From gars@speakeasy.org Fri Jun 27 01:02:30 2003 Date: 24 Jun 2003 23:16:12 -0000 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews11.026 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 11, ISSUE 026 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 28, 2003 Mvskogee kvco-hvsee/blackberry moon Pomo butich-da/moon when bulbs mature +-------------------------------------------------------+ | 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; First Nations Skyvillage, Rez Life, Prison Act and Iron Natives Mailing Lists; Newsgroup: alt.native; UUCP email IMPORTANT!! ----------- In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, all material appearing in this newsletter is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for educational purposes. <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is a way of keeping the brothers and sisters who share our Spirit informed about current events within the lives of those who walk the Red Road. ++ It may be subscribed to via email by sending a request from your own internet addressable account to gars@speakeasy.org ++ It is archived at http://www.nanews.org <================<<<< >>>>================> +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | As historian Patricia Nelson | | Once a language is lost, it is | | Limerick summarized in "The | | gone forever | | Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken | | * Of the 300 original Native | | Past of the American West... | | languages in North America, | | "Set the blood quantum at | | only 175 exist today. | | one-quarter, hold to it as a | | * 125 of these are no longer | | rigid definition of Indians, | | learned by children. | | let intermarriage proceed as | | * 55 are spoken by 1 to 6 elders;| | it had for centuries, and | | when they die, their language | | eventually Indians will be | | will disappear. | | defined out of existence." | | * Without action, only 20 | | "When that happens, the federal | | languages will survive the next| | government will be freed of | | 50 years. | | its persistent 'Indian problem.'"| | Source: Indigenous Language | +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ | Institute | |http://www.indigenous-language.org| This issue's Elder Quote: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + ======================== "This land which people call the Land of the Freedom celebrates many days reminding people of the world of these things. Yet in well over 200 years the original Americans have not seen a free day." "We are suffering the final insult. Our people are now losing the one thing which give life and meaning of life -- our ceremonial land, which is being taken away from us." __ Chief Dan Evehema, Hopi +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Indian Pledge of Allegiance | The Indian Pledge of Alleg- | | iance was first presented | I pledge allegiance to my Tribe,| on 2 December '93 during the | to the democratic principles | opening address of the Nat- | of the Republic | ional Congress of American | and to the individual freedoms | Indian Tribal-States Relat- | borrowed from the Iroquois and | ions Panel in Reno, NV. NCAI | Choctaw Confederacies, | plans distribution of the | as incorporated in the United | Indian Pledge to all Indian | States Constitution, | Nations. | so that my forefathers | | shall not have died in vain | Walk in Beauty! Night Owl +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Journey | In the summer and early fall | The Bloodline | of 1998 the Treaty Unity Riders | | rode a thousand miles on horse- | For all that live and live by law | back, carrying a staff and | We Stand, we Call, We Ride | praying each step of the way. | For All that fear and fear by sight | | We Hear, we Listen, we Ride | These prayers were offered for | For all that pray and pray by strength| each of us, and that the Unity | We Feel, we Move, we Ride | of all Peoples might happen. | For all that die and die by greed | | We Hurt, we Cry, we Ride | Tatanka Cante forwarded this | For all that birth and birth by right | poem on behalf of all the Unity | We Smile, we Hold, we Ride | Riders that we might stop and | For all that need and need by heart | ask if the next words we say, the | We Came, we Went, we Rode. | next act we make is for the good | | of the People or is it from ego | Treaty Unity Riders | for self. +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ O'siyo Brothers and Sisters! In the U. S. we are approaching "Independence Day." Independence Day for whom? We will not be celebrating at our house. The Alaska Supreme Court is hearing English-only arguments to determine if the newly passed ballot initiative can be made law. It is absolutely NOT equitable. Proponents argue Alaska's so-called English-only law is not meant to be a "linguistic straitjacket," but a tool so government will not have to provide services in dozens of languages. That's crap. All those languages were being used in their respective communities before the invaders from the lower 48 moved in and decided they didn't like not knowing what was being said about them. Everywhere the European seed has been cast in the name of freedom, it is followed closely by fences and rules. Independence Day for whom? Not those who may not freely speak and expect proclamations in the languges being spoken before the invasion. The Minneapolis Star Tribune has determined it's perfectly OK to use names like "Redskins" in their sports pages. You can bet they wouldn't think it was OK to use names like "Kikes" or "Greasers", equally offensive names to those groups harmed by such hateful names. (I apologize to any these rude examples may have offended). They are shameful and degrading. So is "Redskins". Independence Day for whom? Not those who may be freely degraded in print. In South Dakota, a federal appeals court rejected an attempt by the Crow Creek Sioux to halt a land deal affecting sacred sites, burial grounds and cultural artifacts along the Missouri River. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota and the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation of North Dakota have intervened in the case, all to no avail. Those fine upstanding Wasicu are going to have their riverfront park with boat ramps and picnic tables. What difference doe it make if a few old Indian bones wash downstream? Besides, little Suzi might have a better chance of finding a real Indian arrow head for her "show and tell" school project. Independence Day for whom? It isn't for the Crow Creek and others whose ancestors graves are being desecrated. The above are all from news items appearing in this issue. One week of insult and desecration. Happy Independence Day... I don't think so. Not in our house. 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 ---------- - Court won't halt - Tax Comments transfer of Burial Sites threatens Treaty Talks - Alaska Supreme Court - Explorers set to tackle Arctic hears English-only Arguments - Fishery ruling Racist - NAJA takes - Changing Native History Minneapolis Star Tribune to task - Web site to save - Peabody wants Damage Claim dropped First Nations Languages - Not allowed to wear Eagle Feather - Peltier will not be Silenced at Graduation - Native Prisoner - Navajo Prez: Feds pit -- California Coalition Large Tribes against Small for Women Prisoners - KARN Host flooded with -- Call for Action, "Bigot" Complaints NA Religious Rights - Political Candidates -- Help needed: key to Sovereignty NAPN and AIRR sites - Bill offers Tribe Money - Rustywire: Parched Corn to settle Land Dispute - History: Carlisle Indian School - Toll on Ancient Rice Beds - Poem: Reflective Pool - YELLOW BIRD: - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days Healthful Roots and Herbs - Tapping into Native Culture - Menominees keep Trees Growing - A Nation Online, - Tribes: Policy shift but where are the Indians? - Editorial: - Native Wisdom Reservation needs deeper Solution - Stargazer Program - BIA's Martin breaks preserves Traditions Unofficial Boycott of NCAI - APTN July 2003 Programming - Limelight? This Leader won't bask - Specials This Week on APTN - Salmon rebound may not be Permanent - This Week on First Peoples TV --------- "RE: Court won't halt transfer of Burial Sites" --------- Date: Wed, Jun 18 2003 08:22:45 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CRST BURIALS" http://www.indianz.com/News/show.asp?ID=2003/06/18/crowcreek Court won't halt transfer of burial sites to state WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 2003 A federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected a South Dakota tribe's attempt to halt a land deal affecting sacred sites, burial grounds and cultural artifacts along the Missouri River. In a unanimous decision, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe's case as unfounded and premature. A three-judge panel concluded that the federal law authorizing the transfer would protect the tribe's cultural heritage. "In conclusion, the tribe has not suffered an injury in fact stemming from the transfer of lands," wrote Judge David B. Sentelle for the majority. "The only harms it alleges are speculative and hypothetical, not actual or imminent." The case stems from a law ushered through Congress in 1999 by Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and backed by then-governor Bill Janklow (R), now a Congressman. Called the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), it mandates the transfer of up to 150,000 acres of federal land to the state and to the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe contends the transfer will diminish enforcement of historic preservation, archaeological protection and repatriation laws, which apply to federal, but not state land. The tribe argues that any discovery of artifacts, remains or other items, could create confusion and conflict. That's what has happened at another other location along the Missouri River. A high-profile case involving the Yankton Sioux Tribe has led to protests against the state, which is turning a tribal burial site into a camp site. A federal judge is appointing a special master to ensure that remains and artifacts uncovered by state workers will be reburied properly. The appeals court yesterday made note of that case, but said the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe failed to show how it was being harmed by the transfer. "The tribe presents no reason to believe that enforcement will diminish," Sentelle wrote. The court also pointed out that the WRDA requires the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to maintain responsibility over cultural resources. This would require the Army Corps, for example, to repatriate any remains discovered on the land to the tribe. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota and the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation of North Dakota have intervened in the case. In addition to the burial site claims, the tribes allege the transfer violates their treaty rights. The land in question used to be part of the Crow Creek Sioux Reservation. But it was taken by the Army Corps as part of the massive Pick-Sloan waterworks project of the 1950s. Copyright c. 2000-2003 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Alaska Supreme Court hears English-only Arguments" --------- Date: Thu, Jun 19 2003 08:37:24 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ENGLISH-ONLY" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~26794~1461292,00.html Alaska Supreme Court hears English-only arguments By MARY PEMBERTON , Associated Press Writer ANCHORAGE June 17, 2003 Alaska's so-called English-only law is not meant to be a "linguistic straitjacket," but a tool so government will not have to provide services in dozens of languages, Alaska's Supreme Court was told Tuesday. But a straitjacket on speech is exactly what would occur if Ballot Measure 6 passed by voters is allowed to take effect, an opposing attorney argued. Voters overwhelmingly passed the ballot initiative in 1998 but it was challenged before it could become law. A Superior Court judge ruled last year that it violates the rights of citizens to receive information and the free speech rights of government employees. Alaskans for a Common Language, the group that got it on the ballot in the first place, appealed. The ballot measure proclaims English to be the official language of the state of Alaska. It requires state and local governments to use English in all official business. It comes with a list of exceptions, including the use of other languages to communicate health and safety information and to allow elected officials to communicate with constituents. It specifically states that Alaska's Native languages are protected under the federal Native American Languages Act. But Eric Johnson, lawyer for dozens of plaintiffs, said the ballot proposal is backward. In America, most speech is allowed with a few exceptions such as yelling fire in a crowded theater, he said. What the ballot initiative does is ban speech except English and then make some exceptions. "It really boils down to a flaw in the law," Johnson said. "Here in America freedom of speech is the norm." Kevin Callahan, lawyer for Alaskans for a Common Language, said the ballot initiative is not a freedom of speech issue because it applies only to the official acts of government. Justice Alex Bryner pressed Callahan on the issue. "What is an official act?" he asked pointedly. "The problem I'm having is everything seems so vague. What is official language and official speech?" Callahan said that would be up to each state agency. If allowed to become law, the ballot measure would interfere with the ability of Togiak city employees to serve people each and every day, said lawyer Doug Pope, representing three Togiak men who are Yupik Eskimos, including the mayor and a city councilman. It also will keep Yupik-speaking citizens from being heard, he said. "The Alaska initiative says unequivocally English is to be used by all public agencies. It is a restriction on the use of language other than English," he said. Chief Justice Dana Fabe also zeroed in on the issue of what Callahan meant by official language. If two Yupik city councilmen were corresponding on a problem with the operation of the local laundromat, would that be official language? she asked. Would that correspondence have to be translated and maintained in English? Or, if a social worker is working with a Spanish-speaking client and is preparing something for the case file to be shared with the client, can that be written in Spanish or must it be in English, Fabe asked. Callahan said materials that become part of the official record would have to be in English. He again emphasized that the measure applies only to government speech, not personal speech. And he said it would be wrong to interpret the initiative as an English-only law because it does not say that state employees must speak English only, he said. Fabe appeared unsatisfied with that response. The justices did not say when they would rule on the issue. Copyright c. 1999-2003 MediaNews Group, Inc. and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Inc. --------- "RE: NAJA takes Minneapolis Star Tribune to task" --------- Date: Thu, Jun 19 2003 08:37:24 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RACIST TEAM NAMES" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.startribune.com/stories/503/3944216.html Native American Journalists Association takes Star Tribune to task Associated Press Published June 18, 2003 NAJA19 GREEN BAY, Wis. - The Native American Journalists Association says it is disappointed that the biggest newspaper in Minnesota has dropped its ban on using American Indian team nicknames on its sports pages. "It was very well reasoned," NAJA President Patty Talahongva said of the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune's 9-year-old policy. "It's the right thing to do." In NAJA's 2003 Reading Red Report, to be released Thursday at its annual convention in Green Bay, NAJA asks print, broadcast and online news directors to stop using Indian mascots and sports team names in their coverage of professional, collegiate and high school sports. The report also lists the policies of five newspapers that have removed the imagery from their sports pages. Editor Anders Gyllenhaal announced the newspaper's policy change in a column June 8, saying the newspaper was trying "to strike a balance between a commitment to accuracy and the need for sensitivity." Managing editor Scott Gillespie was at the convention that began Wednesday. Ben Taylor, the newspaper's senior vice president of communications, said Gillespie would explain the newspaper's new policy to NAJA members. "Given that this is a group of journalists, he will certainly be appealing to their training and the need for journalistic accuracy," Taylor said. "We're again trying to be very sensitive and at the same time use the name that is the real name of the team." Copyright c. 2003 Star Tribune. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Peabody wants Damage Claim dropped" --------- Date: Wed, Jun 18 2003 08:22:45 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="PEABODY" http://www.gallupindependent.com/06-17-03peabody.html Peabody wants damage claim dropped Larry Di Giovanni Staff Writer WINDOW ROCK - The Navajo Nation did not take advantage of a formal appeals process from 1985 through 1987 that could have ended ex parte communications between then-Interior Secretary Donald Hodel and Peabody Western Coal Co., the company's lawyers are arguing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. At issue is whether the company acted improperly concerning negotiations over a fair royalty rate for Navajo-owned coal, from which a 12.5 percent royalty rate was approved in 1987. Peabody's Alexandria, Va., legal team of V. Thomas Lankford and William Coffield filed a motion to dismiss the Navajos' civil case for damages earlier this month. Each side has had a chance to respond and the court has yet to rule on the motion. Peabody is arguing that in a 6-3 ruling March 4 dismissing the tribe's $600 million breach of trust case, the U.S. Supreme Court made it clear that the Interior Secretary had no "specific rights-creating duty" to help the Navajos get the highest royalty rate possible. At the time, the BIA had recommended a 20 percent royalty rate. The "best interest" trust standard helping tribes would not be adopted until 1996. "They (tribal lawyers) did not exhaust their administrative remedies," Lankford said during a recent phone interview. He was referring to the tribe's right under law to transfer its appeal of the royalty rate determination to the Board of Indian Appeals, which handles administrative appeals. Since "informal" contacts between the Interior Secretary and both parties were thus allowed, the Navajos cannot argue that Hodel was involved in an illegal conspiracy to low-ball the tribe on a fair royalty rate, Lankford said. "Having failed to invoke the formal procedures of an appeal to the Board of Indian Appeals, the Navajo Nation has failed to exhaust the administrative process, and cannot now complain about the informal procedures governing the administrative appeal that permitted such contacts by interested parties," Lankford and Coffield argue in their June 3 motion-to-dismiss. Further, they argue, the 12.5 percent coal royalty rate "was the rate the United States itself customarily received from leases to mine coal on federal land." A Fieldston Report examining royalty rates for all 471 Western federal, state and tribal coal leases "executed or adjusted" from 1985 to 1996 found "that none exceeded 12.5 percent." Navajo Nation Attorney General Louis Denetsosie said despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in March, the tribe still has a solid case against Peabody for several reasons. One is that Peabody was involved in a blatant effort to defraud the Navajos of a fair royalty rate that the BIA said could have been much higher than 12.5 percent, having recommended 20 percent. And just as important, Denetsosie said, Peabody does not have sovereign immunity against suit as the United States does. "They're not a government," he said of Peabody Holding Company Inc. and Peabody Coal Co. "They have a duty of good faith dealing." The Navajo Nation is asking for a jury trial in the case pending its argument for ruling against the motion to dismiss the case. A settlement is also still possible, he said. "The motion to dismiss is basically like a pre-emptive strike attempt," Denetsosie said. The motion gets the issues on the table but in such a complex case with so many issues involving federal law applicability, the case should continue based on the merits, he added. Regarding the issue of the tribe not invoking a more formal appeals process before the Indian Appeals Board, Denetsosie said: "First of all, I don't think anybody expected that Peabody and the Interior Secretary would go behind our back. We thought that they would continue negotiating in good faith." In any case, Hodel could have stepped in anyway given his far-ranging powers and taken away a decision by the Indian Appeals Board, according to Denetsosie. "We wanted the administrative decision to be a final decision," he said. The Supreme Court did state in its ruling in the Navajo-U.S. case that there's still a "general fiduciary trust" hat exists when the government is involved in lease negotiations between a tribe and a company, and protecting the tribe's interests are at stake. The government has a duty of "loyalty, care and candor" to the tribes it is sworn to protect, and any effort by a company to taint that duty is a breach of trust on all counts, Denetsosie said. The tribe is seeking civil damages under a racketeering provision that involves possible triple damages. In this case, the tribe is pursuing up to $1.8 billion in damages. Peabody is arguing that such damages are limited to a four-year period prior to the filing of the complaint. The Navajo Nation filed its unsuccessful case against the United States in 1993, followed by its suit against Peabody in 1999. Lankford said the legal costs on both sides have been high. The tribe is represented by its own Washington-area firm. "Who's making all the money in this thing here? Yeah, it's the lawyers," Lankford said. He added that the tribe has contracted with "a team" of economists and accountants over the years to stake its damage claim. Copyright c. 2003 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Not allowed to wear Eagle Feather at Graduation" --------- Date: Tue, 24 June 2003 08:24:10 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DENIAL and INSULT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=2486 Navajo teen not allowed to wear eagle feather at graduation School head compares cultural garb to controversial musician WELLSTON OK SAM LEWIN 6/23/2003 A tiny school district in Oklahoma refused to allow a Navajo girl to wear Native American adornment to her high school graduation. In defending the decision, the school superintendent compared an eagle feather to controversial shock-rocker Marilyn Manson. Wellston is a small town about forty miles east of Oklahoma City. There are only 750 students in grades K-12 and 18-year-old Heather Mauritz was the only Native American in her class. Early on in her senior year, Heather decided she wanted to express her heritage when she walked down the aisle to receive her diploma. "I felt that I'm Native American, and to graduate from a mostly white school, it's a big celebration. This is supposed to be Oklahoma and Indian Country," Heather told the Native American Times. "I wanted to wear an eagle plume and they said no." Superintendent Dwayne Danker said the school board decided that to allow Heather to wear an Indian adornment would set a poor policy. "The board just didn't approve it because everyone wears the same thing. She wanted to wear a complete Indian headdress. If someone wanted to wear Marilyn Manson stuff, we would have had to let them," said Danker. Heather and her mother, Julia, are enraged over the comparison to Manson, a heavy metal rock star who makes frequent references to sex and drugs in his music and is rumored to have ties to the occult. The two also deny Heather wanted to wear a full headdress, saying the request was for a simple eagle feather. "That makes me upset. He's comparing us to Marilyn Manson. It's not the same thing-you don't compare the two because it doesn't make sense. This town is very religious and he's trying to make it look like I worship Satan or something," said Heather. "This [Marilyn Manson} is not a belief, it's not a culture. We are talking about something spiritual," said Julia Maurtiz. "I just felt it was a slap in the face to the Native American community. The Christians and other people have rights to wear crucifixes and this was denied us." Danker claims he is not sure if a Christian student would be allowed to dangle a crucifix outside of his or her graduation gown. Heather and her mother are certain the school district of a small bible-belt town with at least fourteen churches would let them. The upshot of the situation is that Heather never went to her graduation. She picked up her diploma later and is now headed to college to major in American Indian studies. She's not sorry she took a stand and has a proud mother to attest to her courage. "I hear a lot of people say they are Native, but I don't see them standing up for our culture. Heather is very headstrong, it's not just about herself, it's about her people." Native American Times is Copyright c. 2003 Oklahoma Indian Times, Inc. --------- "RE: Navajo Prez: Feds pit Large Tribes against Small" --------- Date: Sat, Jun 21 2003 09:18:40 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DIVIDE" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.gallupindependent.com/06-20-03navajoprez.html Navajo Prez: Feds pit large tribes against small, rich vs. poor Larry Di Giovanni Staff Writer June 20, 2003 WINDOW ROCK - Some serious changes must be made in Congress to the pending Indian Tribal Energy Act, a firm Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. is emphasizing. The Navajo president appears to have the backing of the National Congress of American Indians to hold senators accountable on the issue. Due in large part to Shirley's impassioned speech before NCAI members, a meeting has been scheduled for July 2 in Washington involving majority and minority staff from the Senate. "Our sovereignty does not stem from some supposed congressional plenary authority over tribes," Shirley told the largely Indian audience. "That concept does not appear anywhere in the Constitution. The idea that Congress has plenary authority over Indian tribes is something that the federal courts crafted in order to undermine sovereignty under the guise of law. This legal fiction has been going on for so long now that some may actually believe it to be true." Indian leaders including NCAI President Tex Hall met this week at the Gila River Indian Community's Wild Horse Resort. Passed Wednesday during the organization's mid-year session was a resolution supporting Shirley's position: Tribes can no longer afford to relinquish any more of their sovereignty when considering energy development and other tribal projects. And they can no longer turn away and allow the federal government to continue diminishing its trust responsibility to Native Americans. The NCAI resolution concerning the Tribal Energy and Self-Determination Act of 2003 passed by a unanimous margin. The act was introduced June 12 on the Senate floor by Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.). The tribes are concerned about language in the legislation that defines a "Tribal Resource Energy Development Organization" as two entities or more, "only one of which needs to be an Indian tribe." Indian leaders oppose such a definition because it would allow non-Indian entities to receive funding intended for tribes. Another concern is language that would absolve the United States of liability regarding any losses incurred under Tribal Energy Resource Agreements. That is the federal government trying to waive its trust obligations, tribal leaders believe, and they have asked Campbell to amend the language accordingly. "All of use have experienced the gradual encroachment and diminishment of our sovereignty," Shirley said. "Our people are still suffering from the generational distress of these federal policies ... Not too long ago, the Bureau of Indian Affairs was in the War Department. They sometimes act as though they still are." Tribes must stand together now more than ever before, Shirley said, keeping in mind, "The military strategy used to pacify tribal resistance to Manifest Destiny was divide and conquer. This is a tactic still employed today." Shirley continued: "Policies that are meant to assist all tribes, instead pit large tribes against small tribes; wealthy tribes against the poor; rural tribes against suburban; and tribes against states. The shame of this tactic is that we have allowed it to happen." Shirley also spoke to NCAI members of the "devastating" impact of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and how they have impacted tribes. The Navajo Nation has lost two of those high court cases within the past two years: one being the 9-0 Atkinson case ruling that the tribe could not force a Gallup hotel owner whose business is located on private land within the reservation to charge the tribe's hotel occupancy tax to guests. The second case was the more recent 6-3 decision in early March ruling the Interior Secretary did not violate a federal trust responsibility between 1985 and 1987 when he met in private with Peabody Western Coal Co. officials to discuss a royalty rate to be paid to the tribe. "Unless we actively unite together and speak with one voice to address the devastating adverse impacts these decisions have on us as Indian nations, we will continue to suffer attacks on our jurisdiction, self-determination and economic self sufficiency," Shirley said. Copyright c. 2003 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: KARN Host flooded with "Bigot" Complaints" --------- Date: Thu, Jun 19 2003 08:37:24 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RACIST REMARK" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=2456 KARN radio talk-show host flooded with "bigot" complaints "Good little Indians" remark reaches Natives nationally LITTLE ROCK AR Jim Kent 6/18/2003 For more than a century, the federal government forced Native Americans to attend boarding schools in order to turn them into "good little Indians". A Little Rock, AR. talk-show host is, apparently, of the same mindset - as evidenced by his comment made over KARN radio on June 2. "I was on my way to work, listening to Dave Ellswick's show," recalled Kathy Bauer. "They'd been talking about rude people, when Ellswick said, `if they didn't act like little Indians there would be no problem!'". Bauer immediately called KARN to complain. She was put in contact with "Mark" - who identified himself as Ellswick's producer - and was promptly hung up on....twice. The Menominee tribal member, who's originally from Wisconsin, contacted her friend and fellow Menominee tribal member Richie Plass about the issue. Plass called the station himself to object to the comment and also received a hostile attitude from Ellswick's producer. "Pretty soon, man, the guy just blew up," Plass remarked, "He went, `Look, dude. I don't really know who you are, but I can't believe you're calling. You know, this was just a flipping kind of comment. It meant nothing. It was said as a joke.' He said, `I can't believe that you and other people are calling here and telling us things.' He said, `so I tell you what. Why don't you just go home and smoke your peace pipe and have a nice day.' And then he hung up." Choosing the internet as his weapon of retaliation, Plass sent out word of the incident to everyone on his mailing list. KARN was soon flooded with telephone calls and e-mails from across the country. By June 4, according to Bauer, KARN announced that as a result of the overwhelming volume of calls and mail objecting to Ellswick's comment, the next day's show would follow the theme "Dave's a bigot". Bauer and several friends listened to the entire June 5 show, primarily because they understood that Ellswick was supposed to offer and apology for his racial remark. Bauer insists that none ever came. KARN station manager Neil Gladner advised that although he did feel that calls regarding Ellswick's racial remark may have been handled "other than the station would have liked," Ellswick's "apology" to his local listeners should have been sufficient to resolve the issue. "Dave already apologized and understands the mistake he made," Gladner explained. "He was just repeating a comment that he'd heard many times since he was a child." When asked if he would like to offer an official comment on behalf of the station to all those Native Americans who were now aware of the issue on a national level, Gladner answered with his own question. "Why," he replied. "The comment was only heard locally." After his mass e-mail began resulting in national feedback, Plass contends that he received a call from Ellswick's producer suggesting that he send out another e-mail requesting people to stop complaining to the station. The Menominee musician and historical speaker maintains that he was also asked to be a guest on the daily talk show. Plass refused to send out a second mass-mailing in favor of KARN, but was open to the offer to guest on Ellswick's show. An offer that was later shot down by Gladner who advised that "Mark" had no authority to make such an offer and added that KARN would seek out "local" sources if it decided to host an educational show on the Native American culture. The backlash from Ellswick's "good little Indians" remark may have settled - for the moment, but Plass isn't ready to drop the issue. Neither is Kathy Bauer. "I really feel that we need to stand up and voice our opinions when situations like this happen," she observed. "I hear people say, `It's no big deal. Don't worry about it. Just turn the other way. Don't mess with it.' But unless we really let people know that this is not the right way to speak about any culture, it's going to continue." Bauer advised that immediate plans to educate local listeners about Ellswick's inappropriate remark - and KARN's lackluster attitude regarding it - include advising the show's sponsors of the dissatisfaction in the local - and national - Native community. "That's the only way we're going to solve some of these issues," Bauer added. "We need to stand up and do something about them." Native American Times is Copyright c. 2003 Oklahoma Indian Times, Inc. --------- "RE: Political Candidates key to Sovereignty" --------- Date: Tue, Jun 17 2003 08:58:39 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SOVEREIGNTY" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0616indiancongress-ON.html Political candidates key to sovereignty, gov tells tribal leaders Sara Thorson Associated Press Jun. 16, 2003 04:00 PM Leaders of the National Congress of American Indians said Monday they have a drive in place to help convince more Indians to vote and run for state and federal office in 2004. Congress President Tex Hall said tribes need to make changes to increase Indian participation in state and federal elections to match the high participation in tribal elections. "In Alaska, we changed our tribal elections to the same as national elections," he said at a news conference Monday. Most tribal elections have a better than 95 percent turnout, Hall added. The congress' executive director, Jacqueline Johnson, said the vote and registration drive, called Native Vote 2004, will distribute information to tribes in all states to educate them about state election resources and the appointment process. Tribal leaders also said at the news conference that tribal representatives who attended a related summit on Saturday agreed to work to preserve sovereignty and improve government-to-government relations. "A stealth attack is under way on the principles and policies of our tribal sovereignty that we rely on," Hall said. The tribal leaders' comments followed a call earlier in the day by Gov. Janet Napolitano to increase Indian presence in all levels of government. She encouraged tribal leaders to mobilize voters, and to speak out in support of the recently renamed Piestewa Peak and Piestewa Freeway. They were renamed at the governor's urging in honor of Army Spc. Lori Piestewa, a Hopi woman from Tuba City believed to be the first American Indian woman killed in combat while fighting for U.S. forces. Napolitano told tribal leaders that opposition groups are petitioning to have the peak and freeway returned to the original names, Squaw Peak and Squaw Peak Parkway. She urged leaders to speak out in support of the name change. "(Squaw) is an offensive part of our history, best left in the past," she said. Immediately after Napolitano spoke, the Indian congress unanimously agreed to draft a resolution in support of the name change. "All tribes are very impressed by the efforts of Janet Napolitano," Hall said. "To go back would be a complete reversal of positive state government and tribe relations. I hope to God that never occurs." Copyright c. 2003 The Arizona Republic. --------- "RE: Bill offers Tribe Money to settle Land Dispute" --------- Date: Fri, Jun 20 2003 08:03:46 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WESTERN SHOSHONE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Jun/06192003/nation_w/67517.asp Bill Offers Tribe Money to Settle Old Land Dispute June 20, 2003 By Doug Abrams Gannett News Service WASHINGTON - At a Wednesday hearing, House members questioned whether the majority of Western Shoshones support a bill that would distribute $142.5 million to the Nevada tribe in return for land the government took from it. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., has introduced a bill to distribute the money that has been sitting in a trust account for decades. But the tribe is divided over whether to accept the money or continue battling the federal government for taking its land, which included much of Nevada. The bill's proponents say that accepting the trust distribution of about $30,000 per tribal member would not prevent tribal members from pursuing their land claims in court. "The purpose of this bill is not to determine the validity of anyone's claim on the land but to distribute the funds in the account," Gibbons said at the House Resources Committee hearing. A similar bill was passed in the Senate last term but failed to clear the House. Michael Olsen, an Interior Department attorney, said that 90 percent of the Western Shoshones voted for the settlement. "My understanding is there are about 6,000-plus members [of the tribe] and 1,500 voted for it," said Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M. "How do you get to 90 percent? That's only one quarter." Olsen said some of the 6,000 members were minors who couldn't vote, but could not provide specifics to back up his statement. The issue stems back more than 50 years when the Te-Moak tribe of Western Shoshone filed a claim before the Indian Claims Commission. The tribes were awarded a judgment of $26.1 million in 1979 for their land and an additional amount in another accounting claim, which since has built up to $142.5 million. But the tribe never agreed to take the settlement and has been split over the issue ever since. Two of the four main Western Shoshone bands voted recently to support the settlement, one opposed it, and the Te-Moaks voted for it, against it and for it again in the last six years, Olsen said. Felix Ike, chairman of the Te-Moak tribe, said 1,647 of his members voted for the settlement versus 156 against. The economy around the Te- Moak lands in northeastern Nevada is in decline and the tribe needs help, he said. "Our aboriginal lands were destroyed and poisoned by mining, toxic waste and other forms of abuse," he said. "In accepting the claims money, we are not giving up any hunting, fishing or gathering rights." Raymond Yowell, who heads the Western Shoshone National Council, a political group within the tribe, opposed the settlement and said the U.S. government has never proven how it legally acquired the Western Shoshone lands. Copyright c. 2003 The Salt Lake Tribune. --------- "RE: Toll on Ancient Rice Beds" --------- Date: Thu, Jun 19 2003 08:37:24 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WILD RICE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/news/archive/local_10841818.shtml Pollution, development take toll on ancient rice beds June 18, 2003 By Peter Rebhahn prebhahn@greenbaypressgazette.com MOLE LAKE - Sokaogon Chippewa tribe elder Fred Ackley learned everything he needed to know about wild rice from his grandmother. "That was our life at one time out here," said Ackley with a nod at nearby Rice Lake, home to the Chippewa's ancestral rice beds. Gaming now occupies the place in the lives of Native Americans once filled by hunting and gathering. Times change. The rice beds remain, but the ancient knowledge Ackley learned from his ancestors may not be enough to guarantee the beds' future. The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission is studying wild rice here with the aim of saving what's left of Wisconsin's native rice beds and seeding promising wetlands that may never have been home to the plant. Members of the Native American Journalists Association, in Green Bay this week for the organization's 19th annual convention, are taking a tour of ecological points of interest in or near some of the Indian reservations in the state. The visit to Rice Lake Tuesday was part of the tour. "We know we've lost a lot of rice beds in the historical perspective," biologist Peter David of the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission said. "It's harder to know what's happening in the near term." The commission was formed in 1984 in the wake of confrontations between native and nonnative populations over Indian fish spearing and other off- reservation treaty rights. Scientists have learned much about wild rice, or "manoomin" in the Chippewa language, since the commission began a database on the plant 15 years ago. "By and large, for rice, it hasn't been good," David said. David estimates Wisconsin has lost at least half the wild rice beds the state's wetlands once held. Wetland loss, pollution and shoreline development have all taken a toll. Even motorized boat traffic harms the plants, especially now, in mid- June, when the tender leaves float on the water surface. "People may not know what it is growing off the end of their dock," David said. Wild rice is an annual plant that grows anew from seed every year. Its very sensitive to changes in water levels. The plants grow best in water 1 to 2 feet deep. Some year-to-year fluctuation in water level is good for the plants, as long as it's moderate. "You can drown a rice bed very easily," David said. Many dams across the state have done exactly that. David said the Chippewa and other tribes have been a "catalyst" in a reseeding effort that has planted from three to seven tons of seed in promising Great Lakes wetlands annually in recent years. "We're just trying to hold on to what we have here," Ackley said. Copyright c. 2003 Green Bay Press-Gazette. --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Healthful Roots and Herbs" --------- Date: Tue, Jun 17 2003 08:58:39 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HERBS" http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforksherald/news/columnists/6086361.htm DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Natural world holds cornucopia of healthful roots and herbs I have been sandwiched between two interviews with experts on native plants and nutrition this week: Fred Schneider, the UND anthropology professor who is retiring to Oklahoma; and Curtiss Hunt, a scientist in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's human nutrition lab near the UND campus. What I learned from them makes me want to plow up some black earth and plant native squash, corn, beans and sunflowers. Then I would want to just sit there and watch the miracles grow. Hunt is working on trace minerals in the earth that affect our bodies. He is particularly interested the element boron and how it works in remedying rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases. Avocados are the top producers of boron. That's good, I said to myself as I listened to him, because I like avocados especially made into dip. I have a bit of arthritis in my knee. While talking with both men, I couldn't help but think about the wild roots and herbs that my grandmother, uncles and family used to harvest and cook. There was one plant that my grandmother picked that she called "pig weed" - not a very appetizing name, but it tasted good; something like spinach. She cooked it with salt pork. There are ways of cooking milk weed and nettles that make them tasty, too, the uncles told me. Nettles can cause a rash on most people, if you touch them. I remember one uncle telling the women who were fixing some of the more noxious plants that they needed to make sure that they were soaking, washing and cooking the plants correctly. So some of these edible plants should have a warning sign attached. One of my Hidatsa friend's grandmother told me that they used to get tubers from under a certain tree and cook them. They taste just like potatoes, she told me. I never tried them. The prairie turnip is quite common in western North Dakota. They are somewhat less tasty than other wild plants, but then our taste buds are bombarded with foods such as pizza, Coke, spicy sausage and the like, which probably means most of these kinds of plants would taste quiet bland. My aunt told me she used to feed cooked prairie turnips to her mother- in-law when the mother-in-law was old and very ill. My aunt would cook it soft and add natural honey. It helped her relative's appetite and was nutritious, or as she said, "It's good for you." My children are naturally on guard when they hear me say those words. Some of these concoctions were used for healing, too. A friend of mind who was seriously ill with gangrene from his diabetes kept the disease at bay for nearly six months using herb medicines prescribed and fixed by one of the medicine men from Sisseton, S.D. When he finally went to the doctor, the doctor was amazed at how long he'd kept the disease from killing him. When he asked my friend what he had done to keep the gangrene from spreading, my friend said he used Indian medicine. Of course, the doctor wanted to know what he used. But my friend said that was something he couldn't share. This is one of the dilemmas of the knowledge some Indian people have acquired about healing roots and herbs. Most of the medicine men are reluctant and suspicious of people who want to know about their cures. They have good reason. One example is the purple coneflower that grows in abundance in the wild. When it was learned that this flower helped the immune system, drug companies wanted it and paid good money for pickers to harvest it. The prairie was full of holes and the little flower began to disappear. That has changed now because the plant is grown commercially and the wild ones aren't needed. Medicine men who know and understand the medicinal powers of roots and herbs must also understand the ritual and prayers that go with the healing. Tragically, much of the knowledge of healing plants and roots is being lost because of the reluctance of healers to share that information. When one healer dies, we lose a volume of knowledge. The problem to be solved is how to preserve the ways of the healers and elders without commercializing the plant for money. How can we give healers opportunities to heal, without fearing someone will discover the healing powers of a root or herb and harvest it to extinction? It is going to be hard to find that middle road. Yellow Bird writes columns Tuesday and Saturday. Reach her at 780-1228, (800) 477-6572 ext. 228 or dyellowbird@gfherald.com. Copyright c. 2003 Grand Forks Herald/Grand Forks, ND. --------- "RE: Menominees keep Trees Growing" --------- Date: Fri, Jun 20 2003 08:03:46 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MENOMINEE FOREST MANAGEMENT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/news/archive/local_10857594.shtml Menominees keep trees growing June 19, 2003 Harvests don't take everything By Peter Rebhahn prebhahn@greenbaypressgazette.com NEOPIT - The trees entering the saw at the Menominee Tribal Enterprises sawmill Wednesday morning were probably seedlings during the administration of President Andrew Jackson. "Sugar maple," Menominee Forest Manager Marshall Pecore shouted over the roar of the mill. "They could be anywhere from 150 to 180 years old." It's a safe bet that the nation's seventh president, a notorious Indian fighter who played a key role in removing Native Americans east of the Mississippi River, never envisioned the day when an Indian tribe's forest would become an international showcase of sustainable forestry. Ninety-four percent of the Menominee Tribe of Indian's 234,000-acre reservation is forest, forming a tree canopy so dense the reservation shows up on satellite photos with boundaries so clearly delineated from the surrounding area that the pictures resemble a man-made map. "We don't cut any more out of a forest than it can grow in a year's time," said Alan Caldwell, who directs the Menominee Culture Institute. That simple principle has guided the Menominee's forestry since a treaty between the tribe and U.S. government established reservation boundaries in 1854. The forest is home to 47 species of trees - white pine, hemlock and maple predominate - that contain an estimated 1.7 billion board feet of standing timber. That's 40 percent more than the 1.2 billion board feet estimated to stand in 1854. And it's growing. Caldwell said the tribe estimates the forest adds about 25 million board feet of timber annually. The tribe harvests about 14 million board feet of saw timber and 75,000 cords of pulpwood every year. The tribe's sawmill dates to 1908. The sawmill once employed more than 100, but tough times forced the layoff of 50 workers last year, Pecore said. But Pecore said the tribe's leaders refuse to dip into the natural capital in their forest to ride out the economic downturn despite the temptation to selectively harvest hot marketplace woods like yellow birch, a current favorite of designers of trendy furniture. "We could do that till I retire and no one would notice a difference in the forest," Pecore said. "But the next generation would." Copyright c. 2003 Green Bay Press-Gazette. --------- "RE: Tribes: Policy shift" --------- Date: Tue, Jun 17 2003 08:58:39 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SELF-RELIANCE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.gallupindependent.com/06-16-03tribes.html Tribes: Policy shift turns work with feds 'futile' Dine' Bureau PHOENIX - Navajo Nation lawmakers want the federal government to either live up to its obligations to Indian tribes or, preferably, let the First American nations do it themselves. In either case, the inter-government panel of the country's largest Indian reservation council wants other Native American lawmakers to focus their efforts on self-governance, becoming self-sufficient and go directly to President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress to overcome a shifting federal Indian policy, according to 20th Council Speaker Lawrence Morgan's press officer, Merle Pete. Morgan told the 200 participants in the "One Voice for One Change" one- day convention at the Gila River Indian Community resort south of Phoenix, "We are deeply concerned and somewhat frustrated that the shift in federal Indian policy is not benefiting American Indian communities. Indian nations are being forced to make a choice between new and old ideas. Our adaptability will help us succeed." The speaker added tribes must adjust to changing federal policy by investing adequate resources to strengthen their ability to respond. "Flexibility and use of reliable data are also key," he said, as are use of the mass media. "I believe that many Americans are sensitive to American Indian issues. They support American Indian initiatives as public policy," he said. Morgan concluded, "What tribal leaders need to do is to step up... take control of the steering wheel. This is a political process. Everyone is involved. I don't see the need to sit back and wait for something to happen. We've been waiting for far too long." Inter-government Relations Committee member Willie Grayeyes, chair of the 20th Council's Judiciary Committee, said, "It would be a tremendous benefit for tribes to get involved in developing policy at the White House level, to consider approaching the key political players and candidates. I believe there are resources in the White House and the halls of Congress that are under-utilized. Indian nations need to (have) a more cohesive relationship with their representatives and the White House, as well." I-GRC member Hope MacDonald-Lonetree commented, "Our communications with the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs is futile. We need to be working with the President of the United States and the Congressional leadership." She chairs the 20th Council's Public Safety Committee. She added that if the Interior Department wants to waive its liability for its trust responsibilities, its BIA also needs to surrender its programs and give that authority to the tribes. "Give us the money to run our own nations! That's the essence of self- determination. By no means should the Bureau consider such an action as a waiver of its obligation to treaty rights," she said. I-GRC member Ervin Keeswood Sr., chair of the 20th Council's Government Services Committee, said he wants to see all the cooperative talk put into action. He also wants Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. to "work toward making improvements at the local and national levels." Also attending the Saturday gathering, co-chaired by Shirley and National Congress of American Indians Chairman Tex Hall, were 20th Council Budget-Finance Chair Raymond Maxx, Ethics-Rules Committee Chair Duane Tsinigine and Transportation-Community Development Committee Vice Chair Willie Begay. The one-day summit was held the day before the annual NCAI convention began. Arizona First District Congressman Rick Renzi also attended the "One Voice" meeting. His district includes the Navajo Reservation, while Second District Congressman Trent Franks has the Hopi Reservation. Copyright c. 2003 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Editorial: Reservation needs deeper Solution" --------- Date: Wed, Jun 18 2003 08:22:45 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ALCOHOLISM" http://www.argusleader.com/editorial/Wednesdayarticle1.shtml Editorial: Reservation needs deeper solution Editorial Board Argus Leader June 18, 2003 As a Band-Aid, a plan to deputize Pine Ridge Reservation police to enforce laws in Whiteclay isn't a bad idea. But it's a stop-gap measure, at best. Finally responding to complaints, Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning and State Patrol Superintendent Tom Nesbitt announced the plan. Tribal officers would be deputized by the state of Nebraska and could enforce laws in the tiny town of Whiteclay, just across the South Dakota border from the Pine Ridge Reservation. A formal agreement would have to be worked out by the tribal council, but this seems like a no-brainer. For years, the tribe has complained about Whiteclay, a town that exists mainly to sell beer to residents of the reservation - where alcohol is banned. Four small stores there sell 11,000 cans of beer a day - most of it to residents of the 5,000-square-mile reservation, where 15,000 members of the Oglala Sioux tribe live. It's a poke in the eye because of the reservation's severe alcoholism problem. Opponents of the sales long have complained there's not enough enforcement of liquor laws - such as selling beer to intoxicated customers. Whiteclay is off the beaten path by anyone's estimation, and Nebraska just doesn't have enough state police officers to keep a good handle on the town. Deputizing tribal police would help with that. This isn't a solution, though. Neither, really, is elimination of alcohol sales in Whiteclay - which protesters over the years have sought. Making alcohol more difficult to obtain will help. But if there's a solution, it's attacking alcoholism itself. And part of that must involve economic development, to make jobs available. This is a good, logical step. But it's only one step. Copyright c. 2003 Copyright Argus Leader. --------- "RE: BIA's Martin breaks Unofficial Boycott of NCAI" --------- Date: Tue, Jun 17 2003 08:58:39 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BIA/NCAI" http://www.indianz.com/News/show.asp?ID=2003/06/17/bia BIA's Martin breaks unofficial boycott of NCAI TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 2003 The acting head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs extended an olive branch to the nation's largest inter-tribal organization on Monday, citing a need to heal a fractured relationship that has hindered efforts to reform the broken Indian trust. Acting assistant secretary Aurene Martin said she attended the mid-year session of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) in an attempt to start "mending some of those wounds" that have developed in recent months. "I do sense that there has been some distance between tribal leaders and NCAI and the administration," she told the conference, being held on the Gila River Reservation in Arizona this week. Martin's appearance broke the Department of Interior's unofficial and self-imposed "boycott" of NCAI events. After a joint tribal-federal task force on trust reform broke down late last year in a disagreement over standards and oversight, senior department officials did not attend the organization's winter conference in Washington, D.C., this past February. Lower-level employees were warned, by Martin, not to attend without obtaining proper clearance. Tribal leaders took the snub personally, a sentiment that has persisted despite attempts, by tribes, to bring the department back to the table. "There is a sense within the administration that there is not a good working relationship with NCAI," Richard Milanovich, chairman of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in California, said during the general assembly yesterday morning. But some tribal leaders said it was time to move beyond the disagreements in light of the ongoing reorganization of the BIA and the expansion of the Office of Special Trustee (OST). Although there is opposition to the changes, the two sides need to come together to resolve tribal concerns, said Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe of Washington and a former member of the task force. "They [Interior officials] need the tribes to be on board to make this happen," he said in an interview. "That's where they need to work with the tribes and the regions to reshape it and turn it into a win-win situation." Tex Hall, president of NCAI, which represents more than 250 tribes, also urged cooperation. "We can't let personalities, we can't let the words stop us from continuing to engage," he told Martin after her speech. Increasingly frustrated with DOI and BIA, tribes have taken their pleas to the White House. Jim Kelly, a White House aide on intergovernmental affairs who spoke at NCAI yesterday, was urged to get President Bush on board. "The president does meet with mayors, he meets with the governors of various states, he meets with the [Congressional] Black caucus and he meets with other minority groups," said Ed Thomas, president of the Tlingit-Haida Tribe of Alaska. "We have yet to have a meeting between the president of this nation and the presidents of our recognized sovereign nations." Copyright c. 2000-2003 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Limelight? This Leader won't bask" --------- Date: Tue, Jun 17 2003 08:58:39 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="POTLATCH" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/135013025_brodeur17m.html Limelight? This leader won't bask Nicole Brodeur/Times staff columnist This is the story of a politician who preferred not to talk in a place built for performances. At the historic opening of the White River Amphitheater the other night, Muckleshoot Tribal Chairman John Daniels Jr., 41, ambled to the dais at a VIP reception and did the verbal equivalent of a shrug. "I welcome each and every one of you," he said. "This will be a great addition to the region's cultural environment. I hope you have a good time. Thank you all for coming." There was a long pause. People looked around to see if they were missing something, if someone else - King County Executive Ron Sims, County Councilwoman Cynthia Sullivan or maybe Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis - was supposed to take over. Any one of them would have grabbed the mike and gripped it like a rolling IV pole. The key to political survival, after all, is to fill the air with your voice and vision until the crowd gets tired of clapping, or cliche's, or both. "When we started on this road ... " You've heard the speech a thousand times. It was one Daniels had every right to give. A $30 million amphitheater. A beautiful Saturday night. An opening act - Heart - with roots in the Northwest. And new life for thousands of tribal members. But Daniels wouldn't blow hot air on any of it. Even the act of handing out money spurred no political swaggering. Representatives from Olympic Middle School and Enumclaw Middle School looked like excited game-show contestants next to Daniels, who handed them each a check for $2,500 to fund music programs. "It's potlatch," he said, by way of explanation. "We always share whenever we can." He introduced some others in the room, like Sims, who took the mike for a moment. When he finished, Daniels took back the mike, said another low- key thank-you, and clicked the off switch. He adjusted his cedar-woven headband, and sighed. "The tribe doesn't like to boast," he told me. Rollin Fatland, a consultant to the Muckleshoot Tribal Council, is used to the lack of bluster. Through 15 years and a half-dozen lawsuits trying to stop the amphitheater - all settled - the council just kept pushing forward. Less talk, more action. That's a skill many other leaders would do well to learn. "I think that's one of the real testaments to John Daniels," he said. "For him, it's the tribe. It's not him individually." Roberto Maestas, executive director of El Centro de la Raza, agreed: "There's a great sense of humility about John that you don't find very often." Daniels, who has been chairman for five years, would like the area to speak for itself. He wants the amphitheater to succeed, for better housing to go up and for the tribe to be known for something other than casinos and fireworks. "We can't rely on gambling," Daniels said. "We don't know how long it's going to be here." Another sigh. The main show was about to begin, and he had to perform once more. "I am really nervous," he said. "I still have to get up on stage." Reach Nicole Brodeur at 206-464-2334 or at nbrodeur@seattletimes.com. Copyright c. 2003 The Seattle Times Company. --------- "RE: Salmon rebound may not be Permanent" --------- Date: Thu, Jun 19 2003 08:37:24 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SALMON" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/story/3305102p-3336227c.html Salmon rebound may not be permanent Monday, June 16th, 2003 By Les Blumenthal Herald Washington, D.C., bureau WASHINGTON - Lonesome Larry wouldn't be so lonesome if he were making the 900-mile journey from the Pacific Ocean to the upper reaches of the Salmon River today. Larry emerged as the poster child for endangered salmon when, in 1992, he was the sole sockeye salmon to return to the Stanley Basin at the foot of the jagged Sawtooth Mountains in Central Idaho. Some biologists considered the Salmon River sockeye run extinct. If Larry made the trip now, he would have plenty of company for at least part of the way. For the third straight year, fisheries officials are expecting near- record runs of salmon to pass through Bonneville Dam on their way up the Columbia and Snake rivers to spawn. In 2001 alone, almost 2 million chinook, sockeye, coho and steelhead headed upstream, the most since Bonneville was completed in 1937. And the Columbia and Snake river runs aren't the only ones to rebound. Biologists say healthy runs are expected in coastal rivers from Northern California to southern British Columbia, including Puget Sound. Yet while the numbers may be impressive and federal officials and politicians are excited, no one is yet convinced the salmon have turned the corner. Most caution it is way too early to declare victory in the 25- year, $6 billion effort to revive the runs. The large runs are mostly the result of much-improved ocean conditions, where the fish put on weight as they swim, in some cases, thousands of miles over their two-, three- or four-year sojourn in saltwater. Climactic conditions known as El nino and La Nina have faded and another, known as the Pacific Decidal Oscillation, has kicked in, producing an upwelling of cool, nutrient-rich water 60 to 70 miles off the coast filled with krill, herring and smelt that salmon feast on. The change in ocean conditions has not only produced a lot of fish, but also some big ones. Since 2001, record coho, pink and chum salmon have been landing in Washington, and chinook weighing up to 80 pounds have been caught in Oregon. Ocean conditions, however, are notoriously cyclical. Despite the millions of fish that have returned over the past three years, their long- term prospects remain uncertain. "If ocean conditions return to where they were in the mid-1990s, these (salmon) populations could crash," said Nate Mantua, a research scientist for the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington. Even with satellites tracking ocean conditions, Mantua said, it's almost impossible to predict beyond a year. Historically, somewhere between 10 million and 16 million salmon once spawned on the two rivers. That was before a string of hydroelectric dams turned the rivers into a series of slack-water reservoirs and destroyed spawning habitat. Lonesome Larry had to climb past eight dams on his way home. While the dams produce some of the nation's cheapest electricity, they decimated the fish runs. As for the wild fish, some runs have doubled in size since 2001. But even the healthiest number fewer than 20,000 fish. Federal officials readily acknowledge that better ocean conditions were the prime factor behind the increases. But they say their efforts to tweak the hydroelectric system to make it more fish-friendly also has contributed. "I will argue that improvement in fish passage and downstream survival is part of the reason for the rebound," said Bob Lohn, regional administrator of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries arm in Seattle. NOAA-Fisheries is responsible for administering the Endangered Species Act when it comes to salmon. Once, 90 percent of the juvenile salmon migrating to the ocean died, often chewed up in the turbines at the dams. Over the past several years, Lohn said, survival rates for downstream migration have improved by as much as five or 10 times. The improvement involves operational adjustments at the dams and physical improvements such as special fish weirs and other collection devices. New turbines are being developed to reduce salmon mortality. River managers also have learned a great deal about adjusting flows and spills to help flush juvenile fish downstream. Where once all dam operators knew was what time of year the young fish were migrating, they now know down to the hour when the juveniles are on the move. Acoustic devices at some dams actually track their movements. If more juvenile fish weren't reaching the Pacific, it wouldn't matter whether ocean conditions had improved, Lohn said. Northwest tribes, fishing groups and environmentalists say Lohn and others are giving too much credit for the large runs to improvements at the dams, arguing much remains undone. "There are still drastically reduced runs in the upper Columbia and Snake," said Charles Hudson, a spokesman for the Columbia River Inter- Tribal Fish Commission. "Even with all the tinkering, water is the key." When a severe drought gripped the region in 1991, Hudson said, river managers refused to release enough water over the spillways to help downstream fish passage. The river managers, instead, cranked up the turbines to take advantage of an electricity market when prices were up, in some cases, more than tenfold. "They were cashing in and emptied the system," Hudson said. The fish that did make it downstream in 2001 are just starting to return, and tribal biologists says it appears there aren't that many. Of all the improvements federal agencies were supposed to make at the dams, Hudson said less than one-third have been implemented, one-third haven't been finished and one-third failed. The tribes believe the best single thing that could be done for the salmon would be to breach four dams on the lower Snake River. But even with the dams in place, much more could be done to adjust flows to recreate "normative" river conditions, Hudson said. Environmentalists said healthy runs over eight years, approximately two generations of salmon, would be a solid sign salmon were recovering. "It's ludicrous to say things are fine," said Rob Masonis, Northwest regional director of American Rivers in Seattle. "We haven't reached recovery targets. This just doesn't lend itself to some of the rhetorical flourishes of optimism I have heard." Lonesome Larry is long gone, but the Salmon River sockeye run remains the poster child for struggling salmon. When Lonesome Larry finally arrived in the Stanley Basin in 1992, scientists captured him and froze his sperm. It was eventually used to fertilize eggs from some of the few females who made the trip in subsequent years. In all of the 1990s, only 18 Salmon River sockeye made the journey. Once the run numbered more than 10,000. Approximately 400 sockeye climbed past the dams and swam up the Salmon River in 2000. This year, the run will likely total 30 to 35 fish, according to tribal estimates. "It's a mistake to think we have fixed anything," said Glen Spain, Northwest regional director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. Copyright c. 2003 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press & Other Wire Services. --------- "RE: Tax Comments threatens Treaty Talks" --------- Date: Mon, 23 June 2003 08:49:03 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TAX COMMENTS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.canoe.ca/WesternTicker/CANOE-wire.Treaty-Threat.html Aboriginals say tax comments by B.C. attorney general threatens treaty talks June 23, 2003 VICTORIA (CP) -- B.C.'s attorney general, the minister in charge of treaty negotiations, has threatened the future of an entire set of treaty talks, a First Nation chief said Friday. The Sliammon First Nation is poised to retract its approval of a treaty agreement in principle because Attorney General Geoff Plant said the Powell River-area natives were negotiating to give up their tax exempt status as part of a final deal, Chief Maynard Harry said Friday. The Sliammon, a First Nation of less than 1,000 members, along with the federal and B.C. governments, announced this week they had reached an agreement in principle on a draft treaty. But Harry said Plant's comments about negotiations to phase out the tax exempt status of the Sliammon will seriously compromise his ability to sell the draft deal in his community. The Sliammon narrowly -- by five votes -- turned down a previous draft treaty agreement in 2001. Harry said he and his negotiators were preparing to take the new draft agreement to his community for approval, but the tax issue threatens to override other aspects of the potential deal. "I was confident going into the current ratification process," he said. "What he's (Plant) done is lowered my confidence significantly." Harry said he fears the draft agreement will now not receive community approval and treaty talks for his community could be stalled for at least 50 years. "The deal has to be much more attractive now for me to stand up in front of the community now and say, 'Vote yes,'" he said. "If we went to a vote now, I would say it wouldn't fly." Plant said he will do everything he can to encourage the Sliammon to support the draft treaty, but that doesn't include refusing to talk about specifics of a potential deal. He said a chapter of the 114-page document discusses phasing out tax exemptions as part of a final treaty. "I've been saying that the parties need to be creative and flexible and I think the reason we've reached this stage is because the parties have been creative and flexible," Plant said. "But we're not going to move the treaty process forward by hiding these documents under rocks." The Sliammon negotiations were B.C.'s fourth potential aboriginal treaty agreement in principle this year. The possible treaty agreements, which still all require aboriginal approval, include: the Snuneymuxw First Nation of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island; Lheidli Tennen band near Prince George; Maa-nulth on Vancouver Island and the Sliammon. Plant said the second Sliammon draft treaty offer increases governments' land and cash offer and includes a commitment to discuss revenue sharing between the Sliammon and the federal and provincial governments. The Sliammon draft treaty includes an offer of 6,000 hectares of Crown land and $26 million, he said. The Sliammon currently live on six reserves encompassing about 1,900 hectares near Powell River. Ed John, a treaty spokesman for the First Nations Summit, the largest aboriginal organization in British Columbia, said he's concerned about taking half-completed draft treaties to aboriginal communities for approval. "What we're interested in is concluding agreements," he said. "Some agreements at the AIP stage is constructive, but having said that the difficulty I see is that some of the big issues are being punted to final negotiations." After more than a decade of talks and millions of dollars spent by the federal and B.C. governments, the province has yet to negotiate a final treaty agreement with an aboriginal nation. B.C. has more than 100 aboriginal bands, but only about a dozen ever signed treaties and that was a century ago. The treaty with the Nisga'a aboriginals of northwest B.C. was signed in 1998 after decades of on-again, off-again talks. The Nisga'a deal was signed outside of the current treaty process which started in 1992 and includes provincial, federal and aboriginal negotiators. Copyright c. 2003, CANOE, a division of Netgraphe Inc. --------- "RE: Explorers set to tackle Arctic" --------- Date: Mon, 23 June 2003 08:49:03 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ARCTIC OIL" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030620/ Explorers set to tackle Arctic See great promise for gas discoveries By BRENT JANG Friday, June 20, 2003 - Page B1 INUVIK, NWT -- Eight heavyweights in the petroleum world are eager to drill up a storm in Canada's Arctic, emboldened by a historic agreement that makes aboriginals part-owners of a $5-billion Arctic pipeline project. The group of explorers, led by ChevronTexaco Corp. of San Francisco, says that the Mackenzie Delta in the Northwest Territories holds great promise for massive natural gas discoveries. ChevronTexaco has accumulated the largest onshore position among the explorers with leases in the Mackenzie Delta, and is the third-largest property holder in the region when offshore licences are included. Using three-dimensional seismic surveys and state-of-the-art technology, the companies believe that they can spot gas in areas either overlooked or deemed unworthy during exploration in the early 1970s. With recent improvements in 3-D seismic technology, crews can search for gas in deeper reservoirs than ever before. Only two-dimensional seismic equipment was available three decades ago, when the bulk of the exploration in the region was conducted. However, with new exploratory techniques and modern drilling rigs, the explorers are optimistic that there could be another 13 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of onshore gas in the Mackenzie Delta and a whopping 54 tcf offshore in the Beaufort Sea. So far, there have been three major gas discoveries in the region totaling six trillion cubic feet. All those onshore gas finds were made in the early 1970s. The eight companies have formed the Mackenzie Delta Explorer Group. Besides ChevronTexaco, the members are: Petro-Canada, EnCana Corp., BP PLC, Anadarko Canada Corp., Devon Canada Corp., Apache Canada Ltd. and Burlington Resources Canada Ltd. Rod Maier, northern gas program manager for ChevronTexaco's Canadian subsidiary, said yesterday that the geological play in the NWT is particularly attractive now that aboriginal leaders have signed a financing deal with pipeline giant TransCanada Corp. and four producers. "It does reduce the overall risk profile for us, and we're encouraged by the positive development," Mr. Maier said as the two-day Inuvik Petroleum Show wrapped up yesterday at the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex. "We're also encouraged that there's aboriginal participation as full and meaningful participants within the project. We feel that's a key and critical milestone to achieve." On Wednesday, the Aboriginal Pipeline Group signed a financing pact with Calgary-based TransCanada and four producers -- Imperial Oil Ltd., ConocoPhillips Canada, Shell Canada Ltd. and Exxon Mobil Canada Ltd. Imperial has more than three tcf of gas reserves in the Taglu field, ConocoPhillips Canada and ExxonMobil have 1.8 tcf at their Parsons Lake joint venture and Shell has more than one tcf at Niglintgak. Terry Moore, Devon Canada's frontier group leader, said his company is excited by gas prospects near Inuvik, but he cautioned that remote region will pose a challenge to even the most experienced drilling crews during exploration programs in the dead of winter. Costs can easily escalate in Arctic drilling as crews have to ensure that heat given off from drilling activities doesn't melt the frozen ground and allow a rig to get stuck. For now, the focus will be on making onshore discoveries because drilling into the Arctic's frozen tundra is cheaper than offshore exploration in the Beaufort Sea. Longer term, Beaufort gas could dramatically extend the life of the Mackenzie line, said Fred Carmichael, chairman of the Aboriginal Pipeline Group. Since Mackenzie pipeline construction isn't slated to begin until early 2006, subject to regulatory and environmental approvals, some companies won't be drilling for a few years. Others are holding leases that will expire next year and in 2005, so they have a commitment to drill within the next 30 months or else lose their leases to a new bidder. The value of the total exploration commitment is more than $1-billion for all the companies active in the area. Copyright c. 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Fishery ruling Racist" --------- Date: Mon, 23 June 2003 08:49:03 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FISHERY RULING" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030620/UNATIN2/ Fishery ruling racist, natives say By ROD MICKLEBURGH Friday, June 20, 2003 VANCOUVER -- This week's controversial court ruling attacking native-only, commercial salmon fisheries will lead to violent clashes on West Coast fishing grounds if it is not overturned, native leaders warned. "I don't think there are any words to describe how I felt reading that decision," said Musqueam band councillor Wendy John yesterday. "I was just so saddened. It felt like we'd gone back in time, that more than 100 years of aboriginal rights had simply been thrown away." Judge Saunderson granted absolute discharges to 40 non-native commercial fishermen who held an illegal protest fishery last summer. The judge said the Department of Fisheries and Oceans had no moral authority to press the charges because of DFO policies favouring aboriginal fishermen. Ms. John and other native leaders demanded that the DFO immediately appeal the court ruling. "I am deeply angered and very concerned by this racist decision," said Stewart Phillip, president of the B.C. Union of Indian Chiefs. "If DFO sanctions can be dismissed just like that, the fragile peace on the water [between native and non-native fishermen] is going to be shattered. . . . "In effect, those fishermen have thumbed their nose at the law and gotten away with it. I would suggest we are entering a very dangerous time." Grand Chief Edward John, executive member of the First Nations Summit, noted that the Provincial Court judge attacked the alleged failure of DFO to enforce illegal fishing by natives and the unfairness of restricting some commercial salmon runs to aboriginals. "You would have thought we were on trial, not those 40 commercial fishermen. Once again, it seems it's open season on our people. We're always the guys with the black hats," Mr. John said. Copyright c. 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Changing Native History" --------- Date: Thu, Jun 19 2003 08:37:24 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="EDUCATION" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.aboriginalcanada.gc.ca/abdt/interface/ Changing native history Native 20s are preparing for the day when aboriginals will form a majority in Saskatchewan - in Day Five of a 12-part series on Generation Next By ALANNA MITCHELL Tuesday, June 17, 2003 Damon Badger-Heit, 23, has spent all night riding a bus across the Great Plains, his people's ancient homeland, working on the valedictory speech he is to give in two days time at his university's convocation ceremony. He's nervous. Sitting here on a park bench in the blistering sun of downtown Regina, his sleek black ponytail hanging down his back, eyes ringed with the shadows of fatigue, he's a little spooked about speaking for a whole graduating class of aboriginal students. At first, in honour of the august occasion, he felt obliged to sound stuffy and learned. But now he's thinking he should just speak from his heart. "We all went there for the same reasons: to improve our lives, to improve ourselves, to improve the communities around us," he said, pulling heavily on a sweaty bottle of lemonade Snapple. But Mr. Badger-Heit is speaking for more than the 118 members of his graduating class. As he prepares to take on the world - he's considering a master's degree in fine art, perhaps teaching drama on his reserve or traveling to other countries to teach English - he represents the hopes his aboriginal forebears had for their people when the Europeans started arriving and demanding to share this rich land. He represents his own generation, too, struggling to learn and earn its way into the aboriginal middle class; to invent itself - it's a tricky game - as both fiercely aboriginal and proudly Canadian. And he represents the future, a Saskatchewan that is heading toward being more aboriginal than not for the first time since the Europeans arrived all those generations ago. It could be decades before what many aboriginals here call "the flip" - five or six of them, maybe, depending on birth rates and the pace of white flight and the province's success in attracting and retaining other cultures. But already, a critical mass of Saskatchewan identifies itself as aboriginal - 13.5 per cent, against 3.3 per cent of Canada as a whole, according to Statistics Canada's 2001 census. More significantly, fully a quarter of Saskatchewan's children are aboriginal. That birth rate is slowing down a little, but Statistics Canada estimates it is still roughly double the rate of Canada as a whole. As the flip approaches, the province's levers of power may well be shared or possibly controlled by aboriginals, along with the good jobs and the assets and the resources. In fact, many of the wise elders of Saskatchewan - both native and not - take the view that the very prosperity of this beleaguered Prairie province rests in the hands of this new generation of aboriginals. There will be implications for all of Canada in this. There will be a joyous stretching of definitions; a painful sharing of wealth; a gradual chipping away of stereotypes, hatred and bigotry. Once one of the provinces is run by aboriginals, what is to stop an aboriginal man or woman from holding the highest offices in the land? All this rests on the pole-straight shoulders of Damon Badger-Heit as he sits here drinking deeply from his Snapple. And if this brave new dream of peace and mutual prosperity between aboriginals and non-aboriginals fails to take wing? "Things will carry on," Mr. Badger-Heit said. "There will still be love and kids and everything. But I think it'd be pretty chaotic." A refrain is humming through Regina on this same sunny day. It is an old and a hellishly common one, carried this time by the local CBC radio affiliate on its cycle of news programs. "Closing arguments are expected to begin this morning at a sexual- assault trial in Melfort," the announcer tells listeners at 8 a.m. "Three Tisdale men stand accused of assaulting a 12-year-old aboriginal girl. Dean Edmondson is the first to go on trial. The CBC's Dan Kerslake reports . . ." The trial has transfixed the province; stiffened the stereotypes; angered the native community and stirred the terrible ghosts of historic injustice. The 12-year-old, not yet 90 pounds or 5 feet tall, had a fight with her mother, walked to the bar in a nearby town in the farming heartland of the province, took a ride in a truck with three white men and woke up hours later, her tender vagina torn and bleeding, cuts and bruises on her back and legs, stinking of alcohol. A dominant issue at trial is whether the girl looked old enough to pass for 14, when she could legally consent to have sex. The testimony has been heart-rending, including evidence that the girl drank enough liquor to pass out and then awakened in kaleidoscopic snatches to find one man holding her down while another tried to remove her underwear. Most difficult of all is that DNA found on the girl's underwear was that of her own father, possibly from an earlier incident. The heart and soul of the aboriginal community's rise in this province from desperation to middle class is the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College, which is affiliated with the University of Regina. It opened here in 1976 with nine students. Now it has about 2,000 students spread over several campuses and is launching a raft of graduate programs. Today, the day before Mr. Badger-Heit's convocation address, crews of workers are laying underground watering equipment and plenty of sod, trying to get the site spruced up. As usual, the fabled Saskatchewan weather is not co-operating: Fearsome winds whip the topsoil across the empty fields toward Manitoba, except for the grains that cake inside damp eyes and noses, embed themselves in pores. On Saturday the college will take a new name: the First Nations University of Canada, to reflect its growing academic ambition in this country. And it will open its new building, which is beyond dispute the centrepiece of the University of Regina campus. Designed by internationally famous architect Douglas Cardinal, who is aboriginal, it is a sinuous, organic structure that eventually will be anchored by two soaring glass tepees, one inside and another at the outer entrance. This building is visible from the Trans-Canada Highway and from the main north-south route through town, a beacon of postsecondary education - and of the native place in it. The native community itself raised $30-million privately and through government to construct it. It is a far cry from when Wes Stevenson, the elegant acting president of the SIFC, started at the University in Regina in 1973. He was a tall kid from the reserve who ended up at university because he loved to play basketball. His first day on campus, a counselor took him aside, looked him in the eye and said: "Your kind never make it here." Now the college is the driving force behind young aboriginals, mostly women, getting university degrees in Saskatchewan. The number is still achingly small: For all of Saskatchewan, just 460 aboriginals in their 20s who were out of school held a degree in 2001, when Statistics Canada did its census count, compared with 9,445 non-aboriginals. But the increase is huge from 1996: 78 per cent for aboriginals in the first half of their 20s and 65 per cent for those in the second half, said Andrew Siggner, StatsCan's dean of aboriginal data. Education means jobs; jobs mean money and good houses and better schools for their children and social influence. It's a return to the aboriginals' centuries-old dream of respect, sharing wealth, living in harmony. Aboriginals in Canada were "systematically dispossessed of their lands and livelihood, their cultures and languages, and their social and political institutions," the 1996 Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples documents. The result was the creation of a Third World underclass with poorer health, housing, water, education and greater poverty than the majority of Canadians; a life expectancy that is still five to seven years shorter; a rate of incarceration that runs roughly six times higher than that of the general population. In Saskatchewan, just 42 per cent of aboriginals 15 and older were employed - with an average annual income of $15,994 - when the 2001 census was taken, compared with 66 per cent of non-aboriginals who earned an average $26,914. This is not the Canada that Mr. Badger-Heit's ancestors imagined. However, while the gaps are still wide, they have narrowed in recent years. Today, slowly but surely, aboriginals are taking their place in the white-collar economy of the province, said Bill Asikinack, one of the most influential professors at SIFC and a man with a deep faith in the future. "The lazy Indian, the drunken Indian, the welfare Indian, those ideas are going out the window," he said, boxes of his books lining his brand- new office walls, a hammer and nails lying on his desk. As for the First Nations University of Canada, he sees it growing, too, turning out smart graduates eager to take on the world; a generation that, for the first time, will have all the same choices available to their non- -aboriginal peers. They will not necessarily use their talents on the reserve, either. "It's not going to be just a minor drip, drip," Mr. Asikinack said. "In a little while, it will be a major explosion." "Jury deliberations are in their second day at a sexual-assault trial in Melfort," the CBC radio announcer tells Regina at noon. "The trial involves allegations of sexual assault by three men on a 12-year-old girl. As Dan Kerslake reports, the jury asked another question of clarification this morning . . ." Mr. Badger-Heit's mother, Mary Heit, 51, is telling a story over lunch just hours before the convocation. It's a love story. She grew up as one of seven Roman Catholic children in an isolated German-Canadian farming family in Saskatchewan, and never had anything to do with aboriginal Canadians. Then she went to university and fell in love with Jacob Badger, the native way of life and the ideal of racial equality. His Cree people were isolated, too, on the reserve at Mistawasis near Saskatoon; five families living in five adjacent houses. Their fathers were against the marriage, but it went ahead. Damon was 2 when it ended and 10 when his dad, an alcoholic who by then was living on the streets of Saskatoon, was killed. The other Badgers of Mistawasis pitched in to help Mary keep Damon's native roots alive. Ms. Heit raised her son alone, teaching at SIFC, a linguist by education, holding both professionally and personally to the dream that aboriginal Canadians could have equal opportunity in her country. A few years ago, she fell in love again - again with a Cree man, an academic who taught social work at SIFC. Now she is stepmother to the three children Sid Fiddler, 51, had with his first wife, a German-Canadian physician. She turns to her mother, Kay Heit, 78, sitting across the table. The elder Mrs. Heit lives in a seniors' home in Unity now, but she wasn't about to have an aboriginal grandson and not know about his culture. After her husband died, she insisted on experiencing native sweats and other spiritual rituals, and on knowing her grandson's native relatives. The other day, she tells the table, she had a get-together with some old acquaintances who were going on about all the good-for-nothing Indians who were ruining Saskatchewan. Finally, she piped up: "Listen here, I've got a son-in-law who's an Indian and who's educated," she recounted telling them. She's trying to puzzle out why people she knows would feel free to express such bigotry. Rachel Fiddler, 21, Damon's stepsister, has just finished her first year at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon and she has seen the prejudice firsthand, she says. Some of her fellow students don't know she is proudly native. They let things slip. She is eager for the day when aboriginals are routinely elected to office: mayors, city councillors, MPs. She believes hers is the generation that will do it. They are emotionally healthy, educated, secure, without the scars of residential schools, abuse and addiction. Just as the family rises from lunch, the jury reaches a verdict. "A 26-year-old man has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a 12- year-old girl near Tisdale," the CBC announcer says. "Dean Edmondson is first of three men to go to trial charged with the crime. The court was told that Edmondson and his two friends got the girl drunk and then sexually assaulted her on a country road. The CBC's Dan Kerslake has this report . . ." In native culture, credit is collective. The honour of one is the honour of all. So a convocation of 118 aboriginal students from all over the province - and even from other parts of Canada - is an event like no other. More than 700 people have assembled at the Delta Hotel to bear witness. A few older people get up to the microphone to remind the revelers that just a generation ago, aboriginals were overtly consigned to "paraprofessions," allowed to be handmaids to the white people who held the real jobs in teaching, engineering and law. Tonight, some of the graduates are getting master's degrees. Then it's time for the valedictorian. Mr. Badger-Heit walks up to the podium. When he starts to speak, everyone in the room falls silent. His voice rings out, telling the future of his people, a people who have stumbled and endured. And who will prevail. Copyright c. 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. --------- "RE: Web site to save First Nations Languages" --------- Date: Sat, Jun 21 2003 09:18:40 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FIRST NATION LANGUAGES" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.canada.com/vancouver/news/story.asp?id=D098839F-A0D6 Web site being created to save First Nations languages B.C. government gives site $450,000 Jim Beatty Vancouver Sun Friday, June 20, 2003 VICTORIA - A high-tech tool aimed at preserving and protecting aboriginal language was launched Thursday by the B.C. government. With just 32 First Nations languages remaining in B.C. - countless others have already died out - the government is creating a Web site to save them from extinction. The site, at FirstVoices.com, allows B.C. bands to archive text, sound, pictures and video before their elders die off, taking with them critical links to the past. "Language is the key to the survival of First Nations," said Simon Robinson, executive director of the First Peoples' Cultural Foundation. "When you know your language, you know yourself." On Thursday, the B.C. government formally contributed $450,000 to the Web site, which should be in operation soon. An international team of aboriginal language educators designed the site to be an easy and cost-effective way to record and teach indigenous language to anyone with Internet access. Compared to the rest of Canada, B.C. remains linguistically rich. The province is home to 60 per cent of all aboriginal languages in the country. Yet many are in danger of being lost. The once-prevalent language of the Saanich First Nation, called the Suncathun, has fewer than 20 speakers. "We're struggling to keep our language going," said John Elliott, a teacher at the Victoria-area Lau,Welnew Tribal School who helped conceive the Web site. Thursday's contribution to the Web site is just the start. As of next year, the province will contribute $1 million annually. Corporate sponsors are also contributing to the effort, which is expected to cost $1.5 million a year when in full operation. jbeatty@direct.ca Copyright c. 2003 Vancouver Sun. --------- "RE: Peltier will not be Silenced" --------- Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 14:17:18 +0000 From: "marcel guay" Subj: PELTIER WILL NOT BE SILENCED Mailing List: first_nations_skyvillage@smartgroups.com PELTIER WILL NOT BE SILENCED Friends of Leonard-- The following message was passed on to me by one of Leonard's lawyers for distribution. It relates to Leonard's upcoming hearing re: The U.S. Parole Commision. Since, to my knowledge, neither of the two recent LPDC websites--freepeltier.org and freeleonardpeltier.org-- are no longer controlled by Leonard or the LPDC--I hope you will help distribute this to those on your personal list. We cannot allow Leonard and the LPDC to be silenced. Please bring this matter to the attention of press, govt officials, ndn orgs, etc. I believe you can still reach LPDC at by phone 785-842-5774 I'm glad to pass on messages. /Harvey Arden, editor of Leonard's PRISON WRITINGS: My Life Is My Sun Dance By his appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, Leonard seeks to overturn the United States Parole Commission's ("Commission") refusal to consider Leonard for parole until December 2008. The normal federal guidelines for parole of prisoners convicted of similar crimes is 200+months. Though Leonard has already served over 320 months (already over 11 years beyond the normal guideline time for release as established by the Commission's regulations), the Commission refused even to consider establishing a parole date until Leonard will have served almost double the normal guideline time. The Commission explained its dramatic and outrageous departure from the established guidelines based on its sole finding that Leonard was involved in an "ambush" of the two FBI agents, and executed them at point blank range after they were incapacitated. The appeal turns on whether there exists a rational basis for the Commission's basis for extending Leonard's parole so far beyond the normal guideline. On appeal, Leonard's legal team strongly contends that the Commission erred because its stated reason (1) is not supported by Leonard's convictions or the Eighth Circuit decisions addressing post- conviction petitions, (2) is not supported by the evidence before the Commission, and (3) is undermined by the material exculpatory evidence the government improperly withheld at Leonard's trial. Indeed, in 1995 when Leonard appeared for an interim statutory parole hearing before the same hearing examiner who had presided over Leonard's initial parole proceeding, the hearing officer this time "concluded after a review of the additional exculpatory evidence that a preponderance finding that Peltier actually executed the agents cannot be made." He was moved by the government's statements, especially those by Assistant United States Attorney Lynn Crooks who had "acknowledged that the government does not know, insofar as having the evidence to sustain a conviction in Court that Leonard Peltier fired the fatal bullets into the agents." The hearing examiner thus conceded that the 15-year reconsideration decision in 1993 was based on the mistaken belief that Peltier's convictions had "included a specific or directed finding by the jury that Peltier had fired the fatal shots into the agents causing their deaths. Dissatisfied with these conclusions, the Commission then appointed a second hearing officer (who was not even present at the statutory interim hearing, and who disagreed with the first officer's recommendation. The Commission then reaffirmed the second officer's recommendation and reaffirmed that it would not reconsider Leonard for parole until December 2008. One of the most telling factors is the government's changing of position as Leonard's case has evolved and as further evidence of government misconduct is unearthed. In 1985, during oral argument before the Eighth Circuit on Leonard's appeal from his first habeas petition, the government argued that it did not need to prove that Leonard executed the agents at close range and admitted that "we can't prove who shot those agents." In 1990, Leonard brought a second habeas petition and the government again stressed that Leonard's conviction did not rest on his participating in the close range execution of the agents: "We knew who participated, we knew who was murdered, but we did not know quote unquote who shot the agents;" The facts available did not give us direct evidence as to who did the coup-de-grace. They simply didn't... We argued inferences and we certainly argued that strongly. But that's not the same thing as saying that we had direct evidence by any one witness that Peltier was the one that squeezed off the final rounds. Thus, as the evidence linking Leonard to shooting the agents began to evaporate, and as it became more and more clear that the evidence relied upon by the government was manufactured after the fact, the government more and more changed its theory from claiming that Leonard was the shooter to upholding Leonard's convictions on the theory of aiding and abetting. It was totally improper for the Commission to rely simply on the convictions and the published decisions to support its conclusion that Leonard killed the agents at close range for the purpose of extending Leonard's consideration for parole to twice the normal federal guidelines. Finally, the Commission (and the United States District Court for the District of Kansas which affirmed the Commission) failed adequately to consider the impact of the critical exculpatory evidence which was improperly withheld by the government and which completely undermined the facts relied upon by the Commission to establish that Leonard shot the two FBI agents at close range. The improperly withheld evidence established that the government manufactured evidence and gutted the government's manufactured case that Leonard executed the two agents at point blank range. Based on data and reports obtained from the FBI under FOIA requests, Leonard's legal team discovered that the government had withheld exculpatory evidence which unequivocally ruled out the so-called Wichita AR-15(which was purportedly Leonard's) as the murder weapon. More specifically, the legal team discovered a memorandum dated October 2,1975 by a ballistics expert which ruled out the Wichita AR-15(the murder gun purportedly used by Leonard). In addition, the legal team discovered other data suppressed by the FBI which struck at the heart of the government's case and the Commission's findings which were upheld by the District Court. In sum, under normal federal guidelines, Leonard is long overdue for release on parole. There is no basis for the Commission to not release Leonard on parole and certainly no basis for it to refuse to even consider release until December 2008. This appeal can correct that injustice and set Leonard free. Now is the time to provide Leonard with the support to make this come to fruition. Justice is long overdue in Leonard's case and now is the time for a panel of judges of the Tenth Circuit to look at Leonard's case and at least ameliorate the unfair and unjust treatment Leonard has received to date. Ameliorate is all that can be done at this point, as an innocent man has been punished for nearly 27 years by a corrupt and unyielding system. Leonard, however, needs your support to ensure that the courts finally conduct a fair review of his case. FREE PELTIER! --------- "RE: Native Prisoner" --------- Date: Mon, Jun 23 2003 19:18:40 -0700 From: Janet Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NATIVE PRISONER" ===== Date: Friday, June 20, 2003 9:03 AM From: "Brigitte Thimiakis" Subj: [ironnatives] Fw: California Coalition for Women Prisoners' --------- forwarded message---------- From: Christina Wilson Subj: [PRISONACT] California Coalition for Women Prisoners' Next Volunteer Night Wednesday, June 25th, 6-9pm 1540 Market Street, #490, SF, CA 94102 (415) 255-7036 x316, info@womenprisoners.org Friends, allies and supporters, please spread the word to your listserves, organizations, etc. Did you know that: - Women represent the fastest growing segment of prison and jail populations? - The prison system disproportionately impacts women of color? - The Drug War is the largest force behind the 95% increase in female drug arrests between 1985 and 1996? - Women prisoners are often survivors of abuse and, once incarcerated, routinely experience sexual harassment? - Over 75% of women prisoners are mothers. - That most women prisoners tell us being in contact with people on the outside who care is one of the most powerful gifts they can receive? Come help support women prisoners in California by fighting against inhumane prison conditions, and our unjust criminal justice system at CCWP's Volunteer Night Fourth Wednesdays of Every Month, 6-9pm 1540 Market Street, #490, San Francisco, CA 94102 For more info, call 415-255-7036 x316 or email info@womenprisoners.org These monthly volunteer nights provide a space for individuals throughout the Bay Area to come together to watch movies, share political education, and support women prisoners and the work of CCWP through writing letters, building current and new advocacy and organizing efforts, developing resource materials, etc. Dinner will be provided. For info on future volunteer nights, please call the above phone number. =================================== Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 11:16 AM From: "Brigitte Thimiakis" Subj: Alert/Call for Action - NA Religious Rights --------- forwarded message---------- From: justicenetwork [Please Take Action Now- Also please forward to relevant lists -] New Alert re.Violations of Native American religious rights at Montana State Prison! In spite of the progress that had been made, a Sweat Lodge ceremony was cancelled again and another cancellation is planned, meaning that the Prisoners' rights are being violated again. Please read this call for action and contact the officials mentioned at the bottom. The situation : on Saturday June 14th, Fr. Pins had the Sweat Lodge ceremony time cancelled. The Sweat Lodge was in place and all ready to go for the usual Saturday morning Sweat Lodge ceremony. What a shock it was for the Native Americans to find out their time had been given to a Buddhist activity and their Sweat Lodge ceremony cancelled. No notice. No warning. Nothing. Just cancelled. Fr. Pins had cancelled the Sweat Lodge ceremony and given the time to the Buddhist group without even telling them. No other religious group lost their time on this Saturday, June 14th; only the Native Americans were denied their religious time. Fr. Pins still held Catholic mass and Bible study on that same Saturday evening. As if this were not enough of a deliberate insult, the Prayer Warriors have just been told that Fr. Pins has also cancelled their Sweat Lodge time for Saturday, June 28th and has given their time to a Christian Discovery activity. Their discovery activities are normally scheduled in the afternoons and nothing is normally cancelled in order for the activity to take place. Please contact the following individuals and respectfully request - that the Sweat Lodge time be reinstated on June 28th, - and that the Sweat Lodge ceremonies are held on a regular basis. They need to take immediate measures to ensure that the Native American Inmates's religious rights are respected so that they are able to honor their Spirituality according to their faith, as they are entitled by the Constitution. Please find the contact info at the bottom of this post. Thank you once again for your time and continued support. Respectfully, <> Justice For First Nations Prisoners Network <> justicenetwork@ifrance.com ==Please do not send this email or address to the officials-thank you.== ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Contact Info: (you can send the same letter to the following) MSP Warden Mike Mahoney, 500 Conley Lake Road, Deer Lodge, MT - 59722 (406) 846-1320, ext. 2200; mmahoney@state.mt.us Associate Warden, Myron Beeson: (406) 846-1320, ext. 2454; mbeeson@state.mt.us 500 Conley Lake Road; Deer Lodge, MT; 59722 Mr. Bill Slaughter, Director of Corrections jbouchee@state.mt.us The Montana Department of Corrections 1539 11th Avenue, P.O. Box 201301, Helena MT 59620-1301 Jack Powers (406) 846-1320, ext. 2293 500 Conley Lake Rd Deer Lodge, MT 59722 e-mail: jpowers@state.mt.us ====================================================== Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 9:09 AM From: "Kim Foltz" Subj: NAPN and AIRR sites Native American Prisoner Network (NAPN) http://members.tripod.com/~foltz.k/napnhome.html NAPN's goal is to assist Native American prisoners obtain outside support via pen pals, and to display and promote artwork, crafts, and writings. American Indian Religious Rights foundation (AIRR) http://www.airr.org AIRR is a registered non profit organization which works with American Indian prisoners on religious rights violations. And yes I do still need help . I have managed to get NAPN mail caught up through the beginning of June so now AIRR's is stacking up too. Last week I mailed out @ 45 NAPN letters I was able to answer, and yesterday another 42. Kim --------- "RE: Rustywire: Parched Corn" --------- Date: Sun, May 25 2003 06:46:19 -0900 From: rustywire@yahoo.com (john rustywire) Subj: Parched Corn Newsgroup: alt.native Grandpa, what you doing, Grandpa? He stood there, just three years old, his hair dark and eyes full of wonder as he watched his grandpa digging a hole in the sand. I am going to make something good to eat, it is a day for eating corn. The old man said, lining the pit with cedar wood and piling it up high, and it began to burn. The little boy watched as the fire grew, standing behind the old man, holding his pants by the legs. It's sure hot, Grandpa. The sun was shining and they stood on a high butte behind their place, they could see the distant mountains and valleys below Fluted Rock.. The old man knelt down and said, see that place way down there, there was slit of earth where Canyon De Chelly dropped down into the earth. In that place our people lived long ago and they grew corn, some of them saved the corn like we have and they dried. Now when they did this they would soak it in water to give it softness again, like the ones I have here. The little boy with shaggy hair looked at the indian corn, and could see it had been soaking in the tub since the night before. What you going to do with it grandpa? We are going to eat it. Like that? Too hard to eat. The old man laughed and shoveled out the hot coals, and said no, we are going to cook it over night right here. The old man shoveled out the coals and lined the pit and threw in the dried ears of corn now soaked and packed them into the ground with sand, the old man then poured lots of water buckets on it. How can we eat it if its all covered up grandpa? It has to cook in the ground. The little boy looked at his grandpa with big eyes, eyes full of wonder about how the ground could cook the corn. The old man put the hot coals over the corn covered with earth and built a big fire. The fire burned all day and the little boy played as his grandfather watched the fire, until the night came. It was dark, and the fire lit up the night sky. The embers lit up the sky, floating slowly into the night sky. The ground was glowing gold and yellow. Is the corn ready to eat grandpa? No, not till tomorrow. How come we are going to eat it tomorrow. I want to eat some now. The old man told him that a long time ago when their people were on the run from the cavalry soldiers they hid the corn in the canyon walls, and it dried. It was in secret places, and when they needed they gathered it and soaked it in the stream. They they went up into the mountains to the East, near where we are now and built a fire like this. sometimes they just threw the corn into the fire and let it burn on the edges. The boy asked did the corn burn all up? The corn would be all dirty and black grandpa. The old man told him that corn originated with th holy people, that it was gift, it was from the four kernels of the corn, the very top, white corn, the most hard to find, from that corn we got our strength and it made us survive. Did you eat that corn grandpa, the kind that was thrown in the fire? Yes I did, a long time ago when I was a child. They sat there and the boy listened to the old man talk about how the old ones survived and the foods they ate, all the time watching the fire burn down to just hot coals. When do we get to eat corn grandpa. Tomorrow, let's go to bed. As they went to sleep the fire burned down and by morning was just a pile of coals. The little boy jumped out of bed and ran outside, he saw the old man kneeling down. He had already shoveled out the dirt and coals and was pulling out the ears of corn. The old man brushed the wet sand from the corn. He took one out and slowly peeled it back, it was all cooked and a little brown around the top. His grandpa told him this is sacred corn it comes from down the valley and gives us life, strength and food for us to eat. The little boy held the peeled corn by the husk and looked at it. It smelled sweet, and he tasted just a little bit of it. It tasted so sweet and good. This is good corn grandpa. The old man laughed and picked up the rest of the corn and put it in a bag and started to walked back to the hogan. The little boy ran around to his grandma and mom and said, look grandpa cooked this sweet corn, parched corn, it is steaming, so it is steamed corn. He held it up in his hands and they all laughed because they knew he learned what good corn was, and they remembered that he was just little boy and had tasted the sweetness of life. rustywire --------- "RE: History: Carlisle Indian School" --------- Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 22:38:32 -0400 From: Barb Landis Subj: 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 23, 1890 NUMBER 38 ================================================ TOBACCO Is an Indian weed. It was the devil who sowed the seed. It stains your pockets, Soils your clothes, And makes a chimney of your nose." ----------------- A PART OF CAPT. PRATT'S LETTER TO HIS LITTLE DAUGHTER RICHENDA. ----------------- Miss Richenda has kindly allowed the Man-on-the-band-stand to use parts of her letter, for the readers of the HELPER to enjoy. After several lines, intended for his baby only, the captain says: I have thought Richenda would like some photographs of this queer country and people to show to all the other children, and so I send a number. Your must keep them nice and clean. On the back of each one I have written what the picture is, so you will have no trouble to understand. When we come home we shall bring more, and then can tell you of the grand trip we are having. Today we took a long walk up the valley, and I saw some springs where the water comes out of the ground, boiling hot. There are a great many hotels up and down the valley, and all of them provide hot baths for their guests using the water just as it comes from the ground. I killed a big snake nearly as long as I am. It was near one of the springs, probably to understand. When we come home we shall bring more, and then can tell you of the grand trip[ we are having. Today we took a long walk up the valley, and I saw some springs where the water comes out of the ground. I killed a big snake nearly as long as I am. It was near one of the springs, probably to warm itself. Further on we came to a Japanese house, where there was a pretty little lakelet, into which four small waterfalls emptied the water from a stream which the Japanese had brought along the mountain side. In the lakelet were a great many fish, some white, some black, others brown and yellow, while a good many were scarlet colored. I had great fun feeding them. Some were large, weighing two or three pounds. There came up a heavy rain so we had to wait a long time. Mamma, Mrs. Morris and Miss Haines rode home in jinrickshas, while Mr. Morris and I walked through the mud and rain. The people here in the mountains make the cutest little boxes, toys, tops, balls, etc., and I have seen several laid away that will go to America for some of the little boys and girls at the Carlisle Indian School WHAT RICHENDA'S MAMMA SAYS IN A LATER LETTER. "I will tell you about the funny little children we see every place we go. Their heads are shaved in all sorts of curious fashions, some with the hair all off, others shaved leaving a round place about as large as the top of a small tea-cup, where the hair is allowed to grow two or three inches long, each hair the same length and very even. When they run, their little "top nots" flop about in the funniest manner. Boys and girls both dress very much alike, in long straight dresses very narrow about the legs, but the sleeves are long, wide and square, and they use them for pockets. They can put more toys and *things* in them than I ever saw go into any little girl's pocket in America, and I think it doubtful if even a little American *boy* could get as much into any *one* of his pockets. And they wear the queerest little wooden shoes, some for wet weather, others for dry weather, but neither kind has tops, only strings that go over the foot and between the two first toes, so when they wear stockings, which are always of heavy white cotton cloth, they must have a place for their big toe, as you do for your thumb in your mittens. The wet weather shoes are thick pieces of wood on the bottoms, two inches high, so as to keep their feet out of the mud. Now, you may think they cannot run with these queer shoes on, but they do and very fast, too. Japanese children are never troubled with hats or bonnets, unless they are dressed like foreign ladies. When dressed in their own native dress their hair is arranged very carefully, and the little girls' is done up in the same style as their older sisters', as the little girls' hair is allowed to grow long when they are about seven years old. But the boys and men keep their hair shore as they do in America." ==================================================== (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. ============================= OUR ELEVENTH ANNUAL. Among the prominent visitors present at the graduating exercises that took place last Wednesday were the Honorable Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Gen. Morgan; Hon. Judge Perkins, chairman of the House Committee on Indian Affairs; Hon. S. W. Peel, ex-chairman of the Indian Committee; Assistant