Chapter 38

Maria responded from the rear of the airplane, “I like those ideas, but I can see one problem right off the bat.”

“What’s that, Chipmunk?”

“We, as a people, are too small and too fragmented a group to be able to accomplish something like that. Our company might give them jobs, and even some hope, but getting a group of Apaches to work together is like trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube, or herding rabbits.”

Dan responded, “Jason seems to do well with it.”

“Dan, Grandfather doesn’t try to lead the tribe. He decides what’s best, and does it. Anyone who agrees with his idea and wants to be a part of it can come along. The rest he just ignores. That’s why he’s refused to join the tribal council before now, even though that was the custom.”

Hawk asked, “Then why the change?”

“I really don’t think he’s changed. With your help he’s going to do just what he has always done. If any of the council members oppose him they’ll just be left behind. I think what he sees as being different, is with you there’s a chance to carry this further than ever before. Maybe we can even force the government to deal with us honorably, for once.”

“So, if you agree with our goals, why such a negative view?”

“Because, to make it happen, you’ll have to do just what they’ve been fighting against all along ... change their culture.”

“But, I don’t want them to become ‘good white Americans.’ I want to help them maintain their culture and their heritage, while restoring their pride and sense of self-worth.”

“Hawk, much of their culture, even they don’t understand. To really produce results you need to write off much of the current generation, as most of them are immovable. You can’t actually ignore the older adults and the tribal leaders, but you’re going to have to put most of your emphasis on the children, teens, and young adults.”

“Besides improving education and job opportunities, what do you see as the most important thing we need to do?” Dan asked.

Maria answered emphatically, “Show them they can compete in the white man’s world, yet still be Apache.” Maria paused a moment, then added, “Hawk, you actually have a much bigger problem than you realize. Up to this point you’ve been exposed to just the White Mountain Apache. The problem is there are other Apache tribes, most of whom originally had the common heritage of language and tradition. Unfortunately, over the generations, those common links have degenerated, allowing new cultural traditions and linguistic variations to form. In the past hundred years this process has been accelerated due to the physical separation of the tribes onto different reservations.” Hawk was distraught, and his face showed it. His idealistic view of ‘the world’ was being shattered by the crush of reality. Maria continued shaking his ‘world’ when she said, “To make this even more impossible, there are close to six hundred Federally recognized Native American tribes with another two hundred or more who aren’t officially recognized. To put this into perspective there are roughly two million American Indians of whom roughly sixty thousand are classed as Apache. Of those, only twelve thousand are White Mountain Apache.”

Hawk replied, “You’ve been doing some research.”

Almost in tears, Maria answered, “I’ve had to. My family is at stake here. We can help our people. We might even be able to help the other Apache tribes. But we aren’t going to be able to make wholesale changes in how the government treats the American Indian as a race.”

Hawk thought for a moment, and replied, “You’re right, we can’t solve the problems for every tribe and nation. At best, we might be able to help keep the government honest in their dealings with the tribes. Beyond that, I’d say the most we can do is to provide a more positive and sympathetic climate for them in this country. We can also try to provide economic opportunities that are beyond the traditional ‘selling a few souvenirs, ‘ or building a casino. A casino, which primarily profits non-Indian organizations or interests, not those it was intended to help. What they do with their lives after we provide genuine economic, social, and, political opportunities is up to them.”

“Do you really think those changes will help?”

“Yes, Chipmunk, but only if they want to be helped. We’ll find many who’ll eagerly jump at the chance of a better future. Unfortunately, there will always be some who want to continue being a victim of some atrocity that happened more than a hundred years ago, while others will claim they want to live by the old ways, but by that they really mean governmental handouts. I don’t know of anything that can help those last two groups.”

Maria was in tears as she said mournfully, “Then, I don’t see that our efforts will really change anything. The Native American, including the Apache, will be fragmented into two classes: Those who try to make it in ‘the white man’s world, ‘ and these who wallow in their past, or drown themselves in alcohol to escape their failure and hopelessness.”

“Yes, darling. But, there’s one major difference. Those who choose to compete against the ‘whites’ in our world will not be treated as second-class citizens with little hope of advancement. As these people begin to prosper, hopefully their momentum will pull at least some of the poor with them. Their success might make some of the others in the tribe begin to see beyond their next bottle, or next handout.”

Maria’s eyes brightened a bit as the depth of what Hawk was saying began to sink in. She cautiously responded to Hawk’s revelation, “So, what you are saying is that while they might no longer be primarily an Apache, they continue to be a Native American, sub-group Apache. As a result, the different tribes could actually become stronger, rather than weaker.”

“Exactly. We’d become a nation, or at least a confederation, within a nation. If we are no longer socially, politically, or economically divided, we can become a force to be reckoned with.”

Dan interjected, “Hawk, your idea has merit, but Maria’s still right about needing to change underlying attitudes. How would you approach that problem?”

“Maria ‘nailed it’ earlier when she talked about building up the youth and convincing them they can compete with the white man. That confidence will eventually have a great effect, though it may take time.”

Dan responded, “I think you both have some good ideas. How can we implement them?”

Hawk replied, “My thinking was to provide good jobs for our people, locating them on or near the reservation. These wouldn’t be ‘hand out’ jobs, but meaningful, well paying jobs, with room for advancement. We’d start with simple jobs, like assembling an item, but with training and effort they could open into more skilled technical jobs. These are the types of jobs that are currently going overseas.”

Maria responded, “Hawk, I don’t think you’re wrong here. This will have a major impact. I just wasn’t sure how we’d do that and compete.”

“First, with our resources we don’t have to make a profit, or not much of one. Second, we’ll compete with unique or better products. If we make a wind powered generator that produces ten times the electricity of current models, and sold it for the same price as others models, could we compete?”

“Sure.”

“What if we offered a shoe-box size battery that could store large quantities of electricity for months, or offered a computer for that same wind power generating system that automatically controlled the windmill’s blades, the generator, and the inverter? Could we compete?

“Absolutely!”

“Now, suppose we put all these together into a system that would be able to maintain a constant level of power for an indefinite period. Do you think we could compete?”

A stunned Dan said, “Hawk, if you could do that you wouldn’t be competing against other windmill companies, you’d be competing with the power companies. Especially in rural areas.”

A smiling Hawk replied, “Now, you get an idea of where I’m going with what we talked about earlier. Theoretically we could have this entire product line in operation within six months.”

“No wonder you want to get some of this operational while it’s ‘off their radar.’ This is going to create some major havoc.”

“That’s why we may take a year or so to actually produce a finished product. We want to first establish all the primary components as products on their own, without a lot of fanfare. That will make it harder to block the production and sale of the end product.”

Maria asked, “Why would that make a difference?”

“Chipmunk, if you threw a frog into a pot of boiling water, what would happen?”

“He’d immediately try to get out.”

“Now, what if you put a frog in normal water, but put a fire underneath to slowly bring it to a boil?”

“Oh! ‘Frog legs’!”

“So, we periodically introduce slightly better and better models until there are too many for the government to restrict. In addition, we also come in through the back door. One of our companies introduces an improved electrical wire. This wire would offer much less resistance to the flow of current, so a lot of power companies will jump all over it.”

A puzzled Maria said, “Please don’t think I’m slow, but why would they do that?”

“Sweetheart, you’re not slow, just uneducated in these areas. The key to understand is when electrical current passes through wiring there’s a natural resistance to that flow. Some of that resistance is transferred into heat, causing a loss of electrical power. Decrease the size of the wire or increase the flow of electricity, and the heat and power loss increases.”

“I can see the logic of that.”

“Now, if our wire reduces this loss by even one percent, the value of that savings would be roughly three hundred million a year.”

Dan whistled, and said, “I didn’t realize it would be that much. You’re right, they will jump all over that wire. The question would become could we produce it fast enough.”

“Actually, the savings will be a lot more than that, as our loss reduction will be closer to five percent. As for production, you’re right, we’ll have shortages and back orders for a while, but it’s a good problem to have, as long as we keep it a short term one. Increasing production capacity should be easily accomplished, but we’ll need to make sure the patents are done properly and viciously defended.”

Dan responded, “And, that’s part of my responsibility.”

“Correct, but remember, this is just the beginning. Later another of our companies will take different versions of that same wire and use it to produce more efficient motors, generators, and so forth.”

“Which, except for the wire used, are just like any other similar unit.”

“Pretty much, Dan, except some of the other components may also be made of a new alloy, or a metallic / ceramic composite.”

Fascinated with what her husband and Dan were discussing Maria asked, “Is there more?”

“Yep, Chipmunk, there sure is. A third company will quietly introduce a new type of rechargeable flash light battery. A short time later the battery will evolve into a new type of car battery, which ultimately becomes a new type of storage battery for electric cars and windmills. By the time the ‘powers that be’ realize what has happened it’s too late for them to do more than grumble. The technology would just be too widespread.”

Dan interrupted, “Sorry, guys. I need to point out some things, and then I’ve got to get on the radio. Maria, if you look off to the right and slightly behind us you’ll see the Salton Sea. It’s an area below sea level that periodically becomes a large lake. Though it’s appeared and disappeared over the years this current version was formed in the early nineteen hundreds when a levee holding back the Colorado River gave way. It flooded most of Imperial Valley farming area, and by the time the break was fixed, this lake was formed. I think I read they expected the lake / sea to evaporate within twenty years, but local rainfall and irrigation runoff has pretty much maintained its level ever since. It’s slightly saltier than the Pacific, and generally has maintained a healthy and vibrant population of salt-water fish. Though I’ve heard there have been some problems the last year or so.”

“How big is it.”

“You’ll have to check the Internet to get more specifics, but I believe it’s roughly forty miles long and fifteen miles wide. In about two minutes we’ll start flying over the lower hills of the Laguna Mountain Range. On the other side of the range is the city of San Diego.”

Dan called the tower and they had him reset his transponder and transmit. As the aircraft moved over the mountains the city of San Diego opened up before them. Hawk noticed there were commercial aircraft flying in a pattern off to their right, and asked, “Are they going to make us circle around and come in from the ocean?”

Dan replied, “Why would you ask that?”

“The commercial flights are off to our right.”

“Oh. Now, I understand the basis for your question. No, they aren’t swinging us around. We’re going to Brown Field, which is designed specifically for general aviation. Also, it’s a whole lot closer to Coronado Island.”

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The Hawk and the Chipmunk

Mike Lowe aka The Scot

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