From gars@speakeasy.org Wed Jan 16 21:45:09 2002 Date: 9 Jan 2002 02:06:18 -0000 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews10.002 WOTANGING IKCHE -- Lakota -- Common News Kanoheda Aniyvwiya -- Cherokee -- Journal of the People Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin -- Blackfeet -- News for All the People Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse -- Creek -- People's New News Aunchemokauhettittea -- Naragansett -- Let Us Share News Ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min -- Ojibwe -- We Are Talking About Ourselves Ha-Sah-Sliltha -- Ditidaht Nation -- News of the People Un Chota -- Susquehannic Seneca -- The People Speak Ximopanolti tehuatzin, inin Mexika tlahtolli -- Nahuatl -- For you we offer these words It-hah-pe-hah Ah-num pah-le -- Chickasaw -- Together We Are Talking Sho-da-ku-ye -- Teehahnahmah -- Talking Birchbark Native American News -- Language of the Occupation Forces ==>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 O +-----------------------------+ O o O | Much more happens in Indian | O o O VOLUME 10, ISSUE 002 | Country than is reported in | O o o o o O | this weekly newsletter. For | O o O January 12, 2002 | For daily updates & events | O o O | go http://www.owlstar.com/ | O | dailyheadlines.htm | Potawatomi mkokisIs/bear moon +-----------------------------+ Havasupi hamsii gadiiya/moon of the brightest star <================<<<< >>>>================> This issue contains articles from www.pechanga.net; www.owlstar.com; www.indianz.com; ndn-aim, and LPDC mailing Lists; UUCP email; newsgroup: alt.native 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.'" "This is the beginning of the end for Indian people. Things told to us by our elders are coming true." __ Roxanne Sazue, chairwoman of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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! Going into 2002 it is reasonable to ask what is the current status of Indian Country. In the U. S., the Department of Interior and Bureau of Indian Affairs hold center stage, with ringmaster Judge Royce Lamberth, seeking the truth about where Indian funds have gone, and how to fairly administer the Indian Trust in the future. The "trust" in Indian Trust is non-existant. On the plus side, a Blackfeet elder by the name of Eloise Cobell has backed the entire Department of Interior into the rat hole they crawled out of, and Judge Lamberth seems inclined to let her kill the vermin. Leonard Peltier remains a political prisoner. There is absolutely no other way to consider his plight. If he is not back home with his family after all the evidence of false testimony and admitted lack of proof by the prosecuting attorney I can draw no other conclusion. Oil-Dri Corp. officials have said they will appeal the Washoe County Planning Commission's recent decision to deny the company a permit to put a cat litter mine and processing plant near Reno. Add this Ute proposed industry to the hog farm in full operation on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, nuclear waste dumps and coal strip mines proposed in Nevada and New Mexico and the message is pretty clear -- Indian desperation on the wasteland where their Nations were dumped is enough for them to risk hazards no non-Indian community would tolerate. The message was recently underscored by a California tribal official, who invited power industries to consider their reservations for power plants, because their nations did not have strict environmental requirements. Hard as it is to accept, there is a positive side to this. Indian nations are developing industry and wealth through casinos, resort and entertainment facilities, as well as the above-mentioned developments. Some remain third world nations within the borders of the U.S., but others have prospered to the point that they were able to offer substantial assistance to New Yorkers after the September 11 attack. Media stories quote politicians who once felt safe ignoring Indians now expressing "concern" about their rising political influence. Also it is encouraging to see tribes and individual Indians who have prospered banding together to support the Santee Sioux when their resources were recently stripped by federal authorities. In Ottawa, Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault is determined to revamp the Indian Act. Some chiefs say the government only wants to force more transparent fiscal accounting from First Nations. The real need, many chiefs argue is a true accounting of by Ottawa of unfulfilled treaties and squandered resource revenues. Another year has passed with some MiqMak tribes still being subjected to harrassment and violence on their traditional fishing waters. This year a repeat of last-year's violence was narrowly averted by last-minute limited concessions from the Department of Fisheries. But the Fisheries authorities remain adamant that the tribes rights are subservient to their decisions. The Canadian media has reported at length the cost to the Church dioceses and provincial governments of court-ordered reimbursment to some of the sexually and physicially assaulted children at Church Residential Schools. But it seems no justice will be granted many of the Native adults who were assaulted as children. In several cases, the statute of limitations had run its legal course. The psychological damage will never end, but in some cases, at least, the church is off the hook. And even in those cases where the hook is set, the Church is doing it's best to appeal to the non-Native public to let them sqirm off. President Vicinte Fox has allowed many of his grand promises to the Natives of Mexico to fade from the limelight, unfulfilled. The Mayan of Acteal can still feel the pain of the wholsale massacre there, but what's a few Indians in the name of fulfilling an international trade agreement? Not much. Our brothers and sisters throughout Central and South America are being raped and murdered in the name of progress by assassins trained at Ft. Benning, Georgia, USA. So, how does 2002 stack up? From the standpoint of official activity toward Native people -- about the same as the previous 507 years. The movements forward have come almost exclusively due to the courage and hard work of our own people, often despite the efforts of agencies like the BIA that were established to "help" us. 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 ---------- - Passing of Moses Jay - Who's in charge at Interior - Crossings - Little Hope for - Declaration of Sarayacu Trust Fund Payments in Defense of Life - Mexicans Angered by Spread of Corn - To the Lakota - Opinions vary on Racism Wounded Knee was not Long Ago - Bill would reform - Riders remember Wounded Knee Tribal Recognition - McCaleb affirms Recognition - Overdrawn Rosebud of Cowlitz Tribe Sioux Tribe Embroiled - A win for the Wampanoag - Couple will face Charge - O'odham don't receive for Disturbing Grave Tribal Payouts - Tribes' Lawsuits - Rare old Nez Perce delaying transfer of Land Documents Published - February 6 Marks 27 Years of Shame - Tribes Unite to improve - Take Action on February 6 Reservation Roads - Native Prisoner - New Mexico Pueblos -- Thoughts on Native Prisoners - American Indians debate - True meaning of Indian Giving Dream Catcher Sales - John Rustywire: - Health Grant Awarded Walking the Road Home - Native American - Poem: Blanket Of Stars Housing Legislation Passed - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - Testing leads to - Arctic Weather Scientists Substandard Opportunity look to the Past - Editorial: No Trust, No Progress - Hull OKs Bilingual funds - DoI Bureaucrats for Schools circle their Wagons - Bilingual-ed Lawsuit - Shoshone-Bannock Tribes could snare work on Freeway threaten Legal Action - Native America Calling --------- "RE: Passing of Moses Jay" --------- Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 08:09:56 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MOSES JAY" http://web.wichitaeagle.com/content/wichitaeagle/2002/01/04/ Popular Mid-America All-Indian Center security guard, war hero dies at 79 By Beccy Tanner The Wichita Eagle For years, Moses Jay was an institution at the Mid-America All-Indian Center. He was a security guard and the first person visitors would meet as they passed through the center's doors. "At one time, probably every child in Wichita knew Moses Jay," said Jerry Shaw, instructor of minority studies at the Hugo Wall School of Urban and Public Affairs at Wichita State University. "Kids loved him and the way he could tell stories. People would always tell me how much they enjoyed listening to him." Mr. Jay, a former police officer and chief of security at the center, died Wednesday. He was 79. A wake will be at 7 p.m. today at the Army National Guard Armory at 3717 S. Seneca St. The funeral will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the same location. Mr. Jay was born Aug. 25, 1922, in Mountain View, Okla. He was a full- blooded Apache. His Indian name, Nesahkluah, meant "Glittering Rainbow" and he traced his roots to Geronimo. "He was a rainbow," said Bob Marley, a friend and member of the Mid- America All-Indian Center's board of directors. "He was a great American hero -- who fought in the same battles as Audie Murphy and was awarded for his bravery." Mr. Jay's World War II exploits, carried over six major campaigns, earned him four Silver Stars, four Bronze Stars, four Purple Hearts and a Croix de Guerre, a medal awarded by the French government for valor in combat. He served in the Army from 1943 to 1946. His war injuries prevented him from pursuing a full-fledged law enforcement career, but he got a civil service job in public housing in 1946 in Wichita. He later worked at McConnell Air Force Base and the Veterans Administration Hospital before his retirement in 1974. Not long after that, he began working at the Indian center at a security job and stayed on until 1991 as a revered elder in the Native American community. Mr. Jay was a man who readily told stories about his experiences growing up and his years in the service. "He enjoyed people and was very open with them," said Sue Cowdery, a former volunteer at the center and who worked with Mr. Jay for nearly 25 years. Mr. Jay is survived by his wife, Sherry, of Wichita; 13 children, Dora Caroline of Phoenix; Mitch Jay, Phillip Jay, Neva Church Jay, Lorella Bridges, Gina Jay, Emmett Jay, Apache Jay Nesahkluah, Jared Jay Nesahkluah, Caleb (Bear) Jay Nesahkluah, Rick (Young Eagle) Duran, Terry Achey, all of Wichita; Mike Gashwaszwah of Perkins, Okla.; and numerous adopted children; a brother, Walter Jay Nesahkluah of Carnegie, Okla.; a sister, Priscilla Ware of Goddard; 72 grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren, and five great-great-grandchildren. A memorial has been established in Mr. Jay's name with the Wichita Kansas Intertribal Warrior Society, Box 771175, Wichita, KS 67277. Reach Beccy Tanner at 268-6336 or btanner@wichitaeagle.com. Copyright c. 2002 The Wichita Eagle. --------- "RE: Crossings" --------- Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2002 08:19:30 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CROSSINGS" January 1, 2002 Dallas Wayne Yellow Shield-Little Bear Sr. WOUNDED KNEE - Dallas Wayne Yellow Shield-Little Bear Sr., 63, Wounded Knee, died Saturday, Dec. 29, 2001, at Rapid City Regional Hospital. Survivors include his wife, Roselyn Little Bear, Wounded Knee; four sons, Dallas Little Bear Jr., Glen Little Bear and Wayne Little Bear, all of Wounded Knee, and Tim Romero, Rapid City; four daughters, Mary Palmier, Sharon Condon, Sheryl Yellow Shield and Erma Yellow Shield, all of Wounded Knee; his mother, Julia Lone Elk, Wounded Knee; two sisters, Vera Little Bear and Phyllis Hollow Horn, both of Wounded Knee; two brothers, Paul Little Bear-Taylor, Wounded Knee, and Earl Tall, Manderson; 27 grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. Two-night wake services will begin at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 1, at Messiah Episcopal Church Hall in Wounded Knee. Services will be at 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 4, at Messiah Episcopal Church Hall, with the Rev. Cordelia Red Owl and Mr. John Around Him officiating. Burial will be at Messiah Episcopal Cemetery. Sioux Funeral Home in Pine Ridge is in charge of arrangements. January 2, 2002 Rosina Sleeping Bear Simpson RAPID CITY - Rosina Sleeping Bear Simpson, 59, Aurora, Colo., and formerly of Rapid City, died Dec. 25, 2001, at Aurora Medical Center. Survivors include her husband, William Simpson, Aurora; six sons, Mikkel Simpson, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, and William Simpson Jr., Joymoiund Simpson, Kasey Surrounded, Konvoy Surrounded and Kelly Surrounded, all of Denver, Colo.; one daughter, Kathy Hoffman, Denver; and one sister, Fannie Logan, Denver. Wake services will begin at 1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 3, at Mother Butler Center in Rapid City. Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Jan. 4, at Mother Butler Center, with the Rev. Carl Douglas officiating, and traditional services by Mr. Jimmy Walker. Burial will be at Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis. Kirk Funeral Home in Rapid City is in charge of local arrangements. January 4, 2002 Bertha Marie Smoke PORCUPINE - Bertha Marie Smoke, 44, Porcupine, died Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2002, at Rapid City Regional Hospital. Survivors include two sons, Emil American Horse, Gordon, Neb., and Wendyll Smoke, Porcupine; three daughters, Oleaupi Smoke and Gwendolyn Smoke, both of Pine Ridge, and Edna Elk Boy, Oglala; two sisters, Vina Conroy, Rapid City, and Dolores Dreamer, Oglala; three brothers, Edward Smoke, Denver, John Red Shirt and Benjamin Smoke, both of Pine Ridge; and two grandchildren. Two-night wake begins at 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 5, at the Porcupine CAP Office. Services will be at 10 a.m. Monday, Jan. 7, at the Porcupine CAP Office, with the Rev. Cordelia Red Owl officiating. Burial will be at St. Julia's Episcopal Cemetery in Porcupine. Sioux Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. January 5, 2002 Richard `Dick' Tall MANDERSON - Richard "Dick" Tall, 83, Manderson, died Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2002, in Manderson. Survivors include one sister, Norma Shields, Rapid City; three nieces, Jo Ann Tall and Lorraine Pourier, both of Porcupine, and Betty Janis, Manderson; and two nephews, Eugene Sun Bear, Gordon, Neb., and George Tall, Manderson. One-night wake services will begin at 1 p.m. Monday, Jan. 7, at St. Agnes Catholic Hall in Manderson. Mass of Christian Burial will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 8, at St. Agnes Catholic Church in Manderson, with the Rev. Jim Ryan, S.J., and the Rev. Cordelia Red Owl officiating. Burial will be in St. Thomas Episcopal Cemetery in Manderson. Sioux Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Theresa Hollow Horn Bear-Lulow ROSEBUD - Theresa Hollow Horn Bear-Lulow, 70, Rosebud, died Thursday, Jan. 3, 2002, at White River Health Care Center. Theresa was born Nov. 28, 1931, in Parmelee, youngest daughter of Daniel and Julia Hollow Horn Bear. She attended school in St. Francis. She was married to Paul R. Gregg Sr. in 1948. Seven children were born to this marriage. In 1971, Theresa married Albert Lulow. Theresa lived in Rapid City from 1973 to 1994. She moved back home to the Rosebud area in 1994. Theresa's working career was as a nursing assistant. She worked in hospitals in Rosebud, Pierre, and Rapid City. Theresa loved her family deeply. She was from the honorable Hollow Horn Bear Tiospaye on the Rosebud Reservation. She was the last grandchild of Chief Hollow Horn Bear. Survivors include seven children, Paul R. Gregg-Bear and Terrence Gregg, both of Rosebud, Barbara and Joe Jones, Howard Gregg, and Susan Gregg, all of Rapid City, Delores Gregg, Winner, and Patricia and Render Wyatt, Cheyenne, Wyo.; her 21 beloved grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren; nephews; nieces; and cousins. Theresa is also survived by her best friend, Ruby Dubray from St. Francis. She was preceded in death by her parents and all her siblings. Theresa was loved and will be missed by many. A two-day wake will begin at 1 p.m. today at St. Bridges Church in Rosebud. Memorial services will be at 2 p.m. Monday, Jan. 7, at St. Charles Church in St. Francis. Copyright c. 2001 The Rapid City Journal -=-=-=- January 2, 2002 Bernice Yazzie Bernice Yazzie of Bloomfield went home to be with her Heavenly Father Jan. 2, 2002, in Farmington. She was born Oct. 11, 1958, in Farmington to Frank and Alice Henery. She is survived by her beloved husband, Leslie Yazzie, of the home. Arrangements are pending with Brewer, Lee & Larkin Funeral Home, 103 E. Ute St. in Farmington, (505) 325-8688. January 4, 2002 Jefferson Ben Yazzie Jefferson Ben Yazzie, 56, of Sheep Springs died Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2002. He is survived by his father, Harlan Ben Yazzie of Sheep Springs; four sons, Bronson Enrico of Denver, and Tracy Bryant, Robertson Yazzie and Jason Yazzie, all of Sheep Springs; and two daughters, Lenora Enrico and Velda Yazzie, both of Sheep Springs. He is also survived by four brothers, Davidson Yazzie of Denver, Danny Yazzie and Roger Tsosie of Sheep Springs, and Rex Ben Yazzie of Newcomb; and four sisters, Ruth Ortiz, Mary Jim and Helen Yazzie of Denver, and Elsie Yazzie of Sheep Springs. He was blessed with 10 grandchildren. Jefferson was preceded in death by his mother, Mary Yazzie; and two sons, Tony Enrico Jr. and Jefferson Yazzie Jr. Funeral services are scheduled to start at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2002, at the Pentecostal Church of Sheep Springs, with Evangelist Albert Tsosie officiating. Burial will follow at the family cemetery in Sheep Springs. Pallbearers will be Tracy Bryant, Robertson Yazzie, Jason Yazzie, Jimson Bryant, Bronson Enrico and Danny Yazzie. Alternate pallbearers will be Albert Tsosie, Anthony Tsosie, Michael Tsosie, Alfred Yazzie, Manuel Frank, Franklin Sandman and Eugene Bryant. Honorary pallbearers are Harlan Yazzie, Davidson Yazzie and Roger Tsosie. Funeral arrangements are with Chapel of Memories Funeral Home in Kirtland, (505) 598-9636. Copyright c. 1999-2001 MediaNews Group, Inc./Farmington Daily Times. -=-=-=- January 6, 2002 Jesbert Sam CHINLE, Ariz. - Services for Jesbert Sam, 30, were held at 11 a.m., today at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church, Chinle. Blaine Grein will officiate. Burial will follow at Chinle Communtiy Cemetery. Sam died Nov. 3 in Round Rock, Ariz. He was born Feb. 12, 1971 in Fort Defiance, Ariz. into the Coyote Pass Jemez Clan for the Bitterwater Clan. Sam graduated from Chinle High School. He participated in bullriding, team roping and calf roping. He was a member of the CNRA, and the Navajo Nation Bullriders. He was a CNRA top ten finalist, an Arizona and Navajo Nation Fair Finalist. He was employed with the Navajo Housing Authority, as an electrician. Survivors include his son, Josh Sam of Phoenix; daughter, Shanado Sam of Phoenix; parents, Danny and Sally P. Sam of Chinle; brothers, Lorenzo Sam, Bennie Sam and Benjamin Sam all of Chinle; sisters, Genevieve James and Geraldine Henry both of Chinle. Sam was preceded in death by his grandparents, Harry and Sophie Price and Mrs. Gli'hazbah and Lewis Gorman. Pallbearers were Albert Smith, Manuel Silas, Calvin Benallie, Newton Yazzie, Bennie Sam, Herbert James and Randy Bia. The family received friends and relatives after the burial services at Chinle Catholic Hall. Tse Bonito Mortuary was in charge of arrangements. David Kee Begay BURNT CORN VALLEY, Ariz. - Services for David Begay, 47, wereheld on Monday, Jan. 7 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Pinon, Ariz. Burial followed on family plot, Burnt Corn Valley. Begay was born July 7, 1954 in Keams Canyon, Ariz. into the Bitter Water People Clan for the Towering House Clan. Begay was employed with the Union Pacific Railroad. He was a member of the Native American Church, he was a fire chief, drummer and singer. He was a rancher and farmer. Survivors include his son, Douglas Kee Begay of Pinon; daughter, Eugenia Begay of Pinon; sisters, Lucy Kay of Pinon, Susie B. Joe of Burnt Corn Valley and Marjorie R. Yazzie of Sheepsprings, Ariz. and 14 grandchildren. Begay was preceded in death by his parents, Hosteen and Marie D. Begay; and brother, Burt Charley Begay. Pallbearers were Danny Woody Kaye, Bobby Y. Kaye, Woody Kaye Jr., Larry Kaye, Marvin Kaye and Robert H. Joe Jr. The family received friends and relatives after the burial services at the family home, Burnt Corn Valley. Tse Bonito Mortuary was in charge of arrangements. January 8, 2002 Gladys Notah MEXICAN SPRINGS - Services for Gladys Notah, 81, will be held at 10 a.m., Tuesday, Jan. 8 at Tohatchi Baptist Church. Burial will follow on private familyland. Notah died Jan. 4 in Gallup. She was born Dec. 24, 1920 in Mexican Springs into the Charcoal Streaked Division of the Red Running into the Water for the Red House People Clan. Notah was a sheepherder and weaver. Her hobbies included hauling wood sheering her own goats and grinding corn with stone. Survivors include her sister, Leana R. Notah of Sheepsprings. Pallbearers will be Erwin Jones, Julius Miles, Harry Plummer Jr., Harold Belone, Janard Bitsilly and Herbert Bitsilly. Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements. Albert Leslie Yazzie HOUCK, Ariz. - Services for Albert Yazzie, 75, will be announced at a later date. Yazzie died Jan. 4 in Gallup. He was born Oct. 6, 1926 in Houck. Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements. Copyright c. 2001 The Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Declaration of Sarayacu in Defense of Life" --------- Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2002 13:25:21 -0800 (PST) From: karen Nana Subj: For Posting if Possible The Argentinean based CGC Oil Company wants to exploit indigenous lands of the Kichwa peoples in the Amazonon Rainforest for oil. Sarayacu Community continues to be firmly opposed in spite of much presure to submit. This territory is practically virgin rainforest with many sacred places, home to one of the most traditional communities. ______________________________________________________ DECLARATION OF THE POSITION OF SARAYACU IN DEFENSE OF LIFE We, the Association of Indigenous Centers of Sarayacu (TAYJA-SARUTA), express our deep concern about the grave risk to our people signified by the manipulation of the indigenous communities and organizations of Pastaza by the CGC petroleum company. In the face of this fact, which is an attack on our security and sovereignty, our food, our development, and our self-determination: WE DECLARE THAT: 1. The legislation in force in Ecuador does not guarantee the economic, social, environmental, of health security of indigenous peoples affected by petroleum exploration and exploitation. 2. During 30 years of petroleum exploitation in the Ecuadorean Amazon, there has never been any benefit for the indigenous peoples, except for a few corrupt leaders. 3. What they call "mechanisms of consultation and participation" are sophisticated strategies and tools for creating a network of corruption and for weakening our communities and organizations. 4. The economic resources financed by CGC for the organizations at the provincial level absolutely do not involve the Sarayaku Association. 5. Sarayaku definitively broke off dialogue with CGC in the month of May of the year 2000. 6. The Association of Sarayaku will fight with dignity to the ultimate consequences against the companies that are trying to deceive and destroy us. WE DEMAND: 7. The recognition of the autonomy of the Kichwa territories of Pastaza, for sustainable development. 8. The establishment of a commission made up of representatives of the government, indigenous organizations and national and international environmentalists for the objective of designing the necessary reforms for the Laws of Hydrocarbons and the Environment. 9. Respect for our own process of development based on the sustainable use of the biodiversity of the Amazon, and the immediate departure of the CGC company from our ancestral territories. WE WERE BORN FREE WE LIVE HAPPY WE WILL FIGHT LIKE WILD ANIMALS AND WE WILL NOT END UP AS SLAVES Sarayaku, January 5, 2002 GOVERNING COUNCIL OF TAYJASARUTA "SARAYAKU" FRANCO VITERI TAYAK APU ___________________________________________________ contact email for support or suggestions: sarayacuinfo@yahoo.com --------- "RE: To the Lakota Wounded Knee was not Long Ago" --------- Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2002 08:31:10 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WOUNDED KNEE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.montanaforum.com/rednews/2001/12/29/build/tribal/lakota Guest Opinion: To the Lakota people, the massacre at Wounded Knee was not long ago By TIM GIAGO The Lakota elders call this time of the year "The Moon of the Popping Trees." Before planes, trains and automobiles stole the winter nights of the stillness their parents and grandparents spoke of, the elders said it got so cold that one could hear the twigs in the trees popping in the frigid air. At times it almost sounded like the report of a distant rifle. In the early morning hours of Dec. 29, 1890, the Hotchkiss guns situated on each end of the valley overlooking the Sioux encampment at Wounded Knee barked into action as they spewed bullets point-blank into the unarmed Lakota men, women and children. Fighting back with their bare hands, the unarmed Lakota warriors shouted to the women and children, "Inyanka po! Inyanka po!" (run! run!). Elderly men, unable to fight back, stood defiantly singing their death songs before falling to the hail of bullets. The exact number of Lakota killed by the 500 soldiers of the Seventh Cavalry, George Armstrong Custer's old troop, may never be known because many women and children made it out of the valley and died of their wounds later. Twenty-three soldiers of the Seventh Cavalry were awarded Congressional Medals of Honor for this action against unarmed men, women and children. Even a musician named John E. Clancy received a Medal of Honor for supposed bravery at Wounded Knee. This medal of valor must have come pretty cheap in those days. Having served in the military, I know that in order to get this highest of military awards, even as far back as the Korean Conflict, a man must really prove himself in the face of enemy fire. Have the Lakota (Sioux) forgotten this day of tragedy and sorrow? Since 1986 the Lakota have commemorated this massacre by riding the same trail taken by Big Foot and his band in 1890. Oftentimes in below-zero weather they ride their horses on this trail and camp out along the way until they reach their final destination at Wounded Knee Creek. Three Lakota men, Birgil Kills Straight, Alex White Plume and Jim Garrett, started this tradition by forming a group they called Si Tanka Wokiksuye Okolakiciye ? Big Foot Memorial Riders. They are on this trail even as I sit at my computer writing about it. Every year, at the conclusion of the ride, a ceremony is held at the mass gravesite where the frozen bodies of those men, women and children murdered that day were unceremoniously dumped. Arvol Looking Horse, keeper of the Sacred Pipe of the Lakota, prays for peace and justice for the descendants of the massacre and he prays that America apologize to the Lakota for the murderous acts of that day and that the Medals of Honor issued for this atrocity be revoked. After the assault on the unarmed Indians, units of the Seventh Cavalry set out across the Pine Ridge Reservation looking for survivors. A troop rode on to the playgrounds at Holy Rosary Mission Boarding School, four miles north of Pine Ridge Village and about 15 miles from Wounded Knee. Prodded by the Jesuit priests, the frightened children were forced to water and feed the horses of the soldiers. My grandmother, Sophie (Good Shell Woman) Abeita was one of those children. She was a teen-ager at the time. She never forgot that day. She recalled watching the soldiers as they laughed about their great victory at Wounded Knee as they wiped the blood from their uniforms and saddles. Five days after the massacre, an editorial in the Aberdeen (S.D.) Saturday Pioneer appeared to speak the minds of the many white settlers of that day. It reads, "The Pioneer has before declared that our only safety depends upon the total extermination of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth." Ten years later, the author of that editorial would write a children's book that would bring him everlasting fame worldwide. His name was L. Frank Baum and he wrote "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." Few people know that he had called for genocide against the Lakota people. Things are quiet at Wounded Knee today. The gravesite is much the same as it was 111 years ago. There has been talk of building a memorial there and perhaps a motel and restaurant for the thousands of tourists who come to visit the site each year. But raising the money to do this has proved to be nearly impossible. The Oglala Sioux Tribe has petitioned, over the years, to get the federal government to fund a memorial and to assist in the construction of a motel, but the government has turned a deaf ear. The descendants of the survivors of the massacre hired lawyers several years ago trying to get compensation and to get funds to construct on the site, but nothing has come of this either. Some survivors did get small amounts of compensation from the federal government several years after the Massacre at Wounded Knee. But, how does one compensate a man, woman or child who lost brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers? I suppose it all depends on how one values human life and in the 1890s, the life an Indian held little value to the federal government. It is one of the ironies of this tragic event that the makeshift hospital set up to assist those who were wounded was in the Episcopal Church in the village of Pine Ridge. Above the door through which the wounded were carried was a sign that read, "Peace on Earth, Goodwill to men." Tim Giago is editor of Lakota Journal and a columnist. Copyright c. 2000-2001 Helena Independent Record and Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Riders remember Wounded Knee" --------- Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2001 09:02:49 EST From: ErthAvengr@aol.com Subj: RIDERS REMEMBER WOUNDED KNEE Mailing List: ndn-aim http://www.rapidcityjournal.com Riders remember Wounded Knee December 30,2001 By Bill Harlan, Journal Staff Writer Ninety riders on horseback circled the small hilltop cemetery at Wounded Knee late Saturday morning. They rode under gray skies and against a steady, cold wind. The riders were marking the 111th anniversary of a massacre that took the lives of more than 250 Minniconjou and Hunkpapa Sioux men, women and children. "There should be no more Wounded Knees anywhere throughout the world," Arvol Looking Horse told the dismounted riders during ceremonies at the long, narrow mass grave. Looking Horse, who lives at Green Grass on the Cheyenne River Reservation, is keeper of the sacred buffalo calf pipe. He and the other riders had just completed the 15th annual Chief Big Foot Memorial Ride. The journey began Dec. 15, more than 250 miles north at Sitting Bull Camp on the Standing Rock Reservation. The riders followed the route taken in 1890 by Big Foot's band as they tried to evade soldiers and reservation police. Big Foot surrendered to the U.S. 7th Cavalry on Dec. 28, about five miles north of Wounded Knee. The soldiers escorted the group to Wounded Knee Creek, where 470 soldiers guarded 400 Indians overnight. The next day, Dec. 29, soldiers searched the camp for weapons. The search was rough. A shot was fired, maybe in a struggle over a rifle. The soldiers opened fire with small arms and artillery. Historians disagree over the exact sequence of events, but no one disagrees that the slaughter was horrific. Wounded Knee went on to become a symbol for the destruction of Lakota culture. A violent takeover there by American Indian Movement activists in 1973 underscored Wounded Knee as a symbol, but it also divided people both off and on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Since the first Big Foot ride in 1986, however, the site has become a symbol for cultural rebirth among Lakota people. On Saturday, at the edge of the mass grave, Looking Horse led participants in prayers - in Lakota and English - and in offering tobacco, food and drink. Ramey Hill, 7, of Wakpala, stood silently at a far corner of the long grave throughout the ceremony. Ramey was the youngest rider. He and six other students from the Wakpala School on the Standing Rock Reservation call themselves the Spirit Riders. They are part of an after-school program organized by Jack Shillingstad, principal at Wakpala, along with his wife, Teresa Shillingstad, Deb Talmadge and Manaja Unjinca Hill, a single father with three children in the program. All seven Spirit Riders completed the entire trip - riding 15 to 35 miles a day for more than two weeks. The Wakpala riders shared about a dozen horses provided by Teresa Shillingstad. Their mounts included several Shetland ponies. Ramey favored pony named Buster. Ron McNeil, president of Standing Rock College, told the Big Foot riders how Ramey admitted to him on the ride, "I hurt all over." But McNeil also described how Ramey persevered. On Saturday, after a two-hour ceremony, Ramey was in good spirits, looking like he was ready for more riding. His father, Manaja Unjinca Hill, said the children drew strength on the ride from their culture and from their relationships with the horses. "It's spiritual," Hill said. "I really believe our ancestors helped them along the way." At the end of the ride, Ramey was honored with a Lakota name, White Hawk. His fellow Spirit Rider, Ridge Cadotte, 11, received the gift of a horse in honor of his horsemanship along the ride. "I learned about our culture, about how they suffered back then," Ridge said. Jack Shillingstad said the Spirit Riders learned lessons every day. "We ride with a purpose," he said. "It will remind you that you haven't forgotten how to be Lakota," McNeil told the riders. Looking Horse said Wounded Knee was for the Lakota as the terror attacks of Sept. 11 were for all of America. And like Sept. 11, he said, it was an event that served as a reminder: "We have come here to honor our relations and to honor our way of life - leadership, responsibility, and maintaining a balance on this land." Questions or comments? Contact reporter Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.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: McCaleb affirms Recognition of Cowlitz Tribe" --------- Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 08:18:09 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="COWLITZ" http://www.indianz.com/SmokeSignals/Headlines/ McCaleb affirms recognition of Cowlitz Tribe THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 2002 The Bush administration has affirmed the federal recognition of the Cowlitz Tribe of Washington, closing one of the longest running and most contentious battles in the history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In a Federal Register notice to be published tomorrow, Assistant Secretary Neal McCaleb announces the decision, which will become final in 90 days. It was made after a several month review by McCaleb, who considered a number of issues referred to him by Secretary of Interior Gale Norton. But the issues, according to BIA spokesperson Nedra Darling, did not have an impact on the tribe's status. A final determination of federal acknowledgment signed by former Assistant Secretary Kevin Gover in February 2000 will stand, she said. For the tribe, McCaleb's action represents a major victory in a long and storied history. The tribe filed for recognition in 1978 but has faced numerous challenges by the Quinault Nation, a federally recognized tribe in Washington. The debate became so heated over the years that a formal meeting, the first of its kind, was held to discuss the status of the Cowlitz Tribe. Reams of documentation filed by the Quinault Nation overwhelmed the BIA, contributing to Gover's decision to try and speed up the slow-moving process. That didn't stop the Quinault from trying to derail the Cowlitz recognition, however. When the Bush administration took over in January, the tribe asked Norton to rescind Gover's 2000 decision. Norton declined so the tribe sought review by the Interior Board of Indian Appeals (IBIA), which referred three issues to Norton in late May. When McCaleb joined the Interior in July, he took over the case, along with others that remain in limbo. One of those, the Chinook Nation of Washington, is also being challenged by the Quinault. Last November, McCaleb agreed to reconsider the Chinook's status and will make a ruling this spring. Copyright c. 2000-2001 Noble Savage Media, LLC/Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: A win for the Wampanoag" --------- Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 18:30:25 -0800 From: "Jess Hansen" Subj: "A win for the Wampanoag" Mailing List: ndn-aim December 28, 2001 "A win for the Wampanoag; Federal judge says tribal recognition status must be decided in 2002" By SEAN GONSALVES, Cape Cod Times Staff Writer MASHPEE - "By this time next year, the Mashpee Wampanoag will finally know if they will be recognized as a tribe by the federal government. U.S. District Judge James Robertson last week gave the Bureau of Indian Affairs a one-year deadline to issue a final decision on the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council's petition for recognition. The BIA was ordered to give the Mashpee Wampanoag "active consideration immediately, and ... publish a proposed finding in the Federal Register within six months of (Judge Robertson's Dec. 21) order." Tribal recognition would allow the Mashpee Wampanoag to tap federal assistance and pursue casino gambling, as well as offer a host of other benefits. At a press conference yesterday morning, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council chief Vernon Lopez and tribal council president Glenn Marshall hailed the decision as the beginning of a new chapter in the tribe's long history. "The Mashpees sought relief from the courts after waiting 28 years for the BIA to hear its petition. This is not an end but a beginning," Lopez said, surrounded by several tribal elders in the basement of the council's Great Neck Road office. "This is an important event in the life of the Mashpee. It is equally important for our country," Lopez said. The order also states that once the BIA's recommendation is published, the agency must hold a three-month public comment period, followed by a final decision on the petition to be issued no later than Dec. 21, 2002. "The Mashpee met the Pilgrims who sailed the Mayflower and landed in Plymouth. We have shared our land, shed our blood and have grown together as a part of this nation. We have sent men to every war in this country and fought, and yet we remain a unique, distinct community," Lopez said. About 60 percent of the tribe's 1,000 members live in and around Mashpee, Lopez said, noting the difficulty many of his people have had in maintaining their traditional identity amid the second fastest-growing town in the state. We've struggled every day to maintain our identity against rising home prices in an economy that has, in many ways, left us behind," Lopez said. "We are too important to this country - we have given too much - not to have this chance. As an American and a veteran, I know that justice will be done. As a Mashpee, I know our best days lie ahead." Recognition opens many doors The Mashpee Wampanoag's sister tribe - the Aquinnah Wampanoag of Martha's Vineyard - were granted federal recognition status in 1987 by an act of Congress. Long part of the history and culture of Cape Cod, the Mashpee Wampanoag have never been formally recognized as a tribe. Recognition would bring the power and privileges of a sovereign nation in the eyes of the federal government. Federal recognition also gives tribes access to federal funds for Indian education, housing and health care, which Mashpee tribal leaders have said is among their top priorities. But in the wake of a land suit filed by the tribe in the mid-1970s that clouded all property titles for years in Mashpee, not everyone in town supports the tribe's bid for federal recognition. Concerned about possible future land claims and the Mashpee Wampanoag's potential interest in owning and operating a casino gambling business, tribal opponents - accusing tribal leaders of not being forthcoming - convinced the Mashpee board of selectmen to call off talks with the tribe last year. Even though the talks aimed to settle these matters once and for all, selectmen voted to indefinitely postpone any formal discussions with the tribe as it relates to federal recognition. Frustration led to court action Marshall said the tribe's petition for federal recognition had been met with delay after delay. "Some of it was the government. Some of it was us. And some of it was just the bureaucratic process," he said. "The BIA were jumping tribes that started their petition long after we did. They were jumping them ahead of us even though we were No. 3 on the ready-to-go-active list," Marshall said. "It's happened about five or six times." Marshall, who is seeking a second term as tribal council president in the tribe's upcoming February elections, said what prompted tribal leaders to seek court intervention was a suit filed by the Muekema tribe of Oakland, Calif. That suit argued the Muekema's petition for federal recognition "had been on the list an inordinate amount of time, which was far less than we had been on the list," Marshall said. "So we filed an intervention, which we like to call a 'me too.' In other words, you can't do for them unless you do for us," Marshall said. As for last week's ruling, Marshall said, "It doesn't short-circuit the process. It doesn't give us a shoo-in. It gives us the ability to state our case ... the way we want to stand on our petition." Marshall said the tribe had other options in its pursuit of federal recognition but "we chose to do it this way because we believe in the system. The system is hurt but it's still better than any system that we have anywhere else." 'No doubt the tribe exists' Mashpee Selectman David Leveille said it was premature to say whether the court ruling will force town officials to renew discussions with the tribe. "We need to review it and find out what's going on before we start talking," he said. "And naturally, we want to consult with our (legal) counsel on this." Marshall said he notified John Cahalane, chairman of the selectmen, about the decision, as well as aides to U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy and U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, who represents the Cape. State Rep. Matthew Patrick, D-Falmouth, who represents Mashpee, welcomed the court order. "It's long overdue," Patrick said yesterday. "If you get to know the Mashpee Wampanoag like I do, there's no doubt the tribe exists. They were the ones here that fed the Pilgrims, for God's sake. Why can't we recognize the tribe?" Recognition will help the Wampanoag obtain federal grants, Patrick said, which he believes could stimulate economic development in the entire region. Commenting on the concerns raised by tribal opponents, Patrick said the Wampanoag aren't "going to take anybody's property. They would be interested in state or federal property." As for the possibility of a casino, Patrick said he's not a big advocate of gambling and wouldn't necessarily vote in favor of such a facility. But he also said the tribe has "no interest in putting a casino on Cape Cod." Patrick and other Cape legislators, including state Sens. Robert O'Leary and Therese Murray and state Rep. Eric Turkington, recently offered a resolution at the Statehouse calling on the federal government to recognize the Mashpee Wampanoag as a tribe." Copyright c. 2001 Cape Cod Times. ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 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: O'odham don't receive Tribal Payouts" --------- Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2002 00:33:31 -0700 From: "Chris Milda (_Akimel O`odham_)" Subj: O'odham don't receive $2,000 tribal payouts (Fwd) http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/20102TOHONO.html Tucson, Arizona Wednesday, 2 January 2002 O'odham don't receive $2,000 tribal payouts By Stephanie Innes ARIZONA DAILY STAR Members of the Tohono O'odham Nation ended 2001 without getting the $2,000-per-capita payment from casino revenues they'd been scheduled to receive. Tribal officials blame a poor economy and budget deficit for the fact that its approximately 24,000 members did not receive the payouts, which the tribal government had issued every year since 1997. The payouts were mandated by a citizen-initiative ballot proposition that Tohono O'odham voters passed that same year. The ballot proposition specifies that payouts will be made "if funds are available," and in 2001 they simply were not, said Evelyn Juan, chairwoman of the tribe's legislative budget and finance committee. The news of no payouts had some tribal members upset, while others said they understood why there were no payments last year. The payouts would have cost the tribe $48 million. The tribe earns about $70 million per year in revenues from its casinos, though officials say casino revenues were down from projected earnings in 2001. "I seriously don't think anyone will get any payout," Juan said Monday. "I know there are some people with minimal income who had been waiting for it. But it's out of our control." Juan said running tribal government programs such as housing improvement, Head Start centers and other social services takes precedent over payouts. And the government had additional costs in 2001, including opening a dialysis clinic, operating its community college, finishing its first nursing home, building a radio station and building a third casino, the new Desert Diamond, which cost $52 million, Juan said. "The economy in general is not good, and finances are real tight," Juan said. "Ever since Sept. 11, casino revenue has been down." Juan said tribal officials have been working to reduce a $6 million budget deficit through spending cuts. Tribal Chairman Edward Manuel could not be reached for comment, but in the fall he told The Runner, a Tohono O'odham newspaper, that trimming the budget is only a short-term solution and that the tribe will face another budget deficit unless it changes the way it distributes gambling revenue. Manuel told The Runner that in his own office, the travel budget has been cut by 50 percent and there is a moratorium on major equipment purchases. In 1997, Manuel spoke out against the citizen initiative for the $2,000 payouts, saying it would drain tribal savings and force cutbacks in programs and jobs after two years. But many tribal members consider the $2,000 to be their own money and a way of keeping the tribal government accountable for its gambling revenues. "There are a lot of people who are mad about it," said 19-year-old Ruby Gonzales, a tribe member who works in the family's fry bread business. Gonzales, like other O'odham young adults, received her $2,000 payouts when she turned 18. She said she used the money to buy gifts for her family. "I say if it's coming, bring it on," she said. "But I was never really sure we would get it this time." Ambrose Reyes, who works in the Wa:k Snack Shop outside Mission San Xavier del Bac, said he is personally not upset about missing the $2,000 because of taxes. But he said other people on the reservation count on it. Reyes said that despite the money the tribe has earned from its casinos, many of its members continue to battle poverty. Unemployment is high, and some families still do not have electricity or plumbing, he said. "I know some people had hoped to use the money before Christmas," he said. "They are kind of upset. There are a lot of ways to spend money, and some people wonder if the tribe is spending it on things they don't need." George Ignacio Sr., one of the three Tohono O'odham members who led the 1997 citizen initiative, is angry that no checks have been issued. He says he plans to fight the tribal government until members receive their money. "If the tribe was going bankrupt, then the three O'odham casinos would also be going bankrupt, and they're not," he said. "I want to see the financial records from the casino. The whole tribe is upset. They dipped into public money." Larry Garcia, another one of the initiative sponsors, is more willing to accept the tribe's explanation about its finances. "The initiative did state that the payments would be made only if there is money available," Garcia said. "That's satisfactory to me. But at the same time, I do wonder about how they keep track of our money. Personally I don't think we need a new radio station." The 2.8 million-acre Tohono O'odham Reservation is southwest of Tucson. Contact Stephanie Innes at 573-4134 or at sinnes@azstarnet.com. Copyright c. 1999, 2000, 2001 AzStarNet, Arizona Daily Star. - - - - - - -- - - - - - - Date: Thursday, 3 January 2002 From: Chris Milda (_Akimel O`odham_) Subj: Corrections: A story about Tohono O'odham payouts incorrectly stated that tribal members have received $2,000 every year since 1997... : http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/20103correction.html Tucson, Arizona Thursday, 3 January 2002 Corrections * Because an editing error, a story about Tohono O'odham payouts that appeared Wednesday on B1 incorrectly stated that tribal members have received $2,000 every year since 1997. In fact, they received the $2,000 in only 1997 and 1999. The Star wants its news reports to be fair and accurate. We do our best to identify and correct all errors. If you find an error, please report it to us by calling the appropriate section editor. All content copyright c. 1999, 2000, 2001 AzStarNet, Arizona Daily Star and its wire services and suppliers and may not be republished without permission. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Rare old Nez Perce Documents Published" --------- Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2002 08:31:10 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NEZ PERCE DOCUMENTS" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/daily/20020101/LocalNews/ Rare old Nez Perce documents published History project compiles details from 1829 to 1911 By Adam Wilson Lewiston Morning Tribune LEWISTON - Indian Agent James O'Neill was trying to dodge the usual bureaucratic hoops and hang on to an increasingly shaky peace in Lapwai 135 years ago. "The Indians (Nez Perce) are divided among themselves and the non-treaty side are using this argument, that the government will take their own time for fulfilling the stipulations of the new treaty as they have the one of June 1855 and they say possibly never pay them," he wrote to his superiors. "They cannot or will not understand why, when their money is ready for them, that they cannot have the benefit of it, and I sincerely think that to continue putting them off and paying them in promises will result in serious difficulty." O'Neill's letter is one of the many documents reproduced in one of several new publications by the University of Idaho Library compiling information about the 1867 Nez Perce Treaty Council. It and other publications were discussed recently at the Nez Perce National Historical Park at Spalding by a panel of historians and tribal elders. "We're very interested in any kind of documentation of Nez Perce history," said Diane Mallickan, a park ranger at Spalding and a tribal member. The documents make rare material, in some cases so old it is literally falling apart, available to the general public for the first time. "It will have an effect on the way historians write about the Nez Perce," Mallickan said. The papers trace the history of the region from 1829, when fur trappers were the only whites in the area, to 1911, when Starr Maxwell collected testimonies of tribal members in "Memorial of the Nez Perce Indians," which became part of the U.S. Congressional Record when Idaho Sen. William Borah presented it to the Senate in 1911. Between the two is the "The 1867 Nez Perce Treaty Council," edited and transcribed from the original documents by Donna Smith at the university. It details not only government correspondence, but contains a verbatim manuscript of a tribal council convened to discuss the treaty. The documents provide a rare glimpse into the issues that led to the Nez Perce War of 1877. Idaho Territory Governor David Ballard came to Lapwai in June 1867 to announce that the Treaty of 1863 was law after four years. "Many wrongs have been perpetrated upon you, by bad white men, who have come upon your reservation, and by selling whiskey and practicing other wickednesses," he said. He realized the new reservation was greatly reduced. But Ballard promised the government would fulfill its agreements in the new treaty, "placing you in a position of happiness, competency and independence." "Let me warn you, my friends, against evil advice, either from bad white men, or Indians, it will lead you to destruction," Ballard said. Special Indian Agent George C. Hough was left in Lapwai after Ballard went to speak with the Nez Perce, and recorded the council proceedings. "I see the river (Clearwater) as it winds along here and look at the reserve as including the south fork as being the only country upon which to make a settlement. That being the case, I feel frightened," said Chief Lawyer. "I see a great many places occupied by the whites." Hough replied, "Every single place on this reservation that is occupied by a white man, he will be driven off from." He later wrote to the commissioner of Indian Affairs in Washington D.C., that Lawyer, "a man of no little intelligence, a little education and a consummate diplomatist," told him that "his patience is getting worn out." Starr Maxwell's memorial documents the effects the 1887 Allotment Act, which divided reservations among tribal members, replacing the traditional practice of treating the reservation as communal property. The act lead the way for the settling of reservation land by whites and led to abuse by local agents, both Indian and non-Indian, who were granted control of the program. Maxwell, half white, half Nez Perce, began collecting testimonies of these abuses, eventually compiling 128 of them. "He used his legal ability to seek meaningful relief while calling public attention to an intolerable situation," wrote Mallickan in the introduction to the publication of Maxwell's memorial. Mallickan also helped direct a group of tribal elders in a project aimed at identifying some of the chiefs and others in the publications. That work will be published in the spring. The recent publications enrich the material available not only to researchers, but the public as a whole, Mallickan said. Copyright c. 2001 The Idaho Statesman. --------- "RE: Tribes Unite to improve Reservation Roads" --------- Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2001 08:26:22 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="REZ ROADS" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.nctimes.net/news/2001/20011226/91440.html Tribes unite to improve reservation roads EDWARD SIFUENTES Staff Writer TEMECULA -- A new agency created by a consortium of 25 Southern California Indian tribes, including all North County bands, is now responsible for maintaining local reservations' roads. Much like the California Department of Transportation, the Reservation Transportation Authority will plan, design, build and maintain roads on its members' reservations. The nonprofit authority is the only organization of its kind in the country, said Bo Mazzetti, chief executive officer of the Temecula-based agency and a tribal council member of the Rincon Band of Mission Indians near Valley Center in northern San Diego County. Founded in 1998, the consortium will contract for Bureau of Indian Affairs road construction and maintenance programs, seek additional transportation funding for its projects and provide transportation planning and administration for tribal governments. Before rural reservation roads in San Diego County became a point of conflict between county government and tribal leaders, primarily because of the opening of casinos, Mazzetti was selling tribal leaders on the idea of taking control of road construction and road maintenance on Indian lands. "Nearly all reservation roads can barely be called roads," Mazzetti said. Most of the county's 18 reservations are situated in rural parts of North County and East County and relied on the Bureau of Indian Affairs to build and upkeep the roads, some of which are no more than dirt paths. Mazzetti, a former bureau employee, said he doesn't blame the bureau for the poor condition of the roads, but he said he believed there was a better way of delivering road service to the reservations. "It has always been my belief that tribes should have more of the responsibility to provide our government services," Mazzetti said. "The road maintenance program with the BIA is the most underfunded and inadequate program BIA has responsibility for." As a roads officer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs Southern California Agency in Riverside from 1993-1999, Mazzetti said he believed Indians themselves could deliver the services cheaper, devoting more of the money to the projects themselves. The agency is now building roads on the Los Coyotes, La Posta and Mesa Grande reservations. It also helped design projects at the Rincon and Barona reservations, and has taken the lead in searching for road improvement funding. To date, the authority has received promises of cooperation from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, California Department of Transportation and several California legislators. "We've developed a good working relationship with them," Mazzetti said of the bureau and the county. Caltrans assigned one of its planners to work with the authority and provide technical assistance for reservation projects. In October, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors adopted a policy of cooperation with the authority to develop statewide legislation that will bring more money for road improvement projects near the reservation, including money in a trust fund established by the tribal-state gambling agreement that legalized gambling on Indian lands. The Special Distribution Fund, as it is called, is supposed to address problems at the local level brought on by gambling, such as traffic and gambling addiction. But the agreement also gives the tribes discretion on how to spend the money. The authority's members say at least 50 percent of the trust fund should be set aside to address local traffic problems. "I agree that we should work together to get the state to give tribes (money from the Special Distribution Fund) to fix their own roads," said Supervisor Bill Horn, whose district includes four tribes that opened casinos on their reservations this year. Under current law, there is no guarantee money paid by tribes into the trust fund will be spent on roads, Mazzetti said. He said tribal leaders have begun speaking with legislators who might carry such a bill. County analysts say it will take about $150 million to prepare county maintained roads for casino traffic. Tribes have disagreed with that figure but agree that there will be traffic problems, largely because of long-time neglect of roads near the reservations. The Reservation Transportation Authority has conducted traffic studies near the casinos that suggest the county's traffic figures were overestimated. In Rincon, for example, the county estimated there would be an average of about 4,500 cars daily going to the Rincon Casino. The authority's Rincon traffic study, released to the North County Times last week, indicates there were 2,377 cars going in and out of the casino on Sept. 18, 2001, when traffic was measured, or about half what the county predicted. In April 6, 2001, about three months after the casino opened, there were 3,199 cars going in and out of the casino, the report said ---- about a third less than the county predicted. "We have the tapes if anybody needs proof," Mazzetti said. For the reports, the authority videotaped the entrance of the casinos for 24 hour periods and then counted traffic near the casino entrance. Tribal leaders say that based on their own numbers, they are contemplating asking the county to renegotiate agreements they made earlier this year to pay $14.5 million for road improvements. Horn said the tribes had not formally asked the county to renegotiate the agreements. Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-5426 or esifuentes@nctimes.com. Copyright c. 1997-2001 North County Times. --------- "RE: New Mexico Pueblos" --------- Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2002 08:31:10 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="PUEBLOS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.bayarea.com/c/category/sports_and_recreation/ THE PUEBLO OF NAMBE serves as one of the primary cultural and religious centers for the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. By Linda DuVal THE GAZETTE (COLORADO SPRINGS) Sunday, December 30, 2001 SANTA FE, N.M. -- Few people are as culturally private as the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. But in the past three decades, they've cautiously opened their doors to the world. Now, most days of the year, anyone can drive to these communities and see the arts, crafts and everyday life of the pueblos. Some days, because of private ceremonies or other reasons, the pueblos may be closed without notice. Tourists are allowed to visit most days, during daylight hours. And asked to stay away when it's appropriate. Would you want uninvited guests to drop in and expect to visit after you've had a death in the family? Pueblos are not theme parks, but rather places where real people live. Visitors will see a grandfather and grandchild out for an afternoon walk, a woman removing fresh-baked bread from her horno (outdoor oven), an artist working in a home studio. They can fish in pristine lakes and visit untouched ancient ruins. New Mexico pueblos There are dozens of pueblos in the Southwest, and 19 in New Mexico alone, but the communities clustered around Santa Fe and Taos, N.M. -- Nambe, Picuris, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso, San Juan, Santa Clara, Taos and Tesuque -- formed a coalition nearly 30 years ago. Tourism took root slowly. At one time, few outsiders wanted to visit the poor and often unlovely little pueblo villages. But in recent years, all things Indian have become popular, and the Pueblo people discovered that tourists not only wanted to visit their pueblos, but would buy their arts, crafts and food while there. They'd also come to gamble, and several of the pueblo tribes have established casinos, though they are usually set well apart from their villages. Most of the Eight Northern Pueblos have a tribal office and a visitors center or store where you pay entrance and photo fees. + Nambe Pueblo, Route 1, Box 117-BB, Santa Fe, NM 87501 First inhabited in the 1300s, this village lies about 18 miles north of Santa Fe in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. It was nearly destroyed by Spaniards in the 1500s. A small herd of bison roams the pueblo lands. In addition to the ruins of the original village, this pueblo features a series of photogenic waterfalls in the Nambe Falls Lake and Recreation Area, which is open to the public for hiking, fishing and picnicking (closed in winter). There's a $10 daily fee for fishing, but no state license is needed. Sightseeing is $5 per car and picnicking is $5 per person. There's also a $10 daily photo fee. The Nambe Pueblo's annual feast day is Oct. 4, honoring St. Francis of Assisi, and there is a buffalo dance and bonfire on Christmas Eve. Also, deer, antelope and buffalo dances are performed on King's Day, Jan. 6. Dances also are performed at Easter. + Picuris Pueblo, P.O. Box 127, Penasco, NM 87553 The Spanish called them the Pikuria, those who paint. The most remote of New Mexico's 19 pueblos, it's located in the high hills (7,324 feet) about 24 miles southeast of Taos. It's also one of the smallest pueblos, with about 325 members. What it lacks in size, it makes up for in status. The Picuris are said to have played a major role in the pueblo uprising of 1680. After a second revolt against the Spanish invaders in 1696, the tribe was scattered and just those few remain. In summer, visitors may fish on the reservation lakes ($8 adults, $7 seniors, $6 children). There are self-guided tours of archaeological sites for $3 per person. There's a current project to restore the 200-year-old murals at the adobe church, San Lorenzo de Picuris. Also, this tiny tribe owns a controlling interest and operates the Hotel Santa Fe in Santa Fe. The Feast of San Lorenzo is Aug. 9-10 each year, celebrated with church services, foot races and traditional dances. They also celebrate King's Day on Jan. 6 and host a High Country Arts & Crafts Festival each June on Father's Day. There is a torchlight parade each Christmas Eve and traditional Matachina dancers on Christmas Day. + Pojoaque Pueblo, Route 11, Box 71, Santa Fe, NM 87501 The 325 residents of the Pojoaque Pueblo have established themselves as entrepreneurs. One of the most economically developed of the pueblo tribes, it runs a supermarket, apartments, hardware store, pizza restaurant, automotive center, professional office complex and the Cities of Gold casino, hotel and sports bar. Plans include a golf course and industrial park. Also in the works is a wellness center that will include a gym and pool and place for children's activities. At the Poeh Cultural Center, visitors can see the arts and cultures of all the pueblo people represented. Here, there are both museum exhibits and galleries, as well as native arts and crafts for sale. You can arrange tours to see the buffalo herd. The pueblo's main feast days are Dec. 11 and 12, and it celebrates King's Day on Jan. 6. + San Ildefonso Pueblo, Route 5, Box 314-A, Santa Fe, NM 87501 The San Ildefonso people believe they migrated from the Mesa Verde area of southwestern Colorado in the 1300s to escape a long drought. They, too, struggled against the Spaniards in the 1600s and designed the central plaza like a fort surrounding the ceremonial kiva. Although many of the original buildings have been reconstructed, they remain true to the original architecture. Several archaeological sites on their land, located about 24 miles northwest of Santa Fe, were damaged by the Cerro Grande Fire of 2000, and are temporarily closed while being restored. The San Ildefonso tribe is best-known for its dramatic black-on-black pottery. Visitors can see samples of it and see it being made at the San Ildefonso Museum. The San Ildefonso annual feast day is Jan. 23, with Comanche, buffalo and deer dances. They also celebrate Easter and perform corn dances in late August and early September each year. + San Juan Pueblo, P.O. Box 1099, San Juan Pueblo, NM 87566 Once the capital of the Spanish territory in New Mexico, the San Juan Pueblo is also the largest of the eight northern pueblos, with about 2,500 members. Located about 25 miles north of Santa Fe, at the juncture of the Chama and Rio Grande rivers, it is sometimes called the "Mother Village" of the Tewa-speaking people. According to the tribe's history, one of its members, Po'Pay (or Popay) led the pueblo revolution against the Spanish in 1680, driving the interlopers back into Mexico. At San Juan, visitors can stop by the Oke Oweenge Crafts Cooperative to look at and buy locally made crafts. The main headquarters of the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council is here, and the annual all-pueblo arts and crafts market will be held here from now on. The San Juan tribe also owns and operates the largest casino in New Mexico, the Ohkay Casino. In addition, there is fishing allowed on the reservation's lake ($8, $5 for 55 and older and 12 and younger). Celebrations include a cloud dance or basket dance in January, a deer dance in February, Easter celebration, harvest dance in September, a torchlight procession and Virgin Vespers dance on Christmas Eve, Matachine dance on Christmas Day and turtle dance on Dec. 26. The pueblo's big annual event is June 23-24, in honor of St. John the Baptist. It includes a variety of dances, foot races, food, arts and crafts booths. + Santa Clara Pueblo, P.O. Box 580, Espanola, NM 87532 The Santa Clara Pueblo was founded about 1550, when drought forced the Santa Clara people's ancestors to move into the Rio Grande Valley. The Puye Cliff Dwellings, which date to the 1300s and are one of the largest draws for visitors, are at the base of a cliff in the Santa Clara Canyon. Located about a mile south of Espanola in the Jemez Mountains, the pueblo, with about 1,600 members, is famous for its glossy black or black- and-red pottery. Visitors can sometimes catch pottery-making demonstrations. There's a recreational area for fishing and camping, but much of it was damaged in the 2000 wildfires. A vigorous rehabilitation program is under way to make the reservation's wilderness area usable again. Major feast days are Reyes Day, Jan. 6; St. Anthony's Day, June 13; St. Claire's Day, Aug. 12; Christmas celebrations, Dec. 25; and Innocent's Day, Dec. 28. + Taos Pueblo, P.O. Box 1846, Taos, NM 87571 Possibly the most scenic of the pueblos, the Taos Pueblo is 21/2 miles from Taos and is the setting that inspired the term "pueblo-style" architecture. This World Heritage site is set on the Rio Pueblo. Taos Pueblo, among others, claims to have led the pueblo revolt of 1680. One of the larger pueblos, it has about 2,700 members. There are more than 50 private shops and galleries in the pueblo, which has a number of feast days, including: Turtle dance, Jan. 1; deer or buffalo dances, Jan. 6; Santa Cruz feast, with races and dancing, May 3; feast of San Antonio and corn dance, June 13; annual pow wow, second weekend in July; feast of Santiago and Santa Ana, July 25-26; San Geronimo feast days, Sept. 28 and 30; vespers and bonfires, Dec. 24; and deer or Matachine dances, Dec. 25. The pueblo is closed to the public for 8-12 weeks from February through April and for about 10 days in late August through early September for religious observances. + Tesuque Pueblo, Route 5, Box 360-T, Santa Fe, NM 87501 Set in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains 10 miles north of Santa Fe, Tesuque Pueblo is one of the oldest inhabited sites in New Mexico, dating from about 1200. It's also one of the most traditional of the pueblos, observing many ancient ceremonies and cultural traditions. Tesuque warriors reportedly made the first strike against the Spaniards in the 1680 revolt. About 400 people live in the pueblo, and many of them still speak their native Tewa language. Traditional crafts, such as pottery, painting and sculpture, are created and sold here. The landmark Camel Rock gives its name to the tribe's casino. Other enterprises include a hotel, flea market and the Tesuque Natural Farms, which grows organic foods. Festivals include King's Day, the first weekend in January; a corn dance the first weekend in June; the San Diego Feast Day on Nov. 12; and Christmas. Copyright c. 2002 Real Cities Network. --------- "RE: American Indians debate Dream Catcher Sales" --------- Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2001 08:26:22 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DREAM CATCHER" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.showmenews.com/2001/Dec/20011226News023.asp American Indians debate dream catcher sales Some believe marketing is disrespectful. Wednesday, December 26, 2001 MILLE LACS LAKE, Minn. (AP) - Growing up, Millie Benjamin spent her nights sleeping under a dream catcher, a traditional American Indian object believed to ward off nightmares. These days she shakes her head in dismay when she sees them worn as earrings, hanging from car windshields or sold as keychains in convenience stores. "It has gotten out of hand. It's disrespectful for our people. It means something to us," said Benjamin, a member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. "Its a tradition." Though some American Indian tribal members see no problem with the practice, others regard marketing of dream catchers as another example of their culture being picked apart. According to American Indian tradition, dream catchers should resemble a spider web and are to be placed above a baby's cradle. The web filters out nightmares, allowing only good dreams to pass through to the sleeping child. A dream catcher is supposed to be made in intricate, ceremonial steps that include giving thanks for the spirit of the wood used in it. Those steps fall by the wayside when a person buys a make-it-yourself kit from a discount store, says Gerald White, a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. "The dream catcher, to us, is a sacred item," White said. "It's lost a lot of meaning, even in our own tribe. It's like losing our language, our culture - another symptom of a larger thing." White acknowledges that dream catchers are an important source of money for some American Indians. Since Sept. 11, business has picked up for Colleen Heminger-Cordell, a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota who has been making dream catchers for 15 years. Cordell's craft, starting at $14.95 for a 3-inch dream catcher, is sold everywhere from a Parisian boutique to a Sioux City, Iowa, strip mall. "I just never thought there would be that big of a market," she said. "Companies are buying them wholesale." At Lake Mille Lacs, the shiny string in Ruth Garbow's dream catchers reflects sparkles of light throughout the tribe's museum gift shop. Garbow, an Ojibwe, says it's important that customers understand the catchers' meaning. "If people like and enjoy having Indian crafts, I feel great," she said. But Garbow puts limits on the selling of her culture, including jewelry using the medicine wheel's four colors - which are supposed to be restricted to certain rites - and some ceremonial dresses. Dark Feather Red Eagle, a storyteller and self-described Oglala Sioux, learned how to make dream catchers from a Cree woman 30 years ago. In six years, he's sold more than 1,000 made by his family in Crowley, Texas. "A dream catcher is supposed to serve a purpose as far as dreams are concerned, as far as children are concerned, and that's not something that's meant to be sacred," Red Eagle said, 79. Benjamin is comforted knowing the truth behind dream catchers. "As long as I know what it really means, I'm happy, and that's what I teach my children," she said. Copyright c. 2001 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c. 2001 The Columbia Daily Tribune. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Health Grant Awarded" --------- Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 08:11:49 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HEALTH GRANT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.silverbelt.com/display/inn_moccasin/Moc4.txt Health grant awarded The Indian Health Service and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health has awarded a $546,432 Native American Research Centers for Health grant to the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona to establish the American Indian Research Center for Health. The grant will help support practical research to improve American Indian peoples' health status, increase the number of American Indian scientists and health professionals engaged in research, educate non- Indian researchers about the need for culturally appropriate health research within American Indian communities, and enable positive relationships between American Indian communities and research institutions. Copyright Arizona Silver Belt/Apache Moccasin. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Native American Housing Legislation Passed" --------- Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 08:18:09 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HOUSING" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.daily-times.com/Stories/0,1002,6574%257E309178,00.html Tuesday, January 01, 2002 - 11:52:18 PM MST Native American housing legislation passed Special to The Daily Times WASHINGTON D.C. - U.S. Representative Tom Udall, D-N.M., a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, applauded President Bush for signing legislation into law that incorporates his effort to extend a direct housing loan pilot project for Native American veterans. The President Thursday signed a broad veterans' measure, H.R. 1291, which encompassed four bills as approved by the House and Senate. Included in the legislation was Udall's Native American Veterans Home Loan Act of 2001 (H.R. 1929), which the federal lawmaker introduced May 21, 2001. Since the pilot program was established, 59 tribes have entered into Memorandums of Understanding (MOU), allowing VA to provide home loans to tribal members who might otherwise be unable to obtain suitable housing. In New Mexico, the following tribes participate in the program: Isleta Pueblo, Laguna Pueblo, the Navajo Nation, Picuris Pueblo, San Juan Pueblo, Santo Domingo Pueblo, and Zuni Pueblo. "The President signed my measure into law just in time, because the current program expired Dec. 31. Ending this successful program would be devastating to a number of Native American veterans who want to take advantage of this important benefit," Udall said. "Without this program, it would be even more difficult for Native Americans living on trust lands to obtain home loan financing." The bill also eases the MOU process and loans may be used to purchase, construct, or improve a home on Native American trust land. Udall's measure will extend the program until 2005. Also in the legislation signed by the President today were the following provisions: Education Matters subhead Increases the rate of the basic benefit of the Montgomery G.I. Bill (MGIB) from the current $672 per month to $800 per month beginning on Jan. 1, 2002; $900 per month on Oct. 1, 2002; and $985 per month on Oct.1, 2003. Creates flexibility in the payment method for MGIB to partially pay for short-term/high tech courses. It would accelerate payment of up to 60 percent of the cost of an approved program that leads to employment in a high technology industry. Restores lost educational MGIB and vocational rehabilitation benefits for service members and reservists who must leave their course of study to serve on active duty. For example, military members called away to serve in the current National Emergency Increases the Dependent's Educational Allowance from $608 to $670 for dependents and spouses of veterans who are totally disabled or who die as a result of a service-connected condition. The increase will go into effect Jan. 1, 2002. Disability Compensation Matters subhead Removes the arbitrary 30-year limit for manifestation of Agent Orange- related respiratory cancers in Vietnam veterans. It also tasks the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to continue reviewing scientific evidence on effects of dioxin or herbicide exposure through Oct.1, 2014. Extends authority of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to presume service connection for additional diseases as based on future NAS reports through Sept. 30, 2015. Codifies the presumption that Type 2 diabetes in Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange is service-connected. Authorizes the Secretary to pay compensation to Gulf War veterans who are chronically disabled by a diagnosed, but medically unexplained, multisymptom illness, such as chronic fatigue syndrome. Allows the Secretary to protect the grant of service connection for an undiagnosed illness when a Persian Gulf War veteran participates in a VA-sponsored medical research project. Housing Matters subhead Increases the VA home loan guaranty amount from the current $50,750 to $60,000. This is the first time that the VA guaranty amount has been increased since 1994. Increases the grant for specially adapted housing for severely disabled veterans from $43,000 to $48,000. Burial Matters subhead Increases VA burial benefits for service-connected deaths of veterans from $1,500 to $2,000. Allows VA to furnish a bronze marker to permanently commemorate the service of a veteran on an already marked grave in a private cemetery. EDITOR'S NOTE: Udall's office provided this article. Copyright c. 1999-2001 MediaNews Group, Inc./Farmington Daily Times. --------- "RE: Testing leads to Substandard Opportunity" --------- Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2002 08:31:10 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TESTING REDUCES OPPORTUNITY" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.montanaforum.com/rednews/2002/01/01/build/tribal/testing Guest Opinion: Testing leads to substandard opportunity at tribal schools By ANNA E. BALDWIN for the Missoulian The education bill approved by Congress Dec. 18 gives more education funds to states and more local control over how to spend that money; performance on annual standardized tests would identify low-scoring schools, which could then be targeted to receive more money for tutoring and other services. Schools that continue to do poorly could be restructured, restaffed, or hired out to private managers. As an educator in one school that routinely achieves low scores on standardized tests and that would likely fail to meet federal standards, I feel compelled to describe the dangers inherent in making assumptions about schools based solely on their test results. In the recently published round of test scores, Two Eagle River School, the tribal school of the Flathead Indian Reservation, achieved proficiency standards of 9 percent in every category but math (0 percent) in eighth grade, while 19 percent of 11th-graders were deemed proficient in several categories - 50 percent in science and 59 percent in reading. These results are dismal and could easily be explained away by the poverty and unemployment found on reservations, as cited in your front-page story about the results of the tests (Missoulian, Oct. 7). However, Two Eagle is special in ways other reservation schools aren't. First, we are an alternative school which provides an educational setting for those students who have not found success in traditional public high schools, of which there are six on the Flathead Reservation. Second, we do not raise our students from first grade on. Two Eagle serves grades 7-12, and, indeed, most of our students do not arrive until the later high school grades. What does this mean? Most important, it means that none of our eighth- graders and few of our 11th-graders are products of Two Eagle River School. They are products of the public schools, which have pushed them out due to erratic attendance, ejected them for their low grades and perhaps educated them poorly from the start. When these students come to Two Eagle, these problems - problems which have probably coexisted with them since they began school - continue to plague them. Furthermore, the public schools' test results do not reflect these students' academic gaps because they attend Two Eagle by the time the test is taken in the spring. Of course, not all our students' low achievement can be blamed on other schools. Many do fight poverty and unemployment, and many face cultural differences on the reservation. To help compensate, Two Eagle River School is taking steps to illustrate our students' successes. We employ an alternative assessment system called the Learning Record, which uses a collection of student work rather than a single test to demonstrate strengths and needs. In addition, we have advanced technology and experiential education programs to motivate our students in ways that most public schools could not. The results of the standardized tests may reveal skills in language conventions, science knowledge, and math formulas; for Two Eagle River School, those results also demonstrate the failures of the public schools on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Ideally, those schools will read the results of their neighboring tribal school's tests and consequently be encouraged to find new ways to educate our Native American youth. Anna E. Baldwin is an English teacher at Two Eagle River School in Pablo. Copyright c. 2000-2001 Helena Independent Record and Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Editorial: No Trust, No Progress" --------- Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2002 08:31:10 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NO TRUST/NO PROGRESS" http://www.indianz.com/SmokeSignals/Headlines/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37197-2001Dec28.html Editorial: No Trust, No Progress Saturday, December 29, 2001 TWO YEARS ago, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth gave the government one last chance to begin setting straight the long-abused system under which money is held in trust accounts for hundreds of thousands of Native Americans. The order came in a class action lawsuit filed by beneficiaries of these accounts. The trusts, as the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals later put it, "were created over one hundred years ago through an act of Congress, and have been mismanaged nearly as long." The mismanagement has been so bad that the Interior Department no longer knows who has accounts or how much they should be worth. This would be intolerably bad government under any circumstances, but it is particularly infuriating because the money is not the government's to squander. It belongs to individual Indians, as the proceeds of land that was taken from them but was supposed to be exploited (by oil exploration, for example) for their benefit. The plaintiffs have been seeking not damages but an accounting and a restoration of the system. Convinced that the government was finally serious about trust reform and had a credible plan, Judge Lamberth decided in 1999 not to put the system into receivership but to monitor the government's reform efforts. During the past six months, two officials appointed by the judge to watch over trust reform have issued a slew of reports suggesting that abuse of the trusts goes on and that reform is something of a myth. Among the conclusions: The new computer system that was supposed to be the centerpiece of Interior's efforts to fix the system is riddled with problems and may never work; computer security is so lax that hackers can attack data relatively easily over the Internet; the department never got off the ground with a historical accounting of the trust; the efforts to clean up historical data are, as the court's monitor put it, "in disarray"; and, to top it off, the court itself was misinformed about how badly things were going in all these areas. Judge Lamberth, known for being tough on government lawyers, has responded with characteristic zeal and -- as he did earlier in the litigation -- has been holding high-profile contempt hearings. But when all of the table-pounding is done, the problem of how to fix the trusts will remain. The executive branch has shown itself not up to the task. Successive administrations have promised much and delivered little, and there is little reason for confidence in Interior Secretary Gale Norton's latest plan. As ugly as the prospect of a judge supervising a federal agency is, a receiver may not be avoidable at this point. But the litigation can do only so much. Even if as accurate a historical accounting as possible is performed, the records are such a shambles that it won't be good enough. Eventually the White House and Congress will have to intervene and broker a political settlement. At the rate trust reform is going, serious top-level federal involvement cannot come too soon. Copyright c. 2001 The Washington Post Company. --------- "RE: DoI Bureaucrats circle their Wagons" --------- Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2002 08:31:10 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NORTON CIRCLES WAGONS" http://www.indianz.com/SmokeSignals/Headlines/ http://www.insightmag.com/main.cfm/include/detail/storyid/158428.html Issue Date: January 14, 2002 Bureaucrats Circle Their Wagons Posted Dec. 7, 2001 By Kelly Patricia O'Meara Being a winner on the big game board of politics sometimes takes more than an en-thusiastic roll of the dice. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton learned this recently by landing on the "Bureaucrat Go to Jail" space when U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth scheduled civil contempt-of- court proceedings against her and other officials who have handled the looted Indian trust fund. Clearly annoyed and frustrated by the government's recent moves, Lamberth wrote that Norton and Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Neal Mc-Caleb "failed to comply" with court orders and provided "false and misleading" information about their efforts to correct the trust-fund system. The judge also testily questioned Norton's basic knowledge of the fund. But none of this information and judicial jousting comes as a shock to the 300,000 American Indians affected by the mismanagement of money generated from their lands (see "Total Lack of Trust," Sept. 17). For them, Norton is just another in a long line of bureaucrats who have promised to make the badly abused trust fund their top priority only to back away from reform or even account for the tens of billions of dollars missing from it. Recall that this fund was put in place more than 100 years ago under the General Allotment Act of 1887, which divided more than 11 million acres of land among the individual American Indians. Monies generated from the leasing of oil, mineral, timber or grazing rights on their lands were supposed to be placed in the trust fund then paid out to the respective Indian owners. Though the monies were paid to the government, the funds never reached the Indians. The agencies responsible for the trust fund include the U.S. departments of Interior and Treasury, which for decades spent tens of millions of dollars attempting to account for the stolen funds only to claim that even this could not be done until the accounting system was restructured. Norton recently announced the creation of the Bureau of Indian Trust As- sets Management (BITAM), to be headed by Ross Swimmer, who was head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) during the Reagan administration. Many familiar with the Indian trust fund tell Insight that this is the secretary's latest attempt to stave off the contempt charges and keep details of this century-old scandal under wraps just a little longer. In fact, it was just three months ago that Norton claimed Interior's inability to account for the missing funds was due to poorly implemented information systems. She said the Trust Asset Accounting Management System (TAAMS) would, when fully implemented, correct many of the problems. The $40 million TAAMS computer system still is not working. And critics say Norton apparently has moved a few more spaces into the swamp by creating BITAM and finding a Reagan-era patsy to front it. Washington lawyer Dennis Gingold, the lead attorney on a class-action lawsuit filed by Eloise Cobell and four other American Indians, laughs at Norton's effort to deal with the problem by adding to the bureaucracy. He tells Insight, "You expect them to make big mistakes on substantive issues because they know nothing of trust matters, but you wouldn't expect them to make mistakes on political issues. Yet here they go again." Gingold explains, "What this 'restructuring' means is that if the secretary pulls this off, and I don't believe she will, the next interior secretary will start from scratch because Norton obviously has no intention of doing anything during this administration. The people who created this restructuring have no background in trust management, and no intelligent thought process has gone into it. I've said it over and over again: This is nothing more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic." In fact, according to Gingold, naming Swimmer to head the new bureaucracy only adds insult to injury for his Indian clients. "Swimmer," Gingold continues, "apparently was involved with one of the big Cherokee Nation corporations that went into the tank because he made bad loans to various people from that corporation and, as a result, they couldn't repay loans to another bank. This guy has a very checkered past managing financial issues. As assistant secretary of interior under Reagan, he was one of the main reasons the late Oklahoma congressman Mike Synar pressed so hard to enact what eventually became the 1994 Trust Reform Act. The trust was that badly mismanaged under Swimmer's watch." And Gingold is just warming up. "It also was during Swimmer's watch that there were no meters on the individual oil wells, so the oil companies were effectively on an honor system. That's crazy. The oil companies just told the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 'We took X many barrels of oil.' There was no way to audit them. Swimmer is one of the reasons this mess exists, and now he's being put back in charge. That shows either utter ignorance for this problem or a total disdain for the trust beneficiaries." The problem with the restructuring, Gingold adds, is systemic. "What Norton is trying to do is avoid contempt charges by showing that someone is in charge, but it isn't going to work. She is just creating another bureaucracy. Every time the interior secretary from administration to administration is directly challenged by Congress or the courts this is what happens. They're not even changing the people. And the reason it never works is because it is the senior management that is incompetent, and that includes the secretary." Gingold is proceeding with civil and criminal contempt charges and is seeking "the most severe coercive and criminal sanctions available under the law against the secretary and everyone else involved." So far he has filed motions against 39 people - past and present officials of the departments of Interior and Justice - and says he intends to add Treasury officials to the list, including former secretary Robert Rubin, who also was found in contempt of court by Lamberth for his handling of the trust fund. In the meantime, while the lawyers slug it out in court, the Indians are forced to wait for money that is long overdue. Cobell, a banker from the Blackfeet Reservation in northwest Montana and originator of the class-action lawsuit, tells Insight she's come to refer to the BIA as the "Bureau of B.S." Cobell is angry about the secretary's recent announcement of yet another restructuring. But, she says, "The real question is, 'Why are they fighting the receivership?' I mean, let's face it. Norton wouldn't put her money in this bureau to be managed, so why does she think it's okay for us? Why does she think that we should continue to settle for not having our money properly managed?" Cobell says, "We don't need a new bureau, because that was the problem in the first place. What we need is an outside receiver. This Swimmer, if allowed, is only going to put the good ol' boys back in there, and it will start all over again. What everyone is missing here is that people are suffering. Behind all these 'lost' assets are real people who need these trust funds. It's their money, and it should be managed properly. Politicians shouldn't be managing our money, and I doubt that anyone who could do otherwise would allow them to manage theirs. So why are we so lucky?" Whether Norton has a "Get Out of Jail Free" card is yet to be seen. It's clear, however, that the secretary is in the hands of a judge more than a little irritated at the pace of the game and 100 years of dirty dealing. "This judge," Gingold explains, "has heard this song for five years, and I don't think he's going to take any more games. He's been through this for too long, and you'd almost have to have been born yesterday to be suckered by these people. It already has been demonstrated that Judge Lamberth wasn't born yesterday." Perhaps the judge's own warning provides the best sense of what Norton is up against. In last week's hearing he told government lawyers, "This contempt trial is going to be your worst nightmare." Meanwhile, it appears that if it weren't for bad luck, Secretary Norton wouldn't have any luck at all. First, Lamberth scheduled the contempt-of- court proceedings. Then, two days later, the federal judge unsealed a request by the special court-appointed master, saying, "It is the recommendation of the special master that the court intervene and assume direct oversight of those systems housing Indian trust data." Stay tuned, boys and girls: This time the Indians may win. Kelly Patricia O'Meara is an investigative reporter for Insight. Copyright c. 2001 News World Communications, Inc./Insight Magazine. --------- "RE: Shoshone-Bannock Tribes threaten Legal Action" --------- Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 08:18:09 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ROYALTY ACTION" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story Shoshone-Bannock Tribes threaten legal action over overdue royalty, lease payments Associated Press FORT HALL, Idaho - The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes are threatening legal action against the U.S. Department of Interior for its failure to pay out $3 million in royalties and land lease payments. Tribal officials said the money was due the tribes and individual tribal members weeks ago from their federal trust accounts. In a letter sent Monday to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth and the Idaho congressional delegation, the tribes blasted the department for not sending out the checks. Fort Hall Business Council Chairman Blaine J. Edmo said many of the payments are owed to low-income tribal members who count on the money for their economic survival. The letter demands immediate issuance of the payments and threatens quick legal action if the money is not released this week. Edmo said the nonpayment resulted from an order by Lamberth to shut down the department's computer system after a court-hired hacker was able to break into the account. He said in the order Lamberth allowed the department to use the Internet to distribute trust funds and provide necessary services, but it has not. The overdue payments are from royalties and rental payments Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs collects from leases of tribal lands and resources. Working for court-appointed investigator Alan Balaran, the hacker exposed such poor security that Balaran said the department cannot be trusted to oversee the Indian money. He suggested a judge take charge of the funds computer systems. Balaran said the agency has known about the security risks for a decade. It was warned in thousands of pages of reports from government and private auditors, he said. The computer system tracks $500 million a year in royalties from 54 million acres of Indian land held in trust by the Interior Department and its Bureau of Indian Affairs. Copyright c, 2001, The Spokesman-Review. --------- "RE: Who's in charge at Interior" --------- Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2002 08:31:10 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WHO IS IN CHARGE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.daily-times.com/Stories/0,1002,6574~304761,00.html Saturday, December 29, 2001 - 11:33:57 PM MST Who's in charge at Interior? By Bill McAllister/MediaNews Washington Bureau Chief WASHINGTON - Ever wonder what the pecking order is at Gale Norton's Interior Department? President George W. Bush resolved that question for Interior officials and those at six other departments a week before Christmas. With no public announcement, the Bush administration quietly published the succession lists for the four departments in the Federal Register on Dec. 18. At Interior, there was no question that Deputy Secretary J. Steven Griles, the former coal industry lobbyist from Virginia, would rank as No. 2 behind Norton, the former Colorado attorney general. Nor was there much doubt that Solicitor William G. Myers III, a Denver-educated lawyer, would rank as No. 3. What's fascinating about the president's executive order is that it shows the rankings of the department's other top political appointees, the assistant secretaries whose influence can vary widely from secretary to secretary. In the Bush listing, No. 4. is Lynn Scarlett, the former head of a Southern California libertarian think tank, who serves as assistant secretary of policy, management and budget; No. 5. has yet to be confirmed. She is attorney Rebecca Watson of Helena, Mont., who is in line to be assistant secretary for land and mineral management, a position that gives her a direct say over much of Interior's Western lands. No. 6 is Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Bennett W. Raley of Colorado. No. 7 is Harold Craig Manson of California, an Air Force Academy graduate, who is also awaiting Senate confirmation as an assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks. No. 8 is Assistant Secretary for Indian affairs Neal A. McCaleb of Oklahoma. He was the first of Norton's deputies to be confirmed. **** Look for Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., to continue to continue his push for greater controls on immigration during 2002. He's already being listed as a keynote speaker for a daylong session planned on Capitol Hill Jan. 29 by the Center for the Study of Popular Culture. Topic for the session: "Immigrations and National Security - Post 9/11/2001." Both Tancredo and Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., joined the chorus of Western Republicans complaining about the federal workers who planted Canadian lynx hairs in a national forest in Washington state. Responding to the complaints of Reps. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., and others, Norton has assigned her inspector general to investigate the incident. The lawmakers are demanding that some heads roll, arguing that the incident raises serious doubts about the department's handling of endangered species legislation. **** Judith G. Sutherland, president and chief executive officer of the Denver-based Visiting Nurse Corp., described as Colorado's largest home care agency, got a mandate last week to fight federal red tape. She was appointed Wednesday by Heath and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson to be one of the 27 members of an advisory panel on regulatory reform. The panel will advise the secretary on how to reduce "unnecessarily burdensome, inefficient regulations that interfere with the quality of health care," the department said. **** Walking to dinner on Capitol Hill before Christmas, some members of Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard's staff came face to face with life under the threat of bioterrorism. Walking by the contaminated Hart Building, where crews in suits were preparing to blast out anthrax contamination with chlorine dioxide gas. A man wrapped tightly in blankets was being trundled off to an ambulance. It appeared, with tarps hanging up and water puddles on the ground, that the man had been inside the building and had to be stripped down, hosed off and decontaminated. They later discovered that the man was a tourist who went to the Capitol to see his senator, who was listed as being in the Hart building. Just about everyone in Washington knows that Hart is a no-man's land, but apparently not this tourist. He simply walked in an open door, right past giant black tanks with the dangerous gas. When they found him wandering around inside, he got the full scrub-down. "We have guys with machine guns on Capitol Hill," chuckled Allard spokesman Sean Conway, who witnessed the incident, "but we can't keep a tourist from walking into the Hart Building." Bill McAllister: bmcallister@denverpost.com Copyright c.1999-2001 MediaNews Group, Inc./Farmington Daily-Times. --------- "RE: Little Hope for Trust Fund Payments" --------- Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 08:09:56 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TRUST FUND NO-PAY" http://www.indianz.com/SmokeSignals/Headlines/ Little hope for trust fund payments FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 2002 Indian Country rang in the new year without receiving millions of dollars in oil, gas and other royalty payments, a situation not likely to change any time soon, top Bureau of Indian Affairs officials said on Thursday. Under a federal judge's order to protect the trust assets of 300,000 American Indians, the Department of Interior's computer systems have been shut down for nearly a month. As a result, the BIA has been unable to distribute money that is owed to individual Indian and tribal beneficiaries, which Assistant Secretary Neal McCaleb said was unacceptable. "If I had my way, we'd start issuing checks now," Assistant Secretary Neal McCaleb told tribal leaders at a consultation meeting in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Yet his department has been unable to reconnect the systems that process the payments, McCaleb acknowledged. He attributed the delay to negotiations between the government and Alan Balaran, a court investigator whose December 5 report on the Interior's paltry security precautions led to the shutdown. "We think we do have it fixed," he said. But he added: "We have not reached an agreement with the special master." The Interior has made some progress over the Christmas break, according to Bill Roselius, a private consultant McCaleb hired last fall. Firewalls -- a key component to help prevent hackers from breaking into the computer systems -- are finally in place at Phoenix, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico and Washington, D.C., he said. But Balaran's requirement that the Interior comply with a "comprehensive" federal information technology standard is extremely "difficult," Roselius said. Only one federal agency has met those conditions, he said, and the immediate prospects for the BIA are not positive. "This has been going back and forth," Roselius said of the negotiations with the court. "I'm not 100 percent optimistic." Tribal leaders and account holders weren't happy with the status report. Navajo Nation council member George Arthur said his tribe, the largest in the country, wasn't in danger of missing royalty payments but that 20,000 tribal members haven't been paid. Carson Antelope, from the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, said the shutdown has affected tribal members' ability to pay their bills. "We need our money now," Antelope told McCaleb, imploring him to fix the problem as quickly as possible. "It's not good enough," McCaleb said of the effort so far. "I'm the first to admit that." BIA spokesperson Nedra Darling didn't have a dollar amount on the payments that will be missed this month. Based on historic figures, $15 million was distributed to approximately 43,000 individual Indians in December 2000, she said. The Interior has hired Predictive Systems Inc., who broke into the Individual Indian Money (IIM) system over the summer, and SAIC, a computer security firm, to help resolve the problems. Copyright c. 2000-2001 Noble Savage Media, LLC/Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Mexicans Angered by Spread of Corn" --------- Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2001 19:55:53 -0800 From: "Jess Hansen" Subj: "Mexicans Angered by Spread of Corn" Mailing List: ndn-aim December 29, 2001 at 16:05:25 PST "Mexicans Angered by Spread of Corn" MEXICO CITY-- "In a cautionary tale about the difficulty of controlling genetically modified plants, corn researchers in Mexico went ever higher into remote mountain villages looking for natural varieties of the 4,000- year-old crop. Time after time, they couldn't find them. Samples revealed that just a few years of unlabeled U.S. imports had transferred modified genes to local corn in the southern state of Oaxaca - even though planting genetically modified crops is banned in this country, the birthplace of corn. The discovery, confirmed in the science magazine Nature this month, caused outrage among Mexicans, whose ancestors believed the gods created Man from an ear of corn. "It's a worse attack on our culture than if they had torn down the cathedral of Oaxaca and built a McDonald's over it," said Hector Magallone, an activist with environmental group Greenpeace. There is no evidence that genetically modified grains harm those who eat them. But some scientists worry that genetically modified strains could displace or contaminate Mexico's genetic warehouse of over 60 corn varieties - a wealth that enriches staple crops worldwide and includes wild varieties that have yet to be cataloged. The accidental spread of laboratory-inserted genes, scientists fear, could allow aggressive plants to crowd out other varieties, reducing biological diversity. Diversity is prized as a hedge against disease, pests and climate change. While some plant strains may be vulnerable to one disease, others may have natural immunity that enables them to survive. The case has drawn international attention. In an open letter, 80 scientists from a dozen countries have asked the Mexican government to stop the genetic contamination. But supporters of genetic modification say such crops may actually benefit the environment by allowing farmers to use less pesticide or soil tilling, cutting down on erosion. Mexico is a net importer of corn - about 6.2 million tons annually, almost all from the United States. Perhaps one-fourth of it is genetically modified. U.S. grain growers aren't worried by the contamination - and even want to charge Mexican farmers for it. "If a locally occurring variety receives some improvement from genetically engineered crops, it's up to the courts to decide whether farmers should be made to pay for that," said Ricardo Celma, head of the U.S. Grain Council's Mexico office. "But we want the patent rights of the owners of that genetic modification to be honored." Such demands could set the stage for confrontation. "The prospect of some multinational corporation bringing lawsuits against Mexicans farmers would be intolerable," the head of the Mexican government's Council on Biodiversity, Jorge Soberon, said Saturday. "Their patents may be valid in their country, but not in ours," Soberon told the government news agency Notimex. He also proposed that Mexico pay its farmers subsidies to grow native corn. That, like the patent issue, could run afoul of the rules of the North American Free Trade Agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada, which provides for patent protections and discourages subsidies. Greenpeace, meanwhile, has called for a ban on imports of genetically modified corn. Corn is Mexico's staple crop, is imported mostly for human and animal consumption - not as seed. Yet several modified strains were found, including one that makes the plant produce a toxin to ward off corn borers. It is unclear how far the genetically modified crops have spread. A study by the Mexican Environment Ministry earlier this year found them in 15 locations in Oaxaca, but in low concentrations of 3 percent to 10 percent of plants in most fields. "It's likely that these gene sequences may disappear by themselves, or remain at low levels for a long period of time," the Ministry said in a report. Researchers from Oaxaca's Uzachi agricultural research center weren't looking for genetically modified corn when they went to the Zapotec Indian village of Calpulalpan in late November 2000. They went to the area high in the Sierra Norte mountains to find pure, locally occurring varieties that would serve as a 'control sample' for a project to produce natural, organic corn. But researcher Francisco Chapela - whose brother, Ignacio, published the results in Nature - recalls that, when they analyzed the sample, it contained a genetic marker commonly used in engineered plants. "At first we thought our equipment was malfunctioning," Chapela said. "Then, we thought, 'OK, maybe this field had some problems, we'll go to another one farther back in the mountains.'" But even in the hamlet of Trinidad, about three hours from the state capital of Oaxaca, they found genetic alterations. After six tests, they found two fields that did not contain traces of modification. Planting genetically modified crops has been banned in Mexico since 1998. Officials of Mexico's Agriculture Department said there were no plans to halt imports, or demand labeling of genetically modified corn. Australia is imposing labeling requirements and has a partial ban on crops. Japan already has such limits in place. Ironically, the Oaxaca research center that is now fighting for biological purity was set up for an opposite purpose. It was created in the mid-1990s by the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Sandoz - which later became Novartis in a merger - to look for medicinally valuable plant species, a practice decried by some activists as "bio- piracy." Local farmers later assumed control of the lab. Chapela speculated that the genetically modified corn found in Oaxaca was planted by local farmers who obtained kernels intended for consumption. "It could have been accidental," Chapela said. "Or somebody may have seen it in a rural store and said, 'That's a pretty kernel, I think I'll plant it.' It has no warning label. Either way, this shows how negligent authorities were to import this without labels." Copyright c. 2001 Las Vegas Sun, Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 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: Opinions vary on Racism" --------- Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 08:19:04 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ALASKA RACISM" http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/741191p-789526c.html Opinions vary on racism SOLUTIONS: Candidates for upcoming gubernatorial election are all over map. By Zaz Hollander Anchorage Daily News (Published: December 24, 2001) Until November's gubernatorial election, the Daily News will run occasional stories about what candidates have to say about issues in the news and challenges facing the state. Depending on which candidate you ask, Alaska's next governor will reduce discrimination by offering new legislation, encouraging a spirit of positive thinking, or doing nothing at all because intolerance isn't a major problem. Earlier this month, Gov. Tony Knowles' Commission on Tolerance released a report with nearly 100 recommendations to combat racism and discrimination. Knowles convened the commission after a group of Anchorage youths videotaped themselves downtown last January attacking Alaska Natives with frozen paint balls and amid complaints that police hadn't done enough to solve the killings of several Native women in the city. The recommendations range from passing state hate crime legislation to changing the state seal to better reflect Alaska Natives to sending urban legislators into the Bush to better understand life there. Asked their opinions of the group's report, several candidates for governor offered a wide range of opinions. Anchorage attorney Wayne Ross, who is seeking the Republican nomination, called the report "the liberals' what-I-want-for-Christmas list." The report doesn't prove there's enough intolerance in Alaska to justify the commission's work, he said. "Alaskans are divided because we have too many people pointing out the perceived problems and we don't have enough people pointing out how well we work together," Ross said. Lt. Gov. Fran Ulmer, a Democrat who sat on the commission, said legislators need to pass a hate crime law, increase the minimum wage and increase education funding, especially for rural schools. During public hearings, people also asked for diversity training and cross-cultural training, Ulmer said. "That's something a governor can help do," she said. U.S. Sen. Frank Murkowski, another Republican, commended the 14-member commission for pinpointing discrimination that Alaskans experience. But some recommendations are "really very, very costly," Murkowski said during a visit to Anchorage last week. He recommended that Alaskans develop an attitude of greater understanding. "You've got to dwell on the positive aspects of how to reduce it, because you're never going to eliminate it," he said. "We have it all over the country, unfortunately." Nels Anderson Jr., a Democrat from Dillingham, said he experienced racism firsthand as the son of a Yup'ik father and Scandinavian mother but also realized his own racist tendencies during diversity training. Anderson said he supports the commission's push for urban legislators to visit the Bush and vice versa. John Wayne Glotfelty, a North Pole man running on the Alaskan Independence ticket, said racism won't end until the state rewords a section of the preamble to the Alaska Constitution that "does not acknowledge the presence of Alaska Natives prior to the arrival of white pioneers." Reporter Zaz Hollander can be reached at zhollander@adn.com or 907-257-4349. Copyright c. 2001 The Anchorage Daily News. --------- "RE: Bill would reform Tribal Recognition" --------- Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 09:10:17 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="REFORM RECOGNITION" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.theday.com/news/ts-re.asp Bill would reform the way government recognizes tribes Published on 12/20/2001 U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons on Wednesday introduced a bill to reform the federal tribal recognition process. Responding to complaints that the recognition process is broken, Simmons' proposal would double the government's funding for the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs' recognition process, establish a $10 million grant program for towns directly impacted by tribal-related activities and bar former high-level BIA officials from appearing before the agency for one year after leaving their BIA job. Simmons' proposal, first announced more than a month ago, would also require the BIA to: notify state officials when a tribal group files for federal recognition, recognize only those Indian groups that meet all seven of the federal government's recognition criteria and accept and consider testimony from towns when considering a tribe's petition for acknowledgment. Under its current rules, the BIA already notifies states when a tribe files for recognition. It also is currently mandated to recognize only those tribes that meet all seven of the acknowledgment criteria and considers testimony and evidence from a variety of so-called "interested third-parties," including towns. Simmons on Wednesday said his bill is intended to address complaints that the recognition process is flawed and that the BIA has improperly recognized or granted preliminary recognition to some tribes. Local towns have complained that the BIA, under its former administrator, Kevin Gover, improperly granted preliminary recognition to the Eastern Pequots and Paucatuck Eastern Pequots of North Stonington. Ledyard, Preston, and North Stonington, along with the state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, are suing to overturn the BIA decisions. The two tribes are due final recognition decisions in June. Simmons said his proposed legislation "does not attempt to decide outcomes. It will ensure that the recognition process is fair and open and respectful to all parties." Copyright c. 1998-2001 The Day Publishing Co. --------- "RE: Overdrawn Rosebud Sioux Tribe Embroiled" --------- Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2002 08:31:10 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ROSEBUD FINANCES" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://indiancountry.com/?1009811859 Overdrawn Rosebud Sioux Tribe embroiled in financial mess January 01, 2002 - 11:00AM EST by: Kay Humphrey / Today Staff / Indian Country Today ROSEBUD, S.D. - Rosebud Sioux tribal officials are trying to account for more than $2.3 million in federal monies spent in a three month period, as federal officials and tribal members scrutinize the tribe's management of its finances. Tribal officials have dipped into reserve accounts and taken a loan to meet payrolls and stabilize the tribe's finances while attempting to track the $2.3 million that a Bureau of Indian Affairs official from the Aberdeen Area Office said was largely "unaccounted for." Tribal and B.I.A. officials blamed an antiquated financial system that allowed tribal income to be deposited and disbursed through one account. The tribe has had to reach into investment accounts to try to recover its financial position after a 90-day spending spree between August and October. The spending affected at least 16 federally funded programs including law enforcement. Tribal Chairman William Kindle said the financial spiral took place during the previous council's tenure. In a dramatic change, tribal members voted earlier this year to change nearly two-thirds of the 20-member council. Kindle attributed financial problems to an out-of-date accounting system. He also blamed lack of sufficient staff to monitor the tribe's accounts and insufficient training of key personnel. The tribe's problems included a $60,000 overdraft at Wells Fargo Bank, Kindle said. The shortfalls took place because of inadequate tracking of funds under BIA contracts in the tribe's finance office, he said. The problem intensified, he said, when the BIA failed to transfer monies into the appropriate accounts when requests were made. When funds were drawn from the accounts, he said, overdrafts resulted. The RST Education Committee was told during a meeting in early December the tribe owed more than $400,000 in outstanding clothing order bills to area merchants. The bills were for vouchers issued to tribal members for school clothing. Each eligible school child has received a voucher for $100 in early August during the past few years. Adding to the financial woes, the tribe failed to pay payroll taxes on time to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, making it liable for $834,000 in penalties and interest. The penalty was reduced to $214,000, Wayne Boyd, chairman of the tribe's Budget and Finance Committee, told Antelope Community members at a recent meeting. The tribal council appointed a team of tribal employees to work with a BIA team to get to the bottom of the finance mess. The tribe's Budget and Finance Committee has met nearly every day, attempting to sort out the accounts, Kindle said. In an effort to address the crisis, the tribe's Budget and Finance Committee proposed three resolutions. Most pressing was covering its nearly $400,000 bimonthly payroll for the more than 500 employees who work for the tribe. The council approved a resolution to secure a 90-day, $888,000 line of credit with Wells Fargo Bank and to authorize the tribe to back it with $88,000 in certificates of deposit from a Morgan Stanley Inc. account, $300,000 from the Tribal Land Enterprise reserve account, $200,000 from the tribal casino's operating reserve account and $300,000 from the tribal Water and Sewer Enterprise Fund. Another resolution authorized separate bank accounts for the several federally funded programs under 638 contracts. One of the problems in the last administration was that councilmen requested advances on per diem as far as three to four months in advance, Kindle said. "We've curtailed our spending a lot," he said. A fair number of problems, Kindle said, stemmed from an antiquated computerized accounting system that dated back