_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 15, ISSUE 021 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 21, 2007 Mvskogee kee-hvsee/mulberry moon Pomo umchachich-da/seeds ripen moon Anishnaabe waabigwani-giizis/blossom moon Mohawk onerahtohko:wa/time of big leaf moon Eastern Cherokee nvda gahlvsga/planting moon +-------------------------------------------------------+ | Much more happens in Indian Country than is reported | | in this weekly newsletter. For daily updates & events | | go to http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm | +-------------------------------------------------------+ Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin -- Blackfeet -- News for All the People Ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min -- Ojibwe -- We Are Talking About Ourselves Aunchemokauhettittea -- Naragansett -- Let Us Share News Kanoheda Aniyvwiya -- Cherokee -- Journal of the People O Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse -- Creek -- People's New News O o O Acimowin -- Plains Cree -- Story or Account O o O Tlaixmatiliztli -- Nahuatl -- News O o o o o O Agnutmaqan -- Listuguj Mi'kmaq -- News O o O Sho-da-ku-ye -- Teehahnahmah -- Talking Birchbark O o O Un Chota -- Susquehannic Seneca -- The People Speak O Ha-Sah-Sliltha -- Ditidaht Nation -- News of the People Ximopanolti tehuatzin, inin Mexika tlahtolli -- Nahuatl -- For you we offer these words It-hah-pe-hah Ah-num pah-le -- Chickasaw -- Together We Are Talking Dineh jii' adah' ho'nil'e'gii ba' ha' neh -- Navajo Nation -- What's Happening among The People News Okla Humma Holisso Nowat Anya -- Choctaw -- People(s) Red Newspaper Hi'a chu ah gaa -- Pima -- The stories or the talk of the People s ch mA mL tL squee Lux -- Okanogan -- News from the People Native American News -- Language of the Occupation Forces ++>If you speak a Native American language not listed above, please send us your words for "News of the People." We'd rather take up this whole page saving these few words of our hundreds of nations than present a nice clean banner in the language of the occupation forces who came here determined to replace our words with their own. email gars@nanews.org with the equivalent of "News of the People" in your tribal language along with the english translation <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is produced in straight ASCII text for greatest portability across platforms. Read it with a fixed-pitch font, such as Courier, Monaco, FixedSys or CG Times. Proportional fonts will be difficult to read. <================<<<< >>>>================> This issue contains articles from: www.indianz.com; www.pechanga.net; www.indiancountrytoday.com; Mailing Lists: Chiapas95-En, NetRez-L and 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: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + =================== "Some of you will go on to colleges off of the reservation and other will take advantage of the fantastic opportunities afforded you through the 36 Indian owned and operated colleges on the many Indian nations in this country. Colleges like Oglala Lakota College, Dine' College, Sinte Gleska University, and Sitting Bull College are now at your very doorstep and these great colleges are probably America's best kept secret." "Right here in Indian country you will find great educators like Tom Short Bull of Oglala Lakota College, Jeanine Pease, Gwen Shunatona, and one of my idols of all time, Lionel Bordeaux of Sinte Gleska University. These are Native leaders that have paved the way for you to be able to get a college degree on your Native lands." __ Tim Giago, Oglala Lakota +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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 issue contains several articles that point to disparities that most Indians know all to well, and most non-Indians ignore or categorically deny. This ignore or deny scenario is especially prevalent in the one place charged with providing care - the government. (For those who don't know better, this isn't Indian Welfare - it's fulfillment of treaty obligations.) Among Alaska natives, the 20-to-29 age group had the most suicides, 39 percent of the total. Natives ages 10 to 19 make up just 20 percent of the state population in that age group, but accounted for 61 percent of its suicides. Suicide among natives is commonly linked with depression and mental illness, which often goes untreated in rural areas, as well as with alcoholism and cultural and economic stress. The infant mortality rate among Native Americans in the South Dakota is more than twice the rate for non-Indians. The rates of deaths from accidents and diabetes also are higher for Native Americans, as is the rate of diagnosis of new cancers and deaths from cancer. The report did not associate industrial dumps and untreated water on many reservations with these dismal truths, but common sense tells you there has to be some connection. Indian farmers and ranchers have sought balance in the way they and other ethnicities are treated by the USDA through the courts. Their lawsuit maintains that thousands of Indian farmers and ranchers were not given the same opportunities for farm loans and disaster assistance that white producers routinely received. The plaintiffs also note that USDA dismantled its system for processing civil-rights claims in the mid-1980s, and has failed to adequately consider complaints of discrimination since then. Keep in mind the above facts culled from articles below are in addition to the billions of dollars stolen from the Indian Trust Fund and stolen or grossly unfair royalty agreements forced on Indians throughout the past century. Indian Nations must come together and stand as one or this sort of institutional Indian-bashing will continue. To this day the dominant society plays one tribe against another. To this day, that divide and conquer crap works. Part of this is long embedded enmities. Part of it is greed. In a few words, "Get Over It!" Band together and stand strong or stand alone and perish. , , Gary Smith (*,*) wotanging@bellsouth.net P. O. Box 672168 (`-') gars@nanews.org Marietta, GA 30007, U.S.A. ===w=w=== http://www.nanews.org ----------- News of the people featured in this issue ----------- Editorial Section: - YELLOW BIRD: . Tribes must band together Indians dance to a different Drum - Suicide too common - JODI RAVE: Disenrollment among Alaska Native Villages and the National Media - Troubling data reaffirms - GIAGO: Rich Tribes gap in Indian Health Care still not helping Poor Ones - Many Indian Account Holders - Opinion: The Indian wars would lose Rights and Homeland Security - Interior pressed - Brazil Indigenous Groups on Historical Accounting Plan fault Pope Talk - Tribes seek controversial - Chiapas News Summary water rights settlement - Aboriginal group plans - Wanted: Old Tollbooths First Nation Justice Forum for use by Seneca Nation - Children in care Victims - Shellfish growers, Tribes reach deal of more than Poverty - Indian Farmers sue the USDA - Delivering 'Framed' John Graham - Sacred Lands, Sewer Snow - Column of the Americas: - Indian Land rights-of-way Elusive Bars of Justice study issued - Native Justice - Pope Benedict -- Reservation ignoring Religious Oppression crime levels tragic - GIAGO: Standing ground - Rustywire: The Field against 'Dropout Nation' - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - JODI RAVE: Navajo family - John Berry Poem: Work-a-day takes WOMAN Challenge - Upcoming Events --------- "RE: Suicide too common among Alaska Native Villages" --------- Date: Tue, 15 May 2007 07:27:54 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ALASKA NATIVE SUICIDES" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/us/14alaska.html? ex=1336881600&en=4adcd358a6460ac6&ei=5124 Bethel Journal In Native Alaskan Villages, a Culture of Sorrow By WILLIAM YARDLEY May 14, 2007 BETHEL, Alaska, May 10 - The older brother hanged himself. The younger one used a gun. They died 38 days apart. They had lived in this muddy town of 6,000 people, a hub at the center of scores of much smaller and more remote native villages in the Yukon- Kuskokwim Delta of southwest Alaska. Their parents taught them to hunt for geese and seals and to fish for pike and herring and salmon. They taught them to speak their native Yupik and to cut wood for steam baths each night, even as one son played electric guitar and the family surfed the Internet. "Sit," said Evon Waska, the father, directing two visitors to a freshly finished wooden bench in his living room. Mr. Waska had placed it like a pew before a makeshift memorial of cards and photographs of the dead. "Sit with us." "When I was heartbroken," he said, "I put my sorrow into making that bench." In grieving for the older son, William George Kinzy, 34, who died on March 8, and his half-brother, Evon David Waska Jr., 20, who shot himself on April 15, Mr. Waska and his wife, Dora, are suffering a cruel concentration of the kind of loss that so many others in communities like theirs confront. "Rural Alaska has some of the highest rates in the world for suicide," said Ron Perkins, who came to Alaska three decades ago to work for the federal government's health program for Native Alaskans and now is executive director of the Alaska Injury Prevention Center, a nonprofit organization. "I remember talking once to an elder in a village outside Kotzebue. He said, `I was 20 years old before I first heard of a suicide, and then it was a white man in Kotzebue.' Now, if a native kid is 10 and hasn't heard of a suicide, it's rare." The suicide rate among Native Alaskans was three times that of nonnative Alaska residents and five times the national rate from 2003 to 2006, according to a study Mr. Perkins helped conduct. Contrasts are also striking in the ages of those committing suicide. Nationwide, people 80 and over and those in their 40s are most likely to kill themselves. Among Alaska natives, the 20-to-29 age group had the most suicides, 39 percent of the total, while that age group ranked seventh nationwide. Natives ages 10 to 19 make up just 20 percent of the state population in that age group, but accounted for 61 percent of its suicides. The suicide rates for natives declined somewhat in 2005 and 2006, but Mr. Perkins said it was too soon to know whether that reflected a pattern. Roughly 80 percent of all Alaska suicide victims are male. Suicide among natives is commonly linked with depression and mental illness, which often goes untreated in rural areas, as well as with alcoholism and cultural and economic stress. Many native families are reluctant to discuss suicide, adding to the challenge, Mr. Perkins said. Native death rates over all are about 50 percent higher than for nonnatives, according to data compiled by the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Natives are increasingly moving to urban areas from rural villages and native families are increasingly led by a single parent. Women are more likely than men to move to cities to find work. "They've lost their culture, they don't have a way to support their family, and then what we see is a lot of alcohol and drug use, particularly alcohol," said Diane Casto, the section manager for prevention and early intervention for the state's division of behavioral health. "There's such a feeling of hopelessness, particularly for young men." Christian missionaries, followed by government bureaucracy and modern technology, have long since transformed villages on the tundra into places where seal meat is hung out to dry in the shadow of steeples, public schools and satellite dishes. Many natives still hunt and fish for staples even as the outside culture promotes materialism. Experts say young people often have frayed connections to the old ways but poor preparation for living in a modern world. "How do you move out, how do you move on?" said Yvonne Kinegak, an intake supervisor for the Bethel branch of the state's Office of Children's Services. "We see healthier people when they're more connected to their culture." Bonnie Bradbury, who teaches Sunday school at United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, where her husband is the pastor, said that deaths among natives, many of whom in the delta are Russian Orthodox, are repeatedly memorialized through feasts at various anniversaries. Evon David Waska Jr. killed himself as his family was preparing for a feast on the 40th day after his half-brother died. "They think, well, if they don't think much of me now, maybe they will when I'm dead," Ms. Bradbury said, echoing a common view. Mr. Perkins, who conducted the suicide study, acknowledged that perception but said he knew of no way to confirm it. Misperceptions about native suicides are common, he said, including the belief that more people kill themselves during the dark Alaskan winters. "We found that suicides occurred all during the year," he said, noting that December, one of the darkest months, had one of the lowest suicide rates. Alcohol or drugs were a factor in nearly three-fourths of the suicides among natives, the same as for nonnatives. And while about two-thirds of all suicides were from gunshot wounds, natives were twice as likely to hang themselves as were nonnatives, even though gun ownership is high among natives. Mr. Perkins said that efforts were being made to help people maintain their connection to native culture and language, but that some groups less likely to speak their native language, like the Aleuts, had relatively low suicide rates. "They're past that cultural transition," he said. Copyright c. 2007 The New York Times Company. --------- "RE: Troubling data reaffirms gap in Indian Health Care" --------- Date: Tue, 15 May 2007 07:27:54 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INDIAN HEALTH CARE" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20070514/NEWS/705140328/1001 'Troubling' data reaffirms gap in Indian health care Official: S.D. tribes have higher infant mortality, cancer rates By TERRY WOSTER twoster@midco.net May 14, 2007 PIERRE - From infant mortality to cancer cases, health problems among Native Americans in South Dakota are worse than either state or national averages, a state expert says. Dr. Lon Kightlinger of the state Health Department reviewed the disparities in health status between Native Americans and non-Indians in South Dakota for the Zaniya Task Force recently, calling the statistics "very somber and very troubling." The infant mortality rate among Native Americans in the state is more than twice the rate for non-Indians, Kightlinger's statistics showed. The rates of deaths from accidents and diabetes also are higher for Native Americans, as is the rate of diagnosis of new cancers and deaths from cancer. "This is a very large gap which must be closed," Kightlinger said of the infant mortality rate variance. The state health department issued a special report early this year that said the national infant mortality rate of 6.8 deaths per 1,000 births compared with 6.9 in South Dakota from 2000 to 2005. The report further said the rate during that same period for white infants was 5.5 per 1,000 births, compared with 12.9 for Native Americans in the state. The health department has a goal of reducing the state's overall rate to six deaths per 1,000 births within three years. The 2007 Legislature created the Zaniya Task Force, which is supposed to recommend by the end of September ways to ensure that all people in South Dakota have access to health insurance. When Gov. Mike Rounds met with the task force at its first meeting in April, he encouraged the group to look closely at the needs in Indian Country, because of the generally higher rates of health problems. It's a look that's long overdue, says Robert Moore, a council member for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. "I think it's really important that this task force is including all South Dakotans in its work," Moore said. Federal and tribal responsibility for the health of Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people "doesn't negate the state's responsibility to us as citizens of South Dakota," he says. The priorities that the federal Indian Health Services sets for care play a part in the disparity in statistics, Moore says, but so does that fact that "as Indian people, we often aren't good patients. We aren't fluent in patient-speak, and we sometimes aren't good about interpreting what's happening in our bodies and seeking care." Kightlinger says the death rate for Native Americans in South Dakota is the highest in the nation of any race group, and that Indians in the state "are dying at a very young age." Native Americans in the state have a higher incidence of new cancer diagnoses than non-Indians (519 cases per 100,000 for Indians compared with 467 for whites, a Health Department report from 2001 to 2003 showed) and a significantly higher death rate from all cancers (245 per 100,000 compared with 187 per 100,000) Moore says that could be an indication, in part at least, that Native Americans either lack access to or don't take advantage of cancer screening and early-detection programs. "Oftentimes, the cancer isn't detected immediately, so the treatment is more difficult" and less successful, he says. A review of tumor registry information at Rapid City Regional Hospital from 1990 through 2000 seemed to support that conclusion. The review showed that half of the Native Americans with cancer had late-stage forms of the disease compared with about one-third of the general population at that hospital. As troubling as the disparities are, Kightlinger says similar gaps in health care existed for other racial and economic groups in the past and were corrected. "There is a great deal of hope in this," he says. "We've pulled together and improved things for other groups. We need to pull together and get it done here." Copyright c. 2007 Argus Leader Media. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Many Indian Account Holders would lose Rights" --------- Date: Sat, 19 May 2007 07:14:37 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INTERIOR PLAN WOULD CHEAT MANY INDIANS" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://reznet.blog.com/1767782/ Many Indian account holders would lose rights under Interior plan, lawyer says By Bill McAllister May 15, 2007 WASHINGTON - Lawyers in a major class action lawsuit are opposing an Interior Department plan that they say will deprive the "vast majority" of an estimated 500,000 Native Americans whose families have had government- managed trust accounts from receiving a court-ordered accounting of what happened to their funds. Attorney Keith Harper, representing Indian plaintiffs in an 11-year-old class action lawsuit, said the U.S. Interior Department's proposed accounting would strip most members of the class of the right to secure a long-promised accounting. Harper made his comments to U.S. District Judge James Robertson after the judge expressed concern that both sides in the lawsuit may have sharply different views about what constitutes a proper accounting. Robertson, who assumed control of the case in December, has ordered an Oct. 10 trial into whether the Interior Department can conduct a proper accounting. That issue, the judge declared, is at the heart of the lawsuit over the government's admitted mismanagement of Indian Trust accounts. The accounts were created by Congress in 1887 when lawmakers believed that Indians were incapable of managing their own finances. They were supposed to hold the proceeds of government-arranged leases of Indian lands and the sales of oil, gas and minerals from those lands. Despite decades of reports about serious problems with the trust accounts, they never have been subject to an accounting. That is a right that lawyers for a group of Indian plaintiffs told Robertson they believed they had secured for all account holders under a 2001 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. At a Monday afternoon hearing on plans for the accounting trial, Harper complained that Interior Department plans for the accounting would effectively exclude most of the 500,000 Native American trust beneficiaries covered by the lawsuit. Despite the appeals court ruling, Harper said the department wants to have an accounting that covers only individuals who had active trust accounts after a trust reform law was enacted in 1994. Among others it also will exclude accounts of any deceased Indians and Indians who received funds for government leases directly from a third party. Harper said the appeals court ruling makes the Interior plan invalid. "We believe that this has already been decided," he said. The judge urged lawyers for the Indian plaintiffs to submit briefs to the court outlining why the Interior plan is flawed. He said another hearing in the case for June 18. On another issue, the judge said he would not lift an injunction that has kept four Interior Department computers off the Internet for more than five years. Those computers hold Indian Trust data and are at too much of a risk of being manipulated by computer hackers, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth had ruled. Judge Robertson said government lawyers have yet to present sufficient evidence that the computers are now safe. Besides, he noted that the government had agreed to a consent decree allowing the Internet ban. --- Bill McAllister, a former Washington Post reporter, is press spokesman of Elouise Cobell, lead plaintiff in the Indian Trust lawsuit. For more information about the case, go to Cobell's Indian Trust Web site. --------- "RE: Interior pressed on Historical Accounting Plan" --------- Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 07:15:44 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="JUDGE ROBERTSON PRESSES INTERIOR FOR ANSWERS" http://www.indianz.com/News/2007/002921.asp Judge presses Interior on historical accounting plan May 15, 2007 The federal judge handling the Indian trust fund case pushed the Bush administration on Monday to finalize its historical accounting plan, citing delays that could hinder an upcoming trial. During a two-hour-plus hearing in Washington, D.C., Judge James Robertson said he was promised the plan over a month ago. But a Department of Justice lawyer wasn't able to confirm an exact release date. "Come on guys, this has been a long time coming," Robertson said. "What's the holdup?" Robertson contemplated an order to force the Interior Department to finalize the plan but resisted the idea in hopes of avoiding the legal acrimony that has characterized the 11-year-old Cobell case. "I don't want any more contempt citations," he said. "I don't want any more sanctions." With an October 10 trial on the historical accounting approaching, however, the judge said swift action is crucial. "I can't wait till September for it," Robertson said. "It seems to me the plan itself will be subject to [some] challenge." Pressed on the matter, Robert E. Kirschman of the Department of Justice said the plan will be released in "coming weeks," perhaps as early as May 31. He said it was still being reviewed by the Interior Department, whose Office of Historical Trust Accounting is handling the effort to tell Indian beneficiaries how much they are owed for the use of their land. Keith Harper, a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and an attorney for the plaintiffs, criticized the effort. He said Interior is excluding hundreds of thousands of Indian account holders from the accounting and has limited the project in other ways that are contrary to law. "They can't do the accounting because they've destroyed documents and the data is unreliable," Harper said. The plaintiffs and the government remain far apart on the details and scope of the accounting, which was ordered back in December 1999 and upheld on appeal in February 2001. Work only began after the Bush administration issued its first plan in June 2002, which was revised in January 2003 and will be further amended by the new document. The trial, set to start October 10, seeks to address some of the differences but the two sides have differing views on how it will be conducted. "You're all wrong," Robertson said to both parties during the hearing. He said the plaintiffs are seeking too much information ahead of trial while the government wants to limit testimony and witnesses. However, he agreed to accept two briefs from the plaintiffs to explain issues such as the exclusion of beneficiaries who receive direct payments, deceased beneficiaries and their heirs and beneficiaries whose accounts were closed and who won't be receiving an accounting. Robertson also agreed to consider the plaintiffs' requests for documents related to the accounting. But he warned the attorneys that he won't let the discovery process delay the upcoming trial. On a separate issue, Robertson rejected the government's motion to dissolve a 2001 consent order on information technology security. The agreement, entered by Judge Royce Lamberth following a court investigation that showed billions of dollars in Indian trust funds were vulnerable to computer hackers, keeps Interior bureaus and offices off the Internet until they can demonstrate they are secure. The overwhelming majority of Interior's computer systems are back online but the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of Special Trustee remain disconnected more than five years later. Robertson said he wouldn't lift the consent order unless he is shown proof that the two agencies have fixed their IT problems. "You haven't made the requisite showing that you have the security," he said. But if the government comes to the court with proof, he said he likely to dissolve the agreement so BIA and OST can get back on the Internet. On a third issue, Robertson tried to resolve another acrimonious matter: legal fees to the plaintiffs. He said it was taking far too much time to resolve how much money is owed to attorneys for successes in the case. "I'm frankly disappointed with both parties on this particular issue," Robertson said. He ordered the plaintiffs to resubmit certain legal bills and hoped to resolve a dispute that dates to motions filed back in 2000 and 2001. The next status hearing is set to take place June 18. Robertson hopes to hold a series of conferences in advance of the open-ended October trial. Copyright c. 2007 Indianz.com --------- "RE: Tribes seek controversial water rights settlement" --------- Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 07:15:44 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FORT BELKNAP TRIBES SEEK WATER RIGHTS SETTLEMENT" http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20070520/NEWS01/705200303 Tribes seek controversial water rights settlement By KARL PUCKETT Tribune Staff Writer May 20, 2007 Fort Belknap's Gros Ventre and Assiniboine tribes plan to ask Congress for $240 million as part of a water rights settlement bill being drafted by the tribes and the state of Montana. The federal funding would help pay for an ethanol plant and a new irrigation system that would reach 30,000 additional acres. It's a sizeable request, but not unusually high for the arena of tribal water rights settlement talks. The real twist in the package that is setting off alarm bells in some quarters is the 54,500 acres the tribes are seeking in state and federal public land as part of the financial settlement. The lands include a popular recreation area called the Grinnell Notch - roughly 15,000 acres that were carved out of the southern edge of the Fort Belknap Reservation when gold was discovered in the Little Rockies in the 1890s. "Once it goes to the reservation, it's not public land anymore," said James Ployhar, a Great Falls resident who's lobbying state and federal elected officials to block the plan. Tribal officials, however, say they simply are following advice to come up with non-cash compensation as a means to get a deal done. What's more, they say, the tribes once owned a portion of the 54,500 acres that's on the negotiating table. And in their view it's only fair to get some of the land they gave up back and reconsolidate the reservation's land base. "In the past, there have been many reasons for division throughout the state of Montana between the Indian people and the non-Indian," said Julia doney, president of the Fort Belknap Indian Community Council. "The bottom line is water can either divide us or it can bring us together." Ethanol plant part of deal In 2001, after years of negotiations, the state of Montana and the Fort Belknap tribes settled on a water rights compact, which was ratified by the Montana Legislature. The compact set the tribe's water rights to the Milk River at 645 cubic feet per second. Once water rights are settled at the state level, tribes seek congressional funding to construct drinking water systems, reservoirs and irrigation lines so they can reap the benefits. And the proposed land transfer and $240 million in funding are part of a draft bill Fort Belknap and state of Montana water rights negotiators are crafting. Seeking land as part of settlements does not happen every day but it's not unique, experts said. "Certainly Indian tribes west-wide tend to be interested in consolidating or reconsolidating their land base," said Jay Weiner, an attorney with the Montana Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission, which negotiates water rights on behalf of the state. Fort Belknap, which features small cattle ranches and larger dryland farms, hopes to use the $240 million to rehabilitate and enlarge an aging irrigation system. The upgrade would allow an additional 20,000 to 30,000 acres to be irrigated. In addition, plans call for construction of a 60,000-acre-foot reservoir with an accompanying canal and a small, domestic water system. The reservoir would allow the tribe not only to store its water allocations, but also to market water off the reservation, tribal officials say. "We're not going to shut the country off," said John Allen, a member of the tribal council. A portion of the funds from a settlement would be used as seed money for construction of an ethanol plant as well. "Without water this country will dry up and shrivel up and blow away," Allen said. "Water brings money." Land transfer proposed It might also bring land if Congress goes along with the request of the tribes. Today, Fort Belknap is 675,147 acres. With the addition of land in the proposed transfer, its acreage would increase by 7.4 percent. The gently rolling reservation is bordered on the north by the Milk River and the fringes of the Missouri River Breaks to the south. About 3, 200 Assiniboine and Gros Ventre live there, although enrollment is larger. The reservation, established in 1888, once was a part of the vast ancestral territories of the Blackfeet and Assiniboine Nations that took in all of central and eastern Montana and even portions of western North Dakota. A bill hasn't been introduced, but state and tribal negotiators have drafted legislation for consideration by the state's congressional delegation. They've also drawn up a map showing how the land transfer would work. "We're hoping it will be introduced as soon as possible," doney said. The tribes would prefer that the Fort Belknap and Blackfeet compacts, and funding for the aging St. Marys diversion system, be included in one piece of legislation, doney said. Such legislation, she added, would make a statement that Montanans can work together to settle water rights issues. But a single bill for the St. Marys diversion system, which provides water to Indian and non-Indian communities across the Hi-Line, already is making its way through Congress. "Basically, we all need water," she said. Of the 54,500 acres involved in the proposed transfer, 26,120 are owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Under the proposal, the BLM acreage would be transferred to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs in trust for the tribes - in effect giving the land to the tribes. Gold drives interest Creating most of the stir is the Grinnell Notch, which is part of the BLM land transfer to the tribe. The tribe owned it until 1895. After gold was discovered, the government bought it back. "That's why everybody wants it," Allen said. But Allen said riches aren't why the tribes want it back. The Landusky and Zortman gold mines were developed in the area, but they went defunct after Pegasus Gold Corp. went bankrupt in 1998, leaving behind groundwater contamination and a scarred landscape. "We don't like that eating up a mountain process," Allen said. For years, elders and council members have desired to reclaim the land not only to restore the boundaries of the reservation, but also because the Little Rocky Mountains, where the mines are located, are considered sacred. "Mother Earth is really important to us," Allen said. Spirit Mountain in particular was once used as a place to fast and pray. "This generation hasn't been able to use it," doney said. Idea opposed by some The idea doesn't sit well with some Montanans who own land within the notch, or recreate or hunt on the publicly managed property. "How would your family feel if all the public land surrounding the Sieben Ranch became reservation land tomorrow?" Ployhar wrote to U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., in March. Ployhar, who prospects for gold as a hobby and recreates in the notch, was using the Baucus family ranch near Helena as a comparison to in- holdings in the notch that would be surrounded should it be returned to the reservation. Ployhar, who also has written Gov. Schweitzer, doesn't own land in the notch, but his brother does. He's calling for public meetings on the proposed legislation. He's also concerned about precedent. "What's to say the Blackfeet won't ask for Glacier Park?" he said. The Blackfeet are in negotiations with the state of Montana to settle their water rights as well. Fort Belknap officials say the proposal would not affect private land. "There's no intention whatever to change their lands or change jurisdiction," said Richard Aldrich, a water consultant to the tribe. Land 'highly valued' Mark Albers, who heads the BLM's Malta office, said the immediate mine areas in the notch are closed to public access to protect a water filtration system installed because of the groundwater contamination. To the north of the mine sites, land is open to public recreation including all-terrain vehicle use, hiking and hunting. There's also several private in-holdings with patented mine sites. "It's a highly valued block of public ground for those kind of uses," Albers said. "It's the only timbered section of public land really north of the river. Another 8,970 acres of BLM land would be transferred to the BIA in trust for the tribe as well. It's located just outside the southwestern border of the reservation, abutting the Missouri River Breaks. The BLM labels it "sub marginal" and it's currently leased for grazing and open to other users such as hunting, Albers said. The final 2,590 acres of federal land involved is managed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. It's called the Dodson land, and it's located in the far northeastern corner of the reservation along the Milk River. The federal government acquired the Dodson land in the early 1900s to construct the Milk River irrigation project, a massive irrigation system that diverts water to communities along the state's northern border. The position of the tribes is they never relinquished the land. Tribe moves to consolidate A sizeable amount of state land also is part of the transfer, but it's not drawing fire like the federal land involved. The 21,400 acres of state school trust land is sprinkled in sections inside the reservation. The sections are part of the some 6 million acres of school trust land located across the state that was granted by Congress in 1889. Some of the sections fall within the borders of Indian reservations. And the proposed transfer is appealing to Fort Belknap because it would allow the tribes to secure these isolated blocks of state land within their borders. A transfer might be appealing to the state as well. In exchange for the school trust property, the state would receive federal BLM land in other locations, off the reservation. The BLM land the state would receive in exchange has yet to be identified. Another 4,290 acres of state land could be eligible for transfer in the future. Currently, most of the state school trust lands on the reservation are being leased to tribal members for grazing. "The difference would be, instead of being the middle man, the tribe would the owner of the lands," Aldrich said. Funding tough sell Aldrich acknowledged it could be politically difficult to get the full $240 million passed and that's why the tribes are willing to consider the land transfers. "The IRS never tells you you didn't take enough deductions," Aldrich said. "They only tell you when you take too big of a bite." An appropriation from Congress would be the fruit of negotiations with the state of Montana and federal agencies to quantify the tribes' reserved federal water rights. The Supreme Court, in a 1908 landmark ruling, found that all Indian tribes had implied water rights when reservations were created. The ruling, which stemmed from a water rights dispute involving Fort Belknap, still guides negotiations today across the West. But to develop the rights, tribal officials say they need funding that federal agencies often don't have available in their regular budgets. As a result, "non-monetary" means of compensation, such as land deals, are being encouraged, and the tribes are leapfrogging the federal agencies. "It's not at all clear the executive branch agencies will support some or all of this transfer, which is why we're working with the congressional delegation," Weiner said. Reach Tribune Staff Writer Karl Puckett at kpuckett@greatfallstribune.com, 791-1471 or 800-438-6600. Copyright c. 2007 The Great Falls Tribune. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Wanted: Old Tollbooths for use by Seneca Nation" --------- Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 07:39:43 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SENECA THREATEN TOLLS THROUGH THEIR LAND" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.buffalonews.com/102/story/76794.html Wanted: Old tollbooths for use by Seneca Nation Request latest move in dispute with state By Dan Herbeck NEWS STAFF REPORTER May 16, 2007 The Seneca Nation of Indians, which has threatened to charge motorists on the State Thruway that runs through its Cattaraugus Reservation, says it is in the market for some used tollbooths. The nation wants to buy the dormant South Ogden and Breckenridge booths on the Niagara Thruway, but the contractor hired to tear down the booths says that won't happen. Seneca officials said Tuesday they authorized their foreign relations committee to try to purchase the booths and to explore the possibility of installing them on the section of Thruway that runs through Seneca lands near Silver Creek. Seneca President Maurice A. John Sr. confirmed the tribe's interest in the used tollbooths. "The nation is serious about the issues affecting its land and the highways that go through it," John said. "The nation intends to go forward with changes in its arrangements involving these highways." John's statement Tuesday is the latest salvo in a tax dispute between the Senecas and state officials, particularly Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer. The Senecas are upset over the governor's plans to collect taxes on cigarette and gasoline sales from Indian merchants to non-Indians. This year's state budget anticipates $200 million in tax collections from those transactions. An official of Oakgrove Construction of Elma said the state wants the tollbooths. Oakgrove last month submitted the low bid of $857,968 for a contract to demolish and remove Niagara Thruway toll barriers. "There has been some contact with the Senecas, but we do a lot of work for the Thruway Authority, and we wouldn't want to be caught in the middle of an embarrassing situation," said Vincent Barbera, a vice president at Oakgrove. "It's also our understanding that the state wants the booths ... possibly to use for parts in repairing other tollbooths. Thruway spokeswoman Betsy Graham agreed with Barbera that the state has no plans to sell the booths . The state shut down the toll collections on the Niagara Thruway last year after a legal battle between the state and Buffalo businessman Carl P. Paladino, who said the collections were an illegal tax on commuters. Last month, the Senecas said they were disavowing a 1954 easement that allowed the state to build a Thruway section through the Cattaraugus Reservation. The Senecas also said they plan to void a 1976 easement that allowed the state to build the Southern Tier Expressway through the Allegany Reservation near Salamanca. On April 19, John warned the state that his nation might erect tollbooths on the Thruway and begin its own toll collections. Barbera said the Niagara Thruway barrier demolition work should begin next month and probably would take eight to 10 weeks. dherbeck@buffnews.com Copyright c. 1999 - 2007 - The Buffalo News copyright-protected material. --------- "RE: Shellfish growers, Tribes reach deal" --------- Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 07:39:43 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SHELLFISH AGREEMENT REACHED" http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/ localnews/2003710456_shellfish17m.html?syndication=rss Shellfish growers, tribes reach deal By The Associated Press May 17, 2007 BREMERTON - Commercial shellfish growers won't have to share their harvest with Puget Sound American Indian tribes under a $33 million treaty-rights settlement. The federal and state money will be split among 17 tribes, who won a 1995 federal-court ruling entitling them to a share of shellfish grown on some Washington tidelands. Under the buyout, tribes will give up their harvest rights on certain state and private commercial shellfish beds. The tribes could resume harvesting, however, if the beds are taken out of commercial production. The Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission approved the settlement Tuesday. A federal judge's endorsement is required by June 29. Bill Taylor of Taylor Shellfish Farms, the West Coast's largest shellfish company, said he was thrilled to have the matter settled. "This has been a huge anvil hanging over our heads for almost 18 years," Taylor told the Kitsap Sun newspaper. Leonard Forsman, chairman of the Suquamish Tribe, said he also was pleased to avoid further litigation. "It's a relief to have this process done," Forsman told the Sun. To be covered by the settlement, growers must have owned or leased commercial shellfish beds before Aug. 28, 1995 - the date of U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie's treaty ruling. The agreement also covers 22 commercial shellfish beds owned by the state and managed by the Department of Natural Resources. Recreational beaches, such as state parks, are not covered. Among the last steps in finalizing the agreement was allocating the $22 million in federal money and $11 million in state money among the tribes. Because most commercial shellfish-growing areas are in South Puget Sound and Hood Canal, tribes in those areas will receive the most money, said Tony Forsman, chief negotiator for the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. Copyright c. 2007 The Seattle Times Company. --------- "RE: Indian Farmers sue the USDA" --------- Date: Tue, 15 May 2007 07:27:54 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="USDA SUIT FILED" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20070514/NEWS01/705140301/1002 Indian farmers sue the USDA By PETER JOHNSON Tribune Staff Writer May 14, 2007 FORT BELKNAP - Dozens of Native American farmers and ranchers in Montana, like their counterparts in other rural states, have charged that they've gotten the short end of the stick in government farm and loan programs. In fact, 60 Fort Belknap Reservation residents joined in a 1999 discrimination lawsuit that accuses the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its Farm Service Agency of systematic discrimination in farm-loan programs. The lawsuit maintains that thousands of Indian farmers and ranchers were not given the same opportunities for farm loans and disaster assistance that white producers routinely received. The plaintiffs also note that USDA dismantled its system for processing civil-rights claims in the mid- 1980s, and has failed to adequately consider complaints of discrimination since then. The case, Keepseagle vs. Johanns, named for lead plaintiff George Keepseagle, a Sioux rancher, was certified as a class-action in 2001, meaning it could potentially impact thousands of Native American producers. But the case has languished in the federal courts. Attorneys for the plaintiffs claim the government has been using stall tactics. Fort Belknap tribal council members have scheduled a hearing for Wednesday to look into those past complaints of discrimination and to hear concerns about any on-going problems. "This lawsuit has been pending for eight years now, and there does not appear to be an end in sight," said Julia doney, president of the Fort Belknap Indian Community Council. "The council is concerned because it continues to hear complaints about the FSA." The council considers it appropriate to listen to such complaints and consider remedies, doney wrote in a letter inviting farmers and ranchers to testify. Raymond Chandler, council vice president, explained that several tribal members have received foreclosure notices from the USDA involving their government loans. "We believe the foreclosures stem from continuing discriminatory practices by USDA and FSA programs," he said. But Randy Johnson of Bozeman, the FSA state executive director, said he believes "that we are not discriminating today. We make every effort to deliver all of our programs to every producer in the state. That is our mandate, and my personal goal." Johnson said he wasn't invited to Wednesday's hearing, but probably couldn't attend anyway because the charges of earlier discrimination are intermingled in the pending Keepseagle lawsuit. Similarly, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department, which is defending the USDA and FSA in Keepseagle, also wouldn't speak on the charges of previous discrimination against Indians or the alleged faulty review of civil-rights claims. "We are declining to comment because this matter involves ongoing litigation," said Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller. The tribal council may ask the federal judge presiding in the Keepseagle case to put a "stay," or legal hold, on all foreclosures involving land owned by Native Americans until the lawsuit is resolved, Chandler said. Council member John Allen, whose wife, Diane Allen, is a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said he's heard examples of ongoing discrimination. "There have been incidents where our people have traveled to FSA offices for appointments, and sat around for 15 minutes while the official they were to meet with didn't show up and everybody else ignored them," Allen said. "Native American people can be timid and sometimes will go away if ignored. We're trying to get Native American people who were wronged to come out of the cracks and speak up." Allen said he thinks black peanut farmers from the South won their discrimination lawsuit against the federal farm agencies quickly because they had more political clout. Black farmers filed a lawsuit in 1997 charging unfair treatment by FSA, called the Pigford case. Two years later they won a record civil-rights settlement that has allowed more than 14,000 plaintiffs to share in almost $1 billion in compensation through grants and loan forgiveness. "We think the federal agencies may have settled with the black farmers because they were from more populated areas, with more political support," Allen said. "We hope to get our congressional people involved." Settlement of the discrimination lawsuit can not come soon enough for Catherine Halver, a plaintiff in the case who is barely holding on to her land on the southeastern edge of the Fort Belknap Reservation. Halver said she has not been able to raise anything on her property for six years, in part because of the lack of support by the FSA, which has been attempting to foreclose on her property for several years. The agency gave her notice in February it would accelerate the lengthy foreclosure process, she said. The tribal government is helping her fight it. "We were denied a lot of stuff and never had a real say so," Halver said in recapping her dealings with FSA since the late 1970s. "The FSA is a lender of last resort for many people living on reservations who are hindered in borrowing money privately," she added. Halver said the government agency forced her to change her ranch plan after she borrowed the money, pressuring her to raise cattle rather than sheep. "They wouldn't wait for me to build a barn and shed needed for lambing on cold days up here," she said. "That was the start of my trouble with them, and it escalated through the years, one thing after the other." Another beef: the FSA budgeted her only $350 a month to live and raise a family on, which Halver said "was barely enough to survive on." She hopes Montana's elected officials will take note of discrimination complaints like hers at Wednesday's hearing. "This is my home, and I worked darn hard to get where I am," she said. "But I didn't prosper because these federal agencies didn't treat me fairly, and now they're trying to take my land. Even though the Native American people were the first Americans, they are still trying to take our farm and ranch lands." Reach Tribune Staff Writer Peter Johnson at 791-1476, 800 438-6600 or pjohnson@greatfallstribune.com. Copyright c. 2007 The Great Falls Tribune. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Sacred Lands, Sewer Snow" --------- Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 07:40:36 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SNOWBOWL" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3195/sacred_lands_sewer_snow/ Sacred Lands, Sewer Snow American Indians fight to stop an Arizona ski resort from making snow out of sewage water. By Chelsea Ross Klee Benally calls Snowball's sewage treatment proposal "a severe act of cultural degradation." Share Digg del.icio.us Reddit Newsvine Just south of the Grand Canyon and seven miles north of Flagstaff, the volcanic San Francisco Peaks loom 12,000 feet above the Arizona landscape. They also sit at the intersection of a cultural, environmental and commercial controversy - one that could make its way to the Supreme Court. The Peaks, which are managed by the United States Forest Service (USFS) as part of the Coconino National Forest, are held sacred by 13 American Indian tribes. So when Arizona Snowbowl, a ski resort that leases almost 800 acres of the mountain, proposed in 2002 to expand its facilities and make fake snow out of water reclaimed from sewage treatment plants, environmentalists and tribal leaders came together in opposition. Snowbowl manager J.R. Murray says the resort had been looking for a water source to make snow for decades. "The precipitation in the Peaks cycles. Right now, we're in a dry cycle," Murray says. "In a great year, we're open 120 days. This year, we were only open 40 days. We weren't open for Christmas. That's like a mall not being open for Christmas." Included in the proposal were plans for a 14.8-mile buried pipeline that would transport the class A-plus wastewater (a step below potable) from the Flagstaff Water Reclamation Plant to a 10 million-gallon man-made storage pond on the mountain. In a state with a perpetual water supply shortage, using wastewater provided Snowbowl with a viable way to keep its business running. But for environmentalists and tribal members, the plan was unacceptable. "Snowbowl's proposal would not only disrupt and negatively impact the sensitive mountain ecosystem and public health, but it is also a severe act of cultural degradation," says Klee Benally, an organizer with the Save the Peaks Coalition and a Navajo Tribe member. The coalition of tribes and environmentalists brought the issue to Federal District Court, which in January 2006 ruled in favor of the USFS' approval of the plans on all counts. But on March 12, the 9th Circuit Court overturned two counts of that ruling, making it illegal for Snowbowl to go ahead with its plans to make snow from reclaimed wastewater. In his 64-page decision, Judge William Fletcher wrote that the human health impacts of using wastewater had not been sufficiently evaluated, and that making snow from wastewater violated the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), based on the religious practices of the Navajo, Hopi and Havasupai tribes. The ruling marks an unprecedented application of RFRA, says attorney Howard Shanker, who represented the 13 tribes along with the Sierra Club, the Flagstaff Activist Network and the Center for Biological Diversity in the class action suit. Shanker says that while sewage-treatment plant wastewater is a "very valuable resource in Arizona, it's not tested for things like hormones and antibiotics." There have not been many conclusive studies of the effects of wastewater, but a 2005 study published by the University of Exeter in England found that long-term exposure to wastewater effluent resulted in reproductive mutations in fish, among other biological effects. But Murray says the use of wastewater should not be an issue. "It's used everywhere in Arizona and in Flagstaff," he says, "in city parks, in ponds where you can eat the fish, golf courses, lawns, the university campus and on Indian reservations. Everybody in the state of Arizona understands reclaimed water, [but] the judges don't." Judge Fletcher, however, compared the spraying of such snow on the Peaks to the government requiring that "baptisms be carried out with `reclaimed water.'" He also wrote, "We are struck by the obvious fact that the Peaks are located in a desert. It is (and always has been) predictable that some winters will be dry." Murray contends it is impossible for most ski resorts to run without making fake snow and insists Snowbowl will close unless it does so. But even with the risk of closure, which Fletcher said was not necessarily imminent, the 9th Circut's decision stated, "We are not convinced that there is a compelling governmental interest" to justify the use of reclaimed wastewater in relation to the "substantial burden" on the exercise of tribal religious practices. Murray and Snowbowl owner Eric Borowsky argue that the issue is one of public land usage, not religious freedom. A press release put out after the ruling stated, "If this ruling is allowed to stand, then our national policy and congressionally mandated multiple use doctrine on public lands is dead for all practical purposes. The ramification of this ruling, if left unchallenged, will be devastating to the taxpayer's access and use of its lands." "What's wrong with sharing the peaks?" asks Murray. "We have one percent, they have 99 percent, we're happy. The opposition groups are basically saying that [they] want the ski area off the mountain and don't care who enjoys skiing, religious beliefs are more important than multiple uses of the land and recreational use." According to Benally, the conflict is a "throwback to the days of racism and disrespect" toward American Indians and created deep divisions within the Flagstaff community. To support Snowbowl, the Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce and the Flagstaff Ski Club formed Reclaim the Peaks!. The group is raising money to assist with the costs of further litigation if an appeal is granted. Snowbowl has already spent an estimated $4 million on legal fees. The idea of losing the case "is painful, considering the legacy indigenous people have faced," says Benally. "You have to acknowledge the context of genocide, the cultural degradation, the racism." Whether an appeal will be made to the Supreme Court is up to the Department of Justice, which recently filed a request with the 9th Circuit Court for an extension on making that decision, according to Coconino National Forest Public Affairs Officer Raquel Romero. Murray is certain the case will make it to the Supreme Court. "If we prevail," he says, "well, the Indians might have to adjust some of their thought processes or religious practices. But if they win, the ski area goes away." Chelsea Ross is a Chicago-based freelance writer, photographer and graphic designer. Copyright c. 2007 In These Times. --------- "RE: Indian Land rights-of-way study issued" --------- Date: Wed, 16 May 2007 07:46:01 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INDIAN RIGHTS-OF-WAY" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/63026.html Indian land rights-of-way study issued Earthtimes.org Science News Editor May 15, 2007 WASHINGTON, May 15 The U.S. government Tuesday delivered to Congress the Indian Land Rights-of-Way study, required by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The study, prepared by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Department of Energy provides analyses and recommendations on energy rights-of-way, or ROWs, negotiations on tribal lands. The study recommends grants, expansions or renewals of energy ROWs on tribal lands should continue to be based on terms negotiated between the two parties. In the event negotiations are not successful, the study recommends evaluation by Congress on a case by case basis. The two government departments found the negotiation processes for establishing or renewing ROWs on tribal land could benefit from mutually agreed-upon practices, procedures and actions. Those include developing comprehensive ROW inventories for tribal lands, creating models or standard business practices for energy ROW transactions, and a broadened scope of energy ROW negotiations. Copyright c. 2007 by UPI. Copyright c. 2007 Earthtimes.org, All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Pope Benedict ignoring Religious Oppression" --------- Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 07:15:44 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="POPE BENEDICT STILL VIEWS NEW WORLD LIKE PAPAL BULLS" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://hnn.us/articles/39125.html Pope Benedict: Ignoring Cultural and Religious Oppression in the New World By Robert J. Miller May 17, 2007 News reports demonstrate that Pope Benedict is ignoring history and the violent cultural and religious oppression of indigenous peoples around the world by European Christians. Speaking to Latin American bishops in Brazil on May 13, the Pope cited the "rich religious traditions" of Indian people but added that their ancestors were "silently longing" for Christ and seeking God "without realizing it." Pope Benedict further demonstrated his misunderstanding of history and the forced conversions of natives in North, Central and South America and of massacres and "just wars" when he suggested that the Church did not impose itself on indigenous peoples and that Christianity had not been detrimental to them and their cultures. "In effect, the proclamation of Jesus and of His Gospel did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbus cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture." Benedict also added that a return to indigenous religions "would be a step back." In sharp contrast to Benedict's comments, Pope John Paul noted in 1992 the mistakes that were made in the conversion of the native peoples of the Americas. Moreover, President Bush, while speaking on Sunday at the 400th commemoration of the Jamestown settlement, lamented the negative effects that European colonization had on the Indian tribes in Virginia. President Bush apparently would not agree with Pope Benedict's comments that native cultures were not injured by European colonization and evangelism because Bush stated: "The expansion of Jamestown came at a terrible cost to the native tribes of the region, who lost their lands and their way of life." Not surprisingly, Pope Benedict's comments angered Indian leaders in Brazil. This is understandable, especially in light of the fact that several Indian groups had written the Pope just last week asking for his help in defending their lands and cultures. Jecinaldo Satere Mawe, a spokesman for Coiab, an Indian rights group in Brazil, called the Pope's comments "arrogant and disrespectful." A spokesman for the Makuxi Tribe, Dionito Jose de Souza, said the Pope was trying to erase the "dirty work" of colonization. Another Indian leader, Sandro Tuxa, called the remarks "offensive, and frankly, frightening." Some Catholic priests who support Indian rights were also upset by Benedict's comments and Cimi, the Brazilian Church's Indian advocacy group, was distancing itself from the Pope's statements. An adviser to Brazil's Indian Missionary Council, which is supported by the Church, stated that the Pope's comments show he is "Eurocentric" and is ignoring the fact that Indians were forced by Portuguese and Spanish settlers to become Catholics. This adviser noted that the Pope must have "missed some history classes." The Pope also ignored the history of papal bulls from the Fifteenth Century that divided the world for conquest and conversion by the Christian kings of Portugal and Spain. In 1436 Pope Eugenius issued Romanus Pontifex authorizing Portugal to convert the Canary Islanders and to control their islands. This bull was reissued by various popes and granted Portugal jurisdiction and geographical rights over infidels along the west coast of Africa. In 1455, Pope Nicolas even authorized Portugal "to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans," to place them into slavery and to take their property. Furthermore, after Columbus' report of a New World and Spain's claim to ownership, Pope Alexander VI issued three bulls in 1493 that confirmed Spain's title because the New World had been "undiscovered by others" (thus ignoring the known presence of indigenous people). Pope Alexander also granted Spain any other lands it might discover in the future provided that they were "not previously possessed by any Christian owner." Even more extravagantly, Pope Alexander later issued Inter caetera II and divided the world by a line drawn from the North to the South Pole and granted Spain title to all lands to be discovered west of the line to contribute to "the expansion of the Christian rule" and granted to Portugal all lands east of that line. Consequently, the world was divided up for European and Christian domination. This is exactly what followed. This is the history that Pope Benedict has overlooked in making his comments. Since at least August 2006, various American Indian groups have called for the Vatican to withdraw these bulls and to repudiate this history of religious and Eurocentric oppression. That request now seems unlikely to even be considered in light of Pope Benedict's comments about the imposition of Christianity on the indigenous people of South America. --- Mr. Miller is a professor at Lewis & Clark Law School, the chief justice of the Grand Ronde Tribe, and an Eastern Shawnee. He is the author of Native America: Discovered and Conquered. George Mason University's History News Network. History News Network is a non-profit corporation registered in Washington State. History News Network (HNN) operates independently of George Mason University. The views expressed are those of its authors and editors and not GMU or the Center for History and New Media. The website resides on GMU's server. --------- "RE: GIAGO: Standing ground against 'Dropout Nation'" --------- Date: Tue, 15 May 2007 07:27:54 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GIAGO: ADVICE TO GRADUATES" http://www.indianz.com/News/2007/002883.asp Tim Giago: Standing ground against 'Dropout Nation' May 14, 2007 "Reading, riting and rithmatic, taught to the tune of a hickory stick," probably says more about early America than most of us dare to remember. It was not uncommon for teachers to have a hickory stick or a ping-pong paddle within easy reach and to use these tools to punish unruly children. As a matter of fact, parents expected that their children be paddled or spanked if they acted up in school. In fact, spanking at home by both parents was perfectly acceptable in the society when I was young. Although I don't recall either of my parents using this form of discipline on me I observed it in other families, especially when I moved from the Indian reservation to the city. The traditional Lakota families seldom used physical force to discipline their children. A sharp look and a "hiya," (no) usually did the trick. I can still hear my father's "hiya" that brought me to a halt if I was doing something mischievous. I am sure that is why it was such a cultural shock for so many Indian children when they were shipped off to the boarding schools operated by the US Government and the Christian churches in the 1800s and into the middle 1900s. When I first saw a Catholic priest beat a classmate of mine with a leather strap for an infraction it was a very traumatic experience But just as the children of the early settlers survived the hickory stick, many of the Indian children survived the boarding schools. And if I were a statistician, I would probably say that 50 percent of them did not. We are now in a new time and a new place. The world has grown much smaller thanks to the Internet. Even on remote schools far out on Indian reservations the children now have access to computers. Instead of just learning from books and newspapers, the children of today have all of the vast resources of Google and Microsoft at their command. And this is the time of the year when they don their caps and gowns and march to the podiums to receive their high school diplomas or their college degrees. If I spoke at a graduation ceremony this year of 2007, I would have this to say to those Native American high school graduates: To those of you seated before me wearing your colors of graduation, I am very proud of you. You have stuck with something to its conclusion. Although many of you have lived in poverty, oftentimes never knowing if there would be breakfast on the table or clean clothes to wear, and although many of you have tried to help your parents overcome their addictions and have had to conquer your own fears in the process, the fact that you are about to receive a diploma after 12 years of discipline, commitment, and oftentimes uncertainty, it tells me more about you as a person than about the award you are about to receive. During these 12 years of trials and tribulations, you have seen many of your closest friends walk through those doors never to return. You have learned that 50 percent of the children that started out with you 12 years ago never stuck around to finish school. You have seen these friends working at menial jobs, driving their own cars, and even snickering at you for your commitment to getting that diploma. As educator John Reynor wrote, "Far too many Indian students have joined the ranks of the "Dropout Nation." The fact that you stood your ground against all odds and are seated here today to receive that diploma speaks volumes about your courage and determination. Some of you will go on to colleges off of the reservation and other will take advantage of the fantastic opportunities afforded you through the 36 Indian owned and operated colleges on the many Indian nations in this country. Colleges like Oglala Lakota College, Dine' College, Sinte Gleska University, and Sitting Bull College are now at your very doorstep and these great colleges are probably America's best kept secret. Right here in Indian country you will find great educators like Tom Short Bull of Oglala Lakota College, Jeanine Pease, Gwen Shunatona, and one of my idols of all time, Lionel Bordeaux of Sinte Gleska University. These are Native leaders that have paved the way for you to be able to get a college degree on your Native lands. The "Dropout Nation" can no longer tempt you or claim you. You have reached that first rung of the ladder that will lead you to a better life. There are still several rungs left to climb, but you have survived the hardest of times, the worst of times, and the most difficult of times to earn that diploma you soon will hold in your hands. But as you reach for the next rung on the ladder, never ever forget who you are and where you came from. You are Lakota and you will always be Lakota and you will always live in the light of Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, Spotted Tail and all of the other great chiefs and warriors who made it possible for you to be seated here today. They gave their lives so that you could live. --- Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, was the founder and editor of the Lakota Times and Indian Country Today newspapers. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard in 1990 - 1991. His latest book "Children Left Behind" is available at harmon@clearlightbooks.com. He was also the founder and first president of the Native American Journalists Association. He can be reached at najournalists@rushmore.com --------- "RE: JODI RAVE: Navajo family takes WOMAN Challenge" --------- Date: Tue, 15 May 2007 07:27:54 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="JODI RAVE: W O M A N CHALLENGE" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/05/13/jodirave/rave65.txt Column: WOMAN Challenge a walking celebration May 13, 2007 Carol Manuelito surprised her daughters last Mother's Day by proving she could walk with them from Glasgow all the way to Carlsbad, N.M. This Mother's Day, the 74-year-old Navajo grandmother is ready to do it all again. "I only wore out one pair of tennis shoes," Carol said last week from her home in Naschitti, N.M. "I'm trying to get one broken in now." The Manuelitos, a Navajo family who live mostly in Arizona and New Mexico, formed a 10-member team last May and joined the WOMAN Challenge, an eight-week national walking event organized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As a team, Sister Girls chose from a handful of "virtual walking tours," which led them to chart 5.8 million steps along the Rocky Mountain route. "We walked that first week," said Brenda Manuelito, Carol's daughter, who lives in Tucson, Ariz. "I was home on Mother's Day. I said, `OK, Mom, it's time to walk. It's Mother's Day. We should clean up Mother Earth.' " The women walked around the Navajo Reservation near Naschitti and picked up aluminum cans. The 2007 WOMAN - Women and Girls Out Moving Across the Nation - Health Challenge kicks off again this Mother's Day. "We're warming up now for the women's challenge," Brenda said. "We're going to do it. We've been talking about it all year long." Brenda serves as co-captain of the team, which last year had members in five states, ages 18 to 74. She keeps the team connected via e-mail, phone calls and the Internet. In 2006, Sister Girls placed first in the Rocky Mountain virtual walking route. They finished the walk three days ahead of schedule. Team member "Veronica" was the nation's 2006 overall walking champion, having logged in 1.6 million steps alone. "Our individual goal was to walk 10,000 steps per day, which we barely did during Week One, but toward the end of the challenge we were each walking five to 10 times that amount daily," said Brenda. "Not only did we record all kinds of weight loss, but we reduced blood pressure, increased cardio fitness and diminished insomnia." This year, the Manuelitos are skipping the Rocky Mountain tour and opting for the Pacific course, which will take them from Alaska, down the entire West Coast and to Hawaii. "How are we going to get here from Hawaii?" Carol said. "Are we going to walk across the water?" Carol said she'll walk again this year, but she doesn't think she'll log as many steps. She had the second-highest number of steps recorded by Sister Girls, at 1 million, about 600,000 steps behind "Veronica," also known by the team as Ronneye Manuelito. "We got my brother involved," said Roberta Manuelito of Minneapolis. "We wanted him to be involved, he's our only brother. We were going to get my uncle involved too, he's 80. We were going to call him Henrietta Lee." Ronneye remembers the days that followed his awakening from a coma, about a month before the walking challenge registration deadline. Physically, he was not in good shape when his sisters asked him to join their walking group. They told him: "We're going to make you an honorary sister. We'll call you Veronica." "Are you serious?" asked Ronneye. Still, he agreed. Besides, the walk's organizers encourage boys and men to participate in the challenge. "I wanted to get my weight down, and I had high blood pressure. I wanted to get that down without taking any medication. With all that walking, I got rid of all my other clothes. I lost some of my waist over there. I went from a 38 to a 31. I used to get double extra-large shirts. Now I'm down to a medium. I don't have anything around my gut anymore. I really watch my diet and what I eat now." People tell him: "You're just nice and trim." "I couldn't believe I was that big," he said. His weight dropped from 190 pounds down to 145. And his doctor told him his blood pressure is right where it should be. "It was a chance for our family to bond," said Roberta. "And it was doing something to improve our health." Most of the Sister Girls' miles were logged around Naschitti, N.M., on the Navajo Reservation, by Ronneye and his mother. They walked everywhere, morning, noon and night. And they picked up cans before Carol turned her attention to pretty rocks, which she loaded into a flour sack and carried home. As they walked, local reservation residents would stop and ask if they needed a ride. "Did your car break down? Do you need more cans? I have six bags at my house." "No, we're exercising," said Carol. "Everybody should just do it at my age. It really helps to keep your weight down. A lot of people have diabetes. If they would only walk." When last year's challenge ended, the Sister Girls weren't ready to stop. They organized another team in July, this time calling themselves the Manuelitos. But many of their walking routes were beginning to look the same. So they moved to higher elevations. They even walked the rim of the Grand Canyon. Brenda remembers walking on a mountain trail in Tucson with her mother. It took them about four and a half hours to walk the route, which climbed about 2,000 feet in elevation. "My mom was walking up these big mountains," said Brenda. "She was right there with me. `Mom, this is so cool. When I'm 74, I hope I'm like you.' " Reach reporter Jodi Rave at 800-366-7186 or at jodi.rave@lee.net Copyright c. 2007 Missoulian, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Indians dance to a different Drum" --------- Date: Wed, 16 May 2007 07:46:01 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: LAMENTING CHANGES IN POWWOWS" http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm? id=37905§ion=columnists&columnist=Dorreen%20Yellow%20Bird Shedding a tear as Indians dance to a different drum Dorreen Yellow Bird May 16, 2007 As an elder, I often turn around to look at the past. The path I've traveled is not always as I expected it would be when I was 16 years old. I say this because it couldn't have been more evident then at the Mother's Day powwow and celebration at White Shield, N.D., last weekend. I felt both sadness and pride at the changes in this cultural event. I know life rarely stays the same, I told my sister. I know, I said again, looking at her. Everything is evolving, but the evolution of American Indian culture doesn't feel good. She laughed and said, "You're just getting old." And perhaps that's true. A good change, I explained to her, can be found in the evolution of the refrigerator or that big hulking Suburban van that our brother, Don, used to be so proud of. The refrigerator went from the ice box - and on the reservation 66 years ago, it was an ice box - to one of those really fancy, right-from-Modern-Homes-magazine models. As for cars, I love their changes; they went from cranking the starter to antilock brakes, stability control and so on. In contrast, changes in Native culture are more subtle, yet they can hit me hard. When I heard the songs and drumming last weekend, memories of past drum songs echoed in my ears, and I knew the sounds that I now was hearing were different. The young singers probably don't realize it, because we are now mostly English speakers and listen like English speakers, too. So, I think the words and sounds of the Native singers 60 years ago would sound foreign to the new "Ree Boys" group at the powwow, and they are good drum group . . . for youngsters. Yet it is the drum songs of the old singers that went right into my soul and wrenched my spirit. My ears missed the old sounds. When I was young, the powwow celebrations went on for three days and nights. I sometimes would stop visiting and carrying on with teen friends and just listen to the drumming. There was something about the sounds that made chills run up my spine. It was as if the ancestors were reaching out from the past and touching my heart. It's at those moments I realize that my grandmother was right when she told me we are vessels of our ancestors - we carry them in our spirit. They always are a part of us. I was listening to those songs with their ears. As I sat there over the weekend watching the dancers and singers, memories of being a a child and attending gatherings like this one came to me. I remember lying on the floor on a blanket while my grandmother and family took part in a cultural events in a building that took the place of the years-ago medicine lodge. I would doze in spite of the loud drum music and singing. Late at night, the kerosene lamps would be lit. I could feel the rhythm of the dancers as the wooden floor moved with their moccasin steps. There was my grandmother - simple cotton dance dress, hands on her hips, head held high, waving a white handkerchief as she made sounds of praise and rounded the small dance circle. It's an image that will stay with me forever. Funny, I can even remember the little round balls of mud that must have come in the doors on the feet of the dancers. I'd watched from my floor view as the little balls jumped and danced with the movement of the people. My sister's voice brought me back to the White Shield powwow and the Ralph Wells complex. Just think, she said, the complex will soon be replaced by a new culture center - replaced like many of our ways, I thought. My granddaughter, Eliza, who is a beautiful 19-year-old and my equally beautiful 5-year-old granddaughter, Allaya, are fancy shawl dancers. When Eliza dances, she is so light on her feet, it's as if she's dancing on air and the brightly colored shawl with the long, long fringe looks like butterfly wings as she gently dips and moves. Granddaughter Allaya is learning and has great potential. Today's dancers have taken the culture into new territory. I know because the fancy shawl dance wasn't part of women's dancing 60 years ago. It is part of the cultural evolution. My grandmother would say young women shouldn't kick their legs or step that high. That is too much like men's dancing. Women's dancing is of pride and praise for our tribe and the Creator, she'd say. As I sat watching the powwow celebration, I felt sad for ways that were disappearing. We're losing more and more of who we were. How much of ourselves can we give away to the white ways and still maintain who we are? I wondered. --- Dorreen Yellow Bird is a reporter and columnist. Her columns appear Wednesdays and Saturdays on the opinion pages of the Herald. Reach her at (701) 780-1228 or dyellowbird@gfherald.com Copyright c. 2006 Grand Forks Herald, Forum Communications Co., Fargo ND. --------- "RE: JODI RAVE: Disenrollment and the National Media " --------- Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 07:15:44 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="JODI RAVE: DISENROLLMENR" http://www.indianz.com/News http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/05/20/jodirave/rave63.txt Column: Natives striving for status in tribes May 20, 2007 Where does a reporter begin to tell the story when someone gets kicked out of a tribe? Mine begins with an invitation to a Chippewa round dance in Great Falls. The day started with a meeting of lateral descendants of Chief Rocky Boy, gathered to discuss tribal disenrollment. Glen Gopher was one of the first to speak. He stood in front of Chief Rocky Boy's relatives and listed the grievances felt by many in the room, families not recognized as citizens of the Chippewa-Cree Tribe in northern Montana. For some families, the lack of tribal recognition goes back eight decades, with each passing generation left without a tribe to call its own. It's a history rooted in the reservation's namesake, Chippewa Chief Rocky Boy, a mistranslation of Stone Child. The chief arrived in Montana, reportedly from Wisconsin. He searched for land for several hundred of his followers. And in 1916, a congressional executive order set aside land for "Rocky Boy's Band of Chippewa and "other homeless Indians," who turned out to be mostly Cree from Canada. Rocky Boy died in 1916 before the reservation was officially created by Congress. Leadership on the reservation fell to Little Bear, a Cree. The 1909 enrollment list showed 120 of Rocky Boy's band members. In 1917, Indian inspector James McLaughlin sought a new list of tribal enrollees. When the new census was completed, two-thirds of Rocky Boy's band had been taken off the enrollment list, with as few as 45 Chippewa from the 1909 rolls showing up. Today, the Chippewa have an insignificant presence on the reservation, where the Cree are the dominant force in culture and politics. While the displaced and disenrolled Chippewa families haven't made headlines, disenrollment stories have become national stories in some of the country's biggest media markets. The New York Times and NBC-4 TV in Los Angeles have reported on disenrolled Cherokee Freedmen in Oklahoma and ousted citizens of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians in Temecula, Calif. The Cherokee recently voted on whether the Freedmen - former slaves who lived side-by-side with the Cherokee - could be considered tribal citizens. The tribe voted to change its constitution to recognize only Cherokee who had relatives on the "blood" list, not the Freedmen list. The Freedmen and supporters have called the decision racist, saying the Cherokee refuse to recognize Freedmen because they're black. Tribal status is important. It gives members health and education benefits, a sense of belonging and voting rights. And in some cases, tribal citizens receive a per-capita payment. It's mostly the casino-rich tribes that make these payouts. NBC4-TV recently aired a piece about disenrollments in the Pechanga Tribe, where 220 have been kicked off the tribal rolls. Some previously had been receiving as much as $20,000 a month from the Pechanga government, a benefit from a tribe-owned casino. "Thousands of Indians are being kicked out of tribes," the TV reporter said in her broadcast. "Critics say it's more about greed than anything else. The tribes say it's about preserving their lineage." But the real question is: Whose money and lineage is at stake, the tribes or individuals? The reporter failed to say the Pechanga Tribe has voluntarily given some $10 million to charitable groups in the past seven years. And it has contributed millions more in revenue sharing to nongaming tribes in California. Said Pechanga tribal chairman Mark Macarro: "The integrity of tribal citizenship has nothing to do with gaming or money." "In fact, disenrollments occurred at Pechanga long before we ever had a casino. Governments need the ability to correct past errors to protect the integrity of their citizenry; that is what Pechanga did." But many of the news stories fail to provide viewers with historical context. Take the New York Times editorial, "An Unjust Expulsion," that followed a story on the Freedmen. "The Cherokee Nation's decision to revoke the tribal citizenship of about 2,800 descendants of slaves once owned by the tribe is a moral low point in modern Cherokee history and places the tribe in violation of a 140-year-old federal treaty and several court decisions. "The Bureau of Indian Affairs, which has been curiously silent, should bring the Cherokee government into compliance with the law and require it to restore the tribal rights of the expelled members." The writer was apparently oblivious to the U.S. government's history of violating treaties. Also, the freed slaves in question were also owned by whites. Furthermore, tribes are complying with the law, as most of them operate tribal governments under the federally authorized 1934 Indian Reorganization Act. Also, a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court tribal enrollment decision asserted a tribe's right to decide who does, or does not, belong. Back to Montana. The disenrolled families of the Chippewa-Cree aren't seeking $20,000 monthly payments. Nor are they being questioned of their blood line. Most of all, they represent a classic example of tribes' historic willingness to accept - or reject - people in their community. Glen Gopher and his siblings were born to Chippewa parents. Even though they aren't enrolled with their own tribe, the neighboring Blackfeet Nation accepted them onto their tribal rolls. And the Chippewa-Cree would do so, too, but like the Cherokee Nation, the final decision would rest with voters. The displaced Chippewa - many of whom descend from Chief Rocky Boy's brother, Charlie Chippewa - aren't looking for a fight. They just want to be welcomed home. --- Jodi Rave covers Native issues for the Missoulian. Reach her at (406) 523-5299 or jodi.rave@lee.net. Copyright c. 2007 Missoulian, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: GIAGO: Rich Tribes still not helping Poor Ones" --------- Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 07:15:44 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GIAGO: RICH TRIBES SHOWING EFFECTS OF GREED" http://www.indianz.com/News/2007/003007.asp Tim Giago: Rich tribes still not helping poor ones May 21, 2007 In order to write this week's column I must do a 180-degree turn in my thinking about Indian casinos. I do not make this change in thinking lightheartedly. I visited Indian casinos in South Dakota, Nebraska and Oklahoma over the past two weeks to get a feel for the impact they have on the Indian communities. For the most part the feeling was good. There were jobs, money going out into the community, improvements in infrastructure, and a general sense of well being. But the most prevalent sense I came away with was a new and genuine feeling of "respect" from the non-Indian community. That's right. R-E-S-P-E-CT! Aretha Franklin sang about it. Respect is a word an Indian could never expect to hear in the towns bordering their reservations. But it is amazing the amount of respect that money can buy. Those ragtag Indians scraping by on little or nothing now have an abundance of cash in their pockets. Or at least some of them do. Those casino dollars now make the Indian people much sought after consumers. They can now buy new furniture; clothing, automobiles, appliances and they can now open bank accounts. I recall that not too long ago when I owned a weekly newspaper one of my advertising sales people went into a local carpet store to solicit an ad for the paper. The haughty sales manager quipped, "Oh, I didn't know Indians had carpets in their tee pees." From a lady who prepared taxes for the IRS my sales lady heard, "Well, I know that Indians don't pay taxes," and from a local new car dealership, "Your readers just don't have the credit to buy our new cars," and finally from the manager of an upscale department store, "I don't think your readers are the kind of people that would be comfortable in our store." As Rodney Dangerfield used to say, "No respect, I don't get no respect." But my travels to the Indian casinos also revealed that there are still many deep pockets of poverty in Indian country. If there is no population base near their casinos they will not draw enough customers to make their gaming establishments profitable. I will not make a complete 360-degree turn for Indian gaming because I still see many serious problems. For one, although nearly 20 years have passed since the onset of gaming in Indian country I still do not see a viable effort by the casino rich tribes to reach out to help their less fortunate brothers and sisters on the very poor Indian reservations. Joe McKay, a 54-year-old member of the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana, a businessman with a law degree, offers a solution I find to be highly commendable. He proposes a National Indian Gaming Tax to be levied on all Class III Indian gaming operations. The tax would be on gross revenues graduated according to income and capped at 5 percent. The money would be used to fund the Indian Development Trust Fund. The fund would then be made available to tribes without Class III gaming or to those in geographically isolated areas where a casino, even one with a Class III license, does not have the population base to make a profit. McKay suggests that the funds be assigned according to need in the form of grants and low interest loans for infrastructure development on Indian reservations (water, sewage and sanitation), law enforcement, judiciary, health care, housing and for elderly and child care services. A second but separate program would make funds for economic development available. McKay also suggests that the funds be managed by a Board of Commissioners to be nominated by the contributing and eligible tribes and appointed by the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs. I differ with him on this point. I do not want to see more bureaucracy piled on to the equation. I would suggest that Ernie Stevens Jr., the head of the National Indian Gaming Association, develop an office within his organization to handle the trust funds for acceptance and distribution. I would also suggest that Mr. Stevens lobby the Indian Affairs Committee to push for legislation to incorporate this tax. And if an outright tax is unacceptable to the gaming rich tribes, perhaps Mr. Stevens can twist their arms to get them to voluntarily contribute money to an Indian Development Trust Fund under the auspices of NIGA. McKay believes that the extremely poor conditions on many Indian reservations are totally overlooked and distorted by the wealth and prominence of the "new and rich gaming tribes." Money talks in many ways and when it becomes the main topic for success, the poor tribes without access become footnotes. As it has been since the European incursion on this continent, the ultimate victims of those with wealth, or those seeking wealth, are the poor, traditional indigenous people still trying to retain their inherent values. My 180-degree turn is based upon the single word "respect." But those new and wealthy Indian tribes must also learn the true meaning of that word. They must learn to respect those Indian people that fought and died without surrendering their culture, traditions, language and sovereignty so that they, the rich tribes, could enjoy the benefits of the unlimited wealth afforded them by their casinos. --- 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". Copyright c. 2007 Indianz.com. --------- "RE: Opinion: The Indian wars and Homeland Security" --------- Date: Tue, 15 May 2007 07:27:54 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="OPINION" HOMELAND SECURITY" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.opednews.com/articles/ opedne_kenneth__070513_homeland_security.htm Homeland Security By Kenneth Briggs May 13, 2007 As I was riding a rental scooter down the not so great White Way at our County fair in January, what did I see but a group of four or five American Indian warriors standing on the shore of a bay brandishing their weapons, spears and bows and arrows, at three Spanish Galleons and on the t- shirt under this scene were the words Homeland Security. That set me to thinking about Homeland Security and my belief that we, as did the Indians, are deluding ourselves if we believe that the threat of the use our primitive weapons are going to deter anyone with more sophisticated weaponry, larger numbers, or greater determination from fighting and winning a war of attrition. There were perhaps 30 million people in the Caribbean Islands and Mexico in 1492 and another 50 million in what was to become the United States. The American Indians Columbus first encountered in 1492 were the Taino [Arawaks} numbering between 250 thousand and one million in Puerto Rico, The Dominican Republic, Cuba and Haiti. It is estimated that about only 500 survived by 1550 and that they were extinct by 1650. Europeans brought diseases such as chicken pox, measles and small pox against which American Indians had no immunity. The result was that up to 80 percent of some American Indians may have died due to European diseases. For five centuries since Columbus, the indigenous people of this hemisphere have been called Indians because Columbus was lost, he did not land in India. They are many different peoples with many different nations and many different languages. Today, the U.S. government recognizes more than 370 tribes or separate Indian peoples. American Indian wars or conflicts were struggles between the indigenous people and white people of several nationalities for the rich lands that became the United States. As further explained in the Native American Rhymes web site, English settlers established their small colonies along the Atlantic coast in the 1600's. As they moved into Indian lands in greater and greater numbers, quarrels developed. These disagreements often led to the death of an Indian or a settler. Most of the wars resulted from such conflicts. These conflicts and wars continued until the 1890's. American Indian wars were not like wars as we know them today. We would call them "campaigns", because the fighting generally took place within a small area, and involved comparatively few people. A war usually took place between only one tribe and the white people who lived nearby. Sometimes the fighting spread, and many tribes joined in fighting the whites. The whites quickly adopted new tactics and struck in surprise attacks, usually at dawn. Indians killed or captured as many white men, women and children as possible. A basic cause of the fighting was the different way of life of each group. Many tribes raised corn and other vegetables, but they all hunted animals for food and clothing. Most white settlers made their living from farming. In the East, they cut down forests to get farmland, while in the West, white hunters killed thousands of buffalo just for their skins. In either case, the tribes usually had to choose between moving to new hunting grounds, which were often occupied by hostile tribes or fighting to keep the old ones. They knew that the whites threatened both their lives and their security. Both Indians and whites were to blame for the many frontier wars. The colonies refused to recognize the rights of the tribes. They believed the Indians were savages without souls. The Indians, in turn, did not understand the ways of the colonists. For example, the Indians signed a treaty, they thought they had only sold the right to use the land, not the land itself. They did not understand that they could no longer hunt on the lands of their ancestors. The English settled in Jamestown in 1607 and lived in peace with the nearby confederated tribes under their friendly chief Powhatan. He died in 1618 and a few years later Opechancanough, who hated the English, became chief. At this time the English colonies in Virginia, including Jamestown, had fewer than 4,000 settlers. In March 1622 Opechancanough, who hated the English and planned secretly to destroy the settlements, led a furious assault along a 140 mile front and killed 347 colonists. The survivors retreated to Jamestown and laid plans to massacre the Indians. They invited the tribes to plant corn and in the fall attacked, destroying the corn fields, killing many of the Indians and leaving the rest to starve. Twelve years of warfare followed. Peace was made in 1634 but was immediately followed by an Indian attack in which over 300 English people were killed. The Indians were finally defeated in a two day battle. In New England, two other wars were fought prior to the French and Indian Wars of 1689- 1763.They were the Pequot War in 1637 and King Philip's War in 1675-1676. Both of these wars were won by the settlers who at sunrise on June 5, 1637 attacked a Pequot village, burning alive between 600 and 700 Pequot and selling most of the rest into slavery in Bermuda. After Philip became chief of the Wampanoag in 1662, he began plotting against the colonists becauase he felt that his people could survive only by driving the settlers out. In June 1675, he led an attack on Swansea, Massachusetts and during the next year both sides raided villages and massacred hundreds of victims. The Indians were defeated in Southern New England in 1675, but fighting in Northern New England continued until 1678 where in subsequent attacks more than 1,000 colonists were killed and 12 towns completely destroyed. The final war in Colonial days involving English settlements was the French and Indian Wars 1689-1763. We'll take up more of the Indian wars in Homeland Security-Part 2. --- Authors Bio: Born-03/20/1934, BA Pol. Sci.-U of Washington-1956, MBA- Seattle U-1970, Boeing-Program Control-1957-1971, State of Oregon-Mental Health Division-Deputy Admistrator-1971-1979, llinois Association of Community MH Agencies[IACHMA]-Executive Director-1980-1987, District of Columbia Government-MH Division-Chief MH System Development-1987-1989, Illinois Real Estate-Associate Broker-1989-1995, Ohio-Retired-1995-1999, Florida-Retired- 1999-? Operate an eBay book store, Ajax Books Etcetera, which currently [12/17/06] has approx. 435 items for sale, mostly mystery books . Ajax Books Etcetera can be found by searching Google, Yahoo search and some other search engines. Copyright c. OpEdNews, 2002-2007. --------- "RE: Brazil Indigenous Groups fault Pope Talk" --------- Date: Wed, 16 May 2007 07:46:01 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CLAIMS DENIED" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.onelocalnews.com/pioneertimesjournal/stories/index.php? action=fullnews&id=110431 Brazil indigenous groups fault pope talk Staff and agencies By VIVIAN SEQUERA, Associated Press May 15, 2007 SAO PAULO, Brazil - Indian rights groups are criticizing Pope Benedict XVI for insisting that Latin American Indians wanted to become Christian before European conquerors arrived centuries ago. But Paulo Suess, an adviser to Brazil's Indian Missionary Council, said Monday that the comments fail to account for the fact that Indians were enslaved and killed by the Portuguese and Spanish settlers who forced them to become Catholic. The pope told the bishops that, "the proclamation of Jesus and of his Gospel did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbus cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture." "As an anthropologist and a historian I feel obliged to say that, yes, in the past 500 years there was an imposition of the Catholic religion on the indigenous people," Meira said. "To say that there was no imposition is a falsification in light of the history if those that did not accept the faith were flagellated," said Ricardo Cajas. Benedict said that indigenous Latin Americans formed "a synthesis between their cultures and the Christian faith which the missionaries were offering them." Suess said the pope made similar statements while he was a senior cardinal. Copyright c. 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c. 2007 Pioneer Times Journal - News One Publishing Group. --------- "RE: Chiapas News Summary" --------- Date: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 03:00 am From: Chiapas95-english Subj: En;Apr 2007 Chiapas News Summary,May 14 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: Tue, 15 May 2007 19:09:44 +0200 From: "Dana Aldea" April 2007 Chiapas News Summary http://detodos-paratodos.blogspot.com/ I. The Government Announces More Montes Azules "Relocations" - Mexico's Environment and Natural Resources Ministry (Semarnat) and its Agrarian Reform agency began the month of April by announcing that six more Montes Azules communities will be removed from the Candelaria region of the Lacando'n Jungle and "relocated" elsewhere. The Chiapas state governjment echoed its agreement to this move, allegedly made for "environmental protection." Mexican president, Felipe Caldero'n, blamed environmental destruction on poor people rather than loggers, cattle ranchers and factories. According to La Jornada, the six communities slated for "relocation" belong to the ARIC-I organization and are situated just below Amador Herna'ndez in General Emiliano Zapata autonomous municipality. ARIC-I is an independent peasant organization which has usually voted with the PRD in Chiapas. It immediately issued a statement breaking with the PRD governor of Chiapas, Juan Sabines (formerly the PRI mayor of Tuxtla Gutie'rrez). Some of you may remember the struggle to remove the federal Army from Amador Herna'ndez, a region where Marcos says there are oil deposits. II. The Other Campaign Announces Indigenous Encuentro - On April 22, the EZLN and the National Indigenous Congress (CNI, its initials in Spanish), along with other indigenous nations and tribes, announced a Continental Gathering (Encuentro) of Indigenous Peoples for October 11-14, 2007. Indigenous people from the entire world are invited to send representatives. It will be held in the Yaqui community of Vi'cam, Sonora, Mexico (near Guaymas). You can follow the progress of this historic event in Spanish at: [www.indigenousencuentro.org] III. EZLN Delegates Visit Cucapa' Camp - On April 10, Delegate Zero (Marcos) and other commanders arrived in the Cucapa' community of El Mayor, Baja California (near Mexicali) for a ceremony. Several commanders remain in El Mayor, using the community as a base of operations during this portion of the Other Campaign's second stage. The remaining commanders are based in the cities of Aguascalientes and Monterrey. The purpose of the Cucapa' camp is to accompany the region's indigenous peoples during their fishing season. Apparently, the accompaniment has been successful since there has been no direct local, state or federal interference reported. IV. Chiapas Otra Acts for Land Rights - Jovel Other Campaign adherents delivered petitions signed by more than one thousand individuals and over 200 organizations to Reforma Agraria in Tuxtla Gutie'rrez, the state capital of Chiapas, protesting the fraudulent legal representations made by Opddic members in order to "steal" land from Zapatista families. Reforma Agraria is the Mexican Agrarian Reform agency which determines land titles. In Chiapas, the Opddic is often characterized as a paramilitary group. Jovel refers to the Jovel Valley in which San Cristo'bal de las Casas is located. The 2 examples of Opddic's fraudulent land-grabbing used in the petition were those of El Nantze and Mukulum Bachajo'n. In the case of Mukulum Bachajo'n alone, 296 families will lose their homes and cornfields and will join the ranks of those internally displaced by the dirty war; landless and homeless. The San Cristo'bal NGO known as CAPISE presented documentary evidence of the fraud which means displacement and homelessness to hundreds of families. Compiled by Mary Ann Tenuto-Sa'nchez for the Chiapas Support Committee The Chiapas Support Committee is a grass roots all-volunteer human rights organization in Oakland, California. We work with indigenous and campesino organizations in Mexico. We have an hermanamiento (partnership) with San Manuel autonomous Zapatista municipality. In the Bay Area we provide public information about Chiapas through public events, our radio program, our newsletter, Chiapas Update, our listserv and several web sites. We organize delegations to Chiapas and also recruit and certify human rights observers and volunteers. We participate in the Other Campaign and the International Campaign in Northern California. Our contact information is below! Chiapas Support Committee P.O. Box 3421 Oakland, CA 94609 Tel: (510) 654-9587 Email: cezmat@igc.org [www.chiapas-support.org] http://detodos-paratodos.blogspot.com/ 2007/05/april-2007-chiapas-news-summary.html -- 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: Aboriginal group plans First Nation Justice Forum" --------- Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 07:39:43 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FIRST NATIONS JUSTICE FORUM" http://www.firstperspective.ca/fp_combo_template.php?path=20070515justice BC Aboriginal group plans First Nation Justice Forum by Joseph Quesnel May 15, 2007 The BC First Nations Leadership Council is hosting the first BC First Nations Justice Forum. Invited delegates include Chiefs and leaders from the 203 First Nations of BC, provincial government officials, representatives from First Nations organizations, key stakeholders, and community members. The forum will provide an opportunity for the delegates to create a Justice Plan for the benefit of all First Nations people and communities. The Forum goals include: 1. Bring together key stakeholders from Aboriginal, Criminal Justice and Government organizations to facilitate discussions on key policy legislation reform initiatives. 2. Create a report with options and recommendations for improving the relationship between BC First Nations and the justice system. Wally Oppal, BC Attorney General will be providing a presentation along with Solictor General John Les and other key government representatives. The First Nations Leadership Council will be participating in this important event. Copyright c. 2007 First Perspective. --------- "RE: Children in care Victims of more than Poverty" --------- Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 07:39:43 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ABUSE OF ABORIGINAL CHILDREN" http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/ story/2007/05/16/fontaine-reax.html?ref=rss Aboriginal children in care victims of more than poverty, says Metis leader CBC News May 16, 2007 National native leader Phil Fontaine is over-simplifying when he charges that aboriginal children are unfairly taken from their families because of poverty, said the head of a Me'tis family resource centre in Edmonton. Fontaine told a blue-chip audience on Tuesday that deep poverty in many First Nations communities leads child welfare officials to remove children from their families. "It is my understanding that is not usually because of deliberate physical or sexual abuse, but because of poverty and its terrible consequences," he said. "It isn't because of lack of parental love, as has been suggested." Donald Langford, executive director of Me'tis Child and Family Services Society, said that while Fontaine is raising some important issues, poverty is just one of the problems. "You can't blame everything on poverty. There are issues of family violence, there are issues of addictions that have to be addressed and that isn't all poverty." The Me'tis Child and Family Services Society was formed more than two decades ago over concern about the disproportionately high number of Me'tis children being taken into provincial care. In the Edmonton region today, native children make up about six per cent of the population, but nearly 50 per cent of the children in care are aboriginal. Kari Tomason, who works with Langford as an outreach worker, said removing children from their homes can be devastating. "The label comes with that child, it's a stigma, it's like nobody wants me now, what did I do wrong? And that stays with you for many years to come." Langford said what is needed now is for the federal government to take notice and increase funding to help aboriginal families stay together. "We need proper funding," he said. "We need proper management of the funding. We need addictions services. We need suicide intervention. We need employment programs. We need safe water. We need housing. We need good education and we need good teachers and we need good role models." In his speech to the Canadian Club of Ottawa, Fontaine said the anger felt in many First Nations communities has reached a breaking point. "Frankly, we are fearful of the effect this is having on the well-being and public safety in our communities," he said. "So here I am again today, hammering away at another group. Many of our communities have reached the breaking point. The anger and frustration are palpable." The Assembly of First Nations has filed a complaint about First Nations child welfare with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, he said, saying the UN Convention on the Rights of the Children states that child welfare officials must not remove children from homes due to poverty. Copyright c. CBC 2007. --------- "RE: Delivering 'Framed' John Graham" --------- Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 07:39:43 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="JOHN GRAHAM'S EXTRADITION" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://thetyee.ca/Views/2007/05/16/JohnGraham/ Delivering 'Framed' John Graham Graham at home in Yukon He faces a US murder warrant. New evidence suggests he's the victim of smears. By Rex Weyler TheTyee.ca May 16, 2007 On Thursday, Tuchone-Canadian John Graham, from the Yukon, enters a Vancouver courtroom to appeal his extradition to the United States on the charge of killing fellow activist Anna Mae Aquash 31 years ago. Graham says he has been framed by the U.S. to cover the government's own complicity in the murder. Meanwhile, a week ago, a former UBC professor and Amnesty International veteran, Dr. Jennifer Wade, received a chilling letter from U.S. prisoner Leonard Peltier that lends credibility to Graham's story. In April, former American Indian Movement (AIM) member Bob Robideau toured B.C., claiming to represent Peltier and accusing Graham of the murder. The Peltier letter casts doubt on Robideau's claims. Background in Indian Country In the 1970s, Graham from Yukon and Aquash from Nova Scotia traveled independently to South Dakota, where vigilantes had killed literally hundreds of traditional native leaders. Some 300 murders of native people in and around South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation, during a "reign of terror" in the 1970s, remain unsolved. The FBI arrested Aquash many times and urged her to become an informant. She later told AIM lawyers that agent David Price threatened that if she did not cooperate "you won't live out the year." A South Dakota rancher found her body on February 24, 1976. Although she had been shot with .32 calibre bullet in the back of the head, an FBI pathologist reported that she died of exposure. FBI agent Price claimed not to recognize her, and the government buried her in a nameless pauper's grave after severing her hands. When the body was later exhumed, the FBI story unraveled. Now, 31 years later, they claim AIM ordered the murder and that Graham pulled the trigger. Naturally, many native leaders suspect dirty tricks. Dark forces or goofballs? In March and April 2007, Bob Robideau toured British Columbia. He claimed to represent the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, but his public events appeared designed to denounce John Graham. Robideau repeatedly accused Graham of murder, claimed to know who "ordered the execution" and created unrest among local native groups. Robideau avoided established Peltier supporters and local First Nations groups. His tour was sponsored by the "Indigenous Rights Action Project" (IRAP), which has few, if any, actual indigenous members, and is linked to "Fire this Time" (FTT), a group with its own history of disrupting B.C. progressive organizations. I attended a UBC "forum" staged by IRAP on March 30, 2007. Lyn Highway - from the Vancouver Native Youth Movement and Anishnabeg Outreach program, which helps secure education and employment for aboriginal youth - confronted Robideau and IRAP representative Aaron Mercredi. She accused Mercredi of being a "dupe," and accused Robideau of being a "traitor to his people" and "a rat." She told Robideau: "You are a collaborator. You are working with the FBI. You are spreading divisiveness, suspicion and demoralization." Robideau shoved Ms. Highway against a wall, and Mercredi called the police, who arrested Ms. Highway for disrupting the forum. I asked Robideau to explain on what evidence he accused Mr. Graham of murder. Robideau called me a "white man," true, and a "pig." He offered no evidence and ordered me to leave. I stayed and asked several more questions about his claims concerning Graham. Later, in an e-mail, I asked Robideau what he would say in his defence against Ms. Highway's accusations that he was a "rat." Robideau wrote that those "like you" at the forum, including Ms. Highway, "cast the shadow of guilt in your community over Graham. With individuals such as yourself I simply need to appear on the scene, and all of the work you accuse me of doing will be assured by you and the other screaming women." Dr. Jennifer Wade attended the forum and reported, "Robideau had nothing new or interesting to say about Leonard Peltier. Rather, he seemed determined to prejudice Canadian opinion against John Graham, whose life hangs in the balance." Wade suspected Robideau of "misrepresenting his role within the Peltier defense team." She wrote to Peltier in his U.S. prison to ask him about Robideau. Peltier's response, written on April 18 and received by Wade on May 10 is unequivocal: "Do I support Bob [Robideau] in his efforts to get John [Graham] railroaded into prison? Hell No! . . . if the truth be known he did not even know her. . . . You will notice Bob does not go and make these statements on Pine Ridge or anywhere in Indian Country. He would get his ass beat down bad! A dry snitch is just as bad as a snitch! And that is what he is doing, dry snitching, saying shit he has no proof of." In prison jargon, a "dry snitch" refers to someone who is misguided, has been duped, or is serving the government's prosecutorial interests out of ignorance. I phoned Aaron Mercredi of IRAP, who hosted the tour, and asked him about his relationship with Robideau. "I won't talk to you about this," he said and hung up. Wade believes Robideau's tour was intended to prejudice the Canadian court case this week in Vancouver. Wade speaks from experience. She attended the extradition hearing of Leonard Peltier 31 years ago in Vancouver and raised the same concerns. Fabricating evidence In 1976 the U.S. successfully extradited Leonard Peltier from Canada using affidavits signed by one Myrtle Poor Bear from Pine Ridge. These affidavits were later proven, in a U.S. courtroom, to be fabricated. Poor Bear - a destitute single mother, who suffered clinical psychosis and depression - testified in court that FBI agent Price kidnapped her, held her in a hotel room, threatened her children, and intimidated her into signing three false and self-contradictory affidavits. She told the court that Price showed her pictures of the dead Aquash and told her, "if I didn't do what they said, I'd be dead like Anna Mae Aquash." Nevertheless, on this "evidence" Canada sent Peltier to the U.S. Justice minister at the time, Ron Basford, signed the extradition order on December 18, 1976. His boss, former solicitor general Warren Allmand acknowledged later that the extradition was based on completely phony evidence and he formally apologized, first in Macleans magazine in 1979, and many times thereafter. Nevertheless, Peltier remains in a U.S. jail. He wrote in his letter to Wade, "It looks more and more every day that I will die in prison." Due to similar phony evidence submitted by the U.S. in the Graham case, Wade wrote a letter to Warren Allmand this week. "Canada seems about to make another mistake by allowing John Graham to be extradited on May 17. Please do what you can to prevent this from happening to help make right the wrong that was done Peltier when you were Solicitor General for Canada in 1976." Dead witness Graham's attorney, Terry LaLiberte has already shown in a Canadian courtroom that U.S. Attorney Robert Mandel, who filed the U.S. request to extradite Graham, presented spurious evidence. In a letter dated January 26, 2004, Mandel assured Canada that "the evidence ... is available for trial." For witness number one, Mandel told Canada that spiritual leader and elder Al Gates would testify that Graham was present at the murder. This is false. Mr. Gates had been dead for nine months when Mr. Mandel put his name forward. Arlo Looking Cloud, the only alleged witness to Aquash's murder, says the FBI induced him with heroin and alcohol to give a false statement. He now insists he will not testify against Graham. A third witness, Frank Dillon, has denied making any incriminating statements against Graham, and claims Mandel's letter misrepresented him. LaLiberte and Graham have said they would welcome a trial in Canada, where the fake evidence could be exposed. LaLiberte says he wants Mandel to explain in court the gaps, misrepresentations, and flaws in the extradition request. "In Canada," says LaLiberte, "I could drive a truck through the holes in this case." Leonard Peltier believes, as he states in his letter: "He [Mr. Graham] will not receive a fair trial if he is returned." The extradition agreement with the US In the Vancouver courtroom on Thursday, LaLiberte will ask the court for a new hearing, based on a Supreme Court of Canada decision that suggests our extradition treaty with the U.S. conflicts with the Charter of Rights and may put any Canadian at risk. LaLiberte says that during Graham's first hearing, before Justice Elizabeth Bennett in December 2003, "Justice Bennett felt that the U.S. request for extradition was unsatisfactory, as we showed, but she also felt constrained by the extradition law since she had no authority to actually review the evidence." Our extradition treaty gives the U.S. the authority to seize any Canadian citizen on the mere say-so of a U.S. Attorney. The U.S. is only required to deliver a summary of evidence, and case history has traditionally denied Canadian courts the right to investigate the evidence or confirm its accuracy. "However," LaLiberte points out, "the case law has changed. The Canadian Supreme Court has broadened the scope. An extradition hearing is no longer just a rubber stamp process." Supreme Court challenges extradition treaty In July of 2006, Canada's Supreme Court, with Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin presiding, expressed concerns that the Extradition Law, as it stands, may violate the Charter of Rights. In a case brought to the court by attorney Edward Greenspan, the court established a new test for judges when deciding whether or not an accused should be sent to the U.S. The court stated that evidence to extradite must amount to a case that could go to trial in Canada and potentially result in a guilty verdict. In common language: No dead witnesses, no intimidated witnesses, and no phony affidavits. The court ruled that "This may require the extradition judge to engage in li