_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 14, ISSUE 032 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 August 12, 2006 Abenaki temezowas/cutter moon Klamath t-hopo/berries dried moon Algonquin micheenee kesos/moon when Indian corn is edible Western Cherokee galohni/end of the fruit or drying up moon +-------------------------------------------------------+ | Much more happens in Indian Country than is reported | | in this weekly newsletter. For daily updates & events | | go to http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm | +-------------------------------------------------------+ Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin -- Blackfeet -- News for All the People Ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min -- Ojibwe -- We Are Talking About Ourselves Aunchemokauhettittea -- Naragansett -- Let Us Share News Kanoheda Aniyvwiya -- Cherokee -- Journal of the People O Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse -- Creek -- People's New News O o O Acimowin -- Plains Cree -- Story or Account O o O Tlaixmatiliztli -- Nahuatl -- News O o o o o O Agnutmaqan -- Listuguj Mi'kmaq -- News O o O Sho-da-ku-ye -- Teehahnahmah -- Talking Birchbark O o O Un Chota -- Susquehannic Seneca -- The People Speak O Ha-Sah-Sliltha -- Ditidaht Nation -- News of the People Ximopanolti tehuatzin, inin Mexika tlahtolli -- Nahuatl -- For you we offer these words It-hah-pe-hah Ah-num pah-le -- Chickasaw -- Together We Are Talking Dineh jii' adah' ho'nil'e'gii ba' ha' neh -- Navajo Nation -- What's Happening among The People News Okla Humma Holisso Nowat Anya -- Choctaw -- People(s) Red Newspaper Hi'a chu ah gaa -- Pima -- The stories or the talk of the People s ch mA mL tL squee Lux -- Okanogan -- News from the People Native American News -- Language of the Occupation Forces ++>If you speak a Native American language not listed above, please send us your words for "News of the People." We'd rather take up this whole page saving these few words of our hundreds of nations than present a nice clean banner in the language of the occupation forces who came here determined to replace our words with their own. email gars@nanews.org with the equivalent of "News of the People" in your tribal language along with the english translation <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is produced in straight ASCII text for greatest portability across platforms. Read it with a fixed-pitch font, such as Courier, Monaco, FixedSys or CG Times. Proportional fonts will be difficult to read. <================<<<< >>>>================> This issue contains articles from www.owlstar.com; www.indianz.com; www.pechanga.net; Rez_Life, Frostys AmerIndian, Chiapasa95-En, Labor-L, Iron Natives and Native American Poetry Mailing Lists; UUCP Mail IMPORTANT!! ----------- In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, all material appearing in this newsletter is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for educational purposes. <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is a way of keeping the brothers and sisters who share our Spirit informed about current events within the lives of those who walk the Red Road. ++ It may be subscribed to via email by sending a request from your own internet addressable account to gars@speakeasy.org ++ It is archived at http://www.nanews.org <================<<<< >>>>================> +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | As historian Patricia Nelson | | Once a language is lost, it is | | Limerick summarized in "The | | gone forever | | Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken | | * Of the 300 original Native | | Past of the American West... | | languages in North America, | | "Set the blood quantum at | | only 175 exist today. | | one-quarter, hold to it as a | | * 125 of these are no longer | | rigid definition of Indians, | | learned by children. | | let intermarriage proceed as | | * 55 are spoken by 1 to 6 elders;| | it had for centuries, and | | when they die, their language | | eventually Indians will be | | will disappear. | | defined out of existence." | | * Without action, only 20 | | "When that happens, the federal | | languages will survive the next| | government will be freed of | | 50 years. | | its persistent 'Indian problem.'"| | Source: Indigenous Language | +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ | Institute | |http://www.indigenous-language.org| This issue's Quote: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + =================== "People in Indian country are still becoming aware of the effects of boarding school trauma." "This is something about our history that is not being talked about in a way that encourages healing from its intergenerational trauma." __ Dr. Eulynda Toledo-Benalli, Dine' +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Indian Pledge of Allegiance | The Indian Pledge of Alleg- | | iance was first presented | I pledge allegiance to my Tribe,| on 2 December '93 during the | to the democratic principles | opening address of the Nat- | of the Republic | ional Congress of American | and to the individual freedoms | Indian Tribal-States Relat- | borrowed from the Iroquois and | ions Panel in Reno, NV. NCAI | Choctaw Confederacies, | plans distribution of the | as incorporated in the United | Indian Pledge to all Indian | States Constitution, | Nations. | so that my forefathers | | shall not have died in vain | Walk in Beauty! Night Owl +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Journey | In the summer and early fall | The Bloodline | of 1998 the Treaty Unity Riders | | rode a thousand miles on horse- | For all that live and live by law | back, carrying a staff and | We Stand, we Call, We Ride | praying each step of the way. | For All that fear and fear by sight | | We Hear, we Listen, we Ride | These prayers were offered for | For all that pray and pray by strength| each of us, and that the Unity | We Feel, we Move, we Ride | of all Peoples might happen. | For all that die and die by greed | | We Hurt, we Cry, we Ride | Tatanka Cante forwarded this | For all that birth and birth by right | poem on behalf of all the Unity | We Smile, we Hold, we Ride | Riders that we might stop and | For all that need and need by heart | ask if the next words we say, the | We Came, we Went, we Rode. | next act we make is for the good | | of the People or is it from ego | Treaty Unity Riders | for self. +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ O'siyo Brothers and Sister! The Lovely Janet has a few comments about the Indigenous Summit at Bear Butte. --- In this week's issue, the Summit of Indigenous Nations at Bear Butte reports signing resolutions that urge the Pope and the Queen of England to rescind 1490s documents justifying (among other things) the removal of Indian title to their lands in the US, Canada and South America. While rescinding those documents can't undo the harm done in the more than 500 years that followed their signing, it can at least remove the pretense that there was just cause to take Indian life, freedom, land, culture or spirituality. And it makes it clear that continuing to pursue activities toward any of those ends are morally and legally unsupportable. The signing of the Mato Paha Treaty of 2006 at this Summit was a significant step in the movement toward indigenous nation's sovereignty. This treaty, which will be sent to the UN, establishes a union between a confederation of Sioux Nations and two additional neighboring nations from the north-central states, one nation now residing in Oklahoma, and a confederation of indigenous nations of Equador. Among the provisions are agreements on a lasting peace, and mutual trade, support and defense provisions. This is one of the most encouraging news items about our people that I've read in some time. Instead of tribes tearing their own people, or other tribes apart for crumbs from the "father" nation's pie, the participating nations are acting globally, joining as independent sovereignties, building alliances on matters of mutual interest, and standing together against past and future injustice. I was most particularly encouraged to see the inclusion of a non-U.S.-based confederation in this group, and hope to see more such treaties among our people in the future. Only by standing together can we hope to be regarded with the respect accorded Nations in the world community. +/// Janet Smith owlstar@bellsouth.net /*/+ P. O. Box 672168 OwlStar Trading Post + / * Marietta, GA 30008, U.S.A. http://www.owlstar.com * + -=-=-=- [Consider getting behind this appeal for assistance - Gary] Date: Sunday, August 06, 2006 09:11 pm From: Brigitte Thimiakis Subj: School Supplies & Children's Clothing Needed Mailing List: Rez_Life [Please circulate widely - thank you] Honor Your Spirit, Protect The Children August 2006 SCHOOL SUPPLIES NEEDED for Children on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation Greetings, It is this time of the year again when children start a new school year, or go to school for the first time. There are children who are looking forward to it, but do not have all, or any of the needed supplies. You can help them by sending any of the following items listed at the bottom of this request. Many of the children live under very poor conditions, so new (or used but as good as new) clothing/new backpacks, shoes & socks for school would also be very much appreciated. The donated items should be sent directly to the reservation, where they will be redistributed by our trusted contacts on the reservation, to the children who need support the most. When sending a box, it would be extremely useful and appreciated if you could send us a short email with your name or location, type of items sent ("Supplies" or "Clothing"), weight and shipping date, so that we can help our contacts by keeping a list of what is sent to them. Our aim is to always make sure that everything reaches the reservation. Please email us for more information: dodie_finstead@yahoo.com, thimiakischool@the.forthnet.gr For more information about "Honor Your Spirit, Protect The Children", please visit the links below. Thank you for encouraging and supporting these children, at such an important and special moment in their young lives! Respectfully, Brigitte & Dodie "Honor Your Spirit, Protect the Children" http://www.geocities.com/honoryourspirit/home.html List of suggested school supplies donations : - Backpacks - Pencil box, Pencils #2 , Hand Held Pencils Sharpener with 2 sizes of holes, Pocket Folders, Glue Stick(s), Crayons, Watercolor Paint, Children's Markers, Colored pencils, Box of Tissues, Colored pencils boxes 1 , Antibacterial Soap Hand Sanitizer. Eraser, Package of Papermate Erasermate Pens, Composition Notebook, Package of Index cards (3x5) 1 ,12" Ruler, 5" Student Scissors , 1-subject spiral notebooks, Compass with measuring guide, Loose leaf ruled 3 hole filler paper, 3-ring Binder, Book Covers/BookSox, Package of pens , Erase Pens, Pen (red), Highlighter, 7" Scissors, Calculator, POST-IT NOTES, Single-subject Spiral Notebooks, Loose leaf ruled 3 hole filler paper ,Wire bound weekly planner, School Drafting kit, Tabbed Dividers, USB Flash Drives (256MB). Please make sure that all the items are appropriate for children, and new (or used but in very good condition - Thank you!). STOP CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT http://www.geocities.com/honoryourspirit/stopabuse.html Adult Children of Child Abuse http://groups.yahoo.com/group/adult_children_of_child_abuse/ <>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o<>o =[This message may be forwarded under the condition that it is not altered in any way] ================= 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 ----------- - Indigenous Summit at Bear Butte - JODI RAVE: Indigenous summit asks Pope for help at base of Bear Butte - Tribes get ready for Rally March - YELLOW BIRD: Buffalo - Cobell Settlement Bill still important on Prairie pulled from Senate - WESTNEAT: Canoe journey - Bush Admin asked for an Indian Pilgrimage delay in Cobell Settlement - YELLOW BIRD: - Editorial: Don't discount Native Plants Stop delaying settlement to Cobell - Dehcho set own deadline - DoI accused of hindering for Pipeline Group Probe into Royalties - Oil spill near Squamish - Agency blasted over housing delays - FN discuss national plan - Carl Artman, Oneida, to protect Treaty Rights named Assistant Secretary - Debate continues over - Feds to replace Elder-in-Residence Programs Subsistence Board Chairman - Kashechewan working - Tribes demonstrate for to restore Faith Klamath Dam Demolition - Band can't derail Project: - Ramapoughs collect on Promise Negotiator - Tribes gird for fight - NAN Grand Chief alarmed over Power Lines about Government Stance - The forgotten Homeland - Urgent Action for Frayba - Lumbee Bill heads to Senate human rights defender with N.C. support - J.ROSS: Zapatistas - Bill gives funds to S.D. Tribes at Critical Crossroads - One Nation United - J. ROSS: Mexican Civil Resistance pays surprise visit in 5 Acts - Kill the Indian, Save the Man - Tempe Union 'in compliance' - Virginia: Bill provides on Indian Program long-sought Recognition - Utes oppose Sheriff Candidate - Suit to halt - Fifth Homicide this year Tribal-Chartered Schools tossed shakes Whiteriver - Tempe Union 'in compliance' - Karuk Dance House fire on Indian Program may have been a Hate Crime - Inter-tribal cooperation - Native Prisoner needed Housing -- Pen Pal Request - Giago retires as Editor - Rustywire: Where Do Yeis Go and Publisher of Magazine - Lee Goins Poem: Emotional Knife - GIAGO: Living in a Nation - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days of Hypocrites --------- "RE: Indigenous Summit at Bear Butte asks Pope for help" --------- Date: Sun, 6 Aug 2006 19:25:51 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BEAR BUTTE SUMMIT APPEALS TO POPE, UN" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/08/06/ news/regional/2e6e40264db8836d872571c10021335b.txt Indigenous summit at Bear Butte asks Pope for help By The Rapid City Journal August 6, 2006 BEAR BUTTE, SD - Tribal leaders and indigenous rights groups will ask the pope to rescind a 1493 Vatican document which they believe paved the legal road for Europeans to take land from indigenous American people. Twenty-three organizations and 100 individuals signed a resolution Thursday at the Summit of Indigenous Nations at Bear Butte. The resolution, which will be sent to the Vatican for review, targets the Papal Bull Inter Caetera of 1493, in which Vatican officials urged Christopher Columbus to convert indigenous Americans to Catholicism. "We command you in virtue of holy obedience that, employing all due diligence in the premises, ... you should appoint to the aforesaid mainlands and islands worthy, God-fearing, learned, skilled and experienced men, in order to instruct the aforesaid inhabitants and residents in the Catholic faith and train them in good morals," reads the 1493 document. "This is going to be history in the making," Vic Camp announced before the resolution and a separate treaty amongst summit participants were signed. The resolution equally targets the Queen of England and asks her to rescind a 1496 Royal Charter. "It is with much honor that I put my hand on this instrument," Dennis Banks of the American Indian Movement said as he signed the resolution. "It's at least part of a solution. It's step one ... to pass this moment on to the next generation so they bear witness and we begin a new day." Oglala traditional chief Oliver Red Cloud was the first to sign Thursday afternoon, followed by Floyd Hand, an Oglala elder and treaty delegate, and then the various indigenous entities. Debra White Plume of Bring Back the Way, one of the summit organizers, said she experienced trauma attending Catholic boarding schools. "I'm really proud to see (everyone) stand up against the people that said we weren't human," White Plume said. "We want our spiritual identity left alone." The resolution states that the 1493 Vatican document and the 1496 Royal Charter "represent principles of religious intolerance in its moral and legal implications" and served as a "doctrine of discovery," a legal foundation for the "extinguishment of aboriginal title to Indian lands in the United States." "The doctrine of discovery established a legal paradigm that has caused crusades in the name of Christianity and great harm and injury to Indigenous Peoples throughout the centuries, including the members of Indigenous Nations gathered at this Summit," reads a section of the resolution. In addition, the Mato Paha Treaty of 2006 was signed Thursday. That document will be forwarded to the United Nations. It recognizes a union among the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council, the Northern Arapaho Nation, the Northern Cheyenne Nation, the Ponca Nation and the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador. Through this treaty, the five entities established peaceful relations among themselves "to maintain an effective and lasting peace" and other goodwill stances, including trade, support and defense. According to Debra White Plume, the treaty will be sent to the United Nations in about one month. Bring Back the Way will take the lead and send in the treaty. However, the group "needs to package it appropriately," White Plume said. Attorneys will draft a cover letter before the treaty is sent. The group expects the U.N. to keep the document on file but expects no further action. Copyright c. 1995 - 2006 Casper Star-Tribune, Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Tribes get ready for Rally March" --------- Date: Wed, Aug 2006 08:35:19 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BEAR BUTTE" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.keloland.com/News/NewsDetail5440.cfm?Id=0,49926 Tribes Get Ready For Rally March August 1, 2006 Thousands of motorcyclists are headed to Sturgis for the motorcycle rally that begins Monday. However, hundreds of Native Americans are also preparing for the event, concerned it's getting too close to their sacred site at Bear Butte. They've come from all over the nation and around world. "We have the Arapaho. We have some people from Ecuador. We have some Navajo and Dine' that came in from Arizona," Organizer Victorio Camp said. Tribal members with the same concerns. Camp said, "So we're trying to come together to figure out ways to protect these sacred sites...so no further desecration or development around sacred sites." It's called the Summit of Indigenous Nations. More than 300 people are at Bear Butte to find ways to protect the sacred site and others and keep businesses from building too close. Members are also preparing for a march in front of bikers in town for the Sturgis Rally. Camp said, "We're not training to fight bikers. That's not the case. In our religion and culture the warriors also had to be fit. It was a part of life." And organizers are already finding support. Camp said, "Yes we do have alliances with bikers all over the nation. Bikers are organizing and trying to keep their clubs away from Sturgis." The demonstration isn't aimed entirely at turning people away from the rally, but rather educating those who do visit. Camp said, "It's a unity effort definitely. The people are coming together to stand in solidarity and say no more desecration of our sacred sites." Supporters are also passing out flyers encouraging bikers to not ride highway 79, which goes past several bars near the butte. Andy Harvey Copyright c. 2006 KELOLAND TV. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Cobell Settlement Bill pulled from Senate" --------- Date: Wed, Aug 2006 08:35:19 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="COBELL SETTLEMENT DEAD IN SENATE" http://www.indianz.com/News/2006/015249.asp Cobell settlement bill pulled from Senate consideration August 2, 2006 Update: At the business meeting this morning, Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) decided to pull the bill after he and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota) met with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Tuesday. He said Kempthorne and Gonzales pledged to work with the Senate Indian Affairs Committee to resolve the Cobell case. He said the committee will work over the August recess with the administration, the Cobell plaintiffs and Indian Country to draft a bill that would provide a comprehensive settlement to Indian trust claims. --- An attorney for the Cobell trust fund lawsuit feared a $8 billion settlement to the case was "dead" after Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) pulled the bill from consideration on Tuesday. The Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which McCain chairs, was due to take up S.1439, the Indian Trust Reform Act, at a business meeting this morning. But it was abruptly removed from the agenda yesterday afternoon. Keith Harper, a member of the Cherokee Nation, said the delay -- the second in the last two weeks -- has effectively put an end to efforts to settle the 10-year-old case. Lawmakers are about to go on a one-month break later this week and will be consumed by the upcoming elections and other urgent matters once they return. "There's no time left in the legislative calendar," Harper said in an interview. "The bill, from our end, is dead." McCain had told the Cobell plaintiffs and the Bush administration last month that his trust reform package would resolve the case for $8 billion. A provision in the bill was expected to allow individual Indians to continue to pursue their claims if they desire. But lukewarm reception from the Bush administration prompted McCain to step back, Harper and two other Capitol Hill sources said. "It's the administration that has the problem with it, it's not the plaintiffs," said one Washington, D.C., lawyer. Harper said it was a mistake for McCain to wait for any sort of response from the Interior Department "If the administration's sign off is a necessary precondition for the committee to go forward on the bill," he said, "then we're going to be waiting a long time." New Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has told tribal leaders across the nation that he wanted to settle. But senior officials, many of whom have remained on board even after the departure of former secretary Gale Norton, have openly balked at a large dollar figure for the case. The officials include Jim Cason, the associate deputy secretary; David Bernhardt, the deputy solicitor; and Ross Swimmer, the Special Trustee for American Indians. In Congressional testimony and public statements, officials have said Indian beneficiaries are owed a very small amount, possibly in the low millions. McCain had indicated he was going to go forward whether or not the Cobell plaintiffs of Interior agreed. When he took over the Senate committee in early 2005, he pledged to give the issue "one good shot." "If it looks like we're not getting anywhere," he said back in March 2005, "then I will leave that task to future Congresses and the courts." It's not clear why McCain may have changed his mind. But he will address the delay when the committee meets this morning, The Arizona Republic reported. Another bill to recognize six Virginia tribes was also taken off the agenda. Three other measures, including one to recognize the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, will be considered as originally scheduled. McCain is stepping down as chairman of the committee at the end of the year. He has drawn some criticism for focusing most of his energies on the Jack Abramoff scandal and Indian gaming. About half of the hearings he called focused or were related to those topics. Copyright c. 2000-2006 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Bush Admin asked for delay in Cobell Settlement" --------- Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2006 09:01:01 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MCCAIN BILL DELAYED AT BUSH REQUEST" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0803mccain-trust.html Indian settlement delayed at administration's request McCain puts off for month offer of possibly $8 billion Billy House Republic Washington Bureau August 3, 2006 WASHINGTON - At the Bush administration's urging, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Wednesday put off for at least another month a proposal to settle a 10-year-old lawsuit involving billions dollars in land lease and mineral royalties owed by the government to Native American landowners. McCain, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee chairman, had scheduled final details of his own plan for such a settlement to be announced on Wednesday, and Indian plaintiffs said they were told that Arizona senator's legislation would include an $8 billion offer. But McCain suddenly removed his bill Tuesday from the committee's agenda, following an unannounced, private meeting with new Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Sen. Byron Dorgan, of North Dakota, the top Democrat on the Indian Affairs panel, also was at the meeting. Explaining his decision on Wednesday, McCain said Kempthorne and Gonzales had agreed to have their staffs work with the committee over the Senate's August break on a "complete resolution." The break begins this week. He said the goal would be to produce legislation that all parties "could live with." McCain also noted that as early as March 2005, at his committee's first hearing on the issue, "we made clear that all parties had to be committed to reach the settlement." "There is both an atmosphere and positive attitude in the administration to find a settlement solution," Kempthorne said in letters to McCain and Dorgan following up on their Tuesday meeting. The letters were released by the Department of the Interior. But Elouise Cobell, a Blackfoot who filed the class-action lawsuit in 1996, and her lawyers were calling the 11th-hour request of McCain by the Bush administration to hold off on his bill "business as usual." In a statement, Cobell said the government wants to keep stalling the case in court. The lawsuit, Cobell vs. Kempthorne, alleges that royalty payments that the federal government was supposed to keep track of and distribute to as many as 500,000 Indians and their heirs has been mismanaged for more than a century . At least $100 billion is owed to Indian landowners across the nation, including in Arizona, Cobell's lawyers have said. Despite the delay, Cobell said she and other Native Americans will continue to look to McCain to help resolve the matter or they fear the case will linger in the court system for years longer. "If he truly wants a resolution and uses his political power to get one, he can do so," she said of McCain. But one of Cobell's lawyers, Keith Harper, said, "Unless Sen. McCain takes strong and affirmative steps and pushes this vigorously, it is dead." Reach the reporter at billy.house@arizonarepublic.com or 1-(202)-906-8136. Copyright c. 2006 Arizona Republic. --------- "RE: Editorial: Stop delaying settlement to Cobell" --------- Date: Sun, 6 Aug 2006 19:25:51 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DELAYS ONLY EXTEND SHAME" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/ editorialsopinion/2003173569_setted04.html Editorial No more delays; settle Indian case August 4, 2006 A century of incompetence and bureaucratic racism in the handling of Indian trust accounts by the U.S. government is compounded by efforts to stall the settlement of a decade-old lawsuit. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne brought a refreshing commitment to his new job to end this shame, but, in another delay, the former Idaho governor joined with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to get all of August to study settlement language in Senate Bill 1489. After the congressional recess, two Republican senators can offer decisive help to stay focused on an equitable solution. Sen. John McCain of Arizona is chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, and Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana heads the Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on Interior. Both have indicated a desire to end this mess. Spectacular sums are at stake with the failure of Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Treasury Department to manage and account for billions of dollars of lease and royalty receipts collected on reservation lands, especially oil and gas leases. Two years ago, a special master in the case brought by Elouise Cobell resigned in frustration because of the Bush administration's withholding of information. For the past 10 years, a conservative, Reagan-appointed federal judge sputtered with outrage about what the lawsuit revealed. The government successfully petitioned to have him reassigned. Shameful government behavior crosses party lines. Officials in the Bush and Clinton administrations have been cited for contempt. In addition to a century of botched record keeping, the federal government was caught destroying records. The recent involvement of the Office of Financial Management might suggest real dollar figures are being crunched. Settlement figures that once topped $25 billion now start down around $8 billion to stir action. The government cannot be allowed to escape this debacle on the cheap and lump together old grievances. This is about individuals, not tribes, cheated by officials with a fiduciary duty to act on their behalf. Settle this travesty, write big checks, and do it with the humility of a penitent making amends. Copyright c. 2006 The Seattle Times Company. --------- "RE: DoI accused of hindering Probe into Royalties" --------- Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 08:52:26 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DoI OBSTRUCTING CONGRESSIONAL ENQUIREY" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ article/2006/08/03/AR2006080301185.html Congressmen Question Oil Windfall By H. JOSEF HEBERT The Associated Press August 3, 2006 WASHINGTON - Two congressmen said Thursday someone at the Interior Department may have deliberately removed provisions from offshore drilling contracts, giving oil companies a multibillion-dollar windfall. They also said the department has refused to provide critical e-mails and documents that could clear up the mystery over the contracts and provisions that dictate how much in royalty payments the companies must pay the government on the leases issued in 1998-99. "We believe the department may have deliberately withheld crucial information" that could determine if the issue involves a deliberate action, complained Reps. Tom Davis, R-Va., and Darrell Issa, R-Calif. Davis, chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, and Issa, chairman of its investigations subcommittee, demanded in a letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne that additional documents and e-mails be provided concerning the 1990s drilling leases. Issa has held several hearings on the matter, which concerns the failure of the department's Minerals Management Service to include a provision in the 1998-99 leases that would have required payment of royalties on oil or gas taken if the market price reached a certain point. Because the provision was left out of leases issued those two years, the leaseholders have not had to pay royalties and won't for years to come, although oil and gas prices have soared well above the royalty trigger. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that as a result the government has already lost $2 billion in royalties and stands to lose another $8 billion over the life of the leases, said Issa. Interior officials have told Issa's committee at two separate hearings that they believe the royalty threshold provision - which had been in earlier leases and was again in leases issued in 2000 and later - apparently was left out by mistake, but that they have not been able to pinpoint the reason. The Interior Department's inspector general also has been investigating the circumstances surrounding the leases. In their letter to Kempthorne, released Thursday, the two congressmen said two Interior Department officials had, in interviews with subcommittee staffers, "made reference to people who may have ordered the elimination of price thresholds in the (1998-99) deepwater leases." "That kind of information is critical to this investigation, especially since Interior officials have testified to the contrary," Davis and Issa wrote. The two Interior officials, identified as Jane Lyder, DOI legislative counsel, and Lyn Herdt, MMS congressional liaison, have "given us the impression" the department has "withheld critical information" from the subcommittee that might get to the bottom of the mystery, the congressmen continued. Neither Lyder nor Herdt was available when attempts were made to reach them at their offices. Interior Department spokeswoman Tina Kreisher said Kempthorne had talked to Davis and "assured him we will fully cooperate" with the congressional investigation. "We have followed all our normal procedures in responding to document requests," she said in a statement. "To the best of our knowledge, we have been fully responsive and have supplied every document previously requested." Of particular interest to the House subcommittee are thousands of e-mails concerning deepwater leases, said the congressmen. The subcommittee had received only 12 such e-mails from the department, while the IG's office has indicated it was reviewing 5,000 e-mails covering the same period, they complained. "We know there are relevant e-mails that we have not had access to," said Larry Brady, a spokesman for Issa's subcommittee. Copyright c. 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c. 1996-2006 The Washington Post Company. --------- "RE: Agency blasted over housing delays" --------- Date: Sat, 5 Aug 2006 10:17:46 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BIA PROVING INCOMPETENCY" http://www.nativetimes.com/ Agency blasted over housing delays "How long are we expected to wait?" CAMP VERDE AZ August 4, 2006 In testimony before a congressional subcommittee holding a field hearing, the chairman of the National American Indian Housing Council outlined the barriers to homeownership existing in Indian Country. One is the continuing saga of tribal members waiting months and even more than a year for their land Title Status Reports, commonly known by the acronym TSRs, to be processed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, according to a recent survey of lenders conducted by the housing council. There is a well-known deficiency of homes on reservations-estimated by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights at 200,000-and homeownership is one logical way of delivering this housing, council chairman Marty Shuravloff told the House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee field hearing in Camp Verde, Arizona. The hearing was dubbed: "Removing Barriers to Homeownership for Native Americans." As part of his testimony, Shuravloff cited the survey, which reveals BIA TSR delays are hurting homeownership. "It is clear that one of the major obstacles to homeownership on trust land is the difficulty lenders and tribes face in securing clear title to the land from BIA," said Shuravloff, who is also executive director of the Kodiak Island Housing Authority in Alaska. "Without a clear, consistent and effective system to comprehensively deliver the TSRs in a timely fashion, homeownership opportunities are being stymied or lost." Council officials say they have been told that some major banking institutions are abandoning the Housing and Urban Development Department Section 184 loan guarantee program for Native American homebuyers, possibly because of frustrations with obtaining TSRs. BIA Not Implementing MOU in a Timely Manner While a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the BIA jointly with HUD and the Agriculture Department approximately 18 months ago, some of the commitments-such as an effort by the BIA to process TSRs in 30 days- apparently was not communicated to its own personnel, according to knowledgeable lenders that the council queried. The very BIA personnel who would be processing TSRs were unaware of its existence. "NAIHC is disappointed with BIA's continued lack of compliance with this MOU, which was a highly publicized and long-desired breakthrough in the Indian housing arena," Shuravloff said. One bank surveyed that serves Indian Country suggested that the BIA return to its previous procedure of offering informational TSRs which, while not certified, allowed banks to process the mortgage without delays. "We urge BIA to immediately incorporate the informational TSR into its process to prevent delays of 6 months to a year," said NAIHC Executive Director Gary L. Gordon. "Lenders report that because of BIA delays, Native American homebuyers have been forced to pay higher rates. This makes homeownership unnecessarily costly." Tribes Starting Title Plants The lack of consistency among BIA local and regional offices has led tribes to try to solve this problem themselves by opening their own title plants: the Confederated Tribes of the Salish & Kootenai Tribe (Montana) and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation (Washington) have taken over the BIA function. "We applaud these tribes for their self-determination in taking control of the process themselves," said Gordon. "However, we know not all tribes have the resources or economies to offer such services cost-effectively, so we look to BIA to solve the processing problems." Housing Insurance Difficult to Obtain Another challenge facing many rural tribal members in Indian areas is the lack of adequate insurance that is required for a home mortgage. For years, housing insurance in Native communities has been provided largely by AMERIND, a Federally chartered, not-for-profit tribal risk pool that provides insurance only to tribal members in Indian Country. Increasingly, Native American Housing Block Grant funds and home loan guarantees made under HUD's Section 184 are being used to finance homes in Indian service areas but outside of Indian Country. With few if any private insurance providers willing to insure Indian homes, and AMERIND blocked from doing so, many of Indian families are being prevented from acquiring mortgage loans. One major focus of NAIHC training and technical assistance has been to help tribes promote homeownership, particularly on reservations. NAIHC's nationally recognized homebuyer education program, "Pathways Home," trains hundreds of tribal housing staff each year, who then provide counseling for their own tribal communities. NAIHC offers training on the mortgage process at our Annual Convention, Legal Symposium and a new conference, "Planning for Homeownership Projects." NAIHC also works with private lenders to break down barriers to homeownership via its Mortgage Partnership Committee. "There is a good reason that NAIHC focuses many resources on promoting homeownership," said Shuravloff. "It is because the rate of homeownership on the reservation still lags at 33%, or half that of the U.S. population in general. While our membership is still aspiring to levels of homeownership that are typical of mainstream America, how long are we expected to wait?" Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Carl Artman, Oneida, named Assistant Secretary" --------- Date: Wed, Aug 2006 08:35:19 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YEAR LONG BIA VACANCY FILLED" http://www.indianz.com/News/2006/015229.asp Carl Artman, Oneida, named assistant secretary August 2, 2006 A lawyer and former lobbyist with experience in tribal matters and connections to the Republican party was nominated as the assistant secretary for Indian affairs on Tuesday. Carl J. Artman, a member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, already works at the Interior Department. For the past several months, he's been providing legal advice on Indian issues within the Office of the Solicitor. More recently, Artman served as chief counsel to the Oneida Nation, where he dealt with land-into-trust, land claims, gaming, taxation and other hot issues. In the mid-1990s, he also represented the tribe as its lobbyist in Washington, D.C. And like his predecessor, the famed entrepreneur Dave Anderson, the new nominee has a background in business as well. Since the 1990s, he has served as a top executive for companies in the telecommunications and technology fields. "We're excited that another Oneida has been appointed to a top position in the nation," said Bobbi Webster, the director of public relations for the tribe. "It speaks to the high aspirations and the greatness of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin." With a deep background in tribal issues on his side, Artman has ties to the Republican party and the Bush administration. In 2002, he was appointed by President Bush to serve on the White House Advisory Board on Tribal Colleges and Universities. In 2004, he sat on the Wisconsin steering committee for the Bush-Cheney campaign. And in the 1990s, he served as legislative counsel to Rep. Michael Oxley (R-Ohio), who is retiring after 25 years in Congress. Artman now must fill the void that left the Bureau of Indian Affairs without a leader for nearly 18 months. Anderson, who was also from Wisconsin, resigned in February 2005 after his unconventional ideas to transform the agency failed to gain traction among senior aides. A different, yet equally daunting, problem faces Artman. In just the past couple of years, the Jack Abramoff tribal lobbying scandal and controversies associated with the rapidly expanding $23 billion Indian gaming industry have dramatically altered the political atmosphere. Artman was personally affected by the change in climate when Rep. Mark Green, a Republican from Wisconsin who is running for state governor, returned his $200 donation earlier this year. Green didn't want to be associated with gaming interests due to controversies surrounding tribal- state compacts in the state. During the 1990s, Artman was tangentially involved with what was then the biggest Indian gaming scandal: an off-reservation casino in Wisconsin. As the Oneida Nation's lobbyist, Artman was mentioned in a Congressional investigation as working with other tribes to defeat the proposed gaming facility. Pending Senate confirmation, Artman will land in the hot seat once again although his nomination presents a scheduling issue. Congress is about to break for a one-month recess, putting off consideration by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. "We look forward to a rapid confirmation and are anxious to get Carl on board," said Nedra Darling, a spokesperson for the BIA. "We look forward to working with him and working together for Indian Country." Copyright c. 2000-2006 Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: Feds to replace Subsistence Board Chairman" --------- Date: Tue, Aug 2006 08:26:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NATIVE ALASKAN REMOVED FROM SUBSISTANCE BOARD" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=3456 Feds to replace Subsistence Board chairman By SCOTT CHRISTIANSEN Mirror Writer July 31, 2006 The secretaries of the U.S. Department of Interior and the Department of Agriculture dismissed the chairman of the federal Subsistence Board earlier this month. Board meetings - including one in September to gather public comment on Kodiak's recently announced designation as non-rural - are continuing as scheduled a department of Interior spokesperson said. The secretaries dismissed Mitch Demientieff, an Alaska Native from Nenana who served as chairman of the six-person board since the early 1990s. Subsistence activists in Kodiak say Demientieff will be missed. "He understood the lifestyle and circumstances in a rural area and he actively engaged in subsistence," said Rebecca Skinner, natural resources director of the Sun'aq Tribe of Kodiak. Skinner is also a member of Kodiak Rural Roundtable, a group of subsistence activists organized to try and preserve the rural status Kodiak City and neighborhoods on the Kodiak road system. Skinner said the Kodiak group hopes someone with a similar background will be appointed to replace Demientieff. The federal Subsistence Board recently adopted a preliminary finding that designates much of Kodiak's road system non-rural, which would take away subsistence rights for people who live there. A final decision is expected by the end of the year. Demientieff was brought to the Subsistence Board post by Bruce Babbitt, secretary of Interior under President Clinton. "It is very seldom in the federal system that people stay on for long periods of time," said Drue Pearce, senior adviser for Alaska affairs to Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne. Kempthorne himself is a new appointee, he replaced Gayle Norton at Interior in May. Pearce said there is no connection between Demientieff's dismissal and the recent shuffle at Interior's top post. The Subsistence Board is reviewed, "on a regular cycle," she said. The board's other five seats are appointed from federal agencies - the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Forest Service - each with a land management role in Alaska. Pearce said Kempthorne will be ready to announce a new Subsistence Board chair by the end of August. In the meantime, Ron McCoy, the staff coordinator at the Interior's Alaska office will serve as interim chair. "Ron (McCoy) is fully able to act, but more importantly, we have a new chairman on the way," Pearce said. Kempthorne and USDA secretary Mike Johanns plan to name another Alaska Native to the post, Pearce said. "The secretaries have someone in mind, although they are also open to suggestion," she said. A meeting of the Subsistence Board in Kodiak will be held in September at which the board will take public comment on Kodiak's non-rural designation. In June, Demientieff visited Kodiak and called the September meetings the most important for Kodiak. Subsistence staff members have not yet set dates for the September meetings. One meeting date in Kodiak is firm, according to the Subsistence Board's Web site. On Sept. 21 and 22, the Kodiak/Aleutians Subsistence Regional Advisory Council meets in Kodiak. The advisory council does not set policy, but is one of several regional advisory councils that report to the board. Mirror writer Scott Christiansen can be reached via e-mail at schristiansen@kodiakdailymirror.com. Copyright c. 2006 Kodiak Daily Mirror. --------- "RE: Tribes demonstrate for Klamath Dam Demolition" --------- Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 08:52:26 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SAVING KLAMATH SALMON" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/opb/news.newsmain? action=article&ARTICLE_ID=949753 Tribes Demonstrate For Klamath River Dam Demolition Oregon Public Broadcasting By Kristian Foden-Vencil August 3, 2006 PORTLAND, OR 2006-08-02 Several Indian tribes from the Oregon-California border marched through Portland Wednesday to call for the demolition of four dams along the Klamath River. As Kristian Foden-Vencil reports, contrary to the outcome of many such marches, they got more than the usual brush-off from authorities. (Sound of demonstrators singing.) About 150 members of the Yurock, Karuck, Hoopa, and Klamath tribes began their demonstration with prayers and a song. Ronnie Reed, a ceremonial dip-net fisherman at Ishi Pishi Falls, says they're here to push Pacificorp into taking the Iron Gate, Copco, and JC Boyles dams down so salmon, steelhead, and coho can once again reach 350 miles of spawning habitat. Ronnie Reed: "Last year we caught less than 200 fish at our fishery. I represent the Karuck Tribe of California and we have over 3,400 tribal members, so catching less than 200 fish at our fishery is an absolute problem, it's a travesty, not only to our tribal members' health, but also it's our way of life." Reed says The Karuck have only had access to modern foods for a few generations, since 1850. Ronnie Reed: "Tribal members have a shock to your body when all of a sudden you have all these foreign foods coming into our system, and genetically I don't believe our system can handle it. And so when we have all these starch-rich coming into our system -- it contributes to diabetes, obesity, hypertension, all these huge issues out there that are astronomical, four or five times the national average for tribal members." He says members of the tribe miss being able to fish for salmon, hunt for deer and enjoy the land as "The Creator" intended. (Sound of chanting.) At the march, hundreds of people carry signs reading "First the Buffalo, Now the Salmon," and "Don't Dam our Future." Reed burns ceremonial angelica root and several female elders sport large blue tattoos on their chins. (Sound of chanting.) The four dams were built between 1917 and 1962, but they're not large, compared to Bonneville or The Dalles. One is simply a pile of earth and rock. None have fish ladders. The dams have generated a lot of interest, however, as they're up for relicensing -- a complex federal process that can force owners to install expensive new equipment, like fish ladders. And environmentalist Stormy Stotts says this is the time for action. That's why she drove to Portland for the rally from the Klamath Basin. Stormy Stotts: "This is the first time in 50 years that they've come up for relicensing, so it's really the chance of a lot of people's lifetime to have the opportunity for them to come down." The tribes say that in purely financial terms, putting in new fish ladders would cost twice as much as tearing the dams down. The figures are not lost on PacifiCorp, whose president responded to news of the demonstration by saying, "We are not opposed to dam removal." Craig Tucker, a member of the Karuk tribe, says that's new. Craig Tucker: "We're looking at it with guarded optimism, we're going to have to have some action to go behind those words. But we think this could happen. It could be the most visionary river restoration effort in American history when it does happen." For years PacifiCorp has been in negotiations with tribes, commercial fishers, the states, and Klamath basin farmers, to try and reach a compromise on what to do about the dams. Company spokesman Dave Kvamme says there is now a new company president and he'd much rather reach some kind of settlement than fight what he calls "the Byzantine federal regulatory process." Dave Kvamme: "If we can find a settlement that includes dam removal and addresses our customer needs and property rights, we're willing to go there. That said, we've been in settlement talks for a long time and we've always had dam removal as one of the potential outcomes in these talks." The tribes says it's now up to the feds and Governors Kulongoski and Schwartzenegger to put together a package that allows PacifiCorp to make enough money -- on a new wind farm, say -- to justify removing the dams. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has set a 2007 deadline for relicensing the dams. But it does have the power to push that deadline back if the tribes, irrigators, fishermen, and the governors are still in negotiation. Copyright c. 2006 OPB, Oregon Public Broadcasting. --------- "RE: Ramapoughs collect on Promise" --------- Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 08:52:26 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="COMMISSION FORMED AS PROMISED AFTER LENAPE SHOOTING" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MDY mZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY5Njk4ODUmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXky Ramapoughs collect on promise The Record By CAROLYN SALAZAR STAFF WRITER August 2, 2006 Governor Corzine plans to create a special commission to study Native American issues in the state following the racially tense shooting of a Ramapough Lenape Indian four months ago, tribal leaders said Tuesday. Corzine will sign an executive order creating the commission as early as this week, said tribal leader Anthony Van Dunk. A spokesman for the governor, Anthony Coley, would not confirm the report Tuesday. The order follows a series of meetings between the tribal leaders and Corzine after the April 1 shooting of Emil Mann. Mann died from two gunshot wounds during a confrontation between tribe members and park police officers in a wooded section of Mahwah near Stagg Hill. The shooting inflamed tensions between tribal members and law enforcement authorities. The Ramapoughs have said they were targeted by police while they were peacefully picnicking in the woods. Corzine, along with state Attorney General Zulima Farber and state Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa Jackson, met with tribal leaders in late April to discuss their concerns. By creating the commission, Van Dunk said, Corzine is delivering on a promise from the talks. "The governor obviously sees that something needs to be done," he said. Park Police Officer Chad Walder, who shot Mann, has not been charged in the shooting. His lawyer, Robert Galantucci, has said he was acting in self-defense. Van Dunk said he is unsure what the intent of the commission will be, but he is certain it will not look into the Mahwah shooting. He speculated that it might consider ways to foster better communication between law enforcement officials and the Native American community. Still uncertain is whether the commission will examine state recognition of the Ramapoughs, a source of tension between tribal members and government officials. The Ramapoughs have been fighting for state and federal tribal designation for decades. Copyright c. 2006 North Jersey Media Group Inc. --------- "RE: Tribes gird for fight over Power Lines" --------- Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 08:52:26 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TRANSMISSION LINE RIGHT-OF-WAY EXPLOITATION" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/08/01/news/ regional/1706bd2fb6ff6270872571ba00210825.txt Tribes gird for fight over power lines By JESSE HARLAN ALDERMAN Associated Press writer August 1, 2006 BOISE, Idaho - When Marci Bailey's relatives signed an agreement with Washington Water Power 50 years ago to string utility lines across an allotment of Nez Perce tribal land, one family member signed the contract with a black thumbprint because he didn't know how to write. Bailey said she recently discovered in documents from the Bureau of Indian Affairs that the 50-year right of way deal paid $50 for wires that crisscross land shared by nine Nez Perce allotees in Kamiah. When the deal expired, a BIA appraisal valued the right of way at $198,000, she said. Instead of accepting a new agreement with the company - now Avista Corp. in Spokane, Wash. - she sued, saying that figure shortchanges tribal members for years of "trespass" and "underpayment." "It's not about money," Bailey said. "It's about trespass on our land, about how our ancestors got taken advantage of." The case, which also names Qwest, Clearwater Power and others, was recently bounced from U.S. District Court in Coeur d'Alene to tribal court. Bailey's attorney, Thomas H. Nelson of Portland, Ore., said there is a long history of utility companies exploiting the complex regulatory framework and legacy of mismanagement at the BIA. The result has been decades of underpayment to Indians, at a loss of millions of dollars, and in some cases, outright trespass on reservation lands, he said. "Everywhere I look there are violations. All you have to do is scratch the surface," he said. "If we win, this will be a strong reinvigoration of Indian rights to manage their own lands." Representatives from the BIA did not return telephone calls from The Associated Press. Across the western United States and in Congress, financial squabbles are unfolding over thousands of miles of telecommunications wire, power lines and natural gas pipelines on Indian lands. The Navajo Nation, which stretches across Arizona and New Mexico and part of southeastern Utah, is embroiled in a dispute with Houston-based El Paso Corp. over 900 miles of pipeline that carry natural gas to California. Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. wants $440 million for a 20-year right of way contract, but negotiations are stalled. "The philosophy of our resources committee is to not be shortchanged by anyone," said George Hardeen, a spokesman for Shirley. "And sometimes that has worked to our detriment, like fewer companies paying to come in and build cell phone towers." Still, a federal investigator probing utility lines on the sprawling reservation found that individual Navajo allotees receive right of way payments far lower than non-Indian landowners. The report came as part of an ongoing class-action suit that claims the BIA has mishandled more than $100 billion in oil, gas, timber and other royalties owned by Indians. To address the disputes, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 calls on several agencies to study the issue. The so-called "1813 study" will also propose guidelines to ensure fair payment for rights of way on tribal land. David Meyer, of the Department of Energy, would not disclose any findings of the study, which was slated for release on Aug. 7, but has been delayed indefinitely. Avista Power, which along with dozens of tribes and energy companies offered comments to the committee drafting the 1813 study, aims to provide fair compensation to individual tribal members whose lands are allotted and managed by the BIA, said spokeswoman Jessie Wuerst. On Idaho's Nez Perce reservation, and others, the company is hampered by a backlog of right of way appraisals, which are approved by the BIA, and by the layers of bureaucracy involved in business dealings on Indian lands, she said. "It's always our goal to have this settled in a way that is fair to everyone involved," she said of the lawsuits in Nez Perce Tribal Court. "We want to be fair and we want to be amicable." Margaret Schaff, an energy adviser to the Affiliated Tribes of the Northwest, a group of 57 tribes in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and California, said utility company underpayments and trespasses are likely widespread. Across the country, Schaff only knows of three tribes that have spearheaded a complete inventory and financial assessment of all utility lines. One of those tribes, the Yakima Nation in Washington state, found numerous trespasses on their rights of way, including power lines and electrical substations, Schaff said. "In some cases tribes are being much more active in this, but many of these things happened years and years ago," she said. "It's complex." Copyright c. 2006 Casper Star Tribune. --------- "RE: The forgotten Homeland" --------- Date: Mon, 7 Aug 2006 08:28:55 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BENNETT FREEZE" http://www.azdailysun.com/articles/2006/08/06/news/20060806_news_53.txt The forgotten homeland By CYNDY COLE Sun Staff Reporter August 6, 2006 West of the divide between Hopi and Navajo lands, thousands of Navajos have lived for four decades involuntarily cut off from power, running water and newly built homes. They sleep two and three families to a house, on average, in hogans, shacks and travel trailers. More than two-thirds of these homes lack running water and plumbing. Seventy-four percent have been deemed unfit for human habitation, according to congressional testimony. This is the land where a 40-year-old administrative order from the Bureau of Indian Affairs prohibits even minor home repairs, all new construction and other modernization because of a land dispute that's said to be near resolution now. The Hopi Tribe and Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. have each said they're close to a solution that would allow members of each tribe unfettered access to sacred sites and eagle gathering, a main point of contention. Meanwhile, the Hopi government has been granting Navajos more exceptions, allowing them to build here and there. If the conflict were resolved, building and repairs would be allowed across the land. But even if the breakthrough comes this year, it would take stupendous amounts of money, work and political support to lift the people living here out of poverty and given them access to amenities most other U.S. citizens take for granted. NO POWER, LITTLE TO EAT Lindy Kelly shares a house with her mother, father and her two children in the same place she grew up, about 10 miles west-northwest of Tuba City off a very rough dirt track. There's no power or running water and there's not always enough to eat. A fresh sheepskin hangs to dry on a pole near her house. A brown and dappled colt munches hay in a pen made of shipping pallets. Kelly's reddened eyes and flour-covered hands show no end to the daily chores of chasing cattle on foot, feeding children, taking care of one ailing parent and hauling water. "There's not a single day that I just sit down," she says. She'll be up at 2 a.m. the next day loading cattle into a truck for auction out of state so she can buy her kids, ages 5 and 7, some school clothes. Except for one moment when her parents got their house in 1992, the prohibition on development named after Bureau of Indian Affairs Commissioner Robert Bennett has been the law of the land since before Kelly and her children were born, called the Bennett Freeze. "I was trying to get a house for me and the kids, but..." Kelly just stops speaking. But the waiting list for tribe-provided housing in Tuba City was years long. And she can't get the clearance she'd need to build here on her family's traditional grazing land, due to the freeze. No school bus could make it out here where horses roam wild across sand dunes and slickrock. The road is so rough that the riders heads knock against car windows. So Kelly spends four hours a day during the school year driving the children to and from school in Tuba City and returning home to her other duties, just as her mom did for her. Looking to their future and a lifting of the freeze, she'd like a new house, running water and maybe a computer for the kids' schoolwork if they get electricity. But all her money goes to gasoline, food and the children, she says. 'THEY WON'T LET US REPAIR' Albina Kanaswood, 94, moved into Tuba City about 13 years ago when her husband needed doctors nearby and running water to wash diabetes-related wounds. It can easily be 110 degrees out here in the summer and Kanaswood has health problems of her own. Looking at the small wood hogan she lived in for more than 30 years, the tar paper protecting the wood has been mostly ripped away in the wind. A piece of particle board lies against the padlocked door. "All tore up," she mutters. "They won't let us repair." Kanaswood can point to her mother and grandmother's unmarked burial sites under the orange sand and knee-high brush and name the sandstone rock formations all along the drive to her former house. She was taken from here and sent to boarding school, but she found her way home eventually. This is where the eagles used to land and take away her prayers in the night. Asked if she'd like to come home, Kanaswood opens her mouth wide and wrinkles her face incredulously. "Of course," her daughter, Priscilla, says. "My parents and us, we couldn't stay out there because we couldn't improve our hogans or our corrals or anything," Priscilla says. "We don't know whether we can ever go home again." Cyndy Cole can be reached at 913-8607 or at ccole@azdailysun.com. Even end of Bennett Freeze controversial The Bennett Freeze once covered 9 percent of the Navajo Nation and affected 8,000 residents. It's since been repealed across half that area. A patchwork of lands around Coppermine, Cameron, Tolani Lake, Tonalea and the Gap are still affected. There's still a $33 million backlog of water and wastewater projects on the back burner and no telephone service for 90 percent of households. Road maintenance is far enough behind that even if the Navajo Nation dedicated its entire construction budget just to this area it would take two or three years to catch up. The prohibition on construction extends to schools, businesses, chapter houses and health centers. People living here are also among the poorest on the Navajo Nation and the United States, relying largely on subsistence ranching that's been limited by drought. Unemployment hovers around 75 percent and the average annual income is only about a quarter of what Native Americans typically make nationwide, according to U.S. Census data. The Bennett Freeze was partly the result of an 1882 presidential order that established a reservation for Hopis and "such other Indians as the Secretary of the Interior may see fit to settle thereon," ignoring who lived where. By 1966, when the boundaries of each tribe's land was still in dispute, Bennett's order was intended to cause such hardships on both sides that the tribes would find a way to settle disagreements quickly. The current solution proposes no land change hands, that access to religious sites be granted on both sides and that no one is removed from their homes, said Roman Bitsuie, executive director of the Navajo-Hopi Land Commission Office. "I think it's in the best interest of everybody to settle this issue and lift the freeze," he said Still, the proposed deal is somewhat secret, generating one lawsuit so far. There have been meetings in chapter houses to verbally explain the proposal but the Navajo Nation isn't releasing all of the related documents. Some identify sacred sites. --Cyndy Cole Copyright c. 2006 Arizona Daily News. --------- "RE: Lumbee Bill heads to Senate with N.C. support" --------- Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 08:52:26 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LUMBEE RECOGNITION BILL" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.newsobserver.com/114/story/466983.html Lumbee bill heads to Senate with N.C. support August 3, 2006 Barbara Barrett, Todd Silberman and Bill Krueger, Staff Writers The Lumbee tribe of Robeson County took another step toward full federal recognition Wednesday when the Senate Indian Affairs Committee passed, on a voice vote, a bill to help the tribe. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a Salisbury Republican, sponsored the bill. It would allow the Lumbees to receive millions of dollars in federal assistance for housing, health care and education. The Lumbees, based in Pembroke near the South Carolina line, have been seeking recognition for decades. The American Indian tribe is considered the largest east of the Mississippi, with about 50,000 members. But some other tribes, including the Eastern Band of the Cherokee, oppose recognition of the Lumbees. They dispute the Lumbees' heritage and fear the tribe could take limited federal dollars. "The Lumbees have patiently waited for more than a century for full federal recognition and the benefits that accompany that recognition," Dole said in a statement. "I commend the Indian Affairs Committee for understanding that this is an issue of fairness and approving this legislation." Sen. Richard Burr, who is on the committee, is among the bill's supporters. "This is an issue of fairness," said Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican. The bill now goes to the Senate, though its chances are unknown. Senate procedures allow such a bill to be blocked by any senator. The Lumbee bill passed the Senate committee last Congress but was opposed by senators with strong tribal constituencies opposed to Lumbee recognition. "Senator Dole recognizes there are some members who have concerns about the bill, and she'll reach out to members to see if their concerns can be addressed," said Katie Norman, Dole's spokeswoman. Copyright c. 2006 Raleigh News and Observer. --------- "RE: Bill gives funds to S.D. Tribes" --------- Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 08:52:26 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="COMPENSATION FOR MISSOURI RIVER DAMAGE" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2006/08/03/news/local/news11.txt Bill gives funds to S.D. tribes August 3, 2006 WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate Indian Affairs Committee approved two bills Wednesday that would compensate South Dakota tribes for land lost to government water projects on the Missouri River. Legislation sponsored by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., would increase payments to the Crow Creek and Lower Brule Sioux tribes for land lost during the construction of the Fort Randall and Big Bend dams decades ago. The legislation would increase payments to established trust funds for the tribes. Another bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson, would similarly provide compensation to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe for land lost to the Oahe dam and reservoir north of Pierre, S.D. Copyright c. 2006 Rapid City Journal. --------- "RE: One Nation United pays surprise visit" --------- Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 08:52:26 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ANTI-INDIAN AGENDA" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.newsreview.info/article/20060803/NEWS/108030101/-1/rss01 One Nation United pays surprise visit to commissioners CHRIS GRAY, cgray@newsreview.info August 3, 2006 One Nation United gave a presentation to the Douglas County Commissioners Wednesday morning at the behest of Commissioner Marilyn Kittelman, despite previous assertions Kittelman has made that she has no affiliation with the group. The Washington state group deals in property rights disputes with Indian tribes. They were put on the agenda only shortly before the 10 a.m. meeting. "We have concerns over the growing problem of buying land off- reservation and bringing it into the federal trust," said One Nation United director Barb Lindsay of Redmond, Wash. Lindsay spoke for about 20 minutes and made little direct comment about the local Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, instead extrapolating on broader concerns. Her appearance follows the move last week by Commissioners Doug Robertson and Dan Van Slyke to call off a planned tribal land trust advisory vote. The Tribe has agreed to negotiate with affected taxing districts before they take land off the tax rolls. Kittelman accompanied Lindsay this spring on a trip to Washington, D.C., with Douglas County Planning Commission Chairman David Jaques, who is national president of One Nation United. "There needs to be more mitigation by tribes for Indian casino impacts on a community," Lindsay said. She gave examples of Indian tribes in Washington state and New York that she said hurt taxpayers by buying up land that is taken off the property tax rolls and then starting convenience stores and gas stations that don't pay sales taxes. She claimed only one gas station in upstate New York is owned by non-Indians. Commissioner Doug Robertson said that much of what Lindsay had to say did not apply locally. "Oregon, as you know, of course, doesn't have a sales tax," Robertson said. "So that issue is a little different here, as a matter of fact, it's not an issue because we don't have a sales tax." He added property taxes can only go up with increased property values, not because the Tribe takes land off the tax rolls. Public comment continued for about an hour, with Kittelman supporters alternating with detractors. "You're making my job very easy by bringing these people to Douglas County," said Donald Keogh, who is leading a drive to recall Kittelman. Wayne Shammel, attorney for the Cow Creeks, said 90 percent of what Lindsay said doesn't apply here and the Tribe has cooperated or will cooperate to resolve any other issues. "It is One Nation United, Mr. Jaques, who are trying to change the law," Shammel said. "Any suggestion that the Cow Creeks are trying to skirt the law is false." Jaques spoke toward the end of the meeting, apologizing to Lindsay for the disrespectful rhetoric of the meeting, saying, "that's not the Douglas County I know." "The hateful speech is predominately coming from the tribe and tribal supporters," he said. Copyright c. 2006 The News-Review - Roseburg, OR 97470. --------- "RE: Kill the Indian, Save the Man" --------- Date: Wed, Aug 2006 08:35:19 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HEALING FROM BOARDING SCHOOL LEGACY" http://www.thenativepress.com/boardingschool.html 'Kill the Indian, Save the Man' For generations, government- and church-run boarding schools broke up families and destroyed American Indian cultures. Now, a United Nations effort hopes to reverse some of that. United Nations Permanent Forum Panel Works Toward Boarding School Healing By Karen Lynch, Navajo The trauma of boarding school runs deep in Indian country. Stories, memories and research of this phenomenon were discussed during a session on healing this trauma at the Third U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York, City in May 2004. As a world body, U.N.Permanent Forum geared its theme toward indigenous women, coinciding with sessions that addressed topics affecting indigenous peoples and the effects of boarding school in the U.S. "People in Indian country are still becoming aware of the effects of boarding school trauma," said Dr. Eulynda Toledo-Benalli, Dine', currently performing boarding school healing project research with the Navajo people. "This is something about our history that is not being talked about in a way that encourages healing from its intergenerational trauma." She explained that the project fit into the U.N. theme of indigenous women because, "women perform important cultural roles as caretakers and preservers of family and legacy in Indian country." As a panelist, Dr. Toledo-Benalli said the pain she suffered as a second-generation survivor affected not only herself but her children, as well. "Many times I have said to my children that I'm sorry for the way I treat them. This is so, because parents learn parenting skills from their parents. It is said that the oppressed become the oppressors. As Dr. Toledo-Benalli talked about the painful memories as a survivor, the memory of her father who was "snatched and taken to Colorado, to a place that he did not know even existed. My mother who was herding sheep was also snatched. "While at the boarding school, my father said they had to wear military style uniforms and were forced to march around as in the military. The sound of the school bell meant that it was always the time to march." Military style regimen became the norm at government boarding schools following the motto of Gen. Richard Pratt, "Kill the Indian, save the man. " Pratt, who commanded an Indian POW camp and is credited with establishing the first off-reservation federal boarding school in 1879. "This motto on killing the Indian was used a peace policy because boarding schools were run like a lucrative business," said Tonya Gonnella Frichner, Snipe Clan, Onondaga Nation, Haudenosaunee, President of the American Indian Law Alliance, during the opening statements of the panel on boarding school healing. "It was also a forced policy rather than a cultural one," said Dr. Andrea Smith, Interim coordinator of the Boarding School Healing Project and a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. "It was a way to spend less money. But, it also introduced violence and abuse, and it repressed traditions based on a patricharchal system. It was essentially a mass violation of human rights." Attendance at this session included those interested in the topic or associated with its trauma through relatives or family. "I remember relatives saying years ago, that as children attending a government boarding school in Santa Fe, New Mexico, that they would have to sleep close together because it was so cold in the dormitories," said Vickey Downey, a Pueblo of Tesuque member and representative with Tewa Women United, an organized group of women in the northern New Mexico pueblos. "These kids also had to pack extra food and fruits like oranges with them when going away to school because they were always hungry." Peggy Bird, a former boarding school student and now a consultant and attorney with Clanstar Inc., an organized coalition of women working to end violence against battered, sexually abused, tortured, or stalked Native women, said the boarding school experience has had a tremendous impact upon lives of Native women as evidenced by high rates of violence across the country. "In our work with Native women who are traumatized by violence and assaulted, we are seeing that many of us learned to drink in order to cope with grief, loneliness and poverty." "I agree that the effects are intergenerational on families," said Charmaine Whiteface, a member of the Lakota Nation who attended the session and currently an advocate in Indian country, "primarily in the area of sexual, mental, physical, and emotional abuses. Prior to the boarding school years, our Lakota people historically had very strict rules of behavior and none of these abuses existed. Since then, crimes being committed are predominantly by felons who are abused in the same way as boarding school children. "My parents both attended a catholic boarding school and experienced, as well as saw, all these types of abuses. They refused to speak the Lakota language to us and only wanted us to be `white'. There was alcoholism and major physical, emotional and mental abuse in our home. They knew no other way: They were terrified of being Indian. If it were not for my grandmother who taught me in secret, I might not have even a little knowledge about my culture." During the session, Dr.Toledo-Benalli mentioned that traditions within families is a mixture of a tribe's traditional teachings, and those of the "oppressors." "Even though I know my father talked to us in Navajo for discipline, I also remember my mother's silence and her just treating us mean. Because both of my parents attended boarding schools, I realize that it was at times confusing. It is like internalized oppression." "A definition or result of internalized oppression is "shame and the disowning of our individual and cultural reality. Without internalized oppression, we would not now have previously unseen levels of violence, especially against women and children ." Healing the effects of violence and intergenerational trauma upon families and persons is taking place among victims throughout Indian country. "Reparation is possible only when there is total healing," said Whiteface. "First, through awareness that devastation took place by the victims and the perpetrators were the federal government. Secondly, provisions need to be put in place for treatment centers and qualified personnel to deal with post-trauma stress disorder that is generational, often passed down through as many as four generations." Through the Boarding School Healing Project this is taking place. According to Dr. Andrea Smith, "Our purpose is to provide healing from abuses; to educate Native and non-Native people about the genocidal practices of boarding schools; to document the abuses from survivors and the continued effects; and to build a movement to demand reparations collectively for Native peoples from the U.S. government." "For healing must come from our own people, from ourselves as Native people and perhaps through organizing a day of remembrance," said Dr. Toledo-Benalli. "It was just 130 years ago that my people came back from the Long Walk. Now it is possible that we as Native people have better answers. Whiteface agrees, that in order for there to long-term healing, "there needs to be the ability for each nation to again be able to re-learn our old ways and to be able to deal with breaking our rules in our own ways. This would mean the abolishment of the Federal Major Crimes Act. "I know it is a big order, but perhaps the U.N. Permanent Forum is one avenue that could help us do that." One of the first writers in Indian country to ever address this topic on boarding schools was Tim Giago, current editor of The Lakota Journal, and a mission boarding school survivor, who in 1978 wrote the book entitled, "The Aboriginal Sin", documenting the boarding school condition that effects the survivors and their families throughout Indian country. Copyright c. 2003 - 2005 The Native Press. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Virginia: Bill provides long-sought Recognition" --------- Date: Tue, Aug 2006 08:26:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="VIRGINIA TRIBES USING JAMESTOWN ANNIV. TO FOCUS ON NEED" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/072006/07312006/209925 State tribes are status-seekers Bill provides long-sought recognition Upcoming Jamestown anniversary helping push federal recognition for Virginia tribes By MICHAEL ZITZ July 31, 2006 Concern that the state could be embarrassed when world attention focuses on Jamestown next year may help win federal recognition for American Indian tribes in Virginia that existed long before Pocahontas saved John Smith. The celebration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown colony is expected to be a boon to tourism. But if American Indian tribes were to stage protests, positive impact might be diminished. This may be motivating Congress to move on a bill to recognize the tribes while dealing with concerns that granting such status could lead to casino gambling, according to Robert Holsworth, a political scientist at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. "Clearly, the 400th anniversary is adding a little bit of extra urgency to the congressional timetable," Holsworth said. "I think there are many elected officials who'd prefer not to have a story about nonrecognition at the top of the news cycle" during the Jamestown celebration, he said. Federal recognition would allow the tribes access to educational assistance grants, housing assistance and health-care services already available to most American Indians, according to Gary Garrison, a spokesman for the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington. Garrison said the biggest hurdle to recognition usually is proving the roots of the tribes run deep, and that's not a problem in Virginia. "These are first-contact tribes," he said - among the first to encounter the Europeans who came to America. Members of six Virginia tribes - Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock, Monacan and Nansemond - attended a recent hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on a bill to recognize them. The measure could get further attention in Congress this week. The bill was introduced by Virginia Sens. John Warner and George Allen. Allen noted that the Virginia tribes signed treaties with kings of England as early as the 1600s. "Virginia's tribes have a long history - perhaps the longest relationship with any state government in the country," Warner said. Allen said the passing of the Virginia Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which classified many Indians as black, forced the tribes to renounce their heritage to pass as white and avoid segregation. That law banned racial intermarriage before being struck down by the Supreme Court in a 1967 ruling in Loving v. Virginia, a case involving a Caroline County couple. Since the Jamestown anniversary seems to be a factor now, there's some irony in the fact that the 1924 act included a "Pocahontas exception." Because some old Virginia families claimed to be descended from Pocahontas, the legislature ruled one could be classified as white with as much as one-sixteenth Indian blood. Robert Green, chief of the Patawomeck tribe in Stafford County, said some Virginia Indians still conceal their heritage in reaction to that. "These tribes have suffered humiliation and indignities that have gone largely unnoticed by most Americans," Allen said, including "government policies that sought to eliminate their culture and heritage." Holsworth said Warner and Allen have been pushing for recognition of the tribes for some time. "I think they have a little more momentum because of the upcoming anniversary," he said. Holsworth said recognition of Virginia tribes has been held up for years "by the reaction to what's happened in other states" that have seen casinos open on tribal reservations. Patawomeck chief Green explained that federal recognition makes tribal lands sovereign "nations," where laws of the surrounding state do not apply. Warner and Allen both have said the Senate bill will be worded to overcome concerns about casinos opening in Virginia. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-10th District, has been considered by some to be an obstacle for the Virginia tribes because of his fierce opposition to casinos. But Wolf spokesman Dan Scandling said the congressman has never been against recognizing the tribes. "What he's opposed to is the potential for gambling," Scandling said. "If the Indians don't want gambling, then write 'no gambling' in the bill," he said. "It's as simple as that." If the tribes win recognition, Green said it may still be difficult for some Indians - including the 570 Patawomecks - to prove their lineage in order to receive any federal benefits. He noted that fighting during the Civil War destroyed records at Stafford Courthouse and that the state deliberately destroyed Indian records in a process sometimes referred to "paper genocide." Warner said: "The administrative process is especially difficult for the Virginia tribes because of actions by Virginia's State Bureau of Vital Statistics many decades ago, which essentially eliminated the documents they needed to finish the administrative process. It is an action that the Commonwealth of Virginia has since apologized for, and rightly so." Despite that, Green said Virginia Indians are optimistic that federal recognition will come in time for next year's Jamestown celebration. That status is deserved, he said, because if the Patawomecks hadn't supplied the Jamestown colony with food at the urging of Pocahontas, the English settlement probably would have failed. And that, he added, might have altered the course of American history. "We could all be speaking Spanish today," he said. To reach MICHAEL ZITZ: 540/374-5408 Email: mikez@freelancestar.com Copyright c. 2006 The Free Lance-Star Publishing Co. of Fredericksburg, Va. --------- "RE: Suit to halt Tribal-Chartered Schools tossed" --------- Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 08:52:26 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TEACHERS UNION SUIT REJECTED" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060803/NEWS02/608030398 Suit to halt tribal-chartered schools tossed Detroit Free Press BY CHASTITY PRATT FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER August 3, 2006 The state's largest teachers union cannot stop a community college run by American Indian tribes in Michigan from opening charter schools all over Michigan, a state appeals court has ruled. The Michigan Education Association sued the state last year, saying that charter schools opened by Bay Mills Community College were not truly public schools because the board is not elected and therefore its charter schools should not get state money. A three-judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals dismissed the MEA's appeal Tuesday without addressing the union's arguments. The judges ruled that the MEA had no standing to make the arguments because the union did not prove that its teachers would be harmed by the opening of charter schools. "We've got a lot of pressure on us in education to be accountable, but are these appointed board members accountable to the public whose money they are spending?" Margaret Trimer-Hartley, spokeswoman for the MEA, said Wednesday. "Really, this case has not been heard on its merits because of the issue of standing and that probably is the most disappointing of all." Charter schools, also called public school academies, are public, tuition-free schools funded with state money. They may be run by companies and, in a few instances, are run by organizations affiliated with churches. State law limits colleges and universities to authorize up to 150 charter schools in Michigan, and that cap has been reached. The union targeted Bay Mills, based in Brimley in the Upper Peninsula, because the Indian-tribe-run college has statewide boundaries and can authorize an unlimited number of charter schools. The college oversees 32 schools targeting urban, minority and poor students. The law prohibits Bay Mills from opening schools in Detroit, but there are several Bay Mills- authorized charter schools in nearby suburbs. "I've seen what happens to inner-city students who don't get an education. We spend $30,000 a year to house them in prison," Patrick Shannon, director of charter schools at Bay Mills, said. "This is reality we're dealing with. ... We're going to educate kids and continue to fight." He said the college has two new schools opening this fall -- one in Taylor and another in Ypsilanti. But, he said, it has no plans to authorize hundreds of charter schools. About nine more are likely, he said. The union isn't expected to appeal this case to the state Supreme Court but says it will continue to look for ways to stop Bay Mills from chartering more schools, Trimer-Hartley said. "This is not a case where we're going to just throw up our hands and say this is over," she said. "We will continue to look for options." Copyright c. 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc. --------- "RE: Tempe Union 'in compliance' on Indian Program" --------- Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 08:52:26 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="STATE DENIES VIOLATION OF FEDERAL GUIDELINES" http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/ 0802ar-indianmeet0802Z14.html Tempe Union 'in compliance' on Indian program Colleen Sparks colleen.sparks@arizonarepublic.com The Arizona Republic August 2, 2006 A state education leader disputed claims that Tempe Union violated federal guidelines when seeking funding for Native American programs and urged parents to instead focus on how to help improve student services. "Everything does seem to be in compliance," Debra Norris, director of Arizona's Indian Education Office, told 40 people at a community meeting Monday. "We are all here for students. I do see results when districts and parents and communities work together in a positive way." Norris, whose office is part of the Arizona Department of Education, is Tohono O'odham and attended school as a child on the reservation near Baboquivari in southern Arizona. At the meeting, she was accompanied by colleague Leon Oosahwe and Tempe Union officials. The meeting was held to address a complaint that Ahwatukee Foothills parent Lisa Blackhorse, former president of the district's Native American Education Parent Committee, filed with the Arizona Department of Education and the federal Office of Indian Education in June. Blackhorse, who is Tlingit and Yurok, has a son who graduated from Mountain Pointe High School in May. She claims the district program does not comply with federal requirements in seeking parental and community input for Indian education programs. "It takes all of us working together to add suggestions," Tempe Union Superintendent Shirley Miles said. "How about saying, 'Here's an idea, here's what we can do to help?' We want to hear your concerns." Native American resident Peter Verdugo of Tempe said he thought parents' concerns weren't relevant to the district and state. "Why call a meeting like this and make us irrelevant in the process?" he asked. Norris said she was sorry if he felt that way but noted that she wouldn't have attended the meeting had she believed parents were irrelevant. Miles said the district wants to hear parents' concerns, but "it's always helpful to have some suggestions" for improvement. Last school year, there was "so much tension" at the parent committee meetings, Miles said. Blackhorse, who attended the meeting but did not address the panel, was the group's president presiding over those meetings. She later declined comment. After the meeting, Verdugo said he was satisfied that the state and district value parents' input. Tempe Union officials talked about college visits, tutoring, summer school and other ways that the district's Native American program has benefited students and goals to add more help next school year. The district had 531 students enrolled in the Native American program, with the most - 241 - at Marcos de Niza High in Tempe, as of last month, said Valerie Molina, the district's coordinator of Indian education. The program reimburses Native American students for class fees, sports costs and other expenses, organizes college visits to the high schools, provides tutoring, clubs and other services, she said. In order to receive the federal Title 7 and Johnson O'Malley Act grants, school districts must seek parents' input in planning the programs, but school districts and parents won't always agree on how to do that, Norris said. The programs are voluntary, and the state can't dictate how school districts should run them, she said. Molina said next school year the district expects to get about $94,550 from the Title 7 grant, one funding source. Copyright c. 2006 Arizona Republic. --------- "RE: Inter-tribal cooperation needed Housing" --------- Date: Tue, Aug 2006 08:26:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SANTO DOMINGO PUEBLO HOUSING" http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=8049 Build it and they will come Inter-tribal cooperation translates into needed housing SANTO DOMINGO NM Rick Abasta July 31, 2006 Rising from the high desert New Mexico foothills are new Santo Domingo Housing Authority homes built from Navajo FlexCrete building blocks. With the Jemez Mountains in the distance, the new homes are a welcomed sight for the small pueblo community. In spring 2006, representatives of the Santo Domingo Housing Authority visited the Navajo Nation to see construction of Navajo FlexCrete homes. Raymond Vasquez, executive director of the SDHA designed the homes, which were modeled after traditional adobe structures. Their tour of Navajo Housing Authority homes in Burnside, Ariz. tipped the scales in favor of utilizing the aerated concrete technology for construction of 10 new homes for the pueblo. Navajo FlexCrete Building Systems Inc. in Page, Ariz. produces the building material, which is created from reconstituted waste product in the form of coal fly ash from the neighboring Navajo Generating Station. Ed Marcus, general contractor for the project, said his crew has an average construction time of two weeks per home. "We're on our tenth house now, so that's 20 weeks of construction. But that doesn't tell you the whole picture because we had to back off a little bit because of the weather," Marcus said. The new homes offer over 1,800 square feet of space, from the concrete slab to the roof, he said. Marcus Construction was contracted to complete 10 homes and the process has been a learning experience for the predominately Hispanic crew. Because the FlexCrete thin paste sets immediately, Marcus said his masons had to master setting the block right on the first attempt. "The thin set is a remarkable product. FlexCrete is just a solid wall, once you get this thin set in there. It's a good product," he said. FlexCrete Thin Paste Mortar is made from the same ingredients as the blocks and the bond created is equally strong as the product because of the tiny fibers in the mixture. The construction crew utilized 11 pallets of 8-inch blocks, 6 pallets of 6-inch blocks, 2 pallets of o-blocks and one pallet of u-blocks for one spacious three-bedroom, two-bathroom home at 1,864 square feet. Amenities include a front and back patio, plus an adobe fireplace with fresh air ventilation. "The fireplace is circulated adobe, including the fire walk. It's accented with flagstone from the area and a scratch wire finish for a natural beauty," Marcus said. "We also have an adobe cut down wall for the entry area. "I'd definitely work with this (FlexCrete) again," he said. As a means of individualizing the homes, Marcus said the fireplaces were each built with a different style, as were the bathroom tiles, to give homeowners a sense of customization from the standardized floor plans. Marcus is a member of the San Juan Pueblo and has been in the construction industry for over 15 years. Based in Albuquerque, Marcus Construction works with custom builds, remodeling, residential and subdivision construction. As an Indian-owned enterprise, Marcus Construction has worked with the Santo Domingo Housing Authority previously, with remodels and renovations in the pueblo. "In the pueblo, everything is adobe and hundreds of years old. It's kind of tricky. If you have to get in there and demolish, you got to be very careful, be sensitive to the cultural interests and rebuild as closely and aesthetically to what it was before," Marcus said. Stepping into the 21st century, Santo Domingo Housing Authority designed the homes, which will still retain the adobe aesthetics, although they are constructed with Navajo FlexCrete blocks. "Look how hot it is out there. I'm sweating. But now, I'm feeling a lot cooler. That's a testament, I think, to the insulation properties of this product. I'm standing here cool and comfortable," Marcus said from inside a home that just got roofed. "I think this is what the housing authority is leaning toward. We're tired of building homes that fall apart after a couple of years," he said. Perhaps the biggest evidence of the strength of Navajo FlexCrete building blocks, Marcus said one of the homes withstood a direct hit from a bolt of lightening recently. "My foreman called me and told me one of our homes got struck by lightening," Marcus said. "When I got here, I saw that it was a direct hit to the fireplace and it took out a small corner of the parapet. "You could see where it tried to pull out the bond beam and the exterior wall, but it didn't even budge it. In a conventional house, that whole side of the wall would have been demolished and the home would have probably burned," he said. Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Giago retires as Editor and Publisher of Magazine" --------- Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 08:52:26 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DAUGHTER TO STEP IN AT NATIVE AMERICAN REVIEW" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2006/08/04/news/local/news09.txt Publisher's daughter leads Indian magazine By Jomay Steen, Journal Staff Writer August 4, 2006 RAPID CITY - A new editor of Native American Review Magazine, formerly Indian Education Today, replaces Tim Giago, who retired this week as editor and publisher of the American Indian magazine. The 39-year-old art director of Native American Review Magazine, Denise Giago, has followed her father's footsteps into journalism and now begins her duties as editor. She has been working at the magazine since it first published in October. "This is fairly new to me, but my dad will only be a phone call or e- mail away," she said. Publisher Christy Tibbitts, 33, sales manager Jackie Jordan and Collette Keith, managing editor, will join the new editor on staff of the nearly year-old publication. Tim Giago, 72, an Oglala Sioux Tribe member, recently announced his retirement as president of Native American Journalists Foundations, and publisher of Native American Review Magazine. He underwent open-heart surgery last year and has been recovering since then. "After more than 35 years in the newspaper business, I think it is time to put away my beat-up typewriter and move on to other endeavors," Giago said. After he has moved into his Albuquerque, N.M., residence, Giago will begin promoting his new book "Children Left Behind," published by Clear Ligh Books of Santa Fe, N.M. He plans to attend a book signing on Aug. 18 at the Santa Fe Indian Market and Festival. A syndicated national columnist for more than 25 years, he said he will continue to write a weekly column for McClatchy News Service of Washington, D.C., formerly Knight Ridder Tribune News. He said he would also continue to recruit high school and college Indian students into journalism careers. The Indian publication pioneer began his career with the Lakota Times weekly newspaper on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1981. He built it into the largest weekly newspaper in South Dakota and the largest independently owned Indian newspaper in the nation. He later changed the name of the paper to Indian Country Today, which is still published each week by the Oneida Nation of New York. In 1990, Giago was awarded the prestigious Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University, only the second South Dakota journalist honored with the fellowship. He received the H.L. Mencken Award from the Baltimore Sun, the Distinguished Journalism Award from School of Journalism at the University of Missouri and many newspaper awards in his 30-year career in journalism. He was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame in 1994. "I hope to have more time to devote to my weekly column and to continue my work on another book," Giago said. Contact Jomay Steen at 394-8418 or jomay.steen@rapidcityjournal.com. Copyright c. 2006 Rapid City Journal. --------- "RE: GIAGO: Living in a Nation of Hypocrites" --------- Date: Tue, Aug 2006 08:26:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GIAGO: NEW VIEW OF GAMBLING" http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=8048 Notes from Indian Country Living in a nation of hypocrites Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji) Copyright c. 2006 Native American Journalists Foundation, Inc. July 31, 2006 Ok now, let me get this straight. Gambling was once a crime punishable by a prison sentence. Ministers of the church stood at the pulpit and preached against gambling because the Holy Bible said it was a sin. The only state in the Union to license legalized gambling was Nevada and its major city, Las Vegas, was often called Sin City. So not only was gambling a crime, it was also a sin. When did all of this change? When did sin become no sin? When did gambling as a crime become gambling as no crime? I think it all started to change when the state and national governments discovered that collecting taxes (or fees as they are euphemistically known when collected from Indian tribes) on gambling revenues was an easy and painless way to raise money. I remember when it was illegal to advertise legal gambling and legal gambling establishments in a newspaper or on television. Did that change or has the advertising industry just found clever ways to get around it? And then the state governments themselves started to get into the gambling industry with all sorts of legal lotteries. Of course they found a hundred reasons why the revenues they collected from state licensed casinos and lottery games were an important addition to the state's economy. Education? Yeah, that was the ticket. Simply say that 90 percent of all revenues collected from gambling will go to education. Property taxes? Wow, there's another good one. State people are always complaining about their rising property taxes so just tell them that 10 percent of all gaming revenues will go to reducing their property taxes. These reasons alone can sure lend a tone of legitimacy to open gambling. I'm surprised that some of the state governments including that of Governor Mike Rounds in South Dakota didn't come up with schemes to give a percentage of gaming revenues to the Church. Now I read that Indian casinos brought in $23 billion dollars in revenues last year. Delving into the minds of state officials I would surmise that they are not only considering more and better ways to skim off some of these revenues for themselves, but are also looking at ways to drastically reduce aid to needy Indian families. Lord knows the federal government is already hatching secret schemes about how to reduce federal funding to Indian tribes. As is often muttered in the dungeons of the Secretary of the Interior's office, "Hey, since those Indians are all so damned rich, let's start cutting their budgets. A nip here and a tuck there and we will soon be able to wean them from federal money entirely." Of course, that would leave more money for the Interior Department's land, water, trees and natural resources agencies. Interior's thinking is that Indians still have a lot of control over these things and the budget cuts will give them the money to allow the federal government to take more land, water, trees and natural resources from them. Hey, their rich now and really don't need all of that land, water, trees and natural resources anyhow. They're too busy buying 5,000 square foot homes, Cadillac cars, yachts, video games and 52-inch television sets. And, of course, many of them are much too busy putting their casino money back into their own casinos. In fact, the Indian nations are getting so rich that they will hardly miss the things the government is about to take from them. Let them rest on their casinos. That's poetic justice. What the Church has chosen to look at approvingly, the crimes and sins of gambling, has found a home in Indian country and Atlantic City. Or as Vice Pr esident Cheney would add, "Big time." But, of course, the Church is much too busy worrying about abortion, gay marriage, flag burning and stem cell research to give any time or thought to the sin of gambling. Hell, if you will pardon the expression, they would probably build casinos of their own if they could find a way to do it. If Oral Roberts could build a casino in Oklahoma he wouldn't have to worry so much about dying prematurely if church going people don't send him their hard earned dollars. And just think how much more Pat Robertson could do with his Christian Broadcasting Network if he had his own casino. Sin does pay handily. The point of all this nonsense is how can the religious right or as it used to call itself "The Moral Majority," raise its voice against every other sin but gambling? In my mind that has got to be the pinnacle of hypocrisy. It is hypocritical for the Church ministers to preach selectively about sin and then pander and approve of a sin that is historically and biblically a sin and a crime. It is doubly hypocritical for state governors like Mike Rounds of South Dakota to approve legislation attempting to quash legalized abortion while raking in money from the casinos that can be found on nearly every street corner in his state. It's all about the money, baby, not the morals. "And that's the way it is," as Walter Cronkite used to say. --- 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: JODI RAVE: Indigenous summit at base of Bear Butte" --------- Date: Tue, Aug 2006 08:26:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="JODI RAVE: BEAR BUTTE SUMMIT" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2006/07/31/jodirave/rave3.txt Indigenous summit to focus on saving sacred lands By JODI RAVE of the Missoulian July 31, 2006 T.J. Afraid of Hawk is helping organize an indigenous summit at the base of Bear Butte in South Dakota, a place sacred to more than 30 tribes but soon to be a neighbor to the world's biggest biker bar. The Summit of Indigenous Nations, scheduled Aug. 1-4, will help prepare Native people to reach out to state legislators, county commissioners and federal lawmakers as they try to preserve sacred lands. Bear Butte tops the list of tribal concerns. "Right now, they just know Native Americans hold it sacred, but we want them to know it's our place of prayer," said the Lakota woman from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. "They don't understand because they don't see us there all year-round. Lakota people never stayed there because it was too sacred. We went there for our prayers and we left." But biker bar mogul Jay Allen, an Arizona businessman, is in the middle of creating a permanent presence less than two miles from the butte where Natives pray and perform ceremonies during about five months of the year. Allen has already broken ground for a 150,000-square-foot chunk of asphalt for trucks and for bikers to drink at his bar. A 30,000-seat amphitheater for concerts is also in the works. "It's the biggest biker bar we've ever seen," said Oglala Sioux Tribe President Alex White Plume, a summit organizer. "It's so humongous that it just frightens us." Allen is billing his venue as a "safe haven" for two-wheel motorheads. He urges bikers on his Web site to help "make Sturgis County Line and the Broken Spoke Saloon their new 600-acre home, preserving our passion for throwin' a party and keeping the biker lifestyle alive." The saloon will cater to the half-million bikers who converge annually upon South Dakota's Black Hills for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which is scheduled to begin Aug. 7. Already, Allen's biker haven is butting up against Indian heaven. "As you sit in our camp, you can look up on the horizon and see all his buildings right now," said Vic Camp, an organizer of the InterTribal Coalition to Defend Bear Butte. "He has huge crews out there right now. "I myself just got done sitting on the hill praying and I had to deal with the bikes and the cars," said Camp. "And it ain't even the rally time yet." Native people have been praying at Bear Butte near Sturgis, S.D., for unknown millennia. Natives don't need a roof over their heads to pray. At Bear Butte, they pray under the sky. "That's our holy place," White Plume said. "That's our church." But the concept was lost on South Dakota's Meade County commissioners, who unanimously approved Allen's permit for a liquor license. The commissioners argued that state law gave them the right to issue building permits based on a business owner's character and to consider location. An alcohol license wouldn't be issued, for example, near a church or a school. The Meade County commissioners are being too narrow minded, said Tim Coulter, an international indigenous human rights expert and director of the Indian Law Resource Center in Helena. "They are behaving as if those detailed local laws are the only law they have to comply with, but there are other laws, greater laws, particularly international law, that do need to be taken into consideration. "They're wrong if they think complying with local liquor laws is their only consideration." The chair of the county commissioners did not return phone calls on Friday. Customary international law of human rights is binding, and it includes the right to practice one's culture with freedom, Coulter said. "I don't blame them for not knowing about it, but we're calling it to their attention now. They may begin to understand that this is more important than they thought. There's more at stake than they thought. There's more damage being done than they thought. The rules are a little different than they thought." Robert Simpson, a Northern Cheyenne from Montana, plans to go to Bear Butte - or Mato Paha - to pray and fast in September. "If you get up on top of that mountain, you feel like you can reach out and touch heaven," he said. The area is sacred to his tribe because at one time "our people lived like savages, we lived any old way," said Simpson. But a Cheyenne prophet was led to Bear Butte. "When he went there, those spirits and the Creator taught him." They gave him the tribe's ceremonies - including the Sundance, sweat lodge and marriage rites - that are still practiced today. Throughout his long life, the man continued "to go back there and get help from that mountain," said Simpson, who worries whether his children will ever have a chance to pray in peace at the sacred site, which is hard to do with 10,000 bikers jamming out to Aerosmith," he said. "It's a bad feeling. As Indian people we don't have nothing. All we got is our spirituality. And they're taking that from us, too." Organizers of the upcoming indigenous summit have had a presence at Bear Butte, which is part of a state park, since July 4. "It's a beautiful camp, " said White Plume. "We always get angry. We make jokes - the Oglala, we're the only ones who are still hostile, but when you get under the butte, it's such a wonderful, spiritual feeling that you can't do nothing but be happy and enjoy it. "And then we leave from Bear Butte - and we've all observed this - but when you get to the boundaries of the reservation, you can just feel the weight of the oppression. You just slump over." Nearly 200 Native advocates were already at Bear Butte on Friday for the week's upcoming activities. "We're frantically raising money so we can keep everyone fed," said White Plume. A march has been scheduled for Wednesday. And an international indigenous day was slated for Friday. Organizers hope their presence will help others understand why they want to preserve Bear Butte. It's more than a simple matter of rescheduling ceremonies like some have suggested, said White Plume. Tribal representatives from Washington to Florida are expected to attend, drawing an estimated 1,000 people. "Americans want to say they're proud," said White Plume. "But how can they be proud when there are blatant violations of our ways going on?" Reporter Jodi Rave can be reached at 523-5299 or at jodi.rave@lee.net. Copyright c. 2006 Missoulian, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Buffalo still important on Prairie" --------- Date: Tue, Aug 2006 08:26:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: BUFFALO" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/opinion/15168236.htm Buffalo play important role on prairie Column by Dorreen Yellow Bird August 1, 2006 On my return from White Shield, N.D., this weekend, I traveled through the middle of the state. In one area, and on both sides of the road, we regularly saw buffalo lounging or eating grass by the roadside. As we passed by the herds Sunday, my sister and I noticed the herds included the bulls. We lived on a farm long enough to know cows usually are kept from bulls until certain times of the year, so that their calves can be born when there's less of a chance the birth will take place in a spring blizzard - not always a guarantee. This is North Dakota. The buffalo, however, handle inclement weather easily. These giant woolly animals are amazing - they seem strong enough to hold their own against almost any wild animal, and they epitomize a creature that provided richly for Native people historically. Last year, one of the Native reporters from the Herald and I went to a Native American Journalist Conference in Lincoln, Neb. While there, we were treated to a tour of the buffalo herd of the Ho-Chunk tribe in Winnebago, Neb. Louie LaRose, who no longer is there, talked about the buffalo like they were old friends. Vern Smith, the new director, seems to do well also. He answered my question about the buffalo: Why do they allow the cows and bulls to stay together year-round, I asked. The cows, Smith said, will have their calves mostly in the spring, but some do have them in the winter. If there is a blizzard, the buffalo cow will not give birth until the weather is warm enough for her calf to be born - that is, they will hold it until the storm is over. Now that is adaptive. Today, most tribes in the Plains area have herds. They use them for meat products. There also are tribes that just take care of the herds because they took care of us in the past, and now they are returning the favor. The Lakota Nation at Standing Rock is one of those tribes that has a great respect for the buffalo. They probably have one of the largest herds in the state - about 150 head. You can see the buffalo sometimes near the fence or far in the distance. This year, the drought is taking a toll in the western part of the state. Grass is short and thin, which means the tribe probably will have to purchase hay. Their pasture abuts the river, so they aren't short of water. In years past, the buffalo probably would have just moved to an area where there was more grass. It was interesting when the subject of buffalo came up while I was being interviewed by the summer intern, Ismelda Lucio, and Dr. Sarah Colby, Research Nutritionist for Human Nutrition Research Center. They reminded me with their questions of the ways in which the Plains buffalo provided for Native people. Every part of the animal was used - down to the hooves and tail. Hooves, you ask, as did the interns? Well my ex-husband told me of a recipe for hoof soup. He said hooves were cleaned, of course, and boiled and boiled. They make an excellent soup, he said. He never offered to make it for me. Buffalo tongue commonly is used in ceremonies and is one of the foods given to Sundancers after fasting for days. I don't know if it's because you haven't eaten for several days that makes it prized, or that it's excellent - tender, juicy and good-flavored. The center's intern wrinkled her nose at the thought of eating tongue. I said I thought I could cook it so that she'd love it but probably only if she didn't know what it was. I think it's the white, rough texture of the outside of the tongue that isn't appetizing to people. When we were at the ceremony at Sitting Bull, the men were putting up a teepee, and I heard them talking about a teepee they had seen in Montana. It was made with buffalo hide and was extremely heavy, one man said. I can imagine. Here is one last amazing fact about these beautiful creatures. The hides with the hair still on is as soft as silk. If you wrap up in it, the hide can feel like you are lying in the richest, Fifth Avenue silk sheets. ---- 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: WESTNEAT: Canoe journey an Indian Pilgrimage" --------- Date: Tue, Aug 2006 08:26:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WESTNEAT: CANOE PILGRIMAGE" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003166499_danny01m.html Danny Westneat "Indian pilgrimage" reaches beach in triumph and tiredness By Danny Westneat Seattle Times staff columnist It's not easy doing things the Indian way. This dawned on me about 20 minutes into paddling a 26-foot homemade cedar canoe across Puget Sound. It was 7 a.m., and already I'd done the hardest, fastest paddling of my life. Then the skipper, a Quileute Indian named Liz Ward, inquired sweetly if the crew might be warmed up yet and ready to actually start pulling hard. Ten hours later, our canoe the Tatakwit, minus two of its crew who succumbed to severe muscle cramps, beached wearily at Sand Point on Lake Washington with about 60 other Native canoes from around the Northwest and Canada. Some had traveled for three weeks along hundreds of miles of watery "ancient highways." They had been beset by blisters and boredom, high waves and even death, as one person drowned when a Canadian canoe capsized in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. "It wouldn't be Indians if it wasn't hard," said Rob Satiacum, a 46- year-old Puyallup who invited me to paddle along for Monday's final stretch. "What do they call it when they go to Mecca every year? That's what this is - the Indian pilgrimage," said Guy Capoeman, a Quinault Indian who had paddled 300 miles to reach Seattle, some of it in the open Pacific Ocean. It's called Tribal Journey. From its beginnings in 1989, it has mushroomed into an annual event for coastal tribes. It's part endurance sport and outdoor adventure, for which some tribes now train year-round. It's also the year's biggest community gathering of coastal Indians. On Monday, the canoes sprinted from Suquamish near Bainbridge Island across the Sound, through the Ballard Locks and into Lake Washington. At least it felt like a sprint to me. This was no recreational boat trip. Crewing an Indian canoe is not all that different from a day in Marine boot camp. Satiacum said he invited me to see the resurgence of the "red way" for myself. "People are always saying 'Oh, look at the Indians, with their dugout canoes, they're trying to save themselves and their culture from going extinct,' " he said. "I don't like all that victim talk. Now you tell me, does this feel to you like we're on the brink of extinction?" At that moment, we were standing amid several hundred shouting, chanting Native Americans as they hoisted hand-carved canoes, some 50-feet long, onto their shoulders to carry them into the water. Earlier we'd been treated to a free breakfast, courtesy of the booming Suquamish Tribe's casino. All this week the canoeists and their support families will be hosted at Auburn's Muckleshoot Tribe, which is flush enough from its casino to hire event planners and throw a weeklong festival. There's an almost giddy feeling among many Native Americans now. All those decades of being desperately poor are mostly over. When we passed through the Ballard Locks, with dozens of canoes bunched up together, the shouting, singing and banging of paddles seemed like it was about being proud, strong and happy, not a cry to reclaim something lost. That said, some of the paddlers in my canoe said there's no better place than the open water to work on inner demons. None of what is going on is about you - it's all about working together to move the canoe - and so strangely it leaves you freer than ever to think about yourself. Ted Franzen, an Ojibwe from North Dakota who lives in Tacoma, said he came on the trip because a heroin addiction had separated him from his people and he wanted to try to get them back, one stroke at a time. "This is the medicine when a hard time comes," skipper Liz Ward said as we powered the canoe across the shipping channel in the middle of Puget Sound. "You can remember what it was like out here - how beautiful it was with the clouds and the water - and also how hard you worked to make it across. "It will make each day a little easier because you did this." Danny Westneat's column appears Sunday and Thursday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com. Copyright c. 2006 The Seattle Times Company --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Don't discount Native Plants" --------- Date: Sat, 5 Aug 2006 10:17:46 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: NATIVE PLANTS" http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/columnists/15204080.htm DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Don't discount native plants August 5, 2006 My grandmother, Ph