From gars@netcom.com Wed Nov 19 23:00:46 1997 Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 19:33:55 -0800 (PST) From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews05.047 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' O ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ O o O / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' O o O / /-< / /--/ /-- VOLUME 05, ISSUE 047 O o o o o O __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 22 November 1997 O o O KANOHEDA ANIYVWIYA Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin O o O Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min 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 NAT-FILM, Innu-L lists; Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty; UUCP email; NASC News; First Nations News; People's Paths home page; Newsgroups: alt.native,soc.culture.native 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 ++ It is archived at http://www.nanews.org 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://aises.uthscsa.edu/94_dis.html 1995: http://aises.uthscsa.edu/95_dis.html 1996: http://aises.uthscsa.edu/96_dis.html 1997: http://aises.uthscsa.edu/97_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. "We are vanishing from the earth, yet I cannot think we are useless or Usen (God) would not have created us." __ Chief Goyathlay (Geronimo), Chiricahua +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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! As a followup to the Elder in Lakota Homes who was being evicted. Her court date is the 17th. Thanks to many people who faxed, called in protest we feel hopeful and she does have a attorney now to represent her. Also, very good news. She is being flown to the Mayo Clinic for further medical treatment thanks to a anonymous benefactor. We thank everyone, and especially Grandfathers who moved many hearts to help. =/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\= The White House Christmas Tree is being cut down today in the Sacred Black Hills. A couple of questions come to mind. Did they ask permission of the tree? Did they ask permission of the Lakota Nation who legally own it? Did they obtain a permit to cut like the rest of us would have to do? Will they replant that which they've cut? I think we all probably know the answers.... =/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\= Date: Mon, Nov 17, 1997 6:07 PM EDT From: WmBattles Subj: Darkness befalls the Navajo It is sad to report on the footprints of the loss of Dr. Annie Wauneka, the Navajo Nation also has witnessed the loss of Kay Bennett, an age old story teller and traditional singer of the tribe; and as well William Tso. William Tso, the Chief Justices brother, has been lost to the Navajo Nation. William Tso served as the Shiprock Council Delegate since 1990. He was in his third year of his second term. William suffered rheumatoid arthritis, but was not known to have suffered from heart disease. He is survived by his wife, Carlena, and two daughters, Willimeana and Willetta, 18 and 12. He had four brothers and three sisters. He died Saturday at San Juan Regional Medical Center. He was 38 years of age. =/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\= The tragic plight of our elders on the various reservations is so great, their peril so real, their walk so close to the edge that I will continue to feature contact addresses where you can send donations of clothing, food, blankets, money to purchase fuel and repair throughout the winter. As new contacts are received they will be added to the list. PLEASE help the elders. PLEASE help grow this list and help ALL the elders. This week I was sent more possible contacts. Of those the following three I have been able to verify somewhat and include in this list. Date: Fri, 14 Nov 1997 15:06:03 From: The Stones Gary Night Owl Another organization you might consider adding to your list is: Lakota Link http://rtt.colorado.edu/~cameron/LakxotaKxoyag.html Ellen Stone The following snailmail addresses are included for help to the Cherry Creek and Bridger communities on the Cheyenne River Rez: Craig and Ruth Cameron LakxotaKxoyag P O Box 176 Jamestown, CO 80455-0176 Lakxota Kxoyag c/o Marvin and Veronica Holy Town of Bridger Representatives P.O. Box 172 Howes, SD 57748 Lakxota Kxoyag c/o Keeler and Freidan Condon Town of Cherry Creek Representatives P.O. Box 181 Cherry Creek, SD 57622 UPS ADDRESS: Lakxota Kxoyag c/o Keeler Condon Town of Cherry Creek Representatives House #11 Cherry Creek, SD 57622. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Date: Wed, 12 Nov 1997 09:48:36 -0500 From: Lora Czarnowsky Here is another contact for you: Please contact them yourself and verify it..I think you will be pleasantly surprised by what you hear: It 's actually two projects: ONe is Santa's Workshop and the other is called Wakanheja Tipi. They are both run by Liam Paterson and his wife. Please call him for the details..he's quite a man...takes a semi-truck to Pine Ridge EVERY year and is helping with a school there. Please call him at 717-665-2727. He's the person who delivers most of my stuff each year... Let me know what you think of him after you talk to him. Stay well!! Lora . . . . . . I spoke to Liam. He's the real deal. This year they outdid themselves and will be taking three semi-tractor loads to the Rez the week after thanksgiving. If you wish to add to the load his phone number is above and the address is: Liam Paterson 1434 Creek Road Manheim, PA 17545 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Date: Wed, 12 Nov 1997 21:33:08 -0800 (PST) From: FNAIC@aol.com Walking Shield in Southern California regularly send truck loads of food, clothing and needed items to many reservations. They are located at 2472 Chambers Rd. Tustin, CA. 922680 telephone 714-573-1434 Hugh Stevens is the boss. they will only take fairly new and clean used items - any new items - and donations form large corps. They seem to be on the up and up and have helped many local reservations and native organizations. Carol - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - For the Red Shirt Community: Marvin Helper P.O. Box 312 Hermosa, SD 57744 For Porcupine, Oglala and Wounded Knee: David Swallow or Gerald Ice % Gerald ice P.O. Box 199 Wounded Knee, SD 57794 Or... Joe Chasing Horse % P.O. Box 8392 Rapid City, S.D. 57709 For Truck loads & UPS Shipments: Joe Chasing Horse 714 Paha Sapa Drive Rapid City, SD 57701 From: Lora Czarnowsky Adi Defender Project New Dawn PO Box 616 McLaughlin, SD 57642 This is for the various communities on the Standing Rock Reservation. From: tusweca Darlene Cross PO Box 52 Kyle SD 577075 From: yona@infi.net Toy drive going on for the Cheyenne River Reservation in Eagle Butte If you would like to donate a toy or more information, you may contact me by email: yona@infi.net or phone me 757-425-7992..you may also drop off a toy if you are in the vicinity of our store Na-va'kee 618 Hilltop West. biah yazzie From: DORSEY.THOMAS_J+@ALBANY.VA.GOV Norma Grassrope Lower Brule Reservation Lower Brule, South Dakota 57028 (605) 473-5594 She is the chair of a charitable group called the Womens Support Group. From: Pioquark@aol.com Clay Watson Pioneer Industries 1100 E. 24th St. Cheyenne, Wy. 82001 (307)778-7860 pioquark@aol.com These donations will be gifted to the Rose Bud and Pine Ridge Reservations in South Dakota and the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. I'm on the road a lot, out back loading the truck etc. PLEASE leave a message if there is no answer.. From: ALBERT SUN BUTLER Ti Ospaye PO Box 200 Wanblee SD 57577 This next is a wonderful organization I am ashamed to say I forgot to include: Adopt A Grandparent Mountain Light Center PO Box 241 Taos NM 87571 TEL: 505 776 8474 FAX: 505 776 8050 For information call 800 291-8474. email: agpmlc@aol.com From: "lonewolf" Lone Wolf -or- Bob and Linda Crowe 1060 N. Bee St. 2800 West Highway 5 Deland, Fl 32720 Bowden, GA 30108 904-736-8050 770-258-1536 I am collecting for the Cherokee N.C. Rez and south Fl. When they call me and request it. Thank You Lone Wolf From: Susanna Shreeve Direct Relief International provides medical-related items, but requires paperwork/assessment well in advance of the emergency. Tribes can call: Laura Carlos 805-730-8610 or voice message 964-4767; fax 681-4838. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If any of you have addresses/contacts to add to this list for other Rez's PLEASE email me with them soon. Include some name/info for me to verify where gifts will be sent and how. Winter winds have already brought snow. email to gars@netcom.com Peace! Night Owl , , Gary Night Owl gars@netcom.com (*,*) P. O. Box 672168 gars@nanews.org (`-') Marietta, GA 30067, U.S.A. gars@igc.apc.org ===w=w=== gars@bellsouth.net Fax: 770-528-9643 gars@juno.com ----------- News of the people featured in this issue ---------- - Last Year's Bison Slaughter - Foster Families Needed Set to Continue - Profile: Rebecca Adamson - Yellowstone Road Closures - Aboriginal Rights to Trees - NPS Management Report - Gustafsen: Prison Obstructs Appeal - Leonard Peltier Day Update - Prison Relents, Allows Appeal - Theft from Leonard - First Nations News Part 1 - Multilateral Agreement - Supreme Court Cases on Investment - Wolverine Visitors - Navajo-Hopi "Land Dispute" - Native Prisoner - Cherokee Letter Writing Campaign - A Hundred Years Ago - Are CNO Lawyers Giving Away - Donation Sovereignty? - Poem: Restless Spirit - Annie Dodge Wauneka - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - Innu Wildlife Harvesting Practices - Conferences and Powwows - Quotes Regarding Mascots --------- "RE: Last Year's Bison Slaughter Set to Continue" --------- Date: Thu, 13 Nov 1997 14:31:32 -0500 From: Buffalo Nations Subj: Last Year's Bison Slaughter Set to Continue UUCP email Buffalo Nations P.O. Box 957 West Yellowstone, Mt. 59758 Phone (406)646-0070 Fax (406)646-0071 E-mail buffalo@wildrockies.org. Press Release Nov. 13, 1997 Last Year's Bison Slaughter Set to Continue: Buffalo Nations Ready to Stop the Killing Once again, this winter the Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) and Yellowstone National Park officials will slaughter wild buffalo who leave the park in search of food. But this year, volunteers with Buffalo Nations will make sure that last year's slaughter of nearly 1100 buffalo will not be repeated. Buffalo Nations is monitoring the buffalo who have already left the park and will shepherd them to safe areas. Last year's interim plan for bison management is still in effect, which calls for Montana and Park officials to follow the same capture and slaughter policies for wild buffalo leaving the park. Montana DOL Director, Larry Petersen, was quoted in the Livingston Enterprise Wednesday, Nov. 12, as saying that the attempts of Buffalo Nations to shepherd bison away from the capture facilities, "puts us in the position of having to kill more bison." However, according to Mike Mease, Buffalo Nations co-founder, "Last winter, after releasing buffalo that tested negative, the DOL ended up killing some of those buffalo later. Mease adds, "The state of Montana has the audacity to label America's last wild buffalo herd as livestock, not wildlife. They have no business managing wildlife." The DOL profits off the sale of the herds sent to slaughter which provides a direct incentive for them to continue to kill this winter. DOL does not make any money from the buffalo shot in the field. The survival of the last wild bison herd in the lower 48 states is dependent upon the genetic viability of the population. The 1100 buffalo killed by the DOL and Park officials last winter were among the genetically superior members of the herd. These were the buffalo strong enough to make it to their winter forage ground. Approximately 800 to 1000 more died of natural causes during the harsh winter. We simply do not have time to allow the slaughter to continue to jeopardize the long term survival of the herd. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement will not be issued by the agencies until January at the earliest. It is already 9 years over due. The same agencies that have been killing the buffalo for over 10 years are still in charge of this policy. Native Americans have never been invited to discussions on how the buffalo will be managed, even though the Park recognizes 10 tribes as having rights in Yellowstone. Forty-four Native American tribes are willing to pay the bill to relocate live buffalo to their tribes, restoring culture and economy to an oppressed peoples. No lessons were learned from last year's tragedy and Buffalo Nations finds this unacceptable. Jeremy Lynch, a Native American Buffalo Nations volunteer, says, "We cannot stand by and watch our relatives be slaughtered again this year. Buffalo Nations call for all Native and non-native Americans to become involved in this important issue that affects all our lives." For more information or a press packet, call Mike Mease at (406)646-0070. Buffalo Nations PO Box 957 West Yellowstone, MT 59758 406-646-0070 phone 406-646-0071 fax buffalo@wildrockies.org --------- "RE: Yellowstone Road Closures" --------- Date: Saturday, 15-Nov-97 10:59 PM From: Sonja Keohane (sonjakeo@pond.com) Subj: YNP road-closure study out. UUCP email The local businesses are already screaming that any closure of snowmobiling roads will kill their winter income......maybe we should ask them to make snowmobile roads that run along side the holding pens and slaughter areas where the bison die, that way the folks on their snowmobiles could get a good look at the "big picture"? Please do not miss the url at the bottom of the page: http://www.nps.gov/yell/winterroadea.htm Park road-closure study out YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. - Officials here released a preliminary study on bison and groomed snowmobile trails Friday, taking a four-pronged look at possible wintertime road closures that could seal parts of Yellowstone from the treaded machines beginning this winter and stretching to the year 2000. A lawsuit settlement in September pushed the park into a pair of environmental studies on the effects of groomed snowmobile trails on bison migration and survival. Friday's study, an environmental assessment, proposes three possible road closures, each designed to study how park bison fare on groomed trails compared to nongroomed trails. Plaintiffs in the case, namely The Fund for Animals and the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, claim that bison rely on easy migration on the trails, leading to a larger-than-natural herd that spills out of the park boundary where hundreds may be shot for fear that the animals will spread disease to domestic livestock. The first possible road closure, as mentioned in the original settlement agreement, would shut a 14-mile road between the Fishing Bridge area and Canyon Falls this winter, but the closure could be extended two more winters. A second option would close no roads this winter but would seal the same 14-mile segment next winter and possibly two more seasons after that. A third option would ban snowmobiling between Madison and Norris Junction in the winter of 1999 with possible closures through 2002. And, like all such studies, the park assessment includes a fourth option where rangers wouldn't close any roads. Friday's release leaves the assessment open to public comment, said Marsha Karle of Yellowstone National Park and puts to rest national wrangling over who would write the EA. Although Yellowstone Park has the sole responsibility for writing both the EA and an upcoming environmental impact statement, a list of gateway communities as well as the state of Wyoming asked to be formal partners in the study. Yellowstone Superintendent Mike Finley denied all the requests, but Wyoming's Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., asked Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt to help the local agencies into the process, and Wyoming's Gov. Jim Geringer formally asked Finley to reconsider his denial. Park officials didn't pick the proposed closures out of Yellowstone's thin air, Karle said, but tried to balance each on the desires of snowmobilers to see park attractions with the migration patterns of the bison. "They'll still get to see the main features," she said. And the park plans to close only one road at a time but may close two segments of road to get better information about bison and the trails. Public comment on the study will continue for another 30 days, but Park County Commission Chairman Charlie Johnstone said he harbored little confidence that Yellowstone will bank its decision on Park County's wishes. "Typically, the comment period is typically an exercise in futility," Johnstone said. Park County will comment anyway, he said, and keep trying to be let in as a "cooperating agency" on the EIS that will grow from the final version of Friday's study. "That's the only option we have left," he said. The National Park Service has posted a copy of the environmental assessment on the World Wide Web. The address is: www.nps.gov/yell/winterroadea.htm. --------- "RE: NPS Management Report" --------- Date: Mon, 17 Nov 97 22:37:10 -0500 From: "J.D.K. Chipps " Subj: Pass this along. UUCP email FOR FURTHER DISTRIBUTION ____________________________________________________ This summer, NPS released a report on winter use in the Yellowstone area, that addressed issues including snowmobile trails, which enable bison to leave the park in far greater numbers than they would under natural conditions. NPS also will issue a draft bison management plan that will outline long- term strategies for handling the park's herd. Take Action! To request a copy of the winter-use report and take part in the public review process, write to: Beaverhead-Deer Lodge National Forest, 420 Barrett St., Dillon, MT 59725. To receive and comment on the bison management plan, write to: Yellowstone National Park, P.O. Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190 --------- "RE: Leonard Peltier Day Update" --------- Date: Fri, 14 Nov 97 16:39:22 PST From: Subj: Peltier Day Update LEONARD PELTIER DAY UPDATE (LEONARD PELTIER DAY) International Day to Resist the Imprisonment of Leonard Peltier February 6th will be 22 years since Native American Political Prisoner Leonard Peltier was arrested in Canada. The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Leonard Pelter Support Groups, Food Not Bombs, American Indian Movement of Northern California, Michigan, Ohio (Autonomous Chapters), Aztlan Liberation Organization, Comite Zapata Vive!, Anarchist Black Cross, and many other groups will be organizing demonstrations at Federal Buildings and US Embassies around the world. Leonard Peltier is a Native American activist who has been imprisoned since February 6,1976 for the 1975 shoot-out between the FBI and the American Indian Movement (AIM) in which two federal agents and an Indian man were killed. Four years after his incarceration, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit released documents which prove Leonard Peltier's innocence and FBI's use of their infamous COINTELPRO program in their efforts to "neutralize" members of the Movement. During the civil unrest of the 1960s and 1970s, the FBI created a program called COINTELPRO or Counter Intelligence Program. This program was designed to destroy any organization considered by the U.S. Government, FBI, or CIA to be politically or socially dissident. By using the techniques of infiltration, bad-jacketing, forgery, and provoking violence with and between groups and law enforcement, the FBI hoped to nullify their progress. Those targeted included groups focused on anti- -war demonstrations, Black civil rights, Native civil rights, and equal rights for women. Today, following a Freedom of Information Act law suit that released thousands of documents, it can be proven that there is no evidence, physical or verbal, to substantiate the government's argument against Peltier. In fact, in two separate court proceedings, the prosecution has been forced to admit that they don't know who killed the agents. The Eight Circuit Court of Appeals found that the withholding of certain documents cast a strong doubt on the government's case and that the FBI was guilty of a clear abuse of the investigative process. Yet Peltier's appeals have been denied on technicalities. One Senior Judge, Gerald Heaney, a man who sat on two of Peltier's appeals, has written to the President asking for a commutation of Peltier's sentence. Please help in securing Leonard's FREEDOM by organizing an event on February 6th in solidarity with Leonard Peltier and all Political Prisoners. All Groups are welcome to participate. It's going to take the efforts of the whole world, like it did for Nelson Mandela to get Leonard Peltier Free. DEMAND JUSTICE! Please let us know that you plan to join this outrage of 22 years and still not FREE?. FREE LEONARD PELTIER WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP Write, phone, fax, and email: President William Clinton, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC 20500, (202)456-1111 (hit 0 to avoid survey), fax (202)456-2461, president@whitehouse.gov Join a local Support Group. Contact LPDC for locations. If no Support Group exists in your area, consider starting one. Contact your elected officials and ask that they support the call for clemency. Lobby city councils as well as local educational, religious, social, and cultural organizations in generating resolutions and proclamations. Demonstrate at nearest Federal Building on February 6 . Copy and distribute this information. Leonard will be going having an interim parole hearing in early December. Please write or Fax the US Parole Commission. IMPORTANT: Please don't stop faxing messages or sending them in U.S. mail - we need to get as many letters to the Parole Commission as possible so they know the magnitude of the movement for Leonard, and so they are thoroughly convinced that he must be freed. ADDRESS FOR THE US PAROLE COMMISSION: U.S. Parole Commission 5550 Friendship Blvd. Suite 420 Chevey Chase, MD 20815 Fax: (301) 492-6694 Chairman: Michael J. Gaines The Parole Commission consists of three members, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. It has sole authority to grant, modify, or revoke paroles of eligible U.S. prisoners serving sentences of more than 1 year including military prisoners and DC Code prisoners housed in Federal institutions. It is responsible for the supervision of parolees and prisoners released upon the expiration of their sentences with allowances for statutory good time, and the determination of supervisory conditions and terms. U.S. Probation Officers supervise parolees and mandatory releases under the direction of the Commission. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Leonard Peltier has requested that ANY and ALL donations be sent DIRECTLY to Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. Donations are desperately needed. SEND TO: Leonard Peltier Defense Committee PO Box 583 Lawrence, KS 66044 Thank You Bobby Castillo For More information on the DEMO contact 1-800-884-1136 (415) 386-7041 or LPDC at (785) 842-5774 CONFIRMED CITIES and organization's participating so far. More to come. Detroit, Michigan LPSG, Michigan AIM (Autonomous Chapters) Food Not Bombs Toronto, Canada Food Not Bombs Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland AIM (Autonomous Chapters), Food Not Bombs St Louis, Missouri Food Not Bombs Chicago, Illinois Food Not Bombs Boston, MA Food Not Bombs Burlington, VT Food Not Bombs Brussels, Belgium KOLA, International San Francisco, CA Aztlan Liberation Organization, SF, Food Not Bombs, Earth First, Leonard Peltier Support Group of San Francisco Los Angeles, CA Aztlan Liberation Organization, Comite Zapata Vive!, Food Not Bombs Paris, France Nitassinan Geneva, Switzerland ASNA Madrid, Spain Group Baladre Montreal, Canada Anarchist Black Cross FREE LEONARD PELTIER FREE TIBET FREE AZTLAN --------- "RE: Theft from Leonard" --------- Date: Wed, 12 Nov 1997 07:38:56 -0500 (EST) From: FirehairSS@aol.com Subj: Theft from Leonard--pass on if possible ------- FORWARD, Original message follows ------- forwarded from Kathleen at the LPDC office. Would you be so kind as to spread the word - Letters, calls, faxes are needed to express your outrage concerning the prison officials action of taking Leonard's sacred ceremonial skirt towel he wore in the sweat lodge. He had this towel for 18 years [sic: at least 21 years] and wore it at Sundance. He informed me today that the prison officials throw it away. Needless to say he was very disappointed about it. But, feels it warrants media attention. So let the word be known. Send letters to the prison, President Clinton, Senators Inouye, Clay, etc. This is an outrage. I know you'd understand..... In the Spirit...... Kathleen --------- "RE: Multilateral Agreement on Investment" --------- Date: Fri, 14 Nov 1997 14:44:41 -0500 From: "Mohawk Nation Office" Subj: "10 Reasons to be concerned about the Multilateral Agreement on Investment" IMPORTANT FOR ALL INDIGENOUS NATIONS UUCP email 10 Reasons to be Concerned About The Multilateral Agreement on Investment By Mark Vallianatos and Andrea Durbin, Friends of the Earth with introductory excerpts from the Preamble Collaborative Printed in Ecoforum, July 1997 The world's richest industrialized countries are negotiating a treaty on foreign investment that will give more power to big corporations. It's called the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI). The MAI is a new international economic agreement being negotiated within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an international body comprised of 29 rich countries. The MAI consists of a set of rules restricting what governments can do to regulate international investment and corporate behavior. These rules are designed to protect and expand the power of corporations and other large international investors, guaranteeing them a stable investment climate, easy repatriation of profits, open market access, and freedom from any obligation to serve local economic needs wherever they choose to invest. The United States and the European Union, who are the primary backers of the agreement, intend to extend the agreement to developing countries after it is approved by the OECD. Confidential negotiations have been underway since May 1995 within the OECD. Business and industry groups represented by the US Council for International Business, among other lobbies, convinced the Office of the US Trade Representative and the State Department to initiate negotiations. Industry groups have an ongoing role in crafting the agreement, and unlike other interest groups, are regularly briefed by U.S. negotiators. Until recently, the target date for the completion of negotiations was May 1997, in late March 1997, the OECD announced the MAI deadline would be pushed back several months. Upon completion, the agreement will be introduced in the U.S. Congress in one of two ways: as a treaty, requiring two-thirds Senate ratification, or as an executive agreement, requiring a simple majority vote in the House and Senate. Other OECD countries, and ultimately developing nations, will be asked to sign. The MAI would give new rights to multinational corporations (MNCs) and rich foreigners. If you look around the world today, are they the ones that need help from governments? By going out of its way to knock down barriers to foreign investment, the MAI would put up new barriers to our democratic right to regulate our local affairs in ways that make good economic and environmental sense. You don't have to take our word for it - let the MAI speak for itself. Here are ten direct quotes from confidential drafts of the agreement. We'll translate the legalese to explain what the MAI would do in the real world. - ONE. What's covered? The MAI says: "Investment means: Every kind of asset owned or directly controlled by an investor." Translation: When you think of foreign investment, what comes to mind? Probably some big deal where a foreign corporation takes over a company, or sets up a new factory. The MAI, as the definition indicates, covers this "and more" stocks, bonds, intellectual property rights, concessions, etc. So anything a government does that affects any of these assets could be challenged under the MAI. Environmental controls on foreign owned factories, restrictions on international financial speculation, and many other kinds of regulations also have to submit to the agreement's standards. - TWO. Equal treatment The MAI says: a country that signs the MAI has to give foreign investors "treatment no less favorable than the treatment it accords [in like circumstances] to its own investors." Translation: One of the main standards of the MAI is national treatment, technical language that means countries promise to treat foreign investors the same as their own investors. What's wrong with that? Noting, if we freely choose to do so. There is also nothing wrong with treating foreign corporations differently when is seems appropriate. For example, if foreign owners are less concerned about the needs of a local community, governments will often place requirements on them. The MAI would take away our ability to make this choice, and force 'treatment no less favorable' as a uniform, inflexible standard. Because the standard is 'no less favorable,' governments are barred from treating foreign companies worse than local firms, but they could treat foreign interests better. This raises the danger that countries will come up with the special deals to compete for foreign investment. Also, since the standard is vague, we have to look to the rest of the MAI to see what 'no less favorable' means. As we go further down the list, you'll see that foreign investors are actually given special rights. Some countries screen foreign investment to make sure that new investments are in the national interest, or restrict foreign ownership of the media and other economic sectors. Because this is 'less favorable' than how local investors are treated, it would be illegal under the MAI. Meanwhile, countries that set up special tax breaks and export zones for foreign corporations would be permitted to keep on luring businesses away from their present locations. - THREE. No conditions allowed The MAI says: a country that joins can't "impose, enforce, or maintain any of the following requirements, or enforce any commitment or undertaking in connection with the establishment, acquisition, expansion, management, operation, or conduct" of a foreign investment. Translation: This is an example of how the MAI gives foreign companies better than equal treatment. Governments can't require foreign corporations to meet certain performance requirements, or conditions, even if these conditions are imposed on local companies. Examples of forbidden conditions include requirements to use local suppliers, to take on local partners, or to hire a minimum of local employees. - FOUR. What is expropriation? The 'Takings' Controversy The MAI says: "A contracting Party shall not expropriate or nationalize directly or indirectly an investment or take nay measure or measures having equivalent effect 'except for a purpose which is in the public interest' accompanied by payment of prompt, adequate and effective compensation." Translation: Under the MAI, governments that 'expropriate' (take over) an investor's property will have to pay the market price. From an environmental point of view, problems arise from the inclusion of 'indirect' expropriation and measures having the 'equivalent effect' of expropriation. In the United States, there has been a controversy over 'takings', which is the domestic legal term for expropriations, and whether environmental regulations that restrict the use of property amount to full-fledged takings that the government has to pay for. By defining expropriations to include indirect expropriations, the MAI opens a new door for foreign investors to extend the battle over takings outside normal political and legal processes, where at least both sides have the right to be heard, into the one-sided MAI system. The NAFTA trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and the United States has investment rules on expropriation similar to those in the MAI. To give an idea of how foreign corporations can claim that environmental regulations expropriate their investments, a US company has sued Canada for $251 million for banning the import and transfer of MMT, a potentially toxic fuel additive that the company mixes and sells in Canada. - FIVE. The costs of free money: Capital mobility & Financial stability The MAI says: "Each Contracting Party shall ensure that all payments relating to an investment in its territory of an investor of another Contracting Party may be freely transferred into and out of its territory without delay." Translation: Most countries want to attract long-term foreign investment that can contribute to stable economic growth. This part of the MAI guarantees much riskier, speculative investment, where foreign money can pour into a 'hot' market, then quickly pull out if the economy cools down. The MAI bars countries from putting restrictions on excessive flows of money into or out of their economies. Remember the economic crisis in Mexico, where the value of the Peso crashed, eradicating savings and lowering wages almost instantaneously? One of the main causes of this financial crisis was large, rapid and unstable inflows and outflows of foreign investment. To avoid this problem, some countries, like Chile, require foreign investors to keep new investments in the country for at least one year. The MAI would outlaw this kind of safety measure, raising the risk that the Mexican economic crash could be repeated around the world. - SIX. Enforcing foreign investor rights: The worst to both worlds The MAI says: Running to Big Brother: Government to government challenges. "Any dispute between Contracting Parties concerning this agreement shall, at the request of any Contracting Party that is party to the dispute "be submitted to an arbitral tribunal for binding decision." Special corporate courts: Investor to government challenges "the investor may choose to submit "[a dispute with a government] for resolution: a. to the competent courts or administrative tribunals of the Contracting Party to the dispute" c. by arbitration in accordance with this article." Translation: The MAI matters because its rules can be enforced. If a foreign investor thinks a country where it has invested is violating the MAI, the investor has a choice. It can complain to its own government, who can take the other country to binding international arbitration. Or the investor can directly challenge the host country. In either case, arbitration consists of a few trade experts getting together as judges and hearing the dispute in a closed panel, with out opportunity for citizens of either country to comment. The panel will decide whether governments are violating the agreement, and if so, can advise them to change laws and award damages - possibly hundreds of millions of dollars or more - to the country or investor that brought the complaint. Letting foreign corporations directly challenge our laws in special international corporate courts is a dangerous new idea. Consider a new law that environmentalists support and some businesses - national and foreign - oppose. Up until now, the two sides could fight it out in the political process, and in national courts. If the MAI is signed, the foreign corporations would have a new weapon that no other group could use. They could challenge the law under special, one-sided rules of the MAI, or just threaten to challenge it, holding the risk of multi-million dollar damages over lawmakers' heads. - SEVEN. Enforcing citizens' rights? The MAI says: " " Translation: The reason there is a big blank here is that the MAI doesn't give citizens any rights. Put another way, there are no binding obligations on foreign investors that citizens, or even governments, can enforce through the MAI's dispute resolution rules. Anytime a corporation invests in a project overseas, there are a number of groups who are affected. The corporation, certainly; but also residents of the community where the company invests, including the company's workers, and the host and home government. If a conflict arises, there need be open, balanced forums where all voices can be heard. Instead, the MAI creates a system that is one-sided (it can only be used to enforce investor's interests) and exclusionary (citizens can't participate). - EIGHT. A right to invest with dictators? The MAI says: governments can't impose sanctions or deny benefits "because of investments an investor of another Contracting Party makes, owns or controls, directly or indirectly, in a third country." Translation: Foreign investment in non-democratic countries can help prop up dictators. For this reason, some nations, states and cities use their laws as carrots or sticks to discourage businesses from investing in dictatorial regimes. But the MAI says that foreign companies can't be punished for investments they make in other countries. This means that we have to close our eyes to how a foreign investor acts outside of our borders, so when it comes to foreign corporations, our laws can't reflect our values. - NINE. Real target: Developing countries? The MAI says: Countries that sign the MAI will "conduct negotiations with interested non-signatories to the Final Act and make decision on their eligibility to become a Contracting party." Translation: The plan all along has been to finalize the agreement inside the OECD, then invite developing countries to sign on. Many developing countries put more regulations on foreign investment. One of the main purposes of the agreement is to reach a consensus among industrialized countries, and use the MAI to pressure developing nations to open their economies and change their foreign investment laws. An increasing amount of foreign investment goes to developing nations. If developing countries sign the MAI, people in rich and poor countries could both lose. The MAI will give corporations more rights and confidence to leave high wage countries, speeding up their move overseas in search of cheap labor. And developing countries will have signed an agreement that they did not help draft, and lose the ability to attach conditions to new foreign investment. The MAI doesn't give citizens any rights. Put another way, there are no binding obligations on foreign investors that citizens, or even governments, can enforce through the MAI's dispute resolution rules. - TEN. Withdrawal: Once you're in, you're really in The MAI says: "At any time after five years from the date on which this Agreement has entered into force for a Contracting party, that Contracting Party may give written notice "of its withdrawal" The provisions of this agreement shall continue to apply for a period of [15] years from the date of notification of withdrawal." Translation: Most international treaties require six months notice if a country wants to drop out. The MAI goes farther. A country that signs the agreement can't escape until at least five years have passed from the time the country ratified the MAI. Then the MAI's rules stop covering new foreign investment, but existing foreign investors still get to use the MAI for fifteen more years. This is because the MAI is more concerned with promoting long-term investor confidence than it is with our democratic rights to change our minds, and change our laws. FOR MORE INFORMATION: CONTACT: Mark Vallianatos or Andrea Durbin Friends of the Earth 1025 Vermont Ave. NW 3rd Floor Washington DC 20005 Phone 202/783-7400, fax. 202/783-0444 E-mail: Mvalli@aol.com adurbin@foe.org TO SEE MORE OF THE MAI DRAFT TEXT: Go to http://www.essential.org/monitor/mai/contents.html The two paragraphs preceding the footnote were taken from text prepared by The Preamble Collaborative, preamble@rtk.net. ----------------------------------------------------- Mohawk Nation Office - Kahnawake Branch Visit our new site! http://www.cyberglobe.net/users/mnation --------- "RE: Navajo-Hopi "Land Dispute"" --------- Date: Thu, 13 Nov 1997 21:30:52 -0700 (MST) From: dh88691@goodnet.com (THURSDAY/Jon Norstog) Subj: Navajo-Hopi "Land Dispute" Update: Nov. 13, 1997 UUCP email Navajo-Hopi "Land Dispute" Update: November 13, 1997 More Attorneys The Navajo nation circulated a request for proposals this fall for attorneys to represent the Dine' families. A number of proposals were sent in. The Nation hired Dan Israel to represent one group and Bruce Ellison to represent another group. This is in addition to keeping Lee Phillips on. Sara Begay and some of the families in her area have formed another group and are using Joe Washington and a woman whose name I've forgotten but who is listed in some of Willie Begay's postings. What the families don't have is a Navajo-speaking attorney who is available to them as needed and can practice before the Hopi Tribal Court. Joe Washington is the only one of them who can help the families there, otherwise they will have to use Hopi Legal Services. The Nation didn't pay either Mr. Israel or Mr. Ellison for anything but a first instalment on what will probably be long-running litigation. The Nation is also in the unique position of having hired attorneys who will sue it as litigation runs its course. The Hale Administration's policy on the settlement is quite clear - get it over with and try to get some kind of offset for the recent $30+ million judgement against the Nation in the "money cases." Another Lawsuit I recently got a copy of the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for Phoenix by Dan Israel. He filed on behalf of Alvin Clinton, Verna Clinton, Peggy Scott and John B. Nez of Teesto, Teddy Glenna and Carlos Begay of Cactus Valley, and Rena Babbitt Lane of Tonalea and against Secretary of Interior Babbitt. The case will probably be known as Clinton v. Babbitt once it gets going. Case number is Civ. 97-2167PHXRGS The action challenges the settlement legislation, P.L. 104-301 on the grounds that the "Accommodation Agreements" which are incorporated in that law are not "just and fair in law and equity" because they do not provide the basis for the families to lead "full and prosperous lives." The complaint seeks a court order to stop the implementation of 104-301; improvements to the long-term lease so that it is "just and fair" in terms of livelihood; and a new signing process carried out with full disclosure of terms and in a free and non-coercive manner. Some of the specific complaints about the "Accommodation Agreements" include: - It is not just and fair and does not provide the basis for the Navajo families leading "full and prosperous lives" - It is vague and lacking any force in its provisions for renewal of the 75-year leases - The families were coerced into signing "Accommodation Agreements" with the threat of eviction if they did not sign. - The families were not provided full information about critical matters such as the requirement that they reduce their livestock after they sign. - The families are subject to eviction for a number of causes, including causes which are none of their doing and events which are not under their control. - The families were promised improved roads, housing repairs, and utility services in an effort to induce them to sign "Accommodation Agreements". These promises were made by U.S. officials who fully knew there was no funding available to provide these things, and who had no intention of seeking such funds. This suit is being brought because the fairness issue was not put to rest at February's U.S. District Court hearings. In other words, the 9th Circuit Court's role in the Manybeads case is not over yet, and mediation could resume. There were a number of specific land use-related issues raised at the "Fairness" hearing which have also not been addressed, and which could form the basis for another lawsuit. These include the burial issue, protection of sacred and religious sites, use rights to family and community land base, provisions for housing the coming generations of families, etc. Attempts by Navajo families to work directly with the Hopi Tribe to resolve these issues have been futile. Some of the land use issues raised at the Fairness Hearing include: - Cactus Valley Community requested written assurances regarding land use, burial, and sacred sites so they would feel comfortable signing the "Accommodation Agreement". The Hopi Tribe refused to meet with the community and instead allowed the deadline for signing to expire. The families signed because they felt they had no choice. - The Frances Bahe family from Teesto requested changes in the Hopi Comprehensive Plan, which had designated part of their ceremonial area as a commercial development site. They were denied any such assurances, but like the Cactus Valley Community residents, signed the "Accommodation Agreement" under threat of eviction. In addition, the Hopi Tribe got a raw deal when Congress stripped the Winters water rights from lands which were to be taken in trust for them as compensation. It can be assumed that they will sue as soon as the issue is ripe. With the settlement open to challenge from so many angles, it seems to me that the best and only hope for progress is through continued mediation by the 9th Circuit Court. The Court would be doing the right thing by continuing the mediation. This option is open. The Dine' families did not agree to dismiss the Manybeads lawsuit as was originally stipulated in the later stages of settlement negotiations. The strategy of keeping Manybeads alive, by the way, was the doing of the much-maligned Lee Phillips. The judge in this case will be Earl Carroll, who is best known nationally for sending the priests and nuns to prison in the El Salvador "Sanctuary Case." He is not particularly sympathetic with constitutional rights or humanitarian considerations. He likes to sit on a case. He sat on Manybeads for four years without ruling. He could do it again. If the 9th Circuit Court renews mediation, it would give him a good reason to do nothing on Clinton v. Babbitt. John Yazzie is Doing OK Roman went out to Mr. Yazzie's place a couple weeks ago for a ceremony. There were a lot of people there busy with the matter at hand. Roman says they all seem to be doing OK, and they didn't have any complaints about the Hopi Tribe. Mr. Yazzie's practice as a medicine man is keeping him pretty busy. As a young man, Mr. Yazzie, along with his family, was evicted from District Six near Keams Canyon. They moved, then were evicted again. Mr. Yazzie moved out to the Sand Springs area - far enough from Hopi, it seemed at the time. There is a strong water source there, plus the Yazzies got extra water by building temporary dams in Dinnebito Wash to catch the flood water. They attracted the attention of an Israeli desert agriculture research station, which sent out teams to install drip irrigation. last time I was at Sand Springs the John Yazzie family had about 140 acres under cultivation, including fruit trees. Most of it was irrigated. The farm represents the lifetime work of a whole extended family, and a lot of us feared that they would lose it under the "Accommodation Agreement. That hasn't happened, at least not yet. Halloween As usual I went out trick or treating with my boy. He's 12 now, maybe this was the last year. The gang he usually goes out with went to a rumored mother lode of candy in Fort Defiance. It was just me and K. This is a year where no potent figure has arisen on TV or movies to be commercialized for Halloween. I didn't see a single Ninja Turtle or Power Ranger. All the kids have black clothing, so I saw a lot of black clothes, a lot of white face paint, a few draculas and witches. One lady was wearing a white one-piece pajama with black cow spots. She had cow horns on her head. She was carrying a baby dressed as her calf. Window Rock and Fort Defiance swarm with kids at Halloween. Halloween is an un-Navajo sort of thing, all those ghosts, witches, etc. Also it's kind of expensive. So kids come into the degenerate Capital from all over and trick or treat the "halloween houses" - the ones with the pumpkins or other displays that say "we have candy." jn --------- "RE: Cherokee Letter Writing Campaign" --------- Date: Wed, 12 Nov 1997 09:21:28 -0800 From: Nancy Thomas Subj: Letter writing campaign........ http://www.YvwiiUsdinvnohii.net/ is now "the People's Paths home page!" Please feel free to pass this information on.... A new message, "Re: Cherokee Nation Councilor Initiates Lawsuit Against Byrd's Tribal Attorney, Rex Earl Starr, For Excessive Fees Not Approved By The Cherokee Nation Legislators (Council)," was posted on the Yvwii Usdinvnohii WebBBS!
''the People's WebBBS'' by Kate Browning on Wednesday, 12 November 1997, at 11:58 a.m. It is a response to "Re: Cherokee Nation Councilor Initiates Lawsuit Against Byrd's Tribal Attorney, Rex Earl Starr, For Excessive Fees Not Approved By The Cherokee Nation Legislators (Council)," posted by John Cornsilk on Tuesday, 11 November 1997, at 8:37 a.m. The message reads as follows: ------------------------- Rex Earl Starr, the criminal defense attorney that Byrd made the tribes general counsel, was, according to his contract, to receive no more than $77,000 in legal fees and expenses for the fiscal year. Starr has received more than $142,000 in only 7 months. Councilor, Paula Holder wants Starr to repay the tribe for all fees and expenses over the amount approved by the council. We are thankful for Paula Holder's courage and support her action 1,000%!!!!!!! Joe Byrd was trying to compare the hours spent at the complex by his attorney Starr and those spent by Jim Wilcoxen, who was tribal general counsel for years before Byrd and cohorts fired him. The way most of us see it the only reason that Starr has had to spend so many hours at the complex and Wilcoxen didn't, is because Byrd has turned the tribe over to Starr and Byrd cannot function with Starr's approval. Past Chiefs had no need for a criminal defense attorney to be on the property telling them how to run business on an almost daily basis. The Muskogee Phoenix front page article by Donna Hales today said that billing statements reveal that Starr took several trips to Washington, DC on behalf of the Cherokee Nation and that he received meal reimbursements on tickets for 3 guests. The billing statements did not reveal the names of the guests or the purpose for dining with them. Get this... the paper said that "Byrd" said the tribe needs to know who the guests were and why the tribe was paying for their meals." Isn't this just rich... every time Byrd and the boys get called on messing with the tribal money, they want to step up and say that we really need to know these details... this should not happen again. Evidently Starr's daily meal allowances have been exceeded grossly and his billing statements fail to detail purposes and reasons precisely. Do all these Byrd cohorts have a problem with other people's money? Dora Mae Watie is being investigated by state auditors for purported misuse and misappropriation of state education funds in her capacity of a school board commissioner... Joel Thompson is under FBI investigation for purported misuse and misappropriation of Housing Authorities federal funds... Byrd is under the same FBI investigation regarding the housing authority for same thing, and Byrd is subject of an ongoing criminal investigation for misappropriation of tribal and federal funds... Councilor Charles "Chuck" Hoskins is under FBI investigation regarding the housing authority's financing of his political campaign... Jennie Battles, Byrd's secretary treasurer for the CN is subject of two separate investigations; FBI investigation regarding personal misappropriation of housing authority funds, and the on-going tribal investigation into Byrd's administration for misappropriation of tribal and federal funds. We also understand that it is alleged that Garland Eagle, Joe Byrd, Charles Hoskins and Dora Mae Watie also received housing authority funds for remodeling their homes and in one case acquired a new home, using their authority to get favored treatment by the housing authority while hundreds of Cherokees have waited in line for up to 7 years for the same assistance from the housing authority. It is not surprising that Byrd's criminal defense attorney, turned Tribal General Counsel, would follow the leaders in the purported misuse of our tribal funds. Byrd and cohorts have used the Cherokee Nation funds like their own personal check book. Is anyone outraged that Byrd and cohorts not only continue to spend the Cherokee Nation into bankruptcy, but at the same time appear to want to destroy the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation by arguing in a federal court that the Cherokee Nations Judicial Branch Courthouse is NOT Indian Country? It is time to end this dangerous criminal reign of horror that threatens the existence of Cherokee people's government and governments of all other Indian tribes. A full-out letter writing campaign should start from all tribes in America to Byrd asking for his resignation and sanctioning him from all National Indian Associations and Organizations. ------------------------- the Yvwii Usdinvnohii WebBBS! ''the People's WebBBS'' please visit the WebBBS at: -- -=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=- Nancy Thomas * nlthomas@YvwiiUsdinvnohii.net Keeper of "the People's Paths home page!" http://www.YvwiiUsdinvnohii.net/ SysOp of "The People's Paths BBS" "Large Free File Area Available" BBS Phones: (517) 792-4906 --------- "RE: Are CNO Lawyers Giving Away Sovereignty?" --------- From: Summerfield/Marvin&Linda Subj: CHEROKEES-Are Cherokee Nation Lawyers (Purcell) Giving Away Your Sovereignty?? Date: Wed, 12 Nov 1997 08:00:54 -0600 Newsgroups: alt.native,soc.culture.native The following was posted courtesy of your only independent Cherokee newspaper, The CHEROKEE OBSERVER. For the very latest on the Cherokee Constitutional Crisis, check out our web site at: http://www.cherokeeobserver.org The Cherokee Observer obtained a copy of the following IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF OKLAHOMA LINDA TURNBULL-LEWIS, et al., Plaintiffs, v. DIANE BARKER-HARROLD, et al., Defendants. No. 97-C-764-B CHADWICK SMITH, Plaintiff, v. DIANE BARKER-HARROLD, Defendants. No. 97-C-765-B REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS HAD ON NOVEMBER 7, 1997 STATUS CONFERENCE - EXCERPT BEFORE THE HONORABLE THOMAS R. BRETT, SENIOR JUDGE Beebe Caslavka UNITED STATES COURT REPORTER APPEARANCES: For the Plaintiffs: MR. CHADWICK SMITH (Both cases) P.O. Box 9192 Tulsa, Oklahoma 74157-0192 MR. ROBERT G. GREEN (97-CV-764 only) 2420 South Owasso Place Tulsa, Oklahoma 74114 For the Defendants: Federal Defendants: MS. CATHRYN McCLANAHAN MR. PETER BERNHARDT Assistant United States Attorneys 333 West Fourth Street, Suite 3460 Tulsa, Oklahoma 74103 MS. DIANNE SYDNEY SPELLBERG Trial Attorney, Civil Division United States Department of Justice P.O. Box 146 Ben Franklin Station Washington, D.C. 20044-0146 State Defendants: MR. ROBERT M. ANTHONY Assistant Attorney General Litigation Division 4545 North Lincoln Boulevard, Suite 260 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73105 County Sheriffs and Boards: MS. GAYLA I. JONES Collins, Zorn, Jones & Wagner, P.C. 429 N.E. 50th Street Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73105-1815 Municipal Defendants: MS. BETTY OUTHIER WILLIAMS Robinson, Locke, Gage, Fite & Williams P.O. Box 87 530 Court Street Muskogee, Oklahoma 74402-0087 Defendats Byrd and Cherokee Nation: MS. JANICE WALTERS PURCELL MR. REX EARL STARR, General Counsel for the Cherokee Nation Cherokee Nation Division of Law & Justice P.O. Box 948 Tahlequah, Oklahoma 74465 PROCEEDINGS November 7, 1997 (EXCERPT) ***** THE COURT: Well, I did see your non-Indian Country argument and frankly I had some problems with it, because if it's conceded by all here that we're talking about some building that's operated by the Tribe, as I understand is owned by the Tribe, and it's the building in which the tribal government functioned with its chief and the officers of the executive, legislative and judicial, and is the seat of government of the sovereign nation, that is the Cherokee Nation, to say that that is under the jurisdiction of the district attorney, the state District Attorney for Cherokee County, it causes me some problems. If that's true--pardon my colloquial statement on the subject--if that's true, the Cherokee Nation ain't much of a sovereign. But anyway, we're not going to decide that today. Anybody else got any comments for the good of the order here? And incidentally, I'm sorry for opening this can of worms, but I though maybe somebody might educate me on something that would be helpful to me other than what I've seen in the press on this subject. I am real glad to hear Mr. Green say that there seems to be some political sense with the disputing parties carrying on some dialogue now and working out some of their differences. I'm real glad to hear that because that is obviously what it needs. MS. PURCELL: Your Honor, the Cherokee courthouse is on fee simple land. It's not the seat of government. The seat of government for the Cherokee Nation is the W.W. Keeler Complex located three and a half miles south of Tahlequah, which was granted to the Cherokee Nation in an Act of Congress in 1964. THE COURT: What goes on in this courthouse? MS. PURCELL: The courthouse wasn't actually used by the Cherokee Nation as a courthouse until 1995. Prior to that time it was the courthouse for Cherokee County. THE COURT: That isn't my question. The question I'm asking you is at the time all these events occurred down there that gave rise to this litigation, what was the building used for? MS. PURCELL: The ex-marshals were camping out downstairs in that building and the Judicial Appeals Tribunal-- THE COURT: Now you're talking about the ex. I'm asking you what was the building used for by the Tribe when it was functioning for the purposes for which the Tribe occupied it? MS. PURCELL: Since 1995 it was used as a part-time courthouse. It was not open all the time for court. THE COURT: Who was functioning there? MS. PURCELL: What the -- judicial branch. THE COURT: Of the Cherokee Nation? MS. PURCELL: Yes, Your Honor. THE COURT: Of the sovereign Cherokee Nation? MS. PURCELL: Yes, Your Honor. THE COURT: Do you agree that it was not Indian Country? MS. PURCELL: Yes, Your Honor. THE COURT: Do you agree that the District Attorney for Cherokee County has jurisdiction over it? MS. PURCELL: Yes, Your Honor. THE COURT: And superior to that of the tribe and the judicial function? MS. PURCELL: Yes, Your Honor. THE COURT: Fascinating. Do plaintiffs agree with that? Maybe we don't have a disagreement here. MR. GREEN: No, we do not agree with that. THE COURT: That's an interesting concept that I could certainly understand how the Tribe might want to call upon law enforcement in the county, but to say the principal tribunal of the Cherokee Nation is subservient to the District Attorney for Cherokee County, Oklahoma -- you agree they are? MS. PURCELL: Until a year ago the Cy of Tahlequah's chamber of commerce and gift shop was in that building. The Cherokee Nation leases clinics in Muskogee County; Jay, which is in Delaware County; in numerous counties, and they are all in fee simple. The Cherokee County Courthouse is in the heart of Tahlequah. Banks had to close in the morning because of what was going on. The Department of Public Safety had to provide highway patrol people so that people wouldn't cross the police line. It was more of a situation that was involved with public safety for all citizens, not just for the sovereign Cherokee Nation. THE COURT: You're not prepared to agree that the District Attorney for Cherokee County is over, or the Cherokee Nation Tribunal is subservient to the District Attorney of Cherokee County. You're not prepared to say that, are you? MS. PURCELL: I would say more there is an equal footing with a cross- deputization agreement and working hand in hand. THE COURT: Is that the position of the Cherokee Nation at this time? Is that the point? MS. PURCELL: The position is that that particular area is not Indian Country and we had to call in state enforcement, we being the Cherokee Nation, and that it was -- THE COURT: Anything else? MS. PURCELL: And it was the plaintiffs' obligation to obey the law of the State of Oklahoma and the Cherokee Nation. THE COURT: Anything else? MS. PURCELL: No, Your Honor. THE COURT: Anything else from anybody else here on any subject that you might think would be of assistance or advance the ball any? Nothing else? MR. GREEN: Nothing for the plaintiffs. THE COURT: All right. Glad to have you folks. Thank you very much. You may be excused. ------ A TRUE AND CORRECT TRANSCRIPT CERTIFIED: /signed/ Beebe Caslavka United States Court Reporter --------- "RE: Annie Dodge Wauneka" --------- Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 09:16:48 -0500 (EST) From: NASCSwan@aol.com Subj: NASC NEWS: Annie Dodge Wauneka, Navajo, passes <><><><><><><>NASC NEWS<><><><><><><> Annie Dodge Wauneka, 87, Navajo Medical Crusader By WOLFGANG SAXON Annie Dodge Wauneka, who broke custom and became the Navajo Nation's first female legislator and a health crusader, died Nov. 10 at Flagstaff Medical Center in Arizona. She was 87 and lived in Klagetoh, in northeast Arizona. The cause was Alzheimer's disease, said Ted Rushton, a spokesman in Window Rock, Ariz., the Navajo capital. For many years starting in the 1950s, Mrs. Wauneka traveled to villages and clinics, covering the 24,000-square-mile territory of the Navajo to preach public health standards. She cut a striking figure, tall and always wearing traditional Navajo clothing, including a colorful shawl and silver jewelry. Over the years, she urged the Navajo to adopt more modern dwellings, and she worked to improve the quality of water on the reservation. She also helped many people obtain medical attention after generations of reliance solely on tradition. She received much of the credit for defeating tuberculosis among the Navajo beginning in the 1950s and received national recognition for her role. Navajo Nation president Albert A. Hale called her "our legendary mother" and "the most honored Navajo in our history." He directed all public offices to shut down for one day last week, except for emergency services. Annie Dodge was born in Deer Springs, Ariz., and learned of public service from her father, Henry Chee Dodge, a chief and first president of the Navajo Nation's legislative Tribal Council. Its jurisdiction stretches over parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. She became the first woman on the council in 1951, winning an election over two rival candidates. One of those was her husband, George L. Wauneka, with whom she ran a ranch owned by her father in Arizona. Mrs. Wauneka was in the council for nearly 30 years, serving as the longtime chairwoman of the health committee. Her concern with public health could be traced to her grade-school days, when the influenza pandemic at the end of World War I killed many Navajos. She escaped with a mild attack and, even as an 8-year-old, helped the overworked nurse at her school in Fort Defiance, Ariz. Her formal education ended in the 11th grade, when she began tending to the needs of her tribe at the side of her father, who had become head of the Tribal Council and her political mentor. "From my childhood," she said later, "I have been aware of the problems of my tribe and have wanted to help make our people aware of them." Among her frustrations were the objections of tribal medicine makers to new ways. She conceded that the medicine makers performed much good work among the people, especially in family matters. But she said: "The Navajo is caught in between. I must convince them to accept a mixture." In 1963, Mrs. Wauneka and 30 diplomats, educators, musicians, authors and a former Supreme Court justice received the newly created Presidential Medal of Freedom for service to their country. President John F. Kennedy established the honor on July 4, 1963; after his assassination, the medals were presented by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Mrs. Wauneka's husband died in 1994. Her survivors include four daughters, Irma Bluehouse, Laurencita Cohoe, Georgia Ann Plummer and Sally S. Wauneka; five sons, Franklin, George L. Jr., Henry Chee, Norman and Timothy; a sister, Ann Shirley, and three brothers, Bernard, Sam and Walter Shirley. --------- "RE: Innu Wildlife Harvesting Practices" --------- Date: Fri, 14 Nov 1997 16:59:10 -0400 From: Larry Innes Subj: PR - INNU WILDLIFE HARVESTING PRACTICES MUST BE RESPECTED Mailing List: INNU-L FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 14 Nov/97 INNU TRADITIONAL WILDLIFE HARVESTING PRACTICES MUST BE RESPECTED - Katie Rich (Utshimassit) President Katie Rich has called on the Minister responsible for wildlife management, Mr. Kevin Aylward, to promote respect Innu traditional hunting practices. President Rich's action is in response to complaints filed by a Corner Brook resident with Wildlife Division following a televised video clip aired on CBC's 'Here and Now'. The clip showed Chief Prote Poker showing his young son how to hunt caribou from a boat. "The complaints against Chief Poker demonstrate once again how little respect or understanding some Newfoundlanders have for the Innu way of life. We have always hunted caribou from boats and canoes, and we will continue to do so in the future.", stated President Rich. "Innu hunting practices are protected by the Constitution, and we will not tolerate what we see as unreasonable interference in the exercise of our aboriginal rights." "Innu people are extremely upset by this intrusion. What the video showed was a special moment, a bonding experience between father and son. It shows that our traditional way of life is alive and well. These things are all matters of pride for us. But when we get calls for an investigation into the matter, it demonstrates once again the lack of understanding and respect that some people have for Innu culture.", continued Rich. "We do not tell Newfoundlanders how to fish-they should not be telling us how to hunt caribou!", concluded Rich. "I have written to Minister Aylward expressing my strong opinions on this issue, and I trust that this will be the end of the matter." FOR MORE INFORMATION: President Katie Rich Larry Innes Visit the Innu Nation WWW site: Environmental Advisor http://www.innu.ca Innu Nation P.O. Box 119, Sheshatshiu, Labrador, Canada A0P 1M0 phone: (709) 497-8398 email: innuenv@web.net fax: (709) 497-8396 --------- "RE: Quotes Regarding Mascots" --------- Date: Fri, 14 Nov 1997 15:13:48 EST From: "Catherine Davids" Subj: Quotes regarding Mascots UUCP email On a recent radio talk show I spoke with a young lady who had been a cheerleader for a team called the Indians. She said, "when I put on my feathers and war paint, donned my buckskins, and beads, I felt I was honoring Indians." I asked her, "if your team was called the African-Americans and you painted your face black, put on an Afro wig, donned a Dashiki, and danced around singing songs and making noises you thought were African, would you be honoring blacks?' Her answer was No - of course not. That would be insulting to them." End of discussion. Tim Giago, Lakota Publisher, Lakota Times One does not ask white people if something is offensive to Indians - just as you would not ask 100 men if something is degrading to women. Dennis White (Ojibway) How can you be honoring people while they are telling you that what you are doing is demeaning to them. John Benson Superintendent of Wisconsin Schools The message sent to Indians is "If I don't feel it - you don't feel it". This 'my way or the highway' attitude denies Indians the human right to feel the way they truly feel. Patricia Parker Levi These people keep telling us how much they love Indians, yet when we criticize the mascot, we're hushed like small children or harassed by the community. Charlene Teeters (Spokane) I'm sure they felt they were honoring us by having our scalps on their walls, too, or by taking our land. Susan Shown Jarjo (Cheyenne Muscogee) We don't want to be mascots for America's fun and games. Clyde Bellecourt, National Director, AIM I'll decide what honors me and what doesn't ..... minority groups have had enough of whites telling them what to think. Richard MacPhie Redskins is not a term fashioned by American Indians. The nickname was assigned to them just as the pejorative designation "darkies" was once imposed on African-American slaves. That was wrong then - this is wrong now. Washington Post Editorial Tradition is no reason to be trapped in the past - no reason to be racist. Melea Powell Two hundred years of tradition does not make using Indians as mascots right. Tim Giago Slavery was a tradition that was something we needed to get rid of. Just because it's a tradition doesn't mean it's good. Bernadine Vigue (Oneida/Menominee) The use of American Indian team names and much of the use of native American symbols and images promotes stereotypical thinking. Many Americans seem to think Indians no longer exist, or that if they do, they are broken and destitute skeletons of the formidable "noble savages" of the past. Gary Sandefur (Chickasaw) Education does not take place through antics of racist mascots. it causes the opposite effect. Fred Veilleux We're really in trouble when student's main exposure to Indian culture comes in the form of a sports mascot. Will Antell A name which refers to an individual's skin color is a racist characterization: good intentions do not make it otherwise. Carol J. May When someone says you are hurting them by your action, if you persist - then the harm becomes intentional. Barbara Munson (Oneida) The attitude that fans mimicking Native Americans at sporting events is allin fun....it is racist. Aaron Two Elk Only the people affected know how demeaning and degrading the impact is. Osie Davenport There is something obscene about naming franchise mascots after human beings. Harry Edwards When it is permissible to make fun, dehumanize native people in America, then, all of the other things - poverty, denial of rights, thievery of land - all of those things are sanctioned as well. Susan Shown Harjo If we could stop racial and cultural slurs in sports, then we would have a better chance of stopping racism that keeps us in poverty and ill-health and keeps our treaty rights under attack. Gaiashkibos (Lac Courte Oreilles Chippewa) Try understanding that the mascot issue is only the tip of a very huge problem of continuing racism against American Indians. Glenn T. Morris People say that Indians have bigger problems than mascots and the use of Native American images, but I disagree. If you cannot see me as an individual, then how can you understand the problems we have as a people? Frand Le Mere (Winnebago) To these teams and their fans, Indians are buffoons to be cartooned, non-people who just don't matter. We object. Richard MacPhie If the logo is so trivial - why can't they change it? Phil St. John War-bonneted apparitions pasted to football helmets or baseball caps act as opaque impermeable curtains, solid walls of white noise that for many citizens block or distort all vision of the nearly two million Native Americans today. Michael Dorris It is dehumanizing, derogatory, and very unethical. It extends a portrayal of Native American people as being warlike, aggressive - of having a savage approach. Aaron Two Elk We are saying - start playing football (baseball and hockey) and stop playing Indian. Stop this dehumanizing, degrading, and despicable exploitation of our culture and spiritual life. Vernon Bellecourt The use of dance, music, symbols or other behavioral representations of Native Americans trivializes that culture and is offensive. Athletic Policy of the University of Iowa To see someone put on feathers and paint their face and play Indian is a mockery of our people. Hugh Danforth The printable answer to this piling-on trivialization of Native American concerns is that 49er, Vikings, Pirates, RedWings, Saints, and the like have not been widely disrespected and abused in this country. Eric Zorn - Chicago Tribune columnist Comparisons to the use of Steelers, Cowboys or Packers as good reasons to use Indians as mascots insults our intelligence. Tim Giago Native Americans comprise 0.9% of the population of the United States. That our education institutions are bastions of racism and bigotry is an affront to the dignity of all humans regardless of ethnic background. Talk about playground and school yard bullies! Catherine Davids Catherine R. Davids Interim Program Coordinator Office of Educational Opportunity Initiatives University of Michigan-Flint Flint, Michigan 48502-2186 (810) 762-3328 --------- "RE: Foster Families Needed" --------- Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 11:23:16 -0500 (EST) From: FirehairSS@aol.com Subj: Needed--Foster Families HREF="http://www.navajohopiobserver.com/1111ne9.htm"> Navajo Hopi Observer News You can help kids find foster families By L.S. Scala The Observer More than 200 Native American children who are currently wards of the Arizona state courts have been placed outside their own families. But only fourteen licensed foster families are Native American. Walter Phelps, under an Arizona Department of Economic Security contract with Arizona's Children Association, travels daily to meet with different tribal groups and agencies, both on an off the reservation, to give information and answer questions about the foster care program and the need for more Native American foster families. In a recent meeting with the Yavapai-Apache Nation Council, Phelps explained that the contract came about because the DES recognized that it had not been able to fulfill its obligations under the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 to find culturally appropriate homes for Native American children. Phelps wants to talk to groups and to put articles in newsletters as part of his outreach program to recruit more families. The goal of the program is to collaborate with local groups and establish relationships and networks through which to reach out across the community. The tribal groups with which Phelps has met so far all want to help, but their resources are limited. The Arizona Inter-Tribal Council is also beginning to get involved. The Yavapai-Apache Council wanted to know why there were so many children not under tribal jurisdiction. The answer is that some of the children are from families living off the reservation, especially in the Phoenix and Tucson areas, and others have special care needs which cannot be met by the current licensed care homes staffed by Native Americans, either on or off the reservation. A tribe is always notified when a child identified as a member enters a long-term care program. Relatives are sought, but they cannot always assume the child's care. Many do, but some cannot. So the number of children needing foster care tends to rise as time passes. Families are needed for different levels of care. One level is Respite Care, which means being available to take a child for a few hours or a day or two, to allow the regular caregivers some time off, perhaps for emergencies or even just to take a vacation or go shopping. Another level is Receiving Homes for emergencies. This is temporary placement, when a child has to be removed from a situation. A third designation is the Licensed Foster Care Home, where children can be placed for a period of several weeks or even several years in long-term care. The most complicated placement is the one most needed-for homes licensed for Therapeutic Care. The foster parents have to take some twenty hours of special training, and do additional training each year to have such licenses. Children with special needs are placed in these homes. Adoptions are sometimes possible as well, but there are very few healthy new-borns available in the system. Usually the children are older. Those interested in adoption can get in touch with both the Arizona DES and their tribal social service agency to get on waiting lists. If they are willing to take an older child, the wait will be shorter. Again, there is need for families willing to take a child with special needs. When such a child is adopted, there is a subsidy which is provided until age eighteen, if the placement comes from the State of Arizona. Foster caregivers can be married or single, and they can hold outside jobs. They have to pass a background check and need to be healthy. Phelps' job also involves initial interviews with people who are interested in helping a child. There are a number of options for such families, and some initial screening procedures which can be done before official applications are made. You can help. Your community group, school, church, village, or chapter organization could ask Phelps to a meeting or put information he can provide in your newsletter. Phelps can be contacted at his office in Flagstaff (520) 774-1620, or by calling toll-free (800) 944- 7611, ext. 161, which is for voice mail, so your message can be recorded. Web Links Of Interest --------- "RE: Profile: Rebecca Adamson" --------- Date: Tue, 11 Nov 97 11:49:32 -0600 From: "John Berry" Subj: (FWD) First Nations Development Instit. SHE MEANS BUSINESS ACTIVIST TAKES A MESSAGE OF SELF-SUFFICIENCY AND COOPERATION TO INDIAN RESERVATIONS, AND BRINGS AN ARMLOAD OF DOLLARS WITH HER [CHICAGOLAND FINAL, CN Edition] Chicago Tribune Chicago, Ill. Nov 9, 1997 Authors: Joanne Cleaver. Special to the Tribune. P.#3 HIGH PROFILE: Rebecca Adamson. Rebecca Adamson isn't embarrassed about what she does, but she wants to make sure that it isn't relegated to the realm of "quirky but interesting ideas that can't survive in the real world." As founder and president of First Nations Development Institute, she has been working quietly since 1980 to help American Indian communities find ways to use their ingenuity and resources to become economically self- sufficient. What makes the Indian efforts different from the millions of entrepreneurial efforts that spring up every year around the country? Most tribes operated for centuries with community-centered economic values: that prosperity for one should be shared, at least in part, with the whole community and that there's no gain in hoarding wealth. Economic well-being isn't necessarily measured by raw growth, but rather by results that are good for everyone. Results are achieved not by competing with others for control of scarce resources and then making the most of them for the financial gain of a few, but rather by figuring out how to use natural resources over and over again. "There's a reciprocity and kinship with humankind," says Adamson, sounding a bit like a professor, which she is, teaching Indigenous Economics at New Hampshire College. "Take energy. If we extract all the oil, we'll run out. But if we create windpower, it's limitless." Glancing down at her cup of coffee, she laughs a little ruefully. What she's saying sounds dangerously close to an absurdly optimistic "Lion King"-type "Circle of Life" economy -- or socialism. This, she knows. She's heard these criticisms before, and it's hard to get Americans, who are besotted with the effects of the stock market runup on their personal retirement plans, to understand that there could be a different way of measuring economic success. "You almost need a new language for it," she says, half -apologetically. "But if you get a whole new language, it becomes marginalized. It sounds cutesy." Adamson's economic model may not yet have an official tagline, but it's being vindicated in terms that most Americans grasp quickly. Since 1994, a burst of private foundation donations has underwritten hundreds of small business startups, and the ideas that Adamson has been patiently cultivating have started to bear fruit. The wave of success has pushed her to the forefront among community-based economic development experts, and she now advises native communities in countries as far away as South Africa. (American white males listen to her too, as she sits on numerous non-profit and investment advisory boards.) Don Wharton, a senior attorney with the Native American Rights Fund in Boulder, Colo., says Adamson's vision was to see that economic success had to emerge from the way that Indians already managed their community economies. "The majority culture assumes that you'll always expand and go new places and find new markets and products. Indigenous economies deal with the existing resources," he says. "Rebecca came along and said to the Indian communities, `Tell me how you live,' and saw a whole unmeasured economy of trading and sharing." Meanwhile, Indian communities in 22 states are not only successfully launching and operating small businesses, but doing it against odds that would impress even the most ruggedly independent entrepreneurs. Few casual observers of Adamson's childhood in Akron would have guessed that she was headed for a life of economic and social activism. She was born in 1949 to a Cherokee mother and a Swedish father, and she recalls her childhood in their Southern Baptist household as uneventful and her school days spent daydreaming. Every summer, she visited with her mother's parents, who lived on a reservation in the Great Smoky Mountains. She couldn't help but see that her cousins, who were educated in schools on the border of the reservation, were falling far behind even in grade school. "My English and grammar were way better than my cousins'. I was stunned that in this country there was that kind of school" that gave the cousins such an ineffectual education, she says of her 4th grade self. A decade's worth of observation was the catalyst for action when, at age 20, Adamson dropped out of college and, in the process of hitchhiking around the country, visited some reservations in the West. At the time, Indians were organizing for major change in their schools, mainly for a say in curriculum and the administration of the school, "the same rights that all parents have," Adamson says. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, notorious then as now for its flagrant mismanagement of Indians' finances and natural resources, wasn't about to yield its power over Indian children's minds. The Indian activists won the battle. In 1975, the Indian Education Self- Determination Act was passed, giving Indians the legal right to contract for and run their own schools. Other components of the act paved the way for Indian self-government on reservations. Adamson immediately immersed herself in the process of reshaping the schools, only to get a cold dose of reality. The real war with the BIA was not over policy, but over dollars. If the bureaucrats didn't like a project, it would die of dollar starvation, pure and simple. Education was the beginning of true self-sufficiency for Indians, she came to believe, but it had to be intrinsically linked with economic independence. In the late 1970s, the concept of micro-loan programs (typically, loans of less than $500 to provide seed money for home-based businesses) in Third World countries was beginning to gain adherents. It seemed to Adamson that this was the perfect way for Indians to start weaning themselves from dependence on federal funds, especially if they started enterprises structured to reinforce the traditional Indian values of measuring success through whole-community benefit. In 1980, she and her idea went knocking on the doors of foundations in New York City. Eventually, the Ford Foundation officials were sufficiently intrigued to give her $25,000 in seed money, and First Nations was born. Its first project was to organize an exhibit of artwork by children of the Oglala Sioux's Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The traveling exhibit earned $20,000 in fees, which bought warm winter clothes for those children. Pine Ridge turned into Adamson's living laboratory. At first glance, it appeared that the reservation's economy was a shambles. Most Indians spent their $3,500 per capita annual income in neighboring towns, as the reservation had virtually no industry or retail segment of its own. Under that sorry surface, though, Adamson found a steady hum of income-producing activity. Residents produced beadwork, made cemetery crosses and performed household services. That's where she set up First Nations' pilot micro-enterprise fund, which provided money to start very small businesses, such as the home- based lunch-delivery service that a Sioux woman had been yearning to start. Since then, the ideas have been flowing. First Nations has made $7 million in grants and runs a $400,000 revolving loan fund. Indian projects range from small video-rental stores on reservations to setting up a mini- utility that generates and distributes solar-powered electricity on a Hopi reservation. The ultimate goal, says Adamson, is to entirely eliminate Indian reliance on federal funds. "Government's role isn't to subsidize, but to protect our access to opportunities," she says. Indian nations are in a unique position to do that because they have some "sovereign" rights within the parameters of the reservations that states and municipalities don't have. That's why, for instance, some Indian nations have set up huge casinos in states that otherwise ban gambling. (Legalized gambling is, for the record, a topic that Adamson skirts, saying only that she encourages nations that engage in it to quickly reinvest their profits into projects that will benefit the communities long-term, not on gimmicky givebacks and spending.) Adamson hopes to see home-grown projects gain enough experience and stability to qualify for "mainstream" financial relationships with banks, brokers, distributors and markets, even while they keep their profits "circulating within the community. "You don't have to be obsessive about producing a million widgets," she says. "When you're brought up to think for yourself and to act for others, you do believe that the community, and not just your own, will take care of you. It's not a just quaint custom. It will come back to bless you." --------- "RE: Aboriginal Rights to Trees" --------- Date: Thu, 13 Nov 1997 02:01:22 -0800 From: SISIS@envirolink.org (S.I.S.I.S.) Subj: BC Courts Ruling: Aboriginal Rights to Trees [S.I.S.I.S. note: The following mainstream news articles may contain biased or distorted information and may be missing pertinent facts and/or context. They are provided for reference only. The text of the Reasons for Judgment in this case can be viewed at: http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/ca/97/06/c97-0669.txt ] CANADIAN COURT RULES ON FORESTS Associated Press, Tues, Nov. 11, 1997 VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - British Columbia does not have exclusive control over its forests as long as its aboriginal land claims remain unresolved, a provincial court has ruled. Monday's ruling by the provincial appeals court was the second this month to strengthen claims of Canada's natives to forest resources. A New Brunswick court ruled last week that natives have a right to cut trees on public land with no restrictions. Forestry is the largest industry in New Brunswick and British Columbia. Both provincial governments have assumed sole ownership of public lands and parceled out large forest tracts for logging to multinational companies. Monday's ruling overturned a lower court decision that had allowed the British Columbia government to give MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. exclusive rights over forests on the Queen Charlotte Islands and part of Vancouver Island, despite outstanding land claims from the Haida Indians. Bill Macpherson, a spokesman for British Columbia's Ministry of Forests, said the decision will enable the Haida to proceed to trial and argue for the establishment of their title to the land. But he said the court decision does not specifically quash the province's system of logging permits. The decision, if applicable to all licenses given out by the government, would affect about 25 percent of the province's forests. "To us, this puts things back to the way it is supposed to be," said Ron Brown, president of the Haida Nation Council, which represents the 6,000 Haida in British Columbia. :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: HAIDA RULING THREATENS TREE LICENCES Vancouver Sun, Wed. Nov. 12, 1997, by Gordon Hamilton The B.C. Court of Appeal's ruling that the Haida Indians may have a legal right to trees on a MacMillan Bloedel tree farm licence threatens the value of all tree farm licences in the province, some analysts said Monday. The court ruling, overturning a lower court decision, could put the aboriginal claim to trees on a par with their rights to salmon, where their claims come before everything but conservation, said forest economist Peter Pearse. "The effect on the forest industry will be to add a further element of uncertainty about the security of timber rights," Pearse said. "It qualifies the rights of the licensees to all of the timber." But Forests Minister David Zirnhelt said that since the court didn't quash the contract between the government and MacMillan Bloedel renewing the tree farm licence on the Queen Charlotte Islands, there's been no actual change. "We say there is no change in the status and operation of tree farm licences, so it will be business as usual until a further court decision is made on the Haida claim for aboriginal rights," he said. "The important thing is my phone is not ringing off the hook with people in the industry panicking." One quarter of all timber harvested from Crown land comes from tree farm licences. In a unanimous decision, three appeal court judges said that where First Nations can prove they have aboriginal rights they also hold valid legal interest in not only the land but the forests on the land. The decision opens the door to the Haida to take their claims for aboriginal title to court. Tree farm licences -- contracts giving forest companies exclusive rights to harvest timber within the area of the licence -- could, the judges said, be "otherwise encumbered" by aboriginal title. In his reasons for judgment, Justice William Esson, said that if the aboriginal title claimed by the Haida exists, it constitutes an encumbrance on the Crown's title to the timber. "While it is true that the Forest Act deals with the disposition of timber by the Crown, and authorizes the minister to enter into tree farm licences, the object of the act is clearly not to authorize the minister to do so without regard to third party interests." Ron Brown, president of the Council of the Haida Nation, said the decision came as a surprise for the Haida. "We are probably going to pursue this a little further. We didn't expect such a unanimous decision." The Haida haven't decided on a course of action yet, whether to proceed to court or negotiate with the province. However, Brown said, the Haida will be taking a copy of the decision into meetings later this month with forests ministry staff and forest licensees operating in the Queen Charlotte Islands. The ruling gives the Haida a stronger bargaining position, he said. Industry people were also taken by surprise, and representatives of MacMillan Bloedel and the Council of Forest Industries said they wouldn't be prepared to comment on the case until today. Industry analyst Charles Widman said despite the government position that nothing has changed, the court ruling has serious implications for all 36 tree farm licences in British Columbia. He said the court has opened the door for First Nations to lay claims for timber in tree farm licences. "The long-term implications are very serious in terms of management of a very big chunk of our forests," he said. "The tree farm licence holders feel they have a contract with the government that gives them in effect title to those forests provided they perform under the agreement. "To have a third party coming in and claiming jurisdiction is serious and would certainly reduce the value of those tree farm licences substantially." Sierra Legal Defence Fund executive director David Boyd also said the ruling has broader implications for the forest industry. "This affects every tree farm licence in B.C. How do you reconcile the exclusive rights granted in tree farm licences with aboriginal rights?" Pearse said security of tenure is already a major problem in the B.C. forest industry, where government policies have added a variety of regulatory measures, led to increased stumpage payments and set aside timber for wilderness, sometimes at the expense of licensees. The provincial government and MacMillan Bloedel have 60 days to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada. :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: S.I.S.I.S. Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty P.O. Box 8673, Victoria, "B.C." "Canada" V8X 3S2 EMAIL: SISIS@envirolink.org WWW: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/SISmain.html SOVERNET-L is a news-only listserv concerned with indigenous sovereigntist struggles around the world. To subscribe, send "subscribe sovernet-l" in the body of an email message to For more information on sovernet-l, contact S.I.S.I.S. --------- "RE: Gustafsen: Prison Obstructs Appeal" --------- Date: Fri, 14 Nov 1997 16:03:14 -0800 From: SISIS@envirolink.org (S.I.S.I.S.) Subj: Gustafsen: Prison Obstructs Appeal :-:-:-:S.I.S.I.S. Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty:-:-:-: Nov. 14, 1997 Bulletin CANADIAN PRISON AUTHORITIES SABOTAGE APPEAL: URGENT ACTION REQUESTED Serious interference from officials of the Matsqui federal Prison is threatening to sabotage the jurisdictional appeal of Shuswap elder and political prisoner Jones William Ignace, aka Wolverine, who is currently serving an eight year sentence there for his role in the 1995 Ts'peten (Gustafsen Lake) standoff. The prison is withholding appeal papers which require his signature and were faxed to the prison administration for that purpose on November 12th by his counsel Dr. Bruce Clark. The Supreme Court of Canada has turned down part of the appeal submitted by Ignace and fellow Ts'peten Defenders James "OJ" Pitawanakwat and Shelagh Franklin. The remainder of the explicitly sovereigntist appeal, which challenges Canada's jurisdiction over territories which it never legally obtained by purchase or treaty, could still go ahead, pending Ignace's signature. However, the prison seems determined that that signature will not take place. On Wednesday, the national spokesperson for the Free the Wolverine Campaign, Splitting-the-Sky John Hill, acting as legal agent for Dr. Clark, spoke to Matsqui official Sheila Lowar of the warden's office, who confirmed that the prison would not facilitate Ignace's signature on the documents. Hill then spoke to a Mark Kimball, also of Matsqui prison, and outlined the urgency of obtaining Wolverine's signature on the appeal papers in order to meet a court deadline. Hill further explained that he could not deliver the documents in person, as he has not been allowed to visit Ignace in Matsqui, although Hill apparently meets the stringent security screening requirements of the federal Corrections process since he is permitted to visit Pitawanakwat in another federal facility, near Mission, BC. Matsqui prison has been unwilling or unable to provide reasons for refusing him access. Kimball advised Hill that the signing would be expedited and that he could visit Wolverine for this purpose. Upon his arrival at Matsqui however, Hill was again told by line staff that the visit was refused. He informed one of these officers, a Greg Martin, that the authorization had been granted by Mr. Mark Kimball. Yet when Officer Martin referred the matter to his Superior Deputy Superintendent Nancy Wrenshaw, she reiterated that Hill would not be permitted to visit Wolverine. She further refused to assist or permit the legal documents to be signed by the appellant Ignace. "I informed them that they were willfully obstructing Mr. Ignace's right to appeal", Hill told S.I.S.I.S. According to Dr. Bruce Clark "this is standard BC stuff, and the instructions probably came from Crown Counsel. It is further evidence of the criminal conspiracy of the bench, bar and legal establishment to forestall the law respecting native sovereignty over unceded lands from ever being addressed." YOUR ASSISTANCE IS URGENTLY SOLICITED to pressure the Canadian authorities: - to immediately and forthwith facilitate access to Wolverine by his legal agent Splitting the Sky John Hill, - to cease and desist the denial or obstruction of Mr. Ignace's visitors - to release both indigenous prisoners Pitawanakwat and Ignace pending an independent, impartial, inquiry into the massive irregularities and violations of due process which have so outraged supporters and observers of the Gustafsen Lake trial world-wide. WE ALSO CALL UPON ALL PARTICIPANTS OF THE UPCOMING ANTI-APEC CONFERENCES AND DEMONSTRATIONS IN VANCOUVER TO DEMAND THE RELEASE OF INDIGENOUS POLITICAL PRISONERS IGNACE AND PITAWANAKWAT, TO CONDEMN THE NDP PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT OF BC AND THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA FOR THEIR ONGOING CRIMINAL COMPLICITY IN THE POST-GUSTAFSEN COVER UP, AND TO DEMAND INQUIRIES INTO THE PARAMILITARY ACTIONS TAKEN AGAINST INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AT GUSTAFSEN LAKE AND THE MURDER OF STONEY POINTER DUDLEY GEORGE. THE APEC OF TOMORROW IS BUILT UPON THE COLONIALISM AND COMPLICITY OF TODAY! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>------ Demand Action From ------<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Prime Minister Jean Chretien Room 309-S Centre Block, House of Commons, Ottawa, Ont. K1A OA6 Canada Phone: (613) 992-4211 Fax: (613) 941-6900 Faxing by email: remote-printer.Jean_Chretien@16139416900.iddd.tpc.int email:pm@pm.gc.ca WWW comments: http://pm.gc.ca/english/pmo/e_corres.htm Canadian Solicitor General Andy Scott (In charge of federal Corrections) 340 Laurier Ave West, Ottawa, Ontario K1A OP8 Canada Phone: (613) 991-2924 Fax: (613) 996-9955 Email: Scott.A@parl.gc.ca Faxing by email: remote-printer.Andy_Scott@16139969955.iddd.tpc.int Matsqui federal prison administration Phone: (604) 850-8228 Fax: (604) 859-4841 Tell the delegates at the anti-apec meetings to SUPPORT THE TS'PETEN POLITICAL PRISONERS WITH THEIR VOICES AND CONDEMNATION OF BC & CANADA! Peoples Conference Against Imperialist Globalization Email: notoapec@vcn.bc.ca 1997 People's Summit on APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) Email: popsum97@bc.sympatico.ca For more information: Splitting the Sky National spokesperson, Free the Wolverine Campaign Phone/Fax: (604) 543-9661 or visit the Ts'peten Defenders' web page: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/gustmain.html :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: S.I.S.I.S. Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty P.O. Box 8673, Victoria, "B.C." "Canada" V8X 3S2 EMAIL: SISIS@envirolink.org WWW: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/SISmain.html SOVERNET-L is a news-only listserv concerned with indigenous sovereigntist struggles around the world. To subscribe, send "subscribe sovernet-l" in the body of an email message to For more information on sovernet-l, contact S.I.S.I.S. --------- "RE: Prison Relents, Allows Appeal" --------- Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 01:46:24 -0800 From: SISIS@envirolink.org (S.I.S.I.S.) Subj: Gustafsen: Prison Relents, Allows Appeal :-:-:-:S.I.S.I.S. Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty:-:-:-: November 17, 1997 Bulletin MATSQUI PRISON RELENTS, ALLOWS WOLVERINE TO SIGN APPEAL PAPERS After withholding them for days, Matsqui prison finally allowed political prisoner Wolverine (Jones William Ignace) to sign his appeal papers late on Friday, November 14. Although prison officials continue to bar Splitting the Sky, national spokesperson for the Free the Wolverine Campaign, from seeing the imprisoned elder, they did finally send someone else in to convey the crucial legal documents to Wolverine for his signature and to bring them back out to Splitting the Sky, who is acting as legal agent for Wolverines' lawyer, Dr. Bruce Clark. The appeal will be able to proceed after all. S.I.S.I.S. would like to thank all those who wrote to the prison, to the Prime Minister and to the Solicitor General of Canada about this outrage. Kootenay elder Bill Lightbown, spokesperson for the Free the Wolverine Campaign, said that he believed the prison's change of heart was due to public pressure. Wolverine is a traditionalist Shuswap national serving an 8 year sentence in a Canadian prison for his role in defending sacred Sundance and burial grounds at Ts'peten (Gustafsen Lake, BC) from the largest joint police and military assault in Canadian history. He and 14 others were convicted in a ten-month trial that attracted widespread condemnation for distortion of due process. The Canadian authorities continue to ignore the calls for a public inquiry into all aspects of the matter. For more information on the Ts'peten siege and trial, visit: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/gustmain.html Write to Ts'peten political prisoners: Wolverine (William Jones Ignace) Political Prisoner P.O. Box 4000, Abbotsford, BC V2S 5X8 Canada James "OJ" Pitawanakwat Political Prisoner c/o Mission Institution P.O. Box 60, Mission, BC V2V 4L8 Canada :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: S.I.S.I.S. Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty P.O. Box 8673, Victoria, "B.C." "Canada" V8X 3S2 EMAIL: SISIS@envirolink.org WWW: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/SISmain.html SOVERNET-L is a news-only listserv concerned with indigenous sovereigntist struggles around the world. To subscribe, send "subscribe sovernet-l" in the body of an email message to For more information on sovernet-l, contact S.I.S.I.S. --------- "RE: First Nations News Part 1" --------- Date: Mon, 17 Nov 97 08:57:30 -0600 From: "John Berry" Subj: (FWD) FirstNations- Indian News- Part 1 To all, With thanks to Roger Iron Cloud for making this available. Best, John Berry >>>-------------------> < > <--------------------<<< \\\ /// \\\ /// \\\ /// \\v// \\v// \\v// / \ / \ / \ / V \ / V \ / V \ / \ / \ / \ / - - \ / - - \ / - - \ / - - \ / - - \ / - - \ ___/----( )----\____/----( )----\____/----( )----\___ >>>-------------------> < > <--------------------<<< PART I -AM. INDIAN/ALASKA NATIVE NEWS FOR November 14, 1997 Material for this posting was acquired from Scout Report, Tourbus, AP News, Techknow Times, Siedmans Insider, postings from individuals, numerous electronic sources, and friends. >>>-------------------> < > <--------------------<<< CONTENTS OF PART I - LEGISLATIVE UPDATES >>>-------------------> < > <--------------------<<< Historical Note: November 14, 1921, The Cherokee Indians ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review their claim to 1 million acres of land in Texas >>>-------------------> < > <--------------------<<< WEEKLY FACT by Rapodaca@acf.dhhs.gov Farms In 1992, American Indians operated 8,346 of the nation's 1.9 million farms. Of these 8,346 farms, 2,977 had sales of $10,000 or more that year. While the total number of farms in the United States declined by 162,459 between 1987 and 1992, the number operated by American Indians climbed by 1,212. >>>-------------------> < > <--------------------<<< NATIVE AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE UPDATES FOR NOVEMBER 12, 1997 The following are updates from the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) regarding Indian affairs legislation for the coming two weeks. These messages are intended as a supplement to other FCNL Native American Program materials and do not reflect FCNL's complete policy position on any issue, nor do they include all pertinent facts on any topic. For more information, or to request the FCNL Indian Report and other background documents, please contact Aura Kanegis, FCNL Legislative Advocate for Native American Affairs: (202) 547-6000; 245 2nd St. NE Washington, DC 20002; aura@fcnl.org. HISTORIC PRESERVATION. One of the few vehicles by which Native American tribes are currently able to seek protection for sacred sites and other sites that are of traditional religious and cultural significance is through historic preservation statutes. In 1992, recognizing the lack of opportunity for tribal participation in the Historic Preservation Process of the National Historic Preservation Act, Congress amended Section 106 of the Act (which requires federal agencies to "take into account" the effects of their undertakings on historic properties) to provide an enhanced role for tribes for determination and protection of places of cultural or historic significance to Native Americans. On October 24, 1997, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) approved regulations that impact Tribes. ACTION: The amendments approved by the ACHP will now move to the Office of Management and Budget for interagency review. During this process, any federal agency has the opportunity to comment on, object to, or suggest specific changes in draft regulations. During this process, the OMB will also hear out interested citizens and groups. Furthermore, the OMB's role in this process is to represent the Administration in the review and adoption of regulations. ACTION ON INDIAN AFFAIRS LEGISLATION. Movement has occurred on several bills concerning tribes in the flurry of activity that has taken place as Congress seeks to adjourn until early next year. These actions include the following: -- On November 9, the Senate confirmed Kevin Gover to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs. A member of the Pawnee tribe, Gover was most recently a partner in the law firm of Gover, Williams, and Janov in Albuquerque, NM, where he specialized in Federal Indian law, natural resources, environmental law, and housing. -- Also on November 9, the House approved H.R. 1805, a bill introduced by Representative Doolittle (R-CA) which would amend the Auburn Indian Restoration Act to establish restrictions on what lands may be taken into trust for the United Auburn Indian Community on which class II or III gaming would be permitted. -- On the same day, the Senate passed S. 1354, a bill introduced on October 31 by Senators McCain, Campbell, Inouye, Daschle and Dorgan, which would amend the Communication Act of 1934 to provide for the designation of common carriers which are providing telephone exchange service and access but are not under the jurisdiction of a state commission as eligible for universal service subsidies. The bill corrects an oversight made in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which unintentionally prevented telephone companies owned by Indian tribes and cooperative associations from receiving subsidies for offering service in remote areas while extending those subsidies to companies regulated by state commissions. -- On November 9, the Senate also passed S. 156, a bill to provide certain benefits of the Pick-Sloan Missouri River Basin program to the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe. -- On November 7, the Senate passed S. 1079, legislation which would permit the leasing of mineral rights within the Fort Berthold Reservation in cases where a mineral lease or agreement has been agreed to by a majority of the owners of the undivided interest to that Indian land. -- On November 5, Representatives Knollenberg (R-MI) and Barcia (D- MI)introduced H.R. 2822, a bill to reaffirm and clarify federal recognition of the Swan Creek Black River Confederated Ojibwa Tribes as a distinct federally recognized Indian tribe. The bill was referred to the House Resources Committee. -- On the same day, the Senate approved S. 714, legislation which reauthorizes the Native American Veteran Housing Loan Pilot Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which provides direct home loans to assist Native American veterans who reside on trust lands, through FY 2003. The bill also directs the VA to conduct more thorough outreach to tribal organizations and Native American veterans. -- On November 4, the Senate passed H.R. 79, a bill which conveys more than 2,600 acres which are currently part of the Six Rivers National Forest to the Hoopa Valley Tribe. -- Also on November 4, the House passed H.R. 1604, legislation to provide for the division, use and distribution of judgment funds for the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan, under suspension of the rules. -- On the same day, the House considered H.R. 948, legislation to reaffirm federal recognition of the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians as an Indian tribe, and provide for federal services and benefits to the Band. Representative Shays (R-CT) stated opposition to the bill on the grounds that it would confirm recognition through the legislative process, rather than allowing the Bureau of Indian Affairs to complete its review of the Burt Lake Band's petition for recognition through the administration process. He asked for a roll call vote on the bill, which was 240 to 167. Because the bill was considered under suspension of the rules and the bill did not receive a two-thirds majority vote, the bill did not pass. -- Also on November 4, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee marked up H. R. 976, a bill to provide for the disposition of certain funds appropriated to pay judgment in favor of the Mississippi Sioux Indians. The Committee approved an amendment in the nature of a substitute bill, offered by Senator Dorgan (D-ND). The Department of Interior and the Department of Justice, as well as representatives for lineal descendants who would receive funds under the distribution, have raised concerns about the substitute bill. -- On the same day, Representative Young introduced H.R. 2812, a bill to provide for the recognition of five Native communities in Southeast Alaska under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA). The communities of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell were not recognized in ANCSA and therefore have not been able to form and enroll in Native corporations, which could then receive land or compensation for the settlement of their aboriginal land claims. The bill was referred to the Resources Committee. --------- "RE: Supreme Court Cases" --------- Date: Thu, 13 Nov 1997 19:22:20 -0500 From: Julia Ann Easley Subj: Supreme Court cases UUCP email Contact: Julia Ann Easley Director of Media Relations (802) 763-8303 ext. 2309 Attorneys in four cases before Supreme Court to speak at VLS South Royalton, Vt., (Nov. 14) Attorneys involved in four cases before the U.S. Supreme Court this term will participate in a panel discussion at Vermont Law School on Friday, Nov. 21. The event, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 3:30 p.m. in the Chase Community Center on campus. The participating attorneys will be: United States v. Ramirez Michael R. Levine, an assistant federal public defender in Portland, Ore., will argue for Hernan Ramirez before the Supreme Court. State of Alaska v. Native Village of Venetie Burt Hursh represents the Tanana Chiefs Conference. Yankton Sioux Tribe v. State of South Dakota James Abourezk of Abourezk Law Offices in Sioux Falls, S.D., was a senator from 1973 to 1979. Miller v. Albright Donald Ross Patterson, who has a private practice in Tyler, Texas, argued on behalf of Lorelyn Miller, the petitioner, on Nov. 4. Belinda Sifford, assistant director of the legal writing program at VLS, says the cases were selected for their legal significance and for their teaching value. Ramirez involves the pre-dawn search of a home by 45 officers looking for an escaped fugitive. At issue is the constitutionality of the unannounced search, which was executed with a warrant and by shattering a garage window. Venetie deals with fundamental notions of Native American sovereignty. The native village of Venetie wants to tax a construction company building a school in its village; tribes in the lower 48 states have the ability to tax business activity on their lands. However, the State of Alaska argues that if Venetie and other tribes have this power, the resulting checker board of taxes would hinder the economic development of Native Alaskans and the state itself. Yankton centers on whether the Yankton Sioux reservation, created by an 1858 treaty, was diminished or disestablished by a subsequent agreement and act of Congress. The present dispute arose when the Yankton Sioux tribe asserted that federal Environmental Protection Agency standards for landfill liners should govern construction of a proposed landfill on land within the 1858 reservation borders but now owned by a non-Indian. Miller, argued Nov. 4, challenges the Supreme Court to consider whether immigration and naturalization law warrants special treatment under the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution when suspect classifications of gender and illegitimacy are at issue. Lorelyn Miller, whose mother was Filipino, was reunited with her U.S. father through discovered letters and sought citizenship. At 21, however, she had just passed the maximum age allowed for illegitimate children of U.S. citizen fathers to be granted citizenship. Were her mother the U.S. citizen, Miller herself would be a citizen today. The panelists will comment on both the cases and the nature of appellate advocacy before the Supreme Court. Following the panel presentation, the attorneys will meet with students in four less structured sessions focusing on the individual cases. For the 160 second-year students, the panel discussion will be a highlight of this semester's Appellate Advocacy course. For each case, forty students have prepared briefs and, over an 11-day period ending Nov. 19, presented oral arguments before panels of judges. The students with the top arguments and briefs are invited to participate in a national moot court competition; a student's oral argument and brief count for most of the course grade. All students have the opportunity to go to D.C. to hear the three remaining cases argued on Dec. 8 and 10, and Jan. 13. --------- "RE: Wolverine Visitors" --------- Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 09:09:33 -0500 (EST) From: SISIS@envirolink.org (S.I.S.I.S.) Subj: Follow up item from Eva Lyman re Wolverine :-:-:-:-:-:-:-Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty-:-:-:-:-:-:-: [S.I.S.I.S. note: Eva Lyman asked us to post this on her behalf.] RE: MAILOUT REGARDING VISITING WOLVERINE While speaking with a well known local elder regarding the above, it was brought to my attention that the wording of my note about visiting Wolverine might have given the impression his friends were not making an effort to visit him. This was not intended. I know that some of those closest to him locally were not able to get past the bureaucracy and those creaking iron gates. I was hoping to encourage those, who were local, but maybe more of the outer circle, or friends who live out of town, and without guidelines might find it difficult to know what procedures have to be followed, and how to find the correctional facility. No slight of any one was intended! If my wording left a different impression, I apologize. I have visited Wolverine again today, and he reported that they are able to hold sweats, and other spiritual practices, and are working on carving masks, and a totem. He seems to be holding up well. He has signed the papers for the appeal. One other small correction: the name of the road you exit on is McCallum, not McLennan. The exit number I gave was correct. I hope this clarifies my position. Sincerely, Eva Lyman :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: S.I.S.I.S. Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty P.O. Box 8673, Victoria, "B.C." "Canada" V8X 3S2 --------- "RE: Native Prisoner" --------- Date: Thu, 20 Nov 97 08:00 -0500 From: Janet Smith (evestar@juno.com) Subj: Contacting those in the Ironhouse UUCP email I encourage correspondents to be cautious when corresponding with anyone in prison. Especially be aware that some things we take for granted as a part of our ceremonies are very much contraband in the prison system. Always ask what is permitted before you send anything. In most prisons, the chaplain can be a conduit for ceremonial items a prisoner cannot receive directly. --------------------------------------------------------------------- From Laura Brook's Pen Pal website: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/9118 James, Charles P Johnson, Chad A. #284-382 #288-594 PO Box 1812 PO Box 7010 Marion, OH 43301 Chillicothe, OH 45601 Date of Birth: 3/4/55 Date of Birth: 11/6/74 Ancestry: Lakota/Cherokee Ancestry: Cherokee Jett, Alan Lee Jones, Richard Oscar #143-205 #283-994 PO Box 511 PO Box 511 Columbus, OH 43216 Columbus, OH 43216 Date of Birth: 8/1/50 Date of Birth: 7/11/64 Ancestry: Cherokee Ancestry: Cherokee Joan, Robert Richard Kendall, Kelly Eugene #194-728 #279-849 PO Box 5500 PO Box 5500 Chillicothe, OH 45601 Chillicothe, OH 45601 Date of Birth: 1/30/55 Date of Birth: 2/9/61 Ancestry: Seneca Kneedler, Jim Ray 2294 Slagle Rd Leesville, LA 71446 --------------------------------------------------------------------- From Free the Wolverine Campaign: Wolverine (William Jones Ignace) "OJ" Pitawanakwat Political Prisoner Political Prisoner Box 4000 Box 4000 Abbotsford, BC Abbotsford, BC V2S 5X8 V2S 5X8 For more information, please contact the Free the Wolverine Campaign: Box 13-2147 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5N 4B3 Spokespeople: Splitting the Sky - Phone/Fax: (604) 543-9661 Bill Lightbown - Phone: (604) 251-4949 or see the SISIS pages at http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/gustmain.html Also we have a listing of native political prisoners around the world, at http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/links/POW.html --------------------------------- Please especially remember - this is the "Year of Leonard". Leonard Peltier #89637-132, Box 1000, Leavenworth, KS 66048 Both Laura and I would greatly appreciate knowing about any other Native inmate needing contact. Please send correspondence to ev