NATIVE_NEWS: NEWS BRIEFS
Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : A web-based version of today's and recent news are also available at http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/ "9 Oil Concerns to Pay $223 Million Claim," The New York Times, 14 December 1999, C7. ["TYLER, Tex.: The Chevron Corporation, BP Amoco P.L.C., Conoco Inc., Texaco Inc. and five other oil companies have agreed to pay $223 million to settle United States claims they undervalued oil pumped from American Indian and government land, according to lawyers and company officials ... Attorneys for the companies advised a federal judge of settlements in whistle-blower lawsuits contending that a total of 18 companies underpaid hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties on oil pumped from 27 million acres of government and tribal land."] http://www.nytimes.com/ ALSO AS: "Oil Companies to Pay $223 Million; Suit, Companies Lied about Oil Lands' Values," The Times-Picayune, 14 December 1999, 4D. http://www.nola.com/ "Diamond Mine to Post $175M Deposit: Cash Will Pay Costs of Reclaiming Land and Water at Site," Calgary Herald, 14 December 1999, D4. ["YELLOWKNIFE: The company hoping to develop Canada's second diamond mine has agreed to post the biggest environmental security deposit ever assessed in the North. Diavik Diamond Mines Inc. has agreed to pay into a fund that will eventually total more than $175 million ... The money, to be paid in instalments over the life of the mine, would cover all the costs of reclaiming land and water at the mine site, about 300 kilometres northwest of Yellowknife ... The Water Licence Board sets standards for the mine's water use, including the acceptable level of pollutants and sediments it releases."] http://www.calgaryherald.com/ Eggertson, Laura. "Commons Approves Nisga'a Treaty," The Toronto Star, 14 December 1999. ["OTTAWA - Under the patient eyes of Nisga'a leaders, an aboriginal treaty that made parliamentary history has finally passed in the House of Commons. Nisga'a chiefs Joe Gosnell and Harry Nyce looked on from the public galleries yesterday as legislation implementing the treaty passed 217 to 48 ... The House erupted in cheers after the vote."] http://www.thestar.com/ "Federal Probe Needs to Be Thorough," Omaha World-Herald, 14 December 1999, 22. ["News stories in recent days provided evidence of the bitter relationship between Indians and the federal government that goes back for more than a century. Improved relations should be a higher priority for both sides ... The U.S. Civil Rights Commission heard testimony from tribal members last week on problems in southwestern South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska ... Mary Frances Berry, who heads the commission ... said the commission's investigation of the claims brought against the FBI and other agencies would be thorough. It needs to be thorough, not only for the good of the Indians but also for that of the agencies. Once the truth is determined, no matter where it points, an enormous amount of fence-mending should be next on the agenda. The situation has gone on too long in an atmosphere of fear, distrust and anger."] http://www.omaha.com/OWH/ Flesher, John. "Judge Allows Petoskey Casino to Reopen," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 14 December 1999. ["A federal judge Tuesday gave the go-ahead to reopen Victories Casino near Petoskey, idled nearly four months by a legal tussle that may end up costing its tribal owners more than $8 million. U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell ruled in Grand Rapids that problems with the casino property's status had been resolved ... By the time Victories resumes operations, the tribe probably will have lost between $8 million and $9 million in revenue, [Jim Rider, the casino's general manager said."] http://www.ap.org/ "Gila River Tribe Breaks Ground on New Heritage Center," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 14 December 1999. ["SACATON, Ariz.: The Gila River Indian Community held a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday to dedicate a new Hohokam cultural center and artifact repository. The tribe and the Bureau of Reclamation are building the Huhugam Heritage Center to honor the culture, history and language of the ancient canal builders and farmers who lived in central and southern Arizona for 14 centuries."] http://www.ap.org/ Hammel, Paul. "Detox Centers Eyed for Pine Ridge," Omaha World-Herald, 14 December 1999, 16. ["Pine Ridge, S.D. If financial and political hurdles can be overcome, two facilities for treating alcoholism problems at Whiteclay, Neb., and the nearby Pine Ridge Indian Reservation could be available soon. Reservation officials are working on plans for a $ 1.3 million detoxification center at Pine Ridge. A six-bed treatment center for alcoholics in nearby Gordon, Neb., is nearing completion of a $ 150,000 fund drive that would almost double its size. Both facilities would address a pressing need for alcohol-treatment facilities identified by federal civil rights officials during a recent visit
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Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : From: Pat Morris [EMAIL PROTECTED] #1 http://www.oregonlive.com:80/news/99/12/st121315.html Success of casinos has its price Some tribes fear being punished for gains by having more federal assistance tied to conditions undermining their sovereignty Monday, December 13, 1999 By Jim Barnett of The Oregonian staff WASHINGTON -- If anything is a sure bet in Indian country these days, it's the lure of gambling. Tribal casinos are closing out another banner year, raking in nearly $10 billion in revenues -- more than the total spent on tribes by a dozen federal agencies. Casino money is helping some tribes build hope on reservations once condemned to despair. Oregon's Grand Ronde tribe, for example, recently issued $2,800 dividends to members after paying for improvements to housing and social services. The vast majority of the nation's 554 tribes, however, have no casinos and little hope of ever cashing in. Yet they are experiencing an unpleasant side effect of casino wealth: As gaming revenues grow, so do political risks on Capitol Hill. As the Clinton administration plans to lobby for increased spending on tribes, tribal leaders fear they will face a no-win proposition: Additional federal money may come with conditions that undermine their governments' hard-won status as sovereigns. "It's an attempt to punish based on a perception of success," said Wayne Shammel, a lawyer for the Cow Creek Band, which operates a casino in Southern Oregon. "You could hardly call us wealthy," Shammel said. "But before the advent of gaming, you certainly could call us destitute. Now we're just in a position where we feel like maybe we've got a chance." At issue are competing notions of federal responsibility to tribes and their 1.2 million members. It is an intense, if largely unnoticed debate that starts each year with money -- or lack of it -- and escalates into questions of tribes' rights as sovereign nations. Some members of Congress view tribes as they view welfare recipients: Once tribes can support themselves through casinos or other business ventures, they should give up federal money. The leading advocate of this view is Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash. "The proper way is that subsidies like this ought to be based largely on need," said Gorton, a senior member of the powerful Appropriations Committee, which oversees federal spending on tribes. Tribes view their basic federal support from the Bureau of Indian Affairs more like Social Security. They believe it is an entitlement, promised by treaties and other acts of Congress in return for lands and resources handed over to the federal government. "They say, 'You owe us; look what you took away from us,' " said Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee. "They lost a hell of a lot more than they're getting, I'll tell you that." The cornerstone of federal support for tribes is Indian Affairs' $1.7 billion budget, much of which goes directly to tribes. In all, the federal government spends $7.8 billion a year on tribes, with departments from Agriculture to Veterans Affairs pitching in. But tribal governments don't get enough money from Indian Affairs to perform basic services, according to a recent bureau report. The report found that tribal governments meet only a fraction of needs in education, human services, community development and other areas. The federal government should start bridging those gaps, particularly in light of mounting budget surpluses, the bureau's top officer said last week. "What I cannot do is make programs that are inadequately funded succeed," said Kevin Gover, an Native American and assistant secretary of Interior. "In the end, a lot of these conditions can only be relieved through the expenditure of real money." System needs fixing Tribes and their political rivals do agree on one thing: The system of federal support for tribes needs to be fixed to help the poorest. But fixing it raises a difficult and politically explosive question: how to measure tribes' needs fairly and accurately? Under the current system, no such determination is made. The bureau's annual payments to each tribe depend upon on the amount paid the year before. But those direct payments are based on decades-old political deals rather than tribes' modern-day needs. Gorton wants to require tribes to submit their business ledgers for federal review. Federal payments then would be based on each tribe's relative ability to help itself. It's the best and fairest way to allocate scarce federal resources, he said. But tribal leaders and advocates argue that such a review amounts to a "means test" and would offend tribes' rights as sovereign nations. States with lotteries don't have to submit to such a review to get federal assistance, they said, so why should tribes? Further, tribes see means testing as the top of a slippery slope. Once Congress knows
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Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : A web-based version of today's and recent news are also available at http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/ "Appeals Court Won't Re-Hear Yankton Reservation Case," The Associated Press State Local Wire, December 11, 1999, Saturday, BC cycle. ["SIOUX FALLS, S.D.: The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has decided not to reconsider a ruling that diminishes the size of the Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation. In late August, the appeals court returned 220,000 acres to state jurisdiction. In a ruling dated Wednesday, the court turned down requests to rehear the matter. The August decision was a blow to the Yankton Sioux Tribe and a victory for state officials. The state had argued that criminal and civil jurisdiction in most of the area belongs to the state and Charles Mix County. Much of the original 400,000-plus acres of the reservation has been under state and local authority for the past century."] http://www.ap.org/ Aubry, Jack. "Proposed Act Puts Borders on the Table: Partition of Quebec An Emotional Hot Button in Separation Debate," The Ottawa Citizen, December 11, 1999, A4. ["The borders of Quebec could be redrawn if there is a Yes vote in the next referendum, the proposed federal bill on secession says. The partition of the province, one of the most emotional hot-buttons in the Quebec separation debate, is listed in the last paragraph of the draft bill as a topic for negotiation, along with the division of assets and the national debt, aboriginal claims and minority rights . . . During the 1995 referendum, the issue was virtually ignored by federalist forces except Quebec's aboriginal communities. The Cree and Inuit voted overwhelmingly in their own referendums to stay in Canada with their northern territories, which make up about 40 per cent of the province's land mass."] http://www.ottawacitizen.com/ Baca, Kim. "Pueblo Defends Plan to Close N.M. 4," The Santa Fe New Mexican, December 11, 1999, B-1. ["WHITE ROCK -- San Ildefonso Pueblo tribal officials pleaded for sympathy with White Rock residents on Friday, saying they are just asserting control over their land after decades of being ignored. The pueblo, which owns the land that N.M. 4 runs through, has decided to close the highway the main route to White Rock after negotiations with the state failed. State Highway and Transportation Department officials continued to refuse the tribe's offer of a limited-term lease on N.M. 4. "The state didn't care about you. It's not fair to you all for the state to say let the tribe have (the road) and we don't care about you all," Gov. Terry Aguilar said about the state's refusal to negotiate a 20-year right-of-way agreement for a portion of N.M. 4 that lies on pueblo land. The current agreement expires Dec. 31, and the 2.5-mile portion under lease will reverted to the pueblo. "I shouldn't be here, the one telling you all about this. Maybe it's time to say to the state, 'Stop using the White Rock people as pawns and start treating us like humans,"' Aguilar added. San Ildefonso Pueblo and the state have reached an impasse in easement negotiations for the stretch of N.M. 4 on tribal land. The state wanted a permanent easement, but tribal officials will only accept a termed-lease agreement because they want to protect a sacred pueblo ruin along the road and maintain a voice in the road's future."] http://www.sfnewmexican.com/ Baenen, Laura. "Bands Awarded Nearly $4 Million for Costs of Arguing Treaty Rights Case," The Associated Press State Local Wire, December 11, 1999, Saturday, PM cycle. ["Minneapolis: Money would likely come from Minnesota's general fund to pay a nearly $4 million award to seven of eight Minnesota and Wisconsin Indian bands for the cost of proving their treaty rights all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Minnesota officials, including Attorney General Mike Hatch and Gov. Jesse Ventura, are expected to decide soon whether to appeal Friday's court award because interest is accruing, said Dennis Stauffer, a spokesman for the state's Department of Natural Resources. If the state decides against appealing, the DNR will likely ask the Legislature for permission to tap the state's general fund to pay the award. "Anyway you cut it, this is taxpayers' money. There's no way around that," Stauffer said. The Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa filed a lawsuit in 1990, contending that an 1837 treaty still allowed the tribe to hunt and fish without state regulation on non-reservation land. The other bands later joined the lawsuit. The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 earlier this year that those rights continue to exist."] http://www.ap.org/ Baker, Deborah. "U.S. Attorney Warns Federal Court Action Would Be Uphill Battle," The Associated Press State Local Wire, December 11, 1999, Saturday, BC cycle. ["SANTA FE: The state will have an uphill battle if it takes Indian tribes to federal court over not making their casino payments, U.S. Attorney
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Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : A web-based version of today's and recent news are also available at http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/ Gunter, Lorne. "Supreme Court's Clarification Was Preceded by a Track-Covering Corrigendum: It Really Amounts to the Majority of the Supreme Court Saying, ''OK, We Got the Testimony of the Main Witness Wrong. Still, We Have No Intention of Changing Our Minds''," Calgary Herald, December 11, 1999, O5. ["EDMONTON: It turns out last month, when the Supreme Court performed an about- face . . . uh, sorry . . . issued an unsolicited ''clarification'' of its decision in the fishing rights case of Nova Scotia native Donald Marshall, Jr. , it was not the first clarification the court had made of that Sept. 17 judgment. Lost amid the angry protests and pyres of lobster traps burning on a New Brunswick pier was a corrigendum -- essentially an official judicial correction -- issued on Sept. 30, less than two weeks after the initial decision. The corrigendum seems insignificant enough, almost arcane, nothing more than crossing the t's and dotting the i's. In a simple three- paragraph memorandum, the court asked, ''please note the following changes in the English version of the reasons for judgment of Mr. Justice Binnie,'' who had written the original opinion for the majority. In paragraph 37, Binnie had stated ''In this particular case, however, there was an unusual level of agreement amongst all the professional historians who testified about the common intention of the participants regarding the treaty obligations entered into by the Crown with the Mi'kmaq.'' The corrigendum asked that that now read, ''In this particular case, however, there was an unusual level of agreement . . . about the underlying expectations of the participants regarding the treaty. . . .'' The same paragraph should also read ''While he generally supported the Crown's narrow approach to the interpretation of the Treaty . . . he did make a number of important concessions to the defence. . . .'' (Yawn.) So what's the big deal? Only that the ''he'' referred to is University of New Brunswick historian Stephen Patterson, the principal witness at Marshall's initial trial, and ''he'' claims that Binnie almost completely misinterpreted his historical research. Patterson did not, as Binnie asserted on Sept. 17, determine that evidence existed to support the Mi'kmaq claim that the Nova Scotia treaties of 1760-61 granted Indians a right to hunt, fish and harvest that supersedes the rights of non-Indians . . . Patterson had been asked at trial if he thought the 18th-century treaties, which do not even mention fishing, conferred upon Maritime Indians a treaty right to fish. He said there could be no doubt the British treaty negotiators knew the Mi'kmaq fished for subsistence, and since the treaties did not forbid trade in fish, it was reasonable to assume that such trade was ''permissible'' to the British. But as to any rights conferred by the treaty, in Patterson's learned opinion, they probably included only the right to trade on the same terms as British subjects in the area. This would mean the Mi'kmaq of today have the same right to fish as non-Indians, no more, no less. Thus they would be subject to the same regulations and licensing requirements."] http://www.calgaryherald.com/ "Historic Nisga'a Deal Shabbily Treated," The Toronto Star, December 10, 1999, [" The Reform party, determined to do everything in its power to impede the ratification of the historic treaty, put forward 471 amendments this week, forcing Parliament to sit around the clock at a cost of $27,000 per hour. The tactic accomplished little. The British Columbia treaty will be approved next week. The Liberals, Conservatives, New Democrats and the Bloc Quebecois all support it. They outnumber the Reformers four to one. But Preston Manning and his colleagues have had an impact. They have deprived the Nisga'a of a joyful conclusion to their long quest for self-determination. They have stoked suspicions that resolving native land claims is rash and risky. And they have sent a signal to other First Nations: Expect a bruising reception in Ottawa. It is up to Canadians of goodwill to send a different message. They must tell aboriginal people clearly and emphatically that the Reform party does not speak for them. They must express their support for native self-government and their desire to see their elected representatives make it a reality."] http://www.thestar.com/ "Indians in Mexico Attack State Prison," The San Diego Union-Tribune, December 11, 1999, A-15. [SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico -- Militant Indians trying to free imprisoned colleagues assaulted a state prison with automatic weapons, killing one child and allowing more than 40 inmates to escape, officials said yesterday. Chiapas state Attorney General Eduardo Montoya said 44 of the prison's 239 inmates fled the facility, 10 miles east of San Cristobal de
NATIVE_NEWS: NEWS BRIEFS
Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : Excerpted from Victor Rocha's California Indian Gaming News Digest WWW.PECHANGA.NET Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians [EMAIL PROTECTED] I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves. http://members.aol.com/fortscott/index.html ~ John Wayne Court to hear arguments on Indian gambling http://www.spokane.net/news-story.asp?date=120899amp;ID=s716978amp;cat=section.Tribal_news (WASHINGTON)The Colville and Spokane Indian tribes will be in court today, trying to keep 1,800 slot machines that the U.S. government wants to seize from their casinos. Morongo tribe sees gold in dried snacks http://www.desertsunonline.com/news/stories/business/944525886.shtml Deal with Navy would provide security if casino were to close The Morongo Band of Mission Indians is banking on its dried-snack-food business to create a stronger economy no longer sustained solely on gaming, said a tribal member. Palm Springs approves land transfer with tribe, but talks about bridge continue http://www.desertsunonline.com/news/stories/local/944696853.shtml (PALM SPRINGS) -- Agua Caliente tribal leaders and the City Council continued ironing out a long-standing deal Wednesday requiring the city to build a bridge and hand over 12 acres of land in exchange for already completed flood-control improvements to Tahquitz Creek. The lawyer who swam upstream http://www.spokane.net/news-story.asp?date=120799amp;ID=s716472amp;cat=section.Tribal_news `Rez kid' brings degree home to her people Her great-grandmother told her stories about the young Salmon People. They swam to the ocean and to foreign lands and then returned home. They often became thin and bruised while traveling, but they always kept going. Pueblo Ready To Close N.M. 4 http://www.abqjournal.com/news/14news12-08-99.htm (LOS ALAMOS) -- San Ildefonso Pueblo says it will close a stretch of N.M. 4 early New Year's Day if an impasse continues over renewal of the highway easement. Tribe begins work on grocery http://www.oklahoman.com/cgi-bin/shart?ID=415436amp;TP=getarticle (SHAWNEE) -- Ground was broken Wednesday for the Citizen Potawatomi Nation's latest profit venture -- an 83,000- square-foot deep-discount grocery operation to be built about 11/2 miles south of Shawnee. Sun, Wind To Power Laguna Ranch http://www.abqjournal.com/biz/3biz12-08-99.htm (NEW MEXICO) A ranch owned by Laguna Pueblo will soon turn to the sun and wind for energy. Diversified Systems Manufacturing, a Native American- owned alternative energy development company, will design, install and maintain a wind turbine and solar panels at the Laguna Majors Ranch. Guardian of dead child gives up rights to three Native American siblings http://www2.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisStory=81165479 (MINNESOTA) Terri L. Allen, the great-aunt and guardian of an 8-year-old girl who was fatally beaten in her Minneapolis home last month, gave up legal custody Wednesday of the girl's three younger siblings. South Carolina 29 casino to stage nude dancing http://www.heraldonline.com/community/story/0,1325,120420,00.html (BLACKSBURG) - The Lady Luck may be readying its stage for totally nude dancers, but a small band of residents is not quite sure they're ready for the naked truth. Canada legislators end vote marathon on Indian treaty http://www.mediacentral.com/channels//allnews/12_09_1999.reutr-story-N09411739.html (OTTAWA, Dec 9) (Reuters) - Canada's House of Commons resembled a battleground on Thursday but the combatants were more haggard and bleary-eyed than feisty at the end of the longest vote the country's parliament has ever seen. Treasury kept backup copies of deleted data, government says http://www.boston.com/dailynews/343/wash/Treasury_kept_backup_copies_of:.shtml (WASHINGTON) (AP) The Treasury Department kept backup copies of deleted computer files that could contain evidence in a lawsuit over American Indian trust funds, government lawyers said Thursday. Tribal finances examined http://www.oklahoman.com/cgi-bin/shart?ID=415432amp;TP=getarticle (WASHINGTON) -- It may be a case of the pot calling the kettle black, but the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs wants more proof that the Cherokee Nation is improving its accounting system. Nethercutt Criticizes Food Allocated to Native Americans http://www.spokane.net/news-story.asp?date=120799amp;ID=s716454amp;cat=section.Tribal_news Government program contributes to poor nutrition, congressman tells clinic staff The congressman stood in the cultural center at a Native American chemical dependency treatment center for youth, posed for a photo with the staff and turned a joke into a serious point. "Say cheese," someone said. Casino Partners May Fold Gatzaros, Papas hit trouble in background check
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Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : A web-based version of today's and recent news are also available at http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/ "American Indians Want Ban on 'Squaw'," The Ottawa Citizen, December 7, 1999, A10. ["WASHINGTON -- American Indians have declared war on the word ''squaw. '' In the latest skirmish of a long and not altogether successful campaign for greater respect, American Indians have demanded that the word be banned from public use because it means ''whore.'' A bill has been introduced in the Maine legislature to remove the word from more than a dozen places with such names as Squaw Mountain and Squaw Point. If successful, other states are likely to follow suit. ''This is an important issue to all native people and all women,'' said Donald Soctomah, a Passamaquoddy Indian who introduced the bill. ''For 400 years, native women have been demoralized by this word that non-natives have used toward native people.''"] http://www.ottawacitizen.com/ Brooks, Diane. "Tulalips Courting Home Depot[;] Store Looks at Site by I-5 on Reservation," The Seattle Times, December 7, 1999, B1. ["By this time next year, the Tulalip Tribes expect The Home Depot to be operating a new store on their reservation west of Marysville, the first major tenant of the tribes' long-planned business park. "They have indicated they want to move as aggressively as possible," said John McCoy, the Tulalips' executive director for governmental affairs. "They would like to open up by November or December next year." Janet Simmelink, a Home Depot public-relations representative, confirmed that the home-improvement retail company is talking with the tribes about building a store on the Tulalip Reservation. The company doesn't publicly discuss the status of negotiations until deals are signed, she said."] http://www.seattletimes.com/ Carmichael, Kevin. "Fisheries Officials Decided Contingency Plan for Marshall Ruling Would Be Too Difficult," The Gazette (Montreal), December 7, 1999, A12. ["HALIFAX: The federal Fisheries Department had no contingency plan to deal with a Supreme Court decision on Indian fishing rights that led to violence, newly released records show. ''Approaches for addressing the substance of the decision will be developed after the decision is rendered,'' says a briefing note prepared for newly appointed Fisheries Minister Herb Dhaliwal in early August ... Mike Belliveau, executive director of the Maritime Fishermen's Union, said the briefing notes prove what he's said all along: the federal department is out of touch the with fishing industry. ''We hold them responsible for the fact that the thing exploded up here in New Brunswick,'' Belliveau said."] http://www.montrealgazette.com/ "City, Lac du Flambeau to Pay for Survey on Possible Casino," The Associated Press State Local Wire, December 7, 1999, Tuesday, AM cycle. ["MANITOWOC, Wis.: The city and the Lac du Flambeau Chippewa band will split the cost of a survey to measure public opinion about the idea of locating a tribal casino in Manitowoc, the mayor said Tuesday night. Informal talks about the possible project have been going on for a month, Mayor Kevin Crawford said. Although there is no definite proposal, the two sides have developed a relationship and now want to encourage public discussion, he said."] http://www.ap.org/ Davenport, Paul. "Arizona Justices Wrestle with Where to Draw the Line on Stream Flow," The Associated Press State Local Wire, December 7, 1999, Tuesday, AM cycle. ["PHOENIX: Admitting their frustration, Arizona Supreme Court justices on Tuesday wrestled with a hard-to-fathom water law issue. Lawyers said the outcome could dry up rivers or put billions of dollars of investments by property owners at risk. At issue is whether a trial court judge correctly defined when water pumped from wells in the general vicinity of streams belongs to whoever owns the rights to the stream water or to the property owners where the wells are located. The issue, just the latest chapter in a series of major water-law cases before the Arizona court, largely turns on whether decades-old water law doctrine should be revised to reflect hydrological information gleaned by scientists in recent decades."] http://www.ap.org/ Dillman, Susan. "Schools' Indian Mascot Names Criticized," South Bend Tribune, December 7, 1999, D3. ["INDIANAPOLIS -- When John Warren was a kid, he said he was afraid to tell his mom and dad about the Warriors, the Redskins and Braves his school faced in athletic competition. A member of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, Warren didn't have the heart to pain his parents with those hurtful names. After all, his mom had once been punished simply for speaking Potawatomi when she was a student at a Michigan boarding school. But now, Warren, who serves as vice chairman of the Pokagon Band, is speaking out. Allowing Indiana schools to keep American Indian mascot names amounts to
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Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : A web-based version of today's and recent news are also available at http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/ Armstrong, Natalie. "Decision Delayed On Putting Harris On Stand," The Ottawa Citizen, 1 December 1999. ["TORONTO -- A judge's decision has been delayed on whether Ontario Premier Mike Harris must appear next week for questioning by lawyers for the family of slain native protester Dudley George ... Mr. Harris, who recently hired his own private lawyer, is named in the suit launched by a brother of Mr. George, along with the Ontario government, two other provincial politicians ... and the Ontario Provincial Police. Some members of the George family say the senior provincial political leaders including Mr. Harris ordered protesting natives off the land, using whatever force was necessary. They also say the lawsuit is a last resort after the province has refused to hold an inquest into Mr. George's death. A ruling is expected today."] http://www.ottawacitizen.com/ Baker, Deborah. "Lawmakers Named to Committee to Review Compacts," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 1 December 1999, AM cycle. ["SANTA FE -- Legislative leaders on Wednesday named a special 16-member committee, headed by Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, to review proposed state-tribal gambling compacts. The new agreements, negotiated by Gov. Gary Johnson and Indian tribes, would replace compacts signed in 1997 that the tribes say contain illegally high payment provisions. New compacts require the Legislature's approval. A vote could be held in the 30-day session that begins Jan. 18. The committee has the authority to ask the negotiators to go back to the table if there are provisions members don't like. Both Democrats and Republicans have said they are unhappy with some aspects of the proposed compacts."] http://www.ap.org/ Bettineski, Lori. "Cowlitzes Await BIA Recognition," The Columbian (Vancouver, WA.), 1 December 1999, B3. ["LONGVIEW -- The Cowlitz Indian Tribe must wait till the end of this month to learn whether it finally will become a federally recognized tribe. Tribal leaders have been trying for more than 20 years to gain federal recognition from the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office in Washington D.C. Officials informed the tribe this week that a decision will be announced Dec. 31 ... Preliminary findings from the BIA's Branch of Acknowledgement and Research have given the tribe a positive determination, meaning it has met the criteria for federal acknowledgement. Once it's official, more than $ 10 million awaits the tribe from a land claim settlement awarded in 1973. The money is being held in escrow by the BIA in short-term stocks and bonds."] http://www.columbian.com/ Brock, Corey. "Pride Time; Six Months After Makah Whale Hunt, Folks in Neah Bay Celebrating Again," The News Tribune, 1 December 1999, C1. ["NEAH BAY, Clallam County - ... It's four days before Neah Bay will play Touchet for the Class B-8 state high school football championship in the Tacoma Dome, and coach Johnson's players are running the beach, some in bare feet ... The Red Devils usually complete their unique conditioning ritual with a rather peculiar cool-down exercise - swimming the frigid waters of the Sooes River, which empties into Makah Bay ... said Johnson, one of 23 members of the Makah Tribe who play for the Red Devils ... "it's a pretty good way to cool down. It's a little different, I guess." Different in the eyes of outsiders, but not for the people of this windswept community - most of whom are members of the Makah Indian Tribe. For them, life is simple, uncomplicated and mostly uninterrupted. Mostly. Any tranquility was lost last May when the world stopped by this remote reservation - thanks in part to international and national media coverage - to watch the Makah celebrate the rebirth of culture and pride with a traditional whale hunt. "This was such a major thing to so many people, and for the kids it was like a validation of who they are," said Leigh Giovane, an English teacher at the high school ... "Even for the kids who haven't had that much success in school, it was something that mattered to them. Those who couldn't write well made great pictures of it.""] http://www.tribnet.com/ Crockatt, Joan. "Churches Safe from Fight: Lawyer: Ottawa Blamed for Residential School Abuses, Aboriginals Will Argue in Court," Calgary Herald, 1 December 1999, A25. ["The Regina lawyer for 3,700 aboriginals who have launched lawsuits alleging abuse in Indian residential schools, says Canadian churches will escape financially unscathed. The claims -- which Ottawa pegs in the ''hundreds of millions of dollars'' -- will fall exclusively on federal taxpayers, said Tony Merchant. Merchant disputed the view -- put forward by the Anglican and Catholic churches, unchallenged by Ottawa -- that ''millions of dollars'' in claims against them could put their survival in
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Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : A web-based version of today's and recent news are also available at http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/ "Aboriginal Battle Against Ignorance," The Toronto Star, 30 November 1999. ["A robin red breast in a cage, Puts all heaven in a rage - William Blake. Noah Augustine - William Blake may not have been thinking of aboriginal peoples when he penned such famous words in ''Auguries of Innocence'' in England, knowing the ink was barely dry on treaties signed by his sovereign with aboriginal peoples in the Americas, but it makes for some good conjecture. A robin red breast in a cage. In modern imagery, I see a young child struggling with her identity on the reserve, a young man praying over sweetgrass in a jail cell, a single mother suppressing years of abuse with prescription drugs, and a Warrior donning a mask for the barricade. This is the imagery of reality in aboriginal society ... Noah Augustine is an aboriginal affairs consultant and well-known member of New Brunswick's Mi'kmaq community."] http://www.thestar.com/ "American Indian Woman's Remains Again to be Buried," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 30 November 1999, BC Cycle. ["Bay City, Mich. -- An American Indian woman's skull taken from her grave more than three decades ago will be reunited with the rest of her once-missing remains in a homecoming welcomed by her descendants. The odyssey of the woman - apparently buried between 1740 and 1780 and known simply as Burial No. 98 - began after a bulldozer accidentally tore open an unmarked American Indian cemetery on the Saginaw River's banks. A treasure hunter among more than 500 people who plundered the Bay City site took her skull. Archeologists who excavated the former Fletcher Oil Co. property took her bones, then returned them two years ago to the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe. On Thursday, the Bay County Historical Society is to return the woman's skull to the tribe for a private interment in a Mount Pleasant cemetery, where the bones already have been reburied."] http://www.ap.org/ [note: The evening news here in SE Michigan told of three skulls and other bones found buried in a shallow grave beneath the Detroit Golf course near the 18th hole. The remains are believed to be a part of an old Indian burial site...this aired this evening on NBC local affiliate] "American Indian Remains Reburied in Barneston," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 30 November 1999, BC Cycle. ["Barneston, Neb. -- The remains of 17 American Indians were reburied during special ceremonies at the Barneston Cemetery. Rob Bozell, associate director of the Nebraska Historical Society, presided at the Saturday reburial of remains and artifacts of members of the Otoe-Missouri Indian Tribe. Bozell said a federal law passed 10 years ago requires all museums to inventory and identify human remains and artifacts and try to determine what tribes they belonged to and then conduct proper burials."] http://www.ap.org/ Bertolino, Bill. "Sky Harbor Dig Yields Hints of Ancient Indians," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 30 November 1999, BC Cycle. ["Mesa, Ariz. -- Clues to an ancient civilization are resting 5 feet beneath a future Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport runway. Armed with ear plugs to soften the hum of jet engines, a team of archaeologists is searching for clues to a prehistoric Hohokam Indian community that lived more than 1,000 years ago at what is now Sky Harbor. "I don't know exactly what we are going to find, but I do know that we will find new information there," said Kathy Henderson, the project's principal investigator for Desert Archaeology Inc., a Tucson-based company. "We know that a canals system will cross the project area." About 10 years ago, archaeologists at another airport site found a Hohokam village and a few human burial sites. Federal laws require Phoenix to complete a "historical preservation" of the area before the airport's north runway can be expanded."] http://www.ap.org/ "Broken Deal Mars Opening of N.S. Lobster Season: Fishermen Too Busy Setting Traps to Clash," The Gazette (Montreal), 30 November 1999, A-12. ["Most lobster fishermen in southwestern Nova Scotia were too busy yesterday to protest against the breaking of a deal regulating the disputed fishery. About 1,700 commercial vessels sailed out to waters off Yarmouth to set an estimated 500,000 traps in this prized fishery, which brought in about $200 million last year. The six-month-long season began a day after the chief of a local Indian band revoked a fishing agreement between commercial and aboriginal fishermen. The deal, hammered out several weeks ago, allowed Indians from the Acadia First Nation to participate in the fishery by giving them official licenses. They had also agreed to abide by the same rules governing non-aboriginal fishermen. But Chief Debra Robinson said yesterday the Department of Fisheries and Oceans forced her
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Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : A web-based version of today's and recent news are also available at http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/ Chao, Julie. "Census' Complex Multiracial Nightmare," The San Francisco Examiner, November 28, 1999, A1. [" ... The next census is supposed to give a clearer picture than ever of who we are and what we look like. But the longer the melting pot stews, the fuzzier the picture gets, leaving many saying that the price for allowing people to check all that apply is a massive logistical and political quagmire. With the four traditional race categories from 1990 multiplying into 63 single- and multiple-race combinations in 2000, the Office of Management and Budget has spent the last two years trying to figure out: How should the government count people of more than one race? Most agree the 63 categories must be reduced to a more practical number, but it's undecided how that will be done and who will determine the method. About the only certainty is that it won't be the Census Bureau, which intends to release the full data. At stake are government programs that depend on accurate race data, from voting rights laws to analyses of disparity in health and education. Federal agencies are trying to come up with a way to tabulate the data that will not undermine civil rights enforcement while also respecting the newly earned right to be recognized as multiracial."] http://www.examiner.com/ Koehler, Harold P. "True Account of History Would Help Native Issues," The London Free Press, November 28, 1999, A13. ["Congratulations on the three stories on aboriginal issues in your Nov. 20 Forum section ... All of these stories suggested that the plight of native people today results from a somewhat racist attitude of many Canadians. It is unlikely that native people will get a fair deal until a fair and truthful account of Canadian history relating to unkept treaties, broken promises and land speculation is understood ... Racist attitudes are unlikely to change until our non-native schools begin to teach a fairer representation of history ... The United Church of Canada is to be congratulated on its Aboriginal Curriculum Project, designed to teach a new and more accurate interpretation of native history and culture in our schools at all levels of the native studies curriculum."] http://www.canoe.ca/LondonFreePress/home.html Koning, Jean. "Fairness Needed in Present, Though Absent in the Past," The London Free Press, November 28, 1999, A13. ["Re the column, Native problems require input from all of us (Nov. 20) ... The treaties signed by the colonizing governments of pre-Confederation Canada with various aboriginal First Nations have never been honoured, although the aboriginal treaty signatories believed they were sacred promises made between two sovereign nations. Now we are beginning to face the reality of the need to share occupancy of the country of Canada on an equal basis and we are asking aboriginal brothers and sisters to be "fair"? ... The only real hope for recognizing our differences and finding a way to co-exist in harmony is for Canadians to admit we have been less than fair as we have treatied with the First Nations; to ask forgiveness for the injustices in our present relationship, and to begin to dialogue from a position of equality -- not from the position of the oppressors and the oppressed."] http://www.canoe.ca/LondonFreePress/home.html "Lobster Season," CBC TV, Sunday Report, November 28, 1999, 10:00 p.m. EST) ["ALISON SMITH: No day is more important for commercial lobster fishers in Nova Scotia than tomorrow. That's when the season opens for eastern Canada's most lucrative fishery. But things are going to be very different this year. That's because of the recent Supreme Court decision on Native fishing rights. Laurie Graham reports. LAURIE GRAHAM: Lobster fishers are busy loading traps, packing gear, trying to get ready for tomorrow. The first day of their lobster fishery. It's the same routine every season but this year native people are taking part for the first time. Murray Robinson is a Mi'Kmaq fisher. One of only a few who've been given licenses to participate in this fishery ... After the Supreme Court of Canada issued the Marshall decision allowing Native people to fish commercially year round, non-Native fishers were outraged, saying they should have to fish in the same season. In New Brunswick they cut Native traps. There was violence on the wharf. Here in southwestern Nova Scotia, many non-Native fishers say they don't agree with the Marshall decision but they say they don't want any trouble. So they're willing to get along with Native fishers. So tomorrow they'll be fishing side by side."] http://cbc.ca/onair/ Massey, Barry. "Average Yield from New Gambling Compacts Isn't 6.4 Percent," The Associated Press State and Local Wire, November 28, 1999, Sunday, AM cycle. ["SANTA FE: When Gov. Gary Johnson
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Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : A web-based version of today's and recent news are also available at http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/ "Abbe Museum Seeks Donations[;] Challenge Grant Stimulates Fund-raising Effort through Dec. 31," Bangor Daily News, November 26, 1999. ["BAR HARBOR -- The Abbe Museum is making a special appeal for contributions to boost its capital campaign to the point where the museum can break ground on a new building in downtown Bar Harbor, while also meeting the requirements of a new challenge grant. A donor who wants to remain anonymous has pledged a $ 50,000 gift to the campaign. It requires the museum to raise a 2-for-1 match of $ 100,000 by Dec. 31 to qualify for the contribution. The donor will add 50 percent to each campaign gift pledged by other sources through the end of December . . . When completed, the year-round museum downtown will complement the seasonal Abbe building that has operated since 1928 at Sieur de Monts Spring. The Abbe is devoted to the history, archaeology and cultures of all of Maine's American Indian communities."] http://www.bangornews.com/ "American Indians Running Out of Time to Keep Historic Building," The Associated Press State Local Wire, November 26, 1999, Friday, PM cycle. ["CHARLOTTE: American Indians in the region are running out of time with fund-raising efforts to save an historic building they used for a decade before the aging structure was closed by Mecklenburg County. The Metrolina Native American Association, which represents 5,000 Indians in the area, has until late January to generate at least $600,000 in pledges for renovations to the old Firemen's Hall in Charlotte."] http://www.ap.org/ Avery, Roberta. "Native Leader Vows Action as Province Shuts Fishery," The Toronto Star, November 27, 1999. ["CAPE CROKER - A native leader is outraged that the Ontario natural resources ministry has banned the purchase of most Bruce Peninsula fish, effectively closing down a native fishery operated by more than 50 people. ''We're not going to stand by and let this happen. We have to use every means at our disposal to address this injustice,'' said Ralph Akiwenzie, chief of the Chippewas of Nawash at the Cape Croker reserve on the peninsula. Fish wholesalers who breach the order issued last week could face fines as high as $100,000 for a first offence, ministry spokesperson John Cooper said yesterday. The ministry determined the 1999 total allowable catch in all species except chub has been reached in the area stretching from Kincardine to Collingwood, said Cooper. Since 1993, when Judge David Fairgrieve ruled the Bruce Peninsula's two Ojibwa bands had a right to commercially fish traditional waters, fishing has become the economic mainstay of his people, said Akiwenzie."] http://www.thestar.com/ "BIA Schools a Disaster; Indians Must Act," The Santa Fe New Mexican, November 26, 1999, A-9. ["Last year, a young man from San Juan Pueblo stepped in where the federal government has been a miserable failure to Native Americans. Anthony Garcia, a graduate of Santa Fe Indian School, had just won a national award for exemplary service to the community. Cash came with it and Garcia offered a contribution to the institution that had done so much for him. Whatever the Cerrillos Road school contributed to his education came in spite of the agency in charge: The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs has shamefully neglected SFIS and, as a recent Chicago Tribune report in The New Mexican notes, BIA schools around New Mexico and in 22 other states. The Trib knows bad schools; Chicago slums are full of them. What its reporters saw in places like Prewitt on New Mexico's Navajo Reservation were far worse than the most pitiful of America's inner-city schools."] http://www.sfnewmexican.com/ Bombardieri, Marcella. "Native Americans Mark Day of Mourning in Peaceful Protest Plaque Dedication Counterpoints Day of Celebration," The Boston Globe, November 26, 1999, B2. ["PLYMOUTH - On the 30th anniversary rally yesterday of a Native American "National Day of Mourning," activists dedicated two plaques that will commemorate "genocide" and other crimes against American Indians. The plaques, to be displayed in prominent tourist spots in Plymouth, have been paid for by the town as part of a settlement with Native Americans after the annual demonstration turned violent on Thanksgiving Day in 1997. "At least we know there will be two rocks in Plymouth that speak the truth," said Moonanum James, a leader of the United American Indians of New England, comparing the two granite markers to Plymouth Rock, which the group considers a symbol of the European settlers' domination of native peoples."] http://www.theglobe.com/ Chase, Randall. "Struggle for Identity, Equality a Long One for North Carolina Indians," The Associated Press State Local Wire, November 27, 1999, Saturday, BC cycle. ["RALEIGH: . . . In more than 200 years of
NATIVE_NEWS: NEWS BRIEFS: Canada Nov 27 1999
Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : Date: Sat, 27 Nov 1999 20:01:23 -0500 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Lynne Moss-Sharman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: canada Nov 27 1999 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" * Mi'kmaq children, suicide attempt * Dr. Schneeberger pleads harsh treatment S. African boarding school * Couple lost on Lake Manitoba * Jack Ramsay, MP rapist November 27, 1999 Children's suicide bid stuns Mi'kmaq reserve Graeme Hamilton National Post MEMBERTOU, N.S. - A police investigator confirmed yesterday that two 11-year-old boys on this Mi'kmaq reserve were trying to hang themselves and more intended to follow when other children and adults intervened Wednesday night. While neither of the boys suffered serious injuries, one was hanging from a tree, barely conscious with a piece of clothesline around his neck, when he was freed by other children, said Sergeant Jay Marshall of the Unama'ki police, the tribal force. Earlier reports suggested as many as five children had attempted to commit suicide. Sgt. Marshall said the children were not just seeking thrills. "There were two that actually had to be stopped. Others hadn't reached that point yet," he said. Community leaders were struggling yesterday to explain what motivated the children, who tests showed were not under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Several said they had been deeply affected by the death of a friend's mother from cancer this week. "I think it's just emotions that ran wild. The kids were confused, they didn't know how to react," said Lawrence Wells, who has been counselling children and parents since the suicide attempts. "I think the kids were feeling a little bit of abandonment. They can relate to that little boy who lost his mother." Mr. Wells said it is the kind of incident that can happen in any community, native or not. But he added that the Mi'kmaq often feel hostility from non-natives. "We're easy targets," he said. Membertou, which lies within the city limits of Sydney, N.S., is relatively prosperous compared with many of the province's more rural reserves, and youth suicide has never been a problem, band councillors say. Mr. Wells said he hopes the children's actions will rouse the population of roughly 900 people. Joyce Paul, who has a daughter the same age as the boys who attempted suicide, said there is not enough for the children to do on the reserve. Ultimately, though, she said parents have to assume more responsibility. "You have to listen to the kids. They could be crying out," she said. A steady stream of children yesterday visited a 24-hour crisis centre established to offer counselling to anyone upset after this week's events. For many, the seriousness of the incident did not seem to have sunk in. "I was the one who found him hanging," one girl said excitedly before an adult told her to keep quiet. "I was the guy who tried to hang himself. Not!" a boy joked. Mr. Wells, who normally offers addiction counselling, said the community responded quickly to the crisis, from the children who stepped in to stop the suicides and alert adults, to the almost immediate counselling program established. "We responded to what could have developed into a much worse situation and defused it quickly," he said. "We have some very gifted children here." Dan Christmas, a band councillor who has an 11-year-old daughter, said the reserve had recently taken steps to combat a rash of youth violence and vandalism. The suicide attempts came out of the blue. "It really starts a parent to think, what can I do better? What can I do as a resident to help our community be a better community?" DR. SCHNEEBERGER November 27, 1999 Sex fiend doc sentenced REGINA (CP) -- A rural doctor got six years in prison yesterday for sexually assaulting two patients and trying to fool DNA experts by inserting a tube of another man's blood into his arm. Dr. John Schneeberger, 38, of Kipling, Sask., was stoic as the judge handed down her sentence. "You are a young man with exceptional training and talent who, through his own actions, has inalterably changed the course of his own life at the expense of two young women," Justice Ellen Gunn told the doctor. "It is, in all respects, a tragedy." On Thursday, Gunn found Schneeberger guilty of two counts of sexual assault, one charge of administering a stupefying drug to commit the first assault and one count of obstructing justice for foiling three separate DNA tests. Crown prosecutor Dean Sinclair argued yesterday that Schneeberger should get 10 years for his crimes, including failure to care for a patient who went to the hospital emotionally distraught and in need of care on Oct. 31, 1992. "Inst! ! ! ! ead, he injected her with a potentially dangerous drug, raped her and left her alone in a darkened room," Sinclair told Gunn at a sentencing hearing. "The accused was willing to risk her
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Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : via Victor Rocha's pechanga.net Native American music releases on the upswing American Indian music has been picking up sales steam over the last year, spurred by an increase in the number of releases and a growing commitment to the genre by U.S. music retailers. http://www.spokane.net/news-story.asp?date=112599amp;ID=s711019amp;cat=section.Tribal_news IBM is committed to identifying and employing the best talent in the nation--and I would like to enlist your assistance in helping to identify talented students from your educational institution. Following are two files with information about Project View, which is IBM's diversity recruitment program, and the special Native American Project View program, which will be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in January 5-7, 2000. Project View is a very wonderful opportunity for your graduates. When I participated in Project View, I was able to make an informed decision when I chose to join the IBM Corporation. It was also a great opportunity to meet other students who were near graduation and about to embark on corporate America. I would like to make myself available to you if you need more information--simply call me at the number listed below. Additionally, if you know of American Indian graduates who are interested in IBM but cannot attend the Native American Project View in January, please encourage them to attend any of the other Project View programs, which are held throughout the academic year. In a nutshell: - All Project View programs are all-expense paid diversity recruitment programs - Students will have the opportunity interact with managers and employees to make informed decisions about opportunities at IBM - Students will have formal interviews with hiring managers while at Project View - IBM is hiring students from a diverse range of disciplines (these are listed on the 'IBM Project View' file) - Students may apply by faxing their academic credentials to Project View at 919 850 7900 Please foward this note to students and colleagues who could benefit from learning about opportunities at IBM. E' ya later... Terry W. Battiest Project Lead IBM Global Services Boulder, Colorado 303 354 1729 [EMAIL PROTECTED] A web-based version of today's and recent news are also available at http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/ "Ag Official Says Federal Agency Aiming to Improve Service to Minority," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 25 November 1999, BC Cycle. ["Great Falls -- The U.S. Agriculture Department in Montana has not done a good job in the past to make sure minorities are included in its programs, said the head of one of the agency's state offices. But Bruce Nelson, director of the Farm Service Agency, said the department has tried to change its practices in recent years. He noted that Montana won the 1995 Honor Award, the department's highest commendation, for its anti-discrimination efforts. "We've tried to take the initiative and be leaders on this issue," Nelson said Wednesday. "Farming and ranching in Montana is difficult enough when you're able to participate in USDA programs. Without them, it's almost impossible."] http://www.ap.org/ Anderson, Martin Edwin. "Native American Rights," The Washington Times, 25 November 1999, A19. ["The Clinton administration's meager legacy on human rights and Native American issues is again being seriously compromised, as State Department lawyers are allowed to eviscerate two important international declarations on the rights of Indians and other indigenous peoples. As a result of a campaign begun more than 20 years ago by American Indians and other indigenous peoples from around the world, member countries of the United Nations and the Organization of American States (OAS) are now consulting with scores of Native leaders on draft texts on the rights of indigenous peoples, who in the Western Hemisphere alone number some 40 million people. As a result of the successful lobbying effort, both the U.N. and the OAS are poised to adopt broad policy statements on these rights. That such historic and sweeping declarations are needed reflects the fact that, for centuries, Native nations and tribes live within countries dominated by descendants of colonial and settler populations."] http://www.washtimes.com/ Cart, Julie. "Babbitt Favors Allowing Tribe to Take Eaglets," Los Angeles Times, 25 November 1999, A1. ["Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt favors a policy change that would allow members of the Hopi tribe to capture golden eaglets from a national monument in Northern Arizona, a move that critics fear could open the door to hunting in national parks. The issue at the Wupatki National Monument near Flagstaff, Ariz., has been building since summer, when the Hopi requested permission to take eaglets for use in a religious ceremony. Taking or hunting of animals in national parks is strictly prohibited, but
NATIVE_NEWS: NEWS BRIEFS
Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : A web-based version of today's and recent news are also available at http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/ Altepeter, Twylla. "Lakota Man Uses Storytelling Skills to Enlighten and Brighten Lives," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 23 November 1999. ["CROOKSTON, Minn.: His art is as old as the dawn of mankind. Words are his medium, the audience his palette. Francis Country uses words to paint vivid images, evoke emotions and pass along wisdom. The Sisseton, S.D., man is a traditional Lakota storyteller. He was a presenter at the Native American Festival held recently at the Crookston Central Junior High School ... "The stories and the songs go back to healing. Stories we tell will help you understand things that are happening in your community and your home." ... Country says he uses the stories to reach people of all races. He has appeared at various universities across the country and finds the students particularly receptive to his "feelings to feelings" stories."] http://www.ap.org/ "American Indian College Students Lead 1999 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade As Millions Watch on NBC CBS Networks," PR Newswire, 23 November 1999. ["Traveling from Indian reservations across the nation to New York City, 24 Native college students will share tribal songs and dances on the first float of the 1999 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Hailing from reservation-based tribal colleges, these students will wear the colorful attire of 20 different tribes. Macy's has invited the students to join its lead float in order to showcase tribal culture and Indians' contributions to Thanksgiving. The American Indian College Fund is sponsoring the students' trip to celebrate its 10th anniversary supporting tribal college scholarships. "Indian culture is not a thing of the past," said Richard Williams, College Fund executive director. "Our students will show that Indians today are contributing to American society, while using education to advance our culture into the next millennium."'] http://www.prnewswire.com Baker, Deborah. "Tribes, Media Groups Clash over Casino Records," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 23 November 1999. ["ALBUQUERQUE: Opening the books of Indian casinos would give their competitors too much of an edge, tribes have told the state Gaming Control Board on Tuesday. But the New Mexico Press Association and an open-government group said keeping financial records secret erodes public confidence in the gambling industry. "This is the quintessential area for organized crime and crime in general, and it's not going to work without significant disclosure," Press Association lobbyist Pat Rogers said. The longstanding tug of war over the records was renewed last week when the attorney general said the financial information the Gaming Control Board gets from tribes is public record."] http://www.ap.org/ Campbell, Kim. "Lessons on Native Americans: Thanksgiving and Beyond," The Christian Science Monitor, 23 November 1999, 14. ["Every year at Thanksgiving, kindergarten teacher Tina Larson struggles with creating educational activities about native Americans that don't feed the stereotypes her students pick up from cartoons ... Teachers are often hampered by limited access to information about Indian culture, or by inaccurate and outdated materials ... Those involved with Indian education programs say resources are readily available that can help teachers go beyond feathers and tepees. They also emphasize that lessons on native people can be taught throughout the school year and across disciplines; and urge teachers to point out that Indians are a people of the present and not just the past."] http://www.csmonitor.com/ Dodd, Robert E. "Native American Month Is a Significant Time," Chattanooga Times / Chattanooga Free Press, 23 November 1999, B7. ["November is a month of many distinctions. The one most significant to me is the designation of Native American Heritage Month. My grandfather is Kiowa. My grandmother is Kiowa ... I walk tall and carry the pride of my ancestors ... I am no one's mascot, curio or discovery."] http://207.69.235.40/ "Grant Would Aid Creation of Tribal Supreme Court," The Associated Press State Local Wire, November 23, 1999, Tuesday, BC cycle. ["SIOUX FALLS, S.D.: The U.S. Justice Department is providing a grant for a unified tribal supreme court in South Dakota, a move that some say could ultimately lead to more jobs and business on Indian reservations ... Instead of having to deal with a different set of regulations on each of the state's nine reservations, a unified court would create a consistent forum for settling legal questions when business deals don't work out. "This is an important step," said Michael Jandreau, chairman of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe. "I think financial institutions are going to be more interested in dealing with reservations if there is a consistent interpretation of the laws."
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And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: A web-based version of today's and recent news are also available at http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/ Adams, Glenn. "Governor Sympathetic to Indians' Concerns on Name," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 22 November 1999. ["AUGUSTA, Maine: A bill to drop the name "Squaw" from Maine lakes, mountains and other features because many Indians consider it insulting deserves a serious look, Gov. Angus King said Monday. But King stopped short of endorsing it. State Rep. Donald Soctomah, a Passamaquoddy tribal representative, has proposed changing the names of mountains, waterways, an island and other geographic features and jurisdictions in the state that bear a name that Indians say has a pejorative connotation ... However, concerns have been raised that the issue could highlight the fact that the word is offensive to Indians, in effect creating a new hate word."] http://www.ap.org/ Arrillaga, Pauline. "Gardening Project Seeks to Restore Food Security, Tradition to Indian Nation," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 22 November 1999. ["SELLS, Ariz.: Margaret Saraficio's garden produced enough squash this fall for seven meals. To her that meant seven times she didn't have to spend money at the store... Mrs. Saraficio, a 64-year-old basket weaver, is one of dozens of people on the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation who cultivated gardens this year as part of a federally funded program to fight food insecurity in poor communities ... In the old days, gardens not grocery stores dominated the landscape of the sprawling reservation in southern Arizona's Sonoran Desert... traditional gardening sustained the community until World War II took the men from their families and a devastating drought struck a few years later. One by one the gardens died off, and the native food system was replaced with government commodities. Today, with 66 percent of the reservation's 18,000 residents living in poverty, commodities and food stamps provide most of the meals for the Tohono O'odham ... The Tohono O'odham Community Food System project looks to return to the traditional ways, to improve both the availability and nutritional value of food on the reservation ... This summer TOCA volunteers helped 50 families plant gardens using seeds for traditional foods such as corn, squash and tepary beans, a heat-tolerant crop that can help regulate blood sugar."] http://www.ap.org/ Biles, Jan. "Tribal Songs Dedicated in Memory of Professor's Father," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 22 November 1999. ["LAWRENCE, Kan.: Tribal music is an integral part of being a Comanche warrior. Drum beats and chanting prepare the warrior for action by giving him the strength to defeat any adversary, the wisdom to know when to engage in combat and the restraint to apply only the force needed to establish balance in his life. Cornel Pewewardy, an assistant professor of teaching and leadership at the University of Kansas, had that image in mind when he finished his latest recording with the Alliance West Singers and Intertribal Veterans Singers. And that's why "The Warrior's Edge," an album of powwow songs from the Southern Plains for Shortwave Records, is dedicated to his father, Samuel "Doc" Pewewardy, a Comanche leader who was captured during the Battle of the Bulge and held as a prisoner of war ... "I'm showing there's a warrior amongst us who's a reflection of the warrior of the past," Pewewardy said of his father, who's in his 70s and lives in Oklahoma. "I see an arsenal in him, whether he's fighting for tribal or human rights. He's a father and grandfather. He was our Little League coach when I was growing up. He's a deacon in our church, a very spiritual man. He encompasses the warrior of today, and he's a good role model for our youths.""] http://www.ap.org/ "Court Handling of Indian Issues Knocked," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 22 November 1999. ["ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.: The American court system ignores written law and treaties in favor of a vague "public policy" driven by money and bigotry against Indians, the head of the Cherokee Nation has charged. Tribes and their lawyers must convince judges that Indians are not "Hollywood icons" but actual governments seeking redress from a fellow government, said Chad Smith, the newly elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma ... Smith also said Indians need to retain their cultural identity to change the view of the rest of the nation. The Cherokee tribe is at a crisis point because children are not learning the Cherokee language or tribal lore, he said."] http://www.ap.org/ Cox, Christopher. "The Forgotten War of King Philip; New Book Examines Dark Side of Plymouth Colony's History," The Boston Herald, 22 November 1999, 031. ["American history has a warm, prominent spot for Massasoit, the Wampanoag sachem. Not so for his son, Metacom. Just a half-century after Massasoit helped the Pilgrims
NATIVE_NEWS: NEWS BRIEFS
And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: A web-based version of today's and recent news are also available at http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/ Adams, Lorraine and David A. Vise. "Law Order: The Justice Department; Peltier's Backers Keep 20-Year Cause Alive," The Washington Post, 16 November 1999, A29. ["Leonard Peltier is a Native American serving two life sentences for the 1975 murder of two FBI agents. He is also a cause celebre ... This month, the 20-year fight over whether Peltier was wrongfully convicted has featured: actor Danny Glover holding forth for television cameras about Peltier in Lafayette Park; the FBI Agents Association denouncing Peltier in advertisements in Roll Call, on WTOP radio and in The Washington Post; and the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee dubbing this month "Freedom Month for Leonard Peltier" and asking Attorney General Janet Reno for a meeting ... "That's one of the things that keeps driving me nuts," says John Sennett, head of the FBI Agents Association, "is that they characterize Peltier as a freedom fighter rather than a criminal.'"] http://www.washingtonpost.com/ Augustine, Noah. "Personal Is Political on Indian Reserve," The Toronto Star, 16 November 1999. ["I was born on an Indian reservation, the child of a burning legacy. I've fought battles no man has ever won, and lost like the rest of them ... The preceding poem is my own. I buried it, along with the dreams and youthful passion of all aboriginal youth, who believe change is not only desired but imminent within our communities ... But in many cases, the notion of change is perceived to be in the powers of local leadership, where direct control of decisions affecting the community lies. This is where the study of Indian politics begins. It evolves as part of one's identity on the reserve, regardless of whether you consider yourself to be ''political.''"] http://www.thestar.com/ "Bay Mills Indian Community Confirms Interest in Silverdome Casino," PR Newswire, 16 November 1999. ["PONTIAC, Mich.: Bay Mills Indian Community Tribal Chairman Jeff Parker has said that the tribe would be interested in building a major casino at the Pontiac Silverdome that could provide 3,000 to 3,500 jobs and a minimum payment of $30 million annually to the economically distressed city ... Parker on Monday night told the Pontiac City Council that the tribe has no interest in moving into a community that has not indicated support for the tribe's gaming plans. He said he hoped the council would approve a resolution indicating support for the tribe's plans ... Parker said the tribe would guarantee a payment to local governments of $30 million or 2 percent of gaming revenues, whichever is larger."] http://www.prnewswire.com "BIA Endorses Pueblo's Plans to Buy Lodge," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 16 November 1999. ["TAOS, N.M.: The Bureau of Indian Affairs has endorsed Taos Pueblo's plans to buy a northern New Mexico hotel that the pueblo wants to use as a casino. The federal agency gave the pueblo the go-ahead to buy the Kachina Lodge only after all mention of adding the casino was dropped last week from an environmental assessment of the project."] http://www.ap.org/ "Court: State Lacks Jurisdiction on Any Reservation," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 16 November 1999. ["ST. PAUL, Minn.: Minnesota cannot prosecute an American Indian tribal member for driving offenses committed on another tribe's reservation, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. Judge Robert Schumacher wrote the opinion for the unanimous three-judge panel, saying the law doesn't differentiate by tribe or reservation."] http://www.ap.org/ "Food, Books Heading to Santee Tribe," Omaha World-Herald, 16 November 1999, 12. ["The Salvation Army was sending a truckload of canned goods and nonperishable food items Tuesday from Omaha to the Santee Sioux Tribe's reservation in northeast Nebraska. The shipment includes 1,400 books for children and youths ... The Salvation Army is sending food and books because of a partial freeze of the Santee tribe's bank accounts, Bemis said. Werner Enterprises is providing the transportation. MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. donated the books."] http://www.omaha.com/OWH/ Gamble, David. "Feds Nix Kahnawake Tax Haven," The Gazette (Montreal), 16 November 1999, D3. ["OTTAWA: The federal government and the Kahnawake Mohawks are poised foranother confrontation over aboriginal sovereignty. Finance Minister Paul Martin yesterday flatly rejected a proposal by Mohawk Internet Technologies (MIT) to establish an ''offshore'' tax haven on their territory similar to some Caribbean islands. ''The exemption from taxes that the aboriginal Canadians have on a reserve does not apply to non-aboriginals, so the concept would not work.'' A senior official in Martin's office suggested the Kahnawake group will have trouble attracting foreign businesses if it seeks to create a tax
NATIVE_NEWS: NEWS BRIEFS
And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: "H-AMINDIAN's FYI: News Items of Interest" website: http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/ "Civil Rights Panel to Investigate Indian Deaths," The New York Times, 7 November 1999, 19. ["The United States Civil Rights Commission has decided to hold a hearing in South Dakota to investigate the recent deaths of American Indians in the state. The commission, an independent fact-finding agency that approved the action on Friday, tentatively scheduled a visit to South Dakota for Dec. 5 and 6, with a public hearing in Sioux Falls ... Among the deaths to be investigated are those of eight men -- six of them Indian -- whose bodies were found in a creek in Rapid City over the last 18 months ... The commission can make recommendations but has no enforcement power."] http://www.nytimes.com Dirck, Joe. "Time Passes, and So Should Wahoo," The Plain Dealer, 7 November 1999, 1B. ["If I may be immodest enough to say so, I used to have a pretty good Chief Wahoo rap. When the controversy first heated up five or six years ago (just about the time the Indians started getting good), I didn't have a lot of patience for the argument that Wahoo is a racist symbol perpetuating unfair stereotypes about Native Americans ... Now, I am not so naive as to suggest Cleveland is free of racism, but although I have heard many disparaging, hateful comments directed toward this or that ethnic group, I never one time heard anyone in this town make an anti-Indian remark ... Over time, though, my feelings have changed. The opposition has become more broad-based, including many people whose opinions I deeply respect. And the last few demonstrations I have witnessed had a dignity lacking at the earlier ones ... I was hoping, frankly, for a quiet retirement ... With the sale of the club, this seemed like the perfect moment. New owner, new century ... But prospective owner Larry Dolan apparently has no such thought in mind. If he did, he could have finessed the inevitable question when he was introduced Thursday. Instead, he was emphatic that the contentious Chief Wahoo logo would stay. Too bad."] http://www.cleveland.com/pd/buffer.ssf Harris, John. "Finding His True Identity, Indian Protects Tradition," The Seattle Times, 7 November 1999, B8. ["BELLINGHAM: Kenneth Cooper grew up ... not far from where the north and south forks of the Nooksack River meet. As a young man he worked as a fisherman and logger in Whatcom County and on the Olympic Peninsula. He later became cultural-resource specialist for Lummi Nation, fighting for the rights of indigenous people at Lummi and beyond ... Recently, he boarded a jetliner and flew to Rome, where he met with Pope John Paul II and other religious leaders to discuss how to achieve peace and solidarity for all people in the next millennium. He didn't go as Kenneth Cooper ... His elders came to him when he was initiated into the tribal, or long house, tradition at age 21 and urged him to take his true identity. They gave him the name Cha-das-ska-dum Which-Ta-Lum, for his grand-uncle, his grandmother's brother ... And so, in the late 1980s, he legally changed his name to Cha-das-ska-dum Which-ta-lum. "Cha-das-ska-dum is my true identity," he says. "I refuse to carry a white-man's name in my family. To me, it's like calling a Honda a Cadillac. They're both vehicles, but they're different ... Cha-das-ska-dum, 57, is the only [Lummi] who has taken his Indian name legally, and he has gained recognition for it by traveling the world fighting to preserve the land of Native Americans and other indigenous people ... Cha-das-ska-dum's way is the long house, the traditional practices followed by natives of this area. They lived close to the earth, making baskets from bark they stripped from trees and sweaters from the wool they took from sheep's backs. "For lack of a better word in English, we're traditionalists," he says. "But it's not a religion per se." God isn't a single entity or a trinity; God - the creator - is all things."] http://www.seattletimes.com/ McGrory, Barry. "Let's Do a Deal on Native Rights," The Toronto Star, 7 November 1999. ["George R. Sinclair proposes a ''solution'' to Fisheries Minister Dhaliwal's ''conundrum'' over aboriginal fishing rights (Natives should stick to their traditional way, letter, Oct. 28) ... But, were the minister to propose Sinclair's solution, the Mi'kmaq might respond: ''Yes, we'll keep to the 1760 methods, if all those who came to the Atlantic provinces after 1760 go home.''"] http://www.thestar.com/ Odato, James M. "Farmer Trying to Hold onto Land That Indians are Trying to Reclaim," The Houston Chronicle, 7 November 1999, A42. ["CHITTENANGO, N.Y.: He is soft spoken, frail and polite. But Daniel F. Gates is powerful stuff in his farming community ... Gates is the leader of Madison Oneida Landowners Inc., or MOLI, an organization of about 2,500 people in the two rural counties east of Syracuse.
NATIVE_NEWS: NEWS BRIEFS: CANADA, PELTIER AND HEALTH CARE
And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 12:21:55 -0500 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Lynne Moss-Sharman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: canada 11/07/99 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" November 7, 1999 Truth buried at Wounded Knee Former minister's report raises more questions about Peltier extradition By PETER WORTHINGTON -- Sun Media As anyone who has ever tried, even in a minor way, to correct an injustice knows, it can be a long, arduous, frustrating, tortuous path. Just ask Warren Allmand. When Native activist Leonard Peltier was arrested in Canada in 1976 and extradited to the U.S. for the 1975 shooting deaths of two FBI agents during a range war on South Dakota's Pine Ridge reserve (near Wounded Knee), Allmand was first Canada's solicitor-general and then minister of Indian Affairs. He later realized the extradition was fraudulent, based on false affidavits acquired by the FBI from a Native woman (Myrtle Poor Bear) who had never met Peltier and was not in Pine Ridge at the time, but who claimed to have been his girlfriend and to have watched him kill the agents. Peltier is in the 23rd year of two consecutive life sentences. At first, I felt Peltier was guilty, but over years of examining the case and evidence, I became convinced he didn't do it. There seems not the slightest doubt that the FBI framed him. Even today, the FBI is determined he'll never go free -- even though they now admit they haven't a clue who did the actual shooting. In 1994, Allmand reviewed the case for then-justice minister Allan Rock, as did other justice department lawyers. Allmand released his report this week, after Justice Minister Anne McClellan released her own report (after contacting U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno) that the extradition was on the up-and-up and proper. Here are the highlights of Allmand's 1994 report on the extradition, with comments on memos submitted by Justice lawyers: * Of three Poor Bear affidavits, one -- in which she said she hadn't witnessed the shooting, and had departed Pine Ridge -- was never included in the extradition case . The FBI later acknowledged Poor Bear was "incompetent" and her affidavits "unbelievable." (McClellan effectively still vouches for them.) * No circumstantial evidence was considered by Judge Schultz in the extradition, and circumstantial evidence in Canada was different from that presented at Peltier's U.S. trial. Ballistic evidence accepted at the trial was later shown to be "questionable and in part, fabricated." * After two other Natives were acquitted (Bob Robideau and Dino Butler) when their trial was shifted to Iowa, the U.S. Justice Department and FBI refused to let Peltier's trial take place in neutral territory and "pounded the community with adverse publicity regarding Peltier and the American Indian Movement (AIM)." * A Canadian Justice lawyer went to the U.S.and co-operated with the FBI on the Poor Bear affidavits. Assistant FBI director Ronald Moore noted in a memo that it was on the Canadian lawyer's recommendation "that only Poor Bear's second and third affidavits were used." Allmand concludes that if the Canadian lawyer didn't know about the excluded affidavit, "the FBI was guilty of trying to manufacture a case and mislead the Canadian justice system." (The lawyer himself denied any involvement and accused the FBI of trying to cover their butts.) Three judges questioned FBI integrity. Judge Ross of the U.S. Court of Appeal said: "Why the prosecutor's officer continued to extract more from her (Poor Bear) ... is beyond my understanding." Appeal Judge Gerald Heaney: "The FBI used improper tactics in securing Peltier's extradition." Judge R.P. Anderson of the B.C. Supreme Court: "It seems clear to me that the conduct of the U.S. government involved misconduct from inception." Judge Heaney determined that violence at Pine Ridge (over selling uranium resources that tribal elders opposed) was the "culmination of the federal government's refusal to respond to the 'legitimate grievances' raised by the Native community." The FBI supplied vigilante snipers with weapons and ammunition. The FBI concealed ballistic evidence indicating Peltier's rifle could not have fired the shots that killed the agents. This "suppressed evidence" cast a strong doubt on the government's case. Allmand found it's not unusual for the U.S. government to use illegal methods to return individuals to U.S. territory: A false extradition to get one individual returned from Mexico;kidnapping another in order to return a wanted man; the British House of Lords refused an extradition on grounds that evidence was shaky. The FBI blocked publication of Peter Mathiessen's book, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse for eight years of legal actions at a cost of some $25 million. One oddity rarely mentioned is that the two
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And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: "Today's News" webpage: http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/today.htm "American Indian College Fund Begins Celebration of 10-Year Anniversary With Fundraising Gala in New York City; Lending Special Support, Village People to Add Groove to Festivities Honoring Wilma Mankiller Susan Simon Tierney," PR Newswire, 1 November 1999. ["NEW YORK: Celebrating ten years as the leading force for Native American higher education in the United States, the American Indian College Fund will host its Flame of Hope Gala in New York City on Tuesday, November 9, 1999 ... Native American author and screenwriter Sherman Alexie will serve as the master of ceremonies for the evening, which includes a silent auction. The College Fund will present awards to Wilma Mankiller and Susan Simon Tierney."] http://www.prnewswire.com/ Augustine, Noah. "New Door Opens for Aboriginal People," The Toronto Star, 1 November 1999. ["The waters off the East Coast have been known to generate some big waves. So big, in fact, that anyone living on or near its shores can relate some story of how its fury has changed lives forever. Like other fishers, the Mi'kmaq once shared these stories. Slapping against East Coast communities today is a wave of a different sort - a wave of controversy fuelled by sensationalist voices screaming ''equality for all'' and ''conservation.'' These cries are directed at aboriginal people exercising their newly recognized right to harvest fish stocks ... But what are the issues behind the headlines? Is it really about equality for all? Is conservation the main concern of a lobster fishery that is suddenly being forced to share this valuable resource? Listening to the debate in the House of Commons, one might be fooled into believing the rhetoric of the Reform party that ''two sets of rules are going to apply to two sets of people.'' ... The challenge for aboriginal leaders is to balance the traditional and contemporary movements while representing the aboriginal community as a whole. It is interesting that aboriginal peoples who were once criticized for being lazy are now being criticized for working ... The public must come to realize that aboriginal peoples, representing less than 2 per cent of the regional population, are not looking to overhaul the fishery or logging industries, but simply to participate in them."] http://www.thestar.com/ Eggertson, Laura. "Wounds of Oka Heal for Powerful Mohawk Woman Analysis," The Toronto Star, 1 November 1999. ["Nine years after a bayonet wound that marked the end of the low point in Canada's relationship with its original peoples, the scar on Waneek Horn-Miller's chest has healed. But as tensions escalate for native and non-native fishing communities in Atlantic Canada, they transport the Mohawk woman back to Oka in Quebec - and the day a soldier's bayonet inflicted the wound ... Now 23, Horn-Miller hopes she will never see another Oka. Relations between aboriginals and other Canadians have a long way to go but have progressed, she believes, since the siege over a land claim that marred the country's human rights record in the eyes of the world. So has Horn-Miller ... Horn-Miller explains that instead of erecting barricades, more First Nations are choosing negotiations and litigation to win rights and enforce treaties ... The federal and provincial governments' lack of preparation for the impact of court decisions threatens to allow angry confrontations like those over East Coast fishing to damage again the aboriginal/non-native relationship ... Horn-Miller supports negotiations and non-violent processes. She calls the recent victories in the Marshall case and the Delgamuuk decision affirming aboriginal land title ''groundbreaking.'' ''I don't like violence. I've seen the worst of it,'' she says in an interview from Kahnawake. ''I wouldn't say: 'Go, go out, put up a barricade, grab guns - without fully equipping yourself about your rights, your history'." ... But Horn-Miller shares the frustration of many younger peers who make up the overwhelming majority of aboriginal people in provinces like Saskatchewan, for example."] http://www.thestar.com/ "Evictions May Be Issued on Musqueam Lands," CBC Newsworld Online, 1 November 1999. ["VANCOUVER - The Musqueam Indian band says Ottawa will start proceedings to evict non-native residents. Friday midnight was the deadline for 75 homeowners in a Vancouver neighbourhood to pay up or get kicked out of their homes. The homeowners owe the Musqueam Nation millions of dollars in outstanding lease payments. Band lawyer Lewis Harvey says the government has decided to go to court to start repossessing the leased land."] http://newsworld.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/go.pl?1999/10/31/musqueam991031 Frommer, Frederic J. "Hundreds Rally to Demand Release of Indian Activist Leonard Peltier," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 1 November 1999.
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And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: ICT BRIEFS: http://WWW.INDIANCOUNTRY.COM/headlines.html Doctor says IHS ignored measures to save lives By Brenda Norrell Today staff PHOENIX, Ariz. - Tim Strand, medical doctor and registered dietician, says Indian Health Service ignored measures that could have saved the lives of pregnant Indian women who died from eclampsia while giving birth. While working as a medical doctor for the IHS in Whiteriver, Dr. Strand had evidence proving that pregnant women could reduce the risks of pre-eclampsia, caused by high blood pressure, by increasing their intake of calcium. Since most Indian women are lactose-intolerant, Dr. Strand proposed a program to make non-lactose milk available to pregnant women in the White Mountain Apache community. "We had the highest rate of pre-eclampsia in the world," Dr. Strand said of the condition that leads to eclampsia, a form of toxemia during pregnancy Armed with research from Johns Hopkins University, revealing calcium decreased the death rate from pre-eclampsia, he gained support for a demonstration project from the White Mountain Apache Tribal Council. "The Indian Health Servi! ! ce i gnored it. We still have women in Whiteriver dying of eclampsia," Dr. Strand said. Our Millennium - A look back at the last 100 years The 1900s have been a time of incredible change in the lives of Native peoples. As we near the end of this century and the beginning of a new millennium, we look back on some of the significant moments of the last hundred years. This week Indian Country Today begins a series of features that highlight important events and individuals from the past century. The series will look at a decade every week for the next 10 weeks and provide a timeline that eventually covers the entire century. As with all projects covering such a massive period of time, it is more than likely we will have missed key events. We encourage all our readers to send us letters or e-mails detailing important moments from the last 100 years from their perspective. Saginaw election offers no surprises By David Melmer Today staff MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - The people of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe spoke with the ballot, repeating what they said in the last five elections. After the Oct. 12, 1999 primary election ballots from the main, Isabella District, were counted, 10 of the 20 people who will be on the general election ballot had been there four times before. They were elected to the council in November 1997 but did not begin serving until Aug. 10, 1999. They now sit as an interim council after former council members voided four other elections to remain in power. The interim council, ordered seated by Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover, served only two months and the most important decision they made was to hold another election the fifth in two years, Nov. 2. The previous council headed by Kevin Chamberlain voided the November 1997 general election with the claim that some people voted in the wrong district. Home again - Oglala Park dedication Still healing from tornado's wrath By David Melmer Today staff OGLALA, S.D. - Chilly autumn winds greeted many people who gathered to dedicate a mobile home park that will house many families that lost homes during the hot summer because of a tornado. Yet the cold weather did not soften the spirits of those who were present to dedicate the Jonas Belt Jr. mobile home park named in memory of the only person killed in the June 4 tornado. Forty-three mobile homes are located in the specially designed park to provide homes for many families left homeless in this remote village on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Shortbull off to Miss U.S.A Pageant By David Melmer Today staff RAPID CITY, S.D. Vanessa Shortbull will represent the state of South Dakota at the Miss U.S.A. Pageant in February. Vanessa, an Oglala Lakota, dazzled ballet audiences with her performances from Utah to South Dakota. Weaving for life: Gathering connects tradition Story and photos by Amanda Siestreem Today correspondent Tucked away in the quiet, fog-draped foothills of the Cascades, 400 basket weavers from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, British Columbia and southeast Alaska gathered for a weekend on the Lummi Reservation. The impact of so many traditional people, quietly chatting and working on their baskets, in the awesome setting of the Lummi Wex-li-em Frog House, gave each new arrival a moment of pause at the front door. For many, the Northwest Native American Basketweavers Association has been a breath of hope. Local Native American wants some control http://www.fox7.blackhills.com/news6.htm Lakota Treaty Chief, Richard Grass, brought up an issue at Tuesday's mornings meeting. He alleges that Indians are treated unfairly in Rapid City. He said he thinks a Native American should represent the local
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And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Excerpted from: "Today's News" webpage: http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/today.htm Abley, Mark. "From Baffin Island to Big City: Students Visiting from Inuit Village Awed by Sounds, Sights - Even Trees," The Gazette (Montreal), October 27, 1999, A1. ["Whatever Ooloota Lyta expected of Montreal, it didn't include a Vietnamese stick insect marching across her hand. But Ooloota and the 19 other high-school students from the tiny Nunavut community of Kimmirut were taking the big city in their stride - Laser Quest, bonsai, stick insects and all ... an Inuit village of about 450 people ... Kimmirut - or Lake Harbour, as it used to be called - nestles on the southern coast of Baffin Island, nearly 2,000 kilometres north of Montreal. It's among the smallest towns in Nunavut. The Kimmirut students are spending nearly a week in Montreal, as the first leg of an exchange with Grade 9 and 10 students at St. George's School - one of the city's finest, and most expensive, private schools. Next April, roughly the same number of St. George's students will discover what life is like in a village with fewer than 50 houses. http://www.montrealgazette.com/ "Apartheid Justice[;] One by One, the Bricks of Canada's Legal Apartheid Are Being Put in Place and a Wall Between Races Is Slowly Taking Form," The Ottawa Citizen, October 27, 1999, A14. ["One brick came in the form of an announcement earlier this month by the new NDP government of Manitoba ... ''Aboriginal communities (should) be entitled to enact their own criminal, civil and family laws and to have those laws enforced by their own justice systems.'' ... This follows on news that a Senate committee will soon recommend that a new federal court be set up to judge cases involving aboriginal and treaty rights ... Meanwhile, last February, Corrections Canada started a program which allows reserves to apply to have aboriginal inmates released from prison to serve out their ''sentences'' on the reserves ... Also earlier this year, the Supreme Court added yet another brick to the wall when it ruled on a vague amendment to the Criminal Code which called for alternatives to imprisonment for all offenders, ''with particular attention to aboriginal offenders.'' ... This is, please note, just a partial list of the bricks recently added to Canada's wall of apartheid. The inevitable justification for this drift into race-based justice is the alleged systemic racism of the existing justice system ... even if we were to accept that the justice system is deeply biased against aboriginals, creating a ''separate but equal'' aboriginal justice system would be a colossal mistake."] http://www.ottawacitizen.com/ Banks, Bill. "Taking Aim at Century Mark; On Target: Accomplished Native American Pino Remains Active, Competes Successfully at Age 99," The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, October 27, 1999, 10D. ["Orlando -- The Laguna Pueblo reservation is a cluster of six villages lying 50 miles west of Albuquerque, N.M. John Pino Jr. was born there March 20, 1900, and nearly a century later he still lives here ... he's in Florida this week, not only alive, but competing in the 1999 National Senior Games --- the Senior Olympics ... This year, he entered his specialty, compound-fingers archery, along with the javelin and shuffleboard. For each, he won gold medals in his age group, 95+ ... During his remarkable life, Pino has held a variety of jobs, enjoyed prolific interests and spanned a century of history. His village had no schools. Pino helped start an elementary and high school in the early 1960s. He didn't enter school until age 15, when he was sent to the Sherman Institute in Riverside, Calif. During the early century, Pauline Pino explained, many Pueblos were sent there to learn English. But they also were stripped of their Indian customs, language and religion, she said. But it was at Sherman Institute that Pino began cultivating his insatiable curiousity. He later stressed an intensive pursuit of knowledge to his children, seven of whom received college diplomas ... In the years after school, he worked as a cattleman, a sheep-herder and a farmer. He cleared forests and built telephone lines for the U.S. government. From 1941 to 1955, he worked for the Santa Fe Railroad, eventually becoming a locomotive mechanic. He returned to the reservation in 1956, worked two years as an uranium miner and in 1957 was elected to the tribal council."] http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/ Blakey, Bob. "CBC Newsworld Plans Workshop for Aboriginals," Calgary Herald, October 27, 1999, B14. ["A group of aboriginal children assembling in Ottawa for a workshop on Thursday will learn of a career option few Canadian natives would have thought of a few years ago -- becoming a national TV anchor. Those of us with cable television can see how it goes when the youngsters meet CBC
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And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Excerpted from Victor Rocha's Pechanga.net American Indians celebrate at Alcatraz: http://www.sacbee.com/news/news/local05_19991024.html Occupation of island started 30 years ago ALCATRAZ ISLAND -- The haunting chants of six American Indians beating drums signaled the start of Saturday's celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Alcatraz Indian occupation. Land, power and pride: Onondaga chief hopes settlement with state will mean tangible assets for his people http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyKey=20941amp;category=F ONONDAGA NATION -- Irving Powless Jr., the 69-year-old chief of the Onondaga Indian Nation, longs to see the day when his people enjoy economic stability and independence -- and not from the revenues of a casino or a bingo hall. Bush comment on Indian issues draws comment The GOP presidential contender says he considers state law supreme. http://www.pechanga.net/bush_comment_on_indian_issues_dr.htm A 22-word comment on Native American issues earned presidential candidate George W. Bush support from some Central New York landowners and annoyed some Native Americans. While admitting he knew little about Indian land claims in New York, Bush had this to say during a campaign stop Monday in Syracuse: "My view is that state law reigns supreme when it comes to the Indians, whether it be gambling or any other issue." Bush-Lite Made with Less Leadership, Less Experience, More Right-Wing Flavor http://www.pechanga.net/bush.htm Forget about George W. Bush's faux split with Dick Armey and Tom DeLay. The real fight is between Bush and James Madison. Campaigning in New York this week, the five-year Texas governor tried to answer one question about local Indian issues, saying, "My view is that state law reigns supreme when it comes to the Indians, whether it be gambling or any other issue." [Syracuse Post-Standard, 10/6/99] Indian nations resume intertribal trading, on the Net http://www2.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisStory=81028896 -- On a recent trip to visit the Catawba Indian Nation in Catawba, S.C., Dan Umstead, a member of the Oneida Nation of central New York, was shown centuries-old pottery of Oneida design excavated there, some 800 miles from home. Buffalo To Roam New Home http://www.abqjournal.com/news/3news10-24-99.htm -- POJOAQUE -- Ed Maes watched the bison roundup Saturday morning from the other side of a 7-foot wire fence, bidding a fond farewell to the 16 bison in the Pojoaque Pueblo herd. Federation accuses state of ruining Native life: AFN demands greater support http://www.adn.com/stories/T99102415.html (ALASKA) The Alaska Federation of Natives on Saturday adopted a sharply worded resolution urging the nation and the world to pay attention to the "assault on Native cultures and communities by the state of Alaska." Controversy brews on whether suit against band can be heard in U.S. court http://www2.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisStory=81034445 -- In 1997, a police officer working for an American Indian tribe arrested a newspaper reporter who was covering a meeting of tribal leaders at Grand Casino Mille Lacs. He was jailed until the meeting ended. Criminal charges against the reporter, a non-Indian, were dismissed in district court. Villages sue state over police protection http://www.msnbc.com/local/KTUU/41826.asp (ANCHORAGE, AK) A group of Native villages is taking the state to court over funding for police protection in the Bush. The group argues the state discriminates against rural Alaska based on race and location. Judge blocks plans for casino http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/dsnews/233nd2.htm (WAUKEGAN) (AP) A Lake County judge Friday blocked state regulators from approving plans for a floating casino in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, at the request of rival developers who say the Rosemont investors got special treatment from Illinois lawmakers. Pueblo 'Slaps' N.M. Sending Money Out-Of-State http://www.abqjournal.com/news/1gamble10-23-99.htm (ALBUQUERQUE) -- Sandia Pueblo has slapped the state in the face by sending money to an out-of-state treatment center for problem gamblers, the head the New Mexico Council on Problem Gambling said. A River of Indian Anger Shoreline Fight Reflects Racial Gulf in South Dakota http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-10/23/074l-102399-idx.html ( PIERRE, S.D.) It was a gloriously warm autumn day when 300 people gathered at the state capitol here on Native American Day last week to celebrate the late Gov. George S. Mickelson's dream of reconciliation between Indians and whites, who in a sense have never really stopped fighting in South Dakota since Gen. George A. Custer made his last stand at Little Bighorn. Navajo Consumer Act Draws Criticism http://www.abqjournal.com/news/8news10-23-99.htm -- (GALLUP, NM) Darren Baade used to advertise his used-car lot on the
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And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: "Today's News" webpage: http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/today.htm Birnbaum, Gregg. "Hillary Won't Show Hand on Casinos," The New York Post, 18 October 1999, 009. ["Monticello: First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton last night disappointed Democrats in the Catskills when she failed to throw her support behind legalized casino gambling. Local officials in the economically depressed region that decades ago was the booming Borscht Belt had pressed Mrs. Clinton to line up in favor of a casino that has been proposed here by the St. Regis Mohawk Indians ... Mrs. Clinton's spokesman, Howard Wolfson, also would not say where the first lady stands on legalizing gambling in New York."] http://www.nypostonline.com/ "Both Sides Agree Saturday March Was Successful," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 18 October 1999. ["Watertown, S.D.: American Indians will gain more attention and respect for peaceful protests such as one held Saturday in Sisseton over the death of Justin Redday, the Roberts County prosecutor says. "The protest should show people in the rest of the state, and throughout the U.S., how to do it successfully," said Kerry Cameron. As Roberts County states attorney, his decision not to prosecute a grand jury indictment for vehicular homicide against Mark Appel is at the center of the controversy."] http://www.ap.org/ Eggertson, Laura. "Dhaliwal's Rough Crossing," The Toronto Star, 18 October 1999. ["Ottawa: When Chief Michael Augustine first laid eyes on Fisheries Minister Herb Dhaliwal, he thought he'd found a kindred spirit. ''My first impression was he was a minority,'' said Augustine, chief of the Red Bank First Nation in Miramichi, in eastern New Brunswick. ''I thought he'd have a better insight and understanding on how minorities feel in Canada or anywhere else. I thought he'd at least understand that part of it.'' Dhaliwal, 46, was born in Chaheru, a village in northern Punjab, India. He emigrated to Vancouver at 6. He is Canada's first Sikh cabinet minister. He is a self-made millionaire. He was, until Aug. 2, the jovial genie in charge of Revenue Canada - a department that seldom made waves. Then a cabinet shuffle put Dhaliwal at the head of a troubled department. Now he's embroiled in a firestorm ignited by a Supreme Court decision that affirmed aboriginal treaty rights. And minority or not, Dhaliwal quickly found himself on the wrong side of some Atlantic chiefs ... Ron MacDonald, former Liberal MP Barely two weeks after his first meeting with the aboriginal leaders, the traditional Mi'kmaq chief accused him of speaking with ''forked tongue'' and betraying their interests. ''We were very disappointed,'' said Augustine ... The mistrust makes Dhaliwal uneasy. With all the earnestness of a friendly schoolboy who doesn't understand where he's gone wrong, his face serious, Dhaliwal stresses he does feel a bond with the aboriginal people he's met. He is a Sikh - a minority in India for hundreds of years ... Charlie Power, Conservative fisheries critic ''Herb Dhaliwal is responsible for turning a court decision into a fisheries problem and into a serious race relations crisis,'' Conservative fisheries critic Charlie Power said late last week."] http://www.thestar.com/ "Fish Talks Head to N.S.," The Calgary Sun, 18 October 1999, 24. ["The man faced with the challenge of resolving a month-long feud over expanded Native fishing rights will visit one of the key Maritime battlegrounds this week. James MacKenzie, recently named lead negotiator by federal Fisheries Minister Herb Dhaliwal, said yesterday he will address the demands of Yarmouth fishermen who want Ottawa to restrict the Native fishery. "The present interim arrangements as they apply or do not apply to the commercial fishers and the aboriginal fishers should be examined as soon as possible to see if ... we can come up with a more acceptable arrangement," MacKenzie said from Ottawa ... MacKenzie, originally from Glace Bay, N.S., is also the federal government's chief negotiator for land claims with the Labrador Inuit."] http://www.canoe.ca/CalgarySun/home.html SEE ALSO: "Fishing Negotiator to Visit Protest Site, Official Will Listen to Non-Native Complaints," The London Free Press, 18 October 1999, A8. http://www.canoe.ca/LondonFreePress/home.html "Hidden graves: ''My lands are where our dead lie buried, Inscription on the Crazy Horse Memorial, South Dakota,'" Copley News Service, 18 October 1999. ["Respect for the burial places of the past is a hallmark of a decent society. Whether it is the desecration of a Jewish cemetery in Berlin, a plan to dig up and relocate graves for expansion of an airport runway in Detroit or making museum displays out of skeletal remains from American Indian burial mounds, there are few issues that foster greater outrage than disrespect for the dead ... and their descendants. Indian groups in Michigan are proposing a state law that would prohibit
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And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: EXCERPTED FROM: "Today's News" webpage: http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/today.htm "Apache Leader Seen in Many Types of Headdresses," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 14 October 1999. ["Fort Cobb, Okla.: The Apache leader Geronimo wore many headdresses and hats and whether one that was offered for sale on the Internet actually was worn by Geronimo would require some documentation, the tribal historian for the Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Oklahoma said Thursday. "Geronimo is a popular name to use to increase the price of things," said tribal historian Michael Darrow. "The name has a great deal of sales power and is often exploited for that purpose." The FBI said Wednesday that it had confiscated an eagle feather headdress last worn by Geronimo in 1907 while he was in custody at Fort Sill, Okla. Officials said the ceremonial headdress was worn by the Indian leader in Collinsville during the last powwow held in Indian territory that later became Oklahoma. Thomas Marciano, 42, of Marietta, Ga., and Leighton Deming, 56, of Suwanee, Ga., were arrested after attempting to finalize the sale of the headdress for $ 1.2 million. Because the elaborate, full-length headdress is made from eagle feathers, it is a crime to sell it under the Migratory Bird Protection Act and the Bald and Gold Eagle Protection Act. The charges carry a maximum penalty of five years in jail and a $ 250,000 fine, FBI spokeswoman Linda Vizi said Wednesday in Philadelphia."] http://www.ap.org/ Armijo, Patrick. "Zuni Lands Nearly $4 Million To Combat Crime," Albuquerque Journal, 14 October 1999, B3. ["Washington: Zuni Pueblo was awarded a $3.97 million Department of Justice grant Wednesday as part of a pilot project aimed at fighting crime and helping crime victims on tribal lands. The grant was part of an $89 million nationwide program called the Indian Country Law Enforcement Initiative announced by Attorney General Janet Reno. "These grants for additional officers, training and facilities will help ensure that all Native Americans living on Indian lands will enjoy the decrease in crime being felt throughout the nation," Reno said at a news conference Wednesday. Nine other New Mexico tribal governments also received grants under the initiative, although the size of Zuni's grant far eclipsed the others."] http://www.abqjournal.com/ Barfield, Chet. "Viejas Inks First Deal In State Between Tribe, Union," The San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 October 1999, C-1. ["Viejas Indian Reservation: The Viejas Indian band and the Communication Workers of America yesterday announced California's first collective bargaining agreement between an Indian tribe and a labor union. The tentative contract with CWA Local 9400 must be ratified by the 500 to 700 Viejas casino service and maintenance employees represented by the union. A vote is expected within a week. The package offers cooks, waitresses, custodians and others with jobs unrelated to gambling a 15 percent increase in wages; bonus incentives; paid leave for sickness, family funerals and jury duty; and binding grievance- arbitration procedures. "We . . . worked very hard to reach an agreement that's mutually beneficial to all parties," Viejas chief executive officer John Winkelman said in a statement. Micheal Hartigan, executive vice president of the Los Angeles-based local, called the agreement "an excellent first contract" and said the employee bargaining committee is unanimously recommending its adoption."] http://www.uniontrib.com/ Bettineski, Lori. "Another Blow to the Shoalwaters: Couple Sues to Get Land Back," The Columbian (Vancouver, WA.), 14 October 1999, A1. ["Ridgefield: The couple who gave the Shoalwater Bay Indians 170 acres east of town is poised to use the courts to try to get the land back. Hank and Bernice Boschma filed a lawsuit in Clark County Superior Court that raises questions that further could cloud the tribe's hopes for a major development at the Ridgefield Junction ... The lawsuit challenges whether the Shoalwaters actually own the acreage, which the tribe is seeking to put into federal trust so it can build a major housing or mixed-use development. Last year, the Boschmas, who live in the northwest Washington town of Everson, signed the land over to the tribe as a gift for "love and affection." State and local officials interpreted that as a donation. But Hank Boschma said in June that he has never spoken to a member of the tribe and all arrangements have been made through developer Tim Sparks, including what will happen if the land isn't taken into trust. Boschma said his deal with Sparks called for the couple to get a share of the profits on any development of the site. If the tribe doesn't develop the property, Boschma said, then they are supposed to put the land back in his name. The lawsuit alleges a deed conveying the property was prematurely and mistakenly executed and recorded, naming the Shoalwater Bay Tribe
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And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: [excerpted from:"Today's News" webpage: http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/today.htm] "Appeals Court Throws Out Oklahoma Tribal Housing Dispute," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 13 October 1999, BC cycle. ["DENVER -- A federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out a dispute over public housing subsidies that was brought by several Oklahoma Indian tribes, ruling the Sac Fox Nation, the Potawatomi Nation and Kickapoo Tribe failed to cite federal grounds for their concerns."] http://www.ap.org/ Auld, Alison. "Non-Indians Charged in Fish-Dispute Vandalism," The Gazette (Montreal), October 13, 1999, A7. ["BURNT CHURCH, N.B. Eighteen charges were laid yesterday in the destruction of hundreds of Indian-set lobster traps in New Brunswick's Miramichi Bay early this month. Terry Boucher, spokesman for the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said an undisclosed number of non-Indian fishermen would be charged with having lobster traps on their boats during a closed season. The RCMP also announced yesterday that 25 people had been charged with 49 Criminal Code offences relating to clashes in northeastern New Brunswick over Indian fishing rights. Burnt Church has been divided along racial lines since a Supreme Court of Canada ruling on Sept. 17 upheld a 1760 treaty that effectively gave Micmac, Maliseet and Passamaquody Indians the right to fish year-round and without licenses."] http://www.montrealgazette.com/ Baca, Kim. "State Law Boosts Tribal Youth Programs," The Santa Fe New Mexican, 13 October 1999, B1. ["ALBUQUERQUE -- New Mexico tribes were encouraged Tuesday to take advantage of a recent revision in a state law that allows them to enter into intergovernmental agreements with the state to get social services for troubled American Indian youth living on reservations. Ada Pecos Melton, president of the American Indian Development Associates, said those working in law enforcement and social services in Indian country requested changes in the state Children's Code after finding deficiencies in tribe's social, mental health and incarceration programs. "As service providers, we couldn't get access to the state's resources," said Melton, who worked as probation officer for Laguna Pueblo, at the Second Annual Native American Juvenile Justice Summit. "What we are saying is that these children are state citizens and they should have access to state resources, and that is what this law is doing.""] http://www.sfnewmexican.com/ Carson, Rob. "Many Takers As Tribe Gives Away Salmon; Number of Returning Fish Much Higher Than Expected," The News Tribune, 13 October 1999, A10. ["The unusually high number of chinook salmon returning to Washington hatcheries this fall has spawned two unusual programs. The Nisqually Indian Tribe has been giving away free fish at its Clear Creek Hatchery on Fort Lewis - a give-away program so plentiful and popular it is attracting lines of 200 to 300 people. And so many fish returned to the state's Voight's Creek Hatchery in Orting that the Puyallup Tribe of Indians has been able to put naturally spawning salmon back in the upper Puyallup River for the first time in 95 years. Bill St. Jean, hatchery biologist at the Clear Creek Hatchery, said he was expecting 10,000 fish but instead got 30,000. Tuesday alone, St. Jean said, hatchery workers recovered about 1 million eggs. This is the fifth year the tribe has offered free salmon, according to Tony Meyer at the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. But this year, Meyer said, the numbers of extra fish are unprecedented."] http://www.tribnet.com/ Graettinger, Diana. "Passamaquoddy Seek Reservation Post Office," Bangor Daily News (Bangor, Maine), 13 October 1999. ["INDIAN TOWNSHIP -- Rain or shine, snow or sleet, the Passamaquoddy people want their post office on the reservation and not in a neighboring town. Saying that it is a matter of American Indian pride, the tribe, through its state representative, Donald Soctomah, plans to appeal to the federal government for help in establishing a community post office on the reservation. At present, tribal members have to cross the bridge that connects Indian Township and Princeton to get their mail at a small post office on Route 1. But if the U.S. Postal Service approved a post office on the reservation, the return address would be Passamaquoddy Community of Indian Township and not Princeton. . . . Soctomah said a petition has been circulated at Indian Township and, to date, more than 200 of the 800 people on the reservation have signed it."] http://www.bangornews.com/ Jones, Lucy. "Greenland Takes Up the Fight for Inuit Hunters; Fairness of Trade Bans On Export of Seal Parts to Be Challenged," The Guardian (London), 13 October 1999, 18. ["Salik Hans used to be a hunter. He never made much money selling fur from the seals he and his family ate but it was enough to buy groceries at the government store in the settlement
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And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: University Project Reveals American Indian History on Internet TheAssociated Press http://www.ap.org/ ATHENS, Ga. -- Rare manuscripts depicting the life of American Indians from 1763 to 1842 will soon be in the domain of ordinary readers under a venture by the University of Georgia and the University of Tennessee to post the documents on the World Wide Web. The collections depict everything from the first contacts of whites and American Indians to the bacon-and-bread rations that defeated natives were given upon being forced from their lands. "Original manuscript material of this type and from this time period generally exists only in paper form, buried within vaults and closed stacks, available only to the persistent researcher," said Bob Henneberger, project head with the University of Georgia's libraries. "Digitization of these materials will provide Web access to a substantially larger audience." The site will display 1,000 or more original documents and pictures, and will centralize collections from Tennessee and the University of Georgia's Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscri! ! pt L ibrary. An Indian Poet Rocks on the Rock The San Francisco http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ "It's always good to go home," says American Indian poet-performer John Trudell about his recent visit to the Santee Sioux reservation in Nebraska, where he was born. "It's strengthening to see your past and know you have someplace to go where you're part of a people." Since the late '80s, Trudell has been creating spoken-word rock 'n' roll to articulate his experiences and the plight of Indians. It's raised a cultural consciousness that's much different from his turbulent political past, one that thrust him into the national limelight 30 years ago as a spokesman for the American Indian Movement ... But it was his role as the voice of the 1969-71 Indians of All Tribes occupation of Alcatraz that brought Trudell to "lefty" prominence, as he broadcast reports from the island live over KPFA with a portable transmitter. To commemorate the event's 30th anniversary, the performer returns with his band on October 23 for a celebration and reunion. Activist veterans are expected, along! ! wit h performers such as comedian Charlie Hill, New Mexico vocal ensemble Ulali and the indigenous punk rocker Arrigon Starr. The anniversary brings attention to an event that reintroduced indigenous people to the American social conscience through "red power" ... During the occupation of Alcatraz, the issues were about land, sovereignty and legal realities. Trudell agrees that establishing a tribal economic base is a good thing, but the struggle is not over. "There have been some positive things that have happened for the tribes, but it's a constant, vigilant fight about protecting what resources we have in terms of land and rights. It has improved to some degree for us as humans. There's not as much political activism coming out of the Native community as there was 25, 30 years ago, but there's much more cultural and artistic work taking place. Dhaliwal Sets Limits for Fishing by Two Bands CBC Newsworld Online http://newsworld.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/go.pl?1999/10/10/fish_dispute991010 Burnt Church, N.B. - The Department of Fisheries and Oceans will enforce a ban on lobster fishing supported by 33 of 35 native bands, and will impose regulations on two other bands who chose last week to keep fishing. But native fishermen in Burnt Church, New Brunswick, say the fisheries minister's rules are unfair. Dhaliwal's rules apply to Burnt Church and to Indian Brook in Nova Scotia. In those places, where native fishermen have voted to keep fishing, Dhaliwal says the DFO will regulate the fishery to comply with conservation standards ... In his speech, Dhaliwal said he hoped all sides would "focus on the long term and not be distracted by the short-term situation." ... DFO officials spent the past several days trying to work out a compromise with the reserve's band council. But native fishermen said they were furious with the latest offer ... But the part of the offer that angered native fishermen was the fact that they would only be allowed 300 lobster traps for the en! ! tire community and they would be restricted to fishing only in the nearby bay. A band council spokesperson says straight dollar compensation was also talked about, but the community wants nothing to do with that idea. Many natives believe the idea of compensation sounds too much like selling their aboriginal rights. Hawaii and Race The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/ The Supreme Court heard arguments last week in the case of Rice v. Cayetano, a constitutional challenge to a voting scheme in Hawaii overtly based on an ethnic criterion ... In other words, one's ability to vote in certain statewide elections in Hawaii is contingent on one's race, though the 15th Amendment to the Constitution
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Excerpted from Victor Rocha's pechanga.net and other sources Assistant Secretary Kevin Gover's Speech to the National Congress of American Indians http://www.pechanga.net/statement_of_assistant_secretary.htm** Must Read ** ~ Tribal Women Honored for Historical Contributions http://www.msnbc.com/local/KMIR/31685.asp As part of a week long gathering of tribal leaders, Native American women got their day in the spotlight Wednesday -- PALM SPRINGS -- Members of the All Women Tribal Council were honored for their contributions to Indian and Erican History. It was under the leadership of this group of women that tribal government rules and regulations were created. ~ Snoqualmie Tribe granted federal status for second time http://flash.oregonlive.com/cgi-bin/or_nview.pl?/home1/wire/AP/Stream-Parsed/OREGON_NEWS/o1103_AM_WA--SnoqualmieTribe -- SEATTLE (AP) -- The struggling Snoqualmie Tribe received word Wednesday of a federal decision in its favor: The Interior Department rejected an appeal and declared the tribe has been granted federal status. It's long overdue, and I think our ancestors are rejoicing with us, said Arlene Ventura, a member of the 1,000-member tribe based in Fall City. The Snoqualmies have been battling for recognition for decades. ~ Nov. 6-7, 1999: California Indian Storytelling Symposium Festival http://www.pechanga.net/california_indian_storytelling_s.htm ~ Agua Caliente land agreement takes Bono by surprise http://www.desertsunonline.com/news/stories/local/939166094.shtml -- Rep. Mary Bono, R-Palm Springs, had strong words to say about a federal and tribal partnership she knew nothing about until Tuesday. U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians(http://www.aguacaliente.org) announced a cooperative agreement to manage 140,000 acres of federal lands in the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountains and designate it as a new national monument. ~ Yakama tribal member's hunting conviction overturned http://flash.oregonlive.com/cgi-bin/or_nview.pl?/home1/wire/AP/Stream-Parsed/OREGON_NEWS/o1108_AM_WA--TribalHunting -- YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -- A state appeals court has overturned the conviction of a Yakama tribal hunter who killed elk near a feeding station off the tribe's reservation. The Court of Appeals' Spokane division ruled a Yakima County Superior Court judge wrongly convicted Joe Young of hunting out of the state's regulated elk season for killing two bull elk in the Nile Valley on Jan. 17, 1996. ~ Lac du Flambeau Tribal Council Election Held http://www.msnbc.com/local/WJFW/5019.asp The secretary, treasurer and Tribal Council were the positions that people had to vote on -- Incumbent secretary Victoria Doud ran unopposed and won convincingly accounting for 481 of the 485 votes. For treasurer, incumbent Rose Ann Mitchell received another term as well. Moving on to the Tribal Council: Glory Allen, Michael W. Allen, and Thomas Wayman, Jr. are successfully re-elected. Mike Christensen, David Diver, Albany Potts, Jr., David Baldy Vetterneck, and Vivian S. Lucy Wolfe become the Tribe s newest council members. ~ Some new leadership for Winnebagos, Santees http://www.journalstar.com/stories/rav/sto8 Two Nebraska tribes elected new leaders recently, with the Winnebagos going to the polls to choose new tribal council members on Tuesday. The Winnebago council has yet to decide on a new chairman. In Santee tribe elections last week, members elected two new council members. The new council voted to keep Arthur Butch Denny as tribal chairman. ~ Tribal representatives offer alternative to bison management plan http://www.trib.com/HOMENEWS/STATE/Bison.html -- LIVINGSTON, Mont. (AP) - A coalition of American Indian tribes is offering an alternative management plan for bison that move into Montana from Yellowstone National Park. They claim it would result in thriving bison herds on reservations across the West. The tribes want the carrying capacity of the park for bison to be determined and then have all excess - healthy - animals shipped to reservations. ~ Indian Activists Band To Block Nuke Waste http://www.detnews.com/1999/metro/9910/07/10070115.htm Uranium-laced shipment will pass through Michigan as it heads north to Canadian reactor -- LANSING -- A Canadian Indian chief whose tribal land has endured nuclear waste dumping for decades joined Michigan activists Tuesday to try to stop a scheduled shipment of plutonium through the state. ~ Sen. McCain promises to champion Indians rights http://www.desertsunonline.com/news/stories/local/939083550.shtml -- Presidential candidate and Arizona Sen. John McCain brought hundreds of American Indians to their feet Monday morning after encouraging them to stay vigilant in the fight for their rights on Capitol Hill. The president of the National
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And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: EXCERPTED FROM A COMPILATION BY "H-AMINDIAN (Andrea Pugsley, J. Wendel Cox)" Allen, Anne Wallace. "Town Officials Unsure How Mascot Controversy Will Be Resolved http://www.ap.org/ MONTPELIER, Vt. -- School district officials have called in help from outside to resolve the question of the Danville school's Indian mascot. In the process, Caledonia Central Supervisory Union Superintendent Chaunce Benedict hopes to use the controversy as a chance to get the whole community talking about respect, fairness, and racial equality. "The question of the mascot brings to the fore a lot of different perspectives and views," Benedict said Wednesday. "We view this as an opportunity that's been given to us to explore how we treat each other respectfully... not just about this issue, but in general how we work in the community to get along." ~ Auld, Alison. "Residents Living Under 'State of Siege': Vandalism, Mistrust Kill Neighbourly Relations," The Ottawa Citizen, 6 October 1999, A3. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/ BURNT CHURCH, N.B. -- Evan Savoy stood in front of his friend's damaged shed yesterday, wondering grimly how relations between native and non- native neighbours could turn so hostile over aboriginal fishing rights. ''We were finally getting along well with the natives,'' Mr. Savoy, 47, a lifelong resident of the area, said after surveying the garage door rammed by a truck in a dispute related to fishing. ''I'm in jail now. The only thing that's missing is the bars ... We're being (held) hostage here in this community. This community did not ask for this. This community did nothing to bother them.'' Tensions remained high yesterday following days of fiery and violent confrontations between native and non-native residents over aboriginal fishing rights granted by a Supreme Court of Canada ruling . . .Yesterday afternoon, a gazebo-like structure on the reserve and used by natives for religious ceremonies was destroyed in a fire the RCMP said was deliberately set. ''They destroyed! ! a c hurch, a place where we came to celebrate our heritage,'' said a reserve resident. A spokesman for the Burnt Church First Nation said the arson has made an already tense situation even worse . . . Some natives say an isolated group of people is likely behind the violence; that most aboriginals are opposed to any confrontations. ''We were getting along until this happened,'' said Anne Dedam, a native fisherwoman from the reserve. ''Now when you drive up to a stop light and see a non-native, you get the finger.'' ~ One Bead at a Time ... Heart of America Indian Center Says It Has Pulled Out of Financial Troubles, Looks to a Bright Future," The Kansas City Star http://www.kcstar.com/ Three years ago the center was drowning in debt and lacking in spirit. Today the Indian Center is in good financial health and looking forward to new prospects. "How we did this was a combination of good deals, good will and a lot of generous donations," said Executive Director Justin Orr, who agreed to take the reins in the dark days after the center was dropped by the Heart of America United Way charitable campaign . . . It was New Year's Eve in 1996 when Orr read in The Kansas City Star that the United Way had suspended the Indian Center from receiving money out of its community charity pool. The center was in debt and in disarray. Orr had been regional director for the Administration for Native Americans within the federal Department of Health and Human Services and was responsible for funding the Indian Center in the 1970s. He also had been a member of the United Way's evaluation committee. Orr offered the Indian Center his help and became its director in March 1997! ! . T hat meant poring through unorganized files, trying to finish an overdue audit, working on a five-year plan, trying to satisfy funding sources - and paying off debt. "It was the most challenging job I've ever had," said Orr, whose ancestry is Snohomish and Cowlitz. ~~~ Charges Dismissed Against Man Accused of Performing Noisy Indian Ritual The Associated Press State http://www.ap.org/ PHARR, Texas -- Police have dismissed charges against a man who neighbors accused of making too much noise during a religious ritual. Gerardo Antonio Castro, a descendant of the Chichimeca Indian tribe, performed a ritual honoring his ancestors Sunday morning. The ritual included drumming. A neighbor across the street called the police, saying Castro was making too much noise. Castro performs other religious rituals in his yard every weekend. When police showed up at Castro's home, Castro said his drumming was not excessive and refused to stop. The officers arrested him . . . Castro said the arrest was the result of a misunderstanding of his religion. ~ "County Says Nez Perce Kept Trust Application Secret http://www.ap.org/ NEZPERCE, Idaho --
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And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: College Has Served State's Indians Through 3 Decades of Adversity Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/ Davis, Calif.- Slowly, in the darkness just before dawn, the small group of young Native Americans crept up to the metal fence surrounding the drab cinder-block Army buildings. The cool November morning in 1970 was foggy, providing even more cover. On cue, they climbed over, surprising the few soldiers left to guard the defunct communications center. The carefully planned "occupation" had succeeded and, in a symbolic exclamation point, the Native American group pitched a tepee. Outside, Chicano supporters cheered. Not exactly the way most schools of higher learning begin ... "We were accused of having guns and training revolutionaries. We were supposedly sending messages overseas to the Soviet Union and China, using the old communications equipment," said Dave Risling, a Hupa Indian from Humboldt County, a DQU founder and now chairman of its Board of Directors. Nearly 30 years later, Deganawidah-Quetzalcoatl University, California's only tribal college, survives. Tempers have ! ! cool ed, replaced by the unglamorous work of building a school from nothing. Few noticed, for example, when the lights went out because DQU could not pay its electric bill ... If the dream of Indian self-determination were the sole criterion for survival, DQU's future would be assured. What the school lacks, and always has, is money--just like the nation's 30 other tribal colleges, the most poorly funded higher education institutions in America. The ongoing financial difficulties have pushed DQU to a perpetual existence on the brink, which shows in the inability to pay competitive salaries, its revolving door of instructors and its deteriorating buildings ... The school may "not be glamorous or architecturally beautiful, but DQ has an honesty and is at peace with nature. We're not going in circles here," said Karla Valenzuela, a 20-year-old from the nearby town of Dixon who is part of a troupe of Aztec dancers ... As part of its evolution, the school, while still cognizant of its C! ! hica no roots, is now entirely controlled by Native Americans, who make up the entire Board of Directors. The parting was generally amicable, both sides say. What has not changed is the school's bleak financial condition. Its $ 2-million annual budget relies mainly on the federal Tribal College Act, which provides only about two-thirds of the amount California provides state community college students. DQU doesn't qualify for state funding ... If the school can hang on, the financial future may be brighter. In 2001, the government will give the school full title to the property, giving DQ the freedom, for example, to sell part of the land to raise money. !~~ Work On Subdivision Halted Upon Discovery of Grave Sites The Providence Journal http://www.projo.com/ Charlestown- Contractors halted work in an area off Ross Hill Road recently after uncovering unrecorded grave sites in an area under development as a 2-lot residential subdivision. Developer Michael Kent, who owns the land, ordered construction to stop immediately and notified the town and the Narragansett Indian tribe after workers found several headstones and footstones last Thursday, said Kent's lawyer, Douglas DeSimone ... John Brown, Narragansett tribal historic-preservation officer, believes the grave sites - which appear to date from the late 100s - may be those of Narragansetts. Indian Leader Says HISD Retreats on Mascot Issue The Houston Chronicle http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/columnists/index.html A local American Indian activist says HISD board President Laurie Bricker promised that the district was going to change its policy regarding the use of Indian-related mascots after reviewing related material earlier this year. Lawrence Sampson, co-founder of the Southeast Texas American Indian Movement, said Bricker told him in May that the mascots with the Indian-related names would change ... "She (Bricker) told me point blank they were changing the mascots," he said. "She told me the decision had been made." However, Bricker, who brought up the mascot issue during last month's board meeting, said she never promised Sampson there was or would be a change. Mascots are a school-based issue, she said. Town Officials May Scrap Overlook Due to Finding Indian Artifacts The Providence Journal-Bulletin http://www.projo.com/ South Kingstown: Town officials may jettison a scenic overlook on the Saugatucket River because a New York company last month found American Indian artifacts on the shore. Town officials had wanted to build an observation deck as part of a $ 700,000 park and path ... According to Joel Klein, senior project manager with John Milner Associates, the river area is probably an American Indian site that predates contact
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And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Hume, Stephen. "Rich Tapestry of Native Memory: Great Houses, Shared Customs, Beliefs and Salmon Defined the Aboriginal Spirit of the Strait of Georgia 1,000 Years Ago, The Vancouver Sun http://www.vancouversun.com/ The Potholes: ... Youngsters have doubtless been plunging into these deep green waters for the last 1,000 years, certainly since long before Europeans ever imagined either a New World and a new ocean beyond it to explore. That's what makes this beautiful spot one of those poignant and often overlooked intersection points in West Coast human history. Not far from here, as abruptly as this generation of kids now drops into the river, the Salish-speaking peoples who have from time immemorial occupied British Columbia's great inland sea first fell into our version of history ... First contact had been made [with the Spanish]. One great chapter of human experience had closed and another had opened, although none of the participants could possibly have imagined what lay ahead ... The Strait of Georgia 1,000 years ago was simply part of what lay within a linguistic and cultural hegemony in which the political and economic landscape was dominated not by nations but, like the landscape of Bronze Age Greece or Ireland, by great houses and by the shared customs and beliefs of their extended kinship groups ... A millennium ago, the hegemony of the Salish peoples over what we call the Strait of Georgia had long been established through the dominance of three similar but distinct groupings ... If these groups shared a common language and cultural traditions, they did not form anything that resembled a country in contemporary terms. Their societies were not so rigidly stratified as those of the coastal peoples to the north. There was plenty of upward mobility for talented people of humble birth and their leaders spoke only for their extended households ... Like their concepts of time and cosmos, habitation was also fluid, with households moving between summer and winter villages to take advantage of available food sources ... Social life was characterized by a series of elaborate ceremonies and rituals surrounding birth, marriage, death and the potlatch, at which men of high status maintained their prestige by demonstrating their wealth and generosity through the frequent distribution of food and goods ... [Because of disease] Ghost villages replaced potlatches, islands in the strait were left uninhabited, house posts rotted into oblivion. The great mortality left a rent that can never be repaired in the fabric of stories and oral traditions from which Salish culture was woven. Whole sub-groups of languages were tipped into extinction. Songs and rituals were forgotten. Yet, the Salish did not vanish. They changed and adapted and their culture has found a new and different vigour. As the old millennium ends, new forms of government assert ancient rights, schools begin to teach the Salish language and the old stories can be read in new books, the winter dances still take place. ~~ Native Fishing Ruling in Peril: Cabinet to Discuss Suspension of Court Decision on 1760 Treaty The Ottawa Citizen http://www.ottawacitizen.com/ The federal cabinet is expected to consider suspending a recent Supreme Court decision that gave East Coast natives unlimited year-round fishing rights when it meets today. If the government goes ahead, the rare step is expected to alleviate increasing tension over fishing rights in Canada's Atlantic waters. The industry in the Maritimes is on the brink of chaos in the wake of the recent high court decision upholding a 1760 aboriginal treaty, said officials for several fishing groups, after meeting with Federal Fisheries Minister Herb Dhaliwal yesterday ... The federal government, fishermen and native groups will be meeting throughout this week ... The Supreme Court's 5-2 ruling gave Mi'kmaq and Maliseets unfettered hunting and fishing rights, when it overturned the 1996 conviction of native Donald Marshall Jr. for fishing eels without a licence. Subsistence Deal Clears House, Measure Bases Priority on Residence Anchorage Daily News http://www.adn.com/ ["Juneau: The House passed a subsistence amendment early Tuesday morning allowing a hunting and fishing preference based on a person's ''place of residence.'' The carefully worded measure was patched together after a day of hearings, caucuses and hallway conversations in groups of twos and threes between legislators, attorneys, commercial fishermen and Native leaders. It is intended to prevent a federal takeover of subsistence fishing across much of Alaska, scheduled to happen Friday. The measure will go to the Senate today, where it faces opposition and an uncertain fate. In the final House debate, legislators on both sides drew from history. Rep. Bill Williams, R-Saxman, said subsistence rights were promised to Alaska Natives when they settled their
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And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: excerpted from Victor Rocha's pechanga.net Gaming News Tuesday, September 28th, 1999 Senate approves Scaled-Down increase for tribal colleges http://www2.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisStory=80959391 -- WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Tim Johnson says he is still hopeful that a House-Senate conference committee will restore the full amount of extra money he sought for tribal colleges. The Senate approved only $1.5 million of the $6.4 million in extra money sought by Johnson, D-S.D. As it stands now, the Senate has budgeted $33.5 million for tribal colleges, up $2.2 million from this year, thanks to Johnson' s efforts and $700, 000 added at the request of Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont. Tribal Colleges Receive $30M -- WASHINGTON (AP) http://www.accessatlanta.com/shared-cgi/stories/show.cgi?id=aponline-menus-data/National.AP.V0788.AP-Indian-Colleges.storyamp;menu=National.html --The Lilly Endowment Inc. is donating $30 million to American Indian tribal colleges to help with construction and renovation of often shabby campuses. The fund planned to announce the gift Tuesday as the kickoff to a $120 million campaign to raise money for improvements at 30 tribal colleges serving 26,000 students in 12 states. The drive thus far has taken in $43 million, including the Lilly gift, said Suzette Brewer, spokeswoman for the American Indian College Fund. Mop-up now beginning on two large wildfires in Eastern Washington http://www.seattletimes.com/news/local/html98/burn_19990927.html -- SPOKANE - Firefighters today were mopping up two Eastern Washington wildfires that blackened about 5,000 acres on the Spokane Indian Reservation and in Chelan County. The 3,000-acre fire on the reservation northwest of Spokane was contained this morning. Containment of the other blaze - a 2,000-acre fire near Omak - was expected later today. Nevada Tribes to receive COPS grants http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/1999/Sep-28-Tue-1999/news/12027515.html -- The Department of Justice has announced it will give more than $1 million to eight law enforcement agencies in Nevada tribal communities to pay for the hiring of seven new officers. The money also will be used to provide training for officers and to purchase supplies in the eight communities, U.S. Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan, both D- Nev., said. CATTARAUGUS INDIAN RESERVATION, N.Y. (AP) In a Sept. 24 story about the firings of four tribal councilors on the Seneca Nation of Indians, The Associated Press reported erroneously that treasurer J.C. Seneca had protested the firings by resigning as treasurer of the Seneca Nation. J.C. Seneca resigned from the Seneca Party, a political party, but did not resign his post as the nation's treasurer. Abenaki Museum developing display about sterilization http://www-messenger.together.com/news/092799_Abenaki_museum.html Facility's aims: spotlight eugenics, unveil injustice -- SWANTON - The Abenaki Tribal Museum plans to place a spotlight on a dark secret from Vermont's past -- eugenics -- an effort to eradicate bloodlines of people deemed inferior. Fred Wiseman, curator of the museum, Thursday provided the Governor's Commission on Native American Affairs with an update about facility plans. The museum, he said, is moving ahead with a display of 1930's era medical instruments, monitors and medicines used in forced sterilization prompted by the racist movement. Sleuths Learn To Hunt Archaeological Criminals http://www.abqjournal.com/news/2news09-27-99.htm -- SANTA FE -- A park ranger spies a man in camouflage carrying what looks like a shovel near an archaeological site. Minutes later a lone mountain biker clad in spandex and a "No Fear" T-shirt leaves the area. The ranger stops the innocuous biker. His hands are covered with dirt. His story doesn't jibe. There's an open gun case in a car back in the National Park Service parking lot. It's not a Tony Hillerman mystery novel. Legal woes beset ballot initiative http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1999/08/25/text/p1s1.html Direct-style democracy is dealt a new blow, as California court rejects another measure -- A california supreme court's decision to overturn the most expensive ballot-initiative campaign in United States' history - an Indian gambling measure approved overwhelmingly by California voters last November - has thrown a spotlight on both the surging popularity and the perils of direct-style citizen democracy. In recent decades, as the percentages of those who vote have declined and frustrations with the political establishment have grown, the use of ballot initiatives has increased dramatically. ** Old Story ** Financier Leaves Trail Of Deception http://www.denverpost.com/business/biz0927a.htm Tribe-Owned Bank Denies Involvement --The bank is owned by the 1,250-member Delaware Tribe, which opened the bank with $5 million in capital from a group of unnamed investors and began accepting
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And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: [excerpted from 9-25/27-99 California Indian Gaming E-News Digest...pechanga.net] Dancing in the street LAURA EMBRY / Union-Tribune http://http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/990926-0010_1m26fairs.html Steven Strongheart Bull of Rapid City, S.D., prepares his bald eagle feathers before a dance performance at the International Friendship Festival on Saturday in El Cajon. San Diego County reveled in music, games and heritage at various festivals over the weekend. California Indian History Rooted In Stories Conference captivated http://www.inlandempireonline.com/news/news3.shtml -- SAN BERNARDINO -- It's a story that spiritual leader "Uncle Louie" Alvarez swears is true, and one that captivated an audience Sunday at California State University, San Bernardino. It was the story of Tahquitz, an American Indian hunter who forsook his tribe because of greed, then started harassing tribal members. NAACP Agrees To Back Indian Cause - (WICHITA) -- The N-double-A-C-P has reversed course and is joining a Wichita dispute surrounding the Indian name of the North High School mascot. For several years, Clem Iron Horse has led the quest to get the high school to change its team name from Redskins. The 55-year-old Wichitan is a Lakota Sioux who grew up on a South Dakota reservation. Two years ago, he put up a Web site that suggested the N-double-A-C-P is a racist organization for ignoring his cause. The tactic worked. The association's president is directing Wichita's local chapter to help Iron Wing. Tribe Sues For Gambling Rights - (OKLAHOMA CITY) -- The Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma wants Governor Frank Keating to allow casino gambling on the tribe's reservation. The tribe is suing after eight years of trying to force the governor to allow Class Three gambling. The state is NOT obligated to allow gambling by the tribe if officials are opposed to the practice. Casino gambling is outlawed in the state of Oklahoma. Tribal Leaders Appeal To Washington - (ARIZONA) -- Tribal leaders at the Tohono O'Odham nation are asking Washington for help. They want federal legislation passed that would let them cross the border with Mexico using tribal identification. They say part of their reservation is in Mexico. Tribal Leaders Prepare For Trial - (SYRACUSE, NY) -- Leaders of the Cayuga Indian tribe are preparing for trial. They are trying to reclaim more than 64-thousand acres of land in Cayuga and Seneca Counties. Negotiators tried to work something out, but couldn't get either side in the claim to budge much. The trial is set for December second. Tribe Buys Bank - (HINCKLEY, MN) -- The Mille Lacs Band of Objibwe is buying the Rural American Bank of Hinckley. The Federal Reserve Bank has given its approval. Tribal officials say this is part of a move to diversify the reservation's economy. It also gives them an opportunity to provide services and capital to other businesses and entrepreneurs on the reservation. Native Americans March In Rapid City - (RAPID CITY) -- The latest in a series of protests by Native Americans concerned with their living conditions in South Dakota brought about one-hundred marchers to Rapid City. The protesters called for equal justice in the courts and an end to racism. Earlier marches were held on the Pine Ridge Reservation and in Mobridge. The group called attention to a pair of unsolved murders on the Pine Ridge Reservation. They say a dual system of justice exists in South Dakota, one for whites and another for Indians. Sunday, September 26th, 1999 National Indian museum hard-Won http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0925.htm -- WASHINGTON - When Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., plunges a shovel into the National Mall on Tuesday morning, he will be helping build what some may describe as a monument to himself. Without the persistent pressure of Campbell and other Indian activists, the National Museum of the American Indian probably still would be on the drawing board. "He was absolutely essential,'' said W. Richard West, a Stanford- and Harvard-educated Native American who will direct the new facility. Aboriginal judge seeking new path to justice http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/stories/990926/2913260.html -- Tony Mandamin is being careful, choosing his words with deliberation, being firm. But somehow, he's still unconvincing when he says he'd rather not discuss his new job. He's slated to be the first aboriginal judge in charge of a groundbreaking court that will meld native and traditional justice for the first time in Alberta. "I'm afraid I'll have to refer you to the chief judge," he says. Then moments later, he calls back. "I have been authorized to give you my resume," he says with, perhaps, just a hint of humour. Canadian Mohawks plan to set up cyber casino http://www.southam.com/calgaryherald/newsnow/cpfs/national/990925/n092507.html -- MONTREAL (CP) - Mohawks on the Kahnawake
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And now:Ish [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Andersen Consulting Selected to Take Interior Department Agency's Systems Into 21st Century Business Wire, 23 September 1999. http://www.businesswire.com/ The U.S. Department of the Interior, at a ceremony today, signed a seven-year contract valued at $ 47 million with Andersen Consulting to transform royalty management for the Department's Minerals Management Service. The two-part project will involve the Minerals Management Service and Andersen Consulting working together to upgrade and enhance the Royalty Management Program's current systems and to realign information technology strategies to better support the program's performance goals. The new system will improve the process of accounting for and disbursing the billions of revenues the government collects from mineral companies extracting minerals from federal and Indian lands ... The Royalty Management Program is responsible for ensuring that revenues from federal and Indian mineral leases are efficiently, effectively and accurately collected, accounted for and disbursed in a timely manner. ~~~ Appeals Court Reinstates Lawsuit by Black Seminoles The Associated Press http://www.ap.org/ Oklahoma City - The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated a lawsuit filed on behalf of 1,500 black Seminole Indians seeking a share in millions of dollars of benefits other Seminoles receive. The Denver appeals court ruled Tuesday that a judge in Oklahoma City erred last year when she dismissed the suit in which black Seminoles said they were being unfairly excluded from a variety of financial benefits. The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs was sued because it refused to grant certificates that would make the black Seminoles eligible for benefits such as housing, education and food assistance. ~~ Clinton Declares 7 N.M. Counties, Indian Reservation Disaster Areas The Associated Press http://www.ap.org/ President Clinton has declared seven counties disaster areas eligible for federal assistance in the wake of devastating summer floods. Gov. Gary Johnson asked Clinton last month to declare parts of New Mexico disaster areas because of July and August floods. And on Wednesday, New Mexico's U.S. senators announced that the White House had declared Dona Ana, Luna, Mora, Rio Arriba, San Juan, Sandoval and Sierra counties eligible for disaster aid. The Mescalero Apache reservation also was declared a disaster area, Sens. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said in separate news releases. As a result of the designations, the federal government will fund 75 percent of the cost of repairing or replacing disaster-damaged public facilities for eligible local governments, the senator said. Powwow to Honor Native Americans The Charleston Gazette, 23 September 1999, D-7. http://www.wvgazette.com/ This weekend, Appalachian American Indians of West Virginia, a state-recognized tribe, will conduct one of its primary cultural events of the year, its annual Homecoming Powwow. Thousands of West Virginians claim to be descendants of Native Americans living throughout West Virginia from the last century. About 4,000 of them have banded together in a formal organization recognized by a West Virginia legislative declaration, and including tribal roll cards and recorded genealogies by a federal legal process to verify bloodlines. Four Directions: A Legacy of Powerlessness Leads to Misuse of Power The Bismarck Tribune Long Feather, Cheryl http://www.ndonline.com/ "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.' -- Lord Acton (1887). Power is one of the aspects of "civilized" society to which American Indian people have had difficulty adapting. Like alcohol, the concept of the power to control others has seduced people into acting contrary to traditional American Indian teachings. Long ago, our ancestors believed in personal power and not the power of kings and monarchs. Indeed, the concept of democracy -- the power of the common man -- came from Native American philosophy. Back then, American Indian leaders led by persuasion and example and not by force or threat. Throughout the years, however, the personal power of the American Indian people was taken from them. The decisions they used to make for themselves -- where to live, where and when to hunt, how to clothe themselves, what language to speak -- were abrogated and made by others. Gradually, treaties limited the areas in which the people were allowed to live and the areas in which they were allowed to hunt ...Today, the legacy of this powerlessness has permeated the reservations. Powerless people believe that they are manipulated by others and that they lack the access to resources to change it. They believe they are being forced or controlled by forces outside of themselves and that they do not have the power to make their own decisions. This sense of powerlessness creates resentment,
NATIVE_NEWS: News Briefs
And now:Ish [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: News Briefs from Victor Rocha's pechanga.net MORE THAN 10,000 GUESTS TO ENJOY FOOD, DANCES, ARTWORK AND CONTESTS AT UPCOMING MORONGO POW-WOW Over $50,000 to be awarded in prizes at ninth annual event -- http://www.pechanga.net/more_than_10.htm MORONGO INDIAN RESERVATION, CA -- Hundreds of the country's top Native American dancers, singers, drummers and artists will convene for this year's ninth annual Thunder and Lightning pow-wow, hosted by the Morongo Band of Mission Indians. For three days - September 24, 25 and 26 - the Morongo Indian reservation will reverberate with the call of tribal drums, as visitors and contestants come together to celebrate the rich history of this country's native heritage. Thunder and Lightning is one of the largest annual pow-wows in California. ~~~ Senator criticizes Babbitt over mismanagement of Indian accounts http://www2.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisStory=80947121 -- WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate' s only American Indian accused the Interior Department of making excuses instead of seriously trying to make amends for mismanaging more than $3 billion of American Indians' money. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, clashed Wednesday with Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt at a hearing on the money issue, saying Babbitt' s department dragged its feet and hindered efforts to correct problems with missing paperwork, lax oversight and poor investments for the Indian funds. " Indians are owed more than promises, and enough is enough, " said the Colorado Republican and member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe. " Indian Country has continued to be asked to wait for their money, and Indians still don' t have their money." Opponents, tribal members split over proposed amphitheater http://flash.oregonlive.com/cgi-bin/or_nview.pl?/home1/wire/AP/Stream-Parsed/OREGON_NEWS/o1926_PM_WA--MuckleshootAmphit -- AUBURN, Wash. (AP) -- Hard feelings were evident as supporters and opponents squared off at a public hearing over an amphitheater project proposed by the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe. About 300 people showed up for Wednesday's hearing, which was the only public chance to comment on the $30 million, 20,000-seat White River Amphitheatre before a final environmental impact report is issued, probably in January. A draft report, released last month, concludes the tribe can adequately reduce the effects of traffic, noise and glare. The amphitheater would be located amid farmland seven miles southeast of downtown Auburn. ~~~ 2 Mescalero Candidates Taken Off Ballot http://www.abqjournal.com/news/5news09-23-99.htm -- LAS CRUCES -- Two candidates previously certified for Tuesday's ballot in the Mescalero Apache tribal presidential primary were removed from the ballot this week in what critics are calling "bad politics" by tribal President Sara Misquez. The names of Ben Martinez, a 28-year-old portfolio manager for Chase Bank of Texas, and Oliver Enjady, a 47-year-old painter and former tribal vice president, were removed from sample primary ballots posted on the reservation Wednesday, Enjady said. Both men had anticipated the development in interviews about the Tribal Council's removal from office Monday of Rufina Laws, chairman of the Election Board overseeing next week's primary. More than 100 Tribes Visit Coachella Valley http://www.msnbc.com/local/KMIR/31332.asp -- PALM SPRINGS More than 100 tribes around the United States are visiting the Coachella Valley this week to learn ways on saving their precious land. The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians is hosting the event to give workshops on estate planning, leasing of Indian land and title management. One tribal member from Arizona claims it s an informational symposium to make sure reservation Indian boundaries remain protected. The 9th annual symposium ends on Thursday. Tribes mistakenly get OK for gambling compacts http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/1999/Sep-23-Thu-1999/business/12006292.html -- SAN DIEGO -- Two Indian tribes mistakenly received legislative approval for gambling compacts with Gov. Gray Davis in the frenzy of last-minute action before the 1999 session ended. In one of its last acts of the session, the Legislature earlier this month hurriedly passed a bill approving gambling compacts with 57 tribes. But two of those tribes had not signed a gambling compact with Davis. Mesa Grande had no intention of putting a casino on its north San Diego County reservation, and Jamul hasn't decided whether to pursue gambling or collect a share of the revenues from other tribes' slot machines. "We were in the midst of a midnight session and getting compacts cranked out that night," said Davis spokeswoman Hilary McLean. ~ Tribes believe cigarette plant will be
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And now:Ish [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Casinos Not Tribes' Cure-All The Deseret News http://www.desnews.com/ Despite the advent of casino-style gambling, most American Indian tribes still need hundreds of millions of dollars more each year to meet their basic needs. Of 166 tribes that had casinos in 1996, 28 lost money and only 54 experienced profits worth more than $10,000 per tribal member, according to a recent report by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Adding gambling proceeds to government subsidies, the tribes still find themselves at the low end of the economic spectrum. American Indian communities have long suffered from poor infrastructure, limited investment and shifting federal policy. Presented with those realities, it was folly to believe that these institutional problems could be overcome by a couple of good years of gambling revenue ... The numbers suggest all of the tribes are underfunded. Taking money from one tribe and giving it to another would seemingly be an attempt to equalize poverty. Such funding shifts could violate the federal government's constitutional and treaty obligations. ~~ Interior Secretary Says Mesa's Ruins Deserve Added Protection http://www.ap.org/ Black Canyon City, Ariz.: Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said Monday that an Arizona plateau rich with prehistoric Indian ruins needs new protections to preserve it from encroaching urban sprawl. "With the future coming at us, I think we have to acknowledge that a well-kept secret can be hidden no longer," said Babbitt, standing on a rock wall that forms part of a bastion overlooking one of Perry Mesa's many canyons. Archaeologists say Perry Mesa was home to thousands of people from roughly 1200 to 1400. Some believe its many ruins were militarily and politically allied fortresses designed to fend off attacks from outsiders ... The federal government already owns most of Perry Mesa, which is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the National Forest Service ... Babbitt said additional protection is needed to focus attention on the area so the public has an opportunity to learn of its history and to help ensure the ruins- most of which have not been studied in depth by archaeologists - are protected. Phoenix is only about 30 miles to the south, and new development is closer than that, Babbitt noted. Though making the area into a national park is a possibility, the more realistic options are to make it a national monument or designating it as a national conservation area, Babbitt said. Indian Tribes Fear Handling Sacred Remains The Associated Press http://www.ap.org/ Tulsa, Okla.: The return of human remains and buried objects to American Indian tribes and nations is a mixed blessing, several tribal officials say. Indians have long maintained their right to rebury their ancestors and burial objects that have sat in museums and in university collections for, in some cases, longer than a century. The tribes were granted the ability to reclaim remains and objects in the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act ... However, some items in museum collections have placed tribal members in a quandary because they are so sacred some fear just handling the objects will cause spiritual disturbances. "We have what we call sacred bundles that were, you might say, big, strong medicine. And those things, we believe, had a lot of power at one time. No one knows how to use those sacred bundles anymore," said Francis Morris, repatriation coordinator for the Pawnee Nation ... "We don't know whether they ought to be buried or be kept. No one knows anything about them anymore," he said. "We can't use them and they may cause bad luck. We don't know what we are going to do with those things." Morris said the Pawnee Nation is seeking the return from the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C., of nine skulls of Pawnee scouts who worked for the U.S. Army. The scouts were beheaded in Kansas as they were awaiting discharge from their service, after the U.S. surgeon general put out a bounty of $ 50 a head for Indian skulls so he could study them. ~~~ Conference Highlights Intricacy of Indian Law Bangor Daily News http://www.bangornews.com/ Rockport: Decades after the landmark court decisions established the sovereignty of Indian tribal government, the battles continue. Conflicts between labor laws and unions, the status of non-American Indian businesses operating on reservations, and Indian hiring preferences often drive federal law and tribal sovereignty together like a square peg into a round hole, attorneys specializing in Indian affairs say. These issues and others were explored Friday by attorneys representing tribes from around the country at the Indian Law Conference at the Samoset Resort. One of the featured speakers, 1996 Green Party vice presidential candidate Winona LaDuke, a member of the Chippewa tribe in Minnesota, related the battle for
NATIVE_NEWS: NEWS BRIEFS
And now:Ish [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: American Indian population increases 16.6 percent over eight years http://www.minorities-jb.com/native/apnews/napop0915.html The American Indian population in South Dakota grew 16.6 percent from 1990 to 1998, slightly higher than the increase nationwide, the U.S. Census Bureau said. ~~ Cherokee administration seeks $6 million http://www.minorities-jb.com/native/apnews/naseek0915.html The Cherokee Nation's tribal council has given Chief Chad Smith authority to spend $6 million to cover expenses through Sept. 30, the end of the tribe's fiscal year. ~ Teen agrees to leave reservation and face state murder charge http://www.minorities-jb.com/native/apnews/nateen0915.html Holland Redstar, arrested last week on the Crow Indian Reservation, agreed Monday to return to Yellowstone County and face charges that he murdered a Billings man last month. Redstar, 17, appeared in Crow Tribal Court and waived his extradition to Billings, said tribal attorney Sam Painter. According to tribal court rules, the hearing was closed because of Redstar's age. ~ Horseback trek from Georgia to Alaska honors Indians http://www.minorities-jb.com/native/apnews/natrek0914.html Sam Blackwolf believes riding a horse 4,700 miles from the mountains of northwest Georgia to Alaska will bring attention to his Indian heritage and the sad treatment his ancestors received. Blackwolf and his 4-year-old quarter horse, Spirit, will arrive in Cleveland, Tenn., on Monday or Tuesday and turn north on Interstate 75. Deputy sheriff severely beaten during traffic stop http://www.minorities-jb.com/native/apnews/nabeating0913.html A Lake County sheriff's deputy was hospitalized in Missoula early Saturday after being severely beaten during a traffic stop near Ronan. Deputy Larry Kirby suffered broken facial bones and a broken right ankle, said Lake County Sheriff Bill Barron. "When he got to the hospital we could barely recognize him," Barron said. Matthew Courville, 20, of Ronan, was jailed on charges of assaulting a peace officer with serious bodily injury, Barron said. The beating occurred about 1 a.m. Saturday when Kirby and Salish and Kootenai tribal police were called to investigate "kids partying" near a bridge west of Ronan, the sheriff said. Baby's skull turns out to be 7,500 years old http://www.minorities-jb.com/native/apnews/naskull0913.html A baby's skull found by three 13-year-old boys turned up the oldest sign of human settlement in Louisiana. Carbon found with the child's other bones was 7,500 years old _ two millennia older than the site that displaced Poverty Point as the oldest mound complex in North America. [see links for complete stories] Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/
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And now:Ish [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Group's Purchase Will Lead To Expansion of Effigy Mounds http://www.ap.org/ HARPERS FERRY, Iowa -- A conservation group has agreed to purchase more than 1,000 acres of land adjoining Effigy Mounds National Monument in northeast Iowa, with plans to sell it to the government for expansion of the monument site. The so-called Kistler-Ferguson tract includes ceremonial mounds built by prehistoric American Indians, the first known sawmill in Iowa and a variety of rare plant and animal life, according to Effigy Mounds Superintendent Kate Miller. . . . Acquiring the heavily wooded land is consistent with the National Park Service's long-term plans for protecting Effigy Mounds and helping the public understand the cultures that lived there between 450 B.C. and A.D. 1300, Miller said. !~ Indian Firefighter Charges Harassment On The Job http://www.ap.org/ CHICAGO -- A Chicago firefighter sued the city Monday, charging that he was a victim of harassment ranging from obscene name-calling to vomit placed in his helmet because he is an American Indian. Robert Nole asked for unspecified monetary damages and a court order to force an end to such practices. The suit accuses the city, four firefighters, three supervisors and Commissioner Robert Altman of engaging in "a pattern of racially motivated harassment, physical torture and psychological abuse." City spokesman John Camper said officials would have no comment on the suit "until our lawyers have a chance to look at it." ~~ Statue's Future Debated Lincoln County officials and citizens are split over what to do with the Sioux Lookout Indian http://www.omaha.com/OWH/ North Platte, Neb. -- It seems everyone around here wants a piece of the Sioux Lookout Indian. However, few are sure what to do with the whole 2,700 pounds of him. The statue stood guard for 67 years atop a prominent hill south of town, watching the Platte River Valley as Indians once spied on wagon trains. Generations of residents climbed up to visit him, marvel at him - or chip away at him and shoot guns at him. Lincoln County road crews brought the stone sculpture down for repairs in June 1998 after years of debate. Restoration is nearing completion, but people are still arguing: Should he go back to Sioux Lookout? If not there, where should he be placed? Many want him back on the hill, but the hill's owner doesn't. County commissioners plan to put him temporarily on the North Platte courthouse lawn, but a North Platte man vows to raise a ruckus until the Indian becomes part of the Wild West Memorial dedicated last year at the city's Cody Park. . . . The 8-foot-tall American Indian statue was installed in 1931 in memory of the Indians and pioneers who passed through the area. Sculptor Ervin Goeller also did one of the sculptures at the State Capitol in Lincoln, completed just a year later. . . . Some say the Indian shouldn't remain a local secret. Ideas have included nominating Sioux Lookout for the National Register of Historic Places and displaying the Indian in front of the Lincoln County Historical Museum, on the road to Cody's Scouts Rest Ranch. Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/
NATIVE_NEWS: NEWS BRIEFS
And now:Ish [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: "Youth Arrested in Firebombing of Reservation School," http://www.ap.org/ MAHNOMEN, Minn. -- A 16-year-old has been arrested in the firebombing of the elementary school in Naytahwaush on the White Earth Indian Reservation, authorities said . . . The fire started Aug. 8 when a beer bottle filled with fuel oil was thrown through a window at the school. It did an estimated $ 5,000 in damage to the school's computer laboratory. ~~~ Lazarus, Edward. "How the West Was Really Won reviews of The Earth Shall Weep, A History of Native America by James Wilson; "Exterminate Them": Written Accounts of the Murder, Rape, and Enslavement Of Native Americans During the California Gold Rush, ed. by Clifford Trafzer and Joel R. Hyer; and Crazy Horse, by Larry McMurtry," http://www.latimes.com/ Thirty years ago, in a time of national soul-searching as Americans suffered through a bloody war in Asia and assassinations and civil strife at home, Dee Brown's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" unleashed a torrent of guilt over the sins of the country's domestic conquests. A generation later, amid prosperity at home and a pax Americana abroad, introspection about the victims of our own empire building is largely a forsaken endeavor. More than a century removed from the last battle of the so-called Indian Wars, Americans seem to have lost sight again of the decades when cruelty, benevolence and misunderstanding mixed as white settlers pushed across the continent. Forgotten too are the origins of the policies that now govern U.S. relations with the tribes, the rights and responsibilities of both the conqueror and the conquered and the human figures--brave, farsighted, cruel, foolish or venal--who shaped our shared past . . . To their credit, the authors of " 'Exterminate Them'," "The Earth Shall Weep" and "Crazy Horse" have sought to re-excavate this history, and each volume--one general history, one collection of original sources and one biography--makes a distinct contribution. Yet with the exception of Larry McMurtry's exquisite short biography of the great Sioux war leader Crazy Horse, these works are significantly flawed. Though McMurtry wisely lets a tragic and still meaningful story speak for itself, James Wilson and editors Clifford Trafzer and Joel Hyer insist on imposing on their materials a shrill attack on all of Western culture, abandoning nuance and historical perspective in favor of the kind of stereotyping against whites that they decry when the objects are Indians. ~~ Yardley, Jim. "After Years of Division, Cherokees Get New Leader," http://www.nytimes.com/ As a member of the Cherokee Nation and a student of its history, Chad Smith need only look to his family tree to find a famed leader of his tribe. Redbird Smith, his great-grandfather, was a patriot who went to prison rather than accept the Federal policy that deprived the Cherokees of millions of acres. A century later, Mr. Smith will take office on Saturday as the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, and, like his great-grandfather, who served in the Cherokee Senate, he is assuming leadership at a time of crisis. For the last four years, the Cherokees have engaged in political infighting so bitter that it almost undermined their constitution and ultimately led to intervention by the Federal Government. Asked about the priorities of his administration, Mr. Smith, a 48-year-old lawyer from the Tulsa suburbs, replied simply, "Healing." With an estimated 200,000 members, half of whom live here in northeastern Oklahoma, the Cherokees are the country's second-largest tribe, behind the Navajos. And they have enjoyed a degree of prosperity and autonomy that has made them a model to other tribes. Now Mr. Smith must restore confidence in the tribal government not only among Cherokees but also among Federal officials, who stepped in two years ago at the height of the tribe's crisis, after members brawled outside the tribal courthouse. "It's extremely important that the tribe come back together, and I think it will," said Rennard Strickland, dean of the University of Oregon School of Law, who is half-Cherokee and has written five books about the tribe. "The Cherokees have a very long history of being able to heal these kinds of tribal divisions. It has been a long 100 years." . . . The challenges facing Mr. Smith and his new administration are formidable. The Cherokees, who have no reservation per se but exercise certain jurisdictional rights in 14 northeastern Oklahoma counties under agreements with the state and Federal governments, operate on an annual budget of $150 million, about $90 million of it from Washington. But the Government, having found a lack of accountability in the use of Federal money, has placed the tribe under a monthly draw for those grants, rather than yearly. Chief Byrd himself also faces misappropriation-of-funds charges brought by tribal prosecutors. In an
NATIVE_NEWS: NEWS BRIEFS
And now:Ish [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: "Graves Meets with Haskell Officials on Trafficway Project," http://www.ap.org/ The president of the Haskell Indian Nations University Board of Regents was encouraged after a meeting with Gov. Bill Graves on completion of the South Lawrence Trafficway. "It was more than I knew before," said Mamie Rupnicki of what she learned in a three-hour meeting this week with Graves and other parties involved with the project. A similar presentation is scheduled Oct. 8 before the entire Haskell Board of Regents. Haskell officials oppose completion of the loop highway as planned because it would run close to the campus, to Indian spiritual grounds and to the Baker Wetlands. ~~ Gregg, B.G. "Tribe Split Over Who Runs Casino: Winner of Standoff Will Control Soaring Eagle in Mt. Pleasant," http://www.detnews.com/ MT. PLEASANT -- Two factions of the tribe that runs the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort clashed Wednesday over control of the gambling facility. Eight members of a Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe council, placed into power by the federal government this week, remained locked Wednesday night inside tribal offices. Members of the ousted council, which has lost the last four tribal elections, were unable to enter because locks at the one-story office building had been changed. Ronald Jackson, a spokesman for those who locked themselves inside, said the group is determined to assume posts that the federal government says belong to them. Casino operations were not affected by the standoff, which began Tuesday, officials said. "It has been business as usual," said Bill Masterson, Soaring Eagle spokesman, who added that no one wants to close the casino. "Indictments Could Come in White Earth Investigation," http://www.ap.org/ MAHNOMEN, Minn. -- Federal indictments could be handed down after a three-year investigation into allegations of fraud in the housing program on the White Earth Indian Reservation. Current tribal government officials say millions of dollars intended for housing were misappropriated during the administration of Darrell "Chip" Wadena. Wadena, who in December finished a two-year federal prison sentence for corruption, denies the allegations. John Buckanaga, chairman of the White Earth tribe, said 50 houses could have been built with the $ 4.5 million that was allegedly misused. "Judge Considers Environmental Review of Site Where Ancient Bones Found," http://www.ap.org/ SANTA ANA, Calif. -- The discovery of 8,000-year-old bones at a six-acre construction site that some claim is an American Indian burial ground could lead to an environmental review delaying the Bolsa Chica wetlands development. Orange County Superior Court Judge William McDonald decided Wednesday to schedule a Sept. 8 hearing to determine if the Huntington Beach site requires a full review. In the meantime, the developer is prohibited from building anything except a perimeter wall until the next hearing. ~ "Muckleshoots Set Nets For Chinook," http://www.seattletimes.com/ Against a backdrop of downtown Seattle lights, Muckleshoot tribal fishermen aboard a gill-netter wait to set their nets in Elliott Bay last night during a 12-hour chinook-salmon fishery declared by the tribe. The action was criticized by sports fishermen who complained that net fishing will further harm depleted salmon runs in the lower Green River. The Muckleshoots and other tribes have a treaty right to take fish in "usual and accustomed places" such as Elliott Bay, where they have fished for centuries. ~~ Pickler, Nedra. "Ousted Tribal Council Still Vowing to Regain Power," http://www.ap.org/ MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe police stood guard outside tribal headquarters for a third day Thursday, hoping to ward off a confrontation between recently expelled council members and their replacements. The dispute boiled over late Tuesday when the U.S. Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs recognized a new governing tribal council. BIA officials said the ousted tribal leadership lost four elections starting in 1997, yet refused to step down. That forced the U.S. government to take the rare step of intervening to recognize the new tribal government . . . About 100 people backing the ousted council camped anxiously outside while their leaders discussed plans for a return to power. The group maintains that, although the federal government recognized the new council, the ousted council still has jurisdiction over most tribal matters, including the casino. But officials at The National Indian Gaming Commission, which regulates Indian gaming, said! ! Thu rsday that they also recognize the new tribal council in their dealings with the tribe and its casino. The tribe's Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort is a huge source of income for the wealthy tribe, which makes more than $ 200
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And now:Ish [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Anderson, Peggy. "9th Circuit Panel Hears Challenge to Montana Redistricting Opinion," http://www.ap.org/ SEATTLE -- A three-judge appeals-court panel heard arguments Monday on a challenge to a federal ruling last year that concluded a redrawing of Montana's legislative districts did not discriminate against Indian voters. The 1992 redistricting, based on the 1990 census, created one new Indian-majority district, for a total of six. The American Civil Liberties Union, which sued on behalf of members of the Blackfeet and Flathead tribes, contended three new Indian-majority districts should have been created. ACLU attorney Laughlin McDonald told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel that while some white candidates supported by Indians had won election in the two contested districts, Indian candidates were consistently defeated. Assistant Montana Attorney General Sarah Bond countered that those results occurred in elections where nearly one-third of Indian voters - and more than one-third of white voters - crossed over to vote with the "other" side. That does not suggest white! ! -blo c voting that undermines Indian candidates or issues, Bond said. Other factors, such as low voter turnout, also come into play, she said. The commission did not undermine any existing Indian-majority districts, and in fact enhanced the voting strength of the Indian voting-age population, she said. McDonald stressed that there is no magic threshold figure for the percentage of white-bloc votes that can be considered to undermine minority voting rights. The judges - William C. Canby, Melvin Brunetti and Diarmuid O'Scannlain - took the appeal under advisement. Brunetti called it a "very interesting and very difficult case." ~ "Archaeologist Hopes For Better Understanding," http://www.desmoinesregister.com/ SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- Archaeologists interpret history through artifacts dug from the earth, while American Indians often rely on stories passed down through generations. If both groups worked together, suggests archaeologist Larry Zimmerman, "both would have a much wider perspective on how the past happened." Zimmerman, chairman of the American Indian and Native Studies Program at the University of Iowa, invited 13 archaeology students from across the country to learn about the tribal perspective this summer at the Loess Hills of western Iowa . . . Zimmerman had wanted to organize a field school for years . . . "I think this is something that people should have done years ago," said Dawn Makes Strong Move, an official with the Ho-Chunk Nation in Wisconsin . . . Zimmerman understands. "Archaeology was part of American colonialism, pure and simple," he said. "It was just used as another way to get their land from them." For too long, he said, researchers uncovered and examined American Indian artifacts without regard to tribal customs or oral histories. "The minute you start seeing Indian people as part of the contemporary world, you start changing how you see archaeology." Zimmerman said he hopes the coursework in western Iowa will open dialogue. "I'm trying to get the students to understand that Indian people want to control their past," he said. "They've almost had their past forced down their throats."" SEE ALSO: Fuson, Ken. "Archeologist Digs for Understanding[;] A U of I Archeologist Wants to Improve Relations Between Native Americans and Those In His Field," ~~~ "Editorials: Casino Offers Poor Odds; Education and Job Training Help From The State Would Provide Better Solutions for Hancock County," http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/ So Gov. Roy Barnes won't offer any active resistance to an American Indian tribe's proposal to build a casino-resort in Middle Georgia. That's a letdown. To be sure, the governor says he still is personally opposed to casino gambling and will speak out against it if asked to comment during any official approval process, which is under the authority of the federal government. Just the same, he needs to send a stronger signal than merely holding his nose. Georgia is surrounded by states that either aspire to emulate our state's success with its lottery and/or have even more high-stakes games of chance as revenue producers. Isn't the region becoming saturated with Indian and non-Indian casinos, video poker parlors and parimutuel tracks? Isn't it time for someone in authority to stand up and shout enough? ~~~ Greenberg, Brigitte. "Group Revels in Small Triumph as Fight Continues," http://www.ap.org/ NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A Connecticut Indian tribe hoping to emulate the casino-fueled successes of two other tribes is celebrating a victory in its continuing struggle with the state. The grand prize for the Golden Hill Paugussetts would be federal recognition, an imprimatur that would lend greater legitimacy to the small band and clear the way for them to
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And now:Ish [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Britt, Donna. "Bridging a Rift In 2 Cultures," The Washington Post, August 6, 1999, B01. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ Last week, about 250 of the Buffalo Soldiers' 1,000 members gathered in Portland, Ore., for the group's annual reunion. Celebrants attended workshops, rode in mounted parades and swayed to Dixieland jazz played in honor of New Orleans-born Buffalo Soldier Moses Williams, a Medal of Honor recipient who died 100 years ago. Among honored guests on the dais and in color guard presentations were members of the Northwest Indian Veterans Association. If you don't see the irony in Native American veterans celebrating with the nation's oldest black veterans' association, you're like many Americans: clueless about the controversial history that links, and separates, the groups . . . "My people were massacred," said Eulynda Benalli, of Albuquerque, her face framed by long, night-colored hair. "It's not okay to justify what happened to us." She was speaking at Unity '99, last month's joint convention of the national associations for black, Latino, Asian and Native American journalists in ! ! Seat tle. The panel, "Rashomon Effect: Conflicting Truths on the Buffalo Soldiers," explored how the celebrated black cavalrymen came to be viewed as dashing heroes by African Americans and as murderers by some Indians. The panel was fascinating, partly because of the warmth shared by audience members, whose histories would seem to put them at odds. "People didn't want to argue," moderator Frank del Olmo recalls. "They wanted to understand each other's point of view." How fitting for a panel whose title--from Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa's classic about a crime viewed differently by four witnesses--suggested how relative truth is, even when the facts are undisputed . . . Panelist Jodi Rave, a Mandan-Hidatsa Indian, was an intern pursuing an article about the Buffalo Soldiers for the Minneapolis Star Tribune when she learned of some Native Americans' abiding resentment. Asked one: Why glorify a group "when what they did was kill native people?" Suddenly, Rave discovered, "I! ! had a very conflicting story." . . . Of course, some Indians resent that men "who'd just gotten their freedom in one of [America's] bloodiest wars ever . . . turned around and were sent to the plains to take away another people's freedom," Rave said recently. "But we've all experienced atrocities at the hands of the U.S. government." As a native person and a journalist, she added, the most important thing "is that these stories, good and bad, get told." And that people be open to hearing them. Rave's most satisfying moment on the panel occurred afterward, when journalists crowded around to thank her. "Most of them," she marvels now, "were African American. Brooks, Diane. "Tulalips Challenge Monroe Growth -- Tribes Say Salmon at Risk," The Seattle Times, August 06, 1999, B1. http://www.seattletimes.com/ The Tulalip Tribes have taken up the fight against Monroe's growth plan for the Milwaukee Hill area above the city, filing a complaint with a state growth-management board. "We're trying to deal with rapid development and its impacts on salmon, water quality and water quantity," said Terry Williams, the Tulalips' fisheries director. That growth has been "fairly horrendous in its impacts to the Snohomish River basin," he said. Monroe lies on the edge of the Skykomish River, which flows into the Snohomish. The Tulalips claim treaty fishing rights in the entire drainage basin. The Tulalips recently filed a petition with the Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board, asking whether Monroe's plans for a 600-acre upland area north of Highway 2 would protect salmon streams, wetlands and steep slopes. Monroe expects 1,100 to 1,200 homes eventually to be built in that 600-acre area, under zoning rules that allow four units per acre, excluding sensitive lands. ~ "Court Gives Indians Standing to Sue Over Road Project," The Associated Press State Local Wire, August 6, 1999, Friday, PM cycle. http://www.ap.org/ FRANKLIN, Tenn. -- Indians rejoiced after a judge in Williamson County again agreed to give them standing to fight a state road project in court . . .The group is seeking to block the project near the intersection of Hillsboro Road and Old Hickory Boulevard. The 800-year-old remains of two Indian infants were unearthed there earlier this year. ~~~ Graettinger, Diane. "Festival Today to Celebrate Tribal Culture," Bangor Daily News (Bangor, Maine), August 6, 1999. http://www.bangornews.com/ PLEASANT POINT -- The Passamaquoddy Tribe this weekend will celebrate the richness of its culture through music and dance at the third annual Sipayik Indian Day Celebration. According to the tentative schedule, festivities will begin at noon today with the arrival of warrior canoeists from Indian
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And now:Ish [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Barfield, Chet. "Cal Living: Farming Family Shows Indian Reservation Children How Things Were," The Associated Press State Local Wire, August 4, 1999, Wednesday, BC cycle. LAKESIDE, Calif. -- On three acres of rich, brown soil, Leonard Banegas is nurturing corn, tomatoes, strawberries and a precious connection to his tribe's Kumeyaay ancestors. The community garden Banegas has supervised since its planting six years ago is unnoticed by most of those streaming past to the nearby Barona Casino. But under its open-air canopy there are always plenty of cucumbers, squash or other picks of the day to be given away to anyone who stops by. And at certain times, when the pumpkins are ripe, when the watermelons are plump or, as this week, when the strawberries are red and sweet, the rows are teeming with children. This is when Banegas and his wife, Frances, share what they consider the garden's most important yield: lessons to the children about how things grow, how things are and how things used to be. "This was our culture many years ago," says Leonard Banegas, whose John Deere cap is adorned with a hawk feather. "I think (by seeing this) the younger generations that are growing up will understand something about their own history." Today the casino provides plenty of money for everyone here to live comfortably and eat well. But life here used to be different, as 59-year-old Banegas knows. http://www.ap.org/ "BIA Approves Landfill on Nambe Pueblo Land," The Associated Press State Local Wire, August 4, 1999, Wednesday, BC cycle. NAMBE PUEBLO, N.M. -- A U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs' environmental study recommends approval of Nambe Pueblo's plan to open a 42-acre landfill on its land despite the objections of federal and state regulators... The pueblo intends to contract with a private Albuquerque company to manage the landfill... State officials say there is no way to enforce environmental regulations against the landfill since the pueblo is considered a sovereign nation. "Obviously, there is no consensus on exactly how a solid-waste facility on Nambe Pueblo land could be or would be regulated," said Peter Maggiore, secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department. State regulators and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also are worried about water pollution and traffic safety problems that could be caused by the landfill. http://www.ap.org/ ~~~ "Big Piney Residents Try to Protect Indian Fort," The Associated Press State Local Wire, August 4, 1999, Wednesday, BC cycle. BIG PINEY, Wyo. -- A western Wyoming gravel pit that area residents fear threatens a nearby prehistoric Indian site should be shut down this fall or next year, U.S. Forest Service officials say. "The extent of our work up there is pretty much done," Big Piney District Ranger Greg Clark said. He said operations would be shut down more quickly if archaeological studies warrant... The pit, about 35 miles west of Big Piney and just east of the Sacajawea campgrounds, is next to a site known locally as the Indian Fort. It contains an old mountain trail used by early tribes, several fire and hunting rings and many wall-encircled pits that the Shoshone used much as modern day soldiers use foxholes on the battlefield, resident Stu Doty said. Doty said the Indian Fort is "a very significant site, with a lot of history certainly worth protecting. We need to stop this gravel operation and reclaim this site before further damage is done. http://www.ap.org/ ~ Cart. Julie. "Newton's Apple; A Guide to How, What and Where; Chaco Phenomenon Puzzles Archaeologists," Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), August 4, 1999, A12. Chaco Culture National Historic Park, snuggled into rugged, undulating terrain, contains 4,000 archaeological sites. The society of the canyon was unremarkable until the mid-ninth century, when a stunning transformation that archaeologists refer to as the Chaco Phenomenon occurred: The small pueblos were enlarged and became dozens of Great Houses, several with as many as hundreds of rooms, multiple stories and scores of sunken circular kivas, used for religious observances. The largest and oldest is Pueblo Bonito, which contains more than 600 rooms and 40 kivas About 200,000 wooden beams for building the Great Houses were carried _ not dragged or pulled by animals _ from forests two days' march away. The masonry work is all the more remarkable considering that no metal tools were used to construct the thick, soaring walls. The settlement was, until the mid-18th century, the site of the largest structures in North America...To some, the Great Houses are symbols of cultural advancement; others sees fortresses, built during the culture's most violent times. To archaeologists sifting through the clues left behind centuries ago, the Great Houses are a mystery that they eventually hope to solve. http://www.startribune.com/
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And now:Ish [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Greenspan, Elizabeth. "Hohokam Halt Wal-Mart Plan; Coolidge Site May Hold Relics," The Arizona Republic, August 2, 1999, B1. Five hundred years after their disappearance, the Hohokam Indians are involved in a 20th century land battle - this time against economic growth. Construction of a Wal-Mart store in Coolidge, scheduled to begin in May, has been put on hold while company officials sort out claims by archaeologists that the land contains valuable Hohokam artifacts. Wal-Mart's 35-acre plot lies across a highway from the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, the oldest archaeological reserve in the country and the only national monument of the Hohokam Tribe. "From an archaeological standpoint, it would be hard to pick a worse spot to build on in Arizona," said Keith Kintigh, an anthropology professor at Arizona State University who also is president of the Society for American Archaeology. The ruins date back to A.D. 1250 and are part of a critical Hohokam period, Kintigh said. http://www.azcentral.com/ ~~ "Enrollment Surge Offers Hope at Haskell Indian Nations U.," The Associated Press State Local Wire, August 2, 1999, Monday, AM cycle. LAWRENCE, Kan. -- For a university struggling to keep new students and hold its own in the shadow of the Jayhawk, recent enrollment surges at Haskell Indian Nations are welcome news to school officials. The addition of four-year degree programs has propelled the growth. About 1,050 students from more than 140 tribes and 38 states are expected to enroll at the school, up from 898 students last fall. How many of those actually stay remains to be seen, as money and student retention problems persist at Haskell . . . "One of the ironies is that funding is based on historical numbers, not enrollment," said Haskell administrative officer Marv Buzzard. More disturbing may be that Haskell is currently losing 35 to 40 percent of its students during their first semester. Another 12 to 15 percent quit during their second semester, said counseling director Benny Smith. A retention plan is in the works, but various factors are complicating those efforts. Haskell draws most of its student! ! s fr om smaller high schools and rural areas, but increasingly young American Indian students are less aware of their native cultures. Full-blooded, native-speaking students were always the minority at Haskell, and now they are even rarer. http://www.ap.org/ Hendee, David. "After a Century, Ghost Dance Shirt Comes Home Sioux Honor Return of a Relic Ghost Shirt's History," Omaha World-Herald, August 2, 1999, 1. Wounded Knee, S.D. -- A sacred cotton shirt - plundered from the body of an Indian warrior on a frozen battleground more than a century ago - was returned Sunday in a solemn ceremony of Sioux prayers and wailing Scottish bagpipes. On hallowed ground cleansed by a cold morning rain, the afternoon-long ceremony marked the homecoming of a Sioux artifact that was on display in the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow, Scotland, for more than 100 years . . . Sunday's ceremony at the site of a mass grave dug in the battleground for unknown dozens of victims of the massacre marked the end of a seven-year effort to return the shirt to the Sioux in South Dakota. About 200 people attended the ceremony. (7) After 28 descendants of Wounded Knee victims joined Zack Bear Shield in prayer at a granite monument to the dead and Goldie Iron Hawk sprinkled tobacco - a spiritual food - on the graves from a wooden bowl, a hawk appeared and soared high above the hushed hillside. Marcella LeBeau, a Sioux w! ! ho w orked with Earl on the return, said her people's spirit was broken that fateful day at Wounded Knee. "This will bring about a sense of closure to a sad and horrible massacre in the history of the Lakota Nation," she said. "Now, healing can begin." http://www.omaha.com/OWH/ ~ Kennedy, Kelly. "Through Ignorance, Unearthing Trouble; Amateur 'Archaeologists' Destroy Link to Past During Illegal Dig, Dig Destroys a Link to Region's History" The Salt Lake Tribune, August 2, 1999, A1. GLEN CANYON NATIONAL RECREATION AREA -- On a 15-foot-wide overhang in Lake Powell's Forgotten Canyon, a 900-year-old twig roof clings to its structure at Crumbling Kiva Ruin. Traces of pictographs gaze down on the tiny site -- a reminder of the ancient people who may have used this place for worship. "Now imagine 30 kids with shovels and toothbrushes," interjects park services investigator Jim Houseman. On April 1, 1994, an Idaho middle-school teacher took his Kellogg Archaeology Society club to the site to pique an interest in history. Unfortunately, he didn't check the rules first. Teacher David Dose agreed to a pretrial diversion in Salt Lake City's U.S. District Court in May after violating the Archaeological Resources Protection Act. Investigators say his class dug without a permit and excavated,
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And now:Ish [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Excerpts from: http://www.minorities-jb.com/native/apnews/newsframe.html [see the above URL for other stories and updates] Hagel has full confidence in FBI's Whiteclay investigation Senator Chuck Hagel said Friday he has full confidence that the FBI is properly investigating the deaths of two American Indians near Whiteclay. The bodies of Wilson Black Elk Jr. and Ronald Hard Heart were discovered June 8 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, just north of the border town of Whiteclay. Their deaths have spurred weekly demonstrations focusing on the unsolved murders and against huge alcohol sales to Indians from stores in the small Nebraska town. But Hagel said he does not believe the FBI and local authorities are involved in a conspiracy in the investigation. After speaking with FBI Director Louis Freeh twice this week, Hagel said the federal agency is conducting the investigation correctly. "I'm satisfied the FBI is doing everything they can in a timely manner," Hagel said during his weekly telephone conference with reporters. There were no eyewitnesses and very little evidence to the murders, which is hampering the investigation, Hagel said. Babbitt calls Whiteclay beer sales "wrong." U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt doesn't like what he has seen happening in Whiteclay. "I think it's wrong for people to take advantage of Indians by setting up liquor stores on the edge of a reservation - which prohibits alcohol," Babbitt said Saturday. Babbitt referred to the sale of millions of dollars of alcohol to American Indians from four stores in Whiteclay, a town of just 22 people on the Nebraska-South Dakota line. Alcohol is banned on the Pine Ridge Reservation, a 5,000-square-mile expanse that is home to 15,000 Oglala Sioux and has one of the nation's highest alcoholism-related mortality rates. Babbitt said he had success in dealing with off-reservation liquor stores while he was Arizona governor. He called the Whiteclay situation a Nebraska issue, not a federal issue. President Clinton has asked the Interior Department to step up its efforts to provide education and jobs on the Pine Ridge Reservation, Babbitt said. He said the result of those efforts will be evident in the president's budget requests at the end of the year. The secretary also talked about the Santee Sioux's impasse with Nebraska authorities over that tribe's northeast Nebraska casino. Babbitt said the federal courts are "all over the map" on the issue and that it might take a U.S. Supreme Court decision before the matter is settled. The Santee Sioux tribe has filed an application to form a compact with the state for a casino. State law does not permit casino gambling. The tribe is currently facing a $6,000 daily fine for operating against U.S. District Court orders. ~~~ Hopis not giving up in eagle rights fight The Hopi Tribe will go to court if necessary in its effort to preserve its right to collect eagles and their feathers for religious use, a tribal official says. On Thursday, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt upheld a decision by a National Park Service administrator against allowing a Hopi religious group to pursue taking live golden eagles from Wupatki National Monument. "Let's just say we're not in the business of giving away our rare animals," monument Superintendent Sam Henderson said Friday of his May decision. Actually, it appears there aren't any live golden eagles on monument land, anyway. "There are three old nests in a sink area near the Citadel ruin, but one of our specialists looked at it and other logical areas and said there was no evidence of any recent occupation," Henderson said. "One person reportedly said he saw a golden eagle soaring near the Visitors Center recently, but there's been no confirmation of that." In May, a Hopi pilgrimage arrived at the monument in search of eagles and the feathers the Hopis use in various ceremonies. Had the group found an eaglet, it ultimately would have been smothered this weekend at the conclusion of Home Dance ceremonies. Practitioners of the ancient Hopi religion believe that eagle spirits act as messengers to the world of their deities to inform them of tribal members' needs. "The Home Dance is used to celebrate the harvest of our crops," said Amos Poocha, a Hopi director of community services. "But the Park Service is not even allowing us to go home." Leigh Kuwanwisiwma, director of the Hopi Tribe's cultural preservation office, said Friday the Hopis will take the issue into court if it comes to that. Eagles are protected by federal law, but a federal judge upheld the Hopis' rights three years ago, and the tribe was granted an exception by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department. "We're going to be very careful in exhausting all our administrative appeals, and the federal courts are another option," Kuwanwisiwma
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And now:Ish [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: "Camp Tribe Gets U.S. Funds for New Wells," The San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 July 1999, B8. ["CAMPO -- The Campo Indian band is using a $560,000 federal grant to build a new water system for a large area of the reservation in which existing wells are producing water that isn't fit to drink. . . . The grant will be used to drill new wells and construct a 55,000-gallon storage tank on a southwestern portion of the reservation."] http://www.uniontrib.com/ Cavinder, Fred. "New Clinic for Native Americans," The Indianapolis News, 27 July 1999, A10. ["During years of teaching nursing at IUPUI and trips West to reservations, Marguerite Casey of Greenwood came to some conclusions about American Indians in Indianapolis. "The Indians don't have a common place to gather and they get lost in the crack of urban environment," said Casey. Now her interest in this problem, which in her case focuses on health care, has a potential solution. A free clinic for health screening of American Indians is set to open on Southside Indianapolis at the Garfield Park United Church of Christ off Raymond Street. Money, as always has been the case, is delaying the clinic. Not lack of it exactly, but a delay in the check coming through. The Indiana State Department of Health has funded it at $ 60,000. The clinic also hopes for funds from the Indiana Minority Health Coalition, which already has funded the year of ground work in establishing the site."] http://www.stadiumdebate.com/cgi/newscentral/FrameIt.cgi?url=http://www.star news.com/ Dempster, Lisa. "Hunt for Missing Man Strains Town-Reserve Ties," Calgary Herald, 27 July 1999, A1. ["BASSANO -- Two things are known for certain. Alex Sanchez and his '84 Ford Mustang have disappeared from the Siksika reserve and there's a large metal object at the bottom of the Bow River. The rest is rumour and resentment, gripping residents in Siksika First Nation and the town of Bassano, about 90 kilometres east of Calgary. Some Siksika residents believe that 19-year-old Alex simply drove away after a party on the reserve. Others, mostly off- reserve neighbours, hint at a darker fate -- he never made it off the reserve, a fight got out of hand, he was killed, and his body and car were dumped in the river. . . . The search for Alex has driven a wedge between the two communities. Some Siksika residents were startled to see white strangers combing their yards for clues, and called police. ''The initial search wasn't well co-ordinated . . . the community wasn't made aware of it,'' says Siksika Chief Darlene Yellow Old Woman-Munro. ''I think the bad feelings arose, because there were a lot of accusations and allegations made. This, of course, raises our guard in the community. . . ." Yellow Old Woman-Munro hopes the search for Alex Sanchez hasn't poisoned relations between the 4,500-member First Nation and Bassano residents. Although relations have always been at arm's-length, ''certainly there's never been any animosity between the two,'' she says."] http://www.calgaryherald.com/ Nicholson, Blake. "Tribes, NDSU Collaborate to Spur Interest in Math, Science," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 27 July 1999, BC cycle. ["BISMARCK, N.D. -- The state's five tribal colleges are collaborating with North Dakota State University to boost interest among American Indian students in math, science and engineering. The program is designed to motivate Indian children to pursue careers in those fields and then nurture them during their studies at tribal colleges and ultimately NDSU, said G. Padmanabhan, the university's chair of civil engineering and construction. Indians make up less than 5 percent of the students at NDSU majoring in a math, science or engineering fields, Padmanabhan said. . . . Carol Davis, vice president of Turtle Mountain Community College in Belcourt, said children growing up on reservations generally aren't exposed to math and science careers."] http://www.ap.org/ "Trial Over Land Claims Is Delayed As Tribe Threatens Eviction," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 27 July 1999, BC cycle. ["SENECA FALLS, N.Y. -- A federal judge has delayed the start of the trial to settle damages in the Cayuga Indian land claim lawsuit. . . . . The judge made the change after attorneys informed him that settlement talks were making progress."] http://www.ap.org/ Tysver, Robynn. "Indian Protesters Charged Nine Sioux Arrested in Whiteclay Will Use Their Trials to Argue Treaty Claims to the Nebraska Village," Omaha World-Herald, 27 July 1999, 9. ["Lincoln -- Nine people charged with storming a police barricade in Whiteclay, Neb., plan to use their court cases to argue Indian treaty claims to the village. Most of the nine were scheduled to make their first court appearances today in Sheridan County Court. . . . Those charged plan to vigorously defend
NATIVE_NEWS: NEWS BRIEFS
And now:Ish [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Carlson, John. "Salmon Initiative I-696 Has Loophole For Tribes," The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA), July 28, 1999, Wednesday, A13. ["It was only a matter of time. Everyone has a plan to save the salmon. The federal government has a plan, the state has a strategy, the county has a program, even the cities are getting into the act. Now the voters will have some direct input when Initiative 696 appears on the ballot this fall... the fight over I-696 will be... intense... and it could signal the future direction of this state in shaping environmental policy to preserve salmon runs. Calling for a "net-free Washington," the I-696 forces are primarily sport fishers who are appalled at the diminution (some would say the decimation) of salmon runs that they blame primarily on the use of commercial nets in Washington rivers and Puget Sound... There's just one problem: They've exempted Indian tribes from the ban. Talk about a loophole. Twice in the short text of I-696, Indian gillnets - which take about half the fish netted in Washington waters - are permitted to stay in the water. "Nontribal commercial net fishing is by all standards and with few exceptions known to be a wasteful and harmful fishing practice," states Section 1 of the initiative. Only "nontribal" nets do harm? In one of its brochures, the I-696 campaign includes a blurb from a Seattle newspaper: "Protected or plentiful, all fish look alike to a gill net." Why then does it matter if the net is being handled by a tribal member or a commercial fisherman? Section 2(1) of the initiative states, "Commercial net fishing in Washington State fresh or marine waters is prohibited. This ban does not extend to those tribal fisheries conducted under a valid treaty right." The quick explanation, of course, is that state law can't override a legally binding treaty. True, the state has both a legal and moral responsibility to abide by treaties. But the courts have made it clear that Indian tribes have to abide by government efforts to conserve the salmon, and that was even before the federal government listed six salmon runs as endangered."] http://www.tribnet.com/ ** Demer, Lisa. "Panel Combats Native Rape Rate," Anchorage Daily News July 28, 1999, Wednesday, A1. ["An alarming rate of sexual assault against Alaska Native women in Anchorage is pushing downtown bars, victim advocates, the police, social-service agencies and others to reach for new and better ways to combat the problem. Alaska Natives make up about 8 percent of the Anchorage population. But Native women are the victims in 40 percent to 45 percent of the reported sexual assault cases, according to the Anchorage Police Department. Members of the 6-month-old Alaska Native Women Sexual Assault Committee held a press conference Tuesday to talk about the assaults and what to do about them. The committee includes representatives of more than a dozen organizations, including Standing Together Against Rape, or STAR; the Alaska Native Medical Center; the municipal Safe City program; and the Southcentral Foundation, the health arm of Cook Inlet Region Inc... So far, the most visible strategy is showing up in downtown bars. Five establishments with a largely Native clientele are putting up signs warning women to be careful and men to behave. The signs, crafted with the help of STAR, started going up a couple of weeks ago in the 515 Club, The Hub, the Gaslight Lounge, the Avenue Bar and the Panhandle Bar... One sign targeting potential perpetrators says, ''If you think that waking up with a hangover is bad . . . imagine waking up as a rapist. Using alcohol or drugs is no excuse for sexual assault.'' The committee is also asking for help from community councils, the Community Service Patrol and the downtown security ambassadors program, said Lt. Tom Nelson, who commands the downtown police district. An earlier task force generated headlines in 1997 but faded away after issuing its findings. The new committee promises to be more active."] http://www.adn.com/ Dewar, Helen, and Juliet Eilperin. "Senate Lifts Limits on Dumps; Other Efforts to Roll Back Environmental Restrictions Blocked," The Washington Post, July 28, 1999, A4. ["The Senate voted yesterday to overturn federal rules limiting mine waste dumps on federal lands to five acres, although several other Republican proposals to roll back environmental restrictions were sidelined because of a Senate rules change a day earlier. The Senate rejected, 55 to 41, a Democrat-led effort to eliminate language in a proposed $ 14 billion appropriations bill for the Interior Department that would wipe out the five-acre limit. The vote reversed department policy and legal rulings. Proponents of the provision argued that it was necessary to protect the U.S. mining industry and the jobs it creates, while foes contended it would lead to a proliferation of toxic waste dumps on public lands and Indian
NATIVE_NEWS: News Briefs...
And now:Ish [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Published Friday, July 16, 1999 Obituaries: Amos L. Crooks, former vice chair of tribe http://www2.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisStory=80766068 Lucy Y. Her / Star Tribune Amos L. Crooks, the first vice chairman of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota Community, died of cancer Tuesday at his home in Prior Lake. He was 79. "He was known on the reservation as the 'pipeman,' the one who carves," read a Minneapolis Star article in April 1980. In 1959, Amos moved his family to Shakopee, where he had lived for a while during his childhood. Shakopee was the land of his ancestors. "It would be, he thought, a place to iron out the wrinkles in his soul, the right place to raise the children," the article read. By an act of Congress, any American Indian of direct Mdewakanton descent has a right to live on a piece of the Shakopee land, which was set aside in 1888. The Mdewakanton originally lived in the Mille Lacs area, but they migrated south and lived along the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. By the time white settlers arrived, there had been a Mdewakanton tribe in the Shakopee area for a long time.end excerpt ~~~ Developer wants $50 million for Miami Circle http://www.naplesnews.com/today/florida/d302838a.htm Friday, July 16, 1999 Associated Press MIAMI - The developer of the property where a circular stone formation carved by Tequesta Indians was discovered wants Miami-Dade County to pay $50 million for the land. The amount was presented in court on Wednesday as Dade officials sought to take over the 2.2-acre property for the creation of an archaeological preserve. Attorneys are disputing the land's value. Developer Michael Baumann planned a 600-unit, twin-tower apartment complex on the property. His attorneys have argued that the county should pay for the value of the land, as well as potential lost profits. "Our appraisals are not completed," Baumann's attorney Toby Brigham told Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Fredricka Smith on Wednesday. Baumann spent $8 million to buy the property at the mouth of the Miami River. He spent an additional $6.6 million in architectural, legal, engineering and other fees and expenses, according to court documents. The land may be worth $50 million - triple the county's estimate - because someone might pay that amount for the land and the development plans, Brigham said.end excerpt New aboriginal channel to rely on re-runs this fall http://www.nunatsiaq.com/nunavut/nvt90716_06.html Fledgling network hopes repackaged regional material will be new to viewers in other parts of the country. SEAN McKIBBON Nunatsiaq News IQALUIT Viewers tuning into Canada's new Aboriginal People's Television Network (APTN) may see something familiar this fall re-runs. But network executives hope those viewers will be uncommon. To fill its programming slots, APTN is looking at buying rights to rebroadcast shows simply because there isn't enough new material out there. "As far as programming goes it's a challenge. There are a lot of great documentaries and half-hour and one-hour shows, but very little series," says Abraham Tagalik, the chief operating officer of the new network and chairman of APTN's progenitor, Television Northern Canada. "There's a really great regional aboriginal current affairs show out of Manitoba, and something similar from Saskatchewan and B.C." says APTN's director of communications Jennifer David. But many people from other parts of the country haven't seen those programs yet she says. She says the new network will provide a national venue for aboriginal productions that didn't exist before and APTN is banking on that wider audience. He says new, on-going shows will have to be developed, but until that happens the network will have to rely on existing material. He says $5 million has been budgeted to aquire shows from independent producers and another pot of money $55,000 according to APTN's website has been allocated for script and concept development. "Our setting up will benefit abriginal radio, newspapers, television. The sky is really the limit interms of utilizing whats out there," said Tagalik. The only original programing that will be produced by the new network itself will be the news, but that won't be up and running until January, says Tagalik. By January the network should have a studio set up at its new headquarters in Winnipeg. ~~~ Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/
NATIVE_NEWS: News Briefs
And now:Ish [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: For the week ending July 16, 1999 Treaty of Hell Gate signed 144 years ago today http://www.ronan.net/%7Eckn/news1.html July 16, 1855, was the end of a long, hot week at Hell Gate Canyon in an area that would some day be known as Montana. Superintendent of Indian Affairs and Governor of the territory, Isaac I. Stevens, representing President Franklin Pierce of the United States, had struck a treaty with the Kootenai, the Salish, the Upper Pend d'Orielle and a band of Kalispels (also known as Lower Pend d'Orielle). Training addresses reservation bomb threats http://www.ronan.net/%7Eckn/news2.html A "bomb threat" training session was held on July 8 in the Mission Valley Power conference room in Pablo. The Tribal Disaster Emergency Office sponsored the event, which was attended by 90 people. County School Superintendent requested to take jurisdiction http://www.ronan.net/%7Eckn/news3.html POLSON -- Lake County Superintendent of Schools, Joyce Decker Wegner, has been formally requested by Dr. Ben Irvin to take jurisdiction over the Ronan/Pablo school board's decision not to renew his position of Indian Education Coordinator for the school district. Medal of Honor sought for WWII hero Louis C. Charlo http://www.ronan.net/%7Eckn/news4.html PABLO -- Members of the Veteran's Warrior Society on the Flathead Indian Reservation are seeking a Congressional Medal of Honor for Pfc. Louis C. Charlo, who took part in the raising of the U.S. flag atop Japan's Mount Suribachi before falling victim to a sniper's bullet on March 2, 1945. 'Bed tax' issue proves controversial http://www.ronan.net/%7Eckn/news5.html POLSON -- Although Montana's tourism-promotion tax, widely known now as the "bed tax," isn't being collected from a number of businesses in the state, recent news reports have elected to single out only Indian business owners. Camp Justice Ishgooda Following meetings Thursday evening and Friday morning to firm up and consolidatethe purpose and plans for Camp Justice, the march went quietly Saturday morning. As of Friday three teepees and an estimated fifteen tents curently comprise the slowly expanding camp. The AIM flag flies along side the Oglala Nation flag, a reminder that this is Lakota territory. Meanwhile, VJ's store owners continue to deny any links with white supremacy groups stating," We are a family who has lived here for six years and enjoy living in our community raising our family. We require no assistance whatsoever. We are a grocery store selling groceries, produce, and meat in White Clay, NE. We are currently closed down because of a fire and looting done to our grocery store." Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/
NATIVE_NEWS: NEWS BRIEFS JUNE 15, 1999
And now:Ish [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - FYI: News Items of Interest, 6.14.99 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "H-AMINDIAN's FYI: News Items of Interest" website: http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/ "Today's News" webpage: http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/today.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [1] "3-Way Trust Proposed for Church Property in Guadalupe," The Arizona Republic, 14 June 1999, B3. ["In February 1998: Since Guadalupe was founded by Yaqui Indians in 1910, no one has owned the precious church property where the Yaqui Temple and Our Lady of Guadalupe Church sit. It has always been held in trust by Maricopa County Superior Court, and town residents didn't seem to mind too much. But Judge Pamela Franks announced that the trusteeship will end and asked who wants to take over. Three groups file claims, a Yaqui group, the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix and Guadalupe. Now: Town attorney Dave Ledyard presents a plan to the Town Council that calls for the 4 1/2 acres to be owned by a trust that would be operated by representatives of the three groups. The Catholics and Yaqui Cultural Organization, which represents some of the original Yaqui families, have agreed. Instead, the Town Council has set a public hearing for 7 p.m. June 22 at the church property, after which it may vote. Council members expect a lot of people and a long meeting because the church property always has been a sensitive subject."] http://www.azcentral.com/ [2] "Apache Wildfire Finally Contained," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 14 June 1999, PM cycle. [WHITERIVER, AZ: "A destructive wildfire that charred more than 4,000 acres has been contained. Now, White Mountain Apache Tribal Chairman Dallas Massey says "it's time to start the healing process." About 800 air and ground crews contained the wildfire Sunday that destroyed 17 homes and forced 300 people to evacuate their homes on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation ... Jim Anderson, fire information director for the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, said the blaze should be fully controlled by Wednesday or Thursday."] http://www.ap.org/ [3] Ascenzi, Joseph. "Tribe Welcomes U.S. Trade Office," The Business Press/California, 14 June 1999, 5. ["In what is being hailed by local officials as a historic partnership between the United States and a Native American tribe, the U.S. Department of Commerce has opened an associate office on the San Manuel reservation in Highland. The office will provide advice and assistance to small- to medium-sized Inland Empire businesses that trade overseas. Tribal officials stressed the office will be open to all businesses, not just Native American enterprises ... According to Commerce officials, this is the first such agreement between a Native American tribe and the federal government anywhere in the United States. The office is a sign that the tribe - which owns and operates San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino - is moving beyond gaming as its primary means of financial support, officials for the Highland tribe said ... Commerce's Marquez said the trade office has been established to help businesses like the San Manuel tribe and its fledgling bottled water business find opportunities to do business overseas."] [4] "Fire Destroys 17 Homes on Apache Reservation," The New York Times, 14 June 1999, A21. ["A large wildfire destroyed 17 homes and forced 300 people to evacuate their homes on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation over the weekend ... About 800 air and ground crews formed a containment line this morning around the fire, which began on Friday and quickly spread to more than 4,000 acres, said a Forest Service spokesman, Joe Spehar ... The wind-driven fire, north of Whiteriver and about 130 miles northeast of Phoenix, is believed to have been caused by humans, and an investigation is pending, Mr. Spehar said."] http://www.nytimes.com/ [5] "Gambling Commission Approves Electronic Gambling for Indian Casinos," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 14 June 1999, BC cycle. ["The state Gambling Commission has approved two electronic systems for Indian casinos, clearing the way for Washington tribes to install what are commonly called "cashless slot machines." Within minutes of the commission's recent vote, the Muckleshoot Indian Casino near Auburn had 100 of the machines up and running and planned to have 325 more operating by the end of the month. The Squaxin Island Tribe, which operates a casino near Shelton, opened with 98 machines and planned to quickly bring the total to 150 ... The Gambling Commission approved the electronic systems under an agreement negotiated last year between Gov. Gary Locke and 12 Indian nations that operate casinos. Seven other tribes that do not have casinos also are covered by the agreement ..."] http://www.ap.org/ [6] "Hundreds Protest Plans to Restore Monument to Indian Killer," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 14 June 1999, AM
NATIVE_NEWS: NEWS BRIEFS
And now:Ish [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - FYI: News Items of Interest, 6.10.99 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "H-AMINDIAN's FYI: News Items of Interest" website: http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/ "Today's News" webpage: http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/today.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [1] Brokaw, Chet. "FEMA Focus Shifts to Temporary Housing for Tornado Victims," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 11 June 1999, BC cycle. ["The Federal Emergency Management Agency will now focus on finding temporary housing for hundreds of people left homeless by last weekend's tornadoes on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. About 160 dwellings were destroyed or seriously damaged by tornadoes that struck June 5 and 6. One person was killed and more than 40 were injured ... FEMA now will try to move in manufactured houses, mobile homes or other housing to provide temporary shelter for people who lost their homes, FEMA spokesman Jerry Oakley said Thursday."] http://www.ap.org/ [2] Cart, Julie. "A Theory of Anasazi Savagery," Los Angeles Times, 11 June 1999, A1. [CHACO CANYON, N.M.: "It has been called one of the great prehistoric anthropological puzzles: What caused the Anasazi people--who over centuries had developed one of the most sophisticated civilizations in North America--to abandon their beautiful stone cities? ... Here, in a stark desert landscape presided over by brooding red mesas, some clues lie buried ... Chopped up human bones with curious marks suggesting systematic cutting and scraping. Signs that indicate groups of people were killed, butchered, then the flesh cleaned from their bones ... Scientists have long puzzled over the meaning of these artifacts. Now, at least one chilling explanation has come forth. With the publication this spring of "Man Corn: Cannibalism and Violence in the Prehistoric American Southwest," which he wrote with his late wife, anthropologist Jacqueline Turner, physical anthropologist Christy Turner has managed to anger Native Americans, rile scientists, horrify New Agers and provide a fascinating theoretical glimpse into the collapse of a great civilization ... The book, published by the University of Utah Press, debunks the traditional view of the Anasazi as peaceful agriculturalists, whose modern-day descendants are the highly spiritual Hopi, Zuni and Pueblo people ... Turner contends that a "band of thugs"--Toltecs, for whom cannibalism was part of religious practice--made their way to Chaco Canyon from central Mexico. These invaders used cannibalism to overwhelm the unsuspecting Anasazi and terrorize the populace into submission over a period of 200 years."] http://www.latimes.com/ [3] Ellig, Tracy. "County Wants to Avoid Gambling with Tribe," The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA), 11 June 1999, B1. ["The Spokane Tribe wants 145 acres it owns on the western edge of Airway Heights taken into trust by the federal government, but a tough-talking letter from Spokane County commissioners is getting in the way. Once taken into trust, the land would be exempt from property taxes. The tribe wants to put some sort of commercial development on the land, such as a mall. But in February, commissioners sent a letter to the Department of Interior objecting to the tribe's trust application on the grounds that the land might be used to build a casino. The commission also wondered who would have jurisdiction over the property once taken into trust and if zoning and building regulations would be followed. The Interior Department is holding up the tribe's application until it sees evidence the county's concerns are addressed, said David Lundgren, an attorney for the Spokane Tribe."] http://www.spokane.net/ [4] [Hazlett, Mark], "Indians Insulted in Legislature," The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA.), 11 June 1999, 8B. ["With great disgust and even greater dismay, I read of the recent buffoonery on the House floor when state Rep. Charles DeWitt, D-Lecompte, presented Rep. Charles Riddle, D-Marksville, a "makeshift peace pipe and a red Indian headdress."As an American Indian, a taxpayer and a citizen of this state, I find this behavior reprehensible. Mr. DeWitt and his colleagues are an embarrassment to the citizens of this state. Why do government officials of this state take great pride in giving enormous tax breaks to non-American Indian industries, but somehow think that American Indian casinos are getting a free ride because they pay less tax than other casinos? ... Mr. Riddle is no more a friend of American Indians than Mr. DeWitt or Gov. Mike Foster. I find the actions and his complicity wholly offensive and so obviously racist that I can hardly believe that anyone would stoop so low to even do this ... I insist that the House apologize for the immature actions performed on the floor, for they hurt not only the American Indian peoples, but the reputation of the Legislature and the state of Louisiana."]
NATIVE_NEWS: NEWS BRIEFS
And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: "H-AMINDIAN's FYI: News Items of Interest" website: http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/ "Arizona Tribe Losing Its Diabetes Battle," The Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT), 2 November 1999, A10. ["GILA RIVER INDIAN COMMUNITY, Ariz.: ... The spread of diabetes among the 11,500 Pima Indians on this reservation south of Phoenix has become so severe some worry about annihilation -- and others charge government researchers contributed to the problem ... Since 1965, the number of tribal members over 55 with diabetes has skyrocketed to 80 percent from 45 percent, according to figures compiled by the National Institutes of Health. Now, some Pimas are saying that same government agency didn't do enough to attack what they call the "Pima Plague.'"] http://www.desnews.com/ Bonin, Gordon. "Supreme Court Ruling Favors Scholar's Kin, Researcher's Daughters to Control Penobscot Work," Bangor Daily News, 2 November 1999. ["A researcher trying to help preserve the Penobscot language has lost the final round in a legal fight with the daughters of a noted scholar of American Indian languages who was completing a Penobscot dictionary when he died last year ... The court's decision gives control over the most extensive Penobscot dictionary ever compiled to Siebert's daughters rather than to Richard Garrett and his wife, Martha Young, who had worked extensively with Siebert during the last years of his life in Old Town ... The decision settles the dispute over who had authority to decide who would complete the task of editing the dictionary and other research and preparing it for publication."] http://www.bangornews.com/ Brown, Gregg. "Native American Culture Is Not 'Cherished,' Valued," The Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL.), 2 November 1999, A10. ["I would like to thank The Pantagraph for its fine editorial ... It's good to see the local media stand up to the little Hitler wannabe in our midst. But there was another recent editorial that displayed a shocking degree of ignorance, self-deception or worse. It was published on Oct. 11 under the heading "Columbus Day commemorates evolution of enlightenment." It includes the quote: "The culture and heritage of the native Americans deserves to be cherished and today's society has done that." ... In terms of the bigger picture, hundreds of tribes have been completely eliminated off the face of the Earth. Millions of people were killed. And native culture remains to this day under the assault of corporate forces - businessmen, lawyers, politicians, bureaucrats, missionaries and the police."] http://www.pantagraph.com/ Buttars, Lori. "Goshute Teens Turn Dream Into a Day; Youths Working to Honor Their Past Inspire Indigenous People's Day in Utah," The Salt Lake Tribune, 2 November 1999, B1. ["... As a member of the Goshute Indian tribe, Hooper is among a dozen or so teen-agers from the Ibapah Indian Reservation whose work will be featured in Pia Toya, or Big Mountain, a book to be published by the University of Utah Press. The book tells the legend of how the Deep Creek Mountains, in Utah's west desert near where the youngsters live in Tooele County, were formed. The volume is just one way the teens are working to honor their past. After studying such historical figures as Christopher Columbus and Martin Luther King Jr. -- both of whom have special days celebrated in their honor -- the students decided that a month should be designated for learning about American Indian history. Their proposal made it from the classroom to Utah's Tribal Council to Gov. Mike Leavitt, who made it official: November is American Indian History Month and Nov. 22 is Indigenous People's Day in Utah."] http://www.sltrib.com/ Cosdon, Christina K. "With Name Change, Business Joins Indian Motorcycle Revival," St. Petersburg Times, 2 November 1999, 5. ["The Indian Chief is back. The Indian Chief motorcycle, that is. Indian Motorcycle manufacturing company, which produced the first Indian motorcycle in 1901 in Springfield, Mass., closed its doors in 1953. Now, after more than 40 years and an $ 18-million buyout, the company is back in production in Gilroy, Calif."] http://www.sptimes.com/ Davenport, Paul. "Compromise Would Name Highway After Both Actor, Indian Vets," The Associated Press State Local Wire, 2 November 1999. ["PHOENIX: The heated debate over whether a highway that crosses two reservations should be named after John Wayne has apparently been settled with a compromise. The ruckus started in 1997 when some Indian leaders objected to naming the highway after the late movie actor whose films included portrayals of American Indians that some found offensive. The compromise - naming half the highway John Wayne Parkway and the other half American Indian Veterans Memorial Highway - was scheduled to be considered by the State Board on Geographic and Historic Names at a hearing Wednesday ... Under the proposal the names board
NATIVE_NEWS: NEWS BRIEFS
And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: "H-AMINDIAN's FYI: News Items of Interest" website: http://www.public.asu.edu/~wendel/fyi/ Akana, Rowena M. [Chairman, Office of Hawaiian Affairs]. "[Editorial:] Basic Rights of Native Hawaiians," The Washington Post, 3 November 1999, A34. ["In "Hawaii and Race" [editorial, Oct. 10], The Post said Hawaii violated the 15th Amendment in creating the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to address the needs of its indigenous people. The 15th Amendment ensures that every American gets a measure of justice through self-determination. But for nearly a century, native Hawaiians were not allowed to share in this basic right ... The Constitution allows the federal government to deal with "Indian tribes" as it deals with foreign nations--as political entities. The Post argued that the term does not apply to native Hawaiians. True, native Hawaiians are not "Indians," but neither are native Alaskans who hold this political status ... before they were overthrown they were organized as a nation, recognized internationally and executed treaties ... Like other indigenous groups, native Hawaiians have a special trust relationship with the federal government, acknowledged by more than 180 pieces of federal legislation. As a condition of statehood, the 1959 Admissions Act required Hawaii to take responsibility for the federal government's obligations to native Hawaiians. In creating the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Hawaii has carried out the federal government's covenant."] http://www.washingtonpost.com/ Cherry, Paul. "Heart Attack Claims Icon of Oka Crisis: Ronald Cross, 41, Became Folk Hero of Native Conflict," Calgary Herald, 3 November 1999, A10. ["If there is anything everybody could agree upon about Ronald ''Lasagna'' Cross it is that he rarely backed down from a fight. Hero, villain, devoted father, warrior or trouble-maker. Cross, 41 -- the man called everything under the sun after the 1990 Oka Crisis -- died of an apparent heart attack Monday ... Tracy Cross, 38, said his older brother suffered a heart attack a few years ago and was never the same man after the intense pressure of the Oka Crisis and being put through what the provincial police ethics committee recently referred to as an ''excessive'' beating at the hands of three Surete du Quebec officers following the standoff ... Cross did not back down from challenges. He took on the three police officers and the result arrived this month as the police ethics committee suspended all three (although they had already left the force). In 1992, Cross was sentenced to six years in prison for aggravated assault, uttering death threats, mischief and possessing a weapon in the presence of Canadian Forces soldiers. For years, Cross quietly stuck to his complaint of not being tried in Quebec Court completely in English. It was that complaint, paired with another that produced the Quebec Court of Appeal's decision in September, 1998 that ruled that prosecutors in criminal matters must speak the official language of the accused ... Lasagna was released in August after serving time for his role in the Oka Crisis -- the 78-day standoff at Kanesatake touched off when provincial police officers stormed Mohawk barricades erected to block expansion of the Oka municipal golf course into an area Mohawks claimed as ancestral land. [Note: I have walked this land with friends who live on the reserve...the land in question is a cemetery and the golf course would have removed tribal graves in order to expand. The trench dug and fortified yet remains with the occasional grain of corn scattered by those who defended their ancestors sanctity..Ish] During the aborted raid,Corporal Marcel Lemay of the Surete was shot and killed, adding fuel to a fire that would burn for weeks."] http://www.calgaryherald.com/ Cordes, Henry J. "Walthill Is Close Ballot[;] The Chairman of an Indian Group Frets About the Future of Relations with the White-Majority School Board," Omaha World-Herald, November 3, 1999, 1. ["A recall election Tuesday in northeast Nebraska may only increase the racial strife between parents in a nearly all-Indian school and the white-majority board that controls it. It appeared that an Indian parents group in the Walthill School District narrowly failed Tuesday in its effort to recall the board's president, Stan Modlin ... Tuesday's apparent results - and the likelihood that Modlin, who is white, will continue to head the board in a district where 99 percent of the children are Indian - were a big disappointment to recall leaders. They say Modlin and other white members of the board have taken several racist actions that have harmed the interests of Indian children, including the firing of the school's American Indian superintendent ... Racial tension has been high in Walthill in recent years, with much of it centering on the school ... Last year, Modlin engineered a white-majority takeover of the district's
