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INDIAN NEWS AND ISSUES
INDIAN NEWS AND ISSUES
Welcome and please feel free to post any news and events in your area
THE NATIVE AMERICAN ADVOCATE
Mescalero Fire -- Anonymous, 14:25:56 04/11/01 Wed

Tuesday, April 10, 2001

Winds Feed Mescalero Wildfire

By Rene Romo
Journal Southern Bureau
Firefighters continued to struggle Monday to control the wind-fanned Turkey Well wildfire that had burned 2,000 acres on the Mescalero Apache reservation within a few hours of its Sunday afternoon start.
Strong winds that gusted up to 60 mph Monday afternoon fed the Turkey Well Fire. The winds started about 3 p.m. Sunday and grounded two air tankers and a water-dropping helicopter that flew on the first day of the firefighting effort, said Karen Lightfoot, a spokeswoman with the fire management team.
No new estimate of the wildfire's size was calculated after a Monday evening meeting of firefighting officials, but Lightfoot said one would be attempted today using global positioning satellite systems.
''We'll get a better estimate at that time,'' Lightfoot said.
The more than 400 firefighters deployed to fight the Turkey Well Fire burning on the 460,000-acre Mescalero Apache reservation, about 20 miles southwest of Ruidoso, used bulldozers and shovels to dig a brush-free perimeter around the fire.
A timetable for total containment had not been estimated by late Monday, Lightfoot said. Winds were expected to blow stronger today.
''If they can hold the line (today), they can start talking about when they can call it contained,'' Lightfoot said, adding that four 20-member crews would work the fire's perimeter Monday night. ''The fire is still very active in the interior part where there are lots of big, heavy logs burning.''
Because fire danger is considered extreme, several restrictions were imposed Monday on the reservation. Outside fires, including refuse burning and charcoal fires, are prohibited, along with the use of firearms, fireworks or explosives. Smoking is only be permitted indoors or in vehicles.
In addition, Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement officers and tribal conservation officers will enforce a restriction against stopping or parking along U.S. 70 and N.M. 244 within the reservation.
The Inn of the Mountain Gods resort, Casino Apache and the Silver Lake campground remained open Monday.
Management of the firefighting effort was turned over to a multiagency team led by the U.S. Forest Service.
The Lincoln National Forest, which surrounds the Mescalero reservation, was not threatened Monday afternoon, said Forest Service spokesman Joe Garcia. Fire danger in the Smokey Bear Ranger District, which covers Ruidoso, was listed as moderate Monday, Garcia said.
The Lincoln National Forest was hard hit by wildfires last year. The Cree Fire — started May 7, 2000, by a 21-year-old Ruidoso man and three teen-agers exploring a cave in Gavilan Canyon — burned 8,650 acres.
Last year's Scott Able Fire started May 11 when part of an aspen tree fell on a power line and burned 16,000 acres around the towns of Sacramento and Weed.


[ Edit | View ]

Culture and wealth ???? -- Anonymous, 14:11:06 04/11/01 Wed

11:43 p.m. on Tuesday, April 10, 2001

Culture, wealth luring Indians back to reservations nationwide
Census: www.census.gov
Bureau of Indian Affairs: www.doi.gov/bureau-indian-affairs.html
National Congress of American Indians: ncai.org
By CARSON WALKER
The Associated Press

KYLE, S.D. -- The yearning to be on family land was so strong for Leatrice Wilson that she left thriving metropolitan Denver to live in the nation's poorest county on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Wilson, a 41-year-old Oglala Sioux trained as a medical assistant, landed a job last year helping people with funeral expenses, heating bills and medical costs. She said she is happy -- and proud -- to be back.

"There's a whole new generation of people who are on the reservation that have lived out there and have an education, and they're determined to be a part of what's going on to help the tribe," Wilson said.

According to 2000 census figures, American Indian reservations across the country are burgeoning -- even in the West, where vast rural stretches are losing people.

Experts and tribal officials say many areas are getting a boost from Indians returning to jobs and wealth provided by ubiquitous tribal casinos, and others seeking to rekindle their heritage. Still others return to family and familiar surroundings after struggling financially and culturally off the reservation.

Overall, the number of people who identified themselves solely as Indian and Alaska Native grew by 26 percent during the 1990s to about 2.5 million last year. Add multiracial categories and the number of people claiming some Indian ancestry is even larger.

The population surge was seen from coast to coast:

• In Arizona, the Indian population jumped 25.7 percent during the past decade. At the Fort McDowell and Tohono O'odham reservations, officials said casinos lured back tribal members and helped pay for improvements such as fire departments, health clinics and education. The Navajo, the largest tribe in the United States, saw the number of Indians on its sprawling reservation reach 173,631 last year -- a 21 percent jump.

• California passed Oklahoma to become home to more Indian and Alaska Natives than any other state -- more than 333,000, up from 242,000 in 1990, according to a Tulsa World analysis. Some 300,000 additional Californians included Indian or Alaska Native in a multiracial response.

• In Connecticut, a 50 percent increase in the Indian population during the 1990s has been linked to tribal casinos, which distribute wealth to members and give hiring preferences to Indians.

• In Idaho, the Coeur d'Alene tribe has added a new tribal school and hundreds of homes to communities on its reservation. In Kansas, several reservations have housing shortages.

• In New Mexico, 20 of 22 reservations grew.

Census officials say they did a better job counting everyone last year than in 1990. Even so, they estimate they missed 4.7 percent of Indians and Alaska Natives on reservations, more than three times the national average. Some tribes say the undercount is far higher.

JoAnn Chase, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, said she doubted that many people were declaring Indian ancestry without good reason.

More likely, she said, multiracial Indians are more likely the adult children of parents of two races who are reconnecting with their Indian culture and traditions.

"It is very welcome," she said. "I think that constitutes the largest part of the population, people who legitimately have a nexus to their tribal affiliation."

Angel Reddest grew up on the Pine Ridge reservation, attended Black Hills State University and lived for a while in Rapid City. She now owns Lil Angel's convenience store in Kyle with her mother and brother.

"I like it here on the reservation, and that's why I chose to come back," she said.

Kyle is in Shannon County, considered the poorest in the nation, with an unemployment rate of more than 80 percent. Yet its population rose 26 percent in the 1990s to 12,466 last year.

In fact, all nine of South Dakota's reservations grew and the state's overall Indian population jumped 23 percent.

Dennis King of the Oglala Sioux's housing office in Pine Ridge said cuts in supplemental welfare are forcing some Indians to return to the reservation. Culture shock forces others to come back, he said.

"They'd much rather work back at home where they're familiar with their people," King said.

Theresa Two Bulls, vice chair of the Oglala Sioux, notes that census numbers affect federal aid for housing, education, health care and other services. Her goal is to encourage economic development to help people become self-sufficient.

"There's so much potential out there," she said. "We shouldn't be in this poverty-stricken state."

It is lingering problem for many reservations and it tempers the population increases. Officials in Montana and Arizona, for example, say many young people are leaving reservations to seek better educational and business opportunities in urban areas.

"Right now our economy is still depressed, but we are working on it" said Ernie Yazzie, a statistician and census adviser for the Navajo. "Navajos go off the reservation for college and stay there."

In Wilson's case, she wasn't just seeking to reconnect with her heritage. She wanted to make a fresh start for her sons, ages 23, 20, 19 and 4.

"I wanted to leave them something so they didn't have to live over there," she said of Denver, where her older sons felt threatened. "And I want to start something here so I can bring them with me."

It's a 40-minute drive to Kyle, where Wilson works. Dirt roads, now muddy in the springtime melt, get her to her mother's place. Then she walks to her own home nearby.

"To have land is such a blessing. I appreciate my mom so much because she's the first one to go out there and say, 'I can make it work,"' she said. "She gave us the strength to say we can do it, too."


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White Clay Story -- Anonymous, 10:11:36 04/09/01 Mon



High schoolers hear Whiteclay
story
BY JODI RAVE LEE Lincoln Journal
Star

High school students gathered at
the Arts and Humanities Focus School Friday to hear
authentic voices tell the
story of Pine Ridge, Whiteclay,
murder and alcohol.

Tom Poor Bear, an Oglala Lakota,
shared stories about the lives of Native people there,
then and now.

"When they wanted our land, they
burned our tipis and killed our ponies," he said.
"Today those tipis are still
burning in our hearts. Our ponies
are still riding in the spirit world."

Poor Bear has taken the lead in a
campaign to eradicate Nebraska alcohol sales to the
Lakota of Pine Ridge.
About 90 students from the Arts
and Humanities Focus School and Lincoln High School
listened to four
panelists, including Poor Bear,
discuss current events in Whiteclay.

Whiteclay, the tiny unincorporated
town a stone's throw from South Dakota's Pine Ridge
Reservation.

Whiteclay, the village of 22 with
four off-sale bars that sell 4 million cans of beer to
their Pine Ridge neighbors.

Whiteclay, the little town that's
made big headlines since two men - Ronald Hard Heart
and Wilson "Wally"
Black Elk Jr. - were found
murdered there nearly two years ago. Poor Bear, who
was related to both men,
helped establish Camp Justice - a
trailer, a tipi and a cook shack - close to Whiteclay
to call attention to the
unsolved deaths.

Since the deaths of Hard Heart and
Black Elk, the story of Whiteclay has spread across
the country and has
grabbed the attention of some of
the Lincoln students' East Coast counterparts.

"I'm sort of a devotee to the
Howard Zinn brand of American history," said Paul
Wright, a freshman teacher at
Radnor High School near
Philadelphia. "It's what I call the seamy underside of
American history."

For those reasons, Wright said, he
didn't rely on high school textbooks when it came time
to study Native
history. He turned to the
Internet, instead, hoping to find some current
material for classroom discourse.

A Whiteclay-Pine Ridge photo essay
by Lincoln Journal Star photojournalist William Lauer
on the newspaper's
Web site caught his attention.

"One of the things that came
across pretty clearly is how there was, definitely, a
sense of just a general level of
frustration," he said.

The Hard Heart-Black Elk protest
photos were worth a thousand words, leading to
additional research and
classroom discussion.

Most of Wright's students come
from affluent families and attend school near the
private, upscale Villanova
University. Likewise, many
struggled to relate to life on Pine Ridge, but an
equal number became informed
enough to start asking questions,
their teacher said.

"I think the kids got a sense that
it was more than just these murders," Wright said.
"The murders might have
been the match strike, but
everything else had been building and building and
building."

Like Wright, Lincoln Arts and
Humanities teacher Linda Kalbach wasn't satisfied with
the standard fare for
curriculum on Native people.

"The issues are ones that can't be
addressed in any reading or textbook," said Kalbach,
who organized Friday's
panel discussion.

"The whole topic of Whiteclay and
Pine Ridge sort of evolved out of the topic of last
semester about faith and
faith as a tool for personal and
social change," she said.

Poor Bear and members of Camp
Justice, the Nebraska State Patrol, Nebraska State
Liquor Commission and
Nebraskans for Peace told students
of their roles in enforcing the law and working with
the people in the
Whiteclay-Pine Ridge area.

"In cities, we put cameras up to
see someone running a stop sign," said 18-year-old
Matt Baker of Lincoln High
School's Native American Scholars
class. "Why can't we do it to save a life?

"Why don't our people get the same
respect?" the young Lakota asked. "That's all I ask."

His comments were met with loud
applause, mostly from Native people. Many of the
non-Native students were
at the early stages of learning
about life around Whiteclay.

"They are on the brink between
cynicism and asking, 'How can we get involved in this
sort of thing?'¥" Kalbach
said.

Said 16-year-old Ali Weber of the
Arts and Humanities School: "I'm really excited about
hearing this. I think
definitely there needs to be one
specific officer sent to the town daily. I don't think
that's too much of a sacrifice
to make.

"Obviously, there's more of a
problem there than in Chadron or in any of the
surrounding towns."


[ Edit | View ]

FBI has Leads,but NO_ARRESTS -- Anonymous, 10:08:46 04/09/01 Mon

FBI has leads, no arrests in slaying of Native men

The deaths of two Oglala men that
sparked Native protest marches to the Nebraska village
of Whiteclay remain
unsolved nearly two years later.

Federal investigators have made no
arrests in the June 1999 murders of Wilson "Wally"
Black Elk Jr. and
Ronald Hard Heart, said FBI
Special Agent Mark Vukelich of Rapid City, S.D. The
men were found beaten in
a road ditch just north of
Whiteclay.

One full-time investigator is
assigned to the case and he can bring in more
investigators if need be. The agent
continues to investigate leads,
but so far has been unable to assemble enough evidence
for an arrest, Vukelich
said.

"Prosecutions are decided by the
U.S. attorney and they have found insufficient
evidence to sustain a
prosecution," he said.

Authorities are offering a $40,000
reward for information leading to an arrest. So far,
the reward fund has
generated no leads, Vukelich said.


Tom Poor Bear, an Oglala Lakota
and relative of both victims, said his family will
likely file a lawsuit against the
FBI and tribal police for what he
called an inadequate investigation.

In the wake of the murders, Poor
Bear organized marches to Whiteclay and established
Camp Justice near
where the men were found.

- Joe Duggan


[ Edit | View ]

White Clay and Increase in tickets -- Anonymous, 10:07:24 04/09/01 Mon

Alcohol tickets up in Whiteclay
BY JOE DUGGAN Lincoln Journal Star


An increased law enforcement
presence in the reservation border town of Whiteclay
has boosted the number of
tickets for alcohol-related
offenses.

In recent months, Nebraska State
Patrol troopers have ticketed scores of people for
drinking violations in the
unincorporated village of 22 near
South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation.

An Oglala Lakota civil rights
leader has criticized the patrol's enforcement effort,
saying the agency is wrongly
targeting Native people
debilitated by alcoholism.

"We're not the criminals, we're
the victims," said Tom Poor Bear of Pine Ridge, who
participated in a Whiteclay
panel discussion Friday in
Lincoln. "The State Patrol should look at the real
criminals, the people selling beer in
Whiteclay."

The citation increase followed
Gov. Mike Johanns' Feb. 12 request that the patrol
tighten enforcement in
Whiteclay. At the time, the
governor was responding to a plea from Oglala
President John Yellow Bird Steele
and others to address alcohol
problems in the village. Four off-sale beer stores
operate in Whiteclay, several
hundred yards from a reservation
where alcohol possession is banned.

Troopers issued 30 tickets in
February and 33 in March. Most of the citations
involved misdemeanor offenses
such trespassing, public drinking
and open container, said Sgt. Martin Costello, the
patrol's alcohol and tobacco
enforcement coordinator.

Because the patrol has not tracked
offenses in Whiteclay in the past, a direct comparison
can't be made, said
patrol spokeswoman Terri Teuber.

"I think it would be safe to
indicate that it's an increase," she said. "Certainly
we have turned additional focus on
that area."

"Several" of the tickets were
issued against beer store owners, Teuber said, but she
did not have specifics on
how many.

Each year, the four stores sell an
estimated 4 million cans of beer - the equivalent of
nearly 16,700 cases -
almost exclusively to residents of
the reservation, where alcohol sales are prohibited.
According to tribal
sources, about 38,000 Oglala live
on Pine Ridge, the nation's second-largest
reservation.

Poor Bear, who since 1999 has led
marches from the reservation to Whiteclay to protest
violence against the
Oglala, said the patrol's
enforcement effort is misdirected. For years, Native
people have told Nebraska officials
about illegal sales in Whiteclay,
yet not a single liquor license has been revoked. Now,
he said, when the patrol
focuses attention on the town,
Native people pay the price.

"I hope one day the governor will
come back to Whiteclay and see that nothing's
changed," he said. "My people
are still in pain."

State Patrol Col. Tom Nesbitt
responded by saying troopers can't pick and choose
which laws to enforce. If
they see a violation in Whiteclay
or any other Nebraska town, they must act accordingly.


"We need to enforce all laws and
that includes laws for the establishments, the Native
Americans and the other
citizens in Whiteclay," he said.
"We need to treat everybody fairly and equitably."

Nor have troopers limited their
efforts to alcohol offenses. Over the two-month
period, they've cited motorists
for 112 traffic violations and
given 74 warnings.

Frank LaMere, a Winnebago from
South Sioux City who has been involved with the
conflict for years,
questioned why officials couldn't
take action against the beer vendors who were
contributing to so many
violations on the streets. He
pledged to closely monitor how law enforcement
authorities and the state Liquor
Control Commission follow through
on the violations.

"If there are that many citations,
I am hoping, I am anticipating, that something is
going to happen to those liquor
licenses," he said.

Costello, the patrol's liquor
enforcement officer, said it's difficult to connect an
open container case with the
seller. Last month, Costello was
in Whiteclay when he and another officer saw a man
drinking beer in the middle
of the street.

"We asked him, 'Where'd you buy
it?' And he said, 'I don't think I need to tell you
that.'¥"

In addition to stepped-up law
enforcement, Johanns also agreed in February to a
summit involving Nebraska
and Oglala leaders. A date for the
summit has not been set, said Tanya Cook, urban
affairs assistant to the
governor.

"We want this meeting to have some
results at the end, not to be a meeting to have a
meeting," she said.

Yellow Bird Steele said he was
still optimistic his nation can work with Nebraska.


[ Edit | View ]

The battle to protect artifacts and sites -- Anonymous, 09:32:34 04/09/01 Mon

The battle to protect artifacts, sites
APRIL 9, 2001

With sacred artifacts fetching high price tags and
demand reaching internationally, federal authorities
are hard at work trying to protect looting of Indian
archaeological sites.

In 1995, Bureau of Land Management authorities used
DNA evidence to track down Earl K. Shumway for
stealing from a site in Utah. Shumway received fice
years for the crime, the longest ever.

Utah authorities prosecute more archaeology-related
crimes than anywhere else. But the costs are high and
they can take a long time to carry out.


[ Edit | View ]

Fishermen overstep bounds -- Anonymous, 09:31:00 04/09/01 Mon

DFO says some natives overstepping bounds of fishery

MONCTON, N.B. - Some native fishermen will soon be charged for selling
lobster they catch as part of the food fishery.

'There's still a few that think they can go out and make a few extra dollars'
The native food fishery allows native people to fish for food or for
ceremonial purposes.

Officials with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans alleges native
fishermen at Big Cove have been doing more than that.

Charges are pending against people suspected of overstepping the bounds of a
native subsistence fishery. The DFO says some natives are taking their right
to fish for food to a commercial level.

Jim Jones, head of the DFO in the gulf region, says people at the Big Cove
First Nation near Richibuctou are selling lobster they're supposed to be
using for food.

Jones says a series of investigations by DFO could lead to charges against
both those selling and those buying the lobster.

"In the past we've had a number of charges relative to the food fishery that
have gone through court and in many cases we've gotten convictions," says
Jones.

James Augustine, a former band councillor at Big Cove, says most native
fishermen respect the rules of the food fishery, but he says there are some
who are abusing it.

"There's still a few that think they can go out and make a few extra
dollars," he says.

Augustine says those few commercial fishermen are ruining it for others. He
says they're putting the relationship between native and non-native fishermen
in danger just for a bit of cash.



Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
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COINTELPRO LIVES ON -- Anonymous, 16:44:49 04/02/01 Mon

thought you would all appreciate this article, especially for those on
the front lines of Indian Issues... I guess we all have to keep our
eyes peeled 'cause Cointelpro lives!!
kat

_____________________________________

MSU police spy on student groups

photos at http://www.msu.edu/~godwinsh/index.html

On February 19th, 2000 students at Michigan State University held an
informational meeting to discuss the use of sweatshop labor in the
making of collegiate apparel. Participants at the meeting decided to
start a local chapter of the national group United Students Against
Sweatshops. One "student" who joined the group at this first meeting
was "Samantha Volare" who claimed to be an elementary education
junior. We have since learned that "Samantha Volare" was actually
officer Jamie Gonzalas of the MSU police department.

"Samantha Volare" was active in United Students Against Sweatshops @
MSU (now known as Students for Economic Justice) throughout the Spring
2000 semester. She attended nearly every meeting and took part in
various demonstrations including a protest on March 15th, 2000 outside
of Steve and Berry?s, in East Lansing. An article written by Tony
Paul, and photo taken by Brad Etheridge, were published in the State
News the following day. The photo features officer Jamie Gonzalas
taking part in the protest and the caption identifies her as
"elementary education junior Samantha Volare."

After about six months of steady involvement with the USAS group,
"Samantha" was spotted, in full police uniform, by a member of the
Brighter Days Collective while driving to work. After informing the
other members of the Brighter Days Collective of this sighting, with
many conversations taking place over the phone, "Samantha" suddenly
stopped attending the meetings. She also stopped attending meetings
of Lansing Anti-Racist Action which she also joined during the Spring
semester.

It took until January, for members of the Brighter Days Collective to
come into contact with "Samantha", when she was spotted at a rally
for political prisoner Leonard Peltier taking place in front of the
Breslin Center on January 9th, 2001. The group ran over to greet
"Samantha" with cameras in hand. Though she tried to cover up her
face and call for back-up, pictures were taken and her secret identity
was verified. Since this "outing" of "Samantha" as officer Jamie
Gonzales, she has appeared, in full police uniform,
at every demonstration held by Students For Economic Justice.

The MSU police have been involved in political surveillance in the
past. "After a May 1965 open-housing rally led to the arrests of 59
MSU students, the East Lansing Police Department and the MSU
Department of Public Safety formed a political surveillance unit that
spied on hundreds of faculty and students. Its files were shared with
the Michigan State Police "Red Squad" and the FBI. ("War on Campus,
Michigan State." Vietnam, August 1995. pg 28)"

Political surveillance should have stopped in 1976 when a ruling on
Benkert v. State of Michigan forced the State Police and Detroit Red
Squads to disband when "the state law upon which the state police
political surveillance unit was organized was declared
unconstitutional and the unit was disbanded. (A Blow Against the Red
Squads." The Nation, February 14, 1981. pg 68)"

It is unsurprising that various police agencies including the MSU
police and the FBI are monitoring and infiltrating student groups at
Michigan State University. There is a literal war being waged on
activists around the country, which mimics the FBI?s COINTELPRO
program, in which undercover operatives disrupt and report on the
activities of groups, which the government considers a threat.

Officer Jamie Gonzalas disrupted the activities of Students for
Economic Justice by agreeing to work on a poster with a member of the
group and then not following through with her commitment. We believe
that she reported to the MSU Administration on our strategies, plans
and activities. We believe that files are being kept on members of
the group due to the fact that officers are not assigned and paid to
go undercover without producing paper work. "I always wondered why the
Administration seemed to be one step ahead of our campaign," says
Shaun Godwin anthropology junior a member of the Brighter
Days Collective and the former spokesperson Students for Economic
Justice (during the spring 2000 semester).


[ Edit | View ]

Indian Cultural Center -- Anonymous, 09:32:41 03/23/01 Fri

http://www.indianz.com
NATIVE AMERICAN CENTER PLANS UNVEILED

Native American center plans unveiled
2001-03-23
By Jack Money
Staff Writer


Earth. Water. Wind. Fire. These powerful forces have been brought together in
the site for the planned Native American Cultural Center in Oklahoma City.
Designers unveiled their concept for the center Thursday to Oklahoma's Native
American Cultural and Educational Authority.

"It has been a long trip," said Sen. Kelly Haney, D-Seminole, who thanked
both design team members and authority board members.

"I think this will not only be one of the foremost destination sites in
Oklahoma, but for the region, too," Haney said.

The center, planned for the south bank of the North Canadian River just east
of Eastern Avenue, includes a 125,000-square-foot museum and a
75,000-square-foot marketplace designed to inform visitors about legends,
myths and truths involving American Indians.

A report by the designers says the museum should document the history of
American Indians, including the forced relocations of tribes to Oklahoma.

The museum should also illustrate their triumphs and their evolution to what
they are today.

It should promote the living cultures of American Indians through language,
history, dance, arts, and cultural and spiritual tools.

The center should include artifacts but also photographs, videos, holographs,
festivals, dance and music performances, story-telling and the making and
sale of arts and crafts.

The complex is oriented to the points of the compass and designed to
integrate Earth and its peoples.

Designers use two large circles, with the museum and its entrance at the
intersection of those circles.

The museum's main entrance is through a circular plaza called the "Court of
the Wind." The plaza will be surrounded by tree-like sounding pipes,
representing Oklahoma's Indian tribes, and designed to resonate when in the
wind.

Once inside, visitors will find themselves in the "Hall of the People" -- a
towering prism of glass designed to remind viewers of traditional tribal
dwellings. Beyond a tall, wide glass wall, they will see a "Court of Nations"
and its symbolic fire in the westernmost circle's center.

The museum will include permanent and temporary galleries as well as a
300-seat theater, a demonstration gallery and family, discovery and study
centers.

Other potential permanent features could include a Warrior's Memorial,
remembering not only American Indians who died fighting for their lands, but
also those who fought for the United States in wars against other countries.

The center's marketplace, meanwhile, will be east of the museum and work its
way to the riverbank.

Artists will be able to produce and sell their work in a community setting. A
200-room hotel also is planned as part of the center for tribal meetings and
conferences. An outdoor amphitheater, a smaller hotel, a park for
recreational vehicles, and a dance ground also are planned.

Native American Cultural and Educational Authority board members will take a
month to review the plans.

Fund-raising for the museum continues. So far, about $12.1 million of a
needed $25 million has been raised, officials said.

Tommy Thompson, the authority's executive director, said he was pleased with
the design work. Firms involved in the project include Johnson Fain Partners
of Los Angeles, Hornbeek Larsson Architects of Edmond, Ralph Appelbaum
Associates of New York, and Hargreaves Associates of San Francisco.

"I think we have probably the best design team in the world, and I am very
pleased with what they have accomplished -- especially with that particular
piece of land," Thompson said. "We can really make this a showplace for
Oklahoma."


[ Edit | View ]

RED CLOUD -- Anonymous, 09:28:56 03/23/01 Fri

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com
RED CLOUD BUST UNVEILED IN NEB. HALL

Red Cloud bust unveiled in Neb. hall

Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns, right, tries to look around the headdress of
Oglala Chief Oliver Red Cloud during a ceremony Thursday inducting Red
Cloud's grandfather, Chief Red Cloud, into the Nebraska Hall of Fame, in
Lincoln, Neb. (AP Photo by Nati Harnik)


By Scott Bauer, Associated Press Writer

LINCOLN, Neb. — Famed Oglala Sioux Chief Red Cloud, known for his bravery as
a young warrior and his leadership as a chief in the late 1800s, took his
place Thursday as a member of the Nebraska Hall of Fame.


The unveiling ceremony in the Capitol's Warner Memorial Chamber was attended
by about two dozen of Red Cloud's relatives and more than 100 others,
including Gov. Mike Johanns, the artist who sculpted the bust and Oglala
Sioux Chief Oliver Red Cloud.


"I really want to thank you from the bottom of my heart," said Red Cloud, the
grandchild of the honored chief. "I have been waiting for this for years."


After the unveiling, Winfred Red Cloud sang the Red Cloud Honor Song.


The bronze bust, sculpted by Jim Brothers of Manhattan, Kan., who is part
Cherokee, shows Red Cloud wearing a single feather and holding a peace pipe.
The bust was based on a famous portrait of Red Cloud at the Smithsonian
Institute.


His bust will join other Hall of Fame members in the Capitol, including two
other American Indians — Standing Bear and Susette LaFlesche Tibbles, an
Omaha Indian-rights activist.


U.S. Sens. Chuck Hagel and Ben Nelson of Nebraska, along with Sen. Ben
Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado, spoke about Red Cloud's importance to
Nebraska and U.S. history by satellite from Washington, D.C.


"He stood up for his people, his land and his way of life as any great
American would," said Campbell, chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on
Indian Affairs.


President Bush sent a letter for the occasion, noting Red Cloud's character
and tireless advocacy for peace.


Red Cloud was born in 1822 in Garden County. He rose through tribal ranks to
become chief in the early 1860s.


In 1866 the federal government announced plans to open the Bozeman Trail and
build three forts to defend it. The trail, from Nebraska and Colorado through
Wyoming to Montana, crossed some of the Sioux's favorite hunting grounds.


Red Cloud organized a two-year campaign of harassment against workers on the
trail and its forts. His efforts led to the government's signing of a 1868
treaty abandoning the trail and its forts.


The treaty was broken and another Indian war started when gold was found in
the Black Hills. When the Sioux were defeated and forced onto a reservation,
Red Cloud refocused his work as a statesman.


Red Cloud spent the final years of his life on the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation in South Dakota. He died in 1909.


Red Cloud was among the first to be considered for membership in the Hall of
Fame in the early 1960s, but he was not nominated again until last year.


Twenty-two people, including showman Buffalo Bill Cody, author Willa Cather
and Arbor Day founder J. Sterling Morton, have been inducted into the hall
since it was founded in 1961.


On the Net: Nebraska Historical Society: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/


[ Edit | View ]

News and Issues -- Anonymous, 09:40:09 03/12/01 Mon

Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

Cherokee Nation settle for $4.3M
MARCH 9, 2001

The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma on Thursday announced
it has settled some of its claims over federal funding
with
the Department of Interior.

The tribe was one of several who won a lawsuit over
funding of self-determination contracts. For the years
from 1989
to 1993, the tribe has agreed to settle for $4.3
million.

The tribe has other outstanding claims, stemming from
Indian Health Service funding.

Get the Story:
Cherokees awarded $4.3 million (The Tulsa World 3/9)


67 Date: 2001-02-27 23:51:19
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

From: "carroll cocchia"
>
> My name is Carroll Griffin Cocchia, Executive
> Director of the Native
> American Chamber of Commerce, located in Houston,
> Tx. Just wanted everyone
> to be aware that Russell Means will be coming to
> Houston on April 18-20, to
> speak at Rice University, and at our Chamber's first
> fundraising luncheon.
> If anyone wants further info, they can email me at
> cocchia1@txucom.net, or
> call me at (936)-441-4572.

66 Date: 2001-02-27 23:49:24
Sacred Heart (no email / no homepage) wrote:

Dear friends,

For your information, the case of Leonard Peltier will be addressed during these upcoming events in New York City:

* Critical Resistance - East:
Beyond the Prison Industrial Complex
Northeast Regional Strategy and Organizing Conference
March 9 - 11, 2001
Columbia University, New York City
For more info: Tel 212-561-0912 / Fax 212-656-1410
critresisteast@aol.com
www.criticalresistance.org/creast

* Indigenous Women's Conference
March 10 - 11, 2001
Abron's Arts Center,
Henry Street Settlement
466 Grand Street, New York City
For more info: Tel 718-796-2460 or 631-207-2030
inarunikla@aol.com
www.prescenciataina.net

* Screening of 'Incident At Oglala'
March 25, 2001 at 7pm
Eco-bookstore
192 Fifth Avenue, near Union Street
Brooklyn, New York
For more info: Tel 718-623-2698
cessana@aol.com


******************************************
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
www.freepeltier.org

Demand Freedom for Leonard Peltier
http://www.petitiononline.com/Release/petition.html
Sign the Petition





65 Date: 2001-02-27 23:47:59
Sacred Heart (no email / no homepage) wrote:

Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 12:21:27 EST
From: AIM4JUSTCE@aol.com
Subject:Condemnation of Walmart's Statements

Press Release/Community Statement

The National Field Office of The American Indian Movement strongly
condemns Walmart and their spokesperson Keith Morris for using
propaganda, distortions, coercion and outright lies in their attempt
to sway public opinion to build a Walmart Supercenter upon a sacred
Indian Burial site near Morgantown WV. This is indicitive of Walmarts
ruthlessness in obtaining what they want regardless of consequences.
Walmart is paying a less than credible local archeologist to say whatever
they need to close this deal. The recent report that a Walmart can be built
around the sacred site is an outright lie. The archeologist in questions has
direct ties to West Virginia University who ultimately will benefit from the
Sale of this sacred site to Walmart a clear conflict of interest.
In a report from The WV State Historic Preservation Officer Walmart and
this archeolgist has flagrantly violated West Virginia Law Code 29-1-8a ,"
Protection of Skeletal remains." We we be asking The state Attorney General
to investigation this flagrant violation of state law.
In closing please know this office will not sit quietly by while Walmart and
it's paid stupes use lies and distortions to manipulate the good people
West Virginia.


64 Date: 2001-02-20 12:37:06
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

Grammys hear the beat of tribal drum groups
by Jim Adams
Today staff



Photo Courtesy of Makoche Records Dana and Courtney Yellowfat

Drum groups make the biggest sound in the lineup for the first-ever Native American Music category in this year's Grammy Awards. As some had expected, the nominees come heavily from the traditional side of this highly diverse musical world.

One group, in fact, is so anti-commercial that it would rather play at Sun Dances than pow wows.

Even though the category is one of 100 in the Feb. 21 Grammys, recognition by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Science will give unprecedented exposure to American Indian music and its performers. The winner will be given an on-screen mention during the nationally televised awards show said NARAS president Michael Greene, even though time won't allow a formal presentation or live performance. The actual presentation, he said, would take place in a pre-broadcast ceremony.

Since the members voting in this category produced a heavily traditional lineup, Greene said the academy would be considering splitting off a second category for contemporary Indian music, oriented to younger performers.

Here are the five nominees in line for the history-making award in Los Angeles. In addition, R. Carlos Nakai will have another shot at the New Age award, after receiving a double nomination in that category last year.

Lakota Thunder

No leap into the spotlight may have been greater than the one for this young group from the Standing Rock Reservation, straddling the North and South Dakota line. It plays mainly at Sun Dances and naming ceremonies in Lakota country. Courtney Yellow Fat, lead singer with his brother, Dana, says the group doesn't hit the pow wow circuit much. "Pow wows are getting too commercialized. There's too much money involved."

Its 13 members are primarily Hunkpapa Sioux, and its first record, "Veterans Songs" opens with a tribute to the tribe's great spiritual leader Tatanka Iyotake (Sitting Bull). Like much of their music, this song was preserved "underground," said Yellow Fat, who teaches Lakota culture at the Standing Rock Community High School in Fort Yates, N.D. "We learned it from our elders and we will eventually teach it to our children."

The group's album, produced by Makoche Records, is practically a history of the Lakota warrior tradition, from the fight against Pahin Hanska, "Long Hair," Lt. Col. George Custer, to distinguished service in two world wars, Korea and Vietnam. "We start back when we were fighting against the U.S.," Yellow Fat said. "Then we make a transition with the Flag Song to when we were fighting for the U.S."

Yellow Fat said he was puzzled at first that so many Lakota enlisted for World War I when at that point they weren't even citizens of the country. But then, he said, "an elder told me that we as Native Americans always felt we had a duty to protect this land from enemies."

Recording this tribute "to the elder people, the veterans, and their struggle" aroused deep emotions, Yellow Fat said. "You can hear it on the record."

Joseph Fire Crow

The other nominee from the Makoche label, Fire Crow is still stunned by the honor. When he first heard the news, he said a friend came in his living room where he was leaning on a sofa and said, "Look, you are shaking like a leaf."

"I looked at my arm and I was vibrating. I thought I was in deep thought, trying to handle this thing."

A Northern Cheyenne, Fire Crow, 42, was born on the Montana reservation and reared there until he was 9 when he placed with a foster family in Seattle as part of the Mormon Indian Placement program. He grew up as a Mormon until his college years at Brigham Young University. Before finishing his senior year, he left for the reservation. "I was starting to forget my Cheyenne language and heritage. I needed to find out who I really was."

Back home, he said, it took years for him to regain acceptance, but he reconnected with some of his earliest memories. As a boy on the rez, he first heard the Native flute. "Grover Wolfvoice was the flute man paying this wonderful music."

But inspiration for a musical career ranged as far afield as seeing Wayne Newton on the Ed Sullivan show, he said.

After releasing two self-produced records, he signed with Makoche in 1995. Label co-founder David Swenson "tracked me down to my sister's house on the rez," he said. He was impressed by Makoche's plans to represent Northern Plains music, and his 1996 album became one of the company's biggest sellers. His current Grammy-nominated album "Cheyenne Memories" mixes the traditional flute with contemporary instrumentation.

Fire Crow moved to the mountain terrain of Winsted, Conn., a bit more than three years ago to be with the love of his life and future manager Joann Moore, whom he met at the Schemitzun pow wow of the Mashantucket Pequots. Now, he says, "I find myself burning cedar and saying a little prayer" while waiting the awards show.

"It's just the greatest honor ever, not just to be nominated but to be making history" in the first year of this category. "In the meantime, I'm trying to keep myself grounded."



63 Date: 2001-02-20 12:35:08
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:


Black Lodge Singers

Ken Scabby Robe and his sons have won most of the awards around for Indian music, but he is still impressed by the Grammy nomination. "Well, it's a bit of a shocking deal, you know. I can't believe it yet."

A member of the Blackfeet tribe from Browning, Mont., Scabby Robe started the Black Lodge Singers after moving to Washington state and raising a family with his wife, a Yakima Indian. His 12 sons were still small but they wanted to go with him on the pow wow circuit, where he is still a championship dancer. He said he figured they would just be spending money if they didn't participate, so in 1982 he told them, "The only way you'll go is if you'll sing or dance. They said, 'We choose to sing.'"

After watching them study tapes, Scabby Robe says he took down his drum and started teaching them songs. He figured they'd give it up after a while, but in a year and a half the group won its first drum contest. Since then, the Black Lodge Singers have traveled all over the country and even to Greece to play with the Macedonian symphony orchestra.

The group has recorded with the Phoenix Symphony in an original work composed by James DeMars. The record, the "Two Worlds Concerto," won a Native American Music Award three years ago. But one of its most famous albums is the light-hearted "Kid's Pow Wow Songs," featuring folk tunes and cartoon themes like the Mighty Mouse jingle.

"Mainly why I did that was that a lot of little kids weren't really into the circle," Scabby Rose said. "A lot of them would sit around, but they wouldn't sing. After the tape came out, I noticed a lot of little kids were singing the songs."

The Grammy nomination is for the more traditional album "Tribute to the Elders," but Scabby Robe, a Baptist minister, said he is planning a future album of gospel songs, done Indian style.

Joanne Shenandoah

The diva from the Oneida Nation in New York may be the best known and most widely heard of all the nominees in the non-Indian world. Her music was featured on the television series "Northern Exposure." She opened the Woodstock '94 music festival and performed several times for Hillary Clinton.

Her records are noted for her soaring lyrical voice, in keeping with the melodic style of Eastern Woodlands music. She is nominated for her latest release "Peacemaker's Journey" on the Silver Wave label.

Gathering of Nations

Pow Wow

Rounding out the nominees, this annual compilation album features the drum groups from the annual Gathering of Nations Pow Wow in New Mexico, considered one of the largest in the country. Pow wow records have been the staple of the American Indian music industry for decades, but Tom Bee, founder of Sound of America Records (SOAR), boasts that his label brought unprecedented sophistication and production values to the genre.

A Dakota based in the Southwest, Bee built SOAR from scratch into the first Indian-owned record company after a career with the ground-breaking rock group XIT. He was also a main force lobbying for the Native American category in the Grammys. The 1998 version of the Gathering of Nations compilation won for Best Pow Wow Recording in last year's Native American Music Awards.

On the eve of the first-ever Grammy award for Native American Music, the Recording Academy is thinking of adding another category for contemporary Indian performers, Greene said. "That may be the first split we do."

"The important thing is to go after the younger Native musician."

Greene said his family is from a town in northern Georgia, heavily inhabited by Eastern Cherokee who went underground at the time of Andrew Jackson.

Nominations in the new Grammy category sent a shock of excitement through the Native music world, performers and label executives are saying.

"It's an important validation," said Robert Doyle, president of Canyon Records. "This is the biggest of all the awards." Doyle added he expected the academy would add more Indian categories, "but they're not going to do it without considering it for some time." He said he hope to see the expansion "within three to five years."

In the meantime, Greene said the academy is seriously pursuing "outreach" to American Indian musicians. "We were at the Native American market at Santa Fe for two years," he said. ""I went to Oklahoma City to the Native American Music Educators convention. We are very optimistic that membership from the Native American community is going to grow in coming years."

Leaders in American Indian music started to lobby for a Grammy category 14 years ago, say label executives. The movement picked up steam over three years ago with establishment of a Native American Music Award program, the Nammys.

Greene's organization, formally known as the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Inc., has been presenting the Grammys since 1957. Its 43rd annual awards show will be broadcast from Staples Center Feb. 21. The three-hour show on CBS-TV will reach a worldwide audience of nearly 2 billion, he said.

Jim Adams reports from the Northeast. He can be reached at (203) 222-7347 or by e-mail teshunka@yahoo.com.


62 Date: 2001-02-20 12:31:07
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

Cyber-shaman draws thousands to his Web
AGNES DIGGS
Staff Writer
Victor Rocha feels he has found his place in the world, using his cyber drum to tap out news of the world and his community. It's an occupation and a responsibility he said he feels fortunate to have.
"Fortunate. You'll hear me say that word a lot, because I am," he said.

Rocha is the webmaster for the Web site of the Pechanga band of Luiseno Indians, Pechanga.net, where visitors can get "Indian gaming news and much more." What began as a news digest to disseminate information to tribes about gambling ballot measures has become a key source for anyone interested in "Native American issues, gaming issues and Indian gaming issues."

Rocha, a registered member of the band, is a cousin of Tribal Chairman Mark Macarro.

The site includes a range of choices, including a chat room, guest book, gambling links and an American Indian Web site for children. Internet surfers who select "Victor's Web Links" will find unexpected subjects like vintage guitars, a Bill Gates Web site, "Gilligan's Island's" Dawn Wells' Web site and a One-Stop Government Web site.

E-mail comes in from around the world. Rocha said he recently received a message from India seeking advice.

"They just see Indian and they don't go beyond that," he said. "This guy wrote to me asking for advice because his wife wasn't being obedient and it was embarrassing him in front of his family."

Rocha, 39, was raised in Colton, the second oldest of seven siblings in a blended family. He said his childhood was hard, a typical urban Indian kid growing up without any kind of roots.

"I had a dysfunctional family and I did everything I could to stay alive, until I was 30," he said. "I attended public school, but I was fortunate. I was a bookworm, so I got an education in spite of my public school education. My teachers recognized that I had something extra, and encouraged it."

Fresh out of high school, Rocha got a job in a San Bernardino record store where he found mentors who broadened his perspective. He began pursuing a musical career, playing and recording. He moved east in 1987, living his music dream for a time in New Jersey and New York, but he returned to California in 1990. As a cure for his rootless feeling, he began getting in touch with his tribe. His grandmother had moved back to the reservation from the city in the late '80s, he said, and she helped him learn more about his ancestors.

"I didn't feel grounded until the tribe accepted me," he said. As he got more involved with the tribe, he felt more grounded by the love he said they gave him.

"They gave me some roots," he said. " And ever since then, I've felt like I had to give something back, and that's why I have the Web site."

Rocha had learned some computer skills in junior college, he said. He bought his computer three years ago, took it into his loft, sat down and installed it, and he's been there ever since, he said.

"It (the Web site) was created with the best of intentions, to help my tribe," he said. "Then I found out that I can also help other tribes."

The most recent outreach to another tribe came through a convergence of events, beginning with a trip to Washington, D.C., where he watched the presidential inauguration parade with a group which included an aide to Sen. Jay Rockefeller (R-W.Va.) . About a week later, as Rocha was compiling his news digest, he came across an article about a town in West Virginia which is trying to reclaim the remains from 600 American Indian graves. The bodies are stored in plastic bags at Ohio State University, and residents want them returned to sacred tribal ground. Rocha e-mailed the story to his contact in Rockefeller's office, and staff there will be making inquiries into the matter.

"My ability to get things done has to do with my ability to see how things are connected, and how they can be, and how they should be," he said. "That is what I was born to do and I feel that I am helping in the sense of a civil rights worker, moving people forward,"

Rocha is emphatically not a morning person, and a typical day for him starts when he wakes at 10 a.m. He immediately turns on his computer and begins multi-tasking. He loads his Web site, checks his e-mail, culls for relevant news articles, makes phone calls and checks his visitors book, working until 4 p.m. He then might nap until 6, have dinner and maybe a little TV; but by 9 p.m. he's back in the loft where he'll work to compile the news in time for his East Coast readers to get it before going to work.

"I'm riding on top of this big behemoth juggernaut called the Internet," he said. "And I'm hanging on, and I'm having the time of my life."

More important, he said, he now gets paid for doing it. At start-up, he worked without pay. Now he sells some advertising.

"I'm making a living, which is important in this society. You can't just be a gadfly. I pay my taxes just like anybody else."

Contact staff writer Agnes Diggs at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2621, or adiggs@nctimes.com.

2/18/01



61 Date: 2001-02-20 12:27:02
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

Building capitol has tribe at odds
2001-02-19




ADA -- Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby still holds tight to the dream of a new capitol building for his tribe.
So far, the plan is progressing. Tribal leaders have whittled a list of 30 possible sites down to four, and are hoping to hire an architect soon.

But past criticism of the capitol plan and anger over a wave of job cuts in the tribe's health care system has many Chickasaws wanting to reconsider any grand construction projects.

"We as leaders need to rethink this process," said tribal legislator Lisa Shephard, who heads the Chickasaw legislature's finance committee. "We need to reconsider ... what we're doing when the state of the nation is not a good state."

Pressing on When the new capitol idea first surfaced, Anoatubby said his tribe needed more room for its expanding government and a showplace to highlight the tribe's advancement. He said the Chickasaw capitol needs "to make a statement."

That was nearly a year ago. The Chickasaws are based in Ada but allowed several towns to bid for the capitol site.

The tribe received bids from Ada, Ardmore, Davis, Sulphur and Tishomingo. Thirty possible sites in or near those towns were considered.

Officials are looking at two sites south of Ada and two sites near Sulphur, Anoatubby said.

Anoatubby said he doesn't know how much the capitol would cost but said it would be "in the millions" of dollars. Officials won't know how much the total will be until they buy the land and see their architect's plans.

Bad timing? Visions of a grand showplace were tempered last week when the tribe announced 123 job cuts in its health care system. Sixty-three people lost their jobs outright, while 60 others were offered new jobs in other areas of the tribe's government.

The surprise announcement caught employees and tribal legislators off guard. Many Chickasaws think the capitol plan needs to be re-evaluated.

"Why do we want a new capitol?" said David Brown, a former tribal lieutenant governor and one of Anoatubby's harshest critics. "It's ludicrous."

He said the health system's $4.5 million budget shortfall shows that there are deeper problems that need to be fixed before moving ahead with building the capitol.

Similar comments were voiced by legislators. Beth Alexander, who heads the legislature's health committee, said the capitol plan needs to be delayed.

But Anoatubby said the health system's finances are separate from the finances of the rest of the tribe. The tribe's hospital and four clinics are funded by the federal government while most of the tribe's other finances are self-generated.

While the health system was financially troubled, the rest of the tribal government made money. In 1999, the tribe ended the year with a $12 million surplus, budget figures show. In 2000, the tribe's gaming centers, businesses and other projects showed a $14.5 million net profit.

"This (the layoffs) is isolated to the health system. The tribe is doing well," he said.

Tribal legislator Wanda Blackwood Scott agreed.

"The problems with the hospital are different than what's going on with the capitol," she said.

Anoatubby said capitol critics are using the layoffs as a way to attack the plan.

"Probably the people who are saying these things were against it anyway. This just gave them another reason, and it's bogus.

"The tribe needs to progress," he said. "It needs a new capitol."

Politics and governing Behind the layoffs and the arguments that followed are bitter tribal politics that pit Anoatubby against his detractors. Chief among them is Brown.

Brown served with Anoatubby as his lieutenant governor. He is also Anoatubby's first cousin.

But he ran against Anoatubby in 1999 and has been haranguing the governor's policies ever since. He said the capitol plan has more to do with Anoatubby's ambition than the tribe's welfare.

"He wants this to be his legacy," Brown said. "He wants to look at the top of a hill, point to a capitol and say, 'I did that.'"

Brown said the tribal offices in Ada are adequate, but if a capitol is needed, the tribe should expand the historic capitol in Tishomingo.

He also accuses Anoatubby of mismanaging tribal affairs and funds.

Anoatubby said he's not sure why Brown turned against him but dismissed his allegations as counterproductive and untrue.

"I don't know where they get all that. Most of that is from political enemies trying to trash what we do."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Search the archives of the Oklahoman Online for similar stories. You will not be charged to look for stories, only to retrieve one.
All content copyrighted 2001 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.






60 Date: 2001-02-20 12:25:13
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

Italian-American group loses Columbus permit at Capitol

State rescinds OK for Oct. 8 gathering because foes filed first

By Peggy Lowe, News Staff Writer

The two sides in last year's Columbus Day demonstration nearly got a chance to stage a repeat performance on the west side of the Capitol this fall.
But it was all a mistake, statehouse officials said Wednesday.

Demonstration permits were erroneously approved for both End the Politics of Cruelty, a group affiliated with the American Indian Movement, and an Italian-American association, said Jeff Schutt, director of human resource services.

When the error was discovered this week, the state rescinded the Italians' permit for Oct. 8 because the opposing group had applied first.

A worker had failed to place End the Politics of Cruelty's documentation in a file, said Schutt. So when the Italian group called for a permit, it was given one, he said.

"We should have been able to tell the second group it was already booked," Schutt said. "We have very clear documentation that the permit was issued to the other group first."

C.M. Mangiaracina, leader of the Italian-American group, couldn't be reached for comment.

End the Politics of Cruelty plans a gathering to protest hate speech and celebrate cultural diversity, said Barbara Cohen, one of its members. She applied for the permits in October and has permission for demonstrations on the west steps of the Colorado Capitol on Oct. 6, 7, 8, 12, 13 and 14.

Cohen said she received a phone call from a state worker Tuesday asking if she would give up her permit for Oct. 8.

"I said I would not give up my permits," she said. "I have plans for all six days."

Those plans include speakers, dances and music, Cohen said.

Organizers of last year's parade had agreed to change the name to The March of Italian Pride to mollify Columbus Day critics but then backed out of the plan, prompting AIM and its supporters to protest the Oct. 7 parade. Police arrested 140 people.

Meanwhile, Mangiaracina has formed the Denver Italian-American Anti-Defamation Association. He filed for nonprofit status with the secretary of state Jan. 3, listing an office in Westminster.



59 Date: 2001-02-20 12:22:08
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

bloodhorse.com >> News
Potential for Tribal Casino Has Industry on Alert
by Blood-Horse Staff
Date Posted: 2/16/01 11:24:23 AM
Last Updated: 2/18/01 11:35:28 AM

Kentucky's horse racing industry is concerned that a group whose members claim to be descendents of the Cherokee Indian tribe may be seeking legislative recognition to ultimately gain approval for casino gambling.
The Louisville Courier-Journal reported Friday that the Beaver Creek Native American Tribe of Albany, Ky., would be recognized by a resolution floating around Kentucky's General Assembly. Its sponsor, Rep. Charlie Siler, told the newspaper that casino gambling isn't mentioned in the group's business plan.

David Switzer, executive director of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, said the resolution hasn't come before a committee, and the KTA would prefer it. "We're actively opposing it, not because we have anything against Native Americans, but because we don't need Indian casino compacts in Kentucky," he said.

States such as California and Michigan have tribal gaming, which came about by federal law in the late 1980s. Compacts have allowed the tribes to operate lucrative casinos that, in some cases, have adversely impacted the horse racing industry.

Kentucky's racetracks compete with riverboat casinos along the Ohio River in Illinois and Indiana. To the east, A West Virginia Greyhound track with video lottery terminals and slot machines is located less than an hour from the Kentucky border.

Silver told the Courier-Journal the resolution directs the Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission to set guidelines to recognize tribes. If the resolution is addressed, the House Economic Development Committee will tackle it.



Copyright © 2001 The Blood-Horse, Inc. All Rights Reserved.


[ Edit | View ]

News and Issues -- Anonymous, 09:38:27 03/12/01 Mon

Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

Archaeologists pack up Townsend dig

2001-02-17
by Iva Butler
of The Daily Times Staff

As archaeologists pack up and move off the Native American dig site in
Townsend, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has been asked to
stop any and all construction work until a protest from the tribes can
be resolved.

The National Advisory Council on Historic Preservation in Washington,
D.C., received a letter from James Bird, the cultural director of the
Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians, asking the council to intervene.

They request that the FHWA reevaluate the site and have the Keeper of
the National Register of Historic Places make a determination on its
eligibility as a historic site.

In seeking the council's intervention, Bird stated, ``The case appears
irredeemably tainted by personal and political agenda to the detriment
of the heritage resources in the project area.''

Bird said the Tennessee State Historic Preservation Office (TNSHPO), the
Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) and the FHWA ``have
largely bypassed the spirit of the NHPA (National Historic Preservation
Act) in their attempts to push the completion of the highway project on
an accelerated schedule.''

He also stated that, thus far, 33 burials plus a mortuary with 25
interments -- for a total of 58 burials -- have been found on the site.

``The impending abandonment of the data recovery efforts guarantees that
a large number of human interments will remain unidentified and subject
to destruction in the road-building process,'' Bird said.

Sundquist linked

Bird, who is also the tribal historic preservation officer for the
Eastern Band, linked the effort to speed up the project to Gov. Don
Sundquist.

``Much public controversy has arisen lately that notes Tennessee Gov.
Don Sundquist's purchase of 10 acres of property in the Townsend area,
his partnership in Townsend area businesses and his planned retirement
to Townsend have increased the urgency of the highway project completion
timeline,'' Bird said. ``These circumstances invoke concern for a
conflict of interest.''

He also said people involved in decision-making, ``TNSHPO and the state
archaeologist, answer to the governor.''

In addition to Bird, the organization of United Southern and Eastern
Tribes expressed to the advisory council ``serious concern about FHWA's
treatment of this significant historic property.''

Advisory council letter

Bird's charges led to the advisory council mailing a letter Monday to
Mark Doctor of the Nashville FHWA office, said Laura Dean, program
analyst for the advisory council.

``The letter asked FHWA to have their applicant (TDOT) stop any and all
work at the site until we can get the situation resolved,'' Dean said.

At the second of two consultation meetings held in Nashville on the dig,
Don Klima, director of planning and review for the advisory council,
``asked FHWA to reevaluate the eligibility of that archaeological site
for listing on the National Register of Historic Places,'' Dean said.

The site already meets one criteria for this designation, she added.

Initially the site was thought to be of value only for research, but
Bird disputes this. He said that the FHWA has not sent the advisory
council any information about the site since the March 30 consultation
meeting.

Rich archaeological find

Bird said the site is much richer in archaeology than was first thought.

A fortified village dating to 1200 A.D. that was occupied by unknown
Native Americans was discovered, along with pottery from the 1600s and
1700s, when the Cherokee had villages all the way along Little River.
Former Cherokee winter and summer houses have been discovered.

Pottery from 300-500 B.C. has been uncovered, as well as grooved ax
heads from 500 B.C. to 500 A.D.

The oldest items are pit features that date back to 2000 B.C.

In the letter to Doctor, the advisory council requested that the Keeper
of the National Register of Historic Places make a determination on
whether the site meets other criteria under the preservation act.

Bird said FHWA is depicting it as a burial site, but in fact it is a
village site with burials. He said this could ultimately mean more
archaeological work needs to be done.

Dean said, ``FHWA did take another look a the site, but they involved
the state historic preservation office and did not involve the tribes.

``The site clearly has value to the tribes. It is of religious and
cultural significance to them, so they should have been involved in the
reevaluation,'' she said.

However, the advisory council is only an advisory group and can't order
FHWA to do anything.

``We don't have any preservation police,'' Dean explained. ``We would
hope FHWA would respond favorably to our request and take the steps to
resolve this in an agreeable manner.''

Concern over security

Even though the UT Center for Transportation Research is packing up, the
state wants them to keep some people at the site during the day for
security purposes.

Charles ``Chuck'' Bentz, head of the transportation center, said the
archaeologists will not remove the black plastic that covers much of the
excavated area at this time.

The 58 grave sites, which the Cherokee have indicated they do not want
moved even if the road goes directly over them, are under the plastic
in different areas.

The Cherokee did not bury their dead in graveyards, but beside or under
their homes, so the graves are dispersed between five archaeological
sites.

An FHWA proposal to cover the graves with concrete pads is being
considered, but that is yet to be finalized in what is called a
memorandum of agreement.

Bentz said artifact hunters will not be allowed on the site, even when
the archaeological dig is completed.

He said he plans ``to ask the state for permission to continue
processing the 1,000 to 2,000 bags of dirt currently in the
greenhouse.''

This would involve running water through the soil and screening it to
recover any artifacts.

Carl ``Two-Feathers'' Weathers, head of the Native American Indian
Movement (NAIM), said he is worried about the security at the site.

``NAIM will have people stationed at designated places to watch the
sites and call the police if they see any looting,'' he said.

``When those trailers are gone, the artifact hunters will be diving
right in. They'll want a piece of history.

``Our graves will be left unprotected,'' he concluded.




57 Date: 2001-02-18 16:51:48
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

HEADQUARTERS RELOCATION: Tribes to aid BIA eastern offices move

Two groups with major gaming interests to finance
relocation from D.C. to Nashville

By TONY BATT
lasvegas.com GAMING WIRE
http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Feb-13-Tue-2001/news/15434602.html

WASHINGTON -- Two tribes with substantial gaming interests plan to pay between $1.2 million and $1.4 million to finance the move of the eastern regional headquarters of the Bureau of Indian Affairs from suburban Washington, D.C., to Nashville, Tenn.

The office would be located in a building partially owned by the United South and Eastern Tribes, or USET, a group of 24 tribes including the two that would pay for the move -- the Mohegans of Connecticut and the Oneidas of New York.

The building also houses USET's headquarters as well as a regional office for Indian Health Service, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services.

As the move is being planned, the USET's executive director, Tim Martin, is being considered for the position of assistant secretary of Indian affairs in the Bush administration, a position through which he would head the BIA.

BIA and USET officials confirmed the potential move, which could come this spring. They said it would be easier to hire staff in low-cost Nashville and would put the BIA regional office closer to more tribes.

The proposal came as a surprise to members of the House Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over the BIA budget, a spokeswoman said.

"The House Resources Committee didn't know about (the move). We wish we had," said Marnie Funk, who learned of the plan last week when contacted by a reporter. "The authorizing committee should have a heads up on these kinds of expenditures, and we're looking into it."

BIA spokeswoman Nedra Darling said letters of notification have been sent to the House and Senate Appropriations committees.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs can issue a final decision on a move, although Congress has oversight through the budgetary process.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a member of both the Senate Indian Affairs and Appropriations committees, called the arrangement "a terrible conflict of interest.

"To have the regulators of a gaming operation in the same building as gaming operators would be like the Nevada Gaming Commission setting up shop in Caesars Palace," Reid said.

BIA Deputy Commissioner Sharon Blackwell said there is no conflict. She said the Nashville office might perform environmental and realty research on tribal applications to take land into trust for gaming purposes, but final decisions on the applications will be made in Washington by the assistant secretary for Indian affairs.

"This move really has nothing to do with influencing policy," Blackwell said.

Blackwell said the move will not cost less than $1.2 million, and "I am determined to keep it within $1.4 million and $1.5 million." She said she hopes the move begins by April and will be completed by July 1.

Blackwell said it is common for federal Indian agencies to locate their regional offices in buildings and on land owned by tribes. She said this saves taxpayers money and provides better service for tribes.

The USET's Martin confirmed Monday he has submitted papers to the Bush administration and is being seriously considered for the post of assistant secretary of Indian Affairs in the Department of Interior.

Martin, 41, said he would resign his job of five years with USET if he is named assistant secretary, and insisted he could maintain objectivity when considering issues affecting the organization.

"If there is a perception or any doubt about my objectivity (on issues affecting USET), I would recuse myself from dealing with those issues," said Martin, a member of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Alabama.

Two of USET's most prosperous members -- the Mohegans, owners of the 176,000 square-foot Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn., and the Oneidas, owners of the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, N.Y. -- have offered to pay for the BIA move by returning annual payments they receive from Congress as federally recognized tribes.

Martin said both tribes previously have returned federal money for other purposes.

Darling, the BIA spokeswoman, said she was not aware of the arrangement with the Mohegans and Oneidas. "We haven't used any money at this point," she said.


56 Date: 2001-02-18 16:45:57
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

FRANKFORT — A group that claims to be Cherokee Indian descendants is seeking
help from the Kentucky General Assembly to gain recognition as a tribe.

Members of the Bear Creek Native American Tribe Inc., of Albany, Ky., say the
designation will help them sell crafts, adopt American Indian orphans and
educate schoolchildren on their heritage.

But a lobbyist for the thoroughbred industry accused the group of angling for
its own casino.

Rep. Charles Siler, a Williamsburg Republican, introduced a resolution
commending the 200-member tribe and directing the Kentucky Native American
Heritage Commission to establish guidelines for tribal recognition.

Tribes must get federal recognition from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. But
state recognition can help a tribe gain federal support, said Robin Shields,
a spokeswoman for the bureau.

David Switzer, of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, said his
organization opposes the measure because it interprets it as “the first step
in gaining the recognition that leads to casino compacts.”

Federal recognition confers sovereignty and eligibility for certain U.S.
government programs. A federal law allows reservations to negotiate with
states for casinos. Mr. Siler said the tribe has not mentioned casino
gambling and “it's not even hinted at in their business plan.” He said
concerns about gambling have dimmed its chances of passage.

“I don't think it has much of a chance, but I've done what I told them I'd
do,” he said, adding many of its members live in his district.

Tribes must submit historical documents and other proof of their American
Indian identity and must show that they have maintained a continuous
community since at least 1900.

The Beaver Creek tribe incorporated in 1997 and recently moved its
headquarters from Winnfield, Tenn. Mary Neal, who said she is a Cherokee
descendant and the aunt of current chief Ken Neal, said American Indians
lived in the region more than 200 years ago.


55 Date: 2001-02-18 16:20:01
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

Cecilia Fire Thunder has battled domestic violence at the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation by repeatedly denouncing abuse over the reservation's radio
airwaves.

The silence, she said, had to end.

"We've learned to be quiet and keep quiet," she said. "It's something we've
learned over many generations."

Fire Thunder, a member of Oglala Lakota nation, urged those who attended a
conference Saturday at Haskell Indian Nations University to follow her lead
by raising awareness of violence against American Indians. The conference was
sponsored by the Healthy Relationships Project, a joint program of Haskell
and Kansas University.

According to U.S. Department of Justice statistics, American Indians are more
than twice as likely to be victims of rape, aggravated assault and simple
assault as members of other races.

"It's not a popular topic," said Bob Prue, Healthy Relationships Project
director. "I think most people would rather keep their heads in the sand."

Still, about 40 people Saturday attended the daylong conference. Fire Thunder
talked about the Oglala Lakota Women's Society, which she co-founded in 1987.
The society has raised awareness about domestic violence and has worked to
strengthen law enforcement response on her South Dakota reservation.

She said 1,800 men living on the reservation are on probation for domestic
violence, and 62 percent of court cases involve abuse in the home. Fire
Thunder said she thought one root of the problem was the large number of
American Indians who attended boarding schools, where they didn't receive
proper nurturing.

"They literally beat us up," she said of her boarding school experience.
"They used cruel and unusual punishment techniques that we did not know at
the time were inhumane."

Fire Thunder said there are no acceptable excuses for abuse.

"Alcohol does not cause violence. It adds to it," she said. "It makes it more
unpredictable. ... When alcohol is present, the danger is greater."

Prue said he was especially encouraged that both men and women attended the
conference.

"Historically, it's been women who speak out about this problem," he said.
"We're having more and more men speaking about against it or speaking about
the violence they've endured."

Tanya Lopez-Martin, who is working on her master's degree in social work at
KU, said she's seen the problem of violence among Indians during her
internship at Haskell.

"We deal with a lot of women's issues — sexual assaults and rapes," she said.
"Having Cecilia here was good for us, too."

Karen Cottrell, a social worker at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, Mo.,
said she drove to Lawrence for the conference to learn more about the rape
victims she works with.

"It helps me understand abuse more, and that helps me be a better advocate,"
she said. "It helps me empower."

Haskell students Kwame Dewberry and Mekko Singer said they thought the
seminar would be the beginning of a new effort to educate their fellow
students about violence. Singer said they planned to talk to residence halls
and peer education groups on campus.

"We're just trying some way to go against the grain and keep the numbers
down," Dewberry added. "We want to impact our peers in a positive way. We're
going to speak on what we learned about. We're not going to just leave here."



54 Date: 2001-02-18 16:17:44
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

ADA — The day after the Chickasaw Nation cut 123 jobs from its health care
system, anger was the mood shared by many tribal members.

“This whole fiasco was avoidable,” said David Brown, one of many Chickasaws
who spoke out at the tribal Legislature’s meeting Friday. “This is only the
tip of the iceberg. This is not just the health system. It’s the entire
tribal government.”

The tribe announced the cuts Thursday, effective immediately. The move
includes eliminating 63 jobs and offering 60 other health care employees jobs
elsewhere in the tribal government.

Officials said the cuts are needed because the health system is facing a $4.5
million shortfall due to sagging revenues and rising costs.

Chickasaw Gov. Bill Anoatubby called Thursday’s layoffs “a dark day” for the
tribe, but defended the move.

“If people want to criticize, so be it. I’ll take the criticism,” he said.

At times Friday, the criticism was emotional.

“There’s a lot of people out there who lost their jobs for no reason,” said
Mary Smith, whose husband, son and brother lost their jobs Thursday. “I think
there needs to be an investigation done. You legislators need to get to the
bottom of this.”

Several legislators also voiced their displeasure at the job cuts and that
they didn’t know about them until early Thursday.

“I don’t know how it was that we were unaware of this,” legislator Wanda
Blackwood Scott said. “As far as I’m concerned, (it’s) unforgivable.”

Brown, a former Chickasaw lieutenant governor, said a federal investigation
is needed.

Anoatubby said the hospital first started trimming expenses in October, but
it wasn’t until two weeks ago that officials realized the severity of the
hospital’s financial troubles.

“All the decisions had not been made until earlier this week,” Anoatubby
said. “It was decided we couldn’t wait any longer. We had to do this now.”

The hospital receives much of its funding from the federal government.
Officials said government funding has not kept pace with costs, resulting in
this year’s shortfall.

Anoatubby said he didn’t announce the cuts earlier because he didn’t want
people worrying about their jobs for days on end.

“One thing you don’t want to do is create a panic. I just didn’t want to
create distress among the health system’s employees,” he said.

Tribal officials have worked with laid off employees to help them find new
jobs. The Chickasaws also are hoping to move some displaced workers to the
tribe’s other health care systems, Anoatubby said.

Of the 60 people who were offered other tribal jobs, Anoatubby said all but
seven accepted.

“We have a lot of good people working here. It’s sad when something like
this happens.”

Other cost-cutting measures will include using less-expensive drugs,
eliminating outsourced contracts and moving some programs closer to tribal
headquarters. Some services, such as the tribe’s elder care outreach program,
were scrapped.

In the aftermath of the layoffs, some said the move had little to do with
money troubles.

“My job is still there, they just moved someone else in there,” said Sherry
Nail, who was one of the 63 laid off. “In my job, it was a political thing
they’ve done to me.”

Several people complained that they were told the tribe’s finances were
sound, an apparent contradiction of the hospital’s woes.

“How are you going to run this hospital?” Nail asked legislators. “This is a
disgrace to the Chickasaw Nation today.”

Anoatubby said the finances of the health system and the rest of the tribal
government are separate.

“This is isolated to the health system,” he said. “The tribe is doing well.”

Anoatubby said future layoffs are unlikely.

“I never say never, but our revenue situation is settled here.”
.


[ Edit | View ]

News and Issues -- Anonymous, 09:36:26 03/12/01 Mon

Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

Campbell's support of Gorton raises questions
FEBRUARY 16, 2001

In a move which has many in Indian Country wondering where Ben Nighthorse Campbell's priorities lie, the only Native American in the Senate has endorsed a letter urging President George W. Bush to nominate Slade Gorton for a federal judgeship.

Already under fire for defending fellow Coloradan and controversial Interior Secretary Gale Norton -- whom a majority of Native Americans in a recent survey said would be "harmful" to tribes -- Campbell was one of 48 Republican Senators who signed a February 1 letter in support of the defeated former Washington Senator. But its the one GOP member who didn't sign it, as well as his explanation for not doing so, which has many worried.

According to his spokesperson, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz) declined to sign the letter because he disagrees with Gorton on a number of issues affecting tribes. Representing a state which includes most of the Navajo Nation and a number other tribes, McCain has been considered a friend to Indian Country.

Gorton, on the other hand, has long been viewed as a foe. During his tenure in the Senate, Gorton introduced bills which would have abrogated tribal sovereign immunity, changed trust land acquisition processes in order to benefit non-Indians, and forced tribes to collect state tax from non-Indian customers of Indian businesses.

Now seemingly placed in the middle is Campbell. Up for re-election in 2003, the two-term Senator has a long record of lobbying on behalf of tribes in his state and elsewhere. And unlike Gorton, most of Campbell's bills are successfully enacted into law.

Gorton has slipped out of the spotlight since losing the race to freshman Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash) last November by only 2,229 votes. He was rumored to be in consideration for the Secretary of Interior position as well as a top spot in the Department of Justice but was passed over by the Bush administration.

Now, as Ron Allen, Chairman of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe of Washington puts it, he's looking for "a place to land." Allen was one of several tribal leaders who launched an unprecedented million-dollar media and public relations campaign against Gorton last fall.

"Slade Gorton is a politician first and foremost," said Allen. "There's no question his career is alive and well. He's not done."

Its where he ends up, though, which could be troubling to tribes. His fellow Republicans, itchy for a conservative to sit on the bench, are asking Bush to nominate him to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals or the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

With three vacancies, the 9th Circuit hears a number of cases involving tribes. Gorton isn't all that unfamiliar with the court either and as Washington's Attorney General in the 1970s, he fought tribes in his state all the way to the Supreme Court in an historic treaty rights case.

He ended up losing the case but might be able to have a say in it soon enough. Seeking to protect their treaty rights, Washington's tribes have filed suit against the state and although the case is only at the federal district court level, it could up before Gorton.

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals also has three vacancies and hears cases involving tribes. The court recently threw out an appeal challenging Sandia Pueblo's claim to the Sandia Mountains in New Mexico.

Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer declined to comment on a possible judgeship for Gorton.




52 Date: 2001-02-18 16:07:24
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

‘American apartheid’
Russell Means defends his case against Navajo Nation courts


By Nathan J. Tohtsoni
The Navajo Times

FARMINGTON (Feb. 15, 2001) - Oglala Sioux. Indian activist. Movie star. Author. Presidential candidate. Musician. Libertarian. Freedom fighter. Sell out.



Russell Means




Whatever one decides to call Russell Means, there is no denying that the former American Indian Movement leader is still one of the more controversial, dynamic and influential Native American speakers.

Means signed copies of his two albums and autobiography, Where White Men Fear to Tread, on Saturday (Feb. 10) in Farmington.

Means, who once resided in Chinle, held nothing back as he touched on his pending lawsuit against the Navajo Nation, the cases of Peter MacDonald Sr. and Leonard Peltier, the takeover of the Fairchild plant in Shiprock, AIM, the murder of Anna Mae Aquash and charges that he's a "sell out."

"The reason I was protesting in the early 1970s - so I thought - was because my children wouldn't have to," he said. "I've marched all over this country. What I found out is if I want my people to be free, the Whiteman has to be free - at least in this country."

Means held an overflow audience of more than 120 people captive for about 90 minutes, mostly talking about the Libertarian Party and his personal experiences of fighting for the rights of American Indians.

The Libertarian Party of San Juan County (N.M.) - the third largest political party for which Means ran for president in 1988 - sponsored the forum.

'Native American' vs. 'American Indian'
He refused to use the term "Native American" because, as he described it, every person born in the Western Hemisphere is a Native American.

He preferred "American Indian" because "America" was part of a word that a tribe in Columbia originated, he said, and the hemisphere was not named after Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci who sailed along the coast of present-day Brazil in 1499.

Means, 61, is a leading Libertarian Party candidate to run for president in 2004. He said the "military coup d'etat" that occurred Nov. 7 and put George W. Bush in the White House wasn't a surprise for American Indians.

"We've seen losers win in tribal elections, constantly," he said. "Look at the reservations, it's a perfect example that we're not free. You know what's wrong with having a piece of the pie; you don't have the whole pie. You want things to change in Indian Country, those people called tribal officials, they don't want anything to change. They all have a piece of the pie.

"All these public officials, they should be in prison for abusing us," he said.

Challenging Navajo Nation courts
On Jan. 11, the Chinle District Court ordered a stay in Means' case for a year until his appeal in U.S. District Court in Phoenix is decided. Means appealed his case after the Navajo Nation Supreme Court remanded three charges of criminal assault to the Chinle court.

Means is accused of threatening and battering Leon Grant, his former father-in-law and member of the Omaha Tribe, and allegedly battering Jeremiah Bitsui, a Navajo, on Dec. 28, 1997 in Chinle.

Means challenged the lower court's hearing and on April 14, 1998, the court upheld the charges. He then appealed - on the basis that the Navajo Nation does not have criminal jurisdiction over members of other tribes - to the tribal Supreme Court, which heard the case at Harvard University in Boston. It decided May 11, 1999, that the case be held over for trial.

Means appealed that decision to federal court. He argues that the Supreme Court violated the Treaty of 1868 when it sided with the U.S. government and, in a sense, accepted "American apartheid."

He does not see his lawsuit as an infringement on Navajo sovereignty.

"My lawsuit is for the Navajo Nation to live up to its own constitution, its treaty and the United States Constitution and recognize that they are a different country under a protectored status," Means said.

"This case also points out a peculiar fact of the dictatorship over Indian people by the U.S. Congress," he said. "The law that says that Indian tribes can prosecute other Indians was passed by Congress after the (U.S.) Supreme Court said it was constitutional, which means only in Indian law can Congress interfere and override a Supreme Court decision. No other U.S. citizen can this happen to.

"So it's time for the Navajo tribe and all tribal governments to wake up to the fact that the Congress of the United States of America is their dictator and we Indian people are not part of the political process of the U.S.," he added. "Simply put, it's an American apartheid."



51 Date: 2001-02-18 16:05:56
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:


The Navajo Supreme Court disagreed, stating, "There is a general and false assumption that Indian nations have no criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians and nonmember Indians. While the United States Supreme Court ruled that Indian nations have no inherent jurisdiction over non-Indians...there is no inherent criminal jurisdiction over nonmember Indians.

"We find that the petitioner, by reason of his marriage to a Navajo, longtime residence within the Navajo Nation, his activities here, and his status as a hadane, consented to Navajo Nation criminal jurisdiction," the opinion stated. "This Court finds that the Chinle District Court has jurisdiction under the Treaty of 1868."

However, Means said, there are two bodies of Indian law involved in the case.

The first classifies a tribal government as nothing more than a corporation, "no different than a Rotary Club or Lion's Club," he said. The second utilizes sovereignty as a basis for legal decisions by the federal courts.

"In order for the Navajo Nation to have jurisdiction over nonmembers, they have to forgo their sovereignty and operate in a court of law as a corporation," he said.

MacDonald and Peltier
"Indian people who historically stood up for the rights of Indian people...I'll give you two elected leaders who improved the well-being of their people and went to prison for it. That is Richard Real Bird and MacDonald," Means said. "Both went to federal prison based on shoddy bookkeeping and false charges."

Real Bird, former Crow tribal chairman, was jailed on federal charges of mismanagement of tribal funds.

"You want to talk about power, look at the condition of the Navajo Nation since they prosecuted one of their own - look what's happened!" Means said. "(Dennis) DeConcini misspent millions of dollars of campaign funds and nothing happened to the former senator of Arizona. And it was at the very same time they were persecuting and prosecuting Peter MacDonald. People conveniently forget that.

"It's racist," he added. "Him and Leonard Peltier, it shows you the inhumane hatred for Indians. Leonard Peltier was a freedom fighter. One of the things you understand going into a struggle for freedom, you'll face prison and death. The phenomenon of Leonard Peltier is incredible. Going in, he knew the risk. I knew the risk. He refused to have anybody waste time on getting him out of prison. The waste of time trying to get him out of prison is a waste of time from gaining freedom.

"What you can do is elect me president and I'll pardon his (expletive)," Means declared.

Fairchild, AIM, the Aquash murder
Means said he and AIM joined in the Fairchild plant takeover in February 1975 only at the invitation of the Diné AIM. Twenty armed protesters took the plant for eight days. When they left, so did Fairchild Semiconductor. Left behind were 473 employees, mostly Navajos, without jobs.

"They (plant owners) were going overseas to Korea. They were leaving this area. They were leaving the Navajo Nation," he said. "Fairchild used that as an excuse and who got the blame? The victims."

Means said he's no longer a part of AIM.

"The American Indian Movement has sunk into colonization dysfunction," he said. "I'm no longer a part of that. The American Indian Movement served its purpose and history will reward us."

Means said a former AIM member was responsible for the killing of Anna Mae Aquash, who was suspected of being an informant. Aquash, 30, was kidnapped in Denver and killed in Rapid City, S.D. Her body was found near Wanblee, S.D., in February 1976. No arrest has been made in the case.

"It goes to show the racism of the judicial system in America," Means said. "I don't know how many times people have to be abused before they wake up to the fact and they say it hurts."

Three grand juries have convened, but no indictments have been made. Means said the Federal Bureau of Investigation knows the names of the kidnappers, the house she was taken to, the person who pulled the trigger and the man who ordered her execution. That man, he alleges, is former AIM member Vernon Bellecourt.

"It was the second time he ordered her execution. The first time was over here at Fairchild," he said. "This proves Vernon Bellecourt is a vile, murdering federal agent. I testified on that before the third grand jury. What more do they need?"

The 'sell out' accusation
In the past 10 years, Means has devoted time to developing a Total Immersion School in Porcupine, S.D., on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The school, modeled after the Rough Rock (Ariz.) School, would totally immerse kids in Sioux culture and language.

He said that project would never have gotten off the ground if not for him getting involved in the entertainment industry.

"All of a sudden somebody wants to give you a lot of money and you're a sell out?" Means asked. "That means, therefore, that every Indian that has an income is a sell out. It's an absurd notion.

"What Hollywood has afforded me is I've met new people and doors have opened," he said. "Because I'm an actor, my total immersion school is reality. That would never have happened this quickly because I'm an actor now. By the way, I bought land (for the school) owned by a white man on my reservation, so I make no apologies for selling out."

Means and his wife, Pearl Daniel Means, reside in Santa Fe.



50 Date: 2001-02-18 15:55:42
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

Indian Inmates Suing Prisons

By Daniel J. Chacón
Journal Northern Bureau
SANTA FE — Nine American Indian prisoners are claiming illegal interference with their religious practices in a lawsuit filed against New Mexico corrections officials.
Some of the inmates, who belong to a group called the Red Nation Indian Society, admit being involved in an April 1999 melee that followed similar complaints over religious freedom at the privately run Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs, according to their lawsuit.
"The trend in this country toward providing or having spiritual services is becoming very strict and stern toward Native Americans because of the misunderstanding and ignorance of Native American practices," said Lenny Foster, a spiritual adviser and director of the Navajo Nation Corrections Project, which provides Indian prisoners outreach and spiritual counseling.
"Native American beliefs... are not within the ordinary understanding of what religion is," Foster said in a phone interview from his office in Window Rock, Ariz.
Denying Indian inmates their religious freedom "sets back the hope, the positive outlook about life," he said. "It sets in a real depression, and it establishes a lot of tension, frustration and anger."
The prisoners, who allege racial discrimination, are asking for a jury trial and punitive damages in excess of $400 million to prevent corrections officials from practicing similar alleged constitutional violations.
Named as defendants in the lawsuit are Florida-based Wackenhut Corrections, Department of Corrections Secretary Rob Perry and five other prison officials, including Jerry Mondragon Jr., the prison coordinator of Native American programs.
Wackenhut spokeswoman Margaret Pearson and Corrections Department spokesman Gerges Scott both declined to comment, citing the pending lawsuit.
Prisons are required by state and federal law to let Indian inmates practice their religion. Inmates, who must provide proof of their heritage, must be allowed access on a regular basis to spiritual advisers and materials used for religious ceremonies.
The inmates who filed the lawsuit this month in state District Court claim their rights have been violated.
The men allege that after they formed a self-help group in the Hobbs prison in 1998, Warden Joseph Williams began to dismantle the programs and activities they had established.
They were allowed to participate in sweat lodge ceremonies, but problems followed, "including outright refusal to provide firewood," the lawsuit states. The inmates claim they were forced to use chemically treated wood with toxins that could cause serious medical problems.
The men allege in the lawsuit that their religious ceremonies were interrupted or stopped on several occasions, and some of their religious instruments, such as a ceremonial drum and eagle and other feathers, were confiscated.
The inmates' complaints fell on deaf ears, according to the lawsuit. "Each defendant either ignored the complaints or denied the requested relief so that the abuses and racial harassment continued unabated," it states.
On April 5, 1999, one of their sacred religious drums was confiscated, and the inmates claim it was desecrated. "This action was furtherance in a long list of abuses and racially discriminatory actions by defendant Wackenhut," the lawsuit states.
The next day, a disturbance broke out in the dining hall and spread to a corridor. Corrections officials said the riot appeared to have been started by several Indian inmates upset over religious freedom issues. Officials have estimated up to 170 prisoners were involved in the fight.
Police said one Indian prisoner told investigators that about 50 members of the Red Nation Indian Society met the day before, and 12 voted to riot.
The men claim in the lawsuit they were charged as being ring-leaders or participants in the melee to legitimatize the dismantling of their self-help group and the elimination of what few religious activities they were allowed.
Wackenhut and other corrections officials, the lawsuit states, "have unlawfully and unconstitutionally subjected plaintiffs to invidious racial and religious discrimination."
Foster of the Navajo Nation Corrections Project said he has visited with the inmates, who say the Corrections Department isn't complying with the Native American Counseling Act, which establishes procedures for operating religious programs.
"They feel they have entitlement to that act," he said. "I think it's a basic question of compliance and enforcement of that existing state statue. (Personally), I don't think it's being applied fairly."


49 Date: 2001-02-18 15:51:52
Advocate Investigator (no email / no homepage) wrote:



February 15, 2001
Gorton May Get Key Judgeship

By Mark Preston

Hoping to help a former colleague land a lifetime appointment to the federal bench after losing a nail-biting re-election bid, all but one Senate Republican has urged President Bush to nominate former Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) for a federal judgeship.

Bush is being pressed by GOP Senators to "recommend" Gorton for a judgeship on either the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia or the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which is based on the West Coast.

"Senator Gorton possesses superior legal experience and abilities, and has demonstrated a strong commitment to public service," the GOP Senators wrote Bush in a Feb. 1 letter. "We are therefore confident that he will be an outstanding federal jurist."

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), already in hot water with his colleagues over a host of legislative issues, is the only GOPSenator who did not sign the letter promoting Gorton because he opposes the Washington Republican's position on Native American issues.

"Senator McCain declined to sign the letter because he strongly disagrees with Senator Gorton on American Indian issues involving tribal sovereignty," said Nancy Ives, McCain's spokeswoman. "Most Native Americans are concentrated in the western part of the country, and cases involving this issue would fall under the jurisdiction of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

"It is not based on a personal issue with Senator Gorton," Ives continued. "He wishes him well in his future endeavors." She added that McCain would take a "fresh look" at Gorton's nomination if Bush attempts to place him on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Several efforts to reach Gorton in his home state and D.C. for comment were unsuccessful yesterday.

Scott Stanzel, a Bush spokesman, said, "We do not comment on possible candidates for judgeships."

Republicans are eager to get a conservative on the Ninth Circuit because it is a hotbed for key decisions on controversial Western issues, especially matters involving the environment, such as logging rights.

Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) said he helped draft the letter promoting Gorton for the judgeships and added that "both [requests] are possible and one ought to happen."

"I think it looks pretty good," Smith said. "It is simply a matter of time for the administration to get its list in order as to who they are going to send up here."

Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairman Larry Craig (Idaho) said the goal of the letter is to "demonstrate to the administration how supportive we all are of Slade getting one of these positions."

"I think the administration obviously is very interested in it, and they recognize the value of a mind like Senator Gorton's," Craig said. "Not only is it an astute political mind, it is an astute legal mind, and one of the better ones that served in the Senate.

"My guess is it is just a matter of time that he gets something of that nature," Craig added.

Since losing his Senate seat to former Rep. Maria Cantwell (D) by a scant 2,229 votes in a contest that dragged out until Dec. 1, there has been wide speculation that Gorton would land a job in the Bush administration.

Reportedly Gorton was seriously considered for several Cabinet posts, attorney general, Energy secretary and Interior secretary among them, but those positions were filled by others - including two of his GOP comrades who also suffered defeat in 2000. Former Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.) is now attorney general, while ex-Sen. Spence Abraham (R-Mich.) is Energy secretary.

Most recently, Gorton was said to be interested in joining Ashcroft at the Justice Department as solicitor general, but that job will likely go to Theodore Olsen, the attorney who represented Bush before the Supreme Court during the Florida recount debacle.

The 73-year-old Gorton has been mum on what his plans might be, and there has been added speculation that he will return to the private sector.

The aggressive action taken by the GOP to promote Gorton as a federal judge candidate has caught Democrats by surprise. Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) both said they were unaware of the Senate Republicans' interest in advocating that Gorton receive a lifetime appointment to the bench. Neither Daschle nor Murray would commit to voting for Gorton should Bush nominate him for either court.

"I guess I would want to talk to a few people about it and check a little bit more," Daschle said. "I don't know if there is a competing nominee or not."

Added Murray, "At this point I am not going to make any comment because it is a 'what if.' I certainly have a lot of admiration for Senator Gorton, and we will see what happens."

However, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, said if Gorton is nominated by Bush he would probably be looked on favorably by the panel.

"I have always had a good relationship with Slade," Leahy said. "The President is not going to ask me for advice on judges, but I would think there would be strong support for him in the committee. But that assumes he goes through all the vetting."

Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has also enthusiastically given Gorton his stamp of approval, describing the Washington Republican as "one of the better legal minds that has served here in the Congress."

Prior to joining the Senate, Gorton had already earned a reputation for being deft in the legal arena. He served as Washington state's attorney general from 1968 through 1980 and from that perch argued a case before the Supreme Court, where he lost an effort to halt Indian tribes from reaping 50 percent of Washington's salmon runs. That is one of many issues that has pitted him against Indian tribes in the state.

In the Senate, Gorton was a close confidante of Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), who often leaned on his colleague for legal advice.

Still, some Democratic Senators said Gorton's confirmation for a federal judgeship is not guaranteed.

One Democratic Senator, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that if either Murray or Cantwell were opposed to Gorton's ascension to the bench, then most members of the Democratic Caucus would likely honor their objections.

Another Democratic Senator, who also wished to remain anonymous, added that some Democrats are still boiling over Senate Republicans' efforts to block many of former President Bill Clinton's judicial nominees.

"There is such a history of judgeships around here, given what they did to our side," the senior Democratic Senator said. "It is really hard to know what is going to happen on judges."

Should Gorton be selected to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C., he would sit on the smallest - but arguably the nation's most significant - appellate court, because many cases involving the federal government are heard there. At one time that court was home to several famous judges, including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork. There are three vacancies on the court.

If Gorton were to be nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, he would join the most controversial appellate court in the country. Republicans have long accused the court of being too liberal.

"There is a lot of support for him, particularly for the Ninth Circuit, because they need some people like him," said a senior GOP Senator, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit was in the news Monday for its ruling that the Web site Napster must cease allowing people to trade copyrighted music online. There are also three openings on this court.


[ Edit | View ]

News and Issues -- Anonymous, 09:33:22 03/12/01 Mon

Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:


Ex-boss details abuse of BIA
whistle-blower

By Bill McAllister
Denver Post Washington Bureau
Chief

Feb. 15, 2001 - WASHINGTON - A
former Bureau of Indian Affairs
supervisor was directed to
retaliate against a so-called
whistle-blower who was casting
doubt on the government's efforts
to revamp its long-troubled Indian
trust program, according to an
affidavit.

The statement by Donald E.
Whitener, a 35-year BIA employee and
former deputy director of the
agency's Southwest office in
Albuquerque, could spell trouble
for former Interior Secretary Bruce
Babbitt and other senior Interior
officials.

Lawyers pressing a
multimillion-dollar lawsuit over the BIA's
admittedly mangled trust accounts
said they will use Whitener's
statement to seek criminal
contempt proceedings against Babbitt
and others for violating court
orders calling for cooperation with
their suit.

In papers filed in U.S. District
Court here, lawyers for a group of
Indians alleged that actions
against Mona Infield, a BIA branch
chief, were part of a "pattern and
practice of intimidation and
witness tampering" by Interior
Department officials.

Infield was removed from work on
the trust accounts and allowed
to remain at home on full pay
after she filed an affidavit in the
lawsuit, both sides in the dispute
agree.

Interior lawyers have denied
Infield's allegations. They have said
that no effort was made to
retaliate against her. Babbitt and other
senior Interior officials took
actions to ensure that all BIA
employees were allowed to talk to
lawyers in the trust case, the
lawyers have said.

As for Infield's claim she was not
given suitable work, an Interior
spokeswoman said that the
department had made numerous efforts
to find Infield, who worked in
Albuquerque, a job in New Mexico.

Whitener said in an affidavit,
however, that shortly after Infield
filed her statement, he received a
call from Debra Maddox, the
BIA's acting director of
management and administration. Maddox
told him to remove Infield from
the trust program and give her
"diminished responsibilities," he
said,

"I understood Ms. Maddox's
instructions to mean that the deputy
(BIA) commissioner Hilda Manual
and senior management had
decided to block Ms. Infield from
gaining access to any more
information that could be
presented to the court," he said.

The charges are among the most
serious leveled at top Interior
officials in the 4-year-old
lawsuit that challenges the government
handling of about 300,000
individual trust accounts established for
Indians by the BIA. The government
has conceded that the
accounts are a mess, but it has
contended that it has programs in
place that may reconcile the
accounts.

Infield questioned those efforts
in her statement, and Whitener's
four-page affidavit dated Feb. 6
and filed in the court this week
reinforces her claim of
harassment.

Whitener, a member of the Squaxin
Island Tribe who retired from
the BIA on June 30, said he
believed the order to keep Infield off
the case came from Manual. She was
the BIA's No. 2 official and
one "who managed the BIA with an
iron fist," he said.

Officials said Manual is no longer
with the agency.

Copyright 2001 The Denver Post.


47 Date: 2001-02-15 12:40:22
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_43702,00.html


Hate crime feared in boy's beating

Family suspects gang at Rifle High School may be
responsible for youth's injuries

By Ellen Miller, News Staff Writer

RIFLE -- On a quiet Valentine's Day afternoon, Tony
Manuppella and his friends sat at the Elks Club bar
sipping coffee and after-work beers and talking about
what happened to 16-year-old Kyle Skyock.

"We're afraid it was a hate crime," said Manuppella, a
longtime Elks officer. "Kyle is a great kid. He's
dainty and petite, so of course he heard horrible
insults. But whoever did this better watch out,
because
they'll be doing some serious time."

A jogger found Skyock lying on the side of U.S. 6 east
of Rifle early Sunday. His skull was cracked, he had
three broken ribs and he had burn marks on one hand
and a shoulder.

Kyle was improving Wednesday, according to his
parents, Mike and Sharlene Skyock. He remained at St.
Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, where he was up and
walking but still groggy.

The talk of Rifle was about the Skyocks' suspicions
that a Rifle High School gang called the '02 Crew
might
be responsible for Kyle's injuries.

Rifle High principal John Burwell said there had been
discipline problems with a group of students from
the Class of 2002, but he said that the community,
students and parents had confronted the issue and
"put it to rest."

"I can tell you categorically there is not a gang at
Rifle High School," he said. "The kids we dealt with
have shown growth and maturity. Unfortunately, they
were brought in and it's as inaccurate and as far
from the truth as you can get."

Rifle Police Chief Daryl Meisner said there hasn't
been a gang problem in Rifle for at least a year.

Students at the high school were divided as well.

"The '02 gang hates him (Kyle) and they paint everyone
who's not like themselves or who are different,"
said a freshman girl, who said she was too scared to
give her name.

Matt Canard, a sophomore, said he believes that the
'02 Crew is a thing of the past.

Kyle's parents pulled him out of Rifle High School
last October because, they said, of problems he was
having with the '02 Crew. Some of the group had
bullied him the previous fall by trying to stuff him
into a
locker. He was rescued by his brother, Jesse, who was
a year older and much taller.

But Jesse drowned last June at Harvey Gap Reservoir,
and Kyle was in distress and vulnerable when he
returned to school, his parents said. He attends the
private Garden School in New Castle.

Burwell said students at Rifle High were upset with
the severity of Skyock's injuries.

"They can't believe something like this could be done
to another human being," he said.

At Audrey's Cafe in downtown Rifle, a popular place
for morning coffee and lunch, Kathy Squires said the
talk all morning was about "the '02 Crew as a bunch of
bored boys trying to be bullies."

"Unfortunately around here, if you're not in the
clique, whether it's the jocks or the cowboys or
whoever,
you'll have trouble," said Manuppella.

Meisner said he realizes the small town is upset, not
only with Kyle's injuries but with the unrelated
death last weekend of another 16-year-old, Daniel
Sullins.

According to Garfield County authorities, Daniel
apparently had been drinking red wine and inhaling
propane.

"Things like this don't happen very often in Rifle and
there is some hysteria," he said.

Meanwhile, the Skyocks said police still had not
interviewed them or Kyle.

Meisner said he had asked Dr. Rob Kurtzman to examine
Kyle. Kyle's father, Mike, said a doctor had been
in to see his son, but he didn't know if it was
Kurtzman. Kurtzman couldn't be reached for comment.

Meisner said his department is looking at "all
possibilities, including the possibility it might have
been a
hit-and-run accident. It's primarily being
investigated as an assault."

He said investigators had been in touch with the
Skyock family, which the parents deny. He said a
time-line was being developed on Kyle's whereabouts
from when he left the Elks Club about midnight
Saturday and when the jogger found him two miles away.


"The police are ridiculous," said Kim Herwick, manager
of the Elks Club. "The police concentrate on
domestic violence, drugs and DUIs. They haven't even
talked to any of us here, and we were the last
ones to see Kyle that night."

February 15, 2001

Copyright 2001, Denver Rocky Mountain News. All Rights
Reserved.


[ Edit | View ]

News and Issues -- Anonymous, 09:31:55 03/12/01 Mon

Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:




46 Date: 2001-02-15 12:20:23
Dutch (no email / no homepage) wrote:

Is Indian tribal sovereignty outmoded?

By Martin Paskind
For the Journal
American Bar Assn. Journal, in its March issue, features six articles about Native Americans and the law. In New Mexico, of course, we have many Native Americans and Indian communities.
Gambling means those communities now are among the state's wealthier and more powerful.
The six native Americans who contributed articles to the ABA project add little to understanding. They stick with the tried-and-true litany of Native American complaints, which have much to do with tribal sovereignty.
Doreen Yellow Bird, for example, writes that there are too few Native American lawyers, perhaps only 2,000 among the 925,000 attorneys in the United States. These "legal warriors," she says, are needed to protect the "unique sovereign status" of the tribes and the interests of their people.

LACKEYS: Russell Means disagrees. Means is an Oglala Sioux, a longtime activist, leader of the 1973 uprising at Wounded Knee, S.D., and now a Santa Fean. He's locked in judicial combat with the Navajo Nation over its courts' power to hear misdemeanor assault charges against him.
Means says: "One cannot have sovereignty by permission, and it's time the tribal governments look in the mirror and realize that they're nothing more than lackeys for the continued exploitation of my people."
If you agree with Means, you don't need anything like 2,000 Native American lawyers because you don't need Indian tribes or sovereignty at all. Means notwithstanding, tribes and sovereignty aren't likely to go away. That leaves lots of questions.

LACKEYS NEED JOBS, TOO: Sovereignty is important to tribal officers and council members, some of whom earn livings from administration and the judicial system. It can be important to innumerable lawyers hired by councils to pursue gambling deals and land claims. Otherwise, Means may be right. Tribal "lackeys" don't need sovereignty.
Once upon a time, tribal sovereignty, no doubt, meant something. White people needed someone to sign treaties and do business. Less cynically, sovereignty carved out an area of Native American life free of white intrusion.
Today, however, tribal sovereignty does relatively little to protect Native American communities from whites. It protects Indian governments from their own people.
Tribal councils rarely issue annual reports. Try, as a businessman, to find out about finances. Newspapers don't cover tribal councils. Only councillors, and sometimes but not always their lawyers, know what's going on.

DIFFERENT STROKES: Conditions aren't uniform. The Navajo Nation is relatively transparent to its own members and outsiders. Other tribes aren't. This is true even though gambling tribes handle millions of dollars. Other tribes, such as the Mescalero Apaches, accumulated wealth through oil, gas and timber.
By and large, members are equally as ignorant of tribal business as non-Indians.
If tribal sovereignty is in decay, perhaps Native American governments are to blame. They assure that Indians know as little as possible and participate to the smallest extent in reservation affairs.
In ABA articles, neither Yellow Bird nor her colleagues get around to just what sovereignty ought to do now. They believe judicial power should be greater, and that more non-Indian offenders ought to be tried in tribal courts.

MAKING PEACE: Some tribal courts, such as those of the Navajos, whose jurisdiction Means attacks, are well-established and reliable.
In America's litigious society, the Indian emphasis on peace-making looks like progress.
Smaller tribes lack formal courts. The tribal council handles disputes, as it handles just about everything else, and councils often handle business in language not understood anywhere or by anyone off the reservation.
Suzan Shown Harjo, an ABA writer and Cheyenne-Muscogee, complains that Native Americans still "struggle to obtain basic human rights and recognition."
She's right. Anglos and Hispanics have a long and bad history of mistreating Native American people. Sometimes, the reverse was true.
Still, the civil rights commitment of today's tribes is not inspirational. As residents thrown off of pueblo lands learn, the First Amendment doesn't protect religious minorities from tribal governments. Nor does the Bill of Rights limit powers of Native American governments. Tribes can discriminate as they please.
Perhaps those seeking Native American equality will look to transparency in tribal governments, purposes of sovereignty, fairness of judicial systems and respect for their own and the civil rights of others. If they won't, perhaps Means is right.
"If we are citizens of the United States," says Means, "we should be judged as such and should no longer be judged by an apartheid system. In the final analysis, it just shows you that tribal governments are obsolete."
Unless Native Americans, themselves, make something more of sovereignty than a system for running casinos, perhaps Means is right. Maybe Native Americans are business people -- to be taxed, sued, and given the same opportunities as the rest of us.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


45 Date: 2001-02-15 12:06:21
Dutch (no email / no homepage) wrote:

The FBI has dressed its online wolf in sheep's
> clothing, changing the name
> of its controversial e-mail surveillance system,
> known to this point as
> Carnivore.
>
> Carnivore now goes by the less beastly moniker of
> DCS1000, drawn from the
> work it does as a "digital collection system." The
> investigative agency
> built the tool to monitor the Internet
> communications of suspects under its
> surveillance, but the system, housed on computers at
> Internet service
> providers, also can collect e-mail messages from
> people who are not part of
> an FBI probe.
>
> A spokesman for the FBI denied that the name change
> stemmed from worries
> that the name Carnivore made the system sound like a
> predatory device made
> to invade people's privacy. But the Illinois
> Institute of Technology, which
> last fall issued an analysis of the system at the
> request of the Justice
> Department, recommended that the name be changed for
> just that reason,
> according to an IIT analyst.
>
> "We had a concern that it wasn't a good name for the
> system," said the IIT's
> Larry Reynolds. The group thought the name should be
> dumped, he said,
> "because of the very definition of the word."
>
> The name change is the latest development in the
> controversy surrounding the
> surveillance tool, which came under public scrutiny
> last summer when privacy
> advocates began to decry it. In September, the
> Justice Department picked the
> IIT Research Institute to perform a
> government-sponsored technical review of
> the software.
>
> The rechristening is part of an upgrade that
> incorporates other
> recommendations from the research group, according
> to Paul Bresson, a
> spokesman for the FBI. "It isn't because we were
> worried about negative
> privacy publicity. If it was, we would have changed
> (the name) months ago,"
> he said. "This (system) is not something that
> remains static."
>
> The upgrade was supposed to be coordinated with a
> Justice Department report
> on DCS1000 scheduled for release prior to Janet
> Reno's departure last month
> as attorney general, Bresson said. He did not say
> when that report will be
> made public.
>


44 Date: 2001-02-14 18:53:57
Dutch (oldman_dutch@yahoo.com / no homepage) wrote:


Tribal history update planned
By ROB MARTINDALE World Senior Writer
2/14/01

The Cherokees want to showcase aspects of their history after the "Trail of Tears."
TAHLEQUAH -- Cherokee scholars came to their tribal nation's capital Tuesday to help start the planning process for a permanent exhibit to highlight the tribe's history since the 1830s "Trail of Tears."
"The post-Trail of Tears era is a phenomenal story of achievement, suppression and rebuilding," said Cherokee historian Rennard Strickland, dean of the School of Law at the University of Oregon.

When the Cherokees arrived in Indian Territory in 1838-39 at the end of the Trail of Tears they had suffered from losing at least a third of their population and all of their possessions, Strickland said.

Although strangers in their new country, the tribe within only 15 years had moved into what historians called "The Golden Age of the Cherokees."

The Cherokees, Strickland noted, constructed the male and female seminary, the first collegiate-level institution by any Indian tribe, and moved into a sound agriculture-based economy.

These and other stories, plus the names of Cherokee leaders and those tribal members who gained national reputations, could be made a part of the permanent exhibit.

"It's not just for the Cherokee Nation. It is for all of Oklahoma," said Rayna Green, Native American Indian Studies director for the Smithsonian Institution, who came from Washington.

Green designed a Trail of Tears exhibit for the Smithsonian. She has done extensive research on what Cherokee artifacts are available through the Smithsonian, other museums and in private collections.

The exhibit is being planned by the Cherokee National Historical Society through the Cherokee Heritage Center, which is independent of the Cherokee Nation.

The After the Trail exhibit is being sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Duane King, a Cherokee language expert and director of the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, said the eastern Cherokees in North Carolina have a post- Trail of Tears exhibit which has developed into an annual tourist attraction.

King has served as curator at the Cherokee Museum in North Carolina as well as the Cherokee Heritage Center.

Officials at the Cherokee Heritage Center said they hope to open their exhibit on May 12.

In the 1830s, Cherokees and other members of the Five Civilized Tribes were forced at Army gunpoint across the Trail of Tears from their homelands in the Southeast to what is now Oklahoma.

In the Golden Age, Strickland noted, the Cherokees were pulled into the Civil War, and in 1898 the federal government thought it had closed down the Cherokee Nation.

The tribal lands were put up for allotment in the early 1900s and the president appointed the chief of the Cherokees from 1906 until 1970, the author and- or editor of 35 books said.

"The tribe in many respects goes underground, but re-creates itself, literally. As you know, the Phoenix is the symbol for the Cherokees. It was the title of their original newspaper."

The tribe kept re-creating itself, Strickland said, "until this time when you have an immensely successful tribe that is providing social services, its own leadership, a new kind of education."

Rob Martindale, World senior writer, can be reached at 581-8367 or via e-mail at rob.martindale@tulsaworld.com.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


43 Date: 2001-02-14 18:49:41
Dutch (oldman_dutch@yahoo.com / no homepage) wrote:

I am a new Reporter/Investigator for the Advocate,so please bear with me till I get the hang of this.Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

HEADQUARTERS RELOCATION: Tribes to aid BIA eastern offices move
Two groups with major gaming interests to finance relocation from D.C. to Nashville

By TONY BATT
lasvegas.com GAMING WIRE



WASHINGTON -- Two tribes with substantial gaming interests plan to pay between $1.2 million and $1.4 million to finance the move of the eastern regional headquarters of the Bureau of Indian Affairs from suburban Washington, D.C., to Nashville, Tenn.

The office would be located in a building partially owned by the United South and Eastern Tribes, or USET, a group of 24 tribes including the two that would pay for the move -- the Mohegans of Connecticut and the Oneidas of New York.

The building also houses USET's headquarters as well as a regional office for Indian Health Service, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services.

As the move is being planned, the USET's executive director, Tim Martin, is being considered for the position of assistant secretary of Indian affairs in the Bush administration, a position through which he would head the BIA.

BIA and USET officials confirmed the potential move, which could come this spring. They said it would be easier to hire staff in low-cost Nashville and would put the BIA regional office closer to more tribes.

The proposal came as a surprise to members of the House Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over the BIA budget, a spokeswoman said.

"The House Resources Committee didn't know about (the move). We wish we had," said Marnie Funk, who learned of the plan last week when contacted by a reporter. "The authorizing committee should have a heads up on these kinds of expenditures, and we're looking into it."

BIA spokeswoman Nedra Darling said letters of notification have been sent to the House and Senate Appropriations committees.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs can issue a final decision on a move, although Congress has oversight through the budgetary process.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a member of both the Senate Indian Affairs and Appropriations committees, called the arrangement "a terrible conflict of interest.

"To have the regulators of a gaming operation in the same building as gaming operators would be like the Nevada Gaming Commission setting up shop in Caesars Palace," Reid said.

BIA Deputy Commissioner Sharon Blackwell said there is no conflict. She said the Nashville office might perform environmental and realty research on tribal applications to take land into trust for gaming purposes, but final decisions on the applications will be made in Washington by the assistant secretary for Indian affairs.

"This move really has nothing to do with influencing policy," Blackwell said.

Blackwell said the move will not cost less than $1.2 million, and "I am determined to keep it within $1.4 million and $1.5 million." She said she hopes the move begins by April and will be completed by July 1.

Blackwell said it is common for federal Indian agencies to locate their regional offices in buildings and on land owned by tribes. She said this saves taxpayers money and provides better service for tribes.

The USET's Martin confirmed Monday he has submitted papers to the Bush administration and is being seriously considered for the post of assistant secretary of Indian Affairs in the Department of Interior.

Martin, 41, said he would resign his job of five years with USET if he is named assistant secretary, and insisted he could maintain objectivity when considering issues affecting the organization.

"If there is a perception or any doubt about my objectivity (on issues affecting USET), I would recuse myself from dealing with those issues," said Martin, a member of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Alabama.

Two of USET's most prosperous members -- the Mohegans, owners of the 176,000 square-foot Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn., and the Oneidas, owners of the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, N.Y. -- have offered to pay for the BIA move by returning annual payments they receive from Congress as federally recognized tribes.

Martin said both tribes previously have returned federal money for other purposes.

Darling, the BIA spokeswoman, said she was not aware of the arrangement with the Mohegans and Oneidas. "We haven't used any money at this point," she said.




42 Date: 2001-02-12 21:21:17
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

PESHAWBESTOWN, Mich. (AP) -- The dancers enter the grounds from the east, symbol of the rising sun. They move in a circle to pounding drumbeats and piercing song, clad in colorful regalia with lace, feathers and beads.

This is a powwow, an American Indian social gathering that has become increasingly popular with the resurgence of native culture in recent decades. More than 50 are held in Michigan each year, with many more in neighboring Great Lakes states and nationwide.

Powwows by that name are a relatively modern phenomenon, but draw upon ancient traditions of tribal get-togethers that featured dance, music, storytelling and ceremonies.

"It's a community celebration, but also a way to express cultural values," said Ted Holappa, a member of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. He is a master of ceremonies at the Mid-Winter Reunion Powwow taking place this weekend in Escanaba.

Chris Bussey, member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and longtime powwow dancer, says the gatherings have social and religious significance.

The focal points are the dances, which are brimming with spiritual symbolism, such as the constant drumbeats that represent the heartbeat of Mother Earth.

But the powwow also is something of an extended family reunion, with food and fellowship.

"Indians are fun people," Bussey said. "We like to gather, we like our kids to be around each other, we like to laugh together."

Bussey, 34, went to powwows with his family during his early childhood in Grand Rapids. He moved to the Grand Traverse Band reservation in Peshawbestown, just north of Suttons Bay, at age 13 and joined a drum team.

Later, he and a few pals hit the "powwow trail," hitching rides to weekend gatherings around the state in summer.

A traditional dancer, his regalia features a headpiece with porcupine and deer hair and a "bustle," or circular assemblage of eagle feathers mounted on a board to simulate spread wings. Native spirituality regards the eagle as sacred, a messenger that carries prayers to the Creator.

Traditional dancers often convey stories through their movements, re-enacting an event in their lives or a custom such as stalking an animal in the forest.

"When I was first starting the traditional dance I asked some of the old-timers for advice," said Bussey, a financial consultant in Traverse City. "They all said pretty much the same thing: Let your feet move where your heart tells you to move. Dance from your heart. That's why everyone's dance is different; there's no set dance."

There are two types of powwows: "contest" and "traditional." Contest powwows include competitions and prizes for winners.

While all powwows have unique features, each generally begins with a "grand entry," in which dancers circle the area in a symbol of the circle of life. Military veterans lead the way, carrying the flags of the United States and various Indian nations.

An elder offers an invocation, followed by a dance in honor of veterans.

Then come the flowing "grass dance," which originated in the Western plains; the vigorous, athletic "fancy dance" for men and "shawl dance" for women; and men's and women's traditional dances.

There's also the "jingle dress dance," a recently revived style inspired by a young Ojibwa woman's dream. The dresses are adorned with 365 metal cones, representing a prayer for each day of the year.

The master of ceremonies sometimes announces an "intertribal," in which spectators can participate.

Some powwows feature art and craft exhibitions and traditional foods -- meat, berries and the popular "fry bread," a kind of deep-fried biscuit.

While enhancing tribal ties and culture, powwows also help lower racial barriers, giving whites a chance to meet natives and observe their traditions.

The Mid-Winter Powwow in Escanaba began in the late 1970s, when tensions over Indian fishing rights were running high in the area. From the beginning, the public has been invited.

"We noticed that people could more easily talk and get acquainted when there were things like singing and crafts to bring them together," said Loren Woerpel, one of the organizers.

The nearby Hannahville Indian Community and Bay de Noc Community College are among sponsors of the powwow, held at the U.P. State Fairgrounds.

"The powwow is a great tool for non-Indians to catch a glimpse of how Native Americans really are," Bussey said.

"They're not the stereotypical boozing Indian on the street corner, they're not just a blackjack dealer. They're a society, with good and bad like every community, but with love and respect for ... other men and women."



41 Date: 2001-02-12 21:19:13
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

Blackfeet plan Montana's first wind-powered utility plant

As Californians grope blindly through the darkness of energy deregulation,
their economy stumbling through rolling blackouts, skyrocketing electric
bills and stopgap bailout measures for their cash-strapped utilities,
Montanans watch anxiously to see how this bodes for their own plunge into
deregulation.
But while some leaders in Helena are calling for a hasty retreat to the
fossil fuel quick fixes of the past, tribal council members with the
Blackfeet Nation are moving swiftly into the future with a clean, affordable
and abundant energy source in their own backyard-wind.
The project, known as Blackfeet WindPower One, will be the first
multi-megawatt wind generating facility in Montana and the first
utility-scale wind farm on tribal land anywhere in the country. The project
is a joint effort of the tribally owned Siyeh Development Corporation,
Montana Power Company (MPC) and SeaWest WindPower of San Diego.
When the project is completed by the fall of 2002, the Blackfeet wind farm
outside of Browning will encompass about 40 acres with 38 wind turbines that
are capable of generating 22 megawatts of electricity, enough energy to
power more than 5,000 homes. Construction is expected to begin in the spring
of next year.
"For the tribe's part, financially it's a great opportunity for us to dive
into this wind energy because of the power shortage," says Leo Kennerly,
tribal council member for the Blackfeet Nation. "And we have plenty of wind
to go around."
According to Dave Ryan, senior distribution engineer with MPC, the Blackfeet
Windpower One will generate electricity at a wholesale cost of about 2.9
cents per kilowatt-hour, making it cost-competitive with MPC's other sources
of electricity generation in Montana, notably, coal-fired power plants and
hydroelectric dams.
"[Wind power] is still a tough sell," admits Ryan, about the challenges that
have faced wind energy development elsewhere in Montana. "You have to have
three things: you have to have wind, you have to have transmission, and you
have to have a customer."
But the Blackfeet wind farm will be located close to existing transmission
lines, reducing the need to construct new ones, says Dennis Fitzpatrick of
Siyeh Development Corporation, a tribal corporation formed by the Blackfeet
Nation to manage its economic enterprises. Finding customers will not be a
problem either, since MPC has agreed to accept three megawatts of
electricity from the Blackfeet facility, with the remainder to be sold to
the Washington-based Bonneville Power Administration.
As for the abundance of wind, the Blackfeet Indian Reservation has more than
its share. Ryan says that of the three locations are currently under
consideration-an Environmental Impact Statement is being prepared for
each-any one would be capable of driving the 600 kilowatt turbines about 40
percent of the time, putting them at the upper end of the wind-reliability
scale. Already, five other wind turbines are in operation on the Blackfeet
Reservation, four of which provide electricity to the Browning's waste
treatment facility.
What's surprising about the Blackfeet WindPower One is that it represents
Montana's only large-scale foray into the wind energy revolution already
sweeping the Northwest. Most of Montana's neighbors have since recognized
the environmental and economic benefits of wind power. Currently, the world'
s largest wind farm-the Stateline Wind Generating Project-is under
construction near Walla Walla, Wash. When completed, that project will
include 450 windmills capable of generating 300 megawatts of power, enough
energy for 70,000 homes.
But experts say that Montana's wind potential is even greater. The American
Wind Energy Association ranks Montana fifth in the nation for possible wind
energy generation, with the potential to generate an estimated 1 trillion
kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. Patrick Mazza, author of a report on
alternative energy entitled, "Accelerating the Green Energy Revolution,"
calls Montana "a Saudi Arabia of the breeze [that] could reliably supply
116,000 megawatts, 15 percent of U.S. electrical demand." Still, as of April
2000, wind power provided less than 0.5 percent of MPC's current energy
supply.
In the past, wind generation developers in Montana faced an additional
obstacle: Its harsh winters were notoriously punishing on wind turbines.
However, recent advances in turbine technology have minimized that problem.
SeaWest WindPower has developed more than 85 megawatts of utility-scale wind
projects in the Foote Rim Creek area of Wyoming, as well as nearly 500
megawatts of wind project in California, the United Kingdom and Spain.
Blackfeet WindPower One also offers the Blackfeet Nation an opportunity to
create new jobs in a region that has long suffered double-digit
unemployment. According to Kennerly, a number of temporary and permanent
jobs will be created by the wind farm, both in the construction process and
for the ongoing maintenance of the turbines.
"We see the opportunity to make some income plus create some jobs that are
well-needed here." Says Kennerly. "That's why most of the council feels that
now is the time to do it."
As with the development of any natural resource, wind farms are not without
their environmental impacts, notably on raptors and other migratory birds.
But according to the Blackfeet's Ervin Barlson, that will be insignificant
compared to the numerous environmental impacts of fossil fuel generation.
Blackfeet WindPower One is being funded in part with a $1.5 million subsidy
from MPC's Universal System Benefits Charge, a fee tacked onto the bills of
all Montana ratepayers to fund renewable energy projects, energy
conservation and low-income billing assistance."



40 Date: 2001-02-12 21:16:59
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

TULSA, Okla. - The death of an elderly tribesman has complicated efforts to save the dying Euchee Indian language and record the tribe's fading history.

Last month, 82-year-old Mose Cahwee died. Mr. Cahwee had provided volumes on Euchee history on hundreds of families that once lived near Bristow, Sapulpa and Liberty Mounds, near Tulsa.

"Mose was very active in the language and culture," said University of Tulsa anthropology professor Richard Grounds, himself an Euchee descendant. "He was kind of a walking encyclopedia. He knew the history and Euchee medicine plants."

Now, only about five Euchee speakers are left, Dr. Grounds said. That is out of about 2,400 people who say they are Euchee descendants.

Dr. Grounds is working on the Euchee Language Preservation Project, which is sponsored by a $297,300 federal grant.

The three-year grant has enabled Dr. Grounds and Euchee speakers to gather weekly at the Sapulpa Indian Community Center to record the language and history. Dr. Grounds isn't fluent in the language, but he's learning.

Euchee is sometimes spelled Yuchi. The tribe originated in Alabama and Georgia, but their language was different from neighboring tribes.

The Euchee population shrank in northeast Oklahoma over the years, and use of the language dwindled as well. Dr. Grounds said the language is not dead, although it is close to extinction.

Remembering the language isn't easy for native speakers.

Euchee elder Maggie Cumsey Marsey, 82, squints one eye, cocks her head and stares into space as she tries to remember the Euchee word for corn soup. She hasn't spoken the word in decades.

Sometimes she recalls a Creek word instead because Creeks and Euchees often intermarried and learned parts of each other's language. Ms. Marsey said she was discouraged from speaking her native tongue when she attended Lone Star school in the 1930s.

"I can speak it, but I struggle sometimes because I haven't said some of these words in 30 or 40 years," she said.

Dr. Grounds said he hopes the project helps develop a curriculum, based on phonetics in the absence of a native alphabet, to teach Euchee to future generations.

Dr. Grounds and project assistants Wanda A. Greene and Linda Littlebear Harjo are also working with elders to create new Euchee words to keep the language current. The new words would be for bicycle, telephone and computer.

The preservation project is to be completed in 2003, Dr. Grounds said. The work and artifacts are to be housed at the University of Tulsa.
(c) 2001 The Dallas Morning News


39 Date: 2001-02-10 15:37:43
Advocate Investigator (no email / no homepage) wrote:

Prison policy on religious items declared unconstitutional
By LARRY O'DELL

Associated Press Writer

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Virginia prison officials cannot deny an inmate access
to items used in American Indian religious ceremonies simply because he is
not a member of that race, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a
policy allowing only inmates of American Indian heritage to possess the items
violates the Constitution's equal protection clause.

Gary Davidson Morrison Jr., a Greensville Correctional Center inmate,
challenged the policy. Morrison is not of American Indian descent and is not
a member of a specific tribal religion, but he practices what he calls
"Native American Spirituality."

Among the items he claimed he needed for his religious ceremonies were animal
parts and hides, sacred herbs, shells, smoking pipes, feathers and beads.

Morrison was denied the items because of a prison policy that says "requests
for acquiring or maintaining existing articles of Native American faith will
only be considered for those inmates who are bona fide Native Americans."

U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne declared the policy unconstitutional, and
the appeals court upheld the ruling.

"The court's decision adhered to both the law and common sense in recognizing
that the prison's policy discriminated on the basis of race and that such
discrimination is unconstitutional," said Rebecca Kim Glenberg, an American
Civil Liberties Union lawyer who represented Morrison.

Attorney General Mark Earley's office is reviewing the decision and has not
decided whether to appeal, spokesman David Botkins said.

Prison officials adopted the strict policy for allowing use of the materials
because of security risks. For example, hides can be used to conceal
contraband and shells can be sharpened into weapons.

However, the appeals court said the state failed to demonstrate that the
items are any more dangerous in the hands of non-Indians than they are in the
possession of inmates of American Indian descent.

In its ruling, the court stopped short of ordering the prison to let Morrison
have the items.

However, "it is patently impermissible to control the number of dangerous
items by instituting a policy which arbitrarily makes race or heritage the
threshold requirement for according an individual inmate the privilege of
obtaining them," the court said.

Jimmy Boy Dial
Editor, The Spike
www.thespike.com
=========================
U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals
MORRISON v ANGELONE
PUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=4th&navby=case&no=00654

0P

"Defendants be enjoined from prohibiting Morrison from obtaining herbs and
other
religious items based solely upon his lack of membership in the Native
American
race." J.A. 264. The dis- trict court agreed in large part with the
magistrate judge's
report and recommendation, ultimately concluding that Morrison had
established an
equal protection violation and entering a narrow injunction prohib- iting
defendants
"from refusing Morrison a religious exemption from the existing property
restrictions,
available to other inmates, solely on the basis of his lack of membership in
the
Native American race." J.A. 300. Taking care to point out that this was not
tantamount to ordering defendants to allow Morrison to obtain the requested
prop-
erty, the district court emphasized that it was"simply enjoin[ing] the
Defendants
from using race as the only factor in their initial determi- nation of
whether Morrison
is entitled to a religious exemption from the existing personal property
restrictions."
J.A. 300-01. Defendants Garraghty and Millard now appeal.
Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law


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