_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 14, ISSUE 016 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, WOTANGING IKCHE - Lakota - Common News Wotanging Ikche and Native American News Copyright c. 1996-2006 nanews.org Aboriginal/AmerIndian Perspective about the First Nations of Turtle Island April 22, 2006 Assiniboine Tabehatawi/frog moon Pima Oam Mashath/the yellow moon Mvskogee Tasahcee-rakko/big spring moon +-------------------------------------------------------+ | Much more happens in Indian Country than is reported | | in this weekly newsletter. For daily updates & events | | go to http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm | +-------------------------------------------------------+ Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin -- Blackfeet -- News for All the People Ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min -- Ojibwe -- We Are Talking About Ourselves Aunchemokauhettittea -- Naragansett -- Let Us Share News Kanoheda Aniyvwiya -- Cherokee -- Journal of the People O Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse -- Creek -- People's New News O o O Acimowin -- Plains Cree -- Story or Account O o O Tlaixmatiliztli -- Nahuatl -- News O o o o o O Agnutmaqan -- Listuguj Mi'kmaq -- News O o O Sho-da-ku-ye -- Teehahnahmah -- Talking Birchbark O o O Un Chota -- Susquehannic Seneca -- The People Speak O Ha-Sah-Sliltha -- Ditidaht Nation -- News of the People Ximopanolti tehuatzin, inin Mexika tlahtolli -- Nahuatl -- For you we offer these words It-hah-pe-hah Ah-num pah-le -- Chickasaw -- Together We Are Talking Dineh jii' adah' ho'nil'e'gii ba' ha' neh -- Navajo Nation -- What's Happening among The People News Okla Humma Holisso Nowat Anya -- Choctaw -- People(s) Red Newspaper Hi'a chu ah gaa -- Pima -- The stories or the talk of the People s ch mA mL tL squee Lux -- Okanogan -- News from the People Native American News -- Language of the Occupation Forces ++>If you speak a Native American language not listed above, please send us your words for "News of the People." We'd rather take up this whole page saving these few words of our hundreds of nations than present a nice clean banner in the language of the occupation forces who came here determined to replace our words with their own. email gars@nanews.org with the equivalent of "News of the People" in your tribal language along with the english translation <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is produced in straight ASCII text for greatest portability across platforms. Read it with a fixed-pitch font, such as Courier, Monaco, FixedSys or CG Times. Proportional fonts will be difficult to read. <================<<<< >>>>================> This issue contains articles from www.owlstar.com; www.indianz.com; www.pechanga.net; Frostys AmerIndian, Chiapas95-En, A I Injustice, and The Big Lie 2 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 Quote: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + =================== "There have been 17 decisions in this case, and we've won every one of them." "But the government still delays this case at every chance ... They will try every trick that you can believe." "If this had happened in the private sector, there would be people in jail." __ Elouise Cobell, Blackfeet, Lead Plaintiff in the Trust Fund Lawsuit +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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! The Lovely Janet offers some thoughts about the proposed American Indian embassy.... ---- Indian country is abuzz with talk about a renewed proposal to establish an Embassy of Tribal Nations to represent US Native American tribes as sovereign nations. The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community has up $1 million in a challenge grant toward the estimated $12M cost of purchasing a house on Embassy Row in Washington DC, and the Prairie Island Sioux Community and former BIA chief Dave Anderson have each contributed $50,000. The reasons establishing a credible Tribal Nations presence among the world's embassies are numerous. Perhaps the most obvious is that it's one more step toward advancing the sovereignty of Indian tribes. But there are other advantages, too. At present, the only resource Indians have for dealing with the US government is through the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). While the BIA employs Indians, and its stated purpose is to represent Indian nations' interests, that duty is severely compromised by its employees primary allegiance to the US government, which has repeatedly shown that its interests remain the erradication of Indians as an identifiable cultural and political community. A representative group that truly represented Indian nations and that had the ear not only of the US government, but of the world, could make a positive difference in how Indians are perceived and treated. Legislators who need information about Indian nations in their own or other states would have a resource other than a US administrative agency. Is it worth diverting $12M from other pressing Indian country needs? Possibly, if that investment results in the enforcement of treaty agreements, a world-wide sounding board when our women are sterilized, our lands are taken our consent or fair payment, and our nations's resources negotiated away in sweetheart corporate deals -- and still our landowners are not paid. Our Indian nations, who have given so much to those who settled in America, may finally be treated equally to the poorest third-world nations overseas. +/// 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 ----------- - Cobell discusses Lawsuit - American Indian Women against U.S. Government and activism (Part three) - Court told Judge removal - Arctic Ice Pack losing Ground would send Wrong Signal - MILLER: International Law - Trust Fund Case and Indigenous Rights goes before Appeals Court again - GIAGO: Sovereignty - Vermont recognizes Abenaki Rights can have its Growing Pains - Dine' Citizen Army - YELLOW BIRD: wants Water grab stopped Panel probes Diversity Issues - Native Parents get pep talk - YELLOW BIRD: from Tribal Leader Why is Ethanol's price rising? - Battling child Abuse - Compensation the right move on Reservations - First Nations look to prosper - Tribe revives idea of from Port Project an American Indian Embassy - HCP - Colonial Psychiatric - Agave Harvest Disorder diagnosed renews Tribal Food Tradition - Chiapas 'Peace House' - Raytheon to help NA Firms spreads Solidarity win Defense Contracts - Native Prisoner - Push is on for -- Religious Rights being abused Medal of Honor for 'Chief' - History: Carlisle Indian School - Don't let Bush cut Health Care - Rustywire: Comes with War for Urban Indians - Del "Abe" Jones Poem: Chief Joseph - Plan to Prevent - Next stop: Albuquerque Federal Health Funding Cut - Strides in effort - Legality of Reservation Clinic to preserve Keres language is questioned - Natives want their dying Language taught --------- "RE: Cobell discusses Lawsuit against U.S. Government" --------- Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 08:37:16 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INDIAN TRUST SUIT" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2006/04/08/news/mtregional/news06.txt Cobell discusses lawsuit against U.S. government over Indian trust income By MICHAEL MOORE of the Missoulian April 8, 2006 When Elouise Cobell finally decided to sue the U.S. government for mishandling a century's worth of trust income it held for Indians, she thought the lawsuit might last three years. In two months, the case that bears her name will have been in the court system for 10 years. Although some of the issues have been resolved, the case is nowhere near resolution, Cobell said Friday during a conference appearance in Missoula. "There have been 17 decisions in this case, and we've won every one of them," Cobell said. "But the government still delays this case at every chance ... They will try every trick that you can believe." The most recent delay involves an effort by the government's attorneys to remove U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth from the case. The judge has offered up some harshly worded rulings against the government, but Cobell said the judge's rulings have simply reflected the government's overwhelming malfeasance in handling the Indian trust accounts. "If this had happened in the private sector, there would be people in jail," Cobell said on the final day of a Blackfeet-sponsored conference focused on racism in towns bordering Indian reservations. "If other people's money was handled this way, people would be in jail ... They would be closed down in a New York second." Estimates have placed the actual loss of money owed to Indians through their trust lands at about $13 billion, but with interest the bill is closer to $175 billion to $200 billion. Cobell said it's unlikely the case could be settled for anywhere near that amount, but she has proposed a figure of $27.5 billion as part of an effort by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to legislate a settlement in the case. The suit was filed on behalf of about 500,000 Indians who were entitled to trust payments from natural resource-related royalties accruing from use of their land. The U.S. Department of Interior was supposed to keep track of the money and make payments, but failed to do so. Cobell agitated for years about the failed trust, but finally turned to the legal system after a meeting with officials from the U.S. attorney general's office made it clear that the government had no interest in setting things right. Cobell, who is now executive director of the Native American Community Development Corp., said filing the case filled her with dread. "I said, `This is the U.S. government that you're suing,' " she recalled. "I called a friend and told her I just didn't think I could do it. And she said, `If you don't do it, who will?' " And that was the message Cobell sent on Friday. She urged conference attendees to write their congressional representatives and urge a resolution to the lawsuit. "The only way to get this done is if we stay right there in their faces," she said. Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or at mmoore@missoulian.com Copyright c. 2005 Missoulian, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Court told Judge removal would send Wrong Signal" --------- Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 08:40:06 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BUSH ATTACK ON JUDGE LAMBERTH REFUTED" http://www.indiantrust.com/ViewDetail&PressRelease_id=159&Month=4&Year=2006 REMOVING JUDGE FROM TRUST CASE WOULD SEND 'WRONG SIGNAL' APPEALS COURT TOLD WASHINGTON, April 12 Removing U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth from the Indian Trust case he has overseen for the past decade would send "the wrong message" to the federal officials who have acknowledged mismanaging the trust, a federal appeals court was told Tuesday. Lawyers for Indians who filed a class action lawsuit over the government's handling of thousands of individual Indian Trust accounts acknowledged that Lamberth has used pointed language to describe the Interior Department's conduct. But they told the court that the judge's words were fully supported by the evidence in the case. If Lamberth is removed from the case, "it will send a very clear message to the government that all of their malfeasance...is exonerated," said Keth Harper, a lawyer for the Native American Rights Fund. "We think that would fundamentally undermine the appearance of justice and justice itself." "That is the wrong message to send," Harper told the three-judge panel that is considering the government's unusual request to remove Lamberth from the case. The panel did not indicate when it might rule on that request or two others appeals that the Justice Department has filed on rulings by Lamberth. In urging the appeals court to keep Lamberth on the case, Harper cited the government's own admissions of "egregious misconduct" and misstatements by government lawyers before the judge. As for the government's claims that the judge had overstepped his role, Harper defended Lamberth, saying that the jurist was "citing the record of the case" in his sometimes pointed language. "We are treated as less deserving," said Harper when asked about Lamberth's complaint that Interior remains insensitive to Indians. "It's true that the words are troubling but only because they aptly describe the conducct of the United States in the case and in managing the trust," said the lawyer. Harper pointed out that the injustices raised by the lawsuit are also deeply troubling to Native Americans. Harper and Dennis Gingold, the lead attorney for the Indians, defended the two other Lamberth actions that were under attack by the government. Harper told the appeals court judges that Lamberth acted properly in ordering the government to inform trust account beneficiaries and others that its trust records were not accurate. That's what government witnesses had told the judge, he said. Gingold argued that the judge had more than sufficient reason for believing the Interior Department's Internet connections needed to be severed in order to protest the security of trust records. The lawyer said the vulnerabilities of the department's lax computer security posed a serious risk to the trust records. An Republican appointee of President Ronald Reagan, Judge Lamberth was previously the chief of the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington. That is the section of the Justice Department that has handled much of the opposition to the Indians' lawsuit. After the hearing Elousie Cobell, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, followed a group of Blackfeet and Cheyenne drummers to the front of the National Museum of the American Indian near the federal courthouse. There Mary Johnson, a Navajo woman who has testified she gets little money from the oil wells on her Utah home, spoke briefly. "We have suffered a lot of things," she said through a translator. "It's wrong that the government has tried remove Judge Lamberth because he tried to hold them accountable." Later, at a forum at the Center for American Progress, former Senate leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, applauded Cobell, Harper and Tex Hall, chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa & Arikara Nation in North Dakota as "pioneers" for their efforts to resolve the long-troubled Indian trust. "Time is of the essence," Daschle said during a discussion carried on CSPAN-TV. "It is essential that Congress pass something this session" to resolve the trust lawsuit, he said. contact: Bill McAllister 703 385-6996 Copyright c. 2006 Blackfeet Reservation Development Fund, Inc. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Trust Fund Case goes before Appeals Court again" --------- Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 08:36:52 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TRUST FUND CASE RETURNS TO APPEAL COURT" http://www.indianz.com/News/2006/013457.asp Trust fund case goes before appeals court again April 12, 2006 Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff in the trust fund lawsuit, renewed her call to appoint a receiver to oversee the money and assets of 500,000 individual Indians as a federal appeals court considered the case on Tuesday. At a forum in Washington, D.C., Cobell said she supports S.1439, the Indian Trust Reform Act. The bill would settle the class action suit she filed in 1996 and make changes at the Interior Department in hopes of fixing the broken trust. But Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Nation, questioned whether the department is up to the job after more than a century of mismanagement, during which an accounting of at least $13 billion has never been provided. "Can the government really reform itself?" she asked at a Center for American Progress panel moderated by former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota) on Tuesday afternoon. "Drastic mismanagement," she added, calls for "drastic measures," such as the appointment of a temporary receiver to fix the system. "That's how it's done in the real world," she said. Cobell's comments came after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in the latest series of appeals in the long-running case. During the three-hour hearing, attorney Keith Harper of the Native American Rights Fund noted that the plaintiffs have asked for a receiver but their motion has been denied. "We do not have the most basic aspects of a trust," Harper, a member of the Cherokee Nation, told the panel of three judges. "We are treated as less than deserving of the rights attributed to all others." Dennis Gingold, an attorney in private practice who is co-counsel on the case, decried the lack of security protections for the computer systems that house billions in Indian trust fund data. Hackers have been able to break into the system and change information without being detected by Interior. "The Indians didn't ask for their property to be put in trust," Gingold told the court. He cited an investigation by the department's inspector general that found "numerous instance of fraud and mishandling of trust funds" just within the past few years. The Bush administration took the case to the appeals court to raise three issues. The first is a preliminary injunction that requires the disconnection of Indian trust systems from the Internet; the second is a notice the government is required to send to all Indian beneficiaries that warns them of "unreliable" trust data; and the third is an unprecedented motion to remove Judge Royce Lamberth from the case by assigning it to another judge. The appeals court appeared most resistant to overturning the injunction. The judges balked when Department of Justice attorney Marc Stern argued that the Interior's computer systems can't be disconnected under "any circumstances." "If someone is stealing money from the Indians, it wouldn't require an injunction?" asked Senior Judge Laurence H. Silberman, a Reagan appointee. On the second issue, the court appeared to be concerned about the procedural and factual basis that led Lamberth to order distribution of the notices. Judge David S. Tatel, a Clinton appointee, questioned why Interior has to warn Indian people about unreliable information "even on matters that have nothing do with trust accounts." The last issue also posed even tougher questions for the court. In a lengthy decision accompanying the order for the notices, Lamberth called Interior "the morally and culturally oblivious hand-me-down of a disgracefully racist and imperialist government that should have been buried a century ago, the last pathetic outpost of the indifference and anglocentrism we thought we had left behind." Department of Justice attorney Peter Keisler said Lamberth's language is proof that he has pre-judged Interior without facts on the record. "We have not been shown to be the hand-me-down of a racist, imperialist government," he told the court. Tex Hall, the chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation of North Dakota and an individual Indian trust beneficiary, said he was "appalled" by the attempt to remove Lamberth. Hall, who attended the appeals court hearing along with a couple of dozen beneficiaries and their supporters, has previously testified in the case about the hardships endured by account holders and the lack of information they receive from their trustee. "You will receive a check and not know what it's for," he said the Center for American Progress forum. "The system needs to be fixed. It is a broken system." Hall, the former president of the National Congress of American Indians, joined Cobell in support of the trust reform bill. He said real reform requires trust management standards and independent oversight. "The standards are the bread and butter," he said. Copyright c. 2000-2006 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Vermont recognizes Abenaki Rights" --------- Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 08:20:51 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ABENAKI FINALLY RECOGNIZED" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?feature=yes&id=1096412829 After long struggle, Vermont recognizes Abenaki rights by: Jim Adams / Indian Country Today April 14, 2006 MONTPELIER, Vt. - Barring last-minute hitches, the Abenaki could receive long-sought state recognition in a formal signing ceremony as early as April 18. Supporters of the northern Vermont tribe are hoping to have Vermont Gov. James Douglas sign the recognition bill on the state House steps to celebrate the end of an often bitter decades-long struggle that has had some impact on national politics. The festivities are expected to bring in Abenaki from around the United States and Canada, where two bands occupy small reservations in Quebec. The traditional territory of the Abenaki people ran from the southern bank of the St. Lawrence River to the eastern seaboard of what is now New England. The recognition fight led by the St. Francis/Sokoki Band of the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi reached its culmination April 5 when the Vermont House of Representatives voted 130 to 1 for a version of a bill passed unanimously by the Senate just under a year earlier. But the House made some minor changes in language, and the bill's supporters waited nervously for a final Senate vote on April 13, after press deadline. The tension increased when some rival tribal leaders made last-minute telephone calls to senators objecting to some of the bill's language. Jeff Benay, chairman of the Governor's Advisory Committee on Indian Affairs and an ally of the St. Francis/Sokoki Band, fretted that the calls might induce Senate leaders to withdraw the bill. If it failed to pass this year, he told Indian Country Today, such a favorable alignment of forces would be highly unlikely to arise again in the near future. Legislative support, he said, was swelled by a wave of sympathy over the deaths of two of the bill's longtime supporters. Veteran state Sen. Julius Canns, a strong recognition advocate with Abenaki heritage, passed away a year ago just before the Senate voted on the bill. The unanimous passage was seen as a personal tribute to him. Benay said the bill was also considered a memorial to University of Vermont professor James Petersen, chair of the Department of Anthropology and specialist on early Indian settlements in the state, who was murdered that summer in Brazil. Ironically, state recognition also became easier when the Interior Department rejected the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi's petition for federal acknowledgement. Some state legislators who based their opposition on fears of a tribal casino or land-claims suits concluded the federal action ruled out those prospects and switched to supporting the bill. The bill also relieves some embarrassment for Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont and 2004 candidate for his party's presidential nomination. As governor, Dean strongly opposed recognition, a position he still defended even while energetically pursuing Native support for his candidacy. The St. Francis/Sokoki Band made his Indian record an issue in the 2004 primaries, ultimately endorsing former Gen. Wesley Clark. Some Republican critics have thrown this record against Dean in his current position, as he actively recruits Indian support for the Democratic Party. He could expect state recognition to make the issue moot. Just to make sure, though, the state legislation excludes recognition as grounds for any land claims. It limits the benefits to applications for grants and to the labeling of Abenaki craftsmen as Native artists under federal legislation. A number of Abenaki were making a living pursuing traditional crafts but were unable to market their products as Native-made without having at least state recognition. The bill also establishes a Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs, to assist in aid applications to state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Education Department and the federal Indian Arts and Crafts Board. Benay said that some last-minute critics objected that the commission would have no state budget. He retorted that it would be better not to depend on state funding. The bill primarily benefits the Abenaki, who have an active tribal council and who have raised a strong voice in the state since the 1970s under the forceful leadership of the late Homer St. Francis. The daughter of St. Francis, April Rushlow, led the band in protests in 2000 when home- builders excavated a Native cemetery in Swanton, near the site of a historic Jesuit mission to the Sokoki. The band and local leaders later negotiated a widely praised protocol for dealing with accidental disinterments. The bill also recognizes "other Native Americans" as a state minority. Although the term "minority" also raised some objections, Benay said it would trigger some legal benefits. One of the tasks for state Indians will be to sort out claims for Native status from groups and individuals not affiliated with the Abenaki, and in one or two cases, quite hostile to them. Benay noted that several hundred of the state's 1,700 Abenaki had well- documented connections to the Odanak Band in Quebec. By coincidence, as the recognition bill neared final reading, representatives of Canada's Odanak and Walinak Abenaki Bands held a public meeting in northern Vermont to acquaint expatriate members with a pending claims settlement with the Canadian government. Members of the bands will vote later in April on a $2 million offer to each to settle century-old timber rights. State Rep. Michael Marcotte, who attended the meeting, told a local reporter that his grandparents hid their Native roots because at the time the Ku Klux Klan was burning crosses to intimidate French Canadians and Indians. "They were meant to feel ashamed of their heritage, their religion," he said. Copyright c. 1998 - 2006 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Dine' Citizen Army wants Water grab stopped" --------- Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2006 12:13:29 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.gallupindependent.com/2006/apr/040706wtrgrb.html Citizen army' marching on Window Rock Group wants to stop 'water grab' By Kathy Helms Dine' Bureau April 6, 2006 WINDOW ROCK - The C Aquifer for Dine', a grassroots group opposing use of the aquifer's water to slurry coal from Black Mesa Mine, is coming to town for the Navajo Nation Council Spring Session armed with a petition "to stop the Navajo water grab." C Aquifer for Dine' President Calvin Johnson, Vice President Laura Chee, and adviser Anna Marie Frazier, said Navajos from throughout the western and central portions of the reservation came together Sunday at Leupp Chapter House and expressed total opposition to recently disclosed plans to pump and pipe Navajo groundwater from the C-Aquifer for industrial use associated with Peabody Western Coal Co.'s Black Mesa Mine. The grassroots group, dedicated to preservation and protection of the C- aquifer, said Navajo residents from Leupp and neighboring communities organized under the umbrella of Dine' Care. The new organization received the support of To Nizhoni Ani, another Navajo grassroots group defending the use of the Navajo Aquifer on Black Mesa. Citizen army "Together, these organizations and communities will converge on Window Rock for the Spring Session of the Navajo Nation Council, which is expected to consider the recent plans to dewater the C-Aquifer for coal transportation purposes,"according to Frazier. "The united citizen army of Navajoland will also take Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley to task for his lead role in developing these plans and agreeing to drop a tribal lawsuit against Peabody for short-changing the tribe in coal royalties by $600 million," she said. The Leupp Chapter and other local self-governing communities in the Western Navajo Agency have passed resolutions in recent years opposing the planned depletion of the C-Aquifer, "and, in fact, have had several meetings with President Shirley to address these critical concerns. Yet, Dr. Shirley has proceeded ahead with the secret negotiations and planning, " the group said. "And now the C Aquifer for Dine' are coming to town, armed with (a) petition to stop the Navajo water grab in Window Rock come Spring Session 2006." The session begins April 17. The group said the C-Aquifer plans were the result of years of secret negotiations conducted behind closed doors by Southern California Edison, Peabody, Salt River Project, the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Tribe. The Department of Interior facilitated the private mediation sessions in which affected Navajo communities were not even invited to the table, they said. 'Critical mistake But it's not just the Dine' who have begun to question the high-level negotiations between the power companies and the tribes. Former Hopi Vice Chairman Caleb Johnson said a recent issue of the Hopi newspaper, Tututveni, reported on a draft of the coal and water lease agreements which Hopi Tribal Chairman Ivan Sidney was negotiating with Mohave stakeholders. "Apparently, it was not to be released, but fortunately someone got a copy of it," Johnson said. One item of major importance to the Hopi Tribe, according to Johnson, was an agreement by the Hopi and Navajo tribes "to drop existing lawsuits and waive all possible past, present and future legal claims for damage to groundwater." "If this is the case, I would say that this was a critical mistake" by Chairman Sidney and President Shirley, according to Johnson. "Peabody Coal has always been most interested in this for two reasons," he said. "A lawsuit was filed by the Navajo Tribe against Peabody about 10 years ago. The Hopi Tribe, later on, joined in this lawsuit. Should the tribes be successful, this would bring to the tribes $600 million. "Then there is another lawsuit, the RICO case, which would bring in three times that amount. According to the article, the agreement states that these cases will be dismissed with prejudice when Mohave returns to service. What this means is that these lawsuits will never be put in court again," Johnson said. Level with the people "My impression after the recent election of the Hopi chairman was that this negotiating effort to reopen Mohave power plant had been terminated with Mr. Wayne Taylor's defeat. "In addition, my impression was that the Hopi people were in complete agreement with the goal of the Black Mesa Trust to close the Mohave power plant for good in order to save the water for our home use," Johnson said. "In my opinion, the chairman of the Hopi Tribe and the president of the Navajo Tribe have made a critical mistake. I challenge both of them to visit every Hopi village and Navajo chapter and level with the common people on this issue. "When Mr. Sidney was elected, he made a commitment to the people that he would keep them informed. As to this date, he has not kept this promise," Johnson said. "In addition, the president of the Navajo Nation is up for re-election and I would suggest that he also level with his people. These elected leaders can no longer hide behind the door of confidentiality. The draft is out and there is no good news in it for the two tribes," he said. Copyright c. 2006 the Gallup Independent.. --------- "RE: Native Parents get pep talk from Tribal Leader" --------- Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 08:48:45 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="JOE SHIRLEY INSPIRES PARENTS" http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=7752 Native parents get pep talk from tribal leader Shirley: Take responsibility for your children KINLICHEE AZ Native American Times April 13, 2006 The head of the Navajo Nation attempted to inspire parents and grandparents when he made an appearance at a conference in Kinlichee, encouraging them to take an active role in their children's lives. "If we do our jobs as parents, we can reach those heights and beyond and have gifted children," Joe Shirley Jr. told about 250 people. "However, if we don't help our kids, they'll have a hard time." Shirley described a ripple effect, with parents needing to feel positive about their own accomplishments and in turn passing those feelings of well being over to their offspring. The flip side, Shirley said, is that children are going astray because their parents don't believe in themselves. "When this happens, kids use drugs and get into mischief," he said. "When kids take this avenue, it's unfortunate. However, going back to our basic principles of compassion and love is what will help them through these periods of struggle." Shirley said that raising a child in a one-parent home is a major challenge but it is valuable to teach children to strive to be independent and self-sufficient rather than dependent on parents and grandparents late into their lives. "We can be self-sufficient and be fortunate, return and help people in our family, our community, our nation," he said. The theme of the conference was "Partnership, achievement, responsibility, empowerment, nurturing and teamwork." In addition to Shirley, other Navajo officials speaking to the parents included Leland Leonard, executive director of the Navajo Department of Education, Char James of the Department of Behavioral Health and Evelina Woody, a senior education specialist who explained how to read test scores. Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Battling child Abuse on Reservations" --------- Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2006 13:25:58 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CHILD ABUSE" http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=7762 Battling child abuse on reservations March begun years ago leads to concrete partnerships, action plan WINDOW ROCK AZ Rick Abasta April 14, 2006 Ask any expert: Child abuse on the reservation is a crime perpetuated against the innocent, often times involving psychological and physical pain against children. Earlier this month the Navajo Housing Authority partnered with the Navajo Nation Division of Social Services, Dawn of Recovery, Fort Defiance Agency Head Start and the Window Rock Indian Market to march against this crime against children. Nia Francisco, community involvement specialist for the Navajo Nation Division of Social Services in Ft. Defiance, said they have been marching against child abuse since the 1980s, which originally began in Ft. Defiance before ending at the Navajo Nation Council Chambers. "When the walk was from Ft. Defiance to Window Rock, it was always at the Navajo Nation Council Chambers and we didn't have that many people," Francisco said. "We would have to invite the delegates to come and speak and that's the only way they would come out of the council chambers." Since moving the route for the marchers from the starting point at Karrigan Day Care in St. Michaels to the Window Rock Indian Market, she said there has been more involvement from the public. "Three years ago, we decided to march from St. Michaels to the flea market and the result was seeing more people. With the loud speakers reaching vendors and buyers, it brought out a bigger audience than we usually had," Francisco said. Statistics of child abuse on the Navajo Nation don't reflect many other cases, which often go unreported, she said. Her advice was to report instances of abuse, even if it means reporting a family member. "In 2004, there were more reported cases of neglect, physical and sexual abuse. The verbal abuse and medical neglect cases are reported, but they're not as high as the neglect cases," Francisco said. The statistics for child abuse on the reservation come all Navajo Nation Division of Social Services intake systems, she said, which are instances child protective services involvement. "This is all substantiated and investigated by social workers that yes, this abuse is happening," she said. "I don't get statistics on how many actually become court cases and become adjudicated. "This means that more unreported cases are higher in number than the substantiated cases of abuse," she added. "Child abuse is defined as a caregiver intentionally injuring a child, or the child suffering in your care. "There has to be some intent behind the abuse, it's an intentional act," she said. There are distinct differences between child abuse and disciplining your child, Francisco added. Effective discipline involves more teaching, informing your child, talking with them and demonstrating proper behavior, she said. "It's a back and forth thing, communication between child and parent. It's more like socializing your child. Showing them the rules of society and how to follow those rules," Francisco said. The other component to child abuse is neglect, when the parent is not meeting the child's basic needs. "As humans, we have basic needs - shelter, clothing, food, security, a safe place to live, nurturing, human warmth - those are all basic needs," Francisco said. "When it comes to child neglect, those needs are being unmet." She said we continue learning throughout our lives and the secret to fighting child abuse is getting the right information and using it. Engaging our personal wisdom in the choices we make can make a difference, she added. "The children can't speak for themselves. As adults, we all know better, we have to make choices in the best interest of the children," Francisco said. Information: dv_doodah@yahoo.com, or call 928-729-4282. Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Tribe revives idea of an American Indian Embassy" --------- Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 08:36:52 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="AMERICAN INDIAN EMBASSY" http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=122769 Tribe revives idea of an American Indian embassy April 13, 2006 A Minnesota group is reviving the idea of having an American Indian embassy in Washington, D.C. The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, which owns the Mystic Lake Casino, has put up $1 million in challenge grant to buy a building on the Massachusetts Avenue - known as "Embassy Row." The goal is to raise $12 million dollars to buy the building to house the National Congress of American Indians - the nation's oldest American Indian advocacy organization. Supporters said having an Embassy of Tribal Nations in the country's capital will help recognize the reality of Indian sovereignty. Vernon Bellecourt and other American Indian Movement leaders from Minnesota floated the idea when they occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington in 1972. Bellecourt said he is glad to see it being revived, as long as "it does something for Indian people and it's not just another building with a name." So far, the idea has received the biggest support in Minnesota. The Prairie Island Sioux Community, owners of the Treasure Island Casino, and former BIA chief Dave Anderson, founder of the Minnesota-based Famous Dave's BBQ chain, have each contributed $50,000 toward the cause. The building in question is a modern five-story office building, which is now the home of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, next to the Embassy of Chile. Having the building could at least provide American Indian leaders who come to Washington with an office, said Jackie Johnson, executive director of the American Indian Congress. Right now, the organization leases offices above the Luna Grill Diner, sharing a block with a psychic reader and a tattoo and body piecing place. "It's a tremendous financial leap for a historically under-funded non- profit," Johnson said of the effort to buy a building. Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Vice Chairman Glynn Crooks said that while he understands that tribes across the nation have pressing social, health and education needs, there's enough wealth in Indian Country to create an Embassy of Tribal Nations. "I know there are many tribes that aren't able to give that much, but I also know that there are a lot of tribes that can," he said. American Indian Congress President Joe Garcia, who would be the de-facto "ambassador," called the Minnesota tribe's gift "a huge step in securing a home in Washington." He said for too long, Indian concerns have been represented in Washington mainly by the BIA, an agency that falls under the Interior Department. "It's amazing that you can have every other country represented in Washington, but not the people who were here to greet the 'first visitors,' " Anderson said. "It would be historic." Copyright c. 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c. 1998-2006 KARE-11. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Agave Harvest renews Tribal Food Tradition" --------- Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2006 13:25:58 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="AGAVE HARVEST" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.pe.com/stories/PE_News_Local_H_agave15.228ddcde.html Agave harvest renews tribal food tradition ROASTED: The plants, also known as a tequila ingredient, are cooked in a pit for three days. By PAUL DeCARLO The Press-Enterprise April 14, 2006 For centuries, Cahuilla men scoured the mountains above the Coachella Valley, harvesting a plant they would eat, weave into sandals and even into baby cradles. The traditional quest for the sweet-tasting agave continues today and next weekend during the Malki Museum's 12th annual harvest and tasting. The harvest will be led at 10 a.m. today by U.S. Forest Service archaeologist Daniel McCarthy along Highway 74, depending on weather conditions. On April 22, agave will be prepared at the museum on the Morongo Indian Reservation. Both events are open to the public. Each costs $10. Historic accounts hold that the plants were buried in a hand-dug dirt pit for three days. Logs burned under rocks covered with agave, leaves and grass, allowing the stalks to steam, according to Temalpakh, a 1972 book by Palm Springs- based anthropologist Lowell Bean and Cahuilla elder Katherine Siva Saubel. "It's symbol of a lot of the cultural revival that's going on," said Bean, a Cahuilla scholar. "It brings people back to the past." The plant is also an ingredient of tequila, said Jacob Ritchey, a publications manager for the museum. As many as a dozen native American tribes will be at the roast, Bean said. Copyright c. 2006, The Press-Enterprise Company. --------- "RE: Raytheon to help NA Firms win Defense Contracts" --------- Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 08:36:52 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RAYTHEON PROCUREMENT TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CENTER" http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060411/netu004.html?.v=53 Press Release Source: Raytheon Conpany Raytheon Joins Effort to Help Native American Firms Win Defense Business April 11, 2006 EL SEGUNDO, Calif., April 11, 2006 /PRNewswire/ - An effort to promote participation in defense contracts by businesses owned by Native Americans has been launched by Raytheon Company and the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development (NCAIED). The purpose of the Procurement Technical Assistance Center, located at the headquarters of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems (SAS), is to help Native American suppliers win business from Raytheon and other defense contractors. For the past five years, the value of Raytheon subcontracts with businesses owned by American Indians has exceeded $75 million annually. "Raytheon enjoys a long-standing relationship with the National Center," said Dina Hyde, vice president for supply chain at SAS. "We are engaged in an extensive effort to increase procurement opportunities for businesses owned by Native American individuals and tribes. We are looking forward to this partnership to strengthen our ability to identify and work with more Native American firms." The Procurement Technical Assistance Center is funded primarily by the Defense Logistics Agency. SAS provides in-kind support, use of its facilities and some funding. "The center represents a great partnership among the Native American community, Raytheon and the Department of Defense," said Ken Robbins, president and chief executive officer of the NCAIED. "This is a huge step in the economic progression of American Indian communities that will be served by the center." The NCAIED is the first national organization dedicated solely to developing American Indian self-sufficiency through business ownership. It has nine offices throughout the U.S. More information is available at http://www.ncaied.org or at (800) 462-2433, extension 243. Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) is the leading provider of sensor systems giving military forces the most accurate and timely information available for the network-centric battlefield. With 2005 revenues of $4.2 billion and 13,000 employees, SAS is headquartered in El Segundo, Calif. Additional facilities are in Goleta, Calif.; Forest, Miss. ; Dallas, McKinney and Plano, Texas; and several international locations. Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN - News), with 2005 sales of $21.9 billion, is an industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 80,000 people worldwide. Contact Faith Jennings 310.334.2553 office 310.977.1963 mobile faith_jennings@raytheon.com --- Source: Raytheon Conpany Copyright c. 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright c. 2006 PR Newswire. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Push is on for Medal of Honor for 'Chief'" --------- Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 08:48:20 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WOODROW WILSON KEEBLE: METAL OF HONOR PAST DUE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.aberdeennews.com/14301567.htm?source=rss&channel=aberdeennews_news Push is on for Medal of Honor for 'Chief' Soldiers from platoon agree Waubay native deserves more recognition for wartime bravery By James MacPherson Associated Press Writer April 9, 2006 WAHPETON, N.D. - People in Wahpeton, N.D., remember Woodrow Wilson Keeble as a giant but gentle man with a blistering fastball and a passion for poetry, art and gardening. Those who served with him during the Korean War see him differently. Master Sgt. Keeble was the toughest man they ever met, they say. A man who could pick up another soldier with one arm. A man who, while seriously wounded, saved their lives by taking out more than a dozen of their enemies. Nearly 25 years after his death and 50 years after his military service, fellow soldiers, family, friends, tribal leaders and politicians continue to urge Congress to award Keeble, a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe, the Medal of Honor. Keeble would be the first Sioux Indian to get the Medal of Honor, said his stepson Russell Hawkins of Sisseton. A total of 3,461 such medals have been awarded since 1861, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society Web site says. The Defense Department determines eligibility. Keeble's men called him "Chief." "Soldiers have told me he was a true warrior, had no fear of death, but had a love for life," Hawkins said. "They said the safest place to be was with him." Saving lives: The soldiers remember the day - Oct. 20, 1951, when, bleeding through his bandages from wounds suffered in battle days before, Keeble scrambled up a steep, rocky hilltop, armed with a rifle and some grenades. He instructed fellow soldiers - pinned down by enemy artillery and machine gun fire - to stay put. When it was over, the soldiers say, Keeble alone had taken out three machine gun emplacements and two trenches of Chinese riflemen. At least 15 enemy soldiers lay dead. Hill 675-770 was secured. Keeble, then 34, had shrapnel and bullet wounds. He could have been sent back home, but he returned to action within a few days even though he was barely able to lift a weapon, his fellow soldiers said. Ervin Koehler, who was a 21-year-old private at the time, said he remembers every detail of the day Keeble took the hill and saved his life. "That's a day you don't forget," he said. Koehler, who lives in Great Bend, N.D., said he fired bursts from a .30- caliber machine gun to provide cover for Keeble. "He was a great fighting man - a man who you wanted on your side," Koehler said. When an artillery shell whistled overhead, Koehler said, Keeble yelled at him to take cover as he lobbed grenades in a machine gun nest. "He told me to move, and I did," Koehler said. "He was saving our lives. I would give my life for that man." Honors: In the few days leading up to the 1951 attack, Keeble earned three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star. For his actions on Oct. 20, he was awarded the Army's second-highest commendation, the Distinguished Service Cross. But the men he served with believed Keeble was deserving of the Medal of Honor, and they twice recommended him for it during the war. Both times, the recommendations either languished or were lost. No one knows why. South Dakota native: Keeble was born in Waubay and attended what was then Wahpeton Indian School in North Dakota. He worked at the school after graduation and became a legend in town as an amateur league baseball pitcher, with an alleged 100 mph fastball. Hawkins said his stepfather was recruited by the Chicago White Sox but instead joined the Army's 164th Infantry in North Dakota during World War II. Veterans at the post talk just as often about Keeble's fastball, or his copper sculpture of the Last Supper, as they do his war record. VFW members say Keeble already is North Dakota's most decorated veteran, but also deserves the Medal of Honor. Keeble never sought the commendation for himself. "He was a real gentle-natured person," Hawkins said. "He never brought any attention to himself, although his presence was real dominant." Larger than life: Keeble's military record listed his height at just over 6 feet. Most who knew him remember him being at least a half-foot taller. "It's kind of hard to explain, but he looked so powerful it was easy to exaggerate his size," Hawkins said. "He was the toughest man I'd ever met," said Alva Odle, 79, who served with Keeble in the 1st Platoon, George Co. "Chief wrestled around with us like a big bear. He was pretty well built. But he wouldn't hurt us. He'd just roll us around." His men said he could pick up the back of a jeep. "I've forgot a lot over the years, but I haven't forgot that time or Chief," said Odle, a retired tax driver in Warrensburg, Mo. "He'd fight a buzz saw," Odle said. "But I never heard him cuss, or anything like that. He was well organized with his men. He kept everybody in good spirits." Keeble was at least 10 years older than most of the men he served with in Korea, and he had been in combat, his commander said. He was awarded a Purple Heart and other medals on Guadalcanal during World War II. "Chief obviously had loads of experience," said Lt. William Nichols of Waynesboro, Va., the 1st Platoon's leader. "You could sense he knew what he was doing." On the days leading up to the battle near Kumsong, "two of the six officers in the company had been killed, and the rest were wounded," Nichols said. He, himself, had been shot in the leg and had been at a medic station during the final attack on hill. "No one was really running the company, everybody was fighting but nobody was there to manage," Nichols said. Except for Chief. Nichols said he interviewed his men one-on-one after the battle that day for a report. "Everybody I talked with was pretty consistent on what happened," he said. The only deviation was the body count of enemy soldiers, he said. "There was no question if he had not wiped them out, we never would have taken that hill," Nichols said. "They were well dug in and there were a lot of them. They would have wiped us all out." Nichols continues to support a Medal of Honor for Keeble. Some of the soldiers think it was denied Keeble because of his race. Nichols says that's not true. "The rumor was that someone had put limits on the number of congressional medals that got awarded," Nichols said. "Apparently, he could have been denied because the quota had been reached." 1st Sgt. Joe Sagami, of Chicago, tried for more than 50 years to get the Medal of Honor for Keeble. He died last year. Discharge: Keeble was discharged from the Army in 1946. He died in 1982, at the age of 65. He is buried at Sisseton, with a simple soldier's headstone. "He had seven strokes and the eighth one killed him," Hawkins said. His war wounds left him partially paralyzed and unable to speak at age 42, and contributed to his death, his stepson said. Keeble wrote notes to communicate with his wife, Blossom. He also wrote poetry and kept a journal. After he left the military, Keeble worked as a counselor. He also did landscaping work, and often mowed peoples' yards and cemeteries for free, Hawkins said. A picture and a plague dedicated to Keeble are on display at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Wahpeton, N.D. Some of his copper sculptures also are there. A picnic shelter is dedicated to him at a city park in town. Trying again: Sens. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Tim Johnson, D-S.D., have been working on getting the Medal of Honor for Keeble for the past few years. Johnson said the request is awaiting action by the Secretary of the Army. Merry Helm, a Fargo writer and filmmaker, is producing a documentary on Keeble. Hawkins said that should help bring even more attention to the effort. For the soldiers who served with him, it won't come too soon. "We didn't call it the 1st Platoon, we called it Chief's Platoon," Orcutt said. "That's respect." Copyright c. 2006 Aberdeen American News. --------- "RE: Don't let Bush cut Health Care for Urban Indians" --------- Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 08:37:16 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BILLINGS GAZETTE OPINION: DO NOT CUT URBAN HEALTH" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.billingsgazette.net//opinion/gazette/50-gazetteopinion.txt Gazette Opinion: Don't let Bush cut health care for urban Indians April 10, 2006 Urban Indian health clinics are a lifeline for tribal members who live in cities off reservations. The Bush administration has proposed to sever that lifeline. The entire budget savings from eliminating all the urban Indian health clinics in the country would be $33 million. About $4 million of that amount would be money that Montana clinics are counting on as their core funding. Tribal leaders convening in Billings last week for the annual health conference sponsored by the Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council said that the loss of urban clinic funding would require people to drive longer distances for care on reservations and would further tax inadequate Indian health resources. There are already plenty of horror stories about long waits and difficulty accessing care at Indian Health Service facilities that have more needy patients than money. At the Indian Health Board of Billings, 1127 Alderson Ave., director Marjorie Bear Don't Walk worries that many of her clients wouldn't get care at all if the clinic closed because they have no transportation and little money. The clinic doesn't charge and it doesn't turn anyone away. "We're in need of expanding, and we're about to be done in," Bear Don't Walk said. 5 Montana clinics at risk Nationwide, U.S. census data show that 60 percent of American Indians live in cities off reservations. Thirty-six urban Indian health centers operate 40 sites in 21 states. The five Montana clinics - in Billings, Butte, Missoula, Helena and Great Falls - have been providing care for three decades. Sen. Max Baucus was among senators who signed a letter of support for the urban clinics and called on a Senate appropriations subcommittee to maintain the clinics' funding. The letter was addressed to Sens. Conrad Burns and Byron Dorgan, chairman and ranking minority member of the Senate Interior Appropriations subcommittee. An aide to Burns has said that getting the clinics funding they need will be a high priority for Burns. Urban clinics receive barely more than 1 percent of all Indian Health Service funding, according to Geoffrey Roth, executive director of the National Council of Urban Indian Health who made a brief stop in Billings last week. Roth is concerned that the cut to urban clinics could be the start of more attempts to diminish Indian health funding. Burns' key role Burns, as chairman of the Senate subcommittee that will work on the budget for Indian health programs, is in a key position to save the clinic funding. Burns has an opportunity here to show leadership by ensuring that support for these urban Indian clinics is sustained without cuts and, if possible, enhanced. Burns, Baucus and Rep. Denny Rehberg should stand together on this issue. The urban clinics fill an important niche in our local and national health care system. Thirty-three million dollars is barely a blip in the multitrillion-dollar federal budget, yet it is life to these clinics and the low-income, uninsured urban Indians they serve. Copyright c. The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Plan to Prevent Federal Health Funding Cut" --------- Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 08:48:45 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HEALTH CUTS" http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=41471&nfid=rssfeeds American Indian Leaders Meet, Devise Plan To Prevent Federal Health Funding Cut Main Category: Public Health News Article Date: 13 Apr 2006 American Indian tribes will need strategic planning, creativity and unified efforts to prevent funding cuts for American Indian health care in President Bush's proposed fiscal year 2007 budget, tribal leaders said at an annual conference last week, the Billings Gazette reports (Shay, Billings Gazette, 4/7). Bush's proposed budget would eliminate the Urban Indian Health Program, which funds primary, preventive and behavioral health care for the 60% of American Indians and Alaska Natives that reside in urban areas, for savings of $33 million (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 2/14). The funding provides services to 34 Indian clinics across the country, and if they are closed, many American Indians would have to seek care from reservation clinics, the Gazette reports. At the seventh annual Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council Health Conference in Billings, Mont., Darryl Red Eagle, a council member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine-Sioux Tribes, said reservation health care services are un derfunded. He added that dental care is available only on an emergency basis and that patients in need of orthodontic services will not be able to be seen by a doctor until 2017. Anthony Addison, co-chair of the Northern Arapaho Tribe on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, said diseases such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular problems, as well as illicit drug and alcohol use, are prevalent among American Indians, and he attributed lack of immediate care as part of the problem. "We need to come together in a unified, collaborative effort to do our best to address these issues. Even though money is not allocated at levels we need ... it never has been funded at [the proposed] levels," Addison said (Billings Gazette, 4/7). "Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. Copyright c. 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved. Copyright c. 2006 Medical News Today - MediLexicon International Ltd. --------- "RE: Legality of Reservation Clinic is questioned" --------- Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 08:48:20 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="OST LAW WOULD PREVENT ABORTION CLINIC" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/14303925.htm Legality of reservation clinic is questioned April 9, 2006 RAPID CITY, S.D. - A suggestion by the tribal president to open a women's clinic offering abortion services on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation might be in conflict with tribal law, according to a retired tribal chief judge. Oglala Sioux Tribal President Cecelia Fire Thunder proposed the clinic in response to a new state law that would ban almost all abortions in South Dakota. She said the reservation's sovereign status would allow physicians to perform abortions at a clinic there, despite state law. But Patrick Lee of Rapid City, a retired chief judge for the Oglala Sioux Tribe and current instructor in tribal law at Oglala Lakota College, challenged that idea Saturday in a Forum piece in the Rapid City Journal and in an interview. Lee said offering abortions would conflict with tribal law and a pervasive respect for life among the Oglala. "Life is sacred - the winged, two-legged, four-legged. You hear constant references to respect for life," Lee said. "Its the tribal law. She could ask the tribe to change the law. And that would be an uphill battle." Lee said a specific portion of the juvenile code clarified the tribes respect for the unborn: "a child conceived, but not born, is to be deemed an existing person so far as may be necessary for its interests and welfare to be protected in the event of its subsequent birth." Lee said that as tribal judge in the 1990s, he used that part of the code to issue an order to police that pregnant women who were abusing alcohol could be charged with child abuse. The order was used primarily as leverage in counseling efforts with those women, Lee said. Meanwhile, Fire Thunder might be the object of another impeachment attempt. Kathy Janis, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council, said she spoke last week to a tribal member who was organizing an impeachment complaint against Fire Thunder. Twice in the past year, the tribal council has dismissed impeachment complaints filed against Fire Thunder. Information from: Rapid City Journal, http://www.rapidcityjournal.com Copyright c. 2006 Aberdeen American News. --------- "RE: American Indian Women and activism (Part three)" --------- Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 08:36:52 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="AMERICAN INDIAN WOMEN AND ACTIVISM" http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=7746 American Indian women and activism (Part three) Donna Langston April 10, 2006 Editor's Note: Donna Langston is chair of the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Colorado at Denver. The final installment of her essay examines activism as a whole, with a look at the landmark fish-in protests of the Pacific Northwest. Fish-in protests began as a response to Washington state policy that tried to use state laws to restrict Indian fishing rights guaranteed by federal treaties. The 1854 Medicine Creek Treaty guaranteed Northwest Indian tribes unrestricted use of natural resources, an important right since fishing traditionally formed the basis of diets, culture, and spirituality. With high poverty rates, the ability to fish continued to be a significant contributor to family survival. The fish-ins protested the discrepancy between treaty rights, which guaranteed fishing on and off reservations and official state policy that supported the routine arrest of Indians when they fished off the reservation. In 1974, after a decade of protest, the United States v. Washington State, more popularly known as the Boldt decision (after Judge Hugh Boldt), recognized the treaty rights of tribes regarding fishing. This landmark decision allocated half the salmon harvest to the tribes. The fish-ins started out as nonviolent civil disobedience, but after violence from state and city law enforcement, game wardens and white vigilantes, including the use of tear gas, clubs, beatings, and shootings, Indians responded in self-defense. In most cases, it was women who carried the arms during the fish-ins. Regional newspapers carried photos of older women with rifles, quoting them as saying, "No one is going to touch my son or I'm going to shoot them." Coastal tribes had a strong sense of sovereignty and would routinely escort IRS staff off their reservations at gunpoint. In the fall of 1970, at the Puyallup fish-in camp, spokesperson Ramona Bennett was quoted as saying, "We are armed and prepared to defend our rights with our lives. If anyone lays a hand on that net, they are going to get shot. . . we're serious. There are no blanks in our guns." The armed women in this protest movement faced violence from state officials and white vigilantes; armed men at the later occupa tion of Wounded Knee were met by with massive federal paramilitary forces. There were shoot-outs and firebombing at fish-ins, though most injuries were born by the protesters. Both Hank Adams (Anishinabe) from NIYC, and Tribal Chair Ramona Bennett, spokesperson for the Puyallup fish-ins, were shot by white vigilantes, Ramona while seven months pregnant. Statements from public officials such as Governor Dan Evans who declared that Indian treaties were worthless, bolstered the violence of state officials and vigilantes. State attorneys even challenged the tribal status of the small tribes. The BIA did not defend Indian fishing rights, even though it is supposedly obligated to assist tribes in claims against the state. Organizers had pursued civil protest because it seemed more effective than meetings with bureaucrats in overturning policy. Women were key public figures in the fish-in movement, not an unusual role for them in Northwest Coastal tribes. Women comprised the majority of protesters and half of those arrested. One of the first protests occurred in 1961: of twenty-seven protesters, only eight were men. When men were arrested, women ran the fishing boats. Janet McCloud (Tulalip) was one of the key leaders in the fish-in movement. Her name is as important in history as that of Rosa Parks. One event that spurred McCloud's activism occurred in 1961, when state game wardens broke into her home searching for deer meat. Another motivating factor, according to McCloud, was the need to keep busy in order to deal with overwhelming grief after her sister died in 1961. Women leaders initially met resistance from male leaders of large tribes such as the Yakama. When she turned to them for support, McCloud was made fun of because she was a woman and a half-blood. As McCloud summarized, "Now you hear them talk and they act m acho, they act belligerent, they act rough, but when it comes right down to the bottom line, they couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag. The only people I've ever seen them fight are Indian women and children. And yet they're controlling everything now. Establishment." McCloud acknowledges that one of her most consistent sources of support was female elders. In 1964 Janet McCloud and Ramona Bennett founded the Survival of American Indians Association to raise bail funds and moved their regional movement to some national prominence, as Hollywood stars like Marlon Brando and Dick Gregory lent their support, going so far as to be arrested themselves at fish-ins. By 1964 the movement was also supported by college students including Hank Adams and other staff members of the NIYC. The fish-ins unified the small fishing tribes in the state: the Makah, Nisqually, Puyallup, and Muckelshoot, among others. According to Vine Deloria, the state avoided confrontations with the larger tribes, but concentrated on smaller ones that had fewer resources with which to defend themselves. Janet McCloud went on to found the Northwest Indian Women's Circle, which focused on issues such as sterilization abuse and problems with the foster care placement and adoption of Indian children. McCloud was a founding member of WARN, Women of All Red nations, and more recently, the Indigenous Women's Network, a coalition that covers tribes from Chile to Canada. At a major AIM conference following Wounded Knee, McCloud proposed that one of the main issues AIM should work on was the need for Indian men to lead the fight against domestic violence in their communities. Russell Means says that he still regrets that they didn't act on her suggestion. Along with McCloud, Ramona Bennett, Chair of the Puyallup Tribe for seven years from 1971 to 1978, played a pivotal role in this movement. At a time of few female tribal chairs, Ramona faced attempts to exclude her from the National Tribal Chairmen's Conferences. At her first conference for this group, she had to fight her way into the room. On her way out of the meeting, she saw Ada Deer of the Menominee sitting outside the door where she had been told to wait with the wives of tribal chairmen. Ramona completed a Bachelor's degree from Evergreen University and a Master's in Education from the University of Puget Sound. To get a sense of the atmosphere of the times, Ramona remembers an incident where she requested Kotex pads to use for flesh wounds from supporters in Seattle The people bringing the supplies brought a case of tampons instead. When Ramona pointed out the error, they made the case that the tampons could be used for Molotov cocktails. . . and so they were kept. In July 1968, AIM was co-founded by Mary Jane Wilson (Anishinabe) Clyde Bellecourt (Anishinabe) and Dennis Banks (Anishinabe) in Minneapolis. The group initially planned to use the name Concerned Indian Americans, but then rejected it since the acronym would have been CIA. Roberta Downwind suggested the name AIM since "you say you aim to do this and that." Pat Ballinger, known as the mother of AIM, chaired the St. Paul chapter. AIM was modeled after the Black Panthers. Members wore red jackets to patrol the Twin Cities community monitoring police harassment. AIM rhetoric was often couched in spiritual terms. Members of AIM saw it foremost as a spiritual movement. By 1971, it had become a national organization with seventy-five chapters, but was in decline by 1979. The official symbol of AIM was an American flag flown upside down. They staged media events that carried powerful symbolic messages, such as the 1970 takeover of the Mayflower on Thanksgiving, where they buried Plymouth Roc k under several inches of sand and received their first national media coverage. In June 1971, they threatened to hold the Statue of Liberty hostage. The media responded to the image of male warriors. Some viewed the long hair, feathers, and militant rhetoric as being more exciting to the white media than to reservation populations. In 1972, AIM was one of eight groups that organized the Trail of Broken Treaties' cross-country march. The march was patterned after the 1963 March on Washington of the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Marchers planned to arrive in Washington, D.C. during the final weeks of the presidential campaign and present their grievances to both candidates. Three groups - Alcatraz, Pacific Northwest, and Oklahoma - were led by spiritual leaders with stops at historical sites such as Sand Creek and Wounded Knee. Tongue-in-cheek, AIM proclaimed that the plan was to retake the country from West to East like a wagon train in reverse. AIM's national news editor Anita Collins (Paiute Shoshone) served as secretary of the events, and Lavonna Weller (Oklahoma Caddo), first woman president of NIYC, served as treasurer. When the group reached the Capitol, AIM occupied the BIA office. An occupation had not been originally planned, but when the group of 700-1, 000 marchers arrived at BIA headquarters in November 1972, they found that anticipated accommodations had not been made. Their numbers were not large, compared with recent anti-war demonstrations in the Capitol of a quarter million. If the protest had remained peaceful, it might have received little media attention and had little impact. But when riot police tried to remove protesters from the building, police were pushed into the streets and the doors blocked. A human barricade of multiracial supporters kept police at bay. On the third day, leaders were given $66,000 in travel money to leave town. Madonna Gilbert/Thunderhawk and Russell Means collected documents from BIA files. They left this occupation with U-Hauls full of 1.5 tons of documents that would reveal the widespread practice of sterilization abuse and other abuses. AIM leaders were l ater criticized because the marchers got $25-$100 each while each leader was accused of receiving $5,000-$10,000 of the total money. AIM served as a portable response unit in the Midwest. When injustices were ignored, community members sometimes called on AIM to raise awareness. Murders and sexual assaults of Indians in border towns, when committed by whites, had seldom been prosecuted. Some family members, tired of government and tribal cold shoulders, called on AIM. In February 1972, AIM responded to the murder of Raymond Yellow Thunder (Lakota) in Gordon, Nebraska. His family had been unable to get tribal attorneys or the BIA to investigate his death, so one of his nephews contacted the organization. AIM demanded another autopsy, which found that the cause of death was not exposure but a brain hemorrhage from being beaten to death. A thousand AIM members arrived in Gordon for a two-day protest at City Hall, accompanied by a call to boycott stores and businesses. After these activities, officials began to investigate the death. After Gordon, AIM activists remained in rural South Dakota. They were called into a similar situation by Sarah Bad Heart Bull (Lakota) when her son Wesley was knifed to death by a white that was released with no charges. One hundred AIM members showed up in en masse at the courthouse in Custer, South Dakota. As Bad Heart Bull attempted to get past the crowd and into the courthouse, police officers pushed her down the steps, using a nightstick on her throat. Seeing an elder mistreated in this manner incited a riot. The police officers threw tear gas grenades; AIM set fire to the courthouse and the Chamber of Commerce. Dennis Banks and Russell Means were brought up on riot charges, though they were inside the courthouse when the incident occurred. Sarah Bad Heart Bull got a three-to-five-year sentence for rioting and served five months. Her son's murderer, in ironic contrast, received a mere two months' probation and served no time. Incidents such as these gave AIM a high public profile. Russell Means characterized South Dakota, at this time, as being "the Mississippi of the North." Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota was run by a tribal Chair, Dick Wilson, whom many viewed as corrupt, and attempts were made to impeach him. Pine Ridge had a murder rate 700 times that of Detroit. Dick Wilson's private army, called "goons," created an atmosphere where arson, beating, and murder were common. Half of the BIA police moonlighted as goons. Dick Wilson had banned all AIM activities on the reservation and declared on open war against supporters. The most radical support to remove Dick Wilson came from female elders such as Gladys Bissonette and Ellen Moves Camp. As Gladys Bissonette recalled, "When we marched there were nothing but us women." They publicly picketed against Wilson in an atmosphere of an internal civil war. Older women from Pine Ridge called AIM to their reservation to discuss the situation, and a group led by Dennis Banks and Russell Means arrived in Februa ry 1973. Mostly older women, many who had lost children or grandchildren during Wilson's regime, packed the meeting in Calico. Mary Crow Dog/Brave Bird and Russell Means remember that the Wounded Knee Occupation was the idea of older women. Gladys Bisonette argued, "Let's make our stand at Wounded Knee, because that place has meaning for us, because so many of our people were massacred there." The occupiers might have intended that Wounded Knee serve as political theater, but official response was massive. Federal forces were used without the required presidential proclamation and executive order. Phantom jets made daily surveillance passes overhead. One occupier who was also a Vietnam Vet noted that they took more bullets in seventy-one days at Wounded Knee than he had seen in two years in Vietnam. Public opinion was on the side of the Indians. A 1973 Harris Poll revealed that 98 percent of the public had heard of Wounded Knee, and 51 percent sympathized with the Indians. During the ten-week siege, of the 350 occupiers, fewer than 100 were men. Women had spearheaded the dissent at Pine Ridge and performed all tasks, including carrying weapons. One photo of Anna Mae Aquash (Mimac) shows her digging a bunker with a golf club. Women also ran the medical clinic . Most of the primary negotiators with the government were female elders, including Bisonette and Moves Camp. Five hundred and sixty-five were arrested after Wounded Knee, nearly every AIM member, and 185 federal indictments were issued. More male leaders faced serious charges, as women in court might not pass for dangerous terrorists, especially older women. A reign of terror followed on the reservation with Dick Wilson's goons serving as a death squad. Within the next two years, 250 mostly traditionalists were killed on the reservation, and sixty-nine AIM supporters, a third of them women. Gladys Bisonette lost her son, Pedro Bissonette, the president of the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization, when BIA police killed him in October 1973. Her daughter, Jeanette Bisonette, was shot dead on the way home from Pedro's funeral. No indictments ever occurred against the goons. Eighty-five women were charged after Wounded Knee. Two of the several major trials after Wounded Knee were of women leaders, Madonna Gilbert/Thunderhawk (Lakota) and Lorilei Decora/Means (Ho Chunk). Madonna Gilbert, a cousin of Russell Means and thirty-three-year-old mother of three at the time of Wounded Knee, was from the Cheyenne reservation in South Dakota. She had spent nine months at the Alcatraz occupation in 1970 to 1971 and worked as a teacher in survival schools, another project of Red Power groups. After Wounded Knee she co-founded WARN with Janet McCloud and others. Lorelei Decora/Means was the state director of Iowa AIM at age nineteen. She joined AIM at age sixteen, and joined McCloud and Gilbert in the formation of WARN. Neither of the women were present during their trials, they were too busy organizing on reservations. They received scant media coverage or organizational support compared to the amount the men received. Funds were sought from white feminists, but they were offered with strings attached; namely, that the Indian women were to make Indian men more accountable regarding sexism. Legal battles bankrupted the movement. AIM excelled at bringing media attention to problems, but the leadership was rarely united. Some of this division might have been enhanced by the constant presence of FBI agents. There had been six FBI agents at Wounded Knee and several at the Washington D. C. BIA occupation and other events. The issue of sexism was raised at Wounded Knee amid criticism of male dominance and opportunism. One response was the founding of WARN shortly afterwards in 1974. While the media remained fascinated with the stereotype of male warriors, many of the male leaders, such as Dennis Banks, acknowledged that women were the real warriors. John Trudell has reflected on the times, saying, "We got lost in our manhood." Mary Crow Dog/Brave Bird said that women were honored for having children and doing good beading. But she also recalls, "It is to AIM's everlasting credit that it tried to change men's attitudes toward women. In the movement we were all equal." Moreover, Indian women had an interesting way of calling men on sexism that was not open to white women. They argued that acting sexist was a sign of being assimilated. Acting sexist was a way of exhibiting ignorance of Indian traditions. Indian women also had run-ins with white women. A great deal of paternalism, and very little awareness of Indian women's priorities, were exhibited by most white women. Communication problems were common, as white women assumed superiority in their way of thinking and doing things. As Bea Medicine (Lakota) has noted, "Indian women do not need liberation, they have always been liberated within their tribal structure." White women expected that Indian women with a gender consciousness would automatically lend their support to issues which white women prioritized, but they seldom expressed an interest in a reciprocal relationship. As Laura Waterman Wittstock (Seneca) noted, "Tribalism, not feminism, is the correct route. Few white feminists were able to grasp the nationalist content of Indian women's activism A number of Indian women's groups formed in the early 1970s. A civil rights oriented group formed in 1977 out of the International Women's Year conference and was funded by the Women's Educational Equity Program. Ohoyo, the Choctaw word for women, lasted just a couple of years, but produced a number of conferences for professional women. A split between the D.C. staff, more closely aligned with white feminist interests, and grassroots members, more identified with nationalist concerns, became evident and the group disbanded in 1985. WARN, on the other hand, had a more radical focus. Made up of three hundred women from thirty nations at their founding conference, WARN shared a similar philosophy with AIM (Emery 1981, 8). Many of its efforts focused on struggles over energy resources and sterilization abuse uncovered in BIA confiscated documents. Some felt that WARN attracted urban young college-educated women more than others. The Northwest Indian Women's Circle was founded in 1981 by Janet McCloud and worked on issues connected to Indian women and children. Indian women's groups raised different issues than their counterparts in white women's groups. Sterilization abuse, as mentioned previously, was uncovered when AIM took BIA documents during their 1972 occupation. From these files, they learned that forty-two percent of Indian women had been sterilized, the majority without their consent. In 1980, sterilization abuse was the theme of the Longest Walk across America. Another issue for Indian women's groups was that of adoption. In earlier times, children had been taken away from Indian families at young ages and shipped to boarding schools at great distances. Today, Indian children are placed in foster care and adoption at high rates. Sometimes the reasons children are removed from homes are based in cultural differences and differing family models that value extended families among Indians. Indian women's groups have also raised awareness of their high infant mortality rates, and the fact that Indians have the highest school dropout r ate of any group in the United States. Indian women's groups also organized around land and resource struggles. It could be argued that the last thousand years of European history have been more uniformly patriarchal than most of Indian history. Many nations are matrilineal and have female gods and messiahs. Women currently comprise 25 percent of the top-level governmental leadership positions in Indian nations, a figure not yet reached in the United States or many other countries. While some white feminists view motherhood with suspicion and claim that it is a key site of women's oppression, many Indian women find the role empowering. The high status of motherhood results in less stigma for unmarried Indian mothers than it does for women in dominant society, and some Indian women have not been as receptive to family planning services. Being a mother or grandmother increases one's status in Indian country. White women are also more likely to view aging as something that decreases women's status. Aging may not hold the negative connotation to the same degree in traditional Indian communities where it is a sign of power and status, something women might look forward to. Indian women are more likely to organize around issues that impact children as well as women; they also organize around issues regarding tribal rights. Inter-generational organizing among women is also more likely to occur than in white women's groups. Many female elders find that their status as elders enhances their political participation and contributions to future generations. Due to lower life expectancies, Indian women may be perceived as elders at younger ages than the dominant population. The women who participated in political events of the 1960s and 1970s are now our revered elders. Elders do not last forever in any community. It is important that their contributions receive recognition in their lifetime and in generations to follow. Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Arctic Ice Pack losing Ground" --------- Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 08:48:20 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ARCTIC MELT IS REAL, IS NOW" http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~3286890,00.html Arctic ice pack losing ground By CHRIS TALBOTT, Staff Writer April 10, 2006 The Arctic Ocean ice pack has not rebounded from record minimums recorded last summer, causing scientists to worry that the planet's global warming "canary in the coal mine" is in a tightening spiral of decline. Abnormally high temperatures across the Arctic basin most of this winter have slowed the production of new ice, according to Mark Serreze of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado. The ice pack lost an area the size of Alaska in 2005 and has thinned dramatically in the last four years. Serreze said conditions are now right for another record-breaking minimum following this summer's melt, provided there isn't a cold snap. "It's just not recovering this winter," Serreze said. "And the basic reason it's not recovering is the Arctic Ocean has been so darn warm." Weather data shows surface temperatures across much of the Arctic were 4 to 5 degrees above normal September through December. The pack has been at or near record minimums every month this winter and Serreze said Wednesday the latest data for March also shows a record minimum. Satellite images of the sea ice date back to 1978. By using other data, Serreze and his fellow researchers believe the sea ice is at its smallest in more than a century. The ice pack covered more than 3 million square miles in the mid-1970s. That figure had been whittled down to about 2 million square miles by September, according satellite observations. More than 500,000 square miles of ice disappeared last summer alone, according to Serreze. "In the past four years or so, we've really seen the bottom drop out of the system," he said. He and his Colorado colleagues now predict the summer ice pack could disappear by the end of the century. Canadian researchers in a 2005 Canadian Broadcasting Corp. report predicted ice-free summers in no more than 15 years. Loss of the ice would have dramatic impacts locally and globally. Some, such as unfettered shipping across the top of the world, might be considered positives. Other impacts--the loss of wildlife dependent on the ice pack and the accompanying traditional subsistence hunting opportunities--will be considered negatives. The melting will also change some of the globe's natural systems, accelerating climate change in ways that can be anticipated but not predicted with certainty. A growing number of scientists believe changes in temperature, currents, water salinity and other variables have altered the Arctic's natural rhythms so much that they are now the driving force. Change begets change. These changes--manmade or not--have knocked the system into a state of decline with a loss of ice mass now at about 8 percent a year, according to multiple researchers. Like a wobbly top, each successive spin becomes more erratic. Sea ice, for instance, is reflective and sends much of the sun's radiation back into space. Remove the ice and the sun's heat is absorbed by the darker ocean water, raising the Arctic's average temperature and hampering future ice growth. "And the next loop may bring even more change," said Igor Polyakov, a research professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks' International Arctic Research Center. Point of no return The acceleration of sea ice decline has some scientists hypothesizing that the Arctic system has crossed a "tipping point," and a state of decline is the new normal. Ronald W. Lindsay and Jinlun Zhang of the University of Washington's Polar Science Center wrote in a 2003 paper: "It is quite possible that the large changes ... of the early 1990s have forced the system into a new state in which very large extents of summer open water and winter first- year ice are the norm. ... The gradually increasing winter air temperatures may reflect a global warming signal that will preclude a return to the old regime." That the sea ice is declining is as clear as the blue ocean seen by satellites from above. What's causing that decline remains up to debate. The ice has been steadily declining for decades, researchers have found. But it has done so in halting steps, Serreze said. A low year might be followed by a high year, but the cumulative average still dwindled over time. Serreze said he believes evidence shows a "greenhouse forcing effect" is evident in the Arctic. Manmade gases have accumulated in the atmosphere over the decades. Large quantities of carbon dioxide have helped change the weather, warming some areas and cooling others. In the Far North, Serreze said, a warming of temperatures was the first domino in a chain reaction that has brought us to the point where his canary sits unsteadily upon its high-latitude perch. "It just looks more and more like what we're going to see," Serreze said of the effect. "You're forcing it to warm up with greenhouse gases. And a significant signal of that is sea ice." Others aren't ready to lump the blame on man and greenhouse gases. Many agree that temperature deserves to be considered, but point to another increase in temperature during the 1930s had little effect on the sea ice. This led some scientists to look at other mechanisms that could cause changes. As it turns out there are several possible culprits. And all might play their own little part in the ice pack's decline. Ignatius Rigor, a professor at Washington's Polar Science Center, said wind and its effects upon current have had more to do with Arctic change than temperature. Only time can prove him right. "If it's purely temperature-driven, then it's toast, it's gone," Rigor said. "If the wind does play a bigger role, then there's a chance." Rigor said his research showed circulation changes in the Arctic Ocean in the late 1980s and early '90s drastically changed the composition of sea ice. "Most of the older, thicker sea ice got flushed out of the Arctic Ocean," he said. "So what you're left with is younger, thinner ice. "The younger, thinner ice doesn't have enough mass to withstand a summer melt." A matter of time There are basically two kinds of sea ice: first-year ice and multi-year ice. Cold temperatures each winter create first-year ice. It measures no thicker than 2 yards, is fragile and lately has tended to melt each summer barring a cold snap. Multi-year ice accumulates with the help of successive cold winters and storms, which Rigor said cause ridging and rafting. As ice floes pile upon one another, the pack's thickness grows and adds to a central pack that can withstand short-term weather variability. Rigor created an animation clip that showed what he believes are the dramatic effects of a change in what climate researchers refer to as Arctic Oscillation, the system of currents that control polar water flow. Those current changes pushed most of the Arctic's multi-year ice through Fram Strait east of Greenland and into the Atlantic Ocean where it melted. So the Arctic is now dominated by first-year ice, which is much more susceptible to the ravages of temperature. "I associate a lot of the climate change we're seeing in the Arctic right now with the fact we had a high Arctic Oscillation event in the '90s and we're kind of seeing the memory of that," Rigor said. Others view water temperature as a possible culprit. Polyakov said his research shows warmer Atlantic water has been entering the Arctic. And he pointed to the studies of others who think Pacific Ocean water is also infiltrating the Arctic, increasing the warming trend. What we found in 2004 and one year later in 2005 is the Arctic Ocean is becoming warmer and warmer," he said. Lindsay and Zhang in their tipping point paper tied most of these variables together: * The ice pack was "preconditioned" by gradually increasing fall, winter and spring temperatures over the past six decades. The warmth hindered the growth of first-year ice, which no longer survived through the summer. * The multi-year ice that remained was then flushed into the Atlantic. Current changes that caused this have reverted to normal. * These changes have caused a feedback: Reduced ice cover leads to warmer water, which further reduces ice coverage. Lindsay and Zhang call their ideas a hypothesis, but Rigor can see a future in which all of these variables are blended together to create a complete picture. "It may sound like we disagree and have these different biases, but I really think when it comes down to it and we figure it out 20 years from now, we're going to make those puzzle pieces fit together," he said. Chris Talbott can be reached at 459-7575 or ctalbott@newsminer.com. Copyright c. 2006 MediaNews Group, Inc. & Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Inc. --------- "RE: MILLER: International Law and Indigenous Rights" --------- Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 08:40:06 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RUSSELL A. MILLER: NATIVE INTERESTS" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/266160_indigenous11.html International law protects Native American interests By RUSSELL A. MILLER GUEST COLUMNIST April 11, 2006 With 29 tribes in Washington and five in Idaho, the Pacific Northwest's Native American communities play an essential part in the region's contemporary political and cultural life. There have been a number of significant policy disputes between the federal government, the states and their Native American populations, most notably involving water rights. Long viewed as strictly domestic matters, these issues now reverberate in international law. The case of the Dann sisters is a poignant example. Mary (now deceased) and Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone Elders, have long sought access to Western Shoshone ancestral lands, including much of present-day Nevada and extending to parts of Idaho, Utah and California. When denied access by the U.S. courts, the Dann sisters continued their struggle as a matter of international human rights law. In a strongly worded rebuke to the United States in 2002, the Inter- American Commission on Human Rights (a body of the Organization of American States) found that the inadequate process afforded the Dann sisters by the U.S. Indian Claims Commission constituted a violation of the protections they were owed under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. Now, in a ruling on March 10 of this year, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has joined the fray. The United Nations claimed to have credible information that calls into question the U.S. government's assertion of federal ownership of nearly 90 percent of Western Shoshone lands. In a landmark ruling, the United Nations expressed concern about the U.S. claim to the land by theory of "gradual encroachment" and urged the United States to "freeze," "desist" and "stop" activities that threaten Western Shoshone ancestral lands. Diplomatic exchanges rarely take such an urgent and stern tone. The U.N. ruling signals that international law is emerging as a means of promoting and protecting Native American interests, including their rights to live as a distinct community; to practice and revitalize cultural and religious traditions; to participate meaningfully in the political and policy decisions that affect them; to enjoy the use of traditional lands and to govern themselves in sovereign autonomy. Professor S. James Anaya, the world's leading expert on this emerging body of international law, recounts in his seminal book on the subject that "the political philosophy for the Iroquois Confederacy is expressed in the Great Law of Peace, which describes a great tree with roots extending in the four cardinal directions to all peoples of the Earth." If that tree were international law, the roots reaching out to the world's indigenous peoples, including the Pacific Northwest's Native Americans, have been deepening and strengthening. Russell A. Miller is the Alan G. Shepard professor of law at the University of Idaho College of Law. Copyright c. 1996-2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. --------- "RE: GIAGO: Sovereignty can have its Growing Pains" --------- Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 08:37:16 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GIAGO: SOVEREIGNTY PROBLEMS" http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=7744 Notes from Indian Country Sovereignty can have its growing pains Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji) April 10, 2006 Copyright c. 2006 Native American Journalists Foundation, Inc. One of my recent columns on sovereignty in Indian Country found its way on to the Crow Nation's tribal email system and prompted some encouraging, but realistic comments. One commentary drew my immediate attention because since I had worked for the tribal government of the Oglala Sioux Tribe many years ago and having experienced first hand the obstacles often placed in the path of anyone trying to bring about much needed improvements, his sharp comments went directly to the heart of sovereignty. Also, as the former editor and publisher of a newspaper based on an Indian reservation, one that covered the good, the bad and the ugly of tribal politics and social interplay, my association with tribal governments had a tendency to change every two years when a new administration took office. My column was intended to point out the big picture on why tribal sovereignty is so important in Indian Country. But there are many smaller factors that can create real problems. The man writing to me will remain anonymous because he does work for the Crow Nation and his job could be jeopardized for speaking his mind. The first thing he pointed out is that some tribes can be "oppressive and dysfunctional." He talked about how tribal administrations change every four years, or on some reservations (Pine Ridge for example), every two years. The downside of this is that whenever a new administration steps in most of the employees and directors of the major programs are replaced. This, of course, negates any continuity within the structure of the tribe. If there is not a continuous governmental structure the knowledge gained by those program directors about to be replaced is lost. The tendency then is to start all over again after each tribal election. More often than not many employees are hired according to whom they are related to within the new government. "It's not what you know, but who you know," opens the door to employment. And because family ties are so important within the makeup of a tribe, those related to the tribal leaders often are first in line for the jobs. Many times these "relatives" have little or no experience at the job positions they are called upon to fill. The tribal chairmen or chairwomen are king and queen. I will never forget a comment made to me many years ago by the newly elected chairman of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Elijah Whirlwind Horse. I worked for Elijah as his Director of Public Relations. After his first week in office and after employee after employee came to his office with hats in hand hoping against all hope to keep their jobs, he said, "I never realized how much power the tribal chairman has; even the janitors are coming to me begging to keep their jobs." The writer from Crow Nation continued, "People are fired and replaced indiscriminately based on the will of the chairman so no one feels stable in their jobs and they become concerned about whether they look good rather than whether they are doing a good job." I hope the good people of the Crow Nation do not take this personally because I could be writing about any number of Indian nations across America. The problems brought up by this member of the Crow Nation could have been brought up by a member of the Cherokee, Blackfeet, Nez Perce, Oglala, Sicangu, Navajo, or by any member of the other 500 Indian nations in this country. Any on many reservations the people have a tendency to gossip and on a reservation where everybody knows everybody, that gossip can become quite vicious and hurtful. Those whose lives are stuck in place often direct the gossip at those making a success of their lives. And jealousy can be carried to extremes on many Indian reservations. As one writer said, "Jealous people will cut you down every chance they get." Further disruption often occurs because some people that are powerfully politically connected do not believe that the rules and the laws are meant for them. They believe that because they are "connected," they are immune to the laws others must live by. Others take total advantage of their connections by showing up for work only when they feel like it and they can often be found sitting at the slot machines in the tribe's casino during working hours. These same people often secure funds to travel to conventions all over the country and spend the time shopping or sitting in the bars drinking rather then attending the daily sessions of the convention. Many years ago I wrote a column labeling these people as "HolidayIndians." Times haven't changed them that much except now, with more money to spend from the casino profits; they travel more often and extensively. Under these conditions it is often difficult to expect tribal members that have gone out to get an education to return to this environment lacking in productivity and honesty. If one is used to coming to work on time and working the full eight hours, it can be very discouraging to see employees drawing the same wages or even higher wages sitting around doing nothing, coming to work whenever they please, and leaving work whenever they feel like it. Change of habits has to happen from the top down in tribal government. As I have written so often over the years, it will take strong, intelligent, honest and able leaders to bring about a change in direction for so many tribes. Attaining true sovereignty is not an impossible goal but until all of the faults listed above are addressed and corrected, it will never happen in my lifetime. --- Tim Giago is the president of the Native American Journalists Foundation, Inc., and the publisher of Indian Education Today Magazine. He can be reached at najournalists@rushmore.com or by writing him at 2050 W. Main St., Suite 5, Rapid City, SD. He was also the founder and publisher of the Lakota Times and Indian Country Today newspapers. Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Panel probes Diversity Issues" --------- Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 08:48:20 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: DIVERSITY AND MULTICULTURE" http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/columnists/14297075.htm DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Panel probes diversity and multicultural issues April 8, 2006 Diversity is more than race, it's differences," a panelist said at UND's multicultural education panel on Thursday. Differences can be as beautiful as thousands of prairie flowers nodding their heads in a spring breeze. Unfortunately, differences among humans can also be "stink" weeds growing in the ditches along the road. Listening to this prestigious group of educators expound on multicultural issues, I could see diversity, differences (multiculturalism) can grate on the nerves, cause fear of the unknown, frustration, anger at times and even competition for resources and claims for positions. These are complex issues and questions and difficult to answer. The panelists of the 37th Annual UNDIA Time-Out Week & Wacipi chewed on issues like this - sometimes with a worldview, sometimes with a regional view but most often from a UND perspective and they came up with a variety of answers. The panelists and moderator were Janet Ahler, moderator and retired professor; graduate students, Darlene Enno, Laura Zucca, Elizabeth Yellow Bird-Demaray (my sister); staff at UND, Linda Rains, Leigh Jeanotte and M. C. Diop. One of the questions put to the panel was "What more can we do at UND to increases (diversity) awareness?" Perhaps it's already done. The university has a claim to multiculturalism already. President Charles Kupchella says UND is the premier American Indian institution. There are more than 400 Indian students attending the university so this proclamation isn't a step out into space. And this is Indian country - the Dakotas, Minnesota, Nebraska and Montana. Just in the university recruiting territory there are some 25 tribes - mostly Lakota, Dakota, Nakota and Chippewa or Ojibwe people, and, of course, we also have the Sahnish (Arikara), Mandan and Hidatsa tribes. The university has about 31 programs - most funded externally - specifically for Native people. There is little doubt that American Indians are an integral part of UND's multicultural face. So, you have to wonder how strange it is to be studying multiculturalism, diversity and even racism in a place that already claims to be a premier American Indian institution. The university has spent years recruiting Native people to UND. Unfortunately, as some of the panelists said, there is need for understanding of all races, cultures and differences. That isn't evident. The two-hour panel had at the most 12 people in the audience. By the time the session ended, the panel outnumbered the audience by 7 to 1. This is 19 people, including the panelists from is a student population of more than 13,000, staff and professional staff of about 2,000. Poorly attended, I would say. As an outsider, I wondered if this was an indication of UND's commitment to multiculturalism. The panel answered questions - for many of the answers it was not the first time these answers were suggested. Here are some of their suggestions: * Orientation for all students and teaching staff at the university about multiculturalism and diversity. One of the panelists suggested professional teaching staff members visit reservations and do more than just tour but actually participate with the people in their events during the year. * Bring people from the tribal colleges in to teach university classes. * Bring Native leaders in to speak to classes The only student to attend the multicultural education panel was a first-year Lakota man from Cheyenne River. He asked the panel about the mascot and logo issue. When he first arrived, he said, he was asked in class where he stood on the issue. He said at first he didn't know what they were talking about, but it was intimidating and certainly out of line for the class, the panelists said. This young student's question about handling the logo issue was handed over to the panel. It's one of the pitfalls students shouldn't have to face when they come to an institution of higher learning, they said. Fortunately, most of the professors at UND understand the need to change the name and logo. One of the teaching staff said: "Having the logo is an antithesis of what we teach in our classes." They feel the logo is an obstacle to learning for American Indian students. A concluding view of the panel is the question: "Is this university ready to be called a premier American Indian university?" Are they ready to grow? I have been to many panel discussions, sessions and conferences that have dealt with the logo and mascot issue or multicultural issues. I have found the audience is usually people who understand the negative effects on students. Those people who don't want to hear what is happening to Native students, don't attend sessions like the one on Thursday, but there are those brave men and women who continue to discuss and educate to all who will listen. The bright side is that that group who understands and respects is growing. ---- Dorreen Yellow Bird's column appears Tuesday and Saturday. Reach her at (701) 780-1228 or dyellowbird@gfherald.com Copyright c. 2006 Grand Forks Herald/Grand Forks, ND. --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Why is Ethanol's price rising?" --------- Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2006 13:25:58 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: RISING COST OF ETHANOL" http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/columnists/14348212.htm DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Why is ethanol's price rising? April 15, 2006 In North Dakota, taxis, buses and commuter trains aren't on every street corner, nor we can go out into the street to hail a cab as in the big cities. Our transportation often must take us across the state or get us to the next town. We depend on cars, SUVs and pickups to get around our rolling prairie and Plains. Some of these big gas-guzzlers are pretty necessary for off- and back-road travel. So, in our area, the price of gas quickly can put a kink in our pocketbooks. And when the price jumps as high as it did last summer - it seems to be heading in that direction this summer, too - we are strongly affected. My sister told me that she thought we in the media partly were responsible for the rising cost of gasoline. I looked at her over the top of my glasses and waited. Gas prices, she continued, seem to start climbing after the media says, "Higher gas prices expected." The next day, it's one gas station after another. Like baby ducks jumping in a prairie pothole, the stations raise their prices until gas is another nickel higher. Hmm, I replied. I filled my tank last night when it was 5 cents cheaper; why didn't you? (It's always good to keep the sister on her toes with annoying and sisterly jabs.) My "Ruby" - my Toyota - luckily is pretty good on gas, but it it's not the Honda Civic hybrid that gets 50 mpg. Hey, even the traditional Civic gets 40 mpg. Of course, we don't know how that little hybrid "bug" will do in our sometimes 20-below-zero winters or how it will stand up to some of those country roads that can get pretty sloppy after a daylong rain. But that mileage is great. Then, there's E-85 ethanol gasoline. When I first read about E-85, I wondered if it was "good" gas. I grew up with brothers who measured the power of their cars by the octane in their tanks. Anyway, I tried that E-85 in my 2004 Toyota while driving from Grand Forks to Nebraska last year. When I reached Lincoln, Neb., I asked my friends about E-85. They told me that cars had to be specially equipped to use that gas. I didn't put any more E-85 in my car, and when I got back to Grand Forks, I took it to the dealership to find out of if I was "equipped." No, the dealer told me. My Toyota is not "equipped." Oops. Anyway, there a growing number of flexible-fuel cars that come "equipped, " but certainly a majority of cars are not. These flexible-fuel vehicles, as well as the new gas-and-electric-power hybrids, seem to strut because they are the elite and proud to be "greenies." When I see the commercial with the hunky looking farmer who goes into a field, pulls off an ear of corn and sticks it into his gas-guzzling pickup tank, I think, "Yes, we can beat the oil crisis." That fuel takes the field right into the tank. We can put cornfields all over the state, North Dakota's new oilfields of tomorrow. Before we talk any more about corn fuel, I found that other countries have extremes in gas prices. For example, oil-producing Venezuela has gas for 12 cents a gallon. Yes, 12 cents a gallon - even lower than Saudi Arabia, where it's 91 cents a gallon. Why is it so cheap in those countries? Because the oil is produced by government-owned companies. Then again, in other counties such as the Netherlands and Norway, gas is $6.48 and $6.27 a gallon, respectively. Norway is an oil-exporting country, like Venezuela; but gas in Norway has high taxes attached. But are we being fooled by the cheaper cost of corn fuel ethanol? Why does the price of E-85 follow the price of oil? I am seeing the price of E-85 rise as fast as that of regular gas. During an editorial board meeting, I asked state officials that question about E-85 pricing. It's priced at what the market will bear, they told me. I'm not comfortable with that answer, though. I think government officials, as well as corporate heads and stock market gurus, could set a lower price if they chose, especially with an American-grown fuel such as E-85. So, governor, state and national officials, I'll ask again: Why can't we produce our own corn-fuel ethanol and have prices like 21 cents a gallon? ---- Dorreen Yellow Bird's column appears Tuesday and Saturday. Reach her at (701) 780-1228 or dyellowbird@gfherald.com Copyright c. 2006 Grand Forks Herald/Grand Forks, ND. --------- "RE: HARJO: Girl-empowerment for Indian Country" --------- Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 08:20:51 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HARJO: NO HOLLA BACK GIRL" http://www.indianz.com/News http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412825 Harjo: For smart Indian women who ain't no holla back girls by: Suzan Shown Harjo / Indian Country Today April 14, 2006 Have you noticed the blonde-versus-blonde smackdown on music video channels and radio stations over the past year? The current installment is "Stupid Girls" by Pink, who parodies Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson and other Barbies, and calls out those wannabe celebs who worship them. Yes, I know it's an intra-tribal thing among young white women, but it's instructive for Native girls and women, too. After all, we do live in the same world. As Pink's song encourages girls to be themselves and give up plastic role models, think Pocahontas (the fictional character, not the historical figure) and the mythical Cherokee princess and the cartoon butter maiden. As she sings of the "stupid girls" who roll over and play dumb, strive to be size zero and long to be famous, think of the young women who are on some payrolls in Indian country for the convenience of politicians, and the girls who want to be just like them. Some of the words to "Stupid Girls" go this way: "Maybe if I act like that, that guy will call me back, What a paparazzi girl, I don't wanna be a stupid girl, Baby if I act like that, flipping my blonde hair back, Push up my bra like that, I don't wanna be a stupid girl." Be aware, readers of faint heart, that "Stupid Girls" contains strong language, which won't be reprinted here. Also beware of the video send-up, which has nearly as much grinding and writhing around as the people and activities it satirizes. If you feel you may be offended by lowdown language or low-class images, don't tune in to the audio or video versions. I'm not recommending the products; just commenting to Native women and girls on an aspect of popular culture. Here's a comment for the boys and men, too. Yes, it's hypocritical for girls and women to dress or dance suggestively and then get mad at you for noticing. Here's something else for the boys and men. Suggestive dress or dancing is not necessarily a signal that a sexual advance is permissible or welcome, and is never a license for force. And even if you think "no" might mean "yes," why take the chance of ruining a relationship, your career or your life? Back to you, girls and women. Be clear and direct and think for yourself. Pink's song mocks the girls who travel in packs and favors, "Outcasts and girls with ambition ... What happened to the dreams of a girl president; She's dancing in the video next to 50 Cent." In one poignant line, she asks: "Where, oh where, have the smart people gone?" "Disasters all around, World despaired, Their only concern, Will I **** up my hair?" I started paying attention to spunky white ladies singing to ditzy ones in 2005, when I first heard Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl." Actually, it took a while for me to understand the refrain, "I ain't no hollaback girl." I thought it was about the oil company with mega- overcharges on its government contracts in Iraq: "I ain't no Halliburton." How advanced, I thought - a musical statement against war profiteering. As I listened more closely, I thought I heard, "I ain't no Holly Baxter." Who is or was Holly Baxter? I conjured up an image of a 1950s television housewife/mom. That could be it - a statement about fictional perfection setting an artificial standard for normality. No, the word "girl" is in the refrain. Maybe I heard, "I ain't Dan Hollenbeck, girl." Is the song really about the CBS reporter who was a victim of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's political witch-hunting? OK, so this is about my hearing, too, but that's a subject for another day. As I tried to catch the lyrics, I realized it wasn't about any of those things. According to the Urban Dictionary, a "holla back girl" is: "1. A girl willing to be treated like a doormat or booty call" or "2. Gwen Stefani use: A person who verbally postures (hollers back) in an argument and does not step up and fight." Stefani asserts that she will fight and is not a hollaback girl. She calls this her "attitude song." Some of the lyrics go this way: "A few times I've been around that track, So, it's not just gonna happen like that, Cause I ain't no hollaback girl, I ain't no hollaback girl." In the "Hollaback Girl" video, Stefani is dressed as a cheerleader, leading the squad in the call and response, complete with pom-poms and explicit words. "I heard that you were talking ****, And you didn't think that I would hear it, People hear you talking like that, getting everybody fired up, So I'm ready to attack, gonna lead the pack, Gonna get a touchdown, gonna take you out, That's right, put your pom-poms down, getting everybody fired up." Both Pink and Stefani have their musical personas fighting and reaching for footballs, which is fine, if that's the game you really want to play - but, ouch. And that's different from men how? I think there's some confusion between equal opportunity, which is a worthy goal, and sameness, which is not. Women need to have an equal chance to run our world. But if women are to run it in the same way that's brought us to the current state of affairs, why bother? Nonetheless, I'm glad that these singer/songwriters are engaging in internal self-correction and girl-power empowerment. That can only help us all. I'm out of space now, but next time I want to analyze the Oscar-winning song. If I've heard the lyrics correctly, it's about the confessed felon and disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. What's its title? Oh, yes: "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp." --- Suzan Shown Harjo, Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee, is president of the Morning Star Institute in Washington, D.C. and a columnist for Indian Country Today. Copyright c. 1998 - 2006 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Compensation the right move" --------- Date: Friday, April 14, 2006 03:21 pm From: frostyca2000 Subj: Compensation the right move Mailing List: Frostys AmerIndian Compensation the right move By Robert Howard The Hamilton Spectator April 13, 2006 The province's acknowledgment that compensation is owed to people caught in the middle of the native land claim dispute in Caledonia is good news and, frankly, unexpected given that the protest is just six weeks (a mere heartbeat by government standards) old. Regular, working people have lost their entire source of income because of the standoff between native protesters on one side and the courts and police on the other. Upwards of 200 people - tradespeople such as carpenters, plumbers, roofers and bricklayers - have lost their paycheques. The developers and homebuilders - self-described small-town guys without deep pockets - see their life savings and investments being held hostage indefinitely. Ontario Aboriginal Affairs Minister David Ramsay says the province is willing to consider compensation and that government officials and affected developers and contractors were meeting yesterday to consider a specific proposal. When the minister is quoted on that, it's safe to assume that cabinet has agreed that compensation will be offered, and now it's just a matter of working out numbers. A compensation offer is absolut