Pubdate: Thu, 05 Oct 2000
Source: Illinois Times (IL)
Copyright: 2000 Yesse Communications
Contact:  PO Box 3524 Springfield, IL 62708
Fax: 217/753-2281
Author: Ed Gutierrez

INDIAN WARS IN THE WEST

To the editor:

Yesterday I heard a curious account on National Public Radio of an episode 
in the "drug war."  It seems that McCaffrey's troops raided an Oglalla 
reservation in order to search and destroy a one and a half-acre crop of 
industrial hemp.

The Oglalla, who have been recovering for over one-hunderd years from the 
policies of the U.S. military and its government, must now have their hopes 
of sustainable shelter dashed again.  I have suggested to Senator Durbin as 
well as to others, that Native Americans living in these inhospitable areas 
(both socially and meteorologically) could benefit from the use of 
alternative methods of home construction such as straw-bale infill, which 
is now enjoying great popularity in many areas of the world.

What the Oglalla are attempting to do is use the industrial hemp, which has 
significantly low content of THC, to lower building costs of homes they are 
constructing.  The hemp, mixid with concrete, a system developed and used 
successfully in France, will not only lower costs, it will increase energy 
conservation.  Both of these things are desparately needed by the Oglalla.

Industrial hemp, as you may know, has other significant characteristics 
besides a low content of THC.  When planted within pollination distance of 
cannabis, it tends to greatly lower the THC content in the marijuana 
plants.  I would think that this characteristic alone would endear it to 
the cadres of drug war zealots as well as to the religious 
extremists.  However, both these camps are spreading rumor rather than fact.

The issue of sovereignty of Indian Nations has also been blithely ignored 
by the U.S. government.  The Oglalla, in spite of their limited resources 
must once again mount a legal battle against all the powers arranged 
against them.

Will their be no end to the injustices suffered by these first Americans in 
their own land?  Do the servants of the official apparati have no shame at 
all?  Will these native peoples attempting to help themselves and shelter 
their families have to fight the U.S. bureacracy have no other solution to 
offer than guns, helicopters, and flamethrowers?

I urge citizens to demand just treatment of Oglalla and other native 
peoples, and the assistance they so urgently need and deserve.

Ed Gutierrez Pleasant Plains
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