_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 12, ISSUE 044 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 October 30, 2004 Anishnaabe Binaakwe-giizis/falling leaves moon Cree Opinahamowipizun/moon the birds fly south Potawatomi E'sksegtukkisis/moon of the first frost Lakota `Can wape< ka `sna wi/moon of falling leaves +-------------------------------------------------------+ | 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; NDNAIM, News and Information, Indian Trust ListServ, Big Mountain, Human Rights Agenda and Amazon Alliance 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: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + ======================== "All of these [Native American] languages are endangered," "Time is running out." __ Alice Anderton, Executive Director of the Intertribal Wordpath Society +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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! Once again the Montana Department of Livestock has determined the Yellowstone Buffalo herd is "causing a problemm" and is issuing hunting permits for brave men in parkas from places like New York City to shoot them with high powered rifles. Of course, the reason stated is brucellosis control - which is not just a lie but a damned lie. There has never been a documented case of bison transmitting the disease brucellosis to livestock in the wild - not once. The truth is those "problem buffalo" are eating grass the Montana cattle growers covet for their methane producing bovine. If Montana really gave a damn about brucellosis being transmitted from a wild animal to their cattle, they'd eradicate every elk in the state. That would create the issue of having to replace revenue lost from elk hunters. Which brings us back to the brave hunters. Shooting a bison with a high powered rifle is very much like shooting a slow moving boxcar, and just as thrilling. If those "brave hunters" want to experience the thrill of the hunt, have them ride bareback at full tilt into a thundering herd armed only with a knife and pony bow or spear. It also makes a huge difference that the target is Yellowstone bison. Yellowstone bison are genetically unique. From studies recently conducted, this herd may be the only wild bison in America not tainted with cattle genes. That means a unique thread to the buffalo nations exists only through the Yellowstone herd. Of course, that may just be another reason to kill them - and erase one more link to who we are as a People. The Department of Livestock has publicly announced they don't care what anyone outside Montana thinks of their plan. If you wish to tell them what you think anyway send your opinion to the following: State of Montana Department of Livestock PO Box 202001 Helena, MT 59620-2001 Livestock Department FAX: 406-444-1929 Information Line: 1-406-444-7323 =================================== ANNUAL WINTER APPEALS Thursday, September 30, I sent out a notice to several individuals and groups that have supported winter needs. I am sharing that notice with all readers and asking you to please let this space help you help our Peoples. ---- Greetings This brief email is being sent as winter nears. I distribute a newsletter, Wotanging Ikche; and each year before winter sets in through the first of January I run names, addresses and needs of our elders and children throughout Indian Country. I don't draw any lines such as rez/urban. If there is a need, it's included. Send the contact name, address, phone, email, website (or as much as you can) Include the need (clothing, toys for kids, food, fuel money...) If there is a limited run (like now to two weeks before Christmas) include that. Send your information to: gars@speakeasy.net Please make the subject: WINTER HELP (all caps) Get this information to me as soon as you can. Spread the word. I will also copy whatever I run in Wotanging Ikche to some of the Mailing Lists I'm on, like RezLife, NDNAIM, Rez_LIfe, FrostysAmerIndian... Thanks, gary ---- =================================== The first response came from our Mohawk brother, Frosty Deere. It is an important need to those Mohawk who call Kahnawake home. Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2004 19:52:51 -0400 From: "Frosty" Subj: Re: Winter Needs Rez & Urban http://www.tewateiahsatakaritat.com/pool/ Maybe you could include the above address, it explains everything. The Kahnawake Pool Project What happened to the Current pool? Its old, out dated, broken and cant be used in the middle of winter. How can people help? Well you can either buy a raffle ticket, donate money, or help find people to donate money for the pool. How can I help ? Well their are number of ways, one is just send a dollar to Indoor Pool Project, Box 821, Kahnawake Quebec J0L-1B0. Take a collection where you work. Get the company where you work to donate. Spread the word to as many people you know that can afford a dollar or more. Contacts: MacKenzie Whyte E-mail Address: Ronald Deere aka Frosty mackenziew@mck.ca E-mail Address(es): frosty@frostys.qc.ca Lou Ann Stacey frosty@kahonwes.com E-mail Address: louanns@mck.ca =================================== Date: Sunday, October 10, 2004 04:16 pm From: Lisa Mailing List: NDNAIM Greetings everyone, Happy Fall ! The cooler weather is setting in. Elections are next month, get out an vote. We still need to believe that our votes count. Two important votes next month, not only for the U.S. President but for all you Pine Ridge tribal members your presidential election. "VOTE" TOY DRIVE : Leonard wanted us to kick off the x-mas toy drive for Oglala. Grandmother Roselyn will be hosting this event again this year. "NEW" toys will be accepted for children of all ages. Clothing items that are always needed such as socks, stocking caps, gloves, shoes and underware (new) will be given to the Loneman School Nurse to be given on a "needed" basis. Roselyn says there are many children who come to school in the middle of a South Dakota winter wearing sandels. So the school nurse will be able to handle these items better as needed. Roselyn will also accept Wal-Mart and K-mart gift cards. These will help with specific items that she can purchase. Everything should be mailed directly to Roselyn's house. Roselyn Jumping Bull PO Box 207 Oglala, SD 57764 (605) 867-2231 (Note: FYI: Grandmother Roselyn's will be celebrating a birthday in Nov. I could be off on this a day but I think it is Nov 15, and she will be 74.) =================================== Date: Tuesday, October 12, 2004 01:25 pm From: Brigitte Thimiakis Subj: Winter Needs Greetings Gary, Honor Your Spirit, Protect The Children (HYS) is working on a new winter project for the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in MT. I will send you the request as soon as it is ready. I pray that once again many people will send help to all the places with children, elders and families in need of support. We do have a Christmas catalogue which is ready for people who wish to order First Nations art and crafts items. These items make very nice gifts for Christmas. They are authentic First Nations artwork and items like horsehair hatbands or belts can also be handed down from generation to generation. ALL the proceeds from the sales are used to help the elders and children in need. The founder of HYS is Northern Cheyenne and our contacts on the reservation are Northern Cheyenne also. It would be very much appreciated if you could regularly enclose the url to the HYS catalogue in your newsletter. HYS Arts and crafts catalogue http://www.geocities.com/honoryourspirit/fncrafts.html "Honor Your Spirit, Protect the Children" Manuel Redwoman, Northern Cheyenne/Lakota/Arapaho http://www.geocities.com/honoryourspirit/home.html Thank you for your message and continued support. With kindest regards to you and Janet, Respectfully, Brigitte <>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o "Honor Your Spirit, Protect the Children" Manuel Redwoman, Northern Cheyenne/Lakota/Arapaho http://www.geocities.com/honoryourspirit/home.html STOP CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT http://www.geocities.com/honoryourspirit/stopabuse.html Adult Children of Child Abuse http://groups.yahoo.com/group/adult_children_of_child_abuse/ HYS Arts and crafts catalogue http://www.geocities.com/honoryourspirit/fncrafts.html <>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o Dohiyi Ani Oginalii , , Gary Smith (*,*) gars@speakeasy.org P. O. Box 672168 (`-') gars@nanews.org Marietta, GA 30008, U.S.A. ===w=w=== http://www.nanews.org ----------- News of the people featured in this issue ---------- - Cobell v. Norton: - Celebrate Native Court approves Notices Languages and Cultures - On Pine Ridge, - Tribe Aims to Bring Oyster a String of Broken Promises out of Shell - Mille Lacs diminishment case - YELLOW BIRD: Tribal Colleges before Supreme Court get strong Leaders - Measure would undo ban on Mining - Review: Rosebud Yellow Robe - Black Mesa Pipeline - breaking Stereotypes fined for Slurry Spill - Heart Disease - Tribes will be hardest hit targets more Alaska Natives by Power Plant Closure - Wal-Mart charged over Mexico Site - Navajo Conference stresses Pride - Brazil: Silent "Invasion" - Supervisors to drop Vasquez Plan in Jungle - Montana won't join fight - Court lets stand ruling over Tribe's Riverbed on Res. Jurisdiction - WWII Vet leaves behind Dream - Man found beaten, burned - Injured Dine' Vet questions War - Native Prisoner - Tepee incident -- Jail alternatives for Kids upsets Indian Students - History: Carlisle Indian School - This is a time of action - Rustywire: String about - American Indian Teacher Training Indian Boarding Schools Center opens - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - Tali Unole Poem: White vs. Red --------- "RE: Cobell v. Norton: Court approves Notices" --------- Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 18:13:26 -0400 (EDT) From: Indian Trust ListServ Subj: Cobell v. Norton: Court approves notices, cautions others who would surrender their welfare to the US government. Mailing List: Indian Trust ListServ We are pleased to announce that, on October 22, 2004, Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC, ordered the following Notices be sent to Individual Indian Trust beneficiaries regarding their rights in the historic Cobell v. Norton litigation. In ordering defendants to distribute the notices, the Court made important additional findings: * * * * * To say that Interior has not "prioritized" its duties as Trustee- Delegate for the IIM trust would be an understatement. As this Court and the Court of Appeals have noted, "[t]he Interior Department has failed to discharge the fiduciary duties it owes to IIM beneficiaries for decades." Cobell v. Norton, 240 F.3d 1081, 1110 (D.C. Cir. 2001) Again, it is certain that the plaintiffs' allegations are neither utterly devoid of an evidentiary basis nor utterly impossible to support with admissible evidence. ... Any evidence in addition to the above documenting breaches of trust, breaches of fiduciary duties, violations of court orders, frauds on or misrepresentation to the Court, or other misconduct by Interior or defense counsel that is related to the management of the IIM trust or to the conduct of this litigation would be both directly relevant and almost certainly admissible. ... The above- mentioned instances of Interior's negligence and questionable practices are but a few bricks in a wall of administrative bungling, recalcitrance, and dereliction of duty stretching back more than a century and adversely affecting 500,000 or more of the most historically oppressed, marginalized, and dispossessed people in the United States. The assertion that the plaintiffs' allegations of misconduct by Interior are "groundless," "baseless," or "excessive" is as laughable as it is disturbing. If Interior remains unable to recognize its own sordid history of mismanagement and neglect, then that history will likely continue to be repeated until there is no trust left to manage. For the sake of the beneficiaries, the survivors of the "contentious and tragic" history of federal-Indian relations, Cobell, 240 F.3d at 1086, this Court cannot allow Interior to erase all reference to its misdeeds, both past and present, from the record in this case. However, even if Interior were to succeed in "sanitiz[ing]" the plaintiffs' pleadings, Def. 's Mot. to Strike at 5, by deleting all charges of misconduct, nothing can remove the stain of Interior's actions from the record in this case. The factual record herein will likely stand for generations as a cautionary tale for those who would unquestioningly surrender their welfare, or the welfare of others, to the care of the administrative state. * * * * * The specific Notices that the Court has ordered are as follows: 1. To all beneficiaries who recently were recently mailed a "historical" statement of account, the Court has ordered the following Notice be mailed: Please be aware that many Individual Indian Money ("IIM") a ccount holders are members of a class action lawsuit, Cobell v. Norton, No. 1:96CVo1285 (D.D.C.) (Judge Lamberth). In October 2002 the above- referenced IIM account holder received a historical statement of account, along with a cover letter notifying the account holder of the action they should take if they wanted to challenge the accuracy of that statement. Nothing in this notice, the notice, historical statement of account and other documents the above-referenced IIM account holder received in October 2002, or any other letter, document, or communication to which this notice may be attached will eliminate or adversely affect any rights that the above-referenced IIM account holder may have if he or she is a class member in the Cobell litigation. The abovereferenced IIM account holder will not eliminate or adversely affect any rights that he or she may have as a class member by failing to challenge the historical statement of account he or she received in October 2002. As a potential class member, the above-referenced IIM account holder has the right to consult with the class counsel in the Cobell litigation about the historical statement of account he or she received in October 2002 or any other matter. For further information you may contact the lawyers for the class members: Dennis M. Gingold, Esq., 607 14th Street, N.W., 9th Floor, Washington, DC 20005, phone: (202) 824-1448, fax: (202) 318-2372, email: dennismgingold@aol.com, or Keith Harper, Esq., Native American Rights Fund, 1712 N Street N.W., Washington, DC 20036-2976, phone: (202) 7854166, fax: (202) 822-0068, email: harper@narf.org. You may also access further information at the plaintiffs' website, www.indiantrust.com. 2. If you have not yet received a "historical" statement of account, when you do receive one, it will contain the following notice: Please be aware that the Individual Indian Money ("IIM") account holder for whom the historical statement of account to which this notice is attached was prepared may be a member of a class action lawsuit, Cobell v. Norton, No. 1:96CVo1285 (D.D.C.) (Judge Lamberth). Nothing in this notice, the attached historical statement of account, or any letter, document, or other communication to which this notice may be attached will eliminate or adversely affect any rights that the IIM account holder for whom the attached historical statement of account was prepared may have if he or she is a class member in the Cobell litigation. The IIM account holder for whom the attached historical statement of account was prepared will not eliminate or adversely affect any rights that he or she may have as a class membe r by failing to challenge the attached historical statement of account. As a potential class member, the IIM account holder for whom the attached historical statement of account was prepared has the right to consult with the class counsel in the Cobell litigation about this historical statement of account or any other matter. For further information you may contact the lawyers for the class members: Dennis M. Gingold, Esq., 607 14th Street, N. W., 9th Floor, Washington, DC 20005, phone: (202) 824-1448, fax: (202) 318-2372, email: dennismgingold@aol.com, or Keith Harper, Esq., Native American Rights Fund, 1712 N Street N.W., Washington, DC 20036-2976, phone: (202) 785-4166, fax: (202) 822-0068, email: harper@narf.org. You may also access further information at the plaintiffs' website, www. indiantrust.com. 3. If you are attempting to sell, transfer or convert your land, you will receive the following notice: Please be aware that the Indian trust land owner to whom the communications or documents to which this notice is attached were directed may be a member of a class action lawsuit, Cobell v. Norton, No. 1:96CVo1285 (D.D.C.) (Judge Lamberth). Nothing in this notice or any letter, document, or other communication to which this notice may be attached will eliminate or adversely affect any rights that the Indian trust land owner who received this notice may have if he or she is a class member in the Cobell litigation. The Indian trust land owner who received this notice will not eliminate or adverse ly affect any rights that he or she may have as a class member by entering into any transaction or communication with any other person or organization. including the Department of the Interior or the Bureau of Indian Affairs, related to the sale, exchange, transfer, or conversion of Indian trust land. As a potential class member, the Indian trust land owner who received this notice has the right to consult with the class counsel in the Cobell litigation prior to any proceeding with any further communication or transaction. For further information you may contact the lawyers for the class members: Dennis M. Gingold, Esq., 607 14th Street, N.W., 9th Floor, Washington, DC 20005, phone: (202) 824-1448, fax: (202) 318-2372, email: dennismgingold@aol.com, or Keith Harper, Esq., Native American Rights Fund, 1712 N Street N. W., Washington, DC 20036-2976, phone: (202) 785-4166, fax: (202) 822-0068, email: harper@narf.org. You may also access further information at the plaintiffs' website, www.indiantrust.com. The Indian trust land owner who received this notice may also choose to waive his or her right to consult with class counsel. If the Indian trust land owner who received this notice wishes to do so, he or she must mark the blank below, sign, and return this notice to the Bureau of Indian Affairs office from which you received it within ten (10) days. Waiver of the right to consult with class counsel will not eliminate or adversely affect any rights that the Indian trust land owner who received this notice may have as a class member in the Cobell litigation. _____ I, the undersigned, hereby waive my right to consult with class counsel in the Cobell litigation before continuing with communications or transactions involving or resulting in the sale, exchange, transfer, or conversion of Indian trust land. --------- "RE: On Pine Ridge, a String of Broken Promises" --------- Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 08:21:09 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BROKEN PROMISES" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.washingtonpost.com//A49822-2004Oct20.html?sub=AR On Pine Ridge, a String of Broken Promises Politicians' Talk Means Little on Troubled S.D. Reservation By Evelyn Nieves Washington Post Staff Writer October 21, 2004 PINE RIDGE, S.D. - When the president came to town, Geraldine Blue Bird was lucky enough to be living in a four-room shack with 28 other people. Had she been better off, President Bill Clinton's 1999 summer "poverty tour" to the Oglala Lakota Sioux reservation might have overlooked her house among all the other cabins and trailers doing hard time in her neighborhood. But even in the poorest patch of the poorest place in the country, the Blue Bird residence stood out. Children spilled out the doors, plywood covered the windows, and an outhouse stood near the wreck of a pop-up camper - used as an extra bedroom - in the back yard. When Clinton touched down here to point out that parts of the United States were as in need of help as developing countries, he called on Blue Bird. Soon after, she received a call from Ronald I. Dozoretz, a Washington psychiatrist and husband of a major Democratic Party fundraiser. He was buying her a four-bedroom double-wide mobile home - what color did she want? Now, Blue Bird's double-wide, baby blue with black shutters, is the biggest house on her block. It only looks small, since she still takes in about two dozen children and young people, along with her son, daughter and four grandchildren. Pick a day and kids are sprawling and roller- skating across the living room, running around the bald front yard and climbing on the pine ramp out front that Blue Bird, who is 48 and has congestive heart failure, needs for her wheelchair. Still, she and everyone else here will tell you that her house was the best thing to come out of the first presidential visit to a reservation in more than 60 years. Many people say it was the only good thing. Five years after that visit, all the hopes Clinton stirred have amounted to very little. The house across the street from Blue Bird's still has no windows and no running water. Same goes for the one next to it, and the one next to that one. Beyond this neighborhood of brittle hovels one bad storm away from becoming firewood, the Pine Ridge Reservation is besieged by problems decades in the making and beyond its ability to fix. More Lakotas who had left are returning to the Plains, preferring to live among their own people rather than in relative comfort on the outside. But failings of the federal government - from mismanaging Indian money held in trust to shortchanging programs it is legally bound to fund - continually undermine efforts here at self-help. Things are not much better on some other reservations. The Navajos in the Southwest, the Crow tribe in Montana and the Comanches in Oklahoma are also very poor, while some other tribes - even without casinos - have seen their living standards rise in recent decades. But Native American poverty rarely makes the national political agenda, except during campaign season. This year is no exception. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) visited Gallup, N.M., promising Navajos and Hopis that as president he would honor treaties and Native American sovereignty. Earlier, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson (R) visited the Navajo reservation and promised to do a better job of combating diabetes and other diseases ravaging the tribe. But skepticism of campaign pledges runs deep in Indian country, given the government's history of broken promises. The federal government has acknowledged that it has grossly mishandled money it began collecting in the late 1880s, when it leased reservation land to oil, mining and timber interests and held the proceeds in trust for Indians. The government owes Native Americans billions, but a class-action lawsuit filed eight years ago on behalf of nearly 500,000 Indians is still unresolved. Meanwhile, on Pine Ridge, three and four families live in single-family houses, eight to nine out of 10 people are out of work, and more than half the population, helpless against disconnect notices, has no phone in any given month. The Lakota can revel in a few hopeful signs. Tribal culture is undergoing a renaissance, after decades during which the federal government put Indian children into English-language-only boarding schools and banned sun dances. The Oglala Sioux Tribal College graduated 179 students this spring, its largest class since it was accredited in 1983. And the buffalo, nearly killed off during the Gold Rush and the westward expansion, are returning. In June, a seed herd of 15 yearlings was brought to the reservation in the hope that they will become multitudes. But barely a week passes here without a fresh roadside cross going up for yet another car accident victim, or a cloud of black smoke rising from yet another trailer fire. One afternoon, as the remains of two trailers simmered on the horizon - propane fires, most likely - Blue Bird was sitting in her kitchen, minding eight children, from 4 months to 12 years old, as they watched a "Scooby Doo" cartoon. The screen door kept banging open and shut, with kids going in and out, letting the flies inside. Fingerprints were all over the walls, footprints all over the floor. "Auntie Geraldine" was grateful the house was still in one piece. "A lot of people get donated trailers," she said, "but the trailers are already falling apart when they get them." Blue Bird gets by on $1,480 a month in Social Security disability benefits and boxes of food the Agriculture Department hands out in poor rural communities. Her wards - children of relatives or neighbors whom she takes care of for weeks, months or years at a time - keep her creative with money, she said. "I can stretch one can of soup to four," she said. Still, she is always worried. She was due to drive to Rapid City, 118 miles away, the next day to have a tumor removed from her back, and she was feeling her mortality. Even after she had gastric bypass surgery and lost nearly 200 pounds in three years, her body, burdened with diabetes and hypertension as well as heart problems, was always betraying her. If she were to die the next day, she wondered, what would become of all these children? "We all try to help one another here - that's our way," she said. "But life is so hard." Unfulfilled Promise People in Pine Ridge pour their energies into trying to make things better. The reservation needs help with everything: infrastructure, housing, health care, education, economic development. Yet federal money that is supposed to go to the Indians, under treaties or laws, keeps getting cut. The most glaring example, the Indian Health Service, was created by treaties drawn more than a century ago that promised quality health care (along with quality education and decent housing) for every Native American in exchange for the federal government's taking vast swaths of Indian land. But the health service, run by the Department of Health and Human Services, is funded at less than $2,000 per Indian each year, half of what federal prisoners receive. This year, Congress rejected legislation to increase its budget. The administration redirected Indian Health Service funding to homeland security and the Iraq war. In Pine Ridge, people are not joking when they say someone practically has to be dying to receive emergency room care; Indian Health Service hospitals operate under a "life or limb" policy. For lesser ailments, people write off a day of their lives in a clinic waiting room. Often, they just give up and go home. Deferred health problems take their toll. Life expectancy on the reservation is 47 to 56 years, the nation's lowest. Infant mortality is twice the rate of the rest of the country. Diabetes afflicts about half the population, and people here talk about their blood sugar levels the way other Americans mention their cholesterol counts. Alcoholism is rampant - some figures place it at 80 percent of the population - yet on a reservation about the size of Connecticut, there is no alcohol treatment center. The roadside crosses are too often the result of alcohol-fueled car accidents, which are nearly three times as common here as in the general population. The Pine Ridge Economic Empowerment Zone, which was the best hope for an economic shot in the arm after Clinton's visit, came with a promised grant of $2 million a year for 10 years as seed money for businesses. But this year, when the zone began to see long-term plans get off the ground, the Bush administration cut its grant to $1.5 million. It allocated no money for the zone in its proposed budget for next year. Some people blame politics for the funding slights. Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) and Tim Johnson (D), his junior colleague, have proposed bills to increase funding for Indian programs, only to see them defeated in the Republican-controlled Congress. In 2002, Johnson beat Republican John Thune by 524 votes based on late returns from Pine Ridge. Now Daschle, facing Thune in a nail-biter race, is counting on the Democratic voting bloc on South Dakota's nine reservations to win. Indian programs have been cut or underfunded over many administrations, Democratic and Republican. Last year, the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Civil Rights published a report criticizing the federal government for underspending on Native American programs over generations. Between 1975 and 2000, the study found, funding for Indian programs declined when adjusted for inflation. The Oglala Sioux Tribal Council, a source of complaints ever since federal law established the tribal council system to help make tribes self-determining, is never stable, since the whole 16-member governing body faces election every two years. It is also on the verge of bankruptcy. Yet the Oglala Lakota Sioux Nation, the tribe that defeated Gen. George A. Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 only to suffer the seizure of its gold-rich Black Hills and a massacre by the Army at Wounded Knee in 1890, is growing. Its population - 14,000 to 20,000 - is boosted by a baby boom and by adults who are returning, joining those who never left in their ongoing struggles. On the Borderline There is not much to do in Pine Ridge beyond the hard business of surviving. The reservation has no movie theater, no department store, no public library and no public transportation. The closest thing to excitement is Big Bat's, the combination gas station, convenience store and deli at "the four-way" - the four-way intersection - in the village of Pine Ridge, which is also home to the tribal government offices, courts and hospital. When Webster Poor Bear returned six years ago after decades away, he was not looking for a multiplex. After years of rambling, shaking off the demons of the Vietnam War and raising four children and stepchildren, he wanted peace. He needed the Lakotas' spiritual ways - sun dances, sweat lodges, the wisdom of medicine men. He gladly moved back to his family's land in Wanblee, one of the most remote towns on the reservation. But White Clay, Neb., a border town not two miles from the village of Pine Ridge, turned Poor Bear, now 53, into an activist, as he had been in his youth. Of all the problems facing the reservation, White Clay (population 22) is the one people mention first. White Clay consists of two blocks of old, scarred one-story buildings on dirt sidewalks. Half are boarded up. Of the few that are open, three are package stores that sell beer and malt liquor through slit-like windows. Since alcohol is banned on the reservation, White Clay reaps a fortune from the Lakotas' drinking. The package stores, tribal leaders and Nebraska liquor authorities say, sell about 11,000 cans of beer a day to Indians. Poor Bear had relatives who loitered in White Clay, including a brother, Wilson Black Elk Jr., and a cousin, Ronald Hard Heart. On June 8, 1999, one month before Clinton's visit, the two men were found beaten and mutilated in a gulch on reservation land 100 yards north of White Clay. Many marches, meetings and lobbying efforts later, the killings remain unsolved; Mark Vukelich, the FBI agent in charge of South Dakota, said his office is still "very actively investigating all leads." Day and night, at least a few dozen Lakotas are downing 40-ounce Budweisers in White Clay's alleys until they pass out. "It's difficult to be here," Poor Bear said on a recent visit. It had been more than 30 years since he took a bullet in his knuckle during the 1973 standoff at Wounded Knee between the American Indian Movement and the FBI. Drinking men and women were surrounding him, greeting him with awe and surprise. He knew some from the old AIM days. He returned their courtesies. Even people who want White Clay package stores shut down, such as Poor Bear, concede that the problems traced to its alcohol sales will only move elsewhere until alcoholism is addressed. But still he was angry. Nebraska officials say they cannot close lawfully operating businesses, he said, but do not mention that it is illegal to allow people to drink outside the stores. He pointed to four men drinking beer in front of one store. "That's illegal," he said. "If the stores were fined as they should be, they'd eventually lose their licenses." Recent months have brought a little good news. There were four package stores in White Clay until April, when the owner of one lost his liquor license for selling used cars without a license, a felony. And in June, the Nebraska Democratic Party, at its state convention, voted to support a resolution banning alcohol sales in White Clay. "I wouldn't hold my breath," Poor Bear said, "but we just might make some progress here." The Last Giveaway In Pine Ridge, people like to say progress is best measured in inches. Troy and Pat Perkins are not sure how to measure their efforts. When they moved to the reservation four years ago, Troy Perkins, a member of one of the largest extended families on the reservation, was bringing his wife and two daughters (now 8 and 12) to live there for the first time. His mother had retired as a mail carrier and wanted to travel, but she was worried that vandals or squatters would overrun her house. The Perkinses, eager for their girls to learn more about their father's culture, agreed to leave Rapid City, S.D., and house-sit. The needs on the reservation hit them hard, especially among the elders. One, Louis Braveheart, in his eighties, was living in a peeling tin can of a trailer with no heat or electricity. Sometimes they would bump into him on the side of the road as he walked more than 15 miles each way for groceries. Pat Perkins, with help, began an adopt-an-elder program. Braveheart's neighbors built him a cabin, and the Perkinses found him a wood stove and a sponsor to pay his utilities. Through the Internet, the adopt-an-elder program found 400 sponsors from all over the country, and beyond. The Perkinses also began holding giveaways, a Lakota tradition in which families give their possessions to neighbors, usually in honor of a loved one who has died. But the Perkinses held giveaways whenever they had enough donations to make them worthwhile. They averaged one every three weeks. The Pine Ridge radio station, KILI, would announce the giveaways, and people would flock to the Perkins house in Wounded Knee. Eventually, Helping Hands of Wounded Knee became an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and a full-time preoccupation. But the Perkinses recently called it quits. "It's just become too hard to help people," Pat Perkins said, sitting in her back yard during what she called the last giveaway. Perkins, 44, said she had pins in her back from a fall 20 years ago, while she was in the Army, and fibromyalgia. She often felt too sick to handle Helping Hands. Requests for help always exceeded donations. She was also tired of deflecting gossip. Rumor had it that the Perkinses were keeping the goods they collected. With Troy Perkins working full time as a security guard in the old Pine Ridge hospital, a job hard to come by, and Pat collecting a disability check from the Department of Veterans Affairs, they worked the giveaway programs as volunteers. But people doubted it. Later, as she drove to a friend's house, Perkins acknowledged that she thought the reservation's problems are too deep to solve in less than a generation, with less than major help. She and some friends on the rez want to start a public library, but obtaining land is complicated because of the bureaucracy involved in leasing land held in trust. The Perkinses wonder whether they will stick it out in Pine Ridge as their daughters approach high school, when two out of three Pine Ridge students drop out. "In my humble opinion," she said, slowing her car to check if her black Lab mix was among a pack of dogs foraging along the road, "the tribe should hire professional consultants who come up with a Marshall Plan for fixing every aspect of life here." Copyright c. 2004 The Washington Post Company. --------- "RE: Mille Lacs diminishment case before Supreme Court" --------- Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 08:21:09 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MILLE LAC DIMINSHMENT" http://www.indianz.com/News/2004/004919.asp Mille Lacs diminishment case before Supreme Court October 22, 2004 The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to determine whether the Mille Lacs Reservation in Minnesota continues to exist. Mille Lacs County and a private bank contend at least 61,000 acres of the reservation has been diminished. They say the reservation is no more than 4,000 acres. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the county and the bank. The court said both parties lacked standing and failed to show any danger from the tribe exercising authority over the reservation. Initial briefs have been filed before the Supreme Court. The case is being distributed for a conference on October 29. The justices will then announce the following week whether they will hear the case. Copyright c. 2000-2004 Indianz.Com. ---- Get the Story: http://www.millelacsmessenger.com/~P=1057118&S=506&PubID=17044 Bank remains firm on appeal to the Supreme Court by Jon Tatting, Messenger Staff Writer October 20, 2004 First National Bank of Milaca remains supportive of Mille Lacs County's drive toward appealing its case regarding the 1855 Mille Lacs Reservation to the U.S. Supreme Court. The bank's recent response to the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe's brief in opposition, which states the county and bank have no standing, was filed two weeks ago in line with the county's brief in response. The Supreme Court is expected to make a decision in about a month on whether to deny the appeal, hear oral arguments, or issue a summary order sending the case back to Chief U.S. District Court Judge James Rosenbaum, who initially dismissed the case in May 2003. That dismissal was upheld twice by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals before the county and bank appealed in timely fashion last August. `We feel strongly' Pete Allen, chairman of First National Bank of Milaca, was asked to comment on the bank's continued stand on seeking a ruling on the 61,000- acre reservation where the bank and the county say it was disestablished by treaties and congressional acts following 1855. "We feel strongly about it," said Allen, who's been with the bank for over 50 years. "All the briefs are persuasive. That's what the court is for." Allen noted that the bank does not want to operate a branch on a reservation where it would have less status with tribal statutes instead of federal and state laws, which the bank is compliant with now. He added that if the court determines that the bank and its two branches must comply with tribal statutes, it could "affect values of all properties under new bodies of law. Though values may not decrease," Allen said, "there could be a negative effect on properties." Band attorneys Marc Slonim and John Arum of Seattle, however, have argued that there is no evidence that the reservation boundary dispute has reduced properties or prevented the county from enforcing its own laws. Further, the attorneys countered earlier testimony provided by local appraiser Roger Wagner who said it was his belief the controversy has had an adverse affect on the real estate market. In a later disposition, Wagner said he had not attempted to independently verify his "tentative conclusions." Case has merit Allen, who also owns property in South Harbor Township, believes the case hasn't been heard on its merit. "Will the court hear the case? The Supreme Court will decide if the case has merit, or why the case has merit, " he said. According to the bank's brief in response to the band's brief in opposition, bank attorney Scott G. Knudson of St. Paul noted that the band asserts that in the 20-plus years that various band statutes have been in existence, there has not been any effort to regulate activities of the bank. However, Knudson added, the letters the band sent to businesses within the disputed area did not intend to limit the demand to register and pay a licensing fee solely to those doing business with band members. However, the band has emphasized that it only applies its laws to nonmembers who choose to do business with the band on band lands. The band's Corporate Commission - under its separation-of-powers government - has "the sole power and authority to license commercial entities who sell or offer for sale any goods and/or services to people on lands subject to the jurisdiction of the band," band attorneys Slonim and Arum said. They added in their brief that a person or entity who desires to sell goods or services to the band, a band member or "any person subject to the jurisdiction of the band ... shall be permitted to do so under such rules and regulations as the Corporate Commission may prescribe." Thus, the band's Corporate Commission developed a business-licensing program - designed to collect background information on people doing business with the band, to help preserve its reputation and viability of its casinos - in the early 1990s, Slonim and Arum said. They explained that the commission's requirement that businesses hold a band license was not based on a business's location within the reservation; the requirement was applied only to businesses that chose to provide goods or services to the band on band lands. Credibility According to the bank's brief in response, Knudson noted that the band cannot effectively distinguish the court decision in Rosebud Sioux Tribe vs. Kneip, where there is a sufficient concrete stake to adjudicate a reservation boundary dispute. Additionally, the friend of the court amicus briefs - filed from the states of Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota, the city of Wahkon, South Harbor Township and the Lake Mille Lacs Association - within the disputed area further demonstrate the immediacy of the boundary dispute and the appropriateness of resolving the issue now, Knudson said in the brief. Knudson concluded that the bank does a substantial share of its business within the affected area and does business with band members that currently subjects it to the band's consumer protection statutes. It presented more than sufficient impact for the dispute to have standing, he said. Copyright c. 2004 Mille Lacs Messenger All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Measure would undo ban on Mining" --------- Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 08:42:27 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CYANIDE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.helenair.com/articles/2004/10/19/montana/a01101904_05.txt Measure would undo ban on mining By SUSAN GALLAGHER - Associated Press Writer October 19, 2004 FORT BELKNAP AGENCY - You don't have to look far on Montana's Fort Belknap Indian Reservation for reaction to the cyanide mining initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot. The "No on I-147" signs are front and center in the tribal council chambers, prominent at Fort Belknap College and part of the scene at the Lodge Pole senior center 30 miles away, in the reservation's interior. Initiative 147, repealing a voter-approved ban on the use of cyanide in gold and silver mining, has a high profile at the Fort Belknap reservation because of the Zortman-Landusky gold mine complex on its southern border. Acid-mine drainage from the abandoned cyanide operation is the top environmental issue for the reservation's Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribes. For some of Montana's voters, I-147 is a referendum on the mining industry itself. Supporters say passage would encourage new mining, with its high-paying jobs, and the cyanide process can be used without environmental damage. Opponents resent corporate efforts to undo what voters approved in 1998, and say cyanide contaminates water, harms neighboring property and leaves taxpayers on the hook for cleanup. "If that (I-147) goes through, the first thing they're going to do is start mining up here again," said Ken Lewis, an Assiniboine on the Fort Belknap Tribal Council. "The jobs aren't worth the damage it's going to do." Montana is the only state with a ban on cyanide heap-leach mining, said Warren McCulloch, an administrator in the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. I-147 advocates say extracting gold by rinsing piles of rock with cyanide is necessary to process low-grade ore economically. Passing the measure would tell the North American mining industry it is welcome in Montana, they say. "Oro y plata" - gold and silver - are prominent on the state seal, but mining's glory days were decades ago. State labor statistics show mining today accounts for only about 3 percent of the state's economy, even with coal factored in. "If I-147 were defeated, it officially sends the message ... 'stay out of Montana,' whether cyanide would be used or not," said Tim Smith, manager of the Helena area's Montana Tunnels mine owned by Apollo Gold Corp., of Denver. Another Colorado company, Canyon Resources Corp., is bankrolling the campaign to pass the initiative, which made it on the ballot after supporters gathered enough signatures. Canyon Resources wanted to develop a cyanide gold mine near western Montana's Blackfoot River, fabled in Norman McLean's "A River Runs Through It." But the company's plans came to a halt when voters passed the cyanide ban six years ago, 52 percent to 48 percent. Still aiming to develop the mine, the company projects 14 years of metal production and employment spanning at least 20 years. "Would it be a mine?" asked Richard DeVoto, Canyon Resources' chief executive and a former geology professor at the Colorado School of Mines. "Yes, it would be a mine, and those who are opposed to mining would be opposed to it. Cyanide is truly not the issue." The initiative is the latest in a series of industry efforts to undo the cyanide ban, efforts that included a lawsuit in federal court. The Montana Environmental Information Center also asked the Montana Supreme Court last summer to order I-147 off the ballot. State officials say that at Zortman-Landusky, often held up as a model of mining gone wrong, the biggest environmental problem is metals-laced water that must be captured and treated to avoid polluting streams. "There is very little cyanide remaining in the water at Zortman- Landusky," said Wayne Jepson, a DEQ hydrologist who sees no end to the need for water treatment. How to pay for it is uncertain. For people at Fort Belknap, there's no escaping the fact that the cyanide process was instrumental as Pegasus Gold Corp. calculated the economics of mining at Zortman-Landusky, then decided to proceed. The company mined in the 1980s and '90s, filed for bankruptcy in 1998 and forfeited a reclamation bond of $30 million, well below what cleanup and water treatment actually costs. "There will be poison water coming off that mine site in perpetuity," said Jim Jensen, director of the Montana Environmental Information Center. "It has to be treated and someone has to pay for that water treatment. It isn't the company that created the problem - they've gone bankrupt and gone away, and their bond was insufficient. So it will be the taxpayer who will continue to pay." The mining industry touts cyanide as safer than other solutions for extracting gold and silver from ore, and says the concentration for mining is only 2.5 times stronger than cyanide in almonds. The Zortman-Landusky mines inarguably were a "heap-leach screwup," said Smith, on the steering committee for the pro-initiative Miners, Merchants and Montanans for Jobs and Economic Opportunity. But he added miners use cyanide safely in this country and others. He contends that pointing to Zortman-Landusky as an example of trouble to come is unreasonable. "If there were no regulations in place, yeah, it would be very high risk," Smith said. "But what is being proposed with I-147 are a number of safeguards that would virtually eliminate the possibility of an extraordinary event." DEQ says that while the initiative spells out some measures offered as safeguards and would put them into law, they are practiced already. At Fort Belknap, tribal officials dismiss claims of safety nets. They also find little concern beyond the reservation for issues such as environmental damage disrupting Indian spiritual practices tied to the land. Cooling summer splashes in Little Peoples Creek near the gateway to Mission Canyon have been a customary part of a Fort Belknap childhood. Today, though, some adults worried that mine drainage taints the water hold kids back, said Dean Stiffarm, tribal liaison on the Zortman-Landusky issue. "We don't even know if our berries are safe enough to eat," said Catherine Halver, 75, a longtime tribal voice on environmental issues. A 1998 study by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry found "nothing flowing from the mine sites that would warrant people not engaging in those activities," said Scott Haight, who works on Zortman-Landusky issues for the Bureau of Land Management in Lewistown. Voters should defeat I-147 because "these people cannot come into Montana, rape this state and leave," Halver said at the Lodge Pole senior center. "Pure and simple. This is our home." Initiative 137, the cyanide ban that I-147 would reverse, passed after industry found itself quieted by a 1996 law prohibiting corporate spending to support or oppose ballot measures. A federal judge overturned that law less than two weeks before the 1998 election. "The mining industry had its hands tied while environmental groups were playing on emotions about poisoning fish and people," Smith said. "This time, we're coming out like gangbusters." Copyright c. 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. Copyright c. Helena Independent Record; a division of Lee Enterprises --------- "RE: Black Mesa Pipeline fined for Slurry Spill" --------- Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 17:29:46 +0000 From: Robert Dorman Subj: Black Mesa Pipeline fined for slurry spill Mailing List: Big Mountain http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=96229 ___________________________________________________ From: Condor952@aol.com Subj: Az Daily Sun: Black Mesa Pipeline fined for slurry spill Black Mesa Pipeline fined for slurry spill October 17, 2004 A company operating a 273-mile-long pipeline transporting coal slurry from Kayenta to Laughlin, Nev., again faces hefty fines for spilling 2,300 wet tons of slurry. The latest fine of $27,500 is the amount stipulated in a consent decree between the state and the pipeline company reached in 2001 to pay for previous spills. The company paid $128,000 the first time to cover clean-up costs and later paid another $229,250 in penalties. "Although Black Mesa has made progress improving the operations of its pipeline, we continue to be concerned about Black Mesa's inability to prevent discharges from the pipeline," said Steve Owens, director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. The latest spill happened Aug. 21 and the company has until Oct. 31 to pay the new fine. Each year the pipeline uses a billion gallons of water to move powdered coal from mines on Black Mesa to the Mohave Power Plant in Laughlin. The company reported the discharge to the ADEQ as required by the consent decree. Black Mesa Pipeline, Inc. is a subsidiary of Northern Border Partners, of Nebraska Copyright c. 2004 Arizona Daily Sun. ========================================= Please visit my website, http://www.twincougars.com for health and wellness information and products. ----------------------------------------- Please visit http://www.theofficenet.com/~redorman/pagea~1.htm for more background on the Big Mountain relocation issue. To post to the list, email your message to redorman@theofficenet.com. To subscribe, send an email to: BIGMTLIST-subscribe@topica.com. --------- "RE: Tribes will be hardest hit by Power Plant Closure" --------- Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 08:42:27 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MOHAVE STATION SHUTDOWN THREATENED" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic//1019mohave19.html Northern Arizona power plant, coal mine may close 615 would lose jobs in Arizona, Nevada Max Jarman The Arizona Republic October 19, 2004 Northern Arizona communities from Bullhead City to Kayenta are bracing for the probable closure next year of the Mohave Generating Station near Laughlin, Nev., and the potential loss of more than 600 high-paying jobs. After years of negotiations with Hopi and Navajo tribes over water and coal leases, and environmental groups over pollution at the Grand Canyon, plant operator Southern California Edison says it is now making plans to shut the plant at the end of next year. That's bad news for the northwestern Arizona communities of Bullhead City and Kingman, where many of the plant's employees live. advertisement "Any time you lose that many jobs in a community of this size, there is definitely an impact," said Richard Adams, executive director of the Bullhead Regional Economic Development Authority in Bullhead City. "Those are high-paying jobs that will be very hard to replace." But the impact of the plant's closure would also be felt on Black Mesa in northeastern Arizona, where coal is mined to fuel the plant, and in metropolitan Phoenix, which relies on Mohave's electricity. The Black Mesa Coal Mine near Kayenta and a 273-mile coal slurry line that feeds Mohave exist solely to supply the plant, their only customer. The 1,580-megawatt plant is partially owned by Salt River Project and provides the Valley with 320 megawatts of low-cost electricity, enough to light 100,000 homes. That power would have to be replaced when Mohave shuts down. At issue is the 4,000 acre-feet of groundwater per year that is required to operate the coal mine and transport the coal in a pipeline to the power plant. The Hopi Tribe believes the pumping is depleting the Navajo aquifer and causing sacred springs and water sources to dry up. Mine operator Peabody Energy Corp. asserts that the water being pumped amounts to only one-tenth of one percent of the water stored in the aquifer, which would be quickly replenished when mining ceases. But the tribes are unwilling to allow the pumping of groundwater for mining beyond 2005. In addition, the Navajo Nation, to whom the Black Mesa is a sacred site, is balking at continuing to allow Peabody to mine there. The tribe has sued Peabody to void the coal lease at Black Mesa, alleging the company has shortchanged it on royalty payments. The tribe is asking for $600 million in damages that could be tripled. Peabody officials don't believe there is any merit to the suit but acknowledged it is an obstacle to the continued operation of the mine. The plant employs about 325 people and pumps an estimated $365 million a year into Laughlin and northwestern Arizona communities. The Black Mesa Coal Mine employs 240. An additional 50 people work for the Black Mesa Pipeline, which caries the coal to the plant. "Tragically, these two operations would cease if the plant closes," said Beth Sutton, a spokeswoman for Peabody. Combined the plant, coal mine and pipeline provide jobs for 615 people and have an annual economic impact of more than $411 million. The power plant could reopen in 2009 or 2010, according to Southern California Edison. But that would require spending an estimated $1.1 billion to upgrade the 35-year-old plant and install pollution control equipment required under a 1999 consent decree with environmental groups. Without the upgrades, the plant cannot legally operate past 2005, when its initial 35-year operating permit expires. Southern California Edison Chief Executive Officer Al Fohrer said the company would like to continue to operate the plant for another 20 years but added that it is not willing to invest in the upgrades without a binding agreement for water and coal for the plant until at least 2026. As a 20 percent owner, SRP would have to come up with $200 million as its share of the cost of the Mohave upgrades. SRP spokesman Jeff Lane said the utility has begun looking at options for replacing the 320 megawatts it will lose when Mohave closes. Possibilities include buying one of the recently built Arizona power plants that are said to be on the market or expanding an existing power plant near Springerville. "The important thing is that we have options," Lane said. Mohave is important to both SRP and Southern California Edison because it burns coal. Most new plants burn natural gas, which is more expensive than coal and is subject to volatile price swings. Peabody's Kayenta Coal Mine, adjacent to the Black Mesa mine, would continue to produce coal for the SRP-operated Navajo Generating Station near Page until 2011. The coal is shipped via rail. While negotiations continue with the Hopi and Navajo tribes and the U.S. Department of the Interior, Southern California Edison's chief negotiator Ann Cohn said the parties are not close to an agreement. Peabody is looking for new sources of water and is exploring the Coconino aquifer, which is much larger than the Navajo body and is beneath private land that could be acquired by the company. Arizona water laws give property owners access to the water beneath their land. The closure of the power plant and mine would hit the Hopi and Navajo reservations - where jobs are scarce and unemployment high - particularly hard. The Hopi Tribe receives $7.7 million, one-third its operating budget, from coal royalties. Some members are concerned about the mine closing. "Shutting down the plant - forcing closure of the mine - would have a devastating impact on the Hopi Tribe. Our situation is dire," Hopi Tribal Chairman Wayne Taylor Jr. said in a statement this summer. Copyright c. 2004 The Arizona Republic. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Navajo Conference stresses Pride" --------- Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 08:21:09 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NAVAJO PRIDE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.durangoherald.com//news/04/news041022_5.htm Navajo Conference stresses pride By Shane Benjamin Herald Staff Writer October 22, 2004 When asking Mary Alice Tsosie to explain the purpose of the Navajo Studies Conference being held this week at Fort Lewis College, she talks about growing up on the Navajo Reservation. She talks about living in a hogan, sleeping on sheepskin and speaking the Navajo language. She talks about living in poverty, without knowing it was poverty. Tsosie, 54, is now president of the Navajo Conference Inc. Board of Directors. The 15th Navajo Studies Conference is taking place Wednesday through Saturday at Fort Lewis College. The event includes presentations and workshops by prominent figures of Navajo culture, exhibits, vendors and guided field trips. Tsosie said her childhood on the reservation took a major turn when she began attending boarding school at age 6 or 7. No longer did she have to haul water for a bath - all she had to do was turn a knob for cold water and another knob for hot water. She no longer had to sleep on sheepskin; she was given a bed. And no longer did she have to collect wood for warmth; the buildings were equipped with heat. She learned to speak English and was punished for speaking Navajo. Tsosie said she began questioning what it meant to be a Navajo. She concluded being Navajo meant a lot of hard work. It wasn't until she was older when she realized that being Navajo is "wonderful," because Navajos walk in harmony with the universe, she said. "Thank you God, or thank you whoever - the great Spirit - I am Navajo," she said Thursday during an interview at Fort Lewis College. The conference aims to teach students and academics about the positive aspects of being Navajo, Tsosie said. It gives Navajos a chance to meet authors and leaders who have been thinking about Navajo issues for a long time, she said. Most importantly, it creates an environment for people to be proud of their Navajo culture. It also allows participants to think about whether they agree or disagree with the ideas being shared. "We really would like college students to attend," Tsosie said. "We really make our costs reasonable so they can attend. ...It's really an excellent ground for meeting the people who are now working in Navajo studies." Keynote speakers on Wednesday and Thursday were Leonard Tsosie, a senator for the New Mexico Legislature; and Tom Arviso, chief executive officer and publisher of The Navajo Times. At noon today, Peterson Zah, special advisor to the president and former chairman of the Navajo Nation, will speak in the Student Memorial Lounge at FLC. Reach Staff Writer Shane Benjamin here . Copyright c. the Durango Herald. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Supervisors to drop Vasquez Plan" --------- Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 08:42:27 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="UNPROTECTED SITE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20949~2476737,00.html Supervisors to drop Vasquez plan Locals object to use of estate land as park buffer By Susan Abram Staff Writer October 18, 2004 AGUA DULCE - Plans to buy an estate bordering Vasquez Rocks Natural Area to protect the American Indian artifacts on the land are expected to be dropped today after residents and community leaders objected. Los Angeles County supervisors are expected to vote to rescind plans to buy the 4.7 acres at 32944 Agua Dulce Canyon Road, in the eight-home Asher Ranch neighborhood. In June, county supervisors allocated $50,000 to conduct a feasibility and environmental study and to send a nonbinding letter stating the county's intent to complete the purchase. County officials had said the land would provide a buffer zone to help protect trails as well as the ancient petroglyphs left by tribes that lived among Vasquez's jagged rock formations. The estate that was considered would have been used as a possible ranger's station, but residents of the Asher Ranch neighborhood expressed concerns during a meeting with county officials in September, saying the county did not make its intent known. "It was definitely the right decision on their part to drop it," said Asher Ranch resident Robert Alderman Jr. "It was ill-conceived." "We sought community input on it, and overwhelmingly the consensus of the community was no, that wasn't a good idea," agreed Tony Bell, spokesman for Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. "We're always looking to improve the facility, and this was one avenue. We're hoping we can expand it to where it works for the community." County parks staff members have been working with the Agua Dulce Town Council since 2001 to develop an interpretive center plan. The county has bought a variety of parcels to expand the park, currently at 907 acres. Thousands of visitors come to the park each year to climb the jagged rock formations that jut out from the ground at 45-degree angles. Vasquez Rocks, named after 1800s-era bandit Tiburcio Vasquez, is also a popular filming location. Susan Abram, (661) 257-5257 susan.abram@dailynews.com Copyright c. 2004 Los Angeles Daily News. --------- "RE: Montana won't join fight over Tribe's Riverbed" --------- Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 08:42:27 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NORTHERN CHEYENNE MAINTAIN CONTROL" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.billingsgazette.com//state/35-state-ops-out.inc State opts out of riverbed court fight for now October 19, 2004 HELENA - On a party-line vote, the state Land Board decided Monday that now is not the right time to get involved in an energy development company's lawsuit over the validity of its state gas leases in southeastern Montana. The three Democratic members of the board said they need more information about possible effects of the legal fight, particularly on the rights of private landowners and the adjacent Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. The Republican members, Gov. Judy Martz and Secretary of State Bob Brown, argued that the controversy already involves the state, so waiting to enter the suit makes no sense. The dispute centers on ownership of the bed of the Tongue River, which forms the eastern boundary of the reservation. Fidelity Exploration & Production Co. obtained seven oil and gas leases from the state in 2002 to drill for coalbed methane from under what the state considers to be the state-owned bed of the Tongue River. But the federal government contends half of the riverbed belongs to the Cheyenne Tribe because the reservation's eastern boundary bisects the river. Fidelity sued in federal court three months ago, saying the riverbed belongs to the state and not the tribe. The question is important because the owner will get a portion of royalties from any production on the surrounding land, and tribal ownership would mean the state leases are invalid. The Department of Natural Resources and Conservation agrees with Fidelity that Montana owns the riverbed, and wants permission to join the suit. Jon Metropoulos, Fidelity attorney, said the board should let the state intervene in the suit in order to protect its property claim to the riverbed. The state owns the river and the beneficiaries of state land use deserve to have their interests protected, he said. Department officials estimate the state could earn $250,000 a year from the gas production adjacent to the 160 acres of riverbed. The state believes it has owned the riverbed since statehood in 1889. That was 11 years before a presidential order moved the reservation boundary 10 miles west to the middle of the river. But Attorney General Mike McGrath, one of the Democratic board members, said he heard nothing about the suit until a few days ago. "This is news to me," he said. "This is not a decision we should make with two days notice to the state's chief legal officer." McGrath questioned whether the suit was premature, since no one has challenged the state leases. He warned the court fight could have unknown effects on a water rights compact between the state and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. Bud Clinch, DNRC director, said staffers for each of the board members were informed of the issue last month and McGrath apparently has a problem getting information from his staff. State Auditor John Morrison, a Democrat and also an attorney, said he was worried about the effect of the suit on the property rights of landowners living along the east side of the river. A ruling that the state owns the riverbed would mean they do not have a claim to the half of the bed east of the reservation boundary, he noted. William Walksalong, a Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council member, urged the board to keep the state out of the suit, saying Montana has no valid claim to the riverbed because the waterway was never designated a navigable river, a requirement for state ownership. Also, Walksalong said, the state has waited too long to raise a claim that it owns the riverbed. Copyright c. The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: WWII Vet leaves behind Dream" --------- Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 08:24:35 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="KENT WARE SR" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/1019b2life-ware19.html WWII vet leaves behind dream Connie Cone Sexton The Arizona Republic October 19, 2004 His was the kind of face you'd say had character, sharpened by his smile and his twinkling eyes. If you were working out in your front yard and he was passing by, he'd stop to chat but wouldn't stay too long. He wasn't one to gossip and didn't care to badmouth anyone. But he would tease you if your grass was growing a little high or your flowers looked a bit droopy. Some days, he'd sit in his lawn chair on his driveway, giving observations to his fellow Phoenix residents on this or that he thought you needed to fix. He'd punctuate all that "help" with a grin. Friends never knew all the gossip he probably could have shared. He was involved in too many organizations, had so many friends. And they may not have known what a service he gave to his country. When Kent Ware Sr. died Aug. 13 at age 81, he left behind more than memories and a lot of connections. He left behind a dream. Ware, who was born in Chickasha, Okla., on Sept. 29, 1922, was a member of the Kiowa Tribe and a member of the Kiowa Black Leggings Warrior Society. He served during World War II as a tech sergeant and aerial gunner on B- 17s in the Army Air Corps. Ware put 33 combat missions behind him when he returned home. His was highly decorated for his service, including four Bronze Stars, a Distinguished Flying Cross and a Purple Heart. Years after the war, he went to work for a telephone company, digging holes for poles. He moved on to sales, where his personality helped get him in the door. . He never lost his satisfaction for having served his country and in recent years, that contentment became one mission left to do. One day, while he was sitting at a restaurant with other Native American veterans, the group began discussing an idea. What resulted was a blueprint for creating a national memorial, an American Indian Veterans Memorial. The concept began in 1996 and about six months ago, the dream became part of the site plan at Steele Indian School Park at Third Street and McDowell Road in Phoenix. The park, which opened in 2001, has space dedicated for the memorial. Ware knew the obstacles and was discouraged by the task of trying to raise $2.5 million. About $70,000 has been raised by a committee working on the project, said member Loren Tapahe, publisher of Arizona Native Scene, a Mesa-based magazine. Information about the memorial is available at (602) 448-0260 or www.aivmo.org. "He was a very vibrant, hard-working man that didn't take any guff from anyone," Tapahe said. Those who supported Ware want to finish his dream. "This memorial will be a national memorial for males, females, all Native Americans who fought even prior to World War I, even those who fought against the cavalry," Tapahe said. "He always kept the committee on track to its purpose." Tapahe said Ware and his family will be honored during a program at 6 p..m. Nov. 11 at the Heard Museum, 2301 N. Central Ave. in Phoenix. Longtime neighbor Pat Viss said she will remember not only his passion for the memorial but his kindness as a neighbor. "He would bang on my door, as opposed to a quiet knock," she said. He'd often stop to deliver fruits and vegetables he had picked up at a roadside farm on his way home from visiting Prescott. "He had a commanding presence about him and I can still feel his endearing sprit," Viss said. Survivors include his wife, Jane; daughters Janet Baird and Susan Larson; son Kent Jr.; sisters Jean Whitley and Marlene Denney; brother Larry Barwick; nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Copyright c. 2004 The Arizona Republic, azcentral.com. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Injured Dine' Vet questions War" --------- Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 08:24:35 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WAR VET INJURED IN CAR BOMBING" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.gallupindependent.com/101904injured.html Injured Dine' vet questions war By Kathy Helms Dine' Bureau October 19, 2004 WINDOW ROCK - U.S. Army Sgt. Terrell Dawes served two tours of duty in Afghanistan after terrorists launched an attack on the United States on Sept. 11. When he went to war, he knew what he was fighting for. Last month, Dawes was injured in a car-bombing incident in Iraq. He's still not sure what that was all about, but his uncertainty has nothing to do with the "fog of war." Sgt. Dawes received an official welcome home by Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. and the Navajo Nation Council during Monday's kickoff of the fall session. "As you know, America is at war and unfortunately we continue to feel the impacts at home," President Shirley said. "On Aug. 15, Army Pfc. Harry J. Shondee Jr., 19, of Ganado, Ariz., was killed in Baghdad, Iraq, as a result of a nearby car bombing, and just three weeks later, on Sept. 6, Marine Lance Cpl. Quinn A. Keith, 20, of Layton, Utah, was killed during a terrorist attack at Fallujah, Iraq. These two brave soldiers chose to serve our country and paid the ultimate sacrifice." While the Navajo Nation has felt the pain and loss of these young Navajo men in Operation Iraqi Freedom, the president said, "many of our soldiers continue to defend this country we love and some have returned home, as in the case of Army Sgt. Terrell Dawes, who suffered serious injury from military combat." Shirley said Dawes is another Navajo warrior who chose to serve during this time of conflict and sacrificed a great deal for the liberty of others in a foreign land. "Sgt. Dawes returns to the Navajo Nation, a decorated war veteran. Thank you, Sgt. Dawes for serving your country and our Navajo people." Delegate Jerry Bodie of Sanostee Chapter had one question: "Sgt. Dawes, was it worth it to put your life on the line?" Dawes pondered the question. "Was it worth it? I don't really have an answer. I served in the first war in Afghanistan when 9/11 started. I served two tours there. When we were fighting there, it felt like we were there for a reason, because they attacked the United States supposedly they did. "But then I got sent to Iraq and it felt like we were fighting for nothing. It's like we were fighting for their freedom when we should be fighting for our freedom." Dawes drew a round of applause. "It's like we're out there just picking a fight. Every day we're in battle. We're getting shot at and we start shooting back. We lose someone, we get someone injured. Like me, I got hit by a bomb. Maybe, it's like, it wasn't worth it. The first war, it was for a reason; but this war, it's like, it wasn't worth it at all," Dawes said. "They gave me all these medals: 'Hey, here's a Purple Heart.' They can take that all back as long as I can walk normal again not for no reason." Copyright c. 2004 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Tepee incident upsets Indian Students" --------- Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 08:42:27 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DEFACED LODGE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2004/10/19/news/02defaced.txt Tepee incident upsets Indian students By GAIL SCHONTZLER, Chronicle Staff Writer October 19, 2004 Dusty Rose Hirsch was mad Monday when she found out that the Plains Indian tepee that she and other American Indian students had erected on the Montana State University campus had been defaced. "I'm kind of outraged," said Hirsch, 23, a Blackfeet and senior in elementary education. The tepee has stood for about three weeks on the north side of Wilson Hall, near the door to the American Indian Council Resource Center, the support center and hangout for MSU's Indian students. Someone had written the F-word on the tepee canvas, followed by "IN," which the students speculated was intended to mean Indian, said Campus Police Chief Robert Putzke. The graffiti was small - only about 12 inches long - but it upset several of the Indian students who gathered Monday at the resource center. "I love it here," said Brad Hall, 19, American Indian Council co- president, and other students agreed. Still, the incident underscored their unease at being a minority on campus - even a campus that's working hard to make them feel welcome and comfortable. "We do want this campus to be warm and inviting for all students, particularly students of diverse backgrounds," said MSU President Geoff Gamble. But according to the Indian students, slurs and slights aren't uncommon. Mary Lee Not Afraid, 22, a nursing major and Crow, said she got an ugly series of instant messages recently while working on the Internet at her home in married student housing. An anonymous writer, using the name psychoticserenity, called her a "welfare bunny," "prairie nig" and "you stupid f--ing indian." "It got worse and worse," she said. "I clicked off." Other students recalled getting the cold shoulder from girls on a dorm floor, gruff treatment from store clerks, racial insults from guys yelling from passing cars downtown, and having no one talk to them in a class of 300 students. Hall said it's tough to go from being in the majority on a reservation to being in the minority on campus. The tepee is a symbol of Indian people, Hall said. "My grandparents, their grandparents were all taught to be ashamed of themselves. It's things like this that (make us wonder) - Should we be ashamed of ourselves?" "There are a lot of folks who aren't prejudiced," said Dustin Walter, 30, a nursing student and Blackfeet. "We want to place shame and guilt on people who pull these kinds of stunts." Jim Burns, MSU's Native American student advisor, sees the tepee incident as isolated. "It's small, but when people are hurt it doesn't have to be large," he said. On the other hand, "We've come a long ways on this campus. Overall, I think we've got a great campus with a lot of support." One of Gamble's goals is to make MSU the "campus of choice" for Montana Indians. He is hoping to form a Council of Elders to advise him, and raise money to build a new Native American student center. Gamble is proud that Indian freshman enrollment doubled this fall, although he conceded it had started low. "We have a lot more to do yet," Gamble said. Gail Schontzler is at gails@dailychronicle.com Copyright c. 2004 the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. --------- "RE: This is a time of action" --------- Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 01:12:11 -0700 From: "Chris Milda (_Akimel O`odham_)" AkimelOodham@EarthLink.net Subj: `This is a time of action' (Fwd) Mailing List: News and Information http://www.helenair.com/articles/2004/10/16/helena/a01101604_04.txt `This is a time of action' By LAURA TODE - IR Staff Writer October 16, 2004 American Indian educators, advocates and tribal leaders faced a daunting task Friday, as the Indian Education Summit convened in Helena. Their charge: to come up with solutions to address concerns in Indian education including low standardized test scores, rising dropout rates and federal compliance - and to launch an action plan to implement their ideas. "This is a time of action," Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Linda McCulloch said. "We must create opportunities for future generations of American Indian students. Research compiled by the Montana Office of Public Instruction indicates that Native American children make up 11 percent of Montana's K-12 public school population, and almost 70 percent live on or near a reservation. Better than half of all Montana's American Indian children are eligible for free and reduced cost lunch - an indicator of poverty. Nearly all - some 90 percent - of the schools and districts that educate a majority of Native American children have been identified for improvement, as defined by federal No Child Left Behind regulations. While the future of American Indian Education may seem bleak, McCulloch said, it's also improving. Montana's Native American children in the fourth and eighth grades are the fastest improving group on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, administered annually. Some 14 percent of residents on the Ft. Belknap and Rocky Boy reservations reported attaining an associates degree, which exceeds the state average, McCullogh told the group. "A good education offers the best opportunity for these children's future," she added. Rep. Norma Bixby described a long history of Indian education in Montana that often resulted in disappointment. "We've come a long way since I started in the mid 80s and we've seen changes, but not enough," Bixby said, encouraging summit participants to focus on the future. "Now's the time to set a new direction, a new history and a new future for our children," she added. Those in attendance started their morning with a deluge of research on Native American education presented by William Demmert, Jr. one of the nation's foremost researchers on Indian education and an advocate of Indian education on Capitol Hill. His work centered on early childhood education as well as the importance of teaching native languages in Indian schools. "We have to do something from the very beginning," he said, adding that his research shows parent and community involvement can significantly influence long term academic success. In response to audience questions regarding the federal No Child Left Behind Act, Demmert said the policy needs to be changed to accommodate the United State's native students. According to Demmert, the testing methods need to be culturally fair and recognize native language teachers in schools as "highly qualified." Both standardized test scores and highly qualified educators are benchmarks in the federal mandates. The conference will continue today, with participants working in small groups and panel discussion. Copyright c. 2004 Helena Independent Record. --------- "RE: American Indian Teacher Training Center opens" --------- Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 08:21:09 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INDIAN TEACHER TRAINING" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.helenair.com//2004/10/22/montana/c04102204_03.txt American Indian teacher training center opens By The Associated Press October 22, 2004 SHERIDAN, Wyo. (AP) - Northern Wyoming is a good place to train teachers for working in American Indian, Eskimo and Hawaiian-native schools because many important events in American Indian history have happened there, the school's director says. Craig Dougherty is both superintendent of Sheridan County's rural schools and executive director of the Native American Indian, Alaskan and Hawaiian Educational Development Center in Sheridan. More than 100 people attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the center Wednesday. "This is the epicenter. This is the place this needs to happen in," Dougherty said before the ceremony began. The ceremony included a ribbon-cutting and blessings by the Rev. Newton and Amelia Old Crow of First Crow Indian Baptist Church in Lodge Grass, Mont. Dougherty said he is directing the center free of charge. The center's name, he said, reflects the fact that it will train not only teachers of American Indian children in the lower 48 states, but also teachers of Eskimo (who do not consider themselves American Indian) and native Hawaiian children. He said that even though a lot of reservations are isolated, it has been shown that children on them can learn from well-trained teachers. At the St. Labre school on Montana's Cheyenne Reservation, 83 percent of students taught by professionally trained teachers last year were reading above the national average for their grades, he said. Those attending the ceremony included Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., a Sheridan native who sponsored an appropriations request that secured $500,000 for the center. Enzi submitted a bill this year that would appropriate $4.5 million for the center, Dougherty said. Copyright c. 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. Copyright c. 2004 Helena Independent Record; a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Celebrate Native Languages and Cultures" --------- Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 08:24:35 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LANGUAGE & CULTURE CONFERENCE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=5341 Celebrate Native Languages and Cultures Seventh annual "Celebration of Indian Languages and Cultures" planned NORMAN OK Jennifer Tedlock October 19, 2004 "All of these [Native American] languages are endangered," said Alice Anderton, Executive Director of the Intertribal Wordpath Society. "Time is running out." "We still have about 25 languages spoken here in Oklahoma," Anderton told the Native American Times. That is why IWS's work is so important. All of the languages are considered "endangered". Without careful preservation they will disappear - as will the cultures they are so deeply connected with. The seventh annual "Celebration of Indian Language and Culture" will be held on Friday, October 22 in Norman, Oklahoma. The celebration is set to take place from 4:30 to 10:30 p.m. at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds. It is an opportunity to hear some of Oklahoma's Native languages, listen so Native songs, and buy genuine Native goods. This event is not about mourning the loss of traditional languages, but rather about celebrating the remaining ones. Margaret Mauldin, who helped create a Creek dictionary and developed the curriculum for teaching the language at the University of Oklahoma, will lead a workshop on making children's books in Native American languages. That event will kick things off on Friday, October 22. The main program, featuring stories, songs and poetry in a selection of Native languages from around the state, will begin at 6 p.m. English translations will be provided, as will commentary about the importance of each language to its culture. Durbin Feeling (Cherokee) will emcee the event, announcing the program in both Cherokee and English. Presenters include Mogre Lookout (Osage) of Pawhuska, Henry Leib (Ponca) and students from Red Rock, Gus Palmer, Jr. (Kiowa) of Norman, Geneva Navarro (Comanche) of Lawton, University of Oklahoma instructors LeRoy Sealy and Brenda Samuels (Choctaw) and students, and Lahoma Burd (Kickapoo). Evans Ray Satepauhoodle (Kiowa) of Hominy will sing Kiowa songs at the drum. At around mid-evening, a dramatic "ceremony of commitment" to honor Oklahoma languages will be held. This ceremony celebrates the languages that still exist. Candles for each of those 25 languages will be lit in what Anderton called a "powerful" and "moving" ceremony. The Intertribal Wordpath Society was created in 1996 and incorporated the following year. According to their website, IWS assists Oklahoma language preservation with: fund raising, public speaking, a television show - "Wordpath", "Pathways" newletter, exhibits and educational programs for the general public, production of language-related items, information archives, teacher training and publications, workshops, demonstration projects, advice on alphabets, materials and curricula, and their annual Celebration. To find out more about the Celebration of Indian Language and Culture, visit www.ahalenia.com/iws. Cleveland County Fairgrounds are located at 615 E. Robinson in Norman. Native American Times is Copyright c. 2004 Oklahoma Indian Times, Inc. --------- "RE: Tribe Aims to Bring Oyster out of Shell" --------- Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 08:27:29 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SAVING OLYMPIA OYSTERS" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.latimes.com//la-adna-oysters17oct17,1,4600575.story Tribe Aims to Bring Oyster Out of Shell Indians want to restore threatened Olympias to dominance, on beaches and dinner plates. October 17, 2004 By Rebecca Cook, Associated Press Writer SQUAXIN ISLAND, Wash. - The mud sucks at Brian Allen's hip boots as he walks across the beach searching for the elusive Olympia oyster. The tiny, tasty oyster once covered south Puget Sound beaches like a white blanket, and played a starring role in local Indian tribes' diet and economy. But 20th century pollution drove the Olympias to the brink of extinction. Now the Squaxin Island Tribe is working to restore Olympias to their rightful dominance, both on the beaches and on their dinner tables. Allen, a tribal shellfish biologist, liked what he saw one morning this summer on the eastern shore of Squaxin Island. "They're all over the place. This is dynamite," he said. The Olympia oysters the tribe planted two years ago have spawned a successful wild oyster bed. But why the fragile, fickle Olympias thrive on one beach and wither on another remains a mystery. For biologists, it's a scientific puzzle. For tribal members, saving the Olympia oysters may be the key to preserving an important part of their culture. Salmon are the iconic animal for Puget Sound tribes. Tribes still celebrate the big yearly runs of salmon from the ocean to the rivers with ceremonies and feasts. But oysters were the tribes' daily bread. "It was a constant food source for the tribes," said Jim Peters, natural resources director for the Squaxin Island Tribe. They ate Olympias nearly every day - raw, steamed in fire pits on the beach, or dried and smoked. Families would string the oysters together and hang them in their rafters to dry, so garlands of Olympia oysters decorated every Squaxin Islander's home. Olympias are unlike any other oyster. They're small, with shells about the size of a silver dollar and oysters about the size of a quarter. Legend has it that early civic boosters plied Washington leaders with the tasty native oysters to persuade them to put the capital in Olympia. (It worked.) Their delicate and complex flavor has been described as mild, salty-sweet, like fresh-cut grass, creamy, nutty and metallic. To Squaxin Island tribal members old enough to remember when Olympia oysters were plentiful, they simply taste like home. "I like them fresh off the beach," Peters said. "I know I can taste the difference between a Mud Bay oyster and one from somewhere else. They're tastier." Squaxin Islanders also used Olympia oysters as currency in trade with other tribes, which is why piles of oyster shells have been found at ancient tribal sites hundreds of miles inland. Trouble for the oysters began soon after white settlers arrived in the Pacific Northwest. The minutes of a tribal council meeting in the mid- 1860s describe tribal shellfish growers complaining that pollution from timber mills was killing off their oyster beds, according to Charlene Krise, executive director of the Squaxin Island Museum. By the 1940s the Olympia oyster industry was wiped out. A few commercial growers kept a limited supply alive. There's enough blame to go around for the wild Olympias' decline: timber mills, farms, rapid population growth, invasive species, over-harvesting. As Olympias died off, Pacific oysters were introduced to Puget Sound and replaced them as the dominant oyster. Hardier and easier to grow, what they lacked in complex flavors they made up for in size. Now Olympias are getting a second chance. Puget Sound water has gotten cleaner thanks to tougher pollution laws and better conservation. The Squaxin Island Tribe started working on Olympia restoration about 15 years ago, Peters said. In 2002 and 2003, with help from the nonprofit Puget Sound Restoration Fund, they planted about 155,000 oyster seeds on three Squaxin Island beaches. Over the last year the oysters have made a comeback. So, what are they doing right? That's what Allen and other tribal biologists hope to learn. Armed with calipers and a clipboard on the beach and a microscope back at the lab, Allen studies the wild-growing Olympias for answers. "What's different about this beach?" he wonders aloud as he pulls his boat up to the oyster-strewn shore. Where do Olympia oysters naturally like to grow and what are the best conditions? Why do the larva latch onto certain materials and not others? How do today's Olympia oysters differ from the ones Peters' ancestors knew? "Not only am I asking questions, I'm getting more questions as I go along," Allen said. Some clues are coming from an archeological site on Eld Inlet, at the waterfront property of former Secretary of State Ralph Munro. There, scientists have found a deposit of oyster shells, called a "midden," that is between 500 and 1,000 years old. Tribal biologist Ian Childs said they had discovered that while modern Olympias were round, the old shells grew in a teardrop shape, probably because they were more crowded. What they really want to do is analyze the DNA of the old Olympia shells to learn about the world of the native Puget Sound oyster. The only problem, Childs said, is "lots of shells and no money." The Squaxin Island Tribe is one of several tribes, government agencies, businesses and conservation groups working to bring back the Olympia oyster. Since 1999, the Puget Sound Restoration Fund has planted nearly 5 million oyster seeds around Puget Sound and the Hood Canal. Major funding for the roughly $500,000 project has come from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Squaxin Island tribal members look forward to the day when Olympia oysters will once again be an everyday meal instead of a rare treat. Leo Henry, 56, a retired logger, remembers big family suppers on the beach, where dozens of relatives and friends would gather to steam oysters and clams. "They were real plentiful, and now they're slowly making their way back," Henry said. "The Olympia oysters are going to come back." He hopes to revive the family tradition, which petered out after his parents died. When he does, Henry said, he hopes to celebrate with Olympia oysters. Copyright c. 2004 Los Angeles Times. --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Tribal Colleges get strong Leaders" --------- Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 08:42:27 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: TRIBAL COLLEGE LEADERS" http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforksherald/news/opinion/9954913.htm DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Tribal colleges get strong leaders October 19, 2004 American Indian reservations and their governments sometimes lack the openness and efficiency of the state and federal government systems. Mistakes and scandals sometime are splashed over regional and national newspapers. Yet, hidden behind those headlines are some really outstanding leaders. I met two of them recently: tribal college presidents Cindy Lindquist-Mala and Carol Davis. They are outstanding leaders who get little attention in the media. Lindquist-Mala assumed the presidency of the Spirit Lake tribal college, which is called Cankdeska Cikana (Little Hoop), a year ago. Cankdeska Cikana (pronounced Chank-DESK-ah CHEEK-in-naw) is one of the smaller tribal colleges in the state. The college has seen presidents come and go over the years. Although Lindquist-Mala currently is working on her doctoral degree at UND, she also took on the responsibilities of a troubled tribal college. She spent 4 1/2 years as Indian Affairs commissioner for North Dakota before assuming the college presidency. The job is a daunting one with shrinking funding, some intrusive tribal politics and the need for some new buildings. But as Lindquist-Mala told me, "I'm home and that is most important to me." Her family lives in the area and she feels an allegiance to the Spirit Lake people. She sees a good future for the college. She has plans and is working through some of the pitfalls that past presidents couldn't avoid. Lindquist-Mala plans to stay at the college. After our afternoon meeting, Lindquist-Mala and I had dinner at The View in the tribe's casino. Wild and churning rain clouds, beautiful and with gaps of blue between them, filled the big picture windows of the restaurant. The building sits on a bluff and presented an awesome panorama of the lake, which was gray and covered with white caps. We had a good dinner and a great conversation. The next day I journeyed to the Turtle Mountain reservation. Sometimes the rain on the windshield turned thick, and there were some brave snowflakes that melted as they hit the ground. Belcourt, N.D., is 8 to 10 miles from the Canadian border and the tribal college is about three miles north of the town. The college sits on a ridge above Fish or Belcourt lake. Local people call it by both, said Carol Davis, acting president of Turtle Mountain Community College. She assumed the post last summer after Gerald "Carty" Monette took leave. Davis isn't new to the college; she has been a moving force as its vice president for more than 30 years. As we sat in the spacious boardroom that overlooks the lake, I flashed back 40 years ago and saw her as a new mother, laughing about some silly thing that new moms find humorous when humor is the only thing that can help. She and I were secretaries for the administration of the Standing Rock Reservation in Fort Yates, N.D., many years ago. She has come a long way, I thought as I watched her. It isn't easy for a woman; they sometimes have to struggle to assert a leadership role. Davis made it look easy. She worked through her degrees one at the time, including a doctorate. She earned those degrees and worked for the tribal college while giving birth to and caring for six children. The children all are a tribute to Davis, her energy and her love of family. During the political skirmishes that most colleges experience, Davis' fairness and character made her a leader to be reckoned with. The Turtle Mountain Community College has one of the most beautiful new campuses in North Dakota. It was built with Monette's leadership and Davis' strength and commitment. The college has been a leader in a identifying and supporting the Ojibway culture. The college teaches the language and the history of the people. There are few places on the campus that don't have that imprint: The names of offices, the big state-of-the-art auditorium, the cafe' and bookstore and even the restrooms use the Ojibway language. The college, Davis told me, begin 30 years ago to buy artwork and cultural items from the local people. The items now have been archived and stand as tribute to the people. Among the unique and precious items are baskets from Francis and Rose Cree. Rose died a few years ago and her work has become extremely valuable. These women - Lindquist and Davis - worked behind the scenes and changed the way the people think about their culture and lives. They changed the way American Indian people see themselves and how non-Natives see Indian people. Copyright c. 2004 Grand Forks Herald/Grand Forks, ND. --------- "RE: Review: Rosebud Yellow Robe-breaking Stereotypes" --------- Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 22:03:54 EDT From: MJLaBurt@aol.com Subj: Review: Rosebud Yellow Robe played a role in breaking stereotypes about Indians Mailing List: NDNAIM http://www.rapidcityjournal.com//2004/10/18/news/features/364features.txt Review: Rosebud Yellow Robe played a role in breaking stereotypes about American Indians By Jomay Steen, Journal Staff Writer October 16, 2004 At six chapters, it's a slim biography of an important Rapid City family. Yet Marjorie Weinberg packs those pages with a great deal of history about Rapid City, the Rosebud tribe and Jones Beach Indian Village, a New York State park. "The Real Rosebud: The Triumph of a Lakota Woman" contains historical facts, great family details and the story of a true friendship between a Yellow Robe, Lakota woman and Weinberg, a non-Indian. A beautiful woman, Rosebud Yellow Robe's name proved to be an engaging conversation starter. In Weinberg's preface, she writes how Yellow Robe's friends connected her name to Orson Welles' classic film "Citizen Kane" and its finale in which the word "Rosebud," the name of Kane's sled, symbolized the happy times of his childhood. She writes of Yellow Robe's answer to "the inevitable question, `Were you named after the sled?' with `Why no, the sled was named after me.'" If not directly, her name may have inspired Welles in naming the sled in the classic movie. In the 1930s, Yellow Robe and Welles both worked at CBS studios in New York as broadcast celebrities on different radio programs. "At CBS, each radio actor signed the daily log on arriving and leaving the studio. Rosebud's signature appears in these logs on the same pages as Welles', and although they were not acquainted, they must have seen each other in the studio," Weinberg writes. Yellow Robe and Weinberg met when Weinberg was a teenager at Jones Beach Indian Village on Long Island. Their friendship lasted until Yellow Robe's death in 1992. The friendship continues through Yellow Robe's family. The book is an example of that strong friendship. "She was like a second mother to me," Weinberg said. An easy read, teenagers might want to spend a leisurely afternoon exploring Yellow Robe's adventures. Like most youths, she had to work through conflicts with her parents. Her father wore the styles and fashion of the day, leaving behind the shirts, leggings and moccasins of his forbearers. He also adamantly opposed movies and their portrayals of Indians. Rosebud found no trouble wearing traditional clothing. She often wore her regalia while working at Jones Beach. She also auditioned and appeared in movies, flourishing in her celebrity status. Later in her life, she even convinced her father to appear in a film. History buffs will appreciate the glimpses of Rapid City in the early 20th Century, as well as the story of one native family's deftly adapting to new cultures while keeping its own. Reid Riner, Minnelusa Pioneer Museum director, said the book was an excellent memoir, written by a third person, of one American Indian woman's contribution to cultural understanding. "(Yellow Robe) brought her understanding to audiences that never saw Indians anywhere except on B-movies," he said. "She broke through that stereotype." Copyright c. 2004 The Rapid City Journal. --------- "RE: Heart Disease targets more Alaska Natives" --------- Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 08:42:27 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HEART DISEASE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.adn.com/life/story/5687894p-5620480c.html Heart disease targets more Alaska Natives STUDIES: The chronic condition was rare in rural Alaska 50 years ago. By ANN POTEMPA Anchorage Daily News October 19, 2004 Alaska Natives once avoided several chronic diseases that kill non- Natives here and nationwide, but that advantage is disappearing. Diabetes and cancer, for instance, once were relatively rare among Natives, but both have become serious health concerns. Alaska Natives today have a higher risk of dying from cancer than do white people in the United States. One of the state's medical epidemiologists has added another health concern to the list: coronary heart disease. Alaska Natives once had a significantly lower risk of dying from this chronic condition. Now a recent study shows Natives and non-Natives here have the same risk of dying from it. "These findings are striking," said Dr. Joe McLaughlin, the epidemiologist whose study about coronary heart disease was published in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. A year ago, Dr. Catherine Schumacher published a study showing similar results. Schumacher, a medical researcher for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, found that recent death rates for heart disease among Alaska Natives also are similar to rates for U.S. whites. McLaughlin's study used death certificate data to show that the death rate for coronary heart disease decreased among non-Natives from 1979 to 2002. That wasn't the case for Alaska Natives, however, whose rate was the same at the beginning and the end of the study, McLaughlin said. Dr. Matt Schnellbaecher, cardiologist at the Alaska Native Medical Center since the mid-1990s, said he has talked to doctors who remember when Natives had a lower risk of heart disease death. When they saw patients complaining of chest pain during the 1970s, they didn't initially suspect coronary heart disease. That's no longer the case, Schnellbaecher said. Studies conducted throughout the past 50 years show how this changed. One study revealed that heart disease was only the seventh leading cause of death for Natives in 1950. Infectious diseases, not chronic ones, caused the most deaths. In 1960, the heart disease death rate for Natives was still significantly lower than the rate for the entire nation. McLaughlin's mentor, former state epidemiologist John Middaugh, published a study that showed death rates from cardiovascular diseases in the 1980s were still strikingly lower for Natives than for other Alaskans. Middaugh studied death certificates from 1980 through 1986 and found that Alaska Natives had about 60 percent of the cardiovascular disease death rate of other Alaskans. McLaughlin used similar methods to track heart disease from 1979 to 2002. He looked at death certificate data and studied reports from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a telephone survey that asks Alaskans and people nationwide to report their behaviors. The nation's overall death rate for heart disease has fallen as treatment and prevention have improved, McLaughlin said. Even so, the heart disease death rate for Alaska Natives remains about the same as it was more than two decades ago. McLaughlin and Middaugh said that could be linked to behavior changes revealed in McLaughlin's study. Compared to non-Natives, Alaska Natives have a 64 percent higher prevalence of smoking and a 35 percent higher prevalence of being inactive. Natives have a 14 percent higher prevalence of being overweight or obese and an 11 percent higher prevalence of high blood pressure, McLaughlin said. All of these, he said, are risk factors for developing heart disease. "Tobacco is the single leading controllable risk factor for atherosclerosis and heart attacks," said Middaugh, now a medical epidemiologist. State reports published in the past year say tobacco is the No. 1 public health problem for the state as a whole, regardless of race. These reports show tobacco use falling among Alaska's youth; the percent of high school teens who smoked at least one cigarette in the past month has been cut in half since 1995. The prevalence of smoking among Alaska adults hasn't dropped, though those who smoke are lighting up fewer cigarettes, the reports said. McLaughlin called attention to the other risk factors for heart disease. Alaska Natives used to lead traditional, physically demanding lives, he said, but modern conveniences have made it easier to be sedentary and overweight. The availability of tap water means Natives no longer have to expend energy hauling it, he said. People used to walk from place to place, but Schnellbaecher said he rarely sees people walking now when he visits Native villages. "Everyone uses four-wheelers and snowmachines now," he said. "Everyone. Six-year-olds to 86-year-olds are all on four-wheelers." Schnellbaecher said villages lack the private workout clubs available in Alaska's bigger cities, but some have gyms or schools to exercise in. With or without a gym, villagers should walk more, he said. "When you go to the post office, walk," he said. "When you go to a friend's house, walk." Diets also changed as grocery stores began selling foods that don't have to be hunted, fished or picked. Health officials encourage Natives to eat traditional foods -- game meat, marine mammals, fish and berries -- that are packed with protein and nutrients. Other researchers in the state continue to study heart disease. Schumacher and lead investigator Dr. Anne Lanier are working on a national project called EARTH, or Education and Research Toward Health. The study will investigate how much influence risk factors have on coronary heart disease and other chronic conditions. Researchers started enrolling Alaska Natives and American Indians in the study last spring. It will look specifically at inactivity, diet, smoking and other risk factors, but Schumacher said the research is long-term and results will not come quickly. McLaughlin and other health officials stressed that these risk factors aren't a problem for just Alaska Natives. "Everyone should be reminded that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States," McLaughlin said. Alaska Natives as well as non-Natives need to stop smoking, control their blood pressure, be more physically active and eat nutritious foods to reduce their risk of developing heart disease, McLaughlin said. Daily News reporter Ann Potempa can be reached at 257-4581 or apotempa@adn.com. ----------------------------------------------------- Programs encourage heart sense Alaska Natives wanting to reduce their risk of heart disease can join a number of programs offered through Southcentral Foundation and other Native organizations. Southcentral Foundation, the health care affiliate of Cook Inlet Region Inc., has an ongoing research project called Traditions of the Heart for women ages 40 to 64. The 4-year-old project was designed to see if short- term intervention could help women reduce their risk for heart disease. It's open to women regardless of their risk for disease, but they must be Alaska Native or American Indian and live in communities between Girdwood and Willow, said Vanessa Hiratsuka, who works with Traditions of the Heart. Participants attend one two-hour class each week for 12 weeks. Classes focus on stopping tobacco use, managing stress, eating nutritious meals and increasing activity, Hiratsuka said. The project, funded by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, randomly assigns some of the women into classes right away, while others wait one year before joining. So far, more than 500 women have completed the classes, she said. Southcentral Foundation also offers a free diabetes wellness program for those who are at risk for diabetes or actually have the chronic disease, said Connie Irrigoo, spokesperson for Southcentral Foundation. Participants meet weekly to learn how to manage their diabetes. Southcentral Foundation joins other tribal groups and corporations in offering free programs to help Alaska Natives and American Indians stop smoking and using other products with tobacco and nicotine. Southcentral Foundation, Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp., Bristol Bay Area Health Corp. and Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium have already developed these programs, and other Native organizations across the state are creating them, said Caroline Renner, who manages nicotine programs for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. These programs connect Alaska Natives with counselors who can talk about a variety of treatment options, including nicotine replacement products like gum and medications, Renner said. The tribal health consortium also is enrolling Alaska Native and American Indian men and women 18 and older in the EARTH study, said Dr. Catherine Schumacher, a medical researcher with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. EARTH, which stands for Education and Research Toward Health, will look for a relationship between behaviors and chronic diseases. At the beginning of the study, participants will describe their behaviors and receive free tests for cholesterol, blood pressure and more. They'll learn their health strengths and where they need improvement, Schumacher said. Participants also will be contacted annually throughout the study. The study is funded through 2006, but Schumacher said she hopes to extend it as well as continue to enroll Alaska Natives. The study has ongoing enrollment in Anchorage and Sitka and will accept participants from several communities in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta for the next few months, she said. To learn more about the EARTH study and enrollment, call 729-3258 in Anchorage; 1-907-966-8937 in Sitka; or 1-907-543-3961 in Bethel. To learn more about Traditions of the Heart, call 729-2180. For information about Southcentral Foundation's other classes, call 729-3300. -- Ann Potempa Copyright c. 2004 The Anchorage Daily News. --------- "RE: Wal-Mart charged over Mexico Site" --------- Date: Sat, 23 Oct 2004 19:26:42 -0700 (PDT) From: "Peter S. Lopez" Subj: Wal-Mart charged over Mexico site Mailing List: Human Rights Agenda Mailing List: NDNAIM http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/20//walmart_mexico.reut/index.htm Wal-Mart charged over Mexico site Leftist leader seeks criminal counts against retailer for building store near ancient pyramids. October 20, 2004 MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A Mexican leftist leader filed criminal charges against Wal-Mart and local and federal officials over construction of a huge discount store in the shadow of ancient pyramids outside Mexico City. Gerardo Fernandez, a national director of one of Mexico's biggest opposition parties -- the Party of the Democratic Revolution -- filed charges Tuesday with the federal Attorney General's office to block the Wal-Mart owned store at the Teotihuacan archeological ruins. Wal-Mart damaged archeological relics during construction, a crime subject to imprisonment, Fernandez said in his complaint, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters. The company had no immediate comment. Fernandez also charged that federal, state and local officials broke the law in fast-tracking the project, showing "mercantile and irresponsible conduct." Construction of the Bodega Aurrera, a unit of global retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (Research) is nearly complete. The big-box style discount store is scheduled to open by December about half a mile from a tourist park housing the 2,000-year-old ruins on a United Nations World Heritage Site. The project has fueled a growing national debate that pits notions of Mexican identity against global interests. Many residents and local authorities want the store for the low prices and jobs it will bring. And Wal-Mart calls it an investment in the poor community. Artists battle project But some local opponents, along with leading Mexican artists and writers, say the outpost of U.S. consumer culture will mar the ruins, kill small enterprise and change the local way of life. "Teotihuacan is for Mexicans our greatest cultural heritage, an expression of our history and our identity as a people and nation," 63 writers, painters and other cultural figures said in a letter to President Vicente Fox last week. Fernandez called the store "an insult." Their fight echoes opposition to Wal-Mart in the United States, where activists have fought, sometimes successfully, to block construction by the world's biggest retailer. In his complaint, Fernandez said national anthropology institute INAH should have stopped construction after a small altar was unearthed at the site, although preliminary excavations showed no evidence of valuable relics there. INAH has said the altar will be preserved in the store parking lot, and that the store poses no threat to the ruins. The Paris-based International Council on Monuments and Sites and UNESCO have also signed off on the project. No one is certain who founded the ancient seat of power and then abandoned it around A.D. 600. The Aztecs later came upon it and named it Teotihuacan (The Place Where Men Become Gods). ===== Towards Harmony Among Humanity~!~ Brother Peter S. Lopez {aka Peta de Sacra} Email: sacranative@yahoo.com Sacramento, Califas, Aztlan http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HumaneRightsAgenda/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Talking-Circle/ http://www.hrw.org/ http://www.haveyouthought.com/ --------- "RE: Brazil: Silent "Invasion" in Jungle" --------- Date: Friday, October 22, 2004 08:49 pm From: Amazon Alliance Subj: Brazil: Silent "Invasion" in Jungle Mailing List: Amazon Alliance www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news Silent 'invasion' in Brazil jungle Armed squatters are seeking to turn virgin rain forest into farms. By Kevin G. Hall Inquirer Foreign Staff RIOZINHO DO ANFRIZIO, Brazil - A stranger with a 12-gauge shotgun marched in and set up his tent inside Francisca Soares' little dirt-floored house on the bank of a remote tributary of the Amazon River. The stranger is a land squatter, and his presence may be the beginning of the end for a jungle teeming with monkeys and macaws. If past experience is any guide, within a decade the jungle that surrounds Soares, a 70-year-old grandmother suffering from glaucoma, will be transformed into a vast swath of soybeans growing in fields as tame as those found in Kansas or Minnesota. These 32,000 square miles of virgin rain forest - an area about the size of South Carolina called Terra do Meio, or Middle Lands - are the last ecologically pristine zone in the Amazon's eastern basin. Tarcisio Feitosa, the head of the Altamira office of the Pastoral Land Commission, a social-welfare arm of the Roman Catholic Church, says the Middle Lands are marked for development. "What you're seeing is how the process of deforestation and occupation begins," he said. "The first thing is you expel the local inhabitants... with intimidation and the power of weapons, and then you open some paths in the forest to claim your areas," he said. "Then comes slave labor, plus deforestation, plus the illegal sale of wood, illegal logging. It is a coming together of ills that happens in sequential fashion." The squatter who seized Soares' house works for a mysterious Dr. Celso - his last name is unknown to locals - who is betting that a dirt road through the thick jungle about 30 miles from Soares' home will soon be paved. If that happens, soybeans will be much easier to market and land values will soar. Meanwhile, Dr. Celso's squatters are taking over jungle land by the cheapest possible method - seizing it at gunpoint. "It fills me with tremendous sadness," said Herculano Porto de Oliveira, 60, a neighbor of Soares whose father is buried on land recently posted with a squatter's "No Trespassing" sign. It is hard to imagine the remoteness of the Amazon jungle area now drawing speculators. The nearest streetlight and doctor are about 300 miles away, in the shabby riverfront town of Altamira. Getting there takes two days in a boat with a 40-horsepower outboard motor. By the ferries that Soares and most other people use, it takes a week. Yet teams of squatters, whose only claim to the land is their audacity, are measuring and marking plots for private sale. Middle Lands rain forest can be bought on the Internet, if a buyer is not put off by Web sites stating that no land title comes with the sale. The ads stress that the land is flat. Translation: It is ideal for soybeans, which require flat land for mechanized planting and harvest.