From gars@speakeasy.org Wed Jul 30 00:08:20 2003 Date: 29 Jul 2003 23:21:49 -0000 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews11.031 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 11, ISSUE 031 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 August 2, 2003 Hopi paamuya/joyful moon Blackfeet pakkii'pistsi otsiai'tssp/moon when choke berries ripen +-------------------------------------------------------+ | 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; Canadian Aboriginal News, Chiapas-95, ndn-aim, Firewarriors Net & Native American Poetry Mailing Lists; UUCP email; Newsgroup: alt.native IMPORTANT!! ----------- In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, all material appearing in this newsletter is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for educational purposes. <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is a way of keeping the brothers and sisters who share our Spirit informed about current events within the lives of those who walk the Red Road. ++ It may be subscribed to via email by sending a request from your own internet addressable account to gars@speakeasy.org ++ It is archived at http://www.nanews.org <================<<<< >>>>================> +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | As historian Patricia Nelson | | Once a language is lost, it is | | Limerick summarized in "The | | gone forever | | Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken | | * Of the 300 original Native | | Past of the American West... | | languages in North America, | | "Set the blood quantum at | | only 175 exist today. | | one-quarter, hold to it as a | | * 125 of these are no longer | | rigid definition of Indians, | | learned by children. | | let intermarriage proceed as | | * 55 are spoken by 1 to 6 elders;| | it had for centuries, and | | when they die, their language | | eventually Indians will be | | will disappear. | | defined out of existence." | | * Without action, only 20 | | "When that happens, the federal | | languages will survive the next| | government will be freed of | | 50 years. | | its persistent 'Indian problem.'"| | Source: Indigenous Language | +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ | Institute | |http://www.indigenous-language.org| This issue's Elder Quote: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + ======================== "If a man loses anything and goes back and looks carefully for it, he will find it." __ Chief Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa Lakota +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Indian Pledge of Allegiance | The Indian Pledge of Alleg- | | iance was first presented | I pledge allegiance to my Tribe,| on 2 December '93 during the | to the democratic principles | opening address of the Nat- | of the Republic | ional Congress of American | and to the individual freedoms | Indian Tribal-States Relat- | borrowed from the Iroquois and | ions Panel in Reno, NV. NCAI | Choctaw Confederacies, | plans distribution of the | as incorporated in the United | Indian Pledge to all Indian | States Constitution, | Nations. | so that my forefathers | | shall not have died in vain | Walk in Beauty! Night Owl +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Journey | In the summer and early fall | The Bloodline | of 1998 the Treaty Unity Riders | | rode a thousand miles on horse- | For all that live and live by law | back, carrying a staff and | We Stand, we Call, We Ride | praying each step of the way. | For All that fear and fear by sight | | We Hear, we Listen, we Ride | These prayers were offered for | For all that pray and pray by strength| each of us, and that the Unity | We Feel, we Move, we Ride | of all Peoples might happen. | For all that die and die by greed | | We Hurt, we Cry, we Ride | Tatanka Cante forwarded this | For all that birth and birth by right | poem on behalf of all the Unity | We Smile, we Hold, we Ride | Riders that we might stop and | For all that need and need by heart | ask if the next words we say, the | We Came, we Went, we Rode. | next act we make is for the good | | of the People or is it from ego | Treaty Unity Riders | for self. +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ O'siyo Brothers and Sisters! A very promising radio program has emerged, Nightwolf, with Jay Winter Nightwolfe as its host. It is broadcast over the Pacifica Network from WPFW-FM 89.3 Washington DC. It is also available over the internet over http://jazzstream.us/wpfwlive.ram (Real-Audio). It airs 8:00 to 9:00 PM Eastern Time, Sunday Nights. I tell you this because of last Sunday's Program, which featured Jonathon Taylor of Lexicon, Inc and Lance Morgan of Ho-Chunk, Inc. discussing the methods that have created successful tribal business endeavors such as Nebraska based Ho-Chunk has enjoyed. There are many features of modern main-stream business that must be employed, however, there are also traditional tribal practices that add great strength to the successful tribal venture. Go to http://www.hochunkinc.com/people.htm and read a true rags to riches tribal renovation, engineered in large measure by Lance Morgan. The story of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw under the leadership of Chief Philip Martin is very similar. From the Book Jacket for "Choctaw uprising" (business acumen of Mississippi Choctaw Indian Chief Philip Martin) 03/11/1996; National Review; Ferrara, Peter J. "THIRTY years ago, the Choctaw Indian tribe in rural Mississippi suffered from the same legacy of poverty, dependency, and despair that has plagued American Indians across the country for over a century. They regularly suffered from 75 per cent unemployment, and those that did work were poorly compensated sharecroppers. Eighty-five per cent of Choctaw housing was classified as substandard. Local education stopped at the sixth grade. The only health care was from a nearby federally run hospital. Life expectancy was only 45 to 50 years, and infant mortality was among the highest in the nation..." That dismal picture in no way describes the Mississippi Band of Choctaw today or the Ho-Chunk Nation in Nebraska. Both removed meddling in day- to-day business by the tribal government, built businesses that trained and encouraged personal growth of their tribal employees, and plowed earned income into further growth. The points that stand out in the success of both tribes are that 1) neither relied on U.S. government or charitable support, and 2) both grew tribal enterprises from within using their own people and resources, rather than relying on an "outsider' business to set up shop on their reservations. The results are remarkable for both nations and should serve as shining examples to other tribes tired of sitting at the feet of a crooked, corrupt BIA and a Department of Interior more intent on exploitation and evading charges of mismanagement, than in providing real services to tribal constituencies as defined by treaty law. 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 ---------- - GIAGO: Indian Politics - Gun warning by Former Cheam Chief has Greatly Evolved - No Trespassing Signs up - Campbell sickened on Tsuu T'ina Land by Raid of Narragansett - Zapatistas ready to Fight - Feds throwing us to Wolves - Marcos ridicules PPP - To' bee iina, Water is life - BIA, Tribe to develop Police Plan - Bear Butte: - Pine Ridge Shooting Victim A Sacred Mountain in Modern Times remains Critical - Tribal Packing Plant opens Aug. 4 - In the Spirit of Leonard Peltier - S.D. asks Judge to throw out - Native Prisoner Redistricting Suit -- News Release, and Request - Improve Care of Indian Elders for immediate action - Wells OK'd for - History: Carlisle Indian School Canyon of the Ancients - Rustywire: Toe Jams - Bill dismays Tribal Chairman - Poem: Awakening - Standing up to One Nation - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - Court orders - Sharing Traditional Sawridge to add Women Herbal Knowledge - Judge to decide fate - Legislation to preserve of Commercial Fishermen American Indian Languages - Clayoquot First Nation - Ancient Tongues fade Away evicts Interfor - Tribes work to - NB Indians ordered to move Preserve Native Language off Crown/Indian Lands - One of the Last - First Urban Treaty Native-Speaking Elders in BC's Lower Mainland - Upcoming Events --------- "RE: GIAGO: Indian Politics has Greatly Evolved" --------- Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 08:54:10 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INDIAN POLITICS" http://www.yankton.net/stories/071703/opE_20030717028.shtml Indian Politics Has Greatly Evolved By Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji) c. 2003, Lakota Media Inc. Thursday, July 17, 2003 Politics can, at times, amount to a funny business in Indian country. But I suppose the same can be said of city, county, state and federal politics in the rest of America. The U.S. Department of the Interior had a lot to do with the state of affairs on the Indian reservations of America. In 1934 Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act and the establishment of tribal governments began. Prior to that, many tribes still functioned under their traditional way of life. The United States had come up with a unique way of dealing with the Indians. It was known as "divide and rule." The conquering days had already passed by the turn of the century. Now it was time to rule under a colonial system long practiced by the British. The Dawes Act of 1887 destroyed the communal base of the Indian people by allotting 160 acres to tribal members and then selling off the rest of the land as surplus. The Indian Appropriations Act of 1902 nearly completed the job by allowing the sale of inherited land. This act was enhanced by the Burke Act of 1906, which allowed the Secretary of the Interior to issue patents to Indian landowners enabling the Indian to sell his land. Within a few years nearly 90 percent of the reservation land was lost to aggressive white people who lived on the Indian lands they had secured through the Dawes Act and the Burke Act. A new book called "Being Dakota" by Amos Oneroad and Alanson B. Skinner, published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, gives a good rendition of these times as seen through the eyes of members of the Sisseton/Wahpeton tribes of the Dakotas. Taking advantage of the turmoil caused by the various pieces of legislation meant to reduce the landholding of the different tribes, the Interior Department often selected token Indian leaders who remained subservient to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Indian leaders had the name but not the power. The power rested in the hands of the Indian agents sent out to the reservations. They controlled the money and hence the power. Tribal leaders could not make political decisions without the approval and consent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. A sort of love-hate relationship developed between the Indians and their agents. So much of the success of a tribe depended upon the honesty, integrity and intelligence of the Indian agents. Many of the agents sent out to Indian country were not well educated nor were they the most diplomatic. They came out with dollar signs in their eyes and looked upon this short-term appointment as a chance to line their pockets. They found many ways to accomplish this. They could, for example, take large portions of the provisions guaranteed to the tribes by treaty and sell them to scheming profiteers who in turn could sell them back to the people from which they were stolen. They looked the other way while deceitful businessmen sold the Indians alcohol and guns. These agents with near total control over the people often made land deals totally outside of the treaties. They would sell Indian land to speculators, powerful ranchers and to the railroad, and pocket all of the profits. Many agents became quite wealthy prior to retiring to a leisurely life back east. And sadly, although the tribal leaders at the time knew they were being ripped off, they could do nothing to stop it or to reverse it. They tried. In what is called the 1862 Dakota War or the Minnesota Uprising, starving and angry Dakota warriors broke into a storehouse to get the annuities they always received but were being withheld. It is said that an Indian agent, when told of the hungry Indians, replied, "Let them eat grass." The war lasted six weeks and more than 500 whites and 500 Indians lost their lives. After the war the Army arrested thousands of Dakota, and an army court sentenced 303 to death. President Abraham Lincoln pardoned all but 38. On Dec. 26, one day after Christmas, all 38 Dakota warriors were hanged in what became the largest mass hanging in American history. They went to their deaths bravely singing their death songs. Modern-day Lakota and Dakota consider these 38 warriors as patriots who fought to defend the lives and property of their people. After all was said and done, the agent who made the heartless remark about grass was found dead with his mouth stuffed with grass. When do you think Hollywood will make a movie of this tragic event in American history? After 1934 the politics on the different Indian reservations began to resemble that of the non-Indians. Tribal members took out petitions to run for office, submitted the petitions and were placed on a ballot. On most reservations elections take place every two years. The candidates run for seats on the tribal council, and for the offices of president and vice president. They are elected by popular vote. The tribal council is like the United States Senate. After a person is elected president of the tribe he is often called the chairman. He sets up a schedule of council meetings to be held throughout the year and then begins the process of lawmaking and governing. In the old days, the headquarters of the tribal government was usually housed in some of the worst office buildings on the reservation. Down the street or even next door to the tribal government, one could often find the new and luxurious offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This indicated where the real seat of power was situated. After the passage of the Indian Education and Self-Determination Act of 1974 during the Richard Nixon administration, things began to change for the better. The power to govern was gradually shifting to the tribal governments. This is when tribal politics, as we know it today, became a near microcosm of the U.S. government's political structure. ----- Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, is editor and publisher of the weekly Lakota Journal. He is author of "The Aboriginal Sin" and "Notes from Indian Country" volumes I and II. He can be reached at editor@lakotajournal.com or at P.O. Box 3080, Rapid City, S.D. 57709. Copyright c. 2003 Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan. --------- "RE: Campbell sickened by Raid of Narragansett" --------- Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 08:41:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CAMPBELL" http://www.indianz.com/News/Narragansett/ Campbell 'sickened' by raid of Narragansett smoke shop July 25, 2003 The head of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee has written Attorney General John Ashcroft about the state of Rhode Island's raid of the Narragansett Reservation. In a July 23 letter, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) said he had "deep concern" about the incident. "Anyone who witnessed the episode on videotape -- as I have -- surely was sickened and profoundly disappointed at the tactics used by the state in its dispute with the tribe regarding sales of tobacco on the tribe's lands," he wrote. Campbell did not call outright for a probe of the July 14 raid. Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Resources Committee, has asked the Department of Justice to investigate. Campbell instead urged Ashcroft to make sure tribal-state "disputes are handled in a peaceable way that respects both the sovereignty and perspectives of the states and tribes involved." Copyright c. 2000-2003 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Feds throwing us to Wolves" --------- Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 08:07:51 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DINE' PRESIDENT ADDRESS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.gallupindependent.com/07-22-03fedsthrowingus.html Dine' Prez to 20th Council: Feds throwing us to wolves Jim Maniaci Dine' Bureau July 23, 2003 WINDOW ROCK - Sixth Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. told the 20th Council he expects to have a variety of plans to delegates in about a month and he wants special sessions on a couple of them. He made the promises in his part of the quarterly "State of the Navajo Nation" address Monday on the opening day of the tribal legislators' first summer session in their four-year terms. One plan will be how to make up the expected loss of about $40 million a year to the general fund when the McKinley Mine quits producing coal in 2008 and the shutdown of Peabody's Black Mesa Mine due to Southern California Edison having to stop generating electricity at the Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nev., after Dec. 31, 2005. In fact, he will want a special session "within a month to address this deficit," he told the packed Council Chamber. Shirley said his negotiating team has been meeting with Peabody about the lease in an attempt "to keep the mine open with an alternative water source." The only alternative water source being pushed by tribal water entities and water rights attorney Stanley Pollack is the Coconino Aquifer near Winslow and Leupp. "To the best of my ability, we are working with the attorney general (Louis Denetsosie) and others to finagle a plan to keep the power plant open," he explained. Shirley added that coal mine and plan account for about $25 million a year in revenue to the tribal treasury while directly providing more than 300 jobs for extended Navajo families. The president also put delegates on alert that he will want a special session to deal with the Capital Improvement Projects plan. He mentioned figures of $8 million and $168 million in unmet needs which could be met as part of a $500 million revenue bond issue. He said in the past 10 years a total of 603 capital improvement projects were submitted to the tribal Capital Improvements Office with half being funded. The rest will need some money. He did not give a dollar figure for the 603 or the 300 projects. Often, he found, the problem is that chapters go directly to the state before having all the proper clearances. The lack of clearances for the environment, rights-of-way or land withdrawals, and archeology halts the projects. "I intend to ensure that the Capital Improvement Plan is completed this quarter without further delay," he promised. Shirley hammered away at U.S. Senate Bill 14, a huge energy package, charging it would allow the U.S. government to escape its required trust responsibilities by waiving any federal liability. "They are just throwing us to the wolves," he complained. If the bill's sponsors will remove the offending portion Shirley said he would support the bill. The Dine' Power Authority is depending upon the bill for major financial support. However, time is running short as the vote is scheduled on the bill on July 28. Because of the never ending lack of enough money being provided by Congress, Shirley promised, "My administration will bring you a viable bond-financing proposal." Much of his position was revealed during the Navajo portion of his speech which provided greater elaboration on many points than the English text which he read first. Shirley began his speech by focusing on government reform saying it should be up to the Navajo people and there has been little to show since the May 2002 Statutory Reform Convention, or, indeed, since 1989. He also called the present form of government, which a previous council adopted in 1989 (in the wake of the MacDonald problems), a temporary measure. "A referendum or initiative is needed to have a permanent government structure," he said. Delegate Leonard Chee (Bird Springs, Leupp, Tolani Lake Chapters) later disagreed. Shirley said the people should decide whether to convert the status quo into a permanent three-branch form of government, change it, or adopt a constitution. Shirley also urged continuation of the Government Development Commission as "we still need to have them and work with them for a permanent structure." The abolition resolution by Delegate Ernest D. Yazzie Jr. is the first matter on the agenda today. Copyright c. 2003 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: To' bee iina, Water is life" --------- Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 08:13:17 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WATER" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.navajohopiobserver.com/~793431&S=392&PubID=11050 `To' bee iina' Water is life By John Bianchini Special to the Observer July 24, 2003 When it comes to dealing with environmental problems on the Navajo Reservation, one person alone cannot fix them. Such a task requires concern and effort from the whole community. Fred Johnson of the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency (NNEPA) is willing to speak to anyone who will listen about ways people on the reservation can take care of their water. On July 11, he spoke with students from the reservation attending the Summer Scholars Environmental Outreach Program (EEOP) at Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff. "Three years ago, the Navajo Nation passed its own Clean Water Act and water quality standards," Johnson said, making it a punishable offense to dump oil, trash or do anything that may affect water sources on the reservation. Trash dumping Anyone who has been out to the reservation has probably come across the unsightly scene of old cars, refrigerators, washers, batteries, diapers and beer bottles littered in a wash. When rain comes, water flows through the trash and will contaminate water sources for people and animals. Burning trash in a wash is even worse because it turns garbage into smaller particles that are more easily distributed through the air, water and soil. One gallon of oil will contaminate one million gallons of water, Johnson said. For those who have oil or other car fluids for disposal, he pointed out that Wal-Mart sells containers that can be can filled with disposal liquids. Full containers can be taken to Auto Zone or Pep Boys in cities like Gallup, Farmington or Flagstaff for proper disposal then returned for people to reuse. "For some Navajos it's like tradition to take our trash to the wash, Johnson said. "It is up to each individual on the reservation to control this really bad habit and we need to break it." According to Johnson, the NNEPA has at times spent more than $150,000 to clean up some dumpsites in washes on reservation; money, he said that could be better spent on other things. The enforcement of laws can be a problem on the reservation, and it takes a community effort of everyone to work through these problems, he said. "We have to start educating our people about these laws and why they are in place,"Johnson said. Poorly managed lands There were two pictures in Johnson's slide presentation showing a before and after photos of a stream and meadow. The meadow in the first picture was victim to overgrazing, trampled and eaten by too many cattle with few trees and a dead grass. Johnson said that people with livestock should know that having more vegetation on the land would increase the amount of water absorption into the ground. To solve this problem of overgrazing, he suggests ranchers rotate their livestock over time through various plots on the land. The second picture showed the once dying land restored to beauty with many trees, tall grass and plants along the stream. The owner of the land in the pictures stopped the inefficient way of ranching and tried the method of rotation; whereby, it only took four years to restore the land. Johnson suggests people replant native species and grasses onto their land to bring it back because it will absorb more water for the land. Good trees he said to have are cottonwood, alder and Navajo willow. He warns people to know what they plant first because some plants might have negative consequences on the landscape. Back in the 1960s, Johnson said the government planted Russian olive or tamaracks for erosion control in Canyon de Chelly. Showing students before and after photos, the old river traveled caressing the walls of the canyon, while the present stream is a mere trickle compared to its former glory. Tamaracks are detrimental to a dry ecosystem because they can use about 300 to 400 gallons of water per day. Getting rid of this prolific bush is difficult because pulling them or burning them does not work. Dirt road erosion Besides halting illegal dumping, repairing overgrazed areas and removing detrimental species, Johnson is also worried there are too many dirt roads on the Navajo Reservation. "Personally, I feel the Navajo Nation has too many roads," Johnson said. Dirt roads cause the soil to be compacted, killing vegetation and allowing more water to run off the land. Johnson complained that too many people on the reservation have too many roads going to their houses. He suggests people stop making shortcut roads and stop driving all over to find their animals. If you have to make a road, Johnson says to at least put it up parallel on a slope and not in a gully where it will channel water, causing erosion. Another activity causing water run-off problems from compacted soil is the building of housing developments. Johnson suggests people begin to plant native species of plants around the home to prevent this water run- off. The Navajo Nation has problems with too many dirt roads, but it spends millions of dollars each year fixing culverts under roads. Improper installation of culverts when they are set below the ground level causes devastating erosion. Johnson wants people to know that culverts need to be placed at ground level, not dug in, and roads should go up and over culverts. Taking message home Johnson's message was well received by students like seventh grader Christopher Capitan from Whitehorse Jr. High, who said, "This is good to know because some people litter and do not care." The presentation Johnson gave capped a week of learning about water issues for the students enrolled in Summer Scholars through the EEOP. Johnson encouraged students to think about everything they learned regarding water and to be proactive. "These are the little things that can be taken care of with a community effort," he said. Johnson said he is available to give presentations at chapter houses and schools. * To report illegal dumping, call NNEPA at 1-888-643-7692. * Fred Johnson contact: NNEPA Water Quality/NPDES Program PO Box 339, Window Rock, AZ. 86515 E-mail: navajoh2o@hotmail.com Website: www.navajoepa.org * Environmental Education Outreach Program contact: Mansel Nelson Telephone: (928) 523-1496 E-mail: mansel.nelson@nau.edu Website: www.nau.edu/eeop Copyright c. 2003 Northern Arizona Newspapers, Inc./Navajo-Hopi Observer --------- "RE: Bear Butte: A Sacred Mountain in Modern Times" --------- Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2003 20:04:27 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BEAR BUTTE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.startribune.com/stories/425/4000976.html Bear Butte: A sacred mountain in modern times Chris Welsch, Star Tribune Travel Editor July 27, 2003 It was 10 a.m. on the first Saturday of June, and a wet rime of snow clung to the rocks and Ponderosa pines on Bear Butte, a small mountain that stands by itself, about 8 miles east of the main body of the Black Hills. The quiet mountain air amplified the sound of my boots rattling loose rock along the path. Knotted strips of cloth -- prayer flags of green, yellow, white, red, blue and black -- waved from every tree branch within arm's reach. Tobacco bundles -- small red bags tied in rows on long cords -- rested on the jagged boulders. Halfway up the trail, about 500 feet above the surrounding plains, I stopped to catch my breath and looked back. To the south, 200 feet downslope, a man with long black hair stood on a promontory, a white blanket wrapped around his shoulders. I turned away; I didn't want to intrude on his vigil. As I continued my walk, I thought about him. I had been told that he had been there two days without food or water and that he had two more to go. The overnight temperature had dipped into the 30s, with steady rain and then snow. He did not have a tent. A long line of Indian people have stood where he was standing, I thought, engaged in the same whole-hearted pursuit of a spiritual life. Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, and thousands of others over many generations, fasted and prayed on Bear Butte, one of the most sacred sites to the plains tribes. Bear Butte is known in Lakota as Paha Mato, Bear Mountain, and for as many as 17 plains tribes, it is a central landmark in the spiritual landscape of North America. They treat it with the utmost reverence, the way a Christian might regard Bethlehem. The prayer flags and tobacco bundles are left as offerings of gratitude to the Creator. A fine line When I came down from the summit, I found Jim Jandreau in the windowless room in the State Park visitor center that serves as his office. "They come here to fast and pray, to connect with something larger than themselves," said Jandreau, who became the first Indian manager of the park three years ago. "They're coming to church." Jandreau, 50, is from the Lower Brule band of Lakota, and he's the sole full-time employee at the park, which is far removed from the tourist hurly-burly that surrounds Mount Rushmore. But with 50,000 visitors a year, the park is not immune to the pressures of tourism and development. "We get everything from soup to nuts," Jandreau said of the people who come to Bear Butte. Too often, nonnative visitors interrupt worshipers during their prayer vigils by being noisy or nosy, he said. Well-meaning New-Agers and what Jandreau calls "Indian wannabes" leave crystals or other inappropriate offerings behind. "They come here with respect but do things that aren't respectful," he said. Jandreau is a compactly built man with clear brown eyes and a neatly trimmed mustache. He said he tries to walk the line between the Indian and white worlds; it's his job to serve both. As a State Park, Bear Butte is for all people. "This is a place to come for the quiet and beauty. If people come with that in mind, and take time to listen to the mountain, meditate a little, they'll hear something," he said. "It doesn't matter what your background is. We get priests and nuns out here on retreat -- they don't care. They can understand what indigenous people see in this place." Jandreau said that the state -- previously resistant to hearing Indian concerns about how Bear Butte is managed -- has made important strides. Ever since it was built, a parking lot on the slope of the mountain has been a sore point. It is near a campground and ceremonial space reserved for Indian worshipers. Tourist traffic disrupts the serenity that's needed for prayer and ceremonies, Jandreau said. A forum of Indian worshipers and tribal elders asked the Park Service to remove the parking lot, and this time state officials agreed. The lot will be pulled up in September and the ground reseeded with native grasses. "That sent a powerful message to the elders that their request was honored," Jandreau said. Cultures that clash Jandreau said other threats to the peace of Bear Butte remain. One of them is a proposed shooting club that would be only 4 miles from the park. Charmaine White Face, 57, is from the Oglala band of Lakota, the band Crazy Horse belonged to. She practices traditional Lakota spirituality and has fasted on Bear Butte. She said she feels a responsibility to take care of the mountain. She formed a grass-roots group called Defenders of the Black Hills last September. In January, Defenders decided to make an effort to stop construction of the gun club and, for now, has succeeded. "I was told by an older woman that we used to call Bear Butte the Groaning Bear," said White Face. "It is what geologists would call an extinct volcano. If Lakota people know it as Groaning Bear, how long ago was it groaning? How many millennia? Scientists know that 11,000 years ago, we were here. We know we were here a long time before that." A quiet-spoken woman with black hair curling over her shoulders, White Face is not demure when it comes to defending what she believes in. Lawsuits prompted by Defenders led to a preliminary injunction, halting the shooting club project until issues around its legality are resolved. Some of the complaints pertain to the potential for noise and pollution near a National Natural Landmark, and some pertain to the funding of the club. A group of Sturgis, S.D., businesspeople obtained an $825,000 community block grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to fund the project. One of the lawsuits charges that money intended to benefit poor and middle-class taxpayers shouldn't be funding a gun club that will charge membership fees. For the Lakota, the question of the gun club is a small tangent of a larger question about ownership and control of the Black Hills, which the Lakota traditionally viewed as an especially sacred part of their territory. A bitter past The knowledge that the Black Hills were taken illegally and by force remains a fresh wound. When George Armstrong Custer led a group of prospectors into the Black Hills in search of gold in 1874, he was violating territory that had been ceded to the Lakota in a treaty. The gold rush that followed led the government to seize the territory. White Face reminded me of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1980 that awarded the Lakota $106 million in compensation for what the court called "a taking of tribal property." The Lakota refused to accept the money because it would mean sanctioning the permanent loss of the hills. At this point, more than $500 million sits in government accounts accruing interest. Pine Ridge and the other reservations on the periphery of the Black Hills are consistently listed among the poorest places in America. Yet the Lakota continue to refuse to accept money for the loss of the Black Hills. To White Face, that's not surprising. "How can you take money for sacredness?" she asked. Copyright c. 2003 Minneapolis Star Tribune. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Tribal Packing Plant opens Aug. 4" --------- Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 08:41:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="PACKING PLANT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2003/07/25/build/local/46-packing.inc Tribal packing plant opens Aug. 4 July 25, 2003 MALTA (AP) - A tribally owned meat packing plant with a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector on board is set to open Aug. 4 near Malta. The Fort Belknap Little Rockies Meat Packing Inc. will put 21 people to work cutting, processing, wrapping, selling and delivering buffalo, beef, hogs and lamb products at its site about three miles northeast of Malta in Phillips County, project officials said. The Fort Belknap Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribal council bought the old Big Sky Beef building at a Phillips County sheriff's foreclosure sale last December. Along with a complete plant that can process as many as 125 head of livestock a day, the $50,000 purchase includes roughly five acres of land at the site 53 miles northeast of the Fort Belknap Agency, the tribal headquarters, officials said. Leonard Mingneaux, owner of L&L Meats of Malta, was hired as the plant's general manager and full-time USDA inspector. With an unemployment rate of 70 percent to 80 percent on the 675,000- acre reservation, the plant will bring desperately needed jobs to reservation and the Hi-Line, said Delina Cuts The Rope, tribal employment adviser for the plant and director of the tribal employment and training program. "It will address some of our economic development distress," Cuts The Rope said. The board of directors and Mingneaux continue to interview and screen applicants for another 20 professional and trainee positions who applied through the Job Service office in Glasgow, Cuts The Rope said. The company has its eyes on key government meat contracts that require USDA-approved products, Tribal Councilman John Allen said earlier this year. Letters have been sent to the congressional delegation seeking government contracts to produce specialty beef or buffalo for Malmstrom Air Force Base, the Montana Air National Guard, USDA commodities and for federal and state prisons, Allen said. While only the federal government requires its products be USDA-approved, most of the markets demand it, said Fred DuBray, executive director of the InterTribal Bison Cooperative of Rapid City S.D. Copyright c. 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. Copyright c. The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: S.D. asks Judge to throw out Redistricting Suit" --------- Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 08:14:08 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="REDISTRICTING LAWSUIT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.yankton.net/stories/072803/new_20030728023.shtml S.D. Asks Judge To Throw Out Redistricting Lawsuit By CHET BROKAW Associated Press Writer July 28, 2003 PIERRE - State lawyers have asked a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit alleging that the Legislature diluted the voting strength of American Indians when it redrew legislative district boundaries two years ago. The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of four Indian voters, seeks changes in two legislative districts in a huge area that includes the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the Rosebud Indian Reservation. The state attorney general's office recently filed a motion for summary judgment asking U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier to rule that the South Dakota Legislature did not violate federal law when it approved boundaries for District 26 and District 27. If the judge grants the motion, the ruling would essentially end the case. Meanwhile, ACLU lawyers have asked Schreier to rule that the three factors indicating vote dilution exist in the redistricting plan. Schreier will rule on the requests later. The ACLU filed the lawsuit in December 2001, soon after the Legislature had redrawn the boundaries of South Dakota's 35 legislative districts to take into account population changes measured in the 2000 census. The lawsuit alleged that the Legislature had violated federal laws by diluting Indians' voting strength and by failing to get federal clearance for the district covering the Rosebud and Pine Ridge reservations. After a previous court ruling, the state agreed to seek federal clearance for the redistricting plan in the Pine Ridge and Rosebud area, and the U.S. Justice Department later cleared the plan. The second part of the lawsuit, dealing with whether the plan unfairly diluted Indians' voting strength, is still pending. The redistricting plan left District 27 essentially unchanged. District 27 includes Todd County, which is the Rosebud reservation, and Shannon County, which is a big part of the Pine Ridge reservation. It also includes a connecting strip across southern Bennett County, which is between the two reservations. District 27 voters regularly elect Indian candidates to the state Senate and House. District 26 includes the northern half of Bennett County, plus Jackson, Haakon, Jones, Mellette, Lyman and Tripp counties. It usually elects non- Indian legislators. The lawsuit argues that the redistricting plan dilutes voting rights for Indians in District 26, where Indians make up about one-third of the population. In the lawsuit, the ACLU and its plaintiffs contend the boundaries of Districts 26 and 27 should instead have been drawn to give Indians a better chance of electing their candidates in both districts. Both sides employed experts who have used complicated mathematical calculations to analyze the two legislative districts. The state argues the ACLU has failed to demonstrate the three factors that are required to indicate that minority voters' rights have been harmed. There has been no showing that Indians could make up a majority in a new single-member district, that Indians are politically cohesive, or that the white majority usually votes as a bloc to defeat candidates preferred by Indians, the state contends. Copyright c. 2003 Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan. --------- "RE: Improve Care of Indian Elders" --------- Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 08:07:51 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ELDER CARE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/6362586.htm NORTH DAKOTA: Leaders seek to improve care of Indian elders Officials meet to discuss tribal health-care programs July 23, 2003 Associated Press BISMARCK - Health officials say American Indians in North Dakota and the surrounding region have shorter average life spans than Indians in other states. State, federal and tribal government officials are meeting this week in Bismarck to talk about long-term health care for American Indian elders. A study by the federal Indian Health Service found that on average, American Indians in North Dakota and the surrounding area live to be 64, or 12 years less than the average life span of American Indians in California, said Mary Wakefield, director of the University of North Dakota's Center for Rural Health. Participants in this week's meeting hope to tailor the center's research to fit tribal health care programs. "What's important to us is our research doesn't stay on a dusty shelf," Wakefield said. Groups are working on an American Indian health-care "tool kit" of existing programs, she said. "This tool kit helps tribes so they don't have to reinvent the wheel," she said. Wakefield said American Indians lack the infrastructure to care for their older population. "It's a huge gap between what people have available and what they need," Wakefield said. Research by the rural health center finds North Dakota Indian elders are less likely to have congestive heart failure, strokes and breast cancer, but more likely to have diabetes, arthritis and asthma. The federal Health and Human Services Department's Agency for Healthcare, Research and Quality is one of the co-sponsors of this week's meeting. "We want to make sure we take the research that is done and develop it into programs and policies," said Christine Williams, an agency spokeswoman. Copyright c. 2003 Grand Forks Herald. --------- "RE: Wells OK'd for Canyon of the Ancients" --------- Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 08:41:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CANYON OF ANCIENTS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.daily-times.com/artman/publish/article_856.shtml Wells OK'd for Canyon of the Ancients National Monument By The Daily Times July6 25, 2003 DURANGO, Colo. - The San Juan Public Lands Center has approved construction of two new carbon dioxide wells on BLM lands in Canyons of the Ancients National Monument west of Cortez, Colo. One well will be drilled in the Hovenweep area, and the other in the Yellow Jacket area to a depth of more than 8,200 feet deep, targeting the Leadville Formation. Each pad will be about six acres in size, with another acre of associated access roads and pipelines. Pipelines will be constructed within the road easements and would tie into existing gathering pipelines adjacent to each well site. If the wells are unproductive, they will be abandoned and reclaimed, according to BLM specifications. An Environment Assessment and Decision Record address potential impacts of construction, operation, reclamation and abandonment of the wells to natural and cultural resources. Applications for Permit to Drill were approved after the Decision Record was signed. The EA and Decision Record may be viewed on the Web at: http://www.co. blm.gov/canm/index.html http://www.co.blm.gov/sjra/index.html Hard copies are available at the Anasazi Heritage Center, 27501 Highway 184, Dolores, CO 81323, and San Public Lands Center, 15 Burnett Court, Durango, CO 81301. Information: Loren Wickstrom, (970) 385-1373. Copyright c. 2003 Farmington Daily Times, a Gannett Co., Inc. newspaper. --------- "RE: Bill dismays Tribal Chairman" --------- Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 08:07:51 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SAN MANUEL" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_NEWS_napanel23.5813c.html Bill dismays tribal chairman DEVELOPMENT: The San Manuel leader vows to fight a bid to restrict a reservation's growth. July 23, 2003 By MICHELLE DeARMOND THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE SAN FRANCISCO - The leader of an influential Inland tribe vowed Tuesday to fight Congress if lawmakers try to give local governments authority over development on Indian reservations. Deron Marquez, chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, criticized as reactionary the proposal by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. Feinstein is trying to force a Northern California tribe to comply with local regulations in building a proposed hotel-casino in a rural area. Feinstein's complaints about the lack of local government control over casino construction have caught the attention of San Bernardino officials, who would like the legislation to include other tribes. San Bernardino officials, whose city borders the San Manuel Reservation, have been frustrated by their inability to halt the tribe's plans to expand its casino. San Bernardino Councilman Neil Derry said last week that he and other city officials hope Feinstein's legislation will help them gain some authority over the tribe's plans. At the same time that it has been battling with local residents, the San Manuel tribe has been running TV commercials that describe it as a "good neighbor" and tout the benefits of Indian gaming, including education for its members and donations to the community. The tribe that is the subject of Feinstein's bill, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria in Sonoma County, reportedly has run a video ad touting the project's benefits. If Feinstein's bill is expanded and grows in popularity, Marquez said, his tribe will "mobilize, oppose and start pooling . . . resources." "You can't point to a handful of situations and say this is an epidemic, " Marquez said while attending the National Conference of State Legislatures in San Francisco. He spoke to a panel on tribal-state relations. An after-hours phone call to Feinstein's office Tuesday went unanswered. As a sovereign nation, the San Manuel tribe does not need the approval of local governments to build on its reservation. The tribe has met regularly with San Bernardino officials and held two public meetings to hear residents' criticisms of the proposal. The tribal-state gaming agreement requires the tribe to make a "good-faith effort" to consider local concerns. The two sides have been unable to agree on the best way to revise the tribe's expansion plans and mitigate the effects of traffic and noise on the neighboring homes. However, the tribe recently announced a modified plan that moved the casino from one side of the reservation to the other. Legislation to limit tribal sovereignty is not new, Marquez said, but tribes' ability to take on lawmakers with lobbyists and public relations campaigns is. "This time around, tribes can fight," he said. "Politics is driven by economics in this country. Tribes are now able to participate in this process." Staff writer Bettye Wells Miller contributed to this report. Reach Michelle DeArmond at (909) 368-9441 or mdearmond@pe.com Copyright c. 2003 Belo Interactive Inc. The Press-Enterprise Co., Riverside, CA --------- "RE: Standing up to One Nation" --------- Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 15:42:16 -0500 From: "Kim Collins" <2buckets@arbuckleonline.com> Subj: Native Times story about my website Standing up to One Nation Oklahoma website takes on anti-sovereignty group ARDMORE OK SAM LEWIN 7/1/2003 Some Oklahoma Native Americans are not taking recent charges leveled against state tribes sitting down. An Ardmore man has started a new website designed to refute allegations issued by organizations such as One Nation, a group whose stated goal is the opposition of tribal sovereignty. On his website, Kim Collins puts out the type of information One Nation would never publicize. "Tribal governments contribute over $7.8 billion annually to Oklahoma's economy in the areas of business, employment, education, health care, social services, housing, and others. Sixty-two of Oklahoma's seventy-seven counties are directly impacted by tribal economies," states Collins. One Nation is comprised of several state organizations: the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association, Oklahoma Petroleum Marketers Association, Oklahoma Farm Bureau, Southern Oklahoma Water Alliance and the Oklahoma Grocers Association. One Nation was back in the public eye last month when co-founder Mickey Thompson wrote a letter to Oklahoma Brad Henry asking him to conduct open hearings on state gaming. State and tribal leaders are currently meeting behind closed doors to discuss a possible gaming compact. Henry officials said they were ignoring the request. Still, Collins believes One Nation is a definite threat. "Can we, as American Indians, ignore the implications of what One Nation is attempting to do with the sovereignty of the Indian Nations of Oklahoma? I think not," states the website. "This is a call for all American Indians to rise up against One Nation and their cause. They want to break more treaties that the US government is obligated to keep." Thompson has told the Native American Times that counting the various groups signed on as One Nation supporters, the group has 180 thousand members. Collins realizes he needs significant support to fight that kind of voting firepower. "There are many ways you can help. These include website, e-mail and snail mail addresses for member companies of [One Nation]...links to other sites and organizations who are committed to our cause.volunteers to spread the word." The web page is www.onenationoklies.com. The site also contains rants, frequently asked questions and a bulletin board. --------- "RE: Court orders Sawridge to add Women" --------- Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 08:07:51 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SAWRIDGE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.lakesideleader.com/newsroom/volume32/030723/story1.html Court orders Sawridge to add women to its list M. Partington-Richer July 23, 2003 Lakeside Leader The federal court has ordered the Sawridge First Nation to add the names of 11 new members to its list. But one of the women says the band is dragging its heels on the order, instead telling the women it cannot afford to build them houses or look after their needs. The Mar. 27 interim decision from His Hon. Judge James K. Hugessen specifically names the women, adding "because these women are getting on in years (a twelfth member of the group has already died and one other is seriously ill) and because the action, despite intensive case management over the past five years, still seems to be a long way from being ready to have a trial date set down, the Crown alleges that it is urgent that I should provide some form of interim relief before it is too late." Later in his 21-page decision, Judge Hugessen says "whatever inconvenience the plaintiff might suffer by admitting 11 old ladies to membership is nothing compared both to the damage to the public interest in having Parliament's laws flouted and to all the private interests of all the women in question who, at the present rate of progress, are unlikely ever to benefit from the law which was adopted with people in their position specifically in mind." Cecile Yvonne Loyie says she's one of the 11 invited to meet with new Sawridge Chief Roland Twinn and his council June 28, but added there was no mention of the women's rights or how the band plans to deal with them at that meeting. "The meeting was a farce," she said later, with band members talking about everything except that which the new `members' wanted to hear. "They said they couldn't build a house until next year, and that houses are just for the really needy families," said the 59-year-old woman who lives in a Slave Lake Housing unit. Loyie said the council also alleged it doesn't have the money to build homes, or to distribute to the new members. "I don't want their money and I told (Chief Twinn) that. All I want is a house and some land to call my own, and something for my children and grandchildren." "They say they can't afford to build any more than one house each year - but why do Bertha L'Hirondelle (former chief) and (her niece) have those beautiful new mansions when they already have houses elsewhere in town?" A transcript of the judge's decision reveals that Loyie and her sister were among several who never `applied' for band membership, but the woman says she shouldn't have to fill out the 280-page document "that asks everything from how many times you've had VD (venereal disease) to how many cigarettes you smoke every day." In his decision, Judge Hugessen also points out the document is `onerous' for would-be members. It also orders that the 11 individuals "immediately be accorded all the rights and privileges attaching to Band membership." Sawridge First Nation Chief Roland Twinn could not be reached for comment last week. Copyright c. 2000 The Lakeside Leader/Slave Lake, Alberta. --------- "RE: Judge to decide fate of Commercial Fishermen" --------- Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 08:14:08 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FISHING RIGHTS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.canoe.ca/NationalTicker/CANOE-wire.Fisherman-Ruling.html Judge to decide fate of more than 140 commercial fishermen on Monday July 27, 2003 VANCOUVER (CP) - A judge is expected to decide the fate Monday of more than 140 commercial fishermen who participated in a series of protests against native only fisheries. The trial started in 2001 but had a number of delays when one judge was too ill to continue and was replaced by a second judge who also became ill. The case is now being heard by provincial court Judge William J. Kitchen. Trial proceedings ended in late May and a decision was expected in June, but Canadian Alliance MP John Cummins said Sunday that it has been delayed. The opposition fisheries critic said he believes the judge has put careful thought into the decision because whatever the outcome, it'll likely continue all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. "He understood the implications and we expect a lengthy and detailed dissertation on this," said Cummins. First Nations have a constitutional right to catch salmon for food, ceremonial and social purposes. But aboriginals on both coasts have claimed an inherent right to fish commercially and in response, the federal Fisheries Department set up an aboriginal fisheries strategy. West Coast commercial fishermen bridled at separate salmon openings for First Nations, especially on the once abundant Fraser River runs. A group called the Fisheries Survival Coalition mounted several protest fisheries on the Fraser dating back to the late 1990s, leading to clashes on the water and illegal fishing charges, including one against committee member Cummins. (Vancouver Sun) Copyright c. 2003, CANOE, a division of Netgraphe Inc. --------- "RE: Clayoquot First Nation evicts Interfor" --------- Date: Mon, July 28, 2003 18:41 From: Steve Kisby Subj: Clayoquot First Nation Evicts Interfor http://www.alternatives.com/prms/2003/focs0728.pdf July 28, 2003 For Immediate Release CLAYOQUOT FIRST NATION EVICTS INTERFOR Tofino, BC -- The Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations have issued a notice of eviction to International Forest Products (Interfor), informing the logging company to leave their traditional territory in Clayoquot Sound. "We've had enough," said Chief Moses Martin of the Tla-o-qui-aht. "This logging tenure was given out decades ago without our consent, and Interfor and the government continue to operate without meaningfully accommodating our interests. Distant corporations will only ever pay lip service to sustainability and ensuring long-term jobs and benefits for local communities. The only real solution is for us to manage the tenure ourselves." Recently the Ministry of Forests approved a 10-year forest development plan by Interfor for 19,000 logging trucks worth of wood, ignoring the rejection of the plan by the Clayoquot Sound Central Region Board. The Board, a local body established under an interim measures agreement between the Clayoquot Sound Hereditary Chiefs and the Province in 1994, proposed changes to the plan that Interfor refused to make. "This unresponsive attitude makes a mockery of the Board and the agreement we signed in 1994," said Chief Martin. The eviction notice, addressed to Ric Slaco, Interfor's Chief Forester, states: "Effective immediately, you will cease and discontinue all activities associated with forestry operations within Tla-o-qui-aht Territory, including all engineering, road lay out, road building and forest harvesting. The Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations demand control over how the forest resources within our traditional territory, as well as all other resources, are managed to enable our people to achieve our goals now and in the future. We will negotiate with the Province of British Columbia in support of transferring control of Tree Farm License 54. We will explore our full range of options to vigorously defend our Aboriginal rights and title against infringements related to the alienation of resources from our traditional territory." The eviction notice comes just weeks before a major gathering in Tofino on August 9 marking the 10-year anniversary of the Clayoquot protests that put BC in the international spotlight for bad forest practices. For more information contact Chief Moses Martin, 250-726-8418 or Councillor Simon Tom, at 250-731-9154 --------- "RE: NB Indians ordered to move off Crown/Indian Lands" --------- Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 08:38:38 -0600 From: Canadian Aboriginal News Subj: NB INDIANS ORDERED TO MOVE OFF CROWN (INDIAN) LANDS Mailing List: Canadian Aboriginal News NB INDIANS ORDERED TO MOVE OFF CROWN (INDIAN) LANDS p, paul TOBIQUE FIRST NATIONS, July 22, 2003 George McCoy, St. Mary's FN, and Mary Polchies Woodstock FN, and their 3 children were told by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to get out of their summer home at Grand Lake, Jemseg NB, by July 26th, 2003, or risk being forcefully removed by DNR authorities. Grand Lake is located about half way between Fredericton and Moncton, and the couple's cottage is beside the lake, on Crown (Indian) Land. They were given no option but to move as demanded, to make room for a golf course to be built in that area within the near future. Terry St. Jacques, a band councilor from the Tobique FN, and Chief Jeff Tomah of the Woodstock First Nation were contacted by the couple to help in fighting the eviction order. Chief Tomah is presently returning from the AFN general assembly in Alberta and can only be reached by phone, and can only offer advise on strategy. He is due back in NB on July 31st. However, Councillor Terry St. Jacques is busily revving up support for McCoy and Polchies rallying support from different First Nations, from the Warriors or from anybody willing to help. A man by the name of Frank Thomas who happens to be living on the Tobique First Nation for the past 5-6 years, a reputed Micmac War Chief, was asked by St. Jacques to send his warriors to Grand Lake on the weekend for support. According to St. Jacques, the request was denied and she was told that this situation was out of the hands of the Micmac Warrior Society and that it had no jurisdiction on Traditional Wulustuk (Maliseet) Territory. For that reason therefore no support would be forthcoming from his Micmac Warrior Society. Another local Wulustuk War Chief, Clif Solomon, was subsequently informed of the situation and he immediately agreed to deploy manpower to the scene on Friday and Saturday, July 25 and 26, as a show of tribal commitment and solidarity. Flyers and other forms of communication have been sent out to other nations here and abroad, including the messages to the Mohawk Warriors who have been invited to observe the DNR meeting with Wulustukieg (Maliseets) on Saturday. Also included in the information package is this press release to alert as many concerned people as possible across the country to be at the site, if possible, on the weekend. New Brunswick and all lands in the Maritime provinces have never been sold, ceded, surrendered, given away, bartered or compromised in any way. Basically, the land is still rightfully and legally Indian Land where native people should have a huge stake and a major say on the management and operations over all natural resources. This will be the file presented as DNR officials come on the Indian Land this weekend at Grand Lake, Jamseg, NB. , which is located roughly 40 miles below Fredericton, on the old Moncton Highway. Councilor St. Jacques is requesting support and reaction from any group or sector across the country. She may be contacted in the TFN Fisheries Complex, 506-273-1843, or call for information at the main Band Office, 506-273-5400. Terry's email is, tstjacques@nb.aibn.com --------- "RE: First Urban Treaty in BC's Lower Mainland " --------- Date: Tue, Jul 28, 2003 11:37 PM From: www.frostys.qc.ca Subj: Attention News Editors: Newsgroup: alt.native --------- forwarded message---------- Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 18:00:47 -0400 From: portfolio@newswire.ca Attention News Editors: Tsawwassen First Nation initials draft Agreement in Principle; First urban treaty in BC's Lower Mainland DELTA, BC, July 28 /CNW/ - The Tsawwassen First Nation (TFN) released its draft Agreement-in-Principle in a public Main Table meeting held here today. The AIP resolves a number of important issues that will form the basis of B.C.'s Lower Mainland first urban treaty, expected to be finalized during the next two years. "This AIP represents a significant achievement for the Tsawwassen people, said Tsawwassen Chief Kim Baird who hosted the meeting attended by federal and provincial negotiators, politicians, senior officials, First Nations, the general public and the media. "But it's only a start and there is much more work to be done. Critical issues such as taxation and self-government have yet to be negotiated." The TFN, which entered the formal treaty process in 1993, comprises about 300 members, two-thirds of whom live on the narrow strip of land bordered to the north by the Roberts Bank Superport and, to the south, by the B.C. Ferry Terminal. Farmland and subdivisions form the eastern boundary; to the west is the Strait of Georgia. Highlights of the 117-page document include: - The TFN will own as fee simple a total of 717 hectares of land made up of several parcels, including the existing reserve of 290 hectares. (A map is available on request and on the TFN web site.) - Over time, TFN will receive $10.1 million in capital transfer. - New TFN commercial fishing opportunities for increased TFN harvest percentages for Fraser River sockeye, Fraser River pink and chum. The TFN will also retain its right to harvest fish for domestic purposes. - A $1 million-fund will be set up to enable the TFN to purchase the new commercial fishing licences. - The TFN will receive a $1 million Tsawwassen Fisheries Fund. - A $1 million fund will be set up for TFN Economic Development - The TFN will also receive $1 million to be used for cultural and heritage purposes. - A $100,00 Forest Resources Acquisition Fund will be received by TFN. Because many critical issues - self-government and taxation for example - have yet to be negotiated, Chief Baird said it is imperative the Tsawwassen people have a chance to vote on the AIP this fall. "Our lands and our fisheries have been exploited for more than a century," said Chief Baird. "Today, many industries and crown corporations benefit directly from our lands and resources - with very little coming our way. Every year more millions of vehicles cut through our lands in their rush to and from the ferries. That's why a treaty is important to us. It is one way to gain a fair share of the industrial development that takes place all around us." "Under a fairly negotiated treaty, we will be able to become full and active participants in the social, political and economic life of this province." "It's simple really. We seek a fair and just treaty which will give us the land, resources, self government, and cash settlement to which we are legally entitled, and which we need to build a positive, viable, and sustainable social, economic, and cultural future for present and future generations of Tsawwassen people." A summary of the AIP will be posted on the TFN web site: http://www.tsawwassen-fn.org -30- For further information: Tanya Corbet, Communications Director, (604) 943-2112, Cell: (604) 948-5205, Email: tanyacorbet@ddcnet.com --------- "RE: Gun warning by Former Cheam Chief" --------- Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 08:07:51 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FISHING RIGHTS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://vancouver.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=bc_cheam_am20030721 Gun warning by former Cheam chief July 21, 2003 VANCOUVER - A former chief of the Cheam First Nation says aboriginal fishermen may carry guns to preserve the right to fish on the Fraser River according to their own rules. June Quipp says the fishermen may have to take the drastic action because of recent changes to agreements with the Departments of Fisheries and Oceans, which have left her people vulnerable. The safety agreement, first signed about three years ago, limited the number of DFO officers sent in to enforce laws. As well, the agreement limited how close they could get to Cheam fishermen. Quipp says the band's fishermen may carry guns on their boats now that the agreement - governing the behaviour of DFO officers - is being changed. "We are afraid of the officers because of their attitudes," she says. "They're like a Gestapo troop when they come out there." Quipp says before the agreement was signed, the tension between DFO and the Cheam was getting intolerable. Cheam fishermen are only allowed to catch spring salmon, but Quipp admits some of the banned early Stuart-run sockeye may be getting into Cheam nets. The associate regional director for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans says the DFO is seeking a positive relationship with the Cheam - but Paul Sprout says it also needs to do its job. "What we want to be able to do and assure the public, is that we're managing the resource properly, that conservation is being looked after and we're going to do it in a way that minimizes any risk in terms of health and safety to both fisheries officers and First Nations." Sprout says while he can't predict how the laws will be enforced on the Fraser River, he can't rule out enlisting the aid of the RCMP. Copyright c. 2003 CBC. --------- "RE: No Trespassing Signs up on Tsuu T'ina Land" --------- Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 08:07:51 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TSUU T'INA" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.nupge.ca/news_2003/n22jy03a.htm 'No trespassing' signs up on Tsuu T'ina land July 22 2003 Calgary - The City of Calgary and the Tsuu T'ina First Nation are posting 40 'no trespassing' signs around the reserve, in hopes of keeping unwanted people off band land. Peter Manywounds, a spokesman for the Tsuu T'ina, says they are fed up with trespassers on their land. He says the problem is increasing as the city grows closer to the band's property. One of the biggest issues is people using the swimming hole near Griffith Woods Environmental Park, off 69 Street SW. The problem is the water is not part of the park, but on Tsuu T'ina land. Swimmers complain that there are no signs alerting people that they're on reserve land. There are reports that swimmers have been chased away by men wielding golf clubs and a stick with a nail in it. As well, people say they have been chased by Jeeps and teenagers floating down the Elbow River have had rocks thrown at them. Copyright c. 2003 CBC. --------- "RE: Zapatistas ready to Fight" --------- Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2003 07:31:33 -0500 (CDT) From: owner-chiapas95-english@eco.utexas.edu (Chiapas95-english) Subj: Leader Says Zapatistas Ready to Fight,Jul 23 Mailing List: Chiapas-95 This message is forwarded to you by the editors of the Chiapas95 newslists. To contact the editors or to submit material for posting send to: . From: "Dana" Leader Says Zapatistas Ready to Fight - AP SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico - Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos has issued a warning that his forces are ready to use violence to defend themselves against paramilitary fighters in southern Chiapas. In a strongly worded communique issued Tuesday night, Marcos said the tense climate in Chiapas reminds him of the days leading up to when paramilitary fighters massacred rebel supporters in the rural town of Acteal in December 1997. The mass killing was the worst of a series of bloody clashes between pro-and anti-rebel groups in poor Indian communities across Chiapas since the Zapatistas' armed uprising in the name of socialism and Indians rights in January 1994. Marcos said dozens of paramilitary fighters supported by different political parties have surrounded Zapatista strongholds in recent days and fired guns in the air. "The environment is very similar to one we saw in the days before the massacre at Acteal where 45 men, women and children were killed with exceptional cruelty by the paramilitaries," the statement said. He went on to say that if attacked, Zapatista fighters would respond with violence of their own, something they didn't do after the Acteal killings. "It's an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but we are ready to take two eyes for every eye and a mouth full of teeth for just one tooth," Marcos said, displaying his touch for irony that has made him a favorite of intellectuals. The letter released Tuesday also said structural changes made during recent months by the Zapatista army and affiliated villages are ready to be made public, without revealing any details of that reorganization. Marcos has not made a public appearance since 2001, communicating instead by letters published completely in the Mexican newspaper La Jornada. Tuesday's statement came a day after a letter from the ski-mask wearing leader announced a reorganization of the National Zapatista Liberation Army and a complete break with Mexico's government and political parties. In that statement, Marcos ridiculed the country's July 6 midterm elections as "the most comical in the history of Mexico," and said the Zapatista army had decided to sever all contact with the political system. President Vicente Fox (news - web sites) tried to restart peace talks in 2001 by closing a number of military bases in rebel territory and backing an Indian rights bill championed by the Zapatistas, but Congress passed a watered-down version of the bill, which the Zapatistas unanimously rejected. Marcos drew unusual criticism last year from Mexican leftists and intellectuals after he showed sympathy for a Basque separatist group linked to terrorist attacks. In his Monday communique, Marcos cited the Zapatistas' support for the "political fight of the Basque country," the country of Iraq (news - web sites) "and all the fights in rebellion against the power of money." "The aggression against the country of Iraq not only is evidence of the truly destructive mission of globalization but also provoked the largest worldwide repudiation in the history of humanity," the statement said. -- To subscribe to this list send a message containing the words subscribe chiapas95 (or chiapas95-lite, or chiapas95-english, or chiapas95-espanol) to majordomo@eco.utexas.edu. Previous messages are available from http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/chiapas95.html or gopher to Texas, University of Texas at Austin, Department of Economics, Mailing Lists. --------- "RE: Marcos ridicules PPP" --------- Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 07:39:54 -0500 (CDT) From: owner-chiapas95-english@eco.utexas.edu (Chiapas95-english) Subj: En;AP,Marcos ridicules PPP Mailing List: Chiapas-95 This message is forwarded to you by the editors of the Chiapas95 newslists. To contact the editors or to submit material for posting send to: . From: "Dana" To: Mexican rebel leader ridicules Plan Puebla Panama Sunday, July 27, 2003 (07-27) 12:37 PDT SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (AP) The rebel leader known as Subcomandante Marcos said a plan for the economic integration of Mexico and Central America will provoke social strife instead of progress, in a communique published Sunday in Mexican newspapers. Marcos lead a brief uprising in 1994 in the name of Indian rights but has not made a public appearance since 2001, resorting instead to fanciful written statements, including a series of announcements this month. The region development program known as Plan Puebla Panama was designed to promote the economic integration of Mexico and Central America by linking roads, electricity grids and tariff systems, as well as building a gas pipeline from Mexico to Panama. Marcos ridiculed the plan in a statement released Saturday that denounced the corrupting influence foreign economic interests and took aim at President Vicente Fox and the philanthropic efforts of the president's wife, Martha Sahagun. "The ill-fated Plan Puebla Panama was nothing more than a plan to fragment the country, turning southeast Mexico into a game park for world interests," the announcement stated. "Later or sooner, foreign capital goes on appropriating everything ... and with the protection of the laws." Mocking Plan Puebla Panama, Marcos announced "Plan Reality-Tijuana." "This plan consists in linking all the resistance in our country and reconstructing from below the Mexican nation," Marcos said. "The Plan Reality-Tijuana has no budget nor officials nor offices. It only has the people, who in their own time and place resist against plunder and remember the homeland is not a franchise with outlets but a common history." Marcos also seized upon new accusations announced Thursday by electoral investigators that found Fox's campaign violated Mexican law by accepting money from foreign donors and from some of its party's legislators. The rebel leader cited the help received by Fox's campaign as a potent example of the power of foreign money. Marcos compared Vamos Mexico -- a private, nonprofit group headed by first lady Sahagun -- to the scandal plagued social development program Pronasol launched by former president Carlos Salinas. "Pronasol was nothing more than institutionalized handouts," Marcos wrote. "Vamos Mexico also has the strong smell of a rancid tenement." --------- "RE: BIA, Tribe to develop Police Plan" --------- Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 08:41:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BLACKFEET" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20030725/localnews/646085.html BIA, tribe to develop police plan By KAREN IVANOVA Tribune Regional Editor July 25, 2003 BROWNING - The Blackfeet Tribe and the Bureau of Indian Affairs plan to meet next week to work out a cooperative agreement for policing the reservation. In February the BIA staged an emergency takeover of the tribe's police department, citing management problems and political interference that threatened public safety. Days later, the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council agreed to recognize the BIA as the reservation's official police force. The arrangement worked until two weeks ago, when the tribe put roughly 10 officers of its own on the street without consulting the BIA. The tribe also refused to allow BIA officers to patrol its North American Indian Days celebration, saying the powwow arena was sacred ground. "(Tribal officials) have called me and we've talked at length on the phone," said Ed Naranjo, BIA special agent in charge of law enforcement for the six-state region that includes Montana. "We've both agreed that we need to come to some kind of resolution and get this thing moving forward for the protection of the community." Naranjo, who works in Billings, plans to visit the reservation next week, but a date hasn't been set. Confusion over who is in charge of law and order jeopardizes public safety, especially if both forces are armed, Naranjo said. Tribal Council Chairman Jay St. Goddard did not respond to repeated requests for an interview early this week. Wednesday, seven of the tribe's nine council members were out of the office or out of town and could not be reached for comment, according to their secretaries. The two councilmen in the office, Hugh Monroe and Gordon Monroe, were either away from their desks or in lengthy meetings and could not be reached by a reporter who visited the tribal administration building twice. Jim Kennedy, the tribe's new CEO, said the councilmen could not comment anyway. "Comment will come from the council when they're ready," Kennedy said. Tribal offices were closed Thursday for a funeral. Naranjo said the BIA wants to re-establish an agreement that puts the agency in charge of all police officers on the reservation. The tribe hired the roughly 10 new officers under a grant from the federal Community Oriented Policing Program, otherwise known as COPS, he said. The BIA would like to oversee those officers, so long as they pass its background checks, Naranjo said. A few of the new officers applied for positions on the BIA police force and failed the background checks, he said. In addition to protecting public safety, the tribe needs officers with clean backgrounds to protect its COPS grant, Naranjo said. "If we allow somebody to come on that's got a serious issue and the COPS office gets ahold of it then their contract is in jeopardy," he said. Naranjo said there's no hostility between the BIA and tribal officials. "It's just business," he said. "There's disagreements and then you work to address those disagreements." But the rift has left many reservation residents confused and critical of the tribal council. Some of the new tribal police served on the tribe's old, troubled force, said Murna Thomas, who runs a Browning car dealership. "I would never call the police that the tribe has hired because they were the ones who were so corrupt before," Thomas said. "If you're not in with that clique you may as well forget about it. They don't help you. But when you call the BIA they're there. They come immediately. Our council needs to wake up." About a dozen disgruntled residents gathered Wednesday afternoon at a special meeting of Blackfeet Against Fraud and Corruption Now, a grassroots community activist group. The group holds regular meetings every Tuesday evening to discuss concerns about the tribal government. "We need tribal police like we need a hole in the head," said tribal elder Buck Arrowtop. "We have police here -- bureau. I'm not 100 percent satisfied with the BIA, but it's better than what we had before." Pat Schildt founded the group and hosts the meetings in a conference room behind his Browning convenience store. He expressed frustration at the tribal council's emphasis on sovereignty. In February, tribal Vice Chairman James St. Goddard called the BIA takeover a violation of the Blackfeet's sovereign status. "I believe that the only sovereignty that exists here now is sovereignty of the tribal council, and they use it against their own people," Schildt said. But feelings about a federal agency taking charge of law and order on the reservation run deep. Geraldine Gordon, of East Glacier, acknowledges there were problems with the tribe's old police force. But she blames the BIA for not providing tribal police with enough funding or training. "I have been always against the BIA police," she said. "I believe that if you're a government, you should have your own police, for goodness' sakes." Copyright c. 2003 Great Falls Tribune. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Pine Ridge Shooting Victim remains Critical" --------- Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 08:13:17 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SHOOTING VICTIM" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2003/07/23/news/local/news02.txt Shooting victim remains critical By Jim Holland, Journal Staff Writer July 24, 2003 PINE RIDGE - A 17-year-old Pine Ridge girl remains in critical condition at Rapid City Regional Hospital after a Saturday night shooting in Pine Ridge. The investigation continues into the shooting at the North Ridge housing area in Pine Ridge, which ended when Alex DeSersa, 22, believed to have fired the shot that struck the girl in the stomach, was himself killed by an Oglala Sioux Tribal police officer. Authorities are not releasing the girl's name. According to Charles "Festus" Fischer, supervisory special agent for the Bureau of Indian Affairs Criminal Investigations Division at Pine Ridge, an autopsy was performed on DeSersa's body Tuesday in Rapid City. Results of the autopsy, including toxicology reports, are not expected to be complete for several days, he said. DeSersa was pronounced dead after being shot by Oglala Sioux Tribal police officer John Mousseau. DeSersa's obituary appears on Page C2. Mousseau and OST police officer David Whery responded to the housing area for a report of shots being fired about 11:45 p.m. Mousseau was talking to the girl when shots were fired from the abandoned house, striking the girl. Mousseau took cover and returned fire. Whery took off in pursuit of a man who had run from the scene when the officers arrived. That man, identified as John Eder, 22, was found at a house across the street and arrested on a charge of public intoxication. A MAC-90 assault rifle and a drum magazine containing more than 100 rounds of ammunition were found next to DeSersa's body. Investigators also recovered an empty 30-round magazine and a backpack containing more ammunition. Other OST, BIA and FBI officers arrived soon after the shooting. Fischer said the FBI is leading the investigation into the shooting. Both Mousseau and Whery remain on administrative leave during the investigation. Contact Jim Holland at 394-8415 or jim.holland@rapidcityjournal.com Copyright c. 2003 the Rapid City Journal. --------- "RE: In the Spirit of Leonard Peltier" --------- Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 20:58:40 -0500 From: "navajo-jorge" Subj: In the Spirit of Leonard Peltier Mailing List: Firewarriors Net In the Spirit of Leonard Peltier --------------------------------- Posted Wednesday, July 23, 2003 CDT 3:05 PM by quohadi: In the Spirit of Leonard Peltier By Ed Ritchie Robert Redford and a host of celebrities have organized a two-day art exhibit/benefit to raise legal funds for the upcoming battle to free Native American activist Leonard Peltier. Jane Fonda and Bonnie Raitt are also among the 14 entertainment industry artists rallying behind Peltier's 28-year battle with the FBI. The exhibit, entitled "The Warrior's Eye: In the Spirit of Crazy Horse," will feature paintings from Peltier's latest works. It is very strong Native American art and it spoke to my heart," says producer/director Robert Greenwald, co-founder of Artists United. "I realized that there was an opportunity to recognize him as an artist and to raise some desperately needed money for upcoming court battles." Leonard Peltier, a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe, has gained worldwide status as a political prisoner and attracted the support of Amnesty International and many other organizations. He has been the subject of a CBS 60 Minutes segment, a Robert Redford documentary and a book, Peter Matheson's, "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse." Taking AIM Peltier has played a major role in the American Indian Movement (AIM). In 1970, he participated in a dispute over the occupation of Fort Lawton, Oregon. The property was located on federal land designated as "surplus," however; Indians had first right to it under the law. Peltier and his group won that round against the feds with the establishment of an Indian cultural center. Participation in the 1972 occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs(BIA) drew the attention of the FBI. Shortly after the BIA incident, Peltier was threatened with a gun in a Milwaukee restaurant by two assailants who turned out to be plainclothes policemen. Testimony from witnesses supported Peltier's assertion of a set up, and a former girlfriend of one of the police officers testified that he had told her about plans of "catching a big one for the FBI." Peltier was arrested for attempted murder and spent five months in jail at high bail; eventually he went underground before his pre-trial hearing. In March 1975, amid unrest between the Oglala Tribal Council and traditional Oglala elders, an AIM spiritual group established a camp on the property of the elders, near the village of Oglala on the Pine Ridge Reservation. In June, two FBI agents entered the property without a warrant or jurisdiction, allegedly to arrest an Indian man accused of stealing a pair of cowboy boots. An all-out firefight ensued, with 150 FBI and government agents responding to the scene. Five hours later, one AIM member and two FBI agents were dead. Peltier and three other men were indicted for the murder of the FBI agents. Peltier was extradited from Canada based on an affidavit tainted by what would eventually be proven as fraudulent testimony from a woman claiming to be Peltier's girlfriend. Peltier's attorneys say the affidavit was never produced during the extradition hearings and was concealed from them. In the trial that followed, the original judge excused himself without explanation, and the court location was moved to a town with strong anti-Indian sentiment. Peltier's defense team charges that it was denied critical cross-examinations in its efforts to prove FBI misconduct and was prevented from presenting key defense witnesses. In a different trial, a jury acquitted two of the other defendants, but Peltier's judge excluded the use of their evidence in his trial. Peltier's attorneys also presented evidence showing that the prosecution produced false testimonies obtained under FBI coercion, perjured testimonies by FBI agents and withheld a crucial exculpatory ballistic test document. In 1977, Peltier was sentenced to two consecutive life terms and entered a federal penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. A Long Battle In 1979, the Supreme Court refused to review Peltier's case, and he was transferred to Lompoc Federal Correctional Institution in California. A known thug of the Oglala Tribal Council appeared amid rumors of an assignation plot, and fearing for his life, Peltier managed to escape prison. He was captured and seven years was added to his sentence. Through the '80s, defense attorneys obtained 12,000 pages of declassified FBI documents under the Freedom of Information Act. Yet, the bureau refused to release an additional 6,000 pages, classifying them "in the interest of national defense or foreign policy." Into the '90s, new defense motions came and went, each frustrated in some way by the government. In 1993, Attorney Ramsey Clark even filed an Executive Clemency request with the White House. In a different strategy, attorneys filed a civil rights suit in April 2002 against the FBI and other government officials for false and misleading statements. According to attorney Bernard Kleinman, the FBI evaded the service of their summons, employing a "classic FBI obstruction." Today Peltier attorneys are pursuing an appeal of the recent denial of Peltier's 1999 Habeas Corpus petition. They seek to overturn the U.S. Parole Commission's denial of parole consideration until December 2008. Parole Commission guidelines for prisoners convicted of homicide offenses is 200-plus months served. By those standards, Peltier should have been freed more than a decade ago. However, the Commission refuses to consider setting a parole date until 2008 – when Peltier will have served almost double the normal time. Transcendent Art The years of incarceration and poor medical treatment have taken their toll on his health. During 27 years in prison, Peltier suffered a stroke, leaving him partially blind in one eye. Now 58, Peltier suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and a heart condition. Yet through it all, Peltier has managed to persevere and create a body of artwork that transcends his incarceration. Robert Greenwald visited Peltier at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary a few months ago and despite concerns about his health, he has high hopes for the appeal, and the community's efforts to help. Say Greenwald: "This is where the progressive community can work together, and it's very encouraging." "The Warrior's Eye: In the Spirit of Crazy Horse" opens Aug. 1, 6-9pm, at Frumkin Gallery in Santa Monica, Calif. Admission $100 (may be applied toward the purchase of artwork). For more info or to RSVP call (310) 288-7338. --------- "RE: Native Prisoner" --------- Date: Mon, Jul 28 2003 19:18:40 -0700 From: Janet Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NATIVE PRISONER" ===== Date: Friday, July 25, 2003 6:31 PM From: "Brigitte Thimiakis" Subj: PRAYER WARRIORS 2 : Bad news From: justicenetwork@ifrance.com July 24 , 2003 News Release , and Request for immediate action: The Prayer Warriors Council members have been reclassed into Ad-Seg and Max. This is their punishment for having tried to improve the rehabilitative programs and support the religious rights of their Nations. Ad-Seg and Max mean that they are kept locked up 23 hours a day, 7/7, with loss of most privileges, one phone call a month, no chance for a job, loss of canteen privileges, and a reduction or loss of privilege to participate in their traditional religious ceremonies for a long time. After the publication of 2 articles in the local press (July 10 and 11) about their efforts to help the Native American prisoners, all the Council members but 2 were locked up. A letter campaign was started and one Council member was released. Now we have found out that the other members are in isolation, after an extremely unjust and unwarranted reclassification. Additional Info When the first council member was locked up, he was told he was under investigation. Just prior to this member being locked up, an inmate was said to be found with a shank; he was on a totally different unit and block from council members, so there could not have been an involvement. Yet little by little within a couple of days time span all the council members were locked up. Supposedly for investigation? Security personnel totally went through and all around the Sweat Lodge area, thus disrespecting and desecrating it; they claimed it was done for security reasons, although the alleged incident was said to have taken place a few hundred feet away from the Sweat Lodge. The staff did this although there is absolutely no access to the Sweat Lodge area without authorization and it is in a secured fenced off area. In addition, the prison staff entered the Sweat Lodge area without a sponsor or pipe carrier, further disrespecting the beliefs and sacred traditions of the Native American inmates and their People. Now the Prayer Warriors have been reclassed into Max-Ad/Seg. Unless outside pressure continues, they will remain in isolation (solitary confinement) without so much as a write up. This is totally outrageous and a clear attempt to destroy the whole Council by intimidating and isolating the Prayers Warriors.They are being punished for wanting to improve the rehabilitative programs, protect the Native American spiritual traditions and trying to have them available to all Native Americans at MSP. Update: A supporter received a response from Warden Mahoney claiming that the reason the Prayer Warrior Council lock up was a precaution.This is a new attempt to put the blame on Native American prisoners who did nothing wrong, an attempt to excuse their confinement in isolation. It is absurd and cruel to continually punish a group of inmates who try only to better themselves and help other inmates better themselves too. Please support the Prayer Warriors against this blatant case of injustice! How you can help : Please contact the officials in MT and request the immediate release of the Prayer Warriors. Remind them that the racial profiling and older cases of retaliations are documented. [To obtain a copy of the initial call for action and background info, please contact justicenetwork@ifrance.com ] You can help the Prayer Warriors by calling or writing the following prison officials: - 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 500 Conley Lake Road Deer Lodge, MT 59722 (406) 846-1320, ext. 2454 mbeeson@state.mt.us - Mr. Bill Slaughter, Director of Corrections The Montana Department of Corrections 1539 11th Avenue P.O. Box 201301 Helena MT 59620-1301 jbouchee@state.mt.us ==== THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT, ON BEHALF OF THE PRAYER WARRIORS ==== --------- "RE: History: Carlisle Indian School" --------- Date: Mon, 07 Jul 2003 23:33:37 -0400 From: Barbara Landis Subj: July 4, 1890 INDIAN HELPER, Carlisle Indian School Newspaper. [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 Carlisle Indian Industrial School To Boys and Girls. ================================================ VOL. V. FRIDAY, July 4, 1890 NUMBER 44 ================================================ WHAT IS A GENTLEMAN? --------- What is a gentleman? It is not one Honestly eating the bread he has won; Walking in uprightness, fearing his God, Leaving no stain on the path he has trod, Caring not whether his coat may be old, Prizing sincerity far above gold, Recking not whether his hand may be hard, Stretching it boldly to grasp its reward? What is a gentleman? Say, is it birth Makes a man noble or adds to his worth? Is there a family tree to be had Shady enough to conceal what is bad? Seek out the man who has God for his guide; Nothing to tremble at, nothing to hide; Be he a noble, or be he in trade, He is the gentleman Nature has made. =========== A GREAT DEAL OF TOBACCO, AND A VERY LARGE PIPE. ------- Whatever may be said concerning tobacco, it has one peculiarity which clings to it - or rather to the man who uses it, with astonishing tenacity. It is its smell. You can tell a person who uses it, as soon as he enters the room. Sometimes you can detect its use in those who are passing your window, if the wind happens to be just right. If you have occasion to sew on a missing button for the person who smokes or chews, the fragrance which hovers about the garment informs you of its owner's weakness. If you borrow a knife of your neighbor to whittle a tooth-pick or to cut a strap to mend a broken harness iwth, that knife is sure to whisper its secret, if it has laid next door to a plug of tobacco, or a little pouch of fine cut. If you buy a long stemmed pipe of your grocer just to blow soap bubbles with, and he delcares that it is a new one yet, if you detect an odor about it which does not belong to clay, you are sure it is a second hand pipe, and you do not want it. Even a boy at Carlisle, be he Freshman or Senior, who takes a sly whiff at the same time taht he takes a walk over ot the cave or down by the basin, and returning imagines that nobody will mistrust his adventure, is sure to be mistaken. But tobacco is said to have its uses. We thought we had found a use for it once, when we were advised to strew some of it among our firs to protect them from the moths in summer. When we opened them the next winter, they were indeed preserved from moths, and also preserved from our own use for a long time. The smell of the preservative inclined us to believe that even its supposed virtue had been transformed into a greater calamity than an invasion of moths. In earlier days than these, the use of the weed was more deplorable than now, for we are led to believe that it must have been indulged in even during Church services, since it is recorded that Pope Urban, the Eighth, in the 17th century "caused to be excomunicated such persons as should use tobacco in Church." Some southern farmer discovered, by accident we suppose, while walking about with his favorite quid in his mouth, that tobacco juice would kill the potato bug. We are not told whether the farmer and his boys spent the rest of the season expectorating among the potato tops or not, but we do know that a dozen little Indian boys turned loose in a field of potatoes, are certain death to the potato bugs. Farmers also believe that tobacco juice applied in generous quantities will kill the ticks on sheep. We have no doubt that this is the case, and also are inclined to the opinion that it has also killed men and boys before now, and that they did not know what did it, more than the ticks and potato bugs knew. But we did not start out to say a great deal about tobacco, but to say something about a great deal of tobacco, so will proceed: Not long ago on a part of our eastern coast the dwellers along the shore began to sniff ffaint whiffs of tobacco smoke, very slight at first but growing more and more distinct, till, ------------------------------------ (Continued on the Fourth Page.) ========================= (page 2) The Indian Helper. ----------------------------- PRINTED EVERY FRIDAY, AT THE INDIAN INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, CARLISLE, PA. BY THE INDIAN PRINTER BOYS. --> THE INDIAN HELPER is PRINTED by Indian boys, but EDITED by The-Man-on-the-band-stand, who is NOT an Indian. ----------------------------- Price: - 10 cents a year. ============================== Address INDIAN HELPER, Carlisle, Pa. Miss M. Burgess, Manager. ============================== Entered in the P.O. at Carlisle as second class mail matter. ============================== The INDIAN HELPER is paid for in advance, so do not hesitate to take the paper from the Post Office, for fear a bill will be presented. ============================= *The Red Man* is favored with an invitation to attend the Closing Exercises of the Santee Normal Training School, Santee Agency, Nebr. It shall go. ========= By letter from Lucretia Arrow we learn that six of the Indian children attending school at Halstead, Kansas, were baptized on Sunday the 22nd. by the Rev. H. R. Voth. ========= When the monthly reports come in, how encouraging to read such words as these about our pupils in the country: "She deserves more than passing mention. She is very quick yet quiet about her work and in ability deerves more wages than I felt able to give, ($l.5O a week), but hope the time placed at her disposal and freedom from heavy work may in some degree compenesate." "He is good steady willing help and well worth his $10 per month." "He does so well that I feel warranted in raising his wages from $9 to $10 a month." "He is a very good boy. I give him a cent a dozen for gathering eggs, which has brought him money enough to get a straw hat and other little knick-knacks without taking up his month's wages." Ah, this is the kind we don't like to read: "He cannot be decent for a whole month at a time. The mental strain is too great." But this is better: "He is doing well, and is very saving of his money." "In ms last report I could not pay him $15 a month on account of his milking. Since then he has improved so and is such a first class boy that I will make it $15 from the 23rd." "She was ironing to-day and was told some one else would take her place and she might rest and cool off, so she picked up the last RED MAN and read it diligently. I see quite an improvement in her work since she came here." The poor young man who says he has enough education to fit him for a life in the West will find when he gets there and into active business operation with those shrewd, sharp, energetic, western men that he is as a babe in their hands, and that they can twist and turn him to suit their own sweet will. Yes, a Carlisle graduate doesn't know much in comparison with the driving, grasping business men of the world. It requires all that a boy can get in the ten or fifteen years' course in a school like this or in a better one to at all fit him for independent thought, and a life of usefulnees above that of a tool or a mere machine. ========= This is a terrible sound. The M. 0. T. B. S. heard two ladies talking: "Isn't so-and-so (meaning one of our bright little girls) sweet and pretty, and such a nice little thing." "Yes " said the other lady. "She is nice, but I saw her put her croquet ball in position the other day when she thought the one playing with her did not see her, and I cannot like her any more. She is not honest." ========= Not what I want to do, but what I ought to do should govern us about going home. Here is a chance to get what I need to make myself a happy and useful citizen. It is a chance that many boys and girls in the world would be glad to buy. It is given to me. Am I sure I will ever have as good a chance again? It is extremely dangerous to throw away an opportunity. We will surely suffer for it, sometime. ========= One of the old employees was asked the other day if it "is not very lonesome at Carlisle during the summer when so many are away." "Why, no, indeed" she answered. "It is the pleasantest time in the year. We all get acquainted, and it is so social. I would never go away from the school in the summer if I could go at any other time." ========= We hear that Clarence Three Stars has resigned his position as disciplinarian of the Pine Ridge Agency boarding school, but did not learn the reason. No doubt he has found useful employment in some other field of work or has other good reasons. Clarence has been steady and earnest in his work for years and we have never heard other than the best of reports of his demeanor. ===================================== At the Carlisle School is published monthly an eight-page quarto of standard size, called THE RED MAN, the mechanical part of which is done entirely by Indian boys. This paper is valuable as a summary of information on Indian matters, and contains writings by Indian pupils, and local incidents of the school. Terms: Fifty cents a year, in advance. For 1, 2, and 3 subscribers for THE RED MAN we give the same premium in Standing Offer for the HELPER. Address, THE RED MAN, Carlisle, PA. =========================== (Page 3) Fourth of July, to-day. And what are we going to do to celebrate? --------- One thing we are going to learn what the day means. --------- If you must have a boil, where should you prefer it? In the kettle. --------- Mr. Norman and his painters are certainly making all paintable objects shine with new paint. --------- Five Moqui Indians of wew Nexico, with their Agent Major Vandever visited the school on their way west from Washington. --------- The printing offlce fever ia growing. Don now wants to help out. We are inclined to think he had better grow a couple of inches first. --------- Rev. Dr. West, who is to occupy the pulpit of Dr. Norcross while the latter is off for an extended tour through Europe, preached for us Sunday afternoon. --------- Our little Nina Carlisle took dinner at the club on Sunday. She eats with her fork as nicely and was as happy as a dear littleschool-girl could be. --------- A number of the boys and girls whose times are out this year, with eyes wide open to their best good are wisely going to remain for more education, while the opportunity is theirs. --------- A photograph of the printers containing many new faces was taken Monday, to be sold for twenty cents cash, or will be given for five subscriptions for the HELPER, whether renewals or new. --------- The western spirit taking root, early: When Johnnie Given was packing his things to go west with his mamma on a visit he said there were two things he didn't want her to forget -his Bible and his little pistol. --------- For July Misses Wood and Luckenbach take the hospital; Nisses Cutter, NcAdam and Moore, the small boys; Miss Paull will do extra teaching for a few of the older pupils who wish to jump a grade and go into a higher class in the Fall. --------- Since last HELPER was issued we have had three strong, earnest talks from our Superintendent. On Friday night, after seeing many curious and wonderful views of Japan life, by aid of the stereopticon and calcium lights, and hearing explanations of the little details which were intersting, the electric light was turned on and we listened to one of the strongest and most impressive talks upon the Indian question and our present duties in connection with the pending crisis of Indian matters, that it was ever our lot to hear. The hay crop is gathered. The oat crop is poor this year. --------- Wheat is harvested and most of it stacked. It is a good crop. --------- The shutters of the back office have been transformed into blinds. --------- The dining-room is quite thinned out - only thirty-three tables. In the winter it requires 46. --------- Mrs. Given Nisses Fisher, Hamilton, Carter, Merritt, Cook, Stanton, Irvine, and Rote have gone for their summer's vacation. --------- The printers will spend the usual school period of each day this summer working at out-door work. It is a welcome change to most of them. --------- Mr. Thompson is detailed at present to fill Miss Noble's place for a few days. She was threatened with lung fever but is much better and will be out soon no doubt. --------- In spite of what the teacher said who likes it better here in summer than any other time, the Man-on-the-band-stand thinks it is forlorn with so many of his friends away. --------- Jennie Dubray and Grace Red Eagle have gone to country homes for the summer though Jennie longs to see her friends at home she has reached the brave conclusion that it is best to stay at Carlisle until she graduates. --------- When a rainy day comes and the small boys cannot be turned out in the potato patch or perform other useful out-door labor they are glad to have such a splendid gymnasium in which to exercise and have fun. --------- A half-dozen of the little girls were each given five cents to spend just as they pleased, and the M. 0. T. B. S. was curious to see what they would select from all the pretty things on the show counters. Was it candy they wanted? Oh, no. Little dolls, fans and brass rings, --------- Harry Kopay is getting so that he can fly the drum-sticka to lively music, but he will have to wake up early in the morning to beat little Ed Hopel, of town, who comes out to visit the Foulkes. Master Ed is still in dresses and is the smallest five-year-old we ever saw, but he *can* drum. --------- One of the favorite amusements of the little girls is to blow soap bubbles from the second floor balcony. The bubbles float like small balloons. The pipes are old lamp chimneys and also paper twisted into cone-shapes, but the girls get more real fun out of them than if they were clay pipes. ============================== (Continued from First Page.) at last, they were obliged to breathe a strong, pungent, penetrating smell, that was rank enough to make the lovers of the weed lay by their own pipes and cigars, and to cause the haters of the herb to hold on to their noses. The pipe from which this terrible odor came was a hundred miles from land when its first puff of smoke was sent flying into the faces of those people. Nearer and nearer came the smoker, and nearer and nearer came that awful smell of tobacco. The sufferers looked through their spyglasses and could at last see the individual who was causing the unwonted excitement. The smoke rolled in great black columns from one of the largest and longest pipes that was ever made. And who smoked the pipe? you ask. Why, a man, or men, of course, and this was the way they did it: A large steamer from one of the southern ports had run out of coal, and in order to reach its dest.ination the stokers were obliged to throw into the furnace, bale after bale of tobacco, which had been nicely preserved for the use of the American tobacco lover. The nicotine of the plant is an oil which burns readily, and with its help the steamer safely made its harbor. You can imagine the disgust of the other handsome, clean steamers as our smoker sailed in among them, with its disagreeable odor, and its dirty black smoke-that is, if the steamers were all like people, and knew anything at all about it. Now if this steamer could influence its associates, as easily as human beings do theirs, it would not be long before all the boats that plough the ocean, would be smoking tobacco, and then there would be a dearth of the product, and at last every body would have to quit usiug it. E. G. ----------- Busy People are generally long lived. Active exercise of brain and muscle, provided it be not excessive, is the life of life. ----------- "The Agent won't give us work." "We could do so and so if the Government would only help us." "I have no team, so I cannot work my farm." "I have to put on Indian clothes because my others are all worn out." "I have to stay in Indian camp and wear a blanket because Agent he give me no work." "I have to live like the other Indians be cause they laugh at me and call me white man if I don't." These are some of the sentiments the Man-on-the-band-stand sees in letters and in the minds of a few Indian boys. What poor, weak, wishy-washy back bones they have who say or think such stuff. If the Agent will not give you work, FIND work elsewhere. You can find it if you want to. If you have no team to plow with get down and *dig your land by hand." Hard? Of course it is, but, if you are a young man of pluck you will not be discouraged by any of these things. If there is no way in sight for you to walk in, go to work and MAKE a way, and be a man. ----------- "I can do something that you can't," said a boy to his companion: "I can chew tobacco." "And I can do something that you can't," was the quick reply. "I can let the tobacco alone." ----------- Nothing keeps one from gaining knowledge and wisdom like thinking he has both. ----------- Enigma. I am made of 12 letters. My 10, 3, 11, is what a man who drinks whiskey becomes. My 4, 5, 9, 7, 6, is to say the words of another. My 12, 8, 2, 5, 1, 6, is nice, neat, trim. My whole was the cause of considerable discussion the other evening between one of our ladies and three Indian boys, and the Man-on-the-band-stand is inclined to think that the Indian boys came out ahead. ANSWER TO LAST WEEK'S ENIQMA: Malcolm Clark. ================================== STANDING OFFER: - For FIVE new subscribers to the INDIAN HELPER, we will give the person sending them a photographic group of the 13 Carlisle Indian Printer boys, on a card 4 1/2 X 6 1/2 inches, worth 20 cents when sold by itself. Name and tribe of each boy given. (Persons wishing the above premium will please enclose a 1-cent stamp to pay postage.) For TEN, Two PHOTOGRAPHS, one showing a group of Pueblos as they arrived in wild dress, and another of the same pupils three years after, or, for the same number of names we give two photographs showing still more marked contrast between a Navajoe as he arrived in native dress, and as he now looks, worth 20 cents a piece. Persons wishing the above premiums will please enclose a 2-cent stamp to pay postage. For FIFTEEN, we offer a GROUP of the whole school on 9x14 inch card. Faces show distinctly, worth sixty cents. Persons wishing the above premium will please send 6 cents to pay postage. ============================================= [Transcribed weekly by Barbara Landis. Come and join us for the installation and dedication of an historic marker at the old school grounds. Go to http://www.epix.net/~landis/marker.html Picnic, afterwards!] --------- "RE: Rustywire: Toe Jams" --------- Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 13:02:08 -0000 From: "John Rustywire" Subj: toe jams Mailing List: ndn-aim Toe Jams It was Saturday night at the pow wow grounds, the day had been hot and the night was just a little bit cooler. It was near the arbor, the shade covering around the pow wow dance arena. It was crowded, people form all over, Indians dressed in their buckskins feathers, children running around, some folks sitting in their folding chairs. She was standing there, her braided hair perfectly split and she wore a white buckskin with cut glass beads in the style of the Southern Cheyenne traditional dancers. She held a fan a eagle feathers, she was tall and maybe 18 or so. In the glow of the night lights she looked gold colored, a soft haze covered her. There were three of them women traditional dancers standing there waiting to hear the call for the young women's traditional dance. A drum group, the Prairie Island Pontiacs were taking a break. The group came from the Windy City, that place on the eastern plains, of tall towers and cold winds. One of them wore shades, wearing a shirt that said Chicago Cubs, he was carrying his drumstick, long it was, all puffy and round at the top. He was swinging it around his finger as he was talking to his friend. He swung it and it hit this girl from behind and she turned around. "Oh," he said, "I'm sorry" She pulled at her buckskin looking to see if it had any marks from the stick. She looked at it and then at him in an instant. She always had in her mind the kind of Indian guy she would like to meet. She had thought on him from time to time. He would be tall with braids, maybe with broad shoulders and a square jaw with high cheekbones and a certain kind of look around the eyes, sort of hard but not really that way. He would have an easy smile and be narrow at the hips, swift legs and all of sudden he the one she had seen in her dreams was standing there. He looked at her and his said, "I'm sorry I didn't see you" Her friends said, "you should look at where you are going, Bro!" He turned away and then she said, "It's o.k., nothing is messed up," He turned to walk away and then she thought, what am I going to say to him. What is his name? He stepped away and she grabbed his drumstick and held onto it and pulled him back. It was still on his finger and she caught him off guard and it pulled him back. It stopped him dead in his tracks. He stood perfectly still and then turned around. She laughed at him and said, "Now we are even!" He laughed a small laugh and liked her smile, but his friend said, "We have to go!" His friends continued to walk away to the stew stands, to eat some frybread, drink some cold pop and maybe grab a burger or two. The world stopped for them and the look in their eyes said it all, It was Saturday night, July 5th at the Fort Duchesne Powow and after this night nothing would ever be the same for them again. She heard them call out over the speaker, "Young Womens Traditional Dancers we need you now in the arena!" She heard it and looked at him and said, "What's your name?" His friends called out to him, "Hurry Up!" He looked at her and was going to say something when they called out to him, "Come on Toe Jams!" The speaker called out, "Young Women hurry up!" She turned away, he didn't say a thing and she laughed to hear his name. She looked at him and said, "Toe Jams?" He smiled and said, "Yeah, that's what they call me." She turned to go the arena and the girls all were laughing and she left him standing there. Turning she waved at him and said softy, "Toe Jams." He left to go eat and watched her make her way to the arena and saw her dance, slow and in the way of the Southern Plains Indians, nice and slow elegant in the way she moved. She was a good one out there and after she finished she made her way to the edge of the dance circle to let the judges see her number and he stood waiting to see her under the arbor. rustywire@yahoo.com --------- "RE: Poem: Awakening" --------- Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 06:34:24 -0000 From: "monique" Subj: a new poem Mailing List: N A Poetry Ok put on your Vincent Price voice to read this it'll add some drama lol enjoy Awakening Oh how I listen to the quiet of time. A macabre sense filling my nostrils, a tingle of mucus flickering in and out. Alone within my ego, calls to he who portrays my id. The black beast that lives inside. Squawking at every choice a chill envelopes deep in my mind. The black one who would be a Nemesis of my own making. I awaken to the day, I hear the Ravens call. Choose it echos Choose Choose how to live the day. April 2003 Wajo --------- "RE: Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days" --------- Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2003 06:34:24 -0000 From: Debbie Sanders Subj: Hawaiian Book of Days A HAWAI`I BOOK OF DAYS, week of August 4-10 AUKAKE (August) (Mahoe-mua) 4 To hear the bright laughter of even one child's joy is to hear the world. 5 Through music, we are most nearly ourselves. 6 Your spirit will lead you to those you were meant to know. 7 Take time to look at clouds and sunsets and the beauty of nature. 8 Make your mind a quiet place of peace and solitude. 9 No truth is ever absolute. 10 The orchid embodies the perfection of diversity. (c) Copyright 1991 by D. F. Sanders Me ke aloha i ka nani, ... Moe'uhanekeanuenue (With love and beauty, ... Rainbow Dream) --------- "RE: Sharing Traditional Herbal Knowledge" --------- Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 08:54:10 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HERBAL KNOWLEDGE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.navajohopiobserver.com/~790167.asp?P=790167&S=392&PubID=11013 Sharing traditional herbal knowledge By S.J. Wilson The Observer July 17, 2003 FLAGSTAFF - Sometimes you need look no farther than your own back yard for healing. This is a topic Phyllis Hogan and Mae Wero have discussed for years. Wero is a Senior Health Educator with the Navajo Nation Health Education program. Hogan is a practicing ethnobotanist, a person who studies the plant lore particular to a group of people. On July 9, Hogan, who is the director of the Arizona Ethnobotanical Research Association, led Wero and 24 other Navajo Nation health educators on a walk through one of Flagstaff's "back yards," Buffalo Park. In the '30s and '40s Buffalo Park used to be an open-air zoo featuring different animals including-of course-buffalos. The hay that was fed to these animals brought in the seeds of a lot of weedy plants that many people consider weeds. To others these are important medicinal plants. The purpose of the conference of Navajo health care workers was to give them different perspectives on health care said Wero. "I met Phyllis 15 years ago," Wero said, indicating that their relationship of shared knowledge and friendship is an enjoyable one. The plant identification walk was only part of the conference. "We have also scheduled events such as different exercises to perform for stress relief, a visit by a traditional Navajo medicine man, and even a visit to the Cancer Center," Wero said. But she was enthusiastic about getting out of the office and taking a walk on a beautiful summer morning to enter the plant kingdom. Calochortus, a member of the Liliaceae family, was in full bloom. This, Hogan shared, was an example of survival food. The root resembles wild garlic or onion, and bears an edible bulb. Several participants pointed out that a similar flower grows in their yards on the reservation, but they are yellow. Hogan said that the plants were indeed from the same family, but that some plants in the lily family are poisonous. Laughing, Hogan said that like many foods she would classify as "survival" food, the bulb of the Calochortus, or Mariposa Lily, might not suit the modern palate. As Hogan, Wero, and other participants stood around a currant bush, munching on berries