Law Conference

To the Editors of the Harvard Crimson:

We, the American Indians at Harvard/Radcliffe (AIH), support the American Indian Law Students' Association's Conference. "Indigenous Peoples' Rights in Domestic and International Law," because it is a forum for the presentation of ideas concerning the defense of the rights of American Indians. We do not nor have we ever endorsed the use of terrorism to defend those rights nor to achieve any other goal.

We feel compelled to explain the role of S. Allen Counter, the Director of the Harvard Foundation, in this affair. AIH approached Counter in a letter dated 2/16/82 to ask him to arrange for seven rooms for conference participants in the undergraduate Houses. It was very clear that the seven rooms would be used by conference participants of American Indian descent. We felt that if Counter agreed to provide the housing of these seven participants, he would be making a gesture of good faith from the new Foundation to one of the major minority groups on campus, AIH. He proceeded to arrange for the housing. Never did he nor any members of the Foundation or AIH arrange to accomodate Deena Abu-Loghod and Ms. Abu-Loghod will not be provided with accomodations by the Foundation or AIH. Chris Mele '83, President   American Indians at Harvard   Joseph Russ '83, Member   American Indians at Harvard