_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 15, ISSUE 034 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 August 20, 2007 Lakota Wasuton Wi/moon of ripening Anishnaabe miini-giizis/berry moon Assiniboine capasapsaba/black cherries moon Cree opunhopizun/moon young ducks begin to fly +-------------------------------------------------------+ | 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: Chiapas95-En, Frostys AmerIndian, INDIAN-HERITAGE-L 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: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + "We had a similar situation in the mid-1990's with Senator Slade Gorton - but tribes overcame that obstructionism." "The Constitution requires respect for tribal governments. We want to work together in a productive way. It's time for the Senate Republican Steering Committee to do its part and allow tribes to take responsibility for issues affecting them. The Committee just doesn't seem to be well informed on Indian Country issues." __ Joe A. Garcia, Ohkay Owingeh, President NCAI +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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 I have been taught no human stands above or below another. We are all on this journey to learn. Most native people try to treat each human being as a human being. This starkly contrasts to the dominant society, which has a phrase "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..." in one of its foundation documents. That principle has been mocked since its writing by this society's unequal treatment in all phases of life, health and law. There are some native people, through their quiet grace and dignity, who merit more than equal admiration. They live their life in such a way that their presence is enough to bring calm and order whereever they walk. Such a person is a true blessing to meet and learn from. It is with great sadness I tell you such a person has begun her Spirit Journey. Those of us who have been touched by this lady's presence have each been left with a hollow place we cannot hope to fill, but we must attempt to do so out of respect for the lady who has gone to sit at the Great Concil. My heart cries for her family. Smoke and prayers for Dorita Horse, her daughter Helen, her niece Rose Saddleblanket, the families they left behind. Funeral details for Dorita Horse, Helen Horse and Rose Saddleblanket There will be a wake for all three ladies, Doritta age 77, Helen their daughter listed as 34 one place and 37 another but I believe both ages are wrong. This is Matt's twin sister and for Rose Saddleblanket 17 who was Ottis Saddleblanket's daughter. The Wake will be Wednesday August 22, 2007 at 7:00 pm in the Red Buffalo Hall in Carnegie, Oklahoma at the Kiowa Tribal Complex. The services will then be held also at Red Buffalo Hall Thursday August 23, 2007 at 10:00 am. The address of the Complex is: Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma Tribal Complex P.O. Box 369 Carnegie, Oklahoma 73015 phone 1-580-654-2300 ' ' 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: - GIAGO: . A lady of grace and dignity When is a Citizen Not a Citizen? has left us - JODI RAVE: - Committee to hold hearing Art purchased at Ball delights in MT on Indian Health - LORING: Indian Claims - Lack of funding Settlement Act a travesty for American Indian Health Care - NEWCOMB: Affirm the - ConocoPhillips settles U.N. Declaration on Rights Royalties Lawsuit - JODI RAVE: - Governor fights ruling Testimony in Indian Country on Narragansett Testimony - KEARNS: Next President - Indians shocked and Indigenous America by Republican Steering Committee - SINCLAIR: - Designation of Sacred Land Just Kids living in Hell on Earth open to Interpretation - October Indigenous Encuentro - Ponca proceed with lawsuits - Zapatistas discuss over Carbon Black Education Projects - Fires and smoke - State violence threaten Blackfeet Reservation against Mapuche in Chile - Bad River Chippewa - Prentice gone, cancel Wild Rice Harvest Strahl takes over Indian Affairs - Tribe Members brace for change, - Algonquins want McGuinty cling to Roots to settle Mine squabble - Navajo Cub Scout: - Bickering blamed in child's Death Religion emblem needed - Abysmal lack of rights - Top Winnebago Corporation for Indian Women Execs reinstated - Banish Bullies from Reserve: - Reservations a vital link Grieving Mom to Agricultural Economy - Vigil calls attention - Musicians battle Racism, to Domestic Violence Teen Suicide... - Gonzales pledges $3m - Tribal Colleges awarded for Tribal Security nearly $12 Million - Indian Group settles suit - Copycat Bracelet with Jewelry Store lands Trader in Court - Member of Indian Art Family - Gallup's `dirty little secret' killed at Motel - A Battlefield that's no longer - Salt River Pima-Maricopa just about Custer new Corrections Facility - Genealogy searches made easier - Native Justice with NativeWeb -- Update on Richard Lone Dog - GIAGO: -- Dorgan requests meeting with America wanders away from Ideals Gonzales: Law Enforcement - JODI RAVE: in Indian Country Project teaches Native Culture - Rustywire: The Taste is Sweet - YELLOW BIRD: - Spirit Dove Poem: Childlike Awe Ever old, always new: The Sundance - Tiguas to preserve Tribal History on Computers --------- "RE: Committee to hold hearing in MT on Indian Health" --------- Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 12:35:31 -0400 From: "Piatt, Barry (Dorgan)" Subj: NEWS - Senate Indian Affairs Committee to hold hearing in MT on Indian Health Issues For Immediate Release CONTACT: Barry Piatt Monday or Brenden Timpe August 13, 2007 PHONE: 202-224-2551 12:30 pm, Wednesday, August 15: U.S. SENATE INDIAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE WILL CONDUCT FIELD HEARING IN CROW AGENCY, MONTANA ON INDIAN HEALTH CARE (WASHINGTON, D.C.) --- U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee announced Friday the committee will conduct an official field hearing at Crow Agency, Montana, Wednesday, August 15. Dorgan said he is conducting the hearing, which will examine Indian health care issues, at the request of Montana Senator John Tester (D-MT). The hearing will include experts on Indian health care from Montana and across the nation. Witnesses will also include Native Americans who will tell their own stories about the delivery of Indian health care on Indian reservations. "In much of Indian Country, access to health care and the delivery of health care services can only be described as being in crisis," Dorgan said in announcing the hearing. "The top priority of this committee is renewing and strengthening the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, which the Senate will consider, after long delay, this session." "I know Senator Tester shares that sense of urgency, and I thank him for inviting the committee to Montana to examine these issues as we prepare to bring this legislation before the full Senate." Details on the hearing follow: WHO: U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee: Chairman Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Senator John Tester (D-MT). Witnesses: Dr. Charles North, Chief Medical Officer (Acting), Indian Health Service; Dr. H. Westley Clark, Director, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; Dr. Joe McDonald, President, Salish Kootneai College; Ada White, Health Service Director, Crow Tribe; Jonathan Windy Boy, Chairman, Subcommittee on Health Care, Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council; Moke Eaglefeathers, President, National Council of Urban Indian Health Board and Director, North American Indian Alliance; Stacy Bohlen, Executive Director, National Indian Health Board. WHAT: Field Hearing by the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee. WHEN: 12:30 PM, Wednesday, August 15, 2007 WHERE: Crow Tribal Multi-Purpose building Crow Indian Reservation Crow Agency, Montana WHY: To examine the state of access to, and delivery of, health care in Indian Country. --------- "RE: Lack of funding for American Indian Health Care" --------- Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 07:14:51 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INDIAN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM" http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=46937 Kaiser Health Disparities Report: A Weekly Look At Race, Ethnicity And Health Politics & Policy | Senate Indian Affairs Committee Field Hearing Discusses Lack of Funding for American Indian Health Care August 16, 2007 Witnesses at a Senate Indian Affairs Committee field hearing on Wednesday in Montana said that health services for American Indians often are inadequate because of insufficient financial support from the federal government, the AP/Casper Star-Tribune reports. American Indian tribal leaders said that high mortality, chronic disease and alcoholism rates have "crippled their communities" and that a lack of funding from the federal government is a "betrayal of the treaties in which tribes gave up ancestral lands in exchange for a pledge of federal protection," according to the AP/Star-Tribune. Pete Conway, a local director for the federal Indian Health Service, said some tribes in North and South Dakota receive only 40% of the health care funding they need. In September, the Senate Finance Committee is expected to vote to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, which has not been reauthorized in 15 years. The reauthorization would not allocate any additional funds for health services, but rather would "merely authorize" new spending if Congress separately approves additional funds, according to the AP/Star-Tribune. The reauthorization bill also would expand some mental health services and after-hour care on American Indian reservations. Committee Chair Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) said at the hearing, "We are rationing health care to Native Americans," adding that IHS officials need to explain "exactly what is happening" with the funding. IHS Acting Chief Medical Officer Charles North said the agency is putting up a "good struggle" to improve services, but he added, "The Senate controls the funding. We don't control how much we get" (Brown, AP/Casper Star-Tribune,8/16). Kaisernetwork.org is a free service of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. --------- "RE: ConocoPhillips settles Royalties Lawsuit" --------- Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 07:14:51 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="$97.5 M FOR INDIAN LANDS ROAYALTIES SHORTAGE" http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5058116.html ConocoPhillips settles royalties lawsuit Company to pay in case alleging Burlington underreporting By KRISTEN HAYS August 15, 2007 ConocoPhillips has agreed to pay the government $97.5 million to resolve a lawsuit alleging that a company it acquired last year, Burlington Resources, paid less than it should have in royalties for natural gas produced on federal and American Indian lands. The nation's third-largest oil major also said Wednesday that it has agreed to pay $7.5 million in interest. In exchange, the Justice Department agreed to dismiss a civil claim under the False Claims Act that Burlington "systematically" underreported values of natural gas produced from onshore federal and Indian leases for 17 years starting in 1988. The Justice Department said producers must report the value of natural gas produced from their federal and Indian leases to pay a percentage of that value in royalties. The lawsuit alleged Burlington understated the value and therefore paid less in royalties than it owed the government and three Indian tribes. ConocoPhillips said the settlement resolves "longstanding administrative disputes over the interpretation of complex and ambiguous federal regulations" regarding royalties. "The $105 million settlement consisted of additional royalty payments on natural gas production from 1998 until 2005 plus interest," the company said in a statement, noting that no fines or penalties were imposed. The False Claims Act allows whistle-blowers to sue companies for fraud against the federal government. Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller told the Associated Press it has not been determined whether the whistle-blower will receive a portion of the settlements. The Justice Department said it is still pursuing royalty claims against Exxon Mobil Corp. Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Margaret Ross declined to comment on the Justice Department's statement. But in general, she said, the company pays royalties owed to private royalty owners, state governments and the federal government "correctly and honestly, according to regulations and lease and contract terms." Since 1998 the federal government has resolved similar claims against other companies with settlements regarding underpaid royalties owed on natural gas produced from federal leases onshore and offshore. In the suit that involved Burlington, the government had previously settled with Shell Oil for $56 million and Dominion Exploration and Production Co. for $2 million. The case was originally filed in 1996 in federal court in Lufkin. Settlements collected in other actions involving the same issues in the late 1990s and early 2000s included $95 million from Chevron Corp., $32 million from BP Amoco and $7.3 million from Oxy USA. kristen.hays@chron.com Copyright c. 2007 Houston Chronicle. --------- "RE: Governor fights ruling on Narragansett Testimony" --------- Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 17:33:46 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CARCIERI CITES EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE" http://www.indianz.com/News http://www.projo.com/news/content/ CARCIERI_APPEAL_08-17-07_946OMAI.31dd19c.html Carcieri cites executive privilege in smoke-shop appeal By Randal Edgar Journal Staff Writer August 17, 2007 Governor Carcieri yesterday asked the state's highest court to overturn a lower court ruling that he must testify at the trial of seven Narragansett Indians who were arrested after he ordered a raid on a tribal smoke shop. Arguing that the governor's testimony is unnecessary and would undermine the concept of executive privilege, the appeal asks the Supreme Court for an expedited review that would resolve the matter before the four-year-old case against the tribal members goes to trial on Sept. 17. A lawyer representing six of the seven tribal members subpoenaed Carcieri on Aug. 1, seeking details on his instructions to then-state police Supt. Steven M. Pare before troopers conducted the raid. Carcieri's lawyer fought the subpoena but Superior Court Judge Susan E. McGuirl ruled that the tribal members' rights to due process outweighed the governor's claim of executive privilege, especially in light of his public comments after the raid. Carcieri's appeal, filed yesterday afternoon by Marc DeSisto, argues that the threshold for overruling executive privilege has not been met because the governor's testimony is not germane to the charges against the tribal members, the governor does not have personal knowledge of the raid and information on the governor's instructions can be obtained from "other sources." "At the end of the day, this is just an attempt to deflect attention from the actions of the defendants," said Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal. "It is a diversionary tactic that has little or nothing to do with the underlying case." Carcieri ordered the state police to executive a search and seizure warrant on the roadside smoke shop after the tribe began selling cigarettes without charging Rhode Island taxes, in violation of state law. The result, on July 14, 2003, was a violent clash that ended with eight arrests, including that of one juvenile, and eight people being sent to the hospital with minor injuries. At a news conference the next day, Carcieri, with Pare at his side, said he had told the state police to withdraw if they encountered resistance. Pare, testifying this month, denied that he received those instructions but said there was an understanding that no one should get hurt or killed over untaxed cigarettes. The seven tribal members, including Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas, face up to a year in jail and $1,000 fines for misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest, assault, obstruction and disorderly conduct. Lawyers for the tribal members say the governor's instructions to Pare would shed light on why the raid transpired the way it did. "The governor is an incredibly important witness," said Kevin J. Bristow, who represents tribal conservation officer Thawn Harris. "There was a stage set that resulted in the state police entering the grounds the way they did." In arguing for executive privilege, Carcieri is invoking the concept that that executive level government officials should be spared, in certain instances, from having to reveal confidential information or personal communications at the request of the legislative branch or the courts because it would hamper their ability to govern. A Supreme Court clerk said the governor's appeal will have to be screened to determine if and when it will be heard. The court is between sessions but reconvenes for a conference on Sept. 6. Memorandums to oppose the governor's appeal must be filed within 20 days, she said. redgar@projo.com Copyright c. 2007 The Providence Journal Co. --------- "RE: Indians shocked by Republican Steering Committee" --------- Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 17:33:46 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="REPUBLICAN STEERING COMMITTEE STRIKES BLOWS TO INDIAN PROGRAMS" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.tanasijournal.com/main/index.php? option=com_content&task=view&id=480&Itemid=1&ed=68 Native American Community Shocked by Senate Republican Steering Committee Opposition Friday, 17 August 2007 WASHINGTON - July 27, 2007 - Blow after blow, the U.S. Senate Republican Steering Committee continues to block all legislation that benefits Indian people. The Senate Republican Steering Committee is a small group of Senators who have been working together to put secret "holds" on all legislation benefiting Indian tribes and Indian people. Indian Country has had strong ties to the Republican Party through the Indian Self-Determination Policy and respect for the U.S. Constitution, which explicitly recognizes the treaty rights, tribal sovereignty, religious freedom, and the shared values of federalism that encourage local decision-making. Tribal leaders and the Republican Party share strong interests in law enforcement, economic development, energy, the military, veterans, and many other issues. "At first we thought that it was coincidence that so many bills on Native issues were being blocked by members of the Republican Steering Committee," said National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) President Joe A. Garcia. "But it is clear now that it is not. NCAI is a non-partisan organization that has built successful relationships on both sides of the aisle for many decades. It is a very small number of Republican Senators, but we must address this obstructionism that stops all legislation no matter how bi-partisan and non-controversial." Most recently, the Senate Republican Steering Committee, lead by Senator James DeMint (R-SC) and including Senators John Kyl (R-AZ), John Cornyn (R-TX), and Jeff Sessions (R-AL), killed non-controversial, bi-partisan piece of legislation that would have helped tribes in combating sexual predators on tribal lands. The Adam Walsh Child Protection Act of 2006 requires tribes to comply with its provisions by July 27, 2007. The legislation in question would have given tribes another year to make important decisions on how they want to work with the systems registry that is being created by the U.S. Department of Justice. "This legislation has a real human impact," said Garcia. "This kind of responsibility should be handled by those who know their communities best - tribal leaders, not a few Senators far off in Washington." In February the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed the Native American Methamphetamine Enforcement and Treatment Act (H.R. 545) to make Indian tribes eligible to apply for certain grants to fight methamphetamine abuse and trafficking in Indian Country. Senator Kyl has a hold on the bill and is preventing its passage in the belief that a grant program could somehow confer jurisdiction to tribes over drug offenses committed in Indian Country. Tribes need these grants for prevention, treatment and enforcement against drug traffickers, and Kyl's obstructionism is endangering public safety for reservations and their neighbors. The Republican Steering Committee has also fought the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, legislation that would modernize the health care system for reservations and at the end of last session held up all bills affecting Native Americans. "We had a similar situation in the mid-1990's with Senator Slade Gorton - but tribes overcame that obstructionism," said Garcia. "The Constitution requires respect for tribal governments. We want to work together in a productive way. It's time for the Senate Republican Steering Committee to do its part and allow tribes to take responsibility for issues affecting them. The Committee just doesn't seem to be well informed on Indian Country issues." Tanasi Journal is an ongoing project of Wisdom Keepers, Inc. --------- "RE: Designation of Sacred Land open to Interpretation" --------- Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 18:56:03 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RECLAIMING SACRED LANDS" http://www.yumasun.com/news/ sacred_35984___article_news.html/people_lands.html Designation of sacred land is open to interpretation - even among tribal leaders BY DARIN FENGER, SUN STAFF WRITER August 18, 2007 If the loss of oral traditions, such as prayers and ceremonies, has wounded the collective heart of American Indians, then losing the sacred land that came to define tribes could mean the end of an entire way of life. Generations of people have come and gone and various cultures have appeared and transformed, yet the much-storied mountains and deserts of native legends remain. Tribal elders and politicians warn that while outside threats to their natural resources are nothing new, the increased pressure from development and recreation has heightened the issue from a battle to an all-out war. "There is just a general feeling that there is always a threat and you get tired of waging the battle," said Councilman Emilio Escalanti of the Quechan Indian Tribe. "It's frustrating and discouraging. You have the feeling that this encroachment is never-ending. People have lived and worshipped here for centuries. We just want to protect what remains." American Indian leaders explain that tribes respect all land, but there are certain historic and religious sites that tribes deem holy or sacred. Problems arise, however, when these mountains, lakes or patches of desert are eyed by developers who want to mine, build highways or construct housing projects. But knowing exactly what to protect isn't easy. The matter of defining which lands are sacred is subjective and open to interpretation - even among tribal leaders. The areas also include places outside reservation boundaries that are a part of a tribe's ancestral lands but are now publicly or privately owned by someone else. Local tribes do not have a list or maps of sacred lands that need to be protected. They have their elders' memories, which will fade with time. "Is a place sacred? It depends on who you talk to," Escalanti said. "Nothing is written in stone." To determine whether a site earns the protection that goes along with the sacred status, the Quechans turn to their Cultural Committee, of which Escalanti is a member. The committee consults tribal elders for guidance based on their knowledge of the old ways, and members also look to traditional stories and songs for clues about the ancient relationship with the land. "A problem is that the people who can identify a sacred site are getting fewer and fewer," Escalanti said. When a site falls under question, committee members and cultural professionals hired on contract visit the site and search for signs of a major Quechan presence or signs of ceremonial use. Those clues, such as old fire circles or shards of pottery, are often centuries old, although such artifacts aren't required for a location to be sacred. But as the tribes struggle to determine what is sacred, they also have an struggle coming from within their own native communities. Escalanti said that some or even many so-called sacred sites are not totally agreed upon by tribal membership as a whole. The tribal councilman pointed to the location of Paradise Casinos, an example. "Some people used to say how that site was sacred. Not everyone is on the same page." Tribal members are currently debating among themselves if the site where the new casino is to be built, off of Interstate 8 in California, is among the lands deemed sacred. Making the issue even more challenging is the fact that the tribe has no official body of elders or spiritual leaders to oversee definition of sacred lands, a process that's ongoing as developers express interest in different lands. The Cocopah Indian Tribe also lacks an official list of sacred sites but seems to boast more community agreement about their sites. "Those lands are agreed upon," said Liz Pratt, the tribe's public relations representative. Pratt said the Cocopahs also diligently investigate development projects that threaten sacred lands, handling each project on a case-by-case basis. The Quechan reservation encompasses 45,000 acres, most of which lies to the north and northwest of Yuma, in California. Only a small portion crosses into Arizona. The Cocopah tribe's lands, however, are split into three reservations totaling 6,500 acres around Yuma and Somerton. Larry Myers, executive secretary of the Native American Heritage Commission run by the state of California, helps protects sacred sites by keeping a secret list of the locations. Myers explained that developers contact his office and are simply told whether their plans would affect a sacred site. Details are never divulged, and the list is not open for review - even by tribes. "Developers using this service creates or maintains good will with the tribes," the state official said. "This way alternatives can be discussed and positions can be understood." Myers added that while "only a drop in the bucket" of California's sacred sites are actually listed, he has seen many successful compromises since the list was created in 1977. "When developers and tribes come together, they can start building relationships and developing alternatives. Developers can see that tribes aren't just out to stop a project, and tribes can see that developers aren't just out to desecrate their sites." In Arizona, the State Historic Preservation Office offers a program that trains tribal members to become designated watchdogs for sacred sites. "Their job is to watch the sites, maybe hike the area once or twice a week, and sure make nothing is in danger," said Ellen Bilbrey, public information officers for the preservation office. "This is a model program, and it has won national awards." An official with the Arizona State Land Department said she has seen many developers abandon projects when faced with the economics of building where tribal artifacts have been found. Jamie Hogue, deputy land commissioner, said certain laws may require developers to relocate artifacts or rebury them safely deep below the project. "In many cases, it becomes a cost-benefit analysis for them," Hogue said. "In many cases, it's extremely expensive and they go elsewhere." Escalanti stressed that the Quechan council is constantly researching what it sees as unhealthy encroachment on its lands. He said developers routinely announce interest or plans for building within the tribal community. "We have issues coming to us every week, whether it's encroachment by the railroad, electric lines, home development or recreation," the tribal leader said. "People are wanting to build more, they're wanting to play more. They want to camp everywhere, drive their big RVs everywhere and not be restricted. They are more concerned with their right to do what they want than the right of a people to protect their history." Escalanti added that tribal lands are attractive to developers, who may think that native people will lack the resources to fight encroachment. "When the farmers around Yuma - who have more money - turn developers away, those developers come here thinking, 'Oh, it will be easier to develop on tribal ground.'" The international filmmaker Christopher McLeod, based in California, spoke to The Sun between research trips to Siberia and Australia. His film "In the Light of Reverence" included a portion about the Quechan Tribe's struggle to protect an area from plans to build a gold mine. The film is with the Sacred Land Film Project. "Because of general development, pressure areas that before were too remote for urbanization or resource extraction are now being targeted by consumerism. No place is safe anymore," McLeod said. McLeod credited tribes for growing awareness of the issues, explaining that after decades of silence, tribes have begun going public with their concerns over sacred lands. "Native people had been robbed blind and massacred for hundreds of years. They didn't want to talk," McLeod said. "Then, in the 1980s and 1990s, tribes started to realize they needed to convey their value system to the dominant culture a little better." He explained that non-Indians have traditionally struggled to understand how a place can be sacred, even if the spot appears to be a regular mountain or just another stretch of desert to outsider eyes and hearts. "In our culture, a sacred place is the cathedral or mosque or synagogue. The idea that nature and the wind can be imbued with consciousness or spirituality can be very scary to people and even seen as very evil." McLeod added words of hope, however. "All through time, people have experienced the sacred through nature. I think our culture is going to get there again." Quechan Elder Vernon Smith says that harming or losing sacred lands along with the cultural and spiritual history jeopardizes the future of a people already struggling against mainstream society to maintain an ancient and unique cultural identity. "Our ancestral lands are slipping away, and the tribe is already fighting for survival," Smith warned. "There is an ongoing battle to make all Indians just another citizen. To me that's the most dangerous thing I see. This is why we need our connection to our history - our land." He added that losing that connection with the land could wipe out centuries of Quechan history in just a few generations. "Our leaders need to make sure we're here 100 years from now - as Quechan people and with our land," the elder said. "I'd hate for history 100 years from now to say there used to be a people here called Quechan people, but there aren't any more. I'm just very glad I won't be here to see it." --- Darin Fenger can be reached at dfenger@yumasun.com or 539-6860. Copyright c. 2007 The Yuma Sun, Sun Freedom Newspapers of Southwestern Arizona. --------- "RE: Ponca proceed with lawsuits over Carbon Black" --------- Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 17:33:46 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CARBON BLACK SUIT" http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096415611 Ponca Tribe proceeds with lawsuits over carbon black pollution by: Brian Daffron / Today correspondent August 17, 2007 Part two OKLAHOMA CITY - The Ponca Tribe is proceeding with federal lawsuits against both the Continental Carbon Co., owned by the Koo family of Taiwan, for carbon black emissions from its Ponca City-based factory as well as the federal government for a lack of accountability in the Ponca Tribe's pollution problems that began around the time of Oklahoma statehood in 1907. Current Ponca Tribal Chairman and former Ponca environmental director Dan Jones tried to visit with the Koo family in Taiwan about the carbon black pollution in 2004, and it was reported in a previous article by Indian Country Today that Jones was threatened with arrest and deportation. "We want it shut down," Jones said about the CCC Ponca City facility. "The money, to us, isn't as important as stopping this kind of pollution. For God sakes, if they can run one clean in Taiwan where they're from, how can they come over here and run one just completely filthy right under [Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality's] watch? It wasn't until we screamed for several years that DEQ would even slap any kind of fine on them. In fact, they acted like they couldn't see the pollution." Documents obtained from Oklahoma DEQ by ICT show that the state filed a "Notice of Violation and Request of Information" against CCC on Dec. 14, 2004, after tests conducted that previous summer. DEQ Air Quality Division Case No. 06-365, filed Nov. 29, 2006, states that "the facility is a major source" for the following: particulate matter, oxides of nitrogen, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and total reduced sulfur compounds. Matt Paque and Sarah Penn, attorneys for Oklahoma DEQ, said that for the past year, emissions have decreased due to CCC complying with the consent order. Paque said that the consent order contained milestones that CCC had to meet and that CCC would be forced to pay additional fines if the terms of the consent order were not followed. "Two years ago, DEQ received a lot of citizens' complaints about dust leaving the Continental Carbon property and hitting other nearby landowners' property," Paque said. "As a result of that, we did several inspections at the facility. We did find some violations of our air quality regulations, and we did bring an enforcement action against Continental Carbon. They're now under a consent order with DEQ that requires the facility to solve additional controls for dust." When ICT contacted Continental Carbon's Houston office, a return call was made by public relations representative Blake Lewis. ICT asked Lewis questions regarding the carbon black problems in Ponca people's homes, which Lewis described as "anecdotal evidence." Lewis then issued ICT a press release dated April 19 that stated "observations of dark stains blamed on carbon black frequently are the result of other substances that either appear naturally in the environment or are introduced by other sources." The materials listed in the statement include soil materials, diesel exhaust, residential fireplace soot, mold, algae, mildew, fungus and rubber tire dust from roads. The statement from Lewis on behalf of CCC also states that since CCC acquired the Ponca City facility from Witco in 1995, CCC "has invested millions of dollars in operational and environmental improvements in lieu of posting profits. In fact, the company accelerated the timetable for making a portion of this investment in the Ponca City facility as a part of an agreement with the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality to do its share in improving the environment." However, this statement says nothing about the initial violation orders filed by DEQ. On May 24, the Columbus, Ga.-based Ledger-Enquirer reported that the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to hear a case in which CCC was ordered to pay $17.5 million in damages based on pollution from a Phenix City, Ala., carbon black facility. It was also reported that CCC would take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Ponca City is the former home of retired Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla. Nickles, who is now with the Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm The Nickles Group, was formerly a senior member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The Nickles Group Web site states that one of its areas of expertise is "emission standards." Repeated attempts to contact Nickles at his Washington, D.C., office were not returned by press time. The Ponca Tribe also filed a lawsuit in federal court on Dec. 31, 2006, against the U.S. government. Jones said that at the present time, the main purpose of the lawsuit is to create a dialogue with the federal government. According to Jones, "a part of that suit is basically asking the government to give us an accountability on how they allowed this happen," he said. Jones said the Department of Justice has asked to sit down and speak with the Ponca Tribe. "The suit's still filed, but if they want to talk, we're prepared to talk," he said. Copyright c. 1998 - 2007 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Fires and smoke threaten Blackfeet Reservation" --------- Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 07:45:03 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="FIRES, SMOKE ENCROACH BLACKFEET REZ" http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096415586 Fires and smoke threaten Blackfeet reservation by: David Melmer / Indian Country Today August 14, 2007 BROWNING, Mont. - A steadily growing wildfire that has consumed more than 40,000 acres of timber and grassland moved into the Blackfeet reservation and burned nearly 10,000 acres. Lightning started the fire called the Skyland fire in mid-July on the southeastern edge of Glacier National Park. It is only one of 23 large wildfires in Montana and Idaho that had not been contained as of Aug. 14. Twelve new fires have started in the northern Rockies since the Skyland fire began, four of which are large fires. The Skyland fire moved onto the Blackfeet reservation Aug. 1. It had burned 9,540 acres and was 59 percent contained as of press time. It has a high potential for growth and is also in difficult terrain. The fire is listed as a No. 1 incident command fire, which means that a specially trained command group is in charge of managing the fire containment effort. In addition to the fire activity itself, smoke is causing health problems for many in the area. Southwesterly winds brought smoke from central Idaho into the area, and the smoke could be seen and felt as far away as Minnesota. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality categorized the air in the city of Great Falls as hazardous to people who are sensitive to poor air quality, such as those with asthma or heart disease, the elderly and young children. Great Falls is 100 miles southeast of Browning. Tucker Running Wolf, assistant fire liaison for the Blackfeet Tribe, said the air quality on the reservation is also unhealthy for sensitive groups. He said the smoke there was not from the Skyland fire but from those in Idaho, where 300,000 acres of grass and timber are burning. The fire is contained on the reservation and had not had any growth in the past 24 hours, Running Wolf said Aug. 14. Ten families were evacuated from the reservation, but were allowed to return to their homes; and the only structures lost were a barn, a bunk house and an outbuilding. Even though an evacuation order is in place, no more evacuations are expected. Residents and visitors in and around the Skyland fire have been warned that possible evacuations may be ordered. Throughout the western and southwestern portions of Montana, hundreds of families have been evacuated, many of whom have been allowed to return to their homes. Visitors to Glacier National Park have not been detoured by the fires, and the tourist operations run by the Blackfeet Tribe and tribal members continue to operate normally. There were 811 firefighters on the Skyland fire as of Aug. 14, reduced from a total nearing 1,000 a week earlier. As the firefighters end their two weeks on duty, they are released to other fires after a brief rest, Running Wolf said. The Blackfeet and the BIA have 300 firefighters on duty and the Chief Mountain Hot Shots from the Blackfeet Reservation are also on the fire line. Running Wolf said blasting crews are now creating fire lines around the fire in order to stop any further growth. Topographical fire progression maps are available at www.inciweb.org/incident/maps/877/. Copyright c. 1998 - 2007 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Bad River Chippewa cancel Wild Rice Harvest" --------- Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:27:46 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RICE HARVEST CANCELED FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER" http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php? option=com_content&task=view&id=1135&Itemid=1 Bad River Chippewa cancel wild rice harvest for first time in history August 7, 2007 ASHLAND, Wis. (AP) - The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa has canceled its wild rice harvest for the first time in history. The Bad River Tribal Council announced Wednesday that there would be no harvest within tribal boundaries this year because low water levels had dramatically reduced the rice crop. Tribal members and agencies hope to give the rice a better chance of surviving and expanding with reseeding if the rice beds rest for a year, said wetland specialist Leah Gibala of Bad River's Natural Resources Department. The moratorium on harvesting rice covers 12,000 acres in the northern part of the state known as Wisconsin's Everglades. It includes the Kakagon, Bad River and Bad River Slough complexes, as well as Honest John Lake and the Sand Cut Sloughs off of Oak Point. The Bad River tribe has harvested wild rice, a staple of its diet, from the beds for centuries. Members will still be able to get permits for off- reservation harvesting this year. It's not known how much wild rice is harvested each year. The Natural Resources Department had hoped to start tracking the harvest this year. Matt O'Claire, a game warden with Bad River's Natural Resources Department and a tribe member, said the rice's importance goes beyond food. It plays an essential role in some tribal ceremonies. "For us, it's not just a food crop - it's medicine," O'Claire said. "What happens to the rice happens to us, and it's the same with the wolf or anything else." Information from: The Daily Press, http://www.ashlandwi.com Copyright c. 2007 News From Indian Country. --------- "RE: Tribe Members brace for change, cling to Roots" --------- Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 07:20:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="RECOGNITION HAS MANY FACES" http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/08/16/ tribe_members_brace_for_change_cling_to_roots/ Tribe members brace for change, cling to roots By Robert Knox, Globe Correspondent August 16, 2007 It's not just about the casino, say members of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe who work at Plimoth Plantation. Federal recognition of their tribe, bestowed this year after a three-decade effort, brings financial benefits available only to tribes recognized as sovereign nations, and builds a legal floor under Native claims dating back to the 17th century. Tribal members who work in the plantation's Wampanoag Indian Program acknowledge that the material benefits of their newly won gaming rights have the potential for harm as well as good. They also point out that intangible benefits - such as the satisfaction that their position has been confirmed by an entity that once banned their language and customs - vary widely among tribal members. Victory may be sweetest to those who fought for it longest, members said. "It is centrally important to a lot of people, whether or not it's centrally important to everyone," said Hartman Deetz, a tribal member who lives in Plymouth and casts a cold eye on the tribe's relationship with the federal government. Deetz works in the Indian program at the museum, where staff demonstrate and explain traditional native life at Hobbamock's Homesite - building canoes, making clothes, planting corn, and answering tourists' questions. Deetz and others are quick to point out that the Mashpee Wampanoag, who trace their ancestry to the native people who helped English Colonists survive their first vulnerable years in Plymouth, began their quest for tribal recognition in the 1970s, long before the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988. "My father," Paula Peters said of the late Russell Peters, then the president of the Mashpee Tribal Council, "penned a letter to the US government, petitioning for tribal recognition. But he died waiting for an answer to that letter." The answer came last year, when the government granted final recognition to the 1,500-member Mashpee Wampanoag, only the second tribe in the state to receive it. Recognition of the tribe's sovereign status by the federal government frees the tribe from state and local governance and entitles tribal members to significant financial benefits from education, housing, and health programs. The best-known benefits are spelled out in the controversial gaming act, including the right to operate a casino in a state where gambling is permitted. While tribal leaders and their private backers pursue that opportunity - recently winning agreement from the town of Middleborough to build a casino resort there - individual members say "recognition" can be a misleading term. After all, Deetz quipped, failing to acknowledge the tribe's claim to its historic identity would be like "telling the Kennedys they weren't Irish." Peters said that her people didn't need the federal government to tell them who they were, but that they needed ammunition to defend their rights to their tribal home in Mashpee. Assistant marketing director at Plimoth Plantation, Peters helped publicize the Indian program's Strawberry Thanksgiving festival, which drew record attendance this summer. Although her father grew up in Mashpee when it was dominated by a Native American population that had lived there for centuries, things changed rapidly in the '60s, as developers began buying land in the picturesque seashore towns of Cape Cod. Rising housing costs made it harder for Mashpee's Native Americans to stay there. Tribal elders, who had taught children how to clam in local shellfish beds, found some of the best spots closed because of pollution. "We were being pushed out," said Peters. "History was repeating itself. That's what people don't understand." The Wampanoag had been pushed out of homelands that stretched throughout southern New England originally in the 17th century. Despite their storied alliance with the 1620 Pilgrims, by the end of that century almost all of the land that had once been theirs belonged to the Colonists. Mashpee was then guaranteed to the Wampanoag as a tribal home by treaties signed in the 17th and 18th centuries. As large-scale development arrived in Mashpee, however, tribal leaders concluded, "We needed to regroup and assert our legal rights to our ancestral homeland," Peters said. The tribe went to court, claiming to own lands that were increasingly in the possession of non-natives, but their suit was dismissed by a federal judge in 1978 on the grounds that the Mashpee Wampanoag were not a federally recognized tribe. That decision put an exclamation point on the quest for federal tribal status. In addition to strengthening the tribe's legal status, federal recognition opens the way to benefits that can help pay for college educations, housing, and healthcare for tribal members. The Wampanoag Indian Program's assistant program manager, Jonathan Perry, cites the example of his own tribe - the Aquinnah Wampanoag, the state's only other federally recognized tribe - which drew on federal programs to benefit its Martha's Vineyard community. Federal funds paid for an ambulance that serves Native American and other residents there. But it's the prospect of casino wealth that draws the the greatest attention - and presents bigger risks to the tribe, including the risk of change itself. "Money changes people very quickly," said Komi Wildhorse of Middleborough, who also works in the Wampanoag Indian Program. Wealth may bring opportunities, but it also contains "dangerous potentials to have us conform to the ways around us," she said. And rapid changes in economic conditions are most likely to affect the young. "These children are our next generation," Wildhorse said, though the tribe's "young elders" - such as Peters and herself - "will try to keep harm away." She cites gains the tribe has made in recent years in restoring the tribe's cultural heritage, such as holding classes taught in the Wampanoag language. Peters said working for Plimoth Plantation's Wampanoag Indian Program as it grew from an afterthought to a full partner in a bicultural institution has given Native American employees a kind of psychic armor that made federal recognition less crucial. "This is a place where we never really felt we had to be recognized by everyone else. We had the intrinsic recognition that goes along with just being here," said Peters. "It's a place where we have so much invested, culturally." Federal recognition may mean more to the generation that began the fight than it does to some of its younger members, Deetz said. Whatever benefits accompany it, recognition "can never make up" for the wrongs done to Native Americans since the arrival of the Europeans, he said. Deetz, 31, who says he cannot afford to live in Mashpee now, believes the tribe's success in the future depends on "how we play the cards we've been dealt." For generations, the tribe's hold on isolated Mashpee was largely a matter of "poverty" and "racism," Deetz contended, because non-natives didn't want to live there. Now, given the tribe's new status, the game has been changed again, though the outcome remains to be seen. "Federal recognition doesn't provide failures and successes by itself," he said. "It provides us with another set of tools." Deetz hopes those tools help build a stronger community in the tribe's ancestral home of Mashpee, where, he said, "I can walk through the graveyard and find generations and generations of my family. No other place on earth has that to offer me." Robert Knox can be contacted at rc.knox@gmail.com. Copyright c. 2007 Boston Globe, The New York Times Company. --------- "RE: Navajo Cub Scout: Religion emblem needed" --------- Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 07:45:03 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CREATING A BADGE TO RECOGNIZE PATH" http://www.charlotte.com/nation/story/236909.html Navajo Cub Scout: Religion emblem needed By FELICIA FONSECA Associated Press Writer August 15, 2007 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - When Kinlichiinii John set out to earn a religious emblem for his uniform like other Cub Scouts, he learned that none exists to acknowledge his Navajo beliefs. Neither the traditional Navajo spiritual way of life nor the Native American Church are among the 35 religious affiliations represented in emblems approved by the Boy Scouts of America. So 9-year-old Kinlichiinii, with the help of his family, Navajo medicine men and others, has embarked on a quest to establish Scouting's first American Indian religious emblem. "This is just another tool we need to raise them in order for them to hang on to their tradition, their culture, to who they are," said his mother, Melvina John. Living in Clermont, Fla., Kinlichiinii is far from the Navajo Nation - the country's largest Indian reservation, spanning parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. But he wants to be closer to his faith and learn about tools used in ceremonies, how to pray, and the significance of sheep and sand paintings to the Navajos, his mother said. As a Cub Scout, he takes an oath to be reverent toward God, to be faithful in his religious duties and to respect the beliefs of others. "The religious component is a very important part of a boy's life," said David Richardson, director of religious relationships for the Boy Scouts of America. Religious emblems earned by scouts are issued by churches, not the Boy Scouts of America, though the organization approves the wearing of them, he said. There are some rules, Richardson said. At least 25 scouts must be members of the Native American Church for the Boy Scouts to consider approving an emblem for it. Kinlichiinii's family has been working on the emblem's design and the guidelines to earn it. Melvina John said her son has spent recent weeks learning about prayer, preparations for medicine men and how the Navajo language fits into his faith. "His time is definitely not his anymore, and he hasn't complained," she said. "But we have been telling him, this is how leaders are made." Copyright c. 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c. 2007 The Charlotte Observer. --------- "RE: Top Winnebago Corporation Execs reinstated" --------- Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 07:20:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MORGAN AND HAMILTON BACK ON JOBS" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.beatricedailysun.com/ articles/2007/08/16/ap-state-ne/d8r2bbg01.txt Top Winnebago corporation execs reinstated By ANNA JO BRATTON August 16, 2007 OMAHA, Neb. - The top two executives of a $100 million American Indian business have been reinstated after what board members called a miscommunication. CEO Lance Morgan said the Ho-Chunk board of directors asked him for information, and he questioned whether he could legally provide it. The directors insisted, and after he refused they placed Morgan and chief operating officer Annette Hamilton on paid administrative leave. Morgan and the board say they have since met and worked out a solution. Ho-Chunk is based on the Winnebago reservation in northeastern Nebraska. It is the economic development arm of the tribe, and employs 584 people in eight states, Mexico, Iraq and Afghanistan and has several federal contracts. On the Net: Ho-Chunk Inc.: http://www.hochunkinc.com Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska: http://www.winnebagotribe.com A service of the Associated Press(AP) Copyright c. 2007 Beatrice Daily Sun. --------- "RE: Reservations a vital link to Agricultural Economy" --------- Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:27:46 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INDIAN FARMING" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/ articles/0813biz-tribalfarm0807.html Amid Valley sprawl, reservations are a vital link to agricultural economy Angelique Soenarie The Arizona Republic August 13, 2007 These days, casinos aren't the only cash crop on Arizona's Indian reservations. Tribes around the Valley are growing everything from alfalfa and pecans to citrus and barley and then selling to major companies hungry for their crops. In doing so, they are generating millions in revenue and reviving a time-honored tradition. advertisement "We've always been a farming people historically," said Bobby Stone, general manager of Gila River Farms Inc., a 16,000-acre operation 40 miles south of Phoenix. The growth in tribal farming comes as sprawl and development chews up the Valley's agricultural land. In 1997, there were 742,000 acres of farmland in Maricopa County. By 2002, the most recent statistics available, that had dropped to just over 627,000 acres. The Arizona Department of Agriculture is in the process of updating those numbers. But regardless of what they are, tribal farms are a growing and increasingly vital part of Arizona's agricultural economy. "(They're) very important," said Ed Hermes, the Agriculture Department's spokesman. "You have private farmers looking at leasing land from tribal communities. It's definitely one of the futures of Arizona's agriculture." There are at least a half-dozen Indian farming operations scattered throughout the state. The two closest to the Phoenix area are Gila River Farms and Fort McDowell, which straddles the Verde River in the northeast Valley. Last year, the Gila River Farms operation did nearly $11 million in sales; Fort McDowell, $3 million. Multiple markets That may not seem like much when you consider that Arizona casino revenue crossed the $2 billion threshold for the first time last year, according to the Indian Gaming Industry Report. But the farms' products are increasingly finding their way into local farmers markets, into Valley grocery stores, and even overseas through lucrative contracts. Gila River Farms, for example, sells its citrus to the Sunkist System/Mesa Cooperative and its barley to Shamrock Farms, where it is used as feed for dairy cows. The farm, which produces cotton, alfalfa and 10 types of citrus, also harvested 6,000 pounds of desert durum wheat in June. It was sold to Arizona Grain Inc. and then sent to Italy to make pasta, said Stone, the farm's general manager. "It does really well," he said. The Fort McDowell Tribal Farm, at just under 2,000 acres, is a small operation compared with that at Gila River. Still, it does a brisk business, with 625 acres of alfalfa, 1,000 acres of pecan trees and 325 acres of citrus. Alfalfa has become a staple for the tribe, which produces nearly 8 tons of the livestock feed each year. Crews will harvest each patch as many as seven times over the course of the summer. "The alfalfa goes to the horse market," said Harold Payne, the farm's general manager. "We're fortunate to be located at the edge of Scottsdale, Cave Creek, north Phoenix and Payson. "All of our alfalfa is sold in the hay market. We'll deliver or they'll pick (it) up in their own vehicles." In the fall, the farm will harvest about 4 million pounds of citrus, which is later sold to the Sunkist System/Mesa Citrus Cooperative. The cooperative then distributes the fruit to markets locally and nationally. Tradition and growth American Indians were the country's first farmers, and some experts say that if sprawl continues, tribal farms could be responsible for carrying that tradition into the future. "Tribes came up with some of the most innovative agriculture techniques for this area," said Pat Mariella, director of the American Indian Policy and Leadership Development Center at Arizona State University, citing irrigation methods and other breakthroughs. Before casinos, agriculture was a source of revenue as well as part of tradition and nutrition, she said. In past decades, the tribes' farming efforts were hindered by a lack of water. But water-rights settlements over the past two decades allowed farms like Fort McDowell to flourish. "At the time (in 1990), it was just a lot smaller," Payne said. "They were just growing alfalfa and grain crops." And now that the demand for the tribes' agricultural products is increasing, some plan to expand even more. Gila River, for example, wants to grow from its existing 16,000 acres to more than 80,000 acres. The tribe didn't give a time frame but said it would have an additional 4,500 acres within the year. A 2004 water-rights settlement has allowed the expansion. Meanwhile, Payne said he's gratified to see the Fort McDowell operation doing so well. After all, he has worked on the farm since it started. "I've been in agriculture all my life," he said. "I enjoy the people I work with and the tribe. . . . I've been here long enough to see it grow from a small enterprise to a large enterprise." Copyright c. 2007 The Arizona Republic. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Musicians battle Racism, Teen Suicide..." --------- Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 17:46:30 -0400 From: Subj: Lakota News: Musicians battle racism, teen suicide, domestic violence South Dakota concert described as historic - battles teen suicide, domestic violence and racism - raises money for nation's oldest Native American battered woman's shelter (Custer, South Dakota) - While some South Dakota whites will always be bitter about the Wounded Knee standoff over three decades ago, a Native American national newspaper reporter says a recent benefit concert was a step toward healing race relations while raising money to fight an alarming increase in domestic violence and teen suicide on the Lakota Rosebud Reservation. Michigan and South Dakota musicians preformed at the August 12, 2007 concert to help heal racial tension between whites and Native Americans while battling an alarming rise in domestic violence and teen suicide on the Lakota Rosebud Reservation. South Dakota residents and Black Hills visitors opened their hearts and wallets during the Sunday evening free benefit concert for the country's first and oldest Native American domestic violence shelter The concert at the Custer Lutheran Fellowship church featured northern Michigan and Black Hills musicians and raised about $1,000 for the White Buffalo Calf Woman Society (WBCWS) in Mission, S.D. The funds will be used for preventing domestic violence, sexual assault and teen suicide. Native American reporter Dave Melmer said the concert was the first non- political events to ever bring racial healing between whites and Native Americans in Custer - where racism by some whites is generations old. In fact, a Custer County historical marker still stands proclaiming "whites were massacred by Sioux Indians on this spot," Melmer said. South Dakota is "notoriously bad when it comes to race relations," said Melmer, a reporter for Indian Country Today who lives in Custer. "There are white people in South Dakota who have never been on a reservation and are afraid to go. Custer Lutheran Church Pastor Dave Van Kley said his church and the South Dakota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of American have reached out to Native Americans for more than a decade including their Lakota ministry with a presence on the Pine Ridge reservations. Melmer said he commends all involved because the concert was "a courageous effort on their part to do this" and specifically praised the Custer Lutheran fellowship for its efforts over the years to foster a positive relationship with Native Americans. Van Kley described the relationship with the tribe as "warm and gracious" adding that the Custer High School basketball team has participated in the Lakota Nation Invitational Basketball Tournament. "The Custer high school has made an effort to be participate with Lakota people in athletic and other events - this has been going on for a long time," Melmer said. "The Lakota invitational basketball tournament is more than athletics - it's a cultural event," Melmer said. "It's a celebration of native identity and now there are several whites schools that participate but in the early days the only non-Indian school to participate was Custer." Racism is worse in Custer, Melmer says, because the county courthouse was partially burned (February 6, 1973) in the days just prior the infamous Wounded Knee standoff between the American Indian Movement and federal agents that began on February 27, 1973 and left two Native Americans dead and two officers wounded. Custer is about 112 miles from Wounded Knee. 'The concert was a big small step in improving race relations because it could lead to more of these kind of things," Melmer said. "The impact was probably was felt by both sides - the Indian and white communities - and maybe through these efforts there is a chance to bring these communities back together," Melmer said "There is hope for the younger generation and I would suggest they get children involved with the next concert," Melmer said. Rosebud unemployment is 82 percent, according to the tribe's website. Cattle ranching and farming is the main occupation for the 21,000 residents on the sprawling 1,400 square mile Rosebud reservation on the dusty, treeless, rolling prairies of South Dakota. Rosebud neighbors the Lakota Pine Ridge reservation - where poverty is legendary on the southern edge of the fabled Badlands. Family string band White water and duet Duo Borealis, both from Michigan's Upper Peninsula, performed at the request of the Turtle Island Project and its founder Rev. Lynn Hubbard, a Munising, MI pastor who is a friend of the Lakota tribe and the Custer church. The Turtle Island Project promotes respect for the environment and the Native American culture. The WBCWS, - founded 30 years ago by a group of courageous Native American women including current executive director Tillie Black Bear - serves all battered women and children as it fights family violence, sexual assault and teen suicide. The Lakota Rosebud tribe has more teen suicide attempts than any other American Indian reservation in the United States, Black Bear said. Rosebud Sioux Tribe officials recently declared a teen suicide "State of Emergency" on the reservation. Figures from the Rosebud reservation alone are shocking: 21 rapes in the past 18 months; over 600 attempted teen suicides and 15 deaths during the past two years - most teenage boys. Poverty, depression, a lack of jobs, drugs, alcohol and other social problems are among the reasons behind Rosebud teen suicides. A federal report states violent crime against Native American women is 50 times higher and sexual assault is 3.5 times above other U.S. residents. The WBCWS "is very much like a life beacon, shining in the middle of this country, showing us that there is still hope and light in this world," said Dr. Hubbard, pastor of the Eden on the Bay Lutheran Church in Munising, MI. Rev. Hubbard said he is reminded daily of the great work of the WBCWS because he lives in a "land of light houses, beacons that still shine showing those who sail upon the sea a way home, guiding those who have lost their way upon the sea and need a safe harbor." The WBCWS is a "light that shines in the darkness," Dr. Hubbard said. The Michigan groups traveled 1,000 miles to put on the free benefit concert, and the WBCWS is over 220 miles from the Custer church where the concert took place. While those involved in the concert live long distances from each other, organizers said they are close on battling domestic violence, teen suicide and sexual assault. The pastor of Custer Lutheran Fellowship church said the concert has renewed his congregation's connection to the WBCWS and the Rosebud Reservation. "We share in the goal of eliminating violence against women and violence in all of our families," said Rev. Dave Van Kley. "We are also strongly committed to reconciliation between native and non-native peoples and hope that this concert was a small step in that direction." Black Bear said "the connection between Custer and the Rosebud reservation is once again open and strong." The crowd and the musicians shared stories about the Lakota reservation and social issues addressed by Tillie Black Bear of the WBCWS. "It was like being in our own living room with some friends," said White Water lead singer Dean B. Premo of Amasa, MI. White water and Duo Borealis played a wide range of folk music including a "twist" on Amazing Grace that stirred the emotions of the crowd. "Domestic violence, no matter the community, is a human travesty," said Premo, founder of the White Water family band that has been performing together for nearly 30 years. "Addressing this problem at grass roots is an effective approach and White Water and Duo Borealis were happy to assist in a small way." The Michigan groups were joined by popular local singer Roxanne Sazue of --------- "RE: Tribal Colleges awarded nearly $12 Million" --------- Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:27:46 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GRANT AWARDS" http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2007/08/08132007.html PRESS RELEASES Nine Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities Awarded Nearly $12 Million FOR RELEASE: August 13, 2007 Contact: Gregg Wiggins or Elaine Quesinberry (202) 401-1576 Tribally controlled colleges and universities in Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin have been selected to receive grants totaling $11,982,128 to assist their efforts to improve and expand their capacity to serve American Indian students, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced today. "Tribal colleges and universities provide thousands of students the education foundation they need to be successful in the workforce and in life," said U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, "They also perform a valuable service by helping to preserve the languages and rich cultural traditions of American Indians." The grant awards, provided for under Title III of the Higher Education Act, are intended to help tribal colleges and universities plan activities and develop new capabilities to improve and expand their capacity to serve American Indian students. More information about U.S. Department of Education support for tribally controlled colleges and universities is available at http://www.ed. gov/about/inits/list/whtc/edlite-links.html. AMERICAN INDIAN TRIBALLY CONTROLLED COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES PROGRAM FISCAL YEAR 2007 GRANT AWARDS MONTANA Crow Agency Little Big Horn College $1,199,531 Lame Deer Chief Dull Knife College $ 450,000 NEW MEXICO Crownpoint Navajo Technical College $ 475,000 Santa Fe Institute of American Indian Arts $1,499,893 NORTH DAKOTA Belcourt Turtle Mountain Community College $2,125,000 Bismarck United Tribes Technical College $1,952,951 New Town Fort Berthold Community College $1,639,753 SOUTH DAKOTA Kyle Oglala Lakota College $1,650,000 WISCONSIN Keshena College of Menominee Nation $ 990,000 --------- "RE: Copycat Bracelet lands Trader in Court" --------- Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 017:33:46 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TRADER GUILTY OF FRAUD" http://www.gallupindependent.com/2007/august/081707bd_copycatbracelet.html Copycat bracelet lands trader in court By Bill Donovan Staff writer August 17, 2007 GALLUP - A former dealer of Indian arts and crafts was found guilty of fraud by a Gallup jury Thursday. Amrio Al-Assi, who with his brother, Woody, owned Silver Bear Trading Co. , was found guilty of fraud of more than $250. The jury deliberated for just less than 15 minutes. He was accused of selling a knockoff as an original Jesse Monongye bracelet to a Massachusetts woman in August 2004. While the sentencing date for Al-Assi has not been set, McKinley County District Attorney Karl Gillson informed District Court Judge Robert Aragon after the verdict had been given that an agreement had been signed between his office and the defense that would not require Al-Assi to get jail time if he was convicted. Gillson said the agreement was signed so the defense would agree to waive a preliminary hearing. Since many of the witnesses were scattered across the country, waiving the preliminary hearing would save his office thousands of dollars. Gillson said Al-Assi would be on probation and would have to pay restitution to the victim. He will also have a felony conviction on his record. He said that while the trial was expensive - witnesses came from Massachusetts, Utah and Arizona - he felt it was important to the community because of the role that native arts and crafts plays to the area's economy. Richard Wade, Al-Assi's defense attorney, said the trial was important because his client maintained his innocence, and Wade said he believed him, so he would not agree to him pleading guilty to a felony offense. He said he would have supported pleading to a misdemeanor because of the cost of going to trial, but that option was not put on the table. The fact that the jury came back in less than 15 minutes - which Gilson said was the shortest deliberation in his career - indicates that it was a simple case - would the jury believe Barbara Sheroke's version of what happened that day in August 2004 or would they believe Al-Assi's. Sheroke claimed that when she showed an interest in the bracelet, Al- Assi told her that it was made by Monongye, a well-known Navajo silversmith. She testified that Al-Assi showed her a book on Monongye and pointed to a bracelet on page 19 and said this was the bracelet, adding that he was a friend of Monongye and the silversmith did custom work for the store at times. A couple of days later, when she visited a store in Scottsdale, she learned that it had not been made by Monongye and was just an imitation. She was able to get in contact with Monongye later that night and showed him the bracelet, and he also told her that he had never made it. Monongye, who was on the board for the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, a federal agency that overseas the arts and crafts industry, went to Washington shortly thereafter and used the bracelet in a presentation on fake Indian art. IACB officials then contacted the FBI, who began an investigation which was later dropped. But it was picked up by the McKinley County District Attorney's office. Al-Assi's version was quite different. He said that when Sheroke expressed an interest in jewelry with bear motifs and started looking at the bracelet, he showed her a book on Monongye because he made jewelry with bear motifs. During his closing arguments, Wade pointed out that there was a hallmark on the back of the bracelet which had the name Richard Tolina, who was the Navajo who actually made the bracelet. If Al-Assi was trying to defraud Sheroke, he said, why would he claim the bracelet was done by Monongye when all she had to do was look on the back of the bracelet and see the name of the silversmith who actually made it? Sheroke said she wasn't aware that silversmiths signed their work so did not look on the bracelet's back until she began questioning the item's authenticity. So the case came down to credibility - whose version would the jury believe? Al-Assi was also hurt by Trent Pedersen, who was stationed in Gallup in 2005 and who investigated the complaint. His report on an interview he and another FBI conducted with Al-Assi said that when he was questioned about his sales technique, Al-Assi said, "in sales, you have to bulls--t." Al-Assi testified he never said that. Instead, he said "this is bulls--t" to the FBI interviewer in response to accusations being made by them. In the end, the jury's verdict indicated they believed Sheroke's version over Al-Assi. Copyright c. 2007 Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: Gallup's `dirty little secret'" --------- Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 17:33:46 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INDIAN ART 'KNOCK-OFFS'" http://www.gallupindependent.com/2007/august/081707bd_drtyltlescrt.html Gallup's `dirty little secret' By Bill Donovan Staff writer August 17, 2007 GALLUP - The trial of a former Indian arts and crafts dealer on charges of fraud has focused light on what some say is "Gallup's dirty little secret." This secret is the claims that have become more and more public over the past several years that the town known as the nation's Indian Capitol is now becoming the nation's capitol for fake Indian crafts. Amrio Al-Assi, who operated Silver Bear Trading Co. in downtown Gallup from 2002 to 2005, was found guilty of fraud in connection with the sale of a bracelet that the buyer said she was told was made by famed Navajo silversmith Jesse Monongye. (See main story) The bracelet was actually made by Richard Tolina, who testified during the trial that he was working in 2004 for Qodri Al-Masri, the owner of USA Indian Jewelry. This is not a case where the piece in question was made overseas - in the Philippines or Taiwan - and then brought to the United States where it was sold as authentic and made by a Native American. Instead, the trial centered around "knock-offs," an item made by a Native American silversmith but copied from the design of another well- known silversmith. Tolina, in his testimony, said he was called into Al-Masri's office one day and shown photos of the works of Monongye and told to make some pieces like that. So he designed a piece something like the one he saw and made a mold so he could mass produce the bracelets. Al-Masri, who was also called to testify, denied he ever had this conversation with Tolina but he did sell one of the Tolina bracelets to Al-Assi for $200, which was later sold, along with two other items, for $600 to Barbara Sheroke. An actual Monongye bracelet would cost tens of thousands of dollars. Monongye said that he is seeing more and more knock-offs of his work but testified that the bracelet that was the center of this trial looked nothing like his work - the coloring was different, as was the design. But in the world of knock-offs, it's not how close you come to an item, say reputable Indian dealers, but if you get it close enough to fool the novice, which is what the prosecutors in this case said is what happened. "This is an important case," said Karl Gillson, McKinley County's District Attorney to the jury in his closing argument. It's important because it goes to the heart of Gallup's economy. "We depend on the Native American arts industry in this town," he said, adding that anything that hurts the industry's credibility hurts Gallup. The bracelet in question is not "genuine Gallup," he said. Sheroke was asked would she buy a piece of Indian jewelry in Gallup again and she said an emphatic "no," and Gillson said Sheroke's friends, on hearing what happened to her here, will also feel it is not safe to buy Native American crafts here. But the good news is, he said, that the jurors in this case "have sent a message as community members and jurors that they will protect (Gallup's) integrity." Copyright c. 2007 Gallup Independent. --------- "RE: A Battlefield that's no longer just about Custer" --------- Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:27:46 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LITTLE BIGHORN" http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/ chi-bighorn_m_rc_pmaug12,0,4357932,full.story A battlefield that's no longer just about Custer By Robert K. Elder | Tribune staff reporter CROW AGENCY, Mont. August 12, 2007 In 1876, all was not quiet on the Western frontier. After the Civil War, thousands of Native Americans started leaving reservations and forming strategic alliances. It didn't take long to turn bloody. A series of conflicts reached fever pitch and led to the "Indian Wars" and, near my hometown of Billings, the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Famously, Lt. Col. George Custer and 262 of his retinue were slaughtered and scalped here when they surprised an encampment of Lakota (Sioux) and Northern Cheyenne. Flamboyant Custer -- renowned for his luck in war -- fatally underestimated his enemy during a hasty attack and disorganized retreat. The Battle of the Little Bighorn wasn't always called this, of course. For most of my life, the spot just an hour east of Billings was the Custer Battlefield National Monument or "Custer's Last Stand." Even in 2nd grade, I didn't understand why they'd name a battlefield after the side that lost. And lost badly. But not just the names have changed here, which is why my mom and I were revisiting this national landmark, along with my wife and best friend who had never been here before. More than 130 years after Custer's defeat, there's more actual "field" than signs of battle left at the battlefield. But it's still beautiful -- beautiful in the way Montana's rolling, bronze prairies can stretch to the horizon. The park itself includes roughly 2 miles of walkable trails, including a short, steep climb up Last Stand Hill -- where Custer, his three brothers and 38 others died behind an impromptu barricade of 39 dead horses, some shot by their riders for cover. Down from the hill sits a two-room interpretive center, a bookstore, restrooms and a small national cemetery. It's more than 100 degrees when we tour the site in July, which turns out to be uncomfortably informative, mostly because we get a sense of the battle itself. For two days in late June 1876, the sun beat down on the warring parties. Custer's men carried little water, and some soldiers dressed in full wool, military garb. "How scary is that?" says my mom. "Seriously, to have three bullets and a canteen up on that hill, knowing no one was coming for you." One of the Northern Cheyenne warriors, Two Moons, later described the scene: "We circled around them, like water swirling around a stone." When I was a kid, the lasting visual imprint I took from here included hundreds of tiny, white marble markers speckled throughout the battlefield, miniature tombstones denoting the place where soldiers fell. Some have names, others -- mostly those of enlisted or unknown men -- don't. A typical stone simply says "U.S. Soldier 7th Calvary fell here June 25, 1876." Today, those markers are joined by a dozen or so red granite stones, erected since 1999 for their Native American counterparts. One, near the Little Bighorn River, reads "Hevovetaso, Little Whirlwind, a Cheyenne Warrior fell here on June 25, 1876, while defending the Cheyenne way of life." This embrace of a more rounded historical perspective started in 1991, when the battlefield was renamed Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. There's even a separate Indian monument (dedicated in 2003), a fitting (but heat-trapping) semi-circle of warrior names along a stone wall. It's a reminder that the coalition of 6,000 to 10,000 Cheyenne and Lakota here were just as desperate, moving not only themselves, but their families. While the Battle of the Little Bighorn provided Native Americans with a resounding victory, it also turned Custer into a martyr and justified the use of increased force against tribal insurgents. By 1877, the Indian Wars fizzled and most Native Americans were sent back to reservations. Custer continues to cast a long shadow in Montana. History has painted him alternately as a hero, a reckless scapegoat and a vain fool, the last in his class at West Point. In recent years, his image has gained more depth with the book (and, later, TV miniseries starring Steppenwolf Theatre's Gary Cole) "Son of the Morning Star," which portrays Custer as a soldier who opposed Indian policy but still enforced it, who reached for glory but saw his famous luck run out in a high-profile conflict. "On one hand, he didn't respect the Indians, but he admired them," says Ken Woody, chief of interpretation at the battlefield. "You can call him a fool, and you have to call him brave. He led all of his own charges." When I ask how the battlefield has changed in the last 15 years, Woody says, "It's the inclusion of Indian people -- and not just the Indian people, but everybody. It's sort of a soapbox for the nation. Finally, here we are in 2007 and it's everyone's battlefield. We were all here for what we thought was right. It's not just the soldiers, not just the Indians." - - - IF YOU GO GETTING THERE United Airlines has one non-stop daily to Billings, Mont., the nearest gateway for Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. Checking for a flight in September turned up a fare of about $390. From Billings, take Interstate Highway 90 east past Crow Agency to exit 510, then turn south on U.S. Highway 212. With ample highway signs, the battlefield is tough to miss. The drive takes about an hour. Admission: $10 per vehicle, $5 for pedestrians (and motorcycles). LODGING There are plenty of places in Billings, Montana's largest city, to hitch your horse for the night. Chain hotels abound, including Country Inn & Suites (from $119) on Main Street, as well as non-chains like the rustic (read: older) Dude Rancher Inn (from $60) downtown. Billings even boasts a handful of B&Bs, including the elegant Josephine ($65-$160). In Hardin, 15 miles north of the battlefield, choices are more limited. The American Inn (from $75) has an impressive water slide for travelers with kids. For more information, search: www.visitmt.com. DINING No food is sold at the battlefield. Both Hardin and Crow Agency have multiple dining options, mostly of the truck stop and fast-food kind. I've always been partial to Little Big Men Pizza, a family pizza joint and casino in downtown Hardin. ACTIVITIES It's possible to walk much of the battlefield's 765 acres, so bring comfortable shoes or hiking boots. Beware, though: This is rattlesnake country. Also, bring bottles for water. Temperatures can reach into the low 100s. Each June (June 27-29 in 2008), locals participate in Custer's Last Stand Re-enactment, just 6 miles west of Hardin, on Old U.S. Highway 87. Be sure to book in advance ($16 adults, $7 children, free under age 5) for this spirited performance. 888-450-3577. Also, check out the Custer Battlefield Museum in nearby Garryowen, just south of the battlefield off I-90 at exit 514. In addition to Chief Little Wolf's eagle feather bonnet, a lock of Custer's hair and other amazing period artifacts, visitors can see a disputed tintype -- and the story of its lineage -- of what may be the only photo ever taken of Crazy Horse. Hours: 8 a.m.-8 p.m. in the summer, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. rest of the year. 406-638-1876l; www.custermuseum.org Copyright c. 2007 Chicago Tribune. --------- "RE: Genealogy searches made easier with NativeWeb" --------- Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:27:46 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="SEARCH NATIVE FAMILY TREES" http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20070813/LIFE/708130346/1005 Native American searches made easier with NativeWeb August 13, 2007 Tracing Native American ancestry can present special challenges for family historians seeking their elusive tribal ancestors. One of the most useful online resources for those researching family ties to North America's indigenous peoples is NativeWeb (www.nativeweb.org). Launched in 1994, this unique site was originally conceived as a global listserv known as NativeNet. Eventually, a small group of native and non- native academics and technology professionals established NativeWeb as a separate online entity, with the goal of providing a "cyber-place for Earth's indigenous peoples." The site's international scope and content have gradually grown along with its group of collective webmasters. NativeWeb currently features more than 2,000 links to resources for indigenous cultures throughout the world. Genealogists researching their Native American roots will find a wealth of information listed on the "American Indian and First Nation's Genealogy" page (http://www.nativeweb.org/resources/genealogy_tracing_roots_/ american_indian_and_first_nations_genealogy/). How-to guides, family pages, query boards, mailing lists, tribal rolls and census records, and the Dawes Commission applications (Dawes Rolls) are among the many free, online Native American genealogy databases and links included on NativeWeb. Information on Native American culture, art, music, food, and language, as well as detailed listings and links for tribal organizations, powwows and other events may also be found on NativeWeb's "Resource Database." Visitors may navigate the database's content by selecting categorized subject headings and then clicking on specific links of interest or by entering specific terms or keywords into an external, Google-powered search engine or the site-sponsored, internal search engine. Genealogy Tips are provided by the Kentucky history staff of the Kenton County Public Library. This tip was provided by Jan Mueller. Contact the library's local history department by calling (859) 962-4085 or via e-mail at history@kentonlibrary.org . The library's genealogy Web site can be found at http://www.kentonlibrary.org/genealogy. Copyright c. 2007 The Cincinnati Post. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: GIAGO: America wanders away from Ideals" --------- Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:27:46 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GIAGO: AMERICA HAS LOST DIRECTION" http://www.indianz.com/News/2007/004374.asp Tim Giago: America wanders away from ideals August 13, 2007 I don't know about you, but I am having a hard time distinguishing between "spin" and "euphemism." For example, the Bush Administration calls the rise in the number of troops in Iraq a "surge" and the mainstream media falls in line with this spin to parrot what is clearly an "escalation." And then when another 20,000 troops are sent in at a later date they are referred to as "non-surge troops." Should the MSM have called this what it really is; further escalation? Does this mean that the "non-surge troops" are not in harms way? The initial attack against the sovereign nation of Iraq was called a "pre-emptive strike." Wasn't this really an act of military aggression? If the press had been doing its job shouldn't it have asked the all-important question, "What was pre-empted?" Now the Bush administration is saying that the surge is working. Did they determine this because fewer American soldiers and Marines were killed in the month of July than in the previous seven months of 2007? News stories report that 25, 50, or 100 Iraqis are dying by suicide bombers, or are dragged from their homes in the middle of the night and executed nearly every single day. According to an article in Newsweek, 1,652 civilians died in July alone. No matter how many Iraqis die is the surge still working? The Bush Administration and the MSM call those attacking the American troops "insurgents." I believe that in any other war they would have been called "guerillas." And the mayhem they wreak on each other is called "secular violence." Shouldn't "secular violence" be called a "civil war?" Americans have a strange way of using metaphors or euphemisms that are often racial in content. For instance, when someone does something outlandish they are said to be "off the reservation." As the American troops waited to start the attack against Saddam's troops in the first Gulf War, they looked out into the night at the vast desert in front of them and called it "Indian country." When covering up a lie a white person puts his hand behind his back, crosses his fingers, and says, "honest Injun." The inference here is that all Indians are dishonest. When a white man lived with an Indian woman he was known as a "squaw man." If he lived with an Irish woman he wasn't called an "Irish man." I've seen the word "squaw" and "squaw man" used over and over in Western movies. To nearly every Native American woman in this country the word squaw is the equivalent of whore or worse. Squaw was often used by the white man as a reference to the private parts of an Indian woman. The point I am trying to make here is that language can be used as an honest spin to cover a dishonest act, it can be used to make something that is a disaster appear to be a winning proposition or it can be used to make an escalation in warfare appear to be a push forward, a surge. I think it is important for the mainstream media to look at the words presented to them by any administration, words often intended to put a spin on truth or reality, and analyze those words to determine their true meaning and then once that is done, totally refrain from using them in news stories because when you do, you are lending credence to words of deception. If a surge is an escalation, or secular violence is civil war and a pre- emptive strike is an unwarranted attack upon another nation, say so and please stop being a tool for those who would use words to promote an unjust cause. Get some spine. I think the word "spin" was created by the advertising agencies, but its method was too readily picked up by politicians looking for ways to bend the truth. Its continued use and growth casts a bad reflection upon this country. What does America stand for? In the movie Judgment at Nuremberg, Spencer Tracy, in the role of the judge describes America as a land that honors, "Justice, truth and the value of a single human being." How far has America wandered from those ideals in the name of spin? -- (I have a new email address for those that have not noticed and it is najournalist@msn.com) Tim Giago is an Oglala Lakota born and raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard in the Class of 1991. He was the founder and publisher of Indian Country Today newspaper and the founder and first president of the Native American Journalists Association. His latest book "Children Left Behind, The Dark Legacy of the Indian Missions," is now available at: order@clearlightbooks.com. The book just won the Bronze Star from the Independent Publishers Awards. He can be reached at najournalist@msn.com. Copyright c. Indianz.Com. --------- "RE: JODI RAVE: Project teaches Native Culture" --------- Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:27:46 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="JODI RAVE: TEACHING CULTURE" http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/08/14/jodirave/rave46.txt Native News Project teaches Native culture Jodi Rave August 11, 2007 Linda Briggeman is among a handful of elementary teachers in the United States participating in a National Science Foundation program aimed at integrating science with an understanding of Native people. The Big Sky Science Partnership is helping Briggeman learn the finer points of college-level geology this year. She'll tackle astronomy and physics over the next two years, during the course of two-week summer sessions and quarterly meetings for which she will receive college credit. In turn, she will take her new skills to the grade-school classroom where she will help Native students relate to geologic formations in their own backyards or tribal histories. "It makes teachers aware of the importance of the whole student, not just the academic student," said Briggeman, a fourth-grade teacher at DeSmet Elementary in Missoula. She joined more than 50 people, including teachers, tribal community members and college students on the Flathead Reservation this past week for a culture camp. The Big Sky Science Partnership is a five-year, $5 million grant project of the National Science Foundation. This is the inaugural year of the program, which unites science education leaders at Salish Kootenai College, the University of Montana, Montana State University and tribal consultants from the Flathead, Northern Cheyenne and Crow reservations. All these groups have joined in a partnership with K-8 schools and the Montana State Office of Public Instruction. The project seeks to establish long-term relationships among all participating groups as they strengthen their own knowledge of science, integrate it with culture, and in turn increase science achievement of all students from the third to eighth grade. Salish Kootenai College on the Flathead Reservation is the lead institution in the partnership, and the only tribal college in the country that has such a lead as part of the NSF project. The partnership is helping clear a path between university faculty who don't have a strong record of partnering with tribal communities and K-8 schools, said Regina Sievert, Big Sky Science Partnership project director. "If they want to move along in their tenure, this isn't one way to do that, generally," said Sievert, who is also a K-12 program director with the SKC Indigenous Math and Science Institute. "MSU has a history of working with the Crow and Northern Cheyenne tribes," she said. "UM has less of a history of doing that, although they have always expressed an interest. From my experience, it has always been quite limited." Diane Friend, a lecturer in UM's Department of Physics, said the three- day culture camp gave her time to visit with Salish and Kootenai tribal elders as they made drums together. She was given the chance to ask questions, such as: "What is important to you? What should we know?" Iris Pretty Paint, UM's co-director of research opportunities in science, served as an adviser to the project. She is helping the elementary teachers, tribal community members and college professors establish relationships and find ways to integrate culture into their classrooms. "It's not easy to talk about culture," said Pretty Paint, who is a citizen of the Blackfeet Nation. "But they have to understand we are a people of a place. We all have our places and that makes us unique. You can't take one tribe's place and teach about science and think that will apply to everybody. You have to have that context of their community, their history. If you are going to deal with the Blackfeet, you have to know their treaties, about their sovereignty, what kind of relationships they with the state. How do they view science? What's the translation?" Pretty Paint posed this question to teachers who will soon be returning to their classrooms: "If you don't ever learn other learning styles, whose problem is it that they're not getting science?" --- Reach reporter Jodi Rave at 800-366-7186 or jodi.rave@lee.net Copyright c. 2007 Missoulian, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: Ever old, always new: The Sundance" --------- Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 07:45:03 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: SUNDANCE" http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm? id=47019§ion=columnists&columnist=Dorreen%20Yellow%20Bird Ever old, always new: The Sundance Dorreen Yellow Bird August 14, 2007 In my 13th year of Sundance at the Sitting Bull camp in South Dakota, on the night we call the Blue Day, the moon was so full and bright it was like day. One of our Sundance leaders said, 'We got moonburned.' As I stared at the magnificent dome full of bright stars that would jump out of their place in the heavens and shoot across the sky, I was filled with wonder and amazement at how insignificant we humans are. And I wondered what my co-workers would think if they were standing beside me. Would they see the same rare wonder of this night? This year, the sun had no mercy on us. The temperatures reached into the 100s each day. I felt like some alien being was using my body like a glass of lemonade -sipping my energy to cool itself. I had a new view of Sundance this year. I prayed two days out and two days in, which means I Sundanced on the outside for two days, then fasted and danced for the next two days on the inside circle. It was a chance to see the prayer circle, which is on the outside. When you are on the inside, you see little of what's happening.On the last two days, my friend 'Busy' told me she concluded her eighth and last year. She is a strong woman, and in spite of her age and health problems, she sat with us when we broke our fast. I've talked with her through the years, and she amazes me with her spiritual strength. The leaders of the Sundance astound me. In spite of the heat - and I'm sure that at their age, they must also have some health problems - they never wavered. In years past when I was on the inside, I saw them only when they moved into my peripheral vision. This year, as I stood on the outside, I watched and was amazed. I also found that the people who support on the outside are important. So important, I believe, that the strength of those in the circle is provided by those on the outside. Two women who are strong supporters are Delores and Imogene Taken Alive - two elder sisters. They remind of my grandmother - strong and dedicated to Native ways. These women were there many years ago when the revival of the Sundance at Sitting Bull began. It is held in accordance with some of the protocol of Sitting Bull. Many of the people who dance here are his relatives. The two sisters told me they danced in the prayer circle for years. Today, they are advisers, and they cook for the camp. too. That means making breakfast, lunch or supper for 300 to 400 people. Providing a meal for the camp is a volunteer effort and rotates around the camp just by people volunteering to cook. When the last day was done, Imogene hugged me and said with a giggle, ' We knew you couldn't stay out of the circle.' They understand the strong pull of that prayer circle. Their strength is in their belief in this way of life, and they've taught the way to their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Given the opportunity, they naturally slip into an elder role and talk about the history of the camp and why it's here. And they talk about the Lakota way, too. I will think of them and smile on cold winter nights because they are such a joy to the camp and remind me so much of my family. One of the old guard Sundance leaders, Isaac Dog Eagle, had heart surgery a few years ago. Only a few weeks after the surgery, he was at Sundance. He didn't dance those first years but acted as a consultant. He's had that role for a while, but this year, he participated on the inside, too. Like I said: The pull of the prayer circle is strong. His wife, Melda, and son, Mark, also participate and support at the Sundance. The men who took Dog Eagle's place are Jesse Taken Alive and Terry Yellow Fat - two amazing men who challenge themselves each day, and it seems as if the heat, lack of water or food doesn't faze them in the least. They also have wives who work and support them and give them strength. This sacred ceremony has been maintained and passed down from generation to generation. I see it is one of the strengths of Native people. It is a way of life given to us by our ancestors and relatives and provides for us throughout the year. --- 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: GIAGO: When is a Citizen Not a Citizen?" --------- Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 07:14:51 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NEW COMANCHE CONSTITUTION" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tim-giago/ when-is-a-citizen-not-a-c_b_60580.html Tim Giago: When is a Citizen Not a Citizen? August 15, 2007 There are 213 enrolled Numunuu (Comanche) residing in the State of New Mexico, according to California attorney Dennis G. Chappabitty, himself a Comanche. He was in Albuquerque last week as the Project Facilitator to discuss the work in progress on the new Comanche Nation Constitution. The work on the new Constitution has been ongoing for more than two years and the people of the Comanche Nation, whether residing in New Mexico, California, Oklahoma or any other state in the union have a say in how the Constitution will be worded. The "Public Hearing Process" was held on the beautiful campus of the Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque. The fact that only 20 of the 213 citizens of the New Mexico Comanche community showed up for this most important meeting caused some in attendance to talk about the apathy that has plagued the Comanche Nation voters over the past several years. The new definition of "Citizen of the Comanche Nation" to replace "Tribal Member of the Comanche Nation" caused some attendees to admit that they found the new wording difficult because they had spent most of their lives referring to themselves as "tribal members." Said one in attendance, "But I guess I can get used to calling myself a citizen of the Comanche Nation because I think it has a better ring to it than tribal member plus it points out that we are citizens of our own Nation." Mr. Chappabitty described the old 19-page Constitution as being pretty frayed and dog-eared from its use and misuse over the many years of its existence. The new 34-page Constitution hopes to include many new addition and interpretations along with correcting those portions of the old Constitution that badly needed upgrading, updating and total revision. This appears to be a process that is taking place in many parts of Indian country. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota is another Indian nation restructuring its Constitution. The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma just had provision approved that the Secretary of the Interior will no longer have a say in what goes into their Constitution, which was a major step forward from the days when the Bureau of Indian Affairs had nearly total control over the Cherokee government. It is a lesson to me that Indian nations such as the Comanche consider all of their people as citizens of their Nation. No matter where they reside they are still permitted to engage in the political processes of the Nation. Among many tribes, including most of them in South Dakota, once a person moves from the reservation they abdicate their right to vote or to run for office. They are not allowed to become involved in planning the budget that includes health, education and the welfare of tribal members. And yet, when it comes to determining the monetary allocations requested by the tribe from the federal government, all tribal members are counted whether they live on or off of the reservation. The higher the body count, the higher the funding. In other words, once you leave a reservation, say the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, you become a non-citizen. Even those Lakota residing in Rapid City, the birthplace of the famous warrior Crazy Horse, are still considered as "off the reservation." And if you move back to the reservation in order to run for office, you must prove residency of one year before your name can be placed on the ballot. Before Tom Short Bull, now president of the Oglala Lakota College, challenged the law that said if you were born off the Pine Ridge Reservation you would not be considered an enrolled member of the tribe, many Lakota were listed as "non-enrolled" and were thus ineligible for many tribal benefits. When Short Bull decided to run for the presidency of the tribe, he challenged his "non-enrolled" status in tribal court and won. As I listened to the citizens of the Comanche Nation, now residing in New Mexico, discuss revisions to their Constitution, I became more convinced than ever the many other Indian nations that prevent their people living off of the reservation from participating as full citizens, to follow the example of the Comanche Nation and to give back the rights to all of its citizens that were taken from them by the non-Indian bureaucracy. After all, a United States citizen living in Belgium does not lose his right to vote, but merely votes on an absentee ballot, the same way the citizens of the Comanche Nation residing outside of Oklahoma vote. I believe it is high time all Indian nations change their constitutions to include all of their citizens. --- (I have a new email address and it is najournalist@msn.com) Tim Giago is an Oglala Lakota born and raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard in the Class of 1991. He was the founder and publisher of Indian Country Today newspaper and the founder and first president of the Native American Journalists Association. His latest book "Children Left Behind, The Dark Legacy of the Indian Missions," is now available at: order@clearlightbooks.com. The book just won the Bronze Star from the Independent Publishers Awards. He can be reached at najournalist@msn.com Copyright c. 2007 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. --------- "RE: JODI RAVE: Art purchased at Ball delights" --------- Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 07:20:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="JODI RAVE: INDIAN ART" http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/08/17/jodirave/rave43.txt Native News Art purchased at Harvest Moon Ball delights and inspires By JODI RAVE of the Missoulian August 16, 2007 If you're Indian, you probably know an artist. That's because so many of our tribal communities are brimming with talented painters, beaders, sculptors and more. My husband and I met Ken Morsette, a Chippewa Cree from the Rocky Boy's Reservation, at the Harvest Moon Ball, an art auction in East Glacier that celebrates Native artists. Today, two of Ken's eye-catching paintings grace a wall in our family living room. I appreciate Ken's attention to detail. When I look at the traditional dancer in the larger of the two paintings, I see puffs of dust floating off the canvas from where the dancer's feet hit the dry ground. I imagine the sound of the Mandaree drum group, singing somewhere on the Northern Plains. The second painting we have by Ken shows a common powwow scene, the grand entry. Everybody loves grand entry. It's one of the few times during a powwow when a spectator can see every single dancer as they enter the arena in single profile. Ken painted the Rocky Boy Powwow color guard during grand entry, a scene taken from a photo taken several years ago. A number of the flag carriers, such as the late Roddy Sun Child, a World War II veteran, are easily recognized from within the Chippewa Cree Tribe. The color guard typically leads a grand entry procession while carrying eagle staffs, as well as tribal and U.S. flags. A flag song - something equivalent to the Star Spangled Banner - is always sung once the dancers are standing still. Ken's work allows me to appreciate a great artist, and lets me share in a community vision. I remember the evening we bought his paintings at the Harvest Moon Ball, an annual fundraiser organized by the Blackfeet Community Foundation. The evening was enchanting. Furthermore, the entire event made me realize what can happen if we dare to dream. In this case, the Blackfeet dreamed they could build a $1 million endowment to help fund community projects. The problem: How do you raise money in a community where unemployment can top 80 percent? The late Ernie Pepion provided the answer: Host an art auction. That was 11 years ago. Not only has the Harvest Moon Ball raised $300, 000 for the community endowment, but the live auction also creates a platform for artists to show, tell and sell their work. The event attracts about 200 people - that's all the historic Glacier Park Lodge can hold - including artists, community members and art collectors from throughout the country. Steve Powell, program director for the Blackfeet Reservation Development Fund, said ticket sales are in full swing for the 2007 Harvest Moon Ball, which is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 29. This year, the ball has a rose theme, in honor of featured artist Howard Pepion's, "Picking of the Wild Rose Berry." Besides supporting community ambition, the country-inspired, dress-up ball is downright fun. The evening is filled with remarkable art, dinner and dancing, all of which takes place in the striking environment of East Glacier Park. For more information, call (406) 338-2992. Copyright c. 2007 Missoulian, a division of Lee Enterprises. --------- "RE: LORING: Indian Claims Settlement Act a travesty" --------- Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 07:20:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LORING: INDIAN CLAIMS ACT A SHAM" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://bangordailynews.com/news/t/viewpoints.aspx? articleid=153215&zoneid=35 OpEd Donna Loring: Indian Claims Settlement Act a travesty By BDN Staff Bangor Daily News August 15, 2007 A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980 trumps Indian sovereignty: "The explicit language of the Settlement Act establishes state authority that far exceeds what is normal for Indian tribes to which no such legislation applies." The tribes through their sovereign status have helped Maine protect its land from being used as a low-level nuclear waste depository since 1986. Without tribal protection, the state of Maine could very well be a dumping ground for nuclear waste and Maine's environment could be extremely polluted. Maine may need our help in the future, but without our sovereign status and federal recognition we would be helpless to intervene. There is a long history between the tribes and who some perceive as the greatest water polluters of our time, the paper companies. The Penobscot Nation is located on an Island in the Penobscot River with three paper companies to the north and three paper companies to the south. In the past, these paper companies have been permitted to discharge toxins into the river without consequence. The Penobscot Nation took matters into their own hands and hired their own experts in water testing. The results of these tests showed high levels of toxins in the water and these test results were used to hold paper companies accountable. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection was forced to take action. Maine now has very strict laws, (even stricter than the federal laws in some respects) but tribal concern is with the enforcement of these laws. When paper companies were cited in the past for dumping, the fines have been minimal to nonexistent. When the paper companies petitioned the state to allow a "one stop shopping" deal to get their dumping permit directly from Maine's DEP rather than the federal EPA permitting process, Maine tribes were apprehensive with rightful concern. The state has turned a blind eye to the dumping practices of the paper companies. With the federal EPA in the picture, Maine tribes had to be heard and their concerns investigated before a discharge permit was issued. This extra step in the process had to be done because of the tribal federal recognition and trust status with the federal government. The paper companies knew that the tribes would take them to court over this `one stop shopping' process, so they filed a Freedom of Information Act complaint in state court. The state of Maine entered the case as a third party, siding with the paper companies. The effect of this filing kept the issue in state court, thereby giving the paper companies a better chance to get a favorable result. A favorable result for them would erode our sovereignty. Tribes would no longer be protected under federal laws; a favorable state interpretation of the act would place us totally under state law The state FOIA case filed by the paper companies is infamous. On Aug. 9, 2000, Judge Crowley refused to hear the sovereignty argument and referred to the tribes as political-subdivisions of the state of Maine. (This of course was ludicrous as tribal governments existed long before Europeans landed on the shores of this country.) He treated the tribal chiefs with disrespect. Judge Crowley actually told the bailiff to take the chiefs into custody during the hearing. The intervention of the tribe's attorneys prevented the chiefs from being physically incarcerated, however they were not free to leave. They were officially and legally placed under arrest. This FOIA case later went to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, where the justices found in favor of the paper companies once again, but took the option of jail out of the finding and remanded the case back to Judge Crowley. The FOIA case and the judge's ruling was the beginning of the tribes' statewide campaign for clean water. The tribes held a march for clean water on May 23, 2002. They marched from Norridgewock to the State House steps in Augusta as they delivered the court-ordered papers to state government. In my opinion, the purpose of these court cases was to erode our tribal sovereignty and take away our ability to fight the paper companies for clean water. The paper companies did not want to pay the price to develop nonpolluting systems as paper companies have in Europe. They would much rather pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight the tribes for the right to pollute. This court battle for a "one stop shopping " permit has continued since 1999. When the tribes lost their appeal in federal court, the people of Maine lost as well. The battle continues and the big companies that are allowed to pollute Maine water are continuing to do so with impunity. The Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act continues to be the tool used to erode our ability to protect our tribal governments and our environment. There is now one less tool in our arsenal to protect Maine's environment. It's time that the paper companies and the state stop using the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act to erode our sovereign status. The congressional record states that it was never the intent of Congress to diminish our sovereignty but to protect it and enhance it. It is time for the tribes to take action to eliminate the settlement act. Donna Loring is the Penobscot Nation representative to the Maine Legislature. Copyright c. 2005 Bangor Daily News. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: NEWCOMB: Affirm the U.N. Declaration on Rights" --------- Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 07:20:31 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NEWCOMB: RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE" http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096415606 Newcomb: Affirm the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by: Steven Newcomb / Indigenous Law Institute August 16, 2007 Any time now, the United Nations General Assembly is likely to decide whether or not to adopt the U.N. Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Some U.N. member-states have indicated that they are opposed to an adoption of this historic human rights document. Why are some nation-states dead set on blockading the declaration? A short anecdote may provide a clue. In 1996, I was among the indigenous representatives who traveled to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, to attend the Intersessional Working Group on the U.N. Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. On one occasion, while a number of us were having a conversation with U.S. representatives to the Working Group, I asked the following question: "Assuming that the U.N. Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is eventually adopted by the General Assembly as a full-fledged convention, of what actual, practical significance will it be to indigenous nations and peoples throughout the world?" A man who was working for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva immediately responded: "Well," he said, "to the extent that words have meaning, and to the extent that meanings configure reality, the draft declaration has importance." What he was pointing out is that every human reality is constructed by means of our concepts and ideas, combined with our ongoing physical, social and cultural activities. Our mental, social and cultural lives establish and maintain our reality. Our ideas are at the heart of the way we shape and create our reality. And