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November 19, 1999/10 Kislev 5760, Vol. 52, No.12
Jewish/Native American links examined
JANET YAGODA SHAGAM
New Mexico Jewish Link
Jews and Native Americans are linked because "we are both people of the story, people whose sense of history and tradition are deeply entwined."
So said Harold Littlebird of Laguna Pueblo, N.M., whose invocation helped set the tone at the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society's 12th Annual Conference in Albuquerque last weekend, Nov. 12-14.
The conference topic, "Jews and Native Americans on the Frontier," drew nearly 200 people, some coming from as far away as Canada and Maryland to the conference.
Northern New Mexico Rabbi Gershon Winkler, in a pre-recorded presentation, told the audience that connections between the two people run deeper than a common history of persecution. Jews and Native Americans are both "tribal peoples, people who are connected to the earth through nature-based mysticism," said Winkler, who is executive director of the Walking Stick Foundation, a Jewish Native American partnership dedicated to the recovery and preservation of indigenous spirituality.
Although this is a thread common to all agriculturally based civilizations, audience member Albert Sattin of Los Angeles remarked that this type of study is a way for Jews "to understand our aboriginal roots, something that has been lost since we have become an urban people."
Conference speaker Laura Nodworthy, author of the Native American-Jewish drama "The Memory Keepers," commented that "Jews in America were given a future, but lost the past."
On Saturday, the conference moved from its central location at the Wool Warehouse in downtown Albuquerque to Acoma Pueblo, an hour west of the city. Conference attendees toured the pueblo and met with Acoma Gov. Lloyd Tortolito, as well as with some descendants of Solomon Bibo, a Jewish pioneer who was the first non-Indian governor of Acoma pueblo.
On Sunday, Abraham Chanin, a historian, journalist and archivist from Tucson, Ariz., gave a presentation concerning the relationship between American Indians and Jewish pioneers of the Southwest. Chanin said that both peoples marked this era with deeds of heroism and brutality.
Chanin is the founder of the Southwest Jewish Archives at the University of Arizona.
The New Mexico Jewish Historical Society, which has a 400-person membership from New Mexico and around the country, was founded nearly 20 years ago.
The society can be reached at www.nmjewishhistory.com or by writing New Mexico Jewish Historical Society, POB 23056, Santa Fe, N.M. 87502.
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