_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 13, ISSUE 032 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 August 6, 2005 Hopi paamuya/joyful moon Yuchi tseneaga/dog days moon Blackfeet pakkii'pistsi otsiai'tssp/moon when choke berries ripen +-------------------------------------------------------+ | 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; UUCP email; Frostys AmerIndian, Oyate Underground, Rez Life, Native American Poetry and Indigenous Peoples Literature Lists IMPORTANT!! ----------- In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, all material appearing in this newsletter is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for educational purposes. <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is a way of keeping the brothers and sisters who share our Spirit informed about current events within the lives of those who walk the Red Road. ++ It may be subscribed to via email by sending a request from your own internet addressable account to gars@speakeasy.org ++ It is archived at http://www.nanews.org <================<<<< >>>>================> +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | As historian Patricia Nelson | | Once a language is lost, it is | | Limerick summarized in "The | | gone forever | | Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken | | * Of the 300 original Native | | Past of the American West... | | languages in North America, | | "Set the blood quantum at | | only 175 exist today. | | one-quarter, hold to it as a | | * 125 of these are no longer | | rigid definition of Indians, | | learned by children. | | let intermarriage proceed as | | * 55 are spoken by 1 to 6 elders;| | it had for centuries, and | | when they die, their language | | eventually Indians will be | | will disappear. | | defined out of existence." | | * Without action, only 20 | | "When that happens, the federal | | languages will survive the next| | government will be freed of | | 50 years. | | its persistent 'Indian problem.'"| | Source: Indigenous Language | +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ | Institute | |http://www.indigenous-language.org| This issue's Elder Quote: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + ======================== "We're bending over backwards to help the United States, to protect the public and we're not getting any help," "If this happened in any other area of the country, it would be viewed as a crisis. But it's the fact that it's in Indian Country." __ Chairwoman Vivian Juan-Saunders, Tohono O'odham +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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 Sister! I learned a long time ago you can go into a room of six elders, ask each the same question... and, possibly receive six answers. Later I also learned all six answers will be right. Another time I was struggling with the dilemma of dealing with life and service to my people from two perspectives, one of a warrior and the other of a keeper of a Sacred object that required me to honor in all ways the effort to always seek peace and understanding. I went to an honorable and strong keeper of the ways with my struggle. His answer was so simplistic it startled me. Then he added, "The answer is often simple. Following the answer is seldom so simple." The above is not to draw attention to myself. It is to help you come to a place in your own mind that will help you reflect on two items in this issue. I ask you to read and take each to heart. I ask that you realize both are right. I can tell you understanding this truth is very simple. Coming to terms with the truth of both may not be so simple. The two items I ask each of you to read are "The next Dawn" by Johnny Rustywire and "Warchief explained" by Tom Dostou. They are both near the end of the newsletter with the featured poem. That is the section reserved for "heart words". Learn from the wisdom of each. Listen to their words with your heart. You may even learn something of yourself in the process. 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 ----------- - Settlement Figure still elusive - Apache Sunrise Ceremony in Cobell fight celebrates Womanhood - Native Leaders urge controls - Tribal Women, Girls gather over Indian Agency for Weekend of Healing - Illegals streaming - Rebuilding a Hawaiian Kingdom across Arizona Tribal Lands - A new Deal for B.C. Natives - FBI Agents meet with - First Nations move in on Tribal Leaders Westbay Marina RV Park - Congress targets - Huu-ay-aht protest Sellers of Fake Indian Crafts forestry operations - Renzi: BIA to blame - First Nation Land Claim for lack of Home ownership is the Subject of Appeal - McCain Bill would dissolve - First Nations Vets of Korean War U.S. Relocation Office seek Fair Deal - Delegation urges - Mexico frees First Group Black Hills logging of Indian Inmates - Winner can learn Lessons - Caribbean Native Nations from other Cities join UN Permanent Forum - Catholic Hospital - Indigenous Peace initiatives adds Room for Indians Under Attack - Tribe finds niche - A Stake in World of Outsourcing through the Heart of the World - Tribe's research - Money for Blackfeet Jail promotes River's Progress part of Bill - Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe - Native Prisoner awaits ruling in 2007 -- Court throws out Calif. - NA Documentary: prison grooming policy Deadly Lewis and Clark encounter - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - LYONS: Fire and firewater - Rustywire: The next Dawn in Native America - War Chief explained - Mississippi Band of Choctaw: - Lee Goins Poem: Children From Social Reality - Device may save Languages - ANWR not in Final Draft - PRESS RELEASE: Shawn Michael Perry --------- "RE: Settlement Figure still elusive in Cobell fight" --------- Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 08:58:42 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TRUST 101" http://www.indianz.com/News/2005/009511.asp Settlement figure still elusive in Cobell fight July 27, 2005 The Bush administration on Tuesday refused to back down from its claim that Indian beneficiaries are owed little for the historic mismanagement of their trust accounts. Two Interior Department officials repeated their position that they would not settle the Cobell v. Norton lawsuit for the billions that have been proposed. "If you use the facts that we have found so far in the accounting process, the number would be very, very low," said Jim Cason, the associate deputy secretary. "We don't think the facts that we have thus far would support a very high number." "It's not evident that where was wholesale fraud," added Ross Swimmer, the Special Trustee for American Indians. But during a round of questions, the officials clarified that the project isn't complete. Cason acknowledged the "uncertainty and risk" with the historical accounting because it doesn't go back to 1887, the inception of the trust, and is limited in scope. The officials wouldn't propose a settlement amount either, citing the ongoing work. The administration's stance conflicted with the views of the plaintiffs in the Cobell lawsuit, tribal leaders and Indian organizations. Earlier this month, the coalition released a set of principles that called for a $27.5 billion settlement of the case. The two leaders of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee also are pushing to end the nine-year-old lawsuit, which they say is hurting efforts to advance other tribal issues. Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), the chairman, and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota), the vice chairman, introduced a bill last week that envisions a large settlement. "While the legislation does not specify a dollar amount, it does make clear that the resolution will be for billions of dollars," McCain said in his opening statement. "Indian people have been cheated, bilked and defrauded over a long period of time," added Dorgan. A slate of Indian leaders praised McCain and Dorgan for recognizing that a settlement would run in the billions. "This is not reparations, this is not damages, nor is it welfare," testified Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. "It is simply a return of the money that was, and is, being taken from us." But nearly every tribal witness said distribution of the fund shouldn't be left in the hands of the Department of Treasury, a named defendant, as provided in the bill. They told the committee that the federal court handling the case is the more appropriate place to determine how much beneficiaries are owed. "We want to make sure that the sheepdog is guarding the sheep," said Ernie Stensgar, the president of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians. Tex Hall, the president of the National Congress of American Indians, said tribal leaders need to know how much Congress is willing to pay. "In order for us to convince Indian Country and our members that whatever figure is settled on is fair, we need to be armed with a dollar amount and a credible rationale that we can explain to our tribal members," he testified. McCain has previously said the $27.5 billion is too high, so Hall suggested an alternate amount. He said the "starting point" should be around $14 billion because that is the Bush administration's estimate of what a full and complete accounting back to 1887 would cost. Whatever the final figure, McCain said it can't be "forced down the throat" of any party. He also said the amount must pass muster among other members of Congress and the American public. The bill makes clear that the settlement would come from the federal government's judgment fund, a provision welcomed by the Indian witnesses. "Unquestionably, funds to settle the injustice against Individual Indian Money account holders cannot come from Indian programs," said Jim Gray, the chief of the Osage Nation. It is not clear what will come next in the process for S.1439, the Indian Trust Reform Act of 2005. McCain said there wouldn't be a round of hearings to discuss the bill, which doesn't yet have a companion in the House. Cobell and the other witnesses, including the Interior Department, said they would work with the committee to make changes to the bill. McCain didn't say how he would arrive at a settlement figure. Copyright c. 2000-2005 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Native Leaders urge controls over Indian Agency" --------- Date: Friday, July 29, 2005 9:23 PM From: Bill McAllister [bmcallister@cox.net] Subj: NATIVE LEADERS URGE JUDGE TO PLACE CONTROLS OVER INDIAN AGENCY FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NATIVE LEADERS URGE JUDGE TO PLACE CONTROLS OVER INDIAN AGENCY WASHINGTON, July 29 -- Two Native American leaders Friday urged the judge overseeing a class action lawsuit over the Interior Department's admitted mismanagement of its Indian trust program to keep tight controls over the department. Without strong supervision, workers in Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs tend to abuse Native people and fail to get them the maximum returns for leases of their lands, said Ernestine Werelus of Fort Hall, Idaho, and Ervin Chavez of Bloomfield, N.M. They were the final witnesses in a 59-day hearing into the security of government computers that hold information on an estimated 500,000 individual Indian Trust accounts. Lawyers for the Indians have told U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth that Interior provides little security for the accounts and that hackers can easily penetrate Interior's computers. As the Indians completed their case, both Werelus and Chavez recounted their efforts to help trust beneficiaries get the maximum returns for their lands. Under federal law, the Interior Department serves as trustee for Indian lands and is supposed to protect the interests of Indians. But the two Native leaders told Lamberth that the BIA often fails Indians. Head of an association of Navajo land allottees, Chavez said he has found many "major miscalculations" in oil and gas leases the BIA has arranged on the Navajo reservation. These cleary hurt Indians but oil companies are not about to change the leases, he said. "If the government doesn't say thing, they will let these things go on," Chavez testified. Werelus, who heads a similar association on the Shoshone-Bannock Reservation in Idaho, told the judge that she had help bolster the revenues Indians there were receiving from their lands by more than $4.5 million over BIA-negotiated leases. Too many of the leases for the Idaho fertile farmlands on the reservation were being won by a group of farmers who had close ties to the BIA, she said. By negotiating with individual farmers outside the group, Werelus said she had been able to boost the prices of farmland leases from as little as $35 an acre to upwards of $201 an acre. BIA negotiators let "farmers ... walk away with a lot of dollars in their pockets and keep the Indians in poverty," she testified. Calling BIA workers poorly trained and inept, Werelus told the judge: "They were assigned to be our trustee and they haven't done a thing for us. They've taken us down." A county commissioner in New Mexico's San Juan County, Chavez said the BIA relies on too many standardized, "cookie-cutter leases" that tend to favor oil companies over Indians. In many cases, Indians are charged for the expenses of oil exploration on their lands and end up with checks that are "zeroes," he said. "If I thought they were more reliable, I wouldn't have been involved in this for 24 years," Chavez said. The problems of Mary Johnson, an 80-year-old Navajo grandmother who lives in southern Utah, "just boggles my mind," said Chavez. Johnson had testified Thursday she had received little money from the four oil weeks that have been pumping on her lands for more than 50 years. "If I were living there with four oil wells, I would be living quite well," Chavez said, adding that Johnson's financial plight "is definitely not right." Johnson testified through a translator that BIA officials have never explained to her satisfaction why she has made so little money from the wells or pipelines that cross her lands. Lawyers for the Indians cited the need for controls on the BIA as they asked the judge to order the government to disconnect any computers with trust data from the Internet. They said the testimony of the three Indians showed that many trust beneficiaries depend on payments from the BIA for living. The issue is not just one of computer security, said Bill Dorris, one of the Indians' lawyers. "We're not talking about computers," he said. "We talking about people trying to get the basic necessities of life." To insure those people continue to get their checks promptly, they need the certainty that their trust data is secure, the lawyers said. "The problem we're dealing with is that the government is killing our clients," said attorney Dennis Gingold. The lead lawyer in the trust case, Gingold said Interior's many problems administering the trust are well known. "The whole world knows how bad it is," he said. The lawyer urged Lamberth to place restrictions on the government's trust computers so "the trail of tears can end at Third and Constitution." That's the location of the federal courthouse in Washington. Bill McAllister --------- "RE: Illegals streaming across Arizona Tribal Lands" --------- Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 17:18:12 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TOHONO O'ODHAM" http://www.rlnn.com/ArtJuly05/TribeBattlesWaveImmiegants.html Tribe battles huge wave of immigrants Porous border: its resources are slim, and the illegals know it; streaming across Arizona tribal lands by night By Angie Wagner The Associated Press TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION, Ariz. - When the scorching daylight fades and dusk drifts into this Indian reservation, the Sonoran Desert begins to rustle. Mesquite trees become hide-outs and the deep washes turn into human freeways filled with illegal immigrants winding their way over the worn trails that will carry them into America. They move at night, when it's cooler and the moon's glow can guide them from Mexico onto an Indian nation so vast that many easily slip through a flimsy barbed wire fence unnoticed. "It's like the desert doesn't sleep," tribal police officer Darrell Ramon says, peering into the night as he drives through the nation's isolated communities. "It wakes up at night. Bodies start moving out there. You see headlights way in the desert." Despite a strong Border Patrol presence, the immigrants still come. It's easier here, they say. Here, they find tribal police officers who are overwhelmed. Money is scarce for this tribe, and there is little help from the federal government. The Tohono O'odham people are tired, exhausted with truckloads of immigrants trashing their land, raiding their homes and stealing their cars. The flow never stops. Not in a place that shares 75 vulnerable miles of the U.S.-Mexican border. Deep in desert: Deep into the Sonoran, Ramon drives over hilly dirt roads riddled with potholes, never sure of what he will find. Often, it's a group of exhausted immigrants waiting for their ride to freedom. Or lost, disoriented men who find their way to the main roads, begging for help. Occasionally, a family out of food and water. Then there are the bodies. Last year, 51 people succumbed to the pounding Arizona heat. "It's an everyday thing out here. It's constant from sundown to sunup," he said. Indian County makes up only 2 percent of the country, but tribal lands encompass more than 260 miles of international borders. Thirty-six tribes have lands that are close to or cross over international boundaries with Mexico or Canada. Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants cross these borders and disappear into the heart of Indian Country each year, according to the National Congress of American Indians. And tribes feel they are on their own, left with easy routes into America and not enough money to do a job the government should be doing. This reservation is part of the Border Patrol's Tucson sector - the busiest place in the country for illegal border crossings. Last year, more than 491,000 illegal immigrants were arrested in this area. Combined with arrests in Yuma to the west, the numbers make up more than half of all immigrants arrested in the entire country. But many - Indians say most - are never caught. "They know they'll most likely get through," Ramon said. When you reach the border, not far from the main reservation town of Sells, a barbed wire fence extends as far as the eye can see in either direction. A Border Patrol agent sits in his SUV under a tree, waiting. A helicopter buzzes overhead, dipping low into the desert. An old pickup truck rumbles up toward the Mexican side. Tribal member Harriet Toro hears the rattle before anyone else. "Listen," she says, looking into the emptiness. The truck approaches, perhaps just for a look, then turns back. Much poverty: There are 24,000 Tohono O'odham members, and 14,000 live here on the reservation. Forty percent live in poverty and many members still lack basics such as running water and electricity. Obesity and diabetes are rampant. Unemployment is 42 percent, and only 52 percent of students graduate from high school. An hour southwest of Tucson, it's another quiet evening in Sells. The summer heat is relenting and women who sold their homemade tacos in the vacant lots are packing up for the day. The community gym is filling with after-work fitness buffs and children walk along the streets. Commuters are making their way home, often to some of the 60 villages that make up this reservation of 2.8 million acres - the equivalent of the size of Connecticut. Each year the tribe spends more than $3 million dealing with illegal immigrant activity, from finding immigrants, offering medical help and paying for autopsies to hauling away trash and abandoned vehicles. Immigrants take up 60 percent of the tribe's law enforcement time. The tribe would rather spend all that money and time on health care, education and housing. From 2001 to 2004, the tribe received $310,613 for homeland security planning, training and equipment purchases. This year, the Interior Department gave the tribe $1.3 million to help control immigration. But that was not even half what the tribe will spend for the year. "We're bending over backwards to help the United States, to protect the public and we're not getting any help," said tribal Chairwoman Vivian Juan-Saunders. "If this happened in any other area of the country, it would be viewed as a crisis. But it's the fact that it's in Indian Country." Arizona's governor and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., have also complained about the lack of funding, with McCain calling it "disgraceful." Yet McCain also said the money has to be given where the greatest risk is, "and the greatest risk is not a lot of Indian reservations." Trouble begins: The trouble began for the Tohono O'odham people when the government started cracking down on illegal immigration into California and Texas in 1993. With more agents and helicopters on duty, smugglers had to find other routes. They were forced onto remote federal and tribal lands, where they know there are fewer resources and more chances to slip across the border. "These individuals are going to use the covers of darkness, the shadows of the deep canyon," said Mario Villarreal, spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. "That's why they move to these isolated portions of the border." The result is a land overrun with immigrants. The Tohono O'odham estimate 1,500 people each day cross the border into their reservation. Last year, more than 400,000 pounds of marijuana were seized and 141 immigrants died in the Tucson sector, according to the Border Patrol. More than 2,300 Border Patrol agents are assigned to the Tucson area, up about 800 agents from 2000. By the end of the year, 534 agents will be added to the Arizona border. The tribe and the Border Patrol often have a love-hate relationship. Tribal members want the Border Patrol to do its job, but tire of the constant helicopters and getting stopped on their way back and forth across the border, where the Tohono O'odham's land extends. They also say the Border Patrol shouldn't have access to the tribe's sacred sites. But the head of the Border Patrol's union said the tribe is a difficult partner and could help itself more. "They need to make a decision whether they want to be part of the team or treat themselves as a foreign nation," said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council. He opposes giving the tribe the direct homeland security funding it wants, saying it doesn't have the expertise to deal with illegal immigration. The Border Patrol insists it works well with the tribe, but a Government Accountability Office report on border security last June found that federal lands agencies, Border Patrol and tribal governments lack coordination and that land management agencies believe funding to prevent illegal crossings has been insufficient. Scary scenes: When the desert turns to black and Royetta Thomas rounds the corner to her street in the tiny community of Miguel, she shudders at what she might find. Her house backs up to the Sonoran, and immigrants often use her spigot to get water. Twice, her house was broken into, her window busted and food, shoes and jewelry stolen. This is the burden of living in the path of the busiest border crossing area in the country. "Now it's like you don't even know who's watching you," she said from her front yard. "I'm just wondering what's next? We have no privacy." Everyone here has similar stories: The time immigrants were found hiding in a large trash bin, waiting for their ride, or when immigrants stole clothes from a clothes line so they could look American. One brave soul swiped food off the stove as it cooked. Many say they struggle with how much to help desperate immigrants, and the tribe even battles its own members who can't resist easy money for hauling a load of immigrants or drugs. Last year, more than 130 tribal members were arrested for smuggling. Tribal patrol officer Mario Saraficio is a few hours into his shift when he gets a call. A blue Chevy truck loaded with immigrants has been spotted on an isolated stretch of dirt road. He flies through the desert, past the empty water bottles, shoes and clothes strewn about. There are fewer piles of trash since the tribe received a federal grant two years ago to clean them up. Still, the tribe estimates trash sometimes amounts to 6 tons a day. Abandoned cars, some burned and overturned, haunt the reservation. Last year, more than 1,700 cars were left here. Some sit for months, waiting for the tow truck. "To us, the earth is very sacred," said Verlon Jose, a tribal council member. "It's not only damaging physically, but spiritually and emotionally when we see these things." The blue Chevy proves elusive. No telltale dust on the roads, no movement in the still desert. A strange lull has settled on the reservation in the past few weeks. Unusual, Saraficio said. But it won't be for long. They've probably just moved to another spot. Then, almost out of nowhere, an immigrant emerges up ahead along the edge of state Highway 86. He is Jose Gonzalez, a 44-year-old father of five from Acambay, Mexico. He wears new hiking shoes, a worn backpack and a grin. For four days, he walked off and on to reach America along with 11 other people. They got separated, and Gonzalez was robbed of almost all the $1,200 he was to pay the smuggler. He planned to make his way to Chicago and work as a landscaper. Now he is thirsty, hungry and giving up. The Border Patrol whisks him away to be sent back home. But, he says, he will try again next week. The officer eases back into his SUV and heads back out into the night, knowing there will always be another just like Jose Gonzalez. For the Tohono O'odham, it has become a way of life. Copyright c. 2005 Red Lake Net News. --------- "RE: FBI Agents meet with Tribal Leaders" --------- Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 08:25:09 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FBI MEET" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=6760 FBI agents meet with tribal leaders Event designed to foster better policing on Native lands Sam Lewin July 25, 2005 For out-of-towners, the reservations of the American Southwest can seem worlds apart from anything they have ever experienced before. Now imagine having to investigate a violent crime in the area. You don't know the people, language, traditions or terrain. Realizing that those drawbacks are anything but ideal circumstances for effective policing, more than 30 G-Men from around Arizona attended a special law enforcement training session designed to help officials in the Federal Bureau of Investigation understand the complex issues that exist on Indian land. The FBI employees included agents, analysts and support personnel. The session was held at the Heard Museum in Phoenix and conducted by educational services manager Gina Laczko and program specialist Wendy Weston, a member of the Navajo Nation. The seminar included an overview of Arizona's 22 tribes and the cultural issues and challenges they face. The FBI frequently works along with tribal police departments to investigate crimes that happen on Indian land. Organizers of the training sessions say the event was the first-of-a- kind, with the hope that understanding a tribe's culture can facilitate greater law enforcement cooperation. Those attending witnessed presentations on boarding schools and heard from various tribal leaders, including a question and answer session. "As a living museum representing Native people, the Heard is uniquely qualified to train federal officials regarding tribal community matters. In our post-9/11 society, these types of partnerships are instrumental in improving homeland security and community relations. My hope is that this will be the first of many sessions offered by the Heard Museum, not only for the FBI, but other local and national law enforcement organizations," said Jason Meyers, director of marketing communications for the Heard Museum. Meyers helped organize the event and is also a graduate of the Phoenix FBI Citizens' Academy. Officials say the academy helps foster relationships and understanding between FBI field offices and their communities. Proponents say the result has been an improved ability to solve crimes and help citizens make their communities a safer place. Museum director Frank Goodyear said it is only natural that the Heard would be used for the session. Opened in 1929, the museum has more than 35, 000 artifacts in its permanent collection, along with an education center, a bookstore and restaurant. "For more than 75 years the Heard has been committed to connecting with the communities we serve. We are increasingly seen as a world leader and the intellectual forefather for many museums dedicated to Native materials, including the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C.," Goodyear said. Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Congress targets Sellers of Fake Indian Crafts" --------- Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 08:51:06 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FAKE ARTS AND CRAFTS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.billingsgazette.com//2005/07/25//nation/60-fake-indian-art.inc Congress targets sellers of fake Indian art, crafts Scripps Howard News July 25, 2005 WASHINGTON - An effort is under way in Congress to help stop the sale of fake American Indian arts and crafts. At shops throughout the West, a customer will ask why a necklace or pot costs three times what a similar item costs down the street. The other piece is usually a cheap knockoff made by non-natives with non-native materials, most likely by machine in a foreign country. "It looks the same, but the materials aren't as fine, and it's not made in the traditional way," said NaNa Ping, who makes inlay jewelry in New Mexico. For 15 years, it's been against federal law to sell Indian art unless American Indians make it. It's also illegal to sell foreign-made Indian- style art or crafts without a label identifying the country of origin. Last month, a woman was indicted in Albuquerque on federal charges of selling fake Navajo rugs. Such prosecutions are rare, concedes New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. "Generally, with the FBI, their top mission in Indian County is investigating violent crime, and when you have a lot of those crimes there's not a lot of time to prosecute this class of criminal offenses. We do these occasionally," Iglesias said. Arizona Republican Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain want to help the FBI. They have introduced legislation to let agents from the Bureau of Indian Affairs investigate fake art, on the reservation and off. "These violations are serious, and we need to provide the necessary federal resources to preserve the cultural heritage of our native people," Kyl said. NaNa Ping is president of the Indian Arts and Crafts Association, which represents 1,500 American Indian artists. He said sales of the cheaper fake art hurts the income of real American Indian artists. "They need to stop this. They're hurting our market," he said. David Cloutier, executive director of the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, voiced similar concerns. The association sponsors the annual Santa Fe Indian Market, on Aug. 20-21 this year. The association uses a review board to ensure that only American Indians selling their own goods occupy its booths, he said. "This region is the marketplace of Native American arts worldwide and for tourists," said Cloutier. "There are people who deal in that kind of knockoff situation, and we'd like to see that curtailed, just for the sake of income to Native Americans." Kyl said the federal agency that refers complaints about fake American Indian art for prosecution, the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, is concerned that cases were not making it to the attorney general for prosecution. "Indian country is getting slammed" by the number of cheap knockoffs, said the board's director, Meredith Stanton, but it's not an FBI priority, particularly since 9/11. Sometimes, they are able to work with a retailer to resolve the complaint, Stanton said. The most serious cases are reported to the Federal Trade Commission or the FBI. Bill Ellwell, spokesman for the FBI's Albuquerque field office, said agents take cases of fake American Indian art seriously and have worked with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. But Iglesias said they could prosecute more cases if the bureau's agents had the investigative authority being considered by Kyl's bill. New Mexico's senators have complained about the lack of enforcement of the counterfeit American Indian art for years. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who pressured Customs officials in the 1990s to step up efforts against foreign fakes, said the new bill is a good idea and he will support it. "These fakes pose a serious economic threat to artists and craftsmen," he said. "Counterfeit goods amount to cheating these artisans and their customers." Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said he is studying the Kyl-McCain bill. "Any action we can take to crack down on the sale of counterfeit Indian arts and crafts would be a major step in the right direction," he said. "But given that Indian programs have been dramatically cut in recent years, I have my doubts about whether will be available to make this legislation effective." Copyright c. The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Renzi: BIA to blame for lack of Home ownership" --------- Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 08:58:42 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CONGRESSMAN RENZI ACCUSES BIA" http://www.gallupindependent.com/2005/july/072605renzi.html Renzi: BIA to blame for lack of home ownership Congressman: Red tape hinders Natives from buying homes By Pamela G. Dempsey Dine' Bureau WINDOW ROCK - Lack of funding is not the only obstacle facing Native American home ownership. Congressmen Rick Renzi indicated during a joint hearing last week between Congress' Financial Services and Resources Committee that the Bureau of Indian Affairs' red-tape processes blocks, rather than pushes, home ownership in Indian Country. "Home ownership is a vital part of safe and healthy communities," Renzi stated in a press release. "But for many Native Americans working with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the home ownership process is an unnecessarily complicated and frustrating experience." These processes add to the problem. While legislation was passed to offer a 95 percent guarantee for some federal loans, federal funds are taken away because these guarantee programs are not being used, Renzi said. In addition, because the Bureau of Indian Affairs has a large backlog of title transfers, Native American families are still waiting to move into new homes. "So, we have a huge need for housing in Indian Country while new, safe and clean houses sit empty," Renzi said. Bureau processes also tie up recording mortgage documents and title status and will not release owner information to private organizations unless the organization receives permission from the owner. Renzi called this the bureau's version of "Catch-22." "It might even seem comical if it weren't for the fact that absurd policies like this contribute to the terrible conditions many Native families find themselves in," Renzi said. According to Renzi's office, Native Americans suffer a 27 percent poverty rate, more than twice the national average and overcrowded reservation homes are six times the national average as well, standing at 33 percent. Renzi said during last week's hearing that Native Americans suffer not only from overcrowded, substandard housing conditions, but also from lack of infrastructure as well. Sixteen percent of reservation homes lack indoor plumbing. Copyright c. 2005 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: McCain Bill would dissolve U.S. Relocation Office" --------- Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 08:42:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="UNRESOLVED ISSUES FROM A BAD LAW" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.thenavajotimes.com/ McCain bill would dissolve U.S. relocation office July 28, 2005 WASHINGTON - The Navajo Nation would support a proposal by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to dissolve the federal Navajo-Hopi Indian Relocation Office but only if further hardship is eliminated and the action is not simply to save money, according to a news release from the Navajo Nation President's office. McCain, chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, received testimony July 21 on his proposal to amend the 1974 Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act. His proposal (S. 1003) would dissolve the relocation office as of Sept. 30, 2008, and its remaining duties would be transferred to a new division within the Interior Department. During the July 21 hearing, McCain said the program has cost too much and lasted too long. The program, passed by Congress over the objections of the Navajo Nation, was proposed as a $40 million program to build homes and move 10,000 Navajos and about 100 Hopis over 12 years. It has ballooned to $483 million and has lasted 30 years and is still incomplete. Testifying before McCain's committee were President Joe Shirley Jr., Hopi Chairman Wayne Taylor, Navajo Nation Navajo-Hopi Land Commission Director Roman Bitsuie, and Navajo Nation Attorney General Louis Denetsosie. Shirley said the Navajo Nation would support the bill as long as any proposed solution does not cause more hardships for affected residents, and that closure of the program not stem merely from a desire to save money for the federal government. Taylor said the Hopi Tribe's position is to see all relocations completed before the office is closed. "Evictions should be mandatory," Taylor said. Shirley said, "Now that the Navajo people have had to live through the nightmare of relocation, we do not think federal budgetary issues alone should be a basis for limiting funds to complete the program, and doing so in a way that brings humanity to what has otherwise been an inhumane process." When asked by McCain whether the relocation program was voluntary, Christopher Bavasi, the federal relocation office director, said it was, somewhat. "This was something less than a voluntary program but it has been operated as a voluntary program," he said. Bavasi said the program has also been encumbered by continuous court battles. "In hindsight, maybe we shouldn't have pass the law in the first place," McCain remarked. Shirley said another concern is the 1.5-million-acre Bennett Freeze, which was instituted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and prohibited all development and improvements since 1966. Calling the Bennett Freeze "horrendous," "a national shame" and a "disgrace," McCain asked Shirley whether he believed the freeze should be lifted. "Yes, I'd like to see it lifted," Shirley said. "I think that's what's needed." However, Bavasi said it "wouldn't be wise" to pass a law specifically to lift the Bennett Freeze, saying it could result in chaos. However Navajo officials said that did not occur when the freeze was temporarily lifted in 1993. Denetsosie said that the Navajo Nation has paid the Hopi Tribe $29 million in payments and spent more than $800,000 in attorney fees as a result of the relocation act. He added that there are 296 late applicants currently in process before the federal relocation office that may be certified for benefits. But almost none could be certified by the Sept. 30, 2005, deadline, he said. He said the Paragon Ranch in New Mexico had been purchased for the Navajo Nation with the intention that its coal reserves be used for the Navajos. But the land has yet to be transferred to the nation, he said. McCain said the relocation act is an example in which "the law of unintended consequences" may have prevailed. "No one thought in 1974 that these issues would be unresolved" in 2005, he said. "I'd like to put these issues behind us so we can begin to provide health care and housing that is terribly behind the rest of the country." Copyright c. 2005 Navajo Times Publishing Company Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Delegation urges Black Hills logging" --------- Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 08:51:06 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ASK THE TRIBES - IT'S STILL THEIR LAND" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.argusleader.com//article?AID=/20050725/NEWS/507250316/1001 Delegation urges Black Hills logging Members say following harvest plan would reduce fire risks PETER HARRIMAN pharrima@argusleader.com July 25, 2005 South Dakota's congressional delegation told the highest ranking official in the U.S. Forest Service to cut more timber in the Black Hills National Forest. During a July 20 meeting in the office of Sen. Tim Johnson, Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth and Rocky Mountain Region Forester Rick Cables heard Johnson, Sen. John Thune and Rep. Stephanie Herseth press them to complete by this fall the Phase 2 amendment to the forest plan. It would establish procedures for using logging to reduce fire and insect risks. The members of Congress also urged that commercial logging in the forest be stepped up to the allowable sale quantity of 83 million board feet. The ASQ is the amount of timber forest managers believe can be annually harvested in a sustained yield program. Before 1997, the ASQ for the Black Hills Forest was set at 118 MBF. In a forest plan revision that year, it was reduced to the present number. But timber harvest this decade has only averaged between 60-70 MBF annually. "The trick is to find that fine line between adequate timbering and preservation of both the aesthetic and wildlife qualities of the Black Hills," Johnson said. "We do not want clear-cut forestry going on, and we do not want mountains denuded of their trees. But if we don't do something, all we are going to be left with are blackened fire remains." Since 2000, wildfires have burned more than 180,000 of the forest's 1.2 million acres, and a bark beetle outbreak has killed thousands of trees in the northern Black Hills. Thune characterized the meeting similarly. "Everybody seemed to be pretty much on the same page. The delegation recognizes that forest health needs to be an issue they are concerned with," he said. That unity resonated with the Forest Service officials. "They wanted to impart to the chief and myself, perhaps more to the chief, how important it is to them and to their constituents to have the forest in as healthy a state as possible," Cables said after the meeting. All parties at the meeting agreed that ambitious logging is needed in the Black Hills to reduce the density of trees prone to insect damage, disease and fire and to open up stands of ponderosa pine to allow other native plant species such as aspen to flourish, according to Tom Troxel, director of the Black Hills Forest Resource Association, a timber interest group. "It was a good meeting," said Troxel, who attended. "I was delighted the three members of the delegation could come together. They were of one voice in talking to the chief, expressing their concerns and discussing their expectations. I thought it was a good two-way dialogue." Troxel also called the make-up of the group "appropriate for the issues we were talking about." But representatives of other Black Hills Forest users wish say they should have been included, and they take issue with the notion that commercial logging should be a major ingredient in the prescription to achieve a healthy forest. Sam Clauson of Rapid City is chairman of the Sierra Club's Black Hills group. "The Sierra Club hasn't changed our policy that we still strongly oppose all commercial timber sales. We think there are better ways of doing it," he said of reducing fire risk and improving the health of the forest. He added that the lightning-caused Ricco fire that burned across 3,900 acres near Piedmont this month burned through stands where timber has been harvested. Nancy Kile of Sturgis represents Defenders of the Black Hills, an organization of about 600 founded in 2002 and primarily involved in articulating traditional Indians values regarding the Black Hills. "I sure wish I would have been there," she said of the meeting in Johnson's office. Kile is an alternate member of the BHNF advisory council and finds it frustrating to attend council meetings where the worth of the forest is expressed in the dollar values of timber and tourism. "Our people consider this a nurturing hospital, a generous pharmacy, a church, a funerary, but I don't hear anything like that when I go to these meetings. They just promote the corporate welfare," she said of timber harvests. Such polarity is indicative of the management challenge the Forest Service faces on much of the 192 million acres of public land it oversees. The Black Hills highlights those issues to an even greater degree for a number of reasons. South Dakota is where the Forest Service cut its teeth on timber management. The first commercial timber sale on federal land anywhere in the U.S. took place on what was then the Black Hills Forest Reserve in 1899. "The Black Hills is such a critical part of the history and culture of western South Dakota. Dale understands the tribal issues, the religious significance of the Black Hills to Native Americans, and he understands the history of the Black Hills, where the very first timber sale occurred, " Cables said. Thune suggested the checkerboard of public and private land ownership across the Black Hills makes the Forest Service acutely aware of how its activities are perceived by diverse neighbors. "I think it is a fairly important forest to them because it is so habitated. It creates some unique challenges for them. Sometimes they learn some things from the activities, experiences and discussions that go on in the Black Hills, lessons that can be applied to other issues and challenges on other forests," he said. Craig Bobzien has been BHNF supervisor fewer than two weeks, but he's been in the Forest Service since 1978 and has a sense of the BHNF's standing. "The people really care. The public really cares," Bobzien said. "The Black Hills is a mecca for a lot of Americans." A high public acceptance for that kind of intense management, reflected in the urging of the Congressional delegation to step up logging, encourages the Forest Service, according to Cables. "The Black Hills is one of those places where it's win-win. We can have an active wood products industry, an active recreation program, a forest providing wildlife benefits," he said. A couple of representatives of wildlife constituencies concur with Cables' vision. From our perspective, it's not a matter of how much they cut, it's how they cut it," said Doug Hanson, wildlife director for the South Dakota Department of Game Fish and Parks. "From a wildlife perspective, we've always advocated a more mosaic harvest." Chris Hesla, Wildlife Federation director, said logging should be done in an environmentally friendly way. Johnson and Thune said they are united in an effort to secure additional federal funding for the Forest Service to accomplish fire risk reduction goals in the Black Hills, and Cables is appreciative. "The secret in the long term is to get the forest healthy," Cables says. "If we can get it healthy, we won't have to spend as much money on fire suppression. That's really been the thrust for the agency, to be really aggressive on fuels treatment nationally. Reach Peter Harriman at 575-3615. Copyright c. 2005 Argus Leader. All rights reserved --------- "RE: Winner can learn Lessons from other Cities" --------- Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 08:25:09 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RACE PROBLEMS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.argusleader.com//20050726/OPINION01/507260314/1052 Easing race relations Winner can learn lessons from other cities' reconciliation efforts July 26, 2005 Winner joined a growing list of South Dakota communities forced to face its race problems, after the American Civil Liberties Union recently filed a discrimination suit. In Winner's case, the ACLU says Native American students are disciplined more often and more harshly than white students. However the lawsuit is resolved, Winner can learn some lessons from other communities about how to bring people together. It's not easy. But it's not impossible, either - as long as everyone involved understands it's a long-term commitment. No better examples can be found than in Mobridge and Sioux Falls. Mobridge: In 1999, Robert "Boo" Many Horses, a 21-year-old mentally disabled Native American, was found dead in Mobridge. He had been stuffed into a trash can while intoxicated and died because he couldn't breathe. Four white teens were charged in his death. First, the charges were reduced, then dropped. Tensions were high, and the community responded. A Race Relations Council, based in the churches, was formed. An annual ethnic celebration was created. That helped for a while. But the ethnic celebration died out. Bryce Fellbaum, the pastor who led the Race Relations Council, took a position out of state, and now the council is dormant. Sioux Falls: In October 2003, four dozen teenagers were involved in fights - mostly whites against black refugees. In addition, a swastika and the letters "KKK" were found spray painted on a wall near the homes of some of the black teens. Community members - starting with the school district - responded quickly and formed a race-relations committee. An ad campaign was developed. An effort was made to help employers understand the need to employ minorities. And some special events are being held in an effort to promote diversity and understanding. Beyond that, there's little concrete, although the committee still hopes to make an impact. Every community is different. But in the case of Mobridge and Sioux Falls, what happened is clear. After the initial drive to bring groups of people together, the effort lost steam. That's understandable. It's difficult to come up with hard and fast ways of bringing people together. So often, those preaching efforts are aimed at the choir. The people who really need the efforts aren't interested. But there's another aspect. We don't hear state legislators talking about these issues, unless it's to reject efforts - such as tracking traffic stops to determine if there really is racial profiling. We don't hear discussions at school boards, unless there's a particular crisis. The same is true with mayors and city councils. Mobridge's Race Relations Committee was outside the governmental structure. So was that in Sioux Falls, although some community leaders were involved. Race is difficult to talk about, but any effort is going to be almost impossible to sustain without political leadership behind it - vocally, publicly and regularly. That is missing. And that is the lesson Winner can learn. In one sense, it doesn't matter if the lawsuit has merit. What matters is that a segment of the Winner community feels it is being discriminated against. No matter what happens in the courtroom, that must be addressed in the community, and that's going to take political leadership. In Winner. In Mobridge. In Sioux Falls. And anywhere else there's a racial problem. Copyright c. 2005 Argus Leader. All rights reserved --------- "RE: Catholic Hospital adds Room for Indians" --------- Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 08:42:32 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TRADITIONAL NEEDS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2005/07/29/news/state/sta03.txt Catholic hospital adds room for Indians By JAMES MacPHERSON, Associated Press Writer July 29, 2005 Sherman Iron Shield used to sneak his son behind some elevators at St. Alexius Medical Center to burn sacred herbs, hoping to chase away evil spirits without setting off fire alarms and sprinklers. The practice, known as smudging, along with modern medicine, helped his son, George, recover from a gunshot wound to the head nearly a dozen years ago, he said. "My son is still alive," Iron Shield said. On Thursday, the hospital dedicated a $350,000 solarium and meditation room that may be used for such things as burning sage, cedar or sweetgrass, or for singing or drumming. Sister Renee Zastoupil, director of pastoral programs for St. Alexius, said the meditation room is the first of its kind. "We know that it just is," she said. The meditation room, 12 feet by 20 feet, is intended to serve people of non-Christian faiths, or those "for whom the main chapel is not suitable," Zastoupil said. John Eagle Shield, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, helped push to get the meditation room at the hospital so American Indians could practice their sacred traditions. "We have had a lot of tribal people come here in the past who have said they were the victims of misunderstanding," Eagle Shield said. "A lot of people were reluctant to come here." Eagle Shield said the meditation room was several years in the making, and was a result of "sensitivity sessions" held with the hospital. "It's a special place," Eagle Shield said. He and Iron Shield burned sacred herbs to dedicate the room. The room features a window on the northeast side so Muslims can pray toward Mecca. Syed Hassan, a physician at St. Alexius, said he and the dozen or so other Muslim doctors at the hospital would use the room for daily prayer. Hassan said the window was "maybe not an exact straight shot" toward Mecca, "but it's good enough." "We are all children of God," Hassan told the crowd of about 200 people at the dedication ceremony on Thursday. "We are more similar than otherwise." The hospital has published rules for use of the room. The use of peyote and other drugs is prohibited, as is the "practice of any religion or act which is diametrically opposed to the Roman Catholic Church." The hospital lists "Satanism, Wicca and Voodoo" as examples. Nancy Willis, director of marketing for St. Alexius, said the number of American Indian admissions at the hospital increased 79 percent between 1998 and 2002. Willis said 8 percent of the hospital's 72,000 admissions in 2002 were Indians. She said 24 percent of the trauma patients admitted to the hospital were Indians, and three-fourths of those were from the Standing Rock reservation, which straddles the border between North Dakota and South Dakota. Copyright c. 2005 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c. 2005 Bismark Tribune. --------- "RE: Tribe finds niche in World of Outsourcing" --------- Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 08:51:06 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="OST OUTSOURCING" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/wdhbusiness/286456875452814.shtml American Indian tribe finds niche in world of outsourcing By Carson Walker The Associated Press July 25, 2005 KYLE, S.D. - The Oglala Lakota Sioux were among the last tribes to battle the U.S. cavalry, and their vast Pine Ridge reservation was ground zero in the American Indian Movement's 1970s clashes with federal agents. But proud resistance to outsiders hasn't been good for business. Here in the Badlands, economic opportunity has been as barren as the flora-thin hills. Unemployment is near 80 percent. Substance abuse is rampant. Tradition-bound, the Lakota Sioux want to be close to family and resist leaving the reservation. Tribal and business leaders are hoping that in an increasingly globalized economy, where information-processing work can be done nearly anywhere, they won't need to. The tribal leaders' bet: outsourcing. Their first big client: A Chinese- U.S. joint venture. Increasingly, American Indians are looking to outsourcing as a way of boosting economic opportunity without having to stray from their lands. On the Pine Ridge reservation, a local Indian-owned marketing and Web design startup, Lakota Express, can thank sloppy handwriting for its outsourcing fortunes. "We're people that have really been left out of the opportunities of the Industrial Revolution and now are being welcomed into the world economy in the Information Revolution," said Mark Tilsen, a Lakota Express executive. Eight Lakota Express employees vet the accuracy of electronic documents that are transcribed in China by workers who, while understanding English, often have difficulty deciphering Americans' handwriting. The work amounts to reverse outsourcing (performed as it is for a foreign company that has itself in the employ of a U.S. business). And experts expect plenty more of such work to become available. "There's nothing better than watching a reservation community thrive. You're seeing newer cars in the parking lot. They're buying homes. And I've watched that happen," said Carey Wold, a consultant who helped set up tribally owned companies on Northern Ute reservations in Utah. On four Utah reservations, 150 to 180 jobs full-time have been created through outsourcing, most of it government work but also commercial contracts, he said. One venture, owned by members of the Cedar Band of Paiutes, did $14 million in business last year, said Wold, whom it employs as a vice president of business development. Wold said the business, Suh'dutsing Technologies, expects to generate some $40 million in revenues this year. Jobs include data entry, call center, help desk and info-tech work, Wold said. U.S. companies are increasingly looking to Indian reservations as an alternative to going abroad for outsourced labor, said Doug Brown and Scott Wilson, authors of "The Black Book of Outsourcing." Among Indian nations trying to draw outsourcing work are the Navajo, he said, while corporations including Ford Motor Co., Dell Inc. and Capital One all are interested in working with Native American tribes instead of sending work to such countries as India, Ireland and the Philippines. Mary Underbaggage, 40, is one beneficiary. The college-educated Lakota Express employee, whose six children range in age from three to 21, grew up on the Pine Ridge reservation and lives on her family's land. "Our life is comfortable because I can pretty much take care of our day- to-day needs, compared to a lot of other families around me," said the soft-spoken Underbaggage. On the reservation, most jobs are in the public sector - either through the Bureau of Indian Affairs or the tribe. Private sector jobs are limited mostly to the tribe's casino and tourism-related businesses. Karlene Hunter, Lakota Express' founder and CEO, said her employees make an above-average income that starts at $7 an hour and increasing to $12 an hour as skills increase. "They might be doing quality control with China and answering a phone for another contract and working on data entry work at the same time," said Tilsen, whose company got its first outsourcing contract two years ago. The Chinese outsourcing venture marries Lakota Express with USE Limited, of Dallas and Hong Kong, and a Choctaw-owned company, Native American Management Services of McLean, Va., said Linda Crider, vice president of global strategies for USE. In an around-the-clock process typical of outsourcing, USE workers in China will enter data into computers from handwritten cards scanned at a job far in, say, Kansas City. The next morning, a Lakota Express employee here in Kyle will compare the scanned image of the original card with the data the Chinese entered to ensure its accuracy. The client often gets the vetted data within 24 hours. Labor in China is far cheaper than on this reservation, said Crider, whose company's clients include Daimler-Chrysler, United Van Lines, various global banks and newspapers. But the Chinese workers simply can't match the cultural affinity of Americans for certain work. And who knows, Pine Ridge may offer unexpected business opportunities for Chinese entrepreneurs. In a recent visit, USE executives and partners discussed ways to expand their dealings with the Lakota Sioux. One visitor, USE partner Simon Tam of Hong Kong, was taken by the idea of exporting buffalo meat. "When 1.3 billion Chinese start eating bison," he joked, "I think the problem to worry about is extinction." Copyright c. 2004 Wausau Daily Herald. --------- "RE: Tribe's research promotes River's Progress" --------- Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 08:51:06 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="PENOBSCOT" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/050725river.shtml Tribe's steadfast research promotes river's progress Associated Press July 25, 2005 INDIAN ISLAND - Last summer, most of Maine's longest river was clogged with tiny balls of blue-green algae, giving it the color and texture of pea soup. "Oh, it was bad," said Jason Mitchell, water quality program coordinator for the Penobscot Indian Nation. "The algae was like little floating BBs all through the water." Recently, as Mitchell made his regular rounds of sampling sites along the Penobscot River's West Branch, the water was liquid gold. "That's about as good as it gets on the river," Mitchell said, taking a measurement of the water's clarity one morning. For more than 20 years, members of the Penobscot tribe have documented the slow restoration of their ancestral river, which for decades has been polluted by the loggers who used its course as a lumber highway and by the paper industry that grew up along its banks. "The reservation is the river," said Dan Kusnierz, water resources program manager for the tribe. HIGH MERCURY LEVELS Tribal holdings include 240 river islands, scattered between Milford and Mattawamkeag. The main reservation, at Indian Island near Old Town, is surrounded by water. For centuries, Penobscots trapped and foraged along the banks and fished in the birch bark canoes for which the culture is known. Life revolved around the river. But today, tribal advisories warn pregnant women and children not to eat the river's fish, which are contaminated with high levels of pollutants. Carried along with the air pollution making its way northeast on the prevailing winds, mercury falls with rain, then undergoes chemical changes that allow it to build up in fish, wildlife and human bodies. In one impoundment on the Penobscot, mercury levels were higher than in samples taken downstream of the former Holtrachem manufacturing plant in Orrington, where mercury had been stored for years, Mitchell said. While new technology has all but removed dioxins from paper mill waste, the toxic chemicals have accumulated in sediment over the years, making it nearly impossible to clean up. Broad scientific studies to prove that Penobscots and other people who live along the river are suffering the effects of this pollution would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. But the fatal cancer diagnoses that seem to increase every year have convinced many tribal members of the connection, including Penobscot Chief Jim Sappier and Mitchell, who started working in the water quality program after losing a friend to leukemia. "It's all bad news as far as fish are concerned," Mitchell said. "I absolutely wouldn't eat anything that came out of the river." Mitchell was raised in Old Town and grew up playing on the river's ledges. Now he's raising his own children here. He hopes that someday they can swim and fish in the river, knowing that it's safe. "The river's got a long ways to go," Mitchell said. 'THE EYES FOR THE RIVER' Every morning between May and October, Mitchell or one of his staff is up with the sun, loading well-worn scientific equipment into an aluminum boat to travel to a handful of 84 water sampling sites, which the researchers check weekly. "We have the main stem of the river plastered with sites," Kusnierz said. In fact, the state Department of Environmental Protection has relied on the tribal research program for the past 10 years, ever since the state and the tribe signed a formal agreement to share information. Penobscot data are used in the state water quality reports that biologists rely on to set policy, and tribal researchers alert state officials whenever they spot environmental lawbreaking. As the Penobscot River Restoration project, an effort to remove several dams and restore native migratory fish populations, goes forward, Kusnierz and his staff also will be in the perfect position to watch the river evolve. "We have someone on the river every day, and we can be there and collect information very quickly," Kusnierz said. "We're sort of the eyes for the river." WORKING TOGETHER The relationship between the state and the tribe has been strained in the past, particularly a few years ago when Penobscots asserted their right to sovereignty and argued for the authority to set stricter water quality standards on "their" river. But from day to day, out on the water, the two offices work well together, officials said. By ceding responsibility for monitoring the river to Kusnierz's office, the DEP can direct its limited staff and funds to other projects, while the Penobscots use federal grants from the Environmental Protection Agency and Bureau of Indian Affairs to cover the river with an intensity the state couldn't manage. While the DEP uses data from other private researchers, such as lakes associations, the relationship with the Penobscots is unique in its scope. "We let them do most of the work on the river," said Dave Courtemanch of the DEP. "The quality of their work is excellent - it's as good as anything we can do." Mitchell and several other researchers have formally studied water- quality monitoring at a BIA training program in the Southwest. But nearly all of the reservations' residents have a stake in the river's health. Students in the island school raise Atlantic salmon to release into the river, and dozens of tribal members turned out for a workshop on reducing pollution from household runoff, Kusnierz said. "It doesn't seem to take a whole lot to get people invested in the river," he said. "It's a real honor to be entrusted to look after it. It's sacred to us." Copyright c. 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. Copyright c. 2005 Portland Press Herald, Blethen Maine Newspapers, Inc. --------- "RE: Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe awaits ruling in 2007" --------- Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 08:25:09 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RECOGNITION EXPEDITED (???)" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/tribeawaits26.htm Tribe awaits ruling in 2007 By KEVIN DENNEHY and ERIC GERSHON STAFF WRITERS July 26, 2005 A federal judge in Washington yesterday promised the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian tribe that its decades-long quest for federal recognition would end, one way or another, within two years. U.S. District Judge James Robertson approved a deal between the Wampanoag and the Bureau of Indian Affairs that commits the government to decide on the tribe's application for recognition by late March 2007. For leaders of the tribe, descendants of the native people who greeted the Pilgrims, the deal offers hope of victory after years of litigation and bureaucratic delay. If granted recognition, the 1,400-member tribe would enjoy a quasi- sovereign status with a "government-to-government" relationship with the United States. Recognition would also provide access to federal funds for housing, education and health care programs. Glenn Marshall, chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council, expressed gratitude that after years of discussions, the tribe and Bureau of Indian Affairs had finally come to terms. The tribe has always had a strong case, he said, and will now have a chance to make it. "We're going to get a fair look at a very, very strong petition that I believe either meets or exceeds (all federal) criteria," Marshall said. Federally recognized tribes are exempt from local and state authority on tribal lands and such status also opens the door to Indian gaming operations. Mashpee tribal leaders have said that while they would consider pursuing a gaming facility off-Cape, they would not seek to build a casino on Cape Cod. Once known as the South Sea Indians, the Mashpee claim a 5,000-year lineage in the Upper Cape. Tribal ancestors met the Pilgrims in 1620, and supplied much of the food for the first Thanksgiving feast in 1621. Modern-day tribal leaders have sought federal recognition for at least 35 years, Marshall said. In the 1970s, however, there were no guidelines in place for the federal government to recognize native tribes. In 2001, the Wampanoag sued the Department of the Interior - which oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs - pushing for a speedy review. While a U.S. District Court judge found in their favor and asked the Interior to issue a proposed finding by December 2001, the federal government successfully appealed the decision. Weeks of negotiation between tribal lawyers and Interior officials earlier this year culminated in yesterday's agreement, signed at about 6:30 p.m. Under the agreement, the federal government must put the Mashpee petition on the "active consideration" list by October 2005. A tentative finding would be due by March 31, 2006, and a final decision by March 30, 2007. F. Lee Fleming, director of the bureau's Office of Federal Acknowledgement, blamed the years of delay on a shortage of staff. Christine Grabowski, a consultant specializing in American Indian affairs, said the Wampanoag have a strong case. Centuries of interaction with European settlers, first with colonists and later with the state, provides ample documentation of the tribe's continuous presence in its Mashpee home. Moreover, the tribe's presence on the Upper Cape has been well documented since 1870, the first year American Indians were included in the federal census. "Mashpee is incredibly fortunate that it not only has a history of continuity," Grabowski said last night, "but the documents (to prove it) have survived." Local critics of the tribe's push for federal recognition have been wary of the ways federal recognition might affect local property values, and have questioned whether tribal leaders are being open about whether they would build a casino. But Don Myers, the only member of the Mashpee Board of Selectmen who could be reached late last night, said he thought recognition, should the tribe get it, would be good for everyone in Mashpee. Federal money that flows to the Wampanoag will filter through the local economy. "They've been waiting an awful long time," Myers said. Kevin Dennehy can be reached at kdennehy@capecodonline.com. Eric Gershon can be reached at egershon@capecodonline.com. Copyright c. 2005 Cape Cod Times. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: NA Documentary: Deadly Lewis and Clark encounter" --------- Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 08:25:09 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BLACKFEET" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2005/07/26/news/speaker.txt Documentary tells Native American version of deadly Lewis and Clark encounter By WALT WILLIAMS Chronicle Staff Writer July 26, 20050 At first the Blackfeet Indians paid little attention to the Lewis and Clark expedition. In the economics of the time, the white men carried little of interest to the tribe. "We knew they were coming and we knew they had nothing to trade," historian Curly Bear Wagner, a member of the Blackfeet Nation, said. "So we called them 'nothing people' because they had nothing to trade." The indifference didn't last. In one of the darker episodes of the expedition, Meriwether Lewis and one of his party killed two Blackfeet youth in northern Montana, an incident that marked the beginning of hostile relations between the Blackfeet and fledging United States. History books often tell Lewis's side of the story, but Wagner came to Bozeman Monday to tell his people's story as part of the Corps of Discovery II exhibit at the Gallatin County Fairgrounds. Wagner is the co-producer of "Two Worlds at Two Medicine," a documentary about the incident told primarily from his tribe's point of view. The film was shown at the presentation. The documentary explained the band of Blackfeet that Lewis encountered was actually a group of young boys, the average age was 12, who had just returned from a successful horse raid on the Crow Indians. In the summer of 1806, Lewis and three other men had separated from the rest of the expedition to explore the area around the Marias River. When they first encountered the young Blackfeet, relations had been friendly and the Indians had shared a campfire with the explorers. But Lewis then tried to explain how the land that the Blackfeet had lived on for thousands of years now belonged to the United States. The youth thought him crazy for suggesting such a thing. Disaster struck the next morning when the Blackfeet tried to steal the explorers' horses. One of Lewis's men, Reuben Field, killed an Indian youth who had tried to take his gun, plunging a knife into his heart. Lewis later killed another of the Blackfeet, shooting him in the stomach, but not before the young man fired a shot that passed so close to the explorer's head he felt the bullet whiz by. The explorers then fled, while the surviving youth returned to their tribe and told them what had happened. The documentary is the first of a planned series of programs telling the story of Lewis and Clark from the Native American point of view. Wagner said the Montana Office of Public Instruction has expressed interest in distributing it to schools across the state. "It's always good to have our side of the story," he said. Copyright c. 1996-2005 the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. --------- "RE: LYONS: Fire and firewater in Native America" --------- Date: Saturday, July 23, 2005 12:02 PM From: Kahente [kahente@paulcomm.ca] Subj: Indian Country - Fire and Firewater in Native America Mailing List: Frostys AmerIndian Lyons: Fire and firewater in Native America by: Scott Richard Lyons July 21, 2005 There is a mental health crisis in Indian country, and its casualties are the young. From suicide clusters on the northern Plains to the school shooting at Red Lake, Native youth have spent this year issuing a collective cry for help more plaintive and more chilling than any since Wounded Knee. There is no sadder evidence of this than the 17 teenagers who killed themselves in recent months at Cheyenne River. As Julie Garreau, executive director of the Cheyenne River Youth Project, recently testified: "Some of these suicides were young men who had made a suicide pact with one another. They drew numbers, and decided to hang themselves in that order. One by one their families found these boys, often hanging in their homes, as their number came up." When I first heard that story - still reeling at the news from Red Lake - my immediate reaction was to wonder if the same might not be said for the human species as a whole. Was our number up, too? Are the kids simply taking themselves out first? An overreaction, I'll admit. But this is a situation that compels a dramatic response. Consider the numbers: While the suicide rate has fallen for most social groups in America, it is on the rise among teenagers and American Indians. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the rate of suicide among American adolescents has tripled since 1960. The trends are even worse when the adolescents are Natives. If you are an Indian, you are already 72 percent more likely to commit suicide than the average American, according to the IHS. If you are an Indian teen, however, you are over 300 percent more likely. And if you are a Native teenager living on the northern Plains, you are fully 10 times as likely to initiate your own death. Of course, none of this is meant to detract from the successes of Native youths who are doing well. In fact, the ironic flipside of this crisis is the very good news that many young Indian lives are improving, as seen for example in certain indicators of academic performance and reduced poverty rates. But we should not fall into the dangerous trap of thinking that only some of us - the "abnormal" - are afflicted with individual emotional problems right now. This is a community crisis. Think of it as a burning house. People in some rooms might be untouched by the fire, perhaps even unaware of the blaze; but in adjacent rooms, others are choking on smoke. The goal isn't simply to offer oxygen to the suffering. The goal is to put out the fire. So how can we keep our houses from burning down? First, we must understand what we're dealing with here: mass unhappiness. There is no lurking scientific mystery. What doctors call depression is simply a persistent unhappy emotional response to life: intense sadness, often accompanied by feelings of hopelessness, despair, self-loathing or guilt. In the 19th century this emotional state was called "melancholy," and it was believed to result from an excess of black bile in the body. During the 20th century it was termed "depression," then designated as a "disease," and finally described as a "chemical imbalance" in the brain. Soon it became common to speak of "clinical depression." Whatever we call it, it's still unhappiness: an emotional response to life. Everyone wants the pain to stop, but there is little agreement about how to do it. Increasingly in our society - the same society that invented the concept of clinical depression - the trend is to focus on chemical imbalances and medicines designed to correct them. We've all heard the brand names before: Prozac, Zoloft, Luvox, Celexa, Paxil. Doctors call this class of drugs "selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors," or SSRIs, but they're more commonly referred to as antidepressants. What they do is artificially cause an excess of the neurotransmitter serotonin to accumulate in the brain's synapses, the idea being that the brain will respond with more activity, and hence, more happiness. It is certainly true that unhappy emotions are the result of chemical reactions in the brain. So are all emotions. But there are significant problems with the idea of relying on drugs to regulate feelings. For one, serotonin is only one of hundreds of brain chemicals, and very little is known about them or their relationships to each other. Little wonder that research studies and clinical trials are very sketchy on the question if SSRIs work at all, let alone in ways we might desire. In some studies, depressive symptoms respond just as well to placebos as SSRIs. For another, there is evidence suggesting that SSRIs are dangerous, especially for children and adolescents, and can actually increase thoughts of suicide - and homicide. Psychiatrists David Wilkinson, David Healy and Peter Breggin have all written extensively on these dangers, suggesting that the current popularity of SSRIs has less to do with beneficial results than drug companies' desire for profits. SSRIs have also been found on the scene of several school shootings. Eric Harris was on Luvox when he conducted the Columbine assault. Jeff Weise had his Prozac dosage increased shortly before the Red Lake shootings. Some have speculated that SSRIs may have played a role in these and other violent outbursts committed by young people, begging the question: why isn't this a major national issue? It is, elsewhere. In 2003 England banned the prescription of SSRIs to minors, then in 2004 issued a strong warning against adult prescriptions as well. That same year, the European Union banned Paxil across Europe. Closer to home, last October the FDA followed suit, but only with mandatory black box warning labels on SSRI packages. I think sovereign indigenous nations should consider SSRI bans of their own, at least for people under the age of 18. There are no legal precedents against such a ban in Indian country, so why not? As a potentially dangerous panacea for troubled times, SSRIs just might be the new firewater. At very least, no one can say with absolute certainty what SSRIs actually do. But we can all see what they cannot do. Drugs cannot address the real social forces operative in peoples' lives. They do not counter the violence of poverty, abuse or addiction. They are unable to address the needs of an adequate diet, decent health care or a sustainable environment. They do not speak back to racism, historical trauma or low self-esteem. They are mute on the subjects of meaning, values or identity. They are unable to provide love. Aren't these the burning issues facing American Indian teenagers today? Isn't this what started the fires at Cheyenne River, Red Lake and elsewhere? If the problem is mass unhappiness with life, what is the solution if not fixing life itself? --- Scott Richard Lyons, Leech Lake Ojibwe, teaches writing, literature and Native American Studies at Syracuse University. Copyright c. 2005 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Mississippi Band of Choctaw: From Social Reality" --------- Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 08:43:16 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="VICTIMIZED MOWA CHOCTAW" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=6773 Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians: From social reality to legal fiction Native American Times guest commentary MUSKOGEE OK Cedric Sunray July 27, 2005 The fortunes of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians are well documented and marketed to the general public. They are a testament to overcoming racism and prospering against overwhelming odds. Even so, their leadership, federally recognized tribes in their region and their lobbyist colleagues have left one clear victim while pursuing their economic ventures. A victim which has escaped the majority of press outlets and newscasts. A victim which has been misrepresented when mentioned and has had to endure generations of poverty. The MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians Reservation is located 50 miles east of the Mississippi Choctaw Bogue Homa community. Their state recognized reservation lies wedged between the Alabama towns of Citronelle, Mt. Vernon and McIntosh, Alabama. They are an identifiable and culturally rich community of Choctaw citizens who have resided in their same location prior and since the signing of the Dancing Rabbit Creek Treaty of 1830. Their current two decade long quest for federal recognition has been terminated by corrupt officials at the Bureau of Indian Affairs/BAR branch, lobbyist opposition and the leadership of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Poarch Band of Creek Indians and Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, who view them as a threat to their gaming interests. This is ironic, due to the fact that the MOWA Choctaw community has no interest in gaming and has publicly stated this in front of members of Congress and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The MOWA community has support from numerous federally recognized tribal nations as well as the National Congress of American Indians. They also have strict requirements for enrollment and oral and written history which substantiates their claims. Their attendance at all-Indian schools such as Bacone High School/College in the early 1950's, gives further legitimacy to their people as a distinct and recognizable Indian community. Their attendance, at Choctaw Central High School on the Mississippi Choctaw Reservation, which is exclusive to American Indian students, should also send off some alarms. Their exclusion from black and white schools in the state of Alabama and creation of a third caste Indian schooling system gives further credence to their cohesive community structure. National Indian leaders such as renowned author Vine Deloria Jr. have defended their claims as well as a host of anthropologists, enthnologists, linguists and scholars. There is no question that lobbyist money was and is used against the MOWA Choctaw community. National news has broadcast loudly and clearly that the Mississippi Choctaw are in collusion with lobbyists and politicians to suppress gaming and tribal recognition processes, especially in the neighboring state of Alabama. The Mississippi Choctaw's recent "testimony" in front of the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs left the national audience with the impression that they were the ones who were scammed during all of this. They played the "us poor Indians" card. The reality is that they still employ the very same lobbyists, minus one individual (Jack Abramoff) who they claim scammed them. Does the name Kevin Ring, "ring" a bell? He is the same individual who was pleading the 5th during the Senate Select Committee hear ing when questions as to his role in the scam were asked of him. As another generation of MOWA community elders pass on the lie continues. Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed, Kevin Ring, their colleagues and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Poarch Creek and Eastern Band Cherokee leadership have conspired against the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians since the very beginning of the "casino era", while the people of the Mississippi Band, Poarch Creek and the MOWA Band have remained friends, neighbors and culturally connected due to their shared history and want to make a better life for their families. It is sad that the Mississippi Band, Poarch Band and Eastern Band Cherokees former and in some instances, current leadership, have not taken the example set by their own people in regards to their relationship with the MOWA Choctaw. With numerous new leaders elected in these communities, it is hoped that they will live up to the words of one of their own, former Poarch Creek Tribal Chairman and current Tribal Councilor Eddie Tullis, who stated on June 20, 1 981 in a letter to former MOWA Choctaw Tribal Chief Framon Weaver "This letter is to formally ask your tribe in the spirit of Indian brotherhood, support our efforts for Federal Recognition... We as Native Americans must work together to protect our rights. I assure you that if you assist us with our struggle for Federal Recognition you can count on us to be there when your petition is ready for consideration by BAR." When the Poarch Creek federal recognition came 3 years later in 1984, they suddenly caught a case of amnesia. Amnesia that still exists today. In the MOWA's own federal petition, Dr. Kenneth York, Ph.D., and a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, after critical review of their evidence wrote, "It is my belief that as a member of the MBCI that members of the MOWA Band are descendants of the Great Choctaw Nation which was disbanded by the U.S. Government during the Indian Removal Period. It is my professional opinion that the MOWA Band has provided documentation regarding the history, culture, and ancestral relationship as well, if not better, as any tribal petition in recent years." The BIA/BAR has purposely not reviewed evidence, which would have recognized the MOWA community years ago, due to the pressures of lobbyists and casino wealthy tribal nations. Instead, they have relied on only one of the 7 criteria for federal recognition to dispute the MOWA claim. They have used former records, which list the MOWA as "Cajun", "Creole", "Black", "Mulatto", etc. during the historic period. Of course, during this time, "Indian" was not allowed to be placed on records in the state of Alabama and yet some community members were still listed as such. They have purposely left out those listed as "Indian" and have even gone against their own research which states that 1 of their 5 core ancestors is listed on the Armstrong Roll of 1831. They have discounted all testimony of third party professional sources and have been openly prejudicial in various public settings in relation to the MOWA community. Aside from this, almost all information accepted for the Jena Choctaw community in Louisiana, during the 1990's, was considered irrelevant for the MOWA Choctaw community during the same time period. The Jena's attained federal recognition and rightfully so. The MOWA's however, are still waiting. Recently they have been informed that they no longer have any other recourse with the BIA/BAR process. Their only hope for recognition now lies through the Congress or through litigation. With large numbers of "wannabe" tribes populating the Southeast and clogging up the FederaAcknowledgement Process, corruption at the BIA, lobbyist scandal, erasure of blood quantum requirements for some federal tribes (which creates larger populations and in turn creates a larger financial burden for the BIA) and continued casino profits for federal tribes near the MOWA, their hopes of bringing nearly 80% of their tribal population out of poverty would seem a long shot at best. The old adage if it looks like a Choctaw, talks like a Choctaw and acts like a Choctaw must only apply to ducks. It is time that this charade ended. ---- Cedric Sunray is an American Indian Studies teacher at Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: ANWR not in Final Draft" --------- Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 08:58:42 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ANWR TO BE SNUCK IN BUDGET BILL" http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~2983344,00.html ANWR not in final draft, but millions for Alaska included By SAM BISHOP News-Miner Washington Bureau July 27, 2005 WASHINGTON - Alaska's congressional delegation kept almost all of their favorite items in a compromise national energy bill wrapped up by House and Senate negotiators Tuesday. The one missing priority for the Alaskans was language to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, but no one had expected that to survive the cut anyway. The House and Senate negotiators were completing formalities for filing the proposal with clerks Tuesday night. Both bodies are expected to hold final votes on the compromise version later this week. This latest version of the energy bill, which negotiators worked on late Monday night and into Tuesday morning, lets the Bush administration loan up to $80 million to the owner of a moribund 50-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Healy. It also gives permission for Congress to spend $550 million on energy projects in rural Alaska during the next decade. And it would promote a variety of energy- and climate-related scientific enterprises in Alaska. Alaska's Republican delegation in Congress has sought for years to put ANWR-opening language in an energy bill. They've been stopped, though, by an inability to secure the 60 votes necessary to overcome filibusters by some Senate Democrats. In contrast, the House has approved ANWR drilling in energy bills several times, most recently this spring. The conference committee assigned to work out such differences between the House and Senate versions included Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and, for some provisions, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska. Murkowski said last month that she didn't expect ANWR language to be in the energy bill. Instead, drilling advocates are hoping to open ANWR later this year through a budget bill that is not subject to filibuster. They believe they have at least 51 votes in the Senate to back up the effort. Despite ANWR's absence, the delegation appeared pleased with the conference committee results. "The senator as well as Congressman Young were successful in keeping all the Alaska provisions in the final energy bill," Murkowski spokesman Elliott Bundy said. The $80 million loan for the Healy Clean Coal Project is intended to help the plant's eventual owner replace equipment and start producing power. It hasn't produced since 1999, despite an investment of $300 million, mostly by the state and federal governments. The plant is now owned by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, which is working to start up the plant on its own but may sell it to another entity. Golden Valley Electric Association, the Fairbanks-based cooperative, advocated for the federal loan. GVEA doesn't own the plant but hopes to buy power from it at some point. The energy bill's $550 million for projects in rural Alaska would go to the Denali Commission over 10 years. Congress created the joint state- federal commission in 1998 at the urging of Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, to build projects that improve the health conditions and economy of rural Alaska. Murkowski first proposed that the commission get into energy projects two years ago during a conference committee on an earlier version of the energy bill that subsequently died. The original language would have automatically sent up to $1 billion to the commission over 20 years. However, the idea has been scaled back in the current energy bill. No money would be automatically forthcoming. The bill just authorizes the money to be spent, a step that can smooth the way for a separate appropriation to actually deliver the dollars to Alaska. Of the $55 million annual authorization, $5 million would go to a state endowment that helps subsidize power costs in rural Alaska. Other items in the energy bill would: * Offer a tax credit to help oil refineries produce low-sulfur diesel fuel. * Allow the federal Department of the Interior to extend oil company leases in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska for 10 years. The government also could reduce its royalty share of oil that companies pump from NPRA and from any leases in federal waters offshore of Alaska. The idea is to encourage drilling. * Authorize $61 million for a climate research center in Barrow. * Authorize $15 million over five years for an Arctic Engineering Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The center would study ways to deal with the effects of melting permafrost under roads, bridges and buildings. * Direct the administration to start a science initiative to study effects of oil development on the North Slope. * Create a program to study methane hydrates, a form of solidified natural gas common in Alaska that has yet to be commercially developed. * Encourage a federal study of whether carbon dioxide can be injected into Cook Inlet oil fields to boost production. * Require a report from the Department of Energy every six months on progress toward construction of a pipeline for Alaska's natural gas. * Allow grants of up to $2 billion nationwide in loan guarantees to help tribes and Alaska Native corporations develop energy projects, especially those that use new technology. Washington, D.C., reporter Sam Bishop can be reached at (202) 662-8721 or sbishop@newsminer.com. Copyright c. 1999-2005 Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Inc. --------- "RE: Apache Sunrise Ceremony celebrates Womanhood" --------- Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 08:20:11 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SUNRISE CEREMONY" http://www.wmicentral.com/PAG=461&dept_id=505965&rfi=6 Sunrise ceremony Apache sunrise ceremony celebrates womanhood By: Andy Staten , The Independent WHITERIVER - It is summer on the Fort Apache Reservation. It is a time when the sun is bright and hot, keeping Earth warm and encouraging all forms of plant life to ripen and bear fruit. Like the sun that sustains life on Earth, women also sustain life by bearing children and nurturing them. In the shade of cottonwoods and oak along the banks of the East Fork of the White River, several families came together recently to celebrate two girls who have become women. Over the July Fourth weekend, the families of Jasmine Tate and Mariah Dahkoshay and Rod and Leeann Lacapa got together for the traditional Apache celebration known as the Sunrise Ceremony. For Jasmine and Mariah, the cousins became sisters for life in a special double ceremony. The Lacapas are the girls' godparents and will look after them for life. Traditionally, the official Sunrise Ceremony begins Friday night and concludes Monday morning, but preparations are made many months in advance, with extensive family expense and involvement. Upon puberty, the parents decide whether to have the ceremony for their daughter, then another couple is approached with the prospect of becoming godparents for the girl. To refuse this responsibility is very rare. Only an exceptional family circumstance, such as a health crisis, would excuse someone from this duty. Gifts are brought and the godmother is presented with a buckskin thong (string), wrapped around a white bead and a very fine eagle feather. The white, fluffy feather is a symbol of purity. Then, a date is set for the ceremony. Jasmine and Mariah wanted to have their ceremony together. Last November, their families decided to have a double ceremony. The Lacapas would be godparents of both girls. Then the parents of the girls, Mark and Cathy Tate and Manuel and Vanta Dahkoshay, chose medicine man Larold Pinal to oversee the ceremony and over the next few months everyone was busy gathering ceremonial objects for the event, specifically, items the girls will wear and other things to be used during the ceremony. Several weeks prior to the event, family members clear underbrush along the river for two camps - the girls' camp, and a little further upstream, the godparents' camp. Food is gathered or donated, and stored in a shed in the kitchen area. The godfather and his son butcher a cow in order to help feed people until the final day. Food is cooked over an open fire. On Thursday, the girls' male relatives build a sweat lodge on the riverbank. The immediate family finishes moving into the camp and will sleep in huts constructed of oak branches. On Friday morning, the men sweat for several hours while the medicine man sings and begins to make the girls' canes. Around noon, the girls bring the men lunch. Friday evening, the godparents dance to the girls camp for the first official ceremony: when the godmother dresses the girls. The girls are dressed in buckskin, a mother-of-pearl pendant, eagle feathers, T- -necklaces and other ceremonial attire, along with their canes, which are decorated with buckskin, turquoise and feathers. The canes will remain with the girls until Monday morning. Pinal leads his singers in the first four songs of the 32 sacred songs, and the event is officially under way. At dusk, Pinal starts the evening ceremony. By 10:30 p.m., all 32 songs have been sung while the girls dance in a test of endurance before a very physically demanding part of the ceremony on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday morning begins early, around 5 a.m., as the girls and their partners, with the medicine men and singers behind them, face the sunrise as all 32 sacred songs are sung in a corn field between the two camps. The girls, holding their canes in their right hands, dance on a pile of blankets topped by a deerskin, with the heads facing the east. This is the main event - the sunrise dance - and is attended by family as well as by many people from Whiteriver and other communities. When the first rays of sunshine strike the pendants on the girls' heads, they become holy. Later during the morning, the girls kneel and dance. This signifies that the girls are not ashamed to face anyone. Next, the girls lie on their stomachs while the godmother massages them. This is to make them supple and healthy and able to run from their enemies. She massages their feet and hands so they will not become cripple. She touches the girls on their mouths so that she will only speak respectfully. During the weekend, while the girls are dresssed in their ceremonial attire, they must not touch themselves. They have a scratching stick and a drinking straw for this purpose. Partners (Meribel Kinney for Tate and Lynelle Walker for Dahkoshay) bring the girls water and adjust their hair during breaks. The godmother and the girls' partners are the only people who may touch the girls' canes. At the end of the massage, the godmother carries the girls' canes to the east end of the field. Then the girls run four times, followed by their godparents and an ever increasing number of people, around their canes and back to their original positions. After running to the east, they continue to the south, west and north. The girls run so that they will not be lazy. During the morning, the people present toss money and treats into burden baskets in front of the girls. Near the end of the dance, the baskets are emptied over the girls' heads while children crowd in to collect the contents.Boxes of candy, soda and fruit is laid out in front of the girls and it will be shared with everyone who attends. This represents that she will always have food to share with everyone. Then people line up, with immediate family first, to bless the girls with bright yellow cattail pollen. At this time, the girls are holy and possess supernatural powers. Some people may ask the girls for a prayer or to bless a part of their body which is ailing them. A Sunrise Ceremony involves Apaches of all ages. Here, singers Mitchell Garcia (front), Norton Tessay (left) and Terrance Yazzie perform one of the 32 sacred songs during the Sunday morning's painting ceremony. At the conclusion of the morning's events, the girls run back to their camps. Saturday evening, Apache crown dancers come to the field and dance to songs. For 10 songs, the crown dancers dance alone and later on, the girls join the crown dancers in dancing underneath a ceremonial tepee. The singers and dancers again perform the 32 sacred songs by late Saturday night. The next major part of the weekend is the painting ceremony on Sunday. This is done in reverence to the Apache Holy Woman, known as the White Painted Woman. Sunday morning's ceremony begins around 7 a.m. at the corn field. Again the girls will dance to the 32 sacred songs for the next few hours. During that time, a white clay and water-based paint is prepared and the girls dance underneath the wickiup constucted of four poles - one each of oak, pinon, walnut and juniper. This signifies the four staple wild foods of the Apaches. Eagle feathers are strung across the east end of the wickiup and there is also one feather at each corner. Small spruce trees are placed at the far ends of the field in four directions. Jasmine and Mariah scheduled a San Carlos style painting ceremony, which involves crown dancers. (There is also a White Mountain style painting ceremony where the girl sits on blankets and is painted by her godfather.) About mid-morning, the crown dancers arrive and dance toward the wickiup. The next time the crown dancers come out, Jasmine and Mariah dance out to the godfather, Rod, and offer him the end of their cane and dance back to the wickiup with him. One by one, each crown dancer and finally, the godfather, paint the girls from the head down. After painting, the girls and their godfather lead the godmother, their immediate family, the girls' partners (aides), singers and others in a procession through the wickiup and around the trees in all four directions. After everyone has gone through the wickiup, the weekend's activities begin to wind down. Everyone and everything is pure and holy. The girls must not wash off the paint. Their godmother takes a damp cloth and wipes it from their eyes, nose and mouth. If the girl was to bathe or wash her hair, it may rain so hard that there could come a flood which could destroy crops. Later on Sunday, gifts are exchanged between the girls and their godparents. First, in the afternoon, the girls take gifts of blankets, bowls, plates, and groceries to their godmother. In the evening, the godmother returns and gives gifts to the girls. The Sunrise Ceremony has evolved over the years. In the old days, for instance, instead of kitchen items, the godparents would be given a load of wood. Also, it used to be that after the painting ceremony, the girl would be given a basket of corn, which she had to grind on a metate. Monday morning, the godparents come to the girls' camp to undress the girls and their canes. The buckskin and all the ceremonial objects are removed and laid out on tarps in front of them. Now for the first time in days, the girls may scratch themselves and drink water without assistance. The buckskin and drumsticks are placed inside the drums and laid out on the tarps. When everything is laid out, everyone takes some cattail pollen and blesses each object. After everyone blesses the objects, the medicine man places each object from the girl's ceremonial wardrobe into her burden basket and it is returned to whoever owns it or it is hers to keep. Lastly, the girls head to their godmother's camp to wash their hair in the river. The families pack up and move back home. The ceremony is over, and the girls find relief. They can now go back to their regular life. But this holy time is an experience that will be with the girls for the rest of her life. Copyright c. 2005 White Mountain Independent. --------- "RE: Tribal Women, Girls gather for Weekend of Healing" --------- Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 09:39:15 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WOMENS' HEALING GATHERING" http://www.theolympian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050730/NEWS01/507300340 Tribal women, girls gather for weekend of healing Event offers lessons in health care, culture, relationships BY KARI NEUMEYER THE OLYMPIAN July 30, 2005 SHELTON - South Sound tribes have a modern tradition: an annual gathering for women to swim, canoe, weave baskets and get screened for breast cancer, cervical cancer and diabetes. South Puget Intertribal Planning Agency will have the ninth Intertribal, Intergenerational Women and Girls Gathering this weekend at the Washington State University 4-H Camp at Panhandle Lake. The agency is a consortium of five Southwestern Washington tribes: Chehalis, Nisqually, Shoalwater Bay, Skokomish and Squaxin Island. About 200 women and girls representing tribes across the country have come to the camp to learn about holistic health, strong relationships and tribal culture. On Friday afternoon, a dozen women worked on crafts and listened to a motivational talk by Mary Alice Trapp, a registered nurse from the Mayo Clinic's native women's health program. Outside, children took advantage of the sunshine and cavorted in the lake. Quinault member Carolyn Pluff spent the afternoon beading a strap on a fringed leather medicine bag. Earlier, she got a mammogram and a pap smear. She appreciated the chance to get tested for breast and cervical cancer on the same day in a place removed from her friends and neighbors in Taholah. Medical appointments make her so nervous, she said, that she usually takes her husband with her. "Before, I'd have to take some mild sedative," she said. "I'd hyperventilate." Making traditional crafts -- such as medicine pouches, baskets and rattles -- helps women stay centered, said Midge Porter, who helped coordinate the event. "It makes us become more whole," she added. Women and girls in the Intertribal Planning Agency's needy family program attended the camp for free. "It makes it easier for people who don't have medical insurance to get pap smears and breast exams," Porter said. Porter showed campers how to make elk-hide rattles, which they dried in the sun. They plan to use the rattles during a drum circle tonight. "Certain sounds make the negative energy in the body leave," Porter said. Verna Barton of Eastern Oregon said she felt restored almost as soon as she arrived at the lakefront lodge. Barton, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. "I willed myself to come here because I needed the good energy," she said. "I needed to get some holistic medicine. Tomorrow I'm going to have my aura cleansed." Kari Neumeyer covers diversity for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-357-0204 or kneumeye@olympia. gannett.com. Copyright c. 2005 The Olympian/Olympia, WA. --------- "RE: Rebuilding a Hawaiian Kingdom" --------- Date: Friday, July 22, 2005 8:43 PM From: Chris [roskerah@hotmail.com] Subj: Hawaii Independence...is it a good example? Mailing List: Oyate Underground http://www.latimes.com//0,6418237.story?coll=la-home-headlines Rebuilding a Hawaiian Kingdom Los Angeles Times By Tomas Alex Tizon Times Staff Writer July 21, 2005 WAIMANALO, Hawaii - From Honolulu, it takes an hour to drive here, heading north over dagger-like mountains and then east through rolling farm country to the outermost corner of the island known by some as the Hawaiians' Hawaii. Tour buses circling the island don't stop here except to gas up. Those who step off the bus won't find hula dancers greeting them with leis, or five-star hotels, or even two-star ones. They'll find a sleepy, rough-edged, working-class town of 10,000 people, some of whom don't like tourists and don't mind saying so. "Haole, go home!" and variations of whites-aren't-welcome are occasionally shouted from front porches as a reminder that this isn't Waikiki. It's a different world. Locals rule here. Half the residents are native Hawaiians, and many more are part Hawaiian. This is a place where Hawaiian is taught as a first language in some schools and spoken among neighbors, a place where it is widely held that Hawaii was stolen by the United States and that someday these lands will return to the Kanaka Maoli, the ancient Polynesians who settled the islands. Scattered throughout Waimanalo's neighborhoods are state flags hanging upside-down, a symbol of defiance. In this corner of Oahu, Hawaiian sovereignty - a government of Hawaiians for Hawaiians - isn't just a tropical dream. The people have seen a version of it materialize before their eyes. In the foothills above town, there is a village unlike any other in Hawaii. It's called Pu'uhonua o Waimanalo ("Refuge of Waimanalo"), a community of 80 native Hawaiians living communally on 45 acres. If Waimanalo is a stronghold of Hawaiian sovereignty, the village is its spiritual center. Some people refer to it as "Bumpy's town," named after the 300-pound, tattooed, activist ex-con who negotiated the village into existence - wrangling with the state's most powerful politicians - more than a decade ago. Dennis "Bumpy" Kanahele, 51, is a descendant of King Kamehameha I and bears some of the warrior's physical presence. When asked how far removed he was from the king, Kanahele thought for a moment, then lifted a massive leg onto a nearby table. He studied a row of blue and red triangular markings tattooed on his calf. "Eleven generations, brah," he said matter-of-factly. If Kamehameha were here today, he said, the king would be uniting his people as he did two centuries ago. Kanahele is a folk hero in these parts. He did what no other Hawaii activist had done: carved out a little kingdom within a kingdom, allowing natives to live by their own rules and revive the ways of the Kanaka Maoli. For many locals, the village represents the most tangible gain in more than 30 years of agitating for Hawaiian sovereignty. When the movement first emerged in the 1970s, even native Hawaiians were skeptical. "I didn't think it could happen myself, but people like Bumpy made us see it could," said Sandra Barney, 59, a native Hawaiian from Kaneohe Bay who has known Kanahele since he was a young man. "The proof is here. Bumpy stuck his neck out. I thought they were going to chop it. Now there's a village in the mountains." The idea of sovereignty has become part of Hawaii's mainstream consciousness, with the state's most powerful political leaders - Republican Gov. Linda Lingle and Democratic Sens. Daniel K. Inouye and Daniel K. Akaka - supporting some version of it. The U.S. Senate is considering a Hawaiian sovereignty law known as the Akaka bill, named after its chief sponsor and the first native Hawaiian in Congress. The bill, which has stalled in the Senate the past five years, was blocked again Wednesday by a Nevada senator concerned that it might encourage Hawaiians to build casinos. Both Hawaii senators said they had secured enough support to pass the bill if it ever made it to a vote. The House passed an earlier version. The legislation would lead to federal recognition of native Hawaiians in the same way that the government recognizes American Indians and Native Alaskans. It would also initiate a process under which native Hawaiians could set up their own government, giving them the same nation-within-a-nation status as Indian tribes. A native government would represent Hawaiians in negotiations with the federal government over contested land and resources, including nearly 2 million acres once owned by the Hawaiian monarchy - nearly half the state. Forming the new government would take years, not counting legal challenges. A 2003 survey by the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs, like most in recent years, found that the majority of Hawaii residents supported sovereignty. But the Akaka bill has inspired an odd spectrum of opponents. On one hand are political conservatives, mostly Caucasian, who call the idea divisive and immoral. "Every country that has used racial ancestry as the basis for who deserves recognition, who is entitled to privileges, has ended up disastrously," said H. William Burgess, an attorney who has challenged the legality of state-sponsored entitlement programs for native people. Burgess said the Akaka bill would create "a race- based government." On the other hand are native Hawaiian activists like Kanahele who want nothing less than total independence from the United States. They see it as the only way to right the wrong of 1893 when U.S. troops helped overthrow the Hawaiian monarchy, leading to annexation and statehood, and, for the Kanaka Maoli, loss of a kingdom and an ancient way of life. Today, the state's estimated 240,000 native Hawaiians - those with 50% or more Hawaiian blood - make up about 20% of the population and fare poorest in almost all socioeconomic indicators. They have the state's worst health statistics, highest number of school dropouts, highest unemployment rate and highest levels of incarceration. Kanahele grew up in Waimanalo as one of the statistics, dropping out of high school and serving time for theft and assault. In his 20s, the angry young man transformed into a ferocious advocate for his people, leading protests against the "illegal occupation" of Hawaii. One day in 1987, Kanahele recalled, he went to a nearby beach and saw homeless people camped under the palm trees. Nearly all of them were Kanaka Maoli. How could this happen in their own homeland? he recalled thinking. The next thought changed his life: "The government will never give back our land. How about if we just take it back?" By that time, Kanahele had a following, many of them friends from Waimanalo. In the spring of that year, he and about 50 protesters took over a former Coast Guard station and the surrounding 300 acres at Makapuu Lighthouse, the easternmost tip of Oahu. The acreage, owned by the state, was part of what Kanahele called "the stolen lands." Kanahele's group occupied the site for two months. During one confrontation with police, Kanahele pulled out a shotgun. He was arrested and served 14 months in state prison. It turned out to be a fruitful time. "Most of the people in there were brothers," Kanahele said, fellow native Hawaiians "who were caught up." He proselytized and recruited and, upon his release, had a new army of followers who eventually joined him. In 1993, the 100-year anniversary of the U.S. takeover of the islands, Kanahele led 300 people in an occupation of Makapuu Beach, a short drive from Waimanalo. News cameras captured images of Kanahele armed not with guns but copies of President Clinton's newly signed "Apology Resolution," which acknowledged the U.S. role in overthrowing the monarchy. The political climate had shifted. John Waihee, then the state's governor and the first of Hawaiian ancestry, had recently told constituents that sovereignty was only "a matter of how, when and in what form." Polls showed that three out of four Hawaiian residents supported sovereignty, and Kanahele - the most militant of the activists - gained a reputation as a thug-hero. Arresting him could have stirred the 40 other Hawaiian sovereignty groups to join the occupation. Kanahele began building houses on the beach. After 15 months, Waihee finally intervened. The governor's office proposed a deal: If Kanahele and his group vacated the beach peacefully, the state would give them a 45-acre parcel above Waimanalo in the foothills of the Koolau Mountains. Kanahele accepted. In June 1994, the protesters disbanded and the core group made its way to the future site of Pu'uhonua o Waimanalo. Gina Maikai, 44, recalled those first days in the hills: "It was a forest. There was nothing but trees. At first, we lived in tents while the men made a road. Then we moved onto platforms while the men built houses. We had to find our own lumber. We did all the work. Mosquitoes were a problem." The entrance to the village lies at the end of a long country road. A swinging metal gate opens up to another road that winds uphill into a clearing, where a string of 22 cottages rests along the sway of the land. It isn't a place of straight lines. The feel is lush and slightly messy, like a rumpled blanket. There are no fences. The home sites blend into each other. Wild chickens scamper between cottages, children chasing them. Rising above the clearing are green mountains whose steep curving sides create a hollow that amplifies the sounds of tropical birds, a constant chorus. A lot has happened in 11 years. Kanahele's group eventually agreed to sign a renewable 55-year lease at a cost of $3,000 a year, which worked out to about $60 annually per adult, a token payment. No government official will publicly admit it, but the state has adopted a hands-off approach to the village, waiving many regulations - such as building permits and fishing and hunting licenses - and allowing the villagers to govern themselves. Village affairs are managed by four women - a "council of aunties" - who appoint responsibilities, hear grievances and settle disputes. Recently, a village mother was found to be using cocaine, and the council ordered her to enter drug rehab or face eviction. "Once I had to evict my own mother-in-law," said Maikai, who heads the council. "You have to be part of the big family, and she couldn't handle it." When space opens up in the village, the council decides who can move in. Most residents have known each other for years and, in many cases, their families have been acquainted for generations. One villager is in charge of collecting garbage, one tends the taro patch, one cultivates ti leaf and another provides security by patrolling the village perimeter. Everyone has a job, and every adult contributes to paying the lease and whatever other expenses come up. Of the 80 residents, half were among the occupying group at Makapuu, and about 30 are children. Most adults work piecemeal jobs on the outside, mainly in the building trades. Every adult is in charge of instructing the children in at least one traditional skill, such as killing a wild animal or catching reef fish with throw nets. The children learn the Hawaiian language, memorizing names for plants and creatures, such as the reef triggerfish - the state fish - that Hawaiians call humuhumunukunuku apua'a. As for Kanahele, his life changed along with the village. Not long after his group moved into the hills, he was convicted of harboring an activist who had refused to pay federal taxes. Kanahele spent four months in federal prison and emerged with an even greater reputation among hard-core activists. The political establishment continued to warm up to him. In 2002, then-Gov. Ben Cayetano granted Kanahele a full pardon for his prior convictions an