Apache legacy

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BY SHARON PORTA
Times Correspondent | Wednesday, November 05, 2003 | (No comments posted.)

GARY -- As chairman of the Apache tribe of Oklahoma, Alonzo Chalepah has the same concerns as other ethnic groups about preserving his heritage.

"It's hard to get the teenagers away from the video games," he said. "We still expose them to ceremonies and music, language and religion. My job is to preserve and protect what my grandfather has done."

Chalepah addressed Michelle Stokely's anthropology class at Indiana University Northwest on Tuesday afternoon. He talked about the Apache history since the treaty of 1867.

"I did my Ph.D. research on this community," Stokely said. "I asked Alonzo to come here because I think it's important for communities to offer their own perspective on cultural history."

The treaty was drawn between the U.S. government and five tribes of Plains Indians, including the Apaches. It stated that the Indians would live on reservations and learn to farm. Their children were to go to school and learn to speak English. No longer would the Indians roam freely over the Plains.

"We didn't understand the allotment system at that time, it was like we didn't read the fine print," Chalepah said. "The reservation system created a lot of hardships. But we've demonstrated in the 125 years since the treaty that we've prospered and we're able to survive."

Chalepah said there were many Indians who didn't want the system. Instead, they wanted to fight until every man, woman and child was dead. But calmer heads prevailed, and the treaty was put in place.

"It was a hardship for us to understand how to live as a farmer or rancher," Chalepah said. "We had to practice our songs and dances in secret because it was not allowed by the federal government."

But Chalepah said that times have changed. When his father went off to boarding school, the language and Indian songs were forbidden. But by the time Chalepah attended in the 1970s, such things were allowed.

"There were many cultural stresses brought about by the federal government," he said. "The government feared us, they wanted to settle us down, corral us on reservations. Our military society fought for our way of living. I thank my ancestors for my existence today."

Chalepah said he cannot imagine the hardship of living in a teepee year round, and hunting for every meal.

"We used to wear skin and bones," he said. "Now we knock on the door of Washington about economic development."

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