_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' 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 009 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. We share a common root, and the root is Mother Earth. The garden is beautiful because it has different colors in it, and those colors represent different traditions and cultural backgrounds. -- Oh Shinnah O'siyo Brothers and Sisters! We have again been blessed with articles from within the Invisible Band. I thank Karen Stortz and Art Horovitch. Thanks are also due to Andy Finkenstadt, lead SysOp of the Unix RT and Internet-RT and a caring friend of the band, for his forward of an article regarding internet domain names. For those who eagerly await the Tsalagi font from Soaring Eagle I have the following update: From: locicero-joe@yale.edu (Joe LoCicero) Newsgroups: alt.native,soc.culture.native Subject: RELEASE: Tsalagi Font for Windows, OS/2, NeXT (Mac imminent) Message-ID: <1t6tfsINNbqs@MINERVA.CIS.YALE.EDU> Date: 17 May 93 02:32:28 GMT Osiyo everyone! I just wanted to let you all know that the Tsalagi font is now available for anonymous FTP from suned.cis.yale.edu in the /pub directory as the file cherokee.zip. You will need UnZip or PKZip v2.00 or higher to unzip this file. Please do not overload this server; it's not a standard FTP server and will not take the heavy loads. If anyone would like to upload this to any other sites, please do; I really don't have the time right now. I was totally unprepared for the amount of people who wanted a copy of this font, so I've had to rush its release. Therefore, there will be some in- accuracies in its representation at this stage. Please forward all feed back to me here at locicero@yale.edu. The README.1ST file follows this message. Additionally, for all of you who requested copies of the font, please try to anonymously FTP this font first. Lastly, the MAC version for System 7 (TrueType) will be available by the end of this week; I just need to convert it for general use (need to get to a MAC with a SuperDrive). Please; if anyone knows how to MacBin a file and hqx (?) it, please send me info and I'll convert it. I just am not that adept with the MAC system of file transfers, and need some enlightening. Thanks, and enjoy! -Joe LoCicero ---------------------------------- NOTICE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ---------------------------- Announcing the alpha release of: The Cherokee (Tsalagi) font for Windows, ATM, OS/2, and UNIX ------------------------------------------------------------ Developed under Fontographer 3.5 for Windows running under OS/2 2.1, this font represents the 85 character syllabary of the Cherokee standard written language. All 6 columns of the syllabary are accessible through standard and shifted keystrokes on any extended keyboard. Additionally, standard punctuation is still available, such as commas and periods. This font is currently available in a TrueType format for use with Microsoft Windows 3.1 and Win-OS/2 3.1, as well as an Adobe Type 1 format for use with Adobe Type Manager and OS/2. Finally, it is also available in a Type 1 format for UNIX, which is compatible with NeXT machines as well as some other UNIX platforms. Soon to be available is a version for use with System 7 Macintoshes. (as soon as I can get my hands on one for 15 minutes!) As I am rushing to get this release out into everyone's hands, there will be some inaccuracies in the representation of some of the characters; however, all are there and should be well-recognizable. I would appreciate any and all feedback on the font; this can be either emailed to me at locicero@yale.edu or you can reach me by SnailMail at: Joe LoCicero P.O. Box 3619 Yale Station New Haven, CT 06520-3619 I *promise* that the Macintosh version will be out within a week; I just need to get to the Computer Center here on campus to get to a mac with a SuperDrive to convert these files; PLEASE hang on all of you. ---------- Contained within this archive are the files: README .1ST - This document CHEROKEE.AFM - The .AFM file for use with OS/2 (Adobe Type 1) CHEROKEE.CFG - The .CFG file (Adobe Type 1) CHEROKEE.INF - The .INF file (Adobe Type 1) CHEROKEE.MAP - A key map of the font in ASCII (text file) CHEROKEE.NXT - The UNIX Adobe Type 1 font - for NeXT computers CHEROKEE.PFB - The .PFB file (Adobe Type 1) CHEROKEE.PFM - The .PFM file (Adobe Type 1) CHEROKEE.TTF - The TrueType font for use with Windows 3.1 ---------- And now, the standard disclaimers: (C)opyright 1993 Joseph LoCicero, IV. All Rights Reserved. This font is hereby released into the public domain for the furtherment of research into the native language of the Tsalagi (Cherokee) Indians of North America. This font may be duplicated as many times as needed so long as this information file and disclaimer remain included and intact. No fee may be charged for its distribution except for a modest copying, hookup, or download fee (not to exceed $5). This font was created with help from the Mellon Fund of Yale University. This font may not be changed or modified in any way without express written consent of the author. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- -Joe LoCicero locicero@minerva.cis.yale.edu - --------------------------------------------------------------------- This file has been requested via the Internet-RT ftp request menu. Soaring Eagle has also sent the following e-mail to my home workstation: From: Joe LoCicero Subject: Re: Cherokee Font To: wolves!glsdk!gars Gary: I've held off sending the diskettes to you until I get the Mac version done. I hope this is OK with you - should be RSN. :] Talk to you soon, -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- -Joe LoCicero locicero@minerva.cis.yale.edu - --------------------------------------------------------------------- Obviously, we will soon have the font set for those who want it. At this point I plan to archive it in both the Unix and Internet-RT libraries. Mitaquye Oyasin! Night Owl ------------------ clip here for news feature -- 8< ----------- ---------- "Re: Disney Pocahontas plans" ---------- From: K.STORTZ Karen M. Stortz Sub: Possible NA News item, Dear Night Owl, I recently learned that Disney Studios has plans to produce an animated movie involving Pocahontas. A cell on display at the Disney/MGM Theme Park shows several white characters and one cell of Pocahontas (as an adult, not as the 12-year-old child she was at the time of her abduction). When Congress passed the Native American Crafts Act, Disney spokesmen formally announced that the theme parks would sell Indian items made only by Indians. This may have been a public relations announcement aimed at the segment of the population which did not realize that selling non-NA arts and crafts as "Indian" was illegal under the new law. Disney later reversed its position, and does not sell any art or craft items made by Native Americans in their Epcot (nations of the world) Theme Park (or in any of their numerous shops, as far as I know). One reason cited for this was that genuine NA art was too costly. I am not confident that Disney Studios is sensitive enough to Native American issues and concerns to produce a story involving Pocahontas which will not distort Native American history. I feel that Native American groups and individuals should attempt to learn as much about this project as possible and determine whether the project is potentially offensive to Native Americans while the project is still in its early, developmental stages. Information on the Pocahontas project is sketchy (no pun intended), at best, at this time. Disney personnel are devoting more time to promoting /The Lion King/, an animated movie based on a Shakespeare play scheduled for release in the Summer of 1994. mitaquye oyasin, Karen ---------- "Re: Thunderbird" ---------- From: A.HOROVITCH Art Horovitch Sub: Thunderbird May 19, 1993 Thunder Bay , Ontario Natives in Northern Ontario are angry about the logo which was chosen to advertise the Thunder Bay Visitor's and Convention Bureau. The new logo depicts a Thunderbird and "shows a complete lack of respect for traditional Native people and culture", said Bernice Dubec, a spokesman for the Thunder Bay Native Interagency Council. She said Natives are upset that the Agency wants to use the symbol for commercial gain. The design was chosen without any consultation between the city and Native organizations. She said her organization will be filing a formal complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission. ---------- "Re: Domain names" ---------- From: ANDY@VISTACHROME.COM@INET# Internet Gateway Sub: NAI domain name? >Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains >Path: rde!gator!fang!tarpit!uunet!drd!mark >From: mark@drd.com (Mark.Lawrence) >Subject: What Domain Name for a Native American Tribal Government? I just had a telephone conversation with the systems manager at the tribal government facility for the Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The Cherokee are the second largest tribe in terms of enrollment after the Navaho, in the United States. Increasingly, officials and employees of the tribal government are desiring to have e-mail access to the Internet. The easy part is contracting for that (their IS are already open systems-based). The more intriguing part is: what should their domain name be? There are no ISO country codes assigned to Native American Tribal governments. However, most if not all tribes (Cherokee included) claim sovereignity (though as a practical matter, they are subject to some state and all federal laws). This is all in flux and being worked out in the courts and various state and federal legislative bodies. Some possibilities and objections I've already thought of: Cherokee.Gov They look and act like a government body but they are not an organ of any US Federal or state government. Cherokee.Org probably offensive to tribal officials (they are NOT just another non-profit org -- in fact, they might not even be considered non-profit). Cherokee.Com Offensive for the reasons .Org is. Cherokee.US I wonder if there aren't tribes that span national boundaries? I don't know if there are any other tribes on the net, yet so I don't know if precedent has been set. If that's so, then this choice is especially important because it represents precedent. I'm open to ideas and comments that I can pass on. -- mark.lawrence@drd.com (918)743-3013 DRD Corp., 5506 South Lewis Ave., Tulsa, OK 74105 (918)745-9037 fax From: ANDY@VISTACHROME.COM@INET# Internet Gateway Sub: NANes usbmission - response >Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc >Subject: Re: What Domain Name for a Native American Tribal Government? mark@drd.com (Mark.Lawrence) wrote in <1993May18.182502.17497@drd.com>: | I don't know if there are any other tribes on the net, yet so I don't | know if precedent has been set. If that's so, then this choice is | especially important because it represents precedent. I'm open to | ideas and comments that I can pass on. | Some possibilities and objections I've already thought of: | | Cherokee.Gov They look and act like a government body but | they are not an organ of any US Federal or state | government. Is the federal government the only one entitled to use ".gov"? What do states, counties, townships, and cities use? Perhaps the answer doesn't apply because the Cherokee Nation might not want to be seen as a subdivision of the United States. Maybe no state or local government is on the net yet, so there isn't an answer. But in some ways a tribal government is similar to a municipal corporation in that it is [non-stock I have to assume and] organized for the benefit of tribe members much as a city is organized for its inhabitants. A separate ISO country code would open up the same demand not only from other Native American governments but also from rebel factions all across the globe, most of whom have far less validity to their claims of sovereignty than a Native American government has. The ISO must have some rules about what it considers a "country" and what deserves a code. It has assigned codes even to countries where no net connections exist, but it has not given country codes to Russia's autonomous regions, for example. I don't think it's a good idea to start assigning codes for net domains that don't match those of the ISO; what if the ISO gives the very same code to a new country or to one that changes its name? | Cherokee.Org probably offensive to tribal officials (they are NOT | just another non-profit org -- in fact, they might | not even be considered non-profit). To the contrary, they are a society owned by its membership rather than by stockholders, formed for the members' welfare rather than for a business purpose. The Cherokee Nation is not "just another" non-profit, but it is like a non-profit in many ways: it is non-stock (I have to assume) and its profits are used for the benefit of members rather than the personal wealth of shareholders. Perhaps it wouldn't offend the tribal leadership and you should ask them. | Cherokee.Com Offensive for the reasons .Org is. Though I disagreed about seeing offense in .org, I concur that .com is out of the question. The tribal government is not a business operation. | Cherokee.US I wonder if there aren't tribes that span national | boundaries? Surely there are. The country code for their geographical location might work for the Cherokee Nation but it would be a problem as a precedent. I do think .gov and .org are the best possibilities. The only other thing that comes to mind is a brand-new top-level domain name for all tribal governments that is at least three letters long (so as not to be confused with a country code), with the name of the tribe as second-to-last element in the fqdn. David W. Tamkin Box 59297 Northtown Station, Illinois 60659-0297 dattier@genesis.mcs.com CompuServe: 73720,1570 MCI Mail: 426-1818 ---------- "Re: Action for Grand River" ---------- From: John Bacher on web.native Subject: Action for Grand River By John Bacher The ACTivist On Sunday, April 18, the Iroquois Confederacy took direct action and locked the gates of a road giving construction equipment access to a reconstructed weir on the Grand River, on Mohawk territory near Brantford. The Confederacy Council of Chiefs had met the previous day and authorized their Environment Committee Chair, Norm Jacobs, to place the lock on the gates. The Iroquois Confederacy is the traditional governing body of the Iroquois people -- though not recognized as such by the Canadian government -- and they have a long history of strictly nonviolent direct action in defence of Iroquois land rights and sovereignty. They took this action when it appeared to them that an important decision had been taken by the Ontario government affecting the future of the Grand River. Three years ago the Confederacy began to take an interest in a related weir construction and canal lock proposal for the Grand River at Dunnville. The Dunnville City Council has been pushing for the lock scheme, which the Confederacy and local environmentalists oppose, since it will lead to the destruction of wetlands, and more pollution and erosion from an increase in recreational boating. The proposal was dropped by then-Minister of the Environment, Ruth Grier, who established a co-management framework involving the Confederacy in future decisions concerning the project. One of the weirs got an exemption from this co-management process, however. Now this weir has been entirely removed, and a new one is being constructed in its place. The Confederacy believes that the new weir is being designed to accomodate a lock, should provincial policy reverse itself -- something only too likely after the last Cabinet shuffle. The Mayor of Dunnville, a marina owner, is a vigorous supporter of the lock project. Confederacy Environment Chair Jacobs waited until a temporary replacement weir had been constructed before locking the site, which is now being guarded by a round-the-clock vigil of Confederacy supporters. Jacobs stresses that "what we want to do is assert the Confederacy's jurisdiction on our territory, protect the environment of our river, and build bridges between the native and non-native communities of the region." The Confederacy is working closely in cooperation with environmentalist Pat Potter, a resident of Dunville. Potter had earlier informed residents of the Six Nations Iroquois reserve of a scheme between the government-approved Band Council and North York Mayor Mel Lastman, to move Metropolitan Toronto's garbage to the Iroquois Grand River Territory. While the Band Council is opposing the weir's construction in court at this time, Council members had earlier offered to drop their objections in exchange for a cash settlement to their claim to the bed of Grand River. ---------- "Re: The Innu:Towards Self-Reliance" ---------- From: John Bacher and David Webster in web:gen.newsletters Subject: The Innu:Towards Self-Reliance TOWARDS SELF-RELIANCE By John Bacher and David Webster The ACTivist The flood of visitors to the Labrador Innu settlement of Utshimassit (Davis Inlet) is only now starting to dry up. Dozens of government officials, reporters and Canadian dignitaries have dropped in on the isolated settlement of 500 since Jan. 26, when Innu constable Simeon Tshakapesh found six youths aged 12 to 14 in an isolated shack, close to death after sniffing gasoline fumes. The visits and news reports on the "plight of the Innu" have had a tone of morbid fascination to them: look at the Third World within, they seem to be saying in hushed and horrified voices. One in four Davis Inlet Innu tried to kill themselves last year, newspapers tell us. One person in ten is a solvent abuser. As many as 80 per cent of the adults in the town are alcoholics. It's like a pornography of poverty. What's lacking is much discussion of what to do about it. "In a few years we have been changed from one of the most self-reliant and independent peoples in the world to one of the most dependent," says Innu elder Rose Gregoire, from the village of Sheshatshit near Goose Bay. And Simeon Tshakapesh told the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples last year that "the biggest reason for the tragedies we face today is lack of control over how we live our own lives. We don't have real choices. We don't have self-determination." The Innu Nation has come up with a seven-point plan to deal with the cultural breakdown of their people that began with the forcible relocation of a nomadic hunter-gatherer people into two Labrador communities -- Davis Inlet and Sheshatshit, near Goose Bay -- in the 1950s and 60s. One and a half of those points have been met: 50 solvent abusers are now at a native-run treatment centre in Alberta, and the federal and provincial governments have promised to finance a $185 million move of the Davis Inlet settlement, though not necessarily to the Innu's chosen site at Sango Bay. The other points -- a family treatment centre in Labrador, an Innu-run community health team, an end to the Innu's unique status of being under provincial rather than federal jurisdiction, the implementation of self-government and land rights, and a meeting with federal authorities to discuss implementation of the plan -- have been ignored. What has happened to the Innu has been an invasion of their homeland -- not a long-ago invasion like that of French and British colonizers in North America, but one carried out since the end of the Second World War. Iron ore mining; the giant Churchill Falls hydro-electric project which flooded Innu burial grounds; low-level military test flights of the war planes and systems that were used in the Gulf war. All this despite the lack of any treaty with the aboriginal people who hold the title to the land. All of it over their strenuous protests. What is most important is to preserve the link between the Innu and their land. "This is a problem that is destroying tribal peoples like the Innu the world over," notes Jonathon Mazower of London- based Survival International. "If you cut an indigenous people off from their land, you cut them off from life itself. The people become like empty shells of human beings." As environmentalists, we'd like to make one proposal that might go some way towards restoring the Innu's control over their own lives. It's not too late for the preservation of the traditional Innu way of life, which has been kept alive for a quarter of a century by a program that flies Innu hunters into the barrens where the caribou still roam. One of the biggest threats to the land is a plan for road construction, including a potential trans-Labrador highway around an expanded Churchill Falls hydro-electric development. This would in turn encourage dams, logging and mining by making ecologically inappropriate development feasible. Under the US Wilderness Act, road-free zones are what constitute wilderness. It is astonishing that in the vast wilderness homeland of the Cree, Innu and Inuit in northern Quebec and Labrador -- the last untamed wilderness area of any size on the east coast of North America -- there is not a single biological reserve area. The area has remained ecologically intact because of its isolation, though the hydro planners of Newfoundland and Labrador would prefer to dam every river. It should be laced with interconnected biological reserves to safeguard the habitat of the region's vast caribou herds -- and the hunters who depend on them. In the Amazon rain forest the concept of "extractive reserves" has been used to protect the rain forest as well as aboriginal cultures that depend on rubber tapping and nut gathering. A similar vision could be implemented here to protect large wilderness zones for the Innu's hunting, fishing and plant collection activities. Newfoundland hunting restrictions today penalize the Innu while allowing non-native hunters to kill large numbers of caribou only for the antlers. A system of co-management, with the Innu in the driver's seat, would be more fair and far more sustainable. The Labrador-Quebec wilderness has tremendous potential for eco-tourism. A series of nature and hiking trails and a web of canoeing routes under Innu supervision would mean sustainable preservation of this spectacular wilderness. Finally, a chief source of destruction and Innu anger has been low-level British, German and Dutch military training flights out of Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay. The base should be shut down and replaced with a research and cultural station that would study the interior and marine environments. The research facility should be planned to encourage economic spin-offs, preserving and creating jobs for both the Innu and the settler population of Happy Valley- Goose Bay. The Innu don't want to stagger along as wards of the state: they want control of their own land and their own lives. Wilderness protection under Innu stewardship offers one alternative; the Innu could offer dozens more. Isn't it time to give them the chance? ---------- "Re: Minn.Cops Stuff Native Men in Trunk" ---------- Subject: Minn.Cops Stuff Native Men in Trunk From: nyxfer!ww (Workers World Service) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit MINNEAPOLIS COPS STUFF NATIVE MEN IN TRUNK By Leslie Feinberg "I'm not an animal that needs to be put in a trunk," Charles Lone Eagle told a recent Minneapolis news conference called to protest police brutality. Lone Eagle said he had been drinking with two Native friends when police found them sitting in the hallway of an apartment building. The cops handcuffed Lone Eagle and his friend John Boney together, and stuffed them in the trunk of a squad car. The third man was put in the back seat. "I faked like I was passed out because I was scared I was going to get beat up," Lone Eagle recalled. "I thought they were taking us to the river, because they seemed like they were going in circles." The police eventually dropped the men off at the Hennepin County Medical Center Detoxification Unit. Carol Halley, a medical center worker, reported the outrage after she saw the two Native men being removed from the trunk. Adding insult to injury, Police Federation officials defended the cops' cruelty. They claimed the men wouldn't fit in the squad car and no ambulance was available. So why didn't they call for a second squad car? Native activist Clyde Bellecourt, who helped organize the news conference, said the Native community has "hundreds of Rodney Kings." -30- (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21 St., New York, NY 10010; via e-mail: nyxfer!ww@speedway.net) + Join Us! Support The NY Transfer News Collective + + We deliver uncensored information to your mailbox! + + Data: 718-448-2358 FAX: 448-3423 e-mail: nyxfer!nyt@speedway.net + ---------- "Re: New Harassment of Leonard Peltier" ---------- Subject: New Harassment of Leonard Peltier From: nyxfer!ww (Workers World Service) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit LEONARD PELTIER SUFFERS NEW HARASSMENT By Leslie Feinberg Leavenworth prison officials ordered American Indian Movement activist Leonard Peltier into punitive segregation on May 3. Peltier had refused, under order of his attorney, to comply with a new prison sign-in plan known as the "Monitoring High Escape Risk Prisoners Program." Under this repressive new program, prisoners must report in every two hours or face disciplinary penalties. Peltier is serving two consecutive life sentences for the death of an FBI agent in 1975. He was convicted despite the fact that the government's own ballistics test revealed his gun was not involved. The Leavenworth administration's own progress reports characterize Peltier as a prisoner who is "maintaining above average adjustment." But Peltier is one of the most famous political prisoners in the world. A statement by his defense committee notes, "By labeling him a high-risk prisoner, the government is attempting once again to smear his good name and put a halt to his bid for justice. "Leonard is by no stretch of the imagination a 'high escape risk,' and by signing documents that state he is considered one, the defense team worries that the signature, even though forced, could be used against him at a parole or clemency hearing." In addition, the program would disrupt Peltier's religious expression. Every Saturday he would be forced to leave sacred sweat lodge ceremonies one hour into his prayers to sign in or face reprisals. Peltier is currently awaiting word on an appeal decision on his original conviction. If denied, he will press for executive clemency. Support for Peltier's nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize is reportedly picking up steam among the European community, and is backed by Guatemalan human rights activist Rigoberta Menchu. -30- (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21 St., New York, NY 10010; via e-mail: nyxfer!ww@speedway.net) + Join Us! Support The NY Transfer News Collective + + We deliver uncensored information to your mailbox! + + Data: 718-448-2358 FAX: 448-3423 e-mail: nyxfer!nyt@speedway.net +