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I AM A HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR, AND SPENT three weeks working on Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota two summers ago. The Native American people are so completely dependent on our government that if we take away their rightful funding we might as well shut them out of this country. They have a right to preserve their heritage, receive a proper education, live in a sanitary home and have roads and proper water and sewerage systems. The U.S. will be committing genocide if it reduces funding. It makes me sick to think that members of our government are responsible for these spending cuts. It is a wonder they are able to sleep at night. ALISON ROOT Port Washington, New York
JUST LOOK AT THE FILTH SHOWN IN THE photographs of Native Americans. No amount of aid can substitute for what people should do for themselves. Assistance just encourages them to do less; they think that those who have aided them in the past will do even more in the future. The true way to help Michael Little Boy Sr. and his family is to send him a copy of Colin Powell's book, which is testimony to how a man from a challenged background can reach the top. Powell's parents had pride in themselves, their children and their home, which is a lot more than Little Boy can say, as shown by the squalor he tolerates, a behavior his children will emulate. IRVIN S. NAYLOR York, Pennsylvania
IT AMAZES ME THAT AMERICANS HAVE become so hardened that we value national parks and cultural institutions over people. The American Indian was the first one here, yet he receives last consideration from Senator Slade Gorton's appropriations subcommittee overseeing the Interior Department funding. While cultural institutions are important, they cannot possibly take precedence over the very existence of human beings. JOYCE HERTZSKE Whitehall, Pennsylvania
AS SOMEONE WHO HAS TRAVELED TO scores of American Indian reservations, I can speak firsthand about the damage the U.S. government has done to Native Americans, their culture, their traditions and, in some cases, their self-esteem. And now Congress is about to stab them in the back again. It will come as no surprise to them. Throughout the years, the U.S. government has broken promises and reneged on one treaty after another. Senator Gorton's assertion that as budget cuts take place, Native Americans must sacrifice like other Americans is akin to Hitler's telling the Jews in Auschwitz that although conditions there were bad, things in Berlin were not so good either. The American Indians in our country need to rise up to oppose this betrayal. Shame on Senator Gorton, and shame on the U.S. government. JAMES MILLS Hanover, New Hampshire
STOLEN KISSES
SENATOR BOB PACKWOOD IS A PRIME example of corruption, deviant sexual conduct and abuse of power. His forced resignation from the Senate on ethical charges should not have taken so long [THE SENATE, Sept. 18]. Packwood no more deserves the rewards of being an ex-Senator than his victims deserved to be accosted by him. LAURIE JANAK MAREK Shiner, Texas