From gars@speakeasy.org Thu Apr 1 13:47:21 2004 Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 15:57:53 -0800 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews12.014 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 12, ISSUE 014 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, WOTANGING IKCHE - Lakota - Common News Wotanging Ikche and Native American News Copyright c. 1996-2004 nanews.org Aboriginal/AmerIndian Perspective about the First Nations of Turtle Island April 3, 2004 Kiowa aiden p'a/leaf moon Anishnaabe Iskigamizige-giizis(oog)/broken snowshoe moon +-------------------------------------------------------+ | Much more happens in Indian Country than is reported | | in this weekly newsletter. For daily updates & events | | go to http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm | +-------------------------------------------------------+ Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin -- Blackfeet -- News for All the People Ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min -- Ojibwe -- We Are Talking About Ourselves Aunchemokauhettittea -- Naragansett -- Let Us Share News Kanoheda Aniyvwiya -- Cherokee -- Journal of the People O Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse -- Creek -- People's New News O o O Acimowin -- Plains Cree -- Story or Account O o O Tlaixmatiliztli -- Nahuatl -- News O o o o o O Agnutmaqan -- Listuguj Mi'kmaq -- News O o O Sho-da-ku-ye -- Teehahnahmah -- Talking Birchbark O o O Un Chota -- Susquehannic Seneca -- The People Speak O Ha-Sah-Sliltha -- Ditidaht Nation -- News of the People Ximopanolti tehuatzin, inin Mexika tlahtolli -- Nahuatl -- For you we offer these words It-hah-pe-hah Ah-num pah-le -- Chickasaw -- Together We Are Talking Dineh jii' adah' ho'nil'e'gii ba' ha' neh -- Navajo Nation -- What's Happening among The People News Okla Humma Holisso Nowat Anya -- Choctaw -- People(s) Red Newspaper Hi'a chu ah gaa -- Pima -- The stories or the talk of the People Native American News -- Language of the Occupation Forces ++>If you speak a Native American language not listed above, please send us your words for "News of the People." We'd rather take up this whole page saving these few words of our hundreds of nations than present a nice clean banner in the language of the occupation forces who came here determined to replace our words with their own. 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; Indian-Heritage-L Mailing List; UUCP email; Newsgroup: alt.native IMPORTANT!! ----------- In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, all material appearing in this newsletter is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for educational purposes. <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is a way of keeping the brothers and sisters who share our Spirit informed about current events within the lives of those who walk the Red Road. ++ It may be subscribed to via email by sending a request from your own internet addressable account to gars@speakeasy.org ++ It is archived at http://www.nanews.org <================<<<< >>>>================> +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | As historian Patricia Nelson | | Once a language is lost, it is | | Limerick summarized in "The | | gone forever | | Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken | | * Of the 300 original Native | | Past of the American West... | | languages in North America, | | "Set the blood quantum at | | only 175 exist today. | | one-quarter, hold to it as a | | * 125 of these are no longer | | rigid definition of Indians, | | learned by children. | | let intermarriage proceed as | | * 55 are spoken by 1 to 6 elders;| | it had for centuries, and | | when they die, their language | | eventually Indians will be | | will disappear. | | defined out of existence." | | * Without action, only 20 | | "When that happens, the federal | | languages will survive the next| | government will be freed of | | 50 years. | | its persistent 'Indian problem.'"| | Source: Indigenous Language | +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ | Institute | |http://www.indigenous-language.org| This issue's Elder Quote: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + ======================== "I will never forget one thing. In Winter time, when you go to Wounded Knee never dig deep into the snow. All you will do is find the blood left by your family before me. Think only of them and say, it is a good day to die!" __ Tashunkala (Little Horse), SihaSapa Lakota +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Indian Pledge of Allegiance | The Indian Pledge of Alleg- | | iance was first presented | I pledge allegiance to my Tribe,| on 2 December '93 during the | to the democratic principles | opening address of the Nat- | of the Republic | ional Congress of American | and to the individual freedoms | Indian Tribal-States Relat- | borrowed from the Iroquois and | ions Panel in Reno, NV. NCAI | Choctaw Confederacies, | plans distribution of the | as incorporated in the United | Indian Pledge to all Indian | States Constitution, | Nations. | so that my forefathers | | shall not have died in vain | Walk in Beauty! Night Owl +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Journey | In the summer and early fall | The Bloodline | of 1998 the Treaty Unity Riders | | rode a thousand miles on horse- | For all that live and live by law | back, carrying a staff and | We Stand, we Call, We Ride | praying each step of the way. | For All that fear and fear by sight | | We Hear, we Listen, we Ride | These prayers were offered for | For all that pray and pray by strength| each of us, and that the Unity | We Feel, we Move, we Ride | of all Peoples might happen. | For all that die and die by greed | | We Hurt, we Cry, we Ride | Tatanka Cante forwarded this | For all that birth and birth by right | poem on behalf of all the Unity | We Smile, we Hold, we Ride | Riders that we might stop and | For all that need and need by heart | ask if the next words we say, the | We Came, we Went, we Rode. | next act we make is for the good | | of the People or is it from ego | Treaty Unity Riders | for self. +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ O'siyo Brothers and Sisters! Indian Health Service clinics have never been the paragon of health care. More than once, I have known patients who could walk out, that did that "walk out" rather than accept the substandard excuse for treatment being offered. Indian nurses who have seen the IHS formulary are aghast at the only medications made available to treat Indians -- drugs that are less than effective, laden with dangerous side effects -- in fact, drugs whose only virtue is that they are cheap. Medical spending nationwide has now fallen to about $1,500 per Indian, less than the government spends on federal prisoners. My half-side, Janet, and I have the honor of serving as volunteers at a US Prison, and I can tell you prisoners in a maximum security prison are damn sure not receiving the best of health care. Knowing that, the statement in the previous paragraph is downright frightening. [We are certainly not in favor of lowering deplorable prisoner health care!] Since even the BIA is shocked (their words) by the Bush budget cuts, you can be sure the IHS picture is not going to get better. And this in the face of known epidemic-proportion diabetes and a rising incidence of AIDS among Native populations. I thought the US had reached the bottom of the barrel when it was proven Native women were being involuntarily sterilized in IHS hospitals (nanews09.006, April 24, 2002 - archived at http://www.nanews.org). I now wonder if designed neglect is not a more torturous form of genocide. Dohiyi Ani Oginalii , , Gary Smith Night Owl (*,*) gars@speakeasy.org P. O. Box 672168 (`-') gars@nanews.org Marietta, GA 30014, U.S.A. ===w=w=== http://www.nanews.org ----------- News of the people featured in this issue ---------- - Tribe, BIA shocked - Taught by Elders, by Bush's 2006 Budget Cut they listen and lead - Future BIA Budget Numbers - Students protest ban look Grim of Native Drummers - Indians oppose Bush Court Nominee - Tulsa lands `The American' - Blackfeet Woman praised - Tribal Aid Program for Trust Fund fight triggers old Fears - Bush cutbacks hit CIT hard - YELLOW BIRD: Faith, hope - Indian Teachers, Parents as Sundance draws near to gather in Missoula - YELLOW BIRD: Our different ways - Teacher reviving Cherokee Language of saying Goodbye - Jicarilla Apache Nation - Alaska Natives to address awarded Thousands Sex Abuse Issues - Cherokee Tribe purchases - No Big Cash for Aboriginals Will Rogers Downs in Federal Budget - Lumbee Recognition Bill - Dene Leaders plan set for Hearing Climate change awareness - Payback time on the Columbia - Yukon, First Nations for Chinook sign Forestry Deal - Coquille Tribe completes purchase - Native Man's Death in B.C. of Weyco Land getting Crown Review - Duwamish long for Longhouse - Omaha and Winnebago - Sauk-Suiattle seek to seek County recalls to restore Goat Herds - Graham to remain Free on Bail - Truth joins Salmon as casualty - Native Prisoner of Water spill Wars -- Pen Pals wanted - School District to build -- Plan to sell Prisoner Tribal Art over Anasazi Ruins - History: Carlisle Indian School - Piestewa Kin seek end to Peak fray - Rustywire: Cow Feathers - DOI orders BIA out of Kayenta - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - Jemez Pueblo Leaders see Mayor - Hawkdancer Poem: Song of Nature --------- "RE: Tribe, BIA shocked by Bush's 2006 Budget Cut" --------- Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 08:50:49 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BUSH 'WHACKED' BUDGET" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.gallupindependent.com/032404tribebiashocked.html Tribe, BIA shocked by Bush's $55M cut of 2006 budget By Jim Maniaci Dine' Bureau March 24, 2004 WINDOW ROCK - The U.S. Management-Budget Office stunned tribal leaders Tuesday by telling them the BIA has been ordered to take a $55 million cut actually worth $80 million in fiscal year 2006. No figures were immediately available for the Indian Health Service from the budget office's directive for a 2.4 percent reduction for fiscal year 2006 from FY '05. Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. was with the BIA Budget Advisory Council to begin work on the year after next year's federal spending guide when U.S. Interior Department Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs David Anderson the BIA boss said he had received a letter written by the Office of Management and Budget ordering a 2.4 percent reduction for the FY '06 allocations the George W. Bush administration will ask Congress to approve. Shirley told The Independent the letter was written two days before the recent budget formulation national meeting which the BIA hosted in Phoenix, yet Anderson only received it Monday. "Tribal leaders of the BAC are supposed to be consulted first. They are just stunned, just as I am. Whoa. What's going on here?" he asked. "Native nations will get together, like we did at Gila River last year, for the united native nations to talk strategy to make an impact on the (Bush) administration. We are talking about uniting behind a one-voice effort," Shirley said. Stunning development He said the announcement absolutely stunned the advisory council, composed of 20 elected First American government leaders. The BIA Navajo Region's two representatives are Shirley and Navajo Nation Council Speaker Lawrence Morgan. Anderson also was stung. "It was just sprung on him yesterday," Shirley said Tuesday. And the impact, the president said, amounts to much more than $55.3 million to be taken from Indian programs. Shirley said the cut really amounts to about $80 million when BIA pay raises and the effects of inflation are counted. Coupled with similar cuts the U.S. President wants Congress to approve for the coming 2005 budget, the primary money source for services to tribes is being cut by 6 percent or 7 percent in just two years, Shirley said. The annual Navajo Nation total budget exceeds a half-billion dollars a year, with three-fourths of that coming from outside sources, mostly through Public Law 93-638 and 100-297 contracts and grants. He called the reductions "devastating to law enforcement, education, and the bureau's programs." The president concluded, "It's just really frustrating." In a written statement later Tuesday, Shirley added, "The direction funding for the Bureau of Indian Affairs is proceeding is very disturbing, not only for the Navajo Nation, but all of Native America. These proposed decreases obviously place our lives below the priorities given to rocks, forest, wildlife, wild animals and even tourism." New administration wanted Shirley then called for the election of a more Indian-friendly U.S. president. "I have said it before, and I will say it again. It is time to elect an administration that will seriously take into consideration the obligations the federal government holds with native nations," he commented. Shirley said he fears the decrease will continue to impede or eliminate services and could create life-threatening circumstances for Navajo children and the elderly, whom he called the most in need of the BIA dollars. He added that the 2.4 percent is expected to be the average for all federal departments. In the Interior Department, home of the BIA, various bureaus will be chopped down from 1.3 to 2.8 percent. Anderson's announcement drew a quick response from New Mexico Third District Congressman Tom Udall. The only Democrat among New Mexico's three U.S. House members, Udall again blasted the Republican president. His statement pointed to $200 million in proposed Indian program cuts for the '05 budget, which will begin Oct. 1. And Udall said he will vote against the coming year's budget on the House floor on Thursday because cuts in the already grossly underfunded programs would severely harm Indian communities while Bush wants to send billions for health and education programs to Iraq. "I am more than a little disappointed with the president's priorities. Every aspect of Native American funding is hurting housing, health care, education, infrastructure. It's a question of priorities," he said. Udall accused the U.S. President, who is from the neighboring state of Texas, of having "chosen to leave Native Americans behind. These programs serve some of the most economically and geographically isolated communities in America." He represents a huge district which is almost one-fifth Indian, including 16 tribes and pueblos among the 21 reservations in New Mexico. Copyright c. 2004 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Future BIA Budget Numbers look Grim" --------- Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 08:22:01 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BLEAK BIA BUDGET" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2004/03/28/news/local/nws02.txt Future BIA budget numbers look grim By MARK HANSON, Bismarck Tribune March 28, 2004 When Indian leaders traveled to Washington last week, the plan was to fight for money, for funds that are proposed to be cut out of the budget and for additional money that is needed. "Then we got hit with a bombshell," said Tex Hall, Chairman of Three Affiliated Tribes on the Fort Berthold Reservation and President of the National Congress of American Indians. The Bureau of Indian Affairs budget is already facing a $52 million cut for fiscal year 2005. But while in Washington, Hall and others found out that preliminary numbers for the fiscal year 2006 budget show an $80 million cut. The cuts are across the board. And they also include about $3 million in funding for United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck. The funding has been eliminated for the third year in a row. The fiscal year 2005 budget begins Oct. 1. Funding for the college has been reinstated by Congress the past two years, and now it appears the fight will continue for another two if the FY2006 budget remains as is. UTTC President David Gipp said the fight for FY2005 funding is in the early stages. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., pressed Interior Secretary Gale Norton late last week as to why cuts were made to Indian education programs. He said he'd use his seat on the Senate Appropriations Committee to restore the UTTC funds. Dorgan cited that President Bush's proposed FY2005 budget would increase funding by $10.5 million for a program to manage wild horses and burros, yet at the same time would cut by 44 percent funds for replacing deteriorating elementary schools on Indian reservations. "Those priorities make no sense at all," Dorgan said. "We're talking about our kids." And that's the fight Indian leaders plan to bring to Washington in mid- April. Hall said a letter signed by 20 tribal leaders was sent to President Bush regarding the budget cuts. "We just don't think they understand," Hall said Saturday morning during a board meeting break at UTTC. "It doesn't give anyone hope out here that they care." The UTTC board of directors passed a resolution Saturday opposing the $80 million in proposed cuts for the FY2006 budget, to submit a counter proposal to BIA, and to supply justification and supporting materials to the BIA and the congressional delegation. Hall said the battle now is over a combined $132 million in cuts -- $52 million scheduled for FY2005 and the $80 million proposed for FY2006. The cuts, Hall said, will affect everything, from social services to law enforcement, education to health services. There are only 10 BIA drug agents in the country, Hall said, and none in North Dakota. "We have to turn this around," Hall said. "I'm asking them for a tour, to leave the Beltway and come out and see what's happening. These are human rights issues. The priorities have to be the people." Reach reporter Mark Hanson at 250-8264 or mark.hanson@bismarcktribune.com Copyright c. 2004 Bismark Tribune. --------- "RE: Indians oppose Bush Court Nominee" --------- Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 08:50:49 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ANOTHER BUSH 'WHACK'" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.billingsgazette.com/~/65-bush-nominee-opposition.inc Indians oppose Bush court nominee Associated Press March 25, 2004 WASHINGTON - Leading American Indian groups Wednesday strongly protested President Bush's nomination of William G. Myers III to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, contending the former Interior Department lawyer has shown disrespect for Indian lands and rights. "For Indian country, Mr. Myers is the worst possible choice," Tex Hall, president of the National Congress of American Indians, told a news conference. "We dread to think what damage Myers could do as a judge for the appeals court." "He has a clear lack of understanding" of tribal sovereignty, said Anthony Miranda, chairman of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association. Myers, who served as the top attorney at the Interior Department from 2001 to 2003, is Bush's choice to join the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit court, which has jurisdiction over nine Western states and decides many tribe-related disputes. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on the nomination next week. Hall and other tribal leaders said Myers removed protections for sacred Indian lands while Interior Department solicitor and opened the way for a gold mine to be built in Imperial County, Calif., that threatened tribal lands. Myers, a lawyer in Boise, Idaho, did not immediately return calls for comment. But Justice Department spokesman John Nowacki called Myers "a strong defender of tribal interests while solicitor," citing several cases where he said Myers sided with tribes. "Bill Myers does have an exemplary record of service both in the public sector and as a private attorney and has the strong support of his colleagues who know his work best," Nowacki said. He said Myers supported the Imperial County gold mine because the reasoning provided by the Clinton administration in denying the proposal was inconsistent with federal law. White House spokesman Ken Lisaius also reiterated the Bush administration's support for Myers Wednesday, calling him "highy qualified." In addition to tribes, Myers also faces opposition from environmental, civil rights and women's organizations. He has written articles comparing federal management of public lands with "the tyrannical actions of King George" and criticized the 1994 California Desert Protection Act, authored by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, as "an example of legislative hubris." Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Feinstein, grilled Myers about some of those comments when he appeared before the committee last month. At the time he said he sometimes used a "poor choice of words," and he pledged not to "disregard statutory mandates or congressional authority." Copyright c. 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. Copyright c. The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Blackfeet Woman praised for Trust Fund fight;" --------- Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 08:50:49 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ELOISE COBELL HONORED" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.billingsgazette.com/~/25-trust-fund-fight.inc Indian woman praised for trust fund fight; Government still hasn't fixed accounting system By MIKE STARK Of The Gazette Staff March 25, 2004 After four trials, contempt of court charges against top government officials and years of frustration, American Indians are still waiting for the U.S. government to fix the accounting systems that have made a mess of Indian trust funds, a key figure in the case said Wednesday. Elouise Cobell, a Blackfeet Indian who sued the government in 1996, said fundamental changes in how the federal government manages billions of dollars in Indian accounts and assets have not been made even though tribal plaintiffs have had victories in court. "We're winning every step of the way," Cobell said. Cobell was the keynote speaker for the three-day Montana Wyoming Tribal Economic Development Summit in Billings this week. Kennard Real Bird, who introduced Cobell on Wednesday morning, said Cobell should be viewed with the same distinction as Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Geronimo and others who have stood up to the government. "Today, Elouise joins that elite band of people that have defended their people," Real Bird said. "She's a lady who's going to go down in history forever." Cobell never expected to become a national figure. But when she worked as treasurer for the Blackfeet Tribe, she said, she couldn't ignore the problems and confusion in financial Indian trust statements provided by the government. Over the course of months and years, she asked questions, wrote letters and knocked on doors. It wasn't hard to see that the system was broken, she said. Generations of Indian people had known it for years, she said, but now the paper work showed the system's faults. "I didn't discover this," Cobell said. "We all knew." The issue stems from federal policies that started in the late 1880s, when thousands of Indians were allotted ownership of land with the federal government acting as trustee. In that role, the government was supposed to keep track of revenue generated from mining, oil and gas development on the land and disperse it. As Cobell looked into the Indian trust fund, she had a hard time convincing top government officials to take seriously her claims of malfeasance and mismanagement. She recalled a meeting with federal lawyers, one of whom opened the discussion by saying: "Don't come in here with any false expectations," Cobell said. "I told him, 'You should be ashamed of yourself. People are dying without justice.'" After finding frustration with politicians and government officials, Cobell decided to file a lawsuit. She and others raised $10 million to get it going. In 1996, Cobell filed a class-action lawsuit against the government on behalf of an estimated half-million American Indians and their heirs. The lawsuit alleged that the government needs to conduct a full accounting of money owed to Indian account holders, which is probably in the billions of dollars, and to reform the trust fund system. The lawsuit, which involves the Bureau of Indian Affairs along with the Interior and Treasury departments, may seem complicated, Cobell said. But at its core, the case is about making the government accountable and responsible for handling Indian trust money. "It's like the United States government is running a bank that's totally out of control," Cobell said, adding that one government official testified that Indian money was used to pay down the federal deficit. "This was happening as our people die with poor healthcare... not having the basics of life." Despite court trials and several victories, the system still hasn't been overhauled. So, with eight years and little resolution, members of Congress agreed in February to take the case through a formal mediation process. Cobell said her experience is evidence that tribal groups can stand up to the government and effect change. It takes persistence, she said, and a willingness to fight for what's right. "Make them be accountable to you," she said, and don't stop pressing. "That money belong to us." Copyright c. The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Bush cutbacks hit CIT hard" --------- Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 08:27:16 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INSTITUTE BUSH WHACKED" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.daily-times.com/artman/publish/article_9905.shtml Bush cutbacks hit CIT hard By Jim Snyder/The Daily Times March 30, 2004 CROWNPOINT - The Navajo Nation's Crownpoint Institute of Technology would have no budget at all for fiscal year 2005 under a Bureau of Indian Affairs budget proposal by the Bush administration, Navajo Nation Council Delegate Wallace Charley of Shiprock said Monday. "It is at zero," he said. "This (BIA funding) was the major funding source. Chances are classes will be cut, staff will be cut and the operation will be very small. I don't want to see it." This is one example of how bad the Navajo Nation views the Bush administration's proposal to reduce the Bureau of Indian Affairs overall budget, said Charley, vice chairman of the Navajo Council's Education Committee. Bush has proposed to reduce federal funding to the Bureau of Indian Affairs by 2.4 percent for fiscal year 2006, said Michael Wero, a spokesman with the Navajo Nation's Washington Office. That could mean a loss of nearly $80 million for Native American programs nationwide over the next two years, he added. "Tribal leaders said `this was devastating news,'" Navajo Council spokeswoman Karen Francis said. Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Dave Anderson, head of the BIA, made the announcement to a BIA-Tribal Budget Advisory Committee meeting last week in Washington. Bush's proposed BIA fiscal year 2005 budget is already too low without it sustaining a further cut for fiscal year 2006, Navajo Nation Council Speaker Lawrence Morgan added in a news release. "We see here that Office of Management and Budget also recommends fiscal year 2005 as a funding base," Morgan said, referring to a March 12 White House memorandum. "But we, as tribal leaders know that even fiscal year 2005 budget levels are not sufficient. We need to work to restore these budget levels." The fiscal year 2005 budget has not yet been approved by Congress. Bush seeks to reduce BIA school construction by $65.9 million from 2004, according to the BIA, who sees it as a positive step. "The funding level has been reduced in order to allow the program to focus on building the schools already funded for construction," according to a BIA statement on its Web site. Spin like this did not go unnoticed by Native Americans. The Bush administration has its priorities backward on its proposed Department of the Interior-BIA budget, Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. said. "The direction funding for the Bureau of Indian Affairs is proceeding is very disturbing, not only for the Navajo Nation but all of Native America, " he said in a news release. "These proposed decreases obviously place our lives below the priorities given to rocks, forests, wildlife, wild animals and even tourism." Shirley called for a new administration to be elected in response to Bush's proposed budget. "I have said it before and I will say it again. It is time to elect an administration that will seriously take into consideration the obligations the federal government holds with native nations, said Shirley, the leader of the largest Native American tribe in the country. "This administration has made it very clear to us that they are not concerned with Native America." Bush has never met with Shirley or the National Congress of Indians. The Navajo Nation and other Native American tribes are gearing up to fight the administration's proposed cutbacks. The Native American Budget Advisory Committee, comprised of tribes nationwide, will meet April 13-14 in Washington. The purpose is "to develop a counterproposal to the Bush administration's proposed budget reductions," Morgan said. Shirley and Morgan form the Navajo delegation to the Budget Advisory Committee. Osage Tribal Council Principal Chief Jim Gray and Tex Hall, a member of three unified tribes - Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation - are the co-chairs. Hall is also president of the National Congress of Indians. Jim Snyder: jims@daily-times.com Copyright c. 2004 Farmington Daily Times, a Gannett Co., Inc. newspaper. --------- "RE: Indian Teachers, Parents to gather in Missoula" --------- Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 08:27:16 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="PARENT TEACHER MEETING" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2004/03/30/news/local/news02.txt Indian teachers, parents to gather in Missoula By JANE RIDER of the Missoulian March 30, 2004 More than 300 parents, classroom teachers, school administrators and high school students are expected at the 22nd annual Montana Indian Education Association Conference that starts Thursday in Missoula. This year's theme is "Nurturing American Indian Leadership into the Future." "It is important American Indians be active participants in the educational system, creating policies and strategies that will improve educational achievement and create new opportunities for success for Indian students," said Thomas Brown, this year's conference chairman. "Our annual conference is an important time for promoting these efforts, " Brown said. The event will be held at the Holiday Inn Parkside. A variety of speakers and workshops aims at improving awareness of the many issues facing American Indian education as well as providing an opportunity to share successful strategies. "We have quite a lineup of outstanding speakers and exceptional workshops scheduled," said Denise Juneau, MIEA board member. "The collective talents and wisdom of these educators will certainly be an important part of the conference." Keynote speakers include: Sharon Peregoy, a Crow educator who will speak about using educational collaborations between parents, communities and schools to empower Native youth. Her talk is titled "Parents and Communities Coming Together in a Good Way: A Native Path to Empowering Youth" and is scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday at the Holiday Inn ballroom. Julie Cajune, a Salish educator, will speak on "Pursuing Justice for Indian Youth in Public Schools." The talk is slated for 9:15 a.m. Saturday, also in the ballroom. "The voice of Indian educators is needed at all levels of policy and decision-making and we encourage you to take action to create the changes that are needed in our schools and colleges," wrote Carol Juneau, MIEA chairperson, in her welcoming remarks for the conference participants. In an interview Monday, Juneau noted this is the 23rd conference of its kind. The annual event represents a culmination of the year's activities that advocated for strengthening American Indian education in Montana. The conference will discuss ways to improve the state's American Indian graduation rate which is at about 50 percent, and will review how schools have and haven't implemented the Indian Education for All Act of 1972 - which requires public schools to educate all students on the unique cultural heritage of Montana's Indians. It will also highlight successful education programs and allow people to share ideas, projects and training, Juneau said. In remembrance of the late Montana author James Welch, MIEA will host an authors reception Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Parkside ballroom. William Yellow Robe, Jennifer Greene and several other Native authors will provide readings in honor and recognition of Welch's distinct contributions to Native American literature. On Saturday a state legislative hearing by the state tribal affairs committee is slated to discuss a recent dropout study of American Indians. "Developing strategies that will help keep our American Indian students in school and graduating is a key component to the economic progress of our Indian nations," said Juneau, who is a state legislator from Browning. "I am glad that the conference can help provide this time for people to share their ideas on what the state can do to improve our graduation rate." The conference will provide opportunities for students and adults to share their writing skills in a student essay contest; demonstrate their special skills at a talent show, 7 p.m. Friday at Holiday Inn Parkside; and practice traditions at a powwow 7 p.m. Saturday at Jefferson School. An awards luncheon on Sunday will recognize outstanding leadership in Indian education that is always a highlight of the conference, organizers said. Reporter Jane Rider can be reached at 523-5298 or at jrider@missoulian.com Copyright c. 2004 Missoulian, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Teacher reviving Cherokee Language" --------- Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 08:27:16 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TEACHING CHEROKEE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.swtimes.com/archive/2004/March/29/news/language.html Teacher Reviving Language By Marcus Blair TIMES RECORD - MBLAIR@SWTIMES.COM March 29, 2004 GORE - Each time Phyllis Yargee hears children speaking Cherokee on the playground, she knows her difficult job is worth the effort. Teaching a complex, dying language to children isn't easy, even among a student body that is 71 percent American Indian. Most Cherokees are unable to speak their native language, and even fewer can read or write the characters of the Cherokee syllabary, Yargee said. I think people should know the language because they live in the heart of the Cherokee Nation," the Notchietown resident said. "There are now so few speakers and most of them are elders." Yargee spent 14 years working for the Johnson O'Malley program for the advancement of American Indian students. She helped develop the Cherokee Challenge Bowl in which young Cherokees test their knowledge of tribal culture. Through the experience, she learned basic Cherokee words. Since being hired last year by Gore Schools and fueled by a desire to keep the language from dying, Yargee has learned more about her native tongue. The dialect connects Cherokees to their heritage and helps students of other races learn about another culture, Yargee said. She believes stereotypes fall and students are more accepting of others when they receive a multicultural education. Yargee teaches 45-minute classes daily to students from kindergarten to fifth grade. The sessions are steeped in tribal history, government and customs. Yargee's students seem to devour their lessons and are acquiring more of the language on their own, school officials said. One student astonished Yargee by learning her name in Cherokee without the help of a teacher. The learning also produced some unexpected results, Yargee said. Students are using Cherokee as a secret language around teachers who can't speak it. The conspiratorial aspect of the speech is an unusual drawing card that piqued the interest of the students, Yargee said. Superintendent Marvin Thouvenel said the language is never a problem because the school is ecstatic to see the children enthusiastic about learning. "I hear them sometimes when I'm down there at the elementary," Thouvenel said. "I like to hear them speak Cherokee and I ask them to. I wish all of them could do it." Yargee is the first Cherokee teacher at Gore Schools to introduce the written language of the tribe to the elementary students. She developed the curriculum, which was a monumental task, said Sandy Williams, federal programs coordinator for the school. "Phyllis has done a tremendous job. She's the one who decided to implement the syllabary and there is no written curriculum for that from the state," Williams said. Yargee is searching for ways to involve parents who can't help with homework because they are unable to decipher the lessons of their children. To help parents get acquainted with the language, Yargee is developing several tools, including a Cherokee lunch menu designed to teach adults the names of foods. The developing language barrier between adults and children may be a positive sign that shows a revival of the Cherokee dialect that was not experienced in previous generations, Yargee said. School officials say they are thankful to have Yargee, a member of the Cherokee Tribal Council, as a teacher. Yargee has enthusiasm and knowledge that are irreplaceable in teaching, Williams said. "When we asked her to come here, we never dreamed we would get her," Williams said. "She brings a knowledge and experience to the school that is a huge asset to us." Copyright c. 2004 Fort Smith, AR Times-Record. --------- "RE: Jicarilla Apache Nation awarded Thousands" --------- Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 08:27:16 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="JOCARILLA HEAD START" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.daily-times.com/artman/publish/article_9914.shtml Jicarilla Apache Nation awarded thousands By The Associated Press March 30, 2004 WASHINGTON - The Jicarilla Apache tribe has been awarded a grant of $720, 574 for its Head Start programs, Rep. Tom Udall announced in a news release. The preschool program was created to increase early childhood development for low-income children by teaching them the basic colors, shapes, numbers, and letters of the alphabet. They are also taught socialization skills like sharing with others and learning to interact in a group. In addition, the program helps parents with childcare training, understanding, and support. "These federal dollars will make a real difference for children enrolled in the Head Start program at Jicarilla," Udall said. "By funding the Head Start programs, we are taking a major step forward in preparing our children for the future. Proper early childhood development requires a safe and structured learning environment that prepares kids to succeed to the best of their abilities." Head Start, administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is a child development program that serves low-income children ages 3-5 and their families, while the Early Head Start program is provided for children up to the age of three. The program has been serving low-income children and their families since 1965 by providing access to services they need to increase their child's readiness for school. Head Start also benefits working families who need the support of these programs so they can continue to work and provide for their families. Udall is the vice-chairman of the Congressional Native American Caucus. Copyright c. 2004 Farmington Daily Times, a Gannett Co., Inc. newspaper. --------- "RE: Cherokee Tribe purchases Will Rogers Downs" --------- Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 08:50:49 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CNO PLAN THOROUGHBRED RACING" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/newsview.asp?recno=43414&subsec=1 Cherokee tribe purchases Will Rogers Downs, plans horse racing March 24, 2004 Cherokee Nation Enterprises recently purchased Will Rogers Downs for an undisclosed amount, according to an announcement on Wednesday, and is expected to revive horse racing at the Claremore, Oklahoma, track after completing a $2-million renovation to the facility. The track, located 25 miles northeast of Tulsa, currently hosts motorcycle racing and has not held live horse racing since 2001, but is the only mile oval outside of Remington Park in Oklahoma City. No sale price was released, but Rogers County (Oklahoma) officials assessed the track's value in 2004 at $2,859,842. The track was purchased from Gary Adams, who purchased it out of bankruptcy in 1996 in name of Cottonwood LLC. The Cherokees became the second tribe to purchase an Oklahoma racing facility. The Choctaws paid $4.2-million for Blue Ribbon Downs in Sallisaw. Interestingly, Blue Ribbon sits on Cherokee-owned land. Will Rogers Downs became more attractive for purchase after the state Legislature approved a measure allowing for Class II electronic gaming at three of the state's four racetracks. Under the language of the bill, the track would have to hold 600 races annually, though that number could be negotiated down with approval of the Oklahoma Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association. Will Rogers and Blue Ribbon Downs were each allotted 250 gaming machines, Remington was allotted 650, and Fair Meadows in Tulsa, which was not allotted any gaming machines, will share a percentage of gaming machine revenue from tribes located near the track. "We have great plans for the track," David Stewart, chief executive officer of Cherokee Nation Enterprises told the Native American Times. "We're excited about the opportunity to be involved in the racing industry and support it in Oklahoma." Will Rogers has no assigned racing dates for 2004, but the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission would work with them quickly if dates were sought, commission Executive Director Gordon Hare said. "We did the same for the Choctaw Nation after they bought Blue Ribbon Downs last November," Hare said. "We were able to issue [the Choctaws] a license in January. We had to do an emergency amendment to do that." Hare spoke briefly with a Cherokee official on Wednesday and understood a capital improvement project of $2-million would come first before a request for race days. The improvements were expected to take six months and make racing in 2005 more likely, Hare added. "We're ready to accommodate the Cherokee Nation." - John D. Ferguson Copyright c. 2004 Thoroughbred Times. --------- "RE: Lumbee Recognition Bill set for Hearing" --------- Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 08:27:16 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LUMBEE RECOGNITION" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=4178 Lumbee recognition bill set for hearing Move not supported by many tribes WASHINGTON DC Sam Lewin March 29, 2004 A hearing on official federal recognition for a North Carolina tribe takes place this week, and there is no shortage of opponents and supporters of the move. The House Resources Committee will consider on Thursday a bill that would give immediate recognition to the Lumbee Tribe. The North Carolina- based tribe has been petitioning Congress for recognition for over a century now. The movement gathered steam when North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole and Rep. Mike McIntyre submitted legislation that would circumvent the usual process. Dole testified that the 1956 Lumbee Act is patently unfair because while recognizing the tribe in theory, it also denies members the usual benefits that go with recognition. "The Lumbee Indians of Robeson and adjoining counties in North Carolina are descendants of coastal North Carolina Indian tribes, principally Cheraw, and have remained a distinct Indian community since the time of contact with white settlers," states McIntyre's bill. If the Lumbees are eventually successful in their bid, the tribe's 53, 000 members would be in line for many lucrative government subsidies. The Eastern Band of Cherokees is opposed, along with the United South and Eastern Tribes, a coalition representing 24 tribes. "It is a fundamental issue," Band Principal Chief Michell Hicks told the Native American Times. "We want this group to prove they are a true Indian tribe, with the land base and language of an Indian tribe." All questions to the Lumbees are referred to Tribal Governance Officer Ruth Locklear. Locklear's assistant said she would be out of the office all week. In addition to Dole, the Lumbees have the support of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, which voted overwhelmingly in October to pass the Lumbee Bill on to the Senate floor. Hicks thinks supporters are motivated by other than fair-mindedness. "I think it's political. It undermines the process that is in place," he said. Native American Times is Copyright c. 2004 Oklahoma Indian Times, Inc. --------- "RE: Payback time on the Columbia for Chinook" --------- Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 08:13:34 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CHINOOK SURVIVAL" http://www.columbian.com/03222004/front_pa/128340.html Tribal Voices: Payback time on the Columbia By DEAN BAKER, Columbian staff writer March 22, 2004 All winter, Chinook tribal Councilman Greg Robinson slogged through ankle-deep mud to direct construction of a $300,000 replica Indian longhouse at the Ridgefield Wildlife National Refuge. It's been dirty, tough work building a longhouse just as his ancestors did it, with hand chisels and the backbreaking hefting of posts and planks. "This helps our cause," said the 47-year-old Robinson. "That's a big reason to do this." Robinson is one of 2,338 members of the Chinook Tribe, which is planning to use the commemoration of the Lewis and Clark expedition bicentennial as a springboard to lobby for legal recognition. The tribe, which has 59 members in Clark County, has been seeking legal status from the federal government for 53 years. Recognition would make the tribe eligible for funds for education, health care and business development. The Chinook believe the bicentennial will bring the kind of visibility that should translate into pressure on Congress and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They hope thousands of history buffs will be persuaded that the Chinook, who helped keep the Corps of Discovery from freezing and starving in the coastal rains of 1805-1806, are now being treated unfairly by the U. S. government. "It's just simply not fair," said Gary Johnson, 61, a Willapa Bay native and longtime school counselor at South Bend High School. "This is truly a fight for survival." In this political atmosphere, the longhouse at Ridgefield, called the Cathlapotle Plank House, becomes a dual-purpose project. It's both a cultural education center and a public relations tool to help breathe new life into the Chinook Tribe. Already, members of the tribe are using the plank house to raise their visibility by conducting classes on Chinook traditions at the site in Ridgefield. They're teaching tribal members, and anyone else who is interested, how to make cordage to bind together the longhouse planks, split cedar by hand to make planks, and find natural dyes in the forest. The Chinook plan to have elders on duty demonstrating skills such as basketry and canoe building when the plank house is complete. "We want to show people how our ancestors did this for centuries on this land," said Robinson, a former plastering contractor who grew up listening to stories of the old days from his Chinook elders. Apart from the plank house, the Chinook Tribe plans to take its case to the public in a variety of ways. Members are fashioning canoes to be used in festivals connected to the bicentennial and are taking part in planning bicentennial developments such as the Confluence Project: a series of historical sculptures designed by Maya Lin along the Columbia River. Beyond Lewis and Clark-related projects, members are demonstrating their commitment to traditional Chinook fishing and farming, which is essential in making the case that the tribe continues to exist. The Bureau of Indian Affairs argues the 5,000 pages of testimony the tribe has submitted since 1951 to gain legal recognition fail to prove the "substantially continuous" existence of the chinook between 1873 and 1951. The BIA has recognized 562 tribes in the United States, 29 in Washington. Complicating the Chinook case is the fact that the government itself forced the tribe to move off its lands and disband more than a century ago. As a result, Chinook culture and political systems were blended with those of other tribes. The Quinault, for example, have repeatedly argued against recognition of the Chinook as a legal tribe. "It's the Catch-22," said Larry Goodrow, Chinook administrator. "The federal government forced them from their homeland to other areas, and then wouldn't allow them to return. That had a direct effect on their ability to re-establish themselves as a government." The Chinook once numbered 16,000 souls, dominating the coast and Columbia River. In 1805, Lewis and Clark found them in dozens of longhouses in villages along the river in what is now Clark County. Some lived at the village of Cathlapotle, near the site of the replica longhouse. Without legal status, they are now little more than a social club scrambling for funds. Ten miles from the longhouse site, Robinson's cousin and fellow tribal councilman, Sam Robinson, 47, served coffee to motorists in February at Gee Creek rest area on Interstate 5 to raise money. Tribal members collected $380 at the coffee stand one weekend, $570 on another. The donations are needed to operate the tribe's headquarters, in the corner of an abandoned school building with a leaking roof in the town of Chinook. It is five miles north of Station Camp, where Chinook ancestors met Lewis and Clark. As he poured cups of coffee, Robinson talked Indian politics to the coffee drinkers, linking the Chinook to Lewis and Clark. "A lot of people were interested in our plight," he said. "They were just totally shocked at where we are at today. They say they studied about us in school, and don't understand how we could not be recognized." Making a home on the bay Even without recognition, members of the Chinook tribe run an active tribal government from their coastal office, answering daily questions from state, federal and local governments and the public. Members are scattered all over the West. The largest community includes a few hundred Chinook in Bay Center and Willapa Bay, in Ilwaco and South Bend and up the coast to Moclips. Among the busiest centers of tribal activity are Bay Center and Willapa Bay. Chinook elder George Lagergren, 82, and his wife Milly, 74, have raised nine children on Willapa Bay, always living in community with their Chinook neighbors, fishing and farming. They've shared food, festivals, political interests and the parenting of children. "Our family has always lived and played together here, and the neighbors have been welcome," said Lagergren, a soft-spoken elder who recalls Bay Center when it was accessible only by boat a half-century ago. Milly Lagergren makes traditional Chinook baskets, including one now in the Smithsonian Institution, where it illustrates living, traditional Chinook art. She hopes its display in the national gallery builds the credibility of the Chinook and will help in efforts to gain legal tribal status. Most recently, Lagergren has rallied to get his children to help him make five canoes for tribal ceremonies and to use in re-enactments during the bicentennial celebrations. They have set up shop in a shed in Lagergren's cow pasture, where the family chips away at cedar logs that will eventually take shape into canoes. "We want to go out and meet any re-enactors, and make them know the Chinook skills," said Lagergren. His most politically active daughter, Chinook Councilwoman Peggy Disney, 44, is building one of the canoes. She lives down the road from her father. Disney and her husband, Terry, 45, find, wash and sell Manila or steamer clams, much as their ancestors did for hundreds of years. To supply their company, Manke Seafood, the Disneys hire 10 Chinook diggers to gather the clams, which they sell to Ocean Beauty in Astoria, which supplies restaurants from Kalaloch, on the Washington coast, to Florence, Ore. On the tribal council for nine years, Disney believes the Chinook need to sue the federal government over the issue of legal status. With tribal recognition, she says, the Chinook could use government financial assistance to clean up pollution in the bay and nurture its shellfish yield. As it is, there is no funding for environmental work. The elders A mile from the Lagergrens and the Disney clam operation, elders of the tribe live in homes along Willapa Bay. Sam Pickernell, 76; Phil Hawks, 67, and Willard Frank, 79, all remain active in witnessing for the continuity of the tribe merely by living in the traditional way. Pickernell, a dark, round man, is the last Chinook who had a home on Long Island, a three-by-seven-mile sliver of ancient tribal land now set aside in Willapa Bay as a wildlife refuge. In the 1940s, the government forced Pickernell's family to move off the island. He was sent to government school, where he was forbidden to speak Chinook and required to live as a white man. It didn't take. Pickernell still speaks his native language as well as English. He retired this year after running an oyster dredge and a fleet of fishing boats in the bay for decades. A member of both the Chinook and Quinault tribes, Pickernell continues to buy clams and fish and truck his goods to reservations throughout Western Washington. "I just work, and when I get enough money together, I party. Drink a little, have a good time," he said. His traditional way of life is the centerpiece of the continuous Chinook existence, tribal leaders said. "He is a treasure," said tribal Chairman Johnson. "We just appreciate him for who he is." Hawks, a soft-spoken retired logger, fisherman and Bay Center fire chief, is a living example of the tribe's longevity. He's a tribal councilman and the last member raised at Goose Point, a settlement near Bay Center that no longer exists. The settlement was torn down in the 1930s when the Indians were forced by the government to move to the Quinault Reservation, the cities and into Bay Center or farther up the coast. Frank, a fisherman descended from Chinook dating before Lewis and Clark, has lived his entire life in Bay Center and now is disabled with heart failure. He lives with his grandson, Dave Bennett, 31, an oysterman and truck driver. "I don't fish now," he said, clicking through channels on the television. "No, no, no more." "He don't do too much now," said Bennett, leaning in a doorway. "But I fish a little, and do oysters. We make out." It's Bennett who continues the Chinook tradition by fishing. Many Chinook, like Bennett, have a lot at stake in talking about their deep roots in the area and ensuring the tribe's history is widely known. Cliff Snider, 77, is honorary chief for life of the Chinook. He served 25 years on the tribal council and speaks in many venues to adults and often visits classrooms to educate children about his tribe. On a visit to Image Elementary School in February, Snider dressed in a traditional button blanket, with hat and feathers. He delighted 100 third-, fourth- and fifth-graders with tales about his ancestors, including the great Chief Coboway, who met Lewis and Clark. A star football player at Oregon State University and a longtime coach at a Portland high school, where a football field is named in his honor, Snider travels across America to Lewis and Clark events, telling the Chinook story. "The bicentennial is a perfect vehicle for us to bring awareness of our tribe to everyone in America," said Snider. Among those in his corner is U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Vancouver, who admits the recognition process is stalled. One route still open is congressional action, bypassing the BIA, Baird said. Eleven Indian tribes have been recognized through congressional action, rather than through the BIA, in the past 30 years, he said. Congress also has given seven additional tribes some benefits. "We want to make sure a bill has a chance for passage before we introduce it," said Baird. "The problem is that the committee in charge of this tends to defer to the BIA." To Tony Johnson, 33, the tribe's cultural chairman and the son of the Chinook chairman, the Lewis and Clark bicentennial is strictly an opportunity to gain status for the tribe. He teaches Chinook jargon, the traditional trade language, to Grand Ronde Indian children in Oregon. "Our people are not ones who want to call attention to themselves," Johnson said. "But this bicentennial has focused attention on us without us asking, and so it gives us an opportunity to push what has to happen, which is our tribal status. "Chinook are only going to survive in the future if we get our status. We desperately need to have new life breathed into our community because right now, the elders are dying, and there is no incentive for our people to remain in our community." Stanley Speaks, northwest regional director for the BIA in Portland and a Chickasaw Indian, said he believes the Chinook still may gain government recognition. "It's a long shot," he said. "But they are not going to give up. I'm not so sure they got all their historical data pulled together in a timely way as was asked, but maybe they can get a chance to do that, and time changes a lot of things." He said he believes the bicentennial of Lewis and Clark may give the tribal recognition efforts a boost. "That name, Chinook, is quite famous, and Lewis and Clark may never have made it back east without the Chinook." Chinook Portraits George Lagergren George Lagergren, 82, a lifelong farmer at Bay Center, relaxes in his home, which is filled with Indian art. A Chinook elder, he paints portraits of such heroes as Chief Joseph and Sitting Bull. He and his nine children are chiseling canoes from cedar logs to help tell the Chinook story during the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial. Milly Lagergren Milly Lagergren of Bay Center shows a basket she made in traditional Chinook style, complete with spirit figures mingled with tribal members carrying on daily life. Another of her many baskets is on display in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where she hopes its display demonstrates the vitality of her tribe. Greg Robinson Chinook tribal Councilman Greg Robinson relaxes amid elk antlers and strips of cedar, raw materials that are being used to build an American Indian longhouse at the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. Sam Pickernell and Wynona Pickernell Chinook fisherman Sam Pickernell poses with his daughter Wynona Pickernell near their homes on Willapa Bay at Bay Center, Wash. The Pickernell family can be traced back centuries on the coast. They have spent their lives fishing for oysters and salmon and gathering clams, as did their ancestors. TRIBAL VOICES Reflections on Lewis & Clark Tribal Voices is a continuing series. The first story, on Dec. 29, 2003, featured Wasco weaver Pat Courtney Gold. It can be found in The Columbian archive, www.columbian.com. Dean Baker writes about American Indians. Reach him at 360-759-8009 or e-mail dean.baker@columbian.com Copyright c. 2004 by The Columbian Publishing Co. --------- "RE: Coquille Tribe completes purchase of Weyco Land" --------- Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 08:13:34 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="COQUILLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/2004/03/23/news/news03.txt Tribe completes purchase of Weyco land March 23, 2004 The Coquille Economic Development Corporation has completed its purchase of 50.5 acres of North Bend waterfront property from Weyerhaeuser Co., opening the way to the development of lands that have lain dormant since the wood-products firm abandoned its sawmill and shipping facility there. In a Friday press release, CEDCO, the economic arm of the Coquille Indian Tribe, announced the closing of the land sale, more than three months after the two companies first announced a deal was imminent. The sale follows a 75-day due-diligence period during which Weyerhaeuser executives reviewed the tribe's offer. Terms were not disclosed on Friday. In December, CEDCO chief executive Brady Scott said the purchase price was close to the timber company's last quoted figure in January 2003, about $6.5 million. Also Friday, the development agency announced it purchased the 1-acre site of the former Cutlips Creamery building, northwest of the Weyerhaeuser land, which has been on sale for several years. That property will be integrated into the newly purchased waterfront lot, according to the tribe. The site of a Weyerhaeuser sawmill between 1950 and 1989 - the former mill building to the south later formed the kernel of The Mill Casino- Hotel, opened in 1995 by the Coquille tribe - the waterfront property has not been used since 1999, when the timber company closed its lumber and wood-chip export terminal there. Sale negotiations between Weyerhaeuser and CEDCO began in 2001 and the two sides completed a tentative deal in late November 2003. CEDCO's announcement said the Coquille tribe is developing a master plan for the former Weyerhaeuser and Cutlips lands, possibly including retail stores, but gave few other details. Scott, the tribal company's CEO, has said the redevelopment plan will include improved waterfront access and links to the North Bend Urban Renewal Waterfront Project directly to the north. Work on the master plan, which also may feature the construction of a recreational vehicle park, was set to begin two months after completion of the purchase and be finished six to 12 months later, he said in December. Scott was returning Sunday night from an Oregon trade mission to China and could not be reached for comment. Copyright c. 2004 Southwestern Oregon Publishing Company. --------- "RE: Duwamish long for Longhouse" --------- Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 08:22:01 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LONGHOUSE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/166709_gcenter29.html Duwamish long for longhouse; tribe has land, just need a little more money By LEWIS KAMB SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER March 29, 2004 "We will build it," declares Cecile Hansen, sweeping a hand across a tiny, bramble-tangled parcel in the busy industrial sector along the Duwamish River's western shore -- the only land her people have owned in nearly 150 years. The construction Hansen speaks of is a project more than 2 1/2 decades in the making; an off-again, on-again dream of a tribal longhouse and cultural center that's about to become reality -- if, that is, the Duwamish Indian Tribe can muster up a relatively few more dollars. For the people whose greatest leader lent his name to Washington's largest city, it seems there's always a condition attached: If we give up our land ... ; If the federal government recognizes us ... ; If we raise enough money ... Conditions have haunted this tribe pretty much since the arrival of white settlers here in the 19th century, when the Duwamish -- the "people of the inside" -- roamed, hunted, fished and otherwise thrived across an area that stretched from what's now Federal Way to modern-day Edmonds. That all changed in 1855, when Sealth -- the son of a Duwamish mother and Suquamish father -- and several other appointed leaders of Puget Sound-area tribes signed the Treaty of Point Elliott. In exchange for giving up some 54,000 acres of the tribe's ancestral lands to Washington's Territorial government, the Duwamish Tribe was promised a reservation of its own. Washington got the tribe's land, where the city that bears the chief's name now largely stands. The Duwamish, meanwhile, are still waiting for a reservation. Fast-forward 145 years to the waning hours of the Clinton presidency, when, after more than 25 years of petitioning, the Duwamish won federal acknowledgement that the tribe was, indeed, a tribe. But the victory was short-lived. The incoming Bush administration quickly yanked the status that would have brought with it federal money for tribal government, health care, housing, social services and cultural programs -- and the chance for the Duwamish to create a reservation. The Interior Department ruled that the tribe failed to meet three of the seven criteria required for federal recognition, essentially deeming the Duwamish extinct. But try telling Hansen -- the spunky tribal elder and great, great, great niece of Chief Sealth -- that neither she nor 569 others who count themselves Duwamish don't exist. Since becoming the tribe's chairwoman in 1975, Hansen has made it her life's mission to say otherwise. "We're still here -- and always will be," she says. "We just have to educate the community that the Duwamish are still here." And that's why the plans for a small chunk of land along a major West Seattle shipping route are so important, she says; plans that are so close to fruition, but face at least one more obstacle before a blueprint can become a building: raising about $1.5 million. "Nowhere in the city is there really anything that recognizes the Duwamish," Hansen says. The Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center would change that. First envisioned more than two decades ago, the center housed in a traditional tribal family dwelling aims to provide the Duwamish with a place to gather to conduct tribal business, spiritual ceremonies and cultural events. At the same time, it would offer Seattle a facility for group rentals and field trips amid exhibits about Duwamish culture and history, affording the public a chance to learn about the tribe's significance to the Northwest. But over the years, the dream largely has remained just that -- a dream. "They were always overstretched, just running on fumes," said Byron Barnes, a local architect and member of the Montana-based Blackfeet tribe who for years has planned the longhouse with Hansen. Then, four years ago, a privately owned, roughly half-acre plot along West Marginal Way in the middle of bustling Port of Seattle operations became available. The tiny site wasn't much to look at: It was wild with blackberry bushes, littered with junk cars and abutted a steep, overgrown hillside. But in cultural terms, it was perfect for the Duwamish. The land overlooks the Duwamish River Valley where the tribe once flourished, and is situated near the former site of an ancient tribal village, hah-AH-poos, where some of the tribe's largest archeological discoveries have been made. "The price wasn't attractive," Barnes said, "but the location was." Through private donations and a Washington State Historical Society grant, the tribe financed the property. And last month, when the tribe paid off its mortgage, the land became the first piece of real estate the Duwamish has owned outright in nearly a century and a half. "Isn't it awful that Indians have to buy their land back?" asks Hansen. "We think it's about time we finally have a place of our own." In the meantime, momentum started building behind the project. With the help of Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, the tribe secured a $275,000 city neighborhood matching grant for construction. Nickels also helped the tribe get a master-use permit for a cultural project in an area zoned industrial -- what Barnes calls a normally "iffy" proposition. Through other grants and private and public donations, including those from such heavyweights as Paul Allen and The Boeing Co., the tribe has raised about half of the $3 million needed for the longhouse and related costs, Hansen said. But now, the project's master-use permit is about to expire. By the end of April, the tribe must apply for a building permit and move toward construction, Barnes said. To raise the rest of the money and meet matching fund obligations, the tribe and its allies have staged several recent fund-raisers. Last week, Bill Speidel's Underground Tour helped organize an event at Doc Maynard's in Pioneer Square, emphasizing the historic friendship between Chief Seattle and the nightclub's namesake -- one of the city's founding fathers, Dr. David "Doc" Maynard. The tribe raised about $1,500 from the event in two hours, Hansen said. Now the tribe hopes others will join the cause to preserve a part of Washington's history and perpetuate a people somehow largely erased from it. "This longhouse won't just be for us," Hansen says. "It will be for everyone who lives and visits Seattle. ... We're going to build this thing, we just need a little help." FACTS ABOUT THE DUWAMISH LONGHOUSE AND CULTURAL CENTER PROJECT * The longhouse will be built with modern and traditional building materials, but its four foundation posts and crossbeam will be made of cedar -- traditionally used to build such structures. * The facility will occupy about 6,000 square feet. It will include a kitchen, gift shop, main meeting area and exhibit space on the main floor, with office space on a mezzanine level. Outdoor gathering areas, trails and parking will also be available. * The tribe is working with the UW's Burke Museum to obtain Duwamish tribal artifacts on loan from the museum to exhibit at the longhouse. * The tribe hopes to begin construction this year and complete it by the end of 2005. Total cost is about $3 million. * Project supporters say the longhouse will be the first built in Seattle in about 150 years. For more information about the project, or to make a donation, call 206-431-1582. P-I reporter Lewis Kamb can be reached at 206-448-8336 or lewiskamb@seattlepi.com Copyright c. 2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. --------- "RE: Sauk-Suiattle seek to restore Goat Herds" --------- Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 08:22:01 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SAUK-SUIATTLE GOATS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://seattlepi.nwsource.com//local/166730_goat29.html Tribe seeks to restore dwindling goat herds By KARI NEUMEYER SKAGIT VALLEY HERALD March 29, 2004 MOUNT VERNON - The North Cascades mountain goat and the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe have long been interdependent. In the past, the goats were a source of meat and wool. Today, the tribe is trying to help restore the goat herds after decades of decline. Historically, the North Cascades were home to thousands of tribal members and mountain goats. After European colonization, the Sauk-Suiattle population reached its low around 1920, when there were just 17 people. Since then, the tribe has rebounded to about 200, but the mountain goats have dwindled in numbers to about 100. Lawrence Joseph, who is descended from a Sauk chief who founded the mountain goat clan within the tribe, said his ancestors understood the herds. "They traveled up to the hills to study the goat herd, to monitor the goat herd to find out which goat is getting too old for the herd, they understood that. Not contributing to the herd anymore, that's the one they'd take for food," he said. "They didn't go up there just to shoot any goat." The Southeastern Skagit County tribe is working with several state and federal agencies to find out why the mountain goat population is shrinking. The tribe wants to develop a plan to restore the species. Last fall, a team led by biologist Cliff Rice of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife tranquilized and collared about 30 mountain goats, fitting them with global positioning system transmitters. Each collar is programmed to periodically record the goat's location. When the scientists fly close enough to the animals, they download the data from the collar by radio link, Rice said. The collars also transmit a signal so that the researchers can locate the goats. "One of the issues here is, what the animals are doing varies a lot, not just season to season but year to year," Rice said. "We don't want to draw any conclusions from one winter or one summer." The team plans to continue the research for at least two years, studying the habitat and population dynamics, he said. Earlier this year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service awarded about $170, 000 to the project, as part of its Tribal Wildlife Grant Program. The project should cost about $400,000 in 2004, Rice said. A number of factors may have contributed to the mountain goats' decline, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, including overhunting, past timber harvest practices, predation, changes in habitat and a mineral deficiency exacerbated by acid rain. The mountain goat is as important to the mountain tribe as whales are to some of the coastal tribes, said Joseph, 64, a hereditary chief. A white mountain goat is central to the tribe's new logo. "They provided food for us, they provided wool," Joseph said. Copyright c. 2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. --------- "RE: Truth joins Salmon as casualty of Water spill Wars" --------- Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 08:22:01 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SALMON LIES" http://www.indiancountry.com/?1080573564 Truth joins salmon as casualty of water spill wars March 29, 2004 by: Jerry Reynolds / Washington D.C. correspondent / Indian Country Today WASHINGTON - Twenty-four salmon will swim to the ends of the oceans and back again while truth is getting its toes wet, it seems. Rising salmon numbers after years of demise have put them in the thick of the "always contentious battle over cheap juice" in the region, said Charles Hudson, communications director for Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. The rumor in this case is that 24 returning salmon cost the region $38 million in hydroelectric generating capacity lost to dam water spills. The deliberate spills are designed to assist juvenile salmon in their journey to the Pacific Ocean, where they fatten and gain strength for their return journey. But the lost hydroelectric generating capacity represented by the spills results in higher electricity rates for the whole region, according to this particular rumor, with only 24 home-from-the-ocean salmon to show for it. "To say it's a misrepresentation doesn't even begin to say what a misrepresentation it is," Hudson said. The actual number of salmon that return throughout the Columbia River Basin due to spill is always up for debate, but most estimates put it in the multiple tens of thousands annually. Speaking for the commission Hudson added, "We believe unequivocally that spill is the best way to pass juvenile salmon through the turbines [the electricity-generating engines at dams] - with dams in place it is the best way." Bonneville Power Administration, the region's leading electricity marketing agency, is under consumer pressure to fulfill rate-reduction promises it made in a previous economic crisis, in return for permission to raise its rates at that time, Hudson said. In seeking a way to fulfill its promises, BPA seized upon a pilot test plan for limited spill reductions, and began to present it as a permanent region-wide rollback in summer water spill at dams on the Columbia River. Less water spilled for salmon would mean more electricity for BPA to market to the region's public utilities districts, and the rising supply would result in lower prices for consumers, getting BPA off the hook for its earlier promises. Meanwhile, the higher salmon returns made it politically feasible to dwell on spill, even though reducing spill is known to reduce the number of juvenile salmon that make it to sea. "They went after the thing they thought they could get politically," Hudson said. Fifty-four Northwest tribes have condemned the BPA spill-reduction proposal as damaging to salmon, and now Alaska Natives have joined them. But that didn't stop the now-notorious distortion to the effect that 24 salmon cost the Northwest $38 million. A public utilities district in the region came up with it in the course of lobbying BPA and public opinion for less spill, and so lower rates for its customers. But the figures are drawn from a limited study of only one salmon run, the fall Chinook, at only one Columbia River dam, Ice Harbor. The numbers doctors then extrapolated from that limited study to all salmon runs at dams throughout the Columbia River Basin to come up with their 24-for-$38 million sound bite. Furthermore, independent scientific review had already found the scientific modeling in the study "marginally useful" in studying only juvenile salmon, at Bonneville Dam only. In other words, the study provided no valid way, based on the spill at Bonneville Dam, to determine an "adult equivalent" of returned mature salmon from juvenile salmon on their way to sea - many less mature salmon returned to Ice Harbor, where the federal commitment to barging salmon past dams is in full force (lower returns would be expected below Ice Harbor, as barging salmon on their seaward journey is generally considered to reduce their returning numbers). In the background of all this is a federal plan to protect Northwest salmon. A federal judge found it inadequate and ordered improvements, but left it in place during a one-year remand of the plan to lower courts for reconsideration. A summer water spill program at Northwest dams is part of the still legally binding plan. "We believe this is why the federal agencies have been doing this [the spill reduction proposal] by sleight-of-hand," Hudson said. "There's been nothing firm put on paper... They've got a plan they're verbally shopping around." In view of the already-promised pricing benefits electricity consumers might expect to get for agreeing to future spill reductions, he added, "Blackmail is not too strong a word." Congress is beginning to look beyond the 24-for-$38 million numbers that got so much attention, Hudson said. The week of March 15, Patricia Zell of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs was in Portland for meetings with CRITFC and BPA, he added. Copyright c. 2004 Indian Country Today. --------- "RE: School District to build over Anasazi Ruins" --------- Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 15:53:37 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GALLUP SCHOOL DISTRICT TO BUILD ON ANASAZI VILLAGE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.gallupindependent.com/032604school.html School district to build over Anasazi ruins; local reaction mixed By Zsombor Peter Staff Writer March 26, 2004 GALLUP - One morning late last month, more than 30 parents of Chee Dodge Elementary School gathered around the 1,000-year-old Anasazi ruins at the southeast corner of the school. For some four hours, local medicine man Franklin Yazzie lead the group in a ceremony to purify the site of the ancestral spirits some Navajo believe were still inhabiting the ruins. With that, McKinley County school district administrators say their plans to expand the school can get underway again. But what the community thinks of that is less clear. The ruins, along with pottery shards and nearby human remains, were unearthed last summer during the course of clearing the site for a $3 million extension to the Yah-Ta-Hey school. Discovery of the ruins, in the direct path of the proposed extension, pushed the construction date back, first to give archeologists a chance to excavate, chart and clear the site, and again once school began in September by community concerns about the danger the site was posing to students. Navajo tradition holds that those who disturb the remains or artifacts of their ancestors, even those merely in their vicinity, potentially invite sickness upon themselves. Though community input was mixed on whether people were comfortable with building the extension over the ruins or wanted it built elsewhere, Principal Danny Smith said, parents were clear on one point: they wanted the district to explore its options. But according to Assistant Superintendent of Support Services Leonard Haskie, who is overseeing the project, that didn't happen. On the local Rough Rock chapter's advice, Haskie said, he discussed the possibility of purifying the site with Yazzie, who OKd the idea, and moved on with the original plan. With costs already sunk into preparations for an extension over the Anasazi ruins, Haskie said the project's fixed budget precluded the additional costs of considering alternative sites. "The big concern was getting the (state mandated) architectural survey, getting it done and not being sure what else was out there," said Smith. With over 20 archeological sites already registered within a one-mile radius of the school, the district couldn't be certain what else it would find around Chee Dodge Elementary. "If we did explore another site, we could find something else," he said. And with each discovered site comes the cost and time of another archeological excavation. There would also be the added costs of redesigning the expansion for any other site, costs, Smith said, that would force the district to scale down the project's size and mean fewer new classrooms for the students. Because planning had already begun, Haskie said, moving the expansion anywhere else would drive the project's costs up. Instead of putting a hold on the planning when the district hit upon the ruins last summer to consider other options at that point, however, the district went on planning for that site while archeologists went to work. Haskie said the original site for the extension over the ruins offered the only viable option and provided for the best possible circulation of people through and around the school. But gauging the community's opinion hasn't been easy, not least of all because of the sparse involvement in the debate from the parents of the school's 400 or so students. After a few moderately attended PTO meetings, Smith sent home a survey with each student late last year soliciting additional feedback. Although only a paltry 49 were returned, 27 just over half opposed building the expansion over the ruins. Although two families were considering transferring their children to other schools, Smith said, that hasn't happened yet. Among them were Gabriel and Dorothy Claw, who have a son and daughter at the school. "I think it's still wrong," Gabriel Claw said of the district's decision to go ahead with its original plan. "They dug those homes up, and I guess they don't understand that it's still sickness ... They think that just because they removed (the artifacts and remains) it's not a problem to anybody." Though the negative effects of the ruins can take years to manifest themselves, he said, the Claws still plan to enroll their children elsewhere next year. The reproach of some staff for publicly opposing the plan, he said, has only encouraged them to follow through. Claw says there's more opposition to the planned extension over the ruins within the community, but believes those voices have apprehensions about speaking out. Haskie expects construction to begin in July or August. He said the district has already hired an architecture firm to draw up the designs. But until then, Claw said the district could at the very least cover up the ruins to help keep students away. Even the yellow security tape that once ran around the walls, he said, is gone. The district's plan calls for an 18,000-square-food extension connected to the school's southeast corner with 16 classrooms to replace the 19 portables currently standing behind Chee Dodge Elementary. It would roughly double the building's current size. The Independent had several more questions for Haskie: What was the district doing during the months between last year's meetings at the school at which community members voiced their concerns of the expansion and the Feb. 25 purification? Why did the district continue planning for the original sight following the discovery of the ruins without community input? What would the costs have been to consider alternative sights? etc. But Haskie ended the interview after accusing this reporter of not paying attention and of consistently reporting inaccurate information. Copyright v. 2004 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Piestewa Kin seek end to Peak fray" --------- Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 08:13:34 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="PIESTEWA" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0324Piestewa24.html Piestewa kin seek end to peak fray Robbie Sherwood and Betty Reid The Arizona Republic March 24, 2004 Tribal leaders and family members of fallen Army Spc. Lori Piestewa made an emotional plea on Tuesday at the state Capitol to stop legislation they fear could restore the word "squaw" to the peak renamed in her honor. The crowded state Senate hearing took place between two spiritual gatherings in Phoenix to mark the first anniversary of Piestewa's death on March 23, 2003, in the early days of the Iraq war. Legislators are considering two measures aimed at overhauling the state board that changed the name of Squaw Peak in northeast Phoenix to Piestewa Peak. Lori's mother, Priscilla "Percy" Piestewa of Tuba City objected to the proposals during a hearing before the Senate Government Committee. "We should keep the name of the peak and not make it into a political issue that's going to make the indigenous people feel, well, here we are, they are Indian givers again," she said. "For many years we allowed this to happen to us, and we feel very strongly that we don't want that to happen again." Hopi Tribal Chairman Wayne Taylor said the political debate over the peak is disrespectful and trivializing of Piestewa's service and sacrifice. "Let us put this ugly political wound aside and let Lori Piestewa have the peace that she fought for," Taylor said. Gov. Janet Napolitano drew praise and criticism last year when her staff pressured the Arizona Geographic and Historic Names Board to vote to rename the mountaintop. Piestewa, a Hopi from Tuba City, was the nation's first female American Indian service member killed in combat. Legislators, who said board members bent the rules, responded with bills to revamp the board. Because some members of the Senate committee were absent Tuesday, the group temporarily held off voting on House Concurrent Resolution 2036, previously approved by the House. It would ask voters to hand over control of the geographic names board to the Legislature rather than the governor. House Bill 2007 would do essentially the same thing without requiring voter approval but faces a likely veto by Napolitano. Rep. Phil Hanson, sponsor of the measures, said he does not want to rename Piestewa Peak. He wants to wrest control of the naming board from the governor because she and her staff were heavy-handed in pushing for the renaming. "The intention was never to change the name back to Squaw Peak," said Hanson, R-Peoria. "My person has been impugned over this. I have been called a racist and worse." But tribal leaders said they were skeptical of Hanson's motives because he has fought off amendments that would prevent a new board from revisiting the Piestewa Peak naming. Raphael Bear, president of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, sent a statement that disputed Hanson's testimony. "Despite the disavowals of the bill's sponsors, we remain convinced that the true purposes of these bills are to embarrass the governor and revert the name of Piestewa Peak to Squaw Peak," Bear said. Earlier Tuesday, about 200 people gathered at the foot of Piestewa Peak for a sunrise memorial. Many, including 11 members of the Tuba City High School's JROTC female color guard, traveled from Piestewa's hometown in northern Arizona to take part. The Phoenix Oyate Singers drummed and sang. Then Piestewa's father, Terry, offered a prayer in Hopi. The event ended with a Catholic Mass and mariachi music. The rituals represented her faith and her Indian and Latino background. The young Hopi-Hispanic mother of two was ambushed with her 507th Maintenance Company after missing a turn. The support unit had been traveling into the city of Nasiriyah, Iraq. Piestewa was 23. Bill Whiterock of Tuba City, Piestewa's ex-husband, traveled to Phoenix to attend Tuesday's sunrise service. Events of this nature continue to unleash fresh painful memories, he said. Though the couple divorced shortly before Piestewa's unit departed for Iraq, Whiterock said he spends a lot of time with their children, especially during the holidays or in between welding and ironworker jobs. "I miss her," Whiterock said. "I see Lori in Carla (their daughter). She's outspoken, and she is very cheerful." Ed Diaz, 73, came to mourn her death but also to celebrate. Diaz, a Tohono O'odham-Yaqui, said he had pushed for years to change the name of the popular hiking trail from Squaw Peak. Like many others, he says the word squaw offends Native Americans. No one listened to his cause, he said. "They were indifferent," Diaz said. "They told me they knew the mountain as Squaw Peak all their lives and it wasn't going to change." The family and supporters regathered for a candlelight rally Tuesday evening at Patriots Square in downtown Phoenix. Not everyone agreed with the decision to change the peak's name. Rita Stroud of Phoenix has a granddauighter who served in Iraq as a Marine. She said she does not understand "all this fuss" about Piestewa and was appalled at the way Napolitano handled the renaming. "I guess because she (Piestewa) was Indian, but it annoys me because we had other Arizonans killed as well," Stroud, 69, said. "To me it's kind of a slap in the face for all the young men and women who have gone because they just keep making a big deal about her. She's not even from Phoenix." Copyright c. 2004 The Arizona Republic. --------- "RE: DOI orders BIA out of Kayenta" --------- Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 08:13:34 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="KAYENTA SCHOOL" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.daily-times.com/artman/publish/article_9721.shtml DOI orders BIA out of Kayenta By Jim Snyder/The Daily Times March 24, 2004 KAYENTA, Ariz. - A Department of the Interior judge has ordered the Bureau of Indian Affairs to return control of the Kayenta Community School to the Navajo Nation. Judge Andrew Pearlstein, with the Interior Board of Indian Appeals, ruled this past week that the BIA did not follow the Indian Self- Determination and Education Assistance Act and the Tribally Controlled School Act when they took control of the school in September. He recommended the school be returned to control of the Shiprock Alternative School Inc. School Board before the end of this school year. "This decision recommends that BIA-OIEP approve the SASI grant amendment immediately and return control of the Kayenta Community Schools education programs to SASI as soon as practicable," Pearlstein said. The BIA seized control of the Navajo Nation grant school after Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. and Navajo Attorney General Louis Denetsosie wrote letters to Aurene Martin, then acting assistant secretary of Indian Affairs in the DOI. Shirley and Denetsosie told Martin the Navajo Council's Intergovernmental Relations Committee had acted improperly when they removed the Kayenta School Board and replaced it with the Shiprock Alternative Schools Inc. School Board. The Council's Education Committee had recommended the action because of alleged problems within the Kayenta School Board, committee Vice Chairman Delegate Wallace Charley of Shiprock said at the time. Those problems allegedly included the Kayenta school board failing to renew the school's three-year contract and the board running up excessive travel expenses, Charley said. The Education Committee discovered the Kayenta School Board had spent $55,000 for mileage, stipends, professional development, meals and lodging for the 2001-02 school year. They spent more than $71,000 for the 2002-03 school year, he added. Further, the Kayenta School Board held a regular meeting Aug. 8, 2002, and collected a $100 stipend. They adjourned and called a special session that afternoon collecting another $60 stipend each, Charley said. The committee removed the Kayenta School Board and replaced it with the Shiprock Alternative School Inc. School Board. Shirley and Denetsosie then wrote the BIA saying the committee's action was improper. The Navajo Council and the Shiprock Alternative Schools Inc. filed an appeal in October against Martin's action. "What he (Shirley) should have said is, `I stand by the Legislature,'" Charley said at the time. Now the tables have turned in favor of the Legislature. "The education committee was not surprised by the judge's decision," Charley said Monday during a phone interview from Washington. The committee, along with Dine' Division of Education acting Director Leland Leonard, is attending the National Indian Education Association conference. "It is no surprise that the judge ruled in favor of the Navajo Nation," Council Speaker Lawrence Morgan said in a news release. There is no doubt that the Education and Intergovernmental Relations Committees were acting within the authority delegated to them through the governing body of the Navajo Nation." The education committee and the Dine' Division of Education oversees 65 schools across the 27,000 square-mile reservation covering parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah in the four corners. Several are BIA schools. The rest are community grant schools. The Kayenta Community School issue had caused a sharp rift between the Shirley administration and the Council. The Education Committee tried to remove Denetsosie - a Shirley appointee - last fall from his job over the incident. Charley accused Denetsosie of siding with the president's office and for allegedly failing to represent the Council in the matter. The attorney general is supposed to represent the Navajo people and all three government branches, Charley said. The Council voted instead, 40-37, to formally reprimand Denetsosie after an education committee member backed off at the last minute from a total recall vote. Shirley called the reprimand vote at the time, "A sad day in the history of our government." Jim Snyder: jims@daily-times.com Copyright c. 2004 Farmington Daily Times, a Gannett Co., Inc. newspaper. --------- "RE: Jemez Pueblo Leaders see Mayor" --------- Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 08:09:39 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ALBUQUERQUE MAYPR SEEKS COOPERATION" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.abqjournal.com/~/news/metro/159248metro03-26-04.htm Jemez Pueblo Leaders See Mayor By Jim Ludwick Journal Staff Writer March 26, 2004 Mayor Martin Chavez and leaders of his administration met with Jemez Pueblo Gov. Paul Chinana and other pueblo officials Thursday. It was part of an ongoing effort by Chavez to visit nearby pueblos to become better acquainted and discuss matters of mutual concern. "We want to find ways that we can work better together," Chavez told the group of about 60 people at the meeting. "The days when our respective communities could operate in isolation are long gone. We are interdependent," Chavez said. He said he wants to improve relations between Albuquerque and Jemez Pueblo, starting with "a premise of respect and understanding." Chinana, interviewed during a break at the meeting, said he appreciates the effort by Chavez to reach out. "It is something that I've really wanted for a long time," Chinana said. "We have things in common," he said. "We breathe the same air. We drink the same water. We all live on mother earth. We enjoy the same sun. In everything we do, we need harmony. We all have common goals." The Albuquerque delegation included Jay Czar, the city's chief administrative officer; Nick Bakas, the chief public safety officer; the directors of many city departments and others from the administration. People at the meeting were divided into small groups so officials from each government could talk in detail with their counterparts. A group including Chavez, Chinana and other officials touched on numerous topics: transportation, infrastructure, tourism, equipment needs, the film industry and other subjects, focusing on possibilities for cooperation and mutual assistance. Copyright c. 2004 Albuquerque Journal. --------- "RE: Taught by Elders, they listen and lead" --------- Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 08:22:01 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ELDER WAY" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4690702.html Taught by elders, they listen and lead Paul Levy, Star Tribune March 29, 2004 Tony LookingElk still relishes the childhood visits he'd make from Minneapolis to South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation. There, he would sit at his grandfather's feet, mesmerized by the soothing cadence of the older man's voice. It mattered little that his grandfather's words were in Lakota, a language LookingElk didn't speak. "I couldn't respond to him, but I listened," LookingElk said. "It's hard to say how important listening is to me." "There is wisdom in the words of our elders," said Justin Kii Huenemann. "When the elders speak, you're there to listen first -- and to learn." LookingElk is 39 and Huenemann is only 30, but the urban Indian community now listens to them -- and with the blessings of some of the community's better-known elders. As cochairmen of the Metropolitan Urban Indian Directors (MUID), leadership body of the urban Indian community, LookingElk and Huenemann are key voices in determining the political, economic and cultural future of the Little Earth community. Meeting with policeTom WallaceStar Tribune"It's an interesting dynamic because in Indian culture, you're taught to be respectful of elders and it's natural for elders to be leaders," said Robert Lilligren, Minneapolis City Council vice president and a White Earth tribal member. "We needed new blood," said Nina Mata, 52, finance director for the Peacemakers Center for native youth in Minneapolis. "Tony and Justin are smart. They have energy. We needed somebody dynamic to step forward and say, 'I represent the Indian community and this is what I'm all about.' They've shown many of the elders the way." They've done so by assuming leadership of a complex MUID group that, for two decades, has consisted of more than 50 organizations, executive directors and leaders of the American Indian community. MUID's role becomes even more complicated and diverse when considering that as many as 70 different tribes have lived in the urban area, LookingElk said. "We don't have one voice," LookingElk said. "There's no snap answer to any of our issues." Meeting the second Tuesday of each month at the American Indian Center on Franklin Avenue, members of MUID discuss a wide range of topics -- family preservation, civil rights, education, community and police relations, health disparities and civic and political accountability. Among guests at the most recent meeting was Minneapolis Police Chief Bill McManus. LookingElk and Huenemann are scheduled to meet today with Archbishop Harry Flynn. "MUID has been the place to go if you want to address an Indian concern," said Peter McLaughlin, Hennepin County commissioner. "It's a good place to get a read on the Indian community and to get reaction on proposals. And there are no stronger voices than Tony's and Justin's." Different styles LookingElk, current president of the Urban Coalition, is "more of a big-picture guy," Lilligren said. "He sits back at meetings," said Gail Dorfman, Hennepin County commissioner. "Sometimes you think he's not listening, or even sleeping. And then he quietly, simply, humbly weighs in. The reaction from others participating is often, 'Wow! I didn't think of it that way, and he's so right.' " Ask for LookingElk's re'sume' and he responds: "People want to hear it is higher education. That is very often thought of as the only way an American Indian can move forward. People want to think it is work experience and knowledge that helps me. It is hard for people to accept that it is my grandparents, parents, brothers and sister, nephews and niece, and many layers of relations that have contributed to my values and beliefs. "Whatever is determined to be my level of success has everything to do with what I have been taught by my community, family and culture," said LookingElk, who is single. "Work put food on the table, education created acceptance in the greater world, but my teachings allow me to matter." His parents were a generation removed from the boarding-school era, when American Indians were taken from reservations by the government and sent away to prepare for assimilation into white society. LookingElk's father, a courier, was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation. His mother, an upholsterer, grew up on the Red Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. They moved to Minneapolis, where dad worked nights and mom worked days. "There was always a parent around," LookingElk said. LookingElk has studied at a number of universities -- earning degrees at DePaul in Chicago and Minnesota State-Moorhead while also taking law courses at DePaul and William Mitchell in St. Paul. At DePaul, he said, he felt "challenged by every professor to see if an American Indian could pass a college-level course." He earned a degree in sociology at DePaul in 1988, spent four years doing social work in Chicago's American Indian community and then returned to Minneapolis, where he has served on a variety of boards and task forces. He was selected chairman of MUID in 1999, an unpaid position in an organization that has no budget, almost by default, he said. "I was their fourth choice." But his responsibilities to the Urban Coalition and other boards and tasks forces seemed too much. He tried to quit MUID. But the board rejected his resignation and offered a compromise -- a cochairman. That was Huenemann. Blue-eyed, with matching hoop earrings and a long braided ponytail, Huenemann is a former high-school track star who, before hurting his back, would go to any neighborhood playground looking for a game of hoops, and still dreams of the day he'll dunk a basketball. "Justin is the one who delves into details and cranks out the analysis," Lilligren said. Eloquent and articulate, Huenemann has a passionate tone that often speaks as loudly as his words. "Both Justin and Tony have this passion," said Clyde Bellecourt, 67, the Minneapolis Indian leader who was thrust into the national spotlight in 1968 with the founding of the American Indian Movement (AIM). "We wanted to create a program that would keep young Indian people -- kids who didn't have a proper education or might be headed for jail -- keep these kids from just standing around street corners. Justin seemed like a natural to run it." Finding his place The Government Center office where Huenemann serves as community catalyst for the American Indian Families Project is a far cry from the Navajo reservation on which his mother was raised. Most of the homes there still are without running water and electricity, he said. Huenemann grew up watching the disruption of stereotypes. His father came from a large, conservative German family in Iowa. A musicologist, he was attracted to reservations in Nebraska and Pine Ridge, where he was a pioneer in field recordings 50 years ago. He went to Arizona to record and became immersed in Navajo culture. When Huenemann's maternal grandparents refused to let his father date his mother, his father slept for a month in a tent he set up near their home. His perseverance eventually paid off. Young Justin's parents moved to Pine Ridge, then to Mitchell, S.D. "All of the sudden, I was at an all-white high school in a town which was wealthy, compared to where I'd come from -- so wealthy that all of us on the high-school basketball team had matching basketball shoes," Huenemann recalled. A singer, painter, established wood-carving artist and trumpet player, he considered returning to Arizona or possibly trying a career in art, but instead chose the University Minnesota and a major in architecture. "I'd sit in the dorms and knew that it just wasn't where I belonged," said Huenemann, who said his middle name, Kii, means "boy."I thought, 'OK, I'm alone. I've got to go find Indians.' " He found the American Indian Resource Center and, from there, the Heart of the Earth Survival School. Huenemann happened to be there the day a teacher was fired. He was asked if he could teach. "Sure," he said. He was 20. "I'd ask kids, 10th- to 12th-graders, 'What's your tribe?' And they had no idea. They had no connection," Huenemann said. "Here are all these Indian kids who didn't know who they were as people. How could that be?" The question continues to haunt Huenemann, who is married, has a 4-year- old son and another child due in August. All the while, LookingElk was asking similar questions. "How do you push back some of the pacification of the American Indian community?" he asked. "We're redeveloping Franklin Avenue, but why aren't there American Indian businesses?" "We don't celebrate enough. How do you celebrate poverty and frustration? But we should be celebrating the people we know." Observed Bill Means, a longtime leader of the urban Indian community and director of a state employment program for the economically disadvantaged: "Rather than impose their leadership on the community, these two young gentlemen have asked questions first. They were highly encouraged to take leadership positions because they were active participants long before they became leaders." Bellecourt said he once wondered "if we've done enough to provide young leadership." But, "Justin and Tony aren't afraid to take on the hard issues. They've shown up when we've had marches on police brutality." The marriage of the cochairmen may still be in its honeymoon stage. "My wife teases me that I check in with Tony so often, it's like he's my wife, " Huenemann said. "Our effectiveness depends on our ability to listen," LookingElk said. "We've learned that it isn't the speaker that creates knowledge, it's the discourse after." Paul Levy is at plevy@startribune.com. Copyright c. 2004 Star-Tribune. --------- "RE: Students protest ban of Native Drummers" --------- Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 08:50:49 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DRUM PROHIBITED AT UND GRADUATION" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforksherald/news/local/8269844.htm UND LAW SCHOOL GRADUATION: Students protest ban of native drummers UND may reconsider and allow Lakota ceremony at law school graduation By David Dodds Herald Staff Writer March 25, 2004 Mike Grant's cry shook UND's Twamley Hall with a start at 8:49 a.m. Wednesday. Morning business at the school's main administrative headquarters briefly paused as Grant, an American Indian student of Omaha heritage, belted out a traditional "family song" as a way to call attention to what he views as a wrong done to UND Law School's 2004 graduating class. March 10, UND's administration rejected a request by the class' Graduation Committee and the interim dean of the law school, Candace Zierdt, to have an honor performance by American Indian drummers at the law school's May 15 ceremony. Grant was one of about 30 UND student and faculty protesters who wore red armbands for unity on a short march from the law school steps to the first floor of Twamley. In his family's native language, Grant called out a personal challenge to school President Charles Kupchella. "I just called him down for you guys," Grant told the gathering crowd. "I'm really sorry he did this to you." Waiting on decision They were met instead by Bob Boyd, dean for student and outreach services, who explained that UND tries to adhere to a traditional regimen at its graduation ceremonies and tries not to have activities that highlight one particular group. "The last message I want to send is that we're not proud of your accomplishments, and that we're not proud you're here at UND," Boyd said. Later, about half of the protesters - all law students - met with Kupchella, Boyd and Leigh Jeanotte, UND director of Native American Programs, to try to work out differences. But Cindy Gillis, a third-year law student from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and a protest leader, said that not much was resolved at the meeting. "It was a lot of back and forth," Gillis said. "We're still waiting on the word." 'No timeline' Peter Johnson, UND spokesman, described the meeting as a good conversation between the two sides, and he said school administrators are still exploring the request. "When we will have any kind of decision on it - I don't know," Johnson said. "There's no timeline, but there's also no interest in dragging it out any more than it has to be." Boyd said, "I expect we'll be getting back to them in the next two days, definitely by the end of the week; we've got to move ahead with some sort of a decision." In a Feb. 25 letter to Boyd, interim dean Zierdt formally made the request for the drum group to perform the traditional Lakota honor song, writing that it was important, "since we are trying to recruit more Native American students to the School of Law." She added that the 2004 graduating class has the largest number of American Indian students in school history. Boyd wrote back March 10, saying that he was unable to approve the request. No separate event Johnson said that much of the issue has to do with protocol for the school's commencement ceremonies, and because its ceremonies are so steeped in tradition, there's a reluctance to make changes. And then there's the issue of allowing an activity that draws focus to a specific group. Boyd said that the school did away with invocations and benedictions at ceremonies for that very reason, and the school has denied requests by some past graduating classes to wear symbolic colors or clothing. But Gillis said the law students are not asking to have the drummers perform to honor only American Indian students. "We're not asking for a religious ceremony," Gillis said. "All we're doing is something to honor all of our students." Boyd had encouraged the law students to hold the drum ceremony as an independently sponsored event outside of commencement. Other campus American Indian groups, such as Indians Into Medicine, have done just that in the past. The students said that a separate ceremony would be contrary to the collective effort that the class set out to do in the first place. ---- Reach Dodds at 780-1110, (800) 477-6572, extension 110, or at ddodds@gfherald.com Copyright c. 2004 Grand Forks Herald. --------- "RE: Tulsa lands `The American'" --------- Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 15:53:37 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="OSAGE SCULPTURE TO TULSA" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.nativetimes.com/~displayarticle&article_id=4153 Tulsa Lands "The American," worlds tallest bronze sculpture Site to be selected by April for statue of 17 story Indian TULSA OK Jennifer Tedlock 3/26/2004 March 26, 2904 "How exciting is this?" Tulsa mayor Bill LaFortune asked the crowd at the press conference Thursday afternoon. He announced that Tulsa has been selected to be the home of "The American", a 21-story monument expected to draw millions of tourists and hundreds of millions of greenbacks to the city. Aaronson Auditorium erupted in applause. "This is not just a great day for Tulsans. It is a great day for all Oklahomans and all Americans. This will be the world's tallest freestanding bronze statue. This'll be the first built in this century with the latest technology and engineering that is available. This will be a symbol of unity at a time when we always are in need of unity and, perhaps, have never been in need of unity as much today as we've ever been," LaFortune explained. "Unity of all peoples, of all races, of all colors, of all creeds. And to have this statue which symbolizes what we all are when you put the adjectives aside -- we all are Americans." LaFortune emphasized that the important thing was not only landing the statue in Tulsa, but achieving Shan Gray's vision for his work. He remarked that Tulsa is the city with the greatest Native American roots to his knowledge and has the greatest Native American population of any city in the country. Osage artist Shan Gray spoke to the packed house. "As the mayor has stated I have decided to begin work with the city of Tulsa to locate "The American" monument in the Tulsa area. There are many factors that must be worked through in order to ensure "The American" finds the appropriate home. I've committed to negotiate to the city of Tulsa to find the site and the appropriate infrastructure and partner with the community to support its vision for the future," he said. Gray quoted an e-mail he received in favor of "The American Project" in Tulsa, then added, "Indeed, I am confident Tulsans will be respectful and vigilant custodians of 'The American' project. I look forward to starting this journey with you." A site is expected to be selected by Gray's self-imposed deadline of April 1, and though the artist lost one investor in the decision to build the monument in Tulsa, he said he has enough to begin work and is confident that the project will be privately-funded in full, including an endowment for upkeep - which some Tulsans were reportedly worried about. "The projections are that this project from the beginning can stand on its own." Gray explained that one of his team's goals is to "make sure that it has endowments set up and the trust that will maintain it so it will not be a burden on anyone." Native American Times is Copyright c. 2003 Oklahoma Indian Times, Inc. --------- "RE: Tribal Aid Program triggers old Fears" --------- Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 15:53:37 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="VIRGINIA TRIBES" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.dailypress.com/~mar28,0,6036010.story?coll=dp-news Tribal aid program triggers old fears A new effort aims to identify the social problems facing the state's Indians, but some tribes are skeptical. BY MATT SABO March 28, 2004 Over the next three years, many of Virginia's eight state-recognized Indian tribes will take a small step toward independence while awaiting a decision on their efforts to gain federal recognition and funds. In a $120,000 federally funded program administered through the state, federal workers will help the tribes identify their most pressing needs, in areas such as housing, elder healthcare and education. The program would then seek money to alleviate those problems. In concept, the Virginia Indian Development program will unite the state's eight recognized tribes in the common goal of tapping into funds to aid their members, just as cities or counties reap money from the state and federal governments for similar purposes. But in practice, the effort is running into some of the same problems that have prevented the tribes from gaining strength in the past - a lack of unity. One tribe, the Pamunkey, in King William County, isn't going to participate, said its chief, who declined to elaborate. Another tribe, the Mattaponi, is not expected to participate, at least at first, said the program's director. The very core of the program, a Census-like survey, is sure to raise hackles among some of Virginia's Indians, many of whom endured decades of institutionalized racism that included purging Indians as a distinct group from Census counts. The Upper Mattaponi Tribe is supporting the program, but Chief Ken Adams says the survey may cause problems. "Typically, Indians have been surveyed to death," he says. "People have come into our communities and asked us questions for years and years and years. Nobody likes somebody to come to their door and ask them personal questions. We've been asked that kind of stuff many, many times." Adams says he still backs the program, hopeful for what it can do for his tribe. "I think it's something that probably needs to be done to tap into the needs and the desires of the tribes," Adams says. "Where it's going to lead to, I don't know. We just have to wait and see, I guess." Congress has been considering legislation that would give Virginia's tribes federal recognition - funding like other Indian tribes. But the measure has been stalled in committee amid fears by some that the tribes would use this authority to build casinos. Others are unwilling to commit to perpetual payments to the Virginia tribes. Scattered across Virginia, mostly in small, rural communities, the state's eight recognized tribes are estimated at only about 5,000 people, Adams says. Yet 21,000 Virginians identified themselves as American Indians in the 2000 Census. The Virginia Indian Development program is being conducted by Americorps, a network of national service programs. A key component of the program is that the tribes will conduct their own census. The census is expected to serve three purposes: Identify tribes' membership and needs; develop plans to meet those needs; and find money to carry out the plans. Unlike tribes in other parts of the country, Virginia's don't have federal reservations and do not receive federal funds earmarked for Indian programs. That's because the 17th-century treaties signed by Virginia's Indians were with England, not the United States. Even though they are state-recognized and considered political entities, responsible for providing services to their members, tribes don't receive funding like Virginia's towns, cities and counties do, said Dante Desiderio, the program's director and a member of the Sappony tribe, which straddles the Virginia-North Carolina border but is not recognized by Virginia. "We don't have any land, our resources are extremely limited and we're not federally recognized, so we're not able to acquire federal funds," Desiderio said. "That's the biggest reason we're doing this." The program, he said, will put Virginia's tribes on a more equal footing with cities and counties. "It's a baby step, and really it's also a way for us to start getting programs for our members from the state," Desiderio says. He cites an example of an elderly tribal member who needs money for heating oil. That person would rather receive help from the tribe than from the state, he said. Desiderio said he's undaunted by the prospect of two tribes declining to participate. "It's nothing new, having tribes going in different ways with different goals," he said. He and other supporters of the program point out that one of its components is designed to overcome these differences. Tribal economic growth has been impeded by the varying objectives of the tribes, as well as a lack of money and administrative expertise, says Karenne Wood, chairwoman of the Virginia Council on Indians. "With help from the Virginia Indian Development program, we can address different needs without forcing tribal volunteers to become experts in multiple grant programs," Wood says. "This program also helps by making it easier on grantors to fund various projects since it will define not only the individual needs of each tribe but also the common needs of all Virginia tribes." msabo@dailypress.com (804) 642-1748 Copyright c. 2004 The Daily Press, Hampton Roads, VA. --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Faith, hope as Sundance draws near" --------- Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 15:53:37 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: SUNDANCE EMOTIONS" http://www.grandforks.com/~/dorreen_yellow_bird/8289639.htm DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Faith, hope and worry rise as Sundance draws near March 27, 2004 Before the morning sun reaches the horizon and touches rooftops, a silvery gray slowly seeps into the dark of night. That silvery predawn melts away the night like the dingy winter snow. Pink from the sun - a sun that still is reaching for the horizon - paints a few small brush strokes through the white overcast sky. It might have been that first sound of a bird calling for a warm day that woke me early that morning or just an unsettling feeling that change is coming. Whatever the reason, the early dawn brought me clear memories of a July ceremony last summer. Butterflies bumped for attention in the pit of my stomach as memories of an early dawn at Sundance consumed me. As I stood there looking out the window, I found myself reaching to cover my arms from cold even though it was warm in my room. I remembered the still, cool air as I waited to hear the sounds of drums that would call us to prayer at the Sundance camp last summer. As I lay in my sleeping bag waiting, I knew the day would be hot. I would be thirsty and hungry, and the ceremony would challenge my strength. I remember well. This is my 10th year. Watching the early dawn recently, I could feel and see change coming, and I realized I am getting seriously close to the July ceremony. A friend, relative, mentor and a man who answers my Sundance questions, told me preparation for Sundance starts the day we leave the Sundance - that is our New Year, he said. His work and participation with the Sundance goes beyond 40 years. Even his children grew up in Sundance ceremonies, and they know this way well. I was troubled when I talked to him. "Doesn't living your life according to the traditions of the Sundance means walking the 'Red Road' close and narrow?", I asked him. What exactly does it mean? How far can we stray from this way before we should step back from participation in the ceremony? It starts, he said, when we leave the ceremony. You should spend that next year preparing yourself for this sacrifice and intense prayer. That means you try to live your life in a good way, treating everyone - including yourself - as you would a sacred spirit. I was troubled because I was hearing that some of those who participate were starting their preparation for Sundance only a few months before the ceremony. They, I heard, also were abusing alcohol - not the way of a Sundancer or leader. You should respect all those who make decisions about ceremonies. They have different ways. Those ways were given to them in a vision or through intense prayer and sacrifice, I was told by another medicine man from the South. There are different ways even within the same bands of different tribes. So, if you chose to participate in their ceremony, then you follow their ways, he said. I have spent most of my life listening to these elders and spiritual leaders, starting with my grandmother and continuing on through uncles, relatives and mentors from other tribes. Their advice and opinions are important to me, so I try to listen and respect what they say. In these days when there are many different leaders and so many different ceremonies, sometimes these leaders bump