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Date Posted: 09:38:54 06/23/01 Sat
Author: Anonymous
Subject: News and Issues

Story Filed: Friday, June 22, 2001 7:33 PM EDT

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) -- The Miami Nation of Indians of Indiana is not a
tribe and the federal
government does not have to recognize it, a federal appeals court has ruled.

``Probably by 1940 and certainly by 1992, the Miami Nation had ceased to be a
tribe in any
reasonable sense,'' a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Court of Appeals said
in a ruling issued
June 15.

``It had no structure. It was a group of people united by nothing more than
common descent,
with no territory, no significant governance and only the loosest of social
ties.''

Arlinda Locklear, a Jefferson, Md., attorney representing the Miami Nation,
said Friday the
group plans to appeal.

``We think the decision is wrong,'' she said. ``We think the decision is
based in large part to a
misrepresentation of facts to the court by the government.''

An 1840 federal treaty called for the removal of the Miamis from Indiana.
Soldiers were sent to
force them out in 1846, and they were moved to Kansas and then to Oklahoma.

Today, Miami, Okla., is the seat of the Miami Indians of Oklahoma, which has
federal
recognition.

The court said about 4,700 Indiana Miamis are left. Only a third of those
live in five contiguous
counties in Indiana, and they don't live in a group. They constitute less
than 0.05 percent of the
counties' population, the court said.

The appeal court ruled that ``Indian nations, like foreign nations, can
disappear over time.''

The Interior Department ruled in 1992 that the Miamis were not a tribe,
saying the group didn't
live in a distinct community and had not maintained authority over it
members.



Rep. Rips Pol Who Says
Puerto Rico 'On Welfare'

By RICHARD SISK
Daily News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON

The Vieques dispute exploded on Capitol Hill yesterday over a House
Republican's suggestion that Puerto Rican protesters were ingrates who "sit
down there on welfare."



Jacqueline Jackson, wife of civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, is
detained during protest inside Navy camp on Puerto Rican island of Vieques.


Rep. Jose Serrano (D-Bronx) called the remark by Rep. James Hansen (R-Utah)
"one of the meanest things I've ever heard."
In a letter to Hansen, Serrano said Hansen was entitled to his view that the
Navy should remain on Vieques, but he added, "As an American citizen who was
born in Puerto Rico, I was personally offended by your harsh comments."

Hansen, an 11-term conservative, told National Public Radio that Puerto Rico
should not get "favorite treatment" over other parts of the country that
accommodate military training ranges.

"They sit down there on welfare, and very few of them paying taxes, got a
sweetheart deal," Hansen said.

Bill Johnson, Hansen's legislative director, didn't flinch at his boss' tough
talk. "We have nothing to apologize for," Johnson said. "We don't get into
games of political correctness" or "racial and ethnic grandstanding," he said.

Puerto Ricans benefit from federal aid, but "the problem is they don't put
anything in, that's just a fact," Johnson said. Puerto Rico "is in fact a
welfare state supported by the federal government," he said.

Puerto Ricans have shown their patriotism in the military, Johnson said, but
the demonstrators on Vieques are "siding with the wackos and leftist nuts who
started the protests. These folks are traveling back and forth to Cuba."

The verbal fireworks erupted in Congress as Navy jets resumed shelling the
Vieques bombing range yesterday, despite attempts by protesters to disrupt
the exercises. Thirteen people, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson's wife, were
arrested in protests yesterday.

A proposal by President Bush to end the Vieques bombing in two years has left
protesters angry and has enraged conservatives in Congress like Hansen.

Serrano said Hansen's remarks reflected demeaning stereotypes and "a lack of
understanding of the Puerto Rico-U.S. relationship."
Serrano said even members of Congress still do not know that Puerto Ricans
are U.S. citizens.

Members of Congress he would not identify have approached him and ask him to
bring back Puerto Rican stamps and money for their collections, Serrano said.

The last time a House member asked for a sample of "Puerto Rican money,"
Serrano said, "I pulled out a [U.S.] dollar bill and gave it to him."

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who has been arrested in Vieques
demonstrations, said, "Civil disobedience is as old as America. I'm proud of
the peaceful, nonviolent civil disobedience" on Vieques.

Jim Kennedy, communications director for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton
(D-N.Y.), said his boss has "made the point that the people of Puerto Rico
volunteer for the armed services at a higher rate than just about anyone in
the country, probably including Utah."

Original Publication Date: 6/19/01

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