Acoma Nation

I am writing regarding the article about the unhappy plight of the Acoma nation and their struggle to preserve what is rightfully theirs (Part I, Dec. 26).

I was offended at the tone of your article. These people are entitled to respect for their beliefs and honor for their ways.

Why is it justifiable to slap the title “public lands” on what is theirs and never on what is ours?

It is horrifying to me that their grave sites, their rituals, indeed their deepest, innermost beliefs are expected to be paraded in front of a curious public for $4 a head. Just because tourism and a lack of respect for religion is the white man’s way does not make it the correct way.

The sad truth is that the Acoma have betrayed their privacy for nothing. We have gone ahead and taken their lands. What shame.

What makes the priest so sure that his God is the only God? What makes the white man so sure that on this Earth, land is available to be bought and owned? By whose agreement?

For centuries the red man walked the earth, causing no harm to it, or his fellow inhabitants. No animals became extinct. There was enough for all. The white man, in little over a hundred years, has poisoned the waters, killed off entire species, sowed the seeds of nuclear destruction into the fields, filled the air with noxious gases and finally declared his superiority over his fellow occupants.

The Indian way is one to be revered and learned from. That land was the land of their people. We have harmed them enough. This outcome is a public disgrace.

BARBARA EDELMAN

Pacific Palisades