American Indian Culture and Research Journal

The community life of rural Native Americans offers a formidable set of problems and contradictions involving the interaction of traditional cultural values with contemporary realities. For example, an abundance of coal and uranium on the Navajo Reservation compels the Navajo to reconcile their traditional reverence for the land with the need for economic development. The Mescalero Apache of New Mexico are split on the issue of allowing a nuclear waste site on their tribal land; in Hopi, traditionalists and modernists are arguing over a road-building project and other forms of development that would threaten snake habitat where, for centuries, tribal members have gathered serpents for the sacred ceremonies. The Lakota of South Dakota are divided over non-Indian participation in ceremonies that are becoming increasingly popular. The "sovereign" islands of native people have become enmeshed in the economic and political problems of the United States. That the tribes do not easily arrive at a consensus suggests the complexity of the problems and the presence of political factionalism that is a consequence of colonization. The cultural values and indigenous languages remain vital in many native communities, even though the traditional modes of education and social organization have been disrupted by Western influences. School experiences founded on Western European ideologies and values have resulted in disempowerment, making the formation of tribal consensus all the more difficult.