From gars@speakeasy.org Wed Oct 25 06:36:07 2000 Date: 25 Oct 2000 00:19:10 -0000 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews08.044 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ O ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) O o O / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ O o O (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' O o o o o O ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ VOLUME 08, ISSUE 044 O o O / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' October 28, 2000 O o O / /-< / /--/ /-- Cherokee harvest moon O __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, Potawatomi moon of the first frost 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 It-hah-pe-hah Ah-num pah-le ( 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, Big Mountain, Triballaw, Red Road Newsletter, KOLA Newslist, Indian Heritage, FOL-L, Innu-L and Minnestoa Indian mailing lists; Newsgroup: alt.native; UUCP email; http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/001013IVatican-Colonialism.html http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/000830honeybee.html http://www.denverpost.com/news/news1022d.htm http://www.hcn.org/2000/oct09/dir/Hots3219.html#Oregon2 http://www.navajotimes.com/National/national.html http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/001015IWBrfs2.html http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/001005indianz.html http://www.indianz.com/SmokeSignals/Headlines/showfull.asp? http://www.arizonarepublic.com/news/articles/1017Geronimo-ON.html http://www.npaci.edu/online/v4.21/pala.html http://www.billingsgazette.com/content/local/brucellosis.php http://www.arizonarepublic.com/news/articles/1017remainsON.html http://www.arizonarepublic.com/arizona/articles/1017anasazi17.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@speakeasy.org ++ It is archived at http://www.nanews.org "I just never believed I would be here this long.... [Still] It is all part of the struggle for our people." __ Leonard Peltier, Ojibwa-Lakota +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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. -- - - - REMEMBER our brother who was beat to death, then urinated on. DO NOT let another day pass without voicing your anger and protest! Contact the St. Paul, MN courthouse and let the prosecuting attorney know Indian Country is watching. PLEASE SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR STEVIE THOMPSON'S FAMILY BY COMING TO THE ST.PAUL COURTHOUSE AT 15 W. KELLOGG BLVD. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24TH AT 10:00 AM FOR STEINHAUSER THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26TH AT 11:00 AM FOR THOMPSON -- - - - UPDATE !! - - - Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 19:25:37 EDT From: Rayann6@aol.com Subj: Stevie Thompson Thank you for helping get the word about the murder of Stevie Thompson. The new court dates of Steinhauser is November 13th at 9 am and Thompson is November 20th at 9 am both will be heard by Judge Paulette Flynn. The County Prosecutor for Stevie Thompson's case is Janice Barker. Her phone number is (651) 266-3058. Address is: The Ramsey County Goverment Center West, 50 West Kellogg, St.Paul, Minnesota 55102 Rayann The web page setup for Stevie is: http://hometown.aol.com/rayann6/steviethompson.html Thanks for any help in spreading information. Rayann -- - - - I thank those who have written, asking for addresses to send food, funds to buy fuel, blankets and other help for the winter. Pathways To Spirit, a Colorado non-profit organization, Carmeen Klausner, Director (970) 282-8573 for funds to help place a mobile home on Pine Ridge. Pioquark@aol.com Clay Watson Pioneer Industries 1100 E. 24th St. Cheyenne, Wy. 82001 (307)778-7860 pioquark@aol.com http://members.tripod.com/~dikani/pioneer.html These donations will be gifted to the Rose Bud and Pine Ridge Reservations in South Dakota and the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. I'm on the road a lot, out back loading the truck etc. PLEASE leave a message if there is no answer.. Supporting the elders through personal contact: Adopt A Grandparent Mountain Light Center PO Box 241 Taos NM 87571 TEL: 505 776 8474 FAX: 505 776 8050 For information call 800 291-8474. email: agpmlc@aol.com From BIGMTLIST The Dineh could use some blankets to help with the cold winters. Bonnie Whitesinger Box 1073 Hotevilla, AZ 86030 Since UPS doesn't deliver to PO boxes, you would have to use parcel post. I am asking readers of this newsletter to continue to respond as a caring community, not as the apathetic, uncaring empty beings the dominant society so often is. We do not warehouse our elders. Our ancestors taught us that every single member of our community is too valuable to forsake. We do not shoot our wounded. The tragic plight of our elders on the various reservations is so great, their peril so real, their walk so close to the edge that I will continue to feature contact addresses where you can send donations of clothing, food, blankets, money to purchase fuel and repair throughout the winter. As new contacts are received they will be added to the list. PLEASE help the elders. PLEASE help grow this list and help ALL the elders. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If any of you have addresses/contacts to add to this list for other Rez's PLEASE email me with them soon. Winter winds have already brought snow. email to gars@speakeasy.org -- - - - Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 17:29:55 -0400 (EDT) From: Ew Winship Dear Friends & Relatives Quinna Hamby is the baby daughter of Jill (Clause) Hamby and Jason Hamby. She was born with a condition known as Atrial Ventricular Septal Defect (hope I spelled that right!).....basically, how this translates, is that she needs "patches" in her heart. This means that she needs major surgery! Because the family has no health insurance (Jason is self-employed with "Hamby's Home Improvement" and Jill is a full time mom....with Quinna and up to 4 other children!) some fund raising is being done by the women's circle here to help the situation out. Even if money is found for Quinna's needed surgery, the family will have to shoulder many other "incidental" expenses (e.g. travel, hotel, babysitters, etc) NOW!!!!!!!! YOUR HELP IS NEEDED!!!!!!!!!! If you are able to, please attend the following event and forward this message to everyone you can!!!!!!!! BENEFIT POTLUCK & IROQUOIS SOCIAL DANCE SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2000 5:30 PM (DINNER) WITH SOCIAL TO FOLLOW WHERE: OLD GYM (MT. HOPE RD.) TUSCARORA NATION Please bring a dish to pass!! There will be a "Chinese" auction and a 50/50 raffle along with the social dance. For more information you can call Theresa Clause (Jill's mom) at 716-297-4895 (or just email me rosehill@pce.net) Also....THE FOLLOWING ITEMS ARE BEING COLLECTED!!!! -HOUSEHOLD -BATHROOM -FOOD -ENTERTAINMENT -CHILDREN'S ITEM TO BE USED IN THE AUCTION!! If you have an item to donate,please drop it off (or send it) to Jane Mt. Pleasant's home (4931 Indian Hill Rd., Tuscarora Nation, Lewiston, NY 14092). Finally, a bank account is in the process of being set up for Quinna so that people, who are unable to attend any events, can just send any financial donations right to the bank. In the meantime, if you would like to send a check or money order made out to Jill Hamby (with a note on it that says it's for the "Quinna Fund") I would be happy to forward it to the family......PLEASE DO NOT SEND CASH!! My address is: Rose Hill, 1767 Mt. Hope Rd., Tuscarora Nation, Lewiston, NY 14092 Nya'weh and Thankyou for your generous support for Quinna!!!!! -- - - - 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 ---------- - Native Peoples Ask Pope - Metis Hunt for Justice Continues to Repeal 1493 Edict - Lubicon Negotiations Update - Protest The Trail of Fears - Pala Indian Tribe Networks - I am an American Indian - Indian Women to Honor - I am not American Outstanding Oklahomans - Can States be Sued - HOMELAND/A Documentary Over Actions on Indian Land - Cherokee Princess Is Tribal Myth - Update on Townsend - Officials Ponder - Hohokam Site Bison Vaccination Halts Development Work - Court Rejects Tribal - Donated Homes House Tribe Hopes Governing Board Petition - Homeless Tribe Wants Land Back - Indian Tribes Reach Agreement - Change Won't Faze Sac & Fox Tags on Remains - More Land Returned - American Justice - A Trust Broken Program on Peltier - Tribal Leaders Concerned - RCMP Secret Report Dangerous with BIA Deadline - Amnesty International Site - Gover and Black Mesa for Peltier Clemency - Newfoundland Premier Tobin Resigns - Native Prisoner - 250 Indians - New Theories on Anasazi Walk 745 Miles for Peace - Rustywire: Baby Love - Indian Agencies' Budgets - Poem: From Earth to Water Could get $475M Boost - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - Oneidas Give Back Federal Money - A Dead-Language Debate - Indian Land Bill Passes House - World's Dying Languages - Montana Moves to Tax Indians - Traditional Leaders Conference - N.M. Tribe to get $23M/4600 Acres - Upcoming Events - Battle Over Geronimo's Headdress - Native America Calling --------- "RE: Native Peoples Ask Pope to Repeal 1493 Edict" --------- Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 21:36:01 -0700 (MST) From: "Chris Milda (_Akimel O`odham_)" Subj: Native peoples ask pope to repeal 1493 edict (Fwd - - - - - - -- - - - - - - Friday, 13 October 2000 Native peoples ask pope to repeal 1493 edict THE ASSOCIATED PRESS VATICAN CITY - Hawaiians and Caribbean Indians lit candles and sang in St. Peter's Square yesterday, appealing to Pope John Paul II to repeal a 500- year-old edict they say justified colonialism. The men and women - no more than a dozen - ended their protest by presenting a copy of the 1493 papal edict, "Inter Caetera," to the Vatican's Swiss Guards. "Take this back. We have no use of it. We never did,"' Steve Newcomb, director of the Eugene, Ore.-based Indigenous Law Institute, said, recounting his words to the doublet-uniformed guards. "And I told them to make sure it gets to the pope," Newcomb added. The edict, a solemn document of a kind known as a papal bull, was issued by Alexander VI, a year after Columbus first strayed onto the Americas. It authorized Christian countries to occupy and convert any non- Christian nation. Issued on behalf of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, it asserted the supremacy of Christianity over paganism, making non-Christian indigenous people subject to the domination and enslavement of the Spanish crown. It hasn't been enforced in centuries. "We hold the church entirely responsible for the loss of land, lives and culture we have suffered," said Newcomb, who sent an open letter to the pope raising the issue in 1992. "The bull perfectly symbolizes the violence that continues to afflict the world." During the Holy Year, John Paul has asked for forgiveness for Roman Catholics' mistakes in past centuries. "It seems this is a good time, if any," said Ha'aheo Guanson, who wore a coconut garland and a colorful cloth wrapped around her. "It's easy. He should just say 'I'm sorry,' " said Kamealoha Hanohano, a professor of linguistics at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. "It'd be good enough." --------- "RE: Protest The Trail of Fears" --------- Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 20:02:50 -0400 From: Donna Subj: Protest The Trail of Fears! Mailing List: Indianz elist This is important enough to get the word out ASAP! Thank you for your indulgence!! with respect, Donna --------Begin Copy---------- From: Don Harris =<+>KOLA Newslist<+>=<+> From: "fire eyes" Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 14:56:00 -0500 Some of you have already heard mention of this event, and for others, it may be new. I have spent the morning doing a lot of research to find out background information. Please bear with me as I present what I have been informed of. Near Moulton, Alabama, there are the Oakville Indian Mounds, resting place for many ancestors who walked the Trail of Tears. This is a well-known and verified indian burial site. This approx. 68 acre parcel is owned by Lawrence County, Alabama. At one time, they began the project of perserving the mounds. Now the Lawrence Co. Board of Education has assumed management of the Mounds, and have a 99 year lease for the sum of one dollar for the entire park. This information was given to me by the Lawrence Co. appraisal office at 256-974-2457, per Deed Book #743, page #743. We have in our possession a flyer advertising a halloween event planned at the site of these mounds. It is in conjunction with the Dept. of Indian Education, and the Lawrence Co. Jaycees. There will be a $5.00 admission fee charged to attend, and they also have T-shirts for sale with the theme "Trail of Fears" on them. According to the flyer, the local Jaycees will be dressed in halloween costumes, and will be having excursions thru the woods surrounding this area. The proceeds for this event will go towards charible Christmas foundations for needy children. According to the President of the Lawrence Co. Jaycees, Mr. Shannon Livingston, his justification for this event, written in an editorial in the Moulton Advertiser dated Oct. 19, 2000 is as follows: "It's Halloween, and this is when you make things scary -- hence, FEAR. This is also in the tradition of our Cherokee indian ancestors since they would use Booger Masks and ghost (sycamore) switches to scare the evil spirits from their council houses." Anyone who knows the Cherokee traditions can certainly see how misinformed this individual is. Furthermore, the traditions he is alluding to have absolutely no correlation with this Celtic festival that we call Halloween. I called the Lawrence Co. Commisioners office at 256-974-2401 to see if a permit was needed for this event, and if one had been applied for or obtained. I was told that no permit was applied for or issued, and that probably because these mounds were in fact under the direct management of the Board of Education, one was probably not needed from the county. I called the Lawrence Co. Board of Education at 256-905-2400 and found out, in fact, that one Mr. Butch Walker is the Director of Indian Education, and that he did give the local Jaycees permission to have this event at the mounds all on his own authority, as Director of Indian Education and supposedly Curator for the Oakville Indian Mounds(per their lease). I was told that the Superintendant of Education, one Ms. Cindy Collins, was not involved in any approval process for this event. She is Mr. Walkers' direct superior. In fact, when questioned, I was told that this has nothing to do with the Dept. Of Education, but was soley the act of the local Jaycess, with Mr. Butch Walkers' sole approval. With that background info noted, we are asking all concerned people to join us in our protest of this event. We are protesting in that this event is disrespectful to the Spirits of our ancestors who rest there. We protest because the Native Indian families within the community are not having their feelings or their voices recognized, nor their disapproval noted by the planning and carrying out of this event. We protest that these Sacred Mounds are being used as the backdrop for a pagan holiday celebration that has absolutely no connection with our indigenious cultural ways and therefore has no connection to Indian Education in any manner, nor to the Oakville Mounds where it is to be held. We protest because we feel this area should not be trampled on during a "PARTY" with adults and children running all over the place, playing Haunted Woods, making 'ghoulish' noises, and basically portraying a standard Halloween parody of death, and ghoulish beings. This is a mockery to the spirits who suffered so terribly before their passing on. It begs the question, were they wanting a cemetary to hold this in, and this was the only place they could get away with such a performance? We all know that no other legal cemetary would allow this. We protest against the Board of Education, specifically the Dept. of Indian Education for their lack of professionalism for carrying through on this event without the consent of the native peoples in the area for whom these mounds and this area is set aside as a cemetary for their ancestors, over and against the peoples' disagreement and protests from the Echota Cherokees, Missouri Chickamaugas, and various other concerned native individuals who have expressed their displeasure over this disrespectful display towards all people who understand the significance that these Mounds have. Chief Millard Shelton has provided us with protest rally info, and has asked that all who can attend, please come to the Oakville Mounds located out of Moulton on hyw 157 south, this Saturday Oct. 21 at 6:00 pm to stand for the voices of The People and for the Spirits of the Ancestors. To protest by phone, call the Dept of Education at 256-905-2400 and ask to be referred to Mr. Butch Walker in the Dept. of Indian Education. To contact the President of the Lawrence Co. Jaycees, Mr. Shannon Livingston call 256-905-0403. Email letters of support for our protest can be sent to: Superintendent of Education Chief Millard Shelton of the Blue Clan of the Echota Cherokee, state recognized tribal affliation in Alabama. protest coordinator protest coordinator Soon we will have the flyer for this available for viewing on the internet. Specifics will be sent forth at that time. Please stand up and be heard, stand for the feelings of the living descendants, and for the memory and peace of those who have passed on. This event should not take place! Sincerely, Lauri Chambers <+>=<+> KOLA Information: http://users.skynet.be/kola/index.htm -- - - - UPDATE - - - - Janet Smith Owlstar Trading Post http://www.owlstar.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "fire eyes" Date: Monday, October 23, 2000 11:44 AM The rally went well, and I heard from Chief Shelton that there were many people protesting and that the People were finally given permission by the Indian Ed peeps and the Co. sheriffs to go in and do a ceremony to cleanse the area. This event will go on Sat Oct. 21 7-11 pm Thurs Oct.26 7-11 pm Fri Oct 27 7-12 pm Sat Oct.28 7-1 am Mon Oct 30 7-11 pm Tues. Oct 31 7-11pm at 1219 Co. Rd 187 off Hwy 157 south of Moulton. So, if any others want to go protest, they can. But we were obviously too late to stop the event. But maybe we made an impression for next year. Lauri --------- "RE: I am an American Indian" --------- Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 12:32:49 -0500 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NOT Native American" Canadian Aboriginal News I AM AN AMERICAN INDIAN, NOT A NATIVE AMERICAN! from Russell Means I abhor the term Native American. It is a generic government term used to describe all the indigenous prisoners of the United States. These are the American Samoans, the Micronesians, the Aleutes, the original Hawaiians and the erroneously termed Eskimos, who are actually Upiks and Inupiats. And, of course, the American Indian. I prefer the term American Indian because I know its origins. The word Indian is an English bastardization of two Spanish words, En Dio, which correctly translated means in with God. As an added distinction the American Indian is the only ethnic group in the United States with the American before our ethnicity. At an international conference of Indians from the Americas held in Geneva, Switzerland at the United Nations in 1977 we unanimously decided we would go under the term American Indian. We were enslaved as American Indians, we were colonized as American Indians and we will gain our freedom as American Indians and then we will call ourselves any damn thing we choose. Finally, I will not allow a government, any government, to define who I am. Besides anyone born in the Western hemisphere is a Native American. Canadian Aboriginal is a Native-owned news service. c. Copyright 1999 Canadian Aboriginal.Com Please send comments to editor@canadianAboriginal.com --------- "RE: I am not American" --------- Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2000 14:05:37 -0400 From: "Janet Smith" Subj: FWD: I AM NOT AMERICAN!!!!!!! ------- FORWARD, Original message follows ------- From: The Freedom you have is to not like.........I don't like chocolate ice cream, but too many people with girth do. I failed to mention.....Larry Threebears is now dead. When I saw him blending with the red in the flag that was his shield......I knew I was in the right place. He is an American.......and a warrior. Now....I will stand where he did....be Mohawk....be Pawnee...be Seminole...be Creek......be Navajo, be what you feel you need to be...hate what you feel you need to hate. Just know..... too many real warriors have stood....so you can hate what you want, be what you want to be, so your children can be a star in your own heart. We all live on this earth. ------ Janet Smith Owlstar Trading Post http://www.owlstar.com --------- "RE: Can States be Sued Over Actions on Indian Land" --------- Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 10:55:24 -0700 (PDT) From: "Martha Ture" Subj: Supreme Court to clarify whether states can be sued over actions on Indian land Mailing List: TRIBALLAW (triballaw@thecity.sfsu.edu) >From: NAissues_n_the_news@egroups.com For up to the latest news on Indian issues go to: http://www.pechanga.net/ Supreme Court to clarify whether states can be sued over actions on Indian land Oct. 10, 2000 | 9:33 a.m. By LAURIE ASSEO Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to clarify whether state officials can be sued in Indian tribal court over actions taken on an Indian reservation. The court said it will hear four Nevada wildlife officials' argument that they are immune from being sued in tribal court over the seizure of bighorn sheep head trophies from a man's home on a reservation. Floyd Hicks is a member of the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe and lives on its reservation near Reno in western Nevada. In August 1990, a Nevada game warden got a warrant from state and tribal courts to search Hicks' property for evidence of the killing of California bighorn sheep. Killing the sheep is a misdemeanor under state law. A tribal judge limited the search to "exterior premises and any vehicles." The game warden and a tribal police officer took a mounted sheep's head trophy from Hicks' home. Officials later returned it because it was of a different species than the California bighorn. In June 1991, the warden conducted another search with state and tribal court approval, and took at least one sheep's head trophy from Hicks' home. Again it was determined that the trophies were not evidence of a crime and they were returned to him. Hicks sued four Nevada wildlife officials in tribal court, alleging violations of tribal law and his federal civil rights. He sued them as individuals, not in their official capacities. The wildlife officials asked a federal court to rule they were protected from being sued in tribal court by Nevada's sovereign immunity and by qualified immunity. Qualified immunity protects government officials from being sued over their official acts so long as they did not violate someone's clearly established rights. A federal judge upheld the tribal court's authority to hear the case, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, saying the tribal court should address the immunity issues first. In the appeal acted on Tuesday, Nevada's lawyers, representing the wildlife officials, called the case a challenge to state sovereignty. The officials "may not, in any capacity, under any circumstances, be called to answer in a tribal forum," the state's lawyers said. Hicks' lawyers said tribal courts are presumed to have authority over conduct on Indian reservations by non-Indians. The case is Nevada v. Hicks, 99-1994. ------ On the Net: For the appeals court ruling: http://www.uscourts.gov/links.html and click on 9th Circuit. AP-CS-10-10-00 1026EDT --------- "RE: Update on Townsend" --------- Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 18:25:38 CDT From: "D. Mitchell" Subj: Fwd: Update on Townsend construction/destruction I learned from a source at the gathering at the Tennessee State Capitol yesterday that the Tennessee Department of Transportation and/or their subcontractors are trying to put pressure on those working the archaeological site at Townsend, TN. In the past couple of weeks, the road workers have been getting closer & closer to the workers at the dig; trying to pressure them to hurry up & get out of the way, so the (un-needed, but unrelenting)TDOT project could be completed. In the latest incident, I was told that a bulldozer was driven over an old Cherokee house site that was being excavated. Hopefully this brazen act will bring about a court intervention that will halt further destruction in this area. Earlier attempts to get the Circuit Court that covers the Blount County area to issue an injunction against TDOT were of no avail. And, since the State of Tennessee is more interested in keeping the pork-bellied Road Builders Association & construction firms happy than they are at preserving natural resources or important (pre-)historic sites, maybe now some Federal agency might step in to investigate the goings-on in this small East Tennessee community. --------- "RE: Hohokam Site Halts Development Work" --------- Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 13:09:54 -0700 (MST) From: "Chris Milda (_Akimel O`odham_)" Subj: Hohokam site halts development work (Fwd) - - - - - - -- - - - - - - http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/000830honeybee.html Wednesday, 30 August 2000 Hohokam site halts development work Oro Valley requires archaeological study for Rancho Vistoso By Tony Davis ARIZONA DAILY STAR An Oro Valley official said the town yesterday ordered a developer to halt work at one of the last intact Hohokam Indian village sites in the Tucson area. Town officials told developers of the 7,000-home Rancho Vistoso project that before continuing work, they must prepare a plan to ease the effects of their project on the 750-year-old Honey Bee Village site, said Brent Sinclair, the town's community development director. The 75-acre site is one of about eight large Hohokam sites in the Tucson area, Tucson archaeologists Henry Wallace and Paul Fish said. At one time, about 18 such sites existed in the area. The rest have been destroyed through development, they said. The Hohokam, who farmed lowlands along Southern Arizona's streams, first occupied the Oro Valley site around A.D. 600 and abandoned it around the late 1100s, Wallace said. A committee working on Pima County's Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan ranked this among the top five or six prehistoric archaeological sites in the county, said Fish, the Arizona State Museum's curator of archaeology. Prehistoric sites typically date to the time before the arrival of Europeans on the North American continent. Oro Valley's zoning code requires a developer to file what's called a mitigation plan before excavating and developing significant archaeological sites, Sinclair said. "We became aware of this project in the past week and checked it out, and we're of the opinion that they are actually now excavating," Sinclair said. Dick Maes, Vistoso Partners' general manager, did not return several calls from the Star yesterday. Another Oro Valley official, Councilman Fran LaSala, said yesterday he had been told by Town Manager Chuck Sweet that Vistoso Partners was simply doing routine exploration, not a formal excavation, as part of a study to determine its preservation plans. The company has dug a 30-foot-long trench to help learn more about the site, LaSala said. Once the exploration is done, the developer submits a formal archaeological plan and seeks grading permits, he said. "They are nowhere close to filing a formal development plan," LaSala said. "They don't know what they'll do on the site. Because these things take so long, they are starting very early to do their studies." Sinclair, the community development director, said he didn't know if the company had caused any damage to the site. "You can do investigative work on the site as long as you don't harm the site or dig it up," Sinclair said. About 12 acres form the site's core, according to Wallace, who did an archaeological survey of the site for Vistoso's developer in the mid-1980s. It contains cremated human bone remains and thousands of artifacts, Wallace said. It also contains a ball court - a large, earthen-banked, oval enclosure used for ball games and as a social gathering place. Testing in that area in 1988 concluded that 300 prehistoric pit houses were believed to be in the core, in addition to a possible central plaza, large trash mounds and a stone-walled compound enclosure, Wallace said. In the mid-1990s, the town commissioned a Honey Bee Canyon management plan that called for preservation of this site. By allowing development of the site, the plan said, Oro Valley "would lose a very important part of its historical landscape." The preservation plan was never done because typically, companies don't prepare archaeological plans until they're close to developing in an archaeological-site area, said Don Chatfield, Oro Valley's former community development director. "It sounds like the town did the right thing in shutting it down until there were some mitigation plans," said Chatfield, who left the town in 1999 and is now executive director of Primavera Builders, a Tucson nonprofit firm that works on low-income housing projects. The site is particularly good for preservation because it lies near Honey Bee Wash and Rancho Vistoso Boulevard, allowing the town to include it in trail systems, the plan said. It would be reasonable to excavate the site's outer area and preserve the 12-acre core, the report said. Although excavation could provide a lot of information about the site, Wallace and Fish recommended that at least part of it be preserved. Gayle Hartmann, a Tucson archaeologist and environmental activist, said she was happy with Oro Valley's action. "I'm optimistic we can solve this. The planning department is ready to proceed with a good plan," said Hartmann, a longtime activist with the Tucson group Buffers. "Assuming not too much damage has been done, I assume we are in good shape. I'm only sorry we had to get to this point." Contact Tony Davis at 434-4073 or at verdin@azstarnet.com. --------- "RE: Donated Homes House Tribe Hopes" --------- Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 18:16:55 -0700 From: "Lona" Subj: Donated homes house tribe hopes Mailing List: Indianz elist http://www.denverpost.com/news/news1022d.htm Oct. 22, 2000 - Next week Al Dreamer will move into his own home, something he has been waiting to do for more than 20 years. Dreamer, 43, is a member of the impoverished Lakota Indian tribe and has been living with his father at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota his whole life. With a wife and two children, Dreamer is ready to leave the two-bedroom mobile home that seven people have been sharing and move into his own place. He will get this opportunity thanks to a combination of efforts from a number of people, including Tom Godwin of Colorado Community Church in Denver. Godwin first traveled to the reservation three years ago on a mission with his church. "I saw a need for housing and economic development and made a commitment to try and work on both of those issues," Godwin said. His commitment began to materialize when he discovered a Denver mobile home dealer called Homesmart Homes that was willing to donate used homes for the cause. "We understood that these people were in need of some shelter, and we were more than happy to help them out," said Jim Livingston, general manager of Homesmart Homes. The next step for Godwin was to find a way to transport the mobile homes to the reservation in South Dakota. He contacted Jim Bolthouse, who was already transporting mobile homes to the reservation from Michigan. The two joined forces and by the end of next month will have moved nine homes from Denver to the reservation. Like Al Dreamer, some of the families receiving the mobile homes have been living with other families for many years while they wait for a place to call their own. "Most people have to get on a waiting list to get housing," said Jamie Little Moon, 17, who lives with her parents on the reservation. "It took us about 4^T years to get a home." To get a mobile home from Godwin, a family must have a legal place to put it and $1,200 to pay for the transportation. "A great number of people want these homes and would be happy to get them, but they don't have the money," Godwin said. "We ask them to make a down payment because we want to make sure that they have some responsibility." Godwin is trying to set up a revolving fund so people can make a down payment on a house and pay a little each month. Anyone wishing to make a donation can call Godwin at 303-777-1121. --------- "RE: Homeless Tribe Wants Land Back" --------- Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 19:45:02 -0700 (PDT) From: "Martha Ture" Subj: Homeless Tribe Wants Land Back Mailing List: TRIBALLAW (triballaw@thecity.sfsu.edu) http://www.hcn.org/2000/oct09/dir/Hots3219.html#Oregon2 OREGON Homeless tribe wants its land back It may be a long shot, but the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw want 95,000 acres of national forest, an area larger than Portland, as compensation for land stolen over 150 years ago. In 1855, the western Oregon tribes made a deal with the federal government: In exchange for 1.6 million acres of tribal land, the United States promised a new chunk of land and a large sum of money. Congress never came through on its end of the bargain. "This is an issue of righting a wrong," says Francis W. Somday II, a tribal administrator for the nearly 700-member tribes. "Self-sufficiency has eluded those tribes in the U.S. who have no land base." Somday says getting a piece of the Siuslaw National Forest returned could create jobs and income for impoverished tribal members. If the ancestral territory is transferred, the tribes vow to manage the forest under the federally mandated Northwest Forest Plan. That means they could log some trees in order to preserve old growth and make $1 million a year in profit. While local environmentalists sympathize with the tribes' hardships, some say transferring this specific acreage is a bad idea. David Bayles of Pacific Rivers Council says this forest is a perfect candidate for restoring watersheds in order to save endangered salmon. According to Bayles, this will cost a lot of money and is not likely to generate the dollars desperately needed by the tribe. Furthermore, it will take an act of Congress to transfer the land. Oregon congressmen say they won't carry a bill until the tribe proves there is local support. Although the tribe has held over 160 public meetings, Oregon's Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio says he plans to shelve the issue until next year, since there is less than a month left in the legislative session. - Rebecca Clarren c. copyright 2000 High Country News --------- "RE: Change Won't Faze Sac & Fox Tags" --------- Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 09:40:49 -0500 From: "John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate" Subj: Change Won't Faze Sac & Fox Tags ----- Forwarded by John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate Change won't faze Sac & Fox tags By Tulsa World 10/17/00 STROUD -- The treasurer of the Sac & Fox Nation said Monday a new Oklahoma law lowering the price of car tags won't have much impact on tribal car tags. Truman Carter said, "The cost of tagging tribal members' vehicles remains much lower than Oklahoma's tag rates." He called on Gov. Frank Keating to "work to eliminate the unfairness in the current state automobile taxing system and reduce state taxes even further." The Sac & Fox Nation was the first Indian tribe in Oklahoma to issue car tags in 1983, said Cheri Soliday of the Sac & Fox News. She said tribal motor vehicle tax rates were imposed at 20 percent of Oklahoma's vehicle tax rates. --------- "RE: More Land Returned" --------- Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 23:15:19 EDT From: "Martha Ture" Subj: FW: More Land Returned ------- FORWARD, Original message follows ------- >From: MJLaBurt@aol.com I love it!!! It took over 300 years... Congress Approves Tribal Settlement The Associated Press Oct 17 2000 5:31PM ET WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress has approved giving a New Mexico Indian tribe $23 million and about 4,600 acres to settle lawsuits over land the tribe claimed under a grant from the king of Spain more than 300 years ago. The Santo Domingo Pueblo had argued it was the rightful owner of 52,000 acres of federal, state and private land near its reservation between Albuquerque and Santa Fe in northern New Mexico. The area includes shrines and other religious sites considered sacred by the 4,600-member tribe. The House approved the settlement on a voice vote Tuesday, sending it to the White House for President Clinton's signature. The Senate approved the deal earlier this month. "I hope we have finally come to an end on this long, long, long discussion of the land deal," said Benny Atencio, the tribe's secretary and spokesman. The deal, which does not require private landowners to sell or give their property to the tribe, also gives the tribe the option to use $3.7 million of the settlement money to buy 7,355 acres of National Forest Service land in the disputed area. That plot and the 4,577 acres of Bureau of Land Management land the tribe gets will be used mainly for religious purposes, Atencio said. "We're glad that some of our land will be returned back to us, even though we will have to pay for it," Atencio said. The Santo Domingo Pueblo will not build casinos on any of the land, Atencio said. The Santo Domingo Pueblo's land claim stemmed from two transactions: A 1689 land grant from the king of Spain for the tribe's reservation and the tribe's 1748 purchase of a neighboring tract called the Diego Gallegos grant. Congress agreed to honor such land grants in 1858 in a law finalizing U.S. control over the Southwest after the war with Mexico. --- The bill is S. 2917. --------- "RE: A Trust Broken" --------- Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 19:41:58 EDT From: SumerWCree@aol.com Subj: from uncle jake ------- FORWARD, Original message follows ------- A MUST READ From: UNCLE JAKE Mailing List: Red Road Newsletter Ya'a'tee FREEDOM magazines latest issue has an excellent article on the Big Mountain situation. -- - - - A TRUST BROKEN, A HERITAGE BETRAYED: Battle for Native American Rights by Thomas G Whittle & Carlynn Lee McCormick is well researched, and the authors are not afraid to tell the truth. I HIGHLY RECCOMEND you read it and pass it on to as many as possible. You should find the article at http://www.freedommag.org or contact the editor at editor@freedommag.org. And as I have your attention for a moment, for those of you who feel like sending a fax to help us, please fax Hilary Clinton. Weaving For Freedom Foundation has been trying to arrange a meeting with Hillary and the Dine Weavers for seven and a half years. There seems to be openings in Hilarys schedule for December, so please ask that she take the time to meet with the Elders. send the fax to attn:Patty Solis Doyle 202 456 5340 For all my relations BoPeep --------- "RE: Tribal Leaders Concerned with BIA Deadline" --------- Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 09:40:49 -0500 From: "John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate" Subj: Tribal Leaders Concerned with BIA Deadline ----- Forwarded by John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate Tribal leaders and senators concerned with BIA deadline By Brian Stockes Indian Country Today Oct 18, 2000 WASHINGTON - Members of the U.S. Senate and tribal leaders from across the country are expressing their concern over BIA handling of proposed regulations on trust funds, leasing and grazing. A letter signed by 18 U.S. Senators was recently sent to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt calling for a halt on what some see as "fast track" efforts to revise a broad range of regulations. "The Department should not measure success based on whether these proposed regulations become final in the next four months," said Senators Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., and Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, in the joint letter. "Instead it should direct its efforts at ensuring that the next administration can begin its work on trust funds with a comprehensive and thorough draft set of regulations." Interior proposed the revision of four sets of regulations in July and plans to publish the rules in final form by January 2001. The BIA says that the revisions are meant to "further fulfill" the Secretary of Interior's fiduciary responsibility to tribes and individual Indians. A BIA statement indicates revisions would expedite the probate process for Indian descendants' estates, standardize the process for collection, distribution and accounting of individual Indian monies and monies held in trust for tribal governments, implement the Indian Agricultural Resource Management Act, determine the value of leases, and standardize the Department's policy on grazing permits. The deadline for comments was Oct. 12. Some tribal leaders say that, as written, the proposed regulations would diminish or obscure the federal government's trust responsibilities rather than guide how the United States carries out its trust duties. They also say that the BIA has placed an unreasonable time frame on the revision process. Tribal leaders have repeatedly requested a negotiated rule-making process based on consensus. "We have participated and observed the tribal consultation process as it has occurred so far and have found it to be ineffective and deficient for the scope and complexity of the regulations," said Charles Tillman, chief of the Osage Nation and co-chairman of a joint BIA/Tribal workgroup formed to consider the proposed regulations. "At every stage of the discussion between the tribes and the department, the Department has been too focused on its self-imposed timetables to consider the merits of our substantive proposals." Chief Tillman also accuses the BIA of being poorly organized and "incomprehensibly muddled" on the issues. The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and the Inter-Tribal Monitoring Association (ITMA) also outlined concerns on the process in a joint letter to Secretary Babbitt. In that letter, they expressed their belief that pressure caused by Cobell vs. Babbitt, the ongoing tribal trust funds lawsuit, was having a negative impact on the proposed regulations. The organizations contend the pressures of the high-profile litigation have caused BIA staff to attempt to avoid responsibility and diminish the government's trust responsibilities "whenever possible." Interior has yet to respond to requests for a halt to the current process and is expected to close the period for comment as scheduled. NCAI and ITMA are calling on tribes to submit as many comments as possible to slow the process and force further consideration of tribal positions. "The proposed regulations will have a profound effect on the management of fifty-four million acres of Indian trust lands and the administration of trust funds derived from those lands," Chief Tillman said. "The Department of Interior must initiate a consensus based negotiated rule- making process." --------- "RE: Gover and Black Mesa" --------- Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 13:11:25 -0700 From: redorman@theofficenet.com Subj: GOVER & BLACK MESA ------- FORWARD, Original message follows ------- From: Carol Halberstadt Mailing List: Big Mountain List FROM yesterday's NAVAJO TIMES http://www.navajotimes.com/National/national.html Ironic apology U.S. government's mistreatment of American Indians continues today, Navajo leaders say By Marley Shebala Staff Reporter WINDOW ROCK - Navajo Nation leaders aren't satisfied with an apology from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs for historical massacres and the forced relocation of American Indians. Navajo Nation Council Speaker Edward T. Begay said, "It's sad that Indian people had to wait so long to get this apology and ironic that, when it finally comes, it is from a federal official who is an Indian himself. "The entire government needs to put forth this apology rather than an Indian accepting moral responsibility for crimes that were committed against Indian people by non-Indians," Begay added. Begay and the council's Government Services Committee Chairperson, Ervin Keeswood Sr., also noted that the mistreatment of American Indians by the federal government is not a problem of the distant past. The Government Services Committee has oversight responsibility over the Navajo Nation executive offices, which includes the president's office and the Division of General Services. Begay said, "The chronic under-funding of Indian programs, the lack of serious economic development initiatives on Indian lands, and the direct attacks on Indian sovereignty by politicians like Slade Gorton, show that the attitudes which led to the crimes that Mr. Gover is now taking blame for are alive and well in American political society." Keeswood, Sr. said, "What Indian people really need are assurances that there has been a real change in the hearts of federal politicians so that this mistreatment will never again occur. "Navajo people have been subjected to forced relocation by the United States government since 1975, and it's still going on right now in the Hopi Partitioned Lands," he said. Keeswood was referring to the Navajo-Hopi-US Land Dispute, which the federal, Navajo and Hopi governments claimed had ended in 1997 with the implementation of "accommodation agreements" - the 75-year leases between the Hopi Tribe and Navajo families on Hopi Partitioned Land (HPL). Kee Shay, 85, a relocation resister living on the HPL, is currently in Hopi tribal administrative court fighting an exclusion order issued by the Hopi Tribe to prohibit him from continuing to live on his ancestral homeland. Keeswood said, "Gover's apology is about historical mistreatment and what Indian people need is to have an end to the current mistreatment. We don't want to have to wait for another apology in another 100 years." Gover, a Pawnee Indian, apologized on behalf of the BIA during a ceremony in Washington, D.C., that marked the BIA's 175th anniversary, which was attended by hundreds of American Indian leaders, federal administrators and BIA employees on Friday (Sept. 8). He recalled that from the very beginning, the U.S. used the Office of Indian Affairs, which later became the BIA, to enforce the removal of the southeastern tribal nations. Gover said, "By threat, deceit, and force, these great tribal nations were made to march 1,000 miles to the west, leaving thousands of their old, their young and their infirm in hasty graves along the Trail of Tears." He said, "As the nation looked to the West for more land, this agency participated in the ethnic cleansing that befell the western tribes. War necessarily begets tragedy; the war for the West was no exception." The Navajo Times contacted Navajo Nation President Kelsey Begaye, Hopi Chairman Wayne Taylor, Zuni Gov. Malcolm Bowekaty and the White House for their comment on Gover's apology but none had responded by press time. -- Carol S. Halberstadt, Migrations (carol@migrations.com) Native American art and crafts http://www.migrations.com ------------------------- This is a BIGMTLIST post. To subscribe, send an email to BIGMTLIST-subscribe@topica.com For more information on this on-going human rights crisis in the United States, visit my web page at http://www.theofficenet.com/~redorman/pagea~1.htm To post to the list, email your message to redorman@theofficenet.com. --------- "RE: Newfoundland Premier Tobin Resigns" --------- Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 08:17:06 -0400 From: Stephan Fuller Subj: NEWFOUNDLAND PREMIER TOBIN RESIGNS -IMPACT ON THE LOWER CHURCHILL PROJECT PONDERED Mailing List: Innu People Forum list Quebec ponders impact of Tobin's departure on Churchill hydro talks Mon Oct 16 17:26:00 2000 EST MONTREAL (CP) - Quebec negotiators working to develop a massive hydroelectric project on Labrador's Churchill River were left to wonder Monday what impact Brian Tobin's resignation as Newfoundland premier will have on talks. The project, which has been in the works for nearly three years, was in many respects Tobin's baby. Promises of a framework agreement on the Churchill development and the Voisey's Bay nickel project in Labrador were the centrepieces of Tobin's re-election platform in February 1999. He left federal politics in 1996. Many Newfoundlanders gave him their vote, having faith that Tobin was the leader most capable of easing some of the acute anger many still feel over the first financially lopsided Churchill power deal reached between Newfoundland and Quebec in 1969. So what now? "It's business as usual for us," said Nicolas Carette, spokesman for Hydro-Quebec. "It's too early to say what impact this might have," Carette said Monday. But Tobin leaves his post for another run at federal politics with his work incomplete. Instead, the top-level talks will be left in the hands of Beaton Tulk, who was sworn in as premier shortly after Tobin announced his resignation Monday. Tobin and Bouchard have a lengthy political relationship that dates back to 1988, when the two sat on opposite sid, he'll remain premier until a leadership convention is held. Last spring, the premiers issued a joint statement saying most engineering and environmental work would be put on hold for the summer. Tobin said then talks would also be put on hold because volatility in deregulated U.S. electricity markets had made it impossible to figure out long-term pricing. Carette said, however, that negotiations continue. He would not elaborate on how close a deal might be. Talks have not resumed between Newfoundland and nickel giant Inco Ltd. to get the Voisey's Bay project on track again. Negotiations to develop the deposit were brought to a standstill last December, when Tobin abandoned talks after Inco refused to guarantee it would keep an earlier commitment to refine the Voisey's Bay ore in Newfoundland. At least one analyst said he's not convinced a new Newfoundland premier will return the Voisey's Bay project to the fast track. "Certainly the negotiations have been a nightmare, but it's very difficult to determine whose fault it is," said John Tumazos, a securities analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein in New York City. "We probably can't say things will get better, but we do know they can't be worse because there's nothing worse than no progress." A spokesman for Inco refused to comment on Tobin's departure. "We've always had an open dialogue with the premier and his cabinet and we look forward to that continuing," said Jerry Rogers. --------- "RE: 250 Indians Walk 745 Miles for Peace" --------- Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 20:19:48 -0700 (MST) From: "Chris Milda (_Akimel O`odham_)" Subj: 250 Indians walking 745 miles for peace (Fwd) - - - - - - -- - - - - - - http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/001015IWBrfs2.html Sunday, 15 October 2000 Around the World MEXICO 250 Indians walking 745 miles for peace ACTEAL - More than 200 indigenous Mexicans who fled their homes after a massacre by paramilitary groups three years ago began a long march for peace yesterday from the southernmost state of Chiapas to Mexico City. The 250 Tzotzil, Tojolabal and Tzeltal Indians, all barefoot and many carrying babies on their backs, set out on the 745-mile walk that will take them from the highland village of Acteal to the Basilica of Guadalupe in the capital. Antonio Gutierrez, a spokesman for the pilgrims, said the group will ask for the virgin's intercession to resume dialogue between the government and the Zapatista National Revolutionary Army "so that we can reach a peace with justice and dignity." c. copyright The Associated Press --------- "RE: Indian Agencies' Budgets could get $475M Boost" --------- Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 22:47:20 -0700 (MST) From: "Chris Milda (_Akimel O`odham_)" Subj: Indian agencies' budgets could get $475M boost (Fwd) - - - - - - -- - - - - - - http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/001005indianz.html Thursday, 5 October 2000 Indian agencies' budgets could get $475M boost The Associated Press Cupboard still bare: The spending bill boost, to fund health and social services, is $80 million short of Clinton's request. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - The two main federal agencies serving American Indians would get an 11 percent budget increase - including money to rebuild six crumbling reservation schools - under a spending bill poised for a Senate vote. The spending plan would add $475.5 million to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service, which fund health care, education, law enforcement, transportation and other services for about 2.5 million Indians. Spending for the two agencies would total $4.7 billion in 2001. The $18.8 billion Interior Department spending bill has President Clinton's backing and already has cleared the House. A Senate vote was delayed yesterday by a filibuster by Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill., who is protesting a provision for funding an Abraham Lincoln library. Tribal leaders say they're pleased with the extra money, but it will take many more years of similar spending hikes to solve longstanding problems of poverty and federal neglect. A few of the 556 federally recognized tribes have successful casinos but most tribes are still struggling with high rates of unemployment, crime, drug abuse and related problems. "It's going to take a little time before everything gets up to the point where it should be," said Vincent Pino, governor of New Mexico's Zia Pueblo. The jump in spending on Indian agencies is nearly $80 million short of the increase Clinton sought. Lynn Cutler, Clinton's top adviser on Indian issues, said she was disappointed, given that the overall Interior spending measure is $2.5 billion larger than the president asked. "I think we made this enough of a high-profile issue that this is what happened," Cutler said. "We are happy, but we're not yet popping champagne corks." One of the most dramatic increases was for construction and repairs to reservation schools. The final spending plan includes about $293 million for Indian school construction, more than double the $133 million spent this year. The Bureau of Indian Affairs funds 187 schools serving 50,000 students on 63 reservations. Those schools face a $1 billion backlog of construction and repair work. --------- "RE: Oneidas Give Back Federal Money" --------- Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 08:03:27 -0500 From: "John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate" Subj: Oneidas Give Back Federal Money ----- Forwarded by John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate Oneidas give back federal money By Associated Press 10/17/2000 ONEIDA, N.Y. (AP) For a fourth consecutive year, the Oneida Indian Nation has returned federal assistance funds to the government. Oneida Representative Ray Halbritter said Tuesday the nation had been "successful in achieving its goals of enhancing sovereignty and financial independence" through its many diversified businesses and did not need federal Tribal Priority Allocation funds from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Oneidas were eligible to receive $1.2 million in 2001. In 1998, the Oneidas became the first tribal government in the United States to return BIA funds. Since then, the Oneidas have turned down almost $4.7 million in federal assistance, including this year's total. BIA Director Kevin Gover said the Oneida's decision to turn down federal funding was "the ultimate sovereign act." The Oneidas own and operate the Turning Stone Casino Resort in Verona. The resort, which includes a luxury hotel, convention center and championship golf course, serves three million visitors annually. The nation also runs a string of gas stations, an RV park, a T-shirt printing factory, and recently began manufacturing their own cashless electronic gambling machines. In the letter returning the federal money, the Oneidas requested that their share of the money be redistributed among other New York tribes. --------- "RE: Indian Land Bill Passes House" --------- Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 08:03:27 -0500 From: "John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate" Subj: Indian Land Bill Passes House ----- Forwarded by John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate Indian land bill passes House by Samantha Young Donrey Washington Bureau 10-19-2000 WASHINGTON - Eastern Oklahoma Indians would be able to file property claims with the federal government rather than seek recourse from the state courts under a bill approved Tuesday in Congress. The House unanimously approved the bill, sponsored by Rep. A Watkins. R- Okla. However the Senate is unlikely to consider the measure the few days remaining in this year's session. The bill would enable members of the Muskogee Creek. Seminole. Cherokee, Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations to file Indian property claims, convey land and apply for oil and gas leases with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Under current law, an Indian family who wants to probate an estate must hire a lawyer and file a probate action in court to determine the rightful owners of the land, which can be a costly process said David Mullon. associate general counsel for the Cherokee Nation. "This land is owned mostly by poor folks, Indian folks who don't have the money to probate estates," Mullon said. That fact has contributed to numerous generations where estates aren't probated and they are fractionated." Eastern Indian Oklahoma families are the only tribal members who must file land claims in state courts, unlike Indians in western Oklahoma and the rest of the country who go through the BIA. The situation dates from the 1840s when the United States conveyed Oklahoma land to the five tribes giving their autonomy from federal government. Subsequent Indian land rights passed by Congress left out eastern Oklahoma land tribes because of their status. Watkins said his bill would restore equity to the Oklahoma tribes Once land is probated. owners can claim it, lease it and start to make a living off the land. The bill would affect about 400,000 acres - mostly rural land - scattered in the eastern third of Oklahoma, according to the Cherokee Nation. The bill also would prohibit landowners who border Indian property from claiming Indian land through a system known as adverse possession. In the past, Indian neighbors who have staked fences on Indian property have been able to claim the land if the Indians did not argue the Ion said. The bill also would streamline and simplify oil and gas leases for Indians in eastern Oklahoma, said James Inhofe, R-Okla.. sponsored the bill in the Senate. but his spokesman said he would not push it, passage this year. "We just introduced the bill a week ago and the senator's feeling is it hasn't gotten the appropriate scrutiny it deserves to get in the legislative process," Inhofe spokesman Gary Hoitsrnan said, "We're expecting the bill to pass next year, it has good prospects. --------- "RE: Montana Moves to Tax Indians" --------- Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 09:24:23 -0700 (PDT) From: "Martha Ture" Subj: Montana Moves to Tax Indians Mailing List: TRIBALLAW (triballaw@thecity.sfsu.edu) http://www.indianz.com/SmokeSignals/Headlines/showfull.asp? State moves to tax Indians OCTOBER 19, 2000 A referendum on the upcoming ballot in Montana proposes to impose a state tax on tribal members. Currently, the state has a motor vehicle tax which is based on the value of the vehicle. But the state attorney general says this tax cannot be imposed on tribal members because of federal policy. However, under Legislative Referendum 115, the tax would be changed to a flat fee. This has led state officials to conclude it could be imposed on tribal members, who number about 20,000 in the state. Get the Story: Tribal members forced to pay vehicle fee under LR-115 (The Billings Gazette 10/19) Related Stories: Tribe takes on state taxation (Money Matters 09/14) Tribe wins round in tax case (Money Matters 9/12) Tax bill killed (Money Matters 07/20) Copyright c. Indianz.Com 2000. --------- "RE: N.M. Tribe to get $23M/4600 Acres" --------- Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 15:19:36 -0700 From: redorman@theofficenet.com Subj: N.M. tribe to get $23M, 4,600 acres ------- FORWARD, Original message follows ------- From: sky1@goodnet.com (Sky) Mailing List: Big Mountain List AZ Daily Star, 10/18/00 N.M. tribe to get $23M, 4,600 acres WASHINGTON - Congress has approved giving a New Mexico Indian tribe $23 million and about 4,600 acres to settle lawsuits over land the tribe claimed under a grant from the king of Spain more than 300 years ago. The Santo Domingo Pueblo had argued it was the rightful owner of 52,000 acres of federal, state and private land near its reservation between Albuquerque and Santa Fe in northern New Mexico. The area includes shrines and other religious sites considered sacred by the 4,600-member tribe. The House approved the settlement on a voice vote yesterday, sending it to the White House for President Clinton's signature. The Senate approved the deal earlier this month. ... many prayers ... William "Sky" Crosby, director E C C O Environmental and Cultural Conservation Organization Tucson, Az tel 520 749 0585 ------------------------- This is a BIGMTLIST post. To subscribe, send an email to BIGMTLIST-subscribe@topica.com For more information on this on-going human rights crisis in the United States, visit my web page at http://www.theofficenet.com/~redorman/pagea~1.htm To post to the list, email your message to redorman@theofficenet.com. --------- "RE: Battle Over Geronimo's Headdress" --------- Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 20:16:34 -0700 (MST) From: "Chris Milda (_Akimel O`odham_)" Subj: Tribes, federal government battle over Geronimo's headdress (Fwd) - - - - - - -- - - - - - - http://www.arizonarepublic.com/news/articles/1017Geronimo-ON.html Tribes, federal government battle over Geronimo's headdress Associated Press Oct. 17, 2000 07:45 PHILADELPHIA - Two American Indian tribes and the U.S. government have gone to court in a battle over an eagle-feather headdress that, according to folklore, was last worn by Apache leader Geronimo. After a Georgia man tried to sell the headdress over the Internet a year ago, the FBI seized it on the grounds that trafficking in feathers of bald and golden eagles is illegal. Leighton Deming, who says Geronimo gave his grandfather the war bonnet after a historic powwow in Oklahoma in 1907, agreed to forfeit the artifact in exchange for probation. The Mescalero Apache Tribe in southern New Mexico was first to file a claim. The tribe says Geronimo was the acclaimed "war chief of all Apache tribes" and the headdress would make a fine addition to their museum. Two weeks later, the Comanche Tribe of Oklahoma put in its bid. The Comanches argue that Apaches did not wear long-feather war bonnets, but their tribe did and made the one seized by the FBI. Comanches say that even if Geronimo wore the headdress, it was only on loan. The Comanches never would have given a non-Comanche an item of "tremendous religious and cultural significance," their claim said. Apache attorney James M. Burson said the dispute has required a "time-consuming historical investigation." "There's virtually no one alive to tell us the actual instance when Geronimo got the war bonnet, and there aren't any kind of historical documents," he said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert E. Goldman said the artifact would either go to the Department of the Interior for display in a museum or be returned to the tribe that can prove ownership. The case has been filed in federal court in Philadelphia because that is where Deming was caught trying to sell the bonnet to an undercover FBI agent for $1.2 million. --- On the Net: Mescalero Apache Tribe: http://www.sos.state.nm.us/BLUEBOOK/mescalero.htm FBI: http://www.fbi.gov Copyright 2000, The Arizona Republic. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Metis Hunt for Justice Continues" --------- Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 10:29:13 -0500 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="Metis Justice" Metis Hunt for Justice Continues OTTAWA--Canadian Aboriginal.Com The Metis National Council will intervene in R. vs. Blais in Winnipeg on Wednesday, October 18, 2000. The issue currently before the Manitoba Court of Appeal is whether Metis have the same protection of harvesting rights as First Nations in Manitoba. "The Metis continue to advocate for good faith negotiations; however without a process in place for those negotiations we have no alterNative but to pursue our rights in the courts", said Gerald Morin, President of the Metis National Council, "This is one of several key cases currently before the courts, which the Metis National Council has strategically chosen to support because of its potential importance for all Metis." Jean Teillet, the lawyer intervening on behalf of the Metis National Council said "Blais is a very important case because it addresses the constitutional question of whether Metis are afforded the protection as "Indians" under Paragraph 13 of the Natural Resource Transfer Agreement, 1930." Ms. Teillet, who is the great grandniece of Louis Riel, added "both Federal and Provincial governments must realize that it is in everyone's best interest to negotiate and deal with long outstanding issues rather than generating scenarios similar to what was witnessed after the Marshall decision and the on-going conflict in Burnt Church". Canadian Aboriginal is a Native-owned news service. c Copyright 1999 Canadian Aboriginal.Com Please send comments to editor@canadianAboriginal.com --------- "RE: Lubicon Negotiations Update" --------- Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 22:28:19 -0400 From: fol@tao.ca Subj: Lubicon negotiations update and news reports Mailing List: FOL-L Friends of the Lubicon 485 Ridelle Ave. Toronto, ON M6K 2T6 Tel: 416-763-7500 Fax: 416-535-7810 E-mail: fol@tao.ca Web: www.tao.ca/~fol September 28, 2000 Negotiations between the Lubicon Nation and the Canadian federal government were scheduled to restart September 26 in Little Buffalo. However the meeting did not take place as planned and a new date had to be scheduled. The federal negotiating team informed the Lubicons last week that they would only be available for a one-day meeting on September 26th to resume negotiations after the summer-long suspension. They told the Lubicons that other commitments made a longer session impossible for the federal team. They proposed to meet for "one long day" by chartering a plane to nearby Peace River which would allow them to stay later in the day than they would normally be able to under regular airline schedules. The Lubicons agreed to meet with the federal negotiating team for "one long day" to get negotiations underway again. On Tuesday, September 26th, the Lubicons awaited the arrival of the federal team in vain. Chief Federal Negotiator Brad Morse called to inform Chief Ominayak that heavy fog at the Peace River airport had made it impossible for their chartered plane to land. After periodic calls to report their status, Morse finally called around 3:30 pm to inform the Lubicons that the fog had lifted and the federal team could now fly to Peace River and they could be in Peace River around 4:30pm. However, he said, he would have to fly out again by 7:30pm at the latest. He asked that the Lubicons meet with him in Peace River (about an hour's drive from the Lubicon community of Little Buffalo) rather than in Little Buffalo. After consulting with the assembled community members who had been waiting since 10:30 that morning to observe the negotiations, Chief Ominayak spoke to Brad at 4pm and told Brad Morse to come back another time when the federal team would have more time to meet. Chief Ominayak and Brad Morse agreed that the Lubicons and the federal negotiating team would meet on Tuesday October 10th in Little Buffalo. Public pressure on the federal government to settle Lubicon land rights continues to grow. Lubicon supporters gave the public information campaign a boost when they gathered on Parliament Hill in Ottawa that same day to construct a mock Lubicon reserve, telling the federal government to get on with the job of settling Lubicon land rights and building a new community at Lubicon Lake. Press coverage related to that demonstration and to debates in Parliament regarding Lubicon land rights are attached. +++++++++++++++++ Wednesday 27 September 2000 Edmonton Journal Mock reserve set up at Lubicon protest Norm Ovenden Journal Ottawa Bureau It was Jean Chretien's turn to eat his words when he was reminded Tuesday of a 1993 pledge to seek a quick settlement to the land claim by the Lubicon Cree. While the Canadian Alliance tried to embarrass the prime minister in the Commons for failing to live up to his promises, about 50 Ontario and Quebec supporters of the impoverished northern Alberta band demonstrated outside on the front lawn. "Mr. Chretien: Respect Your Commitment" read one sign carried by an elderly woman at the protest, which included a mock reserve constructed of cardboard houses, a health centre, a schoolhouse and water tower. "Let's see some action. Sixty years is too damn long," shouted Lubicon supporter Len Bush, a representative of the National Union of Public and General Employees. Alliance native affairs critic Derek Konrad was quieter in the House as he read a letter Chretien wrote to a citizens' commission in June 1993, four months before the fall election. The commission was appointed by the Alberta New Democrats to look into the stalled land dispute and government promises dating back to 1939. "Time is wasting," wrote Chretien, who was then opposition leader. "We believe that the (Tory) government has reneged on its fiduciary responsibility to the Lubicon people. We support the swift resolution of all claims, and consider the Lubicon claim to be a priority." For the past week, Chretien has toyed with Stockwell Day by pointing out inconsistencies between what the Alliance leader now proposes and what he said and wrote as an MLA and cabinet minister in Alberta. Konrad turned the tables Tuesday by quoting Chretien's own letter back to him. "Today, the Lubicon are so sick and tired of waiting that they're setting up a reserve right on the front lawn of Parliament," Konrad said. "The promise the prime minister made in 1993 never was kept. Was it just a political promise to win an election?" As Chretien looked away, Indian Affairs Minister Bob Nault replied, saying negotiations resumed Monday in Little Buffalo, 450 km northwest of Edmonton, between the band and federal officials. Talks were suspended last May after Chief Bernard Ominayak was angered by the department's plan to cut off social assistance to families who no longer live at Little Buffalo. If the Alliance wants to be helpful, it should work to convince the Alberta government to be more flexible on land settlement issues needed to establish a 246-sq-km reserve, Nault said. Supporters of the Lubicon have vowed to make the lack of progress an election issue. They recently bought a $1,000 newspaper ad in Nault's northern Ontario riding in an effort to pressure the minister. The next day, the department reversed its social assistance plan. The bilateral talks are expected to proceed slowly. Officials meet twice a month. Even if a deal is struck, the talks would then have to be expanded to include the Alberta government to hammer out land details. +++++++++++++++ September 26, 2000 Grande Prairie Daily Herald Tribune Lubicon supporters 'raise the issue' with Ottawa demonstration DEB GUERETTE Herald-Tribune staff Lubicon Lake Indian Nation supporters are building the North Peace band a home community today - on Parliament Hill. Carrying in replica community buildings made of extra-large cardboard boxes, "construction workers" set-up a community for the reserve-less band on Parliament Hill to "show Ottawa how to do it," Outaouais Lubicon Solidarity secretary Kathryn Gunn said. "The objective is to raise the issue... to show what should be accomplished," Gunn said from her Hull-area home Monday as she put the finishing touches on a cardboard school bus. Other OLS members and Montreal-based Amitie Lubicons-Quebec members prepared a variety of buildings, an elders home, community centre, health clinic, school building, band council office and even water tower, for the demonstration village, Gunn said. About 100 Ottawa-area Lubicon supporters were expected to turn-out, don hard hats and help set-up the community, she said. First promised a reserve over 60 years ago, Lubicon land rights need to be settled, an OLS press release said. "Under the slogan '60 years is too long,' grassroots activists are demanding that the federal government fulfill a 1939 promise to set aside reserve lands for the Lubicon Nation in Alberta," OLS announced Sunday. The demonstration took place in Ottawa as negotiations resumed between the federal government and Lubicon leadership in Little Buffalo, after on-going talks were suspended for two-months when Indian and Northern Affairs Canada Alberta regional office gave notice it planned to withdraw from a 20-year-old social program funding arrangement with the band. INAC minister Robert Nault received over 200 letters of concern about the Lubicon before the regional office reversed its controversial decision. New Democrat aboriginal affairs critic Louise Hardy was to direct a question about the outstanding Lubicon land rights settlement to Nault in the House of Commons while the demonstration was under way outside, Gunn said. --------- "RE: Pala Indian Tribe Networks" --------- Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 16:15:38 -0700 From: Kimberly Mann Bruch Subj: Pala Indian Tribe on the Internet the story: http://www.npaci.edu/online/v4.21/pala.html http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/ Kim Bruch ____________________________________ Kimberly Mann Bruch, External Relations UCSD - San Diego Supercomputer Center La Jolla, California 92093.0505 858.822.0977 (voice) 858.534.5113 (fax) kbruch@sdsc.edu (mail) ____________________________________ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 18, 2000 UC SAN DIEGO WIRELESS NETWORK PROJECT COLLABORATES WITH PALA BAND OF INDIANS FOR EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES Remote Native American Indian Reservation Gains Access to High-Speed Internet Service Located at the foot of Palomar Mountain in east San Diego county, the Pala Indian reservation is home to 600 tribal members -- including more than 150 children who attend elementary school on the reservation. Until last month, the tribe could only dream of access to high-speed Internet connectivity; however, collaboration with a UC San Diego research project funded by the National Science Foundation turned a dream into reality. UC San Diego researchers recently implemented Phase I of the educational portion of the High-Performance Wireless Research and Education Network, and the Pala Tribe is already developing educational programs to take advantage of the new technology. "By providing the Pala Learning Center with high-speed Internet access, UCSD has opened up an incredible amount of opportunities for our tribe and its future generations," said Robert Smith, Pala Tribal Chairman. "We will begin classes to teach both the older and younger generations of our tribe -- so that they can become more familiar with the many opportunities available to them through the Internet." As Smith suggests, one of the ways in which the Pala people are using the high-speed Internet connectivity is to educate their children. Doretta Musick, coordinator of the Pala Learning Center, is working closely with the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) to develop courses that will allow the students to make good use of the Internet and foster their educational objectives. "The kids are excited to learn more about the Internet, how it can help them complete their homework, and also learn new skills," said Musick. "Before we had the high-speed access, we had a dial-up connection for one of our computers, but that really limited what we could offer the students. For instance, now multiple kids are able to simultaneously look at Web sites with large images and multimedia files. It makes a world of difference for them to be able to finally experience virtual museums, libraries, and even compare their own Pala culture with those of other American Indian tribes." Another use of the Pala connectivity involves the federally funded Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program that serves several tribes in San Diego county. While TANF already provides needy families with basic computer classes, several of the recipients are interested in more advanced courses. "Along with Doretta's program, our group is also working with the San Diego Supercomputer Center to create a series of classes for TANF recipients," said Pam Arviso, a local TANF training contractor. "I have been working with many of these tribes for more than 20 years, and opportunities like the UCSD project do not come along very often. TANF is excited about offering more educational opportunities to the recipients, and we feel extremely fortunate to be a collaborator within this project." Arviso said that the TANF program not only serves the Pala tribe, but also other nearby tribes -- including the Rincon and La Jolla reservations. Both Rincon and La Jolla reservations are currently being considered as future deployment sites for wireless connectivity by the UC San Diego researchers. When the wireless connectivity is established on Rincon and La Jolla reservations, their residents will also be able to use the access for TANF classes and classes at their Education Centers, which serve K-12 children. The educational outreach efforts affiliated with the High-Performance Wireless Research and Education Network are only one component of a broader spectrum of activities. The research and science focus of the project is also providing field researchers and remote laboratories with high-speed Internet connectivity. One such recipient of the high-speed connection will be San Diego State University's Mount Laguna Observatory. "SDSU also has plans to build a large telescope, and the high-performance Internet connection makes the possibility of remote observing very attractive to potential academic partners outside of California who might help build the telescope," said Paul Etzel, Director of the Mount Laguna Observatory and Chair of the SDSU Astronomy Department. Similar applications for the wireless connectivity project involve geophysical research (i.e., earthquake sensors) being conducted by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, as well as ecological studies taking place through the SDSU field station programs at the Sky Oaks Field Station and Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve. Both the geophysical and ecological research occurs in east San Diego county, and the wireless connectivity will allow field scientists to easily transmit data collections from the remote field sites to their campus laboratories. The implementations of these connections are currently being researched and deployment is expected within the next few months. Network analysis research, including methods such as workload profiles (passive measurement and analysis), and performance (active measurement and analysis), is perhaps one of the most important aspects of the project. Currently, the UC San Diego researchers are working toward better understanding of the application needs and performance profiles, while continuing to evolve the network. "As new collaborators join the project, we will expand the capabilities and uses of the network to adapt to the new criteria," said Hans-Werner Braun, principal investigator of the High-Performance Research and Education Network. "The project is interesting because we are doing specific performance-related network research in a wide-area wireless networking environment that enables broadband 'last mile access'," said Braun. "But at the same time, we are providing real connectivity services for the day-to-day activities of scientific researchers in disciplines across astronomy, earthquake monitoring, and ecology - as well as to remote, under-served educational users such as those on the Pala Indian reservation." SDSC is an organized research unit of the University of California, San Diego, and the leading-edge site of the NPACI. SDSC is funded by the National Science Foundation through NPACI and other federal agencies, the State and University of California, and private organizations. For additional information about SDSC and NPACI, see http://www.sdsc.edu/ or contact David Hart, dhart@sdsc.edu, 858-534-8314. --------- "RE: Indian Women to Honor Outstanding Oklahomans" --------- Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 08:03:27 -0500 From: "John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate" Subj: Indian Women to Honor Outstanding Oklahomans ----- Forwarded by John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate Indian Women to Honor Outstanding Oklahomans Oklahoma Indian Times 10-20-2000 Ms Indian Oklahoma and Jr Ms Indian Oklahoma will assist the Oklahoma Federation of Indian Women in honoring Oklahomans in eight categories on Friday November 3, Nominations for the award will be accepted until October 1, 2000. And should be mailed to OFIW Awards, POB 1698, BA, OK 74013-1698. The Awards Luncheon will be held at 12 noon on November 3 at the All Tribes Community Church 2501 E. Archer, in Tulsa. Award categories include the following: Nancy Tsoodle Achievement Award for Outstanding Indian female student (13-17), Boyce Timmons Achievement Award for Outstanding Indian Male Student (13-17), Alice Timmons Founders Award for an Outstanding Indian or Non Indian individual who has founded or helped found and organization for Native Americans, Mary Townsend Crow Service Award for Outstanding Individual Indian or non Indian who has gone above and beyond the call of duty to serve Native Americans, Indian Woman of the Year for an outstanding Indian woman who has devoted time and effort to the Native American community. (Must be a member of OFIW), Indian Mother of the Year for outstanding Indian mother who has been a positive role model and pillar of strength to her family, (MUST be a member of OFIW), Outstanding OFIW member show has gone above and beyond the call of duty to serve and benefit the OFIW. Nominations can be accepted from anyone. Should be by letter with no more than four pages of additional documentation. Mailed to the above address or contact --------- "RE: HOMELAND/A Documentary" --------- Date: Wed, 4 Oct 2000 13:05:20 -0500 From: Chris Spotted Eagle Subj: HOMELAND, a documentary Mailing List: Minnesota Indian Affairs On November 16th, 2000, HOMELAND, a one hour documentary about four Lakota families, will air on Channel 2, Twin Cities Public Television and nationally on other PBS affiliates. Check local air time listings at www.itvs.org. HOMELAND, recorded over three years, explores what it takes for the Lakota community to build a better future in the face of tribal and government corruption, scarce housing, unemployment and alcoholism. Intimate interviews with a spiritual leader, a grandmother, an artist and a community activist from South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation reveal how each survives through family ties, cultural tradition, humor and a palpable yearning for self-reliance and personal freedom. The people and families are: + Michael Little Boy, a spiritual leader in his community, frequently holding ceremonies and helping people through Lakota prayer. + Thurman Horse, a young artist and father of four who struggles to raise his children in Cluster Housing?a reservation style ghetto. + Marian White Mouse believes that freedom begins by living on one's own land?being self-sufficient and living closer to the earth. + Doris Eagle, a 63 year-old grandmother, takes care of her grandchildren to see the sacred white buffalo calf born on their reservation. HOMELAND was produced and directed by Jilann Spitzmiller and Hank Rogerson of Philomath Films, in association with Independent Television Service (ITVS). Associate Producer, Jacqueline Keeler (Nakota/Dineh); Music by Keith Secola (Anishinabe); Additional music by Ulali and Indigo Girls. For preview tapes, tune-in postcards, flyers, and press releases, contact Pamela_Calvert@itvs.org, 415/356-8383 X242. Photographs, slides and screening cassettes are available through Susan Senk at 212/206-8974. Downloadable images of this program are available to press at www.itvs.org/pressroom/photos. Note: Information received from ITVS press mailing -- Chris Spotted Eagle cseagle@tc.umn.edu Voice/Fax 612/377-4212 --------- "RE: Cherokee Princess Is Tribal Myth" --------- Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 09:40:49 -0500 From: "John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate" Subj: (FWD)Indian News 10-18-2000 ----- Forwarded by John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate Cherokee Princess Is Tribal Myth, Joke KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE October 17, 2000 TAHLEQUAH, Okla. -- It's inevitable if you're American Indian. Somewhere, when you least expect it, a non-Indian person will step up and say, "My grandmother was a Cherokee Princess, I am trying to find out how to become a member of the tribe." The speaker always assumes that all American Indians know each other and are experts on tribal enrollment. The question can come from the mechanic, the professor at a large university or a next-door neighbor. Descendants of the famed Cherokee Princess are everywhere. She is elusive. Few who tell about her can actually remember her name. But she was "quite an old gal" with high cheekbones and brown skin. "You could see the Indian in her," they might say. It's often difficult, but if you're an American Indian, be polite, try not to laugh and direct the person to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for more information. The mythological Cherokee Princess is a legend in Indian country. Powwow emcees have used her for years to get crowds smiling. A Cherokee Princess joke is almost guaranteed to get an audience laughing, often leaving non-Indians scratching their heads as they try to figure out what is so darned funny. Those who reside in Indian country have long been known for their subtle humor, often dry, sometimes just plain silly. They have used the long-standing stereotype of the Cherokee Princess as a part of stories and jokes. There are even bumper stickers that proclaim, "My grandfather was a Cherokee Princess. It's an Indian thing." Perhaps no tribe has been so maligned or misunderstood as the Cherokee Nation when it comes to tribal enrollment. With more than 200,000 members, the nation has often been accused of enrolling anybody who applies. Misconceptions about the process are wide-ranging. It is misunderstood by Indians, non-Indians and even some Cherokees. One of the first myths that can be debunked is that of the Cherokee Princess. She really did exist . . . well, sort of. In years past, Cherokee men had an endearing term for their wives. Roughly translated, the term meant princess. Many Cherokee people say they believe this is how princess and Cherokee were joined. Thus there may be some truth to the myth. The Cherokee Princess did exist, not as royalty in the European tradition, but as beloved and cherished wives. So the next time someone says they descend from a Cherokee Princess, you may be able to reply, with pride, that you are the descendant of a darling or a sweetie pie. In spite of perceptions that come from the princess fable, the nation is not a monarchy. As early as the 1600s and 1700s, it recognized anyone who lived on Cherokee land and lived by Cherokee laws as a nation member, regardless of ethnic or racial background. Prisoners and slaves were eventually considered members of the tribe, if they lived as the Cherokee did. Historical documentation points out that the Cherokees understood the finer points of integration and were able to diminish barriers of race and ethnic origin long before the Constitution did. But that very ability to accept outsiders may have added to the later confusion over enrollment. After removal from their homelands, the Cherokees ended up in what is now Oklahoma. In their new home in Indian Territory, they continued the practice of accepting others into their tribe. Then the government decided that the Cherokee Nation needed to be organized. Between 1899 and 1906, the Final Rolls were completed, listing those Cherokees considered tribal members. This is where the confusion began. The federal government didn't have the final say on who appeared on the rolls. The Cherokee government worked with its people to include even some who were against the rolls. The consensus was that most Cherokees may not have liked the rolls but saw the danger of being left off. The rolls gave Cherokees an identity that would have to be recognized by the government. For many who didn't appear on the rolls, it was simply a case of being in the wrong place. Many Cherokees settled into homes away from Indian Territory so they were not listed. And even though someone may be a full- blooded Cherokee, they wouldn't be eligible for tribal enrollment unless their ancestors appear on those Final Rolls. Genealogy is key for enrollment with the Cherokee Nation. Instructions for eligibility are available on the nation's Registration Department Web site, www.cherokee.org. --------- "RE: Officials Ponder Bison Vaccination" --------- Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2000 08:03:33 EDT From: ShngSprt@aol.com Subj: Officials Ponder Bison Vaccination This seems ridiculous to me, Lea in GA offered to help with this about 3 years ago---and got no repsonse. Helllloooooo out there, any one listening??? From: kolahq@skynet.be (KOLA) <+>=<+>KOLA Newslist<+>=<+> [from Pat Morris. Thanks!] http://www.billingsgazette.com/content/local/brucellosis.php Officials ponder bison vaccination By The Associated Press YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (AP) - Federal officials are seeking ways to vaccinate bison against brucellosis, a disease that Montana livestock officials worry could be transferred to cattle. Possibilities include "bio-bullet" vaccines that are fired from high-powered pellet guns and dissolve after penetrating the hides of animals, and dropping oral vaccine bait from helicopters. Brucellosis can cause cattle to abort, prompting concern the disease could devastate Montana's beef industry if it turns up in cattle. Montana livestock officials have been hazing back into Yellowstone the bison that wander from the park during the winter. Bison that test positive for brucellosis are hauled to slaughter. To get around the problem altogether, the U.S. Geological Survey's Biological Resources Division is working with the National Park Service on developing a brucellosis vaccine and a way to administer it. Earlier this month, regional biologist Thomas Roffe fired bio-bullets into several bison calves and yearlings at the National Bison Range in Moiese, Mont. Preliminary results suggest that bio-bullets do not consistently penetrate tough, thick buffalo hides from more than 20 yards away. "Even at 20 yards I am not sure we will get more than 50 to 60 percent penetration," Roffe said. He has also tried shooting at 30 and 50 yards. Bio-bullets have been used for years to vaccinate elk herds at feeding grounds just north of Jackson. However, elk have much thinner hides and are accustomed to people. The vaccinators perch on feed trucks that the elk follow during the winter, said Wayne Brewster, deputy director of Yellowstone's Center for Resources. Yellowstone's bison have not been fed for several decades and are unaccustomed to being close to human beings, Brewster said. Ideally, park rangers would be able to vaccinate buffalo from 50 yards away, rather than 20, he said. Also, officials want to be sure the vaccine and delivery technique are safe for bison. Current vaccines can induce abortions among bison. The combined problems mean it could be 20, 30 or 40 years before the infection rate among Yellowstone's 2,800 buffalo can be drastically reduced by vaccination, he said. <+>=<+> 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: Court Rejects Tribal Governing Board Petition" --------- Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 10:29:13 -0500 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="Voting Rights" SUPREME COURT REJECTS TRIBAL GOVERNING BOARD PETITION LCO, Wisconsin. On October 2nd the United States Supreme Court rejected a petition by the LCO Tribal Governing Board [TGB] to review a decision of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in an ongoing tribal voting rights case. The case was brought in 1996 by Sandra Thomas and other tribal members against the Bureau of Indian Affairs for wrongfully overturning the vote of the LCO People in a 1992 Secretarial election to amend the LCO Constitution. In 1999, the Seventh Circuit ruled that Thomas and the other plaintiffs could proceed against the BIA without the TGB in the lawsuit. The TGB had argued unsuccessfully both to the Seventh Circuit and to the Supreme Court that they were necessary to the lawsuit but could not be joined because of sovereign immunity and therefore the case should be dismissed. The case has now been remanded to the district court for a decision on the merits of the case. The Long Battle for Voting Rights: Thomas v. U.S. Under the law, the LCO Tribe may seek to amend its constitution in one of two ways. Either the tribal council may request the BIA hold a federal election to amend the constitution by passing a resolution, or the LCO People directly may petition the BIA to hold the federal election and bypass the TGB. When the Tribe by the LCO People directly petitions to amend the constitution, the federal regulations provide that a "Spokesperson for the Petitioners" is appointed . In 1991, the LCO People petitioned the BIA directly to hold a federal election to amend the constitution and bypassed the TGB. Sandra Thomas was then appointed the official Spokesperson for the Petitioners. In 1992, the BIA held the Secretarial election and the LCO People voted to amend their tribal constitution. The election had the largest voter turn out in LCO history and the two proposed amendments to the constitution were overwhelmingly ratified by the membership. The BIA reviewed and approved the election within the statutory time limit and the constitution was officially amended. Some members of the TGB, however, refused to accept the results of the election. Though the 45-day time limit to review the election had expired, some members of the TGB still sought to overturn the election. Four members of the TGB in 1992 voted to declare the election "null and void." The BIA has since admitted that these members of the TGB had no authority to do so. Documents turned over by the BIA in discovery show that members of the TGB also sent someone to Washington D.C. to meet independently with government officials to overturn the election. The Thomas v. U.S. lawsuit was filed in 1996 against the United States and BIA. The lawsuit sought to reinstate the prior federal approval of the 1992 Secretarial election. The amendments in 1992 had changed the criteria for tribal membership from a blood quantum to lineal descendancy and the other changed the term of office for TGB members. Thomas argued that all of the children on the ancillary roll became eligible for full membership in LCO at that time and that they should have been eligible Indian programs for housing, education, health care since that time. By illegally overturning the election and denying these tribal children full membership, Thomas argued, the BIA had violated its trust responsibility to the LCO People. The recent tribal referendum in April of this year confirmed that the tribal membership still supports this change to lineal descendancy. (Lineal Descendency is based on a direct relationship between a parent and child, excluding other family relationships such as; grandparents etc.) With the case past several procedural hurdles, the legal issues are now squarely before the court. The district court now will decide whether the BIA officials had authority to issue the decision overturning the election, whether the BIA had authority to impose a blood quantum requirement on tribal members for voting in future federal Secretarial elections, and whether the BIA violated its trust responsibility to the LCO People when it overturned the election. Canadian Aboriginal is a Native-owned news service. c Copyright 1999 Canadian Aboriginal.Com Please send comments to editor@canadianAboriginal.com --------- "RE: Indian Tribes Reach Agreement on Remains" --------- Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 21:29:50 -0700 (MST) From: "Chris Milda (_Akimel O`odham_)" Subj: Indian tribes reach agreement on remains (Fwd) - - - - - - -- - - - - - - http://www.arizonarepublic.com/news/articles/1017remainsON.html Indian tribes reach agreement on remains Associated Press Oct. 17, 2000 16:08 DENVER - The remains of 350 unidentified Indians stored in the basement of the Colorado History Museum for the past century will be returned to 12 Indian tribes under an unusual agreement. Instead of waiting for state museum officials to sort out the identities, the tribes are working together to return the remains to their proper homes, said Ute Mountain Ute Chairman Ernest House Sr. "In the Indian world, once the remains are not turned back to the Earth where it came from, there is a soul that is still out there still wandering out on the Plains," he said Tuesday. The remains, ranging from skeletons to bone fragments, represent bodies that were discovered during construction projects, erosion and farming since Colorado became a state in 1876, said Lt. Gov. Joe Rogers, who helped broker the agreement. The 1990 Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act requires remains to be returned to tribes, but it imposes strict requirements on those listed as culturally unidentifiable to make sure they are returned to the proper tribe since tribal customs vary. Museum officials have returned four sets of skeletal remains over the past 10 years to the Ute and Pawnee tribes. They have several hundred more boxes of remains from Pueblo Indians who lived hundreds of years ago in southwest Colorado that will not be covered by the agreement. Those will remain in a special vault in the museum basement. Other tribes signing the agreement included the Northern Utes, the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, the Comanche Tribe of Oklahoma, the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, the Kiowa of Oklahoma, the Northern Cheyenne, the Northern Ute, the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, the Oglala Sioux, the Rosebud Sioux, and the Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota, the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara. All of the tribes passed through Colorado at one time or another. The tribes hope to have a ceremony next spring to turn over the remains for burial, House said. They plan to identify all the remains before burying them, a task that could be difficult since DNA testing requires a distant relative, and the tribes are not sure where to start. Nationwide, some 14,000 human remains have been returned to tribes under the 1990 law out of 200,000 that had been identified nationally as of last year. --- On the Net: Museum: http://coloradohistory.org/colorado-history-museum Copyright 2000, The Arizona Republic. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: American Justice Program on Peltier" --------- Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2000 20:12:00 -0700 From: Cody Paul Durnberger Subj: American Justice Mailing List: INDIAN Heritage I watched a program called American Justice today. It happened to be about a subject I've seen quite a bit of on the internet lately. A subject that I have been wanting to know more about so I could make an informed decision. Titled "Murder on a Reservation" it was a story involving Leonard Peltier. It seemed to be a well balanced story giving both sides of the story. I found it interesting that following the trial of the other two activists arrested for the deaths of the FBI agents, where they were acquitted, the Judge at Mr. Peltiers trial barred some defense evidence from being presented. Evidence that was crucial in the acquittal of the defendants at the earlier trial. Also interesting was the fact that some of the FBI's evidence would appear to be manufactured or contradictory. Viewing the FBI's story, the agents chased a car onto the reservation. Later it was said they were chasing a van. No it was a faded red Jeep. Another version of the government story , it was a truck. Ok so the government, who were in contact with the agents by radio, have changed the story 4 times about who they were actually chasing. After a gun battle when more agents finally entered the reservation they saw at least ten armed Indians running over a hill. Yet they only targeted the three AIM activists for investigation and arrest. What about the proof used to link Mr. Peltier to the crime? The only eye witnesses for the prosecution, young men 16 years old, also testified that they identified Mr. Peltier only after long interrogations involving threats and coercion. Ah, but the FBI found the murder weapon, an AR-15 belonging to Leonard Peltier. They found it, along with the agents weapons, in the possession of someone else. Hope they never find a gun of mine in the possession of someone else who may have used it in a crime. The FBI lab linked this AR-15 to the crime after matching shell casings to the gun. After the trial however, FBI memo's obtained through the freedom of information act show that this was not so. This weapon did not match evidence at the scene. The FBI replied that this was a prelinminary report and one shell found in the trunk, tested 4 months later, did indeed match. Since his conviction he has appealed many times. All of the appeals have been rejected. Judges who reviewed the case for appeal, however, have stated that while they could not reverse the decision on legal grounds, they also believe he is innocent. They have written to congressman such as Senator Inouye and Ben Nighthorse Campbell asking them to work toward clemency for him. The FBI still has lots of memoranda and evidence that it will allow no one to see. Officially they state they are keeping it for future prosecutions. Prosecution of who? They've closed the case. Mr. Peltier can't be tried twice for the same crime can he? What do they not want seen? FBI agents, active and retired are still actively working to keep him in jail. They have taken out full page ads identifying him as a brutal remoreseless killer. They run websites and information campaigns against any kind of parole or pardon. Does this sound like an impartial agency running an unbiased investigation? Is Leonard Peltier innocent or guilty? Whatever you may think it seems clear he was railroaded by a government agency hungry for someone to pay for the crime. Two of their own were killed and by their own admission someone has to answer for it. Is this justice in America? To contact the list owner, use stephenL@indiana.edu For information on available lists, other list options, and other generally useful information, visit http://php.indiana.edu/~stephenl/genealog.htm --------- "RE: RCMP Secret Report Dangerous" --------- Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 12:32:49 -0500 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RCMP Report" Canadian Aboriginal News RCMP secret report dangerous By: Kenneth Deer Eastern Door The recently discovered secret report by the RCMP which cites increased Native militancy because of recent court decisions reeks of self-serving babble. In order to justify its subversive actions against Native peoples and demands for increased funding, the RCMP uses any argument it can muster to meet its own ends. The increased activity by Natives are the result of years of abuse, subversion, oppression, fraud, deception and violations of our basic rights. The recent court decisions that have benefited the Native peoples are supposed to help us empower ourselves and share in the natural resources of our lands and waters. However, this new power is being reigned in by the governments and their police forces. The more they try to reign in our rights, the more 'militant' Native peoples will become. There should be no mystery about that. The RCMP is very eager to blame the court system for the problem of increased Native militancy. The RCMP should be only too willing to enforce the court orders that emanate from their decisions. But by blaming the court for increased activism, the RCMP are undermining the very court they are duty bound to uphold. It appears that the RCMP are warning the court system to back off from making decisions favourable to Native peoples because it could cause an increase of violence in Canada. If is this indeed the case, this is unacceptable: the RCMP should cease and desist from any suggestion that they are threatening the court system and its judges by connecting their decision to Native violence. The RCMP are obligated to uphold and respect the legal system they have made their pledge to. In that spirit the RCMP should be reminded that the Native peoples are the ones that have won these court cases not the Federal government. The courts have found the governments to be in violation of the rights of the Native peoples living in Canada, not the Natives. The RCMP should be watching the governments and how they are violating our rights, and act accordingly. However, this is not the case. The RCMP will not investigate nor take the initiative even to study the role that governments have in stealing our lands and our resources. They will probably argue that this is a political issue and not a criminal one. A convenient argument. However, when we exercise our rights as recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada, we are quickly criminalized and not given the benefit of bringing up a political issue. The RCMP's secret report is a confirmation of their subversive role: to oppress the Native peoples in Canada even when the court system upholds our rights. You will not see the RCMP charge the Federal or provincial governments of any violations of our rights because they do think that that is a crime. This is just another example of the institutionalized racism that permeates Canadian society. It is not a crime for governments to deny the Mi'kmaqs their right to hunt, fish and gather for over a century because it is a political decision. But it is a crime for Mi'kmaqs to exercise that right and they are arrested because of it. After the Marshall decision, the government is not arrested for denying the Mi'kmaq their right to hunt, fish or gather, but the Mi'kmaq are still arrested for exercising that right. Is it any wonder that Native 'militancy' is growing? The system in its current state does not work for Native people. We don't see justice or fairness And the RCMP are just a tool to continue the injustice that they perpetuate. Canadian Aboriginal is a Native-owned news service. (c) Copyright 1999 Canadian Aboriginal.Com Please send comments to editor@canadianAboriginal.com --------- "RE: Amnesty International Site for Peltier Clemency" --------- Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 10:29:13 -0500 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="Peltier Site" New Amnesty International Site for Peltier Clemency From: buffalowoman@LAMERE.NET Crys The Tears/Dreamwalker~Lakota I received this the other day and thought it would be of interest to all. Once signed into this new program there is a self generated letter to President Clinton requesting Clemency for Leonard Peltier and a request for a response from the president, An excellent site! Dear Member of Amnesty International USA's Government Action Network: We have been spending the last several months building a new website for the Government Action Network: www.amnestyusa.org/government and new software for online letter-writing. The new system will match you to your Congressional District and send you email alerts when we need you to take action on urgent legislation or when we need the administration to take action. By clicking on a link in the alert, you will be taken to our website, where you will be able to take action. You will be added to the system within the next few days, and you will receive an email explaining how to access the system. It will contain an initial password that you can use to check and update the information we have for you. Depending on how you joined the Government Action Network, we may be missing some of the information that we need to make sure that you receive your alerts, and to make sure that they are signed correctly. If you have any questions, please contact us. Joe Baker Grassroots Advocacy Director Amnesty International USA actioncenter@aiusa.org Respectfully Crys The Tears/Dreamwalker~Lakota Canadian Aboriginal is a Native-owned news service. c Copyright 1999 Canadian Aboriginal.Com Please send comments to editor@canadianAboriginal.com --------- "RE: Native Prisoner" --------- Date: Mon, 9 October 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 Ancestry: Ojibwa-Lakota -- - - - Stevens, Anthony Stevens, Tracy Scott #276-306 #315-672 WTFN 7-E-7 PO Box 511 1453 15th. St. Columbus, OH 43216 Pineville, LA 71360 Date of Birth: 1/6/67 Date of Birth: 8/14/74 Ancestry: Sioux Ancestry: Cherokee Stiles, Sam Sullivan, Rodney Lee #247-202 #BX7016 C/B#3 PO Box 5500 10745 Rt. 18 Chillicothe, OH 45601 Albion, PA 16475-0002 Ancestry: Kiowa Date of Birth: 5/8/67 Stevenson, Danny Joe Tatsch, Robert Scott #180-053 CN5578 PO Box 5500 10745 Rt. 18 Chillicothe, OH 45601 Albion, PA 16475-0002 Date of Birth: 1/9/45 Date of Birth: 2/5/64 Ancestry: Cherokee Ancestry: Cherokee/Navaho -- - - - 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 #640449, Estelle Unit, 264 FM 3478, Huntsville, TX 77320-3322 --------- "RE: New Theories on Anasazi" --------- Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 20:13:53 -0700 (MST) From: "Chris Milda (_Akimel O`odham_)" Subj: New theories on Anasazi: Entire villages moved farther than thought - - - - - - -- - - - - - -/ http://www.arizonarepublic.com/arizona/articles/1017anasazi17.html New theories on Anasazi Entire villages moved farther than thought By Robert Weller Associated Press Oct. 17, 2000 Newly discovered evidence suggests that the Anasazi who abandoned the Four Corners area centuries ago moved faster and farther south than previously thought. Researcher Stephen Lekson of the University of Colorado says evidence does not directly support claims of cannibalism, but it indicates "things were falling apart, and there was village on village violence." Work by other researchers, released last month, indicates cannibalism was practiced among the Anasazi, who once dominated the Four Corners region of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. Lab tests of human excrement found human remains. Lekson's work may require yet another revision of the standard history of the Anasazi. Anthropologists long ago rejected the popular theory that the Anasazi, now called Puebloans, abandoned their irrigated corn fields without a trace. They believe they migrated south gradually because of drought, war or overpopulation. Even hard-to-reach cliff dwellings apparently couldn't protect them. Navajo and Hopi people say the Anasazi are their ancestors. Scientists now use the term Puebloan people because Anasazi means "ancient enemy" in the Navajo language. Lekson says his team has found evidence of a swift migration of up to 250 miles to southern New Mexico around 1300. Research indicates a major drought began about 1150. "It looks like whole villages may have picked up and moved south together, not just a smattering of families," said Lekson, museum and field studies curator for the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History. "The standard model (of Anasazi history) is still true in many cases," Lekson said. He said droughts don't explain the whole story, because they had lived through worse ones. "It sure looks like everybody leaves in a hurry, not that everybody was chased out." Lekson reported finding three very similar ruins - Gallinas Springs, Pinnacle Ruin and Palomas Creek - on the west side of the Rio Grande River roughly between the cities of Socorro and Truth or Consequences. One site had 500 rooms. "We are looking at three fairly sizable settlements in southern New Mexico from the 14th century that look very much like Mesa Verde," he said. The most characteristic evidence found at all three sites is the typical "Mesa Verde black-on white" pottery scattered about. Lekson and his team first began working on one of the sites in 1998. Lekson and graduate students Curtis Nepstad-Thornberry and Brian Yunker surveyed a site called Pinnacle Ruin in June and found tantalizing evidence that a village-sized group from the Mesa Verde region settled there in the 14th century. Copyright 2000, The Arizona Republic. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Rustywire: Baby Love" --------- Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 03:37:17 GMT From: "rustywire" Subj: Baby Love Newsgroup: alt.native It was a nice day, the summer long ago and a few friends of mine took me to Phoenix. We were headed to the Coliseum there. There was a conflict brewing far off and there was the term 1-A, and someone pulled a December date out of a jar I guess and it came up 12. Letters, and notices and life changing things were going to happen and some had to take a break and visit strange and far off lands. Graduation was done and of the 38 senior boys, 12 got their notices. The Coliseum was at the state fair grounds, we went to Encanto Park and rented a couple of canoes and paddled around the place. We found a place to eat, somewhere on Central. The night found us with cheap seats, way way up high, the third row from the top. The show began and we could see those slender young ladies way down there with long white dresses and long white slinky gloves singing those Motown songs we came to know by heart. They sounded good and after a while we could see there were empty seats down there. As each song was sung, we found ourselves transported by magic closer to those lovely ladies. It was as if we were in a trance taking us to places we had not been. When intermission came, we were sitting there, somehow in the second row from the stage. We could see the sequins reflecting in the light, the twinkle in their eyes, and they came over to us. There were a few chairs sitting empty someplace near the middle and we carried these to the aisle, center row and sat there transfixed, four rez boys on a lark. Those young women, the Supremes came off the stage and walked over to us, and they were so near we could touch them. I can still hear those sweet voices, silky they were and later when I think about them, those guys who were with me, I wonder if they remember that time like me, when those simple words, Baby Love were real and it brings back a good summer day from long ago. Where are these young men now....I am sorry to say, one killed himself some years ago, the other I have lost touched with and my friend Lonnie, was found in December in a park in Colorado after a cold night. I did not know he was gone until by chance I saw his sister who told me he passed away in December, but back then we just sat there thinking about how things would be, our lives, hopes and dreams and the sweet sound those girls made when they sang their songs...... --------- "RE: Poem: From Earth to Water" --------- Date: 9/3/00 6:02:42 PM Eastern Daylight Time From: ethome@nbnet.nb.ca (ethome) Subj: from earth to water To: ShngSprt@aol.com -------------------- Dedicated to stopping world wide destruction of natural resources. The Deer Hunter's Elegy by Eric Lewis True After a rain, after a branch soaked journey, I sit near a clear cut watching silt filled water lazily run off the open yard. I stare at the torn floor my thinking fractured by the damage and I imagine a small deer watching from the trees in the distance a lonely spikehorn, safely from me. The ground is overchurned brown mixed with green, trampled remains, beyond all repair. Wind scrapes the earth with a shrill voice, tempest over the desolate barren waste and I pull out my clip held bullets. Inside, my heart stopped the hunt I think trying to get it straight; that once there was shelter here to house and feed kindred souls, gypsy hearts, while heaven's cool rains would fully quench all yearning thirsts and tenants felt the moisture washing their blood. It's because of this, that I sit here in this torture with my thoughts clinging to life - and feel disconsolate. The commercialized death of this once existing growth germinates a dark and looming gloom that grows from this pervading to destruction. In my head, I see a hidden ghost of sheer complacency, while bold capitalism on wheels with knives drives onward through forests with persistance, processing mechanical politics. Yet I sit here still alive, no escape from the eyesore. I try to imagine their fear of the roar and fumes their kindred all dispersed, running away from ravished homelands as their space shrinks, and their home is lost. But the truth remains unchanged. The truth hides only as long as it takes to hurt and the deer runs farther to live where the forest still stands until his churning stomach and craving hunger drive him out into a final solution, behind fences so ghastly unreal. Nowhere left to run, species all forced from shelter - and with this vision across this bare moonscape and with this wind swept air lashing emptiness in front of me, the truth starts to hurt. This message was created by a concerned citizen trying to use a powerful force, (www) to encourage others to continue to think about extremely important enviromental issues. If you have any problem with this message feel free to contact me at the enclosed email address. inspired by Delbert Clendenning and Lacoot Lake Area. copyrightELTRUE2000@E3B1G9..... --------- "RE: Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days" --------- Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 06:21:33 -0700 From: Debbie Sanders Subj: Hawaiian Book