhill, me, and Ted Isham.

Free On-Line Program for Native Americans Living with Diabetes

FREE ON-LINE PROGRAM FOR
NATIVE AMERICANS LIVING WITH DIABETES
http://indiandiabetes.stanford.edu

The Stanford University Patient Education Research Center has a new on-line workshop and study for people living with type 2 diabetes. Due to the high rates of Diabetes among Native Americans, Stanford is offering workshops for Native Americans. This will allow participants to receive free diabetes self-management materials, receive free lab tests, done entirely over the Internet. Stanford University has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to examine an Internet based diabetes self-management program. There is no cost associated with participating in the study.

I have included information about this program below. Please let me know if you have any questions, and please feel free to pass the information along to anyone you think could benefit from the program. We can also provide an article in a newsletter, or a banner graphic to accompany a web link. I’ve put the banner here for your viewing:

Thanks so much for your help.

Thanks,
Valarie Jernigan
Stanford Patient Education Center, Stanford University School of Medicine
1-800-366-2624

FREE ON-LINE PROGRAM FOR
NATIVE AMERICANS LIVING WITH DIABETES

If you have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, you are invited to take part in this free online workshop and study sponsored by the Stanford University School of Medicine. Recruitment and enrollment is now open, go to http://indiandiabetes.stanford.edu

Due to the high rates of diabetes among Native Americans, a special workshop will be offered for Native Americans, which will be led by Native American moderators representing different tribal groups from across the United States.

This online workshop teaches you the skills needed in the day-to-day management of diabetes as well as maintaining or increasing life's activities. Qualified participants will be randomly assigned to either participate in the workshop immediately or placed on the waiting list to participate within 6 months. Participants will complete 4 online questionnaires about their health over 18 months to determine the effectiveness of the program.

This six-week program is done entirely on the Internet - you choose the days and times that are most convenient for you. You don’t have to be a computer whiz to join; all levels of computer users are welcome. You will need access to the Internet and have an active email account to join. Participation involves logging on 2-3 times a week for six weeks, for a total of 1-2 hours a week..

If you have questions, please email diabetes@med.stanford.edu or call Valarie, Kate, Diana, or Katy toll free at 1-800-366-2624
Pre-registration is required and enrollment is limited. To register, visit us at: http://indiandiabetes.stanford.edu
or for more information email us at diabetes@med.stanford.edu

Sacred Land Action Alert

Peabody Energy & Office of Surface Mining Collude to Reopen Black Mesa Strip Mine

A few days before Christmas, the Office of Surface Mining unexpectedly released a 758-page Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on Peabody Energy's Black Mesa Mining complex. There is a lot of political pressure from the Salt River Project to reopen the shuttered Mohave power plant to provide electricity to Phoenix, and Peabody is trying to take advantage of this to obtain a "Life-of-Mine" permit to revive their Black Mesa Mine and restart the slurry line that we all worked 30 years to shut down. Comment letters are needed by February 6. A sample letter and full instructions along with additional information are below.

New Corporate Responsibility Report!

You can now download our new 80-page report Is Nothing Sacred? Corporate Responsibility for the Protection of Native American Sacred Sites, which contains detailed case studies on Indian Pass, Weatherman Draw, Medicine Lake, Black Mesa, Zuni Salt Lake and Cave Rock. The report was written by economist Lyuba Zarsky, with a foreword by native activist Winona LaDuke. It is aimed at corporations, investors, foundations, and activists in the field of socially responsible investment and corporate social responsibility. Read reviews in The New Standard and Common Dreams.

Six New Sacred Site Reports on our Website

Check out our six new site reports on the Altai Golden Mountains (Russia), McArthur River (Australia), Vilcanota Spiritual Park (Peru), Mecca (Saudi Arabia), Mount Sinai and the Monastery of St. Catherine (Egypt) and Dampier Archipelago (Australia).

Additional information regarding Peabody Energy and Black Mesa:

Peabody Energy and the Office of Surface Mining are planning to reopen the devastating Black Mesa Mine Project! The Hopi and Navajo need your help!

The Office of Surface Mining, the federal agency in charge of regulating mining in the United States, may allow coal giant Peabody Energy to once again drain the precious aquifers of Black Mesa in northern Arizona, sacred waters to the Hopi and Navajo and lifeblood of the region's fragile environment. Your comment letters are needed by February 6 (see sample letter below).

Details

The Office of Surface Mining (OSM) has issued a 758-page Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that assesses the impact of mining on the Coconino and Navajo Aquifers on Arizona's Black Mesa, in the heart of the Hopi and Navajo Nations. OSM's recommendations would pave the way for Peabody to reopen its Black Mesa Mine and with it the destructive coal slurry line that had dramatically drained the Navajo Aquifer for 30 years. What's at stake is a fragile ecosystem in the midst of drought, the drinking water for thousands of residents in the growing towns around the Colorado Plateau, and the cultural heritage of the Hopi and Navajo peoples.
The Black Mesa Project targets pristine groundwater to slurry coal to the Mohave Generating Station - a practice that the community opposed for three decades and succeeded in stopping last year. Despite the closure of the air-polluting Mohave power plant, and with no viable plans for reopening it, Peabody Energy and Salt River Project are moving forward with plans to re-start these destructive practices. This time, Peabody Energy and Salt River Project want to tap into the Coconino Aquifer (south of Black Mesa, between Flagstaff and Winslow) while also increasing access to the Navajo Aquifer, so that they can reopen the controversial coal slurry line from the Black Mesa Mine to the Mohave power plant in Laughlin, Nevada (273 miles to the west).

The Office of Surface Mining fast-tracked public hearings immediately after the holiday season in early January (precluding participation by Hopis who were participating in winter solstice ceremonies). The EIS public comment deadline is February 6.

Peabody's plan to use the Navajo and Coconino Aquifers to once again slurry coal to the Mohave Power Station is "Alternative A" (or most preferred) in OSM's draft EIS. Peabody's plan would mean that mining would expand into undeveloped areas, tap further into the Coconino and Navajo Aquifers, and force the relocation of at least 17 Black Mesa residents and 55 residents in the Leupp area, south of Black Mesa. The Navajo Aquifer has already been devastated, with 7 local springs and several wells down by approximately 30%. If Alternative A is approved, Peabody could pump up to 6,000 acre feet per year from the Navajo Aquifer until 2026, a 33% increase over what they extracted from 1970 to 2005. Meanwhile, Peabody has not taken the steps mandated by federal law to reduce its hydrological impact at the Kayenta Mine, another mine it currently operates on Black Mesa.

Most critically, the OSM is considering issuing a "Life-of-Mine" permit to Peabody, which would mean that Peabody could mine coal at Black Mesa until 2026. (The controversial mine was allowed to operate with a temporary permit for 30 years!)

If the plan to allow Peabody to restart its Black Mesa Mine goes ahead, the cultural implications will be dramatic. The Hopi and Navajo's ability to grow traditional foods and herbal medicines, as well as access ceremonial sites and perform rituals, will all be affected. Also, the Hopi are now in the most important phase of their ceremonial calendar, when the elders have entered the kivas, and so they are outraged that the OSM has chosen to release the EIS at a time when the Hopi people are unable to fully consider it - and organize to protest it.

The Trustees and Advisors of Black Mesa Trust (BMT) asked that the federal government postpone its scheduled hearings on the EIS, but the government went ahead with the hearings. Activists also wants the OSM to consider a "No Water Alternative" which would transition the Mohave Generating Station into a solar thermal plant and the Black Mesa Mine into a solar and wind farm. Black Mesa Trust points to Southern California Edison's "Mohave Alternatives Study" for evaluation of such an alternative. BMT is preparing to file an injunction should the OSM move forward with its recommendations.

Public hearings were held by the OSM through January 11. But, you can still write in your comments by e-mail or letter to the OSM before the February 6th deadline. Cut and paste the sample letter below or craft your own, and e-mail to BMKEIS@osmre.gov or snail mail your letter to Dennis Winterringer, Leader of the Black Mesa Project EIS, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, at the address below. If you e-mail your comment, please indicate in the subject line that comments are for the "BMP Draft EIS Comments."

Sample letter:
Dennis Winterringer, Leader of the Black Mesa Project EIS
Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement
Western Regional Coordinating Center
P.O. Box 46667
Denver, CO 80201-6667

RE: BMP Draft EIS Comments

Mr. Winterringer,
I strongly oppose the reopening of the Black Mesa Project and call for the OSM to deny Peabody Western Coal Company any permit to operate the project. The use of fresh groundwater to slurry and wash coal in a time of severe drought, while the population in the Southwestern United States is rapidly growing and local farmers are unable to irrigate their crops, is morally reprehensible. Further, the BMP would only provide a short-term supply of greenhouse gas-emitting, non-renewable energy sources while causing irreparable environmental and cultural damage and the relocation of people from their homes. This is unacceptable!

I ask that the OSM extend the Draft Black Mesa Project EIS commenting period, so that the affected communities may adequately review and understand the proposals of the EIS. As the EIS was released without proper notification of the concerned communities and during the winter holiday period when many people could not attend public hearings, it is appropriate to extend the comment period 50 days.

The OSM needs to update its hydrological model for the N-Aquifer and provide sufficient information demonstrating the C-Aquifer is a viable supply of water and that withdrawals will not have adverse hydrological or wildlife impacts. It also must do adequate studies on the effects of "coal washing" and the causes of land subsidence. The OSM must also require that the operating firms, in this case Peabody Western Coal Company and the Salt River Project, put up bonds that would pay for any future damage to the land and the aquifers.

I encourage you to refuse Peabody's mining permit and support Alternative C (No Action) and more fully explore the No Water Alternative (transitioning the Mohave Generating Station to a solar thermal plant). This would create an opportunity for America to shift its energy consumption to renewable and clean energy sources and would protect a culturally sacred yet fragile environment for generations to come.

Sincerely,

____________________

Thank you!
For more information, check our website report on Black Mesa or visit Black Mesa Trust.

You can also read a Sierra Magazine (Jan/Feb 2007) profile of Hopi activist Vernon Masayesva, "The Rainmaker: A Hopi leader champions clean power in Indian Country."

Searching for the Source of This Particular Grief

I needed to be out in the ocean, in the canoe. Thought off-season practice was at 5:30. It was at 5:15 and when we drove up the canoes were filled and leaving. So headed to the gym to work off grief by pushing weights.

Why grief? It's there and palpable and I don't know who, how and why though mentally I can find many sources. Early this morning I got up with an apocalyptic dream. It was the kind of dream that is a possible future. They have a certain kind of tone, of dream reality. The earth was shaking. Seconds blossomed to minutes. I watched across a bay and thought San Francisco; it wasn't. The shape of the city was different. I watched a phallic black glass and steel building of offices, apartments and people plummet. Everything was crashing around all of us. And then the ocean heaved, sick with pollution and a tsunami consumed the disaster.

That's one source of the grief.

We all know there's a shift. We know we've gone too far without proper gratitude and care. And we're all a part of it. Some of us were put here specifically to take care of this place. We turned from the responsibility. It's difficult when the prevailing rulership believes the earth and all non-human inhabitants are dead. They pretend we no longer exist. And we follow the masses into slavery to this system. It's difficult not to be swallowed by the tsunami of false culture, bearing down on us.

I know, brother. I know sister, I think when passing those who have given it up for drink, drugs, food, sex or television. I understand the weight of grief, of shame.

I scan the internal horizon for other sources. Childhood. My brother who is on disability but can't get on medicaid. The words of a paddling coach who said she and her girls have recently paddled past human excrement dumped from boats into the ocean.

Even grief gets hungry and demands more grief.

I turn the other direction as the sun heads into the sea. I acknowledge grief. And we both keep moving.

In Memorium, Harry Fonseca

from Marita Hinds, IAIA: "Most of you have heard the tragically sad news that Harry Fonseca has passed away. He passed away on December 28, 2006. Below is the information about his memorial service:

The Santa Fe memorial for Harry Fonseca will be held at the La Fonda Hotel on Saturday, January 27, 2007 at 5:00 pm. If you have questions or comments regarding the Memorial or just want to leave a message. You can contact the Harry's website at www.harryfonseca.com."

Harry was always larger than life. His images were born of this exhuberance. We will miss you.

For Jim Pepper Freaks, a Twelve Hour On the Air Pepper Music Frenzy

In-between semesters, WHRB (95.3 FM and www.whrb.org at Harvard Univ.) plays "orgies", where they play albums uninterrupted for a particular artist or theme.
On January 12, from 6am to 8pm (12 hours!), Jesse Morgan Righthand, WHRB dj, will be hosting a "Jim Pepper Orgy".

The Pepper Orgy will air on WHRB, 95.3FM, from 6am to 8pm on Friday, January 12.
WHRB programs throughout greater Boston;
If you can’t get it on the radio, you can a live stream on the Web at: www.whrb.org & click on the "stream live" option on the home page.

Please be sure to call in and tell Jesse what a wonderful thing she’s doing – especially if you’re not in the Boston area. She would love to hear from Pepper fans everywhere and anywhere! Alaska, California, Hawai’i, Oregon, Vienna, England, China (yes, we have China on this mailing list!), Denmark, Switzerland, France – wherever you are, call in just to say hello….

Mark your calendars – this Friday, Jan 12 from 6am to 8pm (east coast US time)

“Big World, Big Love!”, as the man would say…

-- Bill

Thanks Bill Siegel

Hula on Waikiki Beach, after the Torch Lighting, Saturday Night

What drew us together that night was what has always drawn us together in the earthly realm.

Some New Year's Thoughts, the Muscogee Nation News Jan 07 Column

Mvskoke Nation News Column January 07

The rising and setting of the Sun and the waxing and waning of the Moon are the most basic and important cycles for marking time. We are all obedient to these cycles, no matter what culture or creature. Solstice points mark larger arcs of time. On winter solstice, daylight is the shortest; the Sun has the lowest arc. Summer solstice is the opposite. This is the natural calendar. And for our people, the New Year occurs at the annual green corn ceremony. This is a time of renewal and forgiveness. I always look forward to this time. Even if I am not able to make it home; I mark the event. We all need marking points and places for renewal, to begin again in a fresh manner. Doing so together can make the event even more powerful, special.
According to the European-based Gregorian calendar, the New Year begins on January 1st, and most of us mark this as a time for new beginnings, a time for a new start. I figure I might as well observe two New Year events, which makes for double new beginnings.
January first is a time of resolutions. The most popular are those to lose weight, quit smoking, or to win the lottery. I imagine that most of us make the same resolutions every year. I find that it’s easier to judge what others need to do to improve their lives. I can easily make resolutions for others. For instance, it’s absolutely clear to me that _____ on the National Council is full of _____ and should resolve not to run for political office, rather stay home and take care of _____. Or, why doesn’t _____ leave______ for all his partying around. Everyone knows he’s seeing _________on the side. She should resolve to lose the sucker. We also know that ______is playing_____for a fool. _____ should resolve to_______. And why is ______so worried about the enrollment of citizens who also have African blood when they have grandparents who have African blood, and they’ve done everything they can to hide it and deny it, even changing tribal records? _____should resolve to not hate themselves or anyone else based on skin color.
And so on, you can fill in the blanks. I could make a form here, with various resolutions, and they could be pasted to a card and sent to ______. Yeah, sure….it doesn’t work that way and it never will. Criticizing and pointing fingers at others doesn’t change behavior. It usually adds to the mess. Yet, we often think these things and even speak them to our own little constituents and wonder why nothing changes. Thoughts are things and are propelled as soon as they’re thought. Some are directed, and some are misty sticky wreaths. And you can be sure that every thought you send out returns to stick to the owner and maker. Scary, huh? We become what we think, for better or worse. It’s wiser to tend to our own business, and send out thoughts to “lift each other up”. And more than thoughts, but back them with actions that will truly “lift each other up”. If I consider Mvskokean philosophy, “lifting each other up” is a cornerstone.
Every time I hear the phrase I am always taken back to the voices and ways of thinking and acting of the wisest of us. I used drive my Aunt Lois Harjo Ball around to see people and that’s how I learned. We often landed at George and Stella Coser’s warm house in Okmulgee. It was there that I probably first heard the phrase, “to lift each other up”. I noted that my spirit was always lifted up in their home. I also came away knowing that genealogy is a Mvskoke science, and that there is beautiful and ever growing mystery to the world. There is an amazing depth to our tribal philosophy. When I think of a truly Mvskoke University I think it must be in the same kind of place and manner as what I experienced in the Coser’s and in other traditional homes like theirs. I often hear that same phrase from George Coser, Jr. when I call him by phone or visit. And I am always “lifted up” when we speak. Mvto.
I was reminded once again of this powerful phrase when I called up my friend Ella Coleman who moved back to Seminole, Oklahoma with her husband Al. We knew each other when she lived in Albuquerque. She’s one of those people whose spirit naturally lifts everyone up who’s around her. She reported that a conference of fvscate gathered in her backyard. She’d never seen so many in one place. Her mother reminded her that a redbird is said to represent good-luck to our people. To see so many redbirds assembled in one place would uplift any of us. Her husband Al, who’s a fine photographer, wanted to photograph the event, but also didn’t want to scare the birds away, so he tried from inside, but the screen got in the way. My imagination sees that gathering quite well from Ella’s description, and I like thinking of them all hanging out in Ella and Al’s backyard. The redbird society found the right place to go, a place to where they would feel lifted up.
Ella reminded me of the phrase when she told how her relatives were talking over a holiday meal about how people used to act “to lift each other up”. They’d go see people in the hospital, or go help each other with repairs, take over dishes of food, or if going hunting shared what they had brought back. Some people still do this, but less and less so. We all seem further apart from each other. To do so, she said, was so that we “lifted each other up”. When she used that phrase it felt as true as it has always felt since the first time I heard it.
Ella has a grand-nephew Michael and every time I hear a new story about him I think of those traditional people and can see that new ones are being born, though these times are different. She said that Michael has made a corner of the house a place he goes to, on his own, when he thinks bad thoughts. He’s only four-years-old, and wiser than most of us. I figured I’d better designate a corner in my house. And we might want to designate a corner, or several in the tribal complex. We’d be better off for it.
Mvto Ella, Al and Michael.
So, in honor of those who truly know and carry forth the Mvskoke ways, why not make a New Year’s resolution for the nation, to lift each other up? Something then might truly change, and we might all be lifted up, together.

Trees and New Beginnings

Last week headed over to the Big Island, or rather, dragged. I was pretty sick with some viral thing I brought back with me to Hawaii. I'd cough violently at sleep and on waking, and less so other times. During the day I could put one foot in front of the other and enjoy the beauty. The journey was marked by the wisdom of trees. Two were companions in the rainforest bordering Kilauea crater. They called me over twice. Another was a banyan in Hilo (not this one) at dusk. I found it after walking over a curved bridge lined with candles scented with lavendar. I kept looking for a bridal party. No one around, but quiet, and the banyan tree.

May we learn more from trees this next year, than from the television.

Have a good one.

Muscogee Nation News Column for December Joy Harjo

Hensci, We’ve finally landed in winter after a long summer and fall. Here on the Rio Grande flyway geese and cranes have been passing over. Only thing is they aren’t always headed in the right direction. I’ve watched several layered vees of birds head south, then turn back north. Others fly east or west in a confused manner. Strange. I never saw this growing up in Oklahoma. In the fall, birds flew south. In the spring; they returned. Since the hard freeze of the last few weeks they are definitely and quickly flying south. No question. At least the Sun still comes up from the East and sees us through until nightfall, and returns again. A mvto, or thank you for the Sun.
We just survived Thanksgiving. Most people don’t know that it’s a holiday based on a fabricated story of a sit down dinner with Pilgrims (a mispronunciation of the word “pillager”) and Indians. The Pilgrims weren’t too friendly, were rather grim, not the sort to hang out and eat with Indians. The holiday was an invention fostered by the writer of the poem “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, Sarah Josepha Hale. Maybe the poem should have been, “Mary Had a Little Turkey”. Did her family own a turkey farm? Of course, most of us enjoy any kind of excuse for a day off, for eating lots of good food with family and friends, and for some (not me) an afternoon of football games. And it’s always good to take time to express gratitude, and even better to make it a habit every morning before getting up, or before sleep. I take issue with the compromised premise, and with all of those people dressing up as fake Indians. For most of the world, turkey feathers in the hair and buckskin, equals Indian.
Once years back in a class we studied images of Indians. One of the students took sheets of paper and markers to a preschool class in Boulder. She asked the children to draw an Indian. They all drew one of two images: a warrior on horseback brandishing bloody tomahawks, or delicate princesses, most of them on horseback. They weren’t human beings, rather symbols, and the children had already internalized them.
When my daughter was three, just before she went into Head Start, we went to sign her up at a preschool in Iowa City, (where I was going to graduate school). The children surrounded us and danced around doing that Hollywood war whoop, you know the one. Their teacher was embarrassed. I was amazed that children that young had already taken in that false image that had nothing to do with being Indian, or Mvskoke, or Acoma, my daughter’s other tribal affiliation.
We’re still mostly portrayed in those flat images in art, literature, movies, and not just by non-Indians or three-year-olds. The worst culprits are often our own people. Of course, we do have warriors on horseback, and I saw a little tomahawk brandishing in my early days, and most of our princesses aren’t so delicate. They like to eat.
A few years ago I carried a fussy grandson, accompanied by his older sister for a stroll around the Santa Fe plaza, while their parents (and the rest of the diners) finished dinner in peace. Desiray, who is Mvskoke, Acoma, Navajo and most decidedly “Indian looking” paused in front of a Plains headdress displayed in an Indian jewelry shop for tourists. “Look Nana”, she said. “Indians.”
Identity is a complex question. How do we see and define ourselves and how do others define us? What do governments have to say about it and what does the wisdom beyond the foolishness of small-mindedness have to say about it? I understand there are many in the tribe who believe tribal membership should be made up of only full-bloods. Yet many of these same people sing hymns and espouse a religion that isn’t Mvskoke in origin. There’s a contradiction here. I have no issue with people talking with or worshipping God in whatever manner or form. Diversity in form describes the natural world. And I’m convinced we all carry a part of the vision. No one person or culture carries the whole story.
What I take issue with is the rigidity and hurtfulness of an exclusionary vision. Such a plan to limit tribal membership, is not only racist, it’s genocidal. It’s what the makers of the Dawes Act had in mind in the first place, like a sustained release genocide pill. And many have bought into it. Self-righteousness stinks, no matter how it’s dressed.
Behind this are some real issues and concerns about what it means to be a real Mvskoke person, about our responsibilities, and about having some say in the shape of the future of our nation. Who is taking care of the spiritual, mythical and familial center? Who is carrying forth the stories, the songs and making new ones to fit the needs of the time? Many of those who know are dying off.
Our experiences have been different and race figures greatly into how one moves about the present world. Consider that we didn’t define ourselves by race before the coming of the Europeans. We must remember where we came from as a nation, and have a shining idea of our direction. A fearful approach doesn’t work, in governments, societies or our individual lives. We bring about what we fear as surely as we bring about what we love. Both carry the same charge. Let’s try some common sense and compassion. We need to be open to hearing each other.
I’ve talked to many of our tribal members in Oklahoma and elsewhere in the country who have expressed concern that their children and grandchildren are being denied a place in the family, our Mvskoke Nation. Is this who we want to be, a people who throw their children away? If we look with the mind of the vastness and complexity of the viewpoint of the stars, then we will see and know wisely.
As I write this I am on a late flight to Albuquerque. We were delayed from Tulsa missed the connecting plane in the Dallas Fort Worth. Alfred Berryhill, our second chief was also on the same delayed flights so we had plenty of opportunity to visit. I was impressed by his cultural knowledge and his love of our Mvskoke language. Ask him sometime about how to get from “aerodynamics” to “arrow dynamics”. Mostly we talked the need for a refreshing vision for the people. We agreed we need to see ourselves as who we are, not in that false mirror of misrepresentation that has been forced on us. When the Europeans first arrived they were amazed by the way we lived, by our democracy, our lack of a need for prisons, for our social systems, our finely crafted homes. In a relatively short time we have forgotten our true legacy as Mvskoke people. It’s still here, within us.
Finally, a few closing words from poet Louis Littlecoon Oliver who always had a wise word or two, and a sense of humor. He was a full-blood, born of Koweta Town, Raccoon Clan. In his book, The Horned Snake, he says: “I asked the oldest of my old ones what his opinions were of the white man’s supertechnology: his flight to the moon, his atomic weapons, his present status in the Middle East. He stared into the fire for a moment, then looked up at me with a faint smile and said: ‘We look upon the white man’s world of wonders as trivia—and short-lived.’ “