_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 15, ISSUE 018 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, WOTANGING IKCHE - Lakota - Common News Wotanging Ikche and Native American News Copyright c. 1996-2007 nanews.org Aboriginal/AmerIndian Perspective about the First Nations of Turtle Island April 30, 2007 Passamaquoddy Ponatom/spring moon Abenaki Sogalikas/sugar maker moon Mohawk Onerahtokha/budding time moon Mvskogee Tasahcee-rakko/big spring moon +-------------------------------------------------------+ | Much more happens in Indian Country than is reported | | in this weekly newsletter. For daily updates & events | | go to http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm | +-------------------------------------------------------+ Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin -- Blackfeet -- News for All the People Ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min -- Ojibwe -- We Are Talking About Ourselves Aunchemokauhettittea -- Naragansett -- Let Us Share News Kanoheda Aniyvwiya -- Cherokee -- Journal of the People O Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse -- Creek -- People's New News O o O Acimowin -- Plains Cree -- Story or Account O o O Tlaixmatiliztli -- Nahuatl -- News O o o o o O Agnutmaqan -- Listuguj Mi'kmaq -- News O o O Sho-da-ku-ye -- Teehahnahmah -- Talking Birchbark O o O Un Chota -- Susquehannic Seneca -- The People Speak O Ha-Sah-Sliltha -- Ditidaht Nation -- News of the People Ximopanolti tehuatzin, inin Mexika tlahtolli -- Nahuatl -- For you we offer these words It-hah-pe-hah Ah-num pah-le -- Chickasaw -- Together We Are Talking Dineh jii' adah' ho'nil'e'gii ba' ha' neh -- Navajo Nation -- What's Happening among The People News Okla Humma Holisso Nowat Anya -- Choctaw -- People(s) Red Newspaper Hi'a chu ah gaa -- Pima -- The stories or the talk of the People s ch mA mL tL squee Lux -- Okanogan -- News from the People Native American News -- Language of the Occupation Forces ++>If you speak a Native American language not listed above, please send us your words for "News of the People." We'd rather take up this whole page saving these few words of our hundreds of nations than present a nice clean banner in the language of the occupation forces who came here determined to replace our words with their own. email gars@nanews.org with the equivalent of "News of the People" in your tribal language along with the english translation <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is produced in straight ASCII text for greatest portability across platforms. Read it with a fixed-pitch font, such as Courier, Monaco, FixedSys or CG Times. Proportional fonts will be difficult to read. <================<<<< >>>>================> This issue contains articles from: www.indianz.com; www.pechanga.net; www.indiancountrytoday.com; Mailing List: Chiapas 95-En; 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: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + =================== "In recent years we have come to understand what progress is. It is the total replacement of nature by an artificial technology." __ Vine Deloria Jr., Standing Rock Sioux +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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 Sisters Last week's editorial focused on the injustice toward Native Peoples inherent in the dominant society's system of justice. Two late breaking stories came in just as that issue was being distributed. It was noted those two articles would be featured in this issue's justice section. They are, in fact, included, as promised. The first documents the failure of justice, particularly with Native American women, who are, according to Amnesty International, far more vulnerable to rape and assault, and far less likely to see their attackers brought to justice than any other group in this country. Amnesty International documented just how at risk Native Women are, and how likely they are to becoming victims. National Public Radio did a feature piece - the entire segment is available for listening at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9803207 Several newspapers, both Native oriented and mainstream, ran articles and editorials regarding the abuses of Native American and Native Alaskan women - some of which are included in this issue. These articles make the point that most of the rapes and murders of our women are not carried out by men of their own tribe, but by outsiders. If one third of the women of any nation on earth were attacked and raped by citizens of neighboring nations, there would be a cry around the world to stop what amounts to an act of war by one nation against another. So there are two responsibilities here - the US government is responsible for stopping its citizens atrocities against other nations' women. If it won't fulfill that responsibility, they should be hauled before the United Nations, just as the US has done other nations carrying out predatory acts against neighboring countries. And the tribes must not allow our women's safety to rely on the obviously inadequate protections of the dominant society. It's all fine and well to talk about sovereignty, but just how independent are we as nations if we cannot and will not protect our own women and children from foreign predators? This is so sad that this truth exists. It is good this much focus is being directed at this appalling issue. Shining the light of truth on something so terrible is the only real way to reduce or, hopefully, eliminate it. It must not begin and end with one week of sensational headlines. Shine a flashlight of rats or roaches and they scurry back into darkness where they continue to despoil and ravage. The same is true of dark truths. It takes more than a flash of truth to end them. Simply driving this problem into the dark is not the answer. Mistreatment of our beautiful women must not be reduced to a few sound bites and some hand wringing. It must be attacked and dealt with on an ongoing basis. I pray this will be so. , , Gary Smith (*,*) wotanging@bellsouth.net P. O. Box 672168 (`-') gars@nanews.org Marietta, GA 30007, U.S.A. ===w=w=== http://www.nanews.org ----------- News of the people featured in this issue ----------- Editorial Section: - Cherokee Nation . End the Violence passes Language Resolution - EDITORIAL: Native Women: - GIAGO: Traumatic Justice Honoring those who died at Washita - `I'll never forget' - YELLOW BIRD: - Incredible injustice Little conservation efforts add up for Indigenous Women - Cucapa Zapatista Camp - Statistics on violence nothing new defends Fishing Rights - Improved Community policing needed - Zapatistas select Yaqui - A `great rift' widens to host Summit - American Indian Populations - Canadian settlement face AIDS Threat enters crucial phase - Hundreds attend dedication - Nunavut blames Ottawa at Sand Creek for stalled Oil development - Meth on Wind River: - Alleged Assault Victim 'It's sad as hell' taken into custody - Seneca say that Thruway fight - Court restores hunting enforcement only the beginning on Indian Land - Connecticut Court ruling - Native Justice backs Tribal Sovereignty -- Native American women suffering - Religious Leader: shocking rates of rape Protect Hopi Tradition -- Navajo Judiciary Committee - Group on Crusade to Chairman spends Sovereignty Day dismantle Salmon-killing Dams working to fund Navajo Nation - For Native Americans, Supreme Court Jamestown a painful symbol - Rustywire: Comes with War - Utes' decision to ban Flag - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days out of respect - Del "Abe" Jones Poems: Earth Day - Lumbee Recognition: - Canada's food guide A tribal misstep targets FN, Inuit, Metis - Financial Literacy - Playing for Keeps may be key to solving Poverty - Powwows can be stressful, - Businesses come alive satisfying at Cheyenne River --------- "RE: EDITORIAL: Native Women: Traumatic Justice" --------- Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 07:43:08 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="JUSTICE FAILS OUR WOMEN" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/313080_tribaled.html Native Women: Traumatic justice SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD April 25, 2007 A fair-minded society has an obligation to protect its members, but when it comes to American Indian and Alaskan Native women, we're failing in meeting those obligations. A new report by Amnesty International finds that women in those groups are 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than women belonging to other ethnic groups. There's no hard data on the number of assaults in our area, but anecdotal evidence indicates that a significant number of women here have been affected by those crimes, and that the victims are left to deal with a lifetime's worth of post-traumatic issues. Mary Pavel, the founding president of the Native American Bar Association of Washington, D.C., (who grew up on the Skokomish reservation), said that such cases generally aren't -- and because of lack of funds, can't be -- a priority for U.S. attorneys. Then there's the confounding issue of jurisdictions. Whether the state, the tribe or the feds will get involved in each case depends on the race of the perpetrator and the victim. Pavel added, "Our communities are so small, that these really scary guys are someone's family ... it's not a complete stranger. It's horrifying." One way to avoid more of the same is to have state and federal officials work with tribal leaders to help come up with a system that works to protect the women. It ought to be a priority. Copyright c. 1996-2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. --------- "RE: `I'll never forget'" --------- Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 07:43:08 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CRIMES AGAINST INDIAN WOMEN" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.newsok.com/article/3045150/ `I'll never forget' Crime: Statistics show American Indian women are at higher risk of becoming rape victims By Judy Gibbs Robinson Staff Writer April 25, 2007 April 19 marked a tragic anniversary for one American Indian woman, and not just because of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. Her own horror occurred on that date three years later. "That was the day my own husband wanted to kill me. He told me, `Look at the sun one more time because it's the last time you're going to see it,'" the woman told reporters Tuesday morning. Her story was the chilling conclusion to a conference call arranged by Amnesty International to announce the release of a new report on sexual violence against American Indian women. The woman, a member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokees from Oklahoma, was the only victim to speak. She said her abuse lasted 23 years, beginning with a slap here and there that escalated to regular beatings. "I thought things would change. It did - for the worse," she said. She said her husband blindfolded and gagged her, then took pictures of her naked. "One time he hung me up from my wrists on the door. Sometimes he tied me to the bed. When he couldn't perform, he beat me up, saying it was my fault," she said. The day he tried to kill her, she had run to her sister's home for protection after finding a gun in his pocket. He found her there, pushed her into his truck and drove to a deserted area. "He beat me. He raped me. ... He kicked me in the privates, then poured a whole bottle of whiskey into me. I'll never forget that pain as long as I live," the woman said. The Oklahoman does not print the names of rape victims. The woman said her husband then drove her home, splashed her face with boiling water and raped her again. "He told me I was going to die in my own bed, but he demanded first I fix his breakfast for one last time," she said. Instead she ran even as he shot at her. After a stop in the emergency room, she ended up in a shelter, where she could only drink from a straw because of her burnt lips. Her husband was arrested but released on bail less than eight hours later. He was charged with maiming and attempted murder and a plea agreement resulted in five years of probation and a restraining order for life, she said. "I think God spared my life so I could speak out. If I could leave, maybe I can prove to other women they can do it too," she said. Copyright c. 2007 The Oklahoman/News 9, Produced by NewsOK.com. --------- "RE: Incredible injustice for Indigenous Women" --------- Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 12:48:15 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DISRESPECT FOR THE HEARTS OF OUR NATIONS" http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096414925 Incredible injustice for indigenous women by: Editors Report / Indian Country Today April 27, 2007 In many creation stories, a woman was the first being to walk Mother Earth. In honor and reverence of this first woman, all matters of import were bestowed upon her daughters and granddaughters. Throughout history, indigenous women bore and supported life, tended to sustenance and medicines, brought forth leaders and themselves led nations. And so it is a sorrowful time, then, when we are confronted with painful reminders of a long history of the subjugation of indigenous peoples by systematically degrading women. "From the oldest to the youngest, Native women are disrespected and treated in the most humiliating fashion, living and dying without justice or the knowledge that their granddaughters will live free of the violence they experienced." This passage, taken from testimony by Sacred Circle on the Violence Against Women Act, helps breathe life into the devastating statistics at the center of a groundbreaking report on violence against indigenous women. Amnesty International's 113-page report, "Maze of Injustice - The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women from Sexual Violence in the USA," released April 24, asserts that the U.S. government has "created a complex maze of tribal, state and federal jurisdictions that often allows perpetrators to rape with impunity," and that these crimes are "compounded by failures at every level of the justice system." American Indian and Alaska Native women are nearly three times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted in their lifetimes. According to the Department of Justice, nearly 90 percent of the reported cases of rapes and sexual assault of Native women are committed by non-Native men. It is a staggering legacy for women to "fully expect to be raped," as one elder stated in the report, because they are Indian. The report contains interviews with courageous survivors and advocates, including stories of abuse and injustice so vivid, the mind does not want to believe they are true. Each story illustrates why so many survivors describe their experiences seeking justice as being raped "all over again." Incompetent medical personnel, non-responsive or slow-moving law enforcement, conflicting jurisdictions and underlying racism that affects court proceedings are common obstacles. The U.S. government's chronic underfunding of tribal justice systems has critically undermined efforts to protect Native women from this terrible fate. The federal government's "official indifference" remains a major contributor to the marginalization and dehumanization of indigenous women. If any shame is due, it is to the United States for allowing this ethnic terrorism to persist. We must resist silence and the notion that sexual violence is a private matter to be buried and if possible, forgotten. "What we don't acknowledge, we carry with us," said Denise Morris of the Alaska Native Justice Center at the report launch in Washington, D.C. Because of the stigma carried by survivors, rape and sexual assault against Indian women is an insidious weapon - one act of violence can poison generations of families. The cycle of violence and silence must end; let this report be an impetus for conversations in families, communities and national organizations. It is an uphill battle, but there is hope and meaningful help. Among the many individuals and outreach organizations providing support for women and communities are Clan Star Inc.; Sacred Circle National Resource Center to End Violence Against Native Women, a project of Pine Ridge's Cangleska Inc.; Mending the Sacred Hoop Technical Assistance Project; and the National Congress of American Indians Task Force on Violence Against Women. These campaigns helped improve VAWA. A new version was reauthorized in 2005 and included a Tribal Title (Title IX) for the first time, a historic recognition by the federal government of the perpetration of violence against Native women. It is not a solution, but nonetheless an instrument of change. Increasing the safety of Indian women has been a priority of these groups, and we salute their continuing efforts. But it is the brave women who shared their stories of survival, frustration and determination for "Maze of Injustice" who deserve Indian country's highest praise. They spoke with dignity for themselves and for the countless other women who could not: a few speaking out for the many. Indigenous peoples cannot erase the past; instead, we must fight to ensure our future generations of women are safe, respected and free from violence. To honor our first woman, we must protect the next ones. Copyright c. 1998 - 2007 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Statistics on violence nothing new" --------- Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 07:23:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="AMNESTY REPORT NOT NEWS TO INDIANS" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/04/30/news/local/news00w.txt Statistics on violence nothing new By Heidi Bell Gease, Journal staff April 30, 2007 RAPID CITY - When Amnesty International released a study April 24 showing that American Indian women are 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than women of other ethnic groups, Karen Artichoker didn't bat an eye. "What's new?" said Artichoker, director of Cangleska at Kyle. "Indian women are the most victimized population in the United States, and no one cares." Artichoker said the statistics reported by Amnesty International first came out in 1998. Now that the human rights organization has publicized them, people are reacting with surprise. "I just think it points to how invisible Native people are, and particularly Native women," she said. The report released last week stated that deficiencies in state and federal laws are allowing perpetrators to "rape with impunity." Felony crimes that happen on Indian reservations are prosecuted in federal court if they involve either an Indian perpetrator or an Indian victim. Felonies that happen on reservation land but involve non-Indians are handled by the state. Amnesty International's report notes that reservation cases can be difficult to prosecute because victims don't have easy access to the specially trained nurses who normally perform examinations and collect physical evidence after a rape. According to an Associated Press story, "(the report) also found that law enforcement responded late, if at all, to reports or emergency calls from victims and routinely mishandled evidence from such crimes, with the results that many cases were never prosecuted." But a federal prosecutor in Rapid City said those problems exist in many isolated parts of the state. "I don't think it's any more difficult to pursue these cases on the reservation than it is anyplace else," Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Mandel said. "If you're in a rural area, it's not as easy to do as if you're sitting in Rapid City. "I don't think there are any jurisdictional limitations that make it difficult to go after Indian offenders," Mandel said. "Our office aggressively pursues these cases." However, he added, "Every case is unique in terms of whether it can be prosecuted or not." In general, a case is more likely to be prosecuted if there is strong evidence to support it. Mandel estimated that 20 percent of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation cases his office prosecutes involve some type of sexual abuse. Off the reservation, local numbers aren't clear. Lt. Marty Graves of the Pennington County Sheriff's Office said the sheriff's office doesn't keep track of the race of sexual assault victims, although that information is included in case records. In 2006, there were 117 rapes reported in Pennington County, plus 177 additional sex offenses, Graves said. According to the Amnesty International report, 86 percent of sexual assaults against Indian women are committed by non-Indian men. A Bureau of Justice report dated 1992-2002 said "nearly four in five" Indian victims of rape or sexual assault described the offender as white. Does that reflect local reality? "Absolutely not," Mandel said. "Beyond that, I can't comment, but it isn't what we see." Artichoker said non-Indian assaults of Indian women are frequently a problem in towns that border reservations. "Naturally, we're going to see lots of Native-on-Native assaults here," she said, because of the concentrated Indian population on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation where Cangleska operates. However, the Amnesty International report was based on interviews in Alaska, Oklahoma and Standing Rock Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Considering areas where the Indian population is more widely dispersed, "I certainly don't think it's out of the realm of possibility," Artichoker said. On Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, organizations such as Cangleska care for the victims. Cangleska serves victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, operates two shelters for victims (a new shelter will be dedicated May 4) and offers programs for offenders. The Oglala Sioux Tribe handles domestic violence cases and does a good job, Artichoker said. She said tribal laws are more stringent than state laws and focus more on rehabilitation. "Our tribe is excellent." But sexual assaults are still seen as the responsibility of the federal government. "We do know that prosecution is a deterrent, and there's very little federal prosecution of the crime," Artichoker said. She doesn't necessarily fault federal law, or the prosecutors who apply it. Given the fact that the U.S. Attorney's Office also prosecutes all assaults, criminal deaths, white-collar crime and other offenses on the reservation, they don't have the staff or money to pursue every sexual assault case. "What can I say?" Artichoker said. "We're all doing the best we can." Contact Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419 or heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com Copyright c. 2007 Rapid City Journal. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Improved Community policing needed" --------- Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 12:48:15 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TRIBES UNDERSERVED" http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096414926 Improved community policing needed by: Editors Report / Indian Country Today April 27, 2007 Tribal communities are generally served - and underserved - by tribal or BIA police and FBI agents. In Public Law 280 jurisdictions, law enforcement is carried out by combinations of tribal police, or county and state police. Not all tribal communities have tribal police. When they don't, external forces such as the county, state or BIA and FBI are the main enforcers of local, state and federal law. Police departments have a checkered history in Indian country, often seen as enforcers of American law and concepts of justice over less-than- compliant reservation communities. Amnesty International's report, "Maze of Injustice," illustrates the dangerous consequences of such jurisdictional complications. Traditional Indian nations had their own ways of enforcing law and justice through family or clan agreements, by consensus and often by religious and moral codes. Police are a specialized body commissioned to enforce law and uphold peace and safety. Tribal communities are not averse to upholding public safety and protecting their citizens from harm. Many tribes with significant gaming revenues have invested in or are required to incorporate tribal, and sometimes county and state, policing to ensure public safety in their communities. Most tribal communities, however, prefer to administer their own tribal police, but often do not have enough financial resources or community trust to support current policing methods and organization. Tribal community members have very distinct expectations of service from the police that patrol their communities. Research at the UCLA Native Nations Law and Policy Center indicates that nearly half of sampled respondents from 17 tribal communities believe that police in Indian country should adopt community policing priorities. But the policing that reservation residents are looking for is more intensive than that given by the popular Community Oriented Policing Services program. Exactly what kind of relations and services do the people want from police? Tribal community policing includes a variety of community-building concepts: cooperation with tribal government, agreements among policing jurisdictions, better communication with the community, community education about law and policing, rehabilitation and restorative justice programs, cooperation with tribal police and tribal government, community safety and protection, culture and sensitivity training, community service and peacemaking. Tribal members wanted the police to get out of their cars and interact positively with community people, to get to know them on a personal basis. Respondents wanted officers to attend community events to encourage friendly relations with tribal members and above all, to better serve the interests and needs of the community. Tribal communities need police who know their community well, who have gained and earned the trust of community members. Furthermore, 38 percent of reservation residents say police should concentrate on three major law and order issues - drug offenses, alcohol abuse and domestic violence. About 10 percent mentioned other policing needs: arresting law-breakers, increasing police resources, responding more quickly to calls, more training and equipment, better police equity, improved investigations, better patrolling, more attention to child abuse issues, and others. Overall, nearly 88 percent of sampled reservation residents say that police should have strong community-based priorities and activities, and should concentrate on the crimes considered most serious in Indian country - drugs, alcohol, domestic and related crimes. Police are currently not well-trained or even motivated to engage in community relations in the ways that tribal communities want or need. The varying law enforcement agencies working in Indian country need to focus much more attention on helping develop community-based solutions to substance and domestic abuses that are far too prevalent in Indian communities to make any real difference. Law enforcement officers should be active participants in Native community life. They must have knowledge and understanding of community family relations, religion, views of justice and work with the community to realize safe, culturally informed and just communities. Copyright c. 1998 - 2007 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: A `great rift' widens" --------- Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 07:08:35 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DAKOTA" http://www.rlnn.com/ArtApril07/AGreatRiftWidens.html A `great rift' widens By Kevin Diaz McClatchy Washington Bureau April 23, 2007 To the small group that runs the fabulously successful Mystic Lake and Little Six casinos in Prior Lake, Sheldon Wolfchild was the wrong kind of Indian. It didn't matter that he was one of the real Indians in the movie "Dances with Wolves," or that he claims descent from a hero of the 1862 Dakota rebellion in Minnesota. When he asked a decade ago to join the 200- member tribe that has grown rich from gambling profits, he was denied. But now Wolfchild and 22,000 other descendants of Minnesota's Dakota Indians are laying claim to the casino riches. And they have been bolstered by a federal judge's suggestions that the government may have erred in 1980 when it determined who could control the tribal land. The case could leave U.S. taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars. It also could leave Indians across the country wrestling anew with the meaning of tribal identity. "They recognized the wrong Indians," Wolfchild said. "The government was supposed to check these people out, and it didn't." In a series of decisions during the past two years, Judge Charles Lettow of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims has ruled that the federal government has breached a trust to "the loyal Mdewakanton and their lineal descendants," who were promised land in the 1800s because they were deemed friendly to whites. Leaders of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux (Dakota) Community, which runs the casinos, recoil at Wolfchild's suggestion that they are not true descendants of those Indians or that their community was illegally constituted. "They don't have a case," said Keith Anderson, secretary-treasurer of the Shakopee tribal government. The judge has not made a final ruling and appeals are certain. But the case has revived the dark days of the state's early Indian wars. The ghosts of two chiefs When Wolfchild stands outside the stone walls of Fort Snelling where two Dakota chiefs were hanged in 1865, he can almost hear the mournful whistle of a train. "I get all kinds of flashes there," said the 60-year-old former tribal leader from the Lower Sioux Indian Community in Morton. The executions of Chief Medicine Bottle - Wolfchild's great-great- grandfather - and Chief Little Six seemed to be the last chapter of the Sioux uprising. Instead, it became a prelude 140 years later to his lawsuit. The Dakota Conflict of 1862 was short but bloody. Nearly 500 white settlers and an untold number of Indians died. The violence erupted when a group of Mdewakanton Sioux, famished from crop failure, rose up in the Minnesota River Valley against white traders who refused them credit to buy food. Despite warnings from elder chiefs, attacks against settlers spread. The Sioux were quickly subdued. In November 1862, nearly 2,000 Mdewakanton were forced to march 150 miles from the Lower Sioux agency in Morton to Fort Snelling. There, they were imprisoned in a tent encampment for a winter and then shipped by steamboat down the Mississippi, then up the Missouri River to Crow Creek, S.D. Hundreds died on the drought-stricken prairie. Those who lived were moved to the Santee Sioux Reservation in Nebraska and joined by several hundred Mdewakanton men who were condemned to death in Mankato in December 1862 but pardoned by President Lincoln. Not all the Dakota left Minnesota, though. A small group stayed behind, first hiding in woods and ravines but ultimately judged as "friendlies" by the U.S. government. "It was a great rift in the Dakota community," said Minnesota author Diane Wilson, whose great-great-grandmother, Iron Cloud, was caught up in the war. "Split-second decisions had to be made about taking sides. If you were a mixed blood, you were going to take a side against your family no matter which way you went." Congress determined that a group of 264 of these Indians had helped white people during the war. They were named in U.S. censuses in 1886 and 1889, and three parcels of land near the Minnesota River were set aside for them. That land became the modern Shakopee, Prairie Island and Lower Sioux communities. A hundred years later, Congress gave a small group of Sioux, the newly constituted Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux (Dakota) Community, jurisdiction over the land near Shakopee, including parcels in Prior Lake. The group had been created by Norman Crooks in 1969. It has control over the land and the casinos, which earn millions of dollars in profits every year. Now, thousands of Dakota who say they can prove a link to the "friendlies" of the 1886 census want some of the casino largess. But those who identify more with the banished Dakota say the fight is tearing their community apart. Maude Bluestone Williams is an 89-year-old tribal elder on the Lower Sioux reservation in Morton. Her father, Sam Bluestone, was on the 1886 census. Although she gets a modest stipend from Lower Sioux's Jackpot Junction Casino near Morton, she has signed on as a plaintiff in the Wolfchild suit. The whole matter, she says, has cut like a knife through the Mdewakanton Sioux. "There's so much hatred," Williams said. Patriarch at center of the dispute At the center of the dispute is Crooks, the legendary patriarch of the modern Shakopee tribe who died in 1989. Census records show he grew up in Redwood County, Minn., Long Beach, Calif., and Nebraska, where he was an enrolled member of the tribe at Santee. By the 1960s, he and his wife, Edith, had settled in the Twin Cities area, where he found work in construction. Dissatisfied with life, they moved to what was then a growing Mdewakanton Sioux community on reservation land around Prior Lake. Looking for economic aid from Washington, Crooks and 12 others sought recognition as a tribe, based not on the 1886 census but on a new one they took on the lands near Shakopee in 1969. There were 33 names on that list, about half members of Crooks' family or his wife's. Charter members of the new tribe were not required to prove 1886 ancestry, only that they were of "Mdewakanton Sioux Indian blood." Subsequently, all others trying to become members would have to prove they were at least one-quarter Mdewakanton and trace their ancestry to the 1886 census. An even bigger stumbling block for prospective new members was the need also to be "qualified by the governing body" - by whatever criteria the tribal leaders choose. On March 26, 1975, as the new tribe's chairman, Crooks wrote himself a letter to do just that and provide a shield against any challenges to his own Mdewakanton heritage. "Dear Member," it began. "You have been determined to be eligible for membership and your name has been placed on the tribal roll." It was signed: Norman M. Crooks, chairman. Nonetheless, some still question his lineal inheritance. Shakopee tribal officials say that Crooks' father was named Amos Crooks and that he was the grandson of John and Mary Crooks, who were listed on the 1886 census. But Wolfchild plaintiffs, mining old tribal records, have raised doubts. A 1940 Santee Sioux census certificate in Nebraska identified Crooks' mother as Ellen F. Crooks. His father was listed as "not given." Meanwhile, questions about the rights to Mdewakanton lands at Shakopee persisted. Congress seemed to settle the matter in 1980 by turning over control of the land to Crooks' tribe. The move had been pushed by Sen. Hubert Humphrey and others supporting the movement for Indian self- government. Judge Lettow has since ruled that whatever Congress intended in 1980, it did not extinguish the original trust to descendants of the Mdewakantons on the 1886 census. Wolfchild traces his family to both the banished Sioux and "friendlies." Medicine Bottle was a rebel leader, but an ancestor - George Crooks - binds Wolfchild to the family of Shakopee's current tribal chairman, Stanley Crooks. Still, Wolfchild was denied membership in the Shakopee tribe. He and others rejected call it a "popularity contest." Doubts raised about land control Lettow has not granted Wolfchild membership in the Shakopee tribe, but he is expected to rule shortly on whether the tribe must appear in his court to answer Wolfchild's challenges. Records in the case show that by the early 1970s, before Congress gave the Crooks-led tribe control of the Shakopee lands, federal officials raised questions about who was qualified to use them. One question came from the Interior Department, which warned in 1970 that assignments on the 1886 lands at Shakopee remained available "only to eligible Mdewakanton Sioux Indians." The next year, Washington asked local Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) officials to verify the eligibility of everyone living on the 1886 lands. On Sept. 15, 1971, Norman Crooks produced the affidavit stating Amos Crooks was his father. It was signed by his mother's sister and brother. Two months later, Crooks asked the Santee Sioux tribe in Nebraska to drop him from its rolls. Enrollment in another tribe could have disqualified him from tribal membership at Shakopee. Several years later, the questioning continued. In May 1976, Crooks received a letter from the BIA's Minneapolis area director George Goodwin: "I have become acutely aware of the many problems and disputes that arise from the administration of the 1886 Mdewakanton Sioux lands," he wrote. "Until further notice, land assignments on 1886 Mdewakanton lands will be issued only to persons who can prove descendency [sic] from the 1886 Mdewakanton residents." But Goodwin did not seem inclined to undo mistakes that may already have been made. Thirty years later, Goodwin's assertion is being cited by Wolfchild's lawyer, Erick Kaardal, as proof of a "knowing breach" by the government. By the late 1970s, Indian tribes in Florida were making millions off casinos. Inspired by their success, Crooks led the way to the opening of the Little Six Bingo Palace in 1982. His successor and political rival, Leonard Prescott, rolled out Mystic Lake Casino next door 10 years later, bringing the tribe immense wealth. Bingo to riches Mystic Lake revenues have provided enrolled members at Shakopee, including Crooks' son Stanley, opulent lifestyles. The casino's proximity to the Twin Cities helps make it among the most profitable in the nation. Mystic Lake now boasts 600 luxury hotel rooms, more than 4,000 slots, 100 gaming tables, and, of course, bingo. Prescott says it generates about $700 million a year in revenues. Last year it donated more than $13 million to other tribes in the Midwest. Tribal members get annual casino payouts of more than $1 million. Many live in mansions on their hilly reservation of hotels and golf courses. They drive luxury cars and winter in Arizona. Each passing year, interest in tribal membership at Shakopee has intensified. And so has the legal turmoil. At a 1994 meeting, amid hundreds of enrollment applications, tribe member Linda Sconberg vented her frustrations: "These Mdewakanton that are coming back here," she said, "they have never lived here and never been enrolled here and yet they want to come here."Everyone wants to be an Indian now," Prescott said in a recent interview. "In the '60s, when we had trailers and septic tanks, nobody wanted to come to Shakopee." But to all challenges from the outside, including Wolfchild's, the Shakopee community has stood behind its inherent right of tribal sovereignty, which keeps it largely beyond the reach of courts. The court has made no rulings on the true heritage of Crooks, or the legitimacy of the tribal government he formed. But in ordering a national search for descendants last summer, Lettow opened the door to the possibility that there are more 1886 trust beneficiaries than the 900 or so who are members of the Shakopee and Prairie Island Indian communities. The original suit, filed three years ago, listed Wolfchild and 133 others claiming lineal descent from the 1886 census. The list has grown to 22,000. Some analysts say that while there are no claims against the Indian communities, a large judgment against the U.S. government could force Congress to alter the distribution of gaming revenues on the 1886 lands. Any damages would be borne by U.S. taxpayers, which could put pressure on Congress to review the tribe's legal foundation. Shakopee community officials say that will never happen. The Shakopee Indian community plans to keep building on the promise of its founding fathers, who started high-stakes bingo with a decidedly low- stakes ambitions: "Our main purpose," Norman Crooks said in 1982, "is to earn some money to get our roads improved." 'We're the bad Indians' On the modern Santee reservation in Nebraska, set in scrublands along the Missouri River as a virtual penal colony of the banished Mdewakanton, the memories and the divisions persist. "We're the bad Indians," said Santee bison manager Kalon Strickland, with a rueful smile. "We're the ones who fought." Nonetheless, about half of Santee's 4,000 enrolled members claim descent from the 1886 census by virtue of relatives who either returned to Minnesota, or never left. Many have joined Wolfchild's suit. They have done so over the objection of their tribal chairman, Roger Trudell: "The whole thing diminishes us as a people," he said. "We're the real Mdewakanton. The ones who stayed in Minnesota renounced their tribalism." The connection between the Shakopee Indians and their relatives out West has faded over the years, but never disappeared. Santee children still celebrate their Minnesota roots in murals on their school walls. One panel shows the river boat packet "Florence" steaming up the Missouri with a cargo of brown faces: The children's Minnesota ancestors. Only recently, though, has the story of the Mdewakanton come back to life across Indian Country, where the Wolfchild case is all the rage. Divisions pitting those who chose traditional ways in the 1800s against "cut-hairs" who farmed like white people have resurfaced. "The feelings that were created back then were so powerful, they are still resonating today," said author Wilson, whose book, "Spirit Car," recalls how her own Mdewakanton family survived the war. "People remember whose family was on which side, and what they did." Since 2002, Mdewakanton activists have been retracing their ancestors' march from Morton to Fort Snelling at the end of the Sioux uprising. They remember the long caravan of starving women, children and elderly, tired and desperately under-clothed. Wolfchild and his followers now ride horses every year to retrace the journey of the war's defeated men, the 38 who were hanged the day after Christmas in 1862. Medicine Bottle and Little Six were not there. They escaped to Canada, where many more Mdewakanton descendants remain. But the two chiefs eventually were captured, returned to Minnesota and executed, to the sound of a mournful train whistle. Frozen out of the benefits of the Mystic Lake and Little Six casinos, Wolfchild and his followers have formed a virtual government-in-exile, Oyate, which in their Dakota language means The People. "Medicine Bottle fought back," Wolfchild said. "Now I am, too." Copyright c. 2007 Red Lake Net News. --------- "RE: American Indian Populations face AIDS Threat" --------- Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2007 20:54:51 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="AIDS A VERY REAL INDIAN THREAT" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=464995 American Indian Populations Face AIDS Threat by Associated Press April 28th, 2007 When national AIDS experts describe how American Indians are facing another historic battle for existence, they pass up the word "epidemic" and go right for "extinction." These experts stress that America's first people are experiencing an alarming increase in AIDS cases, a trend that many say could wipe out whole populations if momentous action isn't taken now. "Extinction is not an option," said Dr. Monica Ruiz, a top figure with the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR). "This isn't about a virus. It's about human beings - families and communities - entire races of people facing a disastrous potential if we close our eyes to it." Arizona currently ranks 22nd in the nation in terms of AIDS overall, according to the Centers for Disease Control. But when measuring its occurrence among American Indians, that ranking rises to second in the nation. American Indians make up less than 1 percent of the national population, but this demographic still represents the third-highest infected racial group in the nation. According to Ruiz, 10.6 of every 100,000 American Indians are infected with AIDS. That's compared to 72.8 for blacks, 28.5 Hispanics, 9.0 Caucasians and 7.6 Asians. Arizona's numbers for AIDS show American Indians being the fourth- hardest hit racial group, behind blacks, Caucasians and Hispanics, according to Dr. Charleton Wilson, an associate director for the Phoenix Indian Medical Center. "The rate of AIDS for American Indians has been higher than that for whites since 1995," Ruiz said. "This is a problem that has been in motion for a long time." With headquarters in New York and Washington, D.C., AmFAR is one of the world's leading nonprofit organizations dedicated to the support of AIDS research, prevention and education. Ruiz is the foundation's acting director for public policy and is based in Washington, D.C. According to new statistics, 61 percent of American Indians are contracting AIDS through male-to-male sexual contact, followed by intravenous drugs at 15 percent. Heterosexual contact makes up the smallest portion of infections at 10 percent. Ruiz quickly stressed, however, that these numbers do not mean that heterosexuals are not being infected. She explained that research shows that many males will identify as not being gay, but still have same-sex encounters. Wilson said Arizona appears to be following national trends when it comes to cases on the rise. He said that while there may simply be more cases of AIDS, the rise in numbers could also reflect a good job by the medical community in reaching out to those in need. "The American Indian population itself is also growing quickly and the population is relatively young, too," Wilson said. A total of 11,614 Arizonans are infected with HIV or AIDS, according to the more current statistics from Arizona Department of Health Services. Of those cases, 418 are American Indians, a number that would include the Cocopah Tribe in Yuma County. Numbers for Yuma's nearby Quechan Tribe would be counted in California statistics. The Sun tried to obtain numbers for the Quechan, but agencies could only provide five-year-old statistics. The Quechan Tribe funds an HIV-AIDS awareness program, but the Cocopah Tribe does not. A spokeswoman for the latter tribe said Cocopah AIDS statistics are not available for public release. "The tribe does not have a program specifically established to target AIDS, and all medical files and records for the tribe are kept confidential at the Fort Yuma (Indian Health Service) Hospital," said Liz Pratt, public relations representative for the Cocopah. "It's misleading under any circumstance to take statistical information from a large, national perspective and assume that every tribe across the country is the same and seeing the exact same trends, which isn't the case." Not only are American Indians tied to a deadly trend, they are also belabored with numerous social and economic challenges that Ruiz says promise to fuel the rates of AIDS deaths even more. American Indians share many of these challenges with countless other groups, but unfortunately, this group tends to suffer more than its fair share in terms of AIDS infection, according to Ruiz. Ruiz said that while risky behavior for American Indians is no different any other group, "these behaviors often occur in environments of extreme poverty ... and coexist along other modern 'epidemics' such as alcohol and drug abuse, high sexually transmitted infection rates and gender-based violence..." Ruiz pointed to the issue of social stigma surrounding AIDS, the fear to talk about it, get tested, and seek community support. "The stigma is still there on this issue. In the general population, it's still there." Heightening the damage is that American Indians, in general, may be reluctant to trust and reach out to government-funded programs or institutions. "These trends are complicated by the history of mistrust in our minority communities, based on their abuse by the system," Ruiz said. "When you think about the history of American Indians in the U.S and how they have been treated by the federal government, you know there is mistrust." That lack of trust, she added, can be dangerous when people don't talk freely about AIDS and when they are in denial about its potential damage to their lives. Secondly, she points to the lack of access to proper medical care and prevention information. Ruiz stressed that most American Indian reservations are in rural areas, which tends to make matter worse. Increasing prevention education and testing programs, Ruiz said, would amount to a good start on turning around the trend in AIDS. Ruiz added that tribes and their communities around the country are increasingly doing a better job of handling AIDS, but those efforts are just the beginning. "There is some progress, but so much more needs to be done," she said. ". ... HIV is contributing to the destruction of our First Nations peoples. We must act now. This is everyone's problem." Copyright c. 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c. 2007 Bonneville International. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Hundreds attend dedication at Sand Creek" --------- Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2007 20:54:51 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SAND CREEK REMEMBERED, DEDICATED" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.gazette.com/articles/ cheyenne_21743___article.html/saturday_site.html Hundreds attend dedication at Sand Creek By R. SCOTT RAPPOLD THE GAZETTE April 28, 2007 In the endless rolling prairie to the southeast, far from any big towns, eight miles down a dirt road, Colorado has hid its shame. Up a gentle rise is a small, weathered stone marker, reading only "Sand Creek Battle Ground, Nov. 29 and 30, 1864." Few ever visited until now. On Saturday, this stretch of landscape, where few trees grow and the Rockies aren't even a hint on the horizon, became the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site. But to the hundreds who came to the dedication, many of them Indian descendants of the victims and survivors, it was more than that. It was an acknowledgment from the government that something terrible happened here, and the beginning of making amends. "I think it's a steppingstone to healing," said Robert Tabor, an Arapaho from Oklahoma. "This is part of the medicine. It's going to eventually heal, and one day we're going to call each other brother and sister." On the site's 4,000 acres, and on thousands more acres not within its boundaries, a Colorado militia regiment massacred 160 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, mostly women and children, while they slept. The attack spurred a series of other attacks and reprisals that led to the battle of Little Bighorn. Or, as William Walks Along, a speaker from the Northern Cheyenne tribe, sees it, "It was the beginning of the end of our freedom." It took more than a decade of work by tribal leaders and state and federal officials to acquire the land and make it a national historic site, akin to a national park. A mock village of 17 tepees set up where historians believe the slaughter took place was open to visitors Saturday, but normally will be closed to closed to the public because it is considered sacred ground. Saturday's ceremony also was marked by speeches, Indian music and the display of tribal flags next to the American flag. Much of the park is undeveloped. Plans are in place for interpretive signs about the massacre, and a visitors center, and officials hope to buy more property when it becomes available. The park is about 150 miles southeast of Colorado Springs, and admission is free. For now, it's little more than a parking area and a trail leading to the small stone marker, which has been there since the 1950s. But it's the gesture that counts. "We have freed the spirits that have been in mourning, waiting for us to come back," Tabor said. Lucille Spear, 76, remembers how her great-grandmother talked about the events of 1864. She was a young girl at the time, and woke to find everyone gone and soldiers near, and was only saved when a man returned and took her away. The experience haunted her grandmother for the rest of her life. "It's been just great," Spear said of the dedication. "People will know there is something that happened here." Former Colorado Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a member of the North Cheyenne tribe, launched the effort. He spoke about the climate at the time. The regiment, and its leader, Col. John Chivington, were hailed as heroes for defeating the "savages." Victims' body parts were paraded through Denver. "If there were any savages there that day, it was not the Indian people," Campbell said. It was not lost on many of those in attendance Saturday that on the way to the site, you pass through a hamlet - mostly a collection of crumbling houses - named Chivington. "There's never been an apology yet for what happened," said Anthony Spottedwolf, who traces his Cheyenne and Arapaho lineage to the massacre. "There's still repression suffered by a lot of the tribes. There were promises made and they've just kept shoving us all over." U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican who spoke at the dedication, offered the closest thing to the apology Spottedwolf was looking for. "It is an all-too vivid reminder of what happens in America when you don't treat people like people," Brownback said. "As a U.S. senator from a plains state, I deeply apologize and I will work to right this wrong." CONTACT THE WRITER: 476-1605 or scott.rappold@gazette.com Copyright c. 2007, The Gazette, a division of Freedom Colorado Information. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Meth on Wind River: 'It's sad as hell' " --------- Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 07:23:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="METH" http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2007/04/30/ news/wyoming/7668db9bb0d1508e872572cc0020fd1a.txt 'It's sad as hell' By ANGIE WAGNER AP national writer April 30, 2007 WIND RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION - Just off the deserted highways, the silver pickup truck eases down quiet streets, its driver offering a numbing tour of a remote reservation framed by the beauty of snowcapped mountains. There, Leon Tillman says, over there - the house on the right, a white, two-story building set off by itself. It used to be a big drug house. Now it's shuttered, its owners in prison. A man dressed in an Army-green shirt and pants appears on the side of the road, his thumb up, looking for a ride. "That's a meth head," Tillman says. "He's bumming right now." A few more drug houses, and Tillman's tour of the despair of methamphetamine ends. Not long ago, most people here had never even heard of meth. But today, most know someone on meth or in prison because of it. Tillman, 39, knows too many to count. "It's everywhere," he said. Indeed, American Indians have been especially hard hit by meth. Drug cartels have targeted Indian Country because the people are vulnerable, and law enforcement struggles to keep up. But the story of how meth came to this remote reservation is really quite remarkable. Like a cancer, a Mexican drug gang permeated the reservation and its families. It left behind a landscape strewn with broken lives. How meth arrived Some 12,000 Indians - members of the Northern Arapaho and the Eastern Shoshone tribes - live on 2.2 million acres, an area so vast many homes are separated by miles of barren land. Poverty and unemployment are high, alcoholism is rampant and the police department is so understaffed - patrolling such a large area - that the average response time is 15 to 20 minutes. Jesus Martin Sagaste-Cruz knew that. And he knew the reservation's isolation would be perfect for his business. Authorities learned of the Sagaste-Cruz drug ring back in 1997. Sagaste- Cruz and his Mexican gang had already been selling around Indian reservations in South Dakota and Nebraska. But an article in The Denver Post that changed the way they did business. The story talked about how a Nebraska liquor store near the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota did millions of dollars in business. Sales were especially high immediately after Indians received their per capita checks - their share of their tribe's income. Sagaste-Cruz figured if there were already so many Indians addicted to alcohol, it would be easy enough to addict them to methamphetamine. So around 2000, the Mexicans moved in and near the Wind River reservation. "They came to a place where people don't have anything," said Frances Monroe, who works in the Northern Arapaho Child Protection Services office. They started with free meth samples. The men pursued Indian women, providing them with meth even as they romanced them and fathered their children. Eventually, the women needed to support their habit, so they became dealers, too - and they used free samples to recruit new customers. It was all part of the plan. For the next four years, the gang sold pounds and pounds of meth, much of it 98 percent pure. The drugs came from Mexico, then on to Los Angeles; Ogden, Utah (where Sagaste-Cruz lived); and finally Wyoming, where gang members had a handful of local distributors, each with their own customer base. Customers became dealers and recruiters, and their customers did the same. Before, meth was barely mentioned on the reservation. Police reported only sporadic arrests. But now the reservation was saturated with it. Crime soared. From 2003 to 2006, cases of child neglect increased 131 percent. Drug possession was up 163 percent; spousal abuse rose 218 percent. The Wind River reservation is not alone. The Bureau of Indian Affairs found that methamphetamine was listed as the greatest threat to Indian communities by police departments. Mexican drug cartels take advantage of the often complicated law enforcement jurisdictions in Indian Country. Isolated communities are hit the hardest, and sometimes even tribal leaders are not immune, said Heather Dawn Thompson, director of government affairs for the National Congress of American Indians. Here on the Wind River, a tribal judge, Lynda Munnell-Noah, was arrested in a 2005 drug ring bust and accused of threatening to assault and murder a Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement officer. Resources are few, and most reservations don't have treatment centers. Between 2000 and 2005, the number of methamphetamine contacts in Indian Health Services facilities increased by almost 250 percent. "Even if we arrest people for use or sale, there's almost nothing to do with them in order to help them recover," Thompson said. "Where do you go and how do you pay for it?" In his 2008 budget, President Bush proposed a $16 million increase in law enforcement funding in Indian Country to help combat methamphetamine, a godsend to police departments like Wind River's, which has only 10 police officers. "The heartbreaking part of it is, it's had this absolutely devastating effect on our community," Thompson said. "I have tribal leaders coming to my office all the time just crying. I mean, how do you fight this? How do you function as a government when 30 percent of your tribal employees are now using meth?" Dealers weave twisted, toxic web Inside a tribal office, a bulletin board displays meth's effects: In a series of mug shots, a woman deteriorates - her teeth rotting, her skin collecting scabs. A nearby poster warns that making, selling or using meth around a child will mean prison time. This is a place where people mostly keep to themselves. They know meth is a huge problem, but they don't want to talk much about it. They fear retaliation. A jury found that the Sagaste-Cruz ring had distributed more than 99 pounds of meth - an amount that had a street value of between $4.5 to $6.8 million, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The gang also sold meth on the Rosebud, Pine Ridge and Yankton reservations in South Dakota and Santee Sioux reservation in Nebraska, authorities found. Sagaste-Cruz and 22 other people were given prison time - a life sentence, in Sagaste-Cruz's case. His brother, Julio Caesar Sagaste-Cruz, remains a fugitive. Ask people on the reservation about the Sagaste-Cruz case and most don't know much about it. They seem surprised to learn how sophisticated the operation was. But mention the Goodman case, and everyone knows. The Goodmans were an entire family, grandparents down to grandchildren, who were dealing meth and prescription drugs here. Nineteen people, including the tribal judge, were arrested in 2005. The two cases weren't directly related, but with many Indians already hooked on meth compliments of the Sagaste-Cruz gang, the Goodmans didn't have any trouble finding customers. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Rankin said the Goodmans often had 20 to 50 customers a day come to their house. Darrell LoneBear Sr., whose sister, Donna Goodman, and her husband, John Goodman, were the ring's leaders, said his relatives fell victim to easy money on a reservation where jobs are hard to find. He rattles off his family's prison sentences: "John Goodman, 21 years. My sister Donna, 24 years. My nephew James got 19 years. My nephew Darrell got 8. "It was all of my family," he said. Thirteen children were sent to live with other relatives. One sister took in six children, another took in three. "It is a tremendous, added responsibility emotionally and financially," said LoneBear, crime prevention and safety supervisor for the Northern Arapaho Tribal Housing. "All of us have been traumatized by this matter. We all still stay here." Police Chief Doug Noseep has a police force that can't possibly keep up with every call. He is grateful for the help from outside law enforcement agencies in the raids over the past few years, and believes it has reduced the amount of meth here. Noseep knows who is trying to get help, who is still using. Once, his officers encountered a 12-year-old girl who was addicted. "It's sad as hell," he said. "It's here and it's not going to go anywhere. It's never going to go away." Meth's lasting effects Seven years after the Sagaste-Cruz gang arrived, meth rolls on: Last summer, another bust at Wind River resulted in 43 arrests, the largest drug bust in the history of Wyoming. On a recent night, Partners Against Meth met at a local school. The group struggles to attract volunteers and to keep committees on track. But here families that have been struck hard by the meth epidemic, and those that want to learn more about it, can come together to talk. Leon Tillman brought his wife, son and daughter. He told the group he has six relatives in prison for meth or alcohol charges. "That's one of my worst fears, is to have one of my kids on drugs. I want to at least say I tried," he said. A few years ago, John Washakie noticed his daughter, now 27, was losing weight and locking herself in her bedroom at her house. Then, one night, she dropped off her three young children at his house and disappeared into the darkness. He cared for the kids for three years. It wasn't easy. "They lose all their energy about life. You spend a lot of time dealing with their emotions," he said. Today, his daughter is clean, and cares for her children, now numbering five, herself. "I think there are a lot of people that are scared to tell you the truth," the grandfather said. "You don't walk away from this." Copyright c. 1995-2007 Casper Star-Tribune, Lee Enterprises, a subsidiary of Lee Enterprises Incorporated. --------- "RE: Seneca say that Thruway fight only the beginning" --------- Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 07:23:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SENECA RECLAIMING SOVEREIGNTY, STOLEN LANDS" http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096414941 Seneca Nation says that Thruway fight is only the beginning By Carolyn Thompson - Associated Press April 30, 2007 IRVING, N.Y. (AP) - Seneca Indian Richard Nephew considers himself a product of the reservation land where his grandfather hunted deer out his back door and grew corn and beans before New York paved over part of it in the 1950s. "I grew up eating those vegetables and eating the deer meat that my grandfather gathered there," Nephew said April 19 on the reservation at the western edge of New York, where his family still lives. He remembers his grandfather's sorrow and anger over losing the land when the New York State Thruway came through, he said: feelings he took to his grave. The family may have gotten a small payment when the Seneca Nation agreed to accept $75,000 to let Interstate 90 onto its land, Nephew said. But the amount - he does not know what it was - could not make up for his grandfather's loss, he said. "He always felt that we had a bad deal," said Nephew, now a Seneca tribal councilor. He and today's other leaders of the 8,000-member tribe have lately come to feel the same way, and in mid-April took a surprising step that they said would begin to right a decades-old wrong. With the Senecas and New York's new governor already at odds over the state's plans to collect sales tax on cigarettes sold by reservation retailers to non-Indian customers, the tribal council rescinded the 1954 agreement that authorized the Thruway right of way across 300 acres of the Cattaraugus reservation. The move effectively turned the state and a three-mile stretch of thoroughfare into trespassers on Seneca land. The Indian nation wants to negotiate with the state for compensation, maybe a yearly payment, for use of the land a few miles in from the Lake Erie shore. And they are looking at other roads and rights of way for which they may have been shortchanged, Seneca President Maurice John said. "This is only the beginning," John said April 19 after sending a letter to Gov. Eliot Spitzer informing him of the council's action. Although John said the move was unrelated to the escalating cigarette tax dispute, Buffalo-area Assemblyman Sam Hoyt suggested it was "not at all coincidence." "It's an attempt by the Seneca Nation to try to leverage the Thruway issue to get a more favorable outcome with regard to their negotiations with Gov. Spitzer on the tobacco tax issue," Hoyt said. "I don't fault them. In fact, it's pretty creative." Spitzer's predecessor, George Pataki, backed off collecting reservation sales taxes after the Senecas burned tires and shut down part of the Thruway in clashes with state police when the issue was raised in 1997. The Senecas say federal treaties dating to the 1700s shield them from state taxation. This time around, Seneca leaders said, they want a diplomatic resolution. "The nation has no intention of shutting down the Thruway," said Seneca Treasurer Kevin Seneca, who said talks with Spitzer are planned. Spitzer spokesman Christine Pritchard confirmed the talks but did not comment further April 19. "This is not an issue that is going to escalate into violence. We do not support that," John said. But several speakers at a Seneca news conference were clearly frustrated by what they see as the state's infringement on their lives and businesses. "It's an ongoing battle with the white man and we will never stop," said Linda Doxtator, a tribal councilor. "Years ago, you killed our people, you killed our children, our elderly, our women," another council member said. "We're still here. ... Now you got to deal with us. We're not backing down." In rescinding the Thruway right of way, the tribal council said the U.S. government never gave the required approvals. Tribal leaders cited a 1999 opinion by U.S. District Magistrate Carol Heckman which said that the Secretary of the Interior Department had not complied with laws governing rights of way on Indian lands. The decision was part of a Seneca land claim case involving Grand Island, north of Buffalo, which the Senecas lost. "They're turning up the heat, they're upping the ante. It should be recognized for what it is," said Hoyt, a critic of the Senecas' plans to build a casino in Buffalo. The nation operates two other western New York casinos in Niagara Falls and Salamanca. John said he and Spitzer had already agreed to meet on the cigarette tax issue when the council's Thruway vote was taken April 21. He said a date for his meeting with Spitzer had not yet been set. Copyright c. 1998 - 2007 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Connecticut Court ruling backs Tribal Sovereignty" --------- Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 07:23:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LOWER COURT RULING UPHELD" http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096414943 Connecticut Court ruling backs Tribal Sovereignty by: Gale Courey Toensing / Indian Country Today April 30, 2007 HARTFORD, Conn. - The state Supreme Court has issued a ruling upholding a federally recognized tribe's sovereign immunity that shields it from being sued in state court without its consent. The unanimous ruling upheld a lower court's decision to dismiss a lawsuit filed in 2005 by Bradley Beecher, a former commander of the state police casino and licensing unit, who began working for the Mohegan Tribe as an investigator in 1997 after retiring. "An Indian tribe is subject to suit only when Congress has authorized the suit or the tribe has waived its immunity," Senior Associate Justice David Borden wrote. Beecher and his wife, Katherine, said they would appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. "We never really thought we would win because Connecticut gets too much money from Indian gambling. The U.S. Supreme Court has been the plan all along," she told Indian Country Today. The case began in October 2004 when the Mohegans brought an action against Bradley Beecher, claiming that he had tried to extort money from the tribe by threatening to disclose confidential information he had acquired while working for the tribe. Beecher said he had in effect been fired after five years on the job because he had criticized the tribe's regulatory practices. The tribe's lawsuit ended in December 2004 with an agreed-upon permanent injunction that allowed Beecher to talk publicly about his employment with Mohegan, but prohibited him from disclosing any confidential information about the tribe. The Beechers have documenting their battle and claims against Mohegan and state officials on an e-mail listserv and a Web site. In May 2005, Beecher sued the Mohegan Tribe in state Superior Court, alleging that the tribe's October 2004 lawsuit was a type of vexatious litigation known as a SLAPP suit - a "strategic lawsuit against public participation." Specifically, Beecher complained that the tribe was trying to gag him from making adverse comments about Mohegan to state officials while the tribe was negotiating the purchase of the Pocono Downs racetrack in Pennsylvania. Mohegan responded with a motion to dismiss Beecher's claim, claiming that without tribal or congressional consent, the tribe's sovereign immunity protects it from actions in state court. The lower court agreed and dismissed the case. Beecher's appeal alleged that the lower court improperly concluded that the tribe did not waive its immunity. He claimed specifically that the tribe had waived its immunity by filing its original claim in state court. In upholding the lower court's dismissal, Borden quoted case law that says a waiver of immunity "may not be implied, but must be expressed unequivocally. The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to find a waiver of tribal immunity based on policy concerns, perceived inequities arising from the assertion of immunity, or the unique context of a case." Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who has led the opposition to the federal recognition of the state's remaining unrecognized tribes, said the state Supreme Court ruling "breaks no new ground and therefore has no broader ramifications. It will have little or no impact beyond this case." The ruling drew admiration from attorney Douglas Luckerman, who represents tribal nations in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine. "I saw this case and wondered why the rest of New England can't have judges like that. They seem to get that tribal sovereignty is not something judges can play with easily," Luckerman said. In a statement on tribal sovereignty, Katherine Beecher said, in part, that it "allows tribes and their non-tribal management to violate the law. If tribes want to be considered separate countries then the same laws should apply to them as actual other countries. Any foreign government or their representatives must obey all American state and federal laws and can be held accountable in American courts." The Beechers are "working closely with CERA, One Nation United and many other groups to see that the public is educated and that the unfair policies are changed," she said. Copyright c. 1998 - 2007 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Religious Leader: Protect Hopi Tradition" --------- Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 07:34:14 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CONSEQUENCES IN NUVAMSA CASE" http://www.gallupindependent.com/2007/april/042307kh_prtcthpitrdtn.html Leader: Protect Hopi tradition Religious leader warns of consequences in Nuvamsa case By Kathy Helms Staff Writer April 23, 2007 MISHONGOVI - It is a rare occasion when Hopi religious leaders talk about traditional matters outside the kiva, but Jerry Sekayumptewa, a member of the Powamuya Society, says it has fallen on him to speak out. In doing so, he directed his remarks at Hopi youth, offering his Hopi credentials so they will understand how he knows the things he speaks of. "I am a member of the Powamuya Society at the Village of Mishongovi. The Powamuya Society are said to be the Fathers of the Kachinas," he said Friday. "I speak today about traditional things usually reserved for discussion in the kiva during certain times. It is important to say these things today in order to protect Hopi traditions from misuse and misrepresentation. It is information that you as Hopi will learn and keep dear as you go forward in life. These are things we must all adhere to. "Sometimes as Hopi it is necessary to sacrifice in order to preserve our traditions and religion. And it is important for all to hear and know the truth. This is part of our prophecy as Hopi. It has fallen on me to speak on some of the concerns and responsibilities facing all of us as Hopi today. We must do so in order to protect our traditional practices, religion and the future of all mankind," Sekayumptewa said. There are major differences between a traditional government and a tribal council form of government, with the traditional government adhering to certain requirements and expectations. "A traditional government does not involve itself in matters related to the operation and management of the Hopi Tribal Council. The tribal council can only become involved in village matters through a very specific and defined method listed in the Hopi Constitution," he said. "These things (that) must be said are because a member of an important Hopi Society is attempting to use 'traditional interpretations and values' as a method to justify a false statement. Our traditional teachings do not approve or sanction the use of tradition in order to secure personal outcomes." Role of Bear Clan Sekayumptewa said Nuvamsa has made statements to some newspapers claiming traditional rights in the Bear, Antelope and Snake clans. "The individual claims membership in these clans at the Village of Shungopavi while at the same time he has run for chairman of the Hopi Tribal Council. "A member of the Bear Clan from the Village of Shungopavi should not be running for chairman of the Hopi Council and is prohibited from serving in any capacity as tribal chairman as a result of a request sent by the Mishongovi leadership when two Bear Clan members were certified to serve on the tribal council many years ago," Sekayumptewa said. "The request was made by Mishongovi because the Bear Clan has certain sacred duties unrelated to the mission of the tribal council. These sacred duties would be violated had the two Bear Clan members served on the tribal council." Sekayumptewa said the main role of Bear Clan members is to lead their people in a religious and traditional manner as their children. "Breaking the tradition and harmony as a Bear Clan member has consequences for all of us," he said. Nuvamsa was removed from his elected office by the Hopi Tribal Council after allegations surfaced that he failed to meet the residency requirements of the Hopi Constitution. "Mr. Nuvamsa is trying to get out of the mess he created by claiming he is exercising his traditional right to interpret 'residency' in a traditional manner. This cannot be," Sekayumptewa said. Traditional duties A person claiming to be a traditional or religious person destined for leadership cannot serve as chairman of the Hopi Tribal Council, according to Sekayumptewa. "That position is not viewed as a traditional position and it is an insult to the religious people of Hopi to claim the position is his as a result of his traditional beliefs and then further claim he is the 'rightful heir' due to his membership in the Bear Clan and the planting of a corn field," he said. "These claims mock the Hopi people and our religion. It is embarrassing behavior to witness (from) a member of the Bear Clan, especially one of Shungopavi Village," which lays claim as Mother of the Hopi Traditional Villages and protector of Hopi tradition and religion, he said. "We are surprised to see and hear a member of the Bear Clan from Shungopavi insult and demean the religious beliefs and practices of all Hopis." Sekayumptewa said the Kikmongwis are chosen only to lead the Hopi people into the good life and to pray for all mankind. "The Bear Clan serves in one of the highest positions of the hierarchy and they have been given the authority to lead the Hopi people, their children, in the rightful path of tradition and religious practices," he said. "The traditional people of Shungopavi do not participate in the political process of the tribal council ... It is Shungopavi who has chosen to take the position they are, preserving Hopi tradition and religion for all mankind." Violators pay price According to Sekayumptewa, it has been said that Bear Clan members, who carry the Tiponi, or sacred bundle of Massau, the Creator, "walk the sharp edge of the knife." If they don't carry out their responsibilities they will answer to Massau at some point. When the Hopis emerged into this Fourth World, Massau declined to lead the Bear Clan, telling them they had many ideas and plans with which he did not agree. "Therefore, he refused to be their leader until the right time. When is 'the right time' is something we Hopi do not yet know," Sekayumptewa said. "By not carrying out the responsibilities that are associated with the sacred Tiponi that Massau intended they are answerable for endangering the lives of all mankind." In simple terms, Sekayumptewa said, the Tiponi is a sacred bundle and has certain authorities associated with the responsibilities of the Kikmongwi. "The Kikmongwi is the caretaker, and once he is given this Tiponi, he holds the highest office or religious position. Ben Nuvamsa claims he is a member of the Bear Clan. As a member he is well aware that he is dragging every member of the Bear Clan to catastrophe in order to get what he wants, " Sekayumptewa said. "It is prophecy that the person or persons messing with the Tiponi are answerable and will get their just punishment. Ben Nuvamsa is well aware of that fact. The credibility of the Bear Clan is at stake," he said. "We call on Ben Nuvamsa to honor Hopi tradition and Hopi beliefs." Violating the sacred Sekayumptewa said Nuvamsa should be mindful that the village of Mishongovi is in the midst of preparing for a religious and traditional ceremony, and that Saturday, in particular, holds a very special meaning. Nuvamsa had a political meeting Wednesday night at the Civic Center on Second Mesa near Shungopavi to discuss controversial issues, Sekayumptewa alleged. As a practicing member and active participant in the Bear, Antelope, and Snake societies, he said, Nuvamsa "ought to know and respect the practice of avoiding negative thoughts and/or practices during these crucial ceremonial times. Avoiding disharmony, particularly during these ceremonial times, is a traditional practice that has existed since time immemorial." During these ceremonies, the Hopi pray for all mankind, animals, plants and living matter, he said. "Rain is of paramount importance and also prayed for during these ceremonies. Our Hopi songs always call for rain for crops and moisture for Mother Earth. Without water, Hopi prophecy says mankind will disappear," Sekayumptewa said. "Violating the sacredness of this time through negative thoughts and actions disturbs the tranquility of the sacred ceremony and the peace of all mankind and further disrupts the meaning and intent of our ceremonies. This disruption can have severe consequences for all mankind." Sekayumptewa issued a reminder to Hopi youth that these matters are only to be spoken of due to the responsibilities the Hopi have for the preservation of mankind. "The Hopi Prophecy speaks of many things and it is up to each of us to adhere to our teachings. I am saddened by the fact that it became necessary to speak on these matters during this time, however, I do so for your sake and for the sake of all living things," he said. Copyright c. 2007 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Group on Crusade to dismantle Salmon-killing Dams" --------- Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2007 07:53:38 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="END SALMON KILL" http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi? f=/c/a/2007/04/26/BAG82PG2N54.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea Native American group on crusade to dismantle salmon-killing dams Glen Martin, Chronicle Environment Writer April 26, 2007 SAN FRANCISCO - A group of Klamath River Native Americans kicked off a road trip today from San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf to demand removal of several salmon-killing dams on the Klamath River. Members from the the Yurok, Karok and Hoopa tribes plan to tow hand- carved redwood canoes to Omaha, Neb., to a Berkshire Hathaway stockholders' meeting. The company, headed by billionaire and philanthropist Warren Buffett, owns PacifiCorp, the firm which holds the four hydropower dams on the Klamath River blamed for decimating local salmon runs. "We hope to meet with Mr. Buffett and convince him to do the right thing and remove these dams," said Bob McConnell, a Yurok tribal member and medicine man who is accompanying the caravan. "We hear he's a reasonable man, somebody who still lives in the house he was born in. We think he'll listen to us." Salmon are integral to both the food supply and the culture of the Klamath's tribes, which many archaeologists say have lived along the river for more than 10,000 years. The fate of the Klamath's salmon also affects fishermen and seafood lovers as far away as Monterey. Klamath fish mingle with salmon from other rivers - notably the Sacramento - in the open ocean. Extremely low populations of Klamath salmon during the past few years have resulted in heavy strictures on commercial fishermen to protect the depleted stocks. E-mail Glen Martin at glenmartin@sfchronicle.com. Copyright c. 2007 San Francisco Chronicle, Hearst Communications Inc. --------- "RE: For Native Americans, Jamestown a painful symbol" --------- Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 07:23:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="JAMESTOWN: WHERE INVASION BEGAN" http://rawstory.com/news/afp/ For_Native_Americans_Jamestown_a_pa_04292007.html For Native Americans, Jamestown a painful symbol April 29, 2007 Jamestown may be hailed by many as the place where America's traditions of free enterprise and representative democracy took root 400 years ago. But don't tell that to Ken Adams. "The word annihilation, the word Holocaust, the word atrocity come to mind when I think of 1607," said Adams, chief of the Upper Mattaponi tribe, in referring to the year a group of men and boys arrived in Jamestown and set up the first permanent English colony in the New World. Of the estimated 14,000 to 15,000 Native Americans who lived in the area around the Jamestown settlement in 1607, nearly 90 percent were wiped out within a century, mainly from small-pox, typhus and other Old World diseases inadvertently brought by the colonists and to which the American Indians had never been exposed. Some also died in fighting with the settlers. For Adams and other Native Americans, these stark numbers give little reason to celebrate as the country prepares to commemorate the quadricentennial of the settlement, with Britain's Queen Elizabeth and US President George W. Bush set to separately visit Jamestown next month. "We are certainly proud to be Americans but from our perspective we don't feel like the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown settlement is something to celebrate or commemorate," said Bill Miles, chief of Virginia's Pamunkey Indian tribe, one of some 40 tribes that lived in the area in the 17th century. Today there are eight state-recognized tribes in Virginia. "When the English boats arrived on our shores, that was the beginning of the English taking our land away from us," Miles told AFP. "We fed them and they decided they wanted our food so they took it away from us, and they wanted our land and they took that away from us." No Native American is better known from that time than Pocahontas, who was the daughter of a powerful tribal chief and who developed a friendship with the settlers and became a celebrity in London after marrying an Englishman, John Rolfe. Her life has given rise to many legends and a factually inaccurate Disney movie that makes many American Indians cringe. "The actual history of Pocahontas has been taken away from us, it has been hijacked by everybody and anybody but us," Adams said. "The only accounts we have about her are other people's accounts, not from Indians. "But we're working on setting the record straight." Organizers of the 400th anniversary acknowledge the concerns expressed by American Indians and blacks about Jamestown, where the first African slaves arrived in 1619, and have toned down the event from a "celebration" to a "commemoration". "We know that the Virginia Indians were here 10,000 years before the English arrived so it's a little disingenuous to say the English discovered Jamestown in 1607," said Mike Litterst, spokesman for the Colonial National Historic Park. "We now tell the story of Jamestown as the place where the people of three cultures came together, not only the English in 1607." Adams said he hoped that in referring to Jamestown, people will not only hail it as the first permanent English settlement that gave birth to America but will recognize it as a painful symbol for Native Americans. "When I look at the history, I can't help but be disappointed when I ride through these roads here and I see that only one or two percent of the people are Indians," Adams said. "Four hundred years ago, there was only us." Copyright c. AFP 2007 . All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Utes' decision to ban Flag out of respect" --------- Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 12:48:15 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SOUTHERN UTES BAN FLAG ON CRANE" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp? article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070427_2.htm Utes' decision to ban flag out of respect By Shane Benjamin | Herald Staff Writer April 27, 2007 IGNACIO - The Southern Ute Indian Tribal Council has released a statement clarifying its decision to prohibit a U.S. flag from flying atop a construction crane on the reservation. In the two-page statement, the council says that placing a U.S. flag or a tribal flag on top of the crane, where there is no permanent flagpole, would be improper treatment for either symbol. It goes on to say that the council's decision was made to protect the flags from being "torn to shreds by the high winds" or being blown to the ground. "We want to emphasize that our decision was the result of a profound respect for and pride in the symbols of our two nations," the statement says. "The Tribal Council's respect for these symbols led to our decision to not fly either flag from the top of a crane on tribal land." Arviso-Okland Construction, the company hired to build a new casino on the reservation, was flying a U.S. flag on the crane earlier this year. By some reports, the flag went missing a couple of times, possibly because it flew off the crane. Some tribal members expressed discontent to the Tribal Council, said Sage Remington, a tribal member who is familiar with the council's decision. Then in late February or early March, a representative for Okland Construction made a formal request to fly a tribal flag atop the crane as an indicator of wind direction and speed. The Tribal Council said no to any flag being flown from that location. In an interview Thursday, Tribal Chairman Clement J. Frost said he is unfamiliar with the practice of flying flags on top of cranes, and using such symbols as weather instruments seems inappropriate. Displaying a flag on equipment such as a crane as opposed to a "special place" - such as the Veterans Park outside the tribe's administrative facilities - introduced a new use of the flag to the Indian tribe, Frost said. "It's not something that we recognize as the norm. It's different," he said. "The leadership has very deep respect for the flag as far as how it is flown and where it is flown. It has been our thought that they're flown only in a place of honor." What is more, Frost said the flag was not being treated with respect or honor. "It flew off the crane two times and hit the ground," he said. "I, as a veteran, have belief that you never let your flag touch the ground. Even when you take it off the pole, you do not let it hit the ground. Even when you carry it during wartime, you don't let it hit the ground. "I know they'll say that it hasn't, but it has hit the ground," Frost said. "And the people in the community have seen it fly off of there." Efforts to reach a representative for Okland Construction were unsuccessful Thursday night. Ever since The Durango Herald published a front-page article Sunday about the tribe's decision, some tribal members and school- children have been harassed and intimidated by some who say the tribe is anti-America, Frost said. "It set off a lot of people - that this tribe is anti-American," he said. But in reality, the tribe has a deep respect for the U.S. flag as well as its own flag, Frost said. "We have given our lives for that, whether it's Vietnam, whether it's Iraq, whether it's Desert Storm, Korea, all those places," he said. "We are for the flag. We regard it as a powerful symbol. We've always recognized that it needs to be treated with the greatest respect and always treated with honor." Frost said American Indians are frequently targeted to justify their beliefs and the way they live to the "white world." For example, he said American Indians are frequently asked to explain their deep concern for ancestor's bones that have been removed from the ground. "As Indian people, we seem to be always having to justify everything for the way we live," he said. "We have to justify it to the people of the outside world. I think that's improper. It's something I'm really not pleased about." Copyright c. The Durango Herald. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Lumbee Recognition: A tribal misstep" --------- Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 07:43:08 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LUMBEE OOPS!" http://www.robesonian.com/articles/2007/04/26/ news/editorials/editorial05.txt A tribal misstep April 26, 2007 Last Wednesday a delegation of Lumbee Indians that included Indiana University basketball coach Kelvin Sampson headed to Washington, D.C., where they made an impassioned - and convincing - plea to a U.S. House of Representatives committee for federal recognition. The next night, that same effort was undermined during a meeting of the Lumbee Tribal Council, as opponents of federal recognition were given more ammunition in their fight to stop it. Pay close attention, because this web is tangled. Last September, the Tribal Council tried to eliminate the position of deputy tribal administrator, which would have put James Hardin out of work while freeing up $88,920 a year in salary for other needs. That effort failed, but a compromise was reached: Hardin would continue to work as deputy administrator but his salary would be slashed to $48,000 a year for the new fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. But the paperwork apparently wasn't turned in because Hardin kept drawing the larger salary until Dec. 11, when the lower salary took effect only after a member of the Finance Committee brought the problem to the attention of Tribal Administrator Leon Jacobs. Fast forward until this past Thursday, when the Tribal Council voted to change the name of Hardin's position from deputy administrator to planning and grants director and - here's the fun part - provide Hardin a $16,400 raise in the middle of the fiscal year. Now we have no doubt about Hardin's abilities. He has a long and distinguished record of working on behalf of American Indians, but we ask: Could Hardin not have performed those same duties without the name change and a pay raise - at least until the beginning of a new fiscal year? Now we will kick aside for a moment the question of whether the council's action was illegal because the new position was not advertised. But what seems clear is that this end run was good-ole-boy politics that was certainly intended to keep Hardin working for the tribe. But it gets better: Although it is clear that Hardin owes the tribal government for being overpaid from Oct. 1 to Dec. 11, there was actually an effort - it failed, thankfully - to get him reimbursed $12,000 in back pay. We have yet to hear an explanation on why he was due the additional dollars. Thursday's action by the council just fuels accusations that it is more concerned with creating jobs and high salaries for cronies than it is with delivering services to a needy populace. All this, and the tribe is asking for federal recognition that would bring approximately $80 million a year into the county for health care, education and economic development. We believe the hill toward recognition just got taller and steeper. Copyright c. 2007 The Robesonian, Lumberton, NC. --------- "RE: Financial Literacy may be key to solving Poverty" --------- Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 07:23:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FINACIAL KNOWLEDGE COULD LEAD TO FINANCIAL SOLVENCY" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20070429/APC0101/704290594/1003/APC01 Financial literacy may be key to solving tribal poverty By Brian Tumulty Post-Crescent Washington bureau April 29, 2007 WASHINGTON - Improving financial literacy is considered a key to eliminating poverty on Indian reservations. The Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin is among the tribes mentioned in a new report on best practices in helping people climb out of poverty by saving money and building assets. About 3,300 Oneida children and teenagers receive a quarterly newsletter that promotes financial planning for the money they receive at age 18 from a tribal trust fund for minors. "We're drawing attention to financial education," said Susan White, the trust department director. "The trust committee is trying to be a role model while reminding the parents and grandparents they are the first teachers." Each child receives $800 annually for nine years that is put into an account as a per capita disbursement from tribal gaming revenue. The account investments - which have averaged an annual return of 10.1 percent since August 2002 - produce a sizeable sum of cash for the minor when he or she turns 18. Current payouts average about $9,800. White estimates about half of the recipients spend their money responsibly. But, "unfortunately we do hear of the bad stories more than the good stories," she said Friday. Financial literacy among American Indian youth lags behind other races, according to a report released Thursday at the annual Washington policy briefing of the Native Financial Education Coalition. The survey found 86.8 percent of American Indian high school students were given a failing grade for financial literacy, compared to 79.8 percent of blacks, 79.6 percent of Hispanics, 71.9 percent of Asian- Americans and 54.6 percent of whites. One of the report's encouraging findings was that American Indian high school seniors scored higher than their peers if they planned to attend college, pursue a professional career or make more than $40,000 annually. Brian Tumulty can be reached at 202-906-8133 or btumulty@postcrescent.com. Copyright c. 2007 Appleton Post-Crescent. --------- "RE: Businesses come alive at Cheyenne River" --------- Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 07:24:11 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GROWING OPPORTUNITY ON CRST RESERVATION" http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096414895 Businesses come alive at Cheyenne River by: David Melmer / Indian Country Today April 24, 2007 EAGLE BUTTE, S.D. - Despite a large population of American Indians in two counties on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, only 1 percent of the businesses were owned by tribal members. A survey indicated that a community development financial institution was needed, and the Four Bands Community Fund was born in 2000. Business owners praise the work Four Bands has done, not just in helping entrepreneurs start businesses, but in educating young people on personal finances. A strong work attitude and a business climate with financial education for adults and youth have emerged over the past seven years. Young workers learn the value of saving and working through programs such as the individual deposit account that matches saved funds for college, a business or a home. The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe is located in one of the poorest counties in the country. Jobs are scarce and outside businesses that perform services for the communities take money out of the community. "The frustration is the off-site owner; some businesses could be owned by locals," said Tanya Fiddler, executive director of Four Bands. One of the first projects the Four Bands accomplished was identifying what businesses would survive and help the local economy. Fiddler is supportive of private entrepreneurial ventures, which build personal wealth and wealth for the community, instead of tribal enterprises. She said there was a lot of room for building space in Eagle Butte for businesses that people could own. For every loan Four Bands makes for a business, an additional 1.5 jobs is created for the community, Fiddler said. "Most people are looking for opportunities to be productive, and that starts with having the capital investment," Fiddler said. Four Bands has created an atmosphere that brings capital to the forefront for entrepreneurs to begin their quest for viability and financial independence. Not all businesses survive, Fiddler said; but with the proper education through programs like Cheyenne River Entrepreneurial Assistance Training and Education, which teaches would-be entrepreneurs the details of planning a business, managing finances and other aspects of a particular business, the chances are better for survival. Financial education is a key component of what Four Bands provides. The Four Bands staff is savvy when it comes to business and personal finances. Not all tribal members take part in the education process. Some use excuses like "the federal government owes me" or "I'm not good at math," Fiddler said. "I believe in personal finance training. It empowers people to look at their credit report. We have a credit building program and we help fix and build a good credit report," Fiddler said. "If we make good investments on Cheyenne River and track the data, peoples' lives will be better, life will change; people will manage their IRAs and retirement funds," she said. More than 300 youth have taken the personal finance education program, and most have set up IDA savings accounts. The matching funds help. Throughout Eagle Butte, young people are working in convenience stores, fast-food and other restaurants, a tribally owned grocery store, a motel and other businesses. They are working for something they want and to establish credit and a savings. It's all the result of the work through the Cheyenne-Eagle Butte school system and Four Bands. Fiddler said the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe is in a position to make changes. "The more the tribe buys into financial education the better. The tribal government is conducting a program assessment and move toward more performance-based programs; when people have to perform, if they consider accountability, it will set out an expectation for employees," she said. Most business people on the reservation say they are in business to help the community, not specifically to gain wealth. That's the cultural history of the Lakota. Many businesses on the Cheyenne River reservation are changing owners, starting new or expanding, all with the help of Four Bands Community Fund. Copyright c. 1998 - 2007 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Cherokee Nation passes Language Resolution" --------- Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2007 07:53:38 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CHEROKEE LANGUAGE RESOLOUTION" http://www.navajohopiobserver.com/main.asp? SectionID=8&SubSectionID=8&ArticleID=5776&TM=30090.45 Cherokee Nation passes Language Resolution April 25, 2007 TAHLEQUAH, Okla. - The Cherokee Nation Tribal Council unanimously passed a resolution to preserve the Cherokee language during its monthly meeting. The Cherokee Nation has many language initiatives to perpetuate its rich language, including a language immersion program and a four-year degree program in partnership with Northeastern State University. These were mentioned as reasons for the resolution, which supports furthering all Native American languages in Oklahoma. "This resolution brought forward by Councilman Chuck Hoskin is further proof of the importance our tribe places on its language," said Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chad Smith. "The Cherokee language is important to maintaining our cultural heritage and identity and enhances the quality of life of our people." Cherokee Nation Industries reported a total of $79 million in sales for the year with an estimated profit of $1.8 million for the year. CNI, headquartered in Stilwell, Oklahoma, also reported the addition of 56 new employees for the year, bringing the total to 333 employees thus far this year. By a vote of 9 to 7, the Council narrowly passed an amendment to the Cherokee Nation General Corporation Act. The amendment calls for a five percent increase in the dividend paid by Cherokee Nation Enterprises to the tribe. These additional funds would be used for contract health services. While some Council members were for using the additional funds, some were concerned because of a previous commitment made to a financial institution earlier this year. "We're talking about surplus (funds)," said Mayes County Councilman Johnny Keener. "We've got it to work with. Let's spend it." Adair County Councilman Jackie Bob Martin reminded the Council that the Cherokee Nation made a commitment in January that there would be no changes in the tribe's dividend policy with Cherokee Nation Enterprises. "We indicated we would support the Jobs Growth Act and the three-year capital plan," Martin said. "In our agreement we said we would leave our dividend policy alone." Martin instead proposed the Council work with the Cherokee Nation Health Services Group to evaluate the true needs of the citizens, saying that while he was in favor of helping the people, he also wanted to honor the commitments made by the tribe. Martin also noted once needs were identified, they could be paid for with the tribe's surplus funds instead of the proposed dividend increase. The Council also confirmed the nominations of Pam Iron and Tom Herrian as Governing Board Members of the Cherokee Nation Comprehensive Care Agency. Established in 2004, the agency facilitates various Cherokee Nation health care initiatives, including joint ventures and other business-related health activities. In other business, the Council approved the donation of a tribally-owned health services mobile unit to the Cherokee County Emergency Management program and approved a Native American Arts and Crafts Copyright Act. The Council also passed a budget modification which will provide funds for housing, a recreational center and equipment, a ground penetrating system and the Cherokee County Boys and Girls Club "Summer Pride" program. Copyright c. 2007, Navajo Hopi Observer. --------- "RE: GIAGO: Honoring those who died at Washita" --------- Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 07:08:35 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GIAGO: WASHITA" http://www.indianz.com/News/2007/002524.asp Tim Giago: Honoring those who died at Washita April 23, 2007 It was a little early in the year for the corn to be "as high as an elephant's eye" in Oklahoma this past Friday, but the blue skies and the low flying clouds made this spring day a day to remember. I was invited to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of the Washita Battlefield National Historic Site and the still incomplete Cultural Heritage Center in Cheyenne, Oklahoma on April 20. History buffs will recall that on the early morning of November 27, 1868, Lt. Colonel George A. Custer, with a detachment of the 7th Cavalry, attacked the sleeping camp of Chief Black Kettle and slaughtered nearly 100 men, women and children. Black Kettle, a man who had survived the Massacre at Sand Creek in Colorado in 1864 while flying an American flag and a white flag of peace, was killed at Washita. The Heritage Center is a magnificent piece of architecture located in the rolling hills of Oklahoma north of the community of Cheyenne. For the Peace Chief of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, Chief Lawrence Hart, it was a struggle of many years to reach this goal. Chief Hart told about his trips to Washington, D. C. in an effort to raise money for the site, but noted that his early efforts had been rebuffed because some in the United States Senate did not consider the site of a massacre to be of historic significance. It was only after the people of Oklahoma City sought funds to build a monument to commemorate the bombing of the federal building there that the some senators saw the connection and voted to fund the Cultural Heritage Center at the Washita Battlefield National Historic site. Governor Darrell Flyingman of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma put things in realistic perspective when he arose to speak. He talked about the thousands of acres of land either ceded or stolen by hook and crook from the people of his nation over the years. He said, "I consider this to be a site of a massacre and not a battlefield as it is named and I will do everything within my power to see that the site is renamed as the Washita Massacre rather than Battlefield. Gov. Flyingman said that he felt great sorrow for the friends and family members of the massacre at Virginia Tech, but he was sad the television reporters kept referring to this tragedy as the worst massacre in American history. "The massacre of American Indians at Washita, Sand Creek and Wounded Knee were just as horrible and many more died at each massacre site as what happened at Virginia Tech, but I suppose the fact that it was `just Indians' being slaughtered meant that it was not a part of American history, " he said. There is a long history of kinship between the Cheyenne, Arapaho and the people of the Great Sioux Nation. These three tribes were allies at the Battle of the Little Big Horn and one of the ironies of that battle was that warriors of the very tribes he attacked at Washita punished Custer, the perpetrator of the Washita Massacre. For their victory at the Little Big Horn, the Cheyenne, Arapaho and the Sioux paid a heavy price. Many more Cheyenne and Arapaho were removed from their tribal lands in Montana and Colorado and moved to Western Oklahoma. The 7.5 million acres that make up the Black Hills of South Dakota were confiscated from the Sioux by the United States government. Ironically, just two years before Custer was killed at the Little Big Horn, he led an expedition into the Black Hills and discovered gold there. The Sioux went to court in 1921 to seek the return of all or portions of the Black Hills and 60 years later, in 1981; the U. S. Supreme Court awarded the tribes $105 million for the theft of the Hills. Never mind that in the interim more than $1 billion dollars in gold, timber and other natural resources were extracted from the Black Hills without a single dime going to the owners of the land, the Indian tribes of the Sioux Nation. It is now 2007 and 26 years have passed since the monetary award and the tribes of the Great Sioux Nation, the poorest of tribes in America, have refused to accept a single penny of the award. Writing on the Black Hills Settlement Case and of the illegal taking of the Black Hills, Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun said, "A more ripe and rank case of dishonest dealings may never be found in our history." Peace Chief Lawrence Hart told me this story. He said that Custer returned to visit the people of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes a few years after the Washita Massacre. After he smoked the pipe of peace with them he was asked to make a promise to them that he would never ever make war against the Cheyenne and Arapaho again. Custer made that promise. He was then told that if he ever broke that promise he would die on that day. Forgetting his promise, Custer attacked the encampment of Cheyenne, Arapaho and Sioux at the Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876 and he died on that day. The Cheyenne and Arapaho are working to build a memorial cultural site at Sand Creek in Colorado. And with this column I am requesting the Congressional delegation from South Dakota to introduce a bill that would help raise the funds to build a Cultural Heritage Center at the Massacre Site of Wounded Knee. The Heritage Center at Washita could not have been constructed without the full support of the Oklahoma Congressional representatives. Are you listening Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, Senator John Thune, and Senator Tim Johnson? What a tribute and a blessing this would be to the Lakota people of your state. --- 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. Copyright c. 2007 Indianz.com. --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Little conservation efforts add up" --------- Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 12:48:15 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: CONSERVATION" http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm? id=35982§ion=columnists&columnist=Dorreen%20Yellow%20Bird Little conservation efforts add up Dorreen Yellow Bird April 28, 2007 I've always believed I was a "greenie," an environmentalist, until I had to stay home last week with the flu. After watching "The Oprah Winfrey Show," I realized I'm more rainbow than green. Before I talk "green," I have to tell you how I came to be home for three days lazing about and watching television. I got the flu the real flu. And yes, they do have a test to indicate whether it's the flu or just a bad cold: They stick a needle about a foot long up your nose for a sample of contents. OUCH! I tested positive. As that horrible experience suggests, the problem with taking sick days is that you're too miserable to enjoy them. Anyway, I slept and watched TV most of the time, usually falling asleep before I could see the end of any one show. I don't usually watch Oprah, but as luck would have it, I was home the day she did what she called the "green" show. As the show's environmental experts talked, I thought, "Oh, I didn't think running water while I brushed my teeth or before the shower mattered." I stopped doing those things the next day. Try to use only one napkin a day, the "green" expert went on to say. Funny, I hadn't noticed how many napkins I used in a day until I started to count them; best, she says, is to use washable napkins. I told my daughter about these revelations. She already was irritated by some of my discoveries from the show and said, "Well, aren't you using water to wash the napkins?" Don't confuse me, I retorted, and concentrated on eating without the use of a napkin. Ketchup on the chin can be wiped with the back of the hand, I learned. My daughter didn't like that option, either. During the show, Oprah (as is her habit) handed out to her audience tons of green products, including "green" cloth bags. You take them to the grocery store to put your products in; that way, you're not using those pesky plastic bags that end up in trees, around the cat's neck and in the landfills for many, many years. They also had special netlike bags for fruits and vegetables. I have a ton of those regular cloth bags that I've gotten over the years from conferences. That, I can do; it'll be piece of cake, I thought. But my daughter noted that I'd have to wash them again, the water thing. Whoa. Oprah's experts absolutely were red-faced about bottled water the kind you buy in cases or individually from the store. Look at all the plastic you are putting in the landfills, they said. I don't buy my water like that, so I put a green mark down for myself the only one up to that point. By the way, a 4- or 5-inch stack of newspapers cost one tree its life, they said. Yikes. Detergents and cleaning supplies were given to the audience in huge baskets. The viewing audience can look on the Internet for a 33 percent discount of these items, Oprah said proudly. I looked; the ones they talked about were real pricey. Although I need to redo my budget to include those, I think I'd give them a try . . . later. I've been trying to follow the advice given that day on "Oprah." I now have a place for newspapers, cans, plastics (the right kind), cardboard and so on for recycling. I learned a lot. On Friday morning as I headed to work, I saw all the recyclables on Belmont Road in Grand Forks. I drove slowly and could see almost every house had its recyclables on the curb. Oprah would be proud. The "green" show made me realize there are so many simple and easy things I, as an individual, can do to help Mother Earth become cleaner and better for us today and for our children in the future. Unfortunately, I used to think I was pretty environmentally aware, and I pointed my finger at the smoke-spouting factories, big SUVs and pickups, those who are denuding rain forests and so on. But now, I see that I, too, contribute to the pollution of our environment. Thanks to Oprah, I made an individual effort to cause less pollution. And during my bout with the flu, I tried to use fewer Kleenex. --- Dorreen Yellow Bird is a reporter and columnist. Her columns appear Wednesdays and Saturdays on the opinion pages of the Herald. Reach her at (701) 780-1228 or dyellowbird@gfherald.com Copyright c. 2006 Grand Forks Herald, Forum Communications Co., Fargo ND. --------- "RE: Cucapa Zapatista Camp defends Fishing Rights" --------- Date: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 11:47 am From: Chiapas95-english Subj: En;UDW,Cucapa Zap Camp defends fishing rts,Apr 24 Mailing List: Chiapas95-En This message is forwarded to you by the editors of the Chiapas95 newslists. To contact the editors or to submit material for posting send to: . Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 04:24:15 +0000 From: "Sylvia Romo" Upside Down World Cucapa Zapatista Camp Defends Fishing Rights on Colorado River Delta Written by Dan Bacher Tuesday, 24 April 2007 Credit: Joel GarciaSince February 26 of this year, the Cucapa Tribe in El Mayor, Baja California has organized an historic Zapatista peace camp to defend their fishing rights against harassment and intimidation by the Mexican government on the Colorado River Delta. The idea for the camp originated during a visit by Subcomandante Marcos, also known as "delegado zero" (delegate zero), who is the spokesman for the EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation), to El Mayor during the Zapatista "Otra Campa~a" (Other Campaign) in October 2006. "We have decided to send an urgent message to the Mexicans and Chicanos north of the Rio Grande to come in order to maximize the number of people here, create a safe space, and protect the Cucapa and Kiliwa community during the fishing season," said Marcos in announcing the initiation of the camp after a meeting with the Cucapa and Kiliwa community leaders. In February, the Cucapa community issued its call to action. "You are no longer being asked to stand in solidarity with the indigenous people of Mexico. Now you are being asked to stand to play an integral role in a bi-national effort that will no longer consist of only resisting but also helping these communities exist and live as they have for thousands of years," said the tribe. The 304 member Cucapa Tribe said the camp aimed to "help reestablish the networks and relations that existed before borders separated families and communities, and to help expose these atrocities to a world that has avoided looking at the price of its excess, comfort and luxury." Although the peace camp got off to a slow start, the momentum built in March as the Cucapa and supporters constructed a fishing camp, secured buyers for the fish (corvina), purchased a refrigerated trailer and netted fish in defiance of federal fishing regulations that require permits in a "marine protected area." By the end of April, the camp had achieved its goals. "The camp is almost over, but it has been extremely successful," explained Cesar Soriano from the Banda Martes in Los Angeles. "The main goal of the Cucapa... to fish without government harassment - was achieved." "The camp also achieved its second goal, to organize direct support from people from both sides of the border," said Soriano. At different points during the camp, activists from Mexico City, Australia, El Salvador, and American Indian nations, as well as from San Diego and Los Angeles, showed their solidarity with the Cucapa. Many Zapatista solidarity groups from throughout California and the Southwest organized fundraisers for the Cucapa struggle. Subcomandante Marcos and 10 Comandantes from Chiapas were also welcomed by the O'odham Tribe and friends in the state of Sonora while en route to the Cucapa Camp in April. "The Cucapa are doing the same thing they have been doing for 9,000 years," said Marcos, as quoted by Brenda Norrell in Narco News on April 11. "The Cucapa and other Indian people called for this camp in defense of nature so they can fish without detentions or being put in jail." Caravans from Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland and other California cities have gone to the camp to support the Cucapa when they fish during the high tides. While some accompanied the fishermen and fisherwomen on their boats, the others stayed on shore to watch out for federal soliders coming to cite or harass the Cucapa. The last high tide that the Cucapa will fish during will be from May 10-May 16, 2007. For over thousands of years, the Cucapa people lived on land surrounding the Colorado River and its Delta where it empties into the Sea of Cortez. The tribe, in what is now the southwestern United States and north end of Baja California, lived off harvesting the native fish and plants of the river and Delta. However, fish catches by the Cucapa and other tribes plummeted in recent decades as agribusiness in California and Arizona and thirsty Southern California cities diverted the entire flow of the Colorado without regard for the indigenous people below the U.S.-Mexico border. With only a trickle of the river ever reaching the once fertile Delta, catches of corvina, totuava (a giant seabass like fish that is now protected) and other species of fish declined dramatically. Rather than addressing the problems of massive water diversions and fishing by corporate commercial fishing fleets that caused the fish