And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: <From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 08:26:53 EST To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <><><><><><><>NASC NEWS<><><><><><><> State to suspend -- briefly -- preparations for rerouting Hwy. 55 Jennifer M. Fitzenberger / Star Tribune State attorneys agreed on Thursday to suspend preparations for rerouting Hwy. 55 for a few days until a court decides whether it will honor protesters' requests to halt the project to gather more cultural and environmental impact data. Hennepin County District Judge H. Peter Albrecht said he will review the matter over the weekend before making a decision. Foes of rerouting Hwy. 55 say issues such as sacred American Indian burial grounds and danger to a nearby spring have surfaced since the project's original environmental impact document was drafted in 1985. They hope that an amended environmental statement can be formulated following further research. The state, however, says the protesters have presented no new information since 1985 about aspects of the project that could damage the environment, thus eliminating the need for a supplemental statement. Work on the rerouting has proceeded as planned since 1985, Assistant Attorney General Bill Sierks said. The protesters sued in federal and state courts Dec. 24 seeking to prohibit further construction of the road in south Minneapolis. On Dec. 24, a federal judge denied the protesters' request for a temporary restraining order, noting that they had not participated in a 1996 suit opposing the Hiawatha corridor project. Another group of protesters filed that suit, lost in district court and has appealed. No documented evidence exists that undisturbed American Indian remains are buried in the area south of E. 54th Street where four trees grow in a diamond pattern, Sierks said. Indians say the trees held burial platforms for their ancestors. Sierks also said the Minnesota Department of Transportation has redesigned its plans for the road and a sewer system that originally could have pierced the limestone feeding ground water to Camp Coldwater Spring, which lies several hundred feet east of the road. Attorney Jordan Kushner, who represents the protesters, said oral and cultural history account for the lack of physical burial evidence. The state has taken longer than rules allow to decide about granting an amended environmental statement, an attempt at slowing the protesters' petition, he said. Also Thursday, the state offered to give protesters five days' notice of any tree-cutting or construction activity if they will discontinue occupation of state land. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~``` Several pieces of Kennewick Man remains missing, allegedly stolen Scientists who did inventory say someone walked off with bones December 12, 1998 Linda Ashton; The Associated Press YAKIMA - Two scientists involved in the custody dispute over the remains of Kennewick Man say important pieces of the 9,300-year-old skeleton have been stolen. "This is theft. There's no doubt about it," physical anthropologist Cleone Hawkinson said Friday from Portland. A detailed inventory of the collection of more than 350 pieces of bone shows only one piece of each of Kennewick Man's femurs, or leg bones, remain in storage. When the skeleton was first assessed, both femurs were in six pieces. "They're too big of pieces to be just lost," said Hawkinson, who compiled the inventory report that was filed in U.S. District Court on Thursday in Portland. "Somebody had to walk off with them. They're not something that would fall on the floor." Doug Owsley, an anthropologist with the Smithsonian Institution who conducted the Oct. 28 inventory, called the disappearance of the long leg bones "a deliberate act of desecration." They are crucial to the study of the skeleton, he said. "Femurs contain invaluable information to assess stature, size, robustness, functional morphology, age and population affiliation," Owsley said in his report. "I hope that diligent efforts will be made to recover these elements and to determine who is responsible for their loss." Owsley's report to the federal court is part of two-year dispute over who should have custody of Kennewick Man, the oldest and most complete human skeleton found in the Northwest and one of the oldest in North America. The bones were found on the banks of the Columbia River in July 1996. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which took custody of the bones from the Benton County sheriff's office, planned to turn over the remains to tribal representatives under the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Five Northwest tribes have claimed Kennewick Man as an ancestor and wish to rebury the bones. But Owsley and seven other scientists sued in federal court in Portland for the right to further study the remains, which were moved in October from a lab in Richland to the Burke Museum in Seattle. A small California group called the Asatru Folk Assembly, practicing a Viking-era pagan religion, also has sought access to the bones but is not opposed to the study of the remains. At the Burke, a team of researchers led by the U.S. Department of the Interior is to conduct noninvasive tests for clues as to Kennewick Man's origins. Results are expected next year and could determine the ultimate disposition of the bones. James Chatters, a forensic anthropologist who helped excavate the bones in 1996, has videotape of the femurs, which were broken but essentially intact, said Alan Schneider, a Portland lawyer representing the researchers. "Between Aug. 30 and Sept. 10 (1996), somehow the femurs were taken," he said. Schneider said when the Corps took custody of the bones from the sheriff's office, the federal government failed to conduct a basic inventory documenting what was in its possession and the condition of the remains. About that same time, the government allowed various tribal representatives to examine the skeleton, Schneider said. The government later said the femur bones were already missing when it got the remains. Debra Croswell, spokeswoman for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, called "ridiculous" any suggestion that someone from one the Northwest tribes might have taken the bones. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Indians defend integrity of their casinos They worry Congress will turn back clock on tribal gaming, blunting growing prosperity January 07, 1999 Aimee Green; The News Tribune Fearful of efforts to chip away at their gaming operations, American Indians from as far away as Wisconsin gathered Wednesday in SeaTac to defend an industry they say has pulled friends out of welfare, relatives out of unemployment and sent their children to college for the first time. Members of the National Indian Gaming Association met with news reporters to say their casinos are well-managed and don't need more federal regulation. It was the day before members of a commission appointed by Congress will hear testimony on the state of Indian gaming. The members' findings will be included in a July report to Congress, which will use the report to decide if and how it should further regulate Indian gaming. The industry has grown exponentially since the Indian Regulatory Gaming Act of 1988 acknowledged tribes' authority to run gambling operations. But tribal leaders worry that the report will be skewed, driven by a few commission members they say are anti-gambling, and maybe even anti-Indian. They say the interests of big non-Indian operators, who would like nothing better than to squelch the competition, could prevail. "Economic racism," said Richard Hill, chairman of NIGA. "In their wildest dreams, they never thought we'd do so well." About one-third of the more than 500 federally recognized tribes run gaming operations, now hailed as the financial savior of some destitute tribes. In the Midwest, casinos have been called the new buffalo - a reference to the free-roaming animal that once brought Indians prosperity. Tribal members, tribal regulators and others - including representatives from the Muckleshoots, Spokanes and Colvilles in Washington state - will testify today to the integrity of their operations. Representatives from the Puyallup Tribe of Indians also will attend but don't plan to testify. Tribal representatives say the overwhelming majority of tribes run extremely well-regulated and fair operations out of necessity; they don't want to lose their best ticket out of poverty. "The better we regulate means my son can graduate from college," said Audrey Kohnen, president of the Prairie Island Indian Community in Minnesota. "Our motivations are driven by survival." Tim Wapato of the Colville Confederated Tribes said today's hearing will be both highly political and terribly important. It is the final field hearing these commissioners will have on Indian gaming. The nine-member commission was formed in 1997 to study the social and economic impacts of all types of gambling in the nation. - - - - - - Wisconsin judge orders trial on Hudson casino Greg Gordon / Star Tribune WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt defended his agency's controversial 1995 decision to reject an Indian gambling casino in Hudson, Wis., on grounds that the town had registered strong, official opposition. But on Thursday, a Wisconsin judge ruled that the Hudson city council had an "implied covenant" to remain neutral on the plan to open the casino at the financially ailing St. Croix Meadows dog track because it had signed a services contract with the casino's backers in 1994. Circuit Judge Thomas Barland of Eau Claire County, Wis., ordered a trial to determine whether the city breached that contract by sending carefully framed letters to the Interior Department raising objections. Still at issue is whether the council's letters actually amounted to official opposition and whether they influenced the department's decision. Barland's ruling was a setback for the city, and it could put a new cloud over the Interior Department's decision, even as Babbitt and a former top White House aide face an expanding independent counsel's investigation into allegations of corruption in Indian casino matters. The special prosecutor is examining whether the White House interfered in the Hudson decision because Minnesota and Wisconsin tribes that opposed the off-reservation casino donated about $400,000 to Democrats in 1995 and '96. The Hudson casino venture, consisting of three poverty-stricken Wisconsin Chippewa bands and the owners of the dog track, sued the city and the Interior Department after the petition was rejected. The Hudson suit challenges the city's conduct after it signed an agreement in April 1994 to provide police, water, sewerage and other services to the casino, in the event it won federal and state approval, in return for annual payments of $1.15 million. In a 13-page ruling, Barland recited these events: Shortly after signing the agreement, the city informed the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) that the casino "could be accommodated with minimal overall impact" on Hudson. But on Feb. 6, 1995, after the application reached Washington, the council passed a resolution stating that the city "does not support casino gambling at the St. Croix Meadows site." Mayor Jack Breault sent a copy of the resolution to Babbitt with a cover letter stating that the council was "expressing its opposition" to the casino. Then on April 28, 1995, two days before the comment period was to end, the city council approved a letter to George Skibine, the BIA's top Indian gambling official, offering new arguments on the casino's "detrimental" effects on the city. Barland said that letter was "prepared by an opponent to the casino application who was not a member of the city council" and it was forwarded to the BIA by a casino opponent, not by the city. Because the casino "was almost certainly doomed" if the city opposed it, Barland ruled, the council had an "implied covenant" to remain neutral. City officials argue, the judge noted, that the council's official resolution was ambiguous. Mark Goff, a spokesman for the casino venture, said it is "prepared to go to trial if necessary . . . but would much prefer to settle this suit." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Indian Trust Fund Dispute Grows By PHILIP BRASHER / Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- The long and embarrassing effort to clean up $2.5 billion in Indian trust funds got messier with the sudden resignation of the presidential appointee in charge of reconciling the accounts and improving the bookkeeping. In quitting Thursday, Special Trustee Paul Homan accused Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt of stripping him of the authority he needed to do his job. Babbitt's department is being sued over its decades-long mismanagement of the money. Babbitt faces a contempt hearing Monday over the government's failure to turn over canceled checks and other records for accounts held by the lawsuit's lead plaintiffs. Earlier this week, Babbitt ordered a reorganization of Homan's office "to enable us to make progress where it is now flagging." Homan, a former banker appointed to his post in 1995 under a set of congressionally ordered reforms, fired back in his resignation letter that Babbitt "usurped the powers, duties and responsibilities" of his office. Members of Homan's advisory board accused Babbitt of making him a scapegoat for the department's problems. "It's like me telling you to drive a car but not giving you the keys of the car, and then turning around and chastising you for not driving the car," said Gregg Bourland, a board member and chairman of South Dakota's Cheyenne River Sioux. An Interior Department spokeswoman, Stephanie Hanna, declined comment on the resignation but denied that Babbitt sought to undermine Homan. He "has done a good job of moving the ball as far as he has moved it," Hanna said. The funds include 300,000 accounts held by individual Indians worth $500 million and another 2,000 tribal accounts worth $2 billion. The money includes lease revenue, royalties and court settlements. Some of the accounts are worth only a few dollars. The largest one, valued at $400 million, is a court's award to the Sioux nation for its loss of the Black Hills. Among a series of embarrassing revelations, the Bureau of Indian Affairs was unable to document $2 billion of transactions in the tribal accounts over a 20-year period. It is not known how much of that is actually missing, but it has been estimated the government could be liable for up to $575 million just in the tribal accounts. The special trustee's office is responsible for handling the money and improving the accounting system. But leases and other records necessary for reconciling the accounts are scattered around the country in various BIA offices. In 1997, Homan proposed creating a quasi-governmental bank to handle the money. Babbitt rejected the idea and promised that the department would develop a state-of-the-art accounting system instead. Babbitt's reorganization order put one of Homan's assistants in charge of developing the new accounting system and placed the record keeping under a new official with extensive experience in government records management. In his resignation letter, Homan said he was not informed of the actions before Babbitt took them, and he complained that the new official had no experience with the trust fund records. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kennewick Man prompts tribes to unite for reburial rights December 11, 1998 Deborah Baker; The Associated Press SANTA FE, N.M. - Indian tribes must join forces to protect their ancestors' remains from scientific testing, said a Washington state tribe that claims the 9,300-year-old bones known as Kennewick Man. "There is always going to be development. There are always going to be discoveries," said Marla Big Boy, lawyer for the Colville Confederated Tribes. "We see this occurring over and over again." The Eastern Washington tribe and others are trying to forge an intertribal alliance to fight changes in a federal law that recognizes their right to rebury their ancestors. A debate has raged since Kennewick Man - which the Indians call the Ancient One - was discovered 2 1/2 years ago on the banks of the Columbia River. It's the oldest and most complete human skeleton found in the Northwest, and one of the oldest in North America. Five tribes, including the Colvilles, have demanded the bones be turned over to them immediately for reburial under the federal law. A group of scientists has sued the Army Corps of Engineers for the right to study the remains. Interest in the bones was heightened when a forensic anthropologist summoned to the discovery site said some of Kennewick Man's skull features did not resemble those of an American Indian. That raised questions about the skeleton's origin. The dispute is in federal court, and Kennewick Man was moved in October from Richland to the Burke Museum in Seattle. Tribes fear that proposed changes to the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act could affect the fate of Kennewick Man and the outcome of future disputes. The proposed changes could allow scientific examination - including types of testing that could destroy bits of bones - without tribal consent. "Native remains are not objects for scientific curiosity. They are relatives. ... They are grandmothers and grandfathers," said Debra Harry, coordinator of the Indigenous Peoples Coalition Against Biopiracy, in Nixon, Nev. The tribal representatives held a news conference Thursday at the New Mexico Capitol and a march through Santa Fe to publicize their concerns. They're in Santa Fe through Saturday to testify at public hearings of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Review Committee, a seven-member panel that oversees compliance with the law. ~~~~~~~NASC News Report~~~~~~~ Please note that NASC NEWS is a free subscription Native American News Letter. This listing is private and does not provide names or listing to anyone. If you would like to subscribe or unsubscribe, simply write to <A HREF="http://archnet.uconn.edu/topical/crm/usdocs/nagpra14.htm"> [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> Some articles presented in the NASC NEWS contain copyright data. NASC News has received all appropriate permissions for the re-publishing of these same articles. ~~~~~~~ <<<<=-=-=FREE LEONARD PELTIER=-=-=>>>> If you think you are too small to make a difference; try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito.... 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