_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 15, ISSUE 019 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 May 7, 2007 Cree aligipizun/frog moon Hopi hakitonmuyaw/waiting moon Blackfeet aapistsisskitsaato's/flower (blossom) moon Algonquin moonesquanimock kesos/moon when women weed corn +-------------------------------------------------------+ | Much more happens in Indian Country than is reported | | in this weekly newsletter. For daily updates & events | | go to http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm | +-------------------------------------------------------+ Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin -- Blackfeet -- News for All the People Ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min -- Ojibwe -- We Are Talking About Ourselves Aunchemokauhettittea -- Naragansett -- Let Us Share News Kanoheda Aniyvwiya -- Cherokee -- Journal of the People O Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse -- Creek -- People's New News O o O Acimowin -- Plains Cree -- Story or Account O o O Tlaixmatiliztli -- Nahuatl -- News O o o o o O Agnutmaqan -- Listuguj Mi'kmaq -- News O o O Sho-da-ku-ye -- Teehahnahmah -- Talking Birchbark O o O Un Chota -- Susquehannic Seneca -- The People Speak O Ha-Sah-Sliltha -- Ditidaht Nation -- News of the People Ximopanolti tehuatzin, inin Mexika tlahtolli -- Nahuatl -- For you we offer these words It-hah-pe-hah Ah-num pah-le -- Chickasaw -- Together We Are Talking Dineh jii' adah' ho'nil'e'gii ba' ha' neh -- Navajo Nation -- What's Happening among The People News Okla Humma Holisso Nowat Anya -- Choctaw -- People(s) Red Newspaper Hi'a chu ah gaa -- Pima -- The stories or the talk of the People s ch mA mL tL squee Lux -- Okanogan -- News from the People Native American News -- Language of the Occupation Forces ++>If you speak a Native American language not listed above, please send us your words for "News of the People." We'd rather take up this whole page saving these few words of our hundreds of nations than present a nice clean banner in the language of the occupation forces who came here determined to replace our words with their own. email gars@nanews.org with the equivalent of "News of the People" in your tribal language along with the english translation <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is produced in straight ASCII text for greatest portability across platforms. Read it with a fixed-pitch font, such as Courier, Monaco, FixedSys or CG Times. Proportional fonts will be difficult to read. <================<<<< >>>>================> This issue contains articles from: www.indianz.com; www.pechanga.net; www.indiancountrytoday.com; Mailing List: Chiapas 95-En, Frostys AmerIndian, Remember The Cherokee/Tsalagi; 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: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + =================== "As a people, we can empathize with the people of Iraq because they are experiencing many of the things we experienced as a people." __ Chief Wilma Mankiller, Cherokee +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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 This week the residents of Caldonia formed a motorcade and drove to Toronto to confront legislators about the Aboriginal protestors and the slowness of negotiations to have the protest end. Please take careful note the convoy obstructed other traffic, so we can assume the Caledonia residents only resent blockades when it affects them - or - they wanted to share their anger with their fellow countrymen. Please also note they want the Aboriginal protestors moved out of their town. Nowhere have I seen or heard they want the original treaty land returned to the true owners - the Natives who are there protesting because yet another chunk of their land was being stolen and developed for yet another chunk of Caldonians. The group is calling on both levels of government to start negotiating on a full-time basis, using methods such as arbitration, mediation and even lock-down negotiations to resolve the dispute. I think they make a good point here. No means or extremes should be discarded in an attempt to return all the stolen treaty land to the Aboriginals it belongs to. , , 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 ----------- --------- "RE: Senators look at Health Care for Indians" --------- Date: Wed, 2 May 2007 07:09:08 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ADDRESSING HEALTH NEEDS" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20070502/NEWS/705020322/1001 Senators look at care for Indians Proposal would update, address health needs on reservations By From staff reports May 2, 2007 U.S. senators are advancing legislation to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, a measure dating to 1976 that splits responsibility for the health care of more than 1.5 million Native Americans between the federal and tribal governments. The federal Indian Health Service has about 50 hospitals and more than 200 health centers on or near reservations throughout the country. They are paid with federal money but work in concert with local tribes to provide medical care primarily to reservation residents. The system is an outgrowth of treaties signed between the tribes - including the Sioux in South Dakota - and the United States in the late 1800s. But the Health Care Improvement Act has not been updated in three decades, a span in which health care and medical needs have changed dramatically. Diabetes and other health problems such as cancer have hit Native Americans especially hard, yet IHS has not had the money to staff its hospitals and clinics on the same level as the private sector, critics say. A chronic crisis Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chairman Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. - with support from 12 other senators, including South Dakota's Tim Johnson - would renew and improve the act by directing resources to fight what he calls "the chronic shortage of health care services in American Indian communities." Dorgan said there is a "bona fide crisis" in health care in tribal communities. The problem is especially acute on the poverty-stricken reservations of the Dakotas. Unemployment hovers around 70 percent on the Rosebud, Pine Ridge and other reservations in South Dakota. Economic depression has fostered alcoholism, drug abuse, high smoking rates and malnutrition. According to federal reports, Native American cancer death rates are about 50 percent greater than that of the U.S. population as a whole. A similar disparity can be found with diabetes. In areas with few jobs and bleak living conditions, IHS struggles to recruit and retain medical staff. The federal agency long has acknowledged that its patients have long waits to see doctors and often must be referred elsewhere for specialized care. Trouble is, many Native Americans can't afford to drive to get that care. "Despite treaty commitments, trust responsibilities owed to our native peoples and the moral obligation to help others, we find that the federal government is not meeting tribal health care needs," Johnson said. Bill breakdown The proposal would: - Address a $1 billion backlog in needed health care sites, such as alcohol and substance abuse treatment centers, and $1 billion for sanitation centers in tribal communities; - Make permanent federal programs providing services to Native Americans in long-term health care, cancer care, diabetes prevention and other key health problems; - Expand scholarship and loan programs that encourage more Native Americans to enter health care professions; - Place a higher emphasis on health care by elevating the director of the Indian Health Service to the assistant secretary for Indian Health in the Department of Health and Human Services. "I'm going to push hard to get Congress to bring this legislation to the Senate floor so we have an opportunity to address the fundamental need for, and right of, American Indians and Alaskan Natives to obtain adequate and innovative health care," Dorgan said. Copyright c. 2006 ArgusLeader.com. --------- "RE: Lakota helps bring lost American Souls Home" --------- Date: Tue, 1 May 2007 07:24:13 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LAKOTA SOLDIER" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20070501/NEWS/705010335/1001 Soldier helps Bring lost American souls home Lakota man travels world as part of recovery teams By Steve Young syoung@argusleader.com May 1, 2007 Sgt. Kili Bald Eagle remembers the wind. Suddenly, it rustled through the leaves and rattled the nearby branches, just as he and his group completed their search for the remains of missing American soldiers who had fallen decades earlier at the bottom of a steep ravine west of Da Nang in Vietnam. To Bald Eagle, it was as if a spirit had just been set free. He and the others gathered there were saying a few closing prayers "when the wind blew up through our faces, through the valley, and let us know that what we were doing was right." "It was kind of like a sign from the spirits, or from nature itself, that there was a sense of completion," he says. "I know it was felt by the entire team." The moment was as spiritual as it was satisfying for this 31-year-old Lakota from the Cheyenne River Reservation. For almost two years now, he has traveled to killing fields in Laos, Vietnam and Austria with recovery teams from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hawaii to search for the remains of fallen American service members. It is honorable, important work for this akitica, which means "warrior" in Lakota. "When you see the pictures of the families that have closure in their lives, and you know you're part of that ... it's very rewarding," Bald Eagle says. "To know that if I was to fall in combat, someone just like myself would recover me and take as much pride as I would when I do this... It's just really a respect for those who have gone before you." In the blood Bald Eagle understands that sense of history very well. His father, Dave Bald Eagle, is a chief of the Mnicoujou band on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe who parachuted onto the beaches at Normandy during World War II and served as a codetalker during that conflict. His great-grandfather, Chief White Bull, was an ally of Sitting Bull and led one of the attacks at Little Big Horn. Bald Eagle joined the National Guard after his junior year of high school and enlisted in the regular Army in 1996. He is on loan to JPAC from the 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg, N.C. "I come from a long line of warriors who believes very much in service to my country," he says. "There are not a lot of jobs on the reservation, so it was a career option for me. But I also wanted to follow in my father's footsteps." Trained initially in the Army as a combat engineer, Bald Eagle now uses those skills to negotiate the most difficult terrains in an effort to find missing service members. On seven trips to Laos, one to Vietnam and one to Austria, his engineering expertise has created bridges, built dams, arranged the ropes for team members to rappel down the side of cliffs, and otherwise provided access to hard-to-reach locales. "Often times, the team has a need to create infrastructure unique to the situations we find ourselves in," his team leader, Maj. George Eyster, says. "Invariably, we've turned to Sgt. Bald Eagle to figure out the plan and oversee the construction." Bald Eagle also is involved in setting up screening areas to sift through the dirt for bone material, teeth and other evidence of human remains. "Bone material is ideal. A tooth is ideal," Bald Eagle says. "We also find a lot of life support equipment ... pieces of a flight jacket, a helmet or a mask. Parachute material is really nice to find. And ID tags are a big thing." Trail of evidence On each mission, they bring with them a case file that tells them who they might be looking for and why they could be there. That includes details of battles and the recollections of other service members who were part of those battles. For example, if there was an ambush, Bald Eagle says they can trace the trail of evidence down the side of a mountain. Bullet shells here, a piece of boot there, an eyeglass lens down the path - all give testimony to the chaos that drove men to their deaths. The memories of locals help, too. They often are hired for their knowledge and to work with the recovery team, Bald Eagle says. "I learn a lot from the locals, and not just about the site we're working at," he says. "You learn about their culture. You learn how to deal with the animals you encounter." Once while clearing out an area, he cut down a tree that was hollow inside and discovered that he had sliced through two bamboo viper snakes. Another time, while sharpening his tools, he suddenly noticed a king cobra snake no more than 10 feet away. "Basically, you remain calm in a situation like that and get the locals over there to deal with it," he says. "Of course, if it's right there at my feet, I'm going to hack off its head just like it's a rattlesnake." But Bald Eagle would just as soon let it slither away. For among the Lakota, there is a brotherhood among all living things. And her son is very sensitive to that way of thinking, Josee Bald Eagle says. "Kili is a very, very sensitive boy," his 65-year-old mother says from the family's ranch near Howes in South Dakota. "He'll be the one that goes down on his stomach to admire a flower. What soldier stops for a flower? But he'll go down on his knees to look at something beautiful. He has a kind of spiritual side." Going on instinct Her son has an instinctive side as well, Josee Bald Eagle says, one that allows him to know something is near when America's most technologically advanced gizmos don't see it. "He feels where things are at," his mother says. "He'll tell them, 'You need to look on this site.' And they'll say, 'No, no, no, the coordinates we have say it's over here.' Inevitably, they'll find it where he told them in the first place." What he has, Bald Eagle says, is simply a deep sense of respect for the work he does and a sense of accomplishment when they find remains. It is a difficult job, one that takes him away for long stretches from his family back in Pinehurst, N.C. - his wife, Dezi, his 3-year-old son Enoch, his 4-month-old daughter Arianna, and a baby on the way. And he seldom knows the identity of the remains they find. That's the work of the anthropologists at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii. Still, Bald Eagle does experience a sense of closure, one that he hopes the families of those missing service members come to know as well. "One of the things we like to say when we close every prayer is, Mitakuye Oyasin, 'we are all related,' " he says. "All spirits are interlinked with each other in some way, shape or form. "So when I see possible remains, I immediately get a sense of accomplishment. You know that spirit is finally going to be able to come home." Reach reporter Steve Young at 331-2306. Copyright c. 2006 Argus Leader. --------- "RE: Uranium opponents told to keep fighting" --------- Date: Wed, 2 May 2007 07:09:08 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW DEATH" http://www.gallupindependent.com/2007/may/050107zp_ifonlywedknown.html 'If only we'd known' South Texas residents tell opponents to keep fighting By Zsombor Peter Staff Writer May 1, 2007 GALLUP - The Eastern Navajo Dine' Against Uranium Mining aren't the only ones who want the uranium mining company Hydro Resources Inc. out of their community. Almost 1,000 miles away in Kingsville, Texas, a half-hour's drive inland from the Gulf Coast, some of the locals who've already leased their land to the company want the same thing. Only in Kingsville, Uranium Resources Inc., HRI's parent company, has been mining uranium for almost two decades. A group of lessors calling itself STOP, for South Texas Opposes Pollution, blames URI for permanently contaminating its land. It accuses the company of making false promises and breaking a restoration contract it made with the county. The company denies the charges. But when STOP member Elizabeth Cumberland heard about ENDAUM's plans to picket HRI's Crownpoint office last Tuesday, she got hold of a few other members and sent off a letter of support, urging residents here not to make the mistake they did. "If I could, I would prevent them from signing the lease and getting in this position," she said. "You'll never get your land back. You'll never get your water back. You'll never be able to sell it." Breach of contract? STOP complains about the explosions and numerous spills on state record since URI started operations at its Kingsville Dome site in 1988. But what troubles the group most is what both STOP and Kleberg County are calling a breach of contract. In 2004 the county and company agreed that any wells in Areas 1 and 2 that were suitable for drinking, irrigation or stock watering before mining started would be restored to pre-mining conditions before mining could start in Area 3. When they signed the deal, said George Rice, a groundwater hydrologist working for STOP, the county didn't have its own experts. So it relied on the tests URI conducted in 1985, which indicated that one of the wells, I-11, qualified. Although URI has yet to fully restore even that one well, it started mining Area 3 earlier this year. URI, said Rice, "basically said 'Forget you, county. We're going to go ahead mining, and if you don't like it that's too bad.' " The county, in turn, passed a resolution Feb. 12 calling for mediation with URI and authorizing litigation if necessary. Lowerre & Frederick attorney Eric Allmon said the parties were still mediating. URI doesn't believe it's breached anything. After itsigned the deal with the county, the company found a second test from 1987, still before mining ever began, indicating that even I-11 didn't qualify. But STOP's worries go beyond I-11. In a mass-mailing form letter Rice recently prepared urging state senators not to vote for a bill the group is opposing in the Texas Legislature, he claims that uranium concentrations at Kingsville Dome remain as much as 400 percent above premining conditions and that nearby domestic wells are in danger. URI says the elevated uranium levels have nothing to do with its mining and that the water at the site was unsuitable for human use to begin with. As for the domestic wells nearby, Mark Pelizza, the company's vice president of environmental affairs, insists there's nothing to worry about. To get at the site's uranium, URI pumps chemicals into the ground to loosen the mineral from the underground rock and brings the mixture to the surface for processing. It's called in situ leach mining and it's been around for 30 years. In all that time, Pelizza said, "there has never been a water well impacted." HRI plans to use the same technique to get at the 25 million pounds of uranium officials say the company has claims to in northwest New Mexico, at two sites in Crownpoint and one near Church Rock. To lease or not to lease Despite ENDAUM's protests, some Crownpoint lessors are eager for HRI to get started. According to HRI, the nine people leasing land at just one of its Crownpoint sites could stand to earn as much as $1.1 million. Besides that, the lessors are urging opponents to consider the jobs uranium mining to could bring to Crownpoint, up to 100 according to company figures. Teo Saens heard the same promises when he leased 40 acres of his Kleberg County land to URI in the early 1990s and regrets believing them. "The words that were used were, 'We're going to take a batch of uranium and leave (the water) crystal clear,' " Saens said, cleaner even, the company added, than it had found it. His lease has since expired. Because URI never mined the 40 acres, Saens said, he earned only $100 a year per acre. But he considers even that modest sum nothing short of "blood money." "It's little consolation for what they're doing to the land," said Saens. "If we knew what we know today, we wouldn't have leased." Incidentally, the same day ENDAUM was marching on HRI's Crownpoint office, STOP members were in Austin, Texas, urging their state legislators not to vote for a bill they say would eliminate public hearing from the process of evaluating new mining units proposals inside of a permitted area. Pelizza said the bill would actually strengthen the public's hand by requiring permits now granted for unrestricted terms to sunset. But Cumberland sees more of a connection between Kingsville and Crownpoint than a common foe. Because HRI has yet to start mining in northwest New Mexico, it's invested in land that's yet to turn a profit. So Cumberland can only assume the company is covering its New Mexico bills with its Texas earnings. "It's mining from our land that's helping them mine on their land," she said. The letter Cumberland sent ENDAUM was one thing. But ENDAUM hopes the group can send some members here to share their experiences with locals in person. If she hadn't been tied up in Austin, Cumberland said she might have even joined last week's march. Copyright c. 2007 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Water rights deal to resolve Nez Perce Claim" --------- Date: Tue, 1 May 2007 07:24:13 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NEZ PERCE WATER RIGHTS" http://www.theolympian.com/130/story/94343.html Water rights deal to resolve Nez Perce tribal claims signed The Associated Press May 1, 2007 A landmark $193 million-dollar water rights settlement to resolve claims by the Nez Perce Tribe in northern Idaho has been signed nearly three years after it was negotiated. Federal, state and tribal officials signed the complex consent degree that was issued by Idaho's Fifth District Court over the weekend, and it will be implemented after the terms are published in the Federal Register, probably in about three weeks, the Lewiston Tribune reported Tuesday. The Nez Perce agreed to drop most if their claims to water in the Snake River basin in exchange for about $83 million, 11,000 acres of land now managed by the Bureau of Land Management and salmon conservation measures, including requirements for water releases from dams to aid migrating fish. "The entire process was fraught with deep emotion for the Nez Perce people as we came to grips with the magnitude of the decision to try and settle our claim to the water in that area that our people have inhabited for thousands of years," Tribal Chairwoman Rebecca A. Miles said in a prepared release. "This is not a moment we as a people are necessarily going to celebrate, but we do believe this is an important moment in the history of the Nez Perce Tribe and the state of Idaho," she said. The agreement resulted from state efforts to resolve more than 150,000 water right claims in the Snake River basin. In 1993, based on a treaty signed with the federal government in 1855, the Nez Perce filed thousands of water rights claims to try to establish minimum stream flows for migrating fish. The state prevailed in the first round in court, but the tribe appealed and a settlement was reached as the case was pending before the Idaho Supreme Court. The deal was announced with much fanfare on May 15, 2004, at a news conference that included former Interior Secretary Gale Norton and then- Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, who later succeeded her in the federal post. Congress approved the settlement later that year and the state Legislature followed suit in early 2005, but it took another two years to resolve appeals and objections from a wide range of parties. Many farmers in Idaho and Lewis counties complained that north central Idaho agriculture was being sacrificed to save southern Idaho irrigators. The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of southern Idaho withdrew their objections in October 2005 only after being assured that they would be consulted on any changes in minimum streamflows. Key provisions give the Nez Perce a formal role in deciding on annual releases of water from Dworshak Reservoir, and the tribe also got the right to operate the Kooskia National Fish Hatchery to the tribe and become more involved in management of the Dworshak National Fish Hatchery. In other provisions: - The state is obligated to send 487,000 acre-feet that might otherwise have gone for irrigation down the Snake River annually to help migrating salmon and steelhead. - Southern Idaho farmers are spared from the prospect of Endangered Species Act-based lawsuits for diverting irrigation water from the river and cannot be required to send more water downstream. - The state must set minimum flows on hundreds of salmon and steelhead streams and require fish-friendly logging practices on state land in the Snake and Clearwater drainages. Private landowners in the basin who agree to those practices can also receive ESA protection. Copyright c. 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c. 2007 The Olympian - McClatchy Newspapers. --------- "RE: Puyallup Tribe makes huge Port Deal" --------- Date: Tue, 1 May 2007 07:24:13 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="PUYALLUP CONTAINER SHIP PORT" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.thenewstribune.com/331/story/51905.html Tribe makes huge port deal Riverboat casino site new home for container ships C.R. ROBERTS AND KELLY KEARSLEY; The News Tribune May 1, 2007 Where once there was a casino, cranes will rise, and the original Emerald Queen riverboat will be replaced by oceangoing container ships. The Puyallup Tribe of Indians announced Monday an agreement with Seattle-based SSA Marine to develop a 180-acre shipping container terminal along the eastern shore of the Blair Waterway in Tacoma's Tideflats. The proposed terminal would be the biggest - and most expensive - in the port. It also would be the only container terminal not owned by the Port of Tacoma. "This partnership will benefit the entire region," said Herman Dillon, chairman of the tribe, on Monday. "Several thousand high-paying jobs will be created, and the container shipping volume of the port will be significantly expanded. The partnership between SSA and the Puyallup Tribe reaffirms the tribe's commitment to economic development." The deal was negotiated through the tribe's economic development arm, Marine View Ventures. SSA Marine, the largest U.S.-owned terminal operator, will design and construct the $300 million development and then operate the terminal. This would be the company's first terminal operation in Tacoma, though it has worked at the port for years providing stevedoring services for Totem Ocean Trailer Express and handling a variety of noncontainerized cargo from cars to lumber. SSA operates the largest terminal at the Port of Seattle - Terminal 18 - as well as terminals in California and around the world. The company set the stage for Monday's announcement last year when it purchased 52 acres of industrial land adjacent to the tribe's 128-acre property on the Blair Waterway. As part of the latest agreement, SSA Marine will transfer ownership of that property to the tribe, which will then enter into a long-term lease agreement with the company. Neither the tribe nor the privately held SSA released financial details of the lease. The Port of Tacoma leases its waterfront property to shipping lines and terminal operators. Its most recent agreement - signed in 2005 - leases terminal property for $89,000 per acre per year. The port's executive director Tim Farrell said that's now considered low, because construction costs have increased. Tribal spokesman John Weymer said that tribe would apply to add the 52 acres into trust status. SSA Marine purchased the property last year for $11.7 million, according to Pierce County Assessor records. The company will be responsible for the environmental cleanup of the site before it grants it to the tribe. The port owns 130 acres of property - including the former Kaiser site - adjacent to the tribe's port land. The port and tribe have been discussing development of the Blair Waterway properties and the potential for a mega- terminal for the past few years. Port of Tacoma commissioner Ted Bottiger said the port hadn't met with the tribe in a few months and that at one point the port and SSA Marine were going to put together an offer for the tribe. "We would keep the door open to a three-way partnership, but we wouldn't wait (to develop the port property)," Bottiger said. "This is business, and nobody wins if the land stays vacant." Commission President Connie Bacon said the deal is good for the region and ensures the property will be used for maritime commerce. "We've all been trying to find a way to negotiate with the tribe," she said. "If this is the way to make the land available for shipping, then that's a good thing." Farrell said the port will continue to pursue the development of container terminals on the Blair Waterway. Bob Watters, vice president and director of business development for SSA Marine, said the company is already talking to potential customers. "The growth in the Pacific Northwest is doing quite well and has been quite dramatic," he said. "We're quite confident that we'll be able to attract customers down there." The proposed container terminal will include two ship berths. The facility will extend across Alexander Avenue and offer space for the storage and transfer of shipping containers. Watters expects construction to take four to five years. The tribe received its land as part of a 1988 land claims settlement negotiated with local, state and federal government. "This agreement has been 25 years in the making," said Bill Sterud, a member of the tribal council and one of the leaders in the settlement negotiations. "We had a vision back then of the potential of what the port property could be. With this agreement, we are continuing to move down the roads of cooperation and opportunity." Weymer said the tribe has long sought to develop the property. "This has not been an overnight venture," he said. "We've had companies from as far away as China looking at possible development of the property." The deal has been agreed to in principle, and signatures will be affixed to contracts within 90 days, Weymer said. The parties will celebrate with a groundbreaking ceremony within the next few months, they said. Meanwhile, the riverboat - which is still for sale - will leave the Blair Waterway. Brought to Tacoma in 1997, the original Emerald Queen served gamblers until it was closed in 2005, after the tribe moved its casino operations elsewhere. C.R. Roberts: 253-597-8535 c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com Kelly Kearsley: 253-597-8573 kelly.kearsley@thenewstribune.com Copyright c. 2007 Tacoma News, Inc. A subsidiary of The McClatchy Company. --------- "RE: Tulalips shape Cultural Revival" --------- Date: Wed, 2 May 2007 07:09:08 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CARVERS REVIVE CULTURE" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/ snohomishcountynews/2003688792_carvers02n1.html Tulalips shape cultural revival By Lynn Thompson May 2, 2007 Out of the massive cedar log emerge figures from ancient myth. Man and bear play a game with two bones - one marked, one unmarked - to determine who will rule the animal kingdom. The winner, man, takes shape at the top of the log, his wide eyes seeming to gaze into both the natural and the spirit worlds. Emerging simultaneously, in this former marine-repair shop on the Tulalip Reservation, is a long-held vision of a place where Tulalip carvers and other crafts people can create and pass on their traditional arts. In preparation for their $125 million hotel set to open in June 2008, the Tulalips over the past few months have opened an art studio and employed several master carvers as well as university-trained artists and young tribal members who want to learn traditional crafts. When the four-star hotel is completed, it will feature $1 million in artwork, including six story poles at different entryways in the lobby, carved paddles and door pulls, woven bed throws, etched glass and native- themed prints. "This is what I dreamed of all my life," said Bernie Gobin, 77, a Tulalip Tribes elder and master carver who visits the tribe's art studio in his wheelchair several times a week. The revival of traditional arts among the Tulalips is part of a regional resurgence of Coast Salish art and artists that parallels the growth in tribal political and economic power in the past decade. Near Poulsbo, the Suquamish are building a new museum. The Skokomish on Hood Canal now have native-owned galleries so they don't have to rely on nonnative art dealers. Northwest of Bellingham, the Lummi House of Tears carving studio was created 15 years ago at the request of elder carvers who feared their art would be lost. Whether it's traditional song, dances, basket and fabric weaving, or canoes and bent-wood boxes, "all these artistic endeavors of the Salish people are being preserved and revitalized," said Michael Pavel, a Suquamish painter and carver. "Makah, Nisqually, Puyallup, Lummi," he said, ticking off the names of tribes that have in the past decade developed and supported talented artists who are now fusing traditional forms with contemporary materials and design. Add to the list, he said, the Tulalips. As he wheels his chair around the 4-foot-wide cedar poles, Gobin remembers learning to carve from his father. As a young married man, he took up the tools in winter, when he wasn't working as a commercial fisherman. He cleared a space for himself and his projects in the family kitchen. He fashioned bent-wood boxes, canoe paddles and ceremonial bowls, items to be given as gifts or passed on to family members. As he worked, he said, he was conscious of preserving tribal culture. "I wanted to carve so my kids wouldn't have to go to a museum and see it through glass. This was a part of our lives." Heritage on the brink Coast Salish art was nearly wiped out by the contact with whites in the 19th century, said Barbara Brotherton, curator of Native American art for the Seattle Art Museum. More remote tribes in British Columbia and Alaska, such as the Haida and Tlingit, were protected much longer from displacement and government suppression. It is those northern tribes, with their vivid, stylized animal spirits on masks and totems, that many people think of when they picture Northwest Indian art. By contrast, Brotherton said, Coast Salish art was much less well-known and preserved. The Puget Sound tribes didn't have the clan structure that identified itself with totems. Their art was used in everyday activities and wasn't meant for public display. "It didn't lend itself to being translated into tourist art," she said. The combination of largely private art forms with the loss of ancestral homes meant that many of the Salish's traditional art forms began to die out. Children were sent to boarding schools and forbidden to speak their native language. Grandparents could no longer communicate with the young. Traditional ceremonies, for which some of the best art was created, were banned. "A lot of culture went underground. Only the old people remembered," Gobin said. As the Tulalips' economic fortunes grew with their commercial development along Interstate 5 near Marysville, members began looking for ways to support tribal artists. Bernie Gobin's son Steve Gobin, the deputy general manager of Quil Ceda Village, two years ago converted a storefront in a corner of the Village into a gallery space. He solicited work from tribal artists and sent out promotional materials, but in the first month only four customers wandered in. Gobin abandoned that effort but continued to search for a way to promote tribal artists. He got support from other tribal members after the new casino opened in 2003. Although the designers placed a leaping orca out front and suspended some canoes from the ceiling inside, they weren't authentic native artwork and they weren't made by anyone in the tribe. As plans for the new hotel began to take shape, Gobin said many tribal members insisted that their own artists have a place in the project. For Steve Gobin, who grew up watching his father carve, the art studio is both a tribute and a culmination of a decadelong effort by the Tulalips at reclamation. Tribal historians began to interview surviving elders and to research traditional tools and the plants used to make Salish paints. Elders help arts survive They talked to the handful of remaining women weavers and studied some of the carved artifacts elders had wrapped in paper and stuck in the back of drawers, beautiful objects for everyday use that included combs, needles to mend fishing nets and spindle wheels. The art studio, he said, "wasn't just about learning to carve, it was about re-educating ourselves about who we were as a people. We're reviving a portion of our culture that was slowly being lost." Steve Gobin is a little apologetic about all the people named Gobin employed in the art studio. There's his brother, Joe, who had previously created poles with some of the region's celebrated carvers. There's his son, Steve Gobin Jr., who is one of the studio apprentices. His cousin, Mike Gobin, administers the studio, keeping the artists on task and on schedule. All of the art must be completed by January for installation in the hotel. According to the tight timeline, the artists have two months each to carve three pairs of poles. Joe Gobin, 51, like his father, Bernie, was a commercial fisherman who carved in the off-season. He started as a "little, tiny guy," with some soap and a butter knife. His grandmother offered pointers. As a boy, he joined other tribal children who spent summer days learning about traditional culture from Harriet Shelton Dover, daughter of Snohomish Chief William Shelton. "Once a week, we'd learn songs and dances." The group of young people was the first to dance when the traditional longhouse on Tulalip Bay was rebuilt in the 1970s. When tribal elders urged recreating the canoe journey their ancestors used to make each year along Puget Sound, Joe Gobin was drafted in 1988, along with noted carver Jerry Jones, to carve the tribe's first canoe of modern times. The spirit of revival extended to basket weaving, to the paddles used in traditional dances and to making their own ceremonial regalia, Joe Gobin said. In the art studio, he teaches the younger artists how to make adz handles from maple branches and cowhide. The finished tools are themselves works of art, without knots or glue or bolts of any kind. Joe Gobin also designed the carpeting for the hotel banquet-room entryway. He has created several prints for the hotel guest rooms. While other artists in the studio talk about the legends of transformations between the spirit and human worlds, Gobin talks about his experiences fishing and living near the water. "The eagle is always around when we're on the water. Whenever we have any tribal ceremonies, the eagle is always sitting in a tree. It has a lot of meaning to our people." The second pole currently being carved in the Tulalip studio is the work of James Madison, 33, Joe's nephew, who earned an art degree from the University of Washington in 2000. On his story pole, Madison combines traditional animal figures with contemporary techniques such as bronze casting and fused glass. He recalls how Picasso's painting was influenced by African art and said he's always looking for ways to combine European techniques with traditional native forms. But he said his goal is to teach young tribal members and nonnatives "who we are and the importance to us of both today's world and the spirit world. Madison, who also designed carpeting and native prints for the hotel, said, "Joe and I could have done all the artwork ourselves, but that's not the point. We want to help train young artists, to help them see that they can be the creators and guardians of our culture." Madison's pole is topped by a fierce, wise eagle in profile. At its base is a bear with his powerful arms embracing a human woman, his wife. "It isn't literal, 'Hey, I married a bear,' " Madison said. "We have a human form and a spirit form. In the beginning, both the animals and people could talk the same language." Across the room, Joe Gobin leans over his roughed-in story pole, one of his homemade adzes in his hand. He notes the contrast between the new art studio, large enough for the massive poles, with its heat and good lighting, and his experience carving the ceremonial canoe in 1988. He completed that project under a tin roof in a structure with tarp sides, on a lot next to the Tulalip Arby's, where the men shivered through the winter. He waves to the high roofs protecting him now. "To have a job like this, to practice what I've wanted to do all my life, what I was trained to do, it's a dream," he said. Lynn Thompson: 425-745-7807 or lthompson@seattletimes.com Copyright c. 2007 The Seattle Times Company. --------- "RE: End of 50-yr Lease means redemption for Suquamish" --------- Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 07:24:05 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SUQUAMISH LAND" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/ opinion/2003690626_andrewlawson03.html End of 50-year lease means redemption for Suquamish By Andrew P. Lawson Special to The Times May 3, 2007 Some 36 acres of valuable, waterfront property on Suquamish land in Kitsap County are slated to revert to tribal ownership in 10 years, but the changeover will come at the cost of untold thousands of dollars to members of the tribe and after yet another example of bungled federal oversight. The once-pristine land overlooking Puget Sound has been subdivided into 80 lots, known as Suquamish Shores, and showcases beautiful homes, all built by non-Indians. I have talked to residents and tribal members, and little recrimination is evident on either side. The current occupants seem resigned to the fact that when their leases expire in 2017, all properties return to tribal management. The Suquamish, meanwhile, feel they are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel in their 50-year lease imbroglio. But, how did all this come to pass, and what lessons are to be learned? First, everyone needs to be reminded that all of what is now the United States was once the property of the people indigenous to this continent. The vast majority of Indian-occupied land was bought or taken from them. By the 1960s, long before the Boldt fishing-rights decision or the advent of Indian casinos, the Suquamish were struggling to maintain their tribal identity. In 1967, a real-estate deal presented itself to the tribe. In return for the lease for 50 years of 36 acres fronting the Sound, a non-Indian corporation, Chief Seattle Properties, would pay the tribe approximately $7,000 a year, and, under the provisions of the lease, would be allowed to transform the acreage into a housing development that came to be known as Suquamish Shores. The principals of Chief Seattle Properties reaped their profits by subleasing lots to people, all non-Indians, who were eager to build homes in choice locations on or near the Sound. Needless to say, the lease was much more advantageous to Chief Seattle Properties than to the Suquamish people. Not only did the tribe receive only a fraction of what the lease should have been worth, but it lost control of its land for the next half-century. The federal government, through its Bureau of Indian Affairs, had the responsibility to act in the best interests of the Suquamish people, but in the matter of this lease - as with the billions of dollars currently missing from BIA-managed tribal trust accounts and the huge loss of Indian land under BIA stewardship - the agency failed. It failed to stop a disadvantageous lease from going through, and it failed to advise the tribe to, perhaps, even develop Suquamish Shores itself. This is all the more ironic, and grating, because the federal government viewed the BIA as the legal representative of tribes, and the tribes as its "wards." How that came to be is a revealing chapter in American history, one with direct ramifications for the Suquamish lease issue. From the earliest days that the U.S. government began forcing tribes to surrender the bulk of their property and move to smaller plots of land - so-called reservations - it became clear that they would become abjectly poor. How could peoples who lived by subsistence feed themselves when the very hunting and fishing grounds upon which they relied were taken from them? The late Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, in a decision that recognized this impoverishment, labeled American Indians as "wards" of the federal government, whose care, through treaty obligations, was then bound to the people of the United States; hence, the subsequent creation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The BIA assumed two roles. As legal representative, it was trustee, without whose approval tribes could not enter into contracts. It was also an administrator. Because treaties were negotiated and signed between the federal government and tribes, individual states ruled that these federal "wards" were ineligible for state resources. The BIA was assigned the responsibility of delivering to Indians on reservations resources - education, social services, health care - that states provided to non- Indians. The dual roles have led to countless conflicts of interest and abrogation of duties. No better case in point than the BIA allowing its "ward," the Suquamish Indian Tribe, to enter into its contract with Chief Seattle Properties. The federal government had the responsibility to act in the best interests of the Suquamish people. It didn't, and its shortcoming must be made known. --- Andrew P. Lawson is an Alaskan Native, a member of the Tsimshian Tribe. He taught social studies in public and Bureau of Indian Affairs schools, was a high-school administrator in Seattle Public Schools and was a professor at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. He is the former executive director of the National Indian Education Association. E-mail him at aplawson@oz.net Copyright c. 2007 The Seattle Times Company --------- "RE: Rosebud expands leadership in Renewable Energy" --------- Date: Tue, 1 May 2007 07:24:13 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ROSEBUD LEAD WAY IN RENEWABLE ENERGY" http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=8720 Rosebud Tribe Expands Tribal Leadership in Renewable Energy April 30, 2007 The Lakota Sioux of the Rosebud Tribe in South Dakota showed themselves to be one of the leaders in renewable energy in 2003 when they built the first ever 750-kilowatt utility-scale commercial wind turbine in the lower 48 states wholly owned and operated by a Native American tribe. The tribe also negotiated the first tribal sale of the carbon offset "green tags" generated by this turbine to NativeEnergy of Vermont, which has marketed the tags to thousands of individual green power supporters, including Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, the Dave Mathews Band, the Natural Resources Defense Council for their Rolling Stones' "Climate Change Awareness" concert and other parties interested in the development of renewable energy on Indian lands. Today they are expanding their leadership role by working to integrate more wind power and other renewable energy approaches into their communities and tribal housing plans. Their current project is called the Clean Energy Education Partnership (CEEP) and it may well change the future of how tribes use renewable energy across the Great Plains. CEEP originated in March of 2005 in the Rosebud Housing Authority - Sicangu Wicoti Awanyakape Corporation (SWA) where innovative tribal personnel were looking for ways to demonstrate small scale renewable energy approaches and integrate them into tribal housing decisions and planning. They soon began working with the Tribal Utility Commission (TUC) to develop a partnership that would make renewable energy an integral part of tribal housing. Before long they had brought in Rosebud's Low Income Housing Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) as well as the Council of Energy Resource Tribes (CERT), the National Renewable Energy Labs in Golden, CO (NREL), and the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy (ICOUP) to help them develop a practical and realistic implementation plan. By September of 2005, five wind anemometers had been installed to measure a year's worth of wind data at several locations on the Rosebud reservation including one at the home of Cecil and Rosie Little Thunder. The Little Thunders are well respected among the Lakota and the family has brought many spiritual leaders to the tribe over many generations. It was jointly decided that the first CEEP demonstration project should be at the home of this distinguished traditional family to show that renewable energy is consistent with Lakota cultural values and the long Lakota tradition of working in harmony with nature. In September, 2006, the partnership was expanded to bring in the practical renewable energy expertise of Trees, Water & People (TWP), a non-profit organization from Fort Collins, Colorado. TWP had been working on the adjacent Pine Ridge reservation to lower utility bills and improve living conditions. They had helped create Lakota Solar Enterprises (LSE), one of the first 100% Native American owned renewable energy companies. Together, LSE and TWP have installed more than 130 solar heat systems for Pine Ridge families and planted family windbreaks and shade trees for an additional 162 families. In Colorado, TWP runs their SolarBound Program, which promotes the use of solar energy in the residential and business markets in Northern Colorado. Internationally, TWP works in six Latin American countries and in 2005 won the prestigious Ashden Award that was presented by Prince Charles for TWP's work developing and installing over 15,000 fuel efficient stoves in Central America. The Ashden Award came with a $50,000 prize provided by Climate Care from selling carbon offset credits internationally. With TWP's addition to the CEEP team and a year's worth of wind data collected, the project implementation phase began. It was decided that the Little Thunder home would have four renewable energy demonstration applications installed: * Solar heat system that produces heat any time the sun is out for just pennies a day * Windbreak and shade trees planted as part of an Energyscape approach to lowering utility bills * A 1.8 kilowatt Skystream 3.7 wind turbine which will also generate electricity and sell excess electricity back to the utility company, LaCreek Electric * A 1.3 kilowatt solar electric system which will also sell excess electricity to LaCreek Electric. As part of the educational aspect of the partnership it was decided that these installations should also have a significant teaching component. * May 9 - A major tribal Renewable Energy Conference will take place at the Rosebud Casino. Representatives from the following organizations have been invited to make presentations: o SWA and TUC regarding Rosebud's renewable energy plans and efforts o ICOUP, CERT and NREL on tribal renewable energy efforts across America o TWP on the four renewable energy installations on the Little Thunder home Following the conference, there will be a tour of the 750 kilowatt wind tower, a traditional dinner and a series of cultural activities that evening * May 10 & 11 - On-site solar, energyscape and wind turbine installation workshops will take place at the Little Thunder home. Staff of SWA, LIHEAP, TUC and invited guests from other tribes and various federal agencies will participate in two days of practical renewable energy workshops. Henry Red Cloud, a Lakota elder from the Pine Ridge reservation will provide the conference presentations and workshops on the solar heat systems and wind turbine. Henry is the direct descendent of Chief Red Cloud, one of the last of the great Lakota war chiefs. He is one of the national tribal leaders working to disseminate renewable energy information and practical knowledge to more tribes. He also does renewable energy trainings and presentations across the United States and Europe. Alison Mason will provide the conference presentation and workshop on the solar electric system. Alison runs SunJuice, a 100% woman-owned renewable energy consulting and contracting company based in Fort Collins, Colorado. She has been part of TWP's work with the Lakota since its inception. Alison was named the first ever national "Solar Woman of the Year" in 2004 by the American Solar Energy Association, in part for her work on the Pine Ridge reservation. After the initial conference and demonstration installations at the Little Thunder home, TWP will work with SWA, TUC and LIHEAP to do four additional sets of renewable energy installations on the Rosebud Veteran's Homeless Shelter and several homes. SWA is making a significant time and financial commitment to educate the people of Rosebud about renewable energy and integrate these applications into reservation housing. It is currently looking for funding to expand its use of renewable energy and to educate more tribes about its benefits and how they fit into Native American culture and values. --- This is a major event and development for all those interested in tribal and renewable energy news and we hope you can come to the conference and help us disseminate this important information to the national tribal and renewable energy community. For more information contact: Tony Rogers - TUC - Director - (605) 747-4097 - tuc99@gwtc.net Monica Larvie - SWA Contracting Officer - (605) 747-2203 - swadevelop@gwtc.net Richard Fox - TWP - National Director - (970) 484-3678 - richard@treeswaterpeople.org Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Interior expands offshore oil, gas drilling" --------- Date: Tue, 1 May 2007 07:24:13 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SALMON RIVERS KILLED, WHY NOT BAYS AND ESTUARIES" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/ base/business-4/1177983891290920.xml&storylist=louisiana Interior expands offshore oil, gas drilling off AK, VA and Gulf By H. JOSEF HEBERT The Associated Press April 30, 2007 WASHINGTON (AP) - The Interior Department announced a major expansion of offshore oil and gas development Monday with proposed lease sales covering 48 million new acres off Alaska, in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and in the central Atlantic off Virginia. The 3 million acres that are 50 miles off Virginia's coast would require Congress to lift a long-standing drilling moratorium that has covered most ocean waters outside the western Gulf of Mexico for decades. The Democratic-controlled Congress has given no indication it is willing to lift the long-standing moratorium. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., who last year threatened to filibuster legislation that would expand offshore oil and gas drilling beyond the central Gulf of Mexico, said the Interior plan "calls into question why the White House remains intent on drilling elsewhere off our coasts and fattening the bottom line of the oil companies." Despite concerns from many environmentalists, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said he was convinced the oil and gas development could proceed and still assure "the highest environmental standards" are met. He said no leases would be issued without further environmental review and that in some cases environmentally sensitive areas would be off limits. But Kempthorne said the 21 lease sales planned in coastal waters over the next five years could produce 10 billion barrels of oil and 45 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. "This energy production will create jobs, provide greater economic and energy security for America and can be accomplished in a safe and environmentally sound manner," said Kempthorne at a news conference. The Interior Department had said last year it was considering opening new waters off Alaska in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and - if Congress goes along - off Virginia where energy companies believe there are significant amounts of natural gas. Also, last year, Congress directed the Interior Department to make available 8.3 million acres in the east-central Gulf that long had been off limits and begin issuing leases within a year. The department's five- year plan mirrors essentially the congressional directive in the Gulf of Mexico, assuring no drilling within 125 miles of Florida's cost. The five-year plan calls for a lease sale for the first time in Bristol Bay off Alaska, an area of 5.6 million acres that until earlier this year had been off limits to energy development by presidential directive. Environmentalists and many commercial fishermen have argued the bay, which has huge annual catches of salmon, cod, king crab and herring, should be protected from oil and gas drilling. President Bush in January lifted a presidential ban on drilling in Bristol Bay, foreshadowing the likely lease sale. The Sierra Club in a statement Monday decried the decision to open Bristol Bay to oil and gas companies, fearing that energy development posed a threat to "one of the largest wild salmon runs in the world" as well as the habitat of an array of marine life from Steller sea lions to endangered whale. The department said eight lease sales are scheduled off Alaska in Bristol Bay, Cook Inlet, and the Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea off the North Slope; 12 in the Gulf of Mexico and one off Virginia. Kempthorne said that while no leases could be issued off Virginia unless Congress lifted its moratorium, the area was included in the five-year plan because state officials had requested it be in the plan. No exploratory drilling or development would be allowed within 50 miles of shore. An area that extends out from the mouth of Chesapeake Bay also would be off limits. Except for the Virginia leases, the five-year plan goes into effect unless Congress blocks it within 60 days. Copyright c. 2007 New OrleansNet LLC. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: GIAGO: Help the poorest County in America" --------- Date: Tue, 1 May 2007 07:24:13 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GIAGO: POOREST COUNTY IN AMERICA" http://www.indianz.com/News/2007/002648.asp Tim Giago: Help the poorest county in America April 30, 2007 The United States Census of 1980 moved in a different direction when it began to post a census within a census on different social conditions in the United States. For instance, the Census of 1980 named the 10 poorest counties in America. The Pine Ridge Reservation, situated in the heart of Shannon County, South Dakota, was declared the "Poorest County in America." It was one occasion when a people had no reason at all to stand up and shout, "Hey, we're number one!" To address the extreme poverty on many Indian reservations let's, for the moment, set aside the financial boomtowns of the casino rich Indian nations. We should keep in mind that while some Indian nations have become extremely wealthy, many others, particularly those in the Northern Plains and in some portions of the Southwest, have remained the poorest of the poor in an otherwise booming Indian economy. While most of the Pueblo Nations of New Mexico are having great success with their casinos, there are others like the Jemez Pueblo that do not have the luxury of being located on or near a major city or highway. And there are others that have decided not to open a casino, at least for the time being. While most Arizona Indian nations are booming, there are others such as the Navajo that are just now starting to make a move toward opening a casino and there is the Hopi Nation, made up of extremely traditional and religious people that are not considering building a casino at all. In the Northern Plains tribes such as the Oglala Lakota on the Pine Ridge Reservation, the object of the 1980 Census naming them the "poorest county in America," the Sicangu of the Rosebud Reservation, the Crow Creek Sioux tribe and the tribes of North Dakota and Montana, are situated so far from a metropolitan population that although they do have functional casinos, are still struggling to survive. We have to ask ourselves why, after 27 years since the 1980 Census, the Pine Ridge Reservation is still among the top ten poorest counties in America, and why three of the top ten poorest counties are located in South Dakota? What does that say about our elected Congressional delegation? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know the reasons there is such poverty and what can be done to alleviate it. The lack of jobs, housing and healthcare are three of the main culprits. And how does one go about addressing these ills? First off, you bring economic development to provide jobs and second, you demand that Housing and Urban Development get off of its big fat ass and provide livable housing, and third, you refurbish the Indian Health Care hospitals with adequate funding, improved facilities and more and better doctors. Doesn't this sound like something that can be accomplished in America? Life expectancy on Pine Ridge, Rosebud, and Crow Creek and on some of the other Indian reservations of the Northern Plains and in some areas of the Southwest is in the 50s. Infant mortality is three times as high as in the rest of America. Diabetes is epidemic in Indian country no thanks to the United States Department of Agriculture for the high starch and sugar- loaded commodities distributed on these reservations for so many years. I visited Andrew Cuomo in Washington, DC when he as the Secretary of HUD. Cuomo had visited the Pine Ridge Reservation in 2000 and lining the walls of his HUD office and hallways were enlarged photographs of Lakota people huddled in decrepit houses as many as four families to a two-bedroom house. Why were the pictures hanging on his walls when the very conditions they depicted are still prevalent on the Pine Ridge Reservation seven years later? While I sat in his office sipping coffee, Cuomo had his eye glued to the television set watching the latest count of "hanging chads" in Florida's election. He listened to me with half an ear. I was in Cuomo's office to help bring jobs to the Pine Ridge Reservation. I told him I was willing to move my newspaper and printing plant to the reservation, along with 35 jobs, if he would see fit to have HUD build a facility to house it and contribute enough money to enable me to move the entire operation. Of course, nothing happened because Florida and the U. S. Supreme Court saw to it that Andrew Cuomo lost his job at HUD. Would it have made a difference if he had not? The problems on the above reservations still exist and it is high time that our elected representatives move, in collusion with the private sector, to bring an economy to these very poor Indian reservations. It is time they fought for legislation to bring houses and better healthcare to the poorest of the poor in America. I wrote last week about the Cultural Heritage Center at Cheyenne, Oklahoma to commemorate those slaughtered at the Washita and I asked that South Dakota's delegation come up with the funds to build a cultural center at the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre. I got an email from former Senator Tom Daschle asking, "what can I do?" and a phone call from the assistant for Senator Tim Johnson telling me that Senator Johnson was behind the idea 100 percent. I have yet to hear from Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD) or from Senator John Thune (R-SD). The extreme need for jobs, housing and healthcare are still requisite on the Indian reservations of the Northern Plains and Southwest, but finding the funds to construct a Cultural Heritage Center on the site of one of the worst massacres in American history would go a long way in showing what our elected representatives, in cooperation with the leadership of the Lakota people, can do to make a move in the right direction. After that perhaps they can devote some time to helping alleviate the conditions that made Pine Ridge "the poorest county in America." --- McClatchy News Service in Washington, DC distributes Tim Giago's weekly column. He can be reached at najournalists@rushmore.com. Giago was also the founder and former editor and publisher of the Lakota Times and Indian Country Today newspapers and the founder and first president of the Native American Journalists Association. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard in the class of 1990 - 1991. Clear Light Books of Santa Fe, NM (harmon@clearlightbooks.com) published his latest book, "Children Left Behind". --------- "RE: Pine Ridge: The American Bangladesh" --------- Date: Tue, 1 May 2007 07:24:13 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DRAWING LINE IN SAND OF POVERTY" http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=8726 The American Bangladesh Drawing a line in the sand of Poverty: The South Dakota Plan By Louis Gray May 1, 2007 Read Tim Giago's column on the extreme poverty in South Dakota's Pine Ridge reservation and wonder how can this much painful suffering go on without notice or attention? The pain continues because all of us are doing nothing for the least of us. We can point our fingers at the congressional leadership and be rightly upset that there are people living within their borders who live in third world conditions. This is not the first time this has been brought up. But to be sure, it is time to start a plan to address this problem. It won't be cheap. No one person let a lone a columnist or a politician can come up with the plan to solve the generational suffering in South Dakota. Every social ill known to man afflicts the Lakota people. Low life expediency, high infant mortality, off the charts addiction and rampant racism are killing Lakota people in numbers that would call for a national emergency if it happened anywhere else. People die of exposure, car accidents, domestic violence, home accidents, fires, overdosing, murder in the protection of drug cartels and just plain drinking oneself to death are just a few of the everyday experiences in South Dakota. Back in the 1970'.s when some of us went to Wounded Knee to make a stand against everything that was wrong in Indian country, tribal corruption was one of the many problems affecting the Pine Ridge reservation. Now when I say corruption, I'm not just talking about someone getting a favorable contract, I'm talking about outright theft of precious tribal funds. And it was protected with lead-pipe cruelty by men with guns ready to use them. Accordingly, life in South Dakota was; you're poor, drunk, unhealthy, living in squalor, and you're dodging bullets; not much has changed. Perhaps most troubling; powerful people know of your plight and nothing is being done to ease your suffering. This actually calls for a plan of action that is going to require the resources of government at all levels. The South Dakota plan should take at least a year to put together a proposal to address the long and short term needs of Lakota Indians living on reservations. In the meantime what resources being funneled there already should be increased to make sure the current problems are being addressed in a sufficient manner. The report should be sent to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and needs White House support every step of the way. The Governor and the state legislature should marshal their resources to help where they can. Let us all not burden ourselves with exalted arguments about jurisdiction and sovereignty; the poor can not eat ideas. In a 2001 report to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, some disturbing data was presented. "In March of 2000 the South Dakota Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civil Rights reported that men in Bangladesh have a higher life expectancy than Native American men in South Dakota, USA, and that rates of death from a variety of causes was considerably higher for Native Americans than for the general US population, including alcoholism (579%), tuberculosis (475%), and diabetes (231%)." "Even more tragic, infant mortality in Indian Country in the US was reported to be double the national average, and Pine Ridge Lakota Indian Reservation in South Dakota has the highest infant mortality rate in the Country." Mr. President, if you can repair the sewage lines in Iraq you should do no less in South Dakota. Every state-wide official elected in South Dakota should sit on this task force. Those of us who went to South Dakota should participate in every way possible to support this effort. It's time to stop pointing fingers and get involved. This task force should have the support of every living President. All this went on under their watch. Perhaps more importantly, Indian people everywhere should help, lobby, fund, and pray for every effort in support of The South Dakota Plan. This isn't the exclusive problem of White men; it is ours first and foremost. That is an inescapable truth; the suffering in South Dakota is our problem. To be sure there is abject poverty in many other areas of this country, but doing nothing here is no longer acceptable. Evil does reign when good people do nothing. Don't read this and go on with your life. Save some lives. If your children are warm and safe in their beds be grateful, but also know we all have a responsibility to do what is just for the least among us. Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: JODI RAVE: Book inspires traditional leadership" --------- Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 07:23:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="JODI RAVE: TRADITIONAL PRACTICES" http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/04/29/jodirave/rave68.txt Column: New book inspires traditional leadership Jodi Rave April 29, 2007 Stanley Pretty Paint remembers these words spoken to him by a family member: "Anyone can put on a war bonnet. But when you put it on after you earned it, that's when you're a leader." Pretty Paint, a Crow traditional leader, will know when he has the right to wear an eagle feather war bonnet, a mark of honor among many Plains tribes. Even though he plays a crucial role in some of the Crow Tribe's most revered ceremonies, the 47-year-old said he's still not ready to wear the war bonnet. People his age are still considered young adults among the Crow. While Pretty Paint respects the war bonnet, too often, others make it a showpiece rather than revere it as a symbol of honor. Many of our people - those who run for elected office and those who vote for them - tend to forget what our communities should expect from those who move into leadership roles. But in her recently released book, "Salsa, Soul and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age," author Juana Bordas reminds us of what it takes to be an effective leader. She offers much-needed and relevant perspectives in modern leadership through voices from the black, Hispanic and Native communities. Bordas' book is timely. "The rapidly increasing cultural and racial diversity of the U.S. work force, consumer base and citizenry is propelling leadership to better reflect the values, world views and principles inherent in our multicultural age," she writes. Her book inspires us to embrace the tried-and-true traditional leadership practices from Africa to the Americas. While reading "Salsa, Soul and Spirit," I became intrigued by the author's successful weaving of histories, voices and stories. Bordas leads us to explore the virtues of inspiring black, Hispanic and Native leaders. The author reminds us about the leadership qualities revered in multicultural communities that helped sustain those cultures over the centuries, despite being subjected to "historical trauma," "psychology of oppression," "white privilege," and "systemic oppression." Bordas helps us sort through the "We vs. I" approaches to serving our communities. "Salsa, Soul and Spirit," is a solid reminder of how our present-day communities should be holding our leaders accountable. And she inspires leaders to ask: How can I be accountable to my community? Societies, businesses and communities can be measured by the strength of its leaders. It's one thing to be chosen to lead, and another to wear a war bonnet without earning the right. Most of us have witnessed those who force themselves into leadership positions. The typical result leads to dark days for the tribe, organization, group and members. Bordas raises the question: What qualifies a person to lead in the first place? A lot of books exist on leadership, but the examples diminish greatly when looking for examples that speak to communities of color. I've found even fewer examples that speak specifically to leadership in American Indian communities. The multicultural leadership practices in Bordas' book come in stark contrast to the Machiavellian leadership models commonly practiced in today's capitalistic society. I finished reading "Salsa, Soul and Spirit" feeling hopeful about the future. I also marveled at what this world might look like if leaders from all four directions lived up to some of these traditional leadership practices that have guided black, Hispanic and Native communities and allowed them to survive generations of hardship. While multicultural nations can shine as beacons of leadership, Bordas' writing also succeeds in encouraging these leaders to acknowledge self- centered leadership practices taking place in their own communities. It might not have been the writer's intention, but the message comes through loud and clear. Bordas leaves us to ask questions. How do we heal our own communities? And how do we reach out to others? She writes of how the black Civil Rights movement sought to "heal rather than defeat the oppressor." "Salsa, Soul and Spirit," succeeds in promoting the concept of hope and forgiveness, a remedy that allows us to fully appreciate and learn from each other's cultures. Reporter Jodi Rave can be raeched at 1-800-366-7186 or at jodi.rave@lee.net Copyright c. 2007 Missoulian, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: A Phantom in Northeast Mexico" --------- Date: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 01:17 am From: Chiapas95-english Subj: En;NN,A Phantom in Northeast Mexico -Zapatismo,Apr 25 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: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 17:27:09 +0200 From: "Dana Aldea" A Phantom in Northeast Mexico: Zapatismo Year 22 of the Struggle and 13 of the War Against Obscurity and Lying Originally published April 25 in Spanish http://www.narconews.com/Issue45/article2641.html By Alejandro de la Torre Dossier Poli'tico April 29, 2007 At the moment, ten EZLN commanders find themselves in three states in northeast Mexico: Baja California, Baja California Sur, and Sonora. You read it right - ten commanders, five indigenous women and five indigenous men, of the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - General Command of the EZLN, the same who, after long consultations with thousands of insurgents and zapatista bases, gave the order January 1, 1994 to start the war against the national government until overthrown, then headed by Carlos Salinas de Gortari. It was the first Declaration of the Lacandona Jungle. >From that point the indigenous movement started to gain national and international respect, becoming the vanguard of the fight in defence of humanity and against the neoliberalism that threatens the very existence of the earth. In Mexico, with the zapatista struggle and the Mexican people, the system has been forced to change laws and, although the neoliberal model hasn't changed, the power structure that benefits a despotic oligarchy headed by multimillionaire monopolies (Carso, Cemex, Televisa, Gruma, etc.) is at risk of being destroyed and replaced. Despite all this, the television, radio, and print media in Baja California and in Sonora, totally in the service of economic and political power, have created an information siege instead of carrying out their duty to report on the problems of indigenous communities, dispossession and destruction of natural resources. They have lent themselves to the degrading and diverting of information against these. Comandante David, Comandante Tacho, Comandanta Susana, Comandanta Yolanda, Comandanta Sandra, Comandante Emiliano, Comandanta Eucaria, Comandanta Kelly, Comandante Eduardo, Comandanta Dalia, Comandante Guillermo and Subcomandante Marcos are coming as delegates of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle issued in June 2005, now in it's second phase. In the first phase Delegate Zero (Marcos) was sent across the country to listen to the pains and struggles of the Mexican people, taking the word of the EZLN and of the anticapitalist movement formed by leftist political and civil organisations. This excersize in struggle is called The Other Campaign. It's objective is to build a national program of struggle from which the poor, indigenous, campesinos and workers demand social justice. They push for the struggle for human rights of men, women, children and those of the sectors marginalised by capitalism. And to build another Mexico, another Sonora, another future. In this second phase of The Other Campaign the delegates of The Sixth Commission will work with indigenous communities and with rural and urban communities in north Mexico until May 2007, generating an organisation for struggle and unity along with the center and south of the country. It is a pacifist and civil fight in Sonora and Baja California involving members of the Cucapa's, Kilihuas, Pa'pagos, Od'ham, Yaquis, Mayos and Pimas indigenous people, along with campesinos, workers, university students, women, migrants, intellectuals, etc. The work started in the Cucapa' community El Mayor, where the government has prevented the indigenous from fishing corvina; in April 2005 the army confiscated their fishing materials and stripped them of fishing permits. In Sonora dispossession against Seris, Yaquis, Mayos and Pimas is the order of the day. The state government plans to sell the Gulf of California seaboard, including Isla del Tiburo'n. to national and foreign millionaires. Meanwhile some Yaqui heads are receiving government help in the meantime, and the great majority of Yoeme suffer hunger and malnutrition. Dispossession from large land acquisitions against indigenous Mayans and repression of the Pima community together are demonstrations of the high level of marginalization of more than a million people in rural towns and popular neighbourhoods where they earn less than two days minimum wage a week, while businesses in the capitalist regions grow fat, as the area is fertile terrain for tourist, industrial and transnational investment. These are sufficient elements to justify the presence of the Zapatista command in the region that will unite with the Sonoran defiance, identity and progress and not what the rich pride themselves on which are fallacies and lies. The Sixth Commission arrived with us, The Other Campaign committee in Cajeme, last Saturday April 7, on it's way to El Mayor in Mexicali. We welcomed them as brothers and took care of lodging and security for about fifteen comrades. The commanders, people with great dignity and humility, said goodbye with such gratitude that it will remain in our memories and hearts. The Other Campaign will bear fruit in the conscience of the Sonora people and we will have them soon. -- To subscribe from this list send a message containing the words subscribe chiapas95 (or chiapas95-lite, or chiapas95-english, or chiapas95-espanol) to majordomo@eco.utexas.edu. Previous messages are available from http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/chiapas95.html or gopher to Texas, University of Texas at Austin, Department of Economics, Mailing Lists. --------- "RE: Call for Continental gathering of the Indig" --------- Date: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 01:19 am From: Chiapas95-english Subj: En;EZLN/CNI,Call for continental gathering of the indig,Apr 22 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: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 17:34:05 +0200 From: "Dana Aldea" CALL FOR A GATHERING OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF THE AMERICAS Originally published in Spanish on April 22, 2007 http://www.encuentroindigena.org/ Considering that 515 years after the first invasion of our ancestral territories, the war of conquest, the plunder, and capitalist exploitation have not altered their course, but rather have become a new war of extermination, a war designed for the destruction and utter plunder of all the original peoples of the Americas; Considering that the long history of wars of independence and numerous revolutions that have taken place on our continent have not yet changed the condition of colonized people, nor have they allowed for a full recognition of our rights in the nation states that formed in the last two centuries; Considering that despite a long history of domination, our resistance has sustained itself and that our people continue to live and struggle, and that this struggle has been encouraged by the uprising of the Zapatista National Liberation Front (EZLN) in the first days of 1994; Considering that the strategies of the national governments of the Americas have always sought the division of our people through the establishment of borders, reservations, and legislation designed to fragment us and to neutralize our efforts of autonomy; Considering that the strengthening and the unity of the struggles of liberation of the indigenous people of the Americas will be possible as our peoples meet and come to know each other; Considering that for our people it has proven necessary that their struggles be made known world wide in order to be supported by all honest movements that struggle for a society effectively just, free, and democratic; All indigenous communities, tribes, and nations of the Americas are called to THE GATHERING OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF THE AMERICAS Which will take place the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th days of October, 2007 in the community of Vi'cam, Yaqui Territory, Municipality of Guaymas, State of Sonora, Mexico, to address the following. TOPICS 1 The war of capitalist conquest in the indigenous communities in the Americas. 2 The resistance of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and our defense of mother earth, our territories, and our cultures. 3 Why do we, the indigenous peoples of the Americas, struggle? ORGANIZATIONAL PRINCIPLES 1st Principal. Delegates, observers, and communications media workers attending the Gathering will abide by the regulations of the Yaqui Tribe devised by their Traditional Authorities in order to govern their presence while in attendance. 2nd Principal. All participating indigenous communities, tribes, and nations are invited to demonstrate their clothing, songs, dances, and other traditional forms of expression. 3rd Principal. Authorities and Representatives of indigenous communities, tribes, and nations of the Americas are invited to participate as delegates with voice and vote. 4th Principal. Individuals and members of social movements and civil organizations in solidarity with the struggles of indigenous peoples of the Americas invited by the organizing commission will be able to participate as observers. 5th Principal. National and international communications media workers that are accredited by the organizing commission will be able to cover the event. 6th Principal. All agreements adopted at the Gathering will be made by consensus of the participants and not through the method of voting. 7th Principal. Organization of the Gathering, the national and international distribution of its publicity, as well as accreditation of participating delegates, invitees, and any unforeseen issues will be resolved only by the organizing commission in conformity with the Traditional Authorities of the Community of Vi'cam, Yaqui Tribe, The National Indigenous Congress (CNI), and the Sixth Commission of the Zapatista National Liberation Front. Information: 1. Office of the Sixth Commission of the EZLN, located on Zapotecos St. No 7 Col.Obrera, C.P. 06800 Mexico, D.F. Telephone: (01 or 011) 55 67 61 42 36 Monday thru Friday, 10 AM - 8 PM., Saturday, 10 AM - 6 PM. webpage: www.encuentroindignea.org e-mail: informes@encuentroindigena.org 2. Official Precinct Office of the Traditional Guard of the Yaqui Tribe, Vicam Station ,Colonia Yaqui, Municipio de Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico. Telephone: (045 or 001) 64 49 98 94 08. 3. Office of the Organization of Indigenous and Campesino Communities, de Tuxpan, Jalisco, in Nicolas Bravo, No. 65 , Tuxpan, Jalisco,. Telephone: (01 or 011) 371 41 764 15 from Monday - Saturday, 10 AM - 8 PM. e-mail: comunidad_tuxpan@hotmail.com Written - April 22nd, 2007 in Tohono O'Odham Territory of the Tohono O'Odham Nation, Sonora, Mexico. Attentively, Wa-a itom yo Lutu-ria yoribetchibo, intoka a Wiutinepo Amani (Por el respecto a nuestros usos y costumbres, nuestra identidad y cultura y nuestra verdad que permanezcan en el tiempo y no se olviden) Never Again, a Mexico Without Us ~ Liberty, Justice, and Democracy Nde Cultural Historical Organization (Organizacio'n Cultural e Histo'rica de la Nacio'n Nde/Apache) "Tierra y Libertad" / Chicana Indigenous Organization, Tucson, Arizona (Tierra y Libertad / Organizacio'n Xicana Indi'gena, Tucson, Arizona Native and Immigrant Indigenous Development Organization (Desarrollo de Los Pueblos Indios Inmigrantes y Nativos, A.C.) Michelle Cook (Dene Nation) (Nacion Dene/Navajo) Tohono O'Odham Nation Mexico - United States (Nacion Tohono O'Odham Me'xico - Los Estados Unidos de America) Traditonal Authorities of Vicam Community, Yaqui Tribe (Autoridades Tradicionales del Pueblo Vi'cam, Tribu Yaqui) National indigenous Congress (Congreso Nacional Indi'gena) Clandestine Revolutionary Committee, General Command of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) (Comite' Clandestino Revolucionario Indi'gena-Comandancia General del Eje'rcito Zapatista de Liberacio'n Nacional) http://www.encuentroindigena.org/?p5 -- To subscribe from this list send a message containing the words subscribe chiapas95 (or chiapas95-lite, or chiapas95-english, or chiapas95-espanol) to majordomo@eco.utexas.edu. Previous messages are available from http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/chiapas95.html or gopher to Texas, University of Texas at Austin, Department of Economics, Mailing Lists. --------- "RE: Dismantling of Indian Affairs" --------- Date: Monday, April 30, 2007 03:18 pm From: frostyca2000 Subj: WHEN INDIAN AFFAIRS IS NO MORE - THE DISMANTLING OF AN ILLEGAL ORGANIZATION Mailing List: Frostys AmerIndian MNN. April 29, 2007. Back in 1969 the Liberal government of Canada under Pierre Trudeau decided to do away with Indian Affairs. They weren't going to do away with the "Tower of Terror". They were going to do away with us by pretending to remove their obligations, budget and protections. They wanted to push us out onto the streets of Canada to die out. Killing off a criminal organization like Indian Affairs is inevitable. We have to take it apart piece by piece. We have to do it ourselves every step of the way. The Indian Act was the "weapon of mass destruction" [WMD] meant to kill us off. How are we going to kill off Indian Affairs? By enforcing the Great Law of Peace and the Two Row Wampum. Indian Affairs is currently the subject of an avalanche of criticisms and various lawsuits. The murders of our kids in residential schools, the police brutality, military attacks against us and the constant lies and deceptions by politicians has to stop. Their sudden dismantling Indian Affairs may be a ploy to remove the defendants in actions for liability for all the cruelty and larceny they've committed against us. They say, "remove Indian affairs, the Indian Act and to hell with them!" We can see right through them. They want to change our status as Indigenous people into "Canadians" so they can get out of their liability. It won't work, Canada! We are not and never will agree to be Canadians. So far, our relations with our colonial visitors has been one of "breach" rather than honor. They tell us the Indian Act is the only "vehicle" for delivering Canada's obligations to us. Based on what we've been getting so far, this is an empty vehicle and it's time to junk it. We've always been struck by Indian Affairs' similarity to organized crime organizations like the "Mafia", except it's "disorganized". The head "Don" is the "prime minister". He has cohorts and henchmen called "provinces", "ministers", "corporations", "judges" and "armed forces" that are given authority over certain territories. The cohorts go out and enforce their rules. The government legitimizes its criminal activities with picturesque language that no one understands. Originally the Mafia came in and lent money to immigrants to set them up. If somebody couldn't pay them back, the enforcers would demonstrate their unseen power over life and death. The government's cohorts set up this Mafia style system over us. They stole everything we have to make it look like we can't function without them. Indian Affairs cohorts must also take something akin to "blood oaths" to Queen Elizabeth and have to keep secrets until they die. This Indian Affairs Mafia will control us unless that control is taken from them. Like the original Mafia, the only way to become a full "patch member" is to be from a certain ethnic background. The band councils strive to become full patch members so they can exercise the rule of terror over us to keep us in line. No matter what, they'll never be accepted as full members of the white Mafia. The government encourages them to try anyway. Indian Affairs was originally supposed to carry out nation-to-nation relations with us and to negotiate with us on land use. Greed lead the colonizers to "goose step" their mandate. Indian Affairs was set up to carry out the "final solution of the Indian problem". Parliament gave itself extraordinary powers beyond its authority under the British North America Act 1867 to carry out the genocide of our people. It's time to close down the butcher shop and go back to the beginning. The real relationship is between us as landowners and them as "squatters". We want our tenants to live up to the leases they made with us, to obey the laws and keep their promises. We want full accountability and a total forensic audit of Indian Affairs and its entire gangsta' apparatus. Once the Indian Act and Indian Affairs are removed, then Indigenous sovereignty, rights to self-determination and stewardship of all of our territories will be dealt with on a proper landlord-tenant nation- to-nation basis. Canada, stop falsely claiming our land. Start planning how you are going to carry out our instructions and authority over every square inch of our land. You have to stay in your ship and not pull our canoe as the Two Row Wampum agreement provides. Canada, stop aiding and abetting corporate squatters who are gobbling up our assets, polluting our land and destroying the inheritance of our coming generations. No more encroachment! Enough of our land and environment have been seriously damaged. It's on the verge of becoming unlivable, not just for Indigenous people, but also for the colonial visitors who don't seem to care about their own future generations or anyone else's. The abuse of us, our lands and possessions is the biggest scandal in history. Bringing down Indian affairs means freedom and self- determination for us. Why do we think this is going to happen? Well, so far huge amounts of profit have gone towards the colonial machines that defraud and oppress us because of our complaints everywhere. A lot of lawyers and consultants have been getting big career boosts and piles of money out of inquiries and investigations into the criminal acts committed against us by the colonial government of Canada without resolving them. Indian Affairs, we hope you've shut down your "War Room" in the Tower of Power run by the military! Stop funding racists like Gary McHale and the skinheads, KKK, Brown Shirts and rioters he's organizing to attack us. Department of Defense, stop financing the demonizing of us in your military manual as "domestic insurgents" so that you can find an excuse to round up our "leaders" and young people. We know you want to put us in "Guantanamo Bay" prisons without charging us, for indefinite periods of time because you have labeled us as "terrorists". Hey, colonial crooks, let's not get stuck on details. Let's go back to square one when you landed here with nothing. No, we're not afraid to get rid of Indian affairs. They think they'll shut us up by threatening to cut off all services and benefits. They can't. They have an ongoing debt to us supported by all the human rights covenants Canada has signed and supports internationally. We have to sit down and start talking about the terms under which you "intruders" can remain here. You know we never gave up the land. We never will. We can't. Europeans are Europeans, no matter what. The British are British. The French are French. And the immigrants are immigrants. For over a century colonial states have been dumping their rejects and social problems on our land. These displaced people tried to kill us off. We cannot tolerate the presence of this insane grasping culture which continues to commit genocide on us and our land. These starving and disease ridden ragamuffins killed most of us off, stole our land and possessions and continue to try to stomp us out. Do we have to keep on being kind to them? We think we've given enough. We will look at the new situation pragmatically. We have to carry out our original instructions. The land has to be taken care off. The damage committed to us has to be repaired. The heritage of our future generations has to be restored. The visitors have to return Turtle Island back into the beautiful paradise they found when they arrived. Kahentinetha Horn MNN Mohawk Nation News Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com & katenies20@yahoo.com For update, workshops, speakers, to sign up, go to www.mohawknationnews.com Please sign the Women Title Holder petition. Coming soon online books on Mohawk issues. --------- "RE: BC Chiefs support Sliammon First Nation Rights" --------- Date: Wed, 2 May 2007 07:09:08 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SLIAMMON FIRST NATION RIGHTS" http://www.firstperspective.ca/fp_combo_template.php?path=20070501rights BC chiefs support Sliammon First Nation rights May 1, 2007 An organization representing leadership within BC Aboriginal communities has thrown its moral weight behind an individual First Nation. Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC), stated recently that, "The UBCIC fully supports the efforts of the Sliammon First Nation to defend their Aboriginal Title and Right interests in their territory." Sliammon First Nation filed court papers on April 25 to put three tenures on hold. The BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands has offered geoduck aquaculture tenures to Underwater Harvesters Association, Fan Seafoods, and Manatee Holdings. The tenures reportedly cover over 642 acres of prime seabed near Savary and Hernando Islands. "The Province of British must do more than merely pay 'lip service' to its legal obligations to meaningfully consult and accommodate the Aboriginal Title and Rights interests of the Sliammon First Nation especially in an active harvest area with a long history of community use like Savary Island," said Grand Chief Phillip. "We share the frustrations of the Sliammon and agree that the continuing rush to sale or to tenure the land and resources gives rise to the fear that we will have nothing left for our future generations," commented Grand Chief Phillip. "Too many large-scale development projects in BC are proceeding without any genuine or credible efforts to accommodate the Aboriginal Title and Rights interests of the affected First Nations. This is absolutely unacceptable and has directly contributed to rising tensions and frustrations within First Nations communities across the Province." Grand Chief Phillip concluded "The Union of BC Indian Chiefs is fully prepared to offer its full and unconditional support to the Sliammon First Nation." Copyright c. 2007 First perspective. --------- "RE: Dudley George Report to be made Public" --------- Date: Wed, 2 May 2007 07:09:08 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="IPPERWASH INQUIRY" http://www.firstperspective.ca/fp_combo_template.php?path=20070501george Dudley George report to be made public May 1, 2007 An investigation looking into the circumstances which led to the death of Aboriginal protester Dudley George will soon be made public. The Report of The Ipperwash Inquiry will be released to the public at 10 a.m. on Thursday, May 31, 2007, Sidney B. Linden, the Commissioner of the Inquiry, announced recently. The Report will be transmitted to Attorney General Michael Bryant shortly before the public release. The public release will take place at the Forest Memorial Community Center (Kimball Hall) at 6276 Townsend Line, Forest, Ontario, where the Inquiry's hearings were held. The Report will be available on the Inquiry's web page http:///www. ipperwashinquiry.ca at the time of release and copies will be distributed to media in Toronto. Printed copies and CD-ROMs will be available for purchase from Publications Ontario after the date of release. The Ipperwash Inquiry was established by the Government of Ontario under Public Inquiries Act. Its mandate was to inquire and report on events surrounding the death of Dudley George, who was shot in 1995 during a protest by First Nations representatives at Ipperwash Provincial Park and later died. The Inquiry was also mandated to make recommendations that would avoid violence in similar circumstances in the future. The Honourable Sidney B. Linden was appointed Commissioner. The Commissioner separated the Inquiry into two phases that ran concurrently: The evidentiary hearings that dealt with the events surrounding the death of Dudley George and the Policy and Research part that dealt with the issues directed to the avoidance of violence in similar circumstances. The hearings began in Forest in July 2004 and ended in August 2006. The Report will contain findings and recommendations covering both parts of the mandate. It will be available in both English and French. The Terms of Reference and further details are available on the Inquiry's website: www.ipperwashinquiry Copyright c. 2007 First perspective. --------- "RE: American Indians complained before riot" --------- Date: Tue, 1 May 2007 07:24:13 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FEATHERS CONFISCATED" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20070501/LOCAL1803/705010397 American Indians complained before riot By Tim Evans tim.evans@indystar.com May 1, 2007 The transition from prison life in Arizona has been particularly hard on the at least 19 American Indian inmates sent to the New Castle Correctional Facility, according to some groups working with those prisoners. Sally Tuttle, chairwoman of the advocacy group Native American Indian Voices of Indiana, said she was contacted before last week's riot and informed of problems the prisoners were having at New Castle. "This has been boiling for the last month," she said. Tuttle said she was told the 19 inmates were among those moved to other Department of Correction facilities after a riot last week at New Castle involving inmates from Arizona. A New Castle guard called Tuttle about two weeks ago and told her the inmates, unlike prisoners of other faiths, did not have access to a spiritual leader. Tuttle said some also reported their ceremonial items, such as feathers, had been violated or confiscated. "To them, that is comparable to someone tearing up a Bible," she said. "They tried to talk to people, but no one listened or knew what to do." Call Star reporter Tim Evans at (317) 444-6204. Copyright c. 2007 Indianapolis Star. --------- "RE: Tribe protests arrest of 11-year-old" --------- Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 07:24:05 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="VICTIMIZING THE VICTIM" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_5805030?nclick_check=1 Mille Lacs County / Tribe protests arrest of 11-year-old Boy reportedly was held overnight in juvenile detention center for not showing up to testify at court hearing BY DAVID HANNERS Pioneer Press May 3, 2007 An incident in which an 11-year-old boy on the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation was taken from his school in handcuffs and held overnight by the sheriff's department - all because he failed to show up as a witness in a court hearing - has reopened a long-standing rift between the band and county officials. Melanie Benjamin, chief executive of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, sent a letter to Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson on Wednesday, claiming the youth's rights had been abused. She asked Swanson to intervene in the case. But Mille Lacs County Attorney Jan Kolb said the case was handled properly and that the juvenile and his mother had been given plenty of opportunities to comply with subpoenas in the case. She said that getting members of the Mille Lacs Band to show up for court has long been a problem and that her office has had to dismiss countless cases because of it. "We don't take it lightly. We don't run around and throw 11-year-olds into custody for no reason," Kolb said. "At some point, if victims can't help themselves, we need to step in and help them. The big thing to me is that mom was also subpoenaed to be there as a witness. She had some responsibility to be there herself." The boy's mother, Kristie Lee Davis-Deyhle, 34, of Onamia, could not be reached for comment. A public relations firm working for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe said Davis-Deyhle could be interviewed only if questions were first submitted in writing and only if her name was not published. The reason, said spokeswoman Jennifer Hellman, was that "we want to prevent any further damage to her son." But Davis-Deyhle herself faces assault charges for allegedly trying to run over the youth who is accused of assaulting her son. Her son was taken into custody and held overnight on April 10, but the series of events that led to the incident began in September. On Sept. 6, Mille Lacs tribal police were called to a home in Onamia to investigate a case in which a 13-year-old youth allegedly tripped the 11-year-old boy and then knocked him to the ground. Davis-Deyhle allegedly witnessed the incident, then tried to run over the 13-year-old with her car, authorities claim. She is scheduled to go to trial next month on a charge of second-degree assault. The 13-year-old faced juvenile charges in connection with the assault on the 11-year-old. The case was set for March 2, and the younger boy responded to a subpoena and showed up. When the older youth was unable to appear, the case was rescheduled to March 29. After the continuation was granted, the woman and her son "were notified by letter with another copy of the subpoena, and told that if they failed to appear, a warrant may be issued for their arrest," Kolb said. Neither appeared at the March 29 hearing. The 13-year-old did appear. After the case was continued, warrants were issued for the 11-year-old and his mother for failing to appear in court. She was taken into custody briefly and then released. But on April 10, a tribal police officer went to Nay Ah Shing School on the reservation and took the child. According to Benjamin's letter to the attorney general's office, the youth was "handcuffed, processed at the county jail and transferred to a juvenile detention facility, where he was detained overnight." The letter claims the child continued to be mistreated the next day. "Prior to appearing in Mille Lacs County Court the following day, he was restrained with handcuffs and shackles, and forced to wear a jail-orange jumpsuit," the letter said. After spending two hours in a holding cell, "the boy was sent home with the admonition to make sure he was present at the next court date," Benjamin wrote to Swanson. Rjay Bronkow, the band's solicitor general, said jailing an 11-year-old boy was uncalled for. "Most sensible and compassionate people would be outraged if this happened to a defendant, and this was a victim of a crime, an 11-year-old victim of a crime," he said. "From beginning to end, it was wrong." He said the band believes the youth or his parents were never properly served with a subpoena. But Kolb said the subpoenas were properly served and that the two should've shown up at court. "Why is everyone asking us, 'Why did you get a warrant?' " she said. "My question is, 'Why don't you just come to court?' The 11-year-old was a victim of an assault. Get him to court and get him to testify, and we can get the other juvenile convicted. But when he and the other witnesses don't show up to testify, we're the bad guy for dismissing the case." Both sides agree it has often been difficult to get residents of the reservation to show up for court, but each said there are different reasons for that. There was even a community meeting on the issue earlier this year. Benjamin and Brunkow believe Mille Lacs County officials often don't make good-faith attempts to serve subpoenas. Kolb said the county does the best it can, but people don't show up when subpoenaed, and it causes serious problems. "I would dare to say - and this truly is specific to our Native American population - if we had to dismiss every case where our victims didn't show up, it would be over 50 percent, if not 70 or 80 percent," she said. "We just have a terrible time getting them to court." David Hanners can be reached at dhanners@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5551. Copyright c. 2007 St. Paul Pioneer Press. --------- "RE: Native Justice" --------- Date: Tue, 1 May 2007 18:38:26 -0700 From: Janet Smith [owlstar@bellsouth.net] Subj: NA News Item -- PacifiCorp sued over Klamath River Toxins http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070502/20070502006562.html?.v=1 Tribal Leaders, Fishermen and Business Owners Sue PacifiCorp Over Klamath River Toxins May 2, 2007 SAN FRANCISCO - (BUSINESS WIRE) - A group of Klamath River tribal leaders, commercial fishermen and recreational business owners filed suit today against PacifiCorp, contending that two of its dams in Northern California are the cause of massive blooms of toxic algae that are decimating the salmon fishery and causing an extreme potential health hazard to humans. The group retained nationally-known trial lawyers to file the suit in the United States District Court in San Francisco, which has jurisdiction over all of Northern California. "These dams are having a devastating impact on the economies and cultures of Native Americans and others who depend on the Klamath River," said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., of Kennedy & Madonna of Hurley, New York, co- counsel in the case who has successfully represented Riverkeeper of New York in fighting pollution in the Hudson River and Long Island Sound. Kennedy also serves as senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council and as President of the Waterkeeper Alliance based in Irvington, New York. One of the main claims of the suit is that the "ceremonies and substance fishing for Yurok and Karuk tribes are under siege because of the deadly toxins created by PacifiCorp's dams," said Joseph W. Cotchett of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy of Burlingame, California, Kennedy's co-counsel and recognized nationally for his firm's representation of socially just causes. The lawsuit contends the reservoirs behind the Iron Gate and Copco dams in Northern California near the Oregon border are a toxic nuisance and that Portland-based PacifiCorp should be enjoined from operating them in a way that causes the annual toxic blooms because of improper intake and release of water. "PacifiCorp's operation of the dams raises water temperatures in the reservoirs well above natural levels" resulting in the algae's growth "so much so that a layer of toxic scum now covers the reservoirs from July through October," the suit said. The suit was filed on behalf of Yurok and Karuk tribal leaders, commercial salmon fishermen, river recreation business owners and the Klamath Riverkeeper group. The suit said that for at least the last six years, PacifiCorp has been aware of the toxic algae blooms but has failed to correct the situation. According to co-counsel Daniel G. Cooper of Lawyers for Clean Water Inc. of San Francisco, "The algae's effects go far beyond the annual toxic blooms - it poses a threat to the fishery and human health, because it generates a potent liver toxin and tumor promoter known as a microcystin." Regina Chichizola of the Klamath Riverkeeper said the dams "are creating and releasing toxic algae in concentrations 4,000 times what is safe for contact according to the World Health Organization. For the local tribes and many business owners, these dams are robbing river and coastal communities of their livelihoods and causing potential health problems for the local population." One of the plaintiffs is Michael T. Hudson, a Berkeley resident who fishes out of Half Moon Bay and is president of the Small Boat Commercial Salmon Fishermen's Association. He called the situation "a major environmental emergency, as evidenced by the fact that just last year low returns of Klamath salmon prompted fisheries managers to ban nearly all commercial salmon fishing along 700 miles of coastline from Monterey Bay to Coos Bay, Oregon." PacifiCorp, whose hydroelectric operations provide power to customers in Oregon and California, was acquired by MidAmerican Energy in 2006. MidAmerican is controlled, in turn, by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway investment group. According to plaintiff Leaf Hillman, a ceremonial leader from the Karuk Tribe, tribal members and fishermen transported two Native American dugout canoes to Omaha where Berkshire Hathaway shareholders are meeting May 4-5. "We hope to talk to the shareholders and gain the company's and Warren Buffett's support to do the right thing and correct the situation," Hillman said. "Warren Buffett is a decent man who will understand our plight and as the new owner of the dam, we ask that he consider our petition." Contact: Klamath media coordinator Morrow Cater, 415-453-0430 or Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy Don Thornton, 650-697-6000 (Electronic copies of complaint available) or Kennedy & Madonna Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 845-331-7514 or Klamath Riverkeeper Regina Chichizola, 541-951-0126 or Lawyers for Clean Water Daniel G. Cooper, 310-829-1229 X224 ----------------------------------------------------- Source: Klamath Tribes and Commercial Fishermen Copyright c. 2007 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright c. 2007 Business Wire. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Rustywire: Running Wild and Free" --------- Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2006 08:10:07 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RUSTYWIRE: RUNNING WILD" http://www.rustywire.com/Starmtn/wild.html Running Wild and Free...by Johnny Rustywire It was a few years ago now, it was Spring. The BLM had set up a wild horse roundup in Eastern Utah. I was doing some title search work and found myself one morning riding out with the wranglers who would be catching and rounding up the horses for their adoption program. There has been much made of the horses, some believe that these wild horses needed to be removed from the land because of overgrazing and inbreeding. Others believe that they should stay where they are and run free. I am not sure about the debate but I guess someone should ask the horses I heard one person say. I found myself riding out with Chuck, he was pleasant sort of guy and we headed to a place known as Moon Water Point, way out in the middle of nowhere with undulating hills that dropped into the valleys and canyons surrounding the Green River some fifty miles north of Green River, Utah on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation. The wranglers were private contractors, and some were employees with the BLM, the rest were from the Ute Tribe Fish & Game Department, they were easy to tell because they were Indians. Everyone was anticipating the round up. I had heard that a helicopter was out early that morning gathering the horses. We had been on the road for about 21/2 hours over a long windy dirt road when we got to Moon Water Point. The trucks and trailers used by the wranglers were off the hill out of site and we parked there in the brush and walked up the hill to the top of the bench. On top there was a brush line setup in a V to funnel the horses into a make shift corral that had three sides dropping of the bench like a cliff dropping off steeply and the brush hid a portable fence set up to hold the horses. The guys there had been there for a few days gathering the horses and were set to catch them there. I spoke with the Ute cowboys there and they were a hardy stock, rough and ready. I have heard they pride themselves as horseman, those Utes, I did not hear anyone say it, but they seemed to know the animals and this area was their land. In speaking with them some did not agree with the roundup of these horses. These were the last remaining part of them, their people that represented their former life as the People of the Shining Mountains who were born on horses and roamed all over thses lands from Denver to Salt Lake. I could sense their feeling but they were there to do a job and so they were waiting for the horses to get there. Everyone mounted up and headed out moving off the bench to the North and in the distance you could hear the herd of wild horses coming this way. You could see them off in the distance, kicking up the dust and running through the sage brush, they were running in groups of 2 and 3 with others of 4 and 5 running alongside. You see they travel and live in small groups to be able to forage the high and low areas for food. There were a group of 4 and 5 year old stallions eager to make a place with the herd but they can not live together and so they break off in small groups, each having is own band. The helicopter was chasing them from behind and they were all running together. They were assorted colors, magnificent, their legs flying and moving with a grace of years of running through sagebrush and these lands. This was their place and we were the interlopers. Their nostrils were flaring, their manes and tails blowing in the wind. There must have been 35 to 40 of them coming. They came and ran up by us onto the bench at full speed, galloping past with a beauty and grace that took me back a hundred years and then we were in the chase, behind them. The horses we were on got caught up as kindred spirits, losing their domestication to go with the their roots, to be wild and free. The horses went into the V, the funnel. The lead stallion was black, a large horse, beautiful in his long strong strides, he led them in. The group was going full tilt, all of them went in. The guys hiding in the brush gate quickly closed the gate behind them, the horses were corralled. There was a quarter mile of room in there for them to settle down. The lead horse didn't slow down and we all watched as he continued to run to the edge of the point to where the land dropped off. All of the horses were running behind him at a full gallop. What was he doing, he was going to fall off, straight to his death and take some of the others with him. The enclosure was opened and the wranglers took off after him to rope and cut him from the main group. We were watching and could not believe it when he jumped off, one by one the whole group went over the edge. A sick feeling came over as I saw this, it would be a sad day this day to see all of them laying at the bottom of the drop, there was probably 35 to 40 feet to the bottom. I could see horses with broken legs and all sorts of things went through my mind. We rode up the edge and looking below the last of the group was bounding down, leaping to a large rock standing apart a ways from the drop and it was to here they had jumped using the rock as a way to jump halfway down and then bouncing off it as it were to drop to the valley below without breaking stride. There was no pause and they were running not a one injured or hurt, all had made it. I stood there with those Ute wranglers.. The guys from BLM were talking about the craziness of the horses. The Indians stood there apart all of us looking and without saying a word our hearts were running with them as they disappeared into the canyons below, running wild and free... Copyright c. 1999, Johnny Rustywire, all rights reserved. --------- "RE: Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days" --------- Date: Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 03:02:48 GMT From: Debbie Sanders Subj: Hawaiian Book of Days A HAWAI`I BOOK OF DAYS, week of May 7-13 May was the first month of the Kau season, which ran from May through October. May was the time when the ka Huihui, or Pleiades, set at sunrise. The Pleiades are also known as the Makali`i stars. MEI May Ikiiki 7 Feel the winds blowing through you, cleansing your spirit of all sorrow. 8 The joyous heart has as many blessings as the stars in the sky, na hoku. 9 Give me the wings of a bird, and I will possess all the world! 10 My heart leaps with the dolphins in the incredible blue of the ocean. 11 Sing to me a song of beginnings in this land of many rainbows! 12 Never be content with what is -- always seek to realize what might be. 13 Never close your mind to possibilities. (c) Copyright 1991 by D. F. Sander Me ke aloha i ka nani, ... Moe'uhanekeanuenue (With love and beauty, ... Rainbow Dream) --------- "RE: Del "Abe" Jones: Where have all the leaders gone?" --------- Date: Monday, April 23, 2007 09:36 pm From: Del "Abe" Jones Subj: Where have all the leaders gone? WHERE HAVE ALL THE LEADERS GONE? Where have all the leaders gone? To the banks to cash their pay Where have all the leaders gone? To the greedy American way. Where have all the leaders gone? To be a front for big businessmen Where have all the leaders gone? To buy elections time and again. Where have all the leaders gone? To their ivory towers way up high Where have all the leaders gone? To where they can't see you and I. Where have all the leaders gone? To the corporations for the perks Where have all the leaders gone? Not to public office filled with jerks. Where have all the leaders gone? None to be found when they are needed Where have all the leaders gone? To where warnings go unheeded. Where have all the leaders gone? To rape and pillage Mother Earth Where have all the leaders gone? Most of them to pimp their worth. Where have all the leaders gone? To wage war on the middle class Where have all the leaders gone? And other wars to show their ass. Where have all the leaders gone? To let our Constitution be broken Where have all the leaders gone? To tell their lies with words they've spoken. Where have all the leaders gone? We sure need some to return Where have all the leaders gone? To light the fires, like Rome, we'll burn. Del "Abe Jones 4.22.2007 The following is excerpt from Lee Iacocca's book with the same title and inspiration for the poem. "Had Enough? Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course." Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: