From gars@speakeasy.org Thu Jun 12 01:13:46 2003 Date: 10 Jun 2003 22:36:51 -0000 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews11.024 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 11, ISSUE 024 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 June 14, 2003 Passamaquoddy nipon/summer moon Eastern Cherokee nvda seluitseiyusdi/green corn 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 Advocate, Frostys AmerIndian, Native American Poetry and Iron Natives Mailing Lists; UUCP email; Newsgroup: alt.native IMPORTANT!! ----------- In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, all material appearing in this newsletter is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for educational purposes. <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is a way of keeping the brothers and sisters who share our Spirit informed about current events within the lives of those who walk the Red Road. ++ It may be subscribed to via email by sending a request from your own internet addressable account to gars@speakeasy.org ++ It is archived at http://www.nanews.org <================<<<< >>>>================> +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | As historian Patricia Nelson | | 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: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + ======================== "The most important issue facing Indian education today is accessibility. It is essential for American Indian students to have access to American Indian mentors, academic resources, adequate facilities, financial support and tacit knowledge." __ Justin McHorse, Taos Pueblo, student at the Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers (IRT) at Phillips Academy, Andover, MA +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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! Editorial: Once again, by my wonderful wife, Janet. She has more strong words, and it's my honor to share them. I wondered how long it would take. It's been nearly two years since a Canadian court judgement nearly bankrupted the Church that ran Canada's aboriginal residential schools (and the provincial governments that forced children to attend them). I have been amazed that it took this long for somebody to connect the dots--to figure out that there should be consequences on the U.S. side of the border, too. For decades, similar residential schooling was required for tribal children in the US, often run by the same (or similar) religious groups, and it was well known that the same kinds of abuses occurred. In this land where a scalded thigh can make a woman who spilled her own coffee a millionaire, there are thousands of now-elder Indians who bear far deeper scars that extended into their children and grandchildren's lives. Realization came when two Lakota siblings contacted a lawyer. From their meeting has come a $25 billion class-action lawsuit that they estimate will involve up to 50,000 Indian victims. The U.S. government, who paid the churches to set up these schools, is being sued basically on a charge of negligence and treaty violation. The government had promised not to "let the bad man" onto the reservation -- and then turned around and not only allowed many bad men on the reservations, but bankrolled them financially, and used their bully powers as the Indians' "caretakers" to put Indian children at their mercy. It's about time they paid for it. 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 ---------- - Abuse Lawsuit filed against Feds - Six Nations co-op Farming - Tribes blast - Ottawa adopts a Top-Down Process Jack Morrow Hills Plan - Saskatchewan MP - N.M. Senators urged sows Hatred in Mailing to stop Uranium Project - Genocide - Zuni Water Settlement of the American Indian Peoples tangled in Tax Protest - U.S. Supreme Court Docket - Plan to change BIA not Popular shaping up - Sovereignty key in Talks - Firefighter declared Competent - Proposal to improve Wisconsin to Stand Trial Tribal Relations - Investigation backs Deputy - Right to sue Feds in Shooting for Fort Apache Restoration - Suspect clear of Murder - Trust can be restored of Native American in Indian Trust Accounts - Judge in Zotigh Trial - Quest for more Klamath Water - Marchers seek Justice for Murders for Fish - Flandreau stabbing Suspect - Yakamas plan to sue pleads Innocent Energy Department - Native Prisoner - Editorial: Reevaluating Dams -- Washington State Reformatory - Warm Springs Tribal Members - Rustywire: The Streets dying at Younger Age - History: Carlisle Indian School - Bison debate heats up - Poem: Sage - Dayish resigning as NAC President - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - Indians not represented - DVD a tribute in Newspapers to Navajo Code Talkers - Fight begins over - Indian Tribes New First Nations Act revitalizing Languages --------- "RE: Abuse Lawsuit filed against Feds" --------- Date: Sat, Jun 7 2003 09:18:40 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ABUSE SUIT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.yankton.net/stories/060703/com_20030607027.shtml Alleged Abuse Prompts Lawsuit Wagner Pair Involved In Action Against Feds BY TERA SCHMIDT P&D Staff Writer June 7, 2003 A multi-billion dollar lawsuit against the federal government that has gained nationwide attention began with a phone call from South Dakota. Gary Frischer, multi-district litigation consultant, got a call last July from a man in South Dakota who told Frischer about unbelievable abuse he and other Native Americans had allegedly experienced at Catholic boarding schools when they were children. "He talked to me for hours," said Frischer, who is working with Miami attorney Jeff Herman on this case. "He had me in tears. As a white American, I was absolutely ashamed. I travel all over the world working on cases, but after hearing this story I decided to devote all my time to this." Frischer traveled to South Dakota and was introduced to Sherwyn Zephier and his sister, Adele Zephier of Wagner. Since that time Frischer, his wife Carrie, and the Zephiers have traveled extensively throughout South Dakota visiting reservations and collecting evidence. "Last month we found all the evidence we needed to file a lawsuit," Frischer said. The $25 billion class-action lawsuit was filed in April against the the federal government, which paid the church to house, feed and educate Native American children on reservations. "The lawsuit is against the federal government because it broke the Treaty of 1868, which said it would not let the `bad man' onto the reservations," Frischer said. The 1868 Treaty signed April 29, 1868, at Ft. Laramie, Wyo., stated any bad men who committed any wrongs against the Native Americans would be arrested and punished by the United States (upon proof) and also the injured person would also be re-imbursed for the loss. The lawsuit, which began with a few former boarding school students, has grown to include hundreds of people from reservations across South Dakota. "Thousands have called from all over the country stating they have experienced the same kinds of things," Frischer said. "We now have clients from Arizona, Mexico, South Dakota, North Dakota and even Alaska. There are approximately 10,000 victims in South Dakota and 300,000 living victims in the U.S. Before it is all over, I think the lawsuit will have 25,000-50,000 people involved." Frischer's clients plan to file new lawsuits in the coming weeks against each of the schools, the diocese, the archdiocese and specific individuals. "Our client base multiplies every day," Frischer said. "We have received hundreds of phone calls. There were many, many schools built for this purpose." "I talked on (a Native American call-in) radio show earlier this week," Sherwyn Zephier said. "Just in that time, we received 30 phone calls from people telling us what had happened to them. They were all the same stories." Frischer said the civil lawsuits may be followed up with criminal cases. "We hope to see criminal charges against the nuns and priests that caused the abuse," he said. "There were many children who went into these schools and disappeared. The FBI should look into it and figure out the names of these children and file the proper charges. There is no statute of limitations on a criminal charge of murder." Those who survived the boarding schools, including the Zephiers, are describing horrific scenarios of constant mental, physical and sexual abuse. "We had the dignity taken from us -- beaten out of us," Sherwyn Zephier said. "We were taken out of our homes. We were totally at the mercy of the priests and nuns and caretakers." "The (school employees) beat the crap out of the students, raped and sodomized them," Frischer said. Sherwyn Zephier, who attended St. Paul Mission School in Marty, said he remembers being tortured and confined in closets or in the attic for days at a time without food or water. "The sexual abuse was so bad," said Adele Zephier, who also attended St. Paul's. "They continuously molested the same (children) year after year." Sherwyn Zephier said that, although the alleged abuse ended in the 1970s when the schools were reverted back to tribal control, the effects of the abuse did not end. "The results of the abuse are mental anguish, physical scarring and spiritual damage," he said. "The spiritual damage goes so deep because they always used the name of God when they were beating us. They did it in the name of God. "They stripped us of our identities," Sherwyn Zephier continued. "Everything of our culture had to be removed, including our physical appearance and our religious beliefs. They tortured us if we would speak our language. "It was a terrible time of loneliness. We had no contact with family members. We were locked up. The atmosphere was like a jail." Sherwyn Zephier said many Native Americans have turned to drug and alcohol abuse to dull the pain of the abuse. "The survivors have tried to cope with the trauma, pain and memories through alcohol and drugs," he said. "Many of us have tried to wipe it away, but you can't eliminate or dull the memories." This lawsuit should educate the world about life on the reservations, Sherwyn Zephier said. "Those of us that held on to our sanity and maintained ourselves picked up our culture again," he said. "We asked about our language and customs and traditions. We have made a stand to tell the truth to all the world, so let the education begin." Many of the people involved with the lawsuit, including the Zephiers, also hope to bring political change and strengthen their culture, Frischer said. "Native Americans, among minorities in America, have the weakest voice in the political system," Frischer said. "This lawsuit is beginning to unify the different nations under one cause. In the very near future, I think the tribes will have a very strong voice in our country." Sherwyn Zephier said he hopes the tribal system can also be changed. "Another thing we are intending to improve is the way tribal government operates," he said. "We have to think positive and help each other more. This is all due to hope. You don't realize how little hope you have until you get filled up." When Frischer first came to Wagner, he said many tribal members didn't realize they had civil rights. "They didn't know they had the same civil rights as other Americans," he said. "I spent a lot of time telling them about their rights and telling them that they can stand up and they will win. They don't have to sit back and take it." Sherwyn Zephier said he sees this as the first step to creating closure and allowing healing to begin. "I hope this lawsuit allows people to begin to heal the pain and trauma they have gone through," he said. "I also hope they will deal with the loss of family members who have committed suicide because they couldn't live with the pain. "The church and government have ruled over our people. They have divided us, brainwashed us, and still we have family and friends who are real skeptical," he added. "They think that because they survived the boarding schools, they are OK. But they're not OK. The effects of the boarding school experience have rippled out to other family members and other generations." Frischer and Sherwyn Zephier urged anyone who has been abused to seek out a counselor or spiritual advisor. "People need to go see them," Frischer said. "The Catholic Church has opened its doors to the victims of abuse. I feel that, if the abusers treat the abused, it is just abusing the abused again." "It is too late for them to heal the hurt they caused," Zephier said. "There are a lot of recovering Catholics out there." Contact Tera Schmidt at 665-7811 (ext. 123) or tera.schmidt@yankton.net. Copyright c. 2003 Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan. --------- "RE: Tribes blast Jack Morrow Hills Plan" --------- Date: Mon, Jun 2 2003 08:24:56 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BLM" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.trib.com/AP/wire_detail.php?wire_num=177131 Tribes blast Jack Morrow Hills plan June 1, 2003 CASPER, Wyo. (AP) - The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes are lambasting a plan for oil and gas development in the Jack Morrow Hills area of the Red Desert because it doesn't adequately protect holy sites. The tribes, in a letter to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, called for a complete closure of the area in southwest Wyoming to further energy development. "Protecting the area's unique wildlife, ecology, historical and cultural wealth for the benefit of future generations - Indian and non-Indian alike - far outweighs the minor and short-term mineral potential in the area," tribal leaders said. The BLM's supplemental draft environmental impact statement released in February would allow for development of more than 200 oil and gas wells in portions of the Red Desert over the next few decades. The 620,000-acre Jack Morrow Hills is home to the largest migratory game herd in the lower 48 states, the largest desert elk herd in the world, the largest active sand dune system in North America, seven wilderness study areas and the Oregon, California and Mormon pioneer trails. The area is also prized by energy companies for the approximately 150 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and large reserves of coal and oil. But Shoshone and Arapaho leaders said the desert was also used by their ancestors for hunting, medicine gathering and spiritual purposes. In the letter, they alleged the BLM has systematically provided less protection for American Indian cultural and spiritual sites than for other Red Desert resources. They urged the agency to consult with the tribes to develop a protection ranking for various holy sites. BLM Field Office Manager Ted Murphy said his staff hasn't had a chance to respond to the letter, but will consider it as part of the public comment on the Jack Morrow Hills draft plan. "We do consult with the tribes on matters of cultural and religious sites," he said. The Jack Morrow Hills team will begin reviewing public comments and developing responses this week. Officials hope to develop a final plan by September. The area outlined in the plan includes Steamboat Mountain, Greater Sand Dunes, White Mountain Petroglyphs, a portion of the South Pass landscape, the Oregon Buttes, Greater Sand Dunes, Honeycomb Buttes, Buffalo Hump, Whitehorse Creek, South Pinnacles and Alkali Draw wilderness study areas, and three special management areas - Greater Sand Dunes, Continental Divide National Scenic Trail and the Oregon/Mormon Pioneer/Pony Express/California National Historic Trails. Copies of the plan are available for public review online or at BLM offices in Rock Springs, Lander and Cheyenne. Copyright c. 2003 Casper Star-Tribune published by Lee Publications, Inc. --------- "RE: N.M. Senators urged to stop Uranium Project" --------- Date: Wed, Jun 4 2003 08:34:21 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="URANIUM" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.gallupindependent.com/06-03-03stopuranium.html N.M. senators urged to stop uranium project Larry Di Giovanni Staff Writer June 3, 2003 CROWNPOINT - New Mexico's congressional leaders, and more specifically Democratic Senators Jeff Bingaman and Republican Pete Domenici, are the last hope against an energy bill provision that could reopen Church Rock and Crownpoint to uranium mining. That's the opinion of Eric Jantz, a lawyer with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center of Santa Fe. His letter Monday sent to the state's entire congressional delegation seeks their help in asking that a $10 million per year subsidy to fund in-situ leach (ISL) mining not be included as part of the Senate's version of the energy bill. The House version of its energy bill, H.R. 6, passed April 11. Included is a section that would provide any of about a half-dozen uranium mining companies in five western states with the means $10 million yearly for three years to develop "low-cost" aquifer restoration methods once ISL areas have been "mined out." The newest language in the uranium-related provision would allow the funds to be used for "competitively selected (ISL) demonstration projects" intent on the "enhanced production" of uranium. The New Mexico Environmental Law Center represents Eastern Navajo Dine' Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM), a group of Crownpoint citizens opposed to an ISL mining project awaiting its final disposition for Church Rock and Crownpoint. ENDAUM members are worried that ISL mining would contaminate a pristine aquifer used as a sole drinking source by about 15,000 people. ISL uranium mining is a process whereby a sodium bicarbonate-type solution is injected into groundwater. Uranium is leached off water-filled rock and then siphoned back to the surface. The uranium is extracted for processing, and the water is then reinjected into the ground. HRI officials have said the process is safe and is a vast improvement on the old-style underground mining method of uranium extraction because it's non-invasive to the landscape requiring the drilling of wells only and doesn't produce piles of uranium waste ore. A company that has proposed ISL mining and has been issued a license for Church Rock Hydro Resources Inc. has had its final permit blocked by NMELC legal action. HRI is awaiting a final decision on its plans from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Though New Mexico is not one of the five western states slated for the proposed $10 million per year in federal funding for ISL mining projects, Jantz said Texas is one of those states and that's where HRI's parent company, Uranium Resources Inc. (URI), is located. "While HRI will not be directly eligible for the subsidy, there is nothing in either the House Energy Bill or any other law that prohibits URI from using the money it saves on restoration or production due to the subsidy to assist HRI," Jantz wrote in a summary of House Resolution 6. With Domenici as chairman of the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee and Bingaman its ranking Democratic member, the two New Mexico senators will have a prominent role in whether the ISL uranium funding provision makes into the Senate's energy bill. Later, as the budget process nears passage, the House and Senate versions of the energy bill will be hashed out in a conference committee to create one final bill. Jantz said the time to implore New Mexico's top elected leaders to stand against the bill's language is now because the conference committee process "is far less open to public scrutiny" that the current Senate discussions on energy. While Bingaman has stood against any bill with a provision for an ISL subsidy, Domenici initially supported the $10 million per year proposal two years ago and was the Senate's sponsor. The House's previous sponsor of the ISL funding provision was U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.). Both backed off their support of the provision due to public opposition generated by opponents in northwest New Mexico. Wilson, in fact, supported an amendment sponsored by fellow New Mexico Rep. Tom Udall in April to have the ISL funding provision stripped from the House energy bill. Though Udall's amendment failed, he has pledged to continue his fight against any reintroduction of uranium mining in Navajo country that is against the wishes of his constituency. Jantz said it's clear that supporters of the ISL funding provision have a strategy based in part on wearing down their opponents. Despite the continued efforts of ENDAUM, the New Mexico Environmental Law Center and the Southwest Research and Information Center of Albuquerque (SRIC) a watchdog scientific center backing ENDAUM the ISL funding provision keeps reappearing every two years or so. All the language needs to do is pass once as part of a final energy bill before both houses and be signed by President Bush then it becomes law. A group of Crownpoint Indian Health Service hospital doctors led by emergency room physician John Fogarty has stated publicly that should future ISL mining contaminate the area's aquifer, the results would be disastrous for Navajos. Uranium even in tiny doses can severely damage the kidneys, and Navajos with kidney-related problems will be even more susceptible to the related health risks, they have said. "Domestic uranium producers have used this (ISL) technology for approximately 30 years and its environmental track record is extremely poor," Jantz wrote in his letter Monday. "In fact, in the 30-year history of ISL uranium mining, there is no instance where a uranium mining company producing domestically has restored an aquifer to its premining condition." Underground uranium mining flourished on the Navajo Nation from the late 1940s through the early 1980s. It left a legacy of Navajo victims who lost entire generations of male family members who had toiled under the ground, often asked to dig out the "yellowcake" ore by hand. According to the Public Health Service, more than 500 Navajo uranium miners died of lung cancer from 1950 through 1990. And hundreds more could die in coming years stemming from their exposure to radiation. There are still more than 1,000 unremediated mine shafts on the Navajo Nation, and Jantz said they should be cleaned up before any type of congressional subsidy for ISL mining is considered. Copyright c. 2003 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Zuni Water Settlement tangled in Tax Protest" --------- Date: Thu, Jun 5 2003 08:10:41 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ZUNI WATER" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=67259 Zuni water settlement tangled in Democratic tax protest By ROBERT GEHRKE Associated Press Writer June 4, 2003 WASHINGTON (AP) -- An effort to resolve nearly a quarter century of disputes between the Zuni Indian tribe and eastern Arizona communities fell victim to a Democratic protest against President Bush's tax cut. The bill, which would have resolved lawsuits over water rights dating back to 1979, was widely supported by both parties. But it was part of a package of bills targeted for defeat by protesting Democrats, who say Bush's tax cut fails to help poor and middle-class families. "We are committed to the water rights settlement, but we are also committed to fixing the tax bill that was recently passed and providing benefits to the millions of people who were left out," said Donna Christian-Christensen, the delegate for the Virgin Islands. The vote was 224-188 in favor of the bill, but under special House rules to limit debate and speed noncontroversial measures, the bill needed a two-thirds majority to pass. The bill can be brought back for another vote later. The Senate unanimously passed the bill, sponsored by Sen. Jon Kyl, R- Ariz., in March. "We probably got caught in the crossfire on this," said Dan Simplicio, a member of the Zuni Tribal Council. "I wish it was somebody else's bill that they decided to do that to." House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., said Democrats "disgraced the chamber" by stalling the legislation, and Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., said they turned the debate into a "sideshow." Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., who voted for the bill, said it was regrettable the Zuni bill was delayed, but Republicans have shut out Democratic input on issue after issue and the backlash was justified. "I don't think Mr. Renzi can complain about partisanship at this point," he said. Grijalva said he expects the Zuni bill to come back and pass the House later in the session. The settlement would provide $19 million to buy water rights for the tribe and to restore an area of wetlands in eastern Arizona referred to as Zuni Heaven. Every four years, members of the Zuni tribe make a pilgrimage to the sacred lands. The trek is scheduled for the upcoming summer solstice. The Zunis' ancestors have lived in the area along the New Mexico-Arizona state line since 500 B.C., building large pueblos and hunting and farming the area. Disputes between the tribe and the state and local power and irrigation companies resulted in lawsuits being filed in 1979. The parties reached a settlement agreement a year ago. ------ The bill is S.222 Copyright c. 2000-2003 Arizona Daily Sun. --------- "RE: Plan to change BIA not Popular" --------- Date: Wed, Jun 4 2003 08:34:21 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="THUMBS DOWN" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.abqjournal.com/paperboy/text/news/45369news06-04-03.htm Plan To Change BIA Not Popular By Leslie Linthicum Journal Staff Writer June 4, 2003 Department of Interior officials came to Albuquerque Tuesday to roll out their reorganization plan to the agencies that serve Indians. They got two thumbs down. First, the union that represents Bureau of Indian Affairs employees said it will sue to block the plan. Then, the chairman of the New Mexico pueblo governors' association said he is asking President Bush to put a halt to the organizational shuffle. Meanwhile, a national conference of tribal leaders plans to organize opposition to the proposal when it convenes in Arizona later this month . James McDivitt, a deputy to the assistant secretary for Indian Affairs, faced about 200 BIA employees and an hour of intensive questioning at the Doubletree Hotel in Albuquerque Tuesday then moved on to an afternoon inquisition by representatives of 19 pueblos and the Apache and Ute tribes at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. McDivitt began by trying to quell some of the rumors and fears about the reorganization that have sizzled through Indian Country for months. "No one is going to lose a job in this reorganization," McDivitt said. He also gave assurances that employees would not be shifted to other cities. "Consolidation in the past has meant moving people. Under this reorganization, functions get consolidated. The workload will be shifted around, not the people." The Bush administration's proposal adds several more high-level bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. The plan also involves shifting some responsibilities between the BIA and the Office of the Special Trustee, a separate Interior division that handles the money collected from tribal trust lands and land individual Indians own. The plan puts about 100 customer service representatives in Indian Country to help tribal members keep track of money-making activities on those lands. Responsible for policy affecting 500 Indian tribes and more than 2 million Indian people, the BIA has been the subject of numerous plans for reform and is often criticized for being an unresponsive bureaucracy that is out of touch with the Indian communities it serves. Amadeo Shije, chairman of the All Indian Pueblo Council, whose members include the governors of the 19 pueblos in New Mexico, said the current reorganization is evidence of the disconnect between the BIA and the people it serves. "It's basically been one-sided," Shije said. "We're not saying we want to tell you how to run your business. We're saying, 'Ask us,' because we're out here living it." Rob Baracker, the director of the BIA's Southwest Regional Office, which is based in Albuquerque, said the reorganization was the result of numerous meetings with representatives from tribe. It is designed to put more of an emphasis on handling Indians' money properly while freeing employees to provide other services more efficiently. Baracker and McDivitt stressed that the part of the reorganization that affects the Washington office is set, while the plan for offices through the country is open to suggestion and change. Shije said he and the pueblo governors will keep that in mind as they work toward a meeting with Bush. Shije said he talked to Bush when the president visited Bernalillo last month to talk about tax cuts. "We got his ear and he's willing to sit down with the pueblos and talk about what's going on," Shije said. "He was very receptive to it." Meanwhile, the Navajo Nation president and the president of the National Congress of American Indians are hosting a conference for tribal leaders on the Gila River reservation south of Phoenix later this month. Their agenda concerns the reorganization and its effects on tribes, said Navajo Nation spokeswoman Deana Jackson. And on Tuesday, leadership of the Indian Educators Federation, the union that represents employees of the BIA and the Office of the Special Trustee, said it plans to sue to stop or delay the reorganization. Copyright c. 2003 Albuquerque Journal. --------- "RE: Sovereignty key in Talks" --------- Date: Tue, Jun 3 2003 08:22:39 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SOVEREIGNTY" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0603NAtownhall.html Sovereignty key in talks Indian Town Hall urges more awareness Judy Nichols The Arizona Republic Jun. 3, 2003 12:00 AM Sovereignty, economic development and taxation are crucial issues for Arizona's tribes, speakers told those attending the 23rd Arizona Indian Town Hall on Monday. "It is critical that people have a better understanding of sovereignty," said state Rep. Jack C. Jackson Jr., D-Window Rock, a Navajo. "Many people at the state and federal level don't understand. "I was taught in school that Christopher Columbus came, we had Thanksgiving and everyone was happy," Jackson said. "The tribes were out there somewhere . . . but everyone thought we assimilated." Jackson said he is still asked by policymakers why people live on the reservation when there are no jobs there. "I tell them we learned from our parents and grandparents that tribal sovereignty is critical, that the land ties us together, and when we go back we are returning home." Jackson said Arizona sometimes works with tribes through separate intergovernmental agreements that allow some federal money to pass through to the tribal governments. But other states have more formalized policies, he said. In Washington state, for instance, a policy called the Centennial Accord requires all state agencies to have meaningful consultation with tribes. And in Montana, meetings with tribal leaders are mandated and all state employees are trained about tribal sovereignty. "Sovereignty is the bloodline of our very existence," said Kathy Kitcheyan, chairwoman of the San Carlos Apache tribe. "If we don't educate our neighbors, we will lose it. We have built a bridge to Washington, D.C., but I think we have been lax in building a bridge to state government." Kitcheyan said her tribe brings $4 million to $5 million each year to the Globe and Safford economy, through spending from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Indian Health Service, the school district and tribal members. "The Apache Gold Casino is the biggest employer in the county," she said. "But economic development has been a one-way street for too long. "A strong economic base brings opportunity, and all of you know there's more opportunity on the other side. "It's time to revolve those doors to our advantage." Kitcheyan said Native Americans' generous nature has "gotten them in trouble," leading them to give away resources without compensation. "When they built Coolidge Dam in the 1920s, they told the San Carlos that we would have free electricity," she said. "Those promises were unfulfilled and many of our elders died regretting their generosity." Tribes can be an important part of state economies, she said. "In Oklahoma, Indian businesses contribute $10 billion a year and the number of people they employ exceed the total number of Indians in the state. In Montana, tribes contribute $2.2 billion. In Mississippi, the Choctaw are one of the largest employers in the state." Kitcheyan said her tribe has been proactive, forming partnerships with Gila and Graham counties and the local Chambers of Commerce. "We went to them," she said. "Indians have sat and waited too long." Attorney General Terry Goddard said his office works closely with tribes on issues of taxation, child care and custody, water law, gaming compacts and intergovernmental agreements. Copyright c. 2003 azcentral.com. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Proposal to improve Wisconsin/Tribal Relations" --------- Date: Tue, Jun 3 2003 08:22:39 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WISCONSIN" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2003/06/03/news/z3council.txt Council proposed to improve state, tribal relations By TOM SHEEHAN / Tribune Capitol Bureau June 3, 2003 MADISON - The formation of a new council designed to improve strained relations between state and tribal governments will be voted on by legislative leaders today. Advertisement The Tribal-State Council is among a series of proposals being considered by the Joint Legislative Council to improve relations, which have been damaged by the recent battles over tribal gaming compacts, said state Rep. Terry Musser, R-Black River Falls. "At the moment, they're not very good simply because of the controversy over the tribal compacts. I hope we can get over that," said Musser, who heads a legislative study committee that developed the proposals. Most of the proposals were introduced during last year's legislative session but were never voted on as legislators focused on fixing a state budget deficit. The gaming compact controversy, which has pitted the Republican-led Legislature against Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, shows a more urgent need for better relations, Musser said. Legislative leaders have sued Doyle, hoping to gain final say over deals negotiated by the governor and tribes. The compacts are expected to raise state revenue from tribal casinos and bingo halls from about $24 million a year to nearly $200 million a year during the next two-year state budget cycle. But Republicans say the deals, which have no expiration date, short-change the state and leave little recourse for the state if disputes arise. The state Supreme Court is considering the case. However, none of the proposals to be considered were developed as a direct result of the gaming compact issue, Musser said. Under other proposed resolutions or bills scheduled for a vote today: * The state would prepare formal statements on the potential impact of legislation that would affect tribes differently than other segments of the state's population. * The governor would develop a policy to ensure meaningful input from tribes on issues affecting them, and would designate administration officials to coordinate information with tribes. * The state would formally acknowledge sovereign status of 11 federally recognized tribes in Wisconsin. The sovereignty of tribal nations already is recognized by the federal government and courts, but state recognition would help relations, Musser said. The amount of grants funded by tribal gaming revenues paid to the state would be increased from $1,100 per year to $3,200 per year. Overall funding for the program would increase by $3 million during the next two fiscal years under the plan. Musser also said he plans to re-introduce a separate bill this legislative session to add non-voting tribal delegates to the Legislature. That could be accomplished through rule changes in the Assembly and Senate as well, but a separate bill may help push the issue, Musser said. The Joint Legislative Council, which meets Tuesday, includes top leaders from the Assembly and Senate. The council has the power to introduce bills directly to the Legislature, said Joyce Kiel, a Legislative Council staff member. Typically, bills are introduced by individual legislators and work their way up through committees. Bills introduced by the council often are the result of lengthy, in-depth studies by legislators, analysts and lawyers. Copyright c. 2000, 2001, 2002 La Crosse Tribune. --------- "RE: Right to sue Feds for Fort Apache Restoration" --------- Date: Mon, Jun 2 2003 08:24:56 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FT. APACHE SUIT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/5987877.htm Tribe wins right to sue feds for Fort Apache restoration MIKE ADAMS The Baltimore Sun June 1, 2003 FORT APACHE, Ariz. - A stroll along Officers Row of this decaying Army post conjures up images of John Wayne, horse soldiers and Indian bands led by Geronimo. Made famous by dime novels and Western movies, Fort Apache is synonymous with the Old West. From 1870 until it was decommissioned in 1922, the fort was a powerful symbol of the federal government's military might in Indian country. The fort offered salvation to white settlers fearful of Indian attacks, but to the native people it was the home of an occupying army bent on subjugating them. In early March, however, a U.S. Supreme Court decision turned the old fort into a victory symbol for the White Mountain Apaches and the rest of the nation's 550 American Indian tribes. The court ruled 5-4 that the Apaches had the right to sue the U.S. government for millions of dollars for failing to properly maintain the fort, which sits on Indian land. Once the fort is refurbished, the tribe wants to turn it into a tourist attraction. Today, little remains intact from Fort Apache's storied past. The parade ground where soldiers drilled has long faded. Only one of the fort's four stables still stands, and many other buildings are vacant and boarded. Dallas Massey Sr., the chairman of the White Mountain Apache tribe, said the Supreme Court's decision upheld an important concept of Indian law - the government's promise to serve as the guardian of tribes after they moved to reservations. "The prayers of our people and of Indian people across this land have been answered in the court's opinion, which reaffirms this nation's longstanding fiduciary relationship with Indian tribes," Massey said. Copyright c. 2003 Bradenton Herald and wire service sources. --------- "RE: Trust can be restored in Indian Trust Accounts" --------- Date: Mon, June 2, 2003 6:21 From: "Bill McAllister" Subj: Trust Can Be Restored in Indian Trust Accounts, Lawyers Tell Court Weekly Update LAWYERS FOR AMERICAN INDIANS SAY THEY CAN RESTORE TRUST IN THE GOVERNMENT'S TRUST ACCOUNTS For Immediate Release: WASHINGTON, June 2 - Lawyers for a group of American Indians challenging the federal government expressed confidence Monday that they have shown a reliable and practical way to make hundreds of thousands Native Americans whole from the government's scandalous handling of their trust funds during the past 116 years. "We have shown that it is possible to do what the government refuses to do," said Dennis M. Gingold, lead attorney for the Indians. "Instead of providing the Court and Congress worthless accounting plans that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to implement, we have developed a rational and fair way to account for all individual Indian trust funds." An accounting plan to be presented to U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth by government lawyers this week assumes that the Interior Department's trust records are accurate and complete. The plan presented by the Indians' lawyers did not make that assumption. "All the evidence in this case is that the trust records are inaccurate and incomplete and that the trust data have no integrity," said Gingold. What the Indian plaintiffs have laid before Lamberth is a plan that uses the latest scientific methods and historical evidence for calculating how much money the government has actually realized from the leases of Indian lands in the West for oil, gas, mineral and grazing. Many of those funds were collected by the government but were never distributed to the Indians. Substantial trust funds were diverted into the government's general fund because of poor management and record keeping that dates from the trust's inception in 1887. Those problems were known almost from the beginning, but the government has never come to grips with the problem. "If the courts accept our plan, we could be on the way to resolving this problem quickly and fairly," Gingold said. The Indians' plan gives the court an efficient and reliable way to calculate the trust revenue actually collected by the government as well as the interest earned on the trust funds. Their plan contains specific formulas for calculating oil, gas, mineral, timber and grazing fees for Indian lands. It uses the latest in Geographic Information System techniques and data obtained from industry and other reliable sources outside the Interior Department. By combining such high-tech mapping techniques with production and revenue records for each oil well drilled on Indian trust lands, the Court can calculate how much money the government received from oil and gas production leases, rents and bonuses. Other programs provide similar information for other major sources of trust income. "These methods are well known in private industry for verifying the accuracy of the production and revenue from oil, gas and other natural resources," Gingold. "They are well known and accepted as reliable by courts, state governments, private industry, and everywhere but the Interior Department." Before the trial began, Judge Lamberth chided the government for its mendacity and weak efforts to reform the long-troubled trust. Even so, he said he would allow Justice Department lawyers to present their case. Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit and a member of the Blackfeet Tribe in Montana, said, "I think this will prove to knowledgeable members of Congress and Indian Country that we can solve our problems without further delay and without the endless word games and hand-ringing we have heard and seen for decades. After years of incompetence and worthless multi-million dollars studies that have only wasted more tax dollars, Judge Lamberth is now in a position to resolve this matter practically and fairly." The Indian plaintiffs concluded their case Friday with a statistical expert who testified is no chance that an accounting plan drafted by the Interior Department can provide individual Indian trust beneficiaries with an accurate and complete accounting of their assets and the funds held in in their government-managed trust accounts. The testimony by Dwight J. Duncan of Phoenix, Ariz., came as lawyers for more than 500,000 individual Indian plaintiffs concluded their case in chief for rehabilitating the long-troubled trust account system and for accounting for all trust funds and other trust assets. Duncan, an economist, told Lamberth that Interior's proposal cannot provide the historical accounting of trust funds that both the Congress and the courts have ordered Interior to provide. To back his point, Duncan cited flawed reports of Ernst and Young as well as KPMG who have said they can account for some funds -- but no other assets -- if they assume government records are accurate and by relying on records that are incomplete and inauditable. Using one government expert' assumption and methodology, Duncan said there is only a .00000000001 chance that the balance in any individual Indian's trust account will be accurate. (CQ with 10 zeroes.) Duncan also said, accepting the assumptions and methodology of another government expert, there is at best only a 25 per cent chance that any Indian's trust account balance will be accurate. Moreover, Duncan said government experts cannot recreate the massive number missing and destroyed trust records, including nearly all the critical disbursement records since 1887 which have been destroyed by the government as a matter of practice for more than 100 years. Without those records, it is impossible to render the accounting of the trust assets, he said. Lamberth is presiding over a trial expected to run through June over how best to account for the trust assets and rehabilitate the failing trust, which was established for individual Indians 116 years ago. The government has held the proceeds of leases on individual Indian lands in the West, but citing numerous studies Lamberth ruled in 1999 -- and the Court of Appeals affirmed in 2001 -- that the government is in breach of its trust responsibility to the Individual Indian trust beneficiaries. The government has conceded that most critical trust records have been lost and destroyed. Nearly all trust checks have been destroyed and nearly all leases that of five years or fewer were never recorded. Friday Lamberth was once again troubled by the lax security that surrounded the Interior Department's trust activities. "No business could survive" with security that bad, the judge declared. "Only the government could allow it." Separately, the Indians' lawyers disclosed last week they had sent a letter to Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chairman Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., and Vice Chairman Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii., welcoming their willingness to help settle the seven-year-old lawsuit. John E. Echohawk, executive director of the Native American Rights Funds, said: "Be assured that the Cobell plaintiffs are now, and always have been, willing to engage in frank and honest discussions for a fair resolution of this case." He cautioned, however, that previous attempts to resolve the dispute out of court have failed. "Without your direct and active participation in the settlement process, we have no hope that the Administration will discuss these matter in good faith," Echohawk told the senators. For additional information: www.indiantrust.com Bill McAllister 202-257-5385 --------- "RE: Quest for more Klamath Water for Fish" --------- Date: Tue, Jun 3 2003 08:22:39 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SALMON" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.enn.com/news/2003-06-03/s_4729.asp Fishers and Indian tribes join forces in quest for more Klamath water for fish 03 June 2003 By Jeff Barnard, Associated Press EUREKA, Calif. - Commercial fisher Paul Pellegrini never agreed with much the environmentalists had to say, still resents that Indian tribes can stretch their salmon nets across the Klamath River, and chafes at federal fishing restrictions. But in the aftermath of last summer's fish kill that left 33,000 salmon dead on the banks of the Klamath, Pellegrini finds himself linked with environmentalists, Indian tribes, and federal fishery managers in a common quest for more water for fish. Somewhere between the farms that draw water for crops and the harbors from which salmon boats range the Pacific for salmon, a line has been drawn in the gravels of the Klamath and Trinity rivers. "It all boils down to economics," said Pellegrini. Michael Orcutt, fisheries director for the Hoopa Valley Tribe, understands it is hard for some to overcome the long-standing divisions between commercial fishers and Indians but feels there is a growing spirit of cooperation on the lower river with the goal of more salmon for everyone. "There's been a lot of change that's positive," said Orcutt. "We're kind of up against the wall. The resource we both depend upon is critical." When the federal government was forced by the Endangered Species Act to shut off water to most of the farms on the Klamath Reclamation Project in 2001 to let more flow down the Klamath River for threatened coho salmon, farmers quickly mobilized. Already organized into irrigation districts and the Klamath Water Users Association, farmers staged demonstrations that were broadcast nationwide on television. They found a sympathetic ear in the Bush administration and received $100 million in emergency aid from Congress. "They are driving the bus," said Jimmy Smith, a former salmon fisher who is now a Humboldt County supervisor. "If it wasn't for the tribes and the alliances they forged, the folks of Northern California would be at a real loss." Fishers have been much slower to react. Until last summer's salmon kill, those who kept fishing were suffering quietly, ranging farther and farther from home as federal regulations allowed them fewer and fewer fish and the market paid them less. Though Pellegrini had his best salmon season ever last year for fish caught, the price has been driven so low by fish farms that he wonders if he should keep fishing. Last year, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, which has long allied with environmental groups to build up salmon stocks, filed a lawsuit challenging the federal government's plan for protecting threatened coho salmon in the Klamath Basin. The government's plan is known as a biological opinion under the Endangered Species Act. It sets minimum flows the Bureau of Reclamation must provide for salmon down the Klamath River. More water for salmon means less water for farms on the Klamath Reclamation Project. A federal judge in Oakland is considering whether to issue a court order sought by commercial fishers that would put more water down the Klamath for salmon. In the aftermath of the salmon kill, Humboldt, Del Norte, and Trinity counties; the cities of Eureka, Arcata, and Fortuna; and the Hoopa and Yurok tribes have joined the fishers' federation and environmental groups in the lawsuit. "This is a major economic interest," said Glen Spain of the fishers' federation. "Behind every fish, people are trying to make a livelihood on a resource being systematically destroyed by federal mismanagement." Last September, the balance crafted by the federal government between water for farms and water for fish broke. Chinook salmon began dying by the thousands in the Klamath River from a fast-spreading gill-rot disease while waiting for higher flows that would allow them to swim upriver to spawn. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has yet to say what caused the kill, but the California Department of Fish and Game and members of the American Fisheries Society pointed their fingers at the low amount of water released down the Klamath River after irrigating the Klamath Project. The Pacific Fishery Management Council - which has had to keep one eye on the precarious state of Klamath salmon since 1986 while setting fishing seasons up and down the West Coast - sent a letter to the Department of the Interior this year urging water releases to prevent another massive fish kill. California Resources Secretary Mary Nichols also called for more water, saying there is not enough going down the river to prevent another fish kill. As part of the Bush administration's plan for protecting Klamath coho and meeting federal obligations to maintain tribal fisheries, the Bureau of Reclamation is spending $4 million to move 50,000 acre feet of water from farms to fish. But with the snowpack 89 percent of average in the mountains, some worry that both crops and fish could die for lack of water this year. The Klamath's biggest tributary, the Trinity River, is also caught between farms and fish, with more than half of its flows sent through a tunnel to generate power and irrigate farms hundreds of miles away in the Central Valley. The Interior Department's efforts to make good on a promise from Congress to leave more water in the Trinity to restore salmon has been stalled by a lawsuit brought by the Westlands Water District, which irrigates farmland outside Fresno. Meanwhile, Ronnie Pellegrini wonders how long the fishing tradition will last in her family. "It's very hurtful and hard to hear my daughter say, 'When is my daddy not going to be able to fish anymore?'" she said. "There's been a Pellegrini fishing out of Eureka every year since 1910. It's done once my husband's done." Copyright c. 2003 Associated Press. Copyright c. 2003 Environmental News Network Inc. --------- "RE: Yakamas plan to sue Energy Department" --------- Date: Fri, Jun 6 2003 08:37:12 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="REACTOR POLLUTION" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134918218_yakamas06m.html Yakamas plan to sue Energy Dept. over pollution of Columbia River By Linda Ashton The Associated Press June 6, 2003 YAKIMA - The Yakama Nation has given the federal government notice that it plans to sue the U.S. Department of Energy, contending that the department has failed to protect the Columbia River from pollution from the Hanford nuclear reservation. The 60-day notice is required before a lawsuit can be filed. "From time immemorial, the Columbia River and everything in it have been the lifeblood of the Yakama people," Ross Sockzehigh, Tribal Council chairman, said yesterday. "We have to do whatever is necessary to see that our river is fully healed and the salmon runs restored." The notice addresses what the tribe contends is natural-resource damage caused by the release of hazardous substances into the Columbia River. The tribe said it believes contamination of the river with radioactive waste and other dangerous substances has contributed to declining Northwest salmon populations in the past 50 years. The Yakama Nation said it was disappointed with cleanup at the 586- square-mile reservation, which is the most-contaminated nuclear site in the country after 40 years of plutonium production for the nation's nuclear arsenal. The Yakamas intend to sue under federal Superfund law provisions, which allow tribes and other governments to sue polluters who discharge hazardous substances that damage natural resources. River water used to cool plutonium-producing reactors at Hanford and then returned to the river polluted it with radioactive material and other dangerous substances from the 1940s until the 1960s, and some of these materials remain in river sediment, the tribe contends. Copyright c. 2003 The Seattle Times Company. --------- "RE: Editorial: Reevaluating Dams" --------- Date: Mon, Jun 9 2003 08:13:37 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SALMON" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/160/editorials/Reevaluating_dams+.shtml A BOSTON GLOBE EDITORIAL Reevaluating dams June 9, 2003 IN RECENT WEEKS the United States took a step closer to breaching a major dam system in the Northwest while China began closing the sluice gates on the largest dam in the world, the controversial Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. This coincidence provides a snapshot of two nations at dramatically different stages in balancing economic development and the environment. Planning for both the Snake River dams in the Northwest and the Three Gorges goes back to the first half of the last century. Construction of the Snake dams in the 1960s and 1970s had to await completion of the bigger Columbia River dams downstream from the Snake. Now congressmen, Native American tribes, and environmental and sporting groups are trying to breach the Snake dams to prevent the extinction of wild Snake River salmon. Before the dams were built, the Columbia and Snake produced more salmon than any other river system in the world. Last month a federal judge ruled that a government plan for saving the salmon with measures short of dam breachings on the Snake was inadequate. Judge James Redden did not order the dams' destruction, but his ruling puts pressure on Washington to consider that alternative. His decision should also give a boost to a bill in Congress that would give that body's approval to Snake River dam breachings if that is the course decided upon by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The bill calls for studies on alternatives to the power produced by the Snake dams (about 4 percent of the region's total, versus the 25 percent provided by the Columbia River dams), and to the barge access the dams provide for inland grain producers. Congress should pass the legislation in spite of President Bush's opposition to removing the Snake dams. The Yangtze dam has been controversial in many ways. By creating a reservoir as long as Lake Superior, it forces the relocation of about 1.1 million people, destroys a scenic tourist attraction, and inundates many historic and cultural sites in a cradle of Chinese civilization. Environmentalists say it will destroy species, cause erosion, and contaminate the river with pollutants from submerged factories and coal mines. Proponents, who prevailed in a crucial 1992 People's Congress vote that was notable for the number of dissenters, tout the benefits of flood control, hydro power, and better water transport access to inland areas. The United States, which has destroyed the ecology of several great rivers with dams, is not in a good position to tell China what to do. But, following on the example of the breaching of the Edwards Dam on the Kennebec River in Maine in 1999, a decision to destroy the Snake dams would demonstrate that rivers can be restored as well as abused. Copyright c. 2003 Globe Newspaper Company. --------- "RE: Warm Springs Tribal Members dying at Younger Age" --------- Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2003 04:49:01 -0400 From: "MI-BRANCH-NAA" Subj: Oregon--Warm Springs tribal members dying at younger age Mailing List: Native-American-Advocate@yahoogroups.com http://www.indianz.com/News/show.asp?ID=3D2003/06/09/warmsprings http://www.bendbulletin.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=9824 Warm Springs residents dying younger June 8, 2003 By Julia Lyon The Bulletin WARM SPRINGS - Retirees flock to live out their golden years in Bend, but about 60 miles north on the Warm Springs Reservation many residents aren't even making it to their 50th birthday. According to a mortality study by a Warm Springs Health and Wellness Center doctor presented to the tribal council and obtained by The Bulletin, the average age of death between 1991 and 2000 was almost 47. The study was not made public at the time. In contrast, the average age of death in Oregon in 2001 was 74, according to state statistics. Dying younger is far from being a Warm Springs problem. Indians nationwide are struggling to live as long as the average American. "Life expectancy for American Indians is shorter," said Doni Wilder, the director of the Portland area Indian Health Service. "Historically it's always been the case. We've made great strides in improving it." Health officials nationwide have struggled to discover why Indians have a life span that is shorter than most Americans. Scientists have studied if there are genetic components that make Indians more susceptible to problems like diabetes. Hearings in Congress have pointed out the need to teach Indian youngsters that a good diet, physical activity and lifestyle choices can prevent the fate that meets far too many of their elders. Dr. Miles Rudd's mortality study was of about 5,000 people, who are or were patients at the Warm Springs Health and Wellness Center. The patients in the study include some people who do not live on the reservation, for instance other Indians who live somewhere else. However, most of the patients are reservation residents. Rudd found: - The No. 1 cause of death was accidents, primarily car wrecks. Alcohol was a factor in 72 percent of those car accidents. - No. 2 was diabetes and complications related to the disease. - No. 3 was heart disease. - No. 4 was suicide. - No. 5 was chronic liver disease and cirrhosis. - Tied for the No. 5 cause was cancer. Heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the U.S. according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's statistics from 1999, but No. 3 for patients at Warm Springs, according to Rudd's study. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the CDC, but No. 5 in causes of death among Warm Springs patients in Rudd's study. The doctor's study does include some good news. The average age of death went up by about 11 years from 1991 to 2000. Infant mortality rates have also declined since the late 1980s. There were eight infant deaths between 1991-2000, four of which were due to what is called sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Between 1987 and 1988, there were four infant deaths due to SIDS in that two-year period alone, according to Rudd's study. The doctor credits the health center's encouragement of the use of baby boards as contributing to the decline. Babies are swaddled in on their backs on traditional baby boards. One tribal leader points to the growth rate of the tribe as a positive sign for Warm Springs' future. "I don't want to sound callous," said William Fuentes, the tribes' chief operating officer, explaining that death is a tragedy for the entire community. "The growth rate is such the tribal membership will continue to grow. When someone does die at a young age it just seems like there are other people being born to replace that loss." The number of tribal members has grown from 1,062 to 4,222 from 1950 to 2003, according to the tribes' vital statistic department. Fuentes said that some teenage deaths "skewed" the average death rate for the tribe. Because young deaths can bring down averages, Oregon doesn't publish the average age of death, said David Hopkins, a research analyst for the Center for Health Statistics, which is part of the state Department of Human Services. The median - the number in the middle of all the ages of death - is used instead. However, the average and the median ages of death in Oregon were only a few years apart in 2001. The average was 74 versus 78, the median. Better health care on the reservation can't save everybody, said Russ Alger, the chief executive officer of the Warm Springs Health and Wellness Center. "A lot of health care is personal choice. People have to make a decision early on in life they're going to live a healthy lifestyle," he said. "If we have people dying young in car accidents, they don't have the choice." But better understanding of what leads to patients' deaths can guide the Warm Springs health clinic's prevention efforts, said Dr. Rudd, who is a senior staff physician at the clinic. "I hadn't realized the degree of difference of what we were seeing at Warm Springs versus what we were seeing in the U.S. as a whole," he said. Armed with mortality statistics, Rudd and other administrators encouraged the tribal council to pass a reservation seatbelt law, which went into effect in 2000. Police Chief Don Courtney supported it. "I've been here 14, 15 years and again if I were to put a percentage on it in all the (vehicle) fatalities probably 95 to 98 percent were as a result of not wearing a seatbelt or were a contributing factor to death," Courtney said. The health clinic itself has already acted on Rudd's research, running safety prevention months in response to the high accident rate. Those months included public service announcements on the radio and a campaign in the elementary school about seat belt use. The report has helped increase awareness among health staff about causes of mortality and it will be one part of the tribe's future strategic health plan, said Russ Alger, the chief executive officer of the Warm Springs Health and Wellness Center. That plan is expected to identify causes of mortality, health priorities and medical needs of the community. The diabetes program at Warm Springs continues to put an emphasis on early detection by trying to identify residents with a higher risk of diabetes before they even get the disease. Once patients are diagnosed with diabetes, the staff works with them to prevent the disease from getting worse. Even if the tribe is growing, residents agree that death causes the reservation to lose leaders and resources. Losing elders means losing culture, said Carolyn Wewa, a tribal council member and a community health education specialist. "We may lose some stories or knowledge because they may have been the last one who knew where to gather a sacred medicine but they never shared where to get it," she said. Health awareness is increasing, she said, but some people still struggle to think beyond tomorrow. "I still feel like there's this portion of our people who are just surviving - trying to make ends meet, pay bills, keep their lights on and that takes over their life." Wilbur Johnson, 65, said he grew up in the traditional way on the reservation fishing for salmon, digging for roots and hunting animals during different seasons. "Everything we got, God created it. God planted it," he said. "The only thing we had to do was hustle for it." He believes people are living shorter lives these days on the reservation and the world is out of balance. Of course some tribal members do go on to live long, successful lives. After finishing the lunch meal at the Warm Springs senior center earlier this week, Faye Waheneka, 72, talked with pride about the accomplishments of her family. Waheneka has more than 20 grandchildren. Her mother is 94. Despite her diabetes, Waheneka believes her attitude toward life helps her live longer. She was also raised eating traditional foods and doing outdoor physical activity. The Warm Springs lifestyle has dramatically changed in the last century, explained Jennie Smith, coordinator of the Warm Springs diabetes education program. "One hundred years ago, people were out and had to work hard for what they got," she said. Without cars, without fast food, Smith believes the number of diabetes cases would be dramatically lower. The diabetes treatment program has had some success. Though the number of people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, which is either when the body does not produce enough insulin or the cells ignore it, has gone up in the last decade, there are fewer people needing kidney dialysis treatment, Smith said. . But longer lifespans bring different health risks. As Indians do live longer, Rudd believes some diseases could become more prevalent. For example, the number of deaths due to heart disease increased in the late 1990s. "This would be expected due to the increase in average age of death during the same time period," the report states. "As people live past their young adulthood, they run greater risk of heart disease." In the last decade, more people are taking advantage of health care at Warm Springs. There were about 34,400 clinic visits in 1994 and about 57, 700 in 2001. The tribes are helping pay for a $1.5 million expansion of the health center to begin this summer that will increase the number of exam rooms, among other changes. Not everyone believes these statistics are an accurate representation of reservation life. Margaret Buckland, 74, said she believes more people live longer than people say. "I guess it's one of my biases," she said. Rudd, the doctor who wrote the report, said he hoped people would accept that it's true. "To make changes, I really think it takes a community effort," he said. Julia Lyon can be reached at 541-504-2336 or at jlyon@bendbulletin.com. Copyright c. 2003 Western Communications, Inc./Bend, Oregon. --------- "RE: Bison debate heats up" --------- Date: Wed, Jun 4 2003 08:34:21 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SALISH KOOTENAI" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2003/06/04/news/top/news01.txt Bison debate heats up By SHERRY DEVLIN of the Missoulian June 4, 2003 Members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes promised Tuesday night to match every naysayer and every bigot with stories of tribal success and reasons why the tribes should be given management responsibility for the National Bison Range. "How dare you pretend to care about the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes," said Cathy Dupuis, a Polson resident and 30-year employee of the tribal government. "No matter how many of you stand up here and say why the tribe should not do this or that, we will stand up here and tell you why we can. How dare you pretend to be talking in a reasonable manner." Tribal members accounted for about half of the 250 people who filled the Big Sky High School cafeteria for the unofficial public hearing on a proposal to contract out management of the Bison Range and the Pablo and Ninepipe national wildlife refuges to the Salish and Kootenai tribes. The meeting was organized by Missoula resident Susan Reneau because she thought it was "important for more ideas to be included in the discussion. " Reneau believes federal lands should be federally managed and opposes any transfer of money or responsibility to the tribes. Federal and tribal officials convened an official public hearing on the proposal last month in Ronan; there, the comments were solidly in favor of tribal management. On Tuesday, the opinions were more evenly divided between pro and con and were often heated - with some non-Indians questioning the tribes' ability to manage the 18,000-acre Bison Range and some Indians wondering whether the comments were grounded in reason or racism. Victor resident Hoot Gibson spoke out against the proposal, calling it "another handout to the Indian people." If the tribes want to manage buffalo, then the federal government should cull the overstocked herd that roams Yellowstone National Park and give the surplus to the tribes, he said. Then tribal members could manage their own herd of bison, market the meat, tan the hides and sell the horns, Gibson said. Not only would the endeavor provide income and employment, he suggested, "but along with that comes self-esteem." Missoula resident Robert Torgerson said tribal members "are not accountable for their actions," so they should not be given management of a national asset. As proof, he told three stories - beginning with one about a Polson man whose son was rear-ended by two tribal members who were drunk and had no insurance. The victim received no compensation for the accident, Torgerson said. "Tribal members were not responsible for their actions." In a second instance, an outbuilding on land he owns near Mission was broken into and fish were killed in a pond, "but the two tribal members who did the dirty deed" were not forced to provide restitution, Torgerson said. "Nothing ever happened." Finally, he complained that "when tribal members shoot moose from their vehicles up Rock Creek, they get cited but then get off. There is no accountability. What I'm talking about here has nothing to do with the culture of these people. I don't want someone who is not accountable running the Bison Range." Tribal members were quick and pointed in their defense. "I am here to show strong support for tribal management," said Joe Dupuis. "What have we sunk to? Drunken Indians? Handouts? The law isn't what you perceive it to be. We're Americans, too." Dan Decker, a wildlife biologist for the tribes, questioned the motives of several in the audience, including one man he overheard saying he "wished the tribes would follow the herd right over the buffalo jump." "That's the heart of the issue," Decker said. "Because it cannot be contested that the tribes have competent management. Why do people from the Bitterroot come to the reservation to hunt pheasants? Because there are better opportunities on the reservation. I have gentlemen come to my property every year to fish, because there are more brown trout on the reservation than anywhere else." "And about my self-esteem and that of my family and fellow tribal members, I would say we are doing fine," said Rhonda Whiting, vice president of S&K Technologies Inc., a tribal enterprise and the state of Montana's largest information technology company. "We are very successful, thank you." Reporter Sherry Devlin can be reached at 523-5268 or at sdevlin@missoulian.com Copyright c. 2003 Missoulian, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Dayish resigning as NAC President" --------- Date: Fri, Jun 6 2003 08:37:12 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DAYISH RESIGNS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.thenavajotimes.com/politics.html Dayish resigning as NAC president By Bill Donovan Special to the Times WINDOW ROCK June 5, 2003 Navajo Nation Vice President Frank Dayish Jr. is resigning ... as president of the Native American Church of North America. Dayish said Tuesday he has submitted his resignation to the NAC board and a new president will be elected when the membership holds its 54th annual meeting June 13-16 in Cortez, Colo. Now in his second term as president of the largest religious organization in Indian country, with worldwide membership of 250,000 and growing, Dayish said he decided to step down because of the amount of time he has to devote to his duties as vice president of the Navajo Nation. Discussing rumors that have appeared in the local media in the last week about his resigning his tribal position, Dayish said those rumors are totally false. "It may have been that some people heard that I was resigning from the Native American Church and misunderstood," he said. Charmaine Jackson, his press aide, said reports of Dayish's planning to resign as tribal vice president were "absolutely ridiculous." She and other staff members said they have been getting calls about the supposed resignation and have been telling people that the article in the local newspaper was just based on rumors and half-truths. Dayish said he was enjoying working with Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. and trying to bring about changes that will improve the quality of life for tribal members. "I think we have accomplished a lot since we took office," Dayish said. Having to step down from his NAC position, however, is saddening because the church is also working on a number of projects that are important to the well-being of Native Americans. He pointed out that while president he and others in the NAC have worked to get needed amendments made to the Navajo American Religious Freedom Act that would protect the rights of NAC members to practice their religion without persecution. But being vice president is a 24/7 job and he said he needs to concentrate on his tribal duties right now. "But religion plays an important part of my life and I plan to be involved with my church as much as possible," he said. Currently, however, health problems are foremost in his mind currently as he recovers from injuries suffered at his ranch two weeks ago. Although it's been reported that he broke his leg while working on horses, his aides say the injury may be more serious than originally thought and may take more time to heal. Dayish was in a wheelchair for a couple of weeks and is now learning how to move around on crutches. He went for a check-up on Wednesday and will receive a report then on how well the leg is healing and when he will be able to go back to work full-time. Jackson said Dayish's meeting schedule has been curtailed in recent weeks because of the injury and staff members within the president's and vice president's offices have been trying, as much as possible, to fill in for him. Dayish said he is also anxiously waiting for the time when he can get back to work. "This whole thing has been very painful at times, even with the pain pills," he said, adding that he hopes to start making appearances back in his office in a couple of weeks if the doctors approve it. Copyright c. 1999-2003 Navajo Times/Navajo Nation. --------- "RE: Indians not represented in Newspapers" --------- Date: Thu, Jun 5 2003 08:10:41 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MEDIA REPRESENTATION" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=2368 Move to put more Native in the media Indians not represented in newspapers PIERRE SD SAM LEWIN June 4, 2003 A recent survey found Native Americans are the most under represented minority in journalism today. The American Society of Newspaper Editors report shows that out of 55 thousand reporters in the country, only 289 are Native. Some think that even that number is inflated. "If you were to only count enrolled tribal members, the number would be lower," said Jack Marsh, director of the Al Neuharth Media Center. Nueharth is the founder and publisher of USA Today. He recently spoke to the University of South Dakota's American Indian Journalism Institute. The school currently has 20 students and is in its third year of existence. "We are embarrassed that the newspaper industry that some of us helped lead has failed miserably at recruiting and hiring, retaining and promoting American Indians," Nueharth told the students. "The fact is that the news media now often provides really superficial, sometimes misleading, sometimes erroneous coverage of Indian Country and Native American people and it is our belief that having even one American Indian in a daily newsroom makes newspapers more sensitive and better equipped to cover Native American issues." Most people probably don't need a study to confirm the dearth of a Native presence in the media. The survey did not include radio and television, but Marsh thinks that number, barring radio reporters on reservations, would have been "infinitesimal." He says he knows of only one Native American reporting for a major network. Why such a paucity when the roles of other minorities in the media appears to have mushroomed? "The main reason is that there aren't enough Natives considering journalism as a career,' said Marsh. "There is a demand for Native journalists, but it's a slow process. It's tough to reverse hundreds of years." Nueharth offered some hopeful words. "But as more and more of you pursue journalism, I think you'll find that it's going to be less lonely out there for those of you who are at the forefront of this effort with us." Native American Times is Copyright c. 2003 Oklahoma Indian Times, Inc. --------- "RE: Fight begins over New First Nations Act" --------- Date: Wed, Jun 4 2003 08:34:21 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GOVERNANCE ACT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/06/03/billc7_030603 Fight begins over new First Nations act 4 June 2003 OTTAWA - More than 100 amendments have been proposed for a bill that would dramatically change how Canada's First Nations govern themselves. For the many opponents in the aboriginal community of the First Nations Governance Act, this is proof the bill should be scrapped. "Critics will tell you that this is flawed," said Matthew Coon Come, grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations, which represents Canada's 700,000 status Indians. The legislation, introduced about a year ago, is designed to replace the 126-year-old Indian Act. It would change some things substantially. Bands would have to: * Develop a system to choose their leaders * Develop clear rules regarding how they spend their money * Give off-reserve band members voting rights in electing band councillors * Abide by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms Aboriginal leaders have vowed to kill the bill. Coon Come and others said they will not support legislation that builds on the Indian Act. A $10-million campaign by the federal government to gather input was boycotted by aboriginal groups, who called it a mockery of consultation. Aboriginals have some allies in Parliament. NDP aboriginal affairs critic Pat Martin noted the bill has more proposed amendments than it does clauses. "It seems to me to be a recipe for disaster." Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault thinks his bill will pass eventually, and offered this thought: "Everyone agrees the status quo doesn't work, and the only way to change that is to have this kind of debate." Paul Martin, who many think will become the next Liberal leader and prime minister, has said he wants to revisit the bill. And the bill's aboriginal opponents say if it becomes law, they will launch a court action against it, saying it violates their constitutional right to self-government. Written by CBC News Online staff Copyright c. 2003 CBC. --------- "RE: Six Nations co-op Farming" --------- Date: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 01:12 pm From: Kahente Subj: Six Nations co-op farming Mailing List: Frostys AmerIndian At Six Nations Aboriginal farmers reaping co-op benefits Model program seeks to create Native "foodbasket" Posted: May 29, 2003 - 10:47am EST by: Matt Ross / Correspondent / Indian Country Today OHSWEKEN, Ontario - Acting as a co-op while permitting its members to maintain their own individuality, the First Nations Agrigroup of southern Ontario is creating a better political and financial environment for farmers. Started in 1998 on the Six Nations of the Grand River in Ohsweken, the mandate of Agrigroup is to develop long-term availability of agricultural land and to promote good land stewardship. Its 32 members, two dozen from the Six Nations reserve, operate their own lands totaling 20,000 acres (32 sq. miles), yet, by joining together, they have also been able to reap some economic benefits in what is likely the first Aboriginal farming co- op on the continent. Whereas other agricultural communal efforts off-reserve have their purpose regarding money and pooling resources, Agrigroup is designed toward meeting the specific needs of Native farmers. Chairman Barry Hill, who has one of the larger properties covering 2,500 acres, says this organization provides a voice for the farmers who until recently didn't have one. Native farmers have struggled for almost a half-century when the country's laws and the trends of the industry left them behind. In the 1950s and `60s mixed farms (animals and crops) became outdated as specialization and big farming, with intensive capital layout, became commonplace. Yet, First Nations farmers were kept out of the loop because they weren't able to obtain the financial support to improve and increase their properties. According to the Indian Act, there is no equity or value placed upon tribal lands outside of the reserve. "That's always been a roadblock to community development because commercial banks are not able to get security when lending to a Native," Hill said. As a result, Six Nations properties became vacant and untilled as farmers traded in their equipment to work off the reserve. In leaving the land, Hill states, these farmers were also leaving behind a cultural heritage in which previous generations were self-sufficient being vegetable and grain growers. Although the Indian Agricultural Program of Ontario was founded in 1984 to encourage and assist Natives in acquiring loans and to prevent non- Natives from seizing any property on reserve, Agrigroup seeks to improve the financial and political status of Aboriginal farmers. "Most of us rent land from non-farming families who own property (but) around here we have no clout and no respect," Hill said. Part of the lack of respect, according to Hill, is the misunderstanding of how farmers operate. With a heightened awareness of how land and water is used and maintained, all agriculturalists are under the scrutiny of the public. Off the reserve, land is specifically zoned for agricultural use and with that designation, there are by-laws regarding what can be produced, how waste is disposed and the severance (selling or piecing off) of the land. These restrictions permit both farmers and the community-at-large an awareness of how the property is cared for and piece of mind regarding proper environmental practices. When it comes to farming on the reservation however, there aren't those laws or guidelines. Though that allows for more freedom, it can also breed abuse and create suspicion by the non-farmers. That's why Agrigroup is actually looking for more structure as to how First Nations land should be governed. "Many of us have substantial investments in our equipment but we have no guidelines when it comes to land use on the reserve," said Hill about the absence of zoning and drainage rules. "We feel that if we keep up with provincial standards and best (environmental) practices, we can allay any criticism from those who are non-farmers." In gaining recognition from the public, Agrigroup has, like other co-ops, earned rewards for its membership using the principle of strength in numbers. Hill calculates that on average, each farmer has saved over $500 per year during the previous three years in the costs of purchasing fertilizer based on bulk purchases direct from manufacturers. Certainly not a bad return on investment when membership costs only $40 with dues used to offset office expenses. "By forming the organization as an entity of farmers doing our own business, it gives us the ability to access other funding sources," Hill said. There are larger projects Agrigroup is sponsoring and proposing, both presently and those in the future. Under the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association, farmers are taking turns maintaining a demonstration farm studying crop rotations and their fertility with grant money available for their efforts. At Six Nations, the primary crop is soybean and Agrigroup is involved with an initiative, coordinated out of the University of Guelph, called Soy 2020, designed to increase the production and consumption of the bean. Well-documented within health circles about the benefits of soy, Hill mentions that within First Nations there are a disproportionate number of people who are lactose intolerant and soy acts as a nutritious substitute for milk. Because many soy foods are imported into Canada, Hill sees Agrigroup as having an opportunity to increase the value of its soy by becoming the processor, producer and distributor of the crop. "By adding a small amount of soy flour, it helps in the bleaching process and removes the need to add artificial whitening and it also retains moisture, keeping the bread fresher." In addition to obtaining better prices when purchasing products, Hill says Agrigroup is also in the infant stages of creating an Aboriginal food partnership with other reserves and tribes through trade and exchange. Recently trading with a band on Manitoulin Island, where there are no cash crops, calves were obtained where they could grow on the more spacious farms in the south. "This ultimately will create a foodbasket that would be good for our people," Hill said about this vertical integration within Native agriculture. This article can be found at http://IndianCountry.com/?1054219855 --------- "RE: Ottawa adopts a Top-Down Process" --------- Date: Mon, Jun 9 2003 08:13:37 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GOVERNANCE ACT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.macleans.ca/xta-doc2/2003/06/16/Canada/60772.shtml TIME OF RECKONING June 9, 2003 Ottawa adopts a top-down process for dealing with Natives -- and is paying the price JULIAN BELTRAME CAROLYN BUFFALO was fuming mad. In late April, she had sat deep into the early morning hours watching the House of Commons standing committee on Aboriginal affairs debating the new First Nations Governance Act. Or merely going through the motions, in her view. Some Liberal MPs were reading newspapers and magazines. One was poring over his tax return, says Buffalo, a Native lawyer for the four nations of the Maskwachiys in central Alberta. Then she got on a plane to Calgary and by happenstance ran into Paul Martin, the front-runner for the Liberal leadership. She lit into him. "I told him the committee was disrespectful to us," she recalls. "I told him they didn't care about our views, that if [Indian Affairs Minister] Robert Nault had come into the room and ordered them to bow like sheep, they would have done it." The 20-minute run-in may not have been pivotal in Martin's declaration, two days later, that as prime minister he would not implement the controversial legislation without further consultations. But Buffalo's passion had made an impression, as an indication that the most important government initiative in a generation to deal with Canada's 700,000 status Indians had seriously gone off the rails. A Martin aide told Maclean's that the former finance minister is convinced that the top-down process adopted by Nault in developing the bill has poisoned the well. Now, even if it could be shown to benefit First Nations, they will never voluntarily adopt it, and will probably drag the process out through years of litigation. "Nault's whole approach was, 'I'm a tough guy and this is what I'm going to do, like it or lump it,' " said the aide. "They've snatched defeat from the jaws of victory." Few doubt that the government's heart was in the right place. Jean Chretien, whose first big test in politics was in Indian Affairs more than three decades ago -- and who almost flamed out after disastrously attempting to scrap the reserve system without intensively consulting Natives -- desperately wanted a new deal with Canada's indigenous peoples as a bookend to his career. Because negotiating real self-government and land treaties could take most of the century, why not modernize the 127- year-old Indian Act as an interim measure and put the best practices of democratic government, transparent administration and accountability to work in the hundreds of Native bands spread across the country? The changes would force bands to adopt codes governing elections of chiefs and councils through secret ballot, rules for regulating the making of laws, and requirements for annual, audited budgets. Bands would also have to establish impartial bodies to allow members to lodge complaints. Compa nion legislation would make it easier for band councils to raise money, through borrowing and internal taxation, for economic development. "There is no real option of leaving the Indian Act in place because we will then guarantee another generation or more of poverty," Nault has tirelessly said in defence of his approach. Who could argue? Well, the vast majority of the Natives the government seeks to help. They've staged protests across the country, hounded Nault at public events and tried to disrupt committee hearings. Roberta Jamieson, chief of the Six Nations of the Grand River and a vocal opponent of the legislation, notes that of the 201 individuals and groups who she says made formal presentations before the parliamentary committee, only 10 spoke in favour of the bill -- including the minister. "Yes, the committee has travelled across the country," she says, "but the opinions were 191 to 10 and they're still going ahead. They can't claim to have listened to the Native communities." But both sides may be playing hardball. Committee chairman Ray Bonin, a Liberal MP from the northern Ontario riding of Nickel Belt, claims some of those who spoke against the changes publicly have confided to him in private that they felt pressured to do so and feared retaliation. "This has been an orchestrated opposition," he says, laying the blame on Native leadership. Nault, in an April speech, took time out to talk about a band employee who was fired for criticizing the council's management strategy. "I use this example because I get letters like this every day," he said of band members who oppose their leaders, adding that he can't release them because of the Privacy Act. Such insinuations do not impress Matthew Coon Come, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. "Where's the proof?" he asks. Sure the chiefs are angry, he says, but not because they stand to have their powers curtailed by the amendments to the act. They're angry because they've been left out of a process to transform the way Natives live, he says. An underlying fault with the legislation is that it begins with a false premise -- that the Native leadership's incompetence, or worse, corruption, is a major contributor to the squalor most Natives endure. "He's tarnished us all with the same brush," Coon Come complains. "Sure we have our culprits, but the minister has the authority right now to step in if there's a legitimate complaint. He has the power to pull the funding, he doesn't need new legislation to do that." Besides, he adds, it's laughable to suggest Native poverty stems from poor management practices, rather than from a lack of resources and adequate land base. There are other objections to the bill, of course, but many stem from the paternalistic father-knows-best process adopted by the government. The legislation sets overriding principles under which Natives could develop codes of governance and accountability. For some bands, such as those with hereditary tribal chiefs, such parameters are a straitjacket. "That's your values, not ours," says Coon Come. If the government had properly consulted Natives, he adds, it would have discovered they favoured the establishment of an independent ombudsman and auditor general -- as previously recommended by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples -- as a way of achieving transparency and accountability. Lastly, he argues, the forced imposition of rules on Natives contradicts the spirit and the letter of the Canadian Constitution, which recognizes the right to self- government. The tragedy is that one more attempt to end the historic injustice done to Native Canadians may, in the end, go for naught. "We wasted a lot of time and resources on something that we don't want and won't benefit us," says Jamieson. Bonin, who favours the legislation, concedes the government may be losing its appetite for the fight. Liberal House Leader Don Boudria said last week that he wants eight bills passed before the House adjourns for summer recess on June 20. The governance act was not one of them. That means the bill will be held back until the fall, when Liberal MPs will be torn between fulfilling the legacy agenda of an outgoing prime minister and accommodating the wishes of an incoming new leader -- in all likelihood Paul Martin. "I'm disappointed," said Bonin, "because I believe this is important legislation. But the calendar is against us." If the legislation should die on the order paper -- or be stalled at the implementation stage -- Buffalo can take some satisfaction that she played her part when she gathered up the courage to confront Martin at the Calgary airport. But it's an empty kind of victory. One more defeat of a well-meaning -- if flawed -- initiative does nothing to improve conditions in Native communities. And it means that if Martin wins the leadership, he'll inherit an issue that stymied his predecessor on two occasions -- 34 years apart. Copyright 2003 by Rogers Media Inc.(Maclean's Magazine) --------- "RE: Saskatchewan MP sows Hatred in Mailing" --------- Date: Fri, Jun 6 2003 08:37:12 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HATEMONGER" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030606/UHATEN/ Sask. MP sows hatred in mailing, natives say By KIM LUNMAN Friday, June 6, 2003 OTTAWA - A controversial independent Saskatchewan MP is "hatemongering" with his latest mailing to constituents describing aboriginal "lobbyists" as racists, native leaders charged yesterday. The Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) is filing a complaint with the Saskatoon RCMP about the pamphlet, distributed by Saskatoon-Humboldt MP Jim Pankiw. The mail-out features a photograph of David Ahenakew, the disgraced former head of the Assembly of First Nations and former chief of the federation, with former prime minister Pierre Trudeau. It is the second pamphlet this year that has led to hate-crime complaints about Mr. Pankiw's views on native issues. Last December, Mr. Ahenakew started an international furor by saying Hitler was trying to "clean up the world" when he "fried" six million Jews in the Holocaust. "It's clear who the racists are," says the most recent pamphlet, which features statements from other native leaders, including AFN national chief Matthew Coon Come. It calls, among other things, for the elimination of tax exemptions for natives and for an end to affirmative action and native hunting and fishing rights. An attached survey invites respondents to say whether they agree with cutting funding to "Indian lobbyists who demand race-based privileges" and also asks whether "government handouts" have "fostered a racist attitude among Indian lobbyists towards non-Indians." "We are filing a complaint with the RCMP and writing to the Solicitor- -General of Saskatchewan to look at possible charges," federation Chief Perry Bellegarde said in an interview yesterday. "It is hatemongering. This information is revolting and disgusting. He's fanning racist fires, is what he's doing, and using taxpayers' dollars to do this." Mr. Pankiw dismissed the allegations yesterday, describing himself as a champion of equality. "The silent majority of people responding to this brochure are pushing me to continue," he said. "There's a whole host of race-based government policies." Native leaders are "the ones spreading this hate," said the MP, who is running for mayor of Saskatoon and plans to seek a third term in Parliament. "I'm simply telling the truth." Mr. Pankiw was first elected as a Canadian Alliance MP in 1997 and was one of 13 to join the Democratic Representative Caucus coalition with the Progressive Conservatives. When the coalition folded, he was not allowed to rejoin the Canadian Alliance. Mr. Coon Come, head of the AFN, which represents 700,000 status Indians and 633 reserves, said he is appalled by Mr. Pankiw's pamphlet. "There's free speech, and then there's hate speech," the national chief said. "We believe Mr. Pankiw has crossed the line. This goes beyond the realm of parliamentary privilege and into the sphere of hate speech." Mr. Pankiw said free speech is not the issue. "This is the cold, hard truth," he said. He called the AFN "a racist organization," adding: "I'm a proponent of equality. They're racists." A pamphlet on native crime that Mr. Pankiw distributed earlier this year was also the subject of a hate-crimes complaint. No charges were laid. "He's trying to incite hatred against Indians," said James Youngblood Henderson, research director at the Native Law Centre of Canada at the University of Saskatchewan. Copyright c. 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. --------- "RE: Genocide of the American Indian Peoples" --------- Date: Thursday, June 05, 2003 07:25 pm From: Doug Barrett Subj: Article >To: gars@speakeasy.org Hi Mr.Gary Night Owl, My name is Doug Barrett and I work for the tribes here in Florence. ----- Original Message ----- From: Scott Crockett Subj: Genocide of the American Indian Peoples http://free.freespeech.org/americanstateterrorism/usgenocide/ IndianPeoples.html "I did not know how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream..." -- Black Elk Oglala Holy Man on the aftermath of the Massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota December, 1890 the United States Army Seventh Cavalry used Gatling guns to slaughter 300 helpless Lakota children, men and women Genocide of the American Indian Peoples The Anglo-American genocide of Indian peoples is actually part of the 500-year tradition of Spanish genocide begun by the sadistic "conquistadors" - which continues to this day. The first section of this well-written and researched article describes the horrific sadism of Christopher Columbus and his men. The second section describes the English/American tradition of genocide. Excerpted from Rachel's Environment & Health Weekly newsletter, #671, with added notes where indicated. The Beginnings of the Spanish Genocide Columbus made four voyages to the New World. [1] The initial voyage reveals several important things about the man. First, he had genuine courage because few ship's captains had ever pointed their prow toward the open ocean, the complete unknown. Secondly, from numerous of his letters and reports we learn that his overarching goal was to seize wealth that belonged to others, even his own men, by whatever means necessary. Columbus's Spanish royal sponsors (Ferdinand and Isabella) had promised a lifetime pension to the first man who sighted land. A few hours after midnight on October 12, 1492, Juan Rodriguez Bermeo, a lookout on the Pinta, cried out - in the bright moonlight, he had spied land ahead. Most likely Bermeo was seeing the white beaches of Watling Island in the Bahamas. As they waited impatiently for dawn, Columbus let it be known that he had spotted land several hours before Bermeo. According to Columbus's journal of that voyage, his ships were, at the time, traveling 10 miles per hour. To have spotted land several hours before Bermeo, Columbus would have had to see more than 30 miles over the horizon, a physical impossibility. Nevertheless Columbus took the lifetime pension for himself. [1,2] Columbus installed himself as Governor of the Caribbean islands, with headquarters on Hispaniola (the large island now shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic). He described the people, the Arawaks (called by some the Tainos) this way: "The people of this island and of all the other islands which I have found and seen, or have not seen, all go naked, men and women, as their mothers bore them, except that some women cover one place only with the leaf of a plant or with a net of cotton which they make for that purpose. "They have no iron or steel or weapons, nor are they capable of using them, although they are well-built people of handsome stature, because they are wondrous timid.... [T]hey are so artless and free with all they possess, that no one would believe it without having seen it. "Of anything they have, if you ask them for it, they never say no; rather they invite the person to share it, and show as much love as if they were giving their hearts; and whether the thing be of value or of small price, at once they are content with whatever little thing of whatever kind may be given to them." [3, pg.63; 1, pg.118] Added note: In an ominous foreshadowing of the horrors to come, Columbus also wrote in his journal: "I could conquer the whole of them with fifty men, and govern them as I pleased." After Columbus had surveyed the Caribbean region, he returned to Spain to prepare his invasion of the Americas. From accounts of his second voyage, we can begin to understand what the New World represented to Columbus and his men - it offered them life without limits, unbridled freedom. Columbus took the title "Admiral of the Ocean Sea" and proceeded to unleash a reign of terror unlike anything seen before or since. When he was finished, eight million Arawaks - virtually the entire native population of Hispaniola - had been exterminated by torture, murder, forced labor, starvation, disease and despair. [3, pg.x] A Spanish missionary, Bartolome de las Casas, described first-hand how the Spaniards terrorized the natives. [4] Las Casas gives numerous eye- witness accounts of repeated mass murder and routine sadistic torture. As Barry Lopez has accurately summarized it, "One day, in front of Las Casas, the Spanish dismembered, beheaded, or raped 3000 people. 'Such inhumanities and barbarisms were committed in my sight,' he says, 'as no age can parallel....' "The Spanish cut off the legs of children who ran from them. They poured people full of boiling soap. They made bets as to who, with one sweep of his sword, could cut a person in half. They loosed dogs that 'devoured an Indian like a hog, at first sight, in less than a moment.' They used nursing infants for dog food." [2, pg.4] This was not occasional violence - it was a systematic, prolonged campaign of brutality and sadism, a policy of torture, mass murder, slavery and forced labor that continued for CENTURIES. "The destruction of the Indians of the Americas was, far and away, the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world," writes historian David E. Stannard. [3, pg.x] Eventually more than 100 million natives fell under European rule. Their extermination would follow. As the natives died out, they were replaced by slaves brought from Africa. To make a long story short, Columbus established a pattern that held for five centuries - a "ruthless, angry search for wealth," as Barry Lopez describes it. "It set a tone in the Americas. The quest for personal possessions was to be, from the outset, a series of raids, irresponsible and criminal, a spree, in which an end to it - the slaves, the timber, the pearls, the fur, the precious ores, and, later, arable land, coal, oil, and iron ore - was never visible, in which an end to it had no meaning." Indeed, there WAS no end to it, no limit. As Hans Koning has observed, "There was no real ending to the conquest of Latin America. It continued in remote forests and on far mountainsides. It is still going on in our day when miners and ranchers invade land belonging to the Amazon Indians and armed thugs occupy Indian villages in the backwoods of Central America." [6, pg.46] In the 1980s, under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, the U.S. government knowingly gave direct aid to genocidal campaigns that murdered tens of thousands Mayan Indian people in Guatemala and elsewhere. [7] The pattern holds. Added note: And still, in 2003, the genocide continues in Colombia, El Salvador and Guatemala. Continuing the gruesome tradition of the 1980s, which also terrorized the people of Nicaragua, U.S. government-funded fascist paramilitaries mass-murder Indians in Central and South America to this day. The bestial carnage committed by Uncle Sham's proxy armies includes countless disappearances, epidemic rape and torture. The Colombian paramilitaries have even made their own gruesome addition to the usual list of horrors: public beheadings. This latest stage of the American Indian holocaust is enthusiastically supported by the cocaine-smuggling CIA, the Pentagon and all the rest of the United States Corporate Mafia Government. See: Colombia: The Genocidal Democracy by Javier Giraldo The English/American Genocide Unfortunately, Columbus and the Spaniards were not unique. They conquered Mexico and what is now the Southwestern U.S., with forays into Florida, the Carolinas, even into Virginia. From Virginia northward, the land had been taken by the English who, if anything, had even less tolerance for the indigenous people. As Hans Koning says, "From the beginning, the Spaniards saw the native Americans as natural slaves, beasts of burden, part of the loot. When working them to death was more economical than treating them somewhat humanely, they worked them to death. "The English, on the other hand, had no use for the native peoples. They saw them as devil worshipers, savages who were beyond salvation by the church, and exterminating them increasingly became accepted policy." [6, pg.14] The British arrived in Jamestown in 1607. By 1610 the intentional extermination of the native population was well along. As David E. Stannard has written, "Hundreds of Indians were killed in skirmish after skirmish. Other hundreds were killed in successful plots of mass poisoning. They were hunted down by dogs, 'blood-Hounds to draw after them, and Mastives [mastiffs] to seize them.' "Their canoes and fishing weirs were smashed, their villages and agricultural fields burned to the ground. Indian peace offers were accepted by the English only until their prisoners were returned; then, having lulled the natives into false security, the colonists returned to the attack. "It was the colonists' expressed desire that the Indians be exterminated, rooted 'out from being longer a people upon the face of the Earth's In a single raid the settlers destroyed corn sufficient to feed four thousand people for a year. "Starvation and the massacre of non-combatants was becoming the preferred British approach to dealing with the natives." [3, pg.106] In Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey extermination was officially promoted by a "scalp bounty" on dead Indians. "Indeed, in many areas it [murdering Indians] became an outright business," writes historian Ward Churchill. [5, pg.182] Indians were defined as subhumans, lower than animals. George Washington compared them to wolves, "beasts of prey" and called for their total destruction. [3, pgs.119-120] Andrew Jackson (whose innocent-looking portrait appears on the U.S. $20 bill today) in 1814 "supervised the mutilation of 800 or more Creek Indian corpses - the bodies of men, women and children that [his troops] had massacred - cutting off their noses to count and preserve a record of the dead, slicing long strips of flesh from their bodies to tan and turn into bridle reins." [5, pg.186] The English policy of extermination - another name for genocide - grew more insistent as settlers pushed westward: In 1851 the Governor of California officially called for the extermination of the Indians in his state. [3, pg.144] On March 24, 1863, the Rocky Mountain News in Denver ran an editorial titled, "Exterminate Them." On April 2, 1863, the Santa Fe New Mexican advocated "extermination of the Indians." [5, pg.228] In 1867, General William Tecumseh Sherman said: "We must act with vindictive earnestness against the [Lakotas, known to whites as the Sioux] even to their extermination, men, women and children." [5, pg.240] In 1891, Frank L. Baum (gentle author of "The Wizard Of Oz") wrote in the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer (Kansas) that the army should "finish the job" by the "total annihilation" of the few remaining Indians. The U.S. did not follow through on Baum's macabre demand for there really was no need. By then the native population had been reduced to 2.5% of its original numbers and 97.5% of the aboriginal land base had been expropriated and renamed "The land of the free and the home of the brave." Hundreds upon hundreds of native tribes with unique languages, learning, customs, and cultures had simply been erased from the face of the earth, most often without even the pretense of justice or law. Today we can see the remnant cultural arrogance of Christopher Columbus and Captain John Smith shadowed in the cult of the "global free market" which aims to eradicate indigenous cultures and traditions world-wide, to force all peoples to adopt the ways of the U.S. Today's globalist "Free Trade" is merely yesterday's "Manifest Destiny" writ large. But as Barry Lopez says, "This violent corruption needn't define us.... We can say, yes, this happened, and we are ashamed. We repudiate the greed. We recognize and condemn the evil. And we see how the harm has been perpetuated. But, five hundred years later, we intend to mean something else in the world." If we chose, we could set limits on ourselves for once. We could declare enough is enough. Notes 1. J.M. Cohen, editor, The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus London: Penguin Books, 1969; ISBN 0-14-044217-0 2. Barry Lopez, The Rediscovery of North America Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1990; ISBN 0-8131-1742-9 3. David E. Stannard, American Holocaust: Columbus and the Conquest of the New World New York: Oxford University Press, 1992; ISBN 0-19-507581-1 4. Bartolome de las Casas, The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account translated by Herma Briffault Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992; ISBN 0-8018-4430-4 5. Ward Churchill, A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas, 1492 to the Present San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1997; ISBN 0-87286-323-9 6. Hans Koning, The Conquest of America: How The Indian Nations Lost Their Continent New York: Monthly Review Press, 1993, pg. 46.; ISBN 0-85345-876-6 7. For example, see Mireya Navarro, "Guatemalan Army Waged 'Genocide,' New Report Finds," NEW YORK TIMES, February 26, 1999, pg. unknown. The NY Times described "torture, kidnapping and execution of thousands of civilians" - most of them Mayan Indians - a campaign to which the U.S. government contributed "money and training." Bibliography Genocide and Oppression of the American Indian Peoples This bibliography has all the above titles and more, including Leonard Peltier's book, Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance. War At Home: Covert Action Against U.S. Activists and What We Can Do About It by Brian Glick The Journals of Christopher Columbus (available at any larger library) Colombia: The Genocidal Democracy by Javier Giraldo A People's History of the United States: 1492 - Present by Howard Zinn Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James Loewen Western State Terrorism Alexander George, editor; essays by Noam Chomsky, Edward S. Herman, Gerry O'Sullivan and others Terrorizing the Neighborhood: American Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War Era by Noam Chomsky Pressure Drop Press, 1991 Pirates and Emperors, Old and New: International Terrorism in the Real World by Noam Chomsky The Culture of Terrorism by Noam Chomsky Apocalypse 1945: The Destruction of Dresden by David Irving The American Presidency by Gore Vidal Related pages Slavery in America Today Bibliography: Enslavement and Oppression of the African-American Peoples Bibliography: White Slavery in America Related sites Ishgooda Homepage http://ishgooda.nativeweb.org/ Debunking the Myths: Christopher Columbus, Thanksgiving http://ishgooda.nativeweb.org/racial/holid1.htm Myth Making: Columbus http://ishgooda.nativeweb.org/racial/holid3.htm Columbus on Trial http://ishgooda.nativeweb.org/racial/holid4.htm Examining the reputation of Christopher Columbus by Jack Weatherford http://www.hartford-hwp.com/taino/docs/columbus.html Paul Pureau's American Indian Movement email list Wiyot Tribe Sacred Site Fund http://www.wiyot.com/fund.htm --------- "RE: U.S. Supreme Court Docket shaping up" --------- Date: Wed, Jun 4 2003 08:34:21 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SUPREME COURT CASES" http://www.indianz.com/ Supreme Court docket shaping up WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2003 The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing a number of controversial topics as it wraps up its annual term. Decisions on affirmative action, gay rights and Internet pornography laws are heavily anticipated before the justices go into recess at the end of this month. There won't be any Indian law decisions among the bunch. But there are some cases the justices are being asked to consider in the coming months on topics like land claims, treaty rights and taxation. Here's a review of some of the cases pending before the court. Environmental Rights A battle between the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida and state water managers has been in limbo for more than a year. The tribe won a decision at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, requiring the state to comply with federal clean water laws when pumping water into the Everglades. The South Florida Water Management District last September asked the Supreme Court to review the case but the justices held off in order to receive views from the U.S. They finally got it last week, when Solicitor General Ted Olson submitted a brief backing the tribe. According to law scholars, the Department of Justice's views tend to influence the court's thinking on the case. With that in hand, the justices will soon decide whether to review the battle, one of many in the $8 billion Everglades cleanup effort. The petition for a writ of certiorari in South Florida Water Management District v. Miccosukee Tribe , No. 02-626, was filed October 21, 2002. The tribe and Friends of the Everglades, an environmental group, responded November 25, 2002. Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative legal group that has represented non-Indian challenges to tribal authority and is involved in the Klamath River Basin litigation, has filed a friend of the court brief siding with the water district. - Relevant Documents: Docket Sheet: No. 02-626 (Supreme Court) Land Dispute Who owns the land around Lake Havasu? According to the federal government, the Chemehuevi Tribe does. According to most everyone else, the federal government does. So goes the long-running saga between the tribe and non-Indians who say the boundaries of the Chemehuevi Reservation were wrongfully changed. At issue in the the latest dispute, which dates to the 1940s, is whether the tribe can evict non-Indians from cabins located on land leased from the tribe. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in an unpublished decision, tossed the suit challenging the eviction. The non-Indians filed a petition writ of certiorari on February 21. The tribe responded April 21 and the Department of Justice, on behalf of Secretary of Interior Gale Norton, responded May 21. - Relevant Documents: Docket Sheet: No. 02-1393 (Supreme Court) Department of Justice Brief (May 21, 2003) Self-Determination Self-determination has been the policy of the U.S. since the Nixon era and tribes have embraced it. But tribes often complain that federal agencies don't provide enough funds to administer programs. So the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and the Duck Valley Shoshone-Paiute Tribe of Nevada, supported by various other tribes in amicus briefs, are suing the Department of Health and Human Services in hopes of obtaining "direct and indirect expense" costs associated with operating the programs. But the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last November ruled against the tribes and said it's up to the federal government to decide how much money to distribute. The tribes filed a petition for certiorari on April 3. The Department of Justice has been given until June 6 to respond. - Relevant Documents: Docket Sheet: No. 02-1472 (Supreme Court) Taxation Last September, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Kip R. Ramsey, a member of the Yakama Nation of Washington who owns a logging company. The unanimous ruling said the IRS can impose heavy vehicle and diesel fuel taxes on tribal members, rejecting arguments that an 1855 treaty protected the rights of individual Indians. Having paid nearly $500,000 in taxes to the IRS, Ramsey is challenging the lower court ruling. He filed a petition for certiorari on April 22. The Department of Justice has been given until June 26 to file a response. The tribes filed a petition for certiorari on April 3. The Department of Justice has been given until June