_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 15, ISSUE 027 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 July 2, 2007 Hopi Kelmuya/fledgling raptor moon Passamaquoddy Accihte/ripening moon Zuni Dayamcho yachunne/moon when limbs of are trees broken by fruit Algonquin Matterllawaw Kesos/moon squash are ripe, beans begin to be edible +-------------------------------------------------------+ | Much more happens in Indian Country than is reported | | in this weekly newsletter. For daily updates & events | | go to http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm | +-------------------------------------------------------+ Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin -- Blackfeet -- News for All the People Ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min -- Ojibwe -- We Are Talking About Ourselves Aunchemokauhettittea -- Naragansett -- Let Us Share News Kanoheda Aniyvwiya -- Cherokee -- Journal of the People O Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse -- Creek -- People's New News O o O Acimowin -- Plains Cree -- Story or Account O o O Tlaixmatiliztli -- Nahuatl -- News O o o o o O Agnutmaqan -- Listuguj Mi'kmaq -- News O o O Sho-da-ku-ye -- Teehahnahmah -- Talking Birchbark O o O Un Chota -- Susquehannic Seneca -- The People Speak O Ha-Sah-Sliltha -- Ditidaht Nation -- News of the People Ximopanolti tehuatzin, inin Mexika tlahtolli -- Nahuatl -- For you we offer these words It-hah-pe-hah Ah-num pah-le -- Chickasaw -- Together We Are Talking Dineh jii' adah' ho'nil'e'gii ba' ha' neh -- Navajo Nation -- What's Happening among The People News Okla Humma Holisso Nowat Anya -- Choctaw -- People(s) Red Newspaper Hi'a chu ah gaa -- Pima -- The stories or the talk of the People s ch mA mL tL squee Lux -- Okanogan -- News from the People Native American News -- Language of the Occupation Forces ++>If you speak a Native American language not listed above, please send us your words for "News of the People." We'd rather take up this whole page saving these few words of our hundreds of nations than present a nice clean banner in the language of the occupation forces who came here determined to replace our words with their own. email gars@nanews.org with the equivalent of "News of the People" in your tribal language along with the english translation <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is produced in straight ASCII text for greatest portability across platforms. Read it with a fixed-pitch font, such as Courier, Monaco, FixedSys or CG Times. Proportional fonts will be difficult to read. <================<<<< >>>>================> This issue contains articles from: www.indianz.com; www.pechanga.net; www.indiancountrytoday.com; Mailing List: Native American Poetry, Remember The Cherokee/Tsalagi; UUCP Mail IMPORTANT!! ----------- In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, all material appearing in this newsletter is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for educational purposes. <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is a way of keeping the brothers and sisters who share our Spirit informed about current events within the lives of those who walk the Red Road. ++ It may be subscribed to via email by sending a request from your own internet addressable account to gars@speakeasy.org ++ It is archived at http://www.nanews.org <================<<<< >>>>================> +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | As historian Patricia Nelson | | Once a language is lost, it is | | Limerick summarized in "The | | gone forever | | Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken | | * Of the 300 original Native | | Past of the American West... | | languages in North America, | | "Set the blood quantum at | | only 175 exist today. | | one-quarter, hold to it as a | | * 125 of these are no longer | | rigid definition of Indians, | | learned by children. | | let intermarriage proceed as | | * 55 are spoken by 1 to 6 elders;| | it had for centuries, and | | when they die, their language | | eventually Indians will be | | will disappear. | | defined out of existence." | | * Without action, only 20 | | "When that happens, the federal | | languages will survive the next| | government will be freed of | | 50 years. | | its persistent 'Indian problem.'"| | Source: Indigenous Language | +-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --+ | Institute | |http://www.indigenous-language.org| This issue's Quote: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + =================== "Our fight to save our sacred sites will be done using our humanity, spirit and law." __ Eugene Little Coyote, Northern Cheyenne Tribal President +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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 average American has two sterotypical views of Native Americans. The first is bonnet wearing "savages" attacking wagon trains and getting their deserved payback from John Wayne. I'm 64 years old and can promise I have seen a whole lot of Gene, Roy, Lash, Hoppy and John shoot-em-ups. The big difference is I know it's all bullshit. A whole lot of America ain't so sure. The second, and much more recent, is we are all casino rich and rolling in gambling money. This vision sees every single tribe as copies of the Mashantucket Pequot and Foxwoods Resort Casino or the Mississippi Band of Choctaw and their Pearl River Resort with two Casinos, The Silver Star Casino which opened in 1994 and The Golden Moon Casino which opened in 2002. This second view may actually be more damaging than the first. It creates envy and a viable excuse for denial when they hear about nations with health, education and law enforcement issues. The simple truth is for every success story like the Mashantucket Pequot there are dozens of Oglala Sioux Tribes and Red Lake Band of Chippewas drowning in red ink and oppressive control by the BIA and other forms of government Big Brother. A new ad campaign has begun in California which hopes to dispell the gross misconceptions about tribal wealth. The lead story in this issue. "A tale of broken dreams" features the family which is th centerpiece of the ad, living in a tiny trailer that most families find too small to camp in over the weekend. Understand this ... that family is NOT that unique. We knew of an old uncle living in a camper shell. Just a shell sitting on the ground... in the winter, in South Dakota. America, please quit fantasizing about Indian Country. Take the time to learn the truth. It may be as closse as an area powwow or the city Indian Center. , , 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: - Mexico's reclusive Seri . Stereotypical, dangerous at a Crossroads views of Indians - Manitoba Town objects - A Tale of broken Dreams to Metis 'Welcome Sign' - Tribes reaffirm ties - Haudenosaunee visit at Bighorn Site site of Ireland dispute - Tribal Sovereignty, - Canada funds housing markets Government Policy collide on Reserves - IHS head seeks end to shortfalls - Ontario Mohawks plan - Federal Court blockade for Friday affirms Tribe's Sovereignty - Peaceful local Day of Action - Indian Law added - BC Supreme Court to South Dakota Bar Exam dismisses John Graham's Appeal - Comment sought on - Native Justice Native use of Migratory Birds -- Justice in Indian Country - BIA denies Abenaki recognition -- Beer blockade broken up - Indian Marine by Tribal Police represents Family, Heritage - Rustywire: Little Creek - 150 years NA Family History - Lee Goins Poem: online for first time Southern Cross - GIAGO: - Del "Abe" Jones Poems: Pine Ridge still needs a hand up Independence Day - EDITORIAL: Still no action - First American Leadership Awards on Border Town Racism - 9th Annual Native American - DEB O'ROURKE: Feds' forked Tongue Music Awards announced - COMMENTARY: - New Online Drum Contest Can Cherokees outlast opponents? - Upcoming Events --------- "RE: A Tale of broken Dreams" --------- Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2007 12:41:28 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DISPARITIES, TRUTH IN AD" http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=8840 A TALE OF BROKEN DREAMS Tribal family and trailer used in advertising for Propositions 1A and 5 to approve Indian gaming visits the Capitol SACRAMENTO CA June 29, 2007 Francine Kupsch, and the trailer once a home to her family, who were the face of Native American poverty in the campaigns to approve Indian gaming in California, today described the disparity between poor and wealthy tribes to state legislators and interested individuals at the Capitol in Sacramento. "We are here today to shed light on the fact that life on the reservation is almost exactly as it was when I was featured in the ads for Prop. 1A and 5," said Francine Kupsch, Executive Tribal Secretary for the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians. "Only a small portion of our reservation has electricity and running water. All we ask for is the opportunity to pull our people from poverty. Those tribes who were once poor like us are using their wealth and power to prevent us from having a fair chance at self-sufficiency." Francine and her family of five lived in the 8' x 13" trainer without running water or electricity. A TV ad featuring her reading to her son by oil lamp was used to convince California voters of the need for Native American casinos to help pull the Tribes out of poverty. Two of her children will be with her on the Capitol grounds to share their stories of life on the reservation. The Los Coyotes and Big Lagoon Tribes signed compacts with Governor Schwarzenegger in September 2005 for the development of a unique dual- tribal casino resort in Barstow, California. State lawmakers must pass legislation to approve the compacts, the final state step in proceeding with jointly developing the casino resort. Francine, members of the Los Coyotes and the historic 8 ft. x 13 ft., 40+ year old trailer traveled 700 miles, from their Reservation in the mountainous northwest corner of San Diego County to the Capitol, to meet with legislators to share their story. "We warmly encourage any legislators or interested people to visit us and learn more about the Los Coyotes people, life on the reservation, the Barstow project and our compact," said Shane Chapparosa, Vice Spokesperson for the Los Coyotes. Copies of the original TV ad will be available at the trailer site on the capitol grounds. It can also be viewed on you tube at: http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=AYLkCJvHf_4&mode=related&search= The photograph of Francine, her family and the trailer is available in the newsroom at barstowcasinosandresort.com. The web site will also have photos of the trailer outside of the Capitol today. The Barstow Casinos and Resort are designed to capture some of the market of an estimated 60 million cars that travel through the community on their way to and from Las Vegas each year. The projects will support approximately 900 construction jobs and 1,700 full time positions at the casinos. The Los Coyotes and Big Lagoon tribes will contribute to the local community government yearly and generate millions of dollars in new revenue for the Barstow economy. The Barstow community has lagged behind the state in economic development with more than 35 percent of the residents on some form of public assistance. More than 2,000 local residents signed postcards addressed to the Governor asking him to negotiate the compacts. More information is available at www.barstowcasinosandresort.com. Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Tribes reaffirm ties at Bighorn Site" --------- Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 07:33:42 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BIGHORN RIDE" http://www.billingsgazette.net/ articles/2007/06/26/news/state/25-bighorn_g.txt Tribes reaffirm ties at Bighorn site Cheyenne, Lakota, Arapaho plan to 'combine our voices' By BECKY SHAY Of The Gazette Staff June 26, 2007 LITTLE BIGHORN BATTLEFIELD NATIONAL MONUMENT - Monday marked the 131st anniversary of three tribes coming together to defeat Lt. Col. George Custer and the 7th Cavalry at Little Bighorn Battlefield. It also was the beginning of a rekindled alliance among the Cheyenne, Lakota and Arapaho, who are embarking on a new fight to preserve their lands and ways of life. 'Combine our strength' "We'll combine our strengths, combine our resources and combine our voices," Northern Cheyenne Tribal President Eugene Little Coyote said during a ceremony with other tribal leaders. The tribes are still fighting to retain their ways of life and sacred sites, he said, including Bear Butte. The mount near Sturgis, S.D., is known as the birthplace of the Cheyenne Nation and has been used by other tribes as a sacred place to pray, Little Coyote said. The area is being exploited by development, he said, and its sanctity is threatened. Little Coyote said the alliance also will rely on the constitutional right to practice religion freely, something others should understand and support, he said. "Our fight to save our sacred sites will be done using our humanity, spirit and law," he said. Little Coyote said the Indians weren't the aggressors back in 1876, but were tribes peacefully camping on their traditional - as treaty allowed - lands. "The 7th Cavalry attacked us and we defended ourselves," Little Coyote said. Code of silence Immediately after the battle, the Cheyenne elders imposed a code of silence to protect their people and admonished no one to talk about their role in the battle for "100 summers," he said. The Cheyenne, quiet by nature, had their importance as a people and as warriors in the battle "inadvertently diminished" by their reticence, Little Coyote said. Several years before the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Custer smoked a pipe with the tribe's Sacred Arrow Carrier and promised not to attack the Cheyenne again, Little Coyote said. "He broke his promise and sealed his fate," Little Coyote said. Little Coyote and other tribal leaders spoke in a ceremony on the battlefield grounds after the arrival of the Morning Star Riders. The riders, mainly Northern Cheyenne, honor their ancestors who died in the battle with the 7th Cavalry. This year nearly 70 people on horseback - including a visitor from Europe - joined in the ride from midway between Busby into the battlefield, said Winfield Russell, one of the organizers. The ride has grown from about five riders five years ago. "Our ride is good this year," he said. The group's warrior cries could be heard throughout the visitors' center complex as the riders galloped over the rolling hills. The riders carried the black smudge of a traditional blessing on each of their cheeks as they rode. "We do this to commemorate the warriors that died at the battle," Russell said. Four boys with the Little Bighorn Riders, a predominantly Sioux group, rode from the battlefield to meet the Morning Star Riders en route to the battlefield. The Little Bighorn Riders are made up of several bands of Sioux who have come from South Dakota for about 15 years to take part in anniversary events at the battlefield and honor their ancestors, Claudine Killsnight Cano said. She and others with the group are Northern Cheyenne but joined the Sioux riders before the local group was organized. The main point is that the commemoration went on, he said. "We do this to honor our ancestors," Darren Yellowhair said, "for the freedoms we have today and our sovereignty as a nation." Killsnight Cano said everyone participated at the battlefield for their ancestors. They were, she noted, warriors of the first nation to take the American flag. "We'll keep their memory alive and honor them," she said. Crow Tribal Information Officer Donald Spotted Tail did not reply to a request for information. The alleged Crow-Sioux rift did not affect the commitment to the renewed alliance with the Cheyenne, Lakota and Arapaho tribes. Oglala Sioux Tribal Councilman Jake Little said that during the 1800s tribes protected and helped one another to defend their lands from encroachment. "We find ourselves today still fighting these battles," he said. Little said Indians were physically attacked by the federal government in addition to having their education, medical, land base and land use systems "torn apart." "Dare I say, it's a genocidal practice," Little said. His council voted unanimously last week to "rekindle and strengthen" traditional alliances to fight for their rights and lands. "History has shown when the Lakota, Arapaho and Cheyenne are united they are unbeaten," Little said. Donna Soloman, executive secretary to the Lakota leadership, read a proclamation naming June 25 an alliance day that commemorates defeating the 7th Cavalry and protects future generations so they may practice native cultures and traditions. Cheyenne and Arapaho Lt. Gov. Melvin Whitebird said that while people make a distinction between the Northern and Southern Cheyenne, there really isn't a difference. Speaking before the ceremony, Whitebird said he is proud that a Whitebird fought at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. "Historically, all Indians are connected to this, no matter what our tribes are," he said. During the ceremony, Whitebird, who is from Oklahoma, spoke of the "second coming of the same ol' Indian agents." "They are taking away our lands and our rights," he said. "It's only fitting today that we talk about an alliance," Whitebird said. "An alliance that existed 131 years ago and today we renew it." Rosebud Sioux Tribal Councilman Russell Eagle Bear and a group of about 30 of his tribal peers and relatives attended the ceremony and visited other sacred sites along the way from South Dakota. His tribe has purchased land near Bear Butte, Eagle Bear said. The Maker put Indians on earth to be caretakers, he said, but it takes a piece of paper to prove that right to ownership in the Western world. "In the white man's way of thinking, you have to own something," he said. The Rosebud Sioux continued their alliance on the honor of a handshake, he said. "We will continue to be part of anything that is going to help protect Mother Earth," Eagle Bear said. "Hopefully, on a good handshake we'll all stand together." Copyright c. 2007 The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: Tribal Sovereignty, Government Policy collide" --------- Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 07:21:28 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ALEX WHITEPLUME, HEMP" http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=8826 Native Americans Growing Hemp Find That Tribal Sovereignty Collides With Government Policy "Standing Silent Nation," Tuesday, July 3 on PBS June 26, 2007 Lakota Family Carries on Struggle for Economic Self-sufficiency and Renewable Resources Against the Odds of History and Current Laws A Co-production of Native American Public Telecommunications Alex White Plume and his extended Lakota family, or tiospaye, are known on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation for the determination and industriousness with which they have faced the hard economic choices imposed by history and reservation life. Undeterred by poor soil and uncertain weather on their land, the White Plumes planted alfalfa, barley and corn. They raised horses and buffalo. All of which brought the family little better than a subsistence life and continued reliance on government subsidies. Still, the family was resolved to achieve economic self- sufficiency, thus preserving the Lakota traditions and bonds that sustain the identity of family and tribe. So, after much research, and under Alex's leadership, the family planted industrial hemp, the non-psychoactive relative of marijuana. As Alex discovered, and as told in Standing Silent Nation, the new P.O.V. documentary recounting the White Plumes' tragi-comic adventures in hemp growing, the world is in the midst of a boom market for hemp products. The demand is no less in the United States, with this anomaly - hemp products can be sold in this country, but hemp growing is a felony. Alex wasn't out to challenge the logic of the federal government's drug war, but figured that tribal sovereignty allowed him to plant hemp as surely as it allowed casinos elsewhere. He was wrong. In time for Independence Day, Suree Towfighnia and Courtney Hermann's Standing Silent Nation premieres on Tuesday, July 3, 2007 at 10 p.m. on PBS, as part of the 20th anniversary season of PBS's groundbreaking P.O.V. series. (Check local listings.) American television's longest-running independent documentary series, P.O.V. is public television's premier showcase for point-of-view, nonfiction films. The "silent nation" is the Lakota name for the plants and grasses of the plains that sustained the buffalo herds, and later the horses, which in turn sustained the people called "Sioux" (a term coined by would-be French colonizers). But the buffalo herds - and Indian access to the grasslands of the West - all but disappeared as the tribes were corralled into ever- smaller and more-arid reservations, where government-issued corn could not thrive and grazing lands were too poor to support herds. This is the history behind Pine Ridge, whose name is also synonymous with Native American resistance to American dominance, from the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre to 1971's "Wounded Knee" standoff between the FBI and the American Indian Movement (AIM) to the 1975 Pine Ridge Shootout - and with Lakota persistence in preserving tribal life. Inevitably the harsh realities of reservation economies - or lack of them - are true of Pine Ridge. Only 84,000 of the reservation's 2 million acres are suitable for agriculture. Unemployment runs as high as 85 percent. Sixty-six percent of the people live in substandard housing. Life expectancy on Pine Ridge is among the lowest in the Western Hemisphere - 47 to 56 years. But Standing Silent Nation finds both resistance and persistence alive on Pine Ridge, especially among the White Plumes, whose goal is to free themselves of dependence on the federal government. The family's land grant at Pine Ridge may be a rough patch of the sacred earth, but they know that to maintain the tiospaye - to remain Lakota - they must regain their self-sufficiency. In hemp, the White Plumes surely found the perfect "silent nation" ally, a plant whose hardiness, utility and low cost had already been proven by the government who encouraged its growth during its "Hemp for Victory" campaign during World War II. With a fast 120-day growing cycle and no need for expensive or toxic chemicals to flourish, hemp is a boon to the environment whenever it is used in paper or wood products. It is so tough that even on the semi-arid land of Pine Ridge - as events were to prove - it is almost impossible to eradicate once planted. Most of all, soaring domestic and world demand for industrial hemp as forests shrink and the cost of wood rises, makes hemp a "ready cash crop." Fortified by this economic logic and believing himself protected by tribal sovereignty, Alex White Plume also relied on some readily available information. Not only does industrial hemp lack marijuana's psychoactive THC element, its presence quickly dilutes the potency of any marijuana plants nearby. If anything, hemp growing would tend to crowd out pot growing. Yet Alex could hardly be unaware of the federal government's well-publicized drive against all things even tangentially related to marijuana. So what happened was both a surprise and not. As Standing Silent Nation relates, the Oglala Sioux Tribe passed an ordinance in 1998 allowing the cultivation of low-THC hemp on the reservation, which they distinguished from higher-THC marijuana. In April 2000, the White Plumes planted their first crop. In a surprise attack on August 24, 2000 at 6 a.m., federal agents, armed with guns and weed- wackers, chopped the plants down in the same manner they would use to eradicate marijuana. This event, and others that followed, raises a number of questions: Why did the government wait for the first crop to reach maturity before acting? Why did FBI and DEA agents raid the fields at daybreak with an array of armor and guns? Why have they continued to raid the White Plumes' land, even when the hemp grew back of its own accord, and to bring charges that could put Alex in prison for as long as 10 years? What lies behind the government's persistent objection to hemp? Should the growing of hemp fall into the same class of crimes as murder, which allows the federal government to override tribal sovereignty? This is the question that matters most to the White Plumes and the other Lakota of Pine Ridge, for whom sovereignty is the last, if much transgressed, defense for Native American rights. Unfortunately, no one from the Drug Enforcement Administration was permitted to explain to the filmmakers the reasoning behind the government's actions. Standing Silent Nation, shot over the course of four years, is an eye- opening account of reservation life that belies popular images of casino mini-states. It is the story of one Lakota family's struggle to retain tribal identity and sovereignty against the odds of history and current government policy. "Our purpose in visiting the Pine Ridge Reservation was to meet Alex White Plume, the first person to grow industrial hemp within the boundaries of the United States in over 40 years, and to document his harvest celebration," says director Suree Towfighnia. "When the crew arrived on August 10, 2002 and we first met Alex, he apologized for being in a bad mood on such a beautiful morning. Ten minutes before, federal agents had served him with a summons that detailed eight federal civil charges filed against him by the U.S. District Attorney. I asked if we could put a microphone on him. He agreed and we started filming." "The film originally dealt with the American farm community's right to grow industrial hemp," says producer Courtney Hermann. "As Alex's story unfolded, our focus shifted. We now see hemp as a vehicle through which a larger and arguably more important issue is playing out - the sovereignty of the Lakota Nation." Standing Silent Nation is a production of Prairie Dust Films in association with Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT). About the filmmakers: Suree Towfighnia Director Suree Towfighnia is an independent filmmaker and freelance director living in Chicago. A recipient of the 2004 Studs Terkel scholarship from the Community Media Workshop, she earned her masters in fine arts degree in documentary filmmaking at Columbia College, Chicago, where she and Courtney Hermann worked as co-technical coordinators of the Michael Rabiger Center for Documentary. Her thesis film, "Tampico" (2006), chronicles a woman's struggle to survive by playing her family's music in the subways of Chicago. Towfighnia teaches media making to youth and teens and is a partner, with Courtney Hermann, in Chicago-based Prairie Dust Films. Courtney Hermann Producer Courtney Hermann is an independent documentary filmmaker and educator from Portland, Ore. She recently received the Outstanding Faculty Award at the Art Institute of Portland, where she is an instructor in the Digital Film and Video Department. Hermann has produced and directed several short documentaries, including "Granite Janet" (2000), nominated for the International Documentary Association's David L. Wolper Award. She earned a master of fine arts degree in film and video production from Columbia College, Chicago, where she and Suree Towfighnia worked as co-technical coordinators of the Michael Rabiger Center for Documentary. Her most recent documentary is "Left on Wild Road" (a work in progress) about the last days of the Exotic World Burlesque Museum, an old Route 66 roadside attraction. Credits: Director: Suree Towfighnia Producer: Courtney Hermann Cinematographer: Suree Towfighnia Editor: Sharon Karp Running Time: 56:46 Awards & Festivals: * Palm Springs Native American Film Festival, 2007 * Native Voice Film Festival, Rapid City, S.D., 2006 Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT) is one of five national consortia chartered by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to provide minority programming to the public broadcasting system. For 30 years, NAPT has supported the creation, promotion and distribution of Native public media. NAPT support has made it possible to bring to the PBS audience such quality programs as Indian Country Diaries, The Great American Foot Race, Storytellers of the Pacific, In the Light of Reverence, and many others. More information about NAPT is available at www.nativetelecom.org. Other award-winning services of NAPT include the AIROS Native Network, www.airos.org, and Visionmaker Video, www.visionmaker.org, distributor of authentic documentaries by and about Native Americans. NAPT receives major support from CPB and the Ford Foundation. Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: IHS head seeks end to shortfalls" --------- Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 07:18:15 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INDIAN HEALTH-CARE PATHETIC" http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/55829.php Tribal health-care upgrades sought IHS head seeks end to shortfalls; Sioux says care 'pathetic' The Associated Press June 27, 2007 DENVER - The director of the U.S. Indian Health Service told tribal leaders Tuesday he wants his agency to eliminate disparities within the American Indian health-care system, as well as those that exist between tribal and traditional health care. Access to tribal - and traditional - medical facilities, coordinating insurance payments for both types of care and ensuring Indians are adequately insured are among the many challenges facing the agency, Dr. Charles Grim told a congregation of the Direct Service Tribes. The group includes tribes that allow the federal government to regulate their health care and education programs. Other challenges: Some Indians do not have traditional health insurance; instead, they rely on their tribes, through the government, to provide medical care. And in some poverty-stricken Indian communities, limited access to medical facilities can literally become a matter of life and death. Suicide rates are from 1.5 to 3 times higher among Indians than for any other race in the United States, Grim said. Methamphetamine use is high among Indians as well: They are more than four times more likely than other races to try the drug, according to a National Institute of Health Study. "We know we have health disparities out there," Grim said. "We've been focusing on increasing prevention, behavioral health and care of chronic patients." Grim noted the U.S. House of Representatives voted to allocate $15 million toward preventing methamphetamine use and another $5 million toward suicide prevention in the $4 billion IHS 2007 budget. The Indian Health Care Improvement Act - under consideration by Congress for seven years - may finally be on the cusp of approval and could help remedy situations where care is limited, Grim said. The act would, among other things, provide more facilities and more care for those with tribal affiliations, he said. That may not be enough for the 1.9 million American Indians and Alaskan Natives who receive IHS health care, said John Steele, president of the Oglala Sioux tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The numbers cited by Grim are conjecture with the hope of a solution, Steele said. "Indian Health Service, sir, is bad. It is pathetic," said Steele. "We talk these words, sir, but I have human people, individuals back home, who are suffering." Other tribal leaders at the conference are wary of wording in the act they say would allow individual states to designate who can and cannot get IHS medical care and other government subsidies. Marcus Wells Jr., chairman of the Three-Affiliated Tribes in North Dakota, expressed concern that there are many medical procedures tribal- affiliated hospitals and doctors cannot perform. Referrals to outside health care providers often depend on the availability of IHS funding, Wells said. Wells added it can be time-confusing to pay medical bills using both traditional and tribal-supported health insurance - and he counts himself among the lucky ones. Not everyone in his tribe can afford traditional insurance to supplement what they receive from the government. Direct Service Tribes signed treaties with the federal government and have ceded their land to the United States on the condition the government provide health care and education, said Dawna Hare, executive director of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma. "The government did make a number of promises with tribes to provide care," Grim said. "They are still holding the government accountable to provide health care to them." Darrell Flyingman, governor of the Cheyenne-Arapaho tribes in Oklahoma, said it's up to both Indians and the government to find solutions. "We, as tribal leaders, need to accept responsibility," Flyingman said. Copyright c. 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c. 2007 Tucson Citizen. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Federal Court affirms Tribe's Sovereignty" --------- Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 07:32:51 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DISCRIMINATION AGAINST CRST" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/9655.html Federal Court Affirms South Dakota Indian tribe's sovereignty and near million dollar verdict for tribal members June 26, 2007 In a twenty-one-page opinion released June 26, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed a near $1,000,000 discrimination verdict against the Plains Commerce Bank in favor of Ronnie and Lila Long, members of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and co-owners of the Long Family Land and Cattle Company, Inc., a small ranching company doing business on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. The Longs alleged that the Plains Commerce Bank, formerly known as the Bank of Hoven, discriminated against them by, among other things, withholding a previously promised loan, due to their status as members of an Indian tribe. During the harsh Plains winter of 1996 to 1997, the missing funds would have allowed the ranching company to save the lives of their cattle, over 500 of which perished in unrelenting blizzards. The Longs sued the bank in tribal court and, in 2003, a tribal court jury returned a verdict in their favor in the amount of $875,982.46 in damages, interest, and costs. This verdict was upheld on appeal to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Court of Appeals. To avoid paying the $875,982.46 jury verdict, the bank filed a lawsuit in federal court, arguing that the tribe's courts had no jurisdiction to entertain the discrimination case in the first instance. Last summer, the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota rejected the bank's argument, issuing an opinion affirming the tribal court's jurisdiction over the case and affirming the jury verdict against the bank. Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the district court, thus preserving the Longs' victory. In an opinion authored by Circuit Judge Diana E. Murphy, the Court of Appeals ruled that the discrimination claim arose out of a business transaction entered into voluntarily by the bank and the Longs, who are Indian tribal members, and that, under prevailing federal law, the case should be decided in tribal court. The court also held that tribal custom and common law may govern in suits in tribal courts. The court wrote that, "[i]n recognition of the status of Indian tribes as distinct cultural and political communities, the federal government has long encouraged tribal self-government. Although the tribes no longer possess the full attributes of sovereignty, they nevertheless retain those internal powers necessary to their self government ..." In this case, the court said, "the Tribe had inherent authority to regulate the bank's conduct arising out of its consensual relationship with the Longs by subjecting it to liability for tortuous conduct." The court said that, "[b]y subjecting the bank to liability for violating tribal antidiscrimination law in the course of its business dealings with the Longs, the Tribe was setting limits on how nonmembers may engage in commercial transactions with members inside the reservation." The Longs were represented by James P. Hurley of Rapid City, South Dakota. They were assisted by the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, which filed several influential amicus, or "friend of the court," briefs in the tribal and federal courts. The Tribe was represented by Tribal Attorney Thomas J. Van Norman of Eagle Butte, South Dakota, Roger K. Heidenreich, a partner in the St. Louis office of Sonnenschien, Nath & Rosenthal LLP, and Steven J. Gunn, an associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. "Discriminatory lending practices are common in Indian country, and it is critical that tribes have the power to deal with offenders," says Gunn. "This case establishes an important precedent that tribes can use their own laws and legal systems to combat discrimination within their reservations." According to Tribal Attorney Van Norman: "This case sends out a message in support of the sovereignty of our tribal courts, which are open and fair to all who use them. The bottom line is that all people deserve fairness in business transactions, especially in difficult times, like the winter of 1996 that saw the Longs suffer profound losses. Today's decision tells the Longs and others like them that the tribal courts are an open and fair place in which they can challenge unfair business practices on the reservation." Like Gunn and Van Norman, Heidenreich is pleased with the court's decision: "The court saw the justice in the position we took. The court's decision confirms that the courts of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe have the power to decide disputes arising out of commercial relationships with members of the tribe." The Discrimination Claim The case, Plains Commerce Bank v. Long Family Land and Cattle Company, Inc., involved a claim brought by two tribal members, Ronnie and Lila Long, against Plains Commerce Bank, formerly known as the Bank of Hoven. The Longs alleged that the bank discriminated against them due to their status as American Indians. They cited discriminatory terms and conditions in the commercial loan the bank made to their cattle company, and alleged that the bank breached the loan agreement when it failed to lend the full amount promised. In April of 1996 the bank sent the Longs a letter citing as the basis for its conduct "possible jurisdictional problems if the bank ever had to foreclose on the land when it is contracted or leased to an Indian owned entity on the reservation." This would form a key element of the discrimination claim, since such factors typically are not considered in loans made to non-Indians. The tribal court concluded that, "under traditional Lakota notions of justice, fair play, and decency to others, discrimination because of race or tribal affiliation was tortuous conduct, " and a violation of tribal law. The Longs argued that the bank's failure to lend them the money they needed, when they needed it, contributed to the death of over 500 of their cows, yearlings, and horses during the severe Plains winter of 1996 and 1997. Unable to purchase hay, the Longs saw their cattle drift from protected draws and perish in the harsh winter storms. Further, because the Longs did not have money to purchase insurance, they suffered extraordinary financial losses when their livestock died. Federal Courts Reject Bank's Jurisdictional Challenge "Indian tribes have long been recognized as semi-sovereign governments within the American political system," Gunn says. "There are over 500 federally recognized Indian tribes in the continental United States and Alaska, and a great many of them have their own court systems. In a series of decisions issued over the last thirty years, the Supreme Court has largely limited the jurisdiction of tribal courts to disputes involving Indians, not outsiders." "However," Gunn says, "the Supreme Court has recognized some exceptions to this general rule. One such exception involves disputes arising out of contracts and commercial dealings between Indians and non-Indians. Tribal courts have authority to adjudicate disputes involving such consensual relationships." It was this exception that the federal courts invoked to uphold the jurisdiction of the Sioux tribal courts over the Longs' discrimination claim. By entering into a loan agreement with the Longs, the Court of Appeals said, the bank subjected itself to the jurisdiction of the tribal courts. "[T]ribal jurisdiction does not normally extend to the conduct of nonmembers ... [But] the Supreme Court identified two exceptions to this general principle ... [T]ribes may exercise jurisdiction over nonmembers if they have entered into certain kinds of consensual relationships or if they have engaged in conduct on tribal lands which would harm tribal interests." The Court of Appeals found that the Longs' discrimination claim "arose directly from their preexisting commercial relationship with the bank." Thus, the court said: "The Tribe had inherent authority to regulate the bank's activities in connection with its consensual business relationship with the Longs and their company. As a natural corollary, the tribal court system - the institution best qualified to interpret and apply tribal law - also had jurisdiction to entertain tribal law disputes arising out of those activities." "Our tribal government works hard to ensure fairness in its court system, and this case sends a strong message upholding our tribal courts," says Tribal Attorney Van Norman. "Ironically, the bank admitted it did a lot of business on the reservation, but it did not want to abide by the tribal court's rulings." Federal Courts Find that Tribal Law Prohibits Discrimination The bank also argued that the Longs' discrimination claim could not be heard in tribal court because, the bank contended, the discrimination claim arose under federal law. The bank based its argument, in large part, on the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Nevada v. Hicks (2001) that tribal courts are not courts of general jurisdiction and therefore cannot entertain certain federal civil rights claims. The tribe countered that the Longs' discrimination claim was founded not on federal law, but on tribal common and customary law. Gunn and several of his students performed exhaustive legal and historical research into the customs of the tribe and found that those customs, which have the force of law, mandate fairness, respect for individual dignity, and equal treatment of all people regardless of race or tribal affiliation. This research informed the tribe's position in several briefs written and filed by Washington University, Sonnenschein, and the tribe's legal department. The federal courts agreed with the tribe's position, ruling that while discrimination is the subject of federal law, including federal civil rights legislation, it is also actionable under the laws of the tribe. The Court of Appeals applauded the development of antidiscrimination law in the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe's courts: "If the encouragement of tribal self governance through the development of legal institutions is to remain a federal priority, then tribal ... courts must be given latitude to shape their own common law to respond to the cases before them, as our own courts have done over the centuries." Federal Courts Reject Bank's Due Process Arguments The federal courts rejected the bank's claims that it was denied due process of law in the tribal court proceedings. In fact, the Court of Appeals concluded that, "the tribal court proceedings violated no basic tenet of due process." The court said: "The fighting issue in the trial court was whether the bank denied the Longs favorable terms on a deal solely on the basis of their race or tribal affiliation. The bank had ample opportunity to present evidence that it did not give the Longs less favorable terms than its non Indian customers or that it did so for some other permissible reason." The court also said: "The bank has suggested that as a non Indian company it could not obtain a fair hearing in tribal court on a claim that it discriminated against Indians, but there is simply no evidence to support this assertion. If the bank feared prejudice form an all Indian jury, it could have requested that the tribal court exercise the discretion granted to it by the tribal code to summon non Indians to serve on the jury. It made no such request, but instead proceeded to trial without striking any jurors or challenging the composition of the panel ... The bank has failed to show any bias in this case." Washington University's Collaboration with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Washington University has a longstanding relationship with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. Through its American Indian Law and Economic Development Program, directed by Professor Gunn, the School of Law sends law students to work and study on the reservation during the summer. Students help the tribe safeguard its rights and develop its legal institutions. Students participate in policy development, legislative advocacy, litigation, and transactional work. It was through this program that the school became involved in the case. Washington University's Collaboration with Sonnenschein Sonnenschein's involvement in the case was part of the firm's broader collaboration with the Washington University School of Law. Working with law professors and students at Washington University, the firm's attorneys have provided pro bono legal assistance in a wide variety of substantive areas, including American Indian law, domestic violence, and mediation of civil rights disputes. "Sonnenschein has appreciated the opportunity to work with the faculty and students of the Washington University School of Law on such important and worthwhile projects," says Heidenreich. Copyright c. 2007 Washington University in St. Louis News & Information. --------- "RE: Indian Law added to South Dakota Bar Exam" --------- Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 07:32:51 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="THIRD STATE TO ADD INDIAN LAW TO BAR" http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/06/28/ news/local/doc4683124a63cf7624558368.txt American Indian law added to state bar exam By Journal staff June 28, 2007 Beginning in July, law students will be required to demonstrate knowledge on the basics of American Indian law to pass the South Dakota Bar exam. The South Dakota Supreme Court voted to adopt a rule to require the state bar exam to include on essay question about American Indian law. The essay question will include basic principles of federal American Indian law. It will not include tribal codes or customary laws. South Dakota is the third state in the nation to add an American Indian law question to its state bar exam. The state board of bar examiners must report back to the state Supreme Court by Jan. 1, 2009, with an evaluation of the new rule. Copyright c. 2007 Rapid City Journal. --------- "RE: Comment sought on Native use of Migratory Birds" --------- Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 07:32:51 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="COMMENT SOUGHT ON CEREMONIAL USE" http://www.indianz.com/News http://www.cortezjournal.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp? article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070628_1.htm Feather or not Feds seek input on allowing collection of migratory bird parts for use by American Indians JOURNAL STAFF REPORT June 28, 2007 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking public comment on a proposal to develop regulations that would allow American Indians to obtain parts and feathers from migratory birds other than eagles for religious or spiritual use. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe uses parts from several types of birds in its ceremonies, including hawks, sparrows, hummingbirds, magpies, meadowlarks and others, said Terry Knight, Ute tribal elder. "They all have their own spiritual essence," Knight said. Species of birds used depends on the individual and type of ceremony, Knight said. The notice of intent to prepare an environmental assessment was published in the June 15 Federal Register, according to a statement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The environmental assessment will weigh potential impacts on the natural and human environment that might result from different alternatives for legalizing the acquisition of feathers and parts other than those from eagles, including impacts to American Indian culture and religion. Knight hopes the regulations will streamline the process for obtaining parts, with priority given to healers. It's common for tribes to barter for bird parts. Knight hopes the rules will not regulate the barter system. Currently, no federal regulations govern the acquisition of migratory bird parts by American Indians. Between 1990 and 1999, the Fish and Wildlife Service's National Eagle Repository distributed migratory bird parts and feathers from birds, excluding eagles, to enrolled members of federally recognized American Indian tribes. In 1999, the service suspended distribution of non-eagle feathers due to administrative resource constraints. Since that time, the service has generally not issued permits to enrolled tribal members for the use of non-eagle feathers in religious and cultural ceremonies. The service regularly receives inquiries regarding the availability of migratory bird parts and feathers to American Indians for religious and cultural use. The service seeks input on nine topics: * The sources of the parts and feathers that would be made available. * Criteria or conditions that should be established for eligibility. * How different means of legal acquisition may affect tribes. * How American Indian tribes could be affected if such authorization is extended to others in addition to enrolled members of federally recognized tribes. * The extent of American Indian demand for such feathers and parts. * Whether the types of feathers being requested should be limited to those historically significant to the tribes acquiring them. * Which species of migratory birds are most valuable for American Indian religious/spiritual purposes. * Potential impacts to migratory bird populations and other wildlife. * Other concerns about this initiative. The Fish and Wildlife Service does not expect to authorize any means of distribution of non-eagle feathers and parts that would affect migratory bird or wildlife populations or impact wildlife habitat, and does not anticipate the taking from the wild of live birds through hunting or any other method. Copies of the notice of intent may be found on the service's Web site at www.fws.gov/midwest/MidwestBird, or obtained by writing Andrea Kirk, permits administrator, USFWS Migratory Bird Permits, 1 Federal Drive, Fort Snelling, MN 55111, or calling (612) 713-5436. Comments must be submitted by Aug. 14 and may be sent via e-mail to otherfeathers@fws.gov, submitted via www.regulations.gov, by fax to (612) 713-7179 or by mail to Andrea Kirk at the address above. Reference RIN 1018-AV14 when submitting comments by any of these methods. Copyright C. 2007 Cortez Journal. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: BIA denies Abenaki recognition" --------- Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2007 07:32:49 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ST. FRANCIS/SKOKI BAND DENIED RECOGNITION" http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096415310 BIA denies Abenaki recognition by: Gale Courey Toensing / Indian Country Today July 2, 2007 SWANTON, Vt. - The BIA has denied the St. Francis/Sokoki Band of the Missisquoi Abenaki Nation federal acknowledgement, ending the tribe's 27- year quest for recognition through the federal agency process. In a press release June 22, the Interior Department said the Abenaki Band failed to meet four of the seven mandated criteria for federal status. The tribe may appeal the decision or it may seek recognition through legislative action. The BIA said the 1,171-member band could not prove its continuous existence as an American Indian "entity" on a continuous basis since 1900, or since historical times; could not prove it had maintained political authority over its members; and could not prove its members descend from a historical tribe. "I wasn't surprised, but I am angry. I am angry and all American Native tribes should be angry, even the ones that are recognized," Chief April St. Francis Merrill said. "We may appeal. Recognition would be wonderful because we'd be eligible for so much more as a people and especially for our children. But you know what? I'm not going to disappear and our people are not going to disappear because the federal government says we don't exist. I'm still who I am and our people are still who they are," St. Francis Merrill said. The finding that the tribe lacked evidence of its existence since 1990 is "particularly galling, considering Vermont's well-known 20th century eugenics program," St. Francis Merrill said. "It's like being doubly victimized. "Tribal members went underground to avoid being identified. So first, you've got to hide to survive; and then when you come out you're told you're not who you are. They were sterilizing our people and do you think the people are going to come forward and say they're Native Americans when they're sterilizing you?" St. Francis Merrill asked. Carl Artman, Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, called the Abenaki tribal office with the news late in the afternoon. Other Interior officials were also on the call, St. Francis Merrill said. "Last time it was Jim Cason and he told me he was calling a spade a spade. [This time] they kept telling us what a wonderful job their staff did on our petition. I told them I find it hard to believe they did all this research and not one of them had any questions for us and they never called any archaeologists or anthropologists in Vermont," St. Frances Merrill said. The tribe's quest for acknowledgement has turned and twisted over the decades. The state spent $35,000 studying the tribe in 1976 when the governor at the time gave the tribe state recognition. The next year a new governor wrote off the tribe's state recognition in an executive order, only to issue a proclamation in 1983 saying the St. Francis/Sokoki Band was the only tribal government in Vermont. Homer St. Francis, St. Francis Merrill's father, submitted the tribe's letter of intent in 1980 and filed the first petition in 1987. That petition was later withdrawn during a court case and resubmitted in 1996. The tribe won an aboriginal fishing and hunting rights lawsuit in state Superior Court, a decision that was overturned in an appeal to the state Supreme Court on the state's claim that the tribe doesn't exist. While claiming the tribe doesn't exist, however, the state purchased land for the repatriation of ancestors' bodies that had been dug up by private land owners. Last year, the state recognized the "Abenaki people" of Vermont, a gesture that shortchanged the tribe of full state recognition. Various groups claiming to be Abenaki have "popped up" since then, St. Francis Merrill said. Most of the petition was written by tribal members with the help of a federal grant. "They [the Interior officials] didn't like it, but I told them, 'It's because we didn't have money that you didn't recognize us.' They said, 'No, that's not what it's about. It's not about politics,' but I said, 'Bull.' We don't have big investors. We aren't going for the big casino," St. Francis Merrill said. The tribal council will discuss whether to appeal within 90 days or seek federal acknowledgement through an act of Congress, St. Francis Merrill said. Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell, who opposed the Abenaki petition, announced the BIA decision on his Web site. "The BIA decision was not unexpected. It is consistent with the federal agency's Proposed Finding, issued in November 2005," Sorrell said. Copyright c. 1998 - 2007 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Indian Marine represents Family, Heritage" --------- Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 07:33:42 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MARINE LANCE CORPORAL SIXKILLER" http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/ 97EEDC7D400298BA85257306002472DA?opendocument Marine Corps News American Indian Marine represents family, heritage in Corps By Sgt. Anthony Guas, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing June 26, 2007 AL ASAD, Iraq (June 26, 2007) - It is estimated that more than 12,000 Native Americans served in the United States military in World War I. There are more than 190,000 Native American military veterans; as the years continue to compile, so do the numbers of Native Americans in the military. One of those Native Americans is Lance Cpl. Molly Sixkiller, an EA-6B Prowler electrician for Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 1. "I'm proud to be who I am, I'm proud to be a Sixkiller," said the Phoenix, Ariz., native. "My mother is from Arizona and is all Navaho. My father is from Chicago, (Ill.) and is Pima, Papka and Cherokee, so I am all mixed up." Sixkiller began her journey with the Marine Corps when she enrolled in the delayed entry program Sept. 29, 2005. "I wanted to be one of the first in my immediate family to join one of the services," said Sixkiller. "I picked the Marine Corps because I had to join the best." Sometimes a decision like joining the military is not supported by family members, but that does not hold true for the Sixkillers. "(My parents) are proud that I am in the Marine Corps and are very supportive," said Sixkiller. "My little brother looks up to me and wants to join the Marine Corps as well. He should join very soon." Although she joined the Corps and is now many miles from her family, Sixkiller continues to participate in her family's rich traditions. "We do keep some traditions alive, it has dwindled down to very few things nowadays, but we have powwows," explained Sixkiller. "They are basically get-togethers for family and friends that we know. We have our traditional moments, basically a big ceremony." Sixkiller's pride in her heritage carries into everything that she does. Competing against the best in her squadron, Sixkiller proved to her command that she is an outstanding Marine by taking the VMAQ-1 Marine of the Quarter Board. "It was a good feeling (to win), I get to go up on another board for meritorious corporal," said Sixkiller. "I'm happy about getting the chance. There is a lot more responsibility and I'm ready to take it." For Sixkiller being an aircraft electrician is more than just a job, it is a career choice. "I enjoy my job very much and plan on pursuing it as a career after," said Sixkiller. "We do a lot of exterior and interior lighting and a lot of systems. Basically we deal with all the wires in the jet. I picked my job when I joined the Marine Corps, because I wanted to pursue this field." Sixkiller's high level of motivation and dedication is something that is recognized by her peers and superiors throughout the squadron. "She constantly displays excellent initiative," said Staff Sgt. Shawn E. Tate, electronics shop staff noncommissioned officer-in-charge for VMAQ-1. "She is always the go-to person, if a plane lands she is out and on it. Any job that comes up, she is the first one on it." Not only is Sixkiller a hard-working Marine, she also interacts professionally and proficiently with her fellow Banshees. She gets along with everyone very well, she is great at exchanging information," said Tate, an Augusta, Ga., native. "She is like a sponge, learns everything really quick." Although her career is uncertain, Sixkiller is certain about plans for her immediate future. "Right now it's a little to soon to tell if I am staying in or not," explained Sixkiller. "After (preparing for the boards) I plan to study more and get (more qualifications). I also plan to help the junior Marines, achieve some of the same goals." Although her name is uncommon and may draw more attention than Smith or Johnson, Sixkiller is proud of her heritage and willing to share her story with anyone. "Sometimes I will be walking to chow or something and someone will walk by and look at my name twice, `Your name is Sixkiller? What's your background?' and I'll tell them a little about myself," explained Sixkiller. "I am proud, this is who I am." Source: Marine Corps News --------- "RE: 150 years NA Family History online for first time" --------- Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 07:33:42 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ONLINE CENSUS SEARCH" http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070626/latu013a.html?.v=3 Press Release Source: Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Launches 150 Years of Native American Family History, Online for the First Time June 26, 2007 Discover More than 7.5 Million Names in the U.S. Indian Censuses; The Best Resource for Tracing American Indian Family History Available at a Click of Your Mouse Among the well-known names in the Native American censuses include: -- Celebrated Iwo Jima flag raiser Ira Hayes was counted on Arizona's Gila River reservation in censuses from 1930 to 1936. -- Legendary Jim Thorpe appears 15 times in the censuses - first as a three-year-old named Jimmie living in Indian Territory, finally as a 50 year old in 1937. The census also tells countless personal stories, such as: -- Jesse Cornplanter of New York's Cattaraugus reservation appears in 16 censuses - first as a child with his parents, then as a father with a wife and child -- Gabe Gobin, a logger on the Tulalip Reservation in Washington, who appears in 33 years of censuses. -- Seminole Mary Parker appears as a young teenage in three censuses taken in the 1930s. Because the Native American censuses were taken so often, they are among the best censuses worldwide for tracing family history. The U.S. federal census is taken only once every ten years. In addition, because Native Americans were not granted full U.S. citizenship until 1924, the U.S. federal censuses before 1930 are sporadic at best for counting Native Americans. The yearly counts and updates reflected in the Indian censuses offer Native American family historians a more complete and accurate picture of their ancestors than the federal census. -- About Ancestry.com With 24,000 searchable databases and titles, Ancestry.com is the No. 1 online source for family history information. Since its launch in 1997, Ancestry.com has been the premier resource for family history, simplifying genealogical research for millions of people by providing them with many easy-to-use tools and resources to build their own unique family trees. The site is home to the only complete online U.S. Federal Census collection, 1790-1930, as well as the world's largest online collection of U.S. ship passenger list records featuring more than 100 million names, 1820-1960. Ancestry.com is part of The Generations Network, Inc., a leading network of family-focused interactive properties, including MyFamily.com, Rootsweb.com, Genealogy.com and Family Tree Maker. In total, The Generations Network properties receive 10.4 million unique visitors worldwide and over 450 million page views a month Copyright c. comScore Media Metrix, March 2007. Copyright c. 2007 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright c. 2007 PR Newswire. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: GIAGO: Pine Ridge still needs a hand up" --------- Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 07:33:42 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GIAGO: PINE RIDGE" http://www.indianz.com/News/2007/003587.asp Tim Giago: Pine Ridge still needs a hand up June 25, 2007 President Bill Clinton came to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota at the tail end of his administration. He witnessed the extreme poverty and absorbed the feelings of hopelessness, and then moved on. Nothing changed. Clintons emissary from the Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Andrew Cuomo, now Attorney General of New York State, followed Clinton to Pine Ridge, had his photographer take pictures of the Third World conditions in housing, had the pictures blown up, framed them, hung them on his office walls, and then moved on. Nothing changed. Shannon County, the heart of the Pine Ridge Reservation, is still among the top ten poorest counties in America. Since it was proclaimed as the poorest county in America in the U. S. Census of 1980, 27 years ago, nothing has changed. I now believe that by behaving as victims of poverty, the Lakota people are shortchanging themselves. We must rid ourselves of this "victim mentality" and enter a new paradigm of "prospective prosperity." As victims of poverty the Lakota people have become the beneficiaries of handouts. This benevolence includes used clothing, used furniture and a whole lot of religious enthusiasm offered by those who believe that our road to prosperity must pass beneath the arch of a church. Plenty Indians have become infected by "that old time religion" but it hasn't done much to feed or house them. Nor has it done much to bring jobs and prosperity. I emailed www.hillaryclinton.com and asked her to follow her husband's trail to Pine Ridge, but to come here with thoughts of economic development leading to prosperity on her mind. We don't need more handouts. We need a hand up. Whether she wins or loses, the problems that exist on this reservation will still be here waiting to be solved. It seems that the mindset of South Dakota's Congressional delegation keeps us compartmentalized as victims. While they work for and introduce bills to move the white population of the state towards prosperity, they eke out bills designed to keep the people of the Great Sioux Nation in poverty. If we had some genuine, forward looking leaders amongst our people, they would also erase this picture of poverty stricken victims and instill in the people a pride that will lead to a goal of prosperity. They can do this by creating a commission to represent all nine tribes of the Sioux Nation and send this delegation to visit every wealthy tribe in America looking for funds and ideas. They would send this delegation to visit with all of the major corporations in America and make an effort to entice them to construct industry on reservation lands. There are plenty of unemployed skilled and unskilled laborers available and the corporations would also receive countless tax-free benefits. If American jobs are now outsourced to India, why not outsource a few of them to the American Indians? For those who would do good you can replace the truckloads of used clothing and furniture with truckloads of lumber, plywood, hammers, nails, concrete, trucks, backhoes, Caterpillars, road graders, and other building materials and equipment, so that our carpenters, plumbers and electricians can start to build homes for the thousands of people that are now nearly homeless. By so doing you have just created jobs and a future. Maybe a wealthy casino tribe can buy busses that can traverse this reservation that is 100 miles long and 50 miles wide so that the people without automobiles can make it to town to buy groceries, visit the hospital or report to their jobs without having to pay a friend or relative an arm and a leg to get them there. HUD can help move us toward prosperity by demolishing the "cluster houses" it built over the years to save money and begin to build houses on the land the people abandoned in order to move into the cluster communities. The cluster homes contributed to violence, gangs, drugs and crime that did not exist when the people lived in homes on their own allotment lands. Internally we have a lot of problems to solve, problems of alcoholism, drug abuse and a very high incident of high school dropouts. Contributing to these problems are the lack of jobs, adequate housing, poor healthcare and a mindset that causes us to believe we are victims. If Congress would allocate the money it spends in one day in Iraq to improve the lives of its own citizens living on the poorest reservations in America, then and only then, can it hold itself up as an example for the rest of the world. There is an old saying that a nation shall be judged on how it treats its indigenous people and to date, America has a failing record. Bill Clinton came, saw and moved on. Whether the next president is Hillary or whoever, maybe they will come to Pine Ridge, see the problems, solve them, and not move on. Or at least give the people the means to solve the problems themselves. --- 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. --------- "RE: EDITORIAL: Still no action on Border Town Racism" --------- Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 07:33:42 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RACIAL BRIDGES STILL NOT BEING BUILT" http://www.indianz.com/News http://www.daily-times.com/opinion/ci_6228935 Editorial: One year later, still no commissions Staff Writer June 26, 2007 There were those who exaggerated a bit by calling the summer of 2006 the worst since the early 1970s. It hardly deserved that kind of comparison. Yet, the racial and cultural tensions of summer a year ago did prove that we continue to have inconsiderate and apathetic citizens, of all races, who just don't want to hear about someone complaining they are treated unfairly only because their skin is red, brown or white. Get on with it, we've heard enough, those in apathy say. There are other things more important now, so say the ignorant. They only get what they ask for, says the racist bigot. A white man, or an American Indian of another tribe, still might find himself sneered at inside a store deep within the reservation. A Navajo woman still might get asked for more ID than did the white woman in front of her while at a business in the city. A Spanish-speaking child still might get bullied on the playground by other kids who don't share the lingo. Throw in religious diversity, in a region where Catholics, protestants, Mormons, American Indians and atheists, among others, mingle day in and day out, with a crude joke here or a sniping tease there, and it becomes clear that skin color isn't the only reason for self-righteousness reaching smug heights within our community. Painting the entire citizenry in this picture also is a mistake. There are many more heroes than villains in this Four Corners of the world, and much of it is because of hard-earned respect from one another. The greatest natural resource to be found in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest is not oil, not gas, not coal nor silver, but rather its cultural diversity. There is no greater pot of gold at the end of any human rainbow than that found here. Such richness in multiple cultures should be mined with tender care and spent with fervor, as if feeding an addiction of curiosity or adventure. The summer of 2006 was an attempt by a slim few thieves to rob that beautiful treasure. Three white men beat a Navajo man, and were tried in court on hate crimes. Another Navajo man was shot and killed by a white police officer, but the officer was protecting himself and faced a woman-beater under the influence of more than just an evil wind. There were those of Navajo land, meanwhile, who wore blinders themselves aimed only at hate, and not at such monsters as alcohol or domestic violence. The city of Farmington says it wants, it needs, a new commission in place to serve as a liaison to the community, "more than an omnibus for listening to complaints. There also would be an element of proactive efforts in education of all the various cultures in the area," says the mayor. One year has passed. Where is such a commission, and why a year later has it not yet come to exist? The Navajo Nation says it wants, it needs, a Human Rights Commission to build its own bridges, because "council delegates felt something needed to be done," said a presidential spokesman for the Nation. "We hope everyone takes part with an open heart and an open mind." One year has passed. Where is such a commission, and why a year later has it not yet come to exist? The anger from the summer of 2006 seemed to hinge on two isolated events, not a steady storm like that of the early 1970s. The difference is: We as a community are better learning that shared diversity is actually unity. Unity in battling common enemies such as meth, alcohol, poverty, domestic abuse and anything else that threatens our pot of gold. Unity that, a year later, the people themselves on the sidewalks, oil fields, ball fields and store lines have built upon, even when our governments failed to do so with their all-urgent commissions that still haven't happened, a year later. We thank the leaders for saying the right things with the right intentions that set the right examples, but we especially thank the everyday, hard-working people who think and act themselves. The summer of 2007 progresses, so far, with only front-page headlines of successful festivals and celebrations; no riots, no racial epitaphs, no bullies of bigotry. Mask or milestone? Time, not bigotry or pomposity, will tell. Copyright c. 2007 Farmington Daily Times. --------- "RE: DEB O'ROURKE: Feds' forked Tongue" --------- Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 07:32:51 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DEB O'ROURKE: MORE SPIN FROM OTTAWA" http://www.indianz.com/News http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2007-06-28/news_story13.php Feds' forked tongue Aboriginal Day creation dances lift our spirits, but feds' message of "healing" reopens old wounds By DEB O'ROURKE July 28, 2007 The sun carefully herds the storm clouds away from the little bowl of earth where Toronto is celebrating National Aboriginal Day 2007 on June 21. We're trying to keep track of our kids, but they flow through our fingers like water, running through the sheltered freedom of the pit in Trinity Bellwoods. Mine come to rest on a blanket of leaves piled on a gravel bank. They make families of corn-husk dolls until bowls of free strawberry shortcake being carried around remind them that they have stomachs. In search of free dessert, they discover the rest of the event: the Aztec dancers, the Metis fiddlers, the crafters. While we wait for Yaqui dancer Norma Araiza to perform, we're entertained by local actor Ron Cook. He tells a story from his Cree nation about some silly and careless black bears who have seriously pissed off the much mightier grizzly bears. The black bears can't outrun the grizzlies, so they decide to disguise themselves. They slip off their beautiful black fur and hide it, then casually stand around all naked and pink on their hind legs. The grizzlies sniff around these curious two-legged beings, then resume their search for the black bears who made them mad. "And that," says Cook, "is how the two-leggeds, the human beings, came into being." Two eight-year-olds are looking at Cook with great intensity. One raises her finger. "Is that a true story?" Cook hesitates, looking at the deeply serious little girl. I see him struggle. How to explain the millennia-long search for truth that legends pass down through the generations? The other girl politely challenges Cook. "I thought we evolved from monkeys." The adults are visibly impressed. Inspiration seizes Cook. "These stories are both true," he tells them. "What do they both tell us? They tell us that all beings are closely related. That there is so little difference between the two-legged and the four-legged beings, even the fish." *** Two weeks earlier, on the first warm Friday night of a looming summer, we've dragged our little TV out onto the balcony to celebrate a victory that cost the family of slain native protestor Dudley George a son and a decade of effort. The Ipperwash Report has just been released, and CTV is showing One Dead Indian, the docudrama about the 1995 police shooting death of the Stony Point Chippewa during an OPP invasion of Ipperwash Provincial Park. Against a dusky city skyline webbed with construction cranes, the little TV frames the Stony Pointers as they argue, laugh, flirt and cook burgers. Then a commercial, paid for by the government of Canada, informs survivors of Indian residential schools that they can apply for compensation for their time in those schools created to destroy their families, nations and cultures. An eagle feather floats in the blackness of the television screen and comes to rest above the words "The Healing Continues." Who do they think they're kidding? Indian residential school survivors struggled for nearly two decades for recognition, and only received it when class actions scared Canada into paying up. Canada, through Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice, still refuses to apologize. Some healing. Dudley George's people peacefully waited 50 years, and they're still waiting, for the promised return of their home. Down the 401 in Caledonia, it took the province and feds no time to react when white locals began rioting over a longer commute to the donut shop after a native blockade of ancestral land got in the way. The god of profit will wince, but he's been running rampant over native land for too long. It's time someone took a stand and stopped him from desecrating rivers and destroying woods and farmland. First Nations people shouldn't have to fight all the battles. From the lakeshore, great beams of white light rake the sky as Toronto parties. On television, George is bleeding to death. *** Back at Trinity Bellwoods, dancer Norma Araiza stalks up in her deer dance. She wears a deer's head like a turban, and her little feet seem to have become hooves. Her movements show the unity between the hunter and the hunted, the two-legged and the four-legged. She falls at the end, showing the sacrifice the deer makes for the life of the tribe, in a way that also warns of humans' inborn tendency to folly. the end news@nowtoronto.com Copyright c. 2007 NOW Magazine, NOW Communications Inc. --------- "RE: COMMENTARY: Can Cherokees outlast opponents?" --------- Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2007 12:41:28 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="COMMENTARY: CNO VS REACTIONARIES" http://www.newsok.com/article/3073409/ Commentary: Can Cherokees outlast opponents? The Oklahoman Editorial June 30, 2007 FOR Chad Smith, no gray area exists in the premise behind the Cherokee Nation's vote to exclude the descendents of freed slaves from the tribe's membership rolls. For a California congresswoman, the issue is entirely black and white. Smith, re-elected June 23 as principal chief, says Cherokees simply want "to be an Indian tribe composed of Indians." U.S. Rep. Diane Watson has introduced legislation to cut ties between the federal government and Cherokees. The Cherokee decision in March to restrict membership to Indians ran into a firestorm of criticism from the politically correct crowd - not unlike some Indians have done to institutions that gave their sports teams names like "Savages" and "Warriors." The Cherokee base in Tahlequah is near a state university whose teams were formerly known as "Redmen." The Bureau of Indian Affairs says it has no intention of cutting off funds to Cherokees, but this story is far from over. For the second time, tribal members have voted to take the feds out of the tribe's constitutional approval process. The BIA rejected results of the first vote because the now excluded Freedmen were disenfranchised. Voting shows overwhelming support among Cherokees for the recent proposals, but legal challenges keep the matter in limbo. In general, we think any group has a right to establish membership standards. This would include, for example, an all-male country club. But with federal funds come strings and the kind of meddling initiated by Rep. Watson. Whether Smith and the Cherokees can outlast their critics will be interesting to watch. Copyright c. 2007 News 9|The Oklahoman, Produced by NewsOk.com --------- "RE: Mexico's reclusive Seri at a Crossroads" --------- Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 07:32:51 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="THREATENED BY DEVELOPMENT" http://www.indianz.com/News http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ article/2007/06/27/AR2007062702309.html Ancient Tribe at a Crossroads Mexico's Reclusive Seri Confront the Inevitable March of Development By Manuel Roig-Franzia Washington Post Foreign Service June 28, 2007 PUNTA CHUECA, Mexico - Gloria Sesma clamps tough stems of desert limberbush between her front teeth, shredding the plant into the floppy strands she needs to weave graceful baskets. Sesma's lifelong work has worn her top teeth down to tiny stubs, much like the teeth of other women in this remote Gulf of California village, home to Mexico's most reclusive indigenous people, the Seri Indians. She and her daughters adhere to traditional techniques, so it can take 10 months of shredding and weaving to make a single basket. But Sesma's family also reflects new realities for the Seri, a tribe at a crossroads. While eight of her children married within the tribe, a ninth - her son, Ezekiel - piqued the family by breaking with tradition and moving away last year to marry a non-Seri woman. Now, the Seri desire for insularity is being tested on a larger scale. The inevitable march of development is forcing the Seri to confront fundamental questions about their future, questions that will help determine whether one of the last truly autonomous tribes in Mexico melds into the greater society or stays walled off from the world. "The community is really at this huge crux point," said Jay Roberts, a professor at Earlham College in Indiana who studies the Seri. "They're a case study for what's happening to indigenous people around the world." The tribe's two villages - Punta Chueca and Desemboque - lie directly in the path of the largest Mexican tourist development in a quarter-century. Under a still-evolving plan, hotels and condominiums will sprout along the coastline in much the same way that another generation of Mexicans transformed Cancun and Acapulco from sleepy outposts to resort havens. Change seems inevitable here, whether the development pierces the Seri's land or merely spreads up to its borders. The Seri hold dominion over more than 450 square miles of heavenly coastline, where for centuries they have scooped crabs, prowled the desert for medicinal plants and fought to keep away outsiders. They once lived nomadically, moving between fishing encampments on the mainland and their main settlement on Isla Tiburon, Mexico's largest island, which is separated from Punta Chueca by a narrow but treacherous waterway known as Little Hell Channel. In the 1960s, the Mexican government declared Isla Tiburon a nature preserve and forced the Seri off the island, resettling the tribe in squat cinder-block homes in Punta Chueca and Desemboque. The tribe, which now numbers less than 1,000, lives in harsh desert conditions - fresh water has to be trucked in, and there is very little modern plumbing. The Seri make money off the scallops and crabs they take from Little Hell Channel, as well as their baskets and ironwood carvings. Under an agreement with the government, the tribe also receives income from the sale of permits to U.S. hunters, who pay $50,000 or more annually for the right to kill bighorn sheep on Isla Tiburon. The money doesn't go far, though, leaving the Seri in garbage-strewn villages. Punta Chueca, a four-hour drive from Tucson, is a place of unexplained contradictions. Shiny new cars - some allegedly stolen - sit in front of ramshackle homes where the occupants sleep on dirt floors. Stray dogs roam about, while children with dirt-smudged faces go days without soap or water for bathing. Some youngsters return to homes outfitted with satellite television dishes and watch Mexican soap operas. Though their territory is in Mexico, the Seri don't consider themselves Mexicans - Mexicans, they say, are people who live outside Seri lands. There have been occasional gunfights between the tribe and authorities from the state of Sonora entering Seri territory to investigate crimes. Sonora's governor, Eduardo Bours Castelo, has complained about "the backwardness of the Seris." "We're hardheaded," Sesma's husband, Ernesto Molina, 58, said one recent afternoon. "We don't even want visitors. We don't have much contact with the people of Mexico. Mexicans are not welcome here." Molina, who ekes out a living from fishing and guiding the few tourists who can find his village, shuffles between Spanish, which he learned from Mexican fishermen, and the obscure Seri dialect, which Roberts estimates is understood by as few as five non-Seris. The dialect is said to be at its most lyrical when a leatherback turtle beaches and the Seri sing ancient melodies to coax it back to the sea. Molina considers such traditions sacrosanct and is bothered by the intrusions of outsiders and their ideas. That's why it was so hard for him to swallow what happened a few years ago during another Seri rite, the New Year's celebration on June 30, the end of the tribe's calendar year. A young Mexican visitor caught the eye of his son, Ezekiel, during the festivities. A romance flowered, and not long afterward, Ezekiel announced he wanted to wed. A few other Seri had married outside the tribe, but Molina never thought it would happen in his own family. "I was sad," he said. Ezekiel, though, could not be dissuaded. "For me, she was a person, even if she wasn't Seri," Ezekiel Molina, now 33, recalled recently. "I don't think that way - I'm not racist. I reject discrimination." He left Punta Chueca, crossing the 20 miles of rutted desert path that connects the village to the small beach town of Bahia de Kino. But life outside the village has unfolded badly. He can't adapt to regular work schedules and struggles to raise his daughter with the few pesos he earns from occasional work as a tattoo artist. He says he feels uncomfortable in a society where drug use is common, though in the years since he left his home village, illegal drug use has become a major problem among the Seri. He has thought about moving back, but he isn't sure. Outside the village, he and his family use modern medicine when they get sick. When he returns to the village, he sees his father at the medicine woman's hut, picking up remedies derived from desert plants. His daughter doesn't understand his brothers and sisters - she speaks only Spanish. Ezekiel's departure from this village is part of a trickle of Seri, most of whom migrate between Punta Chueca and Bahia de Kino so that their children can attend better schools. Pedro Torres, 41, the only Seri to earn a doctorate, relocates his family at the beginning of each school year to Bahia de Kino. There, his children discovered Power Rangers cartoons and have become fluent in Spanish. His wife, Blanca Lidia Monroy - Seri women do not take their husband's last name - sat in a side yard of her home one recent afternoon weaving baskets while one of her sons flipped through a recently published Seri- Spanish dictionary, the first of its kind. Monroy smiled, flashing the dentures she got to cover the damage done to her teeth by stripping limberbush stems. At the end of each school year, when she returns to Punta Chueca, her neighbors give her funny looks, she said. Some shun her. "Things never change there," she said. "They don't understand why I would leave Punta Chueca for my children's education. They don't understand that I want something more for my children." Torres, who works an hour's drive away in the city of Hermosillo as a state indigenous education specialist, calls the retirement developments sprouting north of Seri territory a "red alarm" for his people. He shivers when he hears the village elders urging his people to insulate themselves further. "We have to face reality," Torres said. "Sooner or later, we're going to have this conflict with all this development. They're going to come down here and want to build hotels and we're not going to be prepared to stop them." The only way to save Seri culture, Torres said, is for young people to leave the villages, get an education, then return empowered by new ideas. Other indigenous peoples in Mexico have done the same, he said, salting local governments and businesses with young professionals while retaining their sense of tribal identity. But the Seri, he said, are mostly content to wall themselves off. Even the road into their village seems unwelcoming, he said. One recent afternoon, an SUV full of non-Seris rolled toward Punta Chueca. Three young boys waited at the entrance. When they saw the vehicle, they launched a hail of rocks. Copyright c. 2007 The Washington Post Company. --------- "RE: Manitoba Town objects to Metis 'Welcome Sign'" --------- Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 07:18:15 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="METIS WELCOME SIGN NOT WELCOME" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=42129 Manitoba town objects to welcome sign put up by Metis Federation Canadian Press June 28, 2007 ST. RITA, Man. - A sign put up by the Manitoba Metis Federation welcoming visitors to St. Rita has stirred up some local residents, who feel it gives the impression the community is governed by the MMF. The sign reads: "Local Metis Government Welcomes You to St. Rita." An MMF spokesman said similar signs will be erected outside of communities throughout Manitoba, including Winnipeg. MMF president David Chartrand dismissed concerns the sign might be misleading as to who is in charge. "I think that's a very weak excuse," said Chartrand, adding that he has no plans to remove the sign, which is located on private property in the community of 100 about 50 kilometres west of Winnipeg. He said it's a way of showing pride and reminding people that the Metis people are a nation, too. The controversy started back in May when the MMF erected the sign. Andy Pelletier, a councillor for St. Rita, said the word "government" has some of his constituents up in arms. "People started bouncing around over that," said Pelletier. "If somebody is coming in to St. Rita and wants to buy property or open a business it kind of looks like they have to get ahold of the Metis federation." He said it's possible it could discourage development. Pelletier said he had been initially told by a local MMF representative that the sign would read: "St. Rita Metis Local Welcomes You to the Town of St. Rita." "I didn't have any problem with that at all," said Pelletier. "We have many Metis in our community and they're a hard-working people." Copyright c. 2007 The Canadian Press (CP). Copyright c. 2007 Grand Forks Herald, Forum Communications Company. --------- "RE: Haudenosaunee visit site of Ireland dispute" --------- Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 07:21:28 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CORRIB GETS SIX NATION VISIT" http://www.westernpeople.com/news/story.asp?j=37299 Native American Indians visit site of Corrib dispute By: Daniel Hickey June 27, 2007 WHEN, in 1895, Glenamoy National School was built, chances are that the local north Mayo men who laid the bricks would never have imagined that, over 100 years into the future, that national school - now a community centre - would be playing host to a talk by native American Indians. But it is the quirks of circumstance - the ongoing dispute about the Corrib gas project in particular - which, last week, brought an all-woman delegation from the Six Nations Reserve, Ontario, Canada to the isolated bogland of north Mayo, connecting once isolated areas to a global network of protest. The Six Nations are part of an indigenous American group called the Haudenosaunee. In February last year they reclaimed forty acres of land which had been granted to them by the British in 1784 but sold, in 2005, by the Canadian government to a housing company. Members of the Haudenosaunee set up camp on the land and stopped the bulldozers' work. A representative from the site of the ongoing land reclamation, Kathy Garlow, said that every day there were confrontations. "Some of us gave up everything we had to stay on the site but that was not a problem because it was our land," she said. In April 2006, an armed raid by the Ontario Provincial Police failed to dislodge the people from the land. Although the 150 police used taser guns and arrested people they found sleeping in tents, hundreds of residents of the nearby indigenous reserve turned up and walked the police off the land. Following the raid, barricades were set up around the area on roads and rail lines that prevented any further police action, and severely disrupted the local area and a main national railway line. By June, the Canadian government announced it was buying the land back from the developers. "Your countryside is very beautiful," she said to those assembled in Glenamoy, "but if Shell comes through, it's not going to be that way." She added that any protest must remain peaceful. "Being peaceful is also defending yourself. Maintaining a presence is probably the biggest thing," she said. One local Glenamoy woman said that it was like hearing "our own story". The Haudenosaunee women visited members of the Ross-port 5 and attended the morning protest at the gates of the proposed refinery at Bellanaboy on Thursday. Their tour also involved a meeting at the House of Commons in London with the All Party Parliamentary Human Rights Group, as well as local communities, universities and schools. Copyright c. 2007 Western People Limited, Kevin Barry Street, Ballina, Co. Mayo. Registered in Ireland. --------- "RE: Canada funds housing markets on Reserves" --------- Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2007 08:04:03 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HOUSING FUND" http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096415266 Canada funds housing markets on reserves by: Mark Fogarty / Today correspondent June 22, 2007 OTTAWA - The Canadian government has created a $300 million housing fund to jumpstart mortgage and rental markets on the country's First Nations reserves. The money would be used to collateralize home loans, since the communal land status of the reserves makes it difficult for lenders to encumber them with liens. The government hopes to finance 25,000 housing units on the reserves over 10 years through the First Nations Market Housing Fund. And it is giving the First Nations a key role as intermediaries between tribal members and lenders in the plan. The First Nations would apply to the fund for financial backing, which they would show to lenders to back loans to their tribal members. However, as in the private sector, the individual borrowers would be responsible for repaying their loans. If their borrowers default, the First Nations will be responsible to repay. If the First Nations default, the fund will repay the lenders, meaning the government is, in effect, guaranteeing their outlays. The $300 million will be in addition to the government's annual housing aid to First Nations, which totals $261 million - $138 million from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and $123 million from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. According to the 2001 Census of Canada (its 2006 Census is done but has yet to release data on Canada's aboriginal population), there are 1 million Native people living in the country, with about 30 percent of them living on its 600 reserves. That's 3.3 percent of Canada's 30 million people. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., which will administer the fund, says the 2001 Census shows 27.7 percent of those living on the reserves being badly housed. Monte Solberg, Canada's Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, commented, "Canada has one of the highest levels of homeownership in the world. But we know that statistic does not reflect the situation for First Nations people on reserve." Solberg noted that Canada's Assembly of First Nations has advocated this kind of market-based housing to increase the quality of life on reserves. He said he expected the fund to start by April 2008 and that meetings between First Nations, lenders and the government to hash out the details would begin in May. Jim Prentice, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, said, "Not enough people living on reserve know the feeling that comes from owning their own home. This approach will support the development of a housing market on reserve, while fully respecting the communal ownership of reserve land." According to the government, 62 percent of its Natives are Indians, 30 percent are Metis, and 5 percent are Inuit. The new province of Nunavut has the highest concentration of Native people, 85 percent, but is sparsely populated (22,720 Natives as of 2001). Provinces with the most Native people are Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. CMHC identified the following six partners as key to the success of on- reserve housing: * First Nations: The tribes are responsible for "developing community housing plans and priorities, administering INAC and CMHC housing programs and identifying funding from other sources for their housing needs." * INAC: Agency funds "may be used towards the costs of new home construction and renovation, maintenance, insurance, debt-servicing and the planning and management of the housing portfolio." * CMHC: The agency provides housing subsidies, renovation programs, research and training. * Health Canada: HC delivers health and health promotion services, including home inspections. * First Nations housing institutions: These groups, such as First Nations National Housing Managers Association and First Nations National Building Officers Association, plan, deliver and manage housing programs. * The private sector: Private sector groups have a role in financing, building and managing housing. Copyright c. 1998 - 2007 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Ontario Mohawks plan blockade for Friday" --------- Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 07:33:42 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RAIL BLOCKADE" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2007/06/25/ont-blockade-070625.html Ont. Mohawks plan blockade for Friday CBC News June 25, 2007 Travellers in the Montreal-Toronto-Ottawa corridor may have to adjust their Canada Day weekend plans after a native group said it will go ahead with a road or rail barricade on Friday, likely between Belleville and Kingston. Spokesman Shawn Brant confirmed Monday that protesters from the Tyendinaga Mohawk reserve near Deseronto, Ont., plan to set up a blockade of either Highway 401 or the national rail line, close to the town on Lake Ontario's Bay of Quinte, or will block access to Deseronto itself. 'This is the power we have' The move will be part of the Assembly of First Nations' National Day of Action on June 29 to draw attention to aboriginal poverty and unresolved land claims, Brant said. He added that the day is important for indigenous people. "We're gonna be able to say to the government, 'This is the power that we have,' " said Brant, whose group has occupied a quarry near Deseronto since March to protest an unresolved land claim. Brant is also among those named in a lawsuit launched by Canadian National Railway over a blockade held in April over the same issue. The Tyendinaga Mohawk band council is negotiating with the federal government over about 400 hectares of privately held land that Mohawks say they never surrendered. Brant's group says the talks are moving too slowly. Phil Fontaine, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, has said the National Day of Action is meant to reach out to Canadians, not to cause major disruptions. Manitoba chief called off blockade In May, Chief Terrance Nelson of Manitoba's Roseau River First Nation threatened to block a CN line running through his community on the June day of action. He called off the protest last Tuesday after Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice decided to add 30 hectares of new land to the Roseau River band's territory. Brant called the government's move at Roseau River a last-minute ploy and said he thinks it was done to "destabilize June 29 as a day of action." He was also critical of Nelson's decision to call off his blockade. "To say that 70 acres was enough to sell out the day and sell out the people is an indignity to everyone who's been standing in these positions from the beginning," he said. Copyright c. CBC 2007. --------- "RE: Peaceful local Day of Action" --------- Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2007 12:41:28 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DAY OF ACTION AT STAND OFF" http://www.lethbridgeherald.com/article_7441.php Peaceful local Day of Action By STACY O'BRIEN June 30, 2007 STAND OFF - Around 50 people gathered in Stand Off for a peaceful demonstration for the National Day of Action Friday. Carrying fluorescent orange and green signs reading "End Poverty," "Can't We All Just Get Along" and "In support of the National Day of Action" they set out at around 10 a.m. from the Chief Shot on Both Sides building, walking down the hill, along Highway 3 to Red Crow Park. "We're talking about the same issues that we've been talking about for many years - housing conditions, substandard living, education for our kids, high unemployment rate, the suicide rate, the social conditions, the health conditions of our people," said Charles Weaselhead, Grand Chief for Treaty 7 and Blood Tribe Chief. Weaselhead said First Nations' communities are some of the fastest growing in the country but the federal government's funding formulas have not kept up. The Blood Reserve has doubled in size since 1970 - with about 10,000 people living there today, but Weaselhead said they're dealing with a funding formula from the '70s or '80s, even as living costs continue to escalate and the population grows. In the last two to three years the reserve has built 100 new homes, but probably needs between 600 and 800 more, he said. And with 40 to 50 per cent of the population on the reserve made up of people under age 25 there is a need for educational and job opportunities. "All we're saying is take a look at today's cost of living and provide a budget that will allow us to survive under our funding," he said. "It's about money but it's also about the treaties and living up to those treaties." Weaselhead said First Nations communities in Canada came to a pivotal point with the former Liberal government passing the Kelowna Accord. "The new government took away the accord and now we're back to square one. Our budgets are busting at the seams and we can no longer afford to run our programs." Weaselhead stressed the importance of having a peaceful protest and rather than fighting with people in surrounding communities he said he hoped to educate them about the issues. Marie Smallface-Marule, president of Red Crow Community College, spoke during the event as well, saying there is still a need for more funding of post-secondary education, with some 900 students a year wanting to continue their studies after high school, but there only being funding for around 300. But she said it's also important people look at what First Nations people have achieved. She said despite more than 200 years of colonialism and oppression the Blood Tribe has faced, members have survived, kept their language, way of life and philosophy. "We haven't just survived we have made progress for ourselves." Copyright c. 2007 Lethbridge Herald. --------- "RE: BC Supreme Court dismisses John Graham's Appeal" --------- Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 07:21:28 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GRAHAM APPEAL DISMISSED" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=2007062612331442 British Columbia Supreme Court Dismisses John Graham's Appeal June 26 2007 The BC Supreme Court dismissed John's appeal, his bail has been revoked, and he is being kept in jail. There is now a 30 day appeal period. Source: John Graham Defense Committee Incident at Oglala The Indian Wars Continue by Contributor On June 26, 1975, FBI agents and Bureau of Indian Affairs police laid siege to an encampment of American Indian Movement members at the Pine Ridge reservation, killing AIM warrior Joe Stuntz Killsright and leaving two FBI agents dead. Leonard Peltier was later framed for killing the agents. One of the BIA police officers who took part in the attack on the AIM camp was Bob Ecoffey. He also testified against Leonard Peltier at his 1977 trial. In the 1990s, Ecoffey became the primary "investigator" of the murder of AIM warrior Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. He videotaped a "confession" about the killing from AIM member Arlo Looking Cloud who stated during the interview that he was under the influence of alcohol. Looking Cloud later recanted his confession, pleading not guilty at his trial. Ecoffey told a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television documentary that Arlo Looking Cloud and John Graham took Anna Mae across a fence to the edge of a bank on Pine Ridge. "She was brought here by members of the American Indian Movement, and she was executed right on top of this hill. She was shot in the back of the head, fell over the bank, and then laid where she was found, and basically left to die. And I feel that it was a result of paranoia amongst people within the American Indian Movement that she was an informant," said Ecoffey. He later repeated this story at Arlo Looking Cloud's trial, adding that Arlo had said that when Anna Mae got to the fence she knew what was going to happen. At the beginning of the same trial, the rancher who found her body, Roger Amiotte, said there was no fence there at the time. How could Anna Mae have known what was going to happen to her based on being taken up to a fence that did not exist? Perhaps Ecoffey made up the story and is simply continuing with his campaign against AIM. The BIA police force on Pine Ridge was instrumental in the self-proclaimed Goon Squad that carried our numerous assassinations and assaults against AIM members and traditional Lakotas at Pine Ridge in the 1970s. The BIA police were also instrumental in initially covering up the cause of Anna Mae's death as "exposure" and having her buried as an unidentified "Jane Doe", as chronicled in her biography, "The Life and Death of Anna Mae Aquash" by Johanna Brand. After Looking Cloud's trial, Ecoffey married Darlene Nichols (formerly known as Kamook Banks), a former AIM members who testified against Arlo Looking Cloud and admitted to being paid $42,000 by the US government for her "expenses", and to wearing a wire to record conversations. Her testimony at Arlo's trial mostly targeted Leonard Peltier, as she claimed he admitted to killing the FBI agents. http://ourfreedom.wordpress.com/ Copyright c. 2007 Infoshop News. --------- "RE: Native Justice" --------- Date: Fri, 29 June 2007 14:06:22 -0700 From: Janet Smith [owlstar@bellsouth.net] Subj: NA News Item -- http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096415329 Justice in Indian country by: Jerry Reynolds / Indian Country Today June 29, 2007 Light shed on 'shameful' U.S. Attorney firings Part one Editor's note: This week, Indian Country Today begins an ongoing series that examines justice in Indian country. To share your comments, e-mail us at editor@indiancountry.com, using "Justice" in the subject line. WASHINGTON - The Justice Department's dismissal of eight U.S. Attorneys has spent months under a high-intensity spotlight because of widespread apprehensions that partisan political tampering has infiltrated the justice system on the watch of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. But still closer to home for Indian country, five of the eight fired law officers had taken a lead role in bringing justice to the reservations in their state. All five were members of the department's Native American subcommittee; in that position, all five had championed the subcommittee's outreach to Indian country. Thomas Heffelfinger, at present a partner in the Minneapolis law firm of Best and Flanagan, chaired the subcommittee while serving as U.S. Attorney for Minnesota. He said the subcommittee leadership of the five was "not mere coincidence" in their firing. Heffelfinger himself was on the list of U.S. Attorneys to be fired, but the axe never fell in his case. He resigned in 2006 without yet knowing he had been targeted. The five from Indian-populous states who were dismissed are Daniel G. Bogdon, former U.S. Attorney for Nevada; Paul K. Charlton, Arizona; Margaret M. Chiara, Michigan; David C. Iglesias, New Mexico; and John McKay, Washington state western district. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., chairing a June 21 Senate Committee on Indian Affairs oversight hearing on law enforcement in Indian country, noted that Indian country can use all the help with law enforcement it can get. He gave Heffelfinger a chance to offer his view of statements before another committee of Congress on the U.S. Attorney firings. "Monica Goodling, a former aide to Attorney General Gonzales, testified ... that you were targeted for dismissal as a U.S. Attorney because of your preoccupation with Indian issues," Dorgan said. "So as I introduce you, let me just tell you that if you were focusing this attention on ... what I think are critical issues, I commend you rather than threaten you with dismissal." Heffelfinger responded, "Let me comment that it's actually shameful and embarrassing for the Department of Justice, if that is in fact the official position of the department, that spending too much time on Indian issues should cause one to be fired. I took that position before the Hennepin County [Minnesota] bar association the day after Ms. Goodling testified, and received a standing ovation. So I was confident that whatever her views are and whatever the views are of the Department of Justice that may have supported her on that issue, it is not shared by the people of the United States." Dorgan on follow-up added, "These problems have existed over different administrations, over a long period of time, but when I hear someone come to the Congress to say that a U.S. Attorney was threatened to be fired, or was on the list to be fired, because he or she spent too much time working on Native American issues, I worry about that. And I notice that I believe either four of the eight, or five of the eight who were in fact replaced, were on the [sub]committee ... that you were on dealing with Native Americans. Is that truly coincidence? If what the testimony said is they worried about you because you spent too much time worrying about law enforcement issues on Indian reservations, do you think, do you have any speculation about whether some who did get fired lost their jobs because of that?" Heffelfinger stated the facts instead. "It is true that five of the eight who were fired, including Margaret Chiara who replaced me as chair, were on the Native American issues subcommittee. But more importantly, they were actually leaders on that committee. One of the reasons that we did spend a lot of time on Native American issues while I chaired it, is that we take, we took the consultation [with tribes, pursuant a presidential executive order] requirement very seriously. And all of our meetings but one - the organizational meeting - were on Indian reservations. ... Four of the five were hosted by four of those people who were fired. Iglesias, Charlton, McKay and Bogdon. And it is also true that Native American issues are viewed within the Department of Justice as, quote, local issues. And where there is a conflict between local issues and issues that are considered more of a national priority, there is a disagreement between main Justice and the field. And I can tell you that all of those five people were zealous adv ocates in their own districts for improving public safety in Indian country, and improving Indian country's role in our broader homeland security infrastructure." "I think the word you use is appropriate," Dorgan summed up. "I think this is shameful. If in fact any, in any administration or Justice Department, this spending time being critical of and threatening to fire U. S. Attorneys because they are spending substantial amounts of time dealing with some of the most gripping, difficult law enforcement issues we face in this country, crimes committed against a population that is increasingly victimized, shame on those people who believe that it is not appropriate to spend substantial amounts of time on that." After the hearing, Heffelfinger said "vote caging" had not been an issue in at least the five U.S. Attorney firings. The phrase surfaced in Goodling's testimony. It refers to the practice of confirming voter addresses by certified mail; in the case of returns, the voter can be challenged at the polls or in absentee ballot-counting. The Internet and blogosphere abound with assertions of "vote caging" deployed in Democratic neighborhoods by Republican political operatives. It is not illegal unless it targets populations by race or in a discriminatory manner. Though the public record to date appears devoid of documentary proof that Indian country has ever been a target of vote caging (the phrase comes from the old postal practice of segregating mail by ZIP code in wire cages), Indian country fits the profile of neighborhoods allegedly targeted in past elections: minority, low-income, largely Democratic. But Heffelfinger said that because he hadn't heard the phrase before a reporter us ed it, it obviously wasn't an issue in the firing of the U.S. Attorneys on his subcommittee at Justice. Copyright c. 1998 - 2007 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. -=-=-=- http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/ 2003767212_blockade29.html?syndication=rss Attempted South Dakota beer blockade broken up by tribal police By CARSON WALKER The Associated Press June 28, 2007 PINE RIDGE, S.D. - Tribal police Thursday shut down a volunteer blockade aimed at keeping beer out of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where alcoholism is rampant, and arrested three organizers who refused to leave. Only a few vehicles had been checked for alcohol by the time Oglala Sioux tribal police told the volunteers to stop because of safety concerns. After several minutes of arguing, police arrested actor and American Indian activist Russell Means; Duane Martin Sr.; and Frank LaMere, a Winnebago activist. Martin was arrested after it appeared he fought with officers over a spear he was carrying. He spoke in Lakota as more than a half-dozen officers wrestled him to the ground. The three were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and obstruction of justice, said tribal police Chief James Twiss. "You can ask only so long before you have to arrest them and get them into custody," Twiss said. "It looked like the violence was initiated by tribal police," said Mark Vasina of Nebraskans for Peace. His group and Martin's Strong Heart Civil Rights Movement staged the blockade. About two dozen people were at Thursday's blockade, but only four or five actually were stopping vehicles. About half the people there were reporters. As many as 20 tribal officers were called in to break up the blockade, while about a dozen Nebraska law officers stood by in nearby Whiteclay. Alcoholism is rampant on the reservation, which bans alcohol, and the volunteers had hoped the blockade would help curtail bootlegging. Four stores in Whiteclay, a village just outside the 16,500-member reservation, sell about 4 million cans of beer a year, mostly to American Indians. Blockade workers, wearing bright-green construction vests, had planned to stop vehicles, ask occupants whether they had any alcohol and confiscate it if they did. They attempted a similar blockade last year, but it was abandoned when police raised safety concerns, and both sides agreed to work together on the problem. Beer cans litter reservation roads and the streets of Whiteclay. People loiter outside the stores. Some try to trade tools, electronics and other things for beer. "I'm tired of my people dying. You've got 18-, 19-year-olds trading alcohol for sex," Martin said. Martin had indicated organizers didn't need support from the tribal government, citing support of the Oglala Sioux's traditional leader, Chief Oliver Red Cloud. But organizers had wanted law enforcement to take over the blockade to ensure it remained nonviolent. Twiss said that he empathizes with the group's mission but that he has to follow tribal law. He added that tribal police conduct at least 15 sobriety checkpoints on the reservation each year and plan to do one Friday through Wednesday - including the road between Whiteclay and the reservation. Copyright c. 2007 The Seattle Times Company. --------- "RE: Rustywire: Little Creek" --------- Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2006 08:10:07 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RUSTYWIRE: LITTLE CREEK" http://www.rustywire.com/grow/lcreek.html Little Creek by Johnny Rustywire There was this kid, he was about 18 or so and he was at the student union. His hair was curley, light brown and he talked like a used car salesman, a mile a minute. He could talk and talk and after he was finished you couldn't remember what he said. He was always moving, the kind of person who talks with their hands, yeah he was like that. Littlecreek, his name was called out in an English class of 250 in the auditorium, one had to wonder if this guy could be a "Skin". It turned out he was Chippewa, so he said. He didn't act like a Chippewa, as if they acted a certain way. There was a dance group forming of Indian students, he came and watched from the side. After a time he stepped up and wanted to dance, but he didn't have an outfit, there was a Tiny LoneBear there, and a Not Afraid, with a Running Wolf and they taught him how to make dance bussels. He talked all the time and didn't stop, then one day someone asked him, by the way where are you from anyway. He said Chicago. Oh! they all said as they understood maybe a little bit better why he was the way he was. They all worked on his fancy dance outfit. Some of the girls made him mocassins, a belt, a breech cloth, and gave him some scarves. The bussels were purple and yellow, his scarves were assorted colors, he didn't have a proper roach for his head, so he didn't wear one, his hair was cut short, so he wore a baseball cap with an eagle feather in it instead. When it came time for him to dance, he got quiet and the drum group started with crow hop, a slow song with a pounding beat to start him out slow. He moved like a wounded chicken. His legs were crossed and he tried to turn around like Sammy Davis Junior, and fell sideways to the ground. Some guys laughed at him, and he got self conscious trying to make himself small but that is hard to do when the feathered bussels spread out a foot on each side of him. He danced like a drunken man trying to walk, it hurt your eyes to watch him. After the night was done, he was so proud of his efforts he told everyone three or four times. He became an expert that night. After that you could hear Indian songs and Indian pow wow music coming from hs place. He would dance across campus with people looking at him like he was disabled or something. As time went on, he got his feet in rhythm with the song, and his movements became more fluid. He could dance across the pow wow grounds and by Spring he was moving like he was born to the sound of a drum, his arms, head and feet moved like a whirlwind, he spun and hip hopped across the arena. He could dance and talk at the same time, and he got pretty good. He married a girl from way up North a Blood and had a son. That young boy grew up learning to dance before he could walk. Haven't seen Little Creek for a long time, but I know that somewhere, maybe in Chicago, there is a place where you can hear drums, an eagle bone whistle and on the wall there are bussels, ready for the next pow wow and hanging next to his are his sons. Maybe he is going to Albuquerque to the Gathering of the Nations, or the Red Earth Pow Wow in Oklahoma this summer, or somewhere in Canada. I suspect he might be selling cars somplace. So by chance if you drive by a car lot and you see a thin guy dancing across the lot or hear a pow wow song down the street, or maybe by chance see a dancer with a baseball cap, now beaded that is LittleCreek and you can say didn't you learn to dance in college a long time ago, and you talk a mile a minute, he might look at you and then after he starts talking you will find he won't stop going on and on, well say hello from someone who knew him way back when..... Copyright c. 1999, Johnny Rustywire, all rights reserved. --------- "RE: Lee Goins Poem: Southern Cross" --------- Date: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 10:24 PM From: cherokee2proud [cherokee2proud@yahoo.com] Subj: Southern Cross Mailing List: N. A. Poetry Southern Cross At night under the Southern Cross I slept And caught a shooting star, a dream Silent as the mighty river's breath Upon the cool air of darkness Sharp like the slice of a silver bream Skating through the moon's shadow I dreamed that you were here again Breeze rustling lazy palms and your hair Falling softly like the wings of angels Around my face, Your eyes brilliant diamonds Smiling into my soul and you shed Your dress like a snake sheds its skin And I'm lost in your perfume and Then I woke t