_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___
' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / )
/ / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___
(_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ '
____ _ , ___ _ , ___
/ ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' 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 |
