There might be some who have no clear idea of what they think about the House passing a bill that makes English the official language of conducting business. To Native Americans, such as myself, who know the political history between our sovereign nations , it's business as usual by a government that has always dealt with us in English to our detriment. For that is how we were "treatied" into giving up millions of acres of valuable land and resources.

In her opinion column in the Aug. 22 Daily Wildcat, Kaye Patchett says that English-only laws combat separatism. In fact, the opposite will happen. As descendants of the indigenous peoples of this country, Native Americans still mourn the the lands they l ost when their ancestors made agreements with "X's" on treaties that were written in English, a language they did not understand. What would they have done if they had known they were signing away the lives and futures of their people? They only knew what they were told was written in those treaties, but the translations into their native languages were often incorrectly done or misunderstood.

Patchett says it's "inherently absurd" that an English-speaking country is being intolerant if it conducts its business in English. I disagree. Manifest Destiny's ideology carried out by the government's policies bring to mind not only intolerance, but gr eed, genocide, and American holocaust. It's more absurd to deny what actually happened in the history of how this country came to be. I've often heard that we, as Native Americans, are so-called "conquered" people, and therefore, should be dominated. Many of us believe we were never conquered militarily, but were lied to in corrupt dealings by the government.

Those that are intolerant say to us who dare to speak out against injustice and theft of lands, "Get on with it," as if all that has gone on before can be erased with those words. Say those same words to the Jewish holocaust survivors and see how revolted others will be to hear you say that to those who have vowed never to let it happen again. So tell me it's not being intolerant, or racist or ethnocentric to try to deny the respect due other people's languages, cultures and religions, especially in our o wn aboriginal lands.

Yes, it's true when Patchett says that "common sense has somehow been mislaid." It hasn't been mislaid by those who speak languages other than English, but rather by those who are monolingual in English and have the ethnocentric attitude that this is an E nglish-speaking country. Upon "the Arrival," there were over 500 different native languages being spoken in the New World. If we are to believe Patchett's premise, those that "came here voluntarily" should learn the language of the land. It might have bee n hard for Europeans to learn our language, but which one would you choose and why? We were not trying to impose ourselves on Europeans; they imposed themselves and their language on us.

Why is there a need to make English the official language? Those of us who have always been oppressed in our own country know the meaning of having to learn the language, and we have. Many of our young people no longer learn our native languages because o f the suffering their parents and grandparents went through in government boarding schools.

In addition, in spite of the past government policies, there are many tribal elders who take pride in being voting Americans. But in order to do that, ballots need to be explained to them or written in their languages. Will you deny such an elder that opp ortunity to vote?

If states also pass English-only laws and they become widespread, there will be resentments caused by this country's insensitivity toward the indigenous and Spanish-speaking peoples who also have indigenous blood. This resentment by a fairly large segment of the American population will cause more separatism, not less. Don't forget that they are also taxpayers who should have a say in what the government provides with their money.

People such as Robert D. Park, chairman of the English Language Advocates Association and conservative (mainly Republican) members of Congress never consider the indigenous people in their rhetoric. It's as if we are invisible in our own country. Over 25 tribal nations own over one third of the land in Arizona, which also has one of the highest Native American populations in this country. Still, Park and others continue to push for an Arizona Official English law.

Can you imagine how insulting and insensitive it is for descendants of indigenous people to be so disregarded, belittled and disrespected? In our own country we are asked to sink or swim with the rest who came here from somewhere else.

Bernadette Adley-Santamaria is a member of the White Mountain Apache Tribe and is a graduate student in the American Indian Studies Program.

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