From gars@speakeasy.org Tue May 27 21:58:07 2003 Date: 27 May 2003 23:24:15 -0000 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews11.022 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 11, ISSUE 022 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, WOTANGING IKCHE - Lakota - Common News Wotanging Ikche and Native American News Copyright c. 1996-2003 nanews.org Aboriginal/AmerIndian Perspective about the First Nations of Turtle Island May 31, 2003 Mvskogee kee-hvsee/mulberry moon Kiowa pai tegpan p'a/geese go north moon +-------------------------------------------------------+ | Much more happens in Indian Country than is reported | | in this weekly newsletter. For daily updates & events | | go to http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm | +-------------------------------------------------------+ Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin -- Blackfeet -- News for All the People Ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min -- Ojibwe -- We Are Talking About Ourselves Aunchemokauhettittea -- Naragansett -- Let Us Share News Kanoheda Aniyvwiya -- Cherokee -- Journal of the People O Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse -- Creek -- People's New News O o O Acimowin -- Plains Cree -- Story or Account O o O Tlaixmatiliztli -- Nahuatl -- News O o o o o O Agnutmaqan -- Listuguj Mi'kmaq -- News O o O Sho-da-ku-ye -- Teehahnahmah -- Talking Birchbark O o O Un Chota -- Susquehannic Seneca -- The People Speak O Ha-Sah-Sliltha -- Ditidaht Nation -- News of the People 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 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 ==>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 <================<<<< >>>>================> 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; Native American Poetry, Frostys AmerIndian and ndn-aim Mailing Lists; Newsgroup: alt.native; UUCP email IMPORTANT!! ----------- In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, all material appearing in this newsletter is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for educational purposes. <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is a way of keeping the brothers and sisters who share our Spirit informed about current events within the lives of those who walk the Red Road. ++ It may be subscribed to via email by sending a request from your own internet addressable account to gars@speakeasy.org ++ It is archived at http://www.nanews.org <================<<<< >>>>================> +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | As historian Patricia Nelson | | 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: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + ======================== "If you dig up a grave in a white graveyard, you'll get 25 years," "If you dig up 1,000 Indian graves, you'll get a Ph.D." __ JIm Hickinbotham, Choctaw +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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! A bit over 500 years ago Europeans came ashore on Turtle Island, bringing with them many diseases. The worst among these were not small pox and germ-borne illnesses. The worst among them were a controlling ego and greed. To this day these inborn, inbred sicknesses continue to plague and destroy the descendants of the original Peoples of Turtle Island. Manifestations include a Governance Act being crammed through Canada's Parliament by Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault, in spite of the fact $15 Million in consultations has not produced one iota of consensus this act will do one damn thing more than has the previous 500 years of misguidance and hypocrisy. NAFTA continues to be the excuse to further enslave and murder Mayan, Quecha and others in South and Central American countries. Many who lead those intrusions were trained right in Ft. Benning Georgia at the School of the Americas. In the U. S., Secretary of Interior Gale Norton continues to try to wriggle out of contempt charges using every disgusting ploy possible to avoid making right the billions in misplaced, misused, stolen Indian Trust dollars. The solutions are not easy. 500 more years of these diseases is not a thing to be tolerated. If prophecies are to be believed, it won't be. Dohiyi Ani Oginalii , , Gary Night Owl gars@nanews.org (*,*) P. O. Box 672168 gars@speakeasy.org (`-') Marietta, GA 30008, U.S.A. ===w=w=== ----------- News of the people featured in this issue ---------- - A Place of Their Own - Caught in the Middle of - Danielle Shenandoah Political Tug-of-War asks for Asylum at the UN - Supreme Court Silent on - Indian Lore comes alive Searches of Tribe Land a0t Lawrence University - EBC Tribe seeks State probe of - Tohono O'odham believe Election Mailing Ancestors were Hohokam - Ute Mountain Ute Member - Tribes want Relics Preserved Shot and Killed - No easy way to clean up Tires - Killer gets Death on Tribal Land in Navajo Carjack Case - Burial Mounds cry out for Respect - Indians gather, - Cherokee asserts rights Protest Police Mistreatment to 160 Acres - Annie Mae Pictou Aquash Vigil - White House enters dispute - Native Prisoner over Dams, Salmon -- ACLU denies endorsing prison's - Navajo sue for River Water behavior control plans - Swimmer and Matin -- ACLU of Washington Sues to to face Senate Panel Remedy Inhumane Conditions - Judge Lamberth - Rustywire: A Traditional Dancer berates Norton Motion - History: Carlisle Indian School - Treasury Official backs - Poem: Paths of the Old Ones Strong Trust Controls - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - Tribal Governance Degree Program - N'dahoo'aah - Support of Native American Bank - Dine' Language, Culture - Pueblo-Mexico City Trail remain the Key to Success still bridging Cultures - Montana Indian Language Bill - Grassy Narrows - Cherokee Nation - SUMA targets Aboriginal Hiring On-Line Language Courses - Chiefs, NDP Politicians - NAMMY Submissions protest Reforms - This Week on First Peoples TV - Specials This Week on APTN --------- "RE: A Place of Their Own" --------- Date: Mon, May 26 2003 16:18:40 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="VETERANS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/6847178p-7784688c.html A Place of Their Own: Choinumni Indians honor veterans in burial grounds the tribe fought to regain. By Diana Marcum The Fresno Bee May 26, 2003 PIEDRA - Perhaps they chose this spot because of the way it's cradled by softly rounded hills and the way you can hear the Kings River flowing. Or maybe they chose it because the dirt is soft and sandy - easier to dig graves. For generations, these were the Choinumni's sacred burial grounds. An exact age can be hard to pin down when elders measure time by the elderberry bloom or the year the big tree burned down. But May Emma Davis, who turned 103 this month, remembers from her childhood the burial grounds as a well-cared-for collection of white-painted crosses lovingly decorated with flowers. This was where Davis' mother, the last princess of the Choinumni tribe, was buried. In the 1940s, Fresno County took the burial grounds and all the land that now surrounds Pine Lake Dam. The tribe was forbidden to bury anyone on the grounds. The small cemetery became a weed-choked field, the wooden crosses splintered and listing wearily toward earth. Angie Osborne, Davis' daughter, began a half-century fight to get the land back. In 1988, tired of decades of meetings and hearings, Osborne again went before the Fresno County Board of Supervisors. "This is the last time I will stand before you," she said. "These are our lands, and I've come to reclaim them. We're going to start burying our people here again." Her passion was heated by two tribe members' deaths in a car accident and their family's scramble to find money to bury them in a public cemetery. She had talked to Supervisor Deran Koligian, explaining that the Choinumni are not a federally recognized tribe - they are a people without a land. Koligian was Armenian; he told her Armenians are also a displaced people. Koligian, who died in 2001, cast the swing vote giving the burial grounds back to the Choinumni. The boys who first pulled weeds and painted crosses to restore the burial grounds are now grown men. The first time the Sanger American Veterans came here in 1995 to salute a veteran who was being buried, cows were still trampling the area. Now the two acres are fenced, with a white wrought-iron archway reading "Choinumni Sacred Burial Grounds." There's a flagpole. The crosses are still few and simple, but they are all freshly painted and pointing skyward. Sunday, about 50 people gathered at the burial grounds to honor four tribal member veterans buried in the cemetery - Leon Davis, Loren Joey Osborne, Edward Rhoan and Henry Cisco - and Lori Piestewa, a Hopi tribe member and mother of two young sons who was killed in an ambush this year in Iraq. Angie Osborne's son, Robert, passed burning sage over a circle of people who had helped with fund raising and worked to restore the burial grounds. Angie Osborne went to each person, passing her hands in front of their faces and hearts. In the Choinumni language, she said, "May you be blessed with a strong heart, a strong body and mind, and may the creator watch over you always." Audrey Osborne stepped forward to speak of Piestewa. "It hits us so hard as Indian people when we lose one of our own to war. But as Native American women, it hurts us even harder because a mother has been lost to her children. "We are going to sing this song and we want it to travel far. We want it to travel to where her family can feel us sing." The tribe and their friends sang the Song of the Four Directions, people clapping in time with the drums. "Hey yo winna hayane" they sang about the sun and water that make things grow. Sanger's American Veterans color guard marched across the grounds, crunching the drying grass. Veterans of different wars, they wore different uniforms. One wore cowboy boots. "The first time we were here, it was a run-down piece of dirt. Now look, something beautiful is here, where we have veterans buried," said quartermaster Danny Navarette. "Every year we come down here it gets a little harder because we are getting older, we are burying friends, but we will continue to come as long as we can make it." The color guard raised their rifles and fired 21 sharp cracks bouncing against the surrounding hills. Navarette held out a small, aged boom box. Taps played over its 4-inch speakers. The quartermaster's eyes watered. The Choinumni seek federal recognition as a tribe - a long, politically charged quest that takes extensive documentation. The burial grounds help because they show that a government has recognized land as theirs. Most of the tribe's 250 members live in Sanger and Fresno and struggle financially. Many have married people who aren't American Indians. Osborne bristles at government using certificates of Indian blood to determine tribe membership. Her grandchildren are half American Indian, and her first great-grandchild is a quarter. "The government is going to tell us who is ours?" she says. She's 74. She started working toward land and recognition for her tribe when she was 19. "A mentor told me that someone must lead. When needed, you have no choice but to step forward." She says she heard Fresno County is considering selling the park lands around the burial grounds. If it's true, she plans to lobby the county to instead return the lands to the tribe. Already, the few trying to keep the tribe's basket-weaving traditions are afraid to pick the rosebud that colors the design and the white root that forms the basket's base because of pesticides sprayed on the hills and in the canals. "If we get the land back, we can keep it for people to enjoy. Whatever grows will grow. We don't put anything that destroys. The Choinumni culture goes by these rules: protect the plants, protect the land, and they will take care of your people." At a potluck after the memorial, people sat on lawn chairs under shade trees eating barbecued burgers and pasta salad. They gossiped and teased and talked about how much that they have accomplished with the burial grounds. "It was dried-up grass trampled by cattle. There were times when we wanted to give up, but we said 'what the heck,' and kept on punching," Osborne said. "We have struggles ahead of us, but now we have accomplishment behind us, and we will continue on. Now we really know how to punch." The reporter can be reached at dmarcum@fresnobee.com or 441-6375. Copyright c. 2003 The Fresno Bee. --------- "RE: Danielle Shenandoah asks for Asylum at the UN" --------- Date: Thursday, May 22, 2003 12:37 pm From: Barry Lee Subj: Danielle Shenandoah asks for asylum at the UN Mailing List: ndn-aim Friends, The girl has courage!!! Read below. with respect, Barry Lee URGENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MAY 21, 2003: United Nations Headquarters 1st & 44th Street in New York, NY, scheduled press conference on front steps of United Nations Headquarters May 22, 2003 at 11AM est A Citizen of the Haudenosaunee, the Six Nation Iroquois Confederacy, Exposes Federal State & Local Government in Criminal & Civil rights violations presently occurring in central NY State and asks the United Nations to give her asylum from the United States government and those placed in control of her Oneida Indian Nation by the US Government Video Footage and Documentation back the allegations of Danielle Shenandoah-Patterson, a member of the Onyota'a;ka (Standing Stone People) who has been made homeless and a refugee from her sovereign Oneida Indian Territory by those placed into power and supported by the US Government. Ms. Shenandoah-Patterson states: "I came to United Nations Permanent Forum of Indigenous People to join other indigenous people also seeking protection from and assistance against US policies furthering the demise of the cultural existence and sovereignty of the Native People. I and other families of the Oneida Indian Territory have suffered and are facing further oppressive abuse of civil and human rights including arbitrary arrest, imprisonment and demolition of our privately purchased and owned homes, all as punishment for speaking out against those placed into power by the US. Those in control of the Oneida Indian Nation were put there by the US because they would continue the cultural genocide and sell our people into slavery called "casinos" in order to become income tax generators for the State budget rather than taxing wealthy non-Indians. They are selling the heritage and lands of my children for a 'treaty' called a 'gambling compact' and a share of casino profits. The BIA has unclean hands in this." Because of US Policies towards indigenous people, Shenandoah-Patterson has asked the UN for political asylum because the US does not protect the indigenous people within its own borders from religious persecution, especially when done by those placed into power by the US government. Shenandoah-Patterson continues : "The Oneida Indian Nation of New York is in all actuality a "Casino Cartel" disguised as an 'Indian' Nation. The 'People of the "Turning" Stone' do NOT represent the Traditional Haudenosaunee People of the Standing Stone. The Turning Stone People have turned their backs on ALL Traditional values and beliefs. What we have here is a modern day Hitler who has locked our Long House (our sacred spiritual building); banished our ceremonies; demolishing our private homes and made Traditional Iroquois families refugees form their own homeland and forced us to become wards of the State of New York." Shenandoah-Patterson also represents the United Native Nations Truth Network and Voice Confederation and Onyota'a;ka Indian Territory Community. She also charges that the BIA and US violated the sovereignty of the Oneida Indian Nation, and the Treaties of the Haudenosaunee with the US by rejecting the decision of the Traditional Haudenosaunee leaders and supporting a self appointed leader who created a whole new form of government not based on any traditions. --------- "RE: Indian Lore comes alive at Lawrence University" --------- Date: Fri, May 23 2003 08:39:11 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="N. SCOTT MOMADAY" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/local_10421339.shtml Indian lore comes alive at LU Author tells life stories, legends at convocation By Kara Patterson Post-Crescent staff writer May 23, 2003 APPLETON - To American Indian author, scholar, artist and poet N. Scott Momaday, words are sacred. In the tradition of his Kiowa elders, Momaday opened his address Thursday at Lawrence University's final convocation of the 2002-03 academic year with these three revered words: "They were camping." Those words preceded every tale a beloved elder from Momaday's boyhood told out West to a semi-circle of children while sitting in his rocking chair, eyes closed slightly to bring forth tales of creation from within. At the honors convocation, which also recognized outstanding LU students and faculty, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author said his chosen words were most appropriate for a scholar's journey. "Here we are, in the ancient relationship of storyteller and listeners," he said. "We come together in celebration to honor the achievements of young people. We too will go on our way and hope we go on to better things." Momaday, whose main residence is in Santa Fe, N.M., is the son of teachers-turned-artists. His father painted and illustrated fiction, and his mother wrote children's books. "I think the first stories I learned, I learned from my father," said Momaday, who earned acclaim in 1969 with his first book, "House Made of Dawn," which earned him a Pulitzer Prize. The story explores cultural conflict through the eyes of a young American Indian man, who tries to reconcile his heritage with 20th-century life. Tabitha Metoxen, 16, and a sophomore at the Oneida Nation High School, listened to Momaday with a handful of classmates who next year will take teacher Carol Johnson's American Indian history and literature class. Metoxen said she could relate to Momaday's emphasis on the value of storytelling. "I used to ask my grandpa for stories," she said. "He sang a lot of songs, but that was when he was dying." Metoxen's grandfather died in December, but Metoxen wants to keep his memory alive by continuing her native studies. "I want to learn more about history, and the variety of (American Indian) cultures," she said. Jessica Skenandore, 16, will be reading "House Made of Dawn" next school year. "I like how he talked about bears," she said, "because I'm (a member of the Oneida Nation's) Bear Clan." On the LU campus, where Momaday and his father received honorary degrees in 1971, Momaday drew upon the oral tradition that to him is a treasure of the reservations where he spent his childhood. "Writing is about 6,000 years old, as far as we know," he said. "The oral tradition is inestimably older." Momaday's Kiowa name, Tsoai-Talee, or rock-tree boy, which a relative bestowed upon him at the age of 6 months, is taken from an oral legend well-known among his people. In soothing tones, Momaday wrapped the story of the boy and his seven sisters around his audience like a blanket. Back in the day when dogs still could talk, he said, a boy playfully chased his sisters through the woods. "In the course of a game, a terrible thing happened, Momaday said. "The boy actually turned into a bear. A tree spoke to the sisters and said, `if you climb me, I will save you.'" He said the tree rose high into the air and became Devils Tower National Monument, which stands today in Wyoming with deep grooves etched into its sides, as if a bear had scratched them. This sacred place, where the Kiowa say the seven sisters rose into the sky and became the stars in the Big Dipper, gave Momaday his tribal name. To preserve stories like these, and to restore the health of native cultures, Momaday has founded The Buffalo Trust, an organization that works with American Indians and other indigenous people. This August, Momaday will visit Siberia to continue his work with the Khanty and Nenets, who herd reindeer near the Arctic Circle. Kara Patterson can be reached at 920-993-1000, ext. 215, or by e-mail at kpatterson@ postcrescent.com Copyright c. 2003 The Post-Crescent/Appleton, WI. --------- "RE: Tohono O'odham believe Ancestors were Hohokam" --------- Date: Sat, May 24 2003 22:13:47 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HOHOKAM" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/30524TOHONOSIDE.html Tribal members believe ancestors were Hohokam ARIZONA DAILY STAR May 24, 2003 The tribal seal says 1937, but the people of the Tohono O'odham Nation date to time immemorial, historians say. Formerly called the Papago Tribe of Arizona, the nation formally adopted a constitution and bylaws under the Indian Reorganization Act in 1937, when it was given reservation land by the federal government. But tribal members were living in Arizona before European settlers arrived. And many members of the tribe believe they are descendants of the prehistoric Hohokam Indians. In the late 20th century, the tribe discarded the name Papago and replaced it with Tohono O'odham, which means "desert people." "They've only been formally organized since 1937. Before that, their government was at the village level," said Bernard "Bunny" Fontana, a retired Tucson anthropologist. "Each had their own governments and town halls, and they became organized in 11 districts." The 11 political districts are actually based on lines that originally divided the reservation into grazing districts. Fontana said the form of government the O'odham adopted was modeled on English common law. The tribe was slow to actually adopt the voting process, however, as its villages had operated more on consensus-building, he said. "Slowly but surely they changed," Fontana said. Today's election of a new tribal leader could be history-making for the tribe if Vivian Juan-Saunders is elected over incumbent Edward D. Manuel, Fontana said. "All traditional leadership roles used to be male roles. There were... medicine women, but when it came to the village crier, the keeper of the smoke, they were all male," Fontana said. "Everyone knew, though, who was running the show inside the house." - Stephanie Innes Copyright c. 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 AzStarNet, Arizona Daily Star. --------- "RE: Tribes want Relics Preserved" --------- Date: Tue, May 20 2003 08:22:06 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SHOPPING CENTER" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.morningjournal.com/site/news Tribes want relics preserved By RICHARD PAYERCHIN, Morning Journal Bureau Chief May 20, 2003 PERKINS TOWNSHIP - The proposed Crossings of Sandusky shopping center will break ground next week for a new Home Depot store in Perkins Township, a developer said. However, Native American groups concerned about relics found at the site are preparing to file a lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is considering a permit for the shopping center, said an attorney. On Friday, Bear Creek Capital LLC, developer of The Crossings of Sandusky shopping center on US 250 north of SR 2, signed a lease with Home Depot to put a 95,000-square-foot store at the site, said Matt Daniels, a principal with the developer. The Crossings of Sandusky also has a lease with Kohl's to open a 62,000-square-foot store and will announce a third "big box" tenant sometime within the next two months, Daniels said yesterday. "We're moving forward," Daniels said. "We have received our Corps permit and satisfied all our contingencies there and we're going to break ground the week of the 27th." The developers applied last year for a federal permit because the project as planned would result in the permanent loss of about 1,974 linear feet of stream, known as Hemming Ditch, and 0.014 acres of federal wetlands, according to a notice from the Corps. Meanwhile, attorneys for Native American tribes concerned about possible artifacts at the 78.5-acre site were drafting a letter of notice to the Corps yesterday -- which is required by law and is the first step toward filing a federal lawsuit against the Corps, said Mark R. Weaver, a Columbus attorney working with Save Our Land group. The letter serves as notice to the Corps that 60 days later, the Native American tribes will file suit under the federal Clean Water Act, Weaver said. In March, the Corps took written comments about the project, but has refused to meet with members of Native American Tribes to discuss their concerns, Weaver said. "Up until now, we weren't sure we were going to start the litigation process, but our goal is to protect those relics and it looks like litigation might be the only way to do that," Weaver said. "The tribes that we've been talking to want to know what's there and want those relics preserved." The developers were aware of a possible lawsuit, Daniels said. "We were aware that they were going to do that and it won't affect the project," Daniels said. Yesterday, a spokesman from the Atlanta-based Home Depot home said they are interested in locating a store in the Sandusky area, but would not confirm the location. A spokesman for the Corps, which oversees navigable waterways and wetlands issues, said yesterday it had not yet issued a validated permit for the project. The Corps has been considering the permit for the proposed shopping center, which would feature more than 533,000 square feet of store space, since last year. However, Save Our Land and Native American tribes have argued for greater study of artifacts at the site. Finding of flints from prehistoric stone tools have been found at the site and the Keeper for the National Register of Historic Places earlier this year determined one area of the site qualifies for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, according to the Corps. An archaeological survey found it could provide "important information about the procurement and processing of Pipe Creek chert," or small fragments of flint that are chipped off larger stones when Ohio's Native American people made stone tools at the site, according to the Corps. The stone artifacts date from the historic periods from 8000-4500 BC and 500-1000 AD, according to the Corps. Copyright c. 2003 The Morning Journal/Lorain, Ohio. --------- "RE: No easy way to clean up Tires on Tribal Land" --------- Date: Sun, May 25 2003 18:37:19 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="REZ TIRES" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.miaminewsrecord.com/0754edition/myarticles811586 No easy way to clean up tires on tribal land By Mary Ellis Miami News-Record May 26, 2003 QUAPAW - An environmental official with the Quapaw Tribe said she will begin a process that will lead to cleaning up dump sites on American Indian trust land within the Quapaw city limits this week. "This will be something BIA will have to clean up," said Tabitha Worley, environmental director with the tribe. "We had another illegal dump site near Picher on trust land that they cleaned up and they will clean this up too." Worley contacted city officials last week when she learned of the illegal dumping from a newspaper reporter. She said she would look at what is thought to be the worst site - an abandoned residential property in the 100 block of West Chesnut - as soon as possible. That overgrown site contains an abandoned home and approximately 100 discarded tires. "Those tires will fill with water and there will be a lot of mosquitoes," Quapaw City Clerk Misty Judd said. "We need to be worried about West Nile virus." The illegal dumping has confounded city officials, who claim they are prevented from taking action on trust land. They have repeatedly attempted to contact BIA officials with no success, according to Judd. Repeated calls by the Miami News-Record to a BIA public information officer in Washington, D.C, have also gone unanswered. And city officials say they are prevented from enforcing municipal or state laws on American Indian trust land. "If it's on trust land there is nothing we can do about it," Quapaw Police Administrator Terry Durborow said. "We can't go on the land even if we want to clean it up." Judd said that as many as 30 sites in the city are in need of cleanup and that many are on trust land. "We have several places that are real health hazards and need to be cleaned up," she said. Durborow, who deals with abandoned and dilapidated properties in his job as Miami's emergency management director, said he would begin investigating sites that could be cleaned up under state and city ordinances. "There are laws and ordinances we can use, but we'll have to develop a process and probably involve our municipal court," Durborow said. "Even then it could take us from six months to a year to make anyone clean up their property." Copyright c. 2003 The Miami News-Record. --------- "RE: Burial Mounds cry out for Respect" --------- Date: Mon, May 26 2003 16:18:40 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BURIAL MOUNDS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.thehawkeye.com/daily/stories/ln7_0526.html Burial mounds cry out for respect By STEPHEN A. MARTIN smartin@thehawkeye.com May 26, 2003 TOOLESBORO - For most people, Memorial Day honors those who have sacrificed. To Jim Rabid Wolf Hickinbotham, it's a reminder of sacrificed honor. "If you dig up a grave in a white graveyard, you'll get 25 years," he said. "If you dig up 1,000 Indian graves, you'll get a Ph.D." Hickinbotham is a Choctaw elder and consultant on American Indian burial sites for two states and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He says the graves of his ancestors are under constant attack, because society doesn't recognize the importance of allowing the remains of his people to rest undisturbed. Memorial Day weekend marks the traditional start of the tourism season, and sites such as Toolesboro Mounds near Oakville and Dickson Mounds near Lewistown, Ill., are built on the curiosity of white people about those who lived in North America before the first settlers arrived. The Louisa County Conservation Board has been in charge of the Toolesboro Mounds site since reaching an agreement with the Iowa State Historical Society in 1990. Conservation educator Kathy Dice said officials understand the museum they operate stands next to what is essentially an ancient cemetery. But the county tries to be as sensitive as possible, she said, honoring those who once inhabited the Iowa River valley in both life and in death. "They do recognize the mounds are grave sites of people," she said. It hasn't always been that way. Early settlers plowed the mounds, reducing what once may have been a dozen mounds to only seven. The Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences then conducted extensive excavation of the site in the late 19th century, finding - and removing - numerous copper and stone tools, stone pipes, shell and pearl beads, and mica sheets. There were also numerous human skeletons, but the bones were poorly cared for. Few remain today, and it's impossible to say what associations the artifacts may have had with the individual burials or with each other. "The information is really sketchy, and it's really depressing to modern archeologists," Dice said. The first such mounds were explored in 1846, and the culture they revealed was named "Hopewell" after the last name of the Ohio farmer who owned the ground where they were located. Those who built the Hopewell mounds lived between about 200 B.C. and the dawn of the later Mississippian civilization around 800 A.D. Racism led even the most-educated observers to speculate the massive burial mounds had been constructed by ancient Egyptian or other Old World colonists. Some even speculated one of Israel's lost tribes had found its way to America. It was inconceivable to many that ancestors of modern-day American Indians could have built such spectacular constructions. Exhibitions featuring American Indian artifacts from the burial mounds found throughout the midwest and south could be seen in museums across the country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. According to archeologist Alan Harn, however, it wasn't until Don Dickson began a series of amateur explorations on his Illinois farm in 1927 that anyone really painted a sympathetic portrait of these ancient people. "It had a humanness to it," Harn said. "Dickson Mounds probably did more to foster a positive image of the American Indian than any site in America." The builders of the burial mounds in Illinois were Mississippian, a group that built and lived in cities that rivaled the largest European capitals until around 1450 A.D. Harn, assistant curator at the Dickson Mounds Museum near Lewistown, Ill., said no one today would put human skeletons on display as Dickson did in the 1920s. Even so, however, Dickson's techniques were revolutionary for their time. Rather than removing artifacts for display in museums, Dickson and his family made careful notes and left things in place for on-site display. In the site's first year as an attraction, without a single paved road anywhere near its remote location, Harn notes that Dickson Mounds drew more than 40,000 visitors. A branch of the Illinois State Museum since 1945, the site continues to draw visitors to its location about an hour southwest of Peoria, Ill. The visitors center, remodeled in 1994, focuses on the lives of those who lived in the city and who were buried in the complex of mounds located at the site. Harn said it's just as Dickson would have wanted it. "He said, 'You have to look beyond the bones ... and into the life of man.' " To this day, Dice said, there remain those who collect American Indian artifacts only because they are interesting or pretty. Arrowheads, projectile points and other artifacts are "tiny packets of information," she said, that can help unravel the mysteries of ancient people who left no written records. Those who hunt for them, record the exact locations where they were found and how deep they were buried do a valuable service, she said. "But when they're just piling them in cigarette boxes, they're hurting all Iowa," she said. State laws vary when it comes to protection of ancient burials and artifacts. "It is illegal to disturb the grave of anyone in this state," Dice said. Iowa has long been a leader in the protection of American Indian burials, with a 1976 state law prohibiting removal of ancient bones without the state archeologist's permission. The state's law was upheld in 1994, when the Iowa Supreme Court ruled a Story County developer didn't have the right to build homes on the site of an American Indian burial mound. Some states, like Ohio, don't recognize any burial site more than 150 years old. Hickinbotham said others, like Missouri, barely give them legal recognition at all. When an American Indian burial site near Fenton, Mo., was found on land where developers planned to build a new Wal-Mart store, Hickinbotham said he and other activists were powerless to do anything other than watch as the bones of their ancestors were plowed up and paved over. The Sac and Fox tribe of Oklahoma was so outraged that its leaders filed a federal lawsuit against the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which they said did nothing to help protect the graves. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, passed by Congress in 1990, requires any entity receiving federal money to list what American Indian relics they possess. Human remains must be made available to tribal representatives, who can then see to it the remains are properly reburied and the new grave sites cared for. Hickinbotham says the law doesn't go far enough, however, because it only applies when federal money is involved. "On private property, there's very little you can actually do," he said. Hickinbotham said one of the most frustrating battles he faces involves dealing with state archeological sites, like the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site near Belleville, Ill., and the Dickson Mounds Museum. Because the experts can't trace these ancient cities to specific modern tribes, Hickinbotham said, they claim to be exempt from laws requiring them to be accountable to modern-day tribal groups. He says that's a circular argument, however, because the cities were trade centers built by a number of different tribal groups - many of whom we can easily identify through the art and artifacts they left behind. Among them, he said, were the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Delaware, Iowa, Miami, Sac and Fox, Pottawatamie and Sioux. To say these city builders can't be linked to modern tribes, he said, is like saying bones in ancient Europe can't be linked to modern nations. "That's like saying, 'He was a Renaissance Man,' " Hickinbotham said. "Was he English, French, Italian or Greek?" In the neighborhood where Hickinbotham lives in the St. Louis suburb of Olivette, Mo., he said there are people of many ethnic groups. All are Americans, however, and no one would suggest their remains shouldn't be properly cared for when they die. "It's a matter of basic human respect," he said. Harn doesn't disagree with Hickinbotham. He said those who built Dickson Mounds were likely from a variety of tribes, but were joined by religious and economic ties very much like modern city dwellers. Dice said that while the ancient Hopewell mound builders were probably less diverse than their later Mississippian counterparts, it's equally likely that not everyone who lived at the Toolesboro site was of the same tribal group. "It's very reasonable to assume people were as diverse 2,000 years ago as they are today," she said. The museum adjacent to the mounds at Toolesboro uses models and pictures in an effort to show what everyday life may have been like in those times. Taking information from the artifacts and burials found decades ago and applying modern knowledge of American Indian ways of life, officials believe the museum's scale models present a fairly accurate picture of life 1,500 years before explorer Christopher Columbus first set foot in North America. There are also reproductions of things that were found buried in the mounds. "And some of these are really beautiful," Dice said. "It's really intricate and well done." Dice and Harn both hope that people will take home a new respect for the people who buried their dead in the mounds after visiting their sites. As he grieves for those who were unearthed in each site's early days, Hickinbotham said he also wants people to respect those who lived here centuries ago. "He is a human being," Hickinbotham said. "He deserves a rest without disturbance." Copyright c. 2003 The Hawk Eye/Burlington Iowa --------- "RE: Cherokee asserts rights to 160 Acres" --------- Date: Wed, May 21 2003 08:21:16 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WALKINGSTICK LAND CLAIM" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0503/20walkingstick.html Claim restated for property in national forest Indian back in court to assert rights to 160 acres By NORMAN AREY The Atlanta Journal-Constitution May 20, 2003 CHATTANOOGA - He's back. And this time, Daniel Walkingstick says it's forever. Walkingstick, an officer of the governing body of the Eastern Cherokee Nation, tried to lay claim last May 28-June 15 to 160 acres in the Cherokee National Forest eight miles west of McCaysville. The U.S. Government threw him off the property after 18 days. Now, he's back on the land. The 52-year-old Cherokee was in federal court Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Bill Carter. He wanted to contest the criminal citation he received in 2002 when the Forestry Service tossed Walkingstick, his wife Roberta, 50, and daughter Ongeequay, 7, out of the forest. Walkingstick was previously told to submit a legal claim to the U.S. Forest Service for possession and ownership. The court instructed that if the claim wasn't settled, Walkingstick could come back and contest it. Hence his appearance Monday. Walkingstick's claim is unique because he has proper documentation to prove the land is his. On Aug. 22, 1857, then-Tennessee Gov. Andrew Johnson signed Land Grant No. 7586. It was for 160 acres given to Testuskey Walkingstick and his heirs forever. Daniel is a direct descendant. He presented a 63-page document to the courts on Dec. 13, 2002, attempting to prove ownership. The Monday court date was put off indefinitely until Kent Anderson, the U.S. attorney in charge of the case, could be present. "They don't have anything to fight me with," Walkingstick said Monday. "I've supplied every piece of paperwork they've requested." Walkingstick had planned to represent himself in court. When Judge Carter asked about a lawyer, and Walkingstick replied: "I have made telephone calls from Nashville to Knoxville to Chattanooga and as soon as they find out I'm an Indian, they hang up. I can't get an attorney to take the case." This case would set a precedent if Walkingstick prevails. Although tribes have been successful in the past, notably in Maine where the state had to give up thousands of acres, an individual Native American has never won such a case. Copyright c. 2003 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. --------- "RE: White House enters dispute over Dams, Salmon" --------- Date: Sun, May 25 2003 18:37:19 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SALMON" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/story/3179842p-3204096c.html White House enters dispute over dams salmon May 25th, 2003 By Les Blumenthal Herald Washington, D.C., bureau WASHINGTON - A dispute over regulating water temperatures on the Columbia and Snake rivers has reached into the White House and top levels at the Interior Department amid state and tribal concerns the effort to help endangered salmon could be undercut to protect federal dams. Nine months after it was first circulated among federal agencies, a controversial 53-page preliminary draft proposal for establishing temperature controls prepared by the Seattle office of the Environmental Protection Agency remains in limbo. Officials from Washington state and Oregon fear the White House Council on Environmental Quality may limit EPA's continued involvement in developing a temperature plan for the rivers, while tribal officials say the agencies that operate the dams want an exemption from the Clean Water Act. Cool water is considered essential for migrating salmon. Any plan to cool the Columbia and Snake rivers would have a major impact on the operation of the dams, which generate massive amounts of cheap electricity as well as provide water for irrigation, navigation and recreation, and safeguards against floods. The Council on Environmental Quality, which coordinates environmental policy for the administration, has held a series of meetings on the issue. The meetings were requested by the Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation and the Bonneville Power Adminstration. And they say that if strict river temperature limits were imposed and then not met, environmentalists would have an opening to ask a federal court to remove some of the dams. White House officials describe the meetings as routine given the number of agencies involved and the possible implications for federal dams on the Columbia and Snake as well as elsewhere. Critics say the White House has interfered and slowed the effort to come up with a plan. At the same time, the White House Office of Management and Budget is taking a broader look at federal regulations involving water temperatures and other requirements of the Clean Water Act. "This whole thing has taken a darker turn," said Rick George of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Northeastern Oregon. "It's all being done behind our backs. This is a political ploy to get around sound science." Juvenile salmon headed out to sea and adult salmon returning to spawn need cool water. "Temperatures are clearly one of the main constraints on salmon populations," said Chuck Coutant, a fisheries biologist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee who for years has studied the effects of temperatures on the Columbia and Snake runs. Coutant said water temperatures above the mid-60s start to stress salmon of all ages. He said at 70 degrees the fish can get "really stressed," and they start dying when water temperatures hit the mid-70s. Under the federal Clean Water Act, the states have the responsibility for regulating water temperatures, or total daily maximum loads, with EPA responsible for approving state plans. Faced with the seemingly overwhelming task on the Columbia and Snake rivers, Washington and Oregon asked the EPA for help, believing the agency had the technical expertise to design a temperature plan. After months of work using a complicated mathematical model, EPA concluded last September the 15 dams on the Columbia and Snake were the primary cause of elevated water temperatures. The EPA also concluded the problem could be solved by releasing cooler water from upstream reservoirs, though cooling the rivers would be exceedingly difficult to accomplish. "This was the first step," said Randy Smith, director of the water office at EPA in Seattle. The Corps, Bureau of Reclamation and BPA pounced on the preliminary draft from EPA, which has still not been released for public comment. In a letter to EPA's regional administrator in Seattle, Roy Fox, manager of Bonneville's federal hyrdo projects, wrote, "In essence, EPA seeks to establish a regime under which dam operators must achieve standards that are incompatible with their fundamental operation requirements." The agencies questioned EPA's modeling, suggested the increased water temperatures resulting from the dams should not be considered because the dams can't be removed, and warned of protracted litigation. Smith said the EPA was surprised by the reaction. As the infighting intensified, among those who became involved was Ann Klee, counsel to Interior Secretary Gale Norton. The Bureau of Reclamation, which operates Grand Coulee, is part of the Interior Department. The dispute eventually was elevated to the level of the Council on Environmental Quality. Meanwhile, the states remain worried the White House could end EPA's role in developing the temperature plan. "It is critically important that EPA continue in its effort relating to temperature," Washington and Oregon's top environmental officials said in a Feb. 12 letter to James Connaughton, the chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality. "If EPA were to be removed from this effort, we would find it difficult to begin the process anew," EPA officials in Washington, D.C., denied there was ever any effort to remove the regional office from the temperature program. "We will continue to be actively involved," said Ben Grumbles, deputy assistant administrator for water at EPA headquarters. A spokeswoman for the Council on Environmental Quality, Dana Perino, said the council has made no effort to slow down the development of temperature standards for the Columbia and Snake rivers. "We've been working in our traditional role facilitating discussion and coordinating policy," Perino said. "We are proceeding without delay." The council specifically has asked government lawyers to explore two questions involving water temperatures, both of which could set important precedents not only in the Northwest but at other federal dams. One question involves whether one state's tougher clean water standards can be imposed on another state with less stringent standards. In this case, Oregon has tougher standards than Washington and Idaho. The other involves whether the higher water temperatures caused by dams shouldn't be considered when calculating total maximum daily loads because the dams were authorized by Congress and can't easily be removed. Officials for EPA, the Corps, the Bureau of Reclamation and BPA all say progress is being made on establishing temperature standards for the Columbia and Snake even as the policy and legal questions are being debated in Washington, D.C. "It's not an adversarial relationship," said Ken Pedde, deputy regional director of the Bureau of Reclamation in Boise. "We are working through this." Even so, George of the Umatilla Tribe remains skeptical about White House involvement and the maneuverings of the federal agencies. "EPA has done an admirable job," he said. "But the bottom line is that high water temperatures can be lethal to salmon. We are disappointed a choice has been made at higher levels to get around the Clean Water Act." Copyright c. 2003 Tri-City Herald/Voice of the Mid-Columbia Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, Washington. --------- "RE: Navajo sue for River Water" --------- Date: Mon, May 26 2003 16:18:40 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WATER RIGHTS" http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-navajo26may26,1,7682599.story Legal move asserts tribal rights and seeks to set aside federal guidelines in allotting Colorado surplus to agencies in the Southwest. By Bettina Boxall Times Staff Writer May 26, 2003 The Navajo Nation has joined the long list of Southwesterners thirsting for the waters of the Colorado River, filing a lawsuit that is sending a mighty ripple downstream to California and neighboring states. The tribe contends that the U.S. Department of the Interior has ignored its water rights while divvying up the flow in the Lower Colorado River Basin and has thus breached its trust obligations to the Navajo. Several water rights experts predicted the suit would be a difficult one for the Navajo to pursue. And water litigation is notorious for taking decades to resolve. But the March filing has drawn attention in the Southwest's water world. States and water agencies are moving to intervene. "I think they would have a hard time advancing their claim -- anything of real substance," said Dennis Underwood, a vice president of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California who handles Colorado River issues for the giant agency. "But funny things can happen in court. It is challenging things that are of immediate interest to the lower basin states." In particular, the suit asks the courts to set aside guidelines dealing with surplus Colorado flows used by California, Arizona and Nevada, questioning a water-banking program for Arizona and Nevada that Metropolitan wants to get involved in and challenging guidelines for repaying inadvertent overdrafts of the river by Colorado users. "It has the potential of having a profound impact on the politics of the river," said Robert Glennon, a University of Arizona law professor who writes on water issues. Growth in the Southwest is making every drop of the Colorado desirable, spurring water negotiations and settlements that are leaving the Navajo feeling like wallflowers. Their suit, filed this spring, adds yet another tangle to the knot of demands tightening around the 1,400-mile-long river. Colorado water sprinkles the lawns of Arizona subdivisions, fills the irrigation ditches of desert farms in Southern California and sustains the artificial lakes of Las Vegas. But it doesn't do anything for the Navajo Reservation sprawling to the east of the river above Lake Mead. That has long bothered the Navajo, many of whom don't have running water in their homes. They have tapped the Colorado's tributaries, but have never gotten very far with claims to its main branch in the lower basin. The secretary of the Interior "is doling out resources to everyone other than the Navajo Nation.... We seem to be the last in line," said Stanley Pollack, an attorney with the Navajo Nation Department of Justice. "We are prepared to sit down and have some meaningful discussions with them. We've been trying for years, but they've been ignoring us." The Interior Department, which has another month to file its response to the suit, would not comment on the matter. The suit is not a claim for a fixed amount of water. Basically, it is an attempt to force the federal government to determine what the tribe's lower basin Colorado rights are. Tribe Has Early Dibs That they should get any of it springs from a federal doctrine that, when the federal government sets aside land for a specific purpose, such as a park or Indian reservation, water goes with it, as long as the water has not already been apportioned. The Navajo Reservation lands, which spread across 13 million acres in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, were established in 1868, so the tribe has very early dibs. But it is not just a matter of first come, first served. Indian water rights have traditionally been shaped by agricultural use -- how much land realistically can be irrigated and how much water will it take to do it? That is where the Navajo run into obstacles. The river near the reservation in the lower basin cuts through the Grand Canyon, meaning it would have to be pumped up hundreds of feet to tribal land. "Can the Navajo show a viable farming use of water in Arizona when they would have to lift the water out of Marble Canyon? The answer is no," said Bill Swan, a former Interior Department attorney who now represents the Imperial Irrigation District, California's largest user of Colorado River water. "In my experience, when their right is quantified, it's probably not going to be huge." Still, an Arizona Supreme Court ruling a couple of years ago opened the door to another standard: that tribes were entitled to water necessary to maintain a homeland, which could include industrial or residential use. " We're not talking about irrigation here, but we do have a large reservation with a large tribal population," Pollack said. "We need to get water out of the main stem" of the Colorado. Whatever river water the tribe gets would come from Arizona's basic allocation of 2.8 million acre-feet. (An acre-foot equals the amount of water annually used by two typical Southern California households.) Recently, the state has used all of its allocation, either directly or in storage, so Navajo water would likely come at someone else's expense. Volatile Negotiations "I think it was initially filed as a means of getting attention. My sense is it did that," said Herbert Guenther, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources. In a motion to intervene in the case, his department says the suit could curtail or freeze river management programs important not only to Arizona but to other lower basin states. Peter Von Haam, a deputy California attorney general, said the state is assessing the Navajo suit. "At this point, there are more questions than answers," he said, adding that he did not believe a Navajo claim would affect California's basic 4.4 million-acre-foot allocation of Colorado water. But California would certainly feel a pinch if guidelines dealing with the use of surplus river flows were scuttled. The state and several water agencies, including Metropolitan and Imperial, are in volatile negotiations to secure surplus water for the next 15 years while California weans itself of the flows now sought by other states. Metropolitan has questioned whether much of a surplus will be available, given the Southwest's ongoing drought. But Underwood said it is not to be dismissed. "We do care about this surplus. It still can be of value to us," he said. "The only point we've made is that its value has diminished." Copyright c. 2003 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Swimmer and Matin to face Senate Panel" --------- Date: Wed, May 21 2003 08:21:16 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BIA REORGANIZATION" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.okit.com/news/2003/may/biachanges.html Swimmer and Matin to face Senate Panel on reorganization of BIA Undersecretary not in the plans WASHINGTON D.C. Sam Lewin 5/20/2003 A Senate committee wants to hear how the massive reorganization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is faring. On Wednesday, recently appointed Special Trustee for American Indians Ross Swimmer and Acting Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin will appear before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. The committee is holding hearings into the reorganization of the BIA-something that's been in the works for years. Swimmer and Martin spoke to the Native American Times via conference call on Tuesday. Both claim reorganization has been successful, with many changes generated by tribal input. "The effort at reorganization was to incorporate as much from the tribes as we could. Most of the things that we were able to do were what the tribes raised during discussions last year," said Martin. Interior Secretary Gale Norton established a Joint Tribal Leaders/ Department of Interior task force in 2002. One example of tribal input, Martin said, is natural resources such as gas, oil and timber. "Tribes wanted natural resources management to stay at the local level. We have left it there," said Martin. She acknowledges tribes didn't get everything they requested. A move to create an Undersecretary of Indian Affairs position was stymied because the legislation it takes to create that role is not in the power of the BIA. A mandate to reorganize came after controversy over the management of monies held in trust. The government holds billions of dollars for individual American Indians and tribes. In addition to about 1,400 accounts for tribes, there are almost 3 million individual accounts. Officials wanted more responsibility and efficiency in that process. A 1994 act required Interior to account for the money. A class action lawsuit sought a full explanation. As Special Trustee, Swimmer is directly responsible for overseeing trust assets and giving sound financial advice to beneficiaries. The former head of the Cherokee Tribe said he has done that. "We try to keep trust separate from other services," said Swimmer. "Trust offices are expected to play a big role for beneficiaries. We are trying to insure there is a beneficiary focus at all levels." BIA officials are meeting with tribal leaders across the country in the coming weeks to explain the reorganization and shifting of some offices. "It's not just going to happen over night. It will probably take at least a year," said Martin. Native American Times is Copyright c. 2000-2001 Oklahoma Indian Times,Inc. --------- "RE: Judge Lamberth berates Norton Motion" --------- Date: Thu, May 22 2003 08:10:46 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DoI MOTION BERATED/DENIED" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.daily-times.com/Stories/0,1413,129%257E6572%257E1407839,00.html Judge berates Norton motion By Bill McAllister For The Daily Times May 22, 2003 WASHINGTON U.S. - District Judge Royce C. Lamberth denied a motion Wednesday by Interior Secretary Gale Norton to limit the pay to a court- appointed Special Master investigating her violations of law and ordered the Interior Department to disclose how much it is paying private attorneys to defend its current and former employees from contempt of court allegations. The judge said he was disturbed by provisions in the Interior department's 2003 appropriations bill that purport to limit the pay of court-appointed judicial officers in the long-running Indian trust mismanagement case. The law simultaneously requires taxpayers to pay the entire cost of personal attorneys for 39 former or current government officials implicated in the commission of fraud and other litigation misconduct in the case. In an eight-page memorandum and order, the judge admonished the Interior Department for its continuing misconduct. "The appropriations provisions at issue in this matter appear to represent yet another attempt by defendants to evade the rule of law by any means available to them, no matter how duplicitous or underhanded," he wrote. "They also serve to demonstrate defendants' manifest hypocrisy." Lamberth noted that Justice Department lawyers defending the government's admitted bungling of trust accounts held for hundreds of thousands of Native Americans often have accused him of violating the constitutional separation of powers between the executive and judicial branches of government. "This purported indignation stands in marked contrast to the alacrity with which defendants utilized the power of the executive branch to apparently persuade the legislative branch to undermine the effect of judicial orders." "But this only scratches the surface of the defendants' profound hypocrisy," he said. "For, in addition to drafting a provision that would restrict the ability of judicial officials to receive compensation, defendants were simultaneously ensuring that their own attorneys would be fully funded at taxpayer expense." "Defendants thus have no problem with spending taxpayers' money, as long as it benefits them. But when ordered to compensate judicial officers whose appointment was necessitated by their own misconduct, defendants suddenly became born-again fiscal conservatives." The judge said he wanted to have all the facts of how much the lawyers are costing made public so that Congress will know how much money they are spending when they consider the next appropriations bill. If Interior declines to pay Special Court Master Alan Balaran, Lamberth said that the Treasury Department, which is also a defendant in the lawsuit, "will foot the bill for services rendered by the special master." Dennis M. Gingold, lead attorney for 500,000 Native Americans seeking a full accounting of billions of dollars of trust revenue, millions of acres of trust land, and other trust assets, said: "Judge Lamberth demands honesty and integrity in his court room. It is a shame that the Interior Secretary and the Attorney General do not share his views." "This case has been about government hypocrisy and arrogance from the outset. It is a disgrace that the government would declare itself trustee for the nation's poorest people and then, 116 years later, obstruct every effort to provide those people with a full and fair accounting of their trust assets," he said. Bill McAllister: bmcallister@cox.net Copyright c. 1999-2003 MediaNews Group, Inc./Farmington, NM. --------- "RE: Treasury Official backs Strong Trust Controls" --------- Date: Tue, May 20 2003 08:22:06 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="STRONG CONTROLS NEEDED" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.indiantrust.com/PressRelease_id=77&Month=5&Year=2003 TREASURY OFFICIAL BACKS STRONG CONTROLS FOR INDIAN TRUST WASHINGTON, May 19 - A top Treasury Department official has declared strong controls are mandatory for the government's troubled Indian trust accounts. Testifying during the second week of a trial focused on how to fix the government-run system, Fiscal Assistant Treasury Secretary Donald V. Hammond conceded that nearly all of his department's disbursement records for Individual Indian Trust accounts from the trust's inception in 1887 until 1992 have been destroyed. Coupled with the loss of records maintained by the Interior Department, Hammond told U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth it will be impossible to account for all the funds that should have gone to the thousands of trust accounts that the government has maintained for individual Indians. A senior career Treasury official, Hammond said that all government employees who manage Individual Indian trust funds must be held accountable for their failures. He also laid out five requirements for the proper management of the trust. Hammond said any effort to reform the trust system must include: * "a strong system of internal controls," * "effective employee communication and education," * improved "management oversight and attention," * a "continual review or understanding" of what is happening, The steps are similar to ones proposed by a group of Indians who have been waging a seven-year fight for a full accounting of the monies the government is holding for them in more than 300,000 trust accounts. Billions of dollars due the Indians from government leases of their lands never got into their accounts because of the government's long- acknowledged bookkeeping problems, the Indians have said. Lamberth, who had previously ruled that the government breached its trust obligation to the Indians, is currently presiding over a trial on how to best make needed changes to the accounts. The trial is expected to continue into June. Hammond, who testified last week, made clear that while he,too, believes changes are needed, the Interior Department must take the lead. "...The primary responsibility to conduct an accounting must initiate with the Department of the Interior as they have the more detailed information related to the specific beneficiary accounts," Hammond said. "...With regard to the accounting, there are only certain aspects of the account that the Treasury Department can fill in the blanks, in essence, and so in that regard, Treasury has a very important responsibility, but nonetheless it is not the lead responsibility." The trial, which began May 1, will continue Monday as the Indian plaintiffs place in evidence an accouting plan that would use a space age technology known as geographic information systems (GIS) to address problem that date to the trust's earliest years. "This methodology is necessary where the trustee has destroyed the records necessary for an accounting of all funds," said Dennis Gingold, lead attorney for the Indians. Since records of how much money should have gone into the individual accounts are missing, the plaintiffs have devised a plan that uses satellite mapping technology to estimate how much money individual Indians should have received from the oil leases on their lands. Using a well-recognized data base that includes detailed production records from every well drilled in the West, the plaintiffs have pinpointed how many of those wells are on Indian reservations in the West. With that information, they then have calculated how much revenue those wells should have produced under government leases. The plan was developed by Richard E. Fasold of Conifer, Colo., a leading expert on how to model business revenues. "It helps us answer what the most important source of money for the Indian accounts: oil leases in the West," said Gingold. "The government cannot say with any measure of certainty how much money it got from oil leases in the West because the records no longer exist," Gingold said. "We know for a fact that the government took in more money than it can show it disbursed to Indians." But by using GIS technology, the Indians say they can, for the first time, get an accurate picture of how much oil revenues should have been received. In testimony last week, Fasold noted that government has told Congress that the Indian received at least $13 billion from the inception of the trust. The consultant said that number is probably a conservative estimate or a "floor" on how much money the Indians. Since the government's records on these accounts are known to be inaccurate from the trust's inception, Fasold said his methodology will give a more complete record of how much money the government actually received from Indian lands. In addition to oil reserves, Fasold's formula includes ways of calculating for timber, grazing and mineral leases on Indian lands in the West. For additional information: Bill McAllister 703-385-6996 or 202-257-5385 Copyright c. 2003 Blackfeet Reservation Development Fund, Inc. --------- "RE: Tribal Governance Degree Program" --------- Date: Thu, May 15 2003 08:15:06 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DEGREE PROGRAM" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.daily-times.com/Stories/0,1413,129%257E6574%257E1392336,00.html San Juan College offers tribal governance degree program By The Daily Times May 15, 2003 FARMINGTON - San Juan College is now offering an associate of applied science degree in tribal governance. The program is open to those who wish to prepare to work in the Navajo Nation governmental system; to Navajo Nation employees who want to enhance their job knowledge, skills, and qualifications; or to those who have an interest in learning about the Navajo Nation governmental system, the college announced in a news release. The program was formulated and designed through the cooperative effort of the Local Governance Support Center, Navajo Nation Northern Agency and San Juan College's Native American Program and Business and Information Technology Division. Courses enhance job skills and cover computer technology, communication, accounting, financial management, human relations, and office technology. Program courses that are specific to tribal governance include the history of tribal government and structure, tribal organizational behavior, ethics in tribal government, tribal resource management, tribal sociology, tribal administrative law, management and leadership in tribal government, tribal program monitoring and evaluation, macroeconomics, and microeconomics. The Native American Program is now recruiting students to enter the Tribal Governance Program this fall 2003 semester. Anyone seeking more information or wanting to take courses toward the Tribal Governance Degree Program is encouraged to call the Native American Program Office at (505) 566-3321 or 3363 or e-mail garnanezf@sanjuancollege.edu Copyright c. 1999-2003 MediaNews Group, Inc./Farmington, NM. --------- "RE: Support of Native American Bank" --------- Date: Mon, May 12 2003 08:10:04 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NA BANK" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.daily-times.com/Stories/0,1413,129%257E6574%257E1385666,00.html Watchman testifies in support of Native American Bank The Daily Times May 12, 2003 WASHINGTON - Speaking on behalf of Native American Bancorporation, Board Member Derrick Watchman gave testimony April 30 to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs for the Hearing on the Native American Capital Formation and Economic Development Act of 2003. Watchman, who is a member of the Navajo Nation, expressed the Native American Bancorporation's full support of the objectives outlined in S.519. Introduced by Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., the bill represents an effort by the federal government to assist in the development of Native American financial institutions, according to a news release. "There needs to be resources available to provide tribes with more options for creating sustainable economic development in their communities," Watchmen testified. "With respect to S.519, in the spirit of self-determination and private sector development, we believe that it is preferable for Congress, if it chooses to legislate in this area (and we hope it will), to focus the legislation on ways to strengthen the Indian financial institutions created by the tribes and individual Indians with as much decision-making as possible delegated to the local level." Native American Bancorporation is a bank holding company certified by the Federal Reserve Board, owned and controlled by 21 tribal nations and Alaska Native Corporations. Its formation was inspired by Sen. Daniel Inouye in the spring of 1997 during a meeting with tribal leaders who were discussing the same challenges to economic development in Indian country that underpins this proposed legislation. NAB opened its doors in the fall of 2001. Offering its hand in partnership, NAB stressed that Congress focus on three goals as it works to address the capital formation needs in Indian country: Address the land issues of fractionated ownership, checker-boarded reservations and acquisition of ancestral homelands; Provide access to equity capital for business formation and expansion; Create a better climate for business opportunity in Indian country. With its primary goal to increase economic activity and job creation on reservations and Alaska Native villages, NAB recommends that Congress, the federal agencies and the Indian community work together to improve the odds of success for those Indian-created institutions that are empowered under existing legislation. Watchman acknowledged that NAB was started through the support and assistance of Inouye and other members of the Committee on Indian Affairs. He stressed that NAB was eager to assist the Committee in return by using their banking expertise to work to help nail down the specific actions needed to improve capital formation in Indian country and to advocate for those actions in Washington and throughout the country. Native American Bank's corporate offices are in Denver. Information: (406) 338-7000; fax (406) 338-7008; toll free (800) 307-9199. Copyright c. 1999-2003 MediaNews Group, Inc./Farmington, NM. --------- "RE: Pueblo-Mexico City Trail still bridging Cultures" --------- Date: Sat, May 24 2003 22:13:47 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="EL CAMINO REAL de TIERRA ADENTRO" http://www.indianz.com/ http://www.abqjournal.com/paperboy/text/north/41156north05-23-03.htm Trail Between Pueblo, Mexico City Still Bridging Cultures May 23, 2003 By Gary E. Salazar Journal Staff Writer It's a path that bridged two cultures and ultimately helped define a region of the United States and Mexico. Yet the full story and the historic importance of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro between San Juan Pueblo in New Mexico and Mexico City has yet to be told. The historical trail served as the link between Mexico and the United States more than 400 years ago and is now being used as a way to improve relations between the two countries. In a historic meeting Thursday in Santa Fe, 33 officials representing Mexico's museums and cultural government offices met with 22 members of President Bush's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. Also attending the first meeting between the two parties at the Inn at Loretto were officials representing the National Endowment of the Arts, the U.S. Mexico Fund for Culture, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Gallery of Art and the New Mexico Office of Cultural Affairs. The focus of the gathering was to highlight the importance of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro and how the two countries can work together to promote the history of the trail, along with other cultural projects in the future. A number of experts gave a presentation that detailed the historical impact the 1,800-mile trail had on the region regarding trade and cultural exchange. The presentation left quite an impact on a number of people attending. "This is fascinating," said William Strickland Jr., a member of the Committee on the Arts and Humanities who lives in Pittsburgh. "I didn't realize the depth of the issue. I would like to see us be more proactive in blending its importance in educational curriculum. "The direction we have to take as leaders is to provide the public with the truth." The truth must include the military and religious intimidation Spanish settlers imposed on American Indians, said Phillip Tuwaletstiwa, a member of the Hopi Nation who lives in Arizona. "The wounds of 400 years ago are still bleeding," said Tuwaletstiwa, who was invited to speak to the panel. "But perhaps we can travel to the road of reconciliation. "We should deal with the past in a sense of reality, but at some point we need to get on with things." For close to 15 years, Gabrielle Palmer has been attempting to promote the historical importance of the trail through a El Camino Real Project. The trail was first used in 1598 when explorer Don Juan de Onate led a group of settlers into New Mexico. The trail would lose its relevance and power once the Santa Fe Trail emerged. Palmer said progress has been made because the timeless trail that served as the route of interaction between Spaniards and other Europeans with American Indians, Mexicans and Americans was designated in 1998 as a National Scenic Byway by the Federal Highway Administration. Also in that year, the U.S. National Park Service and Mexico's National Council for the Culture and the Arts signed an agreement to cooperate in the conservation, management and research of the trail. In March, the two agencies, with the help of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the University of New Mexico, unveiled a program intended to meet the goals of the agreement. The Museum of New Mexico is also helping interpret the trail's history. Palmer said she is hopeful Thursday's meeting will serve as a launching pad to tell the story of the historical importance of the trail to the masses of both countries. "This meeting raises awareness to a whole new level," Palmer said. "This gives it national attention. It opens a whole new door for us." Officials from both countries said working together on promoting the trail could lead to better relations and increased economic trade. Juan M. Solana, Mexican Consul in Albuquerque, said the trail can be the mechanism that gives citizens of both countries a better understanding of each other. "We are a lot more closer than people imagine," Solana said. "By sharing culture, we can show a lot of things we have in common. The advantage of sharing cultures is, it is not political." Adair Margo, chairman of the presidential committee, agreed. "This was not an easy road to travel on," Margo said. "It took a lot of muscle and it has taken a lot of muscle now to keep this project going. "This is an economic trail, as well. It's just not cultural." Margo, who lives on the Camino Real in El Paso, coordinated the meeting with the help of Sari Bermudez, president of the National Council for Culture and the Arts of Mexico. Lowell B. Catlett, an economist, futurist and professor at New Mexico State University, said understanding each country's culture could bolster an already strong trade relationship between the two countries. "If you speak Spanish, you have a good chance to land a contract in Mexico," he said. "If you speak English in Mexico, it gives you an advantage to trade with the U.S." Frances Levine, director of the Palace of the Governors, said the story of the Camino Real is ready to be told and should be held in the same regard as the colonization of the East Coast. "It is just not a desert," Levine said of the majority of the trail. "The desert has a very long memory, and it has retained that history between Mexico and New Mexico." Luis-Martin Lozano, director of the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City, said the meeting was beneficial. "It's an awakening of a shared culture between the two countries," he said. Copyright c. 1997-2003 Albuquerque Journal: Albuquerque, New Mexico --------- "RE: Grassy Narrows" --------- Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 21:50:34 -0700 From: SIMN Subj: Fw: Grassy Narrows URGENT REQUEST Mailing List: ndn-aim Boozhoo, aiinin I am writing to make a plea for the people of Grassy Narrows who are now in the 6th month of the Blockade to protect their Traditional lands, from massive logging procedures, and devastation of the natural beauty of the and, their life line. At this time I am asking from you to pray for the peoples for thier well-being and protection, for the few that remain in the blockade, and the ones that who overtime have committed themselves to stay there I have been to the blockades several times, I went to fast there this past month, so I know first hand of the blockade, and what they are experiencing. To date there has been media blackouts on the issue at Grassy Narrows, and we have maintained connected to the ones who have been committed in getting the word out that they are still at the blockade and remain vigilant into getting the trucks from coming and going on their land. They ARE continuing to protect what is left of their lands, and stopping them from taking the trees down. I also want to make a request as in any kinds of donations as in monies, or sage, medicines, and tobacco, they are low on funds, they are low on supplies/foods etc, it would be greatly welcomed, they don't even have cloth to do their sacred prayer's. So if you can send any thing of what I have mentioned, ., it would be greatly welcomed, Cloth is so needed, FOR OFFERINGS, RED, BLUE, GREEN, WHITE, BLACK, YELLOW, BROWN. I know we all have struggled and will continue to struggle but together we will rise above, oppression, genocide, corperate greed, and murder of our resources and lands. it was said that " ONE ARROW IS WEAK AND CAN BE BROKEN, BUT MANY ARROWS CANNOT BE BROKEN" IN THE SPIRIT OF THE GREAT LEADER AND 'CHIEF SITTING BULL ' LET US PUT OUR MINDS AND HEARTS TOGETHER AND SEE WHAT KIND OF FUTURE WE CAN MAKE FOR OUR CHILDREN What ever you can offer will be greatly appreciated.-- I CAN BE REACHED AT 1 (204) 774-8517-- CHICKADEE.... ~~HAVE A GREAT DAY~~ IN SOLIDARITY WITH MOTHER EARTH --------- "RE: SUMA targets Aboriginal Hiring" --------- Date: Sat, May 24 2003 22:13:47 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="JOB OPPORTUNITIES" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.canada.com/search/story.aspx?id=d17a95d1-92c5-4673-8f77-3daa04ed2413 SUMA targets aboriginal hiring Neil Scott Saskatchewan News Network; Regina Leader-Post Saturday, May 24, 2003 REGINA - An agreement to provide aboriginal people with more opportunities to work for local governments in cities, towns and villages across Saskatchewan was signed this week in Regina. That agreement, between the provincial government and the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association, commits SUMA to working with its members with the goal of hiring more aboriginals. The ultimate goal would be to have a representative workforce, with the proportion of aboriginal people employed in local government being proportionate to their population in the province. Eldon Lautermilch, the province's aboriginal affairs minister, said the agreement with SUMA "is another step forward for all people to participate fully in the social and economic fabric of this province. "In order for Saskatchewan to reach its full potential, aboriginal people must participate and benefit from the economy," Lautermilch said. Mike Badham, the president of SUMA, said he hopes the signing of the agreement will encourage local governments to work to hire more aboriginals. The development of a representative workforce is "a target, it's an attitude," Badham said. Barry Gunther, mayor of the resort village of Sun Valley as well as SUMA's vice-president for villages, said he believes there are opportunities to get more aboriginal people involved as administrators and town clerks in towns and villages. Right now, there are comparatively few aboriginal administrators or town clerks in Saskatchewan, Gunther said. And, as efforts are made to get more aboriginals employed in local government, Gunther said opportunities should be pursued to hire aboriginals at senior levels in addition to entry-level positions. Assistance could be provided so aboriginals can obtain the necessary training to qualify for administrative jobs, Gunther said. Copyright c. 2003 The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon). --------- "RE: Chiefs, NDP Politicians protest Reforms" --------- Date: Friday, May 16, 2003 02:47 pm From: Frosty Subj: Fw: Chiefs, NDP politicians protest reforms Mailing List: Frostys AmerIndian < frostysamerindian@yahoogroups.com> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Don" http://www.canoe.ca/WinnipegNews/ws.ws-05-17-0023.html Chiefs, NDP politicians protest reforms By CP Friday, May 16, 2003 KENORA - Native people marched through the streets of Kenora yesterday beating drums and waving feathered staffs and flags in a show of opposition to the controversial First Nations Governance Act. Assembly of First Nations Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come, Treaty 3 Grand Chief Leon Jourdain and federal NDP Leader Jack Layton led the way in the march against the Act. One marcher, holding a megaphone, called for Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault's firing. "We are through with Indian agents. Bob Nault, you are fired," the crowd chanted. Signs reading "Bill C-7 is racist" and "One does not modernize colonialism, one rejects it" dotted the crowd of more than 1,500. Elder Jeremiah McKay, 68, from Kasabonika, said he marched because the act was not made by native people. "It has to come from the First Nations and it has to be about the things that affect us," McKay said through an interpreter. Not everyone who traveled to Kenora did so in support of the march. Rainy River First Nations member Leona McGinnis stood with two of her relatives on the steps of Nault's office to protest the protesters. "There are people suffering in the communities from political and administrative nepotism," McGinnis said. "I support the (bill's) sections on transparency and financial accountability." Layton, Coon Come, Jourdain, Ontario NDP Leader Howard Hampton, Winnipeg NDP MP Pat Martin and Bloc MP Yvan Loubier blasted Nault for pushing the bill in the face of native opposition. Nault released a statement in response to the rally saying natives had every right to protest, but the bill will go through. Copyright c. 2003 Kenora Daily Miner and News. --------- "RE: Caught in the Middle of Political Tug-of-War" --------- Date: Fri, May 16 2003 08:32:21 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INDIAN ACT" http://www.kenoradailyminerandnews.com/HTML%20files/newsfront.html Caught in the middle By Jorge Barrera Miner and News Staff May 15, 2003 They are in the middle of a political tug-of-war, but many rank and file band members in the Anishinaabe region have little or no idea what the First Nations Governance Act is about or why their leadership opposes it. Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault says he has consulted tens of thousands of band members in crafting the bill. Assembly of First Nations Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come along with Treaty 3 Grand Chief Leon Jourdain say they are protecting the treaty rights of those same band members by opposing it. The fight over the bill, meant to fix band governments by tweaking the 127-year-old Indian Act, has poisoned the relationship between aboriginal leaders and the federal government. Ask the average band member on the streets of Kenora, Grassy Narrows or Wabaseemoong (Whitedog) and many will say they have no idea what all the commotion is about. "Most of the people on the street wouldn't have much of an idea about (the bill)," said bill opponent and Grassy Narrows Coun. Robert Williamson in a phone interview. "Bob Nault is not getting reaction (from rank and file band members) because people don't understand." The same goes for aboriginal people in Kenora. "I haven't heard anything about (the First Nations Governance Act)," said Wauzhushk Onigum (Rat Portage) native Brian Morrison, who had a newspaper tucked under his arm. Kerry Carpenter, who lives in Whitedog, said in a phone interview his community received little information on the bill from the federal government. "I don't remember being consulted," said Carpenter, who is staying neutral on the issue for now. "People here don't know what's happening." Whitedog elder Eli Carpenter said he received an information package on the bill from the government and supports some of the things it said, but he also stands behind his leadership. "I'm on both sides on this," said Eli Carpenter in a phone interview. Many aboriginal people said they've only heard about the controversial bill because a major opposition rally is scheduled for Thursday in Kenora. "I plan to go down there and find out what it's all about," said one of the staff members at the Kenamatewin Native Learning Centre. Judy DaSilva, a Grassy Narrows activist, said many people in aboriginal communities are too poor to care about bills and protests. "When you live in an impoverished state, where you're concerned about where the next meal is coming from, then that's what you worry about," she said in a phone interview. "You can't focus on rights. A lot of people don't feel the energy to fight. Their energy is spent trying to stay alive. " For those that say they understand the bill, it's hard to find support for it. "If this bill goes through, it will take away our treaty rights," said Richard Williams, a volunteer at the Anamiewigummig drop-in centre in Kenora. Copyright c. 2003 Kenora Daily Miner and News. --------- "RE: Supreme Court Silent on Searches of Tribe Land" --------- Date: Thu, May 22 2003 08:10:46 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SEARCHES" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/wed/news/news_1n21tribes.html Court silent on searches of tribe land by sheriffs By Chet Barfield STAFF WRITER May 21, 2003 The U.S. Supreme Court was expected to resolve a thorny issue of Indian sovereignty affecting tribes and local law enforcement throughout California and the nation. Instead, it issued a finding that leaves unresolved the underlying question of how far a sheriff's reach extends onto Indian reservations. The court ruled Monday that the Bishop Paiute-Shoshone tribe's case against Inyo County was filed and adjudicated under a section of civil- rights law that applies to a person but not an Indian tribe. It sent the case back to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to determine whether it should move forward on other grounds. What the court didn't address is whether governmental sovereignty shields Indian tribes from subpoenas and searches by state, county or local agencies. That's what "everyone outside of the court itself thought was the main issue," said George Forman, an attorney for the East County's Sycuan band and other California tribes. Bishop Paiute sued Inyo County in 2000 after sheriff's deputies serving a search warrant in a welfare-fraud investigation used bolt cutters to open a storage shed and seize payroll records from the tribe's casino in eastern California. The tribe said the county had violated its sovereignty. A federal district judge ruled the county's action was valid under a federal law that puts state crimes on California reservations under the jurisdiction of state and county authorities. But last year, the appeals court sided with the tribe, ruling that state and local law enforcement jurisdiction applies to individuals on a reservation but not to a tribe or tribal enterprise, because the tribe itself is a government. Attorneys for local tribes say the case now could take 12 to 18 months to be resolved, if ever. They say the issue of jurisdiction might be taken up by Congress or state legislatures. The case is of particular interest to the East County's Viejas band, which earlier this year refused to hand over tribal records that prosecutors had subpoenaed as possible evidence in a tribal member's upcoming murder trial. At the urging of state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, Viejas drafted and sent a proposed law enforcement agreement to District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and Sheriff Bill Kolender this month. It outlines step-by-step procedures for reciprocal cooperation between the tribe and the county. Dumanis and Kolender were reviewing the proposal but awaiting the outcome of the Inyo-Paiute case. Lockyer spokesman Nathan Barankin said the Supreme Court eventually might clarify the gray areas but that counties and tribes meanwhile should try to work out formal or informal agreements to avoid jurisdictional skirmishes. "The ideal outcome is one that involves a collaborative effort," Barankin said. "The majority of disputes can be resolved quickly and amicably so long as there's mutual respect for the sovereign status of both tribal and local governments." Viejas spokeswoman Nikki Symington said both sides need to give. Counties must acknowledge Indian tribes as governments, she said, while tribes must develop a better rapport with local governments. "The tribes are facing relationship issues, as a result of their (casino) businesses, in areas no one has ever explored before," Symington said. "The solution is to try to take every problematic situation and work through it." Yesterday, Rincon attorney Scott Crowell, who is based in Seattle, was in Idaho, where his client, the Shoshone-Bannock tribe, is finalizing a law enforcement deal with county government. Crowell, who was an attorney for the Bishop Paiute tribe early in its lawsuit, said he thinks the Supreme Court's action this week might prompt more such agreements. Pala attorney Howard Dickstein agreed. "I think it encourages parties to come to agreements to avoid the ambiguities and uncertainty," Dickstein said. "Instead of having winners and losers and entities compelled to do one thing or the other, they need to have relationships and build relationships." Chet Barfield: (619) 542-4572; chet.barfield@uniontrib.com Copyright c. 2003 Union-Tribune Publishing Co./San Diego, CA. --------- "RE: EBC Tribe seeks State probe of Election Mailing" --------- Date: Wed, May 21 2003 08:21:16 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INVESTIGATION" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://cgi.citizen-times.com/cgi-bin/story/news/35085 Tribe seeks state probe of election mailing Ostendorff, Jon May 19, 2003 10:57 p.m. CHEROKEE - The Attorney General for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is investigating allegations that an elected official or a candidate used the tribe's enrollment list for political gain. After several hours of debate on Monday, the Tribe's Enrollment Committee instructed the Attorney General's office to determine whether a letter sent to members of the tribe who live off the reservation violated a confidentiality agreement. The letter, mailed from Franklin, accused six of the tribe's 12 council members of taking away members' rights and assets. "They do not represent your best interest," the letter stated. "Many of them would take your per-capita payments if they could. This may be your last time to have a vote on who represents you in your tribe. You must exercise your vote or lose it." Records examined by the committee Monday show several agencies, three council members, one candidate, the vice chief and the principal chief have requested copies of the tribe's membership roll since January. All signed an agreement that stated they would not use the list for personal gain. Michael McConnell, associate counsel with the Attorney General's office, said it was unclear whether the mailing violated the law. "There seems to be a policy contradiction," he told the committee. "People are signing a confidentiality agreement but we are allowing the list to go out for mailings." Enoch Climbingbear, a member of the tribe who lives in Charlotte, received the letter and traveled to the reservation on Monday to register to vote and find out whether the letter was true. Tribal officials have assured members they would remain on the rolls as long as they meet the criteria and emphasized per capita payments aren't tied to voting. "(The letter) made me very angry," Climbingbear said. "I might not live here, but my blood still runs through here." The controversy over the letter comes weeks before voters go to the polls to narrow a field of seven candidates for principal chief. The June 5 primary will leave two candidates in the field. Also at stake are the offices of vice chief and the 12 seats on the Tribal Council. The general election is Sept. 4. The top political leader of the 13,000-member tribe oversees tribal programs, negotiates with federal and state governments and helps decide how to spend $155 million the tribe gets from Harrah's Cherokee Casino generates each year. Each tribal member receives about $6,000 a year in casino payouts, which are called per capita payments. Brenda Norville, who represents the Snowbird community on the Tribal Council, said the political season would make an internal investigation impossible and called for federal authorities to step in. "If they tell you it was not an elected official that mailed that out, they are lying," said Norville, who was criticized in the letter. "I would like an investigation but I don't want it done on a local level. I think we need an FBI investigation." Contact Ostendorff at 452-1467 or JOstendorff@CITIZEN-TIMES.com. Copyright c. 2003 ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES. --------- "RE: Ute Mountain Ute Member Shot and Killed" --------- Date: Thu, May 22 2003 08:10:46 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="KILLED UTE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.durangoherald.com/~/news/news030521_6.htm Ute Mountain Ute member shot and killed May 21, 2003 By Brian Newsome Herald Staff Writer A Ute Mountain Ute tribal member allegedly shot and killed another tribal member in Towaoc, according to federal court records. Leland Jeremy Lopez, 31, was arrested Sunday evening for shooting Dalton Box, 20, multiple times. A witness acquainted with both men told authorities that the men had been involved in a fight earlier in the week, according to an affidavit from John Wallace, a special agent with the FBI. Lopez remains in custody. About 4:30 a.m. Sunday, Box and the witness, Wayne Adams, were at a home in Towaoc drinking beer with other tribal members, the affidavit said. Adams walked outside, where he saw Lopez, who had multiple stitches in his head (presumably from the fight). Lopez asked Adams to lure Box out of the house. As Adams walked back to the house, Box came outside, where Lopez pulled a gun and fired two shots at him in the driveway. Box grabbed his stomach and said, "Benny, don't shoot me no more, I give up," Adams reported to the police. As Box attempted to lay down, Lopez approached him and fired several more shots. When Box collapsed, Lopez walked over and kicked him in the side of the head, Adams said, according to the affidavit. Another witness and resident of the home, Valentina Wing, reported a similar account to police. Lopez later told police he had been drinking with two men, and the three of them drove to Wing's home. Armed with a borrowed handgun, Lopez left the car and set off to scare Box. He confessed to shooting Box twice and throwing the pistol out the window. The three drove around the reservation, and Lopez said he returned to his mother's home, took some aspirin and went to bed. Reach Staff Writer Brian Newsome at brian@durangoherald.com Copyright c. 2002 the Durango Herald. --------- "RE: Killer gets Death in Navajo Carjack Case" --------- Date: Wed, May 21 2003 08:21:16 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DEATH SENTENCE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0521mitchell.html Killer gets death in Navajo carjack case Dennis Wagner The Arizona Republic May. 21, 2003 DOWNTOWN PHOENIX - For the first time since a new federal law was adopted in 1994, a convicted criminal has been sentenced to die in the U.S. District Court for Arizona. Lezmond Mitchell, a resident of the Navajo Reservation, did not flinch Tuesday when Judge Mary Murguia's clerk read the jury verdict ordering his execution for the 2001 murder of a 63-year-old bus driver and her granddaughter during a carjacking. Mitchell, 21, was convicted two weeks ago on 11 felony counts in a crime spree that also included a trading-post robbery and kidnapping. Defense attorneys had unsuccessfully argued that Mitchell was more of a passive observer than a participant, and that a second man, Johnny Orsinger, was the heinous killer. While Mitchell's expression was stoic, members of the victims' family wept softly and comforted one another as the verdict was announced in the Phoenix courtroom. According to court records, Alyce Slim and her 9-year-old granddaughter, Tiffany Lee, were driving to New Mexico to see a medicine man when they were carjacked and killed. Investigators said Slim and Tiffany were beaten, stabbed dozens of times and beheaded with an ax. The bodies were then buried in a shallow grave. Orsinger, who is awaiting trial, is not eligible for capital punishment because he was not yet 18 when the crimes occurred. The sentencing phase of the case included a letter from the Navajo Department of Justice asking that the death penalty not be imposed because capital punishment violates tribal custom and culture. Relatives of the victims declined comment on whether they share that view. Prosecutor Vincent Kirby said the Death Penalty Act, which expands the power to execute federal convicts, has been carried out only against Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and perhaps one other defendant. Kirby said the trial placed a burden on the victims' relatives, who commuted from their Navajo Reservation homes through weeks of trial, then testified about their love and loss. Kirby described the crime as "unbelievably senseless and brutal." Jurors unanimously agreed, finding Mitchell culpable of homicides that were premeditated and particularly depraved. Juror Kerrie Bluff, 38, of Clarkdale, said she and the 11 other panelists wrestled with the horror of what happened from the opening day of trial. However, she added, "We were all very conscientious in making sure to follow the letter of the law and not let emotion affect our decision." An execution is not expected anytime soon. John M. Sears, one of Mitchell's defense attorneys, said the conviction and sentence will be appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Review there is expected to take up to two years, and more appeals could follow. Reach the reporter at dennis.wagner@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8874. Copyright c. 2003 Arizona Republic. --------- "RE: Indians gather, Protest Police Mistreatment" --------- Date: Sun, May 25 2003 18:37:19 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="POLICE BRUTALITY" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2003/05/25/news/state/ Indians gather, protest police mistreatment May 25, 2003 LAKE ANDES (AP) - A group of about 50 American Indians marched on the Charles Mix County Courthouse to protest alleged mistreatment by a Lake Andes police officer. Friday's protest, which consisted mostly of members from the Yankton Sioux tribe, was in response to a May 17 incident in which a fleeing Indian man was injured during an arrest. It involved Jeremiah Nelson, who has been with the Lake Andes police department for about three years, and Keeler Hopkins Jr., 21, who was handcuffed and fleeing Bureau of Indian Affairs officers Tim Medicine Horn and Roger Irwin. The BIA officers were on Highway 281 assisting at a traffic stop conducted by Charles Mix County sheriff's deputies and Lake Andes police, including Nelson. During the stop, the BIA officers took Hopkins into custody on an outstanding tribal warrant for assault. When Hopkins ran from Medicine Horn's car, Nelson and the others gave chase. Nelson caught up with Hopkins near Highway 50 and tackled him, saying in a case report that Hopkins, who was still handcuffed, tried to attack him. Nelson said his flashlight hit Hopkins' head as he pushed Hopkins to the ground. But Hopkins' family disputes that account and has called for the city to investigate the officer's conduct. "He knocked my son down, hit him in the head, and beat him with a flashlight," Hopkins' mother, Melda Hopkins, said. She organized Friday's protest. In his own statement to police, Hopkins wrote that Nelson "hit me with the bottom of his flashlight saying `See what happens when you run, cowboy."' Hopkins suffered injuries including a cut forehead that required seven stitches. He remains in the Charles Mix County Jail on the tribal charge, and he has a court appearance Tuesday on an aggravated-assault charge stemming from the May 17 incident. Lake Andes Police Chief R.G. Svatos said he believes Nelson's report does not plan to conduct any further investigation. Melda Hopkins said she decided to protest after visiting her son in jail. "You see your son brutalized by cops, his head split open, it makes you want to cry," she said. "It hurts." She also has contacted the American Civil Liberties Union. Jennifer Ring, executive director of the ACLU of the Dakotas, said her agency will look into whether there has been police misconduct. "The clearly agreed upon fact is the head and the police officer's flashlight made contact," Ring said. Hopkins' statement constitutes a complaint, according to Ring, "and we're going to see if the department responds. If the department responds appropriately, this is not a major issue for the ACLU." Svatos, however, said that when Melda Hopkins wanted to file a complaint, he directed her to the state's attorney and also told her that her son "is an adult. If anybody signs a complaint, it has to be him." That has not happened, Svatos said. A similar protest against police in Lake Andes was held three years ago. In 2000, Ricky Powells, a black resident of Lake Andes, accused Nelson of making racial slurs against him and writing "Go home nigger" on the side of Powells' house in shoe polish. But Svatos said he is convinced that allegation was false. "We checked it out. He knows better than that," Svatos said of Nelson. The chief said Nelson is a good, aggressive officer who works the night shift in a tough town that averages 90 to 110 criminal contacts a month. "It's non-Indians also," Svatos said. "Jerry just don't pick on one bunch; he gets them all." Copyright c. 2003 the Rapid City Journal. --------- "RE: Annie Mae Pictou Aquash Vigil" --------- Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 10:17:15 -0400 From: Chris Allicock Subj: Annie Mae Pictou Aquash Vigil >To: gars@speakeasy.org Coinciding with the Canadian Television Premiere Broadcast of the NFB documentary, "The Spirit of Annie Mae" on APTN next Tuesday, there will be vigil's happening throughout Aboriginal communities across the country. Please see info below regarding one such vigil. Anna Mae Pictou Aquash Vigil May 27, 2003 9 am to 5 pm. Anna Mae Pictou Aquash was a Mi'kmaw woman leader who fought against colonization of Aboriginal Peoples. Her legacy is instilled in us to continue our struggle for economical, social and political justice. We honor her work, her dedication to Aboriginal people and we will honor her spirit on May 27, 2003 from 9-5 at the Odena Circle at the Forks. A feast, drumming, and a giveaway will take place, along with Mi'kmaw Filmmaker, Catherine Martin, director of the recent NFB documentary "The Spirit of Annie Mae" to be aired on May 27 on APTN 8 PM. Please call Tina Mason for further information at (204) 942-6676. _______________ Chris Allicock - Network Publicist APTN 2 Haig Avenue, Toronto, ON M1N 2W1 416-254-1064 --------- "RE: Native Prisoner" --------- Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 06:42:57 -0500 From: Janet Smith Subj: ACLU denies endorsing prison's behavior control plans Note : First Nations prisoners are highly overrepresented among Montana's prison inmate population. While tribal members make up roughly 7 percent of the state's entire population, they account for some 17 per cent of inmates at Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge and up to 40 percent of the women incarcerated at the state prison in Billings.- (Source : Kathleen McLaughlin, of The Standard State Bureau). They are also often the victims of racial profiling. Brigitte <>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o "Honor Your Spirit, Protect the Children" Manuel Redwoman, Northern Cheyenne/Lakota/Arapaho http://www.geocities.com/honoryourspirit/home.html =========================================== 2 Articles enclosed : From the Billings Gazette May 21, 2003 - ACLU denies endorsing prison's behavior control plans HELENA (AP) -- The American Civil Liberties Union is denying state corrections officials' claims that the organization endorsed behavior management plans for inmates that the Montana Supreme Court has condemned as inhumane. The ACLU has never reviewed the plans -- called BMPs -- that Montana State Prison authorities use to control disruptive conduct of inmates, Eric Balaban, an attorney with the organization's National Prison Project in Washington, D.C., said Tuesday. "We never reached a conclusion in regard to the BMPs," said Balaban, whose organization and the U.S. Justice Department sued the state over medical conditions and policies at the prison in the aftermath of a deadly 1991 riot, he said. The management plans involve locking troublesome inmates in isolation cells, sometimes for days or weeks, without running water, clothes, bedding or warm food. The department defended use of the plans in response to the state Supreme Court's ruling last month that found the techniques used on a mentally ill inmate were unconstitutional. Diana Koch, chief attorney for the agency, said the plans were developed "with the help and concurrence of the ACLU and the U.S. Department of Justice." Joe Williams, who heads the centralized services office in the Corrections Department, said experts assigned to review the prison's efforts to comply with a settlement agreement in the suit endorsed the BMPs. He pointed to a July 1999 report by four psychiatrists, who were chosen by the ACLU and Justice Department. They concluded in their report that the "use of behavior management plans appears to be appropriate for the identified problematic behaviors." One of the doctors, Mary West, encouraged the prison's mental health staff to use the BMPs "as much as you possibly can" and said the policy will help the correctional staff work more closely with mental health staff. Balaban said the views of the psychiatrists did not reflect that of ACLU. "They don't work for us," he said. "I reviewed the plans as written. The ACLU doesn't agree with their findings." Balaban said the terms of the settlement agreement allowed either side to dispute the findings of the experts. He noted the panel of doctors never reviewed or endorsed application of the behavior management tools to inmate Mark Walker, the subject of the court ruling. "The experts never endorsed stripping a man who is mentally ill for weeks at a time," Balaban said. "The experts didn't endorse allowing Mr. Walker to deteriorate (mentally) to the point of having dozens of disciplinary reports that are seemingly related to his mental illness." Bill Maddox, an attorney representing the Justice Department in the suit, declined to comment on what he called an "ongoing investigation" in regard to state compliance with the settlement agreement. Warden Mike Mahoney said Tuesday he has never heard any ACLU concerns raised over BMPs during meetings regarding medical care at the state prison. "I cannot recall a single instance where they have made any kind of derogatory reference to our utilization of the BMP in any of the briefings we had," he said. In a related development, Mahoney said the prison has not abandoned use of behavior management tools that were challenged in Supreme Court case. For inmates not diagnosed with a mental illness, authorities continue to use isolation cells and withhold items such as clothing and running water to discourage misbehavior and ensure they hurt no one. "I've got limited resources as to what I can do with people in a locked- up environment," he said. "I have an obligation to make sure someone is not put into a position to have the means to hurt themselves or others." Prison officials still meet with mental health staff to discuss how to handle disruptive behavior on a case-by-case basis, Mahoney said. However, since the Supreme Court decision, those inmates with a mental illness are more apt to end up in the prison infirmary than in an isolation cell, he said. Mahoney said he doesn't read the court decision as forbidding use of all behavior management tools in every instance. "On a case-by-case basis, if we deem the inmate's conduct is a risk to himself and others, and ultimately to the safety of the institution, the Supreme Court is indicating I should still have some latitude," he said. Copyright c. The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. =========== Older Article, worth reading : ACLU of Washington Sues to Remedy Inhumane Conditions at County Jail February 26, 2002 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TACOMA, WA--The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington today filed a class-action lawsuit asking a federal court to order an immediate remedy to inhumane conditions at a local county jail, including lack of heat in winter, denial of medications as punishment, overflowing toilets and lack of basic hygiene products such as toilet paper. "Conditions at the jail are so substandard that they constitute cruel and unusual punishment," said Julya Hampton, Legal Program Director of the ACLU of Washington. "Medical care and general conditions are so abysmal that inmates often have to go without toilet paper or feminine hygiene products. It's a sorry state of affairs." An ACLU investigation of the Jefferson County Jail in Port Hadlock over a period of a year-and-a-half included interviews of current and former inmates and their attorneys, physicians and family members. A tour of the facilities revealed disturbing scenes of squalor and mistreatment, which led to the ACLU's decision to file a lawsuit. The legal complaint filed in United States District Court by the ACLU and its National Prison Project detail the jail's deplorable conditions of confinement, including: Plumbing: The physical plant and environment at the jail are inadequate, unsanitary, and pose a danger to inmates. The plumbing capacity is insufficient to handle the number of prisoners in the jail, leading to overflowing toilets and lack of access to showers. The drains in the floor of the housing area have backed up with overflowing sewage. Strong sewage odors permeate areas of the jail, particularly in summer. Hygiene: Prisoners are not provided enough basic hygiene supplies, such as toilet paper and feminine hygiene products. Prisoners have been forced to use makeshift replacements, such as pages from telephone books, towels, or paper bags. Laundry is frequently not done, forcing prisoners to wear dirty clothes, sometimes for weeks. Climate Control: Climate control is inadequate, often leading to extreme cold conditions in winter and extreme hot conditions in the summer. In some cells, prisoners can see their breath in the winter. The jail does not provide adequate blankets or cold-weather clothing. Medical Care: The jail's health care program is disorganized and understaffed. Prisoners who request medical help are often not seen by the jail's visiting nurse, who comes only once a week. During the rest of the week, untrained jail staff make medical decisions for the prisoners. Jail staff frequently deny medication to prisoners altogether, often using the withholding of medication as threats or punishment. Prisoners with prescriptions are placed on lower dosages or different drugs at the discretion of untrained staff. As a result, inmates have suffered seizures and other serious medical problems that could have been avoided. Access to Courts: The jail does not provide access to a law library, and legal mail is improperly handled. Jail staff often block access even to assigned counsel by, among other things, not permitting sufficient telephone access and failing to transport prisoners to court proceedings. Access to Reading Materials: By jail policy, inmates are not permitted to receive subscriptions to newspapers or magazines, and are not permitted to order books. Staffing: Inadequate staffing creates dangerous conditions, especially since the jail is overcrowded. Although the inmate population often has exceeded 60, there is usually only one corrections officer on duty. In the 1990s, the ACLU of Washington successfully pursued litigation over substandard conditions at the King County Jail, Pierce County Jail, and Washington Corrections Center for Women at Purdy. Staff attorney Aaron Caplan of the ACLU of Washington and staff attorney David Fathi of the ACLU's National Prison Project are handling the case. --------- "RE: Rustywire: A Traditional Dancer" --------- Date: Sun, May 25 2003 06:46:19 -0900 From: rustywire@yahoo.com (john rustywire) Subj: A Traditional Dancer Newsgroup: alt.native Sam short for Sammaripa, he is a traditional dancer, been dancing a long time. Had a chance to share a meal with him just the other day. He drives a truck and works on them too. His hands are gnarled and he is tall, with long gray hair. He comes from someplace around Pyramid Lake I think. he told me but I have forgotten. He is a Paiute, maybe Western Shoshone, can't really remember. He has been working for long time, maybe 40 years or so at the same job. We shared a meal of indian tacos, fry bread with beans, a little hamburger and a little hot sauce with cheese. There was a table outside the tribe store and so we sat out there to enjoy the sun and warm weather. His eyes are gray, and he has many grandchildren. I asked him if he was going to any pow wows over Memorial Day, he looked at me with steady eyes, he has always had eyes the somehow see beyond, they look straight into you. He told me they were headed to the Pow Wows in Las Vegas, somewhere Northwest of there. It's going to be hot, Sam are you ready for the sun down there. He took a bite of his frybread and I could see the gleam of his gold teeth. He said, the first dances of the season are the tough ones over the long winter, the old bones have to get in tune with the music. I can usually last one long dance . bit by the end of the summer you can go maybe six dances. It makes you tough. I could see him sitting there in his work clothes worn and gray with age, but in the arena he wears an eagle bustle, with a head full of eagle feathers. His wife is from the Northwest and she wears a heavy buckskin. He said they were going to make a family trip, take the grandkids down there and dance for the weekend. He has a van he uses just for pow wows, after years on the pow wow circuit he knows what to take and how to camp. He said one year they took three tipis, and set them up, this year it is just going to be one, this weekend down there. He told me that the kids like to dance, it is good for them to know the people who go there, the other tribes, and families. They all get to know each other. He finished his lunch and said he had to work on getting a dozer from the forest, it broke down, threw a rod. He said it would take a new engine to get it going again. We sat there and talked for a bit and maybe an hour went by, he spoke about the way of dancing, and his home, that no one was there anymore around his age, and so he was going to retire where his kids lived. He told me it doesn't really matter where you end up, but how you do no matter where you go. This place is now his home he said and he likes to dance, and with that he hopes to see his grandchildren dance with him and learn about the way of living in a good way. We talked about the drought, no water for planting, and a little about the upcoming 4th of July and how he planned to camp. He said we have already set up our tapes to mark the place where we are going to camp this year. Across the way we could see the pow wow grounds and some indian folks were already marking out their campsites for the 4th of July. I had to leave and so said take it easy on the road down there and left him sitting there finishing his iced tea. It was a warm day and he is down there now at Snow Mountain kicking up the dust with his grandchildren and his wife and they will be headed home on Monday night to get up and work like he has for the past 40 years. Sammaripa is a traditional dancer and he is dancing for his children and for the sheer joy of it. rustyw