From gars@speakeasy.org Tue Aug 17 18:07:24 2004 Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 15:46:21 -0700 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews12.033 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 12, ISSUE 033 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 August 14, 2004 Yuchi tseneaga/dog days moon Western Cherokee galohni/end of the fruit or drying up 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 & 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: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + ======================== "Nobody knew contemporary Indians - that they drive cars and dress like you and me." __ Gerald McMaster, Cree Artist Curator, National Museum of the American Indian +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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! In this week's first article (below),a petition is presented that asks the U.S. government to enact legislation preventing extraction of pipestone from Pipestone National Monument for any purpose except to construct pipes for designated tribal pipe carriers. It's almost a reflexive action to sign it, and a lot of good people have already placed their names there. Pipes and Native spirituality have been so badly abused, so disrespectfully used, that it seems second nature to say "well of COURSE there ought to be a law." But wait a moment to consider what exactly that request implies. It implies that the Indian nations can or should delegate their responsibility to protect their spirituality (first mistake) to a government that has been the worst of the abusers in the past (second mistake). It implies that the pipecarrying nations don't believe they can protect their own resources (third mistake). This petition rests on the assumption that the U.S. government has a benign interest in protecting and perpetuating Indian spiritual ways. Nothing could be further from the truth. Asking the U.S to regulate our traditions leaves foxes guarding the henhouse, and it further perpetuates the notion that the poor helpless Indians need the Great White Father to protect them from threats both from "the bad man" among the whites and those within their own nations. In short -- we look weak and unable to govern ourselves, let alone others. And that's exactly the way the U.S. government wants us to continue to appear. The only people who can put a stop to that appearance are Indian people, and one way is stop asking U.S. to be our daddy and make the bullies go away. We stop it by standing up and demanding that we be treated like sovereign nations (first we have to educate the President as to the meaning of "sovereign") with legitimate religious and cultural interests that we will protect in our own ways. For those reasons, I don't believe the tribes should ask the U.S. to govern how anyone, Indian or otherwise, mine or use pipestone (no matter how badly people have behaved in that regard). However, there are some things the U.S. and the tribes who traditionally hold those lands could do that would be culturally and spiritually appropriate, would place responsibility for protecting the stone where it belongs, and with the people who best understand that responsibility, and who at least claim to be willing to protect the traditions. What the U.S. could appropriately do and should be asked to do (and what it won't do--but I'd like to put them on record as refusing to do it) is immediately: 1) Deed all land with known pipestone deposits to a tribe or tribes with prior occupation rights to that area AS THEIR NATIONAL LAND, 2) Grant to the owner tribe(s) authority AS SOVEREIGN NATION(S) to enforce sanctions against anyone who mines that stone without their consent. That includes the rights of the tribe(s) to prosecute and punish non-Indians who disobey their laws, 3) Encourage international treaties between Indian nations as to mining rights and use of the pipestone. The petition is at http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?wakan&351 The second article is related to the first in many ways. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe's chairman has asked the federal government to "investigate issues" surrounding allegations that non-Indians were using eagle feathers as part of religious ceremonies (specifically sun dance). He goes on to say that the matter should be treated with greatest respect, and that he did not want rangers coming onto ceremonial grounds, shaking people down. I'm not sure, at this point, how the government is supposed to investigate these occurrences. This request is neither necessary nor appropriate. Again, the tribe is asking the federal government to meddle in its religious business. That is an inherently perilous request to make of the U.S. government. Consider the possibilities in light of a recent court decision regarding the religious use of peyote. Asking the U.S. to step in could have totally unintended results. Yes, the federal law prohibits anyone but enrolled members of federally recognized tribes from possessing eagle parts, so there is a legitimate federal interest. However, what has specifically been mentioned is a practice during a religious ceremony. Having not seen the Rosebud Sioux Tribe's constitution, I cannot say whether they have anything similar to the U.S. Constitutional amendment separating church and state. If the tribal government can make laws relating to the practice of religion on the reservation, then the tribe can pass laws regulating what their sun dance leaders do and what participation is legal within the ceremony, (although, again, without invading the ceremony, I wonder how they will obtain evidence to prosecute). The tribe can right now enact a law that on its land the possession of eagle parts by anyone other than members of its own tribe or an enrolled member of another tribe is prohibited. Tribal officers can then arrest non-Indians leaving sun dances with feathers in their possession and either prosecute locally or turn offenders and evidence over to the FBI for federal prosecution. The solutions to the problem are already in hand. Why would a tribe risk asking the federal government to meddle in its sacred ceremonies? Janet Smith +/// owlstar@speakeasy.org P. O. Box 672168 /*/+ OwlStar Trading Post Marietta, GA 30008, U.S.A. + / * http://www.owlstar.com * + ----------- News of the people featured in this issue ---------- - Canunpa Protection Petition - Agreement signed - RST raises questions on in Elwha Dam removal Eagle Feather Possession - Kerry vows to serve Indians better - One Nation, Two Worlds, - NMAI gives Aboriginals Part 3: City Indians a Face in Modern World - Trust Land decision - Cardinal disowns his Masterpiece for New Mexico Pueblos upheld - Tribes see Center - BIA overseeing as boon to Livelihood Land Consolidation effort - 30th Anniversary - Corn: the Kernel of Hopi Culture of Alcatraz Island Occupation - Court blocks State Laws - YELLOW BIRD: against Nuclear Dump Indian Vote gains strength - Tribes seek more Funds - First Nation compensated to improve Health Care for Hydro Projects - Opinion: - Residential School Gathering Open Tribal Recognition Case Files focuses on Healing - Settlement would bring Water - BIA investigating suicide to Navajo Homes at Yakama Nation Jail - Pioneer descendent - Native Prisoner takes on cause of Duwamish -- Mentoring Convicts' Kids - Oneidas host Runners and Riders - Rustywire: Stew Stands - Language, Culture Classes - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days build Navajo Pride - Rustywire Poem: Broken Thoughts - Many Tribes hold Rite of Passage - Upcoming Events --------- "RE: Canunpa Protection Petition" --------- Date: Sat, 7 Aug 2004 17:09:57 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CANUNPA PETITION" http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?wakan&351 [Editorial Comment: The following petition is being distributed on several Native List Serves and is available at the website listed in the above URL. Please carefully read this issue's editorial by Janet, and the petition below. Seek guidance from your elders, pray for direction from Creator and then do that which your heart tells you is right.] Canunpa Protection Petition ------ To: u.s. congress Whereas, the sacred Nakota "Canunpa" (misnomer "peace pipe" or "pipe") is made out of wood and also from a small piece of the "Ih e' Duta" Sacred Red Stone, a.k.a. "pipestone", which is harvested only upon Ihanktunwan DaNakota Homelands, the area which is today known as "Pipestone, Minnesota" and Whereas, this most Sacred Red Stone is in very limited supply and found only in this one single place in all the world, although there is a misconception that the stone is also found in Asia, and Whereas, the Sacred Red Stone of the Canunpa is in danger of extinction by greed and mining by the u.s. government and a few of its citizenry. It is against Nakota Natural Law, for example, to use a constructed Canunpa just to hang over a "mantle" or other type of "display" purpose, or to make "jewelry" or other "trinkets" out of the special and Sacred Red Stone, and Whereas, this rare, sacred rock was gifted to the Nakota People and is solely for the purpose of constructing the sacred Canunpa only, which directs the Seven Sacred Canunpa Ceremonies (sometimes referred to as the Seven Sacred Rites), and Whereas, the Canunpa is only to be cared for by a very few qualified Nakota and Indigenous caretakers, who are selected by their communities and who must conduct each of the Seven Sacred Canunpa Ceremonies within their communities throughout the year - a most difficult, time-consuming, and dedicated duty, and Whereas, the Seven Sacred Canunpa Ceremonies come directly from a dream vision of a Nakota person many millions of years ago. The ceremonies were received and are conducted in order to maintain balance and happiness within Indigenous Nakota communities through a series of "thanksgiving /appreciation" ceremonial exercises. Therefore be it resolved that exploitation through excessive mining and mass production for purposes of selling, trinket-making and all forms of "jewelry-making" of the Sacred Red Stone be immediately stopped and prevented, and Be it finally resolved that we demand congress adopt a pertinent law as to above and that exploitation and use of the Canunpa for anything other than its intended use be outlawed by the u.s. government. Sincerely, The Undersigned ------ The Canunpa Protection Petition Petition to u.s. congress was created by www.1851Treaty.com and written by Scott Barta (treaty1851@aol.com). This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form. --------- "RE: RST raises questions on Eagle Feather Possession" --------- Date: Sun , Aug 08, 2004 06:34 pm From: Janet Smith Subj: Tribe raises questions on eagle feather possession http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/9351134.htm Tribe raises questions on eagle feather possession Associated Press August 8, 2004 ROSEBUD, S.D. - Officials of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe want the federal government to investigate issues concerning possession of eagle feathers and parts by non-American Indians during religious ceremonies. Tribal President Charles C. Colombe sent the request to the U.S. attorney's office after receiving letters and complaints of the activity from tribal members. Allegations that non-Indian sun dancers had eagle feathers and were using them as part of a Lakota religious ceremony surfaced after a recent sun dance near Mission on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. "The only people who can legally possess or use eagle feathers or parts are enrolled members of a federally recognized tribe," said Bob Prieksat, resident agent in charge of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Pierre. "There's an exception to the law carved out for Indians, and that's where the standard comes into play," Prieksat said. Colombe said the issue should be treated with great respect and regard toward those who participate in sun dances. "We do not want any ceremonial grounds invaded and rangers shaking people down," he said. Tim Cournoyer, director of natural resources on Rosebud, said that while federal law prohibits non-Indians from possessing eagle feathers, there are no tribal laws or policies that direct the tribal resource rangers on how to proceed. A task force should be set up to establish procedures, he said. "There are a lot of emotional ties connected to this issue, and we are caught in the middle," he said. Prieksat investigated a similar incident two years ago on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. An Indian family had hosted a commercial sun dance, selling opportunities to foreigners to participate in the Lakota ceremony, and eagle feathers were included in the package. No arrests were made, but Prieksat said he has heard more allegations over the years and from those filing complaints. Prieksat emphasized that possession of eagle feathers, eagle-bone whistles, eagle staffs, war bonnets and other eagle parts is strictly prohibited. No medicine man or healer may legally grant authority to own such aviary treasures as gifts or merchandise, he said. ---- Information from: Rapid City Journal, http://www.rapidcityjournal.com Copyright c. 2004 Aberdeen American News. --------- "RE: One Nation, Two Worlds, Part 3: City Indians" --------- Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 08:35:04 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="URBAN INDIANS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_20040803_xnbliss.2b20ea.html One nation, two worlds, Part 3: City Indians August 3, 2004 BY PAUL DAVIS Journal Staff Writer PROVIDENCE - Every morning Michael Bliss dresses for work: slacks, print shirt, hawk feathers. He ties the feathers to a braid at the back of his head, shaved except for a black Mohawk band. When he walks, the feathers flutter behind him. Sometimes he wears a bone choker, as his ancestors did to protect against colonists' cutting their throats. "The knife hit the bone," he explains. The talismans bind the 43-year-old Narragansett to his Indian past - and give him strength for a modern battle, as a job counselor with the Rhode Island Indian Council. Bliss, once an amateur boxer, now fights to get Indians jobs, apartments they can afford, or money for school. "If you're a Blackfoot, or a Narragansett or a Crow, I consider you a part of me," he says. "Your ancestors and my ancestors went through the same thing." The clients who push through the council's massive oak doors at 807 Broad St. are among the city's poorest people. Those with jobs typically make as little as $15,000 a year, according to the council's executive director, Darrell Waldron. Many are unemployed. "They don't have new cars - they don't have cars at all," Waldron says. "They don't have phones. We're seeing Indians in their 30s and 40s that are testing at an eighth-grade level." It's a stressful job, Bliss says. But he's upbeat with his clients. A teetotaler and a nonsmoker and nonstop talker, Bliss is part counselor, part big brother - and part evangelist. "If you get on the right path," he tells them, "I'll get on it with you." BLISS, whose Indian name is Red Hawk, helps about 75 Indians look for work each year. One is Terrence Frye, a 19-year-old Narragansett. They went together last summer to NetWORKri, a Providence employment agency. After some small talk, caseworker Jan Campbell asked Frye a routine question: "Do you have any future court dates that could keep you from working?" "He's a good guy," Bliss said. "He doesn't have a record." Frye, in fact, was a promising applicant. A recent Hope High School graduate, the son of a Providence firefighter, he had a driver's license and lived at home. But without much experience, he qualified for few positions. Campbell scrolled through the descriptions on her monitor: Heavy lifting. Third shift. Fork-lift experience. Eventually, Frye got a job stocking a Wal-Mart warehouse for $8.25 an hour. He's still working there, and recently got a raise. Bliss counts him as a success story. Not everybody fares as well. "It's tough for my people to get jobs," he says. He ticks through the problems: "A drug test kills my people because a lot of them smoke marijuana. Alcoholism is bad, too. On Friday, they get their paycheck and then they party. On Monday they don't go to work." If they don't have a diploma, hospitals won't hire them, he says. A criminal record? They can't get in the door of big companies like Home Depot or Lowe's. "City Indians have it tough," he says. Take Dion Robinson, says Bliss. The 18-year-old Narragansett, who lived in a housing project on Dresser Street, he had clashed with the police a few times. But he dreamed of going to college. For three months, Robinson scrubbed floors and cut the grass at the Indian Council. Upstairs, at Career Tracks, he worked at getting a high school diploma. Then, on a hot July night last year, he yelled at someone in a red Jeep Cherokee with tinted windows. Someone in the Jeep pulled a gun and shot Dion in the torso. He collapsed inside the house on Harold Street where he'd been visiting friends and relatives, and was pronounced dead at Rhode Island Hospital. Police have yet to find Dion Robinson's killer. "NOBODY THINKS of urban-based Indians," says Waldron, a Wampanoag and Narragansett who grew up in East Providence. Yet more than half of Native Americans live in towns and cities. According to recent census figures, about 5,200 American Indians and Alaskan Natives live in nearly all of Rhode Island's 39 communities, but most of them live in greater Providence. The total could be as high as 8,000, says Waldron, because some Indians don't provide accurate information or refuse to participate in census counts. The Narragansett tribe, with about 2,700 members, is the largest Indian group in the state. Less than half live in Washington County, where the tribal government is based, and only a handful live on the tribe's 1,800 acres in Charlestown. Reflecting the national demographics, about 1,500 Narragansetts - about 55 percent - live north and east of Washington County, mostly in the cities. "People see Indians as noble savages in leather," Waldron says. "They never see them in a business suit, or buying groceries in the check-out line, or struggling to get into college." THE MIGRATION to the cities began in the 1950s, when the Bureau of Indian Affairs launched a relocation program, assuring tribal members they would prosper away from poor and crowded reservations. BIA workers passed out brochures on the reservations that showed executives behind desks or living in quiet suburban homes. They helped the new immigrants shop for soap, groceries and alarm clocks. But their new life rarely matched the government pictures, says Donald L. Fixico, an Indian and author of The Urban Indian Experience in America. Some did not speak English. Or they did not understand train and bus schedules and other necessities of urban life. Many could only afford to live in the poorest neighborhoods. Surrounded by whites, some city Indians felt uncomfortable with their own heritage; yet they could not blend in because of discrimination, Fixico says. Overwhelmed by prejudice, poverty and lack of opportunity, some Indians drank - or worse. In 1970, Fixico says, the suicide rate among Indians was twice that of the general population. Lester Fayerweather, who moved with his mother and 11 siblings to Providence from South Kingstown, remembers trying to get work with a Rhode Island Hospital construction crew in 1970. When he arrived at the job site, "they said they weren't hiring, to come back next week. At the end of three or four months, more than 250 people were working there and I still wasn't hired." He finally got a job - after he picketed the site. Even then, he says, he had to fight for a union card, to get other jobs or earn better pay. "You want to do what is right," says Fayerweather, who is on the Indian Council's board of directors. "You want to work. But sometimes you can't. It destroys people's lives." Eventually, Fayerweather started his own construction company and hired other Narragansetts. BY THE EARLY 1970s, Indians had opened dozens of social-service centers to help their people in cities around the country. William "Big Toe" Wilcox, a Narragansett, and several other Indians started the Rhode Island Indian Council on Washington Street in 1972. By the mid-1980s, the nonprofit had a staff of 27 and its budget topped $1 million. But the agency suffered cutbacks under President Reagan and subsequent administrations. Today, its budget is less than half a million dollars and the staff is around a dozen. The council got a boost - and new quarters - in 1995, with the donation of the former Steere House for Aged Men. Although the council had outgrown its second home, on Friendship Street, some board members worried that the 109-year-old building would be a financial black hole. But the Mashantucket Pequot tribe and then-Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. helped with repair costs. And Waldron had a vision. The shuttered four-story building, on a huge lot with a big yard, was a perfect location for Providence's urban agencies. To offset funding losses, the Indian Council began renting rooms. Now, about 50 groups occupy the renamed Algonquin House. They read like a Who's Who of inner-city agencies: Destiny House, the Liberian Community Association, Quisqueyain Action. The Indian Council helps about 900 Indians a year financially, or through a stop-smoking program, referrals and cultural programs. A few months ago, it won an award for its Providence work from the U.S. Labor Department. "If it wasn't for this house, we'd be hurting," says Waldron. THE HEAVY WOODEN doors rise up from a bank of gray steps and overlook Broad Street, an asphalt ribbon that passes Italian meat markets, Spanish groceries and Asian beauty parlors. Once, it was an Indian trail. And Providence was a winter home for the Narragansetts, Bliss says. "We didn't come over with Christopher Columbus," he says. "We didn't come over with the Pilgrims. We didn't come over with the African Americans. We were already here. "They tried to annihilate us in King Philip's War, but we're still here." Through his Pequot father and Narragansett mother, Bliss can trace his people to the region's early sachems. A more recent relative, the Olympic runner Ellison "Tarzan" Brown, soars over the streets of Boston in a 1939 newspaper clipping taped to the back of his office door. Elsewhere in the room are advertisements for powwows or photos of family members in tribal regalia. Bliss keeps a crow's head in a bag behind his desk. He plans to mount it on a staff one day. All help to keep his culture alive. At night, instead of watching TV, he glues beads on headbands. On Friday evenings, he teaches other Indians how to dance or make their own regalia. He carries a Narragansett Indian tribal card, but not a driver's license. "That's a European thing," he says. Although he's married to a hospital lab technician, he doesn't believe in doctors; he uses his bathroom shower as a sweat lodge, to steam away illnesses. Bliss and his wife, Junise, a Wampanoag and Pequot, and their children have demonstrated native dances in Rhode Island's public schools for years. But his council job is demanding and Bliss makes fewer school visits these days. Until recently, the family shared a duplex with his brother Chester on busy Douglas Avenue, near Providence College. Bliss recalls the time he started a ceremonial fire in his yard - and a neighbor called the Fire Department. At night, they heard sirens, yells from drunken students, and sometimes gunfire. His children did not live in an Indian world. "Their friends were white, black and Hispanic," he says. The family recently moved into a ranch house in Warwick, where they have a big yard where planes boom overhead. One day in his new school, Bliss' 13-year-old son got his braid caught in his shirt. Another boy cut it off with a pair of scissors. The boy was later suspended but Bliss is still troubled. It's just another example, he says, of the way the tribe's culture is ignored. Hair is sacred to the Narragansetts. "It shows your heritage, who you are," he says. "My son was scalped," Bliss says. It's not just the larger culture. He also worries that some of the tribe's children are losing interest in the past. "The generation is getting weaker and weaker," he says. "Instead of gaining ground, it seems we're losing it. "I would like my children to continue where I left off. If I don't teach my children about Indian things, who's going to teach them?" ON A LATE June afternoon, the blue sky above Broad Street is streaked with milky clouds. A crowd of children gather on the Indian Council lawn. They come from Providence, East Providence, Coventry, West Kingston and Woonsocket. For nine months, the children have been learning ancient and modern Native American dances from Bliss and his wife. Junise takes a group of teenage girls inside. In an empty room, they twirl and dip while doing the Eastern Blanket Dance, stretching their red, aqua and beige blankets behind them like wings. "It's hard to understand the beat of the drum if you come to the dance when you're older," Junise explains. "The circle is round and has strength. We want them on the inside, so they can become a stronger nation." Outside, with their backs to the street, a dozen boys practice the Arrow Dance. They move from a straight line into a V. "Don't bend your back, bend your body, bend your knees," instructs Bliss, his face partially shaded by a black cap that says NATIVE. The boys wear jeans, shorts, cargo pants, T-shirts and numbered jerseys. Their lean brown arms swing at their sides. The dancers thrust their knees into the air. Their sneakers and black shoes slap against the grass and cracked sidewalks. They turn one way, then another; they draw into a circle and utter high- pitched shrieks. Their steady steps create a drum beat on the grass and sidewalk, a rhythmic, blood-pounding sound that rises from the former nursing home and is lost in the cacophony of car horns, sirens and boom boxes on Broad Street. Copyright c. 2004 The Providence Journal. --------- "RE: Trust Land decision for New Mexico Pueblos upheld" --------- Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2004 08:12:17 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="PUEBLOS LAND DECISION" http://www.indianz.com/News/2004/003717.asp Trust land decision for New Mexico Pueblos upheld August 5, 2004 A Bureau of Indian Affairs decision to take off-reservation land into trust for New Mexico's 19 Pueblos was upheld by a federal appeals court on Wednesday. A group of non-Indians called Neighbors for Rational Development sought to block the trust land acquisition. Among other claims, the group said the BIA failed to conduct an environmental analysis, address jurisdictional issues and consider the impact on local tax rolls. A federal judge in Albuquerque initially agreed that the BIA's handling was faulty. But after more information was submitted, the judge upheld the acquisition. Yesterday, a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals did the same. They said the Neighbors couldn't stop the decision because it involved Indian lands, which are not covered under a federal law governing land title disputes. The judges returned the dispute to the lower court with instructions to end it. Located near downtown Albuquerque and just off a major interstate, the land in question has been used for the benefit of Indians for more than a century. It was set aside by an executive order in 1884. The BIA opened the Albuquerque Indian School on the property to serve students from the 19 Pueblos. The school, however, closed in 1981 and the land fell into non-use. The tribes made various attempts to clean up the property over the years but there was no major development. The plans changed when the tribes, through the All Indian Pueblo Council, sought to have the 44 acres placed in trust. They started work to use the land for commercial office space. The tribes plan to lease to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Indian Health Service and the Office of Special Trustee. At first, the city of Albuquerque objected to trust status for the land, citing zoning and property tax issues. But in December 2002, Mayor Martin Chavez and Pueblo governors signed an agreement to allow development to move forward. Under the 30-year agreement, he tribes will abide by city zoning and planning laws. In exchange, the city will provide municipal services to the property. The land is located across the street from the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. Copyright c. 2000-2004 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: BIA overseeing Land Consolidation effort" --------- Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2004 08:47:11 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TRUST LANDS CONSOLIDATION" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2004/08/09/news/state/state02.txt BIA overseeing land consolidation effort August 8, 2004 ABERDEEN (AP) - The Bureau of Indian Affairs' regional office here is overseeing a project to buy small tracts of reservation land that tribes will own and manage for the good of all tribal members. Sometimes, more than 1,000 people own a parcel of 100 or so acres, which creates bookkeeping nightmares for tribes and for the BIA, said Jim Geffre of BIA's Great Plains Regional Office in Aberdeen, which oversees South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska. "It's costing a lot of federal dollars to manage all these small land interests owned by Indians," Geffre, coordinator of the Indian land consolidation effort, said. "Consolidation will reduce administrative costs." The situation grew more complicated in the past century as landowners died and willed their property to several descendants, who in turn died and willed their interest to even more descendants. The idea is to buy the land from the multiple owners and transfer titles to the tribes who would manage the land in the best interest of all tribal members, Geffre said. Land will be purchased at fair market value from willing sellers only. Chickasaw Nation Industries of Ada, Okla., has the contract with BIA's Aberdeen office to complete the job, which is expected to take years. Chickasaw has hired 28 people from the Aberdeen area for the work. Copyright c. 2004 The Rapid City Journal. --------- "RE: Corn: the Kernel of Hopi Culture" --------- Date: Wed, 04 Aug 2004 20:54:16 -0700 From: "Chris Milda (_Akimel O`odham_)" Subj: Corn: the kernel of Hopi culture Mailing List: News and Information http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/metro/29945.php Corn: the kernel of Hopi culture Bonnie Henry July 14, 2004 Imagine a seed that can grow in sand or clay, withstanding heat, drought, wind and snow. No, it's not some miracle hybrid. It is corn, grown the way corn has always been grown on the high mesas of the Hopi Reservation. "Hopi corn has a unique feature. It has long roots and only grows 3 or 4 feet high," says Emory Sekaquaptewa, author, translator and research anthropologist at the University of Arizona. Next fall, a tour will be held in Sekaquaptewa's homeland, with a portion of the fees going toward Native Seeds/SEARCH. Founded in Tucson in 1983, Native Seeds collects and stores seeds from traditional crops, sharing them with Indian farmers of the Southwest. "In Hopi land, you have hot, drying winds, a short season, early frost, late frost and at least 5,000-foot elevation," says Kevin Dahl, executive director of Native Seeds. The organization has long been involved with the Hopi in seed banking and workshops, says Dahl. "In almost every family, you will have someone who farms." Folks who have the means and the time can sign up for the tour, set for Oct. 1-5 through Baja's Frontier Tours, 887-2340. Cost is $1,295 per person, double occupancy, which includes two $200 donations. One of those donations will be passed on to Native Seeds/SEARCH, the other to the Hopi Foundation, which works to revitalize the Hopi language and provide UA scholarships. And if you can't make the tour, it's always fascinating to pull up a chair inside Sekaquaptewa's tiny office on the UA campus and listen to him extol the wonders of corn - and the Hopi way. The corn is inextricably linked with the Hopi culture, which can be traced back hundreds of years to prehistoric Pueblo cultures, says Sekaquaptewa. "Hopis are different from what Americans think of as an American Indian," says Sekaquaptewa. "They were farmers, not hunter/warriors." As farmers, they coaxed from the meager soil beans, squash and more than a dozen varieties of corn. "White, blue, yellow, spotted, black and white," says Sekaquaptewa, counting off the colors. While the corn has remained the same, the reason for growing it has somewhat evolved. "When I was a child, it was a necessity. Now it's more of a religious duty," says Sekaquaptewa. "It is a symbol in everything that the Hopi people do." For example, during a marriage ceremony, the bride will grind corn to demonstrate "her willingness to care for her coming family," says Sekaquaptewa. When a child is born, it is wrapped in a cradle along with an ear of corn, he adds. "The corn signifies mother. We nurse from the corn." About 9,000 or 10,000 Hopi still live on the reservation in northeastern Arizona - a 50-by-70-mile patch surrounded by the Navajo Reservation. "We are an island nation," says Sekaquaptewa. Even so, the automobile now whisks this "island's" inhabitants to cities such as Flagstaff, Winslow and Phoenix. Then there's the Internet. "It is a distraction from everyday Hopi influence," Sekaquaptewa acknowledges. To counter such outside persuasions, every child, from kindergarten to high school, is encouraged to speak, read and write in Hopi - as well as English. "Lots of Indian people have lost their rituals. Ours are still there. We still do the marriage ceremony, and the baby-naming that goes on and on," says Sekaquaptewa. "As long as these cultural practices remain viable, the people will continue to raise corn." ---- Bonnie Henry's column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Reach her at 434-4074 or at bhenry@azstarnet.com or write to 3295 W. Ina Road, Suite 125, Tucson, AZ 85741. Copyright c. 1999-2004 AzStarNet, Arizona Daily Star. --------- "RE: Court blocks State Laws against Nuclear Dump" --------- Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2004 08:12:17 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GOSHUTE NUKE DUMP" http://www.indianz.com/News/2004/003714.asp Court blocks state laws against nuclear waste dump August 5, 2004 A federal appeals court on Wednesday dealt another blow to the state of Utah's attempts to block a tiny tribe from hosting a big nuclear waste dump. In a unanimous decision, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that federal laws and tribal sovereignty trumped state laws aimed at blocking the controversial facility. A three-judge panel said the Skull Valley Goshute Tribe and its partner, Private Fuel Storage (PFS), would suffer "direct and immediate harm" if the laws went into effect. "The Utah statutes are thus preempted by federal law," Judge wrote for the majority. The court added: "As to the Skull Valley Band, federal law has long recognized the tribes' interests as sovereigns in control over tribal lands." The decision strikes down a scheme laws that sought to impose large costs, taxes and other restrictions on the tribe's ability to accept up to 44,000 tons of radioactive waste. PFS, a consortium of eight private utility companies, would have had to pay at least $500 million in fees to the state and post a cash bond of at least $2 billion. The laws also made changes to transportation and road laws in an attempt to make it difficult for waste to be delivered to the reservation. The only road running to the reservation and the proposed facility would have been designated a state highway in hopes of giving the state more control. The state has been fighting the dump ever since the tribe's chairman, Leon Bear, signed a multi-million dollar lease with PFS. So far, the state's challenges have been rejected by the courts and by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal agency reviewing the project. The tribe, which has fewer than 150 members, is divided over the proposal. A group called Ohngo Gaudadeh Devia accuses Bear of corruption, misusing tribal funds and of running an illegitimate government. Margene Bullcreek, one of the group's leaders, has filed challenges against the dump as well. Last December, a federal grand jury indicted Bear on charges that he stole money from the tribe and lied on his tax returns. Some of the funds at issue allegedly came from PFS, which has provided an unspecified amount of money to certain tribal offices. Bear has pleaded not guilty to all the charges but Bullcreek and other activists say the indictment is reason enough for the federal government to deny the waste facility. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has given its approval for the PFS lease. A lawsuit the state filed to have the terms disclosed was rejected. Earlier this year, another federal appeals court threw out the state's challenge to the federal laws underlying the waste dump. The National Nuclear Waste Policy Act allows the licensing of private storage facilities, the courts have ruled. The tribe's lease will last up to 20 years but it can be extended. It is highly likely that the waste would continue to be delivered to the reservation beyond that date because Yucca Mountain, the federal waste repository's in Nevada, is tied up in legal and political battles. It won't open until 2010 at the earliest. Copyright c. 2000-2004 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Tribes seek more Funds to improve Health Care" --------- Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 08:35:04 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HEALTH CARE FUNDING" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001995339_smith03m.html Tribes seek more funds to improve health care By The Associated Press PORTLAND - Oregon Indian leaders pressed for improved tribal health care in a meeting yesterday with U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith. Delores Pigsley, chairwoman of the Siletz Tribe, told the Republican the tribes are in the middle of a health-care crisis. "We hope you will take a close look at what has happened to tribal health care," she said. Cheryl Kennedy, of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, said federal spending practices for health care are "appalling." She said the government spends about $5,500 per person, with that figure dropping to about $3,000 for inmates and $1,800 for American Indians. "We need an Indian health-care improvement act," she said. Kennedy added it was widely assumed until recently that Indians had no problems with AIDS or mental illness because the medical forms they filled out had no corresponding boxes to check. Smith said a federal health-care bill aimed at curbing teen suicide likely will pass in September and its provisions will affect American Indians. Smith, who lost a son to suicide a year ago, said: "Some kids come to us with certain hard-wiring. They are beyond our ability to help." He said legislation would, with parental permission, screen teenagers for problems that might lead to suicide, so they can be better treated. The bill passed the Senate without opposition and will be considered there again with any House amendments. Tribal leaders also pressed Smith on other matters, such as casinos, salmon and more money for tribal police. All of Oregon's tribes have casinos in operation or under construction. Copyright c. 2004 The Seattle Times Company --------- "RE: Opinion: Open Tribal Recognition Case Files" --------- Date: Wed, 04 Aug 2004 20:52:45 -0700 From: "Chris Milda (_Akimel O`odham_)" Subj: BIA should be forced to open tribal recognition case files Mailing List: News and Information http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=opinion&story_id=080304b4_benge BIA should be forced to open tribal recognition case files GEORGE BENGE letters@tucsoncitizen.com August 3, 2004 As a free society, we are driven, empowered and defined by information. Flowing from the Internet, the news media, vast print and digital archives, from satellites orbiting Earth, from vehicles on Mars and even from beeping devices attached to creatures in the ocean depths and remote forests, information is the glue that binds together our lives. Open, unfettered access to public information is a bedrock principle on which our nation was founded. The First Amendment to the Constitution, federal Freedom of Information laws and state sunshine laws protect access to vital information - particularly information about government actions and policies that affect our lives. Sadly, at the same time that historic attempts are being made to breathe the spirit of openness and transparency into the actions of Native American tribal governments, an effort is under way to curtail access to information in the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. A section of a bill adopted by the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs would impede access to information about actions taken by the head of the BIA on Indian groups' petitions for recognition. A letter sent to committee members Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., and Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, by public-information advocates said the measure was approved to allay BIA worries that "the extent, frequency and duplicative nature of FOIA requests" were creating a backlog. "Removing the acknowledgment process from FOIA is an unacceptable remedy for a backlog problem," the letter stated. It questioned why the entire petition could not be posted online "publicly and electronically, as required under the E-FOI Act" and urged creation of open "online dockets" for petitions for tribal recognition. Kevin Goldberg, a Washington attorney whose firm represents the American Society of Newspaper Editors, said putting this information online would make it easier for the BIA to meet the public's requests. "The major failing of our government's FOI policy is its failure to embrace technology to make things easier," Goldberg said. "You never want to see anything covered up. And this certainly could allow that to happen. We have seen more and more documents covered up. This has made it more difficult to see government abuses." Because of its sordid history as the federal government's agent of suppression and forced assimilation of Native Americans, its gross mismanagement of millions of acres of land held in trust for individual Indians and tribes and for perpetuating to this day what many consider a debilitating welfare culture among the more than 500 federally recognized tribes, the last thing the BIA needs is diminished public scrutiny. "It seems to me that this is going more in the wrong direction than they already were," Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and a co-signer of the letter to the Senate committee, said in an interview. "Our interest is in making sure that journalists covering Indian country have access to information they need about what's going on. Creating a new exemption to the FOIA is ridiculous." Dalglish added, "Indian country may be the biggest informational black hole out there outside of the CIA." Unfortunately, Dalglish's assessment of the secrecy that cloaks the actions of most Indian tribal governments is true. It is time for tribal leaders - and the BIA - to stop treating information about tribal issues as their private playground. The National Congress of American Indians concurs. In the historic 2003 resolution Support of a Free and Independent Press, the organization stated: "The NCAI supports the principles of free speech, free press and the rights of the people to have access to information and/or to communicate and express freely information and carry out media in an independent manner ... the NCAI encourages tribal nations to ensure Freedom of the Press and develop those media policies so the rights of the people will not be abridged." And the Native American Journalists Association has started Free Press Hotline, offering advice and legal referrals in support of "a free and responsible press in Indian country." That's a fine start. Now let's hope the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, tribal leaders, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and, if necessary, the full Congress heed the message. ---- George Benge, a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, writes on American Indian issues. E-mail: gbenge@gannett.com. Co[yright c. 2004 Tuscon Citizeb. --------- "RE: Settlement would bring Water to Navajo Homes" --------- Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 08:35:04 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DINE' WATER SETTLEMENT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.daily-times.com/artman/publish/article_13077.shtml Water settlement would bring Water to Navajo Homes By Jim Snyder/The Daily Times August 3, 2004 FARMINGTON - Abigail Yazzie, a Navajo, remembers as a child regularly drinking water meant for cattle, horses and sheep. The water was pumped from the ground into a trough by a windmill. It turned her teeth brown. She didn't know any better at the time. Her reservation home, located a couple of miles away, had no running water. A generation later, Yazzie, who earned a master's degree, goes back to visit her dad's house. It still has no water. Thousands of Navajos across the 27,000 square-mile reservation live this way. Yazzie was among those who spoke Monday evening at a public meeting at the Farmington Civic Center on why the Navajo Nation needs to obtain its own water rights. The meeting was chaired by the Interstate Stream Commission, the Navajo Nation and the state engineer. It was held to disseminate information on the revised draft for the proposed Navajo Nation water rights settlement on the San Juan Basin and to hear public comment. "We're concerned about (Navajo Nation) citizens who do not have water today," Navajo Vice President Frank Dayish Jr. said. "Just like Farmington (citizens), they want to be able to turn the faucet on and have water." The settlement must be approved by the Navajo Nation and the state of New Mexico. They hope to have it introduced to Congress this year and get it approved by 2006. Navajos have the senior water rights on the river with priority dates going back to 1868 - when the treaty was signed with the United States. The settlement is a compromise, said Dayish, State Engineer John D'Antonio, Interstate Stream Commission Chairman Jim Dunlap, Navajo Council Delegate LoRenzo Bates of Upper Fruitland and others during the meeting. "It's a win-win situation for all communities," Dayish said, because the Navajo Nation would give up 44 percent of its claim to non-Navajo water users in exchange for the settlement. Those water users can then seek their own water rights. The Navajo Nation will get a water right for 56 percent of the diverted water on the New Mexico portion of the basin - 606,060 acre feet annually, Dunlap said. The Navajos will also get nearly $1 billion in federal funding to build water infrastructure on the reservation - including a pipeline running south from Shiprock to bring water to numerous Navajo communities within New Mexico. "We have compromised a lot," Dayish said, in response to public criticism of the settlement. "We want to sit down and ensure Navajo, non- Navajo, all sit down and get the water we're looking for. ... We're not asking for water we don't need." The pipeline would end at Gallup. Navajo Council Delegate George Arthur, chairman of the natural resources committee, said recently Gallup would have to look at purchasing water from the Jicarilla Apache Nation - and not the Navajo Nation. D'Antonio called the settlement a necessity. "The drought is continuing," he said. "Our reservoirs are low all over the state. We have to actively manage our systems. ... We have got to get a handle of water management in the state." Passage of the Navajo settlement is instrumental in getting the 30-year- old New Mexico State Engineer versus The United States lawsuit settled. That suit seeks to adjudicate all water right settlements in New Mexico. There was some criticism of the settlement from the audience during the question and answer period. "A bunch of secret negotiations took place," said Zang Wood referring to a decade of closed-door talks between the state and the Navajo Nation on the settlement - which was publicly announced Dec. 5. "A lot of bureaucrats and lawyers come and say `Boy do we have a deal for you.'" Wood added, "I think the deal is going to be signed. I think we're flogging a dead horse here. It's going to take legal action." Dayish responded to Wood and other audience members, saying, "We can certainly sit back down at the table and ask for more water. ... The United States government has said to us, `to live on the reservation you should have water for everyone.' That has not happened." Bates added to audience members who were critical of the settlement, "You talk about give and take. I ask you, what have you given up? We compromised 44 percent of what we think is our inherent right. That is a considerable compromise." Yazzie, who drank water from a trough as a child, was disheartened by the criticism she heard in the audience. "It hurts my heart. We all live on water," she said, adding the river does not ask what color people are. On the Web: Proposed Navajo water settlement www.ose.state.nm.us ---- Jim Snyder: jims@daily-times.com Copyright c. 2004 Farmington Daily Times, a Gannett Co., Inc. newspaper. --------- "RE: Pioneer descendent takes on cause of Duwamish" --------- Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2004 08:47:11 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DUWAMISH GRASS-ROOTS SUPPORT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/185419_gcenter09.html?source=rss Descendant of Seattle pioneer takes on cause of Duwamish Tribe By LEWIS KAMB SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER August 9, 2004 Credit a third-grade curriculum for turning a Bellevue mom into accidental activist and awakening what she calls her "pioneer blood." But so it was that through her son's classroom history studies, 46-year-old Amy Johnson reconnected to a family heritage steeped in Seattle history - and in the process, spearheaded what many view as a long overdue gesture to a long-neglected people. Amy Johnson, the great-great-great-granddaughter of Seattle pioneer David Denny, one of the original white settlers who arrived in 1851, sits at the Alki Point historic marker marking the birthplace of Seattle. Now, Johnson's simple idea of bringing together descendants of Seattle's founding families to offer thanks to descendants of this area's first people is growing into a grass-roots political cause, one that seeks to ensure that the Duwamish Tribe obtains the recognition Johnson and others say it rightfully deserves. "I feel a responsibility to the Duwamish, and I feel that an injustice has been done," says Johnson, a free-lance photographer. "I think this is what my ancestors would want me to do." The ancestry Johnson speaks of - one that for most of her life she admittedly ignored - is her place among one of the most famous families in Seattle history. Johnson is the great-great-great-granddaughter of David Denny, who on Sept. 25, 1851, arrived in Elliott Bay with pioneers John Low, Lee Terry and R.C. Fay, becoming the first of Seattle's founders to set foot on the Indian land that would become Washington's largest city. Denny's arrival came during a scouting expedition in search of homesteading claims for his family and the Borens, both of whom had set out by covered wagon from Illinois five months earlier. While the rest of his party camped in Oregon, Denny plied the waters north, seeking the ideal spot for settlement. And when he found it among the Duwamish's traditional lands, he sent word back for the rest of his party to join him. Seattle's founders soon did, arriving Nov. 13, 1851, in the schooner Exact at Alki Beach, greeted by Indian chief Sealth. It was Sealth's name the pioneers would take for the city they would build. And it was his people, the Duwamish, who would help the settlers survive their first winter, offering food, shelter and protection. Later, the tribe would sign a treaty with the federal government, ceding more than 54, 000 acres of tribal lands where the city now stands. But although the pioneer city would eventually flourish, the tribe was mostly forgotten. Today, the Duwamish remain unrecognized by the federal government, leaving the tribe ineligible for money for social, cultural and governmental services - and a chance for a reservation. Growing up, Amy Johnson knew vaguely of her pioneering pedigree, "but I really knew nothing about the Duwamish." Though her father, Andrew Harris, tried to engage her in family history, Johnson says she never showed much interest. Then about two years ago, as her third-grade son's class studied Seattle history, the past came rushing back. Johnson agreed to speak to the class - decked out in pioneer garb, in the role of Louisa Boren Denny, David Denny's wife. The role playing kindled a quest for knowledge. And soon Johnson began researching family history, even seeking out her father's stories that, as a child, she'd mostly ignored. It was then she learned of the Duwamish's plight. "I remember telling my dad, 'Dad, we're going to help the Duwamish someday.' " Johnson says. "I didn't know how, but I just knew." Earlier this year, Johnson attended a speech given by Cecile Hansen, longtime Duwamish Tribal chairwoman, and heard of the Duwamish's attempt to obtain federal recognition. For 25 years, the tribe had petitioned for federal acknowledgement. In the final hours of the Clinton administration, the tribe briefly obtained the status. But the incoming Bush administration soon reversed that decision, ruling the tribe did not meet three of the seven criteria required for the status. "When I heard that," Johnson says, "a light went off." Her idea was to bring descendants of Seattle's founders together with tribal descendants, "just to say 'thank you' to the Duwamish." "The pioneers prospered, and the Duwamish were forgotten," Johnson explains. "Without them, my ancestors - probably the city - would've never made it. To me, it was payback time." Through calls and e-mails, Johnson tracked down descendants of five other founding families. And together they formed "The Descendants Committee." Soon, the idea Johnson had envisioned as a small gathering on Alki Beach with "maybe 25 people at most" swelled into the formal "Coming Full Circle" ceremony that brought more than 250 people together at the Museum of History & Industry on July 31. The event - replete with Native singing and drumming, gift presentations, oral histories, speeches and a reception - for the first time brought several tribal and pioneer descendants together. "It was uplifting for everyone who was there," says Hansen, the tribal chairwoman. "That they would think of saying thank you after so long just warms my heart." Among an array of symbolic gifts given to the tribe, Hansen noted, was a bottle of clam juice - a drink that more than 150 years earlier the Duwamish had given to a stricken pioneer mother to help her nursing baby survive. And although the event to honor the tribe has come and gone, Johnson says, the committee lives on. Now, committee members and their allies want to take a more active political role in helping the Duwamish, with two goals in mind. First, the committee intends to help the tribe raise matching funds for the Duwamish Longhouse project - a tribal cultural center the Duwamish plan to build on a recently bought tract along West Marginal Way Southwest. For 570 tribal members, mostly scattered throughout Washington, the property is the only land their tribe has owned since giving up the acreage where the city now stands. Already, The Descendants Committee has donated $8,800 for the longhouse project, and attendees of the recent "Full Circle" event have offered to develop a marketing strategy to raise the tens of thousands more that the tribe still needs, Johnson says. Next, the committee aims to do what it can - through political connections, letter-writing campaigns, whatever - to see to it that the Duwamish receive federal recognition. Although Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., introduced a bill early last year to get the tribe recognized through Congress, it has languished in the House Resources Committee. Though the group is brainstorming what actions it can take, The Descendants Committee is committed to achieving both goals for the Duwamish. "I'd love to see the recognition issue get to the point where we stir debate between John Kerry and George Bush, quite frankly," says committee member Peggy Berry-Nugent, a Bellevue business consultant who traces her heritage to the John Low family. And Johnson says she hopes her committee's cause will extend "beyond just a small select group of descendants." "I hope all people of the city share the same gratitude toward helping the first people of Seattle," she says. "We welcome everyone to join us." In the meantime, Johnson says, the awakening to her family's past - and to the Duwamish's plight - already has paid personal dividends. "It was empowering for me to see that we, as individuals, can make things happen," she says. "And why not? Our ancestors built this city. I guess that pioneer blood is still in me." TO LEARN MORE: For more information about The Descendants Committee, e-mail Amy Johnson at johnson_amy@netzero.net. To learn more about the Duwamish Longhouse project, contact the Duwamish Tribe at 206-431-1582. P-I reporter Lewis Kamb can be reached at 206-448-8336 or lewiskamb@seattlepi.com Copyright c. 1996-2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. --------- "RE: Oneidas host Runners and Riders" --------- Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2004 10:21:49 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RUNNERS & RIDERS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.greenbaynewschron.com/page.html?article=126982 Oneidas host runners and riders By Anna Krejci News-Chronicle August 7, 2004 Runners and riders on horseback arrived in Oneida on Wednesday to spread a message of coexistence and peace. They came from a variety of American Indian tribes and backgrounds and traveled from Manitoba to Ontario, Canada, to spread a message of unity on the Unity Ride and Run 2004. The ride and run began in Sioux Valley, Manitoba, and will end in Six Nations of the Grand River, Ontario, late this month for the beginning of the Indigenous Elders Summit. The Oneida Tribe of Indians is hosting the group of approximately 50 runners and horseback riders and 15 horses until they leave for Ludington, Mich., on Friday. "Their message, not only is it going to unify all native nations, but our own community," said Dionne Jacobs, who is helping to coordinate the travelers' stay on the Oneida reservation. The visitors traveled 35 to 40 miles per day, but during their rest in Oneida, they will share stories, tell their message, play games and eat. The precursor to the Unity Ride and Run began in 1986 when Lakota Elders organized a run in memory of the Wounded Knee massacre of 1890 when 400 men, women and children were killed. The trip was based on a vision of the Sacred Hoop. It told them the nation had been damaged by the massacre and prophesied the Lakota Nation would travel the paths of their ancestors to rid themselves of tears so future generations could live a better life. Tim Torrez, a member of the Oneida and Stockbridge Tribe of Indians, who attended the welcome ceremony, said the arrival of Wednesday's newcomers is a step toward correcting the disconnected hoop. "This is all part of mending that, coming together, healing, healing our nation," Torrez said, and when he said "nation" he meant the human race, all people. In 1990, the run was named the Unity Ride and Run because its founders came to realize their prayers were for everyone. The 1990 run extended into Canada. The riders' and runners' arrival on Wednesday marked the first time the Unity Ride and Run has come to Iroquoian territory. Vickie Cornelius stood on the roadside and cheered for the newcomers' 10:30 a.m. arrival. "To me, it's more of a spiritual thing, that they're doing this walk," she said. "To me, I look at these walkers and runners and what they're giving up," she said, adding that some of them had been traveling since June. "We all need to honor their commitment, and what they're doing, and support them in any way that we can," she said. Bob Brown, cultural advisor for the Oneida Tribe of Indians, delivered ceremonious words to the travelers during an official welcome. In the ceremony, soft white buckskin was used to clean the dust from the travelers' eyes, while eagle feathers cleared their ears and spring water cleared the dust from their throats so they can deliver and receive messages. "It's our custom when we have people from other nations that come into our territories - it goes back many generations - that we express these words to the visiting nations, and welcome them into our communities, into our nations," Brown said. Danielle Harris, 17, was one runner ceremoniously greeted. She joined the ride in Floodwood, Minn. "I just enjoy everything that happens on a Unity Ride. You get to meet people, you get to travel to places instead of just being home, sitting around and watching TV," Harris said. "Here you get to learn what your culture is, learn what you are, what you're about, your life," she said. Harris, who was about to eat lunch, said she would be tempted to stay because of the warm hospitality she had experienced so far on the Oneida Tribe of Indians Reservation. While other runners were entering into strange territory, Lahnetahawi, a member of the Oneida Tribe of Indians, was returning to a familiar place. He traveled about 100 miles to meet the runners and riders so he could run with them. Having run competitive triathlons that were starting to take its toll on him physically, he said the Unity Ride and Run gave him the chance to participate in a noncompetitive trek. He said he found himself searching for the point behind the competition of his races and he retired his running medals into wind chimes. For Lahnetahawi, the ride helped him to focus outside of himself and to realize he was participating in the run for the cause of uniting with others. "To not be selfish is a lot of work," especially in a society where capitalism is valued and the United States can occupy a country through money, he said. The Unity Ride and Run offered a way of life outside of an individualistic, commercially driven culture. "In the Indian way, you're always trying to do things for people, even if it's nontribal people," he said. Sahonwese Elijah, 16, a member of the Mohawk Tribe of Indians, planned to join the Unity Ride and Run from Oneida. He wanted to partake in the cross-country trek until it concludes. He said he was making the trip as an representative for the Mohawk Tribe of Indians, to introduce himself to new people and to know himself better. Copyright c. 2004 Green Bay News-Chronicle. --------- "RE: Language, Culture Classes build Navajo Pride" --------- Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2004 10:21:49 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DINE' CLASSES" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/~navajolang0807Z1.html Language, culture classes build Navajo pride Mikaela Crank The Arizona Republic August 7, 2004 Carolene Bitsui left the Navajo Reservation in 1997 to pursue her education. Over the years in the Valley, she obtained her degree in drafting and began working as a draft technician at Wilson and Co., to support her daughter and two younger sisters in Mesa. But through her journey, she had to cope with her homesickness and the cost of not living in a Navajo environment. She was neglecting her language and losing her heritage. That all changed in 2000 when she took a Navajo language and culture class at the Phoenix Indian Center. The classes resume on Aug. 23, with an enhancement: Children's classes will be offered for the first time. Bitsui, 29, has already enrolled her 8-year-old daughter RoeShae in the class. She wants her daughter to learn Navajo so she doesn't have to go through what she went through. "It was embarrassing when elders would ask me questions and I couldn't respond," Bitsui said. "I have been in the classes for three years now and it has improved my confidence. When I go home, I can speak to my family, and they are proud that I am learning." RoeShae already has taken cultural courses with Freddie Johnson and has become more proud of her heritage, Bitsui said. "She is more excited about her culture and she can say her clans in a drop of a hat," Bitsui said. "Her friends would always ask questions about her culture and she didn't know how to answer, but now she is able to tell them about it." The high volume of requests from parents helped initiate the kindergarten through third-grade course, said Navajo language instructor, Rachel Antonio. Since 2000, Antonio has been the primary language teacher and will be teaching the children's class. "A lot of Navajos don't learn their native language because they moved to the city for jobs and school," Antonio said. "The classes really help them learn the values and principles as a Navajo. We need to keep the language alive down here (Phoenix)." She also said she has seen the program grow tremendously. In the beginning it was difficult for the Dine' College teacher graduate to create a curriculum and get the word out. After the first year, the interest and demand increased. Antonio began to teach beginning, intermediate and advanced adult language classes. The curriculum contains regular assignments and exams of the basic principles of the Navajo language. There are two classes a year, limited to 30 people for each class. Established in 1947, the Phoenix Indian Center has been a facility for urban Native Americans to get job training, educational resources, and interact with other tribal members. It is a prominent tool in the Native American communities to experience a successful city lifestyle, but keep ties with their native roots. "It's a great program," Bitsui said. "I want my family to be proud of being Navajo." -------------- FYI Sidebar -------------- Navajo language lessons WHERE: Phoenix Indian Center, 2601 N. Third St., Suite 100, Phoenix. WHEN: Beginning Aug. 23. COST: Free. DETAILS: Registration required. (602) 264-6768. Navajo words Here's a minilesson in the native language: Y-'-tE'E'h: Hello. H-'goUnee: Goodbye. MUsI': Cat. BE'E'gashii: Cow. Gah: Rabbit. DibE': Sheep. K'aalUgii: Butterfly. Bilas-anaa: Apple. GE'eso: Cheese. AhwE'E'h: Coffee. Ak'--n: Flour. B--h: Bread. MandagI'iya: Butter. -------------- end Sidebar -------------- Copyright c. 2004 Arizona Republic. --------- "RE: Many Tribes hold Rite of Passage" --------- Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 08:35:04 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="PASSAGE FROM GIRLHOOD" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.daily-times.com/artman/publish/article_13082.shtml Many tribes hold rite of passage By Valarie Lee/The Daily Times Aug 3, 2004, 09:55 pm FARMINGTON - The passage of rite of girlhood into womanhood has been going on for thousands of years. For the native peoples of North American, the passage is celebrated with ceremony in hundreds of different ways. Just ask the cultural director of the Hopi tribe in northern Arizona. Hopi Cultural Preservation Office director, Leigh Kuwanwisiwma, said the Hopi tribe does have a puberty ceremony for their Hopi females, but said to share any information about Hopi religious ceremonies would go against the belief of the Hopi people. It is also unacceptable for a non-Hopi to ask for traditional information. Any information really. "That stage (of the girls life) is very profound and we would like you to honor our request to not share that with your readers," Kuwanwisiwma said. When asked if he could give a basic outline of what takes place, the director politely and kindly declined. "I'm not at liberty to discuss what happens in any ceremony involving the Hopi people. I think that we do have concerns by respective Hopi villages because in the past, people have been too liberal in giving information. Our traditional practices are so very sacred and we hold them dear and wouldn't want any information shared with others. It's sacred to us," Kuwanwisiwma said. That belief is shared by other tribes as well. The Jicarilla Apache Nation is just as protective when it comes to sharing cultural information. But Nora Doctor, 53, with Jicarilla Culture Center reluctantly said some families choose to have a coming out feast for the girl when she has her first menses. The feast is held over a four-day period and is usually sponsored by the girls' parents. Doctor said she would not comment on the specifics of the ceremony and said all interested people who wish to attend a feast must first get the permission of Jicarilla Tribal Vice President Lamavya Caramillo. For the Laguna pueblo, the ceremony is strictly a private family affair. Ronica Cheromiah, 32, said she remembers when her time came and how the female members of her family gathered around to make sure she understood what was taking place. "When they had my ceremony they gave me presents and it was like a `welcoming to womanhood.' I got gifts like jewelry, cosmetics and stuff that I could use as a woman," said Cheromiah laughing. The event was meant to be an acknowledgement of a new stage in her life and some serious topics were also discussed. "They provided information on how to take care of myself. I had a grandmother, cousin and immediate family come over. We had a little get together, a girls get together, and they explained things to me like I couldn't play with ants or cross over ant piles. I was told to not touch my face," Cheromiah said. "There's a lot I can't tell you because of our traditional beliefs. You had to get initiated to get the reason why you didn't do certain things," Cheromiah said. "My daughter is 13 and I plan on doing this for her. I tell her this is who you are and this is what you do. I feel like if we don't practice this, then it will be taken away from us," Cheromiah said, "and that's terrible because our culture is all we have." Copyright c. 2004 Farmington Daily Times, a Gannett Co., Inc. newspaper. --------- "RE: Agreement signed in Elwha Dam removal" --------- Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2004 10:21:49 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RIVER RETURNED TO SALMON" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.thesunlink.com/redesign/2004-08-07/local/200408075891.shtml Agreement signed in Elwha dam removal Port Angeles The Associated Press August 7, 2004 PORT ANGELES - A long-delayed project to remove two dams on the Olympic Peninsula's Elwha River received official approval as members of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe joined the city and others to sign an agreement allowing the project to move forward. The city of Port Angeles, the National Park Service and tribal members signed the agreement Friday to begin work on the $182 million plan to restore the Elwha, once one of Washington's most productive salmon rivers. The project is set to start in 2008. It was approved by Congress in 1992, but has been stalled as negotiations dragged on over its impact on local communities. The Port Angeles City Council approved its participation in the plan earlier this week. However, Mayor Richard Headrick, voting against it, expressed concerns over potential effects on the city's water rights and supply. An advocate of the proposal, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, attended Friday's signing at the Port Angeles City Hall. "We're moving on this quickly. This is going to be a major historic project, removing these two dams and restoring salmon habitat," Dicks said Friday. "We're very excited about this. This will be a major accomplishment." Approximately 145 dams have been removed in the United States since 1999, but the two Elwha dams are the largest. "This will be an enormously important precedent for dam removal," Elizabeth Grossman, author of "Watershed: The Undamming of America," told The Seattle Times. "People will definitely look to the Elwha as evidence of whether this kind of project can really work." Workers will dismantle the 108-foot-tall Elwha Dam and the 210-foot-tall Glines Canyon Dam in stages, reopening 70 miles of salmon and steelhead spawning habitat. It will take up to three years to remove the dams, which were built for hydroelectricity more than 70 years ago without fish ladders a violation of state law. They have choked off the salmon runs for most of the past century. Fisheries biologists estimate that the current annual wild run of fewer than 5,000 fish is slightly more than1 percent of its historic level. Removing the dams will release sediment 18 million cubic yards of dirt and gravel that will initially degrade the river's water quality. Scientists will study how that much sediment will effect the river bed, the delta and the spawning habitat of fish. The federal government will put $70 million toward construction of a water-treatment plant in Port Angeles, while the Lower Elwha Klallam Reservation will receive a sewer system, raised flood-protection levee and fish hatchery. Copyright c. 2004 The SUN, Bremerton, WA. --------- "RE: Kerry vows to serve Indians better" --------- Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2004 08:47:11 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="KERRY/BUSH" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.twincities. com/mld/twincities/news/nation/9352843.htm Kerry vows to serve Indians better Bush family hears sermon on sharing wealth Associated Press August 9, 2004 GALLUP, N.M. - John Kerry pledged at an intertribal Indian powwow Sunday evening to honor treaties and consult on national issues like health care. "When I take the oath of office as president of the United States," he told 5,000 people at Red Rock State Park, "I will uphold the law of the land, and that includes treaties and the special relationship that exists between the United States and the Indian nations." Meanwhile, in Kennebunkport, Maine, a clergyman Sunday implored his affluent congregation, including President Bush's family, to jettison their material possessions, gently mocking George H.W. Bush's struggles on the golf course to drive home his point. Kerry, standing in the center of a circular outdoor amphitheater, pledged to arrange a posting in the White House for an American Indian to "advise me on how we can respect the (Indian) nations." "It is a sad fact that one-third of Native Americans lack health insurance, and it's a sad fact the life expectancy of Native Americans is lower than other groups," he said. "We spend more money on the health care of federal prisoners than we do on the health care of Native Americans." After his appearance in Gallup, Kerry's campaign train rolled west for Flagstaff, Ariz. Earlier, in an interview on his train in Colorado, Kerry said Americans should do more to protect themselves against terrorism by setting up neighborhood watch groups. "If we do that to protect ourselves against vandals or a burglary, why would we not do it to protect ourselves against a terrorist?" Kerry asked during the interview, in which he was joined by running mate John Edwards. In Kennebunkport, the Very Rev. Martin Luther Agnew preached Sunday to a packed Episcopal church just down the road from the Bush family's seaside estate. Its oceanfront parking lot was filled with luxury cars made by Jaguar, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo, testament to the wealth of the summer visitors at this southeast Maine resort. "Gated communities," Agnew said, "tend to keep out God's people." But, he said, "Our material gifts do not have to be a wall." "They can very well be a door. Jesus says, 'Sell your possessions and give alms,' " Agnew said. "I'm convinced that what we keep owns us, and what we give away sets us free." Agnew, a guest minister from Louisiana whose summer assignment ended Sunday, ended his sermon with a joke about the first President Bush's battle to chip a golf ball out of an anthill. Swinging the club in a mock re-enactment, Agnew said Bush had swung twice and whiffed completely, wiping out hundreds of ants. The ants got together and agreed: "If we're going to live, we better get on the ball!" The former president sat stone-faced through this parable, even as his family, including the current President Bush, looked at him and smiled. The ex-president gamely high-fived Agnew when the priest approached the second pew. Also on Sunday, retired Gen. Tommy Franks, producer of the early military successes in Afghanistan and Iraq, said that criticism of Kerry's war record is political hyperbole and Kerry is "absolutely" qualified to be commander in chief. A year into retirement, Franks also said he has not decided whether to endorse Bush for re-election. "I don't know yet. I'm leaning in that direction," he said on ABC's "This Week." Franks, whose hometown is Midland, Texas, has been making television appearances in recent days to publicize his just-published memoirs, "American Soldier." "Do you think Senator Kerry is qualified to be commander in chief?" Franks was asked. "Absolutely!" he said. But like the criticism of Kerry, the retired general said the Democratic nominee's recent harsh words about the war plan Franks created in Afghanistan were motivated by politics and his failure to capture al-Qaida network leader Osama bin Laden. Copyright c. 2004 St. Paul Pioneer-Press. --------- "RE: NMAI gives Aboriginals a Face in Modern World" --------- Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2004 10:21:49 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NMAI" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.thestar.com/~pageid=968867495754&col=969483191630 First nation building A stunning new museum gives aboriginals a face in the modern world JUDY STOFFMAN, ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER August 7, 2004 WASHINGTON, D.C. - When the new National Museum of the American Indian opens here on Sept. 21 amid a flurry of drumming, chanting, eagle feathers and sweetgrass ceremonies, it will mark the culmination of a debate that began in Canada in the 1980s over who gets to tell the aboriginal story. The honey-coloured structure faces the white dome of the Capitol and occupies the last available space on the National Mall - the broad avenue lined with museums that sum up American achievements and national ideals. Construction of the museum began five years ago, when the ground was blessed by Chief Billy Tayac, whose Piscataway ancestors lived in the area before the Europeans arrived. Native groups were consulted on every aspect of the museum and its exhibitions - a remarkable act of collaboration. The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), a part of the Smithsonian, is the last word on how to exhibit Indian artefacts in the 21st century and will be a template for other institutions with aboriginal collections, including the Royal Ontario Museum. "There is something so retrospective about the term `museum' as we have used it," says Richard West, Jr., NMAI's director since 1990, a former lawyer and Southern Cheyenne. "I wanted to be sure this would be an institution of living cultures rather than dead ethnographic objects, and once the Smithsonian indicated that's what they had in mind, I never wanted a job so much." West says he does not want to overstate the museum's claim to uniqueness. "Most smaller museums who work with first nations or native communities or tribes invoke the native voice in interpretation and representation, but the National Museum of the American Indian is the first institution of this size to take this approach on this scale." Most of the museum's staff boast native ancestry and the story the museum tells is in the first person. Visitors will start on the fourth floor, viewing a short film, Who We Are, about the diversity of native people in North, Central and South America, then proceed to three exhibitions, each of them put together from information gathered by staff from 24 communities, four of them in Canada. The "Our Universe" exhibition is about native cosmology and spirituality; "Our People" is about history; "Our Lives" explains how Indians live today. Showcases labelled "Windows on Collections" hold added thematic displays of dolls, animal figures and beadwork. A landscape of native North American plants, curated by ethnobotanist Donna House, surrounds the museum. A cafe' serving native foods and two craft shops called the Chesapeake (meaning "shell of greater value") and the Roanoke (meaning "shell of lesser value") are on the lower floors. The Canadian government has contributed a sculpture by Vancouver-based Salish artist Susan Point, prominently displayed near the entrance. "The creation of this museum signifies a moment in the history of the Americas when we are finally coming to terms with our common past," says West. "It addresses who and what native people are today, and my hope is that it will make a contribution to the reconciliation between native and non- native peoples in the U.S. and perhaps elsewhere in the Americas." The task of education and reconciliation is huge. Native people are barely visible in the U.S., where they make up only 2 million out of a total population of 293 million - less than 1 per cent, versus 3 per cent of the population in Canada. Surveys indicate that substantial numbers of Americans believe Indians have died out. "No national newscast here routinely carries stories about treaty rights or native peoples the way your television does. People in the U.S. have no notion of a political or cultural framework for understanding native issues," says Tuscarora artist and art historian Jolene Rickard, a professor at the State University of New York in Buffalo. As a guest curator for NMAI, Rickard devised a "Wall of Gold" for the Our People section of the museum, consisting of gold objects owned and used by native peoples before contact with Europeans, to illustrate the enormous wealth that was subsequently stolen from them. West says that from an estimated 4 to 6 million Indians in the continental United States at the time Europeans first landed, only 250,000 remained in 1900, the first year in which their numbers were formally counted in the U.S. census. "From that demographic collapse we have recovered eightfold," says West. Several Canadians have been involved in creating the new museum, notably Saskatchewan-born Cree artist and curator Gerald McMaster, who is responsible for exhibition content and design, and Ottawa-based Me'tis architect Douglas Cardinal, who designed the five-storey building in his celebrated curvilinear style (see sidebar). The museum's magazine, American Indian, is art-directed and printed in Toronto by a native-owned graphics company called x2idea. "I promised my family in Ottawa (he has a wife and 16-year-old daughter) that I'd be away for a year and it's been four," says McMaster as we walk through the museum wearing hardhats. Seven weeks before the opening date, interior finishing is still incomplete. At the age of 50 with three university degrees, McMaster is at the forefront of a new generation of Indian intellectuals. Before coming to NMAI, he was curator of contemporary native art at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC), where he originated landmark group shows of avant-garde first nations art, such as "Indigena" in 1992 and "Reservation X: The Power Of Place" in 1998. NMAI, he says, offered him an unparalleled opportunity that was in synch with his own political vision, while the CMC, despite its central hall devoted to first nations, is a museum of all Canadian history. Its current summer exhibition is devoted to the history of New France. Does Canada need an all-native museum? "I think so - the native story is too big," says McMaster. Indian art and artefacts in traditional museums were interpreted by ethnographers or anthropologists who, he says, "are trained to study otherness. "Most often the voice of authority has been the non-native scholar who contextualized objects, including art objects, in daily life, including the spiritual life. They tended to focus on the very ancient past and identified that as Indian culture. The `real Indians' were the pre-contact Indians," he explains. "Somehow we were `contaminated' by contact with Europeans and museums tended to shy away from more modern material. Nobody knew contemporary Indians - that they drive cars and dress like you and me." The discourse about Indians framed by museums had an adverse affect on native people's place in society, McMaster believes. As an artist himself and curator, it was obvious to him that mainstream museums do not contextualize art; they don't explain the belief systems or kinship networks of the non-native artists. "Art museums isolate objects and put them singularly on view so that it's possible to identify the singular masterpiece," he says, which is what he did when he organized "Indigena" and "Reservation X." A shift in approach began in 1988 with the exhibition "The Spirit Sings" at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary. Coinciding with the Winter Olympics that year, it was a major show of historic Indian art borrowed from museums around the world, which, says McMaster, "rocked the world." Controversy dogged the Calgary show not only because its eight-person advisory panel consisted mostly of anthropologists and contained only one Indian (the late Bill Reid) but because it was sponsored by Shell Oil Canada, which was then embroiled in a fight with the Lubicon Cree over drilling rights on their traditional lands. "The exhibition was used as lightning rod for the Cree protesters; they thought they could embarrass the government and bring their plight to the attention of the world," recalls McMaster. When the exhibition moved to Ottawa, protests continued. "Out of this, a conference came together very quickly, a task force on museums and first nations that made recommendations to the Canadian Museums Association in the area of repatriation, access and interpretation," says McMaster, who was a leader of the task force. "The museums association began to take notice that native people had a powerful voice. Hardly an exhibition is produced today without native involvement. If you don't have it, you can't do it." NMAI is the culmination of this trend; here native people have taken ownership not only of an exhibition but of an entire institution. The museum was created by an act of Congress to take over the collection of New York investment banker George Gustav Heye, who had amassed 800,000 Indian artefacts by the time of his death in 1957. Heye bought voraciously - everything from Sitting Bull's war bonnet and the rifles used by Crazy Horse and Geronimo to a collection of scalps, knives, headdresses, beaded bags, tools of the extinct Yahgan tribe of Tierra del Fuego, and worn-out moccasins and cooking pots. He maintained contact with European dealers and auction houses and repatriated many valuable objects. These were displayed until 1993 at the Museum of the American Indian, an overcrowded ethnographic museum on 155th St. in New York City, founded by Heye in 1916. Its remote location attracted only a few thousand visitors a year, compared to the 4-to-6 million visitors expected annually at the new institution in Washington. Associate curator Cynthia Chavez, who is part Hopi, part San Selipe and Pueblo, worked for three years with the Me'tis from Saint Laurent, Man., with a Mohawk band from Kahnawake, Que., and with Inuit from Iglulik, Nunavut, in order to include their stories in the Our Lives part of the exhibition. "We knew we wanted to work with a community in the Red River area and Saint Laurent was culturally the most vibrant Me'tis community in Manitoba. We wanted to work with a community utilizing new technology to preserve their traditions, hence Inuvik - they do programming for the Inuit Broadcasting Network and the elders engage in teleconferencing. And we knew we wanted to work with a member of the Iroquois Confederacy living close to an urban centre," explains Chavez. The Kahnawake Mohawks live near Montreal and blockaded the Mercier Bridge, the south end of which is on their reserve, during the Oka standoff in 1991. The communities provided objects for the exhibitions (such as Mohawk- language school texts used today) and signed off on every piece of explanatory text. "We do have ethnographers at the museum, native ethnographers; we see them as facilitators," McMaster explains. Museum staff travel constantly, cultivating their relationship with Indian communities throughout the Americas. The exhibits will be refreshed every few years, with other native communities gradually replacing the original 24 as sources. This politically correct approach makes everyone feel better but it brings its own problems, since it privileges people on the basis of ethnicity and excludes many non-native scholars and historians who respect native culture and may have insights to contribute. This bothers even some native people. "I'm not concerned about whiteness or race," says Rickard. "You could have a native curator who is not prepared for the job. It's not good enough just to be an Indian if you don't have something to say." As well, museums must appeal to and communicate with their audiences. Native intellectuals may argue against the ethnographic approach of "The Spirit Sings," but that show sold 126,500 tickets, making it the best- attended exhibition the Glenbow has ever mounted. Withholding anthropological information about the objects displayed may leave visitors perplexed. We may be told that a certain totem pole or paddle is carved with clan symbols but not told what a clan is, as opposed to a tribe, because that would signify "otherness." "This is an issue for the whole museum community and the academy," says Julia Harrison, who spent seven years coordinating "The Spirit Sings," starting in 1981, and now teaches social and cultural anthropology at Trent University. "There is much scholarly work still to be done but the agenda is now a negotiated agenda. We are only partway to reconfiguring the museum. We have a long way to go, yet the steps have been taken are very positive. "The task of the academy will be to make sure that all voices are heard. Nothing is gained by exclusionary tactics," she says. In 1938, George Gustav Heye was approached by the Hidatsa people of North Dakota. Two decades earlier he had acquired their medicine bundle from a missionary who had taken it from the tribe. A drought was ravaging their land, which the Hidatsa believed was caused by the loss of the sacred bundle. They asked Heye to give it back, which he did, placing it in the hands of the tribal elders. The elders presented Heye with a "buffalo medicine horn" and named him Isatsigibis, meaning Slim Shin. Shortly after, the rains came. At the National Museum of the American Indian, George Heye is never mentioned. ---- Judy Stoffman Copyright c. 2004 Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Cardinal disowns his Masterpiece" --------- Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2004 10:21:49 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NMAI DISHONOR" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.thestar.com/~pageid=968867495754&col=969483191630 Cardinal disowns his masterpiece JUDY STOFFMAN, ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER August 7, 2004 Step into the five-storey atrium of the $199-million (U.S.) building of the National Museum of the American Indian, spiralling like the interior of a seashell, and your spirit soars. Canadian architect Douglas Cardinal has moulded steel, concrete and katosa (a stone with a golden glow from Minnesota) into a rhythmic, undulating whole that looks as playful and exuberant as a child's sandcastle from the outside, with the sophistication of a cathedral within. The atrium has a circular skylight called an oculus over a web of steel. Through the criss-crossed steel, sunlight throws a pattern on the north wall of a giant dream-catcher. On the south wall, a vertical window has giant prisms inset at varying angles that fragment incoming sun into rainbows."It is a fusion of the physical with the spiritual. The first time I walked into the building, when the interior scaffolding came down, I wept," says Richard West, Jr., NMAI's director. NMAI may be the 69-year-old architect's finest building, more intimate than the much larger Canadian Museum of Civilization. But Cardinal calls it "a forgery" in a phone interview from Ottawa and has never seen it. Will he be attending the museum's opening? "No, why should I?" he answers bitterly. Cardinal was picked, along with the firm of GBQC in Philadelphia, to design it in 1993 but the museum's board wanted him to work under James Stuart Polshek, former dean of the Columbia School of Architecture, who is well connected in Washington (he is building the Clinton library). Polshek had built NMAI's Cultural Resources Center in Maryland. "Polshek wanted me to be Tonto to his Lone Ranger - his sidekick," says Cardinal. "I told them I wouldn't work with that individual. He called me racist." Cardinal held "vision sessions" with elders about a design, set up a Washington office and produced thousands of computerized drawings to take everyone's input into consideration - a process that was more expensive and time consuming than he anticipated. When a new secretary of the Smithsonian, Michael Heyman, came in he assigned Polshek to do a "peer review" of Cardinal's work. Cardinal felt insulted. "Polshek reported that my work was only 35 per cent complete when it was 65 per cent," he fumes. "I was a Canadian - I didn't have the political background to deal with the situation." In 1998, GBQC and Cardinal were fired from the job because, according to the Smithsonian, they had "repeatedly failed to meet contractual performance requirements." Polshek & Partners proposed cheaper ways of doing the building, including a column to hold up the front canopy, but these were rejected as "ugly" by the National Capital Planning Commission, which had earlier endorsed Cardinal's proposal. Considering Cardinal's plans to be in the public domain, the Smithsonian went ahead with them. Cardinal says he lost $1 million and had to close his offices in Edmonton, New York and Washington. Today everyone seems to regret Cardinal's mistreatment. "We are trying to get him to come to the opening," says West. "His is the defining architectural voice for what will be the principal spiritual marker for native people beyond both our lifetimes." ---- Judy Stoffman Copyright c. 2004 Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Tribes see Center as boon to Livelihood" --------- Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 08:35:04 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="COLUMBIA INTER-TRIBAL" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001995315_fishing03m.html Tribes see center as boon to livelihood By The Associated Press VANCOUVER, Wash. - Tribal fishermen have traded salmon along the shores of the Columbia River for hundreds of years. Now, they're hoping to expand their market. The Columbia Inter-Tribal Fish Commission is exploring the feasibility of constructing an $8.6 million fish-processing and retail center that would include 500 jobs and allow the tribes to sell more of their wild catch directly to stores and the public, rather than to other processors. "We definitely could use a good processing plant to get a better price," said Rex Zack, a member of the Yakama Nation. Faced with increasing competition from the farmed-fish industry, four mid-Columbia tribes are looking for ways to tap into a market for salmon caught in the wild. Currently, tribal members sell about a third of their commercial catch directly to the public at roadside stands such as the one in Cascade Locks, Ore. There, in the parking lot outside the Charburger restaurant, customers peruse whole salmon and fillets packed into coolers and hauled to the makeshift market in pickups. The rest are sold to fish buyers for as little as 50 to 75 cents per pound based on larger volumes. "If we are to continue this livelihood, we need to maximize the value of each one of the fish," said Jon Matthews, finance and operations director for the intertribal fish commission in Portland. Meanwhile, tribal fishermen have been squeezed by competition from the farmed-fish industry. By raising Atlantic salmon within huge net pens in Puget Sound, British Columbia and South America, salmon farmers can offer wholesale buyers a guaranteed price and quantity of fish year-round. That's why tribes across the Northwest have started looking for new ways to develop and exploit a premium market for Pacific salmon caught in the wild. The Muckleshoot Tribe, for example, this year forged a deal with Safeway to sell tribal salmon at stores around Puget Sound. "That's one of the best prices you can get if you can work a deal to go direct to market," said Debbie Preston, spokeswoman for the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission in Olympia. Preston said other tribes will be watching to see whether the Columbia tribes' venture into commercial fish processing makes sense. Because of the high cost - Matthews estimates construction costs to be $5 million - the Columbia River tribes would look to federal grants to help pay for it. Such a processing center could enable the tribes to develop specialty products such as smoked salmon, extending the time that a fish caught during the designated seasons could be sold throughout the year. Additional funding would include staffing, marketing, specialty-product development, food safety and business training. "We are looking at ways that we can fund these activities," Matthews said. "It's not only an economic venture, but a cultural tradition." A site for the proposed processing center hasn't been determined, but it would likely be somewhere on tribal fishing grounds between Bonneville and McNary dams. Copyright c. 2004 The Seattle Times Company. --------- "RE: 30th Anniversary of Alcatraz Island Occupation" --------- Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2004 22:53:50 EDT From: MJLaBurt@aol.com Subj: "You Are on Indian Land!" The 30th Anniversary of the Native American Occupation Mailing List: NDNAIM http://www.tolerance.org/teach/expand/act/activity.jsp?ar=81 "You Are on Indian Land!" Web Exclusive! The 30th Anniversary of the Native American Occupation of Alcatraz Island (Novermber 1999) By Tim Walker During the late 1960s, the small, isolated, rocky island in San Francisco Bay known as Alcatraz had been largely ignored by the public. Home to the notorious federal prison from 1934 until 1963, Alcatraz - nicknamed "The Rock"- was still a few years away from being named a National Park and becoming a major tourist attraction in the Bay Area. But on November 20, 1969, the island became the unlikely stage for a landmark event in the Native American rights movement. On that date, 89 Indians - mostly students from colleges and universities in San Francisco and Los Angeles - announced they were taking over the island, setting in motion what would become the longest occupation of a federal facility by Native Americans to date. Although it was essentially a publicity stunt to spotlight issues concerning Native Americans, the occupation of Alcatraz emerged as a defining event in Indian-U.S. relations and as a trailblazing protest that would soon inspire an upsurge in activism across the country. Out of Patience During the 1940s and '50s, Native American activism stressed negotiation, compromise and a preference for legal remedies. In addition, protests and resistance against the U.S. government were generally organized and executed by specific tribes and nations and focused on a specific issue, such as fishing rights and other treaty rights violations. The confrontational political climate of the 1960s, however, ushered in a new era of Native American activism led by a band of younger, more radical leaders - exemplified by the American Indian Movement (AIM), a militant group formed in 1968. Spurning what they viewed as the more conciliatory approach of some of their elders, these activists denounced the federal government not only for failing to fulfill the promises of its treaties and agreements but also for its ongoing arrogant and condescending manner toward Native people. The 19-month occupation of Alcatraz Island inspired Native Americans across the country to raise their voices for self-determination, autonomy, economic survival and respect for Native culture. The 1969 occupation was not the first attempt at seizing "the Rock." In 1964, four Sioux Indians claimed the island, citing an 1868 treaty allowing Indians from the reservation to take any "unoccupied land." That occupation lasted only four hours, but the unmet demands made by the Sioux - the establishment of an Indian university and the right to use the island as a Native American cultural center among others- greatly influenced the group that took Alcatraz five years later. "We Hold the Rock!" On November 20, 1969, eighty-nine Native Americans, led by activist Richard Oakes, seized control of Alcatraz. To announce their action to the world, the dissidents issued the Alcatraz Proclamation. Because the occupying force comprised a diverse Native population - Sioux, Blackfoot, Apache, Navajo, Cheyenne and Iroquois were all represented - the document was signed by "Indians of all Tribes." "In the name of all Indians ... we reclaim this island for our Indian nations," the proclamation read. "We feel this claim is just and proper, and that the land should rightfully be granted to us for as long as the rivers run and the sun shall shine. We hold the Rock!" In exchange for the island, the inhabitants offered "$24 in glass beads and red cloth," which they said was a precedent set by the white man's purchase of "a similar island" three centuries earlier. While the activists noted that $24 for the 16 acres on Alcatraz was more than what Whites paid for Manhattan Island, they acknowledged that "land values have risen over the years." Media coverage and public reaction to the capture were initially sympathetic, and several celebrities, including Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando and Dick Gregory, visited the island to offer support. The inhabitants constructed tipis, and hand-painted slogans - "You Are on Indian Land," "Red Power," and "Human Rights, Free the Indians" - adorned the walls of the island's structures. Preferring not to inflame the situation, the federal government followed a "hands-off" policy regarding the occupation. Although they negotiated with the leaders, authorities hoped that the dissidents would tire and elect to end the occupation voluntarily. Indeed, over the next 12 months, many of the activists would leave the island as bickering between leaders increased and public interest dwindled. By 1971, the occupying force on Alcatraz was reduced to a mere handful of men, women and children. In June 1971, on orders from President Richard Nixon to bring the 19-month occupation to an end, federal marshals escorted the last group of Native Americans off the island. The legacy of the Alcatraz occupation was immediate and long-lasting. In subsequent months, Native Americans would occupy federal facilities in Colorado, Mt. Rushmore and Ellis Island. In 1972, the Trail of Broken Treaties caravan converged on Washington, D.C., to demand from Congress changes in how Native peoples were treated. The following year, AIM activists occupied the Sioux Pine Ridge Reservation in North Dakota, the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. The origins of this era of Indian activism, a milestone in the Native American movement, can be traced back to November 1969. "The most lasting result of Alcatraz," said Native American activist Adam Fortunate Eagle, "may have been the growth of Indian pride throughout the country. ... Everywhere American Indians rejoiced." ---- Tim Walker is a Teaching Tolerance staff writer. --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Indian Vote gains strength" --------- Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 08:35:04 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: INDIAN VOTE" http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforksherald/news/opinion/9306828.htm DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Indian vote gains strength in Dakotas, Minn. August 3, 2004 I attended the White Shield (N.D.) Celebration a couple of weeks ago. While there, I circled the outside of the dance grounds looking for lemonade I'd heard was selling as fast as it could be squeezed. To my surprise, next to that famous lemonade stand, I found Democratic candidates sitting under a shade tent, handing out water and visiting with people. These candidates were Joe Satrom, candidate for governor, and Phyllis Howard and John Warren, running from District 4. Howard is running for the House position and Warren for Senate. District 4 is in western North Dakota. Satrom did the usual handshaking with the powwow community. He was called to the speakers stand and made a short speech at the celebration. Then, as is usual for noted people, he was taken to the center of the arena for an honor dance. He danced the circle well. Satrom is a rather quiet man. He impressed the people at the celebration because he took the time to come to this community and visit with them. I have known Phyllis Howard for about 40 years. She is a Hidatsa from the Three Affiliated Tribes of New Town, N.D. She certainly is qualified. Howard is the former president and founder of the Fort Berthold Community College in New Town. She is current director of the North Dakota Association of tribal colleges and is active in state politics. Howard is a woman who has dedicated her life to trying to change things for the better on the reservation. She said she also is concerned about homeland security in our border state of North Dakota, land and waters issues, and she clearly has studied the problems of all of North Dakota. She also loves her role as a grandmother. This isn't Howard's first run for a position in the state government. She ran once before and nearly took the position. Most of us thought she would have won by a landslide if a good number of people from the reservation had voted. But the reservation vote just wasn't there. A governor once told me that he wasn't concerned about the reservation vote. Why? Because they (Indian people from the reservation) don't vote, he told me. Unfortunately, he was right at that time. Indian people, however, are slowly becoming a force in state elections, particularly in states such as South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota, where there are 24 tribes and reservations. South Dakota is a good example of how a tribe influenced the election of a congressman. With a little nudging, Indian people from Pine Ridge, S.D., helped elect Rep. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., in 2002. The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota has moved its communities from a lackadaisical attitude about elections to one of enthusiasm. They are a force to be reckoned with in state elections. I remember when I first moved back to the reservation. My home community of White Shield had so few votes in the national and state elections that the numbers could be counted on your hands. Several of us spread the word, and in the next election, the numbers jumped about 75 percent. There are several reasons why Indian people don't vote in state and national elections. We tend to think of ourselves as nations unto ourselves. We tend to feel that those elections are of another country and they don't affect us. It isn't that Indian people don't vote either. Tribal elections will have large numbers of people casting votes with active and hard-fought campaigns going right down to the wire. Voting has been made difficult in some communities. Indian people may have to travel outside their area to vote in state and national elections and, in some cities, they have been shut out of the vote by the way the city officials have drawn city boundary lines. The attitude that we don't count in state and national elections is changing. Indian people are taking part in elections and becoming a bloc of votes that can influence elections - both state and national. This change, in part, can be attributed to some strong and active people who are leading the way for tribes to take their rightful seat in state and national government - it is time. ----- Yellow Bird writes columns Tuesday and Saturday. Reach her at (701) 780-1228; (800) 477-6572, extension 228; or dyellowbird@gfherald.com. Copyright c. 2004 Grand Forks Herald/Grand Forks, ND. --------- "RE: First Nation compensated for Hydro Projects" --------- Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2004 08:12:17 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HYDRO COMPENSATION" http://64.62.196.98/News/ http://winnipeg.cbc.ca//View?filename=mb_foxlake20040804 First Nation compensated for Hydro projects WINNIPEG - The provincial government has agreed to a $19-million compensation deal with the Fox Lake Cree Nation, removing a major obstacle to the proposed Conawapa hydroelectric project. The money is compensation for damage to the band's traditional hunting land from the Kettle, Long Spruce and Limestone hydro dams on the Nelson River near Gillam. A memorandum of understanding was signed by Manitoba Hydro, the province and the Fox Lake First Nation Tuesday. Part of the deal Fox Lake signed with the Crown utility and the provincial government ensures its members will be involved in construction and maintenance of the Conawapa dam, if and when it's built. Chief Robert Wavey says his band wants to be first in line for the economic benefits the dam could bring to Fox Lake. But Dennis Anderson, a band member who attended the signing, says Manitoba Hydro is still earning the trust of Fox Lake. "They want to consult with us this time, and in that respect it's very different," he says. "When they built Kettle, there was no consultation on their behalf. It was just Manitoba Hydro going ahead with their plans." The massive Conawapa project would generate 1,200 megawatts of power, increasing Manitoba's power-generation capacity by 25 per cent. Three years ago, it was given a price tag of $5 billion - an amount that would double Manitoba Hydro's current debt. However, Manitoba Hydro still needs a customer for the power the dam would generate. Energy Minister Tim Sale says the province is waiting for a report from the Ontario government on the feasibility of buying electricity from Manitoba. If Ontario agrees to buy the power that will be generated, Sale says, Conawapa could zoom to the top of Manitoba Hydro's wish list. Copyright c. 2004 CBC. --------- "RE: Residential School Gathering focuses on Healing" --------- Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 08:08:53 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SCHOOL ABUSE GATHERING" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://sask.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=sk_residential20040803 Residential school gathering focuses on healing August 4, 2004 REGINA - A unique gathering is being held on the Gordon First Nation this week. More than 600 people are expected to attend a meeting about residential school abuse. The focus of the meeting is on healing. Eddie Bitternose is a former residential school survivor who helped organize the event. "In Gordon's First Nation we've had claims since 1992," he explains. "We've dealt with the healing and the payouts, and the pain and the sorrow - and we believe now was the time that we'd move beyond the feeling sorry for ourselves and hopefully our gathering will give people options and opportunity to hear our experience." Gordon First Nation was home to one of the most notorious sex offenders in the residential school system. The gathering will wrap up later this week. Copyright c. 2004 CBC. --------- "RE: BIA investigating suicide at Yakama Nation Jail" --------- Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 08:14:48 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="JAIL SUICIDE" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://seattletimes.nwsource.com//2001998209_tribaljail06m.html Suicide triggers probe of Yakama tribal detention center By Jonathan Martin Seattle Times staff reporter August 6, 2004 The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is investigating the suicide of an inmate at the Yakama tribal detention center amid concerns about Indian- country detention centers. The inmate, Ricky Owens Sampson, was left hanging for at least five hours - long enough for rigor mortis to set in - because the jail had just one staffer on duty the night of his death, June 25, jail supervisor Ned Tillequots said. Tribal officials expect a report from a BIA criminal investigator soon. Family members believe Sampson was left hanging for much longer, and tribal Police Chief Elliot Lewis said they might file a lawsuit. "I'm concerned about how long he was left," Lewis said. Indian country jails, including that of the Yakamas, were sharply criticized by the Department of Interior's inspector general in testimony before Congress two days before Sampson's death. "BIA's detention program is riddled with problems and, in our opinion, is a national disgrace, with many facilities having conditions comparable to those found in Third World countries," Inspector General Earl Devaney said. An investigation by Devaney's office found a disturbing record of suicides and escapes, many of them unreported to the BIA, which both operates detention centers and funds tribal-run jails. His office released portions of the investigation in April; a full report is expected later this summer, said spokeswoman Pam Boteler. The U.S. Department of Justice also recently visited the Yakama jail to investigate conditions, Lewis said. Officials with the BIA and Justice Department were unavailable for comment yesterday. The Yakama facility was built in 1974 as a short-term holding facility but now keeps inmates up to 1 1/2 years. Cells are brick boxes without bars, with small window and door slats. There are about seven or eight escapes a year, and the facility has had at least four suicides in its history, Tillequots said. "It's not set up for being a jail," he said. The jail ordinarily has two people on duty, and they are expected to check on inmates every 30 minutes. But the jail was short-staffed the night of Sampson's death because of vacations, he said. The Yakamas were forced to stop housing juveniles at their 50-bed jail in May as a result of the federal probe, in order to separate younger offenders from adults. Sampson, 40, was being held on suspicion of violating a domestic- violence no-contact order, Tillequots said. He was accused if violating the order again while in jail and was moved to an isolation cell in the former juvenile wing. He was not on suicide watch and hung himself in a part of that cell not monitored by cameras. Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605 or jonathanmartin@seattletimes.com Copyright c. 2004 The Seattle Times Company. --------- "RE: Native Prisoner" --------- Date: Mon, Aug 9 2004 06:05:46 -0400 From: Janet Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php~/state/55-mentor-grants.inc Grants given to mentor convicts' kids - Billings Gazette August 4, 2004 - HELENA - The Blackfeet Tribal Business Council will receive $354,000 and other Montana agencies will collectively receive over $200,000 in federal money to spend on mentoring programs for the children of prisoners, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday. Montana will receive just over half a million dollars of the $45.6 million in grants President Bush authorized for the mentoring programs. Robert Buzzas, a Bozeman consultant who helped the Montana Human Resources Development Council Directors secure a three-year grant for children in Billings and Great Falls, said he wished Montana could get more. "We didn't think there was going to be a huge need for this program," Buzzas said. "But in assembling the data for the applications, (we) were very surprised by the sheer number of kids who had parents who were incarcerated or on probation." Federal officials report that the significant physical absence of a parent has profound effects on child development, and children of incarcerated parents are seven times more likely to become involved in the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems. "Children of prisoners need mentors," said Wade Horn, physician and the federal department's assistant secretary for children and families. "Youth who have parents in prison still have the same yearning and desire for a father or mother as any other child." Parental arrest and incarceration often lead to stress, trauma, stigmatization and separation problems for children, federal officials said. These problems may be compounded by existing poverty, violence, substance abuse and other negative factors. "There's a huge need for these programs," Buzzas said. While the $354,000 grant awarded to the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council is a new grant, the $60,000 awarded to Missoula County and the $112,500 awarded to the Montana Human Resources Development Council Directors mark the second year of the three-year grant awarded them last year. The grants are administered through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families, wh