From gars@speakeasy.org Wed Feb 5 10:37:39 2003 Date: 5 Feb 2003 00:38:05 -0000 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews11.006 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 Dineh jii' adah' ho'nil'e'gii ba' ha' neh -- Navajo Nation -- What's Happening among The People News Okla Humma Holisso Nowat Anya -- Choctaw -- People(s) Red Newspaper Hi'a chu ah gaa -- Pima -- The stories or the talk of the People Native American News -- Language of the Occupation Forces Wotanging Ikche and Native American News Copyright c. 1996-2003 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 11, ISSUE 006 | Country than is reported in | O o o o o O | this weekly newsletter. For | O o O February 8, 2003 | For daily updates & events | O o O | go http://www.owlstar.com/ | O | dailyheadlines.htm | Cree cepizun/old moon +-----------------------------+ Algonquin wapicuummilcum/ice in river is gone moon <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is produced in straight ASCII text for greatest portability across platforms. Read it with a fixed-pitch font, such as Courier, Monaco, FixedSys or CG Times. Proportional fonts will be difficult to read. <================<<<< >>>>================> This issue contains articles from www.owlstar.com; www.indianz.com; www.pechanga.net; ndn-aim, Frostys AmerIndian, Iron Natives and Canadian Aboriginal News Mailing Lists; 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 | | Once a language is lost, it is | | Limerick summarized in "The | | gone forever | | Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken | | * Of the 300 original Native | | Past of the American West... | | languages in North America, | | "Set the blood quantum at | | only 175 exist today. | | one-quarter, hold to it as a | | * 125 of these are no longer | | rigid definition of Indians, | | learned by children. | | let intermarriage proceed as | | * 55 are spoken by 1 to 6 elders;| | it had for centuries, and | | when they die, their language | | eventually Indians will be | | will disappear. | | defined out of existence." | | * Without action, only 20 | | "When that happens, the federal | | languages will survive the next| | government will be freed of | | 50 years. | | its persistent 'Indian problem.'"| | Source: Indigenous Language | +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ | Institute | |http://www.indigenous-language.org| This issue's Elder Quote: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + ======================== "Much of Western science must go." "All of Western religion should go . . . " __ Vine Deloria, Jr., Standing Rock Sioux +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Indian Pledge of Allegiance | The Indian Pledge of Alleg- | | iance was first presented | I pledge allegiance to my Tribe,| on 2 December '93 during the | to the democratic principles | opening address of the Nat- | of the Republic | ional Congress of American | and to the individual freedoms | Indian Tribal-States Relat- | borrowed from the Iroquois and | ions Panel in Reno, NV. NCAI | Choctaw Confederacies, | plans distribution of the | as incorporated in the United | Indian Pledge to all Indian | States Constitution, | Nations. | so that my forefathers | | shall not have died in vain | Walk in Beauty! Night Owl +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Journey | In the summer and early fall | The Bloodline | of 1998 the Treaty Unity Riders | | rode a thousand miles on horse- | For all that live and live by law | back, carrying a staff and | We Stand, we Call, We Ride | praying each step of the way. | For All that fear and fear by sight | | We Hear, we Listen, we Ride | These prayers were offered for | For all that pray and pray by strength| each of us, and that the Unity | We Feel, we Move, we Ride | of all Peoples might happen. | For all that die and die by greed | | We Hurt, we Cry, we Ride | Tatanka Cante forwarded this | For all that birth and birth by right | poem on behalf of all the Unity | We Smile, we Hold, we Ride | Riders that we might stop and | For all that need and need by heart | ask if the next words we say, the | We Came, we Went, we Rode. | next act we make is for the good | | of the People or is it from ego | Treaty Unity Riders | for self. +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ O'siyo Brothers and Sisters! In Canada, Indian Affairs Minister Nault continues to shove the Governance Act through Parliament, knowing it is opposed and despised by the very and only people it will directly impact. Let it be said here this act is nothing more than industrial strength window dressing for the racist and paternal Indian Act. It is little more than an excuse to claim that the Nations it seeks to destroy asked for their execution. Meanwhile, in the United States another assault is underway in the Republican-controlled Congress to open up Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. The evidence that the ecology and health of the area is already in a downward spiral from the effects of the invasion into the heretofore unopened ANWR seems to not faze the legislators who will be committing cultural, if not actual genocide against traditional Alaskan tribes. The only tribe on record as approving ANWR drilling is the Gwitchin, who are so desperate for funding to survive that they will sacrifice their cultural traditions for the jobs drilling and the infrastructure to support it will create. This willingness to sacrifice cultural and natural treasures on the altar of corporate greed should come as no surprise to anyone who has watched this administration destroy (not a misused word here) years of effort to save the environment. I certainly haven't heard Secretary of Interior Norton express any concern for the Native Peoples who suffer (and die) while her department continues to withhold moneys it owes them for use of their resources. I send my prayers for the astronauts who died when Columbia broke up on re-entry. I do not expect the full reasons to be told, but I do expect this sad event to be used to pump up flag waving - after an appropriate period of silence, of course. 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 ---------- - Head-on Collision kills Two - Court asked to reject - James E. 'Jimmy' Krise Bush Accounting Plan - Crossings - Observation: - Court sets Timeline for What the Governance means to me Cayuga Land Claim Appeal - Aboriginal Vets - Guy Munroe wants to better await Ruling on Lawsuit the Lives of his People - Vieques News - Bear Butte under Attack - 140th Anniversary of Massacre - Indian Health Service Protest - Indians' Claim of - Tribal Members vote Minneapolis Police Brutality on Membership Criteria - Church Elder - Doreen Yellow Bird: charged with Sex Abuse Diversity strengthens our Unity - 4th Oglala Commemoration Event - Tim Giago: Lewis & Clark, - Native Prisoner Quotas and Indian Gaming -- Medical care denied to - Opinion: 2 disabled N.A. inmates A Reason to Teach about Indians - History: Carlisle Indian School - Tex Hall invokes the - Rustywire: Pueblo Bread Seven Generations - Poem: Amid the Burning Sage - Nez Perce Panel plans to - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days defend Treaty Rights - This Week on First Peoples TV - Indian Land Questions - Specials This Week on APTN can be Complicated - Shakeup at - Ndn History-Mine Alaska Native Broadcast Company - Tlingit Speaker to get Royal Award - This Week on AIROS --------- "RE: Head-on Collision kills Two" --------- Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2003 09:37:02 EST From: ErthAvengr@aol.com Subj: Calico,SD: Head-on collision kills two Mailing List: ndn-aim http://www.rapidcityjournal.com Head-on collision kills two By Heidi Bell Gease, Journal Staff Writer Feb.2,2003 CALICO - Two people are dead, and a well-known Pine Ridge couple remain hospitalized after a head-on collision on icy roads near Calico on Thursday night. Dale E. Mabin, 66, Pine Ridge, died when his 1992 Oldsmobile collided with a 1993 extended-cab Chevrolet 4X4 pick-up driven by Louis Winters, 67, Pine Ridge. Mabin was ejected from his car and died at the scene of the accident, about two miles west of Calico on U.S. Highway 18. A passenger in Winters' vehicle, his sister Alma Winters Swalley, 62, Pine Ridge, was taken to Pine Ridge Hospital, where she later died. Winters and his wife, Melvina Winters, 56, were airlifted to Rapid City Regional Hospital, where both were listed in satisfactory condition Friday. The Winters, who run Children's Village in Pine Ridge, are well-known for their work as foster parents. They cared for more than 3,000 children over about 20 years, and were named "Angels in Adoption" by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption in 2000. In an interview at that time, the couple said their work dealing with children had been a gift to them, as it was a way to change the lives and attitudes of future community leaders. The accident happened about 10:30 p.m. Thursday, after rain and freezing temperatures had turned area roads into sheets of ice. "The way the roads were there was really no stopping," said Charles "Festus" Fisher, supervisory special agent with the Bureau of Indian Affairs Criminal Investigations Division at Pine Ridge. He said Friday that investigators were still trying to determine which lane the vehicles were in when the crash occurred. No one in either vehicle was wearing a seat belt, Fisher said. Swalley was a passenger in the back seat of the Winters' pick-up. Mabin was alone at the time. The South Dakota Highway Patrol is assisting with accident reconstruction. Contact Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419 or heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com Copyright c. 2003 Rapid City Journal. --------- "RE: James E. 'Jimmy' Krise" --------- Date: Mon 3 Feb 2003 08:33:27 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="JIMMY KRISE" http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20030203/communities/ James E. 'jimmy' Krise: 1916-2003 Squaxin Tribal Elder Told a Really Good Tale he Olympian, Olympia Washington Monday, February 3, 2003 by RUTH LONGORIA THE OLYMPIAN Members of the Squaxin Island tribe are mourning the death of a man who kept alive the oral histories of his people. But the stories and life of tribal elder James E. "Jimmy" Krise won't soon be forgotten. Krise died Jan. 23 at Capital Medical Center in Olympia. He was 86 years old. "My dad was the best storyteller," said Ramona Krise Mosier of Shelton. Krise was revered for his historical knowledge and storytelling abilities. Many of his stories have been preserved on tape for the Squaxin Island Library and Research Center, a longhouse museum that opened Nov. 26 on the reservation. A 12-foot-by-14-foot panel on the wall of the Research Center is covered with a written account of a legend Krise told of the Great Flood. Some of his stories were true, but many were what Mosier calls "bear stories." "He'd tell a really good tale and make you believe it and then all of the sudden you'd think 'Now how could that be?' But you were never quite sure if it was true or a bear story," she said. Krise was the great-grandson of John Slocum, founder of the Indian Shaker religion. The spirituality of his ancestor wasn't lost on Krise, who was known as a prayer warrior for his tribe. He was a member of the Church of God. Krise was born March 9, 1916, in Potlatch to Ralph and Cora (Slocum) Krise. He married Leoila Sanchez in 1937 in Centralia. The couple divorced in 1948. The couple had one child, Mosier, six grandchildren, 25 great- grandchildren and 16 great-great-grandchildren. During World War II, from 1942 to 1945, Krise served as a medic in the Army Air Corps. He received several medals and awards, including the American Theatre ribbon, Pacific ribbon with Bronze Star and the Good Conduct Medal. After his term of service, Krise worked as a logger and color mixer for the Simpson Timber Company and McCleary Door Plant. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, cutting wood, clam digging, trips to Reno and spending time with his family. Despite his advancing years, Krise was an energetic outdoorsman, said his niece, Darlene Krise, 45, of Kamilche. "I remember a few years ago the family all went clam digging. We were all worried about Uncle Jim because he was in his 80s, but he was out there telling stories while he dug clams," she said. "He was having a great time." His stories will be missed, as will his knack for having fun, no matter what he was doing, she said. She recalls him telling stories of hunting trips and other activities from when he was a child. "Life was so different then, but that's how we learned about those days," she said. "He was a real character," she said. "He was a good person to visit with because no matter what he was doing -- putting up fruit, putting up meat -- any kind of work, he made it fun." Copyright c. 2003 The Olympian. --------- "RE: Crossings" --------- Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2003 08:10:52 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CROSSINGS" January 31, 2003 Rahontsiio Cross Model student left his mark By: Kenneth Deer The community of Kahanwake is shocked and saddened at the sudden death of Rahontsiio Cross. Only 21 years old, Rahontsiio died on his way to school in Ottawa on Wednesday afternoon. He is the son of Helen Cross and the late Earl Cross. According to a social worker at the Ottawa General hospital, Rahontsiio collapsed at a bus station for no apparent reason. At approximately 12:30 p.m., he was standing with friends at the stop and fell to the ground. Paramedics were immediately called and began Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) to try to revive him. An ambulance transported him to the Ottawa General Hospital and arrived at 1:10 p.m. After one hour of CPR and still no pulse, Rahontsiio was declared dead at 1:46 p.m.. An autopsy was performed yesterday morning to determine the cause of death. The results will be available at a later date. The family and friends of Rahontsiio are devastated by his passing. He was well liked by everyone who knew him. Rahontsiio was attending Willis College after receiving the Joseph T. Norton Scholarship. "When a young person passes away unexpectedly, the whole community mourns. Rahontsiio was a fine young man who was in the midst of pursuing his dream," said Grand Chief Joe Tokwiro Norton. "If he had been blessed with more time on Mother Earth, I know he would have accomplished the goals he had set for himself. I share in his family's grief." Other tributes have begun to arrive. The Curve Lake First Nation Students sent these words: "Please pass on our deepest sympathy and forward our prayers to Rahontsiio's family. His family may find comfort in knowing that one of the rays of Rahontsiio's brightness extended out to our First Nation and to the students of Curve Lake simply by being the humble and gentle person we met." Rima Aristocrat, the President of Willis College, was beside herself in anguish over the death of her prize student. "He was a model for all our students here. He was so willing to share what he knew with other students. He will be missed and yet he will live. His legacy will live on here at the school." Rahontsiio is survived by his mother Helen, brothers Joseph and Skanionhati, sister Merit (Dustin Reed); three nieces - Iotshatenawi, Wahcawin and Iehwatsirine - plus many aunts and uncles. The students are planning a memorial service at the Odawa Friendship Center today at 10 a.m. The college will establish an award of excellence in his name at graduation. And he will be given an honourary graduation diploma this year. The school will seek special permission from the Ontario Ministry of Education to do this. Rahontsiio will arrive from Ottawa at 11 a.m. today and rest at his home until Monday. At noon on Monday he will leave the house and travel to the Longhouse on Rte. 207. The service will be at 2 p.m. Copyright c. 1997-2003 The Eastern Door/Kahanwake, Mohawk Nation. -=-=-=- January 30, 2003 Roseline Susan Pay Pay EAGLE BUTTE - Roseline Susan Pay Pay, 63, Eagle Butte, died Thursday, Jan. 23, 2003, at Rapid City Regional Hospital. Survivors include her husband, Nelson Pay Pay, Eagle Butte; one son, Walter Ryman, Timber Lake; five stepchildren, Harrison Pay Pay, Eagle Butte, Katie Pay Pay, Hazel Pay Pay and Frederick Pay Pay, all of Gillette, Wyo., and Nelson Pay Pay Jr., Las Vegas; four brothers, Albert Tomahawk and John Tomahawk, both of Eagle Butte, and Robert Tomahawk and Harmes Tomahawk, both of Rapid City; and one sister, Mary Ryman, St. Paul, Minn. Her first husband, John Ryman, preceded her in death. Wake services were Wednesday, Jan. 29, at the Cultural Center in Eagle Butte. Services will be at 10 a.m. today at the Cultural Center, with the Rev. Jeffry Barnes officiating. Burial will be at the Episcopal Cemetery in Blackfoot. Luce Funeral Home of Eagle Butte is in charge of arrangements. January 31, 2003 John DuBray Sr. ALLEN - John DuBray Sr., 90, Allen, died Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2003, at Bennett County Nursing Home in Martin. Survivors include one son, John DuBray Jr., Allen; one daughter, Judy DuBray-Kintz, Fort Carson, Colo.; numerous stepchildren; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. A two-night wake will begin at 11 a.m. today at American Horse School in Allen. Services will be at 9 a.m. Monday, Feb. 3, at the school. Burial will be at 2 p.m. Monday at Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis. Sioux Funeral Home of Pine Ridge is in charge of arrangements. February 1, 2003 Delmis Jumping Eagle PINE RIDGE - Delmis Jumping Eagle, 62, Pine Ridge, died Friday, Jan. 31, 2003, at Rapid City Regional Hospital. Survivors include his wife, Louise Jumping Eagle, Pine Ridge. Arrangements are pending with Sioux Funeral Home of Pine Ridge. February 3, 2003 Alma Swalley PINE RIDGE - Alma Swalley, 62, Pine Ridge, died Friday, Jan. 31, 2003, the result of a car accident near Calico. Sioux Funeral Home in Pine Ridge is in charge of arrangements. February 4, 2003 Delmas Jumping Eagle Jr. PINE RIDGE - Delmas Jumping Eagle Jr., 62, Pine Ridge, died Friday, Jan. 31, 2003, at Rapid City Regional Hospital. Survivors include his wife, Louise Jumping Eagle, Pine Ridge; one son, Verlyn Jumping Eagle, Fort Lewis, Wash.; one daughter, Victoria Jumping Eagle, Pine Ridge; four sisters, Aldine Bruning, Verna Hultgren and Rosemary Krantz, all of Rapid City, and Mary Siers, Detroit; and seven grandchildren. A one-night wake will begin at 1 p.m. today at Billy Mills Hall in Pine Ridge. Mass of Christian Burial will be at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 5, at Billy Mills Hall, with the Rev. Steve Sanford officiating. Burial will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis. Sioux Funeral Home of Pine Ridge is in charge of arrangements. Raymond L. Marks Sr. FORT THOMPSON - Raymond L. Marks Sr., 69, Fort Thompson, died Saturday, Feb. 1, 2003, at his home. Survivors include his wife, Lydia Marks, Fort Thompson; 11 children, Teresa Marks and Raymond Marks Jr., both of Rapid City, Jolene Rogers, Pierre, Mark Marks, Wagner, and Merle Marks, Terry Marks, Randy Marks, Skyla Marks, Leslie Marks, Steven Marks and Angela Marks, all of Fort Thompson; one sister, Alyce Belvins, Pierre; one adopted son, JaTonne Herron Marks; one stepson, Roger Spider; 35 grandchildren; and five great- grandchildren. Wake services will be at 8 p.m. today and Wednesday, Feb. 5, at Community Center in Fort Thompson. Services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 6, at Community Center, with the Rev. Jim Walters, the Rev. Chuck Wonch and the Rev. Stephen Huffstetter officiating. Wevik Funeral Home of Chamberlain is in charge of arrangements. Alma A. Swalley PINE RIDGE - Alma A. Swalley, 62, Pine Ridge, died Thursday, Jan. 30, 2003, at Pine Ridge Hospital as the result of an auto accident. Survivors include three sons, Alex Swalley III and Victor Swalley, both of Rosebud, and Larry Swalley, Yellow Bear Community, Porcupine; one daughter, Emma Swalley, Pine Ridge; three brothers, Louis Winters and Willard Winters, both of Pine Ridge, and Eugene Winters, Potato Creek; and three sisters, Ellen Moves Camp and Bertha Two Bulls, both of Wanblee, and Luccine Schaeffer, Burns, Ore. A two-night wake will begin at 3:30 p.m. today at Wolf Creek School in Pine Ridge. The second-night wake will begin at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 5, at Billy Mills Hall in Pine Ridge. Mass of Christian Burial will be at 9 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 6, at Billy Mills Hall, with the Rev. Steve Sanford officiating. Burial will be at Winters Family Plot, Bear Creek, Wanblee. Sioux Funeral Home of Pine Ridge is in charge of arrangements. Copyright c. 2003 the Rapid City Journal. -=-=-=- February 4, 2003 Minnie Mae Seber Minnie Mae Kaseca Seber, 58, of Norman died Sunday in Oklahoma City. She was born July 17, 1944, in Shawnee to Walter and Nancy (Squire) Kaseca. She attended grade school in Shawnee and attended high school in Bethel and Noble. She was a graduate of Noble High School. She attended cosmetology school in Dallas. Seber grew up in Shawnee and Norman. She worked at a variety of jobs in Norman until retiring in 1994. In 1965, she married Nelson Seber. Seber was a member of the Absentee Shawnee Tribe. She was also a member of Cornerstone Indian Baptist Church. She was preceded in death by her parents and sisters, Betty Lou Kaseca, Delores Little Creek and two infant sisters. Survivors include her husband, Nelson Seber of the home; two sons, James Seber of Midwest City and Walt Seber of Shawnee; one grandchild, Jamie Nicole Seber of Midwest City; four sisters, Erma Washington of Norman, Shirley Harjo of Norman, Beatrice Kaseca of Oklahoma City and JoAnn Walker of Norman; one brother, David Kaseca of Norman; and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins. Wake services will be 7 p.m. today at Horseshoe Bend Community Center. Services will be 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Horseshoe Bend community Center with the Rev. Bryce Scott officiating. Burial will follow at Clark Family Cemetery. Copyright c. 1997-2003 The Shawnee News-Star. -=-=-=- January 29, 2003 Jason Doyeto Jason Doyeto, 28, Stillwater, OK passed away on Friday, January 24, 2003 after a car wreck in Memphis, TN in which both he and his wife were killed. He was born August 26, 1974 in Colorado Springs, CO to Willie Jack and Irene (Taylor) Doyeto. Jason moved to Hobart in 1990, graduated from Hobart High School in 1992 and married Judith Rivero on July 16, 1994. Jason served with the U.S. Army from 1994 until April 26, 2001. He was a member of the Monterey Baptist Church in Albuquerque, NM. Jason moved to Stillwater, OK in July, 2001. Survivors include two sons, Jordan Isiah Doyeto and Jeremy McKail Doyeto, both of the home in Stillwater, OK; Willie Jack and Irene Doyeto, Albuquerque; brother, Wesley Jack Doyeto, Albuquerque; sister, Jacquelyn Vivian Doyeto, Stillwater, OK; grandfather, Alfred Taylor, Chinle, AZ; grandmother, Mary Towne Taylor, Chinle, AZ; aunt, Geraldine Davis, Hobart, OK; three aunts; and four uncles on his mother's side. Jason was preceded in death by his grandfather, Herbert Joe Doyeto; grandmother, Isabel Twohatchett; one cousin, Carla Jo Longhorn; and three maternal uncles. Wake Services, 7:00 p.m., Tuesday, January 28, 2003 First American Indian Church, Hobart, OK. Funeral Services, 2:00 p.m., Wednesday, January 29, 2003, First Baptist Church, Hobart, OK. Officiating, Rev. Frank Kauahquo and Rev. George Daingkau. Burial to follow in the Elk Creek Tribal Indian Cemetery, south of Hobart, under the direction of the Hackney-Gish Funeral Home, Hobart, OK. January 30, 2003 Roger Julian Martinez ROGER JULIAN MARTINEZ , 59, of Ignacio, Colo., for the last 15 months and originally of Wagon Mound, died Monday at the San Juan Regional Hospital in Farmington. He was preceded in death by his wife, Angela Baker; his parents, Henry and Fidencia Martinez; two brothers, Henry Martinez, Jr. and Martin Martinez. He is survived by three sons, Robert, Brian and Andrew; a brother, Robert B. Martinez and wife Nora of Mechanicsville, Va.; three sisters, Martha G. Martinez and husband Deacon Eloy Martinez of El Duende, Lily Jay Martinez and Jose Giron of Santa Fe, and Lina Hudson of Springfield, Mo. A rosary will be recited at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Block-Salazar Mortuary. A second rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. Sunday at St. John the Baptist Church in San Juan Pueblo. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Monday at St. John the Baptist Church in San Juan Pueblo. Burial will follow at noon at the Santa Fe National Cemetery. Salazar Family of Block-Salazar Mortuary. Copyright c. 1997 - 2003 Albuquerque Journal: Albuquerque, New Mexico. -=-=-=- January 30, 2003 Mary Cooper Funeral services for Mary Cooper, 59, of Mescalero, will be at 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 31, with burial to follow at the Mescalero Cemetery. Officiating will be the Rev. Peter Luna. Mrs. Cooper died Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2003, in Alamogordo. She was born March 13, 1943, in Mescalero and had lived there all of her life. She worked at the Mescalero Daycare Parent Coop and was a member of the Mescalero Assembly of God Church. Survivors include a son, Gordon Shendo, of Mescalero; brothers Jess Shendo and John Shendo Jr., both of Mescalero; a sister, Lenora Shendo, of Mescalero; and several nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by a daughter, Rose Shendo; a brother, Richard Shendo; and a sister, Lucy Dominguez. Arrangements are under the direction of LaGrone Funeral Chapel of Ruidoso, 257-7303. Copyright c. 1999-2003 MediaNews Group, Inc./Ruidoso NM. -=-=-=- February 4, 2003 Alice Yazzie July 1, 1912 - Feb. 1, 2003 Alice Yazzie, 90, of Sanostee, passed away Saturday, Feb. 1, 2003, at her residence at Sanostee. She was born July 1, 1912 in Sanostee. A visitation will be held from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday at Brewer, Lee and Larkin Funeral Home in Shiprock. Graveside services and interment will follow at 1 p.m. at the family cemetery in Sanostee. Funeral arrangements are entrusted to Brewer, Lee and Larkin Funeral Home, Shiprock, New Mexico. (505) 368-4607. Copyright c. 1999-2003 MediaNews Group, Inc./Farmington, NM. -=-=-=- January 29, 2003 Hijobah Tsosie TSELANI, Ariz., - Services for Hijobah Tsosie, 99, were held at 10 a.m. today at the Upperoom Church, Tselani, Ariz. Pastor Frank James officiated. Burial followed at the family plot in Tselani. Tsosie died Jan. 24 in chinle. She was born Dec. 2, 1904 in Hunter Point, Ariz., into the Bitter Water People Clan for the Many Goat People clan. Tsosie was a homemaker sheepherder and rug weaver. She enjoyed cooking, sewing, farming walking and horseback riding. Survivors include her sons Joe B. Tsosie of Flagstaff, Billy Tsosie of Tselani; daughter Oleta Curtis of Lake Havasu, Ariz.; 10 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren, and five great-great-grandchildren. Tsosie was preceded in death by her daughter Juaita Tsosie. Pallbearers were Joe B. Tsosie, Billy Tsosie, Jerry Lee, Jody Tsosie, Donovan Tsosie and Roy Curtis. Family and friends gathered after services at the Tsosie residence, south of Old Salina Springs Trading Post. Tse Bonito Mortuary is in charge of arrangements. Cedric B. Begay NASCHITTI - Services for Cedric B. Begay, 36, will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, Jan 30 at St. Anthony Catholic Church in Naschitti. Father John Mittlestadt will officiate. Burial will take place at the Naschitti Community Cemetery. Begay died Jan. 25 in Sheepsprings, N.M. He was born Sept. 16, 1966 in Gallup. Survivors include his wife Roseann Y. Begay; sons Brandon Kyle Begay and Warren Keith Begay; daughter Catherine K. Begay, all of Nascitti; parents Sherman J. and Rita F. Begay of Naschitti; brothers Michael Wayne Begay, Terrance S. Begay and Sherman J. Begay Jr., all of Naschitti; sister Alverna M. Smith, of Naschitti. The family will receive friends and relatives at the Naschitti Chapter House after services. Larry Keedah. Sr. SHEEPSPRINGS, N.M. - Services for Larry Keedah, Sr., 53, will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 30 at the Brewer, Lee and Larkin Funeral Home Chapel in Shiprock. Burial will follow at the Community Cemetery in Sheepsprings. A reception will be held at the Sheepsprings Chapter House after burial. Keedah died Jan. 25 in Farmington. He was born Dec. 23, 1949 in Sheepsprings. Keedah was a U.S. Marine during the Vietnam era. He was also a sandpainter. Survivors include his wife Martha Keedah of Sheepsprings; sons Jason Yazzie and Larry Keedah Jr. of Farmington, Fredrick P. Keedah and Mike F. Keedah of Sheepsprings; daughters Delphine Keedah-Yazzie of Kirtland, N.M., Lydia Keedah-Woods of Coyote Canyon, N.M., Estrella Keedah of Gallup, Adrienne Joe, Marthaleen Lynette Keedah and Francesca Lynette Keedah, all of Sheepsprings; sisters Emma Nolan of Shiprock, Violet Johnson of Kirtland, Irene T. Begay of Sheepsprings and Rose Mike of Toadlena, N.M.; brothers Roy Keedah of Albuquerque and Ernest Keedah of Sanders, Ariz. and eight grandchildren. Keedah was preceded in death by his son Travis Mike Keedah; parents Frank and Estella Keedah; sister Mary Lou Peshlakai and a brother Paul Napoleon. Pallbearers will be Christopher Yazzi, Kendrick Yazzie, Tully Yazzie Jr., Lionel Yazzie, Albert Yazzie, Michael Joe, LeAndrew Joe, Irvin Burley, Marvin Joe and Thomas Bryant. Copyright c. 2003 the Gallup Independent. -=-=-=- January 29, 2003 Colt William Radue Burshia WOLF POINT - Colt William Radue Burshia, 4-month-old infant son of Raymond Burshia Jr. and Sheila A. Radue, died on Jan. 25, 2003, at the Northeast Montana Health Services in Wolf Point. Colt was born Sept. 20, 2002, in Glasgow. He was preceded in death by his grandpa Raymond Burshia Sr.; grandma Victoria Youngman; and uncle Jason Youngman. Survivors include his mother Sheila Radue; father, Raymond Burshia; brothers, Samuel Patrick, Lester Menz Jr., Joshua Eagle, Brian Eagle, Jason Radue, Kaghe Burshia; sisters, Leslie Menz and Rainy Burshia; grandparents, LeRoy Douglas, Linda Comes Last, Kelly and Cindy Radue of Miles City; great-grandparents, William Youngman, Larry Youngman, Mike Youngman, Rita Long Chase and Florence Eagleman. The family is all from Wolf Point and Poplar. He is also survived by uncles, Dennis Comes Last, Christopher Douglas and Mark Radue; aunts, Michelle Radue, Sonya (Emery) Lester, JaTonna (Corwin) Four Star, Janet Red Elk, Sherri (Harold Garfield) Comes Last, Keri Comes Last, Andrea Radue, Felicia Radue, Lora Lee Youngman; numerous great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Visitations were held on Tuesday, Jan. 28, at the Clayton Memorial Chapel in Wolf Point with a prayer service at 7 p.m. Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 29, at the Clayton Memorial Chapel, with Pastor Kenny Azure officiating. Interment will be in the Box Elder Cemetery in Poplar. February 1, 2003 Carlene Pretty on Top Carlene F. Pretty on Top, 36, of Billings, died Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2003, in Denver. Rosary will be at 4 p.m. Monday, Feb. 3, in the Bullis Funeral Chapel in Hardin. Funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 4, in the Crow Agency St. Dennis Catholic Church. Interment will follow in the Crow Agency Cemetery. Copyright c. 2003 The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. -=-=-=- January 28, 2003 George Bigsky Lestock, SK BIGSKY-- On Sunday, January 26, 2003, GEORGE BIGSKY, late of Lestock, Sask., passed away at the age of 83 years. Predeceased by his wife Louisa; his brothers: Jim and Mike; sister Martha; and grandson Emery; George is survived by his daughter Catherine and her children: Clayton (Carol), Arnold (Pam), Sylvia (Derek), Joseph, Elizabeth (Melvin) and Maureen (Ryan); son Alfred (Annie) and his children: Kevin (Celesta), Steven and Cecil; and son Kenneth and his children: Sirinna (Shane), Kenneth Jr. (Jessica), Shaynne (Shelley), Jolynn, Brandy and Yvonne. Funeral Mass will be held on Wednesday, January 29, 2003 at 2:00 P.M. in Mary Queen of All Hearts R.C. Church, Lestock, Sask. Interment will follow in the Muskowekwan Cemetery. A Wake will be held on Tuesday (today), January 28, 2003 from 1:00 P.M. in the Muskowekwan Band Hall. Arrangements are entrusted to the Helmsing Funeral Chapel. January 29, 2003 Frederick Charles Geddes Gordon First Nation, SK GEDDES--On Tuesday, January 28, 2003 Frederick Charles Geddes, late of Gordon First Nation, SK passed away at the age of 75 years of age. He was predeceased by his parents Sam and Margaret Geddes; one sister Ruby Sugar; daughter Pauline; son Eugene and great-grandson Aaron Bitternose. He leaves to mourn his wife of 57 years Rachel; five sons Henry (Liz), Glen (Judy), Steve (Brenda), Dennis (Vivian) and Fred Jr. and three daughters Brenda (Garry), Val (Rick) and Caroline. Fred will be sadly missed by his sisters Myrtle (Cal), Irene (Maynard), Iva (Leonard) and brothers Alex, Sam, Lawrence and Billy (Cathy). He also leaves to mourn thirty-one grandchildren, thirty-nine great-grandchildren and numerous other relatives and friends. A special thank you to the staff at the Regina General Hospital. A Wake will be held on Thursday, January 30, 2003 at 4:00 P.M. in the Gordon First Nation Gymnasium, Gordon First Nation, SK. The Funeral Service will be held on Friday, January 31, 2003 at 2:00 P.M. in the Gordon First Nation Gymnasium with burial to follow in St. Luke's Cemetery. Arrangements are in the care of LEE FUNERAL HOME 757-8645 February 1, 2003 Mary Isabelle Hunter Muskowekwan First Nation, SK HUNTER--Mary Isabelle, late of Muskowekwan First Nation, SK, passed away on Wednesday, Janu ary 29, 2003 in Regina, SK at the age of 59 years. She was predeceased by her husband Clement Bigsky; parents Napolean Hunter and Catherine Moosemay; daughter Colleen; sons Joe and Michael John; sister Margaret Longman; brother Albert Windigo; and grandsons Dusty Manitopyes and Dwight Manitopyes. Mary is survived by her children Carment (Geraldine), Geraldine (Leon), Margaret, Jacqueline (Ivan), Karen (Ronald) and Bradley; special grandchildren Mikey, Shannon and Kecia; numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren; sisters Corrine Wesley and Vivian Wolfe; sister-in-law Emma Pambrun; and special friend Julia Battyannie. The Wake will be held on Sunday, February 2, 2003 at 1:00 PM in the Muskowekwan First Nation Band Hall. The Funeral Service will be held on Monday, February 3, 2003 at 2:00 PM, also in the Muskowekwan First Nation Band Hall. Burial will follow at the Muskowekwan First Nation Cemetery. Arrangements are in the care of LEE FUNERAL HOME 757-8645 Copyright c. 2000-2003 Regina Leader Post Group Inc. -=-=-=- January 29, 2003 Carry I'taksikkitstaki (circle of offering) Eagle Plume CARRY "MARY ALICE" I'taksikkitstaki (circle of offering) EAGLE PLUME passed away peacefully at the Cardston Hospital on Tuesday, January 21st, 2003 at the age of 48 years, surrounded by her children and loved ones. Mary-Alice was the beloved companion of Stephen Crying Head Jr. of the Blood Reserve. Mary-Alice was born at the Blood Indian Hospital on August 25, 1954, she was the youngest child of the late Alfred and Maggie Eagle Plume. Mary-Alice is survived by three children - Leanne (Willie) Black Plume, Heather (Byron) Crying Head, and Allen Crying Head; one adopted son Cameron Gros Ventre Boy; eight grandchildren - Delise, Ramsey, Kailynn, Nakota, Bradley, Leander, Tyson, and Sterling - all from the Blood Reserve. She also leaves behind three brothers - Patrick (Theresa), Herman, and Merlin (Lorna) Eagle Plume; one adopted brother Frank Eagle Plume; four sisters - Louisa Hind Bull (Eagle Plume), Catherine (Jimmy) Red Crow Jr., Josephine (Jack) Curly Rider, Margaret (Joe) Knife; a sister-in-law Ruby Eagle Plume; adoptive mother Pauline Three Persons; two godchildren - Lucus Red Crow and Darlene Eagle Plume; numerous nieces and nephews - all from the Blood Reserve. Mary-Alice was raised on the Blood Reserve. She received her education in St. Mary's, Hill Spring, and Glenwood and furthered her education in Basic Skills and Upgrading in Lavern, Lifeskills in Stand Off, and a carpentry course in Calgary. She worked at numerous places as a volunteer and part-time worker, such as the Blood Indian Hospital, Lavern Elementary, Kainai High School, Red Crow Community College, and Kainai Middle School. She was also employed at Stand Off Arts and Crafts and the Alberta Vocational Activity School in Calgary. Her goal was to care for infants and young children of all ages so she went into the Early Childhood Program at the Lethbridge Community College. She received her certificate in 1994, then she was employed at several Day Care Centres on the Blood Reserve - Red Crow Day Care, Stand Off Day Care, and Kainai Day Care. Mary-Alice was competitive in sports such as baseball, volleyball, and steer riding. Mary-Alice had a good sense of humor and was always joking and laughing. She always had a smile for everyone and she enjoyed being with her friends and going to Church at the New Life Fellowship. She made her Cursillo in Siksika in 1988. Her theme song was "Jesus, It's Me Again" Mary-Alice will be sadly missed by all those who knew her, especially her children. She was predeceased by three brothers - Alex, Morris, and Joe Eagle Plume; one sister Rose-Mary Eagle Plume; two uncles - the late Chief Jim Shot Both Sides and Harry Spear Chief; two aunts - Lillian Across the Mtn, Annie Shot Both Sides; three cousins- Pauline Eagle Child, Lorraine, and Mary Eagle Plume; two infant grandchildren; four nephews - Freddy, Dexter Eagle Plume, Jimmy Red Crow III, and Calvin Cat Face; three nieces - Christina Eagle Plume, Marion Chief Body (Eagle Plume), and Delia Shouting. The family apologizes for any names that may have been missed. The Wake Service will be held on Tuesday, January 28th at the residence of Mary-Alice Eagle Plume, Blood Reserve from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. and continue at St. Mary's Catholic Church, Blood Reserve from 7:30 to 11:00 p. m. The Funeral Mass will be held at St. Mary's Catholic Church, Blood Reserve on Wednesday, January 29th at 2:00 p.m. with Father Leszek Kwiatkowski Celebrant. Interment in the Blood Band Cemetery. February 4, 2003 Josephine Melting Tallow MRS. JOSEPHINE MELTING TALLOW, beloved wife of the late Mr. Frank Melting Tallow, of the Blood Reserve passed away at the Lethbridge Regional Hospital on Friday, January 24, 2003 at the age of 74 years. She is survived by her children; Guy, Francis (Sharon), Floyd (Sharon), Freida, Melinda (Arthur), Philomena (Rusty), Frankina (Joe), Francine, Timmy and Charlene. A Wake Service will be held at ST. CATHERINE'S CATHOLIC CHURCH, Standoff, on Thursday, January 30, 2003 from 5:00 P.M. to 11:00 P.M. with Reverend Les Kwiatkowski O.M.I. officiating. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated at ST. CATHERINE'S CATHOLIC CHURCH, Standoff, on Friday, January 31, 2003 at 12:00 Noon with Reverend Les Kwiatkowski O.M.I. Celebrant. Interment to follow at St. Catherine's Cemetery. Copyright c. 2000 Alberta Newspaper Group, Inc./Lethbridge Herald. --------- "RE: Court sets Timeline for Cayuga Land Claim Appeal" --------- Date: Wed 29 Jan 2003 08:17:50 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CAYUGA LAND" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/0128story113032_news.shtml Court sets timeline for Cayuga land claim appeal The Associated Press January 28, 2003 SYRACUSE - Lawyers for the state, Cayuga and Seneca counties and private landowners have been directed to submit their written appeal arguments in the Cayuga Indian land claim by March 27. Tribal attorneys and U.S. Justice Department lawyers, who have intervened on the side of the Cayugas, have until May 27 to file their written arguments, court officials said Monday. The state, counties and landowners will then have until July 8 to respond to the Cayugas' and Justice Department's briefs. And the Indians and the federal government have until Aug. 19 to file their responses. All parties are limited to 21,000 words in each brief, court officials said. Oral arguments in the appeal will take place no earlier than the week of Sept. 29. Those arguments will be made before the five judges of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan. The appeals will seek to overturn numerous rulings by U.S. District Judge Neal P. McCurn of Syracuse. McCurn has made his rulings at various times since the original claim was filed Nov. 19, 1980. The Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma joined the Cayuga Indian Nation of New York in the lawsuit in 1982. Lawyers for the Seneca-Cayugas will not file a separate appeal but will join the Cayugas of New York. Among the decisions the parties have said they will appeal: The Cayuga Nation and the Seneca-Cayuga tribe will jointly argue that the $247.9 million damages award is too low and not supported by testimony and evidence. They will also argue that McCurn was wrong in ruling out evictions of current occupants of the claim area, limiting damages to money only. "We will say the damages our expert came up with, $1.7 billion, should be awarded and the $247.9 million is not supported by facts," said Martin R. Gold, the Cayugas' attorney. New York state will seek to overturn McCurn's rulings that the claim is valid and his dismissal of all of the defenses argued by the state. The state will also appeal the $247.9 million damages award, arguing it should be nothing if the claim is invalid, or no more than $49 million if the claim is ruled valid. State lawyers also will oppose eviction. Cayuga and Seneca counties, private landowners will join the state in appealing McCurn's rulings upholding the claim, with an emphasis on the defense that the Indians waited too long to file their claim. But they cannot appeal the damages award because it is against the state only. They also will oppose eviction. Copyright c. 2003 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. --------- "RE: Guy Munroe wants to better the Lives of his People" --------- Date: Thu 30 Jan 2003 08:22:05 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="KAW CHAIRMAN" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/news/local/5058045.htm Guy Munroe wants to better the lives of his people BY BECCY TANNER The Wichita Eagle January 30, 2003 Guy Munroe plans to run his next business the same way he did his last -- as a financial success. For years, the 62-year-old Derby businessman was a contractor for TCI in Denver, burying lines for cable TV in eight Kansas counties. His new job might be tougher. Munroe is chairman and chief executive of the Kaw Tribal Nation. Many members of the tribe earn less than $20,000 a year. And he has big dreams for his four years in office. He wants to open a casino in Kansas--maybe even in downtown Wichita. That's just one of the possibilities he sees to improve the tribe's finances. He said he wants to help the tribe's poor and elderly improve their standard of living. Munroe is a half-Kaw who commutes every day to the tribal headquarters in Kaw City, Okla., where he attends Kaw Nation council meetings. He's the first Kansan in nearly 130 years to lead the Kaw, from whom the state takes its name. The Kaw, or Kanza, tribe was forced from Kansas into the Indian territories that later became Oklahoma in 1873. "It's fairly significant," said Bill Unrau, retired history professor from Wichita State University who has written about Kaw tribal history. "Traditionally there were numerous native Kansans who were tribal leaders." The Kaw originally lived in the Ohio River Valley. By the early 1800s, they had moved to what is now the Kansas, or Kaw, River Valley to claim a territory that covered roughly two-fifths of modern-day Kansas and parts of Nebraska and Missouri. At one point, the tribe numbered about 1,600. In 1873, Congress made the Kaw sell their lands and move to Oklahoma's Indian Territory. The remaining 600 tribal members were led into Oklahoma by Chief Al-le-ga-wa-ho. The tribe's oral tradition is that Chief Al-le-ga-wa-ho was so heartbroken over leaving the state that when he died his remains were returned to Kansas. When the tribe was reorganized in the 20th century, most of the tribal leaders claimed ties with Oklahoma, Unrau said. Munroe can also claim some Oklahoma ties. He was born in Washunga, Okla., but moved with his family to the Wichita area when he was 8. He says he eventually plans to move closer to Kaw City to make the drive easier. He graduated in 1959 from Wichita's Southeast High School, where he lettered in several sports. Through the years, he has won championships in rodeos as a team and calf roper. "This is the first time I've ever been in a political arena," Munroe said, "but I've been in nearly every other arena." It was only a year ago that Munroe became interested in finding out more about his Kaw heritage. A friend of Munroe's -- another Kaw and Wichitan -- encouraged him to attend council meetings in Kaw City. Lloyd Pappan says he doesn't have enough Indian blood to belong to the tribal council, but he saw issues that needed to be addressed and thought his friend would be the person to do it. "He is very calm and decisive," Pappan said of Munroe. "He listens and really cares about people. We have a lot of older people -- people who just are in need -- and I think he can help make a difference. His goal is to help people." Today, as more people research their family histories and reclaim ethnic heritage, the Kaw Nation can boast a growing membership of more than 2,500. Like many American Indian tribes, the Kaw lost much of its cultural heritage in the forced relocation to Oklahoma. Over the past 20 years, there have been efforts to reclaim some of it. In recent years, tribal leaders have begun to teach the Kaw language. They've also established a child-care center and a wellness center in Newkirk, Okla. Tribal leaders hope to make the tribe more economically self-sufficient. Some of those efforts may affect Wichita. Munroe said he would like to put a casino in Kansas if Kansas would allow it. "I'd like to put it right in Wichita," Munroe said. "As bad a slump as Wichita is in, I think it would be a plus. If Wichita had a casino by the Hyatt or someplace along there, you wouldn't have to worry about paying a lot of taxes." Munroe is reluctant to say what else he wants to do as tribal chairman, but his friend Pappan says he will treat the Kaw nation right. "His real goal is to help make life easier for tribal members who haven't always had it so well," Pappan said. "We have good programs to help kids go to school now but he wants to put a lot of emphasis on helping the elderly.... He's been a businessman all his life. He's done well enough for himself to help other people. He's really one of the nice guys and always has been." Reach Beccy Tanner at 268-6336 or btanner@wichitaeagle.com. Copyright c. 2003 The Wichita Eagle. --------- "RE: Bear Butte under Attack" --------- Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 13:19:47 -0800 (PST) From: Carter Camp Subj: Fwd: BEAR BUTTE UNDER ATTACK!! Mailing List: ndn-aim Bear Butte Under Attack! www.defendblackhills.org The City of Sturgis, South Dakota and a group of private investors plan to build a sports complex/shooting range just 4 miles north of Bear Butte. They have already spent $250,000 to $260,000 of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)money to date on the project. Although they knew Bear Butte was sacred to many Plains tribes, no tribes were consulted about the proposal, a possible violation of federal laws. Some of the effects of the shooting range will be: - The sound of an estimated 10,000 rounds per day being fired from rifles and handguns will affect the silence and serenity of people from more than 60 different tribes who come to pray at Bear Butte, as well as non tribal people. - Increased air pollution caused by the firing of the estimated 10,000 rounds per day. - Increased traffic to the shooting range by patrons and employees, as a clubhouse, motel, and restaurant are planned. - The sounds and activity will affect birds and wild life in the Bear Butte Area, and in particular, the eagle, which is important in Native American spirituality and ceremonies. - Possible effects on patients at Fort Meade Veterans Administration Hospital from the sounds of distant gunfire. - The legality of land ownership as this area still belongs to the Great Sioux Nation according to the Peace Treaties of 1851 & 1868 made between the Great Sioux Nation and the United States, and in accordance with the US Constitution which states that "treaties are the supreme law of the land." - No Native American Spiritual leaders, or Tribal Leaders were ever contacted about the plans to build the shooting range which will affect so many people who pray at Bear Butte. ---- As Bear Butte is one of the most important sacred places on the North American continent, in order to provide some protection to this site, we must unite together to stop any more destruction at Bear Butte and other sacred places in the Black Hills. To help save the Black Hills from further destruction, come to The Defenders Of The Black Hills meetings, held the 4th Saturday of every month, 1-4 pm, at the Mother Butler Center, Rapid City, SD, off Interstate 90 at the Haines Ave. Exit. "Bear Butte is in danger by those who don't understand the importance of this sacred place. You can help keep Bear Butte sacred." WWW.DEFENDBLACKHILLS.ORG Design by Lakota Mall --------- "RE: Indian Health Service Protest 12 Feb 2003" --------- Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 12:08:00 -0500 From: Alfred Bone Shirt The Contact number of the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Offices is 605-747-2381 ____________________ Rosebud Sioux Tribe Sicangu Oyate Rosebud, South Dakota 57570 P.O. Box 430 January 29, 2003 To Whom It May Concern: The Rosebud Sioux Tribe is planning a march on the IHS hospital on the Rosebud Reservation. We are hereby asking for your support of our struggle to see that quality health care is provided to our people. Attached for your information and action is the tentative agenda for the planned march. All tribes are welcomed and encouraged to participate in this march and to show a uniting of our tribal nations. If your tribe is unable to attend please submit a letter of support to the Tribal Chairman Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Box 430, Rosebud, SD, 57570. Sincerely, William Kindle RST President (The attachment is given below) _______________________________ March on I.H.S. Wednesday February 12, 2003 at 1:00 p.m. Beginning at the Tribal Council Chambers TENTATIVE AGENDA 1. Meet at the Tribal Building Starting at 1:00 p.m. 2. Speakers and prayers until 2:30 p.m. 3. At 2:30 p.m. begin the March to I.H.S. 4. Itinerary for the march to be scheduled through planning meetings. 5. Feed after the march at the R.S.T. Veterans Affairs Bldg. 6. After the feed the R.S.T. Health Board will begin taking public testimony at the Vets Affairs Bldg.* Administrative leave will be granted from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. for all tribal employees who wish to participate in the march. *People are asked to limit their oral public testimony to three minutes and are encouraged to bring all testimony in writing for the use of the Health Board in furthering the cause of providing Quality Health Care for our people here and abroad. --------- "RE: Tribal Members vote on Membership Criteria" --------- Date: Sun 2 Feb 2003 19:10:10 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SHOSHONE-BANNOCK" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story Tribal members vote on membership criteria Race, culture, benefits involved in Shoshone-Bannock decision Sunday, February 2, 2003 Rebecca Boone Associated Press BOISE -- Viola Rodriguez's fellow Shoshone-Bannock tribal members were to vote Friday to see if her great-grandchild is Indian enough to be counted as a member. As Bureau of Indian Affairs officials count the ballots, they may be counting the future of the tribe. The child is one-eighth Shoshone-Bannock, and the proposed change would require that all members have one-quarter Shoshone-Bannock blood. The boy is just one of many tribal descendants who will be affected by the results. It's a question that is more complicated than it may seem -- raising issues of race, culture and a system some believe was developed to breed American Indians out of existence. "There isn't that many people who are one-quarter -- we're all mixed," Rodriguez said. "I myself am full blood, but I don't expect the requirement to stand and I don't want it to." She would like to know that someday her great-grandson could inherit her tribal land allotment, which she said can only happen if he is a tribal member. Rodriguez said she is partially responsible for what some see as the child's thin Indian blood. Her husband of 50 years is from nearby Pocatello and not a Sho-Ban. Though she wishes the proposed one-quarter requirement would be lowered to one-eighth, she does not want the current enrollment laws -- which are dependent on family trees and residency on the reservation -- to stand. "We certainly do need some kind of blood quantum. I don't like to see the Indians lose things like home sites to those that maybe just had a distant relative enrolled," she said. The premise behind blood quantum requirements is that genetic material somehow equals cultural integrity, said Melissa Meyer, an American Indian historian and associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. But that premise, she said, is wrong. "It's a racist policy based on totally faulty math, and it leaves out lots of people who are practicing members of the culture," Meyer said. "But Native American people will also be the first to tell you that it's necessary." Culture and traditions Tribal members have access to services that other Indians do not. Depending on the businesses run by the tribe -- such as mining, land leasing, casinos and oil wells -- members often get part of the profits. Special schooling, low-cost or free health care, land allotments and tribal loan programs also are available to members of many Indian tribes, including Shoshone-Bannocks. Lori Edmo-Suppah, editor of the Sho-Ban News and a Shoshone-Bannock tribal member, said tradition and cultural norms are crucial to Indian society. Her husband and three children are members of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in central Oregon, though the kids could have joined the Shoshone-Bannocks instead. "It's really not my place to take a side on the issue," Edmo-Suppah said. "The one thing that we've been taught is that if you make a choice, that's where you go. You're supposed to think way ahead of what you're doing. But in today's society, people are more spur of the moment, and aren't taught the traditions." Soon, she said, the entire family will move to central Oregon to be with her husband's tribe. "Our cultural traditions are what's kept us intact as Indians, and it's important for children to learn that. We need to move there so they can live it instead of learning from afar." The blood quantum issue is significant because it will determine the way the Sho-Bans maintain their land base and treaty rights, she said. "That's all we have left -- originally there were over 1 million acres, and now we only have a half-million acres. Our original territory was all over the West where we roamed to hunt and fish," she said. No other racial group in America requires its members to prove themselves with blood quantums, yet Indians are often asked how much Indian blood they carry, said Native American journalist and Shoshone- Bannock tribal member Mark Trahant. "American Indians and show dogs are quantified that way. It's a very offensive question, and the answers aren't even valid," Trahant said. "Even if someone has a high blood degree, that assumes the records are right and we know they aren't." Many of the records that blood quantums are based on come from the Dawes Act of 1887, which purported to protect Indian property rights by granting families that registered under the act with land as reparation for relocation and genocide. Corrupt officials added their own family names to the register, and some freed slaves were ordered onto the rolls. Later federal laws determined that only those with mixed heritage could sell the allocated land, so unscrupulous officials often lowered the blood quantum of Indians with prime property. "Say a person owned land the railroad wanted -- well, that person's quantum would be lowered," Trahant said. "So much of Indian policy was designed in the 19th century with the thought that Indians would go away. Now, two centuries later it's become much more complicated because they didn't disappear." Determining heritage When first determining blood quantums, officials often relied on flawed science, Meyer said. "They brought in big-name physical anthropologists from the Smithsonian and other places," said Meyer, "who would look at Indians' hair, scratch their skin and testify if these tests proved them to be Indian or not. It was such an outright case of racism. Tribes had never construed their identity this way." Shoshone-Bannock Tribal Chairman Blaine Edmo said people were concerned his tribes' current enrollment requirements were too liberal. "Those who have a higher degree of Indian blood will tell you that we need to preserve the blood, and those with limited blood tell you that we need to preserve descendancy," he said. Copyright c. 2003 Spokesman-Review. --------- "RE: Yellow Bird: Diversity strengthens our Unity" --------- Date: Sat 1 Feb 2003 18:27:33 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN" http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/dorreen_yellow_bird/ DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Diversity strengthens our unity February 1, 2003 Is the purpose of diversity training helpful to those exposed, or can those ideas be detrimental in uniting a nation? A recent Minnesota Public Radio survey found that 83 percent of listeners found diversity among the population a good aspect of society - that was good to hear, because I agree. Understanding the cultural lifestyles of the people in our community usually brings about a more peaceful and sensitive society. One of the arguments against efforts to teach diversity is that it weakens and fragments the united "all-for-one" notion that has helped make America the most powerful nation in the world. We are Americans, after all is said and done. Wednesday, I was involved in a program that rebuts that notion. The program in Grand Forks Central High School is called "Expand Your Horizons" and is funded by the Knight Foundation. The purpose is to expose high school students to the diverse cultures in the community. It is an after-school program, with a little incentive such as school credits for students, if they want to learn about diversity. My part in the program was to help Richard Ferguson, a global education and psychology teacher and the person responsible for the program, to identify some speakers for the program. There were three sessions Wednesday evening. Monte Yellow Bird, my nephew and summer program director for the Dakota Science Center, talked about the spiritual aspect of the culture of the Plains people, specifically the Hidatsa, Arikara and Sioux. Sharon Hand with Native American Student Services of Grand Forks Public Schools and the Seven Feathers dancers performed Native American dances. They regularly perform at Central High School. I organized a food program in the evening, during which we made fried bread. Marie Henry, an Ojibwa native from Roseau River Reserve in Manitoba, demonstrated fried bread or bannock as they call fried bread in Canada, and I talked about food and diversity. I am a teacher, although I haven't taught for some years. So, it was great to be in a classroom again. Being around young people who are beginning to think more broadly in terms of the world around them is refreshing. We each had two groups of students that night. The students were of several different ethnic backgrounds. The majority of the students were Norwegian or German, but there also were students who identified themselves as Hispanic, African-American, Native American, and there was a student of Icelandic descent. Some students didn't know their ethnic background, probably because they were of several different ethnicities or, perhaps, they considered themselves just Americans. As I talked to the students about the foods of Native Americans while we waited for the fried bread to cook, I also learned about some ethnic foods that were new to me. One particular dish was knephla in a beet juice. Since I work on the Herald's Sunday interview feature called Prairie Voices, I have interviewed and talked with many Norwegians and Germans and have tasted and learned about many of their foods. But this was a new dish to me. We talked about some of the usual dishes that are common to a race of people but are not commonly served in restaurants. I was surprised that some students had tasted even the most unusual foods or dishes. Food can be the backdrop as nations make peace, corporations negotiate megadeals, young people fall in love and couples find time to enjoy each other during a quiet meal. It also is a strong expression of the culture of a people. So, the "Expand Your Horizons" program is on target, bringing students together to learn about their diverse environment. Food is a reflection of the diversity of cultures and a doorway to understanding. Diversity leads to understanding, not fragmentation, and we are stronger for our diversity. After the fried bread with chokecherry jelly or powdered sugar was eaten, I think there was agreement that learning about diversity is fun and that fried bread is a great snack. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yellow Bird writes Tuesday and Saturday. Reach her by phone at 780-1228 or (800) 477-6572, extension 228, or by e-mail at dyellowbird@gfherald.com. Copyright c. 2003 Grand Forks Herald. --------- "RE: Giago: Lewis & Clark, Quotas and Indian Gaming" --------- Date: Mon 3 Feb 2003 08:33:27 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TIM GIAGO: EVENTS" http://www.lakotajournal.com/notes.htm NOTES FROM INDIAN COUNTRY Lewis & Clark, Quotas and Indian Gaming By: Tim Giago (c) 2003 Lakota Media Inc. At least once per year I do a column that is a potpourri of the year's events. This gives me a chance to air some of the happy or disconcerting things that have traipsed across the American Indian landscape. This morning as I watched CBS Sunday Morning, I was bothered by the sight of Indians in full ceremonial regalia sitting on a podium somewhere back East to kick off the celebration of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. I was bothered because I could not figure out what these Indians had to celebrate. Lewis and Clark explored the lands that would soon become a part of the farcical Louisiana Purchase with the sole intent of mapping it for eventual confiscation without the consent of the Indian nations that had occupied these lands for thousands of years. Lewis and Clark were the precursors of the mass movement West that would displace, remove and in some cases, make extinct, the Indians of the region. To celebrate this historical event would be tantamount to the people of Poland celebrating the invasion of the German Army. When the more traditional Indians see other Indians participating in such horrendous activities they often refer to them as "Indians on parade." Instead of celebrating their own history, they defer to the history of the invaders. Affirmative Action Republicans across the board lauded the comments of George W. Bush about the Constitutionality of Affirmative Action, or as they have labeled it, "setting quotas." Strangely enough "quotas" in the educational system of America worked for about 195 years in this country. Back then the quota was known as "Whites Only." The educational system in this country, especially in the Deep South, was "separate, but equal" education. What did this mean? It meant that state school budgets created schools for Blacks only all the way from the elementary to the higher education level. In the 1960s when African Americans tried to enroll in white high schools with the power of the United States government behind them it took the protection of the National Guard to get them through the school house doors. The same thing happened at Southern colleges such as the University of Mississippi and Alabama. This is not ancient history, my friends. Why weren't the politicians screaming about "quotas" and affirmative action back then? Because it did not concern them, that's why. The only people denied entrance to the all-white high schools and colleges were Black, Hispanic or Indian. The folks inside of these sacrosanct institutions protected by "quotas" were White. For 195 years minorities were shut out of the institutions of higher education. Shut out! They were placed in substandard schools, substandard as facilities and substandard in academics. While all of this was going on Whites had access to the finest educational facilities in America. All Affirmative Action asks is that those minorities excluded from an equal education for 195 years be given the opportunity to compete. If this causes one White person to be excluded from a law school or medical school because of "quotas" what of it? Where was the president of the United States, the U. S. Supreme Court, the United States Congress and all of the state governments in America while thousands of minorities were denied access to higher education? Indian Gaming There are those who think that because I have written columns critical of some aspects of Indian gaming that I am anti-Indian gaming. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's just that I will not look at Indian gaming and pretend that there are not warts present. The way the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was put together with such haste and with so many loopholes is criminal. Instead of providing protections for the Indian nations in many respects it had just the opposite effect. I was, and am, appalled at the way the Bureau of Indian Affairs, under the guidance of Kevin Gover, shirked its trust responsibility to the Indian nations by giving federal recognition to any small Indian group with enough backers and dollars to present its case. Oftentimes Gover gave groups federal recognition against the policies of the BIA and against the advice of his own staff. This, in my mind is criminal. It made a sham of what constitutes an Indian nation. It was the tribes of the Great Sioux Nation and others who have fought the fight for the other Indian nations over the past 100 years. It was these tribes who laid their lives on the line for justice. And yet, Indian gaming has done absolutely nothing for them. It is the "new" tribes who are reaping millions of dollars from their casinos; many opened on dollars acquired from foreign investors. Indian gaming per se is still out to lunch. We do not know its long-term impact. We do not know how many illegal acts have occurred since its inception. We do not know how the culture and traditions of Indian tribes will survive its impact. To some tribes it is a cure and a curse. The Lakota people believe that "time" cures all ills and answers all questions. Time is the great equalizer. And so when it comes to Indian gaming, time alone will tell. Copyright c. 2003 Lakota Journal. --------- "RE: Opinion: A Reason to Teach about Indians" --------- Date: Sat 1 Feb 2003 18:27:33 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RACISM" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.helenair.com/articles/2003/01/31/opinions/a04013103_03.txt Opinion: A reason to teach about Indians By Sharon Wagner January 31, 2003 Your Turn. It was a balmy August night in 2002 when my 17-year-old daughter and her child, buckled safely in the backseat of the car, pulled into the Cenex gas station at the corner of North Montana Avenue and Custer Avenue. The windows were rolled down on the passenger and driver's side of the car to let the warm wind blow through the vehicle. After pumping gas, my daughter pulled up to the entrance of the store in order to pay for her gasoline, taking her child with her into the store. She had buckled my granddaughter into her safety seat and gotten into the driver's seat when a man came up to her spewing ugly words into her face. Through her window open, he had a chance to get "into her face" with his racial slurs. He put his hand on the window button disabling her from getting the window up. My daughter's stricken face was all he saw when his last racist gesture was to spit in her face. The golden rings upon his fingers and his red shirt sleeve were all she saw. Eric Clapton's words, "if I could, I'd change the world" have been singing in my head since Shawn White Wolf's wonderful article about Indian Legislators was printed in Sunday's IR. What an incredibly up-hill battle Dolly Akers fought to change the world so long ago. Unfortunately, for the Senator and House Representatives mentioned in White Wolf's article, the battle continues. Representatives Bixby and Juneau have been requesting of the legislature funding to teach the type of history about Montana's tribes depicted in White Wolf's article. Since the Constitutional Convention thirty years ago to MCA 20-1-501, Indian Education for All has never been funded. Imperative to understanding the Indian Education for All bill is the language of MCA 20-1-501 and the term "all." This is not a bill to teach Indian children about themselves, but a bill to teach all Montana's children about the Indian tribes in the state. As a Blackfeet mother, aunt, and now grandmother, I will be able to teach my family about themselves in my own home. As Blackfeet children, my children have not been given the school opportunities to learn about Assiniboines, Crows, Cheyennes, Little Shell Chippewas, Salish, Kootenais, Crees, Gros Ventres, or Nakota Sioux. Neither have your children. My children have not been granted the opportunity to shine in the classroom for their vast experiences in life or their grand intelligences. When I relive the moment my daughter stepped into our house after the trauma the man in the red shirt inflicted upon her, tears of frustration spring into my eyes and I am deeply saddened that another human being sought to bring shame, fear, and racism onto this young girl. More frustration, sadness, and yes, anger, fill me as I watch another generation of Blackfeet, my granddaughter, come to terms with racism in Montana. If I could, I'd change the world by educating our children and youth about tribes in Montana through the education system and not by each individual fighting the battle like Dolly Akers so long ago. If I could, I'd change the world by giving the opportunity of education about Montana's tribes to children throughout Montana so a man in a red shirt cannot inflict pain upon young Indian people in Montana. SHARON WAGNER lives at 1623 Chestnut in Helena. Copyright c. 2003 Helena Independent Record; a division of Lee Enterprises --------- "RE: Tex Hall invokes the Seven Generations" --------- Date: Mon 3 Feb 2003 08:33:27 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="STATE OF INDIAN NATIONS" http://www.indianz.com/News/show.asp?ID=2003/02/03/sion In address, Hall invokes the seven generations MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2003 STATE OF INDIAN NATIONS: National Congress of American Indians President Tex Hall and executive director Jackie Johnson. January 31, 2003. Photo NSM. The leader of the largest inter-tribal organization on Friday delivered what was billed as the first ever State of the Indian Nations address, calling on the federal government to honor its obligations to American Indians and Alaska Natives. Wearing his trademark cowboy hat and dressed in a traditional ribbon shirt, National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) President Tex Hall touched on a broad range of issues. From trust reform to gaming to health care, Hall said Native people can't be left behind. "Native Americans are the fastest growing segment of the population by percentage -- in the face of policies aimed at ensuring our destruction, we have chosen survival," he told an audience in Washington, D.C., and those tuned in via the C-SPAN network. "Now we seek not just to survive but to thrive." Lasting about an hour, the speech was as much an educational tool as it was a description of the state of Indian Country. Hall tied today's high rates of poverty, domestic violence and unemployment to historic neglect by federal policymakers. "We do not exist today in a void -- our past and our future span out from us in this moment, telling the true story of who we are and what we can be," he said. Hall focused on three major areas: the government-to-government relationship, economic development and health and welfare. He characterized each by the struggles tribes face and offered suggestions to improve the state of affairs. With regard to trust reform, Hall said it was "an issue of basic survival." He called on President Bush to become involved in fixing the broken system, which cannot account for billions of dollars owned by individual and tribal beneficiaries, by directing Secretary of Interior Gale Norton to resume talks with tribal leaders. "It is time to do what is right and accept the fiscal responsibility for fixing this problem that has been so many years in the making before more damage is done," Hall said in proposing a two-day summit with government officials this spring. Hall criticized both Republicans and Democrats for not developing concrete plans to address rampant unemployment and poverty among Native Americans. He cited bureaucracy, state intrusions on tribal commerce and the lack of infrastructure on reservations -- nearly a quarter of all Indian households lack basic telephone service, according to federal statistics -- as impediments to successful economic development. But there are bright spots, he noted, mostly due to the $12 billion and growing Indian gaming industry. He said tribes are providing needed jobs even if revenues aren't uniform across the country. Health, education, the environment and homeland security made up the final tier of Hall's speech. He called on Bush to fulfill mandates to provide health services to Indian people and to ensure that the No Child Left Behind Act includes Indian children. Hall also pointed out the high rate of military service among American Indians and Alaska Natives. During a question and answer period, he was asked about potential action against Iraq. "I would hope that we give peace a chance," he said, referring to the ongoing United Nations inspection process. "But if war happens our people will be there again. They will be there to defend this country in probably more numbers per capita than any other group in this country." After the speech, Jackie Johnson, executive director of NCAI and a member of the Tlingit Tribe of Alaska, said it was developed by NCAI staff in consultation with other national organizations like the National Indian Gaming Association, whose president Ernie Hall was in attendance. The "buy in" was needed, she said, in order to broaden support in Indian Country. About a month of work went into it, she added, during which it was chopped down from about two hours to its current length. She also pointed out that Hall didn't have the "luxury" of skipping over an historical review of Indian Country. "This is just the start," he said. Founded in 1944, NCAI represents more than 200 tribal governments in the lower 48 states and Alaska. Tribal leaders will meet in Washington, D.C., at the end of the month for NCAI's annual winter session. Copyright c. 2000-2003 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Nez Perce Panel plans to defend Treaty Rights" --------- Date: Wed 29 Jan 2003 08:17:50 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NEZ PERCE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=012803&ID=s1294746&cat=section.Tribal_news Nez Perce panel plans to defend treaty rights Group will seek ed benefits, fight jurisdictional challenges Associated Press January 28, 2003 LAPWAI, Idaho - The tribal committee formed to help a member fight charges resulting from a fatal hunting accident is expanding its reach to cover the treaty rights of all members. Clifford Allen Sr. of Culdesac, the Tribal Sovereignty Committee vice chairman, questions whether the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee is doing all it can to protect tribal sovereignty. Sovereignty committee members, the 68-year-old leader said, "are kind of concerned about our future and what the council is doing to help our kids." The committee was originally formed to defend Kim Ellery Rickman Jr., 22, of Lapwai, who has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Colby James Thomason, 17, of Craigmont. Thomason died in a hunting accident on Craig Mountain in September. Rickman has a federal hearing next week. But Allen said the panel intends to look at issues ranging from securing education benefits for tribal members to the jurisdictional challenges lodged by groups such as the North Central Idaho Jurisdictional Alliance. "A lot of Indians are unaware of their civil rights," says Allen. Copyright c. 2003, The Spokesman-Review. --------- "RE: Indian Land Questions can be Complicated" --------- Date: Wed 29 Jan 2003 08:17:50 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INDIAN LAND" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.zwire.com/site/News.cfm?BRD=1825&dept_id=129120&news Indian land questions can be complicated By: Betty Smith, Press Staff Writer January 24, 2003 The regulations vary, depending whether it's restricted or trust. A holdup in the opening of the Tahlequah Public Schools Performing Arts Center has led some local residents to question what constitutes Indian land, and what regulations apply to it. But it's also been a source of speculation for those who are curious about just how "Indian smoke shops" came into existence. The $4.3 million performing arts center has been complete for nearly three months, but has not been used because a new sewer line needs to be completed. The line requires an easement to run across restricted Indian land, and a lengthy process is needed to approve such easements. The matter is before the Bureau of Indian Affairs right now, and Assistant Superintendent Denver Spears said school officials expect to hear from the BIA "any day now." There are two categories of Indian land: Restricted land, and land held in trust, said Linda Donelson, a staff attorney for the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. When the Cherokees were relocated to Oklahoma during the Trail of Tears era, the tribe owned the land in common. This was true until just after the turn of the 20th century, when the Dawes Commission supervised the allotment of Cherokee and other Five Civilized Tribes land to individual tribal members. "This land was allotted out to individual Cherokees who passed it down to their descendants," Donelson said. In order for land to be restricted, the owner must be at least half Indian blood. "If it goes below half degree, it drops out of restricted allotment automatically," she said. There is legislation before Congress now that would amend the 1947 act governing restricted land. It would allow Cherokees of less than one-half degree of blood to continue to hold restricted land, or half-blood Cherokees to pass on restricted land to their children who are less than half-blood. "There still is a lot of that land here, because a lot of Indians have married other Indians," Donelson said. Indian land can be declared held in trust if the BIA authorizes it. Some land is held in trust by the Cherokee Nation, while other parcels have been allotted by the Cherokee Nation to individual tribal members. Sale or uses of both types of land can require review by federal officials, and it may take a long time for permission to be granted. In the case of the performing arts center sewer line, the land in question is owned in common by several heirs of the owner of the original allotment. When an easement is desired across such land, the person desiring the easement must apply to the Cherokee Nation realty department. The department contacts the landowners and informs them of the request. An environmental review is performed to see if the proposed project might have any harmful effects on the land and its value. "Even the one wanting the easement needs to know if it's going to be good to go across the land," Donelson said. There also is an appraisal to ensure the property owner receives just compensation. After those steps are complete, the proposed easement is sent to the BIA office in Muskogee for approval, back to the Cherokee Nation for negotiations with the property owner, and then back to the BIA for final approval. Finally, the easement can be signed and construction can begin. In the case of trust land, when it is sold, the owner has to petition to court to do so. "Even if a Cherokee wants to sell to another Cherokee, the BIA gets involved," Donelson said. "They want to see that the landowner is getting good value for the property." The owner can deed restricted land to a relative "for love and affection" if the relative is at least one-half Cherokee. "The Cherokee Nation is in favor of people keeping the land in restriction because that is part of the Cherokee Nation land base," Donelson said. If the land is restricted or in trust, it is definitely considered Indian land. In the past, there have been questions about whether law enforcement agencies, such as police and sheriff's departments, have jurisdiction on Indian land, or whether a member of the Cherokee Nation Marshals Service must be included in activities on such land. In recent years, the Cherokee Nation has been cross-deputizing marshals and officers from other law enforcement agencies to avoid such problems. Recently the Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission River Rangers were cross- -deputized, and Wednesday afternoon, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs signed a cross-deputization agreement with the Cherokee Nation. When a property owner dies, inheritance of restricted land is handled through probate in the state district court. In the case of trust land, inheritance requires administrative procedures before an administrative judge. Donelson said gaming operations and smoke shops can be placed on restricted and trust lands. "A lot of the smoke shops are put on restricted lands, and that's no problem," she said. The owner of restricted or trust lands who wants to open a smoke shop needs to apply for permission through the Cherokee Nation Tax Commission. Individuals also could operate mini-casinos, if they received approval from the tax commission and the Cherokee Nation Gaming Commission. Currently there are no such operations. "All the casinos and smoke shops the Cherokee Nation owns are on trust land," Donelson said. She said the BIA is examining residential and commercial use of Indian land. "You can basically use it for just about anything," she said. "If you're going to put certain things on it, there are certain restrictions." In the case of the $4.3 million performing arts center, the BIA received the report for final review from the Cherokee Nation. Jimmy Gibson, branch chief for the Environment and Natural Resources office at the BIA in Muskogee, said such reviews usually don't take long. The contractor for the performing arts center didn't submit the easement request until the building was about halfway constructed, because plans changed. The change was made to provide improved sewer service to the area, and the Cherokee Nation received the initial request last Aug. 12. Superintendent Paul Hurst said last week that the performing arts center could open five days after the approval was received. Copyright c. 2003 Tahlequah Daily Press. --------- "RE: Ndn History-Mine" --------- Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 15:11:49 -0000 From: Carter Subj: ndn history-mine Mailing List: ndn-aim Also posted: http://www.wintercount.org I was asked why I fight against America's foreign wars and speak against them so often. My history, like many ndns, is so much different than other Americans that they can not understand where I'm coming from... so, here's where I'm coming from: In the late 1880's the Americans decided my Ponca people belonged in concentration camps (you supply the reasons, it makes no difference), so they sent their army to round up my Grandfather, Grandmother and all the rest of my relations from the land guaranteed to them forever and made them walk to the concentration camp in Quapaw, Oklahoma, we stayed there for three years and one third of my family, my clan and my Tribe died before they made us buy another reservation and told us it was ours to live on forever. Luckily for me my grandparents survived the death march, my Mother was born on the new rez in Oklahoma. She was the child of genocide and I am the grandchild. Soon after we arrived on our new land, the Americans decided we had too much and forced our leaders to accept individual allotment of the land we had purchased in common from the Cherokee (some people think we were given our reservation lands but we bought ours as a Tribe). By holding the land in common land thieves were held at bay and the Ponca could stave off starvation. Allotment meant individuals could be pinned down by greedy white people and robbed. All across ndn territory our leaders fought allotment and my Grandfather resisted also, they were jailed, abused and finally defeated again. Allotment and the white "land runs" happened, suddenly the Ponca were surrounded by jackals in all their hues, just like the ones who had driven them from our ancestral homelands. The land runs created a white majority, this allowed the creation of the state of Oklahoma in 1906 and all powers of self government were stripped from my people. The Ponca had been reduced from over a thousand relatives to about five hundred or less, and my Grandpa had changed from being a buffalo hunter to a farmer on the poorest dirt America could find. Our family and my people were thrown into the very bottom of the okie melting pot and then the great depression hit what economics we had left and forced our people to sell their allotments, ending even farming. Need I mention the BIA was busily trading on ndn misery by stealing the land in collusion with the new, white, Oklahoma power structure. My Grandpa still lived then and would not sell land as long as he was alive but finally he died and most of the land quickly went to whites, my Ponca Tribe still lives on the remnants. Ask yourself, what was your Grandfather doing when he was a young man and what did America do to (or for) him? You now know what they were doing to mine and to every other Ponca. The first whiteman came among the Ponca in 1800, by 1880 we were one half dead from his disease, then by 1930 a third more had perished, and along with them our land was taken from under us twice. He stole our children and outlawed our religions, he banned our language, denigrated our history and enslaved our mentality. All this during the lifetime of my Grandfather and Grandmother. In 1908 the Ponca Chiefs were forced put away the sacred Sundance and our Clan system. In 1917 one hundred percent of eligible Ponca men volunteered to enlist for WW1. In return, in 1924 he gave us the right to vote and told us to forget our past. This is what my immediate family has lived through in America, each Tribe goes through their "time of horror" when he comes, the Ponca horror was not that long ago and we are not yet whole nor healed nor assured of a future. Some Tribes are going through it today and I hear their cries every bit as loud as I do 9-11. I think maybe only Jewish Americans, (whose parents and grandparents went through their own holocaust of death by government) can understand why it's too soon to ask us to trust the people who did this to us, just because they have moved on to loot other tribes. History has a way of coloring ones view of America, my history sees that what he has given to his chosen few in rich white America, was taken in red blood and my Grandfather and Grandmother witnessed it. My history has rendered me unsusceptible to the patriotic brainwashing needed to excuse the killing. I am Carter Camp...Ponca. --------- "RE: Tlingit Speaker to get Royal Award" --------- Date: Tue 4 Feb 2003 08:33:27 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TLINGIT LANGUAGE SPEAKER" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/2563392p-2613349c.html Tlingit speaker to get royal award BESSIE COOLEY: Yukon premier to give Golden Jubilee Medal. The Associated Press February 3, 2003 Juneau -- Bessie Cooley used to be punished for speaking Tlingit. Now she's getting an award from the queen of England for using her Native language. Cooley will accept a Golden Jubilee Medal on Saturday in Whitehorse, Yukon. It's being presented by the Yukon's premier, Dennis Fentie, on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II. The queen serves as Canada's head of state under its constitutional monarchy. The award is granted to Canadians who have made significant contributions to the nation in the past 50 years. It's part of the celebration marking the 50th anniversary of the queen's reign. Cooley, 58, is a fluent speaker of Tlingit who worked for five years as an interpreter for the Yukon territorial government. She is from Teslin, a Yukon town east of Whitehorse on the Alaska Highway. Cooley moved to Juneau in December to work as a Tlingit-language specialist with Sealaska Heritage Institute. Longtime friend Jim Smarch of Teslin nominated her for the award. "For a lot of us that went to mission schools, we've lost our tongue due to the beatings we used to get when we communicated in our own language," Smarch said. "However, Bessie hung on to hers." Cooley attended a residential school in Carcross, Yukon, where she and other Native youths were forbidden to speak their language. "But when we'd go home, we'd get right back into our Native culture," Cooley said. "My mom didn't speak or understand much English, so my dad encouraged us to keep up the language. My dad was a very farsighted man." At age 52, Cooley left Teslin to attend college and to master Tlingit writing. She earned an associate's degree in Native-language education from Yukon College and the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1998, and a bachelor's degree from UAF in Alaska Native studies with a Tlingit- language minor in 2000. Native culture and language are so intertwined that it's impossible to separate them, she said. "We've always been taught that it's part of our identity, part of who we are. Why would anyone want to give up part of their identity?" Sealaska Heritage Institute hired Cooley to help develop a Tlingit immersion curriculum. "Bessie is a key member of our Tlingit curriculum development team," said Rosita Worl, the institute's president. "She is one of the very few people who is a fluent speaker of Tlingit and has earned college degrees and certificates in the areas of Tlingit language and Alaska Native studies." Copyright c. 2003 The Anchorage Daily News. --------- "RE: Court asked to reject Bush Accounting Plan" --------- Date: Mon 3 Feb 2003 08:33:27 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="VOODOO ACCOUNTING" http://www.indianz.com/News/show.asp?ID=2003/02/03/trust Court asked to reject Bush accounting plan MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2003 The plaintiffs in the billion dollar trust fund lawsuit filed court papers on Friday challenging the Bush administration's attempt to limit an accounting owed to more than 500,000 American Indians. Despite two court rulings affirming the right to an accounting, the plaintiffs said the Department of Interior still hasn't gotten the message. Characterizing Secretary Gale Norton's proposal to spend $335 million over five years as "woefully inadequate," they called on a federal judge to reject it. "There is no good faith evident in defendants' historical plan to fulfill finally their fiduciary obligation to account," the 67-page filing stated. "Instead, defendants have filed yet another plan to evade their trust duties to the individual Indian trust beneficiaries; it is likely that this plan will also never reach fruition as defendants are clearly hoping that Congress will bow to their persistent lobbying and purport to legislate away their obligation to provide an accurate and complete historical accounting - maybe even the trust itself." The criticism comes as Norton is to unveil her department's spending plans for fiscal year 2004. The Bush administration is asking for an historic increase in trust reform, in part to conduct historical accountings owed to individual Indians, who are part of the seven-year-old Cobell lawsuit, and tribes, some of whom have filed their own separate claims. The Individual Indian Money (IIM) trust, created in 1887 to manage oil, gas, timber and other land-based activity, is the subject of a plan Norton submitted on January 6 to a federal judge. In it, she backed away from an earlier proposal to spend $2.4 billion over ten years to account for the funds. But in doing so, she imposed several limits that would cut off tens of thousands of beneficiaries. Cited by the plaintiffs, these include deceased account holders, those who voluntarily participated in a land consolidation plan the Bush administration wants to expand, those who receive "direct pay" of their trust funds and those whom the government can't identify. Norton is also excluding an accounting of the land held in trust for beneficiaries. "More than forty-three million acres of trust land has vanished from the Individual Indian Trust - some presumably authorized, but most obviously in unauthorized and undocumented transactions - yet there is no plan to detect, identify, reconstruct or account for these unrecorded and unidentified non-financial assets," the plaintiffs wrote. On Friday, Tex Hall, an IIM beneficiary and President of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) said identification of the non- financial assets was crucial. "When you finally receive a grazing check, you will get nothing that determines where it came from," he said. "Did it come from this 40-acre tract, did it come from this 160-acre tract? There's no definition." Norton's plan also assumes that the funds passed down through generations of account holders are accurate. But Hall pointed out that the probate system is backlogged. By the government's own admission, there are more than 30,000 estates waiting to be resolved. "Where does that money go? who gets the money?" he asked. "We don't have any reports." Separately, the plaintiffs filed a response to Norton's proposal to reorganize the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of Special Trustee. "Nowhere in the Compliance Plan is there evidence that they even understand what a fiduciary responsibility entails," they wrote. The government submitted responses to the plaintiff's alternative proposals and filed three motions for summary judgment to limit the trust fund accounting. Copyright c. 2000-2003 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Observation: What the Governance means to me" --------- Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 08:30:45 -0500 From: "Frosty" Subj: Fw: WHAT THE GOVERNANCE ACT MEANS TO ME...JAN. 23/03 Mailing List: Frostys AmerIndian ----- Original Message ----- Date: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 6:05 PM From: Dan Wilson Subj: Re: WHAT THE GOVERNANCE ACT MEANS TO ME...JAN. 23/03 >To: Hart Perley Hart, Thank you very much for speaking the truth. Our truth is the same in so- called British Columbia because the new comers "standardize" everything. That is why they have the same European place names all across Turtle Island: -i.e.- New York; New England; Moscow, Idaho; Surrey; London; Paris; Oxford; New Germany; New Glasgow, New Windsor; New Westminster; Madrid; etc, etc. Not only do they use the same place names over and over again, they use the same colonial strategies where ever they go. The creation of a "Big Man' is an example. This strategy works by identifying those who are willing to collaborate with them in exchange for individual material wealth. Once someone is identified within the target nation, the colonial power builds this person up by trading exclusively with that individual and his followers. (The Europeans are a patriarchal society, therefore, in colonial times they dealt exclusively with men. Today, they build up either men or women depending on whoever will do their dirty work for them.) This strategy creates a power shift in favour of the collaborators and allows the colonizer easy access to the target nation's resources, including human resources. Once the "Big Man" establishes a new collaborating hierarchy, the colonizer simply overthrows the "Big man" and steps into his ruling position, thus completely subjugating the target nation's population. This is how the Roman Empire expanded, as well as, the British Commonwealth. The United States employ s the same strategy today, only in a more concealed form. Another strategy is the use of biological weapons such as small pox infested blankets. This shows that these people are capable of the lowest form of cowardice. My elders say that we should not fear cowards. We have to expose them for what they are by speaking the truth. When the truth is around, all lies have to run and hide. (I read that somewhere) But, I know from experience that this is true. Hart, thank you for speaking the truth. Sincerely, Chief Dan Wilson Okanagan Nation ----- Original Message ----- Date: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 7:40 AM From: Hart Perley Subj: WHAT THE GOVERNANCE ACT MEANS TO ME...JAN. 23/03 >To: Dan Wilson I have spent the last thirty three years of my life trying to study history of our Abenaki Nation, my search has led me through the darkest roads my people were forced to take trying to survive. My sister and the White Roots of Peace are largely responsible for the direction I choose to take, and the decisions I have made. So here goes on paper what I have uncovered. FACT NUMBER ONE: There has never been an agreement, legislation between the Maliseet Nation (as we are called today) and the Federal or Provincial Governments, that included our input. We were never consulted in the making of the Indian Act, We were never consulted when the British North American Act was made into law. We were never asked if it was ok for the Federal Government to place us on these "Concentration Camps" called Indian Reservations. We were never asked if it was ok for the Federal and Provincial Governments to abuse our natural resources harvested by the Federal and Provincial Governments from our territorial land base. Although the Federal Law known as the Indian Act made all Indian people WARDS of the Federal Government, they as our guardians, never established a trust fund from our natural resources and as a result, only they prospered while our nation existed in squalor/ Let us talk about our treaties for awhile, case after case we have been forced to take our treaty rights to their court of law, and even though we won in the Supreme Court of Canada, we are still being arrested and charged by the Provincial Government. Denied our Inherent Treaty Rights, attacked, beaten, harassed and arrested for taking what is ours by Aboriginal Birth Right in our Territorial Land Base, ours because we have never surrendered our Land Base or our Nationhood, we are the Abenaki Nation, we never gave this up to anyone. I have always been interested in the political aspect of our people, and time after time I have witnessed documents arrive before Chief and Council, each of these agreements are always prepared without any opinion of our people, we were not given the common courtesy of being consulted. One Example is the Alternative Funding Agreement, which starts "THE QUEEN IN RIGHT OF CANADA" from the very start of this paper we are agreeing that some Queen Owns Canada!! OUR TREATIES DO NOT STATE THIS !!!!!!!!!!!!!! I sat in on several meetings between Indian Affairs and our elected council in which our council tried to make changes in the agreement and were flatly denied by Indian affairs. Although they tell us that the agreement is a "PARTNERSHIP" the Queen and us, we have no say in what goes into the agreement! I say, "HANG YOUR HEAD IN SHAME CANADA" you are a RACIST that made RACIST LAWS to DEFRAUD Indian Nations of their wealth from the land base natural resources, now you DARE to come up with still another RACIST LAW. The Governance Act, still trying to confine us to the boundaries of "Reservations" the glorified CONCENTRATION CAMPS ruled by your Racist Priests and Nuns. Take a Look at the news lately??!! not only were the priests and nuns racist but child molesters as well, Well, thanks but no thanks!!!!!!!!!! ACCOUNTABILITY you say? Yes,, Let's see the Federal Government account for all the funds it misappropriated from our trust fund while he was our guardian, form 1867 up to the present time!! let's say 50% of all natural resources within our territorial land base. all lands occupied be Canadians not surrendered by our Abenaki Nation must be compensated at todays prices, not 5 cents/acre. The onus is on you to prove us wrong, let's see the papers where we ceded our territorial land base???!!!!! No matter how many laws you enact to justify the land fraud in our eyes you have not honored our treaties. Your Governance Act even orders us to have non-natives be elected into our council, we disagree, we are a nation and as such only we decide who sits on our council. NAWA - do you know that this Governance Act is the Grand Finally of the "White Paper Policy"??!!! This is when all Native Nations will be subject to the "MASTER", the ANTI-CHRIST. Look around you, these non-natives have only been here for five hundred (500) years and they have turned our Mother Earth into a sewer, poisoned our rivers, raped our forests, dug into her flesh and poisoned the air spirit. I find this time a very sad time in the life on my nation, watching as we are stripped of all our dignity, it must have been very hard for our ancient ancestors to witness, to watch a highly advanced form of government crumble and then to further witness the genocide of entire villages, nations. To witness native survivors starving, strange sicknesses wiping out their people, because our medicine healers were outlawed, and the scalping of native women, children and elders. Today we face a different kind of genocide, we are about to be forced into citizenship, "FIRST CITIZENS OF CANADA" We are non of these, we are the Aboriginal Abenaki Nation, the first people, Guardians of the Eastern Door To Turtle Island, Our Mother Earth!! Our Heritage is a Proud one, we allowed our white brothers and sisters to prosper and grow, now, we must grow and prosper also. The Minister of Indian Affairs Robert Nault decided that the Governance Act is the solution, maybe for him and Canada, not for us!!!!!!!!!!! Nault must be desperate if he is using NAWA to try and convince Native Nations to accept HIS Governance Act. Well, I am a Turtle Clan Mother and we will never accept the Governance Act. I and my turtle clan are DIRECT descendants of the treaty signers, we hold Canada to these treaties, it is time for our Nations to prosper Canada, Honor your Fiduciary Duties to our Nation so Canada can reclaim its honor, for you have dishonored your nation long enough. I am proud of my ancestry, I am proud I am Abenaki and have took the time not just to learn the whitemans talking leafs, but I also took the time to walk our Natural Sweet Grass Road, I am honored that I was taught by my ancient ancestors, the natural ways of our people and the truth. Our Nation of Aboriginal Peoples have walked upon Mother Earth with the Dinosaurs, through the Ice Age and the Great Flood and we are the chosen people, the guardians of creation. When our white brother arrived upon our Mother Earth on the Eastern Shore the land was the same as when our creator gave it to us. Now look at our Mother, in a few short five hundred years what has been done to her?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Time and again we have tried to offer to walk beside our white brothers and sisters, we offer them the traditional ecological knowledge of our ancestors, conservation and they would not listen!! now, after they have over fished, over hunted, over trapped, over harvested our natural resources they tell us that "natives" must obey "conservation laws", "forestry laws", "fisheries laws" and we can only practice our Inherent Treaty Rights on the "Reservations", thats the little dot on the map of NB. NAWA - you say the governance act is good?!!! first study the "White Paper Policy" every page that is in Ottawa, even the secret documents no one was supposed to see, no native that is, then come back and tell me how good it is to be swallowed up by the WHITE SERPENT". Look for the hidden agenda. What stands out the most is the inequality, injustice and total disregard of humanity to Aboriginal Nations in this country of Canada and the United States of America. When Germany was defeated and destroyed, it was rebuilt, their industries, their cities,their right to self-government, their nationhood, their self-esteem, everything was restored, all this took place within fifty years. On the other hand our Aboriginal Nations in North America were never restored, for the last 250 years we have not seen any industries, cities, self-esteem, self-government or nationhood in our Aboriginal Nations restored. In fact according to the Canadian Government we own nothing!!! They stripped us of our nationhood, our land base territories, all our natural resources are divided between the Federal and Provincial Governments!!!! In fact we Aboriginal Nations have been sanctioned for 250 years!!!!!!!!! The Japanese were compensated for their loss from the second world war, displacement and loss!!!!!!!!!!!! Aboriginal Nations have never been compensated for our loss or our displacement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If Canada was sincere in this partnership with Aboriginal Nations, it would have been our Aboriginal Nations writing our own Act, no interference from the Canadian Government. Who would really know what is needed in our nations, than ourselves??? Why must we be forced into accepting a new preconceived laws that will prove to be just as detrimental as the Indian Act and are designed to benefit only Canada. In Unity Juanita Perley Traditional Turtle Clan Mother Tobique First Nation N.B. --------- "RE: Aboriginal Vets await Ruling on Lawsuit" --------- Date: Fri 31 Jan 2003 08:43:11 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="VET RULING" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.canada.com/search/story Aboriginal vets await ruling on lawsuit Thursday, January 30, 2003 The clock is ticking as Regina judge Ian McLellan decides whether to certify a class-action civil suit brought against Ottawa by aboriginal war veterans. On February 15th, the veterans must decide whether to accept a federal offer of $20,000 compensation as redress to their claims of inequitable treatment. In exchange for a cash settlement, the veterans must sign away their rights to sue for any further compensation. Lawyer Clint Docken, who represents the veterans and their families who launched the class action, says he hopes a decision on the lawsuit is made before the deadline. Copyright c. 2003 Canadian Press. --------- "RE: Vieques News" --------- Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2003 17:59:22 EST From: Raulmax@aol.com Subj: Vieques News Mailing List: ndn-aim Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques PO Box 1424 Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765 Tel. (787) 741-0716 E mail: bieke@prdigital.com 1 Febrero, 2003 Report from the peace and Justice Camp Intense calendar of work for the CRDV The Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV) continues its rhythm of intense work for peace with a series of activities at the Peace and Justice Camp here and the participation of members of the group in conferences and workshops in Vieques, in Puerto Rico and in other countries. On Saturday, February 1st, we will hold what could be the last vigil "under bombardment". We will present a film by Andres Nieves (CRDV) on the Walk for Peace and Life held on 11 and 12 January. We will recognize the work of Vieques parish priest, Father Nelson Lopez and Hector "Iti" Olivieri, of the Yayi Key Collective, who assumed the principal responsibilities that assured the success of the multitudinous pro Vieques march. The Municipal Government of Carolina contributed greatly to the activity and the organizational work and resources of the Coordinator All Puerto Rico with Vieques were crucial to the celebration of this important event. During the vigil we'll also present a new book by Viequense artist and civil disobedient, Ernesto Pera and disobedients Carlos Ali, Josean Ramos and Danny Rivera. The work includes sketches of other Vieques prisoners done by Pera during his 90 day sentence for disobedience in 2001. We will also receive on Saturday, a delegation of Dominicans of the Catholic Church from the United States. The Dominicans have offered great support to the Vieques struggle through their Commission on Justice and Peace and their offices at the United Nations. Last week we received a delegation from the Third World Coalition, project of the American Friends Service Committee, identified with the cause of Peace since 1917. According to Darryl Jordan of the AFSC in Philadelphia, the Coalition groups minority community organizations in the US - Afro Americans, Latins, Asiatics, Indigenous People - to promote social justice through struggle against racism and discrimination. "We have come to accompany the people of Vieques in their struggle for peace, as part of our work for peace in the world," said Jordan. In coordination with the Caribbean Project for Peace and Justice (CPPJ-PR), the group travelled to Vieques to express its solidarity and participate in activities of the CRDV at the Peace and Justice Camp. During a "conversatorio" at the Camp, Coalition members shared experiences with representatives of the CRDV, the Vieques Womens' Alliance and the Diocese of Caguas, as well as several civil disobedients from Vieques and the main island of Puerto Rico. The CPPJ coordinates with the Fellowship of Reconciliation, based in San Francisco and with the CRDV, an international delegation for health and environment that will be in Vieques from the 10th to the 13th of February. Delegates will include experts and community organizers from diverse places in the US and other countries that will share their experiences with the Viequenses. Vieques was present recently at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brasil. More than 100 countries and thousands of delegates participated. Ismael Guadalupe (CRDV), one of the principal leader of the Vieques struggle, participated in several workshops on resistance to militarism and a workshop on Sunday, 26 January, titles: VIEQUES YES! NAVY NO! In a separate report, we will offer details of Guadalupe=B4s participation in this international forum. On 5 February, Francisco "Pache" Pimentel, member of the CRDV and President of the Vieques Municipal Assembly, will represent our community at a meeting in the EPA-Region 2 office in New York. Together with representatives of the FOR and others in solidarity with our struggle, Pache will present EPA officials with the demands of our people in relation to the decontamination process. Also in February, Myrna Pagan and Aleja Ortiz, members of the Health Commission of the CRDV, will travel to Memphis, Tennessee, where they will participate in workshops on health effects of military contamination. The CRDV was invited to participate and received support for travel from the Military Toxics Project, a US based organization that works with communities affected by contamination produced in neighboring military bases. Nilda Medina, founding member of the CRDV, serves on the National Board of the MTP and has represented that group in Washington, D.C., Texas and California. Ismael Guadalupe and Robert Rabin were invited to participate in the Conferencia Magistral of the UNESCO Project for Peace Education 2003 at the University of Puerto Rico-R=EDo Piedras, on Thursday, 13 February at 9.30 AM. This important UN forum in Puerto Rico has expressed, through its academic activities, consistent support for the peaceful civil disobedience campaign in Vieques during the past three years. Our committee recently revived an invitation to send a speaker to a peace rally in New York on 15 February, where over 100,000 people are expected. --------- "RE: 140th Anniversary of Massacre" --------- Date: Fri 31 Jan 2003 08:43:11 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MASSACRE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0130bearrivermassacre-ON.html Indian dead remembered on 140th anniversary of massacre Associated Press Jan. 30, 2003 12:05 PM PRESTON, Idaho - Robb "Little Owl" Martin played an improvised melody on a handmade wooden flute and hoped it would bring some solace to the spirits of the dead, killed so long ago. "These people are still here somewhere. They were never buried," he said. Martin and more than 30 others gathered a few miles north of Preston, in Idaho's southeast corner, on Wednesday for the 140th anniversary of the Bear River Massacre. Col. Patrick Edward Connor led the California Volunteers against the Shoshone in 1863. Estimates of the number of Indians killed in the 1863 attack on a Shoshone village range from 280 to 368. "This was the bloodiest massacre in the history of the far West," said historian Brigham Madsen. Views about the massacre have changed, as shown by three plaques near the site. Two of them, placed in 1932 and 1953, describe it as the scene of the Battle of Bear River. They say soldiers fought against Shoshone who had been attacking wagon trains. The third plaque, placed in 1990, denotes the place as the scene of the Bear River Massacre. Madsen said it was only a battle until the Indians ran out of ammunition. "It started out as a battle, but after two hours it became a massacre," he said. Madsen quotes Sgt. William L. Beach, who took part in the battle, as saying it appeared more like a "frolic" than a fight. Patty Timbimboo-Madsen, cultural resource manager for the Shoshone tribe in Brigham City, Utah, said it's difficult for members to come up to the commemoration. "To stand on the ground where they died, it hurts. I think everyone comes up when they're ready," she said. Timbimboo-Madsen said the tribe is seeking to purchase 30 acres in the area. Madsen and Shoshone leaders would like to see the area declared a national historic site. Copyright c. 2003 The Arizona Republic. --------- "RE: Indians' Claim of Minneapolis Police Brutality" --------- Date: Thu 30 Jan 2003 08:22:05 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="POLICE BRUTALITY" http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/3621411.html Minneapolis police to investigate Indians' claim of brutality Chris Graves and Howie Padilla Star Tribune Jan. 30, 2003 BRUT30 Community leaders called Wednesday for the firing of two unknown Minneapolis police officers who witnesses said manhandled an American Indian man before leaving him and a woman outside in freezing temperatures. Minneapolis Police Chief Robert Olson, who said he was "very concerned," met with leaders from the Indian community Tuesday and said the department is investigating the allegations. Two residents of the Little Earth housing complex in south Minneapolis have told community leaders and police investigators that they saw two officers drag the man and woman from the back seat of a marked squad car late Friday night. Those witnesses said they saw officers assault the man in a parking lot before leaving him unconscious after midnight. The temperature was 2 above. "They left them out to freeze," said Ellie Webster, executive director of Little Earth Community Partnership. She also said that off-duty officers who took the man to a hospital later told a Little Earth security supervisor that someone had urinated on the man's upper torso and head. The man and woman are homeless and were believed to have been drunk Friday night, community leaders said. Police and community leaders still don't know many details, including the identity of the officers and one of the victims. No matter what the investigation finds, the allegation has already created damage, Olson said. "This is terrible," he said. "We are very, very, very concerned about this. We have launched a full-scale investigation to find out what happened." The charges are similar to those a decade ago when two Indian men who were drunk were stuffed into the trunk of a Minneapolis squad car to be taken to a detoxification center. In 1995, Charles Lone Eagle and John Boney were awarded $100,000 each by a Hennepin County jury after jurors found that officers Michael Lardy and Marvin Schumer violated their human and civil rights. The officers said they put the men in the trunk as the quickest way to get them medical attention. The new allegations come as community members try to resolve who will speak in federal mediation sessions that are aimed at improving relations with police. More specifically, Olson has also met in recent weeks with Indian leaders who are concerned about how crimes against Indians have been investigated. "We've got good things going and then wham, this happens," Olson said. "It's just disheartening." Clyde Bellecourt, who appeared Wednesday with more than 100 community members at a news conference, called the new allegations "the worst thing you could do to someone." Community activist Spike Moss, who also attended the news conference, agreed. "What was done was not human, not professional," he said. "It was not godly." City Council Members Robert Lilligren and Dean Zimmermann apologized to the Indian community during the news conference. "I can tell you this is not an isolated incident," Zimmerman said. "On my desk, I've got a stack of reports an inch thick of complaints against police." Details murky On Monday, investigators began trying to identify the officers involved in the allegations, Olson said. He said they also are trying to find the man and woman to interview them. Webster said the man who they believe was the victim was highly intoxicated Friday and can't remember the incident. Community leaders didn't identify the man, who they said was at the Wednesday news conference. It remained unclear Wednesday how or where the man and woman came into contact with the police. Bellecourt said community leaders have confirmed the chain of events that started in the parking lot in the 2400 block of Ogema Place through witnesses, two off-duty Minneapolis police officers working in the housing complex and hospital staff members. Webster said a resident told her that she saw two officers in a squad car pull into the parking lot and drag a man and a woman from the back seat. The resident called her mother at 11:47 p.m. Friday and told her about the incident, which was going on as she was on the phone. Webster declined to identify the resident, saying she was frightened and requested anonymity. But Webster said the resident called a dispatcher at the Little Earth housing development at 12:11 a.m. Saturday to report the incident. She feared calling 911. "She didn't know what to do," Webster said. "When you call 911, the police come." Two other Minneapolis officers, who were working off-duty but in uniform, responded to the housing complex call a short time later and took the man to Hennepin County Medical Center. Larry Leventhal, who is representing the man believed to be the victim, said his client hadn't suffered permanent injuries, but Leventhal said he hadn't yet read medical reports. Although the man's shirt and pants have been washed, Leventhal has the man's jacket, shoelaces and headband. "We've talked to some DNA testing experts," Leventhal said. "We are hopeful that it will give some indication that urine was present and when the officers who did this are located, there may be a match." It's not clear that anybody saw who may have urinated on the man. The woman who was dragged out of the squad car spent the night in a station wagon that she found unlocked, Webster said. She declined offers of overnight shelter and apparently left Saturday morning. Police Lt. Rick Thomas declined to identify the two off-duty officers who took the man to the hospital, citing the investigation. Those officers followed appropriate procedures, he said. Off-duty officers are hired by the Little Earth housing complex on the eastern border of the Phillips neighborhood to provide extra policing and security. Officers answer calls from Minneapolis police dispatchers about crimes in the area as well as those from a dispatcher at the complex. Webster said she has been pleased with the officers who work off-duty at the housing complex and emphasized that the off-duty officers did nothing wrong. Those at the news conference said they don't believe that all officers are bad, but that there are a few who have the mentality that it is all right to abuse minorities. "There always have to be a few bad eggs," Webster said. "But those few sure make life miserable for all of us." Rally planned Bellecourt and Moss vowed to rally community members to march against police brutality next Thursday. Some marchers will start from the North Side while others will start from the South Side, converging at City Hall. The "March of Pain and Shame" will begin at 10 a.m. and end at noon, Bellecourt said. Sgt. John Delmonico, president of the police federatio