_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' O ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ O o O / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' O o O / /-< / /--/ /-- VOLUME 05, ISSUE 006 O o o o o O __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 8 February 1997 O o O KANOHEDA ANIYVWIYA Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin O o O Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse Aunchemokauhettittea O ( N A T I V E A M E R I C A N N E W S ) This issue contains articles from Innu-L, Uptowne, Minn-Ind & NATIVE-L listservers; Newsgroups: apc.indig.info,soc.culture.native,alt.native; UUCP & genie email Articles appearing have been previously posted for public dissemination and/or permission for inclusion has been secured. Letters of authorization are on file. A list of those granting permission to repost their words in this issue are listed at the end of part A. I thank each of you for allowing your words to be shared with the people. <----<<<< >>>>----> This newsletter is a way of keeping the brothers and sisters who share our Spirit informed about current events within the lives of those who walk the Red Road. ++ It may be subscribed to via email by sending a request from your own internet addressable account to gars@netcom.com Thanks to Don Rayment ,don.rayment@uptowne.com, Wotanging Ikche/ Kanoheda Aniyvwiya is being redistributed via a listserver. If you would like to receive Wotanging Ikche via the listserver, you can send a message to listserv@uptowne.com and include, in the body of your message "sub wotanging.ikche " Thanks to Marc Becker and David Cole issues of Wotanging Ikche/ Kanoheda Aniyvwiya are being archived at a World-Wide-Web site. - The URL is http://web.maxwell.syr.edu/nativeweb/journals/nanews Thanks to Borries Demeler all _Wotanging_Ikche_ (part a) submissions to AISESnet are archived under AISESnet and can be accessed easily by World Wide Web: 1994: http://bioc02.uthscsa.edu/94_dis.html 1995: http://bioc02.uthscsa.edu/95_dis.html 1996: http://bioc02.uthscsa.edu/96_dis.html This is a searchable index to the AISESnet Discussion mailing list database archive, and the keyword "Wotanging" will retrieve all issues for that year. "Some 200 Piegans, most of them either elderly or women and children, were killed by the relentless firing of the Army's Springfield rifles. The .50-70 shells, half an inch thick, riddled the lodges, collapsing some onto smoking firepits and suffocating the half-awake, terrified victims. Some of the big bullets killed children under the protecting bodies of mothers and grandmothers. Those who ran to the sheltering cutbanks of the river were rounded up later; a total of 140 captives was turned loose without adequate food and clothing - some of them froze to death trying to walk to Fort Benton, ninety miles away." __ report of the January 23, 1870 Massacre on the Marias thanks to "Our Sun has hidden. Our sun has set leaving us in darkness. We do not know when it will rise again but while it is set, let us urgently gather and hide in our hearts our most beloved treasure." __ Cuauhtemoc, last Chief of Mexica-Tenochtitlan +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Indian Pledge of Allegiance | The Indian Pledge of Alleg- | | iance was first presented | I pledge allegiance to my Tribe,| on 2 December '93 during the | to the democratic principles | opening address of the Nat- | of the Republic | ional Congress of American | and to the individual freedoms | Indian Tribal-States Relat- | borrowed from the Iroquois and | ions Panel in Reno, NV. NCAI | Choctaw Confederacies, | plans distribution of the | as incorporated in the United | Indian Pledge to all Indian | States Constitution, | Nations. | so that my forefathers | | shall not have died in vain | Walk in Beauty! Night Owl +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ O'siyo Brothers and Sisters! I received a message this week that was so heart warming I asked, and was granted, permission to share it with you. "I do what I can to help the people. To many people are suffering. We send aid to other countries, adopt their children and forget about our own. We forget about our Elders, and our history dies, neglected and forgotten. I want my life to be a give away, I want to do what I can to mend the hoop. I know it all comes back around. I have friends on Pine Ridge, they call asking for help, I have no money really, but I clean out my cupboards and mail it away. Next day, some one brings me food. That is how it works. Right now, I do not have the money to mail my packages, but it will come. Last night two more people promised me clothes and blankets." Christina Meckel "Lonewolf" The People suffering from this harsh winter will not survive without your help. People like Lonewolf, giving all she has, cannot do it alone. The Lakota Nation lost a great man this week. Their Beloved Ceremonial Chief of the Lakota Nation, Ted Thin Elk passed over. His love and guidance shall be missed by the entire Lakota Nation. Pray, please, for this gentle heart who loved all people. Pueblo of San Juan, and all Native Americans, also lost another gentle leader in the passing of Alfonso Ortiz. There are articles in part B of this issue that will reacquaint you with this wonderful man. Peace! Night Owl , , Gary Night Owl gars@netcom.com (*,*) P. O. Box 672168 gars@juno.com (`-') Marietta, GA 30006, U .S.A. gars@igc.apc.org ===w=w=== gars@genie.com ----------- News of the people featured in this issue ---------- Part A: Usenet and e-mail Part B: NATCHAT and NATIVE-L lists - Barriere Lake - Alfonso Ortiz Memorial - The Temp is Rising - Prof. Alfonso Ortiz Death - Newfoundland Withdraws - Buffalo Slaughter - Peltier Event - Leech Lake Election Results - On Behalf of Big Mountain Dine - Mountie Manipulation against Sundancers - Injustice to Holocaust Victims - Religious Freedoms Being Denied - Dine Spiritual Belief - Message from Cecilia Rodriguez - Ward Valley Indigenous Nuke - California Holocaust - Royal Commission 3-2 - Keweenaw Bay Update - Bison Protection Plan Proposed - Mining In Northern Labrador - With Respect and Honor - Book Review: Killing the White Man's Indian - Poem: Justified Extermination - Verse: Hawai'ian Book of Days - Conferences and Powwows - offline --------- "RE: Barriere Lake" --------- Date: 97/02/03 20:11 From: Suzan Horovitch Subj: barriere lake genie email Barriere Lake Two weeks ago you had a short request for help for the Algonquin people of Barriere lake. The request came from someone who could not fill the readers in on what the situation is in this small , Quebec, native community. Perhaps I can help. The 450 member Algonquin community of Barriere Lake is located four hours drive north of Montreal in La Verendrye Wildlife Park. they have been fighting the clearcutting of their land by 13 pulp and paper companies for many years. These companies include Domtar which is over 40% own by the Quebec Government. In the late 1980's and 90s, Chief Jean Maurice Matchewan led the community in a campaign to force Canada and Quebec to give the Algonquin nation a say in forestry operations. This culminated in the signing of an internationally recognized tripartite agreement in 1991. Subsequently, pro forestry Algonquins, many of whom live outside Barriere Lake ( even as far as California) petitioned the Canadian Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development ( DIAND.. recently renamed DIANA : Dept of Indian and Northern Affairs) to remove longtime Chief Jean Maurice Matchewan. DIAND Minister Ron Irwin acquiesced on Jan. 23, 1996. He appointed an interim band council which set up in a community 140 km. south made up by the pro-logging fraction of the community. When this council was deemed ineffectual, an administration company was appointed from Quebec city. Forestry companies have taken advantage of the leadership void in the community to log in areas forbidden by the 1991 agreement. A new wave of logging is expected to begin in Spring, 1997. As a result, from Oct. 21, 1996 until recently, the community blockaded a Domtar logging road just off highway 117, the main highway between Montreal and the Abitibi region. A tent city was set up, with almost the entire community participating in the protest. A federal mediator appointed to deal with the community, Judge Rejean Paul of Quebec Supreme Court proposed to allow only people living in the community and using the land to participate in the selection of a new leader. Pro-logging forces refused to discuss the proposal and called for Paul's dismissal. Paul resigned on January 13, 1997. The local people signed a petition showing the vast majority to be in favour of a traditionally appointed chief by a council of elders. The Federal Government refuses to recognize this election process. After weeks of federal apathy in upholding the 1991 agreement, blockades of all logging companies on Algonquin territory were called for. The community has also announced that it will block highway 117 if its concerns continue to be ignored. With no band council, no money other than welfare is entering the community. All but three people have lost their jobs and school has been closed for almost a year. Food and other basic necessities have grown scarce in Barriere Lake. The community has requested emergency donations of food and money from the public. A coalition of Montreal community groups has accepted a call for emergency relief consisting of non perishable food ( canned fruit and vegetables, pasta, rice, flour, baking powder, condensed milk, coffee , tea) household products ( toilet paper ) and cash to the Algonquin community of Barriere Lake. More information can be obtained from: Barriere lake Support Group at 514 - 848-0465 or send the goods to QPIRG-McGill, 3647 University, 3rd. fl., Montreal, QC. Canada H3A 2B3 Suzan Horovitch e mail: a.horovitch@genie.com --------- "RE: The Temp is Rising" --------- Date: 30 Jan 97 22:28:00 From: FROSTY.DEERE@igloo.magicnet.com (FROSTY DEERE) Subj: The Temp is rising. Newsgroup: alt.native Kwe Kwe and please cross post where ever you feel others would like to be kept up to date on this. This is to inform all Native/Indians/Aboriginal and nations that the political heat in the province of Quebec is heating up. The native people feel that if Quebec has the right to separate or partition itself from Canada, then so do we. The Cree have voted not to remain with Quebec and the Mohawk have so stated as much. The government today has stated that on only is no one living in Quebec allowed separate but its Forbidden re Partition. The Govt of Quebec as also stated today it will use all Means and did not exclude force to keep its territory in tact. This is a direct threat on the native nations living in Quebec and we refuse to become citizen of this new possible country on soil that by all rights and means belong to us. It has stated that Natives have no right to partition or make any claims on Quebec when it separates and it forbade those towns and cities Counties to even think about trying partitioning Quebec. One would guess they have forget that we have treaties with Canada and the United States as Nations to Nations. So we have the right to make such claims. Now, the Govt of Canada Yesterday stated We will not use force to keep Quebec in Canada. The question is will Canada protect the rights of those that do not want to separate or be forced from there lands. I hope to have more in the next few days. Sken:nen --- SLMAIL v4.5a (#1349) * Origin: Igloo Station (514) 632-5556 (226:514/529) --------- "RE: Newfoundland Withdraws" --------- Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1997 09:30:45 -0500 From: Larry Innes Subj: Newfoundland Withdraws Voisey's Bay from Land Rights Negotiations Mailing List: INNU-L Be Heard: Tell The Governments and the Company What You Think! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Billions of dollars have changed hands for the Voisey's Bay nickel discovery...and the Aboriginal people who have lived there for hundreds and thousands of years haven't seen a cent of it! Last week, the Newfoundland government announced that it was unilaterally withdrawing the Voisey's Bay area from the land rights negotiations table. As John Gray of the Globe and Mail reports: * The Newfoundland government has told the province's native peoples that they will be given no guarantee of sharing in the wealth from the multibillion-dollar Voisey's Bay mine development on native land in northern Labrador. * Instead, it will be up to the native people to get what they can on their own in negotiations with the giant Voisey's Bay Nickel Co. Ltd. * The government decision opens the way for a possible battle--legal and otherwise--that may delay the start of what could be the world's largest nickel mine. * Toby Anderson, chief negotiator for the 5,000-member Labrador Inuit Association, said that if the government does not revise its policy by the end of this week, the Inuit will begin a court challenge to secure a guaranteed share of the royalty revenues of the mine. * "That's unfortunate, very unfortunate in this country, after everything else that has happened. But what alternative do we have? Thank God we've got a Supreme Court that from time to time rules in the favour of aboriginal people," he said. * If the Inuit are not successful in the courts, Mr. Anderson told The Globe and Mail, they will turn to civil disobedience to stop development of the mine site. * Mr. Anderson's stand was immediately supported by Daniel Ashini, chief negotiator of Labrador's 1,200 Innu, the Indian people whose traditional hunting grounds overlap those of the Inuit at Voisey's Bay. * Mr. Ashini said in an interview that the terms set by the government for the Innu will obviously be exactly the same as those announced earlier this month to the Inuit. He promised full support for whatever action is taken by the Inuit... * The Voisey's Bay mine is obviously going to go ahead, he said, but the Innu have insisted that it should not go ahead until there is a treaty between Canada and Newfoundland and the native peoples. They have given a similar warning to the company. * "We have made it quite clear to the company: you may think you already have the green light from the government, but you still need to achieve the agreement from the Innu, who are the rightful owners of this land.... * Earlier this month, Harold Marshall, who is in charge of the negotiations for the province, called LIA president William Barbour and Mr. Anderson to St. John's at the request of Premier Brian Tobin. * Mr. Marshall, who is deputy minister for Labrador and brother-in-law of the Premier, spelled out a tough new line to the Innu and the Inuit on the negotiations with the province. * He told them that Newfoundland insisted that none of the land around Voisey's Bay will be considered part of the Inuit land claim and that the Inuit can expect no surface mineral rights, no subsurface rights and no royalty-revenue sharing under a settlement. * For the native people, the bitter irony of the new policy is that in 1993, just months before the discovery of the Voisey's Bay deposit, former premier Clyde Wells offered the Inuit a 10,360-square-kilometre parcel of land that included Voisey's Bay. * The Inuit did not accept the offer because, in comparison to land-claims settlements with other native groups in the country, the package seemed small. Mr. Anderson said that the offer was still technically on the table until Mr. Marshall stated his tough new position. * "Now they've gone unilaterally against their policy and shifted the responsibility to settle with the aboriginal people onto the shoulders of the company. * "As far as we're concerned, that's not the way a government operates, not a government that was elected by the people to represent the people, aboriginal people included."> (from Monday, January 27/97, page A1) Canadians and people everywhere should be outraged by this imperious action by the Newfoundland government. The self-serving policies and positions that the province is putting forward at the land rights table clearly demonstrate bad faith in the negotiations process. 500 years later, it appears that colonial attitudes towards Aboriginal lands haven't changed: if they want it=D0they will take it. Support the Innu and the Inuit by writing letters to the editor, to politicians and to the presidents of Inco and Voisey's Bay Nickel. In your letters to the editor and to government, stress the following points: * You are outraged by the decision of the Newfoundland government to unilaterally withdraw the lands and resources of the Voisey's Bay area from land rights negotiations with the Innu and the Inuit. Voisey's Bay is clearly native land. When the Newfoundland government entered the land rights negotiation process with Aboriginal people more than 20 years ago, it accepted this fact. The only thing that has changed is the discovery of a nickel deposit. The transparent greed of the Newfoundland government is appalling, and it demonstrates extremely poor judgement and bad faith on the part of a government that is supposed to act in the interests of all people=D0including the Innu and the Inuit. * As a Canadian (or as a resident of Newfoundland), you are ashamed by the way that successive governments have treated Aboriginal people. Why has nothing changed? Canada prides itself on its international record in the areas of human rights, but at home, it continues to practice the very things it condemns in other countries. * Why hasn't the Canadian government, which has a clear constitutional obligation to protect the rights of Aboriginal people, taken a stand on this issue and defended the integrity of the land rights negotiation process? Newfoundland's dishonourable conduct towards the Innu and the Inuit is nothing less than a national disgrace. * The land rights issue is an important one to all Canadians. The Innu and the Inuit are still waiting for a just and fair settlement. So why do we continue to put the interests of companies like Inco before the rights of Aboriginal people? Nickel doesn't go bad. The vast wealth at Voisey's Bay will still be there once the question of ownership is resolved. No mining should take place at Voisey's Bay until there is a fair and just settlement of land rights and until the Innu and Inuit people whose ways of life will be radically affected by this project give their consent for it to proceed. Write to: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Premier Brian Tobin Hon. Ron Irwin Province of Newfoundland Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs PO Box 8700 Government of Canada St. John's, Newfoundland Ottawa, Ontario A1B 4J6 K1A 0H5 tel: (709) 729-3571 tel: (613) 922-6418 fax: (709) 729-5875 fax: (613) 953-4941 The Editor The Globe and Mail The Editor 444 Front Street The Evening Telegram Toronto, Ontario PO Box 5970 M5V 2S9 St. John's, Newfoundland tel: (416) 585-5225 A1C 5X7 fax: (416) 585-5085 tel: (709) 634-2323 email: letters@globeandmail.ca fax: (613) 634-3939 Letters to Inco and Voisey's Bay Nickel can include the above points, but should also stress: * Inco paid $4.5 billion dollars for the company, Diamond Fields Resources, which made the discovery=D0not for the land at Voisey's Bay. No one has given the project a green light, and as a Canadian, you have a say in whether or not the project should proceed. Inco's production schedule is less important to you than the rights of Aboriginal people. * The question of ownership has not been resolved, and no mine development should proceed until land rights settlements with the Innu and Inuit have been achieved, and until the Innu and Inuit people have given their consent to the project. Michael Sopko Stewart Gendron President and CEO President Inco Limited Voisey's Bay Nickel Company (VBNC) 145 King St W. Suite 1500 Suite 700 - 10 Fort William Place Toronto- Dominion Centre St. John's, NF Toronto, ON A1C 1K4=20 M5H 4B7 tel: (709) 758-8888=20 tel: (416) 361-7511 fax: (709) 758-8899=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Larry Innes Visit the Innu Nation WWW site: Environmental Advisor http://www.web.net/~innu Innu Nation P.O. Box 119, Sheshatshiu, Labrador, Canada A0P 1M0 phone: (709) 497-8398 email: innuenv@web.net fax: (709) 497-8396 --------- "RE: Peltier Event" --------- Date: Mon, 3 Feb 97 11:49:42 GMT From: lpdc@idir.net (Peltier Defense Committee) Subj: Peltier Event Newsgroups: alt.native,soc.culture.native FRIENDS: PLEASE POST WIDELY. There will be a Boston demonstration to demand freedom for Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners on Thursday, February 6 at 4:30 pm. The action will take place in front of the McCormick Post Office & Federal Courthouse Building on Congress Street in Post Office Square, downtown Boston. The demonstration is being sponsored by United American Indians of New England (617-773-0406, email at uaine19@nfi.com) and the National Peoples Campaign (617) 522-6626. February 6th marks the anniversary of the arrest of American Indian Movement warrior Peltier on February 6, 1976. Framed up by the U.S. government for the shooting deaths of 2 FBI agents on Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975, he is currently serving two consecutive life terms in federal prison. Substantial evidence demonstrates Peltier's innocence, including the fact that the FBI itself says that they do not know who killed the 2 agents. The courts have denied all of Peltier's appeals for a new trial, and Pres. Clinton refuses to review the clemency petition that has been before him since his first term of office. The only way Peltier, an innocent man, will gain his freedom is for is supporters to take to the streets! Mumia Abu-Jamal, noted African-American journalist and former Black Panther Party leader, has been on Pennsylvania's death row since 1982, falsely convicted of shooting a Philadelphia cop. Mumia's supporters fear that Pennsylvania courts will not grant him a new trial and will soon order his execution. The cases of these two political prisoners are known by millions internationally and symbolize the repression of the U.S. government against any political resistance. Please join us on February 6. If you don't live in the Boston area, we call on you to organize something where you live. We will be happy to supply informational flyers, etc. >We are not vanishing. We are not conquered. We are as strong as ever. UAINE We are not vanishing. We are not conquered. We are as strong as ever. UAINE --------- "RE: On Behalf of Big Mountain Dine" --------- Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1997 21:08:58, -0500 From: Joe Chasing Horse via Gary Smith (gars@netcom.com) Subj: From Joe Chasing Horse I have been granted the honor of passing on this message from Joe Chasing Horses, Lakota Elder. Joe Chasing Horse has been invited by the Dine Traditional People to speak next week at their council meetings concerning the plight of the Traditional Dine People and to attend Hearings to be held on the Accommodation Agreement. The following articles are sent by Joe Chasing Horse on the behalf of the Big Mountain Dine' Families. Senator John McCain Senate Committee on Indian Affairs 838 Senate Hart Office Bldg. Washington DC 20510 From: The Big Mountain Dine' Families c/o Violet Ashike P.O. Box 148 Kykotsmovi, AZ 86039 Dear Senator McCain: We are Dine' people from Big Mountain community. We are writing to express our concerns about the "Accommodation Agreement" which the Hopi Tribe is offering to us as a result of the mediation of the Manybeads lawsuit and about the separate agreement which was reached between the Hopi Tribe and the United States. We have gathered as a community to express these concerns. Some of us have decided long ago that we will not sign a lease for our own land, even if it is called something else, while others of us are undecided. We all share the same concerns however. These are our concerns about the "Accommodation Agreement:" 1) The Hopi tribe still has not recognized that we have a religion, and that it is our religious right to stay on the lands where we live. The Accommodation Agreement just pussyfoots around this issue and the only reference to religion is in a letter from Katherine Hazard which is attached to the Agreement. We submitted language last spring on the religious issue, which the Hopi Tribe refused to consider. We feel that this language or words saying the same thing should be incorporated in the Agreement. The language is as follows: "This is an agreement in good faith between the Dine' families who live on the Hopi Partitioned Land, and the Hopi Tribe and Hopi people. Under this agreement the Dine' families and the Hopi people agree to be friends and always think and speak well of each other. We agree to respect each other as Native people whose origin is in this very land. We agree to support and assist each other in the continuance and protection of religious activities. We agree, each of us to assist the other if called on. We agree to meet together as needed to resolve any issues which arise as a result of our sharing of this land. This agreement is reached between us as a result of the Manybeads v. United States lawsuit. For this reason, this agreement is based on religious concepts and natural law, and provides first and foremost for the protection of the religion and way of life of the Dine' families. Its purpose is also to provide the continuing well-being of the parties to this agreement, as individuals, families and communities." 2) The Accommodation Agreement does not offer a permanent settlement of the so-called "land dispute". Instead it only puts it off for 75 years. That means our grandchildren may have to go through the same suffering we are going through now. It means that in 75 years the Hopi Tribe will once more sue the U.S. and the Navajo Nation, and that once more there will be a big, expensive relocation program. We are asking that you give the Hopi Tribe authority to enter into perpetual leases. We are asking that whatever legislation is developed, that our right to remain on the land be permanent. 3) We are concerned that if we sign the Accommodation Agreement, the U.S. will abandon us. The Hopi Tribe will have complete jurisdiction over us, with no oversight, and we will have no avenue of appeal, no matter what they do to us. If we accept Hopi jurisdiction we will not have any right to vote for the government that rules us. We are asking that the U.S. protects minority people from political and judicial discrimination in other places; we are asking for the same thing. 4) The Accommodation Agreement doesn't give us any way to maintain our livelihood. We don't have jobs. We have to live from our livestock and cornfields. There is enough grass for way more livestock where we live, but the Accommodation Agreement will only give each family an average of 25 sheep. That is not enough for even one person to live on, let alone a big family with 20 or 30 or even more people. There is enough grass here so each family could have one or two hundred sheep, and still be plenty leftover. 5) The Accommodation Agreement is set up like a lease or rental. We are a community and we are used to making decisions as a community. If we are to enter into an agreement with the Hopi Tribe and the U.S. we want to do it as a community, not as a bunch of separate families. 6) We are only being given until Dec. 31 this year to make up our minds whether we will sign the Accommodation Agreement or not. (The extension has now been placed to March) This may not be enough time to address all our concerns. We are also concerned about the agreement between the U.S. and the Hopi Tribe. We see the results, that the U.S. is going to use OUR settlement to save 350 million dollars. We also see that: 1) The settlement is disproportionate. We get 3 acres for 75 years, plus a cornfield, while the Hopi Tribe gets 500,000 acres and even more money. We do not think this is evenhanded at all. If the Hopis get 500,000 acres, then we should get something equivalent. 2) The U.S. has agreed to evict us. We thought the goal of the Manybeads mediation was to prevent eviction. Now we see that if we cannot in good conscience sigh the Accommodation Agreement by the end of this year (deadline extended until March, 1997) then we will be removed by force sometime before February of the year 2000. Therefore we are asking to be allowed to testify when you hold hearings on the proposed Navajo-Hopi settlement this year. We are also asking that you give our input your consideration when you are working on settlement legislation. This is our life and the lives of our children and grandchildren that we are working to preserve. Accordingly we are asking that you designate a staff person who can work with us and offer guidance. Thank you for your concern for the Dine' families who continue to reside on their ancestral lands, now called the Hopi-partitioned Lands. A second letter is released by the undersigned through Mr. Chasing Horse.. Mr. David Lombardi Settlement Program United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit 121 Spear Street PO Box 193939 San Francisco, CA 94119-3939 Dear Mr. Lombardi: The U.S. Congress is now considering legislation which would, in effect, adopt the Accommodation Agreement in its current form. Because the Accommodation Agreement still does not address a number of our major concerns, this is very disturbing to us. We urge you to impress upon the United States and the Hopi Tribe the need to address our concerns immediately to avoid another major setback in the resolution of the "land dispute." We have set forth our principal concerns below. In the past, the Hopi Tribe has said it will only discuss these matters after a federal law has been passed. Why wait? These concerns are important to us now and, depending on the answers we receive, will determine whether or not we sign the Accommodation Agreement. We would take it as an act of good will for the Hopi Tribe to discuss these concerns now; conversely, we are suspicious of efforts to delay discussions until after the federal law is in place when the Hopi Tribe will have little incentive to meet with us. Our nine principle concerns are: 1. Homesites for our children. The Accommodation Agreement is not clear on whether and how our children will be able to establish separate homesites. It should not be that difficult for the Hopi Tribe to say that such homesites are permissible, and then we can negotiate how they would be established in a manner satisfactory to both the Hopis and us. 2. Future allocation of livestock. The Hopi Livestock Ordinance provides for the allocation of additional livestock permits pursuant to a system which sets up six priorities. All of these priorities apply only to Hopi tribal members. This means that, at some future date, when the Hopi Tribe permits an increase in livestock on the Hopi Partitioned Land, it will be almost impossible for a Navajo family to get such a permit. We would like the Hopi Tribe to commit to providing us the opportunity to receive these permits on an equal basis with Hopi tribal members. 3. Hopi Comprehensive Land Use Plan should take into account Navajo traditional and religious uses. The Hopi Tribe has a comprehensive land use plan which encompasses the areas in which we live. We would like a commitment from the Hopi Tribe to take the maps that we have prepared, identifying burial and sacred sites, and incorporate them into the land use plan to assure that those sites are properly protected. Supposedly, they have agreed to honor our religion; we need some specific protections, not just vague promises, spoken half-heartedly. 4. Hopi governmental accountability. We remain concerned about how we will be treated by the Hopi government under the Accommodation Agreement. In the past, we have experienced substantial harassment from Hopi Rangers, including aggressive impoundment policies and patrolling. We propose a civil rights board to oversee Hopi police activity and to receive our complaints or an amendment to the Indian Civil Rights Act which enables us to enforce violations of our federal civil rights by the Hopi police in federal court. 5. A fair dispute resolution process. The Hopi Tribe intends to apply many of its laws to us. If we are charged with a violation, we will be tried in Hopi Court before Hopi jurors. Navajo families will not be given the opportunity for a "trial by their peers." We propose either a special joint Navajo-Hopi court to hear cases involving Navajo families on the HPL, or that the Hopi Tribe commit to having Navajos on juries which hear cases involving Navajos. 6. Fair distribution of population-based funding and services. Under the Accommodation Agreement and Settlement Agreement, the Hopi Tribe will be able to count the Navajo families for the purposes of population-based federal and other funding and services. Historically, the State of Arizona has included us in its population count but does not provide us with our pro rata share of funds and services received. We do not want this to happen again. We should be guaranteed our prop rata share of any such funds and services received by the Hopi Tribe. 7. Self-Rule for the Navajo families akin to the self-rule exercised by the Hopi villages. We will not be permitted to participate in Hopi elections and yet the Hopi Tribe wishes to govern our affairs. We propose that we be granted self-rule, just like each one of the eleven Hopi villages enjoys a great measure of self-rule. We will administer Hopi laws and programs which apply to us in the same way that tribal governments administer federal laws and programs under Section 638 contracting. 8. Neither Navajos, nor Hopis, should have to get permits for religious activities. We continue to object to the requirement that anyone, whether Navajo or Hopi, should have to secure a permit from a government agency to engage in a religious activity such as collection green boughs or eagle gathering. These activities should be regulated by our religious leaders. We propose a joint Navajo-Hopi Religious Council made up of religious leaders from both tribes, who will be informed on the environmental as well as religious context of these activities, and who will be responsible for assuring that the activities are conducted appropriately. 9. Extension of the deadline to sign the Accommodation Agreement. The December 31, 1996 deadline for signing the Accommodation Agreement is too early. First of all, we will need specific responses to the issues set forth above, not just evasions and delays, before we will be in a position to decide whether to sign. Moreover, we do not fully understand the impact of the Congressional legislation which, we are told, is likely to be passed in September. We also understand that Judge Carroll will be reviewing the Settlement Agreement, the Accommodation Agreement and the status of the various legal cases, probably in October or November. Until all of these matters have been addressed or resolved, we will not be in a position to make a final decision on the Accommodation Agreement. Mr. Lombardi, we are fighting for our religious beliefs and our way of life. Both have been under attack for nearly five hundred years by outside forces, yet both are supposed to be protected by the Constitution of the United States. We have made many concessions, but certain matters are so fundamental to who we are, that we must demand respect for them. With great respect, The Navajo Families of Big Mountain Robert Blackgoat Fannie H. Goy Art Biakeddy Joella Ashike John Benally Sue Biakeddy Alice R. Benally Rebecca Zee Renee Chase Violet Ashike Mazzie Begaye Sheldan Chase Tom Begaye Ruby Biakeddy Sam Little Amy L. Little Collen Blakeddy Rita Chase Jessie J. Blakeddy Ella Mae Little Alethia Little Paula Little Ida L. Little Samantha Lynn Little Ivanna Little Paulah V. Biakeddy Tacheal Begay Bridget Begay Jimmie Begay Sammie Biakeddy Lydia Biakeddyk Chee Lewis Mazzie Dale Danielle Ashike Shawn Wood Dawn Wood Craig T. Wood Pita A. Wood Angel Jones Darwin T. Ashike Wendi J. Ashike Joel Ashike Dean Biakeddy Velvatt Biakeddy Ashike Biakeddy Brian Biakeddy --------- "RE: Injustice to Holocaust Victims" --------- Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1997 17:55:10 -0500 From: Joseph To: Senator Alfonse D'Amato Subj: Injustice to Holocaust Victims UUCP email Senator D'Amato, I listened with interest this morning on NPR radio to your demand that the Swiss Government see to the return of stolen assets to the victims of the holocaust...assets that have been illegally held in Swiss banks for more than 50 years. I share your desire that these stolen assets be returned to these people and their heirs. Justice demands it. It must be then, that you are unaware that the U.S. Government has perpetrated just such an injustice on the Natives of this land and is continuing to do so as we speak. Please--consider the "holocaust" that Native Americans have been subjected to: 1) Native American groups slaughtered and subjected to cultural genocide as Government Policy for over two hundred years, coast to coast with millions of People murdered or driven off their lands and left to die of sickness and starvation; 2) Native American children kidnapped and given to non-Natives or sent to boarding schools where they were subjected to unbelievable cruelty; 3) Native American Peoples herded across the country en masse (sometimes in cattle cars--sound familiar?) to be "concentrated" into areas that were deemed useless/unwanted by the Government; 4) When this pitiful remnant of First Nations People living on "waste" land that was later deemed to be useful (for exploitation by mining, timbering, cattle industry), the scraps of lands left to them were stolen again (ie: the Dawes Allotment Act, Black Hills Gold Rush, Oklahoma land rush...just to name a few examples). Of the hundreds of Treaties the U.S. Government has entered into with Native American groups, not ONE has ever been honored by the government. When the Lakota Sioux resisted Government attempts to mine Uranium on Sioux reservations, the FBI conducted a prolonged terror campaign on these reservations that resulted in dozens of murders of "traditional" tribe members under the auspices of a program called COINTELPRO. This process of exploitation and cultural genocide continues today! There are several Native American groups being forcibly driven off their lands right now including a Dineh group in the Southwest and the Timbisha Shoshoni in the California Desert. There has been an effort underway for several years for rescindment of some 20 Medals of Honor awarded to butchers masquerading as US Army soldiers at Wounded Knee, to no avail. The B.I.A. has stolen BILLIONS from Native American Tribes and individuals over the last 20 years with seeming impunity. The list goes on and on Senator D'Amato but I'm sure you can now see the ugly picture that emerges. When I heard your impassioned plea this morning I felt that if you but knew of this history of injustices to citizens of this land, you would add your powerful voice to demands that these victims no longer be subjected to injustice. There are many things that can be done on a practical level today to ameliorate the distress and suffering of Native Americans due to these injustices: 1) Compensate victims and their heirs for losses suffered. 2) Stop the interference of parasite agencies like the B.I.A. in Native American affairs (dissolve this monument to institutionalized oppression and theft!) 3) Honor the terms of the hundreds of treaties still in force; return stolen treaty lands to Native Americans and compensate those who are living on stolen lands and relocate them. These are but a few of the things that our government, with your help, could do to promote the healing between it and the First Peoples and relieve an untold amount of suffering that continues today. I look forward to your response! Joseph A. Keto Jr., RN, B.S.N. P.O. Box 202 McCall, Idaho 83638-0202 (208) 634 5660 --------- "RE: Dine Spiritual Belief" --------- Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 08:36:30 -0500 (EST) From: Fred Sinkevich Subj: Dine Spiritual Belief UUCP email This is a forward from Joseph Chasing Horses. Religion as lived by the traditional Dine is their well being, life, rain, the weather, the change of seasons, the land, the hogan, their livestock and cornfields. They are all interrelated and cannot be separated. The land and home (the hogan), the reproductive powers of nature and the origins of the Dine Way are closely tied together in legend and ceremony. Their "church" is the world bounded by four sacred mountains, and their traditional home, the hogan, is a model of that world from the details of its construction to the placement of the first and the orientation of the doorway. The hogan is the center of Dine ceremonial life and is a very sacred place. The prayer or earth bundle is kept in the hogan and is one of the most sacred objects in Dine religion. It contains sand from the six sacred mountains, a sheep doll fetish made of white stone, a horse call fetish made of black (jet) stone, buckskin, corn pollen, white shell, abalone, turquoise, jet stone, crystal and Ha dah hon ni yeh (a sacred stone which serves as the centerpiece or spine of the bundle). The prayer bundle symbolizes the balance in life and must always be kept safe and secure. It is kept in a Navajo blanket which in turn is kept in the Hogan. The relationships of these sacred objects is essential to maintaining the balance and harmony in the beauty way of the Dine world. One of the most central and fundamental Dine ceremonies is Blessingway. With the Blessingway, as with all Dine ceremonies, "marking" or offerings of white corn meal and corn pollen are made before the ceremony begins. The purpose of the ceremony is to establish a state of balance or harmony. Blessingway songs are sung at the end of every ceremony. Blessingway is also the core of the initiation of young girls into womanhood, and new homes are blessed with songs from the ceremony. Its legends tell of the events after the Emergence, the construction of the hogan, and the sacred geography of the Dine; hence, Blessingway is perhaps the most important religious facet of traditional Dine identity. These ceremonies can only be performed in the families' hogans and at other sacred places known to the Dine families. Learning how to live means praying to and giving thanks for what gives life: Mother Earth, the Sun, Fire and Air. Each has gods or Holy People dwelling within. There are prayers and offerings at special places...like springs, shrines, flat areas, young trees, and at home, that must be learned and passed on. The first tie to the land occurs when a child is conceived in the Mother's womb. Prayers and ceremonies are performed for the unborn child which introduce the child to the Holy Ones and vice versa. When the child is born the afterbirth is offered to a young tree so as the young tree grows the child grows. The tree stands in a lifelong relationship to the person and prayers and offerings are made there throughout one's lifetime. A place is sacred because it is possible to communicate there with the Holy People through prayer and offering. The Holy People cannot be seen, but their presence is known through air movements and vibrations, a certain kind of light, pictographs, noises, and through legends. There are several consistent qualitative associations, such as kinds of places, atmospheric conditions, or times, that provide needed access to the Holy People. Mountains, watercourses, springs, hills, flat areas, at young trees and at home are common places for prayer and offering. There are also traditional natural springs, rock formations, and other phenomena of nature that are shrines. Families' traditional use areas are bounded by sacred places where Holy People dwell. Parents and Grandparents teach their children and grandchildren the prayers and offerings that must be made at these places to insure well-being and protection. The land outside of this protective line is potentially dangerous. Also families have responsibility as caretakers of the land; the prayers and offerings must be continued to maintain the essential order of balance and harmony. Big Mountain is an example of a site with regional significance. The mountain is a very important Holy Person, mentioned frequently in the literature of Navajo religion. He is considered the one that created man. There is a Shrine on Big Mountain that was built by Holy People when the universe was being formed. It was built by the Holy People for the Dine and they were instructed to preserve and protect it. Star Mountain is another religious sacred site. Despite being aware of the religious significance of Star Mountain, the Hopi Tribe and the U.S. Government ignored the Dine concerns and fenced Star Mountain. A medicine man in the Teestoh community was arrested and jailed when he attempted to stop the U.S. Government and the Hopi Tribe from desecrating Star mountain by placing a barbed wire fence around it. Cornfields are also sacred. The sand is taken into the hogan and returned to the field after the ceremony is completed. Sand is also used in sand paintings and as a purification wash. Different kinds of corn and parts of the corn (the husk, corn cob, corn pollen) are used in ceremonies and as offerings. In the field, the different colored corn are laid out in a sacred way in planting and used in almost every ceremony. Many of the Dine ceremonies, including the Yei bi che, Enemy Way and Fire Dance ceremonies, last several days and require them to build special structures away from their homes. These ceremonies require the use of open areas and land. The Yei bi che, Ni dah and Fire Dance lasts for nearly two weeks. In the Yei Bi Che ceremony a ceremonial hogan is needed, a ramada or cooking shack, a Yei house (four wooden posts covered with green cedar tree branches), an herb rack and a sweat lodge. The Dine may travel up to 20 miles to collect needed ceremonial herbs. The ceremony lasts for 13 days (9 days followed by 4 days of reflection after the ceremony). Sacred objects are then left in the Yei house which is left standing until it decays by natural forces. Herbs are gathered in special ways and the Medicine person knows where they are located. The plant is called by its Dine name and an offering is made to the Holy Ones. The Holy Ones are told why the plant is being taken and who the plant is for. Natural springs are considered sacred to the Dine. Horse Springs, near Star Mountain and several other natural springs have been sealed off and the sacred water diverted to other areas for Hopi cattle. An example of some of these springs include: Red Willow Springs, Big Mountain Springs (East, West, North, South), Gravel Pit (Coal mine area), Mosquito Springs, Dove Springs, Dove Springs, Owl Springs, Sunshine Springs, Tiic Ya Toh, To Ha Tich, Black Horse Springs, Clay Springs, Onion Spring, Horse Springs, Yes Ya Toh, Lizard Spring, Tsi Dzeh (Jeddito area). Dine Livestock is one of the most important things in their lives. The animals were given to them by the Creator for ceremonies, food, to be used to teach the children the stories and lessons that they must know to carry on the Dine way of life and the wool used to wear rugs is necessary. The weaving of rugs is vital. When a woman learns to weave she is taught the stories about the animals and about the loom and other instruments used to turn raw wool into a beautiful rug. It helps her strengthen her mind, develop exact thoughts, and to weave a story, using symbols, into the rug. All of the animals have sacred songs and prayers and each has a name used in ceremonies. It is vital that the Dine people continue to live on their ancestral lands. The sacred places define a sacred zone to which they have responsibilities and which is a safe area for the family. If the Dine are displaced their belief that improper contact with inherently dangerous power...may lead to illness, the price man pays for disturbance of the normal order, harmony or balance among elements in the universe. Moving to a "foreign" land could bring persons into contact with dangerous powers that could cause illness. The Dine Traditionals will not know where to find places they may communicate with the Holy People. Those opposing signing the agreement know that their future generations will face these issues in 75 years, upon termination of the lease agreement. --------- "RE: Ward Valley Indigenous Nuke" --------- Date: Tue, 28 Jan 97 08:00:00 PST From: Indigenous Environmental Network Subj: Ward Valley Indigenous Nuke UUCP email January 24, 1997 Released by: Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) FORT MOJAVE AND COLORADO RIVER NATIVE NATIONS ALLIANCE CONTINUE TO FIGHT THE PROPOSED RADIOACTIVE WASTE DUMP AT WARD VALLEY The Department of Energy (DOE) will be holding a meeting of their "Host State Technical Coordinating Committee" on Tuesday, January 28, 1997 in Laughlin, Nevada where they will discuss the proposed Ward Valley "low- level" radioactive waste dump. The DOE invited state and nuclear industry officials to make presentations at their meeting, BUT FAILED TO OFFER ANY SIMILAR INVITATION TO THE IMPACTED TRIBES THAT RESIDE ALONG THE COLORADO RIVER. The proposed radioactive waste dump is being sited in an area that is sacred to the Fort Mojave and other tribes in the area. The proposed Ward Valley site is not within the reservation boundaries of the tribes, however, is within Native traditional lands that have sacred and culturally significant value to the Native Peoples. The site is home of the desert tortoise, an endangered species. Plans are to bury long-lasting and highly dangerous radioactive wastes from nuclear plants in shallow, unlined trenches. Ward Valley is located directly adjacent to the new Mojave National Preserve and is surrounded by eight designated Wilderness Areas. The proposed nuclear dump site is right above a major aquifer and 18 miles from the Colorado River. The push for the Ward valley dump comes from the powerful nuclear energy and nuclear research industry lobby group looking for a cheap grave fro their radioactive waste and a way to transfer liability for nuclear waste to the taxpayer. The Ward Valley dump contractor, US Ecology, has left a trail of leaking dumps and litigation across the United States. The DOE has announced that they will arrive at Ward Valley at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, January 29,1997 to have a tour of the proposed radioactive waste dump. The site is located 22 miles west of Needles, California, near the Water Road exit off Interstate 40. Steve Lopez, Fort Mojave Ward Valley Director has announced that Native tribal leaders, community members, traditional elders and environmental justice activists will gather at the entrance to Ward Valley at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, January 29, 1997 to greet the U.S., state and nuclear industry officials. A traditional Native ceremony will be taking place at the site awaiting for the tour visitation of the U.S., state and nuclear industry delegates. The Native representatives and environmental supporters will express their opposition to the proposed dump, and CALL UPON PRESIDENT CLINTON TO INTERVENE TO STOP THE DUMP AND RESPECT THE ENVIRONMENTAL, CULTURAL, AND SPIRITUAL CONCERNS OF THE NATIVE ELDERS AND TRIBES THAT LIVE ALONG THE COLORADO RIVER. The Fort Mojave, Chemehuevi, Quechan, Cocopah and Colorado River Indian Tribes have formed the "Colorado River Native Nations Alliance" to stop the dump and protect the Colorado River and Ward Valley, places of sacred significance to the tribes. The tribes consider Ward valley sacred homeland and have vowed to defend their traditions, land, water, air, and culture. The tribal councils of the five tribes, their traditional elders and tribal grassroots members are standing united in their fight against this proposed waste dump. The Fort Mojave have put out a call for support at this meeting so that there would be a continued strong message that the siting of this radioactive dump at Ward Valley makes no sense. The Indigenous Environmental Network, Ward Valley Coalition, Greenpeace and many other Native and non-Native support groups continue to stand in defense of the Indigenous rights of the Fort Mojave, Chemehuevi, Quechan, Cocopah and Colorado River Indian Tribes to protect their families from the contamination of leaking radio nuclides from the dump. FIGHT ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Come and support the Colorado River Native Nations Alliance and the Ward Valley Coalition in their stance on January 29, 1997. WE MUST ACT NOW! Call, write, email and fax President Clinton. Tell him to protect Colorado River from radioactive contamination, honor his commitment to the Indian tribes and protect tribal land, water, cultural and sacred sites and to preserve Wilderness and protect critical habitat for endangered species. President Bill Clinton, The White House, Washington, D.C. 20500, Phone (202) 456-1414, Fax (202) 456-2461, e-mail: president@whitehouse.gov +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For more information: Steve Lopez, Ft. Mojave Tribe, (619) 326-4591 or Save Ward Valley Office (619) 326-6267 To provide letters of support: Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, 500 Merriman Avenue, Needles, CA 92363 Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, PO Box 1976, Havasu Lake, CA 52363 Cocopah Indian Tribe, County 15 and Ave G, Somerton, AZ 85350 Quechan Indian Tribe, Fort Yuma Indian Reservation, PO Box 11352, Yuma, AZ 85366 Colorado River Indian Tribes, Route 1, Box 23B, Parker, AZ 85344 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Other dates to be aware of: January 31, 1997, at 9:00 am, the Tribes will take their concerns to the Southwestern Low-Level Radioactive Waste Commission meeting in Needles Nuclear Free Newe Sogobia Gathering, and Indigenous Anti-Nuclear Gathering on the west side of Yucca Mountain, March 21-23, 1997. Sponsored by the Western Shoshone National Council with Citizen Alert Native American Program as host. For more info contact: Ian Zabarte, Nuke Free Newe Sogobia Gathering Organizer (702) 796-5562 or Virginia Sanchez, CANAP Director (702) 827-5511 or (702) 863-0258. Healing Global Wounds, March 27-31, Nevada. For more information, contact Healing Global Wounds (408) 338-0147. They are preparing for a 13-day series of diverse events at the Nevada Test Site, March 23 - April 4, 1997. Ward Valley Spring Gathering, April 25-27, 1997 at the Ward Valley site, California +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ INDIGENOUS ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK P.O. Box 485 Bemidji, MN 56619 -0485 USA Ph: (218) 751-4967 Fax: (218) 751-0561 e-mail: ien@igc.apc.org web page: http://www.alphacdc.com/ien --------- "RE: California Holocaust" --------- Date: Tue, 04 Feb 1997 15:57:03 GMT From: for7gen@idiom.com (Walter Epp) Subj: California holocaust, public comments needed Newsgroup: alt.native,soc.culture.native Redwood land has sustained multiple holocausts: 98% of its Native people, 99% of its Salmon, 96% of its old-growth forest. Comments from the public are due by February 18 on the proposed Headwaters deal giving Charles Hurwitz/Maxxam/Pacific Lumber hundreds of millions of dollars worth of public land and a license to degrade more endangered species habitat in the form of a "Habitat Conservation Plan" in exchange for a small fraction of Headwaters Forest. Your tax dollars are going to reward an environmental destroyer if you don't speak out. write to: Bruce Halstead US Fish & Wildlife Service 1125 16th Street, room 209 Arcata CA 95521-5582 Here is some food for thought and points to make: Anyone who claims exclusive property rights to that land betrays a rank ignorance of history. The land of that area was originally acquired through kidnapping and selling Indian children into slavery, through forced removal of families from their homes at gunpoint, and through a grisly campaign of outright extermination. The Sacramento Union described the methods of slave raiders in Humboldt County: "The baby hunters sneak up to a rancheria, kill the bucks [ie Indian fathers], pick out the best looking squaws, ravish them, and make off with their young ones". Children were enslaved as young as the age of 3 (three), deported to as far away as southern California, and girls were often used for both the "purposes of labor and of lust", as one newspaper of the time put it. During the single night of February 26, 1860, 250 Indians were murdered in Humboldt County, a majority of them women and children. No one was ever brought to trial. The Humboldt Times enthusiastically supported such work by private militia, publicly hoping they "will succeed in totally breaking up or exterminating the skulking bands of savages". Federal and California state governments reimbursed the expenses of such militia, making them accomplices in the crimes, and some local governments paid bounties to people who brought in scalps to prove they had killed Indians. During the first 10 years of significant white "settlement", 85% of all Wiyot people on the face of the earth perished. By 1910, their population was down 98%. If we recognize the legitimacy of land title acquired by these methods, we make a brazen statement of our ethical character. For a bunch of millionaires to sit in a back room and cut deals trading one piece of stolen property for another piece of stolen property is a sordid spectacle indeed. If negotiations are to have any legitimacy, the principal party will be the native people and a principal item on the agenda will be restitution. As a legal matter, I don't understand how corporations, or the Fish & Wildlife Service, have any jurisdiction over that land when it rightfully belongs to other nations: Wiyot, Nongatl, Whilkut, Sinkyone, and maybe others I don't even know the name of. As a practical matter, if you want to know what you should do to maintain the health of the land and its life, the logical thing to do is go to the people who've been there and done that. Native people have a proven track record going back thousands of years. Modern society has, so far, a proven track record of wreaking havoc and mayhem in that part of the world - in fact a holocaust on both the people and other species. So while I appreciate your soliciting our opinions, if you are really interested in doing your job, you will go to the people indigenous to that land, learn from their experience and success in achieving genuine sustainability, and put yourself under their direction. Only 1% of historic California Coho Salmon now survive. Translated to human beings, this 99% loss would correspond to the death of over 5.5 billion people, almost a thousand times the number of Jews said to have been killed in the Nazi concentration camps. Translated to the U.S., a 99% drop would leave us with a population between that of Bhutan and Togo, after a death toll 10,000 times the annual toll from one-on-one murder and manslaughter combined. Murder is a far more serious crime than punching someone, since chances of recovering from a blow are good, while murder is irrevocable. Likewise, genocide of a nation is a far more serious crime than murder, since a life can be replaced in a single generation, while extermination is irrevocable. Likewise, extinction of an entire species is a far more serious crime than extermination of a nation or other subgroup of a species, since a nation can be replaced in centuries while extinction of a species is irrevocable. In other words, the subject at hand is not one of minor political tradeoffs, the subject is crimes against Creation of the highest degree. Salmon may be pivotal to the health of the ecosystem in the long run, closing a great loop by bringing nutrients from the sea, without which the land's vitality might steadily decline as the rains wash nutrients downstream. The wealth of Redwood land may be due to the work of Salmon. In other words, loggers may ultimately owe their jobs to Salmon. The Salmon fishery once provided 10,000 jobs. Pacific Lumber employs 1600 people. By any rational objective measure, Salmon has more rights to the land than corporations, since Salmon has invested millions of years of its life blood to build the land into what it is, while most corporations are just pilfering it. Salmon are supreme gift-givers. Isn't it about time for larger numbers of people to awake from the stuporous rut of selfish taking-taking-taking, grow up to have enough maturity to begin repaying the enormous debt to Nature that we have incurred, and maybe even rise to a level of nobility a fraction that of Salmon by giving above the call of duty toward the sustainability of _all_ life, including that beyond our immediate family? An appropriate start would be a repayment on the debt we owe to Salmon: defense and restoration of their forest habitat in Headwaters and elsewhere. A Redwood forest lasts infinitely longer than an individual lifetime; thus no individual has the ultimate right to decide its fate, and in fact, no generation has that right. The number of people who have lived on that land in previous generations exceeds the number living there now, and, if we do not wreck it, the number of people in future generations will be much greater still. So if we are to have democracy for all, then the interest of future generations outweighs the interest of all people living today put together. During the hearing, speakers were cut off at 2 minutes, and most people were not allowed to speak at all. Such a format effectively precludes the airing of any significant or substantive opinion, is not compatible with anything that could be called democratic, and will not be used by anyone genuinely interested in getting meaningful public participation. At a minimum, the public should have on-going participatory decision- making powers in the formulation, monitoring, periodic review, enforcement, and amendments to any plans and management of ancient ecosystem lands. The $1.6 billion that Maxxam owner Charles Hurwitz's S&L schemes cost the taxpayer is triple the loss from all 659,000 robberies occurring annually across the nation. If the law is "three strikes and you're out", where is the conviction of those guilty of perpetrating the equivalent of over a million strikes? If you defaulted on a $160,000 mortgage and had the hutzpah to demand a house of similar value in exchange, wouldn't the bank boot you out of the office? Why are the rules suddenly being changed upside down when the amount is $1.6 billion, 10,000 times bigger? To coddle Hurwitz with offers of land in exchange for Headwaters is to renounce any claim to working in the public interest. To participate in allowing logging on "any" land claimed by Maxxam and its subsidiaries prior to resolution of all lawsuits is to be an accomplice in the destruction of assets subject to legal dispute and thus to be guilty of obstruction of justice. If a "Habitat Conservation Plan" allows any destruction of endangered species habitat then it is a fraud. When a species has been pushed to the brink of extinction by a factor of 99%, the top priority in any responsible action will be recovery of the species, dramatic reductions in threats to their survival, and dramatic increases in the quantity and quality of habitat. If the purpose of a plan is conservation of endangered species and their habitat, then the overriding criteria will be the health of the endangered species, and all else will be contingent on that. In particular, "allowable activities" will depend on the health situation and outlook, and any actual or foreseeable decline in health will require a corresponding prompt mitigation response, including the provision of increased quantity and quality of habitat. If the purpose of a plan is to provide a landowner with "certainty about the kinds of activities that can be legally conducted now and in the future", then it is not about conservation at all. Playing shell games, exchanging real ancient habitat for some hypothetical or potential habitat, is an exercise in negligence, and engineering gimmicks such as "allowable incidental take", that amount to a thinly disguised license to kill endangered species, is an exercise in criminality. contacts for more information and to get involved: Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters 510-835-6303 24-hour hotline recording; 510-548-2220 office; http://www.igc.apc.org/headwaters Environmental Protection Information Center PO Box 397, Garberville CA 95542; 707-923-2931, email epic@igc.apc.org http://www.humnat.org/epic/ Earth First, 106 W. Standley, Ukiah CA 95482 707-468-1660, 707-459-4110, 707-923-3366 Earth First Direct Action for Headwaters 510-848-8724, 510-835-6303 Walter Epp for7gen@idiom.com 4432 Telegraph #51, Oakland CA 94609 USA --------- "RE: Royal Commission 3-2" --------- Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 04:59:00 +0000 From: don.rayment@uptowne.com (Don Rayment) Subj: Royal Commission 3 - 2 Mailing List: UpTowne Online Services [Editorial note: This is a continuing series of a public release of a Royal Commission Report. Paul Antone posted it to the UpTowne listserver maintained by Don Rayment.] Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples Restructuring the Relationship Nation Government Aboriginal people with a strong sense of shared identity and an exclusive territorial base will probably opt for the 'nation' model of self-government. Inside their boundaries, nation governments would exercise a wide range of powers and authority. They might choose to incorporate elements of traditional governance. They could choose a loose federation among regions or communities, or a more centralized form of government. They will need to find ways of representing the interests of non-Aboriginal residents in decision making. Public Government In some regions, Aboriginal people are the majority in territory they share with non-Aboriginal people for example, in the more northerly parts of the country. Existing agreements (such as the Nunavut Agreement) signal that Aboriginal nations in that situation will probably opt for the 'public' model of self-government. In this model, all residents participate equally in the functions of government, regardless of their heritage. Structures and processes of government would likely be similar to those of other Canadian governments but with adaptations to reflect Aboriginal traditions and protect Aboriginal cultures. Community of Interest Government In urban centres, Aboriginal people from many nations form a minority of the population. They are not 'nations' in the way we define it, but they want a measure of self-government nevertheless especially in relation to education, health care, economic development, and protection of their cultures. Urban Aboriginal governments could operate effectively within municipal boundaries, with voluntary membership and powers delegated from Aboriginal nation governments and/or provincial governments. In our judgement, the right of Aboriginal governments to exercise authority over all matters relating to the good government and welfare of Aboriginal peoples and their territories is an existing Aboriginal right and is therefore recognized and affirmed by the constitution. This governing authority has two parts: a 'core' and a 'periphery'. The core of Aboriginal jurisdiction consists of matters that are of vital concern to the life and welfare of a particular Aboriginal people, its culture and identity but do not have a major impact on neighbouring communities and are not otherwise the object of transcendent federal or provincial interest. Legally, nothing prevents Aboriginal governments from taking charge of core issues in their communities and nations tomorrow. Practically, of course, they are tied into existing program arrangements with other governments. Before they can reasonably be expected to take charge, agreements about new funding formulas and many other issues are needed. Matters on the periphery of Aboriginal jurisdiction matters that affect the lands, resources and other interests of neighbouring people must be subject to agreements with other governments. We have in mind such occasionally controversial issues as pollution control, road and rail access, wildlife protection, certain aspects of the justice system and so on issues that will require shared or co-operative management arrangements. Financing for Self-Government The financing of Aboriginal governments will require new approaches approaches that acknowledge that much of the wealth of this country comes from lands and resources to which, in many cases, Aboriginal people have a legitimate claim. If self-government is accompanied by fair redistribution of lands and resources as we argue it must be Aboriginal governments can become largely self-financing in the long term through greater access to what are called 'own-source revenues'. Own-source revenues flow to governments through familiar channels taxation, investment, borrowing, business fees and royalties, public corporation revenues, proceeds from lotteries and gaming, and so on. These sources of revenue can and should be made available to Aboriginal governments. It is especially important for Aboriginal governments to develop their own taxation systems. Most Aboriginal people pay taxes now, but to provincial and federal governments. We are recommending that those who live on Aboriginal nation territories pay taxes primarily to their own governments. Those who live off Aboriginal territory would continue to pay taxes to federal and provincial governments. It will take time for Aboriginal nations to develop own-source revenues. Even then, transfer payments from other governments will be needed but to a lesser extent. We expect that treaties and other agreements among governments will free transfer payments from some of the restrictions on their use that now frustrate Aboriginal people. Aboriginal nations, like the provinces, will have unequal access to resources and economic opportunities, so their level of prosperity will vary. We expect that nations that are well-off will help those that are not. Transfer payments from other governments will help to equalize the levels of service they can provide. We also expect that, as they develop, Aboriginal nations will use their resources to take fiscal responsibility for their own governments and services. Transfer payments can be structured to encourage this, as now happens between the federal and provincial governments. Redistributing Lands and Resources All over the world and throughout history, collective control of lands and resources has been the key to prosperity and the basis of the powerful idea of 'home' that gives a people their common identity. Most Aboriginal people retain an intensely spiritual connection to the land of their ancestors one that involves both continuity and stewardship. It is hardly surprising, then, that the most intense conflicts between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people centre on the use and control of land. Across Canada, Aboriginal people are pressing for an expanded share a fair share of lands and resources that were once theirs alone. They were promised as much by the Crown of England and its successor, the government of Canada. Some Aboriginal nations signed treaties only because of that promise. In fact, though, except in northern Quebec and the territories, the amount of land allocated for use by Aboriginal people is extremely small. Aboriginal lands south of the 60th parallel (mainly Indian reserves) make up less than one-half of one per cent of the Canadian land mass. By contrast, in the United States (excluding Alaska), where Aboriginal people make up a far smaller portion of the population, they hold three per cent of the land (see map). Land reserved for Aboriginal people was steadily whittled away after its original allocation. Almost two-thirds of it has 'disappeared' by various means since Confederation. In some cases, the government failed to deliver as much land as specified in a treaty. In other cases, it expropriated or sold reserved land, rarely with First Nations as willing vendors. Once in a while, outright fraud took place. Even when First Nations were able to keep hold of reserved land, the government sometimes sold its resources to outsiders. These disappearances took place despite the solemn duty of the Crown to manage lands and resources for the benefit of Aboriginal people. Similarly, Metis people, who believed they had won the right to their own lands and resources in the bargain with Ottawa that led to the Manitoba Act, were driven further and further west and ultimately dispersed as a people by the largely fraudulent manner in which that bargain was administered. Several other land policy issues have festered over the years: * Governments have failed to allocate any lands at all to some Aboriginal nations. * Governments have refused (with a few exceptions) to extend the land and resource base of First Nations as their populations, and their need for economic opportunity, grew. * Large-scale resource development projects have had a destructive impact on Aboriginal lands and communities. * Aboriginal peoples' treaty-protected harvesting rights on traditional lands have been opposed and blocked by non-Aboriginal people and governments. Early in the relationship, colonial governments respected Aboriginal land rights and title. But over time, conflict grew. To non-Aboriginal people and governments, the many millions of unfarmed, undeveloped hectares of Canada were 'Crown land', public land their land. To Aboriginal people, land belonged only to the Creator, but by virtue of their role as stewards, it was theirs to care for, to use and to share if they chose. Treaty agreements did not end the conflict. Indeed, it became sharper as settlers took up residence next door to Aboriginal people, who had not foreseen how deeply settlers' ways would clash with their own. They thought that the Crown's treaty promises would be enough to ensure their survival and independence. They were wrong. The conflict became more deeply entrenched when the Constitution Act, 1867 drafted without discussion with Aboriginal people assigned legal ownership of all Crown lands to the provinces. If what Aboriginal peoples thought they had won had been delivered a reasonable share of lands and resources for their exclusive use, protection for their traditional economic activities, resource revenues from shared lands, and support for their participation in the new economy being shaped by the settlers the position of Aboriginal peoples in Canada today would be very different. They would be major land owners. Most Aboriginal nations would likely be economically self-reliant. Some would be prosperous. Some Aboriginal nations have gone to court to force governments to recognize their rights to land and resources, and some have been successful. A series of court decisions has confirmed that Aboriginal peoples have more than a strong moral case for redress on land and resource issues they have legal rights. The law of Aboriginal title establishes three things: * Aboriginal people have rights of occupancy or use of portions of Canada that far exceed their current land base. These rights are based on their history of having lived in and used those lands since time immemorial. * Agreements between the Crown and an Aboriginal nation (such as treaties) must be worked out before non-Aboriginal people can occupy or use that nation's traditional lands. * The Crown of Canada is the guardian of Aboriginal title to their traditional lands and is obliged to support and protect their interests in those lands. But the courts are a cumbersome, costly and sometimes insensitive way to solve the human issues that underlie land and resource claims. Negotiated settlements, in which the parties talk face to face and work out complex deals, are preferable. Indeed, in nation- to-nation relations, they are essential. Lands and resources are owing to Aboriginal peoples for both contemporary and historical reasons. Lands and resources are the essential substructure of political, economic and social development. To rebuild their nations, Aboriginal people need * enough land to give them something to call 'home' not just a physical space but a place of cultural and spiritual meaning as well * enough land to allow for traditional pursuits, such as hunting and trapping * enough lands and resources to contribute significantly to the financing of self-government ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Internet: don.rayment@uptowne.com (Don Rayment) This message was processed by NetXpress from Merlin Systems Inc. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This multi-part series will be presented over the next several issues. My thanks to Don and Paul for bringing this to my attention. gary --------- "RE: Keweenaw Bay Update" --------- Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1997 19:48:26 GMT From: lawhitt@mtu.edu (Laurie Anne Whitt) Subj: Keweenaw Bay Update Newsgroups: apc.indig.info,soc.culture.native,alt.native The following article deals with the latest developments at KBIC with regard to Father John Hascall, the priest who is providing members of Fight For Justice with sanctuary. It appeared in The Daily Mining Gazette on 20 January 1997, and is posted here with permission. If you would like to protest the events related below, please write or fax: 1) Kendricks Bordeau - the law firm of current KBIC Tribal Prosecutor, Gregor MacGregor. Fax: 906-226-2543 Kendricks Bordeau 128 W. Spring St. Marquette, MI 49855-4608 2) Fred Dakota - KBIC Tribal Chair. Fax: 906-353-7540 3) U.S. Representative Bart Stupak. Fax: 202-225-4744 4) U.S. Senator Carl Levin. Fax: 202-224-1388 For background on this situation, please consult earlier postings to this list ("http://bioc09.uthscsa.edu/natnet/archive/nl/keweenaw-bay.html"). Detailed information, including a chronology of events, can be found at http://www.edwards1.com/rose/native/ffj/ffj.htm ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ BY VANESSA DIETZ MARQUETTE - It is a letter that concludes with a plea for a peaceful end to Keweenaw Bay Indian Community's political division. But Father John Hascall's attorney, Steve Pence of Marquette, also asks many questions - and supplies answers from his perspective - in response to an arraignment invitation to all Fight For Justice members for whom KBIC Tribal Police have outstanding warrants. Pence's Jan. 17 letter to KBIC Tribal Prosecutor Gregor MacGregor was spurred by an offer of personal recognizance bonds. KBIC Tribal Judge Douglas Gurski made the offer to FFJ members with outstanding arrest warrants, if they agree to be arraigned Thursday. The judge's offer, as described in a letter from MacGregor, is contingent on bond conditions which include not entering the tribal center and not interfering with the tribal government's access to the old tribal center building. The compound has been held by protestors for more than a year. MacGregor, a partner of Kendricks Bordeau of Marquette, was unavailable for comment today, his secretary told The Gazette. Pence sent copies of the letter to Hascall, former KBIC tribal prosecutor and current tribal attorney Joseph O'Leary, KBIC member Timothy Shanahan and KBIC media spokesman Rich Rossway, alleging libelous statements by Shanahan and Rossway were made to the press about Hascall and asking that the statements be retracted. MacGregor sent Pence the letter, addressed to "Mr. John Hascall," which led Pence to remind MacGregor his "client's name is FATHER John Hascall." In response to MacGregor's letter, Pence wrote to the acting KBIC prosecuting attorney. "Father Hascall does not recognize the current government of the KBIC and Judge Gurski as having legitimate authority." As Father Hascall recently wrote: "KBIC 'does not respect the voice of the people on which democracy is based' since, in the 1994 election, 'the same electorate voted that had voted for 40 years, done so by custom and the will of the people,' yet the KBIC government nullified the election. "Individuals who exercise independence from the illegally constituted government of the KBIC are summarily dismissed from their duties," Pence wrote to MacGregor. Pence told The Gazette this morning the above quote refers to visiting Judge William Thorne's dismissal more than a year ago, the firing of tribal officers and others who claim they are no longer able to work for KBIC because of their political opinions. The tribal government disputes such claims. Hascall, the Catholic priest of Most Holy Name of Jesus Church in ins, does not intend to comply with KBIC Tribal Court's bond terms, Pence said in the letter. He told MacGregor that Hascall is not a KBIC member, making the charges invalid. Hascall is from the Sault Ste. Marie Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Pence requested a copy of the complaint and search warrant said to have resulted in the December 17, 1996 raid of the former tribal center grounds. At that time, KBIC Tribal Police reportedly forcibly entered Most Holy Name of Jesus rectory and Fr. Hascall's bedroom. Without a warrant, this type of activity would not be considered legal. Pence also questioned why police did not arrest Hascall at that time, if they had a warrant for him. He said, the priest now "plans on going about his business as he has in the past. He cannot and will not restrict his activities out of fear of an illegal arrest. Should the KBIC illegally arrest him, we will immediately file an action in federal court seeking a writ of habeas corpus. We will also hold accountable those who have any role in illegally arresting or incarcerating Father Hascall. "Father Hascall will not post a bond and will not accept the conditions that you offer as to a personal-recognizance bond. Father Hascall is on several medications, and should he be arrested and lodged in jail, he will do what other prisoners of conscience have done: he will refuse food and medicine," Pence wrote. "The reasons that Father Hascall has risked so much and is willing to risk even more are best summed up in his own words: 'The basic rights of a people have been denied: Their right to belong to a people, to make a choice as to their leaders, the right to religious freedom, the right to be free from unjust arrest, the right to protection from the elements, the freedom to travel from place to place, and the right to have food, medicine and security from that which would harm them.' "Father Hascall has also stated that the KBI is 'a sick form of government, if a government at all.'...Father Hascall notes that, in the past: 'The sacred was always respected by the people. This sacred area where the church and the rectory lie was set aside for the spiritual needs of the people. Throughout the 29 years that I have been here, I have lived my traditional Christian way of life and the people have grown throughout the years. The church stands for justice and peace and the rights of individuals and societies to exist. What the people want, and what I want, is for this situation to be healed in justice and peace, for the good of the people, for the good of the children,'" Pence wrote in the letter. --------- "RE: Bison Protection Plan Proposed" --------- Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 05:18:19 GMT From: scottrobertladd@juno.com (Scott Robert Ladd) Subj: Emergency Bison Protection Plan Proposed Newsgroups: apc.indig.info,soc.culture.native,alt.native http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/press/1997/01/bisonvs.txt From: Questa Glenn To: press_releases@info.aphis.usda.gov John Wright (DOI) (202) 208-6416 Patrick Collins (USDA) (202) 720-2511 EMERGENCY BISON PROTECTION PLAN PROPOSED WASHINGTON, Jan. 30, 1997--The heads of three federal agencies today proposed a plan to protect bison migrating from Yellowstone National Park. The proposal calls for significantly increased efforts to stop bison from leaving the park and expanding their range for the first time into the adjacent Gallatin National Forest in Montana. The proposal was made by heads of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the U.S. Department of Interior's National Park Service (NPS), in a letter sent to the governor of Montana today. "The park service will deal with this emergency situation by sharply increasing efforts along the northern and western portions of Yellowstone, where bison have a tendency to migrate," said Roger Kennedy, NPS Director. NPS efforts will include 24-hour patrols to keep bison migration from Yellowstone to a minimum and contain those animals that do stray to a section of Gallatin National Forest. "This proposal preserves Montana's brucellosis class-free status, and maintains the integrity of the national brucellosis eradication program, which is near completion following 62 years of cooperative effort. Nationwide, only 32 cattle and bison herds remain under quarantine for brucellosis." said Terry Medley, APHIS administrator. Brucellosis causes cattle and bison to abort and lowers milk production. Humans can contract the disease, also known as undulant fever, by handling infected animals or drinking unpasteurized milk. "This proposal is designed to reduce the number of animals leaving Yellowstone," said Roger Kennedy, NPS director. "This year's increased bison migration out of Yellowstone has been caused by extreme snow and ice levels that have covered the animals' food source." "We are confident that solutions can be found and are committed to working with the National Park Service, State of Montana, and APHIS to find a solution to this problem," said Mike Dombeck, Forest Service chief. "And Gallatin National Forest at Horse Butte will be a part of the solution to the problem." All agencies will work with the Governor, local residents, and tribal governments to find solutions to this issue and will continue to monitor the situation and make recommended changes as needed. "We have worked diligently to pull together all our federal agencies. We hope the Governor will respond favorably and join us in solving this problem," said Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt. NOTE: USDA news releases, program announcements, and media advisories are available on the Internet. Access the APHIS HOME Page by pointing your Web browser to http://www.aphis.usda.gov and clicking on "APHIS Press Releases." Also, anyone with an e-mail address can sign up to receive APHIS press releases automatically. Send an e-mail message to "majordomo@info.aphis.usda.gov" and leave the subject blank. In the message, type: subscribe press_releases --------- "RE: Mining In Northern Labrador" --------- Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 10:02:21 -0800 (PST) From: Native Forest Network-ENA Subj: Mining In Northern Labrador Newsgroup: alt.native Dreaming of Development: Mining in Northern Labrador The past two years have been turbulent for the indigenous inhabitants of Labrador, to say the least. The recent discovery of what is being called the largest nickel find in the world led to an unprecedented Klondike rush in the far north of Eastern North America. As of last summer, over 220,000 square kilometers of mineral claims were held by over 200 companies from around the world. By now, after two years of intensive exploration, many of these companies are packing up and going home empty handed. But what is scaring the the Innu and Inuit, is the idea that some may not -- leading to the development of the one of the world's last prestigious wild regions. In wake of the great rush to find the next 'Voisey Bay', over 100,000 three inch holes have been left (essentially small tailings ponds), numerous abandoned camps, oil leaks, archaeological site intrusions and the impact of thousands of helicopter flights on the landscape of the boreal woodlands. Neither the Innu nor the Inuit nations were consulted before their land was invaded by hundreds of multinational mining companies; seldom are they told of new camps and activities, seldom are the camps and outposts cleaned up (leading to unreported fuel contamination of once pristine lakes and ponds) and seldom are they respected in their requests for notification and for responsible behavior towards their homeland. Fortunately, the majority of the claims do not seem to be panning out, which will probably lead to the termination of thousands of claims. Nevertheless, the question of accountability for the ecological impacts of exploration activity remains unanswered:. Once a company's claim is terminated, is the government of Newfoundland to be held accountable for the mess and subsequent cleanup? One would hope so. Yet, incredibly, during inspection tours of a small number of exploration sites, the Newfoundland representative was apparently only interested in the question of the Innu Nations accountability for the clean up of Innu hunting camps. After Voisey Bay: Other Discoveries There are a few areas, besides Voisey Bay, that are looking as if all they need is some infrastructure development to get them up and running: %The Strange lake area on the Quebec-Labrador border west of Voisey Bay, It is said to hold deposits of Zirconium, Niobium, Yttrium, and other rare earth Elements. These deposits have been known for about a decade, but have been uneconomic given the enormous infrastructure development costs that would be required. %Another area of extreme interest is the Harp Lake area, about mid- way between Voisey Bay and Goose Bay. This unusual lake has had as many as six drilling camps on its shores, and is expected to start showing significant finds next year. (Harp Lake, which has numerous cliffs used by raptors for nesting, was determined to be a so-called sensitive area in the low-level flying avoidance program.) %Just South of Davis Inlet, in an area known as Flowers Bay to the mapmakers, a company may have found gold. (Flowers Bay is one of the four major river systems in Central labrador said to be absolutely critical to the survival of the Atlantic Harlequin Duck.) %North of the Voisey Bay deposit are a number of exploration sites. In fact, the focus of the current frenzy is happening north of Nain and the Frasier River, where the southern boundary for the proposed Torngat National Park meanders from the sea to the Naskapi plateau. Frasier Canyon, Okak Bay, and Saglek Bay are presently undergoing intensive drill programs, with as many as six camps operating around the clock in search of "the next Voisey Bay". If you build it, they will come The flurry of activity and the possibility of other mineral deposits have suggested the surreal idea of a developed Labrador. Numerous development proposals have surfaced, in which the 'displaced Labradorian', finds a new purpose in the Northland. Start- up companies eager for a piece of the action have offered their services in the areas of exploration, engineering, construction; new hotel are under construction and new bars have opened in Nain. A number of Chamber of Commerces (mainly from southern Labrador hard hit by the collapse of the cod fishery) have issued reports describing the benefits of settling and building in their towns. Some have even hired consultants and/or companies to draft proposals for centralized development, including a road from Goose Bay to Voisey Bay, the completion of the trans-Labrador Highway, and a hyro- electric dam of the Falls of the Kamistastin, headwaters to Cabot Lake, the Kogluk River and Voisey Bay. So far, it seems as if these dream proposals are just that, dreams. But, as exploration activities advance, thereby becoming more viable projects, these dreams creep insidiously from the ethereal into the realm of the possible. --John Clark [John Clark recently travelled to Voisey Bay with John "Storm" Waters from the Cold Mountain/Cold Rivers Guerilla Video Collective.] From Nitassinan News The Friends of Nitassinan is an international support group for the Innu people of the Quebec-Labrador peninsula (Nitassinan), in their struggles to defend their homeland from industrial intrusions. The Nitassinan news is produced by Alexis Lathem and John Clark. The Friends of Nitassinan would like to thank the Haymarket People's Fund, the Ben & Jerry's Foundation, the Human-i-tees Foundation, and the Green Mountain Fund. For more information contact: Innu Nation POB 119 Sheshatsiu, Labrador A0P 1M0 Canada 709-497-8398 fax: 8396 email: innu@web.apc.org Katie Rich, Band Council Chief General Delivery Davis Inlet, Labrador 709-478-8902 fax: 8936 Friends of Nitassinan POB 804 Burlington VT 05402 ph/fax: 802-425-3820 Information transferred via-- Native Forest Network (NFN) Eastern North American Resource Center POB 57 Burlington, VT 05402 USA Telephone: (802)863-0571 Fax: (802)863-2532 Email: nfnena@igc.apc.org --------- "RE: With Respect and Honor" --------- Date: Sat, 01 Feb 1997 12:37:46 -0500 From: Ishgooda Subj: With respect and honor UUCP email - Thanks to Jordan Dill for granting redistribution of this quoted material from his Anna Mae Aquash Archive: (FYI: In memory and honor of a fallen warrior I pass the following along. The information was gleaned from the first Nations site and I would like to take this opportunity to remind you of our brother Leonard still within the iron cage....Ish) In memory; 2.1976 Anna Mae Pictou Aquash - AIM organizer assassinated on Pine Ridge.. FBI involved in attempt to conceal cause of death. Ongoing attempt to establish "AIM involvement" in murder. Key FBI personnel never deposed. Coroner never deposed. [depose-to remove from power...to testify or bear witness, especially on oath in court] Please visit the following - even if you have done so in the past. It is important to remember the fallen warrior. ANNA MAE AQUASH This site is dedicated to the First Nations Warrior, Mother and Wife Anna Mae Aquash... Whose Hands The Colonizers Took "On the afternoon of February 24, 1976 Rodger Amiotte, a mixed blood rancher whose land was in the northeast corner of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation...found the body of a woman in a snow-covered ditch one hundred feet from the country road. She was wrapped in a blanket. The woman wore a maroon windbreaker, jeans, and blue canvas shoes. She had long fingernails. Her hands were adorned with fancy turquoise jewelry, including rings and a large bracelet. "The body was taken to the Pine Ridge hospital, where Dr. W.O. Brown performed an autopsy in the presence of FBI agents. The doctor said the unidentified woman died of exposure. She had frozen to death. There was no sign of violence. "During the autopsy, an FBI agent asked Doctor Brown, "I need her hands. Sever them at the wrist, would ya, Doc?" "Over the next days, the government agents approached mortuary after mortuary, asking to have the handless body buried. According to one undertaker, the FBI agents wanted the woman buried under a fictitious name. 'Can't do it,' he said. 'You guys ought to know. That's illegal.' "...on March 3, the body was buried, nameless in the Holy Rosary Mission on the [Pine Ridge] reservation. That same day, the FBI notified its Rapid City office that the dead woman was Anna Mae Aquash." The Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee (WKLDOC) demanded an exhumation and a second autopsy. However, before this could take place, "The FBI filed its own request for exhumation and reautopsy. The reasons its affidavit gave were that Anna Mae might have been killed in a hit-an-run accident or that she might have been murdered by AIM as a suspected informer...there was no explanation as to how a person who might have been a victim of a hit-and-run accident could have been thrown one hundred feet from the highway, display no sign of contact with a vehicle, and end up in a ditch, neatly wrapped in a blanket." The autopsy was scheduled for March 11, 1976. "Anna Mae's family, through WKLDOC attorney Ellison, hired Garry Peterson, and independent pathologist from St. Paul Hospital in Minnesota to observe. When he arrived, Dr. Peterson was the only Doctor there. The FBI had not bothered to have a pathologist at the autopsy it had requested. Peterson, who brought only the minimal equipment needed to observe, had to perform the procedure. It was not terribly complicated. An obvious bullet wound, surrounded by an even more obvious 5 cm x 5 cm discoloration, adorned the rear of Anna Mae's head, exactly where the hospital staff had seen the thawing body leak the week before. She died of exposure to a small-caliber bullet fired from a gun placed near the back of her head. She had been executed." Loud Hawk - The United States versus the American Indian Movement, Kenneth Stern, ISBN 0-8061-2587-X --------- "RE: Book Review: Killing the White Man's Indian" --------- Date: Thu, 30 Jan 1997 14:16:31 -0500 From: "Jordan S. Dill" Subj: Book review... UUCP email Good day all... Subject: Bordewich, Killing the White Man's Indian Fergus Bordewich. Killing the White Man's Indian: Reinventing Native Americans at the End of the Twentieth Century. New York: Doubleday, 1996. 400 pp. Bibliography and index. $27.50 (cloth), ISBN 0-385-42035-8. Reviewed by Robert C. Doyle, University of Strasbourg Killing the White Man's Indian is a powerful book that takes readers well beyond the long-held myths, what the author calls the "patina of popular culture" (p. 17), and headlong into the harsh complexities of Indian identity as it exists today. Leaving behind any taint of mindless stereotyping, Bordewich takes on the massive and seemingly impenetrable social questions present among the Native American tribes today: Who are the Indians of the 1990s? Are they part of American society, and if so, on what terms? How are Indians to make use of Western culture? What does it mean to be "Indian" in the modern world? With on-site research that often required a great deal of direct observation and interaction with tribal members around the country, the author shows conclusively that he's no preacher or cheap polemicist eagerly propagandizing anyone's cause. For example, he explains why mystics like Chief Seattle and Black Elk have achieved near godlike status among many environmental ideologues; then he reminds us that the historical Seattle's mysticism was more a figment of Ted Perry's theatrical imagination in 1972 than anything close to reality. Black Elk, although his commentary in John G. Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks (1979) has achieved near guru status among members of the Native American Church, radical environmentalists, and other modern animists, Black Elk himself was a devout, practicing Roman Catholic during his adult life (226) and traveled to Sing Sing Prison, among many other places, to work as a catechist preaching the Christian Gospel. Conversely, the author traces the true horrors inflicted on tribal integrity in remarkable detail and fairness: war, conquest, and diseases during contact in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; illegal removals and treaties that meant little when land and wealth entered the equation; the lasting humiliations imposed by the Dawes Act of 1887; the paternalism of the Bureau of Indian Affairs up to the present era; grave robbing and souvenir grabbing by visitors and anthropologists, and the continuing alphabet soup in federal legislation that from 1969 has granted the tribes increasing levels of political sovereignty. Institutions like Harvard University and the University of Nebraska have returned so-called human and cultural artifacts for burial or proper tribal use; the BIA now acts more in an advisory role than as a dictator, and the tribes themselves are directing their own affairs internally. But, according to Bordewich's research, therein lies a rub: where wealth and power appear, can graft and corruption be far behind, even in traditional communities? Bordewich takes no sides; human failure, like success, has no identity. Without any doubt, the most shocking chapter, at least for this reviewer, was entitled "A Scene Most Resembling Hell," a stand-up description of real-time alcoholism on the reservations today. It took courage to approach this topic when we all know how sensitive it remains. It took courage to cite James O. Whittaker's incisive "Alcohol and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe: A Twenty-Year Follow-Up Study" (1982), which examined alcoholism scientifically. Bordewich concludes from the literature and from his own experience that alcoholism is virulent among Indians, but it is no more resistant to treatment among them than it is to other Americans (p. 263). The author then traces the heated cauldron of Indian sovereignty, one of the most gripping and potentially divisive problems in Indian country today. What does it mean to be a nation? Can there really be a "nation" inside a nation, or are the tribes playing with rhetorical, if not political, dynamite? Certainly, the reservations' legal status is complex, if not mystifyingly foreign, to outsiders. Why can a tribe open a fully functioning gambling casino in a state that prohibits a state lottery, or even bingo at the local firemens' carnival? Where does the money go? Who or what is accountable for revenues? Why can such places serve clientele seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day? These and other question only begin to approach the author'exposition about life in Indian country now. Killing the White Man's Indian is an eloquent and disturbing book that needs to be read and reflected upon. It tells a sad story but is yet filled with hope and trust that Native Americans will continue to find their own way in multicultural America--or make one. Ayatohihi... First Nations/First Peoples Issues Of Consequence PGP public key available upon request... --------- "RE: Poem: Justified Extermination" --------- Date: Mon, 2 Dec 1996 13:00:29 -0800 (PST) From: Larry Kibbey Subj: JUSTIFIED EXTERMINATION UUCP email December 1, 1996 JUSTIFIED EXTERMINATION by: Larry Kibby, Wiyot(Weott) Nation, California Grandfather, Through my heart I send you these words. Words of the past, words of the present, Words of the future. To you I send these words Of life and death, Justified extermination. Grandfather, Through my eyes and through my ears, I read and see a history Full of lies and deceit. My people tell me through ancient Legends and tales, Of how the government and society Tried to cover up their policy of Justified extermination. Grandfather, Today, the government and society Is still imposing upon my people, By way of illegal IRA tribal governments, Token laws and organizations, a B.I.A., And wanna be Indians, To still carry on their policy of Justified extermination. Grandfather, My people of yesterday, Being studied for scientific value. My culture and religion, Being studied for authenticity. And a false people claiming to be Indian, Helping the government and Anti-Indian forces, To still carry on the policy of Justified extermination. Grandfather, My own people, fighting each other, Learning the values of greed. Forgetting their people, Forgetting their culture and tradition. All the while the government, turncoates, Anti-Indian Movement and most of society are Still trying to carry on the policy of Justified extermination. But the Indian world is alive, And solidarity is becoming a reality. We weren't taught nor pretend to be Indian, We are Indian..... --------- "RE: Verse: Hawai'ian Book of Days" --------- Date: 97/01/26 21:49 From: Debra F. Sanders (dfsanders@genie.geis.com) Subj: Verse: Hawai'ian Book of Days A HAWAIIAN BOOK OF DAYS, week of February 9-15 IANUALI (January) (Kaelo) 9 Our seasons are the cycles of the moon, mahina, and the stars, na hoku. 10 Ask the Gods before taking from the land; ask not to take from Pele, for what is hers belongs to no other. 11 To a place of worship, a heiau, always bring a gift of stone. 12 The wind has learned the secrets of the ages. 13 Mano', the shark god, guides me to a safe harbor. 14 Abundant are the fruits of this land. 15 If you would find the perfect place of your dreams, moe'uhane, ... look within. (c) Copyright 1991 by D. F. Sanders Me ke aloha i ka nani, ... Moe'uhanekeanuenue (With love and beauty, ... Rainbow Dream) --------- "RE: Conferences and Powwows - offline" --------- Date: Thu, 6 February 97 08:00 -0500 From: Janet Smith (evestar@juno.com) Subj: Upcoming conferences and powwows not previously posted to Mailing Lists NATCHAT or NATIVE-L UUCP email Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1997 12:08:10 -0700 From: "Chris Milda (_Akimel O`odham_)" Subj: Fourth Annual WildCat Pow Wow -February 22 & 23, 1997 The Tribal People United A Native American student organization of The University of Arizona-presents Fourth Annual WildCat Pow Wow -February 22 & 23, 1997 Headstaff: Master of Ceremonies: Arnold Chee - Steamboat, AZ Arena Director: Jim Red Eagle - Costa Mesa, CA Head Gourd Dancer: Ernest H. Begay - Rock Point, AZ HeadMan Dancer: Steve Street - Tama, Iowa HeadWoman Dancer: Lynn Roanhorse - Dulce, NM Host Drums: Host Canadian Drum: Fly-In-Eagle - Cutknife, Saskatchewan Host U.S. Drum: White Ridge Juniors - Lukachukai, AZ Host Southern Drum: Yellow Jacket - Ignacio, CO Invited Drum(s): Star Blanket Jrs. - Balcarres, Saskatchewan, Canada All dancers, drums, and royalties welcome! (Bring your own lawn chairs) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For more information call Geneva A. John or Antoinette Davis at (520) 621-7989/3835. Arts and Craft available for $75, and $25 late fee after Feb. 04, 1997. Please contact Natalie Saldana at the above phone numbers. TPU and The University of Arizona are not responsible for accidents, thefts, injury, and travel expenses. Dancers and singers please provide your own chairs. Schedule is subject to change. Alcohol and drugs will not be tolerated. All dancers and drummers are welcome to attend. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For updated information, contact a TPU officer at: Tribal People United-Pow Wow Committee, Nugent 203, Tucson, Az 85721 (520) 621-3835 or 7989 Fax (520) 623-3233 ___________________________________________________________________ Maintained by TPU Webmaster -- tpu@w3.arizona.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 07:32:16 -0700 From: "Carol M. Nichols" Subj: aises region VI conference update Mailing List: AISESnet Discussion List (aisesnet@victor.umt.edu) Subject: aises region VI conference update UPDATE! UPDATE! UPDATE! REVISED DATES! REVISED DATES! AISES Region VI Conference April 11 -13, 1997 Rochester, New York Our Generation: Learning, Growing, and Building for the Next Seven Generations Agenda: Friday afternoon: tours of local companies Opening Ceremonies Student Social Saturday: Concurrent Sessions Career Fair Social Sunday: Closing Ceremonies For more info: Carol M. Nichols: cnichols@kodak.com Cindy Martine: 716 - 392 -8397 Info packs should be in the mail very soon. (This was previously posted as being Feb 28.) Hope to see everyone from Region VI. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Feb 1997 13:29:58 -0400 From: changleska@geocities.com Subj: Star Nations Conferences Announcement Dear all, I am humbly passing this information on to all of you that have indicated interest in such events. This message serves to announce two upcoming Wichahpe Oyate/Star Nations Conferences. Once again, if there's anyone who doesn't wish to receive these announcements, please let me know and I will take your name off the list. These are exciting and important times. Hope to see you there. Mitakuye Oyasin, Changleska Wakan Wicasan +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ STAR FAMILY CONFERENCE March 13-16, 1997 San Diego, California (Holiday Inn-Mission Bay, 3737 Sports Area Blvd.; (800) 511-6909) Lakota spiritual advisor Standing Elk has announced that Spirit has indicated that another Gathering/information-sharing by Native American Elders and Anglo specialists on the Star Nations be held on the Pacific Coast near the Spring Equinox. This Conference is to keep up the flow of information concerning the trials that Mother Earth is commencing, and about the imminent return of the Star People. Thus, the Star Family Conference is intended to maintain the momentum of developing awareness developed from the Star Knowledge Conference on the Great Plains last June, and from the Star Visions Conference held in the Rocky Mountains in November, 1996. Presenters: Standing Elk (Dakota), Floyd Hand (Lakota), Wablesa (Lakota), Pathfinder (Cherokee/ Apache), Silver Star (Cherokee), Kachinas Kutenai (Apache), Scout Cloud Lee, Mary Thunder (Metis), Monica Medicine Wind, Han Bets Men (Mayan), Grandmother Wind Rider (Mayan), Nestor Night Owl, Steven Blue Wolf, Jose Fernandez (Puerto Rico), Dr. Brian O'Leary (Astronaut Corps), Dr. Richard Boylan, Dr. Truman Wong (Pine Ridge), Dr. Lee Shargel (NASA), Chet Snow, Angela Brown- Miller, Ph.D., LCSW, Alex Collier, Bettye Binder, Marilyn Carlson, CHT (Yellow Hand), Paula Peterson, Lewis Martin and Erica Snyder, Jeanette Matacia, Tom Scere and Star Sparks. Conference registration: $175 (after Mar. 1, $200). Single day=$60. Contact Holiday Inn directly for lodging; mention "Star Knowledge Conference" for special $69 rate. Use Holiday courtesy van to/from airport. Alternate: Comfort Inn-Mission Bay. For registration/more information contact: Collette (619) 474-0842, P.O. Box 1612, National City, CA 91951; back-up: Marilyn Carlson (206) 379-9624. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ STAR COUNCIL CONFERENCE of Native American Elders and other Star People Specialists June 11-14, 1997 Rapid City, South Dakota Civic Center, adjacent to the sacred Black Hills. Presenters: Standing Elk (Dakota), Marilyn Carlson, CHT (Yellow Hand), Dr. Richard Boylan, and many other Native-American and non-native speakers to be announced. For more information contact: Marilyn Carlson (206) 379-9624. ======================================================================== This Quarter's _Native Peoples_ Magazine, (Vol. 10, Issue 2), is the Annual Travel and Destination Special Issue. Includes a listing of many of the "big" powwows, art shows, and cultural events for Native American People for the coming year. Issues are $4.75 each (or $7.14 by mail -- an annual subscription is $13.75. Contact them toll free, 1(888)2 NATIVE, or via e-mail at native_people@amcolor.com Sampling from the first week of March: Through Apr. 13 Dreams-of-Horses: The Collected Works of Michael Horse, Southwest Museum, 234 Museum Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90065. (213) 221-2164 Through Apr. 15 Stone & Bone, the Inuit Master Carvers of the Canadian Arctic. Sun Valley Ctr for Arts and Humanities, Ketchum, ID 83340 (208) 726-9491 Every Saturday Native American Stories, Toltec Mounds Archaeological State Park, Scott, AK. (501) 961-9442 Feb 28-Mar 1 San Diego State University Annual Powwow, San Diego, CA. (619) 594-6691 Mar 1 - 2 39th Annual Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ (602) 252-8840 Mar 1 - 2 Thunderbird American Indian Dancers, Theater for the New City, NY, NY (212) 254-1109 Mar 1 - Jun 30 Kiowa Culture in Transition--Photographs of Horace Poolaw, Kirkpatric Ctr., Oklahoma City, OK (405) 427-5228 ===================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------- --//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//-- Notice of Copyright Clearance by Contributors: The following have granted permission for their original articles to be reposted in order to help mend the Sacred Hoop: Robert C. Doyle via Jordan Dill, Paul Antone via Don Rayment, Joe Campagna, Joseph A. Keto Jr., InterTribal Bison Cooperative via Joe Don Chipps, Ishgooda, Fred Sinkevich, Frosty Deere, Larry Innes, Laurie Anne Whitt, Ted Jojola, Bernard J. Rock, Sr. via Feather Eaglerock, Debra F. Sanders, Janet Smith, Mark Trahant, Scott Robert Ladd, Native Forest Network-ENA, Larry Kibby, Prison News Service, Scott Runningbull, Bernadette Chato, Suzan Horovitch, National Commission for Democracy in Mexico, Walter Epp, Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Indigenous Environmental Network -//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//-- ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Part B of this newsletter has already been distributed via the NATIVE-L or NATCHAT mailing lists. --------- "RE: Alfonso Ortiz Memorial" --------- Date: Thu, 30 Jan 1997 11:42:46 -0700 From: Ted Jojola Subj: Alfonso Ortiz Memorial Mailing List: NATIVE-L (native-l@gnosys.svle.ma.us) In accordance with his wishes, Prof. Alfonso Ortiz's body will be cremated and distributed on one of the Sacred Mountains near his native Pueblo of San Juan. There will be no funeral. The University of New Mexico will hold a special Memorial Service on Friday, February 7th at 4pm. Tentatively, the service will be held at the UNM Alumni Memorial Chapel pending a reconsideration on its seating capacity. If you plan to attend, you may wish to confirm before your arrival by contacting the Department of Anthropology at (505) 277-1536. In addition, the Department of Anthropology has set up a special fund in honor of Prof. Alfonso Ortiz, to be used to help Native American students studying Anthropology. Donations may be sent directly to: The UNM Foundation/Alfonso Ortiz Memorial Fund University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87131 The outpouring of condolences has been tremendous. These may now be conveyed directly to the family. Individuals wishing to send sympathy cards to the family may send these in care of: The Department of Anthropology University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87131 The following obituary appeared in the Wednesday edition of the Albuquerque Tribune (Jan 29th): Patricia Guthrie and Ollie Reed Jr. (Tribune Reporters) ALFONSO ORTIZ OFFERED INSIDE LOOK AT AMERICAN INDIANS Alfonso Ortiz, one of the few American Indians to provide anthropology with a view from the "inside out," is remembered for his numerous contributions at the University of New Mexico, first as a student, then as an esteemed professor. "He was the most senior of our native professors on campus. He always had an enormous presence here," said Ted Jojola, past director of UNM's Native American Studies and now a UNM Associate Professor. "He served as one of my mentors and he served as an advocate in higher education for many American Indian students." Ortiz, 57, died Monday night at his Santa Fe home. He had recently taken medical leave from teaching cultural and social anthropology at UNM, but had hoped to return this semester, said Elena Ortiz, one of his three children. Ortiz was born April 30, 1939, at San Juan Pueblo in Northern New Mexico. He received a bachelor's degree in sociology from UNM in 1961 and his masters's and doctorate in anthropology from the University of Chicago. Ortiz taught at Princeton and Rutgers universities before returning to hi8s alma mater to teach in 1974. "I think the university is very much impoverished by this loss," said Marta Weigle, chairwoman of UNM's anthropology department. "It's hard to imagine how we'll replace him." Ortiz won many awards, research grants and scholarships, including a postdoctoral fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant." Author of numerous publications, he's best known for his book, "The Tewa World: Space, Time, Being and Becoming a Pueblo Society," published in 1969. He also edited two volumes of the Smithsonian Institution's "Handbook of American Indians." As an American Indian anthropologist, Ortiz was both commended and criticized for revealing the traditions and people of New Mexico's pueblos. But in recent years, he seemed to be coming to terms with his role in the academic world and his place at "Ohkay-Owingeh" -- The Place of the Strong People, said San Juan Pueblo Gov. Joe Garcia. "There has been some friction because of some of the things he printed," said Garcia, leader of the 2,500-member pueblo northwest of Espanola. "But, in the Indian way, there was forgiveness. I think he realized he had done something not to the liking of elders." "This is a great loss to the Indian community," Garcia added. "There was a lot of knowledge and wisdom in that man." In an interview 14 years ago upon winning the $216,000 MacArthur grant, Ortiz said he chose the "fun" field of anthropology because "it was a way of being concerned with Indian matters all the time." Many remembered Ortiz as willing to lend his name, time and testimony to causes ranging from uranium miners rights to religious freedom. He's also credited with founding UNM's Kiva Club, the first American Indian organization on campus. "He had quite a reputation," said Karl Schwerin, a colleague in the anthropology department. "He was constantly being invited to give lectures and to serve on various boards and in various organizations." Among his many public service activities, Ortiz was president of the Association on American Indian Affairs, Inc., from 1973 to 1988; a member of the board of trustees of the National Museum of the American Indian from 1989 to 1990; and a member of the National Advisory Council on the National Indian Youth Council from 1972 to 1990. "He believed passionately in the worth of the native past and the importance of an Indian future, " said Rick West, director of the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. West, who had known Ortiz for 30 years, said his friend "involved himself throughout his lifetime in activities that went far beyond the profession for which he was trained." Ortiz is survived by two daughters, Julliana Ortiz of San Diego, Elena Ortiz of Santa Fe; a son, Nico Ortiz of Chicago; two sisters, Sylvia Medina of San Juan Pueblo, Louisa Montoya, of Inglewood, Calif.; and numerous nieces and nephews. --------- "RE: Prof. Alfonso Ortiz Death" --------- Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 14:18:26 -0800 From: Subj: Prof. Alfonso Ortiz Death Mailing List: NATIVE-L (native-l@gnosys.svle.ma.us) Letter from Moscow Mark N. Trahant Feb. 1, 1997 Three decades ago, a young scholar told students at a university lecture series about the need for American Indian heroes. "This country has honored too long the war chiefs. There is also a tradition of peace chiefs who deserve to be memorialized and honored," said the lecturer, an anthropologist by the name of Alfonso Ortiz. Ortiz died this week. I am writing this column because somehow Ortiz' death escaped notice by the national news media. It should not have. Ortiz was a peace chief. He contributed volumes to the understanding of native culture. Ortiz was born April 30, 1939, at San Juan Pueblo in northern New Mexico. He said one of his early teachers was his grandmother, "who taught me that if I couldn't explain what I was doing in the Tewa language, it probably wasn't worth doing." He received his undergraduate degree at University of New Mexico. Then on to the University of Chicago for his master's and doctorate in anthropology. He taught at Princeton and Rutgers before returning to his native New Mexico in 1974. He wrote and edited numerous books, including his signature work, The Tewa World: Space, Time, Being and Becoming in a Pueblo Society. As an anthropologist, Ortiz looked at ancient people in the context of today. He asked in a 1994 essay, for example, if there was any such "people" as the Pueblos. "After all, the term Pueblos today encompasses some forty thousand people speaking six mutually unintelligible languages and occupying thirty-odd villages stretched along a rough crescent of more than four hundred miles," Ortiz wrote in the book. "This question has to be at the heart of any discussion about cultural survival." Ortiz looked at the anthropology of the living; he viewed Pueblo society through a two-thousand year prism. "Pueblos have never been displaced from their homelands, something almost unique among Northa American Indian groups ... after more than four centuries of European exploration and colonization, most of the Pueblo people still live in places of their own choosing. The importance of this for cultural survival cannot be overemphasized, for, indeed, we might say that the Pueblos only believe in what they see and experien