_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' VOLUME 15, ISSUE 048 / /-< / /--/ /-- __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, 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 November 26, 2007 Western Cherokee Nvdadegwa/Trading Moon Passamaquoddy Kelotonuhket/Freezing Moon Mohawk Kentenhko:wa/Moon of Much Poverty +-------------------------------------------------------+ | Much more happens in Indian Country than is reported | | in this weekly newsletter. For daily updates & events | | go to http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm | +-------------------------------------------------------+ Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin -- Blackfeet -- News for All the People Ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min -- Ojibwe -- We Are Talking About Ourselves Aunchemokauhettittea -- Naragansett -- Let Us Share News Kanoheda Aniyvwiya -- Cherokee -- Journal of the People O Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse -- Creek -- People's New News O o O Acimowin -- Plains Cree -- Story or Account O o O Tlaixmatiliztli -- Nahuatl -- News O o o o o O Agnutmaqan -- Listuguj Mi'kmaq -- News O o O Sho-da-ku-ye -- Teehahnahmah -- Talking Birchbark O o O Un Chota -- Susquehannic Seneca -- The People Speak O Ha-Sah-Sliltha -- Ditidaht Nation -- News of the People Ximopanolti tehuatzin, inin Mexika tlahtolli -- Nahuatl -- For you we offer these words It-hah-pe-hah Ah-num pah-le -- Chickasaw -- Together We Are Talking Dineh jii' adah' ho'nil'e'gii ba' ha' neh -- Navajo Nation -- What's Happening among The People News Okla Humma Holisso Nowat Anya -- Choctaw -- People(s) Red Newspaper Hi'a chu ah gaa -- Pima -- The stories or the talk of the People s ch mA mL tL squee Lux -- Okanogan -- News from the People Native American News -- Language of the Occupation Forces ++>If you speak a Native American language not listed above, please send us your words for "News of the People. "We'd rather take up this whole page saving these few words of our hundreds of nations than present a nice clean banner in the language of the occupation forces who came here determined to replace our words with their own. email gars@nanews.org with the equivalent of "News of the People" in your tribal language along with the english translation <================<<<< >>>>================> This newsletter is produced in straight ASCII text for greatest portability across platforms. Read it with a fixed-pitch font, such as Courier, Monaco, FixedSys or CG Times. Proportional fonts will be difficult to read. <================<<<< >>>>================> This issue contains articles from: www.indianz.com; www.pechanga.net; www.indiancountrytoday.com; Mailing List: Native Poetry; 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 Quotes: + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + "It's (Thanksgiving) a day of mourning," "Indians are victims of the American holocaust. That's the truth. I'm not going to paint a rosy picture." __ Chief William Redwing Tayac, Piscataway Indian Nation +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | 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 Read the first article in this issue, and you will understand why I could no longer be silent regarding the insensitivity and futility of the Bush Administration's "immigrant wall". When the Europeans first came to Turtle Island, they did so to escape tyranny and oppression. They were leaving the fortified walls and prisons of Europe in hopes of discovering new opportunities in the "New World". So what did they do shortly after arriving? They built fences and walls. One of the earlier such walls was built by the Dutch in New Amsterdam, hoping to thwart the growing power of the English in that settlement. Wall Street is named after that wall ... in New York, not New Amsterdam. The French fortified their boundaries against threats from Germany and Italy with concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casements and machine gun posts and other defenses. The line facing Germany was named the Maginot Line, while the one along the Franco-Italian border was named the Alpine Line. Both proved to be extremely expensive failures. Germany circumvented the defenses of the Maginot Line, attacking on May 10, 1940; and German forces were deep in the heart of France five days later. The Berlin Wall divided East and West Berlin for 28 years, separating families and relatives for ideological and political reasons, only, until it was dismantled and Germany reunited in 1990. In 1987, Ronald Reagan gave a famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate, at which he challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall". Now, some twenty years later another Republican President, George W. Bush, is determined to build a wall between the US and Mexico,and instituting much greater restrictions along the US-Canada border, thus separating many indigenous families and relatives for ideological and political reasons. Past articles in this newsletter have pointed out the anger and determination by the Mohawk not to be controlled by fickle US policy. The lead story in this issue demonstrates the pain the wall being constructed on the Southern Border is bringing to the Native Peoples there. It is appalling what ego will drive some people in power to do to other human beings. Mr. Bush, "tear down this wall"! ' ' Gary Smith (*,*) wotanging@bellsouth.net P. O. Box 672168 (`-') gars@nanews.org Marietta, GA 30007, U.S.A. ===w=w=== http://www.nanews.org ----------- News of the people featured in this issue ----------- Editorial Section: - YELLOW BIRD: . Tear down this wall An Indian Doctor comes Home - Border Wall Tyranny: - GIAGO: The Myth Lipan Apache cry for Help of the Pilgrims and Indians - Border fence exempted from NAGPRA, - EDITORIAL: other Laws Don't ignore Indian Youth Suicide - Border Wall Genocide: - MOUNTAIN: Out of the North, O'odham Graves go under Culturally displaced - O'odham say Border Wall - YELLOW BIRD INTERVIEW: is Genocide War on Diabetes in Indian Country - Artman lends an ear at NCAI - FRANK KING III INTERVIEW: Honoring, - Many Indians say, Remembering, Praying for Warriors 'no thanks' to Thanksgiving - ROLO: - A lesson in Thankfulness Indian cringes at Thanksgiving the Wampanoag Way - YELLOW BIRD: - Impoverished Tribe No need for Thanksgiving guilt hit hard by Blazes - IRON SHELL: - March Honors Children Wondering on Turkey Day 'Lost' in Foster Care System - GIAGO: Helen Felix, - High rate of Indian Children a Lakota with gift of gab in Foster Care - Judge rules against - Alaska Native abuse victims unrecognized Wichita Tribe share Stories - City, Council can join - Traditional approach Tribal Land Lawsuit to Healing encouraged - Tribe officially - $50 Million for Alaskan taking over Law Enforcement abuse Plaintiffs - Native Justice - Tribal language fading away -- Family sues over death - Nakwatsvewat Institute at BIA Detention Center graduates First Class - History: Carlisle Indian School - Hualapai Ethnobotany Project - Rustywire: Nacho publishes Cookbook - Lee Goins Poem: Please remind me --------- "RE: Border Wall Tyranny: Lipan Apache cry for Help" --------- Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 09:17:18 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BORDER WALL MANIFESTO" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2007/11/19/22111/654 Border wall tyranny: Lipan Apache in Texas issue cry for help By Brenda Norrell, November 19, 2007 Margo Tamez sends out this urgent call for help, as Homeland Security, National Guard and Border Patrol attempt to seize the lands of the Lipan Apache in Texas for the border wall. The harassment and intimidation of women, children and elderly comes as the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas concluded on Tohono O'odham land in Arizona. On O'odham land, the border wall has already resulted in the ancestors of the Tohono O'odham being dug up. Further, the border wall on O'odham land will be a physical barrier to the ceremonies. All federal laws have been rendered powerless by Homeland Security using the Read ID Act, including federal laws protecting Indian remains and repatriation. Further the laws protecting endangered species, including the Sonoran Pronghorn, jaguar and others along the Arizona border have been voided. As all federal laws are dismantled, private prison corporations are seizing the profits from imprisoning migrants, including the imprisonment of infants and children at the T. Don Hutto Detention Center near Austin. A delegation of Mohawks urged Indigenous Peoples to rise up and tear down the border wall and halt the arrests and deaths of their fellow Indigenous brothers and sisters being displaced by so-called free trade agreements, paramilitaries and brutal land seizures in the south. As the Lipan Apaches' call goes out across the Americas, many are rising up, ready to resist the tyranny. --- From Margo Tamez: Urgent call for help: Homeland Security attempting seizure of Lipan Apache lands, Texas Subj: el Calaboz, Land Grant Indigenous communities, South Texas-- Tamaulipas (Nuevo Santander rancheria), Mexico-US International Boundary, Militarized Zone. Lipan Apache Descent Land Title Holders Threatened by Homeland National Security Agency, National Guard and Border Patrol Hello friends, I am informing you of recent events in my maternal community of el Calaboz, Texas, a binational land grant indigenous rancheria of Lipan Apache, Chiricahua and Basque descent. I am foregrounding this because I have been asked to submit documentation through the NGO, the International Indigenous Treaty Council, for the CERD investigation of human rights and indigenous rights abuses by the U.S. government against my mother community. The Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) report to be directed toward the United Nation in March 2008, which will for the first time in over a decade focus on abuses by the United States to oppressed groups. This year, as a result of the recently approved UN Declaration of Indigenous Peoples rights, indigenous people have a specific opportunity to submit documents on behalf of their communities. I'll be working hard the next week to complete a draft document, with evidentiary materials, for review by an international human rights and indigenous rights attorney who recently accompanied me on an investigatory field trip to my paternal community, Redford, TX, of the Jumano Apache. I wanted to keep you informed of this progress, and through this following letter, establish a way to communicate what I'm doing and how it impacts all my work. See the earlier letter below. Ahi'i'eMargo Tamez Subj: Emergency in el Calaboz, Lipan Apache & Basque-Indigena North American Land Title Holders!!! Dear relatives, I wish I was writing under better circumstances, but I must be fast and direct. My mother and elders of El Calaboz, since July have been the targets of numerous threats and harassments by the Border Patrol, Army Corps of Engineers, NSA, and the U.S. related to the proposed building of a fence on their levee. Since July, they have been the targets of numerous telephone calls, unexpected and uninvited visits on their lands, informing them that they will have to relinquish parts of their land grant holdings to the border fence buildup. The NSA demands that elders give up their lands to build the levee, and further, that they travel a distance of 3 miles, to go through checkpoints, to walk, recreate, and to farm and herd goats and cattle, ON THEIR OWN LANDS. This threat against indigenous people, life ways and lands has been very very serious and stress inducing to local leaders, such as Dr. Eloisa Garcia Tamez, who has been in isolation from the larger indigenous rights community due to the invisibility of indigenous people of South Texas and Northern Tamaulipas to the larger social justice conversation regarding the border issues. However recent events, of the last 5 days cause us to feel that we are in urgent need of immediate human rights observers in the area, deployed by all who can help as soon as possible--immediate relief. My mother informed me, as I got back into cell range out of Redford, TX, on Monday, November 13, that Army Corps of Engineers, Border Patrol and National Security Agency teams have been going house to house, and calling on her personal office phone, her cell phone and in other venues, tracking down and enclosing upon the people and telling them that they have no other choice in this matter. They are telling elders and other vulnerable people that "the wall is going on these lands whether you like it or not, and you have to sell your land to the U.S." My mother, Eloisa Garcia Tamez, Lipan Apache (descendant of Mexican Chiricahua descent elder, Aniceto Garcia, who gave her traditional indigenous birth welcoming ceremony and lightning ceremony), is resisting the forced occupation with firm resistance. She has already had two major confrontations with NSA since July--one in her office at the University of Texas at Brownsville, where she is the Director of a Nursing Program and where she conducts research on diabetes among indigenous people of the MX- -US binational region of South Texas and Tamaulipas. She reports that some land owners in the rancheria area of El Calaboz, La Paloma and El Ranchito, under pressure to sell to the U.S. without prior and informed consent, have already signed over their lands, due to their ongoing state of impoverishment and exploitation in the area under colonization, corporatism, NAFTA and militarization. This is an outrage, but more, this is a significant violation of United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People, recently ratified and accepted by all UN nations, except the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Furthermore, it is a violation of the United Nations CERD, Committee on Elimination of Racism and Racial Discrimination. My mother is under great stress and crisis, unknowing if the Army soldiers and the NSA agents will be forcibly demanding that she sign documents. She reports that they are calling her at all hours, seven days a week. She has firmly told them not to call her anymore, nor to call her at all hours of the night and day, nor to call on the weekends any further. She asked them to meet with her in a public space and to tell their supervisors to come.They refuse to do so. Instead, they continue to harass and intimidate. At this time, due to the great stress the elders are currently under, communicated to me, because they are being demanded under covert tactics, to relinquish indigenous lands, I feel that I MUST call upon my relatives, friends, colleagues, especially associates in Texas within driving distance to the Rio Grande valley region, and involved in indigenous rights issues, to come forth and aid us. Please! Please help indigenous women land title holders resisting forced occupation in their own lands! Please do not hesitate to forward this to people in your own networks in media, journalism, social and environmental justice, human rights, indigenous rights advocacy and public health watch groups! Margo Tamez mtamez@wsu.edu Jumano Apache West Texas-Chihuahua Lipan Apache South Texas-Tamaulipas, Apacheria Nuevo Santander Land Grant--Basque Colony) http://www.nativewiki.org/Margo_Tamez Listen to Margo Tamez' report at the Indigenous Border Summit, on women and children at the border: Day three: http://www.earthcycles.net/ More articles on the Indigenous Border Summit and border wall: http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&i e=UTF-8&q=%22 Brenda+Norrell%22&scoring=d The narcosphere - narcosphere.narconews.com A project of the narco news bulletin. --------- "RE: Border fence exempted from NAGPRA, other Laws" --------- Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 09:17:18 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="BORDER FENCE IGNORES NAGPRA, OTHER LAWS" http://www.indianz.com/News http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/us/21fence.html Border Fence Work Raises Environmental Concerns By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD November 21, 2007 LOS ANGELES - The Department of Homeland Security is ahead of schedule in building some 700 miles of fencing along the Mexican border, but some environmental groups, elected officials and local Indian tribes say too little attention is being paid to the environmental consequences of the barriers. In the latest flash point, Homeland Security Department officials took possession of land last week in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in southern Arizona by brokering a land swap with another federal agency, the Fish and Wildlife Service. Opponents say the 12-to-15-foot-tall steel fence and its construction will disrupt the habitat of jaguars, pygmy owls and other sensitive fauna in the wildlife refuge, and encourage illegal immigrants to use more remote, ecologically delicate terrain. Three times, including twice this year, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has exempted fence construction along the border from environmental reviews normally required for such projects, saying the waivers avoid legal delays that threaten speedy completion. Officials at the Fish and Wildlife Service said they believed Mr. Chertoff could have issued a similar exemption in the Buenos Aires case if they had not negotiated the land swap. The Fish and Wildlife Service's manager of the refuge had issued a document that declared the fence would have no significant impact on the refuge, but rescinded that declaration several weeks before the land swap was agreed upon. "This is another example of the federal government riding roughshod over America's treasured lands and legal process in its rush to complete a highly ineffective and controversial border wall," said Matt Clark, the Southwest representative for Defenders of Wildlife, an advocacy group. Federal officials have defended the land swap and the environmental waivers, saying speedy construction of the fence will help lead to control of the border and reduce trash and other environmental damage generated by illegal immigrant traffic. The land swap at the Buenos Aires refuge involved 5.8 acres along a seven-mile stretch at Sasabe that has been a major illegal crossing point. A spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service said the deal was not intended to bypass the decision by the then-refuge manager in October to withdraw his assessment that the fence was compatible. The manager, Mitch Ellis, did not respond to a telephone message. But in an interview last week with The Arizona Daily Star he objected to the way the fence decision was being carried out. "Nobody did anything wrong except that we sort of hid the process," Mr. Ellis told the newspaper, "and I'm not sure why we did it that way." Jose Viramontes, a spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said the swap was the "win-win" solution to overcome potential environmental damage on the land and regulatory difficulties in building on it. "The fence gets built, the D.H.S. meets its mission, and we acquire valuable land," Mr. Viramontes said. The land being given to the Fish and Wildlife Service in exchange for the 5.8 acres has not yet been identified. Mr. Chertoff first used his waiver power, granted to him under the REAL ID Act of 2005, to speed the construction of fencing in 2005 on disputed land in San Diego. The other decisions came in January and in October of this year, both on tracts in Southern Arizona. Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club are challenging Mr. Chertoff's waiver power through an amended federal lawsuit arising from his decision in October to overrule environmental review for a stretch of fence on the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area in southeastern Arizona. The lawsuit is pending in federal court. In addition, Representative John D. Dingell, Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has asked Mr. Chertoff in a letter for a detailed explanation by Wednesday of why he needed to invoke the waiver for the San Pedro fence. Mr. Chertoff has said the fencing, in addition to thousands of new Border Patrol agents and presence of thousands of National Guard troops, has resulted in a 22 percent drop in apprehensions of illegal immigrants along the border, though economists and political scientists on the border say several other factors could be contributing to the decline. A spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department, Veronica Nur Valdes, said that when the department has waived environmental review it has included some features in the fencing to answer environmental concerns, like including tiny holes to allow lizards and other animals through. While plans for a "virtual fence," a test project involving integrated high-tech cameras and sensors, have been delayed for months by technical glitches, physical barriers are going up quickly and are remaking stretches of vast border wilderness. In the past year, the government has built 270 miles of pedestrian and vehicle fencing, including 76 miles of pedestrian fencing, exceeding a goal of 70 miles, for a total of 106 miles of such barriers along the 2,000-mile Mexican border. Most of the vehicle barriers do little to stop individuals on foot, but they impede cars and trucks from driving loads of people across. Next year, the department plans to add 225 miles of pedestrian fence, for a total of 370 by the end of 2008, in addition to several hundred miles of vehicle fencing. Officials said total fencing would amount to 670 miles by the end of 2008, establishing a natural and a manufactured barrier over the heaviest illegal traffic areas from the Pacific Ocean to the Texas-New Mexico border. Copyright c. 2007 The New York Times Company. --------- "RE: Border Wall Genocide: O'odham Graves go under" --------- Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 09:01:34 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="O'ODHAM GRAVES BLADED OVER" http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2007/11/ border-wall-genocide-oodham-graves-go.html Border Wall Genocide: O'odham graves go under the blades November 23, 2007 O'odham Voice Against the Wall responds to reader comments posted on article, Mohawks Inflamed Over Tohono O'odham Tribal Council Complicity In 'Border' Oppression Of Indigenous People - U.S. welcomes rich and kills the poor, at Atlantic Free Press: O'odham VOICE Against the WALL America is built on the blood of the original peoples of these lands and stolen lands of the original people, now our own people only speak in a foreign mindset. This is your American dream of depriving your own people of PEACE and justice when they are abusing the elders right in your face and degrading your women and children of dignity. Let's set these things right, politicians are not equal or have more authority then the traditional peoples of the land that uphold the true Him'dag. I have yet to see any politicians sit at our table and bring genuine concern and solutions to this outright land takeover buy the federal government. Soon we will be running around with a cut head when the we totally loose all rights to our traditional lands, they will bulldoze over your graves to build their headquarters just as they did in Sonoyta, Mexico. Did the O'odham leaders protect those grave sites, no they didn't. Maria cried until last year when she died, she cried about having no grave to visit, her mother's grave that when under the blades. The WALL is not the solution, yes some families are hurting from their drug smuggling businesses but what about our way of life. The government has created this and planned on this don't you get it. It's called Genocide...and it's here in your face. Original article with comments: http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/2841/81/ Posted by brendanorrell@gmail.com at 12:41 PM --------- "RE: O'odham say Border Wall is Genocide" --------- Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 07:24:48 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="WAY OF LIFE BEING DESTROYED BY BORDER WALL" http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/ Conspiracy of Silence: O'odham say border wall is genocide By Brenda Norrell Narcosphere November 25, 2007 The grassroots organization O'odham Voice Against the Wall has denounced the ongoing genocide of the O'odham people in the United States and Mexico, where the border wall and development has resulted in the digging up of graves and the final resting places of their ancestors. A delegation of Mohawks, Oneida, Lakota and Acoma Pueblo recently voiced their sadness and outrage over the border wall under construction on Tohono O'odham lands in Arizona and the "cage" where migrants are imprisoned. Further, the Mohawk delegation was horrified to watch the US Border Patrol arrest Mayans in front on them, as they tried to intervene, and also to learn of the hundreds of Indigenous Peoples dying on Tohono O'odham land each year for want of a drink of water. The delegation also learned that the graves of the O'odham ancestors were recently dug up for the border wall under construction by contractor Boeing. The Tohono O'odham Nation government has declined to release a public statement regarding the ancestors' remains being dug up and removed in 2007 for the border wall. After the Mohawks' comments were released, a few Tohono O'odham Nation government officials objected and defended the border wall and their policies, which criminalizes aid to migrants. However, the O'odham Voice Against the Wall said the true way of life of the O'odham, the Him'dag which honors humanity, is at stake, while the government officials work in collusion with Homeland Security. O'odham Voice Against the Wall statement: "America is built on the blood of the original peoples of these lands and stolen lands of the original people, now our own people only speak in a foreign mindset. This is your American dream of depriving your own people of PEACE and justice when they are abusing the elders right in your face and degrading your women and children of dignity. Let's set these things right, politicians are not equal or have more authority then the traditional peoples of the land that uphold the true Him'dag. I have yet to see any politicians sit at our table and bring genuine concern and solutions to this outright land takeover buy the federal government. Soon we will be running around with a cut head when we totally lose all rights to our traditional lands, they will bulldoze over your graves to build their headquarters just as they did in Sonoyta, Mexico. Did the O'odham leaders protect those grave sites, no they didn't. Maria cried until last year when she died, she cried about having no grave to visi t, her mother's grave that went under the blades. The WALL is not the solution, yes some families are hurting from their drug smuggling businesses but what about our way of life. The government has created this and planned on this don't you get it. It is called Genocide...and it is here in your face." Censored and under-reported news: brendanorrell@gmail.com --------- "RE: Artman lends an ear at NCAI" --------- Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 09:01:34 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ARTMAN AT NCAI CONVENTION" http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416173 Indian Affairs assistant secretary lends an ear at NCAI by: David Melmer / Indian Country Today Carl Artman: 'We will work with you' November 23, 2007 DENVER - The recent National Congress of American Indians national convention was a perfect setting for Carl Artman, assistant secretary for Indian Affairs, to talk about a new way of doing business with Indian country. Artman was the featured speaker during one of the general assembly sessions and he remained at the convention, held in Denver Nov. 11-16, for more than two days in which he held private meetings, attended special sessions and listened to complaints and ideas. "I have a long to-do list," Artman said. He said the relationship between the BIA, tribes, agencies and communities can be improved with partnerships; and that the wildfires in California showed how agencies, tribes and the BIA all worked together in those partnerships. "Tribes across the country pulled together to help, and we want to be an active partner in that community," Artman said. He said the BIA wanted to strategize with tribal governments to make quick decisions and to change the interaction between communities. Artman touched briefly on a number of topics from energy development, the probate backlog, law enforcement and methamphetamine mitigation to self-sufficiency and economic development. "Ten percent of the natural resources in the country are in Indian country, and this can be developed as an economic resource," he said. "Self-sufficiency is available through natural resources." The probate backlog has long been a contentious issue with many tribes, and he said the backlog should be cleared up by 2009. The backlog dates back to 1890, according to Artman. Artman's speech to the general assembly was brief in order to give time to questions and comments. "I am encouraged by some of the things you say," said Michael Marchand, chairman of the Colville Business Council, to Artman. Marchand said that since the Office of the Special Trustee was developed, there have been problems with appraisals and that the loss of transactions had gotten worse. "Get OST back under the umbrella of the bureau," Marchand said. Those words were echoed time and again by many tribal leaders at the general assembly and in various meetings. In response to a question about tribal recognition, Artman said, "I acknowledge that it has had a storied history, but we are looking at a way to speed up the process." A very big issue was so-called "638 contracting," which, under Public Law 93-638, enables many tribes to manage their own BIA programs with federal monies that at one time had been administered on their behalf by the BIA or the IHS. Many Great Plains tribes want very little to do with 638 contracting, objecting to the amount of red tape involved in operating the programs. They are opting to remain direct-service tribes. "The roadblocks are getting in the way of making programs work. We see more cuts when we 638 social and law enforcement," said Tracy "Ching" King, Assiniboine and council member from Fort Belknap, Mont. "We are the poorest of the poor and most people are on TANF and we have to make arrangements with the state. There are too many agreements with the states. We have to fight for those who can't fight for themselves and the state and BIA put up roadblocks," King said. In a time when tribes want to move forward by changing constitutions and separate the powers within the government, the question was asked: Why does it take so long to approve that proposal, or why does it take so long to put land into trust? Artman said that the Interior Board of Indian Appeals has a backlog because it has only one judge. He also heard that tribes wanted Public Law 280, which gives the states criminal and civil jurisdiction over tribal lands, to be rescinded in order to return jurisdiction and authority back to the tribes. The tribal leaders said they could in turn negotiate memorandums of understanding and agreement with the states and not give up jurisdiction. Copyright c. 1998 - 2007 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: Many Indians say, 'no thanks' to Thanksgiving" --------- Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 09:17:18 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="DAY OF MOURNING FOR INDIANS" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20071120/NEWS01/71120035/1002/NEWS01 WASHINGTON: Many Indians say, 'no thanks' to Thanksgiving By Anju Kaur Capital News Service November 20, 2007 WASHINGTON - The iconic Thanksgiving image of colonists and Indians sharing a feast has become the symbol of caring and cooperation among peoples, but for many Native Americans it is a reminder of betrayal, bloodshed and continuing discrimination. "It's a day of mourning," said William Redwing Tayac, chief of one of Maryland's indigenous tribes, the Piscataway Indian Nation. "Indians are victims of the American holocaust. That's the truth. I'm not going to paint a rosy picture." The popular conception of the first Thanksgiving of 1621 is a myth, he said. Indians taught colonists how to farm and survive in the new frontier, only to be burned at the stake several years later as the first victims of the Salem witch trials, Tayac said. The tribes of Massachusetts still have demonstrations on Thanksgiving. Tayac pays tribute to his people on Thanksgiving Day. He fasts during the day with his family and performs a sacred harvest ceremony before sitting down to dinner in the evening. If they have turkey, that's just because it's traditional Indian food, he said. His fight for his people continues well beyond the holiday. Tayac is involved in a "de-anglization" program that takes assimilated American Indians and "brings them back to being Indians," he said. They are taught the culture, religion, history and traditions of their people. Joseph Stands With Many, a Cherokee Indian from Baltimore, is not as angry about Thanksgiving as Tayac. "Once a year people think about Indians then they forget about them," said Stands With Many. "Some people are militant and get bitter during Thanksgiving. I don't believe in holding on to things like that." But some things still irritate him. "Why does American Indian Heritage Month have to be in November?" he asked. And why do people use those cut-out decorations of Indians and Pilgrims? "No one wants to believe that it is offensive," he said. "It continues the subliminal stereotype." Stands With Many has complained about those decorations at his son's school, but the school board has refused to take them off the walls. He has turned his frustration into an education opportunity -- giving up his 9-to-5 job to tell Cherokee stories to elementary school children, including a performance last year at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington. Giving thanks is a cycle of ceremonies for Stands With Many and his family. It begins with the planting season and ends with the harvest. But Thanksgiving Day is usually spent with his mother. "Last year Mom and I went to McDonalds," he said. "Sometimes we have Chinese food." Desiree Shelley's family has observed Thanksgiving for generations, but that doesn't mean she doesn't understand the protests of fellow Indians who don't. A native of Baltimore, Shelley has roots in the Monacan tribe of Virginia. Her father is part Monacan, a tribe that was "Christianized" shortly after the Jamestown colonization in the early 1600s, she said. "Even if some American Indians celebrate (the holiday), there is a prevailing feeling of hurt for a lot of people," Shelley said. "We have all been assimilated and colonized. We have lost our history, our language and our culture. What do you expect?" Thanksgiving has little meaning for Shelley. It's just a day to get together with family and have a nice meal, she said. "The concept is not inherently bad," she added. "I wouldn't want to get rid of it." As president of the American Indian Student Union at the University of Maryland, Shelley, too, wants to use Thanksgiving as an opportunity to educate. She unsuccessfully tried to find grant money this year for education outreach to elementary and middle school children, but she is looking at other opportunities for next year that would redress the American Indian experience. It is the historical distortions, the cultural stereotypes and general ignorance about indigenous peoples that makes Thanksgiving somewhat revolting to American Indians, said Keith Colston, executive director of the Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs. Most do not celebrate Thanksgiving. If they do, it's not based on today's thoughts and ideas about the holiday, he said. "For me personally, it is another day to get together with friends and family," said Colston, a member of the Tuscarora-Lumbee tribe of North Carolina. But for everyone who does celebrate it, he advised: "People should know the historical background of the holidays they celebrate. Native Americans shared a feast with the Pilgrims and gave thanks for the bounty of food and for each other's company. But Thanksgiving after that was a betrayal." Copyright c. 2007 The Daily Times, Salisbury, Md. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: A lesson in Thankfulness - the Wampanoag Way" --------- Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 07:24:48 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="UNDERSTANDING THANKFULNESS" http://www.eagletribune.com/pulife/ local_story_329104552?keyword=secondarystory A lesson in thankfulness - the Wampanoag way By Rosemary Ford , Staff writer Eagle-Tribune November 25, 2007 Could you celebrate Thanksgiving every day? The Wampanoag do. I recently visited Plimoth Plantation and met the modern descendants of this tribe of American Indians, who once had villages scattered across the North and South shores, as well as Cape Cod. For the Wampanoag, every day is a day to give thanks to the Creator for the blessings of life, food and family. They've carried on this beautiful tradition for generations - way before Lincoln made the holiday official in 1863. This can be a hard time of year for American Indians. They know the rosey picture of Thanksgiving we all get from grammar school isn't a true snapshot of early relations between natives and European settlers. The truth is, things didn't go well from the first meetings of these two groups. Some European traders came to these shores years before the Mayflower docked. They captured Wampanoags and brought them to England as slaves. Those left behind died from diseases these traders brought. The Pilgrims then hit these shores with a bad reputation. The first Thanksgiving - which historians date around late September or early October in 1621 - didn't include a few Wampanoag and a lot of Pilgrims breaking bread, in a romantic Rockwellian sense. It was a three-day feast, likely spread throughout the early town, with about 50 Pilgrims and 90 Wampanoags taking part. It's hard to know what the atmosphere was like, but it can't have been too jovial. Unfortunately, the two groups didn't live happily ever after. A generation later, they went to war. Things only got worse from there. So instead of celebrating a feast on Thanksgiving, Wampanoag fast. It's called a National Day of Mourning. They use this time to reflect on the suffering of Indians and the loss of their way of life. My visit to Plimoth was the first time I had heard about this. I admit I never thought about those early days or what things might have been like from the Indian perspective. I've lived here my whole life, and I never heard the name Wampanoag, which now seems a little unforgivable. Now that I have heard it, it's not a name I'll forget soon. I'm grateful I've learned this and that members of this tribe are still here. I'm also grateful I live in this region, which owes so much to the Wampanoag. --- Rosemary Ford is the arts and entertainment reporter for The Eagle-Tribune. Reach her at 978-946-2188, or via e-mail, rford@eagletriibune.com. Copyright c. 2007 Eagle Tribune Publishing Company. All rights reserved. 100 Turnpike Street, North Andover, MA. --------- "RE: Impoverished Tribe hit hard by Blazes" --------- Date: Thu, 22 Nov 2007 09:14:11 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LA JOLLA BAND LOST ALMOST EVERYTHING TO FIRES" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lajolla22nov22,1,2560555.story? coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=1&cset=true Impoverished tribe hit hard by blazes The La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians in San Diego County lost much of what little they had to the Witch and Poomacha fires. But the tribal chairman says they will rebuild. By David Kelly, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer November 22, 2007 LA JOLLA INDIAN RESERVATION - The firestorms that swept much of Southern California recently were especially cruel to this hardscrabble reservation clinging to the southern slopes of Mt. Palomar. Residents described flames sweeping over lush hills and valleys, burning 94% of the reservation and destroying 59 of its 170 houses. Thick forests of live oak that once shaded homes and provided acorns for generations of Native Americans are gone now, replaced by black scars of ash. Unlike many neighboring tribes, the La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians don't own a casino. Many members rely on government aid to survive and the chief source of revenue is a campground along a three-mile stretch of the San Luis Rey River. "We were already at the bottom of the barrel and now this takes us down even further," said tribal Chairman Tracy Lee Nelson, who returned from his honeymoon to find cinders where his house had stood. "I have never been up against anything like this before," he said. "It will take millions of dollars to repair this reservation." Tribal members, who number about 700, are still trying to digest the magnitude of destruction that has touched everyone in some way. Viola Peck, 87, tribal vice chairman, grew up in these hills. Her great- great grandfather was one of the first tribal leaders. Peck's home burned to its foundation in less than 10 minutes, firefighters said. While the fires were largely out everywhere else, helicopters continued making water drops on reservation hot spots. Peck visits the remains of her house like she's meeting an old friend. Recently she was sifting through the ashes and found two blackened teacups. "I lost my house, I lost everything," she said, looking over the ruins and burnt trees. "I try to be strong in front of the family but I have my moments when I'm alone." Her grandson Adam Geisler, 23, said he cries every time he sees the house. His own home nearby survived. "My grandfather passed away right here," he said, pointing at a place that used to be a bedroom. "This is where the family came together. I'm talking Christmas dinner, Thanksgiving dinner. This is where I learned Santa Claus didn't exist." Peck smiled. "I remember that, you ran out of the house and hid," she said. Geisler said the destruction on the reservation was different from damage elsewhere, such as Rancho Bernardo near San Diego. "Those are newer places and people can leave and go elsewhere," he said. "This has been our home for generations. We have ties to the land. We won't go rebuild somewhere else." Of San Diego County's 18 reservations, 11 were hit by the Witch, Harris or Poomacha fires. All the fires are now extinguished. The La Jolla tribe, largely spared during the devastating 2003 Cedar fire, bore the brunt of the destruction this time with 8,679 of its roughly 10,000 acres burned. The neighboring Rincon Nation of Luiseno Indians was also hit hard, losing 65 houses and 3,585 acres along with its historic chapel. The Bureau of Indian Affairs said it has received over 800 applications for assistance from Indian households throughout the county for food, clothing and shelter. It has made $600,000 in emergency assistance available. Wealthy gaming tribes, such as Pechanga and Soboba, have provided free hotel rooms and shelter for displaced Native Americans. They have also donated thousands of dollars. "We are working very hard with FEMA" to get the La Jolla band interim housing, said James Fletcher, superintendent of the BIA for Southern California. "They have lost close to 70% of their housing stock." Some reservations, such as San Pasqual, escaped virtually unscathed, losing just six acres. "We fared very well because we were devastated by the 2003 fires which thinned out the brush and debris so we didn't have the fuel to burn," Tilda Green, tribal administrator for the San Pasqual, said. "In 2003 we lost 85 houses. We were not prepared and had little time to evacuate. This time we had our Fire Department out watching the houses. We also had firebreaks around homes." Green said it took months after the Cedar fire for the gaming tribe to rebound. "The fire really impacted our tribe and it took all of our resources to get back on our feet," she said. "It took us a year to pull ourselves out of the depths of destruction." Nelson, the La Jolla tribal chairman, drove down the winding dirt road into Poomacha Valley to see his family house. "The wind comes through here like a tunnel," he said. "The fire just broadsided us. The sky looked like an atom bomb had gone off. The speed and intensity of it made me shiver." Nelson, an accomplished musician, said he would be putting trailers up on an empty baseball field for emergency housing. He drove up a steep, rough road. On one side was his perfectly intact neighbor's home, a few feet away his house lay in ruins. "This is it, this is our family home," he said. "We have had it for 25 years." Nelson, 42, said he's played guitar with the Native American band Redbone, which had the 1970s hit "Come and Get Your Love." One of his guitars was signed by B.B. King and was lost in the fire along with more than 9,000 CDs. He heard of the fire as he was returning from a "Blues Cruise" to Mexico with his new wife. A few frantic phone calls later he realized the reservation would not be spared this time. "It looked like someone was pouring gasoline on that fire," he said. And yet Nelson is optimistic. Money is pouring in, food, water and clothing are stacked to the roof in the tribal school and, more important, the La Jolla are working together in a way they never have before. "There is a reason for everything that happens," he said. "There is a tradition that we were created from these mountains, dirt and trees. That's in our old songs. Maybe the Creator made the decision to regenerate the land. Fire is part of our culture so this is all part of our life." Whatever the reason, he said, "We are going to rebuild." david.kelly@latimes.com Copyright C. 2007 Los Angeles Times. --------- "RE: March Honors Children 'Lost' in Foster Care System" --------- Date: Thu, 22 Nov 2007 09:14:11 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MARCH HONORS IOWA'S LOST BIRDS" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.ktiv.com/News/index.php?ID=19549 March Honors Children 'Lost' In Iowa Foster Care System November 22, 2007 In what's become an annual event, members of the Native American community march from Nebraska to Iowa. They hope that every step they take brings Native American children, "lost" in the foster care system, closer to a home with Native American foster parents. Dozens of folks gathered at the Marina Inn, in South Sioux City, to reflect on those "lost" children. The fellowship allowed Native Americans to voice their concerns about Iowa's foster care system. Activist Frank LaMere says the system needs to place Native American children with Native Americans, something that doesn't always happen. Frank LaMere, Native American Activist says, "You're going to give them voice today that they don't have. So be mindful of that as we leave here. So that our work today is very important, it's probably the most important work that we do." LaMere says, "It gives all our families hope and it tells them that people do care about them." With each step the Native American community is taking one for someone that can't, a child, put in foster care with non-native people. Its a march that begins in South Sioux and ends in Sioux City. Activist Frank LaMere says it's a symbol of a trip his ancestors made years ago, crossing waters, looking for a better way of life. LaMere says, "This is good for all of the people were not the only ones who have problems with the system, with DHS, with other agencies that govern our lives everybody does." More than one hundred people walking along with the Winnebago, Omaha, and Santee Sioux tribes. Taking to the streets and seats of government which can help change the future. Jim Rixner says, "The march raises the consciousness of people in the community that it is imortant to remember the precious value of our children and our families and especially for Native people that their families are extrememly important to them as individual family members and culturally." And keeping the heritage is keeping them in Native American foster homes. Something the department of human services says they are working on. But, so few are foster care providers. Pat Penning says, " I think that their goal is to have us make some change, to really give them an opportunity to show that they can care for their relatives. The Native community is taking notice of the problems that they have and they are trying to address those and now they're wanting us to give them the opportunity to show that they have made that change." A change that could bring native children back into the rythym of their people. After the march everyone gathered at the First Nations Outreach Center for a meal. Copyright c. KTIV-TV 2007 Sioux City, Iowa 51108 --------- "RE: High rate of Indian Children in Foster Care" --------- Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 07:24:48 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INDIAN CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE" http://www.theolympian.com/northwest/story/281444.html Report: High rate of ID American Indian children in foster care November 25, 2007 American Indians represent 1 percent of Idaho's child population but make up 6.6 percent of children in the state's foster care system, two child advocacy groups say. The National Indian Child Welfare Association, and Kids Are Waiting, released the report last week. To help reduce the number of American Indian children in foster care, the groups said, tribes should have direct access to child welfare funding made available by the federal government. "Agencies working with Indian children are unfamiliar with tribal culture and child-rearing and often are removing children when they don't need to be," said David Simmons, director of government affairs and advocacy for the National Indian Child Welfare Association. He said that, though information is limited, American Indian children are abused or neglected at a rate of 16.5 per 1,000, compared with 19.5 per 1,000 for black children and 10.8 per 1,000 for white children. American Indian children also were more likely to be considered victims of neglect, and less likely to be identified as victims of abuse, than other ethnic groups, Simmons said. "The best way to alleviate disparity is to bring tribes into the delivery of foster care services in a more prominent way," Simmons told The Spokesman-Review newspaper. The Indian Child Welfare Act gives jurisdiction to tribes, and when possible requires that Indian children be kept in Indian homes. But the report said a lack of training by social service agencies, and not enough available American Indian homes, have led to inconsistent compliance. The report said part of the problem is that tribes aren't eligible for the largest source of federal funding through two programs. Those are the Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance, and Title XX Social Services Block Grants. "We think it would be really good for the tribes to receive funding directly," said Tom Shanahan, spokesman for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. Copyright c. 2007 The Olympian, a McClatchy Newspaper. --------- "RE: Alaska Native abuse victims share Stories" --------- Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 09:17:18 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="ABUSED SPEAK OUT" http://www.indianz.com/News http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/rural/story/9468848p-9380206c.html Victims of priest's abuse reveal their stories ALASKA NATIVES: As children, they say, they weren't believed. By LISA DEMER ldemer@adn.com November 21, 2007 James Niksik was a boy growing up in the village of St. Michael when he tried to tell his father that a Catholic missionary was sexually abusing him. The reaction? His father beat him for saying such a terrible thing about Joseph Lundowski. "Because he said I was lying about the people at the church. He said church people don't do that," said Niksik, who is now 48. His parents were devout Catholics. "From the beginning of the day to the end of the day, we prayed at least eight times." Niksik didn't speak of the abuse again. Not until he was grown man, angry at the world, having trouble with life. "Being a kid, I didn't know anything about the legal system or where to get help for what was done to us," Niksik said. Today, if a child told the right person, and the system worked the way it is supposed to, there would be comfort, counseling and protection. Someone would call troopers. There would be an investigation, maybe an arrest and a trial. Prison for the perp. But this happened decades ago. Lundowski died years before priest abuse became a national scandal, before Niksik got up the nerve to talk again. Niksik is one of more than 100 Alaska Natives finally acknowledged as victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and lay missionaries in Alaska from the 1950s into the 1980s. The Society of Jesus, Oregon Province, otherwise known as the Jesuits, announced this week it will pay $50 million to settle Alaska abuse claims against the order. After the settlement was announced, Niksik and another villager from St. Michael, Peter Kobuk, talked about Lundowski's abuse, the lawsuits and what the settlement means to them. Their adult lives have been marred by drinking and legal troubles, they said. They were angry men and didn't know why. Lundowski molested more children than any other Alaska clergyman, said the lead lawyer in the Alaska abuse cases, Ken Roosa of Anchorage. He puts the number of still-living Lundowski victims who are part of the lawsuit at 59. Lundowski targeted Native boys as he traveled from spot to spot -- Dillingham, Nulato, Hooper Bay, St. Michael and Stebbins -- with the Rev. George Endal, Roosa said. Endal was a priest who was accused of knowing what Lundowski and another volunteer did, and of abusing children himself. He's dead as well. Endal's complicity was critical to the settlements involving the predatory missionary since Lundowski wasn't a Jesuit, Roosa said. Lundowski gave communion, said the rosary and preyed on boys in his catechism class, Niksik and Kobuk said. He gave them wine, candy, a little bit of money, good grades in catechism, all in return for sex. Lundowski liked performing oral sex on young boys and forced some to have anal sex, Roosa said. "The guy would have a signal, you know, in the church," Niksik told the state Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this year. He'd scratch a boy's palm during a special handshake for peace. "Nobody could see that," Niksik told the senators in a shaky voice. Lundowski was a "sly fellow" with his lures of sweets, not scary or threatening, Niksik said this week. The boys were naive, innocent and isolated. They didn't watch racy TV like kids do today. They had no TV at all, just one phone in the entire village, no classroom training on "good touch/bad touch." As far as Niksik could tell, Lundowski molested every boy in catechism class. "Sometimes he'd have two or three boys with him" at a time, Niksik said. Kobuk said he could remember Lundowski dragging him into the bedroom for sex. He was 12. He tried telling people too, his parents and later other priests and bishops. But they didn't want to hear. "They would say it's in the past, let it be. I'd say it's not the past to me. It's like yesterday, or even today," Kobuk said. Niksik was different. He buried it. After the whipping by his father, he figured he could never tell anyone. His adult life was dotted with trouble. In and out of jail in Nome. Assaults and disorderly conduct. Resisting arrest. Drinking always a factor. "I have a long record with the state there," Niksik said. The abuse stayed buried until one day, fresh out of jail, he saw "a big ad on the back of the paper, asking about victims of Joseph Lundowski." "It came back like a flood after that," Niksik said. Roosa and his partner Chris Cooke placed the ad in the Nome Nugget in 2004, not looking for more victims, but for people who knew about Lundowski, who could confirm who he was, that he was connected to the church, that he even existed. Because Lundowski was a lay missionary, the Jesuits didn't claim him and at first the Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks said they had no record of him either, Cooke said. When Roosa went to St. Michael and nearby Stebbins, he was mobbed by men wanting to tell about being abused by Lundowski. The Jesuits have now acknowledged the abuse happened. That's important. "It's something that's finally off of my chest. I've had this somewhere in the back of my mind since I was a kid," Niksik said. In September, he got a job as a grant writer for the Native village of St. Michael. Before that he was unemployed for years. He's married, has five children. The damage "wasn't something I knew I was carrying," Niksik said. "It was hidden somewhere." Kobuk, now 48, has had it especially hard. He's divorced, with nine children. He's got a record too, of domestic violence. He hasn't worked much since the mid-1990s. He used to be a firefighter, aimed to be a smokejumper, trained year-round. But trauma after trauma pulled him into depression: his abuse, the suicide of his sister, who Roosa said was molested by the priest Endal. A cousin who shot himself. Kobuk cleaned up the remains, scooped up bits of brain and skull. The diocese only recently started paying for counseling for the sex abuse victims. Kobuk said he's glad for it. Even if it's 30 years late. Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/ldemer or call 257-4390. Copyright c. 2007 The Anchorage Daily News (www.adn.com) --------- "RE: Traditional approach to Healing encouraged" --------- Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 09:17:18 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="TRADITIONAL HEALING" http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416115 Traditional approach to healing encouraged by: Jerry Reynolds / Indian Country Today November 21, 2007 WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. - There is no denying the powers of Western medicine, not when tribe after tribe negotiated health care provisions in their treaties with the federal government. But traditional healing practices have never been forgotten among tribes. And after years of frowning upon them or forbidding them outright, the federal government, through the IHS, has begun to encourage a traditional approach to healing, said Herman Largo, director of behavioral health for the Navajo. IHS clinics nationwide are incorporating traditional healing practices, added Carolyn Morris, a licensed clinical psychologist with Navajo health services. The Navajo traditional healing program got started in 1996 with Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration funds from the Department of Health and Human Services, and became ongoing in 2000 with federal funds, Largo said. "It's a part of the sustainable program that SAMHSA allows you to develop," Morris explained. "This is a kind of validation [of traditional healing]," added Madan Poudel, Navajo health services administrator. "It's complementary." Western medical treatment is always available, he said. "We're very careful about imposing Navajo practices on anyone. We have to respect a family's wishes." But on the Navajo lands, where Largo said 50 percent of the people still speak Navajo, "Sixty percent of the clients come in requesting traditional practices or services," Morris noted. Many of them resort to traditional practices as a way to revive their lives after a period of substance abuse, Largo said. The families of substance abusers may also receive treatment, reviving them, too, after the difficult experience of living with substance abuse. A typical traditional course of treatment begins with a Sweatlodge cleansing or purification ritual, Largo said. Anslem Roanhorse, executive director of the Navajo Division of Health, provided some detail: upon entering, the patient hears two Navajo songs that emphasize "coming out of something, transcending into something new." Largo compared the Sweatlodge session to residential treatment in Western medicine. The next step is diagnosis by one of 13 salaried traditional practitioners, which Largo compared to intensive day treatment. Based on the diagnosis, he said, "We recommend a specialized intervention that might be useful." Patients have a choice of interventions, Roanhorse said, the point being to expand and extend the healing process. The third phase of the treatment, comparable to outpatient treatment in Western medicine, incorporates the results of diagnosis and recommendations in a Beauty Way ceremony, and the final or "after care" phase is a Blessing ceremony, always with lots of support from family and extended family. Although the four-phase model is typical, it is not exclusive. Traditional healing also incorporates prayers, including Native language prayers, and faith-based services, including Navajo faith services. "It's a variety of interventions," Morris said, emphasizing holistic, community- wide treatment over Western individual treatment. Now that Western medicine has begun to recognize a Native tool in the modern medical kit, however, centralizing Western bureaucracy has become a stumbling block. "The only problem we have now ... in the traditional Western bureaucratic system, they want a certification" for traditional healing practitioners, Poudel said. In Washington, Roanhorse said, "They always talk about liability, and do you have tort coverage." But in Navajo communities, "It takes many years of apprenticeship before you can become a practitioner." Morris said the government should become more respectful of "cultural competency" in traditional healing practice because the practices have been effective "years and years in the community." Otherwise, Poudel added, the system has come to "honor the sensitivities" around traditional healing practices. "It's in the process of educating them. ... It's getting better for the past few years." Copyright c. 1998 - 2007 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved. --------- "RE: $50 Million for Alaskan abuse Plaintiffs" --------- Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2007 07:19:47 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="JESUIT ORDER AGREES TO $50M PAYMENT" http://www.pechanga.net/ http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-na-settle19nov19,1,2960660.story? coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=2&cset=true $50 million for Alaskan abuse plaintiffs By William Lobdell and Stuart Silverstein, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers November 19, 2007 The Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic Church has agreed to pay $50 million to 110 Eskimos to settle claims of sexual abuse by priests and missionaries in some of the world's most remote villages. Attorneys for the plaintiffs announced the settlement Sunday, calling it a record payout by a Catholic religious order. However, officials for the Jesuits - formally called the Society of Jesus - said there were "still many issues that need to be finalized." "We are disappointed by today's actions by the plaintiff's attorneys, which we see as premature and detrimental to the work of healing about which we are all concerned," said John D. Whitney, the provincial superior of Society of Jesus, Oregon Province, in a written statement. E-mail between the Jesuits' and victims' attorneys indicated a deal was in place, though some details needed to be worked out. "This e-mail will confirm that a settlement has been reached," wrote Richard K. Hansen, attorney for the Jesuits, to the Eskimos' lead attorney, Ken Roosa, on Friday. "The settlement calls for $50 million to be paid to the plaintiffs/claimants in exchange for releases of all claims against the Jesuit defendants." The settlement does not require the order to admit fault, Roosa said. None of the priests was ever criminally charged. A dozen priests and three missionaries were accused of sexually abusing Eskimo children in 15 villages and Nome from 1961 to 1987. The flood of allegations led to accusations that the Eskimo communities were a dumping ground for abusive priests and lay workers affiliated with the Jesuit order, which supplied bishops, priests and lay missionaries to the Fairbanks diocese. Jesuit officials have denied transferring molesting priests to Alaska, saying that it was a prestigious assignment for the most courageous and faithful. In Jesuit fundraising literature, Eskimo villages were called "the world's most difficult mission field." Many plaintiffs said their once devoutly Catholic villages - cut off from the world and without law enforcement - offered a perfect setting for a molesting priest. In 2005, The Times published a story about Joseph Lundowski, a Jesuit deacon who allegedly sexually abused nearly every boy in two small villages on St. Michael Island between 1968 and 1975. Lundowski's accusers - now in their 40s and 50s - said the abuse led to alcoholism, violence, emotional problems and suicide attempts. They kept their secret - not even talking about it among themselves - until the Catholic Church sex scandal erupted in 2002. That year, Roosa filed the first civil suit against the Jesuits and the Diocese of Fairbanks. The cases against the diocese are still pending. Roosa said he spent Sunday on the phone, relaying the news of the settlement to his clients who were scattered across western Alaska: "I'm tired but I'm able to call clients today with good news." This year, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles paid $660 million to settle with 508 claimants, and the Diocese of San Diego paid $198 million to settle with 144 alleged victims. In Orange County, the Diocese of Orange two years ago paid out $100 million to 90 people who alleged they were victims of clergy sexual abuse. In Alaska, the average payout of $554,000 was far below those in Southern California, but comparisons can't yet be made because the Fairbanks diocese hasn't agreed to a settlement. william.lobdell@latimes.com stuart.silverstein@latimes.com Copyright c. 2007 Los Angeles Times. --------- "RE: Tribal language fading away" --------- Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 07:24:48 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="LAST FLUENT SPEAKER OF WICHITA" http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx? subjectID=11&articleID=071126_1_A1_ahref16518 Tribal language fading away By Staff Reports November 26, 2007 Doris Jean Lamar is the last fluent speaker of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. ANADARKO - Oklahoma had been a state for only two decades when Doris Jean Lamar was born in 1927. Her first spoken words were not English, but an American Indian language taught to her by grandparents. Today, Lamar is the last fluent speaker in the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, a tribe of 2,300. Sitting in a tribal canteen that she supervises, the 80-year-old Lamar carries a language that once was spoken by thousands, then hundreds of Wichita language speakers. "I never thought I would be in this position as a girl, to be our last fluent speaker," she said. Wichita is one of the languages classified as Caddoan, but is only similar in stock to the Caddo language, scholars said. Lamar's tribe is one of a handful indigenous to Oklahoma with a present-day jurisdiction in Caddo County. Lamar's journey was not unlike other girls in southwest Oklahoma in the years right before the Great Depression. Her full-blood maternal grandparents worked a farm and raised their grandchildren. She recalls fewer cars, more thriftiness and no electricity back then. With a white father and an Indian mother, Lamar stood out among her peers. "I never thought of myself as white; to me, I was Wichita," she said. "The old ladies of our tribe thought it was something to hear this little white girl speak Wichita." She eventually married a non-Indian and had children. After she divorced in 1959, she moved back among her Indian relatives near Gracemont. She continued to speak Wichita as she did as a girl. "Ever since I could remember, I spoke Wichita," she said. "My husband told me that me speaking Indian was the only time he remembered I was Indian." Around 1962, Lamar met an earnest young linguist who followed tribal members in order to listen to them speak, she recalled. That young linguist was David Rood from the University of Colorado. Rood has been working with the Wichitas since he stumbled upon the Indian language while looking for one that was not being preserved, he said. He still works with Lamar and other tribal members. They race to record the Wichita language so that a dictionary can be gleaned. They have spent hours going over Wichita words and compiling language CDs on creation stories, verbs, nouns and names. Defining tribal fluency can be tricky, Rood said. In small tribes, debates exist over who qualifies as a fluent speaker. Lamar speaks some Wichita with another tribal member who labors with the language. "She tells me there are so many words in her head that she can't get out, she gets frustrated," Lamar said. Speaking and writing the language are key. Sometimes tribal members know ceremonial songs by heart. Yet linguists think fluency is more complicated than that. "I would say when somebody is able to speak the language in a way that has never been spoken before or ever written in a language book . . . as an abstract thought, then that is fluency," Rood said. The linguist tried to organize a conversation among the last few fluent Wichita speakers in the early 2000s, he said. He regards the exercise as a half-success. But the gathering was stilted because of political differences among the speakers. "Which is typical in almost all Indian tribes," he said of tribal political factions. "They spoke a little, but not much." Hope exists for the Wichitas' dying language. An immersion class for children has been soldiering forward, as is an adult-oriented language class, both subsidized by fed eral grants. But the Wichitas must cross another obstacle of language revitalization: retention. Sam Still, a Cherokee speaker, said retention among adults and children remains low if the language is not already spoken in the home. "For children, when they have no one at home to speak the language with, there is no one to practice the sounds with and they lose it," Still said. "When you're around the language, you learn it better." Meanwhile, Lamar fishes a small recorder out of her pocket and turns it on. She speaks English words first, then the Wichita word follows. "I have been doing this a lot, lately," she said, pressing play. "I just put whatever words pop into my head." The tribal elder is aware that her language hangs on the precipice. She remembers the time when everyone around her spoke Wichita. Now, none of her children speak more than a few words, she said. "They live in the white world," she said. "I don't." S.E. Ruckman 581-8462 se.ruckman@tulsaworld.com Tulsa World - Copyright c. 2007, World Publishing Co. All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Nakwatsvewat Institute graduates First Class" --------- Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 09:01:34 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="CERTIFIED HOPI MEDIATORS" http://www.navajohopiobserver.com/main.asp? SectionID=35&SubSectionID=47&ArticleID=6369 Nakwatsvewat Institute graduates first class of certified Hopi mediators By Patty Talahongva Special to the Observer November 21, 2007 The Nakwatsvewat Institute has its first class of graduates who are now certified Hopi mediators. Nine Hopis from various villages completed the 40-hour long mediation training program. Their next step is to be observed in a simulated mediation session and then they can start settling various disputes within their own villages and across the Hopi reservation. Muriel Scott-Hunter was in the first graduating class. She serves as a tribal advocate in the Hopi Courts and saw this training as a bonus for her career. "It was very intense, but rewarding in the end. The program provided material that will be useful to any mediator. The training was well put together and the trainers were knowledgeable about the subject areas. I think the best part of the training was the role playing because it presented some real situations that occur in Hopi." "Almost every one of us who is Hopi has a friend or family member caught up in a dispute over a home, a field, or orchard. If people get to the point of suing each other, it ends up costing thousands of dollars, months or even years in court, and no one is satisfied with the remedies the court ends up dictating," explained Pat Sekaquaptewa, executive director of Nakwatsvewat. "Alternative Dispute Resolution or mediation, will benefit Hopis by providing them with a skilled facilitator who will help them negotiate with each other. Most important though is that individual Hopis will be in control of the decision making." Under the Hopi Constitution, the villages retain their sovereign authority to settle family and property disputes that may arise between tribal members. However, the Hopi Tribal Court has seen an increase in complex property and family cases involving disputes between village residents in the past decade. Sekaquaptewa and Justin Richland are both Justices Pro Tempore of the Hopi Appellate Court. They have witnessed that surge and hope to alleviate the caseload by training village residents to be mediators. In 2000, Sekaquaptewa and Richland began Hopi Dispute Resolution Services, which offered mediation and arbitration services to Hopi people. Then in 2006 they received a three-year grant from the Administration for Native Americans in the United States Department of Health and Human Services to start The Nakwatsvewat Institute, Inc. Sekaquaptewa and Richland selected the name Nakwatsvewat because it is a Hopi word that describes the process of resolving disputes in a friendly way. "It may not work for everyone in every case," says Scott-Hunter, "but it will work for those persons who truly want to resolve their problems through an alternative dispute resolution process, rather than arbitration through the courts." George Mase also graduated from this program. He says it also gave him a better understanding of tribal jurisdiction. "I hope to develop some procedures for my village board," he said and adds that he might consider trying his hand at being a mediator in the future. Nakwatsvewat hopes to train a number of Hopi mediators and refer cases to them to mediate. When disputes come to Nakwatsvewat, the organization will help the parties choose one of their certified mediators. Nakwatsvewat will also help pay for the first eight hours of mediation services. That could mean a savings of up to $400. Starting rates for a beginning mediator range from $25 to $45 an hour. Either way it's a savings of potentially hundreds of dollars compared to going through the court system and hiring a lawyer or and advocate. Plans are being made now for the next 40-hour training program set to begin next spring. To sign up for the spring session or to find out more information about Nakwatsvewat, please contact Donna Humetewa at The Nakwatsvewat Institute at (928) 737-9275 or e-mail her at donna@nakwatsvewat.org. Copyright c. 2007 Navajo Hopi Observer. --------- "RE: Hualapai Ethnobotany Project publishes Cookbook" --------- Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 09:01:34 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="NATIVE COOKING" http://www.navajohopiobserver.com/main.asp? SectionID=35&SubSectionID=47&ArticleID=6376 Hualapai Ethnobotany Project publishes cookbook S.J. Wilson The Observer November 21, 2007 PEACH SPRINGS - Quail, deer, elk, wild onions, prickly pear and other flora and fauna of northern Arizona were common foods among the Hualapai and other tribes of the region. In an effort to preserve traditional food knowledge among their people, the Hualapai Ethnobotany Project, which brings elders and young people of the tribe together to pass on the ethnobotanical knowledge, have published a traditional foods cookbook as well as a deck of playing cards that feature their ethnobotany: Recipes of the Hualapai Tribe. The project, which was funded by the Christensen Fund, has brought youth and elders together twice a month for field trips across the reservation and surrounding traditional lands. Students have learned valuable skills such as the making of cradleboards, basketry, how to use mesquite beans, prickly pear, jerky and other foods along with oral history as they worked side by side with their elders. There is a lot of information in Recipes-how to make jellies, breads, muffins, pounded cakes, soups, stews, wild game, meats and teas. One can find detailed instructions on how to dig and use a roasting pit- an earth oven in which viyal (mescal agave), bird eggs, small seeds or breads are baked. Open fires and roasting pits were the methods of cooking food when the Hualapai did not have stoves, ovens or pots and pans. Traditionally fruits and berries were eaten fresh or stored for later use. With the introduction of cane sugar by the Spanish, the Hualapai learned to make jelly from the fruit of the prickly pear cactus (alav) and algerita berry (amaq). Other recipes that have incorporated traditional foods with introduced foods are banana yucca (manad miyal miyu:l) muffins, Indian corn cakes, and skillet bread. In late summer, the Hualapai are involved in the making of mesquite flour. The beans are parched in order to kill microscopic pests, and this can be done in an oven. Afterwards, the beans are ground into flour and can be used to make mesquite balls, mesquite cornbread or pan bread. Earthen pottery and fireproof baskets were used to cook stew and mush. Hollowed out barrel cacti were also used. One added heated rocks to bring the stew to a boil, which were replaced as they grew cold. Wild meats are still a popular food for the Hualapai. Meats were preserved for winter use by the making of jerky (qua:qda duv or elk jerky, qua:q duv sumgwin or deer jerky), or were used with nuts, fruit and fat for preservation. Some tribes called the latter "pemmican." Roasted quail were not plucked or gutted before cooking. Instead they were singed and baked on an open fire. Afterwards, the burnt feathers, skin and entrails were removed and the quails were dropped into rock-heated water and simmered for 30 or 45 minutes. The stew could be thickened with corn or seed meal or ko (pinyon nuts). The students and staff of the Hualapai Ethnobotany Project celebrated their efforts at a community Fall Feast on Nov. 10, sponsored along with another group, Hakdagwiva Ba:j ba wiw joh (Helping the People of Peach Springs). "This was the culmination of our final project," said Carrie Cannon (of Kiowa and Oglala Sioux ancestry), a wildlife biologist and grant writer. "The students presented poster boards of what they'd made over the year. These documented our field trips on Diamond Creek Road in the Grand Canyon, Indian Point (an archaeological site), the Hualapai Mountains, and other sites, poster boards with photos, and samplings from all the traditional food we had worked with throughout the year. "We hosted a large feast, corn, squash beans, and beef, as well as elk donated from different tribal members. The kids made elk jerky gravy and pinyon stew," Cannon continued. "It was a community gathering to showcase the traditional foods of the tribe that can be gathered on the reservation. Our elder staff introduced the project and talked about how the Hualapai never used to fry food. It was always roasted, baked or boiled. Nowadays our diets have changed so much and we need to get back to traditional foods." Copyright c. 2007 Navajo Hopi Observer. --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: An Indian Doctor comes Home" --------- Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2007 14:45:10 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOW BIRD: INDIAN DOCTOR" http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=57461 An Indian doctor comes home Dorreen Yellow Bird November 17, 2007 For my "Prairie Voices" interview feature that will appear on the Sunday Herald's Insight page, I spoke withDr. Monica Mayer, a physician in private practice at the Trinity Community Clinic in New Town, N.D. I did so because she and I had previously talked about the astounding number of patients she has who have diabetes or are alcoholic on Indian reservations, especially the Fort Berthold Reservation, where she works. There is no doubt that diabetes is an epidemic, and it's certainly expensive for the state and federal governments. (In North Dakota as elsewhere, the disease affects American Indians and non-Indians alike.) The "Prairie Voices" interview gives some statistics and costs. Mayer has contributed hours and hours of her time toward ridding the community of diabetes and alcoholism. Her mother and my childhood friend, Avis, is a victim of diabetes. Mayer also has taken aim at alcoholism, which she calls the scourge of Indian reservations. The statistics might be pushing against the top scale of the alcohol abuse charts, too. Combined, these diseases keep the doors of Trinity Community Clinic and the Indian Health clinic in New Town swinging so fast that the health care providers sometimes are left exhausted and frustrated, she told me. I know about both diseases. My brother, Pony (Allen), died from alcoholism several years ago. Where hunting, Sundancing and the like once were rites of passage, today it seems that drugs and alcohol are considered rites of passage, although that passage at times can lead to death. My Aunt Pearl had diabetes when she was about 49. Three of my sisters and many cousins also have the disease. Mayer believes Indian people had the disease many years ago, but their very active lifestyles kept the disease at bay, she said. Aunt Pearl lived to be 83. She had diabetes for about 34 years. As Mayer talked, I thought of my mother, who had 13 children and did enough work for four people. As a young woman, she could drive a team, haul water, lift bales of hay, garden and change diapers, all in the same day. I tried loading hay bales once. I could only load a few before it became too much for me. When I was growing up, we always had two full gardens - a large one down in the coulee about a mile away and another garden just a short walk from the house. My grandmother, even as old as she was, would be out there every evening cleaning the garden. I remember as a child what a delicious meal she made of new peas and small, red, new potatoes from the garden. She cooked them with a little flour thickening and salt and pepper. Our food was simple and usually included things from the garden, wild plants and berries. For meat, we had venison, prairie chicken and sometimes beef or pork that we had to butcher ourselves. The point Dr. Mayer made is that our lifestyles are different today. Our parents were able to live with diabetes because their lifestyles were extremely active. Today, on the other hand, Indian people don't ask each other, "Do you have diabetes?" It's "When did you get the disease?" I don't have diabetes... yet. But but the disease hangs around me, waiting like a hungry dog. When I eat a candy bar or potato chips, a little whining voice inside says, "Isn't that pre-diabetes food?" Hmm, my sister said when I told her this. Is that voice a sign of mental problems? I'll ask Dr. Mayer, I said, with a edge to my voice. Mayer, by the way, saw all these things happening on the Fort Berthold Reservation as she grew up. She is beginning her own personal war on these two diseases. I had to laugh a little at some of the things she's done to try to steer young people away from alcohol abuse and diabetes. I've seen with my own eyes the amazing changes that she has made single-handedly in some young people on the reservation. Mayer has taken some hardcore users and handled them with threats and challenges, but she always combines this "tough love" with kindness and nurturing. It is amazing how many young professionals there are on or near reservations today. I believe the Three Affiliated Tribes have about five doctors who are members of the tribe and who work on or near the area. We have many, many more nurses - some with masters' degrees. Mayer is an example of those health professionals we are seeing more and more of on Indian reservations. They are our people taking care of their own. --- 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: The Myth of the Pilgrims and Indians" --------- Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 07:23:05 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="GIAGO: THANKSGIVING MYTH" http://www.indianz.com/News/2007/005938.asp Tim Giago: The myth of the Pilgrims and Indians November 19, 2007 Rupert and Jeannette Costo, now both deceased, celebrated only one national holiday and that was Thanksgiving Day. Rupert, a member of the Cahuilla Band of Indians of California, and Jeanette, an Eastern Cherokee, were the publishers of the Indian Historian Press of San Francisco, a publishing house dedicated to publishing authors of Native American heritage. Both were historians of note when it came to the First Americans. They had researched all of the tales of how Thanksgiving came to be and dismissed these stories as so much rubbish. Growing up, Rupert had witnessed the unfolding of these untruths every year as the teachers told and retold the story of how Thanksgiving came to be. He witnessed the white children putting cardboard feathers in their hair, painting their faces, and trying to pretend they were Indians. To Rupert, it was an insult. Jeanette was raised in the East and early on she realized that she felt uncomfortable with the school events leading up to Thanksgiving Day. Over dinner one year she said, "The other children knew that I was Indian and when they donned their Thanksgiving costumes they would circle around me making those `whoooo, whoooo' sounds by cupping their hands over their mouths just like they had seen it done in the movies. To me it was not only disgusting but it was also frightening." She said that one time she went home in tears and asked her father why the kids were so cruel to Indians. But Rupert and Jeannette both agreed that they had much to be thankful for. They had been together for more than 40 years. They had built a successful publishing house and at one time had published the only national Indian newspaper, Wassaja, in America. It was a monthly paper that distributed as many as 60,000 papers each month. They had also given many aspiring Indian authors a chance to see their works published. And so they decided that Thanksgiving was the only holiday they would ever celebrate. I met Rupert and Jeanette in the early 1970s we became friends. I handed them a shoebox full of poems I had written over the years and that is how the small book of poetry, The Aboriginal Sin, came to be. The Costos always invited their published authors to their Thanksgiving dinners in San Francisco. I made it there almost every year in the late 1970s and 1980s. One year I took my daughter Denise, and another year my son Timmy, and one year my grandson Michael. One year my Cherokee friend and fellow journalist, Leta Rector, showed up for the day of festivities. It was a wonderful way to renew old friendships and to participate in deep and invigorating conversation. The chef at the famous Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco always catered their Thanksgiving Day dinners. It was a day of feasting and the different dishes just kept on coming throughout the afternoon. Jack Norton, the author of Genocide in Northern California, was always there and we became good friends. Adolph Dial, the author of The Only Land I Know, was there one year and he talked about the people of the Lumbee Nation, a tribe that has been fighting for federal recognition for more than 30 years. Rupert died in 1989 and Jeanette held only a few more dinners after his death. She had a stroke in November of 2000, a stroke from which she never recovered. I flew out to San Francisco and sat at her bedside, but she was in a deep coma. She eventually returned to her beautiful home on Masonic Street to recuperate. She never did. She died in her sleep in April of 2001. Every year at Thanksgiving time I get nostalgic and think about San Francisco and long to celebrate this one holiday with my friends and then I remember that they are both gone. I miss Rupert and Jeanette, the wonderful dinners, the good wine and above all, the conversation that flowed like the waters of Yosemite around that dinner table. All of the books they published, their magazine "The Indian Historian" and their children's magazine, "The Wee Wish Tree," can be found at the University of California at Riverside. Rupert had a "Chair" named in his honor at UCR and the Costo Library at UCR is a wonderful place to do research for anyone interested in Indian history. Rupert and Jeanette detested the myth of Pilgrims and Indians. They were thankful for their many friends and for the changes they brought to Indian country. I am thinking about following in their footsteps and hosting an annual Thanksgiving dinner for longtime literary friends and to pick up where Jeanette and Rupert left off. Maybe next year. Watch for my invitations. --- Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, was born, raised and educated on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard in the Class of 1991 and founder of The Lakota Times and Indian Country Today newspapers. He founded and was the first president of the Native American Journalists Association. He can be reached at najournalist@msn.com. Copyright c. 2007 Indianz.com. --------- "RE: EDITORIAL: Don't ignore Indian Youth Suicide" --------- Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 09:01:34 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="EDITORIAL: YOUTH SUICIDE" http://www.indianz.com/News http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20071124/VOICES01/711240307/1162/VOICES01 Editorial: Don't ignore Indian suicide crisis Sending federal health workers to reservations might help By Editorial Board Argus Leader November 24, 2007 Of all the problems that plague South Dakota's Indian reservations, the steady stream of stories about suicides are perhaps the most upsetting. The rate of suicide among Native Americans in South Dakota is triple the national rate for all races, and anecdotal evidence suggests that, if anything, it's increasing. To be sure, suicide, depression, substance abuse - these issues are bound inextricably together. How do you untangle the astronomical suicide rate from the high rate of substance abuse? Pretty clearly, you can't. But tribal health officials, who have a better view of the problem than anybody, are pleading for more funding for mental health and education programs, and 10 percent of the Indian Health Service's mental health positions in South Dakota are unfilled. If they have ideas for solutions, we need to listen. Sen. Tim Johnson has inquired about sending federal workers from U.S. Public Health Service - Commissioned Corps members under the authority of the U.S. Surgeon General. Given what we know now about suicide and its links to depression and, sometimes, substance abuse, it is clear that the high suicide rate among South Dakota's Native American population is nothing less than a public health crisis. Sending federal public health workers couldn't hurt, and it would circumvent the difficulties associated with finding qualified mental health workers who are willing to live in remote rural areas and plunge themselves into a singularly distressing decades-old problem. Copyright c. 2007 Sioux Falls Argus Leader. --------- "RE: MOUNTAIN: Out of the North, Culturally displaced" --------- Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 09:01:34 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="MOUNTAIN: CULTURALLY DISPLACED" http://nnsl.com/northern-news-services/ stories/papers/nov19_07mountain.html Out of the North and culturally displaced Antoine Mountain Guest columnist November 19, 2007 I may have given you the idea that Grandin College was some kind of a paradise, and it really was, in its own way, for the times that we were growing into adulthood, with high school and all of it. But it was still an institution and the greater majority of us students still found ourselves far away from home, with the distance from our culture growing each year. One of the observations that our elders made later was that the more educated our generation got, the more useless we were for living on the land. Personally, I found it hard to relate to my own family, as all we spoke at home was Dene and mine needed a lot of work, and still does. Several of my own sisters do the simultaneous translations as part of their work and are very patient with their older brother who tries as best as he can. When I graduated, somehow, from high school in Thebacha/Fort Smith I really had no idea at all what I wanted to or could do, so I just stayed on for the summer there and worked with one of the brothers on the Grandin buildings, doing maintenance and such. When fall came in August I went to Yellowknife and walked into the Department of Education office there and asked them what my options were. They checked and said that I could go to a tech school in Fort William, now Thunder Bay, Ont, to take Radio and Television Arts there. I recall my grandfather, the late Peter Mountain, Sr., telling me that you should go as far away from home as possible if you want to get anything done for yourself, so I jumped at this one chance I had. For many of us this was really our first time away from the North, and after a few plane stopovers I was in Fort William. I recall this being probably the most lonesome time of my life, but also a time to experiment with drugs and alcohol. I somehow managed to complete my two years there, but with some serious drinking bouts thrown in, and sadly, some failed attempts at suicide, during these drunken stupors. I can't say that I know a lot about what youngsters of today are going through as far as wanting to physically kill themselves, but I do know well the lonely feelings that can lead up to it. For most of my life I have lived with this one feeling - a kind of alienation - as if I don't quite know how to feel human, and no matter what I do I can't be completely happy. Some of this comes through with this writing, but maybe just a part of it. I also know that a lot of our Dene people who are achievers and have done some tremendous things for themselves and on behalf of their own people still don't feel comfortable with these accomplishments. We don't get the recognition we deserve, and especially not from our own people. There is always this dysfunctional barrier we have to live with. As for myself, it is just in the past 10 years or so, after having pretty well single-handedly represented my own Sahtu Region, or it seeming so, that it is starting to pay off. People in official government places are willing to go along with my talents, artistic and otherwise, to do something concrete for the youth of our region. I also found out that it is true that once you show people that you are making a serious attempt to do something good with your life that they are really behind you 100 per cent, and were all along! During my time in Confederation College there in Thunder Bay I always had the idea that I wanted to work with and for my own people. Luckily the early 70s was a time of social change. We young people definitely had the feeling that we could change things for the better, and here in the North the Indian Brotherhood, now the Dene Nation, was just starting up and the first pipeline issue was ours to take on. With a united Dene and general Canadian supporting front we managed to do it, after which many of us just wanted to go back to our own hometowns, to somehow relearn our own cultures and language. More about that later, friends. --- Antoine Mountain is a Dene artist and writer originally from Radilih Koe'/Fort Good Hope. He can be reached at www.amountainarts.com Copyright c. Northern News Service 2007. --------- "RE: INTERVIEW: War on Diabetes in Indian Country" --------- Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 07:23:05 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="YELLOWBIRD INTERVIEW: DIABETES" http://www.indianz.com/News/ http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=57613 PRAIRIE VOICES: Diabetes: Scourge of the reservation Dorreen Yellow Bird November 18, 2007 Yellowbird: From your experience as a physician in private practice on the Fort Berthold Reservation, tell us about diabetes. Dr. Monica Mayer: When the general public hears about the health problems of American Indians, one of the first things that comes to mind is diabetes. About 15 percent of adult American Indians have diabetes. Diabetes is a disease in which the pancreas fails to produce insulin. Most American Indians who have diabetes are Type 2, or noninsulin dependent, and typically will get diabetes about age 40. Yellowbird: How does North Dakota compare with other states? Dr. Mayer: It is my understanding that among the 50 states, North Dakota is in the top five in terms of the incidence and prevalence of diabetes. We are also in the top five in obesity, which is a problem all over the state. There seems to be no cause-and-effect between obesity and diabetes, but we do know that if you have one, you are more likely to get the other. They seem to go hand-in-hand. One of the problems we might have in North Dakota is five months of cold weather, which makes it hard to do outside activities. On reservations, we have don't have access to fitness centers, either. We don't have Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers out here. High unemployment makes it hard for people to travel great distance to get those services. On top of that, you have a national health care system that's trying to provide health care for Indian people nationwide. Indian Health Service still is the sole provider for health care services for Indian people in North Dakota. These services are what could be called "nationalized, universal, socialized" medicine. It is rationing care. American Indians, however, don't have a monopoly on obesity and diabetes. It's a big problem in North Dakota for non-Indians, too. The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara people basically were agricultural people and very hardworking, with skills in growing crops such as corn, beans and so on. Everybody worked hard, but today, we have very sedentary lifestyles. Children sit in front of video games, TV and computers and so on. Also, it would be hard today to find one Indian family truly gardening. Fifty years ago, people picked their own food; it wasn't factory-made like it is today. There are many differences in our lives today and how we lived, ate and thought about things back then. That contributes to the disease process itself. Yellowbird: What does diabetes cost the state and tribe? Dr. Mayer: This is not trying to blame anybody, but we didn't know a lot about diabetes 30 years ago. We certainly didn't have the medicines we have today. But unfortunately, when you get your care through IHS like most Indians do in North Dakota, you get a revolving door through which physicians come and go. They might stay only six months or a year. My mother, who is diabetic, saw a lot of different providers over the years who may or may not have known a lot about diabetes. I'm not blaming them; it is just that medicine has progressed. My mom had 30 years of using different medications, and nobody ever did a hemoglobin A1C test on her. By the time I came home 10 years ago, I'm looking at her kidney function and some other things and I'm thinking, "Uh-oh." But you reach a certain point where you can't go back, you can't reverse the disease. The end result of that story is that she's now on dialysis because of uncontrolled diabetes over a period of time. We have a dialysis unit at Fort Berthold. My mother went on dialysis in March 2005. She's on dialysis Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. Each time she is hooked up to dialysis machine, it costs between $1,600 to $2,000 - and that's just to hook up to the machine. That's not counting the nursing care and services, blood draws and medications. There are some diabetics who are so anemic that they have complete kidney failure. Their kidneys are gone, so they have low hemoglobin, and so they get shots called epigen that cost about $1,000 a shot. It stimulates their bone marrow to make more red blood cells so they're not so anemic. Many dialysis patients get these shots. I know my mother does, and she usually gets it every time she comes in for dialysis. Let's take one person - my mother, for example. She goes three days a week and usually gets an epigen shot. That's $1,500 for the dialysis, another $1,000 for epigen, and about $500 for the nurses, drivers, receptionist, social workers who work at the dialysis center. So, the low estimate is $3,000. This doesn't include the nephrologist or kidney specialist that some have to have on staff. They come three times a month, which is another cost. But let's just say $3,000 per visit, which is $9,000 a week or $36,000 for a four-week month. Times 12, that's about $432,000 a year. This does not include any of the other services; in other words, it assumes my mother doesn't get sick or need an amputation or to visit a specialist. There are about 28 people with diabetes on dialysis in the Indian Health Services facility in New Town. All told, the cost of dialyzing them is somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 million to $14 million a year. Now, if you take that times all of the people on dialysis in North Dakota, the number is off the charts. Yellowbird: What kind of trends are you seeing? Dr. Mayer: What I'm seeing right now is younger and younger dialysis patients. Couple that with the high rates of obesity among children, and it's mindboggling to think what this generation is going to be like when they're 40. I would like to take body mass indexes even in grades one through six. A body mass index of 25 to 27 is consider normal. Being mildly obese is 30; morbid obesity is 40. Those are people who are 100 pounds over their normal body weight. And, we need to come up with a strategic plan for diabetes. The Western medicine that I practice is good physical medicine, but we are terrible in spiritual, social and mental health. We should look at diabetes not just in a physical sense but also in spiritual, social and mental senses. We would need a plan for each area. Several years ago, a tribal chairman called for a "war on diabetes." It didn't work, but I think it is a fabulous idea. I believe that if tribal chairmen throughout the state would proclaim a war on diabetes for three years, develop measurable outcomes and examine those outcomes, we could find out what worked and what didn't work. That would be verifiable data and could be shared with tribal officials and North Dakotans. You can't fight a war against a disease with just doctors and nurses; you have to have lawmakers, the governor and other state officials. Diabetes isn't just an Indian disease. Copyright c. 2007 Grand Forks Herald, Forum Communications Co. Fargo, ND 58102 - All rights reserved. --------- "RE: Honoring, Remembering, Praying for Our Warriors" --------- Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 09:01:34 -0700 From: Gary Smith Subj: NA News Item - - - - - - -- - - - - - - filename="INTERVIEW WITH FAMILY OF LORI PIESTEWA" http://www.native-voice.com/fullstory.cfm?ID=838 Honoring, Remembering, and Praying for Our Warriors An exclusive Interview with the Parents of Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa By Frank J. King III The Native Voice Frank J. King III: What is your whole feeling about what is going in the Middle East and how do you think that this "war" has impacted Native America? Terry Piestewa: I think that, as far as the war that we are in...it was bound to happen because of what had happened to us on 9/11. I wasn't sure how it was going to happen and I didn't think we were going to just jump right into it...It was going to happen, kind of like a retaliation type of situation. Apparently, there...according to our leaders...was a reason for it. And yet, they don't tell us everything and we just follow the orders that we're going to be going to war. It was kind of sad that our daughter was chosen...that her outfit was chosen to go over there and yet, at the same time, we knew what her position was in the military, so that was one of the reasons why she was in that situation when she was there `cause her outfit was a maintenance battalion that supplied parts for the missile that they had. And she was proud to go...I'm sure she was... and she didn't want to let her fellow soldiers down. She was encouraging them because they didn't want to go. They told us that. They asked Lori, "Well...if I go...will you go?" So she was there, more or less, as a supporter. She had a chance not to go because of surgery she had. But, I think she had this obligation to her friends, and her close friends, to be there for them and I think that's the reason why she was there. Because, ah...she had a chance not to go and yet she took that obligation to do it. And when they did the attack, there was a young man that when they stopped to talk about their s ituation at Najaf...the young man asked her, "Well, did you get shot at?"...And she said, "Heck, yeah," and showed him where the bullet came through the window, which was really close. And so, I think he was afraid for her so he says, "Well, let's trade... you drive for the commander and I'll drive for the press sergeant." But, she's always had that obligation to whatever she's in. She was always dedicated to it...what she did. She said, "No, I'll stay with the press sergeant." And so that's the reason why she was in that location at that time when they got attacked. King: Do you think that her life has played a role in whether other Native women may want to join the service? Terry: Apparently, she has made a big impact on women that join the military because, throughout the country, we're hearing that... "My daughter joined,"...you know... "My sister's gone over there because of Lori." I think they feel that she's made an impact that women can do what men are doing over there and become just as equal as the men are. And I think a lot of it has to do with that and for many decades, I know, women have been trying to be an equal to the male soldiers out there. And that's why a lot of them do join sometimes. Lori was like that. All the competitions that she had in the military... she was there to show the men up saying, "Hey...I can do it, too!" I think that one of the medals she got as an expert in grenade throwing...she competed against the men for that. And being in sports in high school... like being a softball pitcher and a catcher, and I think she played first or second base...she had that arm. So, it was kind of unique that she could compete with the men out there. Our daughter was in the military to get an education. And she didn't know what to do with herself and she thought that this was a way she was going to be able to support her family and to get an education somehow. And it's just unfortunate that our tribal people don't give out money like they should to the young people to get an education and so this was the only way she could get it. King: Your daughter is sort of like a martyr for Native veterans. I've watched elder Native veterans honor her at the gatherings all over the United States. How do you feel about the impact that she's had on today's Native culture? Percy Piestewa: I think it's awesome! We are very fortunate in that our children grew up in the traditional way. Not only the traditional way but also in the Catholic way. The Hopi process of living complements the Catholic way of living in the steps that they take as they're growing up and in the different activities that they do. And because she lived that, and you heard me say it today, you know, teach them at home and let them practice it in their daily living...go out and give thanks to the Sun every morning with their corn meal... your corn pollen...whatever it is you do. She was raised both traditional and the American way. And when she went, the indigenous people said, "She's a warrior." There's a warrior Kachina that signifies the warrior and they've kind of put her up on that echelon of the high end. And it's awesome for her to be able to relate, not only to the young people, but also, like you said, to the elders. We're very honored that the elders look at her that way. That the young people look at her that way. And we need to take into consideration the fact that, especially single mothers, because we have so many single mothers, it has had a very big impact on them. You were asking about women going into the military and the impact that it's had... Many single mothers now will call us and say, you know, "I have children and I thought that was beyond my bounds...something that I could never do, and now Lori has proven to me that it can happen, and then I can get educated. " And we tell them, "Do what is best for you...not because you're following Lori's footsteps, but because it's best for you and your children and your families." We always have to take our families into consideration. But it is definitely an honor to have the people honor her and respect her the way that they do. We love everyone for all their prayers, all their love...all the friendship they have shown in this time since we've lost her. Terry: You know, we're real proud that, throughout the country, all the indigenous people claim her as "one of theirs." You know, `cause all of the events that we do go to, we hear, "We're honoring our sister, our mother, our aunt," and they say..."OUR". And we're very proud that they do claim her as "one of theirs." And I think this is one of the things, like you said, ...this is what she's done for all the people out there in our country. That she has made them "one of theirs." And everybody is more like "one body" now. She has brought a lot of people together and we've seen and heard this so we know that, maybe, this was her position in life. King: I came out and stayed in a hotel that was right by Piestewa Peak. And I asked the people there what they thought of it...because when you walk inside the hotel, there's this "squaw" room. I said, "Are you guys going to change the names of your rooms now?" And they said the managers want to change it. That was a big thing here. How do you guys feel about how It's affected the way non-Indian and Indian people interact ? Percy: We're very grateful that that's happened. I came to the first hearing on March 23rd, 2004...We had memorial services on Piestewa Peak when the sun came up and we did our memorial services there. That afternoon we went to the Senate `cause there was a hearing because there was some gentleman who wanted it not to be changed to Piestewa Peak. Unity, family unity, is not as close as it used to be anymore. But once the hispanics, once it sunk in that Lori is half Mexican... she's also half Hopi. The indigenous people have always been there and have supported us from day one. The hispanic people thought it was awesome to know that she was of that heritage. And they came out in full force. All the different Mexicans went and they supported us at the Senate. And that Senate was so filled with so much love...so much praise and honor for the Native American people. The stereotype of the Native American people has been raised to so much higher a level since this has happened. Not just for Arizona...not just for the Hopi, but all indigenous people, you know. And that's been such a long time coming. People have always stereotyped the indigenous people as a lower level people and now we're almost on an equal ground with the American people who, you know, who say they're Americans. But, it's been an awesome trip. We're on this journey and have been since we lost her, but I think that if we can help people...if we can console people...if we can help somebody realize that the Lord has a purpose for each and every one of us...we're all special in our own individual way. And there's a purpose for us. You know, there's a purpose for why you and I met...my husband and I met...a purpose for why we have the children. We need to look at the positive side of life, which not so many people do any more. And continue to follow the straight road to find that purpose. And if it's by go ing to these different activities to personally thank all those who wept with us...all those who grieved with us...all those who prayed with us, then we'll continue to do it. And we're very honored and humbled to be able to do that. King: Is it taxing, though? Do you feel that in Lori's name it's an obligation to go and does it get tiring...? Percy: You know, it gets tiring but we have to take into consideration the fact that when we were in our deepest grief, so many people...so many veterans groups came and they honored her. At her memorial, the politicians came...they came to the house...We've never had such an outpouring of indigenous tribes...all the honor guards that came from South Dakota, Oklahoma, North Dakota... everywhere...they came and they were there for us and they prayed for us and they honored us with their songs. The Aztecs came and prayed at the altar at the memorial when we first lost her. And we feel that, because they were there for us, we in turn want to be able to help them and be there in any way we can and give, like I said, consolation and share our love...share the presence of these two little ones because these two are a joy and they love people. You've seen...they hug, they kiss, they love all their aunties and their uncles, and we ask of any community that we go to...we remind them that it's i nevitable that Terry and I will not be here forever. You know, the Lord will eventually call us...the Creator will bring us home. And we ask all the communities to please just remember these two little ones...be there for them... remind them who their mother is... .remind them that they're special and continue on with life because, when we're gone, they will need that support. But they have supported us thus far, and it's been an awesome journey to be able to go into all the different cultures, the different areas that we go to, to meet all the beautiful people from Florida, from the Dakotas, from Oklahoma, from Montana, from all the places we have been...it's just been a wonderful journey. King: What can you say to parents who have young people out there in Iraq now...? What can you say to support Native women...and Native men? Percy: They need to continue to pray. They need to send packages, they need to send letters...they need to constantly remind them of how proud they are of them for being out there...for fighting for the freedoms that we so often take for granted. I know, when this war first started and we knew Lori was there, we were sending her packages every day and then somebody would say, "Oh, my son's there," ... "Oh, my nephew's there."... However, they weren't saying, "I'm sending them stuff...I'm telling them this and that." The war didn't hit home until we lost Lori. And when we lost Lori, not just our family, the whole world lost Lori. Because then it made the indigenous people realize that, "Hey...a Native American person was killed...it could be my son or my daughter...it could be my neighbor's son or daughter. It could be anybody's." And we all have to, again, come together and pray for them...pray for them, pray for them and make sure they know how proud we are of them. Whether it's by ema il, whether it's by letters, whether it's by sending packages. We need to constantly remind them because they're not fighting just for our freedom, they're also now fighting for the freedom of the Iraqi people, and any time you can bring freedom to anyone, it's something special. We, I know, take our freedoms for granted so often. But if you looked at those Iraqi children when they came out of the cave, when they first opened that cave up, and they showed on the news when the Iraqi people came up and the parents were looking for their kids. Some of those kids had their ears cut off and stuff because they wouldn't submit to whatever Saddam was doing to them. But once they came out and the parents got to have their children back and the children got to be back with their parents...you know, what more can you ask for? It's not just for weapons of mass destruction. We have to be there for the freedom for those people. Because, you know, we're fortunate enough to be free...I think God wants everybody to live on this world and be free. Terry: You know, you and I have been in the military too and you know how important it is to hear from home. And usually you're waiting every day for something. And sometimes you don't get anything for a week, and you wonder, "What...did they forget me?" And it kind of brings you down when you're out there in the field `cause, nobody...they can't find you wherever you're at and so, I've been there. I'd try to write home a lot and I never did tell them what I did or tell them the experiences I was going through. I'd just tell them that, "Yeah, I'm still here." A lot of people at home or even if they know people that are in Iraq, it's good to let them know...just write them a little bit of something. Just to let them know that you're still behind them and that they still care for you. It makes a soldier feel good to receive something. It may not be something real big or small. I used to enjoy my care packages when they used to come my direction. But it used to take about two weeks or may be longer and so any time I got my cookies, they were all crumbled up. But, things like that...we as people, if we know who's there and take time out to find out what their location is, and just give them a little bit of something just to remind them that we people here, back home, are thinking about them. And, like my wife said, praying for them and telling them to be safe. Because, you never know. And that's the reason why we always tell people out there, just stand behind your children no matter what the choices they make. Because that's what they need. We, as parents, need to be there for them. And to tell them how much we care for them. Because, we as a family.. . we found out that, you know, there comes a day when you can no longer tell them. And that's what they said in the conference today. The mother said we need to tell our children how much we care for them. I think that's what hurts the most. King: Are there any last words you want to give out to the communities. You want to give a message...any "thank you's"...anything you'd like to share with the Native people? Terry: Oh, most definitely. Throughout the country, like my wife was saying, we have received letters and cards and prayers and stuff and gifts for the children, and we're very thankful for that. Not everybody knows that all the stuff that we receive we're saving so the kids can read and see what the people thought about their mother when they grow up...get old enough where they can understand and read, and just to understand what they thought about their mother. And how many people throughout the country have done that. So, we're very, very thankful for this. And we're so fortunate that we have our grandkids to remind us of their mother. It's a real, like my wife said, it's a blessing to have them. You know, we're not very young any more but we're starting all over with our grandkids. But it's gonna be good. King: Do you see any similarities? Terry: Oh, much...it's gone as far as where sometimes I call her (my granddaughter) "Lori". And that's how close she is to her. And, of course, she'll correct me every time I say that. Percy: A general "thank you" to everybody... to everybody in the whole world. From Alaska to Florida, like I said, if we haven't been...people have sent poems, people have made portraits...they've sent the kids quilts with their mother's picture on it and that includes people who are in the prison system. It's been awesome. I visited the prison down in Sacaton because they did an awesome...two of the gentlemen there did beautiful blankets with pictures of their mother. We know that, yes, they may have made bad choices but we're all human. We all make bad choices. But we have to learn from those bad choices and make good choices and continue on with life in a positive way. King: Thank you. We appreciate your time