Indians Stage March on Capitol Hill

WASHINGTON--Native Americans and their supporters, numbering from 750 to 1000 people, according to police estimates, converged on the Capitol yesterday afternoon, to protest 11 proposed legislative acts that they say would affect the rights and sovereignty of Indian nations.

The demonstration was one of a series of events that began with the arrival in Washington of participants in the Indians' "Longest Walk" on Saturday.

The "Longest Walk" began on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay on February 11. Twenty-nine demonstrators, including one 94-year-old native American and several Japanese Buddhist monks, completed the entire march from California to Washington.

The demonstrators said their walk symbolized a reversal of the forced westward migration of Indian tribes in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The participants in yesterday's demonstration spent Sunday night camping at Green Belt Park and then took buses to Capitol Hill. Marching through the mall towards the Capitol building, the protesters beat drums and sang traditional Indian hymns.

Their arrival was heralded by a brief but violent thunderstorm that ended just as the group arrived at the steps of the Capitol around 3 p.m.

Realists And Idealists

Many different tribal groups, including the Lakoca (Sioux) from South Dakota, the Lummi Nation from Washington state, and members of the Algonquin nation from Michigan, sen, representatives to the protest. Some groups carried banners with symbols of their tribal groups.

Speakers included Sen. Allen Cranston (D-Cal.), Leman Brightman, one of the originators of the "Longest Walk," and Philip Deer, a leader of the Muscoke tribe in California.

Brightman attacked the alleged sterilization of Indian women, against their will, by doctors in the Indian health services. Brightman said he may bring a $300-million class-action law suit against the head of the Indian Health Services.

In a statement issued to the press by representatives of the Navajo, Iroquois and Sioux nations, the Indians accused the federal government of practicing a "clear-cut policy of genocide," as defined by the Geneva Convention.

The focus of yesterday's protest included two bills that would eliminate the land claims of the Passama quoddy and Penobscot tribes in the state of Maine.

A third bill would have the same effect on tribal lands claimed by New York State Indians. The protesters also opposed Senate Bill 1437, a revision of the federal criminal code that has drawn stiff opposition from civil liberties groups. The bill would allow police to wire-tap private telephones without a warrant under some circumstances and would also impose stricter controls on public demonstrations.

Other bills includes a proposal that would direct the president to abrogate all treaties between the federal government and the Indian tribes, and several acts that would limit the off-reservation fishing and hunting rights of native Americans, who presently are not bound by state game laws.

A delegation of 25 elders and tribal chiefs will meet with Vice President Walter F. Mondale today to discuss the pending legislation and to urge President Carter to state publicly that he will veto these bills if they are passed by Congress.

The series of protests will culminate or Sunday with a benefit concert featuring Richie Havens, Buffy St. Marie, and Steve Wonder.