Vol. XVI - No. 1 ---------------- Spring, 2005

 

INDIAN AND INDIGENOUS DEVELOPMENTS

                 Steve Sachs, IUPUI

U.S. DEVELOPMENTS:

  U.S. Developments

  Federal Indian Budgets
(Actual Budget Figures Here)

  In the Courts
Supreme Court
Lower Federal Courts
Tribal Courts

NAFTA Arbitration

  States, Localities and Tribal Governments

  Tribal Developments

  Economic Development

  Educational and Cultural Developments

INTERNATIONAL INDIGENOUS DEVELOPMENTS

 

 

U.S. Developments

     Census 2000 found that the number or American Indians and Alaska Natives who live in urban rather than rural areas or on tribal lands has risen to 66% of the native population.

     On February 23, with the expiration of the one-year moratorium placed by Congress, on accounting the 300,000 individual Indian trust accounts, District Judge Royce Lambeth reinitiated the process of requiring the Interior Department to determine how much each account holder is owed. Some Interior officials have stated that such an audit could cost $12 billion. In April, plaintiffs cited Interior department records in telling the court that Interior used "a sham certification and accreditation process" to operate defective computer systems that house or access individual Indian trust accounts, in the course of petitioning judge Lambeth to issue a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction, again shutting down all trust fund computer systems. Plaintiffs quoted a report by the department's inspector general saying, "given the poor state of network security...and weak access controls we encountered on many systems, it is safe to say that we could have easily compromised the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the identified Indian Trust data residing on such systems." In May, the BIA established a nation wide toll free number for Indian trust account beneficiaries to obtain information in their accounts: (888)678-6836 X888..

     A tribal working group formed to provide recommendations to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the House Resources committee on drafting legislation on trust reform and settlement of the Cobell case, held its first meeting in Tulsa, OK on April 8. Participants included co-chairs Jim Gray, of the Intertribal Monitoring Association, and Tex Hall, President of the National Congress of American Indians, staff members from the two congressional committees and the House Native American Caucus, and Cobell case attorney John Echohawk, of the Native American Rights Fund. The group is in the course of holding a series of meetings and listening sessions around the U.S. that are open to all Indian nations and organizations that wish to participate. The two congressional committees were aiming at producing draft trust reform legislation in May or June, to be followed by hearings during the summer, with a second draft worked up during the August congressional recess. The first working group meeting recommend that
Indian land consolidation be a priority in legislative drafting. Other issues discussed at the session included: A perspective "fix" of trust management; the future role of the Office of the Special Trustee (OST) within the Interior Department; The reorganization of the BIA and land-to-trust applications at the bureau; An across the board 2% cut to BIA offices and its impact on lease compliance staffing, tribal involvement in granting right-of-way and easements on tribal land and tribal involvement in land consolidation. Hall is concerned that OST continues to absorb significant congressional funding that otherwise would go to Indian programs. More recently, the Cobell plaintiffs have stated they would be willing to settle with the Interior Department for $27.5 billion, if none of that money was taken from other Indian programs.

     The Interior Department’s Board of Indian Appeals rejected the Golden Hill Paugussetts' request to reconsider denial of federal recognition for the tribe, in October, effectively ending the Paugussetts' recognition efforts with the BIA. At the same time, the Interior Department's Board of Indian Appeals accepted the Nipmuc Nation's appeal of the BIA's rejection of the tribe's application for federal recognition, asking the tribe to submit documentation by Jan. 31, 2005. The board, in May, overturned decisions that recognized the Kent-based Schaghticokes and the Eastern Pequot Indian tribe in southeastern Connecticut, sending the cases back to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs for reconsideration. It marked the first time the agency reversed a decision granting recognition to tribes. The Senate Indian Affairs Committee opened hearings into the federal recognition process, in May, hearing both from those wishing fewer tribes being recognized (including Connecticut officials) and tribes and Indian organizations seeking a faster and improved process. The seven-member congressional delegation from Connecticut and its governor are demanding a freeze on all applications for tribal acknowledgment before the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, the agency responsible for granting governmental status and land trusts to Indian tribes, until it clarifies criteria for recognition and institutes a series of other changes. In February, House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo introduced HR 512, to provide expedited consideration in the BIA federal acknowledgement process of petitioners identified as "Ready, Waiting for Active Consideration", as of July 1, 2004. The bill would require the Secretary of the Interior to publish a proposed finding within six months and a final determination within one year of the bill's taking effect, for the included petitioners. The Interior Department supported speeding decision-making, but opposed the bill because its current staff would be unable to undertake proper fact finding and analytical decision making within the time limits.

     The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) published a notice, on March 31, of revisions and clarifications of the February 2000 procedures (not the regulations) for tribal petition for federal recognition. Procedural items included: 1) Restrictions were removed limiting additional acknowledgement staff research for verification and evaluation beyond what has been submitted by petitioners or third parties (but concerned parties should not expect staff to perform research or analysis to correct omissions in submitted documentation); 2) Notice will be given to concerned parties of the deadline for submitting additional materials; 3) Staff may request additional information at any time before a proposed finding for the purpose of clarifying arguments or evidence, or to obtain information possessed by the parties, but not submitted. However, such requests shall not delay issuance of a proposed finding; 4) Where appropriate, a technical report analyzing the evidence which was "most important to the decision-making process" will accompany the summary evaluation of the evidence a finding; 5) The limit of six weeks for the Interior Department to review of a recommended decision does not include the time for consultation and briefing provided the Assistant-Secretary for Indian Affairs and the Office of the Solicitor prior to commencement of the surnaming process; 6) some statements in the February 2000 procedures were affirmed or clarified. In terms of information and advice for petitioners and third parties, the March 31 notice in the Federal Register included: 1) An "Acknowledgement Decisions Compilation" of all departmental decisions concerning acknowledgement is available on CD; 2) Training is available to petitioners and third parties on the use of the Office of Federal Acknowledgment's electronic data base, along with consultations before and during the submission process to improve the quality of submissions; 3) More than one extension of the comment period for "good cause" is permissible ("good cause" is defined in the notice).

     A U.S. Interior Department Appeals Board, in February, upheld a ruling allowing the Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, of Wisconsin, to put 278 acres in Shawano County into trust, over the objections of the county and a local township. In April, The BIA approved a proposal by the Match-E-BeWah Band of Potawatomi, at Gun Lake in Western Michigan, to put 147 acres of land into trust in Allegan County, where the tribe is seeking to build a casino. The gun Lake tribe is negotiating with the state for a gaming compact.

     The Akaka bill to grant federal recognition for native Hawaiians will get a vote in the U.S. Senate despite objections from the new chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Sen. Daniel Inouye said January 12. Inouye said he had met with the committee chairman, Sen. John McCain, who had said that he would rather increase funding for existing native Hawaiian programs than pass the Akaka bill, but he does not oppose the measure. Just prior to last year's elections, Inouye and Sen. Daniel Akaka received assurances from a majority Senate Republicans who had prevented a vote on the measure that the bill would pass out of committee and onto the Senate floor for a vote. Native Hawaiian views on the matter are mixed, with some favoring federal recognition and some not. In March, Senator Elizabeth Dole introduced a bill to give the Lumbee Nation of North Carolina full federal recognition,

     Representatives of the Lumbee tribe said they would continue to fight when their effort to obtain federal recognition failed in November, and one of their staunchest allies, U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre, says he has their back. McIntyre, who represents more than 40,000 Lumbee Indians in Robeson and surrounding counties, re-introduced a bill in January that would grant Lumbees the recognition they have sought since 1888, bring about $77 million a year to Indians living in Robeson, Hoke, Cumberland and Scotland counties for education, health care and economic development. Congress passed the Lumbee Act in 1956, but the legislation denied any benefits. The Munsee tribe of Kansas, who were terminated by the federal government in 1900, are seeking to regain recognition. Having been refused by the BIA in 1978, the nation is seeking an act of Congress for that purpose.

     The BIA/Tribal Budget Advisory Council, a panel of representatives from each of the 12 BIA regions around the country, called for restoration funding cuts made by the Bush Administration in tribal college budgets, to bring the schools to full funding, at the council's February 17-18 meeting in Chandler, AZ. In January, top BIA and BIA education officials met in San Diego for a visioning session to improve education in the agency's 185 Indian schools, the clear majority of which constantly fail to have their students meet the NCLB standards in reading and math. The session included discussion of a number of methods that have been effective elsewhere, including increasing parent involvement, contracts signed by students, parents and educators, extending the school day, teacher coaching, sustained staff development and student self-monitoring.

     The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report, on April 5, Indian Child Welfare Act: Existing Information on Implementation Issues could be used to Target Guidance and Assistance to the States. The report indicated that only five states, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Washington, were able to report on children subject to ICWA through their automated child welfare data systems, and thus the GAO undertook its study focusing primarily on four of those states (leaving out Rhode Island, which had very few Indian Children in its child welfare system). The study found that there is little difference between the time children subject to ICWA and other children spent in foster care and pointed out that where ICWA gives placement preference for Indian children to their relatives, most states have a general placement preference to a child's relatives, and most children are eventually reunited with their families. However, in three of the four states for which the GAO had data, foster children subject to ICWA were slightly more likely than non-Indian children to be placed in a guardianship situation rather than being reunited with their families. The report noted that the implementation of ICWA is not overseen by any federal agency. Instead, the states are required to submit to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) a description, undertaken in consultation with tribes and tribal organizations, of steps taken to comply with ICWA, which must be included in its five year plan. The states must then make annual reports on meeting the goals of their plans. The report found that many states that identified problems with ICWA implementation had no plans to correct those problems. The GAO recommended that the Administration for Children and Families, in DHHS, use the ICWA data to review state implementation and target guidance and assistance to the states in addressing identified issues, DHHS responded, in a letter by Acting Inspector General, Daniel Levinson, that it "does not have the authority, resources or expertise to provide the level of effort to address the recommendations GAO identified." Instead, DHHS suggested that GAO study related issues, including tribal access to Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Programs that provide the resources that tribes can use to support children, subject to ICWA, that are transferred from state to tribal jurisdiction. Hobbes, Straus, Dean & Walker General Memorandum 05-58 suggests that DHHS is positioning itself to oppose congressional and tribal efforts to amend Title IV-E to directly administer the program.

     In March, Senator Gordon Smith introduced the Governmental Pension Plan Equalization Act of 2005 (S. 673). The bill clarifies that retirement plans sponsored by tribal governments will be afforded the same treatment as retirement plans sponsored by federal, state and local governments. In the past, the IRS frequently provided determination letters that explicitly recognized retirement plans sponsored by tribal governments as governmental plans. However, in January 2004 the IRS indicated that it would no longer provide these determinations and rulings. Also introduced in the Senate in March was a bill on tribal adoption/foster care assistance that would amend the Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Act to allow tribal governments to administer that program so that the children under their jurisdiction can receive the services and benefits of that Act. Under the Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Act, passed in 1980, tribal governments and Indian children under their care were not provided with the same access to entitlement funding as states. In order to access Title IV-E funds, tribes must enter into agreements with their respective states. These agreements are often limited in scope, and do not always provide the full array of IV-E services that children under state jurisdiction receive (such as payments to foster care providers, administrative funding, training for social workers and foster/adoptive parents, and/or data system development).

     The House, on April 6, passed the Native American Housing Enhancement Bill (HR 797), that would: 1) make clear that tribes have access to new Native American Housing and Self-Determination Funds if they have NAHSDA money remaining from the previous year; 2) Allow tribal housing programs to exercise Indian preference in Department of Agriculture housing programs; 3) Reinstate tribal eligibility for the HUD YouthBuild grant program, providing job training and educational assistance to low income youth. The Senate, in March, defeated an amendment to the 2006 Budget Resolution that would have continued to protected the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) from oil drilling, The House and Senate Budget Resolutions had yet to be justified. A Senate version (S 745) was pending in the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, at that time. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, in late May, unanimously passed out The Indian Energy Bill, calling for the establishment of an office in the Department of Energy to coordinate energy development on Indian lands, as well as providing grants, training and regulatory incentives to increase production. A Bill dealing with energy that passed the Senate in April has language that could discourage the Energy Department from giving large contracts to Alaska Native contractors. The language was not in a version of the bill passing the House.

     Senator John McCain, in late May, introduced a bill for the reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Act (which was left unconsidered when the last Congress ended). The bill is supported by the D.C. based Indian Healthcare Improvement Reauthorization Coalition, and contains most of the provisions the Indian leaders comprising the coalitions steering committee proposed.

     Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA) has proposed an amendment to Section 106 of the
National Historic Preservation Act, that would remove its application to places eligible to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and limit its operation to places already listed on the register. This would endanger what surely must be the majority of indigenous archaeological sites, that have not yet been discovered, and those known but not yet listed.

     Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) proposed a bill that would reverse a rider to a 2000 omnibus bill, sponsored by Representative George Miller (D-CA) allowing the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians to have land taken into trust, in San Pablo, near Oakland, for gaming. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a gaming contract with the tribe, in 2004, that was heavily criticized by Bay Area lawmakers. Congressman Miller recently stated that he no longer supported his earlier action, because of changes in the project since that time. In the face of the criticism, the tribe has scaled back its proposal, which is supported by San Pablo's Mayor. Feinstein's measure would require the Lytton Band to start over, going through the normal process for taking land into trust that the 2000 legislation skipped over. Feinstein has said that she was moved to sponsor the bill by the proliferation of proposals for off reservation casinos, of which there have been 5 in the San Francisco Area, and 20 in California.

     House Resolution 76, introduced in February, would recognize and honor the achievements and contributions of Native Americans of the United States and urge the President to issue an executive order the establishing a paid legal public holiday in honor of Native Americans.

     Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, Congressional Black Caucus, and Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Congressional Native American Caucus, highlighting their commitment to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health care, on April 27, announced Closing the Health Care Divide, a set of principles for addressing racial and ethnic health disparities. The principles include: Expanding the health care safety net; Diversifying the health care workforce; Combating diseases that disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minorities; Emphasizing prevention and behavioral health; Promoting the collection and dissemination of data and enhancing medical research; Providing interpreters and translation services in the delivery of health care. For the full enumeration of the principles, analysis of the problem and related statements, go to: http://www.usnewswire.com/.

     Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and tribal officials reported, in June, that the Indian Lands Open Dumps Cleanup Act, passed more than a decade ago, but without funding, with the goal of cleaning up hundreds open dumps on Indian reservations, has had little effect, and that there are likely more illegal dumps in Indian country now than when the law was passed. In February, EPA approved The Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa's application to be treated in the same manner as a state for regulating air quality, in a Title V operating permit program, under the Clean Air Act, The Bad River Band is the first tribe to attain such status in Wisconsin, and the 20th in the U.S.

     The Navaho Nation EPA, which has been operating under an authorization by the EPA treating the nation as if it were a state, after several years of negotiations following the bringing of a suite in tribal court by the two power companies, has obtained air quality voluntary compliance agreements with the SRP Navaho Generating Station and the APS Four Corners Power Plant to have their air born emissions monitored and regulated and to pay fees, currently totaling $700,000, that will help fund Navajo Nation EPA's operation. There is concern that the regulation is limited to air quality, and does not apply to water and solid waste pollution, which are serious problems on the Navajo reservation. The regulation, also, does not extend to just off reservation coal power plants that emit toxins into the air over Navajo land, such as the San Juan Generating Station near Ship Rock, contributing to creating a cancer alley. Navajo nation is also planning for an additional coal fired power plant to be built on the nation, Desert Rock, in New Mexico, which is being opposed by the tribal environmental group, Dine Care (Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment), that are also focusing on oil spills, which are common on the nation, and health endangering environmental damage from coal mining. Dine CARE is pressing for available technology to be used to make coal fired power plants less polluting, and for the building of clean renewable energy production rather than coal burning plants.

     Representatives of the Rocky Mountain and Great Plains tribes met with Rick Capka, deputy administrator for the Federal Highway Administration, in Kalispell, this spring, to talk about making reservation highways safer. The meeting came on the release of the Interior Department's Indian Reservation Roads Program guidelines, outlining proposed new rules and regulations for Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal roads. The proposed rules will be discussed in meetings in tribal communities, expected to be scheduled between July and August. The final regulations will become effective Oct. 1 and will serve as regulations for the next six years. Currently, the number of people dying in reservation car wrecks is increasing, while declining for the rest or the country. While the number of fatal car wrecks decreased 2% nationally between 1975 and 2002, the number of fatal car wrecks on reservations rose 53%, according to a National Center for Statistics and Analysis report released in April. Of the 1,165 fatalities reported on Indian Country roads between 1999 and 2002, about two-thirds were Natives. For the fatal reservation car wrecks, 63% of drivers were under 35 years old, compared to 57% nationwide. 44% of the reservation driving deaths occurred on Saturday or Sunday compared to 36% nationwide. 65% of all reservation auto accidents, since 1982, were alcohol-related, compared to 47% nationally.76% of reservation passengers killed in wrecks weren't wearing seatbelts, compared to 68% nation wide. The National Center for Statistics and Analysis report listed the top three causes of car accidents as to failure to use safety belts, speeding and alcohol use. Tribal representatives also noted poor road conditions as one of their major concerns, saying that a lack of money has lead to road construction not equal to state standards. Carrie Braine, Tribal Employment Rights Office Planning Director on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation stated that if high way funding came directly to tribes from the federal government, reservation roads could be built and maintained more quickly.

     With many tribes carrying out their own health programs or contracting them out, the Indian Health Service has formed a Direct Service Tribes advisory committee, of nations continuing to receive services directly from IHS, and has created a senior position to work with Direct Service Tribes, which was announced during the second annual Direct Service Tribes Conference, in Albuquerque in late May.

     The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) held policy and technical discussions concerning wind generation of electric power with tribal leaders at the Renewable Energy Conference in the Upper Midwest, in North Dakota, in February. FERC has been holding public discussions of wind energy policy, since December, and has been engaged in developing regulations that will be favorable to increased production of electricity from wind.

     The Community Development Financial Institution's (CDFI) Fund, in April, pledged $1.2 million to help develop American Indian Individual Investment Accounts (IDA's), intended to stimulate native home ownership, secondary education and business creation by matching individual dollars saved. The CDFI Fund has stated that its upcoming shift from the Treasury to the Commerce Department will not affect the program. Navajo Nation, in order not to lose $84 million federal housing money under the Native American Housing and Self Determination Act of 1992, in April, passed an ordinance, providing a limited wavier of sovereign immunity, allowing the nation to be sued in federal court in relation to compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act in carrying out federal housing and urban development grants.

     The Internal Revenue service was considering, in February, whether the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians could make a $145 million tax-exempt bond issue (in 2003) to fund construction in its Fantasy Springs Resort, near Indio, CA.

      The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in March, approved a permit that will allow Macon's Cherokee Brick & Tile Co. to mine clay from Macon Georgia’s floodplain for 50 years, the longest mining permit ever issued by the Savannah District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in the face of opposition by area Indian tribes, environmentalists and, residents. One concern is that the new mines will destroy three Muscogee archaeological sites that are thousands of years old. The permit includes a restriction, preserving 610 acres surrounding Lamar Mound, east of the Ocmulgee River.

        South Dakota tribal leaders, elders and members met with National Forest Service officials at Crazy Horse, SD, in a two-day consultation/listening session, in February, to begin a process of forming an advisory group, define consultation and sacred sites in an atmosphere a majority of the Indian participants described as powerful and unprecedented in dealings with federal agencies, according to Indian Country Today, March 5.  In April, the U.S. Forest Service proposed a new national policy on Special Forest Products and Botanical Forest Products that would require fees for gathering more than $20 worth of traditional plants from National Forest lands. The California Indian Basket weavers Association believes that this policy could improve regulation of commercial harvesting of bear grass, mushrooms, and other economically valuable forest products, which can lead to over harvesting and conflicts with tribal gatherers. Unfortunately, the current draft only extends fee waivers to treaty tribes, so California Indians would have to pay fees to gather more than $20 worth of plant material. Under current policy, gathering for personal use is free, and only commercial harvesting requires a permit. The proposed draft policy recognizes the federal government's obligation to provide products free of charge to Indian tribes with reserved treaty gathering rights, but does not include fee waivers for non-treaty tribes or non-federally recognized tribes.

     The Nisqually Tribe of Oregon signed a 25 year agreement, in March, with the U.S. fish and Wild Life Service to co-manage 310 acres of tribal land as a sanctuary, that the tribe bought at the mouth of the Nisqually River in 1996 to allow to return from farm land to its natural state as mostly marsh land.

     The Makah Tribe, in February, filed a petition with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration to begin the long almost unprecedented process of seeking a wavier to the 1972 Marine Mammals Protection Act to restart whaling. The nation has gone through six years of court battles to continue whaling, after being briefly permitted doing so after a 70-year hiatus.

     Michael Liu, the top Indian housing official in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, initiated an expansion of Indian housing programs during his last month at the agency. The "Indian Area" under which tribal members can obtain Section 184 mortgages was expanded from covering just reservations, to areas where a tribe has had a traditional presence or where a significant number of tribal members live, including in states without reservations, such as Oklahoma and Alaska. Section 184 loans are now being made to Native Hawaiians, and to members of tribes living off reservation in Colorado Michigan, Indiana and Minnesota. On April 28, HUD announced that it was placing sanctions of more than $4.8 million on the Tulalip Tribe of Washington's low-income housing program for "serious outstanding performance issues" in management of grants from 1999 - 2000. Among the problems cited, were misspending of grant money for tribal programs not covered by the grants. Related to this, former Tulalip Housing Authority manager Michael Jones pleaded guilty to embezzling $23,500 (for tribal, not personal use), The sanctions on the tribe consist of stopping the spending of unspent money in two grants and threatening to do so in a third, if proper reports are not filed in a timely manner.

     The Tohono O'odham, whose reservation straddles the Mexican boarder, have been protesting U.S. Boarder Patrol Policies and actions that have been injurious to tribal members, and a lack of consultation with the tribe by the boarder patrol. In March, for example, the Border Patrol announced a new initiative on Tohono O'odham lands with more agents and better coordination with local officials aimed at reducing illegal immigration and deaths; but tribal officials only heard about it by listening to radio news. When Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff visited several boarder points in the area, he did not stop at Tohono O'odham. Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano says that it is vital for Chertoff to work with tribal communities along he border. The Tohono O'odham also oppose the building of a wall along the boarder.

     The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has commended the Hopi Nation for developing a high quality state level multi-hazard mitigation plan (The Hopi Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan: HNHMP) in only 30 days, where most states take thee years to develop their plans.

     The Administration on Aging (AoA), in late April, announced nearly $30 million in grants to support "vital" community programs and services for tribal elders and their caregivers to help foster greater independence and healthier lives. The grants represent about $1 million per participating tribe.

     The U.S. Census Bureau is launching a field test, from July until next May, for the 2010 Census on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota. The Census typically undercounts American Indians living on reservations. The 2000 undercount ranged between 2.77 percent and 6.71 percent, the highest in the nation except for Native Hawaiians. For more information contact the Cheyenne River Census Field Office: (605) 964-1990 or (877) 744-1522.

     As of May 2005, 232 nations - about 40 percent of all federally recognized tribes - operate one or more programs that had been previously administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The other tribes fall into one of two categories: "638 contracts" or "direct service." Tribes with contracts still report to an officer in the BIA. Direct service tribes continue to rely on the bureau to manage their programs. While federal law allows Indian nations to run, or contract their own programs, in most cases, the federal government provides only program money, and does not pay for the administrative costs of taking over the program, or, especially important, the start up costs for the tribe to begin its own program, or for the education and training to give the tribe the competence to run the program. While Indian nations can usually run the programs more cheaply and appropriately than the federal government, lack of sufficient funding is often a barrier to tribes operating their own programs.

     The Department of Health and Human Services announced a partnership between DHHS and Gifts in Kind International to provide donations from private sector firms to tribes, nonprofit Indian organizations, tribal colleges, and school districts, with The Administration for Native Americans (ANA) the lead agency. One goal of the program is to establish distribution centers in Indian communities. Dell Inc. is participating by donating recycled 3-in-1 printers. For information contact Karen Funk: kfunk@hsdwdc.com.

     The Farm Service Agency (FSA), in February, published a final rule revising the Tribal Land Acquisition Program, changing the write down servicing policies that apply to individuals receiving rental value or land value write downs, as follows: 1) "Rental Value" is defined, clarifying the statute; 2) Full appraisal is no longer required when applying for a write down, and a market value rent study can be used; 3) Applicants for a write-down must show their financial situation is dire and their loan payments cannot be paid off in one year. Borrowers receiving a write-down are not eligible for another one, or another ITLAP loan for five years.

     The Indigenous Democratic Network has begum a program to "identify, recruit, groom, train, staff and finance Indian candidates across the country for local and state offices. To be eligible for assistance, candidates must be tribal members, members of the Democratic Party, and support tribal sovereignty. Therese Two Bulls (D-Pine Ridge), elected to the state senate in 2002, is the first Indian women elected to the South Dakota legislature. Brenda Frank, appointed to the Oregon Board of Education this spring, is the first Native American to serve on the board, Patrick Goggles (Northern Arapaho) defeated his incumbent opponent for the Wyoming House, in November,

     In the November election, Oklahomans passed a measure allowing expanded tribal casino gaming, slot machines at race tracks, three of which are owned by tribes, some state oversight of tribal gaming and a share of tribal gaming profits that is expected to raise about $70 million a year for public schools and scholarships. Tribal officials estimate that with the new measure tribal casino business in Oklahoma will likely continue to expand over the next three years. (For what happened to other Indian relevant ballot measures, last November, see the Fall 2004 issue of Indigenous Policy.) The National Indian Gaming Commission reports that along with the increase in Indian casino income has been a rise in embezzlement at Indian Casinos. Last year a federal task force was formed to work on this and related issues (see the fall '04 issue of IPJ).

 

Federal Indian Budgets

(Actual Budget Charts Available Here)

     During the Bush Administration, the White House has generally been calling for budget cuts in domestic spending, including much, but not all of Indian appropriations, with some of the exceptions significant, including for the Indian Health Service. That was the case for both FY2005 and FY2006, Last year Congress put back significant portions of what the President proposed be cut for many Indian programs/ It will remain to be seen what Congress will do for Fiscal Year (FY) 2006.  Here are the figures that we currently have available for the last three federal budget years (Main source: Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker, LLP, General Memorandums. Hobbs, et al is at 2120 L St, N.W., Washington, DC 20037 (212) 822-8282, FAX: (202) 296-8834, www.hsdwlaw.com]). In examining the Indian Health Service (IHS) budget, note that medical inflation is much greater than general inflation.

     The President’s proposed FY2006 budget calls for a 15% cut in federal housing assistance to Indian tribes, cutting the housing block grants administered by HUD by $107 million. Other programs that benefit Native Americans, including HUD’s Rural Housing and Development program that last year targeted more than 25% of its $25 million budget to Indian projects, have been eliminate.

     Meg Goetz, Congressional liaison for the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, said, in February, that while Congress provided $52.8 million in FY2005 for tribal colleges, full funding would have been $67 million. She stated that because tribal colleges are funded only year to year, they cannot plan, and when funding is delayed, as it was from October to December last year, the schools have to find a way to operate without federal money in the meantime. To break even, tribal colleges need to have their authorized funding of $6,000 a student, but currently they receive only $447 per student. In addition, many tribal college physical facilities are significantly substandard. Many continue to operate in overcrowded abandoned BIA building and trailers. One school has a building known as the Hall of Many Buckets because of the numerous leaks in the roof. Some say they have enough computers, but cannot use them because wiring is not up to code. Meanwhile the American Indian College Fund provides scholarships of $3.4 million a year, which is about 15% of the need. Navajo Nation in 2005 received $10.7 million, $547,000 less than in 2004, from the federal government for the operation of its higher education grant and student aid programs.

     The U.S. Department of Education is offering $4.98 million in Even Start Family Literacy Grants to tribes and tribal organizations in FY2005. For information contact Marie Osceaola-Branch: (202)415-4912, mosceola-banch@hsdwdc.com. The National Park Service is offering grants of $5000 to $40000 to Indian and Alaska Native Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations for historic and cultural preservation in FY 2005. For details contact Dean Suagee: dsuagee@hsdwdc.com or Adam Bailey: abailey@dswdc.com.

     Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) has inserted a provision into the FY2006 highway bill to allocate $3 million over the next 5 years to pave some of the 7600 miles of dirt roads, of the 9800 miles roads, on the Navajo reservation. That measure passed the Senate in late May.

 

 

In the Courts

The U.S. Supreme Court

     The United States Supreme Court, on March 29, by an 8-1 vote, overruled the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in Oneida Nation of New York v. City of Sherrill, holding, for the first time, that a tribe's claim of sovereign immunity from state taxation on property it had purchased on its historic reservation was barred by the tribe's long delay in bringing its claims, during which time the land was developed and governed by non-Indians who were unaware of the tribe's claims. The court relied on the equity principles of laches, acquiescence and impossibility (that the tribe could not evict non-Indians) in reaching its decision. Writing for the Majority, Justice Ginsburg stated that the proper course of action for a tribe in the Oneida's situation to seek regaining of full sovereignty over its land is to apply to the Secretary of the Interior to have the land taken into trust. The decision has opened questions about all of the Indian land in New York, as none of it is held in trust as all of it that tribes have not purchased was its original land prior to contact, which was recognized as belonging to the tribe by treaty, prior to the trust system's establishment. As a result of the Supreme Court decision, the Oneida nation has received property tax bills of about $400,000 on its Turning Stone Casino and nine other properties in Verona, NY.

     The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-0, in March, that the federal government is “legally bound to pay contract costs” to tribes for services under the Indian Self Determination and Education Act. The case involved suits brought by the Cherokee and Shoshone tribes following refusal of the federal government to pay full contract costs where Congress had not appropriated sufficient funding for that purpose.  

     The Supreme Court, on February 22, refused to hear an appeal by an anti gambling group challenging the gaming compacts signed by the Governor of Michigan with four of the states tribes. Also, that month, the high court refused to hear an appeal of a circuit court holding that the National Park Service can protect the sacred site of Rainbow Bridge, in Utah, by keeping visitors out of the area.

     The Supreme Court has accepted an appeal by the State of Kansas of a 10^th Circuit Court decision that the state cannot collect taxes at the dock of the wholesaler on motor fuel purchased by the Prairie Band of Potawatomi for on reservation use, in Prairie Band of Potawatomi Nation v. Richards. The Attorney Generals of 13 states are supporting Kansas with briefs of Amicus Curia. The high court refused to hear an appeal from the state of Idaho of district and circuit court rulings that the state cannot collect taxes on fuel sales at the tribe’s on reservation gas station.

 

Lower Federal Courts

     In Kahawaiolaa v. Norton (Docket No. 02-17239), the Ninth Circuit Court of appeals, in October, denied the claim of two Native Hawaiians that Department of Interior regulations excluding native Hawaiians from the tribal recognition process violated equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. For details go to http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/9th/0217239p.pdf or

http://www.westlaw.com/find/default.wl?rs=CLWP3.0&vr=2.0&cite=2004%20WL%202389906.

     A three judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, in November, that the Department of Interior's 1996 decision to recognize the Delaware Tribe of Oklahoma (distinct from the Delaware Nation of Oklahoma) as an independent political entity was "unlawful," as an 1866 treaty made the Delawares citizens of the Cherokee Nation, not of their own separate tribe. The court said that the Delaware Tribe could only become a separate recognized tribe by act of Congress.

     A three judge panel of the 1st Circuit Court, in Carcieri v. Norton, in early March, upheld the Interior Department placing 31 acres of land into trust for the Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island, across a state road from its reservation, where the tribe planned to build a housing project at when the land was put into trust in 1998. When the Narragansett refused to accept the jurisdiction of the town of Charleston on the parcel of land, the town and the state brought suit, claiming, in part, that portions of the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act were unconstitutional. The state is appealing the decision, with support in briefs of amicus curia from ten state attorney generals. On April 13, the 1st Circuit court of appeals, in Aroostook Band of Micmacs v Patricia Ryan, executive director, Maine Human Rights Commission; at al, preserved the right of the Micmacs to defend their sovereignty in federal, rather than state, court, reversing a trend in the First Circuit. The case involved a Micmac objection to the Maine Human Rights Commission investigating complaints by three former tribal employees, under Maine antidiscrimination laws, In May, a three judge panel of the First Circuit Court of Appeals found that the raid on a Narragansett smoke shop by Rhode Island state police, nearly two years before, was a violation of the tribes sovereignty. The tribe plans to reopen the smoke shop, while some of its employees, who were injured by police in the raid, have brought suite to collect damages.

     The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, in North Dakota, ex rel. v Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, No. 03-4036, on April 6, that the states of North and South Dakota are not entitled to receive 100% federal reimbursement for services provided for American Indian Medicaid beneficiaries when the services are performed by non-Indian Health Service (IHS) providers pursuant to a Contract Health Services referral from an IHS or tribal clinic. Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage reimbursement rates (based on h federal and state governments sharing the costs under Medicaid) are applicable rather than the 100% federal reimbursement paid to IHS.

     A three judge panel the 9th Circuit Court of appeals ruled, in January, that the Samish Indian Nation of Washington, which regained federal recognition in 1996, was entitled to a portion of the tribal share of salmon, recognized in the 1974 Bolt decision.

     The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, in May, dismissed an appeal by the Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, seeking the overturning of a district court decision denying the tribe's claim to the former Sun Flower Ammunition Dump, near Kansas City, where the nation hoped to open a Casino. The 9th Circuit Court, as a whole, on March 9, upheld the earlier ruling by its three judge panel, denying the Skokomish Tribe's $6 billion claim against the U.S., the City of Tacoma and Tacoma Public Utilities, claiming that the building of two dams on the Skokomish River have interfered with its treaty fishing rights. In February, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Wampanoag Tribe of Rhode Island does not have a valid land claim to 34 square miles in the northeast portion of the state, having missed a 1978 deadline to file the claim.

     The Nez Perce Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation and the Yakama Nation, in February, appealed a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Ruling that the ancient relics know as Kennewick Man were not covered by the Native American Graves Protection Act, allowing the remains to be studied by scientists.

     A U.S. District Court judge in Marquette, MI ruled in KBIC v. Robert Naftaly, in June, that the state has no grounds to impose property taxes on the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community,

    U.S. District Court Judge Karen Schreirer ruled against a claim, in suite brought by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2002, that the voting districts in the City of Martin South Dakota were drawn to make it almost impossible for Indians, who according to the 2000 census were 35% of the voting age population, to elect their preferred candidates, by equally dividing Indian voters among three districts, The ACLU is appealing, In early February, the ACLU helped four people bring a separate suite against Mix County, SD, asserting that the county's districting unfairly dilutes the Indian vote.

     Led by Suzan Shown Harjo, Muscogee/Cheyenne, a group of seven Native activists’ challenge to the Washington Redskins trademarks Washington Redskins trademarks was heard by the Washington, DC Circuit Court of Appeals, in April. They were appealing the district court’s throwing out their case seeking cancellation of all Redskins marks under a federal law that bars the registration of symbols that disparage people.

     Federal District judge Warren Urbom, on March 14, approved a settlement agreement under which new rules were established for American Indian Inmates in Nebraska prisons to be able to conduct cultural and religious affairs. The case arose as state and federal prisons have been becoming increasingly security oriented in recent years, becoming more restrictive of Native rights to religious practice, sometimes by further limiting the time for ceremonies and cultural activity, or placing more regulations on what is permitted.

     U.S district Court Judge Philip Pro, on May 17, denied the Western Shoshone Nation suit in federal court against use of Yucca mountain as a nuclear waste site, holding that the suite was premature because the cite had not yet opened and a disputed rail line had yet to be built,

     A South Carolina district Court dismissed a suite by the Catawba Nation, petitioning to allow the tribe to expand its gaming operations by offering Video Gambling, in February.

     A federal district judge, in January, dismissed a suite challenging the National Forest Service’s banning of Rock Climbing at the Washoe Tribe's sacred site of Cave Rock, in Nevada.

     Lawyers for Leonard Peltier were denied a petition in South Dakota District Court, in May, asking for immediate and unfettered access to 90,000 pages of FBI documents that they assert were improperly withheld from the defense at Peltier’s 1977 trial for murdering two FBI agents. The court stated that the FBI could not withhold any of he documents, but that the existing timetable for turning them over to defense attorneys was reasonable.

     The Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribes and the Santa Rosa Rancheria of California brought suite in district court in Minnesota requesting an injunction to prevent the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) from drawing up new regulations redefining class II gaming. The tribes contend that NICG is not following federal guidelines for advisory groups, under the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The complaint is that NIGC set up a Tribal Advisory Committee (which has no tribal officials in its membership) to help draft the definitional regulations, and that the advisory committee has held business meetings behind closed doors, denying tribal officials their right to attend the sessions and comment, The issue is important, because their are proposals within the federal government, including from the Department of Justice, to redefine some class II gaming devices as class III, particularly devices which make bingo more like slot machine gambling. Many tribes that can only undertake class II gaming use the machines, and ability to use such devices gives tribes some leverage in negotiations with states over compacts for class III gaming.

     The Cayuga Nation of New York filed suite, in February, asking the Federal District Court to validate the tribe’s ouster of its federally recognized representative, on the grounds that he mishandled federal money and acted on his own without tribal authority in nullifying a land settlement with the state of New York (because the New York Governor had offered a similar deal to the Seneca Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma). The tribe also asked that the court uphold its land claim settlement with New York State.

     The four Wabanaki Tribes in Maine, in June, announced plans to file suit as an intervener in the D.C. Federal Court of Appeals challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent decision to remove power plants from the list of industrial air pollution sources requiring strict controls for mercury and other toxic air pollutant emissions.

     The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians have brought suite against the federal government, claiming that too much land was placed into federal protection on the Southern California coast as "critical habitat" for big horn sheep, violating the Endangered Species Act, by not taking into account the economic impact of the policy. Pueblo tribal members and environmentalists have filed a suite to stop the City of Albuquerque from building a road through the Petroglyph National Monument.

 

NAFTA Arbitration

     Vancouver British Columbia based mining company Glamis Gold Ltd. has filed a claim for NAFTA Arbitration for $50 million dollars, claiming that the California sacred site law’s application in stopping it from digging a cyanide leaching gold mine near a sacred site of the Quechan Tribe in southeastern California devalued the company’s property without required compensation.

 

State and Local Courts

     On November. 9, the Montana Supreme Court, in Columbia Falls Elementary School District v. State of Montana, affirmed District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock's April ruling that the state's funding system for elementary and secondary schools is unconstitutional because it violates educational provisions in Article X, Section 1 of the Montana Constitution, including a failure to provide adequate funding for public schools and for lacking goals to preserving Native cultural identity. 

     The American Civil Liberties Union obtained a temporary restraining order from a South Dakota district court, on March 12, to delay implementation of South Dakota HB 1265 which would continue to allow at large election of county commissioners in Charles Mix County, an arrangement that the ACLU contends prevents American Indians from having the opportunity to elect commissioners in a jurisdiction with a history of racial prejudice against native Americans.

     The North Dakota Supreme Court, in February, dismissed a lawsuit attempting to block the state from collecting state fuel taxes from American Indians purchasing motor fuel on their own reservations, on the grounds that the district court’s ruling that the tax was illegal, was not final, and hence not ripe for review by the state high court.

     The South Dakota Supreme Court delivered two decisions involving state compliance with the Indian Child welfare Act (ICWA), late last year. In the first, the high state court over turned a lower court decision, which had held that the South Dakota Adoption Safe Families Act of 1978 preempted ICWA. In the second, the court set standards for what constitutes an expert witness in an ICWA case, in the course of overturning an adoption decision, in agreement with the complaint by the Cheyenne Sioux Tribe and the child's parents that the court had relied upon testimony of a person improperly declared an expert witness.

     The Alaska Supreme Court, in April, rejected a claim by two Alaska Native groups and 10 rural villages, that the distribution of police officers in urban vs. rural areas in the state denies them equal protection of the law, The court held that the differences in availability and quality of law enforcement are reasonably related to geographical differences in law enforcement problems.

     Neil Patterson, Jr., a member of the Tuscarora Nation, has appealed to the New York Court of Appeals (the highest court in New York), claiming that under a 1798 treaty, members of the tribe do not have to follow New York fishing regulations. The state claims that the federal government taking over the land in question for a power project terminated the treaty for that area.

     A New Jersey appeals court ruled, in March, that a land claim by the Unalachtigo Band of the Nanitoke-Leenmi Lanapi Nation was a federal matter, and not with in the jurisdiction of New Jersey courts.

     Former members of the Pechanga tribe of California who were removed from membership by the tribal government have filed a suite in California Court challenging the tribal governments action, while their similar suite in federal court is pending. The judge ruled that the state court has jurisdiction, but that decision has been appealed.

   Opponents of University of Illinois mascot Chief Illiniwek, the Illinois Native American Bar Association and two U. of I. Students, filed suit in Cook County, IL Circuit Court, against the school's trustees Tuesday, claiming the figure perpetuates a racial stereotype.

     The Northern Cheyenne Tribe filed suite in Montana District Court, in March, against the operators of the St. Labre Indian School, the Roman Catholic Church and St. Labre Indian School Educational Association, accusing them of using the ''plight'' and ''financial need'' of the tribe to run a highly successful fund-raising operation, although very few of the schools students are currently Indians. The lawsuit also claims, among other things, the imposition of church values and religion on the tribe and use of ''the faces, stories and symbols of the Northern Cheyenne'' without permission.

     A coalition of environmentalists, Indian and other activists and archaeologists filed suite in New Mexico district court, in February, in an attempt to block the City of Albuquerque from building a road through the Petroglyph National Monument.

 

Tribal Courts

     The Navajo Nation Supreme Court, in December, ruled that Navajo police cannot lie or mislead people to obtain a confession, nor can they act rudely, as Dine tradition requires acting with patience and respect. As part of this, police need to ascertain that defendants understand their rights, which was not clear in the case, as defendant Rafael Rodriguez was not given his rights in Navajo.

 

States, Localities and Indian Nations

     In January, Brandon Woodenlegs, a University of Montana student and a Northern Cheyenne from Lame Deer, became  the first intern assigned to work with the Montana Legislature's Native caucus, a group of eight elected officials from across the state. The new position marks a more direct increase in Native participation in state government. Montana, with eight Native lawmakers and 56,000 Indian citizens, has the highest per-capita native legislative representation among state governments. The National Conference of State Legislatures counts only three Natives in the Arizona Legislature representing a Native population of 255,000. Colorado, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wyoming and Washington have between zero and four Native legislators. In April, Wyoming’s only American Indian state legislator, Patrick Goggles (Northern Arapaho), D – Ethete, became a member of the Select Committee on Tribal Relations.

     The February 18 Arizona Indian Summit with Arizona tribal leaders hosted by Gov. Janet Napolitano focused on children's issues in tribal communities. Discussions focused on childhood diabetes, the lack of services for hearing-impaired tribal members on reservations and the AIMS (Arizona Instrument to Measure Skills) test, which high school juniors are now required to pass in order to graduate. The governor also announced progress that has been made to address issues presented in previous tribal summits, including the Arizona Department of Housing setting aside $2.5 million for housing developments and funds to assist tribes in disasters. This fund was used to help mitigate flood damage recently suffered by the Hopi Tribe. The Governor's Office also is offering grants of $2.7 million for training and professional development in tribal schools and former enterprise communities grants under the Arizona Teacher Excellence Program, which recruits and retains excellent teachers in Arizona. The governor stated the need for more Native Americans to serve as foster parents when a child needs to be removed from the home because of abuse or neglect. Also, the governor stated that she is actively seeking to appoint more Indians to state boards and commissions. She appointed 74 tribal members to 41 boards in 2004.

     Having already passed the Wyoming Senate, a bill to expand the state tribal liaison’s office from one to two people, supported by increased staff, while giving the governor more control over the office, passed a preliminary hearing in the House, on February 18.

     In May, Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry made three Indian appointments to state commissions: Bill Anoatubby (Chickasaw) to the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, Former Assistant Secretary of Interior for Indian Affairs, Neil McCaleb (Chickasaw) to the Board of Regents of the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, and Dennis Wayne Parott (Cherokee) for another term on the War Veterans' Commission.

     In February, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Commission of Indian Affairs Joint Task Force on Indian Health completed a series of seven hearings around the state with tribal officials on addressing Indian health issues. The goal is to improved communication between tribes and government, creating a deeper understanding by state agencies to tribal needs, better access to care and prevention services and more community outreach, in order to address the health disparities among the Indian population, and "provide equal access to affordable health care,"

     The New Mexico State Senate, in March, unanimously confirmed Gov. Bill Richardson's appointment of Benny Shendo Jr. (Jemez Pueblo) of Rio Rancho as Secretary of the Indian Affairs Department. In February, Richardson issued executive orders telling New Mexico governmental agencies to adopt a tribal consultation policy on the protection of sacred sites and reparation, and to adopt a model tribal consultation plan.

     The state of Oregon has completed a compact with the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, which has been approved by the Department of the Interior, under which the tribe will build an off reservation casino (tentatively to be called the Bridge of the Gods) at Cascade Locks, near the Columbia River.

     At the end of March, In Idaho, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and law enforcement agencies of the City of Pocatello and Bannock County signed an agreement to cooperate in combating illegal drug activity. . The Omaha Tribe and Walthill, NB, in April, undertook a cross deputation arrangement that allows tribal police to make arrests within the village, but does not expand municipal police powers. The Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, who had been a leader in making cross deputation agreements with area police agencies, disbanded their police and fire departments, in April, to save $5.5 million annually. The action will lead to slower police and fire response times.

     The Utah Crime Victim Reparations board, in April, created a subcommittee to study the issue of compensation to Native American victims for healing ceremonies performed by qualified medicine men, if they request it over medical treatment or counseling. States such as Arizona, New Mexico and Michigan, that compensate for traditional healing, only receive one or two requests a year, for ceremonies

     Washington State Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald stated, in February, that, following the request of the Lower Klallam tribe, construction of a dry-dock in Port Angeles will not resume, since the site has been discovered to be that of a 1700 year old Indian village, in which human remains have been found. Also, in February, officials in the Washington State Department of Transportation stated they were looking forward to discussions with leaders of the Duwamish nation over their concern that state plans for a new floating bridge across Lake Washington might impact the sacred site of Foster Island, a burial location.  

     In May, the Idaho Senate approved the Nez Perce Tribe’s water rights settlement, which had already been approved by Congress and the Idaho House. The Shoshone-Bannock Tribe opposed the settlement that calls for the Nez Perce to have an annual right to 50,000 acre feet of water in the Clearwater River, $80 million in cash and land and pledges from Idaho and the U.S. for millions of dollars in fish habitat and other environmental improvements, in return for the Nez Perce dropping their claim to most of the water in the Snake River Basin. The Shoshone-Bannocks complain that the settlement gives the Nez Perce water from rivers and steams within the Shoshone-Bannock aboriginal territory. In April, The Navajo Nation and the state of New Mexico signed a San Juan River Basin water settlement, allocating 56% of the water in the basin for the Navajo Nation, which would also receive $800 million for wet water development projects, largely for the Navajo Gallup Water Supply Project, a pipeline distribution system extending through 93 miles of the reservation. Congress most now approve the agreement, which may be difficult to achieve with full funding in the current tight budget climate. In January, the Colville Tribe of Washington signed an agreement with the state. allowing Washington to take more water from Lake Roosevelt during the summer months,  in order to manage the Columbia River in a sustainable way.

     The St, Regis Mohawks signed a settlement agreement with New York Governor George Pataki under which the tribe would receive 7,215 acres of land in upstate New York and $100 million from the state and the New York Power Authority over 35 years, free tuition for tribal members at state colleges, while the effective counties will receive $2 million a year annually from the state beginning in 2008, and increasing by 2% each year, to cover lost property taxes. In building a casino the tribe is required to adhere to standard building codes, environmental regulations and account for the welfare of local residents. (There have been a mix of other settlement agreements, and reconsiderations, particularly with the Oneida Nation of New York, and some related legislative activity, as well as questions as to the impact of court cases reported above, leaving this reporter with some unclarity as to the status of these settlements).

     The South Dakota House, in March, defeated a proposed bill that would have required legislative approval on any gaming compact negotiated by the governor with a tribe. The California Indian Gaming Association and the California Tribal Business Alliance expressed opposition, in February and March, to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to expand the California Gambling Commission’s Budget by $4.8 million for the next physical year, in order to add about 45 more staff members, doubling the organizations size, and adding a state gaming testing lab.

     South Carolina’s Minority Affairs Commission granted state recognition, in February, to the Waccamaw Indian People and the Pee Dee Nation. The Abenaki Nation of Vermont has been requesting recognition from the state legislature, and, on May 11, the Vermont Senate Judiciary committee unanimously voted out a recognition bill.

     The finance director of the State of Oklahoma announced, in March, that documents showing how much money tribes make from certain casino games will be made open to the public.

     This spring a task force of the American Dental Association visited Alaska to learn about the serious dental problems facing rural Alaska Natives. After seeing the pervasive need firsthand, they propose expanding loan-repayment incentives for dental graduates, more prevention programs and encouraging Lower 48 state dentists to travel to Alaska to volunteer their dental services in remote villages. The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services believes this proposal should augment the work being done by Alaska Native health organizations to train and use midlevel dental extenders to provide more services in rural Alaska. At the urging of several rural Native health organizations, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium created a new category of dental providers under the longstanding and highly successful Community Health Aide/Practitioner Program, which has served the medical care needs of rural Alaska well since the late 1960s. The new dental providers, such as community health aides, are subject to training and supervision standards adopted by the Indian Health Service. Each one must be certified by an IHS Board. ,The consortium has been training a cadre of dental health aides to provide preventive dental services in rural villages, with financing from a range of sources, including the Indian Health Service, the Rasmuson Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Rural Funders Collaborative, the Ford Foundation and the Paul G. Allen Trust.

     Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney signed a bill on May 20 repealing a 330-year-old state law that did not allow American Indians to enter the City of Boston unless they were chaperoned by a "musketeer." According to the Boston Globe, the law had been in enacted during King Philip's War of the 1670s, which pitted colonists against American Indians under a leader known as King Philip, but had no validity under the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. A coalition of Indian groups and activists lobbied for the law’s repeal before the July 2004 Democratic National Convention and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and the Boston City Council signed a petition for its repeal, but the legislation did not become a priority for the council until UNITY, a coalition of American Indian, Hispanic, Black, and Asian professional journalist associations, told lawmakers that it refused to consider Boston for its 2008 convention if the law was still in place. The convention is expected to bring more 8,000 journalists and roughly $4.5 million in revenue to its host city.

     The state legislature of North Dakota, in consultation with the state’s five tribes, passed a statute, in April, that allows non-tribal members to hunt on North Dakota reservations without a state hunting license, in an effort to improve tribal economies. This spring, The Hopi Nation initiative brought about introduction, in the Arizona legislature, of The Indian Mining Tax Credit Bill, S1448, that would give Indian reservations with mining operation a percentage of the state tax on that mining, just as the state provides a percentage of such taxes to the counties. However, as of end of May, amendments had removed the revenue sharing with Indian nations portion of the bill.

     In late April, the Governor of Washington signed a new state law requiring school history classes to study the history of local tribes. Shortly prior to that, the Montana legislature defeated a proposed bill that would have provided $6.1 million for teaching students about Indians in the state, which is required by law and the state constitution. In Virginia, Governor Mark Warner has asked the state Department of Education to revise the standards for teaching history, to incorporate more Indian history, including "teaching some of the less proud moments in our history."

     In April, by a 41-32 vote, the California Assembly approved a bill by that would bar public schools from using Redskins as a nickname for their sports teams, starting January, 2007. Governor. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed virtually the same bill last year, Five California high schools currently use that name. In Oklahoma, in February, Sen. Judy Eason McIntyre, following the California racial mascot bill model, introduced Senate Bill 567, the Oklahoma Racial Mascots Act, which would ban public schools from using as team names: Savages, Redskins, Indians, Braves, Chiefs, Apaches, Comanches, Papooses, Warriors, and Sentinels, along with "any other Native American tribal name; and any other racially derogatory or discriminatory school or athletic team name, mascot or nickname." Later he amended the bill to ban only Redskins and Savages. However, the bill failed to pass the legislature. Of the 900 schools in the United States that still use Indian mascots, 165 of them are in Oklahoma.

     In Arizona, in March, two of 10 public schools (Pinon Elementary and Many Farms Public Schools) in which the state has intervened, shifting leadership because the schools have neither shown improvement in very low test scores nor in fully implemented state improvement plans, are Navajo Nation schools.

     Legislation passed both houses of the South Dakota Legislature, in early April, requiring the involvement of tribes and Indian families or custodians in all temporary custody and adoption proceedings for Indian children by South Dakota Social Services. The department and the states attorneys are required to insure that all efforts are made to notify tribes and families in a timely manner.

     The Montana state House, in early April, passed HB 379, authorizing funding to perpetually continue water treatment to prevent seriously contaminated water from seeping from abandoned gold mines in the Little Rocky Mountains, near the Fort Belknap Indian reservation and two municipalities, when the fund set up by the former mine owners for that purpose runs out in 2018. 

     Washington State’s bar Board of Governors added American Indian Law to the state bar exam, last October.

     An agreement to allow highway construction on the Blackfeet reservation, in Montana, was signed by the Blackfeet Tribe, the BIA the Montana Department of Transportation and the Army Corps of Engineers, in April, authorizing $75 million in highway work over the next five - seven years.

     As a result of a 1993 state supreme court decision, declaring South Dakota’s collection of fuel taxes on reservations illegal, the state’s four tribes are now receiving refunds totaling $5 million.

     The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians began withholding payments of millions of dollars in casino income payments to the state or Michigan, in early April, on the grounds that the state violated the contract giving state’s tribes exclusive gaming rights in return for a share of casino revenue, by initiating a Club Keno game as part of the state lottery. Tribal officials anticipated that the state will suite them in federal court over the issue.

     California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a proclamation, on May 18, calling for new standards for off reservation casinos, essentially prohibiting urban casinos in the state and requiring local support for new casinos in rural areas, where the federal government has not already approved land for use for gaming. To gain the governor's approval, new casinos will have to meet higher regulatory standards from nine different state government entities, including several environmental quality offices, the California State Highway Patrol and the California Native American Heritage Commission. California Senate Bill 919 seeking to meet the California Gambling Control commission's request to be able to close some meetings in order to be able to discuss confidential information, that it can not now consider, because all meetings have to be open, passed the Senate in early May. In early April, a constitutional amendment was introduced in the California Assembly that would put a moratorium on new gaming compacts until 2008 and set up a 13 person commission to study gaming issues during the moratorium.

          The Pueblo of Jimez, the only New Mexico gaming tribe that pays for all the services needed by its casino operation, has undertaken an agreement with Dona Ana County, under which the pueblo is providing for two additional police officers, fire equipment and incentives in the course of increasing the county's annual public safety budget by more than $540,000, doubling the area ambulance service and quadrupling the Anthony fire station's yearly budget.  Pojoaque Pueblo has petitioned the New Mexico Racing Commission to reopen the tribally owned Downs racetrack in Santa Fe, installing several hundred slot machines. The North Carolina Cherokees are seeking changes in their compact, that allows them to operate the state's only casino, to add open poker and blackjack card tables, in addition to current video gambling machines and digital blackjack with a live dealer, Kenosha County, WI officials have signed an agreement with the Menominee Nation on how the tribe would reimburse local governments for services and lost taxes if the BIA puts land into trust for the tribe where it seeks to develop an $808 million casino complex at Dairyland Greyhound Park.

     During the session of the New Mexico legislature, ending in March, it approved more than $4 million in funding for 60 projects on Navajo Nation land. A list of the projects is in Navajo Times, March 31, 2005. p. A8: Bill Donovan, “Chapters benefit from N.M. Legislature.” During the session, the New Mexico Senate approved a measure allowing tribal members of tribes in the state, who do not live in state, to pay in state college tuition.

     In February, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty stated that he had talked to several tribes in the northern part of the state about importing prescription drugs as wholesalers for citizens, should the federal government shut down Minnesota’s program that directs consumers to Canadian drug companies.

     The Nebraska Democratic Party, in April, stated that the governor and the legislature have a “moral and civic duty” to solve the problems stemming from alcohol sales in the off reservation town of White Clay, NB, over which there have been numerous Indian protests. In late May, under a tentative agreement facilitated by Congressman Tom Osborne (R-NB), Pine Ridge Sioux Tribal Police will help patrol the streets of White Clay, with the power to arrest those who violate the law, including store owners making illegal liquor sales, and will assist the local and state district attorney's offices in building cases.

     A bill to protect Minnesota's wild rice, grown at the White earth Reservation among other places, by prohibiting growing genetically engineered wild rice in the state, specifying that 'a person may not release, plant, cultivate, harvest, sell or offer for sale in Minnesota a genetically engineered organism containing or related to wild rice,' was introduced to the Minnesota Senate Agriculture, Veterans and Gaming Committee, in March, but was tabled after committee discussion. Winona LaDuke is working with the Isaak Walton League to support the wild rice legislation. For more information, visit:  http://www.savewildrice.com/ or http://www.welrp.org/library/winona.jpg. The Montana House of Representatives defeated a proposed bill that would have required an Indian to sit on the Board of Pardons and on the Montana Coal Board, in a party line vote, with Republicans voting against the proposal.

     HB 1216, to declare the second Monday in October (celebrated now as Columbus Day) as Native American Day, was introduced in the Oklahoma House, in January, following the practice established in South Dakota in 1989. Wyoming has established an American Indian Day on the second Friday in May. New Mexico established an American Indian Day at the beginning of February, in 1987. On February first this year, its celebration in the State Capitol Rotunda focused on "Protecting Native Ecologies and Tribal Homelands." Phoenix, AZ presented U.N Rapporter J. Wilton Littlechild, of the Cree Nation of Canada, a proclamation naming March 12 Indigenous Peoples Day.

     The South Dakota Legislature enacted legislation, in February, requiring future gaming pacts to be approved by the legislature. Also that month the South Dakota legislature passed HB 1205, making fry bread the state bread. South Dakota's Ban on new nursing homes (a measure taken by a number of states to hold down Medicaid costs) is creating a hardship for families on the states reservations who are far from existing nursing homes. Nationally, there are only 15 nursing homes on reservations, so that it is likely that many reservation residents are quite distant from such services.

     The Kansas City City Council agreed, in late March, to lend the Kansas City Indian Center $175,000 to pay off its debts. The loan is to be repaid through fund raising events. The center had been forced by financial problems to lay off 11 employees and suspend its Workforce Investment Program, in December.

 

Tribal Developments

     The Comanche Business Committee has authorized the creation of a 9 member Comanche Nation Constitutional Revision (CNCR) Commission. The CNCR Project seeks to review the Nation’s current Constitution and identify the best practices of tribal self-governance for inclusion in a revised constitution. The commission is facilitating an open and inclusive discussion, seeking input from all interested, and E-mailing put monthly progress reports. For information, contact CNCR Commission Project Facilitator Dennis G. Chappabitty, Esq., P.O. Box 292122, Sacramento, CA 95829 (916) 682-0575, chaplaw@earthlink.net.

     Last June, the Southern Ute Tribe of Colorado, which has used a variety of methods for bringing back traditional member participation, over the last several years, involved 63 tribal members in a series of focus groups to analyze the tribe's financial plan. In March, the Southern Ute Tribe hired its first social services lawyer to conduct business for tribal members seeking social service assistance. At Navajo Nation, the process of decentralization of authority to local communities took a step forward, in April, when the Transportation and Community Development Committee of the nation certified community based land use plans of the Beclabito Chapter. The To' Nanees' Dizi' Chapter had its Five Management Systems Policies and Procedures certified by Transportation and Community Development, in December. Previously certified were the Shonto, Steamboat, Nahata Dziil and Newcomb chapters. The Yurok Tribe has been awarded a grant by the California Department of Transportation to prepare a comprehensive, long range Tribal Transportation Plan, "Taking Back a Traditional Trail" through an inclusive discussion process, involving tribal members, community residents and other relevant stakeholders identify community priorities, unmet needs, and the unique circumstances relating to tribal transportation.  For information, contact Outreach Coordinator. Neil Peacock, 190 Klamath Blvd., Klamath, CA 95548 (707)482-13656

     The tragic Columbine High School like shooting of 24 people by a student at Red Lake, mostly at the high school, leaving 10 dead, on March 22, together with continuing very high youth suicide rates and the rise of reservation gangs, is a terrible indication that the alienation of many youths across the U.S. is also a significant problem in Indian country. Communications of support from all over Indian country, and from many non-Indians, quickly arrived to those who suffered losses in the Minnesota Indian community. The tribal council provided financial aid to all the families that suffered losses in the tragedy, including that of the student who committed the shootings, who was also considered a victim. In response to the loss of 17 people to suicide in 2002 and ’03 on the Cheyenne Sioux Reservation, in South Dakota, Mary Hayes organized 17 young tribal members in the reservation town of McLaughlin to walk to the summit of Harney Peak in the Black Hills, in March. The tribe’s youth program wants to expand the walk to busloads of kids, next year. Meanwhile, Judy White Bull, McLaughlin School home school coordinator organized students into the town’s first drum and dance group. Extensive opportunities to be involved in these kinds of cultural activities have often proven effective in overcoming alienation and providing people, especially youth, with a stronger sense of self. In late March, Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley stated that one of the ways for Indians to prevent tragedies like the Red Lake shootings is to inculcate traditional values. The 23rd annual Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) conference on Indian child abuse and neglect issues, in Albuquerque in April, "Courage, Conviction and Living Our Values: How Well Are We Protecting Our Children," deliberated the problems and highlighted programs reflecting Indian values in the face of tough conditions on many reservations. Some state legislatures have held hearings, with tribal input, on the Indian youth suicide problem. One change in incident response developed since Columbine was seen at Red Lake, where police arrived and were taking action within two minutes of the report of the incident in progress, leading to the saving of lives.

     One indicator of the problems faced by Indian youth (about half of whom live on reservation), and of Indian families, is that, according to data, from the Department of Health and Human Services, nearly 10,000 Indian and Alaska Native children, or about 1.2 percent, are in foster care, living with relatives or others, compared to the about 1.8 percent of black children and about 0.5 percent of white children who are in foster care. Some experts see a major part of the problem for Indian Youth in the lack or shortage of mental health and other supportive services, funding for which has been cut in Bush Administration budgets, and in a shortage of recreational, cultural and beyond school hours educational activities.

     A recent study, "The Social Epidemiology of Trauma in Two American Indian Reservation Populations," found that American Indians between 15-54 years of age, living on or within 20 miles of the two reservations have almost a 70% chance of being exposed to trauma, such as witnessing a loved one's death or being the victim of a physical attack, compared to a national average of 50% for women and 60 percent for men. For more information contact Spero M. Manson, PhD, University of Colorado, Department of Psychiatry, Denver, spero.manson@uchsc.edu, http://www.ajph.org/. A study the Indian Health Service and the Navajo Nation, made public in March, reported that in schools on and around the Navajo reservation there has been a decline in students bringing weapons to school from 49% in 2001 to 32% in 2003.

     The National Congress of American Indians communicates that life expectancy for Native Americans is almost 6 years less than any other group measured in the U.S. 13% of native deaths are of those younger than 25, a rate three times higher than for the U.S. population as a whole. A study, released in February, by the National Kidney Foundation, shows that Native Americans are 60% less likely, and Latinos 40% less likely less likely, than whites, to receive kidney transplants, although American Indians and Latinos are twice as likely to develop end stage kidney disease as whites, and those rates are increasing.

     The Oneida Nation has begun an effort to reduce under age drinking through a Community Analysis Process for Planning (CAPPS) that works to produce change through a team-based approach combining students, the community and law enforcement. The program is supported by a $500,000 federal grant. A 2002 Factors Influencing Needs and Developmental Assets survey indicated that in 2001, 60 percent of - high school and middle school students - said they had tried alcohol. Of those who had tried it, 23 percent said they had drunk on six or more days out of the last 30. For more information, call Darleen Denny, 490-3854.

     Mariposa tribe of California’s Indian Health Clinic opened, in March, and has a steady stream of patients keeping doctors busy. The clinic also offers dental services and is the only dental facility that accepts Medi-Cal in Mariposa County. The Hopi Regional Healthcare Network, bringing together the existing emergency healthcare services of the Hopi Healthcare Center, the Tuba City Regional Healthcare Corporation Flagstaff Medical Center and the Hopi Tribe’s Office of Health Services, to maximize outreach to reservation residents, began functioning early this year. For more information contact Lavene Dallas, OHS Health Planner/GW: (928)737-6345 or 734-2571. Hunter Health Clinic, which includes an Indian health program, in Wichita, KS has begun a $5.5 million project to create a new building for the clinic.

     The Comanche Nation of Oklahoma began construction of its Elderly Living Community Center, in Lawton, In April.

     A coalition of leading health organizations (including CDC) today put on the first national conference to address cardiovascular disease and diabetes within the American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities, May 16-19, at the Adam's Mark Hotel, 1550 Court Place in Denver. The AI/AN conference, attended by more than 700 healthcare providers, tribal community members/leaders, federal and state health policy makers, and urban and community health leaders focused on increasing the knowledge of healthcare providers, tribal community members and leaders, and urban community health leaders on the link between diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) and how to integrate treatment and prevention of these closely related diseases. The program was sponsored by The Tribal Leaders Diabetes Committee, the IHS and Joslin Diabetes Center, in conjunction with the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association; The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion; American Diabetes Association; InterTribal Council of Arizona; CDC; and the American College of Cardiology. For more information contact Marjorie Dwyer (marjorie.dwyer@joslin.harvard.edu) or Jenny Eriksen, Joslin Diabetes Center, (617)732-2415, Daniel Ruacho, American Heart Association, (602)414-2816, Marsha Houston, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (770)488-8270, Llewyn Grant, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (770)488-5131, or Athena Elliott, Indian Health Service, (301)443-3593. or go to: http://www.professionaled.joslin.org/.

     The increases in gasoline prices this year that have been costly to drivers nation wide and caused some inflation in the U.S., have had a stronger impact in rural areas, including on the larger and more isolated reservations. When pump prices nation wide reach $2.50 a gallon, isolated reservation Indians may have to pay $3. This is extremely costly to isolated tribes and their members, who may have to drive more than 1000 miles a month.

     The Northern Cheyenne nation of Montana has notified the BIA that it wishes to contract with the agency to run some of its own law enforcement services. The Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota was taking public input, in May, on plans for a new detention center. The American College of Trial Lawyers has made a $50,000 grant to Dakota Plains Legal Services in Mission, SD, on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, The American College of Trial Lawyers has made a $50,000 grant to Dakota Plains Legal Services in Mission, SD, on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, to help provide legal services for native people who can not pay for them.

     The Lumbee Nation of North Carolina has created a veterans office to help tribal members who have served in the armed forces receive veterans benefits, finding that very few apply because of lack of knowledge and for cultural reasons.

       The Ho-Chunk Nation offered to give Sandridge Elementary School $20,000 in December, but the donation is has been tied up by worries of some school board members that accepting it would be akin to an endorsement of gambling.

     The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community won the EPA's 2005 Environmental Achievement Award for its work protecting the environment in 2004.

     Beginning with a $6 million grant to the Navajo Nation in 1998, the Nation’s chapters have been developing their computer capacity. Today, the 110 chapters have from three to 14 computers, available round the clock to chapter members for any purpose, which are wirelessly connected to the Internet. Much of the development was done by OnSat, a worldwide company that helps developing nations establish computer networks in rural areas. The Native owned firm, Sacred Wind, began providing cell phone service in isolated areas of the Navajo Nation, early in the year, and relying federal and state subsidies, hopes to begin providing 2500 dine households by the end of the year. The unusual quantities of rain that fell in Southern California, this winter and spring, sometimes in great torrents, causing floods and mud slides, also spread across Arizona, and to a lesser extent, in New Mexico. For Navajo Nation that required the spending of over $2 million for mud relief, while the declaring of a natural disaster by the federal government has brought federal assistance to beleaguered Dine. (The Hopi Nation received $550,000 from the Arizona Department of Housing to repair 125 houses, damaged by winter storms, in 10 of 12 Hopi villages). The Navajo Nation Council passed an ordinance, the 2005 Dine Resources Act, in April, banning uranium mining and processing on its reservation. A retired investigator of injuries to railway workers, Joe Gardenes, was speaking to Dine chapters and officials about his observation that Navajos who have been working for major railroads have been consistently mistreated by being forced to work under poor conditions, but never complained, because of the Dine tradition of respecting elders. (For more, see Bill Donovan, “Railroad workers mistreated, retired investigator says,” Navajo Times, April 21, 2005, p. A-4.)

     As in the rest of the U.S., Indian Country is also engaged in a debate about whether gay unions are proper. Early in the year, the Navaho Nation passed a statute declaring same sex marriages illegal, which its President then vetoed, but it became law hen the council overrode the veto.  After a Cherokee lesbian couple obtained a marriage license last year, the tribal council passed an ordinance declaring same sex marriage illegal. The couple has since challenged the statute in tribal court. Traditionally, what are now called gay relationships were generally not a problem for Indian people, but contact with Christianity has changed the outlook on this set of issues for some indigenous Americans.

     The governing body of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) will conduct the first in a series of meetings this summer meetings, and could decide by August whether it can and should impose a ban on Indian imagery for college sports teams, which critics charge is demeaning and even
racist. 80 U.S. colleges still use American Indian icons, according to the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media. This spring, Marquette University changed its team names from Golden Eagles to Gold. Enterprise High School in Oregon has had a change in team names from Savages to Outlaws, by the school board in response to a  request from the student body.

     The FBI reports that black market trade in indigenous artifacts is a growing, multi-million dollar, international business. Toronto international art and cultural property law attorney, Bonnie Czegledi commented in April that many items stolen in Canada are sold in the U.S. She suggested that the U.S. and Canada should have a treaty allowing customs personnel to seize and repatriate such items, as the U.S. has with Bolivia and Peru. Others propose more aggressive prosecution of those engaged in dealing stolen artifacts.

     Volunteers from AARP’s Arizona Home Modification Project, joined by people from Habitat for Humanity and the Home Depot repaired the homes of elders on the Navajo and Hopi Reservations, in March. In May, ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition aired a program featuring the building of a Native American Veterans’ Center on the Navajo Reservation and the construction of a home, in Flagstaff, AZ, for the family of Lori Piestewa, the Hopi who was the first woman killed in the invasion of Iraq. Futures for Children’s efforts to improve the quality of education for 2,500 Indian students, in April included providing 150 pairs of glasses for Zuni and Navajo young people. A team of American Indian doctors, educators and emergency professionals served with the World Health Organization doing tsunami relief last winter. Indian nations and organizations donated heavily to Tsunami relief.

     Orchid Cellmark Inc. a leading worldwide provider of identity DNA testing services announced in June that it is the initiating a service that allows Native American tribes to confirm the genetic lineage of individuals seeking tribal enrollment. This testing can confirm the familial relationship of specific individuals to existing tribal members, in addition to determining their percentage of Native American-associated DNA. For information contact: (800)DNA-TEST, http://www.1800DNAtest.com.

 

Economic Developments

       A report issued this spring by The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, at the Kennedy School of Government, states that while they are still the poorest group measured in the United States, American Indians living on reservations made substantial gains, both economically and socially, during the final decade of the 20th Century, despite the fact that federal Indian funding levels have been losing ground against non-Indian domestic spending. Analysis of data from the 1990 and 2000 U.S. Censuses for 15 key socioeconomic indicators, on measures ranging from income and poverty to unemployment, education, and housing conditions indicates that, although substantial gaps remain between America 's Native population and the rest of U.S. society, rapid economic and social development is taking place among both gaming and non-gaming nations, with a 36% income rise for gaming tribes, and a 30% for non-gaming tribes. The most important reason for the economic and related gains is Indian self-determination, making it easier for tribes and individual Indians to launch money-making businesses. Still, it may take 50 years for the tribes to catch up. In Oklahoma for example, during the 1990s Indian income grew by 33%, from $2 billion to $2.7 billion surpassing the 21% increase in income for all Oklahomans and the 26% increase for all Americans However, nationally, single race American Indians average half the national per capita income rate of $21,000 a year. Key trends seen in the U.S. Census data include: • Having started the 1990s with incomes lagging far behind those for the general U.S. population, American Indians in Indian Country experienced substantial growth in income per capita. Even with this Indian population rising by more than 20% between 1990 and 2000, real (inflation-adjusted) per capita Indian income rose by about one-third. For both gaming and non-gaming tribes, the overall rate of income growth substantially outstripped the 11% increase in real per capita income for the U.S. as a whole. •  From 1990 to 2000, Indian family poverty rates dropped by seven percentage points or more in non-gaming areas, and by about ten percentage points in gaming areas. For the U.S. as a whole, family poverty dropped eight-tenths of a percentage point. •  Indian unemployment rates dropped by about two-and-a-half percentage points in non-gaming areas and by more than five percentage points in gaming areas. U.S. unemployment dropped by half a percentage point. •  Housing overcrowding in Indian Country decreased during the decade, particularly in Indian areas without gaming. The percentage of American Indians living in homes with plumbing increased markedly in both gaming and non-gaming areas. •  The proportion of adult Indians on reservations with less than a 9th grade education declined substantially. In Indian areas with gaming, this put adult Indians at about par with U.S. levels. The proportion of Indian adults with college degrees rose substantially, though not enough to keep pace with the very substantial gains in overall U.S. college attainment. The report, its underlying data, and the annotated bibliography can be accessed on the Harvard Project's website, www.ksg.harvard.edu/hpaied, or by Contacting: Doug Gavel (617)495-1115

     The National Indian Housing Council report, Sustaining Indian Housing: An Evaluation of Tribal Economic development and Its Impact on Housing in Four Case Studies (in Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina and Oklahoma) indicates that increasing economic development on reservations does not bring the same level of increase in housing development. In some instances economic development has had an adverse effect on housing improvement because increased income has made many native people ineligible for federal housing assistance. (This is a problem with many government assistance programs that cut off completely at certain income levels, instead of reducing in stages as income rises). On the other hand, higher incomes (together with increased availability of mortgages to reservation residents - though, over all, mortgages are not yet nearly as available on reservations as off) have increased the number of Indians who can obtain conventional financing for mortgages. Also, as tribal incomes have risen, more money has become available for infrastructure development, including housing. [However, as occurred at Southern Ute - not part of the NIHC study - two years ago, tribal construction with federal financial assistance cannot be for tribal members with sufficiently high income, so that federally assisted tribal housing may remain vacant, or tribes with wealthier members will increasingly have to undertake housing construction without federal money]. At the same time, reservations with very little development (such as with the Walker Paiute Tribe), have found members moving away to find work, and those that stay finding it increasingly difficult to maintain their housing. But in cases of extremely strong economic development, such as at Eastern Cherokee, housing conditions have improved strikingly. While decent paying employment has become wide spread, Eastern Cherokees have placed 1.5% of their sizable gaming revenues into infrastructure improvement, and an additional .5% into the Tribal Housing Improvement Program. However, even when tribal economic development is strong, allowing significant investment in new and improved housing, in many instances there is such a backlog of overcrowded and substandard housing to overcome, that providing decent living space for all is a long term project. For information go to http://www.naihc.indian.com/.

    At the end of last year, Microsoft Corp. deposited $1 million in the Native American Bank, in Denver, and Fannie Mae deposited $1.5 million in Chickasaw owned Bank2, in Oklahoma City, which will help make mortgages available to American Indians. Three of the largest U.S. home loan banks, last year, granted $2.6 million to help fund Indian housing projects: Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle: $1.7 million, Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas: $547,000; Home Loan Bank of San Francisco: $466,000.

     A report published in March by the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), Native Entrepreneurship: Challenges and Opportunities for Rural Communities, indicates that despite significant economic and social obstacles, Native American business activity is growing rapidly on, and around, reservations. Among firms earning more than $50,000 annually, these firms are outperforming other minority owned ventures. Dun and Bradstreet reports that American Indian firms, which constitute 5% of minority business, have a greater average sales volume and larger number of employees than their counterparts. However, particularly in states with large Indian populations, indigenous people own businesses at a much lower rate than the non-minority population. The rate of native business startups is increasing, but many Indian businesses are unable to acquire the support they need to formalize or grow, and are forced to operate on the margins. Many native leaders say that entrepreneurship is compatible with traditional culture and is an important vehicle for increasing tribal sovereignty, in practice. There is a need for public and private organizations to help remove the obstacles and create opportunities for indigenous entrepreneurs to become a larger part of the national economy. Aspiring native entrepreneurs, particularly on reservations, are often distant from markets and lack financial and business training and advice; lack access to debt and equity capital, often facing predatory lending rates; lack control of many tribal assets, because land and resources are held in trust, making them unavailable as loan collateral. The report suggested several measures to improve opportunities for native small businesses: Closing the information gap about the state of native entrepreneurship and placing if on federal, state and tribal policy agendas; implementing culturally appropriate strategies relating to entrepreneurship education, training and technical support, financing and networks; Providing comprehensive entrepreneurship-focused services; And building on the effective programs currently in place. The complete report is available at www.cfed.org.

     In May, the Senate Committee of Indian Affairs held hearings on the problem of increasing Native financial literacy.

      In 2004, Indian gaming profits rose 10% of 2003 to $18.5 billion. 75% of the jobs generated by Indian gaming are held by non-Indians.

     The Wichita and Iowa Tribes of Kansas and Nebraska announced, in April, that they are building a $270 million casino resort in south central Kansas in partnership with the Mashantucket Pequots of Connecticut. The Shiprock, Leupp, Manuelito and Chinle chapters of the Navajo Nation have each voted to have casino gambling under a Navajo Nation statute allowing local option on gaming. The four chapters are waiting to launch gaming until the nation establishes an office of tribal gaming. The Lords town, OH Village Council, near Cleveland, in April, approved an agreement to have the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma build a gaming resort on 147 acres in the village and adjacent North Jackson. If a class III gaming compact can be negotiated with the state, the gaming operation and related facilities are projected to employ 35 people and generate $4 million annual (25% of income) for county and municipal governments. The Chickasaw Nation is planning investing $260 million in casino and tourism development in Oklahoma.

     The Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation donated $1 million to Arizona universities, in February. Laguna Pueblo has donated $163,575 to the treatment centers of Laguna Services and the Evolution Group to promote responsible gambling and help people over come gambling addiction. In Washington, the Muckleshoot, Tulalip and Jamestown S'Klallam tribes donated $400,000 to a state fund to help problem gamblers, previously contributed to by the Squaxin Island, Nisqually and Swnomish nations. Increasing profits from gaming have enabled the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, of northern Wisconsin, to donate $100,000 to area local governments, at the beginning of this year, for projects ranging from police work to road repair. Under its 2003 contract with the state, beginning in 2008, the tribe will be able to deduct contributions to local government from the portion of gambling revenues it owes the state. The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians of California have donated $350,000 of gaming profits to seven schools near their reservation. The Quechan Tribe of Arizona recently donated from its casino earnings to the Yuma Fire Department and Yuma Community Food Bank, while giving more than $31,000 to allow Amberly's Place to better fulfill its mission of providing comfort for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault or child molestation.

     Honor the Earth, in coordination with Solar Energy International, the Western Shoshone Defense Project, American Spirit Productions and the Battle Mountain Band of Te-Moak Western Shoshone provided free training and installation of a solar photovoltaic system in the heart of Western Shoshone territory near Elko, Nevada on April 4-9, 2005. Solar panels and energy efficient systems were installed in a demonstration to power the ranch home of Western Shoshone grandmothers Mary and Carrie Dann, who have been leaders in the Western Shoshone quest for environmental justice, treaty rights and sovereignty for more than forty years. Participants of the training receive certification in solar energy installation, which is the first step toward the promotion of locally run energy systems and economic development for Native communities. The installation provided a pro-active model of alternative energy development in a desert region whose tremendous solar potential has been largely untapped. For more information contact Winona LaDuke, Honor the Earth Executive Director (612)879-7529 or Julie Fishel (775)468-0230, www.honorearth.org, www.solarenergy.org and www.wsdp.org. Laguna Pueblo designer Dave Melton and Sacred Power Corporation of Albuquerque, of which he is co-owner, have brought electricity to 30 isolated homes on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico, using wind turbines and photovoltaic cells.  The Passamaquoddy Tribal Council, in early June, approved a contract with Oklahoma developer Quoddy Bay, LLC to build a $400 million liquefied natural gas terminal at its Pleasant Point Reservation, in Maine, in return for lease payments approximating $8 million. In December, Navaho Nation Oil and Gas Co acquired 75% (and private firm Resolute Natural Resources Co. 25%) of the ChevronTexico Greater Aneth Field oil and gas wells in southwest Utah, In December the BIA opened a proposal for comment for drilling 325 new gas wells in Fremont County, WY, where the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes own the minerals on 80,869 acres and non Indians hold mineral rights on 10,651 acres.

     The Squaxin tribe, located on a small patch of land 50 miles southwest of Seattle, WA will begin selling its "Complete" brand of cigarettes made by its Skookum Creek Tobacco company for $16 for a carton of 10 packs, about the price of two packs of premium-brand cigarettes in New York City. Premium brand and generic cigarettes can be bought on other Indian reservations for as low as $22 per carton. The tribe's cigarettes can be sold cheaply because the tribe is not subject to most taxes paid by tobacco companies. The Squaxin are one of the few tribes to have won regulatory approval to make its own cigarettes, something the 850-member tribe has been working on since 1999. The Cheyenne Sioux Tribe of South Dakota’s Pte Hce, Inc., meat packing plant, which sold $1 million worth of buffalo and beef last year, began an expansion in March which is expected to increase annual sales to $2 million to $5 million. The Oneida Nation of New York runs the second largest Black Angus heard in the North East, in an organic cattle business. Curtis and Curtis, owned by two Cherokee brothers, has become a multi-million-dollar business exclusively making available seed for native grasses, especially in the western U.S. In the first sale by the Bureau of Land Management of wild horses to Indian tribes, the Rosebud Sioux of South Dakota obtained 141 mustangs and the Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota 120. In February, Merle Edsall, a rancher signed an agreement with the Crow Nation, for him to purchase 4000 horses from the BLM and provide the tribe with more than $1 million annually for it to maintain an on reservation horse sanctuary, that would increase tourism to the reservation as well as providing an online horse adoption business The Quileute Tribe of costal Washington has turned to eco-tourism to redeem its economy, having rejected the idea of building a casino. Navajo Nation’s Nageezi Chapter broke ground, in March, on a $12.2 million egg farm. The Navajo Nation Council, in March, decided to proceed with the with the building of a plant to produce flexCrete, a construction compound that would recycle fly ash from power plants and decrease dependence on lumber as a building material, in the southern Navajo boarder town of Page, AZ. Ground braking for the plant took place in April. Last fall Navajo nation established Dine Development Corp. to attempt to procure defense contracts for Navaho businesses. It is already helping several reservation firms bid for defense work.

     The Native Financial Education Coalition (NFEC), a group of local, regional and national organizations and government agencies working together to promote financial education in Native communities, started by the Treasury Department in 2000, but now independent, Native Financial Education Coalition seeks to exchange information, forge partnerships, identify and develop strategies for outreach and training, as well as identify gaps in information about financial education needs.  NFEC has trained nearly 800 instructors to teach financial education courses in Native communities using the Building Native Communities: Financial Skills for Families curriculum. NFEC held a policy briefing in Washington, DC, in April, stressing the need for Native Americans to increase their financial understanding. for information go to: http://www.treas.gov/financialeducation.

     The American Indian Resources Institute Tribal Leaders Economic Forum on Transforming Tribal Economic Success into Long-term Economic Security took place March 21-22, 2005, at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Hollywood, FL The forum provided an opportunity for tribal leaders, planners, and economic development specialists to share experiences and to address the challenges and economic opportunities facing tribal and Alaskan Native leaders. For information, contact Richard Trudell, American Indian Resources Institute, 319 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94610 (510)834-9333, dicktrudell@hotmail.com.

    The Indigenous Aquaculture Network (IAN) held a first meeting, in May at Camp Indianola, WA, under the sponsorship of the First Nations Development Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and the Heifer Institute, giving those involved, and interested in, fish and other aquatic farming to network and discuss concerns. There was considerable discussion of the need to develop aquaculture in ways consistent with tribal values, including being friendly to the environment for the long run benefit of the community and the business (unlike much aquiculture around the world that is undertaken in such environmentally damaging ways that the business itself is polluted out of existence after a short period). In considering enhancing fish hatchery and, fish stock and shellfish development, the meeting was concerned about the worldwide trend toward the mechanization and industrialization of food production. The 2nd annual Construction in Indian Country Conference took place in Phoenix, AZ, in late May, bringing together Indian and construction industry leaders to develop better communication and understanding.

 

Educational and Cultural Developments

     On March 5th, a nine member, regionally representative, Board of Directors was established to create the California Tribal University (CTU), which will honor traditional and cultural values from an indigenous knowledge perspective while exemplifying quality educational standards for Native students.  For information, contact the board's chair, Cindy La Marr, Pit River/Paiute, Executive Director, Capitol Area Indian Resources, Inc., 2701 Cottage Way, Suite 9, Sacramento, CA  95825 (916)971-9190, cair@rcip.com or  clamarr@covad.net.

     D-Q University, for the moment, California's only tribal college closed early this year from financial and organizational problems, loss of students and loss of accreditation. American Indian community members who formed a board to revive D-Q University decided, in February, they can't solve the problems at this campus west of Davis and instead dedicated themselves to establishing a new tribal college. For information contact  Sharon Stello at sstello@davisenterprise.net or 747-8043.

     Si Tanka University's Eagle Butte campus was at risk of closing, in April, as part of the ongoing turmoil at its Huron campus. ,Si Tanka University officials learned that a federal appropriation given to tribal colleges with a majority of American Indian students had been denied by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, on the ground that the university no longer qualifies for the money because its percentage of Indian students fell below 50 percent after Si Tanka bought Huron University in 2001. As a result, students' aid checks had not cleared and faculty have not been paid. The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe offered to make a substantial lone to the University, which is owned by a nonprofit corporation chartered by the tribe and the state. However, the Internal Revenue Service has placed a $2 million federal tax lien has been filed against the university, and the IRS notified the tribe that it will take any money the tribe might loan the university as payment on its tax debt. The school also faces foreclosure litigation because it defaulted on a $6.6 million in loans it secured to buy Huron University in 2001.

    Fort Belknap College, in Montana, dedicate a new, 7000 square foot, cultural learning center, in June.

     Northeastern State University of Oklahoma launched the Bachelor of Arts in Education in Cherokee Education degree program, this spring, believed to be the only four-year program in a native language offered in the U.S.

     Lane Community College is about to become Oregon's first community college to offer an American Indian language course, under a $1 million anonymous gift made. The language to be taught will be a yet to be determined North West language.

     The D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History of the Newberry Library is again offering two-week summer institutes for tribal college teachers (currently in the second year of a three year grant from the Lannan Foundation). Helen Roy (Wikwemikong Odawa) is directing the institute, "Teaching  American Indian Languages and Language Instruction," June 6-17, and Amanda Cobb (Chickasaw) will direct the institute, "Teaching American Indian Education," August 1-12. For details go to: http://www.newberry.org/mcnickle/darcyhome.html.

     The University of California, Riverside held a conference, June 23 - 24, to explore the growing influence of tribal governments in public policy decisions. Additional information is available at: kates@ucr.edu, or at (951)827-4365, www.ucr.edu.

     The 1st Annual Southwest Indian Law and Policy Conference: Indian Perspectives on Land, was put on at the University of Arizona Student Union, March 25, by the Native American Law Students Association at the University of Arizona, along with the American Indian Studies Graduate Council. For more information contact adam.carvell@law.arizona.edu or lorinda.mall@law.arizona.edu. The University of Idaho held its 2nd annual Indian Law conference, in April. 300 Native American Students met at the University of Kansas, in April, for the Big 12 American Student Leadership Conference, on the theme, "Retraditionalizing Indigenous Leadership: Student Voices of Fire."

     UC Berkeley's American Indian Graduate Student Association put on the third annual New Voices in Indigenous Research Conference on campus, March 30th - April 1st. For details go to: http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/aigp/pdf/aigsa_conference.pdf.

     The U.S. Department of Interior held a "visioning meeting" with many top Indian school officials and school staff, in San Diego in January, to find ways of improving BIA schools. More than half of the BIA's 185 schools have failed to meet No Child Left Behind standards of achievement, over the past five years. About ten school reform and youth development specialists with proven records worked with the group as a whole, and in small meeting where school staff brainstormed on improvements that they could make in their own schools. For more information, contact Rick St. Germaine, stgermainerick@aol.com.

     The Washington, D.C.-based Center for Education Reform, reported, in December, that the number of Indian tribes using charter schools is increasing, and that there were at least 30 Indian charter schools in the country. Arizona has the most, with 12, followed by California with six. Indian charters have also opened in Minnesota and Michigan. Some have achieved positive results, quickly. The San Diego-area Barona Indian Charter School, for example, posted substantial gains in student performance on standardized test scores in 2003-04, with the school ranking higher than the state average. Not all Native charter schools been unqualified successes, however, with one Arizona Indian charter having to shut down after authorities had trouble with federal special education requirements and an audit. Additional native charter schools are being planned, including one in Alaska. Besides the standard curriculum it would offer activities to enhance traditional culture including hunting, harvesting, building canoes and berry-picking. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla in Oregon opened the Nixyaawii Charter School, in August, with 48 students. The school emphasizes traditional culture and offers learning of the almost lost languages of the student's nations. The program includes learning through group projects, rather than the older western method of a teacher lecturing while students take notes. Students also work in self-directed groups, including in leadership development. A key student group has developed, whose de facto leader commented, "We have to learn how to govern ourselves," said the group's de facto leader, 20-year-old Jess Stone. "You guys are leading by example. You have to lead yourself before you lead others."

     Another charter school is the K-8 Star School, located off reservation, halfway between Flagstaff, AZ and the Navajo reservation town of Leupp. The name stands for Service to All Relations - and the mission is to weave the Navajo system of K'e, meaning kinship and relatedness, into the everyday life of the school. Thus Navajo values are incorporated into everything from the school's disciplinary policy to its reliance on solar energy for power. And the opportunity to learn to speak Navajo is available. About 85% of the more than 60 students are Native American, mostly Navajo from the reservation, with the rest white, black, and Hispanic. The curriculum provides a solid grounding in reading, math, science, and other academic, while inculcating respect, responsibility, and service to the community, which are central to every culture. Star's founder and director, Mark Sorenson says, "It's important to us that the kids learn how to get along in the world.... They have to feel good about who they are.... And we want the kids to develop friendships across racial lines." Test scores are one measure of success, he says, "but the really essential thing is to get kids to be excited about learning." Students are encouraged to make their own observations, as opposed to all learning the same way, and learning is related to the community, giving it tangible meaning. The idea of interconnection is most visible in the school's discipline policy. A disruptive student typically gets pulled aside for a few hours of character-building lessons with a staff member. There are also opportunities to draw on Navajo peacemaking methods by talking out solutions with peers and staff. One boy, who had been repeatedly been suspended at other schools, after two years at Star, came around to doing his homework and managing his behavior decently, Academically, 71% of the students achieved expected gains in reading, matching the state average, while in math, 88% reached state levels of achievement, exceeding the state average of 71%. The one area in which the four-year-old school is still striving to meet Arizona's measure of "adequate yearly progress" is in attendance, where its rate was just short of the required 94 percent. "The campus created beauty where there once was a junkyard. It has a view of the San Francisco Mountains, a range that is sacred to many Navajos and Hopis. And its solar-powered buildings signal that traditional respect for the environment can go hand in hand with modernity," wrote Stacy A. Teicher in " A school built on Navajo values," The Christian Science Monitor, March 29, 2005, http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0329/p11s02-legn.html.

     Students at Colorado State University involved with Native American Student Services and Little Shop of Physics taught students in schools on the Navajo and Southern Ute Reservation about science, and careers in science, during spring break this year. Similar journeys to other reservations are planned for later in the year. For more information, contact Brian Jones at (970) 491-5131.

     The 28th Annual California Conference on American Indian Education: "Educating Tomorrow's Leaders" was held in San Diego, CA, April 11-14, There was a showcase of the 30 American Indian Education Centers, the 12 American Indian Early Childhood Education Centers and Tribal Education programs in the state. For more Information please go to: http://www.ccaie-05.org/.

     The American Indian College fund received a grant of $373,000 from the Luming Foundation to create a fund to help Indian students succeed academically. The foundation is also contributing $10,000 to each of the 34 tribal colleges as seed money to start funds for students in need. The foundation will contribute progressively smaller amounts in future years as the colleges are expected to increasingly raise money for the scholarship funds.

     Eva Tulene Watt, 92, in March, became the first Native American to win the Evans Biography Award for her book, Don't Let the Sun Step Over You: A White Mountain Apache Family Life, 1860-1975, University of Arizona Press; 2004.

     With linguistics experts estimating that almost half of the world's 6,000-7,000 languages are facing extinction, along with most of the cultural, linguistic and cognitive information they encapsulate, the National Science Foundation (NSF), in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), has launched a multi-year project to document and preserve important languages before they stop being spoken. The Documenting Endangered Languages (DEL) awards program targets digitally archiving 70 at-risk languages. For more information contact Susan Mason, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va. 22230, smason@nsf.gov, http://www.nsf.gov.

     In Canada. there are approximately 50 indigenous languages still spoken, and more than half of those are in British Columbia. Some language theorists predict that only three will survive across Canada: Cree, Ojibwa and Inuktitut, but that depends upon the efforts made at preservation. For example, The Lil'wat and Secwepemc communities in British Columbia are working to save their native languages using "language nests" programs, based on a language revival initiative from New Zealand. This involves immersing pre-school children exclusively in a heritage language. The teaching staff consists of elders who are traditional speakers and "middle-generation" women with education degrees. However, because the elders do not have early childhood education (ECE) certificates, the program is not eligible for Canadian government funding, making it more difficult to undertake First Nation language preservation. A study evaluating the language nest model is in Lynda Hills, The Ring, published at the University of Victoria: http://ring.uvic.ca/05feb03/features/language.html.

     The University of Hawaii at Manoa's Language Documentation Project (LDP), since 2003, has carried out the social mission of training students from countries with endangered languages on how to document their languages and to apply for grants to expand their projects. During this past semester there were 20 students being trained by graduate students in the Linguistics Department, One source of additional information is graduate student Lisa Ann Ebeling: lebeling@hawaii.edu.

     On March 20, The Superintendent of the Willamina, WA School District announced that the district and the Grand Ronde Tribe were close to agreement on the launching of a Chinook language immersion program for first- and second-graders, that would be open to tribal and non-tribal members.

The Washington State education department has created a curriculum in partnership with tribal elders and authors, and is distributing lesson plans through a CD-ROM, including video clips of tribal members teaching everything from the significance of the canoe to traditional songs and drumming.

     At Lost City Elementary School in Oklahoma, Cherokee is the only language spoken in the classroom. Lost City began its language immersion program in fall 2003 with kindergarten and classes for 3-year-olds, expanding the program, this year to first grade. In early April, Head Start programs serving more than 460 students on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota were shut down because of financial management and other problems.

     The Office of the Speaker of Navajo Nation and Artreach International are collaborating on carrying out a NASA project to identify ways to inspire youth living on reservations to study aerospace and work with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

     The D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History at the Newberry Library in Chicago regularly holds discussions of Indian topics. For details, contact Brian Hosmer, Director, D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History, The Newberry Library, 60 West Walton Street, Chicago, IL 60610, (312) 255-3564. mcnickle@newberry.org.

     The National Native American Families Together (NNAFT) Community Friends Conference: Educating Every Child, took place in San Diego, CA, April 25-27, focusing upon specific topics that impact Native American children with disabilities.  For more information contact National Native American Families Together Parent Center, Attn: Prairie Flower Reuben, Conference Coordinator, 129 W. Third, Moscow, Idaho 83843 (877)205-7501.

          The Center for Native American Public Radio (CNPR) has been networking Native radio leaders and seeking out funding for native radio. For details go to www.cnpr.org.

 

International Indigenous Developments

      The UN's Decade of Indigenous People came to end with the close of 2004 without a UN declaration on indigenous peoples' rights being finalized. Agreement on the declaration - the Decade's key aim - was blocked by several governments, most particularly the UK, the U.S., New Zealand and Australia. Believing that it was important to finish the work of the decade, and particularly the declarations on indigenous rights, the UN has declared a Second Decade of Indigenous People, which began January 1.

     The fourth session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues took place from May 16-27 at the United Nations Head quarters, in New York, with nearly 1,500 indigenous leaders, activists, and representatives from throughout the world attending. The theme of the fourth session of the Permanent Forum was: “Millennium Development Goals and indigenous peoples”, with special emphasis on Goal 1: “Eradicate extreme poverty and Hunger” and Goal 2: “Achieve universal primary education”. Participants at the Forum highlighted the disastrous effects of poverty, ongoing conflicts and lack of access to education on the achievement of full human rights, and stressed the urgent need to complete the draft declaration on indigenous rights. Rodolfo Stavenhagen, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples, stated that poverty is a "major obstacle" to indigenous rights, He stated that indigenous poverty indices were higher than national averages, and the consequences of poverty were more severe than for other populations, because for such peoples, poverty referred not only to low-income levels, but to a lack of social services and water resources, as well as ancestral lands and other natural wealth. He pointed out that persistent poverty among indigenous peoples was due to continued denial of their basic rights, stressing that government policies must consider them in attempting to eradicate it, especially
the right to primary education.  Educational policies respecting cultural diversity and bilingual education were now being implemented, but indigenous completion rates for primary education were still extremely low, and linguistic and pedagogical problems had yet to be resolved.

      The representative of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples emphasized the strong link between poverty in many aboriginal communities and the rights to life and land.  He pointed out the slow pace of settling land claims and the tendency to include clauses in agreements that asked indigenous peoples to give up their inherent rights, as he quoted report calling on the Canadian Government to close the gaps between aboriginal and non-aboriginal human rights, Concern was focused on the need to address human and indigenous rights in on going conflicts, with a representative of the Enlace Continental de Mujeres Indígenas Región Sud América lamenting the tragic results of violence against women and drug trafficking in Colombia's ongoing war, highlighting the inadequate state actions to protect indigenous peoples.  Similarly, the representative of the International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples highlighted state-sponsored repression in Nigeria, with the state failing to share wealth from oil and resources with local people leading to violence.  He called for demilitarization in the indigenous Niger delta oil-producing communities, urging the Nigerian government to ensure the genuine participation of indigenous communities in constitutional decision-making. An important issue discussed at the forum was that many nations do not specifically include indigenous people in collecting and reporting on social and economic data, make it impossible for the UN, governments, NGOs and indigenous peoples to have the information necessary to develop appropriate policies and adequately inform public discussion on indigenous issues. For details and information on other Forum discussions, go to: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/4session/4session.htm. One of the most important aspects of the meeting was the opportunity for indigenous groups to network, and take part in related side events.

     Navajo Nation will host a preparatory technical group meeting of indigenous organizations, January 11-13, prior to the Organization of American States next session on drafting a declaration of indigenous peoples’ rights. Prior to that, the Canadian Minister of Indian Affairs will meet with Navajo Nation.

     The Canadian government reached an agreement with the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), that the federal government would formally apologize to the First Nations for government complicity in the linguistic and cultural genocide of the original inhabitants of the land. Jurist Frank Iacobucci was given the task of crafting the details of the proposal. Commentator Ian Martin of York University states that in developing a fair and equitable regime of restorative linguistic human rights for Canada's aboriginal nations, following the findings of numerous international linguistic human rights documents and statements from the AFN and other aboriginal organizations, Iacobucci should consider at least the following measures: -Making a preamble statement to legislation to the effect that Canada holds that aboriginal languages are valued forms of expression, sources of pride and identity and not only shall no longer be the subject of interference, stigmatization or any form of overt or covert discrimination as in the past, but should be restored to visibility; -The government should take steps to enable aboriginal peoples to promote and develop their languages as part of a global policy fostering aboriginal cultural vitality, social wellness and self-determination within Canada; -Canada's aboriginal peoples should have the right to have their own language and culture taught in schools both as a subject of study and as a language of instruction. This includes a right to aboriginal language immersion programs in communities where the language is seriously endangered; -Federal legislation should be enacted for an Aboriginal Languages Revitalization and Affirmation Act as part of the social renewal package. One component should be the establishment of an Aboriginal Languages Commissioner's office to report annually on the linguistic situation within aboriginal communities (both on and off reserve), and to evaluate steps taken and steps needed to further the goals of the act.

      In December, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that 800 former pupils of the Mohawk Institute near Brantford, Ontario, claiming abuse by instructors, and their children could sue as a group for damages, allowing their law suite to proceed. The Osoyoos Indian Band of British Columbia has annual business revenues of $13 million from nine businesses including the world's first indigenous owned winery.

     Former President Jimmy Carter, in a late January speech to the Organization of American States, stressed that the broad poverty in Latin America could lead to serious unrest. Latin America and the Caribbean have the world's largest income disparity, with 225 million people living below the poverty line. He stated governments and the privileged must demonstrate the will to provide society's benefits to all citizens if radical uprisings are to be avoided. Argentina, having moved away from economically devastating neo-liberal policies under the Presidency of left of center Kirchner, achieved 8% economic growth last year and the government is running a budget surplus. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) insists that Argentina use the surplus to pay off some of its international debt. But Kirchner is resisting doing so, emphasizing the need to use the funding to help Argentineans emerge from the continuing economic crisis.

     The International Crises Group stated in its January 27 report that drugs finance the left-wing insurgent Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the far-right United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) to a large degree, and thus are an integral part of Colombia's conflict. But while the state must confront drug trafficking forcefully, President Alvaro Uribe's claim that the conflict pits a democracy against merely "narco-terrorists" who must be met by all-out war does not do justice to the complexity of the decades-old struggle. Fighting drugs and drug trafficking is a necessary but not sufficient condition for moving Colombia toward peace, according to the ICG. The view that anti-drug and anti-insurgency policies are indistinguishable reduces the chances either will succeed and hinders the search for a sustainable peace. Ana Carraigan, in "War and hope in Columbia," In These Times, January 3, 2005, passes on that despite the U.S. spending $4 billion on eradicating drugs, and, since 2002, jointly on counter terrorism, the price of cocaine has actually gone down 31% on U.S, streets, since the operation's inception (according to the Rand corporation) showing no positive results from Plan Columbia, while the negative impact on people, crops and the water supply in areas sprayed with pesticide has been considerable. The Columbian governments counter attack against FARC has forced the guerillas out of many towns, but not a single insurgent leader has been captured, nor is there any indication of a drop in insurgent moral or increased willingness to negotiate a settlement. Meanwhile, the poor living in the embattled areas are caught in the crossfire, suspected by both sides of collaborating with the enemy, and becoming poorer in the harsh conditions. Opponents of the war, human rights defenders, union leaders and indigenous leaders have "disappeared", been killed or accused by one of the governments one million paid informants, and then swept up in mass arrests that the Inspector General says detained 125,000 people in the first six months of last year. In April and May, fighting increased in the southwest o the country, and shelling by FARC of the town of Torbio kept thousands of students out of school for weeks. The war continues to be particularly destructive of indigenous people who live in many of the war zones.

      It was reported in February that the demobilization, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) process of soldiers fighting for Colombia's paramilitary forces succeeded persuading 2,624 soldiers to agree to turn in their weapons, subject themselves to judicial scrutiny, and enter job-training programs designed to reintegrate them into normal civilian life, in 2004. Proponents of the DDR program argue that it buoys hopes for peace and facilitates increased security since guns are delivered to the government for destruction. In June, Congress passed a law governing paramilitary disarmament, that includes holding those who confess to drug trafficking immune from extradition. Critics argue, that the DDR program in Colombia is feebly executed and holds unrealistic goals. Some see it to be little more than a poorly planned attempt to consolidate government popularity in an election year, while convincing the US to provide more financial assistance at a critical juncture in the bilateral relationship between the two governments, at which the U.S. legislation for Plan Columbia is about to expire, with President Bush asking the U.S. Congress to continue funding anti drug and anti terror operations in Columbia. Many commentators find DDR the latest attempt to gain traction in Colombia's long peace search for peace. In January, the Columbian government invited the world's bounty hunters to locate and bring in Marxist rebel commanders for cash rewards. Also in January, the President's of Columbia and Venezuela reached an agreement settling a serious dispute arising form a bounty hunter from Columbia capturing a Columbian rebel inside Venezuela. A recently passed amendment to the Columbian constitution will allow President Uribe to run for a third term.

     For many months, Bolivia has continued to be pressed by a huge movement of peasants and poorer people, far more than a majority of whom are indigenous and indigenously oriented, including huge demonstrations in La Paz, and elsewhere, often closing down and isolating the capitol city. Having earlier brought down the previous head of government, in June, the movement caused Carlos Mesa to resign the Presidency, and under pressure the two congressional leaders next in line refused the position, bringing Supreme Court Chief Justice Eduardo Rodriguez to the Presidency. Rodriguez said that he will call early elections to defuse the tension and bring a more widely supported government. The indigenous and lower income movement seeks more political say to Indians and others in the countryside and wants nationalization of the nation's oil industry for the benefit of the poor, in South America's poorest nation, with 64% of Bolivia's 8.9 million people living below the poverty line.

     In Ecuador, after days of protest in late April, President Lucio Gutierez was removed from office by Congress and fled the country. The new President Alfredo Palacio appointed a cabinet including a left leaning economic minister expected to develop policies more favorable to the poor and an alternative to the neo-liberal economic measures that most Latin Americans see as having seriously worsened the economies and the lives of people across much of the continent.

     In Mexico, in June, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) called a “general red alert," accompanied by the announcement of a reorganization to assure “the conditions necessary to survive an attack or enemy action that takes out the current leadership or tries to annihilate us completely.” a series of drastic measures including the closure of the “Good Government Board” offices, and the withdrawal of outside support groups from Zapatista territory. Later communiqués called the alert a “precautionary defensive measure,” and announced a general consultation with communities and troops to decide on “the next step” for the organization. The Zapatista action follows a statement by the Mexican Secretary of Defense that marijuana fields had been discovered “in the Zapatista zone of influence.” Several reports from human rights organizations and others have confirmed that the zone in question is not in fact majority Zapatista, warning that the staged linkage of narcotics production to the insurgents could be a prelude to intensified military action in the region. There have also been reports of troop movements, fortifying some positions and abandoning others, possibly to allow increased paramilitary action. For more information, see Laura Carlsen, " Zapatista “Red Alert” Shakes up Mexican Politics," https://secure.iexposure.com/irc/donate.cfm, or contact Americas Program c/o IRC, PO Box 2178, Silver City, NM 88062-2178. Former Acapulco Mayor Zeferino Torreblanca, a leftist, won the race for Governor in Mexico's Guerrero state, in February, ending 76 years of PRI rule in the province. which has a sizable indigenous population, many of whose communities have been struggling to operate autonomously. Political manipulation by the Mexican Government to try remove the leader in the polls for the upcoming Mexican presidential election, Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the moderate left Democratic Party (PRD), has been blocked by political reaction, at least for the time being. In April Obrador was accused of a minor technical violation, of which he is likely innocent, and which would not normally be a matter for legal action. Congress, however, revoked his immunity, as Mayor, from prosecution. But in the face of strong political activity protesting the action in progress against the Mayor, the government's prosecutor announced that he would not bring a prosecution.

     Honduras, caught in a battle with lawlessness that has been described as an open war between street gangs and authorities, experienced a gang attack, in December, in the San Pedro Sula suburb of Chamelecon, on a busload of commuters and Christmas shoppers that left 28 dead and 14 wounded.

     The worker cooperatives of the Jubilee House Community (JHC), among others, in Nicaragua are providing a successful alternative to neo-liberal economic approaches. While not strictly indigenous, in themselves, these coops are a contemporary manifestation of traditional native principles of inclusive participatory decision-making and collaborative enterprise, seen in numerous successful indigenous cooperatives elsewhere in Central America. JHC is the center of five worker owned enterprises: a service coop (providing security service), three industrial coops (construction materials, ceramic water filters and a women's sewing business) and a sustainable agricultural coop consisting of 11 production cooperatives and a second tier marketing cooperative involved in organic foods. Because Nicaraguan credit policy is to loan to large agricultural producers, and organic farming for export is a "non traditional" agricultural venture favorable for credit, the organic foods coop group has been a good arrangement. JHC provides support services to its cooperatives, including a revolving loan fund that lends to the member coops at one-sixth the going interest rate. For more information go to, www.jhc-cdca.org.

     Survival International reports that Indians in Brazil held sit-in protests in April, which on April 19 included Brazil's 'Day of the Indian', outside the country's 'Ministries Esplanade' over the Lula government's 'appalling record on indigenous rights'. The 430,000 Indians in Brazil feel they have little to celebrate. Lula's 2002 election promises, included a 'special, emergency program to officially recognize the territory of many of the nation's 430 indigenous people. This policy was widely welcomed by native peoples. However, with almost no action to move on this matter, only a little over fifty percent of indigenous land has been fully ratified. The Guarani Kaiowá Indians have been fighting for decades to win their land back from powerful landowners. Many Guarani Kaoiwá children suffer from malnutrition. Press reports, in April, say twenty-two children have died from starvation in 2005, but people working with the Guarani say this figure is likely to be even higher. Over one percent of Guarani Kaiowá Indians, most of them young, have committed suicide. This is one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Lula's government promised to end the impunity of those committing crimes against indigenous peoples. However in the last three decades at least 12 Makuxi Indians have been murdered by hit men employed by ranchers, and no one is serving a sentence for these crimes. Survival's director Stephen Corry said today, 'Lula's government has been a massive disappointment to Indians in Brazil. Brazil has ratified ILO Convention 169 on the rights of indigenous peoples - with the country now seeking a major role on the world stage, the government is under some pressure to honor its international commitments and fully recognize indigenous land rights.' Survival International has made a complaint to the UN on Brazil's record on indigenous rights. Guarani Kaiowá leader Leia Aquino says, 'We are not a free people, and this is because we have no land. When we have land, we have freedom, and more than that we have happiness.' Amnesty International, in April, issued a report, Foreigners in Our Own Country, stating that the Brazilian government had failed to guarantee the right of Brazilian Indians to their land, leaving them vulnerable to violence and poverty.

     Under pressure from Survival and other organizations, Brazil's health authority has reversed its decision drastically to cut funding for Yanomami healthcare. The Yanomami's land in the Brazilian Amazon is often invaded by gold miners, who bring in diseases to which the Indians have no immunity. These invasions are devastating, sparking epidemics, which have killed up to 20% of the Yanomami in just a few years. Since 1997, however, Urihi, a Brazilian NGO, has been providing health care to much of the Yanomami population and has had great success in controlling disease. But it relies for funding on the Brazilian authorities, and early in 2002, they announced they would cut Urihi's budget by 20%.

     The Brazilian government placed a draft bill before congress, in December, which would open up Indian reserves to large-scale mining. Although the government says mining would only take place if the tribe gives its permission, many indigenous peoples are alarmed, fearing that mining companies will easily be able to exploit internal divisions to secure an agreement. In January, a Brazilian Supreme Court judge suspended the official demarcation of the Raposa-Serra do Sol Indian territory of the Makuxi Indians, just a few days before it was expected to be complete. The ruling has been welcomed by the thousands of ranchers and settlers who now occupy the area and who have been responsible for numerous attacks on the Indians.

     Some progress was made, in April, with Brazil's President signing into law the protection of two key Indian areas, ratifying into law the land of the 15, 000 Makuxi, Wapixana, Ingarikó and Patamona Indians who live in the north of Brazil, and the territory of the Awá, a nomadic hunter-gatherer tribe, whose population has been decimated by disease and violent attacks by ranchers. With its land finally protected, the tribe stands a much better chance of survival. Survival International led high profile international campaigns on both these cases, organizing petitions, lobbying tours, letter-writing campaigns, media coverage and complaints to the UN. The creation of reserves sometimes has negative as well as positive effects. Brazil's creation of the giant Raposa Serra do Sol reserve in the Amazon state of Roraima, bordering Venezuela gave government officials and rights activists the impression that 20 years of land conflicts between farmers and Indians in the area had been ended, and the Roraima Indian Council generally agreed.  But in less than two weeks after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed the decree, Indians, fearful of losing jobs on rice farms, owned by non-Indians who must leave the reservation within a year, took four federal policemen hostage, while in another part of the reserve in Roraima state, which borders Guyana, Indians and local residents partially blocked a highway connecting Brazil with Venezuela, The problem is to give the Indians control of their territory, without denying indigenous communities, who wish contact and economic development, the opportunity to accomplish that in their own ways. Another complication is who is and who is not an Indian in an area where ethnic lines have blurred after decades of contact with non-Indian society. Meanwhile, in May, a Brazilian judge reinstated orders protecting an uncontacted Amazonian tribe following international protests, when the same judge opened up the tribe's territory to loggers. In June, Mundruku Indians living along the Tapajos River expressed concern that the paving of a dirt road 30 miles away, to create an export highway, will bring the destructive intrusion of loggers and farmers, outweighing the benefits of access to modern improvements, such as electricity and telephones. For more information on several of these reports, contact Survival International, Tel: (+44) (0)20 7687 8700, info@survival-international.org, www.survival-international.org.

     Meanwhile, Brazil did not renew its contract with the International Monetary Fund, when it expired at the end of March. During the last contract, from 1998 to 2003, the Brazilian economy showed no growth, with Brazils IMF credit being used to pay on some of the loans to foreign investors by the fund's largest debtor nation. Moving away from the neo-liberal policies espoused by the IMF (and World Bank), Brazil's economy expanded by 5.2% in 2004. The IMF is returning to Brazil under a new three-year arrangement, that the Brazilian government helped design (with collaboration from the Inter American development Bank), allowing the government flexibility in its new $1 billion loan, that it will use to invest in infrastructure improvement projects, that it was blocked from undertaking under the previous contract. For the first time, the IMF has no say in what Brazil invests in, only that the projects be economically sound. The IMF is generally revising its policies in Latin America, under pressure from a number of the continent's governments and international NGOs, and with the acquiescence of the U.S. Treasury Department. It has been accepted that Argentina will pay back 76% of its debt, and the Presidents of Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela signed an accord, in March, to collectively negotiate debt repayment. The move away from neo-liberal economic policies by the IMF and governments in South America is positive, in principle, for indigenous people. The question in practice is, what will Brazil and other governments do with their new flexibility in developing policies that impact native people? Similarly, it will be important what steps the IMF and other international financial institutions take to include protections for, and aids to, indigenous people in their future policies.

     Moves to protect the heartland of South America's last uncontacted tribe south of the Amazon basin, the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode, were being debated in Paraguay's Congress in February, but in April, Paraguay's Congress rejected a bill to protect the heartland. The decision leaves the Indians at the mercy of cattle ranchers who have bought up the land illegally and have already started to clear it. Ayoreo-Totobiegosode, who have appeared made it clear that they did not want to leave the forest, but were desperately short of water, as nearly all their permanent waterholes have been occupied by settlers.

     The Australian government signed an agreement, on April 29, with 18 Aboriginal tribes to share control over the Queensland Wet Tropics World Heritage site. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the area spans more than 2 million hectares of rainforest and includes sections of the Great Barrier Reef. Along with restoring the tribes' custodial role over the Wet Tropics, Rowan Foley of the Queensland Natural Resources Department announced a management plan that involves indigenous peoples on local and national boards. ABC reports that the plan includes restoring traditional practices in land and river management and providing more jobs and positions in tourism and environmental management for indigenous peoples. Foley told ABC that the traditional owners will have the freedom to manage the natural resources in the manner they prefer.

     A study by senior lecturer Dale Bramley, at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, in the May edition of the American Journal of Public Health, shows that the health gap between Maori and European New Zealanders is wider than that between American Indians and the US majority white population in the United States. Bramley compared a range of health indicators in the two countries, including life expectancy and infant mortality, immunization, cervical cancer and breast cancer screening, smoking, obesity and diabetes, some cardiac procedures and kidney transplants. "In the case of nearly all of these indicators the health status of Maori people was found to be lower than that of American Indians, when compared to the majority European populations."  Maori males, for example, have a life expectancy 8.9 years less than that of non-Maori males, compared with American Indian males whose life expectancy was 7.4 years less than white males. Among Maori 48.6% of adults smoke - twice that of the majority population. In the United States 33% of adult Native Americans were smokers, - 36% higher than the white population. Dr Bramley believes the situation could be significantly improved in New Zealand by the introduction of policies to reduce inequalities, such as providing more services specifically to Maori. "The two countries differ in their approaches to reducing the disparities in the health status of indigenous peoples, and in recent years the United States has had considerable success in eliminating these differences in some areas." This is particularly the case with childhood immunization programs where there is no difference in the coverage between American Indians and the white population. "In the United States they have a system of delivering health services directly to the indigenous population. It is controlled by American Indians and community based, so it has outreach directly into American Indian communities. Here in New Zealand, while we have around 200 Maori health providers, many of which are in rural areas, the majority of Maori people still attend non-Maori health providers and the responsiveness of non-Maori providers to Maori could be further enhanced." For more information go to: http://www.auckland.ac.nz/.

      Survival International reported, in November, that Indonesian army operation in the central highlands of Papua had killed at least three people and caused five thousand tribal people to flee to the mountains where they face starvation. Survival International, reported, on March 30 that the Indonesian army and police had killed three people, burned down houses, killed pigs and destroyed crops, in the latest in a series of attacks against tribal villages in the Papuan highlands. As of April, 15,000 more soldiers were to be relocated to Papua, bringing the total in the province to 50,000.

     In May, in India, freed Irula families, who were being kept as bonded labor in rice mills, have been provided with land in Palabakam to build a village and 40,000 rupees ($922) per family by the Indian government. According to the BBC, adult members of the community in the southern state of Tamil Nadu are now working on nearby farms and the children have access to education. The five isolated tribes of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands have survived the tsunami, despite being close to the epicenter of the earthquake. The Sentinelese, who have no contact at all with outsiders, and the Jarawa and Shompen, who have very little contact, all escaped relatively unharmed. In general, indigenous people in the path of the tsunami who lived traditionally, followed traditional knowledge to head natural signs of the coming disaster, allowing them to move to safe places, Indigenous people in the path of the deadly wave who had become considerably assimilated were less fortunate.

     In the Philippines, in late February, according to Survival International, Eighty-six families of the Subanen tribe were being threatened with eviction from their ancestral land by the Canadian mining company TVI. The families have all received letters from the company saying, 'we demand that you leave the company premises' or face court action.

     In Malaysia, in March, Hundreds of Penan hunter-gatherers signed a letter of protest about a logging permit awarded to Samling Plywood, which has a long history of destroying the Penan's rainforest home. The area being logged by Samling is one of the last remaining primary rainforest areas in the province of Sarawak and is therefore essential for the survival of the Penan as a people, who have already witnessed the destruction of much of their forest.

     Survival International reports that several groups of Bushmen, who were evicted by the Botswana government from their homes in the Kalahari, have been braving exhaustion and starvation to return, on foot, to their land home in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, some 120 KM from where the government dumped them. In November 2004, Botswana's President Festus Mogae told British MPs visiting Botswana that the Bushmen were allowed to hunt in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. His government had previously banned all hunting and gathering inside the reserve, making the Bushmen's way of life impossible. The ordering, in February, of six Bushmen to pay the very large fine, for hunting antelope, of one thousand Botswana pula (£125) each or face imprisonment, following their arrest and two week detention, in July, without trial, makes it clear that while Botswana wants the international community to believe it is respecting the Bushmen's rights to hunt, the reality on the ground is unchanged. Many Bushmen have been arrested and tortured for hunting in the reserve, where they have lived for thousands of years. Seven other Bushman hunters had been charged and were awaiting trial in February. In April, The US State Department condemned the Bushman eviction sites as being threatened by the lack of employment opportunities and rampant alcohol abuse. Meanwhile, Kenneth Good, professor of political science studies at the University of Botswana, who has been a critic of the Botswanan government, particularly its action concerning the Bushman, was deported by the government, while Duma Boko, an attorney on Good's legal team and a well-known human rights attorney, acting for the Bushmen, received a death threat, reportedly from Botswana's intelligence service. In April, Botswana's government was pushing a bill through Parliament to remove the clause in the Constitution that protects Bushman rights, in the midst of a trial on the right of the Bushman to return to their land. In May, Kalahari ecologist Arthur Albertson told Botswana’s high court that the Gana and Gwi Bushmen’s lives were better in the Central Kalahari where they could hunt and gather than in the government eviction camps. Meanwhile, BHP Billiton, the world's biggest mining company, has been exploring the Gana and Gwi Bushmen's reserve without their consent. At the same time, The World Bank ombudsman is investigating complaints that the Bank has been funding diamond exploration in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, without first consulting local communities. For more information contact Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or email mr@survival-international.org, http://survival-international.org/how_to_help.php?howto_help_id=1.

     In March, the government of Kenya cancelled all title deeds issued in the Mau forest, home to many Ogiek, with the plan to evict more than 100,000 people living there. Although a Kenyan court has ordered the government to temporarily halt evictions, the orders are clearly being ignored. In April, Kenyan police torched Ogiek houses and destroyed crops, instilling widespread terror. A church is the only shelter for the two hundred homeless Ogiek in the Enoosupukia region of Narok district. The leader of the Ogiek organization, the Ogiek Welfare Council, has received anonymous death threats, which are suspected to be from individuals or companies trying to take Ogiek land.

     Cultural survival reported, at the end of April, that within the next year, the Mursi could face government removal from their traditional lands in Ethiopia to make way for a privately managed park, following an oral agreement, between the Ethiopian government and African Parks Foundation, a private nonprofit organization based in the Netherlands, that will assume management of Omo and Mago National Parks. In late March, Minority Rights Group International (MRG) complained to the government of Cameroon about the acquittal of a military police captain charged with arbitrary arrest and torture of a Mbororo community member.

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