From gars@speakeasy.org Wed Nov 12 00:52:19 2003 Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2003 15:08:37 -0800 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews11.046 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 11, ISSUE 046 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 15, 2003 Assiniboine Cuhotgawi/Frost Moon Potawatomi Pne'kesis/Moon of the Turkey and Feast +-------------------------------------------------------+ | 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 and ndn-aim 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: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + ======================== "My son, my body is returning to my mother earth, and my spirit is going very soon to see the Great Spirit Chief. When I am gone, think of your country. You are the chief of these people. They look to you to guide them. Always remember that your father never sold his country. You must stop your ears whenever you are asked to sign a treaty selling your home. A few years more, and white men will be all around you. They have their eyes on this land. My son, never forget my dying words. This country holds your father's body. Never sell the bones of your father and mother." __Chief Chief Tuekakas, Nez Perce, Wallowa Band to his son, Thunder Traveling to Loftier Mountain Heights (Chief Joseph) +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Indian Pledge of Allegiance | The Indian Pledge of Alleg- | | iance was first presented | I pledge allegiance to my Tribe,| on 2 December '93 during the | to the democratic principles | opening address of the Nat- | of the Republic | ional Congress of American | and to the individual freedoms | Indian Tribal-States Relat- | borrowed from the Iroquois and | ions Panel in Reno, NV. NCAI | Choctaw Confederacies, | plans distribution of the | as incorporated in the United | Indian Pledge to all Indian | States Constitution, | Nations. | so that my forefathers | | shall not have died in vain | Walk in Beauty! Night Owl +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Journey | In the summer and early fall | The Bloodline | of 1998 the Treaty Unity Riders | | rode a thousand miles on horse- | For all that live and live by law | back, carrying a staff and | We Stand, we Call, We Ride | praying each step of the way. | For All that fear and fear by sight | | We Hear, we Listen, we Ride | These prayers were offered for | For all that pray and pray by strength| each of us, and that the Unity | We Feel, we Move, we Ride | of all Peoples might happen. | For all that die and die by greed | | We Hurt, we Cry, we Ride | Tatanka Cante forwarded this | For all that birth and birth by right | poem on behalf of all the Unity | We Smile, we Hold, we Ride | Riders that we might stop and | For all that need and need by heart | ask if the next words we say, the | We Came, we Went, we Rode. | next act we make is for the good | | of the People or is it from ego | Treaty Unity Riders | for self. +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ O'siyo Brothers and Sisters! The editorial section for this issue is dedicated to remembering Native Veterans. http://www.yvwiiusdinvnohii.net/military.htm American & Canadian Indians In The Military US/Canadian Indian Tribes Serving as of April 1, 2003 Source: Immigration Policy Center and U.S. Defense Department Army - 2,985 Eskimo - 98 Aleut - 79 = 3,162 Navy - 7,068 Eskimo - 116 Aleut - 199 = 7,383 USMC - 1,111 Eskimo - 30 Aleut - 31 = 1,172 USAF - 1,696 Eskimo - 30 Aleut - 22 = 1,748 US/Canadian Indians total = 12,860, plus Eskimo - 274 & Aleut - 291 Total = 13, 425 Grand Total All Serving = 1,401,128 ----- Please remember the POW/MIA's in prayer as well as all actively serving their countries! -=-=-=- http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq61-3.htm American Indian Medal of Honor Winners 8 August 1997 In the 20th century, five American Indians have been among those soldiers to be distinguished by receiving the United States' highest military honor: the Medal of Honor. Given for military heroism "above and beyond the call of duty," these warriors exhibited extraordinary bravery in the face of the enemy and, in two cases, made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Jack C. Montgomery. A Cherokee from Oklahoma, and a First Lieutenant with the 45th Infantry Division Thunderbirds. On 22 February 1944, near Padiglione, Italy, Montgomery's rifle platoon was under fire by three echelons of enemy forces, when he single-handedly attacked all three positions, taking prisoners in the process. As a result of his courage, Montgomery's actions demoralized the enemy and inspired his men to defeat the Axis troops. Ernest Childers. A Creek from Oklahoma, and a First Lieutenant with the 45th Infantry Division. Childers received the Medal of Honor for heroic action in 1943 when, up against machine gun fire, he and eight men charged the enemy. Although suffering a broken foot in the assault, Childers ordered covering fire and advanced up the hill, single-handedly killing two snipers, silencing two machine gun nests, and capturing an enemy mortar observer. Van Barfoot. A Choctaw from Mississippi, and a Second Lieutenant in the Thunderbirds. On 23 May 1944, during the breakout from Anzio to Rome, Barfoot knocked out two machine gun nests and captured 17 German soldiers. Later that same day, he repelled a German tank assault, destroyed a Nazi fieldpiece and while returning to camp carried two wounded commanders to safety. Mitchell Red Cloud Jr. A Winnebago from Wisconsin, and a Corporal in Company E., 19th Infantry Regiment in Korea. On 5 November 1950, Red Cloud was on a ridge guarding his company command post when he was surprised by Chinese communist forces. He sounded the alarm and stayed in his position firing his automatic rifle and point-blank to check the assault. This gave his company time to consolidate their defenses. After being severely wounded by enemy fire, he refused assistance and continued firing upon the enemy until he was fatally wounded. His heroic action prevented the enemy from overrunning his company's position and gained time for evacuation of the wounded. Charles George. A Cherokee from North Carolina, and Private First Class in Korea when he was killed on 30 November 1952. During battle, George threw himself upon a grenade and smothered it with his body. In doing so, he sacrificed his own life but saved the lives of his comrades. For this brave and selfless act, George was posthumously award the Medal of Honor in 1954. -=-=-=- http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq61-2.htm Navajo Code Talkers: World War II Fact Sheet 12 August 1997 Research by Alexander Molnar Jr., U.S. Marine Corps/U.S. Army (Ret.) Prepared by the Navy & Marine Corps WWII Commemorative Committee Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu, Iwo Jima: the Navajo code talkers took part in every assault the U.S. Marines conducted in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. They served in all six Marine divisions, Marine Raider battalions and Marine parachute units, transmitting messages by telephone and radio in their native language -- a code that the Japanese never broke. The idea to use Navajo for secure communications came from Philip Johnston, the son of a missionary to the Navajos and one of the few non- Navajos who spoke their language fluently. Johnston, reared on the Navajo reservation, was a World War I veteran who knew of the military's search for a code that would withstand all attempts to decipher it. He also knew that Native American languages--notably Choctaw--had been used in World War I to encode messages. Johnston believed Navajo answered the military requirement for an undecipherable code because Navajo is an unwritten language of extreme complexity. Its syntax and tonal qualities, not to mention dialects, make it unintelligible to anyone without extensive exposure and training. It has no alphabet or symbols, and is spoken only on the Navajo lands of the American Southwest. One estimate indicates that less than 30 non-Navajos, none of them Japanese, could understand the language at the outbreak of World War II. Early in 1942, Johnston met with Major General Clayton B. Vogel, the commanding general of Amphibious Corps, Pacific Fleet, and his staff to convince them of the Navajo language's value as code. Johnston staged tests under simulated combat conditions, demonstrating that Navajos could encode, transmit, and decode a three-line English message in 20 seconds. Machines of the time required 30 minutes to perform the same job. Convinced, Vogel recommended to the Commandant of the Marine Corps that the Marines recruit 200 Navajos. In May 1942, the first 29 Navajo recruits attended boot camp. Then, at Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, California, this first group created the Navajo code. They developed a dictionary and numerous words for military terms. The dictionary and all code words had to be memorized during training. Once a Navajo code talker completed his training, he was sent to a Marine unit deployed in the Pacific theater. The code talkers' primary job was to talk, transmitting information on tactics and troop movements, orders and other vital battlefield communications over telephones and radios. They also acted as messengers, and performed general Marine duties. Praise for their skill, speed and accuracy accrued throughout the war. At Iwo Jima, Major Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division signal officer, declared, "Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima." Connor had six Navajo code talkers working around the clock during the first two days of the battle. Those six sent and received over 800 messages, all without error. The Japanese, who were skilled code breakers, remained baffled by the Navajo language. The Japanese chief of intelligence, Lieutenant General Seizo Arisue, said that while they were able to decipher the codes used by the U.S. Army and Army Air Corps, they never cracked the code used by the Marines. The Navajo code talkers even stymied a Navajo soldier taken prisoner at Bataan. (About 20 Navajos served in the U.S. Army in the Philippines.) The Navajo soldier, forced to listen to the jumbled words of talker transmissions, said to a code talker after the war, "I never figured out what you guys who got me into all that trouble were saying." In 1942, there were about 50,000 Navajo tribe members. As of 1945, about 540 Navajos served as Marines. From 375 to 420 of those trained as code talkers; the rest served in other capacities. Navajo remained potentially valuable as code even after the war. For that reason, the code talkers, whose skill and courage saved both American lives and military engagements, only recently earned recognition from the Government and the public. -=-=-=- http://members.tripod.com/~Quohadi/code.html American Indian Code Talkers ANADARKO, OK, - Many of the American public know that in World War II a large number of Navajo served as "code talkers" for the Marines in the Pacific. There have been books and articles published which cover their service, and they have been highly honored in many ways. Fewer people are aware, however, that there were other code talkers in both World Wars from many tribes who served in the Pacific and in Europe. In all, at least 17 tribes have been identified as serving in this manner by Dr. William C. Meadows, an Anadarko, OK scholar whose book on the Comanche code talkers of World War II is currently under review by the University of Texas Press. The tribes identified include Cheyenne, Comanche, Cherokee, Choctaw, Osage, and Yankton Sioux in WW I, and in WW II, Chippewa, Choctaw, Comanche, Creek, Hopi, Kiowa, Menominee, Muscogee- Seminole, Navajo, Oneida, Pawnee, Sac & Fox, and Sioux (both Lakota and Dakota dialects). Meadows identifies two types of code talking, which he calls Type I and Type II. The former involved actual encoding of messages and translation of code into the code talkers' native languages. The second type involved the planned or spontaneous use of Native American languages to relay strategic messages without further encoding. An informational appendix is included below which identifies the tribes whose warriors served United States armed forces in this manner, beginning with the Choctaw in World War I, who practiced the first type of code talking. In all instances, the use of these native languages foiled enemy attempts to decipher the communications of United States armed forces. The result was often a dramatic turn in the tide of battle, and thousands of allied lives were saved which would have inevitably been lost in continued fighting. The code talking of these American Indian warriors was practiced under dangerous, harrowing conditions, willingly and without question. Perhaps even more remarkable, it was a service which they rendered to a government which had conquered their own people. Some of the code talkers lost their lives, and many were wounded during the two World Wars. Many of these brave men have since passed on to the land of the spirits, unrecognized by this country. The United States has never officially recognized the code talkers, although the French government awarded them or their tribes their highest military honor in 1989. The petition appended to this article is being circulated by friends and families of Native American code talkers of World War I and II in a grass roots effort to get their country to recognize this valiant, ingenious service in an appropriate manner. The signatories to this petition are asking the U.S. government to rectify this omission now by awarding the code talkers of both types the Medal of Honor for their valiant, unique, and outstanding service above and beyond the call of duty. Appendix adapted from: Meadows, William C. They Spoke Comanche: the Comanche Code Talkers in World War II. In Press. University of texas Press, Austin, TX. APPENDIX: Native American Code Talkers : World Wars I and II Code Talking Types 1 and 2: Explanation Type 1 = Formally developed special coded-encoded vocabularies in Native American languages. Type 2 = Informal use of everyday non-coded Native American languages. World War I Tribe and Type of Code Talk Practiced Cheyenne 2 Choctaw 1 Comanche 2 Cherokee 2 Osage 2 Yankton Sioux 2 World War II Tribe and Type of Code Talk Practiced Comanche 1 Navajo 1 Chippewa 2 Choctaw 2 Creek 2 Hopi 2 Kiowa 2 Menominee 2 Muscogee-Seminole 2 Oneida 2 Pawnee 2 Sac & Fox 2 Sioux (Lakota & Dakota) 2 FOR FURTHER INFO: Liz Pollard, Smoke Signals Enterprises, 505 W. Louisiana Ave., Anadarko, OK 73005 (405)247-2251 E-mail: lpollard@smokesig.com -=-=-=- http://www.womensmemorial.org/NAHM.html Native American Women Veterans Written by: Judith Bellafaire, Ph.D., Curator Women In Military Service For America Memorial Foundation, Inc. Very little is known about the contributions of Native American women to the United States military. The Women In Military Service For America Memorial Foundation is attempting to fill this gap by encouraging Native American women veterans to register with the Memorial so that their stories may be recorded and preserved. We are also conducting research on the contributions of Native American women of earlier eras. Historians have only recently rediscovered and verified the actions of an Oneida woman, Tyonajanegen, at the battle of Oriskany during the American Revolution (1775-1783). Tyonajanegen was married to an American Army officer of Dutch descent. She fought at her husband's side on horseback during the battle, loading her husband's gun for him after he was shot in the wrist. The story of Sacajawea, the Shoshone woman who accompanied the Lewis and Clark expedition of the early 19th century, is somewhat better known. Much of what is common knowledge is myth, however. Sacajawea has been remembered as a guide. In reality, she served as an interpreter for members of the expedition, who were unfamiliar with the Indian language. "Bird Woman's" service is described in the journals kept by Army Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark during the expedition. Four Native American Catholic Sisters from Fort Berthold, South Dakota worked as nurses for the War Department during the Spanish American War (1898). Originally assigned to the military hospital at Jacksonville, Florida, the nurses were soon transferred to Havana, Cuba. One of the nurses, Sister Anthony died of disease in Cuba and was buried with military honors. Fourteen Native American women served as members of the Army Nurse Corps during World War I, two of them overseas. Mrs. Cora E. Sinnard, a member of the Oneida Tribe and a graduate of the Episcopalian School of Nursing in Philadelphia, served eighteen months in France with a hospital unit provided by the Episcopal Church. Charlotte Edith (Anderson) Monture of the Iroquois Nation also served as an Army nurse in France. Charlotte was born in 1890 in Ohsweken, Ontario, Canada. In 1917, she left her job as an elementary school nurse to join the Army Nurse Corps. She later referred to her service in France at a military hospital as "the adventure of a lifetime." Charlotte passed away in 1996, at the age of 106. Nearly 800 Native American women served in the military during World War II. Elva (Tapedo) Wale, a Kiowa, left her Oklahoma reservation to join theWomen's Army Corps. Private Tapedo became an "Air WAC," and worked on Army Air Bases across the United States. Corporal Bernice (Firstshoot) Bailey of Lodge Pole, Montana, joined the Women's Army Corps in 1945 and served until 1948. After the war, she was sent to Wiesbaden, Germany, as part of the Army of Occupation. Beatrice (Coffey) Thayer also served in the Army of Occupation in Germany. Beatrice remembers being assigned to KP with German POWs, who were accompanied by armed guards. Beatrice was in Germany when the Berlin Wall went up, and remained in the Army until the 1970s. Alida (Whipple) Fletcher joined the Army during World War II and trained as a medical specialist. She was assigned to the hospital at Camp Stoneman, California, which was an Army port of embarkation for the Pacific. Alida was on duty the night two ships loaded with explosives collided at a nearby ammunition dump, killing approximately 400 sailors and wounding many more. The wounded were brought to the hospital where Alida worked. She remembers that night as the most tragic of her life. First Lieutenant Julia (Nashanany) Reeves, a member of the Potawatomie Indian Tribe of Crandon, Wisconsin, joined the Army Nurse Corps in 1942, and was assigned to one of the first medical Units shipped to the Pacific. The 52nd Evacuation Hospital Unit was sent to New Caledonia before its members had received their Army uniforms. When the hospital ship Solace arrived at New Caledonia, Julia was assigned temporary duty aboard the ship. The following year, Julia was transferred to the 23rd Station Hospital in Norwich, England, where she was stationed during the invasion of Normandy. She remained in Norwich through V-J Day, returning shortly afterward to the United States. During the Korean War, Julia mobilized with the 804th Station Hospital. Private Minnie Spotted-Wolf of Heart Butte, Montana, enlisted in the Marine Corps Women's Reserve in July 1943. She was the first female American Indian to enroll in the Corps. Minnie had worked on her father's ranch doing such chores as cutting fence posts, driving a two-ton truck, and breaking horses. Her comment on Marine boot camp "Hard but not too hard." Ola Mildred Rexroat, an Oglala Sioux from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota, joined the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) directly out of high school. Her job was to tow targets for aerial gunnery students at Eagle Pass Army Air Base in Texas. Towing targets for student gunners was a fairly dangerous assignment, but "Rexy" was happy to be able to contribute to the war effort in a meaningful way. After the war ended, Ola joined the Air Force and served for almost ten years. During the 1950s and 1960s, fewer women felt the call to military service. The services, however, were in desperate need of womanpower during the Korean conflict and the Vietnam War, and conducted extensive recruitment campaigns aimed at young women. Many Native American women answered their country's call. Sarah Mae Peshlakai, a member of the Navajo Tribe from Crystal, New Mexico, enlisted in the Women's Army Corps in 1951 and served until 1957. Peshlakai trained as a medical specialist and was assigned to Yokohama Army Hospital in Japan, where she helped care for casualties from the Korean battlefields. Verna Fender entered the Navy during the Korean Conflict and trained at Bainbridge, Maryland. She was severely injured during basic training and was sent to a Navy hospital for physical rehabilitation. Undeterred, Verna returned to Bainbridge and completed her training. The Navy assigned Verna to its base in San Diego, California, where she completed her 3-year term of enlistment, working in the departments of berthing and sectioning, supply, and ordnance. Shirley M. Arviso, a Navajo of the Bitter Water Clan, served in the Navy from 1953 through 1963. She was the Communications Officer in charge of a group of people who decrypted classified messages. Pearl Ross, a member of the Arikara Tribe from the Fort Berthold Reservation, joined the Air Force in 1953, and trained as a medical specialist. Her first assignment was to the Air Force hospital in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Pearl was then assigned to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, where she worked in the 865th Medical Group at SAC HQ. During theVietnam era, she saw many men who had been wounded in the combat theater. Pearl volunteered for overseas duty, but was turned down because the Air Force was hesitant to send women to Vietnam. Linda Woods enlisted in the Air Force in the late 1950s and was on duty when President Kennedy was assassinated. She remembers that the air base where she was stationed went on full alert. A later assignment took her to the southern United States during the Civil Rights movement. As a non- white, she found the environment somewhat difficult, however, she retained pride in her uniform as a woman of color. Barbara Monteiro joined the WAC in 1963 and took her basic and secretarial training at Ft. McClellan. Alabama. Her first duty assignment was to Ft. Huachuca, Arizona, where she worked for three years in the travel office and motor pool in support of troop readiness during the Vietnam War. In 1966, Monteiro was assigned to Ft. Richardson, Alaska, where she served as an administration specialist at the Education Center for a year. Lance Corporal Valla Dee Jack Egge of Dougherty, Oklahoma, served in the U.S. Marine Corps in the early 1960s as the executive secretary to two commanding generals of the Parris Island Marine Corps Base, South Carolina. Increasing numbers of women, including Native Americans, entered the military in the 1970s and 1980s. Patricia White Bear joined the Navy in 1981. She trained as an instrumentman and served at sea repairing, adjusting and calibrating the wide variety of mechanical measuring instruments used aboard ships. Dolores Kathleen Smith, a Cherokee, graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1982. She completed navigator training and was assigned to a KC-135 unit. She served in the operational plans division of her unit and also as an instructor before retiring as a captain from the Air Force in 1990. Darlene Yellowcloud of the Lakota Tribe was inspired to join the Army because so many of the men in her family had served. Her grandfather, Bear Saves Life, was killed in action in France during World War I. Her father, brothers, brothers-in-law, uncles and cousins were all veterans. Darlene was assigned to the U. S. Army in Korea as a Specialist 4th Class. Lawnikwa Spotted-Eaglefortune joined the Army in 1988, and attended Basic Training at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Acting as a guide-on carrier, she was injured when another carrier grounded a guide iron through her foot into the ground. She still has the scar, and now serves as a member of the Virginia Air National Guard. As of 1980, at least sixty Native American women were serving in the Eskimo Scouts, a special unit of the Alaska National Guard. The Eskimo Scouts patrol the western coastline of Alaska and the islands separating Alaska and Russia. The Scouts are the only members of the National Guard who have a continuous active duty mission. This unit was organized during World War II, and the wives of scout battalion members have always been involved in patrol missions. Women were admitted as official members in 1976, and only then began to receive pay, benefits and recognition for their work. Scouts currently patrol ice flows in the Bering Straits, monitor movements on the tundra, and perform Arctic search and rescue efforts as required. Native American women lost their lives in the service of their nation. Katherine Matthews of Cherokee, North Carolina, joined the Navy in the late 1970s and trained as an Aviation Machinist's Mate. She died while serving in California in 1985. Terri Ann Hagen, a former Army medic, was a member of the Army National Guard when she was killed fighting a fire on Storm King Mountain in Colorado in 1994. As of 1994, 1,509 Native American women and Native Alaskan women were serving in the military forces of the United States. Thousands more have served in the military over time. The Women's Memorial has only 111 Native American women veterans registered to date, however. As more Native American women veterans are registered at the Memorial, their stories will be available to the interested public. Please help us commemorate Native American History month by registering a Native American veteran at the Memorial. Please contact the Curator's Office of the Women In Military Service For America Memorial Foundation with questions or requests for further information. ----- Women In Military Service For America Memorial Foundation, Inc. Dept. 560 Washington, DC 20042-0560 800-222-2294 703-533-1155 FAX: 703-931-4208 wimsacura@aol.com -=-=-=- 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 ---------- - YELLOW BIRD: Love of Country... - Native Leaders assail - TRAHANT: Land-Claims Bill Protecting Trust in Trust Fund - DFO and Native Fishermen - GIAGO: reach deal Republicans can't see the Forest - Fast-Track Plan to settle - CHIEF ADAM DYCK: Help the Young School Lawsuits - Indian Rights still ignored - 1/8 Indian Blood doesn't invoke - Indian Issues snubbed Indian Child Law at Democratic Debate - Indian-Land Royalties - Editorial: underpaid by $2 Million Indian Country's Ugly Baby - Probe of Indian abuse Cases sought - Editorial: - Tribal Cop shoots, Crime of 2 Centuries kills her Suspect - Indian Attorneys - Grand Jury indicts ex-cop reviewing Norton Testimony in killing - Navajo Prez: - Appeals Court denies bid Stand Together against this Evil for Peltier Rehearing - Alice Begay: - Native Prisoner It's all in the Family -- Guidelines - Indians decry bias - History: Carlisle Indian School in Historical Markers - Rustywire: My Daughter's Yeis - House Bill would prevent - Poem: Earth Mother's Voice killing of Bison - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - San Pasqual feel - Tribal Colleges spread, Bereft and Forgotten marking slow Progress - Tribes discuss Land issues - Blackfeet Children - Commission bans hunting immersed in Language at Bear Butte - Omaha Language Classes - Navy returns control of keep Culture alive Sacred Island - Bison Festival --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Love of Country..." --------- Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 08:12:10 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NATIVE VETERANS" YELLOW BIRD: Love of Country spurs Native People to fight http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforksherald/news/opinion/7212260.htm November 8, 2003 DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Love of country spurs Native people to fight In the six years that I written about Native American veterans, I've been continually amazed by the number of Native American soldiers who fought, died, were injured or held prisoner in defense of this country. I am astonished that, when drafted, Native people went to war with few complaints. Many joined the military and served the country well, too. There were Native Americans in all the wars; the Navajo code talkers had a significant role in the success of World War II, when they provided a way to send messages the enemy was unable to crack. On reservations, the military men and women are held in high esteem. Most of the reservations have two or even three military post organizations with accompanying war mothers groups. Most reservations celebrate Veterans Day with elaborate powwows and ceremonies. Stories about their feats in the service come in from all reservations. In some of those stories, pointed questions arise as to why Indian reservations and Native people strongly support the U.S. government's military when they were at war with the U.S. government at one time in history. Here is what I mean: I talked with a woman from Red Lake who told me her father had been a prisoner of the Germany army. He was held in a cave with other Americans. The soldiers would bring them out one by one, interrogate and shoot them, she said. When it came her father's turn, the German officers saw he was American Indian. Through a translator they told him he had suffered enough in his country and let him go. My uncle, who was a prisoner of war in World War II, spent months without contact. My grandmother and his family didn't know where he was or what had happened to him. One day, he came home dressed in all-white Navy bell bottoms and the typical sailor cap. I was too young to understand the meaning of his return. I only knew there was a great deal of crying and laughing at the same time. His grandfather had been in the wars with the U. S. government. The irony is the period in which there were wars between the government and Indian tribes wasn't that long ago. In 1876, the Lakota fought a defining battle near the Big Horn River at Greasy Grass, Mont., that would be called the Battle of the Little Big Horn. When the dust settled, Maj. Gen. George Armstrong Custer and his men were dead. It was the Lakota's last victory, however, as U.S. Cavalry reinforcements descended on the bands, and the people were forced back to the reservations. That is the most well-known battle in our area. It would be unusual for anyone in this region not to know of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. That, sometimes, freezes Native people in that time - our history is the Battle of the Little Big Horn. From that battle, it is only a short 40 years until 1917, when men and women from tribal nations enlisted or were drafted into the military to fight and die in World War I - the biggest war of that time. Then some 24 years later, Native people were called on to fight once again in 1941 in World War II. It is surprising to some that Native men and women enlist and go to war. It also is surprising that the tribes honor those men and women with celebrations as grand as any celebration on the reservations. When you ask some of the veterans why they would fight for a country that didn't treat them well - at one time they were segregated in the service by race - some answered me that they fight and serve because this is their country, their people and their land. It is well and good they defend it, and the other issues will solve themselves. Yellow Bird writes columns Tuesday and Saturday. Reach her at 780-1228, (800) 477-6572 ext. 228 or dyellowbird@gfherald.com. Copyright c. 2003 Grand Forks Herald/Grand Forks, ND. --------- "RE: TRAHANT: Protecting Trust in Trust Fund" --------- Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 08:12:10 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NO-TRUST FUND" http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/147375_trahant09.html Protecting trust in trust fund November 9, 2003 By MARK TRAHANT SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST Some good news from Iraq: The Wall Street Journal reported this week that contractors and engineers are returning "a sense of normalcy to their vast oil industry." That means Iraq's oil resources will soon be exported in greater quantities and the money earned will be placed in a trust fund to help rebuild the country. That's the end of today's good news. Here's what's really bugging me: The United States once conquered a people who lived on a land rich with natural resources. The money generated from those lands was supposed to be placed into a trust fund, for the benefit of those people. But along the way, many of the records were lost and billions of dollars disappeared. Not to worry, the government said, because these things take time. And if everyone would just be patient, the accounting issues will one day get sorted out. Then, of course, the people's rich natural resources will bring them prosperity. I am not writing about Iraq. I am writing about two centuries of U.S. government management of American Indian land and natural resources. A lawsuit filed by Elouise Cobell in 1996 demanded that the government account for its management of money collected for rent, royalties and other payments for hundreds of thousands of American Indian individuals. A note of disclosure: I am a member of a tribe and have had an Individual Indian Money account, so I do have a stake in this outcome (along with 500, 000 or so other folks). I am not, though, a direct participant in the litigation -- only an observer. And it's in that light, as an observer, that I think about this case in its broader sense: What does it say about justice and our nation's integrity? On Sept. 25, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered the Interior Department to account for all individual Indian assets held in trust since 1887. This is a tough charge because the trustee has lost so many of the records; it requires the expensive business of forensic accounting. Enter the Congress. Eager to "save" the Treasury the expense of accounting for Indians' money, a rider was added to the Interior Department's budget preventing the spending of any money to implement that court order. But when something is enacted this foul in Congress, no member wants to claim credit. No one is saying, "Hey, look, I pushed through a bill to steal money from the Indians!" On the contrary, most members of both the House and the Senate say the action was inexcusable. J.D. Hayworth, a conservative Republican from Arizona, said on the floor of the House that it was "the triumph of the unelected, where legislative staffers, along with staffers from the executive branch, presume to know more than the duly elected officials of this body." Hayworth continued: "In a closed conference, in 15 minutes time, a provision is added to this bill which passed neither the House nor the other body and is thrust upon us at the last nanoseconds of the 11th hour in a cynical attempt to say: 'Come on, we dare you. There is needed firefighting money in here. We dare you to vote against it.' " Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat, said, "After a century of mismanaging Indian assets, it's time for our nation to keep our promises." She also suggests the rider may violate the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine. Cantwell's not alone in thinking Congress' move will only make things worse for the government because the rider essentially tells a federal court to buzz off. Imagine how an already angry judge will react the next time there's an issue involving this case before his court. And you can be sure the litigants will soon be back in court, asking to block this legislative rider. So the unelected triumph may be only temporary. The amount of money pending in this case is huge, probably billions of dollars. The best thing that could happen next would be some sort of settlement -- especially one that's fair. But a one-sided, hidden-in-the-dark maneuver that serves only to strip litigation rights is not a move toward that settlement. If anything, it only adds to the sense that the United States cannot be trusted. That takes me back to Iraq. We're telling the world that we can be trusted to manage Iraqi assets for the Iraqi people. This has a familiar ring. Perhaps the next step is to create a Bureau of Iraqi Affairs. Mark Trahant is editor of the editorial page. His email address: marktrahant@seattlepi.com Copyright c. 1996-2003 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. --------- "RE: GIAGO: Republicans can't see the Forest..." --------- Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 08:12:10 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SUCH STUPIDITY" http://www.lakotajournal.com/notes.htm NOTES FROM INDIAN COUNTRY Republican organization takes hefty swing at Indians By Tim Giago The National Federation of Republican Assemblies has come down pretty hard on Indian gaming. In their newsletter last week they asked this question: "They (and all of their members) live in the United States yet they owe their allegiance to another government. They utilize every advantage of living here but refuse to be accountable to our laws. They do not pay taxes yet openly insist on welfare. Although they depend on millions in government largesse they also put millions into the campaigns of politicians (Republican and Democrat alike) to keep the money flowing. They play the sympathy card with historic revisionism but have not sympathy for the businesses, cities and even the state governments they work to destroy. If any official suggests that they should not get these special privileges the protest will be dramatic if not violent. Who are these people? No, they are not La Cosa Nostra mobsters. They are not spies for Cuba, North Korea or China. They are not even illegal immigrants. They are the leadership (but not necessarily the membership of) America's Indian tribes. The NFRA, and its president (who wrote this diatribe) Richard Engle, believe that tribal sovereignty is the next thing to Nazism. Engle wrote, "To allow any one group special access to unchecked power violates every principle upon which our republic was founded. Yet, when it comes to Indian tribes, the federal government ignores these fundamental principles and has created governments based solely upon ethnic heritage Tribal ethnic separatism is a politically correct form of official Racism. My, my, such stupidity. First of all, the federal government did not create "governments based solely upon ethnic heritage." As a matter of fact, long before the federal government was a federal government there were hundreds of sovereign nations residing upon the land the government now claims as its own. There were sovereign nations that stood alone. They did not need federal intervention in order to exist. They preceded the United States government. I believe Mr. Engle has been stirred up because he resents the fact that the Indian nations do have the funds and the right to contribute to politicians and political causes. I would bet my bottom dollar that he never thought about it one wit when the tribes were so poor they were barely surviving. Where was his concern back then? was pretty sure that this conceptual backlash would raise its ugly head once the Republican Party got wind of the fact that the Indian nations in California contributed heavily to the losing campaign of the Democrat, Cruz Bustamante in the California governor's race. Engle, in a false effort to show that he was not writing to benefit one party, generously alluded that the Indian nations contribute to "Democrats and Republicans alike." I would venture to say that if all of the Indian nations in California had concentrated their contributions to Arnold Swartzenegger, a Republican; he would not have written a single word to criticize the Indian gaming establishment. Tribal leaders everywhere should beware of Richard Engle and the National Federation of Republican Assemblies. To compare the Indian people to the Mafia, or to spies from Cuba, North Korea, or China takes a very sick and vivid imagination. Forewarned is forearmed. Just when Republican candidates in states with large Indian populations are beginning to court those voters, along comes the NFRA to totally undermine their objectives. Republican candidates in states such as South Dakota and New Mexico actively campaigned on Indian reservations in the last election. I believe they will campaign even harder among Indian voters in the upcoming election in 2004. For too many years the Democrats have considered the Indian vote as theirs automatically. The Republicans have done little to change that perspective. As news reports reach the Indian reservations about some of the tactics taken by the George W. Bush Administration to weaken or even undermine the class action lawsuit won by the more than 300,000 Indians against the U. S. Department of the Interior to account for billions of dollars in lost or stolen Indian monies, the Republican Party once again shoots itself in the foot by attaching a rider to the Interior Bill that could delay this victory until 2005. The Indian people have been ripped off for years by the incompetent bookkeeping of the Interior Department. Many tribal members are now becoming elderly and many wanted to see some sort of settlement take place before they died. I suspect that much of the shoddy bookkeeping was intentional to cover up a host of illegal acts committed against the Indian people and the Indian nations by Interior. The extent of the horrid bookkeeping will never be known because it is such a mess as to defy clarification. Unfortunately for the Indian people, the war in Iraq has established new (and in the eyes of the Bush Administration) and greater priorities for federal dollars. There is no longer an urgency to settle one of the biggest federal rip-offs in the history of this country. Rebuilding Iraq and supporting the war there and in Afghanistan has drained the national treasury and claims by the Indian nations have been dropped to the very bottom of the "needs" list. There are rich Indian tribes and very poor ones, but that should, in no way, diminish the need for accountability within the Interior Department nor should it deter the government from settling a debt brought about by its own incompetence and illegal maneuvering. For the NFRA to now jump upon the Indian gaming tribes is a case of bad timing and could set the efforts of Republican candidates to open the doors on the Indian reservations in jeopardy. Copyright c. 2003 Lakota Journal/Rapid City, SD. --------- "RE: CHIEF ADAM DYCK: Help the Young" --------- Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 08:12:10 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DRUGS" CHIEF ADAM DYCK: Help the Young http://www.ammsa.com/buffalospirit/June-2000/helptheyoung.html Help the young The drugs are the one that's really killing the people . . . I guess it's all over. Nobody listens anymore. Nobody lectures these young people anymore. That's gone. The teaching's gone. When we were invited to go to a village, they'd tell somebody to put a fire on in the big houses and everybody goes. The whole tribe would get a lecture from the chiefs. If you do something wrong, you're going to shame your family name. You know, it's going to cost a lot of money to try and fix it. Well, we have to be very careful, whatever you do in your daily life. If you say something bad to the next person . . . you go apologize to him before the sun clips off the mountain tops. If you don't, you are going to be uncomfortable with it the rest of your life. You'd hear this constantly every day. But you don't hear these things anymore. No. There's no lecturing these young people anymore. . . They just clean up after work and they go to the bar and they stay there until they are a different person. I know what I'm talking about because I was there. I was there myself. . . It really hurts my feelings, when we have ceremonies. They are selling drugs right inside that house. You know, and that really cuts your heart in half. I'm standing there, trying to lecture my people, and they are selling them right there because they have no respect anymore. They don't even respect the culture. They don't even respect themselves, anymore. And that's the biggest problem we got. I don't know how we will straighten it. I think we are losing ground on this drug. We're losing it. And a couple of the young people barely alive now in the hospital for that reason . . . - Chief Adam Dyck Copyright c. 2003 Buffalo Spirit, AMMSA - Aboriginal Multi-Media Society. --------- "RE: Indian Rights still ignored" --------- Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 08:11:07 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INDIAN RIGHTS" http://www.denverpost.com/cda/~/0%2C1674%2C36%257E417%257E1744515%2C00.html Indian rights still ignored Wednesday, November 05, 2003 The White House is now on the hook for refusing to settle the Indian trust fund mess. The effort to have Congress insert an anti-Indian provision into a recent spending bill didn't come from the Interior Department, but from the White House itself, according to news reports. So, it's not just Interior Secretary Gale Norton whom history may judge harshly for continuing long-standing wrongs against the first Americans. It also will be George W. Bush. More than a century ago, the U.S. government took control of Indian assets, including grazing fees, oil royalties and the like. The government promised to manage the assets in the Indians' best interests but instead grossly mishandled the accounts for decades. Today, the trust funds are such a shambles that the government can't figure out how much the Indians are owed. The money at stake isn't welfare or tax dollars. Instead, the assets are the personal property of up to 500,000 Indians nationwide. The multi- billion-dollar government swindle dwarfs the Wall Street stock and mutual fund scandals of recent years. The Indians sued the government over the matter in 1996. They since have won key court victories. This fall, a federal judge told the government to repair the trust fund accounting by 2007. But last week, the White House convinced a House-Senate conference committee to insert an ugly and damaging provision into an Interior Department spending bill. The "midnight rider," as one opponent called it, erased many legal victories the Indians had won. Norton told The Denver Post the Interior Department kept its distance on the matter, letting the White House handle it. Regardless of which Bush operative drove the issue, one thing is clear: Congress in the modern era wouldn't dare treat any other ethnic group in America with such casual callousness. Senators and House members felt pressured to vote for the bill, including the anti-Indian rider, because it also contained money to fight forest fires and run the national parks. Even so, the bill passed by very narrow margins. On its surface, the rider just lets the government delay efforts to fix the trust funds for another year. But coupled with the existing court order, it means the feds won't be pressured to resolve the mess until 2008 - by which time Bush will be nearing the end of his second term, if he is re-elected next year. Sadly, the delaying tactic continues a long history of presidents who have shirked their ethical responsibility to keep Uncle Sam's promises to the Indians. Many of those wrongs can't be corrected - no one has a time machine to return to 1890, for example, and stop the Wounded Knee massacre or the shameless shenanigans that cheated the Utes out of their lands that once included almost all of Colorado's Western Slope. But in 2003, Bush did have an opportunity to get on the right side of history. Instead, he and his political operatives chose the easy but unethical way out. Copyright c. 2003 The Denver Post. --------- "RE: Indian Issues snubbed at Democratic Debate" --------- Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 08:11:07 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DEMOCRAT SNUB" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=3199 Indian issues snubbed at Democratic debate Marijuana, PC and other issues posed to candidates over Indians WASHINGTON DC Sam Lewin 11/5/2003 The Indian questions never came up. Eight Democratic presidential candidates spoke about topics ranging from gay rights to marijuana smoking, but never fielded any questions about Native American issues. The National Congress of American Indians sent out a press release Tuesday morning saying they would pose two questions to the candidates during a debate in Boston Tuesday night. The questions would have related to the relationship between the tribes and the state. "[Our participation] speaks volumes as to the seriousness and importance American Indian voters will have at the next election," NCAI spokesman Jason McCarty told the Native American Times several hours before the debate took place. NCAI officials say they were sitting in the crowd but never got selected to ask anything. "Even though we were told we would be able to ask questions, they apparently picked people at random. We were seated in an area to ask questions, but the woman with the microphone had [other] priorities. We let them know every commercial break that we had questions," NCAI spokeswoman Lillian Sparks told the Native American Times. Those who watched the debates saw a lively forum, but no Indian-related topics. The candidates did discuss their favorite type of computer, whether or not they had smoked marijuana and how they would have managed a baseball game. "I kind of thought those questions were a waste of time," said Sparks. The "America Rocks the Vote" forum was designed to give the candidates a chance to discuss the issues with younger voters. Dick Gephardt is the only candidate who did not attend the debate. Native American Times is Copyright c. 2003 Oklahoma Indian Times, Inc. --------- "RE: Editorial: Indian Country's Ugly Baby" --------- Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 08:11:07 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FIXING BROKEN TRUST FUND" http://www.indianz.com/News/archives/002380.asp Editorial: Indian Country's Ugly Baby Wednesday, November 5, 2003 When the Bush administration in November 2001 proposed creating a new agency to handle Indian trust assets, tribal leaders rushed to keep the Bureau of Indian Affairs from certain death. Without the BIA, they argued, there was no trust responsibility. "If it's our ugly baby, then we need to fix it," one tribal leader said. The spirited defense befuddled the Republicans, who thought they were doing Indians a favor. "To my great surprise, the tribes are very strongly attached to the Bureau of Indian Affairs," Secretary of Interior Gale Norton would later tell a House committee. It would take a few more months before Norton saw the light. She finally killed the Bureau of Indian Trust Assets Management, a monster tribal leaders labeled "Bite 'Em." But two years later, Indian Country is finding out that BITAM is still alive and kicking. It's only gotten larger, by eating up programs, resources and funding that used to belong to the ugly baby. The chomping started with the transfer of several major trust duties to Ross Swimmer, who was promised the BITAM job but given an even bigger one as head of the Office of Special Trustee when it fell through. Before anyone had a chance to object, records, probate, data cleanup and trust systems were stripped from the BIA and given to OST. A short while later, the BIA lost control of the appraisal program. Instead of resolving concerns about the undervaluation of Indian lands, the administration gave everything to OST. It was a largely cosmetic change, because the money for the program still comes out of the BIA budget. To be more accurate, it's coming from tribal priority allocation funds. Tribes are supposed to decide how this money is spent, not government officials. All of this is apparently not enough. Although the Appraisal Foundation, a national standards organization, gave the Indian employees who perform appraisals a good review, the administration has decided to consolidate them in a new unit that doesn't have a trust responsibility. The consequences are significant. First is the loss of Indian preference. Thanks to two legal memos issued in recent months, the Department of Interior has fewer incentives to hire qualified American Indians and Alaska Natives even though it's the law. Second, the proposal undermines self-governance and self-determination. Department officials are unwilling to compact and contract for programs outside the BIA. The removal of more and more Indian programs to OST and elsewhere prevents tribes from exercising greater control of their affairs. Finally, consolidation does little to help the people who need the services most: individual Indians. Tribes have the resources to hire private appraisers, and many do. Individuals who depend on their trust land for their livelihood, don't. A department entity will only keep economic development out of reach for the nation's poorest citizens. Like the ongoing reorganization of the BIA and the expansion of the OST, the consolidation is another quick fix to an old problem. These proposals give the impression that the administration is doing something, but it's only busy work. Moving boxes around doesn't solve anything. Real issues, meanwhile, go unresolved. For decades, Navajo landowners have received a pittance for use of their land. Yet when a court report finally documents these failings, department officials refuse to address them. How far this effort goes is anyone's guess. With the White House conspiring with Congress to undermine the trust relationship, tribal leaders mght soon find themselves attached to an agency that no longer serves them. Gale Norton won't be surprised then. Copyright c. 2000-2003 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Editorial: Crime of 2 Centuries" --------- Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 08:20:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BUSH WHACK" http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/1107fri1-01.html Editorial: Crime of 2 centuries White House stalling on Indian trust fund contemptible Nov. 7, 2003 12:00 AM They call it "the crime of two centuries" - a trust fund for tribal landowners so mismanaged by the federal government that a true accounting of what is owed has become nearly impossible. As of last week it has become the crime of two centuries and one year. In a stealth move instigated by the White House, a federal judge's ruling that work must begin toward a full accounting of the trust fund has been delayed until the end of 2004. The action effectively stalls ongoing efforts between tribal negotiators and Congress to reach a long-sought settlement. Even by cutthroat Washington standards, the move was underhanded and slimy. The delay was inserted surreptitiously into the proposed budget for the U.S. Department of Interior at the eleventh hour. Even the chairman of the House Resources Committee hearing the legislation, Rep. Richard Pombo, R- Calif., did not learn of the insertion until just prior to the vote. Pombo, Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., and others on the committee went justifiably ballistic, leading a nearly successful campaign to kill the agency's $20 billion budget entirely. On the House floor after the vote, Hayworth blasted the skullduggery, arguing it would cause "the first Americans to remain the forgotten Americans." In September, federal Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that the Interior Department must begin a full accounting of what is owed to Indian landowners, dating back to 1887. It was a sensational ruling. With Interior Department records of profits earned from tribal-owned land either non-existent or in scandalous disarray, estimates of what it would cost to perform such a forensic accounting ranged from the hundreds of millions to as much as $10 billion. Staring that kind of tab in the face - potentially billions that otherwise might go rightfully into the pockets of Indian landowners - negotiators on both sides sensed that Lamberth's ruling might jump-start a negotiated settlement. The White House-spawned stealth delay, however, threw a wrench into those expectations. The trust-lands mess is one of the most complex domestic legal issues in U.S. history. It involves lands allotted generations ago to Native Americans whose heirs now number in the hundreds of thousands. Even now, the Interior Department. chronically underpays on earnings from tribal- owned lands. In a hearing chaired earlier this week by Hayworth at the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Reservation, several Arizona tribal leaders expressed a desire to work toward a fairly negotiated settlement, rather than endure years of costly analysis. "We're realistic," said Calvert Garcia, president of the Nageezi Chapter of the Navajo Nation. "We know that if you spend $10 billion on a full accounting, you're just going to spend all that money on (an accounting firm)." The White House-engineered delay of Lamberth's order appears legally dubious, a direct intrusion of one branch of the federal government on another. But legality aside, it still could manage the mischievous goal of stalling a settlement. And that is just contemptible. Copyright c. 2003 Arizonal Republic. --------- "RE: Indian Attorneys reviewing Norton Testimony" --------- Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 08:11:07 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TRUST TESTIMONY" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.billingsgazette.com/~/2003/11/05/build/state/56-attourneys.inc American Indian attorneys reviewing Norton testimony November 5, 2003 WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawyers for American Indians said Tuesday they want Interior Secretary Gale Norton to testify under oath about her role in a legislative plan to block a court-ordered accounting of tribal money that has been mismanaged for more than a century. Norton said last week that she knew nothing of the bid to prevent the accounting until Congress had already added it to the bill setting budgets for her department. It was worked out between Congress and White House staff, she said. The accounting, ordered by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, is meant to determine how much more than 300,000 American Indians are owed by the government, which mismanaged oil, gas, timber and grazing royalties for more than a century. The American Indians' attorneys believe the department sought the language to protect Norton from being held in contempt for not complying with the court order. If Norton maintains the White House handled the measure "then we go after the White House," said attorney Dennis Gingold. "We will go wherever she leads us." Gingold wants to take Norton's deposition next week, but expects government attorneys to try to stop it. An Interior Department spokeswoman said Tuesday that Norton was not aware of the deposition request. The department has said to comply with Lamberth's ordered accounting could cost as much as $12 billion, which congressional appropriators have said they will not pay. The provision prohibits the department from starting the accounting until 2005 or Congress defines what the accounting should include. The measure narrowly passed the House after a bitter fight last week and easily passed the Senate late Monday. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., called it "unconscionable." "The people who are being denied justice in this case include some of the most impoverished people in all of America," he said. "They are being denied money that is rightfully theirs -- money they need, in many cases, to pay for basic necessities." Copyright c. 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. Copyright c. The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Navajo Prez: Stand Together against this Evil" --------- Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 08:11:07 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="URANIUM" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.gallupindependent.com/11-04-03navajoprezletscont.html Navajo Prez: Let's continue to stand together against this evil November 4, 2003 Kathy Helms Dine' Bureau WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. - Flanked by a handful of men and women representing thousands of Dine', Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. drew a line in the desert sand Monday, challenging Washington lawmakers to deal with the issues they helped create 65 years ago before coming back to Navajoland with a new form of cancer. At a press conference arranged by grassroots organizations working with the president, Shirley urged Sen. Pete Domenici and fellow members of Congress to exclude language supporting uranium provisions in the Energy Bill, now stalled in conference. Shirley said he had spoken out time and again in Washington on behalf of his people. "Now, they want to speak for themselves." And they're saying no thanks to $30 million in subsidies for energy companies to test a new technique, in-situ leach mining. Though billed as having fewer health and environmental risks, Shirley said there is no guarantee the Nation's water supply its lifeblood would not be contaminated. He pledged to work with the Navajo Nation Council on a law that would prohibit future ore mining on Navajoland unless there was tribal consent. In the Navajo way, uranium is a highly sensitive source of power, and one of several elements and resources that cannot be discussed appropriately without first offering a prayer. "Those are elements that are very sacred to Navajo people, as well as all indigenous people," said Robert Tohe of Save the Peaks, as he took out a pouch of corn pollen. "When we come together like this, we can't necessarily get into it without offering a prayer, and then maybe we can begin to talk about those type of issues related to what resides within the Earth," he said. President Shirley welcomed the media there to "carry the work of Navajo people beyond the boundaries of Navajoland, all the way to the governments where the governors are, the legislatures, all the way up to Washington, D. C., to the office of the president of the United States, to the Senate, and the House of the United States' Congress," he said. "We are gathered together here to share with the world our position against further mining of uranium on Navajoland and in Navajo Country. Actually, this press conference today was put together by the grassroots organizations found on Navajoland, and I am completely in their support. And the sentiment that they will share with you, I am in support. "I have agreed to use my office for this press conference to bring emphasis to their positions the positions of grassroots organizations which are comprised of grassroots people out there in Navajoland." Shirley said the grass roots want to let the world know "that it is not only the president of the Navajo Nation that is speaking out against the further mining of uranium on Navajoland, this is a grassroots Navajo effort, an effort by the people." And he is in "full support" of that effort. Shirley said he and grassroots groups Eastern Navajo Dine' Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM), Dine' Bidziil Coalition, Save the Peaks, and Dine' Nationalist "do not agree with the $30 million subsidies for energy companies to test a new uranium mining technique, in-situ leach mining of uranium that is incorporated in Senate Bill 14. "When you say you want to test a new uranium mining technique, it brings to mind that Natives are going to continue to be used as guinea pigs in trying to get at what you want to get at," Shirley said. With uranium mining, there are no guarantees. "When you're talking about cancer that the uranium puts forward, we're not talking about small cancer. We're not talking about safe cancer. I think cancer is cancer. And it kills people. And as far as I know in my own way of life, there is no cure for the culprit cancer. And I know that there is no cure used in westernized medicine either. So what is being brought to Navajo Country again is this cancer," he said, and Washington is not listening. "Some of the representatives in Washington, D.C., are ignoring the communities regarding the outcry against further mining of uranium on Navajoland and in Navajo Country, and that's where the grassroots are coming to bear. They want to be heard," Shirley said. Also, only 500 of 3,000 applicants have been compensated thus far under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, he said. "Where is the rest of the money coming to compensate the rest of our people?" Shirley expressed his appreciation to the congressmen and senators "who stand with us against this position to further mine uranium on Navajoland and Navajo Country. "Let's continue to stand together against this evil thing, against this cancer, and let's not let it come into our midst once more," he said. Copyright c. 2003 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Alice Begay: It's all in the Family" --------- Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 08:12:10 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WEAVER" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://durangoherald.com/~biz&article_path=/business/biz031109_5.htm Alice Begay: It's all in the family By Patricia Miller Herald Staff Writer November 9, 2003 NAVAJO RESERVATION, N.M. Alice Begay, who has been weaving nearly 30 years, is one of six sisters, all of whom weave. In their daughters' generation, seven sisters weave, one cards and two young ones want to learn. Begay lives in a small cluster of 20 or 30 Navajo houses, some 10 miles off New Mexico Highway 371 from Farmington to Crownpoint. The uncluttered view across the high plains around the houses is exhilarating. She weaves in her spare bedroom, sitting on the bed, with her handloom, by the window where the best light streams in. But her home isn't decorated with her own work. "For some reason, I can't even put one rug up on my wall," Begay said. But she does keep a scrapbook that holds a picture of her with most, if not all, of the thousands of rugs she's woven. Many weavers specialize in a certain pattern for their rugs. Historically this came about because weavers were isolated by geography and lack of transport and didn't meet other artists from very far away. But Begay works in a variety of patterns. "It stops me from getting bored, " she said. Begay is too modest, said her dealer, H. Jackson Clark II, at the Toh- Atin Gallery in Durango. "Alice and her sisters have created the Burnham weaving pattern. It's a weaving of hand-spun wool that combines elements from all the different weaving areas with pictorial designs. Everyone in Navajo weaving is in awe of these women." Most Navajo rugs are woven on small handlooms, a tradition that has grown up because small looms were handy for busy mothers to carry while they watched their children and sheep. Most of Begay's looms are small, some 2 by 3 feet. Uncharacteristically, on Oct. 20 she was assembling an enormous loom outdoors, one that her sister had loaned her, because she'd received a commission for a chief's blanket that will be 72 inches by 56 inches. Begay learned to weave from her older sister. "I'd see her weaving all the time. We just started, my young sister and me," she said. Begay took her first rugs to Crownpoint, where her daughter, Boo Begay, now sells, but soon she discovered Clark, and the family has been taking rugs to him ever since. Clark gives Begay most of her wool. He buys fine Churro wool, stores it in his basement and gives it to his weavers. Churro sheep grow long, fleecy, clean wool. Begay also gets some wool from her older sister who raises sheep. First Begay cleans the wool with detergent and lets it dry in the sun. Then she cards it and spins it twice on a small, upright spinning stick. She recently found 50 pounds of one of her favorite ingredients for dying, walnut shells, on the Internet. The dying and spinning take longer than the weaving, Begay said. And the weaving takes long enough. She figures that she accomplishes 9 or 10 inches in a 10-to-12-hour day. The most she's ever earned for a rug was $3,700, but the auctioneers took a 15-percent commission out of that. Clark has paid her $2,500 and she doesn't know what markup he charges. "Jackson just pays us when we bring the rugs in," she said. "Sometimes he gives us an advance. Sometimes we ask if we can pay not all of it back and he lets us. He's part of our family." Begay says the best thing about weaving is "Staying home. No boss. If you want to go somewhere, you just go." The worst thing? "If you get bills and you're just halfway through a rug, that's the time we think of Jackson." Reach Staff Writer Patricia Miller at pmiller@durangoherald.com. Copyright c. 2003 the Durango Herald. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Indians decry bias in Historical Markers" --------- Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003 08:13:56 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="KANSAS PREJUDICAIL SIGNAGE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.ljworld.com/section/stateregional/story/151103 Indians decry bias in historical markers By Scott Rothschild, Journal-World Thursday, November 6, 2003 Topeka - Indians killed settlers and took bloody vengeance. White immigrants loved peace and worked hard. Such descriptions of frontier life on the plains are common on historical markers across Kansas, and American Indians want them changed. "The adjectives placed on non-native immigrants are positive, but when they are placed on Natives, it is negative," said Monette Terry, a member of the Lawrence-based Wetlands Preservation Organization. Members of the group on Wednesday took their grievance to the Joint Committee on State-Tribal Relations in the Capitol, where, earlier, state officials and American Indians celebrated the start of Native American Heritage Month. They want state officials to work with Haskell Indian Nations University to ensure that cultural prejudices don't distort descriptions of historical events. "We just don't want any biased words" in the historical markers, said Nicholas Luna, president of the organization. The type of markers questioned by the American Indians "creates a bad misperception," Luna said. "If it was worded correctly, it would give non- natives better insight." For example, a historical marker in Ellsworth County carries this message: "Indians, angered by encroachments of white settlers, sometimes took bloody vengeance." A marker in Oberlin recounts that when "homesick" Northern Cheyennes led by Chief Dull Knife left an Oklahoma reservation in 1878 and headed for Nebraska, "They moved through Kansas killing and plundering ... Innocent victims were 40 Kansas settlers murdered on their farms." Terry said there were no markers describing the times American Indians were massacred, or of incidents that led to clashes with settlers. "Indian people had a lot of 9-11s happen to them where they were totally wiped out," she said. Mary Allman, executive director of the Kansas State Historical Society, promised to work with the organization's members on their concerns, but said changing a historical marker could take a long time. "We are willing to start the process," Allman said. State budget problems also may impede efforts to change highway markers, she said. The historical agency and Kansas Department of Transportation have erected 117 historical highway markers, but only 12 new markers have been added in the past 35 years, and none since 1999. The last time the markers were checked for accuracy was in 1995, when a committee of lawmakers and historians reviewed the text of all markers and had 20 markers rewritten, Allman said. Copyright c. 2003 The Lawrence Journal-World. --------- "RE: House Bill would prevent killing of Bison" --------- Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003 08:13:56 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOWSTONE BISON" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.billingsgazette.com/~/2003/11/06/build/state/30-bisonbill.in House bill would prevent killing of bison By MIKE STARK Gazette Wyoming Bureau November 6, 2003 Two congressmen introduced a bill Wednesday that would outlaw the hazing and killing of bison that wander out of Yellowstone National Park. "The basic idea of the bill is that Yellowstone buffalo have just as much right and freedom to roam over federal lands as do any other wildlife, " said Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., who introduced the bill with Rep. Charles Bass, R-N.H. The bill would require changes in how bison are managed at Yellowstone, including a moratorium on a controversial policy that allows the government to haze and sometimes kill bison that leave the park or appear to be nearing the park's boundary. The policy was enacted out of concern that bison come in contact with cattle on neighboring land and might transmit brucellosis, a bacterial disease that can cause abortions and other problems in some animals. Federal agencies also have been working to develop vaccines for wildlife in an effort to reduce the risk of spreading brucellosis. Hinchey and conservation groups supporting the bill said Wednesday there are more "common sense" solutions to eliminating any potential conflict between bison and cattle. The bill calls for an increased effort to acquire land or easements just west and north of Yellowstone and allowing bison added room when they leave the higher elevations of the park in search of food during the winter. The legislation would also finalize a $13 million land exchange north of the park that was intended to provide additional wildlife habitat; require the dismantling of a bison capture facility on the north end of Yellowstone; push for changes in when and where cattle graze in the area and encourage cattle to be vaccinated for brucellosis. "This bill recognizes that the current management plan is falling short in some areas and we can do better," said Will Patric of the Greater Yellowstone Wildlife Alliance. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., said Wednesday that the bill would undo a longstanding, cooperative effort to cope with brucellosis. "This legislation turns back 10 years' worth of compromise, 10 years' worth of consensus," he said. Karen Cooper, a spokeswoman with the Montana Department of Livestock, said state officials have not yet read the legislation. But she said any management plan must continue to focus on preventing the spread of brucellosis. Yellowstone bison have been at the center of controversy for years because of the brucellosis issue. Montana's state officials, ranchers and others fear that bison could transmit the disease to cattle, damaging not only the animals but the state's "brucellosis-free" status as a cattle producer. So far, though, according to bison advocates, there has never been a documented case of a bison spreading the disease to a cow. Still, as a precaution, state and federal agencies devised a management plan that, among other things, allows for bison to be hazed back into the park - often by people on horseback, ATVs or in a helicopter. If the Yellowstone bison population is at or above targeted levels, bison that leave or approach the park's borders can be killed, according to the plan. Last year, 231 bison were sent to slaughter and more than 1,000 were successfully hazed back into Yellowstone. In the winter of 1996-97, more than a 1,000 bison were killed. On Wednesday, Hinchey called the practice of hazing and killing bison "shameful and unnecessary." He said portions of the new bill would override policies in the current bison management plan, especially the proposed moratorium on hazing and slaughter. Once that moratorium is in place, Hinchey said, he would hope that federal agencies would become more aggressive in seeking other solutions, including acquiring land and adjusting grazing schedules. Mary Hagemeyer, president of the Gardiner Chamber of Commerce, said her community has been saddened in recent years by the removal of bison on the north end of the park. "There was such a black cloud hanging over our community and people complained about not being able to sleep," Hagemeyer said Wednesday, voicing her support for the bill. "I'm tired of standing by and watching and financially supporting this travesty." Despite support from some locals and conservation groups, the bill could face an uphill climb in Congress. Hinchey said it was probably too early to tell how it will be received. "We're just in the process of acquainting other people with it," he said. "I think we're going to get some good, broad-base support on a truly bipartisan basis." The Associated Press contributed to this story. Copyright c. 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. Copyright c. 2003 The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: San Pasqual feel Bereft and Forgotten" --------- Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003 08:13:56 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SAN PASQUAL RESERVATION" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/05/~1068699600&en=987ce41075dc4dfa&ei=5006 In Scorched Hills, Tribes Feel Bereft and Forgotten By CHARLIE LeDUFF November 5, 2003 SAN PASQUAL INDIAN RESERVATION, Calif., Nov. 4 - The indigenous people who live in the hills of San Diego County hold to an old philosophy: Fire takes what it wants, floods take what is left and nothing lives long except the mountains. "We've been living with fire forever," said Juana Majel-Dixon, a Pauma Indian. "The rain will come soon and there will be more suffering, but we'll get through it. Indian people always do." While the nation's eyes were fixed on images of endangered resort towns and wealthy suburbs, it has nearly gone by the boards that Indian territory was hit inordinately hard by the recent wildfires. With the last of the flames all but extinguished, the statistics of San Diego's major fires, the Paradise and the Cedar, are staggering: nearly 340,000 acres burned, 16 dead, more than 2,337 homes destroyed. While Indians are few in number, there are 18 reservations throughout the county with an estimated 6,200 people, located in what was once inaccessible scrub unsuited for farming. The reservations are now the outer edges of the suburban sprawl and fire officials estimate that 10 percent of the total land burned was Indian country, with three reservations completely scorched and a handful of others severely damaged. Hardest hit was the San Pasqual reservation, about 35 miles north of San Diego. Its entire 1,400 acres were burned, as were more than a third of its homes, mostly uninsured trailers and prefabricated units. Two local people died trying to escape the inferno; two others died on the Barona reservation to the south. "Fire doesn't know city limits or reservation boundaries," said Allen E. Lawson, the San Pasqual tribal chairman. "It doesn't discriminate on the basis of skin color or wealth." Indeed, much of the territory has been reduced to little more than cigarette tailings, bedsprings and auto carcasses. Acres of manzanita resemble stickmen, the water canal is parched and the leaves on the oak trees are as hard as playing cards. The reservation's casino, the sole engine of economic life here, escaped major damage. Just a wall and four slot machines were destroyed, and signs dot the reservation thanking firefighters for their efforts. A few miles to the north, the Rincon reservation was 75 percent burned, with more than 20 homes lost. On the Barona reservation, home of one of the state's most successful casinos, two people died and 47 homes were lost, but the casino was spared. In all, 14 reservations were affected. Rumors run rampant here. While fire officials believe that a lost hunter started the Cedar fire to the south, there is no explanation for the Paradise fire, which started behind the Rincon Casino and destroyed more than 56,000 acres and 117 homes. A report is circulating among Indians that a white may have started the blaze, someone who harbored bad feelings against Indians after the recent election that led to the recall of Gov. Gray Davis. During the campaign, Indian tribes donated millions of dollars to Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and a lesser amount to Governor Davis. Meanwhile, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who went on to be elected governor, criticized Indians as the type of special interests that had hamstrung state government. "No one wants to say this was set to take out Indian country," said Michele Nelson, a council member of the Rincon Indian Nation. "But you've got to wonder with all the bad feelings around here about the recall. We got calls during the fire saying, `That's what you Indians deserve.' " President Bush surveyed the devastation by helicopter on Tuesday with Governor Davis and Mr. Schwarzenegger, who is scheduled to become governor on Nov. 17. They met with local officials, including some Indian leaders, allaying fears among Indians that their needs would be ignored. "We feel like we were on our own," said Ms. Nelson of the Rincon Indian Nation. "There are some hard feelings that linger around here." While Governor Davis and Mr. Schwarzenegger have toured some of the devastation across the state, neither has set foot on Indian lands since the fires broke out. Copyright c. 2003 The New York Times Company. --------- "RE: Tribes discuss Land issues" --------- Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2003 08:41:06 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LAND CLAIMS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.rochesterdandc.com/news/1111I02ARIQ_claims11_news.shtml Tribes discuss land issues Symposium brings together those with competing claims. By Diana Louise Carter Staff writer November 11, 2003 SYRACUSE - Two months ago the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma thought it was within days of a federal court ruling that would clear the way to build a bingo hall in Aurelius, Cayuga County. But then the tribe's ally in a federal land claim, the Cayuga Indian Nation of New York, filed suit against the Oklahoma tribe. A federal judge delayed his decision until next year. Representatives of both nations met for the first time since then at Syracuse University, during a symposium Monday on the return of removed indigenous people. Airing legal issues such as land claims filed by multiple tribal groups and hearing new perspectives can only bring about positive results, said Robert O. Porter. Porter is the Seneca law professor who founded the school's new Center for Indigenous Law Governance and Citizenship. As Porter spoke, Clint Halftown, a chief and spokesman for the New York Cayugas, and Scott Wood, a tribal councilor for the Oklahoma tribe, chatted cordially a few feet away. They had agreed to talk about trying to settle their differences through council-to-council negotiations, rather than through the courts. Laws surrounding Indian land claims are complex, symposium speakers agreed, as they tried to tease the issues into simpler concepts. But until Monday, most such discussions have gone on only in courtrooms or been summarized in brief news articles, Porter said. As an educator, Porter said he feels obliged to shed light on facts that underlie land claims, such as the fact that tribes have sovereign rights. "The treaties are right there. The treaties are the reflection of a sovereign status," Porter said. Cayugas were basically run off their land in 1779 by the Sullivan Campaign, President George Washington's military retaliation against Indian nations that sided with the British during the Revolutionary War. "The Sullivan Campaign destroyed our crops and villages," Halftown said. Cayugas scattered, resettling with other Iroquois tribes. Those who remained on the homeland lost their children to starvation the next winter, he said. The Canandaigua Treaty, signed 209 years ago today, set aside 64,000 acres around the northern tip of Cayuga Lake. But starting in 1795, New York took that land in treaties that have since been ruled illegal. Some Cayugas moved to Ohio to escape starvation and joined up with Senecas. These two tribes grouped later and moved to Oklahoma, where they earned federal recognition as a tribe in 1958. The New York and Oklahoma groups have won their land claim with damages set at $247 million. However, the state of New York and Seneca and Cayuga counties have filed appeals. The Cayugas filed counter-appeals asking for $1.7 billion and all 64,000 acres. Meanwhile, both Cayuga groups have recently bought land in the claim area. According to a pivotal court decision in a claim filed by the Oneidas in Madison and Oneida counties, that land immediately reverted to Indian Territory and is considered free of local and state regulations and taxes. Cayugas from Oklahoma are welcome to the homeland as individuals, Halftown said, but their government, an amalgam of Seneca and Cayuga people, has no jurisdiction. Senecas cannot have jurisdiction over Cayugas he said; noting that Senecas have their own land claim matters to settle. Regardless, Wood said, "We are coming back. We will stay, we will prosper." A representative of the Oneida of the Thames Band, of Ontario, Canada, said U.S. policy created such divisive situations. "Land claims are a blatant example of the U.S. violations of the original treaties," said Robert Antone of the Thames Band, which also originated in New York. DLCARTER@DemocratandChronicle.com Copyright c. 2003 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. --------- "RE: Commission bans hunting at Bear Butte" --------- Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 08:20:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BEAR BUTTE" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/7201196.htm Commission bans hunting at Bear Butte CHET BROKAW Associated Press November 7, 2003 PIERRE, S.D. - Hunting will be banned at Bear Butte and most of the state park that surrounds the site held sacred by American Indians, the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Commission decided Thursday. Hunting must be banned so people are not disturbed while they pray at Bear Butte, said Rose McCauley, a member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe. "We all have our churches. This place is extra special to us," McCauley told the commission. "Please help us. That's our sacred place." The commission received letters from a few residents of the northern Black Hills who wanted to keep the area open to hunting. Those people wrote that so few shots are fired in the area that they doubt hunting disturbs anyone worshipping on Bear Butte. But letters from many other people supported the prohibition on hunting in the area. The Game, Fish and Parks Commission voted unanimously to approve the hunting ban. The new rule adds the portion of Bear Butte State Park east of South Dakota Highway 79 to the list of areas where uncased firearms and archery bows are prohibited. Hunting would still be allowed in the portion of the park west of the highway near Bear Butte Lake. State Game, Fish and Parks officials have said some limited deer hunting has occurred in the area, mostly on the north and east sides of the butte's base. Seventeen different tribes have identified Bear Butte as an important religious site. An annual forum was started in 1996 so Game, Fish and Parks officials could consult with Indians on the operation of Bear Butte, and those attending this year's forum recommended that hunting be stopped on the butte itself and other areas east of the highway. Some of those supporting the ban said it makes sense because no one would shoot near any other church. "At least that place, keep it holy and don't let anybody disturb it by bringing firearms to that place," Altwin Grassrope, a member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, told the commission. Copyright c. 2003 Aberdeen News. --------- "RE: Navy returns control of Sacred Island" --------- Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2003 08:41:06 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SACRED ISLAND RETURNED" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.daily-times.com/artman/publish/article_5095.shtml 62 years after Pearl Harbor, Navy returns control of sacred island to Hawaiians By B.J. REYES/Associated Press Writer November 11, 2003 KAHOOLAWE ISLAND, Hawaii (AP) - Spotted with patches of dry grass and colored by thorny kiawe trees that thrive in the arid landscape, the red dirt of this former Navy target range supports little other vegetation, and even less wildlife. But the uninhabited 45 square miles of Kahoolawe are sacred to native Hawaiians who feel the island, untouched by tourists, connects them with the spirits of their ancestors. Now, after spending 10 years and $460 million to clean up a half century's worth of shrapnel and unexploded bombs, the Navy is returning control of Kahoolawe to the Hawaiians for the first time since the attack on Pearl Harbor. The transfer will take place on Tuesday, Veterans Day. More than a decade after the last round of ammunition was fired, native Hawaiians are preparing for what they hope will be the rebirth of the island as a place where their cultural traditions can be celebrated. "You can get a feel on Kahoolawe of what it was like to live on Hawaii at the time of our ancestors," said Davianna McGregor, a native Hawaiian with the cultural preservation group Protect Kahoolawe Ohana. "It's important for us to have a place where we can practice our traditions without it being a spectacle, without it being some kind of tourist attraction. "It's one place we can go to be in communion with our natural life forces." The island and its more than 600 archaeological and culturally significant sites are on the National Register of Historic Places. Those sites include old houses, religious artifacts, shrines, remnants of ranches, and a centuries-old quarry. The island will be set aside for cultural, education and archaeological activities, with no commercial development allowed, and access to Kahoolawe will be controlled by a state agency. Six miles southwest of Maui, Kahoolawe (pronounced kah-HOH-oh-LAH-vay) is the smallest of the eight major Hawaiian islands. It is 11 miles long and seven miles wide. The Navy has controlled Kahoolawe since martial law was declared after the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It was used as a target and training area until 1990, when President George H.W. Bush ordered a halt to the exercises after years of protests and lawsuits by native Hawaiians. Congress later agreed to clean up the place and return it to local control. Cleanup crews already have removed some 11,000 tires and about 9 million pounds of scrap metal - enough steel to construct a frigate and a destroyer, according to the Navy. "It's a tremendous amount of material and a tremendous tribute to the folks that have worked out here" on the cleanup, said Rear Adm. Barry McCullough, commander of Navy Region Hawaii. But the effort is not complete. As of Oct. 31, about three-quarters of the island has been cleared of unexploded ordnance, according to the Navy. The Navy is set to leave for good on March 12, but will return to clean up any dangerous materials found in the future. "There's no way that they can go back to that date when everything went wrong to redo it, so what's done is done," said Pam Waterhouse, who has worked on the cleanup. "This certainly is a step in the right direction." For the past two decades, the Navy has allowed monthly access to the island for religious purposes, and teachers often bring their classes to the Kahoolawe. "It's a very deep cultural experience when people come to Kahoolawe," said McGregor, who helps coordinate the trips. "It's really transformative. Kahoolawe is a very special place." Copyright c. 2003 Farmington Daily Times, a Gannett Co., Inc. newspaper. --------- "RE: Native Leaders assail Land-Claims Bill" --------- Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 08:11:07 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LAND CLAIMS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.canada.com/search/~1fdbd1774fd2&disp=e&end Native leaders assail land-claims bill, vow to fight it in court SUE BAILEY Canadian Press Tuesday, November 04, 2003 OTTAWA (CP) - Cries of "shame" echoed in the House of Commons on Tuesday as Liberals pushed through a controversial land-claims bill fought by native leaders across Canada. "It's going to be challenged legally, we can tell you that," said Charles Fox, vice-chief of Ontario for the national Assembly of First Nations. "The opposition from our communities, the grassroots, is very real," he told a news conference on Parliament Hill. At issue is Bill C-6 - the Specific Claims Resolution Act - that passed Tuesday night in a Commons vote of 121-104 with Senate-recommended changes. The bill is meant to speed settlement of more than 700 backlogged native claims against Ottawa. It now needs royal assent to become law. But native leaders say the bill breaks Liberal promises of an independent process. Plans to cap settlements at $10 million were also assailed. Several Liberals voted against their own government's bill, including Saskatchewan MP Rick Laliberte. "The capping of settlements - that's just an invitation for lawsuits," he said. Specific claims are brought when First Nations seek compensation for treaties allegedly breached or ignored by Ottawa. But aboriginal groups have long decried how the federal government acts as both judge and jury in such cases, weighing the extent of its own wrongdoing and how much should be paid. Cases often drag on for years, sometimes decades, only to land in court. The Liberals promised an independent claims body to ease such problems, but the proposed legislation falls short, say native leaders. Under the bill, claims would be directed to a commission to be registered, researched and negotiated. If a decision on compensation can't be reached or if Ottawa rejects the claim, a band could take its case to court or before a tribunal. The tribunal would reach binding decisions on the validity of the claim and money owed. But Ottawa's sole authority to appoint commissioners and tribunal members undermines their independence, critics say. Native groups had asked for input but were denied. Opponents also said a cap of $10 million per claim - with no limits on how long it takes to settle each case - means only a handful of settlements will be reached each year. All four opposition parties derided the bill for different reasons Tuesday during debate that was curtailed by the Liberal majority. Opposition and native critics said the bill should be scrapped. "For some years now, Mr. Speaker, there's been a strategy of confrontation rather than conciliation with the First Nations," said Bloc Quebecois MP Yvan Loubier. He was ashamed to see the Liberals fast-track flawed legislation as retiring Prime Minister Jean Chretien's time in office ticks down, Loubier added. Business in the Commons is expected to wrap up as early as Friday pending a Liberal leadership convention next week and Chretien's departure by February. Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault defended the contentious bill while conceding it isn't perfect. The claims body will be reviewed after three years to follow up on concerns, he said in an interview. "We want to negotiate, not litigate." Nault said he believes most claims can be settled through mediation at the new commission before the $10-million cap is reached. He also defended its independence. "Many commissions, tribunals across the country are independent even though . . . the cabinet appoints members." Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, was dismayed. "I am disappointed that the voices of First Nations citizens and our overwhelming opposition to this bill were not heard or considered by the government," Fontaine said in a statement Tuesday. Copyright c. 2003 The Canadian Press. --------- "RE: DFO and Native Fishermen reach deal" --------- Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003 08:13:56 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SALMON DEAL" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://nb.cbc.ca/View?filename=nb_elsiebooktookdeal20031106 DFO and native fishermen reach deal November 6, 2003 MONCTON - The people of Elsipogtog agreed to take their salmon nets out of the Richibucto River and in exchange the Department of Fisheries and Oceans agreed to give them a bigger role in scientific studies along the river. The deal ends a dispute over salmon fishing between the government and aboriginal people. Three weeks ago, DFO officers seized salmon nets and boats from Elsipogtog. Fisheries officials say the salmon are in danger of disappearing from the Richibucto River. But the native fishermen dispute some of the scientific work done by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and responded by putting more nets in the water. Chief Robert Levi says they've reached a deal to end the dispute. "We're going to become co-managers, co-science. We are going to jointly monitor and enforce it so it's really exciting for our people." Rhe'al Boucher, with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, doesn't go quite that far but agrees there will be joint science projects. "We would make sure that there would be increased participation by Elsipogtog in scientific activities that would try and better assess fish species in the Richibucto River." Boucher says the two sides will spend the winter working out the details of the deal. Both Boucher and the Chief Levi say the bottom line is to find ways to increase salmon populations in the Richibucto River. Copyright c. 2003 CBC. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Fast-Track Plan to settle School Lawsuits" --------- Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 08:11:07 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL LAWSUITS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.canoe.ca/NationalTicker/CANOE-wire.Native-Abuse-Lawsuits.html Government to launch fast-track plan to settle residential school lawsuits November 5, 2003 OTTAWA (CP) - The federal government's much-delayed and contentious bid to reach out-of-court settlements with more than 12,000 former students at native residential schools, will be launched on Thursday. Ralph Goodale, the minister responsible for resolving the residential schools impasse, is to provide details of the plan at a news conference. A major stumbling block has been Ottawa's refusal to consider claims for loss of language and cultural damages in schools that were created to "Christianize" native children. The government's $1.7-billion plan to fast-track settlements has so far only included compensation for physical and sexual abuse. "We think there will be survivors who will have simply no choice but to try it out," said Toronto lawyer Darcy Merkur. His law firm, Thomson Rogers, is leading a class-action lawsuit that, if certified, will seek $12 billion for abuses of all kinds. "We think those who try it out will find it to be flawed," he said of the government's out-of-court option. Angry native leaders have already threatened to derail the process for that reason. Its failure would cost the government millions of dollars it had hoped to save by keeping cases out of a sluggish and costly court system. At current rates, it's estimated the claims would drag on for 50 years and run up legal bills of at least $2 billion -- not including settlements. Fierce resistance from plaintiffs delayed the process and forced Ottawa to consider changes. Applications were originally to be released last spring. The federal government's plan to speed settlements, announced last December, was designed to resolve up to 18,000 cases out of court in seven years. Ottawa would cover 70 per cent of proven damages for physical and sexual abuse, but only for those who waive their right to sue for language and cultural losses. Native leaders called that "a sham" and demanded changes. Ottawa's fast-tracking plan would put cases before 32 adjudicators, such as retired judges. Plaintiffs would have to collect 30 per cent of any payout from the Roman Catholic, Anglican, United or Presbyterian churches that ran the schools for much of the last century. Ottawa would cover the rest. Critics say the deal was crafted with little native input. They have also assailed Ottawa's move to award damages using a points system that some have called a "meat chart." It offers small amounts for less serious assaults, up to $100,000 or more for the most brutal abuse. Government officials say the system merely reflects how damages are typically assessed in civil litigation. They also stress that Ottawa will spend $172-million over 10 years to help restore native languages eroded in residential schools. Many plaintiffs claim they were punished, sometimes beaten, for speaking their native tongue. Students lost fluency and were often reluctant to later teach their children the ancient dialects. No Canadian judge has ever awarded damages for such cultural losses. Copyright c. 2003, CANOE, a division of Netgraphe Inc. --------- "RE: 1/8 Indian Blood doesn't invoke Indian Child Law" --------- Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 08:12:10 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="QUANTUM" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1110court-indianblood-ON.html Court: one-eighth Indian blood doesn't invoke Indian child law Bob Anez Associated Press Nov. 10, 2003 02:30 PM HELENA, Mont. - A judge's decision to take away a woman's parental rights did not run afoul of a federal law governing American Indian children because there was no evidence the law applies to her children, the Montana Supreme Court has ruled. The woman's 13-year-old child does not have sufficient Indian blood to be covered by the Indian Child Welfare Act, and no one provided any information about whether her 6-year-old qualifies as an Indian child, the unanimous five-judge panel said. The court also upheld the district judge's reasons for terminating the mother's rights, saying he had plenty of evidence to make that decision. The heart of the case was whether the federal law, known as the ICWA, applied to two of the women's three children. That law makes it federal policy to protect the interests of Indian children by ensuring they remain connected to their tribes when families fail. In this case, the unidentified mother had problems raising her children for years. The children, who each had a different father, lived in a home that was described by the court as one of "chaos and dysfunction." The mother, despite getting help from the state to develop parenting skills, could not cope with the daily stresses of family life. The children eventually were removed from the home in 2000 and 2001, and the social worker assigned to the case concluded the mother failed to successfully complete her three treatment plans. The father of the eldest child qualifies for membership in the Little Shell Band of the Chippewa Tribe because he has one-fourth Indian blood, the minimum needed to be eligible. However, the Supreme Court said, the child - identified only as C.H. - does not qualify with only one-eighth Indian blood. What's more, the federal law doesn't apply to tribes like the Little Shell Band that are not federally recognized. The justices said they did not have enough information in the court records about the youngest child, identified only as D.H., to determine if the child qualifies as an Indian child. The court also said the files do not indicate whether the father's Northern Cheyenne tribe wants to participate in what happens to the child. However, in any future legal proceedings involving D.H., the tribe must be given a chance to determine if D.H. is an Indian child and therefore subject to the law, the court said. Copyright c. 2003 The Arizona Republic. --------- "RE: Indian-Land Royalties underpaid by $2 Million" --------- Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003 08:13:56 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BUSH WHACK" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1106indians06.html Indian-land royalties underpaid by $2 mil Associated Press Nov. 6, 2003 12:00 AM WASHINGTON - The Interior Department ordered oil and gas companies, after an audit found they underpaid for production in 2001, to pay $2 million more in royalties to American Indian tribes and landowners. About $210 million in gas royalties were collected in 2001, meaning the underpayment was less than 1 percent, according to the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service. Patrick Etchart, a spokesman for the agency, said Wednesday that underpayments can happen when companies prepay royalties based on estimates that turn out to be low. Companies were told of the discrepancies, and they can contest the finding, Etchart said. For now, MMS is not releasing the names of the companies ordered to pay the additional royalties. In 2000, MMS also found companies underpaid for production and should pay $1.6 million more in royalties on American Indian lands. "We work very hard to assure that the oil and gas royalty payments we receive for Indian tribes and allottees are paid correctly," Lucy Querques Denett, MMS Associate Director for Minerals Revenue Management, said in a statement. MMS collects mineral revenues from about 3,800 leases on American Indian lands, then transfers that money to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to be paid to the Indian landowners. The Interior Department is defending itself against lawsuits by several Indian tribes and a class-action suit on behalf of more than 300,000 American Indians alleging the government underpaid and mismanaged royalties on Indian lands dating from 1887. Copyright c. 2003 The Arizona Republic. --------- "RE: Probe of Indian abuse Cases sought" --------- Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 08:20:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FBI AGENT CALLS FOR PROBE" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.billingsgazette.com/~/build/nation/38-probe.inc Probe of Indian abuse cases sought November 7, 2003 WASHINGTON (AP) -- The FBI whistleblower who accused agents of stealing a Tiffany crystal globe from the World Trade Center ruins is going public with new allegations that the bureau mishandled an American Indian child's sexual abuse complaint by failing to interview the victim. The accusations involving a 1999 case in North Dakota are the latest chapter in a long-running battle between FBI management and Jane Turner, a career agent who retired last week after 25 years with the bureau. Turner and the private National Whistleblower Center are asking Attorney General John Ashcroft to authorize an independent investigation into the FBI's alleged failure to protect children on American Indian reservations. Turner's separate allegations last year triggered an ongoing investigation by the Justice Department's inspector general into how a Tiffany globe from the Sept. 11 Ground Zero site wound up in the Minneapolis FBI office. The FBI says it vigorously investigates as many as 600 accusations of child abuse a year on Indian reservations. Ernst Weyand, the FBI's acting chief of the Indian Country Unit, said his agency does "a tremendous amount of training on investigating sexual abuse." In the North Dakota case cited by Turner, the suspect -- a local TV broadcaster -- pleaded guilty and was sent to prison, but Turner alleges neither the FBI nor local law enforcement officers interviewed the 9-year- old victim. U.S. Customs Service agent Anthony Onstead testified in a lawsuit by Turner that "it was really puzzling to us" why local authorities hadn't questioned the 9-year-old. After all, the child "might be aware of other victims," testified Onstead, who worked on the case. Local law enforcement officials said they were concerned about traumatizing the boy. Turner says the FBI didn't interview the boy either, and that the bureau didn't interview boys from a nearby Indian reservation who had spent time with the suspect and might have been victims. "The bureau did not do its job," Turner said Thursday in a telephone interview. "Child abuse is a significant problem on Indian reservations and we need to do better." In another case cited by Turner, she said she intervened in an investigation by the Bureau of Indian Affairs of injuries suffered by a 3- year-old boy on the Turtle Mountain reservation in North Dakota. Investigators labeled the injuries as being caused by a car accident. Acting on a doctor's comment that the boy's injuries were from sexual abuse, Turner reinterviewed witnesses before being pulled off the probe by her superiors. The suspect, the boy's father, later confessed following a polygraph examination. Turner won praise from federal prosecutors who worked cases with her. "When it comes to Indian country you probably got one of the best in the nation" in Turner, Assistant U.S. Attorney Clare Hochhalter testified on her behalf in a lawsuit Turner brought against the bureau. Turner alleges in the lawsuit that she is a victim of discrimination, harassment and retaliation by the FBI dating back to 1995, but an FBI manager testified in the suit that Turner's job performance was unacceptable and that if it had been up to him, he would have fired her. Copyright c. 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. Copyright c. 2003 The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Tribal Cop shoots, kills her Suspect" --------- Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003 08:13:56 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DEAD SUSPECT" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.gallupindependent.com/11-05-03tribalcopshootskil.html Tribal cop shoots, kills her suspect Jim Maniaci Dine' Bureau FORT DEFIANCE - For the third time in three weeks a Navajo Nation police officer has shot and either killed or wounded a suspect while being attacked. Two of the men died and one is recovering. The third incident and second death occurred around 5:30 p.m. Monday night when a six-year veteran female police officer killed a 20-year-old man with a single shot to the chest when he was choking her after pepper spray and a baton failed to subdue him during a foot chase in two subdivisions. Captain Edison Begaye, acting chief of the Law Enforcement Department and Chinle precinct commander, declined to immediately name her, citing fear of gang retaliation. Begaye added the 29-year-old officer has spent her entire career of more than six years patrolling the Window Rock precinct, now commanded by Lieutenant Wallace Yazzie. Agent Susan Herkowitz of the FBI in Phoenix identified the dead man as Mervyn Nelson of Fort Defiance. She added that the officer was taken to Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital in Gallup for treatment of her broken left arm. Nelson was declared dead on arrival at the Indian Health Service Hospital in Fort Defiance after the 5:30 p.m. incident in the Rio Puerco and Black Rock Acres subdivisions. As is standard practice, the officer was placed on leave until the tribal Public Safety Division investigation is finished. Lieutenant Ronni Wauneka, headquarters administrative officer and Dilkon Law Enforcement precinct commander, said the tribal detectives and FBI are handling the investigation. On Oct. 15 in Tuba City in the Western Agency, Officer Roderick Whitewater, 23, twice shot J.R. Charley, 35, when Charley came at him with a knife and left him with nowhere to retreat. Charley died. On Oct. 27 in Ojo Encino in the Eastern Agency, Officer Lamar Martin wounded Alvert McCarthy, 45, with one shot after McCarthy allegedly attacked him with a frying pan and his own baton. Lt. Wauneka, the second highest-ranking female officer in the 250-member Law Enforcement Department, gave the following account of what happened Monday's night: The female officer was the first to respond to a disturbance call at 64 Black Rock Acres. Enroute she received a second call that the incident had escalated into a drunken fight. When she arrived, an unidentified woman flagged her down to point out the suspect who took off on foot to the north. The officer caught Nelson at 115 Rio Puero Acres, grabbing him while he attempted to scale a fence, but got hit in the face with his fist. The suspect continued to try to beat up the officer who then used her pepper spray, to no avail. Nelson continued to try to escape capture by running to 248 Rio Puerco. But the officer again caught up and grabbed him, getting hit on her left arm and face. She then clubbed his legs with her baton as he continued to refuse to obey her order to surrender and kept hitting at her. The suspect was able to grab the officer by the neck and was choking her, so she dropped her baton and pulled her pistol, firing once, hitting him in the chest. Even after being hit by a 9 mm bullet, Nelson kept struggling to get away. Detective Alvernon Tsosie arrived and finished subduing Nelson, then applied cardio-pulmonary resuscitation until emergency medical help arrived. Nelson was declared dead on arrival at the hospital about two miles away. Copyright c. 2003 The Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Grand Jury indicts ex-cop in killing" --------- Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 08:20:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NATIVE KILLER" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/4346810p-4355897c.html Grand jury indicts ex-cop in killing NOME: Details emerge about suspect's behavior after 19-year-old woman's death. By TATABOLINE BRANT Anchorage Daily News November 6, 2003 An ex-Nome p