"It’s unfortunate when economic considerations outweigh moral ones. Of course, economic problems can have disastrous consequences and can even harm long-term efforts to fight moral battles.

This is where the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association finds itself today – pressured to move its annual conference, slated to be held later this month in Tucson, and join a national boycott of Arizona over the state’s recent passage of an immigration law that many feel paves the way for racial profiling.

Native people also are frustrated by an Arizona bill passed recently that would ban ethnic studies instruction in K-12 public and charter schools.

Robert Warrior, the Osage president of NAISA, voiced those concerns in an April 24 letter to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer.

“Your action as chief executive of the state of Arizona will, when the law takes effect, give license to abuse by police and citizens, making ever more murky the possibility of working towards a just future for all people in the Americas,” Warrior wrote.

A Facebook group created April 28 to show support for moving NAISA’s meeting onto tribal land already has more than 400 members. Visitors to NAISA’s Web site have echoed their support for moving the conference into a tribally operated hotel.

But, faced with a potential lawsuit by the Tucson hotel that NAISA chose as its meeting site and possible bankruptcy, the group has decided to go ahead with its annual meeting May 20 – 22."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Native educators urged to take strong stance (Indian Country Today 5/7)

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Arizona tribes worried about state's anti-immigration law (5/3)