From gars@speakeasy.org Tue Jun 11 22:04:55 2002 Date: 12 Jun 2002 01:56:24 -0000 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews10.024 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 024 | Country than is reported in | O o o o o O | this weekly newsletter. For | O o O June 15, 2002 | For daily updates & events | O o O | go http://www.owlstar.com/ | O | dailyheadlines.htm | Cherokee green corn moon +-----------------------------+ Tewa Pueblo moon when leaves are dark green <================<<<< >>>>================> 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; Chiapas95, Iron Natives and RezLife 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.'" "The only way to deal with the Indian problem in South Dakota is to put a gun to AIM leaders's heads and pull the trigger" __ William "Bill Janklow, 1975 "Times change but principles don't. Times change but lands do not. Times change but our cultures and our languages remain the same. And that's what you have to keep intact. It's not what you wear - it's what's in your heart. And that makes the difference." __ Oren Lyons, Onondaga +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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! Wild Bill Janklow is back in the political arena as Republican nominee to the U. S. House of Representatives. The Lakota didn't help vote in one of their own in the recent South Dakota primaries. Let's pray they do help keep Janklow out. -=-=-=- The headline in today's Marietta paper wasn't much different from the ones that preceeded it in Atlanta and other papers -- just more outrage about priests and other religious authorities who had raped or molested young children in their charge, and those who protected them. IT IS outrageous. What's even more of an outrage is that the headlines are only seen now. Where was the outrage for the past century and a half as Indian children were abused by priests and nuns in boarding schools? That little bubble burst finally in Canada about a year ago. Several court decisions later, the Anglican church is wringing its hands pleading with the governments, who were their willing abettors, to help bail them out before the church goes bankrupt. The Catholic Church in the U.S. has learned from their experience enough to begin concealing their vulnerable and considerable assets. But we haven't seen Presidential trips to the Vatican (or Ministerial junkets to England to visit the Archbishop of Canterbury) over Indian children. No -- the abuse of children is a far more serious matter when the children's skin is not quite so copper. -=-=-=- http://www.indianz.com/News/show.asp?ID=2002/06/11/blackfeet Storm cripples Blackfeet Reservation TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 2002 The Blackfeet Reservation in Montana has been declared a weather disaster area by the tribal council. A snow storm hit the western edge of the reservation on Saturday and has continued since. Power, phone service and heat are out. There is a threat of flood. Some homes are already surrounded by water. Montan Gov. Judy Martz is set to declare the area a disaster. Get the Story: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20020611/localnews/2291.html Storm has state in stranglehold (The Great Falls Tribune 6/11) -- Copyright c. 2000-2002 Noble Savage Media, LLC/Indianz.Com. ==== 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 - FSIN Chiefs vent anger - Reservations' Low Turnout over Justice hurts Indian Candidates - Interior Department - A Drought like no Other approves Zuni Mine - Blaze destroys - Dine' $600M Coal Case old Wanblee Schoolhouse goes to High Court - Allottees Testify - Navajo $600 Million Ruling at Risk on Federal Royalty Nonpayment - A Matter of Trust - Opinion: - Twin honors won by Native Exchange System in Peril Blackfeet Conservation Officer - NJ asks NY to Stop Indian Gaming - South Dakota Questions - Fired Official how Bones got at Site now Lobbying on Indian Gambling - Native Prisoner - Stronger Rules -- Holidays are Rough to protect Sacred Indian Sites -- AIM members held by Israel!!! - Impunity 22 Years after the -- Oregon Prisoner Requests Books Goloncha'n Killings -- Help Needed: - Aboriginal Culture Maine State Prison at Warren at the Crossroads -- Help Needed: - Talks to clarify Westville Indiana Correctional Native Treaty Rights - History: Carlisle Indian School - United Nations on Racism: - Rustywire: Stand up Baby Case of Dudley George - Poem: A Tribute to Fathers - Veterans meet in Saskatoon - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days over Possible Lawsuit - Native America Calling --------- "RE: Crossings" --------- Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 08:10:52 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CROSSINGS" Golden Triangle On-Line Obituaries The following obituaries appeared in the Cut Bank Pioneer Press, Shelby Promoter or Glacier Reporter this week. June 5, 2002 James Woodrow Brown James Woodrow Brown, 89, of Milk River, died at IHS in Browning of natural causes of May 22, 2002. Rosary was said May 24 at the Eagle Shields. His funeral was held May 25 at Little Flower Parish with burial at the Brown Ranch on Milk River. He was born Nov. 6, 1912, at Milk River and attended Mission School and Browning schools. He and Marguerite Emma Parrent were married in July 1946 in Browning. He was a veteran of World War II serving in the Army Air Corp. A rancher, he enjoyed horseback riding and summering cattle. Survivors include a daughter, Carm Hoyt of Browning, Kay Stack of Alberta and Kerma Goss of Oregon; sons, Don Brown of California, Chico Brown of Billings, Keith Brown of Nevada and Orville Goss, Jr., of Nevada; 35 grandchildren; 49 great-grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife; sisters, Angie Cobell, Sarahdele Romsa and Rita Santana; brothers, Herman, Sidney and Vincent Brown; and a son, Wayne Goss. Day Family Funeral Home handled arrangements. Copyright c. 2002 Golden Triangle Newspapers. -=-=-=- June 4, 2002 Melvin L. Yellow Horse OGLALA - Melvin L. Yellow Horse, 60, Oglala, died Sunday, June 2, 2002, in Pine Ridge. Survivors include his wife, Elizabeth Yellow Horse, Oglala; two daughters, Sybil Yellow Horse, Chadron, Neb., and Christine Little Spotted Horse, Oglala; three sisters, Bernice Brown Eyes, Slim Buttes, Velma Lame, Oglala, and Pearl McClane, Mission; and four grandchildren. A two-night wake will begin at 1 p.m. today at Church of Nazarene in Wounded Knee. Services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, June 6, at the church, with the Rev. Cecelia Spotted Bear officiating. Burial will be at Fast Horse Creek Cemetery in Wounded Knee. Sioux Funeral Home of Pine Ridge is in charge of arrangements. June 5, 2002 Darren L. Red Feather PINE RIDGE - Darren L. Red Feather, infant son of Denise Ghost and Eddie Red Feather of Pine Ridge, was born and died Friday, May 31, 2002, in Pine Ridge. Survivors include his parents; three brothers, Anthony Red Feather, Donnie Ghost and Jordon Red Feather, all of Pine Ridge; one sister, Amber Red Feather, Pine Ridge; and his maternal grandmother, Ramona Ghost, Pine Ridge. A one-night wake will begin at 2 p.m. Thursday, June 6, at the Wakpamni CAP Building in Pine Ridge. Mass of Christian Burial will be at 10 a.m. Friday, June 7, at the CAP. Burial will be at St. Anne's Catholic Cemetery in Wolf Creek. June 7, 2002 Pauline E. Red Star WOUNDED KNEE - Pauline E. Red Star, 39, Wounded Knee, died Tuesday, June 4, 2002, in Wolf Point, Mont. Survivors include seven daughters, Laurel Menz, Tyra Scotts, Marianne Scotts, April Scotts, Nancy Scotts and Trisha Scotts, all of Poplar, Mont., and Sheila Lonz, Billings, Mont.; one son, Michael Menz, Poplar; her mother, Virginia Red Star, Poplar; her father, Paul Red Star Jr., Wounded Knee; three sisters, Patty Grant, Poplar, and Nancy Lonz and Josephine Red Star, both of Billings; and seven brothers, George Red Star, Wounded Knee, Samuel Red Star, Evans Red Star III, Delbert Red Star and Joseph Red Star, all of Poplar, and Levi Red Star, Wolf Point. A two-night wake will begin at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 8, at Messiah Episcopal Church in Wounded Knee. Services will be at 2 p.m. Monday, June 10, at the church, with the Rev. Cordelia Red Owl officiating. Burial will be at Messiah Episcopal Cemetery in Wounded Knee. Sioux Funeral Home of Pine Ridge is in charge of arrangements. June 8, 2002 Harry L. Weston PORCUPINE - Harry L. Weston, 75, Porcupine, died Thursday, June 6, 2002, in Porcupine. Survivors include four daughters, Sylvia Hollow Horn and Sandra Weston, both of Pine Ridge, Edwina Weston, Porcupine, and Dale Youngman, Oglala; four sons, Vern Weston, Chadron, Neb., Wayne Weston, Oglala, Dwight Weston, Pine Ridge, and Ernest Weston, Porcupine; two sisters, Ruth Weston, Porcupine, and Violet Robinson, Pine Ridge; two brothers, Cecil Weston and Spencer Weston, both of Porcupine; 28 grandchildren; and 15 great- grandchildren. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Visitation will be from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, June 10, at Makasan Presbyterian Church in Oglala, followed by a one-night wake beginning at 6 p.m. at Porcupine School. Services will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday, June 11, at Porcupine Presbyterian Church, with the Rev. Simon Looking Elk and Capt. Gilford Noisy Hawk officiating. Burial will be at Porcupine Presbyterian Cemetery. Sioux Funeral Home of Pine Ridge is in charge of arrangements. June 11, 2002 Jamie M. Bad Heart Bull HOT SPRINGS - Jamie M. Bad Heart Bull, 35, Hot Springs, died Thursday, June 6, 2002, in Silvertip, Wyo. Survivors include his mother, Sarah Bad Heart Bull, Torrington, Wyo.; three sisters, Trina Bad Heart Bull and Apryl Bad Heart Bull, both of Torrington, and Julia Clark, San Leandro, Calif.; and one brother, Vincent E. Bad Heart Bull Jr., Pollock, La. A one-night wake will begin at 1 p.m. today at Makasan Presbyterian Church in Oglala. Services will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday, June 12, at the church. Burial will be at Makasan Presbyterian Cemetery in Oglala. Sioux Funeral Home of Pine Ridge is in charge of arrangements. Copyright c. 2002 The Rapid City Journal. -=-=-=- June 3, 2002 Althea Ramona Martin TOHATCHI - Services for Althea Martin, 36, were held at 10 a.m., today at Cope Memorial Chapel. Tom Nells will officiate. Burial will follow in Tohatchi. Martin died May 29 in Gallup. She was born Oct. 4, 1965 in Rehoboth into the Near the Water People Clan for the Kinlecheenie People Clan. Martin graduated from Tohatchi High School. She was employed as a receptionist. Survivors include her son, Ryan Marks of Kaibeto, Ariz.; daughters, Cheyenne Marks of Kaibeto, Stacey Hesuse, Raquel Hesuse both of Tohatchi; parents, Bernice and Chee Martin; brothers, Gordon Martin of Newcomb, Ronald L. Martin Sr. and Vernon W. Martin both of Tohatchi; sisters, Patricia A. Matheson of Monroe, Conn. and Elvira J. Stahn of Tohatchi. Martin was preceded in death by her brothers, Gerald Martin and Lynell Martin and sister, Pamela Alice Martin. Pallbearers were Ronald Martin Sr., Gordon Martin, Leland Martin, Christopher Martin, Ronald Martin Jr. and Jonathan Avery. The family will receive friends and relatives after the burial services at Tohatchi Chapter House. Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements. Bobby Saunders THOREAU - Services for Bobby Saunders, 46, will be held at 10 a.m., Tuesday, June 4 at Thoreau Church of God. Burial will follow at Thoreau Cemetery. Saunders died May 30 in Thoreau. He was born June 14, 1955 in Crownpoint into the Two Who Came to Water People Clan for the Water that Flows Together People Clan. Saunders attended Thoreau High School. He was a silversmith, carpenter, mechanic, school bus driver and played in various country bands. He served in the U.S. Army. Survivors include his wife, Ellen Saunders; son, Calvin and Kevin Saunders; daughers, Melissa Saunders and Petula Saunders; mother, Dorothy S. Larry; brothers, Ben Saunders, Jameson Saunders and Delbert Saunders; sister, Etta Charley; and one grandchild. Saunders was peceded in death by his father, James Saunders and grandparents, Ben and Florence Hudson, Navajo Big Jim and Ellen Saunders. Pallbearers will be William Hudson Jake, Calvin and Kevin Saunders, Jameson, Delbert and George Saunders. The family will receive friends and relatives after the burial services at Thoreau Baptist Church. Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements. Mary Joe Bahe DILKON, Ariz. - Services for Mary Bahe, 61, will be held at 11 a.m., Tuesday, June 4 at Klagetoh Holineo Church. Burial will follow at Klagetoh Cemetery. Bahe died May 31 in Ganado, Ariz. She was born May 3, 1941 in Pinon, Ariz. into the Big Water People Clan for the Yucca Fruit People Clan. Survivors include her sons, Danny Tabaha, Melvin Bahe and Harold Bahe; daughters, Marsadie Dee, Alice Sargent, Alberta B. Jones and Dianne Bahe; brothers, Cobert Joe, Jimmy Joe, Frances Tabaha, Richard Tabaha and Ben Tabaha; 16 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Bahe was preceded in death by her husband, Johnson Bahe; sister, Mary Joe and mother, Martha Tabahe. Pallbearers will be Josh Tabaha, Leroy Smith, Donovan Tabaha, Randell Smith, Devin Tabahe, Travis Tabaha, Aaron Tabaha and Thomas Sargent Jr. Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements. June 6, 2002 Benjamin Charley COUSINS - Services for Benjamin Charley, 15, will be held at 10 a.m., Friday, June 7 at Rollie Mortuary Palm Chapel. Pastor Herbert Francisco will officiate. Burial will follow at the private family cemetery, Cousins. Charley died June 2 in Gallup. He was born June 4, 1986 in Zuni into the Towering House People Clan for the Water Edge People Clan. Charley attended David Skeets Elementary School, where he played basketball, Gallup Mid School and Santa Fe Indian School, Santa Fe. His hobbies included basketball and horseback riding. Survivors include his parents, Linda Skeet of Cousins and Ben Charley of Vanderwagen stepfather Marc Etsitty of Cousins; brothers, Edmund Charley, Redmond Etsitty both of Cousins, Lathan Charley and Brain Charley both of Pinehill; sisters, Belinda Charley and Mildred Charley both of Cousins and grandmothers, Ruth Charley of Vanderwagen and Mary Skeet of Cousins. Charley was preceded in death by his grandfathers, Teddy Skeet and Tony Charley. Pallbearers will be Daniel Begay, Keith Charley, Marc R. Etsitty, Charles Pat, Cornell Pat and Johnny Charley. Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements. Elsie Skeet ALBUQUERQUE - Services for Elsie Skeet, 38, will be held at 10 a.m., Friday, June 7 at Rollie Mortuary Palm Chapel. Pastor Herbert Francisco will officiate. Burial will follow at a private family cemetery, Cousins. Skeet died June 2 in Gallup. He was born Feb. 7, 1964 in Cousins into the Towering House People Clan for the Sleeping Rock People Clan. Skeet was employed with the United States Department of Interior, Office of Hearings and Appeals, Albuquerque. She attended Gallup High School and school in Albuquerque. Survivors include her son, Steven Johnson of Albuquerque; daughters, Maryanne Johnson and Michelle Johnson both of Albuquerque; mother, Mary Skeet of Cousins; brothers, Eddie Skeet of Cousins, Joe T. Skeet of Tijeras and Nixon Skeet of Albuquerque; sister, Linda Skeet of Cousins. Skeet was preceded in death by her father, Teddy Skeet; sister, Betty Skeet and brother, Dixon Skeet. Pallbearers will be Bobby Ben, Justin George, Douglas Morgan, Kenny Morgan, Nixon Skeet and Harry Yazzie. Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements. Eva Watson TWIN LAKES - Services for Eva Watson, 97, will be held at 10 a.m., Friday, June 7 at Free Trinity Navajo Mission, Tohlakai. Rev. Dennis Gardner will officiate. Burial will follow at Big Oak Cemetery, Twin Lakes. Visitation will be held from 3-5 p.m., today at Cope Memorial Chapel. Watson died June 4 in Gallup. She was born Dec. 5, 1906 in China Springs into the Bitterwater People Clan for the Black Streak People Clan. Watson attended Tohatchi Boarding School. She was employed as a nursing assistant at St. Mary's Hospital, Gallup. She was a homemaker and songleader in Navajo and English. Her hobbies included rugweaving and farming. Survivors include her daughters, Helen Chavez and Mary Ann Johnson both of Twin Lakes; brothers, Joseph Curman Sr. of Tohlakai; sisters, Clara John of Twin Lakes; 30 grandchildren; 109 great-grandchildren and 26 great-great grandchildren. Watson was preceded in death by her husband, Robert G. Watson; daugher, Thelda Watson Sandoval and sons, Joe Watson and Edward E. Watson. Pallbearers will be Josie Bowman, Kathy Shirley, Charles Shirley, Wilford Barney, Wilfred Johnson and Franklin Benally Sr. The family will receive friends and relatives after the burial services at Twin Lakes Elementary School. Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements. Henry Brown RED ROCK - Services for Henry Brown, 62, will be held at 11 a.m., Friday, June 7 at Cope Memorial Chapel. Pastor Henry T. Yazzie will officiate. Burial will follow at Gallup City Cemetery. Brown died June 2 in Gallup. He was born Sept. 25, 1939 in Fort Wingate into the Salt Water People Clan for the Meadow People Clan. Brown graduated from Albuquerque Indian School. He served in the U.S. Marines. He was employed at numerous places, Navajo Motors, Gallup Car Parts, Napa Auto Parts and CW Bar Ranch, as a rancher. His hobbies included woodcarving, silversmithing, cooking, watching western movies and listening to country music. Survivors include his wife, Mary Rose Brown of Red Rock; sons, Emerson Brown Sr. of Nazlini, Ariz.; Hermson Brown of Manuelito, Albert J. Brown of Crownpoint and Anderson Brown Sr. of Red Rock; daughters, Rose Brown, Henrietta Sam, Carol Brown and Brenda Brown, all of Red Rock; mother, Mary Y. Brown of Red Rock; brothers, Jerry L. Brown of Hunter's Point, Ariz., King L. Brown and Phillip L. Brown Sr. both of Red Rock; 20 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Brown was preceded in death by his father , George Sam Brown and brothers, Jimmy E. Brown and Fred L. Brown. Pallbearers will be Emerson Brown Sr., Hermson Brown, Albert Brown, Anderson Brown, Jeffery Sam and Anderson Parkett. Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements. Myron Mogan CROWNPOINT - Services for Myron Mogan, 19, will be held at 11 a.m., Friday, June 7 at St. Paul Catholic Church, Crownpoint. Burial will follow at Borrego Pass Community Cemetery. Morgan died June 3 in Gallup. He was born July 15, 1982 in Gallup into the Bitterwater People Clan for the Water Flows Together People Clan. Morgan graduated from St. Bonaventure High School and attended NMSU- Grants. He was employed with Damons Sanitation and Waste Management, Crownpoint. His hobbies included art, sketching, hunting and auto mechanics study. Survivors include his parents, Peter and Irenen Morgan of Crownpoint; brother, Myrick Morgan of Crownpoint; sisters, Regina and Raechelle Morgan both of Crownpoint. Morgan was preceded in death by his grandparents, Frank and Mary Chapo, Billy Morgan and Martha Shorty. Pallbearers will Myrick Morgan, Kirby Chapo, Kee Yazzie Chapo, Benjamin Chapo, Ken Y. Chapo and Delvin Chapo. The family will receive friends and relatives after the burial services at Parish Hall, St. Pauls Catholic Church, Crownpoint. Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements. Victoria M. Livingston NASCHITTI - Services for Victoria M. Livingston, 79, will be held at 10 a.m., Friday, June 7 at Naschitti Christian Reformed Church. Ray Slim will officiate. Burial will follow in Naschitti. Livingston died June 3 in Gallup. She was born Sept. 20, 1922 in Naschitti into the Salt People Clan for the Sleeping Rock People Clan. Livingston attended Rehoboth Mission School. She was a self-employed rug weaver, livestock owner and a member of the Naschitti Christian Reformed Church. Survivors include her sons, Lawrence Livingston, Luther B. Livingston and Leroy Livingston all of Naschitti; daughters, Vera Guardipee of Heart Butte, Mont., Linda Livingston and Betty Thompson of Naschitti; sister, Elizabeth Pine of Naschitti; 19 grandchildren and 27 great-grandchildren. Livingston was preceded in death by her husband, Tony T. Livingston and parents, Hoskie and Alice Manuelito sisters, Marie Manuelito and Maxine Miles and four grandchildren. Pallbearers will be Cameron Three Iron, Lionel Livingston, Gene Guardipee, Jermaine Thompson, Lucius Begaye and Ronald Tailfeathers. The family will receive friends and relatives after the burial services at Naschitt Chapter House. Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements. Elizabeth Anne Ablowitz WINDOW ROCK - Services for Elizabeth Ablowitz, 18, will be held at 10 a.m., Friday, June 7 at Mary Mother of Mankind Catholic Church, St. Michaels, Ariz. Father Gilbert Scheider, OFM will officiate. Burial will follow at community cemetery, Fort Defiance, Ariz. A rosary will be recited on Thursday at Mary Mother of Mankind Catholic Church. Ablowitz died June 2 in Shiprock. She was born June 14, 1983 in Fort Defiance into the Dove People Clan for the Bitter Water People Clan. Ablowitz is a 2001 graduate of Coconino High School, Flagstaff, Ariz. She attended St. Michaels High School and Window Rock public schools. Her hobbies included listening to music, writing poetry, computers and animals. Survivors included her parents, Marjorie J. McCabe and Rodney J. Ablowitz; sister, Christina M. Ablowitz and grandparents, Reba A. McCabe and Joyce Ablowitz. Ablowitz was preceded in death by her, grandfather, William McCabe. The family will receive friends and relatives after the burial services at St. Michaels Parish Hall. Tse Bonito Mortuary is in charge of arrangements. June 7, 2002 Lelord Clark KLAGETOH, Ariz. - Services for Lelord Clark, 29, will be held at 10 a.m., Saturday, June 8 at Klagetoh Minnonite Church. James Joe will officiate. Burial will follow at Klagetoh Community Cemetery. Clark died June 2 in Phoenix. He was born Dec. 26 in Crownpoint into the Red Running Water People Clan for the Salt People Clan. Clark was attended Wide Ruins Boarding School and Greasewood Boarding School and Ganado High School. He played football in Chimowa Indian School, Salem, Ore. He employed with construction company in Phoenix. His hobbies included reading, kachina and fetish carving, watching movies, cooking. Survivors include his parents, Leonard and Clark of Wide Ruins, Ariz.; brothers, Leonverd Clark of Los Angels, Calif. and Lymend Clark of Wide Ruins; sisters, Leatrice Miranda of Klagetoh and Ada Lena Clark and Tarria Lee of Wide Ruins and grandmother, Lena W. Clark of Klagetoh. Clark was preceded in death by his grandfather, Kee Clark. Pallbearers will be Leonard Clark, Jody Clark, Everett Ashley, Joseph Yazzie, Tyrone Kee and Eric Kee. The family will receive friends and relatives after the burial services at Klagetoh Chapter House. Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements. Elizabeth Walley COUSINS - Services for Elizabeth Walley, 83, will be held at 10 a.m., Saturday, June 8 at Oak View Bible Church, Cousins. Pastor Jimmie Francisco will officiate. Burial will follow at familyland, Cousins. Walley died May 4 in Gallup. She was born April, 1917 in Cousins into the Sleep Rock People Clan for the Black Sheep People Clan. Walley was a homemaker. Survivors include her brothers, Robert Walley and Kee Chee Walley both Cousins. Walley is preceded in death by her parents and grandparents. Pallbearers will be Ervin Lewis Jr., Lester Wilson, Erving Lewis, Flora L and Emma Edsitty. Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements. Nancy E. Benally BECENTI, NM - Services for Nancy E. Benally will be held at 11a.m., Saturday, June 8 at residence of Frank G. Benally, Becenti, NM. Jerry Diose will officiate. Visitation will be held at Cope Memorial Chapel, today 8-3p.m. A rosary will be recited 8 miles north of Crownpoint, June 8, 11a.m. Benally died June 4 in San Juan hospital, Farmington. She was born December 25, 1921 into the Tumbleweed People Clan, Crownpoint. Benally was a liscened and ordained minister for all Native Americans through the reservation. She attended Miracle Valley Bible School, Ariz. Benally recieved many awards for her charitable contributions. She also tamed wild horses and won many horse races. Survivors include husband, Frank G. Benally, Crownpoint; sons, Ernest Benally, Montezuma Creek, Utah, Francis Benally, Tuba City, Ariz., Alvin Benally, Crownpoint; daughters, June Toledo, Crownpoint, Rosita Benally, Crownpoint, Carol A. Dolan, Bayfield, Colo., Christine Totango, Albuquerque; brother, Jimmy Etcitty, Crownpoint; sister, Mary Smiley, Crownpoint. She was also survived by 35 grandchildren, 64 great grandchildren and 3 great-great grandchildren. Pallbearers will be Ernest Benally, Alvin Benally, Darrell Dolan, Francis Benally, Michael Benally, Melvin Mescale. Copyright c. 2002 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Reservations' Low Turnout hurts Indian Candidates" --------- Date: Sun, 9 Jun 2002 14:22:12 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LOW INDIAN VOTE" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.argusleader.com/news/Sundayarticle4.shtml Reservations' low turnout hurts Indian candidates By STEVE YOUNG Argus Leader published: 6/9/02 Among the voters Ron Volesky hoped to attract in his bid for the Democratic nomination for governor were the native people, like himself, on South Dakota's reservations. And though he succeeded -the Huron lawyer received 70 percent of the vote on the Rosebud Reservation, 57 percent on the Pine Ridge Reservation and almost 60 percent on the Cheyenne River Reservation -he failed, too. For as is typically the case, Native Americans did not come out in huge numbers to vote for him - or anyone else - in last week's primary. "It doesn't surprise me," a weary Volesky said after the vote was counted. "You have to understand, that's just part of the political landscape. They never have been interested in state races and probably never will be." Volesky finished a distant second to Jim Abbott in the race for the Democratic nomination for governor. The apathy in the primary was most profound among the Oglala and Rosebud Sioux. While 42 percent of registered voters in the state turned out Tuesday to cast their ballots, just 15 percent showed up on the Pine Ridge Reservation and only slightly more -21.4 percent -on the Rosebud Reservation. Tribal observers point to a variety of explanations for the low turnout. Part of it is a belief that their vote won't change their impoverished situation, said Kevin Peniska Sr., the publisher of a Rapid City-based tribal magazine called Well Nations. "There is a bumper sticker I've seen that really captures the underlying sentiment I see in Indian Country among my relatives and families," Peniska said. "It says, 'If voting could change anything, it would be illegal.' "I think what that means is, Indian people don't feel that their vote means anything, that it's going to change anything." Because native people view their tribes as sovereign nations, they see their relationship with the federal government as more consequential than that with the state, said Rep. Paul Valandra, D-Mission, a Rosebud Sioux. He also believes a distancing occurred between the tribes and state beginning in the 1970s as they fought over jurisdictional issues and went head-to-head over uprisings spurred by the American Indian Movement. "I think tribal sovereignty kind of became a rallying cry," Valandra said. "It was like this isolation policy evolved between the tribes and state. "A lot of Indians tended to start looking at tribal government to serve their needs. And because of that isolation policy, now they don't look beyond to see that most of the things dealing with their daily lives are run through the state Legislature. "Their car insurance and motor vehicle rates, telephone bills, electrical rates ... there is a myriad of those things that is beyond the scope of the tribal councils' authority. But Indian people just aren't connecting with that." The distance native people have to travel to vote is another issue, said Steve Sandven, a tribal lawyer for the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe and a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House in 2000. For tribal elections, voters often have polling places within their own little communities. But in state elections, polling places on the reservation often are set up by precincts determined by the county commissions, Valandra said. That often means fewer places to vote. "I think it's difficult for our people to go to two different polling places," Sandven said. "It's hard enough to get them to a single poll. But to require them to make two trips in one day, especially for people where transportation can be a significant issue, it compounds the problem." Connie Whirlwind Horse, chairman of the Shannon County Commission, said some of the precinct boundaries changed this election on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and that caused a lot of confusion among voters there. "A lot of people went to vote but were in the wrong precinct and didn't want to travel to the right one," she said. "Maybe the general election will be different." Sandven said tribal and state polling places should be consolidated. On his reservation, where the two sites can be 15 to 20 minutes apart, the distance can be a huge deterrent. "I'm working on that here," he said. "Maybe we can consolidate some of those polling places to make it easier for people. We're certainly going to work on it." Certainly the interest in general elections in November is higher on the reservations. Tribal people understand the impact their vote has on filling federal congressional positions, Valandra said. But even then, the participation rate is much lower than for the state as a whole. While South Dakotans usually turn out at a rate of between 60 and 70 percent in November, the reservations are typically 20 to 30 percentage points less. Sandven, Whirlwind Horse and Valandra say it will take long-term education to change that trend, especially in convincing tribal people how much state government affects their reservation lives. "We've initiated a long-term process where we are doing voter registration drives," Sandven said. "And we're getting more of the candidates to come up here to meet with our tribal council, to see our community college and visit our health care center. "And I think the candidates making themselves more available has had an impact." The numbers in Tuesday's primary would seem to support that. In Roberts County, where much of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Reservation lies, 35.1 percent of the people voted. On the Rosebud Reservation, Valandra said, up to 3,000 people tend to vote in tribal elections. For state candidates to capture those votes, they'll have to come to the reservation, he said. "Indian country is typically Democratic," Valandra said. "If we all go Democrat, and a candidate gets out the vote, he could net out a bigger advantage than you could in a place like, say, Mitchell." He said Rep. John Thune, a Republican running for incumbent Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson's job, already has been tapping that possibility. "John Thune has been down here several times," Valandra said. "He organized a basketball tournament down here. He played down here, too, and he fed the people and mingled with them. "I know he's a Republican. But he sees what a Democrat can net down here, so he's down here to bust up that net. It's a good move." For his part, Volesky said, he never wanted to be identified as the Indian candidate. He believes his stands on a corporate income tax, on education and on prescription drugs for seniors made him a viable candidate for all of the people. That this enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe didn't muster huge blocs of support on the reservations didn't leave him stunned. "As far as the Indian vote goes, it's never been there," he said. "Tell me who says it will ever be there?" It should have been, Peniska and Valandra say. "You've got to shake your head sometimes," Valandra said. "I was sure disappointed that we Lakota people had a good, viable statewide candidate for governor, Ron Volesky, and we didn't back him. "Shame on us for not coming out and supporting him." Reach reporter Steve Young at syoung@argusleader.com or 331-2306. Copyright c. 2002 Copyright Argus Leader. --------- "RE: A Drought like No Other" --------- Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 08:22:30 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DROUGHT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0602drought02.html A drought like no other Mark Shaffer The Arizona Republic June 02, 2002 12:00:00 THE GAP - They've never seen a drought like this before, the elderly, tough-as-nails Navajo ranchers who for generations have herded their sheep, goats and cattle over this moonlike landscape near the Grand Canyon. Where it's so dry, so devoid of life, that the only thing green sprouting this late spring is the occasional prickly strand of a young thistle plant that never will make it to tumbleweed size because the livestock are so hungry. Where the corpses of numerous cows and horses no longer even draw flies. Where 61-year-old Franklin Wilson marvels that even the rattlesnakes have disappeared from their rocky lairs near his corral. The 80 stock ponds of earthen dams in the Bodaway/Gap area of the Navajo Reservation have all been dry for months. Angry words, and sometimes even fights, break out in lengthy lines at a single water-pumping station near the Gap Trading Post. There, ranchers wait their turn, sometimes for three hours, to fill barrels and tanks in the backs of pickups and panel trucks with hundreds of gallons of water for their famished herds. This, nervous Navajo Nation officials fear, is the blueprint for the rest of the largest reservation in the United States unless substantial moisture comes soon. To wit: * More than 7,000 stock ponds are dry across 17 million acres of the reservation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Many of the tribe's 900 windmills, most of them pumping groundwater from shallow, subsurface pools, are expected to stop producing within the next month. * Despite both tribal and federal emergency drought declarations, no money has been forthcoming for aid in buying feed while ranchers nearing destitution pay inflated prices for hay and other staples. * Thousands of head of livestock in the Navajos' $20 million ranching industry are expected to die in coming months unless ranchers adhere to admonitions of tribal officials and get rid of their herds. * Navajo cultural experts fear that the ongoing drought has the potential to significantly weaken, if not destroy, the tribe's world-famous rural traditions, most notably expertise in rug weaving. Those traditions already are in steep decline as younger generations move to cities for employment. There is only one-tenth the number of sheep there was 75 years ago. 'Like another planet' Alex DiNatale, a Navajo Nation hydrologist in Window Rock, calls the drought a "desperate situation." "It looks like another planet off the roads here," he said. "Hundreds of head of livestock have already died, and that's going to be thousands soon if people don't move quickly to get rid of their herds. There's nothing left for the animals to eat except rabbit brush and greasewood, and they are both like poison." And there's little help, if any, for ranchers coming from the tribe. Gap/Bodaway officials said they received only $20,000 in emergency funding last year, which was targeted for humans. Thomas Tso, a range conservationist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said the far western part of the reservation has received $280,000 during the past three years, but the money has been earmarked for water catchment basins and fencing. The situation is most desperate, DiNatale said, on the far western part of the reservation in Arizona in the Bodaway/Gap and Cameron areas, where locals say it hasn't rained since last fall. The national Weather Service's only reporting station on the reservation, 100 miles away at Canyon de Chelly, has reported just more than one-third of an inch since Jan. 1, about 12 percent of normal. The Navajo Reservation is the driest place in the state, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center. It is also extremely dry on the far eastern part of the reservation, in New Mexico, where a tribal ranger went through a traumatic experience earlier this month. "There was nine head of cattle which were standing by a busy roadway because they had spotted a little green," DiNatale said. "But they were like the living dead, eyes rolled back in their heads, ribs sticking out, not responsive to anything around them. So, the ranger got his gun and shot and killed all of them. They were a danger to vehicles." Daily reminder of devastation Michael and Laura Jensen of Gray Mountain definitely understand what those cattle were going through. They are living with Michael's 73-year-old grandmother, Jean Jensen, in a hogan in a small valley at the foot of Gray Mountain in the southwestern corner of the Cameron chapter, a local governing unit on the reservation. They have been helping the widowed, elderly Jensen through these most difficult times as she tries to maintain her herd of 130 sheep. The Jensens have taken in three maverick calves during the past two weeks, all of whose mothers succumbed to the drought. The remains of one of the mother cows, visible on the family's daily water and hay runs, serve as a reminder of their precarious predicament. The cow, tongue implanted in the surface crust of the ground, died where there was once a huge pond beneath large, hydroelectric transmission lines. On this day, the Jensens have bought three bales of hay for the sheep herd and powdered milk for the calves, and filled two 55-gallon barrels with water, then made the 7-mile trip back to their home west of U.S. 89. Finding water to haul from the Cameron community is quite the task these days. Sherry Billy, community service coordinator for the chapter, said a lone spigot at the chapter house can't be used because of corrosion and other problems, which means the closest water for public use is 27 miles away in Tuba City. One stock tank near Gray Mountain has some water in it, and its popularity with nearby herds has ground the top 6 inches of the earthen dam into a fine powder that dust devils suck up with regularity. After the Jensens return home, the thirsty sheep surge forward to three metal wash basins that have been filled with water, like humans mounting a Third World city bus. Within 30 seconds, each of the wash basins has been sucked dry. "If we stop doing this, what else can we do? What becomes of our culture?" Michael Jensen asked. He said his only other interest lies in listening to death-metal music, taking hallucinogens and painting pictures of subject matter such as a snarling dragon emerging from a fire-red ocean, which he has mounted on the hogan wall. Nature is the bogeyman The Navajos have faced these kinds of cultural crises before. But it was always the U.S. government that was the bogeyman, not nature. In 1863, tribal members were rounded up and herded by the Army 300 miles away to near Fort Sumner, N.M., the infamous "Long Walk." Those who survived returned to the reservation five years later. They prospered greatly in the next few decades, building up huge herds of sheep, about 1.4 million head at the apex in 1915, and getting the federal government to expand reservation boundaries numerous times. But, as the Great Depression deepened and with much of the Colorado Plateau chewed to the nub, the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs ordered massive stock reductions. More than 300,000 head of livestock were killed on the reservation, and hatred of the BIA continues to this day, especially among the elderly. "BIA - Bossing Indians Around," Franklin Wilson said sarcastically as he motored his pickup around his traditional lands. "The memories of that are still very strong, and many ranchers are digging in their heels and trying to save their herds no matter how much water they have to haul and feed they have to buy," said Dorothy Lee, coordinator of the Bodaway/Gap chapter. That's changing, however. Wilson said he plans to haul four of his older cows to a livestock sale in Cedar City, Utah. He pointed to a pickup owned by the neighboring Nakai family, with a cattle trailer in tow, descending a high-desert switchback. "Looks like they've decided to do the same thing," Wilson said. 'The rains will come again' But 73-year-old Mervin Hardy, vice president of the Bodaway/Gap chapter, isn't giving in, despite the 10 cows he has seen perish in the past month and daily expenses of $60 for hay, water and gasoline to tend to his herd of 55 cattle and 150 sheep. Hardy said he takes in $1,200 a month from his chapter job and Social Security and disability payments. He is using savings and money from his children to make up the difference. "I may have to reduce my herd by half in a month," Hardy said through a Navajo translator. "But I will never quit. The rains will come again." That better be soon for the sake of cultural heritage, said Peter Iverson, an Arizona State University history professor and Navajo expert. "This (drought) is clearly a transitional period for the old elements of the Navajo culture, and it's challenging to say the least," Iverson said. "Raising livestock is central to the culture, as is the use of language, and those are the two things most threatened. It's a very problematic time." Reach the reporter at mark.shaffer@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8057. Copyright c. 2002 azcentral.com. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Blaze destroys old Wanblee Schoolhouse" --------- Date: Fri, 7 Jun 2002 08:15:22 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WANBLEE FIRE" http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/display/inn_news/news06.txt Blaze destroys old Wanblee schoolhouse By Heidi Bell Gease, Journal Staff Writer WANBLEE - Fire destroyed an old schoolhouse in Wanblee early Wednesday, sending a family's plans for the building up in smoke. "We wanted to open up a library and museum of the area," Manuela Irma Maldonado said. "The thing I feel badly about is this historical site is gone." Three generations of the Maldonado family attended class at Wanblee Public School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation before it closed in the early 1990s. Maldonado said the building was privately owned, and she and her husband, Clifford Maldonado, were in the process of buying it. They planned to start renovations this summer with help from a Minnesota youth group. Meanwhile, power was shut off in the schoolhouse, which the Maldonados used to store furniture, appliances, a few antiques, and even some bikes they planned to fix up and give to kids who needed them. All that was lost Wednesday. The Maldonados received a call from Oglala Sioux Tribal Police about 1:30 a.m. telling them the school was on fire. Firefighters responded from Longvalley and Kadoka, which is 30 miles away, but they were too late to save much. The building was destroyed. But the worst part is this: The Maldonados believe the fire was set intentionally. Kadoka Volunteer Fire Chief John Madsen said he has notified the state fire marshal, but it will be up to the fire marshal and the Bureau of Indian Affairs Criminal Investigations Division to decide what happens next. Maldonado is so sure it was arson that she's offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone responsible. Call 462-6250 for details. "Something good was there," she said. "Something good could have come out of there, and then this happens." The family has experienced crime before. They live on a ranch, but when they owned a small store in Wanblee, they often stayed there overnight to prevent vandalism and theft. The school has been broken into before, and small fires have been set nearby, she said. "The thing is, all this is going on and nothing is done about it, so they continue," Maldonado, who is American Indian, said. "It's like you're always living on edge on the reservation." Her teen-aged son, Quinton, is angry. "It makes me feel like I could go on a vandalism spree myself," he said, "but that's not how I was raised." His mother is frustrated too, but she's not ready to give up. "I still would like to build a library," she said. "I feel that poverty breeds all this negativism, but there's always that hope ... We're still working towards positive things." Call reporter Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419, or e-mail her at heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com. Copyright c. 2002 The Rapid City Journal. --------- "RE: Allottees Testify on Federal Royalty Nonpayment" --------- Date: Sun, 9 Jun 2002 14:22:12 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ALLOTTEES" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.thenavajotimes.com/tribalnws.html Allottees testify on federal royalty nonpayment By Sararesa Begay The Navajo Times June 9, 2002 BLOOMFIELD, N.M. - June 6, 2002 -- Pauline MacCauley, an Individual Indian Monies recipient, had to pawn her valuables and sold 12 of her cows to supplement her dwindling personal income since late last November when she didn't receive her monthly payment. "We are so frustrated," MacCauley said. "I pawned all my belongings ... all these people are being reported for bad credit, and I don't think they should and getting repossession." MacCauley, 60, of Huerfano, N.M., along with many other Navajo IIM recipients, gathered at the Bloomfield Cultural Complex May 31 to testify about their financial difficulties during a two-part Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing. During the second portion of the hearing, more than 60 Navajos, mostly from the Eastern Agency, listened and learned why and what may be done to get the six-month problem of not being paid by the Minerals Management Service finally fixed. The agencies involved in the processing and distribution of allottees' royalty checks are MMS, Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of Trust Funds Management. U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., chairman of the energy panel, convened the hearing to examine inspection and enforcement of oil and gas leaks specifically managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Bingaman and his staff also reviewed efforts by the Interior Department to resolve problems with natural resource royalty payments to Navajo allottees. The ongoing problems of not paying the numerous allottees who reside mostly in the New Mexico communities of Huerfano, Nageezi, Carson and Counselor is a result of "a combination of foul-ups and of missteps," Bingaman said. "We've obviously leaned heavily on the Interior to give us a road map," Bingaman said. Bingaman said he learned of the IMM issue when a number of Navajo allottees complained to his office. The six-month delay occurred when the Department of Interior had to shutdown their computers and Internet capability due to the stipulations placed on the federal government by Judge Royce C. Lamberth in the Cobbell vs. Norton case on Nov. 21, 2001. The computer shut down is now delaying royalty payments to thousands of Native Americans. The disorder is simply unacceptable, Bingaman said, the Navajo people deserve answers from the Interior Department regarding royalty payments. The Interior Department was ordered by a federal judge to shut down the royalty accounts computer system last year because the system appeared vulnerable to tampering, Bingaman said in a May 31 news release. "As a result, Navajos and other Native Americans stopped receiving royalty checks last November," Bingaman said. "While in late March, the department reactivated a majority of the computers that issue Indian trust payments, problems still remain." Bingaman said there are a lot of rumors and confusion about the computer shutdown, estimated payments, and the reconciling accounts now that the MMS computer system is functional again. "In addition, I'm sure everyone would like to know exactly when the royalty payments will be issued in accordance with a normal payment schedule," Bingaman said. Over the past few months, the Navajo Nation has been working with federal agencies to work out a solution, said Arvin Trujillo, chief of staff for President Kelsey Begaye. During January, Trujillo said the Navajo Nation appropriated $534,276 to provide one-time grants to eligible Navajo allottees. "Unfortunately, few affected allottees took advantage of the Navajo Nation's grants, as they falsely believed that if they accepted this grant, this income would affect their eligibility status, which would result in their not qualifying for social services program," Trujillo explained. The $534.276 grant will remain in place, Trujillo said, adding that an audit will be conducted and the Navajo Nation will request a refund of the expended amount from the federal government. "The Navajo allottees in the Nageezi community are deeply concerned and disappointed that IMM has not resumed payments since the computer shutdown, " said Calvert Garcia, president of the Nageezi Chapter. "The Department of Interior through the BIA has mismanaged billions of dollars through royalty payments from the Navajos." Most of the Nageezi elders rely on the income to meet their basic living needs and to care for their livestock, Garcia said. Garcia and the Nageezi Chapter offered suggestions to Bingaman during the hearing: o Allow Navajo allottees to utilize the Indian Self-Determination Act to create a local IMM payment distribution preferably in Farmington. The current payment process begins with oil and gas companies, then goes to Mineral Management Service in Denver, then to BIA, Gallup-area, and finally to the Office of Trust Funds Management of Albuquerque. Then, lastly, to the allottees. o Coordinate plans so that the companies make direct payment to Navajo allottees. The Farmington Indian Mineral Office would ensure that oil companies make proper and timely payments. o Develop plans for Navajo people to benefit from mineral extraction, such as jobs. Since Nageezi averages a payout of more than $650,000 a month, would it be feasible to have their own Navajo Refinery? At Bingaman's urging, emergency checks were issued in Februaryand a second round of payments was made in March. "Most of the problems discussed today had to do with the timeliness of the payments," Bingman said. Upon his return to Washington, D.C., Bingaman plans to "get some of the answers to some of these questions." Copyright c. 1999-2002 Navajo Times/Navajo Nation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. --------- "RE: Opinion: Native Exchange System in Peril" --------- Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 08:50:19 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ALASKAN SUBSISTANCE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/1234373p-1350618c.html Opinion: Native exchange system in peril Compass By Alan Borass (Published: June 10, 2002) Judging by letters to the editor there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about what subsistence means to Alaska's Native people. Subsistence is only partly about how wild foods are taken. The real point of subsistence is what happens after the food is caught. The State Division of Subsistence has compiled data on how Alaskans use wild food. We know the average Anchorage resident consumes about 222 pounds of meat and fish per year and, of that, only 19 pounds are wild foods. Rural Natives, on the other hand, harvest 375 pounds of wild meat and fish and consume very little grocery store protein. Not only is this almost 20 times the amount of wild food caught by the non-Native household, it is much greater than the total protein consumed by an Anchorage resident. Why? The answer is that Alaska Natives are harvesting more wild foods than they consume, and the excess is exchanged in a network that extends from a local village, to Anchorage, to wherever friends and family reside. Moose meat from Huslia is given to a cousin in a nearby village, or salmon from Koliganak is given to a daughter living in Anchorage. But that is only half of it. A gift given requires a return gift to restore balance, and to not repay a gift breaks the social dance of giver and receiver. Some day the cousin will return the gift of moose meat or maybe it will be beaver meat, and someday the daughter will return the gift of salmon perhaps by coming home to care for an aging mother. Unpaid gifts form bonds between people based on trust. To be an Alaska Native is to participate in gift exchange and the core gifts are wild foods. For thousands of years Native people in Alaska have been institutionalizing trust by exchanging wild foods. Sometimes gifts were exchanged as an expression of love, sometimes gifts were exchanged to form alliances, and sometimes gifts were exchanged to resolve disputes. But always the gifts involved the products of the land. Sometimes the gift- giving was formal as in potlatches, and sometimes it was as simple as showing up at someone's house announcing the magic words of unity, "I have some smoked salmon for you." Perhaps the salmon was a repayment for a past gift, or perhaps it initiated a new gift-giving cycle. Either way a bond, an obligation, and a commitment were formed through sharing food. The complex of people, land and wild foods formed a glue that held the people together based on the principle of reciprocity. Non-Natives might say "But I gave away half my salmon last year!" Yes, but you gave it away because your freezer was full and you wanted room for this year's catch, not because you wanted to participate in gift exchange for the sake of community solidarity. Now the glue of millennia is threatened to be undone. For the most part the anti-subsistence movement has been well-intentioned, advocating constitutional equal access regardless of scarcity. But the consequences of that argument are dire because it means the elimination of subsistence and destruction of the reciprocal exchange system that has been the foundation of Native Alaska's community cohesion for centuries. It doesn't matter that the food was obtained with a gun or a harpoon. What does matter is that Alaska has vibrant, energetic Native communities to parallel its non-Native counterparts. The only way to keep these intact is to preserve the traditional method of forming community cohesion through the exchange of wild food as gifts. We need to protect that tradition with a rural subsistence priority. And if a rural preference is put into law, it will certainly not be the first time in the history of this country that one group had preferential access to resources over another. Alan Boraas is a professor of anthropology at Kenai Peninsula College. Copyright c. 2002 The Anchorage Daily News. --------- "RE: NJ asks NY to Stop Indian Gaming" --------- Date: Fri, 7 Jun 2002 08:15:22 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="STOP NY CASINOS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.onlinecasinonews.com/ocn/article/article.asp?id=1457 Lead in editorial comment from Owlstar Trading Post, Daily Headlines June 7, 2002 http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm Comment: Maybe it's just me, but when I read that a bureaucrat is fired from the Department of Interior because of allegations that he was involved in improper influence with lobbyists and the very next day he offers to lobby for group opposing an Indian casino in California... something smells. Also on the casino front - New Jersey politicians are begging New York politicians to not permit Indian casinos (that might impact Atlantic City) until the BIA can review its actions for "favoritism." See above for indication of the likelihood that BIA personnel will deliver a fair and honest opinion. Who's got the deepest lobby pockets? Atlantic City or New York tribes? Janet -=-=-=- NJ Asks NY to Stop Indian Gaming By Earl The Press of Atlantic City reports that New Jersey Governor James McGreevey is asking neighboring New York State to impose a moratorium on three new casinos that are proposed to be built by New York tribes 30 miles from the state line, in the resort area of the Catskill Mountains. The governor is asking that approval of the new casinos, which would rival businesses in Atlantic City, be delayed at least until "an investigation into alleged favoritism by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is completed." New Jersey politicians Robert Torricelli, a U.S. Senator, and Congressman Frank LoBiondo have asked Interior Secretary Gale Norton to investigate the "approval process" of the Bureau of Indian Affairs that lead to the success of the application for the New York casinos. They don't like this in New York. Mark Emery, spokesman for the Oneida Indian Nation, said that New Jersey should not interfere. "This is an attack on Indian gaming. What this is trying to do is protect the corporate gaming interests in Atlantic City at the expense of Indian gaming," said Emery. Some estimates claim that the three New York based casinos could take away up to 25% of Atlantic City's $4.6 billion annual gaming business. Copyright c. 2002 Online Casino News. --------- "RE: Fired Official now Lobbying on Indian Gambling" --------- Date: Fri, 7 Jun 2002 08:15:22 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FIRED to LOBBIEST" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/native/Article_Detail.asp?Article_ID=11277 Fired Indian Affairs Official Now Lobbying on Indian Gambling by AP, The Associated Press By Don Thompson, Associated Press Writer Sacramento (AP) _ Four days after he was fired during a federal influence-peddling investigation at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Wayne Smith was offering to lobby on behalf of opponents of a California Indian tribe's planned casino. Smith was fired as the Department of Interior's deputy assistant secretary for Indian affairs effective May 28. Alexander Valley Association President Karen Passalacqua said Smith offered his services to the association Friday. The association is fighting the River Rock Casino proposed by the Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians 75 miles north of San Francisco in Sonoma County. "He suggested he could do some lobbying and whatnot for us," said Passalacqua, who was not at the meeting. Present at the lunch with Smith and an association board member was Danny Walsh, a Sacramento lobbyist and husband of Sacramento attorney Tracey Buck-Walsh. Smith and Buck-Walsh held top-level positions under former California Attorney General Dan Lungren. U.S. Rep. Doug Ose, R-Sacramento, asked Interior Assistant Secretary Neal McCaleb to probe whether Smith properly handled being lobbied by Buck-Walsh on behalf of the United Auburn Indian Community of Placer County and the Pechanga tribe of Temecula Valley. "I don't do gaming issues, and second of all, Wayne Smith doesn't work for me," Walsh said Tuesday. He said he arranged the meeting with Sonoma County Supervisor Paul Kelley, who has traveled to Washington, D.C., and Sacramento to lobby against the Dry Creek Rancheria casino. Two U.S. senators have asked Interior Secretary Gale Norton to investigate allegations that Smith's friend and former business partner, Philip Bersinger, had asked at least three West Coast Indian tribes to pay him for his influence with Smith. In his meeting Friday, Passalacqua said she was told Smith "seemed to be very straightforward and a very nice man and very knowledgeable, and he says he's totally innocent." Indeed, Smith asked the FBI and Interior's inspector general to investigate his friend's activities. Smith alleges he was fired after he complained that the White House was making "highly inappropriate" calls urging him to reverse a lower-level decision handing control of the Buena Vista Me-Wuk tribe to a blood descendant who opposes the tribe's plans for a $150 million casino near Sacramento. The Alexander Valley Association board will consider Smith's offer of representation Wednesday prior to a public meeting in Geyersville on its casino opposition, said Passalacqua, but is likely to decide it is premature to hire any lobbyist. "We don't want to get political, and it's hard to do in a case like this," she said. Smith did not respond to messages left with Walsh, nor did Smith's attorney return a telephone call Tuesday. Kelley did not return repeated calls. Federal law bans senior federal employees from any "communications or appearances" with their old agency for a year, imposes a two-year ban on lobbying on matters over which they had responsibility, and a lifetime ban on matters in which they were personally and substantially involved, according to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. But there are exceptions, including doing behind-the-scenes work that doesn't involve direct communication. "Virtually every government official knows that a very lucrative second career awaits them,and that's the world of lobbying," said Steven Weiss of the Center for Responsive Politics. "There's a lot they can do that falls just short (of a violation) while they wait for that (one- or two-year) threshold." Just five days after Kevin Gover left his job heading the BIA in January 2001, he wrote California Valley Miwok tribal chair Sylvia Burley asking to represent the tribe for his new employer, the Washington law firm of Steptoe and Johnson. The firm, he noted, already included former BIA deputy commissioner Hilda Manuel; Tom Collier, formerly chief of staff to then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt; and former Babbitt counselor John Duffy. "Silvia," Gover hand-wrote on the letter, "we just weren't able to wrap up your land issue, but don't give up. You have lots of support in the Bureau." The Miwoks also were solicited by Bersinger. Gover granted four tribes recognition just before he left office, over the recommendations of BIA staff, making the tribes eligible for federal benefits and possibly casinos. The decisions were criticized by federal lawmakers and the Interior Department's Inspector General. One of those tribes was Washington state's Chinooks, which also received a solicitation letter from Bersinger. Meanwhile Tuesday, McCaleb said in Washington he named Aurene Martin to replace Smith as acting deputy assistant secretary. Martin was McCaleb's legal counsel, and is of Menominee Indian descent, said spokeswoman Nedra Darling. Martin is a 1993 University of Wisconsin law school graduate. Copyright c. 2002 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Copyright c. 2002 iMinorities, Inc. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Stronger Rules to protect Sacred Indian Sites" --------- Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2002 08:09:51 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SACRED SITES" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.yankton.net/stories/060502/new_0605020023.shtml Senate Eyes Stronger Rules To Protect Sacred Indian Sites By CHRISTOPHER THORNE Associated Press Writer Wednesday, June 5, 2002 WASHINGTON -- Indian leaders from the Great Plains, where the Missouri River was dammed by the Army Corps of Engineers nearly 50 years ago, told the Senate on Tuesday that federal agencies have a long history of disregarding sacred Indian sites. They urged Congress to adopt stricter regulations for how the federal government manages those sites on public lands. In a sign that Congress is taking the issue seriously, Sens. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Col., who lead the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, said they will hold hearings. In the House, Resources Committee Chairman James Hansen, R-Utah, and other GOP leaders have said they would support a bill promised by Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., intended to protect sacred Indian sites. Tex Hall, president of the National Congress of American Indians, said the Army Corps of Engineers promised in 1940 to move Indian burial grounds before the construction of six dams on the Missouri River. The promises were lies, he said. Hall, who also is chairman of North Dakota's Three Affiliated Tribes, told the Indian Affairs Committee that existing laws do not go far enough to protect Indian sites. "We feel we are losing ground, so to speak, on the Missouri River," he said. "These were all sites that should have been taken care of before the flooding by the dams." George Dunlop, who oversees the corps as deputy assistant secretary of the Army, acknowledged that the corps "can do better" in understanding the Indian cultural resources on public lands. But he and other corps officials said the agency, which is responsible for operating more than 500 major water projects, has taken dramatic steps in recent years to protect Indian resources, such as training staff, hiring 70 Indians to work as contacts with tribes, and naming a headquarters group to address tribal issues. Indian tribes have been lobbying Congress intensely for legislation to sharpen legal protection of such places as medicine wheels, healing springs, and winter lodges that were left behind when the federal government forced tribes off their land. The issue drew attention last spring when prairie and Rocky Mountain Indians appeared on Capitol Hill to protest the proposed drilling of a wildcat oil well in a Montana valley held by the Bureau of Land Management. The valley, known among whites as Weatherman Draw but among Indians as Valley of the Chiefs, holds a centuries-old collection of rock art. It is used both as a place for meditation and a meeting place for neighboring tribes. Copyright c. 2002 Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan. --------- "RE: Impunity 22 Years after the Goloncha'n Killings" --------- Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 13:06:00 -0500 From: joewest Subj: Tragedies foretold,then and now,Jun 10 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: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CULTURAL CROSSROADS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp Aboriginal culture at the crossroads Jack Knox Times Colonist (Victoria) Sunday, June 02, 2002 Pauline Alfred says you'd bust a gut if she told you a joke in Kwak'wala. "My language is a very descriptive language," she says. "It's a thousand times funnier than English. You'll laugh for an hour." Alas, there's not a big demand for Kwak'wala-speaking comedians these days. Seven years ago, a survey showed that of the 4,000 Kwakwaka'wakw people -- their traditional territory stretches from Comox in the south, right up to the top of Vancouver Island and into the mainland inlets -- just 280 were fluent in the language. The number has probably dropped since then. That worries Pauline, who has been teaching Kwak'wala at Alert Bay's First Nations school since 1976. It bugs her that the kids at the Chinese restaurant can talk to their parents in Cantonese, but so many Kwakwaka'wakw speak only English. But history doesn't hold much promise. Minority languages tend to get swallowed by the dominant culture. B.C. is full of people who don't speak the language of their grandparents. Those kids in the restaurant may know Chinese, but will their own children speak? This is vital stuff for Alert Bay, the only community on Cormorant Island, a 45-minute ferry ride from Port McNeill. More than half of the 1,500 people scattered along the island's four kilometres are aboriginal. Almost all the natives belong to the 'Namgis first nation, one of some 15 Kwakwaka'wakw tribes. Which means that Pauline isn't just some cobwebbed academic muttering wistfully about a dead language. She's a woman concerned for a living culture. The question is, can that culture survive the loss of language, the decline of traditional food sources and the downturn in the resource economy, not to mention MuchMusic, Jay Leno and all the other overwhelming influences of the non-native world? "I see the emergency light flashing off and on now," Pauline says. "People have to get very serious and get in there to preserve our language. It's the root of our identity." Language is woven into everything: traditional foods, history, land, treasure boxes. Treasure what? Every family owns a treasure box, explains Pauline, a set of rights to things both tangible and intangible: songs, masks, dances, blankets, names. Some of the concepts get a little difficult to grasp for White Boy here (as does the pronunciation of Kwakwaka'wakw; try Kwak-wak-ya-wak). Still, it's quickly evident that there's a complex and deeply rooted way of life that infuses, to varying degrees, everyday existence among the 'Namgis. It's evident in everything from diet to the definition of family. This is important, because just as being Scottish involves more than throwing on a kilt and getting plastered on Robbie Burns Day, sustaining aboriginal culture means living the traditions. Examples abound. When there's a food fishery, the chiefs and elders are taken care of first. The fish might end up getting bartered for herring roe or elk meat. "Trade still does occur between tribes and other first nations on the coast," says Andrea Sanborn, interim executive director of the U'mista Cultural Centre. Natives in Alert Bay may watch The Simpsons, drink Coke and worry about car payments, but they also still peel cedar bark in the traditional manner, blessing the tree and the Creator. The skeleton of the first salmon of the year is returned to the sea in a gesture of gratitude. "Maybe we have Saks Fifth Avenue clothing on now instead of cedar bark robes, but the culture carries on, is still respected," says Sanborn. "It's part of our daily life." People like Pauline Alfred can take solace in the knowledge that it has lasted until now, even through the dark, bygone days in which the government decided that the best thing for the Indians was to, well, stop being Indian. Despite the best efforts of the authorities to snuff out the language, to ban the potlatch and force the natives to surrender all the masks, whistles and associated paraphernalia, Kwakwaka'wakw traditions survived, at least in those isolated communities that were beyond the reach of the law. Up in Kingcome Inlet, where Pauline was born 63 years ago, frozen waters created cultural barriers behind which natives could hide. "We danced and danced all winter. They didn't know we were dancing up there. We kept our culture really strong." And then came the day that, at age six, she was taken away to the Anglican-run residential school in Alert Bay. "I didn't know a word of English. My first language was Kwak'wala." For the next seven years, she endured the now-familiar story: "Wham, we got slapped, or had our hair pulled, if they heard us speaking Kwak'wala. How did they expect us to talk?" The residential schools erased native languages for many. But summers back home at Kingcome, or on Gilford Island, made the difference for Pauline. "When we went home, all we heard was Kwak'wala." She says it's a beautifully nuanced language, laced with such terms of endearment as ka'la'yu -- "you're my reason for living." It's still what flows naturally when Pauline is on the phone to her siblings. "I am a bigtime survivor of the residential school system," she says proudly. "I can still speak my native tongue." She credits her grandmother and her grandmother's brothers and sisters with passing on the old ways, things Pauline calls upon when overseeing potlatches -- held when there are weddings, or memorials, when a chieftainship is passed, or when kids are given names and rights in the Big House. Pauline is anxious for young people to learn the same traditions -- which is why she's delighted when someone like William Wasden, Jr., learns the ancient songs. "I really thinks he's an old soul." An old soul, but a young man. On this day, the 34-year-old is just back from Dzawadi (that's Knight Inlet, to you and me) where he and 20 others have spent three weeks fetching the year's supply of oolichan oil. Hooligan what? Oolichan oil. "It's a sauce, just like ketchup or HP," says Steve Beans. Well, maybe not just like ketchup. It's an acquired taste -- but if you're Kwakwaka'wakw, you acquire it early. "The oolichan is the backbone of all our food," says Beans, who skippered one of the expedition's two boats. It's a fish, like a smelt, so greasy that they say you can burn it like a candle. Each spring for time immemorial, the Kwakwaka'wakw have netted the oolichan, ripening the catch for several days in pits dug on the riverbanks. The fish are then cooked in freshwater, with the oil skimmed off the surface and repeatedly screened to remove impurities before being bottled. "It's strained at least six times before it hits the jugs," says Wasden. They made 1,000 litres of the stuff on this trip. The oil, or grease, is packed with nutrition and is highly prized. It's worked into all sorts of recipes. (At least once a week Pauline Alfred makes a fish soup flavoured with oolichan oil and sprinkled with seaweed. "Man, that's good when you've got a cold," she says.) Sounds like the perfect meal for the 61-year-old Beans. "I'm hardly a meateater. Everything's off the sea, mostly." Why would you want some processed crud from the grocery store when you can chow down on a fry-up of freshly caught oolichan? But there are concerns about the natural foods that form the basis of the traditional diet. The salmon don't return to the Nimpkish like they used to. Hunting has been snarled in a tangle of regulation. Plants once gathered for food are now on logging company land. E. coli has been found in shrimp and prawns. Cod stocks are down, and some have black stuff in them. Deformed sole have been pulled up. Many worry about the effect of fish-farm waste. Beans refers to agricultural practices that led to the spread of mad cow disease in Britain. "Is the fish farm industry following in their footsteps?" Certainly Alert Bay has been rocked by the collapse of the wild salmon fishery. When the federal government brought in the Mifflin Plan back in 1996, buying back commercial licences to reduce the size of the fishing fleet, it spelled the end of a way of life that has supported the community for generations. Eighty per cent of Alert Bay's licences were lost, taking more than 100 direct fishing jobs and hammering the economy they supported. Some people, like Beans, hung in, being "too old to change and too young to quit." He owns one seiner on his own, has a half share in another. Staying in the industry has cost him a lot of money, what with the new licence structure and gear requirements. But it keeps 10 people working. And at least he had the choice of whether to stay. Many of the guys who had minority interests in boats or worked for the big fishing companies found themselves high and dry when the licences were bought out. Pauline Alfred's son George, now 45, is among the former fishermen left with little alternative after being idled. "A lot of us didn't get education because we thought we'd fish forever." The statistics bear that out. The 1996 census showed just 14 per cent of 'Namgis band members aged over 15 had graduated from high school. George is concerned that pattern will continue, though without the safety net of the commercial fishery to fall back on. School only goes to Grade 7 in Alert Bay. Anything after that means catching a ferry to Port McNeill. For the past couple of years high school students have been able to catch a shuttle boat at 8 a.m., returning at 4 p.m., but future funding is uncertain. The alternative is catching a B.C. Ferry at 6:55 a.m., getting back to Cormorant Island at 5:30 p.m. Who wants five years of that? It raises the spectre of another generation with not enough education in a community with not enough jobs and too many drugs. If there is a salvation, it may come from the fledgling tourism sector. The natives of Alert Bay have discovered they're not the only ones interested in Kwakwaka'wakw culture. "There's been huge, huge interest shown around the world," says Lillian Hunt, who admits she went "kicking and screaming" when she switched from fishing to tourism five years ago. Hunt does guided walking tours of Cormorant Island. Visitors can also watch a cultural dance performance, enjoy a salmon barbecue, take a tour on a converted fishboat, or visit the impressive U'mista Cultural Centre to shop for art or gaze at potlatch paraphernalia reclaimed from museums around the world. A new company, Waas Eco-Cultural Adventures, offers a variety of educational journeys. "You can't stay in Alert Bay without a million-dollar view," Hunt says. "There are lots of B&Bs opening up right now." There's been a surge in visitors from Holland, where a Kwakwaka'wakw village has been replicated at a marine theme park. Mini-cruiseships now stop in Alert Bay. There's also been packaging with non-native tourism operators such as Stubbs Island Whale Watching in nearby Telegraph Cove and Nimmo Bay Resort on the mainland coast, outfits that share the same environmental values. The 'Namgis and the municipality of Alert Bay have formed a joint venture to promote ecological and cultural tourism, and are building a fishing pier together. That seems typical of what George Alfred says is a good relationship between natives and non-natives. There aren't a lot of barriers on Cormorant Island. "They sneeze, we catch cold. We sneeze, they catch cold. " George, who attended Victoria's Reynolds secondary back in 1973, can't see living anywhere else than Alert Bay. "It's part of me. It's part of us. " Not for him the life of people he has heard referred to as "driftwood" - -- those who float from place to place. "This is like heaven." Steve Beans explains the attraction. "You're still free. You can still turn around without paying. You've got no traffic lights to run and catch. " But what about the younger ones? Why would they stay? "My grandmother's here, first of all," says Wasden. He moved to Victoria for school -- "Do or die for Vic High, the black and gold" -- but returned to Alert Bay after graduation. Family is important on Cormorant Island. Tighter, too. Wasden says first cousins are considered to be brothers and sisters, great aunts and great uncles are seen as grandparents. Sure, he says, it's fun to hit the city with a pocket full of cash and buy expensive sneakers, to feel like part of the rest of society now and again. But then, nobody in Alert Bay would say anything if he walked around in gumboots every day: "You don't have to impress anybody. You're just yourself here." And just like Pauline Alfred, he feels the responsibility to keep the cultural flame burning. "I guess I was passed the torch by some really good teachers," he says. "The Creator gives you gifts and talents. If you don't use them, they can be taken away." jknox@times-colonist.com Copyright c. 2002 Times Colonist (Victoria). --------- "RE: Talks to clarify Native Treaty Rights" --------- Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 08:50:19 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MI'KMAQS TREATY RIGHTS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.canada.com/search/site/story Talks to clarify native treaty rights By BRIAN FLINN - The Daily News Mi'kmaqs, the province and Ottawa opened a new round of negoatiations yesterday that could fill in huge gaps in the 18th-century treaties that established native rights in Nova Scotia. Thirteen native chiefs representing 12,000 on-reserve natives, provincial Justice Minister Michael Baker and federal Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault yesterday signed an umbrella agreement that sets out the rules for talks that will likely drag on for years. "It will be a difficult road," Millbrook Chief Lawrence Paul said. "But it's a beginning." Negotiators will try to resolve disputes over land claims, fishing and other resource rights, culture and self-government. The signing took place after a sweet-grass ceremony in Province House's Red Room, which houses a table reputed to have been used by British Governor Edward Cornwallis to collect Mi'kmaq scalps. An 18th-century proclamation putting a bounty on native scalps was only rescinded by Ottawa last year, one of the natives' conditions for starting negotiations. Lingering disputes over Mi'kmaq rights came to a head in 1999 when the Supreme Court of Canada recognized their treaty rights to hunt, gather and trade resources such as fish and minerals. That set into motion a sometimes violent fishing dispute in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Membertou Chief Terrance Paul said he's not prepared to extinguish any rights historically claimed by Mi'kmaqs under what some call a vague and archaic-sounding 1760 treaty signed with the British. "Our treaties are very sacred to us " they are a chain that links us to our ancestors," he said. "We cannot allow this chain to be broken." bflinn@hfxnews.southam.ca Copyright c. 2002 The Daily News. --------- "RE: United Nations on Racism: Case of Dudley George" --------- Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 11:36:54 -0500 From: frosty@frostys.qc.ca (www.frostys.qc.ca) Subj: June 5, 2002 newsgroup: alt.native June 5, 2002 Dear Friends and Allies, RE: Report to the United Nations on Racism and the Case of Dudley George On September 6, 1995, Dudley George, an Aboriginal man of Pottawatomi heritage, died during a non-violent protest. He was defending the and, treaty and cultural rights of his People - the Aazhoondenaang Enjibaajiig or Stony Point People. Dudley George, an unarmed man, was gunned down by an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer. Millions of Canadian and First Nation citizens, in their collective voices through more than 100 organizations, have called for a Public Inquiry into Ipperwash. The Ontario Tories have made it clear they have no intention of ever calling an Ipperwash Inquiry, leaving the complete burden for uncovering the truth to private citizens such as Dudley George's family, legal counsel, and activist organizations. After exhausting all avenues for an inquiry, we are taking this matter to the United Nations Committee responsible for reviewing Canada's performance on implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). This international human rights hearing will be held in Geneva, August 13 and 14, 2002. The actions that took place at Ipperwash violate the International Convention On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in various ways. For example, the very nature of the OPP response was racist by definition, violating Article 2.a of the CERD. The State authority targeted the Stoney Point protestors and used excessive force because the protestors were Aboriginal. One of the reasons we say this with certainty is because of documents obtained by the Coalition for a Public Inquiry through federal Access to Information legislation. These documents show that the Department of National Defense (DND) was collecting information that linked the Stoney Point occupation to other Native "standoffs" in which firearms were used. OPP correspondence with DND at the time repeatedly stresses reports of firearm use in the Park both prior to the shooting of Dudley George and following. These reports were never substantiated in the many criminal court cases associated with the police assault at Ipperwash. On the contrary, the justice system concluded that the Stoney Point People were not armed. This judgement concurs with the conclusion reached by Jim Moses, the informer planted by federal authorities, who reported the same observation to federal "intelligence" authorities more than one month before September 6th. The OPP were aware of Moses' conclusions. One of the ways that international human rights bodies, such as the UN committees, get meaningful and honest accounts on the real situation in member nations is through what is called a "Shadow Report". As we did with the Ipperwash issue in regards to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Coalition for a Public Inquiry into Ipperwash will prepare a "Shadow Report" on Ipperwash for the UN Committee that monitors the CERD. We trust no government - Ontario or Canada, both of whom were involved in preparation of Canada's 1993-1997 report on the CERD - to speak the truth about the racism underlying the attack on the Stoney Point People and the death of Dudley George. We will go ourselves to tell the truth, as we know it from almost seven years of work on this issue, directly to the United Nations Committee members. Over the next two months we will need to raise approximately $10,000: CPI Budget to reach the Geneva UN Hearing on Racism in Canada Flight $1,600.00 Accommodation $1,000.00 Food $ 700.00 Local Transit $ 200.00 Office Expenses $1,000.00 Translation Costs $1,000.00 Legal Costs $ 500.00 Honorarium $4,000.00 TOTAL: $10,000.00 This money will be used to research, write a report, and send a First Nations CPI representative, Sharon Gmitroski-Menow (Cree, Norway House), to present our evidence to the United Nations. Because we believe racisms the primary problem facing Aboriginal people in Canada, we are also offering to present to the UN on your behalf any reports of Racial Discrimination against Aboriginal people that you or your organization may wish to write. Donations are payable to the Coalition for a Public Inquiry into Ipperwash with "CERD project" in the memo line. Any additional funds will be forwarded to the Ipperwash Justice Fund. We hope that you will join our movement, by: * supporting Coalition strategy and funding requests; * educating others about the opportunities international forums provide; and, * initiating strategies of your own to participate in these forums. For more information or to make a donation, please contact us at: Box 111, Station C Toronto, Ontario M6J 3M7 Phone: 905-421-9567 Email: stonedancer1@yahoo.ca In Solidarity, Robin Buyers, Sharon Gmitroski-Menow and Ann Pohl (for the Coalition for a Public Inquiry Core Group) --------- "RE: Veterans meet in Saskatoon over Possible Lawsuit" --------- Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2002 08:09:51 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="VETERANS/LAWSUIT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.aborinews.com/contenu/accueil/show.asp?lang=en&id=1221 Indian veterans to meet in Saskatoon over possible lawsuit against Ottawa Tuesday June 4 11:21 PM EST SASKATOON (CP) - Indian war veterans from across Canada will meet in Saskatoon on Thursday - the anniversary of D-Day - to urge the federal government to give them the compensation they feel has been denied them. Thousands of First Nations men fought beside non-native men during the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War but when they returned to Canada, they were not treated as heroes, said Perry Bellegarde, chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations. "Their white brothers were given the opportunity for education, jobs and compensation for their efforts, but First Nations people were sent to their reserves with nothing," Bellegarde said Tuesday at the federation's annual spring legislative assembly in Saskatoon. While Veterans' Affairs Minister Rey Pagtakhan has said the issue is a priority for him, there has been no commitment to a timetable. While non-native veterans received up to $6,000 to settle land upon their return, the maximum for First Nations veterans was $2,320. "And in some cases, there was nothing at all," said Bellegarde. Spousal benefits for non-native women averaged $80 per month, but there was nothing for First Nations women. "The Indian agent controlled everything and said First Nations women don't know how to handle the money," said Bellegarde. "These things are all documented." Korean War veteran Tony Cote said a lot of aboriginal vets died in poverty, uneducated and hungry, while non-native vets were attending college, being trained and getting jobs. "We didn't get that opportunity. We lived under the dictatorship of the Indian agent and went to residential schools," said Cote. "It was like we were battling another war." A statement of claim from Saskatchewan Indian veterans was sent to Ottawa on Dec. 1, 1999, but the government wanted a joint claim that covered the country. "We did that, thinking if we had more people involved, it would make the approval for compensation come quicker," said Cote. "It hasn't." Bellgarde said a compensation package would affect just 1,800 people - 800 vets and 1,000 spouses. He said the federal government has floated the idea of compensation in the range of $123,000 per person while the federation is looking for $420,000. In recent years, the federal government has settled with other veterans who were treated inequitably, including merchant marines and Hong Kong veterans. Copyright c. 2000 Canadian Press. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: FSIN Chiefs vent anger over Justice" --------- Date: Thu, 6 Jun 2002 08:41:34 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SASKATCHEWAN JUSTICE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.aboriginalcanada.gc.ca/abdt/interface/ FSIN chiefs vent anger over justice, treaties Naistus, Wegner inquests haven't answered any questions: Joseph Darren Bernhardt Saskatoon StarPhoenix Thursday, June 6, 2002 Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) vice-chief Lawrence Joseph lashed out at the RCMP and the provincial justice system on Tuesday, saying both have repeatedly failed First Nations people. "When you talk about justice in Saskatchewan it is clearly evident there is absolutely no justice when it pertains to treaty Indian people," he said to a crowd of about 300 chiefs at the annual FSIN spring legislative assembly in Saskatoon. He referred specifically to the recent coroner's inquests into the deaths of Rodney Naistus and Lawrence Wegner, two aboriginal men who were found frozen on the outskirts of Saskatoon. Two Saskatoon police officers were convicted of abandoning a third man in the same area in freezing weather. No police connection was ever made with the Naistus and Wegner deaths. "The chiefs of Saskatchewan have asked me to say on their behalf that it is not acceptable for police to investigate police on any matter whatsoever affecting individuals, First Nations people especially," Joseph said. "That has been proven to be absolutely right as the coroner's inquests have not helped any of us understand what happened." During his address, FSIN Chief Perry Bellegarde also referred to high incarceration rates for Indians, blaming the governments for filling the jails with Native people. "We're 12 per cent of the population but 80 per cent of our people make up the prison population," he said. "It is no longer acceptable that we remain to be the biggest industry for the rest of the province," said Joseph. This week marks the beginning of the northern portion of the public dialogue for the Commission on First Nations and Metis Peoples and Justice Reform. Meetings start in Meadow Lake Wednesday and continue in Beauval and La Loche. Bellegarde also turned his attention to treaty rights, urging First Nations people to reject attempts by Federal Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault to amend the Indian Act and create a new First Nations Governance Act. "It would mean a loss of self-determination and in 40 years, there would be no more status Indians," Bellegarde said. "Our challenge is to have legal effect given to Section 35," he said, referring to the section of the Constitution that recognizes and affirms existing aboriginal and treaty rights. "Our rights have sat in the Constitution for 20 frickin' years doing nothing. We have to get them legally implemented through a new legislative framework package." That package would include jurisdiction in health, education, justice, hunting, fishing, trapping, gathering, lands and resources and royalty sharing, said Bellegarde. "There is no way the province can say they hold title to all the resources and lands. That's ours and it's still unfinished treaty business." Copyright c. 2002 Saskatoon StarPhoenix. --------- "RE: Interior Department approves Zuni Mine" --------- Date: Fri, 7 Jun 2002 08:15:22 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ZUNI MINE" http://www.montanaforum.com/rednews/2002/05/31/build/tribal/zunimine Phoenix utility says Interior Department approves Zuni mine The Associated Press ZUNI PUEBLO, N.M. (AP) - Phoenix-based Salt River Project said Friday the Interior Department has approved its plan for a coal mine in western New Mexico that has been fought by Zuni Pueblo and environmental groups. The permit clears the way for the Arizona utility to develop the 18,000 acre Fence Lake mine on the border of Cibola and Catron counties of northwestern New Mexico. SRP would haul the coal by rail to its electrical generating station in St. John's, Ariz. Electricity from the plant supplies Phoenix and central Arizona. Zuni Gov. Malcom B. Bowekaty was out of his office Friday and not immediately available for comment. The pueblo in the past has threatened to sue if the Interior Department approved the mine. Bob Barnard, manager of the Fence Lake project, said construction should begin soon. He said delivery of the first coal is expected in January 2005. Zuni Pueblo opposes the mine, contending the utility's plan to pump water at the mine threatens to harm Zuni Salt Lake, a brine lake on pueblo land about 12 miles away. The pueblo has formed a coalition with environmental and grassroots groups, vowing to protect the lake, which produces a steady stream of brine from a cinder cone. At least seven tribes have collected salt for their religious ceremonies for hundreds of years. SRP said the mine will bring more jobs to western New Mexico, including more than 100 during construction of the mine and associated 43-mile rail line and 75 to 150 for the duration of mining operations. The utility plans to mine about 80 million tons of coal over the next 50 years. Copyright c. 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. Montana Forum/Copyright c. 2000-2001 Missoulian and Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Dine' $600M Coal Case goes to High Court" --------- Date: Fri, 7 Jun 2002 08:15:22 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DINE' COAL CASE" http://www.gallupindependent.com/todaysnews.html#anchor1 Dine' $600M coal case goes to high court Larry Di Giovanni Staff Writer June 6, 2002 WINDOW ROCK - The fate of $600 million in potential damages that the tribe wants for what it considers lost coal royalty revenue is in the hands of an Albuquerque attorney who also represents the Navajos on other important matters. Paul E. Frye, of the law firm Rothstein, Donatelli, Hughes, Dahlstrom, Schoenburg and Frye, is under contract with the Navajo Nation Oil and Gas Co. and the tribal farm near Farmington, the Navajo Agricultural Products Industry (NAPI). He submitted a 30-page brief May 3 to the U.S. Supreme Court, which opposed a petition by U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson asking the nation's highest court to hear the breach of trust case. On Monday, the Supreme Court granted the U.S. government's request for a writ of certiorari, which means that records from the lower courts will be delivered to the Supreme Court. The nation's highest court will now do what the Navajo Nation did not want to see happen: hold oral arguments on the case, probably in November. The Navajo Nation impressed one federal court with its case and won on its case merits with the other last August, the Court of Federal Claims and Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, respectively. However, the tribe also won at every lower court level before losing a 9-0 decision last year before the highest court on a tribal hotel occupancy tax issue, known as the Atkinson Trading Co. Case. In that precedent-setting matter that Navajo tribal leaders have voiced as the continued erosion of tribal sovereignty, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Navajo Nation cannot apply its 8 percent hotel tax to non- Navajo business owners residing on privately owned land within the exterior boundaries of the reservation. The case involved a maximum of a few hundred thousand dollars yearly that was on the line for the tribe, since the only hotels owned by non-Navajos on the reservation that had been paying the tax were Goulding's at Monument Valley and Atkinson's Cameron Trading Post hotel. This time, $600 million is at stake in a case that has far-reaching ramifications for all tribes as regards how much fiduciary responsibility the federal government has to protect the business interests of tribes for which it is supposed to act as trustee. The case is No. 01-1375 on the high court's docket, United States v. Navajo Nation. "The Bush administration filed the appeal in fears that a payout to the Navajo Nation would not only be expensive, it would set a precedent for other tribal communities with similar trust issues," said Executive Director Michelle Brown-Yazzie of the Navajo Nation Washington Office, Washindoon Baahane. "The outcome of this appeal could have far-reaching ramifications for the rest of Indian Country." In accepting the writ of certiorari, the Supreme Court Monday also agreed with the U.S. Solicitor General to do something else the Navajo Nation did not want to see happen: combine its breach of trust case on coal royalties with another case it will hear jointly, United States v. White Mountain Apache Tribe, case No. 01-1067. The White Mountain case involves that tribe's $14 million suit against the federal government for allegedly not fulfilling its trust obligation by rehabilitating the Fort Apache military post that was transferred to the tribe starting with a congressional act in 1960. The Navajo Nation believes its case is much stronger than the White Mountain Apache case. However, just like the Navajos, the White Mountain tribe won its case last year before the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. "The Court of Appeals noted there that the Apache had not proved a breach of any federal duty ... and it 'expressed no view as to the existence or nature' of any federal duty," Frye wrote in his May 3 brief of opposition to the writ. The Navajo Nation believes that it has a clear breach of trust violation perpetrated by the Interior Department. Its case dates back to the mid 1980s during the Reagan administration, and involved an alleged conspiracy to side with a Peabody Coal Co. lobbyist on the part of then-Interior Secretary Donald Hodel. In 1985, then-Bureau of Indian Affairs Commissioner John Fritz had made a decision to grant the Navajos a 20 percent rate for their coal royalties, based on studies produced by the Bureau of Minerals and BIA's own experts, Frye wrote. "All federal studies determined that the 20 percent rate was proper," Frye said Fritz had determined. The Navajos were able to show through the discovery and deposition processes that the Interior Department "leaked the pending decision to Peabody, but not the Navajo," Frye wrote. "Peabody immediately hired Stanley Hulett, a 'close personal friend' of Secretary Hodel, to seek ex parte the suppression of the decision." The Navajo Nation showed the lower federal courts that Hodel"signed a memorandum prepared by Peabody ... instructing Mr. Fritz not to issue the appeal decision affirming the 20 percent rate." Hodel and Fritz each met at least twice with Hulett, concealing the meetings from Navajos, according to tribal evidence. "Because of the (Interior) Department's dishonesty,'the Navajo Nation, arguably already at a competitive disadvantage, could not truly be said to have negotiated from a position of equality with Peabody,'" tribal lawyers asserted. The Navajo Nation continued to reject Peabody' standing offer to accept the minimum coal royalty rate - 12.5 percent - allowed by the federal government, then finally agreed to that rate due to "severe economic pressures" in 1987. Tribal lawyers showed that the tribe was losing thousands of dollars each day the longer its royalty rate remained unadjusted from previous years, when it was just 37.5 cents per ton. Peabody, however, has noted that the Navajo Nation approved the same 12.5 percent royalty rate again in 1998. "Let there be no mistake," Frye wrote. "Notwithstanding the formal outcome (before the federal appeals court) of this decision, we said that the (Interior) Secretary has indeed breached these basic duties (of loyalty, care and candor). There is no plausible defense for a fiduciary to meet secretly with parties having interests adverse to those of the trust beneficiary, adopt the third parties' desired course of action in lieu of action favorable to the beneficiary, and then mislead the beneficiary concerning these events." Peabody is not a party to the U.S. v. Navajo Nation case. However, the company's position is that the appeals court erred, and that the tribe was paid fair market value for its coal. The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the favor of Navajos last August on a split 2-1 decision. Judge Alvin A. Schall filed the dissenting opinion, saying the Navajos had failed to prove the government violated a specific trust obligation. Frye said the federal government's self-evident breach of trust ranges from deliberately minimizing tribal revenues "from the Navajos' most valuable, nonrenewable resource" to deliberately undermining Navajo interests and its fiduciary responsibility to a tribe. The feds acted in collusion with the adversary of a trust beneficiary as it "knowingly exercised its complete control over royalty adjustments under the lease," Frye argues. Copyright c. 2002 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Navajo $600 Million Ruling at Risk" --------- Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2002 08:19:28 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NAVAJO $600M" http://www.indianz.com/News/show.asp?ID=2002/06/04/navajo TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 2002 The Supreme Court took its second Indian law dispute of the term on Monday, agreeing to consider whether the Navajo Nation is owed as much as $600 million for a federally-approved coal mining lease whose provisions were unfavorable to the tribe. The tribe won its landmark breach of trust case last fall when a federal appeals court said damages were owed for a deal containing a royalty rate below standard market value. In a split decision, a three-judge panel of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals said Navajo officials -- "facing severe economic pressures" -- were forced to accept the contract even though better conditions, kept hidden, had been approved. The ruling was a significant victory for the nation's largest tribe which has seen mining on its lands since the 1960s. Peabody Coal, the world's biggest coal conglomerate, operates in the Black Mesa region in northeastern Arizona. The win now faces a reversal by a Supreme Court most tribal leaders and their advocates characterize as unfriendly to Indian Country. "There's always the chance we may lose," said Ray Baldwin Louis, the press officer for Navajo Nation President Kelsey Begaye. "Hopefully," he added, "[a decision] will be in favor of the nation." The dispute reaches to the Reagan administration, when the tribe's contracts with Peabody were up for renegotiation. Based on a federal law establishing a minimum 12.5 percent royalty rate, the Bureau of Indian Affairs approved a higher term of 20 percent. The provision was improved on what the tribe had been receiving -- 37.5 cents per ton, or just 2 percent of total proceeds. But Peabody disputed the new agreement and enlisted the services of lobbyist Stanley Hulett to appeal the contract. Hulett happened to be a personal friend of then-Secretary of Interior Donald P. Hodel and the two met secretly, without the tribe's knowledge, in 1985 to discuss the deal. Subsequently, the tribe was told no decision was reached on the favorable provision when in fact it was upheld by an internal Department of Interior review. Negotiations between the parties resulted in an agreement with the 12.5 percent rate, which has been intact ever since. "It can not be reasonably disputed that the Secretary's actions were in Peabody's interest and contrary to the Navajo's interest," Circuit Judge Pauline Newman wrote in August 2001. Circuit Judge Alvin A. Schall filed a dissenting opinion in the case and said the tribe failed to prove the government violated a specific trust obligation. "That has not been done," he wrote. Solicitor General Ted Olson, a Bush appointee, seized on the disagreement in briefs filed this year. Not only did he dispute the existence of a trust relationship, he said the lower court's decision could lead to other tribal victories. "The decision below will encourage the filing of damages claims against the United States for breach of trust," he wrote on March 15. "At a minimum, such a development will subject the United States to costly litigation." Attorneys for the Navajo Nation urged the Court to reject an appeal in a May 3 opposition brief. "Honest consultation with, not deception of, Indian tribes is the cornerstone of the modern federal-tribal relationship, " they wrote. Oral arguments in the case are expected this November. In a new development, the Court agreed to consider the Navajo dispute and one affecting the White Mountain Apache Tribe of Arizona at the same time. Both cases deal with the limitations of the trust relationship, although the Apache Tribe seeks considerably less, $14 million, in order to repair crumbling buildings at an old Army fort the government promised to hold in trust under a 1960 federal law. The same appeals court last May ruled the tribe was owed money. Copyright c. 2000-2002 Noble Savage Media, LLC/Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: A Matter of Trust" --------- Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2002 08:19:28 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NAVAJO TRUST" http://www.indianz.com/News/show.asp?ID=2002/06/04/trust A matter of trust, and a decades-old 'folly' TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 2002 The Court finds that the United States violated the most fundamental fiduciary duties of care, loyalty and candor. -- U.S. District Judge Lawrence M. Baskir. Navajo v. U.S. February 4, 2000. It's not always easy for a government official to remember what happened a decade ago. But it's not so hard to recall what didn't. Just ask former Secretary of Interior Donald P. Hodel. When confronted with a 1985 meeting secretly held with a lobbyist and personal friend who represented a company opposed to a coal agreement with terms favorable to the Navajo Nation, he offered up this explanation under oath. "The decision-maker isn't suppose [sic] to talk to one of the two sides while he is in the process of making a decision or may be in the process of making a decision," he said. The reason, he added, "goes to fundamental fairness." Calling such meetings "folly," he said in his 1995 sworn deposition that he "expect people who dealt with me inside and outside the Department [of Interior] would have known that I would have been pretty firm on that as a matter of practice." The inference was that the meeting with Stanley Hulett, a lobbyist for the world's largest mining company, didn't happen because it wasn't conceivable. The Reagan administration never engaged in "folly," Hodel said ten years later. U.S. District Judge Lawrence M. Baskir of the Federal Court of Claims, agreeing with the Navajo Nation, thought otherwise. Government memoranda, which were kept hidden from the tribe for 11 years, and documents belonging to Peabody Coal, the company which has mined Navajo and Hopi lands since the 1960s, supported the tribe's characterization of the events as pure "deception." "Although Mr. Hodel's memory fails him on this point, the evidence is overwhelming that he did what he condemns," wrote Baskir. The ruling was clear: the United States didn't live up to its trust responsibilities. "We conclude that the defendant, acting through former Secretary Hodel, violated the most basic common law fiduciary duties owed the Navajo Nation," Baskir wrote. But, in what was then a setback for the tribe, Baskir said there was no law, treaty or otherwise on the books which would allow the tribe to collect money -- up to $600 million -- for the misdeeds. "Regrettably, we also conclude that the trust relationship necessary for our jurisdiction does not exist, and these violations do not mandate monetary relief, both as required by our jurisdictional precedents," he added. That distinction, which was noted by a dissenting federal appeals court judge whose peers subsequently found reason to award the tribe damages, is what the Bush administration is banking on the Supreme Court to seize upon when it hears the dispute in what could be one of the most anticipated Indian law cases in years. But perhaps more importantly, the case highlights an often-ignored truth about the Indian trust relationship: it exists largely only when the United States says it does. Without specific laws, regulations or mandates, whether the government owes anything to a tribe depends on what Solicitor General Ted Olson, a Bush appointee, called a "threshold" question in briefs filed this year. Or, as some tribes might hope, a sympathetic judge. "Implicated in every instance is the delicate balance struck between exercising fiduciary responsibilities and respecting tribal sovereignty and self-determination, " wrote Baskir last year. Whether that exists in the dispute at hand and another one affecting the White Mountain Apache Tribe of Arizona is now in the hands of the Court. In what will likely turn out to be a testy decision worthy of last year's Nevada v. Hicks case, the Justices are set to hear arguments later this year. Copyright c. 2000-2002 Noble Savage Media, LLC/Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Twin honors won by Blackfeet Conservation Officer" --------- Date: Thu, 6 Jun 2002 08:41:34 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BLACKFEET OFFICER HONORED" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://triangle.townnews.com/display/inn_glacier_reporter/news/news3.txt Twin honors won by Blackfeet Conservation Officer Little Dog BY JOHN MCGILL GLACIER REPORTER EDITOR Thursday, June 06, 2002 After 13 years on the job as Conservation Officer for Blackfeet Fish and Wildlife, Howard Little Dog was named 2002 Conservation Officer of the Year by the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society, as well as earning a certificate of recognition from the Blackfeet Tribe. The national organization said its honor was given Little Dog "in appreciation for your outstanding dedication and contribution toward the protection and preservation of the nation's vital natural resources." The Blackfeet Tribe offered its recognition "for his outstanding achievements and dedication to the Fish & Game Department," signed by the entire Blackfeet Tribal Business Council on May 29. "I've always been an outdoor person," Little Dog said Thursday, "hunting, fishing and trapping. I'm dedicated to preserving fish and wildlife." Little Dog responded to an advertisement in the newspaper years ago and was selected along with two other applicants by the personnel department at the Blackfeet Tribe to become game wardens. Together with Fred Crossguns, Galen Blackman and Sam Juneau, Little Dog patrols the 1.5 million acres of Blackfeet country, checking for permits and seeing to the welfare of the Reservation's animal resources. "You know it's a full-time job," Little Dog commented. He and the other wardens are on call 24 hours per day to apprehend violators, respond to bear calls and everything else that can and does come up. "My family understands it's the job I've chosen to do," Little Dog said of the adjustments necessary to accommodate his schedule. Blackfeet Fish and Wildlife works closely with Blackfeet Law Enforcement. "We report crimes on the Reservation, assist with Search and Rescue and whatever is needed," he said. A love of wildlife and the outdoors may have inspired Little Dog to apply for his job, but a commitment to the health and well being of the Reservation's animal life is what has kept him at it. "That's what they call our department," he said, "Fish and Wildlife. The focus should be on enhancements and restoration of big game and fisheries. Our job is to protect and preserve fish and wildlife for our children and grandchildren so they can enjoy the same privileges as we do with hunting and fishing." Little Dog credits Lewistown biologist Robin Wagner for nominating him for the national award, and he is due for an official honoring ceremony by the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council during North American Indian Days. Copyright c. 2002 Golden Triangle Newspapers. --------- "RE: South Dakota Questions how Bones got at Site" --------- Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 08:11:25 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SOUTH DAKOTA BS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.argusleader.com/news/Saturdayfeature.shtml [Editorial Comment from Owlstar Trading Post - Daily Headlines http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm Okay, I've been irritated, even annoyed by some events this week, but Friday's goings-on in court in South Dakota put me into pure sputtering outrage. First, the state's attorney wants to cast doubt on how Indian bones came to be found near a river where Indian tribes have lived for centuries "They had to get there somehow," he says, in a stunning flash of courtroom brilliance. That they did. May I suggest a simple answer? Indians died. Their people buried them. Over centuries, with a lot of Indians, that comes up to a lot of bones. The suggestion that they were planted there recently is beyond improbable. One wonders how the present- day Indians would have come by a couple of truckloads of human bones ancient enough to "pass" for an old burial grounds in order to plant them there, had they been so deficient in traditional respect as to do such a thing. The crowning comment came when he questioned the validity of oral tradition as proof that a Yankton woman was related to the people buried on the site. Could she show him a study proving oral tradition is reliable over several hundred years, he asked? Well, Jewish and Christian clergy certainly put great store by Leviticus, and that was Hebrew oral history for generations be