_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' O ( N A T I V E A M E R I C A N ) O o O ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ O o O / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' O o o o o O / /-< / /--/ /-- VOLUME 01, ISSUE 006 O o O __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, O o O ( N E W S ) O <----<<<< >>>>----> This newsletter is a way of keeping the brothers and sisters of the Invisible Band and those who share our spirit informed about current events within the lives of those who walk the Red Road. It is hoped that our presence will be rewarded with a Native American RoundTable on GEnie. Long ago, soon after mankind was created, he was dropped and shattered. This all occured here in the Southeastern part of Turtle Island, after Creator's blood fell to earth and Grandmother Spider gathered some of it and bound it up in silk cocoons. These cocoons became men. --- Woktela, "The Four Directions: American Indian Literary Quarterly" P. O. Box 729, Tellico Plains, TN 37385 O'siyo Brothers and Sisters! There have been some changes in the masthead of the Native American News. First, the name is now in Lakota, thanks to a traslation by Distant Eagle. On 25 April I told Distant Eagle I felt it was inappropriate NOT to use a Native American tongue in the banner of a newsletter dedicated to reporting events that affect Native Americans, and asked if he knew a Lakota phrase that meant essentially the same as "Native American News". His reply, out of context and edited,: "Let's see... 'News' in Lakota is 'wotanging'. A newspaper is 'wotabging wowapi'. 'Indian news' would be 'wotanging Ikche'. Lakota is the 'lingua franca' in the Native world, so it makes sense to use Lakota." Second, I have decided to leave the first two one sentence paragraphs as a permanent fixture of the banner until the second sentence is no longer just a dream we are chasing. We have Ann Parsons (GEnie mail: A.PARSONS3) to thank for her gift. She has volunteered to provide a link between the Invisible Band and FidoNet, a worldwide computer network. Mitaquye Oyasin! Night Owl ------------------ clip here for news feature -- 8< ----------- ---------- "Re:Native American Spoken in Homes" ---------- Subject: Native American Tongues Spoken in Homes From: gars@genie.geis.com In an article by Margaret L. Usdansky in the 28 April 1993 issue of "USA Today" the new Census report notes that one in seven U. S. residents speaks a foreign language at home. The most common is Spanish, spoken by more than 17 million people or 54% of those who don't speak English at home. Spanish is 10 times more commonly spoken than the second place language, French, with 5.3% of the foreign tongues. Of those speaking non-English at home, about 335,000 speak a Native American language. Nearly half of those speak Navajo. 33 Native American languages recognized by the Census aren't spoken by anyone! This Census report is alarming! It tells me that many have fallen to the trap of assimilation and the tongues and ways of our ancestors is being driven out. Please re-read the article in nanews01.002 about Calvin Fast Wolf and his Sioux language class at Stanford. We need more who fight to reclose the circle. Our heritage and our history are passed on orally. If the tongue is removed from the speaker, the message is silenced. The message being silenced is that we share but one Mother Earth. She nurtures all as they pass through this terrestrial life. Our brothers and sisters who do not not know The Way have taken from her without giving back. ---------- "Haskell JUCO Pow wow" ---------- Haskell Indian Junior College Pow-Wow Lawrence, Kansas May 14, 15, and 16, 1993 MC - Browning Pipestem, Osage & Otoe, Norman OK Head Man Dancer - Shude Victors, Ponca, Wichita KS Head Lady Dancer - Dorothy "Dee Dee" Bread-Stites, Kiowa & Cherokee Lawrence KS Arena Directors - Creighton Moore, Kiowa, Wichita KS - Howard Shane, Crow, Crow Agency MT Host Southern Drum - White Tail Singers Macy NE - Fort Oakland Ramblers, Tonkawa OK Host Northern Drums - Black Whistler Singers Lodge Grass MT - Whitefish Jr's Big River Reserve, Saskatchewan Canada Host Gourd Clan - Cherokee Gourd Clan Tahlequah OK - Red Rock Creek Red Rock OK Contact person: Connie Bread (913) 749-8428 ---------- "Crisis at Barriere Lake" ---------- ACTION ALERT FROM CULTURAL SURVIVAL (CANADA) ALGONQUIN OF BARRIERE LAKE THREATENED BY MILL OWNERS Following the breakdown of negotiations between the Algonquin of Barriere Lake and the government of Quebec, there had been a tense stand-off as logging continued on Algonquin territory. The community allowed logging to continue but closely monitored to ensure that logging did not intrude into the 60 metre buffer zone set by the Algonquins and rejected by the Quebec government. Recently, the situation has become more explosive due to comments made to the media by the owners of the three sawmills in the area -- Mont-Laurier Sawmill, Placages de l`Outaouais and Gatineau Forest Products. The owners, according to the media, are organizing a plan of attack^to get their wood out of the CAAF, despite the rights and concerns of the Algonquin and in defiance of the Trilateral Agreement, now abrogated by the Quebec Government. Assembly of First Nations Chief, Ovide Mercredi, will travel to Barriere Lake on Monday, May 3, 1993, to focus public awareness on the situation. People concerned about the risk of another Oka and the escalation of the crisis at Barriere Lake are urged to write Premier Bourassa and to contact the Algonquin of Barriere Lake with offers of support. Algonquins of Barriere Lake can be reached through Russell Diabo (613) 233-8686. Recent press coverage: TRANSLATION La Gatineau April 20, 1993 P.4 According to the TVA network The LaVerendrye Reserve is a real time-bomb According to the TVA network news service, the situation between the government of Quebec, the forestry companies and the Algonquins of Barriere is explosive. We know that for some time now, Minister Christos Sirros has unilaterally ended the Barriere Lake Tripartite Agreement that had Been signed in good faith by Jean-Maurice Matchewan's Algonquins. In suspending this agreement, Minister Sirros gave the Algonquins of Barriere Lake the arguments necessary to denounce the government's attitude towards aboriginals. In a series of televised reports, the TVA network has met with the Algonquin chief, Mr. Jean-Maurice Matchewan, Minister Sirros, the Algonquin's counsellor and ex-minister Clifford Lincoln as well as businessman Claude Berard. Sirros Minister Sirros, in the course of his interview with TVA, called the situation that presently exists in the LaVerendrye Wildlife Reserve, alarming. Dug in with his explanation of the famous buffer zone of twenty metres, the Minister does not seem to want to reverse himself on the decision. He had after all indicated to the aboriginals, in a Press Release that La Gatineau had published severals weeks ago, that the laws of quebec applied on the territory in dispute following the suspension of the Trilateral Agreement. Lincoln For his part, the aboriginal's cousellor, ex-minister Clifford Lincoln, called the Minister's attitude in this matter, ridiculous. Mr. Lincoln judges that the dispute on a buffer zone of a few metres can not justify the confrontation which appers to be forming and which, according to TVA, could resemble that which the Municipality of Oka lived through in 1990. Berard For his part, businessman Claude Berard expressed his discontent with the situation which renders supplying his difficult: "we have been closed for two and a half years ...the Minister Should do his job!" Mr. Berard, who declared that he was fed up with this situation, would really like the forestry workers to start the exploitation of the forest in the Barriere Lake region,as soon as possible. Matchewan Finally, the chief of the Algonquins of Barriere Lake, Mr. Jean- Maurice Matchewan, declared on air at TVA that he was ready to do anything to have the reserve's rights respected. For the Algonquins, the tripartite agreement signed by the federal, four ministers of the Quebec governmaaaent and the Algonquins equates with a treaty, an opinion in which they appear to be supported by Judge Paul. In this matter, at least hot and which is at risk, according to TVA, of degenerating into a major confrontation between the Algonquins and the whites, the Member for Gatineau, Mr.Rejean Lafreniere, has not recently taken an official position. If a crisis like Oka in the summer of 1990 occurs, it is the whole sector of the forestry industry of the region which will be paralyzed since the majority of the wood handled in the region passes by highway 117, in the La Verendrye Reserve. ---------- "Re: Shoshone Elder Jailed " ---------- Subject: Shoshone Elder Jailed From: bill@phony25.cc.utah.edu NATIVE AMERICAN ELDER JAILED IN JURISDICTION DISPUTE RENO, NEVADA - On March 3, 1993, Clifford Dann was convicted of assaulting a federal officer during a raid by U.S. land management authorities near the Dann ranch in Nevada. Dann faces a 35-month minimum sentence on the charge. He is being held at the Washoe County Detention Facility until his scheduled sentencing on May 17. Dann, a Western Shoshone elder, was arrested last November 19 when he attempted to stop U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) agents from rounding up horses. The BLM alleges that the Dann family has failed to obtain grazing permits and that the Dann-owned cattle and horses have overgrazed the range. The Western Shoshone maintain that they do not need permits since the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley gives them jurisdiction over their land. According to BLM officials, the raid captured 269 horses, including 229 wild animals and 40 horses that have been nationalized by the Western Shoshone National Council. In court, BLM agent Joe Morris admitted that the round up violated BLM's own regulations governing the Wild Horse and Burro program. Clifford Dann was injured and arrested when he attempted to stop BLM agents from removing the captured horses. Blocking the road with his truck, Dann stood in the bed, doused himself with gasoline, and announced that he would set himself on fire if BLM agents did not release the horses. Dann declared "By taking away our livelihood and our lands you are taking away our lives." After speaking with Dann's sister Carrie, agents convinced Dann to leave his vehicle. When Dann approached officers, still carrying the plastic container of gasoline and a lighter, the officers assaulted him with fire extinguishers and wrestled him to the ground. A sheriff was recorded on tape as saying "Break his F___ing arm if you have to!" during the struggle. The trial was held March 2-3 before Judge Howard McKibben at the Federal Court House in Reno, Nevada. At the request of Dann's court-appointed lawyer, John Abel of Carson City, an evidentiary hearing was held prior to the trial to address the issue of jurisdiction. According to the Western Shoshone Nation, the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley guaranteed their jurisdiction over their ancestral territory of Newe Sogobia. The U.S. government does not recognize the sovereignty of the Western Shoshone Nation, and a dispute over jurisdiction has been ongoing for more than a century. The defense called a single witness at the evidentiary hearing: Dr. Bruce Clark, a Canadian lawyer who specializes in indigenous jurisdictional issues and law. Clark, who has a doctorate in law and a master of arts degree in history, has 22-years of experience in dealing with what he calls "ethnological jurisprudence." Judge McKibben accepted Dr. Clark as an expert witness. Clark testified that the 1863 treaty precludes the U.S. Court's jurisdiction over Western Shoshone territory. By exercising jurisdiction, Clark stated "the presiding judge necessarily will commit the crimes of fraud, treason, and complicity in genocide." Judge McKibben asked Dr. Clark to justify his statements through specific statutory provisions and decided cases. Clark requested a full day in order to make his case, but was given only five minutes by Judge McKibben. Clark summarized his arguments by citing a simular 1773 case that was decided in favor of the indiginous peoples. He stated that the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley between the U.S. and Western Shoshone Nation is still in effect, and that the treaty clearly guarantees jurisdiction over specific lands to the Western Shoshone Nation. Judge McKibben decided that the treaty had been abrogated by a 1985 Supreme Court decision, U.S. v. Dann, which decided that the U.S. had acquired legal title from the Western Shoshone through an Indian Claims Court decision in 1977. The judge determined that the U.S. Court must have jurisdiction on land that it holds title to. Clark argued that the concepts of "title" and "jurisdiction" are separate legal concepts, and that the 1985 Supreme Court decision was irrelevant to Clifford Dann's case. In an earlier brief, attorney Abel pointed out that the Shoshone do not believe that the land can be owned or sold; thus, the U.S. government's claim to ownership was meaningless and ignored by the Western Shoshone. McKibben ruled the defense arguments immaterial, and he proceeded with Danns' trial. Despite repeated requests from the judge, Dann refused to allow his attorney, Aebl, to cross-examine prosecution witnesses. Dann expressed the view that defending himself would be to accept the court's jurisdiction. The trial began on the afternoon of March 2, and was continued into the morning of the next day. The jury convicted Dann on one count of assaulting a federal officer. Appeals are expected to be filed immediately in Dann's case. Among the Shoshone, Dann's conviction is viewed as an ironic victory, in that it will force the U.S. courts to deal with indigenous sovereignty issues during the appeals process. A spokesperson for Clifford Dann stated that Danns's goal is to "ensure that the precedents and statues defending native liberty are addressed within the judicial system." According to Chief Raymond Yowell, Chief of the Western Shoshone National Council, "Western Shoshone law is the first law for us; international law is second in our view; U.S. Law is third and least significant to us. For a solution to the Western Shoshone land rights issue to occur, the above must be followed. We do not accept U.S. law, and they (the U.S.) do not accept Shoshone law. The forum for a solution to the problems has to be done in an international setting." The Western Shoshone National Council is the traditional government of the Western Shoshone Nation. The Western Shoshone Defense Project, the American Indian Movement, and other groups supporting indigenous sovereignty rights will continue protests across the U.S. and at the Washoe County Detention Facility. A mass demonstration is scheduled to coincide with Dann's sentencing at the Federal Court Building in Reno. Clifford Dann is strongly and actively supported by a growing worldwide network of groups, including American Peace Test, Citizen Alert, and Nevadans for Peace. - Written by Scott Robert Ladd, Coyote Gulch Productions March 19 1993. To offer assistance or for more information: Western Shoshone Defense Project General Delivery Crecent Valley, Nevada 89821 (702) 468-0230 Voice (702) 468-0237 Fax -- Bill Faulk bill@phony25.cc.utah.edu --