From gars@netcom.com Tue Sep 22 22:57:01 1998 Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 19:50:06 -0700 (PDT) From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews06.039 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' O ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ O o O / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' O o O / /-< / /--/ /-- VOLUME 06, ISSUE 039 O o o o o O __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, September 26, 1998 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 FOL-L, Innu-L & Nat-Film Lists; First Nations News; Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty; The Native American Community Forum; North American Spirit Lodge; UUCP email; Newsgroups: alt.native, soc.culture.native Articles appearing have been previously posted for public dissemination and/or permission for inclusion has been secured. Letters of authorization are on file. A list of those granting permission to repost their words in this issue are listed at the end of part A. I thank each of you for allowing your words to be shared with the people. IMPORTANT!! ----------- To all who send copywrite protected articles, make very sure you have permission from the copywrite holder (a newspaper, the AP, a magazine, an author) because a new law is now in effect that says you can be prosecuted even if there is no monetary gain. Just because a newspaper has a website where it posts some or all of its editions does not grant permission for their redistribution. Be careful and be sure you pass on the items you do with full permission. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, all material appearing in this newsletter is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for educational purposes. <----<<<< >>>>----> 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. Downloading Wotanging Ikche on AOL From: MAANG1419@aol.com Just thought I would share some info. I could not download on to a .txt because I kept getting the message (when I tried to retrieve it) that the text editor could not handle the volume. This time I downloaded it on to a .doc and when I retrieved it out of file manager, IT WORKED. "As a child, I understood how to give; I have forgotten that grace since I became civilized. I lived the natural life, whereas I now live the artificial. Any pretty pebble was valuable to me then, every growing tree an object of reverence. "Now I worship with the white man before a painted landscape whose value is estimated in dollars! Thus the Indian is reconstructed, as the natural rocks are ground to a powder and made into artificial blocks that may be built into the walls of modern society." __ Charles Alexander Eastman (Ohiyesa), Santee Sioux +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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 looked hard to find the quote for this week. I knew I had taken it to heart before, but forgot who the thoughts belong to. My thoughts have been dwelling on the basic truths in Dr. Eastman's words. It has come to me that a lot of what is wrong with the dominant society can be attributed to lack of contact with the others who share the land we walk on. Working with stone or leather, or quills or beads makes you more conscience of who you are and your connection with the other beings who are also children of Mother Earth. I am not about to pretend everyone who identifies his or herself as an American Indian is a crafts maker. I do, however, believe most First People know at least two or three others who do make crafts, or keep an herb or food garden, or go to the mountain or desert for answers. Such is not the case with the dominant society. More and more it removes people from contact, even insulating their walk from Earth with thick strands of concrete and asphalt. The workplace further dehumanizes them, those they work for and those they work against. If graves are nothing more than acres, survey marks on computer screens and plats, how real can they be? If the people being displaced by a development are merely being moved from one place on a database to another, how traumatic can the move be? This is not to excuse what is being done. It is to make you realize why "usual" approaches fail to touch the hearts of these corporate monsters, and make us all start to think of more effective means to bring an end to the destruction. We cannot drag these people to a crafts table and make them relate to the rest of Creator's gifts. We cannot rip up the sidewalks and make them walk barefoot. We must find a way to rip away the insulation without destroying ourselves in the process. I don't have an answer, but I do know what we have done till now has not been effective. Our pain, our tears, our anger do not touch them, because few of them reach beneath their superficial surfaces except at those times when they must to deal with their own pain, anger and tears. =/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\= If you are a veteran you need to know that a bill signed by President Clinton is now a law. If a veteran has NOT registered at a VA hospital since October 1, 1996, then on October 1, 1998 he or she will lose all medical benefits for life. To register or for information contact your VA Medical Center. =/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\= The language project I have started is moving very slowly, but it is moving. The need for this is a thing I truly believe. Without language a culture dies. What is said in any language seldom translates literally to another. It, at best, approximates the meaning. Our languages are dying. Our cultures will not linger long without our own words to describe the events in our lives, the ways passed down by our ancestors and our prophecies. I am collecting language resource information. Please send me all information each of you have regarding language resources. This should include all written teachings including dictionaries, grammar books and stories. Include all audio and video resources. Include the source, how it is distributed, the publisher, ISBN or other catalogue information that might be known. Include cost and current availability if you have it. Finally, include _your_ opinion. Is it good, bad, indifferent? I will keep this information, by language/nation and make what I have available to any who request it. Send what you can via email to gars@netcom.com You may also send info via snail mail to P O Box 672168. Marietta GA 30006. 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 ---------- - Protest Primer - Round Lake Treatment Center - Sovereignty Backlash Sex-abuse Case - Senate Supports Arts Funding - Council Shuts Door - Audit Raps Cherokees - Imagining Ourselves Richly - Haggling Stalls - Casino Plan Backfires Cherokee Buyout - Authenticity Is - King Ferdinand's Letter Tourist Attraction to the Taino - I Stop to Remember - Colon's Venture? - Native Prisoner - Press Release From - Sequoyah Cheyenne & Arapaho - A Hundred Years Ago - Cris du Lac Lubicon - Poem: Warrior's Stand - Chiapas and El Salvador - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - Much Disaster/Little Relief - Conferences and Powwows - Taku Tlingit Will Block Atlin - Native America Calling --------- "RE: Protest Primer" --------- Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1998 16:07:24 -0500 From: JT Shupe Subj: Protest Primer Newsgroup: soc.culture.native "What is the Point to all of this Protesting?..." A Primer ------------------------------------------------------------------------- For those who don't understand the offense taken by Indian people about derogatory team names, mascots and accompanying behavior - this is a basic primer. It responds to the arguments most often used by those who are insensitive to the pain they are causing. The passages from the Holy Books of Christianity, Islam and Judaism included in this brochure have been suggested by members of several faith communities to be used as a basis for prayerful consideration of the information being presented. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q: What's the point to all of this protesting? It's honoring the Indians... A: "Would you paint your face black, wear an Afro wig and prance around the football field trying to imitate your perceptions of Black people? Of course not! That would be insulting to Blacks so why is it okay to do it to Indians?" -- Tim Giago : Editor in chief, The Lakota Times Q: Shouldn't we protest the California Angels and the New Orleans Saints because they are offensive to Christians? A: "When you go to one of their games and they are selling toy crucifixes as souvenirs and every time the team scores, the fans wave those crucifixes and a little mascot dressed like the pope runs around and sprinkles holy water on all the drunks, then you should start protesting... And us Indians will be right there beside you..." -- Clyde Bellecourt : Director, National American Indian Movement "Treat others as you would like them to treat you." Luke 6:31 Q: Aren't there more important Issues for Indian people to be worried about? A: "People of faith need to stand up and take this issue seriously. The use of demeaning caricatures of American Indian people as "mascots" or logos for sports teams is morally wrong. It denies human beings the respect they deserve as brothers and sisters created in the image of God. The church strongly opposes any use of racial stereotypes, especially for commercial profit. The time has come to put an end to this form of racism in our society." -- The Rt. Rev. Steve Charlston, Episcopal Bishop of Alaska "...Had Allah willed He could have made you one community. But that He may try you by that which He hath given you (He made you as ye are.) So vie with one another in good works. Unto Allah ye all return, and he will then inform you of that wherein ye differ." Qur'an, Ch.5 V.48 Q: Why can an Indian reservation high school have an Indian logo and nickname such as "the Warriors," and other teams can't? A:"Ethnocentric insensitivity and disregard for opinions of Native people is the continuing saga of American history. Only Native people should have the rights to say how their images are projected to the outside public." -- Paul DeMain : Editor, News From Indian Country A:"The whole point is that NATIVE AMERICANS can and should make the decision about how they are portrayed. If they choose to use an appropriate symbol for their school, that is their perogative. It is not a matter for non-Indians to decide." -- Sharon Metz : Director, HONOR "...If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what Am I? And if not now, when? -- Hillel 1:14 Q: This has been going on for years. Why didn't the Indians protest when the symbols were adopted? A: "The issue that these logos and mascots offend has always been there. We have a chance to change it with respect to Indian people and be enlightened in the process. We don't know our own racism in using these logos and mascots." -- Rev. Marlene Whiterabbit Helgemo: VCC Q: I know some Indians who think the logos are fine and some even sell plastic tomahawks. Isn't it just a radical minority that is protesting? A: "The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), as the voice of Indian Peoples and Tribal Governments, recognizes the sovereignty and rights of each tribe to determine their own destiny. NCAI and other national and regional Indian and non-Indian organizations strongly oppose the denigration and stereotyping of rich Indian cultures and heritage and does not saction the pandering and pecuniary gain by those perpetrating these negative images. Our sacred songs, dances, ceremonies, languages and religions are precious to us as a people." -- Gaiashkibos : President, National Congress of American Indians and Chairperson, Lac Courte Oreilles Tribal Governing Board. "...Let us therefor cease judging one another, but rather make this simple judgement: that no obstacle or stumbling-block be placed in a brothers way." -- Romans 14:13 Q: How does it harm Indian people? A: "As a group of professional mental health providers, we are in agreement that using images of American Indians as mascots... is damaging to the self-concept and self esteem of our people." -- American Indian Mental Health Association of Minnesota A: "The issue of the Indian mascot has affected the perceptions of both Native Americans and non-natives toward the image of Native American people, as well as leaving emotional and psychological scars in those parents and students involved in teh continuous struggle of unlearning Indian stereotypes." -- Cornel Pewewardy : Principal, American Indian Magnet Schools, St. Paul, Minnesota. "...Each of us must consider his neighbor and think what is right for his good and will build up the common life." -- Romans 15:2 The quote and definitions below were taken from a t-shirt produced for the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media located in Minneapolis, MN. "I find it difficult to accept your statement that the name 'Redskins' is racist, derogatory and demeaning to the American Indian." -- Jack Kent Cooke, Owner of the Washington "Redskins" "redskin, n. (often disparaging and offensive) a North American Indian." -- The Random House Dictionary Second Edition, Unabridged "redskin: a No. American Indian - Usu. taken to be offensive" -- Webster's Third New International Dictionary "redskin 1. A North American Indian (not the preferred term.)" -- The Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition Q: What can I do to support Indian people and efforts to change attitudes and use of stereotypes? A: 1) Consult with local tribal leaders in your area... 2) Write to HONOR and request a list of appropriate actions... 3) Write to local universities and school districts that use Indian Nicknames and mascots. 4) Write to the owners and commissioners of national professional teams. For more information, please contact: Honor, Inc. 2647 North Stowell Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53211 414/963-1324 Copyright 1992, HONOR. --------- "RE: Sovereignty Backlash" --------- Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 21:59:30 -0600 From: "Suzan" Subj: Tribes Face Sovereignty Backlash Newsgroup: alt.native Rocky Mtn New story clipping: Date unknown. Crow Agency, MT. Tourist drive over Crow roads, they dump garbage on Crow land, they get into disputes with Crow Police. But until 1995, when the Crow started levying a 4%resort taxon businesses catering to the tourists within the Reservation, the tribe was getting little revenue from the millions of people who wantd to see where the man the Indians called Yellow Hair made his last stand. The Crow were making a stand for sovereignty and for economic survival. But many non-Indians on the reservation did not see it that way. They saw it as taxation without representation and have refused to pay it. "I didn't persecute anybody at Plymouth Rock" said James Thompson, a tax opponent who owns Custer Battlefield Trading Co., just a stones throw from where 210 soldiers fell. "This is the 1990's. We didn't do anything to them and we don't owe them anything." But what started as a local tax dispute around a battleground of great historical value has now evolved into a legal and political fight that could have historic and national implications of its own. "Citizens of the United States should not have their rights limited by separate governments within the United States," said Sen Gorton. For nearly 30 years, this has been his battle cry. This year he will try to make it the law of the land. --------- "RE: Senate Supports Arts Funding" --------- Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998 08:53:57 -0600 From: "John Berry" Subj: (FWD)Indian News 9-16-98 ------- FORWARD, Original message follows ------- Subj: Indian News 9-16-98 Roger Iron Cloud FirstNations Listserv 202.358.3252 rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov Senate Supports Arts Funding .c The Associated Press By JIM ABRAMS 9/15/98 WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate on Tuesday confirmed its strong support for the National Endowment for the Arts, rejecting by 76-22 a proposal to quit funding the federal arts agency. The Senate vote came two months after the House, where opposition to the NEA is more entrenched, also reversed decisions of past years and endorsed funding for the agency. Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., proposed to eliminate $100 million in funding for the arts agency in fiscal 1999, saying, "The government simply should not be in a position to determine what is art and what is not." But Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., said it was "highly appropriate to continue the modest support" for the agency. "The reforms that have been imposed on the National Endowment for the Arts by the Congress of the United States have, in fact, worked," he said. The NEA has been a target for extinction since Republicans took over control of Congress in 1995, with opponents accusing it of funding blasphemous works and saying the government shouldn't be involved in deciding what is good art. "We've seen that government funding has frequently meant pornography, obscenity, attacks on religious faith," Ashcroft said. But there has also been recognition that newly imposed congressional oversight of NEA spending and NEA efforts to ensure that its assistance reaches a broader spectrum of Americans have been effective in answering past complaints. Last year the House by one vote decided to eliminate all NEA funding. The $98 million budget was later restored at the insistence of the Senate and the White House. But this year the House voted 253-173 for NEA's $98 million budget. NEA Chairman Bill Ivey said there was a real possibility this year for the first increase in the budget in eight years. "It is an indication of the kind of bipartisan support that is building under us and we couldn't be more pleased," he said. The NEA, which provides matching grants for arts groups and state and local arts organizations, has seen its budget drop from a high of $175 million in 1992. The administration this year requested $136 million for the agency. The NEA budget is part of a $13.4 billion spending bill to fund Interior Department, Indian and cultural programs in the fiscal year beginning on Oct. 1. The bill is S. 2237. --------- "RE: Audit Raps Cherokees" --------- Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998 08:53:57 -0600 From: "John Berry" Subj: (FWD)Indian News 9-16-98 ------- FORWARD, Original message follows ------- Subj: Indian News 9-16-98 Roger Iron Cloud FirstNations Listserv 202.358.3252 ironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov Audit raps Cherokees' use of $88,000 By ROB MARTINDALE Tulsa World 9/16/98 TAHLEQUAH -- The Cherokee Nation has had its "hands slapped pretty good" by a U.S. Interior Department audit, Chief Joe Byrd said Tuesday. The audit faults the tribe for using $88,000 in federal funds to pay legal fees but makes no charges of misuse of funds, Byrd said. The chief said he was briefed on the audit last week in Washington by Interior's assistant secretary Kevin Gover and received a draft of the report. The final audit -- requested by members of the state's congressional delegation -- is expected by Sept. 25. It will be made public then if it hasn't already been released, Byrd said. He declined to release the audit now. The Interior Department's inspector general audited the tribe's legal expenditures from October 1995, the year Byrd became chief, through February 1998. Charles Head, the tribe's executive director of finance and administration, said the department questioned the use of $88,000 in federal funds to pay a Washington law firm in the tribe's litigation with the federal government over ownership of the Arkansas River riverbed. Head said the tribe would return the money to the federal government. He said he didn't expect the tribe to lose any federal funds because of the audit findings. The tribe's summary of the audit says it "shows the Cherokee Nation incurred costs of some legal services without formal contracts, without support for some costs billed and outside the purview of contract terms and conditions, and some were in excess of tribal council-approved appropriations." Byrd said the audit draft was critical of the tribe but could have been worse. "We got our hands slapped pretty good by the Department of Interior, and we'll accept that. This is not something we are happy with because of the time and effort that have gone into making our system work," he said. However, he said, Interior "didn't want to cripple the tribe. It wanted to send a message." He said the auditors applauded the tribe for keeping federal programs intact during months of controversy in the Cherokee Nation. "They said if we were not delivering programs that they would have jerked the rug out from under us," Byrd said. The Cherokee Nation has been investigated by the FBI and several federal agencies following allegations of misuse of federal funds. In the past 18 months, the tribe has been through a raid by Cherokee Nation marshals on Byrd's headquarters, impeachment attempts, the firing of the marshals, obstruction of justice charges against the chief, violence at the Cherokee Courthouse, layoffs, boycotts of council meetings and alleged wiretapping. Byrd said the Interior Department audit didn't include the Cherokee Nation Housing Authority because that is a state agency. Joel Thompson, the Housing Authority's former director, faces a federal trial in Muskogee on embezzlement charges. Byrd said he showed copies of the draft audit to seven council members, who returned the copies. Byrd blamed a faulty accounting system for the problems the audit found. Council member Paula Holder declined comment on the draft report, but she said the accounting system was not to blame. Byrd did not disclose the total amount of federal funds examined by the audit. U.S. Rep. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said in May that a preliminary report showed the audit would say that up to $10 million might have been misappropriated. --------- "RE: Haggling Stalls Cherokee Buyout" --------- Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 08:29:30 -0600 From: "John Berry" Subj: (FWD)Indian News 9-19-98 ------- FORWARD, Original message follows ------- Subject: Indian News 9-19-98 Roger Iron Cloud FirstNations Listserv 202.358.3252 rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov Haggling over final amount stalls Cherokee tribal buyout By Rob Martindale Tulsa World 9/19/98 TAHLEQUAH -- The Cherokee Nation and nine of its fired marshals are $58,000 apart in efforts to finalize a buyout agreement, tribal court records show. The tribe issued checks Friday for the former marshal service as part of a partial settlement, but the two sides are far apart on a final agreement. Checks were written Friday for the marshals totalling $95,536 as set down in an order from the tribe's Judicial Appeals Tribunal, Cherokee Nation spokeswoman Lynn Adair said. As the second and final part of the buyout, the tribe has offered $101, 080 for a total buyout package of $196,616, according to court records. However, the marshals are seeking $159,000, for a total package of $254, 936. The marshals filed suit in tribal court after being fired last year for conducting a raid on the headquarters of Chief Joe Byrd in search of evidence of misuse of funds. The tribe agreed to settle the case and make the partial payment Friday. According to the court, the settlement is to be finalized by next Friday. If any discrepancies between the administration and marshals can't be worked out, Chief Justice Dwight Birdwell said he will issue an order next Friday. The partial settlement executed Friday was worked out through negotiations before a special magistrate, Julian Fite. The tribe and the marshals apparently agreed on the initial buyout for missed pay until January 1999, but they aren't in agreement over the amount from February of last year to early this year. --------- "RE: King Ferdinand's Letter to the Taino" --------- Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 11:17:15 -0400 From: SueWE Subj: King Ferdinand's letter to the Taino Indians UUCP email Thought you all might be interested in this bit of history. It's a letter from King Ferdinand, carried by Columbus on his 2nd voyage to Haiti, speaking to the Taino/Arawak Indians, and it's shockingly blatant. http://www.isnet.org/archive-milis/jan95/0535.html SueWE Sue White Eagle IMPERIALISM WITHOUT ANY PRETENCE! Below is a letter which King Ferdinand sent along with Columbus on his second voyage to Haiti. It was to be communicated to the Taino/Arawak Indians. It is a fascinating document. The King wants the Indians to acknowledge the Christian religion and God, and to accept the authority of the King of Spain. The letter is a mix of promises of benefits that will come to them, but quickly followed up with the direst of threats if they do no comply. It is all so blatant. I read documents like these from past centuries and I often think I'd rather be living in a time when there wasn't as much pretence. It seems, at least, that people were bolder, or more fool hardy or perhaps just more powerful and arrogant, but they tended to say what they meant. Today countries like the U.S. seem to be just as imperialistic as was Spain in 1500, but they try to act like they are not. King Ferdinand's letter is shocking and horrible, but at the same time the unmasked nature of his imperialism is refreshing. I will be sharing this letter with my class tomorrow night as part of helping them understand what the Spanish occupation meant to the natives of Hispaniola. Bob Corbett P.S. Hope to see some of you at 8 PM tonight on IRC, channel #haiti. ====================================================================== In the name of King Ferdinand and Juana, his daughter, Queen of Castile and Leon, etc., conquerors of barbarian nations, we notify you as best we can that our Lord God Eternal created Heaven and earth and a man and woman from whom we all descend for all times and all over the world. In the 5,000 years since creation the multitude of these generations caused men to divide and establish kingdoms in various parts of the world, among whom God chose St. Peter as leader of mankind, regardless of their law, sect or belief. He seated St. Peter in Rome as the best place from which to rule the world but he allowed him to establish his seat in all parts of the world and rule all people, whether Christians, Moors, Jews, Gentiles or any other sect. He was named Pope, which means admirable and greatest father, governor of all men. Those who lived at that time obeyed St. Peter as Lord and superior King of the universe, and so did their descendants obey his successors and so on to the end of time. The late Pope gave these islands and mainland of the ocean and the contents hereof to the above-mentioned King and Queen, as is certified in writing and you may see the documents if you should so desire. Therefore, Their Highnesses are lords and masters of this land; they were acknowledged as such when this notice was posted, and were and are being served willingly and without resistance; then, their religious envoys were acknowledged and obeyed without delay, and all subjects unconditionally and of their own free will became Christians and thus they remain. Their Highnesses received their allegiance with joy and benignity and decreed that they be treated in this spirit like good and loyal vassals and you are under the obligation to do the same. Therefore, we request that you understand this text, deliberate on its contents within a reasonable time, and recognize the Church and its highest priest, the Pope, as rulers of the universe, and in their name the King and Queen of Spain as rulers of this land, allowing the religious fathers to preach our holy Faith to you. You own compliance as a duty to the King and we in his name will receive you with love and charity, respecting your freedom and that of your wives and sons and your rights of possession and we shall not compel you to baptism unless you, informed of the Truth, wish to convert to our holy Catholic Faith as almost all your neighbors have done in other islands, in exchange for which Their Highnesses bestow many privileges and exemptions upon you. Should you fail to comply, or delay maliciously in so doing, we assure you that with the help of God we shall use force against you, declaring war upon you from all sides and with all possible means, and we shall bind you to the yoke of the Church and of Their Highnesses; we shall enslave your persons, wives and sons, sell you or dispose of you as the King sees fit; we shall seize your possessions and harm you as much as we can as disobedient and resisting vassals. And we declare you guilty of resulting deaths and injuries, exempting Their Highnesses of such guilt as well as ourselves and the gentlemen who accompany us. We hereby request that legal signatures be af fixed to this text and pray those present to bear witness for us, etc. --------- "RE: Colon's Venture?" --------- Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 00:45:45 -0400 From: Tony Castanha Subj: TAINO-L Digest - 14 Sep 1998 to 15 Sep 1998 (#1998-126) Mailing List: Taino-L Taino interest forum On Tue, 15 Sep 1998, Automatic digest processor wrote: >Columbus in his venture of glory, became informed of the existence >of the American continent via the writings of other Europeans who had >already visited the Americas. Regarding the Earth being round, well >other highly advanced Native American Indian civilizations had already >discovered that to be a common known fact.... Guaitiao, Could it be clarified which "writings" are being referred to here? That is, is it being implied that Colon really KNEW where he was going? I thought it would be impossible for one to discover a place they had no idea existed, since the notion of "discovery" implies having at least some idea of where you're going. Though other Europeans had certainly sailed the "ocean blue" and were aware of the existence of the "Americas," Colon's own journal writings and just about everything else written on the "discovery" era over the past century clearly show the man to have been thoroughly LOST. At first Cuba is Japan (Cipangu), and then later amazingly becomes the continent of Asia. "Cuba then must be Cathy, the domain of the Grand Khan, and so a formal embassy was sent to the Emperor of China! Columbus concluded that Cuba was the eastern end of the continent of Asia" (Garcia). He died thinking he had reached the Indies of India. Colon also apparently was not attempting to prove the earth was round which was commonly accepted in "academic" circles at the time, but rather summoned to exploit heathen lands in the name of Christiandom as the Portuguese had already been doing in Africa. The man, or fool, should not be celebrated at all. Tony Castanha Boricua de Hawai'i --------- "RE: Press Release From Cheyenne & Arapaho" --------- Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 01:25:51 EDT From: Miketben@aol.com Subj: N.A.S.L. - Press Release From Cheyenne & Arapaho <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> ***NORTH AMERICAN SPIRIT LODGE*** FOR YOUR INFO <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Subj: Press Release From the Cheyenne & Arapaho Date: 98-09-16 21:11:55 EDT From: DAKKASWAN To: Miketben Dear Mike, Am sending you the fax I got today. At the end of the press release, I will add some of my own words and ask you to send this out to all NASL members, and to all your Native American Resources so we can support this. =============================================== PRESS RELEASE SEPTEMBER 15, 1998 CONTACT: ROBERT TABOR, VICE-CHAIRMAN AT : (405)262-0345, Ext.#125 or the Public Information Office. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRIBAL CEREMONIAL MAN ON HUNGER STRIKE Prays for the return of Fort Reno Lands --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Concho, OK.- Tribal Council member Franklin "Butch" Harrison is currently on a hunger strike to sacrifice and pray to our Creator to get back the Fort Reno lands that the Government took from the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma for "military purposes exclusively" in 1883. Over the past fifty years since the land was transferred from the military to the Department of Agriculture the Tribes have made numerous attempts and trips to Washington, D. C. to reclaim this most sacred land. As recently as June 17, 1996, our Tribes were able to secure the "good faith" intentions of the Government of the United States when none other than Bill Clinton told Tribal leaders in the White House following a recital of the facts that "we're going to help these people then" in their efforts to regain this most important land to Tribal owndership. As the months and now years have flown by nothing has occurred and as a result Mr. Harrison is now making this sacrifice to focus attention on the wrong that has been committed in this long and torturous effort. Mr. Harrison's last words before he went into the sacred teepee were "its time for the Government and the Administration to do the right thing and return this land to its rightful owners." =============================================== NOTE FROM N.A.S.L. CHAIRPERSON DAKKASWAN@AOL.COM As many of you know, we supported the Cheyenne and Arapaho people in a previous effort to reclaim Fort Reno. I am asking that once again all the members of the North American Spirit Lodge (AND anyone else who may happen to receive this e-mail message) to please step forward and email, make calls, and send snail mail to your congressmen and senators. Contact the President. It is time for the Government of the United States to live up to the many promises they have made us over the last 500 years. Mr. Harrison is a personal friend of mine. He is Arapaho. He is also a 52 year old combat veteran, having served in Viet Nam. He is on the Tax Commission for the Tribal Committee of the Cheyenne and Arapaho people in Oklahoma. Please send copies of your letters of support to : Robert Tabor c/o Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma P. O. Box 38 Concho, Oklahoma 73022 (405) 262-0345 ------------------------------------------------------------- President Bill Clinton The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Washington, DC 20500 Thank You! Mary --------- "RE: Cris du Lac Lubicon" --------- Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 12:55:32 -0500 From: fol@tao.ca Subj: Fwd: Cris du Lac Lubicon: Act Mailing List: FOL-L What follows is an appeal from the Amitie Lubicons Quebec initiating a letter-writing campaign to support Lubicon land rights negotiations. ---------------------- English version ---------------------- September 1998 Right Honourable Jean Chretien Prime Minister of Canada Ottawa, Canada K1A 0A2 Dear Prime Minister Chretien, I am concerned that the current round of negotiations between the federal government and the Lubicon Crees will break down once more over the federal government's refusal to recognise the rights of this indigenous nation. My immediate concern is that the right of the Lubicon First Nation to determine its own membership will not be recognised. As opposition leader, you said of the Lubicon situation, "Time is wasting" and "It is time for action." Almost five and a half years later, we are still waiting to see a settlement. The Lubicon situation continues to embarass Canada internationally; the 1990 ruling of the UN Human Rights Committee that the way of life and culture of the Lubicons was threatened and that Canada was in violation of article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights with respect to the Lubicon people, remains outstanding. It is important - for the Lubicons, for Canadians, for business - that the current negotiations succeed in achieving a speedy and just settlement for the Lubicon Crees. But the negotiations are threatened on many fronts. First, negotiations are taking place under the duress of continued exploration and resource exploitation on Lubicon lands by private companies under provincial licence. Resource exploitation which does not respect the Lubicons' way of life continues to destroy their society and economy. In listing "what not to do" in negotiations, the UN's 1998 "Study on treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements between States and indigenous populations" uses the Lubicon case as an example of "the creation of conditions of duress" (para 301). Why is the 1997 Supreme Court Delgamuukw ruling, that it is illegal to exploit resources on lands under aboriginal title without at least consulting the Aboriginal Nation, being ignored by our governments? The federal Indian Act, cited by the same UN report as an example of law as an instrument of colonialism (para 98), is itself creating obstacles to a rapid and just agreement. All existing avenues should be pursued to meet the Lubicons' eminently reasonable position that all their members be recognised equally for the purposes of the agreement between the Lubicons and the federal government, Treaty 8 and the Indian Act. Are our laws so unjust in Canada that we can't agree to this condition for settlement in a timely fashion? Are we so avaricious as a nation that, after years of oppression and billions of dollars of resources extracted from Lubicon lands, we can't find resources to compensate all of the people the Lubicons count as members when this only involves hundreds - not thousands - of people? Finally, the government of Canada is wrong to take the position that the settlement with the Lubicons should be "equitable" with other settlements if this means an unjust settlement condemning the Lubicons to a future of welfare dependency. The fact is that many of these other settlements are unjust and should not be taken as benchmarks. I call on you to negotiate, on behalf of the Canadian people, an agreement with the Lubicon which allows them a secure and dignified future and respects their rights as a nation. sincerely, Name: Adress: City: Zip code: Telephone: --------- "RE: Chiapas and El Salvador" --------- Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 11:21:21 EDT From: NACFAnda@aol.com Subj: NACF NEWS ~ CHIAPAS & EL SALVADOR 9/19 The Native American Community Forum On America Online Presents: A Presentation of Turtle Island...A Gathering of Nations Free Leonard Peltier. . . NASC Leonard Peltier DataLinks http://members.aol.com/NASCSwan/LeonardPeltier.html CHIAPAS & EL SALVADOR. . . Subj: anis update Date: 9/18/98 3:03:36 PM Eastern Daylight Time From: mediac@erols.com (Medina-Tayac) Chief Adrian Esquino Lisco and Elba Perez, leaders of the National Association of Indigenous Salvadorans, continue to be held in a prison in Santa Ana, El Salvador. Chief Esquino is elderly, and quite infirm with diabetes. The Salvadoran authorities have set bail at approximately $5,000. The amount demanded of this pacifict man, with an impoverished indigenous community as his constituents, makes the arrest conditions eligible for arbitrary arrest. This is not due process. International Indian Treaty Council has filed an application for investigation of arbitrary detention with the United Nations Working Group for Arbitrary Detention in Geneva, Switzerland. Please continue to flood Ambassador Rene Leon at the Salvadoran Embassy 104124.232@compuserve with demands for immediate release of Chief Esquino and Elba Perez. Call your Congress people and urge them to send letters of investigation to the American Embassy in El Salvador and President Armando Calderon Sol. Thank you all for your support of our indigenous relatives in the South. FREE ADRIAN!!!! QUE VIVA ANIS!!! FREE ELBA!!! QUE VIVA ANIS!!! Subj: anis court Date: 9/18/98 10:13:52 PM Eastern Daylight Time From: mediac@erols.com (Medina-Tayac) Tomorrow at 10am at the First Circuit Court in Sonsonate, El Salvador, Chief Adrian Esquino Lisco and Elba Perez will testify to their innocence. Mass support has been mobilized and demonstrations will take place outside of the court from all sectors of Salvadoran society who love ANIS and seek justice. Chief Esquino and Elba Perez, leaders of the National Association of Indigenous Salvadorans (ANIS), were arbitrarily detained and beaten by National Civil Police by orders of the right-wing Minister of the Interior Mario Acosta Ortel. This is fully a political matter. El Salvador, unable to turn the non-governmental ANIS into puppets of the local ARENA party, has decided to create government backed pseudo-indigenous organizations. With these organizations directed and paid by the ARENA party, the government can access monies from the International Indigenous Voluntary Fund and do whatever it wants. ANIS has suffered severely for maintaining its autonomy and rights to self-determination and peaceful subsisence cooperatives. Amnesty International has issued numerous urgent actions and reports on behalf of ANIS members. Rape, bombings, death threats, execution, arbitrary detention and torture have all been reported by Amnesty International about ANIS. One of the most grisly incidents was the 1996 massacre of the entire Vasquez Ramirez family, when elderly women and children ages 2 to 13 were hacked to death with machetes. Chief Esquino and ANIS non-governmental leaders refuse to back down in seeking justice for these attacks. For this, they are persecuted. Please continue to flood Salvadoran Ambassador Dr. Rene Leon with e-mails demanding the immediate release of Chief Esquino and Elba Perez: 104124.232@compuserve.com. Thanks everyone who has done so. Use your own freedom to gain the freedom of our indigenous compatriots. Do not waste this precious right. Respond now! FREE ADRIAN!!! FREE ELBA!!! QUE VIVA ANIS !!! QUE VIVA ANIS!!! --------- "RE: Much Disaster/Little Relief" --------- Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998 08:45:39 -0700 From: Nancy Thomas Subj: Re: Mexico: much disaster, little relief Mailing List: Paths-L SUNDAY, September 13, 1998 *** MUCH DISASTER, LITTLE RELIEF *** With the number of dead now unofficially put at 117 in Chiapas, and at least 157 missing - many of whom are feared to be dead - and 400,000 persons still completely cut off - the government's prioirities are to save as many people as they can from starvation. The effects of the disastrous storms and flooding have still not been fully comprehended. As one military officer stated: "You have to be realistic, the infrastructure doesn't exist to reach all the communities which need help." And by "help," he means food, water and minimal shelter from the elements, which are expected to turn difficult again. Many communities have been without any contact now for six days. Outbreaks of communicable diseases, especially bacterial conjunctivitis, are now occurring, and, given the devastating conditions in the area, are only likely to worsen. There is much concern for the possibility of dengue fever appearing. President Zedillo has conceded that what Chiapas is experiencing right now is "probably the greatest natural disaster since the earthquake in 1985" in Mexico. Nonetheless, despite the deployment of all the resources at the government's disposal, the sheer magnitude of the human suffering - which continues - is unimaginable. There have been continuing reports of aid being distributed along party lines, despite Zedillo's repeated protestations. Zedillo implied that if this were true, it would be the aid being collected and distributed by non- governmental sources, such as social and political organizations. Zedillo was questioned about the possibility that the chiapaneco elections - scheduled for this October 4 - might be postponed. He handed the microphone to the relentlessly interim Governor Roberto Albores Guillen, who then proceeded to stumble, using the term "conflict zone," instead of "disaster zone." Zedillo corrected him: "It's disaster zone, Roberto." SOURCES: La Jornada, El Universal La Cronica de Hoy, all 9/13/98 _______________________________ NUEVO AMANECER PRESS - N.A.P. To learn about us visit: WEB PAGE: http://www.nap.cuhm.mx/nap0.htm General Director: Roger Maldonado European Director: Darrin Wood Coordinator: Mexico-USA-Europe: Susana Saravia (Anibarro) Correspondent and Advisor: Guillermo Michel (Mexico) Correspondents and Translation: irlandesa (USA) and Maria Elena Hope (Mexico) A press in support of human rights. Advisory Team: Mexico Email: amanecer@aa.net and amanecer@cuhm.mx --------- "RE: Taku Tlingit Will Block Atlin" --------- Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 02:29:09 -0800 From: SISIS@envirolink.org (S.I.S.I.S.) Subj: Taku Tlingit will block development :-:-:-:-:-:-:-Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty-:-:-:-:-:-:-: NATIVES SAY THEY'LL BLOCK ATLIN PROJECT The Vancouver Province, Sept. 15, 1998 Page A16, by Kent Spencer [S.I.S.I.S. note: The following mainstream news article may contain biased or distorted information and may be missing pertinent facts and/or context. It is provided for reference only.] Landowner Maria Heissig fears a threatened native blockade will ruin her plans for development at the small community of Atlin in northwestern BC. The natives have threatened to blockade her property if she goes ahead with plans to build a subdivision there. "If this can happen to me, it can happen to anybody," said Heissig. "Land title should mean something. This is Canada, not some Third World country." Native spokesman Melvin Jack said the Taku River Tlingit First Nation contends native land was taken wrongfully in 1904. "Leaders have been jailed, and many elders have been jailed, and many elders have passed on, waiting and working for our land to be returned to us," Jack said. "In the meantime, successive provincial and federal governments have blamed each other." Now the focus has switched to a 20 hectare parcel on Atlin Lake near the centre of the community of 500. "The natives told me they would blockade the only access road [tomorrow] if our surveyor begins work," said Heissig. She bought the parcel from private hands nine years ago and has paid the taxes on it since. She has a letter of recommendation from Atlin's advisory planning committee for her 25-lot proposal, and "all the necessary approvals from the province." Austrian born Heissig, who has lived in Canada for 25 years and is in the auto-parts business in Ontario, said: "Local residents want to buy the lots and Europeans want to be there as well." If the blockade occurs, Heissig plans to go to police. If they won't help "we'll just have to sue." :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: Letters to The Province - mailto:provedpg@pacpress.southam.ca Letters to BC Premier Glen Clark - mailto:premier@gov.bc.ca In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: S.I.S.I.S. Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty P.O. Box 8673, Victoria, "B.C." "Canada" V8X 3S2 EMAIL: SISIS@envirolink.org WWW: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/SISmain.html --------- "RE: Round Lake Treatment Center Sex-abuse Case" --------- Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 07:14:05 -0800 From: SISIS@envirolink.org (S.I.S.I.S.) Subj: BC's Round Lake Treatment Center Sex-abuse Case :-:-:-:-:-:-:-Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty-:-:-:-:-:-:-: NATIVE DRUG CENTRE FACES SEX-ABUSE SUIT Vancouver Sun, August 28, 1998 by Stewart Bell [S.I.S.I.S. note: The following mainstream news article may contain biased or distorted information and may be missing pertinent facts and/or context. It is provided for reference only.] An Agassiz woman is claiming she was raped repeatedly by her counsellor, Charles Andrew, while attending the centre as a teenager. She also says a staff member acted as a look-out during the assaults. Wayne Christian, executive director of the Round Lake society, said the allegation by De Roux is the first of its kind in the 20 years the society has been operating. More than 5,000 aboriginal people from across Canada and the U.S. have been treated at the centre, which is on Okanagan Indian reserve land near Vernon. Eight out of 10 completed the intensive program, which combines the philosophy of Alcoholics Anonymous with traditional aboriginal healing beliefs. Two-thirds have stayed sober. "It changed my life," said Anita McPhee, a North Vancouver resident who went to Round Lake in 1994 to deal with her alcohol and drug problem. "It was one of the most positive experiences of my life." But Annette De Roux says she was sexually assaulted "in my room, in his office, in the gym bathroom, in the storage room in the basement and at other places on the site of the Round Lake Treatment Centre premises." De Roux, now 23, has launched a lawsuit against Andrew, who has not been seen since 1993, and the Interior Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Society, which runs the Round Lake facility. The case will be in court in Vancouver Sept. 8 to schedule a trial date. The case is part of a trend in which victims of abuses are seeking to make institutions liable for the alleged misdeeds of their employees. The courts appear to be moving in that direction, having found, for example, that the United Church was partly responsible for the abuses of a residential school supervisor. Christian said the centre thoroughly checks out prospective employees and keeps close track of clients during their stay. But De Roux, who also claims she was sexually assaulted by her stepfather, John Wells, beginning at age three, tells a different story. De Roux lives on the Sea Bird Island Indian reserve and has a daughter she says was fathered by Andrew. On the advice of her lawyer, Theresa Stowe, De Roux declined to be interviewed. "No comment and no picture and no thank you," she said. De Roux was born on May 27, 1975, the daughter of Sharon and Clayton De Roux. She lived in remote Hendrick's Lake until age two, when she moved with her mother to Vancouver. Her mother lived in a house on Quebec Street with Wells, then at a place on Welwin Street. It was at this home, and at nearby Clark Park, that de Roux claims the sex assaults began. The abuse continued after the family moved to another home on Broadway, she claims. Wells, who is also named as a defendant in her lawsuit, denies the allegations. At age 12, De Roux became a ward of the province and moved into a Maple Ridge foster home. She was discharged to her mother the next year. That Christmas, during a visit to Wells's home, she claims in her suit, she and Wells had intercourse for the first time. In the new year, she went to another foster home, but soon went absent without leave, a pattern that continued at various foster homes throughout Vancouver over the next three years. She went to Templeton secondary school, but left after a week. At age 16, she moved in with Wells in Hope. It was 1992. She attended the Hope Alcohol and Drug Program. "During my stay with him, Wells sexually assaulted me on a daily basis," she says in her court statement. She left after eight months. Addicted to drugs and alcohol, she arrived at Round Lake on Nov. 2, 1992 for an intensive treatment program. De Roux's drug and alcohol counsellor was Andrew, the adopted son of a retired RCMP officer. He started work at Round Lake two months before De Roux arrived. During the Christmas holiday, De Roux returned to Wells's home and Andrew visited. She alleges Andrew sexually assaulted her at a Best Western hotel in Vancouver, then again at a motel in Kamloops. After she returned to Round Lake, the assaults continued "on frequent occasions" the suit says. "Members of the Round Lake Treatment Centre were aware of the sexual assaults," she says in her suit. She says she has suffered posttraumatic stress disorder, headaches, eating disorders, sleeping disorders, depression, anxiety and suicidal periods. She further claims that Andrew took advantage of her vulnerable condition, and that she was legally an "infant" as defined by B.C. law and therefore unable to consent to sex. Andrew, she says, knew or ought to have known she "was suffering from psychological problems and addiction to drugs and alcohol, and was a particularly vulnerable child." She also claims the society that runs Round Lake was negligent because it failed to protect her, didn't properly supervise Andrew and didn't adequately check into his qualifications as a counsellor for addicted children. According to Christian, Andrew didn't show up for work one day in January 1993 and hasn't been seen since. Following his departure, the entire adolescent treatment program was dropped following an internal review that questioned its effectiveness, Christian said. No one has been able to locate Andrew, but he is believed to be living on an Interior Indian reserve. The need for a treatment centre for aboriginal people was first recognized in 1977, when Okanagan court workers and community leaders saw the connection between alcoholism, crime and family violence. They formed the Interior Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Society, secured a site on seven hectares of Okanagan Indian reserve land and lobbied for government funding. B.C. offered money, then Ottawa followed suit. The doors opened in 1979. At first, the centre was a 24-bed facility in construction trailers left over from the Mica Dam project. Then, with a $2.2-million federal loan, the society built a permanent 36-bed facility in 1984. The society gets close to $2 million a year in government funding, about 60 per cent of it from the federal government and the rest from the province. Clients also pay a $36 daily fee, but those who can't afford it can pay in kind. The centre is filled with artwork offered by clients in lieu of payment. Christian said the centre is helping aboriginal communities sober up, although the job is far from over. In some cases, he said, it is getting worse, as victims of residential schools begin coming forward with long-suppressed stories of abuse. :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: Letters to the Vancouver Sun - mailto:sunletters@pacpress.southam.ca In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: S.I.S.I.S. Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty P.O. Box 8673, Victoria, "B.C." "Canada" V8X 3S2 EMAIL: SISIS@envirolink.org WWW: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/SISmain.html --------- "RE: Council Shuts Door" --------- Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 02:29:29 -0800 From: SISIS@envirolink.org (S.I.S.I.S.) Subj: Democracy: Westbank Band Council Style :-:-:-:-:-:-:-Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty-:-:-:-:-:-:-: COUNCIL SHUTS DOOR ON FORUM: Kelowna Daily Courier, Sept. 2, 1998, by Brennan Clarke [S.I.S.I.S. note: The following mainstream news article may contain biased or distorted information and may be missing pertinent facts and/or context. It is provided for reference only.] Voters on the Westbank Indian Reserve are angry over what they say is a lack of respect for democracy after the chief and council canceled an all-candidates forum three days before band elections. The meeting, scheduled for Monday night, would have been the only opportunity for the 240 band members voting in Thursday's election to question the candidates and the current government. The question and answer session was supposed to start at 7 p.m., but the chief and council called it off at 4:30 p.m.. I'm very upset - a lot of people are upset. It's not very democratic and I think it's very underhanded," said band member Marie Wilson. "It seems the chief and council are willing to do anything to prevent people from finding out what's going on." Band members scheduled a similar forum for Sunday night, but agreed to cancel it after the chief and council promised to organize the one on Monday, Wilson said. Band councillor Larry Derrickson said the meeting was canceled due to lack of organization. "There was no preparation for it, no structure and no chair, so council decided to say no," he said. The candidates gave speeches at a meeting last Thursday, but members were not allowed to ask questions. "It's one thing for them to get up and say what they're doing, but people have a lot of questions to ask," Wilson said, citing a lack of housing, new taxes on tobacco and lawsuits the council is involved in as examples. Wilson initially feared voters would go to the polls without having the chance to ask questions of candidates for the chief's position. But those fears proved to be short-lived. On Tuesday afternoon, band elders, also upset that members were being shut out of the political process, arranged al last-minute candidates forum for 7:00 pm at Shannon Lake Hall. "The elders were angry and they phoned me and told me to be there," said former chief Ron Derrickson, one of four candidates running for chief. "it (the cancellation) just goes to show (the chief and council) are scared to face their membership." Band member Ray Derrickson, a cousin of both Larry and Ron, agreed that fear of accountability, not organizational difficulties, led to the meeting's cancellation. "That's a feeble alibi," he said. "How long does it take to organize a meeting? It's simple to manage - you just get the four candidates for chief up there and ask them questions." :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: Kelowna Daily Courier: http://www.ok.bc.ca In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: S.I.S.I.S. Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty P.O. Box 8673, Victoria, "B.C." "Canada" V8X 3S2 EMAIL: SISIS@envirolink.org WWW: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/SISmain.html --------- "RE: Imagining Ourselves Richly" --------- Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 08:29:30 -0600 From: "John Berry" Subj: (FWD)Indian News 9-19-98 ------- FORWARD, Original message follows ------- Subject: Indian News 9-19-98 Roger Iron Cloud FirstNations Listserv 202.358.3252 rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov Imagining ourselves richly By S.D.E. Woods/Features Editor Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise 9/18/98 Storytelling is a sacred endeavor in Native American cultures. For the traditional storyteller, each story evokes the shared experiences of a people. The importance of storytelling, then, lies not in the creative ability of the storyteller, but in the community created by the story. This importance of community, however, does not diminish the importance of the individual storyteller. Storytelling is a dynamic process that adapts to the demands of time and place. Consequently, the storyteller never merely recites a story. Instead, the storyteller re-presents each story, allowing the wisdom and truth of the tale to dance lively in the contemporary imagination. In this tradition of re-presentation, Bartlesville storyteller Robert Johnson Perry has crafted "Life with the Little People," a book that re- presents in writing a portion of the stories found in the oral traditions of a number of American Indian cultures. The "little people" are a tiny people with big hearts. Often invisible to non-Indians and adult Indians, the "little people" are impish in nature, but often envisioned as caretakers. "By putting it in a book, it's better able to reach more people," explained Perry in a recent phone interview with the Examiner-Enterprise. "While in this case I'm focusing more on one particular tribe (Muscogea Creek), I recognize that these stories probably are quite similar in other tribes that were never, never written about. And my hope is that by bringing this to a broader audience, other tribes will be willing to speak up and tell their versions of stories. It will be something that will be more broadly accepted than just for one tribe." Perry's awareness of the "Little People" traditions common to many native cultures appears in the brief endnotes that he includes to document certain thematic connections. For example, not only does he refer to "The Witch of Goingsnake and Other Stories," a collection written by Cherokee Robert Conley, but he also refers to appropriate historical and anthropological studies that bear witness to the ubiquity of the "Little People." "Life with the Little People," however, has an ecumenical thrust that extends beyond Native American cultures. In the introduction to his book, the Chickasaw Perry writes: "[T]he pranks of the 'little people' went beyond North America. The British reported an encounter in the mid 16th century: The Saxons had underground mines of silver, copper and lead. They believed their vast underground treasure ws guarded by gnomes called 'Kobalds.' When the supply of ores suddenly failed, blame fell on the Kobalds. They were accused of transmuting the ore into rubbish called 'cobalt.' Disaster was averted when the British learned to make expensive blue glass ware, using the same Saxon cobalt. The glassware is still called 'Cobalt Blue.' For some reason, these 'little people' no longer exist in Europe. Or do they?" "We could say leprechauns are similar to 'little people'," said Perry. "In Ireland, people are very serious about the leprechauns ... Down in Guatemala, the Mayans are very, very serious about 'little people' stories." For people steeped in the Western European tradition of Cartesian skepticism, understanding the "little people" stories may require the cultivation of a different sensibility. This sensibility may be characterized by what the romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge once described as a "willing suspension of disbelief." In other words, understanding requires faith. "I tell people that, first of all, you can understand," said Perry. "It depends on whether you believe or not when you read these stories, whether you believe they're possible or not. "If you remember that as a child you had a favorite dog, a favorite companion .. then it would be far easier to believe that it's possible that 'little people' would be out playing with the children," he explained. In American culture, the imaginary is too often dismissed as the unreal. Yet, if the current trends in popular culture have a lesson to teach, that lesson may be that the imaginary very frequently appears more tangible than the real. Indeed, the advent of virtual reality suggests an adult desire to return to the world of the imaginary friendships experienced in childhood. "We were up at Cape Cod last year and there was a woman in the audience from Wichita," recalled Perry. "She told us later that she had two children that always seemed to play with invisible little companions, and, after hearing about the 'little people' stories, she was pretty certain the little people were out there playing with them." The tradition of storytelling, however, offers something that popular culture cannot: the charismatic intimacy found only in the physical proximity of members of a community. "The storytelling audience comes, and they're almost in a trance when they're looking at a storyteller," noted Perry. "It's almost like you're communicating soul to soul and you can't get that from a TV. "Basically, storytelling is an exchange of information where a storyteller gives some understanding and there's an opportunity to even ask questions of a storyteller that you can't from a TV." Perry and his book were featured at the well-known Saratoga, Wyo. art show held during the 4th of July weekend. The show focused upon artists whose work subjects include the "little people" - among these artists was Brooks Henson, a Cherokee painter whose work was recently exhibited at the Indian Nations Gallery in Bartlesville. Perry will tell his stories each day during the 1998 Indian Summer Festival held at the Bartlesville Community Center. Native story telling is a tradition at Indian Summer Festivals. In addition to Perry's legends of the "little People," Storytelling Chairperson, Bessie Trowbridge and her team of Native American storytellers will share stories of the traditions and cultures of various tribes. The storytellers are mainly members of the Bartlesville Indian Women's Club. Featured storytellers include: Mary Watters, Delaware; Doris War, Cherokee; Doris Meyer, Cherokee; Betty Smith, Cherokee; Elgia Bryan, Delaware; Joy White and Lillian Williams of Tulsa, both Pawnee; Vickie Panell, Shawnee; Thelma Pace and Joanna Nichols, both Delaware. The storytelling spirit late Mary Crow Milligan will be remembered by the storytellers as they perform in her honor. Specific times and information regarding storytelling will be available at the information booth at Indian Summer. The Indian Summer Festival is northeastern Oklahoma's premiere Native American celebration and takes place each September at the Bartlesville Community Center. This intertribal gathering celebrates the Native American cultures, customs, fine arts and crafts. The festival is free and open to Indian and non-Indian people. Activities for all ages include a fine arts market, intertribal pow-wow, native storytelling, gallery exhibition, craft demonstrations, native American gospel singing, children's games and a live bird display and show by the renowned World bird Sanctuary of St. Louis, Mo. The festival runs today through Sunday. For festival information call (918) 337-2787 or visit the internet at http://www.bartlesville.com. --------- "RE: Casino Plan Backfires" --------- Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 08:30:07 -0600 From: "John Berry" Subj: (FWD)Indian News 9-20-98 ------- FORWARD, Original message follows ------- Roger Iron Cloud FirstNations Listserv 202.358.3252 rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov Plan for Tribal Casino Backfires on a Fading Jersey Shore Town By IVER PETERSON C. New York Times September 20, 1998 ANADARKO, Okla. -- Three years ago, the mayor and business leaders of Wildwood, a struggling resort on the Jersey Shore, were certain that the path to prosperity ran through this parched corner of western Oklahoma. The idea seemed inspired: Take a bit of city land -- a two-acre parking lot, actually -- and give it back to Oklahoma's Delaware Indians, whose ancestors were pushed out of New Jersey in the 1830s. The Indians would open a casino, and Wildwood would finally tap into the river of dollars flowing to the mighty resort casinos of Atlantic City, 30 miles up the shore. It has not worked out that way. Far from gaining a small-scale gambling parlor to match its small-town hopes, Wildwood has seen its redevelopment plan pushed to the sidelines by battling lawyers who have literally made a federal case out of it. The Delawares, once Wildwood's allies, have instead teamed up with a well- heeled national Indian gambling developer and filed a lawsuit claiming all of the city as their ancestral land. Wildwood tried to give the tribe the parking lot, but that only brought another lawsuit, from the state of New Jersey, seeking to block any deal that might undermine Atlantic City's casino monopoly. And now, the Delawares are raising the stakes. Unless the state drops its opposition to an Indian casino in Wildwood, the Delawares' lawyer said, the tribe would sue for thousands of New Jersey acres outside of Wildwood that it says were taken in violation of a 1790 federal law. A dozen or more tribes -- in California, Maine, Washington State and elsewhere -- have won thousands of acres and millions of dollars with such claims, and any land won could be developed into an Indian casino without state approval. "So what started out as a 2.2 acre-case to revitalize Wildwood is turning into a suit involving potentially thousands of acres and millions of dollars," the tribe's lawyer, Glenn McGogney, said. As Wildwood and its mayor, Fred Wager, have learned, the world of casino development is not a penny-ante game. "We've got 26 percent unemployment, we've got businesses boarded up right in the heart of downtown, we've got a high school that isn't properly funded, and we've got kids who have to leave town when they graduate," Wager said. "That's what we're facing in Wildwood, and all I can hope is that when this whole thing works itself out, the city will get back some of what we've lost." When he talked about small-town problems, the mayor could also have been speaking of Anadarko, a town of 6,600 in one of Oklahoma's poorest counties. >From the Redskin Theater (closed) at the west end of town to the Indian City Lanes, Anadarko and surrounding Caddo County are propped up by their small farms and ranches; some summer visitors to the Indian City USA theme park, and the housing, education and health care that the federal government provides the area's seven tribes. Of a dozen people interviewed here, no one was aware of the Delawares' New Jersey project, but the idea that a tribe would want to venture that far made sense to some. "I guess they need to get some more business, the same as the people in New Jersey do," said Wayne Gomez, a reporter at The Anadarko Daily News. The Delawares refused to meet with a reporter who visited their trust lands to discuss the Wildwood matter. The tribe's chief, Larry Snake, even denied in a brief phone conversation that McGogney was representing the tribe, an assertion that McGogney disputed. "We have a signed contract," said McGogney, who is listed in court papers as the tribe's lawyer. Federal regulators say that Wildwood's experience, right down to its abject failure so far, has parallels all over the country. Governments or businesses seeking to revive depressed properties are cutting deals with Indians whose tribal lands are too remote to prosper. Bring Indian casinos to the customers, the thinking goes, and everyone will be happy. This would be done by persuading the federal government to take a property into trust for a tribe -- creating a mini-reservation, in effect, that is under the tribe's sovereignty and removed from local and state control, including zoning regulations. But federal Indian policy frowns on creating trust lands for gambling. So far only one such effort, in Wisconsin, has succeeded, and then only because the entire state leadership supported the idea. New Jersey has no federally recognized tribes and no Indian trust lands, but it does have three state-recognized Indian tribes -- the Ramapough, the Nanticoke and the Powhatan -- that are demanding federal recognition and their own lands. So far, the Bureau of Indian Affairs has rejected their pleas. Indian gambling is a $7 billion-a-year industry, federal officials say, with 185 tribes running 285 gambling operations in 28 states. A sliver of that action belongs to western Oklahoma's Delawares, a federally recognized tribe with 1,200 members on a few thousand acres of trust lands. The tribe's Gold River casino and bingo parlor occupies a low steel building among the gnarled oaks and pines north of town. Every day until 1 a.m., local cowboys, a few tourists and transient retirees hunker down in the smoky air and the din of slot machines to feed dollar bills into the tribe's 50 or so "pull-tab" machines. "They don't have to report their earnings, but I doubt they do very well up there," said Don Ashapanek, a land-use expert at the Anadarko Indian Agency. The agency works with the seven tribes -- the Apache, Caddo, Comanche, Delaware, Fort Sill Apache, Kiowa and Wichita -- that give Anadarko the nickname Indian City. Because the Delawares' gambling parlor offers relatively low-stakes games, it is exempt from many of the federal and state restrictions governing full-fledged casinos. Wager wants to open a similar operation - - a so-called class two casino -- in Wildwood as the only way to skirt the state's opposition. But he said he hoped the casino would someday grow to have roulette, blackjack, slots and the other games that class three Indian casinos offer. An Indian casino was not even Wager's first choice. While he was still a city councilman, in 1994, he opened talks with a race track operator who talked of bringing in riverboat gambling and even, the mayor said, an airborne "Zeppelin casino." But the promoter dropped out and advised Wager and his supporters to see the Delawares. The tribe had a plausible tie to the Jersey Shore: It lived around the Delaware Bay before leaving for the West in the 1830s, and a splinter group of Delawares had already claimed - - though unsuccessfully -- a large part of ocean-front Asbury Park, N.J., as a "tribal homeland." Wildwood's gambling advocates formed a committee to bring home a casino, and one of its leaders, John Nickels, the owner of Nickels' Midway Pier, called Snake. "I said, 'I would like to invite you to Wildwood, New Jersey,"' Nickels recalled. "'Take a look around; maybe we have some things to discuss."' In September 1995, Wager and Snake signed a two-year contract: For $1, Wildwood would transfer to the Delaware tribe an underused, seagull- spattered parking lot of 2.2 acres on Schellenger Street, behind the Red Owl All You Can Eat Buffet. The Delawares, asserting ancestral ties to the Jersey Shore, would ask the federal government to take the land in trust for the tribe. Once that was done, the Delaware would build a class two casino, with or without New Jersey's blessing, and offer bingo, poker and pull-tab machines, but no lodging, liquor or food service that would compete with the surrounding town. The tribe would pay the city $8 million a year. In Trenton and in Atlantic City, reaction to Wildwood's plan was swift and angry. Gov. Christie Whitman said she had "serious concerns" about allowing gambling beyond Atlantic City, which pays millions into the state's treasury each year, and whose gambling franchise is protected by the state's constitution. The state Assembly passed a resolution noting that the Delawares have had no connection with New Jersey for more than a century and urging Congress to give states more control over Indian gambling. The Bureau of Indian Affairs was also uncooperative. Without the governor's support, its officials said, the Wildwood project was as good as dead. "This is not going to happen in Wildwood," said Rex Hacker, a Bureau of Indian Affairs spokesman. When the city's two-year agreement with the tribe expired last fall, the Indians looked for a new partner among the casino developers who had followed the scent of business to Wildwood. A deal with Ameristar Casinos, a big Las Vegas operator, fell through, so the tribe turned to McGogney's Casino Financing Consultants, a private partnership in Allentown, Pa., that McGogney said had several other Indian casino projects in development. (He declined to say which ones.) McGogney said his next weapon was the federal Nonintercourse Act of 1790, which says that only the federal government can take Indian land. New Jersey bought out all Indian land claims in 1820, he said, but the deal was never approved in Washington. "So it is our position that the transfer was void from the beginning," McGogney said, "which means that it never ceased being tribal land, and so we are allowed to create a gaming facility without permission of the state." On Aug. 7, McGogney, acting for the tribe, filed suit against Wildwood in a federal court, claiming that all of the town was on ancestral land. In anticipation of the suit, the city transferred the parking lot to the tribe as an offer of settlement. But on Aug. 10, the state filed suit against Wildwood to block the parking lot giveaway, on the ground that the transfer would change city boundaries without state permission. No trial date has been set. "I can tell you, when we started out, we did not expect so many twists and turns," Wager said. "But we shall overcome." --------- "RE: Authenticity Is Tourist Attraction" --------- Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 02:12:27 -0400 From: Kdawn Subj: Authenticity Is Tourist Attraction at American Indian Reservations Newsgroup: alt.native Authenticity Is Tourist Attraction at American Indian Reservations By TIMOTHY EGAN UMATILLA RESERVATION, Ore. -- The mercury had pushed over the 100-degree mark again here in the high desert, but the tourists from Germany were undeterred, looking for clues to life in the American West before every small town had an espresso bar. "As children we used to play cowboys and native Americans," Klaus Pumple, a 37-year-old construction manager from Stuttgart, Germany, said recently. "Now when you pass through the native American zones in this country, it's kind of depressing, not like you expected. But also, it is so very interesting to see how these people live today." On the Blackfoot Indian Reservation in Montana, at the high drama nexus of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, Vicky Kilian of the Netherlands had just spent another night sleeping on a dirt floor inside a tent and was wondering whether she could ever return to her life as a business consultant in a very flat country. "When I sleep in the teepee, I feel a lot of connection to the earth," said Ms. Kilian, 29, who is on her first visit to America. "I have had a fire every night and I have been able to walk over the prairie. It has a very special energy." American Indian reservations, long considered economic deserts in a landscape of general prosperity, are finding that they have a lot more to offer the world than casinos and art galleries -- they have their homes, their backyards, their stories. Visitors, especially a growing number of Europeans, are traveling to some of the country's most remote places, like this Indian reservation in central Oregon, in search of life many Americans overlook on their vacations. No theme parks built around fantasies for these travelers. In fact, some of the biggest new attractions are rooted in today's world and in authenticity -- even if it leaves visitors feeling more guilt than vacation relief. Tourists to Indian country spend their holidays hearing tales of heart-numbing atrocities or listening to songs in languages that never show up in Frommer's guides. They come away thrilled. And for Indians who have figured just how to market this niche of native society, business is booming. "Europeans have been visiting Indian country since the time of Columbus, but what's really new is Indians getting control of it," said Gordon Bronitsky, a Denver tourism marketer who has just produced a catalog of Indian travel packages that is going out to 5,000 travel agents in Italy. A cruise ship full of Germans will tie up next spring near the western Oneida Reservation, next to Green Bay, Wis., after the tour operator reported that visitors requested a stop at an Indian reservation as part of their itinerary. "We're not going to sit there and say, 'How,' and paint our faces," said Jeff House, a spokesman for the Oneida. "We will try to give an impression of how people live today. We're business people. We go to Packer games." Other tribes are trying to blend the old with the new. Will Tsosie runs what might be called an Indian bed and breakfast on the Navajo Reservation not far from Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona. He charges $85 a night to stay in a traditional earthen-floored hogan, a cylindrical house with no running water, and a structure in which few Indians live. But he also takes people to visit the local community college. "Our European guests are very well-prepared and very well-read -- unlike most Americans," Tsosie said. "If they show up with too much of the wrong attitude, we turn them away." Recently, he said, some people came to the Hopi Reservation looking for a sun dance, and asked whether they could be "pierced" in the chest. "We told them they had the wrong Indians," Tsosie said. "Try a thousand miles to the north, with the Lakota." Roberta Conner, director of the new $18 million Tamastslikt Cultural Center, on the Umatilla Reservation, said, "We get a lot of people who expect they are going to find the Hollywood stereotypes, the beads and feather Indians." The center, whose Indian name means interpreter, opened this summer after nearly 10 years of planning and is drawing visitors from around the world. Tamastslikt is the only Indian-run, Indian-owned interpretive center along the entire length of the old Oregon Trail, Ms. Conner said. The trail, from St. Louis to Western Oregon, has long been a magnet for fans of heritage tourism. With the opening of Tamastslikt, she said, there is now another side of the story of Westward expansion, as well as a history of the Indians who have long lived in this region. The Umatilla and the two other tribes that live on the reservation, the Cayuse and the Walla Walla, sent a delegation to Berlin this year, to the world's biggest tourism trade show. They handed out posters of a Cayuse Indian leader in a buffalo headdress with the slogan "Nicht Ihr Durchschnittlicher Reisefuhrer," Not Your Average Tour Guide. Germany is often the focus of the marketing because the country has more than 300 Indian clubs, where people adopt a tribe or a chief and study the history. Plus, millions of Germans have grown up on the books of Karl May, a German author who wrote a series of stories about an Apache and his white sidekick. "There is this sort of noble savage image, unfettered by civilization, which they like," Bronitsky said. "God forbid that anyone should ever discuss that Indians have VCR's and microwaves." But a central thrust of the new interpretative center, which is part of a resort that includes a casino, an 18-hole golf course, a hotel and recreational vehicle park, is to show how Indians of the Columbia Plateau live today. "We would like to be perceived as dynamic, evolving, healthy people," Ms. Conner said. "That's not exactly what people expect to see when they visit a reservation." Still, the fact that these Columbia Plateau Indians have lived in roughly the same places for thousands of years is a tourist draw in a country where so many of the human attachments to the land are ephemeral, tribal officials say. "We pretty much live where we've always lived, and people are fascinated by that," Ms. Conner said. The center tells a story of independent people whose lives were forever changed by the schooners that came over the Oregon Trail. It shows the effect of disease, of boarding schools that disrupted families, and of poverty. And it ends on a hopeful note, with visions of a tribe flourishing anew. "People are very moved by it," Ms. Conner said. "We get these notes in the suggestion box: 'I'm sorry for everything we've done to you people.' It awakens a lot of trauma, a lot of fear." Despite the guilt-swollen effect of some heritage tour sites, tour operators outside the reservation say there is great interest in all things Indian. A record number of people, about 600,000, visited the National Museum of the American Indian in lower Manhattan last year, double the attendance of the year before. And out near the reservations, museums report a similar trend. At the Museum of the Plains Indian, on the Blackfoot Reservation, near Browning, Mont., nearly half the visitors this year have been from Europe. A huge majority of the guests at Darrell Norman's village and horse ranch on the Blackfoot Reservation are Europeans. They take pictures of the bison herds that wander around the reservation, ride horses that are descendants of the mustangs brought to the Americas by the Spanish and learn about the culture of Northern Plains tribes. "They want to know what the Blackfoot are all about," Norman said. "They want to taste our food. They want to sleep on the ground -- the whole package. They may show up with stereotypical image, but they leave with the sense that we have a very alive culture. We do not have dead arts, dead language." Ms. Kilian, the Dutch visitor to the Blackfoot, said she had considered going to China on her vacation, but chose the Blackfoot Reservation instead. "Before I came here I heard that they had a dislike for whites," she said. "That is not true. I have felt very welcome." One problem that concerns the tribes is trying to hold the line between sharing culture and exploitation. The Umatilla, for example, found that many Germans want to stay with Indian families -- but the Indians themselves do not feel like opening their homes. The Blackfoot, who are enjoying a banner year for tourism, are grappling with the same problem. "There's always been this question," said Ray Montoya, the Blackfoot tribal planning director, "of how far we develop this industry while maintaining a pristine environment and our culture." Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html) --------- "RE: I Stop to Remember" --------- Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 21:58:37 -0500 From: "ovation" Subj: I stop to remember Newsgroup: alt.native Every year I post my story so that others can know what honor I give to a fallen solider... 1965... I was a little girl who was living in a large city named Wichita, Kansas. Never had many play mates because I was the dirty little poor Indian girl. I never felt sorry for myself, I learned early that people were just missing out on getting to know me. Across the street and two houses down there was a older boy... I will never forget that summer day when I met Arnie. He was riding the silliest bike I had ever seen! I asked him about his bike... he was kind enough to tell me that his bike was a racing bike and it had many gears to help the rider maintain speed... Arnie took the time out for this little Indian girl on the block. He was much like a older brother to me. We had a lilac bush in front of our house. One day Arnie said "Hey Keely, I see something glinting in the sun over there... I wonder what it is!" I went and looked, I found a 50 cent piece! Oh joy! I wondered who lost this money... Arnie told me since I had found that money it was mine... Oh joy! I thought I was rich.. from time to time I would find money under that lilac bush... never knowing it was Arnie who put it there. One day Arnie became quiet... I asked him why... he said there was a war going on and he was called to go and fight it... of course I had no idea what a war was all about... June 30th, 1968 was the Arnie left for his tour of duty... on September 15, 1968 he was killed. He had only been in Viet Nam for two and a half months... I will always remember Arnie... he touched my life in kind ways I did not know a white person could have for a poor dirty Indian girl... When I smell lilacs, I always remember Arnie... No one of his family is left today. I hope that everyone can stop and remember him with me, and remember others who have long ago been taken away from us. If you would like to look up anyone who was killed in Viet Nam... please go to this page... http://thewall-usa.com/index.html --------- "RE: Native Prisoner" --------- Date: Mon, 21 September 1998 23:14:49 -0400 From: Janet Smith (evestar@juno.com) Subj: Contacting those in the Ironhouse UUCP email Tell a Native American Prisoner someone cares! The following is a portion of the list of Native American Prisoners incarcerated in prisons throughout the United States. The full list is found at the Native Prisoners Pen Pal list the following web site: http://www.brooks.simplenet.com/penpal.html. The list is compiled from contributions by Wotanging Ikche readers, other friends and from Laura Brooks' research on Native American Spiritual Freedom in Prison. If you know of a Native prisoner who would like to be included here, please e-mail Janet Smith at jans@atlcom.net. My thanks to Laura Brooks for giving this list a home on the web. Hollek, Jay E.O. Hundley, Gary Wayne #5319-A-Z-205 #260-427 P.O. Box 1050 PO Box 69 Salinas Valley State Prison London, OH 43140 Soledad, CA, 93960-1050 Date of Birth: 5/18/64 Ancestry: Cherokee Horner, Paul Franklin #240-070 James, Charles P PO Box 511 #284-382 Madison, OH PO Box 1812 Date of Birth: 7/7/67 Marion, OH 43301 Ancestry: Cherokee Date of Birth: 3/4/55 Ancestry: Lakota / Cherokee Jett, Alan Lee #143-205 Joan, Robert Richard PO Box 511 #194-728 Columbus, OH 43216 PO Box 5500 Date of Birth: 8/1/50 Chillicothe, OH 45601 Ancestry: Cherokee Date of Birth: 1/30/55 Ancestry: Seneca Johnson, Chad A. #288-594 Jones, Richard Oscar PO Box 7010 #283-994 Chillicothe, OH 45601 PO Box 511 Date of Birth: 11/6/74 Columbus, OH 43216 Ancestry: Cherokee Date of Birth: 7/11/64 Ancestry: Cherokee Hollek, Gerald Frank #E05319-A-2-203 Hunt, Henry Lee PO Box 1050 #0197656 Soledad, CA 93960-1050 1300 Western Blvd Date of Birth: 6/3/54 Raleigh, NC 27606 Ancestry: Choctaw Reminder and Caution: It is common for prisoners to be moved abruptly. If your correspondent suddenly quits writing, don't assume it's by choice. Inquire about his location and situation -- often the prison chaplain can help you with this. If you know a prisoner on our list has been moved, please let me know. If your correspondent requests that you send him anything, particularly ceremonial items, check the prison to ensure the requested items are not contraband. Sometimes items of religious significance that are ordinarily banned may be given to the prisoner by the chaplain. --------------------------------------------------------------------- From Free the Wolverine Campaign: Wolverine (William Jones Ignace) "OJ" Pitawanakwat Political Prisoner Political Prisoner Box 4000 Box 4000 Abbotsford, BC Abbotsford, BC V2S 5X8 V2S 5X8 For more information, please contact the Free the Wolverine Campaign: Box 13-2147 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5N 4B3 Spokespeople: Splitting the Sky - Phone/Fax: (604) 543-9661 Bill Lightbown - Phone: (604) 251-4949 or see the SISIS pages at http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/gustmain.html Also we have a listing of native political prisoners around the world, at http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/links/POW.html --------------------------------- Please especially remember - this is the "Year of Leonard". Leonard Peltier #89637-132, Box 1000, Leavenworth, KS 66048 --------- "RE: Sequoyah" --------- Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 21:27:24 -0700 From: John Wm Sloniker Subj: Sequoyah, and his reputation http://www.chota.com/cherokee/sequoyah.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Image] Sequoyah ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sequoyah was probably the greatest of all the Cherokees. He is the only man in the history of mankind to invent a complete alphabet without being able to read or write any other language. Not only was Sequoyah a great man of letters, he was also instrumental in always advising the Cherokees in a path of wisdom and tolerance. He was born near Fort Loudoun, Tennessee, in the village of Tuskegee. His mother was a full-blooded Cherokee, and his father probably was Nathaniel Gist, the famous scout and soldier. Nathaniel Gist's family supposedly recognized Sequoyah as Gist's son. When Sequoyah was a small boy, his mother moved to Alabama to an Indian settlement near Willstown. Here Sequoyah spent most of his early life, learning to trace honey bees, shoot the bow and arrow, and look after his mother's small farm. The exact date of Sequoyah's birth is not known, but army records show that he was old enough to fight in the Creek war of 1812 with a group of Cherokee volunteers. He, along with Junaluska, another famous Cherokee, fought with Andrew Jackson in the battle of Horseshoe Bend. It was only four years after this famous battle that he signed one of the many treaties in which the government took a great part of the Cherokee lands. (Note: Andrew Jackson was a fellow Tennessean, but he was one of the greatest AO's of all mankind, and should not be thought of as a human being. This is my opinion.) There are many stories about when and how Sequoyah started developing his alphabet. One of these is that he and some of his friends fell into a discussion about writing, after having heard the Bible translated at a white man's house. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Image]Sequoyah as he appeared in 1828 to Charles Bird King, who did his portrait in Washington, D. C. He wears the medal given him by the Cherokee Nation as a token of appreciation for the invention of the Cherokee alphabet. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ His friends said that writing was a most wonderful thing, to be able to put all the wisdom down on the talking leaves so that they would not be forgotten. Sequoyah, hearing this remark, said, "I could do this thing that the white man does." His friends laughed and said, "You are foolish, you could not even begin to do this wonderful thing. This has taken many long winters for the white man to do. It is his gift. The Great One has not given us this gift. It would be foolish for us even to try such a task." But Sequoyah did not hear their last remark. He was already turning over in his mind how he was going to put his own talk down on the talking leaves. Through the hours and days and years, he worked. He worked despite the ridicule of his friends, the threats of his enemies, and the active opposition of his wife. Once, she even burned every scrap of bark and material he had scribbled on, in an effort to stop him from his task. But it was of no use, because he knew that eventually he would find a way to write his own language. His friends tried to dissuade him form his task. His enemies told dark tales about the evils he would bring down on his people by delving into the gifts of the white men. When they passed his house, they gave his home hostile stares and did not speak to Sequoyah nor his family. Sequoyah began his efforts by trying to devise a symbol for every Cherokee word. When he had devised several thousand symbols, he began to see that this was useless because it would be impossible to remember so many marks. Then he tried to figure out a way to make a symbol for a sentence. But this too, he saw, would not do because there were so many ways to make a sentence. Eventually, he began to listen for the different sounds that the Cherokee language had. These, he would record with a mark that he thought would be easy to remember. Soon, he ran out of ideas for new marks; his signs began to all look alike. For a long time he did not know what to do. Then, while walking one day, he found a piece of old newspaper that he discovered was full of symbols, which he had never even thought of making. Thus Sequoyah, not knowing one English letter from another, used a great many of our own crooked marks to represent sounds in the Cherokee language. Listening to his children, the few friends who would still come about him, and to complete strangers, Sequoyah eventually worked out the 86 symbols that represented all the sounds in his language, thus bringing to the Cherokee people a way of writing their language so that now, they could have their own newspapers, books and Bibles. It was a great day that would bring everlasting fame to Sequoyah. While Sequoyah was working on his alphabet, the tides of his own life were ever shifting and moving. The treaty of 1816 had stipulated that any Cherokee who wanted could move to the Indian territory in Arkansas. One of Sequoyah's friends, Chief John Jolly, took his family and a small group of friends and moved out to the Cherokee country of the Skin Bayou section of Arkansas. Sequoyah accompanied the group. Two years later, Jolly returned to the Cherokee settlements of Alabama and persuaded a second group to immigrate to the Arkansas territory. Sequoyah, who made the second trip with the Chief, had completed his alphabet and was able to take letters from the Western Cherokees to the Eastern Cherokees in Alabama. There was a great deal of interest in his mode of recording the language. Some of Sequoyah's friends became interested in learning to read and write Sequoyah's alphabet. He taught these people, and they in turn taught others. Some of the quicker ones learned to read and write in three or four days. It was not long until nearly all the Cherokee people were interested in learning to read and write their language. The council, in 1824, recognized the greatness of Sequoyah's alphabet by voting him a medal of honor and a letter of recognition. In 1825 an educated Cherokee, David Brown, began the translation of the Bible in Cherokee, and by 1828 Dr. Samuel Worcester, a missionary to the Eastern Cherokees, had been successful in having a printing press made in Boston. The printing press was shipped to Charleston, South Carolina, and up the river to Augusta, Georgia. It was taken by wagon 200 miles inland to New Echota, Georgia. New Echota, at that time, was the Eastern Capital of the Cherokee Nation. Elias Boudinot, another educated Cherokee, was made editor of the new paper, The Phoenix. This paper printed news in both English and Cherokee. These times were not easy for the Cherokee people. Sequoyah was sent as a member of a delegation from the Arkansas group to appeal to the federal government in Washington for help in defending the lands and people from encroaching whites. This group did not go to make the Treaty of 1828 (that was a result of their visit to Washington) but went to try to straighten out various land claims from the government and to appeal the grievances against the encroaching whites. However, the treaty that was worked out as a result of their visit was really good for the Western Cherokees. Sequoyah's visit in the nation's capital did not go unnoted. His fame was already established from the invention of the alphabet, and many people were interested in seeing the man with such an unusual gift. His picture was painted by Charles Bird King, and he was subject of lectures by Samuel Lorenzo Knapp. In describing Sequoyah, his admirers noted that he did not discard his native custom nor his innate dignity. Turbulent times were ahead for the Cherokee; great pressures were being put on the Eastern Cherokees to move to Oklahoma. Some did voluntarily move, but the main body of the people wanted to stay in their home country of Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. They besieged the government with requests for the Treaty of 1828 to be set aside. They claimed it was not legal, in that the true Chief of the Cherokees did not approve nor sign it. But this was of no avail. The order for removal was given by President Andrew Jackson and the fateful day set. The arrival of the Eastern Cherokee in the Oklahoma territory was of much concern to the "old settlers," as they called themselves. Their government was already established and the people of influence felt the new arrivals should answer only to the will of the people who were already there. This attitude caused much ill feeling, because the newcomers far outnumbered the old settlers. The final settlement of the differences between these two factions was partly brought about by the wisdom of Sequoyah, and his recognition of the rights of others. When the council meetings were held, that eventually led to the forming of a workable Tribal Government. It was Sequoyah's wise counseling that led to the peaceful solution of a conflict that had already taken the lives of three important Cherokees. By the time the Cherokees had established their government and had begun to prosper in their new homes, Sequoyah's mind turned to the Cherokees in Mexico and Texas, who had suffered much at the hands of raiders. In earlier years, when these people had been attacked and nearly wiped out in Texas, he extended an invitation to them to come to the Arkansas Cherokee country to live. Many did so, but not all. It was those re- maining that Sequoyah was interested in seeing. Although by this time Sequoyah had grown old and unwell, he was determined to go to Mexico to find and see these lost Cherokees. He gathered a party of eight of his close and trusted friends to travel the unknown trails into a hostile country. In this summer of 1842, Sequoyah left his home in Oklahoma, never to return. The story of his journey is one of hunger, lost horses, floods, sick- ness, and in the end, death in an unknown grave on foreign soil. The trail of Sequoyah's life leads many places, from the hill country of Tennessee to the low country of Alabama, from the low country to the wanderings of a soldier, from the wanderings of a soldier to the life of a father, the life of a father to bayou country of Arkansas, from Arkansas to Oklahoma, from Oklahoma to the Nation's Capital, from the Nation's Capital to the Cherokee Capital, and from there to the climactic pilgrimage to the lost Cherokee in Mexico. Although there are no stone slabs over his grave to mark Sequoyah's passing, the honor to his name and to his people will ever remain in the timeless Sequoyah redwood trees that were named for him, and the alphabet that he alone invented. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Cherokee Story Home Page Information reprinted with permission of Cherokee Publishing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------- "RE: A Hundred Years Ago" --------- Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1998 22:56:37 -0400 From: Landis Subj: History: A Hundred Years Ago - Carlisle - week 71 Mailing List: NAT-FILM [Editorial Note: These reprints are being included in this newsletter so that you might know the mind of those who ran institutions like Carlisle.] THE INDIAN HELPER ~%^%~ A WEEKLY LETTER -FROM THE- Indian Industrial School, Carlisle, Pa. ================================================ VOL. XIII. FRIDAY, September 9, 1898 NUMBER 47 ================================================ REWARD. -- Brave is he who strongly wields A sword upon the battlefields; He wears a shining wreath of fame, And history repeats his name. Greater reward than fame or pelf. He finds who triumphs o'er himself; God only knows the battles fought Within the realm of heart and thought. T. CHALMERS DAVIS. ============================ STIRRING SENTIMENTS FROM AN INDIAN BETTER ALIVE THAN DEAD. -------------------- The words below are of special import, coming as they do from an educated full-blood Indian, who has been struggling for several years in his profession of high grade by the side of educated white men of the same profession, in one of the largest cities of the country. We snatch the inspiring thoughts from a private letter, believing that they will do the more good coming as they did from the abundance of a heart to a friend, and not written for publication. May our boys and girls read these words and profit by them; and would that every growing Indian youth in the land could absorb the spirit of the writer. At the close of his letter, after expressing regret at the partial failure of some of the Indian boys and girls who had taken up certain lines of work, he says: "They could have succeeded but lacked perseverance. If they stick long enough they will succeed. They must go through hard knocks and slowly creep along to a higher standard. Everybody must do that; there is no exception for any one. I have been pinched and had everything to fight against ever since I came to this city. Now I am beginning to see a bright future. My hope and my ambitions are great or greater than ever before. I am bound to get there. I shall allow nothing to stop me. In my special work I am compelled to take off my coat and go into it with all I am worth. To enjoy one's work is half the battle. I enjoy all that I do. What a pity that some of the boys cannot do better. We flutter around dangerous places until we fall into them; then it is generally too late to mend. The ruin is stamped in our character. It is awful, yet it is true! Weak, human nature! We need something else besides self to be strong and noble--God. A few more days, then will come the small army of children. I wish I were there to see them and to give them words of encouragement. Kind and gentle words are lights to them." ======================= Another appreciative Philadelphia subscriber says in his letter of renewal: "I appreciate the little paper. After we read it in our family I give it to others, that the opportunities the boys in Philadelplhia have in their public schools may be better appreciated by them, and they stimulated by the reports and good counsel given through THE INDIAN HELPER." ------------------------ Maggie Escacerga speaks of some outings she has been having in the country, among others a recent picnic, which she thinks was the happiest time she ever had; then she went to Talchester Beach with her people. She likes her home very much and the people. ------------------------- Minerva Mitten says she has had a good deal of work to do this summer, but she enjoys the work as much as she does the pleasures of country life. ------------------------ Growth in character shows itself in the face and form. Progress in the inner man makes its mark on the outer man. ================================================ (page 2) THE INDIAN HELPER ------------------------------------------------ PRINTED EVERY FRIDAY --AT THE-- Indian Industrial School, Carlisle, Pa., BY INDIAN BOYS. ---> THE INDIAN HELPER is PRINTED by Indian boys, but EDITED by The man-on-the-band-stand who is NOT an Indian. ------------------------------------------------ P R I C E: --10 C E N T S A Y E A R ================================================ Entered in the PO at Carlisle as second class mail matter. ================================================ Address INDIAN HELPER, Carlisle, Pa. Miss Marianna Burgess, Manager. ================================================ Do not hesitate to take the HELPER from the Post Office for if you have not paid for it some one else has. It is paid for in advance. ================================================ Those working for the prize cannot give their names to another after we have booked them. They may be given before. The August number of Whittier, published at the Whittier State School, California, is beautifully gotten up and is full of interest. The many friends of Miss Ida Warren, '94, are pleased to learn of her marriage to Mr. Horatio Tobin, on the first of August, at South McAllister, I.T. The many friends of Mr. Robert A. MacFadden, now the Reverend Robert A. MacFadden, of Chelsea, Mass., will be pleased to learn that he has become the father of a little girl. Robert Hamilton, who left the school some time since, writes to have the HELPER sent to his address. Robert has many friends in the East who will be glad to hear of his whereabouts. Nora Lambert's Sunday School teacher, Miss Reed, writes that Nora has been a regular and faithful attendant of the Sabbath school of the Presbyterian Church at Reedsville, Pa., during the summer months, and on September Fourth, she was presented with a Bible by the school for having committed the Shorter Catechism. Charles Buck, one of our first football boys who is now living in Montana, says by recent friendly letter that he is on a ranch on Cut Bank River, he having left the first ranch he bought on account of the bleakness of the place. Where he now lives there is plenty of timber, a good cattle range and shelter. He has about fifty head of cattle and forty head of horses. In speaking of the returned pupils he says they are doing well. James Grant has bought a place for himself and is doing nicely. "James Grant, Anthony Austin, Joe Spanish, Eddie Crane, John G. Ground and John Kennedy are married. Ben Caswell was up here visiting this summer. He and I had some long talks of Carlisle and the football team we were once members of. Ben is pleased with all the returned students and of their well doing." Mr. J. Banks Ralston, graduate of Dickinson College, class' 98, is the newly appointed Assistant Disciplinarian, vice Chauncey Yellowrobe, transferred to Ft. Lewis. The Sentinel says of Mr. Ralston whose home is near Carlisle: "Mr. Ralston is a popular young man finely educated, and will, we are confident, fill his position in a manner most satisfactory." Only twenty-one more days for the subscription contest to run! The numbers have climbed somewhat higher this week, but it would not be fair to tell who has the most names. There is lots of time yet! Almost any one will take a good ten-cent paper if asked in a business like way. If you have only a few names or if you have not yet begun, it is not too late. An enterprising solicitor could begin NOW and win the ten dollars. Ask people on the cars; ask strangers anywhere and everywhere. Show them the little paper; give them one, and tell them how it is helping the Indians, by letting people know that the rising Indians are just like other people. Tell them there will be nearly a thousand Indians with them here in Pennsylvania this year, and ask them if they would not like to keep posted about what the Pennsylvania Indians from 68 tribes of the west, do with themselves in school. The little HELPER tells it all, for ten cents a year. Mrs. Given writes cheerfully from Holton, Kansas, where she is visiting a sister and other relatives. She speaks of a recent visit from Miss Botsford, whom so many of us remember, she having been a teacher at Carlisle, and who is now Superintendent of the Pottawatomie school, only 18 miles from Holton. They have been experiencing the same sweltering weather that we of Pennsylvania have suffered only worse if anything. Mr. James Given, who is in the banking business in Oklahoma, has been to see his mother, and she says he thinks that Oklahoma is the land of promise. Mrs. Given's niece, Miss Moore, who was with us as music teacher a few years since, is expecting to go to Chicago the last of the month to enter upon a year's course in the Musical College of the Windy City. We all remember Miss Moore's beautiful piano playing, but it appears that she has become a church organ enthusiast. She is the organist of the Presbyterian church at Holton, but goes to Chicago to become more perfect in handling the great instrument. Mrs. Given had not yet seen John, but she expects to go to Oklahoma soon, where he is spending the vacation with this brother James, when she will see him the first in a year. John will return to Chicago to school this fall. --------------------------------------- Football Schedule. Sept.24, Bloomsburg at Carlisle. Oct. 1, Susquehanna at Carlisle. Oct. 8, Cornell at Ithaca. Oct. 15, Williams at Albany. Oct. 22, Yale at New Haven. Oct. 29, Harvard at Cambridge. Nov. 5, Dickinson at Carlisle. Nov. 12, University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. Nov. 19, University of Illinois at Chicago. Nov. 24, University of Cincinnati at Cincinnati. ================================================= (page 3) Boo! The cool wave is a cool one. Storekeeper Kensler has become a grandpa. The school supplies for the year are slowly coming in. What time is it when a clock strikes 17? Time to get it fixed. A coat of paint has been placed on the dining-hall and sewing room floors. Mr. Kemp, our master harness maker, is in Chicago on Government business. Miss Mary A. Lemer, of Harrisburg, was a guest of Miss Forster on Tuesday. Captain Frank Hudson, of the football team, has returned from his New York visit. Work began on Monday in all the departments of the school in spite of the heat. When a fellow drags his heels in walking it shows a weak body or a weak mind. Miss Richenda Pratt sang a beautiful solo at the service on last Sunday afternoon. Which one of the seniors answered in class the other day that the plural of sheep is lamb? Workmen are leveling the ground just outside of the running track of the athletic field. The new athletic field is in use by the football team at their practice under trainer John Hall. Miss Lida Standing is taking Miss Carter's place as teacher of No. 5 during the absence of Mrs. Given. Our "typoess" Kitty Silverheels is back at the case. She had a place near Washington, D.C., this summer. Samuel Spencer, one of the new boys from the west, has entered the printing office to learn to be a typo. Miss Weekly presented a very pretty colored photograph of The Golden Pheasant to the normal room. Never did boys and girls show more the benefits of a change than did the Juniors and Seniors who came in last week from farms. On Wednesday evening, the drawing of seats for the month at the teachers' club, was the cause of considerable excitement and merriment. "We are very much interested in the band now forming for the Paris Exposition, and hope you will have plenty of items as to its progress," says one of our newer subscribers. On Monday evening Major Pratt was elected president and Miss Luckenback secretary and treasurer of the Teachers' Cllub for the ensuing year. Menu committee -- Misses Cutter, Senseney, Wood, Noble, and Mr. Kensler. "I do not know how you can send it out every week for so little. It certainly contains many good things that we may all, old and young, be benefitted by if we take the advice given," says a subscriber in Chester county at the close of a business letter to the HELPER. Perry Tsamauwa and Carrie Cornelius left on Wednesday for the Hoopa Valley agency, California, to take positions in the Government school at that place. The former is a Pueblo Indian from New Mexico who has learned the shoemaking trade. Miss Cornelius is from the Oneida reservation, Wisconsin. The books from the boys' library are now being catalogued as rapidly as possible. In a month or two they will be in place in the school-office library, ready for use. Mr. Jordan has repaired the granolithic walks and is now looking after the washers of the buildings, who are putting on a fresh coat of the uniform drab-blue-gray. On the stairs, halls and floors of the dininghall building a compound known as "No Dust" which has been found very valuable on the hospital floors, has been put on. Miss Martha Hench, formerly of the school force, now of the Hahnemann Hospital Philadelphia, was at her home on South Hanover St., last week. She returned to Philadelphia on Monday. Fifty-seven of the new pupils have been assigned to their respective classes in the Academic department. Most of them go to the intermediate grades. They are bright and intelligent children. One of the little campers was asked in the schoolroom, "Who picked the most berries at camp the boys or girls?" "The boys," was his reply. "Well, what did the girls do?" "O, they just shine 'em up for us." Mrs. Kate Butler, for several years teacher of music at the Flandrau, S. Dak., Training School, has joined the clerical force at the administration building. For the present she is helping Miss Ely in her "outing" work. The Young Men's Christian Association boys will find a willing reponse among the new boys when they seek for brotherly affiliation with their society. Many of the new men are ready to unite with the best of everything. The youthful regiment of boys that came in from the camp on Monday looked like little tramps, but their sunburned faces and sparkling eyes told the story of the good time they had had in the mountains. The girls came at the same time, loking brown and well. On Sunday afternoon the school assembled in the newly painted Assembly Hall for the first time. The white blinds, fresh coloring and new designs in frescoing lend to the place a strange but improved appearance enjoyed by all except those lovers of the same old thing. The electric lighting in the band room and other alterations have been made to suit the enlarged band. A number of the new instruments have arrived and are beauties. Regular practice will not begin till all the instruments come, although individual practice is in progress. Miss Maxwell, of Philadelphia, who has been visiting her aunt Miss Luckenback, for a few weeks, left on Monday. Her renewal of acquaintances formed at the school when here six years before was very pleasant, and all who met her could but wish that her stay with us might be longer. Three new blowers have been placed in the blacksmith shop to take the place of the old bellows. These are more modern applicances and do not take up so much room. With such improvements we can not blame the blacksmiths if they do blow a little about their excellent work. The more blow the better. ================================================ (page 4) ADVANTAGES APPRECIATED. ----------- One of our girls in a country home wrote to Miss Ericson when she was at Bay View, Mich., this summer. Little did the Indian girl think that the Man-on-the-band-stand would see what was in that letter. But he did, and it is so full of the right spirit that all will be interested in reading it. We have not room to print it all, but she said in part: "I am glad to know that you are near to my dear home and perhaps will see and talk to my folks. Bay View is a beautiufl little resort; I have been there many a time. Dear Miss Ericson, I want you to do me a favor if you have any spare time; that is, go and see my dear mother, and tell all you know about me. Tell her what Carlisle is doing for the Indians. My poor mother seems to be worrying so much about me being so far away from home. I have written letters and letters to my mother, but she cannot read them herself; some one has to read the letter and then interpret it. How sad to think she did not have the chance that I have now! And I think that she ought to be thankful that I am away from home working for a higher education. I am a senior now; by next summer I hope to be working for my own individual welfare. I have a lovely country home this summer; no one else can have a better home than I. M___ H_____ and I live together and, O, we do have fine times together. We go out driving sometimes and we've been to Willow Grove many times, for we live right near it. Yes, we have everything that a farmer can have. I have been at Carlisle only two years, but it seems ages since I have seen my folks. During those two years I feel improved. Yes, Carlisle has done so much for me in such a short time, I cannot realize what I owe Carlisle. I hope that every student feels the same as I do. Now my dear Miss Ericson, I do hope this letter will reach you before you leave, and when you return tell me all about the family, and the little brother whom I have never seen yet. Miss Shaffner was here just the other day to see us. I was so glad to see her, she is still the same sweet lady." ============================ OUR INDIAN BOYS AS WAITERS. -------------- "How did you get on at the seashore, waiting on table?" asked the Man-on-the-band-stand of one of the boys who returned this week from Point Pleasant where 14 of the Carlisle Indian boys were employed as boardinghouse waiters. It is a line of work entirely new to most of them. "Well," said the boy. "I heard of no complaints, and for my part I enjoyed the summer, the sea-air and all very much indeed." "But the work! The work is what I want to know about. How did you succeed as waiters?" The boy smiled and replied: "Of course the big orders puzzled us at first and we got things mixed, but we had a very nice class of people to wait upon. They seemed to take in that we were Indians and made allowance." "Ah!" said the Man-on-the-band-stand, dropping his head. "I hope you are not satisfied with any such record." "Most certainly not," answered the boy standing back upon his dignity. "Of course the work was new to us, and we simply had to learn it, that is all." "Certainly! Certainly!" said the Man-on-the-band-stand. "Practice makes perfect in waiting on table as well as in any other employment." "And all we want is the chance, and in time we shall be able to carry as big orders in our heads and carry the waiters on as few fingers and as high in the air as the best of 'em." "Ah! That's the spirit. How do you like the work for Indian boys." "I think it is fine, We get lots of good food, sea air and bathing." "I am glad," said the Man-on-the-band-stand "that you are not satisfied with 'Oh, they do very well for Indians.' The Indians must by their well doing 'put to silence' such talk. They must not accept commendation as worthy except it be on true merit." =================== Enigma. I am made of 7 letters. My 7, 3, 2, 4 is something most people like to learn to do. My 4, 6, 5, 1, 7 the Indian students at Carlisle like. My whole is something most of the subscribers enjoy seeing in the HELPER every week. --[FROM AN OLD SUBSCRIBER. --------------------- ANSWER TO LAST WEEK'S ENIGMA: The Lawn-Mower. +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Transcribed from the Carlisle Indian School newspaper collection of the Cumberland County Historical Society by Barbara Landis, Carlisle Indian School Research - http://www.epix.net/~landis. --------- "RE: Poem: Warrior's Stand" --------- Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 19:41:18 -0700 From: "EREC - Fort, Don" Subj: Time again for the warrior's stand UUCP email Oyea Tau Thought i would share this with you before hitting the del key. If you think that it would be worthwhile, you can forward on to the list. Seems to be my day for putting on the paint. -------------------------------- is time again for the warrior's stand time to confront the obstacles time to confront the challenges is time again for the warrior's stand no longer will injustice be over looked no longer will pain be ignored no longer will the cries be unheard no longer will winter take the elderly is time again for the warrior's stand look into our eyes see the fire still burns our enemies can not extinguish this flame determination burns hot is time again for the warrior's stand turn and face us tribal governments no longer will corruption be over looked no longer will you profit at the expense of the People prepare to change or prepare to be removed is time again for the warrior's stand turn and face us state governments no longer will you dictate policy on Indian land no longer will you control our schools no longer will we pay you for what is ours is time again for the warrior's stand turn and face us federal government no long