_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 15, ISSUE 024 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 June 11, 2007 Kiowa pai ganhina p'a/summer moon Hopi wukouyis/major planting moon Cree sagipukawipizun/moon when the leaves come out Eastern Cherokee nvda seluitseiyusdi/green corn 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: Mohawk Nation News, Native American Poetry, Rez_Life, Frostys AmerIndian, Iron Natives 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: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + =================== "No human being should ever have to fear for his own life because of political or religious beliefs. We are all in this together, my friends, the rich, the poor, the red, white, black, brown and yellow. We share responsibility for Mother Earth and those who live and breathe upon her ..never forget that." __ Leonard Peltier, Anishinabe-Lakota, political prisoner +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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 The following notice was forwarded to me this week: Date: Tuesday, June 05, 2007 02:30 pm From: Kahente Subj: First Nations Education Council awareness campaign Mailing List: Frostys AmerIndian The First Nations Education Council (FNEC) of Quebec is launching a public awareness campaign to inform the Aboriginal communities and the federal and provincial governments on the plight of Indigenous education. The FNEC, along with the 22 communities it represents, has developed a website that will provide you and hopefully others, on just how Indian and Northern Affairs Canada "funds" Indigenous education. Please read the material and sign the letters of support of the FNEC position and then forward to your family and friends. It will only take a moment but you will be helping to educate and inform a wide circle of friends and family. Please visit: < http://www.avenir-future.com/home.aspx > From the website: AVENIR - FUTURE A number of elements of First Nations education remain underfunded. On the eve of the possible calling of a federal election, the First Nations Education Council (FNEC) wishes to carry out a public relations campaign that will make it possible to increase awareness among Quebec public opinion and influence federal politicians. OBJECTIVES 1. Influence the Government of Canada so that it increases funding for band schools as well for other areas of First Nations education. 2. Persuade the Government of Canada to give adequate support to the First Nations College project. --- Lack of Indian Education funding and planning is not restricted to Canada. On May 16, 2007 Minnesota Public Radio ran the following piece: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/05/16/indianed/ States told to improve American Indian student achievement by Laura McCallum, Minnesota Public Radio May 16, 2007 Education officials from Minnesota and four other states say states need to do a better job of teaching both Indian and non-Indian students about American Indian culture. They also believe more schools should teach Indian languages. Education experts say research shows a direct link between language instruction and improved Indian student achievement. St. Paul, Minn. — Education officials from Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota and Nebraska just wrapped up a first-of-its kind regional forum on American Indian student achievement. They're concerned about the fact that too many Indian students drop out of school, and too many don't do well on standardized tests. In Minnesota, 40 percent of American Indian students graduated from high school on time in 2006. That's half of the graduation rate for white students. One of the nation's leading experts on American Indian education is Bill Demmert, a former top federal education official. Demmert, an Alaskan Native, believes that Indian students will be more successful in school if they learn their native language. "If you don't develop a strong language base in the native language, in English, or both, you're going to have problems academically," said Demmert. Bill Demmert said brain research shows that students who learn more than one language develop a larger brain. If Indian children learn their native language at a young age, they will have an easier time learning English, he said. Demmert also believes Indian student achievement will improve if schools teach about native culture. "It helps tell native students that their cultural base is important, that traditional knowledge, their histories, their legends are all worthwhile," Demmert said. "As opposed to only looking at someone else's history or someone else's culture." Demmert notes that American history classes usually begin with the year 1492, and ignore the history of American Indians. He believes that sends a message to Indian students that their history doesn't matter, and many then lose their motivation in school. Keith Moore agrees. Moore is South Dakota's Indian Education Director. Moore doesn't know the Lakota language because his mother was sent to a boarding school, where she was told to lose her native language and culture. "If you don't develop a strong language base in the native language, in English, or both, you're going to have problems academically." - Bill Demmert "I grew up a confused young man. My mom is full-blood Lakota, and my dad is an Irishman," Moore said. "And that developed so much confusion for you. So it makes sense to me in my head that if you understand who you were, knew your language, that you're better adjusted. That you can take on other things easier and take on other languages and accept them more prevalently if you know your own history and culture. And our kids don't." Moore hopes that will change in South Dakota, where about 12 percent of public school students are American Indian. South Dakota passed an Indian Education Act this year that will require Indian culture and history to be incorporated into state academic standards. It also requires teachers to take a three-hour course on the topic. "That's not big, it's not deep, three hours is three hours, three semester credit hours, but again, those are all things that are big for our state, symbolically, and then, also, some teeth, to say we need to move forward with this," said Moore. "Because we have issues in the state of South Dakota with our Indian students and retention, academic achievement, all those things we've talked about." The state of Minnesota requires beginning teachers to have a working knowledge of tribal history and culture, and provides scholarships to train American Indian teachers. About two percent of Minnesota's public school students are American Indian. And while Minnesota is considered a leader in Indian education, the state's Indian education supervisor said Minnesota schools could do more to help Indian students succeed. Yvonne Novack, a member of the White Earth tribe, said the state doesn't require schools to teach Indian culture, and very few schools teach native languages. Yvonne Novack"If one of the big districts said immersion in Ojibwe is important to us, or immersion in Dakota is important to us, and actually set aside hard money, not grant money, then we could see some growth in immersion programs," Novack said. "But we don't have all the curriculum in that language, so it would take good language speakers to create classroom knowledge and lesson plans and all those key things." Novack and other education officials also worry that if American Indian students are completely immersed in their native language, they may not do as well on standardized English reading tests required by the No Child Left Behind education law. This week's conference was sponsored by the North Central Comprehensive Center, an arm of the federal department of education designed to help states meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind. The education officials who attended say it will help them renew their efforts to improve Indian student achievement. Minnesota Public Radio c. 2007 All rights reserved. --- Earlier this year the Bush Administration dramatically reduced funding for both Indian Health and Indian Education. The fallout from those decisions will adversely affect our nations for decades to come. During the Plantation slavery era here in the South most states had laws criminalizing the education of blacks, as enforced ignorance and illiteracy was regarded as a potent tool to prevent slaves from aspiring to freedom, and limit their options should freedom be achieved. After emancipation, states routinely limited funding for black education as part of a strategy to "keep them in their place." It is not difficult to see the parallels here. We must NOT allow our people to continue to be part of this history repeating itself. , , 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: - INDN's List Partner . Indian Educational Abyss Calls for Political Candidates - An Alaskan Village in seeing warming as OK asks a scary question - GIAGO: Black Hills: - Justice files for rehearing A Case of Dishonest Dealings of SF Peaks Case - YELLOW BIRD: - American Indian teens Grads' stories inspire the crowd at high drug risk - JODI RAVE: Graduates shine - Tribes get $140,000 with Knowledge, Heart for Youth Suicide Prevention - YELLOW BIRD: - State seeks appeal Sweat ceremony: Unforgettable in Oneida Land Claim - Nunavut MLAs condemn - Leech Lake Band asks County Board USA proposal on Polar Bears for more Space - "Indian Time" has begun - Language Summit - First Nations Tax Commission against 'Slow-Motion Massacre' - Summary: Hazel's 6 Nations - 3 NC Legislators update June 5 against Lumbee Act - Aboriginal Education gets boost - House approves - Judge tosses Federal Recognition for Lumbee Illinois mascot lawsuits - EDITORIAL: Arrogance lies - ICT: Justice firing squad - Lumbees to recruit targets Indian Country Indian foster Parents - US ATTORNEY EID: - Grand Ronde puts Rail study Restore jurisdiction to Tribes back on track - Native Justice - Debate unfurls at Osage hearing -- Leonard Peltier: Religious - AAMODT: Cloud hangs Freedom for Native American over long-sought Settlement Inmates - Navajo API presents $500K Dividend - Rustywire: A Ride Home for Students - Lee Goins Poem: Regrets - Navajo Council members - BOOK: Sherman Alexie's gain insightful Information "Flight" soars - 1853 Indian deaths - BOOK: Getting Back may be executions by Mormons to American Indian Roots - Akaka Bill: Creating a Haven for Corruption? --------- "RE: An Alaskan Village asks a scary question" --------- Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 16:02:14 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="UNDERSTANDING GLOBAL ECONOMIES ON A VILLAGE SCALE" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118127599055528888.html Running on Empty On a Road to Nowhere An Alaskan village asks a scary question: What happens when oil is too expensive to use? By RUSSELL GOLD Shungnak, Alaska June 9, 2007 When Genevieve Norris was born 59 years ago in this remote Eskimo village, hunters used dog sleds to pursue caribou and moose. Wood stoves kept out the cold during the long, dark winters. Then Shungnak entered the petroleum age, and fuel was barged up the Kobuk River every summer. Noisy electrical generators arrived, which allowed lights and indoor plumbing to be installed. Soon, nearly every home had snowmobiles, four-wheelers and heaters. Now as crude-oil prices have doubled in the past couple of years, Ms. Norris and the rest of the village are being priced back out of the petroleum age. She heats her home with wood as much as possible and only occasionally buys gasoline for an outboard engine to go fishing. "Fuel right now, I'm only purchasing if I have to," says Ms. Norris. Even though Shungnak is in energy-rich Alaska, home to the largest U.S. oilfield discovered in the past half century, it is at the very end of the oil-distribution system. By the time gasoline makes it here from where it is refined, it costs $8.11 a gallon, more than twice the current U.S. average. The U.S. has long enjoyed among the lowest oil prices in the industrialized world - and until recently, even in remote Alaska, fossil fuel was affordable to the majority of people. Decades of cheap energy prompted Americans to use more and more petroleum, lengthening their commutes in the lower 48 states and trading in dog sleds for snowmobiles in Alaskan villages. Today, the price of oil and all the products made from it has surged and seem likely to remain high for some time. This has raised the unsettling question: What happens to a community accustomed to cheap energy when the energy is no longer cheap? Remote villages like Shungnak have long been fragile economies with little to offer residents by way of jobs and opportunity. High fuel prices have made a bad situation worse, threatening the survival of Shungnak as well as more than a hundred other remote villages. Some of the estimated 101,000 people living in these villages have left for Alaska's large cities, creating what one former state elected official has called "energy refugees." These native-Alaskan villages are among countless poorer communities across the world that have been hammered by the new century's energy-price boom. Over all, strong economies such as China and most of the U.S. have held up well despite the sting of higher fuel prices. But in poor regions, the price shock has hit hard. Thousands of Nepalese took to the streets of Katmandu last year, resulting in bloody clashes with police, to protest a 25% rise in gasoline prices. In July 2005, under pressure from the International Monetary Fund, the Yemeni government lifted gasoline subsidies and the resulting riots left 22 people dead. The government buckled and restored subsidies. In Africa, Guinea's decision to reduce gasoline subsidies over the past two years helped spark general strikes and riots that claimed at least 11 lives. The village of Shungnak was officially founded in 1899, but Eskimos have lived in the region for thousands of years traveling between summer camps and winter camps. Today, the village is a collection of 75 homes, a store, a school, a community health clinic and a city office building along a half dozen dirt streets. The foothills of the Brooks Range rise in the distance over the tundra. Petroleum didn't arrive here until the middle of the 1960s. As the crow flies, Shungnak is only 310 miles northwest from the Flint Hills Resources refinery outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. But since there are no roads to Shungnak, the journey is a complex route that stretches more than 2,000 miles, passing mountain meadows where grizzly bears graze, caribou herds sipping from glacier-fed streams and mile after mile of rugged, unpopulated coastline. Tanker Cars First, fuel from the Fairbanks refinery is loaded onto rolling tanker cars and taken south through Denali National Park, past Mount McKinley and into the Port of Anchorage. Then it's loaded onto a barge and towed through the Unimak Pass, a navigable break in the Aleutian Islands, before it heads north for Kotzebue on the coast. From there, the fuel is loaded once a year on a shallow-draft barge and pushed up the Kobuk River during a brief period when the snow melt engorges the river and makes it navigable. By the time it gets to Shungnak, it has traveled a distance equivalent to the drive from New York to Las Vegas. Last year, one of the barge companies made it up the river and delivered distillate - a blend of heating oil and diesel that powers nearly everything from generators to furnaces - to the school and electric company. The other barge company, less experienced in the region's serpentine rivers, couldn't make it up to Shungnak during the brief window of time that the river thawed. Fuel had to be flown in from Fairbanks on propeller cargo planes, raising the cost to $8.11 for a gallon of gasoline and $6.50 for a gallon of heating oil. In February, heat in the town's only two-story building, which holds the city offices, post office and tribal-council office, went out for three days because the tank ran out and no one was willing to pay to fill it up again. The temperature inside dropped to 30 degrees below zero. Many Jobless Half of Shungnak village is jobless, according to the state. Commerce Department data suggest that Alaskans living in remote villages like Shungnak already receive about 50% of their income from government programs, two and half times the average in the U.S. Now the situation is exacerbated because it is difficult to attract economic activity because of the high energy costs. Village leaders say their only choice is even more government aid. "Half the village doesn't know how to go out and do a subsistence way of life...their lifestyle is living off the store, even though you hear them say 'We're natives, we can survive,'" says Raymond Woods, a member of the Shungnak tribal government. Some residents are leaving town. Ms. Norris's daughter moved to South Dakota and her high-school-aged son talks about leaving after he graduates. Those that remain behind are scraping along. Henry Douglas, 48, says he eats less meat and fish than he used to. Like most people here, he receives state energy assistance - credit at the tribal store. He got $1, 500 in January to pay for heating oil. It lasted him through March. Afterward, he used a wood stove in the main room of the log cabin where he lives with his sister and his nephew. His younger brother, George Douglas, 39, says he's fortunate to have a job as a school-maintenance worker. The paycheck gives him the $100 required to fuel up his Polaris snowmobile. He uses it to hunt caribou and distributes the meat to three households of relatives, including his brothers. Few of his relatives can afford to hunt much anymore because of the high cost of fuel. Signs of the cost are everywhere in Shungnak. On a recent visit, there were photocopied fliers posted throughout the village with a stark reminder: May 29 is the day the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative bill collector was scheduled to be in Shungnak. The co-op, known as Avec, has seen past-due accounts soar in the past couple of years. Last year, it took out ads in local papers threatening to cut off paying customers if they allow delinquent customers to move in with them. Researchers at the University of Alaska Anchorage estimated that one- -quarter of household income in remote villages last year went to paying utility bills, double the percentage in 2000. The poorest residents in remote villages spent 61% of their income on utility bills, also double the level a few years ago. Fuel bills are also swallowing the city's budget. Last November, the village's fuel and electrical bill accounted for 61% of total expenditures, according to town administrator Helen Mitchell. In response, it has cut costs. The hours for city workers were cut to six hours from eight hours a day last year. The part-time patrolman position was eliminated a couple of years ago. The result of these crushing bills is that remote villages face a slow decline. Four schools in the last two years have shut their doors when they fell below 10 students and lost most state funding. In Shungnak, school enrollment is off 7% in the past decade. A few miles down the Kobuk River, the village of Ambler has lost 29% of its school-aged population. Despite shrinking enrollment, the regional school district has been on a building boom in recent years, largely supported by state grants. That, in turn, has only increased its need for fuel. The new schools, despite better insulation, require more petroleum to operate. New School In nearby Noatak, an 18,000-square-foot school was torn down and replaced with one more than twice as large with a new air-circulating system and more lights. "We have a very fragile economy in most of these villages already and then you add the jolt of high fuel-oil prices. It's my guess that many of these communities will not find themselves viable if fuel prices stay here, " says Mike Black, director of community advocacy at Alaska's Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. The villages, he says, "are begging, borrowing and stealing to get enough fuel." The extreme costs of fuel in rural Alaska have led to numerous energy experiments. But various efforts to reduce rural Alaska's dependence on petroleum-based energy have struggled. Petroleum is easy to store, handle and transport, says Brent Sheets, head of the federal government's Arctic Energy Office in Fairbanks. "It is hard to beat diesel fuel," he says. A proposal to build a small nuclear power plant for one small town was shelved when a study concluded that the federal security requirements made the project uneconomic. Solar isn't a good fit for Alaska, because fuel demand goes up in the winter when the state gets little sunlight. The Energy Department office even looked at turbines designed to harness river energy, dodging logs and car-sized icebergs, but plans never made it past the theoretical stage. One alternative-energy success stories is in Kotzebue, the hub community to the west of Shungnak on the Chukchi Sea. On the tundra outside of Kotzebue, where the only sign of life is paw prints from an Arctic fox, are 17 windmills capable of generating one megawatt of electricity. The windmills "are a hedge against rising fuel costs," says Brad Reeve, a Minnesotan who came to the town 30 years ago to run the public-radio station and now heads up the electric cooperative. As the cost of bringing in diesel has grown, electricity from the windmills has looked better and better. But the windmills have a high upfront cost - they sit on special pilings with chemicals that ensure the tundra remains frozen to hold the windmills steady. And on a recent morning, as a computer in the coop's offices showed 2.8 megawatts of demand, the wind wasn't blowing. All of the electricity came from distillate-burning generators, a reminder that Kotzebue needs to keep a steady supply of oil. In Shungnak, Mr. Woods, the tribal-government official, says he expects the oil will keep on flowing. Eskimos are accustomed to adapting to extreme conditions, he says. But there is little effort being made to teach children how to hunt the old way. "Their lifestyle now is so convenient," he says. Hanging out on the steps of the village store after school with friends, 11th-grader Dion Tickett says he didn't grow up learning how to hunt or take care of a team of Alaskan huskies. He grew up watching television and riding snowmobiles, something he and his friends do to pass the time. "There's nothing to do around here," he says. After school let out on a recent afternoon, Mr. Woods spent $90 to fill up his Arctic Cat snowmobile to take his son out hunting. But he doesn't expect his son to need these skills. In a couple of years, when his son enters high school, Mr. Woods plans to move his family to east Texas, where he was stationed in the military. Gasoline there costs just under $3.00 a gallon. Write to Russell Gold at russell.gold@wsj.com Copyright c. 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Justice files for rehearing of SF Peaks Case" --------- Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 07:22:40 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="PIGS WILL NOT GIVE UP ON DUMPING SEWER WATER ON SACRED PEAKS" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.navajohopiobserver.com/main.asp? SectionID=29&SubSectionID=41&ArticleID=5889 U.S. Department of Justice files for rehearing of SF Peaks case June 6, 2007 FLAGSTAFF - On Wednesday, May 30 the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of the Forest Service filed for a rehearing and appeal "en banc" (by the full court) in the case to protect the sacred San Francisco Peaks in northern Arizona. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals previously ruled in favor of Native American tribes and environmental groups on the grounds that a proposed ski area development and expansion would violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Peaks, which are held holy by more than 13 Native American tribes, have been at the center of a legal battle that has pitted these tribes and environmental groups against the U.S. Forest Service and a small private ski area. The Arizona Snowbowl ski area has been attempting an expansion and proposed snowmaking with treated sewage effluent on the sacred mountain. The Forest Service, which leases the land to Snowbowl, initially approved the decision, but was then faced with lawsuits by the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Hualapai Tribe, the White Mountain Apache Tribe, the Yavapai-Apache Tribe, the Havasupai Tribe, the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Flagstaff Activist Network. "The decision of the Forest Service and Snowbowl to appeal the ruling is shameful and harmful to all of the tribes and people of this country who value religious freedom and a healthy environment," said Howard Shanker of the Shanker Law Firm, PLC. "The 9th Circuit [Court] ruling did not grant Native Americans new rights that restrict other uses of public lands, it only upheld and protected the rights they already have." Carly Long, president of the Flagstaff Activist Network added, "The Federal Government does not have a compelling interest to [support] a private business. As a taxpayer, I am outraged. The Forest Service has spent a lot of our money in this case and they are disregarding good case law. All public land users should be outraged." Recently, 21 tribes collaboratively passed a resolution calling on the federal government not to appeal the 9th Circuit ruling. The resolution also urged the federal government to repair damage done to tribal relations due to controversy created by the proposed ski area development. A rehearing could bring the case back before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. An appeal "en banc" could have the case heard before the entire 9th Circuit. However, there is no guarantee that the courts will hear this case. In the 9th Circuit Court briefing, Vincent Randall, a Yavapai-Apache Councilman said, "[P]eople wonder why we are upset because [they say] we can still use part of the mountain... We do not see the mountain as a pie to divide up into segments. The mountain is a whole entity, [much] like a pregnant woman or a large mature tree." Jeneda Benally, a volunteer with the Save the Peaks Coalition added, "We always knew that this would be a long and difficult struggle. The fight for human rights and religious freedom has always been a challenge in this country. The Save the Peaks Coalition is committed to creating healthy relationships between people in our community and lasting environmental justice for future generations." With that in mind, the Save the Peaks Coalition initiated a "Healthy Communities/Turquoise Ribbon Campaign" to engage local citizens and the Flagstaff business community in the call for respect for the environment, community health and cultural diversity. A demonstration was held on Monday, June 4, at the Coconino National Forest Service office in Flagstaff. The message is clear. "We must at some point stop trying to fake the world and realize that our actions as humans have created a world in peril. The Native cultural perspective that is protected by this court decision is in fact a road map to once again creating a world in balance," said Rudy Preston of the Flagstaff Activist Network. Copyright c. 2007, Navajo Hopi Observer - Western Newspapers Inc. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: American Indian teens at high drug risk" --------- Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 07:22:40 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TEENS DRUG RISK" http://www.upi.com/Consumer_Health_Daily/Briefing/2007/06/05/ american_indian_teens_at_high_drug_risk/5116/ American Indian teens at high drug risk June 5, 2007 DENVER, June 5 (UPI) - A U.S. study suggests that American Indian adolescents are at a higher risk for trying marijuana than other first-time drug users. Researchers at the University of Colorado at Denver and the Health Sciences Center compared the age of first-time drug users across the nation to the age of first-time drug users on and near two different American Indian reservations. American Indian adolescents were found to be at higher risk for trying marijuana than their peers across the country, according to the study published in the July issue of the American Journal of Public Health, online under First Look. For the population born before 1960, the potential risk for drug use peaked at age 18, with a greater risk in the overall national population group. After 1960, the risk for trying marijuana was highest at age 16 and is now higher among reservation-dwelling youth than the general population, according to Nancy Whitesell, of the University of Colorado at Denver School of Medicine. "The numbers show the Native American samples are catching up and even surpassing the national population samples for the youngest populations that are at risk for drug use," Whitesell said in a statement. Copyright c. 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Tribes get $140,000 for Youth Suicide Prevention" --------- Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 07:37:49 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YOUTH SUICIDE PREVENTION FUNDING" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2007/06/04/ news/local/doc46634524d61d7417406364.txt Tribes get $140,000 for youth suicide prevention BY KEVIN ABOUREZK / Lincoln Journal Star June 4, 2007 This is the time of year you have to watch. Look for the warning signs: changes in behavior or personality. Giving away their belongings. When students get out of school for the summer - that's when John Penn watches closely for suicide warning signs among youth of the Omaha Tribe. This summer, the executive director of the Omaha Nation Community Response Team will have help in his efforts to prevent substance abuse, domestic violence and youth suicide on the Omaha Indian Reservation in northeast Nebraska. That help comes in the form of funding from the state of Nebraska to help prevent youth suicide. "This is the first time they've really earmarked money for suicide prevention, and we're really happy about it," Penn said. On Friday, the Nebraska Health and Human Services System approved $140, 000 for Native youth suicide prevention efforts. The money will be divided among the state's four tribes: Ponca, Omaha, Winnebago and Santee. Each tribe will receive $35,000, said Larry Voegele, health program manager in the state's Office of Minority Health. Each tribe must submit a proposal for how it plans to use the money. State health officials will then review and approve or deny the proposals, he said. The money comes from the state's Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities program, Voegele said, and is a one-time award that may be renewed later should funds be available. The Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs, Gov. Dave Heineman's office and health officials requested the money, he said. The money comes less than six months after the commission decided to dedicate its efforts to reducing Native youth suicide. It's a problem tribal leaders fear is growing. Nationally, Native people, ages 15 to 24, commit suicide at a rate 3.3 times higher than those of other ethnic groups. On the Santee Sioux Reservation in Nebraska, at least three teens have taken their lives since September 2005. Last year, at least three others attempted suicide on the reservation that 1,000 Santee call home. "The kids are lacking hope," said Judi Morgan gaiashkibos, the commission's director. "We have to find a way to make these kids want to show up for life." She said the money will help the tribes in their efforts to stop their youth from taking their own lives, though it certainly won't solve the problem. Many factors lead Native youth to want to take their own lives, she said, including lack of recreational opportunities and jobs. Sexual assaults of women and children exacerbate the problem, she said. It will be important to get youth involved in suicide prevention efforts, she said. "If we get the youth's input, that's really the only way we're going to make changes," she said. That's just what Penn of the Omaha Tribe plans to do. He said his tribe plans to use its share of the state funds to organize a summer youth camp designed in large part by youth workers. The camp will be held July 16 and will include speakers, boating and fishing. "The youth have to have a voice in planning what we're doing so we're not doing things for them but doing things with them," he said. The camp, he said, will provide his tribe's youth an opportunity to talk about the things that are troubling them. He said it's important to be proactive in trying to prevent youth suicide rather than just reacting to it when it happens. While he expressed gratitude for the state's contribution to youth suicide prevention efforts, more must be done, he said. "I think it's a good start." Reach Kevin Abourezk at 473-7225 or kabourezk@journalstar.com. Copyright c. 2002-2007, Lincoln Journal Star. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: State seeks appeal in Oneida Land Claim" --------- Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 07:34:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="STATE GREED MAY REOPEN ONEIDA LAND CLAIMS" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.syracuse.com/articles/news/index.ssf?/ base/news-7/1181206907306300.xml&coll=1 State seeks appeal in Oneida land claim The request opens up the possibility that Oneidas will seek the return of acreage. By Glenn Coin Staff writer June 7, 2007 Jubilant local officials last month proclaimed the Oneida Indian land claim dead after a judge tossed out the central part of the claim. But the state's request for an appeal, filed this week, could open up the case all over again. The state has asked an appeals court to overrule the portion of a federal judge's decision that said the Oneida Indians might deserve compensation for centuries-old land sales. Reversing the judge's ruling would end the 37-year-old Oneida land claim once and for all, the state said in the request filed late Tuesday with the federal appeals court in Manhattan. "A reversal now . . . will dispose of the entire case and avoid years of additional and costly litigation," wrote David Roberts, a state assistant attorney general. But the appeal could reopen the entire case. Now that the state has filed a request to appeal, the three Oneida tribes can do the same, said Arlinda Locklear, lawyer for the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin. They could ask that the appeals court reinstate their claim to take back 250,000 acres in Madison and Oneida counties. "The tribes are looking at all their options now," Locklear said. Last month, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Kahn made a split ruling in the land claim case, which was first filed in 1974. He rejected the original, and central, argument of the Oneidas, saying the tribes have no rights to 250,000 acres in Madison and Oneida counties. He ruled that recent court cases, including the dismissal of the Cayuga Indian land claim two years ago, meant that portion of the Oneida claim was dead. Kahn said, though, that the Oneidas had suffered "betrayals" and deserved compensation. He ruled the tribes could pursue their claim that the state underpaid for their land. A New York Oneida lawyer said that could come to $500 million with compound interest. Kahn's ruling was on a preliminary motion in the case, and an appeal would normally not be filed until the entire case was decided. Kahn, however, took the unusual step of granting in advance the right to seek an appeal from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals court does not have to accept the state's request. If the request is rejected, the case will proceed in Kahn's court on the tribes' request for compensation. After Kahn's ruling, local officials declared the land claim dead because the tribes could no longer seek to take back the land. But now that the state has asked for an appeal, that opens the door for the tribes to file their own request, Locklear said. The tribes have seven days from the state's filing to file their own request, Locklear said. Mark Emery, spokesman for the Oneida Indian Nation of New York, said the nation was pleased with Kahn's ruling in May. Nation lawyers will review the state's request for an appeal, he said. "They haven't made a decision yet as to whether they're going to respond to the state action," Emery said. The three tribes of Oneidas - from Ontario, Wisconsin and New York - filed a test case in 1970, and then a full-blown lawsuit against the counties in 1974. The suit alleges that more than 250,000 acres of Oneida land were illegally purchased by New York state in the 18th and 19th centuries. Glenn Coin can be reached at gcoin@syracuse.com or 470-3251. Copyright c. 2007 Syracuse Online, LLC. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Leech Lake Band asks County Board for more Space" --------- Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 07:34:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HEALTH CLINIC" http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/articles/index.cfm? id=9319§ion=homepage Leech Lake Band asks County Board for more space at Community Service Center for clinic Brad Swenson Bemidji Pioneer June 7, 2007 The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, wanting to provide more efficient health care services to its tribal members in Bemidji, is asking Beltrami County for more space. But the request is meeting some level of concern from county officials as Leech Lake's clinic - in the Beltrami County Community Service Center - also serves American Indian jail inmates. The concerns, however, aren't insurmountable, county and tribal officials agreed. Leech Lake Tribal Executive Director Rodney White called for collaboration and relationships when he spoke Tuesday night to the Beltrami County Board. "We are reaching out for partnerships," White said, as Leech Lake Health Division officials asked for more space in a county- run services building to expand its Leech Lake Tribal Clinic- "With inmate hours, it really could lead to problems with children and families in there," Commissioner Jack Frost said Tuesday, as Leech Lake officials gave their pitch for expanded clinic space in the county-run building that houses a number of government and non-profit agencies. "Jail inmates, in their orange jump suits and shackled at the ankles, can scare kids," Frost said. The Leech Lake Tribal Health Division has offices on the third floor of the Community Service Center, 616 America Ave., as its Leech Lake Tribal Clinic-Bemidji site since 2000. More space is sought now, by moving into vacant adjacent space. The request was given to County Administrator Tony Murphy earlier this spring, who issued several concerns. Tribal officials came to the full County Board on Tuesday with a proposal that answers those concerns. To the concern about jail inmates in a public building, Leech Lake Tribal Health Director Eli Hunt said the clinic would only have hours for inmates during extended office hours of 4:45 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. Wednesdays - times when the building should be clear of the public and workers in other agencies. "We've had no problems in four or five years we've had that service," Hunt said. "There is no justification to stop services to inmates." Shannon Spiller, the primary physician's assistant who staffs the clinic, said at most the clinic serves nine inmates a month. Inmates are escorted from the jail across the street and returned after their appointment. The service not only helps Leech Lake provide a service to its tribal members, but also saves the county health care dollars, she said. "I don't have a problem serving any segment of our society," Hunt said. "I understand it may be alarming to some tenants in the building, but there is no need for alarm." Hunt said he asked Sheriff Phil Hodapp if any disruptive activity had been reported, caused by the clinic, "and he said none he could think of." The clinic, he said, allows the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe to extend health care services "to tribal members in Bemidji, including the inmates." Frost said the plan met his approval, "as you've made efforts to try to address this. I'm pretty comfortable." And having inmates seek service after Community Service Center main hours "provides dignity to them too, so they aren't gawked at," Spiller said. Other concerns were that the clinic should have hours posted on its door, Murphy said. Due to state budget cuts to the county several years ago, the county stopped staffing the building with a main floor customer service representative, so clients tend to wonder around the building if they don't know when office hours are open. The clinic operates Monday through Thursday, and is closed Fridays, Spiller said. Aside from the Wednesday jail inmate hours, the clinic has extended public hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays, she added. "We have historically not been open on Fridays, and our schedule has been very consistent for the last three years," Spiller said. "Our schedule would not change but our hours of service will be posted on the door and published in the Leech Lake tribal newspaper monthly." Leech Lake would lease the extra space, as it does its current space, from the county, and is asking the county to make the necessary renovations since licensed contractors must be provided under the county. The clinic's current space would be converted to patient care areas, while the expansion would be used for offices and storage, Spiller said. The clinic basically provides health maintenance services, as well as health screenings and referrals and immunizations, Spiller said. It started in collaboration with the Beltrami County Public Health Nursing Service, but now is a stand-alone service. "We continue to hold fast our role in the original vision of a `one-stop service,'" she said, "and are prepared to continue our partnership with all agencies and services to facilitate the growing health care needs of the American Indians in Bemidji and surrounding areas." According to a 2005 Census report, 11.5 percent of the population in Bemidji is American Indian, she said. The clinic has gone from 222 visits its first year to 2,400 this year. "We have helped minimize barriers to care," Spiller said. "We see this as an opportunity to augment and improve current services." Commissioner Quentin Fairbanks, a Red Lake Band of Chippewa enrollee, said health care for American Indians is "very, very important.... The board is very sensitive to the Indian situation and in reaching out. This is a wonderful service, and is the only service some people get." When he suggested a committee to meet with Leech Lake officials to negotiate a lease, Commissioner Ron Otterstad motioned for Fairbanks and Murphy to do so, "and get it done." The Leech Lake Band is interested in forming partnerships with all surrounding governments in order to better serve its people, said Tribal Executive Director Rodney White, who spoke last. Tribal gaming only provides 20 percent of the tribal budget, he said, so the tribe must depend on state and federal sources also, he said. "We make it clear that the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe is its own entity with needs, and our council wants the best benefits for our tribal members through collaboration and relationships." White said the Leech Lake Tribal Council meets regularly with the Cass County Board and would like the same with Beltrami County. Commissioner Joe Vene said the two boards have met in the past, and asked that Murphy and White schedule another soon. Leech Lake is also working with Bi-CAP in Bemidji to provide a Head Start class for Leech Lake members in Beltrami County at Bi-CAP and is also working with Bi-CAP to provide 20 assisted living units. And he noted cooperation in seeking treatment centers for adults and youth at Cass Lake. "We are reaching out for partnerships," he said. The band can help wield its resources in areas that help low-income people, whether it be health care, mental health care or housing. "Most of these problems affect low-income people and most band members fall in that category," White said. "We can provide services. The perception is there needs to be some warm-up in our relationships." Copyright c. 2007 The Pioneer/Bemidji, MN. --------- "RE: Language Summit against 'Slow-Motion Massacre'" --------- Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 07:57:08 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SLOW-MOTION MASSACRE OF LANGUAGES" http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096415178 Language summit struggles against 'slow-motion massacre' by: Jerry Reynolds / Indian Country Today June 8, 2007 WASHINGTON - Maintaining languages that are spoken by a dwindling number of speakers can be lonely and isolating work for individuals, which is why Suzan Shown Harjo considered the encouragements of the occasion a leading feature of a Native language summit in Washington June 4. "I thought it was awfully good, because it brought together so many people who have been doing good work," she said after the summit. Gatherings of Indian people from across the land create a collective wisdom that get people "beyond yourself" and into the work again with the energy of many, she added. Harjo, of the Morning Star Institute in Washington, helped to open the proceedings with a reference to the history of her own Muscogee Creek Nation. The Muscogee were actually mashed into a tribe made up of multiple tribes that were mostly force-marched to Oklahoma Territory during the infamous Removal Era of the 19th century. The result is that approximately 40 dialects and languages, including Euchee of Siouan linguistic stock, are spoken now within the nation. But few speakers remain of the different single dialects and languages. The Muscogee Creek are not unique in their linguistic history, she said. Sounding a cooperative note, she said that Bear Butte in present-day South Dakota was a spiritually important locale to perhaps all of 60 historical Plains tribes. At Bear Butte, warriors laid their weapons on the ground, setting aside anything that did not have to do with the purpose at hand. Harjo said the message was worth remembering in a setting where many people have done different work in the realm of Native language. The audience of almost 100 people from Native communities nationwide - and for that matter, Canada and New Zealand - then heard from an array of speakers who described best practices in language revitalization; advertised the resources of the federal government, nonprofit grant-making organizations, universities, libraries and tribes; and shared stories of war and triumph from the struggle to save Native languages and cultures. Richard Littlebear, president of Chief Dull Knife College in Lame Deer, Mont., on the Northern Cheyenne lands, related a personal history with an all-too-familiar ring to it in Indian country - education at a BIA boarding school, training as a high school English teacher, "all angled towards promoting English, and for a long time that's the way it was. I said, 'No, we don't need Indian, Native American languages, we don't need Cheyenne. We don't need another language. All we need to know here is English.' "Finally about 1980, I started making this, what I would characterize as a slow-motion epiphany, into becoming an advocate, a very strong advocate, of our Native languages. Because all through my educational experience, it seemed to me like somebody had been lying to me about my own language, and about where I came from and what my identity was as a Northern Cheyenne person. ... It seems like I must have learned a new word, because I've been using 'slow motion' a whole bunch here lately. But it seems to me like back in 1492, a slow-motion massacre started. It gained in intensity in the late 1800s in the northern Plains territory, where they were actually killing us. The massacres were happening. Now, it has slowed down a little bit. But the massacres that started in 1492 are still happening today. They are hitting right at the heart of us, of who we are, because they are attacking our languages and our culture. The slow-motion massacre is occurring in curricula, it's occurring in med ia, it's occurring in the books that we read, it's occurring in the loss of our languages. And if we do not do anything to stop this, then we are accomplices in the slow- motion massacre of our languages, and of our culture. We've got to do something about this." For the first time June 4, Ryan Wilson said, a grass-roots advocacy brigade of the same mind had come to Washington. Wilson, president of the National Alliance to Save Native Languages, committed the alliance to organizing and sponsoring the summit. During a transition between speaker panels, he surveyed the wide array of people in the National Museum of the American Indian's Rasmuson Theater and said most of them would be visiting congressional members and staff on Capitol Hill June 5. There they would make the case for continued funding of the Administration for Native Americans' Native language grants program, as well as for a full appropriation to the Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act of 2006, with its all-important provisions for Native language nests and immersion-learning courses. "That hasn't happened before," Wilson said. Reference guide launched at summit WASHINGTON - At a June 4 summit devoted to revitalizing Native languages, the National Museum of the American Indian, Morning Star Institute and the Administration for Native Americans unveiled a reference guide to the establishment and accessing of Native language archives and repositories. The nearly 300-page publication, also available on DVD, is the result of a year and a half's research and collaboration between Morning Star's Suzan Shown Harjo, Helen Maynor Scheirbeck of NMAI, an advisory group and many other Native and non-Native contributors. It contains a report on how to build a repository of Native language materials, either virtual or physical. The publication, "Native Language Preservation: A Reference Guide for Establishing Archives and Repositories," is available from ANA at (202) 690-7776. Copyright c. 1998 - 2007 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: 3 NC Legislators against Lumbee Act" --------- Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 07:34:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LUMBEE RECOGNITION ROADBLOCK" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/593843.html 3 NC legislators against Lumbee act From Staff Reports June 6, 2007 Three North Carolina representatives object to federal recognition of the Lumbee tribe. In a letter sent today, Democratic Rep. Heath Shuler and Republican Reps. Patrick McHenry and Walter Jones urge their colleagues to vote against the Lumbee Recognition Act. The bill would confer tribal status on the Eastern North Carolina tribe. But the representatives argue that there are "serious questions" about its heritage: "One outside expert called the Lumbee 'an invented North Carolina Indian tribe.' In fact, the Lumbee group has sought federal recognition as four different, unrelated Indian tribes over the years ('Croatan,' 'Siouan,' 'Cherokee,' and now 'Cheraw'), and Congress has appropriately rejected these efforts for decades." The representatives have sponsored an alternative bill that would put the Lumbee through an administrative process to determine their status. Connecticut Rep. Christopher Shays also signed the letter. Copyright c. 2007, The News & Observer Publishing Company. --------- "RE: House approves Federal Recognition for Lumbee" --------- Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 07:57:08 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HOUSE PASSES LUMBEE BILL" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.fayobserver.com/article_ap?id=106419 U.S. House approves federal recognition for N.C. Lumbee Indians The Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. June 8, 2007 The Lumbee Indians of North Carolina crossed a significant hurdle Thursday in their quest for federal recognition, as the U.S. House voted 256-128 to approve the tribe's legitimacy. The legislation that could bring hundreds of millions of tax dollars in housing, education and health benefits to the Lumbees must still pass the Senate, where it would first be considered by the Committee on Indian Affairs. But supporters were optimistic about the legislation's chances, noting that Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., a chief sponsor of the bill, was working to persuade both Democrats and Republicans to support it. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., also supports the legislation. "We've never had a vote of this magnitude," Jimmy Goins, the Lumbees' tribal chairman, said after the House vote. "We just believe this gives us a tremendous amount of momentum going into the U.S. Senate." The issue of federal recognition for the Lumbees has divided North Carolina's members of Congress. In addition, other Indian tribes - including the Eastern Band of Cherokee - have opposed the legislation. The Lumbee tribe, which claims some 55,000 members, is the largest east of the Mississippi River and would be the third largest nationally to win full federal recognition. The Lumbee Recognition Act would mean the tribe could gain nearly $500 million dollars in benefits in the first five years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But the legislation specifically bars the tribe from building a casino after some lawmakers expressed concern about the possibility. Besides the Cherokee, a group of Tuscarora Indians in North Carolina also has opposed Lumbee recognition, saying the Lumbee aren't Indians but rather a group of mixed-race residents with no significant history. "I think (the House vote) just showed there's strong arguments and a lot of unanswered questions," said Tuscarora chairwoman Katherine Magnotta. Three House members from North Carolina - Republicans Patrick McHenry and Walter Jones and Democrat Heath Shuler - also oppose the legislation recognizing the Lumbee Indians. "There is no Lumbee heritage," said Shuler, whose district includes the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation. "There is no Lumbee reservation." But Rep. Mike McIntyre, a Lumberton Democrat who has worked to support tribe, said Congress owed them recognition. Legislation approved 50 years ago recognized the tribe's members as Indians but barred them from seeking benefits or federal recognition through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. "Congress itself put the Lumbee tribe in Indian no man's land," McIntyre said. "(Thursday's) vote was one for fairness, justice, and long overdue recognition for the Lumbee Indians." Copyright c. 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c. 2007 - The Fayetteville Observer. --------- "RE: Lumbees to recruit Indian foster Parents" --------- Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 07:34:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LUMBEE SEEKING INDIAN FOSTER PARENTS" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=264275 Lumbees to recruit Indian foster parents A staff report June 6, 2007 PEMBROKE - Lumbee tribal officials kicked off a campaign today to recruit more Indian families as foster parents. The program, called "Protecting Our Children, Preserving Our Culture," will be a collaboration between the tribe and the departments of social services within the tribe's service territory. More than 30,000 Lumbees live in the tribal territory of Robeson, Cumberland, Hoke and Scotland counties. There are 37 American Indian children in foster care in Robeson County, but there are only 15 American Indian foster homes. In Hoke County, there are no Indian families to take in the 13 Indian children in foster care. "That is not a balance," said Laura Sampson, chairman of the tribe's Human Services Committee. "... We want to reach the Lumbee nation. We want to make them aware of the statistics and aware of the needs. If the Lumbee nation is not aware, they certainly can't help. We want to encourage the Lumbee nation to open their homes to help fix this problem." Sampson said the tribe will work closely with churches to educate the tribal membership about the need for more foster homes. Copyright c. 2007 Fayetteville Observer. --------- "RE: Grand Ronde puts Rail study back on track" --------- Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 07:22:40 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GRAND RONDE CONTRIBUTES TO LIGHT RAIL STUDY" http://www.newsregister.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=222710 Tribe puts rail study back on track By DAVID BATES Of the News-Register June 5, 2007 The Grand Ronde Tribe has agreed to kick in $10,000 on a local light rail study, putting organizers within spitting distance of the $36,000 they need to cover the cost. Matt Simek, the Newberg businessman leading the charge, announced the news Friday via e-mail. "This grant completes the funding phase of this project, and will now allow us to move ahead with our plans to conduct this important preliminary study," he said. As Oregon's roads continue to lose speed under the weight of ever- heavier traffic, light rail continues to pick up speed in the Portland metro area. That has made local officials increasingly curious about opportunities to take advantage of a resource already in place - railroad tracks used by freight trains. In 1998, Yamhill County helped fund a commuter rail feasibility study that turned up some evidence of promise. The study, which cost $5,000, determined that existing track between Milwaukie and McMinnville could be upgraded to meet commuter rail needs for about $112 million or $3 million a mile. The county hasn't revisited the issue since, but has chipped in $5,000 toward the cost of a new study. It sees the new study building on the work undertaken in 1998, using the original study as a starting point. "We hope to be able to update that study instead of just starting from scratch," said Tonya Saunders, the county's transportation coordinator. Also contributing are the cities of McMinnville, Newberg, Dundee and Sherwood, and a group of private businesses. Those making private contributions include Argyle Winery, Stoller Cellars, Austin Properties, Chehalem Valley Mills and Doran Automotive. The county will act as the fiscal agent on the project. Laura Tschabold, the county's grants specialist, said Monday that she expects Saunders to begin working this week with Yamhill County Commissioner Leslie Lewis to work up details of a request for proposal. Saunders said the scope of the study is yet to be determined, because light rail now extends farther south and west than it did in 1998. But she said officials expect to work that out in short order and get the study completed over the summer. Copyright c. 1999-2007 News-Register Publishing Co., McMinnville, OR. --------- "RE: Debate unfurls at Osage hearing" --------- Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 16:02:14 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="OSAGE REGULATORY ACT RILES CATTLEMEN" http://www.pawhuskajournalcapital.com/articles/2007/06/07/news/news2.txt Debate unfurls at Osage hearing By Steve Ray Linam Managing Editor June 8, 2007 Jurisdiction and property rights surfaced as ancillary issues during a hearing last week by Osage Nation representatives dealing with proposed legislation to promote the protection of human health and welfare and the environment and to conserve natural resources in Osage County. The Osage Congressional Act could establish the Osage Environmental and Natural Resources (ENR) Department, complete with an ENR Commission equipped with monitoring, permitting and regulatory authority on the operations of oil and gas production. Meanwhile, fate of the legislation was drawn into question Tuesday with reports that the proposed act was withdrawn from consideration. The PJC was unable to confirm those reports by presstime. During last weeks' hearing, Diane Daniels, representing the Osage Nation executive branch of government, noted the legislation deals with the "big picture" in protecting the environment and natural resources. Daniels explained the primary focus of the Act would address underground injection control of salt water into oil production. Currently, such activity is governed by the Environmental Protection Agency. "In the last few years, EPA has urged the Osage Nation to takeover the program," she said. Under the Act, the Osage Nation would apparently become the overseer of controlling underground injection programs. Still, questions surfaced from the crowd, including a panel of tribal members invited by the Osage Congress Natural Resources Committee to voice concerns. Attorney Geoffrey Standing Bear raised the issue of jurisdiction and noted an ongoing federal lawsuit that maintains all property in Osage County is the actual Osage Nation. Also, he questioned the role of the Osage Nation Minerals Council in the process outlined by the proposed legislation. Attorney Joseph Williams, representing the Nation's executive branch, pointed to an 1872 treaty that gave a fee simple title to the Osage tribe after land was acquired from the Cherokee Nation, thus setting up the Osage Reservation. Williams noted that only the U.S. Congress can determine jurisdiction and after 1907 statehood in Oklahoma, the state took over jurisdiction and continues to collect taxes unlawfully. "They (Osage Nation) do not have to wait on a court lawsuit, they will promulgate laws because it is a reservation. The extent and scope of laws passed by the Osage Nation will move forward," he said. Regarding jurisdiction over all persons, including non-Indians, he noted the Nation has judicial remedy and may hear court cases involing non- Indians. However, he noted the scope of jurisdiction is determined on case-by-case circumstances and is broad enough to encompass all activity. Scott Hesket, a landowner with oil wells, questioned on whether this act is needed to address concerns that are already being met. "It is being done because there is a need for it," responded attorney Williams. In order to be a soverign government, you have to act like a soverign government." Daniels insisted local drilling operations would benefit is the legislation is passed. The prospect of the Nation assuming the reins of EPA requlations draw support from at least two other tribal members invited to testify. Attorney Jeff Jones indicated the tribe has taken over other programs and it has resulted satisfactory. Susan Foreman, a natural gas manager, noted it was a fabulous opportunity for the tribe to assume control of the program. Attorney Williams maintained the Nation does not want to take over everything. Daniels added that the EPA can resume jurisdiction if the tribe is not meeting guidelines. Yet, the strongest opposition to tribal sovereignty and jursidictional title came from the Oklahoma County Cattleman's Association. Rancher Dick Surber, speaking for the cattlemen, outlined the opposition by noting county landownrs, both Osage and non-Osage, hold "fee-simple" title to the surface without pariticpation or jurisdiction by newly formed Osage Nation. "We have observed 100 years of tribal/BIA jurisdiction over the mineral estate of the Osage Tribe and the scars upon the land will blight the environment for centuries while salt-water slowly contamines the fresh- water aquifers," said Surber citing a cattlemen's declaration. The Cattlemen's Association does not recognized any legal tribal sovereingty, dominion or jurisdiction over non-tribal lands, operations or water in Osage County. Surber stressed the Allotment Act led to "Allotment in Severalty" which is the holding of land in one's own right without participation. Furthermore, the association cites a conflict of interest under Osage regulatory measures as proposed in the legislation. Surber insisted any regulatory agency must be independent of and insulation from potential conflicts in the nature economic, financial and political. Such conflict, the association maintains, have rendered the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Minerals Division and Osage Tribe delinquent and ineffective in regulatory duties. "We submit that the proposed act to establish the Osage Nation Environmental and Natural Resources Department would face similar conflicts on interest that would render it ineffective," Surber said. Copyright c. 2007 Pawhuska Journal Capital. --------- "RE: AAMODT: Cloud hangs over long-sought Settlement" --------- Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2007 07:16:04 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WATER PACT IN JEOPARDY" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/62856.html Aamodt: Cloud hangs over long-sought settlement By Staci Matlock | The New Mexican June 9, 2007 Many well owners worry agreement could leave them dry At 85, Atanacio Romero doesn't mince words. "I'm not going to sign a damn thing," Romero said of the proposed settlement meant to resolve a 41-year- old dispute over water rights in the Pojoaque Valley, where he lives. A World War II veteran whose 19-year-old brother died in the Battle of the Bulge, Romero figures he's paid his dues to his country. The Cuyamungue resident says the Aamodt water rights settlement makes him wonder what he fought for if it means he loses control over his domestic well and irrigation rights dating back generations in his family. Right or wrong, he's not alone in his opposition to a 2006 settlement. Many residents in the valley, from Tesuque to Jacona, still oppose the Aamodt settlement, even as negotiators work feverishly to submit legislation this month for congressional approval of the agreement. Some oppose a regional water system included in the settlement. Residents living closest to Pojoaque Pueblo are concerned that deep wells proposed as part of the settlement will deplete their shallow wells. Others wonder how the settlement can be enforced if the pueblos exercise their sovereignty and decide not to abide by portions of it. "The signed settlement is meaningless as far as I'm concerned," said Dick Rochester, a retired chemist and a member of the Pojoaque Basin Water Alliance, which represents about 400 nonpueblo families with domestic wells. The county and state promote the settlement as the only way to ensure a water supply for pueblo and nonpueblo basin residents into the future. "If the pueblos were to exercise all their water rights, it would completely dry out nonpueblo water users," said Ted Bagley, an attorney with the State Engineer's Office who has worked on the Aamodt case since 2001. Basin demographics When Jack and Linda L. Miller moved to Chupadero in 1970, it was a quintessential rural farming village like much of the Pojoaque Valley. Not anymore. "This area seems to have caught fire here, and it's in very high demand now," Miller said. Chupadero, with about 100 families, is bordered by three pueblos. Fifty- eight families are on the mutual domestic water system, and the rest rely on domestic wells less than 200 feet deep. The settlement could impact their entire water supply. Jack Miller, who is a commissioner on both the domestic water system and the local acequia, said most of his neighbors are worried about the settlement. "It makes us a little nervous that should (the pueblos) cry they need water, our little community doesn't have the means to fight" back, Miller said. The pueblos have the oldest water rights in the valley. When there isn't much river water flowing in the valley, the pueblos get theirs first under state law. In a microcosm of the dilemma facing many towns along the Rio Grande, as the population in the Pojoaque Basin grew and the region had multiple dry years, the debates over water intensified. Prior to 1966, when the Aamodt case was filed, there were 500 domestic wells in the basin, according to Ted Bagley, an attorney with the State Engineer's Office. Now there are more than 3,000 wells. "The pueblo's argument is that the wells (deplete) their streams," Bagley said. As wells are pumped, they can draw down aquifers and deplete river and stream flows. "In times of plenty, none of this is a problem. In the Pojoaque Valley, shortage is a chronic problem," Bagley said. Settlement basics An initial Aamodt settlement proposed in 2004 required all nonpueblo domestic well owners to stop using their wells and hook into the proposed regional water system. Angry nonpueblo domestic well owners cried foul, and negotiators returned to the table. Under the agreement signed last year, nonpueblo well owners can choose: Keep their wells or tie into the regional water system and cap them. But some well owners worry new deep wells proposed under the settlement could drain their shallow wells and force them to hook into the regional water system. All wells are to be metered under the agreement. Nonpueblo well owners who use more than half an acre-foot of water a year (162,925 gallons) will have to cut their use by 15 percent. Under the settlement, Nambe' Pueblo is entitled to 1,459 acre-feet a year, San Ildefonso Pueblo gets 1,246 acre-feet, Tesuque Pueblo gets 719 acre- feet and Pojoaque Pueblo will receive 711 acre-feet. Pojoaque Pueblo can drill two 1,000-foot-deep wells under the settlement as long as it doesn't impair the wells of nearby residents. The pueblos have agreed not to make a priority call on irrigation water in the basin, in exchange for imported water diverted from the Rio Grande through the proposed regional water system. Under the settlement, the pueblos of Pojoaque, Tesuque, Nambe' and San Ildefonso will have the right to divert up to 2,500 acre-feet of water from the Rio Grande. Santa Fe County will get 1,500 acre-feet of water for nonpueblo residents. For northern Santa Fe County, that represents 911 acre-feet of water more than what nonpueblo residents currently use. Aamodt negotiators are scrambling to secure the rest of the water rights needed to fulfill the settlement before Wednesday, the cutoff date to send the settlement on so legislation can be drafted and submitted to Congress later this month. "We believe we are very close to resolving the water supply issue," Utton said. Aamodt negotiators met last week with negotiators in the Taos Pueblo water rights case, hoping to gain some of the pueblo's San Juan Chama Project water rights. The cost of the settlement is an estimated $250 million for the water rights, water system and a fund to reimburse nonpueblo landowners whose domestic wells are impaired by well pumping on pueblo land. Aamodt negotiators are lobbying hard for the federal government to pay the bulk - 60 percent - of the settlement, which New Mexico's congressional delegates support. But it could be a hard sell to their Washington colleagues. "In New Mexico, we all think Indian water rights are of great importance," said Scott McElroy, an attorney for Nambe' Pueblo. "But Congress has other priorities - energy, immigration and Iraq." Regional water system The Millers, like others in the valley, say they like the water from their well and the community water system. "We have such good water where we are," Jack Miller said. "The thought of having pumped-in, treated water is not at all appealing." The regional water system combines the water designated for the pueblos and the county under the settlement provisions and will divert it from the Rio Grande on San Ildefonso land. The total system, including a water- treatment facility to remove sediment and disinfect the water, will cost an estimated $162 million just to build. State and county officials say a water treatment system will provide safer water that meets federal water quality standards. But Miller said paying for water from the regional system is another drawback for residents. He said county officials told them last year the regional water system would double and triple the water rates up to $80 and more a month. "We have a lot of people on fixed incomes," Miller said. Out of a dozen people The New Mexican interviewed from Nambe' to Jacona, only one thought hooking into a regional water system would be good. Dawn Kellum, who moved back to her mother's Pojoaque land from Rio Rancho, doesn't trust the well water. But she said most of her family and their neighbors on wells oppose the system. What's next If Congress approves legislation for the settlement, it goes back to court and all individuals named in the case, an estimated 4,000 people, must sign the final water rights agreement. "Those that don't will take their chances," Bagley said. "The pueblos could make a call on their water in a worst-case scenario. As individuals, they would face pueblo attorneys in District Court. It's a bit of a cloud that hangs over folks if they don't sign on. But on the other hand, nothing might happen." Disclosure: New Mexican publisher Robin Martin is a party to the Aamodt litigation. Contact Staci Matlock at 470-9843 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com. Copyright c. 2007, Santa Fe New Mexican, all rights reserved. --------- "RE: Navajo API presents $500K Dividend for Students" --------- Date: Saturday, June 09, 2007 12:12 am From: Sararesa Begay, Public Information Officer Subj: Navajo Agricultural Products Industry Presents $500,000 Dividend to Economic Development Committee and Navajo Scholarship Office for Navajo Students Navajo Nation Council Office of the Speaker Contact: Sararesa Begay, Public Information Officer (928) 871-6384 sararesabegay@navajo.org http://www.navajonationcouncil.org June 8, 2007 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Navajo Agricultural Products Industry Presents $500,000 Dividend to Economic Development Committee and Navajo Scholarship Office for Navajo Students FARMINGTON, N.M. - Council delegate Tom LaPahe (Tachee/Blue Gap/Whipporwill) said his economic development committee members should celebrate and recognize a historic moment for the Navajo Nation's Navajo Agricultural Products Industry during the recent committee meeting on Wednesday, June 6 at the NAPI headquarters. The committee approved by a vote of 6-0 to accept a $500,000 dividend from NAPI. The NAPI administration and five-member board presented the dividend to the EDC and the Navajo Nation Scholarship Office intended specifically for academic scholarships. "We've received money for our children," LaPahe said in Navajo. "This is history in the making for NAPI. Ao', a'he'e'he' (`Yes, thank you.')" Honorable Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan (Iyanbito/Pinedale) said when he learned of the dividend return of a quarter million dollars he felt "jubilant about the return of goods on the national and international levels to the Navajo Nation." He extended accolades and gratitude to the Honorable Speaker Edward T. Begay, a NAPI board member, who was in attendance during the EDC meeting. "NAPI is going to be touching many young lives, students' lives so that each of them will further his/her formal education," Speaker Morgan added. Lawrence Platero (To'hajiilee), EDC chairperson, praised each of the committee members by saying, "Pat yourself on the back. We have this historic moment." Ervin Chavez, NAPI Board Chairperson, and Tsosie Lewis, NAPI Chief Executive Officer, presented the $500,000 check and credited the Navajo Nation Council and the Office of the Speaker for NAPI's success of funding surplus. "We want to give money back to the Navajo Nation," Chavez said, adding that he gives credit to the NAPI workers for their hard work that made NAPI produce a profit. "On behalf of the NAPI employee, we wish to share our profit with the Navajo Nation to help our children pursue their higher education endeavors. We are grateful for your leadership and support of the Navajo Agricultural Products Industry." Colaine Curtis, NAP Chief Financial Officer, and Rose Graham, Navajo Scholarship Office Director, presented a memorandum of understanding that the Navajo Scholarship Office will provide a detail report of accounting of funds, number of students served and each student's course of studies. The Navajo Scholarship office will help NAPI with recruitment for summer internships and long-term employment and that each student will be informed that fund they are receiving are provided by NAPI. The NAPI board members are chairperson Chavez; Gary Nelson, vicechairperson; Jeannie Y. Benally, secretary; Lyndon Chee, member and Edward T. Begay, member. The Navajo Nation Scholarship full-time application deadline for fall 2007 is scheduled for 5 p.m. June 25, 2007. Application requirements can be found at www.onnsfa.org -30- --------- "RE: Navajo Council members gain insightful Information" --------- Date: Saturday, June 09, 2007 12:13 am From: Sararesa Begay, Public Information Officer Subj: 21st Navajo Nation Council members gain insightful information during two-day work session Navajo Nation Council Office of the Speaker Contact: Sararesa Begay, Public Information Officer (928) 871-6384 sararesabegay@navajo.org http://www.navajonationcouncil.org June 8, 2007 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 21st Navajo Nation Council members gain insightful information during two-day work session GALLUP, N.M. - Council delegate Jonathan Nez (Shonto) said the twoday work sessions held Thursday, June 7 and today, Friday, June 8, expanded his knowledge about how great the Navajo Nation is. "This is giving me a better understanding of how powerful we are as a nation as how we are a role model for other Native Nations," Nez said. Nez along with members of the 21st Navajo Nation Council participated in the litigation briefing meetings that are closed to the public. The meetings were held in executive session for the council delegates. "This is good for us," said Ernest D. Yazzie Jr. (Baahaali/Church Rock). "This is to keep us updated; we need to have this frequently. It's good information so that we are ready and alert for anything that comes our way." The council members learned about a number of litigation cases involving the Navajo Nation. "What we get is new information," said Orlanda Smith-Hodge (Cornfields/Greasewood Springs/Klagetoh/Wide Ruins). "The information impacts our future. This allows us to make better decisions because we're doing this on behalf of the Navajo Nation." The work session each lasted approximately from 9 a.m. to about 4:30 p.m. each day. Cases range from natural resources, the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Tribe, gaming, human services and government and tax were discussed. "It's an eye-opener and educational," said Davis Filfred (Mexican Water/Aneth/Red Mesa) who is serving his first term as a delegate. "We need more time on this. I have a lot of gratitude and faith in the Navajo Nation Department of Justice." Another first-term council delegate, Herman Morris, (Tohatchi) added, "it's a good update." Council delegate Thomas Walker Jr. (Birdsprings/Leupp/Tolani Lake) said the work session "helps us as a legislative body." "It assists us in resolving issues with the outside world and entities. Some issues are complicated and long-standing, and it helps us get a clearer view of the situation," Walker said. "We have this unique relationship with sovereign entities, and other sovereign Nations, this updates us to the minute." Walker and Filfred wanted to thank the Navajo Nation Attorney General's Office, the Navajo Nation Department of Justice and the Navajo Nation Legislative Branch for their work, dedication and contributions to the betterment and upward mobility of the Navajo people. "There's value in the outcome, and this helps us be more conscious of corporations and outside entities with vested interest in the Navajo Nation," Walker added. "This allows us to learn from our previous mistakes," said council delegate Leslie Dele (Tonalea) who noted that in previous years Navajo leaders didn't participate in work sessions like this to adequately prepare each leader for important decisions affecting the Navajo Nation. The two-day work sessions are intended to inform council delegates in order to prepare each of them for their various work projects and work commitments. -30- --------- "RE: 1853 Indian deaths may be executions by Mormons" --------- Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 07:57:08 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ARCHAEOLOGIST FINDINGS: INDIAN DEATHS MAY BE EXECUTIONS BY LDS" http://www.sltrib.com/ci_6090275?source=rss Secret of the bones: 1853 Indian deaths may be executions by Mormon settlers By Jason Bergreen The Salt Lake Tribune June 8, 2007 1853 Indian deaths may be executions by LDS That is the conclusion of state archaeologists who spent nearly nine months examining the roughly 1,800 bones and bone fragments that were found in a shallow grave in downtown Nephi in August 2006. Of the seven skeletons belonging to men and boys aged about 12 to 35, six showed evidence of gunshot wounds, said Utah assistant state archaeologist Ronald Rood. Three had bullet wounds near the top of their skulls. "It's a situation where you see people down on the ground, with their heads lowered and then shot in the back of the head," Rood said. The killings appear to be connected to a larger conflict between Mormon pioneers and American Indians during the summer and fall of 1853 known as the Walker War, Rood said. On Sept. 30, 1853, four men driving a pair of oxen-drawn wagons to Salt Lake City from Manti were attacked and killed during an overnight raid at Uintah Springs, according to Springville historian D. Robert Carter. The killings outraged settlers as the men's bodies were returned to Nephi for burial. Two days later, it appears Mormon pioneers sought retaliation for the slayings by executing the American Indian men and boys, who are believed not to have been involved in the attack on the wagons. "I think it's unlikely they were involved in that," Rood said. Official accounts written by militia leaders of the time referred to the killings as a "skirmish," Rood said. But the archaeological data and forensic study, as well as two journal entries written by two women who witnessed the men die, now suggest the slayings were committed execution- style. "These people were seated and shot at close range," Rood said. Three of the skeletons have defensive marks on their arm bones suggesting they were trying to defend themselves. The child who was around 12 years old had a gunshot wound through his right leg, Rood said. It is also clear that one of the men killed was bound because his skeleton was found buried face down with one arm behind his back and a leather strap with a buckle was still attached to his wrist. Forensic science was unable to determined the cause of death for a boy about 16 to 18, Rood said, because gunshot wounds or another cause of death were not apparent on his bones. After they were killed, the bodies of the men and boys were dumped in a shallow grave in Nephi. Last summer, 153 years later, a landowner who dug into a ravine to pour foundation for a new home unearthed the skeletons. The bodies were lying on top or next to each other in the 3-foot-wide grave. Rood said it took him about six days to excavate the site. Then he and University of Utah forensic anthropologist Derinna Kopp spent two weeks sorting out the bones and matching them up. From that point, Kopp spent several months analyzing, measuring and recording each bone. The reason for the extensive analysis was not to rewrite history but to add to it and give the men and boys who were silenced a voice, Rood said. "I think it's important that the voices of the seven dead people can be a part of the record," he said. It is still unclear whether the American Indians are members of the Ute or Goshute tribe, but it was probably one or the other, Rood said. Their remains will not be shipped to a museum, but hopefully be returned to their families or tribes. Rood said a process will start in a few months allowing American Indian groups to make claims on the remains and help determine their final resting place. Rood will present his findings today in Orem at a Utah Statewide Archeological Society gathering. jbergreen@sltrib.com Copyright c. 2007 Salt Lake Tribune. --------- "RE: Akaka Bill: Creating a Haven for Corruption?" --------- Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 07:34:21 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="OPINION: AKAKA BILL" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.hawaiireporter.com/ story.aspx?09c220c0-dfe9-4e9f-9146-d1f3d8eddbd6 Akaka Bill: Creating a Haven for Corruption? Special from Hawaii Free Press By Andrew Walden June 6, 2007 Proponents claim the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2007 (Akaka Bill, S 310) will protect Hawaiian entitlements and assets. But the strong connections between the Broken Trust scandal of the late 1990s and the 2000 introduction of the "Akaka Bill" should raise questions about the wisdom of creating what will amount to a Hawaiian Indian reservation. If the Akaka Bill passes the U.S. Senate and U.S. House and is approved by the President, corrupt politicians and their cronies, (both Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian), could find their activities shielded from federal and state law enforcement by 'tribal' law. Rather than being protected, Native Hawaiians organized into an Indian tribe may find themselves unable to halt activities that could endanger the entire Hawaiian patrimony. According to the text of the Akaka Bill, "The purpose of this Act is to provide a process for the reorganization of the single Native Hawaiian governing entity and the reaffirmation of the special political and legal relationship between the United States and that Native Hawaiian governing entity for purposes of continuing a government-to-government relationship." By "reorganizing" a native Hawaiian government, the Akaka Bill goes far beyond what is necessary to protect Hawaiians-only admissions at Kamehameha Schools and Native-Hawaiian-only eligibility for leases with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. Use of the term, "government to government relationship" clearly directs the process towards establishing a Hawaiian Indian reservation and away from the model of the Alaskan Native Corporations, which are corporate entities, not government entities. Why should this matter? Alaskan Native corporations have been very successful at making native assets serve native Alaskans. The Alaskan success stands in sharp contrast to Indian reservations which are often a third-world nightmare of corruption, drugs, poverty, unemployment and illiteracy. Yet the political class in Hawaii is almost 100 percent behind the Akaka Bill and the Hawaiian Indian reservation it would create. What are the possible reasons for rejecting the successful model of Alaskan Native Corporations in favor of the unsuccessful model of Indian reservations? Contrary to popular opinion, Indian reservations already have a history in Hawaii. An Oct. 12, 1999, article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin describes the efforts of Bishop Estate trustees in 1995 to evade oversight of the unorthodox doings which were soon to be exposed as the "Broken Trust" scandal. The Trustees' self-serving investments had caused Bishop Estate losses over $264 million in 1994 alone. Their reaction? To avoid scrutiny, they commissioned a plan formulated by ex-Governor John Waihee's law firm to move Bishop Estate corporate headquarters out of Hawaii -- to the windswept plains of the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian reservation in South Dakota. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin explains: "In an apparent attempt to circumvent state and federal oversight, the Bishop Estate paid Washington D.C.-based (law firm) Verner Liipfert Bernhard McPherson and Hand more than $200,000 to look into moving the estate's legal domicile, or corporate address, to the mainland, sources said. "Verner Liipfert, whose local office is headed by former Gov. John Waihee, identified the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation as the top relocation prospect after reviewing the legislative, tax and judicial environments of 48 mainland states and Alaska. "The study was part of a broader effort by the former board members to lobby against federal legislation limiting trustee compensation and to convert the tax-exempt Bishop Estate to a for-profit corporation." The trustees' efforts are also described in The Cheating of America by Charles Lewis and Bill Allison of The Center for Public Integrity. They quote former Hawaii Attorney General Margery Bronster explaining Bishop Estate's proposed move to Cheyenne River: "Their main motivation was to avoid oversight from the State Attorney General and the IRS." The Honolulu Star-Bulletin further points out: "Gregg Bourland, chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribal council ... said there is good reason for an entity like the Bishop Estate to make inquiries about changing its domicile to the South Dakota reservation ... "Since the 1800s, the Cheyenne River Sioux have had a government-to- -government relationship with the United States which allows them to operate their own police force, court system and legislative functions. "Such a system may shield the trust from Hawaii Probate Court jurisdiction, although Bourland was unsure if the IRS would continue to oversee the trust." "Government to government relationship" describes the relationship desired by the scandalous Bishop Estate trustees. Whether relocated to South Dakota or creating the Indian Reservation here, such a move would shield Bishop Estate not only from the Federal government but also from the investigations that Bronster was forced to launch as Broken Trust revelations emerged in the press. According to Lewis and Allison, the activities Bishop Estate trustees were attempting to shield included: * Giving themselves significant pay raises, even while programs at the school were being cut; * Investing in questionable ventures recommended by a trustee's personal acquaintances, including an Internet directory of would-be-adult-film actors and casting agents; * Frequenting adult entertainment clubs and casinos using money from the charitable trust's coffers, reportedly inviting state legislators on such trips; and * Lobbying Congress to defeat or alter legislation designed to give the IRS more authority to penalize their multi-million dollar compensation packages. As U.S. District Judge Samuel King told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin: "It's another indication of how arrogant, greedy and insensitive this whole bunch is ... Their claim that they are supporting Princess Pauahi's will is laughable." Lokelani Lindsey, the last of the five Broken Trust Bishop Estate trustees, was forced to resign Dec. 16, 1999. Further investigation of the scandal was quickly halted. A few months later, in 2000, the first version of the so-called "Akaka Bill" was introduced by Sen. Daniel Akaka. Is this a coincidence? Of the four members of the Hawaii congressional delegation now co- sponsoring the Akaka Bill, three were in Congress in 1995 and 1996. They were also personally and extensively involved in failed lobbying efforts to protect the Bishop Estate trustees from IRS oversight and enforcement. According to the Hawaii best-selling book "Broken Trust", Senators Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye, co-sponsors of the Akaka Bill, and Rep Abercrombie, co-sponsor of HR 505, the House version of the Akaka Bill, fought to shield the Bishop Estate trustees. "Broken Trust" (page 210) explains Bishop Estate trustees: "...lobbied against the enactment of intermediate sanctions, spending nearly $1 million of trust funds in the process....Despite the trustees' efforts and behind the scenes support from Hawaii's Congressional delegation (except for Representative Patsy Mink who stood up to the trustees), Congress passed the intermediate sanctions bill in 1996." The 'intermediate sanctions' law authorized the IRS to fine individual wrongdoers when charity assets (such as Bishop Estate) are stolen or misused. This is not the only connection between the Hawaii Congressional co- sponsors of the Akaka Bill and the Broken Trust scandal. "Broken Trust" (page 163) explains that in August 1997, after the first Broken Trust essay was printed in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, "(Senator) Daniel Akaka defended the trustees. He said the (nearly $1 million per year) level of (Bishop Estate trustees') compensation was not too high: If anything, the trustees deserved to be paid more." Are the Broken Trust conspirators still powerful in Hawaii's political system? The 2006 Democratic Senatorial Primary pitted U.S. Senator Dan Akaka against then Congressman Ed Case. In contrast to Akaka's support for the corrupt trustees, Case championed measures to control trustee compensation and reform trustee selection throughout his 1990s legislative career. When Case was a state Representative in 1998, he proposed a state Native Hawaiian Autonomy Act to establish a State-recognized native Hawaiian corporation. His proposal was shouted down as "denying Native Hawaiians the right to self-determination" by many of the same shady political figures who were at that very moment profiting from the pillaging of Princess Pauahi's Estate. Bishop Estate trustee Lokelani Lindsey was ordered off the board in May 1999 after the IRS threatened to revoke Bishop Estate's tax-exempt status due to the actions of the trustees. Lindsey had invested Bishop Estate money in the 'adult' website and had appointed Rockne Freitas (now Chancellor of Hawaii Community College) to micro-manage the Kamehameha School on her behalf. She called the dismissal of trustees, "the second overthrow." Broken Trust (page 262) describes Bishop Estate trustee Henry Peters in 1999 reacting to his ouster claiming the real intention of the IRS was to end admissions preferences for Hawaiians at Kamehameha. Of course, no such effort was made by the IRS. On the contrary, when new trustees were named, the IRS established conditions to avoid taking Bishop Estate's tax-exempt status, thus saving the estate about $1 billion which was then available to fund Hawaiian-only education. A State-recognized Native Hawaiian Corporation as envisioned by Case would likely eliminate the legal threats against Hawaiians-only admissions at Kamehameha Schools and Hawaiians-only eligibility for DHHL leases. Such a move would certainly ease federal recognition of a Native Hawaiian Corporation which definitely would end any legal threat to Hawaiian preferences. Lifting the lawsuit threat would also eliminate the justification for creating the Hawaiian Indian reservation, which those with ill, self- serving intentions need to shield their illegal activities from state and federal law enforcement. So they shout about "the lawsuits" to keep native Hawaiians distracted. All the while, they can plot ways to scam from native Hawaiians and their entitlements. --- Andrew Walden is the publisher and editor of Hawaii Free Press, a Big Island-based newspaper. He can be reached via email at mailto:andrewwalden@email.com HawaiiReporter.com reports the real news, and prints all editorials submitted, even if they do not represent the viewpoint of the editors, as long as they are written clearly. Send editorials to mailto:Malia@HawaiiReporter.com Copyright c. 2007 Hawaii Reporter, Inc. --------- "RE: INDN's List Partner Calls for Political Candidates" --------- Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 16:02:14 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CANDIDATE CALL" http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=8795 INDN's List Partner Calls for Political Candidates: Submit Endorsement Applications Now TULSA, OK June 8, 2007 As it gears up for the 2008 election cycle, INDN's List is working with likeminded activists to find the next round of visionary leaders to elect. 21st Century Democrats, a group dedicated to electing Progressive Democrats to state and local offices around the country and a sister organization of INDN's List, recently released its 2007-2008 candidate questionnaire to begin finding the next generation of Progressive candidates across the country. "Representative Chuck Hoskin, one of our 2006 candidates, was endorsed by 21st Century Democrats," said INDN's List President Kalyn Free. "They worked very closely with us to ensure his election. We look forward to working even more closely with 21st Century Democrats in 2008." "Leadership is about offering solutions and building the political will to support them," Free continued. "That's why 21st Century Democrats works to elect Democrats who will be leaders inside the Democratic Party on Capitol Hill, in State Houses, counties and cities across the country - Democrats who will take us to the next level. And by partnering with us at INDN's List we can ensure that many of those leaders are American Indians that will move both Indian Country and America forward to a better future." The two organizations are committed to transforming politics by electing a new generation of leaders, they say, because very often the best leaders are overlooked or ignored by the political establishment - "just as our leaders have marginalized American Indians for most of our history," added Free. "21st Century Democrats will elect candidates who are bold, visionary, authentic leaders - and with INDN's List they will find many of those candidates in Indian Country." Individuals who are interested in running for political office are encouraged to apply for an endorsement from 21st Century Democrats as well as to participate in INDN's List Campaign Camp, to be held in August. Applications to 21st Century Democrats can be found at http://www. 21stcenturydems.org/candidates/endorsement_application07-08. More information about Campaign Camp is on the group's website, at www.indnslist.org/campaign_camp_2007. For more information about INDN's List Education Fund or Prez on the Rez, contact Dave Parker, Political Director, at (202) 494-4053. Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: EDITORIAL: Arrogance lies in seeing warming as OK" --------- Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 07:48:04 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GLOBAL WARMING NOT A PROBLEM?" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.startribune.com/561/story/1222801.html Editorial: The arrogance lies in seeing warming as OK NASA administrator flubs an essential truth. June 4, 2007 "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." Attributed to Mark Twain. Last week, NASA administrator Michael Griffin, interviewed by Steve Inskeep on National Public Radio, allowed as to how global warming, caused by human activity, is a real phenomenon, but added that he questions whether it "is a problem we must wrestle with." Well, yes, actually. Griffin went on to explain that, "I guess I would ask which human beings - where and when - are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now, is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take." Talk about turning logic on its head. Humans aren't judging this the best possible climate; they're judging it the one nature gave us. The entire effort to slow and eventually halt global warming is based on reducing as much as we can the human impacts on climate, thus letting natural rather than man-caused forces determine how warm or cold the Earth will be. Far from expressing human arrogance, those who seek action against global warming express great deference to Mother Nature. They do not want the power to determine climate because they do not think they are that smart. And they are surely right. Conversely, Griffin and others who suggest that global warming might be a good thing and should be embraced actually are arguing that it's OK for human beings to assume the right and the power to manipulate climate. That's the attitude that displays major-league arrogance. It also shows extraordinary callousness toward those who inevitably will lose if warming isn't checked. Overwhelmingly, the losers are the poorest of the world's poor in Africa and Asia, not to mention thousands upon thousands of other creatures that are also an important part of, if you will, God's creation. Apparently it matters little to Griffin and others who hold his view that human-caused warming puts everything from polar bears to the entire nation of Bangladesh at risk. We would suggest that humankind should not want to get into the game of choosing climate winners and losers, human or otherwise. If the climate of Earth is to change, that's a "decision" best left to nature itself. Human beings are pretty good at adapting to change, but they should eschew the incredible arrogance of initiating change. Copyright c. 2007 Minneapolis Star Tribune. --------- "RE: GIAGO: Black Hills: A Case of Dishonest Dealings" --------- Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 07:48:04 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GIAGO: BLACK HILLS" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tim-giago/ the-black-hills-a-case-o_b_50480.html The Black Hills: A Case of Dishonest Dealings Tim Giago June 3, 2007 Anyone who watched HBO's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee had to be pretty quick to catch the scroll at the end of the movie about the illegal taking of the Black Hills from the tribes of the Great Sioux Nation. Justice Harry Blackmun in his legal opinion wrote, "A more ripe and rank case of dishonest dealings may never be found in our history." The U. S. Supreme Court decreed that the Hills did belong to the Sioux and on July 23, 1980 awarded them $105,994,430.52 for the Black Hills (Docket 74B) and $40,245,807.02 for lands taken east of the Black Hills (Docket 74A). The scroll at the end of the movie indicated that the award now stood at $600 million and the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota refused to accept it. Well, that figure was wrong and should have been updated. As of today the amount of the awards are $757,465,288.74 for the Black Hills and $105,821,479.16 for the land taken east of the Black Hills. That brings the total owed to the tribes of the Great Sioux Nation to $863,286,767.90. A nice chunk of cash. And yet, the poorest of people in all of America refuse to accept one single penny of the award. In 1921 when the Sioux tribes first filed the lawsuit that took 60 years to reach the Supreme Court, my father was 27 years old. My mother was 19. They have since passed away. When the award was first announced in 1981, the president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe was Stanley Looking Elk and the president of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe was Norman Wilson. Both presidents went with the wishes of their people and refused to accept the money. When I owned Indian Country Today weekly newspaper I took a survey in 1996 that came back with the powerful figures that 96 percent of the people still refused to take the money. How, in a world where everything revolves around money, can the poorest people in America refuse to accept millions of dollars? Because they consider the land that was stolen from them to be sacred and as they say, "One does not sell their Mother." In the early 1980s then Senator Bill Bradley (D-NJ) visited the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and made many friends. At the behest of tribal member Gerald Clifford (now deceased) and tribal attorney Mario Gonzales, he introduced the Bradley Bill, which was intended to return 1.3 million acres of the original 7.5 million acres that make up the Black Hills to the Sioux people. The 1.3 million acres would be U. S. National Forest land only and would not contain any municipalities, state owned land, privately owned land, or any land containing national federal monuments. This Bill had the support of many tribal members. However, a California millionaire claiming to be Lakota, Phil Stevens, attempted to introduce legislation of his own, with the backing of some tribal leaders, and he muddied the waters enough so that Bradley withdrew his sponsorship and the Bradley Bill died a quiet death. As has been a problem of historic proportions, it only took one sweet talker with another idea to cause enough confusion to kill a good idea. South Dakota's Congressional delegation also would not support the Bill. So for the next 26 years the money held in trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs has gathered interest and continued to grow. Several years ago when Greg Bourland was elected Chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe he brought up the Black Hills Claims Settlement to some of the other tribal chairmen and he said, "It was as if the other chairmen were afraid to look at the subject. It was like that deranged aunt or uncle you hide in the basement." It is a subject so touchy that even the Congressional delegates from South Dakota shy away from it like a skunk in the living room. But it is a subject that everyone in South Dakota, Indian and non-Indian, will have to face eventually and they had better start finding a position on it now. Most Lakota just want a portion of the Black Hills returned, but each time this is brought up, as in the Bradley Bill, the white people of the state immediately start the propaganda machine up and start spreading the lie that, "the Indians are trying to take the Black Hills away from us." There are those who say that if the Indians continue to refuse to accept the money that it will be forced upon them. There are also those who say that the Indians should take the money and then buy back a portion of the Black Hills. This idea is also unacceptable to the Indian people because to accept one penny of the settlement in any fashion would validate the theft of the land. In my mind, the only solution is to have someone with an abundance of courage step forward and introduce new legislation following the guidelines of the Bradley Bill and hope that he or she can find a consensus amongst the different tribes of the Great Sioux Nation to make it work. The settlement is fast approaching one billion dollars and the tribal leaders better take the issue out of the basement and start some serious conversations about it before the decision is taken out of their hands by the United States government. Before a new bill can be introduced the leaders of every tribe involved must come to an agreement and help to define the contents of the bill. Thousands of Lakota have died while waiting for their leaders to find closure to the Black Hills issue and at the present rate; thousands more will die while their leaders sit on their hands. --- Tim Giago is an Oglala Lakota. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard in the Class of 1991. His latest book "Children Left Behind, the Dark Legacy of the Indian Missions," is now available at: order@clearlightbooks.com. The book just won the Bronze Star from the Independent Publishers Awards. He can be reached at najournalists@rushmore.com) Copyright c. 2007 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Grads' stories inspire the crowd" --------- Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 07:22:40 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: GRADUATION STORIES" http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=40092 Grads' stories inspire the crowd Dorreen Yellow Bird June 6, 2007 It's that wonderful time of year when there are tons of graduations of friends and relatives. Graduation cards are filled with handsome men and glamorous women - the movie star-like pictures taken of young people for their graduation. In my day, we were allowed only to have head-shot graduation pictures airbrushed, so you hardly recognized yourself. "In some cases," my sister said as we talked about those old pictures, "that was a good thing." And she laughed. I could hardly believe some of my relatives were old enough to graduate, I told my sister. Remember when you couldn't talk to those kids because they had an iPod growing out of their ears and a sloppy T-shirt hanging off their shoulders? Now, it's 4-inch heels and long dresses or coats and tails, and prom. And here they are on graduation day, standing there with cap and grown in front of teachers and the community, accepting their ticket to adulthood. I saw a group graduation picture and recognized a young woman whom I had met several years ago, I told my sister. The young woman had struggled for most of her life because she had a mental disability. On that day, though, she was sitting with the graduates. I don't know what will become of her now, but I do know that even with her hardships, she will find her place in the world. She has proven that she can overcome almost anything. Several years ago, I interviewed a young man who graduated from Red River High School. When he graduated, the entire high school audience stood and applauded him for several minutes. He, too, was an outstanding young man who had a disability and had to struggle. His mother couldn't have been prouder of him and watched over him like a mother hen, but he handled the interview well, as he did his graduation and, I suspect, the next step in his life. I didn't hear what happened to him, but I can only guess he is setting records wherever he is. When I see these young people who were given so many hurdles to leap - and leap they did - I wonder what makes them strive, thrive and contribute, while so many of those who have every want and need met continue to reach and grab for more. Currently, the spotlight is on Paris Hilton, the "poor little rich girl" who was jailed for an alcohol-related offense. Unfortunately, it's people such as Hilton who some of our young people use as their role models, rather than those young people who made it in spite of the odds. When I look at Hilton, I wonder how many more years she has at the rate she is using her life. Perhaps her life wasn't filled with the kind of love and affection that the young man in Grand Forks received. Perhaps too much money kills the spirit. Then again, I remembered the girl in the graduation picture. She didn't have a mother who doted on her or even was there for her. She had a grandmother who loved and prayed for her every day. The grandmother always kept the girl as close as she could. The father helped and was there for her, but he wasn't strong. She didn't have the willowy body and designer clothes of Hilton. But she did have an inner beauty that we could see in her spirit. I don't know what she will do, but I suspect she will find a way to make up for her disability. When I think about this young man and woman, I feel humble that I have a good mind and body. Than I realize the Creator was probably right to give me my strength, spirit and good health because I probably couldn't walk in these remarkable young people's shoes for even a minute. Graduation has special meaning and importance for these young people. They show what we can be in spite of what was dealt to us. --- 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: Graduates shine with Knowledge, Heart" --------- Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 16:02:14 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="JODI RAVE: NATIVE GRADUATES" http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/06/10/jodirave/rave56.txt Native News with Jodi Rave Column: Graduates shine with knowledge and heart June 10, 2007 CORVALLIS, Ore. - Michelle Gattone gave one of her final presentations before a panel of professors last week, a last salute to her undergraduate years at Oregon State University. The Cherokee woman will graduate June 17, taking her place among hundreds of Native students earning degrees from tribal colleges and universities in the heartland and coast to coast. I watched Gattone make her presentation when I visited the OSU campus this past week. Being around the OSU Native students reminded me of a recent interview with Philip "Sam" Deloria, the new director of the American Indian Graduate Center based on the University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque, N.M. Deloria spoke highly of the students he's meeting in academia these days. This new cadre of young people is graduating from college and ready to serve local communities. They are eager to make a difference and move Native people past historic oppression. One young man attending school on the East Coast exemplifies these ideals. Cory Cornelius, a Dakota, Kootenai and Oneida, will graduate from Dartmouth University on Sunday. Cornelius picked up a bachelor's degree and a double major in computer science and Native studies. His resume shows he excelled in the college classroom and received rave reviews from professors, which led to a temporary computer science job with Dartmouth's Institute for Security Technologies Studies upon graduation. The young man credits his late Dakota grandmother, Fern Eastman Mathias, for opening the door to a world of computer technology. She gave him his first computer when he was 13 years old. It was a Mac. One of the first things he did was design an American Indian Movement Web site for his grandmother, who was an active AIM member. Cornelius told me she understood the value of computers at a time when most people didn't. "I never really figured out why," he said. She also helped instill a strong sense of Native identity in her grandson. He embraces his culture, along with the idea that he doesn't need alcohol to find his place within a peer group. He said his views on alcohol sometimes left him at odds with other Natives at Dartmouth. In fact, he almost decided to go to Cal-Berkeley after his first visit to Dartmouth. But Cornelius thought about his grandmother. She had always wanted someone in the Eastman family to attend Dartmouth. It had been 120 years since the Eastmans saw their last family member graduate, an academic feat soundly resting with Charles Eastman, the famed Dakota doctor and author who was recently profiled in the HBO special, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee." The year 1887 and five generations stand between Eastman - who was a brother to Fern Eastman Mathias' grandfather, David Eastman - and Cornelius' graduation. Back on the West Coast, Gattone is wrapping up an undergraduate degree as an ethnic studies major. A 10-week internship at a Corvallis elementary school required her to debrief a professorial panel about the experience. She was calm when she did her presentation, and comfortably revealed many of the frustrations she had in working with teachers who often left her feeling overwrought and in despair. Teachers have tremendous power to influence, interpret and reflect on the world in which we live, she said. And they have a captive audience - children. She encountered positive teachers as well, though, who couldn't see past the European-American boundaries that dominated their lives. To them, the highlight of American history began with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the gold rush and pioneers. Others appeared unaware that non-whites can and do get treated differently because of their race and ethnicity. "I saw school as a racial project," she said. "Race is constructed here at a young age." But the word "race" was often viewed as a four-letter word and not something teachers wanted to talk about. "That was the thing; the teachers didn't believe racism still existed in our society," said Gattone. A professor attending the presentation said every public school teacher should read "Beyond Heroes and Holidays." Gattone's internship made her more determined to remain in school and pursue ethnic and women's studies as part of a graduate degree program. When she's finished, she hopes to one day teach, write books and work with indigenous people at a grass-roots level. Her internship intensified her resolve to make a difference in someone's life. "I know this is the field I want to be in." Reach reporter Jodi Rave at 800-366-7186 or jodi.rave@lee.net Copyright c. 2007 Missoulian, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Sweat ceremony: Unforgettable" --------- Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 16:02:14 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: INIPI" http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=40514 Sweat ceremony: Unforgettable Dorreen Yellow Bird June 9, 2007 My grandmother used to tell me to look for little things that seemed to come into my life without reason and listen for Earth sounds that sing to me. Together, she said, they will guide you. I thought about her words last week as a theme seemed to emerge from this community. The theme is American Indian ways and ceremonies. They aren't easily explained without misinterpretation or violating the ceremonies themselves, I know. I have spent years learning about the culture and ways of the Sahnish (Arikara), Lakota and Dakota. In my early years, I learned about Sahnish culture from my grandmother, uncles and aunts. When I returned home after several years of traveling, spiritual mentors from the Sahnish and also the Dakota and Lakota people were my guides. We earn the rights to tell these things from spiritual leaders and mentors, as well as experiences from those teachings. Restrictions sometimes are attached to "teachings" as a way to keep ceremonies and ways intact. I also have to say that there are times as I move about Indian country when I wonder about some of those who have taken up teaching. Have they followed a good teacher? Yet, I add, many of the young people in our region are good spiritual leaders. The Indian way has taught them to live good lives, free of alcohol and drugs. They are good caretakers of their families and those in need and provide opportunities for ceremonies for the people. From what I know of Ambrose and Anna Little Ghost, they are two of those people. The Herald asked me to provide the name of someone in the area a subject for our women's magazine that is published once a month to