_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 13, ISSUE 015 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 April 9, 2005 Yuchi Wadaa/big summer moon Eastern Cherokee nvda atsilusgi/flower moon Zuni Li'dekwakkya lana/great sand storm 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; Tennessee Indian, American Lands Alliance, NetRez-L and Indian Heritage-L Mailing Lists; UUCP email IMPORTANT!! ----------- In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, all material appearing in this newsletter is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for educational purposes. <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is a way of keeping the brothers and sisters who share our Spirit informed about current events within the lives of those who walk the Red Road. ++ It may be subscribed to via email by sending a request from your own internet addressable account to gars@speakeasy.org ++ It is archived at http://www.nanews.org <================<<<< >>>>================> +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | As historian Patricia Nelson | | Once a language is lost, it is | | Limerick summarized in "The | | gone forever | | Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken | | * Of the 300 original Native | | Past of the American West... | | languages in North America, | | "Set the blood quantum at | | only 175 exist today. | | one-quarter, hold to it as a | | * 125 of these are no longer | | rigid definition of Indians, | | learned by children. | | let intermarriage proceed as | | * 55 are spoken by 1 to 6 elders;| | it had for centuries, and | | when they die, their language | | eventually Indians will be | | will disappear. | | defined out of existence." | | * Without action, only 20 | | "When that happens, the federal | | languages will survive the next| | government will be freed of | | 50 years. | | its persistent 'Indian problem.'"| | Source: Indigenous Language | +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ | Institute | |http://www.indigenous-language.org| This issue's Elder Quote: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + ======================== "Naabeeh (Navajo youth) have a right to the truth of their history," "They have a right to be proud to be Naabeeh." __ Evangeline Parsons Yazzie, Navajo Professor at Northern Arizona University +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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! If you wondered what an "apple" or an "around the fort" Indian is, it is my honest opinion that this week we witnessed a prime example of the kind of action, talk, and attitude that makes up such an Indian. Keep in mind nations like the United States and Canada do not make treaties with subjects. They only enter into treaties with other sovereignties. Earlier this week, Ross Swimmer, a former chairman of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and a member of a long-distinguished Cherokee family, publically stated that "Tribes today are not sovereign. You can't sit there and be a sovereign and be dictated to by another sovereign." His statements are particularly damaging to Indian nations because, in his present position as Special Trustee for the Department of Interior's Office of Special Trustee for American Indians and as former Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, his words carry some weight as Indian endorsement of official US policy. Just this week the Ute Tribe protested outside the Utah State capital demending Swimmer's resignation for failure to provide trust accountability. Tex Hall, who is the chairman of the Hidatsa-Mandan Tribes, and outgoing President of the National Congress of American Indians, called Mr. Swimmer's remarks insulting to Indian Country. He pointed out that at least Mr. Swimmer acknowledged the fact that the Department of Interior dictates policies to tribes. Hall insists that what is needed, rather than resigned acceptance of the political back-seat, is for tribes to insist on their right to true collaboration because "Indian sovereignty is a reality." Rather than an Indian "leader" who is willing to follow the Bush Administration and urge Indians to abandon treaty-guaranteed sovereign status, both the US and Indian country need leaders who respect each others sovereignty and work together as sovereign nations to achieve mutually beneficial ends. Dohiyi Ani Oginalii , , Gary Smith (*,*) wotanging@bellsouth.net P. O. Box 672168 (`-') gars@nanews.org Marietta, GA 30006, U.S.A. ===w=w=== http://www.nanews.org ----------- News of the people featured in this issue ----------- - Tex Hall blasts Ross Swimmer - FRANK C. MILLER: - Utes want Ross Swimmer Not the Indian Way fired over Trust Fund - YELLOW BIRD: - Indians lament U.S. neglect Spring brings about renewal of 'Original Promise' - GIAGO: - Proposed Cuts Disparities In Indian Country would hurt Indian Programs - ICT: Health of Mother Earth - House rejects additional is our responsibility Indian Education Funding - HARJO: Listen to Mother Earth - Ute Mountain funding - Blackfeet Wellness Conference cuts keep jobs open raises awareness - ALERT!! New Plan to Raze NEPA - Book tells Navajo children - Norton won't reconsider story of the Long Walk Paugussett Recognition - Supreme Court overturns - Indian remains finally at rest Oneida Nation Case - Northern Cheyenne Tribe - Tribes united in opposition wants new Drilling Halted to Court ruling - Navajo Uranium Victims - Court decision on get boost in Benefits Oneida Nation criticized - BIA holds proposed - State Prosecutors reach out Power Plant meetings to Tribal Communities - Rally held to protest - County takes Native voting case San Francisco Peaks ruling to Supreme Court - Lower Elwha Klalam - Jury awards damages reject offer on Village Site in State raid of Reservation - Staff response to shooting tragedy - Laguna Man sentenced earns praise for axing his Mother - Editorial: Workable Tax Deal - Native Prisoner for Tribe and State -- Native Prison Pen Pals - Si Tanka Employees - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days call it quits for now - Rustywire: - Two-year Indian College Navajo Police Department & Life lets 29 Teachers go - Spiritdove Poem: - New Oregon State Class The Eye of the Heart takes unique approach - Upcoming Events --------- "RE: Tex Hall blasts Ross Swimmer" --------- Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2005 09:07:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TEX HALL ON SWIMMER'S REMARKS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=6249 Tex Hall blasts Ross Swimmer Says Special Trustee is "out there in space" WASHINGTON DC Native American Times March 31, 2005 A spat between two of the most powerful people in Native American politics today. Tex Hall, President of the National Congress of American Indians, has taken exception to comments made by Special Trustee Ross Swimmer, saying the remarks are "an insult" to Indian Country. In a Reuters article about Indian sovereignty, Swimmer was quoted as saying: "Tribes today are not sovereign. You can't sit there and be a sovereign and be dictated to by another sovereign There needs to be a whole new paradigm. We have to start over." Hall was quick to condemn Swimmer's statements. "At least Special Trustee Swimmer finally came out and said what Indian leaders knew was going on the whole time - that the Interior Department is dictating whatever policies it wants to Indian tribes. Swimmer said that we need to start over? Great. Let's start by at least having real consultation and put an end to the dictatorship at the Department," Hall said. "Indian sovereignty is a reality, no matter what is happening on planet Swimmer. Indian Country knew President Bush wanted to put a man on Mars. We just had no idea that Swimmer was already out there in space. We need national leaders in the Bush Administration who take Indian sovereignty and the government-to-government relationship seriously. The Administration could have a great ally in Indian Country, but these kind of statements do nothing but get in the way of a productive and lasting relationship." Swimmer is the former Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Hall has been a frequent critic of the tactics used by the federal government during the long-running Indian trust lawsuit. Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Utes want Ross Swimmer fired over Trust Fund" --------- Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2005 09:07:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DUMP SWIMMER" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2634607 Utes demand accountability Rally: They want to know how a $190 million settlement will be spent By Jennifer W. Sanchez The Salt Lake Tribune April 1, 2005 Ron Wopsock said he wants to know what the Ute Tribe Business Committee is going to do with the $190 million in federal money from a lawsuit settlement. As a tribe member, Wopsock said all Utes are supposed to be shareholders in the plan to spend the money. "We don't know what the plan is," he said. "There's no accountability. We're left in the dark." Wopsock was one of about 20 people who marched Thursday in front of the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building in downtown Salt Lake City. The group of Utes protested for several hours, carrying homemade signs saying: "Requesting a Congressional Investigation" and "Fire Ross Swimmer." Swimmer is a special trustee in the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Special Trustee for American Indians. Ute Council Chairwoman Maxine Natchees confirmed that last week the tribe received $190 million, which had been under federal control and is now going to be overseen by the tribe. She said the money will be managed by Bear Sterns, a New York City-based company hired by the tribe. Natchees said she doesn't understand what "plan" protesters want to see. "The federal government just didn't cut us a check for $190 million," she said Thursday. "It's not like we have access to it." Natchees said the money is part of a lawsuit settlement the tribe received after developers failed to deliver on promises for the reservation under the Central Utah Project in the early 1960s. Wopsock, who has always lived on the Ute reservation, said he was stripped of his seat on the tribe's six-member business council about 18 months ago after serving 10 years as an elected member. The reservation, which is made up of 3,200 people, is about a three-hour drive from Salt Lake City in the northeast corner of the state, he said. Wopsock said many Utes are afraid to speak out against the council in fear of losing their jobs. He is hoping the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs would get involved. "Someone's got to be responsible for this," he said. A BIA official in Phoenix referred questions to the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C., which did not return phone calls. jsanchez@sltrib.com Copyright c. 2005 Salt Lake Tribune. --------- "RE: Indians lament U.S. neglect of 'Original Promise'" --------- Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 08:29:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BROKEN TREATIES AND LIES" http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20050329-0500-rights-indians.html Indians lament U.S. neglect of 'original promise' By Adam Tanner REUTERS March 29, 2005 SAN FIDEL, N.M. - In the mid 19th century, the United States forcibly removed Bill Thorne Jr.'s Cherokee ancestors from Georgia and marched them to barren Oklahoma in the middle of the United States. Only his great-grandmother survived the "Trail of Tears" that killed thousands in the forced migration aimed at clearing territory for white settlers. That history and broken U.S. promises of services and sovereignty for Indians remain strong in Thorne's mind. "It just seems unfair that people are treated that way and are not in some fashion, I guess, compensated," said Thorne, the chief executive of a New Mexico hospital serving Indians. "They owe something to me." "There's been no apologies or anything and there has just been this half-baked attempt by the government of furnishing Indians a certain amount of discretionary education and things." In the 19th century treaties, Washington shunted Indians onto reservations in exchange for promises of continuing education, health care and other services. Just about everyone says the government did a poor job of honoring the deal. "Whether the system of Indian treaties were ever meant to work is a matter of debate, but in reality, most Indian treaties were broken," the U.S. State Department says on its Web site. In Indian country, sentiment remains very strong that Washington should still live up to what some call the "Original Promise" in which tribes gave up land for sovereign status on reservations and federal help. They say the government has long provided inferior services and underfunded its programs. POLITICAL BACKLASH At the same time, some tribes are experiencing a political backlash as some citizens and politicians have lashed out against Indian casinos which are legal on Indian land but not elsewhere in many states. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said last year that "the Indians are ripping us off" by not paying state taxes. More radical groups in states such as Montana have used even more strident language in efforts to curtail Indian efforts to exercise their sovereignty. Such sentiments infuriate Indian leaders. "On the side of the U.S. government, they're working on doing away with those treaties," said Joe Shirley Jr., president of the Navajo Nation, the largest U.S. reservation. "It wouldn't surprise me if there would be an announcement tomorrow that would abrogate treaty rights." Complicating Native American relations with the federal government is a long-running multibillion dollar lawsuit by Indians who allege the Interior Department mismanaged trust accounts set up in the late 19th century to handle proceeds from oil, gas and minerals extracted from their lands. "There truly were grave injustices inflicted upon Native Americans," said U.S. Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. "At the same time it shouldn't put you on such a guilt trip, as it does some people, that whatever Native Americans do today is excused by history," he told reporters this month. "We did sign sovereign treaties that made certain guarantees which does give Native Americans a unique status in the United States of America." The growth of Indian casinos in recent years is the most visible way tribes have exercised sovereignty to their advantage in recent years. Still, many Indians and experts say the present U.S. relationship with the tribes is broken, full of hypocrisy and in need of a fundamental revision. "Tribes today are not sovereign," said Ross Swimmer, a Cherokee who is the special trustee for American Indians at the Interior Department. "You can't sit there and be a sovereign and be dictated to by another sovereign," "There needs to be a whole new paradigm," he said. "We have to start over." Back in New Mexico, Bill Thorne Jr. said the vast majority of Native Americans believe the federal government still has a special responsibility and a final financial settlement might be a way of recasting ties without cheating Indians anew. "If they wrote a check for a million I'd say thank you very much," he said. Although treaties that last for more than a century may be uncommon, Robert Williams, a University of Arizona professor of law and American Indian studies, said many nations with indigenous people such as Canada and New Zealand have similar agreements without an ending date. "Congress can terminate a treaty tomorrow if it wants to," he said. But "there may be obligations of compensation." Copyright c. 2005 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. --------- "RE: Proposed Cuts would hurt Indian Programs" --------- Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 08:29:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MORE BUSH-WHACKS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.greatfallstribune.com//20050329/NEWS01/50329001/1002 Proposed cuts would hurt Indian programs By FAITH BREMNER and LARRY BIVINS Tribune Washington Bureau March 29, 2005 WASHINGTON - Montana Indian tribes will lose federal funding for education, health care and housing programs next year if Congress goes along with President Bush's proposed budget cuts. Bush is asking Congress to reduce Indian programs by nearly 5 percent next year, from $2.39 billion this year to $2.28 billion. Both houses of Congress included the cuts in their budget blueprints approved last week. The reductions include a $107 million cut from the Native American Housing Block Grants Program and $46 million from the Indian Housing Loan Guarantee Fund. While Bush wants to add $64 million for Indian health services, he would take away $85 million from the budget for building new health care facilities. Especially hard hit would be Indian education programs. The Indian school construction fund would lose $90 million, or a third of its budget. Tribal colleges would lose $10 million, or 18 percent of their Bureau of Indian Affairs funding. The Johnson O'Malley program, which gives money to public schools to provide tutoring and cultural enrichment programs for Indian students, would lose half its funding, or $8.8 million. "The impacts to Indian Country are maybe more insidious in that in Montana alone, over 50 percent of our children are still dropping out of high school," said Joyce Silverthorne, the education director for the Salish Kootenai Nation on the Flathead Reservation. "That's not 10 years ago, 30 years ago - that's today," she added. Dan DuBray, spokesman for the Interior Department, said that while next year's budget request does call for less funding for Indian school construction, the Bush administration has committed a record $1.4 billion for building Indian schools over the past five years. Ninety percent of Indian children attend public schools. The other 10 percent attend the 184 schools that are operated and supported by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. "It's a significant investment," said DuBray, a member of South Dakota's Rosebud Sioux Tribe. Montana lawmakers are skeptical about the proposed budget cuts. Under treaties the federal government signed with the tribes, and Supreme Court decisions, the federal government is obligated to look out for Indians' well-being and to provide medical care, housing and education. As chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee's Interior Subcommittee, Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., will have a big say over which cuts go forward. "Traditionally, (Burns) has taken very seriously the commitment that the federal government has to Indian country," Burns' spokesman James Pendleton said. "He doesn't take the idea of cuts lightly in a situation like this." Montana's senior senator, Democrat Max Baucus, said he'll work to stop the proposed cuts. "Our Indian nations shouldn't have to bear the brunt of cuts to the federal budget," Baucus said in a statement. "We can't pull the rug out from underneath them now." Bremner is a Gannett News Service reporter. Reach her at (800) 828-4414 or fbremner@gns.gannett.com. Copyright c. 2004 Great Falls Tribune. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: House rejects additional Indian Education Funding" --------- Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 08:29:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MONTANA KILLS EDUCATION FUNDING" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.billingsgazette.com//2005/03/29/build/state/23-indian-ed.inc House rejects additional Indian education funding By SARAH COOKE Associated Press March 29, 2005 HELENA - Efforts to pump $6.1 million more into a 6-year-old state program requiring all students to learn about American Indian history and culture fell four votes short Tuesday in the Montana House. On a 53-47 vote, lawmakers rejected a request by Rep. Carol Juneau, D- Browning, for more money to fund the program, known as Indian Education for All. Three Democrats sided with the House's 50 Republicans in voting against the measure: House Speaker Gary Matthews, D-Miles City; and Reps. Arlene Becker, D-Billings, and Jim Keane, D-Butte. The vote means the measure, narrowly endorsed last week by the House Appropriations Committee, is likely dead. Lawmakers must send all spending bills from one chamber to the other by Wednesday or the measures will die. Opponents to Juneau's request said Gov. Brian Schweitzer has already earmarked $2 million for the program over the next two years. They also wanted more assurances that schools would spend the extra money on teacher training and curriculum. "You can't buy your way into commitment," Rep. Bob Lake, R-Hamilton, said. "Trying to buy commitment is like trying to legislate morality. It cannot be done." Juneau, a member of the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes, said the governor's $2 million isn't enough to get the program off the ground. Indian Education for All expands upon a provision in the 1972 Montana Constitution recognizing the cultural heritage of the state's Indian tribes and committing the state to educational goals designed to preserve their identity. The Montana Supreme Court highlighted the program in its recent decision declaring the current school funding system unconstitutional, taking the state to task for years of inadequate funding. "I know budgets are tight, but we need to respond to our constitutional obligation. We need to respond to the Supreme Court order," Juneau said. "We need to make this right." Supporters believe bringing Indian culture into the classroom will make Indian students feel more valued and accepted, and promote understanding of different cultures. Education officials also hope to close the growing achievement gap between Indian and non-Indian students and cut Indian dropout rates through the law. Indians currently make up 11 percent of Montana's public school students, and are the only growing student population, state Office of Public Instruction figures show. Rep. Tim Dowell, D-Kalispell, said many schools want to comply with the state law, but don't have the resources to do so. More money is needed to bring those districts into compliance, he said. "School districts have not been mandated to do it and they have not had the resources to do it on their own," Rep. Rosie Buzzas, D-Missoula, said. Others argued the state shouldn't be paying for years of neglect by the state Office of Public Instruction, and that more funding could be provided in the 2007 session if the $2 million from the governor is used properly. "Ladies and gentlemen, this goes back to the teacher in the classroom," Rep. Ed Butcher, R-Winifred, said. "I don't care what you put into the curriculum, it's whether the teacher is actually going to teach it." Copyright c. 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. Copyright c. The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Ute Mountain funding cuts keep jobs open" --------- Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 08:29:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="UTE CUTS KEEP JOBS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.durangoherald.com/article_path=/news/05/news050329_4.htm Ute Mountain funding cuts keep jobs open By John R. Crane Cortez Journal March 29, 2005 TOWAOC - Funding cuts in Bureau of Indian Affairs programs are forcing law-enforcement officials on the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation to grapple with staff shortages. In mid-February, the Chief Ignacio Justice Center's detention facility in Towaoc was so low on personnel it was forced to transfer juvenile inmates to Gallup, N.M., where they spent about two weeks at the city's facility before Towaoc's center re-opened March 1, said Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Council Vice Chairman Manuel Heart. The tribe's police department needs to fill almost a dozen positions, including six police officers, said Bill Yazza, BIA supervisory special agent. The police department received 65 percent to 70 percent of money needed for salaries in 2005, with no money for operations, Yazza said. If a tribal member calls with a non-emergency complaint, they may be waiting a while. "If we see it's not an emergency, we don't prioritize it," Yazza said. A stabbing, for example, is considered a priority. As with many police departments, the Ute Mountain Utes get lots of domestic-violence calls, Yazza said. Towoac's police department received 4,512 calls in 2004, down from 6,285 in 2003, when the force had five officers both years, Yazza said. Seven officers, including a lieutenant, make up the reservation's police force, which serves Towaoc's 2,500 tribal members, as well as 600 at the tribe's satellite community in White Mesa, Utah. While reduced funding has forced the agency to do more with less, another factor is young job candidates' reluctance to relocate to a small town, Yazza said. "They'd rather go to a big city," he said, adding that housing availability is limited in Towaoc. As for the detention facility, its funding was slashed from $2.5 million to $1.3 million for 2005, Heart said. And an across-the-board 10 percent BIA funding cut is expected for 2006, Yazza said. Other agencies also are feeling the pinch, including health care and transportation. "Almost every program across Indian country has been impacted," Heart said. In fact, an Alaskan tribe from the Kodiak area had to send its inmates to an Arizona facility, Heart said. Chief Ignacio Justice Center Towaoc's Chief Ignacio Justice Center was built in 2000 at a cost of $9.6 million. It began operation in March 2001. Scenarios like the one in Alaska will play out more as individual tribal detention facilities are forced to close due to funding cuts. The federal government is concentrating funding on regional tribal detention centers, Heart said. "Some jails will be closed down," he said, "due to inadequate heat, plumbing and electricity." Towaoc's detention center is a regional facility, housing inmates from several tribes in the Four Corners states - Hualapais, Apaches, Hopis and Ute Mountain Utes, among others, said the facility Detention Specialist Keith Elliott. From August to the February juvenile shutdown, a skeleton crew of staff worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Staff from other BIA agencies had to be called in to fill the gaps, Elliott said. The detention center has an average of 12 juvenile inmates, Elliott said. Its adult side had 20 males and nine females incarcerated Friday afternoon. But the visiting staff sent to help the facility could be gone next month, Elliott said. "We don't know if detail staff will be here next month," he said. James Begay, acting lead juvenile correction officer, has worked at the center since 2000. He drives back and forth from his home in Shiprock to work there and is getting ready psychologically for long hours again. In the coming weeks, "we'll prepare for 12s (12-hour shifts) again," Begay said. Begay has one or two other staff members with him on a normal day. In the recent lean times, just one staff member would supervise the halls for a few hours, Elliott said. Work for staff members is more intensive at the juvenile end than in the adult part of the building. Along with monitoring behavior, staff must also keep the juvenile section clean, with inmates responsible for cleaning only their housing area. Adult inmates must keep their side of the building clean, easing the burden for its staff, Elliott said. "We'll always be lacking in dollars," Heart said. Copyright c. 2005 the Durango Herald. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: ALERT!! New Plan to Raze NEPA" --------- Date: Thursday, March 31, 2005 11:13 PM From: Dale M. [MailDale@webtv.net] Subj: Fwd: [tn-ind] ALERT!! New Plan to Raze NEPA Moves Forward ===========Forwarded Message============ From: tn-ind-bounces@tnind.net on behalf of Joe McCaleb [jeremyah@bellsouth.net] Mailing List: Tennessee Indian ALERT.........ALERT.......ALERT.........ALERT...........ALERT...!!! This memo is from our friends at American Lands Alliance. Date: March 31, 2005 From: Lisa Dix, American Lands Alliance To: All Activists Mailing List: American Lands Alliance New Plan to Raze NEPA Moves Forward Next week (week of April 4, 2005) Richard Pombo (R-CA) and other pro- industry members of Congress will unveil their plan to gut the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), one of America's bedrock environmental laws. In an attempt to soften their message and appear "balanced" and "reasonable," Pombo and key leaders of the House Resources Committee will publicly claim that they intend to "streamline" and "modernize" the Act. The fact of the matter is that this group of legislators has an ambitious agenda to get rid of the most important components of NEPA and to make sure Americans will no longer be able to participate in decisions that impact us and the air, land and water that we, and future generations, depend on. Industry, developers and polluters are lining up and are organized already to support this effort. Pombo and company will launch their campaign from an economic angle. Simply put, that NEPA is costing too much. They will claim that NEPA has crippled state economies and harmed the "common man," but the fact of the matter is NEPA has saved Americans innumerable tax dollars in environmental destruction clean up costs and burdens. And as we have heard many times before, Pombo and company will argue that NEPA is tying up the courts due to litigation by "environmental extremists" and preventing "reasonable" projects from moving forward. Pombo's Plan To Get Rid of NEPA 1. Goals of Pombo's campaign: (a) Directing CEQ to promulgate clarifying regulations, (b) Amending NEPA, (c) Get State NEPA's to ease permitting requirements. In the short term it looks like the strategy is to gut the existing CEQ regulations until legislation is passed. Simultaneously, it appears there will be a state-wide strategy aimed at Governors and State Legislatures to gut State NEPAs (such as in California and Montana and others). Transportation, Forests, Public Lands, and Energy issues will be the primary areas of political focus. 2. Next week the "NEPA Task Force, " chaired by Eastern Washington Representative Cathy McMorris (R) will be launched. The Task Force will create recommendations based on hearings in order to change existing NEPA regulations and move forward with amending NEPA in 2006. The report, with recommendations, has a target release date of September 30, 2005. The press drumbeat will begin at the Task Force launch and a full two-year press strategy that continuously hammers on the Act will be employed. 3. Six "hearings" across the country will be organized. The organizers' goal is to focus on how NEPA has "crippled state economies," "impacted jobs" and other "inequities." The hearings will have 2 panels with 5 witnesses on each panel. So far, the organizers have invited state officials and industry representatives and others such as farmers and ranchers "impacted by the Act." It looks like the environmental community has not been contacted at this time. 4. The hearing schedule has not totally been set but here is what we know: Spokane, WA: April 23 Bakersfield, CA: TBA Houston, TX: TBA One hearing is to be scheduled in the Carolina's, one in the Intermountain West and one in the Mid-Atlantic We will keep you all up to date when we hear any other new developments or to update about the anti-NEPA campaign moving forward. For any questions, contact Lisa Dix, American Lands Alliance, ldix@americanlands.org Lisa Dix National Forest Program Director American Lands Alliance ldix@americanlands.org Ph: 202-547-9105; Fax: 202-547-9213 Tracy Davids Executive Director Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project 191 Merrimon Ave. Asheville, NC 28801 828.258.2667 (p) 828.258.0758 (f) _______________________________________________ tn-ind mailing list tn-ind@tnind.net http://mail.tnind.net/mailman/listinfo/tn-ind_tnind.net --------- "RE: Norton won't reconsider Paugussett Recognition" --------- Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 08:46:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TRIBE TURNS TO HIGH COURT" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.theday.com/~4902-9F40-93C35A5AF2CF Paugussetts turned Back in Appeal Of BIA Decision Norton Upholds Rejection Of Federal Recognition; Tribe Turns To Federal Court By KAREN FLORIN Day Staff Writer, Casinos/Gambling March 31, 2005 Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton rejected the Golden Hill Paugussett tribe's appeal Wednesday, upholding a Bureau of Indian Affairs decision not to grant the tribe federal recognition. Norton notified the tribe in a brief letter sent via fax machine. "After considering your Request for Reconsideration, the comments of the State of Connecticut and the Office of Federal Acknowledgment, your comments on their submissions, as well as the advice of my staff, I have decided not to refer any of the grounds alleged in your Request for Reconsideration to the Assistant Secretary for further review," she wrote. State officials hailed the decision, but Golden Hill Chief Quiet Hawk vowed immediately to take the case to federal court. He wondered how the Bureau of Indian Affairs could acknowledge four of Connecticut's state- recognized tribes while denying the fifth, his tribe. Quiet Hawk said Norton refused to review the additional information the tribe submitted to prove it meets the seven criteria for recognition. He said so many contradictions and inequities exist that the tribe has no choice but to turn to U.S. District Court. "Quite frankly, we knew from the beginning that, win or lose, we were going to wind up in court," he said. The tribe's spirits and finances are holding up, he said, though people are discouraged. "This has been a long haul, and we have always seemed to be on the short end of the stick for reasons that we still are not understanding," Quiet Hawk said. The BIA denied recognition to the tribe in June 2004, saying it had failed to meet four of the seven criteria for recognition and ceased to exist as a distinct community in 1823. The tribe appealed to the Interior Board of Indian Appeals, which said it lacked jurisdiction to hear the case before referring it to Norton. The denial dashes the tribe's hopes of opening a casino in Bridgeport and receiving what Quiet Hawk has said is "critically needed" government funding for housing, health care and education. Gov. M. Jodi Rell issued a prepared statement after receiving a call from Norton Wednesday afternoon. Rell said justice had prevailed and the BIA "finally made the right decision." "This is great news for Fairfield County residents and for all of Connecticut," Rell said. "Tribal recognition has a huge impact on the everyday lives of Connecticut residents, particularly where casino gaming is involved." Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who has fought the tribe's recognition and land claims for the past decade, said he would continue to fight in federal court if necessary. "This decision marks the end of the road for the Golden Hill Paugussetts' petition in Interior," Blumenthal said. "Secretary of the Interior Norton's message to the Golden Hill Paugussett group is final: application denied. The tribal group fell far short of the standard for federal recognition. "This decision is a significant victory for Connecticut and for legitimate Native American groups that meet the federal recognition criteria. If necessary, we will continue to fight this application in court, but no real issues remain." U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, commended the decision and called on Norton to support his bill to reform the federal recognition process. "As I stated last year, it is critical that the seven criteria used to determine recognition be given the strength of law so that groups who fail to meet each and every requirement do not burden the federal government and courts with endless appeals," Simmons said. "...I ask that Secretary Norton work with me and like-minded members of Congress to ensure that this critically needed step to reform the recognition process is taken this year." k.florin@theday.com Copyright c. 2005 The Day Publishing Co. --------- "RE: Indian remains finally at rest" --------- Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 08:46:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CHEYENNE ANCESTORS REPATRIATED" http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2005/03/31/front/top/news01.txt Indian remains finally at rest By Jomay Steen, Journal Staff Writer March 31, 2005 PIEDMONT - Moses Starr prayed on a hilltop cemetery Wednesday morning to put to rest the remains of four Southern and Northern Cheyenne American Indian ancestors. Starr, a representative of the Kit-Fox Society from Weatherford, Okla., sang several traditional songs in his native language after four small, wooden boxes containing the bones of tribal members of the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma and the Northern Cheyenne of Montana were lowered into a single, hallowed grave. "They're going home now," Starr said. Gordon Yellowman, chief of the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, and Dog Soldier Society headsman Chester Whiteman of Geary, Okla., participated in the traditional Indian ceremony. "We're very appreciative of the collaboration and cooperation of the Piedmont community," Yellowman said. For four years, Yellowman and his group worked through the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, a federal law in which museums and federal agencies return human remains and sacred relics to lineal descendents and culturally affiliated tribes in order to bring the remains to South Dakota for burial. "It makes me feel good that these ancestors are home next to our sacred mountain and ancestral home," Yellowman said, referring to Bear Butte and the Black Hills. Renee Boen, repository manager of the South Dakota State Historical Society-Archeological Research Center, said Yellowman had contacted the organization last summer wanting help in finding a place to bury the remains near Bear Butte. Boen suggested John Honerkamp, a member of the Piedmont Cemetery Board. "The state of South Dakota has a plot here, where we bury non-native remains that are found in unmarked graves that are accidentally disturbed, " Boen said. The community was willing to accept the remains, she said. "It's not the first reburial of Native American remains in South Dakota. It may be the first of the Southern and Northern Cheyenne," she said. The remains of the four individuals being repatriated and reburied were formerly stored at Concho Agency Bureau of Indian Affairs in El Reno, Okla. ; Illinois State Museum in Springfield, Ill.; American Museum of Natural History in New York City; and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Omaha, Neb. Scott McCorkle, deputy superintendent at Concho Agency in El Reno said the remains of a 25-year-old Cheyenne male arrived at the agency in August 2002 after a man found the bones among the personal affects of his father. The remains were kept in storage until officials knew what could be done to repatriate them. Packed with the bones was an identification label with a museum-type number. Faintly inscribed in pencil on the back of the tag was the name Dull Knife 1879, McCorkle said. "We immediately contacted the Southern Cheyenne," he said. Bill Billeck, program manager of the Repatriation Office of the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian, said the bones belonged to one of the tribesmen who had escaped in the 1879 Fort Robinson breakout in Nebraska. Pursued by the U.S. Army, a number of the Cheyenne were killed near the fort. The bones then became a part of the Army Medical Museum in 1880, where they had been acquired from Fort Robinson, Billeck said. Since 1982, the Smithsonian has repatriated more than 3,000 individuals, he said. The remains of the three other Cheyenne were collected from North Dakota's Ransom County in 1959 and a road embankment in Montana in the 1960s and were confiscated in 1993 from a shop in Platte. Jim Jandreau, Bear Butte State Park manager and member of Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, said burial would not be allowed at the sacred mountain. "Bear Butte is used for living ceremonies," Jandreau said. The South Dakota landmark is one of the most sacred sites of the Cheyenne. Tribal members from Lame Deer, Mont., often stop on their trips to Oklahoma to offer prayers, he said. "All of their teachings and life ways come from Bear Butte," Jandreau said. Yellowman found Piedmont Cemetery to be an appropriate resting place for his relatives. "It's a beautiful day today. It's been over four years, but today, we've put our ancestors on their journey," he said. Contact Jomay Steen at 394-8418 or jomay.steen@rapidcityjournal.com. Copyright c. 2005 The Rapid City Journal. --------- "RE: Northern Cheyenne Tribe wants new Drilling Halted" --------- Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 08:29:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="STOP BLM DRILLING" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.billingsgazette.com//state/47-injunction-dispute.inc Court hears dispute over injunction By CLAIR JOHNSON Of The Gazette Staff March 30, 2005 An environmental group and the Northern Cheyenne Indian Tribe asked in federal court Tuesday that new coalbed methane development in Montana be halted until the U.S. Bureau of Land Management completes a study of phased development of the resource. The BLM and industry proposed allowing some development in southern Big Horn County to continue while the study is being conducted. Expensive injunction Fidelity Exploration and Production Co., currently the state's only producer of coalbed methane, said an injunction stopping all of its federal well operations could cost it more than $48 million. U.S. Magistrate Richard Anderson held the hearing to decide what injunction, if any, should be granted while the environmental study is completed. Anderson said he would issue a written order later. The hearing comes after Anderson ruled in February that a statewide environmental study by the BLM of coalbed methane development was inadequate because the agency failed to analyze the possibility of developing the resource in phases. NPRC and the tribe sued the BLM in 2003, alleging its environmental impact statement on the potential effects of coalbed methane development violated federal environmental laws. The BLM conducted the study jointly with the state of Montana. Fidelity, with no objection from the BLM or NPRC, tried earlier to close the hearing to protect financial information. Anderson refused to close the hearing, saying the public's interest outweighed a private corporation's desire to keep some information secret. More than 50 people packed the small courtroom and even filled the jury box for the four-hour hearing. All parties outlined their positions in briefs filed before the hearing. Potential harm The judge listened to testimony from ranchers, tribal representatives, industry officials, scientific consultants and BLM officials on the possible harm that might come from continued development or stopping of development. NPRC and the tribe said continued development would harm the tribe and farmers and ranchers who live in the state's Powder River basin, which is the primary area of interest for coalbed methane producers. Irv Alderson, an NRPC founder and rancher at the Bones Brothers Ranch near Birney, said federal minerals have been leased under his property but have not been developed. If development is allowed on his ranch while BLM studies phased development, Alderson said, "it would probably phase me out of existence." Drilling for the natural gas found in coal seams requires discharging large amounts of groundwater, which holds the gas in the coal through pressure. The produced groundwater often is high in sodium and salts, which can damage certain plants and soils. William Walks Along, a Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council member, testified that the tribe is concerned about protecting the Tongue River, to which it has water rights, from coalbed methane discharges. Protection of springs, wildlife and plants also is important to the tribe's culture, he said. The BLM called stopping all coalbed methane development for the study an unwarranted "drastic remedy." The agency said it has begun a supplemental study on phased development. The study will take 18 months to two years to complete. In the meantime, BLM has proposed allowing development in 290,000 acres in southern Big Horn County at the rate of 500 federal, private and state wells a year. The agency also would impose additional restrictions on water discharges from industry, and other conditions on development. Fidelity said allowing a total of 800 federal, state and private wells or 500 federal wells while BLM conducts its study was a more workable solution. The company also argued that an injunction would cause "dramatic economic harm on Fidelity, proportional to the degree to which production would be enjoined." If Fidelity had to stop all federal well operations for two years pending completion of a supplemental study, it would cost the company more than $48 million, Fidelity said. A less severe injunction would result in the loss of $8 million to $31 million, the company said. Copyright c. The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Navajo Uranium Victims get boost in Benefits" --------- Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 08:29:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="URANIUM VICTIMS RECEIVE NEEDED HELP" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=6233 Navajo uranium victims get boost in benefits Law means more for suffering ex-miners SHIPROCK NM Native American Times March 29, 2005 Navajo victims of radiation exposure through uranium mining will soon be eligible for up to an additional $125,000 above the compensation they are already entitled to or have received, the Navajo Nation has reported. Relatives of the victims will also receive added compensation. Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr., said that the additional funds come from amendments to the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, part of legislation signed by President Bush last October. "Rather than $150,000 only, victims are going to get an extra $125,000 if you're 100 percent disabled," Shirley told about 500 people gathered at the Shiprock Chapter House. Officials say that when the program is finalized this summer, there will be added benefits to living workers who were miners, mill workers and ore transporters, or their surviving spouses or children under the age of 18, or a fulltime student under the age of 23, or of any age and incapable of self-support. Uranium mining left a bitter legacy on the Navajo reservation. Companies first began mining here in 1918 around the Carrizo Mountain area, around 30 miles west of Shiprock. The pace dramatically increased after World War II as the Cold War began. The Vanadium Corporation of America and Kerr- McGee were the principal owners of the mines, and they have been harshly criticized for not informing workers about the dangers they faced. Ominous signs appeared in early 1960 as longtime workers began to fall ill. A report a year earlier had found that some Navajo miners had radiation levels ninety times that of the acceptable limits. Of the 150 Navajo uranium miners who worked at the uranium mine in Shiprock until 1970, 133 had died of lung cancer or various forms of fibrosis by 1980. According to a 1993 Congressional report: "When mining ceased in the late 1970's, mining companies walked away from the mines without sealing the tunnel openings, filling the gaping pits, sometimes hundreds of feet deep, or removing the piles of radioactive uranium ore and mine waste. Over 1,000 of these unsealed tunnels, unsealed pits and radioactive waste piles still remain on the Navajo reservation today, with Navajo families living within a hundred feet of the mine sites. The Navajo graze their livestock here, and have used radioactive mine tailings to build their homes. Navajo children play in the mines, and uranium mine tailings have turned up in school playgrounds." Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act in 1990. That legislation that was amended in 2000, with the additional $125,000 compensation package added in 2004. While speaking to the Shiprock Chapter House, Shirley restated his opposition to lifting the current moratorium on uranium mining. He said that the federal government is again interested in mining uranium and may turn to the Navajo reservation as a source. "We're at a critical point in the country regarding the use of uranium," he said. "I'm dead-set against uranium mining on Navajoland. I'd like to outright outlaw the thing. There's no cure for uranium radiation exposure. I'll do everything I can to get the legislation passed." Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: BIA holds proposed Power Plant meetings" --------- Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 08:29:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.daily-times.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=46&num=17684 BIA holds proposed power plant meetings By Jim Snyder, The Daily Times Mar 29, 2005, 10:45 pm FARMINGTON - The Navajo public and others will get a chance to voice their opinion regarding a proposed 1,500-megawatt, coal-burning power plant to be built on a 600-acre site near the Burnham Chapter, 30 miles southwest of Farmington. The Burnham Chapter, site of a public hearing today, voted against the $2.3 billion Desert Rock Energy Project power plant at its Feb. 13 meeting. The Bureau of Indian Affairs is holding a series of meetings this week to gather information for an environmental impact statement on the power plant. Meetings will be held: + Today, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Sanostee Chapter House on Navajo Route 34, west of U.S. 491, south of Shiprock. + Today, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., at the Burnham Chapter House, on Navajo Route 5, east of U.S. 491, south of Shiprock. + Wednesday, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., at the Shiprock High School auxiliary gymnasium. + Thursday, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, 2401 12th St. N.W., Albuquerque. An EPA representative will be present at the Albuquerque meeting. Navajo communities that would be directly impacted by air pollution from the proposed plant were left off the BIA's first round of EIS meetings held in December in Farmington, Flagstaff, Ariz., and Phoenix. Also left out at that time were downwind areas such as Mesa Verde National Park near Cortez, Colo., and Albuquerque. On the table for discussion this week: The BIA has proposed major policy changes of its federal oversight responsibility, including allowing BHP Billiton to mine an additional 6 million tons of coal a year from its Navajo coal lease for the power plant. The BIA also added the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as cooperating agencies. They also extended the public written comment period deadline to April 11. (The original deadline was Dec. 17.) Written comments on the scope of the EIS or implementation of the proposal should be mailed or hand carried to Eloise Chicharello, director, Navajo Regional Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs, P.O. Box 1060, Gallup, NM 87305. If the power plant is built, it would be the third coal-burning power plant in the area. The Four Corners Power Plant, owned by Arizona Public Service, is in Upper Fruitland. The San Juan Generating Station, owned by Power New Mexico, operates in Waterflow. The proposed plant would be owned by Sithe Global Power, LLC. The primary components, according to the BIA, would include two 750-megawatt coal-burning units; a plant cooling system; a fuel supply system; waste management operations, safety systems; a water-system infrastructure; transportation access roads; power transmission interconnection facilities and construction staging areas. BHP Billiton's Navajo Mine would begin using the southern half of its lease with the Navajo Nation to generate coal for the propose plant. The northern half of Navajo Mine currently supplies coal to the Four Corners Power Plant. The plant could use water from the neighboring Navajo Indian Irrigation Project - if and when the Navajo Nation Water Rights Settlement Agreement on the San Juan Basin is passed by the New Mexico 11th Judicial District Court in Aztec. The Navajo Nation formed the Dine' Power Authority - a tribal enterprise - in the 1990s to pursue companies to finance and build the plant and a related transmission line project. The Navajo Council passed a $1.5 million bill in December to fund DPA for the 2004-05 fiscal year. Some delegates voted for the funding because they erroneously believed the power plant would provide power to Navajo families, said Navajo Council spokeswoman Karen Francis at the time. The plant would provide electricity to cities throughout the southwest. The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority purchases its power from Tucson Electric Power Co. in Tucson, Ariz. The DPA also received $381,441 in a U.S. Department of Energy grant and $100,000 from the plant's former developer, Steag Power Development. Some of DPA's annual budget expenses included: $28,000 for promotional items and business meals; $10,000 for landscaping; $5,000 to pay for conference room rentals for 50 meetings at $100 a piece; $1,000 a month for Internet, local and long-distance phone bills; $10,900 to pay for books, periodicals and subscriptions; $2,100 for postage, courier and shipping costs; $25,600 for three leased vehicles; $12,600 for gasoline; and $25,245 for computers, according to the DPA. A BIA meeting was also held Monday in Cortez. The BIA announced this week's five meetings in The Federal Register but, like its December meetings, did not notify local news media. Information: Loretta Tsosie, (505) 863-8296 or Richard Knox, (602) 861-7428. Copyright c. 2004 Farmington Daily Times, a Gannett Co., Inc. newspaper. --------- "RE: Rally held to protest San Francisco Peaks ruling" --------- Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 08:51:28 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FOREST SERVICE DESECRATION DECISION" http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=6219 Rally held to protest San Francisco Peaks ruling Site sacred to tribes Sam Lewin March 28, 2005 Hundreds gathered at a rally opposing a decision that would allow "reclaimed" water to be used on a site sacred to American Indians in the Southwest. The United States Forest Services Department recently approved using wastewater, or reclaimed water, for artificial snowmaking on the Snowbowl Ski Resort, a wealthy ski lodge located on the San Francisco Peaks. "The peaks are the home of the Katsinam (spirit messengers) and the focus of our prayers for rain and snow. The use of reclaimed water on such a sacred site can only be described as sacrilegious," Hopi Tribe Cultural Preservation Office Director Leigh Kuwanwisiwma said. In addition to that argument, tribal officials protest that artificial snowmaking will have a significant adverse effect on the overall environment of the mountain and watershed, a move that could ultimately affect the condition of an historic property currently in the process of being nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. The San Francisco Peaks is an extinct volcano that was formed over 3 million years ago. Klee Benally, a member of the Navajo Nation that recently produced a documentary about the battle over the San Francisco Peaks, was the featured speaker at the rally, held at Arizona State University Benally encouraged rally-goers to inform other people about the issues surrounding the case and to write letters opposing the desecration of the mountain. "We're not against skiing or snowboarding," Benally said. "I myself am a snowboarder, but I don't snowboard on that mountain." Arizona lawmaker Kyrsten Sinema, a member of the state's legislature, said that she previously worked on the effort to preserve "A" Mountain in Tempe, Arizona. She said that at the time many people told the group opposing development on the mountain that it couldn't make a difference. "But if you look at "A" Mountain today, it's still a natural preserve," she said. Navajo Nation Council delegate Willie Tracey (Ganado/Kinlichee) spoke about the Four Sacred Mountains, as they relate to Navajo philosophy and culture. "Traditionally, the San Francisco Peaks, known as Dook'o'sli'i'd, represent iina and iina is living, life," Tracey said. "It represents our traditional aspects." Tracey said that it was important to unite to address the issue. "Call mom and grandma and cheii back home and have them write down their concerns. They need to have their concerns documented," he said. The Hopi and Navajo are not the only tribes that consider the San Francisco Peaks to have religious significance. The Zuni, Tewa, Haulapai, Havasupai, Yavapai-Apache, Yavapai-Prescott, Tonto Apache, White Mountain Apache, San Carlos Apache, San Juan Southern Pauite, Fort McDowell Mohave Apache, and Acoma also maintain a spiritual connection to the site. Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Lower Elwha Klalam reject offer on Village Site" --------- Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 08:51:28 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/sited/story/html/202656 Lawmakers make one last effort to restart graving yard, but tribe says no by JIM CASEY March 29, 2005 OLYMPIA - Legislators from the 24th District made one last try Monday to persuade the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe to endorse resuming the Hood Canal Bridge graving yard project in Port Angeles. The tribe declined. Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, and Reps. Jim Buck, R-Joyce, and Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, met with tribal leaders in the state capital. They hoped to resurrect the 22.5-acre onshore dry dock to build pontoons and anchors for the east end of the floating bridge. "The purpose of the meeting was to see if the Legislature could offer something to get the project back on track," Buck said after the meeting, "but they are still firm in their desire that it not continue." Tribal leaders have been steadfast in their opposition to continued excavation on the site. It overlies the ancestral Klallam village of Tse- whit-zen, where archaeologists found artifacts dating back 2,700 years. Francis Charles, Lower Elwha chairwoman, confirmed Buck's account of the session. "We just laid it out and said no, we had no intention of changing our minds," she said. `Respectful' discussion Buck described the discussion as "respectful." Charles called it "a break-the-ice meeting." The tribe urged the state Department of Transportation on Dec. 10 to stop excavating the site after hundreds of intact burials and thousands of artifacts had been unearthed. Since then, city and civic leaders have called on the tribe to reverse its stand. Copyright c. 2005 Peninsula Daily News, Horvitz Newspapers, Inc. --------- "RE: Staff response to shooting tragedy earns praise" --------- Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 08:46:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RED LAKE HOSPITAL" http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/ArticleID=18974&SectionID=3&SubSectionID= Red Lake Hospital staff response to shooting tragedy earns IHS praise By Molly Miron Pioneer Editor mmiron@bemidjipioneer.com March 31, 2005 Last week, Red Lake Indian Health Service Hospital staff members tested their crisis response skills to the limit. Shortly after 3 p.m. on March 21, casualties started coming into the hospital from the Red Lake High School shootings. According to the FBI report, Jeff Weise, 16, killed his grandfather, Red Lake Police Sgt. Daryl "Dash" Lussier, and Daryl's partner, Michelle Sigana, at their home. Weise stole his grandfather's service pistol, bulletproof vest and squad car and drove to the high school, where he entered shooting. The result of the afternoon's rampage: 10 killed, including Wiese by his own shot, and seven inured. "They all came through Red Lake Hospital except one," said Dr. Kathleen Annette, M.D. Annette, based in the Bemidji Indian Health Service headquarters, is area IHS director for Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. She said the Red Lake Hospital staff responded with extraordinary professionalism and human caring. "To be sensitive and responsive to families while providing high quality health care I am so proud of our staff," Annette said. At the same time, hospital staff members, along with everyone in the Red Lake Nation, had to control their own grief over their personal losses. "They put that aside and did their job," Annette said. Capt. Dawn Wyllie, M.D., IHS chief medical officer for the area, said the hospital had prepared with demanding emergency drills and crisis management training, gaining expertise for situations they hoped they would never face. "They were prepared and folks ended up assisting in any way they could," Wyllie said. "People went above and beyond to do whatever, even if it was not their duty. It was truly a team approach and everyone played a vital role." Wyllie arrived at Red Lake Hospital the morning after the shootings. Annette said she was on her way to Washington, D.C., and had just landed at Reagan International Airport the afternoon of March 21, when she received a call about the shootings. She said she turned to a Northwest Airlines clerk and told her she had just been notified of a tragedy in her community and she had to get home. Northwest arranged for her to take the next flight out of Washington, D.C., and Annette reached Red Lake a few hours after the shootings occurred. From her days as a Red Lake High School student, Annette recalled the teacher who was killed, Neva Rogers. "I'll never forget her laugh. Her laugh made us laugh," Annette said. Annette said some of the Red Lake Hospital staff members are federal employees and some are Red Lake Band of Chippewa enrollees or Indians from other tribes, but all worked together seamlessly in response to the traumatic events. Law enforcement and medical help also came together from surrounding communities, she said. And she commended on the coordination between the health care providers and the Red Lake Tribal Council. "You don't want to duplicate (services) and you don't want to have gaps," Annette said. Now, the focus will be on long-term counseling, years of recovery, for all members of the community, including students, teachers and health care providers. "Our staff are part of our community. Some are tribal, some are not, but they are all part of our community. The pain that the community feels, the staff feels the same," Annette said. "The community is family. Everyone is touched," Wyllie said of the tragedy. She said professional mental heath teams are working in rotation to help people come to terms with the traumatic events. Both doctors said the March 21 tragedy was the worst disaster they have dealt with in their careers. "It's the violence and the volume," said Annette. But Wyllie said an emphasis on hope and healing is important now. She pointed out that of the 17 struck by bullets during the shooting rampage, seven lives were saved. The mental health teams are working with the emotional injuries, and support is coming from around the country. Annette said she has received calls from American Indian communities from Alaska to Florida and everywhere between. "There are reasons to be hopeful," Wyllie said. "And the eagles are flying. That is part of the Creator's symbol that there is hope." Copyright c. 2005 The Pioneer/Bemidji, MN. --------- "RE: Editorial: Workable Tax Deal for Tribe and State" --------- Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 08:29:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TAX DEAL AT QUIL CEDA" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/opinion/2002223925_tribed30.html Editorial: A workable tax deal for tribe and state March 30, 2005 Quil Ceda Village, the Tulalip Tribes' retail enclave on the Tulalip Reservation, helps power the Snohomish County economy with jobs and tax receipts. The tribe deserves a share of sales taxes - a city's share - to help cover expenses. The village is not a city created by the state, but a federally chartered political subdivision, the only one in Washington. Quil Ceda has all the typical police, fire, emergency medical services and municipal overhead. House Bill 1721 allows Quil Ceda Village to receive sales taxes as any other city. Overreaching versions of this idea bounced around Olympia for years, but HB 1721 is an improved, transparent and equitable deal. For years, the tribe argued it was entitled to all sales taxes, including the state's share. In the midst of this losing political debate, retailers continued to collect the sales taxes and ship them to the state Department of Revenue, which divvied them up among the county and state. Quil Ceda never had a sales-tax advantage over retailers off tribal land and that does not change with passage of the legislation. The only adjustment is the city share would reduce the portion that goes to Snohomish County. The Snohomish County Council is upset about losing an estimated $1.7 million in 2006 tax collections, but the loss is no different than if other county land had been annexed by any growing municipality. Counties regularly lose tax base through annexations because it is generally assumed cities are the appropriate providers of services to areas that rise to urban-type concentrations of activity. As a practical matter, the Tulalips are expanding their business park and the county stands to get an ever-larger amount of tax receipts from the growth. The employment is nice as well. The bill only applies to the Tulalips; other tribes would have to secure approval of the Legislature. The Tulalips also accept the auditing and administrative practices of the Department of Revenue. The House overwhelmingly approved a practical, transparent arrangement. The Senate should, too. Copyright c. 2005 The Seattle Times Company. --------- "RE: Si Tanka Employees call it quits for now" --------- Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 08:29:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NO PAY, NO STAY" http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=6229 Si Tanka employees call it quits for now End semester due to lack of salary HURON SD Native American Times March 29, 2005 As employees at a troubled tribal college announced they would end the semester weeks early because they have not been paid, the head of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe said there are "serious concerns for the welfare of the students and employees of Si Tanka University." A faculty spokesman said that terminating the semester became the only option since workers have not received a paycheck since the middle of February. Si Tanka has two campuses, one in Huron and one in Eagle Butte. The Cheyenne River Sioux recently said they have secured $400,000 in loans and grants to keep the school open through the end of the spring semester. The Argus Leader reported that the Huron faculty thought they would be left out. "There's some relief knowing something has been done," said Steve Fryberger, chairman of the athletic training education department. "Tribal council was not going to support the Huron campus ... there's no use continuing the semester. They don't want to pay us... they expect us to continue without pay," Cheyenne River Sioux Harold Frazier defended the tribal council's action. "It is very upsetting the students and employees have to go through this. I know how hard everyone is working to receive an education and the [tribal council] will do all we can to lend assistance. As with any government, the [tribal council] is seriously concerned about the welfare of all the students and employees of STU and is working very hard to find a way to assist this vitally important educational institution to continue," he said. Si Tanka had previously missed a payroll after the Bureau of Indians did not release $850,000 in Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities Assistance Act funds, a federally administered program. Tribal officials said they had been counting on the money. The tribe chartered what is now Si Tanka University 32 years ago. In 2001, the school bought Huron University - which led to the university's current financial problems. The school took on too much debt when it took out a $3.3 million U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development loan and another $3.3 million bank loan to buy Huron University, a laryer representing the tribe said. That led to loan defaults and the foreclosure litigation. The purchase of Huron University led to the percentage of American Indian students at Si Tanka fall below 50 percent. Last summer, the BIA said the school no longer qualified for federal tribal college funding, which equals $4,390 per Indian student at tribal colleges. Si Tanka was expecting $1.4 million for all of the Indian students at Eagle Butte and Huron - a big part of the university's operating revenue. School leaders believed that they had a deal for $850,000 of the money after a January meeting with Bureau of Indian Affairs official Ed Parisian. The lawyer working with the tribe and the school, David Nadolski of Sioux Falls, said Parisian abruptly changed his position. "On the larger front, there is a government-to-government relationship between the United States and its agencies and the tribe has a unique trust responsibility with these agencies to assist this educational institution, which serves the Indian people. The tribe through its government-to-government relationship with the United States continues to request and seek responsibility from these respective agencies to provide assistance to the university," Frazier said. Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Two-year Indian College lets 29 Teachers go" --------- Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 08:29:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="STAFF CUTS AT SIPI" http://www.daily-times.com/artman/publish/article_17695.shtml Two-year American Indian college lets 29 teachers go By the associated press March 30, 2005 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - The Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute is blaming a budget deficit for the layoffs of 29 staff members, but some of those being laid off said the school is not treating them right. School administrators called the staff members in Monday and gave them letters informing them their jobs were being eliminated. SIPI said four of those whose jobs were cut have been reassigned elsewhere at the school. The school's acting president, James Lujan, directed all calls about the action to the BIA in Washington, D.C. Calls to the bureau's main number were not answered. The Associated Press left a message on voicemail for the BIA public affairs officer seeking information on the layoffs and the school's budget. SIPI's former president, Joseph Martin, resigned as of March 4 from the two-year Bureau of Indian Affairs college, which serves about 800 students from 126 American Indian and Alaskan native tribes. The BIA's Office of Indian Programs in November began an investigation into SIPI's administrative policies and staff. The office has not released findings from the investigation. Laid-off career education instructor Michael Ray said most of those being laid off were told their jobs would end April 30. Ed Shije, who taught physical education and health at SIPI for 20 years, said he was told the school's regents made the decisions to lay off staff. "I want to talk to the people who made the decisions, not people who are just pushing the papers in front of us," he said. Shije said he did not sign or accept the conditions of his layoff, and planned to talk to a lawyer. "I'm speaking from my heart. For me, teaching here has been my life," he said with tears in his eyes. Many of those who received a layoff notice were caught off guard. The letters said layoffs were necessary because of "budgetary deficit and restructuring at SIPI." Susan Parton, a 27-year teacher in health education, also was laid off and refused to sign the conditions of the layoff. Parton is one of four union stewards at the school, and said all four were given letters. The 130 teachers and staff at SIPI are represented by the Indian Educators Federation, a union affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, part of the AFL-CIO, said Susan Sandoval, a field representative. She was allowed in the meeting with administrators to represent employees who asked for help. Ray said he never expected the administration to treat him so rudely. "We're loyal, faithful employees," Ray said. The letters said the layoffs were "not intended to reflect negatively upon your performance with SIPI or your conduct. We appreciate your contribution to SIPI and regret that this action has become necessary." The letters told employees they had a right to file a grievance and have representation. It also said they might be eligible for severance pay. Lujan said the Monday meeting was intended only to inform employees, and that the administration was not required to tell the union or have union representatives present. Sandoval said that was true, but that the union was allowed to participate in previous actions involving layoffs or restructuring. "The really troubling aspect of the way this is being handled is that there is little, if any, respect for the people," she said. "And even sadder is that this school is critical to the academic success of Native American students." Copyright c. 2004 Farmington Daily Times, a Gannett Co., Inc. newspaper. --------- "RE: New Oregon State Class takes unique approach" --------- Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 08:29:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NATIVE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHIES" http://barometer.orst.edu/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/03/29/42498deb66789 New class takes unique approach Native American Philosophies course will open doors to public Barometer Staff Report March 29, 2005 Ethnic studies professor Kurt Peters and philosophy professor Tony Vogt are teaming up for an ambitious task this term: helping students think more deeply about their place on Earth through the study of Native American philosophies. They are taking a unique approach, inviting distinguished Native Americans to give presentations at weekly class meetings -- and they are inviting the entire community to take part in the course. "Native American Philosophies" will be offered for three credits through the ethnic studies and philosophy departments at the undergraduate and graduate levels, listed as ES 443/543 and PHL 443/543. The course will meet Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. in Gilfillan Auditorium. Half of the room's seats will be available for registered students and half open for community members to sit in on the course for free. Opening courses to the community is part of OSU's mission as a land grant university, Vogt explained. "We need to see more classes that bridge this gap between academia and the community," he added. With its focus on Native American perspectives, "we thought this would be an excellent class to model that connection," Vogt said. "If you go back far enough, we all come from tribal backgrounds." Peters hopes students -- and community members -- come away from the course with "an understanding of other ways of seeing the world," he said. "Generally speaking, you certainly find that Native American philosophies start from a nature-based view of the world," Peters said. "It's nature that controls the world and humans are a part of it -- not in control of it." Among topics slated for discussion is "the place of beauty in a well- lived life." "Beauty really is a notion that is important to a lot of different Native perspectives," Vogt explained. "In popular culture we tend to think of beauty as nice ... but it's not a center of gravity in our lives, and we should ask ourselves why this is so." Copyright c. 2005 The Daily Barometer, Oregon State University --------- "RE: FRANK C. MILLER: Not the Indian Way" --------- Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 08:52:23 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FRANK C. MILLER: NOT INDIAN WAY" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.startribune.com/stories/562/5325590.html Frank C. Miller: Not the Indian way Frank C. Miller April 2, 2005 Jesse Ventura must have had a good chuckle. He could have closed his eyes and visualized his fondest dream come true: hordes of "media jackals" confined behind a fence on the Red Lake reservation in the aftermath of the calamitous school shooting there. I led with an attention-grabbing name because I want to pass on some serious advice to "media jackals" everywhere, or at least to those who might someday find themselves unexpectedly reporting a sadly sensational story from an Indian reservation. The advice does not come from me. It comes from the late Dan Raincloud Sr., a wise and respected spiritual leader in the traditional community of Ponemah, across the lake and a 30-mile drive from the school where the killings took place. In the summer of 1960 I took that drive for the first time. The tribal council had generously given me permission to conduct anthropological research, and the chairman took me to meet Dan, who received me with kindness and grace (and with a twinkle in his eye that seemed to say, "Good, another anthropologist I can have some fun with"). Dan agreed to teach me about Indian ways and something of the Ojibwe language (or Anishinabe, as some prefer to call it). Our classroom was a lovingly designed "learning environment": We sat in the grass on the shores of the lake, whose breezes kept the mosquitoes at bay. As part of my faltering efforts to learn the language, I collected long lists of words. By the second afternoon, Dan would occasionally say, "I told you that one yesterday," and I would respond that I didn't think so. But I would check my notes and discover that he was always right. A supremely patient man, Dan eventually became visibly bored and stopped responding. For a while we watched a kingfisher dive and scoop up fish. Finally he broke the silence: "You know, Frank, it's interesting. We have no swear words in our language." I perked up but I tried to stay low- keyed. "No swear words?" "Not a one. We don't take the names of our gods in vain." "How about dirty words?" Dan hesitated. He was probably wondering how to explain things to such a nai've questioner. Then he put it delicately: "We don't think the doings of the body are dirty, so we don't have any dirty words either." "So what do you say when you want to insult somebody?" "Well, we call white people 'monkeys' because they have hair on their bodies and they chatter so much." When I laughed and said "Ouch," he chuckled but again stopped talking and watched the kingfisher. Excited because I was getting good data, I pressed on and asked about other insults. After hesitating he explained patiently, "The worst insult is to call somebody a pig or a hog. They're greedy and that's not the Indian way." I asked when he would use those words and he fell silent again. Then, in a voice both gentle and stern, he said, "Now Frank, take your time, don't ask so many questions. Don't be a data hog." That was the end of the interview but the beginning of a personal bond that grew ever stronger. The news hounds have now been released from their pen at Red Lake, free to roam the reservation and ask questions. I have great respect for journalists, especially those who do the hard work of writing a newspaper every day. Since I fear that some of them may sometimes be news hogs, I wish that Dan were still here to teach some gentle lessons about how human beings should treat each other. ---- Frank C. Miller, a retired professor of anthropology at the University of Minnesota, served on the committee that founded the Department of American Indian Studies in 1969. He lives in Minneapolis. Star Tribune c. 2005 Star Tribune. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Spring brings about renewal" --------- Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2005 08:28:14 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: SPRING RENEWAL" http://www.grandforks.com//dorreen_yellow_bird/11293829.htm DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Spring brings about renewal April 2, 2005 Late in the day March 21, reporters from the Herald headed for the Red Lake Nation. I was driving. We were listening to reports of the Red Lake shootings, changing channels as one station left us and we picked up another. It was my first trip to the Upper and Lower Red Lakes since full winter. I really enjoy that area -- the trees, the lakes and especially the birds, bears and other animals. But this trip would be different and more difficult. However, in spite of horror and sadness that I would experience, I found the land -- the new birth, the budding and growth in the woodlands -- soothing and comforting. That day, the tall wetland grasses still were brown and bent a little from the weight of winter snow. Bare-limbed trees lined the highway like ghostly specters of what we would encounter ahead. When we came to the "T" on the road where state Highway 1 runs directly into Red Lake, I could see an endless white expanse. Fissures were forming across the icy water, a sign the lake was ready to break into ice chunks. During the next few days, I traveled back and forth between Bemidji and Red Lake as we covered stories for the Herald. It felt strange to feel the joy of the land's awakening and yet sense the awful loss on the reservation. I came home to Grand Forks a few days later, then returned Saturday for funerals. I wanted to offer my condolences to people I had come to know in the past eight years. My sister rode with me. After we had extended our sympathy, we turned to that backroad again. As we rounded a curve, in front of us and on a bare-limbed tree that stood only a few feet from the road, was a very large bird. I didn't see a white head, so I knew it wasn't a bald eagle. Bald eagles are common in this area. In fact, they have been seen spiraling toward the heavens in Pipe ceremonies held for the Red Lake people. This wasn't that bird. When we came along side the tree, I realized it was a golden eagle, but one of the biggest I've ever seen. My sister nearly dropped her Pepsi and scrambled for the binoculars in the back seat. The eagle took to flight. Its wing span was amazing. It reminded me of one of those computer-animated birds you see from the age of the dinosaurs. It seemed too big to lift off the tree, but it did and headed into a forest of trees. My sister finally got focused on the bird, but already it was returning to the woods. We were excited at that chance to see this grandfather eagle. When we came out of the foothills of the woodlands, we heard and saw calling, flitting and, I thought, smiling by hundreds or even thousands of geese. They covered the field like layer of new snow. My sister now is alert to birds and bird watching. We spotted another large bird, but half the size of the golden eagle. It flew up as we reached a spot beside it. I couldn't get my bird book out fast enough to see what it was. I knew it was a hawk. I was straining my eyes to see markings, when suddenly it seemed to turn its head like it was looking back at me and dipped its red tail. "Thank you, grandmother redtailed hawk," I said out loud. My sister gave me a strange look, then focused the binoculars in my direction. High in the sky, thousands and thousands of birds in lazy Vs filled the sky. I wanted to jump out of the car and yell, "Welcome back" at them. But I knew my sister probably would drive away without me if I did. It was healing, soothing and wondrous to see life in the sky, trees and fields that day. And I thank those bird spirits who brought this message of life when there was so much sorrow. Mitakuye Oyasin -- we are all related -- Red Lake Nation. ---- 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: GIAGO: Disparities In Indian Country" --------- Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 08:46:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GIAGO: MONEY DISPARITIES" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.yankton.net/stories/033105/opEd_20050331002.shtml Disparities In Indian Country By: By Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji) Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services March 31, 2005 In this column addressing gaming -- Indian and otherwise -- the subject matter will probably be the most controversial, at least to the Indian nations. It deals with the redistribution of federal dollars to the Indian nations. Money allocated to the Indian Nations of America is usually administered to them by the U.S. Department of the Interior through its satellite the Bureau of Indian Affairs, through the Indian Health Service, the Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Not one of these governmental organizations takes into consideration the financial status of the individual Indian tribes. For instance, if a tribe is operating a casino that is bringing it $30 million a month in revenues, it is still eligible to receive funds from all of the above named branches of the federal government. As the national media reported last week, one of the poorest Indian reservations in America is the Red Lake Band of Chippewa in Minnesota. And yet, some of the wealthiest Indian nations in this country are located in Minnesota. These wealthy tribes issue per capita payments to their individual tribal members in such large amounts as to be embarrassing. Why aren't these tribes helping their fellow Minnesota tribes? When Roger Jourdain, the former chairman of the Red Lake Tribe, a man who served in that capacity for more than 30 years, finally lost his last election and was forced into retirement, there was no pension fund for him. Instead he attempted to live off of his Social Security check. It was Jourdain who fought so many battles with the U.S. government for all of the Minnesota tribes and yet he was left to languish in poverty after he went out of office. Where were the Minnesota tribes who gained so much because of his leadership? Now here is the touchy part. Why are the very wealthy tribes still receiving monetary allocations from the BIA, HUD, I.H.S., Justice or the USDA? Why haven't these governmental agencies weighed the financial status of each individual Indian nation when allocating funds? But more than that, why haven't these Indian nations taken it upon themselves to tell these federal agencies that they will pass up these funds if the agencies would assure them that they would be allocated to the much poorer Indian tribes? I know that these tribes feel that it is their treaty rights to get these government monies, but can't they make a waiver on their own to assure that the money will be distributed to those very needy tribes? Can't they reach an agreement with the federal agencies that would allow them to make this waiver effective as long as they do not need the funds themselves? It would be fruitless of me to list all of the tribes that are so poor that their people live in conditions of poverty only found in Third World Nations. The disparity between the wealthy tribes and the poor tribes is like the difference between those living in Beverly Hills and those living in the Watts section of Los Angeles. It is the difference between living in a mansion and living in the ghetto. I know that even if some wealthy tribes petitioned the governmental agencies to distribute their allocations of federal dollars to the very needy tribes they would run into bureaucratic mischief and red tape that would make this redistribution a near impossibility. Agencies such as the BIA, or as some politically correct newspapers would rename it, the Bureau of Native Affairs, have agendas carved in stone. It would literally take an act of Congress to cause them to readjust those agendas to be realistic. Pragmatism has never been the strong suit of any federal agency. For that matter, neither has cooperation. Presently the Department of the Interior is caught up in a class-action suit brought by Eloise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Nation of Browning, Mont., one of the poorest tribes in America, because of its mismanagement of Indian trust funds that go back more than 100 years. Would the federal agencies responsible for Indian education, health, homes, law enforcement, the judiciary and food be open to suggestions by tribes that would voluntarily allow their funds to be redistributed? And are there any very wealthy Indian nations willing to give up government funds? When the gaming compacts between California and the Indian tribes were signed one of the stipulations was that the wealthiest of tribes would contribute to the welfare of the poorer tribes. It seems to have worked out real well there. And yet, in other parts of America there are Indian tribes that have become filthy rich and spend millions to bring boxing matches and other forms of entertainment to their casinos while the people of many Indian nations go to bed hungry every night. There are wealthy tribes that spend millions to build resorts with the most modern golf courses while on other Indian reservations as many as 15 to 20 people share a two-bedroom house, a house oftentimes without heat, water, electricity or telephones. Out of a sense of fair play and common decency the ball should be in the court of those wealthy tribes who are willing to step forward and forcefully request the BIA, HUD, I.H.S., Justice and the USDA, to please redistribute their allocations to the tribes that are really needy. If they are unwilling to share their wealth at least the can share the money they do not need, money they receive simply because they are an Indian tribe. If an Indian nation can pay for its own schools, hospitals, roads, judiciary, law enforcement and housing, why should they continue to be subsidized by the federal government? It is a hard question to answer and it is a question that will surely raise the hackles of many tribal leaders, but it is a question that cries out for an answer. ---- Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, is president of the Native American Journalists Foundation Inc. He can be reached via e-mail at giagobooks@iw.net. Copyright c. 2005 Yankton Press & Dakotan. --------- "RE: ICT: Health of Mother Earth is our responsibility" --------- Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 08:51:28 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ICT EDITORIAL: HEALTH OF MOTHER EARTH" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096410613 Health of Mother Earth is our responsibility by: Editors Report / Indian Country Today March 25, 2005 The impact of human disregard for nature as a cohesive force that sustains the rest of all life is serious indeed. No one wants to play the fool sounding false alarms, but humankind must train itself to pay attention to these matters and to the most serious threat to life as we have known it on the Earth: global warming resulting from human civilization's colossal burning of fossil fuels. From the rapid depletion of plant and animal species to the pollution of air and water with chemicals, there is much to worry about in humanity's careless use and neglect of the environment. But the issue of global warming and its impact on climate change is beyond serious. This is one that cannot wait for politicians in denial and requires substantial attention and response. Global warming and its effects represent a truly catastrophic threat to all human societies and to all animal and plant habitats. The Earth is warming at an alarming rate. The average global temperature has risen by 0.6 degrees Celsius in one century. The hottest 15 years on record have all been since 1980. This intense change in temperature is affecting directly the intensity of climactic forces whose long-term patterns we now depend upon. Drought, hurricanes, flooding - all now become more intense or, to use the common term, "super-sized." The rise in temperature is the Northern Hemisphere's most intense rise in 1,000 years. This problem is pointed out by Swiss Re, one of several major insurance companies internationally that estimate losses from environmental disasters have risen exponentially over the past 30 years, with more expected. While some commentators have fun ridiculing scientists and their substantial studies, the vast consensus of the scientific community sounds a consistent alarm and a second, broad consensus of industrialized and non-industrialized countries worldwide is moving to address the problem. Only the United States, which produces the largest amount of greenhouse gases, stands resolutely against taking any significant action. Instead, from the American government on down through the myriad talking heads who present a contrary view on radio and television, the dictum is to question and even manipulate the science so that the issue gets reduced from its truly overwhelming scale. Global warming is often pigeonholed as a theory being exaggerated that forever needs further study. Except the ice caps are melting. Subarctic Native communities are scandalized by the loss of habitat and the melting of permafrost. As the ice caps melt, the voluminous currents in the oceans (Gulf Stream, North Atlantic current, etc.), veritable river systems that regulate climactic patterns, noticeably change. As a few scientists paid through oil and coal industry think-tanks create a much- vaunted "counter opinion," island countries in the Pacific are being lost to the rising ocean. Persistent drought is squeezing the American Plains, drying out rivers and wells. The Missouri River basin, with six reservoirs, is at record lows. One reservation, Cheyenne River in South Dakota, reports it will be completely dry by August, leaving 14,000 residents scrambling for water. This is an area, along with a swath of the South, already pinpointed by scientific study as a persistent impact area for heat waves. Granted, weather is variable and floods and droughts are historically commonplace. However, signs are emerging everywhere that some very serious climate changes are taking place. Most world leaders, including America's staunchest ally, Great Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, are convinced by the vast majority of global scientists' consensus opinion: that the unchecked burning of fossil fuels is producing the global warming trend which is seriously affecting climate as we know it. The evidence in Europe, as in all directly-affected regions, is hard to dismiss. Summer heat waves, once periodic and rare, are now nearly an annual event. Since 1977, "an exceptionally strong, unprecedented warming" is reported by the researchers. Temperatures have risen on average about 0. 36 degrees per decade. The intense heat killed some 19,000 people last year, mostly the elderly. A British study that analyzed the temperature history of Europe from 1500 to the present found last summer to be the hottest on the European continent in at least five centuries. The study's figures to 1750 are based on measures of tree rings and soil cores. Since 1750, instrumented readings have been available throughout Europe. This is partly why Blair told President George Bush in late January: "If America wants the rest of the world to be part of the agenda it has set, it must be part of their agenda, too." While the American government fiddles as the Earth heats up, adding to U. S. isolation in the world, more rational forces within the country have taken leadership of this issue. Many states, roughly 150 local governments and some corporations are increasingly convinced of the need for action. A couple of tribes are also leading in endorsing and adopting new wind and solar approaches that reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. And recently, The Pew Center on Global Climate Change helped to coalesce Shell, Alcoa, DuPont and American Electric Power, among others, to contribute ideas to new proposed legislation in the U.S. Senate. Promoting fuel efficiency to reduce U.S. dependence on Middle Eastern oil is also an argument gaining ground. Many planners already assert that "humanity actually has the hardware in hand to halt the rise in heat-trapping greenhouse gases it pumps into the atmosphere." ("Stabilizing the Global 'Greenhouse' May Not Be So Hard," Peter N. Spotts, Christian Science Monitor.) Harmful emissions can be halved within 50 years without harming the economy, as critics of the global warming argument contend would happen. Among others, a Princeton University study published in the journal Science recommends a "widespread use of a portfolio of at least 15 approaches - from energy efficiency, solar energy, and wind power to nuclear energy and the preservation or enhancement of "natural" sinks for carbon dioxide such as rain forests, or the conservation tillage techniques on farms worldwide." (Of these, nuclear power holds the quagmire of what to do with its own contamination.) As a result of these kinds of approaches, cutting CO2 emissions significantly over the next 50 years is now Britain's goal, while the European Union and Russia have also agreed to reduce emissions as well. Some tribes are offering solutions by entering into what guest columnist Winona LaDuke calls "the next energy economy." The Hopi and Navajo have greatly expanded into solar energy models in the past decade; the Rosebud Sioux are seriously moving along a major initiative in wind power, while the American Indian intelligentsia generally has put up serious voices within the environmental movement. Some of our commentators in this edition - John Mohawk, Tom Goldtooth, Dean Suagee and Winona LaDuke - address these issues in our Perspectives pages. Additionally, columnist Suzan Shown Harjo is a prominent researcher and advocate on sacred lands, which often are environmentally impacted by, and must confront, industrial society. American Indian tribal leaders in government, business and education, and institutions such as the National Congress of American Indians and United South and Eastern Tribes, have a great opportunity to take up various aspects of this crucial issue. In the U.S. Senate, John McCain, R- Ariz., and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., are teamed up on a bill that begins to force action. The McCain-Lieberman bill would establish a domestic "cap and trade" system to control greenhouse gas emissions. These Indian political organizations and, indeed, all tribes should assist these senators with active support for their efforts. This is a wonderful opportunity to state and restate in the national discourse the American Indian tribal traditional values and contemporary sensibilities regarding the collective responsibilities humans share for the Earth. Educationally, as NASA and the National Geographic Society pursue strong programs on climatic change of recent years, science and Native Studies programs should be encouraged to find ways and methodologies to exhibit, document, illustrate and teach the Native reflection of these concerns. Finally, the tribes, whenever possible, should project the principle of Earth systems enhancement in all their endeavors, from the formulation of tribal building codes that are sun-oriented to the building of support mechanisms in their internal and external structures for applying this fundamental philosophy. Again, this can make good economic sense, is good planning and is a great message with which to reach the American public. Concern for Mother Earth and attention to how human beings are harming natural ecologies are responsibilities Native people hold dear. As always, though, we can also be part of the problem if we don't lead in providing and demanding solutions. Copyright c. 1998-2005 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: HARJO: Listen to Mother Earth" --------- Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 08:46:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HARJO: LISTEN TO MOTHER EARTH" http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096410630 Harjo: Listen to Mother Earth by: Suzan Shown Harjo / Indian Country Today March 28, 2005 Everyone is talking about the weather. The water lilies and cattails aren't as tall this year. This means that they will have less medicine for us. The birch bark is more brittle these days. Everything from baskets to canoes needs it to be more supple. The cedar strips, even in the rain forest along the Northwest Pacific coast, aren't as damp and elastic as usual. The hats and baskets will not be as strong as they used to be. The medicine plants at Bear Butte are going away again. They made a comeback after the big fire a few years ago, but now they're hiding. The natural corn is getting smaller. The genetically-altered corn is taking over and no one knows how big it will get, or how scary. Everyone's talking about the fish that aren't coming back from the ocean and are disappearing from the rivers. And the frogs. And the salmon. Innocents with multiple eyes and poisons in their cheeks. There are fewer bats, and more mosquitoes which carry more West Nile virus - West Nile, as in Egypt - to people in most of the United States. People are seeing riverbeds that haven't been seen for 20 and 50 years. Burials from thousands of years ago are being exposed. There are more and more fields of beautiful wildflowers. These make people feel good about being alive, but they're the kind of flowers that come out after everything's been burned to the ground. The Earth is parched and trying to start over again in the dead places. Inuit people of the Arctic tell us that global warming is endangering their homes, their food, their way of life and their very lives. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as any other place on the planet, 300 scientists told us in 2004. After conducting the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment study for four years, they said the ice and permafrost are melting and the sea levels are rising. The Inuit and the scientists warn that polar bears may be looking at their last days. The Bush administration has ignored all the evidence, all the voices, all the signs, even its own State Department's 2002 report on U.S. Climate Action, which says, "Greenhouse gasses are accumulating in the Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing global mean surface air temperature and subsurface ocean temperature to rise." Another alarm about global warming was sounded this year by the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri. In an address at an international conference, he told delegates from more than 100 countries that the world may have "reached the level of dangerous concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere." He called for deep cuts in pollution levels, warning that we are "risking the ability of the human race to survive." Instead of mobilizing American people and businesses to stop cooking the air and water and get busy cooling things down, the White House and leadership in the House and Senate are cracking the foundation of environmental protections that have been built over the past 30 years. They are weakening protections for animals, birds, trees, plants and water under the National Forest Management Act, and are all but putting the lumber companies in charge of the forests. They are weakening the Clean Air Act through a maneuver with the cruelly deceptive title, "Clean Skies Initiative." This, at a time when asthma is at an all-time high nationwide and increasing numbers of American children are gasping for breath. They are making new rules to increase mercury emissions, which will cause deformities throughout the food chain, even to nursing human babies. They are exposing more and more sacred places and sacred beings to damage and destruction, even giving a lifetime judgeship on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to former Interior Solicitor William Myers, who has a demonstrable record of threatening sacred places. They are closer to their goal of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, with full knowledge of the harm this will do to all the creatures that live there and to the Native people who depend on the porcupine caribou that give birth there. Over the past year, we have seen the worst storms in 50 years in Africa, the most devastating earthquake and tsunami ever in South Asia, the greatest number of tornadoes on record for any August and snow in the spring in places that usually register 70 degree days in winter. Within days of each other at the start of this year, three volcanoes began to erupt: Mount St. Helens in Washington, Mount Etna in Sicily and Volcano Colima in Mexico. Colima's ash plume is high enough to interfere with air traffic routes. Helens' steam and ash plume is six miles high. Etna is putting on a spectacular show of spewing lava and magma. There are active volcanoes in Alaska, Hawaii, Australia, Costa Rica, Japan, the Philippines and all over the world. For any three volcanoes to erupt at the same time is an extraordinary event. I don't know if volcanic activity is related to global warming, drilling deep holes and taking oil out or to any other human activity. It does seem to me that Mother Earth is talking to us, telling us something. Whatever that something is, we'd best discover it immediately and do what we can to address it. The current American political leadership is moving in the opposite direction from prudent and provident action. If we cannot alter that political course, we need to do what we can to protect our part of the garden in the best way we can. We can start by listening to Mother Earth and doing what we can to heal her wounds or, at the very least, to not injure her further. ---- 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: Blackfeet Wellness Conference raises awareness" --------- Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2005 09:07:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BLACKFEET WELLNESS CONFERENCE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.goldentrianglenews.com/articles/2005/03/31//news3.txt Blackfeet Wellness Conference raises awareness on how to attain wellness. By John McGill, Glacier Reporter Editor March 31, 2005 The Beaver Painted Lodge at Blackfeet Community College was a moving sea of people Tuesday and Wednesday, March 22-23, as the Student Commons and adjacent hallways played host to the No Blackfeet Left Behind: Blackfeet Wellness Confer-ence. An impressive list of speakers kept a crowd of listeners busy in the Commons while a seemingly endless number of informational booths lined the corridors and hallways, staffed with personnel interacting with people as they came by. Blackfeet Tribal Health Director June Tatsey noted some 248 people signed in when they entered the Commons, but the Health Education table screened more than 300 folks so that is probably closer to the real number. Conference facilitator Theda New Breast said people were screened for blood sugar, blood pressure and oxygen levels, resulting in a number of referrals for appointments at Blackfeet Community Hos-pital. "Jim Kennedy [of Blackfeet Community Hospital] was great on coordinating IHS and Tribal Health," said Tatsey, who noted Kennedy donated his entire staff to the conference, manning many of the booths in the Commons. Participants were asked to respond to questions about the conference, New Breast said, beginning with what they learned. "What we read the most is that we have all the resources and answers on the reservation. We just didn't know what programs were offered." And in response to what was the most helpful thing for them individually, the most common answer was that there is hope for "healing ourselves in mind, body and spirit," New Breast said, with information on diabetes being specifically important, as well as quitting smoking. The keynote speaker was Gordon Belcourt, first director of Blackfeet Tribal Health and current executive director of the Montana/Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council. Belcourt headed up a list of 19 presenters that spanned technical medical expertise, herbal knowledge, elders' wisdom and depth of culture through today's holders of sacred bundles. Other speakers included IHS psychologist Dan Foster, bundle holder Charlene Burns, former BCC President and bundle holder Carol Murray, BCH Health Educator Sharon Wagner, and chiropractor Dan McGee. Suicide expert Victoria LaFromboise spoke about methods of prevention and the high incidence of attempts in Indian country. The list continued with Gayle Skunkcap Jr., director of Blackfeet Fish and Wildlife; Heart Butte Senior Center Director Carmen Bullshoe Marceau; Debra Powell-Taylor of the American Indian/Alaskan Native Nurses Association; Montana Highway Patrolman Henry Devereaux; Blackfeet Nurturing Center Director Rebecca Crawford-Foster; Crystal Creek Lodge Director Patrick Calf Looking; Southern Piegan Diabetes Project Director Rosemary Cree Medicine; IHS Physical Therapist George Webber Jr.; Blackfeet Head Start Director Susan Carlson; herbalist Pauline Matt; and Eagle Shields Director Connie Bremner. "The highlight for Mary Ellen LaFromboise," said New Breast, "was that there were speakers on a variety of topics, and they were nearly all Blackfeet, and all positive." The panel of bundle holders was another highlight of the conference. "The focus of the bundle holders was letting go of the past," New Breast said, "just as it was when the first grass appeared in springtime and all the hardships of the winter would be put behind us." She noted Foster's talk, in which he said the human hand changes its cells completely every 21 days. In a sense, it's a completely new hand. "If a hand can do that, why can't we?" she said. The group responsible for this year's conference is planning two more mini-conferences, to be held in Heart Butte and Seville sometime before North American Indian Days. "It's a continuous effort to tell the community what Tribal Health has to offer," New Breast said. "And how to take care of our own health rather than being dependent on the outside," said Tatsey, "especially cultural healing." Copyright c. 2005 Golden Triangle Newspapers. --------- "RE: Book tells Navajo children story of the Long Walk" --------- Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 08:51:28 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="PRIDE OF SURVIVAL" http://www.gallupindependent.com/2005/mar/032805story.html A Reason to be Proud Book tells Navajo children story of the Long Walk Independent Staff March 28, 2005 GALLUP - The author of "Dzn Yzh Naasbaa': Little Woman Warrior Who Came Home A Story of the Navajo Long Walk" has one purpose in mind: to give Dine' youth, or Naabeeh, a Dine' perspective on the Long Walk. Evangeline Parsons Yazzie, a professor at Northern Arizona University, penned this latest release of Saline Bookshelf, a Navajo-language publishing company in Flagstaff. "Naabeeh (Navajo youth) have a right to the truth of their history," Parsons Yazzie said. "They have a right to be proud to be Naabeeh." The story takes place in 1856 and follows the experiences of Dznbaa', a young girl born in Black Mesa, as she is kidnapped by U.S. soldiers and then forced to walk more than 400 miles to Fort Sumner. Although Dznbaa' and her family return home at the end, the book highlights the harsh conditions of the years at Fort Sumner, the cruelty of the U.S. soldiers, and how the Dine' were affected. To illustrate this, Parsons Yazzie uses the puberty ceremony as one example. While the Naabeeh were prisoners at Fort Sumner, Dznbaa' reached puberty. Her mother cried soft, bitter tears as she told Dzanbaa' that the Naabeeh were not to hold the kinaald (puberty ceremony) outside of their sacred land. "We can celebrate your kinaald when your times comes again," said Mother. "I hope we will not be prisoners then. Naabeeh always celebrate the first and second one." "I will tell my body to wait until we get home," said Dzanbaa'. "We will have it there." Parsons Yazzie took a personal interest in this story because, as described in the author's note, she was laughed at during a lecture on the Long Walk in an American history class while a senior in high school. According to her notes, the professor said the Navajo were sent to Bosque Redondo "because they were raiders and stealers ... and I'm not talking about the NFL Football teams." Copyright c. 2005 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Supreme Court overturns Oneida Nation Case" --------- Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 08:51:28 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MAJOR LOSS TO ONEIDA" http://www.indianz.com/News/2005/007295.asp Supreme Court overturns Oneida Nation case March 29, 2005 The U.S. Supreme Court today delivered a major blow to the Oneida Nation of New York, ruling that the tribe cannot reassert sovereignty over its 250,000-acre land claim area. "The Oneidas long ago relinquished governmental reins and cannot regain them through open-market purchases from current titleholders," the syllabus stated. The decision was 8-1 with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg writing the opinion. Justice David Souter filed a concurring opinion. Justice John Paul Stevens filed the lone dissent. Copyright c. 2000-2005 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Tribes united in opposition to Court ruling" --------- Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 08:46:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ONEIDA CLAIM REJECTION" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.gazetteextra.com/oneidas033105.asp Five land claim tribes meet Associated Press March 31, 2005 ALBANY, N.Y. - A day after the Supreme Court dealt a potential blow to the fortunes of the Oneida Indian Nation, more than 40 leaders and representatives from five tribes met Wednesday to support negotiated resolutions to Indian land claims. The meeting, an attempt to show unity among the tribes, involved leaders of the Cayuga Indian Nation of New York, the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma, the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin, the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians and the Akwesasne Mohawks. They discussed pushing for passage of a proposal by Gov. George Pataki to settle longstanding Indian land claims in the state. The governor's offer would allow the tribes to build five casinos in the Catskills. Tribal leaders also discussed Tuesday's ruling by the high court, which stated that an Indian tribe cannot expand its tax-exempt holdings by buying up property that has been outside its reservation for generations. The opinion is a victory for the small city of Sherrill, which has been locked in a long-running fight with the Oneidas over unpaid taxes on a gas station, convenience store and defunct T-shirt factory. The Oneidas claimed that because the Sherrill properties, located 30 miles east of Syracuse, were once part of a 300,000-acre stretch of their land they were no longer taxable by state and local officials after the tribe purchased them in 1997. The Supreme Court disagreed, saying too much time had passed for the Oneidas to now claim tribal sovereignty and that such a move would create a "disruptive" patchwork of local and Indian jurisdiction. The justices also noted the "longstanding, distinctly non-Indian character of the area and its inhabitants." Most of the Oneidas left the area in the mid-1800s. "The Court's decision overturns fundamental bedrock principles of Indian law and unfairly subjects the Oneidas to bear the brunt of this decision," Saint Regis Mohawk chief James W. Ransom said in a statement. "The Court had earlier found that their lands were wrongly taken from them." Calls seeking further comment from the tribes were not returned. Tribal leaders did note that the Supreme Court decision does not overturn the court's landmark 1985 ruling that recognized the legal basis for upholding the Indian land claims in New York. The decision confirms they will continue to be litigated in the courts. Any land-claim settlements also need congressional approval. Copyright c. 2005 Bliss Communications Inc. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Court decision on Oneida Nation criticized" --------- Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 08:46:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="OKLAHOMA TRIBES REACT TO ONEIDA DECISION" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.newsok.com/article/1459848 High court's action scrutinized in state By Tony Thornton The Oklahoman March 31, 2005 By ruling against a New York tribe in a case over taxable land, the U.S. Supreme Court eroded generations of prior court decisions, several Oklahoma tribal attorneys agreed Wednesday. "This changes some interpretations that the courts consistently have come up with since 1830," said Ken Bellmard, who represents the Miami Nation and other Oklahoma tribes. The court ruled Tuesday that the Oneida Nation can't claim sovereignty over land it sold 200 years ago. The ruling could subject the tribe to millions of dollars in back taxes. In an 8-to-1 decision, justices reversed a lower appeals court ruling that the property in question could revert to Indian land. The case involved a feud between the tribe and the city of Sherrill, N.Y., over unpaid taxes on a gas station, convenience store and defunct T-shirt factory. Writing for the majority, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the Oneidas relinquished their governmental reins on the property long ago. The majority conceded that their opinion wasn't based on briefs filed in the case, which concerns Lindsay Robertson, an Indian law expert at the University of Oklahoma. "That's disturbing because the consequences were so enormous," Robertson said. Some tribal attorneys fear the ruling will be applied to tribes who were forced off their land. "The court said that adverse possession trumps Indian sovereignty," said Richard Grellner, who represents some tribes. Grellner said the case could affect federal land claims filed by Oklahoma tribes in other states. In those cases, tribes generally seek return of land they say the government took from them through faulty treaties. Some have offered to settle their lawsuits in return for permission to build casinos in lucrative areas. Grellner said states fighting those claims will use the Oneida decision "as their first defense." "It's a huge decision," he said. Copyright c. 2005 Oklahoman, News 9 - Produced by NewsOK.Com. --------- "RE: State Prosecutors reach out to Tribal Communities" --------- Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 08:52:23 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MONTANA PROSECUTORS" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.greatfallstribune.com//504030308/1002/NEWS01 State prosecutors reach out to t