_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 14, ISSUE 024 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 June 17, 2006 Zuni ik'ohbu yachunne/turning moon Mvskogee kvco-hvsee/blackberry moon Yuchi cpaconendzo/blackberry ripening moon Anishnaabe ode'imini-giizis/strawberry moon Cree sagipukawipizun/moon when the leaves come out +-------------------------------------------------------+ | Much more happens in Indian Country than is reported | | in this weekly newsletter. For daily updates & events | | go to http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm | +-------------------------------------------------------+ Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin -- Blackfeet -- News for All the People Ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min -- Ojibwe -- We Are Talking About Ourselves Aunchemokauhettittea -- Naragansett -- Let Us Share News Kanoheda Aniyvwiya -- Cherokee -- Journal of the People O Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse -- Creek -- People's New News O o O Acimowin -- Plains Cree -- Story or Account O o O Tlaixmatiliztli -- Nahuatl -- News O o o o o O Agnutmaqan -- Listuguj Mi'kmaq -- News O o O Sho-da-ku-ye -- Teehahnahmah -- Talking Birchbark O o O Un Chota -- Susquehannic Seneca -- The People Speak O Ha-Sah-Sliltha -- Ditidaht Nation -- News of the People Ximopanolti tehuatzin, inin Mexika tlahtolli -- Nahuatl -- For you we offer these words It-hah-pe-hah Ah-num pah-le -- Chickasaw -- Together We Are Talking Dineh jii' adah' ho'nil'e'gii ba' ha' neh -- Navajo Nation -- What's Happening among The People News Okla Humma Holisso Nowat Anya -- Choctaw -- People(s) Red Newspaper Hi'a chu ah gaa -- Pima -- The stories or the talk of the People s ch mA mL tL squee Lux -- Okanogan -- News from the People Native American News -- Language of the Occupation Forces ++>If you speak a Native American language not listed above, please send us your words for "News of the People." We'd rather take up this whole page saving these few words of our hundreds of nations than present a nice clean banner in the language of the occupation forces who came here determined to replace our words with their own. email gars@nanews.org with the equivalent of "News of the People" in your tribal language along with the english translation <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is produced in straight ASCII text for greatest portability across platforms. Read it with a fixed-pitch font, such as Courier, Monaco, FixedSys or CG Times. Proportional fonts will be difficult to read. <================<<<< >>>>================> This issue contains articles from www.owlstar.com; www.indianz.com; www.pechanga.net; Frostys AmerIndian, Native American Poetry, Indigenous Peoples Literature and Chiapas95-En 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: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + =================== "When many of our schools are not making adequate yearly progress, why would you decrease the staff on the ground to provide technical assistance?" __ Robert Cournoyer, Chairman of the Yankton Sioux Tribe +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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! Some good news came out of the discussions with the State of Georgia. Details are provided by The Lovely Janet... --- Regular Wotanging Ikche readers know that the state of Georgia's Parks Department and the state's resident Indians (federally enrolled, state enrolled, and unenrolled people of Indian heritage) have been wrangling over what standards should apply to Indians involved in events on Park premises, and who should develop those standards. Brief background: After an incident in 2004 that was essentially about two Indians in a "who's the REAL Indian" dispute at a Native American park-sponsored event, the Park service quietly sent out a memo that outlined some very stringent restrictions on who could present as an Indian, or even DRESS as an Indian or claim heritage at Park events, and specifically banned pow wows. A couple of individual Indians found out about it when asking about a pow wow permit at a park, then quietly went away when they were refused. Finally, earlier this year, an Indian, Larry Mindler, decided he wasn't going to just tuck his tail and slink off. He protested. He gathered other Indians to protest at board meetings of the Department of Natural Resources. Even the press and an advocacy group got involved. As you can see from Larry's note, the matter is resolved. First the state decided pow wows could be held on a non-state-sponsored basis in the parks as space permitted. Now the entire issue of a special process for state-sponsored Indian events has been dropped. After an initially rocky start, Larry has contracted for a pow wow at Ft. Yargo State Park (just north of Atlanta) the last weekend in August, not only with the consent of the department, but with active assistance from some of its staff. With Larry, I'd like to thank the Indian people of Georgia and surrounding states, who were willing to stand up to an unjust policy, to an advocacy/ mediation group, ProFreedom America, who helped defuse initial hostility and suspicion, and start productive discussion, and to officials at the State of Georgia's Parks Department, for their willingness to change in a way that benefits our people. +/// 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 ----------- - Georia Parks update - GIAGO: Gonzaga honors Editor - Crow Tribe Youth Basketball Camp who called for Genocide a huge success - YELLOW BIRD: - One Nation still on the move Laughter best N A Medicine, too - Cobell Lawyer explains - SOTA: Opposition to Biker Bar flaws in BIA Accounting at Bear Butte - Interior Department - RODRIGUEZ: A simple Guide wins key Court battle to Anti-Assimilation - Supreme Court rejects - COMMENTARY: Federal Recognition another Tribal Land Claim isn't Recognition - Chairmen's Ass'n - WINDSPEAKER: sues over Edu. Reorganization The Cost of Negilgence - North Dakota Indian Students - Six Nations Claim: Lost lands being left behind - High rates of violence - Rally venue gets Liquor License seen among Canada Natives - UK Telegraph: - Treaty no. 9 of 1906: Can Indians defeat Sen. Burns? Commemoration denounced - Native Alaskan Troops - Former B.C. FN Leader brace for Iraq running for AFN leadership - Seminole Tribe - Court rules in favor of snags priceless Letter Native-only Fishery - Business aims to keep - NARCO NEWS: Children out of harm's way The World is going to Hell... - Teens find the pulse of a People - Alex Benhumea Dies in Star Nation a Month after Atenco - Villagers fight bridge - Upper Sioux Reservation on Colville River goes 'Zero Tolerance' - Independent Native News canceled - Third Murder this Year - Help most welcome on Reservation for Indian Stations - Native Prisoner - $88 million for Navajo Housing: -- Help Wanted: Native American Where did it go? Prisoners Network - JODI RAVE: Indian Home loan - Rustywire: Indian Song gives couple a start - Lee Goins Poem: - YELLOW BIRD: Women, You are my Soulmate we need your voice in Office - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - GABE MENTUCK: I am still an Indian - Arapaho tongue seen as at risk --------- "RE: Georia Parks update" --------- Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 14:22:46 -0400 From: "Wisdom Bear" Subj: Good morning All Good morning All This is an update to let you know what has been going on at Department of Natural Resources, Georgia State Parks and Historic Site. I now have a signed contract with Georgia State Parks to do the powwow event in Fort Yargo State Park, Winder Georgia. My understanding with Steve Saunders, Assistant Chief Operations Manager for the Georgia State Parks is that they have completely removed any recommendations and or draft policies or policies in regard to Native American events in the State Park System. They are now considering events on a per events basis. This has to do with how big the Park is that you want to have an event in and whether or not they are capable of handling the traffic flow. I want to thank all that emailed, called and/or supported this endeavor to get the Georgia State Parks to come into the 21st century. Thanks is also due to ProFreedom America, who helped craft the first steps of this agreement - clarification that pow wows were permitted as concessions and an agreement to re-examine the "Indian policy," and to Becky Kelley, Director of Georgia State Parks and Recreation, John Thompson, Chief of Operations and Steve Saunders, assistant for their cooperation as we worked out this agreement. Also I would like to make an open invitation to all that are in the area on August the 25th 26 and 27th of 2006 to attend the powwow at Fort Yargo State Park in Winder, Georgia so that we may show the state that we do have interest in this park system and our Native American events. Attached to this e-mail is also a flier for the event that you can printout and use for yourself and or print copies and give to your friends. Once again thank you for your help in whatever manner you chose to help. Larry Mindler "Wisdom Bear" --------- "RE: Crow Tribe Youth Basketball Camp a huge success" --------- Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 08:28:05 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TRIBAL BASKETBALL CAMP" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.billingsgazette.net/news/state/30-basketball-camp.txt Sign-ups for tribal basketball camp exceeds expectations By LAURA TODE Of The Gazette Staff June 9, 2006 The Crow Tribe's multipurpose building in Crow Agency vibrated with the sound of what seemed like 1,000 bouncing basketballs earlier this week during a three-day basketball camp for children in kindergarten through the eighth grade. Every one of the little dribblers dreams of growing up to take center court at the tipoff of a home game. Basketball is in the heart of the Crow people, but until this week a basketball camp had never been held on the reservation. In addition to the camp, a 24-hour high school basketball tournament started Thursday afternoon. Hardin High School Head Coach Mike Erickson, who helped organize the tournament, said the turnout for the camp exceeded expectations. He planned for 250, but more than 420 applications came in from across Bighorn County. He said about 125 children were turned away because their applications were turned in late. Some 20 teams registered to play in the 24-hour tournament. Monday, during registration for the camp, a long line of parents and their children stretched out the doors of the Crow tribal multipurpose building and wrapped around the parking lot. "In the back of my mind I knew it could be this big, I just didn't know it would be this big this year," Erickson said. High school players and coaches from Hardin and other schools on the Crow reservation staffed the camp, and MSU-Billings basketball standout Buddy Windy Boy, from Lodge Grass - almost a celebrity on the reservation - also volunteered to coach. "This is great. I never had things like this on the rez when I was a kid," Windy Boy said between drills. The camp and 24-hour tournament were sponsored by the Crow tribe, along with Running Strong for Native American Youth. The grass-roots nonprofit group from Alexandria, Va., donated funds to provide a T-shirt, basketball shoes and a basketball for each camp participant. Running Strong was started by Olympic gold medalist Billy Mills, an Oglala Lakota Sioux who was raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. In the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, he won the 10,000-meter race, setting an Olympic record of 28 minutes and 24.4 seconds. The Center Pole Foundation in Crow rounded up more than 50 volunteers and donated $2,000 for snacks. "We are teaching them how to ... empower themselves through work," said Center Pole Executive Director Peggy White. "In order for them to have a good basketball team they have to work." In addition to teaching ball-handling skills and defense, volunteers provided guidance on core values, including citizenship, honesty, responsibility and respect. The youth were also encouraged to place education first and basketball second. The student displaying the best sportsmanship during the camp received a free-standing basketball goal. "You can relate a lot of basketball back into life, like teamwork and not giving up when it gets hard," Windy Boy said. The basketball camp wrapped up Wednesday with an American Indian prayer, ceremony and traditional singing and drumming. Contact Laura Tode at ltode@billingsgazette.com or 657-1392. Copyright c. 2006 Billings Gazette. --------- "RE: One Nation still on the move" --------- Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 08:52:13 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ANTI-SOVEREIGNTY GROUP AT IT AGAIN" http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=7901 One Nation still on the move Group touts poll showing opposition to "reservation shopping" Sam Lewin June 6, 2006 The anti-tribal sovereignty group One Nation is touting a recent series of events as proof that the organization is beginning to spread its message. One Nation executive director Barb Lindsay is circulating an e-mail stating, "We made the news in Maine," that trumpets the Magic City Morning Star's word-for-word republication of a press release from the group. The statement concerns efforts by One Nation to convince federal officials to overturn a section of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. The paper's publishers describe the Magic Morning Star as "the only online newspaper covering the Katahdin area of Millinocket, East Millinocket, and Medway, Maine.... the product of a collective of independent volunteer media; reporters, columnists, and editors who have come together to provide timely news coverage of events in the Katahdin area, a service that is not currently available from other sources." The group is also circulating a graph published in New York's Lockport Union Sun and Journal showing each state's gross gambling revenue, and comparing that to how much is spent on treatment for gambling addiction. According to the graph Oklahoma spends a million dollars on gambling treatment, while gambling grosses top one billion. Nevada, dominated by non-Indian casinos, grosses over ten billion per year in gambling revenue but spends less than Oklahoma on gambling treatment, $820,000. Oklahoma officials have estimated that up to 51,000 Oklahomans are "pathological" gamblers. A statement from the office of State Rep. Lance Cargill R-Harrah issued in the fall of last year reported that "Oklahoma does not yet have any certified gambling treatment programs and earmarks only 7 cents per capita on gambling treatment," but also pointed out that "once Oklahoma's lottery is launched, a portion of that revenue will go to gambling treatment, potentially increasing state spending on treatment to 21 cents per capita." One Nation is also buoyed by a poll showing voters are strongly opposed to the concept of "reservation shopping." According to the poll: - Fifty-five percent of Americans oppose Indian tribes acquiring lands far from their historic homelands to build casinos. - Seventy-nine percent expressed concerns that casino companies and developers are exploiting the special historical status of Native Americans. - Eighty percent of voters said the possibility of developers and lobbyists contributing money to politicians in exchange for land recognition is of personal concern to them - Eighty-five percent of participants said they would like to see the government assist Native Americans in economic development other than casinos. Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies conducted the poll. The release being circulated by One Nation does not include a margin of error or the demographics of the people queried for the survey. One Nation has its roots in the Pacific Northwest fishing protests of the 1970s. The organization also has a branch in Oklahoma, listing the Oklahoma Petroleum Marketers Association and the Oklahoma Farm Bureau as some of its members. Lindsay, the national group's executive director, has claimed in the past to be a member of a non-federally recognized Indian tribe called the Western Cherokee, based in Salem, Missouri. In late 2004 however, the tribe released a statement that they "cannot find any record of Ms. Lindsay in our files." They release also stated: "One Nation is not recognized nor supported by the Western Cherokee nor will it ever have any support from the Western Cherokee. The anti Native American approach of One Nation should be questioned by all people...these actions only seem to be designed to create an unfounded fear in people, in a time that healing needs to take place." Lindsay has also criticized the Native American Times for referring to One Nation as "anti-tribal sovereignty," demanding in an e-mail that our publication make a "retraction or correction to the article calling us an 'anti-tribal sovereignty' group; do it soon. Then cease and desist doing this." The letter came in reaction to a story detailing One Nation's effort to encourage elected officials to eliminate what the group terms "loopholes" in tribal campaign contributions. The National Congress of American Indians reports that in the 2004 election cycle, tribes made just one-third of one percent (0.3%) of the total nationwide campaign contributions. In her e-mail, Lindsay also wrote, "Is your goal to cause divisiveness and ill will? Calling names is for schoolchildren." You can reach Sam Lewin at sam@okit.com Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Cobell Lawyer explains flaws in BIA Accounting" --------- Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 08:52:13 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="KEITH HARPER INTERVIEW" http://www.indiantrust.com/Article_id=351&Month=6&Year=2006 An interview with Keith Harper: Cobell Lawyer Explains Flaws in BIA Accounting to Indian Country Today by Jerry Reynolds Indian Country Today Copyright c. Indian Country Today June 02, 2006. All Rights Reserved June 2, 2006 Keith Harper, an attorney with Native American Rights Fund, has been part of the attorney team working on Cobell v. Norton since the inception of the lawsuit, which seeks an accurate accounting from the Interior Department of the Individual Indian Money trust accounts, as well as reform of IIM accounting systems and a restatement of the accounts. Congress is currently considering legislation that would restate the accounts and settle other outstanding points of contention between the litigants. Keith Harper: Now let me just run through some numbers. If you're talking a 20 percent error rate, based on all their [Interior Department's] numbers. Because there's certain things that people think of as variables that aren't variables. The government concedes that between 1909 and about 2000, $13 billion without interest came through, was deposited into the Individual Indian [Money] trust. That's their number. Among other places, that was stated in their proposed findings and conclusions for trial one point five. .... I'm not making this up. This is their number. ... They've testified to that routinely ... $13 billion between 1909 and 2000. ... Interestingly, if you take the normal interest rates utilized by the BIA with respect to how they actually invested these funds, those are the interest rates that ought to be utilized. But I see some talk sometimes of, Oh, we should use a 3 percent interest rate. We should use a 4 percent - no, we shouldn't use any interest rate except for the actual interest rate. And those are identifiable. ... You take that and you go back to 1887, and you get a flow of what the interest rate was, actually - that was actually utilized. And that's the way to do it, right ... so we're using actual data from them. And if you take that $13 billion, and you give the actual interest rate, then all you have to do is figure out what the error rate is. That's all you have to figure out. Because everything else is nonvariable. And if you do it that way, based on their own $13 billion, a 10 percent error rate is $14.8 billion. A 20 percent error rate is $29.7 billion dollars. .... What are we talking about when we talk about 20 percent error rate? We're talking about - despite the fact that the government has conceded in report after report - that they have no internal controls, none. They have no accounts receivable system. They have fraud. They have corruption. ... With respect to the historical accounting, no internal controls, fraud, corruption, pervasive in the institution, use of Indian trust fund as slush money, slush funds. This is all from their own reports. To say that there is a 20 percent error rate means that they properly collected, invested and disbursed to the correct beneficiary 80 percent of the monies. Now given what we know of the record of malfeasance from the very beginning, that is very high, to say 80 percent reached the right person. . .. Four out of five times they actually collected, invested and disbursed properly? I mean, you know, I've got a lot of bridges I can sell you if you believe that, you know, I mean given what we know about this system and given what they've already documented. Now nothing they're doing, with respect to their accounting, is actually getting close to testing these issues. Collections, investments, disbursements - they don't test them. For example, they say a disbursement transaction is supported if it is on their ledger. So they have it on their ledger, and it's considered supported because it's on the ledger. You see, there's no check on it. They need some supporting documentation. ... The notion that they could have no supporting documentation and still consider it accounted for is exactly what you don't do in an accounting. ICT: ... Are you really not confident in what Ross Swimmer [the Department of Interior's special trustee for the Indian trust] and the folks [at the Office of the Special Trustee within the Interior Department] are doing, in terms of just reform? Harper: I am absolutely not confident. ... There is no reason to have any confidence, first of all. ... ICT: And this is - the court tested this? Is this what the court tested? Harper: Precisely. Yeah, oh yeah. It's all in the findings of the District Court. So, so Ross Swimmer ... ICT: Well, let's say Swimmer says Anadarko [agency] has tested OK, we're pretty happy with where we're at with the Anadarko system, because they've brought some system online and [it] seems to work? Harper: ... I anxiously await their ability to demonstrate in a court of law that the Anadarko agency [trust accounting system] works. ... The fact of the matter is that we have our sources as well. And they're not through the filter of the administration. ... --- Copyright c. Indian Country Today June 02, 2006. All Rights Reserved by: Jerry Reynolds / Indian Country Today June 2, 2006 Part two Keith Harper, an attorney with Native American Rights Fund, has been part of the attorney team working on Cobell v. Norton since the inception of the lawsuit, which seeks an accurate accounting from the Interior Department of the Individual Indian Money trust accounts, as well as reform of IIM accounting systems and a restatement of the accounts. Congress is currently considering legislation that would restate the accounts and settle other outstanding points of contention between the litigants. Keith Harper: Now let me just run through some numbers. If you're talking a 20 percent error rate, based on all their [Interior Department's] numbers. Because there's certain things that people think of as variables that aren't variables. The government concedes that between 1909 and about 2000, $13 billion without interest came through, was deposited into the Individual Indian [Money] trust. That's their number. Among other places, that was stated in their proposed findings and conclusions for trial one point five. .... I'm not making this up. This is their number. ... They've testified to that routinely ... $13 billion between 1909 and 2000. ... Interestingly, if you take the normal interest rates utilized by the BIA with respect to how they actually invested these funds, those are the interest rates that ought to be utilized. But I see some talk sometimes of, Oh, we should use a 3 percent interest rate. We should use a 4 percent - no, we shouldn't use any interest rate except for the actual interest rate. And those are identifiable. ... You take that and you go back to 1887, and you get a flow of what the interest rate was, actually - that was actually utilized. And that's the way to do it, right ... so we're using actual data from them. And if you take that $13 billion, and you give the actual interest rate, then all you have to do is figure out what the error rate is. That's all you have to figure out. Because everything else is nonvariable. And if you do it that way, based on their own $13 billion, a 10 percent error rate is $14.8 billion. A 20 percent error rate is $29.7 billion dollars. .... What are we talking about when we talk about 20 percent error rate? We're talking about - despite the fact that the government has conceded in report after report - that they have no internal controls, none. They have no accounts receivable system. They have fraud. They have corruption. ... With respect to the historical accounting, no internal controls, fraud, corruption, pervasive in the institution, use of Indian trust fund as slush money, slush funds. This is all from their own reports. To say that there is a 20 percent error rate means that they properly collected, invested and disbursed to the correct beneficiary 80 percent of the monies. Now given what we know of the record of malfeasance from the very beginning, that is very high, to say 80 percent reached the right person. . .. Four out of five times they actually collected, invested and disbursed properly? I mean, you know, I've got a lot of bridges I can sell you if you believe that, you know, I mean given what we know about this system and given what they've already documented. Now nothing they're doing, with respect to their accounting, is actually getting close to testing these issues. Collections, investments, disbursements - they don't test them. For example, they say a disbursement transaction is supported if it is on their ledger. So they have it on their ledger, and it's considered supported because it's on the ledger. You see, there's no check on it. They need some supporting documentation. ... The notion that they could have no supporting documentation and still consider it accounted for is exactly what you don't do in an accounting. ICT: ... Are you really not confident in what Ross Swimmer [the Department of Interior's special trustee for the Indian trust] and the folks [at the Office of the Special Trustee within the Interior Department] are doing, in terms of just reform? Harper: I am absolutely not confident. ... There is no reason to have any confidence, first of all. ... ICT: And this is - the court tested this? Is this what the court tested? Harper: Precisely. Yeah, oh yeah. It's all in the findings of the District Court. So, so Ross Swimmer ... ICT: Well, let's say Swimmer says Anadarko [agency] has tested OK, we're pretty happy with where we're at with the Anadarko system, because they've brought some system online and [it] seems to work? Harper: ... I anxiously await their ability to demonstrate in a court of law that the Anadarko agency [trust accounting system] works. ... The fact of the matter is that we have our sources as well. And they're not through the filter of the administration. ... Copyright c. 1998 - 2006 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c. 2006 Blackfeet Reservation Development Fund, Inc. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Interior Department wins key Court battle" --------- Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 08:42:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DoI CAN WITHHOLD RECORD DESTRUCTION EVIDENCE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/nation/14787844.htm Interior Department wins key court battle - Contra Costa Times Judge suppresses reports detailing how officials mismanaged tribes' funds, destroyed records By John Heilprin ASSOCIATED PRESS June 10, 2006 WASHINGTON - The Interior Department won a victory Friday, persuading a federal appeals court to suppress three reports that had presented evidence of Interior officials failing to report problems and destroying records used in managing American Indian money. The documents pertain to a massive class-action lawsuit American Indians filed against the department a decade ago, saying the government owed them an accounting because it mismanaged a trust in their names for 120 years. The Indian plaintiffs say they are owed tens of billions of dollars. The author of the reports, Alan Balaran, was appointed by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth as a "special master" in 1999. Balaran supervised the exchange of information between parties in the lawsuit and investigated document destruction. Balaran's reports to the judge, including observations from personal visits, found the department had destroyed Indian records, sometimes purposefully, at federal depositories and Indian reservations in the West. Keith Harper, a lawyer for the Indian plaintiffs suing the department, said Friday, "Most of the facts in those reports have been conceded as true" by the Interior Department. Interior officials nonetheless asked a federal appeals court to strike Balaran's reports from the record, saying he had improperly hired as an expert witness a former Interior contractor who had accused the department of fraud. The former contractor was allowed to draft or edit portions of Balaran's findings about whether Interior was adequately securing Indians' trust fund data, the department said. Justices rebuked Balaran's use of the contractor, though it only extended to one of the reports to the court, because it made Balaran seem potentially biased. "It is difficult to imagine a more biased way of conducting and reporting upon an investigation," wrote Chief Judge Donald Ginsburg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. An Interior spokesman declined comment Friday, saying the ruling spoke for itself. Balaran resigned two years ago, saying the government wanted him off the case after he found evidence that private landowners near the Navajo Nation got as much as 20 times more money than Indian landowners from gas pipeline companies for rights to cross their land. Those findings have not been disputed by the government in the lawsuit. Copyright c. 2006 Contra Costa Times. --------- "RE: Supreme Court rejects another Tribal Land Claim" --------- Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 08:52:01 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SENSCA ISLAND CLAIM REJECTED" http://www.indianz.com/News/2006/014334.asp U.S. Supreme Court rejects another tribal land claim June 6, 2006 The U.S. Supreme Court acted on its second Indian land claim in less than a month on Monday, this time refusing to hear the Seneca Nation's lawsuit. Without comment, the justices rejected a petition filed by the Seneca Nation and the Tonawanda Band of Seneca Indians. The tribes, backed by the federal government, said the state of New York purchased more than 40 islands in the Niagara River, including the 19,000-acre Grand Island, without Congressional approval. A federal judge sided with the state. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals agreed in September 2004, ruling that the Senecas didn't hold title to the islands at the time they were sold to New York because the tribes had already given them up in treaties with the British. "Since we find that the islands were not within the boundaries of the 'property of the Seneka nation' as of the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua, and that therefore New York's title remained undisturbed by that treaty, we conclude that its 'purchase "of the islands did not violate the Non- Intercourse Act," the 2nd Circuit wrote. The high court's action leaves the negative decision in place. It marks the second time a 2nd Circuit ruling against a tribal claim will go unheard - just last month the justices refused to consider the 64,000-acre Cayuga case. Tribal leaders in New York are troubled by the developments. Jim Ransom, a chief of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, called the current Supreme Court "the most anti-Indian" in the history of the United States. The Mohawks are just one of several tribes with claims to millions of acres in New York. The Oneida Nation is still in court after more than 30 years while the Onondaga Nation only recently filed suit. The Seneca Nation has previously settled two land claims, separate from the Grand Island suit. Meanwhile, the Cayuga Nation and the Oklahoma-based Seneca-Cayuga Tribe lost their case when the 2nd Circuit said they too long to file their claim. Other tribal land, hunting, fishing and other claims throughout the country could face similar fates if the courts adopt stances set by the 2nd Circuit. But tribal leaders note that each case is different, as noted by the fact-specific examination of treaties, laws and history in the Seneca's Grand Island lawsuit. In more Supreme Court news, the justices refused one other Indian law cases on Monday. It involved a former employee of the Tohono O'odham Nation of Arizona who tried to sue the tribe after she was fired. The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled that the tribe retained sovereign immunity from suit and that the state courts lacked jurisdiction to hear the case. Copyright c. 2000-2006 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Chairmen's Ass'n sues over Edu. Reorganization" --------- Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 08:40:34 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="EDU REORG PLAN UNACCEPTABLE" http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?feature=yes&id=1096413075 Chairmen's association sues over education reorganization plans by: David Melmer / Indian Country Today June 2, 2006 SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Tribes in North and South Dakota have filed a lawsuit against the BIA and the Office of Indian Education Programs in an attempt to stop planned education reorganization. The plan developed by the OIEP would remove six line officers from reservations in both states and replace them with three higher management officers to be located in Rapid City and Pierre, both in South Dakota, and Minot, N.D. Each location is hundreds of miles from any of the schools served by the BIA. The tribes that make up the Plains region argue that the realignment will make it difficult to conduct education business from a distance. The BIA has also not given clear evidence to tribal leaders about the funding, especially concerning the source of the funding. The restructuring also includes the hiring of senior executive service management position at a cost of $100,000 per person, according to tribal officials. "This restructuring plan comes at a time when BIA schools and tribal schools are experiencing severe budget constraints and lack the funds to provide basic services for children," said Harold Frazier, chairman of the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen's Association and chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. "This plan will clearly cost more and result in fewer services to our children," he said in a prepared statement. The loss of line officers will occur only in the Plains region, which includes nearly 50 percent of high school students in all BIA operated schools. The Plains also has the second-highest concentration of students in the BIA system. Only the Navajo Nation has the largest total number of students. Schools in the region have reduced staff in order to meet financial responsibilities because of either budget cuts or no increase in funding levels. Money from programs, such as cultural or arts, have to be used to accommodate the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, according to tribal education officials. GPTCA members have opposed this reorganization from its inception, yet claim they have had no satisfaction from the BIA, and very limited consultation on the proposal. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Sioux Falls, seeks a restraining order, injunction and writ of mandamus that would require consultation before the reorganization with all tribal governments of the region and to halt the restructuring until all laws, regulations and policies governing Indian education have been complied with. "When many of our schools are not making adequate yearly progress, why would you decrease the staff on the ground to provide technical assistance?" said Robert Cournoyer, chairman of the Yankton Sioux Tribe. Cournoyer said that moving the line officers away from the schools would be tantamount to moving the superintendent of any other school system a distance away from the schools. Three schools on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation requested additional funding to operate the transportation systems. They were denied the funding by BIA and the OIEP, according to Frazier. The three schools cut staff. "Our requests were denied and yet we can spend millions on new administrative positions," Frazier said. BIA spokesman Nedra Darling said the bureau has received the complaint, but there was no comment from the BIA or the OIEP before press time. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are the Yankton Sioux Tribe; Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe; Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe; Standing Rock Sioux Tribe; Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians; Lower Brule Sioux Tribe; Marty Indian School on the Yankton Reservation; Loneman District School; Porcupine School; and Wounded Knee School District, all on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Copyright c. 1998 - 2006 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: North Dakota Indian Students being left behind" --------- Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 08:52:01 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NCLB FAILS INDIAN STUDENTS" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2006/06/08/news/local/116039.txt Indian students' scores still low By ZACHARY FRANZ Bismarck Tribune June 8, 2006 American Indian students in North Dakota lag behind the general population and are about equal to Indian students in other states, according to a pair of recent reports based on standardized tests from the 2005-06 school year. The tests show improvement by American Indian students in some areas, but demonstrate that significant disparities still exist in education. Some people, however, question the value of standardized tests to Indian children. On the North Dakota State Assessment, 50 percent of Indian students measured "proficient" in reading, compared to 75 percent of the general population. In math, 47 percent of Indian students achieved the "proficient" level, while 73 percent of all students hit that mark. In both fields, Indian students showed slight improvements over last year. Math scores for Indian student have more than doubled since two years ago. The North Dakota State Assesment is given to students in grades 3-8, and 11. It is used, in part, to measure schools' compliance with federal standards under the No Child Left Behind Act. Another test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, shows how states compare to one another. For the first time in 2005, the U.S. Department of Education compiled a report - the National Indian Education Study - specifically to present the results of American Indian students on the NAEP. The study examined the scores of about 7,200 American Indian- Alaska Native students in fourth and eighth grades in reading and math. The report establishes a national average for Indian students and also compiles state figures for the seven states with the highest percentage of Indian students. North Dakota is one of those seven states. In reading, North Dakota Indians in fourth grade scored just below the national average for Indian students - 198 versus 204. By comparison, the average score of South Dakota Indians was 194, and Montana measured 201. At the eighth grade level, North Dakota Indians scored 248, one below the national average for Indian students. South Dakota and Montana scored 247 and 238, respectively. In math, too, North Dakota Indians scored slightly below the national average. The fourth grade average in North Dakota was 221, while the national average was 226. In eighth grade, North Dakota scores averaged 260, and 264 was the national average. But not everyone is sold on the merit of standardized tests as a yardstick for education. Bobby Ann Starnes is the president of Full Circle Material and Curriculum, a Helena, Mont.-based organization that strives to improve Indian education. Not only do standardized tests fail to accurately measure schools' progress, they actually impede progress, said Starnes, who holds a doctorate in teaching, curriculum and learning environments from Harvard and has 22 years experience teaching on reservations and elsewhere. "Some people think that standardized tests measure things worth knowing, ,"Starnes said. "I'm not one of those people." A recent University of Montana report tells of a class on Montana's Rocky Boy's Reservation that took exams last year. One reading section discussed a Zamboni - the machine used to groom ice rinks. After the test, several students asked the teacher what a Zamboni was - no one in the class had ever heard of such a thing, the report says. Zambonis are rare on the Rocky Boy's Reservation. "Those tests are biased in favor of middle-class, suburban kids," Starnes said. "The tests are not fair. They're not." Mary Rousseau, the director of higher education for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, agrees. "That is just my personal opinion - I don't think they are fair to Native students," Rousseau said of the tests. Starnes said that the tests, and the No Child Left Behind Act that requires them, stifle creativity by forcing teachers to prepare students for exams instead of teaching life skills. Last time her class was scheduled to take standardized tests, Starnes said she spent two weeks teaching them test-taking strategy. "Those were two weeks teaching kids to fill in bubbles,"she said. "That was totally wasted time, except that my kids didn't feel stupid when they took the test." The No Child Left Behind Act was signed into law by President Bush in 2002. The act requires that students be tested at several grade levels to determine how they compare to government standards in reading and math. Schools that do not meet those standards, or fail to make adequate yearly progress in the language of NCLB, are targeted for "program improvement." Failure to make AYP for consecutive years may neccessitate orginizational changes, such as a revised curriculum, a longer school year, a change in the way federal money is allocated, or even new management. Proponents of NCLB argue that it's working - that scores are improving and that kids are getting a better education. Greg Gallagher, standards and achievement director for North Dakota's Department of Public Instruction, said that NCLB is beneficial because it sets clear expectations, provides a means of making sure those standards are being met, and shows how schools are doing in a meaningful way. "We're seeing attention to reading and to mathematics, and that's good, "Gallagher said. To get off of the "program improvement" list, a school must make AYP for two consecutive years. Thirteen schools in the state have made it off the list in the last three years, and almost all of them had a high percentage of Indian students, said Laurie Matzke, director of the Title I program for the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction. "Those are examples of what can and should be done," Matzke said. Furthermore, Gallagher said, the government works hard to ensure that the tests are not biased. A bias review committe comprised of people familiar with a community's demographics examine every question to find and eliminate potential bias, he said. "The research would indicate to us that we have fair, valid and reliable assessment tools," Gallagher said. He discounts the idea that NCLB prohibits creativity in teaching, noting that the act doesn't specify any certain teaching method. "No Child Left Behind does not mandate how instruction occurs," he said. "It focuses on content, not delivery." NCLB brings accountability to schools, Gallagher said. It makes sure kids are learning the things they need to know and helps identify schools that aren't getting that job done. Starnes doesn't agree. "That is probably the argument that makes me more angry than any other argument," she said. "Teachers aren't saying they don't want to be accountable. Standardized tests don't make people accountable." Starnes said that it is the responsibility of the community and school administrators to make sure the school is doing a good job. "I think it's a false argument to say you need the federal government to come in and tell you you're doing a good job," she said. "We're forcing a one-size-fits-all system. I call it the boarding school approach of the 21st century." Ryan Wilson is the president of the National Indian Education Association in Washington, D.C. He, too, is critical of the NCLB's impact at schools with a large Indian population. "We agree with the goals, not with the implementation," he said. "Schools have aligned curriculum to meet those tests. That's not teaching, that's coaching." NCLB makes it more difficult for teachers to teach in a style that works best for Indian students, he said. "The whole 'row of chairs facing one teacher at the chalkboard' has never worked with Indian kids," Wilson said. "Research has shown that contextual, experiential lessons work best with Native learners. NCLB has given us less opportunity to do that." Gallagher maintains that is not the case. He argues that teachers couldn't just teach for the test, because they don't know what will be on it. "Teaching to the test - that almost sounds like rhetoric to me," he said. "It's not that teachers should teach to the test, it's that they should teach to the standards." Of the 477 schools in North Dakota, 393 made Adequate Yearly Progress, the NCLB standard, according to the Department of Public Instruction report. There were 40 schools that did not make that standard, and there was insufficient data to determine whether the remaining 44 schools made AYP. Reach reporter Zach Franz at 250-8261 or zach.franz@;bismarcktribune.com. Copyright c. 2006 Bismarck Tribune, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Rally venue gets Liquor License" --------- Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 08:42:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BIKER BAR GETS HARD LIQUOR LICENSE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2006/06/10/news01.txt Rally venue gets liquor license By Dan Daly, Journal Staff Writer June 10, 2006 STURGIS - For the third time in little more than two months, the Meade County Commission unanimously approved Sturgis motorcycle rally alcohol licenses - despite objections from American Indians who decry commercial encroachment on Bear Butte, which they hold as sacred. Commissioners voted 4-0 Friday morning to approve a liquor license transfer from Mad Mary's Steakhouse near Piedmont to entrepreneur Jay Allen's new biker bar and rally campground north of Sturgis. Allen, who plans to call his venue the new Broken Spoke Saloon and the Sturgis County Line campground, struck a deal last year to buy 600 acres of pasture land along S.D. Highway 79 north of Bear Butte. Dirt work is now under way at the north end of the property, and Allen said he plans to build a 100-foot-by- 150-foot rally- week bar there for this year's Sturgis rally in August. Later plans include a possible concert venue at the south end of the property. In April, the commissioners granted Allen a beer license for the same venue. A month ago, they granted a full liquor license to Rock'n the Rally at Glencoe CampResort, a large concert facility south of Bear Butte. On Friday, Allen's attorney Bryce Flint came to the commission with a request for a full liquor license. And because of a legal quirk, Allen's new beer license was one of several Meade County licenses up for renewal. "Nothing has changed since April - character and location are the same," Flint told the commissioners. This time, however, opponents did raise some new legal questions. Opponents suggested that Allen's project did not meet environmental and historic-preservation requirements. Allen, an Arizona resident who operates establishments at motorcycle events nationwide, was not at Friday's hearing. Flint said Allen was working at the Laconia Bike Week event, which starts today in New Hampshire. Jack Hoel of Sturgis restated his earlier support of Allen's plans. He said suggestions by Indian groups that the county create a no-development buffer zone around Bear Butte would violate the South Dakota Constitution. "In the name of religion, you cannot infringe on the rights of others," he said. Opponents restated their objections. American Indian speakers spoke emotionally of the need for peace and quiet at a site where Indians have participated in Sun Dances and other religious rites for centuries. "I believe liquor licenses exploit the weakness of humanity. Bear Butte is about developing the (strength) to overcome these human weaknesses," Rosalie Little Thunder said. Non-Indian residents of Meade County such as Jessie Levin spoke against the alcohol licenses. They said the burgeoning popularity of the Sturgis rally has pushed the noise, dust and disruption onto the country roads east of Sturgis. Opponents, particularly attorneys Thomas Van Norman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and Bruce Ellison representing Meade County residents, raised legal questions. Ellison cited Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, which protects the sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places from damage, denigration or encroachment. Bear Butte has been on the register since 1973. Ellison suggested that Allen's project has improperly gone forward without the required review by historic-preservation officials. Steve Rogers, historic-preservation coordinator with the South Dakota Historic Preservation Office, said state and federal laws can require an official review of projects near historic sites. However, when asked about the Bear Butte issue, Rogers said he believes that neither law would apply in the case of Sturgis County Line. Rogers said Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act requires review only if there are federal funds or some other federal involvement in the project. A few years ago, the preservation act was one of the tools used to stop construction of a rifle range near Bear Butte. However, the rifle range involved federal Community Development Block Grants. There is a state law, Rogers said, that requires a review of any project that could harm, threaten or encroach on sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places. However, the encroachment must come at the hand of state government or some sub-entity such as a county or city. Road projects and even building permits have triggered a Historic Preservation Office review. But Rogers said he knows of no case where issuing a liquor license constituted municipal encroachment. Meanwhile, Van Norman and others noted that they found no record that Allen received a storm-water permit for construction or industrial-storm- water-runoff permit from the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources. "I am not clear that any state or federal permit has been issued regarding storm-water runoff ... and there are a lot of environmental issues that we need to think about, and impacts to adjacent landowners all over, as well as the people who have used that since the beginning of their history," Van Norman said. DENR spokesman Kim Smith, contacted by the Journal on Friday, said he, too, could not find a permit application in Allen's name. He said the permit could be in a corporate name or the name of a contractor. The staffer who handles those permits was out of the office Friday, Smith said. DENR administers the Environmental Protection Agency regulations regarding storm-water runoff at construction sites and industrial areas. A storm-water permit is required if 1 acre or more is disturbed during construction. Copyright c. 2006 Rapid City Journal. --------- "RE: UK Telegraph: Can Indians defeat Sen. Burns?" --------- Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 08:28:05 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TAGGING CONRAD BURNS" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2006/06/09/wbighorn09.xml Will the Indians of Little Bighorn ambush a senator? By Alec Russell at Little Bighorn June 9, 2006 The site of General George Custer's last stand is little changed since he led five companies of the 7th Cavalry to their doom. White cairns in the scrub mark the fallen. Tourist signs warn of rattlesnakes. Otherwise, the battlefield of the Little Bighorn is as it was on June 25, 1876 when Sitting Bull's warriors secured a last great victory for the American Indians against the white man, killing "Long Hair" and more than 200 of his men. Now, 130 years later, American Indians are once again at the centre of a convulsion in the rolling hills of Montana. This time, however, the potential scalp is not of a soldier but a politician. The local senator, Conrad Burns, is on the rack over charges that he misdirected federal funds intended for poor Indian tribes. His is one of the most vulnerable Republican seats in the country and his re-election battle in November could decide the fate of the Senate. If the Republicans lose control, President George W Bush's humiliation would be total. Mr Burns insisted this week that this election was no more risky than its three predecessors. "I always worry," he said as he campaigned in the town of Billings, 40 miles west of Little Bighorn. "I've never had a runaway victory." This time, however, it really looks different, and the big threat he faces is Washington-style Indian trouble. He appeared set for a fourth term before he became linked to the convicted lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, whose influence-peddling scams have sparked one of Washington's biggest corruption scandals. As head of the Senate's interior appropriations sub-committee, Mr Burns, 71, steered - 1.6million in federal funds intended for poor Indian tribes to a wealthy tribal client of Abramoff's. The beneficiaries, the Saginaw Chippewas of Michigan, run lucrative casinos ensuring each member receives about - 37,000 a year, untold riches compared to the penury of most Indian tribes. Many of Montana's Indians, who make up 10 per cent of the population, say there is a rich historical irony to the scandal. They suggest it is in the long tradition of "white men" tricking them. "Conrad Burns has been in office too long," said a senior member of the Crow Tribe, whose reservation adjoins the Little Bighorn battlefield. "He thinks he can walk on water but he can't." During the Indian wars, the Crow tended to side with the US government against their old enemies the Sioux and Cheyenne, and their ancestors were Custer's scouts. With Mr Burns under attack, the Indian leaders now find they have a lot of local clout. They pick their words carefully. "We are not endorsing anyone yet," said Andrew Old Elk, secretary of the tribal government. But as in so many reservations, where alcoholism and now methamphetamine addiction have blighted generations, there is disillusionment. "Meth addiction is very bad and alcohol," Mr Old Elk said. "It's not getting better. In a close race we can make the difference." Mr Burns, a craggy ex-livestock auctioneer, has moved to distance himself from the scandal, returning - 80,000 he accepted from Abramoff and his clients. He insists that the controversial grant to the Chippewas had nothing to do with his links with Abramoff, who once boasted that Mr Burns's Senate sub-committee would do anything he asked. He also played down Republican jitters about a November disaster. "There is a little acidity to the landscape," he said. "But it's not a Republican or a Democrat issue. Rather it is against the whole of Congress. They say we are doing a lot of talking and not a lot of work." If Mr Burns is beaten, he will be one of the most prominent political scalps to be claimed. It seems a safe bet that, unlike at Little Bighorn, this time the Crow nation will have backed the winning side. Copyright c. of Telegraph Group Limited 2006. --------- "RE: Native Alaskan Troops brace for Iraq" --------- Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 08:52:13 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YUPIK DEPLOYED TO IRAQ" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/ la-na-alaskaguard5jun05,1,4942078,full.story?ctrack=1&cset=true Eskimo Troops Brace for Iraq Alaskan Guard units are called up for the first time in decades. Villages worry about losing men. By Sam Howe Verhovek, Times Staff Writer June 5, 2006 KONGIGANAK, Alaska - For nearly 50 years during the Cold War, being in Alaska's National Guard meant a potential front-line deployment - right at home. "Our greatest adversary was our next-door neighbor," said Guard Maj. Mike Haller. Guard units around the state trained regularly for a Soviet invasion. The Soviets never did invade, and units in the far western reaches of the Alaskan bush were never activated. But now, for the first time since World War II, Guard reserve troops in tiny Yupik Eskimo villages such as Kongiganak are being called up, and this time they are being sent halfway around the world - to Iraq. The Iraq deployment in western Alaska comes at an especially poignant time: Late spring is known as "breakup" in the Alaskan bush, when the ever-lengthening days finally melt the snow and ice that have blanketed the tundra for more than half the year and kept it eerily quiet. But as the Yupik men at the mouth of the Kuskokwim River ready themselves for the hunting, fishing and seal-catching that still provide a significant component of people's diets here, they find themselves preparing for a breakup of an almost unfathomably different sort. In this village of 386 people, six men have been notified to report for duty next month. Though all the men knew they could be called when they signed up years ago for Guard duty - an important source of cash here - several said they were struggling to adjust to the reality. "When I signed up, I never thought I would go to war; I mean, you never really think of Alaska being at war with anybody," said Harold Azean, 23, a Guard specialist. Ben Lupie, 30, a Kongiganak carpenter who is also going to Iraq, said he was optimistic that all the men would come back alive. "Us being a hunting people, I think it gives us an advantage," he said, going into an impressive series of mimes: the light prancing of a caribou, the ripple of a fish just below the surface of a river, even the flapping wings of the ducks, cranes and geese that are just arriving on spring migration. "We notice the tiniest motions," Lupie said. "So I think we'll be aware if something suspicious is up, and we'll know how to react." The call to Kongiganak comes as the National Guard's involvement in Iraq is set to wind down - there are now 23,000 Guard troops there, and the Pentagon announced recently that it was hoping to phase out Iraq rotations of the National Guard, perhaps as early as 2007. The call-up of the Kongiganak men has not been affected by the recent news; once a unit is activated, it has to be on duty for at least a year, with two weeks' leave time for each person. In World War II, Alaskan Guard troops served in both the European and Asian theaters, and some units were stationed along the Aleutian Islands in anticipation of an attack by Japan. For decades after the war, Alaskan Guard units avoided being called up to other locations because U.S.-Soviet tensions were the dominant geopolitical factor: They were perfectly positioned right where they were. "During the Cold War years, our National Guard was considered forward- deployed," said Haller, the Guard spokesman. "We were the tripwire." Since then, Guard units here have avoided duty in places such as Kosovo, or the Middle East in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, because they were the most distantly located and expensive to activate. Those factors have played into the Alaskan units' late entry into Iraq, when Guard units from densely populated Eastern states have seen multiple tours. But today, with all branches of the reserve stretched to the limit by the war in Iraq, it has at last become bush Alaska's turn. Of the 670 soldiers called up in Alaska, 600 are due to go to Iraq and 70 to Afghanistan, Haller said. They are to ship out in early July and spend about three months training, with exercises intended to "increase unit cohesion" and acclimate them to hot weather, at Camp Shelby, Miss. "I'm trying to get my head around this, that we are going from one of the coldest places on Earth to one of the hottest," said Eric Phillip, 39, who joined the National Guard in 1985 and had planned to retire from it this year - a plan that he is obligated to shelve now. "I get hot just thinking about it." Phillip added, "I don't even know how to explain it to my boys." He has two sons, Aatem, 6, and Tuyan, who will turn 2 this month. "I just say, 'I'm going way far away to help little kids like you be able to go to school just like you do.' " Kongiganak and other bush villages are hardly a hotbed of support for the war in Iraq. When prodded, many say they think the war has made the world less safe, not more. But that doesn't mean they are protesting the call-up either. "The Yupik are a 'don't-go-against-the-flow' people. You learn how to move with the current of the river or you don't survive," said Phillip's wife, Karen, 35, a schoolteacher. "So nobody is actually speaking out against the war. It's like speaking out against the weather." Previous National Guard call-ups have drawn from Alaska's cities and towns served by a road system stretching from Anchorage to Fairbanks. The call-up in the marshy delta country to the west reaches villages so remote that there are only two ways to get here most of the year - by airplane or snowmobile - and a third from May to September, or perhaps October in a warm year with a late freeze-up: the river. So in places with Eskimo names such as Kongiganak, Kwigillingok and Manokotak, elder leaders and wives find themselves planning how to carry on without strong young men who serve as vital providers of food. Some people here say the land and waters around them provide 80% of their food: meat from migrating caribou as well as seals and walruses; fish, including the thousands of pike hanging out to dry and cure on clotheslines in bright sunshine; and the brief riot of late-summer vegetation, including Arctic berries and wild plants such as celery and spinach. There are no cars or trucks at all in Kongiganak, but people here are hardly opposed to modern ways. They get around on snowmobiles and all- terrain vehicles and live in low-slung homes with corrugated steel roofs, some painted a bright red, green or blue. They watch CNN and Fox News, via satellite television, though sometimes the volume is turned off so they can listen instead to the village CB radio network that appears to keep everyone abreast of local news. At Eric Phillip's parents' home on a recent day, Bill O'Reilly of Fox News was talking noiselessly above a screen banner that said "Immigration Debate," while a Yupik elder announced on the radio that two village men had just brought in a seal and walrus catch, and that people were welcome to come by and take a share of the meat. The sky stayed light until nearly 11:30 p.m., and children played basketball at the Yupik K-12 school, a large building with red trim that is the only place in Kongiganak, other than the tribal council office, with running water. (Residents go to the council quarters to do their laundry and take showers.) Phillip said he had never lived away from Kongiganak, unless you count the three months he once spent in a crab boat on the icy Bering Sea. "It's certainly going to be different," Phillip said. "It's my big chance to see a whole different part of the world, is the way I try to look at it." But Karen, his wife, said she found it very hard to reconcile herself to the idea. "I don't want him to go, of course," she said. "A lot of the wives feel that way. A lot of them are wondering, 'Why do you listen to the Army? Why don't you listen to me?' " Eric Phillip and his brother, Tommy Jr., who is helping build a water pipeline to serve the village, said that they were deeply conflicted about going but that they knew they had made a binding commitment. "We all raised our right hands and told the Army we were capable of serving the country if called," Eric Phillip said over a dinner one night of fresh-caught caribou and dried, salted pike. "I can't just walk off this deal like you can walk off a job. It doesn't work that way." For Karen Phillip, the hardest moment was during a family preparation meeting in April, when a National Guard sergeant asked her and her husband to measure the heights of their two children and mark them with a pencil against a wall. Then they had to guess how much higher the lines would be when Eric came back. "I think it's the military way of getting you to try to adjust to the reality of being away," Karen Phillip said. "I guess that's what it is. But when I had to think about it in those terms, I really lost it." Copyright c. 2006 Los Angeles Times. --------- "RE: Seminole Tribe snags priceless Letter" --------- Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 19:50:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LETTER TO TRIBE'S FOUNDER RECOVERED" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/breaking_news/14741936.htm Seminole Tribe snags priceless letter The Seminole Tribe of Florida is showcasing a 232-year-old letter addressed to its founder by a British official. BY ROBERTO SANTIAGO rsantiago@MiamiHerald.com June 5, 2006 It is not often that a priceless document is sold at a bargain price, but that is what happened to Willard Steele, a Seminole Tribe historian who had an amazing stroke of luck a few months ago. A stamp dealer was auctioning off a stamp from 1774, which just happened to be attached to a well-preserved envelope and letter addressed to "The Cowkeeper, the founder of the Seminole Tribe of Florida," from a British government official, requesting peace between the British and the tribe. The Seminole Tribe's Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum had long wanted any document addressed or belonging to the legendary warrior leader. "There is only one we know of in existence, and it belongs to another museum," Steele said. But there it was in all of its 232-year glory - an authentic letter addressed to the leader of the tribe, who at the time was named The Cowkeeper. The letter was eventually sold to the museum for about $3,000. "I almost fell out of my seat," said Steele, the museum's tribal historic preservation officer, who remembers running to tell other executives when he made the discovery. The letter, considered one of the most important documents pertaining to the history of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, is now on exhibition through August at the Seminole Okalee Museum at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, near Hollywood. Written on Feb. 9, 1774 - two years before the American Revolutionary War - it was from British official John Moultrie, the lieutenant governor of what was then known as British East Florida. The letter was mailed to The Cowkeeper's home just south of Gainesville, the area that is considered the birthplace of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. In it, Moultrie asked The Cowkeeper, whose tribe was still part of the Creek Nation, for peace. The British had occupied lands in Georgia belonging to the Creek Nation, and the Creeks had fought back, killing scores of British settlers. Tina Osceola, executive director of the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum at the Big Cypress Reservation in the Everglades, said the letter is also significant because it is the earliest document in which a British official recognizes the sovereignty of what would soon become the Seminole Tribe. And it also acknowledges - by virtue of the mailing address - what Seminole historians have said all along: that the area south of Gainesville, where The Cowkeeper lived, is where the Seminole Tribe was based. "The Cowkeeper is considered the George Washington of the Seminole Tribe of Florida," Steele said. Although the letter is almost 2 1/2 centuries old, it is amazingly well preserved, due in part to the quality of the rag paper, which had little acid content, Steele said. "Thank goodness it was not made out of pulp paper," he said. After August, the letter will be placed in the vault of the Ah-Tah-Thi- Ki Museum, preserved at a temperature of between 68 and 72 degrees and 40 percent humidity, Steele said. "To understand the magnitude of this letter, it would be akin to a U.S. historian discovering a letter addressed to George Washington from King George III requesting peace," Steele said. "It is that significant." Copyright c. 2006 Miami Herald. --------- "RE: Business aims to keep Children out of harm's way" --------- Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 08:28:05 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="PROTECTING YOUTH" http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=7915 Native owned business aims to keep children out of harm's way ALBUQUERQUE NM Harlan McKosato June 8, 2006 Protecting children is a fundamental value for any community. Protecting children in Native American communities is no different. In fact, a law has been in place for more than 16 years specifically designed to help protect Indian children on reservations. But even today Indian children are still being placed in perilous situations. "Our children are our future and we are responsible as their protectors to ensure they are safe, healthy, and happy," said Michelle Justice, founder and President of Personnel Security Consultants, Inc. She is a member of the Navajo Nation and her office is located in Albuquerque. In early May the Navajo Nation, the largest tribe in the country headquartered in Window Rock, Arizona was issued a notice of summary suspension for their Head Start programs by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, effectively shutting down schools across the reservation. After monitoring and reviewing the tribal Head Start and Early Head Start operations in April, the DHHS reported the Navajo Nation failed to perform background checks on hundreds of employees. After an investigation, 106 out of 612 employees that were checked had criminal records, including charges from first-degree murder, domestic abuse and child abuse, to driving while intoxicated. And this is not an isolated situation on reservations across the country. According to Justice, most tribes simply do not have the resources, technical support or trained staff to adequately comply with current laws mandating tribes to conduct background investigations on prospective employees. Also, many tribes do not know how to document a suitability decision after the background investigation is completed, as in the case with the Navajo Nation, said Justice. Elmer Four Dance, Special Agent in Charge at the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Law Enforcement office in Aberdeen, South Dakota, said he does not believe the Navajo situation is indicative of all of Indian Country, but it does emphasize the need for compliance. "I would hope not," he said when asked if his area, which covers 53 tribes in eight Great Plains and Midwest states, would receive the same type of penalties if they were monitored. "These contracts have been in place for a long time. We need to empower tribes to be in compliance." The Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act was passed in 1990.It is designed to assist tribes with establishing a variety of protection and prevention programs on tribal lands. This includes investigation of reported cases of child abuse and child neglect. The law was passed, in part, due to notorious child molester John Boone. He was arrested and accused of sexually molesting as many as 142 boys at the school from 1979-1987. The FBI had conducted an investigation on Boone, a non-Indian teacher at the BIA-run day school on the Hopi reservation in Arizona. He was convicted of child abuse and sentenced to life in prison. The law states that all government agencies and tribes must conduct background investigations for their employees and contracted employees. "It is so important for tribes and federal agencies to protect our children," said Connie Reuer, co-owner and Vice President of Personnel Security Consultants, Inc., from the Turtle Mountain Chippewa reservation in North Dakota. Her office is in Aberdeen, South Dakota. "Our goal is to educate tribes and tribal leaders on their roles and responsibilities." While working for the BIA, Justice was put in charge of coordinating child abuse reports, so she saw firsthand what was needed. She also saw how much of the abuse could have been prevented if tribal officials and community members knew how to report it. She started the company in September of 2004. Personnel Security Consultants, Inc., is a woman and minority-owned small business. It is an investigative firm specializing in personnel security to assist federal agencies and tribes in meeting the requirements relating to child, education, social service and law enforcement programs. "I believe that people trust us because we are Native women who own the company. We know what is going on and how to find solutions from our own personal experience," said Justice. "When we say 'our children, our issues' we know what we're talking about, and I think people sense that." Jonathan Horse joined PSC (www.pscprotectsyou.com) as the Program Manager earlier this year. His duties include marketing, managing projects, and client relations. "My job is to get the message out to tribes, schools, tribal organizations and others to adhere to the federal mandates set up to protect children and communities and employees themselves," said Horse, who is Kiowa and Navajo. "The government is looking for tribes to become more self-sufficient, more independent and economically stable. I feel our training is an important part of that process." Stephanie Birdwell, a member of the Cherokee Nation and a Regional Social Worker for the BIA Southwest Region, explained that the BIA, as well as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Indian Health Service, are the catalysts for compliance of child protection laws on Indian reservations. "When tribes fail it goes back to the BIA," said Birdwell. "The penalties vary greatly. It's all determined by 'how critical to the operations of programs was the violation,' or whether it's something non- negotiable like 'is the safety of children or families being put at risk?'" Dana Hanna, Attorney General for the Rosebud Sioux tribe in South Dakota said his tribe decided it was smarter, more efficient and less expensive to set up their own investigative office rather than hiring private firms. "Our tribal Office of Background Investigations is under the Attorney General's office. We have a legal obligation to conduct background checks." He said the BIA gave the tribe some general direction but it was PSC who he called to conduct training, write the tribe's policies and procedures, and to assist with establishing and creating the Rosebud Sioux Office of Background Investigations. "They are very knowledgeable. They are experts in their field," said Hanna about PSC. "Rosebud is doing a good job of complying with federal law. My office made it a priority." Harlan McKosato is a member of the Sac & Fox Nation. Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Teens find the pulse of a People in Star Nation" --------- Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 19:50:22 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DRUM GROUP APPROVED/SUPPORTED" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/living/people/teens/14742071.htm Teens find the pulse of a people in Star Nation By Jomay Steen Rapid City Journal June 5, 2006 RAPID CITY, S.D. - Stevens High School officials approved an American Indian student's request to create a youth drum group to bring more students into the Lakota culture and connect with their heritage. Impressed by the effort, the school bought a drum for the Star Nation Drum Group. For about an hour a week since December, Landon Lupi, 17, has met with about a dozen other classmates to teach them the Lakota songs traditionally heard at American Indian ceremonies, spiritual gatherings and at the openings of powwows. Assistant principal Bruce Jordan said Lupi's personality and leadership have inspired other students around him. "He is preserving his cultural heritage and reaching out through the drum to bring other students into the group," Jordan said. "He's a genuine, sincere kid out there wanting to make a better society." Like a choir master, Lupi directs singers Daniel Padilla, Alex Whitesell, Garrett Burnette, Shane Mayer, Jess Carroll and Blaze Galles of the Star Nation Drum group to follow his lead during a recent practice session. The Stevens senior slowly sings to the group the intricate phrasing of the Lakota song while maintaining a rhythmic beat of the drum. Their baritone and alto voices blend in harmony as they call for the good spirits. But on the fourth verse, or push up, they soften their voices as Whitney Two Bulls, Tatum LeBeau, Sasha Colhoff and Jordin Bordeaux - singing an octave higher than the boys - bring the song to a close. Lupi is pleased with the work. "I'm teaching the spiritual songs that you would hear at religious get- togethers and at sun dances, a little bit of the powwow songs and the flag song," Lupi said. The spiritual songs have a slower beat, and powwow songs are much faster, he said. As they learned the lyrics and drumming, the boys were the only ones at the drum. But Lupi wanted better harmony, a richer sound in the singing. "I thought it would be a good idea to have girls sing with us, and they could learn, too," he said. "Plus, they sound a little better than some of the guys." Two Bulls, 17, and a junior, was familiar with some of the songs that Lupi taught them because her parents sun dance. "I know some of these songs because I go to sweats and ceremonies," she said. Two Bulls said the group has performed at North Middle School, and there are plans to sing at a nearby nursing home. "I'd like to show the Lakota residents there that the songs are going on to the next generation, that it isn't dying," Two Bulls said. Colhoff, 15, was surprised at the interest generated by the group at the middle school and in her own home. "My mom thinks that it's good that I'm trying to find out about my culture," she said. Bordeaux-Morris, 15, has been in chorus since fourth grade; music has always been an interest. But connecting to her musical side with her heritage has struck a chord with her family, she said. "My family really supports my doing this," Bordeaux- Morris said. Relatives LeBeau, 17, and Mayer, 16, talked about their family's pride in their being a part of the school's drum group. "Shane walks around the house singing," LeBeau said. Whitesell, 18, said he understands what Mayer is going through. "It is like any other type of music; you have a song stuck in your head," Whitesell said. Friends took Whitesell to his first drum practices, and before long, he started liking what he heard. "We're usually singing a lot when Landon's around," he said. Burnette, 16 and a sophomore, said his brother was in a drum group and that joining was a natural choice. "It's something we can do to embrace the culture and pass down from generation to generation," he said. Copyright c. 2006 Rapid City Journal. --------- "RE: Villagers fight bridge on Colville River" --------- Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 08:40:34 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NUIQSUT VILLAGE vs CONOCO OIL" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.adn.com/money/industries/oil/story/7806506p-7720457c.html Villagers fight bridge on Colville River NUIQSUT: Span threatens prime subsistence area and access to whaling grounds. By ALEX deMARBAN Anchorage Daily News June 6, 2006 The North Slope village of Nuiqsut is battling plans by oil giant Conoco Phillips to build a quarter-mile-long bridge over important nearby fishing grounds. Conoco, which operates the neighboring Alpine field, says it needs the concrete bridge, about nine miles north of the village, to develop an untapped oil deposit along the edge of the National Petroleum Reserve- Alaska, according to the company's Web site. The 1,250-foot span -- longer than four football fields -- would be the longest bridge on the North Slope. It would cross a river channel that links Nuiqsut whalers to the Beaufort Sea and hunters to ancestral camps along the Colville River. Conoco is reportedly redesigning the bridge to alleviate the village's concerns, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. But residents have not seen any new plan and are skeptical, said Dora Nukapigak, cultural coordinator for the city. Conoco spokeswoman Dawn Patience declined to elaborate on the plans beyond information found on the company Web site. The bridge has become ground zero in a mounting clash over industrial sprawl and cultural traditions. The Inupiat village of 411, eight miles south of the oil field, hunts migrating caribou, birds and whales to fill freezers. But Alpine, estimated to have more than 500 million barrels of oil, has grown quickly since development began in 1997, giving rise to more satellite fields than villagers expected, Nukapigak said. Buildings, pipelines and roads have sprouted on the horizon like downtown city blocks, Nukapigak said. Rumbling trucks and aircraft are scaring off food, making it harder for villagers to feed their families. The overpass above the Nigliq Channel will make it worse, she said. It will cut over one of the village's most important subsistence areas, where Eskimos stretch nets under the ice every autumn to snag Arctic cisco. Bridge and road construction from the massive project will fill the river with sediment, residents fear. Ice blocks in the spring will jam against columns and abutments, scoring the banks and riverbed and hurting sensitive fish-rearing habitat. Trucks and 18-wheelers trundling across the surface will scare off the fish that remain. The village is doing all it can to stop the bridge, Nukapigak said. "We're not going to give up," she said. The oil fields have produced some seasonal jobs for villagers, said resident Maggie Kovalsky, but the entire community fishes to survive. The bridge will imperil fishing at a site where she's counted as many as 60 nets. "Our subsistence way of living is right in that area," she said. Asked about the company's relationship with Nuiqsut, Patience said Conoco officials consult daily with villagers. "We try to do that stuff face-to-face and to have an ongoing dialogue with them and we don't do it in the press," she said. The bridge will carry pipelines and connect roads from a proposed drill pad called CD5 to the Alpine production facility about six miles to the east, the Conoco Web site says. Conoco planned to begin building the bridge next January. But that date has moved, Patience said. Conoco needs permits from agencies like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Coast Guard. Patience would not say how much the bridge will cost. Sediment from construction won't be the only problem, said Lanston Chinn, the Anchorage-based CEO of Kuukpik, the village's Native corporation. Designed to withstand the harsh Arctic environment, the span includes 12 piers and supporting structures that extend at least 70 feet over the channel, he said. The abutments will block deep channels used by whaling boats, cutting them off from the Beaufort Sea, Chinn said. "They couldn't have picked a worse spot," he added. Kuukpik, an oil industry services company, has joined the tribal and city governments in opposing the bridge, Chinn said. The North Slope Borough's planning commission voted against the bridge in April. It told the company to find a different location far upstream behind the village or to run pipelines beneath the river. Conoco has appealed the decision to the North Slope Borough Assembly. The assembly will vote on the bridge in October. Conoco, one of the largest oil companies in the U.S., has said it can't find another option, Chinn said. "We do get tired of hearing the same stories," he said. "You know, it costs too much, they can't do this, they can't do that. It's just a mega billion-dollar corporation and they're always telling you why things are uneconomic and unfeasible." The company filed a new plan with the Coast Guard about a week and a half ago, said James Helfinstine, who oversees the agency's Alaska bridge program. The new plan removes the abutments from the river and banks and sets them back onto the shore, he said. That will prevent ice from being blocked and give whalers access to the Beaufort Sea, he said. "That should relieve some of the concerns," he said. Chinn said the two sides haven't communicated over the bridge for months. Things have gotten so tense that Conoco recently refused to make its usual donation to the village's spring and Fourth of July carnivals, Nukapigak said. The oil company removes about 100,000 barrels daily from Alpine, according to state estimates. That's worth about $7 million a day at today's prices. Officials with the company recently asked to meet with the Native corporation, Chinn said. He hopes it means they've come up with a proposal the village can support. "We're trying to work things through with them, if at all possible," he said. Daily News reporter Alex deMarban can be reached at ademarban@adn.com or 257-4310. Copyright c. 2006 The Anchorage Daily News, a subsidiary of The McClatchy Company --------- "RE: Independent Native News canceled" --------- Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 08:52:13 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FUNDING WOES SINK INN" http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0%2C1413%2C113~7244~3326080%2C00.html Independent Native News canceled By ROBINSON DUFFY, Staff Writer June 7, 2006 Independent Native News, KUAC's daily news program focusing on issues relating to Native Americans, Alaska Natives and Canada's First Nations, is being taken off the air because of budget woes at the Fairbanks public radio station. The show's final broadcast will be June 30. "I think the station was hoping someone would step up and take it on (with funding help) because we really hate to see it go away," said Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock the current producer and "voice" of the five-minute program. Hitchcock has been involved with the radio show since KUAC took over production of the program in 2003. Before that it was independently produced by Nellie Moore. KUAC took control of the show, in part Moore said at the time, to help ensure the long-term viability of the program. But producing the daily show for distribution around the country was a huge undertaking for the station's small staff, said Robert Hannon, KUAC's news director. "We knew it was going to be an ambitious project to take it on," Hannon said. "We grew to appreciate that to sustain a national show demands an amazing amount of resources." Resources, he said, that have been dwindling in recent years. "We've gotten cuts in the state Legislature two years in a row," he said. And federal money has also slowed. The station has estimated that to continue producing the show for a national audience would cost $200,000 a year, Hannon said. The five-minute broadcast, which airs twice daily on KUAC, is distributed for free to more than 55 public radio stations across the country and Canada. Stations in Alaska, California, South Dakota, Oregon, Minnesota, Yukon Territory and elsewhere broadcast the show to an audience of more than 10.3 million listeners. It is the only national radio program produced in Alaska. Hitchcock said more than 200 freelance reporters from across the nation file stories for the award-winning show. Each day the program features three or four stories covering a broad swath of topics including national politics, news from Indian reservations around the country, arts, culture, abortion clinics, casinos, and land rights issues. Hitchcock said Independent Native News has been an important voice on the radio dial, especially for Native Alaskans. "One of the things the show has really done is put a lot of the Alaska native issues on a national platform," she said. And KUAC isn't going to stop doing that, she said, although perhaps not on a national scale. Hitchcock will continue to file reports on Native issues for the station's local news broadcasts. But those stories won't be able to replace the important service Independent Native News offered to the nation, Hitchcock said. "I love this show and I'm really, really sad," she said. "It's one of the best things I've ever done." Staff writer Robinson Duffy can be reached at 459-7523 or rduffy@newsminer.com Copyright c. 2006 MediaNews Group, Inc. & Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Inc. --------- "RE: Help most welcome for Indian Stations" --------- Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 08:52:01 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FOUNDERING INDIAN RADIO STATIONS GET CASH INFUSION" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.argusleader.com/article?AID=/20060607/OPINION01/606070319/1052 Help most welcome for Indian stations Editorial Board Argus Leader June 7, 2006 Finally, some good news for struggling Native American radio stations. A $1.5 million grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has established the Center for Native American Radio as a resource for the roughly three dozen stations around the country. It won't provide any funding for the stations, but it will offer advice and direct them to organizations for grants and fund-raising. "We're now this unified group. Before, the stations were sort of on their own, and a lot of them felt isolated," said Peggy Berryhill, director of services and planning. It comes at a great time for South Dakota. Of our four Native American stations, only one remains on the air - KINI-FM at St. Francis, which receives funding from the Catholic church and donations. Three others are down or gone: - KSWS-FM at Sisseton lost its FCC license and is shut down. - KLND-FM at McLaughlin has been off the air since April 10 because of equipment problems. - KILI-FM at Porcupine has been off the air since April 15, when lightning hit near the station. KILI, especially, is widely known to listeners throughout the southwestern part of South Dakota. It is a unifying force for both the Rosebud and Pine Ridge reservations. Like most Native American stations, it provides a mix of community news and announcements, along with cultural education and entertainment. "The mission of most of these stations is about cultural preservation," said Berryhill. "It's about economic development for the reservations. It's about having a voice for their communities, an independent media." Finally, some help. Copyright c. 2006 ArgusLeader.com All rights reserved. --------- "RE: $88 million for Navajo Housing: Where did it go?" --------- Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 08:42:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NAVAJO HOUSING FUNDS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.gallupindependent.com/2006/jun/061006nvjhsng.html $88 million for Navajo housing: Where did it go? By Kathy Helms Dine' Bureau June 10, 2006 WINDOW ROCK - Breadsprings/Church Rock Delegate Ernest Yazzie has asked the Navajo Nation Office of the Auditor General to conduct financial audits of Navajo Tribal Utility Authority and Navajo Housing Authority. In a memo to Auditor General Ryan Claw, Yazzie asked that the audits be conducted in cooperation with the appropriate federal agencies. "I have not seen any housing improvements since 1996 to date," he said of NHA. "Where is the federal funding going? Hopefully, your audits will answer these questions." U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi, R-1st District, announced in June 2004 that the Navajo Nation had been awarded $88 million in Indian Housing Block Grant funds, made possible through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The announcement came after a May 2004 field hearing in Tuba City, attended by members of Congress and representatives of several Indian tribes, to discuss severe housing conditions faced by Native Americans. At a recent NHA FlexCrete house unveiling in Ganado, Renzi said another congressional hearing is planned at Camp Verde in August, hosted by the Yavapai-Apache Tribe. He added that his legislation, H.R. 797, provided that housing funds will now be divided according to the size of the tribe. "This year, the Navajo Housing Authority will go from about $60 million in funding to $84 million in funding because we were able to pass this legislation," Renzi said. He also sponsored legislation signed into law in December clarifying the intent of NAHASDA and allowing tribes unrestricted access to new funds, even if they still retain income from previous years. NHA Performance Yazzie said in his memo "I would like to know how the multimillion dollar funding has assisted our Navajo people within the last few years. There continues to be a dire need for better housing for our Navajo people despite the annual funding from the federal government. " NHA'S 2005 Annual Performance Report to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development states that the NHA Grants Management Department is now monitoring all NAHASDA activities to ensure that all funded activities within the Navajo Nation Indian Housing Plan are compliant with NAHASDA federal regulations and that projects are properly closed out. The grants department was implemented two years after NAHASDA legislative action, according to NHA. "To date, this department is an evolving grant program established to carry out monitoring and grant compliance responsibilities," NHA said. The performance report stated that the Navajo Nation five-year goals and objectives are not on schedule due to project planning and implementation delays, attaining satisfactory compliance with environmental requirements for certain projects, the lengthy/timely process of Navajo Nation land clearances with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and internal tribal processes, as well as construction delays. "There also were some sub-recipients who did not timely obligate their funds or their projects were stagnate; this resulted in the NHA having to recapture NAHASDA funding and subsequently reprogramming to other organizations in order to comply with NAHASDA regulations of obligation funding within two years," NHA said. A comprehensive assessment is to be conducted to analyze NAHASDA programs successes, shortcomings, and to identify opportunities. NTUA concerns In reference to NTUA, Yazzie said, "I would like to know what reorganization has taken place regarding the tribal enterprise. Several recommendations were given to the board of directors during a recent public hearing in Window Rock." NTUA conducted the public hearing just days prior to implementation of a proposed"temporary" 7.2 percent surcharge, drawing a negative reaction from the packed house. NTUA management recommended a surcharge on electricity to recover the $2. 8 million financial loss it expects to incur as a result of the closure of Peabody Western Coal Co.'s Black Mesa mining operations. Rather than implementing a full electric base rate increase of around 20 percent, NTUA proposed the "temporary" surcharge, but could not give the crowd a timeframe as to how long "temporary" might be. Later, the NTUA board tabled the matter. Fort Defiance Delegate Larry Anderson has since proposed legislation establishing a moratorium on NTUA's ability to impose rate increases and has called for creation of a citizens utility commission. Also, he said during a recent Economic Development Committee meeting, "No independent studies that can be independently reviewed and relied on were conducted on different types of methodologies for the collection of the surcharge." Yazzie told Auditor General Claw: "As an elected official, I am very concerned that these important issues are not being addressed. I believe that with your assistance in auditing these entities, many of these issues can be addressed." Copyright c. 2006 Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: JODI RAVE: Indian Home loan gives couple a start" --------- Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 08:42:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HOME OWNERSHIP FOR NATIVE AMERICANS" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/06/10/news/state/55-start.txt Indian home loan gives couple a start By JODI RAVE Missoulian June 10, 2006 Sylver and Craig Belcourt and their three children recently moved into the family's first home, a spacious four-bedroom purchased in Billings. The couple became the first in Montana to use a popular Indian home loan program outside a reservation border. "It feels good to have your own backyard," said Sylver Belcourt. "The kids are excited and happy. You feel really good about yourself, like you really accomplished something." The couple, both in their mid-20s, were approved for the Section 184 loan, which was made possible through efforts of the Apsaalooke (Crow) Nation Housing Authority. Last fall, the tribe started an application process to expand the Indian Home Loan Guarantee Program, or Section 184, to people living in urban areas or near reservations. The Department of Housing and Urban Development approved the Crow application in April. The Belcourts learned of the program after contacting Eleanor Kindness, a home mortgage lender at Wells Fargo. "They knew I was Native American," Kindness said. And they were told the mortgage consultant helped American Indians with home loans. Wells Fargo niche Kindness is one of seven national mortgage consultants in Wells Fargo's Native American Lending Division, a niche marketing program with lenders in South Dakota, Arizona, New Mexico, Minnesota and Oklahoma. Kindness is the only representative in Montana. The Crow woman assists buyers in the state and Wyoming. She told the Belcourts about how the Crow expanded Section 184. That means any American Indian belonging to a state or federally recognized tribe and living in urban settings like Billings, Great Falls or Missoula can use the loan. Before HUD's approval, the Section 184 loans were typically confined to trust or fee lands within reservation borders. Tribes across the country, however, have been expanding the service area to cover Indians living away from a reservation. "Native American homeownership is really big right now," said Larry Lee Falls Down, an Apsaalooke Nation Housing Authority coordinator. "This is a nationwide issue. All reservations are dealing with overcrowding. We're up to 7.3 members living in a house." 3,000 loans made About 3,000 Section 184 loans have been made nationally to Indian home buyers totaling close to $300 million since the first loan was made on the Fort Hall Reservation in 1995. June is National Homeownership Month. The Crow have several down payment assistance programs to help tribal members, including buyers living off the Crow Reservation. Grant amounts range up to $10,000. Down payment and closing costs remain the greatest barrier to homeownership. "Most of the tribes in Montana are doing a down payment assistance program like ours," Falls Down said. Since 2002, minority homeownership has climbed to more than 50 percent, and more than 2.5 million minority families have become new homeowners. The Belcourts never tried to buy a home before. "You just don't think it's possible," said Sylver Belcourt, who heard about the Section 184 program from an in-law. So she called Kindness at Wells Fargo. Sylver still remembers when Kindness told her the home loan was approved. "I didn't think she was serious. I didn't think she got the information straight." Copyright c. The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Women, we need your voice in Office" --------- Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2006 22:40:12 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: WOMEN NEEDED IN POLITICAL OFFICES" http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/columnists/14730990.htm DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Women, we need your voice in office June 3, 2006 As candidates line up for positions in Grand Forks, I am wondering why so few women are putting posters on lawns and asking for votes. In the 11 or 12 years that I've lived here, I always have been a little annoyed about seeing the same faces - the same male faces - getting elected and re-elected to public positions and leadership roles. "Where are the WOMEN, Women, women ...?" I hear the echo in that empty chamber. Please, before there is an uprising: This is not to say we have poor officials in Grand Forks. It's the new and unheard voices that I'm referring to. At times, I've argued - and I add somewhat lamely - that there was a kind of conspiracy against my gender, and I've charged the "old boy" system with blame. Now, those of you who know me know that I have a colleague who irritatingly questions my off-handed comments at times. Who does he think he is, anyway? My editor? (In fact, of course, that is who he is.) In any event, I now suspect that it may be our history more than the "old boy" system that's to blame for the lack of women candidates. In other words, I think many of us still believe our place is being a helpmate rather than a president, mayor or chairman. Clearly, that history of not electing female candidates shows up in the history of Grand Forks mayors. I reviewed the number of Grand Forks' female mayors for the city's past 100 or so years. The answer, you already may know, is one: Pat Owens, the hero of the 1997 flood, is Grand Forks' only female mayor. Owens was the mayor's assistant for many years before she was elected. Aside from her, though, only male engineers have run this municipal choo- choo train. Why is it important to have leaders with diverse backgrounds? Because diverse leaders provide different perspectives and different ways of looking at problems and handling issues - perspectives and ways of looking that could bring new and better ideas to government. That diversity should include not only women, but also ethnic minorities - American Indians, Hispanics and other racial groups as well as different religious groups, sexual orientations and so on. These groups, after all, depend on decisions from our governing bodies to provide for their needs, too. Sometimes, I see similarities between Grand Forks leaders and those of some of our reservation communities. (I can hear a collective sucking in of air and see the slapped hand over the mouth at that comparison.) This comparison comes to mind because many of the reservations have had very few women chairmen. One example is the Oglala Sioux Tribe of Pine Ridge, S. D. They elected Cecelia Fire Thunder in 2004 as their first female leader of the tribe. I have been following Fire Thunder's rise to the top position as president of this large Lakota nation. Her role as leader has been difficult. She has been suspended at least twice since her inauguration in December 2004. In her latest encounter with the community, the problem is Fire Thunder's role in and support of the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families. The group supports a referendum to overturn the abortion ban in that state. Women need choices, Fire Thunder said, and promised to donate her own land as a site for a women's clinic in Kyle, S.D., that would provide contraception, education and other services to women. Fire Thunder said she didn't use the word abortion, the word that caused the latest suspension without pay pending an impeachment, the Rapid City (S.D.) Journal reported. As a woman, Fire Thunder empathizes with women's issues - an empathy probably never felt as deeply as her male counterparts. Women's roles have changed only in the past 20 to 50 years at the hand of those women who led the movements in the 1960s and 1970s. In Indian country, there were exceptions. In 1934, when the government mandated that tribes adopt constitutions and bylaws then elect a group to govern, very few women were on those councils. Many women didn't even try to participate in the government back then. Instead, women were taught from the time they drew their first breath their role was to care for the children, take care of household duties and be a helpmate. I know grandmothers, aunts and mothers who sincerely support that idea. I also know gender roles weren't just among tribes. Non-Indian women had those ideas, too. However, when you reach back into Indian history, you find exceptions. Among the Sioux and the Hidatsa, some women participated in war alongside male warriors and made life and death decisions. Among some of the eastern tribes, a council of women had the decision-making power just like a tribal council, and there are other examples. Women stepping into leadership roles can provide different perspective and certainly make wise decisions for our communities. Most important for our cities and villages is that it is incumbent on the people to seek out, encourage and consider women in leadership roles. Women, we need your voice. ---- 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: GABE MENTUCK: I am still an Indian" --------- Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 08:40:34 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GABE MENTUCK: INDIAN IN CANADA" http://www.firstperspective.ca/fp_template.php?path=20060605indian I am still an Indian by Gabe Mentuck Gabe Mentuck attended residential school at Labrette, Saskatchewan and Pine Creek, Manitoba. He died at the age of 77 on May 30, 2006. He farmed for most of his life at Valley River First Nation near Dauphin, Manitoba Today I am a 77-year-old Indian. Tomorrow or some other day maybe not that far down the road, I will be a dead Indian but I will still be an Indian. Now most Canadians wouldn't think that's such a big deal since you are what you are born. That's reality. That's truth. But reality and truth for this 77-year-old Indian are also the sentence I served in a Manitoba residential school where for five years, nuns and priests tried to beat, torture and shame the Indian out of me. And while this inhumanity was forced on me, the Government of Canada which sponsored it looked on with approval. If there hadn't been so much sexual and physical abuse, so many destroyed children and families as a result of Canada's residential schools, maybe a century of dirt could have been swept under this country's rug. But there was too much. Too much cruelty, too much suffering and too much institutionalized evil to keep buried for as long as the grass shall grow and the rivers flow. The forcible abduction of Indian children and their imprisonment in residential schools is now a pat of history. It's not a myth or rumor. It's real, Just as real as the scars on the hearts and minds of us who were victims of this crime committed against our people. The sad thing is that even now, history only seems ready to confront a part of the truth. There's still another chapter to be written and while it may not be as tragic and violent as the others, it's the one that should damn well be told. Natives have an oral history that's a big part of our tradition but doesn't seem to mean much in the white man's world where the more words you can put down on paper, the more power you have and the more money you can make. Today's world belongs to the lawyers, bureaucrats and politicians and they are all profiting from putting lots of words down on paper about old, poor residential school survivors. Nobody asked me to be a part of a get- rich-quick scheme for lawyers and consultants but that's where I and thousands of other Indians are today. It all began over a century ago when European immigrants stole our land, herded us onto reserves and still weren't satisfied. No, it seems like they didn't think that even these brutal measures were enough to deal with what they called the "Indian problem" and their "final solution" (does that sound familiar?) was to strip helpless Indian kids of thweir Indianness by robbing them of their language, culture and family bonds. Maybe the Government of Canada thinks that was a good trade-off. In return for our language, culture and family ties, we Indians got discrimination, substance abuse and the highest poverty and suicide rates in this country. I didn't know it at the time but I guess the Canadian government considered me a part of the "Indian problem" because in 1940. I was forcibly taken from my family on the Valley River reserve and stuck into a residential school run by the Oblate Order of the Roman Catholic Church in Pine Creek, Manitoba. Yes, I received quite an education there alright, being taught to feel guilty, inferior and ashamed to be a "heathen" and "savage". They beat me for speaking Ojibway and practicing my own culture and crushed my spirituality with their religion. I endured five years of this kind of oppression and though the scars from the physical abuse have faded, the ones on my heart and mind are still fresh. Still, maybe I wouldn't have these scarred memories if I'd been a good little apple - red on the outside and white on the inside - like so many of Canada's so-called Indian leaders whose pay-cheques are signed by the federal government. Like lawyers and politicians, most of Canada's Indian leaders are good with words. But trying to find some truth in them is like trying to find a diamond in a pile of manure. It's a dirty business and the odds are against you. Today, the diamond that the Canadian government is peddling is really no more than a piece of shiny glass but it sure as hell is covered with a lot of manure, a lot of words promising fair compensation for residential school survivors. In 1998 they offered us an apology but recognizing that shovelling us some words from their pile wouldn't shut us up, they came up with a billion dollar compensation package for the 80,000 or so victims who are still alive. The only problem is that at least half a billion dollars of this payout is earmarked for legal fees and most of the rest will be swallowed up by the various commissions, committees, investigations and inquiries that governments use as substitutes for meaningful action. Time is on the government's and church's side. We survivors are dying off at a rate of about five a day. The longer this drags out, the more the lawyers and bureaucrats will scoop up and the less there'll be for the poor, old and sick victims of cultural genocide. My wife, Teresa, who meant the world to me through our fifty-four years of marriage died four years ago. She too was a residential school survivor but she did not survive long enough to see justice. Maybe I won't either but in the meantime, I intend to keep shaming the lawyers, politicians, bureaucrats and Indian leaders who continue to profit from our misery. I am old and blind but I don't need eyes to see that the abuse of residential school victims is still going on. Same crap, different pile, and instead of Indian agents, nuns and priests doing the shovelling, it's a bunch of lawyers, politicians and Indian leaders. The time will come when we'll all be dead - all of us who suffered the physical and sexual abuse at the hands of those who carried out the "final solution" of the "Indian problem". Then, once all the witnesses are gone, maybe history can be rewritten and this crime against native humanity can be given a couple of good coats of whitewash but, until then, I'm going to keep speaking out because my body may be broken but not my spirit. There's a saying that talk is cheap. Well, that's sure as hell not the case when it comes to the lawyers, bureaucrats, politicians and Indian leaders who have made a lot of money by talking about residential school victims. And while they talk and fatten their bank accounts, those they're supposed to be helping get older, sicker or die. I'm not saying there will be nothing left once those who are supposed to be helping us finish helping themselves. Next year or maybe two or three years from now, whatever survivors are left will get small slices of what was once a big compensation pie. Yes, the one thing that history has taught us Indians is that we'll be getting a lot more words before we see any money. That's OK. We're used to it. We survived a lot of betrayals and we can handle this one because, in spite of what the white man's religions and governments stole from us, the one thing they couldn't take was our identity. That's why, in spite of the Government of Canada's best - and worst - efforts, I can proudly say that I am still an Indian. Copyright c. 2006 First Perspective. --------- "RE: Gonzaga honors Editor who called for Genocide" --------- Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 08:40:34 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GIAGO: HONORING GENOCIDE" http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=7897 Notes from Indian Country Gonzaga honors an editor who called for genocide of the Lakota By Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji) 6/5/2006 Copyright c. 2006 Native American Journalists Foundation, Inc. I am often confounded by the antics of mainstream newspapers located in cities with large Indian populations that are so prompt in picking up Indian related news articles from newspapers as far away as California without checking them for facts or by not including the concerns of local Indians in the news releases. Last Saturday the local daily in Rapid City, SD published an article from the LA Times concerning an exhibit to honor the 150th birthday of L. Frank Baum, the infamous (at least in Indian country) author of the Wizard of Oz. The Foley Center Library at Gonzaga University opened the exhibit in the eastern Washington city of Spokane called, "Oz and Beyond: Highlights from the L. Frank Baum Collection of Currie Corbin." Of course, every American knows about the characters in the book from the movie with Judy Garland that featured the Tin Man, The Cowardly Lion, The Scare Crow and the Wicked Witch of the West. The song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Garland that was almost cut from the film has become an American standard. On the occasion of Baum's 150th birthday anniversary I would like to point out a few little known facts that I hope will take some of the glitter from this exhibit. Most Americans know about one horrible day, at least horrible to Native Americans, that occurred on December 29, 1890. It was the day when the officers and enlisted men of the 7th Cavalry, General George Armstrong Custer's old outfit, turned their Hotchkiss guns, their rifles and pistols on the nearly 300 Lakota men, women and children at a creek called Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and slaughtered them in an orgy of bloodletting that was dreadful to behold. My grandmother, Sophie, was a teenage student at Holy Rosary Indian Mission, a school about 10 miles from Wounded Knee, on that day of the bloody massacre. She recounted how soldiers rode on to the grounds of the mission school visibly excited by their actions and talking loudly about their wonderful victory. The Jesuit priests at the mission school made the children bring water and hay to feed the hungry horses of the troopers. Grandmother Sophie said she could still see blood on the gloves and uniforms of the soldiers. But, of course, no one told the Indian children at the school of the events of that day even though some of them had relatives that were among the slaughtered. Six days after the massacre, while the frozen bodies of the Lakota men, women and children were being dumped into a mass grave, L. Frank Baum, the editor of a weekly newspaper in Aberdeen, SD, wrote an editorial calling for the annihilation of any Lakota still alive. His editorial read in part, "Having wronged them once perhaps we should wrong them again and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth." Perhaps it was a sign of the times that the white settlers wanted to see all of the indigenous people destroyed but if any editor had called for genocide against any race of people other than Indians there would have been a huge public outcry. In an ironic way it reminds me of the millions who remained silent while Jews were herded into concentration camps in Poland and shoved into the gas chambers. The life of an Indian meant as little to the white settlers as the lives of the Jews meant to the Germans. Perhaps it is prophetic and ironic that L. Frank Baum is honored by Gonzaga University because it is also a Catholic run school as was the Indian mission attended by my grandmother. There certainly was no outcry by the Catholic missionaries at Holy Rosary Mission following the horrific slaughter of the innocent Lakota men, women and children at Wounded Knee. For chasing, running down, and slaughtering old men and women, and for firing point blank into pregnant mothers with children in their arms, 21 men of the 7th Cavalry were awarded Medals of Honor, America's highest military award. The awarding of medals for these acts of bestiality is a blight on the integrity of America and is one mistake made at the height of impassioned and imagined patriotism that should never be allowed to stand. It is the equivalent of handing out Medals of Honor to the soldiers who murdered the innocent men, women and children at Mai Lai in Vietnam. L. Frank Baum believed these actions to be honorable and glorious. Not only did he publicly and proudly condone them, he went one step further and in his now infamous editorial called for the slaughter of the remaining Lakota people. Why should I care after more than 100 years? I care deeply because many of the Lakota people Baum wished to eliminate were my relatives. My grandmother and her parents (my great grandparents) and all of her brothers and sisters made Baum's genocidal list. L. Frank Baum's call for the slaughter of the Lakota people was no better than Adolph Hitler's call for the elimination of the Jewish people and yet Baum is honored on his 150th birthday. Are any newspapers in the state of Washington protesting this outrage? I am aghast that our local daily newspaper would run such an article in the land of the Lakota and never, not once, mention the genocidal editorial of L. Frank Baum. The frontier mentality of most white editors often blinds them to the truth. --- Tim Giago is the president of the Native American Journalists Foundation, Inc., and the publisher of Indian Education Today Magazine. He can be reached at najournalists@rushmore.com or by writing him at 2050 W. Main St., Suite 5, Rapid City, SD. He was also the founder and publisher of the Lakota Times and Indian Country Today newspapers. Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Laughter best N A Medicine, too" --------- Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2006 10:08:27 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: LAUGHTER"