From gars@netcom.com Thu Sep 21 00:01:59 2000 Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 17:56:17 -0700 (PDT) From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews08.039 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ O ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) O o O / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ O o O (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' O o o o o O ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ VOLUME 08, ISSUE 039 O o O / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' September 23, 2000 O o O / /-< / /--/ /-- Klamath dancing moon O __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, Navajo gathering of crops moon KANOHEDA ANIYVWIYA Ha-Sah-Sliltha Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin Un Chota Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min Aunchemokauhettittea Ximopanolti tehuatzin, inin Mexika tlahtolli ( N A T I V E A M E R I C A N N E W S ) This issue contains articles from Indianz elist, KOLA Newslist, LPDC, & Triballaw mailing lists; UUCP email; Newsgroup: alt.native; http://www.algore2000.com/states/index.html http://www.billingsgazette.com/region/20000909_r5wind.html http://www.abqjournal.com/news/115939news09-04-00.htm http://www.canadianaboriginal.com http://www.capitolalert.com/news/capalert03_20000916.html http://www.arizonarepublic.com/arizona/articles/0913debate13.html http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/yaki11.shtml http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/000831honeybee.html 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 "We were taught to believe that the Great Spirit sees and hears everything, and that He never forgets; that hereafter He will give every man a Spirit-home according to his deserts: if he has been a good Man, he will have a good home; if he has been a bad man, he will have a bad home. This I believe, and all my people believe the same." __Chief Joseph, Nez Perce +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Indian Pledge of Allegiance | The Indian Pledge of Alleg- | | iance was first presented | I pledge allegiance to my Tribe,| on 2 December '93 during the | to the democratic principles | opening address of the Nat- | of the Republic | ional Congress of American | and to the individual freedoms | Indian Tribal-States Relat- | borrowed from the Iroquois and | ions Panel in Reno, NV. NCAI | Choctaw Confederacies, | plans distribution of the | as incorporated in the United | Indian Pledge to all Indian | States Constitution, | Nations. | so that my forefathers | | shall not have died in vain | Walk in Beauty! Night Owl +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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! Excerpts from a post by Koga Suyeta 14 Aug 2000 00:44:10 -0500 The over-riding issue is Peltier. Peltier requires our undivided attention now. --- if Clinton will not sign the paper, we have a very serious problem, because Bush won't sign & Gore won't sign. It must be Clinton & the option remains his only until January 20. The focus, for once, needs to be on the man & only the man. Mail mail mail. Calls calls calls. Money money money. Don't be baited. The over-riding issue is Peltier. -- - - - This past weekend I was granted the honor of serving as emcee for the festival held in conjunction with the "Trail of Tears Commemorative Trail Ride". I do not have the final figures Guinness was there to document; but it is estimated 60,000 motorcycle riders left Chattanooga, and anywhere from 70,000 to 85,000 (counting those that joined enroute) arrived in Waterloo. While those numbers are probably accurate and even more incredible first hand, what is truly remarkable are two disparate items of note: - Though the original "ge tsi ka hv da a ne gv i (trail of tears)" began in New Echota Georgia, spurred by the discovery of gold in Dahlonega, not one word about those record shattering events was mentioned in the Atlanta paper. - The editorial written by Mike Goens in the Florence Alabama "Times Daily" was a well written caution to the committee to not let this become just a trail ride. Mike's banner read "Don't forget ride's real purpose" and said the ride must not overshadow the commemoration of a death march as Santa has overshadowed the real purpose of Christmas. Thank you Mike Goens and the Florence "Times Daily". Shame on you and your legacy, Atlanta "Journal-Constitution". -- - - - From my mailbag: Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 13:53:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Susanna Shreeve please post: Susanna Seelye Shreeve offers her super VHS copy of the_Return of the Native_ the story of the Inter-Tribal Bison Cooperative to anyone, whose local 'Public Access TV Channel' provides them with an 'import video' form, requesting to show this 22 minute videotape. Just mail the completed form to Susanna Shreeve, PO Box 3887, Santa Barbara, CA 93130; she'll complete her written portion and mail the tape for airing. For those who already have the VHS video, contact Gerald Dewey, ITBC Marketing Dept., and get permission to make a SVHS tape for your local station to use. Visit the website for phone, fax or e-mail: www.intertribalbison.org Peace! Night Owl , , Gary Night Owl gars@nanews.org (*,*) P. O. Box 672168 gars@speakeasy.org (`-') Marietta, GA 30006, U.S.A. gars@olagrande.net ===w=w=== gars@sdf.lonestar.org ----------- News of the people featured in this issue ---------- - Ipperwash Five Years Later - BIA Authority to Recognize Tribes - Quebec Police Arrest May be Stripped Algonquin Protesters - Round Valley Group sues BIA - Government is Finally - Bilingual Debate Gets Heated Getting the Message - He Keepes His Language Alive - Crisis on U'wa Territory Deepens - Indians Urge Babbitt be - Letters Detailing Fined in Suit 1864 Indian Massacre Released - Yakama Nation's Alcohol Ban - California Reaffirms - Pervasive Disparities Found Tribal Sovereignty Support in Death Penalty - Cherokees Told to Build - Failing to Notify Tribe not Tear Down Violated Pact - Blackfeet Begin to Build - Your Help is Needed/ State's First Wind Farm Free Leonard Peltier - Women in Charge - The Interview of Jicarilla Apaches You Shouldn't Miss Reading - Quapaw Tribe - Native Prisoner Ousts Three Committee Members - Rustywire: May I Walk in Beauty - Slade and Oliphant and Elephants - Poem: Farewell to Butterflies - Marshall Fishery Decision - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days Challenged - Navajo Woman to join Hall of Fame - Indian Lawsuits Over Schools - Upcoming Events Shake Churches - Native America Calling --------- "RE: Ipperwash Five Years Later" --------- Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2000 05:19:05 EDT From: SumerWCree@aol.com Subj: ipperwash coalition Mailing List: Indianz elist FIVE YEARS LATER: OUR DETERMINATION IS STONGER THAN EVER! September 6, 2000 - five years after the terrible events at ex-Ipperwash Park - more than 250 people gathered at Queen's Park in Toronto to mourn the unresolved murder of Dudley George and the loss of the right to peaceful political protest in Canada. This group, including many of Dudley's family members, five drum groups and speakers from national, international and Aboriginal organizations, also gathered to share strength and recommit for the continuing fight for justice for Stoney Pointers and other Aboriginal Rights and human rights struggles across Canada/Turtle Island. 9 to 11 pm on a weekday night may seem a strange time for this public event. But, the time was not of our choosing - we simply mark the time that the actual police assault occurred. From the early hours of the evening on Sept. 6, 1995, it was clear that the OPP's attitude towards the Stoney Pointers had turned ugly. With their mammoth tactical police build- up complete, the police began marching and banging on the riot-control shields. This maneuver is called "shield chatter" and is designed to intimidate protestors. Close to 11 pm, an Aboriginal man stepped forward to ask the police to stop their dangerous, confrontational tactics; he was beaten within a shred of his life. Some of the people in the Park tried to find ways to protect him and others from the deadly police force. The police reacted to these protective measures by opening fire and injured several people - including Dudley George, who died within two hours at a hospital in Strathroy, Ontario. Today, we know "who" shot Dudley George. Sgt. Kenneth Deane was convicted and sentenced to 180 hours of community service (with no loss of pay or position for his criminal negligence) and is trying to appeal his conviction to the Supreme Court of Canada. What we don't know for sure is "why" Deane was there with a gun in his trigger-happy hand. We don't know "which" of several possible senior government officials conveyed to the OPP that they had the latitude, or in fact gave them specific instructions, to "confront the protestors" "using violence", if necessary, to "get the f...ing Indians out of the Park". (All these quotes arise from leaked information reported in the media.) We DO know that the local Tory MPP, Marcel Beaubien, was in the OPP command post earlier on the day of September 6, 1995. We also KNOW that Beaubien informed the OPP commanders that he was in regular communication with Cabinet members at Queen's Park, whom - he said - approved the direction the police were going with the operation (presumably the military build-up to deal with the thirty unarmed men, women and children in the Park). We also know that Beaubien was quoted in the local paper that same morning, saying "Queen's Park will take a hard line with the protestors... if people are hurt, so be it." We also recall that, afterwards, Beaubien declared he would 'not be the fall guy'. Will the truth ever come out? YES. Your strong support at Queen's Park makes that clear. People have not forgotten - will not forget. Little tiny tidbits of new information keep coming out. The puzzle is filling in. New people are still learning about this terrible blot on the Canadian conscience and they are determined to see justice. The truth WILL come out. SEPTEMBER 6TH GATHERING IN LONDON From London, Ontario, Dan Smoke reports that a commemorative prayer circle was held on September 6th. Supporters of the Coalition in that region have continued to be strong in their demand for a public inquiry. This event gave some of them an opportunity to renew their commitment collectively. It was heartening to hear that there were two Vigils! IPPERWASH JUSTICE FUND BEING ESTABLISHED (FUNDRAISING FOR THE CIVIL SUIT) Sam George, brother of Dudley George and plaintiff in the Civil Suit against Ontario Premier Harris and others for the "wrongful death" of his brother, estimates $90,000 will be required to see the case through the preliminary hearing stage. Perhaps as much as $500,000 may be needed to finance the entire case. A group of activists from the Coalition's broader network have spontaneously come together to raise this money. For the first amount, they are using a direct appeal campaign. PLEASE VOLUNTEER to help with mailing lists & envelope stuffing: call Bruce at 416-588-3687. NATIONAL CHIEF MATTHEW COON COME ~ AFN ONTARIO VICE-CHIEF CHARLES FOX SPEAK OUT AT VIGIL ON SEPTEMBER 6TH ~ DEMAND A PUBLIC INQUIRY Activists and media gathered at both Burnt Church, New Brunswick and at Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario heard strong statements from Assembly of First Nations leadership. Ontario Regional Chief reminded listeners that resolution of this issue has, for five years, been of highest priority for Chiefs and community members. Chief Fox also read from a prepared AFN statement that linked "the Ipperwash police attack to the government boat ramming of Atlantic native fishermen". This statement quotes National Chief Coon Come, "First Nations members who defend their ancient rights are all too often met with government violence under the guise of 'law and order'. Whether it's boat ramming or bullet holes, Dudley George and First Nation fishermen have experienced first hand how far governments will go to deny them their lands and their resources." Citing the UNHRC report that called on Canada to hold a Ipperwash inquiry, the AFN statement echoes this demand, again quoting the National Chief , "Law and order must be matched with peace and justice." In his concluding remarks to Vigil participants, , Chief Fox said that the National Chief had spoken at Burnt Church that day and raised the AFN's continuing concern about the unresolved Ipperwash matter. Among the Mi'kmaq and their supporters, Chief Coon Come called for a minute of silence in Dudley George's memory. From the Coalition's perspective it is very gratifying to hear such strong support from the newly elected leaders. Chi Miigwetch! AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL IN LONDON, ENGLAND RENEWS ITS CALL FOR AN INQUIRY ~ ENGLISH CANADA'S AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL STARTS A LETTER-WRITING CAMPAIGN ~ In a strongly worded letter (dated August 17, 2000) to Premier Harris, the International Secretariat of Amnesty International asks for answers to the questions it posed re: Ipperwash almost five years ago. AI apparently "has continued to monitor developments regarding Ipperwash" and is "gravely concerned that authorities in Ontario continue to resist numerous calls for a public inquiry", despite "numerous media reports alleging many disturbing facts leading up to this fatal shooting". Citing, as well, the UNHRC's call for an inquiry, AI also makes mention of the legal opinion prepared by the Ontario Legislature's own research staff, which states "The case law would suggest there is no impediment to the calling of a public inquiry at this time." On the website for AI (English Canada) at you can find an appeal to AI supporters about this matter: "It's time for the truth to come out." A click on "Speak Out Now" leads the viewer to , where it says: "There can no more delays, no more excuses. Canada must comply with its international human rights obligations. The federal government must act now to ensure a full, independent, impartial public inquiry into the death of Dudley George. "Please write to Prime Minister Jean Chretien. In your letter: 1. highlight the statement made by the UN Human Rights Committee, calling on the government of Canada to establish a public inquiry into all aspects of the death of Dudley George; 2. emphasize the importance of Canada fulfilling its international human rights obligations; and 3. ask what steps the government is taking now to comply with the Committee's advice. "Write to: The Right Honourable Jean Chretien House of Commons, Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6 FAX: (613) 941-6900 Email: pm@pm.gc.ca" ---- That's all a quote right from the Canadian AI website. Pretty cool, eh? And also pretty good advice! If you haven't written the P.M. yet, now's the perfect time to do it. Please send us a copy. COALITION'S INTERNATIONAL STRATEGIES At a public meeting at the Native Centre in Toronto, Coalition core group members elaborated their strategies for two upcoming international forums: participating in the review of Canada's compliance on the international human rights treaty for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination and the World Conference Against Racism. More on this will be published in an upcoming Newsletter. Meanwhile, if you're interested, please be advised that the government of Canada is holding a public consultation about racism, the results of which will be incorporated into its report for the World Conference. The Toronto consultation will take place September 24 and 25. Dates have been set for other cities. For more info: contact our professional advisor, Dr. Eva Mackey, at 516-4810 or at . NDP LEADER HOWARD HAMPTON SENDS INQUIRY ISSUE TO ONTARIO HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION Howard Hampton sees it the same way we do. Racism is a primary factor in the continuing failure by governments to call an inquiry. The Walkerton inquiry makes this clearer than ever. Thanks Howard! We hope the OHRC can look at this soon. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ To support Human Rights and Aboriginal Sovereignty, please join the Coalition for a Public Inquiry into Ipperwash Donations & Information: Box 111, Station C, Toronto, On M6J 3M7; E: annpohl@interlog.com; T: 416-537-3520; F: 416-538-2559 Indianz at http://www.egroups.com - a group for, by, and about Indianz --------- "RE: Quebec Police Arrest Algonquin Protesters" --------- Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2000 21:21:35 EDT From: SumerWCree@aol.com Subj: Quebec police arrest Algonquin protesters Mailing List: Indianz elist Gathering Place First Nations,Ca With Much Thanks To: Mi'kmaq Netnews: Quebec police arrest Algonquin protesters WebPosted Mon Sep 11 18:28:29 2000 MONTREAL - Quebec Police have arrested seven Algonquin protesters who have spent the last month blockading two logging roads in a central Quebec game preserve. INDEPTH: Aboriginal Canadians The Algonquin families claim the land as ancestral territory on which they can pursue their traditional hunting and trapping way of life. But the forestry company Domtar was granted cutting rights to the land under an agreement with the local Algonquin Band and the government of Quebec. The conflict over resources is similar to many other problems First Nations communities have with the provinces and the big resource companies. Police arrested the protesters and have warrants for two others. They have been watching the blockades for the past month. A police spokesman says they've gathered enough evidence to support charges of mischief, uttering threats and at least one firearms offence. One of the people arrested is a 60-year-old grandmother who supports herself by trapping and hunting. She says if the trees are cut down, the animals will leave the area and her livelihood will end. Jacob Wawati speaks for the families. He says Domtar was given cutting permits through a deal between the local band chief and council and the government of Quebec. But that's illegal, he says, because the families who live there have never stopped using the land and never signed a treaty giving away their rights to it. "This is unceeded territory. Who does it really belong to? Who has the right to speak about it? Does the Quebec government have the right to speak about it? Or the landowner? It's not defined in any way, shape, or form," said Wawati. The Algonquin families say they have to protect the forest in order to protect their food supply. Charles O'Brien is a lawyer representing the families. He says if the food supply is lost, the people may lose their rights to live on their ancestral land. "The clear cutting makes those rights illusory. And that's the basis of their defence of that land," he said. Similar confrontations are simmering across Canada. Don Sullivan, North American co-ordinator for the Boreal Forest Network, says a pattern of conflict is emerging between First Nations people and resource companies. "I see a this being the new area of conflict. First Nations are looking to get themselves out of third world conditions. They are in areas where resources are in abundance, and they are unable to access resources in order to make a livelihood for their communities." Sullivan says Ottawa must take its responsibility to protect aboriginal rights much more seriously before these confrontations end in loss of life. Indianz at http://www.egroups.com - a group for, by, and about Indianz --------- "RE: Government is Finally Getting the Message" --------- Date: 9/15/00 2:58:49 PM Eastern Daylight Time From: kolahq@skynet.be (KOLA) Subj: Six Nations Land Claims - Government is Finally Getting the Message <+>=<+>KOLA Newslist<+>=<+> [source: NativeNews; Thu, 14 Sep 2000 19:27:37 -0700] September 14th Brantford Expositor OPINION IT'S ABOUT TIME BRANTFORD _ The federal government may not, in a purely legal and technical sense, be guilty of contempt in its handling of the Six Nations land claim. But "contempt" is certainly the word that best describes the approach taken by the federal government as it wages a war of attrition against the native band, which included yet another court appearance this week at which an agreement of sorts was hammered out to move ahead. The federal government is finally getting the message. It's about time. Two centuries ago, the Six Nations were granted all of the land six miles on either side of the Grand River. Over the decades some of it was sold, some given away, some stolen. The Six Nations want to know what happened to the land and, just as importantly, what happened to the proceeds from the sales and leases. So they have asked the federal government, which holds the trust funds, to answer some questions. But despite being ordered by Justice James Kent to comply, the federal government has stalled, using almost every legal avenue to avoid giving complete answers. Just how silly is the federal government behaving? Here's how silly: it has refused to acknowledge the fact that the Six Nations of the Grand River are descendents of the Iroquois people who moved here from New York state after the American Revolution to settle the Haldimand Tract territory. Only the federal government could wage legal battle over basic historical fact, trying, it seems to rewrite history to its own purposes. But what could be the purpose of such an Orwellian approach? The only answer seems to be to frustrate the Six Nations people to the point where they give up and go home. (Which, when you think about it, is exactly what they are trying to do, once they figure out how much of their homeland they have left.) Obviously the federal government is fearful that if the Six Nations is successful that the cost of a settlement could run into many, many millions of dollars. >From the federal government's point of view, that appears to justify taking an absurd legal position, fighting it out time after time in court, and racking up legal bills in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The federal government seems to be taking the view that justice doesn't really matter as much as winning. But how can it possibly square that position with its traditional and legal responsibility as the trustee of the Six Nations land and money? How can it be so intent on defeating the very people it has sworn to protect? Under the supervision of Justice Kent, the Six Nations and Ottawa have agreed this week that the federal government will finally produce complete answers within the next month. After that, Ottawa and the Six Nations may actually be able to get down to the real business of coming up with a final reckoning of what the Six Nations is owed. Perhaps then, instead of "contempt," we'll be able to use the word "co- -operation" when we discuss the federal government's handling of this file. [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.] <+>=<+> KOLA Information: http://users.skynet.be/kola/index.htm KOLA Petitions: http://kola-hq.hypermart.net KOLA Greeting Cards: http://users.skynet.be/kola/cards.htm --------- "RE: Crisis on U'wa Territory Deepens" --------- Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 14:52:30 -0400 From: Carol Subj: ALERT! U'wa given 7-day eviction notice! ------- FORWARD, Original message follows ------- Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 16:08:33 -0700 From: "Lauren Sullivan" CRISIS ON U'WA TERRITORY DEEPENS AS COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT DECLARES IT WILL EVICT U'WA FROM THEIR TERRITORY AROUND THE GIBRALTAR 1 DRILLSITE CALL COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT PASTRANA! CALL AL GORE! ORGANIZE AN EMERGENCY RESPONSE DEMONSTRATION AT A NEARBY GORE 2000 OFFICE! Find the one nearest you at : http://www.algore2000.com/states/index.html and nearest DNC office at: http://www.democrats.org/action/ Contact Patrick or Lauren at RAN at 1-800-989-RAIN or organize@ran.org if you are willing to organize an emergency response demonstration, action or solidarity event! In this Alert: 1)Call to action: Contact Al Gore and President Pastrana! 2)Latest U'wa Communique (English and Spanish versions) 3)Sample letter to Pastrana ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) CALL FOR SOLIDARITY ACTIONS!! The U'wa people of Colombia are facing the final showdown in their eight year campaign to prevent Occidental petroleum from desecrating their ancestral lands. The Colombian Military and Police have increased their forces occupying the proposed drillsite and have told the U'wa that they will be removed from their legal, communal property within the next seven days! The U'wa are being barred from assembling on their own lands and are being assaulted by the military. We must act now to help the U'wa by showing Al Gore and Colombian President Pastrana that we will hold them accountable for Oxy's actions on the U'wa territory. President Pastrana and Colombian legal entities have called for the eviction of the U'wa. According to the U'wa the military has said they are designating the area around the Gibraltar 1 well-site, land which legally belongs to the U'wa, as a "mining reserve" for Occidental Petroleum. Occidental has stated that they plan to sink the first exploratory well at the Gibraltar 1 before the end of September. This eviction will pave the way for Occidental to bring in the final machinary needed to begin drilling. The escalation of violence is already occurring and the U'wa's human rights are being violated by the military on a daily basis. The U'wa have called for increased solidarity actions. The fulture of the U'wa people and their homelands depends on activists around the world taking actions for the U'wa. Whether its a demonstration at a Gore campaign office, a picket at the Colombian embassy or a teach-in in your community - we must draw attention to the crisis in U'wa land! Call on Al Gore and Colombian President Pastrana to stop the violation of the U'wa's human rights! Al Gore, Pastrana and Oxy will have the blood of the U'wa on their hands if any more violence occurs. In the early 90's, Gore supported the Penan, an indigenous people in Borneo whose rainforest home was threatend by logging operations. Why has he failed to take action for the U'wa? Apparently his concern for the environment and human rights only matters when it doesn't conflict with the corporations like Oxy that fund his campaign. The Republicans are drawing attention to Gore's hypocrisy on this issue (see their website - http://www.rnc.org/GoreFiles/oxyal1_082300) which is of course ironic since Bush and Cheney have even deeper ties to the oil industry. We need to be a clearer voice of support for the U'wa that demands that Gore sever his ties from Oxy, pressure the Colombian Government to protect the U'wa people and not oil interests. Gore needs to do this because we will no longer stand for his hypocrisy around human rights and environmental issues. US Activists: Please take the time to call, write and fax Al Gore: Gore2000 601 Mainstream Dr. Nashville, TN 37228 Phone: 615-340-2000 Fax: 202-456-2685 Organize a lobbying visit, demonstration or direct action at a Gore 2000 or DNC office! Join the U'wa in putting your body on the line! International activists and US Activists: Fax President Pastrana and let him know that we, the people and organizations who defend human rights, will not tolerate the continued violation of the U'wa's culture, rights and ancestral territory. (Template letter below) Fax the Colombian Embassy in Washington D.C. at: 202-232-8643 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Association of U'wa Traditional Authorities Decree Number 1088, 1993 Registry resolution Number 003, February 1997. Minister of the Interior Communique to the National and International Public Kera Chikara - Ancestral and Sacred Territory of the U'wa People, September 11, 2000 The U'wa People want to make known the National and International Public the repressive nature of the public forces, military, and anti-riot police who are, on a daily basis, physically and morally assaulting members of the U'wa community who are living on the Santa Rita and Bellavista Farms in Cedeno, Toledo, North Santander. Our community is the rightful owner of these lands. This past July 8th, the U'wa community returned to occupy the Santa Rita and Bellavista farms thanks to a judge's injunction decision which ordered the revision of the formalities which granted the land to Occidental of Colombia, Inc. In this process of revising these formalities, the U'wa, the representative of the municipality of Cubara, Boyaca, the Agrarian judicial attorney of Arauca, the People's Ombudsman of Arauca, and the commander of the military forces of the region, agreed to mutually respect each other, thus guaranteeing the respect for our constitutional and legal rights. It was also stated that the universal human rights and international humanitarian rights would be respected, including: freedom of movement, freedom from physical or moral agression, the right to work, the right to a home, the right to privacy, etc. But today we would like to tell Colombia and the world that the public forces haven't respected our rights, and they continue to restrict the entry to our land, they prohibit us from using the interior road that connects with the central road to our property, they sound gunshots in the night. U'wa women have been the victims of violent sexual acts carried out by military soldiers, and on the 8th and 9th of September due to the restricted movement, we had to traverse a mountain to enter our property. Today the public forces informed us that in eight days they will remove the U'wa community members that are living contentedly on the Santa Rita and Bella Vista farms. According to statements from the head of the military, this is an order handed down from the President of Colombia, Andres Pastrana Arango. Due to this decision, we would like to say to our Colombian brothers and sisters that this is the result of the Plan Colombia, the negation of all of our rights. The U'wa people reject the despotic nature of the Andres Pastrana government, the lies and the deceit that he attempts to legalize by means of informing national and international citizens of a process of alleged respect for our rights, which in reality doesn't exist. While the government dialogues in Bogota, the machinery is arriving to the drilling site and the process of violence is growing stronger. For these reasons, we want to make clear that if in the future an U'wa leader or any U'wa person is attacked physically or morally, we will hold the Colombian government Occidental of Colombia Inc. directly responsible. The U'wa are not going to abandon our farms because this is our home and our land. We will continue to gather there and to make known to the Colombian community and the world each inhumane act that is committed by the military forces. We will communicate these events not to provoke pity, but to garner support for our people who fight to maintain our culture, our beliefs, our ancient laws; We are an example a community that seeks to live in peace and harmony with others and with nature. The Plan Colombia only benefits the multinationals who,in their efforts to seize and take control of our riches and of our wealth devastate all that is around them. We the U'wa people stand as a clear example of a community defending our right to live in peace, unity and harmony; to live within the territory that was created by Sira (God), and to care for and and coexist peacefully on this, our land. Roberto Perez Guitierrez President, U'wa Council, U'wa Association ------------------------------------------------------- #3 SAMPLE LETTER TO PRESIDENT PASTRANA September 11, 2000 Dr. Andres Pastrana Arango President of the Republic of Colombia Casa de Nariio Bogota D.C. Dear Mr. President: We are profoundly concerned about recent news we have received from the U'wa community in Cubara (Boyaca, Colombia). We are aware that the anti- riot police arrived in the area on September 7. According to the U'wa, the police stated that they have an order direct from the Colombian Presidency to evict all civilians present in a 500 meter radius surrounding the exploratory well site of Gibraltar. According to the U'wa, a member of the anti-riot police said: "There must be no civilians inside a 500 meter radius of the well." Neither indigenous nor campesino leaders have yet received a written judicial or administrative eviction order. However, according to what the anti-riot police communicated to the U'wa, the purpose of the eviction is to bring in Occidental Petroleum's machinery from Saravena to the drill site. We believe that this eviction would constitute an open violation of the recent ruling of the honorable Superior Court of Norte de Santander, which authorized Occidental Petroleum's use of only the land previously set aside for such activity in a judicial order. Additionally, we have learned that on September 11, the executive board of Incora created a Petroleum Reserve Zone around the the Gibaltar well site. This constitutes a new attempt to disregard the rights of the U'wa people to their traditional territory and to their communal ownership of farms to which they have legitimate, written, and duly registered titles. Considering: 1. that Article 63 of the Colombian Constitution states that communal territory of ethnic groups is inalienable; 2. that the land slated for petroleum exploration forms part of the immemorial patrimony of the U'wa people and of their traditional territory; and 3. that the U'wa people were not consulted with regarding the work that is currently being carried out by Occidental Petroleum; We implore you to take action to protect the rights of the U'wa and to take action to prevent a turn of events like that which occurred on June 25th and 26th, on February 11th, and on January 25th of this year, when actions of the public forces against the U'wa resulted in the drownings of three indigenous children and caused multiple injuries to indigenous people and campesinos. We believe that the conflict between the U'wa and Occidental Petroleum must be resolved through nonviolent means, especially through consultation under the terms of Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization, which was signed and ratified by Colombia and through consideration of the terms of Article 330 and Articles 63 and 93 of the Colombian Constitution. Under no circumstances can we individuals and organizations actively defending human rights accept continued violence against the U'wa and against the people who stand in solidarity with them. Sincerely: --------- "RE: Letters Detailing 1864 Indian Massacre Released" --------- Subj: (FWD)Indian News 09-16-2000 From: "John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate" Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2000 08:49:28 -0500 ----- Forwarded by John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate Senator Releases Letters Detailing 1864 Indian Massacre BY MATT KELLEY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS September 15, 2000 WASHINGTON -- Nearly 136 years after Colorado Militia troops ambushed and massacred more than 150 American Indians on the banks of Sand Creek, a senator related to a survivor of the attack is sponsoring a plan to create a memorial at the site. At a hearing on the proposal Thursday, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell read from two recently discovered letters written by soldiers who objected to the 1864 atrocity. One, by Capt. Silas Soule, detailed the gruesome scene where troops slaughtered Cheyenne and Arapaho women, children and elderly men. "It was hard to see little children on their knees have their brains beat out by men professing to be civilized," wrote Soule, who was murdered in Denver shortly after testifying at a congressional inquiry. Campbell, a Northern Cheyenne whose great-grandfather's second wife survived the attack, said the descriptions brought tears to his eyes. The Colorado Republican is backing a bill to create a national historic site on more than 12,000 acres of "killing fields" on the plains of southeastern Colorado. "Can you imagine cutting open a pregnant woman and taking out the baby and then scalping the baby? " Campbell said. "It's the worst atrocity I've ever heard of." The National Park Service supports Campbell's proposal to create the Sand Creek historic site, which would help protect the area from artifact poachers and allow Cheyenne and Arapaho tribal members to create a burial ground there for the remains of victims. Rancher Bill Dawson, on whose land much of the killing ground lies, and other area landowners are willing to sell their property to create the memorial. Campbell said he guessed the bill had a "50-50" chance of passing Congress before lawmakers adjourn for the year, which is scheduled for early October. Steve Brady, president of the Northern Cheyenne Sand Creek Descendants, said the site would commemorate "the unspeakable horrors of ethnic cleansing." The massacre began at dawn Nov. 29, 1864, when nearly 1,000 men under the command of Col. John Chivington surrounded hundreds of Indians camped on the banks of the creek. Soule and other witnesses said Chivington wanted to kill Indians and did not care that this group was peaceful and had been promised by other U.S. troops that they would be left alone if they flew an American flag. The troops opened fire on the mostly unarmed Indians with guns and howitzers, then chased down many who tried to flee. The soldiers mutilated the bodies, taking away scalps, ears, fingers and genitals as trophies. Those involved were never punished. --------- "RE: California Reaffirms Tribal Sovereignty Support" --------- Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 10:25:45 -0500 From: Liz Pollard Subj: California Reaffirms Support for Tribal Sovereignty NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NEWS RELEASE CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE TAKES ENLIGHTENED POSITION ON TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY SACRAMENTO, CA, September 15, 2000 -- The California Legislature has passed unanimously a resolution which points to a genuine concern for this country's first peoples. In a whirlwind push designed to enact in one week a resolution to make the state's position on tribal sovereignty abundantly clear, the California Legislature passed a landmark bill, Assembly Concurrent Resolution (ACR) 185 concerning Native rights. Written by Assemblyman Jim Battin and several dozen others listed in the official text, the measure was introduced on August 23, just a week before the Legislature was due to adjourn. On August 31, Battin succeeded in walking it through both houses, where it received unanimous approval. A summary of the measure prepared by the Legislative Counsel and included in Battin's letter reads as follows: "This measure would reaffirm state recognition of the sovereign status of federally recognized Indian tribes as separate and independent political communities within the United States, encourage all state agencies, when engaging in activities or developing policies affecting Native American tribal rights or trust resources, to do so in a knowledgeable, sensitive manner that is respectful of tribal sovereignty, and, in recognizing their tribal sovereignty, encourages all state agencies to continue to reevaluate and improve the implementation of laws affecting Native American tribal rights..." The full text of the bill as amended and passed unanimously may be found at Battin's home page: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/ab_0151-0200/acr_185_bill_20000823_in troduced.html FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Assemblyman Jim Battin State Capitol P.O. Box 942849 Sacramento, CA 94249-0080 (916) 319-2080 OR Liz Pollard * Smoke Signals Enterprises 505 W. Louisiana, Anadarko, OK 73005 (405) 247-2251 EMAIL lpollard@smokesig.com ON the WEB: http://www.smokesig.com --------- "RE: Cherokees Told to Build not Tear Down" --------- Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 10:53:53 -0700 (PDT) From: "Martha Ture" Subj: Cherokees told to build not tear down, banish weakness Mailing List: TRIBALLAW (triballaw@thecity.sfsu.edu) c. 2000 Indian Country Today Sept 13, 2000 Cherokees told to build not tear down, banish weakness By Mary Pierpoint Today staff Chad Smith delivered his State of the Nation address with what he considers to be the future, a child, at his feet. TAHLEQUAH, Okla. - Challenging the Cherokee Nation to remember the legacy of the ancestors, Principal Chief Chad "Corntassel" Smith pledged to rebuild the nation to its former greatness during his State of the Nation address. >From the steps of the Cherokee Courthouse, Smith spoke to a crowd of thousands Sept. 2. In oppressive temperatures exceeding 110 degrees, listeners were silent, the only sounds, the soft swish of hundreds of hand-held fans. They came to hear the man who leads the largest Indian nation in the United States and his dream for a strong Cherokee Nation. In a powerful speech, Smith instructed members to grow not only as tribal members but also as individuals to strengthen the nation's spirit and legacy. Smith said he believes the strength of the nation and its survival depends upon the personal growth of its members. "Since I have been in office, one thing has become clear, there is a weakness," Smith said. He said he wants to see members building one another up, instead of tearing each other down, to go beyond being "wards of the government." "Some of our people have given up their Cherokee pride and initiative and resign themselves to expecting the government to provide for them." He told the crowd it needed to look beyond the horizons to expand their world and make it better. He warned against comparing themselves to others as they form individual identities. "I have found that there is strength within each of us, including our leaders, if we take a broader view of ourselves, our people and especially our future. When that happens, we can look around to each corner of the Cherokee Nation, to our people and our communities and to the future. "We can learn to define and judge our successes and failures based on what we have envisioned and accomplished, rather than 'Have we stacked up' against someone else or have kept someone else down and from accomplishing their goals." Smith said he realized there were Cherokees who needed help who either had no families or had families which expected the government to take care of them. He urged members of the nation to look to its rich tradition of caring for one another. "It is a solid Cherokee value to take care of one's own family and neighbors. Why have so many of our people drifted away from that?" he asked. "There is a Cherokee concept from our language that means come together and help one another. As Benny Smith said a year ago and affirmed in his teachings, let's take them to heart and use them this year. "Sometimes it is simple, like not seeing the forest for the trees. Sgadugi, is not only the key for tribal survival it is the key for personal fulfillment. We must learn the joy of giving, and doing for others, those who receive these gifts when they help themselves." Smith defined the Cherokee spirit as generous, kind, compassionate, warning, "We are doomed to extinction unless we as a people, abandon and condemn jealousy and adopt and embrace our historic value of sgadugi, which means come together and work. "It means that each and every one of us must grow up and set aside small behaviors and stand as one people with a common mission and a shared reward. This is a burden we carry." Smith then asked, "How do we survive another hundred years and regain the valuable strengths that have carried us thus far?" His answer is to make sure the nation is not destroyed by outsiders or from within by weakness. "If we don't come together now as a people, we will become nothing more than a footnote in a book forty years from now that will say, 'Once there was a great Cherokee Nation, but it is no more.' Without that unity, Smith warned that, "In the future our descendants may be a generation that are dark haired and brown skinned, with Cherokee names, but the Cherokee spirit is gone. These people ... know nothing about that spirit, the legacy, the art, the history, tradition, the religion or the culture or wisdom of us as Cherokees. "We have the resources, intelligence, the ability to rebuild this nation, our people and ourselves. The only reason, or perhaps excuse, is the absence of will, the absence of the Cherokee spirit." The chief said volunteerism is one way the nation could begin to rebuild itself. Reading to children and helping the elderly and disabled care for their homes are ways that can help the Cherokee Nation become great again, he said. "Although volunteerism doesn't have financial reward, it has spiritual reward. The reward is the enrichment in your life by helping others." In closing Smith said, "I cannot explain it, there is a mysticism, a magnetism, there is some draw, that every time I appear in the name of the Cherokee Nation as a principal chief, every time I come among our people, I have to say these things. I have to refresh our memory as what our Cherokee legacy is. "Some folks say, 'What is the legacy?' "The legacy is a gift from our ancestors. Our legacy has been paid for with millions of acres and thousands of lives along the Trail of Tears, the trials and the tribulations; "The smallpox epidemics of the 1720s where we lost half of our people; the genocidal wars of the 1770s, when the United States government tried to eradicate us; The Trail of Tears, the American Civil War, the Cherokee Civil War, the Allotment, the Depression, relocation, 70 years of bureaucratic imperialism by the BIA - we've paid for this legacy dearly. "What is a legacy? It is a gift that is given to us by our ancestors. "Receive that gift, but you know that when you receive a gift, this legacy, it comes as a duty, an obligation and a responsibility," Smith challenged. "But even more important," he reminded, "it comes as an honor, an honor to take this legacy and hand it on to our children." As the crowd jumped to its feet in a standing ovation, Smith urged them to move forward. "We're here now to take resolve. To take this Cherokee legacy to prepare it, embrace it and hand it to that child, and that child's child, and that child's grandchild, so that one hundred years from now we have a strong, enduring, powerful, and passionate Cherokee legacy. "... We are people who face adversity, survive, adapt, prosper and excel. Face adversity, survive, adapt, prosper and excel! "Now we must decide to evoke that Cherokee spirit, and pledge ourselves to prosper and excel! This place is a sacred place. This moment is an important moment. Today we decide our future, the future of our children." Mary Pierpoint reports from Oklahoma-Kansas. She can be reached at (785) 665-3027 or by e-mail Ozhorse@earthlink.net. c. 2000 Indian Country Today --------- "RE: Blackfeet Begin to Build State's First Wind Farm" --------- Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 12:09:19 -0500 From: kolahq@skynet.be Subj: Blackfeet begin to build state's first wind farm To: ShngSprt@aol.com +>=3D<+>KOLA Newslist<+>=3D<+> [from Lona. Thanks!] Blackfeet begin to build state's first wind farm BROWNING (AP) - The Blackfeet Tribe is teaming up with one of the nation's leading wind power companies to build Montana's first commercial wind farm. SeaWest WindPower, an 18-year-old company based in San Diego, has developed wind projects that produce 544 megawatts of electricity in Wyoming, California, the United Kingdom and Spain. SeaWest's 22-megawatt power project with the Blackfeet will generate enough electricity for more than 6,000 homes. "The Blackfeet have a tremendous wind and land resource," SeaWest President Jan Paulin said. "This project will tap that resource to create highly skilled employment opportunities on the Blackfeet Reservation and a true, commercially viable export industry." Tribal officials, who began dabbling in wind power in 1996, said a pair of demonstration projects in Browning have proven that wind power is feasible and profitable. Because of its proximity to the Rocky Mountains, the reservation has an average annual wind speed of 20 miles per hour, making it one of the most productive areas for wind power in North America. "Gaining electricity from the winds here on the reservation has been talked about for many years," Tribal Chairman Earl Old Person said. "We are gratified that this idea has finally become a reality." Construction on at least 15 turbines will begin in May, and is expected to cost up to $8 million. The turbines' location has not yet been determined, but construction will employ about 30 workers for six months next year. The project will provide four or five permanent jobs in the Browning area and an estimated $250,000 per year to the tribal government once operation is underway in October 2001. Under a tentative agreement, the Blackfeet wind farm will provide energy at less than five cents per kilowatt-hour to the Bonneville Power Administration in Oregon, Glacier Electric Cooperative in Browning and the Montana Power Co. Industry watchers say the new wind farm is an excellent beginning in harnessing Montana's winds, which until now have been untapped as a commercial energy source. According to the American Wind Energy Association, Montana's winds have the potential to produce 116,000 megawatts of electricity. "(The Blackfeet project) is not a huge power source, but as a wind farm, it's a great start," said David Westine, associate professor of general engineering at Montana Tech in Butte. "It's a very manageable entry for Montana into wind energy. I think there is a future in it just because it's nonpolluting and it's a renewable energy source." Westine predicts that the federal government someday will require power companies to generate a portion of their electricity from "green" sources such as wind, thus reducing the demand for coal and nuclear power. Already, the U.S. Department of Energy hopes green energy will account for at least 10,000 megawatts of the country's consumption by 2010. Nationwide, wind energy is emerging as an alternative energy source that many customers say they'd pay extra to use. In 1980, wind turbines generated fewer than 10 megawatts; today, they generate approximately 2,650 megawatts - enough to power more than 1 million households. <+>=3D<+> Information Pages: http://users.skynet.be/kola/index.htm Online Petition: http://kola-hq.hypermart.net Greeting Cards: http://users.skynet.be/kola/cards.htm <+>=3D<+> --------- "RE: Women in Charge of Jicarilla Apaches" --------- Date: 9/10/00 2:31:43 PM Eastern Daylight Time From: kolahq@skynet.be Subj: Women in Charge of Jicarilla Apaches <+>=<+>KOLA Newslist<+>=<+> [from Jerrye Franks-Smith. Thanks!] Women in Charge of Jicarilla Apaches By Morgan Lee Journal Staff Writer The Jicarilla Apache tribe Friday turned its top job over to a mother of two who admires Cherokee leader Wilma Mankiller, quotes baseball Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda and believes some tribal ceremonies should be reserved for men. Incoming Jicarilla Apache President Claudia Vigil-Muniz, the first woman to hold the tribe's highest office, said what distinguished her campaign from past efforts was teamwork with her unofficial running mate Lamavaya Caramillo, a veteran parole officer for the Jicarilla Tribal Court. Although Jicarilla voters separately chose their president and vice president, Vigil-Muniz campaigned closely with Caramillo and the two made history at the polls. They became the first all-female Jicarilla administration. The tribe had a female vice president, Rose Vicenti, in the late-1970s but Vigil-Muniz's ascent to the presidency is the first for a woman, according to Bureau of Indian Affairs Superintendent Sherryl Vigil. The female leaders have attracted attention beyond the Jicarilla reservation. Madeline Garcia of Santa Domino Pueblo took Friday off from work at Bernalillo Public Schools and traveled more than three hours to attend the inauguration. "What impressed me, what interested me was the election of women leaders," Garcia said. "I hope they will continue to open the government and get more of the tribal members involved in functions." Vigil-Muniz said she made a last-minute decision to run for president just in time for the election filing deadline. Her resume' appears to point toward the presidency. The daughter of a professional painter, Vigil-Muniz was born and raised in Dulce, the Jicarilla capital. After graduating from Dulce High School, she attended The College of Santa Fe and earned a bachelor's degree in business administration. She chose a propitious major: public administration. Since then, Vigil-Muniz has served on several public boards and committees that supervised public schools, KCIE radio station, the tribal constitution, economic development and public housing groups. Despite her accomplishments and influence, Vigil-Muniz peppered her inauguration speech with self-deprecating remarks, asking forgiveness from tribal elders if she spoke out of turn. Humility aside, Vigil-Muniz had been eager to take office after winning the election July 15. When the tribe delayed the inauguration from August to September, Vigil-Muniz protested through an attorney. The disagreement pitted the new leadership against opinions of the Nordhaus law firm, which represents the tribe. Vigil-Muniz said Friday it was too soon to tell whether the tribe's relationship with the Nordhaus firm would change under new leadership. Dressed for the inauguration in a lavender Apache cloth dress made by her sister, Vigil-Muniz removed the microphone from the podium and walked the stage in the modern, informal political fashion, speaking in the Jicarilla language for brief periods. "The message I want to send to the Jicarilla people today is to work together," she said. Amends and pleas for cooperation may be in order after a tumultuous year in Jicarilla politics. Incumbents were turned out of office not only in the presidential and vice presidential contests this year, but also in four council races in which the successful challengers promised to make more information about tribal finances and decision available to enrolled Jicarilla members. The previous tribal council, of which four members remain, twice voted populist and reform-minded President Arnold Cassador out of office. Meanwhile, voters approved a constitutional amendment for council terms limits and new election procedures. Although the term limits hadn't yet kicked in July, the addition of primary contests for council seats may have helped challengers gather wide support for the two-way runoff elections. Apparently eager to mend fences, Vigil-Muniz urged an end to the divisive political period. In deferential moments at the inauguration she reaffirmed to applause from the audience that certain male-only rituals should remain off-limits to women. She also lobbied in general terms for change and new ideas. "It may mean having to put aside our pride for a while to think differently," she said. Vigil-Muniz will be at the helm of a 1,300 square-mile, oil- and timber-rich reservation. She also will be expected to lead a tribe of about 3,000 that, despite new-found economic resources, faces health threats from an antiquated water system, management difficulties at a shuttered casino and a faltering school system that recently was placed on probation by accreditation officials. Upon election, Vigil-Muniz resigned her position at the Jicarilla Apache Department of Education, which administers federal education grants to local schools. Education was on the new president's mind as she called for the teaching of the Jicarilla language when foreign language requirements arrive in a few years at public schools on the reservation. Jicarilla children should learn their native tongue before French and German, she said. She implored the tribe to send more of its students to college. "The time has come that we need our people to be educated," Vigil-Muniz said. Departing president Rodger T. Vicenti congratulated his successor and urged the tribe to lend support, noting the historic occasion of the new female political team. "They have to make a good showing," he said. "The burden of proof is even harder." Speaking about the delicate task of leading, Vigil-Muniz quoted Lasorda and said, "a leader is someone that gets out in front of people but doesn't get so far out ahead so that he doesn't hear their footsteps." And the vice president had a different sign off from the stage after taking the oath of office. "May the great spirit bring you peace and wisdom," Caramillo said. <+>=<+> Information Pages: http://users.skynet.be/kola/index.htm Online Petition: http://kola-hq.hypermart.net Greeting Cards: http://users.skynet.be/kola/cards.htm --------- "RE: Quapaw Tribe Ousts Three Committee Members" --------- Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 09:20:46 -0500 From: "John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate" Subj: (FWD)Indian News 09-11-2000 ----- Forwarded by John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate Quapaw Tribe ousts three committee members Trio protested July 4 election By Gary Garton c. Joplin Globe SEPTEMBER 10, 2000 QUAPAW, Okla. - Members of the Quapaw Tribe acted Saturday to oust three of the seven people on their governing business committee, and called for a special election Nov. 4, to fill the vacancies. Removed from office by a vote of about 90 tribal members at Saturday's special council meeting were Kim Carrigan, Jesse McKibben and Shirley Payton. The trio were voted out because they refused to be seated for a committee meeting July 15, protesting what they said were irregularities in the tribe's annual election of officers on July 4. The ouster vote was 43 yes, 36 no, and four abstaining. Following the vote Shirley Payton blamed the tribal dissent on gossip and misinformation. "The rumors fly around until a mouse turns into an elephant," said Payton. "Since you voted me out, I ask only that you elect someone to replace me who will also work for the good of the tribe as a whole, and not just themselves." Saturday's meeting was called by Tamara Martin, newly-elected chairman of the business committee. She said the meeting was to address a grievance filed by some 23 tribal members who were at the July 15 meeting against those who staged the walkout." Raymond Griffin of the grievance committee read the document which accused the four of dereliction of duty for refusing to participate in the meeting. Dropped from the grievance Saturday was Lloyd Buffalo, another member who joined the original walkout on July 15. He said that Martin had excused him from the meeting to conduct negotiations with the other three members. Buffalo said including him in the grievance constituted "double jeopardy." The four, originally including Buffalo, had asked to see ballots from the tribe's July 4 election at which Martin and Beth Blalock, secretary- treasurer unseated incumbent officers. After the ouster vote Saturday, Carrigan said he still questions the July 4 election because business committee members asked Blalock to see the ballots. He said she first told them they were locked in the trunk of her car. "I said we would send the Bureau of Indian Affairs police over to collect them, and then she said she thought they were locked up in her house," Carrigan said. "We need to just start over (hold a new election) and do things right," he said. Tribal member Ardena Moore made a motion the tribe nullify the July 4 election in 60 days, giving all registered members notification of the election. "There are 2,000 registered members of our tribe nationwide. How many do you see here today?" she said. Buffalo and J.R. Mathews, a former committee member, pointed out that the tribe is governed by a resolution which states all activities will be conducted according to Robert's Rules of Order. "We can only hold a general council election, which would include absentee ballots, once a year on July 4. If you want to change the form of our government you would have to make the suggestion at the 2001 meeting, and it would remain under discussion until the 2002 meeting, and a vote could then be taken at the 2003 meeting," he said. "Fortunately, changing our form of government is not an easy or quick process," Mathews said. Tribal member Jesse Quapaw then moved from the floor that a special election be held Nov. 4, without absentee ballots, and with nominations coming from the floor at the meeting, to fill the three committee vacancies only. His motion carried by a 75-2 margin. --------- "RE: Slade and Oliphant and Elephants" --------- Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 13:16:35 -0700 (PDT) From: "Martha Ture" Subj: Slade and Oliphant and Elephants. . Mailing List: TRIBALLAW (triballaw@thecity.sfsu.edu) Talk about conspiracies, miscreance, and illicit agendae - in David E. Wilkins, American Indian Sovereignty and the U.S. Supreme Court, Austin, University of Texas Press, 1997, pp. 186-215, I read that Oliphant's attorneys were Philip P. Malone and Slade Gorton. (Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, 1978). Now does this sound familiar? Malone told the court of his concern about the nonrepresentation of non-Indians in Suquamish political affairs: "My clients, and a number of non-Indians, I believe, have no immediate interest in voting in the Suquamish General Council. Their immediate interest is to be free from the tribal laws and their enforcement promulgated without their consent. They do not want to be subject to independent tribal powers over which they have no control except with resort to the judiciary but if they may not be left alone, if they are to be subject to the tribal criminal code, then the best choice would be that they would have the right to vote which I believe and argue that they have under the Constitution. This would mean, in effect, if non-Indians were entitled to vote, the very purpose of the claimed powers here of self-determination of trives would end on such reservations. . ." Sound like the Washington State GOP resolution? So then a justice asked this: "The effect would be quite different in the Port Madison Reservation on the one hand, whichyour client came into contact with, and a reservation like the Navajo reservation, which is 20,000 square miles, largely populated with Indians, would it not?" Malone said "Startlingly different." And then, Malone was asked whether "whatever principles are forthcoming in this case you feel should apply to all Indian reservation." And Malone said, Yes. In this case, Rehnquist also attempted to cite a bill which did not pass as legislative authority. . . --------- "RE: Marshall Fishery Decision Challenged" --------- Date: 9/10/00 6:16:15 PM Eastern Daylight Time From: kolahq@skynet.be Subj: Marshall Fishery Decision Challenged To: ShngSprt@aol.com <+>=3D<+>KOLA Newslist<+>=3D<+> [from Jerrye Franks-Smith. Thanks!] September 10,2000 Crown Challenges Native Interpretation of Marshall Fishery Decision by ALISON AULD HALIFAX (CP) - The federal government defended Thursday the recent seizure of hundreds of Aboriginal lobster traps, arguing in court that Natives don't have unfettered rights to fish where and when they want. A government lawyer said in Federal Court there is no evidence to suggest Natives from a reserve in central Nova Scotia have unlimited treaty rights to lucrative lobster catches along the province's south shore. "There's not a shred of evidence, just a bald-faced assertion that they have those rights," said Harry Wruck, who argued the case should be thrown out. "They have nothing more than equitable access (to the fishery)." Justice Denis Pelletier reserved decision in the case after hearings that began first thing in the morning and extended late into the evening. The Crown was responding to an application by Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq that challenges the Department of Fisheries and Ocean's authority over the fishery. The Natives argue the federal department has overstepped its jurisdiction in regulating the disputed lobster fishery by seizing Aboriginal vessels, traps and gear, and limiting them to certain seasons. "We have constitutional rights and we have treaty rights and we're not being allowed to exercise them in St. Mary's Bay," said Bruce Wildsmith, the lawyer who launched the case on behalf of the Indian Brook Band. Indian Brook Natives have been setting traps for weeks in St. Mary's Bay, a lobster-rich area near Yarmouth that is hundreds of kilometres from the reserve. They say treaties from the 1760s still give them the unlimited right to fish where they want and without Ottawa's permission. The federal government say Natives are fishing out of season and endangering delicate lobster stocks now mating in the bay. In their application to the court, the Natives say the minister of fisheries violated their constitutional right to "fish to obtain a moderate livelihood and to harvest lobster for food, social and ceremonial purposes." They say those rights were reinforced with the Supreme Court of Canada's ruling a year ago that said they could hunt, gather and fish year-round and without DFO licences. A subsequent clarification said Ottawa has the right to regulate the fishery. Federal Fisheries Minister Herb Dhaliwal said Thursday he believes the court will uphold his right to regulate the fishery, which he said was supported in the Supreme Court ruling. Wildsmith said the Natives are willing to negotiate over the management of the fishery, but that it will do so only when the federal government recognizes their traditional rights. The Natives want the court to grant an injunction that would prevent fishery officers from seizing their gear or vessels. The two sides have clashed violently in recent weeks as DFO officers have seized about 11 Native boats and hundreds of traps. There have also been several arrests. Ottawa argues the Band is asking the court to overrule the fisheries minister, something it claims the Supreme Court of Canada says can't be done. "The fishery cannot be managed by the court," Wruck said to a packed courtroom of chiefs and non-Native fishermen who intervened in the case "What this case is really about is the applicant wants this court to be minister for a day . . . and tell the minister how to manage the fishery." The Band had asked to be able to fish up to 800 lobster traps for commercial purposes between July and October. Dhaliwal rejected the request, allotting the Band 35 traps. Non-Native fishermen say granting the injunction would both strip the minister of his regulatory powers and devastate fish stocks, valued at about $160 million annually. --- c.The Canadian Press, 2000 <+>=3D<+> Information Pages: http://users.skynet.be/kola/index.htm Online Petition: http://kola-hq.hypermart.net Greeting Cards: http://users.skynet.be/kola/cards.htm <+>=3D<+> --------- "RE: Indian Lawsuits Over Schools Shake Churches" --------- Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 08:07:15 -0500 From: "John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate" Subj: (FWD)Indian News 09-15-2000 ----- Forwarded by John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate Indian lawsuits over schools shake churches in Canada By Colin Nickerson c. Boston Globe Staff 9/12/2000 MONTREAL - Although not a single case has yet made it to court, a wave of litigation is threatening to bankrupt Canada's four largest Christian denominations under the weight of thousands of lawsuits brought by Indians demanding redress for "cultural abuse" in church-run boarding schools. The lawsuits argue that attempts by the government-supported schools to assimilate natives by requiring them to learn English and adopt the ways of white Canada constituted a sort of cultural violence. The effects, the lawsuits contend, were even more devastating than the acknowledged sexual assaults and beatings that occurred in at least some of the 125 Indian Residential Schools from the mid-19th century until the 1970s. The schools were run by the Roman Catholic, United, Anglican, and Presbyterian churches until the system was finally abandoned in favor of community schools on every Canadian reservation. At the worst institutions, the federal government and churches acknowledge, Indian youngsters were victims of sexual attack and sadism by staff. And both the churches and Ottawa's Department of Indian Affairs are committed to making amends for clear cases of physical abuse, with hefty financial settlements. But in the stunning new wave of litigation, Indians and their white lawyers, working on contingency, are demanding hundreds of millions of dollars for loss of cultural identity. "In Canada, we didn't slaughter Indians like in the United States," said Tony Merchant, a Saskatchewan lawyer whose firm represents some 4,000 Indians who say their lives were ruined by the boarding schools. "Our frontier was peaceful. Our policy was to destroy Indian society, spirituality, and sense of self-worth through forced assimilation." Canada's Indians, all but invisible for most of the country's history, are today riding perhaps the most aggressive aboriginal rights movement in the world. From Nova Scotia to British Columbia, natives are pursuing - and, in a surprising number of cases, winning - colossal land claims, rights to harvest commercial quantities of resources, from lobster to redwood logs, and cash payoffs for injustices dating back decades and even centuries. The latest school suits allege that the poverty, alcoholism, crime, domestic violence, and other ills that wrack aboriginal communities are at least partly the result of attempts by the schools to force natives to learn English, acquire job skills, and adopt Christianity. "The schools took us from our parents and taught us that the ways of our people were shameful and wrong," said Deborah St. John, 49, an Ontario Cree packed off to an Anglican school in 1957. St. John conceded that she was never physically harmed, aside from the occasional rap across the knuckles for daydreaming in class. But she insisted that her life of heavy drinking and domestic disharmony is the result of losing her native tongue and traditions. "For me, I have no forgiveness for what they did," she said. In the past few years, more than 6,400 lawsuits by Indian plaintiffs, plus four massive class-action suits, have been brought against the churches and government agencies responsible for the boarding school system. New ones are being filed at the rate of 40 a month, threatening to swamp the legal system. "It's a level of litigation unprecedented in Canadian history," said the Rev. Brian Thorpe, senior adviser on school issues for the United Church of Canada, which operated 14 schools and last year paid out $2.3 million in legal fees to cope with the suits. Various Catholic orders ran 70 Indian schools; the Anglicans operated 37; the Presbyterians four. The churches are hemorrhaging millions of dollars simply to pay lawyers to meet the legal onslaught. The Anglican Church, Canada's third-largest Christian denomination, is on the edge of bankruptcy and may go under as early as next year unless the government engineers a bailout. Church leaders agree that redress should be made to Indians who suffered physical abuse. But the idea that the very act of teaching English or imparting Western values - such as hard work, punctuality, and personal cleanliness - constituted "cultural genocide," as Indians and their lawyers allege, is too much for some clergy to swallow. "There's a whole pile of upper-middle-class guilt here that's running the show and not much common sense," Bishop John Clarke of the Anglican Diocese of Athabasca, in northern Alberta, told the church newspaper Anglican Journal. But Clarke's is a distinctly minority view, as Canadian church leaders trip over one another in a stampede to issue mea culpas. For example, native drums pounded in a somber if bizarre ceremony last week as clergy of several leading Christian denominations in Newfoundland and Labrador offered formal apologies for the coming of their forebears to the New World and subsequent failure to treat natives with respect and kindness. "We are embarrassed and sorry for the suffering that aboriginal people have endured since our ancestors arrived 500 years ago," declared Sister Emma Rooney, a Catholic nun. Indians seemed mostly annoyed by the apology. "What is it, specifically, they are apologizing for?" asked Peter Penashue, a Labrador Innu. "I have a problem when people say, `Oops, sorry for the past five centuries."' The lines separating church and state in Canada are fuzzier than in the United States, and they were even more blurred back in 1879, when the government contracted with churches, already running mission schools, to establish residential schools whose unequivocal aim would be to assimilate Indians by teaching them English and providing training in such skills as blacksmithing, sewing, and carpentry. Even today, these goals might seem laudable, given the staggering rates of native illiteracy and unemployment, which top 80 percent on some reserves. But the boarding schools also made it a policy to sternly discourage students from speaking their own languages or following traditional customs. The unabashed goal: to produce "red-skinned white people." "In historic hindsight, we see that churches and government took a wrong-minded approach to education, with negative impact on native culture, " said Shawn Tupper, head of the residential schools unit of the Ministry of Indian Affairs. "But it's unclear whether redress for `cultural abuse' is something that can be won in a court of law." --------- "RE: BIA Authority to Recognize Tribes May be Stripped" --------- Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 08:07:15 -0500 From: "John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate" Subj: (FWD)Indian News 09-15-2000 ----- Forwarded by John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate Senate will consider legislation stripping BIA of authority to recognize Indian tribes By Eileen McNamara c. theday 9/14/2000 The U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs last week approved a bill that would take the authority to recognize Indian tribes away from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and give it to an independent commission. Senate Bill 611 is now under review by committee staff and is expected to be moved to the full Senate in coming weeks. Committee leaders are optimistic of its passage, particularly since BIA Director Kevin Gover has acknowledged that his agency can no longer effectively oversee the recognition process, Chris Changery, the committee's spokesman, said Wednesday. The bill is sponsored by the committee's chairman, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, D-Colo. The measure calls for establishing a three-member commission appointed by the president that would review and act on recognition petitions under five new criteria. The new criteria mirror the existing guidelines used by the BIA with one key exception. The bill drops the criterion requiring tribes to prove descent from the historic tribe. Although southeastern Connecticut towns challenging local tribes' federal recognition efforts have called for reforms of the process, they oppose Campbell's bill. Town leaders say the bill, if passed, would significantly weaken the recognition process and is intended to help groups that can not currently meet the federal acknowledgment criteria. In a position paper the towns have filed with the Senate opposing the bill, as well as a similar measure pending in the U.S. House of Representatives, they argue that neither proposal addresses the shortcomings of the BIA's recognition process. "These bills do not provide a reasonable and fair approach to tribal acknowledgment," the paper says. "The tribal acknowledgment process requires more thorough and balanced consideration based on input from all affected parties, not a hurried legislative approach that promotes only the interests of tribal petitioners." The towns also say in the document that Congress should not act on any reforms of the recognition regulations unless they reflect the concerns of local and state governments. With a backlog of more than 200 tribes on the BIA's list of petitioning groups, the agency's director this year testified before the Indian Affairs Committee that the BIA can no longer effectively process all of the claims. It takes years for tribal groups to get a ruling from the BIA. The Eastern Pequots of North Stonington have waited more than 20 years. The tribe, along with the Paucatuck Eastern Pequots, won preliminary recognition in March and could get a final decision next year. Nancy Tyler, spokeswoman for the Eastern Pequots, said the tribe "supports whatever will help streamline the process and make the process more understandable and less burdensome." If Congress approves the measure it is not expected to impact the Eastern Pequots' bid for recognition, she said. "It has to go through the Senate and the House and who knows how long that will take," Tyler said. "It could be a very long process." James A. Cunha Jr., chief of the Paucatuck Easterns, said he had not read the full version of the bill and could not comment on it. He said it is not clear how the tribes currently pursuing recognition would be impacted by the bill. --------- "RE: Round Valley Group sues BIA" --------- Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2000 19:12:38 -0700 (PDT) From: "Martha Ture" Subj: Round Valley Group sues BIA Mailing List: TRIBALLAW (triballaw@thecity.sfsu.edu) http://www.algore2000.com/states/index.html Copyright c. The Sacramento Bee Tribal group seeks more control, sues U.S. By Claire Cooper Bee Legal Affairs Writer (Published Sept. 16, 2000) SAN FRANCISCO -- Representatives of seven Indian tribes sued the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs this week, accusing the government of keeping in place a corrupt and unaccountable tribal council to rule their Mendocino County reservation. Calling itself the Round Valley Nation, the group seeks control of the 50,000-acre Round Valley reservation outside Covelo, the second-largest reservation in California. If it succeeds in court, it would loosen ties to the U.S. government and return to traditional Indian ways of survival and governance, members of the group said. "The BIA has been dictating our lives, and we just want to get away from it," said Janice Freeman, the elected chairwoman of the self-styled reform group. "We survived for thousands of years, and we think we can do it again." Rudy James, secretary general of the United Native Nations in Davis, said the suit could set a precedent for a growing revolt against the BIA among tribes nationwide. He said he knew of no other such case to reach the courts. "Quite a few (Indian) nations already called in and are ready to follow the same route," he said Friday, a day after the case was filed in federal court here. About one-third of Indian tribes in the United States are self-governing, including several in California, according to a lawyer for the reform group. Official U.S. policy favors more independence, but the reformers say the BIA has thrown obstacles in their way. Their legal complaint charges that the BIA has allowed the current tribal council to negotiate bad contracts and to use resources for the benefit of a few controlling families, which, in turn, have gone along with BIA domination. The Round Valley reservation gets $6 million a year in federal funds, or about two-thirds of its income. Reform leaders say the tribes live in poverty and might do better financially by controlling their own natural resources, mainly timber and grazing land. They say they have no interest in opening a casino. Reservation administrator Michael Pina said Freeman's group has failed to win recognition as the legitimate reservation government because it did not organize itself legally under either tribal or U.S. rules. Using words like "treason" to describe the group, Pina said, "They do not represent the voice of the community, and there is a movement within the tribal public to actually take some definitive actions to dismiss them from the reservation." The group draws its authority from a declaration of independence, a constitution and an April election in which, it acknowledges, about 50 Indians living off the reservation were permitted to vote, out of a total of 231 voters. The tribal council also was elected, but by even fewer voters, the reform group contends. About 450 adults live on the reservation, or fewer than one in 10 members of the seven reservation tribes -- the Concow, Pomo, Pit River, Nomlaki, Wylaki, Yuki and Little Lake. The BIA refused to recognize the election results. Representatives of regional BIA offices did not return calls asking for comment on the suit. The group said it was denied access to data such as reservation membership lists that would have helped in running the election. However, the three-day balloting was watched by neutral outside observers, and James said, "There's no question the vote was valid." The Round Valley Reservation was set aside in 1856 and has had a history of internal strife because enemy tribes, with "seven different ideas," were forced to live together, said David Risling, a UC Davis professor in American studies. Risling said he saw the reform movement as an attempt to stop the fighting and draw the people together under a traditional form of government, run by leaders who earn their positions. Copyright c. The Sacramento Bee --------- "RE: Bilingual Debate Gets Heated" --------- Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 22:09:38 -0700 From: Subj: Bilingual debate gets heated (Fwd) - - - - - - -- - - - - - - http://www.arizonarepublic.com/arizona/articles/0913debate13.html Bilingual debate gets heated By Daniel Gonzalez The Arizona Republic Sept. 13, 2000 A decidedly pro-bilingual education audience turned hostile Tuesday during a debate over Proposition 203, the controversial initiative to dismantle bilingual education in Arizona. The two-hour debate at ASU West degraded at times into personal attacks and revealed the emotional volatility surrounding the proposal, which would require teachers across the state to teach all children in English rather than their native language. The initiative will appear on the Nov. 7 ballot. During one of the most heated exchanges, audience member Alfredo H. Benavides, an associate professor at ASU's College of Education in Tempe, attacked panelist Margaret Garcia-Dugan for supporting a proposal he said would deny parents the choice of enrolling their children in bilingual education programs. "What gives you the moral authority to decide for them," Benavides yelled at Garcia-Dugan, the principal of Glendale High School. "What gives you the moral authority to place all children with Hispanic surnames in bilingual education," Garcia-Dugan fired back, referring to one of the alleged flaws in the program. Another member among the 100-strong audience, C. Alejandra Elenes, accused Prop. 203 supporters of using bilingual education as a scapegoat for low achievement among Latino students when other factors exist, including poverty. "The achievement among Mexican-Americans is low. But it's very easy to scapegoat bilingual education. The problem is an educational system that is not set up for these kids to succeed," said Elenes, an associate professor of women's studies at ASU West. "The U.S. is the only nation that sees bilingualism as a deficiency. It doesn't make sense in this global economy." The debate was presented by ASU West's Hispanic Honor Society and pitted Prop. 203 supporters Garcia-Dugan and Glendale parent Norma Alvarez against opponents John Wann, principal of Valley View Elementary School, and Jayni Flores of the Arizona Association for Bilingual Education. Garcia-Dugan characterized bilingual education as failed experiment that is preventing Spanish-speaking immigrant children from learning English as intended and therefore denying them the best chances for success. "English is the language of commerce," Dugan said. "Without that skill we are crippling our children." Alvarez helped pioneer bilingual education in the Glendale School District but now opposes it. Instead of helping immigrant children learn English, she said, bilingual education has evolved into a program for "Mexican kids to learn only Spanish." Wann said he opposes Prop. 203 because it replaces the choice of bilingual education with a one-size-fits-all approach. "Do you want the government telling your mechanic how to fix your car or your doctor how to treat cancer," Wann said. Flores accused Silicon Valley entrepreneur Ron Unz of using "lies, half- truths and distortions" to promote his anti-bilingual education agenda in Arizona. Unz financed a similar initiative in California in 1998. Reach the reporter at daniel.gonzalez@arizonarepublic.com or at (602) 444-8312. Copyright 2000, The Arizona Republic. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: He Keepes His Language Alive" --------- Subj: (FWD)Indian News 09-16-2000 From: "John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate" Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2000 08:49:28 -0500 ----- Forwarded by John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate He keeps his language alive By ROD WALTON c. Tulsa World 9/15/00 To Charley Cherokee Sacks, the Cherokee language is a spiritual one, a sound and a love. Sacks teaches the language to students at Muskogee's Bacone College, which is offering Cherokee again after a 20-year absence. MUSKOGEE -- Just as any word spoken in French sounds romantic -- "grenouille" means "frog" after all -- so do most words of the Cherokee language sound spiritual. O-se-yo, do-di-da-go-huh. Hello, goodbye. To Charley Cherokee Sacks, his native language is spiritual and more. It's a sound, a love, an almost-lost way of life. "I believe the creator God gives the world sounds. . . . The sounds are how we speak," Sacks said. "The wind speaks as it whistles. The trees speak as the wind blows through them. "It's a spiritual thing," he decided. "It's a gift that should not be lost." The Cherokee language is a gift Sacks is returning every weekday during the fall semester at Bacone College. For the first time in 20 years, Oklahoma's oldest school is offering a class in the language. "We're all excited over here about this class and being able to add to the Cherokee language," Bacone spokesman Mike Carrels said. The new class is part of Bacone's overall explosion. The college has 718 students enrolled this fall -- compared to 328 for the same time last year. Lack of interest prevented Sacks from teaching Cherokee at the college earlier. Instead, he went to churches, private homes and public schools to spread the words of his native tongue. The opportunity at Bacone thrills the 63-year-old minister and former boxer. "Out of 365 tribes nationwide, one-third have forgotten their language; they don't talk it anymore," Sacks said. "What is happening now is they are getting rewarded with college credits for learning something that belongs to them. That's a wonderful thing." Sacks spent his early years speaking little else but Cherokee. His father, Nelson Sacks, and mother, Ollie Marie, raised their family by cutting timber into railroad ties in the Iron Post community near Locust Grove. The young Charley Sacks learned the old ways and always kept them close at heart. "Everyone thinks the way they grew up was the greatest way," he said. "I feel the same way." A speedy puncher who began boxing at 12 and later spent 13 years as a pro in every division from featherweight to heavyweight -- "I got out of shape a little there," he admitted -- Sacks also became a minister serving tribal United Methodist churches. But one of his heart's desires was to hand down his linguistic legacy for a new generation. And so he teaches from doe-dah-wahn-nuh (Monday) to joe-nee-gee-lowst (Friday). Sacks begins using phonics to teach Cherokee, concentrating on the sounds of words before he delves into the syllabary developed by Sequoyah more than 160 years ago. Sequoyah's alphabet culled the Cherokee language down to 86 syllabaries -- or sounds. The Cherokee words used in this Tulsa World story are all spelled phonetically, just as Sacks has taught them at first. At one point, Sack asked his class to pronounce the Cherokee variations of one, two, three. "Sah-woo, tahl, joe," they answered. "You already know everything, huh?" Sacks joked. Student Wendy Scott has not only learned a great deal already, but also she is regaining a piece of her past. Scott spoke only Cherokee before going to public school, yet slowly she lost her grasp of the language of her elders. Her sole remaining elder is 94 and is living out the rest of his life in a Tahlequah nursing home. Scott has made him one last promise. "My goal is to carry on a conversation with him before he passes on," she said. One of her college-age children is now interested in taking the class. Her 19-year-old nephew, Brandon, is among Sack's current students. Sacks is a main reason why students want to revisit their oral heritage, Scott noted. "He makes it real easy to learn," she said. "You write it the way you say it." Eventually, things will get slightly more complicated as they start picking up true spellings. Phonetics will do for now, since the main thing is gaining a love of the language. Sacks certainly has it. "It's a spiritual thing," he said for a second time. It's a sound thing, too. The sound of their past. --------- "RE: Indians Urge Babbitt be Fined in Suit" --------- Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2000 19:21:07 -0700 (PDT) From: "Martha Ture" Subj: Indians urge Babbitt be fined in suit over trust fund abuses Mailing List: TRIBALLAW (triballaw@thecity.sfsu.edu) Indians urge Babbitt be fined in suit over trust fund abuses By Matt Kelley ASSOCIATED PRESS September 16, 2000 WASHINGTON -- Lawyers for a group of American Indians yesterday asked a federal judge to fine Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, accusing him of violating court orders requiring him to preserve e-mail and other records. Yesterday's filing is the latest dispute over records in the lawsuit over mismanagement of a $500 million system of trust accounts for about 500,000 Indians. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth last year held Babbitt and other officials in contempt for their agencies' failures to keep and turn over records. Lamberth's orders since 1996 have required Interior Department officials to preserve records involving the trust accounts, including e-mails. But the Indians' lawyers wrote to Lamberth that e-mail from agencies such as the Office of Trust Fund Management and Interior Department lawyers were routinely deleted, though department officials testified that they were being kept. For example, Interior lawyers in a Billings, Mont., office were not told to keep copies of their e-mails until Dec. 14, and even some of those tapes were erased this year, government lawyers acknowledged in previous court filings. The Indians' lawyers asked Lamberth to fine Babbitt and Bureau of Indian Affairs head Kevin Gover for violating court orders to keep the e-mail files. "They continue to deceive us," said Elouise Cobell, the Blackfeet banker who is lead plaintiff in the Indians' lawsuit. Lamberth ruled in December that the government had severely mismanaged the accounts and said he would oversee efforts to reform the system. He added he would require the government to determine how much money should be in the accounts. Lawyers for the Indians say the account holders are due more than $10 billion. A federal appeals court heard the government's appeal of Lamberth's ruling this month. The trust accounts came from an 1887 federal law that divided some reservation land into smaller plots for individual Indians. The federal government holds that land in trust for the Indians. It cannot be taxed or sold and the government must approve any leases. Many of the tracts are leased for uses such as grazing, logging, mining and oil drilling. Proceeds from those leases are supposed to be deposited in government accounts and then paid to the Indian landholders. Since the beginning, however, the accounts have been mismanaged in almost every way imaginable, the government acknowledges. Records for many accounts were never kept, while documentation for others was lost or destroyed. Some of the money was stolen or used for other federal programs. Some lease proceeds were never collected. Thousands of the accounts have money in them but no names attached. Copyright 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. --------- "RE: Yakama Nation's Alcohol Ban" --------- Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2000 18:57:49 -0700 (PDT) From: "Martha Ture" Subj: Yakama Nation's Alcohol Ban ------- FORWARD, Original message follows ------- From: redbear55@hotmail.com >From today's PI: Mailing List: TRIBALLAW (triballaw@thecity.sfsu.edu) http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/yaki11.shtml The Yakama's ban on alcohol raises murky legal questions Monday, September 11, 2000 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HARRAH -- The Spur Tavern remained open during Prohibition and the Great Depression, but owner Gary Betschart is not sure the 91-year-old business will survive the Yakama Nation's new alcohol policy. On Sunday, the tribe's resolution banning alcohol on its 1.2 million- acre reservation will take effect. "Nobody knows what's going to happen," Betschart said. Tribal police will not seize alcohol or close businesses after the ban takes effect, Tribal Councilman Jack Fiander said last week. There are no plans to go after reservation residents bringing alcohol home for their own use, he said. Instead, tribal officers will start gathering evidence to present to the U.S. attorney's office, which tribal officials believe has responsibility to prosecute violations. The tribe already bans alcohol from the portion of the reservation open only to tribal members, and in tribal property such as its casino. But the resolution -- approved by the tribal council as a way to combat alcoholism -- extends that ban to land not owned by Indians and into a new and murky legal realm. The U.S. attorney's office has told the state Attorney General's Office it believes it can enforce the federal alcohol statutes. However, a 1975 U.S. Supreme Court ruling upheld a Wyoming tribe's right to regulate alcohol sales on private land in its reservation. That case may have only limited effect on the Yakama reservation, where most alcohol is sold in cities and towns. c. 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Pervasive Disparities Found in Death Penalty" --------- Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 10:00:09 -0700 (PDT) From: "Martha Ture" Subj: Pervasive Disparities Found in the Federal Death Penalty Mailing List: TRIBALLAW (triballaw@thecity.sfsu.edu) September 12, 2000 Pervasive Disparities Found in the Federal Death Penalty By RAYMOND BONNER and MARC LACEY ---------- WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 - In the first comprehensive review of the federal death penalty since it was reinstated in 1988, the Justice Department has found significant racial and geographical disparities, say officials who have seen the report. In 75 percent of the cases in which a federal prosecutor sought the death penalty in the last five years, the defendant has been a member of a minority group, and in more than half of the cases, an African-American, according to the report, which officials said the Justice Department would release on Tuesday. "It's troubling," said an administration official who has reviewed the data. "The president has expressed concern about the problem, and this backs that up." Another administration official described the report as "disturbing." They added that on Tuesday, Attorney General Janet Reno is to announce more studies of the administration of the death penalty. Reflecting a lack of geographic uniformity in the application of federal capital punishment, the Justice Department has found that a handful of the 93 United States attorneys account for about 40 percent of the cases sent to the Justice Department for review, according to officials. On the other hand, about 20 United States attorneys did not file a single death penalty case since 1995. Since there are more than 40 crimes for which the federal death penalty is a potential punishment, the lack of cases from those jurisdictions raised the question of the uniform application of death penalty prosecutions. Officials said that the report was a compilation of about 400 pages of data, and that it contained almost no analysis. Justice Department officials were still writing the report's introduction late this evening, officials said. The report is expected to increase calls for a moratorium on the federal death penalty. The American Bar Association, which does not take a position for or against the death penalty, sent a letter to President Clinton on May 2 asking him to impose an executive moratorium pending a thorough review of the federal capital punishment system. An association official said today that Mr. Clinton had not responded. In February, Senator Russell B. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, called on President Clinton and Ms. Reno to suspend federal executions. In April, he and Representative Jesse L. Jackson Jr., Democrat of Illinois, introduced legislation calling for a national death-penalty moratorium. The bulk of the Justice Department report has been given to lawyers for Juan Raul Garza, who is scheduled to be executed on Dec. 12. Mr. Garza was convicted in 1993 in Brownsville, Tex., of three drug-related murders. He was originally scheduled to be executed on Aug. 5, but President Clinton granted him a reprieve so that his lawyers could use new clemency rules drafted by the Justice Department for capital cases. His lawyers expect to file that clemency request on Tuesday. While a death penalty for at least some federal crimes has been on the books since 1988, it has yet to be carried out. The last federal execution was 37 years ago, when Victor Feguer was hanged in Iowa for kidnapping and killing a doctor. After the Supreme Court declared in 1972 that the death penalty, as it was then being applied, was unconstitutional, states quickly adopted laws that the court upheld. In 1988, Congress adopted what became known as the "drug kingpin statute," which permitted a death penalty against an individual found guilty of committing murder as part of a larger drug-running enterprise. In 1994, Congress enacted the Federal Death Penalty Act, which greatly expanded the crimes for which a defendant could be executed. They range from murder of the president to large-scale drug trafficking even when no one is killed and include drive-by murders, sexual abuse resulting in death, murder during a bank robbery, carjacking and destruction of an airplane, train or motor vehicle resulting in death. Before federal prosecutors may seek the death penalty, they need the approval of the Justice Department. In January 1995, Attorney General Reno, wanting to insure uniformity in the application of the federal death penalty, adopted procedures that require United States Attorneys to file memoranda in cases where the death penalty is an option. They must also include their recommendation on whether or not to seek it. Ms. Reno also set up a special committee to review every case. There have been 682 submissions,, according to the report. About 40 percent of the submissions were filed by five jurisdictions: Puerto Rico; the Eastern District of Virginia; Maryland; and the Eastern and Southern districts of New York. Puerto Rico and Virginia recommended the death penalty most frequently, while the United States Attorneys in the two New York districts, which cover New York City and its outlying areas, recommended the penalty in only a few cases. Among the United States attorneys' office which have not submitted any cases is Alaska, which Justice Department officials found puzzling because the state has one of the nation's higher homicide rates. But Alaska does not have the death penalty, which suggested to some officials that United States attorneys were influenced by the local attitudes toward capital punishment. The report also shows that United States attorneys who have most frequently recommended seeking the death penalty are from states with a high number of executions, including Virginia, Texas and Missouri. In 80 percent of the cases submitted by United States attorneys for review, the defendant was an ethnic minority. But officials said that Ms. Reno's review process has reduced the apparent racial bias. In the 682 cases she reviewed in which the defendant was white, she authorized the death penalty 38 percent of the time; when the defendant was black, she authorized the death penalty 25 percent of the time. United States attorneys recommended the death penalty in 183 cases, and Ms. Reno authorized it in 159 cases. --------- "RE: Failing to Notify Tribe Violated Pact" --------- Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 22:27:31 -0700 (MST) From: "Chris Milda (_Akimel O`odham_)" Subj: Failing to notify tribe violated pact, state says (Fwd) - - - - - - -- - - - - - - http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/000831honeybee.html Thursday, 31 August 2000 Failing to notify tribe violated pact, state says Developer required to let tribe know before excavating By Tony Davis ARIZONA DAILY STAR Rancho Vistoso's developers violated a 1994 agreement with the state and Indian tribes by digging into a key archaeological site without consulting with the Tohono O'odham Nation, a state official said yesterday. Lynn Teague of the Arizona State Museum said archaeologists for Vistoso Partners should have notified the tribe to make sure it would have a say in what happened at the Honey Bee Village site. Although fines are possible under this agreement, Teague said it was more important to make sure the tribe is consulted than to get fines and she would talk to Tohono O'odham officials before deciding what to do next. Oro Valley officials ordered Vistoso on Tuesday to stop work at the Honey Bee Village site in the 7,000-acre Rancho Vistoso development. Before resuming, Vistoso Partners must file a plan for compensating for the effects of excavating the archaeological site. Dick Maes, Vistoso Partners' general manager, said in an interview that he was not aware of the consultation requirements in the 1994 agreement. As far as he knew, he said, he was in accord with all local, state and federal rules governing protection of artifacts and human remains during development. Maes said his archaeologists were simply exploring the site and following standard procedures the developer has used throughout Rancho Vistoso. "I find it unusual that the town would be taking this stand," Maes said. Oro Valley officials said they had visited the site last Thursday after getting reports from local residents of work occurring there. Vistoso's archaeologists had dug a 50-foot-long, 18-inch-deep and foot-wide trench, and done some scattered scraping of topsoil to look for artifacts, said Dee Widero, Oro Valley's senior zoning inspector. The company stopped exploration work at the site Thursday, said Stephanie Treptow, president of Envirosystems Management Inc., Vistoso Partners' Flagstaff-based archaeological contractor. Oro Valley officials said yesterday that they will need up to a week to get an independent archaeologist to the site to determine if Vistoso Partners violated the town's zoning code. The code requires the mitigation plan be filed in advance of any excavation work; officials said they don't know if such work had been done. The 1994 agreement required the developer to consult with O'odham officials on any planning decisions affecting areas where a high probability exists of encountering sacred objects, which this site has, said Teague, a curator of archaeology at the Arizona State Museum. Although Vistoso's archaeologists had told the state they would be working on the site in accord with the agreement, they hadn't done any consulting with the tribe as required, she said. Tribal officials said they were surprised and disturbed at the work done at the archeological site. "We should have input into how we can handle this," said Henry Ramon, the tribe's vice chairman. "It's very important for the future. These sites and artifacts are for the education of our young people.'' Bryant Nodine, the town's planning and zoning administrator, said at a press conference yesterday morning that he hoped to persuade the developer that preserving at least part of the 75-acre village would be a "win-win" situation benefiting everyone. Maes said he has a $500,000 contract with a consultant to excavate Honey Bee Village. He said he didn't know if his company would want to preserve any of the site, adding, "This is all happening too rapidly.'' He's spent $2 million total on archeological work in his 7,000-home, three-golf-course development, he said. Maes disputed the state archaeologists' claims of the site's value, stemming largely from the presence of a ball court - "a small area they used to play kickball on,'' he said. The State Museum's Teague said a ball court is also considered a religious structure and ballgames were often religious rites. Maes said his archaeologists have never told him that. --------- "RE: Your Help is Needed/Free Leonard Peltier" --------- Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 20:02:25 -0500 From: "LPDC" Subj: Your help is needed-Free Leonard Peltier! Mailing List: LPDC Dear Friends, There are many ways you can support the "Countdown to Clemency, Leonard Peltier March For Freedom" being planned for Human Rights Day, December 10th, in New York City. Below is a form that will make it easy for us to keep track of who is available to help with what, as well as who we need to send what materials. You can either fill it out and email it back to us, or if you find it is easier, you can print it out and mail or fax it to us. This march will occur at a very crucial time, after the elections and before the holidays when presidents traditionally grant clemencies. We hope you will get involved. Thank you. In Solidarity, -LPDC HELP MAKE THE COUNTDOWN TO CLEMENCY LEONARD PELTIER MARCH A SUCCESS! Name_______________________________________ Full Address____________________________________________ Phone #________________ E-Mail______________________ __Send me flyers advertising the march to copy, post and distribute. __Send me camera-ready ads publicizing the march so that I can ask the publications I read to print them. __Send me a letter to copy and distribute to my local churches, unions, First Nations, and organizations asking them to endorse the event. __I am planning to organize a local van, bus, or caravan to attend the march. ___ Please make my contact information available to those in my area who may need transportation. __I would like to make a donation toward the cost of transportation to bring people from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to New York. Enclosed is my donation. __I would like to contribute artwork in the form of banners and signs for the event. __I plan to help organize contingents of union workers, churches, First Nations, human rights organizations, or schools for the march. We will bring signs representing our group. Name of group: If you know of any New York groups or people who we should collaborate with, please list them below, or on a separate sheet with their contact info: PLEASE RETURN THIS FORM TO: Leonard Peltier Defense Committee lpdc@idir.net PO Box 583 Lawrence, KS 66044 p. 785-842-5774 f. 785-842-5796 THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! Call the White House Comments Line Today Demand Justice for Leonard Peltier! 202-456-1111 Be in New York City December 10th Peltier March For Freedom! Leonard Peltier Defense Committee PO Box 583 Lawrence, KS 66044 785-842-5774 www.freepeltier.org To subscribe, send a blank message to < lpdc-on@mail-list.com > --------- "RE: The Interview You Shouldn't Miss Reading" --------- Date: 9/10/00 8:20:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time From: kolahq@skynet.be Subj: The Interview You Shouldn't Miss Reading! +>=3D<+>KOLA Newslist<+>=3D<+> [from Paul Pureau. Thanks!] From: Eagle Sees Subj: [ndn-aim] *THE* Interview you shouldn't miss reading!!! **************************************************** "If I never ask you guys to read anything again..." Read - This EXCLUSIVE interview with HARVEY ARDEN, Leonard Peltier's editor, makes fascinating, fascinating reading! If you were on the fringe of understanding these things, - read this through, and feel free to ask questions! I send this out to *everyone* I know, to everyone I *can*. Please read this,.. - Ray Stark. **************************************************** "I could wish, with a new century and a new millennium coming, that today's FBI would cleanse itself of the misdeeds of the 1970s and at least stand back and allow an innocent man to be returned to his People." - Harvey Arden An online CNN chat with author/editor Harvey Arden about the movement to free Leonard Peltier. November 15, 1999...Web posted at: 4:00 p.m. EDT (CNN) - Harvey Arden, author of "Wisdomkeepers: Meetings with Native American Spiritual Elders", "Travels in a Stone Canoe: The Return to the Wisdomkeepers", and "Dreamkeepers: A Spirit-Journey into Aboriginal Australia", joined CNN.com for a Book Chat on Wednesday, November 3, 1999. Mr. Arden is also the editor of "Prison Writings: My Life is My Sun Dance", a book written by Leonard Peltier, and "Noble Red Man: Lakota Wisdomkeeper Mathew King". The following is an edited transcript of the chat. Chat Moderator: Welcome, Harvey Arden. Harvey Arden: It's an honor to be here. Thank you so much. Chat Moderator: Please tell us about Prison Writings: My Life is my Sun Dance, by Leonard Peltier. Harvey Arden: It is a book that came about in a very unusual way in my life. I was a writer for many years at National Geographic magazine. At the end of those years, I wrote books about Native American wisdom. I wrote a book about the path of the Wisdomkeepers, the spiritual elders of Native America. I never dreamed that that path would take me into Leavenworth Prison, but so it happened. My book Noble Red Man mentions Leonard in passing. It shows how he was railroaded with the others. It tells about the siege of Wounded Knee in 1973. I sent a copy of the book Noble Red Man to Leonard via the publisher and it turned out that he was already a fan of mine from the stories I had written in National Geographic. About 2 1/2 years ago I asked his lobbyist, Ron Lessard, in Washington, whether Leonard had ever written a book. Ron said, "No, why don't you write him a letter about it?" And I did, suggesting a book of more of a spiritual than a political nature, along the lines of Noble Red Man. Leonard agreed and for the next six months I gathered together all of his writings from his bimonthly journal, "Spirit of Crazy Horse," as well as other sources, hoping that, as an editor, I could glean from those enough of his really beautiful writing to make a book. Alas, I only came up with about 30 to 40 pages, since most of his statements related specifically to the current legal dilemmas and hearings that his case was involved in. But I did pick out paragraphs and sentences, even adjectives that seemed worthy of being in a book. Ron brought them to Leonard, since I'm not allowed to, and he said to me, and, when I visited him the next day, Leonard told me, "One mind, Harvey, one mind." I knew exactly what he meant because he and I had both been taught by the very same spiritual elders or Wisdomkeepers, as I called them in my first book, Wisdomkeepers. I can honestly say that I was half hoping that he would be disappointed in what I had brought because I was getting a little spooked by the human nastiness that seemed involved in every aspect of Peltier's case. I was spooked especially by the nastiness of a government that seemed to be hiding its own misdeeds by attacking and imprisoning Peltier and his supporters, of whom I now found myself one. Chat Moderator: Does the book describe the incident which resulted in Peltier's imprisonment? Harvey Arden: Yes, it does. There is a whole chapter on it. And this is nothing you will hear about from the FBI - how an eagle flew above the heads of Leonard and those he was trying to save and led them away from the cordon of crazed lawmen who they were convinced were closing in to slaughter them, as Custer's cavalry slaughtered the people at Wounded Knee in 1890. That event is like yesterday to Indian people. Comment from Aurora: Custer died in 1876. Harvey Arden: It was Custer's cavalry that did the massacre in 1890, long after Custer's death. Question from Suyeta: Mr. Arden, don't you think it's more than a bit odd that FBI agents, members of the official U.S. law enforcement arm, have taken out these newspaper ads opposing Peltier's release? Harvey Arden: I don't know if it is odd. I think they have a right to state their piece. I don't, however, think they have a right to intimidate newspapers and politicians and to knowingly distort the truth, which they do their best to conceal from the American people. I could wish, with a new century and a new millennium coming, that today's FBI would cleanse itself of the misdeeds of the 1970s and at least stand back and allow an innocent man to be returned to his People. Question from stream: Do you think that your book will force a change? And do you feel safe? Harvey Arden: I think that I am maybe the canary down in the mine because the FBI has not intimidated me in any way. There is a time I thought they would. There may have been phone calls made here or there that were made to intimidate others but not to me personally. I think the FBI would like to cleanse itself of this matter. But it cannot "betray" its old agents who acted over-zealously at the very darkest time of the cold war, when they launched illegal assaults on supposedly dissident groups like Black Power, the Vietnam movement, and the so-called Red Power movement represented by AIM, the American Indian Movement. Question from Fred: Should we consider a "Free Leonard Peltier" march on Washington? Harvey Arden: Certainly consider it. I have thought often about a million-man march on Washington on behalf of Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and other political prisoners. But our media, in particular the newspaper media, has been so complicit in the silence on Peltier and other political prisoners, that I think that it is impossible to stage such a march. We don't need a march. We need a prayer to President Clinton to give his heart the strength to withstand the flak from those who will undoubtedly give it and, with a stroke of his pen, to free an innocent man. And we all know he is innocent, including the FBI. Question from Lorna: It's clear from Mr. Peltier's writings that he yearns for release from prison. Is there any word as to when the Justice Department will forward its recommendation to President Clinton regarding an adjusted sentence? Harvey Arden: I find that the Justice Department, like the White House itself, answers only by auto responder. You may have received such an auto response from your own Congressman. Our government might think it is OK to govern by auto responder. We the people will not stand for that. The Justice Department has had nearly six years now to respond to the president with a recommendation on Leonard's petition for executive clemency. The usual time is three to nine months. So we hope that recommendation is sitting on the president's desk today and that it will be signed today, even as our people re-enact the massacre of Wounded Knee outside the White House windows. Leonard has written about how he wishes that the golden eagle on the flagstaff in the Oval Office would come to life and add its voice to the voices of millions of people who have written to President Clinton asking for, praying for, pleading for, and demanding the release of Peltier and the innocents in prison. Innocents should not be imprisoned. A prayer from every one of us will strengthen Bill Clinton. May he do it today! Chat Moderator: Has President Clinton given any indications about whether or not he will sign it? Harvey Arden: The only reports I have are from Tampa, Florida, in 1991 or 1992, when he said he would give the matter a "fair review." That would have been during the campaign for his first term. He knows the facts. I pray that he will not be intimidated by the sheaf of lies the FBI has once again perpetrated on the American people, as they did in 1995, with today's ad in the "Washington Post," a newspaper that has studiously avoided any mention of Leonard Peltier for five years. And it continues to deceive its readers on a daily basis by concealing major events now going on in the Indian world -- this I know for sure. And I only have to wonder what else they are concealing from us in other areas of public interest. I would like to know why the Washington Post has failed to review Leonard's book*, as has virtually every other major metro daily in this country. I really fear that there has been intimidation. [*Note from Harvey Arden: The Post finally reviewed Leonard's book Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance - very favorably, as a matter of fact - in a Colman McCarthy article in spring 2000...nearly a year after publication. McCarthy called it: "Eloquent and compassionate...deserves a place alongside the best works of Vine Deloria, Jr., N. Scott Momaday...and other Indian authors." Why, then, was it not reviewed when it came out?] I invite those who know of any such intimidation to reveal it publicly. I speak in particular to journalists, all those journalists who have NOT written all those articles about Leonard Peltier, and also their secretaries and colleagues. Do they know what the decision-making process was in refusing to review, even if negatively, a book by the foremost political prisoner in the U.S. Gulag? Question from Suyeta: It's my understanding that the FBI, like all law enforcement agencies, conducts internal reviews whenever their agents are involved in firefights. But, to my knowledge, there has never been such a review concerning the shooting death of Joe Killsright. Harvey Arden: That is my understanding. There is probably some paperwork somewhere. The whole strange thing is that the FBI that day sent two unmarked cars onto a property they knew had armed men there to defend the defenseless. The FBI's excuse for those two unmarked FBI cars roaring at a high speed onto what was, in effect, foreign territory, was supposedly to search for a man whose alleged great crime was having stolen a pair of used cowboy boots. What's more, they had no warrant for such an arrest. Indian people and their supporters are convinced that this was utterly fabricated after the fact, and that the FBI's true intent on that day was to provoke a confrontation with the dozen or more people in the spiritual camp, one of whom was Leonard Peltier. There is no aspect of this case from start to finish (and it ain't finished yet) that has not been fabricated by the FBI. Today's FBI is desperately in need of cleansing itself of this terrible chain of misdeeds and becoming once again respected by the American people whom they are sworn to defend. Question from Cathy: Do you think that this case will further the cause of indigenous people? Harvey Arden: This case is the cause of indigenous people. Anyone who would separate the political struggle from the spiritual struggle is not following the Indian Way. Question from Cathy: How does Leonard feel about the tremendous amount of grass roots support he has gotten (i.e. e-mail campaigns, etc.) Harvey Arden: He is endlessly overwhelmed by it and endlessly thankful for it. It is what has given him the strength to endure the daily torture he undergoes from a cruel and vindictive government that is hiding its own misdeeds, not Leonard's. Leonard did NOT KILL THOSE AGENTS! Lynn Crooks, the prosecutor, admitted in federal court that the FBI had no idea who shot its agents. The federal appeals judge in 1986 also said that the FBI was "equally responsible" for the deaths of its own agents and advised the president at that time to give clemency to Leonard Peltier. We pray that the president will heed that message 13 years later. Either allow Leonard out or give him a new trial. He would take the second option anytime. Question from Suyeta: Harvey, how do you think the recent CNN/Time piece on Peltier went? Harvey Arden: I think it made Leonard look very bad. The camera repeatedly focused on him chewing his lips, but never told CNN's audience that Leonard suffers from an extremely painful case of lockjaw. His upper and lower jaws are fused with only a one-eighth-inch space between his upper and lower teeth. He continually works his lips to fight the terrible feelings in his jaw. This is a condition the bureau of prisons has repeatedly refused to allow to be fixed by the Mayo clinic, which has offered to do this rare operation. So to focus on Leonard's lip movements repeatedly, which they did, is like focusing on Bob Dole's pencil in hand while he gives a speech. I wish CNN had told that. So much truth was left out, so many lies were left in, and the words of the FBI were never challenged. Yet Leonard was virtually cross-examined. Other pieces of tape were inserted in the discussion with him. It was a set up. He never went down to the agents. Could he see them? Not nearly as well as CNN's audience, which was treated to nearly a dozen shots close up of the agents' bodies. If Leonard was cross-examined, why was the FBI not cross-examined? Because their lies are endless. Leonard was not lying. He saw the agents from a distance, as would anyone standing where he was because the landscape is bowl shaped and the agents were at the bottom of it. Question from Squirrel: Looks to me like it is finished. Peltier remains in prison, regardless of how much we protest. Regardless of all the books, pow wows, letters, TV specials, whatever, the bottom-line is - he is there, right? Harvey Arden: He is definitely there. He can be released from there by the simple action of one man, President William Clinton. He has absolute constitutional authority to grant clemency. The FBI may state to him their opinion but they had better not intimidate him. This is his decision. And allowing Leonard to go, to be free once again, is as much in the interest of the FBI and the government as it is in the interest of the Indian people who love Peltier and share this land with us. So I believe that he will be given clemency and that every one of the protests of the last 25 years, every one of the messages sent by millions of supporters, every one of the prayers we sent winging to the White House, that every one of those was well worth doing and continues to be worth doing. And everyone here reading these words today, the moment this interview is over, should be grabbing his or her telephone and dialing the number of a friend or of the president to make your feelings known. There are tens and scores and millions of us. We must raise our voices. Question from Suyeta: How is it that Peltier's companions acted in self-defense, yet Peltier himself committed first degree murder? Harvey Arden: A very good question. In fact, it has never been demonstrated that there was a murder. The entire scenario of someone coming up to the agents and finishing them off at close range is created by the FBI to present a false picture of what happened. Leonard does not know how those agents were killed, only that he could see their sprawled bodies beside the cars, as CNN's tape clearly showed, as anybody would see. So it has never been demonstrated that there was a murder, only a killing. How could there be a murder if the two people who were accused of it were acquitted on self-defense. To defend yourself is not murder, which is all Leonard ever did. He did not kill those agents. There is not a shred of evidence to show it. The words of the FBI agent and the prosecutor on CNN's recent show were knowingly false. This same prosecutor has admitted in federal court that they do not know who killed their agents. Therefore, how can they describe in such amazing detail how this man, Leonard Peltier, walked up with a high powered rifle to these injured agents and dispatched them at close range. Where did they get these "facts?" I can understand their anguish at the deaths of their agents. And I can tell you absolutely that their anguish is exceeded by Leonard's anguish, because he never took part in any such execution. And it is even unlikely that any execution took place at all. But whatever happened to those two agents is something neither the FBI nor Leonard Peltier knows for certain. They may both have their ideas about it but, in the words of their own prosecutor, Lynn Crooks, they don't know who killed the agents. Therefore, Leonard Peltier is not guilty of murder by any evidence now on the record. Question from Lorna: Mr. Arden, why not a political book now? Harvey Arden: Leonard is delighted that people like his book and his writing. It surprises him and he will now be working on a book about the very concept of imprisonment, whether it is for the guilty or for the innocents. The title will be a line taken from this present book, "Even the Guilty are Human: Meditations on Imprisonment by Leonard Peltier." For more information on all this please go to http://www.wisdomkeepers.com. Go there to find out more. Chat Moderator: Thank you, Harvey Arden, for joining us today. Harvey Arden:Thank you for your very perceptive questions. # # # [Additional Note from Harvey Arden 7/9/2000] - Also definitely check out http://www.freepeltier.org - the terrific website of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC) Order Leonard's book & CD from them - subscribe to the LPDC's bimonthly Spirit of Crazy Horse newsletter to learn things about America and the world that you won't read about in the Washington Post or the New York Times! Also - IMPORTANT! - check out and sign petition at http://clemency_for_peltier.tripod.com Clemency for Leonard Petier - http://Clemency_for_Peltiers.tripod.com Listen to me! Listen! I am the Indian voice. Hear me crying out of the wind, Hear me crying out of the silence. I am the Indian voice. Listen to Me! I speak for our ancestors. They cry out to you from the unstill grave. I speak for the children yet unborn. They cry out to you from the unspoken silence. I am the Indian voice. Listen to me! I am a chorus of millions. Hear us! Our eagle's cry will not be stilled! We are your own conscience calling to you. We are you yourself crying unheard within you. Let my unheard voice be heard. Let me speak in my heart and the words be heard whispering on the wind to millions, to all who care, to all with ears to hear and hearts to beat as one with mine. Put your ear to the earth, and hear my heart beating there. Put your ear to the wind and hear me speaking there. We are the voice of the earth, of the future, of the Mystery. Hear us!" Leonard Peltier - "Prison Writings...My Life Is My Sun Dance" --------- "RE: Native Prisoner" --------- Date: Mon, 18 September 2000 20:55:07 -0500 From: "Janet Smith" Subj: Prisoners' Pen Pal List Tell a Native American Prisoner someone cares! The following is a portion of the list of Native American Prisoners incarcerated in prisons throughout the United States. The full list is found at the Native Prisoners Pen Pal list the following web site: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/9118/penpal.html. The list is compiled from contributions by Wotanging Ikche readers, other friends and from Laura Brooks' research on Native American Spiritual Freedom in Prison. If you know of a Native prisoner who would like to be included here, please e-mail Janet Smith at jansatlcom.net@mindspring.com. My thanks to Laura Brooks for giving this list a home on the web. -- - - - Peltier, Leonard #89637-132 Box 1000 Leavenworth, KS 66048 Birthday: 9/12/44 <------- send Leonard a card. Ancestry: Ojibwa-Lakota -- - - - Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 14:45:19 -0700 (PDT) From: "Martha Ture" Subj: Bear Lincoln update Mailing List: TRIBALLAW (triballaw@thecity.sfsu.edu) Ukiah,Calif. Eugene "Bear" Lincoln, a Covelo man who was acquitted in 1997 of killing a Mendocino County sheriff's deputy, has been sentenced to five years in state prison for firing into two homes earlier this year on the Round Valley Indian Reservation. Lincoln may be transferred as soon as today from the Mendocino 'county Jail to San Quentin Prison, according to local jail officials. As part of a negotiated agreement with district Attorney Norman Vroman's office. Lincoln in July entered a guilty plea to one felony charge of discharging a firearm into an inhabited dwelling on March 21. wo other felony charges were dismissed at the time. On Monday, superior Court Judge Joseph Orr rejected pleas by defense lawyers and supporters that the 45-year-old Lincoln be placed in a residential alcohol-drug program. Family members and friends told Orr that since his 1997 murder trial Lincoln has occasionally lapsed into drug use and bouts of binge drinking. Lincoln friend, Cindy Pickett, who worked with former Rep. Dan Hamburg, D-Ukiah, and others during the 1997 murder trial to turn the Round Valley native into a symbol of the Indian rights movement, said Tuesday that Lincoln has faced "incredible pressures" since then. "What do you expect from someone who was jailed and faced the death penalty for two years before he was acquitted?" said Pickett, who testified on Lincoln's behalf during his sentencing hearing. Pickett acknowledged Tuesday that Lincoln had confessed to occasionally using methamphetamines in addition to alcohol since his acquittal. "But I never saw a pattern of violence associated with that," she said. "He's a classic case of someone who should undergo rehabilitation rather than serving time in prison"" said Pickett. Judge Orr told Pickett and others Monday that he felt a five-year prison term was appropriate given the circumstances surrounding the March shooting incident. Lincoln admitted firing bullets from a shotgun into the homes of a cousin, Pat Lincoln, and reservation resident Michael Pena. No one was injured, but one of the bullets reportedly lodged in the bedroom of a sleeping 12-year-old girl. Pickett said Tuesday that even after his last acquittal, Lincoln seemed haunted by "what happened that night. I don't know if any of us can understand what he went through".......... -- - - - New! Native American Prisoners' Penpal Network: http://members.tripod.com/~foltz.k/pages/atlantahome.html Right now, it contains applications submitted by native inmates of the USP Atlanta federal prison with the high hopes of obtaining pen pals and communication with the outside world. Most, if not all, these men, are incarcerated very far from home, isolated, and away from their families and contact. Remember, when contacting an inmate, if you want to send something to them, make sure ahead of time what can and cannot be sent. Items such as money, stamps, tobacco, sage, etc. cannot. Some items have to be designated for group use rather than individual, so please be sure to check ahead of time. Keep them in your prayers and let them know they are NOT forgotten. Janet Smith Yufala Star Clan of the Muskogee Creek Owlstar Trading Post -- www.owlstar.com --------------------------------- Please especially remember - this is the "Year of Leonard". Leonard Peltier #89637-132, Box 1000, Leavenworth, KS 66052 --------------------------------- Dear Janet, Eddie Hatcher was moved from Central Prison in North Carolina to a county jail. His new address is: Eddie Hatcher, Robeson County Jail,122 Legend Road, Lumberton, NC 28358. Thanks, Marsha Shaiman On Indian Land, PO Box 2104, Seattle WA 98111 --------------------------------- Standing Deer's new address: Robert H. Wilson #640399, Estelle Unit, 264 FM 3478, Huntsville, TX 77320-3322 --------- "RE: Rustywire: May I Walk in Beauty" --------- Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 14:45:25 GMT From: rustywire Subj: Shi Nah Shaa-may I walk in beauty she said... Newsgroup: alt.native It was a long time ago and there was a child, a little Navajo girl, her name was Althabah. She lost her parents somehow at Fort Wingate, Bear Springs what we call Shush-Bi-Toh in Navajo. It means Bear Springs. There was a Fort there with cavalry soldiers. Some say she came from around Round Top, someplace south of Canyon De Chelly, when she was ten. Kit Carson who was hired by the Army to bring the Navajos in went to the stronghold, Canyon De Chelly and in that maze of canyons the Navajo People hid raising their livestock, corn and fruit trees. The cavalry came into the canyon and burned everything they found, houses we call hogans, cornfields and fruit trees. This was done to make the people hungry and make them come into the cavalry at Fort Defiance and Fort Wingate. It was during this time of trouble this little girl, Althabah became seperated from her parents. Some people went North to Navajo Mountain, others went west to Hopiland and others who did not have anything ate pinons, wild onions, and other plants but it was not enough. She was one of these and ended up at Fort Wingate. Her feet were bare and clothes ragged. When she got there she was placed in a wagon train and moved like a caravan to a place called Fort Sumner in Southeastern New Mexico. Since she was small, she walked alongside the wagons and during this time some of those who walked did not make it. When she got there she found there were a large number of people, her own Navajo People there. They were told they would have to stay in this place along the river there. They received some food from the soldiers each month, and tried to plant but the ground was too hard and not fertile. Nothing would grow very well. It was during this time she learned about the different clans, the origins of her people about the places she did not know, places like Dinnebito, Navajo Water, about Toh hah jah lee, about the place where water runs like fingers across the land which we call Kayenta. She learned about the names of the stars, the songs of mothers, about how clothes were made and rugs. Some say the song Shi Nah Shaa came from this place, it is a song of walking in beauty, that where you walk it would be beautiful that walking in your own shoes on a beautiful land, it was about all the places the people knew about growing up and now they were far away. It is a song about longing and missing home. These are the things they talked about and she learned these things. After what seemed a long time the leaders spoke with the cavalry wanting to find a way to return to their home land, within the Four Sacred Mountains. It was during such a time that Navajo People spoke about the soldiers letting them go from there, the words came from Washing-don-, how we call the US Government. Since she was an orphan she was poorest of the poor wearing gov't cast offs and found herself working for different Navajo families and groups trying to survive. It was during this time she learned to understand the white man's way of speaking that it put the words behind her way of talking. There was talk about the Navajo People being able to go home, so much so that people were packing their things. The word came around to everyone that they would be able to leave in the next few days. Somehow no one could sleep, not any baby, or old man or lady, not even the young people. Somehow as if by magic, the whole camp moved by itself during the night to West of the river. This was because the people were excited. The next day they were told they could return home, and it was if the whole of them were lifted by the wind and they walked every way they could. It was during this time she saw a light come to the eyes of the people and they began to sing old songs and walk with sore feet and hunger found them with spirit in their bodies and did not stop them. It was a day not unlike today, she found herself helping the old folks with the few things they carried. Some of them had managed to store away, little bits of corn pollen from long ago and when they crossed the highland they could see the tip of a peak to the West, it was small on the horizon. The old people spoke quietly, what mountain is that, they talked for bit and someone said, is that our mountain, one of our Sacred Mountains. The word came from up ahead it is so, it is what we call Mount Taylor today. The old ladies fell to the ground and cried because they were so glad to see it there in the distance. And in the way of our people they took a little corn pollen and blessed the land, and themselves and gave thanks that they could see their own country. This young girl saw this with her own eyes and cried for it was such a lovely site. She cried because she had lost everything, her home, her family, been taken from her land and moved far away and endured many hardships. She returned home, to live, to grow and find a place in the sun within these Four Sacred Mountains, she learned about Lechee, Grand Falls, Dinnebito, Sweetwater, Dennehotso, Pueblo Pintado, Nageezi, Herfano, Ganado, because she was one our grandmothers from those days and spoke to her children about how it was. That our children are Dine, that this land is called Dinetah and we have stories about all these places and how we came go be here and it is our home, and there is no place quite like it and so we go on and survive despite hardships. Sometimes life is hard and we have to suffer, and we have to be strong to do such things but we have that thing in us to endure, to hope and to go on and that is a little bit about who we call those people, the Navajo.....Dine. navajo spaceships -- rustywire www.geocities.com/rustywire --------- "RE: Poem: Farewell to Butterflies" --------- Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 15:12:21 -0500 From: "John D Berry" Subj: New Poem - Farewell to Butterflies Farewell to Butterflies Once there was, A beloved medicine woman, Who searched for, Healing plants. She tried, A new one there, And fell to earth, To move no more. Creator reached out, To where she lay, And turned her self, To butterflies. To these days, When the people, See them there, She still brings joy. Now we have, Scientists who think, They have better ways, For all things. What they do not have, Is Creator's blessings, What they do not have, Is a loving hand. What they bring, Is more money, And death To beauty and memory, Of jewels with wings. John Berry, Oklahoma, 2000 --------- "RE: Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days" --------- Date: Mon, 18 September 2000 07:05:47 -1000 From: Debbie Sanders Subj: Hawaiian Book of Days A HAWAIIAN BOOK OF DAYS, week of September 24-30 KEPAKEMAPA September Mahoe Hope 24 Fly with me to the high aerie of dreams. 25 Take time to hear the voices of children. 26 A symphony of birds sings together in the trees just before sunset. 27 Conquer fear; do not let fear conquer you. 28 If you want to succeed, ... you must first try. 29 Creativity is the key to success in every endeavor. 30 All changes in life, whether we perceive them to be good or bad, hold the seeds for a greater good in the future. (c) Copyright 1991 by D. F. Sanders Me ke aloha i ka nani, ... Moe'uhanekeanuenue (With love and beauty, ... Rainbow Dream) --------- "RE: Navajo Woman to join Hall of Fame" --------- Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 23:12:54 -0700 (MST) From: "Chris Milda (_Akimel O`odham_)" Subj: Navajo woman to join hall of fame (Fwd) - - - - - - -- - - - - - - http://www.arizonarepublic.com/news/articles/0824anne25.html Navajo woman to join hall of fame The Arizona Republic August 24, 2000 Legendary Navajo Annie Dodge Wauneka, who trail-blazed male-dominated political turf as a member of the Navajo Nation Council in the 1950s, will be inducted into the National Women Hall of Fame in October, along with U. S. Attorney General Janet Reno. Wauneka, who died in 1997 at age 87, will be the fourth Native American woman to be honored as such. The Navajo Nation plans to hold a special luncheon in memory of Wauneka today in Window Rock. "It tells us Annie was a great Navajo leader," said Marie Singer Begay, program director of Office of Navajo Women and Families. "She volunteered to help a lot of Navajo people. She went from hogan to hogan and told people to care for themselves." The daughter of first Navajo chairman Chee Dodge was known for her feisty battles with colleagues over political issues and her lectures about how lethal procrastination can be. Above all, she is known as a health crusader. Because of her, sanitized water arrived via Public Health Service on Navajo land. Wauneka, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, also educated her people about hygiene and tuberculosis, once a silent killer among Navajos. The National Women Hall of Fame, a 31-year-old organization in Seneca Falls, N.Y., has inducted 157 women. Its goal is to recognize great American women. Copyright 2000, The Arizona Republic. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Upcoming Events" --------- Date: Sun, 17 September 2000 15:39:14 -0 From: Gary Smith (gars@netcom.com) Subj: Upcoming Events =================================== Date: Wed, 01 Mar 2000 00:09:57 -0800 From: Lee Davis Subj: California Indian Conference 2000 [announcement] California Indian Conference Chaffey College, Rancho Cucamonga October 14 & 15, 2000 Call for Papers Abstracts due September 1, 2000 Advance Registration $30 flat fee for everyone The California Indian Conference is an annual gathering for the exchange of views and information among academics, American Indians, students, and other community members. Any topic reflecting humanistic, scientific, artistic, or social concern relating to California Indian peoples and their cultural heritage is welcome. Past topics have included literatures, storytelling, poetry, education, basketry, linguistics, anthropology, archeology, law, repatriation, history, casinos, Hollywood, tribal recognition, song and dance, and social and political issues. Anyone interested in giving a paper or making a presentation should send an abstract of 150 words to Dr. LeMay at the address below by September 1, 2000. Abstracts received after that date will be considered only if space is available on the program. Please be sure to include an address, email address, and phone number and state if you are available on both days. Inquiries are also welcome. We are pleased that the journal Studies in American Indian Literatures has agreed to publish a special issue on our conference. Keep this in mind as you conceptualize your presentations. Your conference paper will be approximately 7 pages long, while you should prepare a 20-30 page paper for the journal. Conference Registration is a flat fee of $30.00 for everyone. To register in advance, send your name, mailing address, institutional and/or tribal affiliation, phone number, fax number, and email address to: California Indian Conference Registration or Abstract Professor LaMay English Department Chaffey College 5885 Haven Avenue Rancho Cucamonga CA 91737-3002 Phone: 909-941-2162 Fax: 909-941-2783 E-Mail: CIC@chaffey.cc.ca.us ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ California Information Center http://bss.sfsu.edu/calstudies/ Dr. Lee Davis Director, California Studies Program Director, Pacific Regional Humanities Center Planning Team 377 Science Building San Francisco State University San Francisco, CA 94132 Office: 415-338-6583 Fax: 415-338-7047 email: davislee@sfsu.edu =================================== Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2000 06:48:22 -0500 From: "avalon bruce" Subj: TPRC Powwow tprc (trans pecos renewal center, inc., a 501 c 3 non profit) is holding a pow wow in odessa, tx sept 30-oct l, this fall. it's free to the public, Harley Tall Chief is head man dancer, we're inviting two drums (northern & southern) =================================== British Columbia POW WOW and Festival Calendar November 11th - Litton B.C; Annual Rememberance Day Pow Wow Arts & Crafts - (604) 455-2523 =================================== October 14 & 15, 2000 Ft. Payne Depot Museum Indian Festival (THIS IS A HEALING CIRCLE FOR VETERANS) Ft.Payne, Alabama Headman: Bobby Dickerson Headlady: Ellen Rasco, Host Drum: Buffalo Heart MC: Gary Smith Color Guard: Native American Warrior Society and Honor Guard Contact: Jerry Lang 256 492 5217 =================================== Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1999 23:31:19 -0400 From: ossahatchee@mindspring.com Subj: Ossahatchee Please include us in your Pow Wow Calendar for October 2000. The Fourth Annual Ossahatchee Indian Festival & Pow-Wow will be held October 20-22, 2000 in Hamilton, Georgia. Hosted by the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, you are invited to witness an American Indian Pow Wow. Over $12,000 In Prize Money: DRUM COMPETITION, $800 First Place. DANCE COMPETITION, $500 First Place, Proper Regalia Required. TIPI COMPETITION, $200 First Place. Primitive Skills from basket weaving to weaponry will be demonstrated. American Indian Arts, Crafts and Foods. The festival is truly a family event, educational and entertaining for young and old alike. The festival offers a School Day Program for students, K-8th grades, Friday 9am-3pm, gate opens Friday night 6pm-10pm, Saturday 10am-10pm, and Sunday 10am-5pm. Admission: Adults $6, 6-12yrs $3, 5 & Under Free. For information call (706) 628-5400 or look on the Web at www.hamiltonchamber.org Ossahatchee Committee of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce PO Box 3, Hamilton, GA 31811 For Information call (706) 628-5400 or e-mail: ossahatchee@hamiltonchamber.org Web-site: http://www.hamiltonchamber.org/ossahatchee.htm Thank you, Tracie Moore =================================== Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 11:09:14 -0500 From: "Karen Cooper" Subj: Pow-wow announcement Please include our pow-wow in your listing. Thank you, Karen Honor the Children Pow-wow September 29-October 1, 2000 At Dora City Park in Dora, Alabama This is located on Sharon Blvd/County Road 81 off Highway 78W, approximately 26 miles NW of Birmingham and 11 miles from Jasper Event is a Gold Award project for 2 members of Native American Girl Scout Troop 389. This will be a traditional intertribal pow-wow with Children's Day activities planned for Friday from 10 AM to 2 PM. Opening cermony will be on Friday at 6:30 PM, Grand Entry on Saturday at 10:30 AM and Sunday at 1 PM. Headman: Gary Thunderwolf (Cherokee); Headlady: Jackie Ravenheart Saeger (Cherokee); Arena Directors: Corey Colburn/ Little Hawk (Cherokee); MC: Tony Jennings; Host Drum: Our Brothers Drum; Prayer Circle: David Firewalker Bushyhead/Paul Whitehawk; 25 vendors by invitation only. All traditional drums and dancer are welcome. Free primitive camping for all dancers, drums, and invited vendors. Admission is $3 for adults, $1 for Seniors and Students, free to those under 5 years. This is not a contest pow-wow, only exhibition and intertribal dancing. Dancers are encouraged to pay a one time registration fee of $3. this entitles dancer to meal tickets and number to be placed on regalia. If dancer is in Circle when MC calls number, then dancer wins a prize. If any questions or additional information is needed please contact Troop advisor Karen Cooper at 205-648-2529 or kcooper@uabmc.edu =================================== Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 11:02:23 -0700 (PDT) From: RAVEN DAVIS Subj: pow wow just wanted to let you know things are looking real good for next year's (Anniston AL) pow wow. the dates are april 27-29, 2001. the place has changed to oxford lake park which is the same exit 185 off I-20 then you turn right at the road that runs in between shoney's restaurant and mcdonalds and you go right to the pow wow. Info: 256-820-6315. thank you ruth and mark =================================== Whispering Wind - POWWOWS ISSN: 0300-6565 American Indian:Past and Present For dates to appear in Whispering Wind Magazine, dates need to be submitted at least 3 months in advance. Last Update: 8/7//2000 These dates are published as a public service and are gathered from a variety of sources; flyers, emails, phone calls. Whispering Wind or its publisher Written Heritage, Inc., are not responsible for incorrect dates or locations. It is always a good idea to contact the sponsoring organization for verification. =================================== SEPTEMBER 2000 20-22 4th Annual Ossahatchee Indian Festival & Powwow. $12,000 in prize money. Hamilton, GA. For information call (706) 663-2313 or look on the Web at www.hamiltonchamber.org/ossahatchee.htm or email: JFLMW@aol.com 21-24 28th National Indian Days. White Swan Pavilion, White Swan, Washington Info: (509)865-5121 ext. 274 22-24 10th Casino Morongo Powwow. Casino Grounds, Cabazon, CA Info: (909)849-3080 ext. 274 22-24 2nd Celebration of Sobriety. HTE Powwow Grounds, Hayward, WI Info: (715)634-5806 22-24 Grand Bois Intertribal Powwow. Grand Bois State Park, Bourg, LA. Info: (504) 594-1068, 22-24 5th Annual Blanchard Indian Pow Wow. Millstream Fairgrounds East Sandusky St. Findlay, Ohio.Traders by invitation. Info: Billy Nelson (419) 423-8194 or Dawn La Roche E- Mail: dawncoyote@webtv.net 22-24 6th Annual Council Tree Powwow. Confluence Park, Delta, Colorado. $23,000 prize money, 19 Traditional Dance Categories, Drum Contest $1000 1st. place; Miss Indian Colorado xiv Pageant. Info: Wilma or Glenna 1-800-874-1741 or counciltree@doci.net or visit www.counciltreepowwow.org 23 Wood Lake Powwow sponsored by The Northern Hoop and LaSalle Council Camp Masters. South of Jones, Mich. on M40. Info: (616) 663-5665 or email: woodlakepowwow@cs.com 23 7th Annual Powwow by the Sea. Memorial Coliseum, Corpus Christi, TX. Info: (361) 883-9980. 23-24 Mountain in the Sky Powwow. Belleayre Ski Center, Highmount, NY. Info: ( 914) 254-5782. 23-24 South Celebration Powwow. Oakes Filed, South Charleston, WV Info: (800)238-9488 23-24 Blanchard Powwow. Fair Grounds, Findlay, OH Info: (419)423-8194 23-24 25th Indian Festival. DeSoto Caverns Park, Childersburg, AL Info: (205)378-7252 23 American Indian Days Celebration. St. Joseph Indian School, Chamberlain, SD Info: (605)734-3300 23-24 Northeastern Powwow. Roy Wilkins Park, Jamaica, NY Info:(516)226-5306 or (718)978-7200 23-24 7th Annual Powwow by the Sea. Memorial Coliseum, Corpus Christi, TX. Info: (361) 883-9980. 23 Northern Plains Powwow. Elmond Center, Sioux Falls, SD Info: (800)658-4797 23-24 15th Annual Powwow. McIntosh Reserve, Whitesburg, GA. Info: powwowdcr@aol.com 23-24 7th Corpus Christi Christi Intertribal. Memorial Colisium, Corpus Christi, TX Info: (361)883-9980 or (361) 643-0399 29 Dancing Rabbit Creek Commeration. Tribal Grounds, Mt. Vernon, AL Info: (334)829-5500 30 First Annual T.P.R.C. Benefit Powwow. Odessa College Sports Arena, Odessa College, Odessa, TX. Info: (915) 536-2415. avalonb@nwol.net; http://tprc.freeservers.com 29-Oct 1 Powwow. Irvine McDowell Park, Richmond, KY 29-Oct 1 3rd Annual Lenape Tears Powwow. McCall’s Farm, Route 443, Lehighton, PA. Info: (570) 788-3330. qthawk@csrlink.net 29-Oct 1 6th Annual Spirits Powwow. Spirits in the Oaks, Joslin, IL Info: (309)944-3894 or (309)887-4831 30-Oct 1 Honor White Wolf Powwow. Town Hall, Dighton, MA Info: (508)880-6887 30-Oct 1 6th Annual Waimea Powwow. Waimea Ballpark, Hawaii (Big Island), HI. Info: (808) 885-5569. 30-Oct 7 The Chickasaw Indian Festival. Tishomingo, Oklahoma. Expected attendance is 40,000. Contact Janet Reed at 1-580-371-2040 or you may use this e mail address for forwarding barsue@brightok.net 30-Oct 1 Northeastern Native American Memorial Powwow. Roy Wilkin’s Park, Jamaica, Queens, NY. Info: (718) 978-7057 or (516) 226-5306. OCTOBER 2000 6-7 First Annual Save the Land Foundation Festival, Volusia County Fair Grounds Rt.44 Deland, Fl. Info. 904-441-8005 (Dale Woodfin.) 6-8 14th Annual Black Hills Powwow & Arts Expo. the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center, Rapid City, SD. Info: (605) 341-0925. bhpowwow@rapidnet.com, www.rapidnet.com/~bhpowwow 6-8 Red Crow Powwow. Fairgrounds, Bardstown, KY. 6-8 10TH Annual Heritage Powwow. Traditional Indian Dance, Cahokia Mounds Historic Site, Collinsville, Illinois Contact-Lowell Davis 217-688-2442 6-8 7th Annual Grand Celebration. Grand Casino Coushatta. Kinder, LA. Info: 1-800-584-7263 ext 7676 6-8 Rainbow Dancers Powwow. Buffalo Ranch, Farmer City, IL. Info: (309) 968-6848 or walkhawk2@ntslink.net 7 Traditions in the Making Powwow. Millard County Fair Building, Delta, UT. Info: (435) 864-2400. email: helena@gavtron.com or visit: www.traditionsinthemaking.com 7 2nd Annual Miss Inidna Teen World 2000 Powwow. Fort Mcdowell Indian Reservation, Fountain Hills, AZ. Info: mourningstar@uswest.net 7 3rd Annual American Indian Festival. Homewood Park, near Birmingham, AL. Info: (205) 870-1095. 7 Second Annual Native American Heritage Day in New York City-Madison Avenue. One Day Only!!! Info: Chief Red Deer -212 666-9478 or 718 292-1519 or 516 292-9447. 7-8 9th Annual Chukchansi Celebration Powwow. 46575 RD 417, Coarsegold, CA. Info: (559) 683-6633. 7-8 26th Annual Intertribal Powwow. Thomas Square, Donwtown Honolulu, HI. Info: (808) 734-5171. 7-8 10th Annual Intertribal Powwow. Day of the Wolf. Nelson Cty Fairgrounds, Bardstown, KY. Info: (502) 348-0425 or email: bryant@bardstown.com 13-15 2000 Clarksville Area Powwow “Honor the Ancestors”. Outside Port Royal State Park, 50 NE of Nashville, TN (exit 11, 1-24 west). Info: (931) 326-5837 or nccircle@webmail.bellsouth.net 14-15 Kauai Powwow 2000. Kapaa Beach Park, Kapaa, HI. Info: (808) 335-8588. 14-15 Annual Native American Warrior Society Veteans Powwow. Honoring All Veteans. Railroad Museum Park, Fort Payne, AL. Info: Jerry Lang (256) 492-5217. 14-15 American Indian Gathering - Year of the Children. College Dome, Community College of Beaver Cty, Monaca, PA. Info: (724) 774-9098. 20-22 2nd Annual Traditional Powwow Honoring Our Yourth of the Peter Skene Odgen Community School, 100 Mile House, British Columbia, Canada. Info: John Archie at:1-250-395-2461 ext.213 or email brave_26@yahoo.com 20-22 2nd Annual Traditional Powwow, Peter Skene Ogden’s Gathering Our Dancers. 100 Mile House, British Columbia, Canada. Info: www.genocities.com/brave_26/pow-wow.html or phone (250) 395-2461 ext 213. 20-22 4th Annual Ossahatchee Indian Festival & Powwow. $12,00 in prize money. Hamilton, GA. For information call (706) 628-5400 or look on the Web at www.hamiltonchamber.org/ossahatchee.htm or email: ossahatchee@hamiltonchamber.org. 20-22 Powwow at Big Bone Lick State Park, Union, KY 21 Texas Lumbee Powwow. Hearne East Side Park, Hearne, TX. Info: Alleen Perkins (979) 828-4977. 21-22 3rd Annual Octoraro Native American Fall Festival. Camp John Ware, Southern Lancaster County, PA. Info: Harry (717) 284-3427. 27-29 SouthEastern Indian Intertribal Powwow. Chehaw Park, Albany, GA. Contact: Jerry Laney 912-787-5180 evenings or 912-869-0462 days or nativeway@mindspring.com NOVEMBER 2000 3-5 Powwow. E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park, Louisville, KY. Info (502) 961-5567. 3-5 14th Annual Orlando Powwow. Central Florida Fair Grounds, Orlando, FL Info: (407) 862-9676. 3 9th Annual Indian Heritage Festival. Tony Burger Center, Austin, TX. Info: (512) 414-2202 3 13th Annual University of St Thomas Powwow. Univ of St Thomas Fieldhouse, St Paul, MN. Info: www.ties.k12.mn.us/~raygor/powwow/pwinfo.html 4 White Bear Hethushka. Downers Grove, IL. 4 Mason School Powoww. Mason Middle School, Tacoma, WA. Info: (253) 596-1139. 4-5 Indian Days Celebration. Santa Rosa County Creek Indian Tribe Annual Celebration. Floridatown Park, Pace, FL. Info: (850) 994-4882. 9-11 Owyhee Veterans Powwow. Tribal Gym, Owyhee, NV. Info: (775) 757-2085. 10-12 47th Annual Chicago Am Indian Center Powwow. UIC Pavillion, Chicago, IL. Info: (773) 275-5871. 10-12 35th Yakama Nation Veterans Day Powwow. Pavillion, White Swan, WA. Info: (509) 865-5121. 11-20 Veterans Day Powwow. Clearfiled Middle School, Clearfield, PA. Info: Paul Snyder (814) 834-6452 18 Native American Heritage Day. Concord Armory, Concord, MA. Info: (617) 884-4227. 17-19 Native Way Indian Festival & Powwow. Georgia National Fairgrounds, Perry, Georgia Contact: Jerry Laney 912-787-5180 evenings 912-869-0462 days nativeway@mindspring.com 19 Powwow, A Modern Day Celebration presented by Plazuemines Historic Assn. Hwy 23 south of Buras, LA. Powwow is at Fort Jackson. Info: (504) 368-7908 or (504) 391-0173. 24-25 Prairie Winds Powwow. Bartle Hall, Kansas City, MO. (913) 768-4798 DECEMBER 2000 2 Mason School Powwow. Mason Middle School. Tacoma, WA. Info: (253)-596-1139. 2 The Forgotten People Powwow. FREE Arts & Crafts booth spaces. University of North Texas (no city provided). Info: Vicki (940) 369-7746 or vgraham@dsa.admin.unt.edu 2 4th Annual Santa Rosa Powwow. Santa Rosa Veterans Bldg., Santa Rosa, CA. Info: (707) 869-8233. 2 26th Annual Powwow of Champions. Fairgrounds, Tulsa, OK. Info: (918) 836-1523. 29-Jan 1 Toppenish Creek New Years Powwow. Long House, White Swan, WA. Info: (509) 865-5121 ext 304. 29-31 Indian America Powwow. Rillito Raceway Park, Tucson, AZ. Info: (520) 622-4900. 29-Jan 1 White Swain New Years Powwow. Long House, White Swan, WA. Info: (509) 865-5121 ext 304 30 14th Annual Lakota Powwow. Elgin, IL. Info: (847) 882-1644 JUNE 2001 2-3 Grand Village of the Kickapoo Powwow. Emmett Farm, LeRoy, IL> Info: (309) 962-2700 or email: ccranch@davesworld.net National Powwow / July 2002 www.nationalpowwow.com E-mail your powwow date information to whiswind@i-55.com Whispering Wind Magazine Crafts, Material Culture, History & Powwows =================================== Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2000 12:40:17 CDT From: "D. Mitchell" Subj: Fall Pow Wows & Festivals SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER NATIVE AMERICAN EVENTS Sept. 23-24: September Indian Fest, Desoto Caverns Park, Childersburg, AL. This is not a pow wow, but there will be demonstration dances, story telling, etc. Vendors are not limited to Native American arts & crafts. Hours: 9am - 5:30pm. Info: Joe Beckham, Desoto Caverns Park, 5181 Desoto Caverns Pkwy., Childersburg, AL 35044 (800) 933-2283. Sept. 29: MOWA Choctaw Pow Wow & Cultural Festival & Annual Re-enactment of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, at the MOWA Reservation, 1080 West Red Fox Road, Mount Vernon, AL. Info: Todd Johnston, Route 1, Box 390-D, McIntosh, AL 36560 (334) 944-2789. Sept. 30-Oct. 1: The Eagle's Message Pow Wow, at the Limestone County Sheriffs Rodeo Arena, Hwy. 99, Athens, AL. HD: Red Hawk Singers; MC: John Smith & Ronnie Ray. Admission: $3.00 - adults, $2.00 Seniors over 55 & children ages 6-12, free for children under 6. Hours: Saturday, 10am - 7pm; Sunday, 10am - 5pm. Info: Marie Hill (256) 729-1968 or Judy Southard, 29721 Easter Ferry Road, Lester, AL 35647. Oct. 4-7: Moundville Native American Festival, at Moundville Archaeological Park, Hwy. 69, Moundville, AL. Hours: Wednesday thru Friday, 9am -4pm; Saturday, 9am - 5pm. Info: Kirk Lueg, Box 870340, Moundville, AL 35487-0340 (205) 348-2136. Oct. 6-7: 36th Annual Boaz Harvest Festival & 3rd Annual Pow Wow, on the corner lot between Billy Blvd. & Hwy. 205, in front of 1st Baptist Church in Boaz, AL. Free admission. GE at 9am each day, bonfire at 7pm Saturday. HM: Running Horse Spirit; HL: Sherry Crabtree; MC: Alton McAllister; AD: Gary Redwolf; ST: MoonShadow; HD: TBA. Special guests: recording artist Dave "White Wolf" Trezak; championship bow maker Jimmy Taylor. Demonstrations of flint knapping & coil pottery making, Indian arts & crafts, flute music, fry bread, etc. Info: Morrisons (256) 593-7336, McAllisters (256) 881-8020, or Williamsons (256) 582-0014. Oct. 7: 3rd Annual Homewood Indian Festival, at Homewood Park, corner of Oxmoor Road & Central Avenue, Homewood, AL. Hours: 10am - 6pm. Free admission. In case of rain, the event will be held inside the Recreation Center at the park. All intertribal dancers invited. HD: Caney Creek Singers; HM: Lee Lawrence; HL: Raven Woods; ST: Two Dogs; MC: Jim Standing Fox. Info: (205) 870-1095 fram 10am - 7pm, M-F. Oct. 15-16: Festival of the Singing Rivers, McFarland Park, Florence, AL. This festival celebrates & teaches the culture & history of Native Americans through arts & crafts, story telling & hands-on demonstrations. Free admission. Hours: Saturday, 10am - 5pm; Sunday, noon - 5pm. Info: Florence/Lauderdale Tourism, One Hightower Place, Florence, AL 35650 (256) 740-4141. Oct. 14-15: 8th Annual Native American Warrior Society Pow Wow & Festival, at Union Park in Fort Payne, AL. This event is open to all Veterans. Free admission. Hours: 9am - 5pm. MC: Gary Smith Info: Ft. Payne Depot Museum, PO Box 681420, Ft. Payne, AL 35968 (256) 845-5714. Oct. 21: Indian Heritage Festival, at the Burritt Museum & Park, 3101 Burritt Dr., Huntsville, AL. This is not a pow wow, but a demonstration of Native American traditions & lifeways, including hands-on demonstrations & Kids Korner activities. Hours: 10am - 4pm. Info: jeff Hughes (256) 536-2882. Oct. 21-22: Living History Weekend, at Fort Toulouse, Wetumpka, AL. See Sept. 16-17 listing for details. Info: Ned Jenkins (334) 567-3002. Oct. 27-28: Southeastern Native American Festival, at the Scottsboro-Jackson Heritage Center, downtown Scottsboro, AL. Hours: Friday, 8:30am - 4pm, is reserved for school groups; Saturday, 9am - 4pm, is open to the general public. Activities include living history demonstrations of techniques in making tools, traps, shelters, clothing, medicine, cooking, tanning, flint knapping, weoponry, and primitive fire making. Info: Judi Weaver (256) 259-2122. --------- "RE: Native America Calling" --------- Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 09:14:44 -0500 From: Eric Martin Subj: NAC Topics 1) NAC Topics for Sept 18-22 2) Our Heroes are Often Called Bandits 3) Joy Harjo on New Letters 4) Earthsongs featuring Joanne Shenandoah ***************************** 1) NAC Topics for Sept 18-22 ***************************** Listen LIVE in RealAudio every M-F 1-2pm EDT at http://nativecalling.org/ just click on "Listen LIVE Online" or "Also available for WebTV users" MON - 9/18: Music Maker: Chester Knight and the Wind: The forecast calls for a strong northern current blowing in from Muskoday First Nations of Saskatchewan. This high pressure system recently swept up the 2000 Juno Award for Best Music of Aboriginal Canada. Join us for our Music Maker of the Month edition featuring Chester Knight and the Wind, winner of the first annual Canadian Aboriginal Music Award for Best Group. TUE - 9/19: Anti-Drug Campaign in Native America: The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has invested over $3 million to reach Native-specific audiences with anti-drug messages. They have launched a national media campaign using radio and print ads. This campaign is in response to new statistics that show that drug use among Native youth is rising despite overall reductions by U.S. youth in general. Guests include Jennifer Bishop with the National Youth & Drug Media Campaign. WED - 9/20: Aboriginal Olympics: The 2000 Olympics have kicked off and this year's games are proving to be quite special considering that more Indigenous nations are represented and there is a state-of-the-art design to the environment-friendly facilities. The Australian Aboriginal peoples have also found the Olympics in Sydney to be an effective forum to raise their cultural issues. Can the 2000 Olympiad help usher in a new era of Indigenous awareness and environmental responsibility? Invited guests include Allison Tate of the Australian-based Union Aid Workers and 1964 Gold Medalist Billy Mills. THU - 9/21: Southwest Tribal Leaders Summit: Tribes of the Southwest such as the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Nation, the Zuni Nation and the Pueblos of New Mexico are meeting this week to determine their priority issues. Environmental protection, water rights, off-rez services for tribal members, and emerging technology will be some of the topics on the table. What will a united region do for tribal communities? Guests include President Kelsey Begaye of the Navajo Nation and Chairman Wayne Taylor of the Hopi Nation. FRI - 9/22: Diabetes Between 12 and 50 percent of Native adults have diabetes and the number seems to be on the rise. Native children also are being affected at a high rate. In fact, they have the highest rates of diabetes in all youth populations. Health professionals characterize diabetes as "Serious, common, costly...but treatable." We'll talk about how diabetes is preventable and look at some of the risk factors you may not know about yet. ******************************************** 2) Our Heroes are Often Called Bandits ******************************************** This the California Indian Radio Project talks about how mainstream history and the modern media have "demonized" or "criminalized" our leaders, role models and heroes and asks the important questions "what makes a good role model?" and "who are your heroes?" Listen in RealAudio (All Times ET) to listen just go to http://airos.org/audio.html and click on the AIROS radio or "AIROS Programming Online" Wednesdays 7pm Thursdays 1am, 7am Fridays 10am, 4pm, 10pm Saturdays 4am, 2pm Sundays 3am, 2pm Mondays 3am ****************************** 3) Joy Harjo on New Letters ****************************** This week on New Letters on the Air: Joy Harjo talks about her book "In Love, Mad, and War" Listen in RealAudio (All Times ET) to listen just go to http://airos.org/audio.html and click on the AIROS radio or "AIROS Programming Online" "New Letters on the Air" runs the following times Wednesdays 7:30pm Thursdays 1:30am, 7:30am Fridays 10:30am, 4:30pm, 10:30pm Saturdays 4:30am, 2:30pm Sundays 3:30am, 2:30pm Mondays 3:30am ****************************************** 4) Earthsongs featuring Joanne Shenandoah ****************************************** This week, host Gregg McVicar visits with one of the most important talents on the Native scene, Joanne Shenandoah. She has an impressive list of albums to her credit and was voted the 1998 Native American Female Artist of the Year by the NAMMYs, (The Native American Music Awards). She's known for her collaborations with Robbie Robertson, Neil Young and Willie Nelson. For more information go to www.earthsongs.net Listen online (All times ET) at either earthsongs.net or airos.org Thursday: 10am, 4pm, 10pm Friday: 4am Saturday: 4pm Sunday: 5am, 4pm Monday: 5am or Listen to Earthsongs on KNBA with Windows Media Thursdays: 8pm-9pm AK Time Saturdays: Noon-1pm AK Time --------------------------------------- Eric Martin NAPT Web Communications Specialist emartin2@unl.edu 402.472.3287 The Return of Navajo Boy...Coming to PBS on November 13th 2000...contact your local PBS station to find out broadcast times http://www.pbs.org/stationfinder/ or watch clips of the program at http://www.nativetelecom.org To subscribe to AIROS' electronic program guide e-mail airos@unl.edu with the subject heading subscribe. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- --//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//- Notice of Copyright Clearance by Contributors: The following have granted permission for their original articles to be reposted in order to help mend the Sacred Hoop: Debbie Sanders, Susanna Shreeve, Sumer W Cree, Lauren Sullivan, Liz Pollard, John D Berry, Jerrye Franks-Smith, John Wm Sloniker, Chris Milda, Gary Smith, Lona, Janet Smith, Martha Ture, Harvey Arden, Jerrye Franks-Smith, Eric Martin, Johnnie Rustywire, Paul Pureau, Leonard Peltier Defense Committee --//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//--//-