From gars@netcom.com Tue Dec 9 23:14:10 1997 Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 19:56:27 -0800 (PST) From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews05.050 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' O ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ O o O / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' O o O / /-< / /--/ /-- VOLUME 05, ISSUE 050 O o o o o O __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 13 December 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 AISESnet, NAT-FILM, a-Paths-L & FoL-L lists; Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty; NASC News; UUCP email; Newsgroups:alt.native,soc.culture.native http://www.azcentral.com/news/1208paiutes.shtml 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. "Everything is a gift. I think the word 'gift' is a very, very important word. Our children, our food, our daily lives, eyesight,hearing -- everything you can think of. Our Hair. It just goes on and on. We receive these gifts from Creator." __ Horace Axtell, Nez Perce +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Indian Pledge of Allegiance | The Indian Pledge of Alleg- | | iance was first presented | I pledge allegiance to my Tribe,| on 2 December '93 during the | to the democratic principles | opening address of the Nat- | of the Republic | ional Congress of American | and to the individual freedoms | Indian Tribal-States Relat- | borrowed from the Iroquois and | ions Panel in Reno, NV. NCAI | Choctaw Confederacies, | plans distribution of the | as incorporated in the United | Indian Pledge to all Indian | States Constitution, | Nations. | so that my forefathers | | shall not have died in vain | Walk in Beauty! Night Owl +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ O'siyo Brothers and Sisters! I am sickened by the first article in this issue. Bear Lincoln won his freedom in the courts of the United States. If he were not a Round Valley Indian that would have been the end of it. The District Attorney can argue this does not constitute double jeopardy all she wants, but the fact is she is trying Bear again on a different charge out of either racist motivations or self-serving political aspirations. Neither belong in a courtroom. =/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\= In response to a question regarding the spelling of Kanesatake Frosty Deere gave the following answer that was so full of obvious truth I believe it must be shared: Date: Mon, 08 Dec 1997 13:55:13 GMT From: frosty@frostys.qc.ca Newsgroup: alt.native Subj: Correct spelling The correct spelling is Kanesatake. Which brings up a question. Has anyone noticed that as natives we are required to say and spell names of locations and people around us? On the other hand those living next door to us after 500 years can not [do the same]. In fact, most can not even name more than about five native nations living in America. I asked some people living in New York, where do the Cree live, where do the Mohawks live, and what are the Six Nations. For the six nations I was given, " NATO". I have not found that those living next to Kahanwake for over 25 years, cannot pronounce the name and yet they claim to know us or want to know us. I can spell and pronounce their cities' names, but it is rare to find one that can [spell or pronounce names] of ours. What does this mean ? To me it means they really have no interest in learning about those of us that live next door. To them we are just people, and they would like us to get lost so the can just use and rape the land of its resources. Sken:nen =/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\= 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. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I send thanks for those who continue to help. I send thanks for the new contacts that have been sent this past week! There is also an urgent appeal for a driver to take a load. Please respond directly to Sun if you can help deliver this gift. Date: Sat, 6 Dec 1997 13:43:17 -0500 (EST) From: ALBERT SUN BUTLER Subj: Re: NACSN TOY & CLOTHES DRIVE Si yo Gary, Can you get a short appeal in the Res Relief feature for us. Thanks. We built a pretty sweat 2 weeks ago - In the middle of 10 acres hardwood west of Chapel Hill. I will be moving over here in April. Did I mention I am getting married? Mi Takueye Oyasin Sun WE NEED A DRIVER! The Native American Community Support Network located in Raleigh NC has 2000 lb. of toys computers and clothes that need to get to Pine Ridge SD by early January 98. We need a driver w/ truck and hitch or willing to drive rental truck, and share some expenses. Shipment bound for Ti Ospaye, a non-profit educational and relief organization located near Wanblee SD. Contact Sun Butler at (919)737-8478(lv. msg.) or abutler@ncsu.edu --------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 03 Dec 97 17:54:49 PST From: "g hindsman" Subj: Help for Families on Rez Here is another organization which you might want to post - Morning Star Fellowship Circle, Inc. has been delivering clothing, toys, etc. to various reservations for 3 years as an organization, but the individual members who do it now for Morning Star have been doing this for 7 years. They started with 10 families and this year they have 40 already for the December delivery and the number grows each day. All of the donations are sorted and packed for each family according to size, sex etc. This year we are in particular need of blankets, space heaters, fans and linens (towels and sheets). We have many toys and clothing of all sizes but good winter coats are always useful. We are registered as a private non profit, so receipts can be given for donations. We can always use money donations. We deliver in December, June and in August. We also do mail deliveries occasionally. Over the years, we have made many friends at Pine Ridge, Rosebud, the Crow Agency and others. We try to help with special requests when we can. Morning Star has also been a home away from home for students and elders who are temporarily on the East Coast. Our headquarters are located in Delaware but we have other circles in Virginia, New York, West Virginia, Maryland and soon in Florida. For information about Morning Star you can call or write our Outreach Coordinator at: Morning Star Fellowship Circle, Inc. 321 Beverly Place Wilmington, DE 19809 Phone: 302-764-1178 EMail - candy crow@aol.com I hope you post this message - Mitakuye Oyasin Georgie Walks With Horses Hindsman -------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 6 Dec 1997 16:29:13 -0500 (EST) From: leslie@neca.com Subj: list of organizations UUCP email Hi Gary, Wanted to add to your list: Pathways to Spirit in Fort Collins Colorado, Carmeen Klausner, 970 282 8573, email pathways@webaccess.net This group is non profit and takes tractor trailer loads of clothes and furniture to Pind Ridge several times each year. They are there now unloading two trucks.... Thanks Leslie --------------------------------------------- ============================================= For additional information or to make donations contact: 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. Another contact is 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. Liam Paterson 1434 Creek Road Manheim, PA 17545 717-665-2727 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 Supporting the elders through personal contact: 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 For the Cherokee, NC Rez and South FL (Now taking one load/week): From: "lonewolf" Lone Wolf -or- Bob and Linda Crowe 1060 N. Bee St. 2800 West Highway 5 Deland, Fl 32720 Bowden, GA 30108 From BIGMTLIST The Dineh could use some blankets to help with the cold winters. Bonnie Whitesinger Box 1073 Hotevilla, AZ 86030 Since UPS doesn't deliver to PO boxes, you would have to use parcel post. From: The Stones 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. 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 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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. I am especially concerned about the lack of contacts for the Montana Rez's. 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 ---------- - Bear Lincoln to be Retried - Nat'l Aboriginal Veterans - Peltier Action Appeal/USA - Zapatistas Need Your Support - Peltier Action Appeal/Canada - Paiutes Could Get Own Land - Stop TVA Land Sale - On Assimilation - Nevada Gold Mining - Sharing Frybread Recipe - Plymouth Assault/UAINE Statement - Trail of Tears Center Funded - Human Rights Are Universal - Native Prisoner - Thanksgiving in Plymouth - A Hundred Years Ago - Live Munitions Litter Restored Land - Teachings of Tecumseh - Day 22/Friends of Lubicon Trial - Poem: Attitude - Legislators Want Tribal Accounting - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - Buffalo Nations Update - Conferences and Powwows --------- "RE: Bear Lincoln to be Retried" --------- Date: Sat, 06 Dec 1997 13:32:47 -0800 From: Nicholas Wilson Subj: Bear Lincoln to be Retried UUCP email BEAR LINCOLN TO BE RETRIED by Nicholas Wilson (nwilson@mcn.org) for the Albion Monitor (http://www.monitor.net/monitor) 12/5/97 UKIAH, CA -- A stunned courtroom audience of Bear Lincoln's family and supporters heard Mendocino D.A. Susan Massini announce this afternoon that she will try Eugene "Bear" Lincoln a second time, this time on manslaughter charges. Jury selection for the new trial is set for February 23, with the next court hearing scheduled for January 2nd. Representing Lincoln was Philip DeJong, who said afterward that Tony Serra would again lead the defense team. Serra was not present in court today, however his associate and co-counsel Dianna Samuelson and other Serra associates were there. The manslaughter charges stem from the April 14, 1995 shooting death of deputy sheriff Bob Davis on the Round Valley Indian Reservation near Covelo. Lincoln, a Wailaki, was acquitted of first and second degree murder September 23 after a two month long trial in which the death penalty was sought. He can be tried again because the jury hung on the lesser included charges of voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter. Massini also asked Judge John J. Golden for a gag order, saying Lincoln's lawyers had been talking all over the county about the case since the previous gag order was lifted. Massini said that the California bar association code of ethics prohibits lawyers from making inflammatory and prejudicial statements to the public, but, she said, this was apparently not enough to restrain Lincoln's attorneys. Many observers found it extremely ironic that Massini should ask for a new gag order since she was the only one found guilty of violating the old one. Visiting Judge Carlos Baker slapped Massini with a $500 fine and five days jail time for contempt of court, but suspended the sentence provided she did not violate the order again before the trial was over. Apparently unknown to Baker the trial had ended some two weeks before his decision and sentencing. It was not clear whether the suspended sentence would extend to any new gag order in the case. DeJong opposed any new gag order on First Amendment grounds, arguing that "the purpose of gag orders generally is to protect the rights of the defendant, not to allow the prosecution to prevent the defendant from commenting." He said the Lincoln case had received "massive publicity on an unprecedented scale already, a great big ocean of publicity, and it's too late to stick our fingers in the dike here. This has nothing to do with a fair trial. There's an election campaign starting in March, and that's probably the real motivation." Judge Golden said he was inclined to impose a gag order immediately, but would consider DeJong's objections and make his decision later in the afternoon. Massini opposed using a written jury questionnaire for preliminary screening, as was done in the first trial, saying that manslaughter is not a death penalty offense, and jury should be selected the same way they are for any other offense. DeJong countered that a questionnaire was needed in order to help weed out jurors with racial bias against Native Americans as well as to help determine to what extent they were familiar with details of the case. He also argued that both sides had stipulated last spring to certain procedures for jury selection and that those agreements are still binding. Judge Golden said he will take up the matter at the next hearing January 2, when he will also likely hear a defense motion challenging the retrial. Today's hearing lasted nearly an hour, and was held in a cramped courtroom with only two rows of spectator seats. Folding chairs had been brought in, however, and nearly 50 people squeezed in. The spectators included Sheriff James Tuso, who had complained loud and long that the acquittal of Lincoln was "a tragic miscarriage of justice." He was smiling as the court session ended. After court Massini gave this statement to Bruce Haldane of radio station KZYX: "After considering the evidence and talking to many, many, many people including jurors and witnesses and countless people, and having a great deal of time to think and evaluate, I believe this is the right decision and I'm going to go forward with it." She gave no details of her reasons for the decision to retry Lincoln despite the lopsided 10-2 jury vote favoring acquittal, and despite being told by jurors that they found no credible evidence that Lincoln had committed any crime whatsoever, and that he had acted in self-defense. She left the courthouse quickly after the hearing concluded, and was not available for further comment. DeJong told Haldane that "People here have a really good sense of what's right and what's wrong. I'm real proud to live here and I'm real proud of the last jury we had. I think they did a wonderful job. I'm sure we can find twelve people next time who will put their minds and their hearts into doing the right thing." Just outside the courtroom DeJong said he expected an acquittal if the case goes to trial, but he dropped a hint by saying that the defense would be filing some motions, and the retrial was not a certainty. He said he was surprised by today's decision and "Frankly I haven't thought much beyond today." Lincoln remains free on $50,000 bail, as he has been since September 23, the day he was acquitted of the murder charges. He had been in jail over two years since turning himself in to authorities at Serra's San Francisco waterfront office August 16, 1995. After today's hearing Lincoln said since they are going to put him through another trial he hopes to use the opportunity to bring out more evidence to expose law enforcement wrongdoing. He's confident that he will be acquitted if given a fair trial, but he doubts an unbiased jury can be found in Mendocino County after all the publicity. "It's a big, sad story that needs to come to an end," he said. Lincoln was on his way to San Francisco where he was scheduled to speak at a major rally in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal the next day. FORMER JURORS AND LINCOLN SUPPORTERS COMMENT Among those in the courtroom expecting Mendocino County to drop the manslaughter charges were three of the jurors who overwhelmingly acquitted Lincoln of murder charges. Just last month, representatives from the jurors met with Massini to present her with petitions containing 1,024 signatures opposing retrial. Jury foreperson Eileen Urich and juror Dorene Burdick, along with Round Valley Indians for Justice leader Cora Lee Simmons, spent over 90 minutes discussing the case and the urgent need to correct law enforcement problems in Round Valley. Massini told the three that she had already made her decision, but didn't reveal it. After today's court session Urich said, "I think this is so stupid! It's just a waste of the taxpayers' money. If they don't have any more evidence than what they had to begin with, there's nothing to try. I am furious!" Simmons was equally outraged: "I think it stinks, but that's okay, because we're going to win this time, and that's going to open the door to let those killers who actually killed Bob Davis and Leonard Peters answer for what they did, and that's the deputies. That's Miller, and I want to include (deputy Sgt.) Allman and (Sheriff) Tuso for vicarious liability." (Vicarious liability is the legal theory by which Lincoln was charged with murder for the death of his friend Peters on the theory that Lincoln provoked the fatal shooting by the deputies.) Simmons said she was surprised by Massini's decision, because she had said things during the meeting which seemed to signal she would not retry Lincoln. Karen Pickett, sister to Leonard Peters' widow Cyndi Pickett, said she too was surprised. She had a lot to say about the decision: "There's so much dishonesty, corruption, and incompetence in the Mendocino County Sheriff's Department that came out during the trial. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Why would she set herself up for more, especially in an election year. But we know that when a cop dies, the feeling in police departments is that somebody's got to pay. We know she's been under tremendous pressure from the sheriff's department, and I think that it's because of the pressure that she's come out with this decision. And that's not a wise decision because it's not based on a belief that she can win this case. I don't think she believes she can win this case, unless she feels that people are at enough of a disadvantage because of her friends at the Press Democrat. Maybe she feels she can use that propaganda and people's inherent racism to get a jury that would convict him. "We've seen that a conservative jury can see the truth. It was really amazing that Massini could hear the message loud and clear from the jurors, not from the activists, not from the Round Valley community, not from the defense team, but from a conservative, death penalty qualified jury that she should not try to go ahead with this case because it would cost Mendocino County not just money, but it would cost it in many ways. It's amazing that she got that directly from the jurors and still decided to go ahead. That's what I find most surprising." Former juror Dorene Burdick said she was not surprised but offended by Massini's decision. "I just hoped that they had the perception to realize that there was no case here and not to retry it. I realize now it isn't really about the facts, it's about political ambitions in her case, I guess. Having seen the facts, there is no cause to go through this expensive rigamarole. There has to be another reason than the evidence that they have. So then you start figuring it out just like in the trial, and you say hey, how come? Where's this? Where's that? Why did they do it that way? Why did he change his story? Well it's because they're working it together, and they have a certain outcome in mind, and it's not going to deviate from that as long as they have the power to work it their way. It's not going by the law anymore; it's going by their agenda. But if they really want to keep it going it's going to be ugly for them. It's a real unwise move, I think, even if all you care about is political office or ambition. They don't care about the taxpayers' money. That's what it means to me. The way it's being handled is they're not interested in justice, not interested in what the people have to say, just working it the way they have it planned out. They're going to get the result they want one way or another. They're overlooking the evidence and the people, and those are big things in the legal system, I think. Unless we're in a different country now." Asked about perceptions about the case, Burdick said many people who have talked to her expressed surprise at the jury's acquittal of Lincoln on the murder charges. "They've said what they probably read in the Press Democrat. I finally figured out who Mike Geniella was in the courtroom today. He got up the minute it was over and went over and buddied up with Tuso in the corner, smiling and shaking hands, and stayed there, not talking to anyone else. People have obviously read the Press Democrat because they don't know the facts. They say things like, 'Okay, so they couldn't prove him guilty; that doesn't mean he didn't do it. I understand you guys had to find him not guilty, but I'm still not convinced that he didn't shoot the guy. He was up there and had a gun; why couldn't he have aimed at the guy and shot him?' And I said, okay, here's why. Here's what we know. Here's why that doesn't make sense, plus the evidence doesn't point to that. Then they go, 'Well then there's someone out there who shot him.' Yeah, deputy Miller. You know, it's a tragedy, it was a mistake, it was an accident, and they go, 'Oh, okay. I guess I didn't know that much about it.' They really are not aware of the facts. It's self-defense, and there's no way they're going to prove anything else by the evidence we saw unless they get people on the jury who are biased, people who have opinions like people I've talked to. When you think about the position of everything (at the shooting scene), the lack of evidence, and the blood trail that there's no explanation for, there's nothing that points to his guilt. So fine, if they want to retry it it's just going to be a big fight. It'll probably be worse than the first trial." ____________________ A complete archive and background of the case is available on the Albion Monitor website (See below for URL) *********************************************************** * U.S. Mail to: * * Nicholas Wilson * * P.O. Box 943 * * Mendocino CA 95460 * * Albion Monitor online newspaper covers Bari and Lincoln * * http://www.monitor.net/monitor * * Official Judi Bari Home Page * * http://www.monitor.net/~bari * * Bear Lincoln/Round Valley web sites: * * http://208.147.33.2:80/omar/index.html * * http://www.planet-peace.org/round_valley/ * * http://www.dickshovel.com/beara.html * * http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/emerg/may08bea.html * *********************************************************** --------- "RE: Peltier Action Appeal/USA" --------- Date: Sun, 07 Dec 1997 20:48:41 -0400 From: mail@netrover.com (justanoldman) Subj: Urgent re Leonard (USA) Newsgroup: alt.native Been lurking here awhile, know some from yrs on Frosty's IG-bbs where I was John Walter (Kwe-kwe Frosty, Sondra, etc.) & don't want to know some others. Here's something for Leonard... please ACT on it! next post for Leonard's relations & supporters in Canada... nia:wen kowa If you want to do more than flap your lips about the fact that Leonard Peltier is still sitting in Leavenworth Penitentiary, 21 years and counting since his conviction for crimes he did not commit, if "all my relations" is what you really believe, not just what you say..., then read on. Other readers & non-relations can go back to discussing how many grandfathers can fit on the head of a pin... The US Senate Indian Affairs Committee is reported to be considering asking for Judicial hearings on Leonard's case. This follows 21 years of requests for action to Senate & Congressional offices. The Senate Judicial Committee, which has the authority to approve & schedule, or to deny the request from the Indian Affairs Committee, is reportedly willing to schedule such hearings "... sometime next session," which could mean anytime during 1998. *IF* the Senate heard enough interest in the case coming from Congress, that could speed up their decision & hearings. Regardless the volume of email, calls & faxes the President receives, if other politicians don't hear from their constituents (and they are NOT hearing much, people) they won't recognize the importance of this issue (after all, what do most US politicians care about one innocent person rotting in prison, especially an Indian?) so they will not take the kind of action Clinton still needs to hear to get off his butt & grant Leonard the Executive Clemency that will free him. Calls to US Congressmen & Senators are needed on a SUSTAINED basis & there is now a phone number for those who find it "too difficult" to find ways to reach their representative in the Senate & Congress. If you live in the USA, call 1-888-723-5246. Ask for the Congressman/woman or Senator that supposedly serves you. Once you are put through to the right office, tell them that you (& your vote) demand justice for Leonard NOW! (Then call again. And again. And again.). If you want to really be effective follow up your call with a fax. That usually costs LESS than a stamp. Ask the receptionist for the correct fax number. For those that need a calling script, try something along these lines once your call is fed to the right office: "Who in your office handles issues related to human rights, justice, or judiciary/civil rights?" (Get a name. Write it down & refer to that person on all future calls &/or correspondence.) "May I speak to that person please?" (Since such species are usually busy trying to look busy ask to speak to someone else, such as the Important Person's Executive/Administrative Assistant, or you'll probably have to call back. Ask for a specific time when that person will be available & then FOLLOW UP!) Get beyond the receptionist. Make someone accountable to you, their constituent. When you get through state that... "I'd like ___________ (name of Congressman/woman or Senator) to write a letter of support for the commutation of the sentence of Leonard Peltier, or at least in support of holding hearings into his case EARLY next session. Please send me a copy of that letter" (give your correct address). If they hedge tell them why you want your representative to act, & if they refuse ask for their refusal in writing, including reasons why they won't write that letter of support. If they say that they are not familiar with Leonard's case, volunteer to send them information & articles, then call or otherwise contact the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. They send the info. Give the Senator/Congressperson reasonable time to receive it & read it & then CALL BACK & try again! Get word of the results of your efforts back to the LPDC so that they can follow up on your efforts by pushing to make sure you get the letter you asked for, answering questions or overcoming their specific objections. Such effort may take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour of your time, but keep in mind that Leonard has given (so far) over twenty-one (21) YEARS to The Struggle. mitakuye oyasin... for all our relations... --------- "RE: Peltier Action Appeal/Canada" --------- Date: Sun, 07 Dec 1997 20:56:24 -0400 From: mail@netrover.com (justanoldman) Subj: Leonard Peltier (Canada) Newsgroup: alt.native been lurking here awhile... know some of you from yrs on Frosty's IG-bbs (Kwe-kwe Frosty, Sondra, etc.) some folks on here I don't care to know. Please act on this for Leonard. Separate post for his relations & supporters in USA masi:cho I was encouraged to hear that the Kongress & Senate of Amerika have been dragged to review the case of Leonard Peltier, (kicking & screaming all the way) by the 30-million-plus signatures that have been demanding justice for Leonard since his incarceration in 1976. I request that you ensure this msg is forwarded to the LPDC-SG's in Canada especially, as there is a Canadian connection to Leonard's case that they can help with, and their action now, right here in Canada may put more pressure on efforts to free Leonard in the states. As those familiar with the thoroughly-documented story of the framing of Leonard Peltier by the rabid dogs of the FBI know, Leonard was arrested in Canada and extradited to the USA by way of totally falsified affidavits submitted to Canadian authorities by the COINTELPRO scum. The then-Minister of Justice in Canada, who signed his extradition papers, was the Honourable Warren Allmand. Shortly after Leonard was extradited, Allmand was given the evidence of the slimy duplicity of the govt of the USA, and he has fought hard to have the government of Canada lay a formal diplomatic protest on the Amerikan government ever since. Once such a formal protest is made, the extradition treaty between the two states would leave the govt of the USA no option but to immediately release Leonard and return him to Canada. Due to pressure on the Canadian govt by their masters in Washington, Allmand's efforts achieved modest success only in 1995, when he convinced 54 fellow-Members of Parliament (MP's from all parties) to join him in filing an Amicus Brief to the Amerikan court of appeal that was Leonard's last hope of judicial release. Although the appeal was denied on juristic technicalities, the unprecedented filing of a brief by 55 members of a foreign govt in an internal USA court case caused such a ruckus in Canada that the Minister of Justice at the time, the Honourable Alan Rock (now Minister of Health) was forced to respond to the cries of outrage at Canada's shameful silence during the interceding 20-plus years of Leonard's illegal imprisonment. In June of 1995 Rock sought to placate the growing criticism by announcing that his Ministry of Justice would conduct an internal review of Leonard's extradition to the police-state south of our border. That internal review has long-since been completed, but the global gestapo in Washington that pulls the strings of our puppet-regime here in Canada has put enough pressure on the spineless Canadian legislators-in-power to keep the results of that internal review from being released to the public that paid for it. The new Justice Minister in Canada, the Honourable Anne McLellan, refuses to make any comment on the case. The ruling Liberal party is opposed by no less than four opposition parties in Canada's House of Commons; the old Progressive Conservatives (all sons-of-Newt), the Reform Party (all sons-of-bitches who think Newt is too far left), the Bloc Quebecois (who care about nothing and know even less about anything outside their own petty provincial backwater), and the always-game-but-never-numerous socialists of the New Democratic Party. The House Justice Critic for the NDP is a novice MP, the Honourable Peter Mancini. He has courageously undertaken to lift the lid of secrecy the Liberals have slammed on the report on the internal review of Leonard's extradition. (Warren Allmand is no longer a Member of parliament). If the gutless present Minister of Justice is forced to make that report public it would lead to the Canadian govt being forced to lay that formal diplomatic protest on the govt of Amerika, and with the news of the possibility of a judicial review of Leonard's case during the next session of the US Kongress, it may be the final straw for the dogs that are keeping Leonard locked up. They may decide to grant him clemency just to keep the lid on their can of worms (a.k.a. the FBI). I therefore urge all Canadians to put the pressure on Canada's Minister of Justice to release the report of the internal review of Leonard Peltier's extradition to the Canadian public. Call and write to your local MP, start and send petitions, demanding the public release of the report of that internal review to: The Honourable Anne McLellan Minister of Justice The House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6 Make sure to send copies of your letter and/or petitions to: The Honourable Peter Mancini Member of Parliament The House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6 Leonard Peltier is 100% innocent of the crime of murder. The whole world knows it. Even the Amerikan prosecutors in his case have freely admitted in courts of appeal that, "... we don't know who shot those agents..." yet Leonard is still in Leavenworth, because "... those Indians have to pay..." Support real justice, not "just-us". Call, fax and write to your MP and to the Minister of Justice. Demand the release of the findings of that 1995 internal review of Leonard Peltier's extradition to the public that paid for it. Quit just thinking about doing it, quit just talking about doing it... DO IT!! NOW!!! Thank you, In The Spirit of Tecumseh. --------- "RE: Stop TVA Land Sale" --------- Date: Mon, 08 Dec 1997 10:57:08 CST From: David Rider Subj: Petition/Help UUCP email I received a petition this Saturday that opposes the sale by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) of land to a private corporation that plans to develop this public land with a condominium and golf course. Some of you may recall the protest/demonstration some of us attended in eastern TN this September. This land is adjacent to Running Water, the last Cherokee town in that part of Tennessee, which was burned by white 'settlers'. Cherokee leader Dragging Canoe died there in 1792. Many Indians and nonIndians alike oppose sale and development of this land because it is the final resting place of hundreds if not thousands of Cherokee people. The graves are unmarked, though (the good white 'settlers' saw no need to mark the place where they killed Indians), and Tennessee politicos and the TVA see no need to preserve the area because of the burial sites. This land also contains what I am confident is an ancient ceremonial mound, a mound that was missed by the TVA and their hired archaeologists. The Chattanooga InterTribal Association is seeking support from wherever they can get it. This is a local issue as far as the Tennessee politicians are concerned, but CITA representatives have told me that signatures from non-Tennessee folks may help, and certainly cannot hurt. Perhaps we can tell the Tennessee people that, while the world turned its back on what those 'settlers' did to the Cherokee People way back then, the world is watching what they are doing to them now. If you would like a copy of this petition, and you will sign it and get as many others to sign as you can, and then return it to CITA (I'll include the address), please drop me an e-mail and I'll get it to you ASAP. dave --------- "RE: Nevada Gold Mining" --------- Date: Wed, 3 Dec 1997 06:35:58 -0800 (PST) From: Larry Kibbey Subj: Nevada Gold Mining Mailing List: a-Paths-L Recently, Karen L. Testerman did a story related to the Gold Mining Operations on-going in Nevada, in which such mining operations are in fact having a serious and dangerous impact on the Cultural and Natural Resources, especially within the Traditional Boundaries of the Western Shoshone Indians of Nevada. Article V of the Ruby Valley Treaty of 1863 describes those Traditional Boundaries of the Western Shoshone to encompass on the North by Wong-googa-da Mountains and Shoshone River Valley; on the West by Su-non-to-yah Mountains or Smith Creek Mountains; on the South by Wi- co-bah and the Colorado Desert; on the East by Po-ho-no-be Valley or Steptoe Valley and the Great Salt Lake Valley. Gold Mining in these area's are producing environmental risk to the land, wildlife, cultural and natural resources at a rapid rate, and such are the risk, that reclamation will take thousands of year to repair, if any repair is ever possible. Figures estimate that last year Nevada produced 70% of the gold in the U.S.; price per ounce in 1996 - $384 for a total of 2.7 billion from Nevada alone, and the bulk coming from with the Traditional Boundaries of the Western Shoshone, where currently 14 Gold Mining Companies are under operation. Mary and Carrie Dann(Western Shoshone Activist/Elder's) have long voiced their concerns and interest surrounding the Ruby Valley Treaty of 1863, of how no land was ever ceded to the government, and how such federal agencies as the BLM and Forest service continue to install bias and illegal rules and regulations in order to over-ride cultural concerns of the Western Shoshone, and how land is being given away by both BLM and the Forest Service to these Gold Mining Companies, without the consent of the Western Shoshone. Over 24 million acres make up the Traditional lands of the Western Shoshone, land illegally confiscated by the U.S. Government. Land that is currently facing serious problems from, dewatering; water contamination; destruction of wildlife and habitat; and massive destruction to cultural area's. The Non-Indian has only been in Northeastern Nevada 147 years, and the Ruby Valley Treaty of 1863 is but a 134 years old, a Treaty that has never been given any serious manner of due respect or justice, by the U.S. Government. Wildlife Habitat, Cultural Resources, Natural Resources, all need to be protected, but most of all, sincere and serious direction must be arrived at to stop this massive on-going destruction by the Gold Mining Companies, whom are assisted in their operations by BLM, U.S. Forest Service, Archaeologist and Anthropologist(Federally Employed). If you, as a concerned individual, would like to see Wildlife Habitat, the Cultural and Natural Resources, within the Traditional Boundaries of the Western Shoshone preserved and protected, then please, let your voice be heard. Let the Government know of your concerns and interest by writing a letter to President Clinton at: president@whitehouse.gov or Write to: Elko field Office Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest Bureau of Land Management Attn: Scott Bell Attn: Helen Hankins 2035 Last Chance Road 3900 E. Idaho St. Elko, Nevada 89801 Elko, Nevada 89801-4611 Your voice can make a difference. Help stop the on-going destruction to the environment by the Gold Mining Companies in Indian Country!! Writing a letter is not time consuming and it is worth while to help preserve and protect the Cultural and Natural Resources. ------------------------------------------------------ <> Larry Kibby kibbey@sierra.net <> <> http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7027 <> <> Elko Indian Colony, Elko, Nevada <> ------------------------------------------------------ --------- "RE: Plymouth Assault/UAINE Statement" --------- Date: Tue, 02 Dec 1997 15:38:41 -0500 From: United American Indians of New England Subj: Plymouth Assault: Dec 2 UAINE Statement UUCP email Dear friends: We want to thank all of those people who have contacted us and offered help. We have felt strengthened by your prayers and words of encouragement. Sometimes we get tears in our eyes from the incredible outpouring of support and the many heartfelt words. We apologize for the fact that we have not been able to contact some folks to answer individual questions, but hope that will be forgiven in light of how much has needed to be done in just a few days. The second group of defendants was arraigned this morning in Plymouth County Court. Much of the news media has stated that all of those 25 people arrested were Indigenous. That is not so. The cops assaulted and arrested Native, Black, Latino, Asian and white, straight and lesbian and gay, young and old people. All of us who were arrested are standing strong and are united in the circle of struggle that began with the police attack last Thursday, November 27. Below you will find our press statement of today, which contains a lot of information about what happened as well as what we are asking supporters to do at this time. Thank you. Moonanum James for UAINE News Release United American Indians of New England P.O. Box 7501, Quincy, MA 02269 Tel. 617 773-0406 E-mail uaine19@idt.net _______________________________________________________________________ Press Statement December 2, 1997 Our National Day of Mourning demonstrations have always been peaceful events to re-educate the public about the Indigenous view of the Eurocentric "Thanksgiving"and build Native pride. Why did the cops attack a peaceful march? Why did they drag a Native man by his hair when they arrested him? Why did they arrest a peaceful Native elder and medicine person? Why did they intimidate and assault other elders? Why did they attack children with pepper spray? Why did they tear out the dreadlocks of a proud Black Man? Why did they arrest people who were standing on the sidewalk? Why did they force pepper spray into the eyes, noses and mouths of people who had already been handcuffed? Why did they single out people who wore buttons and T-shirts expressing support for Native political prisoner Leonard Peltier? Did these cops go home afterwards and stuff their faces with turkey? Did they sit down with their own families after they had attacked our families? Did they give thanks for keeping Plymouth's 377-year-old tradition of racism intact? The most sickening part of what happened is that the police attack was executed simply to protect the sacred image of the pilgrims and the sacred image of Plymouth as a tourist shrine. The cop assault was planned and carried out simply to protect the tourist industry in Plymouth. The bottom line is not the safety of women, children, elders and other people, but the protection of business interests. The human and civil rights of people of color -- and especially of Indigenous people -- are expendable when money is to be made or tourists might be inconvenienced. The police assault has backfired in their faces. They have shown in graphic detail the truth of what we have been saying all along. Did we attempt to destroy their precious property? No! Did we threaten or attack a single person? No! Our "crime" was to speak the truth about our history. Our "crime" was to attempt to go down the street like free human beings. Our "crime" was to support Leonard Peltier and other political prisoners. Our "crime" was to unify people from all four directions, to bring them together to denounce the pilgrim mythology upon which the tourism industry in Plymouth depends. We point out to all the media here that the responsibility rests not only with the town of Plymouth but with various state authorities. Massachusetts state troopers played a leading role in the cop assault on innocent people. It was clear to us and to other observers that the cops had been trained in so-called counterinsurgency tactics and had been training for some time. There were also plainclothes cops there from unknown agencies. Who were they? What agencies did they represent? Today, we are voicing to the world four demands as we stand here in Plymouth, Massachusetts: 1. We demand that the District Attorney's office drop all charges immediately. 2. We demand a public apology from the Plymouth Police Dept., the Plymouth County Sheriff's Office, and the Mass. State Police. 3. We demand an open public inquiry into the police brutality that occurred in Plymouth on Thursday, November 27, 1997. This must be done by independent parties, not by police agencies or prosecutors. The fox cannot guard the chicken coop. 4. We demand that Governor Cellucci and other state and national public figures break their silence and condemn the police violence that occurred in Plymouth on "Thanksgiving" day. These politicians must be held accountable for what happened. Cellucci and others authorized the use of state troopers. We will not allow Cellucci, Harshbarger, Kennedy, Kerry or any other politicians to hide behind the ruse of trying to blame everything on the town of Plymouth. Why haven't any of them spoken out against this clear case of police brutality on the streets of Plymouth? When people all over the world are outraged, why are they not outraged? We thank the thousands of people from the region, the hemisphere, and the world who have contacted us in these last few days to express their support and find out how they can help. We thank them for their prayers. We wish to express our love and admiration for all those who have had the courage to stand up with us. We are forming a defense committee to take up the day-to-day tasks of defending all of those who were arrested last Thursday. We know that many people will want to be involved in this effort. Further, we have now set up a defense fund through the ACLU. Supporters can send donations made payable to the "ACLU/Day of Mourning '97 Defense Fund" to UAINE at the above address. Postage stamps are also welcome. If anyone in the New England area can arrange for the donation of a photocopying machine, please contact us right away. At this point, we ask our supporters to do the following four things: 1. Start a petition campaign demanding that all charges be dropped. Petitions should be sent to UAINE. [Note: An e-mail petition campaign would be great, too.] 2. Call Plymouth Visitor Information (508-747-7525) and the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce (508-830-1620). Let them know that your family will not spend a dime in Plymouth because of the police assault on "Thanksgiving" day. 3. We ask that those who can, come to the Plymouth courthouse on January 29, when the Day of Mourning Defendants will next appear in court for a pre-trial conference. 4. We ask that our supporters be on alert and stand by, because we will be planning additional actions. More and more people are becoming aware of how the town of Plymouth chose to celebrate "Thanksgiving" this year. The people are sickened and cry out for justice. No matter what, the truth will be heard. Nothing can stop us from speaking the truth about our history or about what happened here on "Thanksgiving" Day in 1997. We are not vanishing. We are not conquered. We are as strong as ever. --------- "RE: Human Rights Are Universal" --------- Date: Fri, 05 Dec 1997 13:18:01 -0500 From: Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez Subj: Human Rights Are Universal UUCP email FROM UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE FOR RELEASE: WEEK OF DECEMBER 5, 1997 COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS by Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez HUMAN RIGHTS ARE UNIVERSAL American Indians don't particularly enjoy the sight of Pilgrims on Thanksgiving, marching through the streets of Plymouth, Mass., with a Bible in one hand and a musket in the other. Since 1970, they've been protesting against this annual event. "We know who the muskets were aimed at," says Mahtowin Munroe of the Lakota Indian nation. This year, American Indians and their supporters marched after the Pilgrims' parade through the same streets, only to be attacked by police and arrested. One man in ceremonial dress was forced to take off his clothes. Had this occurred in another part of the world, it would have been reported as a mass violation of human rights. Not here. Instead, the Indians were charged with being outside of the law. In our political culture, Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Cuba's Fidel Castro violate human rights. So do the rulers of Libya, China and Korea. However, Amnesty International has also recently cited the United States for violations, particularly as human rights relate to police brutality cases. We've long maintained that law enforcement violence here constitutes human rights violations because, regardless of the color of the perpetrators, the vast majority of those brutalized are people of color. Officials from violating nations argue that because of different cultural values, there can't be a universal measuring stick for human rights violations. Here, U.S. political culture simply categorizes abuses under the rubric of civil rights, thus suggesting that human rights violations take place everywhere -- except here. Of course, that flies in the face of the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights charter, adopted Dec. 10, 1948. Civil rights are derived from U.S. laws, but all of us are born with human rights. Additionally, the United Nations doesn't grant rights; it simply affirms them. Specifically, the charter protects individuals from discrimination or persecution based on race, ethnicity, national origin, culture, language, religion, political beliefs or migratory status. Despite what U.S. political extremists charge, most civil rights transgressions in the United States continue to occur against people of color. For example, Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods recently concluded that a massive violation of rights occurred in the town of Chandler during five days in July. Police and immigration agents illegally interrogated hundreds of Latinos -- on the basis of skin color -- forcing them to prove their legal status. Code-named "Operation Restoration," officers harassed dark-skinned Latinos, including children and a pregnant woman. Of note, while human rights are universal, the charter does not specify the rights of women, children or indigenous people. That doesn't mean that those rights don't exist. It simply means that the United Nations and governments are slow to recognize people's inherent rights. Additionally, today global corporations also have to be held accountable for their human rights violations. Perla Mata, a coordinator of "Fuerza Unida," an organization of ex- Levi's workers in San Antonio, notes that Levi's abruptly shut down its plant overnight there in 1990 and relocated to Costa Rica, virtually abandoning its 1,000-plus workers. "We were the first casualty of NAFTA." As Levi's moves to shut down more plants in Texas and New Mexico, the company has offered very generous severance packages. Company officials have said they learned their lessons from 1990. But apparently, those lessons don't apply to the San Antonio workers. Levi's is not unique. Multinational corporations have been doing this regularly since the 1960s. They uproot and abandon communities and resurface abroad, paying "Mickey Mouse" wages. For example, the National Labor Committee of New York recently documented that Walt Disney and JCPenney pay wages of 12 cents an hour in Haiti. The 1948 charter does not allude to this kind of exploitation. However, it is the right of all people to stake out their rights. That's how human rights expand. It's not for the United Nations or governments to determine what human rights are or who should have them. As Bill Flores points out in "Latino Cultural Citizenship" (Beacon Press, 1997), this also holds true regarding the concept of citizenship. It's people who are redefining it, not governments. Speaking of undocumented immigrants (but his words apply to all populations that are deprived of rights), Flores writes: "They are emerging from the shadows as subjects with their own claim for rights." COPYRIGHT 1997 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE * For info regarding the Plymouth situation, contact the United American Indians of New England at: uaine19@idt.net * Fuerza Unida can be reached at: 710 New Laredo Hwy., San Antonio, Texas 78211, Tel:210-927-2294 or: FuerzaUnid@aol.com Rodriguez is the author of Justice: A Question of Race (Cloth ISBN 0-927534-69-X paper ISBN 0-927534-68-1 Bilingual Review Press) and The X in La Raza II. Both are the authors of Gonzales/Rodriguez: Uncut & Uncensored (ISBN 0-918520-22-3 UC Berkeley, Ethnic Studies Library). They can be reached at: PO BOX 7905, Albq NM 87194-7905, (505)-248-0092 or XColumn@aol.com SPEAKING ** We will be speaking in Washington DC, Dec 14-16. For further info, call or write us. --------- "RE: Thanksgiving in Plymouth" --------- Date: 97-12-03 22:36:09 EST From: ishgooda Subj: Thanksgiving in Plymouth - History Repeats Itself ------- FORWARD, Original message follows ------- From: davids_c@ucen.flint.umich.edu <><><><><><><>NASC NEWS<><><><><><><> Ainee: I have been so frustrated, sad, and angry about the problems in Milford, but when I saw how our good People and Elders were treated in Plymouth.... I did a bit of research and have written the following essay. Please use it as you see fit. Miigwech Catherine Thanksgiving is intended to be a time of joyous celebration when people give thanks for the gifts and blessings the Creator has provided. It is a day when we thank our families and friends for their love and support. It is a time to give thanks for our abilities. The idea and purpose of Thanksgiving is both simple and complicated, but the truth about this holiday is mired in mythology, historical inaccuracies, and outright lies. The political system in the United States created Thanksgiving as a political ploy and its intention was never to honor Native American Indian people. The educational system in the United States has supported the ploy by refusing to enter the truths in history books. The media in the United States, including movies and television, have ignored the historical truth, and have helped to create the romanticized fantasy of Thanksgiving. Educational and entertainment outlets have become bastions of ignorance and racism. All commit a grave disservice to the people of the United States, and to the people of the world who look to this country as a mainstay of democracy-in-action. The disservice can be found in the relentless bigotry and ignorance that is the social and cultural foundation of the dominant culture residing on these lands. A popular expression: the truth shall set you free. The concept of the democratic process will never be fully realized until the true history of this country is taught in educational institutions. Educators (including all forms of media) are required (so they claim) to deal with history in a precise manner using both intelligence and logic. Regardless of how ugly and brutal these truths are, justice in the United States will never be served until these historical truths are fully accepted by all, no matter how painful it may be to think about, and to comprehend. When historical lies are formed, and allowed to take on a life of their own, they become enjoyable to those who avoid the truth. When people and governments avoid historical truth they serve injustice to particular peoples, and in the case of Thanksgiving (and many many more situations) the injustice is served to the Native American Indian people. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Among Native American Indian peoples the oral tradition of telling history (family, social, politics, games, ways of nature, spirituality) is the most reliable form of learning. The oral tradition builds continuity, mutual dependency, and trust between speakers and listeners. Anglo-Americans discount oral tradition as being unscientific because the story cannot be proved. Yet - Christians live by the words in their bibles. The hypocrisy can be found in the Christian acceptance of bible stories combined with their unwillingness and refusal to accept the histories, beliefs, and spirituality of the Native American Indian peoples. This means that if there are no scientific facts (no proof) then Native American Indian histories can be discounted as fanciful myths and legends to be exploited (usually for profit). Anglo-Americans have built their own myths and legends using Native American Indian people as the catalyst. These historical lies create stereotypes, racism, and bigotry against Native American Indian people. They also create ignorance and mindlessness among the dominant culture. The following facts and information are readily available for anyone with a modicum of interest in seeking the truth - researching fact. That they are so easy to find merely confirms the fact that historians, educators, and politicians have no excuse for their lazy ignorance. So...................... Once upon a time in England there were a group of political revolutionaries who called themselves Puritans. They had their own formal confederacy. They intended to overthrow the monarchy of England (and they succeeded in 1649). The Puritans strongly believed (as do many cultist religions) in the imminent occurrence of Armageddon. Although they did suffer from some political, social, and religious persecution they themselves were hardened and intolerant bigots bent on purifying everyone. A splinter group of Puritans, calling themselves Pilgrims (note the word grim in Pilgrim), fled England and came to these lands. Mostly middle- class the Pilgrims were unprepared and ignorant of basic survival techniques and necessities. Upon their arrival the Pilgrims were unhealthy, diseased, and filthy. Their clothing was infested with crawly bugs, and they were seriously malnourished. Half of them died before they were found by the Wammanoag. Anglo-American propagandists have led us to believe that the Pilgrims were noble members of society when in fact the Pilgrims were outcasts and misfits bent on destroying their own country. When they could not do that, they came to destroy the lands of the native peoples. The Pilgrims did not know how to hunt, fish, farm, or construct protective shelters. Their needs in England had been met by servants and indentured servants (sort of a slave). The Pilgrims were inept. They did not flee England because of persecution - they fled because they did not believe they were going to successfully overthrow the monarchy in order to inflict their "Rule of Saints" on their British brethren. They came to these lands with the clear purpose of taking the land away from the native peoples in order to build their unholy cultdom. The Pilgrims were followed here by larger groups of Puritans and from this point on we will refer to this group as Puritans since they are one and the same. Their fanatical cultism dictated the use of genocide, treachery, germ-warfare (disease), torture, mass murder, and deception to achieve purification of those who disagreed with them. The Puritans were homicidal maniacs. The native peoples did not agree with this compartmentalized cultism and therefore the Puritans declared war on the natives who had saved their pitiful lives. The Wampanoag were members of the League of Delaware and their common language was Algonkian. The native tribes were healthy and strong from their constant physical activity. Their diets consisted mainly of agriculture products supplemented by meat and fish. Their lives were intertwined with a spirituality older than Christianity. Clans were based on family relationships and tribes belonged to loose confederacies for support and survival. The tribes were well-traveled and their traders and explorers spoke many languages and were respectfully familiar with the customs of other tribes. Food and material goods were traded among the continent's and hemisphere tribes. Spirituality was revered and shared. Native peoples were content in their relationship with Mother Earth. Time was marked by the light of day, the darkness of night, the shape of the moon, and by the seasons. The Creator saw fit to put different people onto the earth and different times and in different places for different purposes. It was not a perfect world, but it was the healthiest and most productive, and was as close to Eden as any other place on earth. For nearly 100 years preceding the arrival of the Pilgrims, the Delaware and other coastal tribes defended themselves against English slavers who raided their villages. The scurrilous English, and other Europeans, kidnapped native people and sold them in foreign ports. The slavers tore apart family and tribes. One year before the Pilgrims came to these lands entire populations of native villages were destroyed by fatal diseases the English slavers brought on their kidnapping raids. The profitable raiding of these coastal villages inspired Europeans to begin their insidious slave trade on the continent of Africa. The native people were fully aware of the treachery of the English people learning quickly not to trust them. The Wampanoag provided every necessity in order to prevent the sickly Puritans from dying. Although the Wampanoag did not trust or like the Puritans their hospitality prevented them from mistreating, ignoring, or outright killing the Puritans. Wampanoag men taught the Puritans to hunt, fish, and farm. The Wampanoag built shelters to protect the helpless Puritans from harsh weather conditions. The Wampanoag taught the Puritans to tap maple trees for the sap, and showed them how to gather edible plants. Quite simply, and heroically, the Wampanoag saved the Puritans from certain death. The native peoples had annual Harvest celebrations along with celebrations of thanksgiving at particular times during the year. The Harvest festivities were a time to appreciate the gifts of the Creator and to make ready for the winter months. At Harvest time, in 1621, the Wampanoag and the Puritans celebrated a feast of Thanksgiving familiar to both cultures. Based on the reliability of oral tradition, and centuries-old customs, we know that the Wammanoag and other tribes gave verbal thanks to the Creator, and that the Puritans gave their "grave before meals." There was, however, no formal thanksgiving holiday. One would like to think that the hospitality of the Wampanoag was returned with equal kindness, but that is not the case. The greedy Puritans discovered where the Wampanoag had their winter food storage and they stole the winter food supply which put the Wampanoag at great risk of starvation. The Puritans looted and robbed grave sites stealing the possessions of those who had walked on into the spirit world. The Puritans introduced more diseases to the coastal tribes and these diseases spread quickly. The incredibly healthy native populations had no immunity or medicinal cures for the diseases and entire villages were decimated. The purification methods employed by the Puritans soon began to include murder and mayhem. In 1637 Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts declared a day of Thanksgiving to celebrate the massacre of over 700 Pequot women, children, and men. Cotton Mather, a maniacal preacher, declared a thanksgiving for the destruction of the native populations as the action of a benevolent Puritan God. On June 20, 1676 the governing council of Charlestown (Massachusetts) determined that June 29 would be a day of thanksgiving. It was not a formal holiday, and June is hardly the seasonal harvest time. On October 3, 1863, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving, but is was only for American citizens. Non-citizens were non-participants. The message: white is right. The unspoken message: if you ain't white, you ain't right. Lincoln (and his generals) were having trouble rallying support for the Civil War. Declaring a national holiday of Thanksgiving was a political ploy to create patriotism for this war and to help create a national identity among white people. In his 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation, Lincoln states, "may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins." Lincoln directly refers to the Civil War and presumptuous sins (overstepping due bounds, taking liberties). Although Lincoln does not list the presumptuous sins there are some logical extrapolations regarding this particular statement. Lincoln was trying to assure everyone that the Civil War was not punishment from God for the sins of the Anglo-forefathers and their progeny. The Puritans were fanatical in their belief in the bible and in their ten commandments. In their brutal treatment of the native populations and their outrageous exploitation of the land and its resources the Puritans and their descendants broke every commandment given to the prophet Moses and broke every principal taught by the Christian savior Jesus. The foundation of this democratic government clearly was a coast-to-coast genocidal war against the native populations. The foundation of this government and the constitution was (and is) supported mightily by exclusive, repressive, racist, and bigoted behaviors and actions. The foundation of the United States democracy is laded heavily with the presumptuous sins of the Anglo-American forefathers. Did Lincoln see the Civil War as punishment for the actions of the Anglos toward the native populations? It is a most interesting premise. Since 1863 the Thanksgiving Holiday has been mythologized, romanticized, and has been removed (as far as possible) from truth, fact, and actual history. Truthful history has intentionally been censored so as not to give any credence or voice to the truth. History has been denied free speech. Today visitors to Plymouth can take a tour of the city (for a fee) and see how the Puritans and native people merrily and happily gave thanks together. Propagandists would have us believe that the Puritans were plump healthy people, and this is supported by the "tour" where tourists observe history: healthy white people wearing beautifully sewn and starched frocks, working themselves into a frenzy preparing dinner for the heathen Indians. An educational disaster. In 1970 a group of Native American Indian people formed the United American Indians of New England (UAINE) to organize the first National Day of Mourning (to be held on the government declared holiday of Thanksgiving). Truth be know - for most Native American peoples this is a time of mourning. Native American Indian history has been repressed and revised by Anglo-Americans who staunchly defend these untruths. When native people attempt to teach the truth they are called "revisionists" or "liars." They are accused of trying to force others to be politically correct. They are told to "go back where you came from." Since when it is lying to tell the truth? Who declared themselves to be the arbitrators of truth when truth clearly speaks and does not need arbitration. Who would ever want to be wrong? And - native peoples were here thousands of years (in Michigan we know at least 11,000 years ago) and so they are here and will remain here. UAINE is dedicated (as are many Native American Indian groups) to fighting the ignorance and apathy of the people of the United States. For 27 years UAINE and their supporters have marched in Plymouth on Thanksgiving Day to protest this joke of a holiday which the people of the United States claim as an honor to Native American Indian peoples. For 27 years UAINE was not required to have a parade permit and for 27 years they have marched peacefully. Incidents of unprovoked physical violence against Native American Indians is on the rise in the United States (and in all of the so-named Americas). This year, the Plymouth (Massachusetts) Police Department assaulted and battered many of the several hundred UAINE marchers. Grandfather Oak (age 97) and Firewoman Emerton (70 year old clan mother of the Abenaki Nation) were injured by billyclubs swung by enthusiastic police officers who have no respect or regard for elders or children because they also battered an eight and an eleven year old native child. Many of those beaten and arrested were revered elders representing many tribes from across the United States. Pepper gas and mace were forced (police officers held mouths open) down the throats of the marchers which included Latinos, Asian-Americans, and African-Americans. Many of the marchers are direct descendants of the Wampanoag who saved the lives of that first group of Puritans. The Pilgrim Progress People have never needed a parade permit to march and in 1997 they did not have a permit, but the Plymouth Police Department did not bother them - not one bit. The Pilgrim Progress people use the destruction of the Native American Indian people as a theme of their thanksgiving parade and celebration. In the unwarranted and unprovoked attack on the UAINE marchers, the Plymouth Police Department called upon the Massachusetts State Police and the Plymouth County Sheriff's Department for assistance although it is known that UAINE marchers did nothing to provoke such a violent response to their annual march. Plymouth prosecutor Ruth Kechejian, Police Chief Robert Pomeroy, and Police Captain William O'Meara have fully supported the actions of the Plymouth good-squad who mascarade as police officers. UAINE marchers have stated that the police officers were lying in wait - prepared in their riot gear. The day before the march the Plymouth Police Department issued a statement to the newspapers saying that the Indians would be "dispersed by whatever means necessary." Threats. This begs the question: why the Indians and not the Pilgrims wanna-be's? What can you expect, however, from a state which decorates their highway signs with the infamous Puritan hat. True Americana? UAINE is representative of the Wampanoag and other coastal tribes from the time with the Puritans first came here. History, without impunity, does repeat itself when politicians, educators, and the population at large support historical distortions and ignorance. Thanksgiving. A day to be thankful. For what? That depends on the color of your skin, your ethnic heritage, and your power base. Native American Indian people comprise 0.9% of the United States population and are the smallest minority in this country. Yet - when the Pilgrims came here the native population numbered somewhere between 20 and 25 million thriving people. The purification process was simply a matter of homicidal genocide. Sadly Thanksgiving Holiday season in 1997, in Plymouth, was a violent exercise in history repeating itself. A police department (with support of local militia groups) brutalized the Native American Indian people and their supporters. The history and actions of the United States is buried in an intellectual coma. The events in Plymouth (past and present) have been a part of a violent plot to take away the freedoms of Native American Indian people - to hold them down, to keep them down, and when you hold a group down you also stay down because if you let go............ --------- "RE: Live Munitions Litter Restored Land" --------- Date: Mon, 08 Dec 1997 17:15:18 -0500 From: ishgooda Subj: Live munitions litter S.D. Indians' restored land (excerpt) UUCP email Live munitions litter S.D. Indians' restored land Bob von Sternberg/ Star Tribune PINE RIDGE, S.D. -- Tom Rock scuffed a boot against the rusted metal shard, picked it up and said simply, "Tail fin -- see, you can tell by the notch. Fuselage over there. Here's a nose cone. There's a lot of stuff out here that should have never been." Such as: air-to-air rockets, incendiary bombs, howitzer shells, mortar rounds, magnesium bombs, artillery rounds, anti-tank rockets -- untold thousands of them littering the sere buttes and tabletop grasslands of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Some have been there a half-century -- and remain as lethal as the day they were fired. Fifty-five years ago, the federal government seized what became the Badlands Bombing Range from the Oglala Lakota nation, uprooting 125 families in the biggest Indian land-taking of this century. Only now is the range being comprehensively cleared by tribal members using federal money that tacitly tries to right that old wrong. "Whoa -- they just bombed the hell out of this place," said Rock, one of the Oglalas who have begun the cleanup. "This whole place is just pockmarked with holes and craters." It was last week, the day before the signing in Ottawa of a landmark treaty banning land mines. But what has happened on the Pine Ridge Reservation shows that the threat of unexploded ordnance is far closer to home than Third World nations. This is an old, bitter story to the 25,000 people who live on the reservation, but it has rarely been noted by the world outside. If the tribe and federal agencies manage to successfully pull off the cleanup, their pilot project could affect another 70 tribes struggling with the aftermath of Defense Department seizures. "In the past, so many federal programs for tribes were set up to fail, but not this one," said Emma Featherman-Sam, who heads the tribe's effort. "This is a better way, to clear our own land, with our own people doing the work when they need jobs so badly -- and do it right." Cuny Table was named after Pat Cuny's grandfather, who established the first ranch on the sweetgrass tabletop at the northwestern edge of the reservation. "It's the best place to make a living, and they just tormented this ground here," said Cuny, 75. During World War II, Cuny spent four years as an infantryman. When he got home from Germany, that home didn't exist anymore. "They gave the family 30 days to get out," he said. "They banged the house up with machine guns and then tore it down. They bombed the place all through the war." His nephew Oliver Swallow was 12 years old when the order to leave came. "This great In-God-We-Trust government came in and said we're buying your land -- get out," Swallow said. "They gave us $16 an acre -- more than some people. We found another piece of ground outside the range, but it wasn't nearly as good. "There was no appeal -- we just had to go with the flow. I really don't feel as loyal to the country as a lot of people do. What the government did to my family is kind of disheartening." Planes overhead In the fall of 1942, War Department employees knocked on the doors of 125 houses, telling the occupants they had anywhere from 48 hours to a few weeks to leave. Some had to spend the winter in tents. In all, about 225 landowners were paid as little as 3 cents an acre. The government bought 341,725.61 acres -- slightly less than Hennepin County's land area -- and the bombing continued into the 1960s. The armed services and the South Dakota National Guard, which peppered the range with bombs, rockets and machine-gun fire, routinely missed their targets. <<<<=-=-=-=-=-{{{{FREE LEONARD PELTIER}}}}-=-=-=-=-=>>>> END RACIAL BIGOTRY NOW: HURON/WENDAT newsletter AIM - DETROIT Tsonkwadiyonrat (Now we are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton <<<<=-=-=-=-=-{{{{FREE LEONARD PELTIER}}}}-=-=-=-=-=>>>> --------- "RE: Day 22/Friends of Lubicon Trial" --------- Date: Thu, 4 Dec 1997 16:35:52 -0500 From: fol@tao.ca Subj: Day 22 of Daishowa v. Friends of the Lubicon trial Mailing List: FOL-L Friends of the Lubicon 485 Ridelle Avenue, Toronto, ON M6B 1K6 phone (416) 763-7500, fax (416) 603-2715, e-mail: fol @tao.ca Court Update: Day 22; Thursday, November 27, 1997 Alternative To Negotiations Ignored, Henry Thiessen Takes The Stand! Reverend Menno Wiebe was cross examined by Peter Jervis, counsel for Daishowa. Rev. Wiebe stated that The Lubicon Settlement Commission of Review was formed to offer an alternative means to the negotiation process that was deadlocked. The Commission found in their investigations that governments had not acted in good faith with the Lubicon and offered recommendations that were listed in Day 21's Court Update. Rev. Wiebe stressed that the public hearings were open and the Commission asked for participation from a wide spectrum of interests, including Daishowa. The Commission based its Report on the submissions it received, said Rev. Wiebe. The Commission concluded that the Lubicon encountered a systemic justice problem that meant they couldn't receive redress. E. Davie Fulton was called to the witness stand by Karen Wristen, counsel for FoL, to give testimony about his knowledge of the Lubicon's situation. Mr. Fulton is a retired Supreme Court of British Columbia Justice and a Rhodes Scholar who was appointed by then-Indian Affairs Minister David Crombie in the mid-80s, to carry out an inquiry to sort out the issues and the positions of those involved in the Lubicon situation. Mr. Fulton met with the parties involved and said that it became evident that it could be established there were common areas of interest, so his mandate was widened to include making suggestions for possible settlement. The discussion paper that his investigations produced, initially released in late 1985, included the positions of each party followed by a remarks section that included: areas of agreement; areas of discussion; and areas of disagreement. A review of the initial paper by the Lubicon led to a revised version recirculated that corrected the basis of the Lubicon land claim: that the Lubicon claim was based on aboriginal title to their land. not on Treaty 8. The discussion paper looked at:land entitlement; sub surface rights, including oil and gas; wildlife management and environmental protection plans; opportunity and job training for the Lubicon; Compensation for past losses; Compensation for future losses; Compensation for loss of culture; and rights to self government. Mr. Fulton said that once his report was delivered, the Alberta Government was unwilling to participate further in the inquiry because they claimed that he had no authority. If Alberta was not part of the discussion, said Mr. Fulton, Crombie took the position that there was no point in continuing. In regards to the Aboriginal Land claim, Mr. Fulton felt that the parties involved were so far apart that there should be a direct reference to the Supreme Court of Canada to determine if the Lubicons had title or not. The Federal Government didn't act on the recommendations in the Fulton paper and it was never made public. Mr. Fulton said that he had been approached as a possible mediator since that time, but that the federal government had called him "prejudiced." Mr. Fulton said he found that difficult to accept. He wrote to then-Indian Affairs Minister Bill McKnight and told him that he took exception to the word "prejudice." He said "it implies arriving at a conclusion in absence of the facts. But I know the facts. I may be guilty of sympathy for the band, but not prejudice." Mr. Fulton testified that, when asked by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Native Affairs to rate the severity of the Lubicon situation on a scale of 1 to 10, he replied that he would have to rate it at 10 - in a state of disrepair. He said that as an accumulated result of oil and gas activities which upset and distorted and pretty well terminated the band's hunting and trapping, there was low morale, low income, and that people could not see any way to improve their state. He said he would rate it the same today. That ended the witnesses for the defense. The plaintiffs, who are entitled to call "reply" evidence in the rules of Canadian courts, recalled Gordon Bunt, general manager of Daishowa Packaging (Winnipeg), to testify about a demonstration in Winnipeg on November 3, 1997. Bunt stated that he spoke with the organizer, Donald Sullivan, before the demonstration but he didn't recall any mention of the Daishowa boycott itself. He said the picket of Daishowa's plant by 20 people was mostly concerned about the Daishowa lawsuit against FOL and its effects on free speech. Karen Wristen, counsel for FoL, objected to Bunt's evidence, questioning the relevance to the case. Ms. Wristen inquired if there was anything that linked FoL with organizing the demonstration. Bunt admitted that he couldn't do this. Daishowa counsel Peter Jervis said that this is evidence that FOL "can have an effective voice in this country" even with an injunction. Citing the massive press coverage of the picket (one article in a Winnipeg student newspaper and nothing whatsoever in the mainstream media) Jervis said "It's clear evidence of the breadth of FOL's networks and it's clear evidence that FOL can get their message across." Justice MacPherson admitted the evidence. Henry Thiessen was the plaintiff's next witless. Thiessen was a Alberta Department of Agricultural assistant director between 1966 and 1971 and was employed by the Alberta Government's Native Affairs Secretariat from 1983 to 1987 as a senior official. He currently acts a consultant and under this capacity wrote a report attacking Lubicon land rights for Daishowa counsel Davis & Company. Thiessen had written an earlier report in 1995 for Unocal to submit to the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board in a successful effort to convince the ERCB to allow Unocal to start up a sour gas processing plant on Lubicon lands. Justice MacPherson questioned Mr. Jervis about the relevance of the witness's testimony to the trial. Justice MacPherson said he was not going to write a judgement on whether the Lubicon land claim is valid or not. Thiessen has had 46 years employment with the Alberta Government, he added, including the top job of the very department battling with the Lubicon and is therefore not independent. He represents the other side of the Lubicon land rights battle. In questioning his "expertise", Mr. Owen Young, Lubicon counsel, also uncovered that Thiessen did not possess degrees in anthropology, ethnology, history, law and was not trained in field gathering of data, all of which he was proposing to give evidence on. His only formal training was as in agricultural science, in which his Thesis was on land for grazing purposes in Saskatchewan. However, Justice MacPherson said he would allow Thiessen to present his "factual" evidence (evidence on his own experience of the Lubicon situation) and then make a ruling on whether to admit Thiessen as an "expert" who could give his opinion evidence on the validity of Lubicon land rights. On Friday, the trial resumed in courtroom 4-10. 361 University Ave. Toronto at 9:30 a.m. FoL gratefully acknowledges the Catholic Workers for providing lunch for FoL, and supporters. Everyone raved about the homebaked bread! The Church of the Holy Trinity has continued to provide facilities for lunch and a respite from court; a very special note of gratitude! For more background information visit the Lubicon supporter web page at: http://kafta.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/Lubicon/main.html Complete Court Updates are available at http://www.tao.ca/~fol/ --------- "RE: Legislators Want Tribal Accounting" --------- Date: Thu, 04 Dec 1997 09:54:59 -0600 From: Summerfield/Marvin&Linda Subj: Legislators want [Cherokee] Tribal Accounting-By Donna Hales Newsgroups: alt.native,soc.culture.native The following article was published 12/4/97 in the Muskogee Daily Phoenix and is posted courtesy of your only independent Cherokee newspaper, The CHEROKEE OBSERVER. http://www.cherokeeobserver.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LEGISLATORS WANT TRIBAL ACCOUNTING Councilor Says Byrd Not Paying Judge By Donna Hales, Phoenix Staff Writer Three members of Oklahoma's congressional delegation are calling for a formal audit of all federal program funds flowing into Cherokee Nation coffers. U.S. Sens. Don Nickles and Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and U.S. Rep. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., wrote a joint request in mid-November "to ensure that funds the tribe receives...are being spent in accordance with the intent of Congress and the Administration." The letters went to the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Interior and Labor, with copies to Attorney General Janet Reno. The Phoenix received a copy of one of those letters after 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nickles, Inhofe and Coburn couldn't be reached for comment. The letters refer to a Department of Justice investigation into alleged violations of federal law by the tribal administration. Coburn agreed to do a delegation letter because of the ongoing concerns and numerous investigations going on, said Coburn's chief of staff, Karl Ahlgren. No response to the audit request has been received yet, a Coburn spokesman said Wednesday. A Washington spokesman for HUD said he was unable to determine late Wednesday the status of the request. The call for a formal accounting of how the tribe spent taxpayer money comes at a time when the tribe remains split. One faction agrees with Chief Joe Byrd's assessment that he is complying with an August peace accord signed with the U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbit. Another faction said Byrd isn't in full compliance. Representatives of both factions plan to meet at 9 a.m. today with the new head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Kevin Gover, in his Washington, D.C., office to discuss compliance with the Babbit agreement. Babbit and Reno negotiated the agreement six months into a constitutional crisis within the tribe. Byrd and two of his eight loyalists on the 16-member tribal council, Don Crittenden and Chuck Hoskins, signed the agreement. Tribal councilors Harold DeMoss and Harold "Jiggs" Phillips, also signed the agreement. All are planning to attend today's meeting. The tribe has been in turmoil since Byrd fired tribal marshals who executed a search warrant at the tribal complex on Feb. 25. The marshals seized evidence leading to Byrd being charged in tribal court with two counts of diversion of tribal funds. Byrd later ignored a tribal court order reinstating the marshals and sanctioned what has been determined was an illegal impeachment of the tribe's highest court justices. Byrd then raided and closed the tribal courthouse. He then fired the tribal prosecutor and anyone who could bring him to trial. Byrd signed the peace accord with Babbitt and agreed to rehire the marshals, reopen the tribal courthouse and reinstitute the tribal court system. Meanwhile, an outside accounting report to tribal councilors from a national accounting firm reflects more than $1.6 million in tribal funds have been depleted on massive legal bills from more than 20 attorneys Byrd has employed since the constitutional crisis began. One of Byrd's critics on the council, Barbara Starr Scott, will attend today's meeting. When the BIA expects to return tribal law enforcement back to the tribe - BIA police took it over in April - will probably be discussed, she said. Scott believes the BIA police need to stay until the tribal administration is in full compliance with the Babbitt agreement. Scott also wants to see the tribal court fully reinstated. She said Gover needs to be aware that Byrd still is allowing a suspended district court judge loyal to him to hold court at the tribal complex. The law library and court files still haven't been returned to the tribal courthouse. The suspended judge is still exercising control over the district court budget, although Cherokee law places that responsibility with the tribe's highest court, the Judicial Appeals Tribunal. Meanwhile, Byrd and his staff members have exercised control over the tribunal budget since the crisis began. Byrd still isn't paying a tribal associate district judge he displaced during the crisis, Drew Wilcoxen of Muskogee, Scott said. The sooner Byrd gets in full compliance, the sooner the tribe can concentrate on moving forward and meeting the needs of its people, she said. Tribal employees said Byrd went to Washington, D.C., Wednesday with his press secretary, two body guards, the tribe's general counsel, the tribal secretary-treasurer and a self-governance officer. They couldn't be reached for comment. --------- "RE: Buffalo Nations Update" --------- Date: Mon, 08 Dec 97 01:35:15 -0500 From: buffalo@wildrockies.org (Buffalo Nations) Subj: Buffalo Nations Update UUCP email Buffalo Nations Update * Newsletters Over 130,000 copies of Buffalo Nations and Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers newsletters have been distributed all over the world. These news letters informed people of the 1100 buffalo slaughtered by the state of Montana and National Park Service discussed some realistic alternatives to stop the killing. * Distribution 1) Presence in Yellowstone National Park- Since June 1997 Buffalo Nations has tabled both inside the Park and surrounding towns, providing newsletters, mailing list contacts and question answering. These tables are instrumental in educating thousands of tourists who do not completely understand the severity of the issue. 2) Over 200 business in Montana alone are distributing both newsletters (Many other stores, groups and individuals are distributing the newsletters throughout the U.S.) 3) Buffalo Bus-A VW van converted into a three dimensional buffalo with the Buffalo Nations name, address and phone on the side. The buffalo bus is a real eye-catcher and makes appearances at fairs and other major events surrounding the Park. * Mailing List/ Membership 1) Tabling, business distributions, individual and group outreach programs have helped compile an active mailing list of over 7000 people and organizations wishing to lend support. 2) Approximately 5000 concerned citizens have signed up to be Buffalo Nations members. * Federal Buffalo Bill 1) In late August a conference of Traditional Native American Elders came together to work on a solution to the buffalo slaughter. Before leaving, the foundations of a Bill were formed. The Bill will be introduced to Congress as soon as additional tribal leaders make their comments. We hope to have it introduced during the105th Congress. 2) We will continue to formulate the Bill with more Traditional Native solutions and with the advise of Tribal Judges and lawyers. 3) We have contacted Senators and Congressmen and they await our Bill to be introduced. * Media Out Reach 1) We are producing a 5 minute, 2 minute, and three 30 second education spots and public service announcements videos on the buffalo slaughter and information on proposed legislation. 2) We are also producing radio spots on the Bill. 3) Producing an hour long documentary about the slaughter for a national television broadcast. * Up Coming Conferences 1) In Mid - Fall Buffalo Nations will hold a conference of local ranchers in Gardiner and West Yellowstone to offer hazing and rebuild their fences. This is also an opportunity to get ranchers' perspectives on the federal bill. * Winter Campaign 1) Offer a buffalo hazing service to ranchers who in past years have had no other alternatives than to have the buffalo killed by the Montana Department of Livestock. The service will be provided to the two towns where buffalo are killed , West Yellowstone and Gardiner, Montana. 2) Repair fences of local ranchers that are damaged by the buffalo and other wildlife as they migrate to traditional wintering grounds. 3) Contact local ranch supply stores and request donations that will enable quality fence repairs. 4) Organize hazing efforts with the aid of, cross-country skis and snowshoes to prevent the buffalo from being killed as they wander into the state of Montana. Snowmobiles will help distributes supplies to camps and drop offer volunteers to the patrol boarders. 5) We will conducting aerial fly-overs with Project LightHawk to document the condition of the buffalo herd inside Yellowstone National Park. 6) We will document all occurrences of the winter by video, photos and news stories and get them out to the world. 7) Keeping concerned citizens, businesses, groups, our mailing list and members informed of the situation as it develops through newsletter updates, e-mail and videos. * How You Can Help 1) Volunteer : Come Out to Montana this Winter Buffalo Nations needs people to monitor the borders of the park as volunteers to guard the lives of the last wild buffalo. Due to a limited budget we are only able to supply food and shelter to those that take a stand for the buffalo this winter. 2) Contact us about the Bill and start phone trees, letter writing and petition signing campaigns in your state to get it passed. 3) Help distribute our all ready existing newsletters in your communities. Contact us and we will send you some. 4) Internships- Earn college credits while saving buffalo. * Buffalo Nations- NEEDS LIST Computer Fax Machine Snowmobiles and Trailer Snowshoes Cross-country Skis 4-wheel drive trucks Snow tires Wall Tents Wood Stoves for wall tents Propane Heater Binoculars Radio Communication Equipment Cooking gear Winter- boots, clothing, gloves, hats Chain saws, axes, splitting maul Winter sleeping bags Cots Thermal rests Tarps Video Camera (Sony digital 3 chip) & tapes Media 100 Software for Macintosh 35 mm Cameras Film VCR machine (for dubs) Video tapes Fence repair supplies (wood, tools, etc.) Food File Cabinets Tax deductible money donations Buffalo Nations P.O. Box 957 West Yellowstone, Mt. 59758, p- 406-646-0070 f- 406-646-0071, e-mail-buffalo@wildrockies.org November 20, 1997 Greetings from West Yellowstone, For the last two weeks Buffalo Nations volunteers have patrolled the Park boundaries for buffalo. We have 10 very enthusiastic and energetic activists from around the U.S. who are out with the buffalo everyday from sunrise to sunset. So far, Department of Livestock (DOL) has made only one appearance. Before they stepped out of their trucks, two Buffalo Nations shepherds were asking them who they where and what they were doing there. Needless to say, very little was debated and after some quick photos of our buffalo shepherds the DOL were back in their trucks and off. Local support is tremendous. We have a weekly column in the local newspaper "The Yellowstone News." We get encouraging phone calls everyday from locals that want to help in anyway they can. Our newest project is to place "Bison Safe Zone" signs in locals yards to let the DOL know they are not allowed on their land to kill buffalo. It also gives us areas toward which we can shepherd bison to safety. About eight big bull buffalo travel in and out of the Park daily. The snow is here and with it come more buffalo. The DOL could be here to kill buffalo any day and we will be here waiting. 10 is a great number but 50 is so much better! The more people we have here the safer the buffalo will be. Make your plans to come out and help save the last wild buffalo this winter. We have plenty of room and food and all that get the calling are welcome. The other thing we're lacking is money. We are all non-paid volunteers and every penny goes directly to saving buffalo. If you are not convinced yet, we are also a 501-C3 tax-exempt organization so your donation is a tax write-off. If you or your group want to give out fliers or show a video about this issue, please send us your mailing address and we'll get more information out to you. Greetings from Buffalo Nations for the week of Dec. 1, 1997. The last week around here has been a busy one. The highlight of the week was an aerial survey of bison in Yellowstone N.P. with Project Lighthawk. During the flyover 251 bison were found in the Cougar Creek drainage a mere 10 miles from the Yellowstone N.P. boundary. The good news is that the snow on the ground is still only 8-12 inches in most places. The bad news is, any significant snow will immediately drive these bison out of the park and into an emergency situation! This is a critical time for the bison and we hope that anyone who is considering coming out this winter will think about joining us as soon as possible in December. We're continuing to patrol the park boundaries on a daily basis and as of today we still haven't seen any Dept. of Livestock vehicles in the area. There are 8 bison, very large bulls, outside of the park that haven't been harassed by D.O.L. yet. We were helped out Thanksgiving weekend by 11 volunteers from the Americorps program out of Poccatello Idaho. One of our regular volunteers is also coordinating field trips for schoolchildren should anyone wish to bring their class out here for a day to learn about the bison and what we do We've been getting a lot of support from people all over the place. We're especially thankful for the volunteers, the clothing and gear and the financial support. As we prepare for heavier snow, we are looking for a second snowmobile, 2 snowmobile cargo sleds/trailers, and a four-wheel drive vehicle or any donation to go toward the purchase of these items. We are willing to offer a tax deduction for anyone willing to either donate or sell us these items. Buffalo Nations P.O. Box 957 West Yellowstone, Mt. 59758 Phone (406)646-0070 Fax (406)646-0071 E-mail buffalo@wildrockies.org. The feathery brown stalks of grass still appear through the top crust of snow in Yellowstone. These grasses are a measurement of time for the buffalo this winter; for us their presence means quiet journeys of watching the buffalo graze as we walk along the park boundaries. Over the last week we have been busy, and alert. We've been busy because eleven volunteers from Americorps arrived to help us. Americorps volunteers work on a variety of projects ranging from stream restoration to literacy tutoring through a national service program akin to a domestic Peace Corps. They visited us because they believe in protecting the bison and they wanted to help in any way they could. We are alert because there are around 250 bison grazing about 10 miles from the west side park boundary. Last weekend a few of us flew over the park with Project Lighthawk, an environmental group who brings photographers and wilderness advocates up to see what lies beyond the "beauty strip". Along with the next big snowstorm, we could potentially see a mass exodus of buffalo from the park. We look to community involvement as a key factor in protecting the buffalo. Everyone who wants to help the buffalo is welcome, and there is something for everyone to do. Please contact us if you would like to watch bison, post signs, or just get to know us. The buffalo lie in the meadow, their shapes blending in with the landscape as surely as the rocks, their forms mirroring the mountains as surely as a lake's reflection. Indeed this place would be incomplete without them. -Sue Nackoney From the west they came, with lightning from their eyes and thunder from their hooves. They are my relatives, from them comes strength, power, shelter and medicine. Once there were many, and life was good, holy and pure, very much a part of our lives even yet today. Their bodies shot down in the cold snow, in cold blood their lives taken for needless uses. They are a part of our traditional ways. In our circles their spirits roam and dwell. You take their lives, do you not see what you are taking from the earth are gifts not for all Indian people but for all humankind from the Creator alone? What will your great-grandchildren think when there are no more of them to look upon and see our Mother Earth in her true splendor. To my relatives (Tatanka Ouata) Buffalo Nations -Jeremy Allen Lynch, Buffalo Nations --------- "RE: Nat'l Aboriginal Veterans" --------- Date: Sat, 06 Dec 1997 18:53:16 GMT From: Pbbmicmac@sedona.net (Robert Branscombe) Subj: Nat'l Aboriginal Veterans Association Newsgroup: alt.native NATIONAL ABORIGINAL VETERANS ASSOCIATION John B.J. Pictou, Sr. Nova Scotia Chapter President Vice-Chairman of Ottawa Board PO Box 312 Shubenecadie, Nova Scotia BON 2HO Tel: 901-758-3147 Fax: Same On November 11th, 1998, we go to Ottawa once again to march proudly in honor of our fallen veteran brothers and sisters. We are veterans of the World War II , Korean and Vietnam theaters, along with our current conflicts veterans that served courageously and proudly, for our country and people. Many of us are veterans of a combination of wars, mostly World War II and Korea. We are trying to do our best we can to bring as many of our veterans to Ottawa for the Remembrance Day celebrations. We are a self supporting group. Funds are unfortunately scarce, as we try to send veterans from all over Canada to Ottawa, and we have used up all our finances. There is the Canadian Legion, they will not help us, they only help there own. Although we fought on the same side, they somehow forgotten. There are still many of our fellow veterans that have never been to Ottawa for the Remembrance Day celebration, and if they don't get to go soon they may never have a chance. . Many of us are in our 80's and 70's and so on. I personally would like to see as many of our vets get to see and participate in the march at least once. It is a great experience to be together with our friends, and mourn the loss, and then celebrate the victories that they died for. The following information is an excerpt from the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, dated October 1993; (Exact figures are not available, but the government estimates at least twelve to fifteen thousand Canadian Aboriginal volunteered. Those figures merely cover the volunteers from reserves and do not include off-reserve and non-status Indians, nor does it take into account all of the country's Metis who signed up, or the Inuit who participated through northern border patrols. There were also Service and Forestry Battalions that drew a high percentage of their numbers from our Aboriginal Peoples. American figures show that at least thirty thousand Canadians served with the American Armed Forces during the Vietnam War and that one in four of those VOLUNTEERS were of Aboriginal origin.) If you would like to help us send more Aboriginal Veterans to the Ottawa Celebration, please feel free to contact us at the above number, or you can send a donation of any size to the Royal Bank of Canada, c/o N.A.V.A account #702-9788, P.O. Box 40, Shubenacadie N.S. BON-2HO. Any and all donations are greatly appreciated. Thank you. Sincerely, John B. Pictou, SR. (My cousin asked me to submit this letter for him, he is a honest and a trustworthy man. He is to be respected and honored, if one can help him, it will be greatly appreciated. I was not aware of these figures, as a former marine, I feel very honored.) In the Spirit of our Veterans, Robert A. Pictou-Branscombe --------- "RE: Zapatistas Need Your Support" --------- Date: 1:04 PM Dec 3, 1997 From: moonlight Subj: URGENT: THE ZAPATISTAS NEED YOUR SUPPORT Newsgroup: igc.indig.info Companeros, Currently, there is an urgent need for your help as the situation in Chiapas continues to deteriorate with each passing day. Paramilitary activity against the Indigenous Zapatista communities has reached an all time high. There are attacks on villages almost everyday, and in the last week almost 5,000 Indigenous peoples have been displaced by the violence, and dozens have been killed. Full-scale war is imminent. The Mexican government is pushing its military solution to the Zapatistas and Indigenous peoples cry for justice and peace through the use of these paramilitary groups and by other tactics of its almost 4 year old dirty low-intensity war. If we, civil society do not intervene, mobilize and generate some critical pressure against the Mexican government the future of the Zapatista communities and the hope for the implementation of Indigenous rights and peace in Chiapas will end in blood-shed and more misery. The only way in which this war will be stopped if national and international civil society mobilize and let the Mexican and US governments know we are aware of the situation and that we will not tolerate the denial of Indigenous rights and the war being waged against Indigenous Zapatista communities. In response to the critical situation in Chiapas, the National Commission for Democracy in Mexico is launching a Popular Ballot for the Right to Live in Peace and we are seeking 1,111 volunteers willing to collect 100 ballots each by January 1, 1998. The ballot is 6 public opinion questions regarding conditions in Mexico and US-Mexico relations, and is intended to serve as an expression of our will for peace in Chiapas and Mexico. The search for volunteers and the collection of ballots began on November 20th, Mexican Revolution Day. The response has been good so far but we are still far from our goal, thus the call and need for more volunteers is more urgent. Please sign up. We need each volunteer to make 100 copies of the ballot, have people fill them out and send the results back to us by email at: moonlight@igc.apc.org. We would also like to encourage everyone to set up tables at their high schools, colleges, universities, churches, places of work, etc. in order to collect as many ballots as possible! A public announcement of the volunteers and their progress will be made on December 10th, the anniversary of the U. N. Declaration on Human Rights, and on January 1st the tally of the ballots will be announced as well as a decision on whether the balloting will be continued. Serving as one of the 1,111 volunteers is a statement of support for the struggle for peace, democracy, liberty and justice of the 1,111 Zapatista communities in Chiapas. To register as a volunteer, please send your name and a means of communicating with you by phone, fax, electronic or postal mail to: NCDM Tel: (213) 254-9950 Fax: (213) 254-9597 Email: moonlight@igc.apc.org You can also register as a volunteer or submit a ballot through our web page (http://www.igc.apc.org/ncdm). Please join us in breaking the information and military blockade being imposed on the Zapatistas. Register today! We are at a historic crossroads. Help us put an end of 505 years of genocide, discrimination and marginalization of the Indigenous peoples of Mexico. Help us prevent another Vietnam in Chiapas. In solidarity and resistance, NCDM --------- "RE: Paiutes Could Get Own Land" --------- Date: Mon, 08 Dec 1997 17:25:17 -0500 From: ishgooda Subj: Paiutes could get own land ARIZONA CENTRAL/News from The Arizona Republic Paiutes could get own land Navajos would cede 5,100 acres in deal By Bill Donovan Correspondent Dec. 8, 1997 WINDOW ROCK -- For hundreds of years, the San Juan Southern Paiutes have lived in the shadow of the Navajo people. But as early as next spring, if things go as expected, the Paiutes could have their first official reservation on about 5,100 acres within the Navajo Reservation about nine miles northwest of Tuba City. For the past month, Navajo Attorney General Herb Yazzie and other tribal lawyers have been meeting with residents of western reservation communities in Arizona to explain details of a proposed land treaty between the Navajos and the Paiutes. "What we don't want is for this to become another legal battle like the one we have been in with the Hopis," Navajo Nation President Albert Hale said. That battle, now more than 20 years old, has cost the Navajos more than $10 million and more than 900,000 acres of what they consider to be Navajo land. Not all Navajos are happy about a proposed treaty with the Paiutes. Several argued at the meetings that the Navajos cannot afford to give up any more land. But Hale said the Navajos effectively have no choice, since the federal courts already have ruled that the Paiutes have rights to their own reservation within what is now the Navajo Reservation. But many Navajos contend the Paiute Tribe doesn't exist because over the generations Paiutes have married Navajos and are so integrated that it's impossible to tell a Paiute from a Navajo. Evelyn James, president of the Paiutes, said that is not so. She and about 300 other residents of the Navajo Reservation who consider themselves Paiutes say they always have known their roots. "I've never said I was a Navajo, even at tribal meetings. I'm a Paiute," she said. James notes that the Paiutes have their own tribal government, including a seven-member council, and their own constitution. They also have their own ceremonies and traditions that are considerably different than the Navajos', although some members also take part in Navajo traditional practices as well. Many of the older Paiutes speak a language that is similar to their cousins, the Southern Utes. But most of all, James and others in her camp say, the Paiutes have a long history living in northwestern Arizona. In fact, said Martin Link, who teaches Navajo history and culture and served for 18 years as director of the Navajo Tribal Museum, historians believe the Paiutes probably settled in the region before the Navajos. Until about 1930, the Paiutes had lived along a stretch of land along the Utah-Arizona border near Navajo Mountain that once was known as the Paiute Strip. But when surveys were done of the area, federal officials said they couldn't find any Paiutes in the area, and all of that land became public domain until four years later, when Congress turned it over to the Navajos and other Indians living there. The congressional action was the basis of the Hopis' longstanding lawsuit, which alleges that half of the western portion of the Navajo Reservation belongs to the Hopi tribe. The Hopi claim has since been drastically reduced. The Paiutes joined the suit, and the courts agreed that they deserved their own reservation. The good part of all of this, at least as far as the Navajos are concerned, is that the new reservation being proposed for the Paiutes would not require any relocation since no Navajo families live in the area. David Laughter, a tribal council delegate from the nearby Navajo Mountain area, said he expects that a lot of Paiutes will remain living on the Navajo lands since they have homes and friends there. James said she finds it an irony that between 150 and 200 Navajos have called her office about joining the Paiutes because they say they are tired of belonging to a tribe so large -- 220,000 members at the latest count -- that it's difficult to get services. <<<<=-=-=-=-=-{{{{FREE LEONARD PELTIER}}}}-=-=-=-=-=>>>> END RACIAL BIGOTRY NOW: HURON/WENDAT newsletter AIM - DETROIT Tsonkwadiyonrat (Now we are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton <<<<=-=-=-=-=-{{{{FREE LEONARD PELTIER}}}}-=-=-=-=-=>>>> --------- "RE: On Assimilation" --------- Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 17:28:36 -0800 From: James BlueWolf Subj: On Assimilation UUCP email On Assimilation Haaah - all thanks to the Creator. I am often asked by European Americans why the Original Peoples of this land have resisted assimilation into a free and successful, (and obviously superior?) culture. Though I am not a spokesman for any Tribe or Nation I do have my opinions. The answer has many roots. I'm going to talk about three of the main ones. First- a number of European cultures traded tribal tradition and pursuits for individual ones many centuries ago. Most immigrated modern european religious, social, economic and cultural tradition now emphasizes the individual- above the extended family. Fractionization of the family increased with immigration, and then further fractionalized with western expansion and modern transportation methods. The search for individual prosperity and spirituality lessoned the contact between larger family groups. Modern economics reduced the necessity for interdependence between these same family groups. Thus, the embracing and exaltation of family became a choice rather than a necessity for survival. Original Peoples are still tied to their tribal traditions, even if the economics and external social organizations do not require it. Despite intertribal factionalism and normal family discontinuity-Native Americans are still bound to each other by the unseen force of tribal identity. The value of this type of identity, once thought to be at odds with the american ideal- is now coming back into acceptance. Everywhere you hear the words- family values. But before you can have family values you must have family! This was the drive behind the communal spirit of the hippie days, as well as the gang identity today. Much of the romanticizing of the American Indian culture came from outsiders experiencing Our unity at ceremonial and social gatherings. This power of unity and feeling of belonging is what many naturalized americans are missing in their lives- particularly the young. Culture is the next reason why original People's still hang onto their tribal identities.Native American culture, language, customs and traditions- where they have been successfully preserved- still fill up the lives of People with rich and rewarding experiences. For most Americans, common culture has been reduced to a search for entertainment and self gratification at the individual level. This is a culture of Big Macs and Super Bowls, Holidays and a once-a-week trip to church or a family gathering. There is little family celebration of history and heroes. Accepted common values have diminished as the family unit has shrunk to the individual level. Of course there are exceptions to these generalizations- but not enough to give the common youth much feeling of identity or shared values. So many of them are searching- with drugs, gangs, etc. while their aging elders wring their hands for a return to the comfortable agreements about morality, values and religion that existed when they were young. This does not pretend that Indian Youth are any happier than their counterparts- often their unhappiness is due to the reservation conditions of life much the way black and mixed hispanic/indian youth react to their impoverishment and dependencies. However, the one thing many Indian youth have- is a feeling that they belong to something larger than themselves. I have seen this make a tremendous difference in their lives as they mature and develop in these difficult times. And where the strongest tribes and families survive- a greater strength and balance is seen in our youth. The last reason (I'm going to speak about) that Original Peoples still cling to one another rather than assimilate is due to both a positive and a negative in their lives. The negative is a simple human vice- racism! Native Americans harbor deep-seated racial prejudice against those that subjected them to the destruction of their way of life, the taking of their homeland, and the continuing attempts to demean,destroy and eliminate them as Peoples; their language, culture, spirituality and remaining land base. Unfortunately this racism also inhibits them from taking advantage of many opportunities they might have to strengthen the position of their Peoples in regards to National Sovereignty, and also to better their economic conditions both tribally and individually. However, this issue of racial difference will continue, as long as the representative leaders and Supreme Court of the United States continue their incessant attacks on Indian self determination and government, land issues and treaty rights. Having a common enemy always binds people to each other- and the actions of the government and the Supreme Court on Native American issues can only be interpreted as contentious and aggressively intent on Our destruction as Nations. The positive, referred to above, has to do with the fact that Native American Spirituality is a group responsibility. Though individual medicine and power play a part in the whole, they are complimentary to the shared spiritual commitments of the Peoples, rather than being the final focus. Traditional People see a responsibility to the Earth and her natural life, to each other, and finally- to all mankind. The Ceremony's performed are done for the blessing of All, not just one. These beliefs are a powerful force in the lives of the People who share them. Their pledges and commitments are foremost in their lives, and youth involved in them receive much that is good and decent. They are encouraged to live exemplary lives, not for their own aggrandizement- but for the continued life and good fortune of their respective People's and all their relatives on the Earth! As long as this dedication to a shared spiritual commitment exists, and the Sacred Ceremony's handed down by the Creator are performed- the Original Peoples will not die out, not become assimilated- but will survive and grow! Nea'ese- thank you for being attentive. --------- "RE: Sharing Frybread Recipe" --------- Date: Thu, 4 Dec 1997 16:42:53 -0500 (EST) From: MissSpyder@aol.com Subj: Sharing Frybread Recipe Mailing List: AISESnet General List To all who are interested: The letter regarding the the distribution of a fry bread recipe had a tone which I perceived as rude. (sorry) I have been talking with students (young and old) about sharing and learning about each others cultures and what way to share is with food. Many tribes, including mine, have adapted foods of other peoples to become foods of our culture. For instance, we all eat spaghetti. The noodles were first made in China, and brought to Italy by someone, and eventually brought to the U.S. I know I have been to potlucks, dinners, banquets, etc. and there has been spaghetti, but I don't see any people from China complaining because it was their noodles. We need to understand that although Fry bread may be a "traditional" Navajo dish, I have traveled all over the country and have seen Eskimos and Alaskan Natives make it, seen many peoples from the Plains Indians make it, seen Anglo, Hispanic, etc. make it, and when I was in Japan, a world-recognized chef even made it. I understand that there are things we can't share, such as dances, songs, dress, and other traditional ceremonial foods. But such a thing as fry bread is shared by all cultures and is recognized all over the world that maybe a simple recipe shouldn't create such a rude message. There are people who specifically ask for it because they hear it is "absolutely wonderful." I don't think the Navajos were the first people to put honey, or powdered sugar on the bread, but I see it sold and made that way. I don't see them complaining. And understanding and respect needs to be compromised when dealing with all cultures. And maybe the person who wanted the recipe didn't ask properly, or assumed there's a straightforward recipe lying around somewhere, but to write a "nasty" letter wasn't the proper way to approach it. Of course there are memories attached to a recipe, and maybe you should allow the person to create their own memories to the recipe. I don't have an exact answer or solution. Several stereotypes were listed in the "poem" enclosed in the letter. Well when I was in Japan, I met with students (Japanese and American), elementary, middle, and high school level, and many of them were war- whooping, saying "how," etc. The images they had had were from movies. Education is the key to breaking the stereotypes. Talking is another key. And the talking is done in a reasonable, calm tone not with angry undertones. I came out and told them war-whooping and saying "How" was wrong. I explained to them that it was like calling a person of a black heritage the "n" word. Many of us know, we wouldn't call a black person a "n" word. So, the best way to breaking stereotypes is education, and we found that the best teaching tool was through eating: eating their foods, and them eating ours. They didn't always like the food we liked, and we didn't like some of the foods they liked. There are many people who may not like what I have had to say, maybe the letter that was written what written with words from past hurt, but please don 't be an "angry" Native. Because there are many of us who aren't. Thank you for listening everybody. Please email your comments. Shayai Lucero, College Student, AISES Vice National Student Representative, and Miss Indian World --------- "RE: Trail of Tears Center Funded" --------- Date: 97-11-30 22:08:48 EST From: PIAWAKKIT Subj: Trail of Tears Center funded for Cherokees <><><><><><><>NASC NEWS<><><><><><><> Trail of Tears Center Funded for Cherokees 11/30/1997 The Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah will include a center to interpret the Trail of Tears through a $600,000 appropriation from the federal government. Another $600,000 was appropriated for the Eastern Band of Cherokees in Cherokee, N.C., and came as part of funding for the National Park Service. The interpretive center should be completed in 1999, according to a tribal news release. Museum to Teach About Life in Old West 11/30/1997 By Karen Klinka Staff Writer The difference between a museum and a school is that museums serve a much wider age group, says Dr. Bobby Weaver, assistant director of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center in Oklahoma City. "A museum is an educational institution -- except our students range from 4 to 94," Weaver said. Weaver is in charge of a range of educational programs under development at the Oklahoma City museum, 1700 NE 63, as well as an elementary classroom program that hall officials plan to promote in earnest next year. "The unique thing about museum education is having objects that people can relate to," Weaver said. "Feeling texture, seeing objects, understanding how they were put together or used -- all these things help the learning experience." Expanded and renovated facilities have made it possible for the museum to launch a structured education program on the everyday life of cowboys and P