From gars@speakeasy.org Sat Jul 21 03:39:33 2001 Date: 2 May 2001 00:11:57 -0000 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews09.018 W O T A N G I N G I K C H E Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin KANOHEDA ANIYVWIYA O It-hah-pe-hah Ah-num pah-le Ha-Sah-Sliltha O o O ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min Un Chota O o O Aunchemokauhettittea O o o o o O VOLUME 09, ISSUE 018 O o O Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse May 5, 2001 O o O Ximopanolti tehuatzin, Cherokee planting moon O inin Mexika tlahtolli Havasupai moon when the eagle eggs hatch ( N A T I V E A M E R I C A N N E W S ) ==>If you want your Nation represented in the banner of this newsletter<== email gars@nanews.org with the equivalent of "News of the People" in your tribal language along with the english translation +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | Much more happens in Indian Country than is reported | | in this weekly newsletter. For daily updates check | | http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm - also events | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ This issue contains articles from www.owlstar.com; www.pechanga.net; People's Path, KOLA Newslist, Rez Life, Indian Heritage, ndn-aim, LPDC, Indianz elist and Native News mailing lists; UUCP email; http://www.sltrib.com/04292001/utah/93206.htm http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/ http://www.journalstar.com/local?story_id=3364&past= http://www.sltrib.com/04282001/commenta.htm http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010410/us/endangered_languages_1.html IMPORTANT!! ----------- 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 As historian Patricia Nelson Limerick summarized in The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West, "Set the blood quantum at one-quarter, hold to it as a rigid definition of Indians, let intermarriage proceed as it had for centuries, and eventually Indians will be defined out of existence. When that happens, the federal government will be freed of its persistent 'Indian problem.'" "Listen to all the teachers in the woods. Watch the trees, the animals and all living things - you'll learn more from them than from books." __ Joe Coyhis, Stockbridge-Munsee +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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 Amazonia Peoples numbered well over three millions in 1500, before the advent of the European influx. Since then, the Indian population of the Amazon has greatly decreased - especially during the 20th century. In 1900, in Brazilian Amazonia, there were 230 tribal groups. By 1957 only 143 remained. Many of these remaining tribes have only a few hundred individuals left, and today there are only an estimated 50,000 Indians left in Brazilian Amazonia. Perhaps best known of these are the Yanomami who have been trying in vain to stop the hoards of gold miners, timber barons and young girl prostitution slavers. Military were sent in, but simply refused to exercise control over the invaders. Money talks! In Columbia the U'wa tribe is trying to stop Occidental Petroleum from drilling a huge oil reserve, estimated at 1.5 billion barrels. The huge pool is directly under U'wa ancestral lands. This is literally a live or die situation for the U'wa who have sworn mass suicide if the notoriously corrupt Columbian government does not stop Occidental from drilling. Weigh this against the $1.3 billion in US funds granted the Columbian military for the "war-on-drugs", and it isn't too hard to figure political winds in Bogota. Unless there is sufficient world pressure you can expect the same result as in 1538 when the Chibcha Indian center was conquered by Jimenez de Quesada and renamed Santa Fe de Bogota. Those Natives who were not killed were enslaved. All those readers who are shaking their heads in dismay for all these problems south of the US might want to remember, much of this "control" is being meted out by death squads and officers trained at the School of the Americas in Ft. Benning Georgia USA. I share all this with you to open your eyes. These brothers and sisters to the south are our relatives and they are all victims of the same "Indian Question" mentality. Look beyond yourself and make the senators and representatives from your state and district know you know and will not tolerate their lending a blind eye to this corporate murder. Even the largest and slimiest of vermin has trouble sustaining itself in bright light. Dohiyi Ani Oginalii , , 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 ---------- - Indian Pledge of Allegiance - Making Dreams Come True - Indian Act to be Revamped - Tribal Success draws Indians - Natives Receive Apology from Other Tribes for 1950s Racial Adoptions - Applying a Hate Crime Statute - Effects Of Navajo/Hopi to Silence Protests Land Dispute - Oregon Hate Crime - Unprecedented Apology - Peltier: Sample Letter Honors Crazy Horse - Eddie Hatcher: - Indian Country Today A Word of Encouragement Target of Sicangu Protestors - Native Prisoner - Quapaw Urge BIA to lift Chat Ban -- Michael Half-Moon Call to Action - Rice Lake is Priceless - History: Carlisle Indian School to the Chippewa - John Rustywire: Why I Write - Southern Utes are Busy - Poem: Zoo Poem Laying New Foundations - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - Democratic Senators save - Native America Calling Indian Affairs Commission - Classes help Preserve - Progress for Natives in Mexico Native Tribe's Language - Learning Today/Leading Tomorrow - Myaamia Project to - Florida: Improve Cultural Awareness Course Could Change History - American Indians Fight - Ceremony Meant to Honor/ for Language Encourage Native students - Upcoming Events --------- "RE: Indian Pledge of Allegiance" --------- Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 12:35:17 -0700 From: "Andre P. Cramblit" Subj: Indian Pledge of Allegiance http://www.YvwiiUsdinvnohii.net/ is now "the People's Paths home page!" I pledge allegiance to my Tribe, to the democratic principles of the Republic and to the individual freedoms borrowed from the Iroquois and Choctaw Confederacies, as incorporated in the United States Constitution so that my forefathers shall not have died in vain The Indian Pledge of Allegiance was first presented on 2 December '93 during the opening address of the National Congress of American Indians Tribal-States Relations Panel in Reno, NV. Richie Plass wrote: I was invited to be the guest speaker at a dinner this past Friday evening. I was told it would be at a banquet for a historical society. Here's what happened. First off, when the host met me at the door, the banquet was held in the basement of the Masonic Temple in Niles, Ohio, he lead me to the head table. I told him my wife would be joining me a little later because she was still at work. "No problem," he told me, and showed me that she would be seated right next to me. I always find it interesting walking into a room full of strangers, wearing a ribbon shirt to a banquet where the dress seems formal, and watching all the faces as they try to figure out who the hell I am and where I'm from. As I sat down, I could hear people whispering, "That must be him...our speaker. Do you think he's a real Indian?" Now, as I take my seat, I look over the program on the table. I kind of skip down to the part, "Guest Speaker," and after my name it says, "American Indian." Cool...I can deal with that! Next I look at the front page and it says something to the effect: "Annual Awards Banquet, Niles Historical Society." Things are still pretty cool. Then I open the program again, but this time I read it from top to bottom. The first entry read: "Pledge of Allegiance." Shit...now things will get interesting. Here's a hint: the American flag is on the front table, in a stand, right in front of me! No place to hide. By the way, did I mention that no one would sit with me at the head table? Finally, the gentleman who greeted me at the door took the seat next to me and the evening began. He asks everyone to rise and say the Pledge of Allegiance. So, I stand up, put my hands behind my back, lower my head and close my eyes until its over. He then says a prayer and we sit down to eat. Now, I don't know much about the Masons, and I don't mean any disrespect to anyone. Hopefully I showed that during the meal, awards and entertainment. Then I was introduced. I was asked to speak on the history of the Native American. I was told I would have twenty minutes. Cool...only problem is, it takes me fifteen minutes just to say hello! So, I make my presentation. I felt pretty good with everything, and they all seemed to accept what I had to say. Then during the question part, it happened...a lady said, "I noticed during the Pledge of Allegiance you didn't participate. Could you tell us why?" I looked at her, smiled and said, "Well, I figured someone might say something about it, so here goes. But please remember, like I told you when I began my presentation, what I tell you are my feelings, my beliefs and I always try to be as truthful as I can. "First of all, my Dad was a veteran, so I always rise and face the flag in his honor. Secondly, many of my relatives and friends are veterans, and as Indian people we honor them in many ways, so in their memories, I will rise. "In the 1960's, the United States government terminated our tribe. We were no longer Indians, we had no reservation, no identity and many of our people suffered grave injustices because of it. I had two uncles who didn't speak to each other for over twenty years, and many people on our rez still have bad feelings for what was done to us. "But mostly, it has to do with a cousin of mine. Her name was Ingrid Washinawatok. She and two of her comrades were murdered in Bolivia, South America two years ago. They were shot and left in a field for almost a week. When their bodies were recovered, the United States government did not lift a hand to bring these three Americans home. Our family was treated unjustly by the White House, Janet Reno and many other staff people in the Clinton administration. As a matter of fact, the army that claimed responsibility for these deaths is the same army Janet Reno had sent over $250 million to the previous year, and if you remember your current history, Clinton sent over $1 billion to the same army. "I lived through termination. I still pain over what happened to Ingrid, and I have devoted my life to the education to people like you to teach you what it really means to b Indian. Yes, I will recognize the flag in my Dad's honor, but I will never say the Pledge of Allegiance or sing the National Anthem. This is all I have to say." Well, the room got kind of quiet, but all in all I felt ok. Of course, even if they would had thrown me out, I would had felt ok! What I did find refreshing were the comments and requests made to me after my speech. I still feel that there are people out there who want to know the truth. -- Andre Cramblit, Operations Director-Northern California Indian Development Council NCIDC (http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the development needs of American Indians and operates an art gallery featuring the art of California tribes (http://www.americanindianonline.com) -- To subscribe to the "Paths-L" mailing list send a message to Majordomo@YvwiiUsdinvnohii.net In the body of the message type: subscribe paths-l --------- "RE: Indian Act to be Revamped" --------- Date: Tue, 1 May 2001 09:12:19 -0500 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INDIAN ACT" http://www.pechanga.net/ Indian Act to be revamped, updated WebPosted Tue May 1 03:23:16 2001 SIKSIKA RESERVE, ALTA. - Ottawa will overhaul the Indian Act to hand more control of day-to-day decision-making to aboriginal communities, Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault announced on Monday. He pledged to consult with about 600 First Nations groups across the country before making any changes to the 50-year-old law. The first draft is expected to be ready by the fall. The new law aims to update voting systems for First Nations, strike a new balance between on- and off-reserve members, and give band councils new tools to operate effective government, according to Nault. "The full potential of First Nations governments and communities has been restricted by an outdated Indian Act," Nault said. "The potential for First Nations people to become our real partners in this country has never been as great as it is today. We need to act now so as not to miss this opportunity." Nault said Ottawa wants to move faster on self-government agreements and treaty relationships as well. The Act provides $4.6 billion annually in funds and services for the majority of Canada's 1.4 million aboriginal people. Written by CBC News Online staff Paul Hunter reports for CBC TV Brad Clark reports for CBC Radio Copyright c. 2001 CBC. All Rights Reserved . --------- "RE: Natives Receive Apology for 1950s Racial Adoptions" --------- Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 15:03:30 -0500 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ADOPTION APOLOGIES" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm Natives receive apology for 1950s racial adoptions Official calls effort to place children in white homes misguided. By Lisa Demer Anchorage Daily News (Published April 25, 2001) A project dating to the 1950s in which Alaska Native and American Indian children were taken from tribal homes to be adopted by white families was wrong, hurtful and born of arrogance, the head of the nation's largest child welfare organization told a national conference in Anchorage on Tuesday. When the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs contracted with the Child Welfare League of America for its "Indian Adoption Project," both organizations thought they were rescuing children from inadequate, mainly poor homes, said Shay Bilchik, who is now executive director of the Child Welfare League. But instead, the children were stripped of their families and their culture. "I offer our sincere and deep regret for what preceded us," Bilchik told a crowd of hundreds at the National American Indian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect. The project was born out of a "legacy of racism and legacy of arrogance," in which well-intentioned middle class people thought they knew how to make better lives for impoverished Natives, he said. The conference, at the Egan Civic & Convention Center, has drawn about 700 child welfare workers and managers from tribal and government organizations in the United States and Canada. It ends today. Bilchik's words were welcomed. The National Indian Child Welfare Association, the conference's sponsor, has been negotiating with the league for an apology for the past two years, said its executive director, Terry Cross. "We won't ever forget the loss of our children, and frankly, we are still losing them in many places," Cross told the audience. But the time has come, he said, to heal and to work with the Child Welfare League, a research, training and advocacy organization that counts more than 1,100 private and public agencies as members. "We have regarded you as the sleeping giant," Cross said, facing Bilchik. "We are glad the giant has awakened and is on our side." Kevin Gover, head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the end of the Clinton administration, already has apologized for the bureau's poor treatment of Indians. In the decade-long adoption project that began in 1957, 395 children were taken from Native American families in Western and Midwestern states, including Alaska, and adopted by non-Native families, mainly in the East, Bilchik said. States placed thousands more Native American children for adoption in white homes following the project's example, Cross said. The BIA couldn't handle the adoptions directly because it was supposed to look out for the tribes' interests. Sending away the children would have been seen as a violation of that trust, according to a 1997 article in the Journal of Multicultural Social Work. The league arranged with public and private agencies for adoption services. Many of the children were infants taken from unmarried mothers. Some tribes protested, and the project helped show the need for the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, which governs situations in which Native children cannot be raised by their own parents. Under the federal act, tribes must be notified about child protection cases involving a member. Children are supposed to be placed with relatives or with other tribal members if possible. In Alaska, more than half of the 1,900-plus children in the custody of the Division of Family and Youth Services are Native, and many are not living with Native families. Theresa Tanoury, DFYS director, said the state wants Native organizations involved. DFYS reviews those cases every 30 days to try to get the children placed with tribal families, she said. DFYS recently signed agreements with three Native organizations and is working with a fourth, allowing them to receive federal money for child protection work. Cook Inlet Tribal Council is running a tribal help desk with some of that money. That helps DFYS workers find tribal families and helps tribes find children who otherwise might get lost in the system, she said. In addition, some organizations such as the Tanana Chiefs Conference and Bristol Bay Native Association are taking custody of children from troubled families directly, bypassing the state entirely, she said. Tanoury said Bilchik's words of regret touched her. "I thought it was so important and so emotional," she said. "It was very powerful." Reporter Lisa Demer can be reached at ldemer@adn.com and 257-4390. Copyright c. 2001 The Anchorage Daily News --------- "RE: Effects Of Navajo/Hopi Land Dispute" --------- Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2001 17:48:49 From: KOLA Subj: Effects Of Navajo/Hopi Land Dispute <+>=<+>KOLA Newslist<+>=<+> [from Pat Morris. Thanks!] http://www.sltrib.com/04292001/utah/93206.htm A land dispute and federal decree keep water, power and adequate shelter out of reach for many Navajos Sunday, April 29, 2001 TUBA CITY, Ariz. -- Nez Bancroft is the kind of woman who seems to know just about every grain of desert sand. The grandmother has spent her life under the shadow of one of the four mountains sacred to the Navajo, laboring like other women of her generation: herding sheep, shearing wool, weaving blankets and raising children. Her hands show the wear of years working under the red mesas of her home along the western edge of the Navajo Reservation. But her home also is home to the Hopi. The two tribes have argued for centuries over which controls the land in the northeastern corner of Arizona. The ongoing dispute between the two peoples has left thousands of Navajos like Bancroft living in destitute conditions -- even for an area where homes are among the most substandard in the nation. Until the quarrel is resolved, the Department of Interior decreed in 1966, the Navajos living on contested land cannot repair their homes nor build additional ones for growing families. Just as critical, the order also applies to water and power lines, indoor plumbing and roads. In 1994, Navajos thought the ordeal was finally over. A federal judge lifted the development moratorium, but the Hopis appealed and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision, saying the judge did not have the authority to lift the freeze. Now, 35 years and several lawsuits after the original decree, most homes in the no-build sector are still without water and electricity. As many as 7,000 residents continue to live in the squalor of ramshackle homes. Fewer than 10 percent have running water and only 3 percent have electricity, according to a tribal survey. The 1.5 million-acre portion of the Navajo Reservation is formally known as the Statutory Freeze area. But nearly everyone calls it the "Bennett Freeze," in honor of former Bureau of Indian Affairs Commissioner Robert Bennett, who enacted the bureaucratic solution to the boundary dispute. Even after so many years, some Navajos hope that a bill in Congress, introduced this session for the third time in three years, will bring an end to the freeze. Utah Republican Rep. Chris Cannon has been a co-sponsor of the previous two measures and is expected to sign on to the current proposal. But so far, congressional efforts have been to no avail. "We wouldn't tolerate this anyplace else," says a frustrated Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., the current bill's sponsor and the congressman representing much of the 27,000-square-mile reservation. "But because of the isolation of the Navajo Nation, no one else knows about this. Regardless of what other issues are out there, to deprive people the necessities to live is unthinkable." For Bancroft, however, not having electricity is not much of a hardship. She loves the old ways. The wood-burning stove is enough. "I am content," says Bancroft, who is not sure of her exact age but guesses she is in her 80s. "I'm not that familiar with modern appliances." But not having to get up in the middle of the night to go to the outhouse 20 yards from her porch would not be all bad, she says. And not having to drive to town every day to fill her plastic barrels with drinking water would be nice, too. After all, her small house has a toilet and a kitchen sink, and power and water lines run just outside her home. But the Bennett Freeze prohibits her from tapping into either. Bancroft may not mind the inconveniences much, but younger members of the Navajo Nation do. "My kids want to live where there is water and electricity," says Bancroft's 39-year-old daughter, Louella Bancroft. "It's not as hard for me because I was brought up in a traditional way. But these kids want to watch TV and want to hook up a computer." She and her children usually pay to shower at a boarding school dormitory. Instead of a refrigerator, the family makes do with an ice cooler. "We have to buy ice every day," the younger Bancroft says. "We try to keep the food cold, but in the summer, when it is anywhere from 90 to 100 degrees, the ice melts too fast. So usually I have to go to the store right before I cook." The younger Bancroft lives in a nearby mobile home. Louella Bancroft and her seven children used to live in a one-room storage shed near the matriarch of the clan. "We were just piled up in there," says Louella Bancroft. "We all stood around the table to eat, and lay down at night around the table to sleep. We just didn't have enough room, but they wouldn't let us add on or repair it." Finally, when the roof started leaking, Bancroft ignored the edict. "Water was pouring through the roof," she recalls. "Even though the Hopis said, 'You can't do it,' we did it anyway." Louella Bancroft and other Navajos who make repairs to their homes face Hopi discipline, such as receiving cease-and-desist orders, or having the improvements taken down. "You know, it's unfair for us to live this way," the younger Bancroft says. "It's hard. Other people have electricity and water and we have to live out here with none of that. Why?" That is the same question a grassroots Navajo advocacy group has been asking. "The only thing we want is a chance to meet the basic needs of our people," says Frank Bilagody, a leader of the Bennett Freeze Dine' Grassroots Organization. "These are simple things -- water and electricity -- that anyone can understand. But people are losing hope." Yet, the Hopis say the freeze is essential. Clearly defining what land belongs to which tribe is the only way to protect sacred sites, tribal officials argue. "We have our eagle-gathering areas, our shrines and sacred springs all in the Bennett Freeze area," says Clayton Honyumptewa, director of the Office of Hopi Lands. "We want to protect those sites. We want ownership of the sites." Honyumptewa cites recent vandalism of shrines along the Hopis' salt trail pilgrimage route, adding that "the Navajo Nation does not seem to want to do anything about it." Roman Bitsuie, director of the Navajo-Hopi Land Commission Office, counters that the Hopi are not innocent either. The Hopi, Bitsuie claims, have vandalized Navajo sacred sites located on Hopi land. But the solution, Bitsuie says, is not the Bennett Freeze. "Both of us have sacred sites on each other's lands," Bitsuie says. "We have similar concerns. But we should be able to work out an arrangement. There can be accommodation on the issue of access to each other's shrines and sacred sites without the freeze." Besides, Bitsuie argues, the Hopi have little room to complain. Most of their tribal members live either in the "administrative" zone of Tuba City or in one of two Hopi villages, both of which are exempt from the freeze. The two sides acknowledge there has been some slow progress. Last year, the tribes agreed to extend water lines to part of the freeze area. And an agreement among the tribes and the Veterans Administration allows former Navajo soldiers, sailors and airmen to build homes, complete with electricity and water, in the no-build zone. But after decades of negotiations and litigation, about 700,000 acres remain in dispute. The Bennett Freeze controversy is separate from another, more highly publicized land dispute between the two tribes. That disagreement resulted in the relocation of thousands of Navajos from land declared Hopi in the 1970s. In the Bennett Freeze debate, the 11,000-member Hopi tribe say they were here first and it was the Navajos who began trespassing a few hundred years ago. Retired anthropologist David Brugge has studied the sometimes sour relationship between the longtime neighbors. In his book, The Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute, he writes that the Bennett Freeze is the latest chapter in a tradition of antipathy between some Hopi and Navajos -- bad feelings that were sometimes cultivated by white "Indian agents." Brugge argues it is the federal government that bears much of that blame for the negative stereotypes of Navajos as "bad" Indians, and the Hopi as the quiet, peaceful, "friendly" Indians. Brugge argues that in spite of the history of strife -- including wars -- between the Navajos and Hopi, there is civility, too. Not only have they lived near each other for centuries, they have traded with each other and even shared in religious ceremonies. Today, intermarriage between the tribes continues to be common. Marcia Baca is just one example. She is Hopi and lives in the Moenkopi community, but earlier this month she married a Navajo. Not surprisingly, she is sympathetic to the Navajo cause, even though she lives in a village with electricity and water. "It's something that should be settled," says the 38-year-old Baca, who lives just miles from the Bancrofts. She acknowledges there often are tensions between the Hopi and Navajo, but she is not about to ruffle any family feathers. "Now, I have Navajo in-laws." <+>=3D<+> KOLA Information: http://users.skynet.be/kola/index.htm --------- "RE: Unprecedented Apology Honors Crazy Horse" --------- Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 08:14:37 -0500 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="APOLOGY" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm 'Unprecedented' apology honors Crazy Horse By Peter Harriman Argus Leader published: 4/27/01 MISSION -- John W. Stroh III settled an 8-year-old legal battle with the estate of Tasanke Witko, the 19th century Lakota leader known as Crazy Horse, in a gymnasium at Sinte Gleska University on Thursday. In the three-and-a-half hour ceremony, the chairman of SBC Holdings Inc. joined 150 mostly American Indian onlookers to pay tribute to their history and their culture. Lawyers brokered the settlement, but no money changed hands. Instead Stroh offered woolen blankets, braids of sweetgrass, twists of tobacco, seven horses and a letter of apology to Crazy Horse's descendants. He did so because beermakers once owned by the Stroh Brewery Co., predecessor of SBC, used Crazy Horse's name and likeness on cans of malt liquor. "We understand your feelings. We have taken the name of your leader and your ancestor and have disparaged his spirit," Stroh said. "Today we are honored to be able to present these items to you." The unusual exchange of property was not just an acknowledgement. The estate had a proprietary interest in the Crazy Horse name. It restored harmony, according to Lakota beliefs. Equally important, Stroh realized the significance of that. "I have never participated in any event any place where the appreciation has been so profound," he said afterward. "This has been very moving." As Stroh finished reading a formal apology and ceremonially handed a Pendleton blanket and a twist of grass to Seth Big Crow, administrator of the Crazy Horse estate, a drum rumbled and a standing ovation rolled like a slow wave through the crowd. Big Crow held high the letter of apology for all to see. "Oh man, it's a beautiful day," he said. Later, outside the gym, Big Crow stood looking at a trailer of young thoroughbred-Quarter horse crosses that Stroh had given to the estate. Big Crow has given the horses to other tribes that supported the Crazy Horse descendants in their legal fight. The animals represented much more than any check Stroh could have written to settle the dispute. Big Crow said when Stroh offered traditional gifts to honor the Lakota principle of restoring harmony, "I told him today, you have won the hearts of the three Sioux Nations." Crazy Horse was one of the best-known figures of the wars between Indians and white settlers on the Northern Plains. He and his warriors defeated Lt. Col. George A. Custer's 7th Calvary at the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876. While as many as 100 products have been marketed under the Crazy Horse name, using it on malt liquor was particularly offensive to his Lakota descendants. The ceremony brought cultures coming together. Many of the onlookers wore jeans and boots. Stroh had on a bow-tie and a dark blazer. Displayed on a table before the stage were the twists of grass, packages of tobacco and a blanket. Near them was a vase of blue, yellow and white carnations that Crazy Horse descendants gave to Stroh. Tethered to it was a balloon fluttering overhead and lettered "Thanks." When Big Crow had given away the horses and blankets, Crazy Horse descendants wrapped a star quilt depicting a horse's head with eagle feathers in the mane, around Stroh's shoulders. Lionel Bordeaux, president of Sinte Gleska, was one of many speakers at the ceremony. "Just think how easy life would be if all of us, particularly those who we think have injured tribal nations, stepped forward as the Stroh's Company do today," he said. "We thank them. This is unheard of and pretty much unprecedented." Stroh Brewery Co. inherited the Crazy Horse problem. It was approached in the early 1990s and asked to brew and distributed the Original Crazy Horse Malt Liquor under contract for another brewer, but declined, Stroh said. However, G. Heileman Brewing Co., did so, and Stroh purchased G. Heileman in 1996. Crazy Horse Malt Liquor was no longer being brewed then, but Stroh became party to the ongoing suit over the name. Robert Gough, one of the attorneys representing the estate, described the long litigation that proceeded along the traditional legal lines of a property dispute and also along the Lakota idea that Crazy Horse's spirit had been disturbed by the use of his name on an alcoholic beverage and harmony must be restored. "Those two branches of law are coming together and that makes this an historic day," Gough said. But the suit was having no great success in federal court when Stroh Brewing Co. got out of the business and sold its assets to Miller Brewing Co. The lawsuit was a liability, however, and the brewery's successor, SBC Holdings, was unable to sell it. At that point, there was widespread agreement among the Stroh family members who controlled stock in the new real estate investment company and biotechnology firm to settle with the Crazy Horse estate, Stroh said. "SBC wants to make amends and assist in the healing," Stroh said. The apology Stroh read was written in dry legal language that largely recounted this history. Stroh apologized for that, as well. He said he wished he had recourse to better words to offer his apology to the Crazy Horse descendants. The estate now turns its attention to the second part of its litigation against Hornell Brewing Co. of New York, which also brewed Crazy Horse Malt Liquor for the Arizona Iced Tea Co. Hornell has declined to settle and will not comment on the case. Big Crow also declined to say whether Thursday's settlement with SBC would pave the way for a resolution with Hornell. "I don't want to give away my strategy," he said. Stroh said he had little knowledge of the Lakota before coming to Mission. And before he left Detroit, he talked with Detroit, he talked with an anthropologist friend who had worked on the Rosebud Reservation. "She said to expect a drum," he said. "That's about all I knew." The 32 pendleton blankets symbolized the 32 states in which the malt liquor was distributed and the seven horses represented the number of breweries Stroh's owned after it acquired G Heileman, Stroh said. "The symbolism in the numbers is intriguing," he said. But if he was on a steep learning curve, Stroh said he had acquired one important insight. After listening to previous Indian speakers, and the lawyers for the Crazy Horse estate, when he rose to make an opening statement to the crowd, preparatory to reading the letter of apology, Stroh told the gathering, "I have reached the conclusion, I think accurately, that our respective family values are not that different. I was raised to be kind, respectful, to stand up for what I believe in and to admit when I'm wrong." All content Copyright c. 2000 Argus Leader. --------- "RE: Indian Country Today Target of Sicangu Protestors" --------- Date: Tue, 1 May 2001 09:12:19 -0500 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ICT PROTEST" Indian Country Today is Target of Sicangu protestors By Ruth Red Elk Lakota Journal Staff Writer RAPID CITY - American Indian protesters gathered outside the Indian Country Today office demanding that the owners of the company rename it "White" Country Today and take out the Lakota Times section of its paper. A protest against the Rapid City based newspaper, with it's headquarters in Verona, N.Y., took place March 5 as several people braved the cold weather and accused Indian Country Today of practicing media suppression, unbalanced coverage and biased reporting. They said the Oneida of New York, owners of Indian Country Today, should close its doors or move back to New York because the Lakota/Dakota/Nakota People don't want them here. "We are here to send the word to the people across the Nation to boycott Indian Country Today. To Indian Country Today, we will no longer tolerate the one sided reporting of issues dealing with Indian people. We're here protesting the media suppression on the Grassroots issues that are vital to our existence as a traditional, spiritual Oyate, and our children," Sicangu tribal member Alfred Bone Shirt said. "We're also protesting the posting of sacred burial relics, such as our ancestors human remains, on the front page of Indian Country Today, which is a direct violation against Grassroots Traditional Law. Indian Country Today chooses to ignore our human rights. Indian Country Today refuses to report the truth." Bone Shirt said requests to cover major issues important to the Lakota/Dakota/Nakota people have been taken for granted by Indian Country Today. "They ignore us." Among the protestors was Frances Zephier who said she has tried to get Indian Country Today to report both sides of several stories, including unsolved murders in the region and that they had warned Indian Country Today of their boycott. Indian Country Today's Staff Writer Kay Humphrey responded to Zephier's accusations via email. "Francis, It is nice you have email now. However, I think you have been rather unfair. I've already made contacts with the family members in your area whose relatives are among the unsolved deaths in the region. I have every intention of revisiting that story this week. I must say I didn't appreciate your spreading your boycott message, but this is a free country and you are entitled to speak your mind," Humphrey wrote. "Meanwhile, you should understand, your emails have been unsolicited, therefore, you are spamming. Our role isn't to serve necessarily as your local paper. We are a national publication so we have to use our time efficiently and not involve ourselves in every little political scrap that takes place. In addition, if you feel we have treated you unfairly, you might revisit the issue activism. It doesn't include "staging" media events. Unless you have something more constructive to do when you email me, please don't flood my email. Sincerely, Kay Humphrey." Behind locked doors, Indian Country Today Acting Managing Editor Dave Melmer said the protest might be nothing more than reverse racism against him for being a non-Indian. "I'm not so sure that we're just the ones they're after. I think they are confusing all newspapers. I just happen to be white," Melmer said. "I have no idea, of what's going on, we got the messages through the internet. I don't have no clue to what their problem is, because they wouldn't respond when I replied a couple of times asking them to call." For the rest of the story pick up a copy of the Lakota Journal at a newsstand near you or Subscribe! Copyright c. 2001 Lakota Journal --------- "RE: Quapaw Urge BIA to lift Chat Ban" --------- Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 08:50:27 -0500 From: John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate Subj: (FWD)Indian News 04-26-2001 ----- Forwarded by John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate on 04/26/2001 08:52 AM BIA urged to lift chat sale ban By ROD WALTON Tulsa World 4/25/01 Quapaws say the moratorium is only for Indian landowners and does not seem fair. PICHER -- Quapaw tribal members who own land in the environmentally ravaged Tar Creek Superfund site will meet Thursday with federal Bureau of Indian Affairs officials to argue against a moratorium on the sale of mining chat by American Indians. The meeting at Picher High School will be first between the landowners and national BIA leaders since the agency forced the chat ban three years ago. Local Quapaws say the moratorium is only for Indian landowners and does not seem fair. Chat can be sold for various purposes, such as a gravel substitute or as part of asphalt. "We didn't want it there in the first place," Quapaw landowner and Miami, Okla., businesswoman Ardena Moore said. "It's a handicap for us. We own a lot of land with chat piles we could be selling, but there's the moratorium. "Other (non-Indian) people who own chat piles, the government has put no moratorium on them," she added. Moore and as many as 40 other landowners could also discuss plenty of other Tar Creek issues, she said. A state task force last year recommended studying whether the mine- damaged area in the northeastern corner of Oklahoma could be turned into a wetlands site and the entire towns of Picher and Cardin relocated further south. Quapaw Indians, who own as much as 70 percent of the land in the Tar Creek basin, complain that they have been left out of the discussions concerning the area's fate. Thursday will be a chance to begin rectifying that perceived oversight. "We're trying to make this the first step in a relationship that hopefully will last until we can clear this problem up," said Quapaw tribal Councilor John Berrey, who called the meeting. "I'm just hoping it will go real smooth." Picher and Cardin became a hotbed for lead and zinc mining beginning in the late 19th century. The boom employed tens of thousands of people until the 1950s and '60s, when the mines played out. Mining companies left behind an environmental disaster ranging from acid mine water in nearby Tar Creek to shaft cave- ins to chat piles -- the refuse dug up from the caverns -- full of lead and cadmium. High levels of those elements can lead to learning and physical problems in children, according to reports. The federal Environmental Protection Agency stepped in during the 1980s and made the Tar Creek mining area its most expensive Superfund site. The agency has spent more than $50 million to clean up the basin and replace lead-contamination soil. Concerns about the dangers of chat caused the BIA to declare the moratorium in 1998. The ban only applied to Indian land leased out by the BIA. One BIA official said she believes the rare meeting will focus only on the chat moratorium and will not delve into debates on relocation or cleanup efforts. "It's a sharing of information on chat, and that's all it is," said Gloria Spybuck, superintendent of the BIA's Miami field office. "There's a lot of misconceptions and lots of confusion." Another problem for the Quapaw landowners has been theft of the their chat, several tribal members said. Berrey estimated that as much as 20 percent of the millions of tons of chat has been taken unlawfully and without any response from the BIA. "We understand we can't sell it," he said. "But the BIA should protect it from being stolen." Landowner Moore said she knows of examples where chat thieves have been caught in the act, but the evidence was ignored by local BIA officials. "They were caught red- handed, but nothing has been done about it," Moore said. Berrey is hopeful that relations with the federal BIA office will improve with the nomination of Oklahoman Neal McCaleb to the director's post. McCaleb, who is awaiting congressional and presidential approval, served on the state Tar Creek Task Force. The Quapaw landowners also hope to discuss the Tar Creek Superfund situation with other state and federal elected officials later in the year, Berrey said. --------- "RE: Rice Lake is Priceless to the Chippewa" --------- Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2001 08:18:43 -0500 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RICE LAKE" Rice Lake is priceless to the Chippewa By Melinda Naparalla Special to The News-Chronicle Thousands of years ago the Sokaogon Chippewa settled in the Mole Lake area, following their elders prophecy that their final home would be where food grows on the water. On Rice Lake, the Sokaogon found their food - wild rice. Wild rice has become the lifeblood of the Mole Lake tribe both as food and as a source of income for much of the tribe. Women collect the rice, which grows so thick it looks like wheat, by hand, and it's shucked with birch bark baskets and the wind. But the proposed Crandon mine lies two miles east of the reservation, and the tribe sees its delicate, valuable resource in danger. "Our biggest concern is the possibility of contamination of the wild rice beds," said Roger McGeshick, chairman of the Sokaogon. The small community lacks jobs and many residents live in small houses or trailers. Even a slight amount of acid could destroy the beds, said David Anderson, executive director of a non-profit environmental consulting firm Flintsteel Restoration Association, which does consulting for poor and minority organizations. The firm is doing consulting for the tribe. As far back as 1914, the rice beds were protected, Anderson said. In 1914, the federal Indian agent shut down a logging dam on the Wolf River because it might affect the rice beds. "We lost lives for it before the state existed," Anderson said. "The tribe fought the Sioux to keep the land." The rice beds are respected and revered as an active part of the tribe's oral tradition, Anderson said. "There's a lot of concern over some of what Nicolet Minerals Company is planning to do," McGeshick said. "They say there will be no contamination, but it's hard to say that. What happens if it leaks 40 years down the road?" The tribe has tradition in the area, and tribal members want to see the traditions passed on. "I'd like to see my children have everything I had, and I believe the beds will be contaminated if the mine goes through," McGeshick said. In the '70s, Exxon wanted to mine, and then again in the '80s. Now it's Nicolet Minerals, Anderson said. All of them want to mine the same ore body, which lies upstream of the tribe's waters. "Local landowners can lease their land to the company and move to a different area," McGeshick said. "We can't. We were given the land by the federal government. We aren't going to sell. We can't move our families. We see (Nicolet Minerals Co.) coming in as a government trying to force us out of our homeland. We fought to stay here, and we will." The tribe doesn't know what the future holds for its water and land if the mine is allowed to proceed. If the ground or surface waters were contaminated, the tribe wouldn't be able to use this resource, McGeshick said. The tribe wouldn't be able to eat the fish or drink the water. "I'm an outdoorsman and I fish the lakes near the site. They're crystal clear. I can't imagine pollutants soaking into it," McGeshick said. "I utilize Rice Lake as my dad used it and my uncles and grandfathers used it." According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the proposed mine site doesn't lie within any of the tribes' reservations, but does lie within ceded territory in which the tribes, by treaty, have guaranteed various fishing, hunting and gathering rights on public land. "We've always been opposed to it," McGeshick said. "Especially as Native American people you just have to look at the history of the tribes, not just in Wisconsin, but across the country. Tribes are pretty much the protectors of the environment and its natural resources." The Crandon issue has shaken the tribe's faith in the Department of Natural Resources. "My job is to protect the reservation, and I don't see the DNR protecting it. If we allow a company like this to come in, I don't see the protection for the citizens of Wisconsin," McGeshick said. "I used to be a conservation warden, and I don't understand the DNR. The DNR is supposed to protect." McGeshick has traveled to various mines in the United States and Canada, many of which had contaminated the environment and hadn't been cleaned up. "I saw the degradation first hand," he said. "I see it as a money issue. They have dollar signs in their eyes. "A big corporation has all the money, but money doesn't mean anything to people here. What's important is their way of life. Water quality is part of their way of life and of ensuring our way of life." He added: "Even though we're small, I'm confident we'll be able to put a stop to the mining issue." The company said it would do everything it could to ensure the protection of the wild rice beds, including regulating the air and water near the reservation closely, said Dale Alberts, spokesman for Nicolet Minerals. The company also will remove pyrite, a metal which becomes acidic when mixed with oxygen and water, from the waste mine ore. The waste water will be treated through a filtration system and then deposited in absorption beds to allow the water to flow through the soil and to re-enter the water table. Copyright c. 2001 Green Bay News-Chronicle --------- "RE: Southern Utes are Busy Laying New Foundations" --------- Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 08:09:55 -0500 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SOUTHERN UTES" Southern Utes are busy laying new foundations April 23, 2001 By Matt Joyce Herald Staff Writer IGNACIO - The first phase of a massive overhaul of the Southern Ute Tribal Government Complex is nearing completion just in time to break ground on further construction. A new tribal community center is scheduled to open in mid-September in the northeast corner of the tribal campus, next door to the tribe's new private school. It will be home to a recreation-sports facility, a baseball field and a field area for powwows, according to Bob Piccoli, director of construction and project management for the tribe. The 49,000-square-foot recreation center will house a swimming pool, a full-service health and fitness center with workout equipment, and a basketball court with seating to accommodate 1,000 people for powwows, Piccoli said. It will also have a kitchen, aerobic rooms, a massage-therapy center and meeting rooms, he said. "The community center itself has been looked forward to for a very long time," Piccoli said. Tribal Executive Officer Marvin Cook said the facility is designed to be able to handle many different activities. The Tribal Council has not made a decision on whether non-tribal members will be allowed to use the facility, Tribal Councilor Pearl Casias said. A worker walks through the Southern Ute Indian Tribe's new recreation complex April 16. The first phase of the tribe's master plan for construction also included the tribe's new Montessori private school, the Southern Ute Indian Academy, which opened in September 2000. This September, the tribe will start construction on a new tribal administration building, which will house Tribal Council chambers, tribal councilor offices and governmental-service offices, which are now in different parts of the tribal campus, Piccoli said. The tribal administration building should take about one year to build, he said. "We're trying to bring together a lot of services the tribe provides for the membership that are now scattered around," Piccoli said. "It's really a centralization effort." Casias said the tribe is hoping to bring the growth fund management office, which is now in Durango, and the Red Cedar Gathering Co., on U.S. Highway 160 East, onto the reservation. Cook said that the existing tribal administration building, which was originally a hospital, will be renovated for office space. Piccoli would not comment on the cost of any of individual projects. The tribe will issue a bond to fund at least part of the construction, Casias said. The tribe will be able to finance the bond with interest paid on tribal revenues, she said. Casias said she did not know the project's total cost. The tribe will break ground next month on a central receiving center for tribal government offices. The center, which will be on the northern edge of the tribal campus, is intended to keep heavy truck traffic off tribal campus streets, Piccoli said. When the first two phases of the project are completed, the tribal school, the community center and the administration building will all be adjacent to one another and joined by a covered sidewalk. The construction project has largely been a clean-up job as well, Piccoli said. The area bordering the Pine River that will be home to the baseball field and powwow area was home to a number of industrial uses, including the tribe's agricultural services. To accommodate the growth, the tribe has demolished several structures: the old boys' dorm and the honor dorm from the boarding school that used to occupy the area, the old Southern Ute Police Department, and a former health-services building. Five houses were also torn down and moved to other locations, he said. Contents copyright c. 2001, the Durango Herald. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Democratic Senators save Indian Affairs Commission" --------- Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 09:08:17 -0500 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TENN IND AFFAIRS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm Thursday, 04/26/01 Democratic senators save Indian Affairs commission By BONNA de la CRUZ and MONICA WHITAKER Staff Writers Democratic senators yesterday rescued, at least temporarily, the Tennessee Commission on Indian Affairs, which Gov. Don Sundquist says he wants to abolish. The commission, which has a one-man office and runs on a shoestring budget of $55,200 a year, has been in a long-running battle with Sundquist, who, aides said, thinks it is not serving its purpose. Backers say the commission is vital to preserving the state's cultural diversity. "I'm a little bit perplexed why we would even question this entity," said Sen. Thelma Harper, D-Nashville, chairwoman of the Senate Government Operations Committee, which has the power to abolish state agencies through "sunset" review. "This group (Native American Indians) was here before we were. It's important for us to promote their heritage." In a letter to Harper, a member of Sundquist's staff cited unspecified "philosophical" issues as the reason the administration was opposing extending the life of the commission. Some Native Americans suspect that delays in a controversial road construction project at Hillsboro Road and Old Hickory Boulevard in Brentwood may be behind the Sundquist effort. After road-widening crews unearthed two 800-year-old Native American infant graves in early 1999 near the intersection, the commission joined in a lawsuit that challenged and subsequently held up Tennessee Department of Transportation construction work in the area. "I can't think of any other reason why the commission could not have worked except it got in the way of progress," said Ruth Knight Allen, a Memphis resident and former Indian Affairs commission member. "When you're messing with big business and big money, they'll overrule the little people every time." Harper's committee voted 6-2 to extend the commission for the standard four years. The two no votes came from Republicans. Three other Republicans were present but passed on the vote. Sen. Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, questioned why the commission even exists because many of its activities are funded privately. The measure to put the commission into a so-called wind-down phase for a year before eliminating it is up for a vote in the House Government Operations Committee on Tuesday. Tension first grew between the commission and Sundquist over vacancies on the commission. Sundquist deputy Todd Cruse said the administration had trouble finding a person who met the one-quarter Native American qualification. Indians complained that Sundquist delayed to paralyze the commission, which could not operate without a quorum for the past year. Relations deteriorated when Executive Director Toye Heape took the position that he is not accountable to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, under which it is administered, Cruse said. Heape said that always had been the case and up to now had not been an issue. "Today was the first inkling for me to know the governor felt that way," Heape said. "I work for the commission, not for TDEC. We're an independent commission." Senators voting to extend the commission were Democrats Charlotte Burks, Lincoln Davis, Roscoe Dixon, Doug Jackson, Larry Trail and Harper. Republicans voting no were Tim Burchett and Ramsey. Republicans Marsha Blackburn, Bobby Carter and Norris passed. Lawmakers considering the commission's future have repeatedly referred to infighting in the Native American community as the reason that the commission's future is tenuous. Neither the acting commission chairman nor the commission's executive director took part in sessions to create the commission's new rules and regulations. Copyright c. 2001 The Tennessean. A Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper Associated Press content is Copyrighted by The Associated Press. --------- "RE: Progress for Natives in Mexico" --------- Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 12:57:21 -0700 From: "Andre P. Cramblit" Subj: Progress for Natives in Mexico Mailing List: RezLife Indian rights bill gains approval APRIL 26, 2001 In a unanimous vote on Wednesday, Mexico's Senate approved a constitutional amendment that will finally recognize the nation's indigenous population and their right to self-determination. Known as the San Andres Accords, the bill was negotiated in 1996 between the leaders of the Zapatista Indian rights movement and former President Ernesto Zedillo. But Zedillo never submitted it to Congress for consideration, leading to a stalemate between the Zapatistas and the government. With the election of President Vicente Fox last fall, the government has taken a number of steps to end the standoff. Fox campaigned on improving the federal government's relationship with an estimated 10 million Native people, who are at the lowest rungs of the economic, social, and education ladder. Among the concessions Fox has made are the closure of all seven Army bases in Chiapas. He also ordered the release of most of Zapatistas and supporters jailed by the previous administration. But the fate of the self-determination bill is largely out of Fox's hands. So in an historic address to Congress last month, the Zapatistas made their own pitch for its passage, citing years of discrimination and the dismal conditions Native people in the country face. With self-determination, they argued, no longer will their rights be ignored. Among the bill's major provisions are the right to form local governments based on Indian culture, the right to teach in Indian languages in public schools, and the right to legislative representation. Unlike the United States, Mexico has no legal definition of Indian and Indians aren't currently recognized by its Constitution. Critics of the bill, many of them farmers who say their land is being held hostage by the Zapatistas and supporters, say it will only lead to further divisions in the country. They also argue it will pit Indian communities against one another. Some members of Congress have also argued the bill will allow Indian communities to discriminate against women and other groups. Zapatista leaders last month made impassioned speeches to those critics, hoping to dispel their doubts. With the unanimous Senate vote, the bill has cleared just one legal hurdle. It still faces final Senate approval. From there, it moves onto the lower assembly and will also have to be ratified by a majority of State Legislatures. -- Andre Cramblit, Operations Director-Northern California Indian Development Council NCIDC (http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the development needs of American Indians and operates an art gallery featuring the art of California tribes (http://www.americanindianonline.com) ---------------------------------------------------------------------_-> For Rezlife egroups http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rezlife --------- "RE: Learning Today/Leading Tomorrow" --------- Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2001 10:43:47 -0700 From: John Wm Sloniker Subj: Learning Today, Leading Tomorrow Mailing List: INDIAN Heritage Rapid City Journal: News Index http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/ Youth told they are all pre-judge-ists By Heidi Bell Gease, Journal Staff Writer RAPID CITY -- More than 575 students from a handful of states are spending the weekend at the Indian Youth 2001 Conference, studying issues they will face as future leaders. "Learning Today, Leading Tomorrow" is the theme for this year's conference, sponsored by the Blackpipe Youth Council, Crow Creek Tribal Schools and Lower Sioux Indian Community of Morton, Minn. The conference kicked off Thursday with a tipi-building contest, Lakota- language bowl, hand games and other contests. Friday, students attended sessions on topics ranging from alcohol to gangs to racism, before an afternoon field trip to Bear Butte. Terry Star, a tutor at Todd County High School, spoke to students about racism and about the prejudice that precedes it. "Who in here is prejudiced, raise your hand," he said. When a few hands went up, he continued, "The rest of you are lying." Star said it's human nature to "pre-judge" things and people. What's important is that we don't take negative actions based on those pre- judgments, he said. Education is the key to understanding others, he said. "It's important to know our own history ... but equally important to go out and learn about somebody else's culture." Star has studied Irish history, and he told students that the Irish were once considered to be on the low rungs of society, just as Indians were. "They had it just as bad," he said. Star said that students at Todd County aren't split by race. Instead, they tend to form friendships and cliques based on shared interests and musical tastes. Students are bothered to find that parents and community members tend to be more divided along racial lines, he said. "We want to show our community here that we're a family within our walls," Star said. In parting, Star told students to try to overcome their own biases through education. "Go out and learn about somebody else," he said. "They're just as scared of you as you are of them." The conference continues Saturday with more speakers, afternoon visits with Indian elders and other activities. It concludes Sunday with a brunch and honoring ceremonies. You may call reporter Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419, or send e-mail to heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com. Copyright c. 2001 Rapid City Journal --------- "RE: Florida: Course Could Change History" --------- Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 09:39:34 EDT From: ErthAvengr@aol.com Subj: Course Could Change History! Florida Mailing List: ndn-aim How about Native American History being taught in the schools! http://www.orlandosentinel.com Course could change history Leslie Postal of the Sentinel Staff Posted April 17, 2001 Until this year, Jeff Brown learned little in school about the history of blacks in America -- just something about slavery and the work of Martin Luther King Jr. Then the Orange County teen signed up for an elective course on African-American history. It has been a learning experience for Brown, who just finished a report on Ralph Bunche, a black American who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. "I think if more people got into this class they'd get a better understanding of American history," said Brown, an 18-year-old senior at Colonial High School. State Sen. Les Miller, D-Tampa, couldn't agree more. Miller has filed a bill that, if approved, would require every Florida public school student to pass a course in African-American history to graduate. Miller proposed the legislation (SB 370) because he felt some schools ignored the subject, despite a current law that requires that it be taught. "It's supposed be [taught]," Miller said, "but in many cases it's not." Under Florida law, African-American history is considered "required instruction," one of 18 subjects that must be taught. The list includes the Declaration of Independence, the history of the Holocaust and the contributions of Hispanics. But the law doesn't specify how much African-American history should be taught or when. That's left up to the school districts. In practice, what's taught comes down to the talents and preferences of individual social-studies teachers. Miller thinks it's important for all students to understand the important and unique history of blacks in this country, from the slaves' arrival on ships out of Africa to their struggles for freedom and equality. Miller's bill would make African-American history a required half-credit course, a move that would reduce the number of electives students could take. That likely will be the reason many oppose it, said Ken Bovio, a lobbyist for Seminole County schools. Miller's bill was approved by the Senate Education Committee last month and will be heard today in the Governmental Oversight and Productivity Committee. But the bill has not been taken up by the House, which could mean it's doomed. Some teachers and curriculum specialists, even those who support Miller's intent, aren't sure his bill is the best solution. George Davis, a social-studies teacher at Boone High School in Orlando, agrees with Miller's assessment of Florida's history courses. "African-American history is not emphasized," he said. "A lot of it has been missed." But Davis, who teaches the elective course on the subject, doesn't like the idea of making the class a requirement because he fears other ethnic or racial groups would then clamor for their own classes, too. "What about Italian-Americans? Jewish-Americans?" he said. Instead, Davis wants standard American history classes to include more explicit instruction about the role and accomplishments of African- Americans. Sherrica Cressor, a Boone High 11th-grader, took Davis' elective class last semester just to get that kind of information. "I wanted to learn more about my history, my ancestors," said the 16- year-old. "I wanted a more in-depth study." In Central Florida, the elective African-American course is offered at just a smattering of high schools. But curriculum specialists say all students should learn about African-American history as part of their regular history classes. "I'm fairly sure in my county that it is addressed -- and not just in February," said John Boyd, the social-studies specialist for Osceola schools. Boyd said it's fine to celebrate Black History Month in February but his message to teachers is "You should be doing this the whole year." Whether that happens depends on the teacher, he concedes. John Phillips, a longtime social-studies teacher at Colonial High, thinks Miller's proposal makes sense. Blacks played a significant part in virtually all the great American struggles, from the drafting of the Declaration of Independence to the Civil War to the battle for civil rights, he said. "I have no problem with it being required, though some would say it would be controversial," said Phillips, who teaches the elective course. "Black history is part of American history. You can't get away from it." Leslie Postal can be reached at lpostal@orlandosentinel.com or 407-772-8046. ---------------------------------------------------------------------_-> 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: Ceremony Meant to Honor/Encourage Native students" --------- Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 11:24:10 +0100 From: anne.bates Subj: Ceremony meant to honor, encourage Native students Mailing List: ndn-aim http://www.journalstar.com/local?story_id=3364&past= Ceremony meant to honor, encourage Native students BY MICHELLE STARR Lincoln Journal Star Family and friends recognized more than 100 Native students Sunday after a long school year of tests, presentations and papers. "I think it's nice that all of us get together," said Kristina La Flesche, a member of the Omaha tribe and graduating senior at Bryan Center. "And recognizing the seniors for a good job and going off to college." La Flesche plans to become a teacher and educate other Omaha tribe members on the reservation. She wants to be "a positive role model," she said. "So they know I can do it, and they can, too." The daylong event included song, traditional dance and food for the families of students in Lincoln Public Schools and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "We hope it encourages them to stay in school and feel good about themselves," said Helen Long Soldier, a Lakota who works at UNL in the Multicultural Affairs Office. She helped put on the event. Howard Wolf, a 75-year-old traditional dancer and Omaha tribe member, said education is empowering and that the event helps to promote retaining cultural identification. "I've come to realize that we, as Omaha in this state -- any vital statistics, like money, health, housing - we rank right at the bottom, and that's because we lack education," Wolf said. "What they do for themselves today, tomorrow and in the next few years ahead, whatever they do, will reflect back on the tribe. It will be better for everyone." He passed on this sentiment to his family, including his son Robert Wolf, who is studying at Harvard University, daughter Carrie Wolf, who has one year left at UNL, and his granddaughter Mechelle Walker, a student at Lincoln High School. With one semester left and her cousin John Pilcher graduating, Walker said, "It kind of inspires me to work a little harder." Pilcher, a senior at Lincoln High School, said: "It's important that we are getting acknowledged by our own people. "It's an honor to be graduating." ---------------------------------------------------------------------_-> 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: Tribal Success draws Indians from Other Tribes" --------- Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2001 08:55:19 -0500 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SUCCESS" Tribal success draws American Indians from other tribes to region By The Associated Press Published on 4/6/2001 Mashantucket - When marriage brought Allison Greene-Liberatore to Rhode Island 20 years ago, she felt isolated and alone, as the only member of the Cayuga Indian Nation around. Today, with two American Indian tribes running huge casinos in southeastern Connecticut, Indian culture is on the rise and Indians from around the country are attracted to jobs in the area. Greene-Liberatore recalled the Indian jokes and rude comments she had to listen to when she worked at a retail store, before she got a job with the Mashantucket Pequots. "When I came here, I felt a great deal more respect. I don't feel like I have to be on guard for the ignorance and meanness of other people," said Greene-Liberatore, who now works at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center. The migration of Indians to Connecticut shows up in the U.S. Census, which found there are 9,639 Indians in the state - an increase of 50 percent in 10 years. The 2000 census also allowed people for the first time to report mixed racial background. More than 14,800 people took that option to report they are of mixed Indian and other ancestry. The increase is attributed to many things - chiefly the rise of Indian- run casinos and the rush of other groups to organize, get federal recognition and open casinos of their own. Racial pride also is driving many people to report their Indian background to the census, Indians said. For other Indians, job opportunities and a chance to work with other Indians brings them to live in Connecticut or Rhode Island. The casino-owning Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans could not say how many Indians from other tribes they employ, but they have an agreement with other tribes to give preferential hiring treatment to fellow Indians who are as qualified for jobs as non-Indian applicants. Daniel S. Collins, from the Shinnecock Nation in Long Island, N.Y., came to work for the Mashantucket Police Department in 1993. Collins, an ex- Marine who had been a police officer on Long Island, rose through the ranks to become assistant police chief of the department. "It's a great experience working with native people every day," Collins said. "To the everyday society on the outside, you're the minority. When you wake up every day, you know you're going to work among your own, and you know there's no challenge." There are challenges, he said, working with some local police departments and the state police to work on cases, and learning tribal law. But, the job also brings unexpected pleasures, such as being a role model for young tribal members. Another tribal employee, Bob Strikes Lightning, has brought a career of working with Indians to the Mashantuckets. A member of the Oglala Lakota Nation of South Dakota, Strikes Lightning worked for decades advocating for Indians and as a counselor for urban Indian groups, helping Indians get educations and jobs. He arrived in Connecticut in 1997 from Oklahoma City, semiretired. His wife, Judy Lewis, wanted to return to the Northeast, and she got a job as the tribe's prosecutor. A year later, Strikes Lightning started working as a career counselor, helping Mashantucket Pequots of all ages explore career options and get work. "I enjoyed the country around here - I enjoy the beaches and coastline - but after I got tired of that I decided I had to do something else. I didn't want to watch soap operas," he said with a laugh. Strikes Lightning reconnects every year with old friends at Schemitzun - the annual Indian dance festival hosted by the Mashantuckets. He and other Indians also gather monthly at an Indian social to listen to music, sing, dance, share food and conversation. Greene-Liberatore said she brings her husband's famous chicken wings and her daughter to the socials. "I love to bring her to be around native people and hear the music," she said. Copyright c. 1998-2001 The Day Publishing Co. --------- "RE: Making Dreams Come True" --------- Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2001 08:16:34 -0500 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LIVE YOUR DREAMS" Making dreams come true Indian judge urges students to stay in school to succeed By Linda Thomson Desert News staff writer When William Thorne was in third grade, some school officials gave him a battery of tests and then informed him that he'd never go to college and should consider himself lucky if he completed high school and got a good job. Fortunately for Thorne, his strong-willed and education-minded mother told him otherwise, and Thorne did go on - not only to college but to Stanford Law School, several judgeships and he now sits on the Utah Court of Appeals. Thorne, a Pomo Indian, is the first American Indian appointed to the appeals court. "You've got to have a dream," Thorne told pupils on Thursday at Lincoln Elementary School, 501 E. 3900 South. This elementary school has the highest percentage of American Indian students in the Granite School District as well as many other ethnic minorities and children from low-income families. "Nobody ought to be able to tell you what you can and cannot do. My mother told me I could do whatever I wanted," Thorne said. "I have a 13- year-old daughter who's convinced she will become a doctor. And not just any kind of doctor, but the doctor who cures cancer because her grandmother died of cancer. "If my daughter dreams that dream and works hard, she'll have a chance," he said. One component of hard work is getting an education, Thorne said. Another is never losing sight of who you are and where you are headed. The special assembly titled "Taking Responsibility for Your Future: The Importance of Getting an Education" was arranged by school officials, the Utah State Courts Public Outreach Committee and the Racial and Ethnic Task Force. Utah Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Howe recalled how his father, Howard E. Howe, was Lincoln's first principal when the school opened in 1923. His sister, Elaine Howe, attended the school and spoke of the years she spent there as a third-grade teacher. Lynn Hall Nez, a social worker with the Indian Walk-In Center, also urged the children to get as much education as possible and asked those who were college-bound to raise their hands. "Wow!" she exclaimed as a sea of hands shot up. "Look at that!" Another American Indian, Nino Reyes, who does drug counseling, encouraged the children to set goals and told how he completed several educational and career goals. Another of his goals was to learn to play the flute as an adult, and not only did he succeed, but he will soon release his second CD. Reyes then treated students to a haunting flute solo. Colorful and educational entertainment was provided by the L'il Feathers Dance Group, a group of students who demonstrated various American Indian dance styles. The dancers invited the visiting dignitaries onto the stage and ended the assembly with a sign language and vocal song titled "Go, My Son," which contains such lyrics as, "From the ladder of education, you can help your Indian nation." After the assembly, visitors were invited to the classroom of teacher Charlene McCaffery, who worked with Title IX aide Scott Speechart to get a grant titled "Science Through Native American Eyes," which financed a series of special science-fair projects. Student Allysa Love, 11, who is Navajo, said she was pleased with the assembly and the science activities. She made water drums, then changed the water levels in them and learned how that affected the musical pitch. "I think they are very helpful. It helps you learn about the real world and about our culture," she said. Copyright c. 2001 Deseret News Publishing Company --------- "RE: Applying a Hate Crime Statute to Silence Protests" --------- Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2001 18:05:32 From: KOLA Subj: Greatest Fear: Applying a Hate Crime Statute to Silence Protests <+>=<+>KOLA Newslist<+>=<+> [from JH. Thanks!] The Salt Lake Tribune -- Utah's Statewide Newspaper http://www.sltrib.com/04282001/commenta.htm Saturday, April 28, 2001 Greatest Fear: Applying a Hate Crime Statute to Silence Protests By: PATRISIA GONZALES and ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ - UPS James Cosner recently took a sledgehammer to a 15th century sailor. He was fed up with "the genocide, slavery, colonialism and racism" that the Christopher Columbus marble statue represented inside San Jose's City Hall. In Denver last year, people were arrested for protesting the Columbus Day parade as hate speech. In Cosner's case, he not only faces felony charges, but has additionally been charged with a hate crime. The use of a hate crime statute in this instance confirms the authors' greatest fear: that one day, these statutes will be misapplied, not to fight against white supremacy, but against people of color (e.g., black vs. brown conflicts). Once again, right and wrong, truth and hate are being framed by historical denial. If 1992 taught the world anything, it is that after 500 years, Christopher Columbus remains a controversial actor in the theater of war. For native people throughout North and South America, there is no one who better symbolizes genocide, land theft and slavery. Only Cortez in Mexico or Pizarro in Peru could equally incense the people there. Native peoples are willing to go to jail for protesting the public honoring of Columbus and other conquistadors. Such an honoring is an insult and a provocation. For example, last Oct. 12 in Denver, a brokered agreement had called for an Italian Pride parade, sans Columbus. Discarding the agreement, the parade proceeded with his honoring. Calling that honoring hate speech, American Indians, Chicanos and their supporters protested. Police arrested 137, although all charges were subsequently dropped. In New Mexico, the attempt to honor 400 years of Spanish presence by focusing on conquistadors boiled blood in 1998. One opponent cut a foot off a statue of Juan de Onate -- "the butcher of Acoma." Later attempts to erect a statue that would publicly honor Onate in the city of Albuquerque continue to salt old wounds. The Cosner case stands out because of the attempt to apply a hate crime statute to an act that points out injustice. "I was motivated by love," he told us. "Yet they called it hate." Cosner freely admits to using the sledgehammer on the statue in March, but argues it's not a crime. The crime, he says, is honoring "this genocidal maniac." That such honorings throughout the continent continue to be met by massive protests ought to signal something to society: that the hour of erecting monuments to conquistadors or other Indian killers has passed. In Mexico, there are no public statues to Cortez for the simple reason that they would not stand. To honor him would be to negate his historic crimes against humanity. That concept is easily understood in this indigenous-based mestizo nation. Yet that same lesson seems not to be understood elsewhere. It would be akin to erecting a statue of Hitler. To put up such a statue in a public building and to expect it to stay standing defies common sense. Perhaps the key here is the word "public," referring to tax-supported monuments in public spaces. If individuals want to honor or dishonor individuals on private property, they have that freedom. David Vossbrink, communications director for San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzalez, stated that the mayor deplored the violence against the statue. He characterized it as an insult to all racial and ethnic groups in the city and vowed to restore it. He did not, however, address the issue of the statue of Columbus itself dishonoring and insulting all native peoples of the continent. Regarding a statue to Hitler, he said, "That's but a theoretical." What's not a theoretical is that Columbus does not represent a mere man, but a symbol of epic devastation. At Denver's Columbus Park, the signage has been burned, razed and tagged almost every other day for decades, with the city having to repair it constantly. As long as we erect monuments to conquistadors, there will without question always be acts of resistance. What's chilling here is the use of a hate crime statute to silence these protests. And in this particular case, for an act committed against an inanimate object. At the core of this debacle is the need to learn to honor without dishonoring. --- c. Copyright 2001, The Salt Lake Tribune. --------- "RE: Oregon Hate Crime" --------- Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 12:41:29 -0700 From: Andre P. Cramblit Subj: Oregon Hate Crime Mailing List: ndn-aim This story was in the Eugene Register-Guard in April 24th's issue! Please send this information out to others! Subject: HATE CRIMES AGAINST NATIVE AMERICANS IN OREGON HELP GET JUSTICE FOR OREGON HATE CRIME SUPPORT AN END TO ANTI-NATIVE AMERICAN VIOLENCE Greetings, I have just received word by a member of the Klamath Tribe that one of their members had been murdered in what is being dubbed by family and friends as a "hate crime". Kevin Weiser was beaten to death at a party by white partiers, in Klamath Falls, Oregon, Sunday night. The story was covered by the local Herald and News today in print, but it has not been posted on the webpage. Local Klamath Falls Police have failed to bring hate crime charges against the murderers. Squeezed by a combination of drought and endangered species requirements, on April 6, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced it will not deliver water this year to hundreds of farmers served by the Klamath Project, an irrigation project that straddles the California and Oregon border. If they hadn't, the agency could have been in violation of the Endangered Species Act, which prohibits them from taking any action that would jeopardize salmon in the Klamath River, and a pair of suckers that live in local lakes. the U.S. Department of the Interior began re-plumbing the desert in the early 1900s. To help farmers, engineers for the Klamath Project built seven dams, including one that plugged up Klamath Falls. To drain the marshes and funnel water to farmers, they built 185 miles of canals, 516 miles of ditches and 45 pumping plants. By giving water to farmers, federal engineers had to take it from lakes, wildlife refuges and the natural flows of the Klamath, California's second largest river. By the 1980s, 75 percent of the basin's wetlands had been converted to farmland. Millions of migrating waterfowl disappeared. Upper Klamath Lake, a popular recreation site, started blooming green with algae. Fish died in the lakes and river. All that water has helped create a $100 million farm economy. But it also came at an economic cost to the local tribes, the Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin. As farming grew in the basin, the native fish started to disappear. The tribes have pressured federal agencies to protect the lake fish -- known as C'waam and Qapdo by the tribes, and suckers by the locals. They have also teamed up with tribes downstream to urge greater protections for the threatened coho salmon, whose runs in the Klamath River have dwindled because of reduced water flows, logging and commercial fishing. The Klamath Tribe and other area Natives are being blamed for the water shortage. They have increasingly been bullied and intimidated by local whites. Weiser's murder is seen by friends and family as a part of this pattern. This pattern of violence against Native people in southern Oregon manifests an a national scale. The majority of violent crimes committed against Native peoples in the USA are committed by whites. This is at variance with the usual pattern of violent crimes being mostly perpetrated against victims of the same ethnicity as the perpetrator. Everywhere Natives attempt to exercise their rights to resources which they have utilized for thousands of years and which were in most cases promised to them by treaty, whites have reacted with hostility and often violence. The continuing violence and resource deprivation perpetrated against Native peoples in the United States must be publicized and opposed. These two issues are intimately linked, as anti-Native violence increases where resources are in dispute. This has occurred from upstate New York to the salmon rivers of the Pacific Northwest. It is part of an embarassing continuum of genocide against Native peoples in this country which cannot be tolerated by a decent society. Friends and supporters of the family of Kevin Weiser want this murder to be seen for what it is, a hate crime. The public must be made aware of the violence and intimidation endured by Native people in Klamath County, Oregon and elsewhere. It is time that the national arguments over resource allocation be addressed in an informed and intelligent manner rather than by the essentially mob action of local mis-informed and bigoted citizens. Please do what you can within your organization to spread awareness of this crime and of this issue of anti-Native violence and resource theft which is ongoing in the USA. If you desire further information, email me to that effect and I will pass along what information I receive regarding the movement which is now forming to demand justice and national awareness. -- Andre Cramblit, Operations Director-Northern California Indian Development Council NCIDC (http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the development needs of American Indians and operates an art gallery featuring the art of California tribes (http://www.americanindianonline.com) ---------------------------------------------------------------------_-> 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: Peltier: Sample Letter" --------- Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 17:31:43 -0500 From: "LPDC" Subj: sample letter Mailing List: LPDC LEONARD PELTIER DEFENSE COMMITTEE Dear Friends, Below is the updated sample letter for your Senators and Representative (referred to in yesterday's update). It includes the additional issue of parole. Thank you, In Solidarity, LPDC To : United States Senator ______or Representative_____ United States Congress Washington D.C. From : NAME AND ADDRESS Dear _________________, I am writing to express my shock and outrage over the recent denial of clemency to Mr. Leonard Peltier. I am also writing to ask for your help and support in this tragic case. As you know, Mr. Peltier is a Native American citizen of this country who has now been incarcerated for twenty-five years, following his highly controversial conviction of the 1975 murders of two FBI agents. He has never received the benefit of a fair trial, despite worldwide outcry from human rights and religious leaders. Although disturbing evidence proves that vengeful FBI officials coerced witnesses, utilized false testimonies and withheld a key ballistics test reflecting his innocence, Mr. Peltier was denied a new trial on technical grounds. Today even the United States Attorney admits that no one knows who fired the fatal shots. The Judge who denied the new trial has written to firmly support Mr. Peltier's release. Meanwhile, Mr. Peltier himself is long overdue for parole and is in failing health. This case is an embarrassment to our nation. To make matters worse, Mr. Peltier's highly controversial conviction is deeply rooted in the Pine Ridge "Reign of Terror", when FBI-backed vigilantes killed over 60 AIM members and supporters, and terrorized, assaulted and battered scores of others. There has never been any adequate investigation or redress of this grim chapter of civil rights history. For all of these reasons, Mr. Peltier has become a symbol of ongoing U.S. repression against the first citizens of this country. Given all of the above, I am asking for the following : 1. Please press for a thorough and bi-partisan investigation of this case, together with the FBI abuses which occurred during the Reign of Terror on Pine Ridge Reservation, 1973-1976. 2. Please press for a Congressional Act declassifying all of the FBI and related files in Mr. Peltier's case. Some 6000 documents, remain in secret files, despite the fact that twenty five years have passed and the investigation and court proceedings ended long ago. Given that some of the files released earlier contained the critical and exculpatory ballistics test which the FBI had concealed from the defense, we are convinced that these secret files contain critical information. 3. Please urge the United States Parole Commission to release Mr. Peltier. Although Mr. Peltier is nine years overdue for parole, according to Parole Commission guidelines, the Commission has arbitrarily and capriciously denied his release, despite his failing health and his impressive record of human rights work from prison. 4. The Parole Commission's abolishment date is set for next year. Before granting another extension, please review the Parole Commission's treatment of Leonard Peltier's case and others like it. According to the Comprehensive Crime Control Act passed by Congress in 1984, Mr. Peltier should have been given his probative release date over fifteen years ago. Yet, Mr. Peltier and multitudes of others have never received this date, and many more have been denied parole without justification. It appears the Parole Commission is denying due process to prisoners in order to remain in power. Meanwhile, taxpayer's money is being used to fund a government agency who is failing to fulfill its purpose. We thank you for your time and consideration to these matters. Sincerely, --------------- Leonard Peltier Defense Committee PO Box 583 Lawrence, KS 66044 785-842-5774 www.freepeltier.org To subscribe, send a blank message to < lpdc-on@mail-list.com > --------- "RE: Eddie Hatcher: A Word of Encouragement" --------- Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 20:32:07 From: KOLA Subj: Eddie Hatcher - A word of encouragement <+><+> KOLA Newslist <+><+> -------------------------------------- From: eddiehatcher@yahoogroups.com A New Message from Maurice Geiger Forwarded by the Eddie Hatcher Defense Committee http://www.eddiehatcher.org.cnchost.com http://www.eddiehatcher.org Dear friends, Former prosecutor Maurice Geiger sent the following message to supporters of Eddie Hatcher. John Johnson EHDC ________________________________ NEW MESSAGE FROM MAURICE GEIGER: John Johnson, et al: Let be begin by reporting that I am very tired and behind schedule, so I apologize for any typos, spelling errors, etc. in this note. I have just returned from a trip to Robeson County ( at my own expense) and a review of the Hatcher case. I would not be wise to reveal the details of what I learned. Remember you simply can not trust the law enforcement officials there. If they were to learn of what we see as a flaw in their case they would not hesitate to plant or fabricate evidence to correct the flaw. Having said that, here is what I learned in my short visit. 1.The state's case is a pile of nonsense cobbled together in a desperate attempt to try to show that Eddie Hatcher committed this crime. The state's case is really based on several self serving statements made by desperate men in jail or facing criminal charges who are trying to please the police by giving them statements that implicate Hatcher. There is also a statement by a policeman which claims that Hatcher made a statement to him regarding the crime. That statement would be laughable (ala My Cousin Vinne) if it were not so serious. It is clear that the authorities are out to get Hatcher. He has embarrassed them and they are going to do what the can to crucify him ( we should remember that throughout history tyrants have crucified those who speak the truth about power) 2. There is no credible evidence against Hatcher 3. As a person of the law, having spent nearly 50 years in and around law enforcement ( I entered the Police administration School at Michigan State University in 1952) including being a prosecutor, I would be embarrassed to go forward with this pile of nonsense. It is clear that the state is pounding a square peg into a round hole and desperately trying to make it fit. 4. Needless to say the crime could not have happened in the way that the state contends. But they don't worry about the truth they simply want a conviction so they will ignore physical evidence and hang the case on statements which are much easier to fabricate and manipulate. 5..I am concerned with Eddie spirits. After all he now been in jail for nearly two years, being fed poorly, not given proper medical treatment, not given proper exercise, etc., and all the while under a cloud of a possible death sentence. It is sure to take a toll, and I fear it has. So it important that the friends of Hatcher, and frankly the friends of the truth, justice and common decency, (regardless of how the feel about Hatcher) let their support be known. It is important to show that support by being in court whenever possible. I must be in Haiti for several days during the next two weeks, and I have to be in the former USSR working on human rights issues for the month of May. I wish I could be in Robeson County, but my commitments to be elsewhere has been scheduled when we expected to Hatcher trial to be over by now. So the main purpose of this message is to assure you all that the case against Hatcher is utter nonsense, it is a deliberate misuse of power, it is not the court but the prosecutor and police who are at fault. Do not think that your support for Hatcher might come back to embarrass you. He did not, and could not have done, what the State is accusing him of. I wish I could feel comfortable is setting out the detail of he holes in the State's case. But it would not be wise to do so at this time. I will simply close by saying that this case is far to shabby to have the name of the great State of North Carolina on it. Maurice D. Geiger Director Rural Justice Center <+>=<+> KOLA Information: http://users.skynet.be/kola/index.htm --------- "RE: Native Prisoner" --------- Date: Mon, 30 April 2001 20:55:07 -0530 From: "Janet Smith" Subj: Native Prisoner News Tell a Native American Prisoner someone cares! -- - - - Peltier, Leonard #89637-132 Box 1000 Leavenworth, KS 66053 Birthday: 9/12/44 Ancestry: Ojibwa-Lakota -- - - - Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2001 15:00:24 -0700 (PDT) From: Valerie Scott Subj: Call to Action To> Dear Gary, Could you please post the attachment concerning Half-Moon in the next Wotanging Ikche? Thanks for your assistance. Val NAPS (Native American Prisoner Support) http://www.hri.ca/partners/naps/ ===== Update and Call to Action 28 April 2001 Greetings, The following is an update on Micheal Half-Moon (DIN #87-D-0102, PC 1-11), as well as an immediate call to action, since Elmira State Prison is once again denying that a hunger/medical strike is even taking place. Half-Moon began his current strike (after a 52-day strike in the Fall of last year) on 14 March 2001, which means he is now entering his 45th day. He is staging these hunger strikes to demand the religious rights of Native prisoners throughout the United States. Half-Moon requires medication for seizures, but is refusing to take it. Prison officials ended his previous strike illegally, when they force-fed him without a court order, and he has made it very clear to officials that this is not to happen again. On Thursday, 26 April 2001, Janice Gardner from the Four Directions Native American Church or N.Y.S., phoned the institution to inquire about Half-Moon's health. She spoke to Chaplain Ladley, who claims he was not aware of the hunger strike because he had been on holiday. When asked to check on Half-Moon's condition, Chaplain Ladley stated that the prison logs had no details of Half-Moon's hunger/medical strike; therefore, it did not exist. However, NAPS knows this is not true, because on 24 March 2001, we received a copy of Half-Moon's letter to Superintendent F. Bennett, clearly stating his intentions to begin the strike at 12:00 noon, on 14 March 2001. NAPS also received a letter dated 21 March 2001, from Half-Moon's legal advisor (and fellow-inmate), Anthony Butler, confirming that Half-Moon had indeed started the strike, and that Mr. Butler was monitoring his health due to the neglect Half-Moon receives from the Medical Department. For those of you not familiar with this case, the Administrative Nurse was dismissed for allegedly not keeping records during Half-moon's last hunger strike, an odd move considering the prison denied the hunger strike ever took place. In addition, Counselor Woodward, Half-Moon's counselor in Ad Seg during the strike, was also fired on trumped-up charges. A medical doctor later confirmed that Half-Moon sustained injuries during a seizure that took place during the last hunger strike. A lot of action for a strike that allegedly never took place. Since we have not heard from Half-Moon in some time (thanks to the tampering of mail), it is highly likely that he has been moved to Ad Seg once again, so the other prisoners cannot witness the deterioration of his health. For those of you who have been following this case, you know that prison and government officials would be more than happy to see Half-Moon silenced; therefore, it is imperative that we do not allow this to happen. Your letters and calls to prison officials during the last hunger strike, literally saved Half-Moon's life, because officials did not like outsiders breathing down their necks. So it is time, once again, to flood officials with inquiries - to let them know we are watching. In your letters of inquiry, please include the following: 1) Let officials know you are aware of the hunger/medical strike and when it began. 2) Ask about Half-Moon's condition and where he is presently located. 3) Ask what the Medical Department is doing to monitor the strike and to guarantee Half-Moon's safety. 4) Ask what the prison/DOC intends to do to meet the spiritual needs of all Native prisoners, and not just those of the Six Nations. 5) Be sure to include Half-Moon's DIN and cell numbers. Please contact NAPS at naps_ca@yahoo.com, with a short message, to let us know who has sent inquiries regarding the above. For anyone requiring additional information, please visit Half-Moon's Official Website at: http://www.halfmoonhelp.com. Letters of inquiry should be sent to the following officials: Superintendent F. Bennett / Chaplain Ladley Elmira Correctional Facility P.O. Box 500 Elmira, NY 14902-0500 Phone: 607-734-3901 Fax: 607-734-3901-2099 (number given by prison operator) Glenn S. Goord, Commissioner NYS Department of Correctional Services Building 2 1220 Washington Ave. Albany, NY 12226-2050 Phone: 518-457-8126 To request an investigation into the cover-up of the hunger strike, please contact: Alan J. Croce, Chairman/Commissioner Frederick C. Lamy, Commissioner Daniel B. Reardon, Commissioner NY State Commission of Correction 4 Tower Place Albany, NY 12203 Phone: 518-485-2346 Fax: 518-485-2467 (This is the body that evaluates, investigates and oversees correctional facilities. They will not accept requests for investigations via e-mail.) On behalf of Half-Moon, NAPS thanks you in advance for your support. Valerie Scott Official Spokesperson --------------------------------- Please especially remember 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: History: Carlisle Indian School" --------- Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 21:31:50 -0400 From: Barbara Landis Subj: History: Carlisle Indian School - April 20, 1888 INDIAN HELPER [Editorial Note: These reprints are being included in this newsletter so that you might know the mind of those who ran institutions like Carlisle.] THE INDIAN HELPER ----------------------------- ~~ FOR OUR BOYS AND GIRLS ~~ -------------------------- VOLUME III CARLISLE, PA. FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 1888 NO. 36 -------------------------- "GET THERE." The tallest tree with smoothest bark Is most difficult to climb, But if you scratch and dig and work "You'll get there every time." When you have anything to say Don't play the pantomime, Rise up at once, and don't delay, "You'll get there every time." If you would wealth or riches reap Save every cent and dime, And all you get be sure to keep. "You'll get there every time." If up the hill of knowledge bright It is your wish to climb Just you keep at it day and night. "You'll get there every time." -Adapted. -------------- ARE THE INDIAN BOYS AND GIRLS THE FRIENDS OF BIRDS? ------- Read, and see if you think the same about the killing of birds as the kind lady who wrote the following: MY DEAR MR. MAN-ON-THE-BAND-STAND: I am very much interested in your charming little paper, THE INDIAN HELPER, and look for its coming with pleasure each week. I was particularly glad to see a remark of yours not long ago, on the subject of wearing feathers in hats. Now it is on this very subject that I wish to speak to you. I do not believe every one knows what hard fight the poor little birds have, to live. First there are the squirrels and wood-mice that destroy the eggs. Then the rats that feast on the young birds and the cruel hawks that make such havoc on the full-fledged songsters. Does it not seem hard that with all their difficulties, man too, must turn around and oppress the poor little fellows? What boy in America has not at one time in his life made a collection of birds' eggs? How many birds are taken from their comfortable nests to be raised by hand, where in nine cases out of ten they die? And then the boy with his shot-gun, or bow and arrows, pops off hedge-sparrows robins, cat-birds, swallows, in fact anything. He does not want them. He cannot eat them. He simply wishes to see what he can hit. Men are the same way, when they go gunning they do not confine themselves to game-birds alone, but fire at anything that comes to hand And look at the girls and the women! You rarely meet one without a bird-trimmed hat. Think of the millions of birds killed every year for this cruel fashion! Have the birds no friends? Will no one be bold enough to stop this cruel slaughter? Some time ago some scientific gentlemen looked into this matter, and found that fifteen million birds were destroyed every year to trim the hats of girls and women. This is terrible! Think of the effect it must have on the fruit-trees, where caterpillars and other in insects are at work! And so the great Audubon Society was founded, and I am going to ask every boy and girl in Carlisle to join it and help to put down this cruel barbarous custom. You can help a great deal, all of you, simply by signing the pledges and carrying your influence to others. There are many of you who go away to farms in the summer. Spread the movement and make the people believe that the Creator did not make these feathered beauties to be destroyed by the ruthless hand of man. I send you a few of the pledges, and I have signed one myself to show you bow it is done. Why don't you get up an Audubon Society out there? You have debating clubs and all that. You might meet once a month or so and note the progress through the month. Do not fail to send the pledges, when signed, ------------------------------------------- (Continued on Fourth Page.) ------------------------------------------- (p 2) The Indian Helper. ----------------------------- PRINTED EVERY FRIDAY, AT THE INDIAN INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, CARLISLE, PA. BY THE INDIAN PRINTER BOYS. ----------------------------- Price: - 10 cents a year. ------------------------------ Address INDIAN HELPER, Carlisle, Pa. Miss M. Burgess, Manager. ------------------------------ Entered in the P.O. at Carlisle as second class mail matter. ------------------------------ THE INDIAN HELPER is PRINTED by Indian boys, but EDITED by The-Man-on-the-band-stand, who is NOT an Indian. ------------------------------ The INDIAN HELPER is paid for in advance, so do not hesitate to take the paper from the Post Office, for fear a bill will be presented. ------------------------------- The Red Man for April will contain President Cleveland's views on the language order; What the N. Y. Times has to say editorially upon the same; An interesting letter from the Crow Agency, Mont., physician, in regard to hospitals on reservations; Appeals from other agencies; The test of Time, in regard to "English in Indian Schools;" The Beautiful Indian Territory and the opening of same for settlement; Record of the Osage Students from Carlisle; Speech of Joshua Given, Kiowa, before our pupils; How Indians get their names; An evening with Japan, or what Mr. Kanzo Uchimura, a young Japanese, said to us in a speech; Bills on Indian matters before Congress; Discussion in Congress on the Mission Indians; Carlisle Indian boys on farms ; Frances E. Williard's remarks to us; The visiting Apache chiefs; Description of Richard Davis' marriage, with letters from him and his employer; Editorial matter upon Indian topics of the day; What pupils write home; besides notes on the happenings at the school during the month. ----------------- The Harness makers will be pleased to read the following from our dear friend Susan Longstreth, of Philadelphia, for whose sister they recently made a set of harness: "How proud and happy Prince was when he first wore the new Carlisle harness. Last Seventhday he was sent to town for some things which had to be brought in the cart, Now that conveyance has always been his particular aversion. He felt his dignity lowered by being harnessed to it. When he came back with his load he looked so disgusted that sister quite pitied him and thought his load must have been too heavy for him. But when he was arrayed afterwards in the new harness, he held up his head and looked so proud and so pleased that she thought he would have liked to go a mile or two on the Darby road to show his new harness to all the horses in the neighborhood. It was amusing to see the change in him. Sister is much pleased with it. It looks so substantial, good and strong." --------------- We are pleased to learn that Joshua Given has secured a position for the summer as sales-man, in Wanamaker's store, Philadelphia. In a letter to an Indian young man with us he says, "If we Indians wish to be recognized as men we must act a man's part. Work for our own support. Show an ambition for a man's part. Carlisle school has started you and me on the road to manhood and we should keep right on. I can never be too thankful for what the Carlisle school has done for me. I can only show my true appreciation for her kindness by clearing my own way. He is not a man who does not clear his own pathway after he is shown how to do it." ------------ John Chaves, who has been silent a long time, wrote this week from his home at Laguna, New Mexico. He started off his letter with, "I just came from Paraje yesterday evening where I had been irrigating my orchard, the place I fenced last fall. I am farming this year, but last fall I worked on the rail-road." This sounds business-like, does it not? He thinks the Pueblos will raise good crops this year as they have had more rain than usual. John says the returned pupils of Carlisle are all well. John Davis is still at Grants, New Mexico, working for a merchant there. --------------- A letter from Bessie West says she and Eliza Bell are cooking, at the Neuyarka Mission near her home among the Creeks in Indian Territory. She has been there two years since she left Carlisle. They have good times going fishing and hunting wild onions, which she helps to cook for the others. Bessie sends her best regards to all her friends. ---------------------------------- At the Carlisle School is published monthly an eight-page quarto of standard size, called THE RED MAN, the mechanical part of which is done entirely by Indian boys. This paper is valuable as a summary of information on Indian matters, and contains writings by Indian pupils, and local incidents of the school. Terms: Fifty cents a year, in advance. For 1, 2, and 3 subscribers for THE RED MAN we give the same premium in Standing Offer for the HELPER. Address, THE RED MAN, Carlisle, PA. --------------------------------------- (p. 3) "Never give up the ship." ------- Where is the P. I. society ? Is it dead ? ------- Dr. Rittenhouse gave us a grand talk Sunday afternoon. ------- Capt. Pratt and Mr. Standing went to Philadelphia for a day. ------- Richenda can make some very pretty little buildings with her new blocks. -------- Barber-shop at the Little Boys' Quarters, this week, and don't the Boys look better? -------- After learning to do good work one must learn to work fast, or be content to keep a low place in his trade. ------ The Republic and Union Debating Societies will give a joint entertainment this evening. We expect a good time. ------ lf you want to keep posted on the Indian Question, send us 50 cents for a year's subscription for THE RED MAN. ------- Miss Seabrook's help at indexing, and Mrs. Campbell's help at addressing pagers came in timely and we are much obliged. -------- Chester Cornelius, Levi Levering, Samuel Townsend and Dennison Wheelock sang a pretty quartette Sunday evening. -------- Most of our teachers and several of the scholars attended the Boston Star concert in town, Wednesday night and enjoyed the treat. -------- The ball game, Saturday, between our Athletic Club and the Dickinson College nine terminated with a score of 48 to 12 in favor of Dickinson. -------- One hundred and sixty sets of Double Harness for Crow Agency were shipped Saturday. Forty more are to follow as soon as made. -------- When Lincoln was a young man too poor to have a decent suit of clothes to his back, he took a newspaper regularly, paid for it in advance, and got a vast amount of benefit out of it. -------- One of the prettiest sights, the Man-on-the-band-stand sees now-a-days is the two little Apache babies, dressed in white, seated on a red blanket on the floor in the middle of the sitting-room. They spend hours there laughing and growing together - the charm of the school. Frank Lock led last Sunday evening's service. -------- Mr. and Mrs. Standing and Jack, sail for England on the 2nd of May. -------- A new spring-wagon made at the wagon-shop is just completed for the farm. -------- Just as we go to press we hear that our great and good friend, Dr. C. R. Agnew, of New York, is dead. -------- In separating the INDIAN HELPER mail to go north, east, south and west, Joe makes a pretty good postmaster. -------- Luther Kuhns is making a nice tool-chest for himself and will buy a kit of tools, before he goes home this summer. -------- Ball, back of the hospital; ball, back of the school-house; ball, in front of Girls' Quarters; ball, all around, has been the order of the hour after supper, this week. --------- The printers were badly beaten at base-ball once this week, but we are not the fellows to give up. No! We intend to "Get There" after a while, as is suggested by the poem on first page. -------- The last heard from Herman Young and party who left last week for their homes in Dakota, they had arrived safely at the Agency. All were feeling better. -------- Ten times around the gymnasium is a pretty good run, but the boys are improving all the time with the exercise they daily receive. Some who looked pale and thin a few weeks ago are now looking strong and well. --------- Perry H. Laravie, a Ponca from near the Santee Agency, Nebraska, came to us this week, on the recommendation of Agent Hill. Perry began his school life in l882, at the Ponca Agency, Indian Territory, while Mr. Standing was in charge of the school there. -------- Quite a party of the school officials visited the Letort Creamery Saturday morning. Cream? The thickest we ever saw! And butter? The sweetest we ever tasted! The process of separating the cream from the milk and turning it into butter is very interesting, the sight of which would well repay any one a visit. ---------------------------------------------- (Continued from First Page) back to me, as I must forward them to New York to be registered, before I can send you your certificates of membership. Won't you tell your boys and girls this, Mr. Man-on-the-band-stand? I am sure the birds will thank you, and reward you by giving renewed attention to your crops this year. Read Longfellow's "Birds of Killingsworth." Very sincerely, ETHILDRED B. BARRY. Cottage Lane, Germantown,Pa. The Pledges. No. 1 - I pledge myself to refrain from killing, wounding or capturing any wild bird not used for food as long as I remain a member of the Audubon Society, and I promise to use my legitimate influence to discourage the killing, wounding, or capturing of such wild birds by others. No. 2 - I pledge myself not to rob, destroy, nor disturb or injure the nest or eggs of any wild bird, as long as I remain a member of the Audubon Society, and I promise to use my legitimate influence to discourage the commission of such injury by others. No. 3 - I pledge myself not to make use of the feathers of any wild bird as ornaments of dress or household furniture as long as I remain a member of the Audubon Society; and to employ any legitimate influence to discourage the use of feathers for decorative purposes. --------------- PICTURE COMPOSITIONS. --------------- As a school exercise some of the classes in the Primary and Intermediate departments are required to draw pictures representing something they have read or studied about, and then to write stories about the same things. These pictures and story compositions often cause the Man-on-the-band-stand to smile as he looks over the shoulders of the teachers in the evenings while they are correcting papers. We print a few to show our little white readers how we sometimes stumble in our English. Maybe there would be more stumbling and more for the Man-on-the-band-stand to smile at, however, in a little white boy's or girl's composition written in the Indian tongue. No. 1. Stories of Henry Hudson. Pen and ink picture represents a Dutchman sitting in a large arm-chair under a tree smoking a pipe: "We all know about Henry Hudson who discovered at the beautiful Hudson river which his name was after him, but those who have studied about the History knows him perhaps. He is one of the Englishmen who have been employing the Government at Holland which he came over to our country to make a home he stayed quiet a while and then he took a little boat called Half Moon and sailed down on the Hudson River until he reached the beautiful Harbor of New York." No. 2. About the Rabbit. "I think the rabbit are so pretty to look at them they are nice little ones I like rabbits very much. The rabbits have long ears just like some dogs have and they could jump as much as they want to. The little boys like to catch the rabbits to play with them. I wonder if the Man-on-the-band-stand likes the rabbits or not if he was an Indian boy. I guess he will like little rabbits as the Indian boys do now." No. 3. The South America. "The South America is drawing map. It is most useful domestic animal of South America, and the forest of South America contain many valuables all kinds of trees and large plantations are to raising oranges, pineapples, bananas, coffee, rice, are raised in South America. Oh, I like pineapples it is very nice. Once in the teachers' club they had it on the table thats the first times I ever see in my life I never did see any pineapple before monkeys come from the South America too." No. 4. The Little Pig. "The little pig have short legs you see he got big mouth. I think the little pig is funny. The little pigs have short body and fat. The pig is good for to eat. The pig is cost money. If any man have good many pigs some he kill for to sell it for money. The little pig eat too much just the reason he got big fat. The pig have big head and little eye. The little pig never keep his house good every time. The little pig I can think about some more but not now." --------- Enigma. I am made of 18 letter. My 12, 10, 3, is used to wash clothes in. My 7, 6, 13, is over our heads all the time. My 8, 16, 13, is what cross babies do. My 14, 15, 11, 7, is what Indians like to use on warm days. My 17, 15, 12, is used to wipe muddy shoes on. My 5, 1, 4, 2, 12, is what the little Apache girls are learning to do in school. My 18, 9, 1, 12, is what the little swallows find in chimneys. My whole is where our Indian boys like to live. --------------------------------- ANSWERS TO LAST WEEK'S SQUARE WORD: - 1. flag; 2. lame; 3. amen; 4. gent. --------------------------------- STANDING OFFER: - For FIVE new subscribers to the INDIAN HELPER, we will give the person sending them a photographic group of the 13 Carlisle Indian Printer boys, on a card 4 1/2 X 6 1/2 inches, worth 20 cents when sold by itself. Name and tribe of each boy given. (Persons wishing the above premium will please enclose a 1-cent stamp to pay postage.) For TEN, Two PHOTOGRAPHS, one showing a group of Pueblos as they arrived in wild dress, and another of the same pupils three years after, or, for the same number of names we give two photographs showing still more marked contrast between a Navajoe as he arrived in native dress, and as he now looks, worth 20 cents a piece. Persons wishing the above premiums will please enclose a 2-cent stamp to pay postage. For FIFTEEN, we offer a GROUP of the whole school on 9x14 inch card. Faces show distinctly, worth sixty cents. Persons wishing the above premium will please send 6 cents to pay postage. --------------- For a longer list of subscribers we have many other interesting pictures of shops, representing boys at work, schoolrooms and views of the grounds, worth from 20 to 60 cents a piece, which will be sent on request. ------------------------------ At the Carlisle Indian School is published monthly an eight-page quarto of standard size, called THE RED MAN, the mechanical part of which is done entirely by Indian boys. This paper is valuable as a summary of information on Indian matters and contains writings by Indian pupils and local incidents of the school. Terms: Fifty cents a year, in advance. SAMPLE COPIES SENT FREE. Address, THE RED MAN, Carlisle, PA. For 1, 2 and 3 subscribers for THE RED MAN we give the same premiums offered in Standing Offer for the HELPER. -------------------------------------------------- Transcribed from the newspaper collections of USMHI, Carlisle Barracks, Carlisle, PA. For more info see http://www.carlisleindianschool.org. - Barbara Landis --------- "RE: John Rustywire: Why I Write" --------- Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 14:33:24 -0000 From: John Rustywire Subj: Why i write...I think... Mailing List: Indianz elist I write because it is something that comes when I have the time. I use it as an escape from work. In order not to offend anyone's sensitivity, primarily my own Navajo People, I have danced around ceremonial discussion, avoiding what is said or done at certain times of the year. I didn't intend to write, I just answered some posts I saw at Nativeweb originally. I saw a lot of friction about who is Indian, native or of descent, mixed heritage and a great number of imitators who have set up websites to practice healing. I avoided them but they sought me out, one even tried to attack a story I wrote about medicinemen because it infringed upon their "medicine man for hire by phone" service. It even resulted in a meeting in Albuquerque, and they wanted to know more about what I knew, which is not a lot. I am not a medicineman by any means. I have not sold anything, or been paid except for one story I did for a native website which was done through Nokwisa. I sold them one for $50.00 but felt I was selling myself and I am not for sale. I write because I enjoy and to educate others that being native is not just saber rattling, star gazing, ripping up others on the net, or attacks because they are, or not or part Indian. I am a father of six children, two of my daughter in laws are not Indian. I have brothers and sisters, one married in Germany, one in the MidEast, one in Michigan, one to a Pakistani, and my cousins are living in Turkey, Japan and Pennsylvania as well as California. Some are enrolled, some are not. We are not all the same, but we are Navajo. My father and mother, my grandmother and grandfather told us we have to be together as a family no matter where we are. so it goes that I can't speak against other people because I would talk against my own children. I am not a traditional Navajo, I don't live in a hogan, herd sheep. I live in a rural community, my neighbors, friends and daily contacts are for the most part non-Indian. They don't know I am Navajo, just that I am Indian. I have had a large number of people email from all over the world, some want spiritual healing, some want advice, some want help with a school project, others want to understand a little more about Indians. I have found that most people who write to me, say thank you for writing the stories and appreciate them. I am glad to hear it. I am glad because my father, my grandfather, my cousins, my community, the elders and way of life continue to live, the spirit and enlightenment I learned a little about from them continues on. I am very ordinary, plain, but the one that I have been given a gift, albeit a small one is that I can write a little about some of my expe