NATIVE_NEWS: Fwd: [FN] "How A Tribe Was Lost"

1998-12-26 Thread Ish

And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

>X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1998 19:40:43 +1100
>From: Loraine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject:  [FN] "How A Tribe Was Lost"
>Comments: To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To:   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>This is a mainstream view of the Aboriginal land rights movement here in
>Australia, taken from the Herald Sun newspaper, Wednesday December 23, 1998
>(Melbourne), and written by Andrew Bolt, Staff Writer (my comments beneath
>the article):
>
>Some 150 years ago, squatter Edward Curr found Aborigines fishing as he
>paddled his canoe up the Murray.
>They shrieked and fled from him - all except one.
>A man Curr guessed was in his 90s stood upright and the spear in his hand
>trembled with rage.
>He screamed he would spear Curr, one of the first white settlers on Yorta
>Yorta land.  The white man had no right to the tribe's water, its fish and
>its ducks.
>The man's relatives yelled at him to run before he was shot.  But it was a
>girl aged about 10 who came back to get him.
>Curr wrote that he raised his gun.  "The child ... looked me full in the
>face and, without altering her course, gathered her opossum rug tightly
>about her and, with somewhat stately step, passed close before the gun, to
>the gibbering old man."
>She took his hand. "As if all recollection had suddenly left him, he
>lowered his spear, his head sank down and, in silence, the girl led him
>back to his descendants."
>Even then, the Yorta Yorta knew they were beaten.
>White man's smallpox had already decimated them.  But as a sombre judgement
>last week by Federal Court Justice Howard Olney reveals, the Yorta Yorta
>were to suffer far more evil yet.
>They were robbed of their land, where towns like Shepparton, Wangaratta and
>Yarrawonga now stand.
>
>They were shunted onto reserves and missions, parted from their children
>and ruled over by despotic do-gooders.
>In 1881, 42 of the survivors petitioned the NSW government for help.  They
>said they had been left beggars, and their children were near starving.
>All they wanted was enough land to raise animals and earn a living.
>Crucially, it turned out last week, they added, "We .. feel that our old
>mode of life is not in keeping with the instructions we have received and
>we are earnestly desirous of settling down to more orderly habits of
>industry, that we may form homes for our families."
>Cruciall, because this desperately sad petition helps prove the Yorta Yorta
>had by then abandoned customs and tribal laws which bound them to their land.
>Which is largely why the Yorta Yorta claim for the return of up to 4000 sq
>km of their land - one of the most divisive of all land rights bids -
>finally collapsed in the Federal Court last week.
>It was launched four years ago on behalf of 4500 people claiming Yorta
>Yorta blood.
>This was the big one - a claim for all Crown land in Australia's food bowl,
>as well as the waters of the great Murray, Goulburn, Ovens and Edward rivers.

>The fear it unleased was immense, as you can tell by the number of
>respondents - more than 500, including three states, several shires,
>farmers and water boards.
>The legal bill was so collossal, Justice Olney called for another way to
>resolve the 500-odd outstanding claims.
>Yet this huge claimed failed for such simple reasons.
>The eight Aborigines who lodged it said they were descended from 18 Yorta
>Yorta whose names appear in records of last century.
>But Justice Olney found 16 of them were not born on Yorta Yorta land, or
>had no provable bond to it.
>
>Anyway, he said the Yorta Yorta had for more than a century not occupied
>their land or kept traditional links with it.  "The tide of history" had
>tragically washed it all away.
>Millions of dollars were spent to reach this bleak finding - millions that
>could have bought the Yorta Yorta farms, businesses or scholarships.  Such
>waste.
>I see only one gain - that people will read the decision and see the
>dangers of the land rights movement.
>The decision shows a new Aboriginal identity is being fabricated.  An
>identity false to the past and the future.
>The Yorta Yorta argued they had kept traditional links with the land by
>guarding it and its sacred sites.
>This echoes a claim often made by Aboriginal activists - that their
>ancestors lived in harmony with nature and each other.
>So much so, that some Yorta Yorta elders say they hope their children can
>be lured back to life in the forests.  Away, that is, from the cities that
>offer jobs.
>But what did Justice Olney find?  That far from being careful with the
>land, Yorta Yorta killed far more fish than they ate, and "never spared a
>young animal with a view to its growing bigger".
>That men owned some land individually and might kill trespassers from their
>own tribe.
>That today's Yorta Yorta made sacred sites of bush ovens and mounds of
>discarded shells which had no spiritual valule to the Aborigines who had
>left 

NATIVE_NEWS: Fwd: Brazil Tribe Enters Information Age

1998-12-26 Thread Ish

And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:


From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Return-path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Brazil Tribe Enters Information Age
Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1998 01:12:15 EST
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

Brazil Tribe Enters Information Age

.c The Associated Press

By MICHAEL ASTOR

ANGRA DOS REIS, Brazil (AP) -- Tribal elders decreed a ``day of joy'' to
welcome the village's new arrival. Guarani boys in face paint and loincloths
danced to the music of a homemade fiddle played with a tree branch.

The celebration was for the long-awaited coming of the ``ayu ryrurive,'' a
Guarani term roughly meaning ``box for accumulating language'' -- that is, a
computer.

``We have been hearing about computers for a while,'' said Luiz Eusebio, an
assistant chief at the Sapukai (sah-poo-kah-EE) village. ``We thought we need
to learn about them because we need to have more knowledge about non-
Indians.''

Their ticket to the information age came recently from the Committee for the
Democratization of Information, a private group that provides computers and
training to poor communities, mostly the hillside slums of Rio de Janeiro.

But it seemed unlikely computers would come to the 400 Guaranis of Sapukai, a
5,200-acre community tucked among lush green mountains along the coastal
highway 100 miles west of Rio.

For one thing, the village had no electricity.

``I always dreamed of bringing computers to an Indian reservation, but I
didn't know how,'' Rodrigo Baggio, the group's president, said while he pulled
cables from the back of his car to install four personal computers at the
village's Federal Indian Bureau post.

Most of Brazil's 300,000 Indians live in the remote Amazon, too far for
Baggio's group to travel. But the Guarani were close enough to bring in a
gasoline-powered generator to run the computers.

With the help of the Indian Bureau and the Indigenous Missionary Council,
which has ties to the Roman Catholic Church, Baggio set out to install
computers and provide training for the village's five teachers.

The first step was having teacher Ernesto da Silva come to Rio for a week of
instruction.

``It's like anything else. At first it's hard, and then you get used to it,''
said da Silva, beaming proudly before a drawing of the village's school he
made using a computer.

Baggio's goal is to provide job training for poor communities and help them
organize.

But at Sapukai, no one expressed any interest in the idea of working outside
the reservation. The tribe plans to use the computers mainly to keep health
records, develop educational materials and build a database of Guarani
history, myths and traditions.

Besides, they can afford only enough gasoline to run the generator for a
couple of hours twice a week. Baggio said he hopes to bring solar power to
Sapukai, if he can raise the money.

But despite come concessions to Western culture -- shorts, T-shirts, plastic
sandals, metal pots and even a little Portuguese -- the tribe's leaders are
wary about the impact computers might have on their lives.

``If we use the computer more than twice a week, we won't have time to plant.
And if we don't plant, we starve,'' said Eusebio, the assistant chief. ``We

also know if we turn them off they will just sit there. It's not like they
can
run around the village causing trouble.

AP-NY-12-26-98 0112EST

Copyright 1998 The Associated Press.  The information  contained in the AP
news report may not be published,  broadcast, rewritten or otherwise
distributed without  prior written authority of The Associated Press.

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try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito
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NATIVE_NEWS: Idaho: White Supremacists...

1998-12-26 Thread Ish

And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1998 12:25:19 EST
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: heads up
>X-Mailer: AOL 3.0 16-bit for Windows sub 41
>
>Sunday December 20 12:15 PM ET 
>
>White Supremacists Get Cash Boost
>AP Photo
>
>By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS Associated Press Writer 
>
>SANDPOINT, Idaho (AP) - Two former California businessmen are pouring 
>dollars into the often cash-strapped white supremacist movement, 
>allowing it to reach out to thousands of households in northern Idaho.
>
>Vincent Bertollini and Carl Story, who grew wealthy in California's 
>computer industry, financed the mailing of racist and anti-Semitic 
>posters and videos to some 3,000 homes this fall.
>
>Human-rights activists are alarmed at the infusion of money into the 
>movement and say they are scrambling to counter the mailings.
>
>Bertollini and Story have adamantly refused interviews.
>
>``Our message speaks for itself,'' Bertollini wrote in an e-mail 
>response to an interview request. ``We do not grant interviews.''
>
>Their message is a stew of quasi-biblical prose that attacks Jews and 
>contends that ``Jesus said they were murderers and liars from the 
>beginning.''
>
>Calling themselves The 11th Hour Remnant Messenger, the two men paid to 
>create and mail the glossy, 6-foot-long by 3-foot-wide poster with 
>colorful artwork that purports to show ``The Adamic Race Pure Blood 
>Seedline.''
>
>The poster asserts that nonwhites are the product of sexual relations 
>between Eve and Satan, who begat Cain, ``a hybrid, mongrel, bastard and 
>soul-less child.''
>
>It is the posters' quality as much as their message that alarms human 
>rights groups. According to Bertollini, the posters cost $9.45 each to 
>print and mail. By comparison, Kinko's in Spokane charges 80 cents a 
>piece for 3,000 copies of a four-page color brochure.
>
>``The difference is they've got money,'' said Bill Wassmuth, director of 
>the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment. ``That enables 
>them to extend their message on a broader range.''
>
>The Southern Poverty Law Center of Montgomery, Ala., which monitors hate 
>groups across the country, expressed surprise at the quality and 
>sophistication of the mailings. The center had never heard of the two 
>men, said researcher Mark Potok.
>
>``The problem of the white supremacist movement for decades has been 
>financing,'' Potok said. It took Timothy McVeigh half a year to raise 
>the $10,000 to buy the materials for the Oklahoma City bomb, he said.
>
>The emergence of Bertollini and Story, and their money, is ``terribly 
>important,'' Potok said.
>
>The Remnant Messenger also paid for the recent production of a video 
>mailed to Sandpoint homes showing Richard Butler, founder of Aryan 
>Nations, explaining his views.
>
>Additionally, Aryan Nations handed out copies of Remnant Messenger's 
>poster at its parade through downtown Coeur d'Alene last summer and sent 
>thousands more copies to people on its mailing list.
>
>Northern Idaho has long been hospitable to white supremacist groups, 
>with Aryan Nations headquartered in Hayden and the anti-government 
>Militia of Montana based in Noxon, Mont., just across the border from 

>Sandpoint. It counts several active congregations of Christian Identity, 
>a white supremacist religion that considers white people the true 
>Israelites and superior to Jews and nonwhites.
>
>The region was also home to Randy Weaver, the white separatist whose 
>wife and 14-year-old son were killed in an 11-day standoff with the FBI 
>at Weaver's remote cabin in Ruby Ridge in 1992.
>
>Bertollini, 59, and Story, 65, friends for 30 years, moved to Sandpoint 
>in 1995. Despite their reluctance to speak with reporters, the two men 
>have hardly kept low profiles in this lakeside tourist town of 5,200 
>people. They live in large homes in posh neighborhoods and are known to 
>dine out often, frequently leaving $100 tips for waitresses.
>
>Public records show Bertollini has performed at least one wedding in 
>Bonner County as a lay minister for the Remnant Messenger.
>
>The Spokesman-Review newspaper of Spokane, which has reported 
>extensively on the two men's activities, says they used engineering and 
>marketing skills to help build two California computer chip companies - 
>I.I. Industries of Cupertino, since absorbed by other firms, and Silicon 
>Valley Group -into multimillion-dollar concerns. They formed The 11th 
>Hour Remnant Messenger in 1990.
>
>Gretchen Albrecht-Hellar, leader of the Bonner County Human Rights Task 
>Force, said she was alarmed by the recent poster mailing and worried 
>that the concentration of white supremacists in Idaho was serving as a 
>magnet for others of like minds.
>
>The task force charges just $1 for lifetime dues and cannot compete with 
>the money behind Remnant Messenger, she said.
>
>The Rev. Paul Graves, a Sandpoint city councilman, is organizing a 
>January protest by area ministers.
>

NATIVE_NEWS: Fwd: GUESS WHAT YOU'VE BEEN EATING

1998-12-26 Thread Ish

And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> Date: Fri, 25 Dec 1998 04:08:34 -0500
> Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Bob Phelps)
> Subject: (en) GUESS WHAT YOU'VE BEEN EATING (Genetic Engineering)
> 
> WHEN they asked Peter Corish to be a guinea pig for Australia's first 
genetically engineered crop, he jumped at the chance. "In the glasshouse 
it worked brilliantly," says the cotton farmer from Goondiwindi on the 
NSW-Queensland border. "We thought it would be the answer to a lot of 
our problems." 
> Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Precedence: list
> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
>  
>   A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
> http://www.ainfos.ca/
>  
> 
> The cotton farmer's biggest bugbear is a caterpillar called 
helicoverpa, the larva of a moth which, left to its own devices, can 
munch its way through an entire crop. The traditional solution has been 
a highly toxic pesticide, sprayed from the air up to a dozen times 
during the growing season, with serious consequences for the 
environment, and claims of "cancer clusters" among nearby farming 
communities. 
> 
> But six years ago a new species of cotton that was claimed to be 
immune to the helicoverpa caterpillar, and any other pest, came out of 
the laboratory and into Australia's paddocks. It had been developed 
jointly by the CSIRO and Monsanto, the giant US corporation. 
> 
> Using what scientists call biolistics, a "gene gun" that fires 
microscopic gold or tungsten cannonballs coated with genetic material 
into living cells, they had managed to create a cotton plant that 
manufactures bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), a micro-organism deadly to 
insects which occurs naturally in the soil and is one of the very few 
pesticides even organic farmers are allowed to use. 
> 
> It is harmless to humans. But, in theory at least, if a helicoverpa
caterpillar bites a chunk out of a leaf of this new cotton variety, it
will curl up and drop dead. No more spraying, a cleaner environment,
bigger profits for the farmers, a more competitive export industry for
Australia, it sounded too good to be true. 

> 
> And it was. In 1996 the Federal Government approved the commercial 
release of the patented Ingard cotton, as it is called, the first and so 
far the only genetically modified (GM) crop grown in Australia. Corish, 
the chairman of Cotton Australia, the organisation that represents the 
1,500 growers, watched eagerly for the results. 
> 
> Like the curate's egg, they were good in parts. Growers were able to
reduce their use of pesticides by up to 65per cent. But yields were also 
down that first season, and Monsanto exploited its monopoly position, 
charging farmers $245 a hectare for a licence to grow Ingard, almost 
double what it charged US farmers. By the time the growers did their 
accounts, many complained that they had lost money with the new miracle 
pest-proof cotton. 
> 
> This year, the third season, only about 16per cent of the 500,000 
hectares under cotton in Queensland and NSW have been sown to Ingard. 
This is partly because of the innate conservatism of farmers, and partly 
the caution of the Federal Government, which has imposed a ceiling of 
20per cent until it better understands the consequences of letting loose 
a transgenic organism into the fragile Australian environment, which 
most would feel has already suffered enough havoc from exotic species, 
introduced, admittedly, with the best of intentions. 
> 
> But this huge experiment is not just a debate about a new crop, 
farmers' incomes or even biological pollution, important as they may be. 
It is a debate that touches all of us in the most intimate and 
fundamental way, it's about who decides what we eat, about the safety 
and the security of our food supply. 
> 
> For two years now, oil crushed from the seeds of that transgenic 
cotton has been sold for human consumption, and the residue fed to 
livestock. The oil is used in fish-and-chip shops, and is blended to 
make products ranging from margarine to mayonnaise and cake-mix. And 
this is just the beginning. 
> 
> That oil is just one of a number of transgenic foods, from beer to 
cheese to baby food, which, with no announcement, no approval from any 
government organisation, no mandatory health or safety checks, and no 
labelling, have been quietly infiltrating Australia's supermarkets. One 
food industry guru estimates that up to 60per cent of the bottles, tins 
and packages on the shelves may already contain genetically engineered 
food, and that most of us will already have unknowingly eaten some. 
> 
> On one side of the debate are the vested interests of the global 
agri/food industry, which stands to make billions of dollars from its 
investment in the new technology. They argue powerfully that the new 
crops represent a second "green revolution", essential if we are to feed 
the billions

NATIVE_NEWS: Coincidence? or conspiracy? Deaths of Indians along Rapid Creek cause community

1998-12-26 Thread Ish

And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

Coincidence? or conspiracy?
Deaths of Indians along Rapid Creek cause community
 concern
  http://www.indiancountry.com/Natl25.HTML
   
   
 By Jennifer Peterka
 Today staff
Northern Plains Bureau

RAPID CITY, S.D. - Many of the homeless who live under bridges and in
cardboard boxes along
Rapid Creek, which runs through the middle of the city, are increasingly
concerned about their
safety. Some say they fear for their lives. 
  
Two bodies were found dead in the creek, near downtown Rapid City, within a
day of each other,
making a total of five deaths in the creek this year. Four of them were
American Indian males. 
  
Many transients and Rapid City homeless are increasingly concerned these
deaths. They believe an
area racist group may be responsible. 
  
Loren Two Bulls, 33 an Oglala and a well-known artist, was found Dec. 9,
about a half-block from
where Two Crow was found the day before. No cause of death was immediately
available, but
investigators said alcohol was involved and he had been very ill. 
  
Randelle Two Crow, a 48-year-old a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux
Tribe, was found in a
pool of water under a bridge, near the creek bank, 
Dec. 8. 
  
Investigators of the Rapid City Police Department and the Pennington County
Sheriff's Office,
believe Two Crow died sometime during night while sleeping under the
bridge. An autopsy

determined the cause of death was an extremely high blood-alcohol level. 
  
Police department spokesman Capt. Craig Tieszen said the investigation did
not indicate foul play
and he did not drown. 
  
The first of the five deaths in Rapid Creek occurred May 21. Benjamin Paul
Long Wolf, 36, was
found dead under the Sixth Street bridge, six blocks west of where Two Crow
died. 
  
According to the death certificate, Long Wolf was found with  moderate
swelling in his head and
marks around his neck, but his death was ruled an accident. 
  
Ten days later, May 31, George Hatten Jr., 56, was found dead in the creek
near a drainage ditch
beside a bridge, another four blocks west of where Two Crow died. Hatten's
death also was ruled
an accident. 
  
Death certificates described Long Wolf and Hatten as  "extremely
intoxicated and fell or passed out
in Rapid Creek." Cause of death - drowning due to severe intoxication. 
  
Allen Hough, a 42-year-old, white male, was found dead in the creek July 4.
Tieszen said there
was no evidence of foul play in Hough's death and it was listed as drowning. 
  
Members of Long Wolf's family have questions. "I don't think he drowned. I
think someone killed
him and threw him in the water. He was a pretty good swimmer and the creek
isn't that deep," said
his mother, Ruth Janis-Salway. 
  
"I don't think it was an accident. As far as I know it was just ruled out
as an accident. I don't think it
was very thoroughly investigated. Somebody must of pushed him off the
bridge and he hit his head
or they must of held his head under water. Something is really strange
about his death," said a sister,
Hope Conquering Bear. 
  
Many of transients who frequently sleep under the bridges along Rapid Creek
believe a racist group
of skinheads is responsible for the deaths. They say the group harasses
American Indians it finds
along the creek. 
  
"Skinheads killed him (Long Wolf). They choked him with a bungie cord and
left him to drown.
Everyone who lives down here knows that," said a transient who would
identify himself only as
Blue. Others also claimed to see the group of approximately 17 "skin heads"
that harass American
Indians. 
  
Tieszen said he has heard the rumors of a racist group causing the deaths.
"There is no evidence
whatsoever that there was any evidence of foul play in any of the deaths,"
he said. "Not a single
person has come forward with first-hand information that the rumors are
true." Tieszen asked
anyone with information that would prove otherwise to please come forward. 

  
Other than the location, investigations have not showed any connection
between the deaths, Tieszen
said. In 23 years as a Rapid City police officer, he said he has never seen
this many deaths in the
creek in a single year. 
  

=-=-=FREE LEONARD PELTIER=-=-= 
If you think you are too small to make a difference;
try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito
African Proverb
=-=http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ =-= 
IF it says:
"PASS THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW"
Please Check it before you send it at:

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NATIVE_NEWS: Oomaka Tokatakiya to begin Big Foot ride

1998-12-26 Thread Ish

And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

http://www.indiancountry.com/NP25.HTML
Oomaka Tokatakiya to begin Big Foot ride
By Karen L. Testerman
 Today staff
Northern Plains Bureau
  

LITTLE EAGLE, S.D. - For the fifth winter, young horseback riders are
making a 300-mile trek
across South Dakota in memory of Chief Big Foot and his people. 
  
Oomaka Tokatakiya  - Future Generations, began the crucial two-week ride
Dec. 15, in memory
of more than 350 Lakota, mostly old men, women and children, massacred by
the U.S. Army at
Wounded Knee in 1890. 
  
Chief Big Foot and his Mniconjou and members of Sitting Bull's Hunkpapa
bands, are ancestors of
countless Lakota still living on the Standing Rock, 

Cheyenne River and Pine Ridge Indian reservations. Many riders and
supporters are descendants
of those who trekked across the land to their peril in Wounded Knee. 
  
"I did not know then how much was ended, " Black Elk said of the massacre.
"A people's dream
died there in the bloody mud. [Now] the nation's hoop is broken and
scattered." 
  
At the urging of many Lakota elders, the Oomaka Tokatakiya have picked up
the people's dream
and the ride is their effort to mend the Sacred Hoop of the Lakota people. 
  
The young riders will lead their mounts down the same valleys and across
the same rolling plains
along which Chief Big Foot's people and members of Sitting Bull's bands
fled. Most were
half-naked and on foot, in fear of retribution from the U.S. Army's 7th
Cavalry, hoping to find
refuge at the Pine Ridge Agency. 
  
The spiritual journey will end at Wounded Knee Creek on Dec. 28, as did the
lives of those who
were slain there 100-years ago. <>>> 
If you think you are too small to make a difference;
try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito
African Proverb
=-=http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ =-= 
IF it says:
"PASS THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW"
Please Check it before you send it at:

http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/blhoax.htm



NATIVE_NEWS: Knife River ranger to be head interpreter at The Little Bighorn

1998-12-26 Thread Ish

And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

Tuesday, December 22, 1998

http://www.ndonline.com/TribWebPage/dec1998/12229864632.html
   Knife River ranger to be head
interpreter at The Little Bighorn 

  KEN ROGERS, Bismarck Tribune

  __

STANTON -- The earth remembers the lodges of the Knife River Indian Villages
with round depressions in the grass on the high ground above the Missouri
River.
For visitors to the historic site, Ken Woody remembers the ways and the
stories of
the Mandan and Hidatsa people who lived here.

A National Park Service ranger and interpreter, he has built bull boats,
tanned
buffalo hide, planted Indian corn, recorded the Mandan language and crafted
traditional Mandan and Hidatsa weapons, cloths and a cradle board.

Lewis and Clark author Steven Ambrose says Woody is "the best interpreter I
heard in a lifetime of listening."

Woody will leave Knife River after Christmas for a new job, head
interpreter at
the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument an hour east of Billings,
Mont.
His wife and three children will be moving there before the new year.

"That's the place I want to go," says Woody, tall, well-built, with an open
face and
easy smile. "I've been here seven years, and it finally came true. The job
opened
up."

   But it almost didn't. There's been a freeze in the
   National Park Service, with rangers laid off on both
   coasts getting the first crack at openings.

   "No one was interested," Woody said. "I redid my
   whole application. Sent it in. And waited. Then they
   started calling my references."

   Maybe what did it was the references, two former Little
   Bighorn superintendents, Gerard Baker and Barbara
   Booher, as well as Chas Cartwright, former Knife River
   superintendent, now top man at Devils Tower.

   Maybe it was Woody's knowledge of Plains Indians. His
   grandfather, a Mohawk, worked in wild west shows in
   the end of that era. "He worked with a lot of western
Indians," Woody says.

The older Woody would tell his grandson stories about Indians from the plains,
illustrated with headdress, bustles and parfleches he had obtained during
his wild
west show days.

"I was all bug-eyed," says Woody, who grew up in Pittsburgh and considers
North
Dakota the west.

Two years ago, Woody traveled to the Peabody Museum at Harvard. That's
where many of the artifacts collected by the Lewis and Clark Expedition are
kept.
In an nearly unprecedented move, the Peabody curators allowed Woody to trace
designs from a Mandan buffalo robe that the explorers sent Jefferson before
they
left the Knife River for the Pacific in the spring of 1805.

Once back at Stanton, Woody brain-tanned a buffalo hide and then retraced the
design on to the robe. He also did the quill work. It now hangs in a large
display
case in the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center at Great Falls, Mont.

The artwork on the robe tells the story of a battle with the Mandan and
Hidatsa on
one side and the Arikara and Sioux on the other. It took place in the 1790s.

In preparation for work at the Little Bighorn, Wood says, "I've been doing
a crash
course in Custer, soldiers, soldiers' wives. I've visited Fort Lincoln,
gone through
the house, videotaped and had the rangers show me the equipment that the
soldiers
used.

"Even though I have a good tribal customs background, I've been reading more
about the Indian side of the story (Little Bighorn battle)," says Woody, who
acknowledges that the soldiers' part in the battle is very important.

"My goal is to tell a balanced story," he says.

Meanwhile, Woody is working with Larry Belitu, the man who constructed the
tepee displayed in the Heritage Center, on a book about buffalo hide tepees
and
how they were made.

Woody says the move from Knife River to the Bighorn is a move from a slow
park to a fast park, from 22,000 visitors a year to 400,000 visitors.


One of the high points of Woody's stay at Knife River reflects the respect he
earned from Indian people. One of the Mandan elders allowed Woody to see "but
not touch" the sacred Mandan turtle drums.

Woody said, "It was incredible to see the drums that (George) Catlin
painted ... the
Turtle drums used in the Okipa ceremony."

=-=-=FREE LEONARD PELTIER=-=-= 
If you think you are too small to make a difference;
try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito
African Proverb
=-=http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ =-= 
IF it says:
"PASS THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW"
Please Check it before you send it at:

http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/blhoax.htm



NATIVE_NEWS: Fwd: Feb. 6th Day Of Solidarity

1998-12-26 Thread Ish

And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

>Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1998 19:08:54 -0800
>From: arthur <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>CC: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>ADate: 26/12/98 7:00:06 PM
>X-Mailer: Acorn Email v1b2
>Subject:  Feb. 6th Day Of Solidarity
>
>  please post widely
>NORTHWEST LEONARD PELTIER SUPPORT NETWORK- 
>TACOMA OFFICE
>P.O. BOX 5464
>TACOMA, WA 98415-0464 USA
>e-mail; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>  INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER
>FEBRUARY 6, 1999
>  Great momentum was created from the December 19th rallies across
>the U.S. and internationally for a mass mobilization to once and for all 
>gain justice for Leonard Peltier. 23 years it has taken to get to this point.
>Upon what has been done we need to push ahead for even more. This 
>campaign must continue to increase until the U.S. Government 
>understands that the case of Leonard Peltier WILL NOT GO AWAY
>AND THAT THIS STRUGGLE WILL ONLY KEEP GROWING! 
>  Leonard Peltier is an American Indian Movement (AIM) activist who 
>was framed on the charge of killing two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge 
>Lakota Reservation on June 26, 1975. There had been a large number of 
>FBI agents at Pine Ridge for the purpose of defending multi-national 
>energy companie's attempt to take Lakota land for uranium mining. The 
>FBI was a part of the oppresion of the traditional Lakota People and AIM 
>who were the resistance to the illegally taking of Lakota land. In the two 
>years before the shootout over 60 resisters were murdered by a death 
>squad that was armed, trained and directed by the FBI. On the day of 
>the shootout two FBI agents came into an AIM camp in the same 
>manner that the death squad had done all over Rine Ridge. There is
>much proof that this was a setup against AIM. Two FBI agents were 
>killed and one AIM member. In the first trial two AIM members were 
>found not guilty by reason of self-defense. Then the government illegally 
>had Leonard extradited  from Canada based upon false statements. 
>They then moved his trial to a judge that had been cited for his anti-
>Indian attitude. Leonard's trial was a frame-up that included falsified 
>evidence and the intimidation of witnesses.
>  Through the appeals process Leonard's defense has disproved the 
>government's case to the point that the government prosecutor has 
>come out and stated that they don't know who killed the agents and that 
>if Leonard were to have a trial today they could not convict him. They 
>say now that Leonard's crime was that he "aided and abetted" in the 
>deaths because he was there that day. Since the first two AIM members 
>were found not guity for reason of self-defense, this means that Leonard 
>has been locked-up for 23 years for aiding and abetting in an act of self-
>defense.  
>  Leonard was arrested in Canada on Feb. 6, 1976, thus marking that 
>day and the building of the international campaign for justice for Leonard 
>Peltier, Feb. 6th of each year has become THE INTERNATIONAL DAY
>IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER. Leonard Peltier supporters 
>have held marches and rallies on that day in many places 

>internationally. It does not matter where in the world you maybe, it does 
>not matter how small or how large of a city you live in, please join us
>in this day of solidarity. Even if it is but a small handful of people who 
>will come out on that day in your location. Please contact LPDC at;
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] if you are willing to help organize for Feb. 6th in your
>location.
>
>  INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER
>  FEBRUARY 6TH NWLPSN MARCH AND RALLY, TACOMA, WA
>  
>   12:00 NOON MARCH GATHERING POINT, PUYALLUP NATION
>TRIBAL GROUNDS (off I-5, exit 135 north, State Route 164 in 
> Tacoma. The Tribal Grounds are about a 1/4 mile on the right hand 
> side of the road). We will march from the Puyallup Nation Tribal 
> Grounds to the Federal Court House in downtown Tacoma at
> 1717 Pacific, where we will have a rally.
>
>   We hope that all people who believe in social justice will join in the
>campaign for justice for Leonard Peltier. The NWLPSN is a grassroots
>network and we get no funding beyond donations from people who 
>support our work. We have had an ongoing campaign which has 
>included 46 rallies within our region. The NWLPSN is made up of
>local support groups and individuals of the northwest that are committed
>to keep an active public campaign for justice for Leonard Peltier until
>he is free.  Please help us with a donation if you are able. Please send 
>donations to: NWLPSN-Olympia Office, 52001 Capitol Blvd, Suite 119,
>Olympia, WA 98501 USA. Also available from that office is a pamphlet 
>on the background of Leonard's case called "The Case of Leonard 
>Peltier" which the cost is $3.00 each, or $2.00 each for 6 or more.
>  I wish to personally thank all the people who have helped with this 
>campaign. 
>   

NATIVE_NEWS: Heavy brucellosis surveillance will continue

1998-12-26 Thread Sonja Keohane

And now:Sonja Keohane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

Please note that in TEN years they have not found an instance of
brucellosis transmission from bison to cattle.

And yet, both Montana and Wyoming claim this fear of economic
terrorism (other state's sanctions)  is what drives them to slaughter bison.

Will good science and or logic ever prevail re the bison?




Heavy brucellosis surveillance will continue for a while, official says

PINEDALE, Wyo. (AP) - Ranchers should expect three to five more years of
heavy testing of cattle for brucellosis, according to the leader of a
federal brucellosis surveillance team.

"We fully intend to maintain surveillance to the point we know we are truly
free of brucellosis in cattle," Dr. Claude Barton of Nashville, Tenn. told
the Pinedale Roundup.

Ranchers have criticized Wyoming's program as cumbersome and unwarranted.
Six counties in Wyoming have been testing cattle for the disease because
some states fear brucellosis could be transmitted by elk and bison.

While brucellosis has not turned up in Wyoming cattle in more than a
decade, other states have threatened sanctions because of concerns that elk
and bison could transmit the disease.

The disease can cause cows to abort their calves and recurring fever in humans.

The state has worked diligently in surveying cattle and keeping them
separated from animals that may have brucellosis, Barton said. His team
plans to submit its report on the state's surveillance program by Jan. 1.