THE PAST 100 YEARS

From The Santa Fe New Mexican:

March 21, 1923: Yakima, Wash. — Chiefs Homer Watson and Al Barnhart of the Yakima Indian tribe have sent a formal protest to Charles Burke, United States Indian commissioner, against his recent order forbidding the usual tribal dances.

“You tells us in other ways to look to the white man,” the chiefs declared. “You say, ‘Farm as the white man does,’ and ‘save your money as the white man does,’ and the like. When you stop the white man from dancing we may begin to think dancing an evil, and also stop dancing, but why should the poor Indian stop dances when the white man doesn’t stop his?”

The Indians say the usual tribal spring dances will be held this season.

March 21, 1972: Rep. John Mershon, D-Otero, said Saturday night he expected the adjournment of the New Mexico Legislature to be delayed until at least Sunday morning over a House-Senate disagreement on general funding.

Mershon, chairman of the House Appropriation and Finance Committee, said he expected it would be about 10 a.m. Sunday before a House-Senate conference committee can work out points of disagreement in the general appropriations bill. That bill was the only item of disagreement delaying adjournment.

March 21, 1998: With time running out, parents and faculty trying to save St. Catherine Indian School have raised more than $100,000 in pledges with hopes that others will be encouraged to give.

They also plan to request that the 111-year-old school, which is run by the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, becomes independent and self-sufficient, said Sister Marguerite Bartz, a theology teacher.