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Show 4 BUT WE VIEW WITH ALARM reports that the Government is seriously considering stealing the reservation from the Navaho. Solemn treaties have been violated in the past, but we had thought that s u c h things were only in the past. It can't happen now, we told ourselves. Public opinion wouldn't allow Congress to make liars and thieves of our American Nation. As long as the Navaho Reservation consisted of the obvious - desert, rocks, canyons and dry washes - land useless to us, we were content to let the Navaho have it as their home forever. But now there is the precious mineral Uranium! Now there is Oil! Both these rich resources are being hauled off the Reservation as fast as the trucks can carry them. One would think that this would satisfy everybody - the Navaho gets work at good wages, and the Tribal council gets a royalty on every ton of ore or barrel of oil, and the white man gets the rest. But no. Under the high sounding verbiage about making full citizens, giving self-determination, etc., etc., the plot is laid to abolish the Indian Service, throw the reservation into public domain, disposses the lawful inhabitants. Certainly no Congressman who knew anything about the Navaho people would dare to face his constituents if he voted for such a rape. How many of them realize that not more than one in fifty Navaho adults can write his own name? Not more than one in two hundred can read even a fourth grade reader! Few can "make change" for an ordinary purchase of groceries, but must trust the trader. To throw a People like that into an alien environment would be not merely folly but a crime. ,_ BROTHER JUNIPER has just returned from an extended trip in the Middle West. We all want to join him in thanking those who entertained him and to salute many new friends he made for the Mission. SCHOOL here is having one of its most successful years, with Melvina Rosa on the rostrum. The children love her and the attendance has been just about record high. Melvina had some of her early training at the Little Red |