From gars@netcom.com Tue Dec 15 22:57:59 1998 Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 19:52:28 -0800 (PST) From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews06.051 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ O (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' O o O ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ O o O / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' O o o o o O / /-< / /--/ /-- VOLUME 06, ISSUE 051 O o O __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, December 19, 1998 O o O KANOHEDA ANIYVWIYA Ha-Sah-Sliltha Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin O Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min Aunchemokauhettittea ( N A T I V E A M E R I C A N N E W S ) This issue contains articles from Innu-L, Minn-Ind & Nat-Film Lists; Nuevo Amanecer Press; Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty; 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 Borries Demeler advises AISESnet doesn't exist anymore, instead there is now NativeNet where people can search for archives of Wotanging Ikche issues: _ All past AISESnet archives (1992-1998) can now be found in: http://aises.uthscsa.edu/discussion/ _ All new messages will be archived in: http://nativenet.uthscsa.edu/archive/nn-dialogue/archive.html The mailing address for AISESnet/NativeNet the lists have changed. Please make a note of the new address. The old address aisesnet_discussion@listserv.umt.edu should *NOT* be used any longer. Instead please use: nn-dialogue@nativenet.uthscsa.edu 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. "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 powder, and made into artificial blocks which may be built into the walls of modern society." __ Ohiyesa (Dr Charles A. Eastman), Santee +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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 +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Journey | In the summer and early fall | The Bloodline | of 1998 the Treaty Unity Riders | | rode a thousand miles on horse- | For all that live and live by law | back, carrying a staff and | We Stand, we Call, We Ride | praying each step of the way. | For All that fear and fear by sight | | We Hear, we Listen, we Ride | These prayers were offered for | For all that pray and pray by strength| each of us, and that the Unity | We Feel, we Move, we Ride | of all Peoples might happen. | For all that die and die by greed | | We Hurt, we Cry, we Ride | Tatanka Cante forwarded this | For all that birth and birth by right | poem on behalf of all the Unity | We Smile, we Hold, we Ride | Riders that we might stop and | For all that need and need by heart | ask if the next words we say, the | We Came, we Went, we Rode. | next act we make is for the good | | of the People or is it from ego | Treaty Unity Riders | for self. +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ O'siyo Brothers and Sisters! Some readers may be aware of the recent beating death of Orvil Chasing Horse in Denver. There has been some confusion about the deceased's identity, thinking he was Arvol Looking Horse, carrier of the Buffalo Calf Woman Pipe for the Lakota Nation. He is not. Dr. Looking Horse is alive and well. The victim was the brother of Joe Chasing Horse, an elder and medicine keeper of the Lakota Nation who has often accompanied Dr. Looking Horse and translated for him. Denver police have attributed the death to an attempted robbery and have not aggressively investigated the case. Astute readers will notice a new language has been added to the banner. My thanks to Wolf Patterson of the Ditidaht Nation of Vancouver Island for his nation's words. I welcome any tribal language with translation. Those now appearing are as follows: Wotanging Ikche.................Lakota for News of the People Kanoheda Aniyvwiya..............Cherokee for Journal of the People Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin...Blackfoot for News for All the People Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse............Creek for People's New News Aunchemokauhettittea............Narragansett for Let Us Share News ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min...........Ojibwe for We Are Talking About Ourselves Ha-Sah-Sliltha..................Ditidaht Nation for News of the People Native American News............Occupation Forces Again, this winter this editorial section will feature groups or individuals who are helping those in need, primarily on reservations and especially those who aid children and elders. Urban help will not be excluded. I have lived in the Cedar-Riverside area of Minneapolis and been a guest in Lakota Housing in Rapid City and in Shiprock. The need to eat and be warm does not end because a person has left the rez. I can tell you there are elders surviving in ways that you seldom associate with a human being. Dirt floors and a non-leaky roof represent an improvement for many. PLEASE forward contact information for all you know who help those less able to do so make it through the harsh winter months. ============================================= Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 08:43:40 -0800 From: Robert Dorman Subj: Supplies needed >From BIGMTLIST The following is a request for some specific supplies that a supporter (Dana Brewer) is trying to get together to bring to the people on the land in Arizona. If you can help her out, please contact her directly at ladybugs@selway.umt.edu. Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 09:23:52 -0700 (MST) From: Dana C Brewer I am trying to gather some of this stuff for the people on the land in Arizona..if you have any ideas please let me know. raw wool fleece, raw animal skins and hides Navaho language tapes, walkman and batteries, Coast and Geodetic survey maps for between these areas: Blue Canion(Moeukopi Wash) and White Ruin Canion It would be nice to have the maps of the entire area. -This comes at the request from a friend who is working for Roberta Blackgoat. Thank you again, If there is anything I should know please inform me. Please keep your self well (I love ginger for that!) Take Good Care, Dana Brewer =/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\= For additional information or to make donations contact: For the Red Shirt Community: Marvin Helper P.O. Box 312 Hermosa, SD 57744 From: tusweca Darlene Cross PO Box 52 Kyle SD 577075 From: yona@infi.net Toy drive going on for the Cheyenne River Reservation in Eagle Butte If you would like to donate a toy or more information, you may contact me by email: yona@infi.net or phone me 757-425-7992..you may also drop off a toy if you are in the vicinity of our store Na-va'kee 618 Hilltop West. biah yazzie From: DORSEY.THOMAS_J+@ALBANY.VA.GOV Norma Grassrope Lower Brule Reservation Lower Brule, South Dakota 57028 (605) 473-5594 She is the chair of a charitable group called the Womens Support Group. From: Pioquark@aol.com Clay Watson Pioneer Industries 1100 E. 24th St. Cheyenne, Wy. 82001 (307)778-7860 pioquark@aol.com http://members.tripod.com/~dikani/pioneer.html These donations will be gifted to the Rose Bud and Pine Ridge Reservations in South Dakota and the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. I'm on the road a lot, out back loading the truck etc. PLEASE leave a message if there is no answer.. From: ALBERT SUN BUTLER Ti Ospaye PO Box 200 Wanblee SD 57577 Supporting the elders through personal contact: Adopt A Grandparent Mountain Light Center PO Box 241 Taos NM 87571 TEL: 505 776 8474 FAX: 505 776 8050 For information call 800 291-8474. email: agpmlc@aol.com For the Cherokee, NC Rez and South FL (Now taking one load/week): From: "lonewolf" Lone Wolf -or- Bob and Linda Crowe 1060 N. Bee St. 2800 West Highway 5 Deland, Fl 32720 Bowden, GA 30108 770-258-1536 From BIGMTLIST The Dineh could use some blankets to help with the cold winters. Bonnie Whitesinger Box 1073 Hotevilla, AZ 86030 Since UPS doesn't deliver to PO boxes, you would have to use parcel post. --------------------------------------------- From: leslie@neca.com Pathways to Spirit in Fort Collins Colorado Contact: Carmeen Klausner Phone: 970 282 8573 email pathways@webaccess.net www.pathwaystospirit.necaweb.com This group is non profit and takes tractor trailer loads of clothes and furniture to Pine Ridge several times each year. --This year we have gone to Porcupine and Red Shirt Table, and will be going to Kyle December 12. --------------------------------------------- From: POP ACCOUNT We would ask simply that you take a few minutes to visit our web site at http://www.nightwalker.org/holidays and review the information provided there. If you find it in yourself to help these children, there is a link on the site there to our SSL Secure server for online donations, or you can download and print out a form that can be mailed instead. If you do not have access to the World Wide Web, but would still like to help out, you can send an email to donate@nightwalker.org, and a donation form will be automatically sent back to you. Night Walker Enterprises is an all volunteer, 501(c)(3) non profit corporation, and all donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by IRS regulations and current US tax law. --------------------------------------------- From Laurel Fry Helping the Mattaponi Indian Reservation, and other Reservations, as well. E-MAIL: suneagle@bealenet.com URL: http://www.bealenet.com/~suneagle If you do not wish to be a Full Time Sponsor, but wish to help a Child, Elder or Family have a decent Holiday, PLEASE e-mail or call John or Sharen. FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE E-MAIL JOHN AND SHAREN AT THE FOLLOWING: suneagle@bealenet.com SNAIL MAIL ADDRESS: JOHN AND SHAREN SUN EAGLE 84 NEE A YA LANE, MATTAPONI INDIAN RESERVATION PHONE: 1-804-769-1405 --------------------------------------------- Those shipping large amounts of materials to reservations may have a great opportunity to facilitate your shipping. This arrived in this week's email, and I have not had an opportunity to pursue it further. I offer it now, in hopes it will help some in the contact list. A lot of reservations are near military facilities. PLEASE let me know how things go if you do attempt to use this service: Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 11:45:42 -0600 Subj: transportation of relief materials Senders name removed by request. FYI For transportation of relief materials by non-profit agencies or groups. Telephone all of your local congressman's offices and request in writing, their assistance in obtaining military transportation assistance. Then contact the nearest military base with an airfield, Public Affairs Office (PAO) and also a written letter to the Base Commander also requesting assistance. The military and in particular the USAF has many cargo aircraft (C-130 Hercules, KC-10, C-141, C-17 and C-5). The State Air National Guard's own C-130's and the US Marines owns a number of C-130 aircraft. Flying Aircrews require a number of training flight hours per quarter to maintain their Flight Proficiency. There is always some aircraft heading in the correct direction. The aircraft cannot deliver to the door but can deliver to within a few hundred miles at the most. Please consider that some of these aircraft weigh 140 Tons or more and will "sink" into concrete less than 18+ inches deep. Therefore they cannot land at just any airfield runway. The shipped materials must be shipped securely fastened on pallets (no loose material, everything sealed in boxes, some restrictions on flammables and no propellents (explosives)). The PAO will provide the necessary guidance. The local Flight Engineers, Loadmasters and even Boy Scouts will help with the inspection, boxing and palletizing. The USAF is always hauling materials (on a non-interference basis naturally) for charitable purposes. No one likes an empty cargo aircraft. --------------------------------------------- From: The Stones Another organization you might consider adding to your list is: Lakota Link http://rtt.colorado.edu/~cameron/LakxotaKxoyag.html Ellen Stone The following snailmail addresses are included for help to communities on the Cheyenne River Rez: Craig and Ruth Cameron LakxotaKxoyag P O Box 176 Jamestown, CO 80455-0176 Lakxota Kxoyag c/o Marvin and Veronica Holy Town of Bridger Representatives P.O. Box 172 Howes, SD 57748 Lakxota Kxoyag c/o Violet Catches HC 77 Box 500 Howes, SD 57748 Lakxota Kxoyag c/o Kathleen Eagle Chasing Town of Cherry Creek Representatives P.O. Box 101 Cherry Creek, SD 57622 UPS ADDRESS: Lakxota Kxoyag c/o Kathleen Eagle Chasing Town of Cherry Creek Representatives House #245 Cherry Creek, SD 57622. Lakxota Kxoyag c/o Elvira Chasing Hawk Town of Red Scaffold Representatives Box 481 Red Scaffold RD Red Scaffold, SD 57626 or c/o Candace Hollow Horn Box 522 Red Scaffold RD Red Scaffold, SD 57626 --------------------------------------------- From: JRP The Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization 402 West 145th Street * New York, NY 10031 212/926-5757 * 212/926-5842 (fax) * ifco@igc.apc.org (email) * www.ifconews.org (web) (earmark your gift for November caravan to Chiapas) Bucketline to the Elders this group provides food and supplies First Security Bank to the elders of the 205 N Main Big Mountain /Black Mesa area. Layton, UT 84041 Redfeather Development Corp This group repairs and winterizes Box 52652 housing for the Bellevue, WA 98015-2652 elders of the Dakotas area. --------------------------------------------- From: Morning Star We have needs for both the youth projects and for Seventh Circle, Rapid City projects. We are compiling a complete list of needs and will post that in the near future. In the meantime, if you're unsure what is needed where: For the Youth Projects: Mike at Mike.Wicks@mindspring.com or Kathy at mornstar@bellatlantic.net For Rapid City Projects: dhendren@mint.net mornstar@bellatlantic.net Mike.Wicks@mindspring.com YOUTH PROJECTS - Standing Rock Rainbow Project C/O Sandra Welch Box 229 210 Main Street McLaughlin, SD 57642 Hunkpapa Youth Survival Project Helmina Makes Him First P.O. box 53 Little Eagle, SD 57639 RAPID CITY PROJECTS: The Seventh Circle 321 Doolittle Street Rapid City, S.D. 57701 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 ---------- - Leonard Peltier to - Sacred Sites National Day of Mourning - First Amendment - Peltier Action Support Repression on the Reservation - Prison Still on Lockdown - Making Money with Tobacco - Help for Ida Mae Clinton - Call for Public Inquiry - New Big Mountain Video Available into Gustafsen Lake - New AIM Chapter - The Odor of Decaying Flesh - Extinction of Indigenous People - Nature Made Survival Possible - Legislature Approves - Stoney Band Members Clean House Casino Compacts - Mille Lacs Treaty Case - Commission Briefed - Leech Lake Officials on Occaneechi Ruling Join Mille Lacs Treaty Case - Ninilchik Awaits - At Risk for Injustice BIA Tribal Contract Ruling - Free Wolverine - Mayan Riviera Off-Limits to Mayas - Native Prisoner - Expect Delays at Voisey's Bay - A Hundred Years Ago - Governor-Elect Asked to - Poem: Mother Reject Nuclear Dump - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - Sandy Lake DNA Deal - Conferences and Powwows - Thank You to One and All - Native America Calling --------- "RE: Leonard Peltier to National Day of Mourning" --------- Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 16:13:56 -0500 From: MOBIUS S S Subj: Statement of Leonard Peltier to National Day of Mourning Statement of Leonard Peltier to National Day of Mourning, 11/26/98, Plymouth, Mass. THANKSGIVING DAY STATEMENT Greetings, Friends and Supporters. Well, here we go with another holiday that America loves to celebrate, Thanksgiving Day. I know this has been said numerous times by many Native people of this country, but it is just not a day for many of us to celebrate. Although some things have improved on some reservations, there are an overwhelming number of us that have nothing to celebrate. These are the people who still have my concern, my hope and my love that things will get better. I'm talking about the people of Big Mountain, some of whom have already received their eviction notices. It's about the Western Shoshone, about the people all over this continent who are fighting for their treaty rights and sovereignty. It's about the people in Chiapas, the people in Central and South America who are being tortured and slaughtered every day. It is about the people whose stories we do not hear. The people who are resisting by simply surviving the "third world" conditions that they live under in the wealthiest nation on Earth. As you gather today at this historic spot, remember those who struggled and gave their lives before you. Remember those who are in prison and those who are being tortured and denigrated today. Remember those who gave you the teachings that were handed down generation to generation. Remember as you continue the struggle for justice and equality in this land that is ours to caretake. We need to reach out to the youth and embrace and encourage them to follow in our footsteps in order to continue the struggle. We are losing part of a generation of our young people to drugs and alcohol and consumerism. My time on this Earth is rapidly passing by and the young people must step in mine and the shoes of others who have fought this long hard struggle. I encourage and challenge you to educate yourself and your children in social concerns and the politics of the world. We have to remember that only true unity of all people will allow us to be successful and victorious in effecting change. I also want to thank all of you who continue to sacrifice and work for my freedom. It is through your love and support that I make it through the hard times. And there have been many and I'm sure more to come. Before I end, I ask you to remember our teachings. Thanksgiving is every day. Wake up and thank the Creator for a new day every day. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse. Leonard Peltier. --------- "RE: Peltier Action Support" --------- Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 11:21:51 -0600 From: Chris Spotted Eagle Subj: Peltier Support Mailing List: Minnesota Indian Affairs FYI and Action: A LOCKDOWN (noun) started last Friday, Dec. 4th, at the US Penitentiary at Leavenworth, KS, where Leonard Peltier is a political prisoner. Lockdowns occur for disciplinary, harassment and security purposes. They can occur at any time for any reason, or infraction at the order of the Warden. As Dr.Reinhold Aman, an ex-federal prisoner explains in his book, Hillary Clinton's Pen Pal: A guide To Life and Lingo in Federal Prison (Maledicta Press), it is "to close down an entire prison by forcing all prisoners to stay in their cells or dorms around the clock, often for days, usually during disturbances or before anticipated riots." Lockdowns last from a week to two or more. All prisoners are locked in their cells continuously, except for meals. During this time, guards can search cells and many times trash them. And if a prisoner reacts to a search, they are put in segregation, that is, in an isolation cell referred to as "seg" or the "hole." Dr. Aman explains it as "a punishment of disciplinary segregation cell without privileges for prisoners who have violated some regulation. It can rage from a filthy, horrible, cold, windowless, and inhumane cell without even a blanket to one acceptable for housing human beings. Call the prison at 913/682-8700 or Fax the warden at 913/682-0041. Put citizen pressure on to show support for Leonard and to stop the Lockdown. Ask the following: Ask the person who answers, what is their name. Why is there Lockdown? How is Leonard Peltier? When are they going to lift the Lockdown? PS: As for a copy of the book, call 707/523-4761 or get at an offbeat bookstore. He asks that people address him by academic title and B.o.P (Bureau of Prisons) number. It is Dr. Reinhold Aman 03873-089. Chris Spotted Eagle cseagle@maroon.tc.umn.edu Voice & Fax 612/377-4212 --------- "RE: Prison Still on Lockdown" --------- Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 19:31:39 -0600 (CST) From: Freedom Heart Rising Subj: Prison still on Lockdown: Peltier/ Fwd. from LPDC: December 14th, 1998: update The prisoners at USP Leavenworth are still locked down. This lock down is unusually long and prison officials say that it may end this Wednesday. All of the prisoners are being punished harshly for an altercation which they had nothing to do with. The prisoners are still unable to use the phone or have legal or regular visits. Please continue calling the prison and inquiring why they are punishing the prisoners. Please ask about the well being of Leonard Peltier. Thanks--LPDC staff December 9th For immediate release: All of the prisoners at US Federal Penitentiary Leavenworth have been under lock down since Friday of last week. The prisoners' cells have been stripped of their belongings. Today prisoners were allowed to be let out of their cells for ten minutes to shower. This was the first time they had been let out since Friday. A fight is what allegedly prompted prison officials to lock down the prisoners however, they have locked everyone down - regardless of whether they had any involvement in the alleged altercation, details of which are not being released by prison officials. Prisoners are not being allowed any legal visits or phone calls and we are concerned for their safety. Please call the prison immediately and ask them on what grounds they are locking down inmates and ask them if Leonard Peltier is okay. Make sure they know that we are looking out for him. Prison officials are usually extremely unresponsive to concerns, but it is important that their phones ring. Call your Congress and Senate people immediately and ask them to inquire into the situation and to relay any information to you that they receive. Thank you. The LPDC USP Leavenworth 913-682-8700 Bureau of Prisons 202-307-3198 202-514-6878 fax --------- "RE: Help for Ida Mae Clinton" --------- Date: Mon, 07 Dec 1998 19:42:27 -0800 From: Robert Dorman Subj: Help for Ida Mae Clinton (Alvin's wife) Mailing List: Big Mountain List Date: Mon, 07 Dec 1998 15:45:00 -0700 (MST) From: Andrew Vernon Bessler Subj: The Voice of Relocation Dear Bob: Can you please post the following? Verna Clinton asked me that I put this out there to everyone in the internet world. ### I just got done reading Bahe's conversation with Pauline Whitesinger. Her voice needs to be heard considering she is one of the last warriors in America's Great Indian Wars. It is important to stay informed of the events that are occurring right now. We must know all the facts so that the thin human wall we have for the resistors is not blown on a few people crying "the sky is falling!" Many family members I have spoken to are fully aware of the seriousness of the "courtesy notices" the relocation office served to non-signers of the Accommodation Agreement. they will not relocate nor sign anything. I am constantly amazed at their strength and spiritual convictions that keep them where they are. Are they after movie rights? Will they build condos and golf courses? no, their convictions stem from only the highest human values we can ever hope to attain. The resistors, despite over 24 years of pressure remain steadfast in their beliefs. I feel honored to know them. In any case, one family in particular has asked for help. Ida Mae Clinton from the Star Mountain area south of the Hopi mesas asked me to put the word out that she needs help. Her daughter, Verna Clinton, her daughter will keep a calendar in which people who wish to come and stay with Ida may call Verna and put their names and dates they can help on Verna's calendar. Ida Mae is continuing the resistance to relocate her late husband, Alvin struggled with until his death last year. Please contact Verna Clinton to help out at 520-674-5024. All she asks is that people who come to the land: 1) Work hard and come prepared to non-violently document further contacts with federal officials 2)Refrain from drug use while staying with Ida. 3)Are self-sufficient in terms of their own money. 4)If they are vegetarians, come with their own food (Ida will cook for you, but most dishes include meat). If you have any questions about getting orientation in Flagstaff or more specific info, please call Verna or the Black Mesa Indigenous Support Group in Flagstaff at 520-773-8086. thank you andy bessler Anthropology Grad student, NAU ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ You are on the BIGMTLIST, a moderated mailing list of Big Mountain relocation resistance information (not discussion or debate). To unsubscribe, email redorman@theofficenet.com with "unsubscribe" in the subject header. For non-list members receiving this post as a forwarded message, you may subscribe by emailing redorman@theofficenet.com with the word "subscribe" in the subject header. For Big Mountain and other activist internet resources, visit "The Activist Page" at http://www.theofficenet.com/~redorman/welcome.html Also, for great internet tools please visit: http://www.msw.com.au/cgi-bin/msw/entry?id=1271 --------- "RE: New Big Mountain Video Available" --------- Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1998 08:04:58 -0800 From: Robert Dorman Subj: New Big Mountain Video Available Mailing List: Big Mountain List Good news. For those of you who are directly trying to educate the public about the atrocities against the native peoples of Big Mountain, there is a video available from Sol Communications. I have not seen it yet, but knowing some of the video work that Mauro has been doing down there (and risking his life, I might add, to get some of it), it should have some pretty provocative stuff. With that as a teaser, now the heavy part. This BIGMTLIST post goes out to 372 supporters, including other lists and persons who repost it to their lists or forward it to friends. It also gets posted on various college bulletin boards. The total number of persons reading this could be estimated between 1500 to 2000 persons or more. Please don't all of you ask Mauro for this video just to have something interesting to look at for the evening! Sol Communications (http://www.solcommunications.com) is a 501(c)3 non-profit corp. and does not have unlimited financial resources. Producing and mailing these tapes costs him time and money. I think he would appreciate an appropriate (tax deductible) contribution to cover his expenses and further his human rights documentary and advocacy work. His snail-mail address listed on his website is: Meye-SOL, 6303 Fair Ave, North Hollywood CA 91606. His email is meyesol@eudoramail.com. Mauro is also a musician and performer. Please see his music and video related pages at http://www.solcommunications.com/mauro.html and http://www.solcommunications.com/mauro/aboutthecd.html http://www.solcommunications.com/mauro/video.html And now, Mauro's message: ------------------------- I have a 28:30 second "underground" cable show called "The Battle of Big Mountain". I had given Klandiken some copies and ISCO in Oregon. This is not the documentary that we have been working on, but it does contain footage that no doubt is in that piece. Anyway many people have asked me about the cable show. I will send a copy to any BIg Mountain group that wants it. Since I will be paying for the copies and mailing I just ask that only groups or people that intend on educating with it reply.Also, any group working with the nuclear issues please contact me as well. We made a similar piece during Corbin Harney's event at the Mercury gate last spring and it came out great. Both pieces have great interviews, The Battle of Big Mountain with John Benally, Roberta Blackgoat, Marsha Monestersky, Norman Benally and others. There is also a music video called Amerika that I made as well. For the record, no exempt monies were used in these productions. Mauro Oliveira SOL Communications maurooliveira@eudoramail.com ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ You are on the BIGMTLIST, a moderated mailing list of Big Mountain relocation resistance information (not discussion or debate). To unsubscribe, email redorman@theofficenet.com with "unsubscribe" in the subject header. For non-list members receiving this post as a forwarded message, you may subscribe by emailing redorman@theofficenet.com with the word "subscribe" in the subject header. For Big Mountain and other activist internet resources, visit "The Activist Page" at http://www.theofficenet.com/~redorman/welcome.html Also, for great internet tools please visit: http://www.msw.com.au/cgi-bin/msw/entry?id=1271 --------- "RE: New AIM Chapter" --------- Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 01:10:03 EST From: AIMAZ@aol.com Subj: ASSISTANCE FOR NEW AIM CHAPTER I hope everyone will join AIMAZ in welcoming the newest AIM chapter. They are the Eastern Dakota AIM Chapter and are located between Peever and Sisseton South Dakota. The director is Della Eastman and the Co-director is her husband, Milton Eastman. They live on the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation and at a recent meeting with Mike Haney there were approximately 100 people in attendance. A very strong showing to get this chapter moving. They have a lot of plans for helping their people and especially with the problems with the land grabbing going on up there. The government is at it again and is trying to take the land. But, this new chapter plans on doing everything they can to put a stop to that. We hope to have these guys online before to long so that you can get first hand updates from them. The Eastman's put out a lot of their own hard earned money to get this chapter started. A lot of others made donations also. But more is needed, not only for the chapter but also for the people on the reservation. I've been asked by Della to request any assistance from our supporters and followers. They can use things such as...toys, clothes, etc for Christmas boxes for the needy, office equipment etc for the chapter, and of course monetary donations are gratefully accepted. You can send all donations to.. ...AIM Eastern Dakota Chapter, PO Box 232, Peever, South Dakota, 57257. You may call the chapter to verify this request or to find out what is needed by calling 605-698-7417 or 605-698-7100. Please help these guys get a great start for the holiday season and for the new year. In Struggle, T AIMAZ --------- "RE: Extinction of Indigenous People" --------- Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 14:33:52 -0500 From: Kahn-Tineta Horn Subj: IS THE UNITED NATIONS FACILITATING THE EXTINCTION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE? CASNP. Kahnawake M.T. 11 Dec 98. The following speech was presented by Kahn-Tineta Horn, President of the Canadian Alliance in Solidarity with the Native Peoples to the City of Toronto Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Dec. 10, 1998. It went over well with some and not with others. "In the last few years I have been to the United Nations in New York City and I wasn't impressed. THIS IS THE ORGANIZATION THAT IS SUPPOSED TO PROTECT OUR FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS. THIS IS THE ORGANIZATION THAT SAYS IN ARTICLE 1 OF ITS CHARTER THAT IT IS "BASED ON THE PRINCIPLE OF EQUAL RIGHTS AND SELF DETERMINATION OF PEOPLES" THIS IS THE ORGANIZATION THAT CLAIMS TO PROMOTE EQUALITY "WITHOUT DISTINCTION AS TO RACE, LANGUAGE, SEX OR RELIGION" YET once again UN officials representing the dominant states lined up their people to tell us what to do. They controlled the meeting, set the agenda and decided how many questions were asked. And none of our questions were answered. THERE ARE COMPLICATED EXCUSES FOR THIS. Today, I can only tell you what I know. So this is what I have to say. Did you know that Canada WAS THE FIRST COUNTRY TO SHUT Indigenous Peoples OUT of international ORGANIZATIONS? It was Canada that placed Indigenous societies throughout the world on the path to genocide and extinction. And this happened recently in 1923 & 1924.... IT WAS ONE OF THE FIRST THING CANADA DID WHEN IT STARTED TO SEPARATE ITSELF FROM THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND ACTED AS A STATE ON ITS OWN. SO I WILL TELL YOU ABOUT HOW Canada's strategy continues to perpetuate this atrocities on Indigenous societies worldwide. THERE ARE A LOT OF GAPS IN THE WAY CANADA TELLS HISTORY. I BET MOST OF YOU DIDN'T KNOW THAT THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY NEVER AGREED TO BE PART OF CANADA! Did you know that the Iroquois Confederacy of Six Nations, near Brantford Ontario, sent a representative, Deskahe, to Geneva in 1923 to apply for membership in the League of Nations? I AM A CITIZEN OF THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY. I WOULD LIKE TO REMIND YOU THAT WE STARTED OFF AS ALLIES OF BRITAIN AND WE NEVER AGREED TO GIVE UP OUR INDEPENDENT STATUS. We had a democratic government before you had even heard of "responsible government". When Europeans were having a hard time making it in North America, we were their allies and helped them. When her colonies revolted in the American War of Independence we moved north and to this day we remain independent British allies. Things started to go wrong for us when Britain started giving local self-government on our land to European settlers. Canadians started to ignore us. We did the best we could. They mismanaged our trust funds & allotted our lands without our consent. In the end Canadians started treating us like wards of their Crown and as British subjects. They wanted to assimilate us & they started forcing their laws on us. How would you feel if the United States started to make laws about stray dogs or collecting taxes in Canada? That's what you did to us! In 1920 we petitioned the Supreme Court of Canada to decide on the legality of the Indian Act and on the interference by the Department of Indian Affairs in our government. We asked for a constitutional reference, like Canada did on Quebec. But in 1920 Canada refused to let the court hear our case on the advice of Duncan Campbell Scott in the Department of Indian Affairs. Just think about that. We were complaining about Scott's interpretation of the law & Canada let him decide if our complaint should be heard! So we petitioned the Governor Genera. Our petition got sent back to Duncan Campbell Scott. Then we petitioned the King in England & our petition got sent to the Governor General in Canada. Guess who he sent it to? You guessed it! Duncan Campbell Scott! We still wanted our issues to be looked at by an impartial third party. So we chose Chief Deskaheh, the Speaker of our Council, to get international help. Then Canada started to make plans to send the RCMP to invade our territory! That was the last straw! Deskaheh sent a petition to the Queen of the Netherlands because the Netherlands had been our allies back in the days when New York was known as New Amsterdam. The Netherlands submitted our petition to the League of Nations. But Canada claimed that we were not independent. They got Great Britain to bury our case by putting pressure on the Netherlands. So the League did not considered our case. You had to be a state to be a member of the League of Nations and Canada thought that they could just tell everyone we were not a state and that would be the end of it. Then Deskaheh went to Geneva and got the support of Estonia, Persia, Ireland and Panama for the Permanent Court of International Justice to decide whether or not we were a state. The Confederacy is entitled to the respect that is due any other nation in the world according to the criteria of nationhood - having a population, a functioning government, language, culture and a land base. Well, guess what happened? Canada got the British Empire to lean on all those little states. So...instead of the international court realizing we were a state, people just had to take Canada's word for it that we weren't. We were still looking for a way to get a neutral investigation of our complaints. So we were looking into arbitration at the Hague. Then Canada found a way to shut us out once and for all. How? Canada, that great defender of democracy & human rights, quickly got an order in council declaring that our government was going to be replaced with a council elected under Canada's Indian Act. What would you do if the United States sent in the Marines and announced it wasn't going to deal with the Canadian Prime Minister any more, that it was going to give you a right to vote for Senators and Congressmen? Would you appreciate your free choice to vote in that kind of election? That's the kind of choice Canada gave us and we didn't like it. Canada turned its back on our Council where over fifty Chiefs represented our people and held an illegal election. Guess how many people voted? Only 25! In October 1924 Canada sent in the RCMP and brutally threw out the Confederacy Chiefs from the Council House. They put in their Council and announced to the world that the Six Nations had a progressive new council, which promptly passed a resolution saying that Deskaheh no longer represented the Six Nations. This closed the door on our ever getting any neutral adjudication of our issues. To this day Canada insists on dealing with us through its fraudulently imposed Indian Act. And Nations throughout the world HAVE adopted this same position. Indigenous people everywhere are excluded from the society of nations and this did not change when the League of Nations was replaced by the United Nations. We are excluded from neutral adjudication of the injustices imposed on us. WE ARE EXCLUDED FROM THE NEGOTIATING TABLE AS EQUAL VOTING MEMBERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY. All our powerful neighbours have to do TO EXCLUDE US is to claim that our complaints are an "internal domestic concern" and we are left to their mercy that is abusing us. WE CANNOT HAVE A NEUTRAL ARBITRATOR TO DETERMINE OUR RIGHT TO REPRESENT OURSELVES. ACCORDING TO CANADA MIGHT MAKES RIGHT. Canada's action has gone on to create, in effect, a Department of Indian Affairs within the United Nations to enforce the colonization of Indigenous people worldwide. Indigenous people everywhere are denied basic human rights and are targets of genocide. We cannot officially ask for help outside the colonizer state that is denying us human rights. Today Canada lobbies vigorously to deny us a voice at the United Nations and at the international level. TODAY I WOULD LIKE TO ASK THE CANADIAN PEOPLE...IS THIS REALLY WHAT YOU WANT? DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE IN EQUAL RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY....OR DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE COLONIAL POLICIES OF YOUR DEPARTMENT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS AND YOUR RACIST INDIAN ACT? IF YOU BELIEVE IN THE PRINCIPLES SET OUT IN THE UNITED NATIONS CHARTER, ISN'T IT TIME TO START TREATING ALL PEOPLE EQUALLY, REGARDLESS OF RACE? ISN'T IT TIME TO STOP YOUR ASSIMILATIONIST POLICIES AT BOTH THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LEVEL? According to documents recently found in the National Archives By William Schabas, of the University of Quebec, John Humphrey, of McGill University, wrote the 48 articles in the draft declaration. He had just been appointed the UN's first commissioner of human rights. There was a conscious strategy within the Canadian government to stop the declaration. Canada said, "We don't like it and we're going to stop it". The Canadian government played a subversive not a supportive role with little regard for human rights. The cabinet intensely disliked a document that baldly stated everybody is equal before the law. They had a deep and abiding fear of economic and social rights. In the end, the Canadian delegation lead by Lester B. Pearson did not sign the document. We are glad the truth about Canada is starting to come out. The problem is not that Aboriginal people did not have the right to vote in Canada. The problem was and continues to be that Canada refuses to recognize Aboriginal jurisdiction and refuses to recognize our true traditional governments. Canada is willing to look for human rights violations overseas but they are not willing to deal with human rights violations here. Canada hides the fact they are so wealthy because they know now how to take and sell our property. Remember, stolen property that is given to others for their benefit is still stolen property. Canada refuses to deal fairly with the Indigenous nations from whom they stole all the land and resources. But they so ready to criticize the Asians who finally told off Prime Minister Chretien about their genocidal policies against Indigenous people. Canada refuses to recognize and deal with real Indigenous governments except with their own puppet councils under their own Indian Act. Canada refuses to subject the relationship between Indigenous Nations and Canada to an third party, violating the first principles of the rule of law, which is the right to an impartial neutral party to mediate disputes. Canada's genocidal practice is to control the tribunal and courts which judge the native people and their issues. They are the judge, jury and executioner. I SAY TO YOU, ISN'T IT TIME TO ACCEPT US AS EQUAL PARTNERS IN THE FUTURE AND LET US PRESENT OUR COMPLAINTS TO INDEPENDENT AND NEUTRAL ADJUDICATORS WHO ARE NOT UNDER THE THUMB OF OUR COLONIZERS? -------------------------------------------------- JOIN THE CASNP MOVEMENT. We are a grassroots movement of native and non-native people who take direction from Aboriginal people and refuse governmental funding. Memberships, sales of books and videos and donations are the main source of funds, and volunteers are the backbone of CASNP. Please order CASNP's "Resource Reading List - an annotated bibliography of works by and about Native peoples" ($20). Address: P.O. Box 991, Kahnawake Mohawk Territory (via Quebec, Canada) J0L 1B0 450-632-6926 Fax 450-632-2413 Email casnp@cyberglobe.net Website: http://users.cyberglobe.net/~casnp Iroquois style jewellery for sale: http://www.cyberglobe.net/users/otsira --------- "RE: Legislature Approves Casino Compacts" --------- Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 07:56:43 -0600 From: "John Berry" Subj: (FWD)Indian News 12-13-98 Roger Iron Cloud FirstNations Listserv 202.358.3252 rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov Legislature approves compacts for tribal casinos c. Associated Press By GRETA GUEST 12-11-98 LANSING, Mich. (AP) Republican Gov. John Engler won approval for four tribal casinos in the state Legislature Thursday by a nose. Engler-negotiated compacts finally passed the state House 48-47 on Thursday, followed by a 21-17 vote in the Senate early Friday. Engler's strategy to get legislative ratification of the compacts has included frequent meetings with House Republicans who cast `no' votes on Tuesday and Wednesday. Few of them changed their votes, but some agreed to not vote at all by Thursday. Engler spokesman John Truscott said his boss succeeded by persuading members that voting for the compacts was the only way to slow down, if not stop, the expansion of gambling in Michigan. "He realized it wasn't an easy decision for people to make," Truscott said. "It is controversial for people who are fundamentally opposed to gambling, and the expansion of gambling ... which is the same position as the governor's." But those who voted against the compacts said the governor's lobbying was more effective than his logic. "It's hard to beat a $31 billion PAC (political action committee)," said Rep. Kirk Profit, D-Ypsilanti, referring to the state budget controlled largely by Engler. "It shows the level of intensity they have for this thing. Wouldn't it be nice if this same level of intensity was applied to mental health, education, taxes?" Rep. Andrew Raczkowski, R-Farmington Hills, who will be House Majority Floor Leader next session, was absent from the floor while voting occurred. He had said he opposed the expansion of casino gaming but didn't want the state to end up in court. He ended up not casting a vote. Engler has argued that without the compacts, the tribes would get approval from the federal government, leaving the state with no control over the number of casinos per reservation and without a portion of revenues. The new casinos would be located in New Buffalo, Mackinaw City, Battle Creek and Manistee. On each day of negotiations, Engler increased his promises to sway House votes in favor of the compacts. He pledged not to negotiate further compacts if these four are accepted, and he said he would lobby Congress to gain changes in the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. The 1988 federal law requires tribes and states to negotiate gaming compacts with approval from the governor and Legislature. Short of that, tribes can pursue approval from the federal government with none of the rules that the state may want to impose. Unlike the seven Indian gaming compacts approved in 1993 allowing 14 casinos to open in Michigan the four new compacts will limit the tribes to one casino per reservation. The compacts allow the state 8 percent of slot machine revenues; 2 percent of that cut goes to local governmental units. Some House members were disturbed by the amount of lobbying outside and inside the chamber. Some Republicans said they received calls on their private, unlisted House telephone numbers from Marian Ilitch, urging a vote in favor of the compacts. Ms. Ilitch and several others have an interest in one Detroit casino and in the planned Indian-run casino in Manistee. She could not be reached for comment Thursday. Rep. Penny Crissman, R-Rochester, voted no on Wednesday and earlier Thursday, changed to a `not voting,' which is neutral. She said she received a call from Ms. Ilitch on Wednesday that angered her so much she planned to vote against the compacts. "She was appealing to my sense of humanity, saying how these other tribes have been helped," Crissman said. "I told her I'm just tired of the expansion of Indian gaming." Crissman was hopeful that because the compacts prohibit casinos from opening within 150 miles of Detroit, none could open in Oakland County. The tribes seeking the compacts are the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and the Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians. Tribal officials estimated the four new compacts would mean $215 million in construction and support 2,500 construction jobs. Once operational, they also would create 3,400 new jobs and bring in $400 million in new revenues. Mike Malik, a developer with a management agreement with the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, said it will give the four communities a chance to prosper. "I think it's a great opportunity for them and their communities," he said. "That's the great thing about tribes they put the money back into the communities they come from." --------- "RE: Commission Briefed on Occaneechi Ruling" --------- Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 07:56:43 -0600 From: "John Berry" Subj: (FWD)Indian News 12-13-98 Roger Iron Cloud FirstNations Listserv 202.358.3252 rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov Frustrated Indian Affairs Commission briefed on Occaneechi ruling By PAUL NOWELL c. Associated Press 12-11-98 ASHEBORO, N.C. (AP) After twice denying tribal recognition to the Occaneechi Band, a frustrated state Indian Affairs Commission found itself facing the issue again Friday because of a judge's ruling. At their quarterly meeting, commission members were briefed by attorneys on Monday's 40-page decision by Administrative Law Judge Dolores Smith in favor of granting recognition for the Saponi Nation band. Smith's decision sent the case back to the commission. It will have between three and six months to make a decision after it gets all of the records from the judge. After Friday's meeting, commission members followed attorney David Steinboch's advice not to discuss the case with the media. However, commission director Greg Richardson expressed the feelings of some members. "We are disappointed in the judge's decision," he said in an interview. "We've been dealing with this for eight years. It's cost us a lot of time and money." Since 1990, the Occaneechi have pursued state recognition and the grants and other financial assistance that would follow. The Indian Affairs Commission has twice found the Occaneechi failed to meet the criteria for recognition. Specifically, the commission contends the band failed to trace its history in North Carolina back 200 years as required. "Here we have a non-Indian court judge who has probably never dealt with an Indian issue in her life, yet she makes a monumental decision which takes control over tribal sovereignty away from the tribes," Richardson said. No official representatives from the Occaneechi attended the commission's meeting at the Caraway Conference Center near Asheboro. After the briefing from their attorney, the commission's only action involving the dispute was to designate Steinboch to represent the commission's historical position against recognition. Glen Peterson, general counsel to the state Department of Administration, agreed to serve as the commission's legal advisor on the current case. Steinboch advised the commissioners to read Smith's ruling carefully. The commission might have to conduct special meetings before members can make another ruling, he said. "Each of you is now acting like a judge," Steinboch said, urging them to refrain from discussing the case publicly until their decision has been made. The Occaneechi have contended the band was unfairly characterized as having given up its identity to prosper during the 1940s and 1950s. The Occaneechi reorganized themselves as a tribe in 1984. There are six recognized tribes in North Carolina. The Eastern Band of Cherokee is the only one that also has achieved federal recognition, which means it has access to federal help and money. State-recognized tribes are the Coharie, Haliwa-Saponi, Lumbee, Meherrin and Waccamaw-Siouan. State recognition can be a step toward federal recognition, which confers special rights, privileges and federal subsidies and grants. --------- "RE: Ninilchik Awaits BIA Tribal Contract Ruling" --------- Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 07:56:43 -0600 From: "John Berry" Subj: (FWD)Indian News 12-13-98 Roger Iron Cloud FirstNations Listserv 202.358.3252 rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov Ninilchik awaits BIA tribal contract ruling c. AP 12-10-98 KENAI (AP) Natives from the Kenai Peninsula village of Ninilchik are awaiting a ruling that could define the future of the Ninilchik Traditional Council. A decision is expected soon on the results of a Bureau of Indian Affairs investigation that may determine the fate of two federal contracts with the council, which is the official tribal government for Ninilchik. The BIA is probing allegations of wrongdoing by tribal officials. The agency has threatened to cancel the council's contract if it finds evidence that it mismanaged contracts or chose its board of directors in violation of its own tribal constitution. The BIA gives the tribe about $120,000 a year to provide social services. The contract originally was to expire on Sept. 30, or at the end of the federal fiscal year. But when the three-year contract came up for a routine renewal, the BIA declined extending it only to Nov. 30 pending the results of its investigation. The BIA has said it will continue to provide services to Ninilchik in other ways if it withdraws recognition and money from the council. The past two weeks have seen a flurry of secretive meetings involving the council, federal agencies, their attorneys and Ninilchik activists pushing for tribal reforms. Officials at the BIA's regional office in Juneau told the Peninsula Clarion on Wednesday that a letter would be sent to the council as soon as supervisors approve its content. They declined to discuss the letter until its release, but suggested that it would contain important information about the BIA contract. The Native community in Ninilchik has been divided over the tribal council for several years. The BIA was drawn into the conflict after dissidents expelled by the tribal council filed a formal request with the inspector general, accusing council managers of misconduct, misuse of funds, conflicts of interest and nepotism. The Bureau sent a team to Ninilchik in June and spent a week poring through tribal records and reviewing the council's compliance with terms of its contract to administer BIA grant money. Another major contract that could be in jeopardy is one with the Indian Health Service, which underwrites the Ninilchik Community Clinic. The annual Indian Health Service contract, worth about $140,000 per year, originally was scheduled for renewal at the end of September. But the agency extended the contract only through the end of the calendar year to await the BIA's conclusions. Chris Mandregan, the Alaska area director for the Indian Health Service, said his agency is working closely with the BIA. It hasn't launched its own investigation, but will rely on the BIA's conclusions, Mandregan said Wednesday.< --------- "RE: Mayan Riviera Off-Limits to Mayas" --------- Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 07:56:43 -0600 From: "John Berry" Subj: (FWD)Indian News 12-13-98 Roger Iron Cloud FirstNations Listserv 202.358.3252 rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov `Mayan Riviera' Off-Limits to Mayas .c The Associated Press By MARK STEVENSON 12/12/98 X-CARET, Mexico (AP) -- Offering snorkeling and swimming amid a jungle setting, X-Caret is the most popular theme park along the stretch of Caribbean known as the Mayan Riviera. But the only Maya tourists are likely to find there is Ezequiel Chan Noh. The 80-year-old former gum-tree tapper is paid to sit in a hut in a "reconstructed" Maya village in a forgotten corner of the park -- a mostly fabricated series of rivers, lagoons and caves meant to represent the natural state of the area. Chan Noh spends his day weaving baskets as the occasional tourist stumbles upon the "village," usually while looking for the park exit. "I worked cutting mahogany until the trees ran out," Chan Noh said. "I tapped gum trees, now that's all gone." He remembered a time when little money changed hands in the area, and most Mayas led self-sufficient lives fishing or farming. "Now, so much is bought, nothing is made," Chan Noh said. The Mayas also once had a history of defending their land: They fought one of the last major Indian rebellions on the continent, The Caste War, which wasn't crushed on the Caribbean coast until the early 1900s. Still, Chan Noh said he's happy to have the relatively undemanding job at the theme park. Many other Mayas on the Mayan Riviera are not as lucky: They live crowded into construction camps 25 miles to the north. There, 50 men or more are squeezed into each 20-foot-by-80-foot, unventilated tarpaper shack, in hammocks so pressed together they don't have room to swing, with one toilet for every 30 men. Most are brought from neighboring Maya states like Yucatan to live in the camps for as long as two years, while they work in the building boom that tourism has brought to this sunny stretch of Mexico. Most of the workers still speak a Maya language, and their ancestors ruled the area before the arrival of the Spanish. But their $5-a-day wages don't leave enough to pay the $39 entry fee for X-Caret, and security guards keep them from entering the beaches where the temples their ancestors built still sit. "They build these poorly made camps, and bring people in to work in subhuman conditions, and the cost to the company is almost zero," said Tulio Arroyo, a member of the Cancun activist group Alianza Civica. In the camp, few people were willing to talk as two security guards waved residents away. "It's a hard life," construction worker Pedro Peech said before he spotted the guards and fell silent. --------- "RE: Expect Delays at Voisey's Bay" --------- Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 17:18:39 -0400 From: Larry Innes Subj: News: Mick Lowe on Voisey's Bay Mailing List: Innu People Forum list Book warns to expect delays at Voisey's Bay 12/13/98 By BOB BENSON The Telegram Mick Lowe Don't hold your breath - Voisey's Bay nickel likely won't be developed until 2010, according to hard rock mining journalist and author Mick Lowe. "My feeling is it won't be done with Inco and I'm not at all sure it will resemble the project before us now," Lowe said last week during a visit to St. John's. "The key log in the log jam is aboriginal rights, and until they are resolved legally I am not sure anything can happen on the ground in Northern Labrador, morally and politically." Lowe was in St. John's to promote his book Premature Bonanza - Standoff at Voisey's Bay. It relates how Inco Ltd., the world's nickel producer, outbid another mining giant, Falconbridge Ltd., and paid $4.6 billion for the ownership of the ore body in Labrador. "It seemed there might well be a joker in the Voisey's Bay deck that Inco and Falconbridge had never faced in its other Canadian operations - aboriginal land claims," Lowe writes. "The Voisey's ore body was on land claimed by both the Innu and the Inuit peoples, and such matters are ignored at one's peril, as the Quebec government learned when it tried to bring another James Bay hydro development on stream." In addition to the aboriginal land claims, other factors such as international nickel demand and prices will also contribute to a possible delay in the development timetable, Lowe said. "Say the Inuit settle by 2000, and the Innu by 2002. It's only then negotiations can start on the developing Voisey's Bay," he said. "It might be possible to start some construction in 2007, but that assumes the issue of the location and the smelter will be resolved. There are the imponderables of world nickel demand, because right now the world doesn't need any more nickel." Lowe has been following the mining industry for 25 years from his home near Sudbury, Ont., where nickel has been mined for more than a century. "I live in a mining and smelter town, and for five generations it's been a good living for a lot of people," he said. But there's also a down side. "A recent United Nations report said Inco is the third largest polluter of toxins in North America," he said, "but base metal mining and refining is heavy industry so at some point their has to be a trade-off for jobs." Lowe said the trade off in Northern Labrador would be to exchange a pristine and untouched environment for jobs and infrastructure and lakes filled with mine tailings and toxic materials. Lowe first came to the province in the fall of 1996 to see the Voisey's Bay. He returned in February 1998. "On the first trip, everything seemed ready to go," Lowe said. "When I came back, I found more issues and questions cropping up. I am aware of the environmentalists' objections to locating a smelter in Argentina. If it goes to Labrador, where will the power come from? These questions of the smelter location will have to be resolved, and so far I don't see that happening." Lowe said he came to the province convinced the people of Newfoundland and Labrador deserve financial and other benefits from Voisey's Bay. He still believes that, and he sides with the provincial government policy of no mine, no smelter. But visits with the Innu in Labrador also opened his eyes to their point of view. "When flying over Labrador from Goose Bay to Nain, you don't see a fence, or house, and you think it's nothing but an empty area in which you could have a mine," he said. "But I soon came to understand the aboriginal view of the land. It's a place to find shelter, a place to fish and hunt, a refuge, and it will be ruined by the mine." In the meantime, Inco has an incurred a large debt because of the Voisey's Bay purchase. "Inco is shrinking before your eyes," he said. "It's likely Inco will have to sell the property or itself be taken over by another industry player." Like many members of the mining industry at the time of the Voisey's Bay purchase in 1996, Inco likely thought it was only a matter of time before the project got under way, the author said. But, he added, no one factored in aboriginal land claims or the province's insistence there could be no development without building the smelter here. "All those factors, and the environmental impact statements, just might work out in favour of Newfoundland and Labrador," Lowe said. "They will provide enough lead time to iron out the wrinkles so when development comes around it will be for the benefit of the people." Larry Innes Visit the Innu Nation WWW site: Environmental Advisor http://www.innu.ca Innu Nation P.O. Box 119, Sheshatshiu, Labrador, Canada A0P 1M0 phone: (709) 497-8398 email: innuenv@web.net fax: (709) 497-8396 ------> PGP Public Key available on ldap://certserver.pgp.com --------- "RE: Governor-Elect Asked to Reject Nuclear Dump" --------- Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 17:56:12 -0800 From: "Save Ward Valley" Subj: Native American leaders and environmental activists ask Gov.-elect Davis to stop Ward Valley UUCP email Native American and Environmental Activists Ask California Governor-Elect Gray Davis to Reject the Ward Valley Nuclear Dump by Philip M. Klasky (Sacramento, California) -- While the new members of the California state legislature were being sworn in today, Native American leaders and environmental activists delivered a letter signed by over 135 organizations calling for Governor-elect Gray Davis to reject the proposal for a controversial nuclear waste dump at Ward Valley, California. Signatories included some of the nation's largest environmental organizations, indigenous rights groups and environmental organizations from Canada, Mexico, Europe and Asia. For the last eight years, Governor Pete Wilson has made construction of the nuclear dump a centerpiece of his political agenda. The nuclear power industry plans to bury radioactive wastes, mostly from nuclear power plants, in shallow, unlined trenches, above an aquifer, twenty miles from the Colorado River, in the midst of critical habitat for an endangered species and on land considered sacred aboriginal territory for the five lower Colorado River Indian tribes. The letter states that the dump project would threaten the Colorado River, source of water for 22 million people in the United States and Mexico and violate environmental justice mandates. The letter asks Davis to withdraw the state of California's request for the land and bring to an end the decade long fight over the dump project. Davis also received a letter from Reverend Jesse Jackson delivered by representatives of the Rainbow Coalition stating that, "Indian peoples and communities of color should not be the dumping ground for dangerous wastes and reckless waste disposal projects." San Francisco Supervisor Gavin Newsom wrote to Davis reminding him that the City and County of San Francisco passed a resolution this last year opposing the dump project. Los Angeles, Berkeley, Marin, Imperial and San Bernardino Counties have also passed similar resolutions. As State Controller, Gray Davis opposed the dump project on both environmental and economic grounds. Davis authored a report that found, based on experience at other failed dump sites, that leakages at the Ward Valley facility could cost California taxpayers as much as $500 million in clean-up costs. Earlier this year, the top Democratic leadership of the state legislature alleged that the method by which the Wilson administration has attempted to obtain the federal land at Ward Valley is illegal. This claim coupled with an historic 113 day occupation of the proposed dump site by Native American and environmental activists halted a federal environmental review of the proposal. During his recent election campaign, Davis expressed serious concerns about the proposed dump contractor, US Ecology, who was licensed by the Wilson administration to build the facility. Formerly known as Nuclear Engineering Company, US Ecology has left a trail of leaking dumps and litigation across the country. All four of their nuclear waste dumps, in Washington, Kentucky, Illinois and Nevada, are leaking. Their Maxey Flats, Kentucky facility was put on the EPA's Superfund list of most polluted sites after plutonium and other radioactive wastes were discovered leaking from the dump. Earlier this year, Nebraska turned away a US Ecology nuclear waste dump proposal over concern about the company's track record compounded by the firm's deteriorating financial condition. In her bid for re-election, Senator Barbara Boxer successfully campaigned on her long-standing opposition to the Ward Valley dump. Public opinion polls show that a majority of Californians oppose the dump project, although many are unaware of the proposal. The Wilson administration has been an aggressive dump proponent. The state of California, along with US Ecology, is currently suing the federal government in federal district court in an attempt to force the government to transfer the land at Ward Valley to the state and begin construction of the dump. Davis has yet to indicate what he decide to do about the proposed dump project once he assumes office in January 1999. Save Ward Valley 107 F Street Needles, CA 92363 ph. 760/326-6267 fax 760/326-6268 www.shundahai.org/SWVAction.html http://earthrunner.com/savewardvalley www.ctaz.com/~swv1 http://banwaste.envirolink.org www.alphacdc.com/ien/wardvly4.html www.greenaction.org --------- "RE: Sandy Lake DNA Deal" --------- Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 21:52:01 -0800 From: SISIS@envirolink.org (S.I.S.I.S.) Subj: Sandy Lake Band Council sells members' DNA :-:-:-:-:-:-:-Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty-:-:-:-:-:-:-: LET'S MAKE A DNA DEAL The Globe and Mail, December 7, 1998, by Carolyn Abraham [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.] Not so long ago, potatoes and turnips were the only produce available at the grocery store in the remote community of Sandy Lake, Ont. Now, there are rows of green peppers, broccoli and leaf lettuce. It was part of the deal. The Ojibwa-Cree who live there made sure of it. When researchers wanted to hunt for the genetic traits that had caused the Sandy Lake First Nation to have the third-highest diabetes rate in the world, the people had some requests of their own. Anthropologists, sociologists and housing planners had journeyed to the Northwestern Ontario reserve many times in the past. They had come toting surveys, questionnaires and empty promises. "People were just sick of research projects, being asked questions and never seeing any kind of return on that," Deputy Chief Harry Meekis said. "We learned from experience." In return for residents giving researchers samples of their DNA to unearth the genes responsible for their diabetes epidemic, the band council asked for fresh food, expanded medical services, special school programs and royalties from any cash that flows from the project. They got it all. The deal makes Sandy Lake one of the few places in the world where a community has negotiated compensation in exchange for the DNA of its members. To scientists and a growing number of firms searching for genetic mutations that cause diseases, DNA is a precious resource. Billions of dollars in revenue await if they can locate a culprit gene and find a way to stop it. The prospect of eliminating ailments at their root has sent gene hunters on a search to collect DNA from homogeneous populations. Yet nowhere has this been challenged more than among indigenous people, whose bloodlines have attracted researchers for centuries and whose leaders have historically been deal makers. The irony of Sandy Lake is that the Canadian researchers spearheading the project are hardly flush with cash. The genes of the Oji-Cree are believed to have limited profit potential. The Sioux Lookout Zone is the size of France, named for a gentle rise where tribes watched for the approach of warring Sioux from the south. It stretches 250,000 square kilometres across the Canadian Shield, a dense cloak of bush, forests, rivers and streams. Thirty native communities are nestled within it. The only road connecting them and the world outside is a two-month winter route across frozen lakes. Most visitors come by boat, plane or snowmobile. Government treaties created most of these reserves in the early 1900s. Sandy Lake is one of the oldest, a village carved from the woods near the Manitoba boundary. Its birth eventually brought heated cottages, chesterfields, junk food, satellite television and the Sho-goh-wah-pee-nay -- native terminology for diabetes, "the sugar disease." Sandy Lake's 2,000 residents know it well. Diabetes has cost many of them their sight, their limbs and their kidneys. When Stewart Harris arrived, the band council had a simple question: "Why is there so much?" Dr. Harris had been posted as the medical director of Sioux Lookout in 1990. He was 33 at the time and fresh from a development project in Nepal. Sandy Lake, like most of the reserves in the Sioux Lookout Zone, had its own Third World conditions. Close to 80 per cent of the population collected unemployment. Running tap water was a novelty. Government-issue, two-bedroom homes slept 10. Some were so dilapidated "you wouldn't park your car in it," Dr. Harris said. But it was the sugar disease, not economics, that required immediate attention and he telephoned Bernard Zinman, director of the Banting and Best Diabetes Centre at the University of Toronto and a senior scientist at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital. The two doctors agreed that Sandy Lake's diabetes would first have to be quantified. But that would mean surveys and questionnaires. They had to meet the chief. Mr. Meekis recalled the advice the doctors were given. "We told them, 'You will need the support of the community, not just the council,' " he said. "This meant the doctors could not dictate the position." For the next 18 months, Dr. Harris and Dr. Zinman spoke with the people of Sandy Lake. They also scrambled for money to fund their research. Ontario said no. The federal government said no. The U.S. National Institutes of Health gave them $25,000 (U.S.). "We went back to the Canadians and said, 'Look, the Americans think this is interesting. Don't you think it should be interesting to you?' " Dr. Harris said. Both the provincial and federal governments reconsidered and over the years have provided $950,000. Part of that money allowed the diabetes-prevalence study in Sandy Lake to begin, and when it was over the results were staggering: 25 per cent of the residents had diabetes -- five times the national average. The rate was 50 per cent among those over the age of 50. Early signs of the disease could be detected in children as young as 10. The incidence of diabetes is notoriously high among native populations. The world's highest rate belongs to Arizona's Pima Indians, whose hunting and gathering were also replaced by the sedentary ways of the white man. The Naurua natives of Micronesia claim second place. Their Pacific homeland lies directly beneath the path of migratory birds and after they abandoned their traditional lifestyle to mine the phosphate-rich guano that had dropped for eons on their island, diabetes arrived. Wealth had made them sick. Only in the past 30 years had diabetes appeared in Sandy Lake, and already it had zoomed to No. 3 on the list. Doctors had known the truth from the beginning. The mix of genetics and environment had produced a foul stew. In 1995, Dr. Zinman got in touch with Robert Hegele, then a geneticist in Toronto who was schooled in the methods of gene hunting. When Dr. Hegele heard the story of Sandy Lake, he thought immediately of the 1960s theory that aboriginal people had "thrifty genes." "These were genes that were supereconomic with calories," Dr. Hegele said. When native people lived as nomadic tribes, it was feast or famine, and most often famine. Their metabolism used every smidgen of energy ingested, storing the excess for the lean times between hunts. But now it's feast and feast and the grocery store carries the same items you'd find at a 7-Eleven," said Dr. Hegele, who has since moved to the Robarts Research Institute at the University of Western Ontario. "Their metabolism still tends to treat every morsel that passes their lips as caloric gold. They hold on to it, become obese and develop health problems, like diabetes." Dr. Hegele felt that several "thrifty genes" had remain unchanged in the people of Sandy Lake despite the rapid change in their environment. Gene hunting would mean another study and another meeting with the chief. Chief Eli Sawanas, Mr. Meekis and an elder named Walter Kakepetum flew the 2,000 kilometres southeast to Toronto in the winter of 1995. They arrived at Mount Sinai's boardroom table in jeans and casual shirts and sat among the suits and ties of the hospital brass and listened. Dr. Hegele told them that their people's diabetes was like car trouble. Their bodies were getting lousy gas mileage and he was the mechanic who would figure out why. "Was it the carburetor, the engine?" he said. He would have to unravel their DNA to find the genes that were instructing their bodies to hoard the calories and sugar -- the genes responsible for their Sho-goh-wah-pee-nay. If he could pinpoint them, he could tinker with them and perhaps even find a way to reverse the damage they were causing. The project might draw financial backing from a drug company interested in developing a therapy for diabetes, hospital officials said. Obviously, the researchers would need the blood of Sandy Lake residents to harvest their DNA. Then there was a pause. "What do you want?" the hospital officials asked. It was Mr. Meekis's turn to speak. "It was the most riveting moment when Harry got up," Dr. Harris said. "Here was this man who'd grown up on the trap line and I don't know what grade he got to, but he was the most powerful speaker I'd ever seen. You would have thought that what with them coming down from the North to this downtown corporate world of Toronto, they would have been uncomfortable. It didn't show." Mr. Meekis, 40, had no formal education. He was born in the bush, was taught by his grandfather and grew into a voracious reader. In adulthood, negotiations became Mr. Meekis's specialty. He is in charge of the construction of an $18-million water-sewer system in Sandy Lake, a $10-million school and an $8-million project to retrofit homes. "We want an agreement," Mr. Meekis told the hospital officials. "Most people who do genetic research... don't ask what the other side wants," Dr. Zinman said later, "but one has to appreciate the community and their participation." Mr. Meekis talked of partnership, the community's contributions, and he said that if a discovery were to bring a windfall the people of Sandy Lake should receive a share of royalties. The researchers went one step further. They said Sandy Lake should receive it all. A photograph of Mr. Meekis, Mr. Sawanas, Mr. Kakepetum and Mount Sinai Hospital officials now hangs in the band council office. Chiefs meeting chiefs. The diabetes project at Sandy Lake has changed the reserve. Fresh food is flown in to the grocery store, where signs posted in the native language indicate healthy choices. Families receive guided tours of the shopping aisles, home visits from a nutritionist and classes on health-conscious cooking. A special diet and exercise curriculum have also been created for children in Grades 4, 5 and 6. The three doctors make regular visits and believe the lifestyle "interventions" are an essential part of their project, which is partly sponsored by Kraft Ltd., Eli Lily Canada Inc., the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute and the University of Toronto. Genetics paints only half the picture, they said. This is just as well: The gene hunt has plodded along on a shoestring budget and it is not likely to get much richer. The doctors have asked, discussed and solicited. But no drug company will bite. The suspicion is that genes linked to diabetes in the Oji-Cree are unlikely to yield a promising therapy for the general population. The native band's battle with the Sho-goh-wah-pee-nay is too unique. Dr. Hegele is not disappointed. For the past three years, he has been sifting through their DNA, backed by modest amounts from the Canadian Diabetes Association and the Medical Research Council of Canada. A family in London, Ont., donated the funds for the gene sequencing lab where he works. "I'm not opposed to finding funding for it, but I think having an industrial sponsor would complicate things," Dr. Hegele said. "Industrial funding usually comes with strings attached; there are conditions on reporting findings and scientific autonomy." He hopes to publish his findings early next year. The discovery may not make Sandy Lake residents rich, but Mr. Meekis hopes that it will make them well. "We don't to be known as the community with the third-highest rate of diabetes in the world," he said. "We want to be the community that turned the problem around." :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: Letters to the Globe and Mail - mailto:letters@GlobeAndMail.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: Thank You to One and All" --------- Date: Thu, 03 Dec 1998 11:37:44 -0800 From: ncdm Subj: THANK YOU TO ONE AND ALL "NUEVO AMANECER PRESS" ORIGINAL IN SPANISH FROM ENLACECIVIL A.C.San Cristobal de las Casas,Chiapas. TRANSLATED BY: NUEVO AMANECER PRESS-MEXICO ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ THANK YOU TO ONE AND ALL San Cristo'bal de las Casas, Chiapas, December 1 1998. The ENCOUNTER BETWEEN the CIVIL SOCIETY and the ZAPATISTA ARMY OF NATIONAL LIBERATION was a great success, attended by more than 3000 people from all over the country and observers from 20 other countries. The results are very encouraging, in Table 1, for the first people of very different points of view came together and agreed to carry on a collaborative effort working in favor of Peace: The CONSULTATION on the document elaborated by COCOPA in the matter of Rights and Indigenous Rights and Culture, that will take place in all the municipalities in the country. 5000 Zapatistas Delegates will cover the whole country In table 2: The struggle for Peace in Mexico, and at the Table: The National Situation, a rich set of proposals were given. All this effort is a firm step in favor of Peace with Justice and Dignity, is a civil initiative to move away from the phantom of the War and violence, with the proposals of all we will manage to make of the dialogue a form to solve the problems and differences that affect us all. With events like this, we are creating a new citizen culture of participation and for that reason, by its support, its ideas, it's decision to look for new forms of coexistence, we wish to say to you" mean to them: THANK YOU! To all and all those that made Encuentro between the Civil Society and the Eje'rcito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional possible. To all and all those that with its effort they cooperated in construccion of La Paz. Thanks to those that arrived and those that did not arrive, to doctors and health promoters, the technical support on electricity and sound, the drivers, to they that made guard in cinturo'n civil for Peace, to them who made available their computers and printers to those who accompanied the trips of the Zapatistas Delegates, to them who made their trucks available, to those who donated gasoline, to the street cleaners, to the children that filled with joy the spaces, to the musicians and puppeteers, to them who were in charge to prepare the food, to them that donated 1 kilo of grain, or sugar, rice, water, medicines, coffee, bread, etc., to those who made financial contributions , to them who opened its houses and lodgings, to them that sang, to those who smiled, to those who watched, to them that approached,to those who doubted, to the sancristobalenses, to all the mexicans, to all the international observers. To all those that by their contribution With joy and firm conviction that it was a great SUCCESS for all Mexicans, repeated THANKS and receive a strong hug. There is still a lot to do, now comes national Consulta on indigenous rights, we required once more time of the push of all of us. Kindly: THE ORGANIZING COMMISSION IN SAN CRISTOBAL OF THE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN THE CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE EZLN ___________________________________________ NUEVO AMANECER PRESS-N.A.P.To know about us visit: http://www.nap.cuhm.mx/nap0.htm (spanish) ******************* 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. This information is for non-profit research and education purpuses only. **We encourage you to reproduce this information but please give credit to the source, translator and publication. thank you.** General Director:Roger Maldonado-Mexico Director Europe: Darrin Wood-Spain Advisor and Special Correspondent:Guillermo Michel-Mexico. NAP Coordination:Susana Saravia --------- "RE: Sacred Sites" --------- Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 10:37:17 -0600 (CST) From: JRP Subj: sacred sites (fwd) UUCP email Background info -- I've been asked to spread this message. Please post this mesage if possible and pass it along. Please link to this site. Thanks. Subject: Sacred Sites Oyate. This is a call to all Native people. My name is Jim Anderson. I am the Cultural Chairman of the Mdewakanton Dakota Community. Right now, the Minnesota Department of Transportation is about to put an unneeded road through our sacred land. What they intend to do is cut four ancient oak trees that are planted in the four directions. It is a dance circle and the road is going to go right over this spot. This is against their own federal laws in the Indian Rights Act. They have, for the last ten years been disturbing our grandfather's bones and sacred items in the disguise of maintenance to cover themselves. I am making a plea to all my brothers, black, red, yellow and white in the name of the sacred Buffalo Calf Woman to come to this place and fight this wrong. We have joined with Big Woods Earth First! in defending this area, and have held off the bulldozers for over ten days now. We are growing stronger every day. My people, the Mendota Dakota are the guardians of this land and the Blue Man has come again to uproot these sacred trees that are over three hundred years old. They want to destroy our artesian well that has supplied our grandfathers since the beginning of time. For more information please contact me at DMKerr9@aol.com or 612-825-7050. We need your help. Pidamaya Koda Jim Anderson Mendota Sacred Sites --------------------------------------- This just came in ... Everybody please look at this and see what you can do. Jesse Ventura, I hear, one of his campaign pledges was to help make things right for the Indians. He seems like a decent kinda guy, would be worthwhile writing some letters to him. Thanks -- Dee ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 10:08:24 EST From: DMKERR9@aol.com Subject: sacred sites Dear Friends, Today was Thanksgiving and what a wonderful day it was. I woke this morning to a beautiful sunrise with colors of crimson and purple streaking across the sky. On my morning walk, the unfolding morning took my breath away and reminded me again of how precious life is and how sacred is Mother Earth. We went out to the Site (occupied lands slated for the re-route), to participate in the Thanksgiving celebration and dinner going on out there. After way to much food, we listened to speeches by Clyde Bellcourt (AIM Leader), Jim Anderson and others. Although the sun was shining so warmly on all of us and the food was so good, the words being said were profound and disquieting. Clyde and Jim both voiced our deepest fears. There have been rumors lately that the State is getting ready to mobilize the National Guard. There are several factors that give some weight to these rumors. MnDot has strongly advised one the original residents that she must vacate her house by the 9th of December.. Clyde and Jim reiterated that they had no doubts why she was being asked to leave so strongly. In other words, so the National Guard could march in! They are stationed just minutes away! The 10th is the fourth month anniversary of the occupation of the site and finally, many people have hunched that the crunch is coming and maybe it will be a false alarm, (hopefully) but everyone is picking up on something and we hear there have been a lot of meetings behind closed doors at MNDOT. These first two weeks of December are going to be very crucial. Clyde has told us that it is so important during this period for everyone to spend as much time at the camp as possible. The more people there the better. If there is any possible way for any of you to come here, now is the time to come.! Clyde strongly re-affirmed the commitment of AIM and guaranteed that they would be there no matter what. He also informed us that there would be some changes at the Camp. There was going to be a council set up so that all decisions would go through the council. There would be some tightening up of the Camp and a higher level of expectation in regards to respect for Spiritual practices and doing things with the right attitude. He lovingly acknowledged everyone of us as real warriors regardless of race and encouraged us to be strong and united. All of his and the other talks were moving and impossible to totally recount here other than to tell you that they illustrated again how important this cause really is. Many of you have asked how you can be of help and we have referred you to our web page for direction. see.. Mendota Sacred Sites http://hometown.aol.com/dmkerr9/Mendota_Sacred_Sites.html . Jim Anderson and I had a discussion the other night and decided that this was the time to share with you the urgency of our needs and alert you to our present situation. I think the best way to do this is to give you a "what to do now " list. Look it over and see if there is a way you can respond. Every effort on your part is so greatly appreciated. 1. Pray. However you do it, just do it. Whether you visualize a positive outcome or pray outright, just do it and do it a lot! 2. A letter campaign to Jesse Ventura. He is our new governor. You can write to him at Governor Jesse Ventura, B5 Capitol, 75 Constitution Ave., St. Paul, Mn., 55155. Or you can email him at Jesse.Ventura@smtpgwy2.governor.state.mn.us. In your letter, please be polite. Be honest and clear but no name calling or anything that would make him want to discount your letter as a 'crank' letter. We want to be viewed as sane and sensible with a valid point. 3. Contributions. We desperately need some funds to keep going. Winter is coming and winter in Minnesota is no picnic! People are in tents and are staying out there at their own expense. Some have quit their jobs because it is the only way they can man the site day and night. The mobile phone bill alone is now 300 dollars. The camp cannot function without a phone. There are many expenses like food, business costs, heating, and on and on. We need supplies but mostly we need some hard cash to pay the bills! We put on a benefit concert and that helped but we can't do it alone. If you don't feel comfortable sending money or supplies to the address listed on the "help" page of the web site, you can send it to me and I will personally make sure it gets in the right hands. I will personally take it out to the Camp and give it to the Council and I will return a receipt to you right away. My address is Diane Kerr 3117 Park Ave., Mpls, Mn. 55408. When writing a check, make sure to specify "for the re-route 55" on your check. 4. Are there any good writers out there? We need some "good letters to the editor" that we can distribute to the local papers out here. We can't guarantee that your letter would get used but if it is, we will send it signed by someone here so the paper will accept it. This would be great! We are all so darned busy, we keep meaning to do this but can never seem to get to it as there are so many other pressing things to do. 5. Please let people know about this. Tell your friends. Link them up to our web page and let them know how to help too. Finally, we have some very important new information for you to read on the web site. We have just gotten some very powerful, confirming material from the lawyers with confirming back up letters from experts in various fields. If you had any doubts at all, read this new material. It will make everything very, very clear! Knowing the facts will help you to talk or write about this subject more clearly. Friends, this is a long letter and I thank you for your patience in reading it. I will end by reminding you that the issues are grave, the risks are great, the sacrifices many and the time is now. Let's make it count. Peace, Diane Kerr for Jim Anderson --------- "RE: First Amendment Repression on the Reservation" --------- Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1998 10:23:55 -0600 From: "John Berry" Subj: (FWD)Indian News 12/2/98, pt. 2 Roger Iron Cloud FirstNations Listserv 202.358.3252 rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov First Amendment Repression on the Reservation: Native American journalists are in a tough fight for their basic freedoms under the First Amendment by Karen Lincoln Michel Columbia Journalism Review November/December 1998 Michel, 39, is a Ho-Chunk Indian, free-lance writer, and former reporter for The Dallas Morning News. As a general assignment reporter at the La Crosse Tribune in Wisconsin, she won the Wassaja Award - the highest honor given by the Native American Journalists Association - for her two-year coverage of an Indian gaming controversy. Michel is also co-owner of the twice-monthly paper, News From Indian Country. Paul DeMain, editor and co-owner of news From Indian Country, believes that a free press on Indian lands is a remote dream because tribal leaders feel threatened by journalists. In a country where press freedom is a constitutional guarantee, journalists working for American Indian-owned newspapers are denied the basic, fundamental First Amendment rights that are at the very root of news reporting. Some 600 such publications -- mostly weekly and monthly newspapers -- are owned and controlled by leaders of Indian tribal governments. Most operate on the conviction that the job of the native press is merely to showcase the tribe's accomplishments -- not to report the crimes, misdemeanors, and malfeasances that sometimes mark life on the reservation. Tribal journalists lack protection of the First Amendment because its safeguards are accorded to the owner of the press -- namely the tribal government -- not the reporter. Native newspeople have little recourse against such oppression: Indian tribes enjoy a government-to-government relationship with the federal system, and their unique legal status as sovereign nations -- a designation that predates the U.S. Constitution -- shelters them from having to comply with intrusive laws such as the Freedom of Information Act. Censorship and verbal attacks by tribal leaders against Indian journalists are commonplace, often resulting in staff firings and even the shuttering of newspapers. A study by Richard LaCourse, editor of the Yakama Nation Review in Washington state, says that only about seventy of the 557 federally-recognized American Indian tribes have free-press language in their constitutions, but even in those, it is routinely ignored by tribal leaders. In 1968, Congress passed the Indian Civil Rights Act, which extends First Amendment rights to reservations. But journalists working for tribal media insist that free-press guarantees provide little or no protection because tribal governments view their newspaper staffs as employees wholly answerable to tribal government. It's a black eye on American journalism. Reporters and editors at many of these newspapers learn to walk a thin line between reporting the truth and suffering the consequences. The threat is taken seriously because it comes from the boss who pays the news staff's salary: the tribal government. Incidents of censorship and suppression are on the rise. Here are some recent examples: * In July 1997 the Cherokee tribal government laid off the entire staff of the bimonthly Cherokee Nation (circ.: 195,000) in Oklahoma. The newspaper was covering allegations of wrongdoing against the principal chief. * In June 1998 Frederick Lane, editor of the Lummi tribe's monthly newsletter, Squol Quol, was fired for failing to get his articles approved by representatives of the tribal council and tribal administration. Lummi tribal council secretary Tim Ballew said Lane had repeatedly run stories that opposed projects that the Lummi nation -- a tribe of 4,500, located about ninety miles north of Seattle -- had undertaken within the past four years. * In February 1998 the editor of the weekly Navajo Times in Arizona (circ.: 17,500) survived two attempts by the Navajo Nation administration to fire him, as the paper continued to cover financial mismanagement involving Navajo Nation president Albert Hale. * In October 1997 a reporter for the weekly Native American Press/Ojibwe News (circ.: 10,000) in Minnesota was arrested by tribal police for trespassing while covering a meeting about a controversial land sale among Minnesota Chippewa tribes. Mounting frustration prompted the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) -- a group of 770 members in the U.S. and Canada -- to declare 1998 "The Year of Promoting Free Expression in Native America." By focusing on free press issues, NAJA hopes to educate mainstream North America about the tough jobs tribal journalists face, and search for solutions. Says NAJA past president Paul DeMain, editor and co-owner of News From Indian Country, a twice-monthly privately-owned newspaper published in Hayward, Wisconsin (circ.: 8,000): "It's very traumatic because people tend to lose their jobs for reporting things that tribal leaders would rather not see in print." A tribal journalist's job is most precarious in times of tribal political strife. DeMain learned that lesson twenty years ago as editor of the Lac Courte Oreilles Chippewa tribe's LCO Journal. He refused to let the tribal chairman review the paper's copy before it was printed, and was threatened with firing. Fortunately for DeMain, a majority on the tribal council supported him. But his brush with prior restraint moved him a decade later to buy the LCO Journal and turn it into an independent paper. That's a rare feat since most reservations are located in remote, depressed areas with few advertising dollars to support a paper. In a collection of essays by Native American journalists published by the Freedom Forum, titled "From the Front Lines: Free Press Struggles in Native America," DeMain writes that a free press on Indian lands is still a remote dream: "Many tribal leaders still are threatened by the tribal press, and continue placing restrictions on what can be printed." The stories they attempt to muzzle share recurrent themes: political battles within tribal governments; power struggles among factions vying for control of a reservation; conflicts that in extreme cases erupt into violence and armed takeovers of tribal buildings. Tribal officials inexperienced with dealing with the news media are not likely to cooperate with reporters and editors, and are quick to censor stories that they perceive as negative. Jeff Armstrong, a non-Indian reporter for the privately owned Native American Press/Ojibwe News in Bemidji, Minnesota, discovered that even non-tribal papers face difficulty reporting tribal politics. He was arrested by tribal police last October, while attempting to cover a meeting of the Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa Indians. He is fighting a trespassing charge brought against him after the Mille Lacs Tribal Executive Committee ordered him to leave the meeting because he was not a tribal member. Armstrong (whose beat includes seven Minnesota reservations) says he had previously covered four of five public meetings the committee held to discuss a controversial offer by the U.S. Justice Department to settle tribal claims to more than 800,000 acres of reservation lands. Many tribal members strongly opposed the offer. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court against county and tribal law enforcement officials, Armstrong says the committee "intended to restrict the press from reporting on the meeting specifically to harass and obstruct Petitioner from carrying out his duties as a reporter in order to further their efforts to subvert the will of the people." --------- "RE: Making Money with Tobacco" --------- Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 06:47:52 -0800 From: John Wm Sloniker Subj: Making Money with Tobacco Tribe hopes cigarettes will lead to job jackpot http://www.seattletimes.com/news/nation-world/html98/trib_120798.html by Scott Canon Knight Ridder Newspapers Posted at 07:19 a.m. PST; Monday, December 7, 1998 MACY, Neb. - They tried bingo and bombed. Next, the Omaha converted their 2,000-seat hall into a health club. It didn't make enough to pay utilities. Now, much of the hall hums with machines that roll North Carolina tobacco with paper and filters and stuff the resulting cigarettes into packs, then into cartons and finally into cases. "The idea was to make some money and to create a few jobs," said Elmer Blackbird, Omaha tribal chairman. The American Indian tribe desperately needs both. Unemployment among the 3,200 or so Omaha who live on the reservation exceeds 70 percent. And gambling profits, a bonanza for so many other tribes, have always eluded them. They opened a casino several years ago in Onawa, Iowa, but when the state legalized riverboat gambling, the tribe's remote gaming location lost 75 percent of its take. Which leads to menthol, full flavor, light and ultralight Omahas. "We're thinking about buying some more equipment so we can make 100s," said Franklin Dick, general manager of the only tribally owned cigarette factory in the country. Those longer 100s cigarettes, he said, are in demand for the bargain hunters the Omaha brand is after. "People tell us that if we can just make 100s, business will really take off." So far, the Omaha Nation Tobacco plant produces more than 40,000 cartons a week - well short of even 1 percent of the domestic cigarette market. But that's business enough to employ 14 workers - a dozen Omahas and two nontribal technicians. More than 200 other members of the tribe have applied for jobs. For the most part the tribe's status as a sovereign nation gives it little economic advantage. Only those very few cigarettes sold from one Indian to another on the Omaha reservation in northeast Nebraska and west-central Iowa are exempt from state taxes. Still, the tribe prices its smokes low - at roughly half what Marlboros or Camels sell for - and has tapped an informal network of stores on tribal reservations that sell large quantities of cigarettes of all kinds at roadside shops across the country. Cigarettes sold by American Indians to non-Indians on Indian land are subject to state taxes, although states often have difficulty collecting the surcharges. Many tribes have compacts with state revenue departments, agreeing to collect the tax on reservations in return for half the money. Poor sales at standard price When the price isn't discounted, sales are weak. At the Golden Eagle Casino owned by the Kickapoo tribe near Horton, Kan., the Omahas were put in a machine and sold at the standard $2 price charged for other brands. "We sold about two packs in two months," said Juell Keo, casino purchasing agent. If the tribe can command just 1 percent of the cigarette market, a federal "buy Indian" law would require them to be carried at every American military outpost. "We couldn't handle that volume yet," said Dick. "But down the road that would mean quite a few jobs." On the Omaha reservation the cigarettes sell for 80 cents a pack. On the Cheyenne reservation in Oklahoma a carton of 10 packs sells for $7.50. "We ship them everywhere, from Long Island to Washington state," said Dick. "They're really catching on at other reservations." Tribes, in fact, make for an especially good smoking market. In nearly every category - men, women, high-school seniors - smoking among Indians is about 30 percent above the national average, although the rates vary widely from tribe to tribe. Studies by the Indian Health Service blamed 10 percent of Indian deaths on tobacco. "It's a very serious health issue among Indians," said W. Craig Vanderwagen, the director of clinical and preventative services for the Indian Health Service. And that has some Omaha feeling at least uncomfortable about the tribe's tobacco business. "I live among my Omaha people, and we're all pitiful. You know, we're in terrible poverty," said Barry Webster, director of the Four Hills of Life Wellness Center, in Macy. "The cigarette plant is good in the sense that it's providing jobs. . . . But I hate to see our people hurting themselves with the smoking." Some trouble at plant The plant has had some troubles. Blackbird, who leads a new tribal council elected this month, said that the cigarettes were producing modest profits for the tribe and that the new tribal administration hoped to improve management at the plant. "We've heard rumors that there's some (financial) irregularities at the plant," Blackbird said. Federal and tribal authorities report that no charges have been filed in connection with the tribe's cigarette operation. Dick, a member of the council that was defeated in the November elections, said recent audits found no evidence of theft. So the plant keeps coughing up cigarettes by the case, a small but hopeful economic engine on a reservation with virtually no other Indian businesses. "Management of any new kind of business is tough in areas like this because you don't have somebody with the specialized experience just sitting around locally," said Russell Bradley of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. "But as time goes on, as they learn how to run the operation, the plant's got real potential." E-mail Comments to Editor : Opinion@seatimes.com The Seattle Times home page http://www.seattletimes.com/ Seattle Times: Table of Content http://www.seattletimes.com/news/ The Seattle Times: Search Archive http://www.seattletimes.com/extra/search.html The Seattle Times: Browse by date http://www.seattletimes.com/todaysnews/browse.html Permission requests and information http://www/seatimes.com/general/info.html Copyright (c) 1998 The Seattle Times Company http://www.seattletimes.com/news/general/copyright.html --------- "RE: Call for Public Inquiry into Gustafsen Lake" --------- Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1998 19:04:27 -0800 From: GSS Communications Subj: GSS Endorses Call for Public Inquiry into Gustafsen Lake Cc: (AFN Grand Chief Phil Fontaine) :-:-:-:-:-:-:-Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty-:-:-:-:-:-:-: Prime Minister of Canada Jean Chretien December 2, 1998 Dear Prime Minister: In a meeting of Graduate Student Representatives of the University of Victoria of November 25, 1998, the Graduate Students' Society passed a motion to endorse a call for a public inquiry into the events at Gustafsen Lake. In 1995 the Governments of Canada, British Columbia, their agents and assigns planned and implemented the largest paramilitary operation of its kind in Canadian history against the occupants of the Ts'peten Sundance camp situated upon unceded, Shuswap traditional territory near Gustafsen Lake. We have serious questions about the allegations concerning the conduct of the state and certain officials (particularly the RCMP), as well as a "smear and disinformation" campaign to disparage the Sundance Camp occupants, and suppress their legal issues of indigenous sovereignty and jurisdiction. These issues remain unanswered, and should be examined in a full and open public inquiry. The Graduate Students' Society hopes the Federal Government and the Premier of BC will reconsider their refusal to convene such a public inquiry. An inquiry is supported by many other groups. These include: Lil'Wat Estken, Moloqhil Tinamat, Defensoria Maya (Guatemala), Te Ropa Maori, Canadian Alliance in Solidarity with Native Peoples (CASNP), The Green Group of the European Parliament, The Black Community Collective, Black Autonomy International, The Afrikan Frontline Network, Anti-Racist Action (ARA) Kingston, Settlers in Support of Indigenous Sovereignty (SISIS), Free Wolverine (Seattle), North West Leonard Peltier Support Network, Aboriginal Rights Coalition Victoria (ARC), Council of Canadians (Victoria), Building Bridges to Chiapas, The National Green Party of Canada, Ramsey Clark - former Attorney General of the USA and Counsel for Leonard Peltier, Ts'peten Defence Committee, Incomindios, For Mother Earth (Belgium), National Campus/Community Radio Association (NCRA), Teaching Support Staff Union, Simon Fraser University (TSSU), and many other groups and individuals, that appreciate the critical importance of an inquiry. We would be happy to communicate your response to our membership. Sincerely, Karl Schmid Director of Communications Graduate Students' Society University of Victoria cc: AFN Grand Chief Phil Fontaine :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: JOIN THE CALL FOR SETTLER-STATE ACCOUNTABILITY : DEMAND A PUBLIC INQUIRY! http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/GustLake/support.html http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/gustmain.html Prime Minister of Canada Jean Chretien: pm@pm.gc.ca Premier of British Columbia Glen Clark: premier@gov.bc.ca Please cc sisis@envirolink.org "Gustafsen Lake... shows all the signs of a classic coverup" -- Canadian Dimension Magazine December 1995 :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: 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: The Odor of Decaying Flesh" --------- Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 13:59:39 -0800 From: Valentina LaPier Subj: another story... UUCP email The Odor of Decaying Flesh by Wade Rain The summer I turned fifteen, I was part of a haying crew working close to the Milk River on the northern part of the Blackfeet Reservation during a hot August morning. It was 1948. I was assigned the horse drawn mowing machine to cut the grass in the meadow. On the first turn around the field, the cutting cycle became clogged with wet grass and seized. I shouted whoa the the team, tied the lines to the seat and dismounted. While clearing the razor sharp cutting section, I sliced off part of the side of the second finger on my right hand. A small artery was severed and blood started to spurt with each beat of my heart. Squeezing the end of my finger as a tourniquet, I slowly walked to the ranch house. By the time I traveled the five hundred yards, the top of the foot of my boot was red with my life giving fluid. The wife of the boss, a very heavy, no nonsense Metis' Indian in her forties who was also the cook for the haying crew, grudgingly interrupted her supper preparation to put a clean dishtowel around the wound. The bleeding subsided somewhat. By this time her husband, the boss, a dark complected, humorless tall man in his fifties, arrived at the back door to find out why I had left the team and machine in the middle of the field. His wife told him of my injury. He scowled, then returned to his job. About an hour later she woke me on the couch- where I had drifted off -because I'd started bleeding again and soiled her furniture. She walked to the pasture to inform her husband of my status, that I was still bleeding. He reluctantly took me in his rattletrap pickup the forty miles south to the Indian Hospital at Browning. Holding my bleeding finger, trying to stay awake while being bounced from side to side in the slow moving vehicle on the pockmarked dirt road, my pants leg and boot covered with blood, I did not feel valued by anyone. The boss did not utter one work to me during the trip. After stopping at our house on Moccasin Flat at the edge of town to tell my father what had happened, we continued to the hospital. The doctor inserted the hypodermic needle into the wound in three different places to deaden my finger before he put in the stitches. The pain of the needle was worse than that of the injury itself. My father, two hundred pounds of square jaw, in his early forties, Indian like me, was sitting across the table and I didn't dare flinch. I took the pain like a man. I was proud of that, I needed his approval. A large bandage and much tape was applied by a nurse, who told me to come back in three days. I was also to immediately drink some coffee to stimulate my heart because I'd lost so much blood. I promptly threw it up. The morning of the third day after the event, school started and i attended. My intention was to return to the hospital that afternoon, as directed. I sat trying to write with my left hand, awkwardly scratching marks on my paper while listening to the teacher. I faintly detected the odor of decaying flesh. It was coming from my finger. The other students also noticed the odor and I was identified as the source. The teacher sent me home reasoning I was disrupting the class. The night before in the attic under the roof of our house where I slept with my five sisters and brothers, there had been much complaining about my foul smelling digit. I must have been used to it, because I hadn't noticed the odor. I returned to the hospital, receiving many snide remarks in the waiting room about the way I stunk. Telling the nurse I thought my finger had "spoiled" (which was the term we used when an animal carcass had decayed), I waited for her to wrinkle her nose in disgust....but she didn't, but scoffed at my remark. When she removed the bandage, my finger was green indicating that gangrene had set in. The hot summer weather coupled with many layers of medical tape had not allowed any healing oxygen to reach the wound and it had indeed "spoiled." The nurse applied some purple colored medicine to the entire surface and eventually the green skin with the awful odor went away. I kept the finger. It is still on my hand. Part of the side of it is gone, but I can use it as it was intended. That was an event during my young impressionable life I'll never forget. Now, whenever I detect the odor of decaying flesh, I recall that hot summer night in the attic hearing my sisters and brothers complain about my "spoiled " finger. By Wade Rain 1998 Monikapi, i luv u, your lit' girl. --------- "RE: Nature Made Survival Possible" --------- Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 21:26:52 -0600 From: Bernard & Feather Rock Subj: a story of subsistence Mailing List: Minnesota Indian Affairs Source: Cass Lake Times 12/10/1998 By Robby Robinson Nature made survival possible At 88-years of age, Josie (Josephine) Ryan says she no longer does the exact and patient craft of beading, even though she was found at the Ojibwe Holiday Craft Show last week behind a table covered in bead, leather and birch bark crafts. No, these days Ryan, of Bena, is satisfied to teach the skills that have helped support her and her family a half century and to find ways to market the work that they do. Ryan is a regular at craft shows around the area. She has found avenues to market her and other people's craft items around the country and she still teaches a course at Split Rock and a college course in Ojibwe arts at Bemidji State University. "I've been teaching this art class at the college for 25 years," she noted, "but it is a little hard to get there now since I no longer drive." Ryan said that her career in beadwork and crafts was as much or more spurred by the need to make an income as her love of crafts. Thirty some years ago her husband, Alan Ryan, died and left her with two little boys, ages six and seven. "We didn't have any AFDC back then," she recalled. "If I wanted something for these children I had to work for it." And work she did. The woods, lakes and her own hard work were the keys to her success. During the winter months she said she collected birchbark and worked on her crafts, which she would sell wherever she could. In the spring there were trees to tap and maple sugar and syrup to make; in the summer it was berry picking time -- blueberries, raspberries, strawberries-- and wild ricing; and in the fall whitefish, which were caught and smoked. In winter wreathes for the holiday, more craft or anything else she could market to make a living. Her two boys, Jim and Roy, are now in their forties and Josie speaks with pride about them and her grandchildren. Although she cannot see well enough to do the intricate crafts she knows so well, she takes some pride in teaching others whatever she can. Her hands have supported her these many years and now others are, with her coaching and marketing, of course. "Nobody needs to be poor if they just work," she concluded. --------- "RE: Stoney Band Members Clean House" --------- Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1998 02:18:20 -0800 From: SISIS@envirolink.org (S.I.S.I.S.) Subj: Stoney Band members "clean house" :-:-:-:-:-:-:-Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty-:-:-:-:-:-:-: VOTERS CLEAN HOUSE ON TROUBLED RESERVE The Globe and Mail, Dec. 12, 1998, Page A7 by Alanna Mitchell [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 troubled Stoney First Nation have swept two of their three chiefs and several councilors out of office with a decisiveness many are calling a repudiation of the old regime. In all, the reserve will be run by seven new councilors and two new chiefs, in addition to the five councilors and one chief who were reelected. Many of the winners in the election ran on a platform of cleaning up financial mismanagement on the reserve, which is made up of three Indian bands. The reserve's leaders have been heavily criticized after the band's statements revealed that three chiefs and a dozen councilors collected more than $1.4 million in tax-free salary and perks this year while many band members live in abject poverty. Two of the former chiefs - PHILOMENA STEPHENS of the Bearspaw band and HENRY HOLLOWAY of the Chiniki band - suffered humiliating defeats. Ms. Stephens captured just 26 votes against 157 for the winner, Darcy Dixon. Mr. Holloway garnered 59 votes, against 233 for the victor, Paul Chiniquay. The only chief to survive the voters' wrath was John Snow of the Wesley band, who hung on by his fingernails with 191 votes. His two competitors for the job captured 181 and 163 each. "The people wanted change," said Greg Twoyoungmen, a vocal critic of the old power structure, who was elected to represent the Wesley band as one of its four councilors. The Stoney reserve just west of Calgary has become a lightning rod in Canada for concerns over the way elected native leaders handle finances on reserves. In recent months, leaders there have been accused of mismanaging money. Last week a rare forensic audit ordered by the federal government found enough evidence of wrongdoing in financial matters to refer 43 complaints from band members to the RCMP. In all, the auditors received 364 allegations of criminal wrongdoing related to the reserve's finances. :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: SOVEREIGNTY IS THE ANSWER - CANADA IS THE PROBLEM 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: Mille Lacs Treaty Case" --------- Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1998 10:23:55 -0600 From: "John Berry" Subj: (FWD)Indian News 12/2/98, pt. 2 Roger Iron Cloud FirstNations Listserv 202.358.3252 rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov Mille Lacs treaty case goes before U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday c. AP 11-30-98 ST. PAUL (AP) An eight-year-old American Indian treaty case scheduled to go before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday could invite tribes across the nation to resurrect treaty rights they thought were buried long ago. Or, it could jeopardize dozens of treaties, weaken long-held principles of Indian law and stack the deck against tribes into the future. The Mille Lacs treaty case involves how Chippewa Indians and non-Indian outdoor enthusiasts divide fish and game in an area covering parts of a dozen counties of east-central Minnesota. The area includes Lake Mille Lacs, the state's premier walleye lake. Eight states and 32 American Indian tribes who have filed friend-of-the- court briefs and constitutional scholars specializing in Indian law are watching closely. Many sport anglers and others charge that modern and savvy Indian tribes, such as the Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa, have used casino profits and politically correct courts to revive obsolete privileges and create unequal rights. The Chippewa and hundreds of other tribes say the United States cheated their ancestors, nearly obliterated their culture and now owes them, as dependent sovereign nations, this opportunity to keep tradition alive. Opponents of the newly reaffirmed harvesting privileges say that if lower-court rulings stand, it will reinforce the idea that treaty language must be dissected by linguists and historians to guess what the Indians believed when they signed. "It would create a dangerous precedent that treaties don't really mean what they say," said Scott Strand, an assistant Minnesota attorney general. Minnesota and some co-defendant landowners argue in part that the harvesting privileges granted to the Chippewa in an 1837 treaty clearly were extinguished by an 1850 order by President Zachary Taylor, as explicitly allowed for by the treaty. That order also called for the Chippewa to be moved to other land. They say an 1855 treaty signed by the Mille Lacs band also ended those rights. Lower courts sided with experts who said that when the Chippewa signed the treaty, their leaders believed that the tribes couldn't be removed from the land they ceded or lose their hunting and fishing rights there unless they misbehaved. The experts said that made Taylor's entire order illegal. Those who support the rights say that if the state prevails on one of its key arguments that temporary treaty privileges were wiped out when the Minnesota territory became a state in 1858 it could jeopardize provisions in dozens or hundreds of treaties nationwide. The National Congress of American Indians, in a recent resolution, agreed that an adverse decision in the Mille Lacs case could jeopardize the treaty rights of other tribes nationally as well. The organization declared Wednesday as Spirit of Treaties Day and asked Indian communities across the nation to provide spiritual support for those fighting the Mille Lacs case. Dozens of tribal members are expected to camp near the Capitol in Washington, D.C., and light ceremonial fires. The Wisconsin Chippewa have a special interest in the case: They have 1837 treaty rights in what is now Minnesota, and they won earlier litigation in federal court involving fish and game in Wisconsin. After years of enduring violence at boat landings, the bands now spear walleye in relative peace under court-approved agreements with the state. They worry that an adverse Supreme Court ruling could upset that balance and abrogate 1837 treaty rights in both states. Lawyers say it's unclear whether the rights would vanish in Wisconsin automatically. Tim Giago, editor and publisher of Indian Country Today newspaper, is worried. The court's pattern has been to rule against Indians, he said, citing as a recent example a June decision allowing Cass County to tax former reservation land that the Leech Lake Band of Chippewa recently repurchased from private owners. Attorneys for the state and some Lake Mille Lacs-area landowners are cautiously optimistic, despite losing in U.S. District Court and before the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "The fact that the Supreme Court granted review indicates they have concerns about the lower court's decision," said Randy Thompson of Minneapolis, the landowners' attorney and one of four lawyers two on each side who will appear before the high court Wednesday. State attorneys say Minnesota's sovereignty is threatened by the lower court rulings because they force the state to share natural-resource management decisions with tribes in an arrangement overseen by federal courts. The tribes and the federal government, which joined as a plaintiff in the case, argue that treaties are constitutionally protected and compatible with statehood. A Supreme Court