From gars@speakeasy.org Tue Apr 13 01:55:46 2004 Date: Tue, 06 Apr 2004 15:54:34 -0700 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews12.015 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 12, ISSUE 015 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 10, 2004 Yuchi Wadaa/big summer moon Algonquin Suquanni kesos/moon when they set Indian corn +-------------------------------------------------------+ | 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; News and Information Distribution, Netrez-L and Rez Life Mailing Lists; UUCP email IMPORTANT!! ----------- In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, all material appearing in this newsletter is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for educational purposes. <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is a way of keeping the brothers and sisters who share our Spirit informed about current events within the lives of those who walk the Red Road. ++ It may be subscribed to via email by sending a request from your own internet addressable account to gars@speakeasy.org ++ It is archived at http://www.nanews.org <================<<<< >>>>================> +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | As historian Patricia Nelson | | Once a language is lost, it is | | Limerick summarized in "The | | gone forever | | Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken | | * Of the 300 original Native | | Past of the American West... | | languages in North America, | | "Set the blood quantum at | | only 175 exist today. | | one-quarter, hold to it as a | | * 125 of these are no longer | | rigid definition of Indians, | | learned by children. | | let intermarriage proceed as | | * 55 are spoken by 1 to 6 elders;| | it had for centuries, and | | when they die, their language | | eventually Indians will be | | will disappear. | | defined out of existence." | | * Without action, only 20 | | "When that happens, the federal | | languages will survive the next| | government will be freed of | | 50 years. | | its persistent 'Indian problem.'"| | Source: Indigenous Language | +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ | Institute | |http://www.indigenous-language.org| This issue's Elder Quote: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + ======================== "We did not ask you white men to come here. The Great Spirit gave us this country as a home. You had yours. We did not interfere with you. The Great Spirit gave us plenty of land to live on, and buffalo, deer, antelope and other game. But you have come here; you are taking my land from me; you are killing off our game, so it is hard for us to live. Now, you tell us to work for a living, but the Great Spirit did not make us to work, but to live by hunting. You white men can work if you want to. We do not interfere with you, and again you say, why do you not become civilized? We do not want your civilization! We would live as our fathers did, and their fathers before them." __ Chief Crazy Horse, Oglala +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Indian Pledge of Allegiance | The Indian Pledge of Alleg- | | iance was first presented | I pledge allegiance to my Tribe,| on 2 December '93 during the | to the democratic principles | opening address of the Nat- | of the Republic | ional Congress of American | and to the individual freedoms | Indian Tribal-States Relat- | borrowed from the Iroquois and | ions Panel in Reno, NV. NCAI | Choctaw Confederacies, | plans distribution of the | as incorporated in the United | Indian Pledge to all Indian | States Constitution, | Nations. | so that my forefathers | | shall not have died in vain | Walk in Beauty! Night Owl +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Journey | In the summer and early fall | The Bloodline | of 1998 the Treaty Unity Riders | | rode a thousand miles on horse- | For all that live and live by law | back, carrying a staff and | We Stand, we Call, We Ride | praying each step of the way. | For All that fear and fear by sight | | We Hear, we Listen, we Ride | These prayers were offered for | For all that pray and pray by strength| each of us, and that the Unity | We Feel, we Move, we Ride | of all Peoples might happen. | For all that die and die by greed | | We Hurt, we Cry, we Ride | Tatanka Cante forwarded this | For all that birth and birth by right | poem on behalf of all the Unity | We Smile, we Hold, we Ride | Riders that we might stop and | For all that need and need by heart | ask if the next words we say, the | We Came, we Went, we Rode. | next act we make is for the good | | of the People or is it from ego | Treaty Unity Riders | for self. +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ O'siyo Brothers and Sisters! [The following observations are from my half-side, Janet owlstar@speakeasy.org http://www.owlstar.com] In a St. Petersburg Times (Apr.2, 2004) editorial, the writer poses the spectre of spousal abuse as a rationale for continuing state law enforcement activities on sovereign tribal land in Florida. How, they ask, will abused women be protected if the state does not enforce its laws? How, they ask, will non-Indians be guaranteed equal protection under the law to that of Indians on the reservation? Let me ask this instead. How well have Indian women and children been protected under state law? How have their children and their livelihoods been protected? How much respect is given to their traditional ways of resolving family conflict? How have the Indians been given equal protection to that of non-Indians off the reservation? (There's a story out of Nebraska from 4/5/04 that suggests an answer to that question.) The story admits that the Miccosuckees maintain a trained and certified police force. Why should this NATION need the certification of a neighboring STATE? Other reservations and states have entered into voluntary law enforcement sharing agreements that seem to be working out well and creating an attitude of trust and cooperation rather than "down- your-throat" compliance. Interesting that Florida would prefer the latter route. Unrelated issue: A news story from 4/6 Farmington Daily Times identifies a Chevron oil official who has held federal government positions as the chief negotiator in the Interior Trust case. Now it may just be untrusting of me, and I believe the Cobell lawyers did have a say in the matter, but this just seems too hand-and-glove between the defendants' interests and the person guiding negotiations. Janet Smith +/// owlstar@speakeasy.org P. O. Box 672168 /*/+ OwlStar Trading Post Marietta, GA 30008, U.S.A. + / * http://www.owlstar.com * + ----------- News of the people featured in this issue ---------- - Times Editorial: - Boost Graduation rate The Law of the Land for Indian Students - Ex-oil Official - Native Issues go unnoticed to mediate Interior Lawsuit - Tli Cho bill makes first pass - Conference details through Parliament Problems with BIA reorg. - Acting Police Chief - Lawmakers press Norton takes over Kanesatake to overturn Schaghticoke - Indian Lawmaker cited - Gabriel inks new Policing Deal for Eagle Feather in Car - Keith Myiow seeks Public Inquiry - Lawsuit alleges Recruiter - Cherokee Nation assaulted Indian Woman and Bacone College Team-Up - Peltier asks Congress for help - Citizen Potawatomi - FBI releases nearly 800 Pages purchases Kansas Land in Peltier Case - Sac-Fox Chief looking toward - Native Prisoner Economic Development -- ACLU files Lawsuit: - Gila River opens Huhugam Center Indian who refuses to cut Hair - Senator pushes Land for Tribe - Rustywire: - Chinook scale back Coming Home from Boarding School Lewis and Clark Role - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - BIA 'short-changing' - Larry Kibby Poem: Kayenta School Ancestral Strong - Upcoming Events --------- "RE: Times Editorial: The Law of the Land" --------- Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2004 09:06:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WHOSE LAW? WHOSE LAND?" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.sptimes.com/2004/04/02/Opinion/The_law_of_the_land.shtml The law of the land A Times Editorial Published April 2, 2004 Native American women and children are victims of domestic abuse at rates that are among the highest in the country for any minority group. Yet, if a measure being pushed hard by the Miccosukee Indian Tribe becomes law, local policing agencies would be barred from responding to calls for help on reservation land. The Miccosukees say they want out from under the state criminal justice system. If tribes are truly autonomous sovereigns within U.S. territory, they assert, then they should be subject to federal law enforcement only. Billy Cypress, the tribe's chairman, compares the tribe's situation to having Alabama sheriffs oversee Florida's law enforcement. To rectify this, the Miccosukees are backing SB 1288, a bill that would give control over all crimes committed on its lands to tribal authorities and the federal government. The Miccosukees have pursued this change in law with remarkable vigor over the last two legislative sessions. Using its wealth of casino money, the tribe has employed an army of lobbyists and contributed heavily to lawmakers' campaigns. But their cause has run up against significant opposition, including the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, all 67 sheriffs and the state attorneys across Florida. The state's law enforcement community questions whether non-Indians who come on Miccosukee land to gamble, play golf or enjoy other tourist activities will receive equal protection and justice from tribal police and courts. Will crimes committed by tribe members be duly punished? In at least one prominent case, a police investigation into a murder thought to be committed by a tribe member was hampered when agents had difficulty accessing witnesses on tribal land. While the Miccosukees do maintain a trained and locally certified police force, any state control to maintain standards of policing would be relinquished if the law is changed. And the FBI is no substitute. The Miami office of the FBI handles all of South Florida, the Caribbean and South America. The office, with its current focus on counterterrorism, simply does not have the resources to investigate the plethora of offenses that might occur at the many Miccosukee recreation destinations. The Miccosukees point out that Florida is one of only a handful of states that still subject its Indian reservations to state jurisdiction. But as the reservations become meccas for gambling and other pursuits by non-tribe members, and as the Miccosukees buy up more facilities and land to expand their operations, the need for uniform crime control and prevention becomes heightened. Today, the rationale for the state to continue to assert criminal justice jurisdiction is even greater than in years past. The power to uphold the law in this state is not one to be relinquished so lightly. Copyright c. 2002-2004 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Ex-oil Official to mediate Interior Lawsuit" --------- Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2004 08:16:57 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FOX TO GUARD HEN HOUSE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.daily-times.com/artman/publish/article_10116.shtml Former oil official to mediate lawsuit against Interior By Jim Snyder/The Daily Times April 6, 2004 NAGEEZI - A former Chevron Corporation oil official was chosen to mediate a class-action lawsuit between 300,000 Native Americans and the Department of the Interior in a multi-billion dollar accounting dispute of oil and gas royalty payments dating back to 1887. Charles Byron Renfrew, 75, was named April 2 to mediate the Cobell v. Norton class-action lawsuit, Dennis Gingold said Monday during a meeting with more than 150 Navajo allottees at the Nageezi Chapter House. Gingold is the lead attorney for Elouise Cobell Cobell and Ervin Chavez, president of the Shii Shi Keyah (Our Land) Association, also attended. Renfrew, who had a 784-foot Chevron oil tanker named after him, was Chevron's vice president of legal affairs in 1983 and became its director in 1984. Another notable who had an oil tanker named after her was National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, formally with Chevron. Renfrew retired from Chevron in 1993 and went into private law practice in San Francisco. Gingold, who blasted the oil industry for its alleged greed and the Bush administration for its alleged corruption through most of the all-day meeting, did not mention Renfrew had worked as an oil executive. "Why don't you ever get satisfaction to your questions? It's simple. It comes down to greed," Gingold said to the allottees. "It's big oil, it's big pipelines, big gas and big coal. Too many people are making money at your expense and they don't want to give it up." Renfrew was appointed by President Richard Nixon in 1971 as a federal judge to the U. S. District Court, Northern District of California. He served as deputy attorney general under President Jimmy Carter in 1980. Washington attorney John G. Bickerman, a member of the American College of Civil Trial Mediators, was also named April 2 as a co-mediator, Gingold said. His private law firm is Bickerman Dispute Resolution, PLLC. Bickerman worked with the Department of the Interior as a mediator between the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Tribe over closing a shared landfill. That case, involving the Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Indian Affairs and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, is still ongoing. Cobell, lead plaintiff against the Department of the Interior, won the first part of her eight-year-old lawsuit. The United States admitted it did not keep accurate oil and gas royalty payment records and accounts for thousands of Native Americans throughout the west for more than a century. "It was not appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court," Gingold said, adding the judgment cannot now be reopened. The second part of the lawsuit, still in litigation, would determine how much the United States would pay, if anything, to close the case. "The government cannot just tell us, `Sorry we lost the records. We can't give you an accounting of your money.' They can't get away with that anymore," Cobell said. The oil and gas royalty payments - not counting more than a century's worth of interest - would total $13 billion, Gingold said. That would be $175 billion in today's dollars when compounded interest is figured in, he added. Gingold said it was not realistic to see that amount. That amount also does not include missing allotted land, Gingold said. "There are 9 to 11 million acres held in trust. In the late 1800s and early 1900s there was 54 million acres held in trust. What happened to the 40 million acres?" Gingold said that 10,000 Native Americans fought overseas in World War I. When many of them came back they found their allotted land had been converted into fee land and privately sold. "It (the case) screams to the heavens for justice," Cobell said. She added she would like to see an out-of-court settlement but the government keeps deceiving them. "The battle has been a tough one. They're coming at us from every direction." The Bush administration has spent more than $100 million in legal fees fighting the lawsuit, Gingold said, adding, the U.S. government has used 120 attorneys from 54 law firms. The Cobell law team consists of Gingold and four other attorneys. Jim Snyder: jims@daily-times.com Copyright c. 2004 Farmington Daily Times, a Gannett Co., Inc. newspaper. --------- "RE: Conference details Problems with BIA reorg." --------- Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2004 09:06:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BUSH WHACK DISCUSSED" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=4214 Conference details problems with BIA reorganization Grazing trespass, rude bureaucrats-to name a few OKMULGEE OK Sam Lewin April 5, 2004 An event designed to generate reaction to the reorganization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs did just that-and in droves. The Intertribal Monitoring Association on Indian Trust Funds held a "listening conference" at the headquarters of the Muscogee Creek Tribe in Okmulgee this weekend. The ITMA is made up of 59 federally recognized tribes and the goal is, as the name suggests, to monitor the activities of the government on trust related issues. ITMA tries to keep tribal members informed of the latest developments by acting as a liaison between the Office of the Special Trustee and Indian Country. Special Trustee for American Indians Ross Swimmer and Bureau of Indian Affairs Regional Director Jeanette Hanna all attended the listening conference, which was moderated by Osage Nation Principal Chief Jim Gray. "I've attended many so-called `consultations' in which the communication went one way - Indian people spoke, but there was very little sense that anybody was really hearing them," Gray said. "This meeting was very different - it was much more of a true dialogue between us and the federal government. It was very gratifying to see this happen." Some concerns raised included fears that Indian property was being taken by non-Indians without the landowner's knowledge, a lack of lease payments from oil and gas wells, grazing trespass, and complaints about unresponsive and even obnoxious federal bureaucrats. Quapaw Chairman John Berrey is a member of the ITMA Board of Directors. He agreed that the federal officials seemed responsive. "OST heard from our people on issues ranging from oil and gas leases, trespass, probate, IIM accounts, questionable land transactions - very specific examples of how trust-related issues affect individuals and their families, as well as tribal governments," Berrey said. "I think the conference was a first step in establishing trust between Indian people and the federal officials whose job it is to serve them. As we all know so well, that trust has been broken. It will take a long time to mend it, but we have to start somewhere - and I think we started in Okmulgee." "The presenters were very articulate and very knowledgeable about what had happened to them," said Marcella Giles, landowner association representative. "They knew what had occurred and they knew it was wrong. And they were finally talking to the people who could actually do something to help them." The conference is the first in a series of five. Subsequent events are slated to be held in May, June, July, and September. Native American Times is Copyright c. 2004 Oklahoma Indian Times, Inc. --------- "RE: Lawmakers press Norton to overturn Schaghticoke" --------- Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 08:50:19 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SCHAGHTICOKE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.wfsb.com/Global/story.asp?S=1750329&nav=1VGmLvf8 Angry lawmakers press Interior secretary to overturn Schaghticoke March 31, 2004 WASHINGTON (AP) - Angry Connecticut lawmakers said Tuesday that Interior Secretary Gale Norton has paid little attention to ongoing tribal recognition problems at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Lawmakers met with Norton Tuesday evening. They said they warned Norton that wealthy backers interested in casino gaming are continuing to affect BIA decisions, and they promised to call for immediate changes within the agency. The lawmakers have bombarded Norton with criticism of the BIA's decision in January to grant federal recognition to the Connecticut-based Schaghticoke Tribal Nation. They requested Tuesday's meeting after reading a BIA memo that revealed the agency granted the Schaghticokes recognition despite the tribe's failure to prove political continuity during two historical time periods. According to the memo, the BIA used the state's recognition of the tribe to compensate for the time gaps. But lawmakers said Norton was largely unaware of the matter. "She's paid very little attention to this," Rep. Christopher Shays, R- Conn., said after the meeting. "She hadn't even read the memo. The meeting was not satisfactory at all." Norton refused to answer questions as she left the meeting room. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-Conn., said he was "more frustrated walking out of the meeting than I was walking in. We've been pounding away at this as a delegation and there is no understanding of the problem." Schaghticoke Chief Richard Velky had no immediate comment. State officials said they will take up their fight Wednesday, during a House Resources Committee hearing. Rep. Nancy Johnson, R-Conn., in testimony prepared for delivery to the committee Wednesday, will call on Norton to invalidate the BIA's decision to grant the Kent-based Schaghticokes federal recognition. She said immediate action is needed to restore the agency's credibility and to correct the flawed recognition process. The BIA's decision reversed the agency's earlier recommendation to deny recognition because the tribe failed to show continuous political activity from 1820 to 1840, and from 1892 to 1936. A BIA staff memo released earlier this month detailed how the agency could excuse the gaps by giving more weight to the tribe's state recognition when other evidence of tribal governance was lacking. Local, state and federal lawmakers have blasted the BIA and Norton over the ruling, have vowed to appeal and have called for an investigation into the BIA's decision-making process. Johnson will say in her testimony that there should be an immediate moratorium on federal recognition decisions, pending a review of the whole process. "Congress can no longer put off its responsibility to address questions of credibility, competency, and fairness within an agency under its jurisdiction," Johnson said. By taking action, she said, Congress will be able to restore credibility and fairness to the recognition process. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, also in testimony prepared for the hearing, called for the creation of a new, independent agency to oversee recognition decisions. He likened it to the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. "After more than a dozen years of experience with tribal recognition matters, I strongly and firmly believe that fundamental, far-reaching reform is necessary," Blumenthal said. A BIA spokesman earlier this month said Connecticut officials are focusing on one small portion of the memo to paint a negative picture of the process. Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c. 2001 - 2004 WorldNow and WFSB. --------- "RE: Gabriel inks new Policing Deal" --------- Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 08:50:19 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="POLICE POWERS" http://www.easterndoor.com/story2.htm Gabriel Inks New Policing Deal Behind Wall of Riot Cops By: Ross Montour Like it or not, the people of Kanehsatake have to deal with the fact that the man whom Ottawa and Quebec view as the sole, legitimate leader of their community, Grand Chief James Gabriel, has inked a new tripartite police agreement. Gabriel and his coterie of three loyal chiefs once again chose the city of Laval to conduct Council business due to, what Gabriel's public relations team described as "security reasons." While the meeting was to have occurred in Kanehsatake, Gabriel elected to move the site at the 11th hour because he claimed to have been concerned with safety issues. Chiefs John Harding, Steve Bonspille and Pearl Bonspille were informed that the meeting locale had been changed via a hand-delivered letter at 10 a.m. the same day. The letter, signed by Gabriel, was brief: "The scheduled Council meeting for toady has been relocated to the Hilton Laval at 1 p.m. These steps were necessary due to the fact that following my return to the Council office on Thursday March 11, a group of protesters descended upon the office, leaving the question of security unresolved. It is for this reason that the location for the Council meeting has been changed." Harding, Bonspille and Bonspille called Gabriel's statement false. According to Harding, there were only three community members who dropped by the Council offices 20 minutes after Gabriel's departure that day. He says there were no threatening statements made. After the Laval meeting, Gabriel offered another reason for moving the meeting. He told The Eastern Door editor Kenneth Deer that one of his supporting chiefs, Clarence Simon, was threatened by a community member at the Council offices that morning. According to Gabriel, the individual "threatened to bulldoze the council office this morning." Gabriel also claimed that the same individual had threatened Council staff the day he had gone to his office and that, therefore, he told staff to leave the office. However, Steven Bonspille, who was there that morning, said that the individual came to the office to meet with Pearl Bonspille. "I didn't hear him threaten anybody. He did exchange pleasantries with one of the staff. Today, it's quiet as can be," he said Tuesday. Because of the threats that Gabriel alleged were made, the Grand Chief told Deer it was necessary that extra security (about 30 officers) be brought into play at the Hilton. Gabriel also told Deer that he had been informed by a Kanehsatake Council staff member that protesters threatened "they were going to the Hilton." However, according to one witness, there were well over 50 police personnel on site at the Hilton. David Lahache said he noticed the presence of some 24 Laval riot-equipped cops along with other uniformed and plainclothes officers from Laval and some 14 Surete du Quebec police cruisers. Once the new policing agreement is signed off on by Canada and Quebec, it will disband the Kanehsatake Mohawk Police Commission, replacing it with an entity called the Kanehsatake Public Security Commission. The existing commission was created to prevent political interference into Kanehsatake policing administration. However, under the new agreement, Gabriel and Clarence Simon, the chief Gabriel has chosen to hold the policing portfolio, will head the new commission. The agreement also gives Gabriel the power to hand-pick the three remaining commissioners to be named. According to a statement issued by Gabriel's PR firm, "Commissioners will now be selected from the most prominent and experienced personnel in Kanehsatake's social, health and educational institutions. Since these persons are dealing directly and on a daily basis with the social issues affecting their community, they will be in the best position to determine the level of involvement required and select suitable police officers." The fact that the current chairperson of the Kanehsatake Mohawk Police Commission, Mavis Etienne is, herself, an employee of one of those social organizations - the drug and alcohol treatment centre - is raising suspicions in the community that Gabriel simply intends to pad the new commission with people politically loyal to him. Harding and his fellow chiefs who stand in opposition to Gabriel's tactics are worried about what will happen in the community once the policing agreement comes into effect. They say the community is equally worried that the community will be re-invaded and that opponents of the Grand Chief will face persecution by a police force hand-picked by Gabriel and his new commission. Harding, along with Steven Bonspille and Pearl Bonspille, have called for an extension of the existing agreement during a six-month community consultation process. With the signing of the agreement Tuesday, Gabriel has sent a message that this is not an option for him. Last Thursday Gabriel met with a group of fellow Mohawk Chiefs, including Kahnawake Grand Chief Joseph Tokwiro Norton, Akwesasne Grand Chief Angie Barnes and Six Nations Chief Roberta Jamieson. Norton said, "There was an agreement in principle reached with James, which would have seen a mediation process set up to help solve the problems in the community. Angie Barnes and Roberta Jamieson agreed to offer their time to do this. They were prepared to go in there and take the time to do what needed to be done to work things out." However, Norton expressed some frustration that Harding and his fellow Chiefs demanded conditions that did not help matters. "In the meantime James Gabriel informed us that he had a meeting scheduled for Tuesday but he didn't indicate that it was to sign the policing agreement," Norton said Wednesday. Norton was asked if he had heard anything that would substantiate rumours Harding and his fellow chiefs had heard about whether Public Security Minister Jacques Chagnon might go as far as instituting war measures in Kanehsatake if trouble erupted. Norton said that he had spoken to Chagnon. "He didn't appear to be in a big hurry to sign off on the agreement. On the other hand, he said, 'We're prepared to take action if we have to - we have a plan' quote," Norton said. In the meantime, Norton is hopeful that the injunction process initiated by the chiefs who stand in opposition to Gabriel last month may help to offset the problems with Gabriel's policing deal. Still, the Grand Chief could only shake his head at Gabriel's actions. "Gabriel promised to consult last week. He only sent information sheets, which were rebuffed by the police commission and the opposing chiefs." Although the injunction hearing was scheduled to take place Wednesday, the process has been stalled. Harding said that a tele-conference has been set up for Thursday. He says that the lawyer representing him and his fellow chiefs will seek to secure a stay in writing to prevent the signing of the policing agreement by Canada and Quebec. He is not entirely optimistic that Gabriel will agree to do so. "We've been offering solutions, for instance extending the present agreement, but with James stepping things up, things are tense here in the community." =================================== Gabriel Inks New Policing Deal Behind Wall of Riot Cops By: Ross Montour It has become commonplace for Kanehsatake Grand Chief James Gabriel to hold court with the mainstream media with his personal PR team and security squad at his beck and call. However, at the Kanesatake Mohawk Council meeting he staged in Laval this Tuesday to sign a controversial tripartite policing deal, there was no sign of media whatsoever. But there was a massive display of police presence at the Hilton Laval hotel. According to Mohawk Council of Kahnawake Communications Officer David Lahache, who attempted to gain entry to the meeting as an observer for the MCK, the hotel was surrounded by a small army of security personnel. The contingent was made up of Laval riot cops, undercover police, Surete du Quebec officers and Gabriel's own security force. Lahache pegged the strength of the police presence at well over 50. What Lahache didn't see was any media presence at the hotel. It was apparent that Gabriel had chosen to break from his recent tradition of summoning the mainstream media outlets to press conferences. Lahache, who said the MCK had received confirmation of the Laval meeting only five minutes before its beginning, described the scene as surreal. "It was an unprecedented show of force. In the past I have witnessed dignitaries with less security. I watched Aristide being escorted out of Haiti - he didn't even have this many cops around him. It was like Quebec City in 2000." Was the force there to keep protesting throngs of community members at bay, as was later stated by Gabriel to be the reason for his calling the police? Not according to Lahache. "I didn't see a single soul that I knew from Kanehsatake," he said Wednesday. When Lahache attempted to gain entry to the hotel, he had to first run a gauntlet of police inquisitors. "In front of the hotel there were 24 Laval police outfitted in full riot gear. I was asked to identify myself and to state my business at the hotel. Once they had videotaped and photographed me, I was allowed into the building." After making his way through the first perimeter of defence, Lahache was again accosted, this time inside the building, by more Laval police. Once again he was asked to identify himself and state his business and once again Lahache politely responded to all that was requested of him. This led to the third step in the gauntlet faced by Lahache, which was that of Gabriel's personal security detachment led by Terry Issac. "I spoke to Terry. We even exchanged pleasantries. Then he asked me why I was there. After explaining, he said he would have to speak to Gabriel. Five minutes later he returned to tell me the answer was no. He said there were only 'three invitations outstanding to the meeting.' Five minutes later another Laval cop told me that if James didn't want me there then I would have to leave," Lahache noted. "I went back to my car to wait to see if a press conference would ensue. This was at 1:15 p.m. It was at that point that I noticed several SQ cars roll into a parking lot just behind the hotel along with an unmarked white van. A number of officers got out of their vehicles to converse. Ironically, all of this took place outside a federal building - an armory. Shortly after the arrival of the SQ, I noticed I was being scrutinized by undercover police, whom I acknowledged with a wave," Lahache reported. There never was a press conference. Shortly after the meeting, Gabriel was whisked away in the midst of a full-scale police escort. "It was obviously very well choreographed," Lahache said. "It was ironic, but one of the undercover police officers said he didn't even know why they needed to be there in such force. That would be a good question to ask - that and why there wasn't any media there at all." Copyright c. 1997-2000 The Eastern Door, Kahnawake, QC, Mohawk Territory. --------- "RE: Keith Myiow seeks Public Inquiry" --------- Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 08:50:19 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CHIEF WANTS AIR CLEARED" http://www.easterndoor.com/story3.htm Keith Myiow Seeks Public Inquiry into Allegations By: Kenneth L. Williams In a recent interview, MCK Chief Keith Myiow indicated his wishes for a public inquiry into the complaints (and subsequent complaint process), which have been levelled against him by some of his fellow Council members. In an interview with The Eastern Door, Myiow first acknowledged a publication ban on the matter, but did offer some comments. Myiow characterized the complaints as, "Defamation of character ... character assassination at its best." He said there were, "elements which the community needs to hear and know regarding the accusations, which could only come out in a public inquiry." Describing the current proceedings as "prejudicial," Myiow said that, "the perpetrators are the ones that need to be exposed." When asked about the beginnings of this controversy, Myiow said he wants to expose a "conspiracy" against him, which, he explained, began in 2000, and intensified from 2002. Myiow made accusations of his own against two of his fellow Council Chiefs. He said that he, "was physically attacked by Arlene Jacobs," after he had asked a question about Danny Lahache. Myiow also said that Mike Delisle Jr., "Threatened to kick my (his) a__." Myiow mentioned that then Council Chief Martin Leborgne had witnessed the alleged "attack" on him by Jacobs. The Eastern Door spoke with Leborgne, who said that he had, in fact, "witnessed Arlene hit him (Myiow) in the chest with both hands." Leborgne could not remember the exact circumstances of the alleged "attack," but he did say that it took place "in Council chambers" during the 2000-2002 term of office. Meanwhile, Delisle was not available for comment at this time. Jacobs responded to Myiow's accusations by explaining, "He (Myiow) grabbed my arm first. I just pushed him back." Jacobs expressed great frustration at Myiow's persistence in his accusations, as the events in question took place three years ago, according to her own recollection. Jacobs also pointed out that, "Everybody already knows about this - it's nothing new." Myiow seems to have the greatest animosity between Jacobs and himself. He said that he had attempted to file charges against her, but further stated that, "The charges were not accepted." In terms of recourse, Myiow said that he had spoken to lawyers about his current predicament, but was taking a "wait-and-see" approach. He also stated that, "As is, Council has no capacity or right to hear the proceedings," referring to said proceedings as, "Improper, illegal, illicit and ill-founded." In the meantime, there are two related items, which came to the attention of The Eastern Door. The first item is an unsigned petition, which is being circulated around the community, and is also available at Doda's Tickle Trunk. The petition is addressed to all 12 Council members, and features the following statements: "As a member of this community, I insist that a public tribunal occur with the People of Kahnawake and the Band Council system pertaining to the grievances raised against Councillor Keith Myiow before the upcoming elections of July 2004." (Paragraph followed by definition of tribunal.) "The issue I am pushing for is transparency within the Band Council, so that the community can clearly see/hear both sides instead of being misled by hearsay from either side. Give the community the chance to see/hear both sides so that justice can be truly served and there will be no room for obscurity."(Paragraph followed by definition of obscurity.) The text of the petition continues on in the same vein for two more paragraphs, then repeats the opening paragraph before concluding with a space for a printed name, signature, address, phone number and date. It should be noted that, according to Tickle Trunk proprietor Sonny Joe Cross, the petition was brought to his establishment (for distribution) by supporters of Myiow. The second item is an internal MCK letter dated March 1, from Grand Chief Joseph Tokwiro Norton on behalf of the Office of the Council of Chiefs, to Chief Keith Myiow. The main text of the letter reads as follows: "Further to the duly convened Council Meeting of March 1, 2004, Chief and Council made the decision after much discussion to appoint an objective third party to review the complaints that have been filed against you (referring to Myiow). "Throughout the discussion, it was also decided by the Council Table to temporarily suspend you from the Land Management Committee, the Q/KR Justice file and the Step-By-Step file, until the process is complete, as contact should be limited with the complainants. The Council anticipates that this process will be complete within a 30-day time frame." As for the first of these items, it would appear (at least on the surface) that elements in the community, other than Myiow himself, favour a public inquiry. And as for the second item, it would also appear that Council itself is, at the very least, interested in a more objective process. The Eastern Door asked for an official comment from the MCK but none was forthcoming at this time. Copyright c. 1997-2000 The Eastern Door, Kahnawake, QC, Mohawk Territory. --------- "RE: Cherokee Nation and Bacone College Team-Up" --------- Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 08:50:19 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CHEROKEE INFO TECH INSTITUTE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=4186 Cherokee Nation and Bacone Team-Up Launch Cherokee Nation School of Information Technology MUSKOGEE OK Jennifer Tedlock March 30, 2004 The Cherokee Nation and Bacone College have teamed-up to launch the Cherokee Nation School of Information Technology, scheduled to open this summer. The project received a $30,000 kick-start from the Cherokee Nation, who will also provide textbooks and the program director. Bacone has provided classroom facilities, instructors and 15 full scholarships to Cherokee Nation citizens enrolled in the program. "The Cherokee Nation has provided this thirty-thousand dollars to allow us to get a director of the program. But they have also provided us with the executive loan of Dr. [Dusty] Delso, their education director, to be the dean of the program," Dr. Robert J. Duncan, President of Bacone College, explained. "So there is both the monetary assistance as well as the loan of the director." Duncan told the Native American Times that Bacone has a pilot program for students to be able to complete their associate's degree in two years. "We've designed this to be a three-year program - just in case," he said, "and I think our goal, and I think the [Cherokee] Nation's goal is for this to be a long-term commitment." Cherokee Principal Chief Chad Smith and Elizabeth Hoffman, chairperson of the Bacone Board of Trustees, will each appoint members to an advisory board. "They'll help develop the program," Duncan explained. Bacone is already the home of a number of Native students. "This is obviously an effort to get a few more, but also to do something that will reach out to citizens of other Native tribes and Nations, and also to others that the school has historically served," Duncan said. The program's general education curriculum will be compressed in the summer and held on campus in Muskogee. The online courses will be in information technology. Duncan said that it is a good system because it is not an "either/or" situation. "You still get the face-to-face. You still get the `come to college' feel, but you also get to do that in very intensive formats so that you can maintain jobs, you can stay with family, " he said. "I think it [the program] will grow to provide a platform for persons who are interested in networking, persons who are interested in Web development, persons who are interested in data and information systems." Duncan expressed that he thinks the program is going to be widespread. The program is touted as being perfect for working moms, and Duncan agrees. "I think we're having a growing number [of working moms], and that's the challenge. Education is the thing that really levels the playing field." He spoke about how computers knowledge is essential in today's workplace. "We have a significant commitment to maintain our primary mission of education to American Indian students, but we also do that within a multi- cultural setting," Duncan emphasized. "We are proud to have a working relationship with Bacone College," Chief Smith said in a press release. "One of our goals is to help citizens of the Cherokee Nation to achieve economic independence. Education is a very important key to accomplishing that goal. We look forward to working together with Bacone and Dr. Duncan to see this goal realized." Cherokee Nation tribal citizens interested in enrolling in the new Cherokee Nation School of Information Technology can contact Dale Miller at 918-456-0671 ext. 2383 for more info. All other prospective IT students should call Bacone College at 888-682-5514. Native American Times is Copyright c. 2004 Oklahoma Indian Times, Inc. --------- "RE: Citizen Potawatomi purchases Kansas Land" --------- Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 08:11:08 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CPN BUYS FORMER REZ LAND" http://www.potawatomi.org/news_deta.htm?id=2775298 CPN Purchases Former Reservation Land April 1, 2004 (Rossville, Kansas) - The Citizen Potawatomi Nation has completed the historic purchase of some six acres of land on its former reservation in northeast Kansas. The tract is in the industrial park in Rossville, a town of about 1,014 residents located 20 miles northwest of Topeka. The Citizen Potawatomi Nation will build a community center and a dozen homes for tribal members on the land. The community center will provide a meeting place for Potawatomi tribal members, other Indians, and the public. The CPN will also use it as a site for services delivery in its Midwest Region. Should tribal members approve a pending CPN constitutional change proposal, the community center will also be the site at which a Midwest Regional representative to the Nation's legislature would go to participate in legislative meetings. Citizen Potawatomi officials will interconnect tribal headquarters in Oklahoma, this community center, and eight other regional offices with state-of-the-art telecommunications capability. The other locations are: Stockton and Pasadena, California; Phoenix, Arizona; Dallas and Houston, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Tacoma, Washington; and Alexandria, Virginia. The telecommunications link will allow delivering services such as loans from the tribe's bank, First National Bank and Trust Co., educational opportunities at St. Gregory's University in Shawnee, and loans from the CPN Community Development Corporation directly to tribal members across the United States. John A. Barrett Jr., CPN Chairman, said he is excited about the land purchase. "We are looking forward to becoming part of the community of Rossville and providing more services to our tribal members in Kansas," he said. Rossville's mayor, Shelly Buhler, welcomed the Citizen Potawatomi Nation enthusiastically. "Ever since (this possibility was presented), I've thought, `Why wouldn't we be interested in this kind of friendship?'" Mayor Buhler likened the move to "coming home" for the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. "I'm very excited, very proud, to be part of this," she added. As part of the purchase price, the Citizen Potawatomi Nation donated $100,000 to Rossville's efforts to build a community swimming pool. "We've been talking about (building a pool) for the last 20, 30 years," Buhler said. "We have organized a Pool Task Force, and kids have been saving cans." The mayor called the CPN donation "a huge help to show those kids we are going to get there, that there is going to be a pool in Rossville." With approximately 24,680 enrolled members, the Citizen Potawatomi Nation is among the ten largest tribes in the U.S. Some 8,500 of those members live in Oklahoma. Copyright c. 2003 Citizen Potawatomi Nation. --------- "RE: Sac-Fox Chief looking toward Economic Development" --------- Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 08:11:08 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SAC AND FOX CHIEF KAY WALLACE RHOADS" http://www.news-star.com/stories/040104/New_34.shtml Sac and Fox chief looking toward economic development People You Should Know By Carol Cole SNS Reporter April 1, 2004 One year ago, few members of the Sac and Fox Nation knew Kay Wallace Rhoads. One year later, virtually all of the tribe's 3,260 members know of their new 52-year-old principal chief, who returned to Oklahoma to tackle challenges facing her tribe. "It's been a long journey to come back home," says Rhoads, who moves purposely, a determined but pleasant look in her dark eyes. "It's really, really nice coming home." The 13th of 14 children, the Shawnee resident grew up on Moccasin Trail halfway between Shawnee and Meeker and still has many of her extended family in the area. Some might remember the statuesque Rhoads as the center on Meeker's basketball team, a sport she later coached and refereed. Her friends and family know of her accomplishments since graduating from Meeker High School. First there was a bachelor's degree in education with a minor in science from Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, a master's degree in guidance and counseling and almost a second master's degree in business management from Washington State University. Rhoads has served as an elementary school principal and teacher, dean of students at several colleges and as a college executive vice president. She started the two-year Medicine Creek College for the Puyallup tribe of Tacoma, Wash., creating curriculum, hiring faculty, designing classrooms. Most recently, she was dean of students at Austin Community College in Austin, Texas. "People here kept saying 'would you run for chief, would you run for chief?"' Rhoads remembers from early last summer. She told them no, maybe in a few years. "And they said, 'no, we need you now. ... We're having so many problems and you need to come home and do this.'" Rhoads eventually told them yes, and filed for the office on the last day. She took an extended vacation from her Austin job and moved to Shawnee in July 2003. She came in second to her cousin George Thurman in the primary election. But as more people met her and learned of her management background and qualifications, support for Rhoads grew. "And then the rest is history," she says of her election last August. Rhoads became one of four female chiefs of Oklahoma's 39 tribes, a trail blazed for women by the famed Cherokee Chief Wilma Mankiller. When she returned last summer, Rhoads was shocked to find the devastation wrought near tribal headquarters in Stroud by the May 3, 1999, tornadoes, which leveled Tanger Outlet Mall, the town's hospital and other buildings. "It's horrible ... and the economic impact that has been." she says, also lamenting the deterioration of the area's downtown. "I also was surprised at Shawnee and to drive down to Hamburger King where it used to be so vibrant." She is determined to help the area and sees potential for the tribe and area communities to boost each other's efforts. The tribe has been moving in that direction the last several years, infusing more than $31 million into Pottawatomie, Lincoln and Payne counties from Bureau of Indian Affairs' road and bridge funds obtained by the tribe. She credits Sac and Fox Treasurer Truman Carter for many of those developments. "Truman had a lot of foresight," she says. "Everybody said, 'why are you doing this?'... And he said, 'because it doesn't just help the state, it helps everybody.' They don't understand. ... If we have good highways and bridges, business and industry will want to come in here.'" Another business committee member, Austin Grant Jr., helps keep the tribe's business committee grounded. "He's very traditional, but he's also very open-minded and really interested in working toward solutions and helping the people," she says of Grant. Rhoads believes strengthening infrastructures can help build the area's economic development efforts. That brings jobs and eventually everyone benefits, not just the tribe. "My dad always used to tell me that Oklahoma's the prettiest state and driving along and looking at all these rolling hills and these white flowers on the trees and redbuds and I just thought, 'this is beautiful,'" she says. "Why wouldn't business and industry want to relocate to Oklahoma? We are in the center of the United States. And we've got all these reservations around here that could assist them with economic development and give them all kinds of tax breaks as a result. Why wouldn't they want to be here? And that's what I want to do." Things are changing rapidly for the tribe, with a casino at SH 18 and Westech Road due for completion in about 90 days, another being talked about for downtown Shawnee. The gaming is a means to an end, a beginning to increased economic development across the board, she says. "The gambling is quick money to help develop the economic infrastructure that I want for not just the Sac and Fox, but really for the community," Rhoads says. "Because as the Sac and Fox Nation, we can not exist without our neighbors and our community people. And our community people are not just Sac and Fox people; they are everybody who lives within our area." She sees that cooperation as strengthening Oklahoma as a whole. "All of a sudden, we become better partners, more cooperative with each other ... it just makes common sense. A very simple idea, but it's complicated to carry out and it's going to take a lot of hard work to carry out," Rhoads says. Rhoads' business skills have come in handy so far. She says running a tribe is not so different from the management skills needed to run a college, but is not something she can do alone. "It's a matter of coordination and getting good managers and letting them know what direction you want to go," she says. "But I really have to have other people's voices out there telling me what they want, what their expectations are. And my job is to carry out their expectations." The tribe is working on a new strategic plan. "Suddenly, we have so many other options," Rhoads said. "We've really got to consider the direction we want to go and what we want to accomplish in the next few years." "I don't want to take the role of 'I know what's best for you.' I want to take the role of 'let me do what you are asking me to do.' That's why I am trying to get the people to come forward." Rhoads is looking forward to the grand opening of the tribe's wellness center in Stroud in May, to be named the Meryl Boyd Center after a second chief who died recently. "He was real instrumental in the health center. It was his dream," she says. And she would like to continue to improve education for the tribe. "We're going to be building a training center there in Stroud, and before I ever came home, I had talked with them about building something where we could actually do leadership training," Rhoads said. "And have that be the stepping stone to develop a college. I did it before and I can do it again." Copyright c. 1997-2004 The Shawnee News-Star. --------- "RE: Gila River opens Huhugam Center" --------- Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 00:57:21 -0700 From: "Chris Milda (_Akimel O`odham_)" Subj: Museum displays tribe's heritage: Gila River opens Huhugam center Mailing List: News and Information - - - - - - -- - - - - - - http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/mesa/~/0213newmuseumZ11.html Museum displays tribe's heritage Gila River opens Huhugam center Betty Beard The Arizona Republic Feb. 13, 2004 12:00 AM A new Gila River Indian Community museum shows how ordinary desert plants and trees helped Pima and Maricopa Indians survive for thousands of years. In times of famine, they turned to saltbrush seeds. For infections, crushed creosote leaves. Sotol, a relative of agaves and yuccas, provided material for sleeping bands and headbands. The ethnobiology garden at the new Huhugam Heritage Center about two miles south of Ahwatukee Foothills also shows plants that provided water sealants, gum, incense, rope, tools and musical instruments and much more. The center is so new it has only two public exhibits, the ethnobiology garden and a display on ancient trails. A third one that shows 100-year- old Maricopa baskets will open this summer. Huhugam is open to the public only on Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Community members who can pronounce words like u'us chuuchim (Pima word for trees) walk the garden and tell stories to guests. "What we try to do is really engage the visitors," said John Ravesloot, head of the community's cultural resources program. "What makes it fun is that we have staff members here, embellishing on the signs." The second exhibit, located inside, talks about trails that served the Indians for centuries, providing routes between what is now Arizona and California for trade, war and salt. Many of these trails later served Spanish missionaries and became wagon trails and modern roads. Ravesloot said it was common for men to run the trails and one display shows kickballs made of mesquite or paloverde wood that the runners used for motivation and games. Woman did the "shopping," using net baskets on their heads and shoulders to carry water and other provisions. While the public exhibits will gradually grow, the Huhugam center serves mainly as a repository and research center for ancient Native American artifacts found in the state. These include about 37,000 artifacts excavated in the 1930s and 1940s from a site called Snaketown on the reservation. They have been stored in a Tucson federal building by the Arizona State Museum and are now being returned. Snaketown finally is coming home. Reach the reporter at betty.beard@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-7982. Copyright c. 2004 Arizona Republic. --------- "RE: Senator pushes Land for Tribe" --------- Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 08:50:19 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CONFEDERATED TRIBES" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2004/03/31/news/oregon/wedore00.txt Smith pushes land for tribe By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press writer March 31, 2004 WASHINGTON - A plan to return a large swath of federal land to one of Oregon's poorest Indian tribes requires a leap of faith, Sen. Gordon Smith says. But potential payoffs justify that, the Oregon Republican said Tuesday at a Senate hearing on his plan to transfer nearly 63,000 acres of the Siuslaw National Forest near Florence to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, to hold in trust for the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians. "The proof is in the forest," Smith said. "Native people in their bones feel a stewardship of the land that frankly is more important than a law." The Siuslaw National Forest encompasses more than 630,000 acres of the Coast Range and is considered by many to be a diverse and productive region, extending from Tillamook to Coos Bay along the Oregon coast and stretching inland to the Willamette Valley. It has offices in Corvallis. Smith's plan drew extensive support at a hearing before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, but ran into opposition from the Bush administration and a prominent environmental group. Rep. Peter DeFazio, whose district includes the entire parcel, also was cool to the idea. There is no question the tribes deserve some type of land grant to help them recover economically and culturally, DeFazio said, but the sheer size of Smith's plan makes it unworkable. "It is clear that Senator Smith needs to keep working on this legislation," the Democratic congressman said. Smith called the plan a "work in progress." The tribes pledge to protect cultural resources while restoring old- growth forests and wildlife habitat and generating up to $1.1 million a year in revenue through commercial thinning and other logging projects. The land would remain open to the public for hunting, fishing, recreation and other uses, the tribe said. No casinos or other forms of gambling would be allowed, and no sawmills would be built or operated on the land. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees U.S. forest policy, called the proposed transfer too large, saying officials were concerned it could set a precedent that would encourage other tribe to seek similarly sized parcels. Rey pledged to work with Smith and others to find alternative approaches. Jay Ward, conservation director of the Oregon Natural Resources Council, said he also was concerned about the size of the transfer, noting that it would amount to nearly 83 acres per tribe member - 10 times the amount per tribal member in previous land bills. Ward also said the bill could limit public access to the land and hinder legal appeals of management decisions and public comment on proposed changes. But Cheryl Hoile, vice chairwoman of the Confederated Tribes, said the proposal has been in the works since 1997 and represents a significant compromise by tribal members. An earlier proposal would have transferred about 100,000 acres to the tribes. The current plan is supported by a wide array of interests, Hoile said, from the National Congress of American Indians to the Douglas, Lane and Coos county commissioners; the timber industry; and several environmental groups, including the Pacific Rivers Council and Cascadia Wildlands Project. The land transfer would "restore a small but very significant portion of our homeland," Hoile told Smith. "We cannot proceed without your active support and passage of this critical legislation." The bill is S. 868. Copyright c. 2004 Corvallis Gazette-Times, Lee Enterprises Inc. --------- "RE: Chinook scale back Lewis and Clark Role" --------- Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 08:50:19 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CHINOOK ISSUES" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/167050_chinook31.html Chinook Tribe scales back role in Lewis and Clark fest By LEWIS KAMB SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER March 31, 2004 There is no question that the indigenous peoples who lived at the mouth of what is now the Columbia River helped Lewis and Clark's tattered Corps of Discovery survive a bitter Northwest winter nearly two centuries ago. At the end of their cross-country trek, members of what is arguably America's most famous expedition traded for food and frequently interacted with Chinookan peoples -- bands of Indians who controlled the lands where the explorers camped through the coldest, wettest months of 1805-06. But now, on the eve of bicentennial celebrations of Lewis and Clark's Northwest arrival, a question of identity has arisen over native descent - - one that has riled members of one southwestern Washington tribe so much that they have announced plans to forgo participating in some festivities. Disputing what it describes as an upstart group's invalid claims as a "homeland tribe" to help host the coming celebrations, the Chinook Indian Tribe this month voted to withdraw its participation from some Lewis and Clark bicentennial events set for November next year. "This decision was the result of an ongoing refusal, on the part of commemoration organizers both local and national, to recognize the Chinook Nation as the sole homeland tribe within their own territory on the lower Columbia River," the tribe recently announced. The dispute essentially comes down to whether or not a group of Clatsop and Nesalem Indian descendants in Oregon is a distinct and separate group from the Pacific County, Wash.-based Chinook Tribe -- as one small-town, Oregon octogenarian and his followers in recent years have asserted. To the Chinook Indian Tribe, there's no question at all. "We are the Clatsops," says Larry Goodrow, administrator of the Chinook Tribe, which, despite more than two decades of petitioning, remains unrecognized by the federal government. The tribe contends that the Clatsops are simply one of five Chinookan bands that make up a greater Chinook Nation -- what the modern-day Chinook Indian Tribe claims is the rightful confederacy of indigenous bands that flourished around the Columbia's tail waters. "Because we call ourselves the Chinook Nation," Goodrow said, "people don't really understand that. But we include all five bands of Chinookan people, including the Clatsops." "They're incorrect," counters 81-year-old Joe Scovell, a Turner, Ore., resident and chairman of the recently formed Clatsop-Nesalem Tribe, a non- profit group that is now seeking its own recognition as a Native American tribe. "We're no upstart," Scovell said. "We have just as much history as the Chinooks have." The dispute has become such a hot potato that the bi-state committee organizing the Northwest's Lewis and Clark bicentennial celebrations says it has tried to avoid the matter altogether. "It's upsetting," said Jan Mitchell, chairwoman of Destination: The Pacific, the non-profit group charged by national bicentennial organizers to plan the Northwest's leg of the three-year anniversary party in states along the expedition's historic route. "But it's not for a board of mostly white people like us to decide which Indians are the real Indians," Mitchell added. "We've said we want them both there." Drive for federal recognition Both groups point to historical records in supporting their contentions. The Chinook, for instance, says its modern constitution, drafted in 1953, clearly defines tribal membership as descendants of five bands of Indians, including the Clatsops. And Chinook tribal leaders even point out that about 500 of the tribe's 2,300 members are of Clatsop descent, including several members of the tribal council and its chairman, Gary Johnson. "We are the longstanding governmental representation of the historic Clatsop Tribe," Johnson said. Even Scovell and other members of the newly formed Clatsop-Nesalem group at one time had been enrolled members of the Chinook Tribe, the tribe notes. But that's only because his group "thought that would be the only way to get the federal government to recognize us," Scovell said. It wasn't until about three or so years ago, Scovell added, that he and others began studying treaties with Oregon tribes from 1851 that recognize both the Clatsop and Nesalem tribes. "We thought we were under the Chinook umbrella, but the treaties pointed out more clearly that we're distinct," Scovell said. So in 2001, Scovell said, he started the Clatsop-Nesalem non-profit for about 70 surviving members. The group later applied -- and was accepted -- to be a "homeland tribe" with the Chinook for bicentennial events. The group is now seeking to gain state recognition of the tribe, and eventually will try to gain federal status through Congress, Scovell said. "We don't want any disagreements with the Chinook," Scovell said. "We think they're only hurting themselves by not participating with us." But Chinook tribal leaders fear that the Clatsop-Nesalem group's involvement in the bicentennial events will hurt the Chinook's own chances to be recognized. For the past 2 1/2 decades, the tribe has petitioned for federal recognition -- a status that could bring federal money for tribal government, education, social services and other programs. In the waning hours of the Clinton administration, the Chinook Tribe won that recognition -- only to have it reversed when the Bush administration took office. Interior Department officials ruled that the tribe failed to meet three of seven criteria required for federal recognition. The Chinook have since been seeking to gain recognition through Congress, and are now working with U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., to get a bill introduced. The tribe believed that its participation in Lewis and Clark festivities would only help their plight. Now, with the emergence of the Clatsop-Nesalem group, the Chinook fear "it will confuse the (recognition) issue," Goodrow said. The Chinook also criticize what they see as lax standards in determining which groups should be involved in bicentennial events set by the bi-state board and the Circle of Tribal Advisors, which is part of the National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial organizers in St. Louis. "It is obvious that local and national organizations are not interested in a historically accurate story," said Tony Johnson, chairman of the Chinook's cultural committee. The tribal advisers' director did not return telephone calls yesterday seeking comment. But Mitchell, chairwoman of the Destination: The Pacific board, said yesterday that her group was directed by the Circle of Tribal Advisors to be "as inclusive as possible" to all groups. "We're really trying to be true to the (Lewis and Clark) journals and stay out of tribal politics," Mitchell said. "I'm sad to see it come to this." P-I reporter Lewis Kamb can be reached at 206-448-8336 or lewiskamb@seattlepi.com Copyright c. 1996-2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer --------- "RE: BIA 'short-changing' Kayenta School" --------- Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2004 08:16:57 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ALTERNATIVES IGNORED" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.gallupindependent.com/040504delegatesays.html Delegate says BIA 'short-changing' Kayenta school By Zsombor Peter Staff Writer April 5, 2004 WINDOW ROCK - Concerns about the suspended Kayenta Community School governing board's go-it-alone attitude toward regaining control of its school were temporarily allayed last week. But whether Shiprock Alternative Schools will be able to assist the board in its efforts, as the Navajo Nation Education Committee would like, remains uncertain, and could potentially impact the school's timely return to local control. If the Education Committee wants Shiprock Alternative Schools to help, said Director of Support Services Faye BlueEyes, the BIA will have to play along, a prickly proposition considering the Navajo Nation's efforts to kick a reluctant bureau out of the school and move Shiprock in. The Education Committee put Shiprock Alternative Schools in charge of the Kayenta school after suspending the local board last July to investigate its members for misspending funds. When President Joe Shirley Jr. joined the board and local chapter in protesting the committee's action, the BIA stepped in, handing control of the school to the bureau's office in Tuba City. On March 18, however, the U.S. Interior Department decided the BIA had violated a pair of federal laws in taking over the school, and ordered it handed back to the tribe. The BIA has until the 19th to appeal. But if the suspended board is ever to regain legal control of Kayenta Community School, to achieve "reauthorization," it needs the tribe's and BIA's OK. And if Shiprock Alternative Schools is to help, BlueEyes told the Education Committee last week in Window Rock during a meeting attended also by members from the suspended board, it will need the BIA's financial support, in the form of an amendment to the grant the bureau awards the school every three years to keep it running. "Without it," BlueEyes wrote the committee, "we cannot schedule meetings, travel, pay administrative overhead expenses, etc." Shiprock wants to help return the Kayenta community regain control of its school, BlueEyes said, "but we can't do that without a grant amendment." The BIA turned down Shiprock Alternative Schools' request for a grant amendment once already, when it first took control in Kayenta. And if the BIA decides to appeal the Interior Department's March 18 decision, the bureau will remain in charge of the school as long as the appeal lasts and will almost certainly reject a grant amendment once again. "We're in agreement to work closely with (Shiprock Alternative Schools), " Ben Johnson, president of the suspended board, said. But if Shiprock doesn't get the grant amendment it says it needs to help, Johnson said he's confident the board can work its way through the reauthorization process on its own. He said the board met with officials from the local chapter Sunday to get the process started. Education Committee Vice Chairman Wallace Charley, who had doubts about the board's commitment to cooperating with Shiprock, said he left their meeting last week with a better impression. Whether or not the amendment comes through, there's still the issue of the money Shiprock Alternative Schools claims it's still owed by the BIA. When the BIA turned down Shiprock's first amendment request, Shiprock started spending its own funds on Kayenta Community School, BlueEyes said, with the bureau's word it would be reimbursed. Between July 3 and Sept. 26, when the BIA stepped in, Shiprock spent $44, 030 running the Kayenta school according to its own figures. When the BIA finally did reimburse Shiprock in late February, however, it was for only $37,801. "So (Shiprock Alternative Schools) is being short-changed $6,229," Charley said. Shiprock wrote to Joe Frazier, the BIA's education line officer in Tuba City, March 16 asking for an explanation but has yet to receive an answer. The Independent could not reach Frazier for comment. The experience has made Shiprock wary of spending its own funds on another school without a guarantee of recouping the costs. Copyright c. 2004 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Boost Graduation rate for Indian Students" --------- Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2004 08:16:57 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TEACHING METHODS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2004/04/05/news/local/znews01.txt Hearing focuses on ways to boost graduation rate for Indian students By JANE RIDER of the Missoulian April 5, 2004 With an American Indian graduation rate just over 50 percent, what can the state's public schools do to help these students stay in school and graduate? That was the main question posed to participants at a hearing held Saturday by members of the Montana State Tribal Affairs Legislative Committee as part of a joint study they are completing with the Office of Public Instruction on the Indian dropout rate in Montana. Final study results will be presented to the 2005 Legislature. The committee heard more than 2 1/2 hours of testimony from Indian educators, parents and community members. The meeting was folded into a variety of activities planned throughout the three-day 23rd Annual Indian Education Conference in Missoula at the Holiday Inn Parkside, which drew more than 300 educators, parents and students from across the state. Sarah LaDue, a mother and grandmother from the Rocky Boy Reservation who also is a certified teacher, stressed the need for schools with large Indian populations to staff Indian teachers and administrators. "If we are going to get dollars for Indian programs, those programs should be staffed with Indian people who understand Indian culture," she said. "I'm galled by not seeing any Indian staff members." LaDue spoke from her own experience decades ago as a student in Great Falls. By ninth grade she was the only American Indian left in her class and frequently experienced an unfriendly, racist environment. With no Indian staff members to turn to who might have better understood her experience, she dropped out by the 10th grade because of the loneliness and lack of support. Pat Williams, former Montana congressman, echoed the need for educational institutions with large Indian populations to hire more Native American staff. "That's the secret to improving those graduation rates," he said. Williams also noted the quiet successes Indians have made in education. In 1961, the year Williams graduated from college, 66 American Indians also earned their degrees. "That was 66 Indian college graduates not in my class, but rather in the whole country," he said. Four decades later, more than 14,000 American Indians received college degrees. "American Indians have worked quietly and with determination to achieve a 70 percent increase in their enrollment in schools of higher education since the mid-1970s," he said. Still, no one at the hearing denied that Indian students face significant challenges in today's public schools: many single-family households, high levels of alcohol and drug abuse, high poverty rates, and school systems that often fail to embrace and celebrate the culture of American Indian students. "The core of the dropout problem has more to do with the system than anything else, and the way teachers are forced to teach," said Robey Clark, of the Northwest Regional Education Laboratory in Portland, Ore. Clark, who has worked in education and related research for 30 years, said recipe lesson plans that are "stillborn" from the start fail to engage students. Instead, teachers should be using authentic lessons that have students participating in real-life, meaningful experiences, he said. He encouraged the committee to consider new ideas such as having federally funded Indian education programs work as a unit across the state to develop statewide competitions worth high school credit. Noting the athletic ability of fancy dancers who performed earlier that day, he asked why those youths can't receive physical education credit for such activities or a letter in athletics. "If you are going to teach Indian culture, for heaven's sake don't use a white man's lesson plan," he said. While Clark supports recruitment of Indian teachers as others had suggested, he reiterated that even those teachers will fail to reach students if the system requires they emphasize "too much seat time and paper and pencil tests." Several people also stressed the need for parents to become more involved in their child's education and demonstrate they value a good education. Stan Juneau, a retired school administrator from Browning who currently does education consulting, pointed to a recent survey of successful high school seniors that showed the majority were involved in high school sports or other activities, had parents who were involved in their education and came from homes in which parents were employed full time. The students offered their own reasons as to why many American Indian students drop out of junior high and high school - excessive use of alcohol and inflexible attendance policies that don't take into consideration a student's personal situation. Juneau urged the committee to consider several steps that included a review of attendance policies and realignment to better reflect student needs; enhancement of extracurricular activities that would increase Indians' interest in school; school review of effective ways to encourage greater involvement of parents in their child's education; expansion of student services in the areas of alcohol and drug abuse, pregnancy and child care; and hiring preference to Indian educators in schools with large American Indian populations. Robert Smoky Rides At the Door, a Blackfeet and vice chairman of the Browning School Board, noted successes his school district has had in improving its graduation rate by placing greater emphasis on reading instruction. From 9 to 10:45 a.m. daily, classrooms exclusively concentrate on reading. The school system also offers 14 different student support programs beyond its core curriculum. The programs include such things as individual tutoring, summer school and Saturday class time. Also, the majority of the district's teaching staff is American Indian. "It's important we continue to strive to move forward," he said. "We have to concentrate more on the positive things we are doing." Lame Deer teacher and senior class adviser Tom McMakin called for greater efforts to support teachers on reservation schools, noting high staff turnover which adds to students feeling a lack of stability both at school and at home. He also stressed a need for more funding to pay for school counselors who can help students with drug and alcohol abuse and other personal problems. "It's amazing some even come to school," McMakin said. Joyce Silverthorne, tribal education department head at the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation and former member of Montana's Board of Public Education, called for better collaboration and coordination between the state's K-12 school system and its higher education system. She noted there is not one American Indian serving on the Board of Regents. "I think we all know the reasons why our youth are struggling to succeed in an education system that is foreign to them," said Ruth Quequesah, of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation. These students should be allowed to embrace their cultural identity without having to ask permission, as they have had to the past five centuries, she said. "When we can teach our child who they are and to have pride in it, that is when they will succeed," she 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: Native Issues go unnoticed" --------- Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2004 09:06:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="OTTAWA BLIND" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.canoe.ca/CalgarySun/News/2004/04/05/409056.html Native issues go unnoticed By KRISTEN ENEVOLD, CALGARY SUN April 5, 2004 It's slowly getting better, but Ottawa still isn't paying enough attention to the plight of Canada's aboriginal population. That was the message from Alberta's Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, after hosting a roundtable discussion yesterday in Calgary. "We note that much more needs to be done in order to meet the commitments in the federal Speech from the Throne," said Pearl Calahasen. "We support, however, the commitments in the federal budget to urban Aboriginal and Northern initiatives." She, along with counterpart ministers from Manitoba, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and the territories, identified four areas where the federal government needs to immediately act. They include addressing the needs of Aboriginals in urban, territorial and remote communities, providing affordable housing and educational opportunities and focussing on their health and well-being. The ministers also supported territorial leaders in their request to the federal government to honour the spirit and intent of land claims implementation and transferring federal responsibilities to the north. Copyright c. 2004, Sun Media Corporation/Netgraphe inc. --------- "RE: Tli Cho bill makes first pass through Parliament" --------- Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2004 09:06:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TLI CHO" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://north.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=nwt-tlichoread05042004 Tli Cho bill makes first pass through Parliament April 5, 2004 YELLOWKNIFE - Legislation to enact the Tli Cho land claim and self- government was given its first reading in the House of Commons in Ottawa last week. Tli Cho chiefs and negotiators were in the capital to promote the package. The legislation will still need to go through second and third readings before it becomes law in the country. Wha Ti Chief Charlie Jim Nitsiza was in Ottawa for the first reading last week. "We didn't share our plans for the first reading of the Tli Cho bill with the beneficiaries ahead of time because we didn't know how the reading was going to be received in Parliament but everything turned out fine," Nitsiza said in his native Dogrib language. The Tli Cho bill could take years to pass, depending how long it takes to debate the resolution in Parliament. Copyright c. 2004 CBC. --------- "RE: Acting Police Chief takes over Kanesatake" --------- Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2004 09:06:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="KANESATAKE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.canada.com/~438a-b9d2-b62c48da0b40&disp=e&end Acting police chief takes over divided Quebec Mohawk community; aims for calm PETER RAY Canadian Press April 3, 2004 MONTREAL The acting police chief of Kanesatake has begun hiring officers, including one who was fired by the Mohawk community's grand chief. Eddy Thompson said Friday he has rehired four officers whose contracts expired two days ago, including Tracy Cross, who was dismissed by Grand Chief James Gabriel in January. That's when Gabriel was forced to flee the community after his house was burned down when he tried to bring in his own force. Thompson said the grand chief and the band council support his decision, adding that Cross will be his assistant. "I am the interim chief of police, this is my decision to bring him back." Gabriel said later that he will not interfere in Thompson's choice of staff. He added that the policing agreement for Kanesatake will also not be re-negotiated. "The issue of the tripartite agreement, as far as I'm concerned, is settled," Gabriel said at a Montreal news conference. "The demands will be endless if we go back and re-negotiate another agreement." Gabriel's position was supported by the Quebec government, which released a statement saying: "The new policing agreement was negotiated in complete transparency. . . .The dissident chiefs have been invited many times to renew the dialogue and participate in these negotiations but they refused to participate." The dissident chiefs said they wanted to negotiate on Mohawk land in the Mohawk way but the agreement was signed last week between the federal and provincial governments and Gabriel. However, the chiefs did express their backing for Thompson. "The Mohawk council of Kanesatake wishes to reinterate that we support Mr. Thompson's endeavours," said Barry Bonspille, one of the chiefs. Thompson said he's preparing for a peaceful transition to power despite earlier threats of violence and a situation that remains tense. He said he's concerned only with policing issues in the community of about 1,000, west of Montreal. "I'm staying out of the politics and sticking to the policing matters. "There is a lot of pressure in the community and from all governments involved for things to happen quickly. I feel they they want this resolved in an expedient manner. But it's not going to happen that way. This has to take time." Thompson says he has a budget to hire 12 officers. Cross was fired in January when Gabriel brought in aboriginal officers from outside the settlement to help fight organized crime. Gabriel, who is running the community from an undisclosed community, has returned to Kanesatake only once since the standoff - and that was to survey the ruins of his house. Thompson is from the Akwesasne reserve that straddles Quebec, Ontario and New York state. He said he has worked in New York and in northern Quebec. Schools and a day-care centre were closed Thursday due to fears of violence in Kanesatake as Thompson arrived for duty but the atmosphere remained calm. The officers who have been hired, including Cross, had policing contracts that expired earlier this week. Copyright c. 2004 The Canadian Press. --------- "RE: Indian Lawmaker cited for Eagle Feather in Car" --------- Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 08:50:19 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="S.D. DANGLING OBJECTS LAW" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.argusleader.com/news/Wednesdayarticle2.shtml During debate about dangling objects in cars, legislator cited Terry Woster twoster@midco.net March 31, 2004 PIERRE - A legislator who backed a bill to change South Dakota's "dangling objects" law confirmed Tuesday that he paid a $20 fine for having an eagle feather attached to his rearview mirror. The fine against state Rep. Tom Van Norman, D-Eagle Butte, was published in a court report in Monday's Pierre Capital Journal. The report said Van Norman was cited for having a "dangling object between driver and windshield." Van Norman said a Pierre police officer made the stop. It happened during a time when the proposed change was before the House of Representatives. "We were in the middle of arguing that in the Legislature," Van Norman said. "I didn't want it to look like I was doing it for myself. It's a law that has really bothered people. We've argued for change for a long time." Current law makes it a petty offense, punishable by a $20 fine, to have an "object or gadget dangling between the view of the driver and the windshield of the vehicle." Van Norman and others have argued that the law has been used as an excuse to stop Native American drivers. The Legislature changed the law to a secondary-enforcement offense. That means a motorist must be stopped for another reason before a charge on dangling objects can be pressed. It passed the House 54-16 and the Senate 30-3. It takes effect July 1. Van Norman said the stop came as he turned into the driveway of an apartment he rents during the session. When Van Norman asked why he was stopped, the officer pointed to the eagle feather hanging from his mirror. The lawmaker said he considers it a sacred object. "He offered to give me a warning ticket but said I'd have to remove the object," Van Norman said. "For religious and philosophical reasons, I wouldn't remove the eagle feather. I said he should give me the ticket and I would pay the fine." Democratic Rep. Jim Bradford of Pine Ridge, the prime sponsor of the bill, told House members during debate that a perception exists among Native Americans that they are targeted for stops. "It's a small step to take away the perception that they are stopped more often," Bradford said of his bill. Opponents of the change said state code doesn't define secondary offense and that the issue was safety. Republican Rep. Chris Madsen of Sioux Falls said the focus of the debate was wrong. "Is the issue the law, or is the issue the way some people apply that law? I say the issue is how some apply that law," Madsen said. "If people are using the law for a bad purpose, let's address that. Let's not take things off the books that are intended for everyone's safety." Terry Woster is at 605-224-2760. Copyright c.2003 Argus Leader. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Lawsuit alleges Recruiter assaulted Indian Woman" --------- Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2004 08:16:57 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SEXUAL ASSAULT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/8361158.htm Lawsuit alleges Army recruiter assaulted Indian woman CHET BROKAW Associated Press April 5, 2004 PIERRE, S.D. - A woman from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation has asked the federal government to pay damages for failing to protect her against a U.S. Army recruiter who allegedly sexually assaulted her when she tried to enlist. Lavetta Elk, 20, suffered psychological trauma, pain and suffering when Staff Sgt. Joseph R. Kopf assaulted her in January last year, according to claims sent Friday to federal officials. Attorney Jeff Herman of Hollywood, Fla., said the claims were sent to the U.S. Interior Department and the U.S. Army. If the federal agencies do not settle the claims, the cases will move into court, he said. "I decided to file a lawsuit because I know I'm not the only girl he did this to. I want to put a stop to it," Elk told The Associated Press Monday in a telephone interview. "He has no excuse for what he did. It shouldn't happen to anybody." News organizations normally do not identify alleged victims of sexual assaults, but Elk said she decided to have her name made public in news accounts of her lawsuit. Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, said that in August, the Army imposed a nonjudicial punishment on Kopf, which means there was not enough evidence for a court-martial. Kopf was demoted from staff sergeant to sergeant, and he was reassigned within the Army after being removed from the Recruiting Command, Smith said. "The U.S. Army takes allegations of this sort seriously. We do investigate and take appropriate action," Smith said. "We took what was appropriate action in this case." Elk said the punishment imposed by the Army is insufficient. Other men who commit such assaults are put behind bars, she said. "I just don't understand why he gets a slap on the wrist, and that's it," she said. The claim says Elk, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, wanted to join the Army and submitted to an evaluation in 2002. Kopf drove her from her home in Wounded Knee village to Sioux Falls for the evaluation. Kopf later repeatedly called Elk and sent her many e-mails when she attended school in another state, according to the claim. She said the sergeant picked her up at her parents' home in January 2003 and told her father that she needed to travel to Sioux Falls for another evaluation. However, Kopf drove her to a remote area of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota and made sexual advances, according to the claim. He frightened her by saying someone could disappear in the remote area, and he kissed and touched her improperly, the claim said. The woman said that when she continued to resist, the sergeant relented and drove her to her cousin's house. The claim said police were notified, but an official at the Army Recruiting Station in Rapid City said nothing could be done. Elk later went to the Oglala Sioux Tribal Court and got a protection order prohibiting the sergeant from having any contact with her. The woman had a full college scholarship but had decided to delay her education until after doing her military duty, said Gary Frischer, a legal consultant helping with the case. "This has completely destroyed her life," Frischer said. Other lawsuits will be filed because the sergeant molested other women from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation who were potential recruits, Frischer said. Elk said she has been unable to return to school since the assault because she cannot focus on her studies. "I can't stay in one place. If I see somebody who looks like him, sounds like him, I leave right away," she said. "It really messed up my life because I never thought it would happen that way." The lawsuit alleges that the Army was negligent in hiring and supervising the sergeant. It also alleges that the Interior Department failed to protect the woman under the requirements of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty between the government and the Lakota. That treaty includes language that says if "bad men among the whites" commit any wrong against the Lakota, the government must punish that person and reimburse the injured Lakota. Herman said that treaty provision requires the government to pay compensation to an injured Indian regardless of whether the government was negligent. "It's like a contract." Copyright c. 2004 Aberdeen News. --------- "RE: Peltier asks Congress for help" --------- Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 08:50:19 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="PELTIER" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/8316155.htm Imprisoned Indian activist Peltier asks Congress for help Associated Press March 31, 2004 DENVER - A lawyer for imprisoned Indian activist Leonard Peltier is asking Congress to intervene in his case because courts refuse to release him. Peltier, 59, is serving two life sentences in the 1975 slayings of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Peltier has maintained his innocence, but several appeals have failed to overturn the convictions or order a parole hearing. His lawyer, Barry Bachrach, said the FBI framed Peltier. Several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have called for Peltier's release. "We challenge Congress to finish the work the Church Committee began nearly 30 years ago. Uncover the (counterintelligence) tactics employed against AIM (the American Indian Movement). They are not any less egregious than the tactics used against other activists of the time Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for example," said Bachrach. The Church Committee was a 1975 investigation of CIA and FBI tactics by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, chaired by the late Sen. Frank Church of Idaho. Peltier is in a Kansas prison. Copyright c. 2004 Aberdeen News. --------- "RE: FBI releases nearly 800 Pages in Peltier Case" --------- Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2004 08:16:57 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="800 PAGES RELEASED" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/8361892.htm FBI releases nearly 800 pages in Leonard Peltier case CAROLYN THOMPSON Associated Press April 5, 2004 BUFFALO, N.Y. - The FBI has released nearly 800 pages of material sought by attorneys for Leonard Peltier, an American Indian activist serving two life sentences in the 1975 slayings of two FBI agents in South Dakota. Responding to a Freedom of Information Act request, the FBI turned over 797 of the 812 pages collected by the Buffalo field office in the Peltier case. The FBI withheld 15 pages, citing exemptions allowed under the act for national security concerns and to protect the privacy of agents, according to court documents. Peltier's attorneys said Monday they would fight for the release of the withheld material. "We're going to argue that the exemptions are being improperly invoked," said Buffalo attorney Michael Kuzma, who works with the Peltier defense team led by Bruce Ellison and Barry Bachrach. Peltier supporters are seeking tens of thousands of pages from FBI documents from field offices nationwide as they fight to have his conviction overturned. "I believe the sheer volume of material that wasn't released or turned over to Leonard's defense attorneys warrants Leonard's immediate release from prison," Kuzma said. "Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way." The Buffalo documents outline agents' work as they checked with informants, including sources within the Seneca Indian Nation, and followed up on suspected Peltier sightings before his arrest, Kuzma said. A Nov. 14, 1975, memo outlines an unidentified source's claim that he saw Peltier at an Indian convention at a Buffalo hotel in October 1975, four months after the shooting. Another source believed he spotted Peltier in Steamburg, near the Senecas' Allegany reservation, teaching Indian dances to women, Kuzma said. Paul Moskal, an FBI spokesman in Buffalo, said he was unfamiliar with the content of the documents, released through the agency's Washington headquarters March 16, and could not comment. Peltier was convicted of killing agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler during a standoff on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Supporters have long campaigned to free Peltier, 59, claiming he was unfairly targeted because of his political activism. He has been the subject of several documentary films and the best-selling novel "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse" by Peter Matthiessen. President Clinton denied Peltier clemency in 2000, a decision supporters blamed on a protest by 500 FBI agents and their families outside the White House. Opponents of Peltier's release point to the repeated rejections of his appeals and claim he has changed his story through the years. Copyright c. 2004 Duluth News Tribune. --------- "RE: Native Prisoner" --------- Date: Mon, April 5 2004 10:53:36 -0700 From: Janet Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - http://www.bakersfield.com/state_wire/story/4600650p-4649984c.html ACLU files lawsuit on behalf of American Indian who refuses to cut hair The Associated Press March 31st, 2004 LOS ANGELES (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of an incarcerated American Indian, alleging that he has lost privileges in state prison because he refuses to cut his hair. Billy Soza Warsoldier, 55, claims in the suit filed in U.S. District Court that his religious beliefs would be violated if he cuts his hair. His faith prohibits him from chopping some of his locks except if someone in his family dies. Since 1971, Warsoldier has cut hair only once - when his father died in 1980. The suit alleges that the state Department of Corrections punished Warsoldier for refusing to comply with a grooming policy that requires all male inmates to keep their hair no longer than three inches in length. Warsoldier, who belongs to the Cahuilla tribe, is serving a 19-month sentence for drunken driving at Adelanto Community Correctional Facility. Since last April, Warsoldier has been found guilty by prison officials of violating the grooming code. He appealed the ruling but lost. Warsolider has lost his visitation rights, is prohibited from receiving quarterly packages and was removed from prison vocational courses as a result of his stance, the suit claims. "Punishing Warsoldier for practicing his religion is both unnecessary and illegal," said Ben Wizner, an ACLU staff attorney. "A prison inmate shouldn't have to choose between remaining faithful to his religion and maintaining contact with his children and grandchildren." Calls made to the Department of Corrections on Wednesday were not immediately returned. The suit seeks to enjoin prison officials from enforcing the grooming policy against Warsoldier and to reinstate his privileges. Warsoldier believes that his long hair symbolizes strength and wisdom he has accumulated during his life. Despite losing his appeal, he still has kept his long, dark hair but has not regained any of his benefits. "I don't understand why I'm being punished for practicing my faith," Warsoldier said in a statement. "I would prefer to take the state's punishment than violate my faith." Copyright c. 2004 The Bakersfield Californian. --------- "RE: Rustywire: Coming Home from Boarding School" --------- Date: Tue, Apr 22:09:25 2003 08:12:44 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RUSTYWIRE: BOARDING SCHOOL" Navajo Spaceships, Star Mountain and Life An online journal- Star Mountain-Navajo Life Coming Home from Boarding School...by Johnny Rustywire The bus ride home was long, I had packed all my stuff in an old trunk and had it ready to go from the Ignacio Indian dormitory where I was staying. My room was shared with Jimmy King from Ute Mountain. We shared everything and he had already left for home as his folks picked him up. Over the long winter we had gotten to know each other pretty well. We both liked ham and once while on kitchen detail, we took a left over ham from the school kitchen. The cook, old man Peacock did not see us take it, and was looking all over for it but it was gone. Since we were washing dishes it was easy to sneak back to our dorm. We stayed in an old time BIA boy's dorm, it was built in the 1890's with red brick and was three stories high, it had big old fashioned windows that took two of us to open up. Well we took that ham up there and since it was winter time we hung it out the window to keep it fresh. We sold slices to the boys who lived there for a nickel a slice, that was how we made our money. The dorm aides never saw it hanging out the window. When they came to work they never looked up, if they had they would have seen it. I think that was the best ham I ever had, because it was cured by the Colorado winter in Ignacio. Well, anyway, Jimmy went home and I was packed up and we got on the old yellow school bus, it was for us guys who needed a ride home. The cooks packed us lunches and they sat by the driver and one of the dorm aides came with us on the bus. It was a long ride, we had both boys and girls from 6 to 18 years of age, all of us having lived at the dorms there in Ignacio. We went to Ute Mountain and dropped off a group there and then went to Farmington, New Mexico where some parents met the bus and the kids got off one by one. The seats were hard, but it got better as more kids got off. Some had called or wrote letters to their parents to meet them by the roadside and sure enough they were there in old cars, trucks and some came on foot. For the ones who came on foot I would see the kids get off and the women folks would hug them, but most Indian men just touched their head or put a hand on their shoulder taking a suitecase or the trunk in hand. As the bus left I could see them headed down the road walking as a family to some place just over the horizon, and pretty soon we were too far down the road to see where they went. Those old buses sure could rattle and shake, pretty soon you just would hang on or get bumped off the seat. We took the dirt roads to places with names like Beclahbito, Sweet Water, Bistai, Burnham and Tocito. At each place kids got off and headed toward home and summer. It was late in the afternoon when we rolled into Toadlena, and after the main group got off we continued down the old road that goes by the tradiing post and starts back toward Two Gray Hills. It kind of runs down hill because it sits against the mountain. The road is pretty rough, it would tear up a grader if they used one on it, but we bumped along. I went up front and told the driver, Mr. Pino to stop up ahead at the top of a little hill. He did and I got out, he pulled out my trunk and I told him I would walk the little ways to home. I didn't write to tell them to meet me, cuz we didn't have good truck or car, but it was o.k. The place where I live is covered with Pinon pine and Juniper trees and a little rocky. Where I got off there is an old dirt road that goes South up around the hill, my way home. The bus left and I started walking. I could see that a little ways off my grandpa had plowed the field for planting corn across the wash. I walked toward home, and I could see the small rocks and dirt that was fine sand, almost a tan color rise in small clouds at my feet. My shoes were soon that color and I reached down and took a handful. This was dirt, sand from my home and it was soft and warm. It felt good. I walked a little bit and pretty soon I stood on the rise above the place of my family. I could see my Grandma in her old gray dress bending over a washtub hanging clothes, my "Che's" shirts on the clothesline. My Mom was in the shade house made of brush next to the house getting ready to cook, mixing Blue bird flour in a large white pan. My "Che", Grandpa was a ways off walking back to the house from the sheep corral, he had just gotten back from herding sheep and had his walking stick with him. He liked to wear one of those "african safari helmets" shaped like an egg on his head and he had it on. My little sister with her pig tails flying was chasing our old cat, Woozhiii around the area in front of the houses. You see we lived in a group of houses, there was the old folks place, a small three room house next to it where my parent's stayed; next to that was the treasure house of my grandma where she kept the hard goods and interesting things to keep, they were all there. Just a little ways a away was a hogan built facing east where I slept and next to it was another old hogan for visitors and ceremonies and such. I was coming over the hill and stood there to see it all. I watched them for a minute, then yelled out, Shima!(Mom). Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked my way. Grandpa raised his walking stick and waved it, Grandma turned around with a shirt in her hand and was yelling at Mom to tell her I was home. Mom was wiping her hands on her apron and my sister took off to meet me. Old Woozhii cat, just stood there thinking, who is this?. I walked down hill carrying my old blue trunk and met them in the open area in front of my home. It was good to be home, my home. I ran to my Mom carrying my trunk and knew it was going to be a good summer. This is the way it is for many Indian kids who come home from boarding school and still goes on even now. I came home from boarding school and home is home no matter where you are it is good get home Copyright c. 1999, Johnny Rustywire, all rights reserved. --------- "RE: Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days" --------- Date: Sun, 4 Apr 2004 13:44:42 -1000 From: Debbie Sanders Subj: Hawaiian Book of Days A HAWAI`I BOOK OF DAYS, week of April 5-11 `APELILA April Welo 5 Happiness and fulfillment are found only in our own hearts. 6 Age cannot hinder the joyful spirit. 7 Alone, we are restored; with others, we are fulfilled. 8 This land is the gathering place of the winds. 9 Time lays no claim upon the earth's spell of wonder. 10 Earth's seasons are like the tides of the sea, ke kai, -- timeless and everlasting. 11 When man has come and gone, the land will remain. (c) Copyright 1991 by D. F. Sanders Me ke aloha i ka nani, ... Moe'uhanekeanuenue (With love and beauty, ... Rainbow Dream) --------- "RE: Larry Kibby Poem: Ancestral Strong" --------- Date: Wednesday, January 28, 2004 4:27 AM From: Subj: stories2 Mailing List: Rez Life Ancestral Strong By Larry Kibby Indian child you'll never fail, You'll always do very well. Indian child, you're not like the rest, You'll always do your very best. Indian child, you may not be always right or wrong, But your wisdom will always be ancestral strong. Indian child, you have always been very smart, For at birth you were instructed from the start. Indian child, your knowledge came from the ancient time, And you will always have the ancestral mind. Indian child, you may not be always right or wrong, But your wisdom will always be ancestral strong. Indian child, upon this land is your education, A way of life full of academic fascination. Indian child, do not ignore the right, Never give up the civilized fight. For no matter what anyone would state, In any schooling you'll always highly rate, For you may not always be right or wrong, But as an Indian, you'll always be ancestral strong! --------- "RE: Upcoming Events" --------- Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2004 15:39:14 -0700 From: Gary Smith (gars@speakeasy.org) Subj: Upcoming Events =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= EVENTS ARE FEATURED IN ODD NUMBERED ISSUES ONLY =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Events are too numerous to list for the entire year and are updated periodically. Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 12:39:05 -0800 From: "John D. Berry" Subj: FWD: UC Berkeley Powwow - Gourd Dancers Mailing List: Netrez-L@listproc.wsu.edu Please forward this message as appropriate. John B ------------------------------------------ 1kiowa@calbears.berkeley.edu Hey all, As the Head Gourd Dancer for UC Berkeley's Pow-Wow, Saturday & Sunday, April 10th - 11th, 2004, I am asking for your assistance notifying "all Gourd Dancers" and singers of this Dance. We will begin the Gourd Dance @12:00 Noon on Saturday & Sunday, and I'll have my give-away during Sunday's session. Tommy Phillips, lead singer, and "Southern Express" will be the Host Southern Drum. Please email me or call 510-459-7645 or 510-223-7269 to confirm your attendance. Hope to see all of you there!!! Aho, Earl R. Neconie #KO-4162 --------- "RE: OSU NASA Spring Pow Wow" --------- Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 09:25:33 -0800 From: "John D. Berry" Subj: Fwd: OSU NASA Spring Pow wow Oklahoma State University Native American Student Association Spring Contest Pow Wow Colvin Center Annex (Across from the OSU Police Department) April 17, 2004 Princess: Jessica Moore, Osage/Otoe/Missouria/Pawnee - Fairfax, OK Head Singer: Rowe Kishketon, Kickapoo/Sac & Fox - Shawnee, OK Master of Ceremonies: Don Patterson, Tonkawa - Tonkawa, OK Head Man Dancer: Thorpe Sine, Ho-Chunk - Glenpool, OK Head Lady Dancer: Joyce Miller, Iowa/Otoe/Missouria - Perkins, OK Host Gourd Clan: Central Oklahoma Tribal Society - Perkins, OK Arena Director: Eugene Big Soldier, Jr., Iowa/Otoe/Missouria - Perkins, OK Program: Gourd Dance: 2:00 PM Supper: 5:00 PM Grand Entry: 6:30 PM Contests: Tiny Tots; Junior Girls, Junior Boys; Women's Cloth, Buckskin, Jingle, Fancy Shawl; Men's Straight, Fancy, Grass, Traditional; Golden Age Men, Golden Age Women; Drum Contest Booth Space $40.00 Drugs, Alcohol, and Weapons are Prohibited! NASA is not responsible for theft and/or accidents. Contestants must be in grand entry and regalia to receive prize money. Please contact the Multicultural Student Center for further information at (405) 744-5481. Everyone Welcome! --------- "RE: Humbolt State U. Powwow" --------- Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 16:42:31 -0800 From: "John D. Berry" Subj: Humbolt State U. Powwow Humboldt State University April 17 & 18, 2004 15th Annual HSU Pow Wow more information at: http://www.humboldt.edu/~powwow/ --------- "RE: Modesto and Merced Powwows" --------- Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 16:41:27 -0800 From: "John D. Berry" Subj: Fwd: Upcoming Pow Wows: Modesto and Merced Modesto Junior College 6th Annual Intertribal Pow Wow Sunday, April 18, 2004 10:00 am - 7:00 pm MJC East Campus Quad 435 College Avenue, Modesto, CA Gourd Dance 11:30 am Grand Entry 12:00 noon Free to the public All Drums Welcome ***************** May 1-2: 2004 Merced Powwow Central Valley Chapter of California Indian Education Association and University of California Merced present 3rd Annual CIEA CV Chapter UC Merced Benefit PowWow "Our Youth: Achievement through Native American Education" A Native American Indian festival, gathering and celebration! Sat.-Sun, May 1-2, 2004 Lake Yosemite, Merced, CA 10AM to 10PM Sat. & 10AM to 6PM Sun. PUBLIC INVITED $5.OO per car park admission Pow Wow Free Bring chairs or blankets Over nite camping spaces available Open Gourd & All Drums Welcome Authentic Native American Indian Arts & Crafts Raffle Prizes, 50/50 Specialty Dances and Performances Authentic Native American Indian Cuisine Traditional Meal Phone: (209) 726-9620, FAX: (209) 723-1359 Email: cieacvchapter@hotmail.com Mailing Address: CIEA CV Chapter PO Box 1181 Merced CA 95341 THIS IS DEFINITELY A DRUG-FREE AND ALCOHOL-FREE EVENT Directions: Hwy 99 to Merced, X-it Hwy 59 North, to Belleview (R), Lake Rd (L), to PowWow. --------- "RE: CA Tribal College Powwow" --------- Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 11:05:35 -0800 From: "John D. Berry" Subj: CA Tribal College - Powwow D. Q Deed Day Pow Wow, April 2, 2004 from 6pm- midnight! Vendor space still available, need directions call 530-758-0470 ext. 1085. donations are needed for the indian taco booth. the booth is a fundraiser for the Associated Student Body (ASB). Come join us for dancing, food and fun! you can also email me at riveral21@hotmail.com =================================== NATIVE SOLUTIONS PRESENTS: 6TH ANNUAL INTERTRIBAL POW WOW APRIL 23-25, 2004 TIMES FRI 5-9 DANCING & STORYTELLING SAT 10-8 GRAND ENTRY 11:00 SUN 10-6 GRAND ENTRY 12:00 HEFLIN FOOTBALL FIELD, HEFLIN, AL FORMERLY OXFORD LAKE PARK NATIVE AMERICAN WARRIOR SOCIETY AND HONOR GUARD ADMISSION - $5 - ADULTS SENIORS 65 AND UP & CHILDREN 12 AND UNDER - FREE HEADMAN - TONY WALKINGSTICK HEADLADY - CHRISTINA POWELL M.C. - GARY SMITH A.D. - BUCK TUCKER DRUM COMPETITION - 1ST $1000.00, 2ND - $500.00, 3RD - 250.00 ALL SINGERS MUST BE REGISTERED BY 10:30 ON SATURDAY ALL DANCERS WELCOME ALL DRUMS WELCOME NO DRUGS OR ALCOHOL ALLOWED FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL TONY AT (256) 835-0110; MARK OR RUTH AT (256) 820-6315. VENDORS BY INVITATION ONLY CALL MARK OR RUTH OR EMAIL ravenspiritwalker@yahoo.com or thunderhawk2062@yahoo.com. HOST MOTEL IS HOWARD JOHNSON'S CALL (256) 463-2900 DIRECTIONS: I-20 EXIT 199 GO PAST HOWARD JOHNSON'S AND TEXACO AT THE END OF THE ROAD TURN RIGHT ONTO HWY 78 EAST GO PAST JACK'S TURN RIGHT AT METRO BANK ONTO COLEMAN ST TURN LEFT ON EVANS ST FOOTBALL FIELD WILL BE ON THE RIGHT =================================== Augusta Pow-Wow May 7-8, 2004 Sponsored by the Augusta Pow-Wow Association Please come join us at our new location: The AJCC on Three J Road Augusta, GA Head Singer - Billy Horse Head Man - Mark Alexander Head lady - Teresa Alexander Arena Director - Orville Gates Craft Contest - Raffles & Auction Approximated Times: Friday 6:30PM - Grand Entry Saturday 12:30-3PM - Gourd Dance 3:00-4:30 - Intertribal 7:00PM - Grand Entry Auction to Immediately follow Saturday Night Dance Information: Bill Medeiros (706) 771-1221 Email: krazywilly@knology.net Pets welcomed on a leash (Owners MUST clean up behind their pets) =================================== Euharlee Native American Festival Osborne Park, Downtown Euharlee, GA Special Tribute to ALL veterans. ALL VETERANS INVITED!!! October 22 - 24, 2004 Grand Entry Sat 12 Noon Sun 1 PM Hosted by Native American Honor Guard & Warrior Society Host Drum: Buffalo Heart Guest Drum: Aracoma Lightning Head Man: Jerry Smith Head Lady: Ellen Rasco Emcee: Gary Smith AD: Tommy Smith No Drugs, Alcohol or bad attitudes. Bring your blankets and lawn chairs. Info: Joey Pierce 404 377 4950 or Sam Hinson 770 546 7191 or Jerry Lang 256 492 5217 =================================== June 4-6, 2004 Blackwater Creek American Indian Festival and Pow-wow At Black Water Creek RV Park off Airport Road & Curry Highway (Hwy. 257) Jasper, Alabama This event is sponsored by Native American Girl Scout Troop #389 and Aracoma Boy Scout Drum and Dance Team. Admission donation: $5.00 - adults; $1.00 for Seniors & students. Head Man: Bill Jolly (Ojibwa); Head Lady: Betsy Jolly (Echota Cherokee); Head Veteran: don Nelson (Potawami): Junior Head Man: TBD; Junior Head Lady: TBD; Arena Director: Little Hawk Gatty (Cherokee); Emcee: John Ferguson (Creek); Storyteller: Vickie King (Cherokee Tribe of NE Alabama) and Steve Bison (CRIC); Host Northern Drum: TBD; Host Southern Drum: Caney Creek Singers; Invited Drums include: Gun Powder River singers; Aracoma Lightning Singers & NoNaMe Singers. All traditional drums are welcome. Ambassador contest for those age 11 to 21 at time of event. This is for males and females. Contact kcooper@uabmc.edu related to details. Gourd dance will be available at 10 AM on Saturday and 12 Noon on Sunday. Prayer Circle will be conducted by Paul Whitehawk & Elizabeth Lightwalker. Host Motel: Holiday Inn Express 205-302-6400 ($57.00 + tax); RV camping is $12.00 per night, tent camping is $5.00 per night. Schedule: Friday: gates open at 4pm, Call-in Songs & Opening Ceremonies at 6 PM, Social Dancing begins at 7 PM, Round Robin Trade Blanket at 9:30 PM. Saturday: Gates Open at 9 AM; Grand Entry at 10:30 AM, Benefit Auction/Flute Playing/Story Telling begin at 2 PM, Dancing resumes at 3 PM, Benefit Auction/Storytelling at 5 PM, Evening Grand Entry at 6 PM, Round Robin Trade Blanket at 9:30 PM. Sunday: Gates Open/Church Services at 10 AM, Benefit Auction at noon, Grand Entry at 1 PM, Closing at 4:30pm. For more information, call Karen Cooper at 205-648-2529 Paul Eulenstein at 205-221-9071 E-mail kcooper@uabmc.edu Or check out the website at http://children.1accesshost.com The Blackwater Creek site is a beautiful one, with RV sites and primitive camping areas along a creek. The RV park was developed from a family farm owned by Mr Deavor's father and grandfather. He developed it to do Blue grass festivals and it is only 3 years old. On the hill up from the RV sites is the showers and the dance circle. There is electricitry at this area and limited water hook-up. =================================== Andersons-web.com http://andersons-web.com/native_events.htm Updated March 11, 2004 April 16 - 19, 2004: 39th Annual Louisiana Indian Heritage Assn. (LIHA) Powwow at the Hidden Oaks Campgrounds in Robert, LA. See the web site: http://www.liha-news.com For more information contact 504-367-1375 or e- mail: andi4769@aol.com April 24 - 25, 2004: 2nd Annual Tennessee Native Veterans Society Powwow Sparta, Tennessee. May 7 - 8, 2004: Augusta Pow-Wow AJCC on Three J Road Augusta, Georgia. For more information contact Bill Mederios 706-771-1221 or e-mail him at: krazywilly@knology.net May 7 - 9, 2004: 16th Annual ETIL American Indian Powwow Knoxville, Tennessee. May 8 - 9, 2004: 16th Annual E.T.I.L. American Indian Powwow & Celebration Knoxville Convention Center 525 Henley Street, Knoxville, Tennessee. For more information contact Vickie 865-579-1384. May 28 - 31, 2004: De-Un-Da-Ga 30th Annual Memorial Day Pow Wow. Custaloga Tov Scout Reservation, Carlton, PA. For more information call 814-833 3235 Tim McFarland or e-mail: timcfarland@yahoo.com May 29 - 30, 2004: Eastern Delaware Nations Whispering Maples Powwow Lovelton, PA. June 4 - 6, 2004: Blackwater Creek American Indian Festival and Powwow. Jasper, Alabama. June 18 - 20, 2004: Eastern Deleware Nations Powwow Forksville, PA. June 18 - 20, 2004: AICA of North Carolina 26th Annual Powwow Union Grove North Carolina. For more information contact Ed De Torres at: exdt@webtv. net June 26, 2004: Renaissance St. Louis and the City of Wentzville Mo. Are sponsoring a one day Traditional Dance at Rotary Park in Wentzville, MO. You can check this dance out at their web site: http://rebirthpowwow. homestead.com Pow wow fliers, maps and all contact information is located there. July 6 - 9, 2005: National Powwow 13 Vermillion County Fairgrounds Danville, Illinois. See the web site at: http://www.nationalpowwow.com A word of advice, no matter how hard we try, mistakes happen! Please try to get in contact with the event staff and verify the important information before leaving for it. ========================================================================= Crazy Crow Trading Post Updated March 11, 2004 http://www.crazycrow.com/events_nativeamerican/ NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN POWWOW CALENDAR This Native American Indian powwow calendar and related events listing is brought to you as a courtesy of Crazy Crow Trading Post to help keep you up-to-date on the latest powwows & events. We will do our best to validate the accuracy of the information provided, including checking links to web sites, but cannot be responsible for inaccuracies. Check with the contact names and website links of powwow event sponsors for the latest info. A P R I L 2 0 0 4 Apr 9-11: 15th Annual University of Iowa Powwow Location: Iowa City, IA Event Detail: For complete information, use the event website. This is a very complete powwow website. Contact: phone: 319-335-6883, email: aisa@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu Apr 10-11: Northern Arizona University Spring Contest Powwow Location: NAU Skydome, Corner of Pine Knoll and San Francisco, Flagstaff, AZ 86001 Event Detail: MC- Mr. Dennis Bowen, Sr., AD- Emerson Nakai, Northern Host Drum- Black Eagle Singers, Southern Host Drum- Southern Outlawz. This pow- wow is sponsored by the student organization, Native Americans United of Northern Arizona University. Arts and Crafts, Please contact Carrie Dallas at 928-523-