From gars@speakeasy.org Mon Aug 2 20:22:17 2004 Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 13:48:39 -0700 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews12.031 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 12, ISSUE 031 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 July 31, 2004 Mohawk Ohiarihko:wa/moon of much ripening Cherokee Kuyegwona/ripe corn moon +-------------------------------------------------------+ | Much more happens in Indian Country than is reported | | in this weekly newsletter. For daily updates & events | | go to http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm | +-------------------------------------------------------+ Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin -- Blackfeet -- News for All the People Ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min -- Ojibwe -- We Are Talking About Ourselves Aunchemokauhettittea -- Naragansett -- Let Us Share News Kanoheda Aniyvwiya -- Cherokee -- Journal of the People O Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse -- Creek -- People's New News O o O Acimowin -- Plains Cree -- Story or Account O o O Tlaixmatiliztli -- Nahuatl -- News O o o o o O Agnutmaqan -- Listuguj Mi'kmaq -- News O o O Sho-da-ku-ye -- Teehahnahmah -- Talking Birchbark O o O Un Chota -- Susquehannic Seneca -- The People Speak O Ha-Sah-Sliltha -- Ditidaht Nation -- News of the People Ximopanolti tehuatzin, inin Mexika tlahtolli -- Nahuatl -- For you we offer these words It-hah-pe-hah Ah-num pah-le -- Chickasaw -- Together We Are Talking Dineh jii' adah' ho'nil'e'gii ba' ha' neh -- Navajo Nation -- What's Happening among The People News Okla Humma Holisso Nowat Anya -- Choctaw -- People(s) Red Newspaper Hi'a chu ah gaa -- Pima -- The stories or the talk of the People Native American News -- Language of the Occupation Forces ++>If you speak a Native American language not listed above, please send us your words for "News of the People." We'd rather take up this whole page saving these few words of our hundreds of nations than present a nice clean banner in the language of the occupation forces who came here determined to replace our words with their own. email gars@nanews.org with the equivalent of "News of the People" in your tribal language along with the english translation <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is produced in straight ASCII text for greatest portability across platforms. Read it with a fixed-pitch font, such as Courier, Monaco, FixedSys or CG Times. Proportional fonts will be difficult to read. <================<<<< >>>>================> This issue contains articles from www.owlstar.com; www.indianz.com; www.pechanga.net; News and Information and NdnAim 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: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + ======================== "You can't pray the same way in English." "The songs are not the same, the world view is not the same. The language is really kind of the heart of the culture and, without the language, your culture is really deprived. __ Linda Locklear, Lumbee +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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! Last issue's editorial discussed the history of pitting one tribe against the other to the ultimate detriment of both or many, and the need to rely on each other - even traditional enemy nations. Some successes that do not depend on casino income were mentioned, and the point made that Tribal Nations must stand on their own and stand together to thrive economically. One hypothetical example of how such collaboration might work would be if the Masantucket Pequot invested some of its Foxwood Casino profits to back Dogrib diamond mine development. The Dogrib have the raw resource and manpower. The Pequot have funds to provide equipment and expertise to develop and explore. Such a partnership would allow both tribal nations to grow finacially, independent of dominant society input, subsequent meddling and, if history serves as an example, ulitmately, theft. Spinoffs from such a partnership could include funding an aboriginal mining school or management curriculum at the local tribal college. Immediate benefits would be training and development of cutters, polishers, and industrial diamond processing - thus creating skilled jobs as well as mining expertise. In a similar fashion, possibly Isleta Pueblo could utilize the skills it developed building and managing professional quality golf courses in the desert in partnership with the manufacturing skills the Laguna Pueblo acquired at its wiring harness plant to produce equipment uniquely suited to xerescaping or other desert development ventures. These are hypothetical, but certainly concepts that should be explored by many tribes, both those with capital and those in need of industry growth investment. It is possible, and desirable to keep these deals strictly tribe-to-tribe. There are already First Nation banks with the expertise to help drive such projects. Examples could just as easily be the Pequot, Oneida, Pechanga, or the Isleta setting up joint ventures with resource-rich tribes to develop oil or wind resources, bison farms, or a television studio or movie studio, or countless other possibilities. You may have noticed the first suggestion was a collaboration between a US based Tribal Nation and a Canada based Aboriginal First Nation. Why not? We didn't draw that imaginary line across the 49th Parallel. The US and Canada did. There is no legitimate reason our Nations should not make business deals with other nations, regardless of geography. Isn't it past time to test those borders and determine if we are, in fact, sovereignties or if we are, in actuality, slave nations? Sovereign nations should be able to form alliances with other sovereign nations (thus strengthening the concept and the tribes). Diversification and investment by "rich" Indians into the resources and infant industries of the "poor" ones can benefit all participants. As the casino tribes have found - money talks when it comes to dealing with the dominant society. And the more our individual nations build each other and collaborate together, and the more we keep control of our money out of the federal agency loop - the stronger we are, and the fewer rugs they have to pull from under our people. Dohiyi Oginalii , , Gary Smith (*,*) gars@speakeasy.org P. O. Box 672168 (`-') gars@nanews.org Marietta, GA 30008, U.S.A. ===w=w=== http://www.nanews.org ----------- News of the people featured in this issue ---------- - Missing Girl puts focus - Study of ancient Local Languages on two Racial Solitudes - Tribal Elder co-writes Book - Tim Giago: to help save Language What does the word "Treaty" mean - ANALYSIS: - Tim Giago: Indians have cause South America's Indigenous Uproar to fear Republicans - Lawsuit pushes for parity - Democrats scuttle with First Nations another Bush Court Nominee - Ind. Affairs, AFN - How Drought might to report on Education Funding bring Water to the Navajo - Supreme Court - Wording on Water takes Native Rights Case worries Tribes, State - Inuit Lawsuit - Loss of Son could revolutionize Aboriginal Law was only the latest blow - Native Program - Eight Weeks later aims to reduce Gang Crime a 15 Year Old also dies - Native Prisoner - Native Sun Dance is being held -- States want to determine - Anderson eyes changes terms of Native worship in BIA School System - Rustywire: - Utah Schools Navajo Tribal Clothing to teach Tribes' History - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - Tribes want site in Utah respected - Windsong Poem: - Standing Rock Tribe Warrior who Stand Alone hailed as Housing Leader - Press Release: NSAIE Auction - Tribes awarded funds - Upcoming Events for AmerIndian libraries --------- "RE: Missing Girl puts focus on two Racial Solitudes" --------- Date: Tue, 20 July 2004 08:39:04 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TAMARA KEEPNESS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.theglobeandmail.com//20040719/REGINA19/National/Idx Missing Regina girl puts focus on city's two racial solitudes Distrust evident, but cultures put aside differences in hunt for five-year-old Tamra By MARK HUME Monday, July 19, 2004 REGINA - The disappearance on July 5 of a five-year-old girl here has not only shocked this hard-working, decent Prairie city, it has brought to the surface racial undercurrents many would prefer to ignore. Tamra Keepness was being raised in a ramshackle home in a predominantly aboriginal, exhaustingly poor neighbourhood, just a few blocks from the city's prosperous downtown. Regina, which local radio station CJME routinely refers to as "Canada's greatest city," has broad boulevards, fine historical buildings and lovely, serpentine parks that highlight the natural beauty of Saskatchewan. But it also has troubled inner-city neighbourhoods, where front yards are beaten dirt, windows are cracked and houses are abandoned. This is, for the most part, where Regina's expanding aboriginal community lives. One of those neighbourhoods is unofficially called Moccasin Flats, although people do not overtly use that racially charged name. Although there is a strong sense of isolation of one group from the other, it is not something easily talked about. When a caller to CJME raised the issue of racism last week in relation to a police decision to halt the ground search for Tamra, the talk-show host snapped at her for daring "to play the race card." The Regina Leader-Post took a similar view under the headline: "To talk of racism tainting the search for Tamra is sheer nonsense." Although the Regina Police Service, which threw everything it had at the case, may be above reproach, it is clear that race relations is a sensitive topic. "I think it's pretty bad in Regina because everyone sees [natives] as drunks and bums," said Chantelle, a woman in her mid-30s who did not want to give her last name. "It's always been that way." She said she does not have any animosity toward aboriginals but said a gulf separates the two cultures. "Yeah. We do our own thing and they do theirs." Elizabeth Lutz, a 75-year-old retired government worker who has lived in Regina for 44 years, said there have always been racial undercurrents. "It's getting better," she said. "But I think there's prejudice there on both sides. Natives don't like us, either. They think we owe them." Natalia Poitras, 19, was on her way to register at a business college in a shopping centre when she offered a comment. "I think racial relations are bad in Regina. It just seems like natives hold a grudge. It's like everybody owes them. Anything that's funded by aboriginals seems really clique-ee. "There's some sort of barrier between us. I don't know what it is. But I know as a girl, sometimes when I walk down the street, native girls will say, 'What are you looking at?' You can feel it." Robert, an elderly man who would not give his last name, blames both groups. "Some white people don't like natives. Some native people don't like whites," he said with a fatalistic shrug. "Things are getting better, but maybe that's because they can't get any worse." Gary Pratt, an auto mechanic and a native, was waiting for a department store to open in northwest Regina when asked his views. "There is some racism, but not much that I see. I get along with everybody, with all races." But distrust lingers. In the native area, an elderly aboriginal couple were in their blue van, feathers painted on the rear doors, outside a community centre. They were on their way to an elders picnic in a park. The man listens to the race-relations question, then shakes his head. "At times it's pretty good, at times it's not. "That's not something I want to talk about." Natives Roland Bugghis and Barbara Wolfe were enjoying a walk on a sunny afternoon. "I think it's all right," Mr. Bugghis said of race relations in the city. "I don't have no problems, anyway. I don't know about other people." Ms. Wolfe leans back and ponders the question for a moment. "In between," she said. "That's about it; in between." Saskatchewan government statistics suggest that about 14 per cent of the province's population is native. But 70 per cent of children in provincial care are, too, as are incarcerated offenders. The poverty line in Saskatchewan is about $26,000. But the median income for natives in Regina is $12,500. About two-thirds rent their homes, and their level of quality often is shocking. Tamra is part of a shared family with eight other children, her mother and stepfather. The house has broken windows, cracked plaster and blistered paint. The house next door is boarded up, as are many others in the area. The native population of Regina, 16,000 in the 2001 census, is thought to be 18,000 to 20,000 now. Natives form about 9 per cent of the city's population, and more than 15 per cent of children under 10 are native. Increasing numbers of aboriginals are moving to Regina because of better work prospects, although about half are unemployed. But any city that has one racial group predominantly occupying its poorest neighbourhoods is in trouble, especially if that group is growing faster than any other. Wayne, a Regina cab driver who does not want his last name used, pulled his vehicle into a parking stall next to a convenience store on 5th Avenue. Asked if he knows of a place called Moccasin Flats, he smiles. "This is it, all around," he said, gesturing to the streets lined with small, dilapidated homes. It is a dangerous neighbourhood at night, he said, and some people call it "the hood." He does not mind working days here, but "I wouldn't drive at night without a gun." Here are his observations on race relations in Regina: "I think, for the most part, the relationship is fairly good. But there's still prejudice on both sides of the fence. . . . Some native people, a small per cent, have a bad attitude toward the whites. Many, many white people have a bad attitude toward native people. The greatest problem is with the older people. "I think the white population and the native population are still pretty much isolated from each other. It's a shame. But there's an attempt being made at integration. And I hope it works. It's got to, or things could get pretty bad." Then he gets a call and has to go. Somebody in the hood needs a lift downtown. Copyright c. 2004 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Tim Giago: What does the word "Treaty" mean" --------- Date: Wed, 21 July 2004 08:16:23 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WHEN IS A TREATY A TREATY" http://www.lakotajournal.com/notes.htm What does the word "Treaty" mean to most Americans? By Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji) Copyright c. 2004 Lakota Media Inc. Volume 5, Issue 30 July 16 - July 23, 2004 Let's put a hat on the word "treaty." Nearly every dictionary describes it as, "an agreement or arrangement made by negotiation; a contract in writing between two or more political authorities (as states or sovereigns) formally signed by representatives duly authorized and usually ratified by the lawmaking authority of the state; a document in which such a contract is set down." The treaty making process between the Indian nations and the United States of America was stopped shortly after the huge treaty meeting that took place at Fort Laramie in 1868. Several Indian nations were on hand to "negotiate" the treaties that became known throughout Indian country as The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. Representatives of the several tribes of the Great Sioux Nation were there to negotiate away millions of acres of land, but were they "duly authorized" representatives? Tasunka Witko (Crazy Horse) and his followers were not present. Crazy Horse, in his short lifetime, never touched a pen to a treaty. The tribes of the Great Sioux Nation were guaranteed the exclusive and undisturbed use of the land they retained under the auspices of the 1868 Treaty. These lands stretched from the east bank of the Missouri River to the Big Horn Mountains in what is now Wyoming. Included in this parcel were the panoramic mountains known to the Sioux Nation as Paha Sapa, or the Black Hills. Some pan-Indians would refer to the Hills as "He' Sapa" but my research into some very old records find that the Lakota, even in the 1800's, called the Hills Paha Sapa. If the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 set aside the requisite land to be used exclusively by the tribes of the Great Sioux Nation, what was George Armstrong Custer and his expedition doing in the Black Hills in 1874? We all know now that he was searching for gold. This was a clear violation of the Treaty. The term "Gold Fever" came about because that is what it proved to be, a feverish illness that drove miners to dig for gold. Treaty notwithstanding, the United States Army, and by inference, the United States Congress, stood by with their hands in their pockets while thousands of "fever struck" miners invaded the lands of the Great Sioux Nation. And when the Indians took offense at this invasion of their lands and struck back at the Battle of the Little Big Horn sending Custer and his 7th Cavalry to a resounding defeat, did the United States Government call this defensive battle by the combined forces of Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors just? No indeed. The next year the Cheyenne were hunted down, their lands confiscated, and they were shipped to the Territory of Oklahoma. The Arapaho were dispersed, their lands taken, and they were confined and then shipped to Oklahoma. The combined tribes of the Great Sioux Nation were too numerous and too fierce to be handled in a like manner. Instead their Sacred Black Hills were confiscated, their huge land holdings, legally determined by the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, were broken up into much smaller "reservations" and their power greatly diminished by the dispersal. This was done without negotiation but instead by Acts of Congress, misinterpretations of the intent of the Treaty and outright lies and theft. When the United States Supreme Court made a determination for monetary compensation for the theft of the Black Hills, Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun said, "A more ripe and rank case of dishonest dealings may never be found in our history." We have just celebrated the 128th Anniversary of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, or as the Lakota call it, the Battle of Greasy Grass, and many of the existing problems between the treaty makers and the treaty signors are still prevalent. The money awarded the tribes of the Great Sioux Nation in 1981 has never been accepted. The timber profits culled from the Hills every year are divided amongst several Western South Dakota counties, but none goes to the People still laying claim to the land. Billions in gold and other resources have been extracted from the Paha Sapa since 1878 and none of it has gone to assist the poorest people in America, the people of the Great Sioux Nation. And as I have written so many times in the past, in the face of this extreme poverty, with the monetary award now nearing $600 million, the poorest of the poor, the People of the Great Sioux Nation, have turned their backs upon accepting a single dime of the award. "A nation shall be judged by the way it treats its indigenous people." If you were a judge and had to make a judgement on how America has treated its indigenous people, what would you say? Stop right there! No, it is not ancient history that cannot be addressed. The theft of the Paha Sapa has never been settled. Money was appropriated, but refused. Can a Nation force another Nation to accept money for out and out theft of land by shoving it down its throat? While America is spending billions attacking other sovereign nations, there is still a dark secret it is hiding in its own backyard. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, a sacred treaty to the people of the Great Sioux Nation, was violated by the United States of America and a sacred trust was broken. Since that treaty was broken, thousands upon thousands of Indian people have suffered. And through it all, they have never asked for anything more than justice. They have gone to every world court including the United Nations in the past 30 years and nothing has been done to bring them justice. What does the word "treaty" mean to Americans and to the present Congress of America? ---- (Tim Giago, Oglala Lakota, is editor and publisher of the weekly Lakota Journal, the largest Indian newspaper in the Northern Plains. He is the author of The Aboriginal Sin and Notes from Indian Country Volumes I and II. He can be reached at editor@lakotajournal.com or P.O. Box 3080, Rapid City, SD 57709 Copyright c. 2004 Lakota Journal, Lakota Media Inc. --------- "RE: Tim Giago: Indians have cause to fear Republicans" --------- Date: Wed, 21 July 2004 08:16:23 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="REPUBLICANS PERSPECTIVE" Tim Giago: Indians have cause to fear Republicans http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.theday.com/~9782-455f-bcda-415c44bcfc01 Politics In Indian Country By TIM GIAGO July 21, 2004 There appears to be a battle brewing in South Dakota and other Western states with large American Indian populations in this election year. Twenty years ago few politicians considered the Indian vote. It was a policy of the Democrats to spend more time with the people of the Indian reservations simply because of tradition. One seldom, if ever, saw a Republican actually visit an Indian reservation. And so, through the years, the Indian people tended to be Democrats. This didn't seem to matter until several years ago when Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., squeaked out a very narrow margin over his opponent mainly on the back of the Indian reservations. But even then, Daschle was considered more lucky than calculating. The Senate race in South Dakota in 2000 put an end to all speculation about the Indian vote. Sen. Tim Johnson, a Democrat, was in a heated race with Republican John Thune. Thune, a former member of the House of Representatives, gave up that seat in order to pursue Daschle. Corks were popping, until... During the campaign several big guns from the Republican Party made trips to South Dakota in support of Thune. On election night it looked as if all of their efforts had paid off. In the wee hours of the morning only two precincts remained to be counted and the supporters of John Thune were already popping the corks on their champagne bottles. Ooops! Nearly every Republican forgot the precincts on the Pine Ridge Reservation, the largest reservation in South Dakota, at least population wise. It had been an all-night affair for both parties and most voters were bleary eyed by the time the final tally came in. Tim Johnson had squeezed out a hard fought campaign by a mere 564 votes and it was the Pine Ridge Reservation that put him over the top. The Republican House in South Dakota, with speculative comments from columnist Robert Novak on his television show, pointed the finger of suspicion upon the Indian voters. They hastily set about changing the rules in the middle of the stream. One controversial change put into effect was that all voters had to present photo ID's before they could cast a ballot. How many other states in the union require photo ID's? But all of the efforts of the South Dakota Republican House failed when Stephanie Herseth defeated Larry Diedrich for the House of Representatives seat left vacant by the resignation of Bill Janklow, who had run a stop sign and killed a biker. Although this close race was held in a primary election when voters do not turn out in large numbers, the Indian vote turned out to be the difference. States such as New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Oklahoma, Idaho and Washington with large Indian populations can make a difference in the 2004 elections. The Indian vote has always been there and it has, for the most part, supported Democratic candidates, but it is much more organized now and the Indian voters tend to vote in a block. All of a sudden Republican candidates are courting the Indian vote, a vote they ignored for the last 50 years. There are even members of different tribes actively speaking out for the Republican candidates. Thune, who is challenging Daschle for the Senate this year, is actively pursuing the Indian vote. He has activist Russell Means promoting his candidacy as well as a new Republican named Bruce Whalen. Both are from the Pine Ridge Reservation. In the 20-plus years I have been publishing an Indian newspaper this is the first time I have witnessed Republicans making an effort to garner the Indian vote. There are a shade more than 65,000 Indians in South Dakota, so this means they make up about 10 percent of the voters. That is not a very large percentage except in extremely close races. When Stephanie Herseth lost to Bill Janklow for the House of Representatives in 2002 she did take the majority of the Indian vote simply because most Indians in this state do not like the man they call "Wild Bill" Janklow. However, Janklow won by a large enough margin that the Indian vote was negated. Plus, Herseth was an unknown commodity back then but has since made a mark for herself. The Republican Party is viewed by most Indians as "anti-Indian." They have had good reason to believe this. When many tribes were trying to establish casinos on their reservations it was usually the Republicans who stood in their way. When severe budget cuts devastated the reservations during the Reagan years, the Indian people put this in their memory banks. The younger generation of Indian voters usually follow the lead of their elders. One family head will usually determine whom they will vote for and they accept this. Many of the elders remember Franklin Delano Roosevelt, first as their wartime leader during the Second World War but also for all of the Civilian Conservation Corp and WPA jobs he brought to Indian country during and after the Great Depression. Roosevelt was a Democrat and considered a very good man by many tribal elders. He left his mark in Indian country and that tradition is still a part of the culture. This is a very high hurdle for the Republicans to overcome. They must also overcome the legacy of John and Robert Kennedy, two men who were dearly loved in Indian country. The rest of America will have an eye cast on the election in South Dakota in November. Tom Daschle, although he is a Democrat in a largely Republican state, has won in the past because the people look to the man and not the party. That's the way South Dakotans have always voted. They are an independent lot. ---- Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, is editor and publisher of the Lakota and Pueblo Journals. Copyright c. 1998-2004 The Day Publishing Co. --------- "RE: Democrats scuttle another Bush Court Nominee" --------- Date: Wed, 21 July 2004 08:16:23 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ANTI-INDIAN JUDGE REJECTED" http://www.indianz.com/News/2004/003489.asp Democrats scuttle another Bush court nominee July 21, 2004 Senate Democrats successfully blocked another of President Bush's judicial nominees on Tuesday in what Republicans criticized as a partisan campaign. Tribal leaders who opposed the placement of William G. Myers III on a court that handles key Indian law cases welcomed his rejection. Myers, an attorney and former lobbyist for the ranching, grazing and cattle industries, was picked for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers more than 200 tribes in nine Western states. "William Myers' blatant disregard for federal law affecting Native sacred places proved that he was simply unfit for a lifetime appointment to the bench." said Tex Hall, president of the National Congress of American Indians, one of dozens of tribal organizations that fought the nomination. But Republicans blasted Democrats for filibustering Myers, who was the Interior Department's top lawyer for the first two years of the Bush administration. He is the seventh judicial nominee to suffer defeat on the Senate floor. "Once again Senate Democrats are making history by denying the Senate the right to vote on a judicial nominee," said Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), a supporter of Myers. John Thune, a former Congressman running for the Senate, pinned the blame on his rival, Sen. Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota). Daschle is the Democratic minority leader. Daschle, said Thune, "once again turned his back on South Dakota and sided with liberal extremists in obstructing the nomination of William Myers." Thune said farmers and ranchers in the state supported the nomination even though South Dakota is not part of the 9th Circuit. However, Daschle responded that tribal opposition was behind his vote. "Mr. Myers' work as solicitor at the Department of the Interior demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of the government-to- government trust relationship between the federal government and Indian tribes," he said. Sen. Tim Johnson (D-South Dakota), whose 524-vote victory over Thune is credited to Indian voters, also defended his vote yesterday. "It is apparent that Mr. Myers will put industry ahead of our environment, the sacred land rights of Native Americans, and most importantly, what is in the best interest of the general public," he said. What happened on the floor was not an up-or-down vote on Myers. Since he was the target of a filibuster, Republicans needed 60 votes, rather than a simple majority, to end debate. Securing only 53 votes during an afternoon roll call, they failed to defeat the filibuster. Every Republican, including Sens. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Colorado) and John McCain (Arizona), who might otherwise support the tribal viewpoint, voted in favor of ending debate but fell short even with the help of two Democrats, Sens. Joe Biden (Delaware) and Ben Nelson (Delaware) Sens. John Kerry (Massachusetts) and John Edwards (North Carolina), the presumptive Democratic presidential ticket, didn't vote. Myers' work as Interior solicitor formed the basis of the campaign against him. In his most criticized decision, Myers overturned a legal opinion that protected the sacred lands of the Quechan Nation from development. The reversal favored a Canadian company that wants to build a huge, open-pit gold mine on sites the tribe uses for ceremonies, pilgrimages and other religious activities. During his confirmation hearing in February, Myers admitted he never consulted the tribe despite serving, in his official capacity, as the tribe's trustee. But he did meet with representatives of Glamis Gold, the company behind the mine proposal. Myers left his Interior post in December 2003. He returned to work at the Holland & Hart law firm, where he serves of counsel in the Boise, Idaho, office. Copyright c. 2000-2004 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: How Drought might bring Water to the Navajo" --------- Date: Fri, 23 July 2004 08:41:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DROUGHT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/23/national/23water.html How Drought Just Might Bring Water to the Navajo By KIRK JOHNSON July 23, 2004 WHITE ROCK, N.M. - Once a week, Bennie Yazzie drives half an hour over the bone-rattling dirt roads of the Navajo Nation to get drinking water. It sloshes out a long blue hose at a cost of 3 cents a gallon - except when it doesn't. A few weeks back, the coin-fed meter was broken and no one at the little oasis of White Rock knew how to fix it. "Another 35 miles on bad road," Mr. Yazzie said of his journey to the next-nearest pump. The Navajo struggle for water on these unforgiving lands long predates the drought that has settled over the West in the last five years. On a reservation nearly five times the size of Connecticut, more than a third of the residents have no running water for themselves, their gardens or their livestock. So they go to water stations like White Rock, 50 miles from the nearest real town, to shower, wash clothes or socialize, making the best of a situation that would make most Americans shudder with its matter-of-fact adversities. But in an odd and deeply paradoxical way, the drought itself - and the fundamental ways it is making many Westerners rethink the future - may finally bring running water to the Navajo. The tribal council could vote at any time on a settlement to end a 30-year legal standoff with New Mexico over how to divide the waters of the San Juan River, a major tributary of the Colorado River. Tribal leaders had contended that history and treaty entitled them to the entire flow of the river; the state said the tribe was overreaching. A preliminary agreement reached late last year - one of the largest Native American water deals in history, gallon for gallon - reduces the tribe's claims and in return provides for a $600 million federal pipeline that would snake south through the reservation, with feeder systems reaching into the communities, called chapters here. The pipe would also take water to the equally thirsty city of Gallup, N.M., just outside the reservation's southeast border. It all sounds quite neat - a perfect package of interlocked, coinciding interests, which is how supporters of the plan have sold it on the reservation and off. But the vote is expected to be close. Some hard- liners on the council say that the compromise is a surrender and that the Navajo should continue to push for the whole river. Promoting the proposal has also aggravated some very old, unhealed scars and brought voice to anguished questions of Navajo destiny. Some in the tribe say a deal that benefits Gallup is just too bitter a pill to swallow, given the long history of hostile racial relations there. Old-timers still remember the storefront signs that said "No dogs or Indians." What brought people together, and subsequently exposed their differences, was the dawning awareness of scarcity. When water in the San Juan was abundant, people involved in the settlement say, the murky question of who had first dibs on the river's flow was not so important. But when the river nearly dried up in 2002 - the drought's worst year here so far - that mind-set abruptly changed. Tribal farmers saw the intake system for their irrigation canals come perilously close to being unusable. Non- Indian farmers feared a "call" of water rights - an emergency legal sorting out, in which the oldest claims gets priority. The Navajo claims, by far the oldest, might win, giving the tribe the whole river. Knowing precisely who was entitled to what suddenly looked a lot better. "The settlement is essential for certainty, and the drought has created awareness of the need for certainty," said John R. D'Antonio, New Mexico's state engineer, who is in charge of administering water rules. "It's forced us to go out and be more deliberate; the drought may be a blessing in disguise in that regard." At the heart of the resolution, negotiators say, are interlocking trade- offs, developed so that - at least in theory - each private interest must support someone else's goals to have its own needs satisfied. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company. --------- "RE: Wording on Water worries Tribes, State" --------- Date: Mon, 26 July 2004 08:57:39 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WATER REVIEW" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.newsok.com/article/1283673/?template=home/main Wording on water worries tribes, state By Tom Lindley June 25, 2004 PAWNEE - The state's most troubling environmental mess did not ooze from a pipeline or belch from a smoke stack. It popped up a few months ago in the fine print of a routine review letter from the Dallas Region 6 office of the Environmental Protection Agency to state environmental officials. When Oklahoma officials read the part where the state's water quality standards do not apply to "all Indian allotments, the Indian titles to which have not been extinguished, including rights-of-way running through the same," they choked as if they had just inhaled a strong batch of smog imported from Texas. In their minds, the wording broadened the definition of American Indian Country beyond comprehension, and placed air and water quality regulations on hold across Oklahoma's broad patchwork of allotted lands. There is more than enough confusion to go around on the topic of allotments, a system of landholding created in part by the Dawes Act of 1887 that provided American Indian lands to be allotted to individual American Indians. Regulation concerns Having previously taken the position that state water and air quality standards applied to allotments, state officials now are afraid that their ability to enforce environmental regulations and quickly address health concerns has been compromised. Worse, they fear it has left the door open for unregulated hazardous waste to make its way into Oklahoma and for untested drinking water to make its way into taps on allotment land that may not fall within state jurisdiction. "I can't in good conscience stand by and see this happen to people who would normally be protected in our system, but if things stand the way they are now, the only answer I will have to the problem is to say, 'You're regulated by the federal government,'" said Steven Thompson, director of the state Environmental Quality Department. Critics of the EPA say the problem with turning over responsibility to the federal agency is the EPA appears to have neither the manpower in Oklahoma nor the interest to quickly pursue routine complaints. In one example documented by the state, the EPA has spent about two years trying to resolve a dispute over the storage of hazardous waste, primarily metals and pesticides, at a facility within 80 feet of the playground at the Washita Valley Head Start Apache Center. Pawnee tribe's battle Oklahoma tribes are concerned too, particularly the Pawnee tribe, whose six-year quest to receive treatment-as-state status from the federal government was in the home stretch until the EPA recently put it back on hold. Although state agencies can cite worst-case scenarios that could befall the state if the EPA creates a new environmental frontier in Oklahoma, so far the only real victims appear to be the Pawnees. "My concern is the continuing diminishing of tribal authority and the inability to protect the environment," said Monty Matlock, director of the tribe's environmental conservation and safety department. May 2, the Pawnees received partial approval from the EPA to regulate and enforce environmental issues on two sections of tribal land. The tribe lost it June 3 when, in a follow-up letter, EPA water quality protection division director Miguel J. Flores said the individual who signed the original letter lacked the property authority to make the determination. Withholding comment The EPA's about-face came in the face of heavy criticism by the state, cities and special interests groups who claimed that economic development would suffer if businesses had to conform to dozens of conflicting regulations. More importantly, the reversal came two days after U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, the chairman of the environmental committee, asked the comptroller general of the United States to investigate the EPA's awarding of treatment-as-state status to Oklahoma tribes. At the moment, EPA officials remain mum about where the state, federal government and tribes go from here. In a statement issued Thursday, the EPA said it would "withhold any comment on the treatment-as-state issue." Oklahoma Environment Secretary Miles Tolbert has attempted to bridge the waters by meeting with representatives from many of Oklahoma's 39 tribes. "The way forward is for the state to work with the tribes to see if we can address the problems they (the tribes) have with a uniform regulatory system," Tolbert said. With so many different interests at play, Tolbert acknowledged that the process could move slowly. Water worries Standing near the edge of Coal Creek, where an apparent illegal dumping of brine from an oil field has eroded the cliff and scoured a piece of allotted land, Matlock is afraid time is not on the side of the Pawnees. Matlock's recent discovery does not pose a huge problem to the environment, but it still makes it a local concern. "We have an abundance of minor issues, but so many times I've called EPA and reported a breeched pipe that is draining chloride and the answer I get is that we don't have a problem," he said. "That just meant it was insignificant to them." Since 1998, the Pawnee tribe has been trying to receive what it says decades-old treaties and recent federal law have granted them sovereignty over their tribal lands, which cover about 28,000 acres between the Cimarron and Arkansas rivers. Water for the tribe's new health center and for tribal headquarters is pumped from two wells near Black Bear Creek. Down the road, on the other side of the dam at Pawnee Lake, an old water park has been revitalized and transformed into an environmental education center. "Water is very important to us and to our economic future," Matlock said. At the moment, that may be the only source of agreement among those who would like to regulate its flow. Write me: P.O. Box 25125, Oklahoma City, OK 73125 Fax me: 475-3183 Call me: (405) 936-0175 E-mail me: tlindley@cox.net Copyright c. 2004 News 9/The Oklahoman, Produced by NewsOK.com. --------- "RE: Loss of Son was only the latest blow" --------- Date: Fri, 23 July 2004 08:41:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="JUSTIN BENOIST" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2004/07/23/news/mtregional/znews01.txt For the mother of Justin Benoist, his loss was only the latest blow By MICHAEL MOORE of the Missoulian July 23, 2004 In Wednesday's Missoulian, waves of shock resonated across the Flathead Reservation from the alcohol-related deaths of two 11-year-old boys, Frankie Nicolai and Justin Benoist. Police officers, hardened by years of investigating life's most dismal incidents, found themselves on the edge of tears as they pieced together what had happened to the sixth- graders. But the reservation, a place where alcohol-related death is a far too- frequent visitor, came to life with a powerful message: No more dead children. Away from the rallies and gatherings and well-intentioned meetings, Norma Fox was falling apart all over again. For the second time in three months, she had lost a son. First her 14-year-old, Tyler, and now Justin. Today's story, the fifth in an eight-day series, follows Norma as she struggles to survive, and revisits the November day 14-year-old Tyler Benoist died. April 2 and Norma Fox is having trouble finding her feet. Her children are reason enough to live, but damn, it's hard to go on. She wakes to grief for her sons every day, for Tyler, for Justin. She never quite finds a way to grieve for herself, to come to terms with her broken-down life. She's been trying to hold it all together since Justin was found dead, to assemble something that might look like a normal life to the outside world. She is deathly afraid that the tribe will take away 13-year-old Leah, her daughter, and Chris, her 16-year-old son, who has been undergoing chemical-dependency counseling in Kalispell. It's occurred to her to take Leah and leave town, just run. Today, the most important thing she'll do is make sure Leah gets to school and comes home alive. That and don't drink. When trouble comes, Norma usually defaults to alcohol. It soothes, it conceals, it takes the world away. Today, a day with a mottled, gauzy sky hanging over the Missions, the bottle beckons. And why wouldn't it? Justin's room is empty. Tyler didn't even have a room when he died; he spent his last days as an interloper, moving from house to house. Leah is doing poorly at school, getting in fights and snapping at her mom, and some believe she's been drinking. She held up pretty well after Justin's death; somebody had to be strong. But lately she's gone to pieces. Chris is in rehab, and his older brother, Phillip, ought to be. Phillip has been drinking and huffing for far too long. He wants to hang out at his mom's house, but he's got a handful of tribal warrants out for his arrest, so he moves constantly, a transient in his own homeland. So it's another bad day, just like the one before. But on this one, somebody says something that hits Norma wrong. She doesn't remember exactly what, but it moves her to the darker side of her boundless sadness. "I said, 'I think I'm gonna have a beer,' " she remembered later. "I hadn't had a drink in eight or nine months. I had one and it just went on from there." It went on from booze to pills, at least three prescriptions from the "shit-pile of pills" she has at home. It didn't matter what they were for, because she wasn't taking them to fend off illness, or get over some medical condition. She took them to escape. Norma bristles at the idea she meant to take her own life, although her friends and a handful of tribal officials seem to think that was her intent. "I just took a few too many pills," she says, without saying why she took them in the first place. "I know it was wrong." Her brother found her passed out, and when he couldn't make her throw up, he called the ambulance. Norma wound up at St. Luke Hospital in Ronan, where she recovered from her overdose and, briefly, refused a tribal entreaty to enter chemical dependency treatment. For Norma, April 2 made a certain sort of dreadful sense, like a portended plot development playing itself out in a tragedy. This family dies. It's what we do. Exactly a year before Norma was hospitalized, she asked the tribes to take her children from her. Just for a little while. The family didn't have a house and everybody was on edge. Because of privacy issues, the tribes can't comment on actions they took regarding Norma's family, but the children were not removed. "They told me that the kids weren't being neglected, so they couldn't do nothing," Norma recalled. The family had been living in a trailer on a leased tribal lot, but the lease wasn't renewed because of sanitation and health issues. Norma's brother had another trailer, and Norma herself had a lease lot to put it on, but that didn't begin to solve the family's problems. Norma described the trailer as rough; Roxana Colman-Herak, who works as a mentor for the tribes through the housing and human resources departments, said it was "beyond substandard." "The thought of children living in there was very disturbing," said Colman-Herak, who met Norma last June. "It was beyond my comprehension." But as summer came on, the family lived in the trailer anyway. The buff- colored house sat in a forlorn field of long grass and weeds a couple of miles west of Ronan. It had no electricity or running water, and there was no way to keep food fresh. Anything cold stayed in a cooler, and almost all the family's meals were taken at the city park in Ronan. "There were seven of us in that place," Norma said. "It was hard to be a very good family. We didn't have hardly anything. Sometimes, we could buy gas, but we just used that to get to the park. We did have food stamps, so we always had food at least." According to paperwork Norma showed to the Missoulian, Tyler and Justin spent time in the Second Circle group house during that summer. Norma also failed to attend scheduled appointments for various tribal services. Colman-Herak said the family's situation was bleak but not uncommon, a circumstance that befalls those who can't quite hold onto a helping hand. "We have a lot of people who, because of circumstances, just can't quite seem to function within the system," she said. "I would say that we continue trying to extend services, beyond where most government services would go, but the family has to hold up their end of the agreement. Norma's family was having a difficult time through that period." By fall, with the weather turning and the kids back in school, Colman- Herak advocated for the family to the Salish Kootenai Housing Authority, which provides more than 400 subsidized homes on the reservation. Housing hadn't had much luck with Norma and her family in the past, but Colman-Herak was able to get a generator for the trailer. "People were appalled to find out how they were living," Colman-Herak said. As the fall wore on, the children stayed with friends or family, while Norma and a brother stuck it out in the frigid, dilapidated trailer. When Colman-Herak would drop by to visit, she found Norma with a smile on her face, "even though her lips were blue." The smile faded in late November. Norma was having a hard time keeping track of the kids; Chris had just spent time at Second Circle, and Tyler had been in trouble for stealing. He denied the theft and his mother believed him, but law officers said the boy was in trouble. Although officers didn't think Tyler and some of his friends were gang members, they were starting to look the part. "They were wearing the colors and flashing the signs," Lake County sheriff's Detective Andy Cannon said. "Now, they may have been involved in some individual crimes, too, but they weren't a gang as the state defines it, where they get together for the purpose of committing crimes." On the night of Nov. 27, 2003, a Thursday, Tyler was out with his friends in Pablo. For a while, a handful of kids gathered and drank at a home across the street from the Community Bank. A woman there, Priscilla Yellowowl, had bought some liquor, most likely vodka, detectives say, and the boys got into it pretty heavily. The five teens then moved on to an abandoned trailer across the highway in what used to be called the Donna Jones trailer court. About 11:35 p.m., two of the boys went back to the house and arranged to get more alcohol from Yellowowl. This time they drank beer. The party continued at the trailer over the next few hours, then two teens went home about 3:30 a.m. They were afraid of getting in trouble. That left Tyler and two other boys, who later told officers that Tyler was so drunk they had to drag him into a bedroom. About 8 a.m., employees of the Community Bank saw smoke coming from the trailer. By the time fire crews arrived, the trailer was a burned-out shell. One person was seen running from the trailer and crossing the highway. Inside the trailer, however, crews found a body burned beyond recognition: Tyler Benoist, with a blood-alcohol content of 0.23. His friend tried to drag him out of the trailer, but as the fire got worse, the boy cut and ran. That boy, who authorities won't name, was nearly hit by a driver hauling horses on the highway - the man remembered the boy's face was streaked with ash. Within two days, deputies found the runner; he'd left a smudged handprint on his house when he went inside. The fire apparently started with a cigarette. Tyler's death didn't spark any protests across the reservation. There were no marches, no speeches about how reservation residents needed to rise up and vanquish alcohol before it kills another child. "I know it hit me hard, but we didn't seem to sense as a community that we had this killer in our midst," Lake County Sheriff Bill Barron said recently. "I guess we should have. When you look at what happened later, we certainly should have." Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or mmoore@missoulian.com Copyright c. 2004 Missoulian, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Eight Weeks later a 15 Year Old also dies" --------- Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 13:52:49 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ALCOHOL" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2004/07/23/news/top/news01.txt Eight weeks after alcohol-related deaths of two 11-year-olds, 15-year-old came to his end By MICHAEL MOORE of the Missoulian July 23, 2004 In our story in Thursday's Missoulian, families grieved while police probed the deaths of the 11-year-old boys, Frankie Nicolai and Justin Benoist. Norma Fox, Justin's mother, had lost another son, Tyler, just three months before, and the death of a second boy was almost more than she could handle. Fox nearly died in early April after drinking and taking too many pills but, unlike her boys, she was found in time to be saved. In today's story, the sixth in an eight-day series, people have started to think about the future while grieving the past. April has passed and no more children have died. Then comes the first day of May and a 15-year-old boy is found dead in a secluded house between Pablo and Ronan. Joey DuMontier, a student at the Two Eagle River School in Pablo, is dead of an alcohol overdose. He's had nearly a fifth of Southern Comfort, a bottle bought for him by an adult. For the third time in five months, Lake County sheriff's deputies and Confederated Salish and Kootenai police officers begin sifting through another tragedy. Eight weeks passed after the deaths of the 11-year-old boys, Frankie Nicolai and Justin Benoist, and not one child drank himself to death. That ought not be cause for celebration, but people on the Flathead Reservation cautiously breathed a collective sigh of relief. Then came Saturday, May 1. Saturdays find Lake County sheriff's Detective Andy Cannon in the office. On this Saturday, he pulled his regular shift in the office, then headed home about 6:30 p.m. Cannon, a big man who moves with a limp from an old on-the-job injury, had dinner with his wife of 36 years, and watched a little television. About 9:30 p.m., as the Cannons were getting ready for bed, the phone rang. Lake County dispatch told Cannon that a man had returned to a Ronan-area home where he was house-sitting to find another young man not breathing. Cannon said goodnight to his wife and piled back into his black Yukon SUV. The house was on North Crow Road, which cuts east off old Highway 93 between Pablo and Ronan. The road bisects farmland that rises slowly to the towering Mission Mountains; there's the occasional trailer house along the road, but many of the houses are well kept and solidly middle class. Cannon turned into the driveway at 2202 North Crow, a gray-green ranch house with a deck that overlooks a postage-stamp pond. Two sheriff's deputies were already there - Deputy Dan Duryee, who would work the case as a deputy coroner, and Sgt. Dave Alexander. An ambulance crew already had come and gone, taking away a teenage boy with no vital signs. Two other men were also there - 21-year-old Richard Lopez, whose mother lived at the home with her husband, and Jeremy Cajune, a friend of Lopez's. Cannon was briefed by his colleagues and briefly talked with Lopez and Cajune. The officers found some beer cans scattered around the house, and a fifth of Southern Comfort whiskey on a coffee table next to a large recliner. For a detective from Lake County, the scene looked crushingly familiar - young people and booze. The deputies collected some empty cans of Bud Ice and took the Southern Comfort bottle into evidence, carefully preserving it for the possibility of both fingerprints and DNA. They also took brief statements from Cajune and Lopez. The stories were strikingly similar - Lopez said he'd awakened that morning to find a teenager he didn't know passed out in the recliner. He thought the boy might be a friend of his younger sister, who lived at the house. Lopez said he and Cajune headed off on a fishing trip later in the morning and returned to find the boy sprawled on the floor next to the chair. They tried to rouse him, but he was motionless. They called the cops. Cajune's story differed a bit on the timeline, but hewed closely to Lopez's. The officers told the men they'd need to speak to them more extensively in the next few days, then headed for St. Luke Hospital in Ronan, where the ambulance had taken the still unknown boy. Both the ambulance crew and hospital workers tried to revive the boy, but he was gone before they ever had a chance. He had no identification. He wore baggy, black denim jeans, a red pullover shirt and old-timey black Converse All-Stars. Standard issue, Cannon thought, except for the shoes; boys usually wore the latest in basketball sneakers. The boy had a trucker's wallet, a big leather billfold with a silver chain. It had no ID inside, but Cannon did find three $1 bills. "You never know what might turn a case." "Basically, at that point, you are looking for red flags," Cannon said. "Obviously, we had some concerns, with the liquor involved." Blaring bright and red was this: the boy's blood-alcohol content was 0. 394. A teenager might survive that amount of alcohol, but it's just as likely to be fatal. Tribal Officer Bill Dupuis arrived to help identify the boy. He thought the teen looked like a DuMontier, a well-known and prominent family on the reservation. Dupuis came up with a tribal ID card that seemed to match, but the picture was maybe five years old. Still, the picture looked like Joey DuMontier, a 15-year-old student at the Two Eagle River School in Pablo. The match became certain when the officers compared their information with some medical records the hospital had. The boy's mother, Bernadette, wasn't home in Ronan, but his father, Bud, was home in Dixon and came up to the hospital to identify his son. He also helped the officers track down Bernadette in Hot Springs, where she was visiting for the weekend. By 2:30 a.m., Joey DuMontier was on his way to the State Crime Lab in Missoula. His parents wandered into the night, alone with their tragedy. Andy Cannon headed home, again. This time, though, instead of dinner with his wife, he sat alone at the kitchen table with a glass of water. "With cases like this, I just can't let it go for a while," he said. "I sat there and thought over what we had, and I made some notes in my head about all the things I would need to do." For the third time in five months, a Lake County detective went to bed with the toxic alloy of teens, alcohol and death settling into his mind. One thing that has come out of this wave of child deaths is a renewed commitment to arrest and prosecute adults who buy alcohol for children. Cannon had that on his mind as he drove to work Sunday morning. "I knew at worst I had a negligent homicide on my hands and at best an endangerment case," he recalled. He was bothered by the stories Lopez and Cajune told, bothered that someone else had made it possible for a kid to drink himself to death. Richard Lopez came in for a second interview on Sunday. Lake County Sheriff Bill Barron was in the office that day, and he helped Cannon with the Lopez interview. Again, Lopez maintained that Joey was passed out when he and Cajune headed for Dixon on Saturday morning. Lopez did acknowledge that he'd seen Joey on Friday night, and that he knew the boy was his sister's boyfriend. Joey's mom had dropped him off at the house on Friday afternoon, knowing that he was spending the night at the house. Cannon said she believed there were responsible adults at the home, although the Calderons, who own the home, had left town the day before and left the 21-year-old Lopez in charge of the house. Lopez also said he'd bought beer and pizza on Friday night, but claimed he drank the beer. He said he didn't know where the whiskey came from on Saturday, and that it hadn't been there when he and Cajune left on the fishing expedition. Cajune stuck to his story, as well, and Sunday yielded little new information. Dr. Gary Dale, the state medical examiner, called to say that he'd found no external injuries on Joey, and that at least initially, it appeared the boy died from drinking too much. On Monday, Cannon learned that a third man had been involved in the fishing trip. That man, Sterling Barnaby, was present when the men left the house to go fishing, and present when Lopez called the police on Saturday night. Barnaby left before the cops came because he was on probation and worried he might somehow get in trouble for his connection to the incident. When Barnaby finally talked to the detectives, he told a story quite different than the one told by Lopez and Cajune. Cannon also traveled with Lopez to the Flathead River site where the men fished, and Cannon found evidence enough to make him believe at least that part of Lopez's story. A new case involving two rapes brought the investigation to a halt for a few days midweek, but by Thursday the case was again Cannon's top priority. Using something Cajune had said, Detective Dan Yonkin went to the Wal- Mart in Polson and reviewed hours of videotape and cash register tape. Cajune said he and his girlfriend had bought some fishing equipment before the trip. Like Lopez, though, he maintained that the trip began in the morning. Yonkin eventually found a tape that showed Cajune and Sterling Barnaby at the store. They checked out at 4:41 p.m. The cops then checked the drive time from the Wal-Mart to North Crow Road. Even speeding, they couldn't get there faster than 22 minutes. "That meant that they couldn't possibly have left on this fishing trip before 5 p.m.," Cannon said. "That changed everything." Barnaby's statement confirmed that Cajune and Lopez were lying about the timing of the trip. He told Cannon that Joey was passed out about 5 p.m., when he and Cajune stopped by to pick up Lopez. Even more damning, Barnaby said the Southern Comfort bottle was on the table next to Joey, with about an inch left in the bottom. "That's exactly how we found it," Cannon said. "We had major red flags then." Detectives also had the department's reserves going to every liquor dealer in the county from Polson south. "What they found was that there is one distributor from Missoula that provides all the hard liquor sold up here," Cannon said. "They had delivered 13 bottles of Southern Comfort to the Ronan Liquor Store on Friday. All but one of those bottles was sold to a local bar. The 13th was sold to someone on Saturday afternoon at 3:20. The liquor store personnel recognized as familiar a picture of Lopez, but couldn't be sure he'd bought the bottle. Even so, Cannon felt he had enough to arrest Lopez. He was picked up at his girlfriend's house in Pablo and eventually gave another statement to detectives. "This time he came clean and told us the name of the person who bought it," Cannon said. "He told us how the whole thing went down." Lopez said that DuMontier arrived on Friday - his mom dropped him off and left as Joey's girlfriend waved from a window. The girl left the house about 11 a.m. Saturday to baby-sit for her older sister, leaving Joey and Lopez at the house. Lopez had planned the fishing trip, so he wanted to drop Joey back at his family home in Ronan before heading out. However, Bernadette had locked the house when she went to Hot Springs, and Joey couldn't get in. So he talked Lopez into letting him come back to North Crow. "Joey then asked Lopez if he could come up with some whiskey," Cannon said. Lopez's ID, from an Arizona reservation, had some problems, so he stopped at the house of a friend, who agreed to come to the liquor store and buy the whiskey. Joey gave the man a $20 bill he'd earned from mowing lawns. With it, he got the store's 13th bottle of Southern Comfort and $3. 65 in change. Those three dollar bills were the ones the cops found in his wallet at the hospital. The man Lopez recruited to buy the whiskey is out of the state, but Cannon said there's a warrant out for his arrest for violating a probationary sentence on a previous charge. "We'll pick him up on that, and then we'll look at our options on the alcohol thing," said Cannon, who declined to name the suspect. In the meantime, Lopez remains charged with criminal endangerment. Joey DuMontier was buried on Thursday, May 6. The man who got him the liquor that killed him was on the move that day, somewhere in Kansas. ---- Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or mmoore@missoulian.com To read previous installments of the "Lost Boys of the Flathead" series, visit http://www.missoulian.com/specials/lostboys/ Copyright c. 2004 Missoulian, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Native Sun Dance is being held" --------- Date: Thu, 22 July 2004 08:58:16 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SUN DANCE" http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2004/07/18/local/10052538.txt Native Sun Dance, rare in the area, is being held by kevin abourezk July 22, 2004 HALLAM - As a child, Leonard Crow Dog was hidden from agents of the U.S. government for fear he would be taken from his parents and forced to give up his language and culture. His elders taught him Lakota cultural and religious practices in secret as they were banned by the government at that time. At age 13, Crow Dog became a medicine man. On Saturday, the Lakota holy man and Native rights activist who became famous during the 1973 Siege of Wounded Knee came to Southeast Nebraska to share his culture and religion. This time, he did so in the open. "This is not a Lakota Sun Dance," the 64-year-old said. "It's a way of life however you want to live." For the first time in recent memory, a Sun Dance is being held in Southeast Nebraska. The ceremony will officially begin today, though Saturday was considered tree day at the site west of Hallam. Considered the most sacred of all Lakota religious ceremonies, the Sun Dance is usually held in the summer months for four days and nights. Participants dance from sunrise to sunset bereft of food and water around the tree. Near the end of the dance, the men often pierce their flesh with sharp sticks attached to ropes. Those ropes are then tied to the tree, and the men eventually tear the sticks from their chests by pulling away from the tree. By giving of their blood and flesh, dancers make sacrifices to their creator in the hopes their prayers will be heard. While some Lakota holy men believe only Natives should be allowed to take part in the Sun Dance, the ceremony being held near Hallam is open to all races, though only by invitation. Inmates from area correctional facilities even helped prepare the ceremonial grounds Saturday. Crow Dog said the Sun Dance, as well as other Lakota ceremonies, should be shared with people of all races. "When the Mayflower first came to our shores, we should have done this," he said. Crow Dog, who served as the spiritual leader for the American Indian Movement in the 1970s, said he has continued to fight for Native rights. However, his relationship with AIM has been strained in recent years. He singled out AIM founders Vernon and Clyde Bellecourt for criticism, saying the brothers have forgotten the movement's original purpose. "They left a lot of people behind,"he said. "We must not leave the children behind." The day began with participants digging a pit in the center of the Sun Dance circle. Crow Dog, who is leading the Sun Dance, then went in search of a cottonwood tree to plant in the pit. After finding the tree, Crow Dog prayed near the tree with a group of dancers before cutting the tree down and carrying it to the Sun Dance circle. Dancers then attached black, red, yellow and white cotton prayer ties filled with tobacco to the tree before erecting it. Tony Laravie, a 46-year-old Santee Sioux, prayed with a medicine pipe as the tree was cut down. Laravie, who has spent the past 31 years in prison for second-degree murder, is serving as a ceremonial leader for the Sun Dance. He said Native culture and religion are important to Native prisoners. Nebraska's Native prisoners, however, are only allowed 16 hours a month when they can participate in Native ceremonies. And that simply isn't enough, Laravie said. "The continuation of the spiritual life reduces recidivism,"he said. "It becomes a way to reestablish (prisoners') spiritual connection and rebuild their lives." The land where the Sun Dance is being held is owned by Gordon Polak, a 57-year-old historical re-enactor. He said he was first approached about holding the Sun Dance on his land by Bill Achord. The Lincoln man frequented Polak's auto repair shop in Hallam before it was destroyed by a May tornado that ripped through the town. "He thought it was nice land," Polak said. "I hope it's got good medicine in it." Many of Polak's re-enactor friends attended the ceremony Saturday dressed in early 1800s mountain man clothing and riding donkeys. Polak said he has already agreed to allow Achord to host the Sun Dance on his land for the next five years. Said Tony Laravie: "This is a new beginning for what we hope will grow into something strong and beautiful." ---- Reach Kevin Abourezk at 473-7237 or kabourezk@;journalstar.com. Copyright c. 2004, Lincoln Journal Star. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Anderson eyes changes in BIA School System" --------- Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 13:52:49 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BIA SCHOOLS" http://www.indianz.com/News/2004/003531.asp Anderson eyes changes in BIA school system July 23, 2004 The Bureau of Indian Affairs school system should be a place to try out new ways to educate Native youth, assistant secretary Dave Anderson said this week. Anderson, a high-school dropout who later went to college and received an MBA, doesn't want BIA schools to be looked at as a "secondary" choice of education. He thinks they should play a primary role in developing a new generation of tribal leaders. "I really believe that if we're going to be successful in economic development as Indian people, it has to start with our young people. Anderson told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on Wednesday during a hearing on an economic development bill. "We need to start cultivating the attitude of success." To that end, Anderson is promoting some new initiatives that will change the face of the BIA school system. One is a proposed leadership academy. The other is a curriculum that emphasizes personal success and financial management. "We have never taught success 101 in our schools," he said. Tribes and Indian educators will get a chance to comment on both proposals next month. The BIA is holding several consultation meetings on education the week of August 16-20. Several other topics, not just the academy and the curriculum, are also on the agenda. The leadership academy, Anderson stressed this week, will be innovative. He was inspired, in part, by learning about a school serving an Asian community that emphasizes high levels of achievement "They had the highest math scores, the highest economic scores and the highest science scores," he recalled. "Now I'm a believer that Native kids are not born into this world any less brain cells than these Asian students." Anderson said BIA schools should educate Native youth in areas that will help build a brighter future in Indian Country. Economic development will be one of them. "I want to start teaching our students investing 101, how to save and invest," Anderson said. After months of relying on holdovers from his predecessor, Anderson is bringing in some new people to carry out his goals. This week, he gathered a group to identify where a leadership academy might be located. Up to two schools are being considered for the project. "In our leadership academies we want our parents to be able to sign contracts with the teachers and the students that they will support those students getting homework," he said. "We want our teachers to start carrying cell phones and if these students have any questions, that they can access a teacher or a tutor." "We want to go so far that the only way you can graduate is if you're accepted into a college or a vo-tech school," he added. The education process won't end in the classroom either, he said. The academies will emphasize outdoor activities, health and nutrition and sports, he said. "I never realized this, but being head of all our school systems, we have the ability to create a whole different model," he said. According to the BIA's Office of Indian Education Programs, the "Life- Skills for Success-Financial Management 101" curriculum will not be mandatory. Although tribes will be involved in its development, each school can choose whether or not to adopt it. Similarly, the leadership academy will be a pilot project. If proven successful, schools can choose to bring it to their facilities. The OIEP system currently includes 185 elementary and high schools and dormitories. Four boarding are located off the reservation. A large number of the schools are managed by tribes and tribal school boards under self-determination contracts. An equally large number, mostly those on the Navajo Nation, remain under BIA control. So far, the Bush administration's priority for the system has been construction of new schools, with millions of dollars requested and appropriated. Education funds are otherwise being flat-lined. Next year's budget seeks $79 million in cuts to school programs. Copyright c. 2000-2004 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Utah Schools to teach Tribes' History" --------- Date: Tue, 20 July 2004 08:39:04 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="REAL HISTORY 101" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2377913 Utah schools to teach tribes' history Utah officials are developing a more inclusive curriculum to fill instruction gaps By Ronnie Lynn The Salt Lake Tribune July 19, 2004 Curleen Pfeiffer could only sigh when an acquaintance asked recently whether, given her Navajo heritage, she could understand the Maori language. After all, the Maoris are indigenous to New Zealand, and Pfeiffer's ancestors hailed from what is now southeastern Utah and northern Arizona. That's a 7,000-mile gap. The exchange confirmed Pfeiffer's belief that many Utahns - American Indians included - haven't a clue about Indian culture and its significance to state and national history. She and Utah tribal leaders hope that ignorance will subside once education officials infuse the state's social studies classes with a more complete accounting of American Indian history. "All we hear about are pioneers, pioneers, pioneers," says Pfeiffer, a 46-year-old Bountiful mother of four schoolchildren. "People need to realize that our people were here first, and I think these Native American kids need to know more about their heritage. When you don't know your background or history, these minority kids tend to falter, to feel lost." Utah's Office of Education is using a $114,000 grant from the Daniels Fund, a Denver-based philanthropic group, to write lesson plans designed to give Utah teachers and students a more complete understanding of state and U.S. history. The lessons will be piloted in a few districts and then revised as needed. The additions will broaden the existing curriculum in grades 4, 5, 7, 8 and 11 to include the culture, language, art and living conditions of various tribes, including five native to Utah: Ute, Din (Navajo), Paiute, Goshute and Shoshone. New lesson plans also will examine the impact of westward expansion on tribes, how the conflicts between Indians and Utah pioneers factored into the struggle for statehood and how federal policies, assimilation for example, changed Indian culture. Some of the lessons will be uncomfortable, including accounts of violence in which either Anglos or Indians were the instigators. "You can't get away from the issues that American Indians faced in the past and today," says Dolores Riley, a longtime Utah educator who is consulting with the state Office of Education to develop the instruction and materials. "We hope to address the stereotypes, biases and provide a more clear picture of American Indians throughout history." Indian leaders say the additions are long overdue. "It has everything to do with how seriously we take the education of culturally different people in the state," says Forrest Cuch, a Ute and director of the Utah Division of Indian Affairs. "And for American Indians, it has a lot to do with self esteem and how we view ourselves as a people. Everyone has basically written our history for us, and no one has sat down to talk with us about that." While the state's social studies curriculum requires students to learn about Utah's development, including Indian contributions, the depth of their exposure depends largely on their teachers. The new lesson plans should make it easier to go into greater detail. "The ultimate goal is to get [this material] in the hands of the social studies teachers and have them use it," Riley says. Today, teachers have few choices in instructional material. A tally of online lesson plans approved by the state Office of Education shows 20 lessons about the pioneer experience and just two about Indians: - One tells how a pioneer girl fended off an Indian raid by praying to the "Great Spirit" and forcefully telling the Indians that the Spirit would kill them if they hurt the pioneer group. The lesson plan characterizes the historical account as a "happy event" and a "positive example" of an Indian-pioneer encounter because it didn't end in bloodshed. - The second covers the hardships and losses suffered by the Cherokee as they walked The Trail of Tears from the Southeast to Oklahoma in 1838. Some might wonder why it has taken so long to add more instruction to such an important part of Utah's history. "In social studies, there's so much to cover," Riley says. "It's the story of people's lives and societies and nations, and sometimes we take for granted the most obvious thing around." Other Western states have recently embarked on similar efforts, says Nola Lodge-Hurford, a clinical instructor of Indian studies and director of the University of Utah's American Indian teacher-training program. Lodge-Hurford is one of several Indians helping to develop the lessons. "Often I have students come to me and say, 'Why didn't I hear any of this before?' she says. "We're late on it, but you can only go as fast as people are ready to go." For Cuch, the lessons take on an even greater significance. He would like to see Indian curriculum expanded to include, perhaps, the expertise of the Smithsonian Institution and the U.'s American West Center. Meantime, he says the lessons are one step toward improving academic achievement among Indian children and, by extension, tribes' economic prospects. "It's been a lifelong challenge for me," he says. "There's a correlation between education and business development. We need to improve the educational development of our kids. It's a life or death matter. I take it that seriously." rlynn@sltrib.com For a closer look at proposed lesson plans on American Indians, visit: * http://historytogo.utah.gov * http://www.umnh.utah.edu/museum/exhibits/firstnations/ * http://crabcoll.com/Ute/text/legends.html * http://www.lapahie.com/Creation.cfm * http://thefurtrapper.com/fremont indians.htm * http://www.nativevoices.org/articles/Kennedy.html Copyright c. 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune. --------- "RE: Tribes want site in Utah respected" --------- Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 02:23:35 -0700 From: "Chris Milda (_Akimel O`odham_)" AkimelOodham@EarthLink.net Subj: Tribes want site in Utah respected (Fwd) Mailing List: News and Information http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/news/28595.php Tribes want site in Utah respected Douglas C. Pizac / The Associated Press Petroglyphs decorate the rocks of the Range Creek area, where Indian tribes believe their ancestors' remains may lie. THE NEW YORK TIMES As archaeologists study a long-secret site of ancient ruins and artifacts in eastern Utah, some tribal leaders are asking why they were not notified sooner and if their cultural and religious beliefs will be respected as the site is slowly excavated and human remains are found. The Range Creek site was kept private and secret until recently when a rancher sold his land to the state of Utah and then a local newspaper ran an article about the ranch and its trove of artifacts, believed to have been left by the Fremont people hundreds to thousands of years ago. Included in news of the various arrows, pottery shards, cliff dwellings and pictographs discovered there were revelations about human remains. For some Indians, an excavation of these remains can be considered a desecration of the graves of their ancestors. "Out of respect for our ancestors, I think the tribes should be given a chance to go in and pray," said Patty Timbimboo-Madsen, cultural resources manager for the Northwest Shoshone Tribe of Utah and chairwoman of the state's Native American Remains Review Committee. Lora E. Tom, a chairwoman of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah in Cedar City, said any skeletons and sacred or funerary objects found with them should be "put back in the earth" or remain buried and untouched. Timbimboo-Madsen and other tribal officials said they learned of the site through the media only last week. But assistant state archaeologist Ron Rood said he was under the impression that his boss, Kevin Jones, the state archaeologist, had told the Utah Division of Indian Affairs about the site "over a year ago." Jones could not be reached on Friday; nor could Forrest Cuch, director of the Division of Indian Affairs. The ranch was first sold for $2.5 million in 2001 to the Trust for Public Land before being acquired by the Bureau of Land Management. The title for the land was transferred to the state of Utah earlier this year, and work has been going on for months at the site. Copyright c. 1999-2004 AzStarNet, Arizona Daily Star and its wire services and suppliers. --------- "RE: Standing Rock Tribe hailed as Housing Leader" --------- Date: Thu, 22 July 2004 08:58:16 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HOUSING" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2004/07/21/news/local/nws03.txt Tribe hailed as housing leader By DEENA WINTER, Bismarck Tribune July 21, 2004 FORT YATES - The Standing Rock tribe was hailed Tuesday as a national leader in using income tax credits to develop housing on the reservation. Fannie Mae, the nation's largest source of financing for home mortgages, gave the tribe a "Fulfilling the American Dream" award for leading the nation in using low-income housing tax credit programs to create more housing on the reservation. In the past three years, the tribe has partnered with other entities to invest more than $18 million in affordable rental homes, creating 192 single-family rental homes. Ninety of the units were rehabilitated, and 102 were brand new. Still, the Standing Rock Housing Authority has a waiting list of about 300 low-income tribal members who need homes. Sitting Bull College is the first tribal college in the nation to use the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program to create student housing. The Fannie Mae award was given to tribal officials in front of Sitting Bull's new student housing development west of Fort Yates. Sitting Bull College's building trades program designed and built the 18 homes, which are part of phase one of the college's new $40 million campus. Frank White Bull, a member of the tribal council and housing authority, said it was nice to have tribal members design the homes themselves, rather than have something handed to them. "It's a good day," he said. "It's a landmark day." The student housing is specifically for single-parent families, to accommodate the college's large population of single parents. A couple of the units are occupied, and the rest should be filled by the end of summer. Sterling St. John, director of development for the college, said enrollment is at an all-time high of 379, compared to an average of 200 students. He said he believes the housing is contributing to the surge. "We really desperately need housing," he said. The college housing development is one of 14 housing tax credit projects in development on the reservation. Shirley Dykshoorn, director of Fannie Mae's North Dakota partnership office, said Fannie Mae has invested more than $13 million of the total development costs for the student housing. "There isn't any other reservation that has done as much with tax credits for housing development," she said. Tribal Chairman Charlie Murphy said the housing developments have brought pride to the tribe and millions of dollars in private capital and construction jobs to the reservation. (Reach Deena Winter at 250-8251 or deena.winter@bismarcktribune.com.) Copyright c. 2004 Bismark Tribune. --------- "RE: Tribes awarded funds for AmerIndian libraries" --------- Date: Tue, 20 July 2004 08:39:04 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CULTURAL PRESERVATION" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.orovillemr.com/Stories/0,1413,157~26686~2280989,00.html Tribes awarded funds for American Indian libraries, cultural preservation July 19, 2004 BACKGROUND The Institute of Museum and Library Services is awarding grants totaling $1.25 million to 279 American Indian tribes throughout the United States to provide professional assistance and support toward improving tribal libraries. WHO BENEFITS? In Butte County, four Maidu tribes will each receive $4000: The Mechoopda Indian Tribe of Chico and the Berry Creek Rancheria, Enterprise Rancheria and Mooretown Rancheria in Oroville. BARBARA ARRIGONI/MediaNews Group The chairman of the Mechoopda Indian Tribe of Chico Rancheria was surprised last week to learn his tribe will receive a $4,000 grant from the independent federal grant-making agency that supports libraries and museums. Mechoopda Tribal chairman Steve Santos and education director Lessie Schweninger said they hadn't received official notification about the grant, but the smiles on their faces showed they were happy at the news. "We're extremely excited about the award," Santos said. "It will help us continue the development of our tribal library for the tribal members." The Mechoopda tribe is one of four American Indian communities in Butte County receiving a basic library improvement grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services in Washington, D.C. Tribal Chairman Gary Archuleta of the Mooretown Rancheria of Maidu Indians in Oroville said he hadn't seen his tribe's notification about the grant either, but enjoys that it's coming. Both tribes have small libraries in the tribal offices in Chico and Oroville that emphasize American Indian culture as a whole and the tribal nations. At the Mechoopda office on Mission Ranch Boulevard in Chico, a small room houses the library, which consists of a single wall of shelves filled with books, magazines and other resource materials, and a large table in the center of the room for browsing. It's currently open to Mechoopda members on a drop-in basis for browsing only, but Santos said one of the tribe's goals is for it to eventually become a lending library. He said the $4,000 will help toward that goal by providing money to electronically catalog the library's materials, pay administrative costs to do the work and expand the library's contents. The Mooretown Rancheria office near Feather Falls Casino in Oroville already lends out materials in its library, which covers about three walls with books and videos, Archuleta said. The tribe got a similar grant two years ago, and was able to hire a part-time employee and buy a computer to catalog books and videos then. This year's grant will allow the Mooretown tribe to hire another part- time person and purchase cultural information and books on the tribe's history in the area, he said. This isn't the Mechoopda's first grant, either. About two years ago, the tribe got $2,000 to hire a consultant to help develop the library. The consultant helped determine the tribe's needs and set up goals and objectives for the library for the next couple of years, Schweninger said. "One of those goals is to be a place where tribal members can do research and to gather and obtain copies of important cultural and historical documentation pertaining to the tribe," she said. Santos also said he hopes to obtain historical photographs and communications between tribal members and government agencies. He also said the tribe hopes to expand beyond a library. "It would be our hope and our dream that at some time the tribe would be able to maintain its own museum," he said. "It's definitely our vision to expand this to a library that would be comparable to a professional library in the public or academic sector." Archuleta said the Mooretown tribe is in the process of setting up a small cultural museum on one of its properties and is negotiating with the county and city for help. Until the tribes' goals are met, both Santos and Archuleto said they will keep applying for grants to improve their libraries. Still, Santos said the grant money awarded this year will go fast and is just a step in a long process. "It will take many years, but we have patience," he said, later adding, "Patience is a key in tribal government." Copyright c. 2004 Oroville Mercury-Register. --------- "RE: Study of ancient Local Languages" --------- Date: Mon, 26 July 2004 08:57:39 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LANGUAGES STUDY REVIVAL" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.nctimes.com/~/science_technology/19_48_107_24_04.txt Study of ancient local languages seeing revival in North County By: BRUCE KAUFFMAN - Staff Writer July 24, 2004 SAN MARCOS - Palomar College teacher Linda Locklear became a student again this summer, enrolling in a class in Luiseno, a language indigenous to San Diego County and believed to be the first spoken here. It's the second summer she's studied the language in a formal Palomar course, a course the 30-year veteran American Indian studies professor lobbied for years to get in the regular curriculum for credit. A unanimous vote of the Palomar board of trustees in December 2001 put Luiseno, a language spoken in North County for centuries before Europeans arrived, into the catalogue. Now the movement is building to develop an entire new generation of people who speak this ancient language of several North County and Southwest Riverside County tribes, including the Rincon, La Jolla, Pechanga, Pauma and Pala. Luiseno, educators said in interviews this week, is spoken now by a sparse few and needs to be nurtured. And along with offerings this academic year that will advance the skills of those who took introductory Luiseno, the college for the first time this August begins a formal, for-credit course in Cupeno. It is among 90 to 100 pre-European languages native to Southern California, and the language spoken by a tribe known as the Cupeno who were forced in 1903 to leave its land in Warner Hot Springs and resettle at the Pala Reservation. Both Luiseno and Cupeno are now to count toward meeting the requirement in both the California State University and the University of California systems that students learn a foreign language in order to graduate, said Steven Crouthamel, the chair of the American Indian studies department at Palomar. At Cal State San Marcos, senior Shalene Molina is getting university credit for her study of Luiseno. She will have taken three ever-more advanced classes at Palomar by the time her undergraduate course work is done at the end of the fall 2004 semester. A human development major who lives on the La Jolla Indian Reservation, Molina, who describes herself as Luiseno, Cupeno and Diegueno, said Luiseno should survive to serve as a living expression of American Indian culture. "I just don't want the language to be lost," she said by phone from the reservation Friday. "It's important to carry it on." Molina is one of 425 students who have studied Luiseno and Cupeno in 16 non-credit and for-credit classes at Palomar since 2002, college officials said. Trial runs of the courses go back to the mid-1970s. By 2005, said professor Locklear, a plan to add Kumeyaay, the language of Los Coyotes, may be realized. Said Locklear, who took the course with her 6-year-old grandson, Narsall, "I can count to five (in Luiseno), I know my colors, and I can tell a story." The story is one that linguist Eric Elliott, the sole Luiseno teacher at Palomar, aims to have his students passing on in the original from generation to generation. In English, it would be called "Mr. and Mrs. Tiger and the Frog." The story, as Elliott related it in an interview Thursday, involves a boastful frog who is caught alone with Mrs. Tiger by her husband. The male tiger examines the frog's every tale and finds them to be full of falsehoods, including the frog's claim to have been a decorated soldier who can beat anybody up. "Do anything to me," the frog pleads with Mr. Tiger after being thoroughly unmasked, "but don't kick me into the pond." And that's exactly what Mr. Tiger does, as the frog swims off and survives because of the wiliness of his plea. It's about the eternal battle between truth and falsehood, said Elliott, and a worthy vessel to carry the intricate Luiseno language and instill its sounds and words in children. Elliott, 43, a part-time professor at the college and a married father of three who says he's very aware that he's a white man, taught the course for the first time in 2002 "live" at the Palomar Education Center on the Pauma Reservation. But after he was named to a full-time teaching post at the Pechanga Reservation, the Chula Vista resident turned to the World Wide Web and online classes as a way to solve the grueling problem of his commute. In 2003 and earlier this year, students heard Elliott teach the language spoken via audio stream after they linked to their electronic classroom from the college Web site at www.palomar.edu. For the fall semester, online video of Elliott holding forth will be added. "This is pretty revolutionary," Elliott said. "I don't know any place except Palomar that's trying to get these courses out there, especially in Southern California." Elliot studied with the late Villiana Hyde, a native speaker of the Rincon dialect of Luiseno who in "Yumayk, Yumayk" (translated as 'long, long ago') wrote down the fairy tales and various histories that were spoken and passed down through the generations. Her first book, "Introduction to the Luiseno Language," was published in 1971. Elliott expects to be working with a 19-year-old Palomar graduate and UC Riverside Native American studies major named Paul Miranda this fall semester as Palomar offers Cupeno online for the first time. Miranda, who grew up on the Pala Reservation and calls it home, said he would be the first Cupeno person to teach college-level Cupeno in the region. Miranda says he will draw from a English-Cupeno dictionary, complete with Cupeno legends, that has been in his family "a long time," a work by the late Rocinda Nolasquez called "Mulu'wetam." It's all the more important that the language be revived, Miranda said, because, along with the other indigenous languages, it was suppressed. "There was a story about one girl who spoke Cupeno in class and the nun took her tongue and put it on a frozen pole and a piece of it chipped off," Miranda said. Palomar's Locklear, a sociologist and a Lumbee Indian from the southeast part of North Carolina, said preserving languages such as Luiseno and Cupeno is vital because the words reflect the special views of the world held by those peoples. "You can't pray the same way in English," she said. "The songs are not the same, the world view is not the same. The language is really kind of the heart of the culture and, without the language, your culture is really deprived." ---- Contact staff writer Bruce Kauffman at (760) 761-4410 or bkauffman@nctimes.com. Copyright c. 1997-2004 North County Times - Lee Enterprises. Serving San Diego and Riverside Counties. --------- "RE: Tribal Elder co-writes Book to help save Language" --------- Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 11:46:04 -0400 From: MJLaBurt@aol.com Subj: Tribal elder co-writes book to help save language Mailing List: NDNAIM http://www.newsok.com/article/1281735/?template=news/main Tribal elder co-writes book to help save language NORMAN - At an age when many people are content to rest on past accomplishments, Creek/Seminole elder Linda Alexander, 87, still is working to preserve the language and culture of her ancestors. Alexander, along with two co-authors, has written "Beginning Creek," a college-level textbook on the language and culture of the Mvskoke-speaking peoples, the Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole Indians. The book was published earlier this year by the University of Oklahoma Press. Alexander's co-authors are her daughter, Bertha Tilkens, a consultant who helps translate and administer health questionnaires to Muscogee and Seminole people for OU's College of Nursing, and Pamela Innes, assistant professor of linguistic anthropology at the University of Wyoming at Laramie, who works with American Indian communities on issues of language revitalization and maintenance. Until her retirement several years ago, Alexander taught Mvskoke language classes at OU and at Oklahoma State University campuses in Stillwater and Tulsa. During a recent interview from her home in Norman, Alexander said she helped write the book in order to keep the Mvskoke language alive. "I did not want my language to fade away," Alexander said. "It's getting to the point where a lot of full-blooded Creek and Seminole Indians are getting educated in so many other things, but they aren't learning their own language. "And there are very few elderly Indian people left who know the language and are still able to explain things," she said. The walls of Alexander's living room display some prime examples of fine Oklahoma Indian art. On a tall shelf behind her favorite chair, dozens of photographs offer silent proof that Alexander, the mother of six, is the matriarch of a family that includes 31 grandchildren, 31 great- grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren. Alexander said she hopes Creek, Seminole and other Indian students attending college can use her book to study the Mvskoke language as a way of fulfilling their "foreign" language requirement for graduation. The 256-page volume begins with a basic overview of Creek history and language, then each chapter introduces readers to a new grammatical feature, vocabulary set and series of conversational sentences. Accompanying the book are two compact discs that provide translation exercises from English to Mvskoke and from Mvskoke to English, and help to reinforce new words and concepts. The two audio CDs also present examples of ceremonial speech, songs and storytelling, and include pronunciations of Mvskoke language keyed to exercises and vocabulary lists in the book. Alexander and Tilkens, both fluent Mvskoke speakers, also contributed brief essays on Creek culture and history, with suggestions for further reading. In addition to writing a book, Alexander also serves as a resource for OU music professor Paula Conlon, who teaches world music, Indian music and ethnomusicology classes at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Conlon, who is not Indian, is doing research on contemporary stomp dancing in Oklahoma. Alexander has served as a tour guide for many of the OU professor's visits to some of the state's 17 sacred stomp grounds. "I know Linda has learned things from me," Conlon said, "but she's taught me so many things about the Indian way. She's a treasure." Alexander also has taught Conlon how to strap turtle-shell rattles to her legs and "shake shells" at stomp and corn dances. "Linda and I go to stomp dances together, and stomp dances often can last all night or until 2 a.m.," Conlon said. "On the way back from them, Linda will tell me Creek stories to keep me awake while we're driving. "Fortunately, she has lots of stories." A favorite is Alexander's Creek story of how the turtle got the cracks in its shell, Conlon said. Whenever she can, Conlon tries to write down Alexander's stories or to record them. Alexander approves of that. "I'm not the type of person who says, 'That's a secret,'" Alexander said. "If you die and nothing gets out, then there's no record of the things you do know. "How can people learn if you don't tell them?" --------- "RE: ANALYSIS: South America's Indigenous Uproar" --------- Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 22:12:42 EDT From: MJLaBurt@aol.com Subj: ANALYSIS: South America's indigenous uproar Mailing List: NdnAim ANALYSIS: South America's indigenous uproar By LUCIEN O. CHAUVIN, Christian Science Monitor (Updated Tuesday, July 20, 2004, 12:44 PM) http://www.fresnobee.com/24hour/world/story/1505071p-8992270c.html LIMA, Peru (CSM) - Back in April, indigenous people in Ilave, on the shores of Lake Titicaca in southern Peru, lynched the town's mayor after accusing him of corruption, leaving the area in turmoil ever since. That same month, across the Andes in Brazil, a dozen indigenous people in the Amazon massacred 29 miners who were believed to be illegally extracting diamonds from their land. Next door in Bolivia, tens of thousands of indigenous protesters took to the streets last October to protest the government's energy policy, ultimately forcing the president to resign. They also killed a mayor for alleged corruption. And to the north in Ecuador, indigenous groups are asking the U.N. to step in to avoid bloodshed in an escalating conflict that they say is being stoked by the president. Across South America, some of the region's 55 million indigenous people have been making noise lately - sometimes violently - fighting against abject poverty, inequality, and scant political representation in. While the problems vary from country to country, they reflect the difficulties facing indigenous movements here as they attempt to translate gains made over the past decade into lasting political victories. "The challenge of the indigenous movement is to understand what it means to have political power, what we can do with it," says Tarcila Rivera, a Peruvian indigenous leader and chair of the Fourth International Meeting of Indigenous Women, held recently in Peru. The indigenous movement in Bolivia, for example, has been unable to coalesce around an individual leader or common agenda. While the two main indigenous parties were able to elect more than 30 lawmakers to the 130-member House of Representatives two years ago, they were on opposite sides of the aisle over Sunday's referendum on the future of the country's vast natural gas reserves. The referendum asked voters whether Bolivia should allow private energy companies to continue exporting its natural gas. Evo Morales, a native Aymara and former coca grower who leads the Movement to Socialism, campaigned in favor of the referendum, while former Rep. Felipe Quispe, also an Aymara, and his Pachakutik Indigenous Movement called on voters to boycott the vote and demanded nationalization of the energy sector. The government's plan, which includes export of the country's 55 trillion cubic feet of gas, won by a large margin, even in the heavily Aymara highlands around the capital where Mr. Quispe and his party are based. Despite losing by margins as great as 9 to 1 on one of the five questions in the referendum, Quispe told the Bolivian media that the fight was not over. Quispe preaches a blend of Marxism and indigenous nationalism, calling on his followers to reestablish the Aymara nation that existed before the Spaniards arrived in the 16th century. It is by far the most radical approach of the different indigenous movements in the region. Morales, though also a leftist, is looking to build a more traditional political base ahead of the 2007 presidential elections. Alvaro Garcia, a sociology professor at the San Andres National University in La Paz, says the fight between the two parties is a reflection of a fragmented indigenous movement that has different visions for the future of Bolivia. "What we are seeing is a moderate indigenous movement with the MAS building a political movement on one side, and a radical indigenous movement led by Mr. Quispe on the other. Mr. Quispe wants to continue the process of last October (when President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada was ousted), leading an insurrection that brings him to power," Garcia says. In Ecuador, the country's indigenous movement, one of the strongest in the world, could be splitting. In the 14 years since the first nationwide uprising in June 1990, which protested the use of natural resources, Ecuador's indigenous movement helped overthrow two presidents - Abdala Bucaram in 1997 and Jamil Mahuad in 2000 - and usher in important constitutional changes guaranteeing respect for their rights. In 2002 the movement was instrumental in electing current President Lucio Gutierrez. But indigenous leaders have since broken with Gutierrez citing his failure to follow through on campaign promises, such as scrapping the U.S. dollar as its currency and returning to the sucre. The country's principle indigenous groups are now calling for outside monitors. They have accused the government of instituting plans to divide their organizations and fuel violence. "Lucio Gutierrez took advantage of all the sacrifices made by the indigenous movement and then betrayed us. I believe that his goal is to eliminate the indigenous movement," says Luis Macas, a longtime indigenous leader who served as agriculture minister in the Gutierrez administration. Authorities in Peru are closely watching Bolivia, fearing that an uprising by Quispe could influence the already turbulent political situation in Ilave and other highland areas. Indigenous leaders in Peru blame President Alejandro Toledo for promising much and delivering little since campaigning as a champion of indigenous peoples in 2001. Even his creation of a National Commission of Andean, Amazonian, and Afro-Peruvian Peoples has failed to appease indigenous leaders. Most groups have pulled out of the commission and many have demanded that it be completely overhauled or simply shut down. Peru's indigenous leaders say the commission reflects the general way governments throughout the region have treated them since European conquerors arrived more than 500 years ago, appointing someone to speak for or represent them instead of respecting their rights. "We are tired of people speaking for us. We need to overcome the paternalism of the political system," says Abel Chapay, vice president of the newly formed Indigenous Parliament in Peru. ---- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. --------- "RE: Lawsuit pushes for parity with First Nations" --------- Date: Fri, 23 July 2004 08:41:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INUK SUIT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://north.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=jul22inuklawsu22072204 Inuk's lawsuit pushes for parity with First Nations July 22, 2004 EDMONTON - An Inuk lawyer who has lived in Edmonton most of his life is suing the federal government. Kiviaq, formerly known as David C. Ward, wants Inuit to get the same benefits as First Nations people. Kiviaq was brought to Alberta as a child and not raised as an Inuk. He's fighting the fact that the Inuit are not covered by the Indian Act. He says there are a number of things he wants out of the lawsuit. "Free medical. Free health. Free education. Tax exemptions. GST exemptions. Basically the same things that the Indians got," he says. "And an important thing, I know it seems like nothing to anyone else, but proof of my identity as an Inuk. "I have no proof that I'm Inuit. Indians have treaty cards, they have this, they have that, they have everything. We have nothing." Kiviaq says if the lawsuit is unsuccessful, he'll keep appealing until it is. He says, however, that the fight is much more urgent now because he is suffering from cancer. Copyright c. 2004 CBC. --------- "RE: Ind. Affairs, AFN to report on Education Funding" --------- Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 13:52:49 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="EDU FUNDING REPORT" http://www.kenoradailyminerandnews.com/ Indian Affairs, AFN to report on education funding in fall By Mike Aiken Miner and News July 23, 2004 Consultants from the Assembly of First Nations as well as Indian and Northern Affairs Canada are expected to report this fall on discrepancies in education funding for band-operated schools. Indian Affairs spokesman Doug Forbes said consultants have been studying the issue since January, and they are busy drafting their conclusions, he said, noting the final version is expected to be released in mid-September. "It's a very positive development," he said Forbes. "We're getting very good co-operation from across the country." Treaty 3 educators met with provincial officials Wednesday to discuss issues affecting schools on reserves, and one of the main complaints from aboriginal administrators was the apparent discrepancy between fees charged by public school boards in the area, when compared with the amounts they received in return from Indian Affairs. Locally, directors of education for band-operated schools can be charged $10,000 or more per student each year by public schools for children they send to neighbouring communities. However, they may only receive $5,700 per student per year from the federal government, which can lead to significant hardships, according to aboriginal educators. In the case of Shoal Lake, which sends about 40 students to high schools in Kenora, the shortfall could have a serious impact on their annual budget. Instead of spending money on textbooks, teacher training or additional programs, they have to spend it on tuition fees, said Elizabeth Mitchell of Big Grassy Wednesday. "This is a very legitimate concern and we're working on it," Forbes acknowledged. Forbes also said the difference in funding may be based on a difference in funding formulas. While school boards try to incorporate as many costs as possible into one fee, the $10,000 tuition, the reimbursements from Indian and Northern Affairs may come under several different headings. For example, on top of the $5,700 per student, bands may also receive additional amounts for operations and maintenance, minor capital, special education, band support funds for administration, as well as benefits for band employees. School boards may also charge additional fees for after-school programs, transportation to and from after-school programs, as well as remedial support programs. As technical experts from both Indian Affairs and the Assembly of First Nations struggle with the comparison of different funding formulas across the country, they will try to establish if a gap exists between the fees charged by school boards and amounts reimbursed by Indian Affairs, Forbes said. They will also try to determine if it costs more to educate a child on a reserve, who may struggle with more social or economic obstacles than there urban neighbours, Forbes added. If so, then Indian Affairs may need to take into account the need for more remedial programs and supports, when they establish a fair price for educating a student, he concluded. Education is often seen as the key to self-sufficiency for First Nations, and educators at Wednesday's conference in Kenora perceived the lack of adequate funding as a barrier. They also spoke of the need for stronger cultural and linguistic material in their schools, so that their children would have a strong sense of their identity, as well as improved self-esteem. Copyright c. 2004 Kenora Daily Miner and News. --------- "RE: Supreme Court takes Native Rights Case" --------- Date: Fri, 23 July 2004 08:41:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NATIVE RIGHTS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.theglobeandmail.com/~/BNStory/National/?query=aboriginal Supreme Court takes native rights case Canadian Press July 22, 2004 Ottawa - The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to sort out the question of whether the federal government violated aboriginal treaty rights in authorizing a road through the country's largest national park. At issue is a long-running dispute in which the Mikisew Cree First Nation claims its hunting and trapping rights were infringed by plans to build a winter road through Wood Buffalo National Park, which straddles the Alberta-Northwest Territories border. The case raises broader legal issues of whether treaty rights or federal environmental law and regulatory power take precedence in the sprawling, 45,000-square kilometre park, created in 1922 to protect the last herd of wood bison. The trial division of Federal Court sided with the Mikisew Cree in 2001, saying the natives had a constitutionally protected right to be consulted on the road before it was built. Justice Dolores Hansen ruled that, although federal officials had made some efforts to discuss the matter, their measures were inadequate. The Federal Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 decision last February, overturned the judgment. It said the treaty governing the Mikisew Cree, while it guaranteed their rights, also provided exceptions that would legally allow the building of the road. The Supreme Court, in a decision released without comment Thursday, agreed to review the matter. No date has been set for a hearing. The dispute centres on proposals by a group called the Thebacha Road Society to build a 118-kilometre winter road through part of the park to link with the Alberta highway system. The society is backed by the town of Fort Smith, NWT, and by various Me'tis and Indian groups. Proponents of the project say it would provide a shorter route from Fort Smith to Edmonton, making it easier for communities and families to say in touch in winter. The plan was approved, after a federal environmental assessment, by Parks Canada and ultimately by Sheila Copps, then heritage minister, whose responsibilities included the park service. The Mikisew Cree, whose reserve lies within Wood Buffalo National Park, say they are guaranteed the right to traditional hunting and trapping. They feared those activities would be disrupted by the road and went to court after initial efforts to discuss the matter with federal officials produced no agreement. The road would include a 200-metre wide corridor in which the use of firearms would be prohibited. There are also concerns about trapping in the vicinity of the road, the potential environmental impact and the possibility that increased access to the area could lead to increased poaching. Copyright c. 2004 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Inuit Lawsuit could revolutionize Aboriginal Law" --------- Date: Mon, 26 July 2004 08:57:39 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="KIVIAQ" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.canada.com/~id=e4f41d6b-6c5c-4be9-9c72-3f34727284d4 Experts say Inuit lawsuit could cost Ottawa, revolutionize aboriginal law Bob Weber Canadian Press July 25, 2004 EDMONTON (CP) - He has fought battles in the boxing ring, on the football field, in city council chambers, in courtrooms and against cancer. But Kiviaq's latest fight may have the most far-reaching consequences. The Edmonton Inuk, formerly known as David Ward, filed a lawsuit last week alleging Ottawa discriminates against his people. Legal experts suggest his efforts to win new federal benefits for Canada's 50,000 Inuit deserve serious consideration. They also say the action could rewrite the relationship between non- status Indians, the Metis, the provinces and the federal government. "If he were successful, it would be quite a revolution," says Peter Russell, a retired University of Toronto political science professor, who specializes in aboriginal law. Kiviaq, who won another court fight to change his name from Ward to the one his parents gave him, is suing Ottawa for providing greater education, health and housing benefits to status Indians than it does to the Inuit. The lawsuit, filed July 16 in Federal Court, uses the Charter of Rights to argue that Inuit should have the same status as Indians, who have access to a lengthy list of benefits, including money for post-secondary education. "The defendant's failure to treat the Inuit equally to Indians and other aboriginal persons in respect of the benefits outlined above is a denial of their right . . . and constitutes discrimination on the basis of race," the statement of claim says. Kiviaq has a point, says Russell. "That, to me, is a very strong argument. I can't see a reason in the world why an Inuit person shouldn't have the same access to that (education) program as another aboriginal person." Kent McNeil of Osgoode Hall Law School agrees, although he suggests Ottawa is likely to argue it has transferred its responsibilities to the Inuit by signing agreements with land claim organizations representing Canada's four main Inuit groups. "The federal government has tried to restrict its responsibility as much as possible," he says. But such organizations as the government of Nunavut have argued for years that land claims don't allow Ottawa to simply offload its aboriginal duties. "We're covering a large portion of Inuit health care even though that's not the case elsewhere for aboriginal people in Canada," says Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik, who is also a constitutional lawyer. "The federal government has offloaded those costs to us without the resources." Kiviaq's lawsuit could give Nunavut's negotiations a big boost, Okalik says. "I appreciate (Kiviaq's) efforts in this area." As well, there are as many as 1,000 Inuit living outside treaty areas who get no benefits at all. If Kiviaq succeeds in getting the federal government to accept some responsibility for them, other aboriginal groups are likely to follow. The Metis could make the same type of argument," McNeil says. So could non-status Indians, says Russell. "The federal government has always tried to offload its non-status Indians to the provinces. If court adopted (Kiviaq's) arguments, they would be playing into the provinces' hands. "It's a minefield and it's very full of fiscal consequences - not to mention political ones." But to Kiviaq, what matters is that the next generation of ambitious young Inuit don't have to go through what he did. "All I'm asking is to pay for our education so we can cope with your culture," he said when he filed the lawsuit. Kiviaq was raised by his mother and white stepfather in Edmonton after being born in Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut, in 1936. A self-described underdog and outsider, he turned to sports. He won provincial boxing and Golden Gloves championships and won 102 of 108 fights as a prizefighter. In 1955, he played halfback with Edmonton's Canadian Football League team - the only Inuk ever to be an Eskimo. He served on Edmonton's city council in the late 1960s and made a failed run for the mayor's chair in 1976. After a few years running an open-line radio show, Kiviaq entered law school. In 1983, he became the first Inuk to be called to the Canadian bar - an achievement reached with no federal or provincial help. A claim for $150,000 to reimburse him for education expenses forms part of his current lawsuit. He retired from his practice last year after he was diagnosed with cancer. For 20 years, he says, he has been battling the federal government for what he calls equal rights with other aboriginals. The current action, he says, is his last resort. "I've been writing back and forth with the government and getting nowhere," he says. "I finally said, 'Screw it, I'm going to sue.' " Copyright c. 2004 The Canadian Press. --------- "RE: Native Program aims to reduce Gang Crime" --------- Date: Tue, 20 July 2004 08:39:04 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FIRST NATION GANGS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.theglobeandmail.com//20040719/GANGS19//?query=aboriginal Native program aims to reduce gang crime By MICHELLE MACAFEE Canadian Press July 19, 2004 WINNIPEG - Garrette Courchene is a man of confidence, laughter and quiet authority as he leads a dozen young men in a drumming session on a warm summer evening at a downtown aboriginal community centre. It's just one of many signs the 37-year-old father of three has also found peace and purpose after years spent in jail, dealing drugs and rising in the ranks of Winnipeg street