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February
19, 2002
Prudence
Crowther
Did
Someone Say "Chador"?
Ramzi
Kysia
Caught
in the Iraqi DMZ
February
18, 2002
Ron Jacobs
The
US and Iran
George
Lewandowski
Empire
in Declline
Lenni
Brenner
Life
and Death of a Folk Hero
February
17, 2002
Robert
Fisk
Lost
in a Pit of Desperation
February
16, 2002
Phillip
Cryan
Colombia
in War Time
February
15, 2002
C.G. Estabrook
From
New York to Porto Alegre
Robert
O'Brien
The
View from Porto Alegre
Mokhiber/Weissman
Resisting
the Assassins
February
14, 2002
Levy and
Easton
Ante
Pavelic
Real Butcher of the Balkans
Joan Claybrook
Dear
Jeb Bush,
About You and Enron
John Chuckman
Time
for a Woman Prez
Alexander
Cockburn
Banning
the Koran
February
13, 2002
Sen. Russ
Feingold
War
Powers and
the War on Terror
Tom Turnipseed
Bush's
Folly
George
Monbiot
American
Imperialism
February
12, 2002
Uri Avnery
The
Great Game:
Oil, Sharon and Iran
Tommy
Ates
Black
Land Loss
February
11, 2002
Walt Brasch
The
Synergizing of America
John Troyer
Enron's
Deep Throat?
February
9, 2002
John Blair
Criticize
Cheney, Go to Jail
February
8, 2002
CounterPunch
Wire
Ashcroft
the Bigot
Molly
Secours
Racism
and Real Estate
Wole Akande
World
Economic Forum:
The Aftermath
Cockburn/St.
Clair
Dita
Sari Tells Reebok
to "Shove It"
February
7, 2002
Patrick
Cockburn
Taliban's
War on Chess
John Chuckman
Howdee,
Dick!
Tariq
Ali
Mullahs
and Heretics
February
6, 2002
Amira
Hass
On
the Edge of the
Non-Violent Demonstrations
Vivian
Berger
Sentenced
to Rape
Vladimir Georgiyev
Russian Intelligence:
War on Iraq Begins in Sept.
Tom Turnipseed
"Axis
of Evil" a Cover for Corporate Corruption?
David
Vest
The
Enron Creature
February
5, 2002
Norman
Madarasz
Dispatch
from Pôrto Alegre
Tom Malinowski
What
to do with
Our "Detainees"?
Dita Sari
Why
I Rejected the
Reebok Human Rights Award
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
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War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
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How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
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February 19,
2002
From Window Rock
to Luckenbach:
Waylon, the Duke and the Navajo
By David Orr
I was on the Navajo reservation last weekend.
You may know that the Navajo people have long had a major fondness
for and relationship with Waylon Jennings, moreso perhaps than
any other musician. The relationship goes back many years, when
Waylon began making regular tour stops on the rez.
So I was listening to a radio show (I
think it was KGLP-FM out of Gallup) and they were playing a WJ
retrospective, complete with commentary--mostly in the Navajo
language--on the personal experiences of the DJ and other guests
about the time they met Waylon, or the time their family had
Waylon over for fry bread and mutton stew. It was remarkable,
as much as I could make out, given my lack of understanding of
the Navajo language.
The irony, or maybe the logic, of the
Navajos' love for Waylon was that Waylon was of course known
for his hard-drinking lifestyle, certainly one that many Indians
could relate to, at  least
on the level of getting fucked-up all the time, but it is also
full of meaning that he died of complications from diabetes,
which is the result, in part, of a hard-drinking lifestyle. Last
year, Waylon had a foot amputated. There are, sadly, many Diné
who can relate to that as well.
"Mama, don't let your babies grow
up to be cowboys" no doubt had a certain poignancy for many
Indians, many of whom have chosen the cowboy persona, which is
no doubt part of the attraction to Waylon of their culture. At
the same time, the brutal Long Walk of the Navajos that occurred
150 years ago, at the hand of Kit Carson and the U.S. Army Cavalry,
is frequently on the lips and minds of ordinary people and tribal
leaders. Why it is that they embrace cowboy culture in light
of their still-raw wounds visited on them by the cowboys' front
men may be seen simply as a paradox--perhaps even a manifestation
of the "Stockholm Syndrome" (the Western version might
be termed the "Livestock Syndrome").
Maybe it was the very idea of "outlaw
country"--a renegade form of music and idolatry--that held
the attention of so many Navajos. The only other iconic figure
of 20th century bilagaana (white) Western culture that I know
of that Navajos seem to hold in reverence is, of all people,
John Wayne. The Duke is, for many people on the rez, literally
a cardboard cut-out hero (see him for yourself in Kayenta at
the restaurant on the east side of town). This is mostly the
result of The Duke being the biggest Hollywood star ever to spend
a lot of time in and around Monument Valley (he was in a number
of films shot there). We might think of John Wayne as an "outlaw"
in his own right, since he often whupped up on "bad"
white guys--presumably the same subclass of characters that whupped
up on the Navajos and other Indians. I've met some Navajos that
seem to project a God-like quality onto John wayne, and that's
the only explanation I can come up with. And Waylon may have
taken the Duke's place in the pantheon of the younger generation.
[If you ever get a chance to see the
film "Return of Navajo Boy," it's a great documentary
about the painful legacy of both the uranium mining era in Monument
Valley and the missionary/boarding school era. You'll also see
a story about a boy named John Wayne Cly, named by his parents
when the Duke came through to shoot a movie.]
In any case, there is no doubt that something
about Waylon Jennings' music held more than passing appeal that
may have as much to say about the Navajos' own evolving culture
and their relationship with the bilagaana world--and its iconsas
it does about the individual songs Waylon sang and lyrics he
wrote.
* *
*
I heard a story on that radio program
that Waylon's memorial service was held last week in Luckenbach,
Texas, a small town near Kerrville (2 hrs west of Austin in the
Texas Hill Country). There was quite a crowd--perhaps the largest
number of people to gather in Luckenbach in many years (even
fifty people gathering in Luckenbach might qualify as a major
crowd, but I assume it was a substantially greater number than
that). A number of celebrities made appearances, including Jerry
Jeff and Willie. I'm guessing there was plenty of Lone Star,
Pearl, and Shiner Bock beer to go around. Maybe even a few Heinekens
for the high-end drinkers.
Luckenbach is a small place that would,
other than the highway sign, appear not even to be a town in
the eyes of many motorists passing through on their way to the
LBJ Boyhood Home National Historic Site or to Pedernales Falls
State Park.
I've been through Luckenbach many times
when I lived in Austin, as I often travelled to Kerrville (you
may know it as the home of the Kerrville Folk Festival). I sure
wish I'd'a been in Luckenbach last week.
And I'm sure there are lots of Navajo
families that will name kids after Waylon in the years to come.
David Orr
is program diretor of Living
Rivers, a Moab, Utah-based group that is working to bring
down Glen Canyon Dam and revive the Colorado as a free-flowing
river through the canyonlands of Utah and Arizona. He can be
reached at: david@livingrivers.net
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