From gars@speakeasy.org Wed Jun 18 01:37:50 2003 Date: 17 Jun 2003 23:29:36 -0000 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews11.025 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 11, ISSUE 025 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 21, 2003 Kiowa pai ganhina p'a/summer moon Western Cherokee dehaluyi/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 Rights, Rez Life, Native American Poetry and Iron Natives Mailing Lists; UUCP email IMPORTANT!! ----------- In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, all material appearing in this newsletter is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for educational purposes. <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is a way of keeping the brothers and sisters who share our Spirit informed about current events within the lives of those who walk the Red Road. ++ It may be subscribed to via email by sending a request from your own internet addressable account to gars@speakeasy.org ++ It is archived at http://www.nanews.org <================<<<< >>>>================> +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | As historian Patricia Nelson | | Once a language is lost, it is | | Limerick summarized in "The | | gone forever | | Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken | | * Of the 300 original Native | | Past of the American West... | | languages in North America, | | "Set the blood quantum at | | only 175 exist today. | | one-quarter, hold to it as a | | * 125 of these are no longer | | rigid definition of Indians, | | learned by children. | | let intermarriage proceed as | | * 55 are spoken by 1 to 6 elders;| | it had for centuries, and | | when they die, their language | | eventually Indians will be | | will disappear. | | defined out of existence." | | * Without action, only 20 | | "When that happens, the federal | | languages will survive the next| | government will be freed of | | 50 years. | | its persistent 'Indian problem.'"| | Source: Indigenous Language | +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ | Institute | |http://www.indigenous-language.org| This issue's Elder Quote: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + ======================== "If you dig up a grave in a white graveyard, you'll get 25 years," "If you dig up 1,000 Indian graves, you'll get a Ph.D." __ JIm Hickinbotham, Choctaw +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Indian Pledge of Allegiance | The Indian Pledge of Alleg- | | iance was first presented | I pledge allegiance to my Tribe,| on 2 December '93 during the | to the democratic principles | opening address of the Nat- | of the Republic | ional Congress of American | and to the individual freedoms | Indian Tribal-States Relat- | borrowed from the Iroquois and | ions Panel in Reno, NV. NCAI | Choctaw Confederacies, | plans distribution of the | as incorporated in the United | Indian Pledge to all Indian | States Constitution, | Nations. | so that my forefathers | | shall not have died in vain | Walk in Beauty! Night Owl +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Journey | In the summer and early fall | The Bloodline | of 1998 the Treaty Unity Riders | | rode a thousand miles on horse- | For all that live and live by law | back, carrying a staff and | We Stand, we Call, We Ride | praying each step of the way. | For All that fear and fear by sight | | We Hear, we Listen, we Ride | These prayers were offered for | For all that pray and pray by strength| each of us, and that the Unity | We Feel, we Move, we Ride | of all Peoples might happen. | For all that die and die by greed | | We Hurt, we Cry, we Ride | Tatanka Cante forwarded this | For all that birth and birth by right | poem on behalf of all the Unity | We Smile, we Hold, we Ride | Riders that we might stop and | For all that need and need by heart | ask if the next words we say, the | We Came, we Went, we Rode. | next act we make is for the good | | of the People or is it from ego | Treaty Unity Riders | for self. +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ O'siyo Brothers and Sisters! The Native American Sacred Lands Protection Act is before the U.S. House of Representatives, and that's a good thing. The bill would provide tribes the ability to stop logging and mining on federal lands considered Sacred by Native Americans, and that's a very good thing. No Republican lawmakers support the bill and there has been no effort to host a companion bill in the Senate; and that is both not good and not a surprise. If one thing is evident, judging from the bills submitted by Republicans to exploit the Artic National Wildlife Refuge, Republicans are as greedy and corrupted by the scent of money as the dominant society can get. There can be little doubt timber associations are greasing a lot of Republican hands in an effort to prevent this bill from even making the first floor call. Timber interests are already feeling quite smug, having gotten their "good buddy" President George W. to sign into law a short track to timber harvesting, completely bypassing envirnmental review. That all said, I have to ask one question. Why is another law to protect Native Sacred Lands even necessary? There is not a similar need to create yet another law to prevent desecration of St. Peter's Cathedral or the Mormon Tabernacle. Why is that so? Because those places are sacred to the invaders, and lest we not forget - those places were built by them, not Creator. 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 ---------- - Tribes rally - Opinion: behind Sacred-Sites Bill Salish-Kootenai deserve chance - Baird pushing - Opinion: for Recognition of Chinook Blackfeet running Glacier? Not soon - How one Mission boy - Tribe gives Chandler $1 Million was degraded and humiliated for Bridge - Teachers incorporating culture - Deal could turn Struggling NWT in Classroom into 'Have' Region - War being waged - Appeals Court throws out against Oklahoma Indians Native Tax Exemption - Historian admits DoI - Tsuu T'ina Police short in Shootout routinely misled Congress - Drop-offs happened more than once - Debate simmers over - Reburial of Indian Remains Contracts for Public Lands to resume - Tribes still recovering - Tribal Courts 50 years after Dam have jurisdiction outside Rez - Tribal Leaders - Murder Suspect arrested promote National Unity - Rustywire: Standing in the Shower - Cuts to Grants - History: Carlisle Indian School benefiting American Indian Tribes - Poem: This Sacred Path - Controversial Road Plan - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - Apaches coping with Multiple Blows - Upcoming Events --------- "RE: Tribes rally behind Sacred-Sites Bill" --------- Date: Thu, Jun 12 2003 08:10:48 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SACRED-SITES" http://www.indianz.com/News/show.asp?ID=2003/06/12/sacred http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134972837_tribe12m.html Tribes rally behind sacred-sites bill By Alex Fryer Seattle Times Washington bureau Darrell Hillaire June 12, 2003 Before joining his tribe's spirit dancers, Lummi Chairman Darrell Hillaire went to the forests and rivers near Mount Baker to pray and cleanse himself. Now, he wants Congress to pass a House bill that would protect those lands from logging and mining. Hillaire was in Washington, D.C., yesterday to lend his support to the Native American Sacred Lands Protection Act. The bill would provide tribes across the country the opportunity to stop logging and mining on federal lands considered sacred by Native Americans. But no Republican lawmakers have expressed support, and no companion legislation has been introduced in the Senate. And timber associations are lining up to oppose it. Bob Dick, Washington manager of the American Forest Resource Council in Olympia, an association of timber companies that primarily harvest on public lands, said his group does not oppose the protection of sacred sites. But he said such areas are already protected by existing rules. "To give them (tribes) veto authority, I think a lot of people would be nervous about it," he said. The bill, drafted by Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., would direct all federal land-management agencies to prevent significant damage to sacred sites. It would also give tribes the ability to petition the government to place federal lands off-limits when they believed a proposed action would cause significant damage to sacred lands. Rahall cited the Zuni tribe in New Mexico as an example. The tribe harvests salt from Salt Lake when the water evaporates in the summer. But a proposed coal strip mine 11 miles north of the lake would pump water from the same aquifer that feeds Salt Lake. The bill would give the Zunis more legal ammunition to fight the utility. Tribes would not have to reveal why a site is sacred, or where the site is specifically located. That's an important provision, said Hillaire. He said relic hunters would raid tribal artifacts, and he doesn't want the public to know where and how certain ceremonies are performed. "It's a very private thing we do," he said. "It's shared between us and the Creator. We just don't want a lot of people hanging around." Some in the forest industry opposed the lack of disclosure, and vowed to fight the legislation. "That would be hard to pass the laugh test," said Tom Partin, president of the American Forest Resource Council in Portland. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Bellingham, supports the proposal, but would not handicap its chances of becoming law. "I never give odds," he said, adding: "I assure the people I represent that I will work very hard on this legislation." Alex Fryer: 206-464-8124. Copyright c. 2003 The Seattle Times Company. --------- "RE: Baird pushing for Recognition of Chinook" --------- Date: Tue, Jun 10 2003 08:29:12 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CHINOOK" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.tdn.com/articles/2003/06/09/area_news/news03.txt Baird pushing for recognition of Chinook tribe By Sally Ousley Jun 9, 2003 The Chinook Indian tribe, declared officially extinct by the Bush Administration last summer, will get another a shot at winning federal recognition. U.S. Rep Brian Baird, D-Vancouver, says he is drafting a bill to recognize the tribe. The bill would reverse last July's Interior Department decision to yank recognition the Clinton Administration granted in January 2000. "It's a tragic commentary when we commemorate the Lewis and Clark expedition and the very tribe that helped them is not recognized by the government," Baird said. The Chinook Indians helped the Corps of Discovery when it arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River in November 1805. Official recognition makes a tribe eligible for federal money for schools, health care, social services, economic development and cultural activities. "The timing is very important because we've been asked to co-host the Lewis and Clark signature event at the mouth of the Columbia River in November of 2005," said Chinook Tribal Chairman Gary Johnson. "We feel we should have equal status with the other tribes we invite." The Chinooks have been seeking official recognition for more than 20 years. It's trouble stems in part from the failure of the tribe and U.S. government to adopt a treaty in the mid 19th century. In withdrawing recognition, the Bush administration ruled that the tribe did not meet three of the seven criteria used by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs: It did not maintain continuous political control over its members; was no longer a distinct social community; and has not been identified as an "Indian entity" by outside observers on a continuous basis. "I disagree with this administration," Baird said. "They (the tribe) meet the standards. There's no question that the Chinook lived in Southwest Washington. Lewis and Clark mentioned them in their journals and some treaties were negotiated using Chinook language. They predated Lewis and Clark, and they are still there." Baird said getting the legislation through Congress will not be easy. The Quinault tribe on the Olympic Peninsula has concerns that the Chinook recognition would mean a loss of land the Quinaults own now. Without federal recognition, the Chinooks can't claim any land within the Quinault reservation. Quinault executive director Pearl Capoeman-Baller said that her tribe objects to Chinook claims on the reservation. "The bottom line for the Quinault is that we govern the reservation and signed the treaty and we have hunting and fishing rights and we have the voting rights on the reservation." Johnson said the best avenue for the Chinooks to gain recognition is through Congress. He said going through federal court would mean hundred of thousands of dollars and five to six years. Johnson said Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell and Sen. Patty Murray also are supporting the tribe's cause "We represent the homeland Chinook who stayed on the Columbia River or Willapa Bay and we're not interested in what's going on north of us," he said. "We're interested in a land base and tribal survival along the Columbia River and Willapa Bay." Copyright c. 2003 The Daily News/Longview, WA. Lee Publications, Inc. --------- "RE: How one Mission boy was degraded and humiliated" --------- Date: Wed, Jun 11 2003 08:29:12 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MISSION SCHOOL" http://www.lakotajournal.com/notes.htm Lakota Journal: Notes from Indian Country How one Mission boy was degraded and humiliated By Tim Giago We were in our third-floor dormitory in Red Cloud Hall at the Holy Rosary Indian Mission boarding school when "Gabby" Brewer approached us. There was "Frosty" Garnette, Tibby Kocer, Basil Brave Heart and me seated on our U. S. Army issue bunks and footlockers just chatting away when Gabby approached us. He asked, "Do you think my hair will grow out faster if I wash it every night with soap and water?" Sounded OK to us. We all agreed. "Yeah, sure, sounds like a good plan." I don't know how Gabby got his nickname. He wasn't that talkative, at least not at the Mission. Maybe he was gabby at home. In all likelihood he probably got his name from one of the Sunday night movies that previewed in the Mission gymnasium every Sunday night. The sidekick of Roy Rogers was Gabby Hayes, if memory serves. That's probably where he got the name. But then Gabby Hayes was a short, bewhiskered fellow who in no way resembled our Gabby. Huh? Gabby asked us about the soap and water treatment for his hair because the Jesuit prefects at Holy Rosary had ordered that his head be shaven to the skull and it was carried out. Gabby's crime? He ran away from the Mission, was caught and returned to the school. Now let's talk about cruel and unusual punishment or of receiving punishment to fit the crime. In the spring of that year (in the 1940s) Gabby's father and Gabby's brother Richard went fishing at White Clay Dam on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. It must have been over a long holiday weekend. Usually only the students who lived near Holy Rosary made it home for any of the holidays. Pine Ridge Village was only four miles from the Mission. A tragedy happened. Richard slipped from the bank and fell into the water. Since winter was just now subsiding the water must have been freezing cold. Gabby's father dived into the water in an effort to save his son. Both of them drowned in the frigid water. My best buddy at the Mission was Gabby's older brother Tommy. I know that Tommy was shattered by the loss of his father and brother. I can't even imagine the hurt that Gabby must have experienced. He was younger and probably more impressionable. Gabby Brewer was one of those kids you liked immediately. He always had a ready smile and a gentle manner. The Lakota winyan (women) would say that they just wanted to "ahniyan" him (they wanted to just squeeze him like pinching his cheeks). Gabby would probably have a good laugh to hear this now. He is now retirement age. The last time I saw him at Pine Ridge he was talking about putting in for Social Security. He is probably receiving it by now. How the years fly. After the tragic accident at White Clay dam, Gabby became very quiet. He turned inward. There was no compassion, comforting or counseling by the priests, nuns, brothers or prefects at Holy Rosary. Today, when something tragic happens to school kids, there are counselors to help them understand the tragedy and to help the children through the traumatic experience. There was no such help at the Mission. Gabby suffered alone and in silence. Something happened to him. He sneaked away from the Mission one day and headed for his home in Pine Ridge Village. He was captured and returned to the school. He was greeted upon his return with a razor strap and beaten until he had bruises on his legs and buttocks. Such was the compassion of the Jesuit priests. But that wasn't enough punishment. The next day he was taken to the barbershop and his head was shaved clean. Lakota boys and men take pride in their hair. To shave his head just added insult to injury. But that still wasn't enough punishment, according to the Jesuits. A sandwich board sign was created and on the sign was written, "I am a runaway." Gabby was forced to wear this sign from morning until bedtime. He even had to wear it to morning mass where he could be observed by all of the students including the girls. When he came to us and asked, "Do you think my hair will grow out faster if I wash it every night with soap and water? We wanted it to be true. We hoped with all of our hearts that soap and water every night would bring an end to the pain and embarrassment he must have been feeling. The abuse heaped upon the Indian children by the different churches in the efforts to assimilate them into the mainstream are now well documented. We all know of the beatings and the psychological and oftentimes physical abuse that occurred behind closed doors at the Mission boarding schools. Where do we even begin to categorize the abuse Gabby suffered at a time when he needed counseling, a kind word or an understanding adult to comfort him instead of the beating and humiliation meted out to him? Gabby had a lot of tough years after he left Holy Rosary Mission. How much of it could have been traced back to the day he was beaten, had his head shaved bald and was further humiliated by having to wear a sign pointing out his supposed transgressions? But Gabby is one of those Lakota men with a sense of humor and an undying spirit of goodwill. He survived in good fashion and like many of us ex-mission boys; he survived in spite of all the efforts to make him less of a human being. I think the soap and water treatment really worked. It seems that his hair grew in twice as fast as usual. It was only his self-esteem and pride that was stunted for a long time. Copyright c. 2003 Lakota Journal. --------- "RE: Teachers incorporating culture in Classroom" --------- Date: Tue, Jun 10 2003 08:29:12 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TEACHING" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.ktvb.com/news/localnews/NW_060903IDNtribal_tech.a0a05bab.html Teachers incorporating culture in classroom 06/09/2003 Associated Press BLACKFOOT, Idaho - They're combining today's high-technology with yesterday's tribal customs and history at the Fort Hall Elementary School. The Blackfoot District school is on the Shoshone-Bannock reservation. And the faculty -- many of them tribal members -- are sensitive to the need to remind students of their culture. Principal Ryan Wilson says that the school goes well beyond the standard educational fare of math, English and science. Tribal member Louise Dixey has spent the past six years researching tribal history and hopes to eventually get it into schools through an interactive computer program that lays out the origin of the tribes, their beliefs and lifestyles. Law enforcement says security for forest summit 'flexible.' Copyright c. 2003 Belo Interactive & KTVB-TV/Boise, ID. --------- "RE: War being waged against Oklahoma Indians" --------- Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 00:25:06 -0500 From: "Klieta Bagwell" Subj: Fw: Heads up >To: "Gary Smith" Don't know if you are interested for your paper, but got this today. Klieta ---- Been following this issue on the web recently. The below is an extract of a post from Powwows.com. Please note that some of the companies involved have bases in Atlanta, and so could be in our area. Got this e-mail today, it's a bit lengthy, but is extremely important for Native American families in Oklahoma. Please read and Help! This is a politically-related email, regarding the politics of greed by large corporate sponsors on behalf of an anti-Indian campaign being waged against the Indian Nations in Oklahoma. I apologize in advance to anyone receiving this email who isn't interested. This email is going out to many of our contacts, in an effort to gain wide support for a business boycott and TRUTH campaign against ONE NATION. Even though many of you don't live in Oklahoma, or even the USA, you may note that some of these businesses supporting ONE NATION operate OUTSIDE OF OKLAHOMA also. Regardless of where you live, you can phone or email these contacts, and let them know that you are displeased with their corporate financial support of ONE NATION. Pass this email onto everyone in your address book who is interested in Indian sovereignty issues and treaty rights. These backers need to receive a landslide of negative feedback regarding their support of this destructive orgainziation. ONE NATION is an organization based in Oklahoma, which is spending thousands of dollars on a publicity campaign to turn public opinion AGAINST INDIAN NATIONS AND BUSINESSES in Oklahoma. The ONE NATION publicity campaign is using mis-information, lies, and half-truths, with no proof or figures to back up their claims, to stir up old anti-Indian sentiments among Oklahomans. It is absolutely disgraceful that these businesses are supporting such a dividing effort in Oklahoma, when Oklahomans of all backgrounds have made such a tremendous effort to overcome their differences and live in harmony with their neighbors as one large community where everyone has a seat at the table. One Nation claims that this is not a race-related campaign, but how can they honestly make that claim, when their campaign is focused on only one race. Their anti- Indian campaign is MOST CERTAINLY about MONEY. They are once again attempting to pull the rug out from under the efforts of Indians and Nations to provide employment opportunities and income to their communities and families, while so many Indian families in Oklahoma still live near or below the poverty line. Their intended results would also hurt the hundreds of non-Indian employees of Tribally-owned gas stations, travel plazas, smoke shops, bingo halls, casinos, and other businesses. We have many valued employees who are non-Indian, or non-enrolled Indians. The Indian Nations of Oklahoma are the state's LARGEST EMPLOYER!! **************************** You can read the One Nation propaganda at: www.onenationok.com JoKay Dowell, Founder, Eagle and Condor Indigenous Peoples' Alliance jkdowell@earthlink.net Subj: Government Historian Admits that Interior Office Routinely Misled Congress For Immediate Release: Government Historian Admits That Interior Officials Have Routinely Misled Congress About Management of the Individual Indian Trust WASHINGTON, June 16 - An historian, hired by the government as an expert to examine Individual Indian Trust documents, admitted last week that top Interior Department officials have obscured problems with the Trust for more than 100 years with "glowing" reports of management and reform. Under cross examination, Edward Angel - albeit frequently confused about key facts - confessed to a federal judge that Interior officials reported to Congress that trust systems were working at the same time the General Accounting Office and other independent analysts were finding that management and systems continued to fail. Among other things, Angel admitted that a 1915 GAO report to Congress found "serious flaws" in Individual Indian Trust accounting systems. But Angel could not explain why he had described the trust systems as operating effectively at the time in a February expert report to the court. The 1915 report explicitly repudiated the favorable representations then being made by Interior officials. "Nothing was more glowing as the commissioner's reports," Angel said in response to a serious of tough questions by Keith Harper, a lawyer for the Native American Rights Fund. Harper demonstrated that every independent study and report filed in the 20th century has found that the trust management systems continued to fail notwithstanding claims and testimony to the contrary by Interior Department officials. Harper showed that each promised reform failed, as he ticked off a list of reports that found that pervasive, long-term problems in trust management. The various systems have destroyed the integrity and reliability of trust records and data that the government wants to use to conduct the court-ordered accounting of Individual Indian Trust funds. "Every report I've seen has been critical," Angel reluctantly conceded under Harper's intense cross-examination. In one of the first reports prepared by Angel as a government expert in this case, Angel admitted that his representation to the court that Interior's policies and practices had been effective at the turn of the 20th century were false with respect to trust management. To the extent any policies were effective, Angel said they were limited to the policies and practices associated with the "assimilation" of Indians into society as a whole. Angel could not explain why his report failed to distinguish "assimilation" policy and practices from trust management policy, or why his assessment of the effectiveness of "assimilation" policies or practices were included without disclosure in a report on trust management issues. Angel's admissions seriously harms the government's case. He has confirmed plaintiffs' charges that the destruction and loss of critical trust records - historically as well as throughout seven years of litigation - make it impossible for the government to account for all funds as mandated by Congress and ordered by District Judge Royce Lamberth and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Lamberth and the Court of Appeals have held that the secretaries of Interior and Treasury are in breach of the trust duties - including the duty to account for all assets in the trust from 1887 - that they owe to more than 500,000 individual Indian trust beneficiaries. Dennis M. Gingold, lead counsel for the litigation team pressing Indian claims for a full accounting, said that Angel's confessions, when viewed in context with the testimony of Assistant Treasury Secretary Donald Hammond, demonstrate conclusively that the government will never be able to account for more than $13 billion in Individual Indian Trust revenue - plus accruing and accrued compound interest. Interior admits it has collected that much revenue from the sale of oil, gas, coal, hard rock minerals, precious metals and other natural resources extracted or cut on individual Indian trust lands. More than 100 years of disbursement records have been destroyed. For additional information: Bill McAllister: 703-385-6996 703-284-3948 202-257-5385 --------- "RE: Debate simmers over Contracts for Public Lands" --------- Date: Mon, Jun 16 2003 08:22:39 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="PUBLIC LANDS CONTRACTS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~1457120,00.html Debate simmers over contracts for public lands Natives want more participation By SAM BISHOP News-Miner Washington Bureau June 15, 2003 WASHINGTON - Alaskans should beware of Bush administration negotiations that could turn over work on national parks and wildlife refuges to Native American tribes, a public employees group said this week. Grady Hocutt, a former wildlife refuge manager working on the issue for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said contracting out work on public lands will create conflicts of interest, dilute the focus of federal agencies and threaten jobs held by federal employees. An Alaska tribal group, though, wants to expand such contracting and thinks arguments against it are misleading and a legacy of a prejudiced view of tribes. "It goes back, way back," said Randy Mayo, chairman of the Fort Yukon- based Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments. "This is just a new form of how these agency folks view us--that we're incompetent, that our role is to stand there with our hand out. We put up with it all the time." In the middle is the Department of the Interior, whose spokesman said the agency by law must consider tribal proposals but has no agenda to sign contracts wholesale. Hocutt, of PEER, said his group suspects that may be changing. The group believes a meeting last week between top Interior officials and representatives of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Washington, D.C., marks the beginning of a larger effort to reduce the federal work force. The two tribes want to take over some work on the National Bison Range in Montana. "To my knowledge this is the first active effort that has gotten this far," said Hocutt, a retired refuge manager in New York and former 30-year employee of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. A federal law passed by Congress in 1994 requires the Interior Department's land management agencies to review their programs annually to see which could be contracted to tribes. Work that is "inherently federal" can't be contracted, but other programs with "special geographic, historical or cultural significance" to tribes are eligible. Agency lands in Alaska, which often surround Native communities, are thus prime territory for such agreements, Hocutt said. Hugh Vickery, the Interior Department spokesman, said PEER is over- reacting to the bison range meetings. The law requires the Interior Department to discuss such proposals but does not mandate that any agreement be reached, he said. "There's no predetermined result of that negotiation," he said. As evidence that the Interior Department intends to increase contracting, PEER cited an April 5, 2002, notice in the Federal Register that lists departmental lands and functions that could be contracted to tribes through annual funding agreements. In that notice, the National Park Service listed 10 Alaska park areas and the Fish and Wildlife Service listed all 16 Alaska refuges. In addition to construction and maintenance work, jobs that could be contracted out in parks include archaeological surveys, comprehensive management planning, and gathering baseline subsistence data. In refuges, the list is similar but also includes all law enforcement efforts, under cross-deputization. Vickery said the notice did not reflect a new push by the Bush administration. "That same document has been published since 1995 every year virtually unchanged," he said. The only contracting proposal from an Alaska tribal group was rejected last year, Vickery noted. The application came from the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments. John Stroebele, the Anchorage-based supervisor of northern Alaska refuges, said the Athabascan group had proposed to take over virtually all activities and employment at the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge below the level of manager. "Part of the issue was substance and part was procedural," Stroebele said of the agency's decision to reject the proposal. "We had 10 working days to respond, and so therefore we had no alternative but to say it wasn't in the best interest of the refuge to accept their proposal." The rejection is on appeal to a higher-level Interior official, he said. Mayo, chairman of the 10-tribe Athabascan group, said he signed off on a scaled-back proposal to Fish and Wildlife last week. "It's pretty reasonable. A lot of those functions could be best served here on the ground," he said. Mayo is also president of the tribal council in Stevens Village, a Yukon River village about 25 miles upstream from the Dalton Highway Bridge. He and Dewey Schwalenberg, the Stevens Village natural resources director, said last week that they see no good arguments against tribal contracting and wish the agencies would move faster in implementing it. Both Vickery and Stroebele said federal agencies remain open to the possibilities. "(Interior Secretary) Gale Norton, I think it's safe to say, has made partnership with tribes and states a hallmark of the administration here, so it would not surprise me if the department was seeking ways to work with communities," Vickery said. Just how far to go hasn't been resolved though, as the Interior Department's policy stated in the Federal Register. "While general legal and policy guidance regarding what constitutes an inherently federal function exists, we will determine whether a specific function is inherently federal on a case-by-case basis," the document states. Hocutt, with PEER, said he believes the agencies have already stepped over the "inherently federal" line by nominating such work as land planning, habitat management and law enforcement. Stroebele disagreed. "If you contract it out--certain programs, functions or services of your refuge--and the refuge still retains the ability to make all the management decisions, theoretically there won't be a problem," Stroebele said. Schwalenberg of Stevens Village noted that the federal government accepts state authority for law enforcement on the Yukon Flats refuge. That's evidence that not even law enforcement is an "inherently federal" function, he said, and therefore tribes should be given a chance to do it and other jobs. Stevens Village already has state-certified police officers on its payroll who are enforcing conservation laws, he said. Using grant funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the tribe has hired professional biologists, Schwalenberg noted. The tribe also finished a job that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management hasn't been able to complete in more than 30 years--mapping the land Congress promised to the village corporation, Dinyee, in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Hocutt thinks it's still unwise to sign contracts with tribes. The strength of the national wildlife refuge system, for example, is in its nationwide focus on what's best for the land, he said. Contracting out all the work on a refuge to a separate political entity with its own agenda for the land and allegiances to its own members will interfere with that mission, he said. "I think you and I know how politics work," Hocutt said. "I would certainly not want to be that manager." Schwalenberg said such views refuse to recognize that tribal employees can be just as professional as federal employees. "All of our management is based on law. We don't have an agenda that we can just change at our whim to benefit the tribe over non-Native people," he said. Also, in many cases, federal law parallels tribal interests, he noted. For example, the federal subsistence law requires a hunting and fishing priority for rural residents, a policy with which the tribe agrees, he said. Hocutt said his opposition is not based on a skepticism of tribes in particular. He would oppose contracting to any organization--even a nonprofit professional wildlife management society, he said. PEER knows that opposing tribes is delicate politically, said Jennifer Reed, the group's spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., and that's partly why they're worried. "Not too many people are going to be able to argue with it without being called racist or something," she said. Hocutt noted that while the Bush administration reviews the issue, Rep. Don Young has reintroduced a bill that would force Alaska's federal park and refuge managers to contract their construction, maintenance and research work to 12 Alaska Native tribes or tribal groups within the next two years. The bill also would specifically transfer employees of the Kanuti and Koyukuk national wildlife refuges to a consortium of village tribal governments known as the Koyukuk Moose Co-management Team Inc. Employees with those refuges now work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Fairbanks and Galena. The Bush administration opposed Young's bill at a congressional hearing last year, but Hocutt believes the Interior Department feels congressional pressure to step up the contracting effort. Any Alaska proposals are likely to follow precedents set at Montana's bison range, he said. "You can bet your last nickel they're in the top drawer of the same desk," he said. Washington, D.C., reporter Sam Bishop can be reached at sbishop@newsminer.com or (202) 662-8721. Copyright c. 1999-2003 MediaNews Group, Inc. and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Inc. --------- "RE: Tribes still recovering 50 years after Dam" --------- Date: Tue, Jun 10 2003 08:29:12 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GARRISON DAM" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/6052455.htm NORTH DAKOTA: Tribes still recovering 50 years after dam project Garrison Dam moved hundreds of families from longtime homes Associated Press June 10, 2003 NEW TOWN, N.D. - Marilyn Hudson's family used an old cottonwood tree as the measuring stick to gauge the rising floodwaters that swallowed their farm nestled in the Missouri River Valley. The flood level rose gradually until the farm that once supported a family of nine children disappeared under more than 50 feet of water. The flood was created by one of the most ambitious engineering projects to reshape the Northern Plains: Garrison Dam, dedicated 50 years ago, on June 11, 1953. Hudson's family was one of 349 on the Fort Berthold Reservation that were uprooted by the huge reservoir, Lake Sakakawea, made by the dam. More than 1,700 people were forced to move from the rich bottomlands that had sheltered three tribes for centuries. Five decades and 2 generations later, the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara, which became the Three Affiliated Tribes, say they are still are recovering from the inundation of 155,000 acres of their best land. Payments for flooded land paid only pennies on the dollar to members of the Three Tribes, who lost a quarter of their reservation, and almost all their best agricultural and timber lands. The federal government made promises that it failed to keep: 20,000 kilowatts of free power never materialized, and the tribes still are lobbying for a full-service clinic to replace the hospital they lost. But many of the losses remain intangible for the reservation's 3,776 residents. Families and communities, once clustered in villages along the river bottom, were divided by a huge reservoir that split the reservation into five isolated districts. "It took away so much," said tribal chairman Tex Hall. "It was more than just the land. It was the language, it was the culture, it was the history. It was more than just a simple flooding." Trucking water One bitter irony for the people of Fort Berthold: Although one-quarter of the reservation was drowned by one of the world's largest man-made reservoirs, 300 families today must haul treated drinking water to their homes. Artesian well water that runs from the tap in many rural areas is brackish, and sometimes pungent with the odor of rotten eggs. The tribe maintains that the water, high in sodium, alkali and magnesium, has been linked to high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. Residents of Fort Berthold pleaded with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to spare their reservation from catastrophic flooding. The Three Tribes offered free land for another dam location, upstream from the chosen site, that would avoid major flooding on the reservation. But the federal government rejected the location because it lacked adequate water storage capacity for flood control and the more than 1 million acres of irrigation Garrison Dam was to deliver to North Dakota. Tribal chairman George Gillette dabbed tears from his eyes after he signed the contract in 1948 surrendering the heart of the reservation. "The members of the tribal council sign this contract with heavy hearts," he said. "Right now, the future does not look good to us." The original settlement awarded $5.1 million, or $33 an acre, to pay for the land and improvements. The sum also was to cover relocation and reconstruction costs. Landowners were denied the opportunity to clear timber from their land. A private appraisal later calculated $21.9 million damages to the tribe. Congress boosted its compensation by $7.5 million, or a total of $12.6 million - $9 million below what the tribes said was fair market value. In 1992, Congress awarded the Three Tribes a settlement of $149.2 million as delayed compensation for losses they suffered from Garrison Dam. A 1986 study concluded they were due additional compensation of $178.4 million to $411.8 million. Copyright c. 2003 Grand Forks Herald and wire service sources. --------- "RE: Tribal Leaders promote National Unity" --------- Date: Mon, Jun 16 2003 08:22:39 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="UNITY" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0615tribalsummit15.html 40 tribal leaders meet, promote national unity Lindsey Collom The Arizona Republic June 15, 2003 More than 40 leaders of Native American tribes met Saturday in Phoenix to discuss national unity and strengthen relations between tribes and the state. The talks were a precursor to the midyear session of the National Congress of American Indians that begins today. Under the session title of "One Voice for Change," leaders stressed the importance of tribal unification at a time when Congress wants to diminish tribal power. "We need to recognize the real enemy is gaining. . . . We are strong as native nations, but we are stronger together," organization President Tex G. Hall said. Before roundtable discussions ensued, several presenters spoke about the plight of native people due to inadequate funding and weak voices in Congress. Rachel Joseph, chairwoman of Indian Health Affairs, said that from 1984 to present, federal money has not matched rising health care costs. "Every time we lose $100 million, we lose 365,000 outpatient visits and $115,000 in dental services," Joseph said. "Unless money is infused into the budget, the epidemics and disease we see will continue to escalate." The rest of the week will focus on "Exercising Sovereignty - Providing Leadership." It's a sovereignty that is threatened, Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. said. "Our ability and power to control our land and resources, maintain and practice our religion, protect and educate our children and preserve and express our unique and beautiful culture stems from the sacrifices that our forefathers, our elders and our medicine people endured for our continued survival," Shirley said. "We owe it to them to continue that legacy." Copyright c. 2003 The Arizona Republic. --------- "RE: Cuts to Grants benefiting American Indian Tribes" --------- Date: Mon, Jun 16 2003 08:22:39 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GRANTS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthtribune/6097907.htm [Editorial note: The list that makes up this article includes substantial cuts in law enforcement, infrastructure, and educational funding. Note that these are funds collected by the state from the tribes' enterprises, which begs the question of just who that money will benefit instead of the Indians who generated it?] Cuts to grants benefiting American Indian tribes Associated Press June 16, 2003 The Legislature's budget committee recommended several changes to the grants the state gives American Indian tribes. The grants are funded with money the tribes pay the state from casino revenues. The following is a list of some of the cuts. _$700,000 for tribal law enforcement assistance grants. _$50,000 for Arts Board grants for American Indian individuals and groups. _$50,000 for Native American liaison grants to the Great Lakes Intertribal Council. _$265,200 for the Department of Commerce's liaison and administration of gaming economic development and diversification grants and loans. _$500,000 for wastewater and drinking water treatment facilities for the town of Swiss and the St. Croix Band of Chippewa. _$520,000 for alternative school American Indian language and culture education aid program. _$100,000 for American Indian culture education at Beloit College. _$1,200,000 for grants to tribal colleges for work-based learning programs. Source: Legislative Fiscal Bureau. Copyright c. 2003 AP Wire and wire service sources. Copyright c. 2003 Duluth News Tribune. --------- "RE: Controversial Road Plan" --------- Date: Mon, Jun 16 2003 08:22:39 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="PETROGLYPHS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news03/061403_news_roadside.shtml To some, road is relief; to others, it's irreverence By Ed Asher Tribune Reporter June 14, 2003 Open skies, silence and pocked basalt boulders scratched with cryptic images make more than a park for some visitors to the Petroglyph National Monument - it's a church. If Albuquerque City Council acts on Monday to approve a capital spending proposal, it will be a church with a four-lane highway running through it. The long-contemplated, controversial plan to run an extension of Paseo del Norte through the monument to relieve traffic congestion for residents of the growing Paradise Hills area is just the latest of a series of insults to ground American Indians hold sacred, said a representative of a group opposing the road extension. "Native American places of prayer are taking a beating all across the country," said Sonny Weahkee, who is of Cochiti, Zuni and Navajo ancestry and an organizer for Sacred Alliances for Grassroots Equality. "When it comes to people's convenience, Native American religion is not held relevant," he said. The debate dates back to the mid-1980s, when officials began serious discussions on financing Paseo del Norte. At the same time, American Indian groups began voicing their concerns for the preservation of petroglyphs on the West Mesa. Pueblo groups said many of the ancient rock art petroglyphs were being defaced or removed and called for official protection. Those discussions eventually led to the creation of the Petroglyph National Monument, jointly managed by the National Park Service and the city of Albuquerque. However, as the road project progressed, pueblo groups began voicing their objections. City officials were proposing to extend the road through the monument, a 17-mile-long escarpment strewn with some 15,000 ancient rock drawings. The extension, the groups said, would desecrate a place of prayer. Even if the road did not touch one rock, the noise pollution, air pollution, traffic congestion and untold other disturbances would still amount to desecration, they said. Phillip Lauriano, a Sandia Pueblo tribal councilor and Turquoise Kive chief, said in 1993: "The petroglyphs are the nerve center of pueblo culture, religion and tradition. They are there to guard, to protect, to teach, to advise, to doctor, to cure." The opposition is carried on today by the SAGE coalition, an outgrowth of the Petroglyph Monument Protection Coalition. The city of Albuquerque says its plan to build a road through the monument is environmentally sound and will not harm the landscape. Mayor Martin Chavez says the route has been aligned to avoid petroglyphs. Councilor Michael Cadigan, who represents the upper West Side and has been the main proponent for the extension, is also proposing to spend $1 million to acquire more land for the monument, providing a further buffer. Cadigan says he has walked the route and not found one petroglyph in the path. State Sen. Joseph Carraro and others argue that the pueblos agreed to allow the extension in the 1980s in exchange for creating and adding to the monument. A spokesperson for the All Indian Pueblo Council could not be reached for comment. Weahkee said there never was such an agreement. "The pueblos talked about the boundaries of the monument, not about easements or roads," Weahkee said. The monument was created by an act of Congress in 1990. In 1998, U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici attached a rider to a spending bill that removed 8 acres from monument property for the specific purpose of allowing a corridor for the road. The National Park Service initially expressed reservations to the extension. But because of Domenici's bill, "the National Park Service no longer has a position on the road," said Diane Sounder, local National Park Service chief of outreach. Copyright c. 2003 The Albuquerque Tribune. --------- "RE: Apaches coping with Multiple Blows" --------- Date: Mon, Jun 16 2003 08:22:39 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WHITE MOUNTAIN APACHES" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0615fire-apache15.html Apaches coping with multiple blows Local industry, sacred spots hit hard by monster fire Judy Nichols The Arizona Republic June 15, 2003 CIBECUE - The acrid smoke that drifted through this tiny Apache village last year has been replaced by the sweet smell of sawdust as the tribe rushes to salvage and save what it can in the hills charred by the "Rodeo- Chediski" fire. Soon the chainsaws will stop, however. The mill, which opened in 1963 and is a principal employer, will close and the White Mountain Apache Tribe will face a forest that will never be the same and a future none could have imagined a year ago. In just one week, the fire took their livelihood. It put one of their own in jail, charged with starting the Rodeo fire. It left them angry when a White woman trespassing on their land started the Chediski blaze but was never charged. It strained their relationship with nearby communities, where some reported being snubbed by Whites who blamed them for the fire. And it robbed them of their culture, burning sacred places like Pumpkin Lake, where many went to pray. "When the smoke cleared, the pain began to set in, especially for the elders," Tribal Chairman Dallas Massey said. "They went to get plants for healing ceremonies, different trees they used for sacred purposes, and all those were gone when they looked up. They said, 'Where's our forest?' " The state's largest wildfire had its greatest impact here, on the Fort Apache Reservation, destroying more than 275,000 acres of the tribe's 1.6 million acres, much of it commercial timber. The damage was so widespread and so complete, and the time frame so short for cutting the burned trees before they would rot, that the tribe was forced to sell salvage contracts to outside companies for the first time in their history. It meant allowing others to harvest virgin forest areas and export whole logs, bypassing the mills that are one of the tribe's few sources of jobs. "It hurt so bad," said Jonah Beach, standing outside the Cibecue mill, where he has worked for a quarter-century. "We could see the trucks going by from here. There were tribal members who couldn't believe we had trees that big out there, some with 40-inch diameters. I wish we could have cut it here." To make matters worse, the estimates of $20 million that the tribe would see from the sales were wildly optimistic. In fact, less than $2 million has been earned with 90 percent of the logging finished. "They took those beautiful trees from the virgin areas, helicoptered them out and the money is not even $2 million," Massey said. "They were so big, sometimes there were only six on a truck." The Bureau of Indian Affairs was able to quickly bid out the salvage sales because environmental groups rarely challenge sales on reservations, bowing to tribal sovereignty. Areas of national forest that were burned have not been logged. There were 16 salvage sales on the Fort Apace Reservation, five of which involved helicopters lifting logs from steep slopes where truck couldn't go, said Fred von Bonin, a BIA forester. Up on a ridge on the western end of the reservation, members of a Fort Apache Timber Co. crew looked as if they just walked out of a coal mine. "It's hotter out here now," said Herman Truax, an Apache logger from Whiteriver, wiping the sweat off his face. "There's no shade, too much dirt." The ash gets everywhere, said George Gregg III of Cedar Creek. "It's in your nose, your mouth, your ears." Their supervisor, Elmer Nastivar from East Fork said loggers have to resharpen their saws more often. But they're more worried about what comes later. "Soon, there won't be nothing left," Nastivar said. "We'll all be out of a job pretty soon. "Maybe, I'll go back to rodeoing." At the Cibecue mill, 2 million board-feet of smaller logs are stacked in the yard, and trucks rumble in all day with more, said Delbert Wallen, a supervisor at the mill. About 70,000 board-feet is cut each day. But much of the wood is "blueing," showing the blue stains of fungus brought in by beetles. It lowers the wood's value and eventually will rot the logs. The logs also are drying and cracking. Wood that used to weigh 12 to 13 pounds per foot is now down to 10. And the summer monsoons will intensify the destruction. By October, the usable timber will be gone, and the tribe probably will close the mill, which normally operates year-round. Next year, there will be a reduced amount of logging, possibly only 35 million board feet, 6 million board feet less than usual because the western part of the reservation will be out of production. "We won't go back into those areas for 100 years," said Massey, adding that the support from other tribes has helped. "We received donations from $5 to up to millions from California tribes, and local tribes gave us clothing, feed for livestock. We really want to thank them. They gave from their heart and without that we would be in so much deeper problems." Von Bonin said the Rodeo-Chediski fire is the largest the tribe has ever seen. In 1903-06, about 60,000 acres burned, and in 1971, during the "Carizzo" fire, about 55,000 acres burned. The unusual size and heat of the fire has made it worthy of study, and the BIA has signed a contract with Northern Arizona University to look at the effects of the fire on the reservation. In areas where the tribe had thinned or done prescribed burns, the fire slowed down and burned "cooler, " and the trees survived. In untreated areas, it burned extremely hot, killing all of the trees and sterilizing the soil. The second day, it burned upcanyon and upwind through heavy fuels. The devastation over thousands of acres required creativity in mulching and reseeding efforts. "We couldn't have people out there spreading hay by hand," von Bonin said. "It would take too long and be too costly." So the BIA perfected "helibombing," dropping oversized bales of hay from helicopters. If the nets were unfurled just right, the hay would break up in the air and mulch a half-acre per drop. They dropped grass seed over 176,000 acres using three crop-dusting planes over three weeks. They rounded up wandering cattle and wild horses that would eat the grasses and will keep them off the land for three years. They have 750,000 seedlings in greenhouses for replanting beginning in mid to late August. Throughout the fire and its aftermath, tribal members felt they were on shifting ground. When tribal member Leonard Gregg was arrested and charged with starting the fire in part to get work as a firefighter, tribal members said they were scared to go into Show Low because of reports of racist slurs and lack of service. "We looked into those allegations and about 90 percent of them were rumors," said Massey, who worked with surrounding communities to quell hostilities. "We set up a 1-800 number to report any instances, and people who said anything were fired. It's a lot better now." But people are still angry that Valinda Jo Elliott, who started the Chediski fire when she got lost on the reservation, was never charged. "A majority of people still feel like justice was not done," Massey said. "A tribal member who lived here was taken in, and an outsider who was trespassing and started the Chediski fire, nothing was done to her. They don't understand the laws." Culturally, the scars may never heal. "People feel the hurt," Massey said. "They used to wake up to see beautiful trees and a beautiful mountain up there. They used to go to Pumpkin Lake, which is so sacred, where they did connect to the heavenly father. They went up there to pray quite a bit, now the scenery is all gone." Now, when you look at the white spikes of yucca blossoms, you see the ashen hills behind them. "When it rains, what used to be a beautiful river is blackened with ash and it creates a smell," Massey said. "It's really kind of sad to see all that." Copyright c. 2003 The Arizona Republic. --------- "RE: Opinion: Salish-Kootenai deserve chance" --------- Date: Thu, Jun 12 2003 08:10:48 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BISON MANAGEMENT" http://www.indianz.com/News/show.asp?ID=2003/06/12/nmcourt http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20030612/opinion/464461.html Opinion: Salish-Kootenai deserve chance to run range June 12, 2003 Montana Indian tribes have struggled for decades to build viable nations within reservation borders. They've had to do it in a way that squares with the federal government - and often under hostile conditions. So it's a huge achievement for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in far western Montana that by the end of this month a draft proposal will be ready that could allow them to take over management of the National Bison Range from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Established 95 years ago, the 18,500-acre range is home to 350 to 450 bison, as well as elk, deer, antelope, coyotes, black bears and some 200 species of birds. Though the federal government has a number of smaller management contracts with tribes, the Flathead tribes would be the first to assume full-scale oversight of a national wildlife refuge. Because of the location of the bison range and the tribes' demonstrated track record of strong management, we support the change. The Indian Self-Determination Act allows the federal government to enter agreements with tribes to assume management of some functions on lands considered to be "of special geographic, historical and cultural significance to the participating tribe." In this case, the bison range falls within the borders of the Flathead Indian Reservation, where the Salish and Kootenai can pretty easily demonstrate they have historical and cultural ties. The tribes also have an impressive track record of managing government and private entities. They -- not the Bureau of Indian Affairs -- control tribal functions on the reservation. They also manage a substantial energy facility, a water and irrigation system, a community college and numerous successful businesses, including - and K Technologies -- an information technology corporation that has contracts with the Department of Defense. And the tribes already do some work at the bison range, including programs for vegetation and water quality. "It's every bit as good as any governmental entity I've worked for, and in many respects better than United States government," testified former Missoula County Attorney Dusty Deschamps, who said the tribes "unequivocally" have the ability to manage the refuge. Alvin Windy Boy, chairman of the Chippewa-Cree Tribes from Box Elder, agreed: "My father once told me the Salish and Kootenai tribes have paved the way for all of us. We want to expand our horizons as First Nations." The possible change has generated excitement among many Native Americans and protest from a number of non-Indians. Those against tribal management cite issues ranging from possible future job discrimination to concern about the tribes' ability to run a federal program. It hasn't helped that the federal officials have met secretly with tribal officials to iron out the plan. Secrecy in government always breeds mistrust. Some of the opposition, however, borders on being racist. One man testified that he was afraid Indians would try to push their culture and religion on schoolchildren. That's nonsense. But as this is the first agreement of its kind, we would urge the tribes to stand by their promise to retain current employees, who have demonstrated the commitment and expertise to operate the refuge. As positions come open, the tribes probably will give Indians preference in hiring. That's not a problem, as long as the tribes can demonstrate that they're hiring qualified employees. We also believe the agreement should be for a limited time, after which it can be renegotiated. Or the feds should have the ability to take back control if tribal management for some reason fails. But we don't anticipate that will happen. And, in any event, the federal government retains actual ownership of the land. The Salish and Kootenai tribes worked hard to build their nation within the Flathead Reservation. They deserve this opportunity to manage the bison range. Copyright c. 2003 Great Falls Tribune. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Opinion: Blackfeet running Glacier? Not soon" --------- Date: Thu, Jun 12 2003 08:10:48 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BLACKFEET/GLACIER" http://www.indianz.com/News/show.asp?ID=2003/06/12/nmcourt http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20030612/opinion/464462.html Opinion: Blackfeet running Glacier? Not soon June 12, 2003 An agreement allowing the Flathead tribes to manage the National Bison Range could open the door for other tribes to negotiate similar deals. Blackfeet Indians, whose reservation once included but now borders Glacier National Park are among them. In fact, Blackfeet officials say the notion of managing the national park is something they've thought about. But it's not likely to happen anytime soon. It wouldn't be hard for the Blackfeet to document a geographic, historic or cultural tie to land within the park, as the Indian Self-Determination Act requires. However, they face at least two other significant obstacles: - The federal agreements are limited to compacted tribes, which means those that manage most or all of their own tribal programs. The Blackfeet don't fall under this category. In fact, the Bureau of Indian Affairs took over control of the tribal police force earlier this year because of mismanagement. It is possible, however, for the Blackfeet to eventually assume more control and become a compacted tribe. - The feds also insist that tribes demonstrate they have the ability to manage substantial public or private facilities before such a large contract would be negotiated. While the Blackfeet have managed some programs well, there also have been some notable failures. It will take time to establish a more successful track record. If the tribe becomes compacted and establishes a strong history of managing other large programs, discussions about Glacier could be possible. Copyright c. 2003 Great Falls Tribune. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Tribe gives Chandler $1 Million for Bridge" --------- Date: Wed, Jun 11 2003 08:29:12 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GIFT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.news-star.com/stories/061103/New_28.shtml Tribe gives Chandler $1 million for bridge By JAMIE DUKES SNS Staff Writer June 11, 2003 After Chandler residents spent the past two years driving around the Ninth Street bridge, the city is receiving $1 million from the Sac & Fox Nation through the Bureau of Indian Affairs to build a new bridge. Chandler City Manager Reuben Pulis said a special council meeting was held at 9 a.m. Tuesday to approve the contract. An official announcement was made at a Chandler Chamber of Commerce luncheon at noon for a number of tribal officials, Pulis and Mayor Keith Duncan. During the council meeting, Pulis said the council also gave the staff directions for talking to an engineer and finding one to respond in a timely manner. "Plans have to be complete by September to be able to receive federal funding," Pulis said. "We will approve an engineer during a special meeting Monday, where we will also approve the budget." Of the engineers being considered, Pulis said one candidate will be Brawley Engineering of Oklahoma City. "We already are under contract with them," he said. "They do bridge inspections for us and inspected the Ninth Street bridge. I also will visit with other engineers." Pulis said the bridge has been impassable for nearly two and a half years, since it collapsed under the weight of a street sweeper. "This (funding) is one of the most meaningful things that has happened for Chandler in a very long time," he said. "This bridge was developed in 1926 and has been the major passage route from the east side of town to the west." Pulis said the tribe was contributing 80 percent of the funds with the city paying $300,000. Sac & Fox Principal Chief Don Abney said he considers the deal a simple cooperative agreement. "This has been ongoing for several years," Abney said. "We decided one day it was time to work together. This is something, that, in the long-run, affects all of us." Tribal treasurer Truman Carter said the tribe was pleased to enter into such an agreement. "We've done things like this for commissioners in Lincoln, Payne and Pottawatomie counties," Carter said. "We've also done it with the cities of Shawnee and Prague. These are all within the exterior boundaries of our reservation." During the luncheon, Carter presented an overview of the tribe's contributions. "The Sac and Fox Nation has accomplished the letting and building of more road and bridge projects since 1990 than any other Indian tribe in Oklahoma," he said. "The nation dedicated $29.9 million of the tribe's share of federal road and bridge dollars to state, county and local projects." Of that amount, he said $18 million has gone to build new roads and bridges in Lincoln County. Reservation-wide, $25 million has been spent on bridges and $4.7 million has gone toward roads, he said. Others attending the luncheon were newly appointed Oklahoma Highway Commission Chairman Dan Overland of Shawnee; tribal secretary George Thurman, tribal business committee member A.C. Wilson, Rep. Danny Morgan and Rick Bond, Oklahoma Department of Transportation. Copyright c. 1997-2002 The Shawnee News-Star. --------- "RE: Deal could turn Struggling NWT into 'Have' Region" --------- Date: Wed, Jun 11 2003 08:29:12 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NWT DEAL" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/ Deal could turn struggling NWT into 'have' region By JOHN IBBITSON June 10, 2003 KELOWNA, B.C. -- Within a very few weeks, the federal and Northwest Territory governments will announce a landmark agreement that will, in effect, give the territory provincial powers over its natural resources. Sources close to the negotiations say a framework agreement between the two governments and native leaders has been reached and awaits the signatures of Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Robert Nault, Northwest Territories Premier Stephen Kakfwi and leaders of the territory's aboriginal governments. The agreement will see Ottawa give the territorial government responsibility for, and revenue from, in-ground natural resources, including diamonds. "Probably within a few weeks we will see the development of a framework agreement on devolution and revenue-sharing," Mr. Kakfwi confirmed in an interview yesterday. The two governments and aboriginal leaders have yet to agree on details of devolution or changes to federal financial compensation to the territory. Those negotiations will follow the signing of the framework agreement. Mr. Kakfwi, who is at the annual conference of the Western premiers to drum up support for the deal, said his territory urgently needs to gain control over its resources. The Yukon government has a similar agreement with Ottawa. But Yukon lacks the natural-resource potential that, in a few years, could turn NWT into the first "have" territory. Earlier this year, a second diamond mine opened in the territory -- the first opened in 1998 -- helping vault Canada to the rank of the world's fifth-largest producer of diamonds. And after years of negotiations, agreement is in place to proceed with the Mackenzie Valley pipeline, which will bring more jobs to an already booming economy. As a result of the mining boom and oil and gas exploration, unemployment sits at 6 per cent, well below the national average. Social assistance levels have been falling, and the government recently implemented modest reductions in corporate and personal taxes. However, the territory suffers from a chronic inability to balance its books. The deficit this year is projected to reach $85-million, on revenues of $854- million. Part of the problem is that, unlike provinces, the Northwest Territories has no control over its in-ground natural resources. Royalties from the diamond mines and oil and gas operations flow to Ottawa. The territory enjoys secondary economic benefits, such as taxes from workers and from other businesses the industry generates, but as territorial revenues increase, federal grants are cut back. And the territory is responsible for creating the infrastructure needed to sustain industrial growth. The federal government agrees in principle that Northwest Territories deserves greater control over its resources. But a deal has been difficult to reach. With a population of only 40,000, the question is whether the territory has the capacity to manage its natural resources on its own. About half the population is aboriginal, and some native leaders have argued that the territory's petroleum and mineral resources should remain in the ground until aboriginal governments have achieved the effective equivalent of full sovereignty. The Western provincial and territorial premiers are expected to endorse Mr. Kakfwi's efforts today. But citizens of NWT, Yukon and Nunavik should not expect any progress in efforts to achieve provincial status. Most provinces, especially Quebec, are leery about allowing the territories an equal place in Confederation, and they would need to approve provincial status for the territories through an amendment to the Constitution. But provincehood is not an immediate goal, Mr. Kakfwi said. "We're not seeking constitutional powers. The constitutional question is difficult and remote. For this decade, anyway, being a territory is fine." jibbitson@globeandmail.ca Copyright c. 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Appeals Court throws out Native Tax Exemption" --------- Date: Thu, Jun 12 2003 08:10:48 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TREATY 8" http://www.indianz.com/News/show.asp?ID=2003/06/12/treaty8 http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/06/11/tax_ruling030611 Federal appeals court throws out native tax exemption Wed, 11 Jun 2003 20:17:10 OTTAWA - About 30,000 native people were told on Wednesday they are not exempt from paying taxes when the Federal Court of Appeal struck down a lower court ruling. In March 2002, members of 23 native bands in northern Alberta convinced a Federal Court trial division judge that they are entitled to freedom from taxes, even if they live off-reserve. The appeal court issued a unanimous rejection of that ruling on Wednesday. The earlier ruling was based on the argument that native leaders who signed Treaty 8 in 1899 had been assured by government negotiators that it protected them from the future imposition of any tax, even though that wasn't written into the document. About half the people covered by Treaty 8 live off-reserve in Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories. The Indian Act exempts native people who live and work on reserves from paying taxes. But those who live and work off-reserve are taxed. Using the oral tradition of Treaty 8 elders, Alberta Cree Gordon Benoit argued that federal negotiator David Laird promised that the treaty would protect the elders' ancestors from taxes. In an 1899 report to the Privy Council, Laird said, "We assured them that the treaty would not lead to any forced interference with their mode of life, that it did not open the way to the imposition of any tax." Benoit, a truck driver from Fort McMurray, Alta., began the fight for tax exemption in 1992. Wednesday's decision could still be appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. Federal government lawyers argued that Ottawa can tax anyone it wants to, and that exemptions are created through legislation, not treaties. The governments of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan supported the federal case. Written by CBC News Online staff Copyright c. 2003 CBC. --------- "RE: Tsuu T'ina Police short in Shootout" --------- Date: Wed, Jun 11 2003 08:29:12 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SHOOTING" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.canada.com/search/story Tsuu T'ina police short in shootout Wages too low, chief complains Jason van Rassel Calgary Herald Tuesday, June 10, 2003 Two Tsuu T'ina Nation Police officers had no backup when someone hit their vehicle with gunfire during a routine patrol, raising concerns there aren't enough members to safely police the reserve. The officers were able to take cover and escape uninjured from last Saturday's early morning incident, but it was too close a call for police Chief Verne Fielder. "The potential for something worse was there. It could have been really bad," Fielder said. The police service has been left with five officers under Fielder after the RCMP's recent move to reassign three Mounties who were stationed on the sprawling territory just west of Calgary to assist in the Tsuu T'ina department's development. The number of officers is about to get smaller -- at least in the short term -- after one of Fielder's officers took a new job and another is considering a better-paying position on another First Nations police force. A top constable on the Tsuu T'ina force makes just under $40,000 annually, which is less than the $40,514 the Calgary Police Service pays its rookies. The officer who resigned took a job with Calgary Transit protective services, where salaries range from $36,418 to $48,557. The second officer is mulling over a job with the File Hills, Sask., police service that pays $54,000 a year, said Fielder. "It's frustrating," Fielder said. "I need more officers and I think I need to pay them properly." Fielder's department has a $620,000 budget, paid for by a cost-sharing agreement that sees Ottawa contribute 52 per cent to Tsuu T'ina and Alberta's four other First Nations police forces and the province contribute the remaining 48 per cent. Last year, the provincial government's share was $3.8 million. "I've been in discussions with Chief Fielder and I'm aware of his concerns," Solicitor General Heather Forsyth said this week. Forsyth has long maintained aboriginal policing is a priority for her ministry and said she has lobbied for more cash to beef up policing in all areas. "We also have major concerns in many parts of the province," she said. Sitting as it does next to a city of nearly a million people, the Tsuu T'ina Nation presents unique challenges to its police force, though none are likely greater than Black Bear Crossing. While more than 1,200 band members live in rural homes spread throughout the Tsuu T'ina territory, about 850 residents -- aboriginal and non- aboriginal -- live in high-density housing at Black Bear Crossing, which is just west of the 37th Street S.W. boundary with the city. Calls at the former Canadian Forces barracks, which reverted to the band when the military pulled out in 1997, account for more than three-quarters of the incidents Tsuu T'ina police respond to. A pair of officers were on Korea Avenue in Black Bear Crossing at about 3:30 a.m. last Saturday when they heard a shot ring out near their marked Dodge Durango SUV. "They could hear it whiz by them," Fielder said. A second shot, likely from a .22-calibre rifle, hit the Durango's rear window and shattered it. The officers "took cover in a safe tactical point," said Fielder, but they were the only two on duty, meaning there was no one to call to back them up. "They were it," he said. While Calgary city police occasionally assist the Tsuu T'ina force with major incidents (the tactical unit came to the reserve later that day to deal with a youth holed up in a house), Fielder said calling in officers unfamiliar with the surroundings could have put them at risk with a shooter on the loose. Fielder said he will be speaking with Calgary police this week about developing a more formal protocol for co-operation when Tsuu T'ina police need help. Meanwhile, members from the RCMP's general investigations section in Calgary are assisting in the hunt for the shooter, who is also believed to be responsible for shooting out two windows and a sign at the Tsuu T'ina police office at Black Bear Crossing. The tripartite policing agreement that governs Tsuu T'ina police provides for ongoing RCMP assistance in major investigations, but Fielder said chances are slim the mounties will return any officers to the reserve for day-to-day policing. "You might as well look for a star in the East -- it would take a miracle," he said. jvanrassel@theherald.canwest.com Copyright c. 2003 Calgary Herald. Copyright c. 2003 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest Global Communications Corp. --------- "RE: Drop-offs happened more than once" --------- Date: Tue, Jun 10 2003 08:29:12 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SASKATOON POLICE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.cbc.ca/storyview/CBC/2003/06/09/stonechild030609 Saskatoon police chief says drop-offs happened 'more than once' Mon, 09 Jun 2003 20:25:17 SASKATOON - Saskatoon's police chief says officers may have been dumping native people outside the city for years, an admission that comes as new information emerges about a 13-year-old case. A CBC News investigation has uncovered new details about the activities of the police the night a Cree teenager from Saskatchewan vanished. INDEPTH: Who was Neil Stonechild? Seventeen-year-old Neil Stonechild's frozen body was found in a field on the outskirts of Saskatoon in November 1990. Electronic records confirm that police were looking for Stonechild the night he disappeared, CBC has learned. The teen's body was found five days after a witness says he saw him in the back of a police cruiser. Stonechild's case was all but forgotten for 10 years until the RCMP reopened it after two other aboriginal men were found frozen outside the city within one week three years ago. 'We have to take ownership' In 2001, two of the city's police officers were convicted of unlawful confinement after they dropped off Darrell Night in freezing weather on the city's outskirts. For years, the Saskatoon Police Service has insisted that the conviction marked an isolated case of such treatment of aboriginals. Police Chief Russell Sabo concedes that's not the case. "It happened more than once and we fully admit that and, in fact, on behalf of the police department I want to apologize," he said. "It's quite conceivable there were other times." INDEPTH: Cold Case: The Lawrence Wegner Story go to http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/coldcase/ INDEPTH: Starlight Tours go to http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/firstnations/starlighttours.html "We had indicated that, as I understand, that we didn't have any other incidents of this nature," said Sabo. "And I think we have to take ownership of the things that have transpired." Computer records link police to Stonechild Sources say in Stonechild's case, electronic records confirm police were looking for him that night in 1990 because of a noise complaint. He and a friend, 16-year-old Jason Roy, were out earlier that night, looking for Stonechild's old girlfriend, ringing apartment buzzers at her building. They woke people up and someone called the police. The two were separated, but about 15 minutes later, Roy says a police car pulled out of an alley with Stonechild, handcuffed and bleeding, sitting in the back seat. "Neil looked very, very scared. He was screaming at me and he wanted me to help him," says Roy. Roy says he was scared and gave police a false name. The police called the name in on their radio, Roy says, and he was released. Another teenager, Bruce Genaille, says police also stopped him that night in the same alley. He says they kept insisting he was Neil Stonechild. Sources say the computer checks police made that night still exist and confirm that police stopped Roy and Genaille. Officers questioned by RCMP Roy told police twice what he saw that night, once right after Stonechild was found dead, and again months later when he asked to speak to a homicide detective. Roy says police weren't all that interested. "They just made a couple of notes, and they said they would get back to me. Nobody ever got back to me on it," he says. The original case files were destroyed prematurely during renovations at the police headquarters. After the freezing death of two aboriginal men outside of Saskatoon within one week in 2000, the province brought in the RCMP to investigate. The RCMP interrogated two Saskatoon police officers about a dozen times, but prosecutors decided there was not enough evidence to lay charges. A public inquiry will look into the teen's death this fall. Both police officers questioned by the RCMP in the case, Const. Brad Senger and Const. Larry Hartwig, have official standing with the inquiry. Their lawyers say it will show their clients did nothing wrong. Written by CBC News Online staff Copyright c. 2003 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Reburial of Indian Remains to resume" --------- Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 05:58:17 -0400 From: "MI-BRANCH-NAA" Subj: YANKTON SIOUX--Reburial of Indian remains to resume under supervision of magistrate judge Mailing List: Native Rights Reburial of Indian remains to resume Ben Shouse Argus Leader published: 6/13/2003 Special master to supervise work The reburial of Native American remains at North Point Recreation Area near Pickstown will resume under a decision issued Thursday in federal court in Sioux Falls. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol said next week he will appoint Marshall Young, a U.S. magistrate judge in Rapid City, as a special master to supervise the return of the remains to their original burial site. The issue returned to federal court last month when members of the Yankton Sioux Tribe blocked construction work at the North Point campground along the Missouri River. They said contractors were showing disrespect for remains that were found during construction of a registration building. Lawyers for the state and the tribe expressed guarded satisfaction with the decision Thursday. "We're confident that the special master will be able to address any complaints that the tribe may have, and we're also confident that any further disruptions will not occur," said John Guhin, a lawyer for the state. "They've still got plans to develop, but at least they have a process," said Frank Sanchez, one of the tribal members who protested in May. He said he does not expect further protests at North Point, but that the issue would surely reappear elsewhere along the Missouri River. http://www.argusleader.com/news/Fridayarticle2.shtml ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Michigan Branch--Native American Advocate ALWAYS ACCEPTING VOLUNTEERS --------- "RE: Tribal Courts have jurisdiction outside Rez" --------- Date: Thu, Jun 12 2003 08:10:48 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TRIBAL COURTS" http://www.indianz.com/News/show.asp?ID=2003/06/12/nmcourt http://kobtv.com/index.cfm?viewer=storyviewer&id=2016 Tribal courts ruled to have jurisdiction outside reservation June 11, 2003 7:19:09 AM By: Kurt Christopher (Santa Fe-AP) - The state Supreme Court says Navajo tribal courts have jurisdiction in civil matters on allotted Indian lands outside the reservation boundaries. The ruling was handed down Tuesday in the case of Leonard Belone, a Navajo whose car was repossessed in 1998. Belone lives in McKinley County on allotted Indian lands held in trust by the U.S. Department of Interior. Tempest Recovery Services repossessed Belone's car under New Mexico law, which allows repossession without a debtor's consent. Tempest sued Belone in state district court for breach of contract. Belone filed a counterclaim saying he was entitled to damages under the Navajo law. A state district court granted Tempest's motion for a judgment of more than $18,000. But the state Supreme Court, citing recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings, said the civil jurisdiction of tribal courts extends to Indian allotments. Copyright c. 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c. 2003 KOB-TV, a division of Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. LLC --------- "RE: Murder Suspect arrested" --------- Date: Thu, Jun 12 2003 08:10:48 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="PORCUPINE MURDER" http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2003/06/12/news/local/news02.txt Murder suspect arrested By Heidi Bell Gease, Journal Staff Writer June 12, 2003 PORCUPINE -- A Rapid City man has been charged with second-degree murder in the Tuesday beating death of a Porcupine man. Conan White Face, 24, pleaded not guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court to charges in the death of William "Roly" Eagle Bull, 37. A second beating victim, Conrad Thunder Hawk, 43, remained in critical condition Wednesday evening at Rapid City Regional Hospital. Charles "Festus" Fischer, supervisory special agent for the Bureau of Indian Affairs Criminal Investigations Division at Pine Ridge, said Oglala Sioux Tribal Police responded to a disturbance at a home two miles east of Porcupine about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday. They found Eagle Bull, who lived at the home, dead at the scene. Thunder Hawk, who was visiting the home, was found seriously injured. He was taken by ambulance to the Pine Ridge hospital, then airlifted to Regional Hospital. Fischer said witnesses gave police a description and license number of a car that had left the home after the assault. Tribal police stopped the vehicle north of Rockyford about 5:45 a.m. Three men and one woman in the vehicle were questioned, and White Face was taken into custody. According to an affidavit filed in federal court, a witness told investigators that White Face used a six-foot metal pipe to assault Eagle Bull. The affidavit said White Face told an investigator he had hit Eagle Bull in the body with the pipe after Eagle Bull punched him in the head while he slept. Four people connected with the incident were arrested on tribal charges of intoxication, according to the affidavit. White Face is being held in Rapid City as a flight risk and a danger to the community. If convicted, he could face up to life in prison. Contact Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419 or heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com Copyright c. 2003 the Rapid City Journal. --------- "RE: Rustywire: Standing in the Shower" --------- Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 03:04:42 -0000 From: "John Rustywire" Subj: Standing in the shower Mailing List: Rez Life Standing in the shower Water runs over me I close my eyes I wonder Remembering her Standing there just a little ways away Her hair long, and eyes filled with wonder as she looked at me I thought to myself, oh, how I would like to be with her From dawn to early sunset, walking along just the two of us The world falls away, her eyes deep and innocent look into mine Oh, I remember such times, when we were all there was in the world Like sweet music, a soft breeze, and gentle, gentle falling rain Is this what it is like to be tied, bundled up with another I see her lips take every breath, each sigh dances in the wind She has taken me She has taken me Up storm mountain and lifted me on the wings of a dove Oh sweet taste of life, running through my body It was snowing, snowing soft big flakes Standing together it was late at night Hold me close, she said with her soft eyes And slowly ever so slowly we came together Dancing across the sidewalk a breath a way she was This is the way of life, just the two of us Let me feel this way forever, until the we are no more She has taken me She has taken me Her gentle touch Her innocent eyes Let her run all over me Let her run all over me Standing here I am covered by her Standing here I am covered by her She has taken me She has taken me Let me feel this way forever Standing in the shower --------- "RE: History: Carlisle Indian School" --------- Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 11:24 am From: Barb Landis Subj: May 16, 1890 INDIAN HELPER, Carlisle Indian School. [Editorial Note: These reprints are being included in this newsletter so that you might know the mind of those who ran institutions like Carlisle.] THE INDIAN HELPER ~%^%~ A WEEKLY LETTER -FROM THE- Indian Industrial School, Carlisle, Pa. ================================================ VOL. V. FRIDAY, May 16, 1890 NUMBER 37 ================================================ A SPRING PICTURE. ------------ Have you seen the apple blossoms in the orchard, Pink and white, in clusters on the trees, Have you smelled their breath, the while they whisper All their sweetest secrets to the bees? Have you seen the blue eyes of the early springtime, As they peep from underneath her brows, (Violets, we call them) growing in the shadows. Of the fences and the willow boughs? Have you seen the golden butterfly, enjoying All the radiances of his one bright day Seen him settle on the peachblows in the garden, Spread his book-like wings and fly away? Have you seen the tadpole in the pool of water By the grassy roadside where you passed, Patient in believing that his slimy substance Shall evolve into a frog at last? Have you seen the little children, sunburnt children Baking mud pies with a dexterous touch, Seen their faces yellow with the dandelion pollen, They have kissed the pretty flowers so much? Have you seen the dandelions in the fields and pastures, On the sidewalks where the bricks scarce meet, Growing on the waters edge, and up the rocky passes, In the country lane, and by the city streets? Have you seen the yellow wasp, just out of prison With his striped suit on, make a dive For a drop of honey in the pink columbine, As if he were the greatest thief alive? Have you seen the Spring, the dainty creature, standing Tip toe by the river calm and sweet; Seen her charms reflected, from her crown of azure To the grace of her green sandaled feet? E.G. ------------------- CAPT. AND MRS. PRATT IN JAPAN. ----- From a private letter we take the liberty of copying the following, knowing that many of our readers are interested to know the movements of our Superintendent in a foreign land? TOKIO, JAPAN, April 11, 1890 The mail came this morning bringing us good letters. We hoped for others and there may yet be some. To know that all goes well at home is a great comfort. I am invalided today from medicine of which I have had to take a deal since leaving San Francisco. I have lost 28 pounds in flesh and enjoy all the innumerable wonders of this marvelous country, under no little disadvantage. However, I keep going. Yesterday and the day before, I selected about 150 colored lanterns slides, made by two of the best Japanese artists in that line in Tokio. Not the best, but they will do to give you all an idea of what we see daily. I shall increase the number to 250 or 300. I get them for 25 cents each. The foreign dealers produce a better article but charge 75 cents. After selection, the artist is kind enough to come to our quarters and give us an exhibition, allowing us to reject any we do not like. Mrs. Pratt was out all the forenoon with Mr. and Mrs. Morris and Miss Haines, visiting a famous garden and the Temple most used by the Japanese in Tokio; also a hospital call on Mr. Uchimura who is just convalescing from typhoid fever, and an inmate of the hospital. I stayed at home to recuperate, but put part of the time in visiting a young ladies' school several children of the nobility, the daughter of the Minister of War among them. I had to put on knit slippers over my boots, and the lady who accompanied me pulled off her shoes at the door and went in, in her stockings. The children were sweet little tots, thirty-two in number and from three to six years old. They went through a large number of exercises, all in English, singing the songs in good voice and pronouncing the English remarkably well. It was the cutest performance of the kind I ever saw. The principal and all the teachers were Japanese, graduates of Mrs. True's excellent school. I forgot to say that the kindergarten includes primary section. Unable to eat much breakfast and less dinner I am in my room this afternoon, while Mrs. Pratt, back for her long ride, after a hasty dinner has gone to a reception which Mrs. Morris is giving to a party of Japanese, at the Tokio Hotel where they are stopping. It will be novel and I was sorry to lose it, but have too many aches. --------------------------------------- (Continued on Fourth Page.) ======================================= (page 2) The Indian Helper. ----------------------------- PRINTED EVERY FRIDAY, AT THE INDIAN INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, CARLISLE, PA. BY THE INDIAN PRINTER BOYS. --> THE INDIAN HELPER is PRINTED by Indian boys, but EDITED by The-Man-on-the-band-stand, who is NOT an Indian. ----------------------------- Price: - 10 cents a year. ============================== Address INDIAN HELPER, Carlisle, Pa. Miss M. Burgess, Manager. ============================== Entered in the P.O. at Carlisle as second class mail matter. ============================== The INDIAN HELPER is paid for in advance, so do not hesitate to take the paper from the Post Office, for fear a bill will be presented. ============================= "The secret of life is not to do what one likes but to like what one has to do." ========= Oh, yes. Indians are strong. But sitting around quietly with damp shoes on the feet will kill even an Indian. ========= If we are tired or sick let us sit or lie down to rest, but when we DO work, let us work as though we meant BUSINESS, and don't be a slow-poke. ========= It is hard when we have planned an afternoon or forenoon of pleasure and have to give it up for work, but how gratifying to see the boys not mind it and double down to work as though that was what they had planned to do. There is plenty of time for pleasure and play outside of the regular work and school period. ========= The exercises on Wednesday, were carried out as follows: In the forenoon, inspection of industries, from 9 to 10:15; inspection of schools from 10:15-11:30; gymnasium drill, 11:40 to 12:10; students' dinner, 12:15; visitors' lunch, 12:30 to 1:30; and music by the band. In the afternoon the graduating exercises were held in the chapel, a full account of which will be given in the May RED MAN, which will be mailed about the 25th; and a short sketch will be given in next week's HELPER. We go to press earlier this week on account of the break which examination day makes in the busiest work day for us, and so that the HELPER subscribers will not be disappointed in receiving their paper at the usual time. As we go to press we hear of a large party of Congressmen and others from Washington who expect to attend the exercises and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs will be here. A number are coming from Philadelphia and other points. We are requested to print all the words that were formed from the letters in the word, "Reluctantly." As it would take several editions of the INDIAN HELPER to do so we beg to be excused. The person making the request can not see how that more than 250 legitimate words could have been made. Where we made the mistake was in allowing proper names to be used. When we try the word puzzle again we will restrict in such a way that the trial will be a more worthy effort. ========= Mr. Forney, brother of our fireman, comes to the front with a neat little club of twenty-five subscribers for the HELPER. Although two of our mailers are considerably under the weather, we are ready fro a thousand new names at any time. Indian printers are the same as all other "art preservatives," the mails must be and are met and the paper comes out no matter what happens, whether cyclone, fire, Commencement, or what. We can manage anything but the grip. That beat us out. ========= The Man-on-the-band-stand is glad to see the line of pupils march along *sometimes* without keeping step and in no particular order, but when the Sergeants are saying "Hep! Hep! Hep!" it is simply ridiculous for him not to make every one in line - EVERY ONE - keep step. If a boy will not keep step, turn him out of ranks, put a shawl on him and let him walk like a dear old lady. ========= We shall have to wait for next week's HELPER for the particulars of the class reception given Wednesday evening by Mr. Standing, Miss Fisher and Miss Cutter. The school fathers and mothers of the graduating class were the only honored guests outside. Reporters are never counted in any gathering. ========= The King's Daughters Society which meets at the Hospital in charge of Miss Seabrook, have named themselves "The Wayside Gleaners." For president they have selected Veronica Holliday; for Vice-president, Zippa Metoxen; for secretary and treasurer, Mary Johnson. ========= Joel Tyndall, formerly a pupil of Carlisle and now a teacher among his people, the Omahas, is interested in circulating the RED MAN, and sends for sample copies for distribution. He could not be interested in a worthier cause, and we gladly sent him teh samples. =================================================== At the Carlisle School is published monthly an eight-page quarto of standard size, called THE RED MAN, the mechanical part of which is done entirely by Indian boys. This paper is valuable as a summary of information on Indian matters, and contains writings by Indian pupils, and local incidents of the school. Terms: Fifty cents a year, in advance. For 1, 2, and 3 subscribers for THE RED MAN we give the same premium in Standing Offer for the HELPER. Address, THE RED MAN, Carlisle, PA. =========================================== Who? Trembles? About this time? Wednesday noon? The graduating class. ------------- "Oh, for a nice day tomorrow," was the sigh from many a heart, on Tuesday. ------------- Mr. Keller, the florist from town trimmed the platform for the graduating exercises. ------------- Miss Paull's class spent Tuesday morning in the woods gathering wildflowers. ------------- Gary Meyers goes home to the Omaha Agency, Nebr., this week. What will the Young American's do with out their master catcher. ------------- One of the boys was heard to say on Tuesday, "I don't think I'll work in the shop tomorrow, for I have promised to help Miss Noble in the kitchen." He must like cake, a printer thinks. ------------- Mr. and Mrs. Guy Stevick unexpectedly arrived from Denver, Col., Saturday. Mr. Stevick's legal business brought him to Washington, and Mrs. Stevick and baby came along to Carlisle for a little visit, thus surprising and delighting their numerous friends. ------------- The King's Daughters' Society led by Miss Carter will be known hereafter as the "Whatsoever Circle." The officers are as follows: President, Nellie Robertson; vice president, Esther Miller; secretary, Rosa Bourassa; treasurer, Boise Bassford. ------------- The bakery has changed its dress of red for the more sober color of drab. Wonder if it is a friend! It is a friend to the Indian boys and girls anyway, judging from the loads upon loads of delicious sweet bread it pours out into the dining room. ------------- Mr. George Bixler, organist at the Lutheran Church, in town, favored us with hymn music at the Sunday afternoon service. The march he played was much enjoyed and called very pretty by the pupils as well as the rest of the congregation. ------------- "Mr. Kemp, is the little one who came to your house Sunday night a son or a daughter?" was asked of our harness-maker by an interested party. "He will be a voter," replied Mr. Kemp, proudly. ------------- A very interesting letter from Samuel Townsend this week. He, too, is going through the trials of hard examinations and has been fortunate enough to pass in some studies, already. Mr. Standing spent Saturday in Washington. ------------- Miss Hunt's class of little ones spent last Thursday at the cave and had a fine time they think. ------------- The new bridge across the spring in the meadow, has never been noticed. It is a neat affair and was badly needed. ------------- One hundred and twenty boys and girls go to the country immediately after examination, for the summer vacation. ------------- The M.O.T.B.S. is pleased to get a nice letter from Hannah Long Wolf, who likes her country home and says she is trying the best she can. ------------- "That is what the little boys are here for, to scrub," a large boy was heard to say. So are the large boys here to scrub, and the little boys can beat them all to pieces. ------------- The graduating class have had their "Pictures took' in group. The Carlisle School is proud of class '90, and trust that we shall never have reason to feel otherwise. ------------- Mr. S.M. McCowan, formerly superintendent of school's at Rosebud Agency, Dak., and now superintendent of a school to be established at Ft. Mojave, visited our school this week. ------------- During Miss Moore's absence in Harrisburg on Sunday, Veronica Holliday was called upon to play the piano for the Sunday service and for marching out of chapel. She did nobly and we think the boys too special pains to keep step. ------------- Miss C.M. Folsom, of Hampton Institute, Va., in charge of the Indian Department of the *Southern Workman*, spent two days with us. Miss Folsom met a number of friends among our pupils. ------------- Capt. Pratt's trip to Japan is going to benefit the whole school as well as himself as will be seen by the letter on the first page. He is purchasing slides for our entertainment and we expect grand treats of most interesting and instructive pictures, showing the manners and customs of that peculiar people. ------------- A very pleasant letter has been received from our old time co-worker in the Indian cause at Carlisle, Miss A.R. Stafford. Miss Stafford is Secretary of the Women's Christian Association in Germantown, and says she will follow with interest the wanderers in Japan from Carlisle and the others, too, especially Miss Haines, who is treasurer of the Board of Managers of the same Association. ------------- Strength of the Carlisle School. Boys . . . . . . . . . . 483 Girls . . . . . . . . . 295 --- Total . . . . . . . . 778 ===================================== We leave here on Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning, for two days at Yokohama, which will he our head-quarters from then until we sail. About Thursday we visit the great idol, Diabutes, and spend a day or so in that vicinity 16 miles north of Yokohama. Then we go to a famous mountain resort about twenty miles further north, called Miyanoshita for several days. Here are hot springs and noted volcano sights. Then we go on south as far as Nagasaki stopping at Nigoya Kiota and Koba and maybe other points of interest. We have had no well-defined shocks of earthquake, yet, though Mrs. Pratt declares she has felt one. We spent last Sunday with Miss Bender, a former Carlisle employee, at her pleasant school home in the outskirts of this vast city, and were most agreeably entertained. Mr. Large, a Canadian missionary teacher in their large school near Miss Bender was most cruelly murdered by Japanese robbers the night before, and his wife seriously wounded. One of the murders has been caught and they expect to find the other. It is the first violence toward missionaries for twenty years, and would not have resulted in murder if Mr. Large had consented to be robbed. He was a brave man, boldly following unarmed, two men armed with swords, picking one up and almost throwing him down stairs. He had thirteen wounds, four of which would have proven fatal. Fugi is the name of the volcanic mountain hereon, and although seventy miles away is in plain sight of our porch looking like a great mountain of snow. It is 12,300 feet high and the pride of all Japan. We have our state-rooms for the 31st. Yours, cordially, R.H. PRATT. ------------------ THE ENERGY THAT SUCCEEDS. ------ The energy that wins success begins to develop very early in life. The characteristics of the boy will commonly prove those of the man, and the best characteristics of young life should be encouraged and educated in the wisest possible manner. The following story strongly illustrates this truth: "About thirty years ago," said Judge P___, "I stepped into a book shop in Liverpool in search of some books that I wanted. While there, a little ragged boy of twelve years of age came in and inquired for a geography. "'Plenty of them,' was the salesman's reply. "'How much do they cost?' "'Four shillings, my lad.' "'I did not know they were so much.' "He turned to go out, and even opened the door, but closed it again and came back. "'I've got three shillings,' said he; 'co