AN INTERCULTURAL PARTNERSHIP
Mr. President, I rise today to mourn the passing of a great Indian leader, Mr. Reuben Snake, Jr.
Throughout his 40 years of service as a leader of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, Reuben was driven by one fundamental goal. That goal was to improve the lives of all human beings through cultural awareness and respect for the divine gifts provided by the creator.
As a lifelong member of the Native American Church, Reuben Snake utilized his faith to guide him in promoting tribal sovereignty, advocating for indigenous rights, and educating others about the valuable contributions made by our country's first Americans.
In 1954, Reuben joined the U.S. Army as a Green Beret under the Berlin command. Upon receiving his honorable discharge in 1959, Reuben Snake pursued an education at a time when many universities were turning away young native Americans.
Reuben Snake attended college at Northwestern College in Orange City, IA, at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE, and at the Peru State College, in Peru, NE. Eventually, Reuben was awarded an honorary degree, doctorate of humanities by the Nebraska Indian Community College in 1989. The coursework that Reuben completed enabled him to fill a variety of positions which advanced the social conditions affecting American Indian people.
Early in Reuben Snake's career, he gave more than 100 percent of himself to fight the war on poverty afflicting American Indian people. With very little funding, Reuben Snake worked in community action programs in the Northern Plains region to assist Indian youth and their families achieve self-sufficiency. As a director of the national Indian education training project, Reuben was instrumental in training Indian parent groups, tribal governments, and Indian communities to acquire Federal funding to advance the education of native people in 27 States. These positions, as well as other service-related responsibilities, gave Reuben the knowledge and skills to assist nearly every American Indian and Alaska Native in grassroots development.
Reuben may be best remembered for his decade of service as chairman of the Winnebago Nation of Nebraska. His major accomplishment was to bring the tribal government out of debt and financial ruin to a thriving and resourceful multimillion-dollar enterprise. This accomplishment was driven by his desire to make tribal government responsive to community needs. Reuben worked diligently to build continuity in economic, educational, and social programs so important to his people. As a spokesman for the Winnebago people, Reuben was responsible for fostering intergovernmental liaison with other governmental entities at the Federal, State, and local levels.
Due in large part to his success within his own tribal community, Reuben was elected as president of the National Congress of American Indians. Over 130 tribal governments were active during Reuben's tenure in the Nation's oldest and largest Indian organization. The development and enactment of native cultural rights legislation such as the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and the Native American Language Act can be attributed to Reuben's advocacy. This advocacy was recognized by the Congress in 1976, when Reuben Snake was appointed chairman of Task Force XI of the American Indian Policy Review Commission, the Task Force on Drug and Alcohol Abuse. Later in 1989, my colleague and friend from Nebraska, Senator Robert Kerrey, hired Reuben to serve as a legislative assistant with responsibilities involving all native American affairs - a position which Reuben enjoyed because he loved his fellow Nebraskans with great compassion.
In 1972, Reuben was nationally recognized for his book "Being Indian Is * * * owning land and not being able to rent, lease, sell, or even farm it yourself without BIA approval; and Being Indian Is * * * never giving up the struggle for survival." It is highly likely, that every Indian baby-boomer working in high-level positions within the Federal Government was influenced by Reuben's wit and essays on what life is like for Indian people. In response to the Columbus Quincentenary in 1992, Reuben reconstructed his works as "Being Indian Is * * * and Isn't." While the foundation for this work was developed by Reuben, unfortunately, his illness precluded its final release. Reuben Snake stated in his essay that, "For 500 years, we have had 99 percent of what is written about Indians slanted with a Eurocentric bias. Now we are in the process of writing about ourselves, and our truth may be disconcerting to those who have had only their truth to read about until now."
Many in Indian country are probably reflecting on his views today, since Reuben had the gift to lend humor to the everyday challenges affecting Indian people. He used his God-given capacity to make people laugh.
Most recently, Reuben served as the dean for the Center for Research and Cultural Exchange at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM. Much of this work focused on American Indian history, comparative cultures, native cultures, native religions and practices, cultural rights and tribal government. It was Reuben's ambition to foster a leadership role in shaping national and international perceptions regarding American Indian and Alaska native cultures. Reuben perfected his skills as a great orator regarding cultural resources and indigenous rights while traveling extensively throughout the United States and internationally on behalf of the Institute of American Indian Arts. More importantly, this humble dean was widely respected by students, faculty, and native people for his spiritual inspiration. Every week he would conduct Sunrise Services to foster greater understanding of the God-given blessings that everyone on Earth should enjoy. In this regard, Reuben inspired others to the extent that the Sikhs religion, an international religious group with more than 60 million members, awarded Reuben Snake the World Peace Award for his humanitarian efforts.
His multifaceted understanding and concern was appreciated by those board members with whom he served in the following organizations: The National Congress of American Indian, the First Nations Development Institute, the Native Research and Policy Institute, the Seventh Generation Fund, the American Indian Law Resource Center, the American Indians for Opportunity, the International Circle of Indian Elders and Youth, the 1992 Alliance, the American Indian Ritual Object Repatriation Foundation, and the Native American religious freedom project. Reuben Snake also served on the UN Committee on Human Rights.
Probably, no one will miss Reuben Snake more than his wife, Cathy Snake and his six children. It seemed to many in Indian country that when Reuben gave of himself, there was so much to give because of the love that was shared by his family. This love was obvious when Reuben, Cathy, and many of his children and grandchildren drove all the way from Nebraska to conduct a prayer service on behalf of the Native American Church of North America here in Washington, DC. Over 20 members of Reuben's family worked closely with the Native American religious freedom project to inform the decisionmakers here in Washington of the violation of religious freedom rights resulting from the 1990 Supreme Court ruling in the Oregon versus Smith case. Reuben's family hosted an all night prayer service to promote peace in the midst of religious prosecution affecting American Indians.
In Reuben Snake's final days, [he] worked tirelessly to advocate the introduction of legislation to protect the religious freedom rights of Native Americans. Reuben testified at the committee's first oversight hearing in Portland, OR, on March 7, 1992, which laid the groundwork for introduction of legislation. In large part, due to Reuben's efforts, the committee recently introduced S. 1021, the Native American Free Exercise of Religion Act of 1993. I am dedicated to securing passage of this vital legislation to complete the work which Reuben Snake helped to foster.
Mr. President, as a tribute to Reuben Snake, Jr., his family and the Winnebago Nation of Nebraska, I ask unanimous consent that a speech which Reuben Snake delivered at the future site of the National Museum of the American Indian on the Mall here in Washington, DC, be made a part of the Congressional Record following this statement. As a statesman for the Indian people, Reuben Snake will be remembered for his humor, his kindness, and his love of his fellow people. Personally, I like the thought he had that "Being Indian Is * * * having compassion, respect, and honor for your fellowman, regardless of color."
There being no objection, the statement was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
STATEMENT OF REUBEN A. SNAKE, JR., COORDINATOR, NATIVE AMERICAN RELIGIOUS FREEDOM PROJECTSenator Inouye, church president Emerson Jackson, honored guest, as an American it is inspiring to stand here at the foot of the U.S. Capitol to exercise two of our basic American rights, the freedom of speech, and the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Native Americans have been associated with the liberty of the American people since the founding of the Nation. In 1773, at the Boston Tea Party, the early protesters against British royal tyranny dressed as Mohawks because Indians, in England and in Europe, were a symbol of American liberty. Indians, and our way of life, were the very symbol of American liberty adopted by the earliest American revolutionaries.
But four or five centuries before that dramatic event, even before Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain, the five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy formed a government under a constitution called the Great Law of Peace. Consider some of the enlightened features of that government - parliamentary-type government, separation of politics and religion, separation of civil and military government, the concept of checks and balances, veto, referendum, and so forth. Those governmental concepts were so remarkable, books were written about them in the European languages. These concepts became known to John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, European political philosophers whose writings are cited in identifying the resources of the U.S. Constitution.
The free exercise of religion was among the many features of that great Native American government, and freedom of religion is one which many of us take for granted today.
On September 15, 1620, English subjects sailed from Plymouth, England, to seek refuge from religious persecution. The story of the Puritan Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts to achieve religious freedom is one of the best known stories in American history.
It is tragic to say, however, that we are now in a situation in the United States of America where we can no longer take such a fundamental right, the free exercise of religion, for granted.
As venerable as the heritage of religious liberty has been in American, religious liberty is now in jeopardy for all minority religions.
Last April, in the case of Oregon v. Smith, a case involving Native American religious liberty, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out its long-standing precedents and declared that no longer does the Government have to show that laws which burden and restrict religious liberty must be justified by a compelling Government interest. Even very large religious organizations issued protests and sought a rehearing in the Court. The Baptists, the Methodists, Jewish groups, dozens of religious groups, and over 50 of America's most distinguished constitutional law professors sought a rehearing of the Court's decision.
But consider the implications of this case from our perspective. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed a long line of settled cases in order to rule that the use of the sacrament of Native American worship, the holy medicine, peyote, is not protected under the first amendment of the constitution. They said, in our case, our religious exercises, our form of worship, the use of our holy sacrament, is not protected by the Constitution. The Court said that Native Americans, who have enjoyed religious liberty on the land since before the Pilgrims fled here, are no longer entitled to religious liberty.
This trampling of Native American religious liberty is intolerable.
Our people have been using the holy medicine, peyote, for thousands of years.
For the last twenty years, the American people have been suffering an epidemic of abuse of refined chemical drugs like cocaine, heroin amphetamines, PCP, and so forth. American cities are crawling with violence and crime. This is a terrible tragedy, and this kind of drug abuse is also a problem for some Indian youth.
But there is no peyote drug problem. I defy the justices of the Supreme Court to find newspaper reports of drive-by shootings in connection with the holy medicine. I challenge anyone concerned about the problem of drug abuse to find examples of dope peddlers selling the holy medicine in America's school yards and play grounds. The idea is preposterous. We don't have a peyote abuse problem in the Nation.
Yet the widespread fear, bordering on panic, about the tragedy of drug abuse has clouded the minds of the Justices. In the name of the war on drugs, our use of our holy medicine is restricted. In the name of this war on drugs, our guarantee of free exercise of religion has been violated. In the name of the war on drugs, the religious freedom of every American has been placed in jeopardy.
The consequences are outrageous. For decades Native Americans have endured the harassment and persecution of law enforcement authorities ignorant of, or indifferent to, our ancient ways of worship. The law reports are filled with tragic cases of our men and women dragged from worship, or from their homes, to jail cells and to courtrooms, forced to defend themselves, to justify themselves to the ignorant and the callous. But in those degrading circumstances, we could always point, confidently, to the first amendment's guarantees of free exercise of religion, and know that ultimately we would prevail. Now, unbelievably, we are no longer assured that we will prevail.
This has been intolerable to us, this is intolerable to us, and it is intolerable to every American who treasures their right to worship God without Government interference.
In the Native American Church every day is a holy day, but today is special. In the Hebrew calendar, today is Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, the most solemn day of Jewish worship. Many Jewish friends of Native Americans invited to join us this morning explained that they could not worship with us here, for they would be in their own temples in prayer.
For many of the 5741 years of the Hebrew calendar, the Jewish people have suffered oppression on account of their religion. Today, 199 years after the American Bill of Rights was adopted, we are thankful that the Jewish people feel free to worship without fearing Government harassment.
But ladies and gentlemen, today the 250,000 members of the Native American Church are not free to worship God without fear of Government harassment. Church president Emerson Jackson has declared tomorrow a day of prayer for peace. Today, hundreds of our people are preparing for a night-long Native American Church service and prayer for peace. But many of our elders, who have traveled thousands of miles to be here to worship in our Nation's capital, who have experienced the indignities of religious persecution, expressed to the organizers of this worship service a great fear - will we be arrested? Will we be arrested?
We have had to call law enforcement authorities - attorneys general, prosecutors, assistant State's attorney, narcotics units - around the region to assure ourselves that our worship will proceed undisturbed by the hideous specter of a police raid.
I ask my bothers and sisters who are Christians, my bothers and sisters who are Moslem, my brothers and sisters who are Hindus, my bothers and sisters who are Buddhists, my bothers and sisters who are Jewish, do any of you worry that your worship services will be raided by the police? Do any of you feel it necessary to call the police in order to set up a worship service? Do any of you have to explain to law enforcement officers that you have a right to worship your God in you own manner?
I ask my bothers and sisters who are Christian, do you need permission from your State alcoholic beverage control commission to give sacramental wine to communicants under the age of 21? Do your priests need licenses from the Government to perform a mass? Of course not, but under the Smith decision, that shocking possibility may yet come to pass.
I ask my brothers and sisters, when they tell their children about their religious rites, do they have to warn their little ones about the police? Do they have to explain that they should not be ashamed because of the special police "interest" in their worship?
I ask the American people, does this sound like the religious life we expect to live in the United States of America?
Well, my brothers and sisters, this unbelievable condition burdens our worship. This relic of prejudice burdens our worship. This Government involvement in our religion burdens our worship, and it is intolerable.
Today, at the highest point in Washington, overlooking our little press conference, the National Cathedral is being dedicated. Today the last stone is being placed in that beautiful monument to the central importance of God and prayer in American life.
It is profoundly ironic that just as that glorious cathedral is being completed and dedicated in our Nation's Capital, the U.S. Supreme Court has jeopardized the status of every minority religion, and it has done so in a case involving native American Church members using the holy sacrament of our church.
We are here today with one simple message - we demand that our use of our sacrament, the holy medicine peyote, be fully protected by law without qualification. We ask no more, we expect no more, and we are entitled to nothing less!
Why must we stand here and defend our religion? Why must we tell you that our church is a good church? Why must we tell you that we do not tolerate drug abusers or alcoholics in our church?
We are reduced to this posture because of laws passed and enforced in an atmosphere of almost total ignorance about Native Americans. Perhaps we should not be surprised. Like most Americans we like to go about our business quietly and without drawing attention to ourselves. One of the central teachings of our church is humility.
We have never held a press conference before. We have never drawn attention to ourselves before. We are uncomfortable this morning, but to protect ourselves, we have a duty. We are here today to tell the American people that our worship is sacred, it is legitimate, it is profound, it is good, it is wonderful in the eyes of God, it is wonderful for our people, and we must, we must pray the way God has taught us.
Americans, you have taken much from us. You have benefited from us in many ways. You have left us little land, you have taken away our traditional livelihoods. Do not allow the Government to take our religious freedom away.
We urge you to join us in supporting the "Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1990," H.R. 5377. But this is only a first step. The bill does not go far enough. It does not specifically protect our worship, the one that the Supreme Court chose to disregard and deny protection. We urge that the bill be amended to specifically protect Native American religious freedom.
That is not too much to ask. Soon we will be returning to our homes across America and to our children and grandchildren. We will say we engaged in the political process, we spoke to the American people and to the national news media. We went to Washington, and we told our story.
Can we tell our children, "We succeeded, you are now safe"? Can we tell our children, "We have brought back for you the security, the safety, the certainty that you, our children, and your children can worship God as we have been taught"?
It is our prayer that we can!
