NATIVE_NEWS: Chihuahua drives from McDonald's to Taco Bell in owner's Chrysler
Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Received: from mtiwmhc08.worldnet.att.net (mtiwgwc04.worldnet.att.net [204.127.131.19]) by a.mx.voyager.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id AAA72862 for [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Mon, 13 Dec 1999 00:43:46 -0500 (EST) Received: from sharp-points ([12.75.144.11]) by mtiwmhc08.worldnet.att.net (InterMail v03.02.07.07 118-134) with SMTP id 19991213054039.TDYZ727@sharp-points; Mon, 13 Dec 1999 05:40:39 + Message-Id: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sun, 12 Dec 1999 23:39:59 -0600 Subject: Chihuahua drives from McDonald's to Taco Bell in owner's Chrysler Chihuahua drives from McDonald's to Taco Bell in owner's Chrysler http://cjonline.com/stories/121299/new_chihuahua.shtml The Associated Press CORVALLIS, Ore. -- After his Jeep was rear-ended in the parking lot of a Taco Bell, Tinker Melonuk stepped out to have a word with the driver of the offending Chrysler. In the driver's seat was a Chihuahua named Mr. Chips, one paw on the wheel. The dog had just had a wild ride, with the car careering across five lanes of traffic from a nearby McDonald's. "I said to myself, 'If this dog's mouth moves, I'm getting out of here,' " said Melonuk, a Baptist pastor. Taco Bell, after all, has commercials featuring a pointy-eared, pint-sized, Spanish-speaking Chihuahua named Dinky. Its signature phrase "Yo quiero Taco Bell" means "I want Taco Bell." All Connie Sies wanted was her dog back. The strange ride started Thursday when the 77-year-old Corvallis woman stopped at the McDonald's to buy her pooch some McNuggets. When she stepped part way out of her car to pay for her order, her foot slipped off the brake. The Chrysler, with Mr. Chips in the front seat, took off without her. It slipped between a telephone pole and a tree, and then rolled across the street -- straight into the Taco Bell parking lot, where it hit Melonuk's Jeep and came to a stop. Damage was minor. Sies said Mr. Chips, her companion of 15 years, was a little shaken up but glad to see her: "His little tail was wagging, and he licked me and licked me. Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
NATIVE_NEWS: ANNA MAE: Banks, Bellecourt et al...
Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : distributed via FN list by Mike W Subject: Florida AIM statement at this time Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1999 16:00:16 EST From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: list suppressed Greetings: In this malestrom of Anna Mae Aquash allegations, counterallegations and just plain bs from people who have no clue it is helpful to review the facts and seperate them from the conjecture and the same between the conjecture and the rumors. FACTS 1) Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash was a AIM member who was murdered. 2) Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash's body was found in February 1976. FBI SA David Price determined, despite blood on the head and pooled around it, that this case was not under the major crimes act and therefore no substantive crime scene was developed. 3) FBI SA David Price despite having interviewed and searching for Anna Mae Aquash (who was basically on the run at this point) could not identify her and had her hands sent to DC 4) FBI Pathologist WO Brown concluded that she had died of exposure. His report does not note a sexual crime as having occured 5) WKLDOC atty Bruce Ellison and AIM National leaders obtain a Hennepin County (MN) pathologist to reautopsy the body. This pathologist noticed the hole in her head and further investigated and found no evidence of sex crimes. 6) 21 days after the body of Anna Mae Aquash had been found the FBI opened a murder investigation which continued 23 years later 7) At least two grand juries have been convened and no one has yet been charged-let alone prosecuted. 8) Anna Mae Tanaquodle is known to be a FBI paid confidential informant posing as an AIM member to create confusion. Her activities raise suspicions about Anna Mae Aquash. 9) Anna Mae Aquash is interrogated by members of the Northwest AIM group at the 1975 National AIM convention in Farmington, NM regarding her being an agent. 10) US Marshal Robert Ecoffey, former head of the BIA Police on Pine Ridge, reopens Anna Mae investigation-without having subject matter jursidiction. Investigation ends without any suspects being named as Ecoffey gets position with BIA 11) Denver Police Department INTELLIGENCE BUREAU detective Abe Alonzo comes on the case-he investigates and no one is charged. Denver PD transfer the case to the homicide cold case unit 12) Robert Brancombe, Anna Mae Pictou Aquash's second cousin begins investigating by at least 1997 (earliest public record). 13) Russell Means, former Rapid City Police Department employee Ward Churchill and Branscombe hold a press conference in the Denver federal building next to the FBI office to announce they know who did it and that all the AIM leadership-besides him, conspired to order to have Anna Mae killed. 14) In the 31 year history of AIM no informant has been executed. Not Doug Durham, Virginia De Luce, Joe Molano, John Arrelano. 15) The three names being alleged to have killed Anna Mae Aquash are/were close associates of Harold David Hill-who is a close associate of Russell Means. CONJECTURE These are pieces of information available mostly from News From Indian Country which pieced together available trial transcripts, grand jury testimonies, and interviews conducted to make these deductions regarding Anna Mae's murder 1) Anna Mae was taken from Troy Lynn Yellow Wood's home in December 1975 2) She was questioned in Rapid City possibly by AIM leaders 3) She is taken from the home of David Hill and Thelma Rios 4) She is killed by the same individuals alleged by Means-Branscombe. 5) Two of the individuals-according to Brancombe solely, have been given blanket immunity from prosecution by the FBI, South Dakota and Canadian authorities. At the Branscombe-Means conference this is altered to one of the individuals. 6) There is no conjecture in the NFIC investigation as to the involvement of AIM's national leaders-including Means or Mr. Hill or Ms. Rios. RUMORS 1) Means-Churchill-Branscombe assert that National AIM leaders ordered the "hit" by the three individuals alleged to have done so. Problem-The factionalism within the movement is old. The three individuals alleged have ties to Russell but not the other leadership. Further no actual informant-upon which hard evidence was obtained or learned, was executed making it difficult to understand why Anna Mae Aquash would be singled out for such harsh punishment. Further there are no other examples of AIM doing executions of anyone-not Janklow, not Durham or any other ghoul. 2) The basis of the above rumor is one of the individuals alleged to have done this confessed and must be telling the truth because he has immunity. Problem- Too many allegedlies. But granting that if the individual alleged to have killed Anna Mae, allegedly has such blanket immunity as Branscombe describes then the idea he must be telling the truth doesn't hold. The only reason
NATIVE_NEWS: MICHIGAN: Court dates in Indian Tribal Fishing case delayed
Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : From: "Bear Christensen" [EMAIL PROTECTED] via Martha Court dates in Indian Tribal Fishing case delayed By Renee Ruble KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) _ A federal judge's decision to postpone a trial may increase the chances for an out-of-court settlement in a dispute over Indian fishing rights. Chief Judge Richard Enslen this week delayed the trial to August 2000, giving mediator John Bickerman more time to negotiate an agreement between the state and five Indian tribes involved in the case. Trial had been set for May. The tribes and state are trying to develop a replacement for a tribal fishing policy that has stood since 1985, when Enslen approved a consent decree that temporarily settled a lawsuit filed 12 years earlier. Bickerman was hired this fall to help reach an out-of-court settlement, which Enslen has said he would prefer. The five tribes involved in the case are: The Bay Mills Indian Community, the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. The state and the tribes must resolve issues ranging from the size of Indian fishing waters to how long the new agreement should last. One particularly contentious issue is the use of gill nets, which the tribes say is their right based upon an 1836 treaty with the federal government. Recreational fishermen say the nets harm their fisheries. -- -- © The Associated Press. All rights reserved -- -- © The Associated Press. All rights reserved Clinton signs water compact for Rocky Boys Reservation -- -- HELENA (AP) _ President Clinton on Friday signed into law a bill that settles water rights of the Chippewa Cree Tribe on the Rocky Boys Reservation and provides $43 million for water projects and economic development efforts. The agreement is the second such water compact among Montana, the federal government and an American Indian tribe. The Northern Cheyenne Tribe already has its agreement. The Legislature earlier this year endorsed a compact with the Crow Tribe that is awaiting federal approval. The signing completes eight years of negotiations that involved the U.S. Department of the Interior. "This settlement was reached in the true spirit of cooperation. It represents a strong partnership among Federal, State and Tribal parties," said Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. "Through a great deal of hard work, we have forged a settlement that satisfies tribal rights and needs, while also recognizing the rights and needs of non-Indians in the region." The compact was signed by the north-central Montana tribe and state in April 1997. It allows the tribe to divert up to 10,000 acre-feet of water a year from rivers, lakes and aquifers and to use another 10,000 acre-feet annually from Tiber Reservoir, about 50 miles west of the 122,000-acre reservation. The legislation provides $25 million for four projects to develop water supplies on the reservation, $15 million for future importing of drinking water and $3 million for tribal economic development efforts. The tribe needs more water storage and public works improvements to support its agricultural operations and to meet drinking water needs of its growing population. Bruce Sunchild, chairman of the tribe's negotiating team, stressed the importance of the agreement. "This settlement signals a turning point in the Chippewa Cree's history by setting the foundation for the realization of the tribe's vision of Rocky Boys Reservation as a self-sustaining homeland for the Chippewa Cree people." Chris Tweeten, chairman of the Montana Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission, said the compact "brings certainty to an area in which water is the lifeblood of the economy." "The real heroes are the people of the Rocky Boys Reservation and their neighboring ranchers who set aside years of mistrust to reach this agreement, and in doing so, showed great courage, leadership and compassion," he said. All three members of Montana'a congressional delegation sponsored the bill signed by Clinton. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., said everyone wins and no one loses under the agreement. "There are only healthier families, more opportunities for economic growth and increasing community stability," he said. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., stressed the compact ensures tribal access to safe drinking water. "The signing of this legislation also will stimulate economic development, create jobs and improve the quality of life for many people in the area," he said. Rep. Rick Hill, R-Mont., said the agreement will help tribal neighbors as well because it contains
NATIVE_NEWS: ACTION ALERT: ANTI-INDIAN ART
Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Received: from [EMAIL PROTECTED] by imo-d04.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v24.6.) id 5.0.de518883 (4575) for [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Mon, 13 Dec 1999 12:44:31 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1999 12:44:31 EST Subject: ACTION ALERT: ANTI-INDIAN ART Tonight, December 13, 1999, the Albuquerque City Council will meet to consider and approve a memorial to be placed in Tiguex Park which will include a statute of Juan de Onate. Onate, the first Spanish territorial governor of New Mexico, was convicted of atrocities against Indians under Spanish law and banished to Spain. The image of Onate is a form of race harassment of Indians. On top of that, can you imagine anyone putting up a statue of a convicted war criminal? This project is an insult to the Indians of New Mexico and it sets a prececent to mock Indians everywhere. Are you willing to tell the Albuquerque City Council that you will spend your tourist dollars elsewhere if the monument goes forward? Do you belong to an organization that is willing to boycott Albuquerque and New Mexico if Onate is part of it? The Council meets at 5:00 p.m. tonight, so immediate action is needed. CONTACTS: E-mail: Doreen Jaramillo, Clerk of the Council: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fax: (505) 768-3227 Telephone: (505) 768-3100 SUGGESTED MESSAGE: Do not approve the Cuarto Centenario Memorial so long as Juan de Onate is in it. He is a convicted war criminal. If Albuquerque erects a monument which includes a war criminal, I will not spend my tourist dollars in Albuquerque or in New Mexico, and I will actively urge the organizations I belong to to boycott Albuquerque and New Mexico. Web site for the City of Albuquerque: www.cabq.gov Jim Zion Navajo Working Group for Human Rights
NATIVE_NEWS: [BIGMTLIST] vp video
Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : From: Robert Dorman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1999 11:28:57 -0800 From: "mauro deoliveira" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: vp video please post X-Sender-Ip: 204.132.161.83 To add to the tremendous work that AL Swilling has done in getting Vanishing Prayer out to the public, another streaming of Vanishing Prayer is taking place at www.usgigtv.net/USWEBTVVIDEOVanishPray.htm My thanks to Harold Hamm at US Gig TV for HIS OFFER to do so. The other, an original streaming of Vanishing Prayer has been taking place off of SENAA's site for months. Incidently, the song "Amerika", about Big Mountain, has taken third place in the World Music for Freedom Awards. The German based competition has already brought European inquiries to SOL concerning BM. Mauro SOL Communications This is a BIGMTLIST post. For more information on this on-going human rights crisis in the United States, visit my web page at http://www.theofficenet.com/~redorman/pagea~1.htm
NATIVE_NEWS: Activist-Author looks to the future
Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : "hansenhouse" [EMAIL PROTECTED] replies: - "ACTIVIST/AUTHOR LOOKS TO THE FUTURE" - Copyright © 1998 The Seattle Times Company Posted at 05:39 a.m. PDT; Thursday, April 23, 1998 by Mary Elizabeth Cronin Seattle Times staff reporter A woman asked Winona LaDuke how she keeps from being overwhelmed by the enormity of battling the environmental, political and economic threats to her northern Minnesota White Earth Reservation tribal lands - and lending a hand to efforts around the country. LaDuke stood for a moment with her gaze fixed on the woman. As she closed her eyes and opened them, they filled with a peaceful determination. The Harvard-educated environmental and native-land activist was fielding questions from the 40 people who attended the Elliott Bay Book Company reading yesterday afternoon for her first novel, "Last Standing Woman" (Voyageur Press, $22.95). The book has drawn praise from two acclaimed authors who are also Native Americans: Louise Erdrich and Sherman Alexie. LaDuke said she thinks about how hard her Anishinaabe (the native name of the Ojibwe/Chippewa tribe) ancestors struggled seemingly futilely as the federal government took away the rightful tribal lands and sent their children away to government boarding schools. "Things take a long time to fix," LaDuke said. "If it takes 100 years to take back the land, then that is the way it is. Just don't let them have the power that they make you feel useless, disgusted, powerless. I just turn my back and do my own thing." For "doing her own thing:" -- Ms. magazine selected her as one of its 1997 women of the year. She shared the award with the Indigo Girls for their Honor the Earth music/speaking tours to raise money for the Seventh Generation Fund, supporting Native American social-justice and environmental groups. -- Ralph Nader chose her as his 1996 vice-presidential candidate for the Green Party. -- Time magazine placed LaDuke in its 1994 roster of 50 of America's most promising leaders age 40 and under. -- The Reebok company gave her a $20,000 human-rights award in 1988, which she used to buy back nearly 1,000 acres of lost tribal lands. She founded the White Earth Land Recovery Project to reclaim the 837,000 acres granted the Anishinaabe tribe in a 1967 treaty. LaDuke, 39 this year, has done a lot of living - and that doesn't count the lessons she's learned from the stories of elders she has interviewed for the numerous articles she's written about native economic, environmental and and-use issues. She held on to the stories until she had so many she had to tell them. They became the basis for a portion of her novel, a historical fiction account of seven generations of Anishinaabe Indians. She brings many of the ancestral stories full circle, including linking the father-daughter incest rape of one character to the sexual violence the grandfather met as a boy at the hands of a boarding-school priest. Like many of the novel's characters, LaDuke had to reclaim parts of her culture. She was born in East Los Angeles to a Jewish mother and an Anishinaabe father. Her mother raised LaDuke in Ashland, Ore., after her parents split in 1964. In 1982, after graduating with a Harvard economic-development degree, LaDuke took a job on the White Earth Reservation as high-school principal. She learned her native language and stayed after the job ended. One of the characters in her novel was modeled after her late father Vincent LaDuke. Known as Sun Bear, he was an actor and activist who did work as an extra in Hollywood Westerns. He lived in Spokane from the 1970s to the early 1990s. A portion of the novel portrays an optimistically harmonious future. This was purposeful. "A lot of Indian writing is history," LaDuke said. "I think Indian people need to be in the future too. I can't relate to that doom future, `Brave New World.' It's not my future." LaDuke, who lives in a cabin on a lake on the White Earth reservation with her son and daughter, 7 and 9, and her horses, works on the Native Harvest project when she's not speaking or assisting other native groups. The project creates an economic base by producing maple syrup, wild rice, jam and traditional corn that LaDuke hopes will support the return of tribal members. About 7,000 live on the reservation now. At Elliott Bay, a man asked LaDuke how she feels about white people who want to participate in native-land, environmental or social-justice causes. He said he was heartened by the range of personalities among the white characters in her novel. LaDuke praised his question. "Do it because it's the right thing," LaDuke said simply. "Don't do it because of guilt. Do it because it encourages your own humanity." Copyright © 1998 The Seattle Times Company Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law.
NATIVE_NEWS: History: A Hundred Years Ago - Carlisle - Week 132
Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1999 20:31:07 -0800 From: Barbara Landis [EMAIL PROTECTED] THE INDIAN HELPER ~%^%~ A WEEKLY LETTER -FROM THE- Indian Industrial School, Carlisle, Pa. VOL. XV. FRIDAY, December 8, 1899 NUMBER 7 THE CHILD HEART - The heart of a child, Like the heart of a flower, Has a smile for the sun And a tear for the shower; Oh, innocent hours With wonder beguiled - Oh, heart like a flower's Is the heart of a child! The heart of a child, Like the heart of a bird, With raptures of music Is flooded and stirred; Oh, songs without words, Oh, melodies wild - Oh, heart like a bird's Is the heart of a child! The heart of a child, Like the heart of the spring, Is full of the hope Of what summer shall bring; Oh, glory of things In a world undefined- Oh, the heart like the spring's Is the heart of a child! -Arthur Austin-Jackson, in London Speaker. BLANKET INDIANS NOT MUCH FOR STYLE. - Some blanket Indians with their agent, were stopping at a hotel in Washington, not very recently. The Indians were representative men, but for some reason or other it was their first trip to the National Capital. They belonged to a conservative tribe who have been quietly attending to business at home without having to send delgates to the Great Father as often as some tribes seem to have to, hence these particular chiefs had never seen much of the outside world and had never before eaten at a hotel. At dinner the menu was handed to the Indians, who, of course, not being able to make out the name of various dishes, was obliged to rely upon their interpreter. Each chose what he wanted. The waiter then went to the window where orders are called off to the cook. He then went back, walked very deliberately to where the glasses were kept, selected one for each, wiped the glass, filled it with water and set it by the plate of each Indian. Then he stood around apparently indifferent as to whether the Indians had anything to eat or not. Everybody was eating, but the Indians had nothing. Of course their dinner was in the process of cooking, but they did not see any evidence of it. They began to be impatient. "Why don't we have something to eat?" one asked of the interpreter. "The white people are making fun of us. We do not want to sit here and starve while the white people fill themselves and laugh at us." "That fellow came and asked what we wanted to eat. We told him. He went and talked into that window. He gives us nothing." At this the dignified old chief arose, wrapped his blanket about him and with compressed lips and head up stalked out of the room. In a moment the other befeathered and painted warriors followed, and they all went down the street to a grocery store where they bought something to eat and got it when they asked for it. This is a true story told the writer by the interpreter himself. "THE MOUTH OF HELL." It is total abstinence or death - at least with most Indians, says Progress, that bright newsy little paper printed at the Regina Industrial School, Canada, to the boys. If a boy tampers with the wine cup, he is lost. A bar-tender said, in the tone of an oracle: "Your educated Indian boys are only educated rascals. I can't tell them from ordinary customer." Shun the Bar Room, boys. It's no place for you. To many it is the mouth of Hell. (page 2) THE INDIAN HELPER PRINTED EVERY FRIDAY --AT THE-- Indian Industrial School, Carlisle, Pa., BY INDIAN BOYS. --- THE INDIAN HELPER is PRINTED by Indian boys, but EDITED by The man-on-the-band-stand who is NOT an Indian. P R I C E: --10 C E N T S A Y E A R Entered in the PO at Carlisle as second class mail matter. Address INDIAN HELPER, Carlisle, Pa. Miss Marianna Burgess, Manager. Do not hesitate to take the HELPER from the Post Office for if you have not paid for it some one else has. It is paid for in advance. The school and the Indians in general have lost a good friend in the death of Abram R. Vail, a Friend, well known to many of that Society in Bucks County. He was a resident of Quakertown, N.J., and has long been a patron of the Carlisle Outing. The handsomest calendars we have seen this year
NATIVE_NEWS: Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, December 13, 1999 1:01 PM Subject: Yellowstone Bison Slaughter Winter comes to Yellowstone Ushering in another bison kill By Wynona LaDuke - Special to Indian Country Today Wii-zoogipod. It is likely to snow. As the snow starts to fall in Yellowstone National Park, there are some absolute certainties. There is a certainty that the National Park Service will grind away at a process to determine the fate of the survivors of the Great Buffalo Nation. There is a virtual certainty that buffalo will die, perhaps a few, perhaps a hundred, perhaps mostly mothers, like last winter, who left orphaned calves, dying later. And, there is a certainty that people will oppose that slaughter. Three meetings, called "tribal consultations" by the National Park Service, were called this past year to seek input from Native Nations on the Environmental Impact Statement for the future management of Yellowstone buffalo. At the least, tribal representatives are frustrated with the process. James Garrett from Cheyenne River Lakota Nation commented that the Park Service seems to be, "mixing consultation with insultation . being consulted at the eleventh hour is tantamount to insult." The Native community is insulted and angry with a process that has marginalized perhaps the only people who know anything about buffalo. The wider community, evidenced by more than 60,000 letters and calls, was also pretty disgusted with every single proposal the Park Service has come up with to manage the Yellowstone herd. And, the Park Service, weighed under the politics of cattlemen, the quandary of federal process and an impending 2000 election, scrambles feebly and weakly to do something right. It is the cusp of the millennium and America remains in a strange dance with death. It is a dance between mythology and reality, cowboys and Indians, cattle and buffalo, expressing a deep-set fear that somehow if those buffalo live, what is America will not. Through this dance, American policy makers struggle to determine the future of a buffalo herd and an entire bioregion. Look at it this way : 45 million cattle have replaced 60 million buffalo in the Northern Plains region. Many of these cattle have moved into government held lands in the region and are scarfing up grazing rights to most of the region. That is about 250 million acres of the American West. The politics and economics of this situation, resulting from faulty land use and agricultural policy, has led to the decimation of one third of the Yellowstone buffalo herd over the past four years. The Yellowstone herd are descendants of the 23 last wild buffalo who lived through the great massacre of the past century. The herd asks for enough food to survive and to live in some dignity. It is a simple request but the tribes have learned all too well that there is no such thing. "They're going to slap us down . they're going to slap those buffalo down," says Louis LaRose from the Winnebago of Nebraska. As Native peoples, it is that quandary we all live in, how to not get slapped down, and how to live in dignity. The bullet fence and the myth of wild "The buffalo is central to our existence," explains Milo Yellow Hair of the Oglala Lakota Nation. "Our ceremonies will have no meaning if there is no buffalo. Our language will have no meaning if there is no buffalo." It is that basic. Yet an impossible dilemma is again leading the buffalo to the edge of genetic oblivion. Buffalo suffer from genetic bottleneck, a direct consequence of the massacres of the past century. Genetically speaking, the more there are, the better their chances at survival. And, genetically speaking, many experts consider the Yellowstone herd to be the "strongest herd." Therefore, a herd cap proposed at Yellowstone of 1,700 to 2,200 animals means that the "strongest herd" can only grow so far before it is killed. That is a biological concern for the longevity of the Buffalo Nation. It is a fact that the Yellowstone Park boundaries and attendant ecosystem can only support so many buffalo. In total, the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, as it is called, in all of its glory is about 1.75 million acres. Yellowstone National Park was established for the beauty of the location, not for its ability to sustain a buffalo herd in the middle of winter. So it happens year after year, driven by their survival instincts, Yellowstone buffalo are shot and killed after leaving the park for winter forage. Over the past four years, the state of Montana and federal officials have killed 1,900 of these buffalo as they move in search of food. Then there is the myth of wildness. While the Park Service maintains a non-interference policy with wildlife in the park borders, that
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/ "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
NATIVE_NEWS: Should Tribes Be Permitted to Kill Eagles? RESPONSE
Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : Erbe, Bonnie. "Should Tribes Be Permitted to Kill Eagles?" The Record (Bergen County, NJ), December 10, 1999, L11. ["Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is backing a policy change that would allow members of the Hopi tribe to remove baby eaglets from their nests and sacrifice them in religious ceremonies. Not only would such a policy be incredibly cruel on its face, it would pave the way for a variety of other unbelievably inhumane abuses of protected creatures. As a proponent of the multi-tonal fabric of our multi-ethnic, multi-cultural society, I understand the administration's desire to placate a Native American tribe. Anyone who has read American history understands the incomprehensibly abusive relationship between Uncle Sam and the hundreds of Indian nations that populated what is now the U.S. of A. before our European forefathers got here . . . But when native peoples, no matter how badly abused by us in the past, seek to perpetrate equally senseless barbarities on helpless creatures, we should stand on principle and use our awesome power to stop, not to enable them."] http://www.bergen.com/ REPLY: Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 21:41:19 -0800 (PST) From: Jason Spaulding [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Hopi Use of Golden Eaglets (Bonnie Erbe, 8 December 1999) To: Peter Copeland [EMAIL PROTECTED] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Michael Jordan has previously written you regarding Bonnie Erbe's article on Hopi taking of eaglets in Hopi Tutsqua (homeland) which happens to be claimed by the United States as a national monument. Ironically, the primary purpose of the monument is to preserve ancient villages of the Hisatsinom, whom the Navajo and some non-Hopi call Anasazi. The Hopi never fought a war with the United States. The tribe never signed a treaty, just or unjust, surrendering one inch of Hopi Tutsqua. I have a map on my website delineating Hopi Tutsqua; Wupatki is clearly within that land. http://www.happycampers.net/reg_dir/l_1105.html Indeed, Wupatki is a Hopi word. When the United States acquired Mexican claims to Hopi Tutsqua, it promised to respect the rights of Mexican citizens, which the Hopi were, whether they accepted it or not under Mexican law. Additionally, the United States promised not to displace Indians from their homelands in the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo. Bonnie Erbe claims that: --- U.S. government financial reparations to the native peoples of America have been reasonably generous and should continue well into the next millennium. The Hopi claim to the Wupatki area was dismissed by the United States in a case known as Docket 196 in the Indian Claims Court. A dirtier case of imperialism may not exist in this country than Docket 196. A traitor lawyer, not even representing a majority of the tribe, took pennies per acre for a substantial portion of Hopi Tutsqua, including Flagstaff, Arizona. The tribe has never accepted those pennies. See as a starting reference, "The Disease of Thinking in Essences: The U.S./Indian Relationship, Specific to the Hopi 1830-1970" http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~janeck/work/hopi.html See the maps on my website for Hopi Tutsqua, and how it has been diminished by the United States. http://members.xoom.com/redbud1/navajo1.htm Now the United States is seeking to curtail the exercise of traditional religion in Hopi Tutsqua. The Hopi, in their own peaceful way, have filed a petition to retain the ancient practice of capturing golden eaglets, a practice which in no manner threatens a species which is not endangered. You should know that the petition itself is a compromise of the premise that this knowledge is reserved for Hopis of the appropriate clan and training. Mr. Jordan's comments regarding the survival of only one chick are backed up by scientific literature. Let me turn it around for you. Many Indian traditional ways forbid the consumption of alcohol. How would it be taken if Indians passed laws forbidding Catholics to drink communion wine, and threatened to arrest them if they did? Sacred sites are not limited to the Hopi; many cultures depend on sacred sites: http://web.hamline.edu/law/lawrelign/sacred/bibliography.ssw.htm I am not Hopi, nor do I speak for anyone but myself. It is my understanding that the eagle and its feathers are used to take prayers to heaven. It is essential to certain ceremonies, ceremonies which are far older than the United States, Mexico or even Spain. Bonnie Erbe finds this ceremony "incomprehensible" which may reflect more on her intellect and spirituality than on the Hopi. May I suggest that in the future, when you run stories about Indians, that you at least require your reporter to diligently seek a tribal point of view and include the same fairly, rather than spewing her own unilateral and half-baked opinions? Even the Park Service has estimably presented the cultural history on the official website, http://www.nps.gov/waca/sacred.htm . continuance
NATIVE_NEWS: NEWS BRIEFS (2)
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: ABC to air 100-tribe Tucson powwow on New Year's Eve
Posted by Sonja Keohane [EMAIL PROTECTED] : For any with an interest: http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/news/archive/Story1253790.html ABC to air 100-tribe Tucson powwow on New Year's Eve A 10-day powwow involving more than 100 Native American tribes that starts here Dec. 31 has grown to such proportions that ABC-TV plans to televise the event as part of its millennium coverage on New Year's Eve. The New Millennium First Peoples' World Fair and Pow Wow, Thunder in the Desert, was to feature 50 to 60 powwow dancers each day. The number has grown to about 2,500 dancers each day, said Fred Synder , the event coordinator . The tremendous growth has put organizers in a bind, and they're asking the community to help volunteer with food, lodging and any other way they can, Synder said. Organizers have secured more than 400 hotel rooms for participants, but are asking churches for help and are searching for Tucsonans to serve as host families. Synder didn't have an estimate of how many people will attend the event, which runs through Jan. 9 at Rillito Raceway Park. He said some will need accommodations for only a few days. Weekends are expected to be the busiest times, he said. The event is open to the public and will include concerts, parades, a round table dance to bring in the new millennium, a sunrise blessing for the 21st century, a competition powwow, exhibition performances and craft markets. Theme days, such as Gourd Dance/Warrior Day, Alaska Natives Day, Seventh Generation Youth Day and Senior Golden and Veterans Day are planned throughout the week. Proceeds from the event will go to the event's sponsor, Reservations Creation Women's Circle Charitable Trust, a non-profit Tucson organization whose mission is to preserve, protect and promote Native American culture and traditions. All activities are free, although there will be a recommended donation of $10 to $12 for the Electric Pow Wow concert. Tucson was chosen for the event because it is close to many tribal nations, has mild winter weather and is one of the top 20 urban areas for Native American populations, Synder said. Arizona is home to 27 tribes, including the Tohono O'odham and Pascua Yaqui tribes in the Tucson area. Event organizers are asking that people who can accommodate guests during the event or help with food call 622-4900, or Gina John at 622-7611, extension 1342. Information about the event is available on the World Wide Web at usaindianinfo.org ---end of article-
