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    _       __  _____  __   _ __    ___    ____  _ __    ___
   ' )   / / ')  /    /  ) ' )  )  /   )    /   ' )  )  /   )
    / / / /  /  /    /--/   /  /  / ___    /     /  /  / ___
   (_(_/ (__/  (    /  (_  /  (_ (___/ '__/_    /  (_ (___/ '
      ____   _    ,  ___   _    , ___
       /    ' )  /  /   ) ' )  / /   '         VOLUME 16, ISSUE 011
      /      /-<   /       /--/ /--
   __/_     /   ) (___/   /  ( (___,  WOTANGING IKCHE - Lakota - Common News
  Wotanging Ikche and Native American News Copyright c. 1996-2008 nanews.org
  Aboriginal/AmerIndian Perspective about the First Nations of Turtle Island
                               March 10, 2008
                        Cherokee nvda kola/windy moon
                       Passamaquoddy siqon/spring moon
           Anishnaabe bebookwaadaagame-giizis(oog)/snow crust moon
          +-------------------------------------------------------+
          | Much more happens in Indian Country  than is reported |
          | in this weekly newsletter. For daily updates & events |
          | go to  http://www.owlstar.com/dailyheadlines.htm      |
          +-------------------------------------------------------+
 Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin -- Blackfeet -- News for All the People
 Ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min -- Ojibwe -- We Are Talking About Ourselves
 Aunchemokauhettittea -- Naragansett -- Let Us Share News
 Kanoheda Aniyvwiya -- Cherokee -- Journal of the People         O
 Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse -- Creek -- People's New News          O   o   O
 Acimowin -- Plains Cree -- Story or Account               O     o     O
 Tlaixmatiliztli -- Nahuatl -- News                       O o o     o o O
 Agnutmaqan -- Listuguj Mi'kmaq -- News                    O     o     O
 Sho-da-ku-ye -- Teehahnahmah -- Talking Birchbark           O   o   O
 Un Chota -- Susquehannic Seneca -- The People Speak             O
 Ha-Sah-Sliltha -- Ditidaht Nation -- News of the People
 Ximopanolti tehuatzin, inin Mexika tlahtolli -- Nahuatl --
                                           For you we offer these words
 It-hah-pe-hah Ah-num pah-le -- Chickasaw -- Together We Are Talking
 Dineh jii' adah' ho'nil'e'gii ba' ha' neh -- Navajo Nation --
                                      What's Happening among The People News
 Okla Humma Holisso Nowat Anya -- Choctaw -- People(s) Red Newspaper
 Hi'a chu ah gaa -- Pima -- The stories or the talk of the People
 s ch mA  mL    tL   squee Lux -- Okanogan -- News from the People
        Native American News -- Language of the Occupation Forces
 
 ++>If you speak a Native American language  not listed above, please send
    us your words for "News of the People. "We'd rather take up this whole
    page saving these few words of  our hundreds of nations than present a
    nice  clean banner in the language of the  occupation forces  who came
    here determined to replace our words with their own.
       email gars@nanews.org with the equivalent of "News of the People"
         in your tribal language along with the english translation
               <================<<<<    >>>>================>
 This newsletter is produced in straight ASCII text for greatest portability
 across platforms. Read it with a fixed-pitch font, such as Courier, Monaco,
 FixedSys or CG Times.  Proportional fonts will be difficult to read.
                <================<<<<    >>>>================>
  This issue contains articles from:
  www.indianz.com; www.pechanga.net; www.indiancountrytoday.com;
  bsnorrell.blogspot.com; www.owlstar.com/Headlines
  Mailing Lists: Frostys AmerIndian, Mohawk Nation News,
                 Chiapas95-En, 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 Quote:                 + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- +
   "They want us to follow their model of English-only, which has never
    worked ever since formal education has been introduced to Indian
    people across the country,"
   __  Deborah Dennison-Jackson,
       Ganada Unified School District Superintendednt
 
 +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+
 |   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
 
 My half-side. The Lovely Janet, read the comments by  St. Regis Mohawk
 Chief Lorraine White (see "WHITE: We won't let Interior off hook so
 easily" in the op-ed section), and makes the following observations about
 the new Bush Administration "management tool" trotted out by Interior
 Secretary Artman:
 
 ---
 
 On many reservations, Native people are enduring the crushing poverty that
 comes with joblessness, poor nutrition, inadequate housing, and
 underfunded educational facilities, and health care faciities more poorly
 funded than that provided for our country's worst felons.  And yet, some
 of those same reservations are sitting on motherlodes of valuable
 resources - precious metals, uranium, coal, oil, grazing lands, forests,
 waterways, and more.  As soon as the US signed treaties with these tribes,
 stripped them of the vast hunting lands their lifeway required for
 survival, and tucked them away in remote, and presumably useless land, it
 also assured the Indians they would not be left defenseless against cheats
 and con artists in the private sector to take what little was left to them.
  Their land would be held in trust with US officials acting as trustee to
 safeguard tribal interests.  One small problem.  The people the government
 have put in charge of this trustee responsibility were and are at best
 less competent than the Indians ever could have be. Whether or not they
 are more honest than the con artists and cheats they were protecting the
 Indians against is a matter of judgment--a judgment soon to come.  The
 judge hearing the Indian Trust case indicates it's about to come to a
 close.
 
 Some Indian Nations have thrived, possibly because they had no physical
 resources to steal--only ingenuity or the good luck to be located near
 traffic corridors or tourist destinations.   These Nations were able to
 set up lucrative casinos, shopping malls and other businesses, and have
 established schools, hospitals, roads, and industries for their people. 
 Their children are doctors, lawyers and business executives.  Still other
 tribes who were not geographically convenient to a tourish mecca, with the
 help of the BIA, took some of their historical land not located on the
 reservations given them into trust and developed them.  They, too, have
 flourished economically (and so, incidentally have the states where they
 were located).  But now, suddenly, the door has been slammed on tribes
 seeking to take off-reservation land into trust. Is it a coincidence that
 every time an Indian nation finds a way to sustain itself, the US has
 changed management tools -- and generally that new managemen t tool is a
 sledge hammer?
 
       +///     Janet Smith                     owlstar@bellsouth.net
       /*/+     P. O. Box 672168                OwlStar Trading Post
    + / *       Marietta, GA 30008, U.S.A.      http://www.owlstar.com
     *  +                                       jewelry, music, flags, herbs
 
 ---
                                  ' '
 Gary Smith                      (*,*)      wotanging@bellsouth.net
 P. O. Box 672168                (`-')              gars@nanews.org
 Marietta, GA 30006, U.S.A.    ===w=w===      http://www.nanews.org
 
 ----------- News of the people featured in this issue -----------
  Editorial Section:                    - YELLOW BIRD:
  . Interiors new                         History comes alive at UND Party
    "management tool"                   - YELLOW BIRD:
 - Judge sets June 9 Trial                Campaign calls up old Stereotypes
   to resolve Cobell Case               - ABOUREZK: Native Superdelegates
 - Government will head                   mulling Candidates
   back to Court over Trusts            - COULTER: Real Apology
 - ROBERTSON: End in sight                means you won't do it again
   for Cobell v. Kempthorne             - YELLOW BIRD: `Powwow Fever'
 - EDITORIAL:                             spreads before event
   Deception by Secretary Kempthorne    - WHITE: We won't let Interior
 - UN Body Expresses                      off hook so easily
   concerns about Racism in US          - Brian 'Old Crapper' Crane
 - Recognition flaps                      has Balls
   continue for Abenaki                 - Fontaine considering
 - A push in Wisconsin                    'direct action' over Budget
   for Tribal Sovereignty               - MOU between AFN and Prospectors
 - Snohomish sues                       - Is Campbell failing the Chiefs?
   to overturn recognition denial       - Red-X finds Chris 'ODB'
 - Bill creating Urban Indian             & Robin Aitken theft strategy
   Health Group signed                  - Maori post '20 ways
 - Bill would end Utah's role             to take away Treaty Rights'
   as Tribe Trustee                     - Action demanded
 - Longest Walk parade                    on `New Relationship'
   with Shoshone Elders                 - Chiapas/Zapatista
 - Longest Walk:                          News Summary, Feb 2008
   Apology to Indians is diversion      - Zapatistas Lose Supporters
 - English proficiency                    in Orchestrated Rally
   not just a Black, White Issue        - Graham's attorney
 - Distant Native Languages               asks for later Trial
   bridge Bering Sea                    - Native Justice
 - NEWCOMB: Examining                     -- PERRY: No tribal
   the oral arguments in Dann                jurisdiction over non-Indians
 - RUSSELL:                             - Rustywire: My Daughter's Yeis
   The borders of the Wanabi Nation     - Lee Goins Poem:
 - GIAGO: Yupik woman                     Go Rest High On That Mountain
   stands up to sexual abuse            - Upcoming Events
 - CONWAY: Sovereignty
   is more than just a word
 
 --------- "RE: Judge sets June 9 Trial to resolve Cobell Case" ---------
 
 Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 07:31:02 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="COBELL CASE: END IN SIGHT"
 
   http://www.indianz.com/News
 http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gROdMVQAH9z-mC2MwbMKM576BOVwD8V7H8HG0
 
 Judge Wants to Resolve Indian Lands Case
 By MARY CLARE JALONICK 
 March 5, 2008
   WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge says he wants to resolve a 12-year
 lawsuit over government mismanagement of Indian lands this June.
   In a decision last month, U.S. District Judge James Robertson said
 government accounting for billions of dollars owed to Indian landholders
 has been "unreasonably delayed" and is ultimately impossible.
   At the same time, Robertson said the task is not hopeless, and he asked
 lawyers for both sides to lay out their cases again at a status hearing on
 Wednesday.
   The June trial "is meant to bring this matter to a conclusion,"
 Robertson said.
   The suit, first filed in 1996 by Blackfeet Indian Elouise Cobell, claims
 the government has mismanaged more than $100 billion in royalties held in
 trust from Indian lands dating back to 1887.
 Copyright c. 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
 
 --------- "RE: Government will head back to Court over Trusts" ---------
 
 Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 07:31:02 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="12-YEAR COBELL ORDEAL"
 
 http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2008/03/06/news/state/150439.txt
 
 Government will head back to court over American Indian trusts
 March 6, 2008
   WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge said Wednesday he wants to resolve a
 12-year lawsuit over government mismanagement of American Indian lands
 this June.
   In a January decision, U.S. District Judge James Robertson said Interior
 Department accounting for billions of dollars owed to American Indian
 landholders has been "unreasonably delayed" and is ultimately impossible.
   At the same time, Robertson said the overall task is not hopeless, and
 he held a status hearing to determine what happens next. At the hearing,
 he set out a schedule for the next few months that will allow both sides
 to argue how the trial should proceed.
   The June trial "is meant to bring this matter to a conclusion,"
 Robertson said. "It is time to bring this matter to a close with a
 decision of one kind or another."
   The suit, first filed in 1996 by Blackfeet Indian Elouise Cobell, claims
 the government has mismanaged more than $100 billion in royalties held in
 trust from American Indian lands dating back to 1887.
   Lawyers for the government disagreed with Robertson at the hearing,
 saying the Interior Department's complicated methods of accounting are not
 impossible. Those efforts have already cost the government $127 million.
   Lawyers for the American Indian plaintiffs said they were pleased with
 the prospect of the new trial and they hope it will determine the value of
 the trust accounts.
   "This case can be resolved fairly and expeditiously," said Dennis
 Gingold, the plaintiffs' lead attorney.
   Robertson also hinted that he may be ready to allow the Bureau of Indian
 Affairs to reconnect to the Internet. The bureau is under court orders to
 disconnect its computers from the Internet to secure American Indian trust
 data.
 Copyright c. 2007 Bismarck Tribune, a division of Lee Enterprises.
 
 --------- "RE: ROBERTSON: End in sight for Cobell v. Kempthorne" ---------
 
 Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 07:49:32 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="JUDGE ROBERTSON: COBELL TRUST CASE"
 
 http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416771
 
 Robertson: End is in sight for Cobell v. Kempthorne
 by: Jerry Reynolds / Indian Country Today
 March 7, 2008
   WASHINGTON - As far as his court is concerned, Judge James Robertson
 declared from the bench at a March 5 hearing, the case known as Cobell
 will be over by the end of summer if not before.
   After hearing from both plaintiff and defense attorneys on the subject
 of monetary restitution due, or not due as the government argued, to
 Individual Indian Money trust account holders, Robertson said he had heard
 too much rhetoric and needed more concrete specific detail.
   Among the rhetoric was a subdued debate on the precise legal definition
 of "damages" (the plaintiffs seek recovery or restitution) and the actual
 nature of the trust "corpus" or revenue-generating resource (plaintiff
 lead attorney Dennis Gingold later said the corpus includes some 40 and
 more million acres of land lost to Indians since Interior took over its
 management).
   Gingold emphasized that plaintiffs do not seek interest on any losses -
 "That would be damages" - but only restitution or recovery of unaccounted-
 for funds that rightfully belonged to IIM beneficiaries.
   Against the government's proffered interpretation of "law in the case,"
 as determined by a 1994 reform act of Congress, Gingold argued that it is
 for plaintiffs, not a trustee in breach of fiduciary duty through failure
 to account, to define a remedy. Accordingly, Robertson called on Gingold
 and his team to submit a detailed written request for "equitable
 disgorgement" (in layman's terms, recovery of revenues lost to government
 failure to account for the IIM trust).
   He added that it "had better" address so-called "Section 23," a specific
 provision of class action law much dwelt upon by the government's
 Department of Justice attorney, Robert E. Kirschman Jr. Robertson said,
 without further elucidation, that it could represent a "significant snag"
 in the case. The government will respond, plaintiffs will revisit in light
 of the government's responses, and a trial will begin on June 9 if all
 goes according to Robertson's schedule.
   "The purpose of this is to bring this thing to a conclusion. ... A
 result of some kind should come of this," Robertson said.
   Robertson stirred much of Indian country in January, when he issued a
 lengthy opinion that the federal government (as represented by its
 delegate agency, the Interior Department) simply cannot deliver an
 accounting, now or ever, of revenue due in each Individual Indian Money
 account. The accounts, managed by Interior, have been set up to receive
 revenues from assets - among them land, timber, water, oil and minerals -
 on trust land.
   According to a host of reports, the accounts have been mismanaged by
 Interior since their inception. Robertson's January ruling put paid to the
 government's marathon argument that it would deliver an acceptable IIM
 accounting if unimpeded by the plaintiffs. The Cobell case takes its
 informal name from lead plaintiff Elouise Cobell, a Blackfeet banker.
   Robertson encouraged Kirschman that the activities long construed by
 Interior as an "accounting" haven't been wasted, even though they don't
 amount to an accounting. And in a somewhat arch-seeming aside, he told him
 that he will not consider it a good use of federal judiciary resources to
 pull his trial up short only to see it start up again somewhere else.
   On an issue Robertson characterized as "collateral," he gave the
 plaintiff attorneys until March 26 to argue a case for keeping Interior's
 trust-related computers disconnected from the Internet. Without a showing
 of substantive reasons for maintaining the disconnection order of a
 previous court in the case, he said, he'll be inclined to throw the switch
 on again, as it were.
 Copyright c. 1998 - 2008 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved.
 
 --------- "RE: EDITORIAL: Deception by Secretary Kempthorne" ---------
 
 Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 07:49:32 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="EDITORIAL: A LITTLE PULL, A BIG LIE"
 
   http://www.indianz.com/News
 http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/
 hc-colorado.artmar07%2C0%2C6084939.story
 
 Mr. Kempthorne's Deception
 March 7, 2008
   With the pull of a lever, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne released a
 60-hour torrent from the base of Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona, shooting
 water at a rate of 300,000 gallons per second down the Colorado River
 through Grand Canyon National Park. Interior officials painted the event
 an environmental green, predicting the so-called "high-flow experiment"
 would scour the river bottom and restore sandbars along the river,
 creating backwater areas essential to native plant and fish species.
   "This gives you a glimpse of what nature has been doing for millions of
 years," Mr. Kempthorne gushed as he flushed.
   Actually, it's more like what man has been doing to the Colorado River
 for the past 45 years.
   Before 1963 when the Glen Canyon Dam was built near the Arizona-Utah
 border, the Colorado River was warm and muddy.
   Since then, the river's flow has been artificially regulated -
 principally for power generation. The dam traps virtually all the river's
 sediment, and the Colorado today is so clear and cold that it's
 extinguished four fish species and pushed two others to the brink.
   Environmentalists don't object to this week's high-flow release. Similar
 "high-flow experiments" were conducted on the Colorado twice before, in
 1993 and 2004.
   Pointing to a decade of studies, however, the Interior Department's own
 experts have argued that unless the surge is followed by a more natural
 ebb and flow - including occasional high-flow releases - the river's new
 sandbars will erode and crucial habitat will be lost.
   But leaders in the Interior Department appear unmoved by the fate of the
 endangered humpback chub and other species in the Colorado. Their five-
 year plan looks past the Grand Canyon to the hydroelectric power needs of
 Las Vegas and other downriver cities and towns.
   Their five-year plan makes no provision for more high-flow releases.
 Instead, agency officials are proposing a two-month regimen of steady
 flows from September to October each year for the next five years. In
 other words, the pulse of the Colorado will be timed to meet the needs of
 man, not of fish and other wildlife in the Grand Canyon.
   The plan has drawn a withering blast from Steve Martin, superintendent
 of Grand Canyon National Park. "It is not apparent where the $80 million
 in research, conducted over the last 10 years, has been used in this
 decision-making process.
   "Our analysis shows that this document is not consistent with the
 current best information."
   Time and again, appointees of the Bush administration at the Interior
 Department have made it a practice - some might say even a point of pride
 - to override the advice of the agency's scientists and make decisions
 that exploit natural resources at the expense of the environment. Mr.
 Kempthorne's plan for the Colorado River is the latest example.
   For hosting a media event on Wednesday and cynically portraying his
 "high-flow experiment" at Glen Canyon Dam as strategy for improving the
 health of the river and its species, Mr. Kempthorne is guilty of deception
 and "green washing."
 Copyright c. 2008 The Hartford Courant.
 
 --------- "RE: UN Body Expresses concerns about Racism in US" ---------
 
 Date: Sat Mar 8 6:21
 From: shawn  
 Subj: PRESS: UN Body Expresses Concerns about Racism in US
 
 Mailing List:    Frostys AmerIndian 
 
 PRESS: UN Body Expresses Concerns about Racism in US, Calls for US 
 to apply the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
 Posted by: "Alyssa Macy" nativeshare@yahoo.com nativeshare
 Fri Mar 7, 2008 4:29 pm (PST)
 Regards, Alyssa
 IITC Communiations
 
 INTERNATIONAL INDIAN TREATY COUNCIL PRESS RELEASE
 Contact: Alberto Saldamando IITC General Counsel
 Email: alberto@treatycouncil.org
 Phone: 415-641-4482
   March 7th, 2008: United Nations Body Expresses Concerns about Racism in
 the United States, Calls for the US to apply the UN Declaration on the
 Rights of Indigenous Peoples
   Today, March 7th 2008, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination
 of Racial Discrimination (CERD) publicly released its recommendations in
 response to the United States' Periodic Report which was submitted to the
 Committee last year.
   A number of Indigenous organizations, tribes and communities, including
 the International Indian Treaty Council, filed alternative or "Shadow"
 reports for the CERD's consideration in reviewing the US' compliance with
 the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial
 Discrimination ("ICERD"). The ICERD is a legally-binding international
 instrument to which all State (Country) Parties, including the US, are
 accountable. Periodic reports are required to be filed by all State
 Parties to the ICERD.
   The CERD's recommendations to the US reinforce the position of
 Indigenous Peoples and a range of international legal experts that the
 provisions in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted
 by the UN General Assembly on September 13th 2007, apply to all UN Member
 states, even the four States including the US which voted against it. The
 CERD recommended that the Declaration be used by the US as a "guide to
 interpret the State Party's obligations under the Convention relating to
 Indigenous Peoples". Under international law, the Rights recognized for
 Indigenous Peoples apply to all Indigenous Peoples, whether or not they
 are "federally recognized" by the State.
   The CERD also voiced strong concerns regarding environmental racism and
 the environmental degradation of Indigenous areas of Spiritual and
 Cultural significance, without regard to whether they are on "recognized"
 reservation lands, noting the negative impact of development activities
 such as nuclear testing, toxic and dangerous waste storage, mining and
 logging. The Committee recommended to the US that it consult with
 Indigenous representatives, "chosen in accordance with their own
 procedures - to ensure that activities carried out in areas of spiritual
 and cultural significance do not have a negative impact on the enjoyment
 of their rights under the Convention." The UN Declaration on the Rights of
 Indigenous Peoples calls for the free, prior and informed consent of
 Indigenous Peoples to any development activity as well as legislative and
 administrative measures that may affect them, without regard to any
 "federal recognition."
   The Committee expressed concerns about the adverse effects of
 exploitation of natural resources in countries outside the United States
 by US transnational corporations, "on rights to land, health, living
 environment and the way of life of indigenous peoples living in these
 regions." It "encouraged" the United States to take appropriate
 legislative and administrative measures to prevent transnationals
 registered in the United States, "from negatively impacting on the
 enjoyment of rights of indigenous peoples in territories outside the
 United States." The CERD Committee also recommended that hold these
 corporations accountable, and, "to inform the Committee on the effects of
 transnational activities on Indigenous peoples abroad and on any measure
 taken in this regard." This echoes the CERD's finding in 2007 regarding
 the obligations of Canada to monitor human rights abuses carried out by
 Canadian mining companies.
   In addition to the IITC delegation, Indigenous delegations representing
 the Western Shoshone Defense Project (including the Indigenous Peoples Law
 and Policy Program from the University of Arizona), the Boarding School
 Healing Project, the Navajo Nation, the Cherokee Nation, the Teton Sioux
 Nation Treaty Council and Indigenous Peoples of Hawai'i, among others,
 also filed Shadow reports and were present for the examination in Geneva
 Switzerland. Representatives of the US government were questioned
 regarding the contents of its own report as well as the "Shadow reports"
 filed by Indigenous Peoples and a number of other groups on February 19th
 and 20th.
   The CERD voiced strong concerns in response to information in received
 regarding rape and sexual violence against Indigenous women, particularly
 American Indian and Alaska Native women, noting the "insufficient will of
 Federal and state authorities to take action with regard to such violence
 and abuse." It recommended to the United States, among other things, that
 reports of rape and sexual violence are independently, promptly and
 thoroughly investigated and that the perpetrators are prosecuted and
 appropriately punished." The Committee further asked the United States
 report to the Committee on the numbers of victims, perpetrators,
 convictions and the types of sanctions imposed in its next periodic report.
   The Committee requested the US to provide detailed information on the
 measures adopted to preserve and promote the culture and traditions of
 American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian and other Pacific
 Islander Peoples. The Committee requested information on textbooks and
 curricula for primary and secondary schools that should provide sufficient
 information on the history and culture of different racial, ethnic and
 national groups living in its territories.
   The Consolidated Indigenous Shadow Report filed by the IITC on January
 6th 2008 raised all of these and a range of other issues. It included data
 of the great disparities between rates of poverty and illness of Native
 Americans compared to the US population as a whole. The report highlighted
 that Indigenous men have life expectancies 10 years less than the general
 population, are incarcerated at much higher rates that the general
 population, and receive longer sentences than the general population..
   The CERD raised serious concerns about the US interpretation of the
 ICERD, specifically its definition of racial disparities such as these as
 resulting from "socio-economic factors" as opposed to the systematic and
 institutionalized racism that the data reflects. For example, the US
 argued that Indigenous persons are incarcerated at a much higher rates
 than the general population and receive longer sentences because they
 commit more crimes, and not as a result of institutional racism within the
 judicial and prison systems. The CERD called upon the United States to
 review its definition of racial discrimination to include practices and
 legislation that may not be discriminatory in purpose but are
 discriminatory in effect.
   Indigenous representatives attending the CERD's examination of the US
 provided powerful and eloquent testimony about a range of human rights
 violations affecting them, which the US has not taken action to correct or
 prevent, as it is obligated to under the terms of the Convention. And in
 some cases, such as Treaty violations, land and natural resource
 appropriations, the US is directly involved in carrying out the violations.
   IITC Board Member Lenny Foster, Dine' (Navajo) and representative of the
 Native America Prisoners Rights Coalition, was a member of IITC's
 delegation to the CERD. He observed during the examination that the United
 States was "in denial."
   Mr. Foster presented testimony to the CERD Committee on desecration of
 Sacred Lands and the denial of access to spiritual practice of Indigenous
 prisoners in the US: "Spiritual wellness and spiritual healing is
 paramount to the very survival of the Indigenous Nations of North America.
 There are efforts to prohibit and impede the spiritual access to the Lands
 considered Sacred. These Lands are being utilized by Indigenous Peoples
 for prayer offerings, vision quests, pilgrimage and ceremonies.
 Corporations cannot be allowed to prohibit access and to destroy and
 pollute and desecrate the Sacred Lands". He provided examples to the CERD
 which included San Francisco Peaks (Arizona), the Black Hills and Bear
 Butte (South Dakota) and Medicine Lake (Northern California) and Mt.
 Graham (Arizona).
   The Navajo Nation Delegation, led by First Lady Vickie Shirley of the
 Navajo Nation testified eloquently on violence against Indigenous women.
 First Lady Shirley and Virginia Davis of the National Congress of American
 Indians made a strong case that Indigenous women on reservations have
 little or no protection against abuse and under US law, as most tribal
 governments are denied the jurisdiction to arrest and prosecute abusers.
   Larsen Bill of the Western Shoshone Defense Project Delegation and
 Charmaine White Face of the Teton Sioux Treaty Council Delegation
 testified to the Committee, making a strong case concerning environmental
 racism and the deadly pollution caused by mining on their ancestral and
 Sacred Lands. In March of 2006, the Western Shoshone approached the CERD
 and received a favorable response to its complaint that the US was not
 respecting their human rights, with reference to the denial of their
 ancestral lands. The had Committee called on the US to "take immediate
 action to initiate a dialogue" with the Western Shoshone and to freeze,
 desist and stop further harmful activities on Western Shoshone ancestral
 land until a final decision or settlement with the Western Shoshone is
 reached.
   The CERD, in their Conclusion and Recommendations issued today,
 reiterated this previous decision "in its entirety," expressed "regret"
 about the US' lack of compliance with its previous recommendations, and
 urged the United States, "to implement all the recommendations contained
 therein" with regard to the Western Shoshone and the denial of their
 ancestral lands. The United States was called upon to again report to the
 Committee "within one year" on its follow up to their decision.
   "It is important that all Native Peoples within the US know that they
 have rights that are recognized by international law even if the United
 States refuses to recognize them or act upon them," said Alberto
 Saldamando, IITC General Counsel and delegation member. "Now it is not
 just us, but the international community that has recognized that
 Indigenous Peoples within the United States are subject to racism on many
 levels and has called for effective steps by the US to remedy this
 situation. The IITC looks forward to working with other Indigenous Peoples
 and organizations to make sure that the US fully implements these
 recommendations, as it is required to under its legally-binding
 international human rights obligations. We will be watching closely to see
 if the US finally decides to become a country which operates under the
 rule of law".
 The CERD US Conclusions and Recommendations can be found online, at:
 http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/co/CERD-C-USA-CO-6.pdf.
 The Consolidated Indigenous Shadow Report is found at:
 http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/ngos/usa/USHRN8.doc.
 
 --------- "RE: Recognition flaps continue for Abenaki" ---------
 
 Date: Mon 3, Mar 2008 07:37:41 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="ABENAKI RECOGNITION ISSUES"
 
 http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416737
 
 Recognition flaps continue for Abenaki
 by: Gale Courey Toensing / Indian Country Today 
 March 3, 2008 
   MONTPELIER, Vt. - An Abenaki master basketmaker who has received grants
 from one federal agency for his work has been warned by another federal
 agency to refrain from selling his work as Indian, Native American or
 Abenaki products until his tribe is recognized by the state of Vermont.
   Jesse Larocque, a member of the St. Francis Sokoki Band of Missisquoi
 Abenaki, received an e-mail Feb. 19 from Indian Arts and Crafts Board
 Program Support Specialist Ken Van Wey, explaining the labeling
 requirements of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act and telling Larocque to
 stop advertising his work as an Abenaki product.
   The board, which is part of the Interior Department, administers the act.
 The act is a truth-in-marketing law designed to prevent the marketing of
 art and craft products as "Indian" made when they are not made by Indians
 as defined by the IACA, Van Wey wrote. The board found Larocque's work at
 the St. Francis Sokoki Band of Abenaki Web site.
   "While the IACB has been in communication with the state of Vermont
 regarding the state recognition of Indian Tribes, and understands that the
 state of Vermont may be recognizing some groups as Tribes in the near
 future, you should refrain from selling your work as Indian, Native
 American, or as the product of a particular Indian Tribe until your group
 is officially recognized as an Indian Tribe by the state of Vermont or the
 federal government," Van Wey wrote, disregarding Interiors' final
 determination last July declining to recognize the St. Francis Sokoki Band.
   Larocque responded the same day.
   "Perhaps you may want to level your guns in a different direction,"
 Larocque wrote. "I have been a grant recipient as a master Abenaki
 basketmaker through the National Endowment for the Arts, an independent
 federal agency," Larocque wrote.
   In an additional twist of irony, the St. Francis Sokoki Web site was
 also funded by federal grant money, a tacit acknowledgement of the tribe's
 American Indian identity, Larocque said.
   Mark Mitchell, chairman of the Vermont Commission on Indian Affairs, has
 posted Van Wey's e-mail on the commission's Web site at www.vcnaa.com
 under the heading "The Feds have arrived," a parody of "The Russians are
 coming," he said. The Web site documents the commission's year-long
 efforts to convince the state Legislature to clarify a flawed state
 recognition law - S. 117 - that passed in 2006.
   The law created the commission and appeared to give the authority to
 develop criteria for recognizing tribes and bands for the purpose of
 protecting the state's indigenous artists under the federal IACA. But when
 the commission began developing the criteria early last year, state
 Attorney General William Griffin stepped in and claimed the commission
 only had authority to recognize individuals, not tribes or bands.
   That's when the commission discovered through communication with the
 federal board that S. 117's language recognizing the state's "Abenaki
 people" fails to meet the IACA requirement that Native artists be from a
 federally recognized tribe or officially state-recognized tribe.
   The commission supports a proposed amendment to S. 117 submitted to the
 Legislature by state Sen. Vincent Illuzzi that would provide a two-step
 process in which the commission would recommend recognition of a tribe or
 band to the Legislature for final approval.
   In an interview with Indian Country Today, Larocque said the IACB should
 uphold the law.
   "The spirit of the law is in fact more important than the letter of the
 law. The law was designed to protect Native artists, not prosecute them,"
 Larocque said.
   Larocque said he would like to see the amendment to S. 117 given an
 opportunity to succeed before any further actions are taken.
   He said that the IACB has been "canvassing" the Abenaki community for
 information about Native artists, citing further e-mails from Van Wey that
 are posted online.
   "He shouldn't be going on a fishing expedition hunting for people he
 feels might be breaking the law. That is above and beyond the scope of his
 jurisdiction. It's tantamount to extralegal activity to persecute and
 prosecute people that may not have done anything wrong yet," Larocque said.
   IACB Executive Director Meredith Stanton said the board is not "on a
 witch hunt or fishing expedition." She said that 95 percent of letters
 such as the one sent to Larocque are based on complaints the board
 receives.
   "We're obliged to respond to any complaint so long as it's within the
 scope of the act," Stanton told ICT. "What we like to do is handle these
 things administratively with various degrees of letters putting people on
 notice. We spend a lot of time and money trying to educate people about
 the act - that's our primary focus - but that said, there are still civil
 and criminal penalties for those not in compliance," Stanton said.
   At the state's request, Stanton submitted testimony to a recent state
 senate hearing on the propose amendments to S. 117.
   "I think the state has good intentions. I think they want to do the
 right thing in trying to work through it. We know the situation in Vermont
 is in flux right now and this lies on the shoulders of the state of
 Vermont, not on the IAC Board to make the decision of whether or how they
 officially recognize groups in their state as officially recognized Indian
 tribes," Stanton said.
 Copyright c. 1998 - 2008 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved.
 
 --------- "RE: A push in Wisconsin for Tribal Sovereignty" ---------
 
 Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 07:22:42 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="RECOGNIZE SOVEREIGNTY OF 11 WISCONSIN TRIBES"
 
   http://www.pechanga.net/
 http://www.wrn.com/gestalt/go.cfm?
 objectid=76D33AAE-E23C-F405-3A32789B5434C131
 
 A push for tribal sovereignty
 By Andrew Beckett 
 March 4, 2008
   A push at the Capitol to recognize the sovereign status of American
 Indian tribes living in Wisconsin.
   State Representative Terry Musser (R-Black River Falls) says too many
 people don't recognize the sovereignty of the 11 tribes living in
 Wisconsin, so he's co-sponsoring legislation to change that. Musser says
 the people of Wisconsin need to be educated about the importance of
 sovereignty.
   The bill would acknowledge American Indian Tribes as their own
 independent political communities. The Black River Falls says it would
 essentially mean the state would deal with the tribes in the same ways it
 would deal with the governments of foreign countries.
   Musser says the bill is in response to last week's State of the Tribes
 address at the Capitol, in which leaders called on lawmakers to take up
 the issue. He says it's important to them, even if many lawmakers don't
 even want to discuss the issue.
   Past efforts to pass similar legislation have failed. Musser isn't too
 optimistic about the chances of the bill this session, but he still feels
 it's important for the state to have the discussion.
 Copyright c. 2008 WRN.Com (Wisconsin Radio Network),
 Learfield Communications, Inc.
 
 --------- "RE: Snohomish sues to overturn recognition denial" ---------
 
 Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 07:31:02 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="SNOHOMISH RECOGNITION"
 
   http://www.pechanga.net/
 http://heraldnet.com/article/20080306/NEWS01/69429435
 
 Snohomish Tribe sues to overturn denial of U.S. recognition
 
 By Krista J. Kapralos
 Herald writer
 March 6, 2008
   The Snohomish Tribe of Indians filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on
 Wednesday to overturn a 2004 decision that denied it federal recognition.
   The suit states that the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs denied the
 tribe due process of law by applying the wrong legal standards when it
 considered and denied the tribe federal recognition.
   "There are certain standards you have to meet to get recognition, and
 our point is that we met that standard but the government didn't apply the
 facts," said John Devlin, the tribe's Seattle-based attorney.
   The Tulalip Tribes have long opposed the Snohomish Tribe's appeal for
 recognition, arguing that the Snohomish people were among those tribes
 that originally settled on the Tulalip reservation.
   To gain federal recognition, the BIA requires that tribes prove that
 they've existed continuously as a distinct community, with political
 authority over its members, despite the federal government's historic
 initiatives that tribal members submit instead to nontribal governments.
   In the suit, the Snohomish Tribe argues that it was a primary signer of
 the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott, the agreement that turned over much of
 Western Washington's land to the federal government in exchange for
 medical care, reserved land and other benefits.
   The tribe also argues that poor living conditions on the Tulalip Indian
 Reservation kept many Snohomish Indians from living there, one factor that
 led the BIA to reject the tribe's 2004 appeal for recognition.
   The tribe argues that it has existed in an organized fashion
 continuously since long before the Treaty of Point Elliott was signed, but
 that it suffers now because it doesn't have access to federal assistance
 or rights including fishing and hunting.
   It could be a year or more before the tribe gets to argue its case in
 court, Devlin said.
   Only about 8 percent of the nation's 562 recognized tribes have gained
 recognition since 1960, according to the BIA. Hundreds of groups are
 currently seeking recognition.
 Copyright c. 2008 The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA.
 
 --------- "RE: Bill creating Urban Indian Health Group signed" ---------
 
 Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 07:22:42 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="NEW MEXICO URBAN INDIAN HEALTH CARE BECOMES LAW"
 
   http://www.indianz.com/News
 http://www.kvia.com/Global/story.asp?S=7958823
 
 Governor signs bill creating urban Indian health group
 Associated Press
 March 3, 2008
   SANTA FE (AP) - Governor Richardson has signed into law a bill aimed at
 improving health care for Indians who live in urban areas.
   The legislation creates the Off-Reservation Native American Health
 Commission in Bernalillo County, which is where the largest concentration
 of urban Indians in New Mexico live.
   The nine-member commission will collect data about off-reservation
 Indians, identify where the gaps in services are and work to find funding
 for health care.
   Richardson says the new commission will serve as a planning and advocacy
 group at a time when funding for Indian health programs is in jeopardy.
 Copyright c. 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
 Copyright c. 2002-2008 WorldNow and KVIA. All Rights Reserved.
 
 --------- "RE: Bill would end Utah's role as Tribe Trustee" ---------
 
 Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 07:22:42 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="UTAH BILL REMOVES STATE AS TRIBAL TRUSTEE"
 
   http://www.pechanga.net/
 http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_8446182
 
 Bill would end state's role as tribe trustee
 By Cathy McKitrick 
 The Salt Lake Tribune
 March 4, 2008 
   Utah senators on Monday passed legislation to get Utah out of its role
 overseeing millions of dollars in gas and oil royalties reserved for
 residents of the San Juan County portion of the Navajo Nation.
   Rep. Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara, sponsored HB352 and its companion
 resolution HCR4 to remove the state as trustee of the Utah Navajo Trust
 Fund. The measures ask Congress to find a new overseer.
   "We're the only state in the nation to be a trustee for tribal trust
 funds," Clark told a Senate committee in late February.
   At that meeting, Ruby Nakoli, a Navajo from San Juan County's Aneth
 Extension, spoke out against the legislation. She fears the trust funds,
 if administered by the tribe's Navajo Utah Commission, could be misused to
 advance its agenda rather than to benefit the people.
   "I looked into it and I'm quite perplexed by [the concerns]," Sen. Scott
 Jenkins, R-Plain City, told fellow senators Monday. "You don't want to
 hurt the local people, but on the other hand it costs the state money to
 manage these funds."
   San Juan County and its part of the Navajo Nation are in Sen. Mike
 Dmitrich's district.
   The Price Democrat agreed with Jenkins' concerns and he supports getting
 Utah out of the role of trustee. However, he acknowledged tribe members'
 resistance to the proposed legislation.
   "I just got a call the other night that said the Navajo Nation's
 president opposed both these bills," Dmitrich said. "I want to make sure
 they keep their money."
   Alleged mismanagement and misuse of the funds by the state has been the
 focus of lawsuits that have been working their way through the courts for
 years.
 cmckitrick@sltrib.com 
 Copyright c. 2008 The Salt Lake Tribune.
 
 --------- "RE: Longest Walk parade with Shoshone Elders" ---------
 
 Date: Mon 3, Mar 2008 07:37:41 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="LONGEST WALK IN ELY, NV"
 
 http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/03/
 longest-walk-parade-with-shoshone.html
 
 Longest Walk parade with Shoshone elders' float in Ely, Nevada
 By Brenda Norrell
 http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
 March 1, 2008
   ELY, Nevada - Western Shoshone elders from the Ely Indian Colony joined
 the Longest Walk 2 Northern Route for a parade with a float through
 downtown Ely on Friday, Feb. 29. The parade was welcomed to the Ely Indian
 Colony, with a drum song and a huge feast of chicken, meatloaf and large
 pots of stews and cornbread.
   Julie Brown, Lakota from Pine Ridge, came all the way from her home in
 Ethete, Wyoming, in a memorial tribute to her father, Henry Red Bear Brown,
 Lakota from Pine Ridge, who was an original Long Walker in the 1978 walk.
 Brown joined her sister Bernice Thompson, who lives in Ely, to host the
 memorial honor.
   Brown and Thompson presented star quilts to Jimbo Simmons, coordinator
 of the Longest Walk northern route, and Tomas Reyes, keeper of the Staffs
 and Eagle feathers.
   During the evening, Shoshone community members spoke out against a
 proposed coal-fired power plant here and water extraction for the
 insatiable thirst of Las Vegas. Shoshone also said the BLM and Forest
 Service are profiteering from the Shoshones' traditional lands and
 demanding that Shoshones pay fees for willows gathered for basketmaking.
 Shoshone women were told they would have to pay 10 cent per willow.
   "The BLM and Forest Service are armed," said one Shoshone elder,
 pointing out that a permit is also required for traditional gathering of
 pine nuts.
   Further, because of the US government's actions of eradicating many of
 the jackrabbits and coyotes, the ecosystem here is out of balance. "Men
 can not play god and that is what they are doing," said one Shoshone elder.
   "Now we don't see the birds, coyotes and rattlers. There is no
 ecological balance." The Western Shoshone elder said that the recent
 earthquake here should have sent a signal to halt plans to pump water out
 for Las Vegas and stop the destruction and poisoning of Mother Earth.
   Western Shoshone spiritual person Johnnie Bobb, Yomba Shoshone, led a
 sunrise ceremony on Saturday, March 1, for walkers and community members.
 After a breakfast feast at Ely Indian Colony, the Longest Walk 2 walkers
 and runners continued their prayer journey for Mother Earth, on Hwy 50, to
 Baker, where the Longest Walk will stay two nights.
 Posted by brendanorrell@gmail.com
 Censored and under-reported news: brendanorrell@gmail.com
 
 --------- "RE: Longest Walk: Apology to Indians is diversion" ---------
 
 Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 07:22:42 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="APOLOGY HAS NO MEANING"
 
 http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/03/
 longest-walk-apology-to-indians-is.html
 
 Longest Walk: Apology to Indians is diversion
 By Brenda Norrell
 Human right editor
 U.N. OBSERVER & International Report
 March 3, 2008
   BAKER, Nevada - The apology to American Indians which passed the U.S.
 Senate is a diversion, said Jimbo Simmons, coordinator of the Longest
 Walk 2 Northern Route, which crosses the Nevada border into Utah today.
   "It is meant to diffuse our efforts," Simmons said.
   Simmons said if the United States is sincere about issuing an apology to
 American Indians, it should begin with the descendants of the original
 treaty signers and include the peoples of the world whose relatives have
 been murdered and massacred by the United States.
   Simmons said this is a critical time and not just for humanity. "They
 should also have an apology for the earth itself. This is connected to all
 us."
   "The apology should be to all the people of the world. Millions have
 died around the world," he said, pointing out the U.S. legacy of murder
 and massacre.
   The Senate passed the Indian Health Care Improvement Act that included
 an apology to American Indians for the violation of Indian treaties,
 massacres and other atrocities.
   Simmons said the apology as it now stands is directed at the IRA Indian
 tribal governments or "puppet governments," organized under the Indian
 Reorganization Act, which have caused so much suffering for Indian people.
   Simmons said the apology should go to the original treaty signers. His
 comments were made on the Longest Walk Northern Route's live broadcast on
 http://www.earthcycles.net/ on Monday morning, March 3.
   Simmons pointed out that when the original Longest Walk was making its
 way across the United States in 1978, a similar diversion was created to
 diffuse the impact of the walk at that time. Indian representatives came
 out and told the Long Walkers that their walk was not necessary because
 the anti-Indian legislation underway would be defeated without their march
 into Washington.
   Now, 30 years later, another effort is underway to diffuse the impact of
 this Longest Walk.
   "The United `Snakes' of America thinks this would be enough for us,"
 Simmons said. "There are still problems across Indian country. We're
 talking much more than just treaty rights.
   "It goes beyond human rights and civil rights, we are talking about our
 natural rights since the beginning of time.
   "Our traditional and spiritual leaders have been silenced for so long.
 The apology should be directed to them."
   Simmons said the IRA Indian tribal governments created by the United
 States are "puppet governments" which are "victimizing our people."
   "They continue to perpetuate the bureaucracy in Indian country."
   The U.S. apology to American Indians was inserted in the health care
 bill by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas. Kansas is on the route of the
 Longest Walk Northern Route, as American Indians walk from Utah through
 Colorado to Kansas and Pennsylvania before reaching D.C.
   The U.S. apology approved by the US Senate includes the violation of
 treaties with Indian tribes; forced removal of Indians from their
 traditional homelands; armed confrontations and massacres, such as those
 at Sand Creek and Wounded Knee; condemnation of Indian traditions, beliefs
 and customs; and unlawful acquisition of tribal land and theft of tribal
 resources and assets.
   Urging the masses to march into Washington with the Longest Walk,
 Simmons said, "This is the time for us to be in Washington DC."
   Simmons said the original Longest Walk in 1978 started with about 17
 people from Alcatraz and by the time the walk reached Washington, the walk
 was 40,000 people strong.
   "All of those people who are sincere in their apology, let us see them
 in Washington. Passing a bill won't make it all alright," he said.
   Simmons said when the southern and northern routes of the Longest Walk 2
 arrive in Washington on July 11, there will be a cultural survival
 gathering there. He pointed out that there are 400 million Indigenous
 peoples who maintain their traditional cultures around the world.
   "Indigenous Peoples will teach the world how to be human again."
   In 1978, when the Longest Walk reached Washington, 50 spiritual leaders
 were selected to meet with President Carter. However, President Carter
 refused to meet with the Longest Walk spiritual leaders. Now, Simmons said
 if today's U.S. leaders refuse to meet with the Longest Walkers, there
 will be others waiting there to greet them.
   World leaders are ready to meet and listen to American Indians on the
 Longest Walk 2.
   "Much progress has been made with countries around the world. The world
 will be meeting us," Simmons said. The Longest Walk 2 will also send a
 declaration to the United Nations.
 Posted by brendanorrell@gmail.com at 11:08 AM
 Censored and under-reported news: brendanorrell@gmail.com
 
 --------- "RE: English proficiency not just a Black, White Issue" ---------
 
 Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 07:22:42 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="LANGUAGE DISCRIMINATION"
 
 http://www.gallupindependent.com/2008/March/030308kf_lngdscrmntn.html
 
 Language discrimination
 English proficiency not a black & white issue in Indian Country
 By Karen Francis
 Dine' Bureau
 March 3, 2008
   GANADO - An Arizona state mandate going into effect next school year will
 require all public schools to teach four hours of English a day to
 students who are not proficient in English - a requirement that could have
 far-reaching effects for schools on Navajo.
   In the Ganado Unified School District alone, 886 out of approximately
 1,800 pupils are deemed to be English-language learners.
   GUSD Superintendent Deborah Jackson-Dennison said that if the mandate
 goes into effect, it may take students deemed to be ELL five to six years
 to get their high school diploma, instead of the normal four, because they
 will be spending the majority of their time in English class.
   The Legislature voted for the mandate in 2005, with support from Arizona
 Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, as a response to a 1992
 lawsuit dealing with funding for English instruction. There are
 approximately 135,000 students classified as English-language learners in
 the state.
   Jackson-Dennison said that students will become frustrated if the
 mandate is implemented at the district.
   "Our drop-out rate is going to increase. Our attendance is going to
 decrease. Our overall graduation rate is going to decrease. We'll never
 meet AYP (adequate yearly progress)," she said.
   "English only should not be applied to Navajo children," Jackson-
 Dennison said. "The model they are saying we have to use will hurt us more
 than help us."
   She added, "It's more deep-rooted than just putting this mandate in
 place and either complying or not complying. It's the very essence of
 discrimination and lack of understanding, ignorance toward Native American
 people."
   Jackson-Dennison is responding to the mandates in three ways. First, the
 district will begin a "Response to Intervention" program where the
 district will hold individualized meetings with parents of students
 designated as ELL and work to exit them out of the ELL label.
   Second, she will be proposing to the school board that the district
 begin a Navajo immersion program in kindergarten so that "when
 kindergarten children get to the high school level, they'll no longer be
 ELL. They'll know Navajo and English."
   She asserts that based on her experience students that have gone through
 Navajo immersion schools or programs outscore their peers on English tests
 when they get to secondary schools. However, the state and Horne don't
 recognize that model, she said.
   "They want us to follow their model of English-only, which has never
 worked ever since formal education has been introduced to Indian people
 across the country," Jackson-Dennison said.
   The final and perhaps most important step that Jackson-Dennison is
 taking is advocating for the U.S. Congress to strengthen the Native
 American Languages Act so that states cannot apply English-only to Native
 American tribes.
   She will be going before local chapters, the school board, the Navajo
 Nation's Education Committee, and the National Indian Education
 Association seeking supporting documents for the effort to strengthen NALA.
 Other superintendents with the state's Impact Aid Association will also
 bring resolutions before their school boards.
   "What it would do is no other state in the country will be able to apply
 English-only to Native American children," she said.
   Jackson-Dennison, who is Navajo, noted that Arizona has one of the
 largest Native American populations in the country, "yet we're saying
 English-only."
   Even while a monument to the Navajo Code Talkers was dedicated on the
 Arizona State Capitol grounds last week, the schools on Navajo are
 struggling with how they are going to implement the English language
 mandates.
   "They're honoring the Navajo Code Talkers and at the same time saying
 Navajo language is not as important as English. Yet without the Navajo
 language, without the Code Talkers, they would not even be here today,"
 she said.
 Copyright c. 2008 the Gallup Independent.
 
 --------- "RE: Distant Native Languages bridge Bering Sea" ---------
 
 Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2008 07:29:42 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="ATHABASCAN CONNECTION"
 
 http://www.adn.com/front/story/334139.html
 
 Distant Native languages bridge Bering Sea
 Siberian culture's words have echo in North America
 By GEORGE BRYSON
 gbryson@adn.com | gbryson@adn.com 
 March 4, 2008 
   A remote population of a few hundred indigenous Siberians who live
 thousands of miles west of Alaska speak a language that appears to be an
 ancient relative of more than three dozen Native languages in North
 America, experts say.
   A panel of respected linguists who met in Anchorage on Friday are
 hailing new research that links the Old World language of Ket, still
 spoken sparingly along the Yenisei River in western Siberia, and the
 sprawling New World family of Na-Dene languages - a broad grouping that
 encompasses the many Athabascan tribes in Alaska, along with the Tlingit
 and Eyak people, as well as Indian populations in western Canada and the
 American Southwest, including the Navajo and the Apache.
   Other than Siberian Yupik, a regional Eskimo dialect that straddles the
 Bering Strait, a connection between North American and Asian language
 families had never before been demonstrated.
   The research by University of Western Washington linguist Edward Vajda,
 who spent 10 years deciphering the Ket language, drew upon parallel work
 by three Alaskans - Jeff Leer, Michael Krauss and James Kari, professors
 of linguistics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks - who independently
 detailed patterns in Na-Dene languages.
   Establishing that two such far-distant language groups are closely
 related is both demanding and rare in the exacting field of historical
 linguistics, according to participants who attended a language symposium
 at the annual meeting of the Alaska Anthropological Association.
   That Interior Indian languages spoken in North America are related to
 languages spoken in Asia has long been assumed, since other fields of
 science have widely concluded that the Americas weren't populated until
 ice age hunters migrated across a temporary land bridge from the old world
 to the new some 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.
   And as early as 1923, other linguists speculated specifically about a
 genetic link between the Yeniseic family of languages spoken along the
 Yenisei River (of which Ket is now the only surviving member) and the Na-
 Dene family, spoken in North America. Ten years ago, American linguist
 Merritt Ruhlen did so again after producing a list of 36 cognates -
 comparable words in two languages that sound alike and mean the same thing.
   But producing lists of similar-sounding words isn't sufficient evidence
 to establish a real genetic relationship between two languages, declared
 Bernard Comrie, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
 Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, speaking at the conference.
   That's because cognates can also occur by accident or chance - when
 selective words are adopted by travelers from unrelated languages, or when
 words have a universal appeal.
   What makes the new finding so exciting, Comrie said, is that it's based
 on complex and verifiable morphologies that show how certain Ket words
 were systematically altered to create Athabascan words - or vice versa
 (the research doesn't speculate on which language came first or when).
   Vajda began studying the Ket language firsthand in the 1990s after the
 Iron Curtain fell and he began making field trips to the Yenisei River -
 about 3,600 miles west of Fairbanks.
   "There is no road and no train," Vajda said in an interview last week in
 Anchorage, here to address the symposium. "You have to go by steamboat or
 helicopter to get there."
   Through his research and interviews, Vajda determined that there are
 about 1,200 people who say they are Ket, including about 200 people who
 speak the language. But only about 100 speak Ket fluently, Vajda said, and
 nearly all of them are now older than 50.
   "They were the last hunters of north Asia that didn't have any
 domesticated animals that they used for food," he said. "They moved around,
 they didn't live in the same place."
   That came to an end when the Stalin regime in the Soviet Union forced
 the Ket to live in villages. Now their traditional lifestyle is nearly
 gone, Vajda said - and their language is disappearing too.
   While trying to capture it before it vanishes altogether, Vajda gained a
 new understanding about the peculiarities of Ket verbs, suffixes and
 tonalities - which are unlike any of the other Siberian languages to the
 east.
   Comparing what he learned with research conducted independently in
 Alaska, Vajda began to find words the two languages had in common. A news
 release issued this week by the Alaska Native Language Center at UAF
 concurs, noting language similarities "too numerous and displaying too
 many idiosyncratic parallels to be explained by anything other than common
 descent."
   Among linguistic scholars elsewhere who've reviewed Vajda's paper in its
 draft form and reacted favorably so far is Dr. Heinrich Werner of Bonn,
 Germany - a world authority in the Ket language, whose work Vajda cited
 and incorporated into his own, along with that of the Alaskans.
   Vajda thinks his research might be a door-opener for scientists in other
 fields, including those who work in human genetics and archaeology, to
 proceed with additional comparisons of the two cultures.
   He says it also points out the necessity and urgency to record dying
 languages before they disappear.
 Find George Bryson online at adn.com/contact/gbryson or call 257-4318.
 Copyright c. 2008 The Anchorage Daily News,
 a subsidiary of The McClatchy Company.
 
 --------- "RE: NEWCOMB: Examining the oral arguments in Dann" ---------
 
 Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2008 09:368:47 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="NEWCOMB: DANN"
 
 http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416724
 
 Newcomb: Examining the oral arguments in Dann
 by: Steven Newcomb / Indigenous Law Institute
 February 29, 2008
   The Internet is amazing. I came across the audio (along with a written
 transcript) of the 1984 oral arguments in the case U.S. v. Dann. By
 listening to the audio recording, we are able to experience the arguments
 made 24 years ago before the Rehnquist Supreme Court regarding the issue
 of Western Shoshone land rights.
   Robert McConnell, Assistant U.S. Attorney General, argued on behalf of
 the United States, which was suing Mary and Carrie Dann for allegedly
 trespassing on "public lands" (Western Shoshone lands) by grazing their
 livestock without a permit from the Bureau of Land Management. McConnell
 opened by saying: "Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court, this
 case comes before this Court on writ of certiorari to the Ninth Circuit
 Court of Appeals. It concerns the finality effect of Section 22(a) of the
 Indian Claims Commission Act."
   McConnell continued: "Section 22(a) states that payment of a claim in
 accordance with the Act shall be [a] full discharge of the United States
 of all claims and demands touching any of the matters involved in the
 controversy."
   McConnell went on to explain that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had
 "determined that payment had not taken place in accordance with Section
 22(a). We [the United States] believe that that decision was in error and
 should be reversed."
   Eventually, Justice Blackman asked McConnell, "Are we spinning our
 wheels here?" McConnell responded by saying, "No, I don't believe so, Mr.
 Justice Blackman. What we have here is the finality provisions of 22(a),
 and specifically if, as we believe, 22(a) has been satisfied, payment has
 taken place, then the respondents [the Dann sisters] are precluded from
 using a claim of title, Western Shoshone title as a defense in the action
 stated here, the ejectment action brought by the [U.S.] government."
   So, let's stop right here and reflect on what McConnell said. Notice,
 for example, his use of the plural when he refers to "the finality
 provisions of 22(a)." Although this obviously means more than one
 provision, McConnell only specifies the provision of payment. What is the
 other provision of Section 22(a)? It is the reporting provision.
   The beginning of Section 22(a) states: "When the report of the [Indian
 Claims] Commission ... has been filed with Congress, such report shall
 have the effect of a final judgment of the Court of Claims, and there is
 authorized to be appropriated such sums as are necessary to pay the final
 determination of the Commission." The word "when" may be interpreted to
 mean "in the event that." Thus, it may be rewritten as: "In the event that
 the report of the Commission ... has been filed with Congress, such report
 shall" be treated the same as if it were a judgment by the Court of Claims.
   Thus, when McConnell referenced the "provisions" of Section 22(a), he
 was referencing both the commission's required report to Congress and the
 payment provision. Yet McConnell very cleverly never mentioned to the
 court the language of the first provision.
   The reason why McConnell neglected to specify the first provision of
 Section 22(a) is really quite simple: The Indian Claims Commission failed
 to file a report with Congress in the Western Shoshone case before the
 commission was disbanded by Congress in 1978. The Western Shoshone case
 was then transferred to the Court of Claims, but U.S. Attorney General
 McConnell stated to the court that "this transfer" had no "bearing upon
 the question presented" to the Supreme Court.
   In light of the failure of the Indian Claims Commission to file a report
 with Congress in the Western Shoshone case, let's reexamine McConnell's
 statement to the court: "... if, as we believe, 22(a) has been satisfied,
 payment has taken place, then the respondents [the Dann sisters] are
 precluded from using a claim of title, Western Shoshone title as a
 defense." But in order for Section 22(a) to have "satisfied," both
 provisions of 22(a) had to have been completed. Only if that happened would
 the Danns be precluded "from using a claim of title, Western Shoshone title
 as a defense." Thus, according to the U.S.'s own position, fulfillment of
 only one of the two provisions of 22(a) would not be sufficient to bar the
 Danns from asserting title to Western Shoshone lands.
   Our evidence that the reporting provision of Section 22(a) was never
 "satisfied" is the Indian Claims Commission's 1979 Final Report of all its
 work. A graph is found in that report showing all the dockets that the ICC
 had completed from 1946 - 1978. The graph also lists 19 cases never
 reported to Congress, and one of these is Docket 326-K, the Western
 Shoshone case. Thus, the question arises: "Why did U.S. Assistant Attorney
 General McConnell not reveal to the Supreme Court that the reporting
 provision of Section 22(a) had never been "satisfied" by the commission?
   To avoid bringing this pertinent piece of information to the Court's
 attention, McConnell kept the court's attention exclusively on the payment
 provision of Section 22(a). But by using the plural term "provisions,"
 McConnell was obviously aware of the fact that both a report to Congress
 and payment had to occur before finality could be reached by the
 commission and by the U.S. government.
   Unfortunately, the attorneys for the Danns also failed to focus the
 court's attention on the fact that one of the two provisions of Section
 22(a) had never been carried out. Thus, the court, without all the facts,
 ruled against the Danns in keeping with the U.S. government's argument,
 premised on a partial disclosure of Section 22(a) of the Indian Claims
 Commission Act. Nonetheless, because of the lack of a final report, to
 this day the United States has not achieved finality in the Western
 Shoshone case despite its many and persistent deceptions to the contrary.
 ---
 Steven Newcomb, Shawnee/Lenape, is the indigenous law research coordinator
 at the Education Department of the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation,
 co-founder and co-director of the Indigenous Law Institute, and author of
 the book "Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian
 Discovery" (Fulcrum, 2008).
 Copyright c. 1998 - 2008 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved.
 
 --------- "RE: RUSSELL: The borders of the Wanabi Nation" ---------
 
 Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2008 09:368:47 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="RUSSELL: ASSIMILATION"
 
 http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416723
 
 Russell: Assimilation and the borders of the Wanabi Nation
 by: Steve Russell
 February 29, 2008
   Cherokees, as my Plains Indian pals never hesitate to remind me, are
 among the most assimilated peoples indigenous to North America. We've been
 a constitutional republic since 1827, but our fascination with written law
 goes back farther. In Oklahoma, they say a Creek who gets too much
 education becomes a poet and a Cherokee who gets too much education
 becomes a lawyer.
   Well, it's hard not to notice that when the United States acted against
 Cherokee sovereignty in ways that amounted to acts of war, we did not go
 to war but rather went to court and won. In the end, though, we took as
 many casualties as those who did go to war and still lost their land, as
 the aforesaid Plains Indians always point out.
   We are in fact highly assimilated in two distinct ways.
   First, there is assimilation into the culture of the Bible Belt yahoos
 who govern Oklahoma: the culture that sends a fool to the Senate who
 claims global warming is a hoax; the culture that thinks allowing gay
 people to marry will raise the divorce rate among heterosexual couples;
 the culture that regrets the outcome of the War of Northern Aggression and
 denies the Tulsa race riots like Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust. This is
 the missionary culture that finds virtue in ostentatious public prayer,
 Matthew 6:5-6 notwithstanding.
   Second, there are Cherokees assimilated like me, and I know more of them
 than I can count without taking my shoes off. We leave the Nation in
 pursuit of an education or a career. We always say we intend to go back.
 Then we get a dose of realism and think maybe we will retire there,
 because it's always "home" in some sense.
   If we visit home often enough, though, we know that there are a great
 many Cherokees in both Oklahoma and North Carolina who are not assimilated
 in either sense. That is, home is home to them and they are not going
 anywhere, but they retain the open-ended epistemology that makes American
 Indians such easy marks for missionaries. That is, they respect
 everybody's idea of truth, and do not consider government an instrument of
 spiritual conquest.
   "The spirit world takes care of its own business," an old lady used to
 tell me, meaning that if you do right, you will know it in your bones. And
 if you do wrong, the wrong will come back and bite you and you can't
 change either result by making a law. The way of things does not need a
 law; and so if marriage is one man and one woman, a law saying that is
 absurd. Law is not to enforce the way of things; law is to direct traffic.
 Here I am with three college degrees, two of them in law, and I still
 believe that primitive stuff.
   I think there is a sense in which one can be "more Indian" or "less
 Indian," and it has nothing to do with blood quantum. If it did, I would
 long ago have had a transfusion to cure my problem with Cherokee verbs.
 It's a set of customs and values that get weaker with geographical
 distance. As the Choctaw philosopher Lee Hester says, white people care
 about orthodoxy while Indians care about "orthopraxy." With distance, we
 lose the practice of being Indian. Whether that is a function of time as
 well as distance, I cannot be reliably informed, but I hope not.
   Since the U.S. Census decided to go with self-identification in multiple
 categories, the fastest-growing Indian tribe has been the Wanabi Nation.
 Either urban Indians multiply like bunnies or everybody is honoring the
 Cherokee princess in their lineage, who of course looked like a Lakota
 from central casting.
   This leaves those of us who have chosen to attenuate our connections
 with Indian communities wondering what separates us from those who have to
 hire a genealogist to discover an Indian ancestor. One possibility that
 comes to mind is that enrolled absentees could be a tax base: head tax,
 income tax or poll tax. The argument goes:
   Why did you leave? I was chasing a career.
   Did you find it? Yes.
   Then you can afford to pay tribal taxes, right?
   The poll tax has evil implications in mainstream politics because it was
 used to deny the vote to freed slaves on account of their race until the
 Supreme Court shut down the practice. However, Indian nations have pretty
 sensible reasons for making voting harder for outlanders than for
 homelanders. Those in the homeland, or some of them at least, personify
 cultural preservation. Without them, we outlanders would be nothing but
 historical relics, repositories of family memories rather than
 representatives of living cultures.
   Without a doubt, many of my fellow outlanders will have kittens when
 they read this because they think they are Indian by blood rather than by
 practice. Maybe so, just like British royals. Lots of peoples have taken
 the position that virtue is inherited rather than accomplished, so the
 idea cannot be dismissed out of hand. Therefore, it would be a good idea
 to put some numbers to this theory and see if the Cherokee Nation could
 come up with enough of a tax base to replace the money some in Congress
 want to take away to punish our treaty violation.
   So I e-mailed my tribal registration office and asked how many
 outlanders there are in relation to citizens in the homeland. I got an e-
 mail back asking why I had asked for an "as of" date and I immediately
 replied, citing the time between writing and publishing an academic paper.
 There was no reply.
   Over the Christmas holidays, I called my tribal registration office and
 got told that the only person with that information would be back in
 January. Deadline? So sorry. She got back and still refused to answer.
   When I threatened to make this public, she punted to her supervisor. At
 this point, there have been three levels of bureaucracy refusing to answer
 a straightforward and simple question. Yes, I know most of the tribal
 council, not to mention the chief, but there are two possibilities about
 this contretemps.
   Either this is my punishment for having supported the loser in the last
 tribal election, or I am being treated exactly the way every tribal
 citizen is treated when they ask their government for information. No
 matter which is the case, my enthusiasm for paying tribal taxes is waning.
 Not because of personal insult, but because a taxpayer expects competence
 and professionalism. Perhaps that's an argument in favor of tribal taxes
 rather than against them?
   This will work out the way it should. Bad government carries
 consequences. The worse government is, the more it resembles a social club
 rather than a government. My Choctaw friends are in the same boat when
 they can't get a voter list to run a campaign against tribal government
 incumbents. A government acting that way preserves the privilege of
 individuals to benefit themselves - not the prerogatives of a sovereign.
   If we become less Indian with time as well as with distance, then
 whatever it is that Indians bring to the human table will die out, and I
 do not want to see that happen. It seems like we have been through too
 much for that result. But at some point, we have to govern ourselves or
 accept that the United States will always have to govern us. I am content
 that the political world, like the spirit world, will take care of its own
 business.
 ---
 Steve Russell, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is a Texas trial court judge
 by assignment and an associate professor of criminal justice at Indiana
 University - Bloomington. He is a columnist for Indian Country Today.
 Copyright c. 1998 - 2008 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved.
 
 --------- "RE: GIAGO: Yupik woman stands up to sexual abuse" ---------
 
 Date: Mon 3, Mar 2008 07:37:41 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="GIAGO: ABUSED YUPIK WOMAN STRIKES BACK"
 
 http://www.indianz.com/News/2008/007416.asp
 
 Tim Giago: Yupik woman stands up to sexual abuse
 March 3, 2008
   There is a lady of the Yupik Tribe in Alaska that is a hero of mine. For
 many years she was known only as Jane Doe 1 in an effort by her lawyer,
 Ken Roosa, to protect her true identity.
   But this courageous lady that was sexually abused by a Jesuit priest
 named Father Jim Poole from the age of 10 until the age of 16 decided that
 she needed to step forward and reveal her true identity so that people
 would see that she was a real person and perhaps it would encourage other
 Native children to come forward with their own stories of abuse.
   Elsie Boudreau decided to bring a lawsuit against Poole after her
 complaints to the church hierarchy fell on deaf ears. She accused Poole of
 kissing and fondling her many times starting in 1978. The abuse included
 heavy petting and having her lie on top of him the lawsuit said.
   Father Poole, now 82, is living in a Jesuit retirement center in Spokane,
 WA. He arrived in Alaska in 1948 as a seminarian. He was assigned to Holy
 Cross, Pilot Station, Marshall, Mountain Village, St. Mary's, Barrow and
 Nome according to the Daily News - Miner in Alaska.
   Father Poole founded radio station KNOM in Nome, the Fairbanks Catholic
 Diocese, and the Society of Jesus Oregon Province.
   A second lawsuit against Poole was filed in June of 2005 by Jane Doe 2
 an indigenous female. This complaint alleges that Poole sexually abused
 her for 8 years beginning when she was 12. The complaint states that Poole
 impregnated Jane Doe 2 at age 14 and then told her to "get rid of the
 baby" and to blame the pregnancy on her dad.
   I was always surprised whenever I spoke about the abuse of Indian
 children by Catholic priests and nuns by how often people that came up to
 speak to me after my talk were from Alaska or Canada. It seems that the
 abusers in those two regions were not as adept at covering up their crimes
 as were the priests and nuns of the lower 48, or maybe it was because the
 American people in the lower 48 just plain refused to accept the idea the
 a priest or member of the clergy could sexually, mentally and physically
 abuse Native American children.
   Elsie Boudreau reached the point in her life where the abuse was taking
 on toll on her. Her own child was just about to turn 10 years of age and
 Elsie could not erase from her mind that Father Poole started to abuse her
 when she was 10.
   She knew that many more children had been abused by Father Poole and she
 often wondered how many other missionaries were out there in the wilds of
 Alaska abusing other Native children.
   When she took her stand against Poole it took all of the courage she
 could muster. She knew that she would be putting her own life out there to
 be scrutinized and dissected by the media. She could have hidden behind
 the anonymity of Jane Doe 1 indefinitely, but she knew that in order to
 bring the full focus of the media on her actions and to encourage other
 Alaskan Native children to step forward, the needed to know that there was
 a real person behind the accusations of the lawsuit.
   Elsie Boudreau won a settlement in the range of $1 million. She said,
 "Just getting the settlement doesn't mean it is over in terms of healing.
 There's other work to be done. It's not over."
   Last year when I spoke in Albuquerque, NM about my book, "Children Left
 Behind," a book about the abuse of Indian children in South Dakota, Elsie
 Boudreau was in the audience. She came up to speak to me later and I was
 very impressed with this quiet, but strong Yupik lady.
   Elsie wants to build a memorial near St. Mary's on the Andreafsky River
 in Alaska for the children who lost their innocence to sexual abuse by
 priests and clerics. She envisions it as a contemplative, quiet setting
 where the abused can find peace. But she wants to do more than that. She
 wants to reach out to the Native children of the lower 48 states that have
 endured the same kind of abuse at the hands of the missionaries.
   When the sexual abuse of white children by the Catholic priests came out
 in the open, it was big news in all of the major newspapers in America.
 Indian children have been victims of this same abuse since the mid-1800s
 and when it is finally revealed it is covered up by the American press.
   I applaud Elsie Boudreau. She is an unselfish lady who put her life and
 reputation on the line in order to seek justice for the Native children
 that have endured more than 100 years of abuse by the missionaries and
 teachers that were supposed to help them, but instead hurt them. Elsie is
 my hero and I would like to work with her to open more doors for the
 Indian children that have been abused by the church. She can be reached at
 eboudreau@cookeroosa.com.
 ---
 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. He can be reached at najournalist@msn.com.
 Copyright c. 2008 Indianz.com.
 
 --------- "RE: CONWAY: Sovereignty is more than just a word" ---------
 
 Date: Mon 3, Mar 2008 07:37:41 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="CONWAY: SOVEREIGNTY"
 
 http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416725
 
 Conway: Sovereignty is more than just a word
 by: Betsy Conway
 February 29, 2008
   I have represented the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation for 15 years,
 and cannot remember an issue that has generated more controversy than the
 labor issues facing the tribe today. I have heard completely opposite
 views as to how the tribe should respond. In each case, the opposing views
 were offered with equal vigor and conviction, and each claimed the moral
 high ground. Those not familiar with federal Indian law and policy seem
 agitated, confused and unable to comprehend the basis of the controversy -
 tribal sovereignty.
   In January, the controversy took center stage in a National Labor
 Relations Board hearing room in Hartford, Conn. The contentious hearing's
 focus was the tribe's objections to the way the election was conducted,
 but tribal sovereignty was ever-present throughout. This conflict is
 unnecessary since the union could have petitioned for representation under
 the Tribal Labor Relations Law, not its federal counterpart. That would
 have been the less contentious path.
   In the Hartford proceedings, the board and the union said they "respect"
 tribal sovereignty. What their actions said was that while they respect
 tribal sovereignty in concept, they cannot tolerate the exercise of that
 sovereignty.
   I couldn't help but contrast what I heard with the real words of
 presidential executive orders, congressional legislation and court
 decisions that support tribal self-determination and a commitment to deal
 with tribes on a "government-to-government" basis.
   Those words are being ignored with devastating effects by the blind and
 blanket imposition of the National Labor Relations Act on Indian tribes
 and their gaming enterprises.
   Some in Indian country have counseled against pursuing this challenge.
 They fear too much could be lost.
   Yet there is no good choice for tribes. The imposition of the NLRA is
 unlike that of any other statute that is silent as to Indian tribes,
 because it inserts a third party into tribal employment without any
 acknowledgement of the profound impact that it has on tribal laws,
 institutions and structures. Does it mean that the tribe's labor relations
 law is void? How about the tribe's right to work law, the tribal employee
 review code, the tribal civil rights law or the tribal gaming law?
   As we go through the process governing the representation petition under
 the NLRA, one thing is clear: there continue to be repeated, substantial
 intrusions and eviscerations of tribal sovereignty starting with the
 initial petition hearing, continuing with the conduct of an NLRB election
 on the tribe's reservation and, most recently, the imposition and
 enforcement of subpoenas against tribal entities to obtain tribal
 government documents.
   The prospect of continued destruction of tribal sovereignty is certain.
 If the election is certified, the tribe could not sit down and bargain
 under the NLRA without substantial detrimental impacts on its laws and
 legal structures.
   Through this process, what is most concerning is the apparent and
 complete misunderstanding by federal agencies and some federal courts of
 tribal sovereignty and how it is exercised on reservations across this
 country. Each tribe is different and the impact on one may be very
 different than that felt by other tribes. As to the Pequot tribe, it has
 developed and invested in a sophisticated, fair and effective court system
 that has been enforcing tribal laws since its creation 16 years ago. No
 one who has truly looked at the tribal court and read its opinions or
 observed it in action could seriously argue that it is not fair and
 impartial in its dispensing of justice. Even the union has acknowledged
 this in its filings. The tribe has enacted laws governing all aspects of
 activity on the reservation including labor and employment, and the tribal
 court has heard countless cases concerning tribal employment at the gaming
 enterprise as well as at other entities. Of course, this is exactly what
 Congress and every president since Nixon has encouraged tribes to do - be
 self-governing and self-sufficient. In fact, the federal legislation
 addressing the real issue underlying all of this - tribal gaming - was
 enacted with the specific purpose of encouraging tribal economic self-
 sufficiency and building strong tribal governments.
   The Pequot tribe has taken that route and built a strong tribal
 government. The federal response has been to ignore the congressional and
 executive dictates that require a government-to-government relationship
 and true respect for the exercise, not just the concept, of tribal
 sovereignty.
   In his Tuscarora dissent, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black chastised the
 majority: "Great nations, like great men, should keep their word." History
 continues to repeat itself when it comes to tribal sovereignty.
 ---
 Betsy Conway, in-house counsel for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation,
 was instrumental in the formation of the Indian Law Committee of the
 Connecticut Bar Association.
 Copyright c. 1998 - 2008 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved.
 
 --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: History comes alive at UND Party" ---------
 
 Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 07:22:42 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="YELLOW BIRD: REFLECTIONS ON UND'S 125TH YEAR"
 
 http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=69139
 
 History comes alive at UND party
 Dorreen Yellow Bird 
 Grand Forks Herald
 March 1, 2008
   There was a sweet aroma of perfume and an image of polish among the crowd
 at Thursday's 125th anniversary celebration of UND's Founding Day.
   The event was held in one of those spacious halls in the Alerus Center.
   The location easily accommodated the 800 guests. And the celebration had
 an air of accomplishment, emphasized by spotlighted program booths
 displaying pictures that heralded UND. Young people - students - in green
 directed the visitors attending the event.
   As I stood watching the growing crowd, I remembered who I was standing
 among: men and women who are the best in their fields - scientists,
 medical doctors, nurses, microbiologists, engineers, philosophers,
 historians and writers, many of them teachers.
   A professor interrupted my thoughts. She knew my daughter, Lisa
 Lonefight, who attended UND. A little farther down the rows of placards
 and booths, another professor told me that he knew my brother, Don Yellow
 Bird, who was in this professor's teacher corps program maybe 40 years ago.
 My brother now is a retired science teacher.
   I went with my sister, Liz, who came to honor her longtime friend and
 co-worker, Deb Wilson, director of the Recruitment/Retention of American
 Indians into Nursing program.
   UND President Charles Kupchella, who was the emcee and looked as dapper
 as a talk show host, came to our table to congratulate Wilson. She has
 worked at UND for 25 years, she told him, but has been at UND for more
 than 30 years. She received her bachelor's and masters' degrees at UND,
 too.
   I've known Wilson for a long time. She is RAIN. Her dedication to the
 program has taken many American Indian students through it, and many of
 them now are scattered throughout Indian country as much-needed nurses.
 Some of those earlier nurses' children are entering RAIN now, she told us
 with a smile.
   Later, I met Jeffrey Sun, who received the UND Foundation/Lydia and
 Arthur Saiki Prize for Graduate and Professional Teaching Excellence. He
 was one of my sister's professors. Liz is a former teacher herself and
 told me that when she started her graduate program, she picked him out as
 outstanding. She laughed when she told me about her first class, when she
 realized he was younger than her own children.
   Yes, Liz, I said, everyone is getting to be younger than we are. But at
 this place and this celebration, age seemed to equate to wisdom.
   Among those UND staff members who were retiring, we both recognized our
 favorite birding teacher and friend, Dave Lambeth. He is a professor of
 biochemistry and molecular biology turned birder. His wife, Cec Volden,
 the former director of the nursing program, retired a few years ago and is
 an expert birder, also.
   There were more people from the Energy and Environmental Research Center
 who came forward for their 25-year-award than there were from any other
 program. I guess that's why the program has accomplished so much and is
 known nationwide for its innovation.
   The university has developed an excellent historical video that takes
 you from the founding in 1883 to the present. Each of the award recipients
 will receive a copy of it.
   As Kupchella talked about this history -the theme of the program was
 "From tradition to tomorrow" - he mentioned an event that I'd heard about
 before: The founding was the same day in 1883 as the first performance of
 Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show. It also took place six years before
 North Dakota became a state.
   In all that history, I wondered: Where were the Ojibwe, Mandan, Arikara,
 Lakota, Nakota and Dakota people?
   The video also showed footage of a once-popular UND event called the
 "Flickertail Follies," which looked like something that would be enjoyed
 today.
   We saw a picture of the early university on the outskirts of Grand Forks.
 Buildings were sparse, and there were no trees.
   What a difference from the campus today.
   The Founding Day celebration and the 125th birthday reminds us
 particularly of the excellent professors and staff we have at UND and what
 a priceless jewel we have in the university.
 ---
 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: YELLOW BIRD: Campaign calls up old Stereotypes" ---------
 
 Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2008 07:29:42 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="YELLOW BIRD: DEMOCRAT CONTENDERS"
 
 http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=69523
 
 Campaign calls up old stereotypes
 Dorreen Yellow Bird Grand Forks Herald
 March 5, 2008
   As I write this Tuesday, I realize that the day's primaries and caucuses
 will be over today, when this column appears. So, my question will not be
 who won, but how and why the elements of race and gender in the mix may
 have affected the vote.
   Did these issues matter in the early races?
   Yes, I believe they did.
   I think we are a nation that has put aside race and gender publicly, but
 as individuals - underneath it all - these issues continue to affect us. I
 know they influence me, and I'm not sure I even realized it.
   From my experience, gender is more influential than race.
   Sen. Barack Obama is black and Sen. Hillary Clinton is a woman, two
 traits voters have not experienced at this level in presidential elections.
   These issues may seem incidental in the endless number of analyses from
 talk shows, news clips or editorial writers. They are, nevertheless, part
 of the scenario, no matter how much we try to say they don't count.
   Clinton brings with her a background of an Ivy League education, the
 logic of a lawyer, a history as the wife of the president, service as a
 senator from New York and, most recently, experience as a candidate for
 president herself.
   As a candidate, Clinton's image changed like a woman in a beauty contest
 going from evening gown to swim suit - more exposure. And all that with
 the help of her campaign people, of course. What should she be to attract
 her constituents?
   Her ace in the hole was that she's smart and experienced.
   But some of that experience was on the sidelines as the president's wife.
 She graduated to more in-depth experience as a senator. As she moved into
 the fighting mode of the campaign, I saw a harder, more callous woman. Is
 that something women need to win in a contest as difficult as the race for
 the White House?
   We have no experience with a woman in the most powerful position in the
 nation and world.
   As Clinton moved forward and tried to catch a fast-moving Obama, she
 became more and more hard line, talking over moderators of the debates -
 always pushing, pushing. Also, she looked for weaknesses in her opponent
 and tossed daggers that mostly missed their target.
   The crass term "bitchy" comes to my mind - something we say of women,
 not men. And not a worthy comment about a woman who would be president.
   Then, in the past few weeks, a sound of desperation leaked into her
 campaign, "Please vote for me," she seemed to whine to factory workers she
 met at 5:30 a.m., just a few mornings before Tuesday's vote. Little sleep
 but a lot of makeup, I would say, probably held her up.
   It's that "too needy" factor that came off in the last days before
 Tuesday's vote. Do we see the "too needy" factor as a woman's trait?
   I wondered about her relationship with Bill Clinton. Has he changed so
 that he won't embarrass her if she captures the presidency? What a bummer
 it would be for her to have to deal with his kind of Monica Lewinsky
 philandering while she is trying to negotiate with a Middle Eastern
 government or convince Congress that what she wants is important.
   We don't seem to be as tough on men who philander. For example, we re-
 elected Bill Clinton. We don't like what he did, but I think we overlook
 it.
   There is honor in suffering and forgiving for women, but what about a
 woman president? Would divorce be an option for her? It's not uncommon for
 partners to have family problems that end in divorce. In fact, divorce is
 so common that people who live with the same partner all their lives can
 seem like the exception to the rule, especially in the world of
 entertainment.
   As I think about the race, I realize I am harder on Clinton than I am
 Obama. This may be because of the things we are taught and raised with as
 children and young women.
   Being a woman candidate for president would seem to have more downsides
 - and if Clinton wins the nomination, she certainly deserves credit for
 overcoming all those old stereotypes I hardly recognized in myself.
 ---
 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: ABOUREZK: Native Superdelegates mulling Candidates" ---------
 
 Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 07:31:02 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="ABOUREZK: NATIVE SUPERDELEGATES"
 
   http://www.pechanga.net/
 http://www.reznetnews.org/blogs/red-clout/
 native-superdelegates-mulling-candidates
 
 Native Superdelegates Mulling Candidates
 By Kevin Abourezk
 March 6, 2008
   A Democratic nomination like no other.
   That's how many political pundits are describing the titanic clash this
 presidential primary season between Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and
 Barack Obama.
   On Tuesday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) cinched his party's nomination.
   So these times beg the question: Who does Indian Country support?
   Depends who you ask.
   A good place to start: the Democratic Party's only two Native American
 superdelegates.
   As two of 794 Democratic superdelegates, Frank LaMere and Kalyn Free are
 getting a lot of attention right now in a race that many expect
 superdelegates will play a key role in deciding at the Democratic National
 Convention in August.
   The power to help decide their party's presidential nominee is a trust
 LaMere and Free aren't taking for granted.
   LaMere is endorsing Obama.
   Free said this week she remains undecided.
   Both agree: The remaining presidential candidates' past work and
 rhetoric on Indian issues portend better times for Native people.
   "I think this past administration has been abysmal on Indian issues,"
 said Free, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma who also is
 president and founder of INDN's List, a nonprofit that recruits and trains
 Native political candidates. "I think it is a new day in Indian Country,
 and I think a new administration is going provide a brighter future for
 Indians in America."
   McCain served as chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and was
 the only presidential candidate in 1999 to speak at the National Congress
 of American Indians national convention.
   Obama has addressed Native issues mostly through his Web site, though he
 spoke about Indian issues also while campaigning in Nevada in January.
   Clinton mostly stands on the work of her husband, who gained Indian
 favor by adding a key Native liaison position within the White House.
 Hillary Clinton also spoke via satellite in November to attendees of the
 NCAI annual convention.
   So why does LaMere, a Winnebago tribal member and longtime Democratic
 Party activist, support Obama?
   "Hillary Clinton, to many Native people, represents the status quo,
 business as usual," he said. "Eighty percent unemployment at Pine Ridge
 should not be business as usual. High rates of suicide and diabetes on our
 reservations should not be the status quo."
   Indian Country, he said, needs someone willing to think out of the box
 when it comes to finding solutions to Indian issues. For LaMere, that
 someone is Obama.
   "He has generated a lot of excitement, and I believe he will be an agent
 of change, something that Native people can appreciate," he said.
   Still, LaMere plans to support whoever the Democratic nominee is and
 will work to educate that person on Indian issues come August. Those
 issues, he said, include health care, housing and education for Indian
 people.
   "We need a new approach," he said. "We need, literally, a New Deal for
 Indian people."
 ---
 Kevin Abourezk, Oglala Lakota, is a reporter and editor at the Lincoln
 (Neb.) Journal Star. He is a reznet assignment editor and teaches
 reporting at the Freedom Forum's American Indian Journalism Institute.
 Copyright c. 2008 Reznet.
 Reznet is a project of The University of Montana School of Journalism. 
 
 --------- "RE: COULTER: Real Apology means you won't do it again" ---------
 
 Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 07:49:33 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="COULTER: EMPTY APOLOGY"
 
 http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416748
 
 Coulter: A real apology means you won't do it again
 by: Robert Coulter
 March 7, 2008
   Congress is considering an apology to American Indians for the wrongs
 done by this country - forced relocation, takings of lands, violating
 treaties, destroying sacred sites, and outlawing Native religions and
 languages, to name a few. But a real apology means you won't do it again -
 and there is the problem.
   The federal government still takes Indian land without paying for it,
 still fails to account for the Indian money it holds, still violates
 treaties with Indian nations without making amends, and still maintains a
 body of law and policy that is so discriminatory and racist that it should
 have been discarded generations ago. To make a genuine apology, Congress
 needs to stop doing the things for which it is apologizing.
   It is astonishing to most Americans that Congress and the administration
 are still taking Indian land and resources - without due process of law
 and without fair market compensation - sometimes with no compensation at
 all. The Constitution says that Congress may not take anyone's property
 except for a public purpose, with due process of law, and with fair market
 compensation. But these rules are not applied to most land and resources
 owned by Indian tribes, and the government takes the land and resources at
 will. Obviously, this is wrong.
   A few years ago, Congress confiscated part of the Yurok Nation's
 reservation in California and turned it over to another tribe. At the time,
 Congress gloated that it could do this without paying compensation because
 of "plenary power," a concept that gives Congress complete power over
 Indian affairs. This power has almost no constitutional limitations that
 protect basic rights, and Indians are the only people in the United States
 subjected to it.
   A good example of ongoing wrongs is how the government is trying to
 drive Western Shoshone Indians off their homelands in Nevada without due
 process and for a payment of about 15 cents per acre. This is gold-mining
 land (much of it turned over for only $2.50 per acre to Canadian-owned
 companies) but Indians derive no royalties from it, while being left
 virtually landless with no means for economic development to improve their
 impoverished conditions.
   In 2004, Congress passed a law that confiscates more than $145 million
 belonging to nine Western Shoshone tribal governments and orders the
 Interior Department to hand out the money to individual tribal members.
 The bill was passed despite the objections of most Western Shoshone tribes,
 because it violates their inherent right to self-governance and control
 over their resources.
   Another glaring abuse of federal power is how the Interior Department
 still does not account for billions in Indian funds that it holds. This
 national shame is reported regularly in the press. The department is
 defying the law, as it has done for years. The United States still insists
 that Indian tribes, and in some respects Indian individuals, are in a
 state of permanent, involuntary trusteeship, with the federal government
 as trustee. No one else in the United States is subject to such
 unaccountable "trusteeship."
   Congress today insists it can put Indian nations and tribes out of
 existence at any time by terminating their rights. Indian nations and
 tribes still have no real right to exist in U.S. law. The threat of
 termination is very real. Some small Native tribes in Alaska have heard
 this threat from congressional sources in recent years.
   Congress also insists that it may freely violate treaties made with
 Indian nations. Sadly, this is not a thing of the past. Congress does this
 today - regularly. Treaties are contracts, and the government cannot
 freely violate its contracts with others, but it often does so in the case
 of Indian treaties.
   The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the OAS, an
 international legal body that is officially recognized and supported by
 the United States, in 2002 concluded that U.S. policies regarding Indian
 lands are discriminatory and constitute a violation of human rights. But
 the administration is defying the commission and refusing to change the
 discriminatory laws it applies to Indian tribes.
   This embarrassing state of affairs, this ongoing pattern of lawless and
 arbitrary congressional power over Indians, has resulted in a negative,
 risky, unpredictable business climate on Indian reservations that inhibits
 needed economic development.
   Many of the things Congress is considering apologizing for are still
 being done to Indians, Alaska Natives and to Native Hawaiians as well.
 Sadly, the United States, especially Congress, has never given up its
 insistence on treating Indian and Alaska Native nations with injustice and
 discrimination. This is not only wrong, but very bad public policy and
 wholly out of keeping with American values.
   So what should Congress do? In addition to an apology, Congress should
 conduct hearings on these issues and adopt a resolution never again to
 take Indian or tribal property without due process of law and fair market
 compensation. The resolution should promise that Congress will never again
 terminate any American Indian tribe or its government and never again
 violate or abrogate a treaty with a Native nation without making full
 compensation and correcting all resulting harm to that nation. Congress
 must examine and change all federal laws, regulations and court-made law
 that deprive Indian nations and tribes of constitutional rights. Congress
 must pass legislation to assure that the government accounts fully for the
 Indian money and property it holds.
   Indian nations have particular rights based on their existence as
 nations since before the United States was created. But this does not mean
 that these Native societies and governments should be punished by being
 deprived of the fundamental constitutional rights that protect everyone in
 this country from arbitrary government action. Indian nations should have
 at least the same constitutional rights that all others in this country
 are accorded.
   Until Congress corrects the grievous legal framework that applies to
 Indian nations, tribal governments must work at a terrible disadvantage to
 battle the deplorable poverty and social problems that afflict most Indian
 communities. Government program funds and casinos cannot ever overcome the
 fundamental legal injustice that Congress continues to inflict on Indian
 and Alaska Native nations.
   Without such commitments from Congress, an apology will not be in good
 faith and will have to be made over again. Until the government changes
 its ways, things cannot be expected to improve much in Indian country. It
 is time to make the changes.
 ---
 Robert Tim Coulter, founder and executive director of the Indian Law
 Resource Center in Helena, Mont., and Washington, D.C., has practiced
 Indian and human rights law for more than 30 years.
 Copyright c. 1998 - 2008 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved.
 
 --------- "RE: YELLOW BIRD: `Powwow Fever' spreads before event" ---------
 
 Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2008 08:03:35 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="YELLOW BIRD: ALMOST CANCELED POWWOW"
 
 http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=69891
 
 `Powwow fever' spreads before event
 Dorreen Yellow Bird Grand Forks Herald
 March 8, 2008
   A bare-bones budget almost canceled the 39th annual Time-Out Powwow at
 UND. After a lot of agonizing and restructuring the budget, American
 Indians students were able to commit to the 2008 powwow. Its Time-Out
 panels and programs are scheduled for April 14-17, and the powwow will be
 April 18-20.
   It has been 39 years since the university, with the help of then-
 President Tom Clifford, developed plans to try to bring understanding to
 the community regarding American Indians through the Time-Out week and
 powwow.
   When I heard rumors that the powwow would be canceled, I called B.J.
 Rainbow, UND Indian Association president. Rainbow and I have been friends
 for several years. He is one of those dedicated young family men who is a
 future leader.
   This year, he told me, the budget just didn't seem to work, but they
 pushed on. Every year, it seems to become tougher and tougher for the
 students to put aside their classes to raise money. This year was almost
 the breaker.
   The university doesn't always understand why they have a need for a
 budget, Rainbow told me. The students have been asked why drummers,
 singers and dancers need to be paid. It's like any other performer,
 speaker or author that the university brings to the campus, except that
 these groups of entertainers work for much less money because they love
 the art, he said.
   The UND powwow is the beginning of the powwow season, so the drummers,
 singers and dancers are eager to try new songs they've created or try out
 their new regalia they've beaded and hung together during the winter. They
 call powwow excitement at this time of the year "powwow fever."
   Rainbow is a drummer and singer himself. It's an art; maybe more like a
 spiritual art, I thought.
   This year, they have about $10,000 in prize money for the drummers. The
 number and reputation of the drum groups bring in the dancers. The dancers
 like to dance to professional drum songs. What the winnings covers is
 mostly room, meals and mileage; some come from as far away as Arizona and
 Alaska. Five singers in one group might split $1,000 a day, a sum that
 barely pays their costs.
   Drumming isn't as simple as it might appear. Some examples of drum songs
 are word, straight and memorial songs. In the word songs, the Dakota
 language might be used. It may be a memorial song about a solider who
 returned from war.
   This kind of word song is old. It comes from the ancient times, when
 warriors were honored for their bravery and skills. The drum songs are
 created by the singers from dreams, maybe sounds of the wind or in prayer.
 That is the spiritual part of the art.
   You have to know which song to sing for which person, Rainbow said.
 These songs tell a story, and the story needs to be about the right war,
 too. You wouldn't sing a World War II song about a man who just returned
 from the Iraq war.
   Some of the songs are prayers, and some just tell a story - like the
 "sneak-up" songs, which tell of stealing horses and so on.
   When you decide you want to be a singer and drummer, you approach
 someone who can mentor you, or you might join a drum group, and they will
 mentor you. There is protocol: You have to wait to be invited to sing. You
 just don't "jump on a drum" unless you know the songs, Rainbow said.
   When you are learning, you have a certain spot on the drum that you hit.
 You don't drum loud in the center because maybe the song calls for a
 sudden stop, and you'll still be drumming, he said with a smile. That
 would be embarrassing.
   When you're a singer, you need to learn voice control; and when you
 first begin, you sing softly so that you're not still singing when
 everyone else has stopped. This happens often in songs such as the "Crow
 Hop," which has skipped beats.
   The dancers want a good drum because they can then "show their stuff."
 They have moves, and they want them to show well to the judges. In the
 Grass Dance, for example, there's a lot of footwork. Today, many of the
 young dancers are incorporating contemporary footwork in their moves,
 Rainbow said.
   Outfits are getting shinier because the dancer wants the judges to
 notice them, Rainbow said. "I don't know if I agree with that," he added.
   It would be unfortunate if the work of these young people went by the
 wayside simply because of a lack of understanding of American Indian
 culture.
 ---
 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: WHITE: We won't let Interior off hook so easily" ---------
 
 Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:52:09 -0700
 From: Gary Smith 
 Subj: NA News Item
 - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
 filename="WHITE: NEW LAND INTO TRUST GUIDANCE FLAWED"
 
 http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416749  
                                                                 
 White: We won't let Interior off the hook so easily
 by: Lorraine White
 March 7, 2008
   Last week, in Washington, D.C., I testified before the House Natural
 Resources Committee at the oversight hearings held on the Interior
 Department's recently released "guidance" on taking land into trust for
 tribes and its broad ramifications.
   The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe gave testimony because we were tremendously
 affected by the new "guidance" policy that introduced a "commutable
 distance factor" in determining land-into-trust applications for off-
 reservation gaming. The Mohawks received a denial on our trust application
 that, prior to the new guidance, received approvals and favorable
 determinations from Interior - including a recent environmental approval
 or Finding of No Significant Impact last December under Interior Secretary
 Dirk Kempthorne. Given the series of favorable determinations over a
 period of nearly 12 years, it is wholly apparent that Interior is not only
 a vortex of contradictions, but is intent on making up rules as they go
 along, as it suits them.
   This new guidance should have all of Indian country concerned for
 several reasons.
   Assistant Interior Secretary Carl Artman made on-the-record statements
 at the hearing that the guidance is not a policy change, but an "internal
 management tool." Indian country should be worried with wonder, asking
 both Kempthorne and Artman: Exactly how dumb do you think we Indians are?
 Parading the guidance out to Indian country and the U.S. House of
 Representatives as a management tool that allowed the agency to simply
 clear their desks of land-into-trust applications in one fell swoop and
 testifying that this is not policy is altogether laughable.
   Committee Chairman Nick Rahall pointedly asked Artman, "What tribes and
 with whom did the department consult with?" To which Artman replied, in a
 barely audible tone, that he was "not sure." Artman testified that
 Interior believed in tribal consultation, but reserved it for "special
 occasions" and explained that there was "some communication" with tribes,
 but he was unable to name any.
   Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Mich., pointed out to Artman that Indian tribes are
 not "social clubs," but are sovereign entities requiring more than casual
 communication. However, it would appear that officials at Interior have
 their own definitions of tribal consultation and have devised new,
 unpublished standards by which those consultations might take place,
 presumably at their own convenience and willful discretion.
   Call it what you want, but this policy has not only run roughshod over
 Indian country as a whole, in failing to abide by the federal
 Administrative Procedures Act that requires tribal consultation, but it
 has circumvented federal law and deprived tribes of due process. The
 Mohawks were one of 11 tribes that received blanket denials based on the
 new guidance, all 11 having received notification of the new rules only a
 day after they were issued.
   Rest assured that beyond the 11 affected tribes, there are tremendous
 ramifications to all of Indian country for placing land into trust for
 purposes beyond gaming - for housing or other means of economic
 development.
   The Secretary of the Interior has effectively set Indian relations back
 some 150 years with the prevailing attitude that it is in the Indians'
 best interests to stay on the reservations. Apparently Kempthorne would
 rather ignore the stubborn realities of crippled remote Indian economies
 where few job opportunities exist. He would instead prefer to prevent the
 future from arriving at isolated reservation lands, impeding struggling
 tribes' attempts to change their fate.
   All of Indian country should not let the Interior so easily off the hook.
 It is our people, our communities, our grandchildren and all of our
 futures that are at stake.
 ---
 Lorraine M. White is a St. Regis Mohawk tribal chief in Akwesasne, N.Y.
 Copyright c. 1998 - 2008 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved.
 
 --------- "RE: Brian 'Old Crapper' Crane has Balls" ---------
 
 Date: Sun Mar 2 12:56 
 From: 'orakwa'     
 Subj: MNN Brian 'Old Crapper' Crane has Balls
 
 BRIAN "OLD CRAPPER" CRANE HAS BALLS
 TO CRUSH INDIGENOUS RESISTANCE &
 DIG OUT "YELLOWCAKE" AT SHARBOT LAKE  
 [by Iakoha'ko:wa, Kanion'ke:haka/Mohawk of Sharbot Lake]
 SHARBOT LAKE.  Nov. 18, 2007. 
   Why's this guy trying to choke us like there's no tomorrow?  The
 experience of the Navajo might give us a clue.  "Ray Manygoats of Tuba
 City Arizona told Congress how his family cooked their meals on a grill
 his father brought from the "Rare Metals" processing plant. The grill had
 been used to sift yellowcake, which is uranium. "We would play in the
 yellowcake sand at the mill, jumping and rolling around in it.   We also
 found many small metal balls at the mill.  They were used to crush and
 process the uranium" and to eventually kill off the Navajo.   Was that the
 plan?   ["Uranium legacy outrages Congress:
 http://www.gallupindependent.com/2007/october/102407kh_urnmlgcy.html
   Brian "Old C" Crane is the "Negotiator for Ontario" in the phony
 "Ontario Algonquins" land claim.  Robin Aitkin of Indian Affairs plays the
 role of Canada's representative.  Robert Potts pretends to represent the
 "Algonquins". What a farce!
    None of the real people involved have been consulted - the only
 participants have been the "paper mache Algonquins" and "Symbolic
 Canadians".  The theatrical work looks like a front to camouflage the
 struggle of the Kanion'ko:haka/Mohawk to stop uranium mining on our
 unsurrendered Haudenosaunee land at Sharbot Lake, 24 miles north of
 Kingston Ontario.
   As Iokerenenh said:  "Once Great Britain and the other European
 countries found out about the New World and its assets, they set out to
 make their fraudulent claims.  Every "license, permit, grant, charter and
 declaration" that these imperial franchises known as "Canada" and the
 "United States" were issued and those they themselves now issue are
 invalid and fraudulent.
   Ontario government agencies keep giving "glowing" reports about how good
 radiation is for us.  The "Mineral Development Strategy" Winter 2007 issue
 outlines the Crown's "duty to consult" us "at the strategic planning
 stage". This is based on the affirmation of "Aboriginal rights" in
 Canada's constitution and confirmed in Supreme Court of Canada decisions
 [Taku River Tlingit First Nation v. Tulsequa Chief Mine Project and Haida
 Nation v. British Columbia.]
   Unfortunately, for the colonial governments, industrial financial
 interests come first.  Ontario operatives continue to drool over the
 original nations' resources.  [Has anybody got bibs?] We have a right to
 object to the brutal vandalism of these zombies who seem to be lost in a
 19th Century time warp.  Colonialism has always been illegal.  But It's a
 hard habit addiction for "imperial junkies" to kick.  The cure is easy. 
 Just treat everyone equally and respect everyone's voice.  These gangsters
 still use Fear and Threats and pretend it's the law.  They keep
 hallucinating that we're irrelevant.  "Tthe Crown" keeps sucking up to
 industry.
   Let's not forget, Ontario and Canada are not Indigenous governments. 
 They are foreign colonial entities, constituted without our participation
 or approval.  Their Mining Act is not legitimate on our territory. It only
 binds their "subjects".  We are not their subjects.  We were never
 defeated and we never swore allegiance to them.  The resources they claim
 have been taken in violation of international law and without the consent
 of the owners of the land who have lived here since time immemorial.
   Ontario's idea of "consulting us" is to let Frontenac Ventures Inc.
 stake uranium claims on our land while "talks" are going on.  They have no
 clean up plan.  They intends to leave the contaminated  mess they make for
 the Indigenous peoples and ordinary settlers to live with.
   The Ardoch and Shabot Obaadjiwan "Algonquins" set up a camp at the old
 Robertsville mine site at Sharbot Lake on June 28, 2007 and dismantled it
 in October 2007.  They said then, and they still say, "No Deal!"  Instead
 of consulting us, it turned into a "law enforcement" matter.  Now it looks
 like the imperial operatives are hunting for "Aboriginal Partners" who can
 be bribed to cut a deal and share in the loot.
   Gary Lunn, Minister of Natural Resources Canada, wants to "streamline
 the regulatory approval process for energy and mining projects in Canada".
 He also wants to ignore international law which states that one nation
 cannot