_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 14, ISSUE 018 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 May 6, 2006 Cree aligipizun/frog moon Hopi hakitonmuyaw/waiting moon Blackfeet aapistsisskitsaato's/flower (blossom) moon Algonquin moonesquanimock kesos/moon when women weed corn +-------------------------------------------------------+ | 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; Rez_Life, FrostysAmerIndian, Chiapas95-En, IronNatives, Mohawk Nation News and Native American Poetry 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: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + =================== "I also must share with you that the owner of the Arizona Snowbowl ski facility has expressed an interest in a buyout. For this reason, I will call a meeting of tribal leaders within the region to discuss this important option." "However, if the owner is unreasonable or unwilling to negotiate a fair price, then we will and must continue to fight to save Dook'o'osliid and our Dine' way of life." __ Joe Shirley, Navajo Nation President +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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 has a few words in support of our Shoshone relatives. --- When is theft not stealing? It's when the victims are members of an Indian tribe, the property being taken is land, and it is accomplished slowly, and then legitimized by administrative fiat of a U.S. government agency. It's when a larger, better armed country shoves its theft down the throats of a smaller, less powerful nation -- and none of the larger nation's citizens notice, and no other nations rise up to say its wrong, That's about to change. Since the Treaty of Ruby Valley in 1863, the Western Shoshone have done the peaceful, neighborly thing and allowed people not of their country access to passage across their land. Never have they agreed in a treaty to cede that land. Never has any court granted title to that land to any non-Indian. Only after a government agency declared that the land had been taken by "gradual encroachment," did the Supreme Court rubberstamp the policy. What do the Western Shoshone want? Well, they want title to the 85 percent of their former land that is held by the US Government (they aren't looking for the 15 percent of the land that white folks have squatted on...just the government land). They want to pursue the ranching lifestyle of their grandparents. They want to benefit from the minerals discovered on the land. And they DARN sure do NOT want an enormous bomb blast stirring up the radioactive dust from past nuclear tests, nor do they want the nuclear tests that are sure to follow taking place on their ancestral lands. If you'd like to know more, see: http://www.wsdp.org/backgrnd.htm +/// 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 ----------- - Western Shoshone winning converts - Six Nations negotiates Land Claim - Tribe finally paid - GIAGO: for health Services Contract Censorship in the Mainstream Media - Indians Left Out of Anti-Meth Bill - YELLOW BIRD: - Budget-Cutting A living link with Sitting Bull endangers Indian Clinics - HARJO: Congress loses will - Students join protest for lobbying reform for urban Health Care - YELLOW BIRD: School's Lessons - Bear Butte Sturgis Rally go beyond Walls - Another Chapter - Me'tis lawyers prepare in continuing Tobacco Tax Saga to combat Harper - Tribe to establish Office - Six Nations does not Stand Alone for Elders - B.C. First Nation back in Court - Tribes reflect on - Winnipeg should be prepared a Century of accomplishments for protest Camp-outs - Firm fined for cheating Tribe - TB outbreak leaves Garden Hill - Indian Reservations living in fear getting Air Ambulances - Commission to look into - Navajo to battle Roseau River rip-off Federal Budget cuts - Native American man - Why not a chapter sues his former Employer for Navajos living on the HPL - Tribes intervene - Effort to save in Yellowbear Case Native American Burial Grounds - Peltier's appeal is rejected - NCAA rejects two more challenges - Native Prisoner to Mascot Policy -- Youth experiences OPP "justice" - Morelos Residents fight back - Rustywire: Navajo Legal Aid against Garbage Dump & Zuni Yellowhair - N'Quatqua blockade Portage Road - Lee Goins Poem: at D'Arcy A Tear for My Soul - Standoff Story skewed by the Media - Book Review: The Divided Ground - Ottawa finally agrees to negotiate - Haskell Indian Men's Fast Pitch Tournament --------- "RE: Western Shoshone winning converts" --------- Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 08:23:18 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WESTERN SHOSHONE STAND DRAWS ALLIES" http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=7783 Western Shoshone winning converts GOP Senator, shareholders offer support in crusades against Pentagon, mining company Sam Lewin April 25, 2006 A Western tribe currently engaged in battles with two powerful opponents - the largest gold producer in the world and the Pentagon - is now receiving moral and legal support from shareholders in the company involved in the former controversy and a Republican Senator concerned about the latter's plan for a huge explosion. The Western Shoshone tribe, which claims millions of acres in land spanning portions of four states, has already sued to prevent "Divine Strake," a massive non-nuclear blast that the tribe worries could kick up radioactive matter still remaining in the region following a series of nuclear tests conducted over a forty-year period. The tribe's lawsuit, filed in federal court, names as defendants officials with the Defense Department, National Nuclear Security Administration and Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Blast planners have countered that their research shows there is no danger of nuclear fallout. Senator Orrin Hatch is not so sure. The Utah Republican has sent a letter to the federal government seeking to confirm that the test is safe. "The more I look into this, the more upset I become," Hatch said. The tribe's lawsuit to stop the scheduled early June explosion was joined by the "Downwinders," a group of people that say they still suffer the ill effects of nuclear testing conducted in the region from the early `50s until the early `90s. "The good people who live downwind from this test site have already been through enough, and I've given them my word that I'll never allow any nuclear testing that could harm them again," Hatch said. "I have directed my staff to check into this very closely, and if I'm not satisfied that this will be safe, I'm going to do everything I can to put a stop to it." Hatch said his letter was prompted by news that the June explosion would take place just over a mile from previous testing sites. Other Nevada and Utah officials have also expressed concern over the test. Planners intend to detonate a bomb consisting of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. The blast will generate a 10,000-foot mushroom cloud. Officials say the blast is needed to determine capabilities for hitting targets buried deep underground, a military necessity in dealing with dangerous and aggressive rouge states like Iran and North Korea. Some members of the tribe, however, are literally worried about their health. "This is our lives and our children's lives that are at stake. I ask of humanity what is so divine about a weapon with a name like Divine Strake that will contaminate all living life forms?" said Bennie "BlueThunder" LeBeau. While the controversy over the blast continues, the tribe, through a group set up by the tribal council 15 years ago called the Western Shoshone Defense Project, have been feuding with Newmont Mining over gold mines on tribal lands. The tribe has apparently made an impact with their arguments as a group of company shareholders have written to Newmont Chief Executive Officer Wayne Murdy, encouraging the company to "develop a policy toward Native American peoples in the United States and address the specific concerns of the Western Shoshone." Seven people signed the letter. "We are very pleased to receive the support of the shareholders," said defense project attorney Julie Fishel. "In our meetings in Nevada with the Western Shoshone, we listened and learned a great deal about the deep ethical and religious attachment of the Western Shoshone to their traditional lands," the shareholders wrote in their letter to CEO Murdey "We believe that Newmont Mining needs to find ways in which to respect fully the Western Shoshone's claim to their ancestral lands. This is necessary if Newmont is to ever be able to demonstrate that the company has the both the consent of the Western Shoshone and the `social license' to operate on traditional Western Shoshone lands" The Shoshones sit on one of the largest gold depositories in the world, the Carlin Trend. The price of gold has increase by almost $100 per ounce since last year. The shareholders letter comes as Newmont moved its annual meeting from downtown Denver to another area location following reports that protestors were planning on disrupting the meeting. Company spokeswoman Heatheryn Higgins said security was the rationale for relocating the meeting, adding that the company is a convenient scapegoat because of its high profile. "Our mines are often some of the first industrialization in the countries where we operate," Higgins wrote in an e-mail to the Denver Post. "This carries huge responsibilities and makes ... Newmont a target." Newmont employs almost 30,000 people. On their website, the company says they have "significant assets or operations on five continents." You can reach Sam Lewin at sam@okit.com Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Tribe finally paid for health Services Contract" --------- Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 08:55:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DoI FORCED TO PAY TRIBE" http://www.indianz.com/News/2006/013652.asp Nevada tribe finally paid for health services contract Wednesday, April 26, 2006 After nearly a decade of fighting the federal government all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, a Nevada tribe was finally paid for a self- determination contract on Tuesday. In a settlement filed in federal court, the Department of Health and Human Services agreed to pay the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes $3.7 million for not meeting its trust responsibilities. "The Supreme Court has ruled that the Indian Health Service is liable for not paying contract support costs," the consent order stated. Once interest is factored in, the tribe will receive over $6 million to provide health services on the Duck Valley Reservation, according to Lloyd Miller, the Washington, D.C. attorney who won the Supreme Court ruling on behalf of the Shoshone-Paiutes and the Cherokee Nation. Negotiations are ongoing to resolve the Cherokee's unpaid contract costs, Miller said. Additionally, on behalf of the Zuni Tribe of New Mexico, Miller is pursuing a class action against the federal government. The tribe claims HHS and IHS underpaid self-determination contracts by at least $200 million in a case that could involve over 300 tribal governments. All told, hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake. But the federal government, through the Clinton and Bush administrations, has been reluctant to pay tribes for the cost of administering health care and other services under the Indian Self-Determination Act. Even after the Supreme Court delivered its unanimous 8-0 ruling in March 2004, the IHS failed to ask for more money to fully fund the contracts. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, also affected by the decision, finally asked for additional self-determination funds in its budget for fiscal year 2007. At the same time, former Interior Secretary Gale Norton told Congress that the case won't force the department to pay the entire costs of the contracts due to a subsequent rider in an appropriations act. But in the eyes of Indian Country leaders, the issue is simple. A contract is a promise to pay, they say, and the federal government treats tribal and Alaska Native contractors differently by failing to fund the entire contract. "Failure to adequately fund contract support costs is defeating the very programs that appear to be helping improve health conditions for American Indians and Alaska Natives," said Sally Smith, the chair of the National Indian Health Board, said in Senate testimony a year ago this month. The Supreme Court was of a similar mindset. The government "does not deny that, were these contracts ordinary procurement contracts, its promises to pay would be legally binding," Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote, emphasizing the disparate treatment of Indian versus non-Indian contractors. Tribes and Alaska Natives have backed legislation to clarify that IHS and BIA must fully fund the contracts. But at Congressional hearings, Bush officials say they don't have the resources to carry out their trust responsibilities. According to the National Congress of American Indians, the contract support cost shortfall at the IHS and BIA exceeds $162 million for the fiscal year that ends this October. The IHS, for its part, doesn't dispute that it only pays about 20 percent of the contract support costs it owes to tribes and Alaska Natives. The Duck Valley Reservation is serviced by the Owyhee Service Unit. According to the IHS, about 1,300 people are active users and patients, a figure that increases about 1.8 percent every year. Copyright c. 2000-2006 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Indians Left Out of Anti-Meth Bill" --------- Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 08:23:18 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="METH ABUSE IGNORES INDIANS" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/454202nm04-26-06.htm Indians Left Out of Anti-Meth Bill By Michael Coleman Journal Washington Bureau April 26, 2006 WASHINGTON - A new federal grant program to fight methamphetamine abuse inadvertently excluded Native American communities from the list of eligible applicants. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said Tuesday he is working to fix the mistake. President Bush recently signed the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005 into law, but tribes and pueblos were unintentionally left out as eligible applicants under two Department of Justice initiatives the new law created: the COPS Hot Spots program and the Drug-Endangered Children program. Bingaman said his bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., and introduced Tuesday, would simply add Native American governments to the list of eligible grant recipients. Most of the other recipients are state governments, according to Bingaman's office. "We must correct the law to ensure that Indian Country has access to all the tools needed to fight this terrible problem," Bingaman said. Joe Garcia, president of the National Congress of American Indians and governor of Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo in northern New Mexico, said in February that meth addiction is "killing our people and devastating our communities." The Indian Health Service estimates that 30 percent of Indian youth have experimented with the drug, Garcia said. If adopted, Bingaman's legislation would allow Native American communities to apply for $99 million in funding for the COPS Hot Spots Grant Program, which helps local law enforcement agencies fight the production, distribution, and use of meth. The money also can be used to clean up toxic meth labs. The Bingaman bill also would make Native American communities eligible for part of a $20 million Drug-Endangered Children Grant Program that helps pay for services for children who live in a home where meth has been used, manufactured, or sold. E-MAIL writer Michael Coleman http://www.abqjournal.com/cgi-bin/email_reporter.pl Copyright c. 1997 - 2006 Albuquerque Journal. --------- "RE: Budget-Cutting endangers Indian Clinics" --------- Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 08:27:12 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="URBAN CLINICS UNDER THREAT TO BE BUSH WHACKED" http://www.latimes.com/la-na-clinics2may02,1,2847130.story Budget-Cutting Endangers Indian Clinics Bush's proposal could doom facilities that treat Native Americans living in cities. Defenders see a culture clash. By Sam Howe Verhovek, Times Staff Writer May 2, 2006 HELENA, Mont. - Karen Jester went to a local emergency room several years ago with complications from diabetes. When the doctor asked what the trouble was, she began by saying she had heard her late grandfather talking to her that day. "They thought I was crazy, of course," recalled Jester, 46, an Assiniboine Indian. "They said: 'We think you're depressed. Here are some pills.' " Jester recalled the incident as a cultural clash: To her, it was natural to invoke the spirit of an elder in describing her condition. It is just the sort of thing she feels comfortable expressing at the Leo Pocha Clinic, a federally financed Indian health clinic, where Jester comes regularly to manage her illness. The clinic is one of five such facilities in Montana and 34 across the nation intended to serve about 70% of American Indians who live in urban areas, not on a tribal reservation. But in a budget-cutting proposal that has set off protests and indignation among Indians from Los Angeles to New York and several smaller cities in between, the Bush administration has proposed eliminating funds for these clinics, which served about 106,000 Indians last year. Under the plan, Native Americans in urban areas would use the already overburdened municipal clinics, hospitals and other health services that most Americans use - and that many Indians say have no concept of their traditional forms of care and healing, which are often used in tandem with modern healthcare. Alternatively, under the plan, urban Indians could go to federally funded clinics on the reservation of the tribe to which they are registered. For many Indians, some of whom left those reservations because of crushing poverty and a lack of jobs, the latter option smacks of insult. "They're basically saying, 'Go back to the Rez,' " said Donald L. Clayborn, executive director of the Helena Indian Alliance, which runs the clinic here. "There is an absolute sense of frustration over that message. They are trying to balance the budget on the backs of some of the poorest people in the nation." Federal budget officials deny that is the case, arguing that the $33- million subsidy for the inner-city clinics provides an unnecessary duplication of services. "Unlike Indian people living in isolated rural areas," President Bush's budget proposal says, "urban Indians can receive healthcare through a wide variety of federal, state and local providers." If the cuts are adopted by Congress, at least half of the 34 clinics would face sudden closure, while the rest would have to curtail services, said Greg Fine of the National Council of Urban Indian Health, a nonprofit alliance in Washington. Eight of the targeted clinics are in California, including United American Indian Involvement in downtown Los Angeles, near Good Samaritan Hospital; the San Diego American Indian Health Center; and American Indian Health & Services Corp. in Santa Barbara. "In our clinic, we do have that real sense of being in an Indian environment," said David Rambeau, executive director of L.A.'s United American Indian Involvement, which has served about 15,000 Indians with medical problems over the last decade and receives about $800,000 in annual federal subsidies. "If a person is diabetic, we not only give them pills, we deal with their emotional part, we deal with the spiritual part," said Rambeau, a Paiute Indian. "That is definitely part of our program; that is what would be lost if Indian-oriented clinics have to close." Here in Helena, the state capital, the Pocha Clinic clearly has more than just a medical function: It is something of a community center built around a clinic, with a food pantry, an after-school program for children to learn about Indian heritage, and meetings for Indians dealing with substance abuse. Indian quilts, buffalo hides and other decorations line the hallways in the small building along Last Chance Gulch, a downtown thoroughfare whose name dates to Helena's 19th century mining history. "When you're Native American, it's honestly not that easy to express yourself, especially in a crowded place like a hospital," said Julie Gardipee-Chriske, 49, a Chippewa Cree Indian who deals with chronic pain from diabetes and persistent swelling, welts and cracking in her legs. "If I lose this place, I'm someone that will probably die," said Gardipee-Chriske, a former tribal liaison with the U.S. Forest Service, explaining that she wouldn't go to an emergency room unless she felt horribly sick or someone took her there by force. Jester, the Assiniboine Indian, left her reservation and took a seven- hour bus ride to Helena when she was 15 and pregnant. She was desperate to find work and a more hopeful place to raise her son, Jester said. She found work as a cook and a home health aide, but still felt she was living as "a stranger in a strange land." Here at the clinic, she said, she has not only regained some of her health but has found a way to reconnect with her Indian identity. "It would be insanity to close a place such as this," Jester said. "It would be like taking a knife to the Indian community." Directors at the four other clinics in Montana - in Butte, Billings, Missoula and Great Falls - said they worried that their patients would be swallowed up or ignored by the non-Indian health system. Indians suffer disproportionately from diabetes, obesity, tuberculosis and alcoholism, said Marjorie Bear Don't Walk, executive director of the Indian Health Board, which operates the clinic in Billings. "A lot of our work is targeted at preventing these very problems," Bear Don't Walk said. "We have helped a lot of people, but these are the very people we worry about now, the kind of people who could disappear into the system, or perhaps maybe never even make it into the system at all." Copyright c. 2006 Los Angeles Times. --------- "RE: Students join protest for urban Health Care" --------- Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 08:55:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="URBAN HEALTH CUTBACKS PROTEST" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com&MIIHost=collegepublisher.com U students join hundreds of others to protest for urban American Indian health care By: Ana Breton April 25, 2006 In response to the Bush administration's 2007 proposal to cut funding to Utah's Indian Walk-in Center along with other centers around the nation, approximately 500 people walked about two miles Friday from the Indian Walk-in Center to the Bennett Federal Building. The federal building's front lawn became host to a half-dozen speakers after the march, including Mayor Rocky Anderson. An estimated 600 people, including U students, protested in downtown Salt Lake City on Friday in defense of urban American Indian health-care rights and funding. Representatives from various American-Indian tribes and supporters from student groups at the U took part in the "Walk of Honor," which started at the Indian Walk-In Center near the Franklin Covey Field and ended with a rally at the Bennett Federal Building. The march protested President Bush's 2007 budget proposal to cut funding to the 34 health-care clinics that aid American Indians across the nation. Utah's Walk-In Center, which is the main clinic for American Indians in Salt Lake City, would suffer an approximate 80 to 90 percent cut from its $1.5 million budget. Members of the Inter-Tribal Student Association and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, two prominent American-Indian student groups at the U, were present at the protest. "A lot of times, we don't understand what is going on and how something like this can affect other people," said Sheldon Spotted Elk, former vice president of ITSA and a senior in social work. "We have to show that we care so we can make a difference." American-Indian students at the U are particularly worried because of the Associated Students of the University of Utah Senate's recent resolution mandating that all students show proof of health insurance before registering for Fall Semester classes in 2007. The proposals would make it harder for these students to receive health- care insurance and an education, said Robert Gallegos, president of the Raza Political Action Coalition (Raz-Pac). "There's certain benefits offered by the Indian Walk-In Center that would be removed," he explained. "The Walk-In Center doesn't just cover health care, but they also help educate the Native Americans about their culture." Mayor Rocky Anderson spoke at the rally after the march and said it would be unlikely for students and their families to apply at other health clinics if the Walk-In Center's budget is canceled. "Native American health programs provide culturally sensitive services not available elsewhere," he said. Besides providing health care, urban American-Indian programs also raise awareness about the needs in the American-Indian populations, Anderson said. Copyright c. 2006 The Daily Utah Chronicle. --------- "RE: Bear Butte Sturgis Rally" --------- Date: Tuesday, May 02, 2006 03:58 am From: debbieredbear2000 Subj: Bear Butte Mailing List: Rez_Life From: Dodie Finstead Date: Mon May 1, 2006 8:44 pm Subj: Please help, letters needed to sponsers of Sturgis Rally- Please post far and wide. This is a sample letter or call only, please use your own words. Being respectful, though I know sometimes it is hard. Dodie Traditional native people and nations will be gathering in Sturgis in July, before, during and after the bike rally, to protest the desecration to Bear Butte Mountain, considered a Sacred Mountain to many Plains Tribes and which now faces even a greater threat by the development of a huge biker bar, campgrounds and other plans for similar establishments so close to Bear Butte. For hundreds of years, Native People have come to Bear Butte, to pray, in their Sacred Ways and with all the noise, drinking and other related problems that will be associated with an establishment of this type, the area will be desecrated. The fall-out from such an establishment will also have a negative impact on the residents of the area as well and will ruin what was once, a quiet, peaceful and beautiful area. In addition, a scant 2 miles from where the venue is scheduled is the Fort Meade Veterans Hospital. These veterans who have sacrificed so much deserve to heal and spend their last days in peace too. We talk about supporting our Veterans but we all too often forget them, when they come home, maimed and with life-long health issues. Traditional People and their supporters, in excess of 10,000 people, as well as the news media, and the Coalition to defend and protect Bear Butte will be present at this gathering. We also have the support of many bikers who agree with us that Bear Butte should not be sacrificed for this proposed development. We will make our views known and the eyes of the world will be upon all of us as to what will happen to Bear Butte. Your sponsorship of this rally will be perceived by many people that you support events where alcohol and drugs are freely consumed, where loud music interrupts the peaceful sounds of the area and the rights of residents to live in their homes in peaceful and quiet enjoyment is not respected nor do you have any respect for things considered Sacred. Is this the image you wish to portray to the world? Our intent is not to stop the rally - all we have asked for is a 5-mile buffer zone so that Bear Butte may remain protected and that native people may continue to come to our Sacred Mountain as we have done for centuries to pray. Is this too much to ask? No it is not and reasonable people agree that a 5-mile buffer would be a fair resolution to this issue. Please think of future generations and the beauty of Bear Butte and withdraw your sponsorship until a settlement is reached in fairness to all and a five-mile buffer zone is established to keep our Sacred Bear Butte protected. Thank you. ADDRESS TO CONTACT When sending emails to the addresses below, please replace the at in the email address with the @. List of Sturgis Bike Rally Sponsors: Snap-on Incorporated P.O. Box 1410 Kenosha, WI 53141-1410, U.S.A. 262-656-5200 ---------- James Ziemer President, CEO Harely Davidson National H.O.G. Office P.O. Box 453 Milwaukee, WI 53201 1-800-CLUBHOG (1-800-258-2464) FAX: 414-343-4515 FOR US-BASED MEDIA INQUIRIES please call (414) 343-INFO (4636). ---------- Jack Daniel Distillery Lem Motlow Proprietor Route 1 Lynchburg, Tennessee 37352. 877-Spirits ---------- Sony dealer email : cs.sas at theadvantage.com ---------- Ford Ford Motor Company Customer Relationship Center P.O.Box 6248 Dearborn, Michigan 48126 1-800-392-3673(FORD) TDD for the hearing impaired:1-800-232-5952 Monday - Friday 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM local time ---------- Geico Insurance Sales & Service 1-800-44-CYCLE (442-9253) motorcycle at geicomail.com ---------- South Dakota Pork National Pork Board P.O. Box 9114 Des Moines, IA 50306 515-223-2600 ---------- Anheuser-Busch, Inc. One Busch Place St. Louis, MO 63118 1 800 342 5283 ---------- The Real Security Company email: Info at TheRealSecurityCompany.com phone 866/878-TRSC (8772). ---------- Take it Easy (couldnt find contact info) ---------- Tom's T's Lowell Schwartz and Tom Monahan 1117 Main Street Sturgis, SD 57785 (605) 347-6169 800-865-9995. sturgistshirts at hotmail.com ---------- Coca-Cola Dan Schaefer pressinquiries at na.ko.com 404-676-2683 404-515-6428 PO Box 1734 Atlana, GA 30301 ---------- Midcontinent Communications 1-800-888-1300 mccomm at midco.net ---------- Pierce Manufacturing 1-888-YPIERCE contactcenter at piercemfg.com ---------- TDG Communications 93 Sherman Street Deadwood, SD 57732 605.722.7111 FAX: 605.722.7112 Tom Griffith, president - tom at tdgcommunications.com Nyla Griffith, vice president - nyla at tdgcommunications.com Monte Amende, creative director - monte at tdgcommunications.com Dustin Floyd, marketing executive - dustin at tdgcommunications.com Chad Blair, marketing assistant - chad at tdgcommunications.com ---------- Da Bus L.V. Matt Bruer dabus at sturgisweb.com --------- "RE: Another Chapter in continuing Tobacco Tax Saga" --------- Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 08:58:01 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="OKLAHOMA TOBACCO WAR" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://newsok.com/article/1824672/ Another chapter in continuing tobacco tax saga Oklahoman Editorial April 24, 2006 IN THE latest installment of "As the Tobacco Tax Turns," the state House of Representatives approved a bill that seeks to make nontribal retail stores more competitive with tribally owned or tribally licensed establishments that sell cigarettes. It's sure not to be the final episode. The governor's office has been hearing it from all sides since before voters approved a new tobacco tax in November 2004. The volume has only increased as nontribal retailers have seen their market share diminish, particularly in the Tulsa area, and some tribes have accused Gov. Brad Henry of breaking new compacts. Under the new tax, nontribal retailers pay a tax of $1.03 per pack. The compacts allow a number of tax rates for tribal smoke shops, including one of 6 cents per pack for shops located mostly along the state border. Some tribal shops not located near the border have been buying cigarettes with 6-cent stamps and reselling them elsewhere. As a result, revenue from tribal tax stamps has been a small fraction of what nontribal retailers have generated - $2.3 million in March, compared with $15.2 million for nontribal retailers - despite a nearly 50-50 split in market share. Although the tax produced $183 million during 2005, that was about $80 million less than expected. Monthly collections this year have been about $4 million below projections. The bill approved by the House last week is a Senate measure that would let retail stores charge only 10 cents per pack more than tribally owned stores if they're within a 25-mile radius. A good idea, although at least one Oklahoma City retailer said that radius isn't big enough. The state also has passed emergency rules designed to curb abuses of the 6-cent stamps, prompting legal challenges. The state has entered into arbitration with the Cherokee Nation in an effort to resolve their differences. Henry recently said of the state's current situation with tribes, "The ultimate solution is going to require a loser." Don't touch that remote. This soap opera figures to last a while. Copyright c. 2006 News 9/The Oklahoman, Produced by NewsOK.com. --------- "RE: Tribe to establish Office for Elders" --------- Date: Mon, 1 May 2006 09:05:06 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LUMBEE TO OPEN OFFICE FOR ELDERS" http://www.robesonian.com/articles/2006/05/01/news/news/story09.txt Tribe to establish office for elders May 1, 2006 PEMBROKE - Lumbee leaders say they will continue the tradition of honoring older tribal members by establishing an Office of Elder Services. The office will provide workshops and seminars to educate elders on such topics as scam avoidance, home safety, crime prevention, craft production, living wills, reverse mortgages and new medical guidelines. "I encourage all tribal elders to take advantage of this program," said Tribal Administrator Leon Jacobs. "Our goal is to implement as many beneficial services as possible to ensure that each tribal member is affected in some way by the services we offer." Vista volunteers are expected to help lead many of the workshops. The volunteers already work with older tribal members at Heritage Haven in Fairmont and the North Carolina Indian Cultural Center in Pembroke. For example, elders are quilting on a weekly basis. Some of those works will be on display for raffle at the three-day Lumbee Spring Powwow that begins Friday at the Southeastern Regional Agricultural Center/Farmers Market in Lumberton. Wanda Locklear will serve as elder services coordinator. She will be responsible for establishing and coordinating activities for volunteer elders in the 14 tribal districts. "This program will continue to expose elders to educational, cultural, and healthier living habits," said Tribal Chairman Jimmy Goins. Goins is heading up an effort to get the state to provide money for the new office. For information, go online to www.lumbeetribe.com or contact the Office of Elder Services at 521-7861. Copyright c. 2006 The Robesonian. --------- "RE: Tribes reflect on a Century of accomplishments" --------- Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 08:55:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="OKLAHOMA TRIBES" http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=7788 Tribes reflect on a century of accomplishments Tulsa event commemorates 1906 law TULSA OK Sam Lewin April 26, 2006 If they weren't already familiar with its history, the eighty-plus people gathered to hear from representatives of the Five Civilized Tribes soon learned why the Creek Council Oak Park in Tulsa was chosen as the location for an event touting a century of Oklahoma's American Indian history. "If you can, visualize 175 years ago when the Five Civilized Tribes were forced into Oklahoma territory," said Muscogee (Creek) Nation Principal Chief A.D. Ellis. "The huge oak tree is alive and well and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation is alive and well in the state of Oklahoma." The park memorializes the Lochapokes, a band of Creek settlers that first moved to the region in 1839, a fitting location, officials said, considering the tribal leaders were there to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Five Civilized Tribes Act of 1906, a piece of federal legislation that allowed for the five tribes-the Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws, Choctaws and Seminoles, all originally from the Southeast - to continue with their governments. There were some caveats - the President got to handpick the chiefs of the tribes, undoubtedly what Seminole Chief Kelly Haney was referring to when he noted: "There were some things about it that we obviously didn't like," but fast-forward a century and historians now consider the law crucial to the development of tribal sovereignty. "It's an honor to look out today at the descendants of those five great nations," Chickasaw Lt. Governor Jefferson Keel told the crowd at the park. Elders were encouraged to sit in the front row. "We not only survived but we are thriving," Haney said. "We survived broken treaties, wars and the attempted extermination of our people." Haney said it's estimated there were between five to 12-million Native people alive when Christopher Columbus landed. By the turn of the 19th century that number had dwindled to just 400,000. "Think about this," Haney said, "we came this close to being exterminated. Wiped off of the face of this earth. Those were your ancestors." Today Oklahoma tribes strive to preserve their language and culture while remaining big-time players in state politics, and a major force in Oklahoma's economy. Rebecca Lindsey proves what the Creek's George Tiger termed the current "rekindling of a strong spirit among our people." Lindsey, a 75-year-old Creek grandmother from Wewoka, said her 20-year-old grandson is now learning Creek at the University of Oklahoma. "That's something I wish I had done," Lindsey told the Native American Times, adding that she now regularly attends tribal meetings and cultural events. "We've come along way," agreed Ann Hammons, a Cherokee from Tahlequah. "This gathering has historical significance," said Carl Hornet, also a Cherokee from Tahlequah. "It shows that Native tribes exist and they are stronger than ever." As she was leaving the event, Cheri Deer, a member of the Seminole Nation, said she was grateful to have learned the significance of the Creek Council Oak Park. "We really didn't know about this," Deer said. "We are a part of the Five Civilized Tribes so it is significant to us." You can reach Sam Lewin at sam@okit.com Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Firm fined for cheating Tribe" --------- Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 08:58:01 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RIPPING PINE RIDGE" http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SD_FRAUD_SDOL Firm fined for cheating tribe April 25, 2006 SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - A Texas company has been fined $4.6 million for cheating schools on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation as part of a federal program. According to authorities, NextiraOne LLC of Houston inflated equipment prices, submitted false invoices and failed to install and deliver some services and equipment. The firm was involved in a Federal Communications Commission program that provides Internet access and other telecommunications services to economically disadvantaged schools and libraries. Under a plea agreement, NextiraOne will pay a $1.9 million criminal fine. A civil settlement requires the company to forfeit more than $2.6 million for uncompensated work at other school districts. Copyright c. 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Copyright c. 2006 Sioux Falls Argus Leader. --------- "RE: Indian Reservations getting Air Ambulances" --------- Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 08:55:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SAVING LIVES ON THE REZ" http://www.casperstartribune.net/2006/04/27/725715c007c0d5d.txt American Indian reservations getting air ambulances By CARSON WALKER Associated Press Writer April 27, 2006 SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Isolated American Indians soon will be closer to emergency health care through a plan to put air ambulances on reservations nationwide. The first airplanes will be located on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations in South Dakota by July, then Fort Berthold in North Dakota. The goal is to reduce the time it takes to get a patient to a hospital that can provide a level of care not available in rural areas. "If we can start saving hours ... we can start saving lives," Tex Hall, chairman of the Inter-Tribal Economic Alliance, said Wednesday at the announcement in Sioux Falls. It now can take three or four hours for some patients to get to a hospital because the air ambulance first has to fly from its hospital to the reservation and then back to the hospital. Hall's coalition of tribes is working with PassNet Inc. of Plymouth, Minn., which secured investors and plans to put fixed-wing airplanes on 50 reservations over the next five years and cut that time, said its CEO, John Warnock. "We want to roll this out one station a month," he said. Funding for the flights will come from the federal programs under which the patients are covered: Medicare, Medicaid, Indian Health Services and the Veterans Administration, Warnock said. Cecelia Fire Thunder, Oglala Sioux Tribe president, said the service will allow patients to be taken immediately to a burn unit, for example, instead of local and regional hospitals first. The airplanes also will be used to fly in specialists so people can be cared for on the reservation, which will keep that money from going elsewhere and better serve people, said Fire Thunder, whose tribal members live on the huge Pine Ridge reservation in southwestern South Dakota. "We're going to be able to bring the experts in," she said. Rep. Paul Valandra, D-Mission, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, mentioned the need to Warnock in December. The Rosebud and Pine Ridge health committees and tribal councils have since approved it, and the planes are scheduled to be moved in by summer. "This group moves at warp speed," Warnock said. Valandra said the state also will save Medicaid money because of the ability to shop around for the best rates and specialties. Warnock said fixed-wing airplanes will be used instead of helicopters because they cost a third less to operate, are faster and can fly in more inclement weather. He said that in 2003, he dislodged a piece of food from his 4-year-old son's throat, and the seven minutes it took paramedics to arrive seemed like an eternity. "I can't imagine what it's like to hold a child's hand for four hours," Warnock said. Hall, chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes in Fort Berthold, N.D., is also former president of the National Congress of American Indians. The Inter-Tribal Economic Alliance, which he now runs, is a national coalition of Indian tribes, Alaska natives and native Hawaiians. Copyright c. 2006 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c. 1995-2006 Lee Enterprises - Lee Enterprises Inc. --------- "RE: Navajo to battle Federal Budget cuts" --------- Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 08:23:18 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NAVAJO PRESIDENT CREATES TASK FORCE" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?feature=yes&id=1096412866 Navajo president creates task force to battle federal budget cuts by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today April 21, 2006 WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. - Speaking to the Navajo Nation Council, President Joe Shirley Jr. urged action to prevent the Bush Administration from slicing $109 million in funding for the BIA, which would devastate Navajo housing, social services and education programs. "President Bush proposes to eliminate critical funding for the BIA by $109 million. This will have a tremendous, negative impact on the Navajo Nation in terms of providing direct services and funding contract programs," Shirley told the Navajo Nation Council in spring session. Shirley said he would convene a task force made up of personnel from tribal divisions to devise a strategic plan with an aggressive lobbying effort to combat planned budget cuts. "We are working hard to protect the Navajo Nation's interests at the federal level," Shirley told the council. If the Bush budget is approved by Congress, he said, the Navajo Nation will see a reduction in BIA school construction projects and the Housing Improvement Program, and the elimination of Johnson O'Malley funding. "We'll also see a major reduction in funding for our social services programs. Specifically, the Navajo Nation stands to lose approximately $3. 3 million dollars in welfare assistance." Shirley said the budget cuts will have a major affect on tribal programs. "The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Hurricane Katrina and Rita relief efforts have taken priority over the federal government's obligation to Native America." Shirley said he provided testimony on March 30 to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, urging it to restore critical funding to the Navajo Nation. During his State of the Nation address, Shirley responded to the decision of the federal district court to allow the U.S. Forest Service to desecrate Navajos' sacred Dook'o'osliid (San Francisco Peaks), near Flagstaff, by using wastewater to produce snow for skiers. Dook'o'osliid is one of the Navajo's Four Sacred Mountains and held sacred by 13 Indian tribes in the region. Shirley said the decision was "extremely heartbreaking and devastating to our Dine' way of life." "I have authorized the filing of an immediate injunction and an appeal," Shirley said, urging the approval of funds for the lawsuit. "I also must share with you that the owner of the Arizona Snowbowl ski facility has expressed an interest in a buyout. For this reason, I will call a meeting of tribal leaders within the region to discuss this important option. "However, if the owner is unreasonable or unwilling to negotiate a fair price, then we will and must continue to fight to save Dook'o'osliid and our Dine' way of life." Copyright c. 1998 - 2006 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Why not a chapter for Navajos living on the HPL" --------- Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 08:58:34 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CHEYFITZ: GREAT NEED FOR REPRESENTATION" http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412869 Cheyfitz, Gladue: Why not a chapter for the Navajos living on the Hopi partitioned lands? by: Eric Cheyfitz / Cornell University April 21, 2006 As reported in Indian Country Today ("Shirley urges formation of urban chapters" by Brenda Norrell, Vol. 25, Iss. 42), Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. is encouraging the formation of urban chapters by Navajos living in Albuquerque, N.M.; Phoenix; Los Angeles; Denver; Salt Lake City; and Chicago, which "would enable them to get a fair share of resources, funding and services from the Navajo Nation." "The Navajo Nation coffers is your money, too," Shirley is reported to have said in an address to Navajos living in Albuquerque. Chapters, of which there are 110 on the Navajo reservation, are the basic political units of the nation, electing representatives to the Navajo Nation Council and providing goods and services to those people living within the chapter's district. Each chapter is intended to represent the interests of its members. Enrolled members of the Navajo Nation living in urban areas are members of chapters on the reservation; but, according to the article, they "expressed frustration, saying they are treated by their home chapters as if they are no longer members of the community." The issue, then, is one of representation. While they are already members of chapters on the reservation, urban Navajos do not feel represented by these chapters, not simply because of physical distance from them but also because the problems facing urban Navajos are not identical to the problems facing chapter members at home; and, clearly, institutions at the chapters (day care, senior centers, meal programs, etc) cannot serve Navajos living hundreds of miles away. Thus, urban chapters are necessary, the logic goes, to represent these political constituencies with their distinctive agendas. If this logic makes sense, and we think it does, then why shouldn't it apply to the Navajos living on the Hopi Partitioned Lands who, because of their distinctive political status brought about by outcome of the Navajo- Hopi land dispute, petitioned the Navajo Nation five years ago for recognition as a separate chapter but without success? The Accommodation Agreement of the 1996 Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act places HPL Navajos under Hopi as well as Navajo jurisdiction. While HPL Navajos are members of the Navajo Nation, they also come under Hopi jurisdiction (because, due to the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act of 1974, they are living on what is now Hopi land) in both criminal and civil matters relating to residency on the HPL while remaining under Navajo jurisdiction in other civil matters, particularly in the domestic sphere. Because of the history of the land dispute, HPL Navajos have a whole set of issues relating to the terms and enforcement of the AA that are unique to their situation, including the crucial matters of grazing and religious rights. Nevertheless, these Navajos have no representation on the Hopi tribal council; and their only representation on the Navajo tribal council is through their separate chapters bordering the HPL, where they are represented not as a group but as separate persons. Dispersed over the 1.85 million acres of the HPL, these Navajos are necessarily members of different chapters. Thus, they, like their urban counterparts, have no representation as a distinct group with a set of special concerns. Due to the history of the land dispute, it is clear that they need such representation. The most effective way to achieve this would be as a separate HPL chapter represented on the Navajo Nation Council, where the HPL Navajos could present their agenda as a community to the nation. For the Navajo Nation, as a party to the provisions of the 1996 Act, which includes the AA, is the proper representative of this group before the Hopi Tribe. Without such representation, which their separate chapters cannot give them, the HPL Navajos are effectively without a political voice in an arena where their vital interests are at stake. Katherine Smith, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and a life-long resident of Big Mountain on the HPL, wrote the following: "At this point in history, we, [HPL] Navajos, have no sovereignty left. We do not have power over our own lives or stewardship over our natural resources. The Dineh who live on the HPL under the 1996 Accommodation Agreement, are without proper political representation. Furthermore, HPL residents are left with no resources for funding basic human services, including community buildings, housing, decent roads, electricity and running water. Residents must drive long distances to access health services, schools, jobs, haul drinking water, pick-up mail, get gas, and groceries." If Shirley is encouraging the formation of urban chapters so that members of these communities with their distinctive agendas arising from their distinctive circumstances can be represented on the Navajo Nation Council, then he should be supportive of the formation of an HPL chapter. For while HPL residents live physically closer to the nation than urban Navajos, they also live in exile and are in need of the political representation that will give them a voice in their own affairs and a chance to access the resources of which, clearly, they are both deserving and in great need. Eric Cheyfitz is an Ernest I. White Professor of American Studies and Humane Letters at Cornell University. Marie Gladue is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and HPL resident. Copyright c. 1998-2006 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Effort to save Native American Burial Grounds" --------- Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 08:23:18 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TENNESSEE BURIAL GROUNDS COVETED BY DEVELOPERS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://tennessean.com//NEWS01/604230390/1006/NEWS Effort afoot to save Native American burial grounds 'Sacred Sites Run' aims to raise nation, Midstate awareness By CLAY CAREY Staff Writer April 23, 2006 Ben Yahola has watched developers and vandals wreck almost all of the sacred burial grounds of the Native American tribes around his Milwaukee, Wis., home. Yahola had a feeling of responsibility to his Muscogee ancestors, a desire to preserve Native American burial sites and explain their importance to the rest of America. He decided to do so in the most practical way he knew how - with his feet. Yahola is one of the driving forces behind the Sacred Sites Run, an effort to attract attention to the rampant "destruction, desecration and ongoing looting" of ancient burial grounds. "As Native Americans, we want people to know there's a certain sense of identity related to these places," Yahola said during a program at Belmont University yesterday. "I think tribal groups need to do more (to educate the public and fight for site preservation) ... not only one group, but all groups that have been through here," Yahola said. His drive started on the first day of spring at the Pinson Mounds near Jackson, Tenn. Already, Yahola has been to Indian burial sites in Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. Yahola and others meet at the sites and make a symbolic run to the mounds, or what is left of them, to collect handfuls of dirt, he said. When the run is finished this summer, dirt from burial mounds in nine states will be brought to Wisconsin, where it will be used to build a smaller mound as a monument to desecrated burial sites. Saturday, he added a few handfuls of dirt from local mound sites to his collection. Along with a delegation of local Native Americans and conservationists, Yahola visited several area burial sites, including one near the Brentwood Public Library and Fewkes Mound, also in Brentwood. "Mr. Yahola is basically trying to help raise awareness on a national level on preservation of sacred sites," said Pat Cummins, a Nashville resident, a Cherokee and a member of the Nashville-based Alliance for Native American Indian Rights. "There can never be enough people out there fighting for this cause. There's not as many people involved nowadays as there once were," Cummins said. "I see what Ben is doing as being extremely important to Native American people." Cummins said several sites in Middle Tennessee, containing anywhere from 150 to 300 burials, have been destroyed in the past five years. "To us, that's a major loss, just because of their sheer size," he said. Without a significant shift in culture, sacred Native American burial sites will continue to fall to development, according to Mark Tolley, co- president of the Tennessee Ancient Sites Conservancy. Tennessee is a "cultural wasteland" when it comes to preserving those sites, Tolley said. "We bulldoze mounds in Tennessee," he said. "Most of our sites in Davidson County are gone. We need to preserve what we have. If we don't act fast in the next 10 years, most of these sites will be gone." At times, Yahola said, what he has seen at mounds during the run have weighed heavily on his heart. At one, looters searching for artifacts had dug a large hole right through a mound. At another, a casino had been built over a burial site. "Some of it, it's pretty hard to go there," he said. "It takes a lot of energy out of me to do this." Yahola put much of the blame on the nation's education system, which he says doesn't teach children "about the true America." The responsibility of delivering those lessons now falls to individuals, he said. "We want to be able to educate people and let them know that we are all tribal people, in that we have that connection to the earth," Yahola said. "This is not just an Indian problem. This is something we all can benefit from." Copyright c. 2006, tennessean.com. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: NCAA rejects two more challenges to Mascot Policy" --------- Date: Mon, 1 May 2006 09:05:06 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MASCOT POLICY UPHELD" http://www.indianz.com/News/2006/013726.asp NCAA rejects two more challenges to mascot policy May 1, 2006 The NCAA held firm to its Indian mascot policy on Friday, rejecting appeals filed by two schools whose "Fighting Sioux" and "Chief Illiniwek" symbols are among the most controversial. The decision by the NCAA's executive committee again cited the hostile and abusive nature of the two images. As a result, the University of North Dakota and the University of Illinois cannot host post-season tournaments or display Indian-imagery during playoffs. The move sets up a possible court challenge by both institutions. But a prominent Indian leader in North Dakota praised the NCAA for taking a stand. "As places of learning, colleges and universities have a fundamental responsibility to create an environment where every racial group is respected," said David Gipp, a UND alumnus who is president of the United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck. "There is no such thing as an 'honorable' denigration of a race or group of people." Meanwhile, a third school was placed on a five-year watch after it removed all references to Indian imagery. Bradley University in Illinois will continue to be known as the "Braves" name and won't be subject to any restrictions on post-season play during the probation period. The NCAA policy, announced last August, doesn't force any of its member universities and colleges to eliminate their Indian imagery. But five schools have gotten rid of their Indian mascots rather than fight to keep names like "Savages" and the "Red Men." Four more schools have been removed from the NCAA's list after gaining approval from local tribes. The Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and the Ute Tribe of Utah said they have positive relationships with the institutions that bear their names. The same couldn't be said of the University of North Dakota despite attempts by its president, Charles Kupchella, to garner tribal support for the "Fighting Sioux" nickname and logo. As recently as Thursday, he went on a media campaign to claim that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe backed the symbol. But the tribe continues to oppose the name, chairman Ron His Horse Is Thunder told the NCAA that same day. Kupchella was said to have been taken by surprise by the letter, which he became aware of while holding a press call to announce the tribe's alleged support. "Amid UND's appeals of NCAA rulings in accordance with NCAA policies regarding use of American Indian athletic nicknames and logos, the SRST remains committed to protecting the integrity of the Dakota and Lakota (Sioux) culture and spirituality of its members, especially for SRST- member alumni and current students of UND," His Horse Is Thunder wrote. The University of Illinois can't claim tribal support either, a position it somewhat backed itself into after successfully arguing before the NCAA that the "Illini" team name was not linked to any tribes. Now the school is being forced to explain how the "Chief Illiniwek" is not hostile or abusive to Native Americans despite its overt use of Indian imagery, including feathers, a headdress and "dance" movements. Besides UND and Illinois, four other schools filed appeals of the mascot policy. But the NCAA has kept the Alcorn State University "Braves," the Arksanas State University "Indians" and the Indiana University "Indians" on the list. A final appeal by the Newberry College "Indians" is pending. Three more schools are still waiting word on their initial status before the NCAA. The Catawba College "Indians," the McMurry University "Indians" and William and Mary's "Tribe" are being reviewed by NCAA staff. Copyright c. 2000-2006 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Morelos Residents fight back against Garbage Dump" --------- Date: Friday, April 28, 2006 03:03 pm From: Chiapas95-english Subj: Morelos Residents Fight Back Against Garbage Dump This message is forwarded to you by the editors of the Chiapas95 newslists. To contact the editors or to submit material for posting send to: . From: "Dana" To: Morelos Residents Fight Back Against a Garbage Dump that Is Polluting their Land and Poisoning their Children With Protests, Blockades, and Now Joining Forces with the Zapatista Other Campaign, the Citizens of Alpuyeca Have the Government on the Defensive By Amber Howard The Other Journalism with the Other Campaign in Morelos April 27, 2006 NarcoNews The people of the town of Alpuyeca, Morelos are suffering from serious health problems. Respiratory diseases, breathing problems, and skin infections are the most visible results of what townspeople say is the contamination of their water from the Tetlama open-air garbage. This dump, used by the five surrounding communities and accruing 1,300 tons of garbage per day, has been in use for the last thirty years - too long, according to Paloma Estrada of the Independent Human Rights Commission of Morelos, who addressed Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos earlier this month at a meeting of the Other Campaign in Zacatepec. "First we noticed that our children were becoming sick," said Estrada. "Then we realized where the pollution was coming from and that it was contaminating our water. Garbage dumps should normally be in use for 10 to 20 years. Anything after this time can be destructive to ground water, aquifers, and the soil." At the meeting of workers in Zacatepec - a city whose largest employer is a sugar refinery - on April 12, another neighbor of the dump, Luis Montoya Ortega, spoke about the consequences of pollution before the assembly of more than 1,000 people. "One of the most obvious contamination sites is the Platlaco River, which runs from north to south through the state of Morelos. Now children aren't even able to bathe in the water and it could be getting incrementally worse," he said. "Land, air and water - that's all we want." On March 14, a group of Alpuyeca community members, including Montoya Ortega, demanded the closing of the dump by blocking the federal highway between the city of Cuernavaca and Alpuyeca with large boulders, signs and protesters. According to local press reports, after approximately 15 hours of unmoving traffic, state and local authorities promised to begin the necessary steps to close the waste site. Rafael Martinez, sub-secretary of the state government, mentioned that he would meet with local mayors to start to figure out how to minimize the amount of garbage being transferred there in the months to come. The governor of Morelos, Sergio Estrada Cajigal did not comment on the importance of shutting the garbage dump and simply demanded that the highway be opened. Cajigal was quoted by reporter Miguel Angel Garcia in the newspaper La Jornada de Morelos: "I have asked for police presence and in the case that these uncompromising people don't listen to reason, the police will have to remove them." One of the protestors and community members, Guadalupe Zallego, said the blockade was necessary so that "the deaf government of Estrada Cajigal pays attention to us. We are tired of going to meeting after meeting, without arriving at anything, exhausting all the legal options and, still, nothing." While Montoya Ortega claims the government promised a definite closure within 90 days of their protest, Paloma Estrada isn't so sure. In her comments during an Other Campaign meeting in nearby Tlaquiltenango on April 14, she mentioned that while the closure of the dump is important, she believes that the solution to the health problems and other contamination issues will only come after significant long-term ecological and bacterial tests are complete. After the first set of preliminary tests came back saying the area was contaminated, the Independent Human Rights Commission of Morelos began working with local authorities, trying to get soil, water, and air tests done to be able to quantify the true damage of the environment. So far, their requests have not been met. "Our struggle," highlights spokeswoman Estrada, "isn't just about the garbage dump. It goes beyond that. What we are asking for is the health and wellbeing of our people. That is why we are on our feet and in the struggle." Estrada describes how the earth in this agricultural area is porous, meaning any kind of runoff from the dump seeps into the groundwater. "If the soil is permeated with contaminants, they are going into the fruits and vegetables the area produces. This is another reason why the tests need to be completed as soon as possible." One of the necessary tests will be to check for heavy metals and hydrocarbons. The Human Rights Commission is still waiting to hear back from the municipal officials, but they believe that their requests, including reparations for health problems and other damages, are both fair and respectful. As Estrada explains, "Not one of us here agreed to make Alpuyeca the site of this dump. Now it is not just an ecological issue, it is a health problem. We must have reparations." Many of the people continue to drink the water, unable to afford to buy purified in bottles. "The important thing now is to know the level of danger incurred upon consumption. If we are drinking water from there, what happens?" The Human Rights Commission, as part of its plea for reparations, is asking the government for a clinic to take care of the people with health problems due to the pollution, a grade school - currently the community has none - so that they can educate the children on ecological issues, and to clean up the river. Montoya Ortega came to present his story to Delegate Zero because he sees the Other Campaign as "wanting to unify and create a strategy during these times of struggle, so that the government doesn't keep stepping on our natural resources, or on the people. This is what we have in common with the Other Campaign; this is why we are adherents. I like its ideal and struggle for just causes. We have to do this together." In his speech on April 12, Marcos echoed the sentiment. "This voice, which is small here in Zacatepec, will become huge and cross the border into the North." Estrada and the Human Rights Commission are preparing to present their struggle to the Indigenous National Congress coming up on the 5th and 6th of May. "We aren't experts," said Estrada, "but we are becoming informed, to be able to recognize the problem." She spoke about how a group of community members rented a bus and traveled to the capital to see different trash dumps and compare them to their own. Another important aspect is that the process of closing a garbage dump isn't immediate; it most likely will require twenty years of monitoring. This means someone will need to be there to guarantee that the government complies with its promises, that the dump is closed down in an ecological fashion, and that no one continues to dump their trash there. "It is a time bomb," Estrada declared. "It's going to take many steps, it is a process, but we will be here for as long as it takes." -- To subscribe to this list send a message containing the words subscribe chiapas95 (or chiapas95-lite, or chiapas95-english, or chiapas95-espanol) to majordomo@eco.utexas.edu. Previous messages are available from http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/chiapas95.html or gopher to Texas, University of Texas at Austin, Department of Economics, Mailing Lists. --------- "RE: N'Quatqua blockade Portage Road at D'Arcy" --------- Date: Saturday, April 29, 2006 04:34 pm From: frostyca2000 Subj: N'Quatqua blockade Portage Road at D'Arcy Mailing List: Frostys AmerIndian N'Quatqua blockade Portage Road at D'Arcy Activists angered by chief's decision to enter forest, range agreement with limited consultation April 27, 2006 By Cindy Filipenko http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/pique/index.php? cat=C_Frontpage&content=Blockade+1317 More than 20 members of the N'Qua'tqua band and their supporters began blockading Portage Road at the entrance to D'Arcy on Monday. The protestors claim that their elected representatives went against the wishes of the area residents and negotiated a logging agreement between The N'Qua'tqua Logging Company and the Pemberton's CRB Logging Company to allow for the removal of 81 hectares of old growth forest in CP16 near Anderson Lake. The protestors' goal is to prevent logging trucks from entering or exiting traditional N'Qua'tqua territory. The area, which was scheduled to be logged beginning on Monday, April 24, is winter range to mule deer. As well, it is a habitat for bobcats, cougars, bears, wolves and many species of birds. At least two endangered species, the rubber boa and the horned owl, are also indigenous. On the highway sign reading "Entering D'Arcy", there is another sign, it reads: "Where are you Rich Coleman?" a reference to the forest minister. A few feet away is a similar handmade sign that reads: "Biologist Says No." Blockade spokesperson Carol Thevarge makes it clear that what's at stake is more than old growth timber; it's also culture, water, animals, plant life, fish and the band's heritage. "This is a violation of our title and rights," said Thevarge. "There was no proper consultation process as far as we're concerned. The majority of the membership here was never informed about the process." Advertisements for consultation meetings were placed in publications on the other side of Anderson Lake. These newspapers do not service D'Arcy. "The maximum number of people they say they got at a meeting was 15. We have 300." The sole shareholder of the N'Qua'tqua Logging Company is Chief Harry O'Donaghey. More that 80 per cent of O'Donaghey's constituency do not agree with his decision to enter into an agreement to log the area. Thevarge said a vote revealed 81 per cent were against logging CP 16. Thevarge added the fact that their elected representative went ahead and signed a FRA (First Nations Forest And Range Agreement) was "a slap in the face." A call to the N'Qua'tqua band office was met with a receptionist stating, "Chief and council are not commenting on the issue at this time. A press release will be coming out." Calls placed to CRB Logging were not returned. Protestors believe the FRA deal fails to meet the minimum standard of consultation and accommodation as described by B.C.'s Supreme Court, or by Canada's constitution, and completely fails to recognize the St'a't'imc Nation as legitimate decision making authority on the land. Further, they claim that the per-capita formula of benefit sharing does not reflect the cash value of the logging operations. "It's a great loss to the community. It's a loss for our mule deer range, our berry picking and natural food gathering. It's a loss for the area's wildlife. There are white wolves and spotted owls in that area. Our people are speaking up for those who can't speak for themselves." "Anecdotal evidence and evidence from hunters show that there are very healthy mule deer populations. There are predators around and that's an indication that the population is healthy," said researcher Mike Morley. Armed with charts and photos, Morley shows aerial shots of CP16. The area was originally logged 40 years ago by First Nations' loggers who left stands of old growth trees in place to facilitate the mule deer winter range. "It will be catastrophic when we have our first snowfall which is between one and two feet," Morley said. "(The deer) have to expend tremendous energy to get around in the snow. Without the canopy of the old growth forest, they expend up to 150 per cent more energy. They won't be able to get to food sources ? like old man's beard ? because they won't be there." An independent study conducted by Philip J. Holman, a retired forest ecosystem planner for the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management, concluded that the minimum biological requirement for the survival of deer populations in the region was 110 ha of old growth. Clearly removing 80 ha will have a dramatic effect on the habitat. "We don't own this forest and it's not for sale. It belongs to my children, my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren," said Mariko Kage, who identified herself as a community member and the mother of four St'a't'imc children. While she sees the logging as having a negative impact on future opportunities such as eco-tourism, her first concern is over loss of heritage. "I come from Japan where I can't recognize my culture. I lost my homeland because it's covered in concrete. I can't recognize it. And I have nothing to go back to. I'm half Japanese and I still mourn that loss. I don't want that to happen to my kids." Aside from providing a rich hunting ground the area is important for spiritual reasons. "My sons are 13 and 14," said Thevarge. "Soon they'll be going up the mountain to find their names." Finding their names is part of a Vision Quest, a four-day fast where youth sit in the mountains, alone with the elements, and enter a meditative state to discover who they are and the purpose of their lives. Nineteen-year-old Conrad Peters plans to settle and raise a family in D'Arcy in the type of natural environment he enjoyed as a child. "I've spent many of my years in the forest exploring. I really want my own children and their children to be able to do the same." Peters is clearly frustrated that his chief has effectively sold out his people. "It's embarrassing to elect someone who's thinking is opposite to the people who elected him," he stated. Peters, who says he owes his politicization to being fortunate enough to have access to discussions with some of the band's most educated activists, intends to mobilize other youth to join the blockade. While youthful energy is present on the blockade, elders are just as committed. "I have heard elders say they will die before they allow them to log out our territory, and that's a big statement," said Thevarge. Thevarge's mother-in-law, Mary Laura Thevarge, is one of those elders determined the roadblock will continue. "As long as I'm around, this will go on. When I first started out, I did these things for me, but now I do them for my grandchildren and great grandchildren. I come to these meetings whenever they need me." The elder Thevarge said it's a matter of taking care of her country. "I call it mine. We own it. It belongs to the 11 St'a't'imc bands. We are all one people." --------- "RE: Standoff Story skewed by the Media" --------- Date: Saturday, April 29, 2006 10:16 am From: shawn Subj: letter to the editor of Hamilton Spectator Mailing List: Frostys AmerIndian Standoff story skewed by the media By Joan Miller, Caledonia The Hamilton Spectator April 29, 2006 Re: 'A ghost town in six months;' Caledonia businesses becoming increasingly desperate with no sign of a resolution' (April 26) Many of the problems evolving out of the native protest in Caledonia are being caused by the media. I cannot allow The Spectator to become a cheap pulp magazine by lowering its standards for reporting such as this. I have lived in Caledonia all my life and respect the natives and agree with their protest. I do not think The Spectator should be printing something said by a person who refused to identify himself. Calling these people terrorists! Suggesting Caledonia will be a ghost town. Poppycock! The blockade on Highway 6 did not go up until the Ontario Provincial Police tried to move the natives off the land. Let's face it -- the natives are not going to move off this land and the blockade will be up until this problem is resolved by the federal government with a fair solution for all. The publicity on this protest has been blown out of proportion and has caused hardship and ill feelings in the community. Put a check on it. Sure, people are being inconvenienced but what about the natives? They have been inconvenienced for over 200 years and have been ignored by governments after being placed onto reserves. This is their time and they are going to hang in until this is settled. The town is not under siege, as the media would have us believe. I still go to Tim Hortons for my coffee. I say good morning to the native who holds the door open for me. My mother used to say: "Don't believe everything you read in the newspapers." She was right! --------- "RE: Ottawa finally agrees to negotiate" --------- Date: Sunday, April 30, 2006 02:51 pm From: frostyca2000 Subj: Cornered like a rat, Ottawa finally agrees to negotiate Mailing List: Frostys AmerIndian http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html Cornered like a rat, Ottawa finally agrees to negotiate Paul Willcocks Sterling News Service April 29, 2006 VICTORIA - If you really want to understand the native blockade in southern Ontario over lost land, then pay attention to this story about two B.C. first nations. The Ontario conflict is about land. Six Nation Iroquois say most of the land they were awarded by the Crown long ago has been taken by government and squatters over the years. They set up a blockade to halt development on one of the disputed parcels. On the same day that conflict appeared to be spinning out of control, the Indian Claims Commission sent out a release about a similar -- but much calmer -- dispute in northeastern B.C. The Blueberry River and Doig River bands were included in the Treaty 8 agreements in 1900 and awarded reserve land near Fort St. John. By the 1920s settlers near the town started lobbying the province for a road to Alberta. The best route, they said, would be through the reserve. So the provincial government wrote Ottawa and said it wanted 32 acres chopped out of the reserve for the road. The bands weren't using the land and the road might even increase the value of their remaining property, the province said. B.C. didn't want to pay for the land. It just wanted Ottawa to take it from the first nations and hand it over. The federal government -- supposedly acting on behalf of the first nations -- countered by saying the province could have the land if it fenced the roadway. The province said no, and Ottawa handed over the 32 acres without any conditions. It never told the first nations. Eventually they found out that their land had been seized. And in 1995 the Treaty 8 association submitted a formal claim for compensation. The Crown had breached its legal and fiduciary obligations to the bands, the association argued. Compensation was owed. The first nations didn't want this to drag on, so they launched their appeal under a "fast-track" program designed to speed resolution. This isn't a big case. There are no large cost implications, or important precedents. The federal government could have accepted the claim, and negotiated a settlement. Or it could have denied responsibility, and left the first nations to pursue appeals. Instead, it did nothing. A year went by. Two years. Eight years. And the federal government wouldn't respond. (Remember, this is the fast- track process.) So finally the first nations filed an appeal with the Indian Claims Commission, an independent tribunal set up by the federal government in 1991 to resolve disputes. The federal government had effectively denied the claim, the bands said, and they wanted to challenge the decision. And Ottawa -- incredibly -- argued against the treaty association's right to an appeal. The claims commission had no jurisdiction, the federal lawyers said, because the first nations' claim for compensation hadn't been denied. It had just been ignored. It's breathtaking. You file a claim for compensation, are ignored for eight years -- and then told you have no right to an appeal because Ottawa hasn't responded. The Indian Claims Commission tossed the government's argument out. If you haven't responded in eight years, you've effectively denied the claim, it told Indian Affairs. We're going ahead with an investigation and a ruling. And then the federal government said wait a minute, we'd rather negotiate a settlement after all. Talks are under way. The Blueberry River and Doig First Nations were patient. The land was already a road, so it wasn't going to be damaged by delay. And they had seen the benefits of perseverance. The small bands didn't just lose the 32 acres for the road over the years. Indian Affairs also handed over reserve mineral rights to settlers after the Second World War -- just before oil and gas reserves were discovered. After a 20-year battle, and a Supreme Court of Canada ruling in their favour, the bands received $147 million in compensation. The situation in Ontario is more complicated, and the history murkier. But there are striking similarities. The first nations registered their claim to the disputed land 19 years ago. They launched a lawsuit in 1995. And still the issue is unresolved, while development goes ahead on the land. The rule of law must be paramount. But it's easy to understand why first nations lose all faith in a federal government that's willing to stall for decades to avoid dealing with claims. willcocks@ultranet.ca --------- "RE: Six Nations negotiates Land Claim" --------- Date: Mon, 1 May 2006 09:05:06 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WORLD IS WATCHING" http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?feature=yes&id=1096412910 Six Nations negotiates land claim as standoff draws the world's notice by: Jim Adams / Indian Country Today April 28, 2006 OHSWEKEN, Ontario - As the shock of the Ontario Provincial Police raid on land rights protesters spread across Canada and beyond, traditional Haudenosaunee Confederacy chiefs resumed intensive negotiations with provincial officials. Barriers around the contested construction site remained in place, and sympathizers around the country staged their own brief blockades of strategic points. Most dramatically, warrior society members from the Mohawk Tyendinaga Reserve in eastern Ontario stopped rail traffic on a central line for 12 hours, disrupting commuter service as well as freight shipments. But the sympathy protests ended peacefully as First Nation leaders urged calm. Support for the Six Nations protests came from as far afield as Sweden and Oaxaca, Mexico. The International Indian Treaty Council filed a notice with the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. E-mails and Web blogs provided intense coverage, as did Canadian national newspapers. Opposition parties raised questions in provincial and federal parliaments. But the mainstream media in the United States almost totally ignored the story. Negotiations have raised several ideas for compensating the Six Nations Reserve of the Grand River for the disputed property, on which a local construction firm wanted to raise a housing sudivision called Douglas Creek Estates. The Native activists who occupied the site two months ago say the land was taken illegally from Reserve territory. According to an official of local radio station CKRZ-FM, provincial officials before the raid had offered 600 acres in several other locations but were turned down. Immediately after the police raid, negotiators for the Six Nations offered a buyout of the property. Local developers John and Donald Henning, incorporated as Henco Industries, have told local papers they have invested $6 million in the tract and have partially completed 10 houses. At last report, negotiations were in a lull as the provincial and federal governments promised to appoint new representatives empowered to make an agreement. The elected band council earlier voted to delegate its negotiating authority to the traditional Confederacy chiefs, a significant gesture of unity between the two rival governments. After a marathon session on April 23 that ran to 4 a.m., Mohawk traditional chief Allen McNaughton told the Toronto Sun newspaper, "It was a fruitful day. There's still a few issues we have to resolve, and they're not minor ones." The Douglas Creek protest, called a "reclamation action" by its leaders, has become the focal point for a series of long-festering complaints on land claims and the quality of aboriginal life. The Six Nations Reserve dates to the Haldimand Deed of 1784, awarded by the British Crown to its Haudenosaunee allies in the U. S. War of Independence. The original grant spanned six miles on either side of the Grand River from its source to its mouth in Lake Erie. It totaled 950,000 acres of some of the richest land in Ontario. Within 11 years, the British reduced the grant to 275,000 acres, starting a process that has left the Six Nations with less than 5 percent of the original grant. The Douglas Creek site was taken by the colonial government in 1841, supposedly to build a plank road from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, but the occupiers say it was improperly sold. (Plank Road, now Highway 6, runs in front of the tract and was blockaded by the protesters as of press time.) The Six Nations council entered the Plank Road Tract as an official land claim in 1987, four years before it was sold to Henco. It is one of 28 parcels that the Six Nations land claim research office says carry outstanding obligations from the British Crown. Although the elected band council supports the claims, it did not initially back the Douglas Creek occupation, which has been led since Feb. 28 by the traditional clan mothers with support from the Confederacy chiefs. The colonial government tried to replace the traditional authorities with the elected government in 1924, but the two institutions have since led a parallel and often contentious coexistence. Their bitter disagreement over the occupation ended abruptly with the police raid, when the band council endorsed the Confederacy chief's leadership on the issue. Copyright c. 1998 - 2006 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: GIAGO: Censorship in the Mainstream Media" --------- Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 08:58:01 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GIAGO: MEDIA CENSORSHIP" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=7780 Notes from Indian Country Killing the messenger is popular in the media Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji) Copyright c. 2006 Native American Journalists Foundation, Inc. April 24, 2006 An article in Sunday's Rapid City (SD) Journal caught my attention. It was about the impending retirement of the Journal's editor, Peggy Sagen. Sagen, 56, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and has been waging a gallant fight against it for the past three years. She said she decided to step back from the day-to-day job in order to spend more time with her family. She will continue part time until a new editor is hired. Several months ago I visited Sagen in her office at the Journal. I wanted to find out why a newspaper that is always editorializing about freedom of the press is so hypocritical in supporting it editorials. I asked her why my weekly column, which made its debut in the Rapid City Journal 27 years ago, was now censored. Sagen was gracious and open during our discussion, but she deferred her comments about why my column was censored in the Journal to the publisher, Bill Masterson, Jr. It appeared to me that she was sincerely upset over having to go against one of the first principles of journalism: you do not kill the messenger because you don't like the message. During our discussion it became clear to me that if it were up to her there would be no such censorship. One of the first lessons taught in J- school is the sacrosanct ideology of freedom of the press. But such lofty ideals are often sacrificed by the upper echelons of management for larger profits or subverted by the power of a publisher who too often takes criticism of his newspaper personally and responds by killing the messenger. I believe there was a different breed of editors and publishers 27 years ago when my weekly column first appeared in the Rapid City Journal. There was a "hands-off" publisher named Rusty Swan who did not interject his personal feelings or opinions to those folks laboring in the newsroom. I know because I was working in that newsroom as a reporter. There was an editor named Jim Kuehn who took a chance when he hired me at the urging of the managing editor, Jim Carrier, who had come to the Journal from the Associated Press in Minneapolis. It was Carrier who hired me, but it was Kuehn who stood behind me even when threats from advertisers demanded that he stop my column. I know he must have discussed this with Swan, the publisher, but I never heard a word from him asking me to change the tone of my columns. But time marches on and other editors come and go. I immediately clashed with a new editor at the Journal named Joe Karius. A practicing Catholic, he became upset when I wrote a column about the myriad of problems we faced as students at the Holy Rosary Indian Mission on the Pine Ridge Reservation while boarders there. He accused me of being a "Catholic basher" and indicated that he would monitor my columns from then on. To me "monitor" meant "censorship" and I told him that I was pulling my column from the Journal. And I did. After Karius moved on to the Brookings (SD) Register, my column appeared sporadically in the Journal, but when I openly criticized the Journal at a conference for Indian students held at Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills, the publisher, Masterson, took it personally and told his editor that my column would never be published in that paper again. This year when the Journalism Conference for Native Americans was again held at Crazy Horse Memorial, sponsored by the Freedom Forum and the Rapid City Journal, I had to ask myself how a newspaper and an organization that practiced censorship could falsely present themselves as standards of freedom of the press to the Indian students in attendance. I found this to be the epitome of hypocrisy. I might add that since I criticized Jack Marsh of the Freedom Forum and Masterson, and rightfully so in my mind, I have not been invited back to speak to the Indian students. And the Freedom Forum, that supposed bastion of freedom of the press and expression, will not invite me to speak to the Indian students at its annual Journalism Conference at the University of South Dakota, because, according to one of the former Conference organizers, Ray Chavez, "They are afraid of what you might say." Excuse me! Afraid of what I might say? Isn't that what freedom of expression is all about? I am not completely censored in Rapid City. The new Rapid City Weekly News publishes my column periodically. When I published Indian Country Today I firmly believed in freedom of expression. Whether I agreed or disagreed with a writer or whether a writer called me an SOB, it went into my newspaper. Is this a concept now lost to the mainstream media? I wish Peggy Sagen well in her retirement and I know she would agree with me that freedom of the press is much too important to leave in the hands of the unprincipled. It would seem that killing the messenger is their favorite sport. -- 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 former publisher of the Lakota Times and Indian Country Today newspapers. Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: A living link with Sitting Bull" --------- Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 08:23:18 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: LAKOTA STALLION" http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/columnists/14429055.htm DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: A living link with Sitting Bull April 26, 2006 When my sister and I arrived in New Town, N.D., this past weekend, it was balmy and warm. But as the days passed, the weather turned, as it does during a typical North Dakota spring. A north wind blew in rain and cold. It was so cold and windy on Sunday that I was surprised it didn't snow. And I wished I had brought more than a thin jacket. Tex Hall, tribal chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes, was my interview subject that day; he'll be featured in a "Prairie Voices" interview in an upcoming Sunday Herald. But first, Hall wanted to show me a prize horse that recently had been donated to him. When we caught up with Hall at his ranch in the Badlands of the Fort Berthold, N.D., reservation, he was watering his horses. There is no water in some parts of the reservation, so he has to pump well water into a big white plastic tank on his pickup and haul it to his livestock twice a day. Cows and new calves lazed near bales of hay. They reminded me of sleepy lions in the midday sun on the Serengeti. The tiny calves - some born only days before - looked like fuzzy black dogs. In the middle of the mooing and carrying on by the calves and mothers, Hall pointed to a small herd of horses. Hall wanted to show my sister and I a stallion that had been given to him by Castle McLaughlin, ethnologist and curator of Harvard's Peabody Museum. McLaughlin had spent some years trying to save a line of horses whose bloodlines can be traced to the ponies owned by the Lakota Chief Sitting Bull and other Lakota people. Hall's gifted Lakota stallion was a standout. The stallion is from a herd confiscated by the U.S. government when Sitting Bull surrendered at Fort Buford, N.D., in 1881, Hall told us. Some 350 of these confiscated horses were distributed to other ranchers. One of those ranchers was Marquis DeMores, a French nobleman who established the town of Medora, N.D. About 60 of these horses, the story goes, were crossbred with other thoroughbreds including Percherons, a famous farm and draft horse. A number inadvertently were fenced in the Teddy Roosevelt National Park. Leo and Frank Kuntz, brothers and local ranchers, rescued these horses and started a movement to save more. The movement is called the Nokota Horse Conservancy, and it's located in Linton, N.D. Its Web site is www.nokotahorse.org. Hall named his horse Sitting Bull. Sitting Bull would come to him when he called his name, Hall told us. Remember, a red car and two strange women were a little disconcerting to this horse. But he did come to Tex, nuzzled his hand a little and moved over toward me. I was on the other side of the car at the time because I didn't want to scare the horse. (That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!) At the same time, I was trying to take a picture of Hall and horse - but my hands and fingers were frozen. I could tell this Nokota horse was special. The stallion had a look in his eye that made me believe he was intelligent and certainly in control of his herd and the situation. These horses, Hall said, are loyal to their owners - something like the relationship between a dog and his owner. Leo Kuntz agreed, when I spoke to him later. These horses are different from those in other wild herds. They are gentler and take to their owners. They are a rare breed of dark blue or red roans. They generally are square-built, mulish in the hocks, and their bone is rounder than others. Those past owners, of course, would have been the local Indians in the bands of Sioux and probably the three tribes on the Fort Berthold reservation, Kuntz said. I knew the relationship between a horse and owner was special. I remember my father, who had a herd of strawberry roans. They were his pride. It is obvious that our people gave horses special treatment. We had almost as many medicines for horses as we did for humans. That close relationship between man and horse probably was cultivated because man and horse lived closely and were dependent on each other. When I was a child, my grandfather trained his horses by daily contact with them as colts. When the colt was used to the bridle and saddle, it didn't mind being ridden. It always was gentle, gentle handling. I also know that we adopted the rodeo style of breaking horses, too. Hall knows about the special relationship Indian people had with their horses. His family has been ranching for as long as I can remember. He cherishes the horse gifted to him, and Sitting Bull seems to like his new home. ---- 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: Congress loses will for lobbying reform" --------- Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2006 08:58:47 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HARJO: CONGRESS NEEDS TO FIX INDIAN RIGHTS LOBBYING ISSUES" http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412905 Harjo: Congress loses will for lobbying reform, needs to find it for Indian rights by: Suzan Shown Harjo / Indian Country Today April 27, 2006 Not so long ago, members of Congress brayed into every available television camera that Washington's K Street and Gucci Gulch would be swept clean of the debris left in the wake of the Abramoff scandal. But the reform legislation emerging from the House reveals that Congress locked its resolve, along with all cleaning utensils and disinfectant, in the broom closet and gave the keys to the once and future Abramoffs. That would be Jack Abramoff, confessed felon and carnivorous lobbyist, whose ongoing testimony in active federal investigations has some congressional members and staffers shaking in their boots. Other lobbyists brought the Abramoff excesses to light, but not for altruistic reasons. They wanted to get rid of him and get his clients. So, Washington lobbyists are still feasting off Indian gaming revenue and channeling campaign donations to the campaign finance and lobbying reformers. In the meantime, tribes are out $88 million in Abramoff fees. And that's not the end of the costs to Indian country. Poor Indian people are likely to pay the greatest price in lost programs for poor Indians, and the lobbyists who are doing anything about that can be counted on one hand. Congress has ignored nearly all the recommendations for effective lobbying reform, including those from the American League of Lobbyists, which testified earlier this year that Congress should maintain an ethics office to review reports filed by congressional members and lobbyists, and that the General Accounting Office should oversee it. Members of Congress are tripping over each other in their rush to return tribal campaign donations, signaling to the general public that there's something wrong with Indian money. Behind the scenes, the same politicians are elbowing each other out of the way to get at tribal monies filtered through the Republican and Democratic national committees. This means a return to the days of freewheeling, backroom party bosses, which puts Native people further away from the access that would allow time to explain the complexities of needed solutions to pressing problems in Indian country. Here's where the high-powered "pay-to-play" lobbyists get their power. They bundle other people's money to give to the campaigns and charities of people on Capitol Hill who can help their clients. The Indian clients pay dearly for the photo ops, and Indians who can't pay don't even get in the door. Congressional representatives say that campaign contributions can't be banned and use that as an excuse to do nothing or little. But the bundling of donations by lobbyists can be restricted and full disclosure with oversight would go a long way to ridding the system of excesses. "You can't argue against transparency," says Forrest J. Gerard, who has many legislative victories to his credit. What he calls the "Affair Abramoff" has caused him to reflect on his long experience crafting federal Indian policy as a Senate staffer, as a Carter administration political appointee and as a lobbyist. His is a resume of firsts. He was one of the first Indian bomber pilots in World War II and one of the earliest Capitol Hill staffers. He was the first assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs and the first Indian lobbyist in private practice. Now retired, he lives in Albuquerque, N.M., with his Oglala Sioux wife, Kay, far from his Blackfeet Reservation in Browning, Mont., and their Washington-area home of four decades. Gerard's lobbying firm was on the cutting edge of negotiated legislative water and land claims that involved "delicate negotiations with the tribes, states where tribes are located, congressional delegations and federal agencies to achieve settlements acceptable to all parties. The principles we developed in these settlements served as the basis for other tribes to achieve settlements on their land and water claims." Gerard's firm was "deeply involved in the legislative dynamics that led to the enactment of IGRA," the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988. While his clients "disagreed vehemently" with the legislation, they took a "politically practical position: if the legislation is going to be enacted, do all you can to make the final product favorable to tribes." He recalls that his clients celebrated the Supreme Court's 1987 decision in the Cabazon case "that affirmed tribes' sovereign rights to engage in gaming, exclusive of state control and regulation. But there was a hue and cry from the western attorneys general and governors, stating that [tribal gaming is an] uncontrolled activity and will bring crime and prostitution, and they pushed their congressional delegations and that pushed us into IGRA, which eroded sovereign rights." Gerard fears that the current scandal "may ignite a congressional lobbying reform frenzy that will hurt Indian gaming. Already, the conservative media is pointing to a so-called 'river of Indian gaming money' that fueled the Abramoff lobbying and alleged illegal activities ... What is an Indian gaming tribe to do when even W won't keep our money?" He says everyone needs to "step back from the Affair Abramoff's attendant dynamics - the frenzy for reform, hand-wringing, self-righteous indignation over Indian sovereignty and Indian gaming and the anti-Indian groups seizing on this as an excuse to modify Indian gaming and to interfere with the tribes' constitutional right to lobby and to petition Congress for redress." The way he sees it, the tribes with gaming markets gained economic power that translated into political power and sought out lobbying firms that they thought were credible, ethical and effective. "The tribes that were really taken to the cleaners by Abramoff were literally duped in their dealings with this guy, who proved to be unscrupulous, unethical and even illegal in the manner in which he manipulated Indian tribal dealings." Gerard insists that the tribes that hired Abramoff "were engaged in no wrongdoing. What those tribes were doing was no different than what scores of corporations do every day, which was to protect their economic and business turf. What they were doing was trying to thwart the efforts of other tribes and protect their economic enterprise. "Where this runs head-on into our Indian principles is the whole business of sharing, of helping our fellow Indian tribes and members - I don't know if our field wants to get into that kind of introspective exercise. What those tribes [that hired Abramoff] were doing was trying to prohibit or block or frustrate or thwart the sovereign right of other tribes to engage in gaming as affirmed by the Supreme Court and regulated by IGRA. All they were trying to do was to get into gaming." From that standpoint, said Gerard, the tribes that hired Abramoff "were wrong and one could use one word to describe their motivation: greed. Those tribes that were lobbying to block other tribes were doing quite well in gaming." But Gerard decries those who want to "make Indians pay a price" for the scandal, saying the justice system will take care of wrongdoing and the "tribes' inherent systems" are making appropriate changes in leadership. He is concerned that Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chairman John McCain will use Indian rights as a trade bead in order to get the Republican nomination for president in 2008. "He's still not beloved by the crazy religious right Republicans and is showing evidence where he's turning to the right in many areas, including Indian affairs, to try to placate the right," Gerard said. "We're being played off in the broader political context here." Instead of using Indians as scapegoats, Gerard says Congress "can best contribute to Indian affairs today by negating the Bush budget cuts on various Indian programs that are vital to the health, social and economic welfare of many Indian tribes, because not all tribes are rich gaming tribes." Even though Congress has lost its will for lobbying reform, it needs to find it to uphold Indian rights. --- 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: YELLOW BIRD: School's Lessons go beyond Walls" --------- Date: Mon, 1 May 2006 09:05:06 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: SCHOOL LESSONS" http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/columnists/14460478.htm DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: School's lessons go beyond walls April 29, 2006 BEMIDJI - On the outskirts of this community, a school only 6 years old could change the way we look at traditional education. This week, I had the chance to visit with Scott Anderson, superintendent of the Schoolcraft Learning Community, for a Sunday "Prairie Voices" interview that will appear in the Herald on May 7. I was surprised and amazed at what I found. As I completed several winding turns on the road to the Concordia Language Village - the foreign-language-immersion summer camps that are run by Concordia College of Moorhead - I came upon several buildings built in the French motif, half-hidden among the tall aspens and forever- green fir trees. Paris (the building's name) is the headquarters for Schoolcraft. Schoolcraft is an Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound public charter school for the Bemidji area. It is Schoolcraft during the winter and a French language camp during the summer. It is one of those rare places that you only dream of sending your children. At one time during my career, I taught high school English. So, I admire the men and women who have the patience and dedication to be teachers. Many teachers need to be especially dedicated because in today's school culture, some schools have reputations as places where bullies injure the spirit and physical bodies of their peers. More than that, school shootings, rapes and beatings (which were unheard of 30 or 40 years ago) make the news across the country. Some schools appear to fall short of goals to teach children the basics, and as a result, a national effort mandated No Child Left Behind. So, when I was told Schoolcraft was a special or different school, I assumed it was for young people who were having trouble in school, academically or emotionally. I was wrong. My first inkling that this was not a typical public school came while watching several children at play. When I arrived at Schoolcraft, several youngsters - perhaps 8 or 9 years old - were playing some kind of game. A tall pine tree seemed to be the goal. As I watched them, I saw something strangely different: All of the children were participating. None stood apart, as often happens with a large group of kids; and I saw none of the hitting, shoving or rough teasing that you sometimes see in a group such as this. Instead, there was a feeling of harmony, something the school promotes and teaches in the form of conflict resolution, beginning in kindergarten. Anderson was standing on the big cement patio that covers the front of Paris, the administration building. He was waiting to give me a tour. Other classrooms were scattered about the wooded area. We went first to three classrooms nearest Paris. These classrooms were for kindergartners and first-graders. There, we found students sitting around on the grass, leaning against the building crossed-legged, lying on the ground or sitting in folding chairs on the patios, working on assignments. The warm sun made the outdoor classroom most pleasant. I was surprised that none of the kids squirmed for attention. What is the magic here, I wondered? When I was in school, especially on a nice day such as this, my mind would have wandered toward the window and outside. These children were outside. From there, we strolled down among the trees to an open area near a lake. As I walked, I couldn't help but listen to bird songs and consciously draw in deep breaths. The air was intoxicating. Then, I realized Anderson was talking to me. The lake was used for several projects, he told me. One is scuba diving. While scuba diving, the students learn math, biology, botany, writing, reading and research, all the while enjoying the heck out of the experience. The school lets the children learn and experience. They are creative and far thinking. There is no testing, except for state testing that is required of all public school students. How do they score on those state exams, I asked? At grade level and above, Anderson said. When we finished the tour, my sister and I were invited to eat with the students. Because I need a little caffeine when I drive, I looked for a pop machine. They have no pop or junk food. Lunch is served family-style by teachers. It was a very healthy lunch. (In fact, I had to stop to get a little junk food on the way home. My body couldn't take that much good stuff.) This model of school seems ideal for American Indian children, I told Anderson. My mind was thinking about Red Lake, White Earth and other Indian schools. I wondered how these reservations could get involved. For Schoolcraft Learning Community, parents enroll their children when they are less than a year old. Unfortunately, they than wait until enrollment day, when the child's name is put into a bin and names are drawn. It's the lucky children who get to attend Schoolcraft Learning Community. ---- 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: Me'tis lawyers prepare to combat Harper" --------- Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 08:58:01 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FORMER MP ADVISER" http://www.firstperspective.ca/fp_template.php?path=20060404flanagan Me'tis lawyers prepare to combat former PM's advisor's testimony. by FP/Drum Staff April 23, 2006 Me'tis lawyers are getting ready to counter testimony that is expected from demonized historian Thomas Flanagan, who is expected to testify for the government side in a historic land case now under way in a Winnipeg court. Flanagan, a former advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, has angered both First Nations and Me'tis with his writings. During this year's federal election campaign Me'tis officials expressed fear that Flanagan would have a role in influencing policy if the Conservatives were elected. Jim Aldridge, one of the lawyers representing the Manitoba Me'tis Federation, said Flanagan is expected to testify for the government side during the first part of the trial that could take three months. One of the arguments that Flanagan is expected to make is that the Me'tis received fair payment for land that was provided to them, but which they later sold, Aldrich told delegates to a National Me'tis Council meeting last weekend. Aldrich and Thomas Berger, the two lawyers for the MMF, say they will rely heavily on historical documents and correspondence to demonstrate how the Canadian and Manitoba governments never honored the intentions of an agreement to provide the Metis with 1.4 million acres of land along the Red and Assiniboine rivers. They said that government lawyers will argue that technically terms of the agreement were met. Berger, however, said a variety of strategies had been used to frustrate the Me'tis people so they would vacate the area and land would pass into the hands of non-Aboriginal settlers. In the decade after the agreement was reached, non-Aboriginal residents became the majority of the population of Manitoba, which in 1870 went from a territory of the British Crown to being a Canadian province. The trial began Monday following a march by Me'tis from the statue of Louis Riel on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature to the Law Courts Building a short distance away. Flanagan has argued against Aboriginal rights contending that North American Indians were merely the "first immigrants" to the continent and he has also argued against the distinctness of the Me'tis and concluded that the hanging of Louis Riel was justified. Flanagan had worked with both Harper and Preston Manning, founder of the Reform party. He was born in the United States but later joined the faculty at the University of Calgary. Copyright c. 2006 First Perspective/Manitoba Drum. --------- "RE: Six Nations does not Stand Alone" --------- Date: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 07:02 pm From: frostyca2000 Subj: Six Nations Does Not Stand Alone Mailing List: Frostys AmerIndian Six Nations Does Not Stand Alone by Justin Podur April 24, 2006 On Thursday April 20, Hazel Hill, one of the Six Nations Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) leaders on the blockade at the Douglas Creek Estates near Caledonia, told me about her beating at the hands of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) hours before. Early that morning, at 5am, the blockade ? not a protest, as Hill emphasized, but a reclamation - of about 100 people from the Six Nations Reserve had been assaulted by heavily armed police. The police came out in force. Exact numbers are unknown, but eyewitnesses said there were over 100 police knocking people down and clearing them out, guns drawn. They arrested 15, including a 14-year old child. The police were acting on an injunction filed on March 10 by a real estate developer, Henco Industries Limited, to clear the native people - who had been holding the blockade since the beginning of March ? and facilitate Henco's scheme to build a few more blocks of suburban houses on the site. When Provincial Court Judge David Marshall issued an order to the indigenous people to leave their land by March 22, he reportedly asked the Clan Mothers: "What's the matter with you people? Why don't you forget all about the past and listen to me?" Judge Marshall was evidently uncompelling, and the indigenous people remained on the blockade. The Clan Mothers, who have led the action, made the decision that the blockade would be unarmed. "The men are here to defend us", Hazel Hill told me, "but there are no weapons here. We told them no weapons and they respect our decision." The OPP had to know, both from the announcements of the Clan Mothers and, no doubt, their helicopter and other surveillance of the site, that the blockade was unarmed. This did not prevent them from engaging in a violent, disproportionate pre-dawn raid on the site. Victims reported police use of pepper spray, tasers, and batons. But the OPP got more than they bargained for that morning. Within hours of their raid, the indigenous returned. At around 8am on April 20, they evicted the police ? who, after the raid, had reduced their presence significantly ? returning with twice the number that had been removed. Like the original blockade, this was an unarmed action by the indigenous: "We started moving in on them," Hill said, "and asked them to leave... then we just walked them out." At one point, however, Hazel Hill found herself alone with a few police officers. One officer threatened her with arrest, citing the injunction that protesters leave the territory. Hill replied that it was, instead, the officer who was in violation of the law of the land ? Six Nations territory ? and also, for that matter, international law. At that point, the officer physically attacked ? and other police joined in. Hill was quickly rescued by others from the blockade, however, and the police withdrew, though not before using a taser on Hill's rescuers and pointing their guns at them. Provincial and Federal The OPP's 2-hour coup, and the government's handling of the blockade, reveals something about Canada. The OPP are the police for the Canadian province of Ontario. Those on the blockade at Six Nations assert national rights and demand to be treated as such. The Canadian government refuses to treat the indigenous as nations. It would rather treat them as second-class citizens of municipalities and outsource the repression of the inevitable resistance to the provinces. But the Liberal provincial government, through Ontario's premier Dalton McGuinty, had said the day before the raid (April 19) that the government was going to take the time to resolve the issue peacefully. In saying so, McGuinty was probably trying to distance himself from the previous provincial government, the Conservative government of Mike Harris, which had ordered the OPP to attack another native demonstration at Ipperwash in 1995. At that demonstration, an OPP sniper killed an unarmed indigenous man named Dudley George. An inquiry into that murder is still ongoing. The afternoon after the April 20 2006 raid, McGuinty said "This police action comes completely independent of me, my office and my government." But if he hadn't ordered it, who had? Unless the OPP acted on their own,