_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 15, ISSUE 029 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 16, 2007 Mvskogee Hiyucee/little harvest moon Abenaki Temaskikos/grass cutter moon Lakota Canpasapa Wi/moon when chokecherries are red +-------------------------------------------------------+ | 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: Frostys AmerIndian, 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: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + "The Indian people are very good at grieving." "We come together in our grief. But we need to come together for something that stops this grief and stops the pattern of alcohol use that is taking the lives of our young people." __ Betty Fenner, Blackfeet +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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 question of sovereignty is one that keeps popping up, and with good reason. The answers are seldom clear, and there are several very good reasons for this. All of them are interconnected to how tribal nation sovereignty is treated by the federal government, and most especially by the federal courts. One of the people who has helped me in the past is Peter d'Errico, Legal Studies Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is extremely knowledgeable in areas of Indian Law, especially where the boundaries touch, cross, and blend with state and federal jurisdiction. To understand why this area has been and continues to be so muddy, please go to http://www.umass.edu/legal/derrico/sovereignty.html and read "SOVEREIGNTY: A Brief History in the Context of U.S. "Indian law"" by Peter d'Errico, and you will understand why at times tribal sovereignty has been almost totally non-existant and at other times a study of true tribal dominion. Right now the limited sovereignty many US Tribes and Canadian First Nations enjoy and exercise, while not the full authority of an independent nation that many tribes yearn for and some are more than ready for, is quite strong. Recent activities by many tribes, however, are bound to push the question of sovereignty and its limits where tribes are concerned back into the courts that are now in the firm grip of conservatives appointed by Reagan and the two Bush presidents, and Tories in Canada. There is little doubt these courts will render decisions that favor commercial interests over those of the Indian community. I cannot see into the future, but I would suggest it may be in the tribes' best interest to enter into sovereignty battles with care. It would only take a few decisions to set tribal sovereignty right back to pre-1934 and the policies prescribed by the Indian Reorganization Act. This would not be a good thing for any tribal nation or its citizens. , , 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: - EDITORIAL: . Tribal Sovereignty Connecting the dots - Indian Affairs - HARJO: will examine Transportation Bushies and friends of Angler - Farmer fights - WASSERMAN: Patriotic service to grow Hemp on Reservation of Leonard Peltier - New homes planned - YELLOW BIRD: in Bennett Freeze Modern eyes can distort History - Blackfeet Nation - Another Indian blockade to dedicate Medicine Wheel possible in B.C. - Is Osage County a Reservation? - New Colonial tactics - Osage Chief challenges to shut down dissent enforcement of State Law - `Manhattan Project' - The Prairie fight is on at Sharbot Lake - Judge opens electronic data - Funding news to Cobell Plaintiffs kicks off Metis Assembly - National Indian Youth - MP says Province Leadership Project bribed Natives to OK Treaty - Siletz Restoration: - Sovereignty case Return from Termination headed to Supreme Court - American Indian studies blossom - Racial Issues - Honoring our Elders: raised In Smokeshop Case Nellie (Miller) Hunter - Zuni is murder victim - GIAGO: State of Native Nations - Native Justice per Harvard -- Reminder: - EDITORIAL: Richard Lone Dog in Peril Give Reservations enough Police -- Budget cuts leave Tribes - OPINION: with inadequate Police Klamath Dams should be removed -- Mindshift to combat violence - YELLOW BIRD: against Native Women Near where I marked my Name... - Rustywire: Comes with War - OPINION: - Lee Goins Poem: The Sacred Road Office of the Special Trustee - Upcoming Events --------- "RE: Indian Affairs will examine Transportation" --------- Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 16:27:04 -0400 From: "Piatt, Barry (Dorgan)" Subj: NEWS - Indian Affairs Committee Hearing Will Examine Transportation Issues in Indian Country Attached, and with text pasted in below, is a news release announcing a hearing by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on Thursday, July 12 at 9:30 AM to examine transportation issues in Indian Country. If you have questions, or need additional information, please contact at the telephone number or e-mail address listed below. Barry E. Piatt Communications Director U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) PHONE: 202-224-1191 E-Mail: barry_piatt@dorgan.senate.gov FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR MORE INFORMATION: Wednesday CONTACT: Barry E. Piatt July 11, 2007 PHONE: 202-224-1191 9:30 AM, Thursday, July 12 in 485 Russell SOB: INDIAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE HEARING WILL EXAMINE TRANSPORTATION ISSUES IN INDIAN COUNTRY (WASHINGTON, D.C.) --- U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, announced Wednesday the committee will conduct a hearing on transportation issues in Indian Country on Thursday, July 12. The hearing will convene at 9:30 AM in Room 485 of the Russell Senate Office Building, the committee's hearing room. Dorgan said the hearing will examine tribal transportation programs, tribal road maintenance needs, the Bureau of Indian Affairs Road Maintenance Program, funding and roads inventory and traffic safety issues. Among those scheduled to testify are the following: Don Kashevaroff, President, Seldovia Village Tribe, Sedlovia, Alaska; Pete Red Tomahawk, Director of Transportation, Safety and road Maintenance, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Fort Yates, North Dakota; Erin Forrest, Director of Public Services, Hualapai Nation, Peach Springs, Arizona; Jim Garrigan, Consultant, Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, Red Lake, Minnesota; Jerry Gidner, Assistant Secretary Designate, Deputy Director for the Office of Indian Services, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of Interior and John Baxter, Associate Administrator, Federal Lands, Highways, Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation. "A transportation system is the lifeline for a community making it possible for our children to get to school and our families to travel to work, hospitals and to health clinics," Dorgan said in announcing the hearing. A sound transportation system is essential to economic growth and civic activity. Unfortunately, in Indian Country the majority of the roads are unsafe and unreliable. The statistics are alarming. Motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of death for Native Americans ages 1-34, and the third leading cause of death overall for Native Americans. The death rate from motor vehicle accidents for American Indians is nearly twice as high as other races. "Equally disturbing," Dorgan added, "is the fact that American Indians have the highest rate of pedestrian injury and death per capita of any racial or ethnic group in the United States." --------- "RE: Farmer fights to grow Hemp on Reservation" --------- Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 07:21:04 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ALEX WHITE PLUME CONTINUES BATTLE" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070711/NATIONAL02/70711007 Farmer fights to grow hemp on reservation Chet Brokaw Associated Press Vail, CO Colorado July 11, 2007 MANDERSON, S.D. - Alex White Plume hoped his family could make a living growing hemp when he first planted seeds on an Indian reservation here, but years of fighting with federal drug officials have left him in financial trouble. The White Plume family planted hemp on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation from 2000 to 2002, but never harvested a crop. Federal agents conducted raids and cut down the plants because U.S. law considers hemp, a cousin of marijuana, to be a drug even though it contains only a trace of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, a banned substance also found in marijuana. "We had all these plans of grandeur and independence, to lead the way with industrial hemp," White Plume said. "None of it worked out." White Plume plans to sell much of his ranching operation this fall. He said he probably can keep his house and at least some of the buffalo that graze among the pine-dotted ridges that give the reservation its name. His horses, a truck with license plates reading "HEMP" and other equipment likely will be sold to pay off some of his debts. Even though White Plume lost a court case last year, he is ready to resume the cultivation of hemp if the federal government ever allows it. The plant, which is used to make rope, oils, lotion, cloth and other products, could help boost the economy of the Oglala Sioux Tribe's poverty-stricken reservation, where unemployment is estimated to be as high as 85 percent, he said. In 1998, the tribe passed a measure legalizing the growing of hemp on the reservation in the southwest corner of South Dakota. The law should have been enough to allow hemp farming because of the sovereignty granted to the Lakota by treaties, White Plume said. He planted hemp on his land in 2000, planning to make money by selling the seed to others, but Drug Enforcement Administration agents cut down his plants a few days before he intended to harvest them. The DEA also seized plantings by his brother and sister. "All that left us in debt and demoralized, trying to figure out what to do because our sovereignty was directly attacked," said White Plume, a former president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. He never was charged with a crime, but the DEA sued him and got a court order to bar him from growing hemp. He argued that the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 gave the Sioux the right to grow hemp. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against White Plume, saying the treaty did not give tribal members the right to grow the plant. Hemp is subject to federal drug laws, which require a DEA permit to grow it, the court said. "We are not unmindful of the challenges faced by members of the Tribe to engage in sustainable farming on federal trust lands. It may be that the growing of hemp for industrial uses is the most viable agricultural commodity for that region," the three-judge panel wrote. The court also noted that hemp is used to make many useful products, and the DEA registration process imposes a burden on anyone seeking to grow hemp legally. "But these are policy arguments better suited for the congressional hearing room than the courtroom," the judges wrote. The best hopes for White Plume and other farmers who want to grow hemp are measures in Congress and North Dakota's effort to get the DEA to issue licenses for the production of hemp, said his lawyer, Bruce Ellison. North Dakota has authorized hemp growing and issued the nation's first state licenses to grow hemp, but the two farmers with the licenses could face legal problems without DEA permits. The DEA has not acted yet on the farmers' applications, and the farmers filed a lawsuit last month asking a federal judge to let them grow hemp without being subject to federal criminal charges. Vote Hemp, an industrial hemp advocacy organization, says North Dakota is one of seven states that have authorized industrial hemp farming. White Plume said he and his family have gone through some tough times, particularly when they were uncertain whether they faced federal drug charges. He also had to endure jokes that implied he was growing a drug. "That was the hardest, hardest time," he said. White Plume intends to spend his time working on environmental protection and treaty issues, such as an effort to regain the Black Hills that were taken from the Lakota more than 125 years ago. And if farmers ever are allowed to grow hemp, he's prepared to plant another crop. "We didn't give up our struggle," White Plume said. "We still want to grow hemp and we still got all our plans in shape." Copyright c. 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c. 2007 Vail Daily. --------- "RE: New homes planned in Bennett Freeze" --------- Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 07:21:04 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HOMES IN FREEZE" http://www.gallupindependent.com/2007/july/071007jch_hmsplndbntfrze.html New homes planned in Bennett Freeze By John Christian Hopkins Dine' Bureau July 10, 2007 WINDOW ROCK - The 1934 Reservation Subcommittee, of the Navajo-Hopi Land Commission, adopted a plan of operations and a work plan Monday. The resolution now moves to the full NHLC for ratification. One aspect for the work plan was to construct 50 homes in the Bennett Freeze area, but Evelyn Acothley, vice chairman of the subcommittee, thought it might be better in the long run not to limit the number of homes. "Everyone needs homes, so let's leave the number blank," Acothley said. "Housing is a great need." Finding funding for new houses will be difficult, Chairman Leslie Dele said. The Navajo Nation needs to look for housing funds from other sources, he added. The Navajo Housing Authority frowns on building new homes from the ground up, agreed Larry Nez from the NHLC. Dele suggested deleting NHA from the wording of the resolution and just say "housing." Jim Store, from President Joe Shirley Jr.'s office, said he has meet with NHA officials and they are willing to cooperate in this situation. "We were surprised, but they really want to help," Store said. Something has to be done to assist the people living in the Bennett Freeze area, subcommittee member Harry Williams said. "We need to seek funding from the federal government, they were the ones who froze that land for 40 years," Acothley said. "Those people need something. A lot of people are without homes; you have four or five families living in one home." Boundary disputes between the Navajo and Hopi led to the government placing a moratorium on construction of any type in the area known as Bennett Freeze. For four decades no construction including infrastructure like electricity and water was allowed in the area. The dispute was settled last year, but the living standards of many Bennett area residents are behind the times. Instead of relying on NHA funding, the tribe needs to explore other options such as the Robert Redford Rehabilitation Trust Fund, Department of Homeland Security or other federal agencies, such as the Department of Agriculture, Dele said. A good first step would be to hire a professional grant writer, Williams said. Although many people in that area might need waivers from federal regulations to build, that issue needs to be considered thoroughly, subcommittee member Sampson Begay said. "If you do it for one, you have to do it for all," Begay said. The president is ready to appoint seven members to the land commission task force, Nez said. Originally, the NHLC was hoping for 14 members, but Shirley wanted a more manageable number, he explained. The seven members being recommended all have experience in a wide range of issues dealing with tribe-federal laws and housing issues, Nez said. Copyright c. 2007 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Blackfeet Nation to dedicate Medicine Wheel" --------- Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2007 07:12:53 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MEDICINE WHEEL TO PROMOTE SOBRIETY" http://www.indianz.com/News http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/20070712/NEWS01/707120301/1002 Blackfeet medicine wheel hopes to put the brakes on Browning's drinking drivers By KIM SKORNOGOSKI Tribune Staff Writer July 12, 2007 A year ago at a ceremony in Browning, Bill and Betty Fenner were honored with blankets and the couple danced holding pictures of their two sons - both victims of separate alcohol-related vehicle crashes. They were one of 49 families whose sons and daughters died in drinking and driving crashes. "The Indian people are very good at grieving," Betty Fenner said. "We come together in our grief. But we need to come together for something that stops this grief and stops the pattern of alcohol use that is taking the lives of our young people." Today, the Blackfeet Tribe is dedicating and sanctifying a site to build a rock medicine wheel monument - a healing symbol steeped in Native history. While the medicine wheel is thought to originate in the Blackfeet Confederacy, none have been preserved on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. As many as 150 medicine wheels have been identified in South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, but the majority are in Alberta and Saskatchewan. One of the most well known is in Wyoming's Big Horn County. The medicine wheel, listed on the national register of historic places, is 75 feet in diameter and has 28 spokes. It's thought to be about 200 years old; other wheels are believed to be as old as 5,000 years. No written record to their purpose has ever been found. Evidence suggests they were part of ritual vision quests and ceremonial dances. Native tradition holds that the medicine wheel represents harmony and is considered a symbol of peaceful interaction of the Earth's living things. Project supporters hope that the new wheel will inspire healthier lifestyle choices. "The families want a memorial for the young lives lost, but the wheel will also be a teaching tool and a community focus for change," said Blackfeet Community College President John Salois. Vehicle crashes kill and injure more young people on the Blackfeet Reservation than any other cause. Alcohol was involved in most of the crashes, according to project officials. The Blackfeet Tribal Business Council approved the project earlier this year. Organizers have spent the months since looking for a site that would be visible from across Browning as a constant reminder of its anti- drinking and driving message. The college donated land just east of its buildings for the site. The Blackfeet Community College will add parking and an access road to the site later in the year when it improves the entrance to campus. Until then, parking at the site will be limited. The Montana Department of Transportation contributed $7,000 to the project through its Safe On All Roads program. DOT officials hope to raise more money to add benches, signage and landscaping to the site. Safe On All Roads Program Director Randi Szabo is looking for a source for the six- to eight-pound river rocks that will form the medicine wheel, which will be 50 feet in diameter. Holy woman Rosie Day Rider of Cardston, Alberta, and her grandson will lead today's ceremony, transferring the rights to use the medicine wheel for this purpose. The ground will be sanctified and tobacco burned. Similar ceremonies will be held when the rocks and other elements are added. The community is recruiting volunteers to place the river rocks in the shape of a spoked wheel. The college's Blackfeet Studies program hopes to offer educational discussions and annual community events at the site, making the medicine wheel more than a memorial. "A commercial message is not going to change what has really become an ingrained cultural behavior," Szabo said. "We have thought long and hard about something that can come from within the community that can really foster change. "I'm really excited to see that already happening and we don't even have the rocks on the ground yet." Reach Tribune Staff Writer Kim Skornogoski at 791-6574, 800-438-6600 or kskornogoski@greatfallstribune.com. Copyright c. 2007 The Great Falls Tribune. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Is Osage County a Reservation?" --------- Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2007 07:25:56 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="OSAGE ASSERT COUNTY IS OSAGE LAND" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://newsok.com/article/3078624 Is Osage County a Reservation? By Tony Thornton Staff Writer July 8, 2007 FAIRFAX - An Osage Nation plan to assert environmental jurisdiction over the state's largest county appears to be dead. However, the tribe's chief isn't reverting from his claim that Osage County is a reservation. In his latest volley, Principal Chief Jim Gray claims state consumer protection inspectors have no authority to enter a tribe-owned grocery store in Fairfax. Gray's argument is that the store, called the Palace of the Osage, is within the Osage Reservation, which he said includes all of Osage County. Therefore, only the tribe's laws apply, Gray said in a May 22 letter to the state Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry. "As such, from this point forward unless federal laws or the laws of the (Osage) Nation provide otherwise, neither the Department of Agriculture, Food & Forestry, nor any other state agency has lawful authority to enter the Palace of the Osage, or any other tribally licensed business located within the Osage Reservation for the purpose of enforcing state law and regulations," Gray wrote. An Agriculture Department attorney said Gray may be right. However, the tribe and another state agency are embroiled in a lawsuit over a related issue. Bill shelved Gray's letter is being circulated by members of the Osage County Cattlemen's Association. That entity was instrumental in killing - at least temporarily - an Osage Nation bill to create and regulate environmental standards for all of Osage County. That bill sought to supercede state and federal environmental rules and would have applied to anyone who lives or conducts business in the county. It would have forced non-Osage landowners to comply and would have established tribal court as the place to settle disputes. Tribal officials said Thursday the bill is on indefinite hold. Two July hearings to discuss the measure have been canceled. The bill's author, Osage Congresswoman Faren Revard Anderson, previously said she introduced it at the request of Gray's office. Pricing violations found The new controversy stems from consumer protection inspections of the tribe's Fairfax grocery store dating to 2005. An inspector notified the store of pricing errors on several visits, records show. For instance, margarine marked at $1.49 actually cost $1.99. A gallon of barbecue sauce advertised at $10.18 actually cost $13.29. In several instances, however, the store charged less than the offered price. Under the Oklahoma Weights and Measures Law, store price scanners must match the offered price 98 percent of the time. The Agriculture Department's consumer protection services division wrote at least three notices of violation this year and imposed a $2,100 fine, which the store paid, records show. Gray's letter said the store manager never told any tribal government officials about the inspections and agreed to pay the fine without first contacting Gray. Payment of the fine doesn't mean the tribe consents to state jurisdiction over the store, Gray wrote. Jurisdiction key to lawsuit It is generally accepted that the state can't enforce most codes and regulations on Indian trust land in Oklahoma. For instance, state Fire Marshal Robert Doke has said his agents can't enter tribal casinos and inspect for occupancy or smoking restrictions. However, the Osage's grocery store isn't on trust land. The tribe has paid taxes on the store's property for years, County Assessor Gail Hedgcoth said. Last year, the tribe paid $1,739 in property taxes, she said. Janet Stewart, the agriculture department's general counsel, said her understanding is that all tribe-owned property is considered Indian land, and therefore exempt from state laws. "It doesn't matter if it's trust land or restricted land or unrestricted land," Stewart said. The agency sent Gray a letter on June 28 seeking to "work together" concerning consumer protection enforcement. Gray hasn't responded, Stewart said. Not all state agency attorneys agree with Stewart's interpretation of what constitutes Indian land. The state Tax Commission has been fighting the issue of the Osages' jurisdiction in federal courts since 2001. In that case, the tribe claims its employees who live in Osage County are exempt from paying state income taxes. An attorney for the tribe noted that the National Indian Gaming Commission ruled that the Osages, unlike any other Oklahoma tribe, still have a reservation. That reservation is Osage County, the federal agency said. A Tulsa federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2003. The tribe appealed to a federal appeals court in Denver, where oral arguments were held nearly three years ago. The appeals court hasn't issued a ruling. Copyright c. 2007 The Oklahoman/News9, Produced by NewsOK.com. --------- "RE: Osage Chief challenges enforcement of State Law" --------- Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2007 07:25:56 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="STATE LAW CHALLENGED" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.examiner-enterprise.com/articles/2007/07/08/news/state/news301.txt Osage Nation chief challenges enforcement of state law By AP July 8, 2007 FAIRFAX (AP) - The chief of the Osage Nation is challenging the state of Oklahoma's authority to enforce state law and regulations in tribal stores and shops. Principal Chief Jim Gray claims state consumer protection inspectors have no authority to enter a tribe-owned store in Fairfax called Palace of the Osage. Gray maintains the store lies within the Osage Reservation, which he claims includes all of Osage County. In a May 22 letter to the state Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, Gray said only the tribe's laws apply. "As such, from this point forward unless federal laws or the laws of the (Osage) Nation provide otherwise, neither the Department of Agriculture, Food & Forestry, nor any other state agency has lawful authority to enter the Palace of the Osage, or any other tribally owned business located within the Osage Reservation for the purpose of enforcing state law and regulations," Gray wrote. The dispute involves consumer protection inspections of the tribe's Fairfax grocery store dating to 2005. An inspector notified the store of pricing errors on several visits, records show. For instance, margarine marked at $1.49 actually cost $1.99. A gallon of barbecue sauce advertised at $10.18 actually cost $13.29. In several instances, however, the store charged less than the offered price. Under the Oklahoma Weights and Measures Law, store price scanners must match the offered price 98 percent of the time. The Agriculture Department's consumer protection services division wrote at least three notices of violation this year and imposed a $2,100 fine, which the store paid, records show. Gray's letter said the store manager never told tribal government officials about the inspections and agreed to pay the fine without first contacting Gray. Payment of the fine does not mean the tribe consents to state jurisdiction over the store, Gray wrote. It is generally accepted that the state cannot enforce most codes and regulations on Indian trust land in Oklahoma. For instance, state Fire Marshal Robert Doke has said his agents cannot enter tribal casinos and inspect for occupancy and smoking restrictions. However, the Osage's grocery store is not on trust land. The tribe has paid taxes on the store's property for years and last year paid $1,739 in property taxes, said county Assessor Gail Hedgcoth. The Agriculture Department's general counsel, Janet Stewart, said her understanding is that all tribe-owned property is considered Indian land and therefore exempt from state laws. The agency sent Gray a letter on June 28 seeking to "work together" concerning consumer protection enforcement. Gray has not responded, Stewart said. Not all state attorneys agree with Stewart. The Oklahoma Tax Commission has been fighting the issue of the Osage's jurisdiction in federal courts since 2001. In that case, the tribe claims its employees who live in Osage County are exempt from paying state income taxes. An attorney for the tribe noted that the National Indian Gaming Commission ruled that the Osages, unlike any other Oklahoma tribe, still have a reservation. That reservation is Osage County, the federal agency said. A federal judge in Tulsa dismissed the lawsuit in 2003. The tribe appealed to a federal appeals court in Denver, where oral arguments were held nearly three years ago. Copyright c. 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Copyright c. 2007 Bartlesville Examiner Enterprise, Stephens Media, LLC, All rights reserved. --------- "RE: The Prairie fight is on" --------- Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2007 17:53:34 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="OSAGE" http://www.pawhuskajournalcapital.com/articles/2007/06/22/news/news2.txt The prairie fight is on By Steve Ray Linam Managing Editor July 14, 2007 As the days grow hotter, temperatures are certainly picking up in the Osage grasslands. At the recent Osage County Cattlemen's Convention, the talk was all the rage about proposed Osage Nation congressional Act that addresses saltwater injection in oil wells and Osage Nation constitutional language that spells out sovereignty and tribal jurisdiction over the county. Last week, Osage Chief Jim Gray said the legislation, ONCA 7-38, is proof that democracy is working and the measure ensures protection of natural resources. The ranching community, however, is taking aim at tribal sovereignty and jurisdictional claims on property. "If the purpose of the bill was to allow the tribe to do what it is already doing under the EPA in regard to underground injection control, why is it even necessary?. . .Even though we expected something like ONCA 7-38, we didn't anticipatde such a grab for power and control in one piece of legislation," says rancher Dick Surber. Surber notes that non-Osage landowers who possess 80 percent of the county's surface did not participate in the 2006 tribal elections. "We landowners, both Osage and non-Osage, reject blantant attempt by the executive branch of the Osage tribe to exert jurisdiction over our land, air and water," he said. Whomever controls the air and water of Osage County, Surber noted, controls the economy. The rancher protest is taking another shape. Cattlemen are expected to file public notices with land deeds spelling out that they do not recognize tribal sovereignty over their land. Surber applauded the Osage Congress member who didn't abide the "overreaching claims" cited in the controversial legislation. He maintains the underground injection of salt water should be under the jurisdiction of the Osage Mineral Council, not Chief Gray. If the Osage Nation is serious about projecting the environment, Surber suggested the tribe should spend casino revenue on plugging unplugged oil wells, instead of on lobbyists, lawyers, political contributions and travel. "You don't need jurisdiction over all the land and people in the county to accomplish that." A lot of landowners, Surber insisted, enjoy good relations with their landlords. "Why does the tribe want to control the lands of the few tribal members who still own property? Most landowners, Osage and non-Osage are proud and possessive about their land. We are refusing to allow the tribe to control our land, our water, our wildlife, or out lives," he said. Pawhuska Journal Capital, Copyright c. 2004 The Stephens Media Group. --------- "RE: Judge opens electronic data to Cobell Plaintiffs" --------- Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 07:10:25 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LIMITED ACCESS GRANTED TO IIM TRUST DATA" http://www.indianz.com/News/2007/003841.asp Judge opens electronic data to Cobell plaintiffs July 10, 2007 A federal judge on Monday said he would allow the Cobell plaintiffs to obtain electronic records of their trust fund data. The plaintiffs have been seeking the data since the inception of the case 11 years ago. So Judge James Robertson said it was more than reasonable for the Interior Department to produce the records as part of the historical accounting effort. But Robertson warned the plaintiffs not to use the exercise as a stunt or a fishing expedition. "I can sniff that out pretty well," he said during a status conference yesterday afternoon. The move nevertheless drew objections from the Department of Justice. Attorney Michael Quinn said he previously spoke with Special Trustee Ross Swimmer about obtaining electronic records when the plaintiffs previously requested them. "It's not just pressing a button and having those [records] pop out," Quinn said. He said Swimmer told him the effort would be "very involved" and "labor intensive." Keith Harper, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the government should be able to provide the data since it's already in electronic format. "The burden is slight," he told the court. The plaintiffs want information on no more than 100 Individual Indian Money (IIM) account holders, Harper said. The data comes from three trust systems: the Integrated Resource Management System, the Land Record Information System and the Trust Asset and Accounting Management System. The request is limited to the so-called "electronic era" of the IIM trust, Harper added. The Interior Department only started putting the information into computer systems starting in 1985. The data could prove to be crucial because the Bush administration has been relying on its analysis of the electronic era data to tell Congress and the public that Indian account holders are owed very little for the management of their trust funds. In testimony to a House subcommittee in April, associate deputy secretary Jim Cason said the historical accounting project has uncovered only a handful of errors. The electronic era will be among the many aspects of the trust that will be put to the test come October 10, when Robertson starts a trial on the historical accounting. The judge has held three status conferences to sort out some of the issues he will be trying in the coming months. At the second status conference in June, Robertson said he wants the federal government to show how much money Indian beneficiaries were or weren't paid. Certain limits the Bush administration placed on the accounting - such as excluding deceased beneficiaries - aren't acceptable, he said. Robertson reiterated the focus of the trial during yesterday's hearing. He also provided more details on how he expects the proceeding to unfold. Unlike most other trials where the plaintiff goes first, he said the government will present its side first. Department of Justice attorneys agreed they would proceed in that manner. Robertson set deadlines for both sides to exchange witness lists and further briefs. He also said documents that were admitted during previous trials are "presumed" to be admitted during the upcoming trial, though he said the government would be able to object based on relevance. Finally, Robertson ordered the government to tell the court about the "throughput" of the IIM trust and about the costs associated with performing a more expansive accounting. The government was not planning on filing such information because it's not part of the administrative record submitted last Friday. The two issues, however, are key to determining whether account holders were paid and whether the historical accounting as envisioned by the government will comply with the law, Robertson said. At least $13 billion has passed through the trust since the early 1900s, both sides in the case agree. What happens after the trial remains an open question. Robertson has said it would be for another day to determine whether Indian beneficiaries will receive any money. The Cobell plaintiffs, along with national Indian and tribal organizations, have called for a $27.5 billion payment, which includes interest. The figure is based on the assumption that a certain percentage of the $13 billion throughput was paid to the proper beneficiaries. Independent experts have agreed that a settlement should be in the billions, with figures ranging from $6 billion to $10 billion provided in Congressional testimony. A bill that was introduced last year would have provided $8 billion to end the case. The Bush administration, on the other hand, believes account holders are owed in the low millions. A counterproposal to the settlement bill would have provided up to $3.5 billion to end the Cobell case and extinguish any future damages claims. Copyright c. 2007 Indianz.com. --------- "RE: National Indian Youth Leadership Project" --------- Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2007 07:25:56 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="KEEPING KIDS IN SCHOOL" http://www.gallupindependent.com/2007/july/070707nkj_msnkpkdsnschl.html Mission: Keep kids in school Gallup's secret: National Indian Youth Leadership Project By Natasha Kaye Johnson Dine' Bureau July 7, 2007 GRANTS - It was 1982, and McClellan Hall was the principal at Stillwell Academy, an alternative school for the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. Before coming a principal, he was a social studies teacher, but as a principal, he had high hopes that he could make an impact on the high drop out rates in Native American children. During his time as a principal, the drop-out rate of students making the transition from middle school to high school hovered at 70 percent. It wouldn't take long for him to realize that his vision to implement effective programs would be limited by the red tape of school boards and testing standards. "I just got frustrated," said Hall, a Cherokee from Oklahoma who founded the National Indian Youth Leadership Project organization. "I quit my real job and started this nonprofit." For two years, Hall worked on a small scale, and created a youth camp that centered around outdoor adventure, service-learning, and leadership. He constructed a camp ideal for children in the seventh and eighth grade, since that was the age range where most youth dropped out of school. The camp was working out well, but two years after he started it, his wife, who is Navajo, was anxious to come home. "She said, 'I'm moving back, you can come if you want to,'" he laughs, recalling. Hall knew that he wanted to keep the camp going even it is wasn't in Cherokee Country, so when he first arrived in Gallup, he put together the first camp with some Navajo and Zuni students, incorporating the same three areas of development he did in Oklahoma. "We had nothing when I first started," said Hall, who was an outdoors instructor for the camp in its first years. "We went for a couple of years without a lot of money coming in." But slowly, the camp evolved into a year-round program and the approach gathered momentum during the 1990s, becoming the most effective prevention program in the country. Not an average camp "We're not just like a typical camp," said Sonlasta Jim-Martin, manager for NIYLP. "We have high-level challenge courses." That was evident last Saturday as students participated in the 25th annual summer camp. The eight-day camp in the foothills of Mount Taylor had about 60 students from around the United States. Students were broken into groups, and were participating in several activities from a high ropes challenge courses to helping build an adobe amphitheater in the shape of a turtle. "I love it," said Michael Gooch, a 13-year old Hawaiian Native from Waiianae on Oahu Island. "Socially, it boosted me because to we got meet a lot of people. It made me feel good about myself again." Gooch identified herself as an "orphan" and said she was selected to participate in the program from the Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center Waianae Unit in Hawaii. Teatta Plummer, 12, of Gallup, is a second-year attendee of the program. She talked about her favorite part of the camp while helping to reconstruct the turtle shaped adobe amphitheater where the camp hosts traditional storytelling and talent shows. "I like repelling because you can out-fear what you were scared of, like heights," she said. Jim-Martin said there's a lot of thought put behind each project offered. For example, the building of the turtle amphitheater includes troubleshooting that involves geology, knowledge of adobe, and teamwork. Neal Feris, experimental educator and manager, has been working with the organization for five years, and explained how the activities prepare them for life's hurdles. "We try to allow them to realize that they have choices," said Feris, in-between encouraging words to a student trying to make his way through the high-ropes course. "It's physically and emotionally challenging for some kids and its spiritually challenging. They show a lot of problem solving skills." "I went through tough times trying to overcome obstacles (as a kid)," said Rick Quam, another experimental educator. "I felt this could have helped." "Not only are they challenging their bodies, they're challenging their minds," Jim-Martin said. The emphasis of culture is another important element of the camp. The placement of the program on one of the area's four sacred mountains is also very deliberate, and students are explained the significance of the mountain when they first arrive at the camp. "It allows them to know their culture and embrace other cultures," Jim- -Martin said. The whole idea of the projects is also to help make the students resilient, especially since high-risk behaviors are more common in Native children when compared to other groups. The organization also brings in elders to talk to the youth. "I really believe all Native kids are high-risk," Hall said. Among other group actives that promote life skills, students are also educated about healthy eating habits at the camp, where diabetes prevention is indirectly taught. National recognition and awards One thing that separates NIYLP from other programs is that the approach is strictly a positive one. "There are no lectures," Hall said. Starting in the mid-1980s, the organization gained recognition and funding from entities like the Office of Indian Education, and the Center for Substance Abuse grant, even though the program used an indirect approach to promoting education and drug and alcohol prevention. Over the years, it would become recognized as one of the Milestone Programs of the WK Kellogg Foundation, for their 75th Anniversary celebration. Only a few years ago, it was recognized by the First Nations Behavioral Health Association as one of their most Effective Models and Practices for Children of Color. The organization's Project Venture program was recognized with the Exemplary, Promising, Effective and Model Program Award, and is the only Native American program to reach model program status. Several adaptations of the program have been developed, like the Walking in Beauty program that focuses on positive development in adolescent Navajo girls. Today, in addition to developing programs, NIYLP works as a consultant to tribal, and Hawaiian and Alaska Native organizations across the United States who want to start a program that models their organization. Their Project Venture program currently has over 70 replication sites in 20 states. "They want to start something that tailors to the community and to their budget," Jim-Martin said. NIYLP operates on a budget of about $1 million a year with half coming from federal grants and the other half from private foundations, but Jim- Martin said communities are able to replicate the program with a limited budget. Tribal organizations aren't the only ones trying to replicate the program. One organization is working toward developing the program for Hispanic migrant worker children and another is developing a similar program for Iraqi youth who live in Detroit. With their only office located in Gallup, the program has blossomed in the McKinley County School District and at local BIA schools as an in- school and after-school program, and has about 700 students. Growing and Expanding With the success of NIYLP, some people have suggested to Hall that he start a school, but after much discussion and thought, Hall and the organizations board have decided to expand the program instead. "We're working with more kids than we could if we had a school," Hall said. "The schools are limited ... they can't do some of this stuff." "We have total flexibility," Hall said. "We have kids who come to school because they have to go in order to be in the after-school program." While the word "national" is within their title, Hall said they are actually not recognized as a national organization. But he hopes to change that. "We're focusing on truly becoming a national organization," Hall said. The organization is working with a business consulting firm based in San Francisco to develop a strategy to begin implementing the program nationwide. They plan to have satellite offices in big cities, like Albuquerque. "We're going to keep our main headquarters in Gallup," Hall said. "NIYLP is one of Gallup's biggest secrets," Jim-Martin said. But Hall said that they decided long ago that the program would not do any self-promotion of any kind until they had "everything in line." "We always say we're lucky Mac married a Navajo because we got to have this program in Gallup," Jim-Martin joked. When asked whether he ever planned on becoming such a widely recognized model program, Hall didn't hesitate to answer. "We never really thought about it," Hall said. "We were just trying to do a quality program and we worked really hard at it." Copyright c. 2007 the Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Siletz Restoration: Return from Termination" --------- Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 07:21:04 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SILETZ TRIBAL RESTORATION" http://www.newportnewstimes.com/articles/2007/07/11/news/news08.txt Siletz Tribal Restoration - A 30th Anniversary Celebration: Part III - The Return From Termination By Brent Merrill July 11, 2007 Siletz Tribal Council member Loraine Butler was a little girl when the federal government told her people they were no longer Indians. "I was maybe 6 or 7 when termination happened," said Butler of the termination of the Siletz Tribe on August 13, 1954. "We lived on the hill with my grandma - Ethel Logan Guardipee. I remember we had to relocate to Salem." Her grandma felt things would never be the same. "She was never happy after that." She remembers talking with others about her tribe. "I spoke up and said 'I'm a Siletz Indian.' I was told there is no such thing. Even though I was a child, it made me so angry." No such thing as a Siletz Indian. The dominant culture academics consider 1945 through 1961 as "the termination period." Policy makers in the United States held a fragmented and unrealistic view of tribes 60 years ago. Some felt tribes should be allowed to follow what traditional beliefs and activities they had left. Others felt tribal people should not be given even the basic human rights afforded to prisoners of war. A 1943 Senate Report on Tribal Policy outlined the divide over the "Indian problem." "While the original aim of federal policy was to make the Indian a citizen, the present aim appears to be to keep the Indian an Indian and to make him satisfied with all the limitations of a primitive life. We are striving mightily to help him recapture his ancient, worn-out cultures which are now a vague memory to him and are absolutely unable to function in his present world." Yet six decades later, tribal people still remember their culture and have rebounded to create their own society within the dominant culture society. Termination as a federal policy began to be implemented in the 1950s. Siletz Tribal land holdings were sold by the federal government and other tribal properties including the cemetery where transferred to the town of Siletz because the tribe could not pay the property taxes that were now due. Ironically, a Congressional Report on Indian Affairs in 1949 warned that tribal leaders might never forget the establishment of such a cruel and unusual policy towards their people. "The termination policy adopted by the federal government" had a "major impact on the attitudes of subsequent generations of Indian leadership. The memory of Congressional committees and bureaucrats in Washington terminating the existence of hundreds of tribes across Indian country stands as a chilling reminder that Congress can unilaterally decide to extinguish the special status and rights of tribes without Indian consent." The government held 13 hearings on the subject of termination in 1953. The overwhelming majority of Indian testimony at those hearings was against termination as a policy. Tribal leaders had financial concerns as well as worries about the loss of rights established in the signing of treaties. They also worried about a loss of connection to the land. Utah Senator Arthur Watkins, who at that time was the chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Indian Affairs, expressed his dissent during the hearings. "I think we have been operating now in many cases over 150 years as guardians of some of these Indians and I do not think we can point with any degree of pride to what we have accomplished." Just a generation later, leaders of the United States government began to realize what a failure termination of Indian Tribes had been. According to the background information supplied to members of the 93rd Congress while considering the restoration of the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin in 1973, termination of Indian Tribes had the opposite effect it had been intended for. "Experience has shown that termination was not a solution for the problems facing America's original inhabitants and the congress has attempted to correct this error and restore Federal recognition to terminated Tribes..." Restoration of the Menominees and later the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians "represented the first significant rejection of the termination policy of the 1950s." In the years prior to restoration in 1977, the people of the Siletz Tribe that had remained on their known reservation lands suffered because they stayed. Unemployment among the tribal members was more than 40 percent, the average family income was only $3,000 and half of the tribe's young people had not finished high school. Facing the devastating effects of alcoholism and other significant health problems, tribal leaders began meeting in the late 1960s in hopes they could reorganize. Tribal leaders incorporated in 1973. In a Senate Report to the Indian Affairs Committee considering the Siletz Restoration proposal felt that the people of the Siletz Tribe met the criteria for restoration because "There exists an on-going, identifiable community of Indians who are members of the formally recognized tribe, the Siletz community is located in the vicinity of the former reservation, the group has continued to perform self-governing functions, there is widespread use of their aboriginal language, customs and culture and there has been a marked deterioration in their socio- economic conditions since termination." The report stated tribal members would benefit from restored status as Indians. "Restoration would make a large difference both to individuals and the tribe as a whole in that they would be eligible for benefits. Tribal members would be eligible for the health services provided by the Indian Health Service. Many of the other programs of these agencies would be available to the tribe and its members to address the social and economic problems they are now experiencing. Just as important to the people of the Siletz is the fact that this legislation will restore to them their dignity as members of an Indian tribe." Tribal member and current Tribal General Manager Brenda Bremner feels the effects of termination are still being felt by tribal members today. "Termination is about identity," said Bremner. "Our people today are still struggling with issues that are a direct result of being from a terminated tribe. They are still dealing with issues of cultural identity, with issues of self-worth and with issues of knowing who they are." Now that Loraine Butler has become a leader in her tribe, she feels even more strongly that members of the tribe need to be willing to stand up for their legacy as Indian people. "I feel, as a tribal councilperson, that we have to fight every day to keep what we have," said Butler. "It could happen again. This is a daily battle to prevent termination from happening again. We're still fighting termination today." From the ashes of termination has come a revitalization of an entire tribe. When the tribe was restored, then tribal chairman Arthur Bensell said his people would honor their ancestors by returning the tribal people to their status as proud, self-sufficient people. "The Confederated Tribes of Siletz have reason to celebrate," said Bensell in 1977. "The restoration Act restoring federal recognition to the Siletz has become a reality. The tribal council and all those involved have not wavered in their purpose to regain tribal restoration and procure the education, health, welfare and special project benefits which they felt would assist them in becoming useful citizens in our tribe, state and nation." Bensell then challenged future generations to carry on the important work of putting the tribe back together again. "We now have the tools which we have been fighting for, therefore, let us not fail in our efforts in combating the social and economic problems experienced by our people after termination. Let us not lose the enthusiasm and devotion to the cause of our people which culminated in this historic event. Through a united effort we can continue to be proud that we are Siletz Indians." This is the third in a series of monthly articles about the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians' 30th anniversary Restoration by Brent Merril. Merril is a public relations consultant for the tribe. Merril has spent his adult life working for many tribes throughout the Northwest as a journalist, public relations consultant and natural resource law enforcement coordinator. Copyright c. 2007 Newport News-Times. --------- "RE: American Indian studies blossom" --------- Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2007 07:25:56 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CLASSES AND ENROLLMENT UP" http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_6325135 American Indian studies blossom I.E. colleges now offering programs Charlotte Hsu, Staff Writer San Bernardino County Sun July 8, 2007 Long before explorers made their way west, the Serrano people lived amid the mountains, valleys, passes and highlands of San Bernardino County. For music, they used rattles fashioned from gourds filled with palm-tree seeds. They used branches and yucca fiber to craft homes near lakes and springs. They told their children about how the first people turned to pine trees as they mourned the death of Kruktat, their creator. They explained how those trees bore nuts and acorns, nourishment for Serranos who came later. "The first disciplines of the Americas are Native American studies," said Clifford Trafzer, director of UC Riverside's California Center for Native Nations. "California Indians were the first people here," he said. "And the various things they did in surviving for so long and thriving in California, through their literature, through their history, through their languages, through their economies, their knowledge of biology, plants, animals, geology, hydrology ... I just think it's rich." Trafzer is among local academics and other experts who say interest in American Indian studies is climbing. At UCR, doctoral candidates can concentrate on American Indian dance, literature or history, Trafzer said. The California Center, which promotes and conducts research on American Indian people, was founded several years ago, he said. A three-year-old UCR Extension department now averages seven or eight courses per quarter, said program coordinator Leanna Mojado. Local tribal leaders gave a guest lecture at San Bernardino Valley College this spring in a class on Serrano history. And the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians is partnering with Claremont Graduate University this fall to run a new program teaching tribal employees about American Indian history and laws and other rules that apply to tribal governments. The rise of reservation casinos and the high-profile politics associated with gaming have made Californians in the general population more aware of American Indians. Tribes have reached out to outsiders in recent years, sharing their cultures through educational programs and conferences, Trafzer said. "There's been a growing need for it, from the tribe's perspective," said Jacob Coin, a spokesman for the San Manuels. "How could we expect local governments to better understand us unless we provide an opportunity to learn about tribes?" The Claremont program will launch with eight to 12 students, said Michael Uhlmann, a professor of American politics and the program's coordinator. Talented individuals whom the tribe snags from corporate America often have a poor grasp of laws governing tribal operations, said Deron Marquez, a formal San Manuel tribal chairman and a Claremont doctoral candidate who collaborated with Uhlmann and others on the new program. Enrollees will dabble in such topics as managerial techniques, government structures and American Indian history. The tribe wants employees to learn about "who we are, how we relate to state and local government, how we partake in American culture and how our business relates to the broader pattern of activities in California," Uhlmann said. Carol Richardson, a payroll specialist who works for the tribe but is not a member, took classes in a pilot for the Claremont program last year. She said the courses helped her understand tribes' status as sovereign nations and how gaming was meant to boost American Indians' economies and standard of living. Richardson said she leans anti-casino and believes tribes should diversify their income sources. "When we hear of the Indian tribes," Richardson said, "a lot of the time we just think `casino.' "There's a bigger picture here." UCR Extension expanded its American Indian studies offerings in response to suggestions of participants in previous courses, Mojado said. For Mojado, of Paiute and Navajo heritage, the program is a way to share American Indian culture and preserve tribes' histories. Courses often draw K-12 teachers who pass on what they learn to area children, she said. Most instructors are of American Indian descent, able to offer firsthand information, she said. Opportunities in the past have included classes on basketry, shamanism, storytelling, toys and games and gourds and dreamcatchers. The American Indian story is the tale of California's past, Trafzer says. "Most people don't know about the great killings that took place, the genocide against California Indians in the 1850s and '60s, during the gold rush period, and how militia groups moved against Indian people and there were outcries in newspapers for the extermination of all Indian people," he said. "I think we ought to know about that." The gold rush days are long gone, and thinking "California" today conjures images of Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Vegas-style poker and blackjack tables, a 2,500-seat bingo hall and 2,000 slots festoon at the San Manuel casino near San Bernardino. But through growing American Indian studies programs, here and elsewhere, the sagas and histories of the state's first people live on. Contact writer Charlotte Hsu at (909) 386-3882 or via e-mail at charlotte.hsu@sbsun.com. Copyright c. 2007 San Bernardino County Sun. --------- "RE: Honoring our Elders: Nellie (Miller) Hunter" --------- Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 07:10:25 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ELDER NELLIE (MILLER) HUNTER" http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=8860 Honoring our Elders July 9, 2007 Nellie (Miller) Hunter was born in the Clayton hills, 1939. She had a twin brother. Her mother died shortly after their birth. Her mother's sister took the twins and moved to California away from the family. When they were nine, she also passed away, leaving them in the care of their uncle, who took care of them until his death when they were sixteen. Nellie worked cleaning house and babysitting to finish high school. Shortly after graduation, Nellie joined the U.S. Army, WAC detachment 1957 until 1960. She was stationed in the Ryukyu Islands. While stationed there Specialist Fifth Class Hunter was chosen WAC of the month for November 1959. She was chosen WAC of the Month for November 1959 by a board of officers and enlisted women of the U.S. Army WAC Detachment, Ryukyu Islands. She was assigned as Administrative Specialist in the Office of the Commander in Chief, Pacific, Representative, USARYIS/IX Corps. After serving out her enlistment, she took time off to have seven children. When the youngest was one, she went back to college majoring in accounting for two years. She then worked at the Veterans Administration Hospital, Oklahoma City, Ok. From 1979 until 1993. While there, she started as Clerk Typist progressing to become Asst. Chief of Purchasing and Contracting. She was selected as Employee of the Month for Acquisition & Materials Management Services. She also was recognized for managing the purchase of thousands of pieces of computer equipment. She was recognized for her dedication and conscientious approach to her job thus providing a fine example to those around her. Her unselfish devotion to the welfare of others had been an asset not only to the VA but to the American Indian Training and Employment Program (ATEP) as well. Under her leadership the hospital hospital had netted over 1300 additional man hours through job training offered ATEP participants during one year. In 19 91, she was recognized as Employee of the Month for the VA Medical Center, Oklahoma City, OK. She was active in the American Indian/Native Alaskan Faculty and Staff Association and served on the Federal Women's Program. She has received numerous letters of appreciation and performance awards during her tenure at the Veterans Administration Hospital. In 1993, she moved to Tupelo to help provide care to her family. She worked as a paraprofessional in the Tupelo Special Education Class. She has worked with developmental disabled clients since 1993. She is a certified nurse aide, has completed training for Non-Technical Medical Care in Home Care. She has over 1500 hours training in developmental disability care. She assists with a Special Needs Sunday School class at the Tupelo Baptist Church, Tupelo, Ok. And volunteers with their Bible School each year. Also, volunteering with Bible School at Centrahoma Baptist Church, Centrahoma, OK. She currently is a member of the Choctaw Nation Color Guard, Secretary/Treasurer of the Choctaw Veterans Association and a Veterans Service Officer. She volunteers at the Choctaw District 12 senior citizens center in Coalgate and the senior citizens center in Tupelo. She is a member of the JOM Program at Tupelo School. Helps with programs for the Choctaw children and youth at the Coalgate center. The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma recognized her as Outstanding Choctaw Elder Coalgate Dist #12, October 2005 and 2006. District 12 nominated her as delegate to the 30th National Indian Council on Aging in September 2006. She is a councilwoman with the City of Tupelo, OK. Native American Times. Copyright c. 2005 All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: GIAGO: State of Native Nations per Harvard" --------- Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2007 07:25:56 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GIAGO: INACCURACIES" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tim-giago/ state-of-the-native-nati_b_55122.html Tim Giago "State of the Native Nations" According to Harvard July 5, 2007 Founded by Professor Stephen Cornell and Professor Joseph P. Kalt at Harvard University in 1987, The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development has taken a wide range of its research, with comments from prominent members of the Indian community, and published a book The State of the Native Nations. About the book Gregory Cajete, Associate Professor and Director of the Native American Studies Program at the University of New Mexico writes on the back cover, "The State of the Native Nations fills a void that currently exists for easily accessible, self-contained reflective research related to building Native Nations. It will certainly be a sought after course reader within Native programs throughout the U. S. and Canada." I always get a little concerned when I read such proclamations. For one, I always approach any book attempting to establish boundaries on Native American activities, then and now, with extreme trepidation. It is a very complex issue and one that remains a dark hole to most Americans. On many of the topics ranging from tribal government to education, comments by Indian individuals familiar with the basic topics are relevant and cogent and their comments bring the academic analysis of the subject matter to a personal level. In other words, these individual Indian scholars and tribal members bring feelings and heart to the world of hard and often heartless statistics. When reviewing any book about American Indians, I always go to the topic most familiar to me, and in this book that topic is listed under "Media." Having spent the last 30 plus years as an active member of the Indian media, I have experienced many of its ups and downs and have been a part of its national growth. This chapter of the book was a disappointment to me. On so many topics in the book the authors were able to find Native Americans writers familiar with such wide-ranging topics from tribal - federal government relations, to culture. And yet when dealing with a topic like the media, a field filled with Native American journalists of every stripe, no Native journalist was called upon to write about a subject I find most vital to the continued economic development in Indian country. The anonymous person chosen to write the chapter on "Media" knew very little about the subject matter. For example the book declares, "In 1984 a group of Native American journalists at Pennsylvania State University created the Native America Press Association." Not true. The Native American Press Association, later to become the Native American Journalists Association, was created on the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma in 1984. In reading the book's assumption, one wonders if there was a group of Native American students at Penn State that created the NAPA. Well, the truth of the matter is that Professor Bill Dulaney, a journalism professor at Penn State, Adrian Louis, my managing editor at the Lakota Times, and I, wrote and received a grant from the Gannett Foundation to finance an "organizational meeting" at Penn State, and we summoned by letter and phone as many Native journalists as we could find and this first meeting would confirm that we did need such and organization and would lea d to the Choctaw Nation meeting where NAPA (now NAJA) was formed and named. Once again, Mr. Louis, Professor Dulaney and I raised the funds through the Gannett Foundation to hold the meeting on the Choctaw Nation. As the editor and publisher of the Lakota Times, I was elected as the first president of the new organization, Anita Austin of the Native American Rights Fund as treasurer, Mary Polanco, editor of the Jicarilla Chieftain as secretary and Loren Tapahe, publisher of the Navajo Times as vice president. Another error in the "Media" chapter states that my car was firebombed because I published articles that "apparently displeased the tribal members." No, it was not my car that was firebombed, but it was my newspaper office that was firebombed. And it was firebombed because I wrote an editorial that was critical of the American Indian Movement. At a meeting in Denver in later years it was confirmed to me by a high ranking member of AIM that yes, it was AIM that ordered the bombing of my newspaper office. But despite these errors of omission and commission The State of the Native Nations is a comprehensive and educational book for any person deeply interested in learning about the ins and outs of Indian country. I highly recommend it especially for the contributions by essayists like Marge Anderson, former Chief Executive of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, the Honorable Robert Yazzie, Chief Justice Emeritus of the Navajo Nation Supreme Court, Sherry Salway Black, former board member of the First Nation Development Institute and Yvette Roubideaux, Assistant Professor, College of Medicine, University of Arizona. But if Professor Cornell and Kalt write any more books about Indians, especially one that concerns the Native American media, I hope they search out and find a Native American journalist to write that chapter. Maybe then they will get it right because, after all, if there are glaring errors in one chapter, how many exist in others? --- Tim Giago is a member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe. He was born on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota on July 12, 1934. Giago was the founder of the Lakota Times in 1981. His books include The Aboriginal Sin and Notes from Indian Country Volumes I and II. Giago also edited and helped write The American Indian and the Media. His new book, Children Left Behind was published in August of 2006 by Clear Light Book Publishing, Inc., Santa Fe, NM. Copyright c. 2007 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. --------- "RE: EDITORIAL: Give Reservations enough Police" --------- Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 07:10:25 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="EDITORIAL: GIVE TRIBAL LAW ENFORCEMENT A CHANCE" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007707100307 Give reservations enough police By Editorial Board Argus Leader July 10, 2007 The debate over how best to encourage economic development and reduce poverty on South Dakota's Indian reservations is complicated and often arcane. That conversation, however, is but idle chatter if there aren't enough police to fight crime. Officials from six tribes in South Dakota recently testified during a congressional field hearing in Lower Brule that federal grants and other funding sources that help pay for police officers on the reservations has decreased, meaning there are fewer cops than there were in previous years. This comes at a time when most of the state's nine reservations have experienced significant population growth. In fact, reservations today have a much younger population than the rest of the state. The prevalence of high unemployment among young people is a combination that likely requires more police, not fewer. "Crime rates on most reservations are unacceptably high," Patrick Ragsdale, director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, said in a statement offered at the hearing. The Bush Administration offered a plan called the Safe Indian Communities Initiative that would have increased funding by $16 million. Congressional leaders dealing with Indian issues rejected the plan as inadequate to meet the needs of reservation law enforcement. What's the right amount of money? It's difficult to know, but it's clear that in South Dakota, it's trending the wrong direction. There are probably ways to save money in the administration of the law on our reservations, and those should be considered. But significantly cutting the number of police officers isn't the way to do it. That kind of short-sighted thinking will only exacerbate difficult conditions and stifle efforts at long-term economic gain. Congress and the president need to agree on a plan to put more police back on the streets in Indian Country. Copyright c. 2007 Argus Leader Media. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: OPINION: Klamath Dams should be removed" --------- Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 07:17:40 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="OPINION: KLAMATH DAMS: PACIFICORP'S GOUGING" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.registerguard.com/news/2007/07/10/ ed.col.klamath.0710.p1.php?section=opinion Klamath dams should be removed By S. Craig Tucker and Leaf Hillman July 10, 2007 Much attention was focused last week on a Washington Post report that Vice President Dick Cheney manipulated flows on the Klamath River in the lead-up to the 2002 fish kill. Calls for a congressional investigation and regional field hearings have been issued over the matter. Steve Pedery, conservation director of Oregon Wild, echoed these calls in a guest viewpoint in the July 5 Register-Guard. The story on the Klamath today, however, is not what politicians did or didn't do four years ago, but what Klamath Basin residents and coastal fishermen are doing today to solve the Klamath crisis. The farm irrigation shutoff of 2001 and the fish kill of 2002 were back- to-back disasters for all Klamath Basin residents. Either alone was enough to intensify the already vitriolic fight over the basin's precious water resources. Together they could permanently divide neighbors along political, ideological and cultural lines. Indeed, some would say that this permanent divide was imminent - when along came a chance for a solution in the form of a dam relicensing application. When PacifiCorp's 50-year license to operate its six Klamath dams expired in 2002, stakeholders, along with local, state and federal agencies, assembled to participate in the processing of a new license application. The dams play a fundamental role in the decline of Klamath salmon by blocking more than 300 miles of historic spawning habitat and degrading water quality. Since the dams are poor power producers, offer no flood control and create reservoirs full of toxic blue-green algae each summer, there is strong local support for removing them. At the same time that the Klamath dams' license expired, PacifiCorp slammed irrigators with a sharp rate increase which for some families will result in a 1,200 percent increase in power bills. All of a sudden, farmers, fishermen, tribes and conservation groups began discussing how we could work together to have all of our needs addressed. Because our particular need is rather big - the removal of four dams, resulting in the largest river restoration project in America's history - we are willing to work with farmers to address their needs at the same time. Today, four American Indian tribes, nine environmental groups, farm groups and a host of local, state and federal agencies are working hard on a settlement to prevent disasters like the ones we saw in 2001 and 2002 from happening again. So far, the Bush administration is doing its part to support us. In January, the administration's wildlife agencies mandated the strongest fishway prescriptions within their legal authority. The result is a dam project that is so expensive to relicense that the removal of four large dams makes economic sense. The administration's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries experts went so far as to recommend dam removal to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the ultimate referee in the proceeding. For its part, PacifiCorp remains defiant. The company seems more interested in gouging its own ratepayers than in making a responsible and sound business decision. That is to say that instead of working to ensure ratepayers get the cheapest out - dam removal - the utility would rather stick them with the excessive cost of bringing these outdated dams into compliance with modern environmental laws. Even installing ladders would do little to aid salmon recovery, because the degradation of water quality caused by the dams would remain. However, with at least a year left in the relicensing process, there's still time for PacifiCorp to act responsibly and stop exploiting Native Americans, farmers and its own customers. For our part, we plan to continue to work with our neighbors in the basin and on the coast on real solutions to the ongoing Klamath crisis. It has not been easy. There is a bitter history of conflict to overcome. But we believe that we can have a Klamath Basin where farmers can farm, fishermen can fish and Indians can practice their traditions and culture. And when the solutions come from the grass roots up and cross political, ideological and cultural divides, politicians of all stripes are sure to follow. --- S. Craig Tucker is Klamath coordinator for the Karuk Tribe. Leaf Hillman is the tribe's vice chairman. Both live in Orleans, Calif. Copyright c. 2007 - The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon. --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Near where I marked my Name..." --------- Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 07:21:04 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: REDISCOVERY" http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=43482 `Near which I marked my name and the day' Dorreen Yellow Bird July 11, 2007 The 200th anniversary of the Corps of Discovery's historic journey now is finished and a part of the past, but this celebration taught many of us a lot of backyard history that we hadn't known. Lewis and Clark, Sakakawea, Charbonneau and others became more than historical characters for us. Their route from St. Louis to Oregon went right through our region. While traveling through Montana a few weeks ago, I stopped for the first time at a site called Pompeys Pillar National Monument, the only remaining physical evidence of the Lewis and Clark expedition that is visible on their actual route. I'd seen the green highway signs that indicated Pompeys Pillar historical marker many times but never had stopped. This time, I did a "U-ey" off Interstate 94 toward the Yellowstone River, which my sister and I had been following since we passed Glendive, Mont. As we came off the highway, we were surprised - although we shouldn't have been - to find that the pillar was more than just a placard with a historic description facing the site. It is a national monument, and we had to pay to enter. And pay we did, once we saw this gigantic yellow monster a few miles away. Pompeys Pillar in south-central Montana is an ocher sandstone butte about 150 feet tall and covering about two acres at its base. It is awesome. It stands far above the Yellowstone River that seems to curl around it. There's just the river, trees, some farmland - and in the middle of all of it is the big yellow butte. We stopped at the new museum and visitors center, which is a gateway to the pillar - "pillar," by the way, seems such a small name for something as imposing as this monument. We started up to the boardwalk, which is built on the pillar's backside and leads to the top. Remember, the pillar is 150 feet high, straight up; the boardwalk winds around it. The first stop, several flights up, is a platform, above which is a glass-enclosed case containing Capt. William Clark's signature. I was surprised that after all these years, the signature is clear and easy to read. Clark had nice handwriting and he added the date July 25, 1806. I had to wonder how they knew that was Clark's authentic signature; it looked awfully clear to be 200 years old. But after a little research, I learned that Clark recorded the event in his diary: "The nativs have ingraved on the face of this rock the figures of animals & near which I marked my name and the day of the month & year," he wrote. The first recorded observation of the signature was in 1863 by James Stuart, Montana pioneer and leader of a gold prospecting party down the Yellowstone Valley. I also found an entry in an 1875 log of Grant Marsh, captain of the steamboat Josephine, saying he saw Clark's signature at Pompeys Piller. That was convincing. We continued to climb until we were at the top. I could see for miles around; the 670-mile Yellowstone River, which was running deep after all the rain, looked like a meandering white snake. I sat on the benches for visitors for a while . . . to catch my breath. When I climbed back down, my legs were shaky, but it was worth it. Historians say Clark named the enormous butte in honor of the son of Sakakawea (or Sacagawea, as some people spell her name) - Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, whom Clark nicknamed "Pomp." As the years passed, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's troops camped opposite the pillar in 1873, and while the men were refreshing themselves with a swim, the Lakota fired upon them. It wouldn't be for another 80 miles or so before Custer would meet the Lakota and Cheyenne again. This time, the outcome wouldn't be so good. In my journeys through our region, I occasionally stop at these historic sites. I especially enjoy those that aren't made up so well - for example, the Fort Clark Trading Post State Historic Site near Center, N.D. I always leave these places with a sense that I know a little more about myself because I know a lot more about my environment. --- Dorreen Yellow Bird is a reporter and columnist. Her columns appear Wednesdays and Saturdays on the opinion pages of the Herald. Reach her at (701) 780-1228 or dyellowbird@gfherald.com Copyright c. 2007 Grand Forks Herald, Forum Communications Co., Fargo ND. --------- "RE: OPINION: Office of the Special Trustee" --------- Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2007 07:12:53 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="COMMENTARY: OFFICE OF SPECIAL TRUSTEE" http://www.indianz.com/News http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/07/12/news/ opinions/justhadtoask/doc46946c072ed36789536593.txt JUST HAD TO ASK: What is the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians? By Thomas B. Young, fiduciary trust officer for the U.S. Department of Interior, Office of the special trustte for American Indians Local help for tribal trust issues At the Heritage Festival, I met a man who was worth $30,000 but did not know it. To be more exact, the federal government was holding these funds for him, and it is my job with the government to help him get that money. The man was on the list of individuals in the Rapid City region who are "Whereabouts Unknown": Indian trust account holders. In the coming weeks I'll be working from my desk at the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians, on Mt. Rushmore Road, to get this man's funds to him. That is just one of the services available to Indian trust account holders at my office. On any given day I might find other people who are owed money from an Indian trust account, or I might provide a tribal leader information on land holdings from a current title status report. I assist families to navigate the complexities of the federal probate process; I provide information to individuals interested in leasing Indian lands; I let landowners know when they can expect to receive their next trust payment; and I can help people sell their small Indian trust interests if they want to. Rapid City's native population has been growing. Its American Indian student population now exceeds both Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations' student population combined. Two years ago, the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of the Special Trustee established the Rapid City field office to improve services to Indian trust account holders in the region. The majority of trust account holders are tribes or tribal members that receive income from leasing real estate, mineral rights or timber they own. There are over 2 million Native Americans in the U. S. and about 277,000 trust account holders. Trust income for these accounts ranges from pennies per year for individual tribal members to millions of dollars per year for tribes with significant real estate, mineral and timber holdings. So far, statistics show that this Field Office is one of the busiest in the nation. I want to be able to help you too, but time and again I hear "I didn't know you were here." We are here to help you where you live. In the past, tribal members have had to travel to the Bureau of Indian Affairs offices-sometimes far away. With today's information systems, we can research and answer tribal members' banking, real estate, inheritance and will questions, often within minutes. We are located at 801 Mt. Rushmore Road, Suite 200, in the First American Title Building. We can be reached by phone at (605) 341-4028 or call the Trust Beneficiary Call Center at (888) 678-6836. Stop by. I just might find $30,000 for you. Copyright c. 2007 Rapid City Journal. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: EDITORIAL Connecting the dots" --------- Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2007 07:12:53 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="EDITORIAL: ABORIGINAL LEGAL MISMANAGEMENT" http://www.ammsa.com/windspeaker/editorials/2007/wind-editorial-7.html Connecting the dots Windspeaker Editorial July - 2007 The long-awaited report from the chief commissioner of the Ipperwash Inquiry, Justice Sidney Linden, was released to great - and well-deserved - fanfare and accolades. And in British Columbia, a less experienced jurist struck down Section 6 of the Indian Act as unconstitutional. If the federal government can't convince an appellate court to overturn Madame Justice Carol Ross' trial level decision, it will obliterate the federal government's precariously jury-rigged system for dealing with the question of who gets Indian status and who doesn't. In both cases, the decisions took a lot longer than usual to emerge. Veteran Aboriginal legal observers noted that in both cases, powerful people were watching very closely. We suspect the delays were an indication that the jurists were aware of that scrutiny. Lawyers often joke nervously about career-limiting moves by judges and other public officials; moves that offend the sensitivities of the protectors of the status quo. So to see both jurists agonize over their important tasks and then do the right thing is encouraging, even inspiring. There's no way to know for sure if the two members of the judiciary really were feeling the heat, because it is not considered seemly in Canadian society to question judges. They are above the fray, immune from the kind of public accountability to which other public servants are subjected. But it seems that whenever a judge is asked to hear a case that will deal with the challenges that Indigenous peoples in Canada pose to the Canadian establishment, the tension goes up. The two judges in question chose integrity and courage over going along and getting along, and that is expected from people who've risen to such high stations in their lives and careers. But it's not something that you'll see everywhere you look as you survey the daily actions of public servants in this country. During final arguments last summer, lawyers representing former Ontario premier Mike Harris told Justice Linden that he did not have to deal with the question of whether the former premier uttered a racial slur and then repeatedly lied when he denied it. He was told he didn't have to go there; that it wasn't part of his mandate. Lawyers representing the Ontario Provincial Police told him that he didn't have to deal with questions of racist words and acts by the police. They gave him plenty of suggestions on how to avoid the issue. He had an out. But he chose not to take it. Madame Justice Ross was urged by federal lawyers to turn away Sharon McIvor's application to strike down Section 6 of the Indian Act. The Crown argued that McIvor suffered no injury when she was prevented from passing on Native status to her son. The Crown argued there is no right to transmit status. It's only a matter of statute and therefore no rights have been denied. The Crown raised a number of ingenious, if self-serving, arguments. The judge could have allowed herself to be persuaded and taken the safe way out. But she did not. And Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he has a solution for ending the Crown's conflict of interest in deciding specific claims against itself. In this plan a so-called "independent tribunal" is to be made up of "federally-appointed" retired or sitting judges. Despite the admirable actions of the two judges mentioned above, "federally appointed" is, by definition, not independent. Politicians appoint judges and those judges are part of the Canadian establishment against which land claims are filed. We've seen too much evidence of what is wrong with that approach over the decades with too many court decisions that dismiss the Indigenous perspective out of hand. That's one of the reasons why the actions of Justices Linden and Ross are so noteworthy. They went beyond that. The very fact that the specific claims process is so dysfunctional is proof that government wants to maintain ultimate control. If the government is solely responsible for appointing members of an "independent" tribunal, then there is no acceptable check or balance to ensure that judges who ignore the pressure to go along and get along won't get skipped over when appointment time comes. Only a truly independent tribunal with equal influence from both First Nations and the government of Canada will get the job done. Everything else is a charade, something the national chief, the minister and prime minister know full well. We say go back to the drawing board gentlemen. Copyright c. 2007 Windspeaker - AMMSA, Aboriginal Multi-Media Society. --------- "RE: HARJO: Bushies and friends of Angler" --------- Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2007 17:53:34 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="HARJO: BUSH ADMINISTRATION" http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096415385 Harjo: Bushies and friends of Angler by: Suzan Shown Harjo / Indian Country Today July 13, 2007 It's hard to believe that the Bush administration has done so much damage in such a short time. Most of the country is reeling from the loss of one war in Iraq, one American city and one $5 trillion surplus. (I would say that's the tip of the iceberg, but if the wrong people hear there's an iceberg, they might grab a blowtorch and go hunting.) In their own defense, the Bushies say that the surge is working, everyone's dried out in New Orleans and the surplus never was $5 trillion. Well, there was a surplus and now there's not, and 37 million Americans are living in poverty today and there weren't that many poor people in 2000. Two years after Katrina, large parts of New Orleans are unlivable and 42 percent of her former citizens are living in other cities. And 3, 500 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq and 10 times that number have come home with traumatic injuries and post-traumatic stress disorders, and there's no end in sight. In the past two years, we've seen state officials agonize over the fact that, because of the war, they have an insufficient number of National Guard troops to help cities cope with natural disasters, which seem to be occurring with increasing frequency and intensity. After more than six years of denying that global warming is upon us, the administration has begun to acknowledge, if not address, the problems. Its first act has been solely cosmetic and successful - changing the terminology to "climate change." While waiting for its second act, the West burns, the East sizzles, lightning strikes and giant twisters wreak havoc in the usual places and where people have never heard of a tornado cellar. While our young people are fighting wars and fires and poverty, have the Bushies been sending their own kids to war? Giving blood? Sharing their wealth with the less fortunate? What have they been doing? Whatever they want to do, including serious harm and injury to sacred places and the environment. Vice President Dick Cheney, whose codename is "Angler," is an important man with a lot on his plate. You wouldn't think he would have time to decide water flows in the Klamath River, which killed at least 77,000 salmon, or the status of creatures at Yellowstone. Yet he made time. And he got his friends at the Interior Department to help him. Friends of Angler, including former Interior Dep. Asst. Sec. for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Paul Hoffman, had enough time on their hands to get the United Nations to take Yellowstone National Park off its in-danger list in 2003, over the objections of Park staff. Yellowstone was one of the first sacred places Interior kept Indians from going to for ceremonies. It was confiscated for the "public domain" and became the nation's first park in 1872. It's a rugged place with many geophysically delicate features. Yellowstone and the buffalo, elk, bear and wolves are increasingly pressured by the high rate of tourist traffic and snowmobiles. When Angler represented Wyoming in the House in the 1980s, Hoffman was his state director. He went on to be chief of the Chamber of Commerce of Cody, next to Yellowstone, and to push for increased tourism and snowmobiling there. Angler helped him land the Interior job and, together with other pro-development political appointees, they kept the cutthroat trout at Yellowstone off the endangered species list, bumped up snowmobiling in the park and caused the deaths of many of Yellowstone's buffalo. Hoffman rewrote policies to "gut the conservation mission of the Park Service by giving off-highway vehicles, dirt bikes and jet skis wide access to scores of national parks and seashores," wrote Executive Director Jeff Ruch of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility in the PEEReview, "Unintelligent Design" (Fall 2005): "Mining, grazing, helicopter tours, cell-phone towers and even rock concerts, would all be encouraged. Parks would have to show permanent resource damage to block what Hoffman calls public 'enjoyment."' Ruch went on to say that the "ham-handed rewrite caused a furor," but one aspect "received little notice - Hoffman also struck all references to evolution [such as, 'species are evolving,' 'naturally evolving ecosystems' and 'natural evolutionary processes']." The reaction was "so fierce that even the normally shameless Bush administration sought to distance itself," Ruch wrote. "A Park Service flack said that it was only a draft and Hoffman compiled the detailed 194- -page rewrite because he was 'playing devil's advocate."' Hoffman got on the bad side of Interior's scientists by directing the staff of the Grand Canyon Park to sell a creationist book that claims the canyon is 6,000 years old, as opposed to the prevailing scientific view that it is more than 5 million years old. Presumably to appease the scientists or the anti-Indian crowd, or both, Hoffman engineered a series of administration positions against Native sacred places and repatriation interests. The one where he was most public and strident involved a clarifying amendment to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The administration had supported a simple clarification to the definition of Native American. In a surprise move the night before a Senate hearing July 28, 2005, and without the required tribal consultation, Hoffman got clearance to oppose any change. He also included a curious phrase suggesting that older Native human remains might not actually be Native, saying there was a "need to be able to study some remains further in order to determine whether they are affiliated or what the origins are or how it led to the establishment of people in the North American continent, specifically the United States." Hoffman was unmoved by the fact that Interior's NAGPRA Review Committee and Interior's Indian Affairs leadership oppose his position and support the amendment. Then-Sec. Gale Norton fully backed Hoffman. Her mentor was former Interior Sec. James Watt, first at his Mountain States Legal Foundation, which was established to undermine environmental law and legal protections for Native land and sacred places. Norton, of course, resigned from her Interior post before her close staff became ensnared by the Abramoff scandal. Hoffman's replacement, Julie MacDonald, resigned her position earlier this year as the Inspector General finished its final investigation of her professional conduct and referred her case to Interior for potential administrative action. MacDonald cut her teeth on another group in the anti-environment/anti-Indian law network, Pacific Legal Foundation. And Hoffman? He remains at Interior as Dep. Asst. Sec. of Performance, Accountability and Human Resources. Once a friend of Angler, always a friend of Angler. --- Suzan Shown Harjo, Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee, is president of the Morning Star Institute in Washington, D.C., and a columnist for Indian Country Today. Copyright c. 1998 - 2007 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: WASSERMAN: Patriotic service of Leonard Peltier" --------- Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2007 17:53:34 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WASSERMAN: PELTIER" http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/7/2007/1560 The patriotic service of Leonard Peltier Column: Harvey Wasserman July 9 2007 The patriotic service of Leonard Peltier versus the treason of Scooter Libby In all the hand-wringing about George Bush's ghastly commutation for Scooter Libby, the name that should resonate most is that of Leonard Peltier. While the junta's henchmen walk free, this great Native American activist still sits in a federal penitentiary after thirty-one years. In 1977, Leonard was wrongly convicted in the killing of two FBI agents. The case is so laden with fraud and illegalities as to tear at the fabric of our entire criminal justice system. Any president since Jimmy Carter--- including Bill Clinton---could at least have granted him a fair trial. Evidence weighed by Amnesty International and a very wide range of other powerful and prestigious global observers confirms that the FBI intimidated witnesses, withheld evidence, falsified affidavits and did every other dirty trick in the book to get Peltier convicted. Thirty-one years later, the FBI is still withholding over 140,000 pages of critical documents about this case, in violation of a wide range of federal laws. Peltier's sentence has been wrongfully extended. And his repeated requests for a retrial have been routinely denied. Peltier's persecution clearly stems from his effectiveness as a powerful activist for a series of just causes. From prison he's worked to bring critical resources to the desperately poor native society from which he came. Among other things, his efforts through the Native American Energy Group have helped bring 4,000 energy efficient homes to the Pine Ridge Reservation. For all this essential patriotism, he's been nominated for a Nobel Prize. In response, the prison system has denied Peltier his religious freedoms. He's been thrown into solitary confinement for no sane or just reason. His Constitutional right to communicate fully and fairly with the outside world has been restricted. His medical needs have been ignored. Yet he has survived thirty-one years in jail with determination and clarity. For all that, Leonard Peltier has become a critical pillar of what remains of our national conscience. By contrast, the Bush-Cheney-Libby axis has given new definition to the word treason. First and foremost, to protect the interests of their oil industry sponsors, they have committed the worst form of betrayal: lying to the American public to sell a war that has brought death, defeat, corruption, shame and bankruptcy to us all. It's no small accident that Libby did legal work for Mark Rich, who was pardoned by Bill Clinton in his final days. Clinton was briefed thoroughly, throughout his presidency, about the Peltier case. Rich had nothing to recommend him except his money. Clinton's choice of who to pardon remains unforgivable. Bush now says Libby's sentence for the lies he told in service of the Iraqi slaughter was "excessive." But as governor of Texas, Bush executed some 150 prisoners. Despite numerous cases involving incompetent counsel and other grounds for clemency, he issued not a single commutation. Bush did meet with Karla Faye Tucker, a death row prisoner who converted to fundamentalist Christianity. He responded by mocking her in public (http://www.ccadp.org/bushkills.htm) and having her killed, a punishment he deemed less "excessive" than Libby's jail time. So the aptly named Rich and his treasonous lawyer now walk free while Leonard Peltier remains behind bars, still having never received a fair trial, or access to the FBI's evidence, kept secret in the interest of "national security." Peltier now has great-grandchildren he's never met. We can only be grateful for his astonishing personal strength. If this obscene gift to Scooter Libby serves any function at all, it should remind us that we cannot save our national soul without winning justice for Leonard Peltier. ************* To learn more about Leonard Peltier, see http://www.leonardpeltier.net/ . Harvey Wasserman is senior editor of http://www.freepress.org/ , where this article first appeared. His HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES is at http://www.solartopia.org/ . --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Modern eyes can distort History" --------- Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2007 17:53:34 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: HISTORY THROUGH MODERN EYES" http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=43878 Modern eyes can distort history Dorreen Yellow Bird Grand Forks Herald July 14, 2007 The Mohegan tribe of Uncasville, Conn., bought a historic site called Cochegan Rock on July 3, according to news reports. The rock is part of a preservation effort by this tribe. This effort, however, involves more than just acquiring land; it also is remembering the oral history of the Mohegan people. Yet, retelling that history today can be dicey because we sometimes see history through 21st-century eyes. Cochegan Rock is important because it marks the place where Uncas, one of the well-known Mohegan leaders, held council meetings and perhaps met to negotiate with the colonists and other tribes. This historic site was transferred to the Mohegan when the tribe handed the Connecticut Rivers Council of Boy Scouts a check for $200,000 and the rights to use the site whenever it wanted. The huge rock is 75 feet long, 58 feet wide and 68 feet high and has a volume of about 70,000 cubic feet. Its probable weight is 6,000 tons and is said to be the largest freestanding boulder in New England. Why is Cochegan Rock important to the Mohegan, and what do they think of the man who made the rock famous? The rock takes you back to a time shortly after the Mayflower landing and the coming of the colonists to Indian country. One of the key figures at that time was the Mohegan leader, Uncas. He was born about 1640 and died in 1710. The Mohegan were an Algonquian-speaking tribe that originally had occupied much of the upper Thames River valley in Connecticut. Later, the Mohegans seized land from the other tribes in the areas of what are now Rhode Island and Massachusetts. They were farmers, hunters and fishermen. Uncas was the subchief of the Mohegan/Pequots, and his father-in-law, Sassacus, was the sachem, or chief. They quarreled over who was the rightful leader of the Pequot. After a rebellion, Uncas gained independence for the Mohegan. It was a time when colonists were arriving in great numbers on the eastern shores of this continent, and there were skirmishes and wars among the tribes. Uncas befriended the whites, and the Mohegan became one of the most powerful tribes at that time. His decision to stand beside the whites came at a cost. "Uncas was a greedy individual who wanted power, and he sold his soul to the colonists, " said Ray Geer, a member of the Eastern Pequot Nation, in a 2002 documentary about Uncas. "He's the first Tonto and the Lone Ranger," said Joseph Bruchac, a member of the Western Abenaki Tribe in Vermont, in the same documentary. "It's this image of the white man with the faithful Indian by his side that continues on down through movies and television right to the present day." James Fenimore Cooper's "Last of the Mohicans" provides a twisted image of Uncas as well. Others say he was wise and courageous, his vision saved the Mohegan from annihilation, and he was a great sachem or chief. If not for his leadership, the Mohegans would be extinct, as are hundreds of other Indian nations that were wiped out in the holocaust of the settlement of the East, Uncas' supporters say. After all, the Mohegan were on the front lines of this invasion. History also indicates that warfare with the colonists or other tribes was minor compared with the millions of Indians who died from diseases introduced by the newcomers. The Indians had no immunity to diseases such as measles, smallpox and so on. Yes, Uncas was a controversial leader, and some of his actions could be questioned, particularly the actions he took against other Indian tribes. But we must remember that we are looking at the tribes and Uncas himself across a span of 400 years. We have evolved and changed in our way of looking at life. During Uncas' time, Indians weren't Indians; they were individual tribes with governments that sometimes warred against each other over differences. Even the kind of war they fought was different. It sometimes was more for pride and bravery than killing, let alone killing women and children (as happened in many of the wars fought by the colonists). Perhaps, if Uncas saw that his white friends one day would take the very ground he would be buried in, he might have made different decisions. But he saw to the needs of his people during his time, and he should be judged according to his time, not by what we know of history now. --- Dorreen Yellow Bird is a reporter and columnist. Her columns appear Wednesdays and Saturdays on the opinion pages of the Herald. Reach her at (701) 780-1228 or dyellowbird@gfherald.com Copyright c. 2007 Grand Forks Herald, Forum Communications Co., Fargo ND. --------- "RE: Another Indian blockade possible in B.C." --------- Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2007 07:12:53 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LYTTON FN PROTESTS LOSS OF FERRY SERVICE" http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/07/11/4331063-cp.html Another Indian blockade possible in B.C. July 12, 2007 LYTTON. B.C. (CP) - The Lytton First Nation has decided not to block the Trans-Canada Highway for a second time Friday and will hold a community rally instead. The band closed the highway for two hours Wednesday to voice complaints about reduced ferry service across the Fraser River because of a labour dispute. A second blockade was being considered but Health Minister George Abbott will be visiting the village Friday to break ground on a new hospital and band members hope to draw his attention to the issue by staging a rally. The band staged a blockade Wednesday on the route through the Fraser Canyon to protest reduced hours on the ferry brought about by a strike- lockout at VSA Highway Maintenance. Chief Byron Spinks said Thursday he's waiting to hear a response from the province on the ferry, which is the band's main link across the Fraser River. However, Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon said the Labour Relations Board has set essential service levels for the ferry and the band should take up the issue with the highway company and its union. The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs issued an "urgent" appeal for support for the Lytton First Nation. Grand Chief Stewart Phillip said the call to action includes simultaneous rallies, demonstrations and road closures. He said Falcon's response has been inadequate. "I must say however Minister Falcon's provocative and threatening public statements do not bode well for the future of this issue," Phillip said. "We're going to see what the meeting brings today and tomorrow there's a large demonstration and rally planned for Lytton to begin at one o'clock in the afternoon." Wednesday's protest backed up traffic on the Trans-Canada for several kilometres, leaving frustrated drivers steaming in their vehicles while temperatures outside hit almost 40 degrees. Lytton Mayor Chris O'Conner said everyone can sympathize with what's happened to those on the other side of the Fraser. "Imagine that somebody blocked your main road into your street and said 'oh, you only have access to it six hours a day.' How would you feel? Because that's essentially what's being done to the people who live on the west side of the Fraser." Without the ferry, the 400 people living on the reserve are isolated by a nearly four-hour detour over logging roads or a dangerous and illegal walk over an elevated rail bridge. Copyright c. 2007, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: New Colonial tactics to shut down dissent" --------- Date: Monday, July 09, 2007 08:07 pm From: orakwa Subj: MNN "We'll be suing you" to stop dissent "WE'LL BE SUING YOU" - ROGUES USING NEW COLONIAL TACTICS TO SHUT DOWN DISSENT MNN. July 8, 2007. The government and corporations are going to add their financial muscle along with their use of armed force. We have no money to fight against Canada's corporate overlords like CN, mining companies, chemical manufacturers and their puppets, the colonial state. Don't kid yourself, they control the state apparatus which has illegally claimed all our land and resources. Canada is not a democracy. It's a criminal organization that robs us of our resources, sells it out and keeps the public enslaved. The reason why we're a problem is we resist slavery. The colonial states have been playing up "911", the recent bomb scare in England and other terrorist acts around the world. There is evidence that these events were made up by agents of the corporate states to scare people into submission. They want to justify the trampling on democratic rights and strengthening the power of the oppressive class. Corporate governments and police must stop intelligent criticism of their tactics. They will, of course, never gain the kind of total control that they dream of. They are too stupid to understand that it will not work in the long run. They think they deserve to be richer and more powerful. A state can only be strong, prosperous and healthy if it is law abiding. It must draw on the talents and intelligence of all of its people and function with their free and informed consent. This new "suing" tactic is meant to stop initiatives that don't come from them. This is how "internal colonization" works. The colonial authorities have set up publicly funded hot lines so the public can squeal on each other. The "crime stoppers", children's aid societies, drinking-drugging-driving hotlines encourage people to complain to the state about each other. I nstead of helping their neighbors, people look to the state to punish somebody for all their problems. Protection agencies get warrants to grab kids and arrest people based on tips from the public. People are being watched everywhere by silent cameras. We are living in a police state. Televisions and cable could be watching those watching the television. New technologies are spying on just about everything the public does. This was not possible in the 1930s because people fought against it. In Germany kids had been turning in their parents to the police. Eventually enough fought against it and stopped it. 911 and terrorism is being shoved into our faces at every turn. No one explains what generates the alleged terrorism. This may be concocted by state agents to scare the public. The government says, "Give us more police, weapons, surveillance and jails." Meanwhile they let proper state functions like medicare, care for the elderly, education, roads and infrastructures crumble. The corporations use the existing laws or make new ones to put us in jail. The court system has been taken over to process us. John Tory of the Ontario Conservative Party is advocating it. He asks the legislature to take over more power. Mohawk activist, Shawn Brant, of Tyendinaga represents the voice of the dispossessed and downtrodden in Toronto . They put him in jail for "mischief" to crush dissent. Hitler already tried and failed. The Conservatives of Canada are trying to use this old blueprint and promise, "We'll do it!" While taking away our liberties, they look right into our faces and smile. They shake hands and kiss babies just like the Nazis that were known for their love of children but didn't stop their day job in the crematoria. They try to make us think they are taking away our freedom for our own good. In the 1960s the hippy movement and flower children wanted to be free and do their own thing. The civil rights movement brought Martin Luther King. It was new for people to stand up to the establishment. The battle lines were redrawn at that time. The corporate structures reassessed their strategy. They passed laws to get more Blacks and other minorities into universities and gave them preferential treatment for jobs. It was never about equality. Condoleeza Rice is a perfect poster child to show that race and gender is not a barrier to serving the corporations. Those who played the game were given high positions. Some remembered how the dominant oligarchy controls people and events. Along came new players in the civil rights scene like Green Peace, the environmentalists and other humanitarian movements. Governments financed the civil rights lawyers, the hearings against the McKenzie Valley Pipeline and the interveners in big claims against environmental damage. At first the corporations did not mind being seen as "good corporate sponsors". They thought they and their governments controlled everything anyway. There were still some egalitarian idealists who could function in the government system. They've mostly been squeezed out today. Now the corporations and their governments have started something new. They are going after the "dissenters" and suing them for huge amounts of money. They will lay criminal charges against individuals and groups who stand up to corporate and government greed. Those who try to defend us are mostly non-profit groups with very little money. They give their time and energy to fight a cause because they believe in decency and human equality. The corporations and their governments have the most expensive corporate lawyers in the state to prosecute us. After a while, when we are tied up in the colonial court system dissent will die out. We don't have the money to fight in the meat processing plant called the court system. Obviously the judges are siding with the multinational corporations when an elder dissenter, Harriet Nahanee, was sentenced to jail. She died there. She was fighting the 2010 Winter Olympic exploitation of their land known as Sun Peaks . We've pushed the government into a corner legally. Instead of respecting our jurisdiction, they start singing this new version of an old song: We'll be suing you In everything you do In old Indigenous places That this greed of ours embraces All day through We'll sue you in the morning son And when the night is through We'll be looking at the moon And we'll be suing you [for money & material things]. La-la-la-la-la! Kahentinetha Horn MNN Mohawk Nation News --------- "RE: `Manhattan Project' at Sharbot Lake" --------- Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2007 08:35:27 -0700 From: "orakwa" Subj: MNN "Manhattan Project" at Sharbot Lake "MANHATTAN PROJECT" AT SHARBOT LAKE MNN. July 9, 2007. It's becoming more and more apparent that we are being used as "guinea pigs" for research and experimentation by government funded mad scientists from around the world. Remember "agent orange", "LSD", ammunition testing at Sarcee and Ipperwash? You'd think people would know better by now and be decent. No way, Jose! It's vicious disgusting and as slimy as a crude oil slick floating on a lake full of dead fish. Canada thinks we are expendable. They carry out psychological and physical testing of weaponry on our lands. They sit back and stare at us through binoculars and microcopes to see how we are going to react. On Sunday July 8th 2007 at 3:00 pm. The Algonquins of Sharbot and Ardoc Lakes protested the rape and violation of their land by blocking Highway 7, which is 42 miles north of Kingston Ontario. They want to stop "Frontenac Ventures Corporation", Mining Resource Engineering Limited MREL, Natural Resources Canada and Indian Affairs from digging for uranium at a former mine site near Ardoc north of Sharbot Lake Ontario. All of this is on unsurrendered Indigenous land. This whole venture is starting to smell more and more like sulfur and other explosives as well as uranium mining. The Algonquins have been warned if they try to stop the mining they will be arrested and sued by Frontenac Ventures. They've heard that an injunction is going to be served on them on Tuesday, July 10th. Since when have Canadian courts given the "trespassers" injunctions against the land "owners"? Since the 18th Century when it comes to our land. Algonquin Chief Doreen Davis says the companies have already destroyed their trap lines, beaver dams and beaver ponds. They set up a gate across the only entrance to the land refusing to allow the mining company to enter. They want a moratorium on mining in the whole Ottawa Valley. The mining company is planning to drain Crotch Lake to get at the uranium easier. This concerns everyone. The radioactivity can leech into the waterways and wells for thousands of square miles around. There's dust in the air too. They want to scare people into moving away. There've been a lot of unexplained arson and barn burnings in eastern Ontario. Is this why? On Monday, July 2nd the Algonquins sent three runners from their encampment with a wampum to a nearby Indigenous community asking for help. They briefly explained the situation. The message was received by the War Chief. A meeting was called. On Tuesday July 3rd the Algonquins were expecting an attack from the mining company, the worker