FoxNews – President Trump fired back Monday at critics of his decision to pardon former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, claiming the clemency decisions made by his two most recent Democratic predecessors were far more problematic.
“I stand by my pardon of Sheriff Joe,” Trump said at a White House press conference.
Clearly anticipating a question about the pardon, Trump read from prepared notes as he countered the bipartisan criticism by rattling off the controversial commutations and pardons issued by former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
“President Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, who leaked countless sensitive and classified documents,” Trump said, calling Manning a “criminal leaker.”
He also criticized Obama for commuting the sentence of Oscar Lopez Rivera, who had been serving a 55-year federal prison sentence for being a leader of the Puerto Rican terrorist group FALN.
Trump also reached back to the Clinton administration, invoking the infamous pardon of the late financier Marc Rich, “who was charged with crimes going back decades,” and Clinton’s clemency for Susan Rosenberg, a far-left radical and member of the Weather Underground.
He sought to draw a distinction between their histories and Arpaio’s.
“Sheriff Joe is a patriot. Sheriff Joe loves our country. Sheriff Joe protected our borders,” Trump said, alleging the Obama administration treated him “unbelievably unfairly” and the case cost him an election in Maricopa County, Ariz.
Arpaio had been found guilty of criminal contempt for defying a judge’s order to stop his controversial immigration patrols. Arpaio has long been accused of profiling and using inhumane tactics, and the decision to pardon him drew bipartisan criticism, including from Arizona’s two Republican senators.
“Mr. Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt for continuing to illegally profile Latinos living in Arizona based on their perceived immigration status in violation of a judge’s orders,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said in a statement. “The President has the authority to make this pardon, but doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions.”
Trump addressed the pardon controversy during a joint press conference with the visiting president of Finland. Asked about the backlash by Fox News’ John Roberts, Trump also seemed to defend the timing of the announcement – and push back on claims that he was trying to bury the news late Friday during coverage of Hurricane Harvey.
To the contrary, Trump said, “in the middle of a hurricane, even though it was a Friday evening, I assumed the ratings would be far higher than they would be normally.”
Santa Fe New Mexican – CHICAGO — Illinois will limit how local and state police can cooperate with federal immigration authorities under a plan signed into law Monday by Gov. Bruce Rauner, a move that puts the first-term Republican at odds with his party on immigration issues.
The narrow measure prohibits police from searching, arresting or detaining someone solely because of immigration status, or because of so-called federal immigration detainers. But local authorities will be able to communicate with immigration agents and hold someone for immigration authorities if there’s a valid criminal warrant, according to the new law.
Rauner acknowledged at the signing — a heavily-attended, festive event in a predominantly Mexican neighborhood — that it was a tough proposal many didn’t want him to support, but he said he was convinced after talking with law enforcement and immigrant leaders.
“This took months and months of difficult negotiations,” Rauner said after a mariachi band performed and top Democrats gave supportive speeches. He said it helps Illinois take another step toward “continuing to be a welcome state.”
Proponents insist the measure falls short of a “sanctuary” law because it leaves the door open to communication and ensures the state complies with federal law. But Republican opponents have tried to characterize it that way, something that comes as President Donald Trump has threatened to crack down on sanctuary cities, which have laws friendly to immigrants living in U.S. without legal permission.
The move places Rauner in a tricky spot as Democrat-heavy Illinois’ first GOP governor in over a decade. He faces re-election next year and will need to shore up support from Republican strongholds outside Chicago.
Rauner said he believed the measure would increase safety and “improve connectivity” between immigrants and law enforcement to make the state safer.
Detainers are requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to law enforcement agencies to hold a suspected deportable immigrant long enough for immigration authorities to pick them up. But federal courts have found the requests aren’t sufficient for local jails to hold someone after bail has been posted or beyond their sentence, with critics raising constitutional and liability questions for jails. California and Connecticut don’t honor them, a practice many counties nationwide already follow.
Trump has called for more links between federal and local authorities to fix a broken immigration system and deport criminals. He’s threatened to withhold public safety funds from sanctuary cities such as Chicago, which has filed a lawsuit in response. In light of his crackdown, Miami-Dade County has reversed a sanctuary policy and Texas beefed up laws to allow police to ask about immigration status on traffic stops and requiring law enforcement to honor detainers or face punishment. However, the Texas law faces a court challenge.
In Illinois the measure was only approved after it was scaled back from an initial proposal that included the creation of “safe zones,” like schools and hospitals where immigration agents wouldn’t be allowed to make arrests.
Law enforcement agents, who attended Monday’s event, said the plan would allow them to focus energy on safety, encourage immigrant victims of crime to come forward and build trust. Tension between the groups was on display briefly during the event as Illinois Sheriff’s Association executive director Greg Sullivan used criminal justice terminology to discuss the “removal of illegal criminal aliens” to the crowd of immigrants and activists. Several interrupted, yelling their preferred term of “undocumented.”
Rauner’s hesitance to back the bill has been obvious. The former businessman has avoided talking about national issues such as immigration, particularly when it comes to Trump. He’s said he favors comprehensive immigration reform, but has not detailed what that means.
This month during his first national television interview on FOX News, he repeatedly declined to discuss Chicago’s lawsuit or sanctuary laws. He pivoted to his ongoing fight over state funding issues with majority Democrats. In response, conservative media outlets such as Breitbart News, blasted Rauner for not denouncing the measure. A Chicago Tribune columnist said Rauner signing the bill “opens a breach on his right political flank.”
Ahead of the signing, Rauner would only say the measure was “reasonable,” prompting groups in support such as the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition, which includes high-profile Republicans and CEOs, to boost advocacy.
Backers say the law, reviewed by State Police and the Illinois Attorney’s General office, will help protect immigrants from federal harassment.
“It’s obviously a benefit to an undocumented person to know the police are not going to be putting them under suspicion everywhere they go,” Senate President John Cullerton, a Democratic sponsor of the bill said at the signing. “There are also benefits to law enforcement.”
CBS NEWS – TOKYO — Millions of people in Japan woke up to a text message that said: “missile passing… please take cover.” Some of the country’s famed high-speed trains came to a screeching halt early Tuesday morning after North Korea fired a missile over the island nation.
Hours later, President Trump said “the world has received North Korea’s latest message loud and clear: this regime has signaled its contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior.”
The statement released by the White House on Tuesday went on to say that Kim Jong Un’s “threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime’s isolation,” and warned “all options are on the table” for Mr. Trump to address the nuclear standoff.
CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy reports that in the past, Pyongyang normally made a point of warning Japan before it launched a missile through its airspace, but not this time. Sirens blared through the streets in northern Japan early Tuesday, waking people up with a warning to get inside and take cover.
The missile, determined by U.S. intelligence to have been an intermediate range KN-17, was launched from near the capital city of North Korea, possibly from a mobile launch pad at Pyongyang airport. It flew more than 1,600 miles, crossing over the Japanese island of Hokkaido before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
North Korea launches missile over Japan
CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that, according to U.S. officials, the missile splashed down 650 nautical miles east of Hokkaido.
U.S. officials could not immediately say whether the missile test was a success, and it wasn’t clear if the re-entry vehicle — the part of the missile designed to deliver a warhead back down to the ground — survived re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. It was the North’s fifth test of KN-17, but they first time the rogue nation has flown any missile over Japan since 2009.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the launch “a reckless act,” and an “unprecedented” threat.
South Korea, another U.S. ally, responded by releasing video of its own missile tests conducted last week. The U.S. and South Korea are currently holding joint military exercises which the North views as a rehearsal for war.
North Korea’s missile launch is the latest show of force from leader Kim Jong Un, who has now fired 16 missiles so far this year.
The country also successfully tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) last month capable of reaching the United States. That led to a war of words with President Trump, who last week suggested his tough talk on North Korea was working.
“Kim Jong Un, I respect the fact that I believe he is starting to respect us,” said Mr. Trump. “I respect that fact.”
Kim Jong Un of North Korea made a very wise and well reasoned decision. The alternative would have been both catastrophic and unacceptable!
Mr. Trump made the remark, however, after Kim appeared to back away from an earlier threat to launch a barrage of four missiles over Japan and into the sea just 20 miles from the U.S. island territory of Guam.
U.S. making stability on Korean peninsula more difficult?
Since taking over the leadership of North Korea from his father, Kim has launched more than 80 missiles — but Tuesday’s was the first to fly over Japan.
It was literally a warning shot, although the exact message is not clear.
The U.S. and Japan have called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council later Tuesday to discuss the latest launch.
China, which has come under intense pressure from the Trump administration to pressure trading partner North Korea to halt missile tests, warned Tuesday that the standoff with the Kim regime had reached a “tipping point.”
Reiterating Beijing’s typical call for restraint from both sides, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying urged a restart of peace talks and said “pressure and sanctions” against the North “cannot fundamentally solve the issue.”
FoxNews – An Ohio Supreme Court justice and Vietnam veteran is criticizing a group of Cleveland Browns players who prayed in a circle to protest silently during the national anthem.
Bill O’Neill wrote on Facebook that he won’t attend any games at which “draft dodging millionaire athletes” disrespect veterans – adding “shame on you all.”
The Monday protest involved a group of 12 mostly black Browns players joined by two of their white teammates. Such protests have increased in the league following then San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s custom last year of taking a knee during the anthem to protest police brutality.
“Respect to all the veterans, respect to the military — we are not protesting against them. We have our reasons for doing what we did, and last night felt like the right time to do it, and that’s why we did it,” Browns linebacker Christian Kirksey told Fox 8 on Tuesday.
The response from O’Neill comes as the NAACP has requested a meeting with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to discuss why Kaepernick has not been signed by any team in the NFL and 1,000 people rallied in support of him outside the NFL’s headquarters in Midtown Manahttan.
“No player should be victimized and discriminated against because of his exercise of free speech – to do so is in violation of his rights under the Constitution and the NFL’s own regulations,” NAACP Interim President Derrick Johnson.
The NFL has suffered ratings decreases since the protests began, with some fans objecting to what they see as a lack of patriotism, and others boycotting games in protest of Kaepernick’s plight.
Despite currently being unemployed, Kaepernick has donated nearly $1 million to charitable and activist groups since beginning his protests.
GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve chairwoman, delivered a broad rebuttal on Friday to Republican criticism that financial regulation is impeding economic growth. Ms. Yellen said changes since the global financial crisis, which began a decade ago, have significantly improved the resilience of the financial system. “The events of the crisis demanded action, needed reforms were implemented and these reforms have made the system safer,” Ms. Yellen said in remarks prepared for delivery Friday morning at an annual monetary policy conference here. The speech amounted to a warning to the Trump administration, which is pressing regulators to loosen or remove some of those regulatory changes. “Already, for some, memories of this experience may be fading — memories of just how costly the financial crisis was and why certain steps were taken in response,” Ms. Yellen said. Continue reading the main story Related Coverage If Janet Yellen Goes, the Fed’s Current Policy May Go With Her AUG. 24, 2017 Gary Cohn, Trump’s Adviser, Said to Have Drafted Resignation Letter After Charlottesville AUG. 25, 2017 Fed Officials Confront New Reality: Low Inflation and Low Unemployment AUG. 16, 2017 Recent Comments HapinOregon 2 minutes ago Of course the memories of CDOs and the Great Recession are forgotten. These are people and institutions whose vision extends no farther than… Vanessa Hall 47 minutes ago Why would those who have not learned the lesson of the Civil War have any interest in learning lessons from the past decade or so? Muleman 1 hour ago The Republic party controlled both houses of Congress twice in the last century: 1921-1930 and 2001-2006. Results? The Great Depression and… See All Comments Write a comment Advertisement Continue reading the main story Ms. Yellen’s forceful support for financial regulation may complicate her prospects for renomination as Fed chairman. Ms. Yellen’s four-year term ends in February, and President Trump has said he is considering whether to name someone else in her place. Gary D. Cohn, Mr. Trump’s chief economic adviser, whom Mr. Trump has described as a candidate for Ms. Yellen’s job, is an architect of the administration’s regulatory plans. Ms. Yellen rarely spoke about regulatory issues during the early years of her tenure as chairwoman, but she has addressed the topic with regularity since Mr. Trump became president. She has argued consistently that changes were needed after the financial crisis and that those changes should not be reversed. On Friday, she cautioned several times against overconfidence in the health of the financial system. She noted, for example, that policy makers gathered here a decade ago were optimistic about the resilience of the system — which was even then in the process of falling apart. One goal of the changes enacted since the crisis is to guard against problems that regulators do not anticipate. Ms. Yellen said large banks have shifted to a more stable mix of financing. The share that comes from equity investors, known as capital, has roughly doubled, while the share that comes from the least stable source, short-term wholesale borrowing, has decreased roughly by half. “Reforms have boosted the resilience of the financial system,” she said. “Banks are safer.” She said a variety of indicators suggest that investors share the Fed’s assessment. Ms. Yellen said there was no clear evidence that increased regulation had been causing broad or deep reductions in the availability of loans, but she said it was more difficult to assess whether there might be smaller impacts. “Credit may be less available to some borrowers, especially home buyers with less-than-perfect credit histories and, perhaps, small businesses,” she said. She emphasized that these potential downsides need to be weighed against the benefit of reducing the risk of future crises, which would certainly cause large declines in the availability of credit for much broader groups of borrowers. Small negative effects may be less important than a lower risk of large negative effects. “Enhanced resilience supports the ability of banks and other financial institutions to lend, thereby supporting economic growth through good times and bad,” she said. Ms. Yellen extended an olive branch to the Trump administration, saying that the Fed was committed to reviewing the impact of regulations and that it saw specific areas with room for improvement. Fed officials have said repeatedly that they would like to reduce the regulatory burden on smaller financial institutions. “The Federal Reserve is committed to evaluating where reforms are working and where improvements are needed to most efficiently maintain a resilient financial system,” she said. Ms. Yellen said regulators also should review restrictions on investment activity by banks, including the so-called Volcker Rule that limits speculative investments. But there are clear limits on how far she thinks the Fed should go. Randal Quarles, nominated by Mr. Trump last month as the Fed’s vice chairman for supervision, said at his confirmation hearing that there is a need to relax some of the strictures placed on the financial industry since the crisis. He mentioned specifically the Fed’s annual stress testing of large banks. Ms. Yellen said Friday that stress tests “has contributed to significant improvements in risk management.” And she rejected the idea that there is a need for broad reductions in regulation. “Any adjustments to the regulatory framework should be modest and preserve the increase in resilience at large dealers and banks associated with the reforms put in place in recent years,” Ms. Yellen said.
Source: US Government Class
CBS News – President Trump is escalating his feud with the leaders of his own party. Mr. Trump’s attacks against top GOP lawmakers are creating rifts ahead of looming legislative deadlines. A prolonged standoff could trigger a government shutdown.
Congress will have 12 working days in September to deal with the challenge of raising the debt ceiling and avoiding a default on America’s bills that could trigger a financial crisis. On Twitter Friday morning, the president again urged Congress to change voting rules to sideline Democrats, reports CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan.
Trump places blame in looming debt ceiling showdown
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders downplayed the escalating tensions between Mr. Trump and his Republican lawmakers, saying “the relationships are fine.”
“There are going to be some policy differences but there are also a lot of shared goals,” Sanders said.
But on Twitter, the president laid bare his “problem” with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, writing “after hearing repeal and replace for 7 years, he failed” to fix Obamacare.
“The assumption that every free-trade agreement is a loser for America is largely untrue,” McConnell said.
McConnell is the latest Senate Republican finding himself at odds with Mr. Trump, who will need the support of nearly every available Republican if he wants to advance his legislative agenda. But patience for Mr. Trump’s methods may be wearing thin. Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker recently said Mr. Trump has not demonstrated the “stability” or the “competence” to be successful, adding he doesn’t think the president “understands the character of this nation.”
The president called Corker’s statement “strange” and tweeted Friday morning that the senator is “constantly asking me whether or not he should run again,” claiming his Tennessee constituents were unhappy.
“The Congress is very unpopular, particularly with the Republican base, so there’s nothing unhinged about it. It’s a political strategy that I’m not so sure is smart, but it’s a very thought-out strategy,” Graham said on “The Hugh Hewitt Show.”
In an interview with the Financial Times, the president’s own economic adviser, Gary Cohn, said he personally felt a lot of pressure to quit working for Mr. Trump after his delayed condemnation of hate groups in Charlottesville – and said the administration must do better.
Santa Fe New Mexican – A lawyer representing several parents of New Mexico public school students has again asked the state Supreme Court to block private schools from drawing on tax dollars to buy textbooks.
The action is just the latest turn in a six-year legal battle that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The parents filed a lawsuit against the state to stop a longtime practice that they view as an unconstitutional use of public funds to support private secular and religious schools.
Following another decision earlier this year on the separation of church and state, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, instead sending it back to New Mexico’s highest court for another review.
With uncertainty shrouding the issue, the state Supreme Court may have to intervene soon and decide whether private schools can indeed turn to the New Mexico government to buy textbooks. Santa Fe attorney Frank Susman filed a motion earlier this week asking the court to block such funds until it has decided the issue once and for all.
At stake is somewhere between $1.1 million and $1.8 million in annual federal funding that comes to the state through the U.S. Mineral Leasing Act. The state Supreme Court decided in 2015 that distributing the public funds to private schools violated the New Mexico Constitution.
The case began in 2011 when two parents of public school students — Cathy “Cate” Moses of Santa Fe and Paul Weinbaum of Las Cruces — petitioned the state Supreme Court to rule on the issue. After the justices declined to hear their request, they filed a state District Court lawsuit against the state in 2012, saying its practice of using federal dollars to pay for textbooks at private schools took money away from public school students.
First District Court Judge Sarah Singleton in Santa Fe sided with the state and the private schools, as did the New Mexico Court of Appeals.
The case made its way to the state Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the parents. The court said the state constitution prohibits education funds from being “used for the support of any sectarian, denominational or private school, college or university.”
The New Mexico Public Education Department stopped providing funding for books at private secular and religious schools, and Susman said he would be “shocked” if the agency changed its position.
However, an association of private schools appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing the state justices’ decision was based on law that is a relic of anti-Catholic discrimination. And the U.S. Supreme Court told the state to reconsider the case in June.
The order came a day after the U.S. justices ruled that the state of Missouri could not deny a grant to a church for playground improvements simply because it was a religious institution. The Supreme Court cited its ruling in that case in directing New Mexico’s justices to revisit the textbook issue.
Whether that decision will change how the New Mexico Supreme Court views the case remains unclear, and legal experts have disagreed sharply on the significance of the Missouri ruling.
A hearing on the case has yet to be set.
In the meantime, the Public Education Department says it will not provide funding for textbooks for students at nonpublic schools.
Some private schools are bracing for a lack of funding for textbooks and are buying their own.
Taylor Gantt, president of St. Michael’s High School, said the school has received an average of about $30,000 per year from the state in textbook credits.
“We never actually received any money,” he said. “We had a credit on the textbook website and could order the books, and the credit would decrease. We have internally decided to make other long-term arrangements for those textbooks and have been able to budget to absorb and account for the expense.”
Jim Leonard, head of Santa Fe Preparatory School, said the school has ordered new books from the state but will pay for them at the cost of “a few thousand dollars.”
“We are not getting funded through the state right now,” he said Thursday. “We’ll be OK with that.”
Santa Fe New Mexican – At a rally in Santa Fe on Monday, Elena Ortiz stood among a crowd of 1,500 people in the city’s historic Plaza in a show of solidarity with the people of Charlottesville, Va., where a demonstration by white supremacists last weekend turned deadly. She held a sign that read, “No hate, no KKK, no fascist USA.”
But as one speaker after another took the stage, Ortiz grew increasingly frustrated.
“There were no Native Americans,” said Ortiz, a member of the Ohkay Owingeh pueblo north of Española. “Of course [Mayor Javier Gonzales] gets up there and starts talking about what a wonderful place Santa Fe is because, you know, we don’t put up with this kind of racism.”
For Ortiz, who grew up in Santa Fe, the speakers’ comments overlooked a fundamental truth about their own city and its tradition of honoring figures with histories of killing and enslaving Native Americans. Soon she joined a small chorus of others in the crowd who began chanting: “Abolish the Entrada!”
Elena Ortiz poses for a portrait in front of the obelisk at the Plaza on Friday, August 18, 2017. Luis Sánchez Saturno/The New Mexican
They were referring to the annual re-enactment during the Fiesta de Santa Fe each September that celebrates what organizers call the “peaceful resettlement” of the city by Spanish conquistador Don Diego de Vargas in 1692 — an event that historians say was anything but peaceful.
As much of America debates the removal of Confederate statues in the South, a similar dispute has been stirring in New Mexico for decades over the appropriateness of honoring Spanish conquistadors and other historical figures who, while helping to colonize the region, also had a destructive impact on the Native Americans already living here. Statues of conquistadors like de Vargas and Don Juan de Oñate adorn the state, serving as recurring flashpoints between residents of Hispanic descent and Native Americans whose ancestors suffered at the conquistadors’ hands. The same debate roils over other historical figures in Southwest history, such as Kit Carson.
Across the nation, cities and states are considering removing or relocating Confederate statues and monuments. The city of Baltimore quietly removed four Confederate statues last week, and the mayor of Lexington, Ky., is working to relocate two Confederate-era monuments after the tragic events in Charlottesville.
The removal of such monuments comes after South Carolina permanently lowered the Confederate flag from its State House last year and New Orleans removed the final Confederate statue in the city in May.
President Donald Trump, a Republican, called the removal of such monuments “so foolish.”
“Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments,” Trump tweeted Thursday. “You can’t change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson — who’s next, Washington, Jefferson?”
The dissidence over historical figures has played out in different ways in New Mexico
The statue of Don Juan de Oñate at a cultural center in Alcalde represents either a legacy of European conquest of Native people or a veneration of Spanish heritage and pride. Henry M. Lopez/The New Mexican
In 1998, for example, the right foot of a bronze sculpture of Oñate was sawed off at a cultural center in Alcalde named after the conquistador, just as the state was preparing to celebrate the 400th anniversary of his arrival.
When the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area moved into the building last fall, Thomas Romero, the nonprofit organization’s executive director, said a name change was an important consideration. He said the group is “actively pursuing coming up with a way of minimizing the effect of the statue without just doing a removal.”
“We’ve started talking about the concept of building a culture garden in that area where the statue is right now and that we would, over time, create new images there that would tend to represent and reflect all of the cultural mix,” Romero said.
Thomas Romero poses for a portrait at El Museo Cultural on Friday, Aug. 18, 2017. Luis Sánchez Saturno/The New Mexican
In Santa Fe, Mayor Gonzales also is tackling the issue of monuments and statues with a cautious approach.
Gonzales announced Thursday “a plan to address Santa Fe’s own complicated history with race and memory head on.”
Gonzales said he plans to ask the city manager to deliver a report or a timeline for a report that includes “all city property that holds memorials, monuments or markers of historic events or people.” The mayor also is requesting “a process by which the public may submit and comment upon events, memorials, monuments and markers that celebrate or recognize historic events or people for inclusion.”
“From there, I will ask the City Council to take action consistent with the findings of the manager’s report,” Gonzales said in a statement. “I believe we can be a leader in racial healing and transformation towards a more unified city, but it will take more than a mayor or city council. It will take our entire community coming together.”
State Historian Rick Hendricks did not return a message seeking comment for this story. Some historians have argued that removing such statues is allowing history to be overtaken by political correctness.
“Given the nature of sensitivity, it’s not possible to commemorate anybody in history or honor anything,” New Mexico historian and author Marc Simmons, who has written a biography of Oñate, told The New Mexican after the Oñate statue in Alcade was vandalized.
‘Savage Indians’
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The obelisk in the center of Plaza originally included an inscription that read, ‘To the heroes who have fallen in various battles with savage Indians in the Territory of New Mexico.’ The word ‘savage’ was chipped out by an unidentified man in 1974. On Friday, someone had added the word ‘courageous’ in the chipped out space. Luis Sánchez Saturno/ The New Mexican
Standing outside the obelisk in the center of the Santa Fe Plaza, which originally included an inscription that read, “To the heroes who have fallen in various battles with savage Indians in the Territory of New Mexico,” James Palmer and his friend, Preston Pollard, both visiting from Dallas, bemoaned the removal of such monuments, including statues of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
“Instead of tearing down these statues, they ought to put an explanatory plaque. You learn from history,” said Palmer, 80.
In 1974, an unidentified man wearing coveralls chipped the word “savage” out of the inscription on the obelisk. Sometime between Thursday and Friday, the word “courageous” was written in.
The obelisk was dedicated in 1868 as a memorial to those who fought in the Civil War — and those who fought the Native people.
For decades, people offended by the monument have called for its removal. In the early 2000s, Santa Fe’s chapter of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, asked for the monument to be replaced, but it still stands today.
Outside the obelisk is a plaque stating that “monument texts reflect the character of the times in which they are written and the temper of those who wrote them” and that “attitudes change and prejudices hopefully dissolve.”
“It should be done all over the country like this rather than tearing down the monuments that we see, because you learn from history,” Palmer said. “You don’t just ignore history. You learn from it.”
Pollard, also 80, agreed.
“It has nothing to do with the thoughts and hearts of people that’s going on with them right now, be it the far left or the far right,” he said. “This stuff needs to stop and stop now.”
A peaceful reconquest?
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The statue of Spanish conquistador Don Diego de Vargas at Cathedral Park. Luis Sánchez Saturno/ The New Mexican
Last weekend’s deadly confrontation in Virginia, which started with the proposed removal of a statue of Lee from a college campus, has not only reignited the debate over monuments of people whose histories are marked with violence and bloodshed, but intensified efforts to abolish the Entrada.
The dramatization is a sore point for some Native Americans and others.
The Entrada is one of many events that take place during the Fiesta de Santa Fe each September, but the dramatization has sparked the most controversy — not only because it is held in a public venue but because it is described as an “accurate account.”
The Entrada features a man portraying de Vargas and his so-called cuadrilla marching onto the Plaza on horseback. As a group of Pueblo people watch de Vargas approach, a narrator says de Vargas has “a nervous fear and heart” but “the strength that comes from sincere confidence and the faith of God.”
The narrator says de Vargas removes his sword and armor as he approaches the Native Americans.
“He is ready to walk into this ancient villa unprotected,” the narrator says, reading from a script. “The Pueblo people at the palacio were not afraid to do battle, but they could not quite understand such an unusual feat of courage.”
The narrator then says that Cacique Domingo, the Tesuque Pueblo governor who negotiated with de Vargas for the resettlement of the city, lays down his shield and spear and meets de Vargas.
“They have a friendly exchange,” the narrator says. “De Vargas talks of peace and shows him the image of Our Lady on royal standard, then he shows him the statue of Our Lady of Assumption. Domingo shows de Vargas a crucifix he is wearing and his pouch where he had an Agnus Dei. He then shows him the holy rosary. Domingo does not feel threatened and invites Vargas into the villa.”
At the end, the narrator says de Vargas “had spoken words of peace and now with Cacique Domingo, they convert this message into reality.”
History tells a different story.
Historians agree that de Vargas reclaimed the city for the Spanish crown without any bloodshed, but he did so, as former State Historian Robert J. Torrez wrote, “utilizing a masterful mix of diplomacy and a not so subtle threat of a siege.”
Author David Roberts writes in The Pueblo Revolt that it was still dark when de Vargas and his contingent of 50 soldiers, 10 armed civilians and 100 Native allies approached Santa Fe in September 1692.
In his journals, de Vargas wrote, “They replied that they were ready to fight for five days, they had to kill us all.”
After a stalemate, de Vargas sent four soldiers to block Santa Fe’s only water supply and gave the Pueblo people an hour to surrender, Roberts wrote.
“If they did not,” de Vargas threatened, “I would consume and destroy them by fire and sword, holding nothing back.”
Some historians believe the Native Americans, seeing that de Vargas’ party did not include women and children, let him into the city, knowing he would soon leave and believing he did not intend to recolonize the area.
When De Vargas returned to Santa Fe a year later, this time with 100 soldiers, 70 families, at least 18 Franciscan friars and a number of Indian allies, the encounter with the Native Americans erupted into a battle that lasted through the night and into the next morning.
De Vargas and his Native American allies emerged triumphant, and in reprisal, ordered every warrior who had fought against the Spaniards — 70 in all — executed by firing squad. The 400 who had surrendered voluntarily, including women and children, were divided up among the colonists and sentenced to 10 years of servitude, according to historian John Kessell, former director of the Vargas Project, which compiled and translated de Vargas’ journals.
Similar scenes — with similar repercussions — played out over the next three years as de Vargas and his Native allies campaigned against recalcitrant pueblos until most had surrendered.
‘That’s not accurate’
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A small chorus of people, including Elena Ortiz, left, chanted ‘Abolish the Entrada!’ at a Plaza peace rally last week. Gabriela Campos/The New Mexican
The Rev. Adam Lee Ortega y Ortiz, rector of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, said the Entrada commemorates one event of the entire resettlement — a moment of peace.
“Absolutely, the resettlement was not totally a peaceful event,” he said. “There was bloodshed, absolutely. We’re not commemorating the whole event. We’re commemorating a point when Don Diego de Vargas came and had that reconciliation, even if just for a brief moment, which I think is a sign of hope, and that’s what we want to build on.”
For some, the dramatization is offensive.
“I’m sorry, but that’s not accurate,” said Jessica Eva Montoya Trujillo, who served as a Spanish princessa on the Royal Court in 2008, referring to the description of the Entrada as an “accurate account” of the “peaceful resettlement.”
“The Caballeros need to put that play inside a theater and call it a day,” she said, referring to Los Caballeros De Vargas, a religious group in charge of the annual performance. “Pride in European heritage is damaging, as we’ve witnessed this week in our country.”
Dean Milligan, president of the Santa Fe Fiesta Council, and Manuel Garcia, president of Los Caballeros De Vargas, did not return messages seeking comment.
Some Native Americans view the Entrada as a celebration of the slaughter of their people and the occupation of Pueblo land.
The Entrada has sparked protests, including one last year that spooked some of the horses amid constant shouting and chanting into a megaphone. Another protest is planned this year, and organizers say they expect more protesters to join in the call to end what they consider a tradition rooted in racism.
“It’s time for [the mayor and other officials] to stand up and say this is not OK anymore,” said Ortiz, the Ohkay Owingeh member who yelled “Abolish the Entrada!” at last week’s rally against racism.
“Just like toppling Robert E. Lee,” she said, “it’s time to topple this revisionist history and say, ‘It wasn’t peaceful. It wasn’t bloodless, and we acknowledge what happened in this area. We acknowledge that the Entrada takes place on the corner where the gallows stood where 12 Pueblo religious leaders were hung. We acknowledge that what we’re celebrating is wrong, and we’re going to stop.’ ”
Jennifer Marley, 21, a member of San Ildefonso Pueblo who protested last year’s Entrada, said the protest this year will be framed “in tandem with what we’re seeing at the national level.”
“I think it’s very necessary to point out just how much the rhetoric of those defending the Entrada mirrors that of the neo-Nazis we saw rallying around a statue of Robert E. Lee,” said Marley, a student at The University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. “It is disturbing because their defense literally mirrors the white supremacist narrative and, in fact, we’re seeing that it is white supremacist in nature where people are emphasizing their Euro-Spanish heritage.”
Police spokesman Greg Gurulé declined to disclose how the police department would handle any protests at next month’s Fiesta.
“We will not be talking about our plans for Fiestas and the Entrada,” he said in an email. “We will be staffing it. However, we will not disclose manpower or other plans for the event.”
Ortega y Ortiz, the cathedral rector, said he would prefer a dialogue over a protest, which can lead to violence.
“In light of what happened [last] weekend, I think what serves our community of Santa Fe best is for us to sit down and talk with each other and respect all sides of what’s going on rather than resorting to protests and yelling out things right when the event is taking place,” he said. “That just promotes more disharmony rather than harmony.”
