_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 13, ISSUE 027 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 July 2, 2005 Hopi Kelmuya/fledgling raptor moon Zuni Dayamcho yachunne/moon when limbs of are trees broken by fruit Algonquin Matterllawaw Kesos/moon squash are ripe, beans begin to be edible +-------------------------------------------------------+ | 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; Indian Heritage-L, Native American Poetry and Indian Trust ListServ 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: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + ======================== "For thousands of individual Indians, including many members of the Navajo nation, that are owed moneys from the sales and leases of resources on their lands, a fair accounting and settlement of the trust funds, and a reform of the trust system with tribal consultation, will make a meaningful difference in their lives." __ Sharon Clahchischilliage, Navajo Nation +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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! My half-side, The Lovely Janet, has a few thoughts on Aboriginal Day as celebrated in Canada and proposed and sort of implemented Native American Day in the U.S. ---- On Monday, June 21, Canada celebrated its eighth Aboriginal Day. Official events and festivities celebrating First Nations and Metis culture are sponsored each year both by aboriginal people and their communities, and the Canadian and provincial governments. South of the Canadian border, indigenous peoples and their cultures are not so well respected. It was only this year that the U.S. finally got around to officially admitting that it had wronged Native peoples, and even apologized for it (after pointing out that the government's apology shouldn't be construed as accepting any responsibility for doing anything about the wrongs it did). There is no "official" national holiday celebrating Indian culture, although recently November has been named "Native American Month" by the government -- an opportunity for the school systems to provide the only mandatory teaching in the year about Native culture with perhaps an assembly presenting a Native speaker, or assigning a chapter in a history book most certainly not written by any Indian. Some states (and the greeting card companies) have designated the fourth Friday of September as Native American Day. Recently some Indian groups (recently in Colorado and in South Dakota) have suggested that Columbus Day be redesignated as Native American Day. While Columbus deserves to booted out of a place of honor in the US, I don't know if I'd want part of any holiday that took place on a day that formerly honored a person who had butchered my people. More and more evidence has been found that not only was Columbus not the first PERSON to find land in the western hemisphere (pitifully obvious, given that he found peope to exploit here), he wasn't even the first European. Nor was he a man deserving of any particular honor, given his exploitation and cruelty toward the people he found occupying the land. I propose a more fitting and culturally appropriate day to honor the Native peoples of the US. I like Canada's idea -- honoring Indians on a day that nearly all Indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere observe as sacred -- the day of the summer solstice. And I like the idea of making it an official holiday of equal stature with celebrations like New Year's day -- more than just an occasion for a card, or a school assembly, but a time for our culture to be celebrated for the value it has brought to the people living in this country. +/// Janet Smith owlstar@bellsouth.net /*/+ P. O. Box 672168 OwlStar Trading Post + / * Marietta, GA 30008, U.S.A. http://www.owlstar.com * + ---- 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 ----------- - Trust Principles - Western Tribes recapturing presented by united Tribal Group control over Lives - Interior feigns not to Understand - Speakers gather - OPINION: Righting a historic wrong to awaken the sounds of Cree - Navajo lobby Washington - Peacemakers from the Past: for Land Payment Sinte Gleska - Klamath Tribes' - First Nations claim to former Reservation celebrate Culture, Traditions - Tribal Leaders work - B.C. takes new approach to address Social Problems to First Nations - Protecting a Cultural Resource - Aboriginals open Doors - Land Settlement: through Education Senecas get Cuba Lake Acreage - Dehcho, Feds agree to talk - Elders fight to keep Land - Urban Native population in Canada - Saguaro harvest: - Nunavik Medical crisis Preserving an O'odham way drives Patients South - Tribes break ground - Group ponders joining for Business Park Lawsuit against EPA - Commentary: - Native Prisoner Mascots are not an Honor -- Provincial Jails a disgrace - Browning Business connects - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days Unemployed with Jobs - Rustywire: - Donations needed What Did You Do for the 4th of July? to complete Nimham Memorial - Lee Goins Poem: Honeysuckle Breezes - JODI RAVE: Students honored - Native Television starts in Arizona for Native coverage - Upcoming Events --------- "RE: Trust Principles presented by united Tribal Group" --------- Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2005 08:16:52 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="US GOVERNMENT HELD ACCOUNTABLE" http://www.indianz.com//News/2005/008879.asp Trust principles presented by united tribal workgroup June 21, 2005 Indian Country is united on efforts to settle the Cobell v. Norton lawsuit and reform the broken trust, the major stakeholders in the long- running debacle said on Monday. The Cobell plaintiffs, tribal governments, Indian allottees and inter- tribal organizations joined together in announcing 50 principles aimed at resolving a problem that dates back more than 100 years. The goal is to restore justice to Indian people for the mismanagement of their trust funds and to prevent it from happening again in the future, participants said. "We're asking the government to be accountable to individual Indians," said Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, filed nine years ago this month. Tex Hall, the president of the National Congress of American Indians, hailed the announcement as monumental. He said the principles represent a common sense approach that will bring standards and accountability to the handling of billions of dollars in Indian funds. "This is truly a historic time," Hall said at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. "Indian Country has come united." A lot of hard work went into the effort, pointed out Jim Gray, the chief of the Osage Nation and the chairman of the chairman of the Intertribal Trust Fund Monitoring Association. A tribal workgroup and technical team held four public hearings, took comments from interested parties and met several times over the past four months. "The principles present a real breakthrough," Gray said. Although the stakeholders have been working on the problem for "decades," he said they reached a consensus solution in a short amount of time. "This is the first time we are on the same track," he noted. Sharon Clahchischilliage, the executive director of the Navajo Nation Washington Office who was representing Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. also called the endeavor "very thorough." She said the settlement will have a significant impact on her tribe, the largest in the U.S. "We have Indians who are owed monies," Clahchischilliage said. The workgroup was created by NCAI and ITMA in response to growing momentum among key members of Congress to resolve the debacle. The leaders of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and House Resources Committee, which have jurisdiction over Indian issues, have been holding hearings on trust reform and oversaw mediation in 2004 aimed at settling the Cobell case. Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) has said he intends to give the effort "one good shot" as the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. "If it looks like we're not getting anywhere," he said at a hearing in March, "then I will leave that task to future Congresses and the courts." McCain and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota), the vice chairman of the committee, are now expected to introduce legislation that would embody a Cobell settlement and trust reform. The measure will be unveiled "in a matter of days," Hall said. Although the exact contents of the bill aren't known, committee staff members have attended every single hearing and participated in the technical sessions. Many of the ideas they heard, including ones that made it into the principles, were previously embraced by McCain in a trust reform introduced more than two years ago, when tribes and the Bush administration took a stab at fixing the system. That effort failed in late 2002 when the administration walked away in a dispute over trust standards and independent oversight. The Interior Department then launched a reorganization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and an expansion of the Office of Special Trustee that many tribes still oppose. Department officials didn't take part in the workgroup but Hall was confident that Congress would act. He said McCain, who plans to serve as chairman of the Indian committee for another year-and-a-half, will hold a hearing next month in hopes of marking up the bill during the August recess. "This was our opportunity as Native leaders to ensure this injustice didn't happen again," said Hall, who also serves as chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation in North Dakota. Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Nation of Montana, wasn't particularly worried about the executive branch's lack of input. In an interview, she said the courts and the Congress would ensure the federal government meets its trust responsibilities. "They certainly have fought it in the past because they have not wanted to live up to the liability," she said of department officials whose battle against the case has spanned Democrat and Republican administrations. "But I think it's timely that Congress steps in and enforces some of the victories that have been won in court." Cobell said the plaintiffs support a $27.487 billion settlement laid out in the principles. To be paid in a lump sump to a federal court registry, the money would then be distributed to IIM account holders based on the types of activity that occurred on their lands. The settlement amount, which was the focus of most of the press inquiries yesterday, is based on $13 billion that the plaintiffs and the government agree has passed through the trust since at least 1909. To arrive at the $27 billion figure, resource accountants hired by the plaintiffs devised a methodology to determine how much oil, gas, grazing and other activities occurred on Indian trust lands. Under trust law, a trustee must show that payments for these activities made it to the account holders but Cobell, Hall and others said proving that would be impossible due to inadequate record keeping. So rather than spend millions, or potentially billions, on an historical accounting, the settlement would end the historical accounting aspect of the Cobell lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth has yet to hold a trial on this part of the case. "If this legislation gets to a point where it's approved ... the court case will probably stop," Cobell said in the interview. Bush officials have balked at a large settlement for the case, claiming that their efforts so far have shown few "errors" in the trust. But the overwhelming majority of the IIM accounts they have reconciled are derived from per capita and judgment fund payments, not the land-based activities largely at issue in the Cobell case. A mid-1990s effort to reconcile tribal trust accounts showed at least $2. 4 billion in unsupported transactions. The Department of Justice is now using the reports, prepared by the now-defunct Arthur Anderson accounting firm, to defend the government against mismanagement lawsuits filed by more than 20 tribes. Copyright c. 2000-2005 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Interior feigns not to Understand" --------- Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 08:56:27 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MORE DODGE BALL BULL" http://www.indiantrust.com/PressRelease_id=127&Month=6&Year=2005 Interior Feigns Not To Understand What Indians Are Entitled To June 21, 2005 WASHINGTON, June 21 - As anyone in Indian Country will tell you, when Interior Secretary Gale Norton and her appointees speak, it pays to check their facts. That happened once again yesterday when Dan DuBray, the secretary's spokesman, dumped on the unanimous proposal from the nation's Indian leaders to settle the nine-year-old lawsuit over the government's admitted mishandling of individual Indian trust accounts. According to the Associated Press, Norton's spokesman complained the plaintiffs had shifted their strategy. "They sued to achieve an accounting and the department has spent $100 million on an historical accounting," he told the AP. "Now they're saying that's not the goal. It's an odd turn of events." A change? A turn of events? Norton's spokesman hasn't been following the case or even listening to what his old boss said years ago. Here's what then-Assistant Interior Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb, the spokesman's old boss, told ABC's Sam Donaldson in an interview on February 15, 2002: MR. DONALDSON: It sounds to me like, Secretary McCaleb, at some point down the line, native Americans are going to get money because of this problem in the past in accounting. SECRETARY McCALEB: Well, I think -- I think that's a probability because, in my judgment, there will probably have to be some kind of an agreed settlement on the issue because of the problematic -- the problem of finding all the source documents. MR. DONALDSON: Well Elouise Cobell says she thinks it's 100 billion dollars. SECRETARY McCALEB: Well I'm not -- that's not what they alleged in their law suit originally. They allege in the law suit 10 billion dollars and, you know, many people thought that was a large number. I don't -- I don't -- because we can't do an accounting, I can't refute that. That's the problem. Former secretary McCaleb was saying three years ago that Interior could not do an accounting. Indeed, it is not the plaintiffs whose position has changed. Rather it is Secretary Norton's position that shifts like the wind. Remember it was her assistant secretary who was telling Donaldson that an accounting was impossible. Plaintiff agree with McCaleb. In 2003, the Cobell plaintiffs asserted that same conclusion and told the court so in considerable detail. The Plaintiffs' "Plan for Determining Accurate Balances in the Individual Indian Trust" was filed with the district court on Jan. 6, 2003. It devoted more than 30 pages to the subject of why "[I]t is simply not possible to provide to individual Indian trust beneficiaries a complete and accurate historical accounting of their trust assets...." Moreover, that plan identified numerous government reports dating back to 1915 that raised serious concerns about defendants' ability to account for the Trust assets. This has been the plaintiffs' position ever since and it has been a central point in the court proceedings. The reason is simple. As McCaleb said, there are so many records missing that the accounting the Indians sought initially simply cannot be done. And the price tag for attempting the impossible? By Interior's own admission: $12 billion to $13 billion taxpayer dollars. And as one Interior official put it: "maybe significantly more." A recent study by the Interior's Department's own consultant showed that the government's liability in the Cobell case could be $10 billion to $40 billion. At those prices, the Indians are offering Interior and Congress a highly-discounted bargain. And Congress has been telling the parties to settle this case since the Clinton administration. This case has always been about the Indians' demand for an accounting of their missing money. It's not the government's money. It's the Indians' money, money that the government collected for the Indians but never put into their trust accounts. From the day the lawsuit, was filed the Indians have said consistently that all they want is their money back. And, yes, the courts have said they are entitled to some interest on their money. Norton's problem, like that of the Clinton administration, is that she has never understood her trust responsibilities to the Indians or the nature of the Cobell lawsuit. She still thinks that this money still belongs to the government. That flies in the face of nine years of uncontradicted evidence and decades of studies all saying one thing: the Indians got cheated by their own government. It's time that Indians got justice in Washington. And time that Interior officials got their facts straight contact: Bill McAllister 703 385-6996 Copyright c. 2005 Blackfeet Reservation Development Fund, Inc. --------- "RE: OPINION: Righting a historic wrong" --------- Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 08:56:27 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="OPINION: END EMBARASSING LIES" http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/editorial/11942349.htm OPINION: Righting a historic wrong June 21, 2005 A group of American Indian leaders gathered in Washington on Monday to unveil a set of principles that provide a framework for settling a 9-year- old class action suit and ending a century-old national embarrassment. The framework, which also provides guidance to the federal government as it attempts to reform its trust-accounting process, is a fair one, and Congress would be wise to jump at the opportunity to fix this mess. At issue are individual trust accounts set up by the federal government to collect and disburse money collected from the sale of resources on the Indian account-holders' lands. The accounts are in such disarray that the federal government can't tell account-holders how much money has been collected in their names and how much money remains in the "bank" awaiting distribution. Estimates of the sum of missing and unaccounted-for money stretching back 125 years range from about $14 billion to the hundreds of billions. There is a good reason why some wags call the BIA - the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs - "Billions in Invisible Assets." In 1996, Indian account-holders sued the Secretary of Interior over mismanagement of the trust accounts. In 1999, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ruled for the account-holders and ordered the government to provide a full accounting of the disputed trust funds. They're still waiting. Lamberth has also shut down Interior's computer system because of security breaches and held five top-level government officials - including former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt - in contempt for failing to follow his orders. The principles provide a historic opportunity for the federal government to extricate itself from a mess of its own device. The principles have been agreed to by tribal leaders - among the harshest critics of the government's attempts to reform the trust process up to now - and by the lawsuit's lead plaintiff, banker Elouise Cobell. The native leaders were asked by members of Congress to draft a framework to guide lawmakers as they attempt to solve the trust fiasco legislatively. The principles unveiled Monday represent the first step toward righting a historic wrong. The next step is up to Congress. The richest nation on Earth should be ashamed of the continuing harm it is perpetrating on its poorest citizens. End this embarrassment. Copyright c. 2005 St. Paul Pioneer Press. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Navajo lobby Washington for Land Payment" --------- Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 08:56:27 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CHECKERBOARD" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.daily-times.com/artman/publish/article_19072.shtml Navajo delegation lobbies Washington for land payment By Ryan Hall/The Daily Times June 21, 2005 WASHINGTON, D.C. - Five Native American leaders gathered Monday in Washington, D.C. to unveil principles that can guide lawmakers in drafting legislation allowing Native Americans to be paid money due for land. If the principles lead to legislation and a settlement, more than 500, 000 Indians would split $27.4 billion. The potential settlement would affect 40-50,000 Navajos in the "checkerboard" area of New Mexico, according to Mike Wero of the Navajo Nation Washington Office. The 50 principles for legislation were introduced to a room of media and legislators' representatives and through a teleconference Monday afternoon. At the heart of the announcement was the Cobell vs. Norton case, filed in 1996. The case, currently in the appeals process, centers around the Individual Indian Trust Accounts. The accounts are for a trust set up and managed by the United States government containing lease payments for land, as well as royalties for oil, grazing and timbering done on properties owned by Indians. The properties were part of a division of land completed in 1887 which granted male members of several tribes 160 acres apiece. More than 4,000 parcels belonging to Navajos in New Mexico are part of that trust, leading to Wero's estimate that 40-50,000 Navajos would be affected by any potential payout. In 1994, it was discovered there was several accounting errors in the trust. A suit was filed in 1996 by Elouise Cobell calling for an accurate accounting of the money in the trust and for it to be paid out to the individuals owed and their descendants as described in the agreement establishing the trust. The case has received over 80 published decisions, with each favoring Cobell and the payment of the trust money, according to the list of principles. Monday, the tribal leaders announced they anticipated their principles, which were requested by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, will soon become a bill on the Senate floor. The principles include calling for a lump sum payment of $27.4 billion, and affirming and clarifying the specific standards for administration of the trust. An independent executive branch entity is needed to provide oversight and enforcement authority for federal trust administration and legislation is needed to create a permanent position of Deputy Secretary to be responsible for Indian Affairs, including the management and administration of the trust. "We envision this to be introduced into a bill in just a matter of days, " said Tex Hall, president of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI). He added that accounting errors and the practice of paying over $100 million from BIA funds earmarked for education to attempt to get an accurate accounting of the trusts were "a wrong that has been historic since 1887." Cobell said she originally filed her lawsuit because there were obvious accounting errors in the fund, resulting in millions of dollars being unaccounted for. "There had never been a single audit or an accounting of the trust for over 100 years," she said. Once the suit was filed and decisions began being handed down in favor of Cobell and her class action co-defendants, it was discovered that through the years several pages of documents had been destroyed, misfiled or neglected and left to decay. "The courts, congress, even the Department of Interior's own inspector general have found that the government has mismanaged the individual Indian trusts for over a century, breached its duty, permitted rampant fraud and never accounted for the moneys in the trust," Cobell said. "For decades, Indians have suffered at the hands of federal bureaucrats and policies of delay, obfuscation and outright misrepresentation." Cobell said Monday that she concedes it would be impossible to estimate exactly how much should be in the trust, how much has been paid out and how to divide the remainder among those Native Americans who are owed, the result of years of mismanagement and poor accounting The principles lay out a settlement calling for $27.4 billion to be paid into a court registry from the U.S. Permanent Judgment Fund, which is non- appropriated money set aside to pay settlements and judgments against the U.S. government, according to Cobell. "For thousands of individual Indians, including many members of the Navajo nation, that are owed moneys from the sales and leases of resources on their lands, a fair accounting and settlement of the trust funds, and a reform of the trust system with tribal consultation, will make a meaningful difference in their lives," said Sharon Clahchischilliage of the Navajo Nation Washington Office. Cobell said estimates show the total fund should be $176 billion, but the lower figure was reached by assuming some payments were made and subtracting legal fees. She also noted going after the larger amount would likely mean more delays, costing even more Indians who are owed money to die poor. "Each time an elder passes away, justice is not served," agreed Hall. He noted even with the settlement, thousands of Indians will go without their just payments. He said several have died, meaning their heirs would have to be located. Additionally, even if the legislation is passed, the money would be placed into a court controlled registry and held until a distribution method could be devised, leading to more elders dying without receiving payment. "People are dying every day without their due justice," Hall said. Additionally, Hall stated upwards of 50,000 of those owed money have no registered address. Cobell agreed justice had not been served, adding the money in the accounts had clearly been "stolen" from Native American people and she believed the case should have ended after three years. She and the other Native American leaders said Monday that the principles, which members of Congress had helped work on, were a step toward ending the legal battle and, righting past wrongs and establishing a reliable system for monitoring the trust in the future. "Every day congress does not act, the register keeps running and running. We in Indian Country must make sure it doesn't drag on for another nine years," Hall said. "We're really optimistic," he added. None of those who spoke Monday were willing to estimate when payments to Indians would begin, even if Congress quickly approved the legislation. All said the leaders who had worked to establish the principles would continue to work to establish a payment system and reforms for the trust. Once a payment system, and who deserved what, are agreed upon, disbursement of the $27.4 billion would begin. Hall said Congress was expected to introduce the bill containing the 50 principles by June 30. A full transcript of the 50 principles and a detailed account of the Cobell litigation are available online at www.indiantrust.com. Ryan Hall: rhall@daily-times.com Copyright c. 2004 Farmington Daily Times, a Gannett Co., Inc. newspaper. --------- "RE: Klamath Tribes' claim to former Reservation" --------- Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 09:22:37 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="KLAMATH LAND CLAIM" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.heraldandnews.com//2005/06/19/breaking_news/breaking1.txt Your land, my land? The Klamath Tribes' claim to former reservation stirs controversy First of five parts o o o By DYLAN DARLING H&N Staff Writer June 19, 200 Before European-Americans began settling in Southern Oregon, Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin Indians roamed over some 22 million acres, an area spanning from the upper reaches of the Sprague and Williamson rivers down to Mount Shasta in Northern California. The Klamath and Modoc tribes were familiar with each other, lived near each other, spoke similar languages and even had some overlapping territory. The Yahooskins were different - part of a larger group called Snake Indians by white explorers because of the hissing sound of their language. In 1864, the United States government signed a treaty with the three groups that established a single reservation on 2 million acres of what is now central Klamath and Lake counties. The 2-million-acre reservation's boundary was made by tracing a line from mountain top to mountain along the peaks that ring the upper Klamath Basin, giving the boundary the name "peak to peak." The reservation snugged up to the east side of Crater Lake, and most of Upper Klamath Lake was within its boundary. Over the following decades, surveys, changes in boundaries and land cessions reduced the size of the reservation to the 1.2 million acres it encompassed in 1954, when the federal government terminated the tribe and began the process of abolishing the reservation. Per capita payments Before termination, the federal government administered timber sales from reservation lands, with a portion of the proceeds going to each member of the Tribe. The disbursement of money to each member was called a "per capita" payment. By the time of termination in 1954, many of the members had come to depend on the per capita payments as their primary source of income. Although the payments put money in the pockets of the members of the Tribe, some members said the payments ended up weighing them down. "They knew that the per capita payments were coming in regularly, so what the heck, why would you work when that kind of situation is at hand?" said Andy Ortis, a member of the Klamath Tribe, who was 16 at the time of termination and whose mother and grandmother passed records on to him. Tribal members were both undereducated and overdependent on their per capita payments, according to Theodore Stern, a scholar whose 1966 book "The Klamath Tribe: A People and Their Reservation" tells part of the Tribe history. In the 15 years before termination, each member on the Tribe's roll was getting about $800 per year. When totaled up for a family of four, that was more than the median income for the population as a whole in Klamath County at the time. Getting the checks every few months had a social impact as well as an economic impact on the Tribe. "There was little incentive to work to supplement timber revenues," Stern wrote. Tribal members also came to have negative views of public education, based on personal experiences and the stories of relatives who attended Indian schools, according to Stern, who is now retired in Los Angeles. The low opinion many members of the Tribe had of western education was forged in the federal Indian boarding schools. In the early 1900s, children from the Tribe were shipped away from their homes and boarded at schools at the Klamath Agency, Yainax Agency and Beatty. Many of the members had bad experiences in the boarding schools and passed their dislike and distrust on to the younger generations. "The schools ... offered little incentive to children who were convinced that a ceaseless flow of per capita dividends gave them an assured income for life," Stern wrote. While tribal members on the reservation suffered from a variety of social problems, the Tribes had something the federal government wanted - almost a million acres of productive timberland. Even after years of logging, the ponderosa pine stands on the Klamath Reservation were thick with valuable timber. But tribal members had little input on their management. The Bureau of Indian Affairs determined when and where the trees were cut, with a portion of the proceeds being doled out to the members of the Tribes. The reservation's superintendent, who with one exception had always been a white man, had complete authority. Tribal members had to ask him about almost every major decision, including whether they could leave the reservation. "They treated us like children and dictated to our people," said Joe Hobbes, current vice chairman of the Klamath Tribes. Discontent As early as the 1920s, the tribal groups who had lived more than a half century on the Klamath Indian Reservation wanted out. They wanted out from under federal control. They wanted out of the reservation system. They wanted to control their own destiny. But there was disagreement over how to make it happen. Ideas ranged from selling the land and divvying the cash among individual members to creating a timber corporation run by the Tribes. By the 1930s, two leaders emerged with different visions of how to begin a life free of federal control in the 1930s: Wade Crawford and Boyd Jackson. Contention between the two men continued for years while the federal government considered methods for assimilating Indian people into mainstream culture. At least once in course of their debates, Crawford and Jackson ended up swapping stances on what would be the best course of action, and at one point came to a rare agreement. Crawford was the only tribal member to ever hold the position of superintendent of the Klamath Indian Reservation. Crawford took the job in 1933, but was removed by federal officials in 1937 because he hadn't been able to work with the factions among the Tribe. Some scholars speculate that he was bitter about that, fueling his desire for termination. Crawford wanted the Tribe to end its relationship with the federal government and become its own corporation. When that idea didn't pan out, he supported a buyout program in which tribal members could sell their interest in the reservation to the government for cash payments - an early notion of what termination would eventually become. In his view, tribal members could use the money to start their own businesses. While Crawford called for tribal incorporation, Jackson proposed that the reservation be divided up and its pieces given to the individual members of the Tribes. Later, he and others called for the reservation to be held as a tribal asset, but not as a corporation. In a development that confused tribal members, the two agreed in late 1953 on the idea of a tribal cooperative taking over control of the reservation once federal supervision ended. But then Jackson changed his mind, and voted against the idea at a meeting of the Tribe's general council, according to Patrick Haynal, who wrote a doctoral thesis at the University of Oregon about the termination of the Tribes. While Crawford and Jackson, and their respective followers, debated, momentum was building nationally for terminating Indian tribes. Crawford went to Washington, D.C., in 1945 to push a liquidation bill, under which all jointly held tribal assets would be sold and money distributed to the members. The bill didn't pass, but the federal officials latched on to the idea of terminating the Klamath Tribes because they seemed ready for it, Haynal said. Termination pursued Congress had already been talking about using termination as a way to fully accomplish the assimilation of Indians into society, which began with the Dawes Act of 1887. The act provided for allotment of reservation land to individual Indians, making the lands eventually available on the open market and the American Indians subject to the laws of the federal government. Under the Dawes Act, officially called the General Land Allotment Act, Indian reservations were reduced in size while more land was opened up to settlement through the allotment of land in trust to individual Indians. In taking a piece of the reservation, the individual tribal member gave up regular payments that came from the selling of pooled resources on the reservation, such as timber on the Klamath Reservation. By the 1950s, the Klamath Reservation had been whittled to about 1.2 million acres through the revision of boundaries by the federal government and the allotment of land to individuals. In 1953, House Concurrent Resolution 108 called for an end of federal supervision and control for all the tribes of California, Florida, New York and Texas as soon as possible. Beyond those, it named five tribes that should be terminated - one was the Klamath Tribe. Bureau of Indian Affairs officials and political activists told Congress that the Klamath Tribe were practically assimilated already and were ready for the government to get out of their affairs. The Tribes were considered ready for termination mostly because of their timber assets and their potential to be financially independent. One of the strongest backers of termination was Republican Sen. Arthur V. Watkins of Utah. He led the push for Resolution 108, and he then began the call for more legislation to bring about the termination of tribes across the country, including the Klamath Tribes, BIA officials said. Watkins was "bull-headed, wouldn't take no for answer" in his determination to get termination accomplished, according to Charles Wilkinson, an Indian law scholar who represented some members of the Klamath Tribe, and is now a professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder. The push for termination alarmed many Indians, Wilkinson said. Although some tribes had been calling for the end of federal supervision, they had to scramble to prepare for the sweeping changes that Watkins wanted to enact. The Klamath Tribe and the Menomonee Tribe of Wisconsin were the first tribes to be terminated, both in 1954. They rode the crest of a wave of 12 termination bills that by 1962 would eliminate 61 bands and tribes. The Klamath Tribe was a target for termination because of its success under federal control. It was one of the wealthiest tribes in the country, with the receipts from timber sales that generated payments to each tribal member. While the Klamath Tribe included Indians from three ethnic groups, the 2,133 members were bound by a common fate. They were going to be given an option by the federal government: Withdraw from the Tribe and get a cash payment, or remain and have whatever is left of the reservation held in trust by a bank. Today Eager for change - Two leaders of the Klamath Tribes both wanted the federal government to give up its oversight of the Klamath Indian Reservation. But the two had different different ideas about how to do so. Monday Termination - Termination happened because a confluence of reasons: the Klamath Tribes wanted out from under federal control and the federal government wanted out of the "Indian Business." Tuesday Cash, cars and transition - From a boom of personal finances to bust of free spending and scams, the termination of the Klamath Tribes led to new divisions among the members based on who stayed in and who cashed out. Wednesday Problems compound - In 1986, the Tribes were restored as a government and sovereign nation, but the restoration of the reservation remained a goal they did not get in the legislation. In making a plan for self sufficiency, the Tribes put a reservation as the keystone of being on their own. Thursday Quest for a reservation - What now? What is the likelihood of the Tribes getting a restored reservation from the people at the negotiating table. Who are those against such a deal and why. Timeline of Klamath Tribe's early history 1826 - The first contact between Europeans and Klamath Indians comes when explorer Peter Skene Ogden traverses the region. 1852 - Ben Wright, a local "Indian hunter" on the Applegate Trail, leads an ambush on Modoc Indians during a parley. His group kills 52 men, women and children, estimated to be about 10 percent of the entire Modoc population. Oct. 14, 1864 - The federal government signs a treaty with the Klamath Tribe. The treaty applies to the Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin bands. In the treaty, the Tribe cedes 20 million acres of territory to the United States, while retaining 2.2 million acres for a reservation. The treaty provides hunting, fishing and gathering rights in perpetuity. 1870 - A sawmill is completed to provide lumber for construction of the Klamath Tribal Agency. 1870 - A group of Modoc Indians leave the Klamath Reservation to return to their homelands near Tulelake. 1871 - The Tribe's reservation is reduced in size when a government survey excludes large parcels tribal land. June 1, 1873 - Modoc war leader Kientpoos, also known as Captain Jack, surrenders after leading the Modoc Indian War. The war lasted for six months. 1896 - A federal boundary commission says 617,000 acres had been excluded from the reservation in previous government surveys. The commission values the land at 83 cents per acre. 1896 - The sale of processed lumber from the reservation reaches a quarter-million board feet per year. 1901 - The United States pays the Tribe $537,007 for 621,824 acres. Twice the Tribe tries to get more payment, but fails both times. 1933-1937 - Wade Crawford, a member of the Klamath Tribe, serves as superintendent of the reservation, the only American Indian to serve at the post. 1945 - Crawford goes to Washington, D.C., to endorse a bill that would liquidate the Tribes. - Sources: Klamath Tribes, National Park Service. Copyright c. 2005 Herald and News. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Tribal Leaders work to address Social Problems" --------- Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 08:56:27 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="KLAMATH - PART 4" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2005/06/22//toptribe.txt Turning things around Tribal leaders work to address social problems, regain treaty rights Fourth of five parts. - - - By DYLAN DARLING June 22, 2005 When the federal government terminated the Klamath Tribe, it ended the flow of monthly payments that had been the sole source of income for many of its members. Gone, too, was the government's help with health, education and economic development. The consequences of the U.S. Congress's termination of the Klamath Tribe, which was passed in 1954 and went into effect in 1961, were poverty, confusion and division among former tribal members. "It created a chain of events no one expected," said Allen Foreman, current chairman of the Klamath Tribes. Friction developed between the three categories of former tribal members - withdrawing, remaining and descendants. And no matter what category members of the Tribe fell in or what percentage of American Indian blood flowed in their veins, they were no longer considered Indian in the eyes of the federal government, and thus also by many other tribal governments. Members of the Tribe who tried to enter American Indian rodeos, basketball tournaments and other competitions and gatherings were turned down because they were no longer considered Indians. "The loss of the land, and to have people tell you are not Indian any more - it didn't help your self-esteem," said Gerald Skelton, cultural director for the Klamath Tribes. The one-time infusion of money to members of the Tribe exacerbated social problems, mainly alcoholism. Many died of alcoholism or were killed in alcohol-related accidents. Rick Steber, an Oregon author who grew up in Chiloquin, said he was driving with his son around the old reservation land decades after termination. As he drove, he pointed out places where friends, acquaintances and others he had known had lost their lives in car wrecks. "It was almost always alcohol to blame," Steber said. The mortality rate of tribal members, already high before termination, shot up after termination. "Alcohol and fast cars just don't mix," Foreman said. Skelton was born after termination, but says it damaged his family. "I personally blame termination for the loss of my aunts," he said. Over a quarter-century, five of Skelton's aunts died before their 40th birthdays, with causes ranging from car accidents to drinking to murder. Many such tragedies marked the Tribe after termination. Skelton said his grandfather also died of alcoholism, made worse by the living conditions after termination. In 1964, the annual death rate among members of the Tribe was 14 per 1, 000, with two-thirds of the deaths linked to alcohol, violence or both, according to Patrick Haynal, whose doctoral work at the University of Oregon focused on the Klamath Tribe. The national annual death rate at the time was 9.4 per 1,000. Fortunes began to change for the Klamath Tribe in the 1970s. Led by Chuck Kimbol, head of the resurrected tribal government, members of the Tribe started the political fight for restoration of the Klamath Tribe, and its reservation. The effort for a revival wasn't new though. Almost as soon as the Klamath Tribe was abolished in 1954, its former members started talking about how to get back their land and identity. Progress came in 1974 when a federal judge ruled that tribal members had the right to hunt, fish and gather materials from federal land that formerly lay within the Tribe's reservation boundary. In 1986, Congress passed Public Law 99-398 to restore federal recognition of the Klamath Tribes. President Ronald Reagan sign the measure on Aug. 27, 1986. federal government restored the Klamath Tribe as a sovereign entity. In the early 1990s the tribal government adopted the plural name "Klamath Tribes" to reflect the three ethnic groups represented in the treaty of 1864 - Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin. At the turn of the 21st century, however, the Tribes's goal of regaining their reservation had not been realized. Their quest for land reverberates today in the Klamath Basin's water struggle. Understanding the status of the Tribes today requires an understanding of how relations between Indians and the United States have changed in the last half century. After trying to cut paternal ties from tribes and integrate American Indians into society as a whole during the termination era in the 1950s, the federal government did an about-face in the 1970s. Instead of prompting American Indians to blend into society, the government encouraged tribal members to direct their energy into the tribe and work toward economic self-sufficiency. The movement toward self-determination went all the way to the top of the American political structure. In a 1970 speech before Congress, President Richard Nixon said: "This policy of termination is wrong ... because termination is morally and legally unacceptable, because it produces bad results ... I am asking the Congress to pass a new concurrent resolution which would expressly renounce, repudiate and repeal the termination policy." The Klamath Tribes were given a role model in restoration when the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin was restored in 1974. The Klamath Tribes and the Menominees were the largest tribes terminated in 1954, and the Menominees won back tribal status through political activism. Decades after their termination, members of the Menominee tribe joined together to form a new tribal organization called the Determination of Rights and Unity for Menominee Shareholders, or DRUMS. With a strong political voice, the group is considered by scholars to have been instrumental in the enactment of the Menominee Restoration Act on Dec. 22, 1973; the restoration of the tribe; and re-establishment of much of its former reservation. Congress put an official end to the termination era with the Indian Self-Determination Act of 1975. The act set a new policy: The federal government would help tribes find their own means of support without cutting the bonds between the two governments. Capitalizing on the shift in the political landscape, the members of the Klamath Tribes went to court to regain rights, and tribal sovereignty. They downplayed land acquisition so as not to lose support from politicians for their effort. "Ours was very political, and trying to include any part of land at that time might have hung up our process," said Chuck Kimbol, who led tribal members first unofficially and then as chairman of their resurrected government. For 14 years after the termination checks were passed out by the federal government, from 1961 to 1975, there were no formal tribal government meetings. Their government was gone. But there had been informal gatherings for years, with Kimbol emerging as the leader. In 1973, Kimbol and other informal tribal leaders went to U.S. District Court in Portland to argue that although their tribal status was terminated in 1954, their hunting and fishing rights spelled out in the treaty of 1864 were not. They won in 1974, and treaty rights were restored to all members of the Tribes whose names were on the final roll of 1954. Those rights were extended to their descendants in 1976. The state of Oregon appealed the case, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the decision in 1979. After the initial ruling, a Klamath tribal government was convened to administer the treaty rights, and the first General Council, or meeting of the Tribes general membership, was held in in 1975. An election for a new executive committee was held soon after, and Kimbol was elected chairman. In a separate court case concerning water rights started in the 1970s, a judge declared the Tribes have rights dating from "time immemorial," or from the beginning. The ruling makes their claim to water superior to all others in the Basin. The ruling, however, did not specify how much water was needed to satisfy the Tribe's claim. The state of Oregon's adjudication of water rights - determining who gets how much under what circumstances - remains unresolved. The priority date, though, gives the Tribes a trump card they could use in their current bid for land. But as the Klamath Tribe sought restoration of its tribal status, it didn't push for land. U.S. Rep. Bob Smith, a Republican who served much of the 1980s and '90s, worked to get the tribes restored. He said he wanted to make sure tribal members had adequate health care. From the time of termination to the mid- 1980s, the Tribes suffered from the death of many children and their life spans were about half the national average. With restoration achieved, the Klamath Tribes saw federal money flowing into their coffers to be used for health, education, administration and other services. Smith, though, drew the line at restoring a reservation. "They sold that land," he said in a February 2004 interview with the Herald and News. In all, the federal government had paid withdrawing and remaining members of the Tribes about $209 million for the land in a series of payments to various groups starting in 1961 and ending in 1980. Kimbol, then-chairman of the Klamath Tribe, said Smith was good to work with, but firm on the land question. "He was all right, as long as we didn't mention land," Kimbol said. Still, land was the Tribes's quiet ambition. "If you build a business," Kimbol said, "you are going to buy a piece of land." A restored reservation emerged as the centerpiece of a self-sufficiency plan the Tribes unveiled in 2000. The Tribes were required to develop the plan under the restoration law passed in 1986. "The Tribes have expended time, energy, and money in the development of this economic self sufficiency plan and are prepared to expend much more in carrying it out," tribal officials said in the plan's prologue. "But first we must regain all federally owned former reservation lands. The land is the key not only for the Tribes's economic survival, but also for the mental, physical, and spiritual health for all members of the Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin Band of Snake Indians. Without the return of the land we are saying that the mistake of termination was acceptable." Talks between the Tribes and the U.S. Department of the Interior started in earnest in 2002, but they have yet to produce an agreement, and no meetings have occurred in recent months. The Tribes have publicly talked about plans to regain 690,000 acres of timberland that is now part of the Fremont-Winema National Forests. Their leaders have also talked privately about raising the request to 730,000, adding the Klamath Marsh National Wildlife Refuge near the headwaters of the Williamson River. The idea of a restored reservation for the Klamath Tribes hasn't set well with many around the Klamath Basin, especially those who live near, play in or work on the federal land that the Tribes want for a reservation. The notion has ignited fiery debate and motivated protesters to pick up picket signs and rally outside of meetings believed to house negotiations concerning a land return. Copyright c. 2005 Herald and News. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Protecting a Cultural Resource" --------- Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2005 13:37:53 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="PROTECTING YELLOWSTONE BISON" http://www.shobannews.com/local.htm Protecting a cultural resource Tribes, ITBC meet with YNP officials to discuss buffalo By Lori Edmo-Suppah Sho-Ban News June 16, 2005 FORT HALL - Yellowstone National Park officials were told May 19 the importance of bison to Native people and when a buffalo is killed, then a part of Native culture is also destroyed yet tribes have no voice in the decision-making process. That is what Inter-Tribal Bison Cooperative Director Fred Dubray said as he explained how there is a common link between tribes and their relationship with buffalo. He said watching buffalo being slaughtered is unacceptable. The meeting was referred to as a "Government to Government Consultation Meeting at Yellowstone Park," however Shoshone-Bannock tribal representative Claudeo Broncho reminded the YNP officials there isn't consultation unless elected tribal officials were present. The focus of discussion was bison management at YNP, Grand Teton and the National Elk Refuge. It's occurring because of brucellosis being found in some park buffalo. Brucellosis is a disease found in ruminant animals that causes them to abort fetuses. It could also cause poor conception rates. YNP bison biologist Rick Wallen said there are approximately 4000 bison in the park not counting the new calves born in the spring. YNP officials have jurisdiction of bison within the park boundaries however when they wander outside YNP they have to work with a variety of agencies including the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department, Montana Department of Livestock, Gallatin National Forest and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA.) The Inter-Agency goals are to maintain a wild, free-ranging population of bison. Brucellosis risk management actions involve the hazing and capture of bison to prevent co-mingling of bison and cattle; vaccination of bison and cattle; and to provide habitat for bison on some public and private lands adjacent to the park in the winter when cattle are not present. Wallen said there has been no co-mingling of bison and cattle or brucellosis transmission in the YNP boundary area. However much of the controversy is focused on small areas such as park boundaries such as north of the town of West Yellowstone and areas north of Gardiner, Montana. He said bison generally leave the park when there is heavy snowfall but there hasn't been a harsh winter since December 1996 to April 1997. Then the buffalo were rounded up in capture pens and shipped to slaughter. Wallen said this past winter was mild but near West Yellowstone there were 200 to 300 buffalo that were outside of the park and there were some capture operations. They were tested and those that tested positive for brucellosis were sent to slaughter. Those that were negative were released. Broncho questioned YNP officials if the buffalo that roam outside the park are being hunted and whether tribes are allowed to hunt for subsistence purposes? Glenn Plumb, YNP supervisory biologist, said the Montana Legislature authorized a hunt last winter - 10 permits - specifically in the Gardiner area but when the new governor took office, the hunt was cancelled. He said Montana is following its own procedures for developing the hunt. Discussions have occurred with tribal people but he didn't say which people. Dubray said when they talk about brucellosis in elk the park really isn't doing anything and they're hoping it will go away by managing bison. "My understanding and concern as was said in the scoping meeting, is from the get go the problem is the bison that has the problem and there's fear they'll spread the disease," he said. "It's the cattle that gave it to bison now you manage bison same as cattle, who will protect the bison from getting it (brucellosis) from elk?" Dubray questioned. He said the elk are more likely to transmit the disease to cattle. Biologist Plumb said Dubray was right, "When you look at the greater Yellowstone area and consider 100,000 elk come in and out of the park, a small group lives inside the park and much live outside the park." When one looks at 5,000 bison and elk most in YNP, 800 in Jackson, there might be 2,500 that test positive for brucellosis. "When you consider it, there's more brucellosis in elk than in bison in absolute numbers," Plumb said. The biologist said no one has come up with a good way of getting rid of brucellosis in elk because they roam an area the size of Indiana and most of it is road less. Dubray also questioned if YNP officials have a wildlife disease expert on board? Plumb responded no but there isnt any national parks that wildlife disease experts. There are two wildlife veterinarians in the NPS but YNP isn't going to get one on staff because they'd have to trade off on something else. However, they're hoping to develop partnerships with those who do have the knowledge. Dewey, of the Kiowa tribe of Oklahoma, said there appears to be a lot of media coverage on the disease brucellosis and he's sure it's unwarranted. If it's not being transmitted to cattle or limiting the growth of the herds it may be a wasted effort. He wasn't aware elk were transmitting the brucellosis and it appears they're the culprits. "Why not talk about managing the elk herds, it seems like we're treating the symptoms not trying to get to the real problem." Plumb responded they don't believe they have the tools to fix the elk problem, "How do you get vaccine to 100,000 elk that live up in the mountains?" He said the only way to do it is to have large scale roundup and there's no agency coming out and saying we're going to get rid of the disease by killing the wildlife. He added that there's a meeting in August to discuss getting a better vaccination. Alvah Quinn from the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe said the YNP is doing a good job trying to control the disease but asked what's happening in the private sector, the ranchers keep putting the blame on the bison but do the states require them to vaccinate? Plumb said Montana requires 100 percent vaccination of cattle around the park and the state of Wyoming recently lost brucellosis free status because of the co-mingling of elk and cattle around Pinedale. He said the state is going through a review process. Broncho reminded the YNP officials that tribes in the surrounding areas have treaty rights and the area is Shoshone-Bannock Tribes aboriginal territory. He said the Tribes need to be key players in the process because the YNP is where "we came to hunt bison, it's really important to us - the spirituality." He added the Tribes need to be involved because you can't put a value on culture with dollars. He also said the federal agencies need to recognize their trust resources to the tribes. Frank Walker, deputy YNP superintendent, said the only true solution is to involve the tribes and it's the only way it's going to work. However he said getting there is a difficult part, but all must continue to work together to preserve the herd of bison. He also respects what the Intertribal Bison Cooperative does and each tribe. "It's a case where we all have to work together and still fulfill trust responsibilities." Dubray said it's been a long time trying to get a voice in the bison discussions. The NPS have been good partners. He believes tribes should have a vote on the Greater Yellowstone Interagency Brucellosis Committee because currently ITBC has a non-voting seat. He said the Shoshone- Bannocks are one of the primary tribes in the area and have the strongest treaty rights but are still not actively managing in a jurisdictional fashion. Dubray added that ITBC's purpose in the bison discussion is to stop the senseless killing of an important resource. "It's critical to Indian people to the survival of a distinctive culture." YNP ethnographer Rosemary Sucec said they've also been meeting with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes on the importance of the Bannock Trail. She said people who visit Yellowstone National Park need to know it's Indian country too and they'll continue to work harder. Later that evening tribal representatives were treated to a potluck dinner in Gardiner that featured buffalo stew and side dishes. A group of students from the De La Salle Blackfeet Middle School did a presentation on their projects. They were visiting YNP on an end-of-school field trip to learn about bison management. They also said a closing prayer in the Blackfeet language. Copyright c. 2005 Sho-Ban News. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Land Settlement: Senecas get Cuba Lake Acreage" --------- Date: Thursday, June 23, 2005 10:00 PM From: Les Tate [lrtate@COMCAST.NET] Subj: Senecas get Cuba Lake acreage in historic settlement with state Mailing List: INDIAN-HERITAGE-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050623/1071796.asp Senecas get Cuba Lake acreage in historic settlement with state By DAN HERBECK and LOU MICHEL News Staff Reporters June 23, 2005 The Seneca Nation of Indians won a land claim against the State of New York on Wednesday in a historic settlement. U.S. District Judge John T. Curtin put his final stamp of approval on an agreement that requires the state to give the Senecas 51.3 acres of land in the popular Southern Tier cottage community of Cuba Lake. The agreement is the result of a 1998 ruling by Curtin that the state illegally took the land in the 19th century for the development of an unsuccessful canal project. Court officials called it the first Indian land claim settled by New York State in modern times. "Congratulations to you," Curtin said to Senecas in his courtroom as he finalized the land transfer. "The state and federal governments settled this in a manner that's satisfactory, given the circumstances." After being turned down in a previous effort to take over Grand Island, Seneca leaders were elated by Wednesday's court victory. "This outcome marks a long and sustained effort by the nation to regain land that is rightfully ours," said Seneca Nation President Barry E. Snyder Sr., who joined other tribal leaders in Niagara Square for a news conference after Curtin's action. But not everyone was pleased. Seneca Nation member Joni Brooks had insisted to Curtin that a portion of the 51 acres belongs to her. Former cottage owner Melvin Neubauer complained that he should have been paid more for his property. Others expressed concern about boating safety issues and the possibility of commercial development by the tribe, which operates casinos in Niagara Falls and Salamanca. However, the judge moved ahead and finalized the consent decree, telling Brooks and Neubauer that they have the right to file written complaints with the court for review at a later date. Attorney Peter B. Sullivan, who represented the state in the negotiations, said state laws are already in place governing watercraft safety, though he acknowledged that questions exist on whether the laws apply to Seneca Nation members on the nation's portion of the lake. As for future use of the land, Snyder said the Tribal Council will soon decide what to do with it. Rumors that the Seneca Nation might build another casino on the lakefront land were dismissed by tribal officials. Curtin's approval ends a 20-year federal court battle over the land, which includes a portion of Cuba Lake, a dam, some roads, and 19 cottages and cottage lots. The Senecas contended that the land has been rightfully theirs for centuries and that the state illegally took possession of the land in the 1800s. Earlier this year, the state and the federal government split the expense of buying 19 lakeside cottages from private owners, at a cost of nearly $3.4 million. Under the agreement, the cottages and the land on which they sit have been turned over to the Senecas. A number of prime properties were included, with some costing taxpayers as much as $285,000. Most of the sales were in the range of $140,000 to $170,000. The former owners of the cottages have all moved out. The settlement also requires the state to pay the Senecas $500,000. e-mail: dherbeck@buffnews.com and lmichel@buffnews.com Copyright c. 2005 Buffalo News. --------- "RE: Elders fight to keep Land" --------- Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2005 08:16:52 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="STRESS DISORDER ON BLACK MESA" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.gallupindependent.com/2005/june/062005elders.html Elders fight to keep land Peabody opponent says elderly suffer from stress disorder By Kathy Helms Dine' Bureau June 20, 2005 FOREST LAKE Eighty-seven-year-old Mae Paulinos is one of the Black Mesa elders suffering from symptoms commonly diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder. But she is not by herself, according to Norman Benally, long- time Peabody opposition leader whose family home lies in the shadow of the mine. "They have post-traumatic stress disorder, a lot of the elders do. It's like the same situation that the Vietnam veterans had after they returned from war," he said, because a lot of the cultural ties to the land have been destroyed over time. He remembers seeing Black Mesa residents protesting over destruction of sacred sites. "But Peabody and the mine workers just went through them with the bulldozers. There's thousands of Navajo historic sites, sacred sites, even Anasazi sites that have been destroyed by strip mining. "So that's where they get a lot of the stress. It affects their health and brings them down. That's what she's (Paulinos) had a real problem with." Paulinos and Benally were among a group of residents who turned out Saturday at Forest Lake Chapter for a meeting on the C-aquifer, which possibly will be used to replace the higher-quality N-aquifer water Peabody now uses to slurry coal to Mohave Generating Station in Nevada. Peabody hopes to expand its operation and increase its water usage. Residents want running water in their homes. They say they're tired of giving up their resources and getting little in return. Paulinos lives on the same piece of land where she was born 87 years ago. She's spent her whole life there. She said she does receive some compensation once a year for the land but that it's not enough to live on. She and her family have an underground storage tank which her children haul water to fill. "That's the only replacement water that they've gotten, " said Benally, who recently toured Paulinos' home with members of the Navajo Nation Council's Resources Committee. Paulinos lives in a house that Peabody built about three years ago, according to Benally. "I saw that there were some cracks already in the new house that they had built her. The other people said the ground was shifting, too." Blast damage Paulinos' home is located near Peabody's Kayenta mine, and the strip- mine operation is headed south, in her direction. She said she used to hear blasting, but that has now stopped. She said the ground shook also. "There's a lot of blasting damage that does occur to the houses up there," Benally said. "During the public hearing here, one of the guys that had been relocated from HPL (Hopi Partitioned Land) said the relocation home they got from the Hopi land dispute was already getting cracks. "Historically, Peabody said that a lot of the cracks in floors of the houses were because of the poor construction of the homes. Now, these are government-built homes and Peabody-built homes and they're experiencing the same problems." Paul Clark of Black Mesa works at the mine. Even so, he takes issue with how the Navajo Nation and its people have been compensated for their coal. He said that years back, Peabody was paying "12-1/2 cents for anything that they get under from the earth. Then they wanted to raise up 7 more cents, saying, 'Now, I'm going to pay you 20 cents. I'll pay you 20 cents for this coal a ton.' " "Then people agreed and didn't know anything about the prices like that, whether it was fair or not. That's how Peabody tricked the Navajo," Clark said. "Then here, our leader says, 'Let's go for some more.' No! We've been ripped off. 'Let other countries get rich on us and we end up with nothing,' is that what he's saying to us? To me, our leader doesn't protect nothing." Clark said he believes some tribal leaders do not want to see life improve for the Navajo people. He also questions those looking out for the legal rights of his people. "The lawyers getting paid in Window Rock, they're not doing their homework for us. Seems to me that we're not going to get anything for what is in our land, and we're going ahead just to let somebody make it better for their future. Why do we have to be like that? It's got to be stopped." Benally, interpreting for a 72-year-old grandma who didn't want her name used, said she lives a few miles from the J-7 area south of Black Mesa mine. She says the dust from J-7 strip mining and the strip-mine operation itself is coming toward her home. "She don't like it," he said. Customary use "Grandma" lives on customary-use lands which were determined before the mine came into existence. At the time, it was based on historical land use, with many of the customary use lands overlapping, according to Benally. "Their kids inherited the customary land use rights, but their kids moved out of the area," he said. "So they're paying people that are not actually customary land users now. They pay people that moved away years ago. The real customary land users, a lot of them are cut out of it." 'Unwashed' Grandma is one of the "unwashed" grassroots people of Black Mesa, as one union worker recently referred to them. "She said they used to use the bathhouse facilities over at the mine, and that they shut the community out of it; so they don't take a bath anymore. She said that's probably why they said what they said." According to Benally, when Peabody leased the land, "they said if they took out a well or a spring or whatever, that they would replace it with equal or better value." Locals considered the bathhouse a replacement because the company removed the community wells, he said. Residents' windmills and hand pumps and wells "that you throw a bucket down and scoop out the water, those have been taken out by Peabody. They were polluting it. The bathhouse, in our opinion, is one of the replacements for community wells that they decommissioned," he said. Peabody has two water pipe stems, one by the Human Resources building and another in the northern section where Black Mesa residents and others from up to 50 miles away come to haul water, Benally said, adding, "After hauling water for livestock and home use, then you don't have much water left for bathing." Grandma's home is in the Hopi Partitioned Lands area, which is also leased to Peabody. She feels she's under attack from two directions. From the south, the Hopi say she has to relocate. From the north, the strip mining operation is coming at her. Interpreting, he said: "Her question is, 'Where am I supposed to go? Are they just going to come up and scoop us up with the drag line and dump us out somewhere?' She said she's been there all her life and she has no intention of moving, ever. The land is the only place she knows as home. "She has a decent home, built out of her own pocket and that's her investment. She will never part with the land because she's tied to the land. She said despite all the harassment she's getting from the federal government to relocate, or the Hopi Tribe to relocate, or Peabody to relocate, she has really set her mind on remaining on the land and not moving." Copyright c. 2005 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Saguaro harvest: Preserving an O'odham way" --------- Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2005 13:37:53 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GIFTS FROM THE SAGUARO" http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/history_culture&story_id=061805a1_saguaro Saguaro harvest: Preserving an O'odham way Few harvest cactus fruit nowadays June 19, 2005 The tradition was a hallmark of Tohono O'odham culture. Now, Stella Tucker safeguards it. Pulling the fruit from the top of the cactuses' crooked, old arms is almost like paying a cousin a visit, Tucker said. "These saguaros are all so unique," she said yesterday while wandering through the stands of the plant in Saguaro National Park, named for the distinctive cactus. "They are like my second family. I come out and watch them grow and change over the years." The saguaro harvest was once a monthlong event that marked the beginning of the O'odham calendar. Some still go out and pick the fruit, but Tucker said she is the only one who follows the full tradition. A friend of hers, Cipriano Pedro, 47, took part in it with her, but he died in 2004 and left Tucker to herself and her saguaros. "I'm pretty sure I'm the only one doing it now," said the 57-year-old. The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum hosted a saguaro harvest exhibition today in which Tucker was to show a University of Arizona class how the work gets done. Students were to accompany her to Saguaro National Park-Tucson Mountains District, where she was to look for the red saguaro fruit, the color showing just how ripe it is. Yesterday, she wielded a long picker, called a kui'paD. It is made of a couple of saguaro ribs lashed together with baling wire and tipped with a scraper made from a creosote branch. She uses it to pull down the fruit. She takes a dried stem and uses it like a knife to open the red fruit, which she gouges out and drops into a bucket. She collects about a gallon and a half of the fruity pulp in a few hours. And she laments how this tradition is on the wane. Jerry Yellowhair uses a ku'ipaD to knock the fruit to the ground. The stick is two saguaro ribs and a creosote branch wired together to reach pods more than 20 feet above the ground. "It's part of our culture that is dying," Tucker said. "Every family used to go out and take part in the harvest." Some O'odham still go out and pick the occasional saguaro fruit, but the tradition of camping throughout the harvest and making batch after batch of assorted saguaro-based foods is a tradition left to Tucker and those willing to join her. Four others accompanied Tucker on this trek yesterday morning. Her boyfriend, Jerry Yellowhair; their friend Bob Martens, a Tucson metalworker; Eric Carr and his father, David. "It's a spiritual experience for me," said David Carr, a retired city planner, as he surveyed the lush desert of Saguaro National Park. "I come from North Carolina, and instead of 2.8 million acres of nature, there would be 2.8 million acres of development." This eclectic crowd brushes saguaro arms with its kui'paDs until it gets about five gallons collected. Then it's back to camp - the same site Tucker's family has camped on for more than five generations - to begin turning the fruit into myriad products. Two ramadas and a fire pit make up the camp, giving the site a feel of permanence. The camp has been pitched for decades near Sandario and Mile Wide roads, west of the Tucson Mountains. Copyright c. 2005 Tucson Citizen, All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Tribes break ground for Business Park" --------- Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 08:56:27 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GRAND RONDE AND SILETZ" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2005/06/22//wedore02.txt Tribes break ground for business park By The Associated Press June 22, 2005 KEIZER - The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians have broken ground on the 15-acre Chemawa Station business park near Chemawa Indian School. Plans include a 13,000-square-foot strip mall, two restaurants, a gas station and a convenience store. Tribal leaders say they see the park as an alternative to casino revenues and an opportunity for part-time jobs for teenage tribal members. The land was part of 400 acres once owned by the Chemawa Indian School. The school and the site were separated when the state condemned portions of the school's property to build Interstate 5. The tribes later petitioned to reclaim the remaining acreage. Construction is expected to be completed by October, said Eric Scott, Grand Ronde's tribal engineer. Copyright c. 2005 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c. 2005 Corvallis Gazette-Times, Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Commentary: Mascots are not an Honor" --------- Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2005 13:37:53 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MASCOTS" http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=6625 Commentary: Mascots are not an honor TULSA OK Shan Goshorn June 15, 2005 In the last decade, there has been heated controversy over the use of Indians as mascots. As a Native American and human rights supporter, I ask you to please consider the following points when deliberating this issue: - Feathers and paint are not part of a "costume" for Indians. We dress in traditional regalia; eagle feathers have religious significance for us. It would be like having a team called the Christians using bibles and holy water to stir up team support. - "Fans" dress and act in a way they think is "Indian", imagery often based on Hollywood propaganda. It crushes the self-esteem of our people to see our sacred ceremonies and beliefs ridiculed and reduced to entertainment for American sports fans. - Mascots of Indian people dehumanize Indian people. Who can take any of our legitimate issues or even our culture seriously when we are portrayed as cartoon characters everyday? Mascots dismiss us as human beings - can you imagine cheering on a team called the Blacks, Darkies, Negroes or N*****s? Of course not. It would inflame the misconception that these people are less than human. (Repulsed by the casual use of the word 'nigger'? Perhaps one day we all will be repulsed by the word 'redskin'. - "Redskin" and "savage" are not honorable terms. The American Heritage Dictionary defines redskin as 'offensive slang, used as a disparaging term for a Native American'. - "Redskin" actually refers to a time in history when Indians were percieved by the King of England as a competitive threat to the fur trapping industry. To eliminate this competition, a bounty was placed on Indian people, their dead bodies - or skins- exchanged for cash. This was attempted genocide. Can you imagine naming a team after the atrocities from WWII? - Some districts think they have taken a term with a poor image and turned it into something admirable. Is this even possible? Can you imagine a team called the Nazis and imagine trying to convince Jewish Americans that you are now turning it in to something to be admired? - Many districts cling to the belief that they are using these images in an honorable way despite being told by Indians that they don't want their "honoring". Even teams that persist in believing they know more about honoring Indians than Indians do must concede on the fact that the OTHER team will go out of their way to mock their opponent's mascot. A rival of the Florida State Seminoles has toilet paper printed with the Seminole's mascot on it and the words 'The only good place for a Seminole face". Where is the honor in this? - These mascots are hardly what will keep our heritage alive. Our traditional roots run deep as is evidenced in the tribal schools that teach our languages to our children, in the elders that continue to pass histories, songs, etc on to the next generation and in the many dances and ceremonial events that take place year round. It is an insult to suggest that sports fans would be the ones keeping our heritage alive for us. A better way to make sure that Oklahoma maintains Native American heritage would be to honor our tribal sovereignty and respect our treaties. This controversy should not be reduced to finding Indians that support such mascots and pitting them against those who do not... it is unrealistic to think that there would ever be a unanimous voice among any race of people. But because there ARE Indian people that are insulted should be reason enough to eliminate these racial slurs rather than try to convince us that we should not be offended. The sports arena is no place for honoring. Let us do the right thing and ban these ugly symbols that do not unite us in the brotherhood of sports but further divides us as people. What about tradition, you say? Slavery was tradition. Denying women the right to vote was tradition. These mascots will go the way of stereotypes like Little Black Sambo and the Frito Bandito. Rather than being dragged kicking and screaming, let this state lead the nation in demonstrating that our schools will be the starting place to teach equality and respect for all. Shan Goshorn is a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokees and TICAR-the Tulsa Indian Coalition Against Racism. Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Browning Business connects Unemployed with Jobs" --------- Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 08:56:27 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GETTING BLACKFEET EMPLOYED" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.missoulian.com//2005/06/21/news/mtregional/znews04.txt New business in Browning connects unemployed with jobs By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian June 22, 2005 BROWNING - A new Browning business is hard at work finding work for those out of work, which in this Indian reservation town includes a very large majority. "As you know," said Anna Bull Shoe, "employment on the reservation is pretty low." Low, as in unemployment pushing 80 percent in the winter. Summer firefighting jobs might prop up the economy to a mere 55 percent unemployment, she said, but "the year-round average is still about 70 percent." Those are crippling numbers, Bull Shoe said; unimaginable, really, affecting each and every family on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Bull Shoe's new business, Nin-Nah-Too-Sii, hopes to rekindle the reservation job market by matching government contracts with skilled workers, and then using those skilled workers to train more still. "We're already sending people to work," she said. "We've brought back to the reservation almost $200,000." The idea got rolling a few months back, when Bull Shoe was working as a jobs developer for the Blackfeet Manpower Program. The federal program is aimed at teaching the skills to "make people employable." But what was missing, she said, was an employment service that would match those newly honed skills with job openings. Along came Express Personnel, an employment office with an outlet in Great Falls, hiring for a big project building towers for a malting plant. Blackfeet Manpower tapped into its skills database, came up with a couple hundred unemployed locals who fit the bill, and through Express Personnel put Blackfeet Indians to work. The problem was, the work was in Great Falls, and many had no transportation. "We borrowed vehicles from everywhere," Bull Shoe said, "from all the tribal agencies. Everyone helped out." Drivers woke at 4 a.m., she said, had the morning shift on the road by 5 a.m., dropped them off to work a 12-hour shift, 7 to 7. They were back on the road by 5 p.m., hauling the night shift to Great Falls and picking up the day workers for the return home. "We went like that constantly," Bull Shoe said, "back and forth to Great Falls, moving 200 people. It took an incredible commitment." And although "we realized this was a way we could help people find jobs," she said, they also realized "the commitment was too much to sustain." "There was a really big cost getting people to the job site," she said, estimating that transportation alone siphoned $25,000 out of the tribe and Manpower's offices. "We just couldn't keep doing that." The solution, she and others decided, was to start their own for-profit employment service business, a local version of Express Personnel that would partner with Manpower to match skills with openings. Bull Shoe joined forces with George Kipp IV, director of the Manpower program, and Anne Pollock, a local with experience in small business, and together they launched Nin-Nah-Too-Sii. The name means "Chief Sun," and roughly translates to mean a leader's right hand. Manpower, with its growing database of skilled workers, would be the leader, and Nin-Nah-Too- Sii would be the five-fingered force that put those skills to work. "We wanted to provide year-round employment," Bull Shoe said, "not just seasonal jobs. The employment picture was just too reliant on unpredictable things, like a fire season." They formed a team - with expertise in finances, credit, business, contracting, construction and jobs creation - and began to hunt for federal, state and local government contracts regionwide. At the same time, the team at Nin-Nah-Too-Sii applied for a whole host of special statuses, all designed to give them preference in the bidding process. There are government "set-asides" that offer contracts only to small businesses, she said, and "hub zones" that give preference to "underutilized work forces." Currently, she said, they're seeking what the government calls 8-A status, which would allow them to capture contracts without competitive bidding. Then, tapping back into that skills database at Manpower, Bull Shoe and company brought in people with experience preparing government bids. Before long, they captured a small job inventorying and repairing the fence that separates the reservation from Glacier National Park's eastern edge. It put four men to work, she said, and Nin-Nah-Too-Sii selected those four with exceptional care, choosing people with backgrounds in management, forestry and ranching. "We picked them because we wanted them to be supervisors" on future jobs, she said. They made about $100 a day, she said, which, while not great, "was a very good beginning." Consider, for instance, that at least one of those four hadn't seen a paycheck in more than two years. "When he told us that, all of the work that we went through seemed so worthwhile," Bull Shoe said. Now Nin-Nah-Too-Sii is bidding on another fencing job, a trail maintenance job, a tree thinning job. She hopes to find work for 40 reservation residents this year, another dozen next year, "100 people with employment that goes beyond seasonal work by 2009." The business, she said, is hoping to land contracts that are measured in years rather than months. "That's what we're building up to," Bull Shoe said. But by starting small, Nin-Nah-Too-Sii can establish a secure revenue base, can construct a broader database of local skills, can build bidding expertise and can learn the ropes of contract management. "We're learning how to do it," she said. "We're learning who to go to." Once established, she said, they'll pair skilled workers with unskilled, using the contracts as on-the-job training. But will it ever be enough to dent that 70 percent unemployment figure? "I have no doubt in my mind," Bull Shoe said. "I know we can. I really do. We've become so dependent on government programs to find us jobs that we've forgotten about our own skills, our own knowledge and competitiveness. We have a strong base. Let's build it up from there." Copyright c. 2005 Missoulian; a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Donations needed to complete Nimham Memorial" --------- Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 09:22:37 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NIMHAM MEMORIAL" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.thejournalnews.com//20050620/NEWS04/506200337/1017 Donations needed to complete Nimham memorial By CARA MATTHEWS THE JOURNAL NEWS June 20, 2005 KENT - Black Elk, an Oglala Sioux holy man who died in 1950, taught that the "power of the world always walks in circles, and everything tries to be round." A stone monument dedicated to Daniel Nimham, a Wappinger American Indian who died fighting in the Revolutionary War, was planned along those lines. The marbled, white-and-gray granite atop a base in Veterans Memorial Park was to be encircled by 12 large rock slabs. The Nimham centerpiece went up in 1996. But because of a lack of funds, the project was never completed. With about $6,500 from the past three Daniel Nimham Pow Wows and the hope of obtaining more donations, the Nimham Mountain Singers now plan to complete the circle. The powwows are free - the next one is in August - but visitors can drop donations in a bucket. Circles figure heavily in American Indian cultures, and are central to sweat lodges, pipe ceremonies and powwows, among other activities, said Gil "Crying Hawk" Tarbox and Penny Osborn of the Nimham Mountain Singers. Tarbox, the lead singer, is one-quarter American Indian, with Passamaquoddy and Micmac ancestors from New England. The Kent residents are domestic partners. "To a native person this will be sacred," Tarbox said last week of the monument as he stood in what will become a circle roughly 40 feet in diameter. A combination of gravel and stone dust will be the ground cover for the circle's center, Tarbox said. The outer edge will be concrete, and drainage work may be necessary to prevent flooding, he said. The granite slab with a plaque dedicating it to Nimham - the last great sachem, or chief, of the Wappingers - was supposed to be joined by 12 just like it. But as the years passed, rocks that were going to be used went to other projects, so new ones must be found. The stones were left over from construction on the Boyd Corners Reservoir. The tablets will be dedicated to the different subtribes of the Wappinger Confederacy. Nearly 40 Wappingers, including Nimham and his son, Capt. Abraham Nimham, were killed in 1778 during the Battle of Kingsbridge in the Bronx. The Wappingers joined colonists in the war because the British had allowed their land to be taken. Daniel Nimham's death was a turning point for American Indian history in Putnam County. The Wappingers moved to upstate Oneida County, then to the Midwest. Most Wappinger descendants today live in Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada. The Kent Historical Society and the county Historian's Office have been involved with the memorial since the beginning. There is about $1,500 left in the Historical Society's account for the memorial, Tarbox said. Even with the $6,500 added to it, there isn't enough to complete the work. The total cost could approach $20,000, especially because the reservoir rocks are gone, he said. "It's not really going to be a hard thing to do, and the more money we get, the less I have to count on volunteers," he said. Osborn, a charter member of the Historical Society, said she always ends talks she gives about Nimham by saying it's a shame there is no monument for him in Putnam. In 1996, someone mentioned the idea about a memorial to then-county Historian Richard Muscarella, and a group was formed to build one, she said. Muscarella has since died. "Very few people knew who Chief Nimham was, and it was a vision of mine to educate them as to the historical significance of this person," said Osborn, who is part northern Cheyenne Native American. "Here is a person who is literally an American hero in every sense of the word." The memorial will not be something to view from a distance, Osborn said. The stones will be placed so children can sit on them and learn about the Wappingers, who were helpful to George Washington because they were tall, strong runners who could cover a tremendous amount of land in a day, she said. A different, bronze statue of Nimham is being planned for Kent, Tarbox said. Richard Othmer Jr., a mason who helped with the Nimham monument and the president of the Kent Historical Society, said it was fitting to have it in the park. "He's really the original war veteran of Putnam County, and it's the veterans park," he said of Nimham. "I'm glad they're going to complete it. It's so important in the history of the area." Copyright c. 2005 The Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper serving Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties in New York. --------- "RE: JODI RAVE: Students honored for Native coverage" --------- Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2005 13:37:53 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="JODI RAVE: NATIVE JOURNALISM STUDENTS HONORED" http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2005/06/18/jodirave/rave44.txt Students honored for Native coverage By JODI RAVE of the Missoulian June 18, 2005 Fifteen years ago, a University of Montana journalism dean decided to create a news course dedicated to Native issues. And professor Carol Van Valkenburg stood ready to teach it. Since then, Van Valkenburg has readily dispatched journalism students to the far corners of Montana's seven Indian reservations to broaden their perspectives and put them in contact with cultures and languages unfamiliar to most of them. The students report stories of the state's indigenous people - the Chippewa, Cree, Crow, Blackfeet, Assiniboine, Gros Ventre, Yanktonai Sioux, Little Shell, Northern Cheyenne, Salish and Kootenai. A typical class project compiles enough news to fill a 36-page tabloid, which gets distributed throughout the state. The Native News Honors Project earned a recent payoff. On May 24, students from the University of Montana's School of Journalism were presented with the 2005 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for best college newspaper reporting during a ceremony at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The prized RFK awards are often referred to as the "poor people's Pulitzers." Winning entries from print, radio and TV target problems of the disadvantaged and impoverished. Statistics show Native people easily fall into that category. For example, the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development reports one in five Native children between the ages of 12 and 17 uses illicit drugs; Native women are victimized at a rate 50 percent higher than that reported by black males; and Native people are incarcerated at a rate 38 percent higher than the national per-capita rate. And that just covers disparities in crime and substance abuse. Tristan Scott was one of 14 students invited into the journalism school's 2005 honors project. He went to Montana's Blackfeet Reservation to report on the Indian Health Service's badly underfunded health care system in which the annual patient-care cost amounts to $1,914. In comparison, federal prisoners are allocated $3,803 and the average American, $5,065. Scott said he welcomed the invitation to attend the semester-long honors project, which divides students into seven writer-photographer teams. Each travels to a reservation with a specific topic to report on. This year's class focused on perceptions surrounding race. The 23-year-old senior said he completed the class feeling confident about his ability to report with authority on a Native community. He learned how to navigate through the Indian Health Service bureaucracy and received invitations into reservation homes so he could report his stories. In addition to Scott's health care story, classmates also tackled subjects related to multimillion-dollar "poor Indian" fundraising programs to Native preference for job hiring to racism in a town bordering the Rocky Boy's Reservation. Students in the class often become the journalists who report compelling Native news stories when they move on to full-time reporting positions, said Van Valkenburg, who is also chair of the journalism school's print department. Experts argue that's what a good journalism school program should do. In a report released Thursday by the Carnegie Corp. and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, news industry leaders were asked how journalism schools could change the ailing status and standards of the news profession. McKinsey & Co., the consulting company that led the study, reported findings that encourage strengthening basic reporting skills while improving in-depth knowledge of specific topics. The news leaders suggested journalism schools carry out this mission by doing the following: - "Emphasize the basics of the journalism craft, along with analytical thinking and a strong sense of ethics." - "Channel the best writers, the most curious reporters and the most analytical thinkers into the profession of journalism." - "Help reporters build specialized expertise to enhance their coverage of complex beats from medicine to economics, and to acquire firsthand knowledge of the languages and cultures of distant parts of the world." It's hard to argue with these suggestions. But it's also easy to ask why news industry leaders don't provide equal emphasis to seek "firsthand knowledge of the languages and cultures" here in the United States. Many stories in distant parts of the world deserve U.S. media attention. But time and effort are also required to help this country's citizens better understand the complex, historical, government-to-government relationship between sovereign tribal nations and Washington, D.C. Additionally, the 120-some disappearing tribal languages in the United States demand firsthand knowledge, too. Many of the University of Montana students have never been to a reservation in a state where some adults avoid even driving through tribal lands. Students are told to approach their stories with an open mind and to leave all preconceived notions behind. Each year, they consistently produce award-winning, quality news stories backed by solid reporting skills and cultural training. If more colleges had the conviction to report on complex beats such as the poor, the disadvantaged and the overlooked, the mainstream press might rebuild its credibility by providing an accurate reflection of the world in which we live. --- Jodi Rave covers Native issues for the Missoulian and other Lee Enterprises newspapers. She can be reached at 523-5299 or at jrave@missoulian.com. She originally wrote this column for the Poynter Institute Web site, www.poynter.org. --------- "RE: Western Tribes recapturing control over Lives" --------- Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 09:22:37 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ASSUMING CONTROL" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_2806873 Western tribes recapturing control over lives By Walter Hecox and Rebecca Schild June 20, 2005 Editor's note: This is the second in a periodic series about regional trends and issues that were examined in the 2005 Colorado College State of the Rockies Report Card. Around the West, Native American nations are recapturing control over their lives, communities, tribal lands and heritage. Examples of this trend include: The Southern Utes in southwest Colorado are trying to save their culture and language from extinction, while equipping their children with the education necessary to succeed in today's world. They have established the Southern Ute Academy, reacting to what the mother of one student argued: "When you lose your language, you lose yourself." The Taos Pueblo in northern New Mexico has fought long and hard to recover Blue Lake, considered the source of their creation and essential to the very identity of the Taos Pueblo people. After 64 years, the lake and surrounding land are now available exclusively for tribal use. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Montana petitioned to regain control over the bison range intricately tied to their culture, finally reaching an agreement with federal agencies to have significant management responsibilities for the National Bison Range. Fred Matt, tribal chairman, says, "The tribes' presence on the Bison Range is something everyone will benefit from. We owe this to our ancestors." As professor Charles Wilkinson of the University of Colorado law school has noted, "Over the past two generations, the tribes have achieved dramatic successes. ... Tribal governments now are clearly the real governments in Indian country." What is going on around the Rockies to fuel these and other examples of Native Americans recapturing control over their lands and lives? The question can't be discussed without considering the matter of tribal sovereignty. The National Congress of American Indians states that Indian nations are sovereign governments, recognized in the U.S. Constitution and in hundreds of treaties, providing a broad range of governmental services on tribal lands throughout the country. However, one must keep in mind that, in the words of 19th century U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall, tribes are "domestic, dependent sovereigns" over which Congress has authority. The challenge facing tribal governments, then, is to maintain and exercise their powers of self- governanc e in the context of their relationship with the federal and state governments. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development takes a different slant, first admitting that the term "sovereignty" has multiple meanings, interpretations and implications, even when applied to Indian affairs. At the term's core, however, is "the inherent right or power to govern." So there are three dimensions to our approach toward tribal sovereignty: Indian tribes possess inherent power over all internal affairs; States are precluded from interfering with tribes in their self-government; and Congress has full power to limit such sovereignty. So, tribes possess powers of self-government other than those that Congress has specifically removed. The Colorado College State of the Rockies Project has spent six months sifting through dozens of examples of Native American individuals, communities and tribes exercising their sovereign authority to regain self-governance in areas of culture and language, social and political conditions, and environmental and natural resources. The following examples from the 2005 Colorado College State of the Rockies Report Card stand out, both for the energy and enthusiasm embedded in actions taken, and for the range of activities Native Americans are tackling. Not all may approve of outsiders, or even other Native Americans, but the freedom to choose tribal futures is inherent in the proper use of sovereignty: Isleta Pueblo, N.M.: Acting under the amended Clean Water Act that authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to treat Indian nations as states with regard to water quality, the pueblo sued the city of Albuquerque over discharges from its waste-treatment facility into the Rio Grande, 5 miles upstream from the Isleta Pueblo Reservation. The court upheld the right of the pueblo to establish more stringent water quality standards than those applied by the federal government. Navajo Nation in portions of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah: With 60 percent of reservation residents without phone service and the cost of connecting some homes by landline in the range of $100,000, the tribe has established Sacred Wind Communications, a Navajo-run company creating a hybrid system of wireless communications to serve even the most remote residents. Skull Valley Goshutes in Utah: Nuclear waste disposal usually creates the ultimate "not-in-my-backyard" response from those who live near a proposed storage site. But the Goshutes of the Skull Valley Reservation in Utah are pursuing the opportunity to create on the reservation a "temporary" storage site for thousands of tons of nuclear waste, considering it an economic boon for this small, 18,000-acre reservation with 500 members. Authority exists under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act for the federal government to seek out volunteer candidates for temporary storage until a permanent facility is completed. The state of Utah and many other opponents do not believe "temporary" storage means what it says, given continuing problems with the Department of Energy's proposed "permanent" storage facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Other examples can be found in the 2005 Rockies Report Card. Not everyone will agree that all cases of exercising sovereignty are "positive," and some may not even agree that Native Americans should have the right to such sovereignty. But researchers at the Rockies Project find this wave of actions by tribes and reservations an exciting and encouraging trend throughout our region, one that will bring control of lives and communities back down to the people who are closest to the problems and whose solutions are most innovative. ---- Professor Hecox is director of the State of the Rockies Project at Colorado College. Rebecca Schild is a project student researcher and is majoring in international sustainable development. - For more information on the Rockies Report Card, go to www.coloradocollege.edu/stateoftherockies. Copyright c. 2005 The Denver Post or other copyright holders. --------- "RE: Speakers gather to awaken the sounds of Cree" --------- Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2005 13:37:53 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SAVING A NATIVE TONGUE" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.greatfallstribune.com//NEWS01/506170314/1002 Speakers gather to awaken the sounds of Cree By JARED MILLER Tribune Regional Reporter June 17, 2005 BOX ELDER - Nine-year-old Hunter Eagleman watched carefully Thursday as his grandfather erected a tepee on the Rocky Boy's Reservation, one of a dozen tepees built to house a Cree language institute this week. Mimicking his grandfather, the boy hurriedly transformed a nearby stack of short pine poles into a miniature tepee-like cone. "These kids, they pick this stuff up quick," said his grandmother, Pauline Standing Rock, who was sitting nearby. The scene was a metaphor for the language institute itself, where 22 tribal elders, fluent in Cree, will fill the air with their native tongue for five days. About 60 students will be there to absorb the words and then build sentences and stories of their own. "Those tepees are for real. They can see them," said Ruby Stump, one of an estimated 280 fluent Cree speakers on the reservation. "This (institute) is real, too. They'll learn to talk (Cree) by hearing." Tribal educators staged the immersion-style institute to help celebrate their culture during the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial and to help perpetuate their language. A National Park Service-sanctioned program called Corps of Discovery II is stationed at the language institute encampment. Many of the language instructors grew up on the reservation and learned English as a second language. All of them are accredited by the state to teach Cree. They'll spend the week making art, playing games, cooking food and telling stories - all without speaking a word of English. Students will listen and absorb. Coordinator Louise (Windy Boy) Stump didn't know a stitch of English when she began attending a Bureau of Indian Affairs school on the reservation at age 7. Stump, 62, remembers struggling to decipher basic English texts while other Indian students chuckled and teased her. Aided by a youthful mind and the almost-constant sound of English in her ears, Stump soon became fluent in her second language. "I was immersed in the English language," Stump said. "We're reversing that, and we're trying to immerse them in the Cree language." More recent generations of Chippewa-Cree have been exposed to far more English and far less Cree. A nonscientific survey of Rocky Boy's Reservation turned up about 280 fluent Cree speakers and another 280 who can understand some Cree, Stump said. Nearly all fluent speakers are at least 60 years old. They are the last to understand the words of important tribal ceremonies and spiritual practices. "When we lose our language, we lose our culture," Stumps said. "All the ceremonies go with it." Tribes across the nation are fighting the same battle to preserve languages and culture. Immersion-style learning is one of the favorite methods. Josephine Arkinson, 23, a sophomore at Stone Child College on the reservation, knows just a few people her age who understand either language. She doesn't speak fluently herself, but she wants to make sure her 2- year-old son learns the language. It will give him full access to cultural practices, she said. "It's our way of life, and he would be able to pick it up and pass it on and show others," said Arkinson, who will earn college credit for participating in the immersion institute. About 17 college students are taking part. While it's the Chippewa-Cree Tribe that calls Rocky Boy's Reservation home, this week's institute focuses mainly on the Cree language because Cree speakers far outnumber those who know Chippewa. Event coordinators recruited two Chippewa speakers from Great Falls. The cost of the institute is about $68,000. Funding is from the Chippewa-Cree Tribe, Stone Child College and other donors. Organizers also are seeking money from the state. Hunter Eagleman doesn't know it yet, but his grandmother is expecting big things from him. She'll make sure he understands Cree and learns the traditional ways. It's his job to carry the lessons to the next generations. It makes her feel good to know that someone so young will understand what it means to be a traditional Chippewa-Cree. It gives her hope for the future of her tribe. Reach Tribune Regional Reporter Jared Miller at (406) 791-6573, (800) 438-6600 or at jarmille@greatfal.gannett.com. Copyright c. 2005 Great Falls Tribune. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Peacemakers from the Past: Sinte Gleska" --------- Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2005 08:37:24 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SINTE GLESKA" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.casperstartribune.net/news/f2b31550c917fa128725702a0002aa26.txt Peacemakers from the past By JOHN MORGAN Star-Tribune staff writer June 24, 2005 FORT LARAMIE - One hundred thirty-nine years ago, an Indian warrior and an Army colonel met here for a funeral and forged such a strong bond that the two men became champions for peace. The funeral was for Mni Akuwin, the 17-year-old daughter of Sinte Gleska (Spotted Tail), who was the leader of the Burnt Thigh Lakota tribe. Mni Akuwin (pronounced min-NEE ah-KOO-ee) was fascinated by the ways of white people, especially the military life, and enjoyed living at Fort Laramie - despite her father's frustrations with the Army. She often pleaded with her father to make peace with the whites, but it wasn't until her untimely death that he decided to honor her wish to be buried at the fort among non-Indians. On Saturday, ancestors of Spotted Tail and Col. Henry A. Maynadier will meet at the Fort Laramie National Historic Site to unveil a new wayside exhibit celebrating the lives of those three people - and hold a combined Christian/Indian burial ceremony to reinter remains thought to belong to Mni Akuwin. The fort will also celebrate the 156th anniversary of the founding of the military post. Long overdue Victor Douville, a professor at the Sinte Gleska University on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, has done extensive research on Mni Akuwin, Spotted Tail and Col. Maynadier. "This wayside exhibit is long overdue," Douville said. "As we look at (the history of Indian/U.S. government relations), this is one of the moments that had great impacts." Despite witnessing a massacre of her people at a young age, Mni Akuwin enjoyed the ceremonial glitter of military parades and was known for watching the business traffic at the fort's store for hours from a nearby bench. "Mni Akuwin was a loafer, one of the tribal members who hung around the fort and integrated with the whites," Douville said. "She was hooked into materialism and technology." Born in 1848 and described as tall, beautiful and strong-willed, Mni Akuwin was a young woman caught between two cultures. It is rumored by many that she refused to marry Indian suitors and that she even told her father she wanted to marry an Army captain, probably because of her frequent visits to the fort. Douville calls these rumors far-fetched, saying that a secret affair between two people with different ethnic backgrounds would be next to impossible to hide. Nevertheless, Mni Akuwin had always enjoyed spending time at the fort and told her father and others that she wanted to be buried there. On Feb. 22, 1866, she died from complications of tuberculosis. The harsh winter, rigors of war activities and close escapes from the U.S. Cavalry took their toll. Spotted Tail, who was contemplating signing a peace treaty with the United States, found that his daughter's death played an important part in his decision. "His daughter had a tremendous impact on him," Douville said. She had tried to persuade him to consider peaceful relationships, but many of his own tribal council members were reluctant to trust the United States again. An open-minded colonel Shortly after her death, Col. Maynadier received word that Mni Akuwin had died and that her father was coming to the fort. Maynadier, an 1851 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., had known Mni Akuwin at the fort and had been commander of Fort Laramie up until a month before her death. At the time of her death, Maynadier had been promoted to overall commander of the 5th United States Volunteers and was charged with establishing peace with the "hostile" tribes in his region. "Wishing to do him honor as being one of the principal chiefs of the nation, and on account of the peculiar circumstances of his visit, I rode out with several soldiers and met him halfway between the fort and the Platte (River)," Maynadier wrote in his report. "I sympathized deeply in his affliction, and felt honored by his confidence in committing to my care the remains of a child whom I knew he loved much," he wrote. Maynadier told Spotted Tail that "everything should be prepared to have her funeral at sunset, and as the sun went down, it might remind him of the darkness left in his lodge when his beloved daughter was taken away, but as the sun would surely rise again, so she would rise, and someday we would all meet in the land of the Great Spirit." For some time, Spotted Tail was overcome with emotion and could not speak. Tears fell from his eyes, which was rare for an Indian, Maynadier thought. After taking Maynadier's hand, Spotted Tail spoke in an "eloquent oration." "This must be a dream for me to be in such a fine room and surrounded by such as you," Spotted Tail said. "Have I been asleep during the last four years of hardship and trial and dreaming that all is well again, or is this real? Yes, I see that it is, the beautiful day, the sky blue, without a cloud, the wind calm and still to suit the errand I come on and remind me that you have offered me peace." Honoring the past The combined Christian/Indian burial ceremony was "unheard of at the time," said Charles Stehle, 71, of Philadelphia. Stehle, who is the great- great nephew of Col. Maynadier, visited Fort Laramie in 2001 and thought of having a wayside exhibit. "When I saw the fort, I was interested in reacquainting my family with the Spotted Tail family," he said. Stehle helped prove to the National Park Service that Mni Akuwin's funeral was a historically significant event because of the relationship it created between the two leaders. The 12 local tribes were notified, and no one had any objections to the wayside exhibit. "After the funeral, both men became less warrior-like and more peaceful," Stehle said. "Both men were criticized by their people for being too soft on the enemy." But their interactions at the funeral deeply affected both men, strongly contributing to a trust that led to the signing of the 1868 peace treaty. When relatives of Spotted Tail's family heard about the wayside exhibit, they were excited. "Maynadier had incredible foresight and generosity to see that he could help a grieving man and his family begin the conciliatory process," said Trudell Guerue, an ancestor of Spotted Tail. "It was a courageous thing to do." Guerue, who lives in a suburb of St. Paul, Minn., finds the history of the exhibit and its emotions to be beautiful. Guerue and Stehle will both speak at Saturday's ceremonies, as well as a Lakota holy man and an Episcopal priest, in a combined Christian/Indian ceremony similar to the unusual service held for Mni Akuwin in 1866. There will also be a ceremonial rifle salute by the Lakota Honor Guard and a ceremonial cannon salute by the Fort Laramie Crew. Mni Akuwin was originally buried in a pine coffin that was placed on top of a tall scaffold. Two of her horses were killed and their heads and tails were placed on the poles. The scaffold stood for about 10 years before falling to the elements, at which time Spotted Tail retrieved her remains and had them reburied in Nebraska. The University of Wyoming Heritage Center found an ankle bone thought to belong to Mni Akuwin at the site of the original scaffold. The bone will be reburied in the same area during the ceremony, near the old fort hospital. Saturday's events, which run all day, are free and open to the public. Assistant State Editor John Morgan can be reached at (307) 266-0614 or john.morgan@casperstartribune.net. Copyright c. 2005 by the Casper Star-Tribune published by Lee Publications, Inc. --------- "RE: First Nations celebrate Culture, Traditions" --------- Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 08:56:27 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NATIONAL ABORIGINAL DAY " http://www.capebretonpost.com/news.aspx?storyID=36724 First Nations celebrate culture, traditions Chris Shannon June 22, 2005 Eskasoni - Generations of community residents gathered Tuesday to celebrate their heritage, honour their war veterans and be proud of contributions made by First Nations, Inuit and Metis people across the country. National Aboriginal Day, which is marked on the first day of summer each year, attracted hundreds of people to the Sarah Denny Memorial Cultural Centre in Eskasoni. The main draw was the traditional feast of moose meat and salmon that had people lined up around the centre's multi-purpose room. As custom dictates the native band's elders were first to be served. Renowned Mi'kmaq poet Rita Joe was one of those elders at the feast. Joe, who at 73, continues to be ch