From gars@speakeasy.org Tue Apr 24 02:11:42 2001 Date: 10 Jan 2001 01:40:09 -0000 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews09.002 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ O ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) O o O / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ O o O (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' O o o o o O ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ VOLUME 09, ISSUE 002 O o O / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' January 13, 2001 O o O / /-< / /--/ /-- Yuchi frozen ground moon O __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, Omaha snow drifts into tipis moon KANOHEDA ANIYVWIYA Ha-Sah-Sliltha Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin Un Chota Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min Aunchemokauhettittea Ximopanolti tehuatzin, inin Mexika tlahtolli 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 ndn-aim, LUMBEE-L, KOLA Newslist, Our Red Earth, Triballaw, First Nations, FOL-L, PrisonAct & RezLife mailing lists; Newsgroup:alt.native; UUCP email; http://www.indiancountry.com/index-nationnews.shtml http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2000/Dec-25-Mon-2000/news/15079862.html http://www.billingsgazette.com/archive.php?display=rednews /2001/01/02/build/local/slaying.inc http://www.hri.ca/partners/naps/ 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 still await that long-delayed recommendation from the Department of Justice as I write these words nearly five imprisoned years later. I pray hard that it will come soon. I pray that a golden eagle will fly off the flagstaff in the Oval Office and swiftly deliver that long-delayed recommendation from the attorney general's desk to the president's desk. And while the president sits there considering this innocent Indian man's appeal for clemency, I pray that that eagle will stand there on his desk, stare into his eyes, and join its cry to the cry of the millions of people around the world for my release." "Just a few night ago, I dreamed I was standing in the Oval Office with a group of Indians. I'm hopeful that dream will soon become a reality." __ Leonard Peltier, "Prison Writings...My Life Is My Sun Dance" +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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! The clock is ticking. Time is running out for Leonard Peltier's only hope - Presidential Clemency. Call or write today, every day. Better yet, call and write every day. Excerpts from a post by Koga Suyeta 14 Aug 2000 00:44:10 -0530 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. .. .. .. .. CALL OR WRITE ON BEHALF OF LEONARD PELTIER TODAY! Calling the regular White House number (202-456-1111) on a daily basis averages about $2.00 -$5.00 a week per person.. Dial 0 to bypass the recording and get through to an operator.. The LPDC had purchased a toll free number if you can not afford to call or are not at a place where you can make a toll call. It will cost them a lot so if you can call the regular number, please do so. The toll free is.. 1-877-561-1364. If you would like to be well versed when you call please refer to the LPDC homepage.. http://www.freepeltier.org/ Thank you.. Lona -- - - - 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. Insure a maximum sentence is imposed! .. .. .. .. Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2001 18:33:51 EST From: Rayann6@aol.com Subj: STEVIE THOMPSON THE FIRST ADDRESS BELOW DOESN'T WORK. THAT PAGE IS NOT AVAILABLE, SAYS THE MESSAGE. I LIVE IN THE EXTREME SOUTHWEST PART OF MN AND WE DON'T GET THE LOCAL PAPER. I CAN'T RECALL HEARING ABOUT THIS HORRIBLE INJUSTICE ON THE LOCAL RADIO EITHER. PLEASE ADD MY NAME TO THE LIST OF SUPPORTERS OF STEVIE. WE INDIANS (I AM CHEROKEE) WE'RE REGARDED AS BEING NON-HUMAN SOME 170 YEARS AGO AND TO SOME BLOCKHEADS, WE STILL ARE. WE CAN'T ALLOW THE JUSTICE SYSTEM TO CONTINUE TO TREAT A CRIMINAL LIGHTLY NO MATTER THE COLOR OR RACE OF THE VICTIM (A SOUTH DAKOTA WOMAN WAS KILLED BY A DRINK DRIVER LAS YEAR AND HE GOT OFF WITH A MERE SLAP ON THE HANDS. FAIR? NOT IN OUR EYES OR IN GOD'S). MAY GOD BE WITH STEVIE AND ANY RELATIVES HE HAS. MY PRAYERS ARE WITH ALL THOSE WHO CAN BE AT THE COURTHOUSE FOR THIS MURDER TRIAL. TOGETHER WE MUST STAND TALL AS WE WALK THE RED ROAD. nadine froderman -- -- Nadine, Thanks so much for your letter of support. It came after a discouraging day at the courthouse. First the hearing for Joseph Steinhauser that we thought was going to start at 9: am got started after 2:00 in the afternoon. Then was recessed for 45 minuets while the attorneys listen to a tape recording of Steinhausers statement to the police. You would think that they (the attorneys) would have listened to it already. But I guess its a low priority case. If Stevie had been the son of a Governor or Mayor this whole case would have been handled differently. Court was continued until Friday. I am thoroughly disgusted with the court system. Your letter gave me hope that people care and know that what these animals did to Stevie was wrong. Thank you for your prayers. I will print out your letter and give it to Frank Thompson, Stevie's dad. I know he will appreciate it as I do. Rayann The County Prosecutor for Stevie Thompson's case is Janice Barker. Her phone number is (651) 266-3058. Address is: The Ramsey County Government Center West, 50 West Kellogg, St.Paul, Minnesota 55102 The web page setup for Stevie is: http://hometown.aol.com/rayann6/stevieThompson.html URL http://hometown.aol.com/rayann6/StevieThompson.html (the 'S' and 'T' need to be capitalized) -- - - - While Slade Gorton and Marc Racicot have removed themselves from the selection process for Secretary of Interior, nominees to the Bush cabinet are very much the worry predicted. Things do not look good for Indian Country. We are entering another period of intolerance. Heading the list of concern are nominees for Secretary of Interior, and Secretary of Education. Gale Norton, former Attorney General for the State of Colorado is the nominee for Secretary of Interior. She has made it clear from the beginning she sides with industry. The concerns voiced in Alaska and North Canada are well founded. This lady will push hard for getting the oil out of the ground and out of Alaska. As for the Yellowstone Buffalo... start counting the gun shots. The recent agreement with the Montana DOL grants almost uncontrolled slaughter of the herd in line with the interests of the cattlemen in Montana. Dr. Rod Paige, Houston Independent School District Superintendent, is the Bush nominee for Secretary of Education. The Houston Independent School District is among the very worst in the nation for racism and stereotyping through use of Native American mascots. I am sickened such a man would be considered for a position of trust regarding any children, much less every child in the United States. What next? Bigotry 101? These nominees sound an alarm. It says much about the administration they represent, most of it disappointing and disrespectful of the Native Peoples in its constituency. Speak out now. Let your congressional representatives who will accept or rebuke these nomination know what it means to the First Citizens of these lands. 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 ---------- - Prevent Walmart from - Why We Failed to Wipe Out Racism Destroying Burial Ground - Department of Education Nominee - Summertown Burial Ground Petition - Massacre in Colombia - Catawba Indian Nation - Slaying Probed by FBI of South Carolina - Please Help Free Leonard Peltier - Tribe Can Again - Leonard Peltier Petition Call Death Valley Home for Clemency - Tribe Seeks Redress - Native Prisoner of Uranium Illnesses - Rustywire: Metwe' - Shoshones Upset over Planned Burn - Poem: Tomorrow - Feds Refund - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days Shoshone-Bannock Members - English Only Laws/ - Tigua Enrollment Racism in Disguise is Stalled in Senate - Unique Academy - Coastal Miwok Indians Preserves Indian Culture Regain Federal Status - Canada's Aboriginal Languages - Chinook win Federal Recognition - Tribal Secretaries Conference - A Battle Over Who Is Indian Scheduled - Governance - Upcoming Events --------- "RE: Prevent Walmart from Destroying Burial Ground" --------- Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 07:10:23 -0600 From: "Nimchira" Subj: battle to prevent Walmart from destroying burial ground ------- FORWARD, Original message follows ------- From: "Rebecca Reid" Mailing List: ndn-aim Local Indian groups in Morgantown, West Virginia, and The American Indian Movement have received another gift in our battle to prevent Walmart from buying and destroying an Indian burial ground near Morgantown, WV. The Monogalia County Board of Commissioners (where the burial site is located) have voted to support efforts to recognize the site as a park to honor the Indigenous of the area and provide accurate education. Two weeks ago the City Council of Morgantown gave us the same support. A story can be seen at www.dominionpost.com - click on news(daily)12-27 story #5. Native American Artist "Fading Eagle" AKA James Locklear-Brooks has rendered a watercolor painting commemorating our efforts in Morgantown. In an attempt to raise much needed funding prints are being made available for $5.00 plus $2.00 S+H. 11x17. Prints can be ordered by sending $7.00 to AIM4JUSTCE P O BOX 06167 Columbus, Ohio 43206. (note S+H remains the same for up to 5 prints per order. Checks payable to: M. Sherman) All funds raised will benefit the Morgantown efforts. Thank You, Matt Sherman Madage Moniga Rep. National Field Office American Indian Movement Dennis J. Banks, Director PLEASE POST WIDELY To subscribe to this group,send an email to: ndn-aim-subscribe@egroups.com Archived on line at: http://www.eScribe.com FREE LEONARD PELTIER --------- "RE: Summertown Burial Ground Petition" --------- Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2001 08:16:44 -0500 From: "Janet Smith" Subj: Summertown burial ground petition From one of my lists - this threatened burial ground is practically next door, near Stone Mountain, GA in Gwinett County. In the past, the county has demonstrated insensitivity to tribal and other concerns in their rush for development. There have been other areas over the past few years where there are known Native American burials that have been bulldozed for development, over the protests of local tribal people. Serious as the burial ground issue is, this doesn't just amount to an Indian problem. You only have to listen rush hour traffic reports and read the news to realize that this is one of the high-density areas where lives and automobiles are wrecked daily due to overcrowded roads, where air is choked with the exhaust from too many vehicles and filtered by too few trees, where raw sewage pours into the Chattahoochee because the water treatment infrastructure simply hasn't kept up with development, and more. The authors note is shown below, and under that, the full text of the petition that can be found on the web. Janet Smith Owlstar Trading Post http://www.owlstar.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Edward Reynolds" Sent: Friday, January 05, 2001 3:00 PM Subj: [LUMBEE] Summertown Burial Grounds Petition Online Mailing List: LUMBEE A petition to help stop the development of the Summertown Burial Grounds is now online at http://www.PetitionOnline.com/SUMRTOWN/petition.html Please forward to as many folks/list as you can. For those who are do not know, a developer is trying to build a sub-division on this tract of land. Our county has voted in a sales tax to aquire land and leave it undisturbed green-space, but now the commissionors are trying not to approve buying it and let the land owner develop it. There are three studies that show these are Indian Mounds and the developer has his own that shows they are not. The Mounds are on property that connects to what has been know as the Hightower Trial. Please sign the petition and help preserve these mounds. Edward Reynolds New email Address is ereynold@speakeasy.net --------------------- The petition: The undersigned descendants of the Cherokee, Creek and other Indian Nations and supporters of the Summertown Homeowners Association hereby petition John Dunn, District 3 Commissioner, Gwinnett County, Georgia, to request that an immediate, emergency executive session of the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners be called and that he move that the Board of Commissioners make an immediate offer at the Strippling appraised market value for the 191-acre tract and 15 adjacent acres owned by Bermuda LLC near Stone Mountain, Georgia, on the historic Etowah Trail, a major Indian highway through Georgia leading to the Etowah mound complex which later became the Gwinnett-DeKalb county line. The undersigned petitioners commend the sustained and self-sacrificing efforts of the homeowners in the Summertown subdivision and on Deshong and Bermuda Roads to preserve this tract, which archaeological studies have confirmed include Indian artifacts. We honor them as warriors and ask that Commissioner John Dunn support their efforts to preserve this site as undisturbed greenspace. --------- "RE: Catawba Indian Nation of South Carolina" --------- Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 23:04:47 -0800 (PST) From: Paul Pureau Subj: Catawba Indian Nation of South Carolina Mailing List: ndn-aim http://www.indiancountry.com/index-nationnews.shtml Catawba Indian Nation of South Carolina The nation's proposal to finance construction of a $200 million, high- capacity plant is the only active proposal for a regional sewage plant for three South Carolina counties. The Tri-County Regional Wastewater Committee ended an effort that has cost hundreds of thousands of dollars when it voted to disband Dec. 13 in the face of growing opposition. A group of legislators announced a bill Dec. 13 that would limit how much out-of-state wastewater South Carolina plants could take for treatment. The proposed legislation, combined with almost certain opposition from Catawba Riverkeeper Donna Lisenby and the Lake Wateree Homeowners' Association located downstream, prompted the motion to disband. The measure could affect the nation's plan as well. The nation offered to finance a single-plant option, to place a treatment facility in Lancaster County, with a large pipeline running along the eastern bank of the Catawba River. State Rep. Bill Cotty, R- Columbia, called the Catawba proposal "the world's largest porta-potty." Fred Sanders, a Catawba, said the project has never been put before tribal members. It will destroy "burial grounds, ceremonial grounds and clay holes. And to destroy all this for money is beyond my measure," he said. "We are not to disturb Mother Earth, tribal member Claire Wilson said. ===== Paul Pureau to subscribe to ndn-aim send a blank mail to: ndn-aim-subscribe@egroups.com ndn-aim is now archived on line at Http://www.escribe.com/life/ndn-aim/ FREE LEONARD PELTIER --------- "RE: Tribe Can Again Call Death Valley Home" --------- Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 09:43:42 EST From: kolahq@skynet.be (KOLA) Subj: Tribe Can Again Call Death Valley Home >To: ShngSprt@aol.com <+>=3D<+>KOLA Newslist<+>=3D<+>[from Paul Pureau. Thanks!] Tribe Can Again Call Death Valley Home By William Booth Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, January 1, 2001; Page A03 FURNACE CREEK, Calif. -- For thousands of years, the Shoshone Indians of Death Valley have clung to this otherworld of sun-blasted rock and salt, a tribe as tenacious as the desert plants that seem to need no rain in one of the hottest, driest and lowest places on Earth. Their old songs tell of the Shoshone living here from the beginning, since the Time When Animals Were People, when the mythological Coyote brought them to this land. But then the outsiders came: first the gold rushers of 1849, then the borax miners, cattle ranchers and, finally, the tourists. It was the tourists, and the National Park Service and its corporate concessionaires, who almost drove the Shoshone from their aboriginal homelands. In one of the more remarkable chapters in a long, sad, inspiring history, the Timbisha Shoshone Indians were granted ownership of their own reservation within Death Valley National Park last month when President Clinton signed legislation after years of acrimonious debate. All together, the Timbisha Shoshone were awarded 7,600 acres in several scattered parcels outside the park. The most controversial was the 314 acres they were given within the park itself. It is the first time that indigenous people in the United States have been given treaty lands in an established national park, and it may mark a signal event in thegrowing movement of other expatriated tribes seeking ancestral homes or larger presences in other national parks. From the Everglades in Florida, to the Badlands in South Dakota, to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, this is an emotional and highly charged cause, as some tribes seek rights to "co-manage" national parks, not only for the preservation of natural resources, such as bison or salmon, but also, in some cases, to perform ceremonial gatherings of plants and the hunting of animals -- even if many of the Indians have forgotten exactly how the plants or animals might have been used. The Indians may also, like the Shoshone in Death Valley, be given the rights to build their own tourist motels and gift shops (but not yet casinos) within the national parks and, more interestingly, to erect their own interpretive museums that will offer visitors a very different perspective about who was here first, and how they were treated by the dominant culture. Of the "crown jewels," the best-known national parks, almost every single one has some relationship with Indians that is almost always accompanied by disputes over water, entrance fees, sacred sites, wildlife management or cultural interpretation. Here in Death Valley, the landless tribe was given not only a reservation but also the rights to co-manage some resources, such as the groves of mesquite and pinyon, some of their traditional foods. "One thing about the Shoshone is that always we were a simple people, very simple," said Pauline Esteves, 76, a tribal leader as stubborn and thorny as mesquite who has fought with the federal government for most of her adult life. "All our culture, all our songs, and our language, is about the land," Esteves said, sitting in the shade beside the mobile home the tribe uses as its headquarters. "Waters, valleys, wildlife, plants, air. All connected. They say we Timbisha do not need anything to lean on, that we just are here. We exist." After Death Valley National Monument, later a national park, was established in 1933, the Timbisha branch of the Shoshone tribe living in the park was ignored or harassed. Considered orphans in the federal bureaucracy, they were poor, jobless, landless. As Philip Burnham wrote in his new book, "Indian Country, God's Country: Native Americans and the National Parks," the Shoshone were sometimes seen as "an embarrassment." Tourists who came to contemplate the awesome stillness and harsh beauty of Death Valley, earlier park superintendents believed, did not need to see impoverished Indians living in dirt-floored shacks with blankets for doors. In more recent times, many environmental groups have expressed opposition to Indians living in parks. Even today, the Shoshone are almost invisible -- their interpretive presence in the park limited to a small display case in the park's visitor center, which is at the site of the Shoshone's winter encampment. From the patio at the Furnace Creek Inn, one of the oldest and most prestigious resorts in the country, built in the 1920s by the Pacific Borax Co. before the land became a national park, a visitor can watch the flaming red sunsets over the Panamint Mountains that rise to the west across Death Valley. When the light is just right, the guest might catch a glint of light on the valley floor below. That is the Indian Village, a collection of about 16 structures and about 50 tribal members, living in crumbling adobes and mobile homes, inhabited mostly by elderly people and children. The village does not appear on any park maps. When the tribe erected a sign a few years ago along Highway 190 to announce its presence, it was deemed "tacky" by the park service, which wanted it replaced with a regulation park service sign. The Indians' own sign still stands. The park's new superintendent, Dick Martin, hopes that the land deal marks a new era of cooperation with the Shoshone. He appreciates that for many years, the service was "the bad guy" in this fight. "Now, I couldn't be happier with this agreement," Martin said. "We're going to make it work." To grasp more completely the saga of the Shoshone here, it is necessary to go back in time. The Shoshone themselves say they have been here for all eternity, since the People were born. Catherine Fowler, an anthropologist at the University of Nevada at Reno who has assisted and studied the tribe, says there is evidence of human habitation in Death Valley and the surrounding mountains going back at least 13,000 years, to the end of the last Ice Age, when Death Valley was not the dry and barren salt flat it is today, but a shallow lake. At the park's visitor center, the exhibit cases suggest there have been at least three distinct groups living in the park, each employing different stone projectile points, with the Shoshone appearing about 1,000 years ago. The exhibit leaves the impression that the earlier aboriginals hunted big game with big spear points, while the Shoshone used smaller weapons and ate rodents, rabbits and birds. Although this is accurate enough, Fowler suggests that it is equally possible that the Shoshone are the descendants of the earlier people, and that they adapted their lifestyles to the changing environment, from wetter and cooler to drier and very, very hot. "Artifacts do not come with little tags attached to them," Fowler said. It is just as plausible that they are the same people, the same descendants." Tim Canaday, the archaeologist for Death Valley National Park, agrees that the material record of habitation goes back at least 10,000 years and that no one really knows who was here. There are 2,000 known archaeological sites in the park, of which no more than 5 percent have been excavated or analyzed. Historians, scientists and the tribe, however, all agree that for the last 1,000 years, and before the arrival of the outsiders, the Shoshone pursued a semi-nomadic lifestyle in the Death Valley lands. They spent the summers in the high mountains, gathering pine nuts and hunting bighorn sheep in the cooler elevations. During the winter, they came back to the valley and its mild pleasant temperatures, gathering around springs, harvesting mesquite beans and hunting the smaller game. Their isolation ended when a few straggling, starving parties of Forty- Niners stumbled into Death Valley. The Shoshone fought several small skirmishes with the prospectors who came later but eventually gave up. They worked in the borax mines and then for the Greenland Ranch at Furnace Creek. They picked dates, herded cattle, washed and ironed clothes. Eventually, in the 1930s, they were moved to the land they occupy today -- land that keeps being covered by migrating sand dunes. The Civilian Conservation Corps built the tribe some adobe houses in the 1930s, but the park service several times tried to demolish the homes when the Shoshone left during the summers. Esteves remembers coming home one fall day to find her family's adobe home a pile of mud. "There had been a fire, and they mowed the whole house down with water hoses," she said. "Nobody knew what to do with us. They wanted to get rid of the Indians." And so the tribe stopped migrating into the cooler mountains in the summers. Many tribal members left, and today about 250 Shoshone live outside the park. But about 50 stayed through a half-century of summers, when temperatures in the valley routinely hover around 120 degrees. It was a brutal existence. As a girl, Esteves remembers sleeping outdoors near the Furnace Creek resort, so she could be cooled by the sprinklers watering the golf course. The tribe was officially recognized and federally sanctioned in the 1980s, and since then, its members have been fighting for their land. The struggle has taken its toll. Only a few Timbisha Shoshone still speak their language. Esteves does. Tribal administrator Barbara Durham, in her forties, understands the language but does not speak it. Her daughter, Melissa Bright, 20, does not the language at all. She can count to 10 in Shoshone. Today, when she sings some of the tribe's songs, she does not know what the words mean. Copyright c. 2001 The Washington Post Company --------- "RE: Tribe Seeks Redress of Uranium Illnesses" --------- Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 00:28:37 -0800 (PST) From: Paul Pureau Subj: Tribe seeks redress of illnesses tied to 'uranium homes' Mailing List: Our Red Earth Deposits of ore, danger Tribe seeks redress of illnesses tied to 'uranium homes' By Bill Papich, Globe Correspondent, 12/27/2000 OAK SPRINGS, Ariz. - On sandstone-layered hills overlooking this Navajo community in northeast Arizona, chunks of blown-apart rock cover the ground and shelter the small lizards hiding from hawks in the desert sky. Below the hills are Navajo homes made of the same rocks, but all the homes are abandoned. The Navajo call these structures "uranium homes," because they are made of uranium-ore waste rock blasted from the hills. From the 1940s and into the 1970s, the Atomic Energy Commission oversaw the uranium mining that fueled America's nuclear-weapons arsenal during the Cold War. But the agency did not tell the people that their newfound building material could emit dangerous radiation. Now they know, said Phil Harrison of the Navajo Uranium Radiation Victims Committee, which is seeking federal compensation for relatives of uranium miners who are sick. "A lot of families are dealing with various illnesses," Harrison said, pointing to a yellow-greenish spot on a rock in the wall of one home. "They all think it came from their exposure, but nobody can prove it. Kids are sick, mentally retarded, disabled. We need to find out who else is sick besides the miners." The Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency learned of the danger in the late 1970s and began replacing some of the houses. But that effort fizzled in the 1980s and lay dormant until the mid-1990s. Since then, the poorly funded, undermanned effort has been unable to learn the severity of the problem, and no one is sure how many buildings or people are affected. Still, the scope of the lingering effects from the mines, and from the homes made from the cast-off rocks, is potentially vast. Navajo men worked unprotected in some 1,300 mines across the 27,000- square-mile Navajo reservation, which covers parts of Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. Miners who developed lung cancer have each received $100,000 in compensation through the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act, approved by Congress in 1990. President Clinton signed an executive order for an extra $50,000 per miner by July 2001. But miners who suffer from other diseases do not qualify for compensation. The federal Indian Health Services agency, which administers health care on the reservation, does not recognize any link between disease and long-term residence in homes made of uranium-ore waste rock. Until the Navajos realized the hazards of uranium ore, the rocks were considered a fringe benefit of the mines. The waste rocks were piled outside mine entryways, and the Navajos found that with a little chipping around the edges, these tan, relatively flat rocks made excellent building blocks. Miners often took rocks home after work, stockpiling them to use in building new homes. In the Navajo Nation community of Teec Nos Pos, tribal member Carolyn Clark, 35, said her father built the uranium-ore house that she and her seven siblings grew up in. Her father was a uranium miner who committed suicide at 31, she said. "I guess he had health problems, and he just decided to get it over with," Clark said. Now her daughter has cerebral palsy, which Clark believes may have something to do with the house. Harrison's father, a uranium miner, died of lung cancer at 45. Harrison has kidney disease and awaits a transplant. He recalls when his father, who toiled 20 years in the mines, came home from work and his mother shook out his clothes. "Everything would be airborne," Harrison said. "You eat with it, you drink with it. So practically everyone would be exposed." Sarah Benally, a member of the victims' committee, has a thyroid condition. As a child, she lived in a waste-rock house at Oak Springs and now believes that she and others who occupied the houses were harmed by near-constant radiation exposure and by inhaling and ingesting radioactive particles. But the homes weren't the only threat, tribe members say. Navajo women cook bread in outdoor ovens, and an oven near Benally's house is made of uranium-ore waste rock that sheds particles when rocks crack from the heat. "We didn't know these rocks were contaminated," Benally said, pointing to a wooden house with a foundation made from the rock. The US Environmental Protection Agency has been conducting helicopter surveys of the area to measure radiation. Of the waste-rock structures currently used by Navajo families, the agency has so far identified two with dangerous radiation levels. One has 44 times the radiation considered acceptable by the EPA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "We're just at the tip of the iceberg," Derritch Watchman-Morre, executive director of the Navajo EPA, said of uranium homes she expects to be discovered. "We want to remove the exposures, whether from waste-ore piles, homes, or foundations. But there's the [lack of] funding and convincing people there's a problem," said Watchman-Morre, whose office still uses typewriters. The Navajo EPA receives funding from the EPA regional office in San Francisco. Watchman-Moore said the tribe hopes to get uranium mine areas listed as EPA Superfund sites, which would make them elegible for federal cleanups. But the chance of a sparsely populated Navajo reservation area achieving Superfund status appears unlikely because Congress enacted the program with urban, industrial areas in mind. "Potentially, we may list some of these sites on the Superfund," said Betsy Curnow, the EPA's regional manager for Superfund assessment, "but this is a huge problem, a huge area, and we've got to make sure we're spending our money on the very worst problems out there." The legacy of uranium mining on the Navajo reservation is more than the destruction of the land and the health problems related to the mining, said Carol Markstrom, professor of child development and family studies at West Virginia University. She has identified post-traumatic stress syndrome among Navajos who not only have lost friends and relatives to poisoning from uranium mining but also lost their way of life. For example, Markstrom said, areas that were used for gathering plants and herbs for healing ceremonies have been contaminated by uranium mine waste. "It goes beyond contamination of your drinking water that could poison you or contamination of your livestock," she said. "It's the fact that what is sacred is profaned, contaminated. What these people have here is a disaster." This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 12/27/2000. Copyright c. 2000 Globe Newspaper Company. ===== Paul Pureau to subscribe to ndn-aim send a blank mail to: ndn-aim-subscribe@egroups.com ndn-aim is now archived on line at Http://www.escribe.com/life/ndn-aim/ Thank you for your participation at Our Red Earth. --------- "RE: Shoshones Upset over Planned Burn" --------- Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2000 14:40:54 -0800 (PST) From: Martha Elizabeth Ture Subj: Shoshones upset over planned burn Mailing List: TRIBALLAW (triballaw@thecity.sfsu.edu) http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2000/Dec-25-Mon-2000/news/15079862.html Monday, December 25, 2000 BLM FIRE MANAGEMENT: Shoshones upset over planned burn Tribe says thousands of acres of pinyon pine would be lost By KEITH ROGERS REVIEW-JOURNAL The Bureau of Land Management calls it a fire management plan. But the Western Shoshone National Council calls it incineration of their native land. Incineration that over the next 20 years could destroy thousands of acres of pinyon pine -- a traditional food source that goes back thousands of years. Council officials say they will meet a deadline Friday to appeal the Ely District's decision to issue a final plan titled "Managed Natural and Prescribed Fire Plan." They claim the views of a few Shoshone tribes are sparsely represented in the final document and that the national council was not included in the plan's development. The plan's main element is to let wildfires in designated areas burn naturally up to a certain point. But it also allows for some prescribed fires, those purposely set on tracts of land from hundreds of acres in size up to 2,500 acres. Over the plan's 20-year span, these could add up to tens of thousands of acres throughout the 35 specified areas. The BLM intends to use these prescribed fires as a way of improving the health of the landscape and reducing long-term threats from catastrophic wildfires. "Obviously, there is no such thing as a 'controlled burn,' " said one council official, Ian Zabarte, recalling a National Park Service prescribed burn in May that got out of control and destroyed more than 200 dwellings in Los Alamos, N.M. Zabarte contends the lack of notice from BLM's Ely Field Office violates an executive order that requires all federal agencies to prepare assessment of their effects on minority, low-income populations and those with subsistent lifestyles. "They haven't done that," Zabarte said in an interview last week. The council's southern representative, John Wells of Las Vegas, said he too has concerns. The lack of notification sounded an alarm, he said, noting, "It was really odd." Zabarte explained what stands of pinyon pine mean to Western Shoshones. "We have had this symbiotic relationship for thousands of years. We plant these trees. We pray for these trees. They feed our animals. They feed us," he explained. Zabarte said it takes a pinyon pine 75 years to mature, and the trees bear fruit -- pine nuts -- for 400 years. The BLM's Ely field manager, Gene Kolkman, said he's not sure the national council is clear about what the plan entails. "It's very late in the game. A lot of these comments surprised us," he said regarding the council's sudden interest in the plan. "The Ely Shoshone indicated they need another 40 days. We'll probably give it to them." Kolkman said the plan is designed to reduce the amount of trees and brush, or the so-called fuel load, in areas where, for a century, natural fires have been snuffed by firefighters, allowing trees and shrubs to continue growing. The fuel load now is so great, he said, that wildfires burn too hot, sterilizing the soil so that seeds deposited naturally won't sprout. "These larger and hotter fires are not healthy for the land," Kolkman said. Had natural fires over the last 100 years been allowed to burn themselves out under lesser fuel loads, the soil conditions would have been much cooler. Seeds in the ground during these cooler fires will later sprout and grow. Zabarte says the plan's environmental assessment is inadequate because it doesn't consider impacts on all Western Shoshones, of which there are 10,000 spread primarily throughout the Southwest. In one paragraph, the plan addresses American Indian concerns, stating, "Native American tribes/bands which utilize resources within the plan area include the Duckwater Shoshone, Ely Shoshone, Goshute Confederation, and Moapa Paiute. According to the Ely Shoshone Tribe, 'Our traditional values respect plants, animals, soil, air, and water, and are sacred to us as native people.' The Ely and Duckwater Shoshone tribes favor natural fires over other vegetation treatments." Zabarte's position, however, is that "you can't fit the whole of Western Shoshone society, including spiritual relationships, through the funnel of cultural resource studies." Zabarte also asserts that the plan fails to recognize Western Shoshone's rights to a wide swath of Nevada that the tribe calls Newe Sogobia, which cuts diagonally across about one-third of the state. The land, he says, was never relinquished under the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley. BLM's Ely Field Office manages 8 million acres of pinyon pine and juniper. The 20-year fire management plan covers roughly 3.5 million acres of bureau-controlled, public lands. The thrust of the plan, according to Kolkman, is to designate a given amount of acres in certain areas of the district that will be allowed to burn if a fire is caused naturally by a lightning strike. For pinyon-juniper stands, the plan's long-term objective through natural fires is to reduce the fuel load on 875,000 acres over the next 20 years. The Western Shoshone National Council has discussed traditional firefighting methods. "We know the land. We can work out there all night," Zabarte explained. Prescribed burns would be used for a small fraction of the acreage covered in the plan. Kolkman said in a worst-case year in the Ely District, wildfires burn 50, 000 acres. "That's one-half of 1 percent of the pinyon-juniper," he said. "If we assume in the future that it could expand to 100,000 acres, that would be 1 percent of the pinyon-juniper wood base," he said. This year, the worst wildfire in the Ely District, the Coyote fire, burned about 15,000 acres in eastern Lincoln County, about one-third the size of this year's Los Alamos, N.M., fire. By August, at the peak of the wildfire season, 5.6 million acres burned nationwide, double the yearly average during the past 10 years. Some 25,000 firefighters from the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia were called in to battle wildfires during August on 1.4 million acres across the nation. Kolkman said he believes the Western Shoshones' concerns can be resolved. "My hope would be if we could continue to work through this process and finish it before the fire season, in May or June," Kolkman said. "We'll work this out. I don't think we're that far apart," he said. Copyright c. Las Vegas Review-Journal --------- "RE: Feds Refund Shoshone-Bannock Members" --------- Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2001 07:38:07 -0600 From: "John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate" Subj: (FWD)Indian News 01-04-2001 ----- Forwarded by John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate on 01/04/2001 07:37 AM Feds Refund Shoshone-Bannock Members for Lowball Leases THE ASSOCIATED PRESS January 2, 2001 BLACKFOOT, Idaho -- Eight Shoshone-Bannock tribal members have received checks from the federal government for the difference between what they wanted to lease their reservation land for and what the Bureau of Indian Affairs actually charged. The payments were part of the agreement settling the lawsuit filed against the federal government by the Fort Hall Landowners Alliance over leases issued by the bureau in 1995. Under the deal, the government declined to admit any wrongdoing but agreed to pay the reservation landowners the $25 an acre they set as a minimum rent for their land instead of the $16 an acre the land was actually rented for. "It's important that we let other tribal members and the Fort Hall Business Council know that we are accomplishing something in our fight," Alliance Coordinator Ernestine Werelus said. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ordered the payments after the bureau failed to meet his deadline of Dec. 31 for having in effect new regulations for carrying out the American Indian Agriculture Resource Management Act. In their lawsuit, the tribal members claimed the bureau superintendent at Fort Hall violated the law and bureau policies by ignoring the landowners minimum rent demand and leasing their lands to a local farmer for nine dollars less an acre without the owners consent. The arrangement with farmer John McNabb went on for two years before the land owners realized what had happened. Prior to suing in federal court, the tribal members challenged the local superintendent's action with the bureau's area director in Portland. While he held that the reservation superintendent had no authority to lease the land without the owners' consent, he said $16 an acre was a fair price. They objected to that finding and went to court on the grounds that they were not permitted to present evidence defending the $25-an-acre minimum rent. --------- "RE: Tigua Enrollment is Stalled in Senate" --------- Date: Wed, 03 Jan 2001 07:34:17 -1000 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TIGUA HOLDUP" Tigua enrollment is stalled in Senate by Brian Stockes Today staff Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - As the Congressional session ended, Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, halted passage of a bill which would have allowed the Tigua Indians of El Paso, Texas, from updating requirements for enrollment within the tribe. The bill earlier passed unanimously in the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and was referred to the full Senate. However, just moments before the Senate was set to vote on the measure, Gramm asked that the bill be pulled from consideration. The Tigua or Ysleta del Sur Pueblo is the oldest community in Texas, yet one of the newest pueblos. Located within the El Paso area, Ysleta was established in 1681 by refugees from the pueblo uprising against the Spanish in New Mexico. Spanish missionaries and loyal Tigua Indians settled at El Paso de Norte and built Ysleta Mission. The mission remains the focal point for the Tigua community. The tribe was not federally recognized until August 1987 through an act of Congress. The bill, H.R. 1460, would have amended the 1987 Ysleta del Sur Restoration Act to allow inclusion on the tribal rolls of children of currently enrolled members. To be on the tribal rolls, a Tigua must have at least 1/8 blood quantum. The proposed bill would change that requirement to 1/16. The request for a change in the blood requirement usually is a routine and internal issue for most tribes, without Congressional approval. However, under the 1987 Restoration Act, the Tiguas require Congressional approval for any such change. No official reason for pulling the bill has been given by Sen. Gramm. Tigua tribal leaders say they believe the Texas agriculture commissioner, who has voiced opposition to one of Tigua's trust applications, complained to Sen. Gramm's office regarding the blood quantum bill. Tigua council representatives say they attempted, on numerous occasions, to speak with both Sen. Gramm and the Agriculture commissioner but their calls have not been returned. "We are very saddened and outraged that this critical measure for the people of the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo would fall victim to the ugliness of apparent racism," said Albert Alvidrez, governor of the Pueblo. "Native Americans have historically been the brunt of outrageous mistreatment in the past and as our country has become more culturally diverse, this kind of treatment should have no place in public policy." The Tigua tribe has more than 1,200 members. If the proposed bill were passed, an additional 500 persons from the descendants' database would be eligible for membership. Alvidrez says that without passage of the bill, the pueblo would be reduced to a mere handful of members within three generations. Tribal records, from March 1999 to March 2000, show 30 newborns were placed on tribal rolls. Of those, only two infants had a blood quantum of 1/4. If the other 28 infants were to eventually have children, with non- members, the blood quantum of the offspring would fail to qualify for membership. Alivdrez says that is a problem the tribe should be allowed to address with no restrictions from the federal government. "Texas has a long record in promoting segregation, racism, and failing to recognize the contributions Native Americans have made in this country and our rights as Indigenous people," Alvidrez said. "The genocide and governmental eradication of Native Americans in this state is a hallmark of Texas politics." H.R. 1460 was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Sylvester Reyes, D-Texas, and passed the House without opposition in September. The bill is expected to re-emerge in the 107th Congress. "What I have is a profound sense of how important it is for members of this tribe to belong to a family, a culture, and a people with a distinct place and tradition in America," said Rep. Reyes. Brian Stockes reports from Washington, D.C. He can be reached at (202) 783-0212 or by e-mail bstockes@earthlink.net. Copyright c. 2000 Indian Country Today --------- "RE: Coastal Miwok Indians Regain Federal Status" --------- Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2001 07:27:24 -1000 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MIWOK RECOGNIZED" Coastal Miwok Indians regain federal status Wednesday, January 3, 2001 Breaking News Sections (01-03) 00:57 PST PETALUMA, Calif. (AP) -- After nine years of pushing for recognition by the federal government, President Clinton signed legislation restoring status to the Coastal Miwoks. The legislation, signed last week, gives the 400 tribal members in Sonoma and Marin counties access to federal health, housing and educational benefits. The status also allows the U.S. government to hold land in trust for members as a reservation and make it easier to rebury ancestral remains. Congress stripped the tribe, now called the Federated Indians of the Graton Rancheria, of its federal recognition in 1958 in an effort to assimilate members into American society. The policy scattered the tribe's members. The tribe has no plans for a casino or other gambling operations, but it is considering business proposals such as a cheese factory, said Greg Sarris, tribal chairman. Copyright c. 2001 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c. 2001 San Francisco Chronicle --------- "RE: Chinook win Federal Recognition" --------- Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2001 07:27:24 -1000 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CHINOOK RECOGNIZED" Tribe that welcomed Lewis and Clark wins federal recognition Jan. 3, 2001 | 4:14 p.m. By MATT KELLEY Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- The American Indian tribe that welcomed the Lewis and Clark expedition to the mouth of the Columbia River won formal recognition Wednesday from the federal government. "It's a historic day and a glorious day for us," Chinook tribal chairman Gary Johnson said at a ceremony at the Interior Department. "We're just really excited, because our grandmothers and our grandfathers and our families have worked for this day for so long." The tribe, whose more than 2,000 members are based in what is now southwest Washington state, signed an 1851 treaty that was never ratified by Congress. The Chinook had other dealings with the federal government through the years, but had been denied the formal relationship. The tribe applied for federal recognition from the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1981 and appealed a preliminary decision in 1997 against them. The tribe discovered that a large amount of information from their application had been mislaid in a desk drawer at the BIA. "It was a long-standing injustice that we finally got the opportunity to begin to remedy," BIA head Kevin Gover said. "What's ironic about this is, a number of federal agencies working on commemorating the 200th anniversary of Lewis and Clark were looking to work with the Chinooks, but the Chinooks were sort of shut out of the commemoration because they weren't recognized." The Chinook, now the 562nd tribe to be recognized, can seek land for a reservation, as well as more federal money to run its government. Tribal members already get health care from the Indian Health Service and many own allotments on the Quinault reservation, about 75 miles north on the Pacific coast from the tribe's original home. Chinook tribal members gave the Lewis and Clark expedition food and valuable information as the explorers spent the winter of 1804-05 near the mouth of the Columbia. Johnson said the tribe would like to have a reservation in the same area. AP-CS-01-03-01 1703EST Copyright c. 2001 St. Louis Post-Dispatch. --------- "RE: A Battle Over Who Is Indian" --------- Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2001 07:27:24 -1000 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WHO IS INDIAN" A Battle Over Who Is Indian A nationwide debate is raging as membership and other benefits are denied to some who lack a certain percentage of native blood. Without more inclusiveness, some fear tribes will die out. By HECTOR TOBAR, Times Staff Writer PABLO, Mont.--Janice McClure is the keeper of a crumbling ledger book, a census of the Confederated Tribes of the Flathead Reservation completed almost a century ago. It contains 2,000 names penned with meticulous handwriting by a federal "Indian agent," each person identified by a crude measurement of racial ancestry: "Frank Ashley, one-half blood . . . Agnes, five-eighths blood." "I don't like seeing that pedigree," said McClure, 55. She has relatives in the book, and the fractions leave her with an ugly feeling. American slaves were classified like that--as "quadroons" and "octoroons," labels long since forgotten. But the blood degrees assigned to the Flathead tribes don't disappear when McClure locks up the ledger inside a closet at the tribal headquarters here. The 1904 census has morphed into a new list, this one on perforated computer paper. With each passing year, the numbers on that list grow more complex: 17/64, 111/128, 165/256. A "blood quantum" still is assigned to each child born here and on most reservations across the United States. On the Flathead Reservation, those at a level of one-quarter or higher become members of the tribe. Those with "thinner" Indian blood are, in the eyes of federal law, outsiders. Blood has become an obsession among nearly all of the nation's 550 officially recognized tribes. Families have been divided over it. Some want the quantum fractions done away with. Last fall, 1,000 of the Confederated Flathead tribe's 6,000 members signed a petition to have the rules relaxed. They were bitterly opposed by Patrick Pierre, a 71-year-old tribal elder and one of the dwindling group of "full bloods" on the reservation. "I was in my sweat lodge, praying, so that this would not pass," Pierre said. "There's no ifs, ands or buts when you're working with the spirit. If this passed, we'd be adopting everyone into the tribe." Similar disputes are being fought on reservations across the nation. The Catawba tribe of South Carolina, the Paiutes of Nevada and the Tigua of Texas have all debated the rules of blood quantum and tribal membership in the last year. Among a few tribes, casino money has fueled the controversy. But there are no gambling riches on the Flathead Reservation--home to three unified tribes: the Salish, Kootenai and Pend d'Oreille. Here, tribal membership entitles you to a monthly government stipend of less than $100. Instead, the battle over blood quantum is here, as elsewhere, a disagreement about what makes an Indian an Indian. Are you Salish if the blood of a single Salish grandparent courses through your veins? Can you call yourself Kootenai if your mother whispered that tribe's folk tales into your ears--parables about coyotes and white-tailed deer--even if your eyes are green or blue? The sides in the Flathead controversy are sharply drawn: those who see Native American traditions under assault from "wannabes" and those who believe the blood rules are a genetic time bomb threatening to make many tribes extinct. Today, there are 200 or so full bloods in the united Flathead tribes. The youngest is pushing 40. "If this trend continues, we feel we're going to be phased out," said Darryl Dupuis, a leader of the drive to relax the rules. "There will be so few of us that the BIA [Bureau of Indian Affairs] will say we're not a tribe anymore." Despite such grave warnings, it is tribal elders such as Pierre who are the strongest backers of blood quantum. These deeply spiritual men are fighting to save what is, they acknowledge, a "white man's rule" imposed on the tribes by the hated U.S. government. "Over the years, we've lost so much as a people," said Tony Incashola, a tribal elder and member of the Salish Culture Committee. "We've lost our language, our culture. . . . The people trying to get into the tribe [now] don't believe in the traditions." With sadness and anger, Pierre points out that his stand on blood quantum has caused "members of my own family to turn against me." His nephew wrote a letter to a local newspaper calling those who oppose the changes "hypocritical people . . . who go to bed with their white woman every night." The Flathead Reservation isn't the only place where the debate has turned shrill. Blood quantum is an inescapable fact of life for most Native Americans, perhaps the most regulated, counted and classified people in the United States. One academic has identified 30 activities that require Indians to certify tribal membership--everything from health services to the possession of eagle feathers for ritual dances to the right to sell one's craft work as "native" art. On the Flathead Reservation, people have been known to order up DNA tests to sort out their blood levels. This winter, one woman had a corpse exhumed: The resulting DNA test proved the dead man was her father, raising her blood quantum. 'It's Cooler Now to Be an American Indian' These days, it sometimes seems as if everyone wants to join a tribe. Several companies offer "step by step" guides to "trace your Native American heritage." Every year, tens of thousands of people try to sign up for tribal membership. The Cherokees get the most applications--about 19,000 annually. If you can prove you're related to one of the people listed on a tribal roll completed in 1906, you too can become a Cherokee. "It's cooler now to be an American Indian than it was 30 years ago," explained Mike Miller, a tribal spokesman. A generation ago, young Native Americans were under pressure to assimilate into white society. Now the cultural winds have shifted. On Internet bulletin boards, men and women seek mates who are "FBI [full- blooded Indian] Mohawk" or "FBI Navajo." "Years ago, when I was young, people were ashamed to be Indian," said Stephen Small Salmon, a part-time actor and full-blood member of the Pend d'Oreille. "Now you look at some of these people who claim to be Indian. I see white people dancing like Indians. They drum like Indians. An Indian person is somebody today." Small Salmon doesn't bother hiding his resentment. The "new Indians," as he calls those who embrace their heritage later in life, are able to move back and forth between the white and Indian worlds. They didn't pay the emotional toll their darker cousins faced. Now those same people might be declared just as "Indian" as he is. Small Salmon thinks this is unfair. "If I have one drop of white blood," he said, "that doesn't make me white. Right?" Sorting out ethnic identity is a knotty problem in this corner of Montana, where centuries of intermarriage have made the reservation a sort of New Orleans of the Rockies. Here most people are metis, or mixed, with ancestors from France, Scotland and even distant Indian tribes such as the Iroquois (who came here from New York as fur trappers in the early 19th century). The current blood requirements were established in 1960, when the U.S. government pressed tribes to give up their old forms of government--based on tribal elders--and adopt U.S. style constitutions. Today, about 80% of U.S. tribes require a certain level of blood quantum, from 1/64 for some Eastern tribes to one-half for the White Mountain Apaches of Arizona. "We don't do this with any other group of people," said Jeff Corntassel, a Virginia Tech professor who has written about the politics of Native American identity. "The idea is to prevent the existence of blond and blue-eyed Indians. And at the same time, there's always been diversity in Indian nations." The idea that "blood is equated with culture" and that blood can be used to determined national identity is "a 19th century, European idea," Corntassel said. Most of the tribal rolls used to determine blood quantum were compiled, like the one for the Flathead Reservation, about 100 to 150 years ago. The Indian agents performing the count operated under the same archaic assumptions about biology and culture that produced now-discredited fields such as eugenics and phrenology. To verify Indian-ness, the federal agents devised degrading "tests": In the 1908 census of the Chippewa, counters plucked hair strands from people to compare to a chart for straightness, and rubbed stomachs. "If your belly turned a brighter red, you would be less Indian," Corntassel said. Some Stay Out of the Debate Given blood quantum's long and ugly history, not everyone on the Flathead Reservation feels comfortable taking sides in the debate. "I can't say one way or another if it's good or bad," said Alan Chauncey Beaverhead. "My wife and I, we try to keep to ourselves on this." Ask Beaverhead what he "is" and he'll answer: "I'm part Kootenai, part Pend d'Oreille, half Yakima, with some Nez Perce and Cree thrown in." All of those relatives add up to an official blood quantum of 57/64. His mixed heritage has caused him some problems--like the arguments that break out when he plays stickball, a traditional Indian game, with people on the Pend d'Oreille end of the reservation. "Things will get heated up, and some guy will say, 'He's one of those Kootenais. That's how they are.' " At 39, Beaverhead is one of the youngest people who can speak Salish fluently. He works to keep traditions alive by transcribing folk tales and reminiscences tape-recorded by tribal elders. "Sometimes I think that if we'd kept our language stronger, we wouldn't be having these disagreements." Darryl Dupuis traces his ancestry to his great-grandfather, Camille Dupuis, a French fur trapper who married an Indian, Philomene Finley. Both are listed on the 1904 census, Camille as "white, adopted" into the tribe, and Philomene as "three-fourths Pend d'Oreille." Look at the modern-day Dupuis, a tall man of 66, and the Native American features are unmistakable: When he joined the Army in the 1950s, he endured taunts of "Hey, big chief!" But Dupuis' official blood quantum level is just 11/32. And his children are 11/64, which is 5/64 short of the degree required for membership. "Even if you look like you're an Indian individual and you speak the language and practice the traditions, if you don't have the correct degree of Salish and Kootenai blood, then you can't be a tribal member," Dupuis said. Still, after 125 years in which his family has intermarried with whites, Dupuis is also clearly a metis. His is not the classic profile captured in turn-of-century studio photographs of tribal chiefs, men of chiseled features and weathered, dark-brown skin. Residents Take Note of Distinctions The differences may be subtle, but to people on the reservation, they are noticeable and important--if not always spoken. People who are "more Indian" pride themselves on growing up in the old ways. They eat deer stew and harvest bitter root plants in the spring. Before meals, they say grace in Salish or Kootenai. They live in corners of the reservation known as "Indiantown"--whites actually make up a majority of the population here--or in small trailers along the highways that wind through valleys of yellow grass. For them, the mixed bloods are more affluent and more assimilated into white society. Thurman Trosper is, at first glance, one of those people. He lives in a spacious ranch-style house overlooking hundreds of acres of pine forest that he owns. His blood quantum is one-eighth, although he is still a tribal member because he was born in 1917, before the current requirements were established. A World War II veteran, Trosper is a tall man with blue-gray eyes who also happens to be passionate about Native American rights. "Prejudice is an ugly thing," he says. His family's story is tied up with what most scholars agree is the seminal event in the history of the tribes here: the opening of the reservation to white homesteaders in 1910. That act was a blatant violation of the tribes' 1855 treaty with the U.S. One of those homesteaders--a poor farmer from Kansas--was his father. The elder Trosper married a woman who was one-fourth Indian. But among white people then, a strict social rule applied: Even one drop of Indian blood made you Indian. Thus, Thurman's 1912 birth certificate lists his race as "breed." His mother was also a "breed" and thus shunned by her in-laws. "Most of my uncles treated my mother like dirt," Thurman said. But Thurman's light complexion allowed him to drift between the Indian and non-Indian worlds. As a teenager, he courted a young white woman who lived on the reservation. But her father found out, confronted Trosper and chased him away: "I don't want you marrying that girl and have a bunch of papooses running around my floor." Roughly 70 years later, history has flip-flopped. Trosper is labeled an outsider by the reservation's full bloods. They're angry because he's one of those working to have the blood quantum rules changed. "There's people who are tribal members and then there's people who are Indians," Pierre said. "It's not the same thing." Copyright 2000 Los Angeles Times --------- "RE: Governance" --------- Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2001 22:36:41 -0500 From: "Marcel R. Guay" Subj: governance Mailing List: First Nations The Algonquin word for rattlesnake is: "Iroquois". I doubt that it means that the Algonquin thought the Iroquois were a bunch of cuddly kids. The Algonquin also named the Mohawk, which means "cannibal monster" in their language. Yet the Six Nations Confederacy, included the Mohawk, and five other Tribes make the Iroquois Nation. What is interesting was that the example of the Iroquois Confederacy was used by the British colonialists to set up the Canadian Confederacy. Perhaps it is time to re-visit this example and apply the thousands of years of civilization to the newer European methods of governing North America. After all, in the history of humans, the European model of government is new, less than 300 years in the making, while Indigenous civilization is thousands of years in development. Why was this Indigenous government example used to set up the basis for Canada's provincial/federal government (administration and bureaucracies were set up on the British model, the same as in the U.S.) and what use might that example be for today? What the British admired about the Iroquois Confederacy was its ability to form a consensus between very different points of view. They saw Tribes, sometimes at war, select representatives (by consensus), meet in a great lodge, speak openly on all issues, respect each others' points of view and reach a consensus agreeable to all. The consensual opinion decided issues, such as trade, war, peace, cultural exchanges and the like. The final decision had to be unanimous to be carried out. Leaders were men or women most able to convince others of their position and form these consensual agreements. The idea of a majority vote ruling the minority was unacceptable or uncivil to the Iroquois Confederacy. In order for a decision to be made each and every representative had to agree to it totally or that decision was not made. The Iroquois Confederacy, like all Indigenous government, was based on this kind of consensus, which in turn depended on total freedom of the individual. Each free individual had to feel a government decision fit with his or her understanding of their personal responsibility for all creatures, plants, or "creation" in general. If consensus was the means to making an executive decision, the values of the Indigenous People in the government was based on principles or values of each individual being responsible for maintaining creation in a free state, and then values like the importance of extended family, respect for wisdom both of individuals and of those elders from the past. These values seems totally foreign to the European model for government. Few everyday decisions are made on the basis of consensus. Few government decisions are checked to make sure that they will not result in damage to the environment. That is why, the Canadian government, for instance is able to decide to enforce rules for business about the ozone layer, while at the same time expanding nuclear energy plant sales to countries unable to ensure the safety of their use of the technology. If all decisions had safeguarding the environment as a primary goal, these decisions could not conflict as they do. The Wendat historian, George Sioui, summarized Indigenous social/political values as being aware of the relationships between humans and creation, plants and animals. But importantly, freedom for all, including the creatures, to live and have a good life. The freedom of creation is necessary to ensure the freedom of People. People all over the world have had their freedom stolen. The European model of government by majority rule negates the freedom of the minority. It rules Indigenous People and dominates and Nature as its guiding principles. Within the values of European government it is doing the "right thing". To start bring traditional values into daily use, it is crucial that two things happen: 1) Indigenous People must begin to revive their valuable form of government. Like the English legend of King Arthur, we must remember that the land and us are one. This does not mean taking over the Band office or Metis local as much as it means researching the particular way a Tribe applied the general principles of Indigenous government, and then education the People about it. 2) Indigenous People must assume their responsibility to govern by consensus and in the light of Indigenous values such as maintaining creation, supporting extended families, respecting wisdom, education children and youth and sharing. Once this is applied to the Band or Tribal government or Metis local, it will again serve as an example for the surrounding federal and provincial governments. It is important for Indigenous People to begin leading by example again. For those who need more information: The origin of the Iroquois Nation, http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/3808/lvl20.html marcel guay --------- "RE: Why We Failed to Wipe Out Racism" --------- Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 22:44:30 -0800 (PST) From: Paul Pureau Subj: Why we failed to wipe out racism Mailing List: ndn-aim Why we failed to wipe out racism and how we can manage to do it! by Aman A. Motwane Guest columnist News item: The Coca-Cola Co. recently agreed to pay a record $192.5 million to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit. In addition to this settlement, Coke will donate $50 million toward minority programs and invest an inestimable number of hours and dollars reporting to watchdog committees and conducting annual diversity training for its managers. News item: About a month earlier, the United States government admitted to the United Nations Anti-Racism Committee that despite 40 years of affirmative action, we have failed to wipe out racism. We still have major problems with stereotyping, segregation, discrimination and economic inequality. Why have 40 years of one of the toughest anti-bias laws in the world failed to do the job? Does diversity training have a chance of ever really working? There's no sugarcoating the answer. We have failed because we have been attacking only one side of the equation. As in the classic case of the schoolyard bully, it's not enough to simply restrain the bully. We must also infuse the child being bullied with confidence and a sense of self-sufficiency. Otherwise, the child will remain susceptible forever. In the war against racism, we have devoted most of our energies to curbing and educating those who discriminate. There has been no concerted effort on a national scale to strengthen those who are the potential target of discrimination. Effort such as the Jesse Jackson-sponsored, "Be proud you are black" do not count. Such themes create a sense of separation and are just as racist as, "Be proud you are white." To truly strengthen every individual, the theme of our campaign should be, "Be proud you are you." The underlying message of such a theme is, "Everyone is equally important. You are not inferior (not superior) to anyone." A simple reality of life is that every individual, without exception, possesses inherent strengths - a combination of characteristics, talents and skills uniquely their own and at which they unequivocally excel. These strengths remain hidden in most individuals, sometimes for a life time. The task before us is to guide every individual to discover his or her inherent strengths and then, to play to these strengths in a way that creates value in society. Once an individual's unique value becomes clear, discrimination becomes a non-issue. Does discrimination hold back Tiger Woods, Jennifer Lopez or Deepak Chopra? True, not everyone can become or even aspires to become a Woods, Lopez or Chopra. But they can become the Woods, Lopez or Chopra of their own world. When they do, they will automatically earn equality with their peers. And earned equality is better than forced or legislated equality. In our zealousness to legislate equality, we have been placing individuals by preassigned quotas instead of matching them to their unquestionable strengths. We have become blind to the truth of the individuals that inhabit our world. Imagine a scenario in which the young Tiger Woods is so obsessed with gaining equal access he never sees his inborn talent for gold. Such a scenario may sound ludicrous, but it is repeated every day across the country. Our ultimate goal should be nothing less than a fundamental change in how every individual sees himself or herself. Today, the strongest message most people get is from outside their family. The message is a resentful, "I help you because I have to." This fosters the internalized belief, "I am not good enough." We must transition to a society where the primary message every individual hears is, "I believe in you; you make a difference." And they should hear this message from their immediate support structure (parents, family and teachers). With this foundation of love and respect, every individual with flourish. Such a transition cannot be legislated. But it does need to be orchestrated on a national scale. Let's start with the influence leaders - the politicians, the civic leaders, the celebrities - and permeate the message through our entire social fabric. Without a doubt, signing new laws or preaching diversity is a lot easier than nurturing a nation of individuals to help bring out their best. But after 40 years of disappointing results, it's time to do some serious soul-searching and face reality head-on. if we don't, our progress with racism during the next 40 years will be no less embarrassing than our recent report to the United Nations. The United States of America is revered around the world as the land of opportunity. It is time to create an environment where all citizens are able to unearth their true talents and match them with these vast opportunities. Editor's note: Aman A Motwane of Redondo Beach, Calif., is the author of "The Power of Wisdom - When You Change How You See the World, Your Whole World Changes." Copyright c. 2000 Indian Country Today ===== Paul Pureau to subscribe to ndn-aim send a blank mail to: ndn-aim-subscribe@egroups.com ndn-aim is now archived on line at Http://www.escribe.com/life/ndn-aim/ FREE LEONARD PELTIER --------- "RE: Department of Education Nominee" --------- Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2001 13:39:44 -0600 From: "Charles E. Yow, Esq." Subj: Department of Education Nominee Mailing List: ndn-aim Please Give This The Widest Distribution Your Assistance Is Greatly Appreciated We apologize for not writing a personal letter. We have a limited number of e-mail addresses and time is pressing in the following regard. We would appreciate your assistance in forwarding and posting this message to inform all entities and people interested in native rights. Please feel free to modify the following as necessary and substitute your name were our names or references are found. Department of Education: Confirmation Hearing: Dr. Rod. Paige Over 500 Native American, Religious and Civil Rights organizations are on record opposing the use of Native American based mascots. Among the school districts with the worst record is the Houston Independent School District lead by Superintendent Dr. Rod Paige . President-elect Bush has nominated Houston Independent School District Superintendent (HISD) Dr. Rod Paige to head the U.S. Department of Education. With the use of Native American based mascots coming under more frequent review, the propriety of singling out a race or ethnic group for use in the entertainment of other members of society is recognized as harmful to Native American students and other students of color. Of great concern is the realization that where a school district utilizes a mascot identified with a race or ethnic group, the likeness is virtually always that of a Native American. The adoption of a Native American mascot is most often accompanied by the utilization, and more often the cartoonization of the likeness of a Native American. In addition, Native American religion, traditions, and culture are used in the taxpayer funded entertainment of non-natives at school sporting and other activities and functions. Native American based mascots create, encourage, and/or perpetuate racially hostile conditions for Native American and other students of color within the district. As such they have no place in an educational setting. The Native American Heritage Initiative is a consortium of legal professionals, and other individuals that work in the support of other Native American entities in matters they are addressing that involve addressing heritage and civil rights issues effecting Native Americans. In this regard, on behalf of Native American and other students and residents of color, the Native American Heritage Initiative was asked by Native American and other community members to contact Dr. Paige regarding HISD's use of offensive and degrading Native American based mascots. The initial portion of our investigation started with an examination of prior efforts. One group that has been involved for a long period of time has posted the timeline of its involvement with the HISD mascot matter at: http://www.setaim.com/houston_timeline.html Our interaction with Dr. Paige is similar to the total lack of interest and concern described by Native American parents, students, and community leaders who also expressed concerns with the Dr. Paige's lack of leadership regarding HISD's use of Native American mascots. Based on various sources with direct interaction with Dr. Paige it is safe to conclude Dr. Paige is not concerned with matters affecting native children, residents or staff and has steadfastly refused to address the issue of Native American based mascots. In this regard Dr. Paige has refused to even consider the possibility that names such as "Redskin" could be or are offensive to Native Americans. Dr. Paige's communication has made it clear he takes the narrowest view of the law possible to retain his Native American based mascots. In a time when affirmative action and other programs designed to reduce discrimination face erosion, we do not need a person without the willingness or ability to understand issues of concern to Native Americans in a position to affect the education of all Native American and other children of color. We need to get the issue of Dr. Paige's lack of interest and concern before members of the senate committee that is reviewing his fitness to lead the United States Department of Education. General e-mails can be addressed to webmaster@labor.senate.gov After sending e-mail we would appreciate it if you could forward a copy to CYow@Yowlaw.com Please also e-mail the following senators on the committee. Senator Kennedy http://kennedy.senate.gov/main.cfm Senator Dodd Senator@dodd.senate.gov Senator Harkin tom_harkin@harkin.senate.gov Senator Wellstone http://www.senate.gov/~wellstone/webform.html Senator Mikulski http://www.senate.gov/~mikulski/mailform.htm Senator Bingaman senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov Senator Murray senator_murray@murray.senate.gov Senator Reed http://www.senate.gov/~reed/form-opinion.htm Senator Jeffords http://jeffords.senate.gov/contact.htm Senator Gregg http://www.senate.gov/~gregg/body_e-mail.htm Senator Frist senator_frist@frist.senate.gov Senator DeWine http://www.senate.gov/~dewine/request_form.html Senator Enzi Senator@enzi.senate.gov Senator Hutchinson senator.hutchinson@hutchinson.senate.gov Senator Collins Senator@collins.senate.gov Senator Brownback http://www.senate.gov/~brownback/email.html Senator Hagel http://www.senate.gov/~hagel/Email/contact.html Senator Sessions senator@sessions.senate.gov The hearing on Dr. Paige's nomination is scheduled for January 10, 2001 http://www.senate.gov/~labor/107Hearings/107hearings.htm E-mails should be sent as soon as possible. To be included in the committee material e-mails sent to webmaster@labor.senate.gov should be sent no later than the evening of January 7, 2001. E-mails to committee members are very important, please also e-mail your state's senators in the same regard. Additional guidelines for testimony are listed below. Please feel free to contact me in this regard. Your help is greatly appreciated. Respectfully, Charles Yow, Esq. Native American Heritage Initiative NAHI@Yowlaw.com 228-467-3226 413-793-2993 (fax) Following are the names and rules for submitting a letter or testimony regarding Dr. Paige's attitude and support of Native American based mascots. Many senators use web form e-mail, to make this easier we are including the names of the members of the senators. To access their web sites click on the names and you will be directed to their site. Letters can be faxed to: FAX 202 224-6510 Attn: Scott Giles Letters can be mailed to: Scott Giles Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee 835 Hart Building Washington, D.C. 20510 If you wish to submit testimony the rules for testimony are found at http://www.senate.gov/~labor/Hearings/guideln/guideln.htm and posted below. Guidelines for the Submission of Prepared Testimony of Witnesses before the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions for Inclusion on the Committee's Web Site http://labor.senate.gov Submission: Prepared testimony should be sent to the Committee Staff Contact or Webmaster at least 24 hours before the hearing, in order for it to be included on the web site. Testimony may be copied onto a floppy disk, or sent via e-mail to webmaster@labor.senate.gov. Prepared statements are usually published on the web site within 48 hours of the hearing. Statements received after the hearing will be published on the web site as time permits. Style and Format: Testimony should be typed using a standard word processing or text program. The predominant operating system in the Senate is Windows 95/98 using Corel's WordPerfect 8 wordprocessing program. This is the word processing program used in this Committee. We also accept testimony in Adobe Acrobat 4.0 format. Testimony should have the following information as the heading: - Name of Witness [as he/she wants to be listed] - Short title of witness [optional] - Before the Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions - United States Senate - Title of Hearing - Date of Hearing The formats that works best for testimony published on the Committee's web site are as follows: - Single spacing - Normal capitalization of titles, sections, headings [initial caps] - Initial caps of the body of the testimony; do not submit all-caps format - Soft returns in formatting unless at the end of a paragraph - No indentation at the beginning of paragraphs - Ariel font is compatible with the Committee's web site format Floppy Disk If you are submitting your testimony on a floppy disk, please use a 3-1/2" formatted [HD/DS] MS-DOS disk. Label the disk with the witness' name, date of hearing, and brief title of hearing. Do not send zip disks, jaz disks, tapes, or Macintosh formatted disks. Things to avoid: - No underlining [in web formatting, that denotes a hyperlink] - No Footnotes - No tables in the body of the testimony [the GPO printed copy will have those] - No capitalization of blocks of text or entire sentences - No Graphs, charts, or diagrams in the body of the testimony - No fancy formatting, such as multiple paragraph indents, or line separators If you have any questions, please contact the Health and Education's Webmaster, by e-mail or telephone [202.224.7172]. Example of Format for Web-Based Testimony Testimony of Jane A. Byte, M.D. Director, Byte Medical Research Center Montpelier, Vermont Testimony Before the Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee United States Senate Hearing on Medical Records Confidentiality in a Changing Health Care Environment June 20, 2000 Mr. Chairman, and Members of the Committee: I am pleased to be here today to discuss with you an important issue in the medical field. Etc., etc., etc. Charles E. Yow Attorney at Law Office: 617-254-7526 Fax: 413-793-2993 www.yowlaw.com CYow@Yowlaw.com ---- To subscribe to this group,send an email to:dn-aim-subscribe@egroups.com Archived on line at: http://www.eScribe.com FREE LEONARD PELTIER --------- "RE: Massacre in Colombia" --------- Date: Sat, 06 Jan 2001 23:28:08 -0600 From: koga suyeta Subj: Massacre in Colombia /-------Forwarded Message-------/ 13 KILLED IN SECOND MASSACRE IN COLOMBIA Bogota, Colombia (AP) Gunmen forced 13 villagers from their homes one by one Friday and fatally shot them in the head, police said. The killings in the northern Colombian town of Guatape in Antioquia state come two days after an alleged paramilitary massacre in the same region. On Wednesday, about 100 paramilitary gunmen rounded up and killed 11 suspected guerrilla sympathizers in Yolombo, 30 miles from Guatape, a state prosecutor said. /-------End Original Message-------/ Indigenous resistance exists. AIR / 460 --------- "RE: Slaying Probed by FBI" --------- Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 05:53:31 -0800 (PST) From: Paul Pureau Subj: Slaying probed by FBI Mailing List: ndn-aim http://www.billingsgazette.com/archive.php?display=rednews /2001/01/02/build/local/slaying.inc Slaying probed by FBI By The Associated Press HEART BUTTE (AP) - The FBI is investigating the stabbing death of a 21- year-old man here, a spokesman for the Glacier County sheriff's office says. Varian "JoJo" Running Crane died after being stabbed and suffering a fractured skull, said Bev Bullshoe, his aunt. The attack occurred Wednesday at about 1:30 a.m. at the home of Felix and Phyllis Running Crane, where Varian Running Crane was living, his aunt said. She said two people whom Running Crane knew had been arrested in connection with the killing. She said alcohol played a role in the incident. "He was a good kid," Bullshoe said. "He was an athlete. He loved the outdoors. He was a ranch hand." She said Running Crane enjoyed hunting, fishing and taking his family on picnics. He is survived by his wife, Clara Bird, and a son, Felix Lee Running Crane II. A deputy with the Glacier County Sheriff's Department said officials there could not comment because the FBI was handling the investigation. Nobody answered the telephone Monday at FBI offices in Browning and Great Falls. A woman who answered the telephone at the FBI's regional office in Salt Lake City said no one would be available Monday to speak to a reporter. Copyright c. 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved. ===== Paul Pureau to subscribe to ndn-aim send a blank mail to: ndn-aim-subscribe@egroups.com ndn-aim is now archived on line at Http://www.escribe.com/life/ndn-aim/ FREE LEONARD PELTIER --------- "RE: Please Help Free Leonard Peltier" --------- Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2001 11:06:45 -0500 From: Friends of the Lubicon Subj: Please Help Free Leonard Peltier Mailing List: FOL-L The clemency campaign to free Native American activist Leonard Peltier has now entered its most critical phase. President Clinton has announced that he will make a decision before leaving office on January 20. To help free Peltier, who has been unjustly imprisoned for over twenty four years, you can act in a number of ways. Please 1. Phone the White House comments line 202-456-1111 (press 0 to bypass recorded message). Let the person who answers know that you want the president to free Leonard Peltier. Accompanying points you may want to make are indicated at the end of this e-mail and are reproduced from the web site www.freepeltier.org for your convenience. The web site recommends people call daily. 2. Fax the White House by clicking on http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/usa/peltier/getInvolved.html The form letter there will be sent to Clinton. 3. Vote for Peltier's clemency at the Online Poll asking the question Should President Clinton Pardon Leonard Peltier...? by clicking on http://www.vote.com/vote/24254377/index.phtml?cat=4075633 Your vote will be e-mailed directly to the White House. As of Jan 5, the vote was 52% for Peltier's pardon and 48% against. [Vote.com was created by Dick Morris (who was President Clinton's chief strategist and advisor in the 1996 campaign. He's now a commentator on the Fox News Channel and writes a weekly column in the New York Post) and Eileen McGann is an attorney and former public interest lobbyist.] 4. E-mail the President directly asking him to free Peltier. Again, other points you may want to make are indicated below. 5. Sign the Online Petition supporting clemency for Leonard Peltier by clicking on http://www.petitiononline.com/Clemency/petition.html 6. Pass this e-mail on to people you know. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Points you may want to make in communicating with the White House are listed below. Again, this was taken from the www.freepeltier.org site where you may find much more information on the case. 1. I am deeply disturbed by the FBI's dissemination of misinformation to both the public and government officials. To refer to Leonard Peltier as a vicious murderer is totally false, unethical and a total contradiction of the case record. 2. Leonard Peltier never received a fair trial. Witnesses were coerced, false testimonies utilized, and a ballistics test reflecting his innocence was concealed from the defense. The US Prosecutor now admits that he can't prove who shot the agents, yet Mr. Peltier has remained in prison for over 24 years. 3. The judge who denied a new trial on the basis of a legal technicality, is now calling for clemency for Mr. Peltier. 4. Correcting this injustice would be an important step toward reconciliation with Native Peoples of this land. I strongly urge President Clinton to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier. --------- "RE: Leonard Peltier Petition for Clemency" --------- Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2001 17:53:51 EST From: JTRoad@aol.com Subj: URGENT!!!~passed on by Harvey Arden Please pass this on... Thanks on Leonard's behalf... /Harvey ----- Original Message ----- From: Wild Horse Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 5:40 PM Subj: Leonard Peltier Petition for Clemency Nets Over 25,000 signatures and rising Written by Ishgooda January 02, 2001 To: All People Mr. President: We the undersigned come together before you to request the immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Leonard Peltier from Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. Mr. Peltier was convicted for the June 26, 1975 murders of 2 FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. There were 4 defendants originally charged before the Grand Jury. Two of the defendants were tried before the court and found Not Guilty by reason of self-defense. Charges were dropped on the 3rd defendant. Mr. Peltier was tried after a change of venue to North Dakota. In this trial Mr. Peltier wasn't able to put up a self-defense argument. Any evidence that could have proven Mr. Peltier's innocence was not allowed in his trial or if it was allowed it was not allowed in front of the jury. Witness testimony wildly diverged between Grand Jury testimony and trial testimony; further, several of the witnesses recanted their testimony after the trial, claiming perjured testimony because of threats from the FBI. Despite testimony, prosecuting attorneys have stated on several occasions that they don't know who shot the agents that day. The FBI coerced Myrtle Poor Bear into signing three mutually exclusive affidavits in order to extradite Mr. Peltier from Canada. In Mr. Peltier's trial Ms. Poor Bear testified that she never knew Mr. Peltier, that she had never seen Mr. Peltier prior to the trial. She testified that she signed the affidavits as a result of intimidation by agents interviewing her. The jury never heard her testimony, despite the fact she had originally been scheduled as a government witness, her testimony was excluded on the basis of her "incompetence". A few FBI officials and/or agents have launched campaigns to publicly proclaim the guilt of Mr. Peltier. Thus perpetuating the original cover up through dissemination of misinformation in editorials, web sites and full page newspaper ads in what is seen as an effort to discredit the common sense and creditability of many national leaders and their organizations. These leaders have studied the case in-depth for over twenty-three years since the reign of terror on the Pine Ridge reservation and areas supposedly under the protection of this county. Mr. President and elected officials of all people, we ask that you no longer ignore the voices of the tens of millions of signatures and letters of the last twenty three years, and the results of the most recent polls in favor of his immediate release. We ask all politicians and officials to support true justice. Honor the voices of your constituents. Call for immediate unconditional executive clemency for Mr. Peltier. Sincerely; The Undersigned Freedom for Leonard Peltier..(hosted by Wild Horse) http://www.petitiononline.com/Clemency/petition.html This was how it began on June 16, 2000, four days after the parole board denied a parole for Leonard Peltier currently serving two consecutive life sentences at the Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. Over a thousand hours of collation, more than 500 printed pages and 24809 signatures as of last evening this petition will be sent to President Clinton and all elected officials by electronic means and courier by January 8th, 2001. The most common comment was that Leonard must be released in order for any healing to begin between the people of the First Nations and the US...it is time that this healing begin. This petition has been sponsored by Wild Horse, a Cherokee man from Texas, who earlier this year presented to Vice President Al Gore, "Prison Writings: My Life is My Sundance" written by Leonard Peltier and edited by Harvey Arden along with the current signatures on the petition during his presidential campaign. The petition has since garnered over 15,000 additional signatures. Who Signs Petitions? The signatures on this petition represent more than 77 countries world wide, but predominately, 85% are from the US. Coverage of Leonard Peltier has been particularly intense internationally where he is perhaps the world's best known political prisoner with supporters that include the Belgian Parliament, Amnesty International, the Dalai Lama, Warren Allmand former Solicitor General of Canada, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Desmond Tutu, and more than fifty members of the new U.S. Congress have appealed for a new trial for the man who has come to symbolize the continued oppression of Americas indigenous peoples. . Domestically Intense Resistance from the FBI In late May of last year a new web site made an appearance on the internet, allegedly the private out-of- pocket expense of an active FBI Agent named Ed Woods out of Cincinnati, paid for, according to internet billing records by "Accurate Research Group" with an address at "Mailboxes, Etc" in West Hartford, Connecticut..no phone and no physical address. He claims his interest in the case was aroused through conversations with Agent Coler's son whose father lost his life that day, June 26, 1975 on the Jumping Bull compound in a firefight between federal forces and over 40 local residents. Two others also were killed in an the intense exchange of gunfire, Agent Ron Williams and a resident, Joe Stuntz. FBI Continued Involvement...When is an Agent NOT and Agent? There is a growing unease about continued lobbying by an arm of the federal government in Leonard Peltier's case. From editorials around the country, to web sites {www.noparolepeltier.com/}, to a march of from Agents in front of the White House December 15th, and a petition drive..FBI involvement has been intense. But is it the role of an investigatory agency to lobby against a single individual seeking clemency when their original role in his prosecution not only remains in remains in doubt, but per their own statements..may not be at an end? Wild Horse stated,"The position of the FBI in this case ended 23 years ago when they closed the investigation.... The continued spending of the Tax Payers money to fight a man sitting in prison is way beyond any rights the FBI might think they have." "Yes the FBI is currently spending the Tax Payers money on this fight... Passing around petitions to try to stop Leonard Peltier from being released. Maintaining Web Sites to fight his release. Louis Freeh flat out lying in a letter to the President of the United States about this case....An agent has on duty paid hours and off duty hours.... The fine line comes when an agent works on a project that is shown to not be a closed case by the FBI... There are around 6000 documents that the FBI will not release in this case... They claim they are holding the documents 'pending further prosecution' That means the case is not closed.... Any agent publicly speaking out on an open case is in violation of his job. This," he said, "includes the Minneapolis FBI web site." Other statements made by FBI personnel are that they fall under ,"national security" and earlier in a televised interview this year, that the LPDC "stiffed" them on the cost. Whatever the reason may be, they don't appear willing to release the balance of the documents on Leonard Peltier's case. Misconduct has been recognized from the beginning of this case. Judge Gerald Heaney stated in an *1*Eighth Circuit Court Opinion, Case 85-5192, " ...We recognize that there is evidence in this record of improper conduct on the part of some FBI agents, but we are reluctant to impute even further improprieties to them." This past June Attorney Jennifer Harbury filed an Ethics Complaint with the Justice Department asking for an official investigation of FBI misconduct starting with the Pine Ridge reign of terror and finishing with the FBI's current campaign of disinformation against Leonard Peltier. *2* "As of last night, it has been 8659 days, 7 hours 16 minutes a. 59 seconds since Leonard was found guilty. Almost 23 and 3/4 years. It is time that the healing begin." Wild Horse went on to say. At 2:43 EST, the Petition now has been signed by 25,100 people who believe in justice. *1* http://ishgooda.nativeweb.org/peltier/85-5192.htm *2* http://www.freepeltier.org/ethics_complaint1.htm#top Freedom for Leonard Peltier http://www.petitiononline.com/Clemency/petition.html Your help is appreciated --------- "RE: Native Prisoner" --------- Date: Mon, 8 January 2002 20:55:07 -0530 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 66053 Birthday: 9/12/44 Ancestry: Ojibwa-Lakota -- - - - Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2001 13:02:22 -0800 (PST) From: Valerie Scott Subj: Words From Micheal Half-Moon, Hunger Striker Dear Gary, Received the following letter from Half-Moon, dated 20 December 2000, and would appreciate you posting it on WI. For those not familiar with the details of this prisoner, or wanting addresses to contact prison officials, etc., please refer to NAPS' website at: http://www.hri.ca/partners/naps/. Half-Moon is correct in that this does need media coverage, so anyone seriously wishing to help in this regard, can contact me at this e-mail address. At this point, I need assistance, since I am gathering the numerous affidavits from Native prisoners for Half-Moon's nationwide class action - the one that has caused all of this madness in the first place. Thank you in advance for any assistance. Valerie Scott NAPS ===================================================== Greetings and many blessings, and may the Creator always be your guide down the Red Path as is mine. Hi, how is all? As for me. I'm in the Box (solitaire) confinement, I was accused of assault on a C.O. so I would be taken out of sight of other inmates, for I was getting very sick. I had some very serious medical conditions due to protest, and I lost 90 pounds. No record was kept by Medical Department. Had some serious epileptic seizures, have lost sight in one eye due to seizure (fell and hit head). Got no medical treatment, was force fed (no court order), then medical records came up missing from file. Nurse Admin. was dismissed for people were seeing outright neglect going on. I'm not in very good health, but the struggle must go on! Someone has to do it. I appealed the decision from hearing and instead of sending it to Albany DOCS Committee for review, as law states must be done, these people here denied me my appeal, so I'm illegally in solitaire. All because of my protest. I'm to be out of solitaire on 25 January 2001 - I received 90 days. I've been drafting the complaint while in confinement. I've got a notice of intention almost ready to be filed, so the more fuel the better. I'm trying to get another hearing at the N.G.O. at U.N. I had one back in '98, got a lot done here in N.Y. We now have a recognised Circle here in Elmira, and I was told if I drop all I'm doing, I'll be allowed all items I need. I declined their offer, because this is about Native people, not Half-Moon alone, and they see confinement hasn't stopped me, nor will I let it. Please let everyone know I have not stopped the movement - see when one is punished for efforts, it means one is right on the money. So if they are going to all this trouble, they're worried I'll win. WE will win! As a people. They took my typewriter to download its memory, but before I left the cell, I erased all memory. I destroyed the chip board, too many addresses, and work for them to get hold of it. When my personal property was inventoried, I saw all my feathers, necklaces, ribbon shirt, moccasins, pipe, etc., were all missing - was told they lost it. So it was all done to provoke me, but I didn't go for it. So as it stands, I got 90 days solitary confinement, loss of all privileges for 90 days, except mail and visits. I'm allowed one visit per week. So I'll be back in population 25 January 2001 (35 days left). But have people send letters to you, then you can send them to me in big envelope, then they will get in. This has turned into a need for media coverage, so it can be questioned out in open, for this retaliation and persecution over religious rights. So if you know of any newspapers, contact them. That scares these people, big time. I've lost sight over all this. But I don't stop once I start - I'm not Monty Hall and this isn't Let's Make a Deal. I make no deals with these people, and I've gone this far on this, so it's all or nothing. But I went (50) fifty days with no food, got so bad I was given Compozine to stop dry heaves. Then got so bad these people force fed me, because Mental Health refused to be used to get court order. So I was stripped of all my clothes, strapped to a mattress in hospital isolation room, then had tubes down throat and force fed. I was so bad, they could not even draw blood for test, and they hit me (12) twelve times to get it. So it got too thick to draw, that's when I was force fed. No court order, nothing. Wanted to keep it out of media, but 90 pounds is a lot of weight so quick. But I still have seizures - one doctor said I have possible new head trauma (brain damage) for I fell when I had seizure and hit head (lost sight in one eye). But I don't give up easily. Pete (Grieco) saw some of the neglect - they used to just leave me on the floor and walk away. Whatever media coverage you could stir up would be a good door opener. I think they think I'll die in solitaire, but I live to serve the Brothers and Sisters and ALL NATIVE PEOPLES. Peace, Love Unity, Manokoa, Micheal Half-Moon ===== NAPS (Native American Prisoner Support) http://www.hri.ca/partners/naps/ -- - - - Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2001 17:00:28 -0500 From: "Janet Smith" Subj: NA PRISONER I found this request on the Ironnatives list serve. What is not told is the "climate" in Rapid City where Native Americans are concerned. This is a town located in the heart of what used to be Lakota territory, but it's a town run very much by and for the white folks who settled there after the Lakota were removed to reservations. This is a town where store clerks drop change on a counter rather than risk touching an Indian's flesh and verify checks for Indians but not for whites. This is a town that still has an ordinance prohibiting more than 3 Indians from walking together. The corrections institutions may be different, but somehow I doubt it. I'm guessing Ms. Roach could really use some contact with Indian folks (and it might just be helpful for the mail bag to indicate to the prison officials that there are some people on the outside who care about this prisoner). Thanks - Janet ------- FORWARD, Original message follows ------- Date: Sat, Jan 6, 2001,12:49pm From: kmacrae@mindspring.com (Karl Mac Rae) Subj: [PRISONACT] Call for Compassion Mailing List: PRISONACT LaVonne Roach is a Native American prisoner serving a 30-year sentence on a federal drug charge. While awaiting a decision from a judge regarding a sentence reduction, she discovered a lump in her neck which may be cancerous. She now sits in prison waiting to find out whether her sentence will be reduced and whether the lump in her throat is life threatening. Please write to her to help combat the isolation and demoralization with words of solidarity and support. LaVonne Roach PCJ 603-2nd Street Rapid City, SD 57701 Thank you. -- - - - 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 66053 --------------------------------- 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 #640539, Estelle Unit, 264 FM 3478, Huntsville, TX 77320-3322 --------- "RE: Rustywire: Metwe'" --------- Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2000 18:17:56 -0000 From: "John Rustywire" Subj: Metwe' Mailing List: RezLife Metwe' Metwe' What does that mean, these words come to mind, they speak of family, of togetherness, of joining one people with another, taking in a person from another family, another people to be included in the family. I met them when they were a young couple, they had a child. Their house was new and nice and they lived far from their homeland. They made a place on a high mountain valley, a place to call home where they could raise their children and bring them up in the way they the two thought they should live. The young mother had long flowing black hair and in order to make money she made frybread and she was good at it, putting in hamburger and beans with a little cheese. She had some with chili, just hot enough to let you know you were alive. She came from a place called Coal Mine Mesa, way out there not too far from Tuba City. Her family was large and her father made her feel she was the special one. He prized her and gave his most valuable possession which was his home. The young woman's husband came from a place not too far from her home, on a high windy mesa with ancient homes built on top of the other. His home was at Second Mesa, where he was born into a clan with a place in the community, an old place where centuries of life had fashioned a way of life that still persisted in this out of the way corner in Arizona. She was a Navajo and he was a Hopi and they didn't know that about each other when they first met far away at school. Their people came from different places, spoke different languages and traditions they came to know one another and decided to make a life together. She left her family and he left his and they set up a life together. Her father gave her his place, a home far away in a different land. As time went on she wanted to please her man and learn the ways of his people so she went with him, driving South to the borders of Dinetah, passed her old place at Coalmine Mesa and down the windy road to the high place, where his family lived. Second Mesa it was called where the traditions of time, space, family and relations required the following of the flow of seasons. She stepped into his world and his family looked at her, and she became Metwe'. It is how they call those that come to join their family, their people and they take them in. During the ceremonies and dances in the village there was much work to be done, and she learned to do it all, grinding corn between stones, collecting wood and fashioning ground corn into a mush to lay it out on a hot tin and roll it to make the bread they call Piki. She butchered sheep, made stew and watched the children of the family as the dancers were readied for the plaza. Her husband was one of these and she learned how they take the time to follow certain practices. to dress in an appropriate way and where she was to sit. She learned about the gathering of plants, the preparation of harvests and offerings and the ways of the katchina. Metwe' Metwe' they called to her, please do this for us and she would go and get something missed or forgotten. When the doings were done she cleaned and put away the things a woman does, the pots, the pans, the cloth, and worked to help her relations with the household duties. She found that at each dance they went home and she worked learning the ways of his people and remembering her own. Her father came from a place called Coalmine Mesa. A small place where there was no water, it had to be hauled in from many miles away. There were few trees, and the place is a hard place to make a life, but that is where he came from. He told her, we Navajo exist with the land, we don't change it but continue on with it, to survive to go on and on. She listened and then one day her family moved off that land forever. Her father went to Kinlani and worked there in town knowing he would never be able to sleep in the land of his birth, he and his children had to make a new life. It was hard. The folks in Washing'don gave told him they would build him a new home anywhere for the loss of his place. He thought about it and said he would let them know. As time went on, the young couple needed a home to make their life. it was her father who said, my daughter this is my gift to you. Take this home that is to be built for me and let it be yours. She looked at her father and could see his eyes, and the way they looked at her. In his face were the wrinkles of age, and his hands wore the mark of a hard life on that barren land which once was his home. In the look of his eyes she could see the early morning dawns of a lifetime, of herding sheep and hauling water on horseback from miles away at Moenkopi wash to the west. That in there she saw the movement of yucca plant moved faintly by the wind and in it's roots the cleanliness of it for washing and medicine. That the sand blown in the wind covered the tracks of all her fathers and mothers who had run to meet the dawn in their youths, and the sounds of young girls reaching womanhood dressed in sash belts, silver jewelry with coral and turquoise. These things she saw in her father's eyes as he gave away his birthright to her to make a new life in a far off place. Metwe' Metwe' (Metway is how it is said in the Hopi way of speaking) She heard the sound and came back to the place, to Second Mesa and was grinding corn and could see the feet of his feet, her man who stood not too far ready to go to the plaza to dance for another season of rain, for good corn and long days. He stood there with deerskin moccasins, with ancient bells, with a loin cloth and sash belt, his body covered in paint and a large red gourd rattle was by his side. Up ahead was the place they entered to put on the masks, the deities, a Katchina he would be, with long hair. His mother came to her and helped her with the corn. This was a time for renewal, it was his people's time and their place. She picked up her ground corn and followed her new mother into the pueblo, and looking from this high spot to the west, there on the horizon was Coal Mine Mesa, once her father's home, now Hopi land under the laws of the United States. This was now her people, their way of life was now her own. When they returned to the high mountain valley she stepped into her father's house, a house given to him by the United States Government for what was loss at Coalmine Mesa, the walls were new, the sidewalk outside led through a yard of green grass. She could see the mountains to the North and the snow on them and the place was peaceful. Her husband drove into the driveway and parked and picked up their sons and they went inside to their new home. What are these places we call home and how do we get them, how are they named? What is it about it that makes them that way, is it sacrifice, love or fate? The Navajo-Hopi land case is settled by the courts, but the people who lived there where did they go? Dreams and Broken Rainbows, when rainbows break do they make a sound. Life goes on but at Coalmine Mesa you can touch the yucca plants, their spiny ends and hear the sound of a broken rainbow. Metwe' and her man are no longer together, he left her for another and she struggles now with the kids. The home, the house the gift of her father who passed away was sold and it is now gone. This is one story about the devastation of the forced relocation of thousands of Navajo People. There are Navajo families at Big Mountain who refuse to leave, they stand against the United States, the Courts and the Hopi and Navajo governments. Tonight they sleep and wait the dawn of another day, and a broken rainbow will not greet them on the horizon. For Rezlife egroups http://www.egroups.com/group/rezlife --------- "RE: Poem: Tomorrow " --------- Date: Wed, 4 Oct 2000 07:24:19 -0400 From: "Dreamwalker" Subj: Tomorrow Tomorrow I watch as Grandmother Moon slips across the night sky drawing me into her being comforting the hours So constant she stands ever present ever strong singing her One Song a gentle reminder for us all Tomorrow is but a promise this is the moment while clouds play about and our Hearts are full I am want to ask myself what have I done with this day have I lived it in Honor or become lost along the way Have I shared all I am all I have have I listened with open ears and with an open Heart or turned away from truth As clouds thicken and slip past her beauty I am reminded this is the moment Tomorrow is but a dream it is not a promise today is the ultimate gift and having lived it well Grandmother Moon so constant reassuring such a simple sight belies the truth within I hold her in my arms cradle her beauty in my Heart and remember always the lesson she gifts me. Crys The Tears/Dreamwalker~Lakota copyright 2000 --------- "RE: Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days" --------- Date: Tue, 02 Jan 2001 06:21:07 -1000 From: Debbie Sanders Subj: Hawaiian Book of Days A HAWAIIAN BOOK OF DAYS, week of January 14-20 IANUALI (January) (Kaelo) 14 The land was created in the joining of fire and water. 15 At the meeting of the land and the sea, that is where all life begins. 16 Ancient kings walk the mountains at night. 17 In the secret places of the land are found the answers to life's mysteries. 18 My parents taught me the ways of the future; I teach my children the ways of the past. 19 I walk the land in perfect innocence, a child of yesterday. 20 Here, every day is a beginning, every night a remembering. (c) Copyright 1991 by D. F. Sanders Me ke aloha i ka nani, ... Moe'uhanekeanuenue (With love and beauty, ... Rainbow Dream) --------- "RE: English Only Laws/Racism in Disguise" --------- Date: Wed, 03 Jan 2001 07:34:17 -1000 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LANGUAGE RACISM" English-only laws - racism in disguise? by Mary Pierpoint Today Staff OKLAHOMA CITY - In Oklahoma, lone Native American voices are raised in the battle to maintain the right to keep Native American languages from becoming extinct. Fannie Bates of Oklahoma City is one of those voices. When Bates began hearing about attempts to put an English-only referendum on the state's November ballot, she was shocked. With 30 tribes in Oklahoma, she saw the ramifications of allowing an English only law to pass. Bates started doing her homework on the issue and, on those who were pushing it. What Bates found was not a grass-roots movement by some Oklahomans to make English the only recognized language in the state, but a huge political machine with a big-name board of advisors, sophisticated lobbyists and attorneys. "I am part Cherokee, but I lived in the heart of the Choctaw Nation. As a child I spoke Choctaw, sang in Choctaw and carried around my little Choctaw hand doll in my purse as a little girl, so I know how important the Native languages are," Bates said. "I'm pretty well educated and I realized how serious this would be, the vast implications it would have. I know that all of our Native languages are in danger of extinction. This law encourages that extinction." The petition effort failed, falling short of signatures required to make it on the ballot this year. But Bates took action anyway. She filed a protest and then a brief with the Supreme Court of Oklahoma, asking for a decision on the issue. The Cherokee Nation filed a brief supporting Bates. What differs in these briefs filed with the Oklahoma Supreme Court, and those filed in other states, is that both Bates and the Cherokee Nation turned to Oklahoma law and stated that English-Only would conflict with existing federal law. The Cherokee Nation brief point out that the Enabling Act, (24 Stat. 267-268 - 1), which allowed the admission of Oklahoma and Indian Territory as a state, holds: "That the inhabitants of...the Territory of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory... may adopt a constitution and become the State of Oklahoma, as hereinafter provided: Provided, that nothing contained in the said constitution shall be construed to limit or impair the rights of persons or property pertaining to the Indians of said Territories (so long as such rights shall remain unextinguished) or to limit or affect the authority of the Government of the United States to make any law or regulation respecting such Indians, their lands, property or other rights..." "I hope they find in favor of us on those grounds," Bates said. "But you can never tell with this court. They have to decide that it is unconstitutional on its face. If they don't find it is unconstitutional on its face, it will go for a vote and it will pass and it will become law." John Parris, legal intern for the Cherokee Nation who worked on the brief, said, "It (the English-only issue) requires that all government operations have to be conducted in English. We felt that if our congressman, Brad Carson, D District 2, (a Cherokee), wants to come and speak to our Chief Chad Smith, they should be able to do so in their own language." Parris went on to say that if an English-only law were passed in Oklahoma, it would prohibit officials from using any language other than English unless they could be specially exempted from it through a narrow interpretation of the law. Bates said that in a recent hearing before the Oklahoma Supreme Court, the attorney sent by English Inc., a national organization, tried to provoke an argument between the two sides while in the courtroom. "He tried to treat us like dogs," Bates said. "He tried to run us off. He kept repeatedly telling us how stupid we were in this hearing. He kept repeating how ignorant our comments were and how they didn't make any sense and how stupid and ignorant we were ... to try to get us to go away. He targeted me. He tried to pick a fight with me in front of the Supreme Court. I knew he was trying to intimidate me. This is serious stuff, they have millions of dollars invested in this and they don't want to mess it up." As the David and Goliath battle ensues in the Oklahoma Supreme Court, Bates has become a self-styled American Indian Paul Revere working feverishly to get the word out to Indian country and beyond. English-only propositions throughout the country are gaining momentum and Bates fears they are nothing more than a patriotic smoke screen for racism. She was able to determine that a company based in Washington, D.C., was behind the English-only push in Oklahoma. "Their name is English Inc. and they have been in business for about eighteen years," Bates said. "Their sole purpose is to force the English language down the throats of Americans and to take away people's other languages. It has nothing to do with the state of Oklahoma. We had a forum and we couldn't get anyone to come forward and say they were for this." Bates added there was another large company, similar to English Inc., based out of the Silicon Valley in California. English Inc. has a Web site on which it explains its mission. The company was founded in 1983 by former Sen. S.I Hayakawa, D-Hawaii, and boasts an advisory board, which includes: Ambassador Walter Annenberg; Saul Bellow; Alistair Cooke; Denton Cooley, M.D., former Sen. Joseph Corcoran; Charleton Heston; David Horowitz; Lee Majors; Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy; Laura McKenzie; James Schlesinger; Arnold Schwarzenegger; Charles E. Scripps; Karl Shapiro; and Norman D. Shumway; W. Clement Stone; Togo Tanaka and Alex Trebek and other prominent names. The company's lists as its current chairman-CEO is Mauro E. Mujica, an architect and businessmen who emig