From gars@speakeasy.org Wed Sep 17 00:44:22 2003 Date: 16 Sep 2003 23:31:35 -0000 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews11.038 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 11, ISSUE 038 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 September 20, 2003 Passamaquoddy Toqakiw/autumn moon Zuni Li'dekwakkwya ts'ana/moon when everything ripens +-------------------------------------------------------+ | 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; Frostys AmerIndian, Dakota_Lakota_Nakota_Advocacy and ndn-aim Mailing Lists; UUCP email IMPORTANT!! ----------- In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, all material appearing in this newsletter is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for educational purposes. <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is a way of keeping the brothers and sisters who share our Spirit informed about current events within the lives of those who walk the Red Road. ++ It may be subscribed to via email by sending a request from your own internet addressable account to gars@speakeasy.org ++ It is archived at http://www.nanews.org <================<<<< >>>>================> +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | As historian Patricia Nelson | | Once a language is lost, it is | | Limerick summarized in "The | | gone forever | | Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken | | * Of the 300 original Native | | Past of the American West... | | languages in North America, | | "Set the blood quantum at | | only 175 exist today. | | one-quarter, hold to it as a | | * 125 of these are no longer | | rigid definition of Indians, | | learned by children. | | let intermarriage proceed as | | * 55 are spoken by 1 to 6 elders;| | it had for centuries, and | | when they die, their language | | eventually Indians will be | | will disappear. | | defined out of existence." | | * Without action, only 20 | | "When that happens, the federal | | languages will survive the next| | government will be freed of | | 50 years. | | its persistent 'Indian problem.'"| | Source: Indigenous Language | +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ | Institute | |http://www.indigenous-language.org| This issue's Elder Quote: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + ======================== "I am here by the will of the Great Spirit, and by his will I am chief." "He put in your heart certain wishes and plans; in my heart, he put other different desires." __ 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! The Bush Administration environmental policy is disgusting and indefensible at best, and borders on criminal. The Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton, is nothing more than a figurehead shill for industrial wastrells. The assault on the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge has resumed. The forest industry is now advocating a policy of deforestation that Bush and Norton have embraced. This week, the Bush administration reversed a stance in support of the Miccosukee and now wishes to permit damaging phosphate dumping in the Everglades. These are only a few examples. The list of this Administration's willingness to trade natural resources for votes and monetary support to the detriment of future generations is long and downright shameful. I don't oppose wise usage of resources and I am not a tree-hugging environmentalist, but the time has come for any right-thinking citizen to say, "No! Stripping every available resource is unacceptable!" I try to avoid political stances in this column, but I ask every reader to check out, and consider signing the petition, as I have, at the following website: http://www.saynotonorton.org/ ================== PETITION INFO =================== The intro and petition read as follows: As Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton is allowing big corporations and industry insiders to determine government policies that will seriously weaken implementation of our nation's environmental laws -- putting imperiled wildlife and habitat at greater risk. She has purposely kept a low-profile while accumulating an environmental record that will be the worst in history for her position. That is why Defenders of Wildlife is calling on President Bush to replace Gale Norton as Secretary of the Interior with someone who will protect our public lands and wildlife. Please support our STOP NORTON NOW! campaign by adding your name to our petition and let President Bush know that Americans disapprove of Gale Norton's destructive agenda. URGENT PETITION TO PRESIDENT BUSH ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear President Bush, Along with hundreds of thousands of other citizens across the country, I am extremely concerned about the reckless actions of Interior Secretary Gale Norton. She is abusing her position as Interior Secretary and putting precious imperiled wildlife at greater risk. America's last remaining wild lands are quickly vanishing, and we urgently need a steward who will passionately implement and enforce laws protecting those places and the innocent wildlife that depend on them. Instead, Gale Norton is determined to undermine existing environmental laws and neglect sound science to help her friends in industry make more profits. Time and time again, Gale Norton has demonstrated that protecting habitat and wildlife for future generations of Americans is not part of her agenda as Interior Secretary. I hope you don't agree with her outrageous disregard for America's natural heritage. Gale Norton has brought dishonor to her position as protector of America's wild lands and wildlife, and again and again she has violated the public trust. I implore you to ask for her resignation immediately, and to replace her with someone whom we can trust in this. Respectfully submitted, ================ RELATED ARTICLE ================= Norton vs the Environment The Secretary of the Interior has proven she is more loyal to Big Industry than to the wildlife and public lands she is required to protect by Jeff Woods The oil, gas, mining and timber industries cheered loudly when Gale Norton was named Secretary of the Interior. "She's a fantastic choice," gushed Jack Ekstrom, director of governmental and industry affairs at the Denver- based Forest Oil Corporation. They had good reason to celebrate. Norton, who now has logged 16 months as the chief steward of about 500 million acres, or one sixth of the nation's land, is compiling a record as perhaps the most anti-environmental Interior Secretary in history -- even worse, perhaps, than notorious Reagan Interior Secretary James Watt, who resigned from his post after trying to cede public lands to special interests and losing the confidence of the American people. As Interior Secretary, Norton can do more to hurt or help America's wildlife and public lands than any other American. She is responsible for the national parks, the national wildlife refuges and the public rangeland. She controls numerous federal agencies -- including the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Office of Surface Mining, and she oversees enforcement of the Endangered Species Act and other major environmental laws. Norton has run roughshod over public lands under the guise of "moving from conflict to cooperation" with industry. But conservationists say her responsibility as Interior Secretary requires her to defend natural resources from huge companies seeking quick profits at the expense of those resources. "Gale Norton is the greatest threat to America's wildlife and natural heritage today," Defenders of Wildlife President Rodger Schlickeisen says. "Our last remaining wild land is quickly vanishing, and we desperately need a steward who will passionately implement and enforce laws protecting those places and the wildlife that depends on them for survival. Instead, our Interior Secretary is determined to undermine those laws for her friends in industry." Norton is an ideological extremist who worked for two decades to dismantle the very laws the Interior Department is sworn to uphold. Before becoming Interior Secretary, she espoused the "right to pollute" and other extreme positions, including support of laws allowing polluters to police themselves. As Colorado attorney general, she was hostile to environmental protection and took a head-in-the-sand approach to polluters. She stood by, for instance, as cyanide leaks from the Summitville gold mine killed wildlife in 17 miles of the Alamosa River. As a lawyer, she represented the oil industry, loggers and miners. She was a senior attorney at the arch-conservative Mountain States Legal Foundation under its founder, the bombastic Watt. Environmentalists warned against Norton from the day she was nominated to the Bush Cabinet. Defenders of Wildlife helped lead the fight against her nomination and supporters sent 100,000 e-mails to senators urging her defeat. The effort to derail her confirmation failed after Norton assured the U.S. Senate that she would uphold environmental law and renounced the controversial positions she espoused throughout her prior career. She has not lived up to those promises. So far, Norton has managed to operate mostly under the radar screen of public scrutiny. That's because many of the harms she has committed so far have been a result of her refusing to act. For example, she has dragged her heels on listing many vanishing wildlife species as endangered, pushing them closer to extinction. Wildlife that's already protected under the Endangered Species Act is losing critical habitat because Norton is refusing to fight lawsuits by homebuilders and others bent on unbridled development. She has politicized the Interior Department by filling numerous key positions with executives and lobbyists from resource-extracting industries. Together, they have moved briskly to open more fragile public lands to oil and gas drilling, mining and off-road vehicles - sometimes even refusing to conduct environmental reviews mandated by federal law. Government scientists who object have been silenced or ignored. James Watt was outspokenly anti-environment and proud of it. With his self-righteous proclamations, he inflamed the public against him. Norton is Madison Avenue smooth, appearing frequently for photos at scenic locales to declare her passion for conservation while working quietly at the same time to exploit our pristine wild places for her friends in industry. As Schlickeisen said, "She has proven that she is no James Watt. She's worse. And unlike Watt, she's getting away with it." , , Gary Smith Night Owl gars@nanews.org (*,*) P. O. Box 672168 gars@speakeasy.org (`-') Marietta, GA 30008, U.S.A. http://www.nanews.org ===w=w=== ========================================== A recent article in The New Mexican underscores this administration's determination to exploit every possible natural resource this country may offer -- and it seems particularly determined to encroach upon the sites Native Americans hold sacred. After fighting off coal interests that almost certainly would have desecrated (if not outrightly destroyed) Zuni Salt Lake, the Zuni Pueblo and other local tribes are facing yet another assault, this time from an (unnamed) gas and oil developer seeking leases of that same site and other land in the area for oil and gas production. The Bureau of Land Management at first says it is "considering" the request, but later in the same article, says it INTENDS to GRANT this request in its October auction. An official with the BLM cautions that just because the company has a lease does not mean it will be necessarily permitted to drill. My contention is that this lease is a foot in the door, and once that foot is in, the leg will follow -- and once the land is already despoiled -- why not allow that coal company back in to finish off the job? So the Zuni hold this lake sacred? So what? It actually probably makes it a more desirable target. Like the Sweetgrass Hills and Weatherman's Draw, and the Canyon of the Ancients -- why not destroy our Native sacred areas? What does this mean to those who despise our traditions and wish to destroy them other than a double opportunity to accomplish that end while lining their pockets? A final note: An audit of lease fees showed that Indian landowners were consistently paid only a fraction of what white landowners received for use of their land or exploitation of their resources. That is yet another reason for resource-exploiting companies to seek opportunities on our land. They can get even richer by saving the cost of actually paying a fair price for stripping the land of its value. ================ RELATED ARTICLE ================= Another Battle Looms Over Zuni Salt Lake By BEN NEARY | The New Mexican - Saturday, September 13, 2003 Battles over development near a lake sacred to Zuni Pueblo might not be over yet. Just a month after an Arizona utility company abandoned a controversial plan to develop a coal strip mine near the lake, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is considering leasing a portion of the proposed mine site and other land in the area for oil and gas production. Environmental groups that fought the strip-mine proposal call the prospect of oil and gas production in the area an outrage. They say the federal government should place the area off-limits to development. Gary Stephens, geologist with the BLM in Santa Fe, said Friday that his agency recently received a request from an energy company to hold an auction for the right to develop oil and gas on 117,000 acres of federal land in Catron and Cibola counties. Stephens declined to name the energy company, saying that federal regulations require confidentiality. "That's held confidential until the day of the sale," Stephens said. In response to the company's request that the oil and gas rights be placed at auction, Stephens said the BLM intends to offer 10-year leases for oil and gas on the land at its quarterly auction Oct. 22. Even if a company secures leases for oil and gas for the land, Stephens said the federal government would still require the company to secure drilling permits before any disturbance would be allowed at the site. "Just because we approve a permit for them doesn't mean they can go out and start drilling," Stephens said. Salt River Project, an Arizona utility company, announced last month that it was abandoning its plan to develop an 18,000-acre strip mine in the area, on the border between Cibola and Catron counties, south of Grants. Although Salt River Project said it decided against proceeding with the mine because it had located cheaper coal elsewhere, the company's announcement followed bitter opposition from Zuni Pueblo and other area Indian tribes who contended its proposal threatened the nearby Zuni Salt Lake. The lake is sacred to several southwestern Indian tribes. Early this summer, New Mexico's congressional delegation expressed concern that any mining at the site not be allowed to harm the production of brine at the lake. David Cunningham, lawyer for Zuni Pueblo, said Friday the pueblo will monitor any proposal for oil and gas development in the area closely. "Obviously, if what is planned will affect the water, or the Zuni Salt Lake, or the archaeological or the traditional cultural properties of Zuni, these people can expect a lot of resistance from Zuni and the surrounding Indian nations," Cunningham said. Officials with Salt River Project in Phoenix said Friday their company has nothing to do with any oil and gas development plans in the area. Before Salt River Project abandoned its mine project, opponents had formed a group called the Zuni Salt Lake Coalition to oppose it. The Center for Biological Diversity, an Arizona-based environmental group that commonly sues the federal government over endangered-species issues, is a coalition member. Brian Segee, Southwest public-lands director with the center, said Friday that oil and gas leasing near the lake could permit development of coal-bed methane, a type of natural gas. Such gas production commonly requires extensive pumping of groundwater. "Obviously, it's raising a lot of red flags," Segee said of the upcoming lease auction. "Because it will be pumping from the same aquifers that have already been shown as being connected to Zuni Salt Lake. "The fact that this proposal has come out so soon after SRP withdrawing from the coal mine really underscores the need for permanent protection for this area," Segee said. Carolyn Johnson, director of the Citizens Coal Council in Colorado, said Friday she has discussed the lease proposal with Stephens of the BLM and believes it endangers the Zuni Salt Lake and surrounding area. "It should be, I think, very clear that this area needs permanent protection," Johnson said. Even if the area around the lake proves unviable for production of oil or gas, she said, mere exploration would damage the area. There's not much oil or gas production in the area, Stephens said. Coal in the area being considered for Salt River Project's strip mine couldn't produce much coal-bed methane because the coal is too shallow, he said, but that wouldn't necessarily stop a company from exploring the area. +/// Janet Smith owlstar@speakeasy.org /*/+ P. O. Box 672168 OwlStar Trading Post + / * Marietta, GA 30008, U.S.A. http://www.owlstar.com * + Dohiyi Ani Oginalii , , Gary Smith Night Owl gars@nanews.org (*,*) P. O. Box 672168 gars@speakeasy.org (`-') Marietta, GA 30008, U.S.A. http://www.nanews.org ===w=w=== ----------- News of the people featured in this issue ---------- - White House renews call - Biography: BIA nominee to open ANWR 'Famous' Dave Anderson - KRISTOF: - Alaska Supreme Court Casting a Cold Eye on Arctic Oil considers Native Sovereignty - Blackfeet Treasurer - Purge of AFN Land Rights squelches Layoff Talk and Parliamentary Staff - Fort Benton and Blackfeet reunite - Inquest into death - Flathead Rangeland closures end of Native teen opens - N.M. Tribe weighs Lawsuit - Stonechild Social Worker for damage to Lake says she was Silenced - Bush brief backs Agency - Suspected Officers listen over Miccosukee Tribe as Friend Testifies - Attorneys appeal - Eastern Cherokee Police Norton Contempt Ruling to pay $200K for Death - Appeals Court - Federal Death Sentence blocks Norton's Appeal imposed in 2 Murders - Definition of Native American - Janklow's Accident at stake - Trial for Man charged - Utah lags in educating Indians with Aquash Murder delayed - Ute Tribe awarded - Native Prisoner $2.3 Million Contract -- Peltier's Parole Hearing - Swinomish may sue over Tide Gates - History: Carlisle Indian School - Indian Pleadings - Rustywire: The Cornfield posted at NARF Website - Poem: Gift of Sacrifice - White House acts to fill - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days top BIA Leadership Post - Specials This Week on APTN - This Week on AIROS --------- "RE: White House renews call to open ANWR" --------- Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2003 08:10:37 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="EXPLOIT ANWR" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/11/politics/11ENER.html White House Backs Most Items in Emerging Energy Package By CARL HULSE September 11, 2003 WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 - The Bush administration today endorsed the bulk of the provisions being considered by House and Senate negotiators as part of a new energy policy and renewed its call to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. "The administration believes Congress should look at the facts, not the rhetoric, concerning the nation's best onshore prospect for oil, a small part of the coastal plain of A.N.W.R.," Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham wrote in a letter to Congress spelling out the White House position on the emerging energy bill. The oil drilling plan, which is in the House version of the bill but not the Senate's, faces strong opposition. At least 43 senators have signed new letters circulating on Capitol Hill opposing the drilling plan. One letter, written by Senators Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin, both Democrats, said that adding the drilling plan to the final bill would "seriously derail" efforts to pass a broad bill. Senator Pete V. Domenici, the New Mexico Republican who is chairman of the House-Senate negotiations on the energy measure, has said he will include the oil drilling plan only if he is assured that he has the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. The number of senators signing the letters show that Mr. Domenici does not yet have that level of support. Representative Richard W. Pombo, Republican of California, the chairman of the House Resources Committee, said today that it would be "wholly irresponsible" not to tap the oil reserves, given the state of the economy. The letter from Mr. Abraham said the administration "strongly supports" provisions being considered to improve the nation's power grid in the aftermath of the blackout, including "mandatory and enforceable" reliability rules. It said the White House backed only voluntary membership in regional transmission organizations that some say would help avoid blackouts. The White House said it was opposed to provisions that would require utilities to use a set amount of renewable fuel sources, saying those standards were best left to states. The administration also rejected Senate provisions on global warming, saying they were inconsistent with the president's strategy on the issue. The White House called on Congress to hold tax incentives in the measure to about $8 billion and raised objections to price supports for a proposed natural gas pipeline from Alaska, though it endorsed loan guarantees for the project. "This comprehensive energy bill should reduce our reliance on foreign sources of energy, protect the environment, increase conservation, improve energy efficiency and expand the use of new technologies and renewable energy sources," the letter from Mr. Abraham said. Copyright c. 2003 The New York Times Company. --------- "RE: KRISTOF: Casting a Cold Eye on Arctic Oil" --------- Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2003 08:10:37 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NO TO ANWR DRILLING" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/10/opinion/10KRIS.htm Casting a Cold Eye on Arctic Oil By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF September 10, 2003 ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Alaska - Here's a helpful hint for backpackers here in the Arctic: If you're lying in your sleeping bag and suddenly feel a pat on the behind from outside the tent, YELL! Several campers have been subjected to this kind of sexual harassment lately, and when they opened their tent flaps, they found polar bears grinning at them. This refuge is, after all, a bit like a wildlife safari in reverse - curious animals have the opportunity to gawk at humans. After rafting and backpacking through this wilderness for a week, weighing whether Congress should allow oil drilling here, I've reached a few conclusions. One is that both the oil industry and environmentalists exaggerate their cases. For starters, no one has any idea how much oil is here, and we will never know unless it is explored. There has been limited exploration and test drilling in Eskimo-controlled lands in the refuge, but those results have been kept secret. Environmentalists say contemptuously that there's only a six-month supply, while Big Oil speaks of a 25-year spigot - and they're both talking through their hats. Estimates range from 3.2 billion barrels (which would supply all U.S. needs for six months) to 16 billion barrels, but these are all wild guesses. The top end of the range would be very significant, coming close to doubling America's proven petroleum reserves of 22 billion barrels, but there is some reason to be skeptical of the higher estimates - particularly because the oil here may not be economical to extract. One clue, for example, is that the Badami oil field, almost adjacent to the Arctic refuge, is now being mothballed because it was producing only 1, 300 barrels a day instead of the 30,000 expected. Arctic oil can be chimerical, and it would be tragic to sacrifice this wilderness for a series of dry wells. It is true that oil drilling would not ravage the entire refuge. Only the coastal plain, 7 percent of the total area, would be open to drilling. The coastal plain is endless brown tundra, speckled with ponds and lakes, boggy and squishy to hike in. It is by far the least scenic part of the refuge, and if one has to drill somewhere in the area, this is the place to do it. It's also only fair to give special weight to the views of the only people who live in the coastal plain: the Inupiat Eskimos, who overwhelmingly favor drilling (they are poor now, and oil could make them millionaires). One of the Eskimos, Bert Akootchook, angrily told me that if environmentalists were so anxious about the Arctic, they should come here and clean up the petroleum that naturally seeps to the surface of the tundra. Yet drilling proponents who dismiss the coastal plain as a wasteland - Alaska's governor, Frank Murkowski, has likened it to a sheet of white paper - are talking drivel. They should have been with me as I sleepily opened the tent flap early one morning to see a herd of caribou outside, or beheld the polar bears swimming along the coast, or admired a huge grizzly as it considered dining on nearby musk oxen. Drilling supporters also grossly understate the impact of drilling when they speak of only a 2,000-acre "footprint" in the Arctic. The reality is that oil would mean roads, lodgings, pipelines, security fences, guard stations and airstrips - and my children would never be able to experience the Arctic as I have. True, we need to get our oil from somewhere, and Americans are dying now in Iraq because of our dependence on foreign oil. So I would endorse drilling in the Arctic refuge if it were part of a mega-environmental package that also addressed global warming, an environmental challenge where we have even more at stake than in the Arctic. Daniel Esty, a Yale scholar of the environment, proposes such a deal - with trepidation - in the interest of breaking the national deadlock on environmental policy. The package could include careful oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (exploratory drilling could be done in winter without permanent damage) and, if it turned out to be the oil lake that proponents claim, commercial drilling as well. In exchange, the right would accept a beyond-Kyoto framework to control carbon emissions, with tighter standards but a longer time frame. The deal would include $1 billion in additional financing for solar, wind and hydrogen energy, and significant increases in vehicle mileage standards to promote conservation. Yet President Bush's push to open the Arctic refuge is not part of such a bold and thoughtful package to break the stalemate on the environment. Rather it is simply a lunge for oil. Without trying to conserve oil, Mr. Bush would gobble up a national treasure, the birthright of our descendants, as a first resort. The argument that I find most compelling is that this primordial wilderness, a part of our national inheritance that is roughly the same as it was a thousand years ago, would be irretrievably lost if we drilled. The Bush administration's proposal to drill is therefore not just bad policy but also shameful, for it would casually rob our descendants forever of the chance to savor this magical coastal plain - and to be slapped in the butt by a frisky polar bear. Copyright c. 2003 The New York Times Company. --------- "RE: Blackfeet Treasurer squelches Layoff Talk" --------- Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2003 08:12:12 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FISCAL SHORTFALL" http://www.greatfallstribune.com/~/20030912/localnews/243485.html Blackfeet treasurer squelches layoff talk September 12, 2003 By KATHLEEN A. SCHULTZ Tribune Staff Writer Bounced paychecks to some Blackfeet tribal employees this week have fueled rumors of tribal insolvency and impending layoffs. The rumors aren't true, Blackfeet tribal Treasurer Joe Gervais said Thursday, blaming the rubber checks on the tribal government's temporary end-of-the-fiscal year empty pockets. The tribe's fiscal year runs from October to the end of September. "We're not broke. We had a cash flow problem Monday, it's been resolved, and the council hasn't taken action to lay anyone off," Gervais said. Because the tribe owns Blackfeet National Bank, the bank on which the paychecks were drawn, they could not be cashed until funds were back in place, he said. He declined to say how much money the tribe had to come up with to offset the shortfall, or from where the money came. But anyone whose checks have bounced should resubmit them, Gervais said, and they will be covered. Rick Billman, owner of Billman's Inc. building supply store in Cut Bank, said he's gotten a lot of calls from people asking if he's having problems getting payments from the tribe, but he's not. "So far, nothing," Billman said, adding that, as of Thursday, no checks to his company have bounced. "And we do a lot of business with the tribe." Byron Kluth, manager of First State Bank in Shelby, said his branch did see about four paychecks bounce on Sept. 4, but to his knowledge, all have since been paid. Copyright c. 2003 Great Falls Tribune. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Fort Benton and Blackfeet reunite" --------- Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 08:10:49 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FUR TRADE" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.greatfallstribune.com/~/20030914/localnews/259795.html Fort Benton, Blackfeet reunite to tell history of fur trade By KAREN OGDEN Tribune Regional Editor September 14, 2003 FORT BENTON - The farm town of Fort Benton and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation are 80 miles apart as the crow flies, but they have very little economic connection in today's Montana. But 156 years ago, their economies were bound together when the American Fur Co. opened the Fort Benton trading post to buy buffalo robes from the Blackfeet. The fort's blockhouse still stands in a park in the heart of the riverside town. Next weekend the two communities will make history together again as they time travel to the era of mountain men and trade beads and buffalo at the four-day Fur Trade Symposium in Fort Benton. "Most people in Fort Benton are aware that we're an old town and there's a lot of history there," said Sharalee Smith, a member of the town's Fort Restoration Committee. "But I don't know that they're aware as to the partnership the two races had back then." The Blackfeet Tribe's prominence in the event - from a living history Indian camp to a presentation on Blackfeet language - demonstrates a growing Native American voice in the retelling of Montana's history, organizers from Fort Benton and the reservation said. "We're really invited in as partners," said Darrell Kipp, director of the Piegan Institute, a Browning-based cultural preservation center. "I'm happy to report that we're not an afterthought." At least 180 history buffs will be in town for historic tours and academic lectures on the fur trade era. Speakers will include university professors, museum curators, Blackfeet tribal members and even an expert on Plains Indian material culture from England. Held in a different town every three years by history enthusiasts, the symposium is open only to paid registrants. But a re-enactment Saturday of the opening of trade at the fort - complete with cannon fire, horses and grog - will give the public a good dose of fur trade fever. "It'll be a colorful deal," said Fort Benton historian Bob Doerk, one of the symposium's lead organizers. International trade The ceremony was no less colorful back in the 1840s and '50s, when the Blackfeet met white traders at the fort's gates. Both parties dressed in their finest. This was sophisticated business, and each side was out to impress the other. Though in later years, whiskey traders brought the scourge of alcohol to the Blackfeet, the early days of the fur trade were prosperous and equitable. "It was really an entrepreneurial relationship where the traders knew they had to provide a fair exchange or they wouldn't make any money," Kipp said. Long before the World Trade Organization, the fur traders brought the Blackfeet goods from around the globe. The traders offered utilitarian items such as British-made guns and finer goods including Italian glass beads or vermilion, a scarlet pigment from China prized among the Indians as war paint. Sold in a paper package the size of a bar of hotel soap, the pigment sold for $5 to $6 a pound on the Chinese market, a handsome price in those days, said Jim Hanson, curator of the Museum of the Fur Trade in Chadron, Neb., and a lecturer at the symposium. At first, trappers were after beaver pelts to sell for fashionable top hats back East and in Europe "(The traders') sole purpose was to develop customers, and they operated just like Wal-Mart and the rest of them," Kipp said. "They gave you a lot of credit and brought you a lot of nice things and tried to get you to come back the next year." In fact, the fur trade helped build some modern companies. Trade blankets made by the Hudson Bay Co., now a Canadian department store chain, still are prized gifts at powwow ceremonies. The DuPont Co. of Wilmington, Del., today one of the world's leading chemistry companies, made gunpowder that was sold to the Blackfeet, Hanson said. "The Indians were very careful about what they chose," he said. "The traders had to supply just what the Indian wanted, and the trader gathered those goods from around the world." The first anthropologists Like modern-day companies, the fur traders did market research. "Companies would send their more adventurous types out first and they would spend a winter with the tribes and learn to speak their language, and they knew where the tribes were going to be at," Kipp said. The traders were known to Great Plains tribes long before Lewis and Clark passed through in 1805. "Not only did (the traders) set up trade agreements with the Native Americans, but in many cases they recorded language," Kipp said. "They took extensive field notes, so in many ways they were the earliest visiting anthropologists." The Blackfeet first encountered a Hudson Bay Co. trader in the 1750s in what is now Canada, Kipp said. The traders also mapped some of the plains along the Missouri River before Lewis and Clark's journey. When the expedition arrived at the Mandan villages in North Dakota, fur traders already were there, Hanson said. "Lewis and Clark merely proved to the fur traders in St. Louis that yes, you can go across the Rockies," Hanson said. Lewis and Clark's journals remain an important source for modern historians. But today's tribes are writing and telling their history in their own words. "There's a total renaissance right now among the Blackfeet Tribe in studying their own history and beginning to recount their own historical analysis," Kipp said. When Lewis and Clark Bicentennial events began in 2000, "most of the presentation then reflected almost exclusively the view of Lewis and Clark and primarily through their journals, and little attention was given to the Native American side," Kipp said. "Indian people wanted nothing to do with it." But organizers have since made a genuine effort to include the Indian side of the story, both for Lewis and Clark events and other activities such as Fort Benton's symposium, Kipp said. A meeting of the Montana Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission in Lewistown next month is titled "Many Nations - One Land." "Once (Indians) realized they were not brought in as token presenters or sideshows or sidebars they began to realize their scholarship and presentations were respected equally with others," he said. Prosperous times Although the Indian side of the fur trade story ends badly, the fur traders initially improved the Blackfeet's lot with metal cooking pots and knives, firearms and "a whole range of things that simply made life easier for them," Kipp said. The Blackfeet at first kept non-Indian trappers out of their territory, Doerk said. But in 1831 they allowed the American Fur Co. to build a trading post at Fort Piegan on the north bank of the Missouri River on the neck of land between the Missouri and Marias rivers. The company moved its post several times, finally opening Fort Benton in 1847. Its main currency was the buffalo robe. By the late 1830s beaver fur hats had fallen out of fashion in Europe, replaced by silk. Buffalo robes were popular as carriage blankets and the tough hide was used for belts in East Coast textile mills, Doerk said. At the height of the buffalo robe trade in the 1840s and '50s more than 100,000 buffalo robes a year were sent down the Missouri, Hanson said. Smallpox and bloodshed But the prosperous times were not to last for the Blackfeet. Smallpox ravaged the tribe while population pressure from the gold rush and displaced Civil War veterans strained relations with whites. In Fort Benton, Blackfeet were shot on the street in the light of day and tossed in the river, Doerk said. "The other thing that came to a screeching halt was there weren't any more buffalo and one day the Indians found themselves hungry," Hanson said. The only survivor Fort Benton was sold to the military in 1865. In his book "Montana: An Uncommon Land," the late historian and University of Montana professor K. Ross Toole notes that of 11 American Fur Co. posts established in Montana, Fort Benton was the only one to survive the end of trade and to establish a permanent community. Though the Blackfeet now are separated from Fort Benton by decades of subsequent history, the communities' shared history will come back to life next weekend. "Native American history is absolutely intertwined with American history," Kipp said. "You can't separate them. They have to be presented as one entity." Copyright c. 2003 Great Falls Tribune. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Flathead Rangeland closures end" --------- Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 08:46:13 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FOREST/RANGE REOPENED" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2003/09/10/news/mtregional/news08.txt Reservation closures end today By JOHN STROMNES of the Missoulian September 10, 2003 PABLO - Effective Wednesday, the general rangeland and forest closure of tribal lands on the Flathead Reservation has been canceled, officials of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes announced. The Tribal Council took the action Tuesday morning rescinding the general reservation-wide closure of tribal lands imposed July 31, said Germaine White, information and education specialist with the tribal government in Polson. Stage II fire restrictions will remain in effect until there is a significant long-term change in fire danger. Tony Harwood, tribal fire management officer, urged residents and visitors to exercise caution while hunting, working or recreating outdoors. Stage II fire restrictions prohibit campfires; smoking, except within an enclosed vehicle or building, a developed recreation site or while stopped in an approved, cleared area; and operating motorized vehicles off designated roads and trails. "Hoot-owl" restrictions, in effect from 1 p.m. to 1 a.m. each day, prohibit blasting, welding activities and most logging activities, including firewood cutting. Reporter John Stromnes can be reached at 1-800-366-7816 or at jstromnes@missoulian.com Copyright c. 2003 Missoulian. --------- "RE: N.M. Tribe weighs Lawsuit for damage to Lake" --------- Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2003 08:10:37 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NAMBE'" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.sfnewmexican.com/print.asp?ArticleID=32463 Study: Fire Caused Long-Term Damage to Nambe' Lake By MARISSA STONE | The New Mexican Wednesday, September 10, 2003 A hydrologist hired to assess damages to Nambe' reservoir caused by the Molina Complex Fire said sediment from the blaze has shortened the life of the man-made lake. Nambe' reservoir, which was designed to last about 100 years, now has a lot of dead storage space because an Aug. 10 flash flood washed dirt and other sediment that collected at the bottom, said Laurel Lacher, a hydrologist hired by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. "The long-term impact to the reservoir is worse than expected," she said. For the lake to regain some of its life, it would have to be dredged, Lacher said. The BIA is completing the assessment of damages at the pueblo's recreation area to determine if it will be eligible for the federal Burn Area Emergency Response funding, which will be awarded if the tribal members' life and livelihood were affected by the fire. Only $2 million remains in that fund this year, and it must be shared by all tribes, said Ed Wallhagen, BAER coordinator with the BIA's Southwest regional office. The tribe's attorney is conducting a review of the damages to determine if the pueblo will file a tort claim notice against the U.S. Forest Service, said Nambe Gov. Tom Talache. A tort claim notice puts a government agency on notice that a lawsuit could follow. "I don't know if the BIA is going to have enough money to cover the damages," Talache said. The BIA hired Lacher to complete an independent study of the area because Nambe' Pueblo officials were dissatisfied with a recent assessment the U.S. Forest Service conducted of the burn site. The Forest Service determined the pueblo should receive $60,000 for overall damages from the fire, said Nambe' Pueblo Lt. Gov. Shannon McKenna. Some officials criticized the Forest Service for not fighting the fire aggressively from the start.^G The lightning-sparked fire began June 23 in the Pecos Wilderness and burned 7,240 acres, including 264 acres of pueblo lands. Lacher's assessment also will include BIA reports on whether the quality of pueblo's 38-square-mile watershed and drinking water were damaged by the fire. However, that report is not complete yet, Lacher said. Nambe' Pueblo's governor and lieutenant governor said in July that the tribe lost 53 percent of the income it normally receives from its recreation area. People hike, fish and camp at the lake. Nambe' Pueblo Lt. Gov. Shannon McKenna has said the tribe makes its yearly income from the recreational area during June, July and August. Nambe' Lake has been closed since the fire and the pueblo has been holding concerts and other events at the falls to try to recover some of the lost revenues, Talache said. After the fire, hundreds of trout began dying in the Nambe' Lake because carbon and other organic matter from the fire washed into the lake and choked the oxygen source of the fish, said Steve Romero, Nambe' Pueblo's environmental director. Between Aug. 29 and Sept. 3, Romero, Matthew Gutierrez and Joe Garcia, members of the tribe's environmental department, along with an employee of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, counted 300 dead rainbow trout and sunfish along a 100-yard stretch of the Rio Nambe', said Chris Kitcheyan, a fish biologist with the service. But the men also found hundreds of living fish in other sections of the river, where dissolved oxygen that fish need to survive was more plentiful, Kitcheyan said. In the lake, where dissolved oxygen levels were low, more dead fish were found, Kitcheyan said. The group conducted a study of the fish in the area to determine the impacts of the fire. "We've been told (by biologists) it will be years before the fish population is back to the way it was before the fire," Romero said. Although the tribe stocks the lake with rainbow trout, those fish breed with cutthroat trout that are already in the lake, Romero said. Copyright c. 2003 The Santa Fe New Mexican, Inc. --------- "RE: Bush brief backs Agency over Miccosukee Tribe" --------- Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2003 08:10:37 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="REVERSAL OF STANCE" http://www.indianz.com/News/archives/001392.asp Bush brief backs Fla. agency over Miccosukee Tribe Thursday, September 11, 2003 The Bush administration asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to overturn a victory the Miccosukee Tribe obtained as part of the $8 billion battle to clean up the Florida Everglades. In May, the Department of Justice sided with the tribe in urging the justices not to take the case. At the time, Solicitor General Ted Olson, who handled President Bush's Florida election appeal, said in a brief that the matter was not of national significance and didn't create a conflict among the lower courts. But now that the nation's high court has agreed to hear the dispute, Olson and other government lawyers have shifted their stance. They are not supporting the tribe's bid to stop water containing high levels of phosphorous, a dangerous pollutant, from being pumped into the Everglades. "The Bush administration's approach would allow phosphorous pollution to poison the Everglades," said Nancy Stoner, director of the Clean Water Project at Natural Resources Defense Council in response to the brief. "[Gov.] Jeb Bush should call his brother and tell him this idea is as bad as drilling for oil off the coast of Florida." At issue is a pumping station operated by the South Florida Water Management District, a state agency. The station discharges polluted water directly into the Miccosukee's homelands. The tribe and a coalition of environmental groups contend that the activity violates the federal Clean Water Act. They want the district to seek a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency, a process that would allow for greater tribal and public input. The district, in a brief submitted on Tuesday, stood firm in its opposition to the permit issue. The managers argue that they are not generating new pollution that would trigger the Clean Water Act. That point is crucial to the government's stance in the case. Olson's brief supports the view that the pumping station itself doesn't add pollutants to the water. The pumping station "water contains, however, higher levels of phosphorus than the waters in" the Everglades, the brief admits. And in a position somewhat contrary to the May brief, Olson argues that the U.S. has a "substantial interest" in the case due to the $8 billion Everglades cleanup. The Bush administration, Secretary of Interior Gale Norton and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are big backers of the plan. In a separate case, the tribe has challenged how the plan was developed. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the tribe's favor last September and said there wasn't enough tribal or public consultation. The tribe and the environmental groups have not yet submitted their final arguments in South Florida Water Management District v. Miccosukee Tribe, No. 02-626. The brief is due by November 14. Copyright c. 2000-2003 Indianz.Com, a product of Noble Savage Media, LLC and Ho-Chunk, Inc. --------- "RE: Attorneys appeal Norton Contempt Ruling" --------- Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2003 08:11:38 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DoI CONTEMPT" http://www.indianz.com/ http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/breaking_news/6676135.htm Attorneys Appeal Norton Contempt Ruling ROBERT GEHRKE Associated Press September 3, 2003 WASHINGTON - Attorneys suing the government on behalf of hundreds of thousands of American Indians asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to reinstate a contempt of court reprimand of Interior Secretary Gale Norton. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth held Norton in civil contempt almost a year ago, ruling that her department had "committed fraud on the court" by deceiving the judge about progress toward fixing a system for managing royalties from American Indian-owned land. The Indian plaintiffs allege the government squandered billions of dollars of oil, gas, timber and grazing royalties that belonged to Indians. A three-judge appeals court panel suspended the contempt ruling in April and vacated the contempt citation in July, saying Norton should not be reprimanded for actions that occurred partly during the tenure of her predecessor, Bruce Babbitt. The panel also said Lamberth should have used the stricter standards for criminal contempt, not civil contempt, when deciding whether to sanction Norton. In their filing Tuesday, the plaintiffs' attorneys asked the full nine- member U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to overturn the three judges and to reinstate the contempt decision. They said the three judges erred in basing their decision on issues that were not raised before Lamberth and considering the cases as a matter of possible criminal contempt. The appeals court has ruled that its judges lack jurisdiction in civil contempt cases, the brief stated. "It was a device to create jurisdiction for the court of appeals where otherwise, as a matter of federal law, they had none," said Dennis Gingold, attorney for more than 300,000 American Indians in the class-action lawsuit. Dan DuBray, a spokesman for the Interior Department, said: "It is not surprising that the attorneys for the plaintiffs, after sustaining such a significant loss in front of the court of appeals would attempt to have it reversed. Not only have they had their efforts to find the secretary and others in contempt overturned, but they've had their claims for $3 million in attorneys fees also reversed." The case against the government was filed in 1996, alleging that the Interior Department mismanaged the oil, gas, mining and timber royalties for more than a century. Money was never collected, misappropriated or stolen and documents were poorly kept or destroyed. Lamberth ruled in 1999 that the department breached its duties as trustee of the money and ordered the Interior Department to piece together what is owed and repair its management of the accounts. In September 2002, he held Norton in contempt, after an extensive trial, for failing to do an accounting and concealing holes in the department's computer security from the court. She was the third Cabinet official to be held in contempt in relation to the case. Babbitt and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin were held in contempt during the Clinton administration for failing to turn over documents. The plaintiffs say $176 billion passed through the accounts, including interest, and the Indian landowners may have been cheated out of tens of billions of dollars. The department concedes the money was not properly managed but figures the amount owed probably is no more than a few million dollars. Copyright c. 2003 The Sun Herald/Gulfport MS, Knight Ridder. --------- "RE: Appeals Court blocks Norton's Appeal" --------- Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 08:46:13 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NO APPEAL" http://www.indianz.com/News/ Appeals court blocks Norton's appeal in trust case Wednesday, September 10, 2003 A federal appeals court late Tuesday dismissed the Bush administration's second round of appeals in the Indian trust fund lawsuit, cutting short some of the federal government's options in the long-running case. In a brief order, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the government's challenges with prejudice, meaning they cannot be filed again. Attorneys for Secretary of Interior Gale Norton asked to withdraw the arguments, but had wanted them preserved for a later date. A three-judge panel also ordered Norton to show cause why a personal appeal, filed by a private law firm whose fees are being reimbursed at taxpayers' expense, should not be dismissed. The court gave her 30 days to respond "in light of the fact that the Department of the Interior's interests are fully represented" by government lawyers on the federal payroll. The order, released after hours, means oral arguments that were scheduled for January 2004 are canceled. Norton was seeking to overturn two decisions from U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth that force the government to act more like a private trustee when handling funds belonging to hundreds of thousands of American Indians. Dennis Gingold, a Washington, D.C., attorney for the plaintiffs, said the move from the appeals court "reinforces the trust" by applying, to the government, what is known in trust law as a fiduciary exception. Normally, the department can cite the attorney-client privilege or the work product doctrine to keep certain matters private during litigation. But under the fiduciary exception affirmed in the case, Interior can't hide behind lawyers to keep information from Indian beneficiaries, Gingold said. "The books are wide open," he said. Gingold also said the move has implications for contempt charges that are in dispute. There are enough judges on the D.C. Circuit in disagreement about the case to warrant reconsideration of sanctions, he argued. "So we think it's a good sign," he said. In July, a three-judge panel cleared Norton and former Indian affairs aide Neal McCaleb of lying about failed efforts to reform the trust. Three Republican appointees -- Chief Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg, A. Raymond Randolph and Karen Lecraft Henderson -- handled the contempt appeal. A different panel made of two Republican appointees -- Harry T. Edwards and David B. Sentelle -- and David S. Tatel, a Democrat appointee, was set to hear the fiduciary exception appeal. Sentelle wrote the February 2001 decision that upheld Lamberth's historic ruling in the case. The split leaves just three active judges with the potential to tip the case against Norton. That can only happen if the court agrees to hear the plaintiffs' motion to rehear the contempt appeal. The court also has three senior judges who don't normally handle cases. The makeup of the D.C. Circuit has been a key battleground for the Bush administration since early 2001. Democrats blocked a Senate vote on nominee Miguel Estrada, who decided to drop out of consideration last week. Another nominee, John G. Roberts Jr., has not come up for a vote. Roberts defended the state of Alaska in the historic Venetie Supreme Court case that determined there was no Indian Country in the state. The Cobell case has been to the appeals court twice since its inception, costing taxpayers millions in the process. According to a Department of Justice disclosure, Norton's lawyer, Herbert Fenster, and his law firm were reimbursed $491,538.63 to argue on her behalf to the D.C. Circuit. Fenster's work largely consisted of a brief that was filed late and didn't play a role in the court's decision. A Department of Justice spokesperson had no immediate comment on yesterday's order, which was not faxed from the clerk's office until after 6 p.m. A message was left for a Department of Interior spokesperson. Copyright c. 2000-2003 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Definition of Native American at stake" --------- Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2003 08:10:37 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="KENNEWICK" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://wvgazette.com/section/APNews/News/ap0928n Definition of 'Native American' at stake in ancient skeleton case By WILLIAM McCALL Associated Press Writer PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - With both sides clashing over the definition of "Native American," an appeals court heard arguments Wednesday on whether a 9,300-year-old skeleton known as Kennewick Man belongs to scientists or Indian tribes. The Interior Department has been fighting with scientists over control of the bones since they were discovered in 1996 along the banks of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Wash. Anthropologists want to do research on the skeleton. But then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt ruled three years ago the bones should be handed over to the tribes for reburial. Last October, U.S. Magistrate John Jelderks overturned Babbitt and approved research on the bones. Jelderks agreed with arguments by scientists who said there was no direct link between the skeleton and modern tribes. The government and the tribes appealed, and argued their case on Wednesday before a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The definition of "Native American" is at issue because of differing interpretations of a 1990 federal law aimed at returning Indian remains to tribes and discouraging illegal trafficking in bones or artifacts taken from burial sites. The law defines Native American as someone "indigenous to the United States." Judge Susan Graber asked whether the definition could cover any bones found in North America that were so old they rivaled the age of ancient fossils. "Yes, they would be considered Native American," said Ellen Durkee, a Justice Department attorney representing the Interior Department. But Paula Barran, attorney for the scientists, argued that Congress in its definition did not intend to include people who lived that long ago. She said the law was not intended to block scientific research to determine how ancient settlers arrived in North America. Kennewick Man drew scientific interest because it is one of the oldest, most complete skeletons found in North America, with characteristics unlike modern Indians. In his ruling last October, Jelderks said the term "Native American" requires "a cultural relationship" with a modern tribe to qualify under the 1990 law. He said his review of court documents, including scientific reports, produced no evidence to support any cultural link between Kennewick Man and the Northwest tribes seeking reburial. The appeals court is not expected to rule until next year. Attorneys for both sides said they expect further appeals whatever the ruling. Copyright c. 1996-2003 The Charleston Gazette/Charleston, WV. --------- "RE: Utah lags in educating Indians" --------- Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 08:35:52 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="UTAH EDUCATION ISSUES" http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0915indianeducation-ON.html Utah lags in educating Indians, state committee says Associated Press Sept. 15, 2003 07:30 AM SALT LAKE CITY - Utah is lagging behind several other states in Indian education, a Utah American Indian/Alaska Native Education State Plan Advisory Committee report said. A group of 65 tribal leaders, tribal educators, state and federal education officials compiled the document. The committee said Utah is behind Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Montana and Minnesota, which have all mandated that their education systems change their social studies core curriculum and counseling programs. Forrest Cuch, director of the state Division of Indian Affairs, will present the plan Wednesday to the legislative education interim committee. "They don't know how to educate Indian children," Cuch said of Utah's schools. "We have generally failed our kids over the past 50 years." Cuch said the schools should include more American Indian history and show sensitivity to Indian culture. The report said that "Indian people are still suffering from and have not healed from the North American conquest, nor the violent struggle to settle Utah, predominantly by members of (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)." Cuch met Friday with Richard Kendell, deputy to Gov. Mike Leavitt for higher education, public education and economic development. "I agree that Native American kids are not being well served," Kendell said. "They drop out in disproportionate numbers, and their achievement levels in school are not very good." Cuch said Indian children are falling through the cracks in greater numbers, dropping out of school and turning to self-destructive behaviors that involve drugs and alcohol at an alarming rate. The report said a lack of "accurate and culturally relevant curriculum" perpetuates stereotypes and contributes to low self-esteem among Indian students. Copyright c. 2003 The Arizona Republic. --------- "RE: Ute Tribe awarded $2.3 Million Contract" --------- Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 08:46:13 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ANIMAS-LA PLATA CONTRACT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.daily-times.com/artman/publish/article_2600.shtml Ute tribe awarded $2.3 million contract By Laura Banish/The Daily Times Sep 10, 2003, 11:20 DURANGO, Colo. - Despite the fact that the cost of the Animas-La Plata Project has nearly doubled, the Bureau of Reclamation reported this week it will continue to move full-steam ahead with current construction plans and award contracts for work on the Ridges Basin Dam. Project Team Leader Ken Beck said he does not anticipate the $162 million cost increase to have an immediate impact on the project's construction, however the long-term goal of completing the entire dam by April 2008 may be pushed back a year or two depending on how much money Congress allocates the project in the coming years. Beck said the bureau awarded Weeminuche Construction Authority with a $2. 3 million contract Tuesday for work considered "critical" in keeping with the overall construction time line for the Animas-La Plata Project. "To date we're right on schedule," Beck said. "Completion of this contract is an important step in keeping the construction of Ridges Basin Dam on schedule." Beck said the Weeminuche contract includes key sediment retention structures on Basin Creek, excavation of the dam's right abutment above the existing stream level and construction of a ravine dam just downstream of the dam's right abutment. Also specified in the contract is installation of a construction water delivery system to the dam and reservoir site and construction of additional segments of a haul road for constructing Ridges Basin dam. Weeminuche Construction Authority is owned and operated by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. Sky Ute Sand and Gravel, owned by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, was chosen to provide some of the materials for construction. The work is anticipated to be finished by the end of September. Furthermore, Beck said the bureau has moved an enormous amount of earth since blasting activities began at the dam site in May and concrete is expected to be poured soon. Beck said this will be a "huge step" forward. Laura Banish: laurab@daily-times.com Copyright c. 2003 Farmington Daily Times, a Gannett Co., Inc. newspaper. --------- "RE: Swinomish may sue over Tide Gates" --------- Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 08:46:13 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SALMON BLOCKED" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/138875_tidegates10.html Swinomish may sue over tide gates SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF September 10, 2003 The Swinomish Tribe yesterday announced it plans to sue over the use of gates that block salmon from Skagit County estuaries. Tide gates are used largely by farmers to keep salt water out of farmland that abuts Puget Sound. The tribe notified one of the 12 Skagit County diking districts, elected bodies that regulate the use of the gates, that in 60 days it could be sued. The suit in federal court could be averted, tribal officials said, if the parties reach an agreement over the gates that are barring threatened chinook salmon from inland waterways on Fir Island. The tribe could take action under the Endangered Species Act, arguing that the barriers are harming the fish and therefore illegal. After the Columbia River, the Skagit River has the state's second- largest wild salmon runs. This year legislators approved a law supporting the use of tide gates. Copyright c. 1998-2003 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. --------- "RE: Indian Pleadings posted at NARF Website" --------- Date: Tuesday, September 02, 2003 11:51 pm From: Bill McAllister Subj: Indian Pleadings Posted at NARF Website Revised to note posting at different website, http://www.narf.org/cases/en_banc_.pdf For Immediate Release: INDIANS ASK COURT TO REINSTATE CONTEMPT FINDING AGAINST INTERIOR SECRETARY WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 - Lawyers for a group of Indians today asked the nine active judges who sit on U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to reinstate the civil contempt citations against Interior Secretary Gale Norton and her top Indian affairs aide, former assistant Interior secretary Neal McCaleb. Norton and McCaleb were found to be unfit trustee-delegates as the result of the fraud and other misconduct that U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth found they had perpetrated on his court in a lawsuit filed by the Indians. The Indians are seeking a full accounting of individual Indian trust accounts. The lawyers cited errors by the three-judge panel in seeking a review of the July 18 ruling by the full court of appeals. The panel decided that a district court ruling holding both Norton and Neal McCaleb in civil contempt had to be reversed because the sanction was a criminal proceeding, not a civil sanction. "The panel's decision misconstrues the true nature and purpose of this civil contempt proceeding in declaring it to be something it was not - a criminal contempt proceeding," noted the petition. It was filed by lawyers representing a group of Indians who have being waging a seven-year court battle to secure a full accounting of trust funds that the government has supposedly held for them in individual trust accounts. The petition to the appeal court noted that the proceeding against Norton and McCaleb was "a civil contempt proceeding in every respect." It also said that the three-ruling ruling violated a well-established rule of law in the D.C. circuit that bars an appellate panel from considering issues that had not been raised by the parties in the lower court or in their written briefs on appeal. That rule had just been reaffirmed by the appeals court in a case involving Vice President Richard Cheney 10 days before the three-judge panel disregarded it to vacate the contempt ruling against Norton and McCaleb, the petition noted. The petition also challenged the three-judge ruling on the grounds that Norton and McCaleb were being sanctioned, in part, for actions that had occurred by their predecessors. U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth made clear in his orders that the ruling applied not to the Bush administration officials as individuals but to their offices-the same admonition he used when sanctioning Clinton administration officials for contempt in the same lawsuit. Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking a full accounting of funds the government has placed in trust accounts for individual Indians, explained the rehearing request: "Without accountability, Secretary Norton will continue to breach her trust duties and will continue to engage in malfeasance. Her refusal to accept responsibility for her many failures is why a receiver must be appointed without further delay." "Integrity and competence are absolutely essential for the prudent management of the individual Indian trust. And today none exists. We hope that the full Court of Appeals will recognize the importance of Judge Lamberth's decision, join him and demand accountability from the trustee- delegates." A copy of the pleading is available at http://www.narf.org/cases/en_banc_.pdf For additional information: Bill McAllister 703-385-6996 202-257-5385 (cell) --------- "RE: White House acts to fill top BIA Leadership Post" --------- Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 08:10:49 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BIA" http://www.indianz.com/ White House acts to fill top BIA leadership post Monday, September 15, 2003 The Bush administration on Friday announced its intention to nominate David Anderson, an Ojibwe businessman, as head of the Bureau of Indian Afairs, nearly a year after his predecessor said he was leaving office due to a contentious and litigious environment. In making the announcement, officials played up Anderson's business -- rather than political -- background. A member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota, Anderson is more commonly known as "Famous Dave," after the publicly-traded chain of barbecue restaurants he founded. The company reported evenues of $90.8 million last year. The administration also said Anderson has a long history with Indian issues, noting $6 million in donations he has made to Indian causes. He was recently recognized by Oprah Winfrey's "Angel Network" for his efforts to help Native children, including the $1.4 million YouthSkills Foundation he created in 1999. But to some in Indian Country, Anderson and his achievements draw a blank. Even though his name was mentioned numerous times in recent months as the possible assistant secretary nominee, tribal leaders were hard- pressed to understand why he was even being considered. "There are some very qualified people out there," said John Gonzales, Governor of San Ildefonso Pueblo in New Mexico. "I have no idea where people like [former assistant secretary] Neal McCaleb came from or [acting BIA head] Aurene Martin or, now, David Anderson. I've been involved in Indian Country affairs for some time now and sometimes I wonder where where they find certain people to serve in these positions." Regardless of the choice, the fact that it took so long for the White House to make its move bothered tribal leaders. To leave the BIA without a leader while the agency undergoes a top-to-bottom reorganization in an attempt to fix the broken Indian trust was troublesome, they said. Trust reform was the reason Neal McCaleb, a former Oklahoma state Cabinet official, announced his resignation last November and left a month later. He was under pressure from a federal judge who labeled him and Secretary of Interior Gale Norton "unfit" to manage the money belonging to hundreds of thousands of American Indians. The case alleges that up to $176 billion in funds and interest remains unaccounted since 1887. Tex Hall, president of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), the largest inter-tribal organization, said trust will be one of the biggest challenge facing Anderson. "The weakness is that he doesn't have the experience of trust, of administering trust management and adhering to the trust responsibility," he said. But the other major issue, Hall added, is improving economic conditions for more than 2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives. "The real question is the character and the commitment and the other experiences that he would provide," Hall said. "Obviously, he's a self-made individual so economic development would be important. I would really like to ask him what his plans are [in this area]. I think Indian Country has been clamoring for economic development." In a statement, Anderson said he was "deeply honored at the prospect of being nominated as Assistant Secretary of the Interior, Indian Affairs. I welcome the opportunity to work closely with the American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments, as well as the Bureau of Indian Affairs." Anderson's "innovative leadership and dedication to constant improvement, " will be an asset to the BIA, said Norton in a statement. "His inspiring vision, proven management expertise and compassion for Indian issues will help us in our efforts to improve the quality of services we provide to Indian Country." Aurene Martin has been serving as acting assistant secretary, hand- picked by Norton. She was angling for the permanent nomination, Republican sources said, but was not among the final candidates for the job. Anderson's name still has to be submitted to the Senate for approval. The Senate Indian Affairs Committee would have to hold a confirmation hearing. Typically, a BIA nominee, regardless of party affiliation, receives unanimous support from the panel. Anderson is currently serving as chairman of the board of directors of Famous Dave's of America. In a statement, CEO David Goronkin said Anderson would step down from his capacities with the company if confirmed. Copyright c. 2000-2003 Indianz.Com More headlines... --------- "RE: Biography: BIA nominee 'Famous' Dave Anderson" --------- Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 08:10:49 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ANDERSON BIO" http://www.indianz.com/ Biography: BIA nominee 'Famous' Dave Anderson Monday, September 15, 2003 After months of waiting, the White House finally got around to picking a new assistant secretary to run the Bureau of Indian Affairs. So who is this nominee? His full name is David Wayne Anderson, age 50. Of Ojibwe and Choctaw heritage, he's a member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Lake Superior Band of Ojibwe in Wisconsin. He's married, to Kathryn, and they reside in Edina, Minnesota. He is a graduate of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, where he received a master's degree in public administration in 1986. Anderson is a household name is some circles and his face can be seen in some supermarket aisles. All because of Famous Dave's Barbeque, a restaurant he started in 1994. The first location was in Hayward, Wisconsin. Since then the company has grown to a publicly-traded chain of of 87 restaurants in 23 states. Last year, Famous Dave's of America reported $90. 8 million in revenues, up 3.6 percent the year prior, although the company had a net loss due to a lawsuit settlement and other business arrangements. Traded on the NASDAQ as DAVE, naturally, the company lost $928,000, or $0.08 per share for 2002. Shares closed at $6.35 on Friday, up 0.41 the day prior. Analysts give the stock mixed reviews, from "strong buy" to "neutral." The company's Securities and Exchange filings can be found here and here. [Note the recent "Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities" in the second link. Currently serving as chairman of the board of directors, Anderson will step down from all capacities at the business if he is confirmed by the Senate.] Anderson worked for his tribe at one point, serving as CEO of the Lac Courte Oreilles tribal enterprises in 1982. According to the White House and his company, he helped stabilize the business, which saw revenues grow from 3.9 million to $8 million during his tenure. It was at this point where his private career intersected with the public sector. His success at LCO was mentioned by the Commission on Indian Reservation Economies, which was formed by former President Ronald Reagan to examine economic conditions in Indian Country. The commission was co-chaired by former Cherokee Nation chief and former assistant secretary Ross Swimmer, who now serves as Special Trustee in the Bush administration. Former assistant secretary Neal McCaleb, a member of the Chickasaw Nation, also sat on the panel, which issued a report that called for a number of controversial changes, including dismantling of the BIA. Tribal leaders, at the time, overwhelmingly rejected the suggestions. Anderson went on to serve in a variety of public service positions. He sat on the Wisconsin Council on Tourism (1983), the Council on Minority Business Development for the State of Wisconsin (1983) and the National Task Force on Reservation Gambling (1983). From there, it was a seven-year gap to his appointment, by President Bush, to the Advisory Council for Tribal Colleges and Universities (2001) and the American Indian Education Foundation (2003). Some may remember Anderson for a recent appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show. As part of her Angel Network, she highlighted Anderson's dedication to helping at-risk Indian youth and young adults through his LifeSkills Center for Leadership. Winfrey gave the organization a $25,000 grant in 2002. Other honors, according to the Department of Interior, include being named a Bush Leadership Fellow (1985), being named Minnesota and Dakota's Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young, NASDAQ, and USA Today and being named Restaurateur of the Year by Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine (1998). He was also a torch carrier for the 2002 Winter Olympics. As head of the BIA, Anderson would oversee about 10,000 employees, the overwhelming majority of whom are Native American. He would set policy for the agency, which would be carried out by his staff. By the time Anderson gets to BIA, he will find a changed organization. Central office in Washington, D.C., has been shuffled and realigned due to an ongoing reorganization spurred by the Indian trust fund lawsuit. The BIA's regional offices are still undergoing changes. As a political appointee, Anderson would have to recuse himself from dealings or interests affecting his tribe. The Lac Courte Oreilles Tribe is asking the BIA to take land into trust for an off-reservation casino. The proposal is controversial because it is opposed by other tribes and was the subject of an independent investigation during the Clinton administration. The matter is currently in litigation because the former Wisconsin governor objected to the land-into-trust application. Copyright c. 2000-2003 Indianz.Com More headlines... --------- "RE: Alaska Supreme Court considers Native Sovereignty" --------- Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 08:35:52 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SOVEREIGNTY" http://www.indianz.com/ http://www.adn.com/alaska/v-printer/story/3934705p-3956896c.html Native sovereign immunity claimed LAWSUITS: Opinions vary on whether group of council presidents enjoys tribal status. By SHEILA TOOMEY Anchorage Daily News September 16, 2003 FAIRBANKS - A Bethel Native organization told the Alaska Supreme Court on Monday that it has the same kind of legal immunity that federal and state governments have, which means it cannot be sued if it doesn't want to be. The Association of Village Council Presidents said two families who claim their children were injured while participating in programs run by the association cannot file negligence claims in state court unless AVCP waives its immunity, which it has refused to do. AVCP's lawyers say the organization has immunity because it is made up of 56 Native villages that have been declared sovereign tribes by the federal government, a designation that automatically endows them with legal immunity such as that enjoyed by other sovereign governments in the United States. The case, called Runyon v. AVCP, has attracted encyclopedic friend-of- the-court briefs from heavyweights on both sides of the tribal sovereignty dispute, which has been heating up since 1999, when the Alaska Supreme Court in a 3-2 decision said sovereign tribes do exist in Alaska. In that decision, called John v. Baker, the court did not broadly define what powers come with tribal sovereignty, ruling only that Alaska tribes could handle some child custody disputes involving tribe members. Last summer, Superior Court Judge Dale Curda threw out lawsuits against AVCP filed by the Runyon and Wassilie families. One says a child in the AVCP Head Start Program was sexually molested by another Head Start child; the second says a child was injured on a bus operated by AVCP. Both suits accuse AVCP of negligence. Curda found that AVCP has tribal immunity. The families have appealed his ruling. In a written argument on behalf of the state Legislature, attorney Don Mitchell said the Supreme Court didn't have all the facts when it decided Baker and should reconsider the issue, then reverse itself. There are historically no tribes in Alaska, Mitchell said. In order for them to appear, the U.S. Congress would have to specifically create them and has chosen not to, Mitchell said. An opposing argument, written by Heather Kendall-Miller for the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, says tribes as defined by the federal government have always existed here regardless of what they were called, and in 1993 the Department of the Interior specifically recognized the existing sovereignty of Alaska's villages. There are at least three cases currently percolating up through state and federal courts here featuring the same sovereignty/no sovereignty debate. It is expected that at least one of them will end up in the U.S. Supreme Court. But on Monday, in the new Rabinowitz Courthouse on the banks of the Chena River, the divided Alaska justices seemed uninterested in re-arguing the question of whether sovereign tribes exist here and refused to allow Mitchell or Kendall-Miller to appear before them. That left the door open for Charlie Cole, a former Alaska attorney general and a canny legal strategist, to offer the justices a simple way out of the AVCP dilemma, one that wouldn't involve stoking the tribal fire. It doesn't matter if AVCP has sovereign immunity, Cole told the justices on behalf of the families, because they waived it when they bought a liability insurance policy, as required by the people who give out federal Head Start money. The government required the insurance to protect the program's assets if it got sued. By accepting this contract stipulation and buying the insurance, AVCP and the federal government both signalled that AVCP could be sued and, by implication, waived any immunity AVCP might have, at least to the limits of the $2 million policy, Cole said. Not so, said attorney Patrick McKay, who represents AVCP and the insurance company. Buying a required policy didn't waive anything. It's good business practice and might be needed for defense purposes, as it is now being used -- to defend AVCP's immunity. The policy would have cost much more than the $1,734 premium charged if Scottsdale Insurance thought AVCP could be sued at will, McKay said. During the questioning, Justice Warren Matthews seemed concerned at an outcome predicted by Cole if tribal immunity is upheld. "Children of the tribe are without a remedy for ... the wrongful conduct of AVCP," Cole said. In response to Matthews, McKay said tribal courts may arise in the future to handle negligence allegations. Meanwhile, AVCP has immunity and is "not liable in any way," he said. The justices took the matter under advisement. Daily News reporter Sheila Toomey can be reached at stoomey@adn.com. Copyright c. 2003 The Anchorage Daily News (www.adn.com) --------- "RE: Purge of AFN Land Rights and Parliamentary Staff" --------- Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2003 22:54:10 -0400 From: "Frosty" Subj: Fw: Purge of AFN Land Rights And Parliamentary Staff Mailing List: Frostys AmerIndian Purge of AFN Land Rights And Parliamentary Staff By Sharon Green September 11, 2003 Ottawa - Today the new National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Phil Fontaine is cleaning house. Several people who have worked long and hard for this organisation have been fired and no longer allowed acess to the internet from their offices. Among those who have been asked to leave are Rolland Pangowish (Head, AFN Land Rts. Unit) who has works there for fifteen years . Audrey Mayes Lands/Treaties/Fisheries Associate Director who has worked there for nine years. Included in the group who are leaving are Danny Gaspe' (AFN Parliamentary Liaison) and Mike O'Brien, AFN Justice Director. All of these people have worked very hard and are outstanding at what they do. With the huge cut to the budget when former National Chief Matthew Coon Come was punished by Indian Affairs Minister Nault for not "playing ball" these people continued to hold things together and do their jobs. I am sure many of you will remember Dan Gaspe' dedication to his work this past spring during the Bill C-7 hearings. The long hours he spent helping to make sure everyone knew what was going on. Dan was one of the founders of the Parliamentary Liaison office in 1978. His return to the AFN about one years ago was a real catch because he has great experience and sensitivities for this work. Rumour has it that there will be some drastic changes taking place at the AFN including a rumour that Scott Serson (former Deputy Minister of Indian Affairs) and a former Paul Martin staffer have been hired by Phil. Some are saying if this rumour is true these people have been hired to the staff of the AFN it should now be called AFN 3D Assembly For Nault. Rumour also has it that this is just the beginning , look for more news on this issue as it breaks Here are the messages of thanks sent out by Rolland Pangowish (Head, AFN La nd Rts. Unit) ..... Audrey Mayes Lands/Treaties/Fisheries Associate Directo r ..... Danny Gaspe' (AFN Parliamentary Liaison) There is also a message of support from Rarihokwats ...... Leaving AFN After 15 years of service, I am now being released by the new leadership. My understanding is that this was approved by the Executive Committee. I very appreciate their thoughtful consideration. I just wanted to convey my appreciation for the honour I have had of working with you all on these issues, which are of great importance to our people. I can only hope that some day, we will make real progress toward the recognition of our Inherent, Treaty and Aboriginal rights. I know the struggle will continue and I hope to see you all again, perhaps on the floor of our national meetings. If anyone needs a used Treaties and Lands specialist, I hereby attach my resume.( resume is at the link below:) Sincere best wishes, Rolland Pangowish Please note my personal e-mail is realpang@hotmail.com Home phone (613) 830-2398 Treaties and Lands specialist, I hereby attach my resume Now from Audrey Mayes After 9 years of service with the AFN, I too have been asked to leave. It has been such a wonderful experience and the most fulfilling job that I have had the honour to do. I will use those talents and experience to advance First Nations rights, so I guess I'll see you at the "meetins". I would like to thank you all for your wonderful friendships and it's been a pleasure working with such a wonderful group. So, with that here's " One kick ass Mi'kmaq Treaties, Lands and Fisheries specialist for hire"&.resume will be forth coming. All the best, Audrey Mayes Audrey_mayes@hotmail.com 613-829-0071 home Audrey Mayes Assembly of First Nations Lands/Treaties/Fisheries Associate Director One Nicholas Street suite 1002 Ottawa ON K1N 7B7 Phone 613-241-6789 ext. 304 Fax 613- 241-5808 FROM Dan Gaspe' Sekon/Greetings friends, As some of you already know, I have been asked to leave the employ of the AFN after one year of dedicated service. I am proud and honoured to have been given the opportunity, as I did years ago, to serve the First Nations at the AFN as Director of Parliamentary Liaison. I logged many long hours on Parliament Hill developing relations, preparing strategy, accompanying Chiefs, and helping them to communicate their messages regarding the bills that are still before Parliament all with the goal of protecting and enhancing our inherent, Aboriginal and Treaty rights. We put forward a professional and impressive image and we were effective. I am also honoured to have worked with such dedicated and professional colleagues from across the country and in the national office. Regarding my future, I am ready to offer my 26 years of work experience to First Nations and to other Aboriginal organizations in the area of government and Parliamentary relations. I will make me resume available, where appropriate. I can be reached at dan.gaspe@sympatico.ca, phone 819-827-3618, fax 819-827-6165. Onen Dan Gaspe' Rarihokwats message .... Greetings. Well, now is the time for everyone who has so much benefitted from their services to be supportive. These guys have great experience and a lot to offer. They will need some immediate short-term contracts, etc., from provincial organizations, TARRs, individual First Nations, tribal councils, etc. Let's pull together and see what we can do to keep them active, particularly during the critical month ahead while Parliament is in session. Best regards, Rarihokwats --------- "RE: Inquest into death of Native teen opens" --------- Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 08:09:47 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="STONECHILD" Inquest into death of Native teen opens in Saskatchewan http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/09/09/stonechild030909 Witnesses say Stonechild was beaten Last Updated Tue, 09 Sep 2003 7:28:05 SASKATOON - The public inquiry into the death of Neil Stonechild opened in Saskatoon on Monday with his mother and others who knew the 17-year-old Cree testifying they were shocked at the condition of his body. Stonechild was found frozen to death in a remote field on the outskirts of Saskatoon in November 1990, but his body also displayed signs of having being beaten. "It was one of the things you'd notice because he was an extremely good looking boy, and he had this cut... it looked like his nose had been broken," said Pat Pickard who ran the group home where Stonechild was staying when he died. She's convinced the teen she cared for was beaten before he froze to death. "He had bruises on his face and he had a cut across the bridge of his nose that extended to his cheek," said Stonechild's aunt, Debra Mason. "Makeup couldn't hide the bruises, and we felt his head and there were lumps on his head," she said. Jerry Mason, Stonechild's uncle, told the inquiry that he thought Stonechild had been handcuffed. "Between his wrist and his thumbs, on both hands, there was skin missing. It looked not like gouges but scrapes," he said. Mason said he believed the marks on his hands were caused by "pulling at handcuffs." Stonechild's mother, Stella Bignell, told the inquiry she's fearful that "whoever is responsible for this is still out there. They didn't investigate this as they should have." An RCMP investigation concluded there wasn't enough evidence to lay charges. They ruled the death accidental, speculating Stonechild died while trying to turn himself in at a nearby correctional centre. Headed by Justice David Wright, the inquiry cannot assign blame, but will look into how police handled the case. Stonechild is one of three aboriginal men found frozen to death in the outskirts of Saskatoon in the past decade. On Tuesday, the inquiry will likely hear from Jason Roy. He's the friend who said he saw Stonechild in a police cruiser the night he disappeared, his face bleeding and yelling "They're going to kill me." Written by CBC News Online staff Copyright c. 2003 CBC. --------- "RE: Stonechild Social Worker says she was Silenced" --------- Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 08:46:13 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="STONECHILD INQUEST" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://sask.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=pickard030909 Stonechild social worker says she was silenced September 9, 2003 SASKATOON - The last social worker to have contact with Neil Stonechild says she was prevented from coming forward about the teenager's death because government policy prevented it. Stonechild's mysterious death in 1990 is the subject of a judicial inquiry underway in Saskatoon. Pat Pickard ran a community home for young offenders in Saskatoon. It's the home Stonechild was supposed to be living in when he died. Pickard says that a decade later when the RCMP began investigating the case again she says a full report was ordered by her superiors where she was asked to detail the interview she had with the task force. Pickard says it was part of an overall "gag order" imposed on government employees. "I think they would have suppressed information in such a situation as that at anytime." Pickard said. "It's just one of those things they want to have more control over about what's put out there." She refused to report details of her RCMP interview to her superiors in Saskatoon or Regina and defied the gag order because she never believed the police theory that Stonechild died trying to walk to jail to turn himself in. Stonechild had been missing from the group home for several days and was considered a fugitive by police on the night he died. Copyright c. 2003 CBC All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Suspected Officers listen as Friend Testifies" --------- Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 08:46:13 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="STONECHILD INQUEST" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://sask.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=stonechild_cops030909 Suspected officers listen as Stonechild friend testifies September 10, 2003 REGINA - The Judicial Inquiry into the death of Neil Stonechild has heard the first accusation against Saskatoon city police on Tuesday, while the two officers considered suspects by the RCMP task force that investigated Stonechild's death made their first public appearance. A friend of Stonechild says he saw the 17-year-old in a police car the last night he was seen alive. Two Saskatoon police officers, interviewed more than ten times by the RCMP task force that investigated Stonechild's death, walked into the court room during Roy's testimony accompanied by lawyers. Jason Roy says he spent Stonechild's last day alive with him drinking and playing cards. He says that Stonechild decided to look for another friend, a former girlfriend, who was supposed to be baby sitting in a west side housing project. According to Roy's testimony, the two walked six blocks to the apartment complex, stopping at a convenience store to warm up. Roy testified that they started ringing buzzers at random looking for Stonechild's friend and at one point Roy says he was cold and wanted to go back to the store to warm up, but Stonechild wanted to keep looking. Roy says he lost sight of Stonechild and headed back to the store and then started walking back to a party they were at earliest that evening. That's when he says he was cut off by a Saskatoon Police Cruiser. "A police car pulled in front of me and Neil was in the back and the moment he saw me, he was very irate. He was freaking out. He was saying, 'Jay help me, just help me these guys are going to kill me.' Roy said he didn't want to end up in the police car with Stonechild, so he gave police a false name and was allowed to leave. Roy says that because he was considered unlawfully at large he lied about his identity. In his testimony Roy said never believed anything would happen to Stonechild and thought he'd just be sent back to Kilborne Hall for young offenders. Roy is expected back on the stand in Wednesday where he'll face cross examination by lawyers for the City, the Police union and the two constables linked to Stonechild. Copyright c. 2003 CBC All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Eastern Cherokee Police to pay $200K for Death" --------- Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 08:46:13 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="EBC POLICE" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://cgi.citizen-times.com/cgi-bin/story/regional/41478 Eastern Cherokee Police to pay $200K for Teen's Death By Jon Ostendorff, Staff Writer Sept. 9, 2003 11:00 p.m. CHEROKEE - A civil case in Tribal Court has forced the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian's police department to pay $200,000 to the family of a teenager and could change the way the department handles suicide calls. The civil settlement does not hold the department liable for the death of Charles Don Biello but it marks the first time the department has been held financially accountable for a negligence claim, an attorney handling the case said. The settlement, reached last month, requires the department to offer annual suicide awareness training to its officers. Marion Teesateskie, executive director of the tribe's Community Service program, which oversees the police department, said she did not know when the department would offer the training. Police shot and killed Biello during a scuffle on Sept. 1, 2000. Biello's mother called police after he threatened suicide with a knife. At least four officers responded to the call and entered the back and front doors of the home. According to court papers, the officers told Biello to move toward them. He had one hand behind his back. The officers drew their guns and batons, and Biello grabbed a knife from a nearby table. The officers beat him with their batons until he dropped the weapon, according to court papers. "Then, as (Biello) was attempting to escape from this beating he was shot dead, unarmed, two steps away from his mother in the presence of at least eight other eyewitnesses," the court papers state. "After the shooting, the police officers planted a knife at (Biello's) feet to defend themselves from criminal and civil liability for their gross misconduct and unlawful killing of this teenager." The officer said he had to shoot Biello to protect the life of another officer, according to court papers. The Cherokee Indian Police Department is the law enforcement agency for the 7,000 people living on the Cherokee Indian Reservation. It is also the public safety agency for the millions of people who visit the reservation each year to gamble at Harrah's Cherokee Casino. The FBI investigated the incident but did not find enough evidence to send a criminal case to the U.S. Justice Department. The court papers allege the FBI helped the police department cover up criminal wrongdoing in the shooting. According to court papers, the police department's lack of policy for dealing with suicidal people and people with emotional problems contributed to Biello's death. Police Chief Jonah Wolfe, according to a deposition in the case, routinely destroys complaints against his department and discourages people who come to him with complaints. "If you just shred (the complaints), you won't hear about it no more," Wolfe said, according to the deposition. On Tuesday, Wolfe said his department acted appropriately in the shooting of Biello, 17, who died in his home within reach of his mother, Brenda Bustos. Wolfe said he would make the suicide awareness training available but not mandatory. "I wanted to go to court," he said. "I still do. We have done no wrong and I think we could win." The police department and its insurance company settled the case before a judge on Aug. 27, the day opening statements were scheduled to begin in the jury trial. Mark Melrose, the Sylva attorney who handled the case for the Biello family, said he hopes the judgment will force the police department to create polices and standards that regulate police operations. "The money to the family was not the primary point of interest," he said. "The most important thing to them was effecting change in the police department. They wanted to impress on the Cherokee Indian Police Department that there are some consequences when they don't act responsibly and follow generally accepted and appropriate procedures in other police departments across the country." Contact Ostendorff at 452-1467 or JOstendorff@CITIZEN-TIMES.com. Copyright c. 2003 Asheville Citizen-Times, a Gannett Co., Inc. newspaper. --------- "RE: Federal Death Sentence imposed in 2 Murders" --------- Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 08:35:52 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CONVICTION UPHELD" http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0916deathpenalty16.html Federal death sentence imposed in 2 murders Carol Sowers The Arizona Republic Sept. 16, 2003 12:00 AM A 22-year-old Navajo man convicted of stabbing to death a woman and her granddaughter has become the only Native American in the country who's facing execution by federal authorities. Lezmond Mitchell is also the first person to be sentenced to death in a U.S. District Court in Arizona. Judge Mary Marguia told Mitchell on Monday that she was upholding the May jury verdict ordering his execution because of the brutality of the 2001 crime and the family's suffering. He was convicted of the deaths of Alyce Slim, 65, and Tiffany Lee, 9, of Fort Defiance. The murders occurred in October 2001 after Slim picked up a hitchhiking Mitchell. Asked Monday to speak on his own behalf, Mitchell said only, "I have nothing to say at this time." Michael Slim, grandson of the slain grandmother and cousin of the 9- year-old, told Marguia that the "death penalty is the right decision," adding that some members of his family still have nightmares when they remember the gruesome deaths. "My little cousin's mother still cries herself to sleep," Michael Slim said. Slim and Tiffany were returning from a visit to two Gallup, N.M., medicine women on Oct. 28, 2001, when they picked up Mitchell and Johnnie Orsinger. When Slim stopped to let them out, she and her granddaughter were stabbed multiple times with knives. Mitchell also confessed to slitting the girl's throat. Their bodies were dismembered and burned. Kurt Altman, a federal prosecutor, says he knows of no other federal defendants in Arizona who may be facing execution. The federal death penalty has been carried out on two defendants, one of whom was Timothy McVeigh. Copyright c. 2003 The Arizona Republic. --------- "RE: Janklow's Accident" --------- Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2003 23:28:38 -0400 From: Alfred Bone Shirt Subj: Argus Leader - Janklow's Accident Mailing List: Many of Our Indian people are going to be there in Flandreau,S.D at the Moody County Courthouse to remind the world of the rape of Jancita Eagle Deer - Alfred Bone Shirt ---------- http://www.argusleader.com/janklowaccident.shtml Janklow's Accident Janklow's recovery likely, say experts David Kranz dkranz@argusleader.com published: 9/11/2003 Head injury won't prevent air travel The type of head injuries suffered by U.S. Rep. Bill Janklow in a car accident last month could cause memory loss and strokelike symptoms, but the chances of recovery are good, a Chicago doctor said Wednesday. Dr. Tom Scaletta, president of Chicagoland Emergency Physicians, said the fact that Janklow is not hospitalized or bedridden suggests that his condition is not potentially serious, but there still can be problems. Janklow had a subdural hematoma, commonly called bleeding on the brain, following a car accident on Aug. 16 in which a motorcyclist was killed. He declined medical attention immediately after the crash in rural Moody County but later received treatment in Sioux Falls. The former four-term governor appeared in court on Sept. 2 on charges of man-slaughter related to the accident. He did not speak, appeared to have pain and walked with the assistance of friends and family. "If it were a serious injury, usually that person would not be able to decide for themselves whether they were going to the hospital or not," said Scaletta, who has not examined Janklow but has written medical papers on the condition. "When we see acute subdural hematoma, it can mean complete unconsciousness or unsalvageable by the time we see them as patients." Janklow has been tested for his head injuries at a Sioux Falls hospital as recently as Friday and has returned home to continue his recovery. The fatal accident and felony manslaughter charge have fueled speculation about Janklow's political future. The freshman congressman, who turns 64 on Saturday, hopes to return to Washington in the near future, his son, Russ, has said. No timetable for that return has been announced, however. Janklow's next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 25-26 in Moody County District Court in Flandreau. Janklow should be able to travel with his condition, as long as it is not acute, said Dr. Greg Cooper, a family practice physician from Marshall, Minn., who is not treating the congressman. "He should be able to fly several weeks after the accident," he said. "That should not be a problem." Janklow also has a fractured hand, which is in a cast, and that has prevented fingerprinting for booking. Health care professionals say the cast could come off four to six weeks after the injury. Subdural hematoma is caused by a blow to the head and is common in car accidents. The brain is surrounded by a leathery outer covering, called the dura, which keeps it supplied with blood and spinal fluid, according to the University of Missouri Health Care's Web site. When the head is hit, the brain jostles inside the skull, causing tearing of blood vessels. The blood builds up between the brain and the dura, causing swelling of the brain. But there is no room in an inflexible skull for the extra blood. The only way to make space is for the brain to move other areas, putting pressure on other vital brain functions such as eye opening, speech, consciousness or breathing. In severe cases, surgery is required to relieve the pressure on the brain. "In some cases, you may not need an operation and have no permanent signs," Scaletta said. "Usually, it needs surgical correction. That is really for the neurosurgeon to decide." The fact that Janklow is at home, but making occasional visits to his doctors, seems to indicate that his hematoma is not serious, Scaletta said. The patient is especially fortunate if there is no change in his actions or personality, he said. "If he is getting an MRI, they are probably saying it was small enough and won't require surgery. That would suggest he is doing surprisingly well," Scaletta said. Even if surgery is not required, there can be some effects from the injury, including forgetfulness. Some memory loss isn't alarming if patients can make decisions for themselves, he said. There also can be symptoms similar to a stroke, causing a loss of feeling on one side or other of the body. That said, prognosis for those with subdural hematomas can be good. "You can recover completely and have no residual problems. But there is a possibility that won't happen," Scaletta said. The recovery period could be a few weeks or months, but concern rises as that time stretches on, he said. A battery of tests is available to determine the potential long-term impact of the injury. Moving around is an indicator of Janklow's determination, Scaletta said. "He is trying to portray himself as someone who is not going to let something stop him," he said. "I admire someone who has a serious problem and is not going to let it stop him. There is no reason to think he won't recover." Reach reporter David Kranz at 331-2302. Copyright c. 2003 Argus Leader. ----- Two witnesses to Janklow accident ordered to testify Staff and wire reports published: 9/9/2003 Two witnesses from Pipestone, Minn., have been ordered to testify for the state in the manslaughter case of U.S. Rep. Bill Janklow. Brad Ilse and Monica Collins must be present at a preliminary hearing scheduled for later this month in Moody County. They will describe what they saw on Aug. 16 when a car driven by Janklow and a motorcycle driven by Randy Scott of Hardwick, Minn., were involved in an accident that took Scott's life and injured Janklow. Janklow, a first-term Republican, is recovering from head and hand injuries at his Brandon home. Moody County State's Attorney Bill Ellingson has charged Janklow with second-degree manslaughter, a felony, and three misdemeanors. Authorities say he was going 71 miles per hour in a 55 mph zone at the time of the accident. Ilse and Collins were in separate vehicles the night of the accident. Collins, secretary at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Pipestone, said Monday night that she was "tired of being harassed by reporters" and would not answer questions about the order to appear. Earlier in the day, Malva DeVine, church treasurer, told reporters that Collins was on the same road as Janklow was driving when he drove around them at a high rate of speed. "They said Janklow went past them. They said, 'We felt like we were standing still.' And then when they got to corner, there was the accident," DeVine said. "It was scary when they got up there and saw it." Isle's wife, Sherry, said they saw the accident on the way to go camping at Trent. "We were driving in our motor home, and it happened right in front of us. But that's about all we want to say," she said. Ellingson refused to comment on the two witnesses' relationship to the case. Highway Patrol officials said at least five witnesses were interviewed after the accident. Judge Rodney Steele signed the order for Ilse and Collins to testify. Janklow and his lawyer, Ed Evans of Sioux Falls, made a first appearance in Moody County Court on Sept. 2 to hear the charges. Janklow's preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 25 and 26 in Flandreau. Ellingson will try to show why Janklow should stand trial. Janklow's lawyers will be able to call their own witnesses and also cross-examine the prosecution's people. It's possible that Ellingson could avoid the preliminary hearing by calling a grand jury and requesting an indictment against Janklow. A grand jury would be held behind closed doors, while a preliminary hearing is public. Steele wrote in his order that Collins and Isle would probably be needed only for Sept. 25 and would be paid for mileage and time. Copyright c. 2003 Argus Leader. --------- "RE: Trial for Man charged with Aquash Murder delayed" --------- Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2003 08:12:12 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ANNA MAE TRIAL DELAYED" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/6748137.htm Judge delays Looking Cloud trial until February September 11, 2003 CARSON WALKER Associated Press SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The trial for one of two men accused of killing American Indian Movement member Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash has been delayed until February - 28 years after her body was found on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol granted the request Thursday from Tim Rensch, the court-appointed lawyer for Arlo Looking Cloud, who was to stand trial starting Sept. 30 in Rapid City. Looking Cloud and John Graham, also known as John Boy Patton, are charged with first-degree murder for the Dec. 1975 slaying of Aquash. Looking Cloud was arrested in Denver in March. Graham has not been arrested and is thought to be in Canada. Rensch said he needs more time to prepare because of the large number of documents, tapes and other information in the case. Aquash, a member of Mi'kmaq Tribe of Canada, was killed at a time when tensions between AIM members and government-backed factions ended in numerous deaths on the reservation. She was among Indian militants who occupied the village of Wounded Knee for 71 days in 1973. Aquash vanished from a Denver home in December 1975. Her body was found in February 1976. She had been shot in the head. Looking Cloud and Graham were security guards with AIM in the 1970s and would serve mandatory life prison terms if convicted. Graham is a Canadian Indian and Looking Cloud is a Lakota Indian who grew up on the Pine Ridge reservation. Rensch said his investigator has run into problems talking to people. And Looking Cloud appears to be depressed about recent reports of missing evidence that turned out to be false, he said. "He does not seem to be aiding in his defense," Rensch said. "There's a thought here that something's missing and I think that may be triggering mental problems for the defendant." He acknowledged the inconvenience of a delay for everyone involved but said he's been working day and night on the case and would not be adequately prepared in the next three weeks. The documents are "like nothing I've seen before," Rensch said. "I have about 3 1/2 feet of discovery stacked on my conference room table." During the brief hearing held by teleconference, U.S. Attorney Jim McMahon and Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Mandel said they were ready to go to trial. About 20 witnesses have been subpoenaed and people have already made plans to attend, McMahon said. "This is pretty late in the game," he said. But McMahon said he understood the amount of work involved in going through everything collected in the case. "I concede we have provided Mr. Rensch with a tremendous amount of material," McMahon said. That's probably why Rensch missed a two-page report in the stack from 1994 when Looking Cloud took investigators to the place near Wanblee where a rancher found Aquash's body, he said. "It's easy to understand how he overlooked it," McMahon said. In asking for the delay, Rensch said Looking Cloud would give up his right to a speedy trial. He already received an earlier delay and vowed to be ready by February. "I will be ready when you tell me to," Rensch told the judge. Looking Cloud's trial is now set for Feb. 3 in federal court in Rapid City and scheduled to take up to two weeks. Copyright c. 2003 AP Wire and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c. 2003 Aberdeen News. --------- "RE: Native Prisoner" --------- Date: Mon, Sep 15 2003 19:18:40 -0700 From: Janet Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NATIVE PRISONER" ===== A September 15, 2003 article in the Denver Post reports that this week a federal appellate panel is considering moving up Leonard Peltier's parole hearing date. For more information about Peltier's case, go to http://www. freepeltier.org/. Judges to hear pleas for Indian activist Peltier's parole By Jim Hughes, Denver Post Staff Writer September 15, 2003 Leonard Peltier, the American Indian Movement activist convicted of murdering two FBI agents in 1975, may finally get a chance to have a parole hearing. A panel of federal appeals-court judges in Denver this week will consider moving up a parole hearing for Peltier, convicted of the murders on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Peltier, 59, has always denied killing the two FBI agents. On Friday, attorneys hope to convince the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the U.S. Parole Commission erred when, instead of considering Peltier for parole in 1986, it scheduled a hearing on the matter for 2008. "Under federal guidelines, someone convicted of murder is considered for parole at 200 months," said Barry Bachrach, an attorney in Worcester, Mass., who specializes in appellate law and is working on Peltier's case for free. "Mr. Peltier would deny that he committed the crimes, but (that) is not the issue before the court," he said. "The issue is whether the parole commission gave a proper reason for basically doubling the time for considering Mr. Peltier for parole." The federal parole system became obsolete in 1987, when Congress adopted a new set of federal sentencing guidelines. Inmates convicted of federal crimes before 1987, however, still are eligible for parole under the old system. When he applied for parole in 1986, Peltier had been in prison for 204 months. As they were required to do, parole officials explained why they put off Peltier's hearing: "A decision ... above the minimum guidelines is warranted because you were involved in the ambush of two federal officers," they wrote. "After the officers were incapacitated by gunshot wounds, you participated in the premeditated and cold-blooded execution of those two officers." Bachrach's task is to convince three appellate judges that the explanation relied on two incorrect facts: that there was an ambush, and that Peltier was definitely the executioner and not simply an accomplice. "There is no evidence in the record which supports that he ambushed and executed the two FBI agents," Bachrach said, adding that prosecutors never proved the shootout was premeditated. The two agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, died after exchanging gunfire with Peltier and others involved with the Native American liberation movement. Coler worked out of the FBI's Denver field office. Coler and Williams initially were wounded in the shootout near the reservation town of Oglala, dying only after someone shot each of them in the head at point-blank range. In a 1977 trial later described by an appellate court as problematic, a jury in Fargo, N.D., convicted Peltier of two counts of first-degree murder. He received two consecutive life sentences. He is incarcerated at the federal maximum-security prison in Leavenworth, Kan. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis in 1986 found "inconsistencies casting strong doubts upon the government's case," but said the problems did not warrant a new trial for Peltier, according to court records. The government misconduct in the case included coerced testimony and withheld evidence, the court found. Prosecutors asked Peltier's jurors to convict him if they thought he killed the agents or if they believed he aided and abetted whoever did, Bachrach said. "The reasons they've given just don't hold water, in light of the government's admissions, particularly after it was discovered that the government withheld evidence and fabricated evidence," Bachrach said. But there was no government attempt to railroad Peltier, said Norman Zigrossi, the now retired FBI agent who oversaw the investigation into the deaths of Coler and Williams. The perception by some that Peltier was victimized by a government bent on breaking the AIM and avenging two fallen agents is wrong, he said. "We did nothing unethical or illegal," Zigrossi said. "We presented the facts as we knew them. It was not easy, because it was a complicated case. If anything was withheld, it was done inadvertently." Still, the stigma of injustice has remained, helping add to Peltier's supporters, from those who knew him in the AIM to countless others all around the world who have never met him. He has attained iconic stature while in prison, with his name appearing on T-shirts and bumper stickers. This week, organizers with the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Peltier's legal-defense fund based in Lawrence, Kan., have scheduled several events in Denver to bring attention to the hearing, including a news conference, a showing of Peltier's paintings and a rally Friday morning on the steps of the 10th Circuit Court on Stout Street. Zigrossi said Peltier's international support is misplaced. "Leonard Peltier is not a political prisoner. He's a murderer," Zigrossi said. "He's appealed at every level, and every appeal was denied. He's where he deserves to be, in my opinion." The last time Peltier's case drew this much attention was during the final days of President Clinton's administration, when many expected the outgoing president to pardon him. But when Clinton released a list of recipients of presidential pardons on his last day in office, Peltier's name was not on it. "It's unanimous (among Peltier's supporters) that he's wrongly imprisoned, and that Clinton should have had some courage and some backbone to do what he said he was going to do - grant him clemency," said Glenn Morris, a leader of AIM's Colorado chapter. While Peltier's lawyers said they felt confident going into this week's hearing in Denver, Morris struck a more cynical note. "To release Peltier at this point is to vindicate, in part, the program of the American Indian Movement, which challenged the conventions of U.S. society," Morris said. "Why would a federal judge do that?" --------- "RE: History: Carlisle Indian School" --------- Date: Mon, 08 Sep 2003 19:48:16 -0400 From: Barbara Landis Subj: August 29, 1890 INDIAN HELPER, Carlisle Indian School. [Editorial Note: These reprints are being included in this newsletter so that you might know the mind of those who ran institutions like Carlisle.] THE INDIAN HELPER ~%^%~ A WEEKLY LETTER FROM THE Carlisle Indian Industrial School To Boys and Girls. ================================================ VOL. V. FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 1890 NUMBER 52 ================================================ BETTER TO "GO IT ALONE," ------ An incomplete common school