From gars@speakeasy.org Fri Dec 30 21:14:52 2005 Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 05:59:00 -0800 From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews13.053 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 13, ISSUE 053 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 December 31, 2005 Shawnee washilatha kiishthwa/eccentric moon Pomo stalpkel-da/moon leaves yellow and fall +-------------------------------------------------------+ | 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; Indigenous Peoples Literature, Rez_Life and Justice Network Mailing Lists; UUCP Mail 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 Quotes: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + =================== "We try to keep that inner connection with our elders." "Everything has a purpose, and it's that kind of teaching that we carry today." __ Lonnie Selam, Toppenish Longhouse Leader +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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! Once again, I'm off the editorial hook. The 'Lovely Janet' has a bone to pick with the BIA. ----- Two articles in this issue, "Tribes Hitting BIA Wall," and "Homeless for over a century," describe the various assumptions and obstructions confronting Indian groups attempting to gain legitimacy through recognition by the United States as sovereign tribes. One statement at the beginning of "Tribes Hitting BIA Wall" is particularly revealing: "With more than 500 federal tribes on the books, could it be that there just aren't any more? Or have political opponents who don't want any more Indian tribes - or Indian gambling - gained the upper hand again?" The reality is that before the massive deaths caused by European illnesses and hostilities, and the systematic relocations and intentional eradication of traditional resources were carried out, there were literally thousands of Indian nations. Only a few were large, as nations go, and quite a few confederated into larger political units for self- protection (like the Six Nations of the Iroquois and the Creek confederacy). It is true that most of these nations did eventually assimilate to the point of no longer being a viable nation -- but some very real tribes have hung out there twisting in a BIA induced wind of obstruction, literally for decades, as powerful interests in the federal government and in states where they are currently located (or from which they were driven out), drove up the time and the cost to satisfy BIA requirements far beyond the means of most of these intentionally displaced and impoverished people. Enter the gaming interests. The general stereotype is that of some wannabe rich family who can find some Indian, ANY Indian in their family tree, so they get themselves a gambling enterprise investor to back their application. More often, gaming really isn't uppermost in the applicant tribe's mind -- but in order to get through the process, they HAVE to have money, and there's an investor with a way to get the money. So what's the truth? The truth is that the U.S., the states, and the cities have never wanted tribes to continue to exist as nations or Indian traditions and language to continue as a living culture, and still don't. Not only does the BIA process create nearly insurmountable obstacles that go on, and on and on for decades, the agency (particularly in the most recent administration) have done their best to disinfranchse as many of the 500 or so that are left as possible on whatever pretext can be found. One notorious current example of this agenda are the Virginia tribes. The state's Jamestown celebration was counting on their participation, but the tribes are holding out because the state is willing to acknowledge their historical contribution as a tourist gimmick, but then denies they even exist for any other reason). So are there more than 500 tribes left out there that really do have historical legitimacy? Probably not hundreds, but there are more than a handful that are well known throughout history, and by their neighbors as a distinct people (the Lumbee come to this North Carolinian's mind). Are they all looking for the big gaming paycheck? Not necessarily. Incredibly, many applicants still in the consideration process started applying for recognition before the first Indian casino was approved. All this, and the US still has the cheek to present itself to the world as a defender of intimidated small nations. Apparently "Except for those in my back yard" accurately describes the US attitude toward the Indian nations who inhabited this land first. +/// Janet Smith owlstar@bellsouth.net /*/+ P. O. Box 672168 OwlStar Trading Post + / * Marietta, GA 30008, U.S.A. http://www.owlstar.com * + ---- Dohiyi Ani Oginalii , , Gary Smith (*,*) wotanging@bellsouth.net P. O. Box 672168 (`-') gars@nanews.org Marietta, GA 30006, U.S.A. ===w=w=== http://www.nanews.org ----------- News of the people featured in this issue ----------- - Tribes hitting BIA's Wall - Native American Curriculum at issue - Homeless for Over a Century - NASD Foundation OKs - Cobell Legal Team Investor Education Grant awarded Fees for Trust Fight - Dean saying all the Right Things - Schaghticoke pursue BIA Documents - YELLOW BIRD: Thought - Cherokee want Arbitrator always means more than Gift to solve Tobacco dispute - Native Americans are mad, - Delaware seek to and a chief is gone restore Federal Recognition - Mychophyte Discovery - Oneida Tribe to buy Prison Land searches for Natural Cures - Indian Alliance will - YELLOWBIRD: Beat the Drum get Sheridan Hall Building for our Indian Nurses - Yurok Tribe makes case - Ontario, MNO for HCAOG Seat still battling over Hunting - State, Lower Elwha - Shinnecock Tribe agree to Negotiations condemns Racial Slurs - Quileute Land dispute - Cherokees fighting Meth with Federal Government - Mean's appeal denied - ANWR battle rages in Senate - Native Prisoner - Salmon Plan concerns Tribes -- Finding the 'Red Road' - Catawba Tribe ordered in Prison to disclose Finances -- Violation of NA Religious Rights - Lumbee probing purchase - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days of Council Member's House - Rustywire: Way Up On Red Lake Road - Group warns Tribes of Methane risks - Del "Abe" Jones Poem: - Nisqually's Power-Line 3rd Christmas and Counting reroute opens agreement - Mohawk Immersion Program - UND center to begin going Strong Study on Indian Vets - Book focuses on - Heartbeat of the Nez Perce Tragedy ancient Cherokee Traditions - Native Sons: - COLORADO: The Men of the Yakama Nation Olympic-style Event for NA Athletes - Remembering Barbeau - Upcoming Events --------- "RE: Tribes hitting BIA's Wall" --------- Date: Mon, 26 Dec 2005 14:57:36 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ONE MORE `LITTLE WHITE LIE'" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-notribes.artdec25,0,4583095.story?&track=rss Tribes Hitting BIA's Wall Are There No More New Ones Or Is Politics Blocking The Way? By RICK GREEN, Courant Staff Writer December 25, 2005 A string of recent rulings by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs against the recognition of tribal groups has raised a critical question for both sides of the issue: With more than 500 federal tribes on the books, could it be that there just aren't any more? Or have political opponents who don't want any more Indian tribes - or Indian gambling - gained the upper hand again? Tribal leaders say politics is behind the fact that 10 out of the last 11 recognition rulings by the BIA have gone against tribes, three of them from Connecticut. The truth probably lies somewhere between these extremes, but it's clear that the long, troubled history of relations between Native Americans and the country has reached another crucial moment. "There is one question that Indian people don't like to be asked: What's the outer limit on this thing?" said Sam Deloria, director of the American Indian Law Center at the University of New Mexico and a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. "This is not an unlimited, wild card thing. You've got to start thinking about that." Connecticut's Eastern Pequots and Schaghticokes - both appealing the federal government's decisions in October to deny them recognition - are facing this reality. More than 200 other groups have told the BIA they, too, want federal recognition, creating a backlog that could take 15 years to resolve. The continuing flow of recognition applications - including eight long- -shot prospects from Connecticut - was spurred at least in part by a 1988 law permitting gambling on reservations in states that allow it elsewhere, even if only in the form of charity events, such as Las Vegas nights. Recognition also brings other federal entitlements for health care and housing, as well as the opportunity to restore reservation lands. But a confluence of controversies has made it increasingly difficult for tribes to succeed in Washington, according to tribal leaders and their advisers. This includes the growing scandal over political payoffs by Indian casino lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a long-running impasse over the billion-dollar mismanagement of royalties from leases on tribal lands belonging to Indians and a backlash against gambling run by Indians and tribal sovereignty in general. What's more, Congress and the White House have shown little interest in adding significant resources, or changing the rules, to allow the Department of the Interior, in which the BIA resides, to begin to plow through the logjam. Interior Department spokesman Daniel J. DuBray said petitions for federal recognition are reviewed individually, so there's no point in looking for trends. "The criteria for recommending federal recognition of tribes is very specific and involved and is quite detailed and arduous and complex," DuBray said. "The idea that some, over the course of time, don't stand up to the criteria ... I don't think that should be surprising." There are now 561 federal tribes, with the last positive final recognition decision by the BIA coming in 2002, involving the Cowlitz Tribe of Washington state. "I don't see much hope for other tribes coming behind us," said Marcia Flowers, chairwoman of the Eastern Pequots, who lost a "reconsidered" final decision in October along with the Schaghticokes. "All you have to do is look at the number of tribes that have received negatives. It speaks for itself. It sends a very clear signal." Among the hundreds of tribal groups still looking for federal recognition, perhaps only a dozen will eventually win, said Steven Austin, a former BIA researcher who in recent years has helped a number of tribes with their efforts, including the Schaghticokes of Kent. "At some point they are going to reach the point of diminishing returns, " Austin said. "It's a little hard to judge whether it's because of political bias or whether there are other reasons." Richard Velky, chief of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, has no such uncertainty. He said there is a de facto moratorium because anti-gambling and anti-Indian forces don't want more tribes. "It's pretty apparent why we ended up with a negative ruling. It was a political move," Velky said. But state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, a national figure in the opposition to expanded tribal recognition, said groups such as the Schaghticokes and Eastern Pequots are failing for a more basic reason. "Many of the recent petitions have no merit or inadequate merit," Blumenthal said. "The heat and light generated by my office and other critics certainly got [the BIA's] attention. The effect was to grab them by the collar and shake them and say, `Are you living in the real world here?'" There are routes to recognition that go around the BIA. A handful of tribes have won recognition through Congress, notably the Mashantucket Pequots in 1982. Congress last recognized a tribe in 2000. Tribes also may turn to the federal courts. This past fall, a federal judge ruled that the Long Island-based Shinnecocks are a tribe. Although the courts have been reluctant to step into the recognition process, growing frustration with the BIA may lead more tribes to try that route. As the $20 billion Indian gambling industry continues to grow at a brisk pace, it also brings more detractors. Both the Eastern Pequots and Schaghticokes were derided by critics as fronts for casino investors - despite documented histories in the state going back hundreds of years. "Gaming has really muddied the waters," said Kay Davis, a member of the Boise Forte Band of Minnesota Chippewa and a former BIA researcher who evaluated recognition petitions, including those from Connecticut. "But it is not about gaming. It is about being an Indian. " "Everything [the BIA does] now is political. It is looked at very cautiously because of gaming," Davis said. "There are still some tribes out there still. They are scared of the federal government. We have been taught as Indians to be scared of the federal government." Non-Indians are equally worried about the power of casino-rich tribes, said Elaine D. Willman, chair of the Citizens Equal Rights Alliance, based in the state of Washington, which bills itself as an organization protecting the rights of citizens living near reservations. There is a backlash against "all the resources that have been thrown to Native Americans," Willman said. "We are going to go through some very rocky, very controversial and very sensitive times where some changes must occur and some balance must be found." Copyright c. 2005 by The Hartford Courant. --------- "RE: Homeless for Over a Century" --------- Date: Mon, 26 Dec 2005 14:57:36 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LITTLE SHELL LOST IN DIASPORA" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/24/national/24chippewa.html?hp&oref=login Homeless for Over a Century, Tribe Awaits U.S. Redemption By JIM ROBBINS December 24, 2005 GREAT FALLS, Mont. - Here at the base of a rise called Hill 57, a steady, cold wind blows on a cloudless day as James Parker Shield and Russ Boham tell of life for the landless Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians. The tribe, its land taken away more than a century ago, squatted in Great Falls and elsewhere in north-central Montana through the late 1960's, living as many as 12 to a tar-paper shack without plumbing, and scavenging at the dump for scrap metal, rags and food. Parents often ran afoul of state child welfare officials. "They'd see you sleeping in a car body and take you away from your family," said Mr. Boham, who, like Mr. Shield, was among those shipped to the state orphanage when he was a child. Today, with most of its members living in public housing around Great Falls, Mr. Shield and Mr. Boham are leading a protracted fight for government recognition of the tribe. Recognition would allow their people to gain control of federal money to buy land here for a tribal headquarters and housing, and to win back a measure of dignity. The 112 families led by Chief Little Shell lost their North Dakota homeland to the government in 1892 when a chief of the Pembina Chippewa signed away their rights to it, without their authority and in their absence. The Little Shell had left home, in the Turtle Mountain area, to go hunting, and an Indian agent forced the other Chippewa to accept the Ten Cent Treaty - so called by Indians because it bought about 10 million acres of Chippewa land, including that of the Little Shell, for a million dollars. Ever since, the Little Shell have known only diaspora. Most came to Montana, where they lived near dumps and on the streets of Great Falls, Helena and other towns. In 1896, angry whites asked the government to do something about them, and the Army rounded them up at gunpoint, put them on boxcars and shipped them to Canada. "Most of them made their way back," said Mr. Shield, the vice president of the tribal council, which Mr. Boham serves as assistant. The three other surviving Chippewa tribes from the Turtle Mountain area - the Turtle Mountain, the White Earth and the Rocky Boy - were all less scattered and received federal recognition over time; they now have reservations. But the 4,500 or so Little Shell still await official recognition from the Office of Federal Acknowledgment at the Interior Department, a quest for which they have gained the support not only of other tribes in Montana but also of the Montana governor's office, the State Legislature and Cascade County, which includes Great Falls. The recognition process was created by the government in 1978 to make reparations to tribes that had been forced to move from place to place throughout American history. There are now 562 federally recognized tribes in the United States. Roughly 220 others have expressed interest in recognition, but such efforts are often strongly opposed. Some of that opposition comes from tribes, already recognized, that are eager to protect their vast casino gambling income, and from states that do not want recognized tribes within their borders, because a bid for recognition is occasionally a ploy of relatively few Indians with dubious historical ties simply to open a new casino. "We're running into the ripple effects of gaming and politics," Mr. Shield contended. "But the gaming has nothing to do with us. If you take a hard look at the gaming opportunities in Montana, there's no market and no population. We want a home." James E. Cason, an associate deputy interior secretary who oversees Indian affairs, denied that the gambling issue had been a factor in the case of the Little Shell, who first applied for recognition in 1984, who received preliminary approval in 2000 and who have spent much of the time since then engaged in assembling the documentation needed for final approval. (The final draft of their petition was sent to the government earlier this year.) "It doesn't have anything to do with gaming - it's a nonissue," Mr. Cason said, adding that the Little Shell had been "in control of this process the last five years and have asked for extensions." With the final draft now in hand, "we will try to do it as expeditiously as we can," he said. But the recognition process has long been criticized by Indians as unwieldy, partly because of a requirement for extensive documentation that proves they have acted as a tribe politically and culturally over the last two centuries. "It's extremely onerous, almost prohibitively so," said Kim Gottschalk, a lawyer for the Native American Rights Fund, a nonprofit law firm based in Boulder, Colo., that is researching the Little Shell claim. The fund estimates that it has spent more than $1 million in out-of-pocket expenses on the petition, not counting lawyers' pay. Kevin Gover, a Pawnee Indian who was assistant interior secretary for Indian affairs from 1997 to 2000 and is now a law professor at Arizona State University, is also critical of the recognition program. "They've been around for 30 years," he said, "and they've never managed to approve more than two a year." Professor Gover said the Office of Federal Acknowledgment demanded far too much documentation, "and that is especially a problem for tribes like the Little Shell," who lived in a remote area and have no written records from the period. The Little Shell band is not claiming land. But with $3.5 million held in trust for it by the federal government until recognition is achieved, it would buy 200 acres of farmland here in Cascade County, where most tribal members live, and build a headquarters, a clinic and housing. In November, Cascade County commissioners passed a resolution calling for the county to be the home base of the tribe, even though that would mean the removal of 200 acres from the tax base. "We support them moving forward with official recognition," said Commissioner Lance Olson. "But if they aren't going to recognize them, they should tell them." Federal recognition would also allow the Little Shell to apply for minority contracts and to have a government-to-government relationship with Washington. "That means they could no longer treat us," Mr. Shield said, "like someone they don't want to admit they fathered." Copyright c. 2005 The New York Times Company. --------- "RE: Cobell Legal Team awarded Fees for Trust Fight" --------- Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2005 08:45:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SUBSTANTIALLY JUSTIFIED" http://www.indianz.com/News/2005/011820.asp Cobell legal team awarded fees for trust fund fight December 20, 2005 The federal judge handling the Indian trust fund lawsuit awarded the Cobell legal team $7.1 million on Monday for successfully fighting for the rights of hundreds of thousands of account holders. In a lengthy decision, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said the Cobell plaintiffs are entitled to recover fees and expenses for their work in the case. He ordered the United States to pay $4.5 million in legal fees and $2.5 million in expenses because the federal government's position was not "substantially justified." "Here, plaintiffs achieved more than 'excellent results,' they achieved a 'stunning victory,'" Lamberth wrote. The award covers the first five years of the case, from the day it was filed on June 10, 1996, to February 23, 2001, the day the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the federal government's responsibility to conduct an historical accounting of Indian trust funds. Throughout this time, the Interior, Treasury and Justice departments argued there was no duty to account, a position they lost at the district court and appeals court level. Under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), this means the government wasn't justified in its defense, Lamberth said. Lamberth also noted that the government and its attorneys have "demonstrated an unprecedented level of defiance" since the start of the case nine years ago. "In the first of these instances, defendants made numerous illegitimate representations, failed to correct known misrepresentations, and neglected to inform the court about self-inflicted obstacles to comply with its discovery obligations," the decision stated. "As a result, the court held both trustee-delegates in contempt of court - a decision that was never appealed." Therefore, Lamberth ruled that the Cobell plaintiffs are entitled to a "fee enhancement" due to the government's "bad faith." Lamberth, however, cut down the plaintiffs' original request for $14.6 million in fees by half. He agreed that some of the work performed by the team was "clerical" in nature and couldn't be covered under EAJA. He also refused to award fees for time the plaintiffs spent speaking on media-related activities, such as talking to the press about the case. He denied compensation for settlement talks between the two parties that ultimately failed and deducted other fees for proceedings that that were previously compensated. Attorneys for Interior Secretary Gale Norton had opposed the fee request, calling it extraordinary and unwarranted. But Lamberth rejected most of the government's objections. "By any yardstick, defendants' conduct can not reasonably be characterized was as 'substantially justified,'" Lamberth wrote. Of the $7.2 million award, $1.5 million is going to the Native American Rights, a non-profit organization that has been fighting the case since 1996. Another $2.0 million is going to Dennis Gingold, the lead attorney. Neither NARF, Gingold, nor any of the other members of the legal team have been paid by Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff, for several years. They have been compensated for their work through EAJA filings. "While I would rather not have to spend a dime on lawyers, Indian beneficiaries know that without our legal challenge to the Indian trust system, the government would have continued to do absolutely nothing to resolve the long-standing problem with our Individual Indian trust accounts," Cobell said yesterday in a statement. Some members of Congress have criticized the lack of progress in the case, saying it only benefits lawyers and accountants. With the backing of the Bush administration, they passed bills to restrict fees awarded to court officials while agreeing to compensate Interior Department employees who hired attorneys. Despite the misgivings, Congress has given more than $3 billion to Interior for trust reform projects since the start of the case. Most of the spending has occurred during the Bush administration, which allocated $335 million to conduct a limited historical accounting of the Individual Indian trust accounts after losing in court. Copyright c. 2000-2005 Indianz.Com. Indianz.Com is a product of Noble Savage Media, LLC and Ho-Chunk, Inc. --------- "RE: Schaghticoke pursue BIA Documents" --------- Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 08:53:54 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SCHAGHTICOKE SEEK PAPER TRAIL REGARDING REVERSAL" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412111 Schaghticoke pursue BIA documents by: Gale Courey Toensing / Indian Country Today December 20, 2005 KENT, Conn. - The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation has asked a federal judge to order the BIA to release the documents and administrative record used in making its reconsidered final determination to reverse the tribe's federal acknowledgement. In a brief filed Dec. 14 with Connecticut's U.S. District Court Judge Peter Dorsey, tribal attorneys said the BIA has violated the judge's May 2001 scheduling order which details the timelines, procedures and process by which the tribe's petition for federal acknowledgement and any subsequent appeal would take place. One of the scheduling order's provisions requires the BIA to provide the tribe and all parties with all of the materials used in reaching its final determination within 30 days after issuing its decision. On Dec. 2, almost two months after Interior Department Associate Deputy Secretary James Cason reversed the tribe's federal acknowledgement in a reconsidered final determination, the BIA refused the tribe's request for the documents. The bureau took the position that the tribe is not entitled to an updated copy of the Federal Acknowledgement Information Resources database until after it files an appeal with the court. The BIA's position is "a waste of the tribe's time and resources," Schaghticoke Chief Richard Velky told Indian Country Today. "It was enough of an insult to be informed by fax that our acknowledgement was taken away from us; but then to tell us, 'If you want the documents we made our decision on, you'll have to take us to court' is ridiculous. They make it impossible for us to work through the system and then they wonder why we have to find an investor to see us through the process," Velky said. BIA spokesman Nedra Darling said she could not comment because the agency has not yet received the brief. The documents requested are part of the FAIR database, which was established to provide parties to the petition with all the documents submitted during the process in a timely manner. The brief also asks Dorsey to issue an immediate order "preventing the BIA from modifying, amending or deleting any part of the FAIR database as it currently exists without prior permission from the court." "Such an order is necessary in order to avoid prejudice to STN. Indeed, if STN cannot review the updated FAIR database before it files its petition for review, it will be unable to raise all of the potential issues for [Administrative Procedures Appeal] review raised by the final determination. The BIA should not be permitted to negatively impact STN's right to [an] APA review by limited its access to the administrative record," the brief stated. The tribe further asked the court to extend a Jan. 12 deadline for filing its APA of the BIA's reversal to 90 days after the tribe receives the requested documents. The Schaghticoke achieved federal acknowledgement in January 2004. The BIA released the database to the tribe and all intervening parties within the 30-day requirement, Velky said. The tribe's positive acknowledgement sparked a frenzied effort by Connecticut's elected officials, a wealthy anti-casino group of Kent residents and its powerful White House-connected Washington, D.C. lobbyists to overturn the decision. After an appeal by the state's attorney general and a campaign by the tribe's opponents, the BIA overturned its earlier positive decision and removed the tribe's federal status. Velky declined to speculate on what might be found in the documents, but said that recent disclosures of kickbacks, campaign donations and influence peddling in the scandal surrounding indicted former lobbyist Jack Abramoff have raised questions about the decision-making process in the federal agency. "I think we found evidence of that just in the depositions we were allowed to do in our discovery this past spring and summer," Velky said. The tribe deposed local and state officials in an effort to discover if they violated a provision of the scheduling order that prohibits parties from contacting federal decision-makers by using the citizens' group and its lobbyists as surrogates. Abramoff and his partner, Michael Scanlon, are accused of bilking Indian tribes of more than $80 million. "The Abramoff investigation certainly uncovered the fact that he was able to get to the decision-makers in the BIA. We would hope it would not affect the researchers in the Office of Federal Acknowledgement, but questions have to be asked," Velky said. The tribe is also preparing to submit a formal request to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee to investigate the events and process involved in the BIA's reversed decision. Copyright c. 1998-2005 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Cherokee want Arbitrator to solve Tobacco dispute" --------- Date: Sat, 24 Dec 2005 19:38:12 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CNO: STATE VIOLATED COMPACT" http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=7374 Cherokees want arbitrator to solve tobacco dispute Tribe says state officials violated compact TAHLEQUAH OK Sam Lewin December 23, 2005 Cherokee officials say they will request arbitration in their dispute with state authorities over a tobacco compact. The tribe reports they considered going to an independent arbitrator back in August, but decided it against it at the time because negotiations were continuing. "Both governments are representing their interests well," said Chad Smith, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. "We've just agreed to disagree and we are asking a third party to resolve the differences between us." Governor Brad Henry said he also believed arbitration was a good idea. "After several months of good-faith, government-to-government discussions, it has become clear that we cannot resolve our differences of opinion on this issue," Henry said. "All parties have agreed that the best course of action is to settle our dispute with arbitration and the help of an independent party." The tribe is asking an arbitrator to rule that the state broke the compact when it repealed the sales tax on cigarettes, which the tribe says was forbidden under terms of the compact. The compact has been in effect since January 2004. The tribe says that according to the compact, the arbitration process will ask that each side select one arbitrator and then these two will select a third arbitrator that is approved by the other two. Familiar to sports fans, arbitration is when a third-party enters into a seemingly deadlocked dispute and hammers out an agreement. Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Delaware seek to restore Federal Recognition" --------- Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 08:53:54 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DELAWARE ATTEMPT TO OVERTURN BIA DENIAL" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412116 Delaware Tribe seeks to restore federal recognition by: The Associated Press December 20, 2005 BARTLESVILLE, Okla. (AP) - A year after a federal appeals court stripped the Delaware Tribe of Indians of its federal recognition, the tribe is running out of money and shutting its doors. A for-sale sign hangs on the tribe's national headquarters building and its modern Delaware Health & Wellness Clinic was slated to close on Dec. 21. In October, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the tribe's appeal, resulting in a loss of about $7 million the tribe received annually as a federally recognized tribe. The money went for economic development, housing and nutrition programs, and the tribe's new health clinic, which opened in 2003. Without new money from the IHS, the clinic can't continue operating. "It's a judicial travesty what has happened here," tribal spokesman Ernest Tiger said. The Cherokee Nation, which sued to strip the Delawares of federal recognition, said the Delawares brought the problems on themselves. Cherokees repeatedly offered to agree to Delaware recognition if the Delawares agreed not to assert sovereignty within the Cherokees' 14-county jurisdictional area, said Melissa Gower, who leads the Cherokees' government relations group. "We object to the Delawares asserting Indian sovereignty within the Cherokee Nation. An analogy would be Oklahoma objecting to Arkansas trying to exercise state authority within Oklahoma," Gower said. Having lost in court, the Delawares are ready to talk. "We're trying to set up a meeting," said Assistant Chief Jerry Douglas, who has been leading the tribe since Chief Joe Brooks was ousted Nov. 5 in continuing fallout from the federal recognition decision. Election of a new chief is scheduled for Jan. 21. "We would like to ask them to help us get our federal recognition back," added Wayne Stull, a member of the tribe's trust board. "It's something we need to talk about and see if we can work it out where it don't make us look like we're begging." All the Delawares interviewed agreed their tribe has always been separate from the Cherokee Nation and will continue to be - with or without federal recognition. For Stull and Douglas, the bottom line is getting the Delawares' federal funding restored, even if it means making concessions. A harder pill to swallow may be letting the Cherokees get and disburse the Delawares' federal money. When the Cherokees put that on the table in the past, the Delawares refused. "That's not acceptable, not to our people," said Brooks, the ousted Delaware chief. "They want our government to administer services to them, not the Cherokee Nation." Stull and Douglas don't like the idea, either. But in hindsight, they said the tribe would be better off with the Cherokees controlling their money than having no money at all. "All we had to do is agree. We'd be way ahead if that had happened," Stull said. Copyright c. 1998-2005 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Oneida Tribe to buy Prison Land" --------- Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2005 08:45:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="REGAINING ORIGINAL RESERVATION" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com//GPG0101/512200503/1207/GPGnews Oneida Tribe to buy prison land Move part of plan to regain original reservation By Tony Walter twalter@greenbaypressgazette.com December 20, 2005 ONEIDA - The Oneida Tribe of Indians today will purchase 1,485 acres of agricultural land from the state near the Sanger B. Powers Correctional Center, laying claim to the largest remaining contiguous parcel of land within its original reservation. "We're extremely pleased," said Tribal Chief of Staff Bill Gollnick, who will join Gov. Jim Doyle for the closing of the deal at the Oneida Community Health Center today. "We were offered the land in the 1970s, but we didn't have the resources then to act in a timely manner." The tribe will pay the state $9.1 million for the land, or approximately $6,150 per acre. Under the purchase agreement approved last week by the State Building Commission, the state will lease the land from the tribe for 10 years for $83,000 a year, with the state retaining the right to extend the lease. The Department of Corrections will continue to operate the 60-bed facility for transitional inmates, which currently has 110 men. The facility opened in 1982. The state will retain 149 acres that include the correctional center, farm building and firing range. "This helps balance our budget and provide property tax relief, education funding and things like that," said Sean Dilweg, state Department of Administration executive assistant. Gollnick said the tribe would use the next 10 years to assess its future use of the land, which has been owned by the state since 1921. The tribe will pay property taxes on the land unless it is put into federal trust. According to Gollnick, the land became available when Department of Corrections officials realized that fewer inmates were pursuing agricultural jobs when they were released. "The state has indicated that it might be moving away from agriculture as one of its primary vocations for transitional inmates," Gollnick said. All but 100 acres of the agricultural land is in Outagamie County, with the rest in Brown County. The purchase helps the tribe fulfill its commitment to reacquire its original reservation land. The Sanger B. Powers Correctional Center, N8375 County Line Road/County U, is in Outagamie County. Copyright c. 2005 Green Bay Press Gazette. A Gannett Company Publication. --------- "RE: Indian Alliance will get Sheridan Hall Building" --------- Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2005 08:47:29 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS ACQUIRE BUILDING" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.helenair.com/articles/2005/12/23/helena_top/a01122305_03.txt Indian alliance will get Sheridan Hall bldg By IR Staff December 22, 2005 The Helena Indian Alliance, a group that provides health care and other services to American Indians who don't live on reservations, will be able to acquire a vacant Army Reserve building in Helena, Montana Sen. Max Baucus said in a press release Thursday. Baucus sponsored a provision in a Defense Department authorization bill that will convey the Army's vacated Sheridan Hall building at 501 Euclid Ave. to the Helena Indian Alliance. The bill passed the Senate late Wednesday, and is now headed to President Bush for his expected signature, Baucus said. The 10,000-square-foot building was vacated in 2002 when the Army moved the reserve armory to Fort Harrison to join all Helena military personnel in a coordinated one-stop location, Baucus said. With the new building, the HIA will be able to, among other things, house up to 50 employees and expand its health care, mental health counseling, and education services, Baucus said. "One of my top priorities is helping to ensure that all Montanans have access to quality, affordable health care and this building will help meet that goal," said Baucus, the state's senior U.S. Senator. "We're turning a vacant building into a new opportunity for Native Americans in Montana." The defense bill, which includes the Helena land conveyance language, passed the Senate Wednesday. Once Bush signs the bill, which Baucus expects before the end of the year, the Helena Indian Alliance will be able to move in after 30 days. The HIA will have to cover any costs associated with renovations or improvements. Louie Clayborn, HIA executive director, praised Baucus for working to get the provision passed. "This facility, new to the Helena Indian Alliance, will greatly enhance the expansion of the Leo Pocha Clinic as well as the Helena Indian Alliance's mental health, counseling and education services for cultural enhancement," Clayborn said. "This facility will not only serve the Native American population in the Helena Tri County area but will also provide services to tribal members from across the state of Montana, as well as our existing homeless and low income social services for those seeking help." Late Wednesday the Senate also passed the defense appropriations bill, which includes more than $80 million for Montana's defense projects. Helena area projects in the measure include: - $2.5 million for MANG in Helena's Joint Force wireless redundant communications; - $700,000 for Bozeman's Hyperspectives' landscape environmental study; - $3.4 million for MANG in Helena to provide support staff for Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Commemoration; and - $1.4 million for U.S. Marines in Helena's Marine Expeditionary Rifle Squad. Copyright c. Helena Independent Record; a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Yurok Tribe makes case for HCAOG Seat" --------- Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2005 08:47:29 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TRIBES SEEK COUNTY GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATION" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.eurekareporter.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?ArticleID=6673 Yurok Tribe makes case for HCAOG seat by Nathan Rushton December 23, 2005 Representation on the Humboldt County Association of Government's board of directors isn't just a Hoopa Valley Tribe issue, according to a recent media alert from the Yurok Tribe. Following on the heels of last week's failed attempts by the Hoopa Valley Tribe to gain a representative seat on HCAOG's board of directors, the Yurok Tribe is coming forward to weigh in on the issue. At a special meeting Monday, HCAOG board members deadlocked in a vote of 4-4 to allow the Hoopa Valley Tribe a representative seat on the board. "The Yurok Tribe considers this an opportune time to put forward our views on the question of tribal eligibility for board-level representation with the HCAOG," the news release stated. But representation on the HCAOG board isn't just a Hoopa, Yurok or Native American tribal issue, but rather a matter for citizens of Humboldt County, according to Yurok officials. HCAOG legal counsel David Tranberg said it isn't as easy as just having a vote by board members to decide whether to allow the tribes a seat on the board of directors. Representation comes down to a matter of state law, which states that groups cannot participate because they don't fit the definition of a public agency, Tranberg said. According to the Yurok news release, the state Legislature made a "critical change" in 1990 to the California Code Section 6500 that altered the wording of the statute from "includes" to read, "includes, but is not limited to ..." "In our view, this modified the intent of the statute from being exclusionary in its specific listing of entities deemed to be public agencies to being inclusive," the news release stated. Tranberg said it has been HCAOG's legal opinion that for the tribes to be recognized as public agencies, they would have to have legislation drafted recognizing them as such. Frustration by the groups for not being given a seat should be expressed to the appropriate agency, Tranberg said. "They should be directing that at the state Legislature," he said. An aide to First District Assemblywoman Patty Berg confirmed that a legal analysis of the legislation issue is being investigated by Berg's office. When the Hoopa Valley Tribe originally applied for a seat on the HCAOG board, California Government Code Section 6500 contained specific language as to what exactly could be considered a public agency for purposes of entering into a joint powers agency like HCAOG, which requires its members to be recognized as public agencies. In the 1980s, the area's legislative representative authored and passed legislation that changed the code which specifically provided the Hoopa Valley Tribe with public agency status. Efforts to gain representation on HCAOG's board by the Yurok, the largest tribe in the state, were made in 2000 and again in 2005 - then again at last week's special HCAOG meeting. Rob Bohrer, a legal representative for the Yurok Tribe, doesn't agree with Tranberg's legal opinion, but said the tribe wants to work cooperatively with HCAOG to arrive at a solution. Having to "spot legislate" for each of the tribes to gain public agency status would be burdensome, Bohrer said. Because the Yurok Tribe provides numerous services, including education, child welfare advocacy and other social services programs, forestry, fishery, watershed and environmental departments, as well as maintaining and operating eight separate water districts, the tribe says it does fall squarely into the "public agency" category. Letters requesting representation on the board have also been received by HCAOG from the Karuk Tribe and the Blue Lake and Trinidad rancherias. In its May letter to HCAOG, the Karuk Tribe stated they are "very concerned" that the tribe's area is not being represented. Because of that remoteness, the tribe has unique transportation needs, the letter stated Copyright c. 2005 The Eureka Reporter. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: State, Lower Elwha agree to Negotiations" --------- Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2005 08:47:29 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GRAVING YARD SITE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/sited/story/html/226018 State, Lower Elwha agree to negotiations over graving yard site by JIM CASEY December 23, 2005 PORT ANGELES - Gov. Christine Gregoire and Lower Elwha Klallam Chairwoman Frances Charles agreed Thursday on formal negotiations of all issues that separate the state and tribe over Tse-whit-zen and the former Hood Canal Bridge graving yard. The talks will begin early in 2006. In the meantime, the Lower Elwha agreed to support the state's building of huge concrete anchors on the shoreward edge of the former graving yard site on the Port Angeles waterfront. The state also will reimburse the tribe for more than $600,000 in wages paid to 108 of its members for archaeological work performed at Tse-whit- zen. "The governor committed to Frances Charles to move forward as quickly as possible to clear up a past reimbursement issue," said Tom Fitzsimmons, Gregoire's chief of staff. "Frances Charles committed to the governor to publicly support and allow the anchor construction on the site to move forward through the permitting process." Issues of the permitting process - such as preservation of historical items - will be among the first topics of the upcoming negotiations. Also on the table in the discussions will be what will happen to 20,000 cubic yards of earth removed from Tse-whit-zen and trucked to the Shotwell Recycling Facility west of Port Angeles. The tribe wants the earth returned to Tse-whit-zen and sifted for ancestral remains and funerary artifacts from the 2,700-year-old site. Copyright c. 2004 Peninsula Daily News, Horvitz Newspapers, Inc. --------- "RE: Quileute Land dispute with Federal Government" --------- Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2005 08:47:29 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HALF-CENTURY OLD LAND DISPUTE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/sited/story/html/225907 Tribe's land dispute with federal government dates back half-century by VANESSA RENEE CASAVANT December 22, 2005 LAPUSH - Land dispute talks between Olympic National Park and the Quileute tribe continue to simmer with a new "no trespassing" sign posted at the trailhead to Second Beach. The tribe replaced a temporary sign with an industrial-strength one earlier this month while awaiting answers from park representatives about a proposed land swap. The tribe initiated the land swap almost a year ago to obtain higher ground for moving the center of its village out of a tsunami zone. At the same time, tribal members hoped to resolve a more than 50-year- old boundary dispute. The deal went awry in October when the tribe discovered that all of the land it sought bordering the reservation on its southern end was designated as restricted wilderness in 1988 by Congress and could not be traded. In reaction, the tribe closed public access to the trailhead of Second Beach and the breakwater south of Rialto Beach. "Our children and our old people are playing and living in the tsunami zone while we talk and talk," said Quileute Tribal Chairman Russell Woodruff Sr. about closing Second Beach. "We don't need anymore talk." The park delivered its official position regarding the failed land swap in November, but a deal has yet to be reached. Details surrounding the park's proposal have not been disclosed due to a confidentially agreement between the two parties. The tribe's legal representative, Paul Siewell, said there are still unanswered questions regarding what land is available. "We don't want any land that has environmental restrictions from developing it," Siewell said. Barb Maynes, spokeswoman for the park, said more time is needed to devise a viable solution for simultaneously resolving the long-standing northern boundary issue and request for higher ground along the southern boundary. "It's a new way of looking at a very old question," she said. "There's a lot of history there, and that's the issue." Copyright c. 2004 Peninsula Daily News, Horvitz Newspapers, Inc. --------- "RE: ANWR battle rages in Senate" --------- Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 08:53:54 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ANWR FIGHT RENEWS" http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~3173823,00.html ANWR battle rages in Senate By SAM BISHOP News-Miner Washington Bureau December 20, 2005 WASHINGTON - House of Representatives approval of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was less than five hours old Monday morning when senators took up the debate, but they aren't expected to vote on the issue until Wednesday. The House passed the annual defense appropriations bill with ANWR drilling language attached at 5 a.m. Monday by a vote of 308-106, although the real test - an earlier vote on waiving procedural objections - was much closer, passing 214-201. When the Senate opened its floor session at 9:30 a.m., Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., asked how his colleagues could even consider approving the same bill. The conference committee that merged the House and Senate versions Sunday clearly violated a Senate rule by adding the ANWR rider, he said. "Conferees shall not insert in their report matter not committed to them by either house," the Senate's Rule 28 states. The ANWR language was in neither the House nor Senate version of the defense spending bill for the current fiscal year. The conference committee's addition of ANWR will thus make the entire bill subject to challenge by any senator. The challenge, called a point of order, will certainly be upheld by the Senate parliamentarian and, ultimately, the Senate's presiding officer, Feingold said. A successful point of order would block the bill's passage. To avoid that result, Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens and other pro-drilling senators are expected to try to reject the parliamentarian's ruling, a move that would mock the Senate's own rules, Feingold said. Stevens agreed that the Senate rule prohibits the addition of the ANWR language. However, he said, other rules also allow senators the flexibility to temporarily waive the restriction by rejecting the parliamentarian's decision. "It's not destroying the rule. It's a disagreement," Stevens said. "We shouldn't have people saying we're breaking the rules." Why then, Feingold asked, did Stevens also insert language that would reinstate the plain interpretation of Rule 28 upon the bill's passage. If Stevens is not destroying the rule, then such language should not be necessary, he said. Stevens said he is just following past procedure. The language reinstating the rule ensures that the parliamentarian does not view the rejection of the specific point of order as a precedent that undermines the enforceability of the general rule in the future, Stevens said. He noted that Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic minority leader, helped overrule the parliamentarian and pass similar language protecting the rule's continued enforceability on another bill several years ago. Reid said Stevens was playing "intellectual games" to justify his attempt to trample the rule. "This has never been done before," Reid said. His earlier action to which Stevens referred was taken on a "bipartisan basis," he said. Stevens himself, though, may need a little bipartisan help to overcome the rule. He has said he'll need at least a majority of senators, maybe more, to defeat the parliamentarian's decision. In a vote on ANWR last month, 51 of 100 senators approved ANWR drilling. The vote on the point of order will test whether the same block will view ANWR development as worthy of a rule waiver. Stevens said the rule has been ignored many times. In fact, it will need to be ignored this week if senators want to save other provisions added in conference to the defense bill, such as funding for avian flu preparation. The conference bill also proposes to create a Gulf of Mexico recovery fund and send a stream of federal ANWR leasing and royalty money to it. Another 5 percent of the federal ANWR revenue would pay for low-income heating assistance. Another section of the bill would send money earned from the coming auction of federal radio spectrum to a variety of security, disaster and conservation efforts. All these additions were "beyond the scope of the original appropriation" bills, Stevens said. "No question. We added it." They're good and urgent causes, though, he said, and ANWR drilling fits the same definition. The decline in domestic oil production must be reversed, he said, and this is the year to do it because both the House and Senate have voted this year for ANWR drilling on other bills, even though the provision had to be removed from those bills to ensure their passage. At Sunday's conference committee meeting, Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., said Stevens was "sprinkling" the radio spectrum money around the country to lure senators into voting for ANWR drilling. "You're trying to make them an offer they can't refuse," Obey said. "Isn't that really what the game is here?" "That's not the point," Stevens said. "It's a means of assuring there is continued funding of money for disasters." Stevens invoked the 1964 Alaska earthquake: "I remember how we were treated, and I remember how long it took us to get assistance. So I'm committed to this and I've been working with these people ever since (the hurricane). So if you want to belittle it, you go ahead and belittle it." "I'm glad to see that you're being driven on this issue by your concern for the Gulf," Obey retorted. Senators on the conference committee backed drilling 11-8, with several voting by proxy. House members voted 12-6 in favor of drilling. While much of the debate Monday focused on the expected point of order against the ANWR language, there remains a second way Democrats could stop the bill: a filibuster. Several vowed Monday in a news conference to use that tool if necessary. Stevens needs 60 votes to stop them. He hasn't found that many pro- drilling senators in recent years, but neither has the ANWR provision been placed on "must-pass" legislation such as a defense spending bill. "I don't think he would have done what he is going to do if he didn't have the votes," said Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, in a meeting with reporters Monday afternoon. "Sen. Stevens is pretty good at this business and I would say the chances are very good that he would be successful. Again, I don't operate in that body. I'm just pleased we passed it out of the House again." Senate Democrats, in their news conference, said Stevens is endangering timely passage of the defense spending bill. "Sen. Stevens says he's not holding up the process, but he is," said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. "He knows very well that we could all go home today. We could pass these outstanding pieces of legislation regarding defense and other things and be gone. But he wants to stay here. If he wants to stay here, then we'll stay here to fight." Sen. Bill Frist, the Senate Republican leader, filed a motion Monday evening that proposes to limit debate time and thus block the filibuster. A vote on that motion, which requires the 60 votes to pass, could come very early Wednesday morning unless senators agree to take it up sooner. Bills created by a conference committee can't be amended on the House or Senate floor because, by their nature, they represent the final effort to resolve differences between the bodies. So if ANWR drilling opponents succeed in stopping the defense bill in the Senate, it would raise a question of how and when Congress will pay for the military this federal fiscal year, which is already almost three months old. Stevens has said that shouldn't be much of a challenge. "If we lose, then we'll reconstitute the conference and ANWR will be out," he said Saturday. The conference committee was automatically disbanded when the House passed the bill Monday morning. Any changes made by a new conference committee would have to secure full Senate and House approval. But House members are leaving town. While the House hasn't formally adjourned, the leadership doesn't expect to bring members back this year to consider any more legislation, Young said. Young said he didn't know when a final defense bill might be passed if Senate Democrats stop it this week. Washington, D.C., reporter Sam Bishop can be reached at (202) 662-8721 or sbishop@newsminer.com . Copyright c. 2005 MediaNews Group, Inc. & Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Inc. --------- "RE: Salmon Plan concerns Tribes" --------- Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2005 08:45:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="PROTECTING RESOURCES" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/article&ARTICLE_ID=856853 Salmon Plan Concerns Tribes By Elizabeth Wynne Johnson Secember 20, 2005 COEUR D'ALENE, ID 2005-12-20 A federal judge in Portland is weighing arguments over a proposal to help salmon by boosting water flows in the Columbia River. The one-year plan would draw down reservoirs in order to send more water downstream. A coalition of Inland Northwest tribes has testified AGAINST the plan. They say lowering the water levels could expose ancient burial sites, making them vulnerable to looters. James Schroeder of the National Wildlife Federation says there's room to strike a balance. "We have two resources that need to be protected. And I think that we need to work cooperatively, and we need to be creative in coming up with a solution that protects both the cultural sites and the fish resource." The court is expected to rule by the end of the month on how much water will be sent downstream in 2006. A long-term Columbia River management plan is also in the works. Copyright c. 2005, Boise State Radio. --------- "RE: Catawba Tribe ordered to disclose Finances" --------- Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2005 08:47:29 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CATAWBA MUST RELEASE RECORDS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.heraldonline.com/local/story/5414793p-4891686c.html Tribe ordered to disclose finances Judge rules Catawbas must turn over records to group claiming misuse of money By Denyse C. Middleton The Herald December 23, 2005 YORK - The Catawba Indian Nation must turn over some of the tribe's financial records to a group of members who allege the Catawba leadership has misused tribal money, a judge ruled this week. The decision by master-in-equity judge Jack Kimball is a victory in the ongoing legal battle of dissident tribal members who have long been at odds with Chief Gilbert Blue and the tribe's executive committee. Kimball's ruling means the five plaintiffs will have access to the financial records as they try to win a lawsuit that contends the executive committee has failed to hold regular elections, is in office illegally and has misused money from the tribe's landmark 1993 settlement with federal, state and local governments. "We're very interested in seeing what the books reveal," said J.D. Mosteller, the attorney for the group that is suing the executive committee. "I think it's a step forward in the litigation and it's going to be helpful to my clients," he said. Kimball ordered that the tribe must hand over records regarding: $45 million of the $50 million the tribe received in the 1993 agreement that settled longtime land claims; several federal grants the tribe received; and revenue from the Catawba Bingo operation on Cherry Road in Rock Hill. The records must be produced within 30 days, he ruled. Tribal leaders have not decided whether they will appeal the order, attorney Jay Bender said Wednesday. The 1993 settlement ended a tribal land claim and gave the York County-based tribe recognition as a limited sovereign Indian nation. The settlement also gave the tribe the right to operate two bingo parlors. The tribe opened its Cherry Road bingo hall in 1997. Catawba leaders will do whatever they have to do to comply with the judge's order, Chief Blue said. Bender contends the plaintiffs are not entitled to the records because they were irrelevant to the lawsuit. "Our dispute is over what information has been requested and whether it has a relief to what the plaintiffs want," Bender said. The state lawsuit is a continuation of a 1998 federal suit filed by 16 members of the tribe who challenged the tribe's leadership. The suit was dismissed in May 2004 by a federal appeals court in Virginia. However, five months later, the suit was re-filed in state court. Copyright c. 2005 The Herald, Rock Hill, South Carolina --------- "RE: Lumbee probing purchase of Council Member's House" --------- Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2005 08:47:29 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MORTGAGE PAID OFF" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=central&id=3750380 Lumbee tribe probing purchase of tribal council member's house Associated Press December 22, 2005 PEMBROKE, N.C. - The Lumbee Tribe paid off the mortgage of a council member and now some of his colleagues want to know why. The council had denied an application from David Carter for mortgage help, but records show that the tribe still paid off $71,000 he owed for his house in Lumberton. Tribal Speaker Lawrence Locklear and Welford Clark, chairman of the council's Housing Committee, began investigating the payment this week. Carter, who is the emergency management director for Robeson County, said he applied in September to refinance his house through a tribal program. "My understanding was I was eligible for that and proceeded from there," Carter said. "When I requested the information, I told them I was not looking for any favoritism." Carter said he had been asking about the program for more than a year. "Basically, anyone is eligible for it if they make an application and can make the payments," he said. "That is the only thing I know." Carter's house was instead bought by the tribe and will be rolled over into the refinancing program, Deputy Tribal Administrator James Hardin said. Under the acquisition program, the tribe pays off the mortgage. The tribe becomes the mortgage holder and charges a lower or no interest rate to the tribal member. The deal with Carter reflects poorly on the tribal government, Locklear said. "It exacerbates rumors in the community that the council members are out to get for themselves, which is not true," he said. "It doesn't look good, and it doesn't help the Tribal Council's image either." Copyright c. 2005 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c. 2005 ABC Inc., WTVD-TV Raleigh/Durham. --------- "RE: Group warns Tribes of Methane risks" --------- Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2005 09:01:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MAKE SURE TRIBES CONTROL PROCESS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.casperstartribune.net/~ae43be72872570da000262ee.txt Group warns Tribes of Methane risks By BRODIE FARQUHAR Star-Tribune correspondent December 17, 2005 ETHETE - Wind River Indian Reservation residents were urged Thursday night to get ahead of coal-bed methane development, and make sure they - not energy companies - call the shots. The advice came from members of Powder River Basin Resource Council, which has had extensive experience with energy companies. Council members traveled to Ethete at the invitation of the Wind River Alliance conservation group to share stories of how they say Powder River Basin energy developers have damaged soils, meadows and cottonwood trees with saline water pumped away from coal seams to release methane gas. Wes Martel, a board member of the alliance, welcomed council members, saying Indian reservations throughout the West are under siege by energy companies and a Bush administration that's "cutting a lot of corners." The Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone Wind River reservation tribes have expressed concern about coal-bed methane development on the Riverton Dome by Devon Energy, which is proposing more than 300 new wells. Jill Morrison, an organizer of the Powder River Basin Resource Council, said coal-bed methane development requires a staggering amount of infrastructure. She said the Bureau of Land Management is predicting 50,000 coal-bed methane wells in the Powder River Basin over the next decade, which also means: * 17,000 miles of new roads. * 4 million acre feet of saline water pumped out of the coal formations. * 20,000 miles of pipeline. * 5,300 miles of power lines. * 200,000 acres of land stripped bare of vegetation. * 1,800 to 4,000 waste pits. Morrison urged Wind River reservation residents to learn from mistakes made by Powder River Basin residents. For example, she said, waste pits are not necessary and should never be allowed, as closed loop drilling systems don't need crude waste pits for the deposition of slurries and waste oils. "You need to get out in front and be in the driver's seat," Morrison told about three dozen audience members. In a wide-ranging slide show, Morrison showed photographic slides of salt-encrusted stream beds, pastures and pivot irrigation sites; methane gas bubbling up in the middle of stock ponds; vast clouds of dust stirred up by industrial traffic; flooded pastures; and miles of dead cottonwood trees. She urged tribal residents to take full advantage of their sovereign nation status under the law, which gives the tribes much more power over energy development than the state, county and municipal officials in the Powder River Basin country. "I invite you to come visit us," said Morrison, who has also advised the Northern Cheyenne Tribe in Montana and the First Nations tribes of British Columbia in Canada about how to deal with coal-bed methane development. Other members of the resource council spoke about their mostly negative experiences dealing with energy companies large and small. Norman Willow, a member of the Northern Arapaho Business Council, said unrestrained coal-bed methane development is not going to happen on the reservation, "not on my watch." He spoke guardedly, saying that tribal leaders are already at work on the issue. Brodie Farquhar is a freelance reporter based in Lander. He can be reached at brodiefarquhar@hotmail.com. Copyright c. 1995-2005 Casper Star-Tribune, a subsidiary of Lee Enterprises, Incorporated. --------- "RE: Nisqually's Power-Line reroute opens agreement" --------- Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2005 09:01:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="REZ MAY EXPAND LAND BASE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.theolympian.com//article?AID=/20051218/NEWS01/51218008/1006 Tribe project leads to land deal Nisqually's power-line reroute opens agreement that may expand reservation By John Dodge The Olympian December 18, 2005 The Nisqually Indian Reservation's frontage along state Route 510 has a new look these days. Gone since November are the twin Bonneville Power Administration lines and towers that cut a 250-foot-wide swath through about 13 acres of tribal property for more than 50 years. At the tribe's request, the major transmission lines were rerouted slightly to the south on Fort Lewis property, freeing up the tribal land for future development directly across the highway from the tribe's Red Wind Casino. And that's not all there is to the project, explained tribal environmental planner Curtis Stanley. A land exchange and sale involving the tribe, Thurston County and the Department of Defense are in the works that would: * Give the tribe title to 168 acres of military reservation north of Route 510 adjacent to the existing tribal reservation boundary. * Provide Fort Lewis with 416 acres of land it currently leases from Thurston County in six scattered parcels within the Army's Rainier training area. The land deal, which has the tribe buying the land from the county and swapping it with the military for the new tribal reservation land, has not been finalized. The land exchange was a condition of the Army granting Bonneville a real estate permit to build the transmission line corridor on the military reservation, explained Fort Lewis spokesman Joe Hitt. But the power lines are no longer encumbering the tribal land, Stanley said. "We've talked about relocating those power lines for years," Stanley said. In close proximity to tribal homes and the tribal center, the power lines also were a source of safety concerns for tribal members, Stanley said. "I remember climbing on the towers as a kid," tribal elder Ramona Wells said. The two BPA leases were brokered more than 50 years ago by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the tribe never received any compensation for the right-of-way, Stanley said. "The power lines were never very well accepted by the tribe," he said. Now the tribe can move forward with a comprehensive land-use plan for the highway frontage and the larger block of new tribal reservation property. No specific plans are in place, he said. "We'll be working on the master plan for the next two or three years," he said. John Dodge covers the environment and energy for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5444 or jdodge@theolympian.com. Copyright c. 2005 The Olympian. A Knight Ridder Publication. --------- "RE: UND center to begin Study on Indian Vets" --------- Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2005 08:45:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ASSESSING NA VET NEEDS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/13453762.htm HEALTH SURVEY: UND center to begin study on Indian vets Reservations medical needs to be asssessed By David Dodds Herald Staff Writer December 21, 2005 UND Rural Health Center will launch a project next month to assess the health-care needs of American Indian service veterans. Researchers from the center, a division of UND's School of Medicine and Health Sciences, will start by studying the needs of American Indian veterans in North Dakota. They'll survey veterans on four reservations and one tribal service area in the state over the next year. Five hundred veterans (100 from each tribal community that agrees to participate) randomly will be selected for the survey. It will ask about health risk behaviors, health screenings, health-care access, and chronic diseases among veterans using face-to-face interviews. The interviews will be conducted by UND Indian students or by members of Indian veteran organizations on their home reservations. They will be trained on data collecting interviewing skills by faculty and staff from the rural health center and UND medical school. "Increased coordination of services between the (Veteran's Administration) and the Indian Health Service is needed to address our veterans' health needs," said Dr. Leander (Russ) McDonald, who is heading the project. "We hope the information that will result from this study will help to close that gap." Bremer grant The information gathered will be shared with the tribes, the North Dakota Department of Health and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The information will be used by tribal, state and federal policy makers to develop policy to address the needs of American Indian veterans. The project is being funded by a nearly $100,000 grant from the Otto Bremer Foundation. The foundation is committed to supporting projects that engage communities, make voices heard and cause change said Elsa Vega-Perez, Otto Bremer Foundation senior program officer. "This project will connect people to bring about change and ensure a connection across generations," she said. Bringing awareness McDonald, himself an American Indian veteran, receives disability benefits for a service-related injury. He said American Indian veterans often don't know what benefits are available to them. "We hope to assist and inform both health providers and recipients of health care through this project," he said. Copyright c. 2005 Grand Forks Herald, A Knight Ridder Publication. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Heartbeat of the Nez Perce Tragedy" --------- Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2005 09:01:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NEZ PERCE NATIONAL HISTORIC PARK" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.oregonlive.com//1134087913146920.xml&coll=7 Heartbeat of the Nez Perce tragedy VERNON PETERSON December 18, 2005 The Nez Perce National Historical Park may be the most unusual component of America's park system. Consisting of 38 sites in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, it commemorates the history of Chief Joseph's band of Nez Perce and their 1877 flight from the U.S. military, which was trying to uproot them from their ancestral homeland in northeastern Oregon's Wallowa Valley and force them onto a reservation in Idaho. Traveling 1,200 miles in three months, about 750 Nez Perce, two-thirds of them women and children, alternately fought and evaded the military force of 2,000 men chasing them from Wallowa Lake to the site of Bear Paw Battlefield in Montana, just short of the Canadian border, where the band, finally cornered, surrendered. This oft-told story is rehearsed again in Kent Nerburn's "Chief Joseph & the Flight of the Nez Perce: The Untold Story of an American Tragedy." Nerburn's crisp, energetic account is framed by the history of the Nez Perce tribe and the sweep of events that kept the Nez Perce at the center of Pacific Northwest history, from first contact with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, to the turmoil and tragedy of the tribe's encounter with Marcus Whitman and other Christian missionaries, to the intrusion of settlers and miners into the Wallowa Valley in the 1870s. There was a pattern of inevitability to the process, as tribe by tribe, Native Americans were forced off traditional lands and onto small, remnant reservations out of the way of Euro-American settlement. But the Nez Perce's challenge to the American military, following George Custer's 1876 defeat at the Little Big Horn, earned a harsh response from the federal government, as Chief Joseph's band was sent to live in exile in Indian Territory in Oklahoma. Nerburn portrays Joseph as a reluctant warrior and hero, who pursued peace even as the band fled, and who craftily used his growing post-war fame and near mythic stature to lobby the federal government to return the Nez Perce to the Pacific Northwest. They did return in 1885, but not to their ancestral lands in the Wallowas. Some were sent to the Nez Perce reservation at Lapwai, Idaho. Chief Joseph and others were sent to the Colville reservation in Washington, where Joseph died and was buried in 1904. (His father, Old Chief Joseph, is buried at the north end of Wallowa Lake.) Nerburn claims his account is a fresh one, with new interpretations of "contested issues," but his decision to dispense with footnotes may have severely compromised the usefulness of his work. For a story of such importance, it is not enough to refer the reader to "comprehensive source notes" in the work of others, such as Alvin Josephy's classic "The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest," or to assure us that his account follows the historical record. "Each moment, each occurrence in this saga as I have recreated it," Nerburn writes, is how "at least one participant or first-hand observer understood it to have happened." But that does not begin to explain how he molded those individual views into a coherent one of his own. To be fair, Nerburn is trying to tell a story with a "heartbeat" rather than a conventional "bloodless, analytical, history." And his book reads like fictionalized history, in the vein of Mari Sandoz's "Crazy Horse," a splendid model. The Nez Perce National Historical Park sites include Chief Joseph's burial site at Colville and Old Chief Joseph's gravesite at Wallowa Lake, as well as the battlefields and campgrounds used by the Nez Perce during their flight. The Nez Perce have never relinquished their ties to the Wallowa country, and continue the fight to preserve its character. The current controversy involves a proposed development near Old Chief Joseph's grave site. The Nez Perce park brochure says the multisite park is "as much an idea as it is actual physical property." Nerburn's narrative, with its powerful "heartbeat," brings the idea to life. But readers seeking documented detail and nuanced interpretation will have to find them elsewhere. ---- Vernon Peterson recently reviewed "Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits" by Laila Lalami for The Oregonian. Copyright c. 2005 The Oregonian. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Native Sons: The Men of the Yakama Nation" --------- Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2005 09:01:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MEN OF YAKIMA" http://www.yakimaherald.com/nativesons Native Sons The Men of the Yakama Nation December 19, 2005 Tradition. Without it, the men of the Yakama Nation say they would lose their identity. Today, the Yakima Herald-Republic presents a series of photographs and stories reflecting how keeping tradition - or losing it - has shaped the lives of Yakama men. Introduction It begins with the ringing of a bell. Seven Yakama drummers in moccasins and shirts colorfully trimmed with ribbons line one end of the longhouse, singing songs dating back countless generations. Dancing children circle the dirt floor in the center of the building, giving thanks for the salmon, deer, elk, roots and berries. In the kitchen, women quietly prepare the dinner that will follow the services. Similar ceremonies take place each Sunday in 12 longhouses and three Shaker churches on the 1.2-million-acre Yakama reservation. Yakama identity is born of the land. The Yakama believe the land takes care of them, and in turn they must take care of it. Traditionally, Yakama men were the providers and protectors of their families and villages. They passed on these traditions to their sons - traditions that formed their identities. But 200 years ago, a brief encounter with Capt. William Clark at the mouth of the Yakima River signaled the start of the changes that would slowly, but profoundly, alter nearly all that had been. Adapting to a different world has not been easy. As vast territory and a way of life have eroded, so have the lives of many tribal members. The Treaty of 1855 - whose 150-year anniversary is commemorated this year - has helped. It preserved a portion of the Yakamas' original land and traditions. Without those two inseparable elements - land and tradition - tribal leaders say they would lose their identity entirely, and in doing so would lose their way in the world. The Yakima Herald-Republic presents a series of photographs and stories that looks at how adherence to tradition - or failure to follow it - has shaped the lives of Yakama men. A young soldier fights his country's battles. In ways ancient and contemporary, two fathers work hard to provide for their families. Others are lost, beset by crime or alcoholism. Sometimes, when men can't hand down tradition, women step forward. Although much has changed, many Yakama men still identify with their culture and believe it holds the answers to life's struggles. Here, we tell their stories. The Providers Fishing bridges eras One of the Yakamas' most revered traditions is being kept alive above the rushing waters of the Klickitat River By PHILIP FEROLITO YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC LYLE - Leonard Dave Jr. braces himself against the wind before plunging a dip net into the swirling waters of the Klickitat River. Gripping the long pole, Dave works the net from atop his family's wood scaffold, anchored to a rock wall some 15 feet above the crashing river. A quick jerk of the pole marks another catch - a 15-pound spring Chinook. "It's not too bad," Dave says, dropping the fish into a wet burlap sack. "They've all been about that size today." For thousands of years, Northwest Indians have fished from scaffolds, a tradition that forms an identity and provides for families, communities and sacred ceremonies. But for more than a half century, dams have choked the once-great fish runs of the Columbia River and its tributaries, including the Klickitat. Traditional fishing sites vanished beneath the rising waters, and salmon stocks were further reduced by loss of habitat and commercial fishing. Still, many tribal members continue to fish. Only about 20 Yakama families, however, including the Daves, use the ancient practice as their primary means of support. The Daves live in Murdock, a small village about 70 miles east of Portland and a short drive from their scaffold. But for many tribal members living on the Yakama reservation, it's at least a 45 minute drive to the fishing sites. "Most of them work regular shifts in the Valley and then come over for the weekend just so they can get something for their freezer," says Dave, 54, who practically lives at the site during the spring, summer and fall fishing seasons. He and his family pull out salmon weighing from 15 to more than 40 pounds. "When the fish get going good, we can catch a ton," says Dave, dressed in a sleeveless T-shirt and blue jeans, a purple bandana tied over the top of his head. His silver ponytail lifts each time the wind whips through the narrow canyon. His 32-year-old nephew, Jody Hunt, pulls a burlap sack heavy with four salmon over his shoulder, climbs into a wooden tram and pulls himself to the other side of the river, where he puts the fish on ice. "It's good to help my uncle out," says Hunt, who has been fishing at the site for eight years. On this April day, the two men are filling an order for 20 salmon for a Columbia River cruise ship. Sometimes restaurants buy the fish, but most sales are to the general public at the site. Depending on the season, the Daves can get anywhere from $3 to $4 a pound for fresh salmon. Fishing provides a living, but Dave and Hunt also work seasonal jobs driving trucks or forklifts during the fruit harvest. If the run is good, family members can earn as much as $6,000 each during the fall fishing season, which is typically the largest of the three annual salmon runs, says Leonard Dave Sr. Traditionally, salmon and other foods were not sold but were bartered for other goods. There was no need for money when nature provided all. Much has changed, but not everything. Salmon is now sold, but its cultural value remains paramount. Ceremonial fishing to provide longhouses with salmon for feasts, memorials and funerals is done first. Then comes subsistence and commercial fishing. Salmon is everything, says Dave Sr., watching his son sweep the net through the waters. "That's our life - we've been taught all our lives since we were young - fish is our main food." According to Yakama belief, the salmon's sacredness dates to man's beginning. All the animals gathered and agreed to make a sacrifice so humans could live on Mother Earth. The salmon spoke up first, offering itself as food. Northwest Indians honor the salmon each year with sacred prayers and dances, followed by longhouse feasts - all done to assure continued salmon runs. "We hold the salmon in great regard," says Dave Sr., who at age 77 still dips for salmon. "We take good care of the salmon and that way it keeps returning to us. It's our way of life, having the salmon return to us every year." Dave pulls up another fish, a steelhead. His brother-in-law lets loose a wolf-call from across the canyon, indicating he wants that fish. Hunt tosses the fish in the small wooden tram and sends it across the canyon. The Daves own the fishing site and some 160 acres on both sides of the river. The property was reserved for the Daves by the federal government during the Allotment Act of 1887. But their ancestral ties to the land extend well beyond that. "My understanding was that (our people) were always on that part of the river, in that area," says Dave Sr., sporting a blue ball cap, red plaid shirt and blue jeans. "I'm only one generation - just think of the ones that were here before. You think of all the stories you've been told by your elders about all the great things concerning the salmon." And that's all the more reason to hand down the sacred tradition of fishing. When his mother died when he was 3, Dave Sr. was taken from the river by relatives to White Swan. Growing up, he learned to fish from his uncles on a Columbia River tributary east of The Dalles, Ore. But after graduating from high school in 1948, he returned to the family's scaffold, where his father still fished, and has since kept the tradition alive. Dave Sr. is not only passing the way of life on to his son and nephew, but also his grandson, Tony Carstens. "It means a lot to me, because you never know when they're going to shut it down or when they're not going to fish there anymore," says the 28- year-old Carstens. "It means a lot to me because I get to participate." Seeing the tradition being passed on is a blessing, Dave Sr. says. "It makes me feel great - you got someone that close to you that will do what you've done for years," he says. "It makes you proud, lets you know that these traditions will continue." As the day winds down, Dave Sr. calls for his sidekick, a rust-colored dachshund named Snoopy, before boarding the tram. Snoopy jumps aboard and the two make their way across the canyon to where his truck is parked. Hunt remains behind. Not far from the scaffold, he sits on a bench made of a board and blocks in a makeshift shelter of old timber poles wrapped with a warn blue tarp rustling in the wind, recalling how fishing has always been a part of his life. Even having watched his father and a brother die in a fishing accident won't keep him away, he says softly. He was with his father and two brothers on the Columbia River nearly 20 years ago when their boat hit a huge swell. Its bow shot nearly straight up, tossing his father and brothers into the water eight miles east of The Dalles. Hunt, then 13, managed to stay in the boat until it drifted to the river's bank. His brother Ken swam to shore. His father, James Jr., and other brother, James III, drowned. "It didn't keep me from the river," he says, looking out over the canyon where the sunset paints the western sky yellow and orange. "Can't be afraid of the river, though - that's the way my dad brought me up, hunting and fishing." The Warriors Violence finds a peaceful people Yakamas not warlike in nature, but many willingly fight for their country and traditional way of life By PHILIP FEROLITO YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC TOPPENISH - At an April gathering, Marine Cpl. Ricky Hilario's quiet manner and soft-spoken words belie the ferocity of his experience in Iraq. "One of my friends was blown up over there," he says, eyes welling with tears. There was a firefight in Fallujah, he recounts. His friend, already riddled with bullets and lying on the ground, rolled onto a grenade intended for him and five other Marines. He died instantly. Hilario goes on to tell about American troops killed by Iraqi insurgents who sometimes waved a white flag of surrender or begged for a doctor before launching an attack. After nearly a year in Iraq, the 21-year-old combat photographer is currently stationed in San Diego. He will return to Iraq next month. "I don't want to go back, but I will if they need me," Hilario says to the gathering. "This is not for everybody, but somebody has got to do it, I guess." For centuries, Yakama men have been welcomed back from war with special tribal rituals of prayer, feasts and dancing. A warrior would discard the garb he fought in and receive a new set of clothes. Much of the same ceremony, mostly performed at the request of family, continues today. And so it is for Hilario, who quietly stands at the head of the large, arrowhead-shaped wooden table in Tribal Council chambers. More than a dozen warriors, many veterans of Vietnam and Korea, line the wall. Standing to his right, his mother, Debbie James, wipes tears away. Former Tribal Council leader Davis Washines, whose son Asa is serving in Afghanistan, chants an ancient song in the Yakama language, welcoming Hilario home. After he finishes, Washines looks at Hilario and says, "We're grateful to the Creator for taking care of him." Next, Tribal Councilman and World War II veteran Louis Cloud tells Hilario, "There's so much you don't realize until your life is at stake. I'm glad you made it back." Silently, Hilario hands a neatly folded American flag to the first veteran in line. The flag, which Hilario is dedicating to the Yakama Nation, flew over Fallujah, site of the war's most savage battles. Hilario carried it through the streets there as well as to Ramadi, where battles continue. "He had words that were spoken, prayers that he carried with him," Washines tells the gathering. "With that, he carried this flag. He wants to honor all the veterans that preceded him." The flag is passed down the line, and Hilario follows, shaking hands with each warrior. Afterward, Tribal Councilman and veteran Leo Aleck wraps a Pendleton wool blanket around Hilario. Washines gives him an eagle feather. The blanket is a gift of appreciation; the feather signifies heroism. Hilario, one of an estimated 20 Yakamas or descendants who have served or now serve in Iraq or Afghanistan, is considered a protector of this land, a warrior. It is a recognition traditionally given someone who puts the needs of his people first, says tribal elder Johnson Meninick, adding that traditionally the Yakamas didn't regard themselves as warring people but would fight as a last resort. "To (otherwise) take another human life, that's a sin," he says. Fighting against other tribes - and, briefly, U.S. troops in the 1850s - typically arose over threats to land and families. Warriors as young as 12 would go off to battle, Aleck says. Mothers fearing for the lives of their sons would sometimes fight as well. Although they swore to lay down arms in the Treaty of 1855, Yakamas have served in every conflict of the last century, and they don't hesitate to go abroad today to defend their homeland. Tribal members say if the United States were to lose a war, there would be no guarantee that the treaty - which reserves tribal lands and protects traditional hunting, fishing and gathering practices - would be kept. "I was there (in Vietnam) and I always thought if communism would take over the U.S., would the Indians still be able to practice their traditional ways?" says Frank Miller. "That was what I was hoping to protect." Basically, it's an extension of the old ways, says Vietnam veteran Jake Mann. "Today, it's doing the same thing," he says. "We're protecting our way of life, the food, the resources and the land." As Hilario holds the gifts to his chest, his fellow warriors offer words of encouragement. "If you do go back, remember the feather you carry," says Vietnam veteran Warren Spencer. "You are a warrior of this land, and you should carry it proudly." Following in the steps of his grandfather, Ray James, Hilario joined the Marines after graduating from Wapato High School in June 2003. Thirteen months later, he was sent to Iraq. As part of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, he toted a digital camera and a video recorder along with an M-16 rifle. His job was to document military operations and the conflicts that continue to rock that country, including suicide bombings and insurgent attacks. Often he was first on the scene, recording sometimes gruesome images. He recalls the 31 Marines who died when their helicopter went down in a sandstorm near the Jordanian border. Hilario was supposed to be on that flight, but his orders changed at the last minute. Instead, he ended up having to photograph the aftermath. "That's what makes our job really hard," he says. "We had to experience the worst and best of everything. "I've grown up faster than most men in their late 20s due to the fact that I've discovered the will to kill another man in the defense of my comrades ... " he wrote in an earlier e-mail from Iraq. "I can now tell what it's like to hold someone's life in my hands along with a camaraderie that most will never know or understand." The Lost Men Alcohol unravels lives A tired and lonely Warren Smartlowit holds onto his memories, but little else, as he pines for family elders and a way of life he no longer lives By PHILIP FEROLITO YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC TOPPENISH - Warren Smartlowit pulls himself from the broken-down blue Mazda where he's been sleeping and shakes off the morning cold. After a quick stretch, the 47-year-old grabs a backpack, pulls on a faded-green Sonics cap with a hawk feather dangling from the back and walks several blocks to Pioneer Park. There, warm food and coffee await the homeless. Joining five others at a picnic table, Smartlowit ladles stew into a plastic foam bowl, filling it to the rim. It's probably the only meal he'll get today. Smartlowit is among an estimated 100 homeless Yakama tribal members on the reservation. Many roam from Toppenish to Wapato, finding places where trees or weeds offer shelter and seclusion. There, they sit and drink, out of view of police and others. Some set up makeshift camps until ordered to leave. Then it's off to another spot. Some camps are along the Yakima River. Other spots, often called "the jungles" by the homeless, are sprinkled in and around Toppenish and Wapato. Alcoholism is the primary cause of homelessness. Alcohol, which had neither history nor tradition among the Yakama, arrived here some 160 years ago. More devastating than most other diseases, alcoholism has taken an enormous toll that is measured in wrecked families, tragic accidents and lost lives. Tribal elders say some alcoholism can be blamed on loss of culture. When Yakamas become too interested in a non-Indian lifestyle without taking their traditions seriously, they become lost, says tribal elder Johnson Meninick. "It fails them," says Meninick. "The substitute ... becomes hate. They hate themselves, hate others. They begin taking substances." For each homeless tribal man or woman, there are many times more who are not on the streets but whose lives suffer from alcohol abuse. Smartlowit, who drinks to ease his loneliness, mostly stays at his family's property on Monroe Avenue behind Safeway. A gutted red and white house sits on the large lot. Out back are a few junked cars and three decaying sheds, including one that once housed a sweat lodge. There's no water or electricity. But Smartlowit stays, holding on to memories of a life that slipped away long ago. When his grandmother lived here, the property was well-kept. Smartlowit lived here, too, and he hunted and cut wood for his grandmother and other elders. There was a strength in family. His mother belonged to a longhouse, a traditional tribal church where Sunday services and other ceremonies are held. His father was a member of the Shaker Church, which incorporates traditional tribal and Christian beliefs. But his grandmother and parents died more than 20 years ago. The house is now condemned, the property littered with trash - including many empty beer cans and bottles. "I took care of my mom, dad and my grandpa, but they're all gone now - nothing to do," he says, looking at the ground. "All the elders are gone - - makes me feel depressed, with nothing to do." When his grandmother was alive, Smartlowit wouldn't enter her house if he'd been drinking. Instead, he'd stay out back, says longtime friend Francis Smith. "It was out of respect," he says. Even today, he doesn't stay in the house. He lives out back, where he keeps two old chairs and a worn couch under a tree. It's his living room, where he and friends often wind down with a 40-ounce bottle of beer before falling asleep. His bedroom is the Mazda. It sits on four flat tires, its windshield broken and cardboard covering a door window. When it gets too cold, he sleeps in one of the sheds. Smartlowit says he tries to keep the yard clean, but others litter and steal his belongings. He washes and gets drinking water at the park's restroom. On Sundays, he eats and showers at the longhouse just west of Toppenish, which is also the only place where food is available to him that day. His only reliable income is a $100 monthly per-capita payment from the tribe, but he often accepts odd jobs such as cutting wood, taking out trash and cleaning up yards. Recently, he worked thinning trees for a day near Goldendale. He's lived this way for about 25 years. "But now I'm tired of it," he says, looking at family pictures hanging on a shed and tree. Reminiscing about when he hunted to provide food for longhouse ceremonies and powwows, Smartlowit reaches for his father's picture, which hangs from a string on the wall. He stares at it briefly, then returns it, face to the wall. "My dad was a straight-A student and graduated from White Swan High School," Smartlowit says. "He'd always ask me, 'What, are you going to be a knucklehead all your life?' And I'd tell him, 'No Dad, I'm going to school.' " Smartlowit proudly notes that the tribal school was named after his grandfather, Stanley Smartlowit. He pulls down another picture, this one displaying Yakama horsemen in full regalia, including war bonnets. It was taken during the annual Fourth of July Parade in Toppenish, when riders filled the downtown. Those days are gone. It's been two decades since that many Yakamas turned out for the event. Smartlowit briefly recalls how he once hunted for the gathering, then slides the picture into his backpack, where there's a roll of toilet paper, drawing pencils, paper and a broken saw blade for carving sculptures. The stuff comes in handy, he says. Years ago, he attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M., and he's often talked of returning. He recently received an acceptance letter for the school's upcoming spring semester and is now seeking financial help from the tribe. "I can't go to school in rags," he says, tugging on his blue jeans and looking at his worn sneakers. "I'm tired of just living and doing nothing, but I don't want to go to school in rags." The tribe once asked Smartlowit to sketch illustrations depicting the many Yakama legends, says Mavis Kindness, who works in the tribe's cultural resources department. "But he hasn't come around," she said. "He's good with colors. If he'd come in, I'd still be interested." Digging in the backpack again, Smartlowit pulls out illustrations he's done of tribal legends, as well as hunting, fishing and ceremonial feasts. One depicts a fisherman dipping a net for salmon. Another shows a warrior looking upward as if praying while an eagle flies overhead. Flashing a boyish grin, he pulls from his pocket a tiny baby board, the traditional padded board on which the Yakama still carry their infants. Made of cardboard with a cloth baby doll inside, the replica is yet another example of his work. Reaching into his pocket again, he pulls out two dimes and seven pennies. "I just scrounge up change, enough for a 25-cent pop at Safeway," he says. "I don't ask people for money, I just wait and see what comes to me." Smartlowit then walks through the field behind his yard, passing a fence riddled with gang graffiti, and heads to Safeway for the soda. He spends most of his days wandering through town, meeting up with others at Yakamart, a gas station and convenience store, or Legends Casino, where he can grab a free pop. After dropping into the casino, Smartlowit pops out with a $5 bill. "Someone left it on the counter for me," he says while heading for some beer at the Shell station across from Safeway. He says his Indian name, Yeowh-eee-wah, fits him well. It means Wanderer. But living on the streets can be tough. Gang members sometimes beat up the homeless, Smartlowit says, noting that he usually keeps a "war club" nearby. It's a large stick with a river rock tied to one end. When he gets tired of everything, he heads to the Yakama Nation Radio station and requests a certain song be played. He waves and says a prayer while walking past longhouses and other churches, saying it helps. All the while, he carries the memories of his family and of how things used to be. "I'm tired of walking in circles," he says, noting that his elders are always watching him. "I wave at them because I know they're in heaven looking down at this." The Women Helping where help is needed When hardships take their toll on families, some women step into the roles traditionally held by men By PHILIP FEROLITO YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC Leaving her Medicine Valley home just before dawn, Renata Root carefully steers a white 1990 Suburban up the meandering dirt roads, north into the Cascade Mountains. An orange glow is beginning to radiate above the peaks as the sun rises on this late October morning. Four of Root's five nephews and their friend remain quiet until they reach the family campsite along Diamond Fork Creek, some 15 miles south of Tampico in the closed section of the Yakama reservation. The land, untouched by development, is open only to Yakamas. They come here often to practice their sacred traditions, such as hunting, fishing and food gathering. For countless generations, places like this are where fathers brought their boys to become men. But as it is with any place with significant poverty, substance abuse and limited jobs, some women on the Yakama reservation have had to step into the roles traditionally held by men. Root, 39, says she can help the boys in practicing traditions, but teaching them about hunting and their spiritual connection to the land can only be done by a man. That's where her oldest son, 19-year-old William, comes in. Traditionally, women gathered roots and berries and prepared fish and meat for storage. Men did the hunting, fishing and wood cutting. Those lines are somewhat blurred for women such as Root. She's raising five nephews, ages 7 to 14, because of their mother's problems with alcohol and drugs, and because the children's fathers are out of the picture. In addition to the nephews, she has also raised two teenage sons. While her ex-husband often helps out, Root is the boys' primary provider. To make ends meet, she has fought forest fires, marked timber for harvest and held other forestry jobs. She also spent seven years working as a tribal ranger on the south side of Mount Adams, ensuring the safety of both visitors and the land. Like other Yakamas, she ascribes a spiritual connection to the land. "The mountains are my home," she says. "You'd have to live it to understand it. It's an everyday thing - it's not just going to church on Sunday. "A lot of people assume that we own the land, but actually we're part of the land. It takes care of us and in return, we have to take care of it." It's an understanding that she's instilling in the boys. At the family's campsite, Root has the boys - all call her Mom - wash their faces in the frigid creek waters. Tribal elders say the water carries medicine from the mountains. "They always say in the spring and in the fall, you wash yourself and you won't be cold," says Root. After splashing a few handfuls of water onto his face, a half-asleep 14- year-old Ryan says, "It's not cold enough." Now, they're ready to cut wood for an elder. They hop back into the Suburban and head to a clearing. Root sends Ryan and family friend Nick Roy, 11, about 200 yards across the meadow to check on possible trees to cut down. Frost still covers the ground. Benny, 12, and Anthony, 9, remain in the Suburban. Jacob, the youngest at 7, clings to Root outside. "It's the hardest thing for a mother, to watch them walk away and hope they can find their way back," she says, looking across the clearing at the boys. They disappear into the thick timber. Moments later, Root's whistle echoes across the meadow. "When you count to 300 and don't hear from them, then you know you have to whistle," she says. Returning a few minutes later, the boys say they've found a big dead tree. But there's no path to it nor enough room to cut it down. Heading to another spot, they meet up with oldest son William and her fifth nephew, Andrew, 11. The two are combing the area in the family's '87 Chevy pickup for a deer or elk. Both vehicles head south, where they find a dead pine near the base of Signal Peak. This time there's plenty of room around it to work. William pulls a chain saw from the pickup's bed. Ryan grabs two axes and follows him down the hill. There's a loud crack as the tree falls. William begins sawing it into smaller pieces, telling the boys to start loading the pickup. The boys begin arduously packing the heavy chunks of wood up the hillside. "This is the way they learn to become men," Root says, "Getting up and doing work." Root climbs onto the truck bed and starts evenly stacking the wood. "My mom always worked," says Root. "She gave us good work ethics." The load nearly fills the truck. It's now about noon. Ryan and Nick pull a cooler of Kool-Aid from the Suburban and set it on the tailgate, where they feast on canned salmon and biscuits before taking the wood to Root's aunt in White Swan. She'll use the wood to heat her home. They pull into their aunt's dirt driveway, where the tired boys begin slowly unloading the wood. "You guys are taking forever," William quips to the youngsters. "You should have been done." Little Jacob, his braids dangling, stands on a stack of wood nearby and pretends to shoot a plastic gun. "Pow! I got you," he says while the other boys neatly stack the wood tossed from the truck. The boys will go out several times this year to get wood for other elders, Root says. They'll also go hunting. The work ethic is instilled at home, where Root and her two sons, William and 18-year-old Leonard, live with the five boys in a four-bedroom house in Medicine Valley, northwest of White Swan. A long dirt driveway leads to the light-brown house. Two pit-bull mixes are tied up out front, and two horses are kept in a nearby corral. Their Doberman and its nine pups are kept out back. At home, the boys often help with laundry and feed the dogs and horses. They all have chores. That will change after they make their first kill hunting. "Then they won't do women chores anymore," Root says. Their job then will be to keep family freezers full of meat and fish. When that happens, it will be a change for Root as well. Her role will taper off. "That was the hardest thing to ever do," she says, reflecting on William's first kill, when he was 14. "I have done my job. I let them be the young men they are." Root says there are three major steps in raising boys: getting them out of diapers, getting them educated and teaching them to take care of themselves. "I want them to become providers," she says. "I don't want them to have to be asked to go hunting." Equally important is teaching them about their ancestry, Root says, displaying a book of her family tree. Thumbing through the pages, she shows generation after generation of names. Root has been compiling it since she was 11 years old, and will hand it down to her children. "If you know where you come from, then you'll know where you're going," she says. Looking out her back porch, Root points to the western peaks in the sunset's golden glow. "That's our church," she says. "That's who we are." She then reaches down to pet the protruding ribs of her Doberman. Nursing the nine pups has taken a toll. "Women, just like this dog, will give to their children, family, until they have nothing left," Root says. Reflecting on when the boys were still in diapers, she says children will always be raised in her home. "It's always going to be that way, even when I get older," she says. "I imagine that there's always going to be a child that comes here that's going to need me." Handing Down Tradtions One generation to another Dances and rituals trickle through the generations, shaping childrens' futures and keeping the Yakama ways alive By PHILIP FEROLITO YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC TOPPENISH - Standing in a crowd of dancers near the powwow awning, Charles Sweowat adjusts the horse-and porcupine-hair headdress atop his 11-year-old son's head. As a drum echoes and a welcoming song begins, Sweowat quickly pulls down the leather straps and ties them beneath Billy's chin. Other dancers, some holding medicine bags, others toting war shields and staffs draped with eagle feathers, are already heading to the dance floor beneath the awning. Sweowat secures the eagle feather bustle to Billy's lower back before letting him join the others circling the dirt floor. Hundreds of spectators crowd the bleachers set up just west of Legends Casino on this summer day. Traditionally, the war dance was used when tribes gathered for meetings or prepared for war. Today, it's commonly performed at countless powwows across the country. Dancers compete for cash prizes ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars. A string of red fringe dangles over Billy's eyes, while the feathered bustle does a dance of its own. Holding his war shield out front, Billy suddenly ducks his head and dips his body into a dive. "That's like someone shooting at them, and they'll duck and dive," says Sweowat, watching his son. "That dance - you can't back up - you always have to move forward, not retreat." The war dance has been in the family for generations. Sweowat learned it from his grandmother, who learned it from her elders. As a youngster in the late 1970s, Sweowat often danced at the Yakama Nation Cultural Center and traveled to powwows in Oregon, Idaho and Montana. Now at age 40, he's hitting the powwow trail with Billy. Handing down the dance not only fulfills a duty of fatherhood, but keeps the tradition alive. "It makes me feel pretty good," he says. "I was really proud of him when he first started dancing because he did it on his own. I didn't force him into it or anything. "He didn't have an outfit, but he would go out and dance." When Billy was 4, he began working with his father on the dance regalia that would allow him to enter competitive dancing. They put together a green grass dance outfit, a colorful regalia bordered with long yarn fringe that appears to sweep the ground during dancing. Depending on detail, outfits can take as little as a month or as long as a year to make. Today, most are cloth, although some are still made of buckskin. Both kinds are fitted with beadwork, ribbons and feathers. Moccasins and leggings are usually hand-sewn buckskin. About two years ago, the father and son made a red-and-black war dance outfit. "He always used to run around with Michael Jordan stuff on, so he likes red and black," says Sweowat, a mechanic at Tiin-Ma Logging in White Swan. Like the dancing itself, Billy's eagle feather bustle was handed down from his great-grandfather. It was used by his uncle until about three years ago, when he gave it to Billy at a longhouse ceremony where prayers were sung and the bustle's history was recounted. The bustle and other ceremonial items, such as beadwork, regalia or hunting and fishing gear made by elders, are passed on to youngsters embarking on the same path. It's a way of honoring the elders and may foreshadow the youngster's path through life, says Toppenish Longhouse leader Lonnie Selam, who officiated at the bustle ceremony for the Sweowats. "We try to keep that inner connection with our elders," he says. For countless generations, handed-down traditions have shaped children's lives. They teach children to respect life, the land and the importance of keeping the Creator's laws, says Selam. "Everything has a purpose, and it's that kind of teaching that we carry today," he says. Taking care of the traditional foods such as salmon, deer, elk and various roots and berries is at the forefront of the tribe's culture. It defines the traditional roles of men and women and is at the center of Yakama belief. Many Yakamas continue those traditions today at 12 longhouses and three Shaker churches scattered across the 1.2-million-acre reservation. In these places, rituals that have been passed from generation to generation are held. Names are bestowed. Funerals are held. The salmon is honored, as are the first kills by young hunters. A hunter gives away the meat of his first kill and the rifle he shot it with. A young woman gives away the first food she's gathered and the basket used to collect it. The ceremonies not only honor elders who pass on the traditions, they also mark the youngster's duty to take care of the land. "It's the responsibility that they're accepting that's being handed down," says Selam. But keeping the traditions alive hasn't been easy. The federal government once sent tribal youth to boarding schools, where they were barred from speaking their native language and practicing tradition. Still others lost touch with their culture after being put in foster homes and raised by non-Indians. Tribal elders say those struggling with alcohol and drug abuse could find relief if they would only live by their traditions. Without those traditions, the Yakamas would lose not only their identity, but their purpose as a tribe, says Selam. "That's always upon us," he says. "We have to justify our existence through our traditions." If the Creator's laws aren't kept, the Yakamas could face devastation from natural disasters, he concludes. To keep tradition alive, a tribal summer camp is held each year to teach youth about their culture. The Yakama language and culture are taught at the tribal school and public schools throughout the reservation. And there are families on the reservation willing to teach the culture to those who want to learn. Sitting in a blue lawn chair at the edge of the dance floor, Charles Sweowat watches his son become one with the drumbeat, his body dipping and ducking, his feet touching down on the earth with each beat. "It's kind of like a piece of me back out there dancing again," says Sweowat. "It makes me want to go back out there and start dancing again." Copyright c. 2005 Yakima Herald-Republic. --------- "RE: Remembering Barbeau" --------- Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2005 09:01:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CULTURAL LEADER REMEMBERED" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.helenair.com/articles/2005/12/18/helena_life/c01121805_01.txt Remembering Barbeau By MARTIN J. KIDSTON - IR Features Writer December 18, 2005 Artful teepees, sled dogs and traditional American Indian ceremonies were once commonplace at Eddie Barbeau's home. The beloved elder from the Ojibway tribe had climbed to relative fame in the Helena area by unifying the city's diverse Indian population - defending its culture and carrying its pipe. But now, 11 years after Barbeau's passing, there's a hole in the ground where his Custer Avenue home once sat. His former residence, built in 1935, now sits on blocks. The property itself is surrounded by the Home Depot and a planned retail center, not far from the corner of what's to become a major Helena interchange. The land now belongs to Montana Opportunities, LLC. The Butte-based company, which didn't return repeated phone calls last week, is looking to build a Town Pump gas station and casino on the site that once belonged to Barbeau. While no single tribe calls Helena home, members of the city's Indian population are loath to see their memories of Barbeau give way to development, at least without some sort of memorial. Darren Melton, who replaced Francis Belgarde as the director of the Helena Indian Alliance in 2001, said he first met Barbeau in 1988. Melton credits the elder for changing his life and would like to see him memorialized, if not on the property then elsewhere in town. Melton lived with Barbeau at his home for six years. During that time, he apprenticed with the elder as an artist and witnessed many ceremonies. "I told him I'd work around his yard if he taught me Indian arts and crafts," Melton said. "He used a lot of different styles - Cheyenne, Blackfeet, Lakota. He preserved the Indian culture for all of us and kept it alive." Melton remembered Barbeau as an accomplished man who sat on the board of the Montana United Urban Indian Alliance and organized Helena's own Indian Alliance in 1969. Barbeau also trained sled dogs at Camp Rimini and, during World War II, served in Newfoundland to rescue downed American pilots. Later in life he became an accomplished artist, a pipe holder and a spiritual leader for the area's Indian people. "I have a personal and direct connection to that land," Melton said of the Custer property. "That's where I had my naming ceremony. That's where Barbeau gave me my name, Bear Shield." Daniel Pocha, a Helena Indian Alliance board member, said he too would like to see Barbeau memorialized. It makes him sad, he said, to see his home up on blocks and the property slated for development. "He helped expand the culture and helped people identify with their Native customs," Pocha said. "He kept a medicine lodge up at his property. His paintings were on the lodge