From gars@speakeasy.org Wed Nov 12 00:52:32 2003 Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2003 15:18:47 -0800 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews11.045 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 11, ISSUE 045 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 November 8, 2003 Mvskogee Echolee/Frost Moon Cree Kaskatinopizun/Moon when rivers begin to freeze +-------------------------------------------------------+ | Much more happens in Indian Country than is reported | | in this weekly newsletter. For daily updates & events | | go to http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm | +-------------------------------------------------------+ Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin -- Blackfeet -- News for All the People Ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min -- Ojibwe -- We Are Talking About Ourselves Aunchemokauhettittea -- Naragansett -- Let Us Share News Kanoheda Aniyvwiya -- Cherokee -- Journal of the People O Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse -- Creek -- People's New News O o O Acimowin -- Plains Cree -- Story or Account O o O Tlaixmatiliztli -- Nahuatl -- News O o o o o O Agnutmaqan -- Listuguj Mi'kmaq -- News O o O Sho-da-ku-ye -- Teehahnahmah -- Talking Birchbark O o O Un Chota -- Susquehannic Seneca -- The People Speak O Ha-Sah-Sliltha -- Ditidaht Nation -- News of the People Ximopanolti tehuatzin, inin Mexika tlahtolli -- Nahuatl -- For you we offer these words It-hah-pe-hah Ah-num pah-le -- Chickasaw -- Together We Are Talking Dineh jii' adah' ho'nil'e'gii ba' ha' neh -- Navajo Nation -- What's Happening among The People News Okla Humma Holisso Nowat Anya -- Choctaw -- People(s) Red Newspaper Hi'a chu ah gaa -- Pima -- The stories or the talk of the People Native American News -- Language of the Occupation Forces ==>If you want your Nation represented in the banner of this newsletter<== email gars@nanews.org with the equivalent of "News of the People" in your tribal language along with the english translation <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is produced in straight ASCII text for greatest portability across platforms. Read it with a fixed-pitch font, such as Courier, Monaco, FixedSys or CG Times. Proportional fonts will be difficult to read. <================<<<< >>>>================> This issue contains articles from www.owlstar.com; www.indianz.com; www.pechanga.net; Frostys AmerIndian & Iron Natives Mailing Lists; newsgroup: alt.native; UUCP email IMPORTANT!! ----------- In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, all material appearing in this newsletter is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for educational purposes. <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is a way of keeping the brothers and sisters who share our Spirit informed about current events within the lives of those who walk the Red Road. ++ It may be subscribed to via email by sending a request from your own internet addressable account to gars@speakeasy.org ++ It is archived at http://www.nanews.org <================<<<< >>>>================> +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | As historian Patricia Nelson | | Once a language is lost, it is | | Limerick summarized in "The | | gone forever | | Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken | | * Of the 300 original Native | | Past of the American West... | | languages in North America, | | "Set the blood quantum at | | only 175 exist today. | | one-quarter, hold to it as a | | * 125 of these are no longer | | rigid definition of Indians, | | learned by children. | | let intermarriage proceed as | | * 55 are spoken by 1 to 6 elders;| | it had for centuries, and | | when they die, their language | | eventually Indians will be | | will disappear. | | defined out of existence." | | * Without action, only 20 | | "When that happens, the federal | | languages will survive the next| | government will be freed of | | 50 years. | | its persistent 'Indian problem.'"| | Source: Indigenous Language | +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ | Institute | |http://www.indigenous-language.org| This issue's Elder Quote: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + ======================== "Many factors conspired to weaken our tribe and to increase stress. Continual warfare with other tribes and with whites took an intolerable toll, and so did infectious diseases and alcoholism. Cherokees and other native people no longer thought of themselves as partners in any sort of compatible liaison with the world around them. Many Native Americans felt utterly violated and compromised. It seemed as if the spiritual and social tapestry they had created for centuries was unraveling. Everything lost the sacred balance. And ever since, we have been striving to return to the harmony we once had. It has been a difficult task. The odds against us have been formidable. But despite everything that has happened to us, we have never given up and will never give up. There is an old Cherokee prophecy which instructs us that as long as the Cherokees continue traditional dances, the world will remain as it is, but when the dances stop, the world will come to an end. Everyone should hope that the Cherokees will continue to dance." __Chief Wilma Mankiller, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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! "This is a wholly unconstitutional effort by a group of anti-Indian lawmakers to deny Indians what they have sought for more than 100 years," said Dennis M. Gingold, the lead lawyer in a class action lawsuit that has exposed the Interior Department's scandalous handling of the trust accounts. That statement is the crux of this week's most pressing issue. There is a rider attached to an approprations bill that will essentially undo all the hard-fought and won battles before Judge Royce Lambreth. Not only does this legislation undermine court decisions, but it also forces some congressional "friends" to make a devil's choice - either support their primary constituency by voting for the bill in spite of the rider, or vote against screwing Indian Country and deprive their districts of needed federal funds. There are several articles in this issue describing this fiasco. The bottom line is that the Cobell plaintiffs and all the federal Indian Trust account holders may see all their efforts stolen by congressional party faithful who are circling the wagons around their administrative appointee. This administration has enlisted their congressional cronies to subvert the separation of governmental powers, and, in many cases, harm their own constituents for the sole purpose of shielding the Department of Interior from its responsibility to uphold the same standards that the government demands of bankers and financial managers. Write your congressional representatives and senators and implore them not to perpetuate and legalize theft that has already left whole nations impoverished. Then save this editorial to remind yourself next election why this administration (and any legislator who doesn't vote with his ethics) does not deserve the support of the First People they have cheated. If we can't send the crooks to jail, let's at least not keep them on our payroll. -=-=-=- WINTER REZ HELP -=-=- WINTER REZ HELP -=-=- WINTER REZ HELP -=-=- If you know of a reliable point where funds can be sent to assist these precious elders please drop me a note at gars@nanews.org and make the subject (all caps) WINTER HELP. -----> this list will remain up until January -----> PLEASE email gars@nanews.org with any updates/additions From: wn27 Subj: Winter Clothing Mailing List: Frostys AmerIndian Good evening, I was asked to request winter clothing, coats, boots, gloves, t-shirts, sweat shirts, etc. for the Waseskun Healing Center men from anyone in the vacinity of Montreal/Kahnawake who may have extras. Many of the men do not have warm clothes and are from the north, Atlantic Canada or Ontario. We can arrange to have them picked up. We can be contacted by e-mail (staff@waseskun.net) or by phone (450-883-2034) - Jo-ann. -=-=-=- From: "Brigitte Thimiakis" Subj: Urgent Winter Request To: =========================================================================== Urgent Winter Request for Donations - Winter 2003 Greetings, If you wish to make a difference and help children and elders through the harsh winter months in Montana, please take the time to read this request. On behalf of reliable Northern Cheyenne contacts from Lame Deer, we are once again collecting donations for those in need on the Northern Cheyenne reservation. The donations that you can send are: new and good quality used warm items, (clothing and blankets), as well as toys. The toys will be distributed during the Christmas give away but the clothes and blankets will be distributed right away. During Montana winters, the temperature can drop to 30 or 40 degrees below zero so warm winter clothing and blankets can be lifesaving. It is best if donations are received by Dec. 10th. Our goal is to help the children, the elders, the single parent families, or families unable to make ends meet due to the high unemployment rate, the difficult conditions and the extreme poverty on the reservation. We would like to help everyone we possibly can on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation who is in need, but our priority is the elders and children. The children need all the help and encouragement they can get. List of useful donations : - blankets - warm winter coats and clothing - socks, gloves, boots, hats and scarves - toys (educational toys included) - school supplies - They can also use grooming supplies like toothpaste, tooth brushes, soaps and shampoos, combs, hair brushes, hair barrettes, rubber bands or other types of hair or pony tail holders. Last but not least : pampers diapers or pull-ups. - There is a special need for men's winter coats, clothing, hats, boots, gloves and anything else that protects against the cold weather. The men's winter wear is for the Tongue River Homeless Shelter. Donations can be sent to the following address: Honor Your Spirit - Protect the Children % Sue Buck PO Box 901 Great Falls, MT 59403-0901 Please contact suemontana@mcn.net for mailing information other than regular US Mail service. (Also please include your name and address if you would like for us to acknowledge/confirm receipt of your donations.) If you cannot send items due to the shipping cost, you can still help by sending a money donation.Please be assured that it will be used only for the children and elders this winter and/or for their Christmas; even small amounts can help them. The address for money donations is the same as above. You will receive a receipt which may be used for tax purposes. Please contact us before you send money (email addresses listed below). The priority of our group, "Honor your Spirit - Protect the Children" is to make sure all donations get to where they are supposed to and recognized. It is very important to us to make sure that everything is distributed fairly and to those in the greatest need. Contact Info: Sue Buck, Project Coordinator, MT suemontana@mcn.net Brigitte Thimiakis, European Link thimiakischool@the.forthnet.gr If you would like to learn more about the donation projects, please read our Shipment and Group Project Status: http://www.geocities.com/honoryourspirit/shipment1.html Our heartfelt thanks to everyone for your support. "Your help makes a huge difference for those who have never received help.Your donations provide hope and encouragement to those who have never known these qualities. Your concern and solidarity can improve the lives of many children, elders, families, on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. There is still a lot to do but all together you can help us make these dreams come true." Thank you for being a part of this project and supporting it. Manuel Redwoman, Northern Cheyenne/Lakota/Arapaho. <>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o Our group opposes all forms of child abuse, and believes that only awareness, prevention and support can reduce the number of children who suffer. Please visit our pages and our group against child abuse & violence. "Honor Your Spirit, Protect the Children" STOP CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT http://www.geocities.com/honoryourspirit/stopabuse.html http://www.geocities.com/honoryourspirit/home.html <>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o -=-=-=- WINTER REZ HELP -=-=- WINTER REZ HELP -=-=- WINTER REZ HELP -=-=- If you know of a reliable point where funds can be sent to assist these precious elders please drop me a note at gars@nanews.org and make the subject (all caps) WINTER HELP. -----> this list will remain up until January -----> PLEASE email gars@nanews.org with any updates/additions Dohiyi Ani Oginalii , , Gary Smith Night Owl (*,*) gars@speakeasy.org P. O. Box 672168 (`-') gars@nanews.org Marietta, GA 30008, U.S.A. ===w=w=== http://www.nanews.org ----------- News of the people featured in this issue ---------- - Warning about Piestewa Scam - Ancient Maya Altar - Trust Fund Rider retaken from Looters tests Republicans in House - Tribes teach other View - Change of Language in spending Bill of Expedition - Congress debates - Navajo Council resolution of Trust Fund Case send Peyote Act to Referendum - Norton disavows move - Peyote-use Trial to block Indian Accounting begins in Utah High Court - Indian Employees - Stevens Critic loses RuralCAP Job to lose Preference under Bush - Banished Resident may be returned - Northern Cheyenne - Nisga'a remain isolated by Floods suing BIA to keep Program - Native Prisoner - Sweet Grass Hills Park proposal -- Inmate's plea for Sweat Lodge gets some Support is reinstated - Eviction Notices Split Kin, - Rustywire: Wannabe Indian Indian Nation - Poem: A Trembling Touch - Mohawk rethinking Land Accord - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days with Albany - YELLOW BIRD: - Iroquois Flag raising Get serious about Global Warming stirs Opposition - Celebration's Altars - Lumbees ask for honor the Dead Full Federal Recognition - Native American Groups - Students review school's role seek to end Racism in Scope Project - Specials This Week on APTN - Muckleshoots start work - This Week on AIROS on College Building - NCAI 60th Annual Session - Carrying on Cherokee Tradition - Meetings for Long Walk Trail set - Southern Peigan Diabetes Project - Upcoming Events --------- "RE: Warning about Piestewa Scam" --------- Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 08:47:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="PIESTEWA SCAM" http://www.indianz.com/ http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=3154 Warning about Piestewa scam Letter seeks money using slain soldier TUBA CITY AZ Sam Lewin 10/29/2003 The Hopi Tribe has issued a warning about a fraudulent fundraising letter using the name of Lori Ann Piestewa, a member of the Hopi Tribe killed in action in Iraq in April. The letter apparently originated in Tennessee and attempts to solicit funds for Piestewa's family. Tribal officials say there is no merit to the letter. "I first heard about it early last week. Someone called the tribe and it was patched through to me," Hopi spokeswoman Vanessa Charles told the Native American Times. "The tribe has been inundated with e-mails and requests about the letter." The letter contains two names, Pamela O'Daniel and Sarah Mackie. Charles said no such individuals have been authorized to collect donations on behalf of the Hopi Tribe. "If anyone knows anything about the cultures and traditions of the Hopi Tribe, they would know this letter is completely contradictory. We did not authorize them to solicit funds for the tribe or for the family," said Charles. The tribe has released a statement saying the letter is "in poor taste and perhaps fraudulent." The Tennessee Attorney General's office has been contacted regarding potential investigation and prosecution. The 23-year-old Piestewa was killed by Iraqi forces in the city of Nassirya during an ambush on her unit. The Hopi woman became the first Native American to be killed in fighting, and the sole American servicewoman to die in the conflict. She roomed with 19-year-old Jessica Lynch, the soldier rescued by Special Forces during a raid at an Iraqi hospital. Piestewa's friends say the armed services was in her blood; she was the commanding officer of the Junior ROTC program in high school and joined the army to have a steady income to support her children. Her parents now raise her two children, four-year-old Brandon and three- year-old Carla, at their home in Tuba City, Arizona. The Hopi's have established a legitimate memorial fund for the purpose of collecting donations for care of the children. That information is listed below. Lori Ann Piestewa Memorial Fund Wells Fargo Bank acct.# 0464633783 or Mailed to: The Piestewas P.O. Box 957 Tuba City, AZ 86045 Native American Times is Copyright c. 2003 Oklahoma Indian Times, Inc. --------- "RE: Trust Fund Rider tests Republicans in House" --------- Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2003 08:26:41 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BUSH TRICK BAG" http://www.indianz.com/News/archives/002256.asp Debate on trust fund rider tests Republicans in House Wednesday, October 29, 2003 Indian leaders and their advocates in Congress are gearing for a showdown on a $20 billion appropriations bill that delays a court-ordered accounting of the Indian trust. The House is scheduled to take up the measure starting today amid controversy over the provision, which puts off by one year the accounting at least $13 billion in Indian funds. It was added against the objections of Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over Indian issues. "It removes any incentive for the Department of the Interior to go forward with an accounting or settlement while Native Americans will wait years more for their monies," he wrote in a letter on Monday to the House Appropriations Committee in reference to language limiting the rights of Indian account holders. But Pombo's political alliances, along with those of others, will be tested as Republicans seek final passage of the massive package. It contains money highly sensitive to several Western states, including $3 billion for firefighting in California, which has suffered from deadly blazes in recent days, and Arizona, where Reps. J.D. Hayworth (R), a long-time friend of Indian Country, and Rick Renzi (R), a newer one, are being forced to make some difficult choices in the days ahead. "You don't need to burn Indians to fight fires," said Keith Harper, a Native American Rights Fund (NARF) attorney who is handling the Cobell v. Norton lawsuit and is one of several advocates working to defeat the measure. Already, the alliance has suffered a setback. Last night, the House Rules Committee, which sets the process by which bills move forward, adopted a rule that makes it nearly impossible to remove the rider from the bill. The rule could be rejected as early as this morning. But it is expected to clear the chamber because lawmakers almost always go with their party on rules. That means Pombo, Hayworth and other Republicans who oppose the rider will be effectively voting to keep it in. The campaign won't end there, though. Congressional staff fighting the rider are urging Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.) to raise an objection to the bill. As the raking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, he has the prerogative to send it back for further discussions. But this tactic, called a motion to recommit, has to be approved by the full chamber. Republican staff members of the Appropriations Committee believe they have enough votes to defeat the recommit motion even if Pombo and others defect, two sources close to the process said yesterday. If the appropriators survive this challenge, they still need to clear the bill for final passage. Pombo is said to be considering voting against the bill. Several Democrats, including Obey, Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), the ranking member of the House Resources Committee, and Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Mich.), co-chair of the Native American Caucus, have indicated they would vote no as well. Hayworth, however, is said to be torn on the issue. As the other co- chair of the Native American Caucus, a bipartisan group of 96 lawmakers in the House, he and Kildee would normally speak with one voice. Last year, the pair led the charge against another anti-Indian trust rider, and secured a landmark 281 to 144 vote against it. This past Friday, Hayworth and Kildee expressed strong opposition to new riders. But that was before the critical firefighting funds were added to the bill Monday night, making it harder for Hayworth to vote against it. The debate is also complicated by the fact that most members of Congress only received the full bill yesterday. Some are still poring over the details, putting pressure on Indian Country advocates to get the message out on the trust fund rider with the clock ticking away. Besides the plaintiffs in the case and the Native American Rights Fund, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is lobbying against the measure. NCAI President Tex Hall said it was added to the bill without consulting tribes or the lawmakers with jurisdiction. "This legislative rider poisons an appropriations bill that contains very important appropriations for wildfires in the western U.S., critical funding increases for Indian schools, health, and other key needs, and other programs vastly important to tribes and to the U.S. at large," Hall said. "The bill should be recommitted to the [joint Senate-House] conference committee to remove this destructive rider." The House returns to session this morning. The Interior bill is expected to come up at 11 a.m. Meanwhile, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee is holding a hearing this morning on a bill to settle the case by setting up a new bureaucracy to determine balances in Indian trust fund accounts. Copyright c. 2000-2003 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Change of Language in spending Bill" --------- Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2003 08:26:41 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CYNICAL RIDER" http://www.indianz.com/ http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1029indiantrust29.html Indians irate at change of language in spending bill Billy House Republic Washington Bureau Oct. 29, 2003 12:00 AM WASHINGTON - Language inserted in an Interior Department spending bill may force lawmakers to choose between urgently needed funds to battle wildfires and delaying a federal court-ordered accounting of billions of trust fund dollars that American Indians say have been misplaced. Lawmakers are expected to vote on the bill in the coming days. "This is a cynical and shocking development to Native people," said Elouise Cobell, lead plaintiff in a 7-year-old lawsuit that has forced the Interior Department to fully account for trust funds it holds for them. Cobell and other plaintiffs in a class-action suit said the Interior Department has mismanaged the royalties in those accounts for up to 500, 000 Indians, potentially amounting to billions of dollars. The accounts date from 1887 for such things as the right to drill for oil and gas on Indian-owned lands, or for the use of timber or for grazing rights. In September, a judge ordered the department to account for misplaced trust-fund money. But opponents of such an accounting have pointed in part to studies showing it would cost taxpayers an estimated $9 billion to $12 billion to retrace and verify all the transactions for every account. It is against this backdrop and the backdrop of catastrophic wildfires this year in California and Arizona that a Senate-House conference committee has quietly inserted the language into the Interior Department bill delaying the court-ordered accounting by a year, to Dec. 31, 2004. Because the same bill contains $3 billion for wildland firefighting and forest treatment, lawmakers who might oppose delaying the trust-fund accounting would be placing wildfire funding in jeopardy if they voted against the bill. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., who is both supportive of the tribal trust claims and "grateful" for the increased wildfire funding, said he is dismayed by the addition of the accounting-delay language, said his spokesman, Larry VanHoose. House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., in a letter Monday to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., said that he is strongly opposed to the language or any other measure to "delay the resolution of the Indian trust-fund accounting problem and the court case for years." Pombo says that the language, inserted without his knowledge, "removes any incentive for the Department of Interior to go forward with an accounting or settlement while Native Americans will wait years more for their monies." "This is beyond sneaky," said Keith Harper, a lawyer for the Native American Rights Fund. "This happened in the dead of night." Copyright c. 2003 The Arizona Republic. --------- "RE: Congress debates resolution of Trust Fund Case" --------- Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 08:47:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BUSH-WACKED CASE" http://www.indianz.com/News/archives/002280.asp Congress debates resolution of trust fund case Thursday, October 30, 2003 The head of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee warned on Wednesday that impatient lawmakers will take control of the Indian trust fund lawsuit unless a resolution is developed soon. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) said he wasn't happy with an appropriations rider that delays a court-ordered accounting of at least $13 billion in Indian funds. But he said it gave the plaintiffs in the case and the federal government time to work towards a settlement. "We have to find a solution or it's just simply going to be taken away from us," he told attendees of a hearing. Campbell also said he was concerned that the Bush administration is behind legislative efforts to terminate the case. For two years in a row, the Department of Interior's budget bill has contained riders targeting the seven-year-old class action, which represents more than 500,000 American Indian account holders. "I got the feeling that, very frankly, part of this was driven by the administration," he observed. "Is it the department's strategy to insert language in appropriation bills to make this problem go away?" Jim Cason, the assistant deputy Interior secretary, denied any knowledge of involvement. He said he didn't know if anyone at the department drafted, suggested or otherwise lobbied for the language, which puts off the accounting for a year while Congress develops the "scope" of the massive undertaking. "I can't attest to who who specifically ram-rodded the effort," Cason told the committee. He chose his words carefully and said he had not seen the rider until yesterday. Campbell is a member of a joint Senate-House conference committee that negotiated the Department of Interior's $20 billion appropriations bill. It was finalized Monday night but not delivered to most lawmakers until the following day. The package is currently being debated on the House floor. As expected, lawmakers voted with their party yesterday to adopt a resolution that left the rider intact. The roll call was 289 to 136. Starting this morning, several Indian Country advocates will launch an effort to send the bill back to the conference committee for further work. Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Resources Committee, Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), the ranking member, Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Mich.), the co-chair of the Congressional Native American Caucus, and others will argue against the rider. Yesterday's Senate hearing focused on a bill Campbell has introduced to settle the case by creating a new bureaucracy to determine the balances of Individual Indian Money (IIM) accounts. It met opposition from the Native American Rights Fund (NARF), the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and the Osage Nation of Oklahoma. John Echohawk, NARF's executive director, said it ignored basic principles of trust law that the plaintiffs have secured as part of the case. NCAI President Tex Hall called it a "quick fix" to a century-old problem. Osage Chief Jim Gray said it could adversely affect members of his tribe, who have million-dollar interests in oil and gas. Cason also testified that the Bush administration doesn't support the S. 1770, the Indian Money Account Claim Satisfaction Act. as drafted. The testimony prompted Campbell to renew calls to devise a mediated process to settle the case. For the first time, Cason said the department supported mediation although the pledge has yet to be put into writing. Echohawk and Hall backed mediation, which they supported at a hearing in June. The plaintiffs and NCAI have drafted several principles they believe should guide the process. To prevent future appropriations attacks, Campbell said participation from the plaintiffs, tribal leaders and the administration was crucial. "S. 1770 is certainly not a perfect bill," he said. "We just can't find a solution by ourselves." After the resolution on the bill was approved around 12:30 p.m. yesterday, House leaders pulled it from further action Debate is expected to resume today at 10 a.m. ----- The language in the conference committee report delaying the accounting states: That nothing in the American Indian Trust Management Reform Act of 1994, Public Law 103-412, or in any other statute, and no principle of common law, shall be construed or applied to require the Department of the Interior to commence or continue historical accounting activities with respect to the Individual Indian Money Trust until the earlier of the following shall have occurred: (a) Congress shall have amended the American Indian Trust Management Reform Act of 1994 to delineate the specific historical accounting obligations of the Department of the Interior with respect to the Individual Indian Money Trust; or (b) December 31, 2004 Copyright c. 2000-2003 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Norton disavows move to block Indian Accounting" --------- Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 08:21:53 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NORTON BLAMES ADMINISTRATION" http://www.indiantrust.com/~Article_id=288&Month=11&Year=2003 Norton disavows move to block Indian accounting by Robert Gehrke Associated Press Writer Arizona Daily Sun November 1, 2003 WASHINGTON - Interior Secretary Gale Norton denied responsibility Friday for legislation before Congress that would delay a judge's order for her department to account for money owed to American Indians. Norton said the provision, which prohibits the department from starting the court-ordered accounting until 2005, was negotiated by the White House and congressional appropriators, with her department deliberately kept out of the loop. "In fact, the first I saw of the appropriations committee language was after it had been adopted by the committee," Norton said. White House spokesman Taylor Gross said the Bush administration "supports the legislation that was passed." The Senate's legal counsel has said the measure is probably unconstitutional because it tells a judge how to interpret the law. Opponents say it harms American Indians seeking justice from the government. "Wherever it came from, there had to be a willing architect and willing implementer," said Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz. "Someone from the executive branch got with someone from the legislative branch. They can all try to wipe their fingerprints off that ... but it's an action that was horribly ill-advised." U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth has ordered the Interior Department to account for the royalties from oil, gas, timber and grazing on American Indian land since 1887. He has set a deadline of 2007. Norton said it would cost $6 billion to $12 billion to meet the judge's deadlines, which would cut into other American Indian programs. Earlier this year, Lamberth held Norton in contempt of court, saying she had lied about progress on the trust accounting and concealed gaping holes in computer security. That ruling was overturned on appeal. Norton has called the lawsuit, which claims the department squandered billions of dollars in royalties from American Indian lands since 1887, the most vexing, time-consuming issue facing her department. But she said she hopes the one-year moratorium gives her department time to make progress in reforming the management of the Indian money. The rider would also shelter Norton from punishment from the judge for not complying with his order. The American Indian rider was adopted by the House Thursday night after a bitter fight that nearly scuttled an Interior spending bill that included $3 billion in firefighting money. The Senate is expected to vote on the measure Monday. House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., said he was kept in the dark regarding the proposal and urged colleagues to defeat the House bill, which passed by just 11 votes Copyright c. 2003 Blackfeet Reservation Development Fund, Inc. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Indian Employees to lose Preference under Bush" --------- Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2003 08:17:37 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ANOTHER BUSH WHACK" http://www.indianz.com/News/archives/002353.asp Indian employees to lose preference under Bush plan Tuesday, November 4, 2003 Several dozen positions will lose their Indian preference status under a Bush administration consolidation, according to a new legal memo from the Department of Interior. Special Trustee Ross Swimmer is considering transferring the unit that performs appraisals of Indian land to a new department-wide entity. He has been asking tribes to comment on the proposal. A key issue is whether Indian preference, which calls for the recruiting and hiring of qualified American Indians and Alaska Natives, will still apply. The policy has been law since 1934 and has turned the Bureau of Indian Affairs from a nearly all-white organization to nearly all-Indian. But as many as 67 Indian employees will no longer fall under the policy if the consolidation effort advances. In an October 23 memo, a Department of Interior attorney concluded that "preference would not apply" once the employees move to the new office. Swimmer currently oversees the Office of Appraisal Services (OAS), which assigns values to trust lands owned by tribes and individual Indians. OAS used to be under the authority of the BIA but the Bush administration, in early 2002, stripped the BIA of the function amid concerns over the lack of independence of the appraisers. Swimmer did not initiate the transfer. The transfer did not affect Indian preference because OAS was transferred intact, according to the memo from associate solicitor Hugo Teufel III. A shift within OST did not affect preference either, he added. But the consolidation to a new departmental office is different, Teufel wrote. The office will be responsible for Indian and non-Indian lands, and the Indian appraisers will take on new duties, he said. "On two prior occasions, the transfer of the OAS unit to a new unit constituted an intact transfer of the unit and its function, resulting in the continued application of Indian preference," he wrote. "But in this case . . . the functions of the positions would change." Indian preference isn't the only sticking point under the consolidation. Since money for OAS comes from tribal priority allocation (TPA) funds, tribes are worried about the impact of losing this critical resource. The 2004 budget includes nearly $11 million for OAS. Tribal leaders are still upset that former BIA assistant secretary Neal McCaleb gave up the appraisal function without consulting them. "It didn't make any sense to me to move it out of the BIA in the first place," said Clifford Lyle Marshall, the chairman of the Hoopa Valley Tribe of California, in an interview. Marshall said the consolidation poses a real threat to economic development of Indian lands. "Appraisals are required for anything that we do with tribal property," he said. "Taking it out of the bureau . . . makes it extremely difficult for us to put housing on our reservations, put in infrastructure for water systems and power and lease property." Tribes with self-governance and self-determination agreements also face unique challenges. It's harder to negotiate compacts and contracts with OST and nearly impossible to do so with other Interior agencies, according to tribal leaders. Moving appraisals to a department unit will complicate their efforts to take greater control of their affairs. Finally, there is concern about the disparate appraisals of individually-held Indian lands. A recent court report from the special master in the Indian trust fund found that Navajo landowners in New Mexico failed to receive fair market value for use of their land. Private and even tribal owners received up to 20 times more based on appraisals from OAS. Last week, Swimmer wrapped up a round of meetings on the appraisal consolidation. Tribal leaders complained they have not been properly informed about the changes. At the same time, the BIA was holding meetings about the ongoing reorganization. Written comments on the consolidation are being accepted by the Office of Special Trustee until December 1. Swimmer extended a deadline published in an earlier Federal Register notice. Copyright c. 2000-2003 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Northern Cheyenne suing BIA to keep Program" --------- Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 08:11:36 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NORTHERN CHEYENNE FIGHT BIA" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.billingsgazette.com/~/2003/10/31/build/state/55-biafight.inc People injured in BIA, tribal disagreement By JIM GRANSBERY Of The Gazette Staff A dispute over a human services program managed by the Northern Cheyenne Tribe resulted in a fight Tuesday afternoon in which two or three people were injured. The dustup occurred just after 4 p.m. when officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs tried to obtain the records of the Human Services Department of the Northern Cheyenne tribal government in Lame Deer. Sue Parker, director of the department, said Thursday that an estimated 35 people from the BIA and tribal police department came into the building. She said the effort to gain the records was unsuccessful. The BIA superintendent at Lame Deer and the regional director of the BIA in Billings could not be reached Thursday for comment. The BIA and the tribe are in a dispute over the tribe's contract to provide social services including child foster care, child protective services, welfare and general assistance programs, Parker said. The tribe's contract with the BIA to provide the services expired Monday. On Tuesday, the BIA assumed the programs and tried to gain the records of clients. Parker said Agency Supt. Marjorie Eagleman spoke with Tribal President Geri Small about 3:30 p.m. about a "peaceful transition" of the programs. When BIA personnel entered the building at 4:10 p.m., Parker said Small did not to allow them into tribal offices. Parker said two of her employees were injured in the fracas and were not at work Thursday. She did not disclose the extent of the injuries. Reportedly, Eagleman's foot was injured when a door was closed on it. She did not return a phone call to her office Thursday. The tribe and the BIA have been in disagreement over the contract for some time, and the BIA had indicated that it intended to assume the program when the contract expired, said Tom Towe, a Billings attorney representing the Northern Cheyenne. Towe on Wednesday asked the U.S. District Court in Billings to issue a temporary restraining order against BIA from assuming the social service and the Rosebud Lodge programs and to order the BIA to continue funding the programs. Towe said U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull indicated that he would review the matter Monday. Towe speculated that the judge would want to meet with attorneys before any official proceedings were scheduled. Parker said her office was doing "business as usual" Thursday. "We are determined to provide services to tribal members." She said BIA officials were in agreement that services should continue regardless of who is running the program until the issues surrounding the contract are settled. Copyright c. 2003 The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Sweet Grass Hills Park proposal gets some Support" --------- Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2003 08:17:37 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MORE DESTRUCTION/DESECRATION" http://www.havredailynews.com/~/sweetgrasshills.txt Sweet Grass Hills park proposal gets some support By Tim Leeds/Havre Daily News/tleeds@havredailynews.com October 30, 2003 CHESTER - A proposal by a mining company to turn its mining interests in the Sweet Grass Hills into a park met with interest - some of it lukewarm - at a meeting Tuesday in Chester. The Mount Royal Joint Venture, based in Minnesota, has proposed that the federal government provide money to the state to buy its mining interests and create a state park, preventing mining in the area. People at the meeting, held by the Liberty County Commission, generally supported creating the park but wanted more information. The commissioners said they would schedule another meeting to let the people of Liberty County further discuss the idea, and would get back to Mount Royal. "There are too many unanswered questions to even say 'Continue the investigation,'" said Charley Frey of Chester. "There's too much gray. We need more black and white." Geologist Ernest Lehman, one of the partners in Mount Royal Joint Ventures, came to the meeting to present the proposal. Mount Royal has invested between $1.5 million and $2 million in prospecting the Sweet Grass Hills in the last 20 years, and found an estimated 1.75 million ounces of gold there, Lehman said. American Indian tribes, including the Chippewa, Cree, Assiniboine and Blackfeet, consider the area sacred and have opposed the mining, as have some local residents. In 1996, the U.S. Department of the Interior put a moratorium on new mining claims on federal land in the area, and started pursuing the purchase of existing claims. Lehman said his group has appealed the moratorium in court and expects to eventually win. He added that he thinks Initiative 137, which banned cyanide leach mining in Montana, will eventually be overturned and Mount Royal will be able to use the process to mine in the hills. "But it's been a long, hard pull, and it's been a lot of money, mostly lawyers' fees that really don't advance anybody," he said. "It occurred to us there might be a way to resolve the issues to make a win-win situation for everybody." Lehman said he is meeting this week with representatives of the Rocky Boy, Fort Belknap and Blackfeet Indian reservations. Several people at the meeting had questions Lehman couldn't answer about access and use of the park. Adrian Hawks, Phil Wardell and Lance McDowell have land bordering or near the proposed park. They asked how people could access the area, since it doesn't have easy access roads. The ranchers said they often let people cross their land to go to the area, but that they were concerned about controlling access if it were made into a park. Frey asked what would happen to hunting in the area if it is made a park. It is a prime hunting spot, he said. Mert Freyholtz of Gildford said he thinks Mount Royal is trying to back out of its investment and make a profit since the people and the Department of Interior have stopped its ability to mine in the hills. "To me it looks like you're stuck," he said. Lehman said he thinks Mount Royal should have a return on its investment. "We have spent a lot of money up there and have made a legitimate discovery of valuable minerals. We feel strongly that we're entitled to reasonable compensation," he said. "We're not looking for the moon, but we want to be reasonably compensated. ... It's not just surface rights, but valuable gold deposits." Lehman said the value of the claims would be determined by independent appraisers approved by both sides of the transaction. The appraisal would include the current value of the gold estimated to be in the site, minus the estimated cost of removal. Some people have estimated that the purchase price would be about $25 million. Lehman said he has no idea where that figure came from. Mount Royal is proposing to donate about 20 percent of the purchase price back to the state to use to create and maintain the park. Montana's congressional delegation would have to secure federal funds to make the purchase, Lehman said. Copyright c. 2003 Havre Daily News. --------- "RE: Eviction Notices Split Kin, Indian Nation" --------- Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2003 08:26:41 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ONEIDA EVICTIONS" http://www.indianz.com/ http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/7130415.htm Eviction Notices Split Kin, Indian Nation WILLIAM KATES Associated Press SYRACUSE, N.Y. - To the Oneida Indian Nation's leaders, demolishing the trailer homes is a simple matter of public health and safety. But to the four families living there, including the tribal leader's 72-year-old aunt, the eviction notices they received last week are the leadership's latest attempt to silence dissent on land that was the cradle of the Iroquois Confederacy. The families facing eviction are traditionalists who do not accept the authority of the tribe's federally recognized leader, Ray Halbritter, whom they call a dictator. They accuse Halbritter of using the demolition to drive out opponents. "All we want is to live in peace. We want to stay on what is our aboriginal homelands," said Diane Shenandoah, who is Halbritter's cousin and one of the people being evicted. "No one, not Ray Halbritter, or anyone, has the right to take that away from us." Traditionalists charge Halbritter is practicing cultural genocide by destroying Oneida traditions. The families targeted for eviction include Halbritter's 72-year-old aunt, Maisie Schenandoah, a clan mother, and two of her daughters, Diane and Vickie, and their eight children. Nation housing inspectors have condemned the four trailers, citing serious code violations. Lawyers bartered Monday to save the homes in the politically charged dispute. A tribal judge let stand his order to evict the families but did not set a demolition date. He also left in place an order giving the sides time to settle. "We are trying to work through trust issues," said Barbara Olshansky, a Center for Constitutional Rights lawyer representing the families. Nation Spokesman Mark Emery declined comment on the talks but said they could not be called negotiations. He rejected the idea the eviction was politically motivated. To date, 12 structures have been demolished, including that of a tribal council member. Meanwhile, many buildings have passed the inspections and been left untouched, including one owned by Maisie Schenandoah's sister, he said. Emery said that those who are displaced are offered new subsidized housing. Since 1996, the Oneidas have built 20 new single-family homes, 10 duplexes and 40 townhouses, he said. The leadership feud grew out of the 1988 arson of the tribe's high- stakes bingo hall, for which seven Oneidas were eventually convicted. In the power vacuum that followed, the Harvard-educated Halbritter emerged as the leader. Under traditional law, however, chiefs are picked by the clan mothers and must have consensus approval. Halbritter was the force behind the Oneidas' highly profitable Turning Stone Casino Resort and chain of Sav-On gas stations. Under his leadership, the 900-member tribe added tribal services, programs and new buildings and reacquired more than 16,000 acres of ancestral land. In 1993, the Grand Council of the Six Nations' Confederacy - the traditional governing body of the Iroquois tribes - stripped Halbritter of his leadership. Halbritter's spokesman said the Grand Council has no authority in this area and that each Indian nation is a sovereign state. The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs continues to recognize Halbritter as the Oneida leader. The traditionalists accuse Halbritter of violating the Indian Civil Rights Act and are appealing a lower court's dismissal of their claim. As a result of past defiance, Maisie Schenandoah and her daughters were among three dozen tribal members who in 1995 formally "lost their voices" in nation affairs. That means they are not eligible for nation programs and services - including housing and housing assistance - and do not receive the roughly $5,000 quarterly distributions paid to tribal members in good standing. Since 1995, about half of the 36 have regained their membership by appealing to the tribal council, a step the remaining dissidents can take at any time, Emery said. The Oneidas are one of the five original nations of the Iroquois Confederacy that once covered upstate New York. Many still live on a 32-acre reservation about 30 miles east of Syracuse. Copyright c. 2003 AP Wire and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c. 2003 Dallas-Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. --------- "RE: Mohawk rethinking Land Accord with Albany" --------- Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 08:11:36 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MOHAWK RETHINK" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/31/nyregion/31MOHA.html Mohawk Tribe Is Rethinking Land Accord With Albany By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr. October 31, 2003 ALBANY, October 30 - Five months after Gov. George E. Pataki announced an agreement with the St. Regis Mohawk tribe to settle land claims, the deal has become bogged down in tribal politics and a newly elected Indian government has said it wants to rewrite the accord. The Pataki administration and the tribal government said on Thursday that they remained optimistic that various parts of the agreement would eventually be ratified, laying the ground not only for the settlement of the Mohawk claim that its lands were stolen but also for a new Indian-run casino in the Catskills. Yet the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council informed the governor in a letter on Wednesday that it was pulling out of the agreement the state had been trying to negotiate with the tribe since last spring. Specifically, the council told the governor that linking the settlement of the land claims lawsuit to the state's approval for a Mohawk-run casino in the Catskills "was a political mistake" that "never had the support of the community." There are two other parts of the previous agreement. Tribal stores would have to charge a sales tax equivalent to the state sales tax, getting rid of a competitive advantage that businesspeople near the reservation loathe. And the Mohawk-run Akwesasne Casino near the Canadian border would receive approval for slot machines in return for giving part of the new revenue to the state. Now the tribe has proposed splitting the agreement into four parts and holding referendums on each issue at different times, said Chief James W. Ransom, the de facto leader of the tribal council. The new government, elected in June, also wants to make changes in the previous agreement, one of the biggest being the inclusion of Mohawks living on the Canadian side of the border in the land settlement, he said. Mr. Ransom also said that the tribe was seeking changes in the sales-tax measures in the agreement, because the Legislature passed a law last summer mandating that the state must collect New York State sales tax from non-Indian customers on the reservation. Suzanne Morris, a spokeswoman for Mr. Pataki, said that the negotiations were still moving forward, and that it did not matter to the administration whether the tribe voted on various parts of the agreement separately or together. Mr. Ransom also played down the problems, saying that "it's a procedural issue, and basically it's not anything more than that." Copyright c. 2003 The New York Times Company. --------- "RE: Iroquois Flag raising stirs Opposition" --------- Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 08:11:36 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FLAG FRACAS" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.news-star.com/stories/103103/New_8.shtml Iroquois flag raising stirs opposition in upstate New York community October 31, 2003 LAFAYETTE, N.Y. (AP) -- Flying the flag of the Iroquois Confederacy outside LaFayette Junior-Senior High School was supposed to promote racial sensitivity and cultural diversity. But not everybody is happy about the move. "School officials say it's to create integration. What it accomplishes is segregation. It makes the Indians a special class. It makes our kids separate. I thought we were all Americans," said Jean Schneible, who collected more than 100 signatures to protest the flag raising planned Nov. 12. Superintendent Mark Mondanaro said the opponents are a small minority of the town's 5,000 residents. "This has to do with cultural diversity, about respecting differences, about honoring our history. This community shares a unique relationship with the Onondagas," Mondanaro said. LaFayette, 10 miles south of Syracuse, borders the Onondaga Indian Nation, still the spiritual center of the ancient Iroquois Confederacy that once covered upstate New York. Most Onondagas attend the nation school through eighth grade, then switch to LaFayette's public school. Native Americans comprise 23 percent of the high school enrollment. There are about 500 students in grades 7-12. Onondaga students and parents have been urging the LaFayette school district to fly the Iroquois flag for 30 years, said Wendy Gonyea, a nation spokeswoman whose son attends the high school. "Students would graduate and new students would pick up the cause. It's long overdue," Gonyea said. "I think it will pull people together. It recognizes the community's diversity and gives the Onondagas respect." In June, the school board voted unanimously to fly the flag outside both the high school and an elementary school. Schneible and other opponents believe there are other ways to recognize the Onondagas, such as exhibits and educational forums. They questioned why the U.S. flag isn't flown outside of the Onondaga school. Gonyea said the Onondagas fly both the U.S. and Canadian flags outside their lacrosse arena. "We want this put to a public vote. We don't think it is something (the school board) should decide for everyone," said Schneible, a mother of two students and one LaFayette graduate. Nearly all the high school students welcome the idea, said junior Steven Thomas, an Onondaga on the student council. The idea has been explored thoroughly by students in classes and most are well informed on the issues, he said. "This is an important event. We will finally feel like it is our high school, too, not like we're just visitors," Thomas said. He acknowledged that relations between Indian and non-Indian students can sometimes be strained. For example, if two students fights, it can become an "Indian versus non-Indian" no matter the cause. The purple and white design depicts the wampum belt of legendary 16th century Mohawk leader Hiawatha, a symbol of the founding of the Iroquois Confederacy, Thomas said. A white tree in the center represents the Onondagas and symbolizes the Great Pine under which the confederacy leaders first met. The other nations -- Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga and Seneca -- are represented by boxes. A line connects all five figures representing the path of peace. Copyright c. 1997-2002 The Shawnee News-Star. --------- "RE: Lumbees ask for Full Federal Recognition" --------- Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2003 08:17:37 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="EBC OPPOSITION" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.wral.com/news/2606072/detail.html UNC Expert Says Cherokees Working Against Lumbee Bill Lumbees Ask For Full Federal Recognition November 3, 2003 LUMBERTON, N.C. - A university expert on the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians says the tribe is working against efforts by the Lumbee Indians to get federal recognition. Brett Riggs, an archaeologist of American Indians and professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, spoke Sunday to the annual meeting of Historic Robeson Inc. The Cherokees are afraid Lumbee recognition will jeopardize that tribe's lucrative casino gambling businesses, Riggs said. Passage of a Lumbee recognition bill would bring millions of dollars to aid the 53,800-member Lumbee tribe for education, health care and economic development. Recognition also opens up the possibility of the Lumbees establishing a casino on sovereign Indian land. The Cherokees, located in western North Carolina, make about $137 million a year from gambling, Riggs said, and don't want competition from a possible Lumbee casino on Interstate 95. "It would cut that money in half," Riggs said. "They are lobbying against it like you would not believe." Before joining UNC, Riggs served as tribal archaeologist and deputy tribal historic preservationist officer for the Eastern band of Cherokee Indians. He has also performed research and archaeological digs onsite for Indian groups across the state. The U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs voted overwhelming last month to pass the Lumbee Acknowledgment Bill to the Senate floor. The bill is expected to go to the full Senate sometime next year. Copyright c. 2003 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Copyright c. 2003 WRAL/Raleigh, Durham, Fayetteville, NC. --------- "RE: Students review school's role in Scope Project" --------- Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 08:11:36 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="UNIV/MINN TELESCOPE" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.daily.umn.edu/articles/2003/10/31/7237 University Senate reviews disputed Mount Graham participation By Angela Delmedico October 31, 2003 The debate over a University-sponsored telescope on land some consider sacred reignited at the University's Senate meeting Thursday. Although the Board of Regents voted in October 2002 to purchase a 5 percent share in the Mount Graham International Observatory project - scheduled for completion in spring 2004 - the University Senate's Social Concerns Committee decided to bring the issue before the Senate to increase awareness, the committee chairwoman said. The Social Concerns Committee passed a resolution May 5 stating the University should end participation in the Mount Graham International Observatory project. The committee brought the resolution to the University Senate, University president and Board of Regents. The San Carlos Apache Indian tribe and the White Mountain Apache tribe consider the land in the Pinaleno Mountain Range in southeastern Arizona sacred and use the mountain for spiritual purposes. Ola Cassadore Davis, chairwoman of the Apache Survivor Coalition, traveled to Minnesota on Thursday to speak for the Apache people at the Senate debate. The 80-year-old woman said she was grateful for the two minutes she could speak but wished she had more time. "What I have heard and seen makes sadness in my heart. The Apache people strongly believe in upholding their religion," she said. Astronomy department Chairman Leonard Kuhi said the Large Binocular Telescope project will give the department an opportunity to join the ranks of the best astronomy departments in the country. According to the Mount Graham Coalition Web site, 22 of the leading astronomy universities funded by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories - including the California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale University - have dropped out of the project, citing cultural, environmental and quality concerns after reports of poor visibility on Mount Graham. The Mount Graham Coalition opposes telescopes on the mountain. Social Concerns Committee Chairwoman Margaret Kuchenreuther said the group decided to bring the issue to the Senate to raise the University community's awareness of the issue. The committee believes the regents' decision was unwise, and they would like a formal discussion on the issue. "It may be that enough people at the University will become concerned about this, and they will want us to forward this to the senate for action in December," said Kuchenreuther. American Indian studies department Chairwoman Patricia Albers said she strongly believes an issue such as this should be open to public deliberation. The Social Concerns Committee is a group within the University Senate primarily concerned with the University's relationship with the broader community, according to the University Senate Web site. The committee is composed of seven faculty members, three academic professional members, seven students, three civil-service staff members and three alumni representatives. University Senate is an elected group of faculty, academic-professional and student representatives from four University campuses. Its role is to discuss and approve issues that affect the University, according to its Web site. Copyright c. 2003 The Minnesota Daily/University of Minnesota. --------- "RE: Muckleshoots start work on College Building" --------- Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 08:11:36 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MUCKLESHOOT TRIBAL COLLEGE" http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/147549 Muckleshoots start work on Tribal College building 2003-10-31 by Mike Archbold Journal Reporter MUCKLESHOOT RESERVATION - Muckleshoot tribal officials, educators and students came together Thursday morning to break ground on the new Muckleshoot Tribal College building, the first on a college campus planned for the tribe's reservation near Auburn. The $1.9 million tribal college building, being paid for with tribal casino revenues, will put the seven programs in the tribal college under one roof. They now are crammed into four buildings on the reservation. The building will include eight classrooms and 21 offices and serve about 170 students ranging from those seeking to pass their high school equivalency test to college graduates seeking a master's degree in education. The tribal college has ties to Evergreen State College, the American Indian College, Antioch University and Clover Park Technical College. "This is an important day for the Muckleshoot Tribe," said Tribal Chairman John Daniels Jr. "This new facility will allow Muckleshoot people and their surrounding community members of all ages to continue their studies and meet their educational goals." Among those attending the ceremony was Denise Dillon, the first Muckleshoot tribal member to earn advanced degrees from major East Coast universities. She is currently a physician's surgical assistant. She flew up from San Diego for the groundbreaking. After graduating from Western Washington University, Dillon went on to earn a master's degree from Duke University. She also graduated last year from a physician's assistant surgical residency at Yale. Her education was paid for by the tribe through its scholarship program that now finances more than 250 tribal students. "My hope today is that students of this school keep education and the Muckleshoot close to their heart wherever life takes them," she said with tears in her eyes. In an interview, she said that she hopes to return to the reservation to share her skills with the tribe. The tribe recently announced it will build a medical clinic and wellness center. Donna Starr was also in attendance Thursday. She is finishing up her degree program at Evergreen State College through the Tribal College, a degree program that was interrupted by other demands on her life. "I've always hoped to go away to college," she said. "Now I'm in college with my own flesh and blood. ... I see the young people at Muckleshoot going a lot further in their lives." Other officials joining tribal leaders Thursday for the groundbreaking were Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis, King County Councilman Steve Hammond and Auburn School District Superintendent Linda Cowen. Wilma Cabanas, the director of the Tribal College, said education is the key to a bright and prosperous future for the tribe. "The college strives hard to be responsive to the dynamic educational needs and enduring cultural needs of the Muckleshoot community," Cabanas said. The 40-acre tribal college site is south of State Route 164 at Southeast 398th Street. Other buildings already planned for the site would house the Muckleshoot Language Program and the Tribal Re-Entry program. Copyright c. 2003 King County Journal, Horvitz Newspapers, Inc. --------- "RE: Carrying on Cherokee Tradition" --------- Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 08:47:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TEACHING GRANT" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.smokymountainnews.com/~/art_carrying_cherokee.html Carrying on Cherokee tradition Smoky Mountain News Qualla Arts & Crafts is taking advantage of a recent grant to teach traditional crafts to a new generation of Cherokee. Since 1946, the non-profit Qualla Arts & Crafts Mutual has provided a place for Cherokee artists and craftspeople to market their creations. It was the first co-op ever managed on a Native American reservation. Located today in a gallery in the heart of Cherokee, Qualla Arts & Crafts features beadwork, basketry, woodcarving, finger weaving, pottery, jewelry, masks, dolls and other works created by the co-op's 300 members. In 2002 the co-op's board and staff determined that a series of workshops taught by members would be a worthwhile endeavor. As part of the co-ops's efforts to keep its standards at the highest levels, they wanted the workshops to serve as an opportunity to help members share their knowledge and their pride in their workmanship with each other. In addition, they wanted the sessions to help members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) who were interested in learning the traditions of their tribe to master new skills. Qualla Arts & Crafts applied for and received a $20,000 grant from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation in fall 2002 to cover instructors' stipends and expenses to document the workshops. As a result, more than 200 members of the EBCI participated in workshops about weaving and rimming baskets, woodcarving (which included making masks and basket handles), and Lifeways, a class in which several enrolled members of the EBCI spoke about the past and how things relate to the past. Other funding was provided by in-kind assistance from staff and volunteers, the co-op's operating budget and a fundraising event. "Community involvement was the most important result of the workshops," said Vicki Ledford, the general manager of Qualla Arts & Crafts. "People loved the opportunity to spend time with each other and to better understand what their parents went through at an earlier time. For instance, people shared stories about what their mothers used to do when they wove baskets, and even seasoned artists learned some new things by sharing. "We learned that freezing bloodroot in freezer containers is a good way to preserve bloodroot for later use," Ledford said. "Before, basket weavers dug bloodroot as they needed it or dug extra and dried it for use in the winter. But at the workshop, we learned how freezing bloodroot keeps it fresh and more colorful." Betty Maney, who taught several of the basket workshops, loved seeing teenagers at the evening sessions. "It did my heart good to see young people and adults coming together and laughing like family," Maney said. "The youngsters turned out some nice pieces, too." Mario Esquivel, Betty's son, made a basket for the first time at one of the workshops. He has always admired her work, but when he split white oak for his mother's classes, he was inspired to try his hand at basket weaving himself. "Now that I know how to find white oak, work it up into splits and gather dyes, I decided I was ready to learn how to make a basket," he said. Other instructors were Davy Arch (woodcarving, basket handles, mask making and Lifeways) and Ramona Lossie and her sister Lucille Lossie (single and double weave baskets). Ledford said the workshops strengthened Qualla Arts & Crafts as an organization. "Our members got to spend time with members of the community and served as mentors," she said, "And our staff got to learn more about the craft workers and what their work involves - that helps us sell their work more effectively." Qualla Arts & Crafts has applied for a new grant from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation to offer additional workshops to enrolled members in late 2003 or early 2004. The Qualla Arts & Crafts Mutual is located on U.S. 441 at the intersection with Drama Road, where the entrance of the drama, "Unto These Hills," is located. The co-op's telephone number is 828.497.3103. Copyright c. 2003 Smoky Mountain News. --------- "RE: Southern Peigan Diabetes Project" --------- Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 08:21:53 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DIABETES PROGRAMS" http://www.goldentrianglenews.com/~/inn_glacier_reporter/news/news2.txt Southern Peigan Diabetes Project now offers treatment, prevention options BY JOHN MCGILL GLACIER REPORTER EDITOR November 2, 2003 Tribal Elder Al Potts offered the opening prayer at the grand opening and open house held by the Southern Peigan Diabetes Project at the agency's facility in Browning Tuesday, Oct. 14, while Fred Guardipee, the Tribe's HESS chairman, and other members of the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council commented on the Project's expansion. Health Aide Maria Bell explained the gala celebration was conducted to show the public the addition to the Project's building and the many opportunities it offers for exercise, not only for current diabetics but also for those who might be at risk of getting diabetes. "We are a prevention program," she said, "so you don't have to be a diabetic to come in." The building's addition was begun last June as was completed in September, and the October open house was held when all the exercise equipment had been installed in the facility. Located in downtown Browning next to the Young Eagle Shield Senior Center, the addition sports separate men's and women's sides, as well as separate showers. Program director Rosemary Cree Medicine took the opportunity to introduce members of the staff, including outreach workers Brenda Guardipee, Jodi Gallagher, Carla Oscar and Patti Spotted Bear of Heart Butte, as well as Bell and custodian Dean Oscar Sr. Dawn Bremner spoke about exercise while Debbie Taylor-Powell talked about diabetes and nutrition and Dave Hecker gave a talk about prevention. In addition, awards were given out to three people who regularly use the facilities - Henry Butterfly, Joycelyn DesRosier and Paul Begay. One needn't have diabetes to be assessed and access the program, emphasized Bell, and one needn't be a tribal member either. A person must be over 18 years of age or be accompanied by an adult under whose membership the minor would join up. Program personnel will then have the applicant fill out two forms and undergo tests for blood pressure, blood sugar and BMI. "Everyone is welcome," said Bell, "because we're a prevention program." Besides the exercise equipment at the facility, Bell said, the program is also giving out reduced-rate pool passes for those who qualify. And starting next week, signup for the Blackfeet 10,000 Walking Program begins. Anyone interested in joining a group that will emphasize the "10,000 steps" as part of a complete exercise program is encouraged to come to the Preventive Health Conference Room at Blackfeet Community Hospital between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5, upstairs at BCH. ----- For more information about the Southern Peigan Diabetes Project, the Blackfeet 10,000 Walking Program and any other areas of interest, call 338-3680. Copyright c. 2003 Golden Triangle Newspapers/Browning Glacier Reporter. --------- "RE: Ancient Maya Altar retaken from Looters" --------- Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 08:47:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ALTAR RECOVERED" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/30/science/30MAYA.html Ancient Maya Altar Retaken From Looters in Guatemala By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD October 30, 2003 The latest story coming out of the jungle of Guatemala, of plunder and violence in the illicit traffic of Maya antiquities, has an all too familiar plot line, except for the ending. Two years ago a gang of looters fell on the palace ruins of the ancient city of Cancue'n and made off with an elaborately carved stone altar, complete with writing and the image of a powerful king of the late eighth century A.D. The thieves tried to sell the relic to drug traffickers, the only people in the region with the kind of money they were asking. When the gang had a falling-out, first one band and then another seized the altar, at least once in a blaze of gunfire. An effort was made to get it across the Belize border and into the lucrative international market in antiquities, ill gotten or otherwise. Early this year, men wearing ski masks and brandishing submachine guns raided a village near the archaeological site, firing shots in the night and brutalizing a woman in an effort to capture the contested artifact. Then the story took an unfamiliar turn, when archaeologists switched from scientific to criminal sleuthing and joined in a six-month pursuit of the looters with local villagers and Guatemalan undercover agents. This led last month to the recovery of the 600-pound Cancue'n altar, Vanderbilt University in Nashville and the National Geographic Society announced Wednesday. In a teleconference with reporters, Dr. Arthur A. Demarest of Vanderbilt, a leader of excavations at Cancue'n who took part in the recovery, called the limestone altar "a masterpiece of Maya art." Its inscribed text, he added, will be "of great importance in understanding the final days of the kingdom at Cancue'n and its greatest king," who has been identified as Taj Chan Ahk Ah Kalomte. According to the society's statement, Guatemalan officials said this might be the first time an entire network of looters and dealers of Maya treasures had been exposed. Four suspects have been arrested and are to stand trial in January. Claudia Gonzales Herrera, an assistant attorney general in charge of the case, said the arrests show that Guatemala "takes the defense of its ancient Maya heritage seriously." Archaeologists said that in the past, stolen Maya artifacts had usually been considered gone beyond recovery for scholarly research. They were successful this time, they said, because of a rare collaboration with elders of the village near the excavation site, the national police and the Ministry of Culture. Together they tracked down the suspected culprits and seized the altar in a nighttime raid on the gang hideout. At first Dr. Demarest's team had no idea that anything was missing from the palace ruins, which spread over land the size of several football fields. In their excavations in the last four years, they were unaware of the altar's existence. It was the looters who discovered it, after a rainstorm washed away dirt covering the site. Dr. Demarest said he first learned of the altar's existence more than six months ago when four village elders showed up at his tent at the excavation site. They told him that men in ski masks had beaten an innocent woman for information about a great altar that had been stolen from the palace. The elders feared for their lives and well-being, which had become tied in with the archaeological site. A program supported by Vanderbilt, National Geographic and the United States Agency for International Development began two years ago to train residents of nearby villages to take part in the archaeological project and the tourism it is expected to promote. As they have learned to be tour guides, park rangers and operators of tourist enterprises, Dr. Demarest said, the villagers have developed a protective attitude toward the project and are on the lookout for vandals. As archaeologists have now learned, the altar was placed at one end of the royal ball court near the palace in the year 796. The carvings on the altar represent the Cancue'n ruler and another king in splendid regalia engaged in the ritual of a royal ball game, which customarily concluded a state visit or the forging of a new alliance. ----- Dr. David Freidel, a Maya specialist at Southern Methodist University who has studied the altar texts but is not involved in the project, praised the discovery as "an exceptionally fine work of art" and a source of new insights into the ruler of Cancue'n. The text, he said, indicates that the ruler is literally and diplomatically "playing ball" with the other king in the image, who is from an area northeast of Cancue'n where the river routes were vital to the city's prosperity. Dr. Federico Fahsen, a Guatemalan specialist in Mayan glyphs who is deciphering the altar text, said the writing "gives a glimpse of the last years of the Cancue'n kingdom." In the announcement, Dr. Fahsen was quoted as saying, "Taj Chan Ahk was the greatest in Cancue'n's long dynasty of rulers, and his titles on the altar show his aspirations to take control of the whole region during these final decades of Classic Maya civilization." The Maya were dominant in Central America and southern Mexico in the first millennium A.D., the decline of their culture in mysterious circumstances beginning around 900. But the collapse apparently came earlier in the region of Cancue'n, deep in the western jungle at the head of navigation on the Pasion River. Somehow Taj Chan Ahk held and expanded power when many other Maya kingdoms in the west were collapsing, Dr. Fahsen said. He was able to build one of the grandest palaces in the Maya culture, though he never finished it. The altar, archaeologists said, may well lead to finding the great king's tomb as excavations resume next year. Dr. Demarest said the discovery, along with other research at the palace site, indicated that in its decline, Cancue'n, once wealthy from the jade trade, was virtually abandoned and that its rulers and people moved north, where they took over another city. But their time had passed. Archaeologists said the altar was well preserved and perhaps more splendid as an art object and more detailed as a source of information than a similar one found in 1915 and now on display at the National Museum of Archaeology in Guatemala City. Copyright c. 2003 The New York Times Company. --------- "RE: Tribes teach other View of Expedition" --------- Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 08:21:53 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LEWIS AND CLARK" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.billingsgazette.com/~/2003/11/03/build/state/30-expedition.inc Tribes, scholars teach other view of expedition By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press November 3, 2003 BILLINGS - In Joe McGeshick's classes, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark aren't presented as the larger-than-life heroes some of his students at Fort Peck Community College read about in high school. Neither is the Indian guide Sacagawea. McGeshick is among the tribal college educators bringing the expedition story to students in a different way - blending art, oral traditions and native culture with mainstream history and even myth to give them a fuller picture. "It's time to look at a multifaceted view of all the people on the expedition, their strengths and weaknesses," McGeshick said from the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in northeast Montana. "There's a tremendous role that tribal colleges can play now and I don't think you can downplay it." Tribal colleges traditionally have infused a tribal perspective into their teachings. And with the bicentennial of the famed expedition just months away, some educators - particularly those along the trail blazed by Lewis and Clark - see a prime opportunity both to better engage their students and to reach out to a curious and captive public. The topic isn't a new one for tribal colleges. It's been explored to varying degrees in a range of classes, from American history and American Indian studies to art and literature, even as many tribes consider the expedition a minor detail in their own histories. While much of white America celebrates the expedition, many Indians view it as the beginning of the end of their way of life. Marvin Weatherwax said a class devoted to Lewis and Clark is being considered for Blackfeet Community College at Browning, where he teaches Blackfeet studies. "Tribal colleges really don't shy away from it," he said. "A lot of people don't necessarily like it but want the right story told." Educators like Karen Paetz don't rely only on textbooks, drawing instead from more unconventional sources, such as the land and people, to teach lessons. Field trips to historic forts along the Missouri River and discussions with elders, the "doctorates of the culture," are part of regular studies in Paetz's tribal tourism program at United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, N.D. Graduates of the program may be among those working for tour companies, tribal groups or the National Park Service next year as visitors begin arriving in the state for the bicentennial. Studies, she said, also include tribes and myths and legends. One concept the tribal tourism program, which goes beyond Lewis and Clark, is based on is the "need to articulate our own history, for ourselves," said Paetz, tribal tourism program director and instructor. But it's also important to be aware of the "non native" perspective, she said. "There are many controversies in history, and history is only interpreted with one's background knowledge," Paetz said. "With every passing generation, we're one more generation removed from the pristine oral history of our tribes." Though Lewis and Clark set off on their cross-country journey almost 200 years ago, disagreements still arise today about details of some of their encounters, personal histories - particularly of Sacagawea - and the effect of the expedition. The explorers spent a winter in present-day central North Dakota with Mandan and Hidatsa Indians. Hidatsa oral history says Sacagawea, an interpreter and guide on the journey, was a member of that tribe, a claim disputed by many. Many historians say she was Shoshone. Marilyn Hudson, administrator of the Three Affiliated Tribes Museum at New Town, N.D., said she's given presentations at Fort Berthold Community College. She said tribal oral history has "little about Lewis and Clark being anything more than wayfarers traveling through." Oral history for the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara does not ascribe heroine status to Sacagawea, she said. "You think her role was certainly glamorous," Hudson said, "but she's a product of Americans seeking to create legends and heroines and definitely a product of the imagination and fiction and a lot of stories." "I think her role was very harsh as a woman or girl growing up in this area. I think for a lot of tribes in the area, life here was difficult," she said. "Just think of what North Dakota winters are like." McGeshick, who devotes time to Sacagawea in a class on myths and legends, said art played a part in establishing the larger-than-life roles that Lewis, Clark and Sacagawea now hold in the minds of many. "You see a lot of Sacagawea pointing the way for Lewis and Clark. That in itself is misleading," he said. But McGeshick, like other educators, provides students with a broad range of information and perspectives in hopes of expanding their view of the expedition and their understanding of tribal history and other issues. Chuck Braithwaite, who spoke at a recent conference in Cody, Wyo., about Indian perspectives on Lewis and Clark and is researching how tribal colleges approach the subject, agrees providing different points of view on the expedition is a positive thing. "These stories have to be in the educational system," said Braithwaite, editor of the Great Plains Quarterly at the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "Nobody's saying that one perspective is the truth with a capital T," he said. "But I think the more perspectives we get as with anything, the more we understand the real significance in our lives." Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. Copyright c. The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Navajo Council send Peyote Act to Referendum" --------- Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 08:11:36 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="PEYOTE VOTE" http://www.navajotimes.com/20033010/sectionA/peyote_act.html Council votes to send peyote act to referendum By Levi J. Long The Navajo Times October 30, 2003 WINDOW ROCK - Teesto, Ariz., resident David Clark said that anytime freedom of religion is discussed emotions will run high. "It is a sensitive topic and always has been," Clark said. Clark is president of Azee Bee Nahagha of Dine' Nation, the group that helped sponsor the Navajo Nation Peyote Ceremonial Act of 2003 last week during the Navajo Nation Council's fall session. The act seeks to amend language in the in the Navajo Nation Bill of Rights regarding peyote use by deleting any reference to the words "Native American Church" and inserting the term "Azee Bee Nahaga," which means "using peyote as a religious sacrament" or simply "peyote." But the council voted 40 in favor, 20 opposed, and 3 abstaining to refer the proposal to a referendum of the people. As of press time Wednesday, legislative officials did not know when the vote would be. Council Delegate Lorenzo Bedonie (Hard Rock/Pinon) Herman Johnson and Clark sponsored the resolution. When presented to the council, delegates had questions about the need for the resolution and the validity of traditional peyote use by Navajos in ceremonies. Several council delegates said the Navajo Nation should not regulate any church on the reservation. Citing the 1994 American Indian Religious Freedom Act, delegates said this act already provides protection for ceremonial uses on the reservation. "The religious freedom act is supposed to protect all Native Americans, not just members of the tribe," said Delegate Ervin Keeswood Sr.(Hogback) who later led the motion to send the resolution to the people. He added that any recommendation by the federal government should be closely examined. One point brought up by Delegate Curran Hannon (St. Michaels/Oak Springs) was that the resolution needed to be redefined and because the Navajo name "azee" was too broad. But a key point was made by Delegate Leonard Chee (Leupp/Bird Springs/Tolani Lake) who said he thought it was common knowledge that Navajos used corn pollen, not peyote, for traditional blessings. He said that the way the resolution was worded, it seemed that the resolution sought to make peyote use the official religion of the Navajo Nation. Clark said all of the points brought up by the delegates were valid but in his opinion they weren't informed enough about the resolution or the ceremonial use of peyote among the Navajo. Clark admitted this could be the sponsors' fault because delegates were presented with booklets and packets explaining the resolution at the last minute. "It's a misunderstanding," Clark said. But it's this misconception that worries Clark because he's afraid people might not understand the resolution enough when the vote occurs. Now he wants to recount the history of peyote use among the Navajo and in his words, "set the record straight." History lesson According to Clark, Navajo medicine men used the peyote plant as a medicine. But many years passed and the Navajo people forgot how peyote was practiced. When peyote resurfaced again in Navajoland it was known as the Native American Church and had been adapted by other tribes. "It started here but it left and then came back as a different name," Clark said. "Being a Navajo, our roots are here. And peyote is a part of that...of being Dine'." However there were legal problems facing people who used peyote. Navajo law in 1940 made it illegal to use peyote on the reservation. After many lawsuits concerning religious rights, it wasn't until 1967 when the council amended the law to allow peyote use on the reservation. By that time the Native American Church of Navajoland was established. But when the ordinance was passed the law was written using the name "Native American Church." It wasn't until 1994 when Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act that protection was provided for ceremonial uses of peyote by federally recognized tribes. No where in that public law is "Native American Church" mentioned. And when the 1994 act was passed the council did not make the changes to the language in Navajo law. In 2000 the Native American Church of Navajoland changed their name to the Azee Bee Nahagha of Dine' Nation. The name was changed because Azee members sought to accurately reflect the Navajo traditional uses of peyote. According to Clark the term "Native American Church" was not correct when describing the ceremonial peyote practices by Navajo people. "Nowhere is there a mention of a church," Clark said when speaking of Navajo medicinal circles. "Azee Bee Nahaga" offered a clearer understanding of how Navajo people use peyote for ceremonial uses, he said. Now the group is hoping that by inserting the name "Azee Bee Nahaga" instead of "Native American Church" into Navajo law, the traditional and historical reference will be clearly distinct. In line with U.S. law Clark said if the ceremonial peyote act is passed the resolution would be in line with U.S. law because the name "Native American Church" would be removed. Clark said current Navajo peyote laws do not provide enough protection from abusers of peyote because the wording "Native American Church" is still used. Abuses range from selling and recording peyote songs to selling pipes and whistles to undocumented peyote ceremonies by non-native people who claim they're Native American when they're not. Clark said many people claim American Indian blood and abuse peyote on the reservation. "Everyone wants to be an Indian," Clark said. Clark said non-American Indians use the term "Native American" for themselves and use the religious freedom act as a cover. Clark said because of this desecration, he and other Azee members want to halt the abuses and the ceremonial peyote act is one way to protect the sacred use of peyote. Clark added that the act does not ask the Navajo Nation to regulate religion on the reservation. "People have been persecuted in the past," he said. "Now it's time to put it together and have the government respect in the right way." To reach Long: 928-871-6641 or levijlong@navajotimes.com Copyright c. 2003 Navajo Times. --------- "RE: Peyote-use Trial begins in Utah High Court" --------- Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2003 08:17:37 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MEDICINE ON TRIAL" http://www.harktheherald.com/~sid=5514&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0 Peyote-use trial begins today in Utah high court November 4, 2003 Caleb Warnock THE DAILY HERALD People may consider "How are you doing?" to be a rhetorical question. But James "Flaming Eagle" Mooney not only answers the query, he is almost disconcertingly passionate in doing so. "I am kind, loving and gentle," he answers slowly and emphatically. "I'm full of happiness." That positive attitude may be tested today as the Utah Supreme Court hears oral arguments for State v. Mooney, the appeal of Mooney and his wife, Linda, charged with felony drug counts for supplying peyote to non- American Indians at their Native American Church. The defendant in the case, Mooney is an admitted distributor of peyote, a button-like, hallucinogenic cactus that is usually ground up and swallowed in American Indian ceremonies. Kris Leonard, the attorney representing the state Attorney General's Office in the case, said the case is about whether the federal exemption for American Indian peyote use applies to non-American Indians. Mooney sees the trial as an epic fight for religious freedom. "The persecution of Native American spirituality has been going on for 300 years," Mooney said. "It was in 1918 that the Native American Church was formulated, and here we are still trying to be respected and have the same rights every other church in the nation has. It is time." He said the case could affect religious freedoms should the court decide non-American Indians do not have the right to take peyote during religious ceremonies. Leonard said the case isn't about religious freedom. "That's their take," she said. "It's about statutory interpretation." The Utah Attorney General's Office has taken over the appeal to the Supreme Court from the Utah County Attorney's Office. Mooney founded the Utah chapter of the Oklevueha Earthwalks Native American Church in 1997 in Benjamin, near Spanish Fork. In October 2000, Utah County Sheriff's deputies raided the church, saying Mooney was illegally distributing peyote to non-American-Indians. Deputies seized nearly 17,500 peyote buttons in addition to the church's computers and records. Mooney and his wife, Linda, were arrested the next month and posted bond; the Utah chapter of the church has since declared bankruptcy. Classified as a controlled substance, peyote is illegal to possess in the United States, with an exception for members of the Native American Church, who consider it sacred. Mooney's trial will set a precedent in Utah as to whether or not members of the Native American Church can administer cactus to non-American Indians as part of religious ceremonies. Used for hundreds and perhaps thousands of years by American Indians, peyote is often taken in Native American Church ceremonies as medicine to help the severely addicted and depressed. Long ignored by traditional medicine, the silver-dollar-sized cactus is now the subject of a five-year Harvard Medical School study, and other doctors and scientists are examining its properties as well. Lianne Hatch of Spanish Fork said she took peyote in ceremonies administered by Mooney beginning in 1999. "The Native American Church is not my church," she said. "I'm LDS, but I believe this medicine, as well as all indigenous medication, is given to us by Heavenly Father and it is not up to us to decide who gets what based on race or religion." Peyote is not a recreational drug but rather a "vehicle for God to work through," she said. "Not to be disrespectful, but it is repulsive to the taste," she said. Rather than becoming high, those who take it often become "violently ill, and I do mean violently. It is not something you take into your body lightly," she said. Hatch said most believers in the Native American Church would rather not see the drug in the spotlight. Kathryn Collard, who is Mooney's attorney, said if her client loses his case, all minority religions in Utah will be in jeopardy. "If we lose, then citizens of the state of Utah who are members of a minority faith will have been deprived of their right to practice religion according to the dictates of the state and federal constitution," she said. "At issue is whether or not members of the Native American Church have to be members of a particular race to be participants. It is our position that the church should decide that, and not the state by threatening prosecution depending on your race." Mooney said he was optimistic about the outcome of the trial. "The moment we get the ruling will be one of the most incredible affirmations on freedom of religion," he said. "I am really confident we will get that affirmation." Caleb Warnock can be reached at 344-2543 or cwarnock@heraldextra.com. Copyright c. 2003 The Daily Herald/Provo, UT. --------- "RE: Stevens Critic loses RuralCAP Job" --------- Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 08:47:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FORCED RESIGNATION" http://www.adn.com/alaska/v-printer/story/4281197p-4291822c.html Stevens critic loses RuralCAP job FLAP: Tribal advocate says she was told to resign after calling remarks "racist." By LIZ RUSKIN and JOEL GAY Anchorage Daily News October 30, 2003 Vernita Herdman, the tribal advocate who used the word "racist" in characterizing a remark Sen. Ted Stevens made a few weeks ago, was forced out of her job this week at the nonprofit Rural Alaska Community Action Program. "I didn't do anything I'm ashamed of," she said Wednesday. "I am a tribal advocate, and I spoke my mind as a tribal advocate. If that gets you in trouble, then our democracy is in trouble." Herdman, who started working at RuralCAP in 1984, said the acting director told her Monday she could resign or be fired. She doesn't know what grounds the organization would have cited to fire her, Herdman said, but she didn't contest the decision. "I did not want to hurt RuralCAP any more than has already happened," she said. She doesn't blame the administrator or the board of RuralCAP, which she believes was acting to protect the organization from possible funding cuts. She said she would have done the same had she been in their shoes. "What was driving them was an overriding fear that Stevens would do something to retaliate," Herdman said. "The idea of Stevens taking funding on account of my remarks is, I think, shameful." The administrator, David Hardenbergh, did not return a telephone call for comment Wednesday. RuralCAP receives millions of federal dollars and runs a variety of programs for rural and poor Alaskans, including Head Start for pre- schoolers, housing improvement services, and Homeward Bound, which helps homeless alcoholics get sober and reintegrate in their communities. All of the agency's federal funding, she said, "passes under the nose of Senator Stevens." "I would hate to see any action taken by anybody to take away funding for those programs because of something that I did," she said. Stevens, who steers hundreds of millions of dollars to Alaska Native programs as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, was in congressional negotiations Wednesday evening and could not be reached for comment. But an aide said no threat was issued. "We flat out deny that the senator or this office discussed retribution in regard to RuralCAP," said his spokeswoman, Courtney Schikora. "We had no conversation with RuralCAP prior to their decision." Herdman links her sudden unemployment to a comment she made to a Daily News reporter. Earlier this month, she heard a news story on the Alaska Public Radio Network in which Stevens aired his apprehensions about the tribal sovereignty movement. "The road they're on now is the road of destruction of statehood because the Native population is increasing at a much greater rate than the non- Native population," Stevens said in part of the interview broadcast on APRN. "I don't know if you realize that. And they want to have total jurisdiction over anything that happens in a village without regard to state law and without regard to federal law." Herdman was one of several tribal sovereignty advocates who took issue with that remark. "It's being viewed by people like myself as racist language," she told the Daily News on Oct. 8. The story ran the next day, under the headline "Stevens remarks called racist." Stevens was greatly offended. He devoted his annual address before the Alaska Federation of Natives to defending himself against the charge of bigotry. "To be called a 'racist' after more than 50 years of dedicated service to Alaskans, particularly Alaska Natives, is something I will not forget. It is a stain on my soul," he said in a videotaped speech played at the AFN convention last week. Herdman said Stevens took umbrage at something she never said. "I characterized the language as racist," she said, acknowledging that it's a fine distinction. "I didn't call the man himself a racist, and I don't think the man himself is a racist." In any case, she said she realized it was best for RuralCAP if she left. "I chose to resign because I care about the agency, and what I've heard and been told is that rumors were flying around the AFN convention that Stevens might take his anger out on the agency in some way," she said. RuralCAP board president Donne Fleagle said she couldn't comment on personnel matters but acknowledged that the agency was affected by its employee's remarks. "I can say the whole issue of Senator Stevens having been offended has dismayed many of us in the Alaska Native community and many of us on the RuralCAP board," she said. "It certainly wasn't our desire to be the catalyst in a controversy in the Alaska Native community." Fleagle attributed the controversy to an overzealous press. "Her comment was picked out and sensationalized, and seemed to have taken on a life of its own that was attributed to the entire Alaska Native community," she said. Herdman, though she's out of a job, said she'd always be a tribal advocate. "I'm not going to stop speaking out for tribes," she said. "That has been my life's passion, and I'm not going to stop." Daily News reporter Liz Ruskin can be reached in Washington at 1-202-383-0007 or lruskin@adn.com, and Joel Gay can be reached at 257-4310 or jgay@adn.com. Copyright c. 2003 The Anchorage Daily News. --------- "RE: Banished Resident may be returned" --------- Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 08:21:53 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NATIVE VILLAGE DENIED" http://www.adn.com/front/v-printer/story/4325477p-4335352c.html Trouble in Perryville Village banished their problem resident, but state officials say they had no right By SHEILA TOOMEY Anchorage Daily News November 2, 2003 PERRYVILLE - A tiny Alutiiq village, 218 bumpy air miles from the nearest trooper, has grown weary of a local troublemaker with a history of drunken violence and banished him. The Native Village of Perryville, a community of 110 people on the Pacific edge of the Alaska Peninsula, bought John Tague a one-way ticket to Anchorage and told him not to come back. In itself, this isn't so unusual. "Blue-ticketing" undesirables out of town is an old Alaska tradition, not much used in urban centers these days but still practiced in smaller rural communities. A lawyer based in Dillingham counts about eight in that area in recent years. The banishment of John Tague is noteworthy because the Perryville tribal council, which runs the village, persuaded a state court judge to issue an order backing up its action. The village doesn't have any police officers and worried that the Alaska State Troopers would not enforce a tribal court order. When Tague showed up uninvited in January, the council produced the tribal order and the state judge's order and asked a trooper to make Tague get back on the plane. In the end, Tague left the village voluntarily, but reports were filed and questions asked. Perhaps if this had all happened under the Knowles administration, which was widely seen as sympathetic to tribal governments, state officials might have let it slide, especially since Tague didn't register any formal objections. But the Murkowski administration, which says it is rethinking the whole system of law enforcement in rural Alaska, attacked the banishment as an illegal action and chastised Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski for issuing a permanent injunction against Tague returning to Perryville. In court briefs, assistant attorney general Dean Guaneli called Michalski's action illegal and insisted he rescind it. Guaneli said in a letter to the judge that troopers will be instructed to disobey the existing injunction and any other the judge issues in the case. Anchorage attorney Sam Fortier, who represents Perryville, said the dispute will almost certainly end up in the Alaska Supreme Court. People who have grappled for years with the problem of violence in Alaska's small rural communities are outraged. As they see it, the state long ago abandoned Alaska's smaller villages by refusing to provide effective law enforcement. Now that an increasing number of those villages are tackling problems on their own, the state is reaching out to cripple them, they say, to strip their tribal councils of the few tools they have, including the expulsion of a repeat offender. "This is, in our minds, a matter of life and death," said Donna Goldsmith, an attorney for the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, which has joined the court case on the side of Perryville. "This community has no other option. ... The offender needs to be removed from the community for the community's safety. ... The goal should be how to work together, not how to silence the tribe." Guaneli agrees the rural justice system is not always as responsive as it might be in places like Perryville, but he says tribal courts are not the answer. Guaneli sees a nightmare world where troopers are called on to enforce orders from dozens of different village courts, all with different rules, different paperwork, and no oversight. "The state troopers face enormous challenges, and the courts should not impose additional and unanticipated burdens on the troopers to carry out tribal mandates across Alaska," Guaneli said. He sees troopers being asked to enforce orders that are not legal under state law, like banishment. "We are not unsympathetic to the plight of isolated villages that have no local law enforcement," he wrote in a letter to Michalski. "One or two individuals can disrupt a small community." But there is only one criminal justice system in Alaska, he said. It's the state system, and it's for all Alaskans. It guarantees due process and is flexible enough that villages can learn how to make it work for them. Village victims can get protective orders against people like Tague. But what's the point of flying 200 miles to get a protective order, asked anti-violence activist Desa Jacobsson, if "the perpetrator is in the village and there's no one to enforce it?" Jacobsson said people who attend her village workshops tell her the state system is rarely on the spot when it's needed. ACCIDENTAL LITIGANT It's odd that Perryville should find itself on the front lines in the battle for tribal court rights. Unlike dozens of other villages, especially in the Bethel and Interior regions, Perryville doesn't have an active court or anti-violence program. And it's somewhat unusual that the violence that led to Tague's banishment was primarily against people outside his family. Generally, when villagers talk about violence, they don't mean muggings or gang warfare or fast food stickups. They almost always mean alcohol- fueled domestic violence and sexual assault. Across the state, authorities say these are overwhelmingly the problems afflicting isolated rural communities, the reasons they need to be able to banish repeat offenders. These are crimes that offenders bring back to the village with them after being punished by the state courts with a jail stretch. These are crimes that affect generations. Domestic violence and sexual abuse are problems across America, the subject of special law enforcement efforts since the 1990s. Most communities are now within driving distance of a shelter. They have rape crisis organizations, support groups, counselors, experienced medical personnel, investigators trained to question young victims, and enough people to get lost in if a victim doesn't want to run into her abuser every day. By contrast, the women and children in Alaska's rural villages are often on their own, isolated and vulnerable, subject to "family" pressure from much of the town. Alaska Native women are killed by an intimate partner at a rate 4.5 times greater than the national average, according to Alaska Legal Services. Under these circumstances, victims often decide it's safer to suffer in silence than to report an attack, said Leigh Dickey, a lawyer for that organization in Dillingham. Although others disagree, Gerald Kosbruk, president of the village council, says Perryville doesn't have a serious alcohol problem and has no domestic violence that he knows of. Despite its anglo name, Perryville is a traditional Alutiiq village, a scattering of wooden houses along a black volcanic beach strewn with driftwood bleached so white it looks like dinosaur bones buried by an ancient lava flow then eroded free by the driving Pacific surf. From the beach a big blue tsunami shelter is visible on a hill above the town. Twenty miles beyond, the smoking cone of Mount Veniaminof sends a steady plume skyward. Both are constant reminders that here at the restless edge of the tectonic plate, the fiery core of the planet is always pulsing upward. Perryville owes its existence to the massive eruption of Novarupta Volcano in 1912, which destroyed the villages of Katmai and Douglas, across the Shelikof Strait from Kodiak. As the story goes, the villagers survived only because they were out fishing. A few days later, Capt. K.W. Perry of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Manning collected the refugees and eventually deposited them at their present site. It's unclear who decided to name the new village Perry. The ville was added in the 1930s by the U.S. Post Office. Most villagers belong to four extended families. "Everybody in town's my cousin," summed up 11-year-old Joel Kosbruk, great-grandson of Perryville's oldest resident. Like many local kids, Joel sported up-to-the-minute streaked hair, done by his mother, he said. He longed for a pierced ear but didn't seem hopeful. Perryville is relatively prosperous. There are televisions, microwaves, VCRs, refrigerators, washing machines and computers equally evident in the weather-beaten houses of the "old village" and the newer pastel-painted homes in a section locals have dubbed Hudville. The water system is good, and there's house-to-house garbage pickup. Many people leave the village, often because there are not enough jobs, sometimes to escape difficult family situations. People who marry into the community seem to be viewed as outsiders forever, and being anything other than from Perryville is considered a shortcoming. Three Tlingit women who married Perryvillers a generation ago are still described as "the Angoons." The village does not have a local police officer. It does not employ its own and has not asked the troopers to assign a VPSO. Kosbruk, the tribal council president, said most of the people in Perryville don't want a VPSO. "There's a lot of people here that don't like too much prying into their lives," he said. And housing a VPSO costs money the village doesn't have. That means the closest law enforcement is in King Salmon, more that 200 miles north. Darkness and weather often delay flights. Stories about the troopers not responding to village crime are exaggerated, said retired Maj. Doug Norris, who spent years as a Bush trooper. But they have to prioritize calls, so a minor theft or assault without serious injury will drop to the bottom of the list. A PUNISHMENT OF LAST RESORT John Tague was raised in Perryville in a home full of alcohol and violence. A stepfather was prosecuted for abuse, and his mother, Clara Kosbruk, did time for a drunken manslaughter in Anchorage in 1989. At 36, he is a good looking, articulate man whose years of hard living don't show on his face. An index of court records lists about 20 cases against him in Anchorage, Naknek and Palmer. Many of the charges were dismissed, often as part of a plea bargain. He has multiple convictions for assault, and at least one each for drunken driving, resisting arrest and domestic violence, all misdemeanors. Banishing someone from a village is a last resort, said Ginger Baim, who runs a domestic violence program out of Dillingham. For villagers, banishment is a terrible punishment, Baim said. It means separation from family and the land, a despair of the soul reluctantly imposed on only the most incorrigible. The council took action against Tague after a series of assaults in December 1997, which included charges he hit one man in the head with a stereo speaker hard enough to knock him out, choked another man with his hands, and pushed a woman down some stairs, injuring her back. He got a year in jail from a state court judge. While he was away, the council issued an order barring him from returning to the village. In 1998, Tague's girlfriend and her grandfather asked the council to let him return. They promised to monitor his behavior. The council said yes. In January 1999, Tague went on a rampage and, according to trooper reports, hurt four or more people. For two days bad weather kept the troopers from reaching Perryville. Villagers hunkered down, keeping track of Tague on their CBs. He was finally arrested, removed from the village, convicted of misdemeanor assault and given another year in jail. While he was away this time, the council, sitting as a court, listened to testimony from victims and passed Resolution 99-07, banishing Tague for an indefinite period. This time, concerned about getting the troopers to enforce the banishment, the council sent its lawyers into state court in Anchorage for the injunction that is the subject of the current dispute. These days Tague lives in Anchorage, having completed his most recent jail term. He has a new wife and family and is equivocal about his banishment. On one hand, he doesn't care because he doesn't want to live in Perryville anymore, he said in an interview this summer. But he would like to be able to visit. He seems to accept the council's right to banish people, but says his banishment is unjust because he is no worse than other villagers who sometimes get drunk and rowdy. Tague said he isn't fighting the banishment because he can't afford a lawyer. An injunction is a civil matter so he's not eligible for a public defender. One of the state's objections to the Perryville banishment is that it dumps one community's problem on another community, in this case, Perryville's on Anchorage. But Tague said he won't be any trouble to his new home. He learned in jail how to control his anger when he's drunk, he said. So, although he still drinks, he doesn't expect to be arrested again. LIFETIMES OF VIOLENCE The court order backing up the Perryville banishment lay dormant for nearly two years, known only to the parties and Perryville lawyer Fortier -- until the village tried to use it and the state tried to stop them. That quickly got the attention of a lot of people. This summer, the state, the village, Alaska Legal Services, The Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, the Bristol Bay Native Association and the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council weighed in with advice to the judge about whether his support of the village is legal. The Alaska Office of Victim Rights is also keeping a close eye on the case. Back in Perryville in June, the men were out fishing and except for Liz Kosbruk whose son was one of the victims, the women seemed only marginally interested in the banishment issue. Over coffee at kitchen tables, with children and cats and dogs running in and out, with octopus or fish stew boiling on the stove and cable television in the background, with busy hands beading or crocheting, they talked about violence in their own lives. There were women older than 80, others with their children just grown, and young mothers. Some spoke bitterly, others matter-of-factly about lifetimes of suffering. Across the Bush, where there are no VPSOs, village health aides are expected to respond to violent situations that involve injuries. In Perryville, the council has been asked to establish a first responders committee to back up health aides Liz Kosbruk and Jennifer Kalmakoff, but has not yet done so. This has meant emotionally trying situations for both of them. Kosbruk had to treat her own son when he was injured by Tague. And Kalmakoff had to respond to a medical emergency that ended with her own mother's death. Kosbruk is in her 60s, a widow, a grandmother and a domestic violence survivor. She left Perryville for a while to escape her now-deceased husband's abuse, which sapped the joy from much of her life, she said. Kosbruk returned to Perryville wiser and trained to counsel other victims. She told women she believed were being beaten, "You don't have to live like that." The impulse to keep domestic violence inside the family is as strong in a village as anywhere else, the secrecy driven by shame, by fear, maybe by love. One victim said "If you put my story in the paper, I'll get hurt." "If (my husband) was here, I'd never say things like this," said another woman, Ruth McGarvey, 64, a local beader. When he was alive, her husband repeatedly assaulted her, she said, hitting her once with a bike, breaking the cartilage in her leg. She never called the troopers on him. There are happy endings. Kalmakoff and her husband used to have a violent relationship, but their young children pushed them to stop drinking. They did and the violence is gone, she said. Such stories can be heard across the Bush. The effectiveness of the state law enforcement system in such situations may be a matter of debate in state offices and courtrooms, but in the villages and among people who work with them, the verdict is in: The state system doesn't work, especially with low-key, secret, chronic crime, and it never will. Apart from any cultural irrelevancy, urban Alaska will never be willing to spend the money an effective rural system would cost, say people like Goldsmith and Andy Harrington, the head of Alaska Legal Services. Right now, for instance, instead of expanding needed services, the state is cutting the Village Public Safety Officer program. Villages have no choice but to look elsewhere for solutions to local crime problems, Harrington said. Even if they have police, few have the institutions needed to make state law enforcement work -- no jails, courts, lawyers, labs, parole officers, rehabilitation programs or shelters. Local, or tribal, courts are seen as a tool for villages that want to get a handle on their problems. It's not that troopers won't come to a remote village when there's a serious crime, said Lucy Weedman, an anti- violence activist in New Stuyahok, a village of 500 in the Bristol Bay region that expects to have a misdemeanor tribal court up and running in a few months. But the crimes plaguing villagers are usually misdemeanors like fourth-degree assault, small drug transactions, vandalism, illegal sale of alcohol. In a small community, they make life miserable but prosecution of such cases is not a high priority for the state. IN THE COURTS Right now, tribal courts operate on some level in villages across Alaska. No one seems able to produce a list of where or what kinds of cases they handle. Most, but by no means all, restrict themselves to child welfare or juvenile matters. However, many village courts do more than that, according to Ethan Schutt, attorney for the Tanana Chiefs Council, which serves the Interior villages. "They say 'Enough is enough. We're going to deal with this.' " he said. They "keep it on the low down," Schutt said, and don't ask state police to enforce their decisions. Villagers accept the authority of tribal courts because of their respect for leaders and for tradition, Schutt said. Tribal courts don't handle cases where people need to go to jail, and parties who don't accept the tribal court's authority can generally have their case transferred to state court. While Michalski ponders the Perryville banishment and decides if he should cancel his injunction, the whole issue of tribal courts and rural justice is exploding around him. The catalyst seems to be a 3-2 Alaska Supreme Court ruling in 1999 in the case of John v. Baker, which declared that sovereign tribes do exist in Alaska. Sovereign means they have authority similar to state government. The majority, led by Justice Dana Fabe, said tribes exist here because the federal government decides who has tribal status and has listed more than 200 Alaska villages as sovereign tribes. After the John v. Baker ruling, tribes began asserting their sovereign authority in ways that invited legal confrontation, in part because the Fabe decision said only that a village tribal court could handle a child custody dispute and did not broadly describe tribal authority. At least four cases are now working their way up through state and federal court systems seeking to cement, or to overrule, tribal sovereignty. One case, argued before the Supreme Court in Fairbanks in September, pits the Bethel-based Association of Village Council Presidents against two families that sued because they had children injured in AVCP sponsored activities. AVCP said it was a tribal entity with sovereign immunity, meaning it could not be sued unless it agreed. Citing John v. Baker, a Superior Court judge said that was true. The Alaska Legislature filed arguments in the appeal opposing tribal immunity. A dispute involving the handling of a child protection case by the tribal court in North