[ACC25112]

First, the Navajos were not involved at all, except that they are also being blamed collectively by many whites (including ones like yourself who can’t tell the difference between Apache and Navajo). All Indians in the Southwest are having to suffer through this, and you are an excellent example of what is adding to the problem. One of the two firestarters was a member of the White Mountain Apache tribe. He started the fire because he needed the work, being a firefighter himself. It was hardly ‘greed,’ anymore than a man stealing to feed his family is ‘greed.’ The White Mountain reservation has unemployment close to 50 percent, and most people are desperately poor. Like this white woman lost in the desert, what he did was an act of desperation done by a person who did not think of how he was harming thousands of others. They should be both treated the same, yet neither the law nor much of the white public is doing so. The white woman is not being charged, while the Apache man is. The atmosphere in much of Arizona has become incredibly tense, with many whites blaming all Apaches, or even all Indians, for what one has done. There have been many threats and intimidation, and we can only hope and work for this not getting more serious. That is what those Indian spokesmen were trying to do, appeal to the goodness and fairness in people’s hearts, for equal treatment.

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Name : ACC25112, Gender : M, Race : Mexican and American Indian (Mescalero Apache), City : Phoenix, State : AZ, Country : United States, 

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