From gars@speakeasy.org Sat Oct 4 10:15:40 2003 Date: 1 Oct 2003 00:27:10 -0000 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews11.040 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 11, ISSUE 040 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 October 5, 2003 Hopi Angaqmuyaw/long hair moon Kiowa Gakinat'o p'a/ten-colds moon +-------------------------------------------------------+ | Much more happens in Indian Country than is reported | | in this weekly newsletter. For daily updates & events | | go to http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm | +-------------------------------------------------------+ Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin -- Blackfeet -- News for All the People Ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min -- Ojibwe -- We Are Talking About Ourselves Aunchemokauhettittea -- Naragansett -- Let Us Share News Kanoheda Aniyvwiya -- Cherokee -- Journal of the People O Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse -- Creek -- People's New News O o O Acimowin -- Plains Cree -- Story or Account O o O Tlaixmatiliztli -- Nahuatl -- News O o o o o O Agnutmaqan -- Listuguj Mi'kmaq -- News O o O Sho-da-ku-ye -- Teehahnahmah -- Talking Birchbark O o O Un Chota -- Susquehannic Seneca -- The People Speak O Ha-Sah-Sliltha -- Ditidaht Nation -- News of the People Ximopanolti tehuatzin, inin Mexika tlahtolli -- Nahuatl -- For you we offer these words It-hah-pe-hah Ah-num pah-le -- Chickasaw -- Together We Are Talking Dineh jii' adah' ho'nil'e'gii ba' ha' neh -- Navajo Nation -- What's Happening among The People News Okla Humma Holisso Nowat Anya -- Choctaw -- People(s) Red Newspaper Hi'a chu ah gaa -- Pima -- The stories or the talk of the People Native American News -- Language of the Occupation Forces ==>If you want your Nation represented in the banner of this newsletter<== email gars@nanews.org with the equivalent of "News of the People" in your tribal language along with the english translation <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is produced in straight ASCII text for greatest portability across platforms. Read it with a fixed-pitch font, such as Courier, Monaco, FixedSys or CG Times. Proportional fonts will be difficult to read. <================<<<< >>>>================> This issue contains articles from www.owlstar.com; www.indianz.com; www.pechanga.net; News Gathering and ndn-aim Mailing Lists; UUCP email; Newsgroup: alt.native IMPORTANT!! ----------- In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, all material appearing in this newsletter is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for educational purposes. <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is a way of keeping the brothers and sisters who share our Spirit informed about current events within the lives of those who walk the Red Road. ++ It may be subscribed to via email by sending a request from your own internet addressable account to gars@speakeasy.org ++ It is archived at http://www.nanews.org <================<<<< >>>>================> +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | As historian Patricia Nelson | | Once a language is lost, it is | | Limerick summarized in "The | | gone forever | | Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken | | * Of the 300 original Native | | Past of the American West... | | languages in North America, | | "Set the blood quantum at | | only 175 exist today. | | one-quarter, hold to it as a | | * 125 of these are no longer | | rigid definition of Indians, | | learned by children. | | let intermarriage proceed as | | * 55 are spoken by 1 to 6 elders;| | it had for centuries, and | | when they die, their language | | eventually Indians will be | | will disappear. | | defined out of existence." | | * Without action, only 20 | | "When that happens, the federal | | languages will survive the next| | government will be freed of | | 50 years. | | its persistent 'Indian problem.'"| | Source: Indigenous Language | +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ | Institute | |http://www.indigenous-language.org| This issue's Elder Quote: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + ======================== "In my early days, I was eager to learn and to do things, and therefore I learned quickly." __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! September 27 was "Native American Day." How was it celebrated at your place of work? Maybe someone mentioned it in passing, but I rather seriously doubt even that. So, how was it celebrated where your child goes to school? Same deal? Probably. I know my daughter was incensed when her daughter's school offered nachos and paper feathers to her class. Maybe being ignored, as it was most places, really was better. How will October 13 be celebrated? Certainly, with a lot more fanfare and mention on the news. After all, we have it on good authority Columbus discovered us. In Amerikka it apparently makes more sense to honor a deciever and murderer than it does to honor the First People. That is, unless you call more murder "celebration" and raping of natural resources "honor". Native People in Chiapas and in the Amazonia "are" being murdered. They dared try to continue their pathways and lifestyles on their homelands. Cherokee, Mvskogee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole who were victims of the Jacksonian Removal policies, or the Navajo who were forced on the Long Walk, or any of many other tribes "in the way of progress" in North America could have told the Maya and Quecha that being "real humans" on their homeland is not acceptible. Especially not to the invaders who covet the minerals and timber their lands hold. Check out the ongoing inquest in Saskatchewan into Neil Stonechild's death if you think officially condoned murder is restricted to Central and South America. Lumber and oil interests very much have a powerful voice in national policy. How many times and in how many ways has there been an attempt to plunder ANWR-all thwarted so far? A message was sent - there really are citizens who believe ANWR should be left alone. But the message that was heard was not "don't." It was "don't stop trying. We'll get tired. We'll quit paying attention." Bills are being reviewed at this moment with discreetly added riders that once again attempt to drill for oil in those fragile Alaskan grounds. The Bella Coola forest in British Columbia is one of the few remaining rain forests in the Northwestern hemisphere, yet timber companies are determined to mow it down (in spite of the damning evidence on other continents of the consequences of stripping away rain forests) They are momentarily being held back, but if "No" only means not until we can find a way to sneak it through in ANWR, it can't mean much more in British Columbia. Incidentally, the name Bella Coola came from the People who lived there... rather, it was the name the Europeans gave the Nuxalk living there. The invaders had trouble with the name of the people so they just named them after the river they lived on. Why not? That same lazy, arrogant attitude worked just fine when other tribes were renamed... Creek, Sioux, Flathead, Gros Ventre... The strength of the Bella Coola tribe greatly dwindled in the beginning of the eighteenth century due to illnesses and substance abuse brought to them by European explorers, Methodist missionaries, gold seekers, fur trappers, and Norwegians coming to the area. As one example, in the 1800's, the smallpox virus killed one in three of this tribe. (from http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/northamerica/bellacoola.html ) Just thought I'd send all my relatives a belated "Native American Day" greeting. I was going to have those with web access go pick up a card until I saw one of them resembled the grotesque Chief Wahoo, but that's another editorial for another issue. 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 ---------- - Bush Administration - Saskatchewan Natives slowly dismantling BIA still face Social Hurdles - Martin details BIA changes - Fontaine's $900,000 to Indian Country proposed Office Budget - Swimmer Claims BIA owes Tribes $60 - Supreme Court not Billions hands Metis huge Victory - Interior given till '07 - Police Officer testifies to explain Indian Funds on Native Teen's Death - Cobell Master denied access - Former CdA Police Chief to Trust Records to take charge on Rez - Measure on Shoshone Payments - Study: More Minnesota Indians advances toward Vote stopped by Police - YELLOW BIRD: - Nez Perce Teen shot and killed Let Nature take Course with Lake by Police Officer - Hopis seek their Water Rights - Janklow Plea: Not guilty - Jemez Pueblo Artifacts Recovered - GIAGO: Who gave the order - School expansion to kill Anna Mae? over Anasazi Human Remains - Rapid City Lawyer - Comanche Tribe asks off Prosecution opens Visitors' Center - Native Prisoner - Let Indians tell own History -- Help save this Life - Bison hunt brings students - History: Carlisle Indian School to Crow Reservation - The Healing Gift - Tribes market Bison Herds of the Jingle Dance to Federal Government - Rustywire: Colfax & Park - Indian Motorcycle - Poem: Lost Prayer going out of Business again - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - Two Tribes in Peru - Hotel Guests learn about History threatened by Hepatitis - Native Odyssey highlights - B.C. Report cites deaths importance of Language of Natives in Custody - NAMMY Press Release --------- "RE: Bush Administration slowly dismantling BIA" --------- Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 08:59:07 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="AM-BUSHED BIA" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=2921 Expert says BIA changes more extensive than tribes realize Agency TULSA OK Sam Lewin 9/23/2003 The Bureau of Indian Affairs has grown to be the largest agency in the Department of Interior, and a consultant in Indian affairs believes the agency's restructuring is more extensive than most people realize. How large is the BIA today? Twenty percent of the DOI's total funding goes to the BIA. The agency has nine thousand employees. One hundred and eighty five schools. Twenty-five community colleges. Twelve regional offices. Eighty - seven agency offices. Michael Hughes is a Phoenix-based consultant who performs research for organizations like the InterTribal Monitoring Association on Indian Trust Funds. He paints the BIA as a mammoth bureaucracy with frequent personnel shuffling and shadowy moves lurking beneath the spotlight. Hughes told the ITMA in Tulsa Tuesday that the BIA budget request for 2004 shows the agency is clearly moving away from all trust-related issues, despite strong opposition in Indian Country. "The BIA is starting to be phased out as far as trust activity. What I see in the future is a proposal to move trust services away from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the Office of Special Trustee," Hughes said. Hughes bases that statement on the BIA'S 2004 budget, which includes elimination of regional trust offices, no increases for real estate and probate services, and a freeze on new staff members. "I think the BIA will just be left with social services, law enforcement, and the roads program," Hughes said. Two years ago, federal officials proposed transferring all BIA trust and resource programs to a new agency, the Bureau of Indian Trust Assets Management. Many Indian leaders objected, and congress mandated tribes be consulted before any massive reorganization took place. Hughes believes the fallout from that move led the DOI to secretly begin stripping the BIA. "What the department learned is that if you try to do it all at once, people react and congress will slow it down. But they decided to do it piecemeal, sneaking out the pieces," said Hughes. He blames Interior Secretary Gale Norton for the changes. What's the reason behind it? Hughes doesn't know. "There could be many different rationales, and that's the problem. Is the motivation really to strengthen trust assets, or is the motivation to dismantle the BIA, or is it some combination of the two?" Hughes wonders. Either way, his instinct is to believe it will be bad for tribes. He says BIA moves in the past year have worsened tribal-federal relations, specifically referring to the recent appointment of Debbie Clark to Office of the Chief Financial Officer and the agency's acting CIO. "She sets the agency back ten years on budget matters. She doesn't have a strong understanding of budget matters. She doesn't have a strong technical understanding of BIA Programs. There are 207 program elements in the BIA. She doesn't have any field experience in the BIA. She doesn't have the skills needed to work with tribal leaders," Hughes told the ITMA. "Budget is driving so much of this. If the budget is clear you can follow the lines. If not, it gets muddy." The upshot? Tribes may soon have to deal with two agencies. The OST will handles real estate, forestry and agriculture, while the BIA will deal with law enforcement and social services. Is this good? "It could be. It all depends on how it is carried out and how is structured at the local level, where the real day-to-day work is done. That level in many ways has been left out of this restructuring and at some point that level, either run by the BIA or the OST, is going to need greater resources." Native American Times is Copyright c. 2003 Oklahoma Indian Times, Inc --------- "RE: Martin details BIA changes to Indian Country" --------- Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 08:28:09 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BIA CHANGES EXPLAINED" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=2926 Martin details BIA changes to Indian Country Says restructuring will lead to better services at the local level TULSA OK Sam Lewin September 24, 2003 Plans to reorganize the Bureau of Indian Affairs met with skepticism today. BIA officials are holding a series of consultation meetings with tribal members concerning plans to restructure the agency and its workings. Principal Deputy Assistant Director Aurene Martin said inter-agency attempts to streamline and consolidate would generate increased efficiency. "This will lead to better overall management, better tribal management and better cooperation with other agencies, better services...alot of different services have been consolidated. Martin said. She said a newly created position called Deputy Director of Trust Services is a key position, because it separates for the first time trust and tribal service duties. "We are hoping to see improvements in self-governance and self- determination, and I think you will see better improvements in the use of our assets." Martin said the changes will be felt at the local level, and that seems to be the concerns of the tribal representatives who attended the restructuring meeting. "I agree with everything you are saying, and what you have up there on the board, but how are you going to go about this?" Pawnee Nation President George Howell told Martin. "How long is this going to take? You can put together the greatest programs in the world on paper, but then you mess it up by sending in people. If you have people who have been in these positions for all these years, and you're looking at a whole new ballgame, how can they all fit in?" Information from the BIA indicates that the agency has completed a large share of its restructuring. Most of the staff of the Office of the Assistant Secretary has been realigned. Reorganization in the BIA's central office is expected to be finished by the end of the month. Open positions for Deputy Regional Director Trust or Indian Services positions have been advertised and closed, with hiring also expected by the end of September. At the Southern Plains Region, two Deputy Superintendents of Trust are now on board. Scott McCorkle was hired in Concho and Robin Phillips in Andarko. Today's meeting in Tulsa is the first of a series of meetings the BIA is holding over the realignment of 12 regional offices. Comments will be published in the Congressional Record. Native American Times is Copyright c. 2003 Oklahoma Indian Times, Inc. --------- "RE: Swimmer Claims BIA owes Tribes $60 not Billions" --------- Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 08:28:09 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CHUMP CHANGE/WHO'S THE CHUMP" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=2935 Swimmer Claims BIA owes Tribes $60 not Billions OST Chief Defends BIA History TULSA OK Geneva Horse Chief September 24, 2003 TULSA, Okla. - In a discussion on the recent reorganization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, head of the Office of Special Trust, Ross Swimmer said the Cobell v. Norton litigation will not result in any settlement and the court ordered investigation of Individual Indian Monies auditing will still be no more $60 off. "Cobell is going to be in litigation until it goes to the Supreme Court. So I don't see any settlement going anywhere. One side is saying $173 billion and the other is saying just a few billion. They've dug themselves into a hole that will result in only 5 years of accounting at a cost of $300 billion to still come up with only $60 unaccounted for," said Swimmer, Special Trustee for American Indians, at the 2nd Annual Osage Nation Oil and Gas Summit in Tulsa, Okla., on Tuesday. A meeting of the Albuquerque, N.M., based Indian Trust Management Association board members and area tribal delegates was held in conjunction with the Summit. Swimmer and two other officials from the OST spoke during the ITMA meeting about the impact of programs and trust responsibilities management from BIA supervision to OST supervision. "That is a direct statement from a trustee that he is not acting in good faith for the best interests of his beneficiaries," said David Lester, executive director of the Council Energy Resource Tribes about Swimmer's comment on the Cobell litigation. "What he's talking about is the Interior doing an accounting of every penny that was reported. Even if the Interior was true and honest on their part there was no one inspecting the well. If no one is at the well, inspecting, reporting, auditing then what you get is under reporting of production and exaggerated costs that come directly out of Indian royalties," Lester said. Swimmer defended his remarks and the reorganization of the BIA. "OST's actual function, as stated in the Reform Act, is oversight of trust duties - that is still the purpose of OST. Part of the reform included counsel with tribes on what should be done. The Secretary suggested establishing what will be called, trust offices, located at tribal agencies to monitor reform activities," Swimmer said. Swimmer and Principal Deputy Special Trustee, Donna Erwin, said trust reform will include trust officers located at BIA regional offices to handle trust issues on-site. They said the OST would also be charged with developing methods of handling allotted land that has been fractionalized beyond profit. "It's an insane situation we're in concerning fractionalization. Thousands of dollars goes into the accounting of land that is worth less than all the accounting and probate costs can be more than what the land is worth, but it has to be done and there isn't another system of doing it," Erwin said. Swimmer and Erwin said the Interior should not be held liable for trust issues because other trust, or typically, corporate trust relationships wouldn't leave room for trustee liability under the same circumstances concerning tribal trust and Individual Indian Monies mismanagement. "With any other trust relationship you would be charged a fee, and you wouldn't get the free accounting and fences. When people look at how their land or resources are being valued against someone else they are forgetting the free accounting, management and building of fences. Because if they did they would see it evens out," Erwin said. Native American Times is Copyright c. 2003 Oklahoma Indian Times, Inc. --------- "RE: Interior given till '07 to explain Indian Funds" --------- Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2003 08:42:36 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TRUST CASE DRAGS ON..." http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0926indian26.html Interior given till '07 to explain Indian funds But judge has little faith it'll happen Robert Gehrke Associated Press Sept. 26, 2003 12:00 AM WASHINGTON - A federal judge on Thursday said he will give the Interior Department another chance to account for money owed to American Indians, setting a 2007 deadline but expressing little confidence the department will act. "It is not that the court believes Interior is incapable of formulating an adequate plan for an accounting; rather, it is that the court has no confidence that Interior is willing to actually implement an adequate accounting," U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth wrote in his ruling. Lamberth set strict deadlines to complete phases of the accounting, with a final tally to be reached by Sept. 30, 2007. Ultimately, the accounting will be used in a future trial to determine how much the government owes more than 300,000 Native American landowners for mismanaging their money. The deadlines could pose a problem for Interior, which has said it would take a year longer, five years at a cost of $335 million, to account for the Indian money. That plan also would use statistical sampling, which Lamberth prohibited, and is much narrower in scope than the accounting the judge said must be done. A more comprehensive accounting plan prepared by the department last year would take 10 years to complete and cost as much as $2.7 billion, which Congress has said it is unwilling to pay. "They can't do it. It's absolutely impossible," said Dennis Gingold, attorney for the Indian plaintiffs. Copyright c. 2003, azcentral.com. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Cobell Master denied access to Trust Records" --------- Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 08:22:48 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TRUST RECORDS" http://www.indianz.com/News/archives/001720.asp Cobell master denied access to trust records Tuesday, September 30, 2003 The special master in the Indian trust fund case released a report on Monday detailing a visit to the Minerals Management Service that was cut short by government attorneys. Alan Balaran was examining audit records of Indian account holders kept at a location in Dallas, Texas. He was there for about two hours, he said, until he was instructed to leave the premises. He later discovered that a Department of Justice lawyer left him a telephone message objecting to his presence. During his short visit, Balaran said he saw "chaotic document management" and an industrial shredder. Had he stayed longer, he said he would have investigated further. MMS is responsible for the collection of about $6 billion in oil and gas royalties on federal and Indian land. Copyright c. 2000-2003 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Measure on Shoshone Payments advances toward Vote" --------- Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2003 08:42:36 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SHOSHONE PAYMENTS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.rgj.com/news/~news&sp7=news_front Congressional measure on Shoshone payments advances toward vote Associated Press September 25, 2003 A bill that has divided Western Shoshone Indians over whether to accept a $130 million government payout has been approved by a congressional committee. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said the 21-14 vote Wednesday by the House Resources Committee moved the bill closer to a floor vote this fall. The bill would authorize payments of about $30,000 to 6,500 tribal members. The money is part of a 1946 Indian Claims Commission judgment against the U.S. government for taking Western Shoshone lands in the 19th century. The bill would also set up a $1.3 million tribal education trust fund. The money has been gathering interest while tribal factions disagree whether to accept it or press for broader solutions including the return of some lands. The Western Shoshone claim some 70 million acres of ancestral lands in four states, including part of Nevada. Gibbons, the bill's sponsor, said most tribe members favor of the payments, while a"vocal minority"objects. Opponents, most of whom live in rural Nevada, have questioned support among tribal members for the payments. Several Democrats said Wednesday the bill should be shelved until the Bureau of Indian Affairs validates a June 3, 2002, straw vote among Western Shoshones. An unofficial tally of the 2002 vote showed 1,703 tribal members favored and 230 opposed taking the cash. Tribal dissidents say the vote was flawed. Several lawmakers echoed the concern. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said there were no voter rules or guidelines, no provision for confidentiality and no independent observers. "It's now impossible to determine who received a ballot and who did not," he said. Gibbons deflected a Democratic amendment on taxing the payments. He said a 1973 federal law shields the Western Shoshone from taxation, but an aide said only $2,000 of an individual's payout would be shielded. Gibbons dismissed as"misinformation"remarks by Thomas Luebben, an attorney for the Yomba Shoshone Tribe, that the 1973 tax-protection law will not apply to the Western Shoshone payments. Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal Copyright c. 2003 Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. Inc. --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Let Nature take Course with Lake" --------- Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 08:22:48 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SPIRIT LAKE" http://www.grandforks.com/~/dorreen_yellow_bird/6894233.htm DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: State should let nature take its course with DL When the weather is great, as it was Sunday, I drive north through the middle of the state to where I meet U.S. Highway 2 at Devils Lake. When I pass Minnewaukan, N.D., I enter the land of Spirit Lake, as the Native people call it. Just past Minnewaukan, the roads are new and elevated. They cross the big lake several times. I like the lake with all its idiosyncrasies. I don't want the lake to be artificially controlled with an outlet. I know the lake. Not only do I travel around and through it, but I spend time in Fort Totten, N.D., on the southern side of the lake. The Dakota people at Fort Totten have moved their homes, and most of them just accept the fact that their house was built too close to the water. Most of the people in Fort Totten have a good feeling about the lake they call sacred. My path through the middle of the state begins when I turn east off U.S. Highway 83 near Max, N.D. From there I trek through Butte, Anamoose, Esmond, N.D., and finally to Minnewaukan. Usually, there are fishermen sitting along the shore on the rocks so intent on their fishing that they rarely look up. I say this because I stopped just a short distance from a couple of fishermen Sunday. They didn't notice as I crept toward the edge of the water to shoot a photo of two egrets. The birds flew before I could get the shot, but I waited, and they returned - silly birds; I guess they thought that because I wasn't moving, I was part of the landscape. As the debate rages, the lake and lake people seem oddly quiet and content to sit on the shore or ride the waves in their boats - like the birds. The odds, however, are not in favor of keeping the lake intact. Outlet building is moving ahead. Outlet supporters say the water is the enemy. It is taking land and flooding towns. It has claimed buildings, farms and even towns such as Churchs Ferry. What used to be cropland now is a playground for the cormorants, mallard ducks and egrets. Canadians and downstream folks such as People To Save The Sheyenne don't want Devils Lake water in the Sheyenne or Red rivers because it will change the make up their rivers, they say. Outlet foes also say an outlet will "result in adverse ecological, economic, and natural resource impacts in the Red River Basin from downstream movement of damaging biota." The lake also has a high salinity level as a result of its high volume of evaporation. Devils Lake now is about 120,000 acres in size and 24 feet deeper than it was in 1993. The lake has not flowed naturally into the Sheyenne River, but it has spilled, the U.S. Geological Survey estimates, four to seven times in the last 12,000 years. That seems to be a lot of years and only a few times, I thought. Devils Lake water will flow into Stump Lake when the level of the lake reaches 1447. If Devils Lake reaches 1459, the lake water will flow in the Sheyenne River. Some environmentalists tell me that Channel A, which was built to drain farmland, also raises the level of the lake. A second channel was planned, but through the efforts of organizations such as the Sierra Club, it wasn't built. I have only recently become aware of Channel A; it cuts across U.S. Highway 2 between Churchs Ferry and Devils Lake. It is hard to believe, unless you travel the back roads of the state, that there are so many small ponds and lakes spread over the area. Sunday, I could see that many of them were almost dry or dry. Early in the summer, some friends and I stopped at a full lake to look for duck potatoes - water plants that have a tuber below and in the water. Sunday, that same lake was almost dry. As I drove across Devils Lake during a very windy day last week, waves were coming onto the road, but lightly. A couple of years ago, the road across the lake was closed because the wind was blowing the water in huge waves across the highway. The lake level is dropping. So Spirit Lake may be past its growing time - its time to clean. We may be heading back to a time when the lake is shallow and tame. We should accept these changes in her levels. If she overflows into Stump Lake and the Sheyenne River, then so be it. But artificially emptying the lake through an outlet could be a waste of money. ----- Yellow Bird writes columns on Tuesday and Saturday. Reach her at 780-1228, (800) 477-6572 ext. 228 or dyellowbird@gfherald.com. Copyright c. 2003 Grand Forks Herald/Grand Forks, ND. --------- "RE: Hopis seek their Water Rights" --------- Date: Sept. 21, 2003 12:00 AM From: "Chris Milda (_Akimel O`odham_)" Subj: Hopis seek their Water Rights: The courts, not politicians, are likely to answer the question of who controls Arizona's precious resource Mailing List: News Gathering http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/~0921august21.html Hopis seek their Water Rights The courts, not politicians, are likely to answer the question of who controls Arizona's precious resource Jack L. August Jr. Special for The Republic Sept. 21, 2003 12:00 AM As I pull into the parking lot at Hopi Tribal Headquarters in Kykotsmovi, I am struck by the plethora of bumper stickers on cars: SAVE H2OPI (Save Hopi Water). My friend, Stewart Koyiyumptewa, a tribal archivist, notices my reaction and explains, "It's about Peabody Coal and their pumping of our groundwater for the slurry line to Laughlin, Nevada." The issue has galvanized this traditional and circumspect people. They are serious about Peabody Coal and its role in depleting the groundwater beneath the reservation. Among other things, Hopis are calling for a halt to the pumping of groundwater, the only source of drinking water on the reservation, and they look to the Colorado River as the panacea. "Don't we have some rights to that water?" one tribal member asks. "Maybe we need to quantify the amount." How to move Colorado River water to the Hopi mesas remains an open question, though dreamers point to the occasionally discussed Northern Arizona Project, a proposed distant echo of the enormous Central Arizona Project, which, if ever constructed, would convey Colorado River water in Lake Powell to the Navajo and Hopi reservations, and to Flagstaff and Prescott. Currently, a political impossibility but an engineering and hydrologic challenge, Northern Arizona Project could, someday, find the necessary coalition of supporters. As the conversation turns back to reality, I learn from other friends in the Hopi capital that they, like their Navajo neighbors who share this pristine N-Aquifer, may take the road of litigation, seemingly the ultimate route for all conflicts over water. The broader significance of the bumper stickers - saving limited and overallocated water resources for beneficial use at home - hits home and reflects a much larger issue in Arizona and the West. Of course, Congress and the courts are supposed have the answers. Arizona's economic future, in part, depends upon its complicated historical relationship with its Indian residents, including the 8,000 member Hopi tribe. The 21 existing Indian reservations in the state compose about 28 percent of the state's land base, and, in an irony that confounds historical theories of Manifest Destiny and the settlement of the American West, Indians could determine which interests - agricultural, municipal, rural, tribal - receive water. Conceivably, Gila River, Navajo, Hopi and other Arizona tribes, could turn on, or turn off, the tap. Michael Pearce, a former chief counsel for the Arizona Department of Water Resources, is a water rights attorney with Fennimore Craig. He suggested recently, "For nearly a century, courts have upheld claims of Indian communities for federal reserved water rights." Because of the vastness of the Indian claims and the complexity of the law, he adds, the historical trend has been to find in favor of Indian claims and to determine that they are generally superior to claims under state law. In effect, Arizona's non-Indian water users face the reality of a senior appropriator -Indian tribes - that can, and someday will, control large quantities of water currently held privately or under state regulatory control. Significantly, many of these rights are located on rivers that already are overappropriated; the senior Indian claim will displace an existing non-Indian use. The Hopis, like the state's other tribes, sit in a favorable legal position. Thus, Indian Water Rights Settlements - congressionally crafted agreements already in place at San Carlos, Tohono O'odham and Fort McDowell reservations, to name a few - appear to be the only conceivable option to seemingly endless and costly litigation, that may, in the end, prove futile for non-Indian water users. Therefore, these federal-tribal agreements loom arge in Arizona's environmental and economic future. Arizona's most recent attempt to secure a significant portion of its long-term water future depends on a recently crafted agreement, 20-plus years in the making, called the Gila River Indian Settlement, or, as it is known in the 108th Congress, Senate Bill 437, the Arizona Water Settlement bill. The agreement, mind-bending in its complexity, has an impact on almost every area of the state. In more than 2,000 pages with exhibits, it mandates CAP water to make up more than 50 percent of the 653,000 acre-foot annual water budget. (Arizona's entire Colorado River allotment is 2.8 million acre-feet per year.) Additionally, the settlement allows for the use of the Lower Basin Development Fund, created as part of the Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968, to buy down the cost of water delivered to those Indian communities that already have implemented settlement agreements. Also, according to Pearce, the "final" allocations provide permanent federal/non-federal split of CAP's entire water supply among non-Indian interests. Moreover, a financial settlement between the state of Arizona and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation over cost sharing are salient features of the agreement. Unquestionably, these goals and several others carry a huge federal investment, approaching $1 billion over the 40-year life of the Lower Basin Development Fund. If passed in its present form, the bill will result in the largest shift of water from non-Indian to Indian lands since Arizona vs. California (1963), which reserved lower basin water to five reservations tributary to the river: Fort Mohave, Chemehuevi, Cocopah, Colorado River and Yuma. Clear, direct and candid communication between these two groups, Indian and non-Indian, will be essential if this pending legislation is to be successful. To date, Arizona Indian Water Rights settlements have depended upon the availability of large quantities of mainstream Colorado River water or Central Arizona Project water. Many more claims require settlement and, has been suggested in the press and available literature, both sources are at the point of overallocation. In fact, according to attorney Pearce, if the Arizona Water Settlement Act passes in its current form, only 67,300 acre-feet of Central Arizona Project water will be left for remaining claims. And, CAP water is in high demand for non-Indian use. In Arizona and the West, water rights remain unsettled and fragmented, though incremental progress has been made in recent years. Sen. Jon Kyl and others involved in the Gila River settlement have undertaken a task of herculean proportion. Attorneys for the various stakeholders, from Hopi to Flagstaff to any number of irrigation districts throughout the state are preparing their final strategies in challenging or agreeing to this courageous attempt at addressing a decades-old issue. Though the future remains uncertain, a few things are clear. Working closely and candidly with Arizona's Indian tribes will be an essential requirement for elected and appointed state officials. Litigation, too, will be a routine aspect of Arizona's water future. And the central question of who controls the water, perhaps, may be the most vexing problem facing Indian and non-Indian water users alike. Although Congress will put forward answers, the courts will make the final determination. Copyright c. 2003 The Arizona Republic. --------- "RE: Jemez Pueblo Artifacts Recovered" --------- Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 08:28:09 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CULTURAL THEFT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.santafenewmexican.com/SectionID=2&SubSectionID=7&ArticleID=33186 Recovered Relics Three federal agencies collaborated on probe that netted missing tribal items worth $400,000 By MARISSA STONE | The New Mexican Thursday, September 25, 2003 ALBUQUERQUE - Jemez Pueblo War Chief James Gachupin is disappointed in the Santa Fe men convicted in 2000 of trading or selling ceremonial items from his tribe. "I wouldn't take anybody's culture away," he said Wednesday afternoon. "I respect other cultures." Gachupin and fellow tribal members sat next to three white cardboard boxes containing between 15 and 20 confiscated ceremonial artifacts from the pueblo that federal agents had returned that afternoon. Some of the items, which had been missing about 50 years, dated back to the 1500s and had probably been circulating among traders and art markets, Gachupin said. Special agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation collaborated on a two-year investigation into the relics beginning in 1999 that netted items that would have sold for about $400,000, said Tony Bonanno, special agent with the park service. The seized items included a Santo Domingo corn goddess, Navajo prayer sticks and an Acoma wooden doll. The agents confiscated more than 200 religious and cultural items from two Santa Fe men, former gallery owner Joshua Baer and Indian-art trader Thomas Cavaliere. Cavaliere was Baer's principal supplier of American Indian objects that belonged to the Navajo Nation; the Hopi Tribe; and the pueblos of Acoma, Jemez, Laguna, Santo Domino, Zia and Zuni, said Mary Kay McCulloch, lead agent with Fish and Wildlife. Members of five pueblos sat in a conference room at the Hyatt Regency and walked up one by one to receive their sacred objects, wrapped in paper or packed in boxes. "It's just like Christmas morning, where you wake up and keep going back to the Christmas tree," said Leonard Loretto, public works director for Jemez Pueblo. The items are priceless, he said. The event was the biggest repatriation to Indians ever by the U.S. Department of Interior, Bonanno said. After the items were seized in 2000, the Santa Fe men each pleaded guilty to three counts of illegal trafficking in Indian cultural items in 2002. In February, both men were sentenced to three years of probation. Baer was also sentenced to perform 100 hours of community service. Some of the items returned were adorned with feathers from protected or migratory birds such as bald and golden eagles, which fall under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. "When those (returned) items are taken into a gallery," Bonanno said, "they become contaminated." "It's just sitting on a shelf and needs to come back to the tribe to serve a purpose," Gachupin said. Richard Begay, deputy director of the Navajo Nation's Division of Natural Resources, said tribal members selling artifacts has long been a problem. Sometimes, he said, tribal members sell the items because a ceremony has died out or the practitioner who used the relic has also died. Money could also play a part, said Begay, whose tribe received about 125 artifacts from federal agents. But tribal members cannot be prosecuted for selling sacred items -- often covered under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act -- unless tribal leaders insist on it. Agents at the event didn't know of a tribal member being prosecuted for such a crime. Former Jemez Pueblo Gov. Frank Loretto, 79, said thieves had broken into his house in recent years and stolen sacred objects. "It made me feel bad because they were used all the time for ceremonies." Some of the stolen items are still missing, he said. The federal agents' investigation cost about $50,000, said Lucinda Schroeder, a special agent with Fish and Wildlife. Those costs included hiring Ivar Husby, a Norwegian law-enforcement officer who posed as a millionaire buyer from Europe. Husby was hired because agents wanted a European who represented an international market, and Baer sold to that market, Schroeder said. Agents also purchased about $40,000 in Indian artifacts that were also returned at the Wednesday event, she said. The ceremonial items have a lot of power, Gachupin said. People outside the pueblo who handle them don't know what an object has been through or its correct use. Content c. 2003 The Santa Fe New Mexican, Inc. --------- "RE: School expansion over Anasazi Human Remains" --------- Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2003 08:42:36 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ANASAZI REMAINS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.gallupindependent.com/09-25-03disturbingthedead.html Disturbing the dead? Chee Dodge school expansion over ancient Anasazi human remains likely to proceed Zsombor Peter Staff Writer September 25, 2003 YAH' TA' HEY - A few steps from Chee Dodge Elementary School's front doors, yellow tape runs around the 1,000 year-old walls of a recently excavated Anasazi Indian home. Meanwhile, inside the school's gymnasium Tuesday evening, parents and teachers discussed their concerns about the ancient spirits some Navajo's believe the excavation has disturbed. Surveyors were preparing the site for the school's 18,000 square-foot expansion this summer when they came upon the ruins at the building's south-east corner, in the path of the proposed construction. Following federal guidelines, Gallup-McKinley County Schools notified the Navajo Nation Historic Preservation Department and called in a team of archeologists who, according to Chee Dodge Elementary Principal Danny Smith, found ancient human remains near the ruins along with other artifacts. Now, with the fall semester underway and the school once again alive with staff and students, some local Navajos are finding the excavation abrasive to their belief that the remains and artifacts of their ancestors aren't to be disturbed. To do so, they say, means inviting sickness upon those nearby. Smith said a medicine man visited the school last Thursday to cleanse the site performing what one member of the audience called an "enemy way" ceremony and that the extension would be blessed before opening. He said staff also keep an eye on the site during the day to keep students away. But for a few parents still intent on pulling their children out of the school, that's not enough. "I got sick from it and I had to go to a medicine man for it," said Dorothy Claw, who plans on transferring her two kids to St. Francis Catholic School for their protection. "You don't go around and desecrating something that's been around for so long." Despite the two families currently negotiating the transfer of their children out of Chee Dodge, said Smith, he believes most parents are of the mind to give the ruins and remains their due respect with the help of their medicine men and go on with the expansion. One teacher advocating for the planned expansion acknowledged the risks of disturbing ancient remains, "but no matter where we walk on this earth," she said, "we're (going to) walk on dead bodies ... Yeah, it will bother you, but that's what we have medicine men for." And just as this site went uncovered until now, said another, there's no way for parents to be sure the school they transfer their children to won't hold similar secrets beneath its own grounds. According to district Assistant Superintendent of Support Services Leonard Haskie, there are 21 registered historic sites within a one-mile radius of Chee Dodge Elementary alone. What's happening here, he said, is common for this area. The expansion itself, whose 16 classrooms would more than double the main building's instructional facilities and replace the 19 portables in back, is on hold until the Preservation Department gets its final report from the archeologists. The Department prefers keeping ruins as they are when coming across them during construction projects, said Road Planning Program Manager Reid Nelson. "We recognize, though, that sometimes that's not possible." Smith and Haskie said it's unlikely the current plans for the expansion, which involve removing the ruins, will change at this point. Haskie said the site marks the ideal spot for the new classrooms and that changing their location at this late a stage would significantly raise the current $2.5 million bill. "I'm still struggling with what the right thing (to do) is," said Smith, but unless the district hears enough voices opposing the proposed expansion, he doesn't see the plan changing. Board member Andreanne Sloan urged the community and the relatively quite crowd at Tuesday's meeting to let her and other district officials know how they feel about the expansion to help inform their decisions. Chee Dodge Elementary will host another meeting at which community members may discuss the issue Oct. 14, by which time the Preservation Department should have its report. Copyright c. 2003 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Comanche Tribe opens Visitors' Center" --------- Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 08:59:07 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="COMANCHE CENTER" http://www.lawton-constitution.com/pages/lo1.htm Comanche Tribe opens Visitors' Center The Comanche Nation is telling its own stories - through art and history - at its brand new Visitors' Center. The center, south of Comanche Nation Games off Interstate 44, officially opened on Tuesday to offer visitors a glimpse of Comanche heritage and culture. The native stone building has a room for display of artifacts, a reception area for display of arts and crafts that will be on sale, a spacious covered veranda that wraps around three sides of the building to accommodate craftsmen, a video room - and a 12-foot bronze statues that presents Comanche history and spirituality in streamlined form. The sculpture, "Medicine Dream," was created by Barthell "Buddy" Littlechief, who was originally from Lawton and now lives near Cyril. Although he's been working in bronze for seven or eight years, this is his first "monumental" piece. He's hoping it won't be his last; he'd like to cast a 21-foot statue for the Comanche Complex north of Lawton, one that "You would see it coming in from Oklahoma City and going out." In "Medicine Dream," Littlechief deftly combines the figure of a Comanche warrior with the anhinga, a water bird that he said is symbolic of the Native American Church, and two animals that play important roles in Comanche culture: the eagle and the horse. The first exhibit at the center focuses on Comanche warriors from the 18th century to the 21st century. Photographs and artifacts - including military uniforms - trace the history of Comanche warriors both against the U.S. Army and in America's defense. Juanita Pahdopony, curator of the exhibit, said the exhibit includes items provided by Comanche families, as well as the Museum of the Great Plains, the Western History Collections at the University of Oklahoma, Panhandle Plains Historical Museum and the National Ranching Heritage Museum. "The Museum of the Great Plains really helped because they advised me and they really are friends," Pahdopony said. In addition to introducing visitors to Comanche artists and craftsmen, the center will offer information on local attractions. George Wallace, transportation director for the tribe, said the center should be an asset. "I think people will appreciate it after we get it situated," he said. Bill Shoemate, a member of the Comanche Nation Business Committee, said the committee hopes to keep expanding its businesses and cultural offerings at the site. It eventually hopes to build a convention center, restaurant and truck stop. The center is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Copyright c. 2003 The Lawton Constitution. --------- "RE: Let Indians tell own History" --------- Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 08:13:23 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="UNDERSTANDING INDIAN HISTORY" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Sep/09282003/utah/96630.asp To understand Indians' history, we must continue to let them tell it Will Bagley HISTORY MATTERS September 29, 2003 Where did the first Southern Utahns come from? The Old Woman of the Sea emerged from the ocean and gave two brothers a sack and told them to take it to Tov-wots at the middle of the world. The Elder handed the sack to The Younger along with the Old Woman's dire warning not to open the sack. The Younger's curiosity got the best of him, and he untied the sack. Hosts of people sprang out shouting and running over the plain to the mountains. An angry Tov-wots suddenly appeared. "Why have you done this?" he demanded. "I wanted these people to live in that good land to the east, and here, foolish boy, you have let them out in a desert." That's the story the Paiutes told pioneer ethnologist John Wesley Powell. But any non-Indian must appreciate how hard it is to understand America's First Nations, since their very different worldview has been so misunderstood by scholars. If you want to begin to understand Utah's native peoples, you need to listen to them. Eleanor Tom and Dorena Martineau serve as cultural representatives for the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah. You can learn more about Southern Paiute life and history listening to them than you could by reading everything written before 1960 about the Nuwuvi -- the People. Historians have preserved part of the culture of the Southern Paiutes. William Palmer, a powerful Cedar City business and religious leader, collected folklore, history, photographs and artifacts from his native neighbors. He published his findings in the Utah Historical Quarterly, whose early issues were filled with Indian material. Like other studies from the 1920s and 1930s, the articles have problems, such as using maps that show the supposed "territories" of bands that actually spent the year migrating from food source to food source. To his credit, Palmer acknowledged "the Mormon invasion of the Inter- mountain West [in the 1840s and 1850s] plowed ruthlessly through and upturned a rather stable and well established order" of Indian life. His papers now form the heart of Special Collections at Southern Utah University and their eloquent photographs preserve images of those Paiutes who survived what historian Juanita Brooks called "the ragged edge" of Utah's frontier. The portraits of these beautiful and proud people debunk reports like John C. Fremont's that paint them as subhuman. Palmer's two books on Paiute folklore (including a children's book, Why the North Star Stands Still) had problems, since he superimposed his own religion's legends onto the stories his Paiute friends told him. "They don't . . . say it right," recalled tribal elder Clifford Jake. "William Palmer is all backwards to me." Palmer never learned that Indians don't share their most sacred traditions. "White people thought when we told them our stories, they got the whole story," observed Dorena Martineau. "We never told them our most important stories." Eleanor Tom recalls visiting Palmer's home with her mother, who made beadwork for him in exchange for bread, soup and the trinkets Palmer used to pay Paiutes for tribal crafts. Palmer thought the Paiutes had given him "the title 'Tucubin,' which means Friend," but they actually called him "One-Eye." Palmer tried to understand Paiute culture as best he could, but today's scholars, exemplified by anthropologists Ron Holt and Martha Knack (author of the excellent Boundaries Between: The Southern Paiutes), and historians John Alley and tribal member Gary Tom have done a better job telling the Paiute story. The recent History of Utah's American Indians, edited by Indian Affairs director Forrest Cuch, let Utah's Indians interpret their own history. To Utah's credit, the University of Utah's American West Center pioneered having Indians tell American Indian history. Like many successful state programs that genuinely serve the Utah public, the center may face extinction from budget cuts, despite having brought in more in grant money than all the tax dollars it has ever spent. ----- Will Bagley is a Salt Lake City-based historian. Copyright c. 2003, The Salt Lake Tribune. --------- "RE: Bison hunt brings students to Crow Reservation" --------- Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 08:13:23 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BISON HUNT" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.billingsgazette.com/~/local/30-buffalo.inc Students hunt bison as part of cross-cultural experience By BRETT FRENCH Gazette Outdoor Writer September 29, 2003 LAME DEER - On the western flank of Black Canyon, 100 head of bison shuffle uphill and turn across an open meadow. In the deep blue sky, a lone cloud - its downy mass furrowed as if vibrated into sections by the herd's hammering hooves - overlooks the curious gathering below. Solomon Little Owl firmly sets his Nike-clad feet in the dry grass, raises the 7mm magnum hunting rifle to his shoulder and takes aim through the telescopic sight. Behind him, a crowd of about 50 people strain to see, some standing in the back of pickups, others spread across the hillside for a better view. In silence they wait for the crack of the rifle shot and for one of the bison to fall. Saturday was the seventh annual buffalo hunt organized by the Native American Student Services department at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. The hunt is held in the Bighorn Mountains on the Crow Indian Reservation in south-central Montana. The program is a way to introduce Crow culture to university students, as well as the Crow to the university. The three-day trip, which included visits to the Little Bighorn Battlefield and the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, is capped by a buffalo hunt. Students are encouraged to take part in the butchering of the animals killed by tribal members. Little Owl, 30, who grew up on the reservation, is the director of UNC's Native American Student Services. He said the trip offered students a chance to see another side of Native American life. "We're trying to breach a cultural gap," Little Owl said. "A lot of these kids will never go camping, never go to Montana. This is a lifetime experience. "But it's also a recruiting trip for the Crow, to let them know the benefits of a college education," he said. Although the trip is billed as a buffalo hunt, Little Owl uses the experience as a way to separate reality from myth. He said that after the hunt, students will realize that hamburger doesn't come from McDonald's and that Native Americans do not act like those depicted in the movie "Dances With Wolves." The events affect the students in many ways. For 20-year-old Aubrey Nitzberg, the trip has connected her to a past she did not know. "It's more than just a buffalo hunt," she said. Nitzberg said she has Native American ancestors from the Southern Ute, Shoshone, Blackfeet and Cherokee tribes. But until she made her first trip with Little Owl, she felt disconnected from her roots. "There's something soothing about the trip," she said. "I feel like it's home, even though it's not my home. I feel like they are my traditions, even though they are not my own. I feel lucky that they are sharing this with me. It's magical." Since her first trip three years ago, she has become involved in Native American Student Services. She is now the president of First Nations, a student organization. The bison are too bunched up for Little Owl to make a clean kill. The herd pushes through the meadow into the timber and crosses a ridge beyond. In a pickup driven by a tribal member, Little Owl and a few students pursue the herd, hoping to get a shot. Crow game warden Curtis Rides Horse drives behind in a pickup packed with students who are hoping to see the kill and help butcher the meat. "This is so cool," 21-year-old Kristina Chadwick coos as she bounces along. "This is what we came here for. I'm so excited." As the herd slows atop a hill, Little Owl gets a chance to shoot. The rifle report echoes across the mountains. Two more shots and a 3-year-old cow moves away from the now-running herd. She walks into a patch of scattered timber and old downfall as the hunters approach. A final shot at close range finally kills the prostrate cow. As pickups pull up to the site, students jump down and gather around the dead bison while others tend to a bull killed at the top of the canyon. Some of the students take pictures. Some smile. Others look sad or seem worried. There is little talk. But quickly, the hard work of butchering begins. "All right you guys, help out," Little Owl yells to the group. Chadwick pulls up the sleeves of her flowered cotton top and latches on to one of the cow's hairy legs as the animal is gutted. Before long she has a splotch of blood smeared on her forehead, just above her wraparound sunglasses. Chadwick, of Craig, Colo., later said her town wouldn't survive if it wasn't for hunting and coal mining. And although her parents hunted when she was younger, she has never been on a hunt when an animal was killed. Steam rises from the chest cavity after the cow is cut open by a sharp knife and saw. Students help pull the entrails out. Working quickly, Little Owl then skins one side of the bison and begins cutting the meat into quarters - the rear leg is separated from the backbone, then the front leg. The backstraps are peeled away. Students struggle to lift the heavy slabs of meat which are placed on a plastic tarp to keep them free of dirt. Kim Rusho, 19, of Denver, watches the work from a distance, a camera in her hand. "At first it was a shock," she said. "I've never seen an animal die. But after a while, you just see it as meat. "I think it's good for people to experience something like this, even if it is hard," she adds. "We have to see the sacrifice that's made. It's not always convenient to feed yourself." Brett French can be reached at french@billingsgazette.com or at 657-1387. Copyright c. 2003 The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Tribes market Bison Herds to Federal Government" --------- Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 08:13:23 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SELLING BISON" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/~/2003/09/29/front/top/news01.txt Tribes aim to sell bison for federal food programs By Kevin Abourezk, Lee Enterprises September 29, 2003 They call him the "Buffalo Man." Maybe it's the goatee, a tuft of white hanging from the chin like a buffalo's scraggly brown beard. Maybe it's the voice, gruff and deep, like a buffalo rumbling. Or maybe it's the buffalo meat Louis LaRose brings to the people of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska that has prompted the nickname. "There are adults that tease him that he's starting to look like a buffalo as he ages," Mary Kelsey, nutrition specialist for the tribe, said. "They just associate him with the buffalo." Like many tribes, the Winnebago owns its own buffalo herd. LaRose has spent nine years managing the herd, which now numbers 80. As the herd has grown, the tribe has begun to look for ways to market its buffalo meat outside the tribe. For now, the tribe serves the bison meat it processes to tribal members through school lunch and elderly programs. LaRose said the tribe would like to sell its meat to the government for distribution in federal food programs. The tribe may soon get its wish. In March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture designated $1 million to be spent on live bison specifically from American Indian bison producers. Purchased meat would go into the USDA Food and Nutrition Service's Emergency Food and Assistance Program. Indian bison producers who are chosen must ship their live bison to processing plants at their own expense. However, the USDA plans to pay those producers for the cost of processing their bison. Also, Congress recently passed legislation calling for the purchase of $3 million worth of bison meat from Indian bison producers and cooperatives owned by bison producers. The meat would be distributed to reservations through the federal Food Distribution Program, also known as the commodities program. Indian bison producers and cooperatives would compete for the $3 million through a bid process. Bison producers who are chosen must ship their bison to processing plants designated by the USDA and have them processed at their own expense. A Rapid City-based bison cooperative that represents 51 tribes has criticized the USDA for its regulations governing bison meat purchases, saying they effectively exclude Indian bison producers from participating in federal food programs. Currently, the USDA distributes bison meat to Indian people on reservations through the commodities program but does not favor Indian bison producers when buying meat for that program. The Intertribal Bison Cooperative of Rapid City has said individual Indian bison producers can't afford to ship their bison or have them processed at their own expense. "There's no way that a Native American producer could meet those criteria in the scheduled time frame," executive director Fred Dubray, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, said. The group is considering filing a discrimination complaint against the USDA over the regulations, he said. An administrative protest filed by the cooperative with the USDA still must be resolved. William T. Sessions, associate deputy administrator for the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service livestock and seed program, said the regulations are meant to ensure the safety of food products delivered to federal food programs. Like all producers who participate in federal food programs, Indian bison producers are informed of the regulations and expected to meet them, he said. "We believe that USDA contracting officials have treated the ITBC fairly and equitably in all evaluations and analyses," he said. The cooperative has also protested the way the USDA has interpreted the legislation authorizing the $3 million bison meat purchase. Dubray said the legislation was meant to favor Indian bison producers over cooperatives, which may include non-Indian producers, something he said the USDA has failed to do. "It's a frustrating situation," he said. Even as the cooperative and the USDA work to resolve issues with bison meat purchases, tribes continue to look for new ways to market their bison. Tribal bison producers have long advocated expanding distribution of Indian-produced bison meat to additional federal food programs, such as the National School Lunch Program. Phill Follis, bison herd manager for the Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma, said the tribe successfully negotiated with the USDA last year to begin providing bison meat to schools in Oklahoma. Follis said the USDA originally rejected plans to distribute bison meat in Oklahoma schools, citing surveys it had sent to schools around the country that showed little interest in the idea. After he collected supportive letters from several Oklahoma schools and other groups that receive food through federal nutrition programs, the USDA relented, he said. The program would have served as a pilot for other programs. However, the program never began. "I'm not saying it won't happen, but I'm just not sure if it's going on," Follis said. "No one will return my calls." Federal officials could not be reached to comment on the Oklahoma program. On the Winnebago Reservation in northeast Nebraska, bison meat has been a staple of youth lunch programs for years. Mary Kelsey of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska said the tribe has been serving bison meat to children in its Kids Cafe youth summer program since 1998. The tribe began serving bison meat in the program because of its nutritional value. Bison meat contains fewer calories and less cholesterol than other meats, she said. The tribe did not tell Kids Cafe youth it was serving them bison meat the first year it began to do so, Kelsey said. The next year, when the tribe informed them they had eaten bison meat the summer before, the kids were surprised, she said. "They were like, 'We were eating bison?'" Kelsey said. "Then they grabbed a tray and moved on." Contact Kevin Abourezk at 402-473-7237 or kabourezk@journalstar.com Copyright c. 2003 The Rapid City Journal. --------- "RE: Indian Motorcycle going out of Business again" --------- Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 08:10:19 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INDIAN BIKES" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.imdiversity.com/Article_Detail.asp?Article_ID=19661 Indian Motorcycle Going Out of Business Again by AP, The Associated Press September 21, 2003 SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Despite strong sales and praise from bikers, Indian Motorcycle is closing its factory after a deal with a new investor fell through. Company executives broke the bad news to the company's 380 employees on Friday. Indian vice president Fran O'Hagan told the San Jose Mercury News they may end up in bankruptcy court, despite being on target to sell a record 4,500 bikes this year. "The great irony is, the 2004 products finally put Indian where no explanation or apology was necessary to compare Indian to any other brand," he said. The news surprised officials in Gilroy, where Indian has been the third- largest employer behind Christopher Ranch and ConAgra, both involved in the town's garlic business. In 2001, Audax, a private equity firm in Boston, invested $45 million in Indian and brought in new executives, including O'Hagan, who had worked for Jaguar, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Founded in Springfield, Mass., in 1901, Indian rivaled Harley-Davidson until it went out of business for the first time in 1953. After a lengthy court battle, Indian was revived in Gilroy in 1999 by Rey Sotelo, founder of California Motorcycle, a builder of big, customized bikes favored by football players and other celebrities. The company struggled, then grew to 600 employees before being forced to lay off several hundred. Finally, things stabilized. The factory was just about to begin building its 2004 models, O'Hagan said. O'Hagan said he's unsure what will happen next, but creditors will eventually control what's left. Copyright c. 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Copyright c. 2003 IMDiversity Inc. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Alaska Lawmaker sends wrong E-mail to Tribe" --------- Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 08:28:09 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="OOPS!" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.adn.com/alaska/v-printer/story/4002111p-4023353c.html Bunde dogged by 'impolitic' e-mail MISTAKE: South Anchorage Republican's reply to Native council invitation makes rounds. By SEAN COCKERHAM Anchorage Daily News September 25, 2003 JUNEAU - A biting e-mail to a Southeast Native group has boomeranged on Anchorage Sen. Con Bunde. The Tlingit-Haida Central Council had e-mailed Bunde, along with many other state and local officials, an invitation to attend the Southeast Funding Summit in Juneau. The meeting was to figure out how to get priority projects moving in Southeast communities, according to the state. It pushed a button with Bunde, a Republican from South Anchorage. "Let me see if I understand this correctly," he e-mailed back. "We should buy a ticket to Juneau so these people can whine to us about giving them more money. How about when hell freezes over?" Don Bremner, the Tlingit-Haida staffer who sent the invitation, then forwarded Bunde's remarks to all the other state legislators and to Jim Clark, Gov. Frank Murkowski's chief of staff. Bremner included his own remarks along with the e-mail. He suggested Bunde's comments be considered when the legislative leaders assign committee chairmanships. And he requested the matter be brought to the direct attention of Murkowski. Bunde should understand the importance of such summits to building infrastructure and creating jobs, Bremner said. Bunde said in a Wednesday interview that he did not intend to send the e-mail to the Tlingit-Haida Central Council. He meant to send it to his staff and have them refine it into a much less blunt "thanks but no thanks" reply. But something went wrong with his computer, Bunde said. "Unfortunately my reply ... jumped over my staff and right back to the Tlingit-Haida council," he said. Bunde later sent a second e-mail to the tribal group saying it was a mistake for him to send such an "impolitic" reply to the invitation to the funding summit. But he offered no apologies for his opinion. "I broke one of the cardinal legislative rules and actually put into writing what I was thinking," Bunde wrote the group. Bunde said that within two years the state will face a budget crash that will cause a serious downturn in the economy. "I'm frustrated because far too many Alaskans seem to think that these problems can be solved in some other Alaskan's back yard via cuts to state spending and/or taxes others will pay or by the magic of (immediate) economic development," Bunde wrote. The Southeast Funding Summit is being put on by several organizations and government agencies. Those include the Tlingit-Haida council, the state Department of Community and Economic Development, the federal Denali Commission and a regional consortium of municipalities and businesses called the Southeast Conference. Tlingit and Haida president Edward Thomas said he believes Bunde's e- mail reflects a mind-set prevalent in the Legislature. "I'm one of those who have never really expected more out of these guys, speaking personally," he said. North Pole Republican Sen. Gene Therriault, the Senate president, said he does not think Bunde meant any ill will. Bunde is known for a sense of humor that can be a bit caustic, Therriault noted. Therriault said he spoke to Bunde. "I told him he should have been more careful," Therriault said. Daily News reporter Sean Cockerham can be reached at scockerham@adn.com. Copyright c. 2003 The Anchorage Daily News. --------- "RE: Two Tribes in Peru threatened by Hepatitis" --------- Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 08:59:07 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="POSSIBLE EXTINCTION" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/americas/09/23/peru.hepatitis.reut/ Hepatitis threatens to wipe out two Amazon tribes September 24, 2003 GENEVA, Switzerland (Reuters) - The United Nations said Tuesday it had launched a vaccination campaign to save two tribes in the remote Peruvian Amazon threatened with extinction by a mysterious hepatitis B outbreak. "Local leaders warned that (the two tribes) could face extinction within 10 to 12 years, if preventive action, especially among children, is not taken," the U.N. children's fund UNICEF said in a statement. Peru's Health Minister asked UNICEF for help after 40 deaths were recorded in 2002 in one of the tribes, the Candoshi, with only 2,500 members. They suffered 145 cases in 2001 but it was not known how many people died that year. There was no data for a neighboring tribe, the Sharpas, who were also at risk. UNICEF aims to vaccinate all the tribes' 150 babies three times before they are one year old to try to stamp out the disease, which can cause liver failure. The cause of the outbreak was a mystery as was the reason for the "amazingly" high mortality rate in a disease that often takes 20 to 25 years to manifest itself, said UNICEF spokesman Damien Personnaz. The tribes live along the Pastaza and Morona rivers in an area of the Amazon basin so remote that travel from any of the 124 communities in which they live to the nearest health center can take four days. Copyright 2003 Reuters. All rights reserved. Copyright c. 2003 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. --------- "RE: B.C. Report cites deaths of Natives in Custody" --------- Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 08:13:23 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DEATHS IN CUSTODY" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://vancouver.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=bc_aborig20030926 Deaths prompt Aboriginal and police supervision report September 26, 2003 VANCOUVER - B.C. native leaders say it's time the province address the disproportionate number of aboriginal people who die while in police custody. The conclusion comes after a new report examines how many native people have died in jail or have been shot or injured by police in B.C. The report was released by Native Courtworkers Friday morning at the assembly of the First Nations Summit. The Courtworkers report was commissioned by the First Nations Summit following the shooting death of a native woman in Alert Bay on Vancouver Island earlier this year. In northern B.C., 5 aboriginal men have died in custody over the past three years. It's the first time Native Courtworkers have attempted to track all the aboriginal people who've died while under the supervision of police. They say since 1971, 19 native people have either died in custody or have been shot by officers. Darlene Shackelly is the executive director of the Native Courtworker Association of B.C. and says native people in Vancouver's inner city face rough treatment by police, but do nothing about it. "They're afraid that should they ever file a complaint, they're back on the street and they may be facing the same police officer," she says. "So, fear actually prevents them from actually filing reports." After looking over the report, summit chief Ed John says he knows of other names that should be added to the list. "There's a really large perception in our communities that they're not being treated fairly at the hands of policing authorities," he says. "But, you know, we need policing in all of our communities." John says he'll take the custody deaths report to the Solicitor General and Attorney General of B.C. "Everyone one of those situations is different, and everyone of them are unique and we need to understand it," says John. "We need to let the world, let the people know that there's far too many of our people dying in these kinds of circumstances and we want to change that." He says police procedures need to change to regain the trust of native people. Copyright c. 2002 CBC All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Saskatchewan Natives still face Social Hurdles" --------- Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2003 08:42:36 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SASKATCHEWAN NATIVES" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.canada.com/~id=a20308f2-5a6e-40e7-97c1-d7d2024a7baf Saskatchewan Natives still face social hurdles: survey Shauna Rempel The StarPhoenix September 25, 2003 Despite recent gains, Saskatchewan aboriginal people living away from reserves still face gaps in housing, health and education, a Statistics Canada survey on 2001 census data indicates. Aboriginal people in Saskatoon and other cities face crowded housing and still lag behind non-aboriginals in completion of high school and post- secondary education, although some gains have been made since the last census in 1996. Four per cent more non-reserve aboriginal youth under 24 completed high school in 2001 than they did five years ago, bringing the number of secondary graduates to 52 per cent. The 2001 Aboriginal Peoples Survey, released Wednesday, noted that aboriginal people were more likely to go back to high school as adults. Five per cent more non-reserve aboriginal people are completing post- secondary education, something Ken Coates, the dean of arts and science at the University of Saskatchewan, said is "tremendous." The completion rate for post-secondary is still less than 40 per cent, and Coates said post-secondary institutions need to adjust and respond to the needs of aboriginal students, many of whom come from smaller communities and are used to a different learning environment. High numbers of aboriginal students are enrolling at the U of S and other post-secondary institutions, but federal educational funding for tuition, professors and other resources has not kept up with the demand, Coates said. Finances, along with family responsibilities and boredom, were the top reasons for aboriginal people to leave secondary and post-secondary studies. Brenda Wallace, executive director of Saskatoon Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP), says there is an acute shortage of affordable housing for a growing population. "Until 2003 there was a 12-year drought in construction of rental accommodation, and that's not even affordable rental accommodation," she said Wednesday. She said families are often doubling up in order to make the rent. Saskatoon has the highest rate of crowded non-reserve aboriginal households among Prairie cities. Crowding is defined as one or more people occupying each room. The survey indicates 18 per cent of Saskatoon's aboriginal population live in crowded households. That's a slight improvement since 1996, when the rate was 20 per cent. Natives make up five per cent of the city's population. At 15 per cent, three times as many of Regina's aboriginal population are living in crowded homes than the city's total population of people living in close quarters. Inadequate housing leads to a host of health problems such as transmission of infectious disease, family tensions and violence, the survey notes. Although initiatives like local area plans, price regulations from within the construction industry and affordable housing agencies like Quint Development Corp. help, Wallace said the problem of overcrowding persists. Copyright c. 2003 The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon). --------- "RE: Fontaine's $900,000 proposed Office Budget" --------- Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 08:59:07 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="AFN CHIEF'S OFFICE BUDGET" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.canada.com/~753c98b7-be7c-43f0-93be-ecb361b04f48&disp=e&end National native chief raises eyebrows with $900,000 proposed office budget SUE BAILEY Canadian Press Monday, September 22, 2003 OTTAWA (CP) - Assembly of First Nations leader Phil Fontaine, elected in July on a platform of fighting native poverty, has asked Indian Affairs for almost $900,000 to set up his Ottawa office. There are also plans to spend an additional $300,000 to upgrade assembly headquarters that were renovated four years ago during Fontaine's first three-year term, for a total of $1.2-million in proposed new spending. "This does not make sense and does not respect the very poor circumstances that many, many people on reserves are facing," MP John Duncan, Canadian Alliance critic for native affairs, said Monday. Fontaine was not available for comment. But Manny Jules, his new chief of staff, justified the requests now being reviewed by Indian Affairs. "There's always a difference between what you request and what you get," he said in an interview. Fontaine is launching an ambitious campaign for better native housing, education, health and other services, Jules said. "It's all about looking at how we're going to re-tool the Assembly of First Nations to achieve the objectives that the national chief campaigned on." Jules did not offer a detailed breakdown of how the $900,000 would be spent. But up to $250,000 of that amount will be needed to compensate four non-political assembly staff who were fired after Fontaine's arrival, he confirmed. "We want to be fair to those that are going to be leaving." Sources say the firings came despite staffing rules meant to protect such workers from "purges" after leadership changes. At least three employees are considering legal action, said a source who asked not to be identified. Fontaine's predecessor Matthew Coon Come relocated staff to spare severance payouts and didn't spend "a penny" on renovations, said a former assembly worker who didn't wish to be identified. "He was very frugal." In the meantime, Fontaine wants to more than double his Ottawa staff to 18 from the number who worked under Coon Come. As for renovations, Jules conceded that work was done under Fontaine's first term - he was defeated by Coon Come in 2000 - including oak flooring and cherrywood wall panels in the national chief's office. But more changes are needed, Jules said. "One of the things we want to make sure of is that people, when they come into the Assembly of First Nations, know they're coming into a national institute that represents First Nations across the country." In the 2000 leadership contest that he lost to Coon Come, Fontaine was criticized for being too cozy with Liberals to fight for native causes. Coon Come was more confrontational, and saw his Indian Affairs budget slashed to about $6 million from $19 million. Roberta Jamieson, chief of the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory in southwestern Ontario, also ran for national chief in July. She campaigned on a native-rights platform and was surprised at news of Fontaine's proposed office budget. "It's a very big pricetag," she said in an interview. "We all know what the needs are in the communities. "He'll have to account to the chiefs," she said of the more than 600 native leaders that make up the assembly. Even some members of Fontaine's own executive of 10 vice-chiefs openly questioned his plans. "Why would you require such a huge contingent of staff?" said Charles Fox, representing Ontario. Copyright c. 2003 The Canadian Press. --------- "RE: Supreme Court hands Metis huge Victory" --------- Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2003 08:42:36 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="METIS RIGHTS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.canada.com/~b463984e-4af5-4d3e-ada9-735d16451628 Supreme Court hands Metis huge victory Doug Cuthand The StarPhoenix Friday, September 26, 2003 The Supreme Court has recognized that the Metis have hunting rights similar to those of status Indians. In a landmark decision, it recognized that the Metis have aboriginal rights, as stated in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is an important part of the Constitution. Make no mistake, this is a really big win for the Metis. It is a bigger win than many people think when they look only on the surface. What the Supreme Court has done is to provide Metis people with legal recognition as a people with special rights under the Constitution. This opens the door for expanded rights in a number of important areas, including self-government, resource rights and social rights. For years, the federal position has been that because the Metis received script for their land, they had extinguished their rights. This ruling turns that position on its head. The case in question was put forward on behalf of the Metis living in the Sault Saint Marie area, but it will have national implications. While the case was decided in favour of a Metis hunter in Ontario, it sets a precedent that will stretch across the country. It all began on Oct. 22, 1993, when Steve and Roddy Powley went hunting and shot a moose. The father and son tagged it with their Metis card and declared that they were harvesting meat for winter. They were subsequently charged with hunting moose without a licence and unlawful possession of moose meat. After a few years of legal wrangling, they went to court in 1998. The trial lasted 14 days and in the end the trial judge Charles Vaillancourt agreed that the Metis people had an existing aboriginal right to hunt for food. The Crown appealed the case to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in 2000, where the appeal was dismissed. The Crown then took the case to the Ontario court of appeal in 2001 and again the court sided with the Metis and upheld the two earlier decisions In 2001, the province of Ontario was granted leave to the Supreme Court and the case was heard in March this year. The decision upholding the lower courts' rulings came down on Sept. 19. In total, it was almost eight years from the time the moose was shot. The case was won at every level but Ottawa stubbornly clung to its game plan that it had to be defeated. Had that happened, it would have been a crushing blow to the Metis people. It would have denied them their rights under the Constitution and, in the end, would have proven a serious loss for all aboriginal peoples. AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine calls it a victory for constitutional rights. "We want to applaud the Supreme Court for continuing to recognize and uphold the reality of aboriginal and treaty rights in Section 35 of Canada's Constitution." But there are differences in the right to hunt under this ruling and the right enjoyed by treaty Indians. The ruling for the Metis is site specific, while the right for Indians is within the treaty territory. Metis are allowed to hunt for food within their own immediate area. In other words, they can hunt only in their local hunting areas. Treaty Indians, on the other hand, can and do hunt freely throughout the treaty area. However, in Saskatchewan the Metis right to hunt has been recognized in the north for the past seven years. Now, the next important step in the process begins. The Metis and First Nations leaders must get together with the province and negotiate conservation and co-management agreements, so the resource and our hunting rights are protected for coming generations. The key to the long-term success of this ruling depends on the ability of all the parties to work together to manage the resource. Once again, the courts have led the way on an important issue and done what the federal and provincial governments failed to do. Governments had neither the will nor inclination to grant Metis people their rights. Instead, they had to be pushed by the courts. Copyright c. 2003 The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon). --------- "RE: Police Officer testifies on Native Teen's Death" --------- Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 08:59:07 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="STONECHILD INQUEST" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://canada.com/~id=E9C1CA4E-1C99-4787-BF7E-C31190FF766F Officer ruled out foul play Constable says he followed police procedure Betty Ann Adam The StarPhoenix September 24, 2003 The first police officer at the scene of Neil Stonechild's frozen body in a field in the north industrial area of Saskatoon on Nov. 29, 1990, quickly surmised there had been no foul play in the Saulteaux teenager's death. Rene Lagimodiere on Monday told the commission of inquiry looking into events surrounding Stonechild's death that after touching the body and determining that it was frozen, he followed the police department policy of using his radio to inform dispatch and to request the police identification unit and a coroner be sent to the scene. Lagimodiere said he did not ask for the patrol sergeant to be sent out, as he would have done if there had been obvious signs of foul play or of a struggle. It would have been the patrol sergeant's decision whether to bring in a major crimes investigator. Stonechild's family has always publicly questioned the lack of an in- depth investigation into the death. Stonechild's friend, Jason Roy, had disclosed, as early as one month after the death, that he had last seen Stonechild in the back seat of a police cruiser, screaming "they're gonna kill me." A Kilburn Hall supervisor told the inquiry Monday that she did not advise Roy to go to the police with that information. Police told the press four months after the death, that they thought Stonechild had been intoxicated and was walking to the adult jail, located in the north end of the city a few blocks from where his body was found. Stonechild was at large from a community home for young offenders at the time of his death. The police theory didn't satisfy his family or the community home operator, Pat Pickard, who has testified that Stonechild had promised her on the phone the night he went missing that he would turn himself in to her the next day. His body was found five days later, several kilometres from the place where Roy said he saw Stonechild in the police car. On Monday, Lagimodiere said he also wondered how the victim had come to be in the remote field, but had followed the police policy, which was that unless there was an obvious sign of foul play, there was no need to call an investigator, he said. Lagimodiere, now retired, was a constable with 16 years experience at the time. He observed a set of footprints, which he thought were the victim's, which began in a parking lot on the 800 block of 57th Street East. The tracks, which appeared to be several days old, based on the condition of the snow, led north-northeast through a field toward 58th Street. The tracks led into a ditch that runs east-west through the field, where it appeared the person had fallen and stumbled about before coming back out on the south side of the ditch and heading back toward 57th Street. The body was found a short distance south of the ditch. There were also fresh tracks left by the two people who found the body. Lagimodiere did not observe any animal tracks in the area. Coroner Dr. Brian Fern came and examined the body. Fern turned the body over and checked the chest and stomach for injuries that may have contributed to the death but didn't find any, Lagimodiere said. Lagimodiere said Fern estimated the body had been there several days. Lagimodiere said he does not remember noticing two diagonal abrasions on the victim's nose or scratches on the side of his face. The victim was wearing a blue Boy's Town jacket, a red lumberjack shirt and a T-shirt, with jeans and only one running shoe. Lagimodiere requested a canine unit come to look for the victim's missing shoe. It arrived shortly after the body was taken by ambulance from the scene. The canine search was brief, lasting only about 15 minutes, he said. During cross examination, police union lawyer Drew Plaxton tried to determine whether the snow appeared to have been crusted over at the time Stonechild walked and collapsed on it. Plaxton asked whether fresh falling snow would have been crusted. Lagimodiere didn't know. He didn't observe snow on top of the body, as there may have been if it had snowed after Stonechild collapsed. Lagimodiere couldn't remember if the 57th Street parking lot, where the tracks appeared to have begun, had been graded or driven on or had bare gravel. He didn't think there were visible footprints on the parking lot. Lagimodiere was not aware of who the victim was and did not know that police had been dispatched to seek Stonechild five days earlier, on Nov. 24. Lagimodiere never had any other connection to the Stonechild case. He said he never heard any rumours about possible police involvement in the case until 2000, when an RCMP task force investigator called him at his current home in Victoria, B.C. Cross examination of Lagimodiere will be delayed until after the coroner takes the stand today. Earlier on Monday, the inquiry heard from Dianna Fraser, who was a case worker at the Kilburn Hall closed custody facility where Stonechild and his friend Jason Roy had both served terms as young offenders. Fraser said Roy told her within a month of Stonechild's death that he had been walking from Snowberry Downs apartments and had seen Stonechild in the back seat of a police car screaming, "they're gonna kill me man, they're gonna kill me." "I believed him," Fraser said. She said she thought it was after Stonechild's funeral that Roy told her. He had been distraught and was feeling very guilty, she said. Fraser is the first witness to specify a time soon after the death when Roy described seeing Stonechild in a police car. Other witnesses so far have not been able to say when Roy first told of seeing Stonechild in the police car. Stonechild's mother, Stella Bignell, has said Roy told her about it sometime after the snow was gone in 1991. Another Kilburn Hall worker, Brenda Valiaho, who talked to Roy in Nov. 1991, while she was doing a practicum for her master's degree in educational psychology, has said she thought he was disclosing the incident for the first time when he described the event to her. On Monday, Fraser said Roy told her about the incident while they were "in the community," meaning she was not at work and they were not at a detention facility at the time. If she had been at work, she would have made a note of it in her work log, she said. Fraser said she did not advise him to go to the police with his account because she didn't think they would believe him. "I come from communities where dumping of people who were intoxicated was a common occurrence," Fraser said. "Most people don't believe our kids. They can tell us things about people in authority but very few people listen to them," she said. "I'd be setting him up for a horrible ride (if I advised him to tell police)," she said, noting that a predisposition report about Roy that was read into the inquiry record shows he had recurring conflict with the law and repeatedly dropped out of school. Fraser said she had lived in two other north-central Saskatchewan communities, Leoville and Big River, in the 1960s and knew that RCMP had dropped off intoxicated people in places from which they would have a long walk back. Prior to Roy telling her what he had seen that night, Fraser had already heard "a flurry of rumours" from youth who were in custody at Kilburn about what might have happened the night Stonechild disappeared. She phoned the police to tell them she had heard that Stonechild had been at a party attended by another youth who had "given him a licking," about a month earlier. That youth's name cannot be published under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. She also told police people would be gathering at Stonechild's mother's home after the funeral and she was concerned that there could be conflict between groups of people because emotions were running high. She wanted to "curb" possible trouble at the wake. About a year later, Fraser was Roy's case worker while he was in custody at Kilburn Hall. He was having difficulty sleeping and she thought it would be helpful for him to have a private session with a worker, so she recommended he talk with Valiaho. Fraser didn't attempt to have an in-depth discussion with Roy because, as a case-worker, their interviews were done in a room with windows, allowing other youth to observe if he became emotional. She knew he would have the privacy to unburden himself if he talked to Valiaho, who did her sessions in a more private room. Valiaho has said she thought Roy's memory was blocked before he told her of seeing Stonechild in a police car, while using a visualization technique to relive the event. The inquiry also heard testimony of Const. Kevin Lewis who responded on Dec. 20, 1990, to a theft at the Saan Store at the former Wildwood Mall on Eighth Street, now the Centre at C ircle and Eighth. Lewis did not remember anything about the incident but referred to his handwritten notes and other documents related to it. Roy has said that he was arrested for stealing a purse and was taken to the police station, placed in an interview room, where he was given a blank form and asked if he wanted to "reconsider" an earlier statement in which he described Stonechild in the back of the police car with blood on his face. Roy has said he made a false statement clearing the police because he wanted to get out of police custody and was afraid of the police. He said the date on the document he wrote on Dec. 20, 1990 is now dated Nov. 30, 1990 and that he is not the one who changed it. No other statement has been presented to the inquiry. Lewis said Monday he doesn't recall taking Roy to the police station and doesn't think he did take him there because the paper work didn't have notations that would have been made if he had been brought there. Lewis said he would have done a police computer check on Roy and would not have brought him to the station unless there had been a warrant for his arrest. The inquiry has heard that Roy was being sought for breach of probation and on suspicion of robbery. Documents Lewis filled out show he released Roy 27 minutes after meeting him at the Saan Store, probably in a loss prevention security room. Lewis couldn't remember and did not have notes on whether he took Roy home, or whether Roy's mother came to get him at the store or at the police station. A parents' information notice, which must be given to a youth's parents upon release, has Jason Roy's name in the space provided for the name of the parent into whose custody he is being released. Lewis said that must have been a mistake. The 27-minute interval would not have been long enough to bring Roy to the station and have him write a statement, then take him home to Avenue I South in winter driving conditions on a busy shopping night before Christmas, he said. Copyright c. 2003 The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon). --------- "RE: Former CdA Police Chief to take charge on Rez" --------- Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2003 08:42:36 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="COEUR d'ALENE POLICE" http://www.spokesmanreview.com/~section.tribal_news Cronin gets job with tribe Former CdA police chief to take charge of reservation department Kevin Taylor and Susan Drumheller September 18, 2003 Staff writers COEUR d'ALENE - Less than three weeks after losing his job as chief of the Coeur d'Alene Police Department, Tom Cronin has accepted a job with the Coeur d'Alene Tribe. Cronin will take over as the tribe's police chief on Sept. 29, the tribe announced Wednesday. "I'm excited," Cronin said in a telephone interview Wednesday evening. Cronin will be working under a yearly contract with the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, tribal council member Chuck Matheson said. "We are dotting the i's and crossing the t's," Matheson, the tribe's law and order administrator, said by telephone Wednesday night. Cronin said the tribal job offers the same salary range as the one for the city of Coeur d'Alene. Cronin reportedly was paid $66,000 a year in Coeur d'Alene. Matheson said the council recently decided not to renew the contract of longtime tribal police chief Harold Scott. He would not discuss the matter, and Scott could not be reached for comment. Cronin resigned earlier this month following a disagreement with the Coeur d'Alene City Council over how to respond to the disclosure that 24 police officers have at some point over the past 27 years lacked certification from the state's Peace Officer Standards and Training Academy. The lack of certification could mean that hundreds of arrests could be deemed invalid by the courts. Public defenders in Kootenai County are reviewing 8,000 cases from the past two years to see if their clients were arrested by uncertified officers. The county prosecutor sent a letter to 74 lawyers advising that their clients may be affected. Cronin resigned amid a power struggle with the City Council after he tried to have the lieutenant in charge of the paperwork fired. The council found that Cronin had no grounds to fire him. The brouhaha over the lack of certification doesn't worry the tribal leadership. "We've decided that Tom Cronin will do an excellent job as our next police chief," Matheson said in a press release. "Of course we're aware of the issues regarding officer certification in the city of Coeur d'Alene," he said. "But we are satisfied this problem arose long before Mr. Cronin was the city's chief of police, and that he handled the matter, once he became aware of it, in the best manner possible." Tribal law enforcement has become increasingly complex in recent years. In addition to tribal codes, officers are expected to know county, state and federal laws. Tribal police work in a quilt of jurisdictions, enforcing some federal and state laws as well as being cross-deputized with Benewah County. Cronin has 39 years of law enforcement experience -- including 31 years with the Chicago Police Department -- as well as expertise in crime scene investigations and recent involvement with the Kootenai County Drug Task Force. The reservation, like many rural areas in North Idaho, has a growing methamphetamine problem, and the council hopes Cronin can help combat the drug. "I think the Chicago Police Department is a very diverse department, handling a lot of different areas, and he was there a long time soaking up things that our guys need to know," Matheson said. The tribe had not begun to search for a new chief, and was introduced to Cronin through Kootenai County Sheriff Rocky Watson. "It will be a challenge for Tom, but they need somebody like Tom," Watson said Wednesday. "They have a lot of great equipment and programs and now they need someone to organize it and pull it all together." Cronin oversaw 85 employees in Coeur d'Alene. The tribal police department has 14 officers, and Cronin is unlikely to have much support staff. "I'm going to have to do my own typing," he said. Going from Chicago to Plummer in three years is a good thing, Cronin said. "I came here because I loved the mountains and the lakes," he said. "Somebody said, `Why don't you go back to Chicago?' I had an offer. I turned it down because now I love the people here." Cronin will have to deal with some turmoil in his new job. In addition to Scott leaving, Lt. Trent Aubertin, a tribal officer since 1997, was fired last week. Aubertin had acted as interim chief. No reason was given for his departure. The tribe also recently lost its prosecutor, Rudy Verschoor, who quit after getting a job with the Kootenai County Prosecutor's Office. Copyright c. 2003, The Spokesman-Review. --------- "RE: Study: More Minnesota Indians stopped by Police" --------- Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 08:28:09 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MINNESOTA PROFILING" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4117378.html Profiling study: Cops stop whites less, find more contraband Conrad deFiebre, Star Tribune September 25, 2003 Blacks, Latinos and American Indians are more likely than whites to be stopped by police and searched but much less likely to be found with anything illegal, a study of alleged racial profiling by Minnesota law enforcers showed Wednesday. Authors of the state-funded study of nearly 200,000 traffic stops in 2002 said it reveals a "strong likelihood" of racial bias in police policies and practices that probably extends across Minnesota. "These numbers are certainly of concern," said state Public Safety Commissioner Rich Stanek. "They are consistent with data from other states. Still, the issue of biased policing needs our full attention." But neither the study authors nor Stanek, on leave from his job as a Minneapolis police inspector and who as a legislator sponsored the $4.3 million appropriation for the study, offered many specific recommendations to discourage driving arrests based on race. They agreed that strategies should be developed after a review of the findings by police officials, political leaders and community members. Already, 150 police agencies have participated in anti-profiling training that was also authorized by Stanek's law. Another part of it called for individual complaints of racial profiling to be received via a toll-free telephone number at the attorney general's office. Stanek said that of 44 such complaints, none has been sustained. Leslie Sandberg, spokeswoman for Attorney General Mike Hatch, said his office only sends out complaint forms, which are evaluated by the targeted officers' own departments. Former Hennepin County Attorney Thomas Johnson, who now leads the Council on Crime and Justice, one of the study's conductors, said collection of race data on police stops should be continued to measure progress in combating profiling. But few, if any, departments did so after the state funding ran out in December, he acknowledged. In addition to the council, the Institute on Race & Poverty at the University of Minnesota Law School produced the study. In exchange for voluntary participation in the yearlong study, police and sheriffs' departments got $1.7 million in state grants to buy video cameras for squad cars. Among the agencies that did not join the study were the State Patrol, St. Paul police and the Hennepin and Washington county sheriffs. Those that participated include the Minneapolis, St. Cloud and Rochester police, as well as the Anoka, Dakota, Ramsey and Scott county sheriffs. The study's 65 jurisdictions are home to 2 million of Minnesota's 5 million residents. Understated findings? Arresting officers themselves recorded information about stops without cross-checks against dispatch logs. So the findings may understate disparities in treatment of white and minority suspects, Johnson said. From Akeley (population 411) to the major Twin Cities-area jurisdictions, those disparities were remarkably consistent. Whites were stopped at a higher rate than their share of the local driving-age population in only eight of the 60 areas with enough stops to determine statistical significance. Blacks were overstopped in every jurisdiction but one, Latinos in all but five. Overall, 23.5 percent of discretionary police searches of white suspects yielded illegal drugs, weapons or stolen property, compared with 19.7 percent for Indians, 11 percent for blacks and 9 percent for Latinos. But blacks were subjected to searches at a higher rate than whites in all but two of the 37 jurisdictions where both races were searched. Data on Indians were more varied, but they were three times more likely than whites to be searched. In Minneapolis alone, equal police treatment of the races would have resulted in blacks being stopped 12,804 fewer times and searched 1,053 fewer times, the study's authors said. 'Fishing expeditions' Bill Gillespie, executive director of the 7,000-member Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, said the study proves that white and minority suspects are handled differently but doesn't show why. He called the search findings the most disturbing. "That tells me some of those stops of minorities are fishing expeditions," he said. "That needs to be further explored." Minneapolis Police Chief Robert Olson said he wasn't surprised by the findings. "They're not much different from what we did two years ago," he said. "I was glad to see that our disparities aren't as high as in the suburbs." Only a handful of suburban police departments - Fridley, New Hope, Plymouth, Savage and St. Cloud's Sauk Rapids - participated in the study. But police in those cities stopped blacks four times more than average and searched them twice as often. Olson also said the study did not fully account for variables such as the 150,000 nonresidents who come into Minneapolis daily or the increased presence of police patrols in the low-income, high-crime areas typically inhabited by minority groups. But the study authors noted that blacks were more likely than whites to be stopped in every Minneapolis census tract but one. "Taken together, these patterns warrant serious examination," the study's authors said. "It is fair to conclude that the problems that they suggest are not isolated to a handful of jurisdictions." Conrad deFiebre is at cdefiebre@startribune.com. Copyright c. 2003 Star Tribune. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Nez Perce Teen shot and killed by Police Officer" --------- Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 08:22:48 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DEAF TEEN KILLED" http://www.indianz.com/ http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/~policeshooting29.html Teen shot by police was hard of hearing, armed with BB gun By The Associated Press September 30, 2003 SPOKANE - A teenager who was shot to death by police has been tentatively identified as a 15-year-old member of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe who was losing his hearing. In addition, it was a BB gun that Eagle Michael, 15, of Worley, Idaho, pointed at police officers shortly before he was shot Saturday afternoon, according to family members and the three people who were with him. Officer Dick Cottam would not say Sunday night what the weapon was. Initial reports indicate the officer who shot Michael "followed her training when someone points a gun at her and refuses to put it down," Cottam said. Michael, a ninth grader, wore a blue hearing aid and was attending the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind to learn sign language, said his aunt, Norma Jean Louie. Relatives gathered Sunday at the shooting site, and two of those who were with Michael when he was killed returned to lay flowers on the pavement and sing a traditional Indian song. The memorial grew throughout the day as others added a chair with a stuffed eagle, flowers, balloons and an enlarged copy of Michael's student ID card. The officer's name has been withheld. She remains on administrative leave, a standard procedure under police department policy. The shooting is being investigated by the Spokane County sheriff's office. The shooting occurred after an officer stopped four people while investigating a report of a beer theft from the Maid O'Clover convenience store, police Capt. Glenn Winkey said. The officer ordered all four to sit on the curb. Three told The Spokesman Review they complied, but Michael did not. Other witnesses say he had a gun and the officer retreated, trying to keep the patrol car between herself and the teenager. The three companions, all transients who were initially taken into custody and then released, say they told the officer, "Don't shoot, it's a BB gun," but another witness said he did not hear any of them say Michael's weapon was a BB gun. "If it was a BB gun," said Billy Blue Walrath, who lives nearby and said he saw the shooting from about 25 feet away, "it sure looked like a 9mm or .45. It was a big gun." As Michael bent to pick up the beer, the officer was yelling, "put the gun down, put the gun down," Walrath said. "It looked like he was going to grab the beer and take off," Walrath said, "and she yelled at him a couple more times to put the gun down, and then she fired." Walrath said Saturday that Michael had pointed his weapon at police, then turned toward bystanders before being shot once in the head. Michael, the son of Blu'Ann Matt of Worley previously attended Coeur d'Alene Tribal School and received awards in the arts and sports last fall as an eighth grader. He also received a computer from the St. Maries Elks in an annual giveaway in 2001. Carl Peterson, director of student services with the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind, said Michael came to the school with a history of trouble and tendencies that were being resolved. Michael was sharp and found a passion for football but never showed up for his first game, Peterson said. "He didn't come back to school last week," Peterson said. "We were expecting him. We didn't know where he was, if he was sick or what happened." Copyright c. 2003 The Seattle Times Company. --------- "RE: Janklow Plea: Not guilty" --------- Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 08:13:23 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TRIAL DATE SET" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.argusleader.com/news/Saturdayfeature.shtml Plea: Not guilty John-John Williams IV jjwilliams@argusleader.com September 27, 2003 Judge sets Dec. 1 as date for congressman's trial FLANDREAU - U.S. Rep. Bill Janklow pleaded not guilty Friday to felony manslaughter resulting from an Aug. 16 accident that killed a Minnesota man and threatened the political career of one of South Dakota's most successful politicians. Janklow was officially booked in the case in the Moody County Sheriff's Department following the five-minute arraignment. Circuit Judge Rodney Steele set a trial date for Dec. 1. There were fewer members of the media and supporters at Friday's hearing than the crowd that gathered for the freshman congressman's initial court appearance Sept. 2. About 15 protesters, under the flag of the American Indian Movement, assembled outside the courthouse. Janklow entered the courtroom shortly before 2:30 p.m. accompanied by his lawyer, Edwin Evans of Sioux Falls, and his son Russell. He sat quietly with his lawyer, speaking only when responding to questions from Steele. Steele read the four charges filed against Janklow: felony second-degree manslaughter and three misdemeanors, reckless driving, speeding and running a stop sign. The judge asked if he understood. "Yes, sir," Janklow said. Authorities say the former four-term governor was driving 71 miles per hour in a 55 mph zone in rural Moody County when he ran a stop sign and collided with a motorcycle driven by Randy Scott, 55, of Hardwick, Minn. Janklow, 64, injured his hand and head in the accident and has had difficulty with cognitive and motor skills in the aftermath. At a press conference in Sioux Falls on Monday, he said that he is recovering steadily from the injuries - including a subdural hematoma, commonly called bleeding on the brain - but still has trouble remembering names, for instance. On Friday, he walked with the assistance of a friend but appeared more mobile than at the Sept. 2 appearance. About 10 members of the Scott family, including Randy Scott's mother, Marcella, attended the hearing. Marcella Scott declined comment. "I really don't have anything to say at this time," she said. Scott's son, J.R. Scott, did not attend the hearing and stayed in Herried to tend to business at his sale barn. He said in an interview that he didn't anticipate anything other than what happened in court Friday. "It didn't surprise me. I expected that," he said. For now, he won't comment on what is next for the Scott family, including the possibility of civil lawsuit against Janklow. "I just don't want to say anything more right now," Scott said. When a reporter asked Janklow if he had a comment about Friday's arraignment, he responded: "No, sir." Evans also declined comment. Moody County State's Attorney Bill Ellingson could not be reached for comment Friday evening. The felony charge carries a possible sentence of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Steele left Janklow's personal recognizance bond in place. The congressman's supporters approached him, some giving him a hug, as he entered the courthouse. Janklow supporter Roger Raether of Sioux Falls said there's much interest in the case. "I think it's a terrible tragedy," Raether said. "Governor Janklow's done a lot for this state. It's a terrible tragedy this young man was killed." After the hearing, Janklow walked past a group of 15 Native Americans who held signs. One read: "Wild Bill is not the victim, he is the violator." Protesters shouted: "No justice, no peace." Several of the protesters said they came to voice their opposition to Janklow, who, as governor and attorney general, had a sometimes turbulent relationship with Native Americans. "I wanted to be here in the spirit of the Indian people," said Francis Eastman of Flandreau. Janklow slowly walked to an awaiting Isuzu Ascender, got in and was driven away. The same SUV appeared across the street at the Moody County Sheriff's Department minutes later. Janklow walked into the building with Evans at 2:42 p.m. He emerged five minutes later and was driven away. When asked if Janklow had been booked, Moody County Sheriff Jerry Hoffman responded: "If that's what you want to call it, yes." Hoffman said Janklow's photograph was taken during his five minutes in the building. He also said the photograph could not be made available on Friday because of the length of time it takes to develop film. Hoffman said the photograph would be developed next week. Janklow had his fingerprints taken at the Minnehaha County Sheriff's Department on Sept. 19. Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead said different counties have different booking procedures. "Typically, they do fingerprinting," he said. "They'll take a mugshot, and then if there is a (personal recognizance) bond, they are released." The U.S. House ethics committee would automatically investigate Janklow if he is convicted of a felony. The committee's rules say representatives who plead guilty or are convicted of a crime that carries two or more years in prison should refrain from voting in the chamber until his or her record is cleared, or until he or she is re-elected. Janklow's term expires at the end of next year. At Monday's press conference, he said the injuries and political fallout from the crash have not affected his ability to serve in Congress. If a plea agreement is reached, prosecutors must provide crime victims or the next of kin with an opportunity to comment on the terms of those agreements. The Associated Press and Argus Leader reporter David Kranz contributed to this article. Reach reporter John-John Williams IV at 331-2328. Copyright 2003 Argus Leader. All rights reserved --------- "RE: GIAGO: Who gave the order to kill Anna Mae?" --------- Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 08:22:48 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ANNA MAE PICTOU-AQUASH" http://www.lakotajournal.com/notes.htm NOTES FROM INDIAN COUNTRY Who gave the order to kill Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash? By Tim Giago After 27 years of uneasy freedom, Arlo Looking Cloud sits in the Pennington County Jail in Rapid City, SD, awaiting trial for the murder of Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash on the Pine Ridge Reservation in December of 1978. Looking Cloud, along with Canadian Indian John Graham, AKA John Boy Patton, were charged with murdering Pictou-Aquash after many years of investigation by the FBI and U.S. Marshals. Graham is still a fugitive and is believed to be hiding in Canada. Looking Cloud's trial is set for Feb. 3, 2004. His trial was delayed after court appointed attorney Tim Rensch said he needed more time because of the volumes of documents and the number tapes involved in the case. The trial had been scheduled for September 30. Looking Cloud and Graham were security guards within the American Indian Movement during the 1970s. Members of AIM occupied the village of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1973. Looking Cloud is an Oglala Lakota who was raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Before, during and after the Wounded Knee occupation, hard feelings existed between AIM and many residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation. People are still reluctant to talk about those days and this reluctance may present problems for the defense and the prosecution. AIM leadership became fractionated after Wounded Knee. The