From gars@speakeasy.org Tue Mar 5 22:31:25 2002 Date: 6 Mar 2002 02:02:17 -0000 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews10.010 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 Acimowin -- Plains Cree -- Story or Account Native American News -- Language of the Occupation Forces Wotanging Ikche and Native American News Copyright c. 1996-2002 nanews.org ==>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 010 | Country than is reported in | O o o o o O | this weekly newsletter. For | O o O February 23, 2002 | For daily updates & events | O o O | go http://www.owlstar.com/ | O | dailyheadlines.htm | Kiowa kaguat p'a/bud moon +-----------------------------+ Anishnaabe bebookwaadaagame-giizis(oog)/snow crust moon <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is produced in straight ASCII text for greatest portability across platforms. Read it with a fixed-pitch font, such as Courier, Monaco, FixedSys or CG Times. Proportional fonts will be difficult to read. <================<<<< >>>>================> This issue contains articles from www.pechanga.net; www.owlstar.com; www.indianz.com; Big Mountain, First Nations, Rez Life and Amazon Alliance Mailing Lists; newsgroup: alt.native; UUCP email 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.'" "I have seen that in any great undertaking it is not enough for a man to depend simply upon himself." __ Lone Man, Teton Sioux +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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! From a February 28, 2002 Canoe/Cnews headline: http://www.canoe.ca/AtlanticTicker/CANOE-wire.CRIME-Native-Fishing.html N.B. native gets prison time for attack on fisheries officer MIRAMICHI, N.B. (CP) -- A native fisherman from northern New Brunswick was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison for attacking a federal fisheries officer on Miramichi Bay. John David Dedam, 31, pleaded guilty to the charge of aggravated assault. The incident occurred in August 2000 when natives and fisheries officers clashed in a dispute over native fishing rights. Rocks were thrown and one seriously injured fisheries officer, Dominique Benoit, required reconstructive surgery to his face. The Fisheries Department captured part of the confrontation on videotape. ----- I ask each reader of this newsletter to go to http://www.owlstar.com/who_will_sing_for_us.htm and click on "Who will sing for us. Watch as the Fisheries Department boat rams a Mi'kmaq boat. Then tell the Canadian authorities who used violence, who endangered human life, who was the lawless renegade? It is a disgrace and a sham on any pretense of justice to imprison John David Dedham while the fisheries and RCMP cowboys assault Mi'kmaq for pursuing their lifeway in compliance with the Marshall Treaty. (If you don't have the capability of playing this clip, the VHS tape is still available for $10 US from Aboriginal Resources, P.O. Box 305, Holbrook, MA 02343 phone: (781) 767-2462 (US) (902) 758-1343 (Canada)) As far as I am concerned this is as flagrant as the killing of Dudley George at Ipperwash and just as unforgivable. It is all too clear "Just-Us" is also the rule of law north of the 40th parallel. Dohiyi Ani Oginalii , , Gary Night Owl gars@nanews.org (*,*) P. O. Box 672168 gars@speakeasy.org (`-') Marietta, GA 30007, U.S.A. gars@olagrande.net ===w=w=== gars@sdf.lonestar.org ----------- News of the people featured in this issue ---------- - Crossings - Remembering Wounded Knee 1973 - Tribes split: Alaska Oil Drilling - Lakota Journal: - Protection sought Notes on Industrial Hemp for Sacred Grounds - Why some Indians stay Drunk - Quapaw Tribe - Bill allowing Miccosukees is seeking an Accounting to Police Themselves - AFN weighs Claim - More Oneida Land-claim of too many Tribes Suits promised - Law Firm requests ANWR Papers - Tribal Judge - Hopi Trespass Charges Dismissed challenges Crow Constitution - Native Trust Reform - Indian Prison Sites under Review is like a Bad Soap Opera - Meeting to block - American Indians want Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota more control of Trust Fund - Tribe aims to save Burial Mounds - Lac Courte Oreilles Group - Native Prisoner seeks Recall -- New Pen Pal Site - National Chief: -- Teen's Jailing angers Tribe Scrap Indian Act Canges -- Comanche Brother needs Help! - Opinion sought on - History: Carlisle Indian School Aboriginal Rights Court Ruling - John Rustywire: - B.C. Legal Aid Snow, Wind and no Ride Home cut Disproportionately - Poem: Winds of the People - Talks could end - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days Burnt Church Violence - Si Tanka receives - World grinds away 4 Year Accreditation at Mexico's Corn Farmers - Native America Calling - Mexico detains - Wisdom of the Elders Radio Program alleged Paramilitary Leader - Northern Cree: Power of the Drum - Colombia: U'wa Speak out - Cherokee River against Bush's Oil War Indian Community Homecoming --------- "RE: Crossings" --------- Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2002 08:52:05 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CROSSINGS" February 28, 2002 Nathan Vaughn Dreamer OGLALA - Nathan Vaughn Dreamer, 36, Oglala, died Monday, Feb. 25, 2002, at Rapid City Regional Hospital. Survivors include one daughter, Sharee Dreamer, Rapid City; one son, Eric Corbine Jr., Rapid City; seven brothers, Al Dreamer Jr., Gabe Dreamer and Harley Dreamer, all of Oglala, George Dreamer, Pine Ridge, Todd Dreamer and Pete Switzer, both of Rapid City, and Orrin Wing, Cortez, Colo. ; six sisters, Rhonda Dreamer, Rochelle Dreamer and Rose Dreamer, all of Oglala, Roxie Whirl Wind Horse, Pine Ridge, Rachel Dreamer, Washington, and Troy Lynn Yellow Wood, Denver; his father, Al Dreamer Sr., Oglala; his stepmother, Delores Dreamer, Oglala; and his mother, Norma Walks Out, Oglala. A two-night wake will begin at 1 p.m. today at Brother Rene Hall in Oglala. The second-night wake will begin at 4 p.m. Friday, March 1, at Loneman School gym in Oglala. Services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 2, at the school gym, with the Rev. Asa Wilson, the Rev. Tommy Carpenter and the Rev. Clarence Rowland officiating. Burial will be at Makasan Presbyterian Cemetery in Oglala. Sioux Funeral Home of Pine Ridge is in charge of arrangements. March 2, 2002 Katherine Weasel Bear PINE RIDGE - Katherine Weasel Bear, 75, Pine Ridge, died Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2002, at Rapid City Regional Hospital. A two-night wake will begin at 11 a.m. today at Billy Mills Hall in Pine Ridge. Mass of Christian Burial will be at 9 a.m. Monday, March 4, at Billy Mills Hall, with Fr. Billy Pauly and Fr. Earl Kurth officiating. Burial will be at 1:30 p.m. Monday at Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis. Katherine Weasel Bear, "Wanahca Waste Win," was born on September 5, 1926, on Mission Flats to Fred and Susie (White Wolf) Waters. On June 23, 1946, she married Cleveland Weasel Bear, and they were blessed with 14 children. Surviving her are two sons, Cleveland, Jr. of the Calico Community, and Benjamin of the #4 Community; seven daughters, Florita White Calf, Darlene, Karen, and Mary Weasel Bear, all of the #4 Community, Caroline Two Bulls of Rapid City, Carita Weasel Bear of Pine Ridge, and Trivian Bad Wound of Allen; one brother, Leroy Waters of Mission Flats; a half-sister, Jessie Left Hand of Martin; stepmother, Mary Bear Robe-Waters of Oglala; 22 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Katherine was preceded in death by her husband, four daughters, one son, and two grandchildren. Katherine was a life-long resident of the Pine Ridge Reservation; she was a Mother, Grandmother, Aunt, and Best Friend to her family, relatives, and friends. In her younger days, she was a member of the Wild Bill's Wild West Show with her grandparents. She danced many years at the Cheyenne Frontier Days, and Days of '76 at Deadwood, South Dakota. Sioux Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Copyright c. 2002 Rapid City Journal. -=-=-=- February 26, 2002 Richard Hudson Tsosie CROWNPOINT - Services for Richard Tsosie, 55, will be announced at a later date. Tsosie died Feb. 24 in Gallup. He was born March 17, 1946 in Bluewater into the Edge of Water People Clanfor the Salt Peple Clan. A family meeting will be held at 6 p.m., tonight at the home of Juanita Platero, Canoncito and at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 27 at the Crownpoint Chapter House. Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements. Hosteen Tso Belone FORT DEFIANCE, Ariz. - Services for Hosteen Belone, 93, will be announced at a later date. Belone died Feb. 25 in Fort Defiance. Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements. Copyright c. 2002 The Gallup Independent. -=-=-=- February 26, 2002 Nancy L. Begay Nancy L. Begay, 60, of Burnham died in Durango on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2002. She is survived by one son, William Begay, and one daughter, Patricia Haceesa. Funeral services are pending with Chapel of Memories Funeral Home in Kirtland, (505) 598-9636. Copyright c. 1999-2002 MediaNews Group, Inc./Farmington Daily Times. --------- "RE: Tribes split: Alaska Oil Drilling" --------- Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 07:59:23 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ALASKA OIL" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0225alaskaoil-ON.html Tribes split on Alaska oil drilling Boston Globe Feb. 25, 2002 19:25:00 WASHINGTON - The Inupiat Eskimos and the Gwich'in Indians live 150 miles apart in Alaska, but they had to travel thousands of miles from their remote Alaskan homes before crossing paths in Capitol Hill corridors. They are literally and figuratively separated by the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. A couple of hundred Inupiat live in the town of Kaktovik on diminutive Barter Island, off Alaska's north coast - the only human community in the refuge. Roughly 150 Gwich'in live in Arctic Village, a hamlet just south of the refuge's border. In between are the 19 million-acre refuge and sharply different views on whether a 1.5 million-acre portion of its northern coastal slope should be available for oil exploration. In recent weeks, members of both tribes have come to the nation's capital to plead their cases: The Inupiat contend that opening a portion of the refuge for oil exploration is critical to their survival; the Gwich'in say that doing so will destroy them. The two groups are not new to the debate nor to Washington, but as the Senate prepares to take up energy legislation this week, advocates and opponents of opening a section of the refuge for oil exploration have increasingly put the native groups at the center of their lobbying efforts. "It's effective because so much of Congress is about listening to the local impacts, who will be affected," said Melinda Pierce of the Sierra Club. "It's all the more poignant when you're talking about" indigenous people, she added. Tara Katuk Sweeney's passion on the refuge's fate quickly surfaced last week as she discussed the issues in the "war room" of the Capitol Hill basement office of Arctic Power, a lobbying group sponsored by the state of Alaska to promote opening a portion of the refuge. "This is a matter of survival for our people," said Sweeney, a 28-year- old Inupiat who follows in her mother's footsteps in lobbying on the issue. "We're human and we're willing to work for the luxuries that people take for granted." Those luxuries are running water, flush toilets, heat. Inupiat communities stretch along all of Alaska's northern coast, but the Kactovik area still struggles to enter the modern age. Sweeney described the subsistence living for the Inupiat of Kactovik in an area "with no agriculture, no commercial fishing, no trees, and no tourism." But thanks to the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, they do have a stake in the oil that is pulled from the ground, a stake that over the years has provided billions of dollars in gross revenues to Inupiat people throughout Alaska. "The only thing that brought our people out of Third World living conditions was the Prudhoe Bay development," she said, refering to the spread of oil development roughly 65 miles west along the arctic slope. The Prudhoe Bay fields will run out, and many Inupiat fear that the dollars that have started to modernize their communities will dry up as well. The Gwich'in have the opposite fear. Like the Inupiat, they have for centuries earned a subsistence existence off the land. The Gwich'in's principal food source is the porcupine caribou that migrates through the region, calving during the summers in the disputed section of the refuge. "It provides us with everything we need," said Faith Gemmill, a Gwich'in speaking by telephone from Arctic Village. "It's 80 percent of our diet, we make clothes from the hide, we make tools from the bones, and we have spiritual dances and songs that tell of our relationship to the caribou." The Gwich'in, who did not take part in the 1971 lands settlement, worry that oil exploration on the protected coastal slope would lead to changes in the herd upon which they have built their society. "For us it's a human rights issue," Gemmill said. "We want to live our own way of life and pass it on to our future generations." Opponents of opening the disputed section of the refuge paint a picture of a subsistence-level tribe of Indians facing off against an Eskimo tribe that has been seduced over the years by big oil. "It's an unfair fight," said Pamela A. Miller, an environmental consultant in Alaska. The two sides have taken their arguments to Congress, where one group sometimes finds itself entering an office the other is leaving. They trade arguments and counterarguments. The landlocked Gwich'in point out that the Inupiat oppose off-shore drilling, arguing that it is because the Eskimos place the same kind of special value on whales that they do on the caribou. The Inupiat counter that they value both equally and that their opposition to off-shore drilling comes from the oil industry's long experience of on-shore technology as opposed to what they see as more questionable off-shore conditions. The Inupiat assert that Gwich'in leased part of their land in the early 1980s for oil exploration without any stipulations for the safety of the caribou. The Gwich'in respond that the section was not frequented by the animals. For both sides it's a very personal fight, although they are both careful to note how respectful they are of the other, even if their attitudes speak otherwise. "I respect them because they are another native group and I think they have a beautiful culture," Sweeney said. "I also think there are a handful of native people who have been exploited by the extreme environmental industry to come down and lobby on this issue." When they pass in the office of a member of Congress, they might exchange a nod and a greeting. "It's just a very respectful 'Hi,' " Sweeney said. "Or 'Good luck.' Why not?" Copyright c. 2002, azcentral.com. All rights reserved --------- "RE: Protection sought for Sacred Grounds" --------- Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 08:18:54 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SACRED GROUNDS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id Protection sought for sacred grounds Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - The top Democrat on the House Resources Committee said Tuesday that he intends to introduce a bill that would bar oil and gas drilling on public lands that are considered sacred by American Indians. Rep. Nick Rahall, ranking member of the Resources panel, outlined his plans in a speech before the National Congress of American Indians, meeting in Washington, D.C. The announcement could put Rahall, D-W.Va., at odds with the White House and the Republicans who hold the majority in the House. They have outlined plans to increase the production of oil and gas drawn from public lands. But one key Republican - Rep. James Hansen, chairman of the House Resources panel - said he agreed in principle with much of Rahall's argument. However, Hansen, of Utah, predicted thatthere would be problems deciding which lands are sacred to Indians. "In order to protect sacred public lands, we need practical criteria for identifying these lands and a fair process for resolving existing lease claims," Hansen said. The issue came to public attention last June when Indians descended on Congress to protest a permit issued to Anschutz Exploration Corp. for the drilling of a wildcat oil well in a Montana valley sacred to Indians. Weatherman Draw, known among some Indians as Valley of the Chiefs, has a collection of rare rock art and has been used for centuries as a place for meditation and meeting by several tribes. The area 70 miles southwest of Billings is located between the Beartooth and Pryor mountains and contains significant concentrations of prehistoric rock paintings and carvings. In recognition of its cultural values, the Bureau of Land Management in 1999 designated it an Area of Critical Environmental Concern. "We cannot stand idle as corporate America picks off Native American sacred sites tribe by tribe," Rahall said. Laws already exist that serve to protect public lands, historical areas and Indian lands, including graveyards. But Rahall said he sees a need for a law specifically designed to protect those public lands that Indians say are holy. The issue also comes as both Democrats and Republicans are looking to increase development of natural gas and oil on lands held by Indian tribes. That, say advocates, would have the twofold benefit of increasing the domestic energy supply and boosting income for Indian tribes. Copyright c. 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. Copyright c. The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Quapaw Tribe is seeking an Accounting" --------- Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 08:10:57 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="QUAPAW" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.miaminewsrecord.com/miaminewsrecord/ Lawsuit seeks accounting of natural resources taken from area during mining era By Randy Petersen Miami News-Record The Quapaw Tribe is seeking an accounting of its resources. With an estimated $4 billion of lead and zinc taken out of the Tri-State Mining District in the mining heyday, Quapaw Tribe councilman John Berrey said much of those resources were mined from Quapaw land. In a suit filed Feb. 14, the tribe is seeking a court order to force the United States Department of the Interior and its agency, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to account for what was taken off Indian trust lands. The Department of the Interior is the federal agency assigned the responsibility of tribal trust accounts. In 1994, Congress passed the American Indian Trust Fund Reform Act, which called for a reconciliation of trust accounts. Berrey said that hasn't been done to the Quapaw Tribe's satisfaction. Jason Aamodt, attorney for the Quapaw Tribe, said the BIA's efforts went back to 1973, but failed to cover the peak mining years of 1911 to 1940. "If the tribe doesn't know what it has, that is essentially a regulatory taking by the bureau," Aamodt said. Berrey said the tribe is owed money from the natural resources taken from Indian land over the years, but there is no way to prove how much is owed or how much was taken. Intead, he said all tribal members are left with is the remains of mining efforts on their land. "The legacy that they left is the Tar Creek Superfund," he said. The suit filed by Aamodt seeks a court order labeling "the failure to properly manage the Nation's trust assets, accounts and funds" as a deprivation of property and a breach of trust. It also demands a full accounting of assets. The tribe's suit is not seeking any money, Aamodt noted, since a dollar amount can not be determined until the tribe knows what assets were removed and remain unaccounted for. The attorney said the next move should be from the BIA, which has the option to seek an out-of-court settlement. Whether the final verdict comes from the court or from a mutual agreement between the tribe and the BIA, Aamodt said it will take time. Court action could take three to 10 years and a settlement would take at least a year, he said. Calls to the Department of the Interior and the BIA to discuss the suit were not returned by press time. Copyright c. 2002 Miami News-Record. --------- "RE: AFN weighs Claim of too many Tribes" --------- Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2002 08:52:05 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="AFN: TRIBES CLAIM" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.adn.com/front/story/775506p-827532c.html AFN weighs claim of too many tribes NEW APPROACH:Future may hold change in self-governance. By Tom Kizzia Anchorage Daily News (Published: March 4, 2002) On a remote shore of Shelikof Strait, a few dilapidated buildings are all that remain of the former village of Kanatak. The site, abandoned by its Alutiiq people in the 1950s, now lies in a federal wildlife refuge. But the Native Village of Kanatak lives on as a federally recognized tribe with an office in Wasilla, an annual budget of $145,000 and 125 members residing in Anchorage and Bristol Bay. The middle-Kuskokwim River village of Georgetown is abandoned too. But the Georgetown tribe has an office in Anchorage, federal grants and plans to distribute land to its 106 members. The Yukon River community of St. Mary's, on the other hand, is thriving. The town of about 500 has not one but two tribal governments. The Yupiit of Andreafski are mostly people who lived in the area historically, while the Algaaciq Native Village is made up of people who migrated up the Yukon with a Catholic mission and school in the 1950s. Across Alaska today, 229 tribal governments are recognized by the federal government. Most represent small villages. A few keep alive the memory of past settlements. In sum, they make up 40 percent of the tribes in the United States, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. That's too many, members of Alaska's congressional delegation say. The three Republicans are backing a call for the Bush administration to reconsider the formal status granted Alaska's tribes in 1993. "It is something that just has to be taken a look at," Sen. Ted Stevens said in a recent interview. The challenge in Washington, D.C. -- along with related challenges this winter from the state Legislature and in federal court -- is pushing Alaska's tribal and Native corporation leaders to consider new approaches to Native self-governance. Last month, responding to congressional pressure and more long-standing concerns of Natives themselves, the Alaska Federation of Natives took the first steps toward forming a new Commission on Self-Determination to consider the future of Native institutions here. Almost everything will be on the table, Native leaders say -- from new, larger regional tribes to home-rule boroughs or political models used in northern Canada and Greenland. "Our premise is it's been 30 years since land claims have occurred and a lot has happened since in the state and in other countries," said AFN president Julie Kitka. "It's time to assess where we want to go and what we want to do." In creating the commission Feb. 13, the AFN board adopted a resolution urging federal officials to back off until an internal solution to governance issues can be proposed from "within the Native community." Kitka gave the resolution to President Bush when he visited Anchorage in February. She raised the issues again last week in meetings at the White House. Reaching internal agreement among Natives may not be easy, however. Many village councils support the current number of tribes, saying the system is better than the regional organizations that managed federal programs a decade ago, said Mike Williams, chairman of the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council. "Implementing self-determination in the villages is working now, so why turn back the clock? Many of those villages are running the programs at the village level," said Williams, who is from the Western Alaska village of Akiak. "Ever since the (1993) list, I've seen a big difference in our lives improving." He added that efforts to create a regional tribe in his area, around Bethel, had been controversial and unsuccessful. Kitka stressed that the new commission, to be funded and controlled by Native groups, is still at the conceptual stage. The AFN wants to see broad representation, she said. "The process setting this up is as important as the work of the commission itself and the report they come back with," Kitka said. LEGAL LIMBO? Alaska's tribal governments have experienced a renaissance since Native land claims were settled in 1970. The tribes suffered a notable setback in 1998 when their governing powers were limited by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. But they have since been buoyed by limited recognition from Gov. Tony Knowles and the Alaska Supreme Court. Over the past few months, however, the legitimacy of Alaska's tribes has been questioned anew from several vantage points. Stevens said the Clinton administration decision in 1993 to recognize tribes in every village spreads funding too thinly and draws the ire of congressmen from other states. Spokesmen for Rep. Don Young and Sen. Frank Murkowski said they agree with Stevens and support a review by Interior Secretary Gale Norton of the decision to recognize tribes here. "We found tribes with two, three, five people getting money. That was absurd," Stevens said in a recent interview. "We faced a lot of criticism for that." The request for a review by Interior was first made in December by state Senate President Rick Halford, R-Chugiak, and Speaker of the House Brian Porter, R-Anchorage. But Halford and Porter didn't complain about the number of tribes. Instead, they worried that the tribes might push for casino gambling or clash with the state by asserting sovereign powers. Interior Department officials said they have not decided whether the review will be undertaken. Meanwhile, the lawyer for the Republican-led state Legislative Council is arguing in federal court that the process used in 1993 to recognize Alaska tribes was flawed and the list should be thrown out. If successful, lawyer Don Mitchell's arguments could return tribes to legal limbo and put questions of Alaska tribal reach and powers back in front of Congress. Stevens declined to speculate about what Congress might do if Interior tried to revoke the list. "There's no need to answer a lot of iffy questions. You just get yourself into a lot of trouble," Stevens said. Native leaders have strongly opposed efforts to revisit the 1993 list, saying the attacks appear to be an attempt to terminate the special relationship between Alaska Natives and the federal government. Such challenges go to the very root of Native self-identity -- and of the village economies in much of rural Alaska, now built around federally funded programs run by small local tribes. Under federal rules, tribes must be identifiably separate but don't have to be located in their ancestral villages, according to the BIA. Even so, many Native leaders recognize that the large number of tribes in Alaska raises concerns, said AFN board member Rosita Worl, director of the Sealaska Heritage Foundation. "We're hearing from our Native constituents at a time of decreased funding," Worl said. "There's a concern that a lot of the money goes for administration as opposed to direct services." Stevens has been able to use the federal budget to avoid some of the possible problems associated with small tribes, said Niles Cesar, regional director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He has eliminated direct grants to tribes with fewer than 25 members, though only two tribes on the Alaska list fell under that number last year, according to the BIA. Stevens has also directed Indian health care funds at large centralized organizations, Cesar said. In the process, Stevens has been careful not to challenge recognition of the tribes, Cesar said. About $500 million flows each year from the federal government to Alaska tribal organizations for social programs, health care and housing. By challenging tribal recognition, Halford and Porter drew howls of protest. They wrote a second, milder letter to Norton in February, saying they did not want to terminate tribes or hurt their funding. But they said the controversy underscored the need to clarify such areas as alcohol control, Indian gaming and tribal immunity from state workers' compensation laws. Mitchell, a former AFN lawyer who now has a $95,000, two-year contract with the Legislative Council, goes farther in a new federal court case. Representing a Native father in a custody dispute with the tribal court of Northway village, Mitchell argues the 1993 list itself is the result of an administrative process unauthorized by Congress. Mitchell contends the list, issued by then-Assistant Interior Secretary Ada Deer, was slipped into place by Native rights activists -- including lawyers from the Native American Rights Fund, an advocacy group chaired by Deer before her government appointment. Native leaders and their lawyers respond that the process was legal and was later ratified by Congress. Only Congress can now take an Alaska tribe off the list, they say. The Native position was backed by Deer's successor, Neal McCaleb, who currently heads Indian affairs for Interior. He told an Alaska tribal gathering in January that Deer had authority to issue such a list, though he said he disagreed with her conclusion. McCaleb said he had urged Interior not to review the Deer list. Even without formal recognition, of course, tribal councils have governed many villages in rural Alaska for years. In some villages, however, tribes fell dormant, only to revive recently. "People have different ways and different backgrounds, different goals," explained Gail Alstrom, administrator of the Andreafski tribe in St. Mary's. Her tribe lost recognition for five years in the early 1980s. The tribe was revived, its leaders say, at a time when members felt neglected by the local city government and the other tribe in St. Mary's. "A few who were active before said, We're still here,' " Alstrom said. "It's not like we disappeared." Reporter Tom Kizzia can be reached at tkizzia@adn.com or in Homer at 907 235-4244. Copyright c. 2002 The Anchorage Daily News. --------- "RE: Law Firm requests ANWR Papers" --------- Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2002 08:52:05 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ANWR PAPERS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.adn.com/front/story/775525p-827540c.html Firm requests ANWR papers DOCUMENTS Details of meetings about oil drilling sought. The Associated Press (Published: March 4, 2002) Fairbanks -- An environmental law firm is asking that the White House and Department of the Interior release any documents relating to recent discussions on opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Anchorage-based Trustees for Alaska, representing three environmental groups, made the request last week under the Freedom of Information Act. The action comes as administration officials ponder a court order to turn over information on national energy policy discussions last year. The New York Times reported Tuesday that the Interior Department was considering whether to advocate a decrease in acreage for ANWR development as a way to secure more Senate votes for the idea. "The White House spokesman didn't deny those discussions but said the White House wasn't involved in them," said Adam Kolton, Arctic campaign director for the Washington-based Alaska Wilderness League, one of the three groups represented by the trustees. "We'd like to have the details of those meetings. That information is something that ought to become public," Kolton told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. In particular, the FOIA request asks for information on who has talked with Cam Toohey, Drue Pearce and Karl Rove. Toohey, in Anchorage, and Pearce, in Washington, are special assistants to Interior Secretary Gale Norton. Rove is the White House political strategist. The information request also asks whether the administration has told federal biologists not to talk to the public and media about the refuge. The Natural Resources Defense Council made a similar request to the Department of Energy to obtain information on the administration's national energy policy meetings last year. On Wednesday, a court ordered the department to provide the information by March 25. "We're hopeful that the Interior Department will be much more forthcoming," Kolton said. The other two groups making the request are the National Wildlife Federation and The Wilderness Society. Copyright c. 2002 The Anchorage Daily News. --------- "RE: Hopi Trespass Charges Dismissed" --------- Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 18:56:53 +0000 From: Moderator Subj: Hopi trespass charges dismissed Mailing List: Big Mountain List ------------------------------------------ From: Condor952 at aol.com Hopi trespass charges dismissed By DAILY SUN STAFF 03/05/2002 The Hopi Tribe has lost its criminal trespass case against five Navajo women who participated in last summer's Sundance ceremony on the Hopi Reservation. Hopi Chief Judge Gary LaRance dismissed the charges, ruling that Hopi prosecutors had failed to prove that the women entered an enclosed, fenced or cultivated area without authorization. The ceremony took place at Camp Anna Mae, a closed area of the Hopi Reservation. Prosecutors alleged the women did not seek permission to hold a gathering in a close area. The women -- Joella Ashkie, Ruth Benally, Louise Benally, Elvira Horseherder and Pauline Whitesinger -- were represented by attorneys Joe Washington and Robert Malone. The dismissal came after two days of testimony by witnesses for the Hopi Tribe. In a press release issued by the tribe, Hopi Chairman Wayne Taylor Jr. called the dismissal a "technicality" and not a vindication of the women's claim to have a right to be at Camp Anna Mae. Further, Taylor noted that the judge declined to hear testimony on allegations that the arrests violated the defendants' religious rights. "Dismissal of this case in no way sanctions the holding of any future gathering on Hopi land without the expressed consent of the Hopi Tribe, regardless of the purpose of the gathering," Taylor said. --- This story has been emailed to you by Sara Hayes. Copyright 2002 Arizona Daily Sun ========================================= Please visit http://www.theofficenet.com/~redorman/pagea~1.htm for more background on the Big Mountain relocation issue. To post to the list, email your message to icnb@crosswinds.net. To subscribe, send an email to: BIGMTLIST-subscribe@topica.com. --------- "RE: Native Trust Reform is like a Bad Soap Opera" --------- Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 08:10:57 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TRUST: BAD SOAP OPERA" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.journalstar.com/native?story_id=148&date Senator: Native trust reform is 'like a bad soap opera' BY JODI RAVE LEE Lincoln Journal Star With a federal judge's own alternative to Native trust fund reform looming, a sense of urgency prevailed Tuesday as Interior Department officials and tribal leaders told their stories to a Senate oversight committee. "This thing reads like a bad soap opera," said Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., during the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing. "I'm ready to write the bill and get this mess behind us." A frustrated Campbell described Native trust fund management as "a problem of historic proportions," plagued by contempt charges, resignations and Congressional hearings. At stake is the future of 11 million acres held in trust for individuals and 45 million acres held for tribes. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth is expected to decide in March whether to appoint a receiver or a separate organization to oversee trust reform efforts for individual landowners. The Cobell vs. Norton case - which led to contempt charges against Interior Secretary Gale Norton - was filed on behalf of 300,000 individual Native landowners, who allege the government has mismanaged their land and assets. Interior Department officials and many tribal leaders have resisted the idea of a court-appointed receiver. Lawyers in the case against the Interior Department have supported the idea. But all agree change is needed. "I would implore Congress and tribes to come up with a rudimentary process, get that out as a draft before the court is forced into action," said Don Gray, a trust fund consultant based in San Francisco. Said James Martin, executive director of the United South and Eastern Tribes of Nashville, Tenn.: "It's important that Congress - the true trustee - get involved in reform. We need to get something done." In November, Norton evoked the ire of tribes across the country with her idea to create a new agency and strip the Bureau of Indian Affairs of its trust duties - a move that would affect both individual landowners and tribes. But Native leaders have said the Interior Department's proposal would be a setback for tribes, who achieved self-governance under the Indian Self- Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975. A tribal task force is trying to offer solutions to Norton's proposed Bureau of Indian Trust Assets Management agency. The 36-member group is scheduled to meet next month in Phoenix as part of an ongoing consultation process that began in December in Albuquerque, N.M. About 2,000 people have attended eight meetings, offering 10 alternatives to Norton's agency. Edward Thomas, president of Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, addressed the committee Tuesday and reiterated tribal concerns about the need for money to pay for meaningful reform. "I look at these proposals," he said. "I think some of them are great but I don't think you're going to fund them." Reach Jodi Rave at 473-7240 or jrave@journalstar.com. Copyright c. 2002, Lincoln Journal Star. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: American Indians want more control of Trust Fund" --------- Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 08:10:57 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CONTROL OF TRUST" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story American Indians want more control of trust fund Jodi Sokolowski - Staff writer Wednesday, February 27, 2002 WASHINGTON -- American Indians deserve more say in how their trust fund is managed and organized, tribal representatives told a Senate panel Tuesday. "We recognize the need for trust reform but it must be in concert with the government to benefit tribes," said Colleen F. Cawston, chairwoman for the Colville Business Council and recording secretary for National Congress of American Indians. "We have the knowledge, the experiences. We believe we have useful information to contribute to a solution." Tribal representatives from around the nation -- including the Spokane, Colville and Yakama tribes -- told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee they oppose a plan by Interior Secretary Gale Norton to create a new agency to oversee 1,400 tribal accounts and 300,000 individual trust accounts. The trust fund program manages tens of billions of dollars in royalties from timber and other natural resources on Indian land that the Interior Department oversees, and has been criticized for mismanagement for more than 70 years. Since December, when the computer system was shut down by a federal judge's order, no checks have been sent out. Norton wants to remove responsibility for the trust funds from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and set up a Bureau of Indian Trust Asset Management within the Interior Department. Cawston said that would splinter the trust program and make it weaker. "All the tribes are against BITAM," said James Martin, executive director of United South & Eastern Tribes. "It takes away our authority to govern." The people who use the funds should manage them, said Clifford Lyle Marshall, chairman of the Hoopa Valley Tribal Council in Hoopa, Calif. Tribes should solve their own problems because they are self-governing, he said. Tribes aren't opposed to reform, said Gary Morishima, of the Intertribal Timber Council of Portland. But they want clearer vision, not hasty change, he said. "The goal must be accountability," he said. "No one knows what BITAM is and what it intends to do." Committee member Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said tribes should play a central role in reforming the trust. "Tribes and individual Indians are the beneficiaries of trust assets, and the United States has the responsibility to honor the government-to- government relationship it has with tribes." Copyright c. 2002, The Spokesman-Review. --------- "RE: Lac Courte Oreilles Group seeks Recall" --------- Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 08:07:56 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LAC COURTE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.duluth.com/editor/index.php?sect_rank=1&story_id=99243 LCO group seeks recall of four tribal council members By Terrell Boettcher Sawyer County Record Tuesday, February 19th, 2002 09:36:51 AM A group of Lac Courte Oreilles tribal members has scheduled a constitutionally-recognized general membership meeting for Saturday, March 2, at the LCO Ojibwa Community College for the purpose of recalling four members of the seven-member Lac Courte Oreilles Tribal Governing Board. According to spokesperson Sandra Thomas, the four board members---- Margaret Diamond, Connie Corbine, Don Carley and Louis Taylor----"failed to carry out their official duties" when they voted against amending the tribal constitution and adopting a membership ordinance to accept 2,200 lineal descendants of tribal members as full members of the tribe. In a board vote taken last October 23, two members of the board, Jeff Crone and Michael "Mic" Isham Jr., voted in favor of accepting the lineal descendants in accordance with a decision issued last May by U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb. Tribal chairman Al Trepania did not vote on the issue, but has indicated he would like to see it settled. In her decision, Judge Crabb upheld the results of a 1992 secretarial election on the reservation in which a majority of the voters favored lineal descendancy as the membership criteria for new tribal members rather than the existing blood quantum. She directed the tribal governing board to draw up a revised membership ordinance. Last July, the newly-elected tribal governing board voted to accept Judge Crabb's decision and develop a membership ordinance, but has not yet adopted an ordinance. In addition to lineal descendancy, a majority of the tribal council favors a membership criteria of at least 1/16 LCO blood quantum for persons born after Feb. 1, 1992. Also, the applicant for enrollment must prove that he or she lived on the LCO reservation for at least one year or their mother or father lived on the reservation for at least a year at the time the person was born, or the person has a living full sibling born on or prior to Feb. 1, 1992, who is an enrolled member of the tribe. Thomas and her attorney, Tracey Schwalbe, state that imposing any kind of blood quantum through a membership ordinance is contrary to the judge's decision. Thomas said the governing board "is trying to bypass the process for amending the constitution to change membership requirements. They have no authority to do that." Schwalbe indicated that the power to change the membership requirement to include a blood quantum "remains with the LCO People through a (BIA) Secretarial election. The people have not given that power to the tribal council in the Constitution," nor is it allowed by the Indian Reorganization Act. 'Forever changed' The "whole concept of our tribal government has been forever changed" by the court's decision in the Thomas vs. U.S. case in which she was a plaintiff, Thomas said. She has prepared a fact sheet to help the LCO membership "understand the sovereign authority that has always existed (in them), but has not been fully exercised." The case's "landmark decision has essentially reaffirmed that 'the People' as the tribal are the legally-recognized 'governing authority.'" Thomas said. She said that the March 2 meeting "is one of the most exciting and historical events ever undertaken by the voters. They will conduct the first completely-open democratic process ever called directly by the voters. At the meeting, the voters will not only vote on the issue of removal/recall, but if necessary to nominate candidates and vote in new council members in order to restore law and order in the tribe." The terms of two of the council members targeted for recall, Carley and Diamond, will expire this June, while the terms of Corbine and Taylor will expire in June, 2003. Governing board members elected this June will serve for four years. Last June, the former ancillary roll members (children of tribal members) were denied the right to vote in the tribal council election even though they were eligible, "and we don't want that to happen again," Thomas said. The upcoming March 2 action "is the only way we can ensure that these children will have the right to vote" at the April caucus and June election, she said. Voters will need to sign in at the March 2 meeting and register to vote, and should bring a tribal I.D. or verification of membership and proof if age if requested. All currently-enrolled tribal members 18 years of are or older by March 2, 2002, will be entitled to vote. Thomas said that the first order of business for any newly-elected council members will be "a directive by the voters to immediately act on the membership of our children. Those eligible to vote will be able to participate" in the April caucus to nominate candidates for the governing board and vote in this June's election, she indicated. The second agenda item will be "to call for a forensic audit of all tribal funds, beginning at the tribe's casino operation," Thomas added. She said that this Friday's annual meeting of the LCO Tribe will "have no impact" on the agenda for the March 2 meeting. "In fact, it will probably increase the need to go to the meeting." The planning committee for the March 2 meeting has invited a number of state, federal, Wisconsin tribal and local officials as witnesses and observers. One person who has accepted the invitation is Sawyer County Board chairman Hal Helwig. Thomas said she has not attended recent meetings of the tribal governing board. "I have done everything humanly possible to bring out the issues with the council on what they need to do to comply with the constitution, to comply with Judge Crabb's order. And they have consistently ignored the information we have provided," she said. Copyright c. 2002 Murphy McGinnis Interactive/Duluth. --------- "RE: National Chief: Scrap Indian Act Canges" --------- Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 08:11:09 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INDIAN ACT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp Scrap Indian Act changes, let native bands govern themselves:national chief SUE BAILEY Canadian Press Thursday, February 28, 2002 OTTAWA (CP) - Pending Indian Act changes will do nothing to help native people struggling daily with abysmal reserve conditions, Canada's top chief said Thursday. "I feel for the father trying to raise his child in a community where there are no jobs, living in a house with no heat, where drugs and gas and solvents are a tempting escape," said Matthew Coon Come, head of the national Assembly of First Nations. "When his son turns to him and says: 'Father, will it be better tomorrow?' I don't want him to answer: 'Don't worry - the government is working on new regulations for our legal standing and capacity. He is dealing with bylaw making.' " Coon Come appeared before the Commons committee on Indian Affairs to press his point that "tinkering" with the "paternalistic" act just distracts from far more dire needs. His group has been locked in battle over much of the last year with Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault. Nault has vowed to bring in new legislation to tighten fiscal accountability, balance the interests of residents on- and off-reserve, and clarify the legal status of band councils and their powers to make by- laws. The 1876 Indian Act, which governs the lives of about 700,000 status Indians in Canada, has hardly changed since 1950. Good governance is a vital pillar for economic development and investment on reserves, Nault says. He has said he's determined to move forward despite intense opposition from chiefs across Canada. Critics including Coon Come say the government offered too short a consultation period for real input, and that aboriginal rights could be undermined. The all-party committee will study the proposed bill and may recommend changes once it's introduced in Parliament, likely sometime this spring. "First Nations want change, but we do not want Canada dictating how we must run our lives for another 125 years," said Coon Come. The assembly and other native groups will fight the legislation through Parliament and later in court, he said. "They have a right to demonstrate and a right to express (their) view." Coon Come proposed Thursday an alternative to Nault's plans, which he says would combine government and First Nations goals. Change under The First Nation Plan would be band-driven - not imposed by Ottawa, he explained. First Nations would have true control over their lands and resources. They would endorse an independent mediator - perhaps a native auditor general - to resolve disputes and investigate corruption where it's alleged. And any changes to how native leaders govern their communities would be suited to each First Nation, starting with in-depth input from those directly affected. "One size fits all will not work," said Coon Come, noting that there are 80 distinct cultural groups among Canada's more than 600 native communities. The minister will consider the alternative plan if it's passed on to him by the committee, said his spokeswoman, Nancy Pine. Nault says $10 million was spent to consult native people on and off reserves from May to October and gathered input from about 9,000 people. "The assembly has chosen not to participate" but other native groups are taking part, Nault said Thursday. Native critics say the figure is more like 3,000 when unreliable submissions via e-mail and a 1-800 number are excluded. They also point out that the government's own polling shows that reserve residents rank governance concerns far below children's issues, education, health and social problems. Copyright c. 2002 The Canadian Press -=-=-=- http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp Indian Act changes paternalistic: chief Rick Mofina Saskatoon StarPhoenix OTTAWA -- The federal government's process for reshaping the Indian Act takes the same paternalistic approach as the law it seeks to replace, Canada's top Native chief told MPs on Thursday. "This is the same process that resulted in the original Indian Act," Matthew Coon Come, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, told the Commons aboriginal affairs committee. The committee is reviewing the 126-year-old act in preparation for new First Nations governance legislation that Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault is expected to introduce this spring. The AFN has long been at odds with Nault's approach to updating Canada's relationship with its 1.4 million aboriginal people, which is guided by the Indian Act. The Liberal government has maintained the new plan is needed to encourage economic development among Native communities as a way to alleviate harsh living conditions, and Nault says he will introduce legislation with or without the AFN's participation. Coon Come suggested the foundation of Nault's plan should be to recognize the existing rights of Natives, rather than simply "tinkering" with the act. Inherent rights existed long before contact, after which treaties recognized two sovereign powers with the right to govern their people and territories, Coon Come said. "Somewhere along the line, as populations changed and the dynamic shifted, this relationship became confused and Canada began to pass legislation over First Nations citizens," he said. "The Indian Act was designed without any input from First Nations. It was imposed on our peoples without our consent. "It takes a paternalistic, even colonial view of Aboriginal Peoples," he said. "It controls every aspect of our lives, literally from cradle to grave." The new governance act will focus on Native elections, leadership, financial accountability, legal standing of bands and their powers. Coon Come suggested while those issues are important, they are government priorities and not the "bread-and-butter issues, in some cases life-and-death issues," of First Nations, like food, running water and shelter. Copyright c. 2002 Saskatoon StarPhoenix. --------- "RE: Opinion sought on Aboriginal Rights Court Ruling" --------- Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2002 12:06:04 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RIGHTS RULING" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.canoe.ca/NationalTicker/CANOE-wire.Aboriginal-Crown.html March 1, 2002 Business group wants legal opinion on aboriginal rights court ruling VICTORIA (CP) -- The Business Council of British Columbia said Friday it's seeking a legal interpretation of an aboriginal rights case that could have far-reaching implications for development projects on Crown land. Government and private companies must consult with First Nations about how they develop Crown lands, even if aboriginal bands haven't proven title to the land, the court ruled Wednesday. "On the surface it is something that looks potentially far reaching," said Jock Finlayson, business council vice president. "It is potentially far reaching because of the fact 95 per cent of the land base in B.C. is Crown land and that's where most of the resources are." The case involved a challenge by the Haida Nation against a Forests Ministry decision to renew Weyerhaeuser Canada Ltd.'s tree farm licence to a substantial portion of the Queen Charlotte Islands, off the northern B.C. coast. The Haida argued the ministry had not properly consulted with them and opposed the way Weyerhaeuser intended to log. The company wanted to clear- cut, while the Haida wanted large protected areas and less intensive logging. The ministry and Weyerhaeuser argued they weren't obliged to consult the Haida about logging until the Haida obtained a court judgment that they have aboriginal title to the islands. But in a unanimous ruling, the Appeal Court disagreed with the government. "If the Crown can ignore or override aboriginal title or rights until such time title or rights are confirmed by treaty or a court ... the Crown can force every claimant into court before conceding any effective recognition be given to the claimed aboriginal rights," Justice John Lambert said in the written ruling. Aboriginal groups applauded the court ruling, saying it confirms their consistent calls for full consultation on projects on lands they consider part of their territory. "It certainly falls into line with what we've been saying all along: that duty to consult does exist," said Kathryn Teneese, a spokeswoman for the First Nations Summit, the largest aboriginal organization in British Columbia. "We need very much to be a part of whatever decision-making is made with respect to our territories." The historic 1997 Delgamuukw decision by the Supreme Court of Canada ruled government must consult with First Nations about uses of Crown lands that infringe on aboriginal title. Last month, the Appeal Court ruled the government had not consulted properly with the Tlingit First Nation in northern British Columbia regarding the plans to reopen a multi-metal -- gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc -- mine on a tributary of the Taku River. The project is currently on hold. Weyerhaeuser is reviewing the Queen Charlottes decision and has yet to decide if it will a ppeal, a company spokeswoman said. "It's too early to determine what potential impact this might have," Sarah Goodman said. B.C. Attorney General Geoff Plant was not available for comment. Weyerhaeuser was surprised the ruling said the company has a duty to consult with aboriginals, she said. Past rulings have always only said the duty to consult rests with the government, Goodman said. Weyerhaeuser has a co-operative relationship with the Haida and is currently discussing business partnerships with the aboriginal nation, she said. Copyright c. 2002, Canoe, a division of Netgraphe Inc. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: B.C. Legal Aid cut Disproportionately" --------- Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 08:18:54 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LEGAL AID CUT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.canoe.ca/WesternTicker/CANOE-wire.Legal-Aid.html February 26, 2002 B.C. legal aid cut disproportionately affects First Nations: advocacy group VANCOUVER (CP) -- Slashing British Columbia's legal aid budget will increase the number of aboriginal people in prison, says the president of a native advocacy group. First Nations receive about 30 per cent of total legal aid funding, Scott Clark of the United Native Nations said Tuesday. "If they aren't able to be equitably defended in the courts they are more likely to plea bargain and get a record, or, in the event they do go to court without a lawyer, they will end up getting convicted and going to prison," he said. The B.C. Liberal government announced last week that legal aid would be cut by about 40 per cent over three years. Representation for all family cases where violence is not involved, along with poverty law cases, will be phased out by April 1. Sixty offices currently operated or funded by the Legal Services Society will be replaced by seven regional centres and a provincewide call centre and more than 100 employees will be laid off. The announcement was only the latest in a series of service and job cuts announced by the new provincial government, which swept into office last summer on a campaign of tax cuts and smaller government. The Liberals have said cost-cutting is necessary to pare down a $4.4 billion deficit. As many as 11,500 public service workers are expected to eventually lose their jobs and numerous welfare offices, correction facilities and court houses are slated to be shut. Clark said his organization is looking at the possibility of a legal challenge to service cuts recently announced by the government. "We're still trying to find out what it means ministry by ministry, program by program," he said, adding that a letter protesting cuts was sent to the United Nations on Feb. 14. Clark made the comments after speaking at a news conference, along with several representatives from legal groups that want government to kill plans to reduce legal aide. The president of the Canadian Bar Association's B.C. branch acknowledged the provincial government faces tough fiscal problems that require some belt-tightening. But closing 24 courthouses and cutting legal aid is not a fair solution, said Carman Overholt. The attorney general said earlier this week the legal community needs to realize it is not immune to cost-cutting when the province faces a massive deficit. Copyright c. 2002, Canoe, a division of Netgraphe Inc. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Talks could end Burnt Church Violence" --------- Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2002 12:06:04 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BURNT CHURCH" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.canoe.ca/NationalTicker/CANOE-wire.Native-Fishery.html March 1, 2002 Natives and fisheries officials say talks could end Burnt Church violence FREDERICTON (CP) -- A New Brunswick reserve has been backed into a corner by the federal government into discussing a deal that could end the yearly round of violence on the Miramichi fishing grounds, says a native fisherman. Brian Bartibogue, a Burnt Church activist and fisherman, said Friday that talks underway between Ottawa and the Mi'kmaq community are a prelude to full-fledged negotiations. And although everyone is tired of the confrontation that has haunted spring and fall lobster fishing on Miramichi Bay for the past three years, he said Burnt Church doesn't want to give up its fight for aboriginal fishing rights. However, Bartibogue said there is a feeling that the poverty-stricken reserve in the province's northeast no longer has a choice. "Our people are really against signing a deal, but our people have also been robbed of all democratic alternatives," he said. "What are we going to do? Wait until Indian Affairs starts distributing food rations to our people? How far do we go? "We've got some of our people in jail. Our boats have been seized and we have no gear. We got non-native fishermen shooting at our people and some of our people shooting back." Bartibogue said any deal would be signed under duress, the result of being squeezed tighter and tighter by police, non-native fishermen and the federal Fisheries Department. "I mean in a very literal way, guns have been put to our heads." Bartibogue made his comments a day after Burnt Church fisherman John David Dedam was sentenced to three years in prison for hitting a fisheries officer with a rock during a confrontation on the bay in August 2000. The officer suffered serious injuries to his face and eye and still has headaches. It was one of the nastiest encounters between Burnt Church fishermen and fisheries officers trying to enforce Ottawa's right to regulate the fishery. The incidents were triggered by a Supreme Court of Canada decision in 1999 that said East Coast natives have a treaty right to hunt and fish for a moderate livelihood. Commercial fishermen in the area can only trap lobsters in the spring and bitterly resent the native insistence on a separate fishery. The Supreme Court ruling, known as the Marshall decision after the Nova Scotia Mi'Kmaq who instigated the case, also led to conflicts in parts of Nova Scotia and forced the federal government to find ways of integrating aboriginal people into the Atlantic fishery. Ottawa will spend another $143 million in the coming fiscal year to help East Coast natives access the fishery. About $425 million has been spent since the Marshall decision on native fishing agreements that provide boats, equipment and licences to bands throughout the region. Bob Allain, a spokesman for the Fisheries Department, said the talks with Burnt Church are the result of a protocol agreed to by federal negotiators and the band council. He said negotiators were moving slowly, mindful of the fact the situation is complex and fragile. However, like Bartibogue, he said he senses a willingness on the part of the Mi'kmaq community to find a solution. "I think there's a view in Burnt Church that it's time to move on and in Fisheries and Oceans, we want to encourage that," Allain said. He said the people of Burnt Church realize they have not benefitted from the Marshall decision while most other native communities in Atlantic Canada have reaped real advantages and rewards. The talks have included preliminary money discussions, with a figure of almost $39 million being included in some of the Burnt Church presentations. Allain said the two sides were not talking seriously about numbers yet. He said the $39 million figure is nothing more than an early indication of the band's areas of interest. "It's not unusual for First Nations to put together a wish list," he said. Copyright c. 2002, Canoe, a division of Netgraphe Inc. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: World grinds away at Mexico's Corn Farmers" --------- Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2002 12:06:04 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MEXICAN CORN" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0301mexicancorn-ON.html Modern world grinds away at Mexico's corn farmers March 01, 2002 17:00:00 New York Times News Service MANZANILLO, Mexico - For many generations, corn has been the sacred center of civilization in Mexico, where the grain was first cultivated about 5,000 years ago. Gods and goddesses of corn filled the dreams and visions of the great civilizations that rose and fell here before the Spaniards came five centuries ago. Today the corn tortilla is consumed at almost every meal. Among the poor, sometimes it is the entire meal. But the modern world is closing in on the little patch of maize, known as the milpa, that has sustained millions of Mexicans through the centuries. The powerful force of American agribusiness, unleashed in Mexico by the North American Free Trade Agreement, may doom the growing of corn as a way of life for family farmers here, some agronomists and economists say. Lorenzo Rebollo, a 53-year-old farmer, works 2.5 acres planted with corn and beans here on the slopes of eastern Michoacan State, in Mexico's central highlands, where corn was first cultivated, archeologists say. Rebollo is one of about 3 million who farm corn and who in turn support about 15 million family members. Rebollo's grown sons have left for the United States, and Rebollo says he may be the last man to farm this patch of earth. It is the same story all over Mexico: thousands of farmers pulling up stakes every year, heading for Mexico City or the United States. Some grew coffee or cut sugar cane. But most grew corn. About a quarter of the corn in Mexico is now imported from the United States. Farmers like Rebollo cannot compete against the mechanized, subsidized giants of American agriculture. "Corn growing has basically collapsed in Mexico," Carlos Heredia Zubieta, an economist and a member of Mexico's Congress, said in a recent speech to an American audience. "The flood of imports of basic grains has ravaged the countryside, so the corn growers are here instead of working in the fields." Since NAFTA took effect eight years ago, on Jan. 1, 1994, imports of corn to Mexico from the United States have increased nearly eighteenfold, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The imports will probably keep growing for the next six years as the final phases of NAFTA take effect. In the United States, corn growers receive billions of dollars a year in subsidies from Congress, much of it going to huge agribusiness operations. That policy fuels huge surpluses and pushes corn prices down. Free trade and Mexico's own farm policies "threaten the ability of Mexican farmers to continue to grow corn," said Alejandro Nadal, a professor at the Colegio de Mexico and the author of a 100-page study on the issue. In Mexico, NAFTA did away with many traditional subsidies and generous price supports. Some contend it is doing away with small farmers. About 90 percent of Mexico's corn farmers work fields of 5 acres or less, and their survival instincts are driving them farther up Mexico's mountainsides as they strive to grow enough to get by. "We work the land all our lives," Rebollo said. "But the farmers are growing more and getting less." Under a slowly lifting ceiling, the United States will be able to export all the corn it wants to Mexico, duty free, by 2008. NAFTA's drafters told Mexico's famers that as the ceiling lifted, the price of corn in Mexico would slowly fall toward United States and international prices over the 15-year period. But instead, prices plunged quickly, converging with the free-market price by 1997. This was good news for big companies in Mexico importing corn for animal feed and processed food. But it was hard on the farmers, who have little political clout under the government of President Vicente Fox, an ardent free-trader. The effect of American imports on Mexican agriculture was not unforeseen. "Integration into the global economy will also accelerate the social dislocation that rapid modernization inevitably brings to a developing economy," Bernard Aronson, a former assistant secretary of state for Latin American affairs, wrote eight years ago as the trade pact took effect. But some things were not predicted. One unforeseen result of the collapse of corn farming, Nadal said, will be the loss of genetically unique kinds of corn. As imports grow and farmers give up their fields, he said, ancient varieties like the succulent blue corn used for tortillas may be endangered. Some may already have been lost, he said. "If traditional growers abandon corn production - as the NAFTA strategy foresees - then even more significant genetic erosion will occur," he said. The importation of bioengineered corn from the United States is a separate but heated issue. Mexico's government does not permit the planting of genetically modified corn. But modified strains can be imported as food or feed. The science journal Nature and Mexico's government published findings last year showing that bioengineered genes from American imports have invaded ancient varieties of corn in the state of Oaxaca. NAFTA has had demonstrable benefits for many sectors of the Mexican economy that have become competitive, and Fox says it is no longer possible for the government to step in and assist farmers. State legislators who want Mexico to protect its corn the way Japan protects its rice have had no luck swaying him. Fox's agriculture minister, Javier Usabiaga - a highly successful exporter known as the Garlic King in Guanajuato, his home state as well as Fox's - says that a farmer who cannot survive in the 21st century is simply "going to have to find another job." Copyright c. 2002, azcentral.com. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Mexico detains alleged Paramilitary Leader" --------- Date: Sun 3 Mar 2002 12:13 AM -0600 From: joewest Subj: Mexico Detains Alleged Paramilitary Leader,Feb 16 newsgroup: alt.native Chiapas95-english wrote: This message is forwarded to you by the editors of the Chiapas95 newslists. To contact the editors or to submit material for posting send to: Subj: Colombia: U'wa Speak out Against Bush's Oil War U'wa Traditional Authorities Cubara, Colombia, February 14, 2002 COMMUNIQUE TO THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC OPINION The U'wa Community represented by the U'wa Grand Council and the U'wa Traditional Authority, addresses the difficulties faced by our Sarare region that is partly Our Ancestral Territory established by our Highest Colonial Letters. We express our voice of protest and rejection before the national and international community against the actions of Armed Actors that destabilize the normal development of rural and indigenous communities and that in some way affect our way of life and integrity. The aforesaid permits our support of the mobilization, in a healthy manner, taking place in the Tame municipality of Aruaca, to make the demands made by the mobilized communities understood, since the Colombian people make most of the sacrifices in every sense of the word, and also demand the Colombian State that it must listen to the outcry of the Sarare and Arauca communities which is also the feeling of the Colombian People, our non- U'wa brothers from the outside world (Riowa). The United States is also financing Plan Colombia, the struggle against drug trafficking, which signifies the increase of violence in the department of Arauca, Boyaca and North of Santander and Our Ancestral Territory, assigning US $98 million to protect the Ca=F1o Limon Pipeline in Cove=F1a, solely for having found oil in the Capachos 1 well without seeing that what Colombia needs is more investment in social, health, education and employment programs, so that we can live in Peace. For the U'wa People it is fundamental that the Ancestral and Traditional Territories are respected and conserved with a socio-cultural vision, since these give us our daily sustenance and maintenance of all living beings. The U'wa People and the inhabitants of the Sarare region wish to live in harmony with nature and within a tranquil space. The territories of Indigenous Peoples are territories of Peace. The government and petroleum multinationals are the first responsible for the social and environmental problem in the Arauca and base of the mountain region, and in second place are the actors of the armed conflict, for the dynamiting actions against the Oil pipeline that cause the contamination of water, pastoral areas and watershed basins of the Arauca River. These actions are affecting climatic changes and the basic sustenance of our communities. We have the right to freedom of expression and thought. But it is the actors of the conflict that drive the country into wars that have no reason to exist. At each step they leave havoc, misery, and the gravest thing is that they attack LIFE. These actions are on occasion unjustified and bring destruction to individuals who are the least implicated; which hurt the communities which have suffered and are the most needed in the Country. In addition, and taking advantage of this space, we want to reiterate one more time for public opinion, to Ecopetrol, the Colombian Government, Multinationals, and especially to Occidental of Colombia, that we will never step back from the process of territorial defense, and neither will we change our cultural principles as it is clear that cultures with principles have no price, which means that we will not permit oil exploration or development in our sacred territory, this is a position and thought that surges from our ancestral millenary law and our cultural principles. And if oil was found in the Capacho sector and they plan to export it, they are violating the rights of our ancestors and our mother earth, which belongs to all who live in this beautiful Blue planet. IN DEFENSE OF OUR CULTURAL RIGHTS, OUR MOTHER EARTH AND THE SOVEREIGNTY OF OUR ANCESTRAL TERRITORY. --------- "RE: Remembering Wounded Knee 1973" --------- Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 08:14:28 -0600 From: Dodie Subj: Remembering Wounded Knee, 1973-Carter Camp Mailing List: First Nations I would like to dedicate these words to the brave young warriors of the "Native Youth Movement", each generation in its turn must face the enemy to ensure the survival of our Red Nations. It is my prayer that NYM warriors will one day know the joy and pride we knew at Wounded Knee. Remembering Wounded Knee, 1973 by Carter Camp, Ponca Ah-ho My Relations, Today is heavy with prayer and reminisces for me. Today is the anniversary of the night when, at the direction of the Oglala Chiefs, I went with a special squad of American Indian Movement warriors to liberate Wounded Knee in advance of the main AIM caravan. For security reasons the People had been told everyone was going to a meeting/wacipi in Porcupine, the road goes through Wounded Knee. When the People arrived at the Trading Post we had already set up a perimeter, taken eleven hostages, run the B.I. A. cops out of town, cut most phone lines, and began 73 days of the best, most free time of my life. The honor of being chosen to go first still lives strong in my heart. That night we had no idea what fate awaited us. It was a cold night with not much moonlight and I clearly remember the nervous anticipation I felt as we drove the back-way from Oglala into Wounded Knee. The Chiefs had tasked me with a mission and we were sworn to succeed, of that I was sure, but I could not help wondering if we were prepared. The FBI, BIA and Marshalls had fortified Pine Ridge with machine gun bunkers and A.P.C.s with M-60 machine guns. They had unleashed the goon squad on the people and a reign of terror had begun, we knew we had to fight but we could not fight on wasicu terms. We were lightly armed and dependent on the weapons and ammo in the Wounded Knee trading post, I worried that we would not get to them before the shooting started. As we stared silently into the darkness driving into the hamlet, I tried to forsee what opposition we would encounter and how to neutralize it... We were approaching a sacred place and each of us knew it. We could feel it deep inside. As a warrior leading warriors I humbly prayed to Wakonda for the lives of all and the wisdom to do things right. Never before or since have I offered my tobacco with such a plea or put on my feathers with such purpose. It was the birth of the Independent Oglala Nation. Things went well for us that night, we accomplished our task with little bloodshed and without loss of life. Then, in the cold darkness as we waited for Dennis and Russ to bring in the caravan (or for the fighting to start), I stood on the bank of the shallow ravine where our people had been murdered by Custers' 7th Cavalry. There I prayed for the defenseless ones, torn apart by Hotchkiss cannon and trampled under hooves of steel by drunken wasicu. I could feel the touch of their spirits as I eased quietly into the infamous gully and stood silently...waiting for my future, touching my past. Finally, I bent over and picked a sprig of sage - whose ancestors in 1890 had been nourished by the blood of Red babies, ripped from their mothers dying grasp and bayonetted by the evil ones - As I washed myself with that sacred herb I became cold in my determination and cleansed of fear. I looked for Big Foot and Yellow Bird in the darkness and I said aloud... "We are back my relations, we are home." Hoka-Hey! American Indian Rights Activist and Ponca Tribal Leader, Carter Camp has worked for Tribal Sovereignty and Treaty Rights for over thirty years. He is a former National Chairman of the American Indian Movement and founder of Kansas and Oklahoma A.I.M. In 1973 at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, Carter was one of three A.I.M. leaders who led several hundred warriors in the historic, 73 day Wounded Knee liberation and subsequent 'siege' by the American Government. --------- "RE: Lakota Journal: Notes on Industrial Hemp" --------- Date: Sun, 3 Mar 2002 11:22:07 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HEMP" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.lakotajournal.com/headlines.htm NOTES FROM INDIAN COUNTRY If you smoked a 15-ft plant, all you would get is a hacking cough By Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji) Alex White Plume, his wife Debbie and their children, make up an average Lakota family residing on the Pine Ridge Reservation; with one exception. For two summers they have planted and cultivated crops of hemp on the supposed sovereign soil of the Pine Ridge, nay - - - - - Oglala Lakota Nation. Instead of standing up against the thugs of the Drug Enforcement Administration as they mowed White Plume's crops to the ground for the second time this summer, Oglala Sioux Tribal President, John Steele, stood silently watching with his thumb stuck securely in his hip pocket. In Lexington, Kentucky, where moonshine and tobacco have been cash products for many years, the farmers there are hoping to do the very thing attempted by White Plume; grow hemp as a cash crop to replace the diminishing returns on tobacco crops. Unfortunately, the DEA looks at the crop, known as cannabis sativa, as dangerous because it contains tiny traces of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a substance found in marijuana plants. According to a well-researched article in Newsweek Magazine, marijuana contains 3 % to 20 % THC. Hemp is bred to contain less than 1 %. As the magazine so aptly states, "You could roll and smoke every leaf on a 15 ft. hemp plant and gain little more than a hacking cough." When rope became scarce during World War II the U. S. Government encouraged farmers to grow hemp. In 1942 the U. S. Department of Agriculture produced a film, Hemp for Victory, in hopes that more farmers would start planting hemp. The U. S. Government became the biggest buyer of locally grown hemp products. Alex White Plume saw this plant as an answer to his prayers. Hemp is a renewable resource and an effective rotation crop that requires little or no herbicide. In his research White Plume discovered that nutritionists and vegetarians found that hemp oil had an unusually beneficial ratio of essential fatty acids or good fats. White Plume also saw the plant as a source of rope and fibers for products as diverse as rugs and clothing. Hemp grows so tall so fast that it would also make a great substitute for the wood that now goes into manufacturing paper products. Millions of board feet of lumber are now cut annually to feed the presses of America. White Plume is a traditional Lakota. He practices the ancient spirituality of his ancestors. He is an honest man looked upon by many as a leader in his reservation community. He does not come from a tradition of farming as most Lakota turned their backs on what they considered to be "stoop labor" when the United States government tried to turn them into farmers at the turn of the century. But Alex realizes that times have changed. He sees in hemp a way to bring income to the many Lakota who are now leasing their land to the white settlers. He sees hemp as a way to get the traditional Lakota out of the cluster houses built by the good old self-serving government and back on their own land. Homes built in community clusters became the darling project of Housing and Urban Development many years ago because the houses were cheap to build and, as many older Lakota believe, a way to get the Indian off his land. By building homes in clusters many dollars could be saved on electric and water lines, or so the reasoning went at the time. But what happens when people are taken from the land and crowded into houses built close together? It is the breeding ground of instant ghettoes. And that is what happened on the Pine Ridge Reservation. White Plume saw the growing of hemp as a cottage industry that would bring self-motivation, self-respect and a brand new industrial opportunity to the Lakota. It was easy to grow, required little cultivation or water and could be used for everything from rope to shirts. Next month the DEA will start enforcing a new rule that would treat foods containing any amount of THC as controlled substances. This will make them as restricted as heroin. The Canadian government has formally objected. And a Canadian hemp firm has filed a claim that says the DEA is violating the North American Free Trade Agreement by failing to provide scientific justification for the new rule. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will be asked to block the rule. Newsweek writes that "many farmers are watching the case because it shows how hard the government will fight a growing movement to legitimize hemp farming in the United States." Right now it is legal to sell hemp products but illegal to grow the hemp used in them. This hemp is imported. In the meantime, the global market for hemp is growing and it is a market Alex White Plume would like to join. Will the leaders of the Oglala Lakota Nation, the proud descendants of Crazy Horse, Young Man Afraid of His Horses, Little Wound, Bull Bear and Red Cloud stand up for the sovereign status of their people and tell the DEA to go dig turnips? Last week, White Plume stood looking over the field where his hemp crop had been cut to the ground by the DEA. Will he try to grow it again this summer? White Plume just shrugs and with a smile says, "Tim, why don't you stop by for a cup of coffee in July." Copyright c. 2002 Lakota Journal. --------- "RE: Why some Indians stay Drunk" --------- Date: Sun, 3 Mar 2002 11:22:07 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DRUNK" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.lakotajournal.com/headlines.htm AROUND LAKOTA COUNTRY Why some Indians stay drunk By Dottie Potter Lakota Journal Staff Writer FT. PIERRE - Ernest Rouse is an artist looking for a place to market his many talents. At the age of 67 he said, "I now have the patience to draw and paint and write-patience that I didn't have when I was younger." Rouse was born and grew up in the Lake Andes area and is a member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe. Ft. Pierre is now home for him. He does a lot of drawings and paintings. "I paint on just about anything but my specialty is painting skulls-horse, cow and buffalo," Rouse said. But, he said that buffalo skulls are more difficult to find and they are expensive to buy, running at least $45 for one. He also paints designs on saw blades and other objects-whatever a customer might request. Most of his artwork is sold locally and it helps to supplement his income. In addition to his painting talent, Rouse also was an actor for a short time when "Dances with Wolves" was filmed in South Dakota. He said it was a time in his life that he really enjoyed and it was a good time - good because there was no alcohol and everyone got along. "There was no drinking allowed-we were miles from any place where alcohol could be bought-and there were guys who were making $300 a week but they would have given that up-they wanted a drink so bad," Rouse said. Rouse said he has written several things throughout his life but has never considered himself a writer until a friend encouraged him to keep writing and share some of it. The article he shares here is almost in a poetry form and was inspired by his work on the movie and just life in general. Rouse expresses his opinion about why he thinks some Indians stay drunk in the following: "Why some Indians stay Drunk" From the time he was born until the time he dies, he hears, reads and sees everyday what an undesirable character he is. Think of what this does to a three or four-year-old. When in truth, all he wanted to do is protect his family and himself. This is a natural function of nature that no human being can ignore. He looks around and sees that everybody is perfect, but him. He can not watch a sport on television without seeing himself downgraded some way. When he is four or five, the most important age in life for learning, he sees himself with buckteeth and the dumbest character in the cartoons. Who are these sadistic people who write for television every day? I was in the movie "Dances with Wolves" from start to finish. There was no jealousy, no fighting, no arguing, no drinking and no dope. It was hard work but everybody got along ... even though we were from different reservations. This goes to show what can happen when there are none of these bad feelings among people ... when they do something. For more information about the artwork that Rouse might have available or to order a specific work, call 605-223-2157 and ask for Ernie or Karen or call 605-2239186. He can also be reached by writing Ernest Rouse, P.O. Box 486, Ft. Pierre, SD 57532. Copyright c. 2002 Lakota Journal. --------- "RE: Bill allowing Miccosukees to Police Themselves" --------- Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2002 12:06:04 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MICCOSUKEE POLICE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-findians Bill allowing Miccosukees to police themselves gains By John Holland STAFF WRITER Posted March 2 2002 TALLAHASSEE - A bill making it impossible for the state to prosecute crimes committed on Indian land sailed toward passage Friday over objections by the governor, attorney general and a half-dozen law enforcement officials. The House Council for Smarter Government approved HB 1771, taking away the right of state courts to try crimes like child abuse, domestic assault and robbery if they are committed at Miccosukee casinos and other property owned by the tribe. If the bill passes, all crimes on Miccosukee property will be tried in federal courts or the tribal court. The vote stunned state prosecutors and sheriffs who called the changes misguided. But those fears didn't stop the House panel, including Broward County Reps. Stacy Ritter and Ken Gottlieb, from siding with the Miccosukee, an influential tribe that generates hundreds of millions of dollars each year from its casinos and sits on a 285,000-acre reservation in the Everglades. The measure appears to have been put on a fast track by House leaders and is headed to a floor vote before the full house. The larger Seminole tribe does not want the changes since it has no tribal court of its own. While federal prosecutors have the right to try virtually any crime that happens on reservations, in South Florida they've usually stepped in only for major incidents like rape, assaults and murder. Miccosukee lawyer Dexter Lehtinen said the changes simply bring Florida in line with other states, which recognize that Indians are sovereign and entitled to deal directly with the federal government, one nation to another. The bill, identical to one in the Senate, comes two years after the Miccosukee's failed efforts to protect tribe member Kirk Billie when he killed his two young sons in 1997 following a fight with their mother. State prosecutors eventually won two murder convictions despite interference from the tribe and Chairman Billy Cypress, who said he wouldn't bow to "white man's justice. Cypress had his police department physically block state and federal investigators from entering the reservation to serve subpoenas. Weeks after the murders, which occurred just off the reservation, a Miccosukee tribal court forgave Billy. That same tribal court, which operates with secret rules of evidence and no avenue for appeal, would now hear many cases involving crimes by Indians -- even if the victim is a non-Indian, lawyers said. Gottlieb, D-Miramar, said he's comfortable with the changes. "First of all, they are a sovereign nation, and this bill just acknowledges that," Gottlieb said. "And we got assurances that all major crimes will be turned over to federal prosecutors." A Sun-Sentinel investigation before Billie's murder trial found that rarely happens. Internal memos and interviews with nearly a dozen Miccosukee police officers and employees showed crimes were not punished. When employees did try to call federal and state officials, they were fired, according to tribal documents and employees. Seven of the eight employees who cooperated with the murder investigation were fired before trial. Another police officer was fired after arresting Daniel Jay Billie, Kirk's brother, and turning him over to federal prosecutors. Billie beat and stabbed a woman, the police report said. And the head of the tribe's social services department was fired after she filed a report on a prominent tribal member accused of molesting children. The case was referred to tribal court but not prosecuted elsewhere. In a state court deposition taken in 1999, Miccosukee police Sgt. Joseph Garcia testified that even though he had sent 100 cases to tribal court, he's been called to testify only once. One tribal member caught with a pound of marijuana was fined $5 in tribal court, he said. John Holland can be reached at jholland@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7909. Copyright c. 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel --------- "RE: More Oneida Land-claim Suits promised" --------- Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 08:10:57 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename=LAND-CLAIM" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.zwire.com/site/news More land-claim suits promised February 25, 2002 ALBANY, N.Y. - The Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin, which filed 20 federal lawsuits last week seeking some 650 acres of land in central New York, plans to file 20 more suits, according to the tribe's attorney. The parcels in Oneida and Madison counties were targeted because they were acquired after a 1985 U.S. Supreme Court decision supporting the Oneidas, said Arlinda Locklear, the Wisconsin tribe's attorney. Court filings show they include a bowling alley, restaurants and a summer camp, as well as a shopping plaza owned by a corporate subsidiary of the Oneida Indian Nation of New York. "There will be 20 more in the next batch as well," Locklear said according to a Saturday newspaper report. She said the Wisconsin Oneidas had been unaware that the 14-acre Ames Shopping Plaza on Oneida, owned by North Atlantic Development Corp., was actually a subsidiary of the New York Oneidas, that it probably would be immune to the suit seeking possession plus trespass damages. The suits stem from a tentative $500 million land-claim agreement reached a week earlier among Gov. George Pataki, county officials and the New York Oneidas, who already own 14,000 acres in the two counties including the Turning Stone Casino. The Wisconsin Oneidas would get about half the settlement money but say they were left out of negotiations and also want land. The Oneida Nation of the Thames in Ontario, Canada, would receive $25 million, but said that's not enough. The counties would get about $50 million, and the New York Oneidas $175 million plus the right to expand their reservation to 35, 000 acres. The state and federal government would split the cost, though the U.S. Justice Department says it wasn't part of the agreement. The deal is meant to settle the decades-old multiparty lawsuit, now before U.S. District Judge Lawrence Kahn in Albany, to settle ancestral Oneida claims to 250,000 acres. The 20 new suits, filed in Syracuse Thursday, also have been assigned to Kahn. Another issue is the possible selection of an Oneida tribe to open new Indian-owned casinos in the Catskills, which both the New York and Wisconsin tribes want. The St. Regis Mohawks, who also want to open a Catskills casino, say they are looking at a settlement officer of their land claim against the state for 14,000 acres near the Canadian border. "We received one in December," spokeswoman Rowena General told the Times Herald-Record. Terms were not disclosed. "There are still many issues to be worked out," Suzanne Morris, a spokeswoman for Pataki, said Saturday. "We're continuing to have productive discussions with the Mohawks." "Until there's an agreement we don't have anything further to disclose," Morris said. Copyright c. 2002 The Oneida Daily Dispatch. --------- "RE: Tribal Judge challenges Crow Constitution" --------- Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2002 12:06:04 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CROW CONSTITUTION" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.billingsgazette.com/index Tribal judge sues to challenge legality of Crow constitution By BECKY SHAY Of The Gazette Staff The chief judge of the Crow Indian Tribal Court has challenged the tribe's 2001 constitution in U.S. District Court, and a second suit is pending. Albert Gros Ventre filed requests for injunctions against Tribal Chairman Clifford Birdinground's administration; Curly Sharone, chairman of the tribe's executive committee and Keith Beartusk, area director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Gros Ventre's suit, filed Feb. 25 in Billings, asks that the defendants be stopped from taking any actions not necessary for tribal business and that the court approve steps they do take. In a separate case expected to be filed in federal court next week, the tribe's former secretary and more than 260 other tribal members are challenging Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton and the department; the BIA, Beartusk and Gordon Jackson, the BIA superintendent in Crow Agency; Birdinground, vice chairman Vincent Goes Ahead Jr., assistant secretary Larney Little Owl, individually and as tribal administrators and "John Does and Jane Does as yet unnamed." Among the plaintiffs is Thomas Medicine Horse, who was elected as a tribal court associate judge last fall. Denver attorney Paul McMenaman, who is representing Tilton Old Bull and the other tribal members, intended to file the suit Friday but had to first complete paperwork to practice in the court. McMenaman said he would complete the documents and send them to Billings so the suit could be filed as soon as Monday. Old Bull was elected with the Birdinground administration in May 2000. He was ousted in September. The suit seeks to have him reinstated as secretary and charges that the other administrators conspired to oust him after using Old Bull's popularity to win the election. Old Bull asked the court to consider his case last year, but the judge sent it back to tribal court without prejudice - meaning it could still be tried at the federal level. After the tribal court rejected the hearing, Old Bull said he is returning to the high court and if it case is not heard he will consider appealing. "Basically, I just want justice," Old Bull said. Old Bull's suit seeks a new election, a hearing on the legality of the 2001 constitution and for monetary rewards, ranging from attorney's fees to money lost to tribal members as the owners of natural resources that have not been developed by the Birdinground administration. Leroy Not Afraid, a spokesman for the Birdinground administration, said the tribe has not received official notice of the lawsuits and he could not comment on the specifics. "We need to be served in order to know what we are up against," Not Afraid said. However, he said, most of the issues have been considered from all angles. "I hope it's not a waste of time and spending unnecessary dollars that belong to the Apsaalooke people," Not Afraid said. "We're hoping we as a tribe can join hands and move forward. We will remain positive and do whatever it takes to best serve the Crow people." Gros Ventre's suit asks the court to declare the tribe's 2001 constitution illegal and invalid. It also requests the judge to rule the 1948 constitution was never legally repealed and its bylaws remains legal and binding. Further, the suit calls for stopping any "arbitrary, capricious or punitive actions against anyone who has taken a position in opposition to the BIA or the Birdinground administration." Gros Ventre charges that the Birdinground administration is working under a constitution adopted in 2001, of which there were up to five versions which were not made available to tribal members. The suit alleges that the constitution was not adopted under tribal laws, including the requirement to vote by secret ballot. The suit claims that the administration "flagrantly and illegally intimidated, threatened and/or coerced Crow tribal employees to vote" for the 2001 constitution in July 2001 or lose their jobs. The case alleges that by approving the 2001 constitution, the BIA denied tribal members' civil and constitutional rights to participate in elections, voting and internal government operations. It also states that the BIA interfered with internal governmental affairs of the tribe by adopting the constitution. Gros Ventre's suit claims the Crow Tribe executive committee is operating under the 1948 constitution. The committee is made up of elected members who organized the agenda of tribal council meetings. Quarterly council meetings, in which all adult tribal members had a vote, were the way the tribe conducted business under the 1948 constitution. The Old Bull suit calls for a new election in May under the protection of U.S. marshals. Old Bull said if the court orders that election, he would run for chairman of the tribe. When the Birdinground administration ran for office in 2000, it was for a two-year term that would have ended this May. But, under the 2001 constitution, Birdinground, Goes Ahead and Little Owl will remain in office until 2006. "One of the worst things I have ever seen in my 36 years of practicing law is that they don't have to stand for re-election," McMenaman said. The suit requests a federal court hearing to determine which constitution (1948 or 2001) controls Crow government and to settle the dispute over how last year's constitution was adopted. McMenaman said he could provide affidavits that the 2001 constitution was not passed properly, including providing notice to voters and denying a secret ballot vote. Copyright c. The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Indian Prison Sites under Review" --------- Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 07:59:23 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INDIAN PRISON" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.gallupindependent.com/todaysnews.html#anchor2 Indian prison sites under review Jim Maniaci Dine' Bureau WINDOW ROCK - A 1,020-bed privately-financed prison specializing in North American Indian inmates could be under construction on the Navajo Reservation within a year. This is the firm belief of tribal Corrections Department Director Wilbe Antone, as a single developer has been selected and is looking at sites while negotiations are underway. A new contract would add about 150 Navajo adult inmate beds to the overburdened 103-bed limit of the Nov. 17, 1992, Window Rock District Court consent decree for the obsolete Window Rock, Shiprock, Crownpoint, Chinle and Tuba City lockups. The department and the Public Safety Committee of the Navajo Nation Council also are looking at 200 beds that could be installed in a long- unused former factory building at Sanders in the Nahata Dziil (New Lands) Chapter. Public Safety Division Acting Director Dorothy Fulton notified Frank Powell of the joint venture of Technical Approach to Secure Confinement, Inc., (TASC) and Private Prisons of America Limited of Midland, Tex., on Jan. 30 that it was the single finalist for the request for proposals. Of the 19 request for qualifications mailed out, four were returned by the U.S. Post Office as undeliverable, and three of the remaining 15 firms turned in their qualifications package. The Jan. 4 qualification letters pointed out "we are looking for an (Indian) culturally sensitive approach to housing our Indian prisoner population...from the federal and states' prisons, as well as the Navajo Nation and other Indian Tribes." The information package included the comprehensive "Geisler Report," from the National Corrections Corp. in May, 1998. NCC did not submit its qualification. And one of the three firms to submit its qualifications, Cornell Companies of Houston, Tex., did not follow up with a request for proposal response. This left only the Midland, Tex., venture and the Bakersfield, Calif.,- based Maranatha Corrections as the only firms to actually offer to be the developer. But in a Jan. 28 letter, Steven M. Fleming, vice president of development, cited funding limitations for withdrawing: "To get funding without contingent contracts already in place is impossible for a company without any internal financial sources." Fleming also praised the Navajo Nation for its effort, begun in 1994, by writing: "We admire the work that you are doing and wish you all the best.. . Maranatha Corrections was founded because of our belief that there is a better way to deal with offenders in the correctional systems." This is the tribal belief, too. The California firm proposed 145 full-time jobs, a construction cost of $5.256 million and an annual operating budget of $14,010,525, plus $1.752 million a year for five years to repay startup costs. The Navajo Nation's commission was not listed. Negotiations with the Texans on the scope of work for what is being called the "Dine' Restorative Justice Center" began Thursday at the Peterson Zah-Navajo Nation Museum, Library and Visitors Center following Wednesday's visit to a 2,100-acre site on the north side of the San Juan River in the northwestern portion of the Shiprock Chapter. Main purpose of the Shiprock visit was to meet with the half-dozen or so grazing lease owners, who did not seem too willing, at this point, to give up their land about 10 miles from the hospital and about 15 miles from the airport. Carl "Sonny" Emerson of TASC-PPA sent each of the 110 chapters and all 88 council delegates a copy of his firm's bid, along with a video tape and plaque. He wants any interested chapter to contact him if it can meet the minimum standards, such as airport and hospital access. The firm proposes 960 medium-security beds, 40 maximum-security beds, and 20 mental health beds in a wedge that would be the equivalent of one- eighth of an octagon, the shape of a hogan, according to its literature. A Navajo architectural firm, Leon Shirley, and a Navajo contractor, PC&M, will be used, the proposal added. Financing will be by 25-30 years of lease-revenue bonds, similar to certificates of participation. Renting out 870 of the total beds would provide the income to pay for both the 150 Navajo beds and to repay the investors, the proposal said. However, the proposal said the smaller prison will need to reach 95 percent occupancy (969 beds) to obtain even a minimal profit, but did not include any direct calculations. It will take two years to build the unique, and recently patented, "Omni-View" complex, the proposal said. In its bid, the developer offered to put up $1.76 million to establish a criminal justice associate's degree at the tribal college through 176 scholarships of $10,000 each, the proposal said. The joint venture wants to present its case to all 12 council oversight committees before the final deal goes to the full council for approval. Antone said he is pushing for the council to consider the monumental proposal at a special session in June. The proposal does not list current costs for the size selected. Instead the firm pushed its request for a 2,034-bed main facility plus seven 52- bed satellite jails in a Feb. 4 letter to Shiprock Chapter President Chili Yazzie. The proposal said the tribe's general fund would receive "substantial monthly income" from the larger project. At the end of 20 years, the facilities would be sold to the tribe for $1, while bringing into the reservation about $150 million. The larger facility would require 387 employees, according to the proposal. It also said 50 four-bedroom hogan-shaped homes would be used for construction workers while the huge complex is built, then by guards and their families. Currently there are 1,500 Navajos in 51 prisons, the proposal said. In its 1994 bid the joint venture proposed a 2,000-bed prison with 200 of the beds going to the tribe. It projected that in the third year the tribe would receive $21 million for the general fund. Copyright c. 2002 The Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Meeting to block Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota" --------- Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 08:11:09 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DAKOTA LAND" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.plamerican.com/main City, county to meet with BIA By John Mueller, Correspondent Friday, March 01, 2002 A delegation of elected officials and staff from Prior Lake, Shakopee and Scott County will be in Washington, D.C. on Monday (March 4) and Tuesday (March 5), hoping to convince top officials in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to reject the Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota Community's application to place land it owns in the cities into permanent trust status. The delegation will meet with the BIA as well as members of Minnesota's congressional delegation. This is the third time since 1998 that a delegation of local officials from the two cities and county has met with regional and national BIA staff to speak against a trust application submitted by the tribe. They also hope to learn the BIA's timetable for a decision on the application. The current application was filed in February 2000 and involves 776 acres: 593 in Shakopee and the rest in Prior Lake. The tribal land in Shakopee is located south of County Road 16, just east of County Road 83. The remaining acreage is located in Prior Lake adjacent to existing tribal lands. The tribe has indicated it wants the land for residential and governmental needs. The objections of the cities and counties involve the loss of property- tax revenue from the land once it's placed into trust and the loss of authority over zoning, land-use and local environmental controls. The cities and county contend they would still have to provide municipal services to the land with no guarantee of fees, creating a potential tax burden for taxpayers. The cities and county have also contended that the tribe's population growth estimates do not support the need for 776 acres being placed into permanent trust. The cities and county also argue that the tribe's application does not meet the requirements of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. They point to the BIA's rejection of the tribe's previous application, noting that the tribe's business success makes trust status unnecessary to meet its housing needs. Willie Hardacker, tribal spokesperson and staff legal counsel, questioned the meeting and said the tribe is not seeking a similar meeting with the BIA. He said the tribe has made its case and wants a decision from the BIA or the U.S. Interior Department as soon as possible. At the same time, the tribe is "leaving its options open" regarding meeting with federal officials, he said. "The tribe prefers the record be closed," Hardacker said. "What more can be said?" Hardacker said the lobbying efforts by the cities and county is "a curious use of local government resources." He said the cities and county have submitted "hundreds of pages" of arguments against the tribe's trust application. "What else can they say that hasn't already been said?" Hardacker asked. "What more can be said?" Unified opposition Prior Lake Mayor Jack Haugen expressed the importance of the unified opposition to the trust to the BIA as well as to Minnesota's congressional delegation and staff members. Haugen added that the representatives of Prior Lake, Shakopee and Scott County would also seek clarification on the rules for applying for trust status on land owned by the tribe. Haugen also said the trip is "another step in the process" and the cost of the trip is a wise investment of local funds given the potential impact of land placed into trust. "We owe it to our citizens to make sure their interests are properly represented," he said. Shakopee City Administrator Mark McNeill echoed Haugen's statement of unity. Along with Gov. Jesse Ventura, several state and federal lawmakers have also expressed their opposition to the application. The county contends it has tried to negotiate an alternative to the current application that meets the tribe's needs. But those negotiations have been unsuccessful. This article written by John Mueller john@swpub.com Copyright c. 1998-2002 Prior Lake American. --------- "RE: Tribe aims to save Burial Mounds" --------- Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 07:59:23 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GRAVES" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.thetimesonline.com/index.pl/article?id=13273005 Tribe aims to save burial mounds from landfill Members of Pokagon band visit Porter Township site, ponder resolution BY ROBIN BIESEN Times Staff Writer Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2002 PORTER TWP. -- Kevin Daugherty scanned the horizon Saturday looking for the telltale shape of Native American burial mounds. On and near the site of a proposed landfill in south Porter County, Daugherty, a member of the Pokagon band of the Potawatomi Indians based in Dowagiac, Mich., located what he was looking for -- about a half dozen of the steeply sloped, flattened mounds traditionally used by ancient Indian tribes as a place for burying their dead. "It is obvious these are burial mounds," he said. "These nodes are located on high ground above an old creek bed." Greg Ballew, also a member of the Pokagon, said the protected area adjacent to what was known as Wolf Creek -- today Luddington Ditch -- would have been considered an ideal home by his Hopewell ancestors. The Pokagons who came to Porter County -- all members of a committee set up as part of the Native American Graves Repatriation Act -- said it is likely they will meet and pass a resolution declaring the site an ancient burial mound. That resolution is not likely before the Wednesday public hearing but should be completed well in advance of a resolution on the landfill. What all this means to the debate over a proposal to build a landfill on 353 acres at county roads 550 South and 250 West is uncertain, but the eight Native Americans who traveled to Porter County at the invitation of landfill opponents said they believe the mounds are significant. The tribal resolution could affect developers' plans if they intend to secure federal funds or permits. The developers have not indicated they will seek any permits beyond what is required to operate a municipal landfill. University of Notre Dame anthropologist Mark Schurr considers the mounds on and near the landfill site the most significant in northern Indiana. "These mounds date back to the middle of the Woodland Period and are about 2,000 years old," Schurr said. "These particular mounds were first recorded in 1834 when they did the first land surveys." Schurr, who also has been on the Porter County site, said three of the mounds appear to be just as preserved as they were in the 1930s, while others appear to be smaller than they were 70 years ago. The mounds are so significant, he and the Native Americans agree they should be preserved. "I realize that we need landfills but this site is irreplaceable and unique. To archaeologists, Boone Grove is famous because of the burial mounds," Schurr said. "We don't know much about this culture except by the things that are coming out of the burial mounds." Daugherty said Native America believe that burial mounds should be left untouched. Richard Counts, chief executive officer for Porter Development LLC the proposed landfill developer, said he doesn't intend for the project to be derailed over the mounds. "We have met with the state archaeologist and the truth about what these are or are not will come out," Counts said. "Regardless of what they are or are not, the project will continue." Landfill opponent Bob Coffman, who brought the Pokagons to Porter County, said he doesn't know if the ancient residents of the region will be the salvation of those looking to stop Porter Development from locating a landfill in their neighborhood. But he said he hopes it is. "I don't know what to think at this point," Coffman said. "But I don't know of anyone who would like garbage dumped on their ancestors." Robin Biesen may be reached at biesen@howpubs.com or (219) 462-5151 ext. 349. Copyright c. 2001 TheTimesOnline.com/Hammond. ---------- "RE: Native Prisoner" --------- Date: Tue Mar 5, 2002 10:57 PM From: "Janet Smith" Subj: Prisoner Issues NEW PEN PAL SITE: From the creator of the Atlanta Pen Pal site--a new site for Atlanta inmates who have been relocated to other institutions, and for people they've met in their new locations who'd like pen pals: Native American Prisoner Pen Pal Network http://members.tripod.com/~foltz.k/napppn/napppnhome.html and the original Atlanta site: USP ATLANTA NATIVE AMERICAN PRISONERS PEN PAL NETWORK http://members.tripod.com/~foltz.k/pages/atlantahome.html with gratitude to Kim Foltz, whose work makes it possible for Native inmates in the federal Bureau of Prisoners to contact the outside world. INDIAN "JUSTICE"--SOUTH DAKOTA STYLE: Think "just us" is a figment of Indian imagination? Here's some evidence that some folks find justice in South Dakota -- but it looks like Lakota folks are still finding the white legal establishment is still doling out the same ol' "just us." -=-=-=- From Sioux Falls Argus Leader (http://www.argusleader.com/news/Sundayfeature.shtml) Teen's jailing angers tribe - Argus Leader published: 3/3/02 - SISSETON - Adelia Godfrey spends her days alone in a dimly lit basement cell. She is wondering whether to kill herself. Godfrey, 17, was first arrested for misdemeanor charges nearly a month ago, but a fight with officers at the Roberts County Jail led to two felony charges. Now the Roberts County state's attorney wants to prosecute her as an adult. If convicted, she could be sentenced to 30 years in prison. "At night, I get panic attacks, and I worry I'll stop breathing," Godfrey said Thursday before a court hearing in the case. "I get real scared and depressed. I pray that I can go to sleep. There's no one for me to talk to. I think I'm losing my mind." Members of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe, of which Godfrey is an enrolled member, say her case is an example of a dual system of justice in Roberts County. The county is 68 percent white and 30 percent Native American. Tribal members, who protested her incarceration last week, contend Native American youth are targeted by police and want Godfrey moved to a tribal facility instead of the adult jail. Law enforcement officials say the girl is being held in the basement cell in the Grant County Jail - called "the dungeon" by the sheriff who oversees it - because there is no juvenile facility in the area that can take her. The Roberts County state's attorney and the Sisseton chief of police say Native Americans are treated no differently than whites. They say Godfrey "went ape" in the jail, sprayed an officer with a fire extinguisher, spit and tried to bite another officer. The charges fit the crime, authorities say. Godfrey was one of several girls who cut themselves with broken light bulbs while housed in a state juvenile prison in Plankinton. Her thin arms are still covered with scars, some as thick as cigars. The girl's family worries she may attempt suicide. "She asked me ... if we have two lives," said Godfrey's mother, Shirley Duggan, through tears. "I told her, 'No, honey, we only have just one. ... Please take care of it.' " Tribal members say Godfrey's case may be the most egregious example of a legal system that preys upon tribal members, especially youth. "There is a double standard of justice, and it's been going on a long time," said Jake Thompson, vice-chairman of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe. Nontribal law enforcement officers scrutinize the actions of Native American youths more than non-Indian youths, and that constitutes racial profiling, he said. "I've been told that by my own children, and the court stats will prove that out," Thompson said. Statistics are not available to show the numbers of whites and Indians prosecuted for crimes in Roberts County or elsewhere in the state. Gov. Bill Janklow commissioned a study of race in the justice system following a series of complaints that culminated with a meeting of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in Rapid City in December 1999. He criticized the report developed from that session but asked a University of South Dakota political science professor to study the issue. That report is due out this summer. Th