From gars@speakeasy.org Sun Jan 30 01:04:15 2005 Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 15:39:01 -0800 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews13.005 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 13, ISSUE 005 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, WOTANGING IKCHE - Lakota - Common News Wotanging Ikche and Native American News Copyright c. 1996-2005 nanews.org Aboriginal/AmerIndian Perspective about the First Nations of Turtle Island January 29, 2005 Kiowa kaguat p'a san/little bud moon Abenaki alamikos/greetings maker moon Mohawk tsothohrhko:wa/moon of the big cold Blackfeet aisstoyiimsstaa/causes cold weather moon +-------------------------------------------------------+ | Much more happens in Indian Country than is reported | | in this weekly newsletter. For daily updates & events | | go to http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm | +-------------------------------------------------------+ Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin -- Blackfeet -- News for All the People Ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min -- Ojibwe -- We Are Talking About Ourselves Aunchemokauhettittea -- Naragansett -- Let Us Share News Kanoheda Aniyvwiya -- Cherokee -- Journal of the People O Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse -- Creek -- People's New News O o O Acimowin -- Plains Cree -- Story or Account O o O Tlaixmatiliztli -- Nahuatl -- News O o o o o O Agnutmaqan -- Listuguj Mi'kmaq -- News O o O Sho-da-ku-ye -- Teehahnahmah -- Talking Birchbark O o O Un Chota -- Susquehannic Seneca -- The People Speak O Ha-Sah-Sliltha -- Ditidaht Nation -- News of the People Ximopanolti tehuatzin, inin Mexika tlahtolli -- Nahuatl -- For you we offer these words It-hah-pe-hah Ah-num pah-le -- Chickasaw -- Together We Are Talking Dineh jii' adah' ho'nil'e'gii ba' ha' neh -- Navajo Nation -- What's Happening among The People News Okla Humma Holisso Nowat Anya -- Choctaw -- People(s) Red Newspaper Hi'a chu ah gaa -- Pima -- The stories or the talk of the People s ch mA mL tL squee Lux -- Okanogan -- News from 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; Frostys AmerIndian and American_Indian_Alliance Lists; UUCP email IMPORTANT!! ----------- In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, all material appearing in this newsletter is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for educational purposes. <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is a way of keeping the brothers and sisters who share our Spirit informed about current events within the lives of those who walk the Red Road. ++ It may be subscribed to via email by sending a request from your own internet addressable account to gars@speakeasy.org ++ It is archived at http://www.nanews.org <================<<<< >>>>================> +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | As historian Patricia Nelson | | Once a language is lost, it is | | Limerick summarized in "The | | gone forever | | Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken | | * Of the 300 original Native | | Past of the American West... | | languages in North America, | | "Set the blood quantum at | | only 175 exist today. | | one-quarter, hold to it as a | | * 125 of these are no longer | | rigid definition of Indians, | | learned by children. | | let intermarriage proceed as | | * 55 are spoken by 1 to 6 elders;| | it had for centuries, and | | when they die, their language | | eventually Indians will be | | will disappear. | | defined out of existence." | | * Without action, only 20 | | "When that happens, the federal | | languages will survive the next| | government will be freed of | | 50 years. | | its persistent 'Indian problem.'"| | Source: Indigenous Language | +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ | Institute | |http://www.indigenous-language.org| This issue's Elder Quote: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + ======================== "We are told to think about the greater good of the community." "What we're really being asked to do is step aside again." __ Monica Charles, Lower Elwha Klallam +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Indian Pledge of Allegiance | The Indian Pledge of Alleg- | | iance was first presented | I pledge allegiance to my Tribe,| on 2 December '93 during the | to the democratic principles | opening address of the Nat- | of the Republic | ional Congress of American | and to the individual freedoms | Indian Tribal-States Relat- | borrowed from the Iroquois and | ions Panel in Reno, NV. NCAI | Choctaw Confederacies, | plans distribution of the | as incorporated in the United | Indian Pledge to all Indian | States Constitution, | Nations. | so that my forefathers | | shall not have died in vain | Walk in Beauty! Night Owl +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Journey | In the summer and early fall | The Bloodline | of 1998 the Treaty Unity Riders | | rode a thousand miles on horse- | For all that live and live by law | back, carrying a staff and | We Stand, we Call, We Ride | praying each step of the way. | For All that fear and fear by sight | | We Hear, we Listen, we Ride | These prayers were offered for | For all that pray and pray by strength| each of us, and that the Unity | We Feel, we Move, we Ride | of all Peoples might happen. | For all that die and die by greed | | We Hurt, we Cry, we Ride | Tatanka Cante forwarded this | For all that birth and birth by right | poem on behalf of all the Unity | We Smile, we Hold, we Ride | Riders that we might stop and | For all that need and need by heart | ask if the next words we say, the | We Came, we Went, we Rode. | next act we make is for the good | | of the People or is it from ego | Treaty Unity Riders | for self. +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ O'siyo Brothers and Sisters! The opening article in this issue decribes the Bush administration's continuing efforts to limit the federal government's liability for mismanaging billions of dollars in Indian trust funds. Later in this issue you will read that urban Indians in Albuquerque are facing dismal health care, at best, and in many cases - none. Maybe, just maybe, dollars owed native people and dollars for health care promised in treaty-after-treaty would be available if the President of the United States was content with being president instead of seeking to be the emperor of the world. That's how I read his inaugural address. Your mileage may vary. If Gearge W. Bush realy wants fairness and democracy in the world it might be good if he started by fulfilling obligations to the first People of this land. The outright bigotry described by Natives in two articles... "Victims of South Dakota Injustice speak out" and "Tribe tells of years of bias in Port Angeles" may be news to the newspapers that published them, but not to any Indian, anywhere. I have personally witnessed it every single place I have lived... New Mexico, Oklahoma, Minnesota, California, Texas, Florida... It just seens to me there's a LOT of things that need to be corrected in Indian Country before George Walker Bush sends our sons and daughters off to set things right in the rest of the world. As a bonus, some of those sons and daughters might actually live to enjoy their own families. Dohiyi Ani Oginalii , , Gary Smith (*,*) wotanging@bellsouth.net 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 ----------- - Bush Admin seeks to - Column of the Americas: limit Trust Liability Census pushes for Removal - Victims of South Dakota Injustice - GN to catalogue speak out Nunavut's Carving-Stone Sites - Fort Hall Law - Former Me'tis Leader Memorandum of Understanding signed elected First Nations Chief - Tribe tells of years of bias - Band blocks Salmon Farm in Port Angeles - Elder Resigns - What are we teaching our Kids over Membership Discrimination - D-Q University's future - U.S. Policy On Blood Quantum still cloudy must be Changed - Tribal Leaders decry - Native Prisoner Official-English effort -- Spiritual Program funding axed - Push for a Native American Day -- Navajo Nation Jail Problems in Oklahoma - Rustywire: Metwe' Metwe' - 150 years as Sovereign Nations - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - Wind-solar Systems - Spiritdove Poem: bringing Electricity to Navajo A Tribute to Leonard Peltier - New Mexico Governor - American Indian proposes Tribal Initiatives Scholorships available - Duke City Indians - Preserving the Language face Health Care Crisis - Ho-Chunk Study Centers - YELLOW BIRD: promote Language, Culture Leave Tribal Hunting Rules alone - 'Homeland' Premiere - JODI RAVE: at Santa Barbara Film Fest Lifetime to explore a larger Truth - Upcoming Events - HARJO: Resolution: No more Fat 'Indian' Food --------- "RE: Bush Admin seeks to limit Trust Liability" --------- Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 08:53:05 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BUSH-WHACKING TRUST" http://www.indianz.com/News/2004/006101.asp Bush administration seeks to limit trust liability January 20, 2005 The Bush administration is once again trying to limit the federal government's liability for mismanaging billions of dollars in Indian trust funds. Earlier this month, the Department of Justice asked the U.S. Supreme Court to pull back the reins on a slew of historical accounting lawsuits filed by tribes and individual Indians. Government lawyers said the claims could "substantially increase" the government's liability for failing to manage trust funds dating as far back as 100 years. "Both the number and the potential dollar value of possible breach-of- trust claims against the United States are enormous," the attorneys wrote on January 7. The petition, filed in a case involving two Wyoming tribes, is the second time the administration has asked the nation's highest court to intervene in the trust fund fiasco. During Bush's first term, government lawyers warned that the U.S. would be on the hook for billions if mismanagement lawsuits were allowed to continue. That effort largely failed. In two split decisions, members of the court reaffirmed the right of tribes and individual Indians to seek damages for mismanagement of their trust assets. The justices also declined to endorse the administration's limited view of the trust relationship. But defeat hasn't stopped the Interior Department from trying to curtail its responsibilities. In the Cobell lawsuit over the Individual Indian Money (IIM) trust, for example, officials have narrowly construed their duty to conduct an historical accounting by refusing to go all the way back to the inception of the trust in 1887 and ignoring whether payments actually made it into the accounts. Those two issues are at the heart of the case at issue before the court. On the first point, the administration is challenging an appropriations rider that gave tribes and individual Indians more time to file breach of trust lawsuits. On the second, the government says trust beneficiaries are not entitled to damages for payments that, for whatever reason, were never collected. The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals arrived at a different conclusion on both issues. In a ruling last April, a 2-1 majority said the rider lifts the customary six-year statute of limitations imposed on lawsuits against the government and said the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and the Northern Arapaho Tribe were entitled to pre-judgment interest on lease money that never made it into their accounts or was delayed. The rider, which first appeared in the 1990 Interior appropriations act, is a significant issue because several other tribes have cited it as part of their cases. As interpreted by lower courts, the provision has allowed tribes to seek damages dating as far back as the early 1900s. But in the government's view, the tribes would only be allowed to go back six years prior to the filing of the lawsuit. If the high court agrees, trust beneficiaries could lost out on millions. "If suits alleging breach of the government's trust obligations - in this case, for claims arising out of events dating back to 1946 - may proceed without regard to the otherwise-applicable statute of limitations, both the potential dollar amounts of any recoveries that the plaintiffs may ultimately obtain, and the burden and expense of locating, assembling, and assessing the evidence necessary to resolve the claims of trust mismanagement, will be greatly increased," DOJ wrote in the petition. The second point is equally important because mismanagement cases are often based on allegations that tribes and individual Indians never received the proper amount of money for use of their land, minerals or other natural resources. But the Bush administration says the government can't be liable for "money that was never paid into the trust in the first place," according to the attorneys. Also, the attorneys are advancing a view held by Special Trustee Ross Swimmer and others that an historical accounting is limited to "monetary assets," not the actual trust assets. This interpretation has allowed the administration to complete the accounting within five years at an estimated cost of $335 million. After the Federal Circuit ruling, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and the Northern Arapaho Tribe agreed to settle their sand and gravel claims for $2.75 million and their oil and gas claims $12 million. But the tribes and the government agreed to preserve their right to appeal. The tribes have exercised that right and are disputing part of the ruling that said they weren't entitled to the damages for mismanagement of trust assets. The tribes argue that they didn't receive the best price for their sand and gravel but the circuit court ruled there was no fiduciary or statutory duty to do so. "Congress was concerned not only about improper handling of trust funds, but also 'losses to trust funds' due to the government's mismanagement of trust assets," the tribes responded in their petition. The tribal response to the government's petition is due February 7. The government's response to the tribal petition is due February 2. Copyright c. 2000-2004 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Victims of South Dakota Injustice speak out" --------- Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 08:53:05 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SOUTH DAKOTA INJUSTICE" http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=5837 Victims of South Dakota injustice speak out Advocates say court decisions will help keep Indian families intact PIERRE SD Ruth Steinberger January 19, 2005 Editors Note: This is the second in a series of reports detailing court decisions that have significant implications for the Indian Child Welfare Act. Two South Dakota Supreme Court decisions released recently signaled strong victories for the Indian Child Welfare Act, a federal law passed in 1978 intended to halt the removal of Indian children from their families. This is an issue affecting families in every tribe in America. In both cases, actions by the South Dakota Department of Social Services that resulted in family terminations were deemed by the South Dakota Supreme Court to have been handled outside of the provisions of ICWA. These complicated cases signal victories for Indian people who are trying to keep families together. In a case involving a Rapid City family, a judge overturned a lower court decision that preempted the federal law known as ICWA by a federal law called the Adoption Safe Families Act (ASFA), a 1996 law intended to speed up family terminations and adoptive placements in cases where there is no hope of family reunification, such as where a parent has killed a sibling of the child. In a second case the court upheld standards for individuals who are used as an, `expert witness' in an ICWA case, overturning a family termination based on testimony by someone who the parents as well a the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe contended was not qualified to be used as an expert witness. In the first decision, the court found that ASFA does not release the state from having to follow the mandates of ICWA regarding making efforts to locate appropriate family or tribal placements for the child even if termination is to take place. In the court opinion Justice Konenkamp wrote, `Under the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), enacted in 1997, "reasonable efforts" to reunify a family are not required before termination of parental rights when a parent has a pattern of abusive or neglectful behavior constituting an aggravated circumstance. On the other hand, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), enacted in 1978, provides special rules for the needs of Indian children and families. We conclude that ASFA does not override the requirements of ICWA." Peg Eagan, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Attorney said, "The clear language that says that in no way does a finding that ASFA applies to the case overall release the state from following the provisions of ICWA." ASFA includes five circumstances in which the state is relieved from making active efforts to reunite the family including violent offenses. South Dakota added three more circumstances, making eight ASFA provisions altogether in South Dakota law. Eagan added that, "Two of these three fall disproportionately on Indian families." Eagan added that if this case had been decided differently, and it was determined that ASFA overrode ICWA, the added circumstances of South Dakota ASFA would have seriously impacted Indian families. Supported heavily by the private adoption lobby in congress, ASFA accelerates the process toward termination and adoption in cases without hope of family reunification. On the other hand, ICWA provides stability for Indian children by slowing down or halting removal and searching for relative contact and placing the child within the extended family or within the child's tribe. The removal of Indian children from their families throughout the last century is a painful issue affecting thousands of families, and is recognized to be tied to the rates of depression, suicide, alcoholism and substance abuse shaking the foundation of tribal communities. Sandy White Hawk is founder of First Americans Orphans Association and is a victim of Indian child removal in the pre-ICWA era. White Hawk cheered the recent decisions saying, "I was very excited to see that the South Dakota Supreme Court said that ASFA can't take precedence over ICWA. The Indian Child Welfare Act is a federal law. We see time and time again where the states do not recognize it as a federal law." White Hawk continued, "We observe in court, and hear social workers treat ICWA as if it were a minor obstacle that they have to get around for child placement. We are still trying to educate judges, lawmakers and social workers that ICWA was put in place to preserve and bring back our extended family system that was nearly destroyed through adoption and foster care." White Hawk said, "It takes a lot to work with a family that has a history of alcoholism and abuse, but as Indian people we understand where these problems began. Of course the families that need the most help are where there is a break down. No family is beyond hope. No Indian child is without relatives somewhere, and it does take a lot of work to connect that family system, either locating a kinship caregiver or a relative, but it is not impossible. If the effort was put there instead of taking the dollars and destroying and separating the families we would begin healing our communities." White Hawk noted that the removal of Indian children creates the next generation of parents facing the same struggles that existed the generation before. She said, "It's a cycle. In First Nations Orphans Association we try to get to the grass roots level of our communities and begin healing from that intergenerational trauma to our family system that began in 1890." White Hawk explained that First Nation Orphans Association was founded through recognizing the need to provide advocacy for adoptees, fostered individuals, within their communities in order to reunite. She said, "And not just to reunite with each other, but to reunite with professionals, their tribal and spiritual leaders, to get them what they need to begin the healing process. We find that people that have been taken from their culture and have come back, there are three areas they are in need of. They are emotional healing, spiritual healing and a lot of legal advocacy." White Hawk reiterated, "No family is beyond hope." She concluded, "The Supreme Court decision is an answer to our people's prayers. As Indian people we are aware of what our families struggle with and we are recovering from a history of near destruction of our extended Indian families." Dwayne Stinstrom, Winnebago, is also a victim of pre-ICWA removal who works closely with First Nations Orphans Association. Now living on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, Stinstrom speaks publicly on this issue. Stinstrom noted that the removal of Indian youth, and the turmoil created for Indian families, now affects families on all reservations. He said, "What impresses me is that when an Indian child gets taken away they develop a commission, when a non-Indian child gets taken away they have an Amber Alert. In 1968 I was sold." Stinstrom added, "I am a product of pre- ICWA and I was taken from my mother in 1968. I've been testifying since last year. ASFA has been used to wipe out ICWA." Stinstrom said, "They need to look at what is going on here and this is all about money. And now they have tried to preempt ICWA with ASFA." He testified during the hearings held by the governor's commission on enforcement of ICWA that ended December 31st in Pierre. "Most of the people on the commission were more concerned about the extra work that the welfare people would get than why they were really there," he said. He added, "What pre-ICWA did was it tore my family apart. I just got to meet my oldest sister five years ago when I turned 40. It was devastation from the get go. I am more fortunate than my brothers and sisters in that I got to meet my mother before she passed away. I got to meet my mother in December of 1980, and she died five months later. But it was through her funeral that I got to meet five of my other brothers and sisters, we couldn't locate the oldest one." Living in Nebraska the state had taken all of the children and then Stinstrom and his siblings were separated. He said, "Me and another brother were the last two to go. In 1968 we were taken from her." Stinstrom's mother was handed a piece of paper to sign, and he said, "She signed it, she didn't know what it was." Stinstrom said, "What I tried to get across to tribes is that I don't understand why jurisdiction has been given up to the state. In 1954 the state had the opportunity to take jurisdiction and they refused it, why have we given it to them now?" Noting the tragedy of undermining ICWA now based on the damage done to families before ICWA was in place, Stinstrom said, "Even though ICWA was passed in 1978, there is a whole generation of us out here who are looking for our families. I was fortunate, I found mine. But I have spoken with people as recently as three years ago who are still looking for their roots." "When you look at this issue chronologically, anyone who was taken from their families prior to 1978, and you had the whole family torn apart; there is a lot of intergenerational emotional turmoil they have gone through," he said. He continued, "If they never get it resolved there is a very good chance they will get into alcoholism, domestic violence, and the state and federal government will try to address that by instituting ASFA, and when these families start to act out they take their kids away just like they did to their parents before them. ASFA is intended to expedite the break up of the family, and the whole cycle starts over." Stinstrom said, "This has nothing to do with the kids; and what is in the best interest of the kids is a joke. I have been waiting for 45 years for someone to ask me what it did for me, and I have yet to have anyone ask me my opinion of what it did for me. No one has asked me anyone." Stinstrom was in non-Indian foster homes from the time he was removed from his mother. Because the time period was before ICWA, no effort was made to offer him an opportunity to be around his own culture. He said, "When my brother turned 16 we took off back to Winnebago to try to look for my mother." The boys were caught and jailed." He continued, "This story has had an enormous impact on me and affects me today. The summer before being removed we spent the summer with a mission. "That first summer they took us to Iowa to spend the summer with a farm family to have something to do. After the month and a half was over the mission came for us and took us back to Winnebago, and we were back with my mom and all was well. The next year the same thing happened but this time when they took me away from my mom I waited and waited for these people to come back and get me. Weeks went by, months went by and years went by and I realized no one is coming. No one told me what was going on. The irony is that when my brother was in Viet Nam fighting for this country there was no one to fight to protect our mother from the government he was fighting to protect. People need to understand that there was a whole generation of people that were thrown out to rot. And we are surviving and we are coming back full force." Stinstrom said, "In the early years no one talked about this stuff... there was a lot of shame attached to this. This brings up painful memories for many people. There are as many reasons for someone losing their children as there are people you talk to. Most of the people who were taken away still have no closure. They don't know what happened to them and many do not even know what reservation they are from. Essentially, we went to bed in a tipi surrounded by family, and woke up in a three room house surrounded by strangers. Someone commented to me that I was lucky to have been taken when I was eight and he had been taken from his family when he was two. I asked how I would happen to be lucky in this circumstance. After all I knew my family and knew I could never visit them again. I asked so what makes this so lucky?" He answered, "That at least I knew who my family was." The Split Feather survey started when a lot of adoptees looking for their families, and the research focused on 20 individuals ranging from 19 to 72 years old. Stinstrom noted, "All had something in common, they all had their lives torn apart. Nobody to this day, no one has tried to address that issue." Stinstrom feels the pre-ICWA damage to families affects the families on the reservation today. He said, "It wasn't until the commission started that people started talking publicly about this here. But the commission is talking about the present time, they are not talking about pre-ICWA and a lot of these people who are now loosing their kids were affected during that era, are people who themselves were removed." He concluded, "I was very glad that those two decisions came out the way they did. It's about time. My question is how many families have been raked over the coals since ICWA was passed and they have found ways to continue to destroy Indian families." Native American Times is Copyright c. 2004 Oklahoma Indian Times, Inc. --------- "RE: Fort Hall Law Memorandum of Understanding signed" --------- Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 14:17:52 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FORT HALL MOU AGREEMENT" http://www.shobannews.com/ FHBC, FHPD and Gaming Management sign law enforcement MOU By Lori Edmo-Suppah, Sho-Ban News January 6, 2005 FORT HALL - The Fort Hall Business Council, Fort Hall Police Department (FHPD) and Fort Hall Casino management all signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) December 30 to ensure effective law enforcement at the Fort Hall and Bannock Peak Casinos on the Fort Hall Reservation. The MOU is necessary FHBC member Blaine Edmo said because it's required under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, a federal law and the Shoshone- Bannock Tribal Gaming Ordinance also requires it. Interim Fort Hall Casino Manager Andrea Haskett-Ramone said the MOU would produce a cooperative work effort and better policing of the Casino. Tribal Police are called when suspected illegal activity occurs, then the FHPD calls area county or Idaho State Police if non-Indians are involved in a crime. The MOU says that cooperation is a must in investigating, enforcing and responding to criminal activity in a manner that effectively and efficiently addresses each situation while preserving a peaceful and crime-free business environment. It provides for resource sharing in investigations and enforcement of laws relating to illegal drugs. It says illegal drug traffickers will be prosecuted aggressively and consistently. Reportedly some individuals including tribal members have been banned from the casino for suspected illegal drug activity. Concerning drug investigations, the MOU says the parties agree the FHPD may use any available resource including drug dogs in the Casino parking lot for vehicles parked within the Casino boundaries. A designated office inside the Casino will be utilized to conduct a drug investigation of individuals. The FHPD agrees when a drug dog is used in an investigation, it will be done outside of the building. The MOU will also enable the Gaming Commission and Gaming Security to obtain accurate criminal background information for job applicants. The FHPD will run the background checks through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) that will expedite the response for the Gaming Commission. Previously the background checks could take upwards of two weeks or longer. It was also difficult to determine if applicants had questionable backgrounds if they used aliases at another reservation if it was out-of- state. Police Chief Jim Gibson advised the Commission Executive Director Lloyd Rolfes and Commission Chairman Danford Dann they wouldn't receive the exact NCIC report but an information sheet. "We're looking at speed," in getting the NCIC information Rolfes said because "right now we don't have access to NCIC." Copyright c. 2004 Sho-Ban News. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Tribe tells of years of bias in Port Angeles" --------- Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 08:53:05 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RACISM" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/sited/story/html/183655 Tribe tells of years of bias in Port Angeles January 19, 2005 by JIM CASEY PORT ANGELES - Racism is real in Port Angeles, Lower Elwha Klallam tribal members said Tuesday - and it's much older than the controversy over the Hood Canal Bridge graving yard. "Racism, it is hush-hush," Tribal Chairwoman Frances Charles told the city's Multicultural Task Force, which held a special meeting in the tribal center on the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation. "It is not perceived (by non-Natives), but we feel it." "There's always been racism," tribal member Monica Charles agreed. "It just flares up when there's an issue like the graving yard." The graving yard is the 22.5-acre site on the Port Angeles waterfront where the state had hoped to build huge concrete anchors, pontoons, and highway decks to replace the east end of the Hood Canal Bridge. The project halted after workers discovered Klallam burials and artifacts throughout the site. "It's been an open grave for us," said Monica Charles. "It has been an open wound." `Genocide by archaeology' She called the graving yard "genocide by archaeology." "The biggest archaeological discovery in the state they did in 15 months," she said. "It should have taken 20 years. "We are told to think about the greater good of the community. "What we're really being asked to do is step aside again." Copyright c. 2005 Peninsula Daily News/ Port Angeles, WA. --------- "RE: What are we teaching our Kids" --------- Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2005 16:41:04 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TEACHING TEACHERS" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2005/01/23/news/00lead.txt American Indians: What are we teaching our kids about them By KATE SCHOTT / La Crosse Tribune January 23, 2005 Devon Sprain doesn't mind helping her teachers when it comes to her culture. The 18-year-old Logan High School senior, who is half Ho-Chunk, would rather they get it right than wonder. "I just wish the teachers were a little more educated on that, so they wouldn't have to ask," she said. Sprain's request seems in line with public sentiment as expressed by the state Legislature. Wisconsin law requires that teachers learn about the state's tribes before being certified. Students are to be taught about tribal cultures and history. The state's Model Academic Standards call for units on American Indian history twice in elementary school and once in high school. In the Coulee Region, public schools have worked with the Ho-Chunk Nation on projects ranging from teacher training to diversity days and awareness weeks. Mark White, who coordinates elementary social studies curriculum for the School District of La Crosse, said the main objective is to make sure students know "there isn't just one picture of a Native American." Despite efforts to educate students about American Indians, stereotypes persist. Some public schools, unintentionally but very publicly, reinforce them, according to people seeking to eliminate Indian mascots and nicknames. More subtly, curriculums, textbook limitations and budget problems contribute to poor understanding, say some education officials. "(We don't) learn as much as people assume we do (about American Indians)," Sprain said. "... (Textbooks) tend to touch on the bad parts, like the Trail of Tears or us being treated badly. It doesn't touch on current issues. There's not much on what our future is like as Native Americans." Unintentional lessons American Indian advocates protested Viroqua High School's plan last year to perform the musical "Little Mary Sunshine" because of the play's portrayals of Indians. Among people protesting was Kent Koppelman, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse who talked to the school board about educational damage done to students in the play. He wasn't just focusing on the play, he said Thursday. American Indians are also marginalized by history curricula that tend not to deal with American Indians beyond the 19th century and schools using Indian nicknames and logos. "There's nothing malicious behind this," he said. "(But) it ultimately sends a message that is dangerous and disturbing: They don't have to pay attention to people who say they're Indians." That reinforces ignoring complaints by American Indians "because we don't think of Indians as current people," he said. Viroqua High School's nickname is "Blackhawks." Other public schools in the Coulee Region with Indian nicknames are Prairie du Chien (Blackhawks), Seneca (Indians), Tomah (Indians), and Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau (Redmen). Keeping the names amounts to a stereotype sanctioned by public schools, said Barbara Munson, a member of the Oneida tribe and chairwoman of the Mascot and Logo Taskforce for the Wisconsin Indian Education Association. She said it can lead to alienation between students. "It causes a lot of questions because the Indians in the classroom have real Indian relatives," she said. "None of them are like that stereotype. The cultures are living things with real human faces. The stereotypes are stiff." Mascots have been a high-profile issue. Textbooks and curriculums aren't as visible. Fabian Carrimon, area homeschool coordinator for the Ho-Chunk Nation, said local efforts to incorporate lessons on American Indians are good. But they're inconsistent. "I think it is tough for a lot of schools to put something together to make this work," he said. Carrimon said budget restraints also can limit resources beyond textbooks that often don't provide a Wisconsin perspective. California and Texas are the largest buyers of textbooks, he said, so content usually is tailored to them and their tribes. Barbara Blackdeer-Mackenzie, executive director of education for the Ho- Chunk Nation, said American Indians wind up in a tough spot in this situation. They can complain, she said, and encounter textbook companies that think they are hard to please. But if they don't, she said, lessons starting in kindergarten and extending into high school gloss over the fact that American Indians were on the continent before Columbus arrived, placed in the background or not acknowledged at all. Intentional lessons State law requires all students to learn about native Wisconsin tribes in fourth, eighth and 12th grades. White said La Crosse public schools have taken steps to further educate teachers because it is "not something that is necessarily common knowledge." He said training and an inch-thick booklet produced for fourth-grade teachers were provided to help educators create accurate lessons. A fourth-grade assignment might ask students to demonstrate knowledge of an American Indian culture or understand tribal sovereignty. "We certainly want students to understand that Native American inhabitants were the first inhabitants of our state," he said. "We want students to understand they were here first, and they have tribal rights." In Viroqua, School District Administrator David Johnston said several things have happened in the wake of the play. Diversity was a theme during a staff development program, and the school district has recognized and sponsored an advisor for a student diversity group. The district also hosted a performance of the one-act play "Kick," which addresses American Indian issues. Students aren't the only ones learning more. Soon-to-be teachers are required to learn about Wisconsin American Indians to get their certification. Blackdeer-Mackenzie said this is a good step but pointed out that colleges often meet this requirement with diversity classes that crowd American Indian lessons in with other topics, such as what it's like teaching in urban versus rural schools. "When you learn about Native Americans, you don't really learn the entire truth," agreed Kelley Anne Flynn, a University of Wisconsin- La Crosse education student. "The details are often left out." Flynn said she has gained a "deeper insight into how important it is to teach the truth" during a semester tutoring at the study center at the Ho- Chunk Nation Three Rivers House in La Crosse. The 21-year-old plans to use what she learned in future lesson plans. The Nation's multiple study centers are just one way the Ho-Chunk work to teach pride in their culture. Amanda De Cora-Heintz, center coordinator for the Three Rivers House, said they provide any American Indian student help with anything from school work to cultural enrichment activities. They also stress daily Ho-Chunk language lessons. "It's been a big effort by almost every tribe in the country. Once your language dies, a part of your culture dies," De Cora-Heintz said. "Stories that are told in Ho-Chunk don't translate the same into English. You lose something when you lose your language." Perceptions Blackdeer-Mackenzie said much has been done to improve what is taught about American Indians, but continued perseverance is needed. She cited a University of Wisconsin-Madison study in which elementary students were asked what came to mind when they thought of American Indians. They said teepees, feathers, and bow and arrows. When the same group was later asked in high school, the answers were identical. But she believes there is hope future generations will improve when it comes to multicultural sensitivity. "There is always potential. I have to believe that," she said Monday at the Ho-Chunk Nation Headquarters in Black River Falls. "What we have to eradicate is the hate. Hate comes from ignorance and arrogance. ... People have to want to learn or unlearn and relearn to get over the ignorance and arrogance." Ho-Chunk Nation President George R. Lewis said things have improved since he was a boy in Black River Falls. The 60-year-old said last week he remembers when American Indians could only get their hair cut on certain days and couldn't eat in restaurants. But he is aware discrimination continues. He thinks many of the stereotypes are due to a lack of cultural understanding and believes accurate education will continue to improve the way American Indians are perceived. "I think what we need to start doing is start teaching Ho-Chunk 101 or Native Americans 101 and vice versa," Lewis said. "We have to understand the 101 culture of other people. Once we understand each other, we might be able to be at the same level." UW-L symposium to cover state law Several student groups at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse will hold a conference Feb. 5 in the Cartwright Center. Titled "Act 31 Teacher Education Symposium," it will focus on the state law that requires Wisconsin American Indian history, both past and present, to be taught in the public school system. A number of presenters will be on hand, including people from the Oneida, Ho-Chunk, Ojibwa, Cherokee, Menomo-nee, and other tribes. Many elders also will be present, as will booksellers and organizations with resource materials. The cost is $40 for adults, $10 for students, and scholarships are available. The conference runs from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. For more information, contact Matt Stewart at UW-L (608) 785-8838 or e-mail at wolf.guy@uwlax.edu. More on regulations at www.lacrosse tribune.com Kate Schott can be reached at (608) 791-8226 or kate.schott@lacrossetribune.com. Copyright c. 1997 - 2003 The La Crosse Tribune. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: D-Q University's future still cloudy" --------- Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 08:54:12 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="D-Q LOSES ACCREDITATION" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/12118042p-12988705c.html D-Q University's future still cloudy after trustees meet By Lesli A. Maxwell - Bee Staff Writer January 23, 2005 DAVIS - The fate of D-Q University remained unclear Saturday after members of the tribal college's board of trustees met in a marathon session behind locked doors for much of the day. Students, campus employees and members of the American Indian community met separately in the school's library and decided they would probably call for the resignation of D-Q's current administration and board members. College officials learned last week that accreditation had been terminated by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, an arm of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, or WASC. University President Victor Gabriel said the board "outlined strategic objectives to deal with all of the issues raised by WASC," and "the school will remain open to offer noncredit courses." The board also decided that the school will appeal the commission's decision to cancel accreditation, Gabriel said. The commission revoked accreditation after putting the school on notice in June that it must recruit and train board members, improve its cash flow, hire qualified faculty and personnel and provide courses that lead students to complete associate of arts degrees. D-Q, west of Davis in rural Yolo County, is California's only tribal college. Copyright c. 2005 The Sacramento Bee. --------- "RE: Tribal Leaders decry Official-English effort" --------- Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 08:16:26 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ARIZONA" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0119nativeleg19.html Tribal leaders decry official-English effort Judy Nichols The Arizona Republic January 19, 2005 Native American leaders visited the state Capitol on Tuesday for the 10th-annual Indian Nations and Tribes Legislative Day and expressed their displeasure with a proposal to make English the official language of Arizona. More than 500 representatives of Arizona's 22 Indian tribes filled the gallery or sat among state legislators from their districts for introductions and prepared speeches. Sen. Bill Brotherton, D-Phoenix, urged them to express their opinion on House Concurrent Resolution 2030, which would allow voters to declare English the official state language. The bill will be considered during this year's legislative session. "In plain English, sir, we don't like it, and we don't want it," said Kathy Kitcheyan, chairwoman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe. "As the first Americans, we never asked anyone to speak a specific language." Vivian Juan-Saunders, chairwoman of the Tohono O'odham Nation and president of the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona, called the measure "divisive, objectionable and unnecessary." She said it was reminiscent of government boarding schools where Indian children suffered verbal and physical abuse for using their Native languages. Juan-Saunders said Navajo Code Talkers and other Indian soldiers used their native languages to pass coded messages, helping win World War II. Both women received standing ovations. Speaking at lunch on the Senate lawn, Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr., said he was beginning to feel like tribes are an endangered species. "One hundred years from now, 500 years from now, we want to be Navajo people, talking in our Navajo language, telling our stories in our Navajo language," Shirley said. In 1988, Arizona voters approved an English-only law but the state Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional because it violated free speech and equal-protection rights. Former Sen. Jack Jackson Sr., honored as the father of the Indian Nations and Tribes Legislative Day, said he organized the event to try to deal with problems the tribes have, some dating back to drawing the state's borders without input or consideration of tribal lands. "Down by Tucson, they put half the Tohono O'odham community in Mexico," Jackson said. "The Navajo Nation is in three different states." Other tribes are split across county and city borders, causing jurisdictional nightmares. Leaders also addressed other concerns: growth, water, education, transportation and health care. Hopi President Wayne Taylor Jr. said his tribe faces an economic crisis with the threatened closure of the Mohave Generating Station. Water pumped from the Navajo aquifer is used to slurry coal from the Black Mesa Coal Mine 273 miles to the generating station in Laughlin, Nev. But the Navajo and Hopi tribes say the operation is depleting the aquifer and won't allow it to continue after 2005. "Some of our wells and springs are drying up already," Taylor said. Without an alternate water source, possibly a pipeline from the Coconino aquifer, the mine and generating station will be closed. The Hopis receive $7.7 million, one-third its operating budget, from coal royalties. Juan-Saunders said her tribe is concerned about high school seniors passing the AIMS test, encroaching development of homes and shopping centers on reservation borders and a lack of funding for homeland security expenses. "We have 75 miles of national border and we've spent $7 million of our own resources," she said. Copyright c. 2005, azcentral.com. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Push for a Native American Day in Oklahoma" --------- Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 08:16:26 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="OKLAHOMA NA DAY EFFORT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=5838 Push for a Native American Day in Oklahoma State would become third to do so OKLAHOMA CITY OK Sam Lewin January 19, 2005 An Oklahoma lawmaker has introduced a bill to declare Native American Day to be observed annually on the 2nd Monday in October. Rep. Glen Bud Smithson, a Democrat from Sallisaw, has received praise for his authorship of the bill. Mike Graham, a member of the Cherokee Nation and the founder of United Native America (www.UnitedNativeAmerica. com), said the move is long overdue. "From our standpoint-Oklahoma has the largest Native American population in the country. Even on the license plates it says Oklahoma is Native America," Graham told the Native American Times. Smithson has already filed the legislation, House Bill 1216. The Oklahoma legislature convenes on the first Monday of October. The bill will first be introduced to a committee. If it passes there, it goes before the House for a full vote. If that hurdle is passed, the process is repeated in the Senate. If the law were enacted, Oklahoma would become just the second state to have a Native American Day as a state holiday. South Dakota established the holiday in 1989 to replace Columbus Day. Wyoming celebrates a similar holiday on the second Friday in May. While Graham thinks there are multiple benefits to the holiday, he says two really stand out: tourism and education. Both are areas where the Sooner State lags behind the rest of the country. "It would be a good deal for the school system. Kids could learn more about the tribal nations in their area of the state. It would be a major boost to the tourist industry," he said. Thousands attended South Dakota's Native American Day celebrations last year. Graham doesn't want to stop at a state holiday. United Native America was originally founded in 1993 to push for a federal holiday, something Graham thinks will eventually happen. "Some day people will wake up and see that Native Americans deserve their own holiday," he said. Native American Times is Copyright c. 2004 Oklahoma Indian Times, Inc. --------- "RE: 150 years as Sovereign Nations" --------- Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 08:54:12 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="POINT ELLIOTT TREATY" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/05/01/23/100loc_treaty001.cfm 150 years as sovereign nations Tribes celebrate Point Elliott Treaty with joy and sadness By David Olson Herald Writer January 23, 2005 MUKILTEO - No one doubts the historical importance of the Point Elliott Treaty, which was signed 150 years ago Saturday in what is now Mukilteo State Park. American Indian leaders ceded land - including all of Snohomish and Island counties - from the Canadian border to about halfway between Seattle and Olympia. In exchange, the tribes received the right to fish and hunt in the areas where they had done so for centuries, and they were recognized as sovereign nations. To Mel Sheldon, who sits on the Tulalip Tribes council, a gathering Saturday at the park to commemorate the signing was bittersweet. "Some will look at this as a day of sadness, and some will look at it as a day of celebration," Sheldon said as tribal members behind him sang a welcoming song and banged drums before launching three canoes into Possession Sound. "The sadness is if you look at all the land that was ceded and the resources and way of life that went with it," Sheldon said. "The concept of private property was not known to the Indian people. But the warrior spirit prevailed through the years, so this is also a celebration of our people's strength." Sheldon was one of about four dozen members of three tribes who circled the Sound in the canoes for about a half-hour before arriving at the park beach for the celebration. "We come here in peace, and request permission to come ashore and share song and dance with you," Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe elder Phil Charles said to Mukilteo Mayor Don Doran. "The people of this area are honored by your visit," Doran responded. "Please bring your boat ashore-your canoe ashore-and join us in celebration." Stillaguamish Tribe Chairman Shawn Yanity and Tulalip Tribes Chairman Stan Jones followed with similar requests. Once ashore, Doran presented the tribal leaders with navy-blue fleece blankets with an embroidered seal commemorating Saturday's anniversary. Herman Williams, Jr., a member of the Tulalip tribal council, said ancestors who signed the treaty did so to ensure that American Indians would survive here. "There were many years of state oppression, of lies, of stealing our resources," Williams said. But today, he said, the Tulalips have good relationships with local political leaders and have used their casinos and other economic development tools to improve the well-being of tribal members. "The Tulalip Tribes have come a long way since 150 years ago," he said. Doran said commemorating the treaty is important, since many Mukilteo residents don't know that their city was the site of such a historic event. "The goal is to convey knowledge and a sense of history to our children," Doran said. "Without this treaty, Washington didn't have the ability to become a state. This cleared the way for statehood, and it provided a road map to the rights and responsibilities of the state as well." Reporter David Olson: 425-339-3452 or dolson@heraldnet.com. Copyright c. 2005 The Daily Herald Co., Everett, Wash. --------- "RE: Wind-solar Systems bringing Electricity to Navajo" --------- Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 08:53:05 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="POWER TO REMOTE REZ HOMES" http://www.krqe.com/expanded.asp?RECORD_KEY[News]=ID&ID%5BNews%5D=8218 Wind-solar systems bringing electricity to Navajo homes Source: AP January 17, 2005 ALBUQUERQUE - A system that generates electricity from the wind and sun is bringing power to some remote homes on the Navajo reservation. Sacred Power Incorporated of Albuquerque wants to install its units at 50 homes between Cuba and Crownpoint by the end of April. The company's co-principal, Dave Melton of Laguna Pueblo, says the company installed the first three units in mid-December. Sacred Power is working with the Torreon and Ojo Encino Chapters in selecting homes to receive the generating units. They're using an $825,000 U-S Department of Agriculture grant. Another co-principal of Sacred Power, Odes Armijo-Caster, estimates there are 10,000 homes on the Navajo reservation that still have no electricity. Copyright c. 2005 KRQE News 13 Albuquerque, NM. --------- "RE: New Mexico Governor proposes Tribal Initiatives" --------- Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 08:53:05 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TRIBAL INFRASTRUCTURE" http://www.indianz.com/News/2004/006083.asp New Mexico governor proposes tribal initiatives January 20, 2005 New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) proposed creating a tribal infrastructure fund and expanding scholarship opportunities for tribal college students in his State of the State address on Tuesday. Richardson said the Tribal Infrastructure Fund will help tribes receive state money for capital projects. "And for the first time we're proposing an infrastructure fund for our Native Americans to make sure they are treated fairly in the capital outlay process and receive investments they need," he said. Richardson also said he wanted to expand the state lottery scholarship program to include Native American students who attend tribal colleges. There are three such institutions in the state. Indian Affairs Secretary Benny Shendo, Jr., of Jemez Pueblo, welcomed the initiatives, which were proposed by his department. "We look forward to working closely with the Governor's Office, legislators, and the tribal communities and Indian organizations so that the Tribal Infrastructure Fund succeeds this legislative session," he said. Copyright c. 2000-2004 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Duke City Indians face Health Care Crisis" --------- Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2005 16:41:04 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ALBUQUERQUE HEALTH CARE" http://www.gallupindependent.com/2005/jan/012205dukecity.html Duke City Indians face health care crisis By Pamela G. Dempsey Dine' Bureau January 22, 2005 WINDOW ROCK - The some 40,000 Urban Native Americans living in Albuquerque will face further health care shortages if the Albuquerque Service Unit does not receive the $5 million it needs to make up this year's funding shortage. This includes the more than 18,000 Navajo residents of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. "The worst case scenario is, with no additional funding, we'll be down to at least two physicians, working Monday through Friday," said Maria Rickert, acting chief executive officer for the Albuquerque Service Unit. Six pueblos and tribes, under the service unit, receive contract health care funding under the Indian Self-Determination Act. Because funding is divided among the contracted tribes, little or no health care dollars remain for those who are not part of those tribes. The urban Native Americans not members of the pueblos and tribes are served by the Albuquerque Service Unit The users have increased, Rickert said, and topped 25,000 in 2004. Rickert said that jobs and, subsequently, services are already on the chopping block. By February, 40 positions are expected to be eliminated and a proposal to close the hospital's urgent care clinic and reduce services to appointment only is on the table. Three years ago, the Albuquerque Service Unit closed down its inpatient services. "We're a huge, outpatient facility," Rickert said. "This is the third year we've run deficits. We can't keep doing this." The decision now, Rickert said, may be to reduce personnel in order to get down to the facility's $5 million operating budget. Of the $23 million given to the Albuquerque Service Unit, $13 million is contracted out to the six pueblos and tribes. The remaining $10 million is split between earmarked funds and hospital operating causes. The service unit needs $10 million for operations. As a last-ditch effort, a letter was sent in December to Dr. Charles W. Grim, director of the Indian Health Service, by New Mexico congressional representation to request additional funding from within Indian Health Service or the Department of Health and Human Services as well as recurring funds. Rickert said, as of yet, no response has been received; however, the Navajo Nation's Health and Human Services Committee as well as the Inter- Governmental Relations Committee passed legislation requesting its own Navajo Area Indian Health Service to assist the Albuquerque Service Unit with its funding shortages as long "no recurring funds intended to serve the Navajo Area Indian Health Service user population ... are diverted to the Albuquerque Area Indian Health Service." In 2002, the Navajo Area Indian Health Service gave $100,000 to the Albuquerque Service Unit for pharmaceuticals and supplies. But rising costs of health care, decreases in federal health care dollars, and the service unit's allocation methodology has resulted in the recurring problem. "If the Navajo Area Indian Health Service gave the needed $5 million to the Albuquerque Service Unit, then other service units, such as Phoenix and Salt Lake City, which serve more users, will request funding too," said Peterson Yazzie, a member of the Navajo Nation's Health and Social Services Committee and sponsor of the legislation. Under the Indian Self-Determination Act, it is the responsibility of the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary to provide services to tribes not served by the contract. "Nothing in the Indian Self-Determination Act is to limit or reduce in any funding for any program, project, or activity serving a tribe," the act states. - To contact reporter Pam Dempsey call (505) 879-1707 or email pamelagdempsey@msn.com Copyright c. 2005 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Leave Tribal Hunting Rules alone" --------- Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2005 17:58:16 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: TRIBAL HUNTING RULES" http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks//columnists/dorreen_yellow_bird/ DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Leave tribal hunting rules alone January 15, 2005 We've come a long way since the days when my father hunted game on the rolling North Dakota prairie or walked the breaks of the Badlands. I knew it was a new day for hunting when I listened to the conflict between the tribe and the North Dakota Game and Fish Department officials. Many years ago, there were no reservation licenses and nonmembers probably didn't consider hunting the reservations. But today, Game and Fish wants to claim a right of jurisdiction over nontribal members who buy hunting licenses on reservations. When I was young, we lived with my grandparents on the bench lands above the Missouri River. The White Shield, N.D., community wasn't established until years later. The Missouri River was in its banks, and the trees and vegetation along the river held abundant game. Prairie chickens were one of our main sources of food because the birds came close to our area and were plentiful. I remember my father coming home with what seemed to my young eyes to be hundreds of prairie chickens. Mom and my grandmother spent the day preparing the birds. They put us to bed early that night, but we could smell the aroma of cooking chicken, and we could hear them laughing and talking long into the night. Even the steam from the bubbling canning jars on the stove made its way into our upstairs bedroom. My mother and grandmother also dried other game such as venison. Fish from the turbulent, muddy Missouri was another mainstay of our diets - and they used fish traps, which I think are not legal today by state standards. But then in those days, they governed themselves and took only what they needed to eat. Hunting and fishing were an important part of our livelihood. Also, hunting for my father was a condition of manhood. Your worth, in those days, was measured by your skill as a hunter - and my father was a good shot. He taught his sons, my brothers, to hunt, too. One of the strange things he used to tell them - he was protective of his four boys - was, "Don't hunt during the white man's hunting season. They shoot at anything." I'm not sure where he learned that, but when my brothers first learned about the "sound shot" - a reckless hunting practice in which you shoot at what you hear, not what you see - they were convinced this was the reason for our father's warning. Today, the four reservations issue hunting licenses to tribal and nontribal members. The conflict arises when the licenses don't coincide with the state's hunting season. A non-Native person can hunt with a tribal license right next to an off-reservation area that is off-limits because the season there hasn't opened yet. Jeff Kelley, the Standing Rock reservation's tribal Game and Fish spokesman, said hunting on the reservation for tribal members is different. Usually, the season opens two weeks before the state and ends Dec. 31. Most important, however, is the focus on doing what is best to maintain the animal population, Kelley said. Game on the reservation is an important resource for the people there. Without enough game, families will have a hard winter. The tribe follows hunting traditions that were handed down through the generations and have learned what is the best for each season, he told me. The state has been punishing nontribal members who hunt on the reservation without a state license by slapping them with a hunting violation as soon as they come off the reservation with their game. If nontribal members want to hunt on the reservation, the state wants to issue the licenses and regulate the hunters, even on the reservations. But as Kelley noted, hunters can come through the state with game killed in Montana, and the state doesn't fine them. Kelley is concerned that the state doesn't think the tribe is regulating the reservation correctly. Actually, the tribe's department is as sophisticated as the state's, he said. It conducts animal surveys, its wardens are certified each year, and the tribe has a game and fish code that it follows. And the department has credentials, he said. The state's proposal to overstep reservation boundaries seems heavy- handed to me. State officials say tribal hunting upsets the balance because the state doesn't have regulatory power over the nonmember reservation hunters. But would this balance also mean that the tribe has regulatory power over tribal members who hunt on state land? ---- Dorreen Yellow Bird's column appears Tuesday and Saturday. Reach her at (701) 780-1228 or dyellowbird@gfherald.com Copyright c. 2005 Grand Forks Herald/Grand Forks, ND. --------- "RE: JODI RAVE: Lifetime to explore a larger Truth" --------- Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2005 17:58:16 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="JODI RAVE: VINE DELORIA JR." http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2005/01/16/jodirave/rave68.txt Devoting a lifetime to explore a larger truth By JODI RAVE Lee Enterprises January 16, 2005 "Custer is said to have boasted that he could ride through the entire Sioux Nation with his Seventh Cavalry, and he was half right. He got half-way through." - Vine Deloria Jr., author of "Custer Died for Your Sins" Vine Deloria Jr. could inspire me to hero worship, even though he once told me to get the hell out of his office. No matter. In the course of interviewing thousands of people, attending hundreds of lectures and reading as many books, both as a student and journalist, it's difficult to find a more witty or riveting man than Deloria. Although he's a revered icon in the universe of indigenous thought and perspective, some might ask, "Who is Vine Deloria?" The short answer: legal scholar, historian, theologian, social critic, humorist, academician and author of 20 books. And from Time magazine: one of the greatest religious minds of the 20th century. Now Deloria is being honored with the 2005 American Indian Visionary Award. He'll accept the title March 2 at the National Press Club in Washington. The award will be presented by Indian Country Today, the country's leading newspaper dedicated to Native news. Its Web site, www. indiancountry.com, features a half-dozen wide-ranging essays detailing his life and work. A prolific writer, Deloria has enlightened tens of thousands of readers through his essays and legal studies. Several of his books - "God is Red," "Red Earth, White Lies," "American Indians, American Justice," "Evolution, Creationism, and Other Modern Myths" - line my bookshelves. Fortunately, I've had more than his books to read. As a journalism student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, I was able to take his classes before he retired from the history department. I can still hear him lecturing - I recorded a number of the class sessions - and I can easily picture him standing with a cigarette in hand, puffs of smoke matching his then-trademark gray sweatshirt. I used to imagine his closet filled with dozens of sweatshirts and black jeans. I'm sure he would have preferred I think more about the Treaty of Ghent. As for treaties, well, that's what led to me getting kicked out of his office. As an undergraduate student, the work assigned in his graduate- level history class more than rivaled my entire course load. I was trying to buy some time for a paper that was due. He would have none of it. I wasn't easily dissuaded. Neither was he. Case dismissed. I was looking at the door. As I was about to leave, I was thinking, "I don't even want to go to your class today." He must have read me like a book. He looked at me and said: "And don't come to class. Get over to the library. You're a journalist. Start writing." I finished the paper on time. That was the first class I had with him, and I took every course I could from him thereafter. When I recently learned about his 2005 American Indian Visionary award, I doubted I had enough time to finish this column for the weekend papers. I dismissed the thought. I told myself, "I'm a journalist. I'll just start writing." Still, there is some trepidation in telling a short story about a man whose writing career spans three decades, whose influence spills from one generation to the next and will likely shower generations to come. That gave me all the more reason to write. Despite his intellectual prowess, one that rivals contemporaries like John Kenneth Galbraith, Laurence Tribe or Seymour Hersh, most people likely know more about them than Deloria. I asked my husband - who's enjoyed talking with Deloria about philosophy, oral tradition, scientific theory and Immanuel Velikovsky - why the venerated Lakota from South Dakota wasn't known to more people. "Because he's Indian," he said. The answer reflects a larger truth, one Deloria has devoted a lifetime to exploring and explaining. In doing so, he's busted through dark corridors to illuminate the historical and contemporary relationship of Native peoples to Western theory and philosophy. Although he is admired by many, it's easy to picture people shielding themselves with crosses should Deloria cross their path. He's unafraid of conflict and quick to challenge the status quo. Those attributes solidly define his character, on which he's built an indomitable reputation. For as much as he's laid the groundwork for the present-day Native intelligentsia, he's long been committed to informing the larger public about the lives and dreams of Native people who are consistently trampled by those who would help them, he writes in "Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto." The Native burden shared by every generation, he writes, lies in "correcting misconceptions and calling attitudes to account." The remedy lies in "keeping American Indians before the American public and on the American domestic agenda." Jodi Rave covers Native issues for Lee Enterprises. Reach her at 1-800-366-7186 or jodi.rave@lee.net. --------- "RE: HARJO: Resolution: No more Fat 'Indian' Food" --------- Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 08:53:54 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NO MORE FRYBREAD" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096410209 Harjo: My New Year's resolution: No more fat 'Indian' food by: Suzan Shown Harjo / Indian Country Today January 20, 2005 I promise to give up fat "Indian" food this year and to urge others to do the same. Target number one: the ubiquitous frybread - the junk food that's supposed to be traditional, but isn't, and makes for fat, fatter and fattest Indians. Frybread is bad for you? Well, let's see. It's made with white flour, salt, sugar and lard. The bonus ingredient is dried cow's milk for the large population of Native people who are both glucose and lactose intolerant. Usually the size of a tortilla, frybread is an inch thick with a weight approaching a lead Frisbee. It's fried in grease that collects in the dimples of the bread, adding that extra five teaspoons of fat to the lining of the diner's arteries. If frybread is not eaten at once, it turns into something with the consistency and taste of a deflated football. To make the recipe totally irresistible, it's topped off with margarine, jelly or some other plastic not found in nature. Frybread was a gift of Western civilization from the days when Native people were removed from buffalo, elk, deer, salmon, turkey, corn, beans, squash, acorns, fruit, wild rice and other real food. Frybread is emblematic of the long trails from home and freedom to confinement and rations. It's the connecting dot between healthy children and obesity, hypertension, diabetes, dialysis, blindness, amputations and slow death. If frybread were a movie, it would be hard-core porn. No redeeming qualities. Zero nutrition. Frybread has replaced "firewater" as the stereotypical Indian staple in movie land. Well-meaning non-Indians take their cues from these portrayals of Indians as simple-minded people who salute the little grease bread and get misty-eyed about it. "Where's the frybread" is today's social ice-breaker, replacing the decade-long frontrunner, "What did you think of 'Dances with Wolves'?" But, frybread is so, so Indian. Yes, some people have built their Indian identity around the deadly frybread and will blanch at the very notion of removing it from their menu and conversation. My heavens, how will the new and deculturalized Indians and wannabes ever relate to the Native people they are paid to consult with if they don't extol the virtues of frybread? During the opening week of the National Museum of the American Indian's museum on the Mall, a reception for contemporary Native artists ended with a good Indian band's not so great song, "Frybread", whose lyrics consist mainly of the title being repeated ad nauseum. When a non-Indian Smithsonian employee grabbed the microphone and brayed out, "frybread, fryyyyyybread," the dignified artists and patrons ran for the nearest exits. One Native artist, Steven Deo, is on a campaign to increase awareness about the danger of frybread and other so-called Indian foods. Deo, who is Euchee and Muscogee (Creek) and dances at the Duck Creek Grounds in Oklahoma, has made a poster with the image of the grease bread and the words "Frybread Kills." "Frybread Kills" is part of a series called "Art for Indians." The series is "specifically aimed at our Native American community," said Deo, "to create a cognitive dialogue about ourselves and our socio-economic class." Deo's second poster depicts lard and other commodity foods. An equals sign follows the image, so that the message essentially reads: "Commodities = public assistance = welfare." In economically impoverished Indian communities, the commodities were known initially as "poor food" and morphed into "Indian food." There's even a name for the round, doughy physique that results from the high- starch, high-calorie, high-fat and low-protein food: "Commod bod." In urban areas and on many reservations, the byproducts of commods have nearly overrun traditional foods. Even week-old bread and berry pies baked in Pueblo ovens are vastly superior to frybread on its best day, but they're running a distant second at pan-Indian events in Pueblo country. In great cultures, traditional bread stands for health, wellbeing and wealth, literally and figuratively. Traditional Native breads and foods stack up against any of the world's greatest. Hopi piki, Muscogee sofkee and everyone's cornbread and tamales remind us why most Native people consider corn one of the highest gifts of creation. The great Native cooks need only a few ingredients to make bread fit for a feast that is easy enough for daily fare: Start with any fresh or dried base of pumpkin, wild onions, sage, sunflower seeds, walnuts, beans, green chiles, blueberries, huckleberries, sweet potato, pinon, camas, yucca or anything the cook likes to cook. Add water and arrowroot, cornmeal, maple sap or any indigenous thickener and stir to the desired consistency. Make into any pleasing shape you want. Sun dry or boil, smoke, grill or steam over juniper ash, seaweed, mesquite, shucks, peanut or pecan shells, driftwood or anything that's handy and tasty. Prepare to see some smiles. While we're at it, let's resolve to throw out all the civilization-era food in our kitchens. You know what to do with any Indian "maidens" or "princesses" or "chiefs" or "braves" on butter, honey, jerky or any products where the profits don't go to Native people. If they are Native- made products with stereotypical, cheesy images, give them a toss and let the Native manufacturers know they can and should do better. Here's another resolution I urge you to adopt - to consume the "news" with a larger grain of salt than you have in the past. Conservative pundit Armstrong Williams was exposed recently as having been paid by the Bush Administration to promote its "No Child Left Behind" program. And this at a time when education is under funded and the Bushies are loathe to promote history or the arts with federal money. The Williams' $100,000 understanding should lead us all to investigate who is trying to feed us a line and palm it off as "news." Native people need to resolve to discover the origins of "fair share" and other current anti-Indian propaganda, and find out who gets what money from what source to spread the stories. The next time you find yourself swallowing some leftover news du jour or get that suicidal urge for frybread, just slather lard all over the magazine or television listing and apply it directly to your midriff and backside. That way, you can have the consequence of the rotten stuff, without having to actually digest it. ---- Suzan Shown Harjo, Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee, is president of the Morning Star Institute in Washington, D.C., and a columnist for Indian Country Today. Copyright c. 1998 - 2005 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved --------- "RE: Column of the Americas: Census pushes for Removal" --------- Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 08:53:54 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INDIAN REMOVAL - AGAIN" http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096410208 Column of the Americas: Census pushes for Indian removal by: Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez / Universal Press Syndicate January 20, 2005 Years of U.S. governmental assimilationist policies have succeeded in convincing about half of all the people within the "Latino/Hispanic" Census category to see themselves racially as white. Now, for the 2010 census, the U.S. Census Bureau wants the other half. On its face, this move to eliminate the "other race" category appears to be neutral. Yet if the bureau gets its way, by 2010, the people within the category of Latino/Hispanic will essentially become a subcategory of "white." The bureau should not prevail. And it probably won't, because Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., has blocked the bureau's move to eliminate the "other race" option through language in the recent omnibus bill. However, keeping "other race" is not a solution either, but is the problem. The bureau's perceived problem is of its own making. About 97 percent of all those who checked the "other race" category (10 million and 15 million in 1990 and 2000, respectively) are Latinos/Hispanics. The bureau has long believed that those who exercise this option are racially confused. Thus, without their consent, it has traditionally re- categorized virtually all of them into the white category. The bureau's 2010 proposal would have the same funnel effect of corralling them into the white category because they don't perceive the other categories as being designed for them. It's a bureaucratic way to arrest the browning of the nation. Anyone who reads a biology book knows that racial categories are unscientific. But if we play along with the bureau's fiction of forcing everyone into black/white/Asian and American Indian categories, what's undeniable is that the vast majority of Latinos/Hispanics are not white. Those who choose the "other race" category have long been sending out this message. Most within the Latino/Hispanic category in the United States are what some term "mestizo," or racially mixed. Most people with Mexican and Central American roots are primarily indigenous or indigenous-based mestizos. A better part of their ancestry includes people who've been on this continent for thousands of years, and they have African, European or Asian roots, as well. This covers nearly 75 percent of this census category. Of the remaining 25 percent, many of the people from South American and Caribbean nations are even more indigenous or African. And, of course, within all these populations, there is also a (minor) European element. In effect, debates may rage about how to label or define Latinos/Hispanics, but what is certain is that the vast majority are not white. Thus, to steer virtually all of them into the white Census category is tantamount to what we've long termed demographic genocide. Since the issue is essentially limited to Latinos/Hispanics, one option that has been proposed is adding a mestizo racial category. That may not be accurate, but that's how many see themselves, and it would dramatically reduce the number of Latinos/Hispanics checking the "other race" category. Perhaps therein lies the problem: Government bureaucrats may not want to officially condone the "browning" of the nation - and many of those who can will opt for the white category and indeed do not want to be seen as brown. (Eliminating affirmative action for Latinos/Hispanics who identify themselves as white would reduce the number of Latinos/Hispanics who would choose white.) The truth is, none of this is news. Jack Forbes, author of the book "Aztecas del Norte", has been writing about this for more than 40 years, warning about the efforts to de-Indianize the continent. De-Indianization is but another word for genocide - a project that commenced in 1492. The best solution is for the bureau to get out of the identity business altogether. One only needs to see the bizarre nature of how the government determines American Indianness by blood quantum. It will not be long until all other groups go down the same path. (Currently, the National Hispanic Scholarship Fund has created a similar formula for eligibility purposes.) The bureau's effort runs contrary to thousands of years of history and is but another form of Indian removal. Beyond that, it's taking the nation back to a time before the advent of the civil rights movement and ethnic studies (where one learns ones history, when shame and embarrassment in being brown - in having Indian blood - was the norm). This should be a clarion call for every artist, writer, scholar, elder, journalist, historian, demographer, professor, student, librarian, filmmaker and storyteller (people and organizations charged with keeping the memory) to inform their community and oppose any governmental effort to wipe brown people off the map. If given no option, indigenous (as Forbes has always suggested) is a fine choice. Perhaps it is high time for national organizations such as the National Association of Chicana/Chicano Scholars to discuss this issue and send this message as the Census Bureau seems to be ignorant about such matters. ---- Gonzales and Rodriguez have been writing their syndicated Column of the Americas since 1994. They reside in Madison, Wis. Rodriguez is pursuing an advanced degree on the topic of origins/migrations and Gonzales is studying indigenous healing and birthing methods. They teach a class on Indigenous Geography at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. They can be reached at: XColumn@aol.com. Copyright ? 2004 Universal Press Syndicate. Copyright c. 1998 - 2005 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: GN to catalogue Nunavut's Carving-Stone Sites" --------- Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 08:55:11 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CARVING-STONE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://north.cbc.ca/regionalnews/caches/carving-stone-01142005.html GN to catalogue Nunavut's carving-stone sites January 14, 2005 CBC News IQALUIT - The Nunavut government is chipping away at the territory's carving-stone shortage. The government recently issued a request for proposals to develop a database of all the known sources of carving stone in Nunavut. Rosemary Keenainak, an assistant deputy minister of economic development, says this is the first step in a long-term project. "The second phase of the project will be working with our geologist in the summer and actually going out to some of the sites that have been identified to confirm the potential for soapstone." The government says arts and crafts are a critical part of Nunavut's developing economy, but carvers are facing constant shortages of serpentine and soapstone. The database development will include consultation with artists. It is expected to be complete by the end of March. The public will then be able to access the database using the internet. Copyright c. 2005 CBC. --------- "RE: Former Me'tis Leader elected First Nations Chief" --------- Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 08:53:05 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DELARONDE NEW PINE CREEK CHIEF" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://winnipeg.cbc.ca/filename=mb_metis-20050119&disp=en&FrameSize=&end Former Me'tis leader elected First Nations chief January 19, 2005 WINNIPEG - A Manitoba reserve has elected a Me'tis leader from Winnipeg as chief, even though he is neither a member of the band nor a status Indian. Members of the Pine Creek First Nation chose Billy Joe Delaronde, over five other candidates. Delaronde, a former president of the Manitoba Me'tis Federation, has attracted headlines for years for his long battle with the current Metis leadership. Nancy McKay, a Pine Creek band councillor, met Delaronde in Winnipeg, where she was staging a protest against the former chief. McKay says she was drawn to Delaronde's leadership skills. "He's got experience, he's well-educated, university educated. He's been in the outside world," she says. "Because of the change in time, you know, you have to be well-educated in order to succeed in society today." Chris Henderson, head of the Southern Chiefs Organization, says the Indian Act allows outsiders to run for chief. "The people of Pine Creek have elected him, and we will, of course, respect the wishes of the people," he says. New chief will refuse to pay taxes Delaronde, who will leave his position as executive director of the Indian Me'tis Friendship Centre to become chief, expects to remain in the spotlight in his new role. "I intend to show some of the problems that general Canadians do not see that happens to aboriginal people," he told CBC News Wednesday morning. "As an example, I think that Canadians would be appalled by the amount of money that is created by the Canadian government in employing non- aboriginal people with pretty fat paycheques and pensions that have been working for the government to administer the misery of the aboriginal people, especially the people of Pine Creek." He also plans to challenge the federal government on aboriginal rights. 'I will refuse to pay taxes," he says. "I will expect to be treated like First Nations people, and I believe all aboriginal people have the same rights." Henderson says as chief, Delaronde has every right to fight the battles of his own choosing. The Pine Creek First Nation is located near Camperville on the west side of Lake Winnipegosis. Copyright c. 2005 CBC. --------- "RE: Band blocks Salmon Farm" --------- Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 08:53:05 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HOMALCO PROTECT RIGHTS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.canada.com/princerupert/~58f-bf82d8d86b31&disp=en&FrameSize=&end Band blocks salmon farm The Prince Rupert Daily News January 18, 2005 The B.C. Court of Appeal has upheld an injunction allowing the Homalco First Nation to prevent the restocking of Atlantic salmon in a fish farm in Bute Inlet. The decision clears the way for a legal challenge by the band slated for next week that will focus on the validity of an operating permit for a Marine Harvest fish farm in the Homalco's traditional territory. The Homalco will argue they were not properly consulted about Marine Harvest's plans to stock the site with Atlantic salmon. "This case is an early test of the Supreme Court of Canada's recent decision in the Haida case, which requires B.C. to consult with First Nations about decisions that affect their claimed aboriginal rights," said Lawyer Tim Howard, Sierra Legal Defence Fund. "Marine Harvest's restocking plans are on hold until the court can hear all the evidence of the very real risks farmed Atlantic salmon create for wild Pacific stocks, and whether the Homalco were adequately consulted." The First Nation is concerned that farmed Atlantics can spread disease to wild stocks as well as the risk of escaped fish colonizing Pacific salmon habitat. The Sierra Legal Defence Fund will provide scientific testimony about disease transfer between farmed and wild salmon. Scientist John Werring has sworn an affidavit examining how IHN virus may spread from infected salmon farms to migrating wild stocks. The Homalco also state that the province will not show them the company's fish health management plans and that they have not been part of any meaningful consultation. The ruling follows a decision on Dec. 24 in the B.C. Supreme Court that stopped the company from stocking the farm. Peter Grant, legal counsel for the Homalco First Nation, based the application for the injunction before Mr. Justice Ian Pitfield of the B.C. Supreme Court on the provincial government's failure to consult Homalco when the company applied to amend its Church House fish farm licence to stock Atlantic salmon. The site is located directly in front of the band's traditional village and reserve known as Church House. It is at the mouth of Bute Inlet and on the migration route of wild salmon that spawn in Southgate, Homathco and Orford Rivers in Bute Inlet. "Although Marine Harvest applied for the Atlantic salmon species amendment in April of this year, we weren't notified until July," said Chief Darren Blaney. "Homalco was in the process of responding to the province when they informed us [Dec. 17] that they had approved the amendment. I found out about 10 minutes before our office closed for Christmas holidays. They faxed in this notice saying they've granted this application from Marine Harvest. And meanwhile, Marine Harvest, according to what I'm told from them, they've known about it since December 8, almost nine days before we found out." The Homalco allege Marine Harvest had started moving Atlantic salmon in the day after the permit was issued and neither the province nor Marine Harvest informed the First Nation of what they were doing until the court action was commenced on Dec. 22. Justice Pitfield ruled that, in light of the Haida decision from the Supreme Court of Canada, the circumstances surrounding the province's conduct with respect to consultation to move Atlantic salmon so close to the mouth of Bute Inlet demonstrates that there is a good prima facie case for Homalco to argue that they were not properly consulted. He also found that there could be irreparable harm as a result of moving Atlantic salmon into a watershed such as the Bute Inlet and that this irreparable harm should be avoided until a full hearing on the duty to consult was held in January. On Dec. 24, 2004, Justice Pitfield granted the Homalco an interim injunction, ordering Marine Harvest to halt Atlantic salmon transfers to the Church House site and remove any fish put there after the Homalco filed its action on Dec. 22. In addition to the interim injunction, Mr. Justice Pitfield also ordered a judicial review of the process that led to the approval of the Church House site in the fall of 2002. The five-day hearing will commence Jan. 24. "The Church House site has not been without its controversies," said Eric Blueschke, Local Outreach Coordinator for the Georgia Strait Alliance. "We look forward to the results of the judicial review process." The Homalco First Nation and the Georgia Strait Alliance signed protocol agreement in April aimed at restoring and protecting Bute Inlet and its surrounding waters. Copyright c. 2005 CanWest Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Elder Resigns over Membership Discrimination" --------- Date: Saturday, January 22, 2005 12:42 PM From: frostyca2000 [frostyca2000@yahoo.com] Subj: Elder Resigns Over Membership Discrimination Mailing List: Frostys AmerIndian Elder Resigns Over Membership Discrimination By: Brendan Johns A controversial interpretation of the the Kahnawake Membership Law has prompted Watio Montour to resign from the Council of Elders in protest over discrimination taking place against Mohawk women. Montour's frustration stema from the Council of Elders' interpretation of sections 11.1 and 11.2 of the Kahnawake Membership Law which state that in order to be eligible, an applicant must have at least four Kanien'keha':ka great-grandparents. A massive loophole has emerged in the way the Council of Elders is determining whether or not the great-grandparents are Kanien'keha':ka. If the great-grandparent has a last name recognized as "local" (i.e.:Beauvais, McComber, Jacobs, etc.) then they are qualified as being Kanien'keha':ka, but if they have an unfamiliar last name, they are not counted. The dilemma lies in the fact that a great-grandparent who was the product of a mixed marriage is counted as Kanien'keha':ka or not, depending on whether it was their father or their mother who was non- Native. In the case of a non-Native father, that great-grandparent would carry a non-Native last name and thus be disqualified as Kanien'keha':ka. On the flip side, if that great-grandparent had a non- Native mother, the family name would still be "local" and they would be deemed "full" Kanien'keha':ka, thus perpetuating the paternalistic discrimination of the Indian Act against Mohawk women. Montour says there has already been a case of an application being refused because one of the great-grandparents was the product of a mixed marriage involving a non-Native father, whereas other applications have been accepted when the mixed-marriage great- grandparent had a non-Native moher but still retained a local family name. "The purpose of the Kahnawake Membership Law was to be inclusive and do away with the Indian Act's blood-quantum system," said Montour, "but by denying someone on the grounds that they have only 3.5 Mohawk great-grandparents, they are just enforcing blood quantum in disguise." Montour explained. "The law states that the cut-off for membership is four great-grandparents. There is no such thing as 3.5 or 3.75 great- grandparents. It's either one, two, three or four." Although he handed in his resignation on December 6, the Council of Elders and the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake will not issue any comment on Montour's concerns. Elder Rhonda Kirby says the letter and its contents will be examined at the Council's next administrative meeting on January 24. Sandra Schurman Appealing Decision By: Kenneth Deer The only person so far to have been denied acceptance by the Council of Elders is appealing their decision. Sandra Schurman was denied membership because the Council declared that she did not have the minimum of four Kanien'keha':ka great-grandparents. "All of my great-grandparents were Mohawk. Just because one of my great-grandparents had a non-Native father does not mean my great- grandmother was not Mohawk. This is a case of the same discrimination against Mohawk women who marry non-Natives," said Schurman. "Other applicants who have the same kind of lineage as I have but whose great-great-grandparent was a non-Native woman married to a Mohawk man, were allowed membership. Why is it applied differently to me?" Schurman's grandparents on her mother's side were Tom Kanatsiohare Deer and Charlotte (Paul) Deer. Charlotte's parents were William Satewenniseroten Paul and Ida Katsitsienhawi (perras) Paul. The council denied Schurman membership because they decided that Ida Paul was a Perras and a total non-Native. However, Ida Paul was the daughter of Mathilde McComber, who married Homidas Perras in 1877. "Because her married name was Perras, and not McComber, I was denied membership," said Schurman. "But if it was reversed and females were allowed to keep their maiden names like men keep their maiden names like men keep their family names, I would be acceptable to the Council of Elders." Not all the Council of Elders agreed with the decision as two members, Rhonda Kirby and Watio Montour, did not sign the record of decision and Montour eventually resigned his position in protest. Schurman has disputed the decision to the Membership Review Council - whose members are Juanita Delisle, Leonard Bordeau and Chris Leclaire - on the grounds that the decision continues discrimination against women and that the Elders are violating Section 8.5 of the Membership Law to make all decisions with fairness, dignity of the person and compassion. "My great-grandmother was born here, raised here, married and was buried here. She raised her children here and taught them Kanien'keha. I would like my great-grandmother's history examined so all concerned can take note that she wasn't a non-Native and take this into consideration," said Schurman. Schurman sent her letter to the Membership Review Council on January 6 and had not yet received a reply at press time. Copyright c. 2005 Eastern Door Kahnawake Mohawk Territory. --------- "RE: U.S. Policy on Blood Quantum must be Changed" --------- Date: Saturday, January 22, 2005 12:40 PM From: frostyca2000 [frostyca2000@yahoo.com] Subj: KAHNAWAKE MOHAWK TERRITORY Mailing List: Frostys AmerIndian KAHNAWAKE MOHAWK TERRITORY Editorial U.S. Policy On Blood Quantum Must Be Changed By: Kenneth Deer, The Eastern Door The insistence that Mohawks, or any other Indigenous Peoples, need proof of 50 percent blood quantum of Native heritage by the United States is a racist and discriminatory policy that violates all human rights standards. There are no other people who are subjected to such racial profiling as Native North Americans. Even African-Americans, who have a long history of fighting racial discrimination and slavery, do not have to prove what percentage of African they are. Nor do Asians or Hispanics have to furnish evidence of their racial purite. All kinds of people enter and leave the United States every day and none of them are asked to prove the percentage of their race. What people are asked for is their nationality and proper identification. With that information other people can go in and out of the United States without being asked their blood quantum. What is it that makes governments look at us as a race? Why can't they accept us as nations of People? That is the crux of the problem with the colonial governments in the Americas. Even though they signed treaties with the Indigenous Nations, they still regarded us as inferior people and treated us as a race rather than an equal nation. The Indian Act is a perfect example of a state - in this case Canada - legislating away the nation-to-nation relationship that is inherent in treaties, and replacing it with obligations to a race of people. The Act replaced nationality with a band number. Control over who was a member of an Indigenous community was taken over by the Canadian government. In the United States, similar attitudes eroded the relationship between the government and Indigenous Nations. The U.S. violated every treaty it signed with Indigenous Nations and felt no obligation to remedy the damage. It relegated the Indigenous Peoples to reservations and left them there. The nation-to-nation relationship has been continually eroded since that time until sovereignty now is only a word on a piece of paper. The United States is also the author of blood quantum membership rules. Most, if not all, 'tribes' in the U.S. use blood quantum as a basis for membership. The amount is dictated by their own people. In some cases, 12.5 percent is all that is needed to remain on the tribe rolls. So when the U.S. government had to decide who can enter the U.S. as a Native Canadian because of the Paul K. Diabo case, it decided to use blood quantum as the measuring stick. An aribtrary number was picked: 50 percent. Why? We can only suppose they do not think anyone with less than that is 'Native.' Another reason is to limit the number of Mohawks who will work in the United States using the rights recognized in the Paul K. Diabo case. The U.S. was probably afraid of hordes of Natives rushing to the U.S. for work. So how do you limit the numbers? The U.S. probably did not want to use band membership as a criteron because of the potentially high numbers. So they decided to use blook quantum as the limiting factor. The U.S. government has gotten away with using race as a determining factor for a long time. If anyone took the U.S. immigration department to court over this policy, the government would lose. That is why if you challenge the immigration officer to take the matter to court, they will eventually drop any charges to avoid a court loss. However, it is not in our best interest to have a judge decide who is, or who is not an Indigenous person or who is Indigenous enough. The U.S. government should recognize our own methods of deciding who is a Mohawks and who isn't. Like all other people who travel across their borders (it is not our borders), it is by nationality, not race, that we should be recognized. The United States should change its policy to recognize that fact. Copyright c. 2005 Eastern Door Kahnawake Mohawk Territory. --------- "RE: Native Prisoner" --------- Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 23:01:13 -0700 From: Janet Smith [owlstartrading@speakeasy.net] Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - I was dismayed to read in the 'Gallup Independent' that Lenny Foster's Navajo Nations Correction Project has been denied funding for traveling off the natiopn. As a Native American volunteer in the U.S. Prison in Atlanta I have observed the benefit of this project. If it is not funded it will be greatly missed. Unfortunately, most Native spiritual elders don't have resources for cross-country trips. The Navajo Nation has been the sole indigenous Nation to support and fund a group that reached out to Native people behind bars. Like most tribes, the Navajo are in a funding crunch, and unfortunately this groundbreaking and effective program is one of those that has squeezed. I read elsewhere that some of the casino-rich Nations are now offering grants. Maybe it is time for Native inmate programs to start seeking frunding from these tribes, and maybe it's time for tribes with funds to spare to reach out to cousins in the worst kind of trouble, locked thousands of miles from their own communities, families and spritual resources. --- http://www.gallupindependent.com/2005/jan/012405axed.html Spiritual program funding is axed By Pamela G. Dempsey Dine' Bureau January 24, 2005 WINDOW ROCK - One of the few programs catering spiritually to Native American inmates has had its keys taken away by the Navajo Nation Department of Behavior Health Services. Lenny Foster, director of the Navajo Nation Corrections Project, told the Health and Social Services Committee on Friday that his program's travel requests have been denied. The program brings traditional spiritual counseling to Navajo tribal members, as well as other Native Americans, incarcerated nationwide. Since 1980, The Corrections Project has built and conducted sweat lodges, talking circles, pipe ceremonies, spiritual gatherings, and counseling to more than 2,000 Navajo and other Native American inmates in 96 correctional facilities. Advocating for equal access to traditional religious practices has also been a focus of the program and Foster has testified to both U.S. Congress and the United States Commission on Civil Rights on the denial of those practices to Native American inmates. "It's the only tribally funded program in the U.S.," Foster said. "It's one innovative approach to working with our own people." The Corrections Program received a grant from Harvard University to produce a video about the program. Legislation is currently pending in Arizona to amend laws and allow more traditional religious freedom in its prisons. Since October, services to more than 330 inmates in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico have been requested, mostly by families of the inmates. "The visits are necessary for our people's well being," Foster said. "We want to do this without difficulty. In the meantime, our relatives are sitting inside these facilities." The average age of an incarcerated Native American is 23 and the average length of stay is six years. Foster also said 90 percent of the crimes committed are alcohol-related. Because the program's travel requests have been denied, Foster said, cancellation of these visits ruins the trust established between the program and the inmates it serves as well as credibility with the warden. "The inmates lose hope, they lose faith," Foster said. "It causes a lot of animosity. Our people's sobriety and respect is important." Madan Pudel, health system administrator for the Division of Health, said other issues are preventing The Corrections Program to travel off- reservation. "It's not a matter of denying," Pudel said. Instead, Pudel said, Herman Largo, director of the Department of Behavioral Health has requested a plan and a list of priorities from the program. "He has not received the priorities," Pudel said. Pudel also said that Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. restricted off-reservation travel by executive order. "We're trying to work with the president on the interpretation of the executive order," Pudel told the committee. "So we have to send everything to the president." In December, Shirley signed an executive order to reinforce his "Buy Navajo" campaign. According to the release, the order prohibits Navajo Nation Executive Branch department and program employees from "traveling off the Nation to attend meetings and trainings unless it is required for programmatic purposes or is considered in the best interest of the Navajo Nation." Foster said he and his staff of three were working on the program's priorities, but did not understand why, after 10 years, they were denied travel requests. "This particular program needs to be exempt from that," said Jerry Freddie, chairman of the committee, of Shirley's executive order. Copryright c. 2005 the Gallup Independent. ---- NAVAJO NATION JAIL PROBLEMS WORSEN http://www.gallupindependent.com/2005/jan/012005jail.html Tuba City jail unit catches fire Prisoner beats, locks up guards, escapes from Window Rock jail By Kathy Helms Dine' Bureau January 20, 2005 FORT DEFIANCE - With Tuba City Detention Center at the end of its life cycle and in the process of closing due to health, safety, and liability concerns, a fire Friday at one of the modular units only added to the Navajo Nation's headaches. Also last week, Criminal Investigations received a report of a December escape at the Department of Corrections' main detention facility in Window Rock during which two officers were injured. That incident further inflamed an already volatile jail situation. According to investigators from Tuba City Police District, a fire call went out at 11:42 a.m. when a heating element on Modular B overheated and a circuit breaker failed to trip, causing several wires to burn in the heater/cooler assembly. Navajo Nation Fire Department and tribal Maintenance personnel checked the detention unit and turned off the assembly until repairs could be made. The Department of Corrections has had ongoing problems with the heating and cooling systems on the four modular units at the detention facility since the mid-1990s. Under the current closure plan to be phased in, two of the four modular units would be converted to drunk tanks for adult males and females. The others would house short-term inmates. The Division of Public Safety recently won a bid to purchase a used modular from Gap school district which will be moved to Tuba to house administrative staff when the main building closes. Corrections Director Delores Greyeyes has been asked to formulate supplemental budget requests for each of the seven districts. One of those budget requests includes a recommendation to spend over $2 million at Tuba City to purchase three modular units to house 60 inmates and to provide space for Public Safety personnel. Meanwhile, the Navajo Nation's main jail facility, the Window Rock Detention Center, has become the dumping ground for inmates from Tuba and other districts whenever a health or safety problem forces Corrections to transfer prisoners out to another location. The detention center, which is housed in a building adjoining the Department of Corrections and the Division of Public Safety, has its own issues to deal with, including shortage of staff and lack of space. Lack of staffing is a common problem found at jails across Indian Country, according to an interim report released last year by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Inspector General. "In many cases, having only one correctional officer on duty per shift is not unusual; it is, in fact, common practice at some of the facilities," the report states. Prisoner escapes Window Rock jail was the scene of an escape Dec. 22 during which a 40- year-old inmate from Navajo, N.M., overpowered guards, locked them in holding cells, and then ran out the front door just east of the lobby of the police department. According to investigation, inmate Egbert Hermes escaped around 10 p.m. after grabbing detention officer Eric Williams, 46, as he was escorting another inmate to a holding cell. Hermes hit Officer Williams on the left side of the face and locked him in the west serving cell, then ran into the front office of the detention center and grabbed Officer Debbie Shirley, 42, by the neck and the two fell to the floor as Hermes struggled for the keys to the jail. Hermes grabbed Shirley's set of keys and then dragged her toward the west holding cell, pushing her into the catwalk and closing the cell door before bolting the door. Both Williams and Shirley received minor injuries in the incident. In last year's report by the Inspector General, it was found that jail conditions are a contributing factor in escapes and issues of officer safety. The report looked at deaths, suicides, attempted suicides, escapes, and officer safety issues, focusing on whether funds designated for Indian Country jails were properly spent and whether the facilities were safe and secure. 'Deplorable conditions' Inspectors said, "... the deplorable conditions existing at some of the facilities may lead to life-threatening situations." Also, many facilities provide ample opportunity for escape because they are physically rundown and minimally maintained, the report found. During preliminary investigation, inspectors found more than 30 deaths, suicides, attempted suicides, and prisoner escapes at 14 facilities that were either undocumented or not reported to the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Office of Law Enforcement Services detention program. Correctional officers told investigators it was just not possible to prevent inmates from escaping. Since the majority of facilities function with only one officer on duty, they simply cannot keep an eye on everyone. Investigators also found that some facilities do not notify local law enforcement of prisoner escapes. "This is not only disconcerting, it is irresponsible ...," investigators said. In June 2003 at Shiprock Adult Detention Center, a prisoner wearing ankle-shackles escaped from a detention officer as she was ushering a line of prisoners from the facility to the courthouse across the courtyard. Because she was the only officer on duty at the time, she could not pursue the fleeing inmate and leave other prisoners unattended. In March 2003, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Flagstaff stated that violent crime on the Navajo Nation is six times higher than the national average and that inadequate federal policy continues to contribute to the rising crime rate. The Navajo Nation has been operating under a consent decree since Nov. 17, 1992, following a class action lawsuit by inmates. Navajo Nation District Court Judge Allen Sloan issued the decree to ensure that all persons housed in Navajo detention facilities were detained under humane conditions. The decree held that if funds were not available to take the necessary steps to house people under humane conditions, the jail population must be reduced so that remaining inmates are housed accordingly. As outlined in the Treaty of 1868, the federal government has trust responsibility for funding and maintaining law enforcement and detention facilities, according to the consent decree. However, the judge wrote, "As a result of this lawsuit, evidence of chronic and repeated underfunding and neglect by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has come to light, especially that of the Bureau's failure to adequately fund detention under the current Public Law 638 ..." Copyright c. 2005 Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Rustywire: Metwe' Metwe'" --------- Date: Tue, Apr 22:09:25 2003 08:12:44 -0600 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RUSTYWIRE: METWE' METWE'" Metwe' Metwe'...by Johnny Rustywire Metwe' Metwe' What does that mean "Metwe'?", these words come to mind, they speak of family, of togetherness, of joining one people with another, taking in a person from another family, another people to be included as your own. I met them when they were a young couple, they had a child. Their house was new and nice and they lived far from their homeland. They made a place on a high mountain valley, a place to call home where they could raise their children and bring them up in the way the two thought they should live. The young mother had long black hair and in order to make money she made frybread and she was good at it, putting in hamburger and beans with a little cheese. She had some with chili, just hot enough to let you know you were alive. She came from a place called Coal Mine Mesa, way out there not too far from Tuba City. Her clan was Tlizi' Tlani, Many Goats, her family was large and her father made her feel like she was the special one. He prized her and gave her though to giver her his most valuable possession. The young woman's husband came from a place not too far her original home, on a mesa with ancient adobe built one on top of another. His home was at Second Mesa, where he was born into a clan with a place in the community, an old place where centuries of a way of life based on the seasons goes on still in this out of the way corner in Arizona. She was a Navajo and he was a Hopi and they didn't know that about each other when they first met. They learned about each oter, their people coming from different places, spoke different languages and had different traditions, they came to know one another and decided to make a life together. I once asked them about the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute and how they felt about it. They told me it was just something that was there and didn't affect them, that they had their own lives to live and they were far away from there. I would see them and visit with them, they both said at times it was hard to adjust to another way of life different from your own, and that in order to go on you have to overcome many things to make a life together. She left her family and he left his and they set up a life together far North in Utah, far from their homeland. As time went on she wanted to please her man and learn the ways of his people so she went with him, driving South to the borders of Dinetah, passed her old place at Coalmine Mesa and down the windy road to the place where his family lived. Second Mesa it was called where the traditions of time, space, family and relations require following the flow of the seasons. She stepped into his world and his family looked at her, and she became Metwe'. It is how they call those that come to join their family, their people and they take them in. During the ceremonies and dances in the village there was much work to be done, and she stepped into it and learned to do it all, grinding corn between stones, collecting wood and fashioning ground corn into a mush to lay it out on a hot tin and roll it to make the bread they call Piki. She butchered sheep, made stew and watched the children of the family as the dancers were readied for the plaza. Her husband was one of these and she learned how they take the time to follow certain practices. to dress in an appropriate way and where she was to sit. She learned about the gathering of plants, the preparation of harvests and offerings and the ways of the katchina. Metwe' Metwe' they called to her, please do this for us and she would go and get something missed or forgotten. When the doings were done she cleaned and put away the things a woman does, the pots, the pans, the cloth, and worked to help her relations with the household duties. She found that at each dance they went home and she worked learning the ways of his people and remembering her own. Coalmine Mesa a small place where there is no water, it had to be hauled in from many miles away. There were few trees, and the place is a hard place to make a life, but that is where her father came from. He told her, we Navajo exist with the land, we don't change it but continue on with it, to survive to go on and on. She listened and then one day her family moved off that land forever. It lies within Hopiland now, no longer do any Navajos live there. Her father went to Kinlani and worked there in town knowing he would never be able to sleep in the land of his birth, he and his children had to make a new life. It was hard. The folks in Washing'don told him they would build him a new home anywhere for the loss of his place. He thought about it and said he would let them know. As time went on, the young couple needed a home to make their life. it was her father who said, my daughter this is my gift to you, take this home that is to be built for me and let it be yours. She looked at her father and though he never said how he cared for her, she could see it in his eyes, that is how are people are, we don't show outward affection, you see it in how we do certain things, or in an action or like him in how he looked at her. In his face were the wrinkles of age, and his hands wore the mark of a hard life on that empty land which once was his home. Sometimes when you look into the eyes of an old person, especially the those who have seen the sunrise of a place where they were born, you can look into them and glimpse the early morning dawns of a lifetime, of herding sheep and hauling wood and water on horseback from miles away at Moenkopi wash to the west as he had done. That in there she saw the movement of yucca plant standing in the wind and in it's roots the cleanliness of it for washing and medicine. That the wind blown sand covered the tracks of her fathers and mothers who had run to meet the dawn in their youths, and the sounds of young girls reaching womanhood dressed in sash belts, silver jewelry with coral and turquoise also running to meet the sun starting life as a woman. These things she saw in her father's eyes as he gave away his birthright to her to make a new life in a far off place. Metwe' Metwe' (Metway is how it is said in the Hopi way of speaking) She heard the sound and came back to the place, to Second Mesa and was grinding corn and could see the feet of his feet, her man who stood not too far ready to go to the plaza to dance for another season of rain, for good corn and long days. He stood there with deerskin mocassins, with ancient bells, with a loin cloth and sash belt, his body covered in paint and a large red gourd rattle was by his side. Up ahead was the place they entered to put on the masks, the dieties, a Katchina he would be, with long hair. His mother came to her and helped her with the corn. This was a time for renewal, it was his people's time and their place. She picked up her ground corn and followed her new mother into the pueblo, and looking from this high spot to the west, there on the horizon was Coal Mine Mesa, once her father's home. This was now her people, their way of life was now her own. When they returned to the high mountain valley she stepped into her father's house, a house given to him by the United States Government the walls were new, the sidewalk outside led through a yard of green grass. She could see the mountains to the North and the snow on them and the place was peaceful. Her husband drove into the driveway and parked the truck and picked up their sons and went inside. What are these places we call home and how do we get them, how are they named? What is it about it that makes them that way, is it sacrifice, love or fate? The Navajo-Hopi land case is settled by the courts, but the people who lived there where did they go? Dreams and Broken Rainbows, when rainbows break do they make a sound. Life goes on but at Coalmine Mesa the wind blows with no one to hear. You can touch the yucca plants, their spiny ends and hear the sound of a broken rainbow. It was not so long ago, that her father was layed to rest in Kinlani (Flagstaff) and a part of Coal Mine Mesa was also buried there. The hopes and dreams of a new life resting in his children. One time on trip to Hopiland, she didn't go with him but stayed to watch the children. I am not sure what it is that makes one restless with life, where one can walk out the door and never go back in; to find comfort in the eyes of another while small children cry after you. It is what happened with Metwe' and she is now alone with the kids, he has gone to another woman. I saw him by chance not too long ago, he stood not too far from me and when I saw him, he was quiet when I asked him about his children. He smiled and looked away from me and spoke of his work in California. After he left I learned that they were no longer together, the daughter from Coal Mine Mesa had to find work in a nursing home and struggles now with work and taking care of three kids. The home, the house the gift of her father who passed away has been sold and now it is gone. Where is Coal Mine Mesa, it is east of Tuba City, not even a wide spot in the road, it is a windswept place. When you drive by there you wouldn't think to stop, there is not much there to see now, but if you were to stop and listen carefully when the storm clouds gather, and a few drops of rain fall, and the sun begins to break through the clouds, you can hear the sound of a broken rainbow. It sounds a little like a child crying. Copyright c. 1999, Johnny Rustywire, all rights reserved. --------- "RE: Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days" --------- Date: Monday, 24 January, 2005 01:18 am From: Debbie Sanders Subj: Book of Days A HAWAI`I BOOK OF DAYS, week of January 24-30 IANUALI January Ka`elo 24 The earth's fire, a wave's caress, the never-ceasing kiss of the wind -- of these things is my island born. 25 The morning dew baptizes the grass; a thousand glistening beads reflect the rays of the rising sun. 26 I am the wild spirit that greets the dawning of this day. 27 I see the thread of mana which passes from me to all those I hold dear -- we are family -- we are `ohana. 28 If I feel hunger or thirst, the land will provide; if my spirit is troubled, the wind and the sea will comfort me; if I am afraid, Pele will protect me.