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1. not funded: Pres. request for $77.8 mil. for Office of Historical Accounting The FY3006 Labor, Health and Human Services and related agencies appropriations bills had passed the House and the Senate Appropriations Committee by late July. The President had called for the elimination of many services, some of which were made by the House, and fewer by the Senate, while there were wide differences between the House and Senate Committee on many matters. Over all, the President, the House and the senate committee agreed on $54.2 million for Labor programs for tribes, urban Indians, Native Hawaiians and Samoans. The Tribal Native Employment Works (NEW) Program continues as a capped entitlement of $7.6 million in FY 2006. The other requests and tentative appropriations are two many to include here. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a final ruling, in October, confirming that federal labor laws apply to employees at tribal casinos, ordering the San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino in California to allow the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union equal access to its property. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) held the 2005 National American Indian Housing Summit: Sharing Successes and Innovative Approaches, September 19-22 in Reno, NV. As the last such summit, in 2001, ended with tribal-agency disagreement over the question of consultation, this year's national meeting was proceeded by a series of six regional meetings across the U.S., and joint negotiated sessions on rulemaking for the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act, which tribal leaders felt was carried out with respect for tribal sovereignty, though consensus was not reached on all issues. The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), in July, agreed to fund a grant proposal directed to continuing the development of tribal archivists' professional knowledge and creation of a peer-assistance network in order to enhance the archivists' effectiveness in preserving and managing records held in tribal archives. For information regarding the scholarship go to: http://tinyurl.com/8sqxn. In June, a study was released commissioned by the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers in conjunction with the National Park Service Advisory Council making several recommendations for federal agencies dealing with tribes on sacred or historic sites to improve the consultation process. An important point is for agencies to get tribes involved early in the process, rather than calling them in at last moment to get them to sign off on a project. Also, tribes need to have full access to all the relevant information. Where contractors are involved in a project, the agency needs to carry out discussions directly with the Native nation, and not leave the negotiating to the contractor. Agencies need to realize that tribal governments are the primary party, and not just an interested party, and discussion is to proceed on a government-to-government basis. The report indicated that it has been helpful when agencies have tribal liaison officers and tribes had an easily identifiable tribal historic preservation officer. Since the issues involved are usually complex, the parties need to expect that more than one session will usually be needed to settle the issues with good process. A federal task force is investigating lobbyist and Republican Party fundraiser Jack Abramoff's claims that he offered a job to a deputy secretary of the Interior Department who had promised to stop an Indian casino that would compete with one of the lobbyist's tribal clients. Abramoff sent e-mails in 2002 to Italia Federici, the head of a Washington conservative group, urging her to convince her friend J. Steven Griles, then the Interior Deputy Secretary, to stop the Gun Lake Tribe of Potawatomi Indians' plans to open a casino near Grand Rapids, MI, according to a report in The Washington Post. Abramoff, who has been indicted for fraud in an unrelated casino boat transaction, and Griles allegedly worked together in late 2003 to stop another casino proposal - this one by the Jena Band of Choctaws in Louisiana - and then turned around and sold his services to the Jena Band to get the casino reopened, which has not happened. Abramoff is also alleged to have convinced tribes to donate millions of dollars to gain political influence to parties who gave him kickbacks, undisclosed to his tribal clients. While Southwestern tribes straddling the Mexican-U.S. boarder continue to have problems crossing that border, heightened by post 9-11 tightened security, and with a lack of consultation from and coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, as previously reported in these pages, North East Canadian border nations report similar problems, For example, the St. Regis Mohawk, whose Akwesasne Mohawk community is in both Canada an the U.S., have been policing the border at extra cost, without adequate authority to do so. They took their concerns to the June 27 United South Eastern Tribes Meeting and discussed the matter with Department of Homeland Security officials, and New York State passed legislation June 29, that restores full police power to the St. Regis tribal police. Arizona tribes were asserting, in August, that Homeland Security was not providing them with sufficient funding. A Nuclear Regulatory Commission judge ruled, in July, groundwater contamination is not a threat under plans by Hydro Resources, Inc. to extract uranium by in-situ mining (injecting an acid solution into the ground to dissolve uranium, and then pumping the solution to the surface for further refining), and approved a plan for HRI to drill injection wells at three mine sites on the Navajo reservation in the area between Crownpoint and Church Rock, NM. The permits are being challenged by a consortium of grassroots and environmental groups who intend to appeal the decision. The Navajo Nation banned all uranium mining within reservation boundaries, in April, but the law has yet to tested in court. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced, October 5, that the defunct uranium, Midnite Mine, a Superfund site located on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington, will receive funding for cleanup at an expected cost of $152 million over five to seven years. The Fish and Wild Life Service published a final Rule, August 17, concerning Native exemptions to the regulations for the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which took affect September 16. This summer, in order to cut costs, the U.S. Indian Health Service stopped paying for over-the-counter drugs and began requiring patients, who lost their prescription medicines, to pay for their replacement. After Federal funding ended June 30 for 14 fetal alcohol diagnostic clinics, in Alaska, the continued operation of the clinics became doubtful, even with the state continuing to pay $3000 after each diagnosis (for up to 200 diagnoses a year), as the state funding only covers part of the cost. The IRS put into effect a new policy, in June, under which Alaska Natives who owe the federal government money, for the first time, could have their corporate dividends seized in payment of the debt. The agency decided to go after dividends, in part, because some corporations have paid shareholders significant amounts in recent years, according to Harry T. Manaka, IRS Director of Collections for the Western Region. It was reported at the beginning of September that the IRS has started a collection process on the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe’s tax debt of nearly $3 million, according to Wallace Wells, a former tribal chairman. He stated that the agency has seized at least $400,000 of tribal funds, and that some of the debt involves payroll withholding that was withheld from employee paychecks but not forwarded to the IRS. 80 tribal law enforcement agencies and governments were awarded $18 million, under the COPS Tribal Resources Grant Program, by The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, in late August, for the hiring of 73 officers, training and the purchase of equipment and technology. A new land purchase agreement was signed, on September 12, between public and private entities to ensure protection and Native Hawai’ian management of the 25,856-acre Wao Kele o Puna area of rain forest, used for centuries for hunting gathering and religious ceremonies by Native Hawai’ians, ending 20 years of controversy about geothermal energy exploration. For more informatio0n contact Cultural Survival, 215 Prospect Street Cambridge, MA, 02139 (617)441.5400, culturalsurvival@cs.org. The U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command recently changed the names of some military exercises to refrain from using words that Native Americans might find insulting or degrading. The first national Indian candidate boot camp, to assist Indian candidates, organized by INDN List, dedicated to recruiting and training Indian political candidates, was hosted by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux in mid-October. For more information go to: http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5664076.html. Arlen Melender, Chairman of the Reno-Sparks, NV Indian Colony, was appointed to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, in September, becoming the second Native American to serve on the commission. Jack Jackson Jr. has resigned as executive director of the Arizona Commission of Indian Affairs to become the third Navajo to run for Congress, as a Democrat, in Arizona House District 1, which includes the Navajo Nation. The previous two, Lloyd House and Derrick Watchman, were not elected. Jackson is challenging popular Republican incumbent Rick Renzi.
In the Courts The U.S. Supreme Court Three major Indian cases are waiting for the first session of the Supreme Court with John Roberts Jr. as Chief Justice, in October. First, the Court is scheduled to hear oral argument in Joan Wagnon v. Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, a reservation tax case in which the state of Kansas is attempting to levy a motor fuel tax on a non-Indian distributor to a tribally owned gas station. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated the tax based on a balancing test of state, federal and tribal interests. Second, the court will also decide whether to review the Cayuga Indian land claim case in New York. The 2nd Circuit, on Sept. 9 declined, to rehear a July 28 decision throwing out the decades-old case, which had already been won by the tribe in U.S. District Court, in 2 - 1 ruling making a ''novel'' application of the laches equity principle. Third, the court will decide whether to hear an appeal of the Narragansett Tribe of Rhode Island’s victory in the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals rehearing of Carcieri v. Norton, in which, a three-judge panel reaffirmed its earlier ruling upholding the land-into-trust process, rejecting the state's claim that the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act made an unconstitutional delegation of power. Furthermore, the appeals court ruled that the act applied to tribes that were recognized after 1934, and two of the three judges said the tribe would have full sovereignty over the new trust land. The ruling followed within a week of a similar decision by the 8th Circuit Court in a South Dakota case. The Supreme Court, on May 23, refused to reconsider its ruling that the Oneida Indian Nation must pay property taxes and obey local laws on former reservation land the tribe reacquires. In October, the Oneida Nation of New York announced a tax deal with the city of Sherrill under which the nation will pay nearly $60,000 in back taxes to Sherrill and continue to pay future taxes, at least for the five-year term of the pact, and obey all city codes and allow city inspectors onto nation property. The Tribe has different issues with other municipalities that are not yet settled, even as it has requested that 18,000 acres of land reacquired with casino profits be placed into federal trust.
Lower Federal Courts The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, on June 28, overturned a $248 million land claim award to the Cayuga Nations of New York and Wisconsin from the state of New York, in 2001 and 2001 lower court decisions, on the basis of the Supreme Court Oneida Nation decision. The Circuit Court of appeals, in Boneshirt v Nelson, decided, in July, that South Dakota's redistricting in Charles Mix County, including the Yankton Sioux, reservation is illegal, because the plan was not submitted to the Department of Justice for approval, as required by the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The ACLU brought the case, asserting that the redistricting made it extremely difficult for Indian voters, who make up one third of the county electorate, from electing candidates that they prefer to the county commission and other local offices. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, July 18, that the state of California could remove an Indian child from her mother, over the child's tribe's objections, because Public Law 280 provided an exception to the application of the Indian child Welfare Act in California. The 9th Circuit Court of appeals, August 2, ruled 2-1 that the private Kamehameha School's policy of only admitting Native Hawai'ians constitutes "unlawful race discrimination, even though the schools, established in 1883 under the will of a Hawai'ian princess, receive no federal funding. For more information go to: http//:ksbe.edu. On August 31, a three judge 9th circuit panel unanimously overturned the dismissal of a suite, ruling that Hawaii taxpayers could bring a suite challenging state funding of the Hawaii Office of Hawaiian Affairs for allegedly discriminating against non-Hawai'ians. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, on August 23, that Navajo Nation may prosecute Russell Means for assault in tribal court, even though he is not a tribal member, as he is a member of another tribe. The court held that Congress intended tribal court jurisdiction to extend to members of all federally recognized tribes. A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of appeals ruled, in July, that the California Prison system's ban on long hair for male prisoners violated a Native American inmate's religious freedom. The Circuit court for the District of Columbia, in July, found in Harjo et al. v. Pro football, Inc., that the District court had erred in overturning the decision by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Trial and Appeal Board 1999 decision that the Washington Redskins name was defamatory to American Indians. The Circuit Court overruled the finding by the court below that it was too late to bring the case under the latches principle, holding that the time limit had to be measured from the time the youngest plaintiff became 18, rather than from the date of the trade mark being registered in 1967. The Circuit Court remanded the case to the District Court for redecision following the higher courts ruling. The full 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, on July 8, upheld a ruling by three of its judges, in November, that the state of Wyoming had negotiated with the Northern Arapaho Tribe in bad faith and the tribe was entitled to offer full casino-style gambling on the Wind River Reservation because the state allows that for social or nonprofit purposes. The 9th Circuit court of Appeals Ruled, July 8, that the Bureau of Land Reclamation was not required, under the mandatory contracting provisions of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, to contract reclamation activities on the Trinity River in California to the Hoopa Valley Tribe, because the authorizing statutes for the reclamation work were not specifically targeted to benefit the tribe, but were to benefit a wide range of interests (Hoopa Valley Indian Tribe v. Ryan, No. 03-16940). The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, June 22, that a temporary order will stand for cool water to continue to be spilled through four dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers to aid young chinook salmon in their journey to the Pacific Ocean, on the grounds that the Bush administration had failed to demonstrate a likelihood it would prevail on the merits of the case, and had not demonstrated that going ahead with the spill would cause irreparable harm. The spill began June 20 and is to continue through August at Lower Granite, Little Goose, Lower Monumental and Ice Harbor dams on the Snake River in Eastern Washington, and McNary Dam on the Columbia between Oregon and Washington. The full 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to rehear a lawsuit over the Narragansett’s tax-free smoke shop. A panel of judges ruled in May that the state can require the Narragansett to collect taxes on cigarette sales, but violated the tribe’s sovereignty when state troopers executed a search warrant on tribal lands and forced their way into the smoke shop. U.S. district Court judge Peter Dorsey ruled, in July, that the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation of Connecticut may submit additional evidence in its appeal of the Interior Board of Indian Appeals decision overturning the BIA's decision to grant the tribe federal acknowledgement. The tribe planed to submit additional evidence strengthening its case in an area the Appeals Board found documentation insufficient. Federal judge James Robertson approved an agreement between the Department of the Interior and the Mahpee Wampanpag nation of Washington, July 25, that the tribe's petition for federal recognition will go on the active list by October, with a tentative decision due by March 31, and a final decision by March 30, 2007. U.S. District Judge Charles Kornmann, in October, issued a partial summary judgment against Todd County High School, on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, holding that the school's administration had issued a long-term suspension to an Indian student failing to provide adequate and due process to the student and his family. There have long been claims of widespread discrimination against Indians in South Dakota schools. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), on June 23, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education, on behalf of 14 Rosebud Sioux families, charging that the Winner School district discriminates against American Indian students, disciplining them more harshly than other students, denying them equal educational opportunities, and subjecting them to a racially hostile atmosphere. A federal judge in Tucson, AZ dismissed a lawsuit, in July, filed by the Tohono O’odham Nation asking that the National Science Foundation’s $13.5 million telescope project on Kitt Peak be halted. The ruling will allow the Tohono O’odham Nation and the foundation to work together on differences, and allows the project to proceed according to Kitt Peak National Observatory manager, Richard Green. Tribal leaders filed suit in March, asserting that the foundation had repeatedly refused to consult with them on construction of the telescope project. In response to the suit, the foundation issued a stop-work order in April and offered to restart studies relative to historical, cultural and environmental issues. Pojoaque Pueblo, in July, settled its law suite with the State of New Mexico, agreeing to pay $24 million in back casino payments. All of New Mexico's gaming tribes have now settled their gambling disputes with the state. U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson rejected the latest appeal by imprisoned Native Leonard Peltier, who argued the U.S. government had no right to try him for crimes that occurred on a South Dakota reservation, ruling that the federal government has the right to prosecute for the murder of federal agents no matter where the crime occurs. Peltier, 60, is serving a life sentence for killing two FBI agents during a 1975 standoff on the Pine Ridge Reservation. A settlement has been reached in the case of the two large hog farms on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, allowing them to continue operating for up to 20 years, with 24 hog barns at each location, producing about 96,000 hogs per year, but not expand onto 11 other sites. U.S. Court of Indian Offenses Judge Steven Barker, June 8, ruled that the Kiowa tribal election board members exceeded their authority when they invalidated the voting rights of about 150 tribal members, entitled to vote, and delayed the election until August 20 to allow those members to register. The Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma filed a lawsuit in U.S. district Court, in early July, against the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, asking that it be allowed to fish commercially on Lake Erie without government restrictions, based on the Treaty of Fort Industry on July 4, 1805. Casino owner Don Barden has sued the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, seeking half of the $79 million settlement that the tribe negotiated with two of the city’s three casinos to drop its federal suit against Detroit and the Michigan Gaming Control Board. Barden’s suit says that the tribe’s leaders promised him half of the settlement, but have paid him only $1.5 million. The Jena Choctaws announced in June that they intended to suite the state of Louisiana to obtain a casino in Logansport, saying they have been frustrated by former Governor Mike Foster, who entered into a contract with the tribe by saying he would support their efforts to open a casino, then breached that contract by refusing to agree when federal officials determined the Jena Band had a right to open a casino in Logansport, and by current Governor Kathleen Blanco's unwillingness to proceed with negotiations.
State and Local Courts The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that Proposition 203, passed by voters in 2000, requiring that only English be taught in state schools, unconstitutional. Gov. Janet Napolitano, on June 18, announced a plan calling for $185 million annually through 2009 to be spent on Arizona's growing number of non-English-speaking students, including American Indians. The New Mexico Court of Appeals decided, June 28, that gaming compacts between the state and tribes allow for state courts, rather than tribal courts, to hear injury claims by visitors on gaming property, in a case involving the abduction of a 14 year old girl from the parking lot of the Santa Clara Pueblo Big Rock Casino in 2003. The Massachusetts Supreme Court decided, in May, in Building Inspector v. Wampanoag Shellfish Hatchery Corp., that the Wampanoag Tribe implicitly waved sovereign immunity in its 1983 land claim settlement when it agreed that several hundred acres awarded to the tribe would be owned by a state chartered corporation under state law, giving the town building inspector jurisdiction over tribal construction on the land. The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled, in August, that the state cannot punish Indian predatory offenders who do not register their addresses if they live on one of the state's 11 Indian reservations, on the grounds that the state's registration law is a civil regulation, and the state has no civil jurisdiction on reservations. The Fort Mojave Tribe of Nevada. filed suit, in April, in Sacramento County, CA Superior Court against Pacific Gas & Electric Co., claiming that its completed, but not yet operating, water treatment plant is close enough to the tribe's sacred site of Topock Maze, through which tradition says that those who walk on go to the other world, that the plant is blocking the road to the afterlife. The nation also complains, in its action, which also names the California Department of Toxic Substances Control and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, that in an attempt to prevent pollution from reaching the river, the defendants violated the California Environmental Quality Act Mendocino County, CA Superior Court Judge David Nelson ruled July 1, in a drug case, that tribal police are "government actors," meaning they represent the federal government to the extent that they have to follow constitutional search and seizure rules, and must have a warrant to make a search. The Catawba Nation brought a suit against the state of South Carolina, in late July, claiming the tribe has the right to operate video gambling and other gaming machines on its reservation in York County. The lawsuit comes after the Catawba’s attempts to build an electronic, high-stakes bingo parlor in Santee have failed to receive approval of the legislature after two years.
Tribal Courts The Rocky Boy tribal court, in early July, ordered Village Grocery owner Debbie St. Pierre, who has been fighting a tribal tobacco tax increase, to pay $5,500 in back tobacco taxes or lose her business license and close her store. Village Grocery is the only private seller of cigarettes on the Rocky Boys Reservation.
States, Localities and Indian Nations California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger withheld $20 million in special distributions from tribal gaming for state and local governments, placing the money in a reserve account, stating that he objected to a budget line item. A coalition of 13 California tribes with Casinos were opposing gaming contracts, this summer, that Governor Schwarzenegger signed with the Yurok and Quechan nations that had not yet been approved by the state legislature. In September, Governor Schwarzenegger signed agreements (that still need BIA approval) with the big Lagoon Rancheria to build a casino on sensitive habitat on its reservation (ending six years of litigation), and with the Los Coyotes Band of Cahilla and Cupeno Indians to build a gaming facility in Barstow. In September, introduced in the California Assembly was Concurrent Resolution No. 59ó that would recognize November 2005 as California Native American Indian History Month. The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation Gaming Commission said it shut down an Internet promotion, July 22, and its web “PlayAway” for playing slots and card games from home, when the Connecticut Division of Special Revenue ordered Foxwoods Resort Casino to stop the gaming, saying it violated Internet gambling laws and illegally expanded gambling off the reservation. The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation Gaming Commission said its members did not believe there is any legal basis for a cease and desist order from the state announced that the commission intended to restart the game August 2, but later further put off the restart date. The New Mexico Senate Committee on Indian Affairs met with Navajo Nation leaders at Gallup High School, in August, to find ways of solving the problem of state grants to tribal projects being returned to the state because the funds are not spent, usually by the chapters, by the grant deadlines. In the past two years over $1 million dollars in unspent money has been returned to the state, and the amount of unspent money is increasing. The State of New York has begun eminent domain proceedings on behalf of the Seneca Nation for control of two dozen downtown Niagara Falls acres promised to the tribe as part of its 2002 gambling agreement with the state, angering property owners who would lose businesses and homes. The land would complete the 52-acre “footprint” promised to the Seneca in the agreement that let them build a casino in Niagara Falls in exchange for giving a percentage of slot machine profits to the state. The Seneca have bought about half the property, including the former Niagara Falls Convention Center, which they transformed into the Seneca Niagara Casino. The remaining parcels include two hotels, a water park and several homes. The Southern Ute Nation, the Colorado Department of Transportation and the BIA signed an intergovernmental agreement, on September 9, establishing a process for discussing plans and resolving disputes on transportation issues within he boundaries of the Southern Ute Reservation. Washington State and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, in a June 20 joint statement, announced that they have suspended efforts to reach an interim water use agreement on the Flathead Reservation, because of legal issues concerning the draft agreement reached in 2004. The parties will “revitalize their efforts” at reaching a permanent agreement. Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal appointed Allison Sage, a longtime resident of the Wind River Reservation, as tribal liaison between the state of Wyoming and the Northern Arapaho Tribe. A similar position is currently unfilled s with the Eastern Shoshone. The Arizona Office of Tourism has had a local tribal member surveying tourism activity and tribal tourism development plans on reservations across the state during 2005, in order collaborate with Indian nations in expanding their tourist industry. The Washington attorney general’s office has been asked to review the authority of Tulalip tribal officers to enforce speed limits along a dangerous stretch of Interstate 5 after several motorists complained to Snohomish County officials. The tribal police, who made more than 100 highway stops over the July 4 holiday weekend, were part of a multi-agency patrol, coordinated by the State Patrol, along a stretch of I-5 that lies partially on Tulalip tribal land. The Washington State bar exam will begin including Indian law in the summer of 2007. The Oregon Geographic Names Board has recommended changing the names of three Klamath County, OR places whose names previously included using the word "squaw," which local tribal leaders have found offensive. The recommendation goes to a federal committee, and the name change is expected to be complete in six months to a year. Minnesota passed a law in 1995 requiring all place names including "squaw" in the state to be changed, but efforts to change the 73 such names in Arizona have not yet succeeded.
Tribal Developments The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported, in July, that while a national public health goal of reducing infant mortality rates by the year 2000 was achieved for the general U.S. population, American Indians have not experienced the same rate of reduction. For the country as a whole, the proportion of babies who died in their first year of life declined between 1995 and 2002, to a rate of 7 deaths per 1,000 live births. In Montana, the infant mortality rate is the same as the nation's. But the death rate for Indian babies was 9.8 deaths per thousand. In the seven-year study period, 610 Montana babies died; 100 of those infants were Indian, though only about 12.5 percent of births in Montana are Indian. The Indian infant mortality rate was worse in surrounding states: Wyoming: 12 per thousand, South Dakota: 13.6, North Dakota: 12.9 and Idaho: 12.4. For more information go to: http://tinyurl.com/9w37n. HIV/AIDS infection rates for Indians continue to rise, especially compared with the rates for whites. In 1995, the Native American rate of HIV infection surpassed that for whites and by 2003 were 40% higher than the white rate, at 11.5 per 100,000 compared to the white 8.1 per 100,000 rate. More than a million Americans were reported to have HIV/AIDS, 1900 of whom were Native, with more than half of those cases in California, Oklahoma, Arizona, Washington and Alaska The 2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, found that illicit drug use among Americans between the ages of 12 and 17 dropped 9% from 2002 to 2004, 10.6% of people in that age group having used an illicit drug in the last month before the survey. However, Some minority groups saw higher drug-use rates than the general population, with the highest among American Indian or Alaska Native youths, at 26%, compared to 12.2% for youths reporting two or more races, 11.1% for white youths, 10.2% for Hispanic youths, 9.3% for black youths, and 6% for Asian youths A partnership has been formed amongst the University of Oregon Child and Family Center and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Spring Reservation, the Klamath Tribe of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Washington to establish Adolescent Transitions Programs (ATP) in each community researchers is designed to slow the rate of adolescent substance abuse by helping families in these tribal communities rebuild traditional family structures, assisted by a five-year, $3.7-million grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. As many as 300 families from the three reservations will be part of the five year project. The Blandin Foundation, which strives to help strengthen communities in rural Minnesota, gave a grant of $250,000 to the Red Lake Chippewa to help the tribe’s young people, in the wake of the March 21 shooting at Red Lake High School, that left 10 people dead. San Diego State University's Department of Gerontology is undertaking new 3-year project that will explore and discover the needs of Native American elder caregivers, under a grant from the National Institutes of Health as part of the Indian Health Council-Native American Research Centers for Health. The project will ask caregivers of Native American elders about health, and social factors that determine why some prevail during times of crisis and challenge. Jane Dumas, a tribal elder of the Jamul band of Kumeyaay Indians, and known survivor of crisis and challenge, is working with the project to ensure the effort is done in a sensitive and respectful manner. For information, contact the project leader, Dr. Mario Garrett, Chair of the Dept of Gerontology, SDSU: 619-594-6765. A recent UCLA review of the best available studies of psychiatric drugs for depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and attention deficit disorder over a number of years found that the trials had involved 9,327 patients, of whom only 8% were minorities, and none were Native Americans. This means that where culture is a factor, the findings are invalid. The Pima and Tohono O'odham tribes of Arizona have begun returning to using traditional desert foods that their people traditionally consumed until as recently as the 1940's in order to improve health, including counter obesity and diabetes, as well as connecting more firmly with their cultural heritage. Preliminary studies have indicated that a change in the Indian diet back to the cactus buds, mesquite, cholla, prickly pear cactus, tepary beans, choa seeds, acorns, beans, corn, grains, greens and other low-fat high-fiber plant foods upon can normalize blood sugar, suppress between-meal hunger and probably also foster weight loss. Commercially produced corn and beans are not as healthy as the traditionally grown varieties. The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe broke ground, in July, on the first nursing home on a reservation in South Dakota. Moreau River Road, on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation is finally scheduled for paving after being on the BIA’s priority list since 1998. Tribal Chairman Harold Frazier signed a contract to set the start date for construction in July. Tribal officials hope the state and county officials will approve reconstruction of an old wooden bridge on the 5-mile long road. The National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) report, American Indian and Alaska Native Children: Findings From the Base Year of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), provides descriptive information about American Indian and Alaska Native children (AIAN children) born in the United States in 2001. It presents information on characteristics of their families, on children's: mental and physical skills, first experiences in childcare, fathers, and prenatal care. The report profiles data from a nationally representative sample of children at about 9 months of age both overall, and for various subgroups (i.e., male and female, living in different types of families, living in poverty). This report indicates that about one-third of AIAN children live in poverty (34 percent), about one-third live in households where the mother has less than a high school education (34 percent); three-quarters live in households with two parents, and about 1 in 10 (11 percent) were born to teen-aged mothers. Nonetheless, AIAN children at about 9 months of age do not perform significantly differently from the general population of children in terms of early mental and physical skills, such as exploring objects in play, babbling, eye-hand coordination and pre-walking skills. To download, view and print the report as a pdf file, go to: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005. The Navajo Nation Council, in July, passed the Navajo Sovereignty in Education Act that will give the tribe more authority in federally funded schools, and more input in public schools serving Navajo children. The legislation revises the 20-year-old Navajo education code, including transforming the Division of Diné Education into the Department of Diné Education, that will oversee the nation’s education standards and progress just as state departments manages public education. The department will set Navajo specific standards and devise exams to test those standards (which will apply in relation to the No Child Left Behind Act) at the reservation’s Bureau of Indian Affairs-run, contract and grant schools and will set up cooperative agreements with local public school districts, giving the tribe a say in the curriculum that serves Navajo young people. In a meeting of Indian country policy professionals and media leaders at Buffalo State College, in Buffalo, NY, June 15, inaugural steps were taken to launch a new Indian policy and research center in the American Indian Policy and Media Initiative. (AIPMI). Discussions of strengthening education and awareness among the general public in relation to the cultural, economic, political, legal, and social realities confronting native peoples focused on the problem that "overall public perception of American Indians is being swayed by misinformation," putting tribes and tribal people at a disadvantage in the formation of public policy. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) decided, in August, that college teams could not use Indian names and mascots in postseason play, and it was recommend that they not use them at all (but the NCAA only has jurisdiction over the postseason). Eighteen colleges now use Indian names and mascots. Three use Braves, six Indians, four identify as specific tribes: Seminoles, Utes, Chippewas, and Choctaws. Carthage College calls itself the Redmen. The University of Illinois has created its own tribe, the Fighting Illini. Southeastern Oklahoma State calls its teams the Savages. The NCAA later excepted the University of Florida Seminoles from the ban because the Seminole Tribe of Florida approves the use of their name, and similar exceptions have been given to Central Michigan University, to use the team name Chippewa and for the University of Utah to use the name Utes. Hurricane Katrina was devastating for Indian nations along the Gulf coast, while Indian tribes and people from all over Indian country sent large amounts of aid to all those impacted by that storm and Hurricane Rita, that followed. Worst hit was the Houma Nation, whose 40-member community in Plaquemines Parish, known as ''The Village,'' was completely destroyed, while its community of Boothville, next to Venice on the tip of the peninsula southeast of New Orleans, was devastated by flooding. The 3,400 affected tribal members living in St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Orleans, and Jefferson parishes, all suffered varying degrees of damage. Several state recognized nations in the worst-hit areas of Louisiana took extensive damage, including losing a number of homes, were the Muskogees, Point-Au-Chien, and Biloxi-Chitimacha. Further inland, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw, directly in the path of the storm, in Philadelphia, MS. Received extensive damage to tribal government offices, homes and other structures, as well as loss of power and telephone service. Less extensively hit were the Poarch Creek Band in Alabama, and the Chitimacha Tribe, Coushatta Indian Tribe, Jena Band of Choctaw and Tunica-Biloxi Tribe in Louisiana. Many individual Indians from a number of tribes were displaced from the coast by Katrina, including perhaps 50 Navajos who moved in and around New Orleans to work for Northrop Grumman Ship Systems. Aid, including generous donations, to all affected
by Katrina, including Native people, came from
a large number of Native nations, people and organizations.
Tribes in the Gulf Coast region opened
their reservations and businesses to refugees. The Tunica-Biloxi
turned the convention center at their Paragon Casino Resort
into a crisis center for more than 600 Indian and non-Indian
refugees, while the Mississippi Choctaw, without power
and water, opened their Pearl River Resort Casino to refugees
as a shelter, and the Chitimacha Tribe set up a shelter
for several hundred people. The Florida Seminole, appreciative
of hurricane relief they have received, sent a tribal fire and
police team with a load of supplies to the Mississippi Choctaw.
Tribes across the Southwest, including the Yavapai
and Navajo Nation, sent work crews, supplies and
cash to the affected area. The Iowa tribe of Oklahoma
volunteered its firefighters. The Gros Ventre and Assiniboine
of Montana sent tons of buffalo meat to those in need of food.
The Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods casinos in Connecticut extended
employment offers to evacuees and refugees, as the Eastern
Band of Cherokee in North Carolina joined still other
nations in sending assistance. The National American
Indian Housing Council reported that the Poarch Creek
were serving as a staging area for equipment and supplies and
assisting in transportation to the Chitimacha Tribe by using
their emergency response trailers and a police escort. The National
Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and National Indian
Gaming Association have assured tribes, that even those
without federal recognition, would receive aid, even as they
provided and helped coordinate assistance. The BIA's
Eastern Regional Office, in Nashville, TN, and the Choctaw
Agency in Philadelphia, MI coordinated recovery efforts with
the Mississippi Choctaw tribal government, including arranging
for fresh water to be trucked in from Arkansas, utilizing Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has made an offer to bring low-cost gasoline to the poor in the United States, including American Indian tribal communities. Venezuela owns CITGO Petroleum Corp., which has eight refineries in the United States, and has set aside up to 10% of its refined oil products to be sold directly to organized poor communities, and institutions in the United States. Navajo Nation officials asserted, in October, that El Paso Natural Gas Co. is manipulating the facts and attempting to bypass the tribe's sovereignty by going directly to the Interior in an attempt to get a better right-of-way deal for its pipeline across tribal land. Navajo Nation Attorney General Louis Denetsosie stated the gas company is also trying to scare consumers into thinking the Navajo Nation is profiteering from scarce energy supplies following the two Gulf coast hurricanes. A report of 30 scientists, policy analysts and wild salmon advocates participating in a year long project finds that current efforts to save wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest and California almost certainly will fail. For the full report go to: http://www.medfordnews.com/articles/index.cfm?artOID=312742&cp=10996. San Juan Pueblo is moving to change its name to what it was before Spanish missionaries arrived in New Mexico more than 400 years ago, Ohkay Owingeh.
Economic Developments The National Indian Gaming Commission reported, in July, that total revenue from Indian gaming increased by 15.3% last year to reach $19.4 billion, up from the 13.7% increase of 2004 over 2003. The greatest regional rate of increase was for region V (Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas) that rose 43.9% to $1.2 billion in 2004. The largest dollar increase for last year was in Region II (California and Northern Nevada) which increased by almost $1.1 billion, or 23.2%. During 2004, Tribes sent more than $900 million in gambling revenue to state and local governments, an increase of 23% over 2003. 405 Indian Casinos in 30 states also contributed $6.2 billion in direct and indirect taxes, two-thirds of which went to the federal government, in 2004 as set forth in a June 15 Indian Gaming Report by economist Alan Meister of the Analysis Group, in Los Angeles. The report found that Indian gaming increased last year in Oklahoma by 46.4%, Florida by34.3%, New York by 26.5%, Arizona by 25.9%, California by 13.3%, Connecticut by 3.5%, Wisconsin by 1.3%, Minnesota by 1.2%, and Michigan by0.1%. Over all, tribal gaming grew twice as fast as non-tribal gambling in 2004. The report is available at: http//:www.IndianGamingReport.com. The Osage Nation of Oklahoma plans to use 95% of the revenue from its new Sand Springs Casino, which opened in August, for improving tribal social services. The Navajo Nation Council has approved a revenue sharing agreement between the nation and the Hogback Chapter for sharing revenue, if the tribe builds a casino, with more of the revenue going to the chapter when the gaming facility first opens, and more to the tribe later, to help with financing infrastructure. The Harvard Project on Indian Economic Development, issued a report, in July, Eric Hensen and Jonathan B. Taylor, American Indians at the Millennium, showing that "the urbanization of American Indians has not been easy." Census data indicates that urban Native Americans experience a 17% poverty rate, compared to 35% on reservation. Urban Indians have difficulty accessing health care, for while more than 60% of native people live off reservation only 1% of Indian Health Service (IHS) funding is off reservation, and various eligibility requirements prevent many indigenous people from using what health services are available. Among other things, this means that urban Indian children often suffer from substantive abuse without supportive services. With most Indian incomes low and urban rents high, the vast majority are forced to live in questionable neighborhoods. While the number of Natives buying houses is increasing, very few can afford to do so. This is especially so in San Francisco, which has the nation's most costly housing and the fourth largest urban Indian population. In the face of this, urban Indians are increasingly organizing, with Indian Centers in cities across the country, and a new National Urban Indian Family Coalition growing increasingly vocal. For this and other Harvard Project reports go to: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/hpaied/res_main.htm.The report will soon be available in book form. An increasing number of U.S. employers are outsourcing to reservations rather than outside the U.S. for example, on four Utah reservations 150-180 jobs were known to have been created from commercial and government outsourcing, by July. On the Pine Ridge Reservation, Lakota Express, an Indian owned web design and marketing firm, has a contract to check the accuracy of the transcribing of hand written information in English recorded by an outsourcing operation in China. Ford Motor co, Capital One and Dell are among U.S. companies that have expressed interest in outsourcing to reservations. Economic studies of the effect of two New York Tribes on the upstate New York economy show that the nations have had a major positive economic impact. The Oneida Indian Nation of New York commissioned a study of its job creation by the Upstate Institute at Colgate University. The study projected that by mid-2005 the nation's employment will have doubled since 1997. The Turning Stone Resort and Casino employed 2343 people in 1996. With its $340 million expansion, it was expected to employ 5000 by mid 2005. Where gaming provided 80% of the nation's employment, government and non-gaming enterprises provided the remaining 20%, totaling 800 direct hires and indirectly an additional 1642 jobs. In 2004, the tribe employed 4215, making the Oneidas the third largest employer in Central New York, of whom 3613 resided in Madison, Oneida and Onondaga counties - 1% of the work force in the three counties - 97% of whom are non-Indian. Through the multiplier effect of direct employment and increased final demand resulting from the nation's capital projects, an additional 3570 jobs were created in suppliers and other ancillary businesses, so that over all, the Oneida Nation is responsible for creating 7155 jobs in Central New York. This direct and indirect employment is estimated to have generated $49 million in state and federal taxes, including $24.7 million in payroll taxes by direct employees, while the tribe paid wages and compensation of $109 million, much of which is spent locally. Payments to instate vendors totaled $342.4 million, of which $59.8 million was spent in the three county area. During 2004, the nation donated $185,000 to a broad spectrum of charitable and civic organizations. As of January, the Oneidas had donated over $8 million, since 1996, to seven local school districts, well above the assessed value of the nation's properties in each of those districts. Since 2003, the tribe has granted $623,000 to two local governments, who applied the funds to lower taxes, improve infrastructure and purchase equipment. In addition, the nation has awarded $300,000 in college scholarships to 60 area students since 1996. A report concerning the Seneca Nation, released by the American Economics Group, showed that in 2003 the Seneca Nation of New York's tobacco distribution and convenience store businesses directly employed 1091 people, while a secondary set of businesses - whole sale suppliers, manufacturing and transport - provided an additional 1081 jobs. The Seneca nation ran 55 businesses selling tobacco, many functioning heavily on the Internet. A recent federal-state crackdown on credit card companies greatly reduced activity in this sector, but the Seneca hope to more than replace the loss with two new casinos, whose construction work is creating thousands of new jobs. Meanwhile, at the nearby St. Regis Mohawk Nation, gaming employment has risen to over 1000, half of whom are non-Indian, with the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino adding 525 jobs since 1997 and the Mohawk Bingo palace 320. The number of individual businesses registered with the nation has expanded over the last decade from 30 to 98. On the basis of positive results of a feasibility study, the Chippewa-Cree Tribe is moving ahead toward building an $87 million ethanol plant near the Rocky Boy Reservation in Montana. The tribe has been developing a business plan and seeking investors, with help from the National Tribal Development Association. The feasibility study called for a plant capable of producing up to 40 million gallons of ethanol a year, as well as wheat gluten and animal feed. Construction would create about 200 jobs, and the plant itself another 43. Maine's first pharmacy mail-order distribution center, PIN Rx, began operating on the Penobscot Indian reservation, in August, keeping prices low by buying from U.S. wholesalers as a defined group. The Yakama Nation purchased the Yakima Sun Kings of the Continental Basketball Association, in June, making the Yakama the second U.S. tribe to own a professional basketball team.
Educational and Cultural Developments Harvard University is engaged in an aggressive effort to recruit American Indian students, which now number more than 50 among the approximately 6,500 undergraduates on campus. For more information contact the National Indian Education Association: www.niea.org. or the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development: www.ksg.harvard.edu/hpaied. The Board of Directors of D-Q University in California, which had to shut down because of numerous troubles, this spring, has a new president, has named co-founder Art Apodaca as the institution's president. The University of Oklahoma ranks No. 1 among 100 U.S. colleges in the number of American Indian students receiving professional degrees in dentistry, law and medicine in 2003-2004. Three Oklahoma universities produced the most bachelor’s degrees for American Indian students in the nation, in 2003-2004, according to the June 2 issue of Black Issues in Higher Education. Northeastern State University in Tahlequah gave out the most degrees: with 358 followed by Oklahoma State University: 271 and the University of Oklahoma 232. Several other Oklahoma schools were in the top 15: Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant was sixth with 153, East Central University in Ada ranked 12th with 94 and the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond was14th with 78. Montana's seven tribal colleges have received a combined $2.5 million to compile tribal histories for educators and purchase equipment for their campuses over the next two years. Stanford University Law School will begin offering a class in American Indian law, next semester. The Directorate of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences at the National Science Foundation, recently joined the National Endowment for the Humanities, is leading an effort to preserve native languages. About once every two weeks the last fluent speaker of a native language dies, so that by 2100 as many as 2500 native tongues, world wide, will stop being spoken. The project has awarded $4.4 million to 26 institutions and 13 individual scholars to investigate the status of 70 languages that are believed to be endangered and to help preserve them, and plans to have an additional $2 million available annually in grants. Many researchers are concerned not only with saving a language, per say, but also the knowledge and culture based in the language. The Indigenous Language Institute (ILI), recognizing the imminent loss of indigenous peoples' languages and acknowledging the individuality of indigenous communities, facilitates innovative, community-based initiatives for language revitalization through collaboration with other appropriate groups and organizations, and promotes public awareness of this crisis. For information, go to: http://www.indigenous-language.org/index.php. The National Center for Education Statistics of the Institute of Education Sciences has issued two reports describing early learning and educational experiences of American Indians and Alaska Natives. The findings from the early childhood longitudinal study with a 2001 base year, found that one-third of Native babies live in poverty and one-third live in households where the mother has less than a high school Education. Native children at 9 months of age performed at the same level as the general population of similarly aged children in terms of early mental and physical skills, such as exploring objects in play, babbling, eye-hand coordination and pre-walking. Later on, however, despite improvements over the last 20 years, American Indians and Alaska Natives continue to perform behind Americans in general. American Indian and Alaska Native students were more likely to have dropped out of school in 2003 than White or Asian/Pacific Islanders students (but not Hispanics), while Native 8th-graders scored lower on the National Assessment of Educational Progress reading and mathematics assessments than White and Asian/Pacific Islanders, though they scored higher than African Americans. At the same time, a higher percentage of American Indian and Alaska Native high school students took Advanced Placement tests than in prior years. American Indian and Alaska Native enrollment in degree-granting postsecondary institutions more than doubled in the past 25 years, earning more than twice the number of degrees at each level between 1976 and 2003, though they were less likely than members of other groups to have earned a bachelors or higher degree. The two reports are available on line, Read American Indian and Alaska Native Children: Findings From the Base Year of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort, at: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005116, and Read Status and Trends in the Education of American Indians and Alaska Natives, at: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005108. To sign up for e-mail notification of future reports and database availability go to the NCES website at: http://nces.ed.gov/newsflash or send an email to: listserv@listserv.ed.gov, writing in the message's body: “subscribe iesnews your name” (e.g., “subscribe iesnews Joan Doe”). Experts representing 17 American Indian tribes held a forum in Little Rock, AK, in early September, to review progress toward goals for American Indian and Alaska Native early learning, following new findings that rural Native children are significantly behind most rural and non-rural ethnic and income groups in essential early literacy skills. This was the first meeting of Indian country K - 12 and early childhood educators specifically to consider what must be done to ensure that Native children do not enter kindergarten significantly behind other children. The National Indian Education Association held its annual conference in Denver in early October focusing on a strong critique of serious problems in federal education programs. A preliminary report was given of testimony elicited in 11 field hearings sponsored by NIEA around the U.S. The report is available from NIEA, on line at: http://www.niea.org/issues/policy_detail.php?id=17. Scores for the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards exams increased noticeably throughout the state, including school districts on the Navajo Nation. Most notably, the percentage of students who met the standard in the three areas tested, math, reading and writing, rose significantly in the Chinle, Tuba City and Window Rock school districts. At least a portion of the increase is due to a new grading scale, lowering the mark for a student to meet the state standard. Over 14 years, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians Tutoring Program is realizing higher test scores for young people as well as new learning opportunities for reservation adults. The program's goals include improved academic skills following state guidelines, accelerated reading skill levels, identifying potentially at-risk students at the elementary level, developing self-esteem through positive reinforcement and cultivating study skills that promote academic success. Kathy McNamara, superintendent of the Banning Unified School District stated, "The Morongo tutoring program has focused on building a strong working relationship with the school district for the benefit of the students through open communication and collaboration. Their hard work has resulted in higher test scores and increasing graduation rates." The tribe opened a new, larger, Morongo Learning Center, on September 29. Desert Vista High School in Arizona has instituted a special orientation for students from the Gila River Indian Community reservation to help them understand how to navigate Desert Vista's large campus, including where to go for help and how to choose classes, In Montana, where 93% of the state's schools have earned a passing grade under No Child Left Behind Act testing, on six of the state's seven reservations, at least one school serving Indian students failed to meet the "adequate yearly progress" standard required under NCLB. The exception was the Flathead Reservation where all schools passed. In three years of testing, approximately half of the reservation schools made the grade for the first time this year. Lewis and Clark Elementary School in Missoula, MT has won a $10,000 grant for a multicultural studies program it hopes will be a model for other Montana schools striving to meet Indian Education for All requirements. Teachers at Lewis and Clark Elementary School have had in-service training on incorporating American Indian culture into their daily lessons, have met with cultural experts on the Flathead Indian Reservation, and have learned about edible plants and Salish language from a Salish-Kootenai College faculty member, as part of their on going preparation for making American Indian students and their families more comfortable at the school, while increasing students' awareness of the American Indian culture around them. Old Town Elementary School in Old town. ME was testing a lesson plan for fifth graders about Wabanaki history and 11 other units that make up the new Indian studies curriculum created by James Eric Francis, tribal historian of the Penobscot Nation, in early September, as part of the implementation of a new law requiring schools to teach about the state's American Indians. The units also have been field-tested at Indian Island Elementary School and, this fall, will be available to teachers across the state. Navajo Nation has taken initial steps to take over control of public schools on its reservation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah through creation of an 11 member Navajo Nation school board in legislation passed in July, aimed at improving the education the nation's young people receive. Meanwhile, Navaho Nation has been cutting back its almost five-decade-old program to provide new school clothing for its low-income school children, for a number of reasons, even as the need has been growing. One of the reasons is directly financial, with the already financially hard pressed Navajo Nation faced with reduced federal dollars, at the same time that a growing youth population and 57% unemployment is raising the number of eligible school children to between 38,000 and 40,000. Other reasons are political, both current and historical. Insufficient funding has forced cuts in both the number of children who can be supplied, now about 26,000, and the amount of clothing provided per child, leaving officials reluctant to push for a program that leaves many needy people out, thus reducing its support in the Navajo Nation Council. Although the problems were corrected by new regulations established, some negative connotations remain from reports in the 1970's and early '80s that chapter officials and council delegates diverted a lot of good clothing from the program for there own use. One reason for the drop in the number of children that can be supplied, and the amount clothing they receive, is educational. Educators have found that how children look affects their self-esteem, which in turn is a factor in how they learn, hence the clothing provided needs to be of reasonably good quality and modestly fashionable. Indeed, families often delay sending children to school until they can afford descent clothing for them. All of these factors have led to a decline in the programs budget over the last five years from $3.1 million to $1.2 million. (For more details see Bill Donovan, "Clothing Program Sees Cutbacks," The Navajo Times, at: http://www.thenavajotimes.com/, posted September 15). Indian-owned California Indian Museum and Cultural Center was dedicated in Santa Rosa, CA, in October. Last year, as part of its cultural preservation effort, the museum set up a Pomo language repository. The museum now offers the museum offers temporary displays, monthly lectures and research programs, as half of the projected $8 million for its completion has been raised, The project received a $2 million grant from the state Legislature and has funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as well as contributions from individuals and tribes. For details contact The California Indian Museum and Cultural Center 5250 Aero Drive, Santa Rosa, CA, 579-3004, or go to: http://tinyurl.com/az4yk.
International Indigenous Developments The United Nations Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the United Nations Department of Public Information invited indigenous young people around the world to participate in an art competition, reflecting their common effort to promote the mandate of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the role of the United Nations in improving indigenous lives on the ground. For information go to: http://tinyurl.com/arwfy. The UN celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day on August 9. The UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in August, sent a formal letter to the United States questioning why the U.S. was not respecting the sacred land and treaty rights of the Western Shoshone. Following demonstration and other pressure, involving NGOs such as the Rainforest Action Network, JPMorgan Chase, the second largest U.S. bank, announced in May that it was developing policies to promote sustainable forestry and indigenous people's rights, blocking funding used for illegal logging, and reducing its own and clients production of greenhouse gasses. Other banks are also joining in introducing green policies. HSBC has promised to reduce carbon emissions, while Bank of America has stated that it will not invest in logging in the world's most sensitive forests. Meanwhile, 30 major banks in the U.S. and Europe have signed on to the Equator Principles, "promoting responsible environmental stewardship and socially responsible development" by evaluating the risks that projects pose for forests, natural habitats and indigenous populations. The guidelines cover 80% of the world project financing market. Similarly, the World Bank financed Oil Pipeline project from Chad through Cameron to the Atlantic had to pass numerous environmental impact evaluations before approval, provided compensation and healthcare to local people whose lives an livelihoods were impacted by the construction, and included a trust fund to provide all Chadians a share of the profits. It is not only in the United States that recent natural disasters have inflicted great harm on indigenous as well as other people. This has also occurred elsewhere in the world, including from storms hitting Central America, and the earthquake in Pakistan and India. In Guatemala, in the central area of Santiago Atitlan, torrential rain on top of deforestation brought down the side of a mountain and buried a whole village. Hundreds more were killed at Tacana, about 12 miles from the Mexican border, while about another 100 communities were isolated by the floods. The storm is estimated to have killed hundreds more in San Marcos Department of Guatemala and more than 100 others in Mexico, Costa Rica and Honduras. An ancient Maya village of strongly rooted Tzutujil indigenous people lost perhaps as many as 800, engulfed by a swath of mud 20 feet deep and a half-mile wide During the summer, the Canadian federal government, in discussion with Aboriginal leaders, has been developing a plan, that it hopes to announce this fall, to bring living conditions of native people up to the Canadian average by 2015. Currently Canadians rank eighth on the United Nations Human Development Index, while the countries first nation people are 63rd. Plans have been developing with the first joint meetings in many years amongst the federal Indian Affairs Minister, aboriginal leaders and provincial and territorial ministers responsible for aboriginal affairs. Prime Minister Paul Martin has promised to announce major new spending for native people, with some of that money flowing through the provinces to get them more involved in areas such as aboriginal health care and education. This will involve some controversial adjustments to arrange satisfactory coordination and sharing of responsibility, without duplication of effort, as the federal government is constitutionally responsible for Indians and the education and health services Ottawa provides first nations duplicate those offered by the provinces. A major aspect of the need for new arrangements is that federal first nation services are provided on first nation reserves, while an increasing aboriginal population has been moving to off reserve urban areas. In June, the federal and provincial ministers established a committee to examine ways to measure progress toward equalization of living conditions. Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine put forward the 10-year target proposal at the June meeting, saying that closing the gap in 10 years is a goal that is a "challenging but achievable." He recommended that Ottawa, the provinces and aboriginal leaders meet every two years for progress updates. Indian Affairs Minister Andy Scott and B.C.'s Aboriginal Relations Minister, Tom Christensen, said there were no objections to that idea at the meeting. First nation and other critics were concerned, early in the summer, that a proposal to significantly limit water diversions from the Great Lakes falls far short of protecting Canada's limited supply of fresh water and excludes aboriginal rights to the watershed, The tentative agreement, released by the Ontario government , imposes limits on diversion projects in Ontario, Quebec and seven of the eight Great Lakes states, but environmental lawyer Steven Shrybman said the plan would allow U.S. states to unilaterally license water diversion without the consent of the provinces or Ottawa. First Nations in the Great Lakes areas were angry at being excluded from the decision making process, and passed a resolution to take "any and all means" to defend their claim, including filing a law suit. The draft proposal was sent out for 60 days of public consultations during the summer. The Canadian government withdrew support for bilingual education in Aboriginal communities throughout the Northern Territory in 1999. In 2005, only ten community schools provide this education that works to maintain language and culture. Lawsuits were filed against the Canadian government, in early September, by Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. on behalf of the Inuit of Nunavut, the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation from the northwest corner of the Northwest Territories and Makivik Corp. for Quebec's Inuit, to make sure that their effected members are part of the settlement of a law suite by Assembly of First Nations over abuse of some of their tribal members while attending boarding schools, as the Inuit were not part of the original suite. The government has stated that all who suffered abuse will be eligible to share in any settlement, whether or not they were originally parties to the suite. The government of British Columbia, in October, announced $100 million in allocations to a new ''First Nations New Relationship Fund'" "...to support initiatives to assist First Nations communities to be effective partners in consultations concerning the use of land and resources.'' The money will reportedly be targeted towards better preparing First Nations for treaty negotiations by training Aboriginal experts in forestry, mining and land-use planning. The funding is a follow up to the New Relationship document signed earlier this year by the province and its first nations. In Mexico, as the government tactics against the Zapatistas (EZLN) has shifted, during the last few years, from violent attacks by troops, police and paramilitary groups to aerial herbicide spraying and other ecological destruction, disruptive large scale development projects and land privatization, the EZLN has moved to a long term strategy of national and international outreach to build a national politics compatible with its goals, while spreading the movement for indigenous autonomy to other Mexican states. While the Zapatistas have attempted to improve their own economy with cooperatives, including some successful one's selling high quality specialized coffee directly to consumers and retail businesses abroad, land privatization by the Mexican government has threatened indigenous ways. A recent development, along this line, is a World Bank initiative in Oxoca, the Access to Land for Young Farmers Pilot Project, supporting landless young rural entrepreneurs with technical assistance and training to acquire or rent "underutilized and potentially more productive land." Ecuador experienced a shut down of its oil industry for two days, in mid-August, as a result of very strong demonstrations, at first demanding more of the oil revenue to go for local services, and then calling for nationalization of the nation's oil industry. Sufficient order was restored on the third day by the army and police to allow a beginning of a return to petroleum production, but the unrest continues to threaten the stability of the weak national government. Bolivia, following the replacing of its President with a caretaker head of state, saw its Congress set a date for new Presidential and Congressional Elections, on December 4, and authorize an assembly to rewrite the constitution and schedule a referendum on giving more autonomy to the countries regions. In Brazil, in September, Guarani of Yvy Katu were told by an appeals court that they can keep their land, from which they were evicted by landowners about thirty years ago, so that the official process of recognizing and protecting their land can continue. This followed violence on the tribe’s return, including a Guarani Indian being killed, on June 26, by gunmen hired by ranchers, only hours after he and his people had moved back on to the land from which they were evicted thirty years ago. About 70 Guajajara Indians in northern Brazil, enraged over the May 21 killing of a tribal elder, burned a bridge and isolated an island village where the suspected killers lived, and then burned 1,000 sacks of rice, ransacked farms and stole a pickup truck and a tractor. Police arrested one of two ranchers accused in the killing, on May 22 and stated the killing was triggered by a land dispute. On June 10, an elder Guajajara Indian leader was shot dead on 10 June by assassins believed to be working for the soya planters invading his land. Two Truká Indians were killed by gunfire, on 30, June by a police 'death squad'. Much logging has been made illegal in Brazil, but it continues in any case, including bringing serious harm to indigenous people, although some arrests for illegal logging have been made. The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (Organizacion Nacional Indigena de Colombia- ONIC), reported via Cultural Survival that, in a series of attacks from September 5-10, Colombian Armed Forces used live ammunition, grenades, tear gas, and clubs against peaceful indigenous protesters at the La Emperatriz estate in northern Cauca, Colombia, after the indigenous protestors refused to be evicted. According to the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC) and the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca (ACIN), residents reported that government forces blocked ambulances from removing the wounded and prevented health workers from treating the injured. An ACIN administrator who was trying to help a person wounded by grenade shrapnel was dragged from an ambulance, beaten, and arrested. Members of the Nasa indigenous group, from the Huellas reserve in the Caloto municipality, began their occupation of La Emperatriz on September 2 to reclaim their ancestral lands, demanding that the national government comply with a 1991 agreement in which it promised to allocate 15,600 acres to them, including La Emperatriz. The agreement was reached following a 1991 paramilitary massacre of 20 indigenous men, women, and children at the neighboring estate of El Nilo, but the government had returned only 9,000 acres to the Nasa, according to the Resource Center of the Americas. A second government attack on September 9 and 10 left 21 community members injured and 13 youths detained. Maximiliano Conda, the indigenous governor of the Huellas reserve was badly beaten and had to be hospitalized for head injuries. The attacks ended when indigenous authorities reached the local commander of the armed forces and negotiated the return of the detainees and medical care for injured protesters. The Nasa continued their land rights protest at La Emperatriz until September 13. when the Nasa met with Colombian government officials in Calí, at which Sabas Pretelt de la Vega, the Colombian Deputy Minister of the Interior and Justice, signed an agreement recognizing that the Colombian government had violated various land distribution treaties (the El Nilo Agreement of 1991, the La María Piendamó Agreement of 1995, the Novirao Act of 1996, the Conciliation Resolution of 1997, and President Ernesto Samper’s promise of 1998) with the Nasa. The government also committed to complete a study of the best methods for redistribution of arable land in the region to indigenous peoples. The Government of Venezuela is set to distribute 28 different indigenous language textbooks to indigenous schools throughout the country in the Currico, Guarikena, Yekuana, Piaroa, Vare, Pari, Yupka, Wayuú, Guarao and Kariña languages. The books being provided to the indigenous youth include dictionaries, grammar textbooks, beginning reading textbooks and other basic education books. The new administration in Bolivia, following the forcing out of the President by huge demonstrations by mostly Indigenous people, has set new general elections for December, while Congress has agreed to convene an assembly to rewrite the constitution and set a date for a referendum on it, in July. Proposed legislation that would reserve bandwidth for the Guatemala’s 250 indigenous community radio stations, the primary source of news and information for over half of the country’s 14 million people, speaking 24 different languages, had yet to pass the national congress, leaving the nation’s indigenous peoples at risk of being denied their right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through the media, as the government currently charges radio stations $28,000 for bandwidth, far more than sum community radio stations can pay that are operated by volunteers with their often two-to-five mile broadcast range. In the meantime, bandwidth is rapidly being bought up by commercial radio stations that broadcast only in Spanish and wealthy evangelical interest groups, neither of which addresses themes of concern to the Maya population. In 1996, the Guatemalan government signed peace accords that officially ended the 36-year civil war and guaranteed human rights protections, including access to local media and information, to all citizens, a necessity for a functioning democracy. Great Britain passed the 2004 Human Tissue Act, October 6, requiring British museums to return human remains less than 1000 years old to indigenous groups world wide, reversing the British Museum Act of 1964, which forbade any claims by indigenous groups on the artifacts in nine national museums and institutions. Under the Human Tissue Act, indigenous groups may file petitions to have artifacts returned. However, the petition must be weighed against the scientific usefulness of each individual piece. Survival International reported, on September 5, that the government of Botswana had sealed off the traditional home of Bushmen on the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and that wildlife guards were attempting to re-evict 200-250 of them at gun point, despite the on going Supreme Court case over the issue of the Bushman's right to live in the reserve. As of September 25, officials were trying to starve Bushman out of their homes on the reserve, while the leaders of the Bushman organization First People of the Kalahari have been arrested and imprisoned as their party of 28 Bushmen, tried to return to their ancestral homeland, the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, with food and other supplies for those cut off there. It was reported that in the settlements of Gugamma and Mothomelo, officials have been patrolling day and night with rifles and have been preventing residents from gathering the roots that they rely on for food and for their water supply, so that they would have to leave in a few days or die. During August the government: arrested more Bushmen for hunting to feed their families; barred the Bushmen's lawyers from entering the reserve to consult with their clients and prevented the Bushmen's own organization, First People of the Kalahari, from talking to those in the reserve. The radio authority has refused to renew radio licenses to Bushmen in the Reserve who were using community transmitters to contact each other, while the government is on the point of changing the country's constitution to remove existing protection. On September 29, five days after their leaders were arrested and beaten, First People of the Kalahari (FPK) won Sweden's Right Livelihood Award, known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize' (Further information on the award go to: www.rightlivelihood.org). For more information on the Bushmen go to: http://www.survival-international.org. In Darfur, where security has been inadequate with only a limited African Union force available, on September 28, 250 to 300 Janjaweed horsemen attacked the Aro Sharrow refugee camp and the neighboring village of Gosmeina, killing 34 men and burning 80 shelters housing between 4,000 to 5,000 people. The UN has since called for increased security within Sudanese borders, but no steps have yet been taken and aid agencies have temporarily suspended operations, reported UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland. The situation in Darfur has become increasingly complex and chaotic, with a growth of rebel groups, some fighting each other, and some cases of Janjaweed militia members, who the government has supported in ethnic cleansing, attacking government forces. or facilities. Cultural Survival reported, October 6, that the Anuak Justice Council (AJC) has publicly denounced the Ethiopian government's appointment of Omot Obang Olom as Governor of the Gambella Region. On October 4, the AJC stated that recent elections were rigged and described Olom as "the most despised of all Anuak." The AJC alleges that in December 2003, Olom provided the Ethiopian Government with an extensive list of Anuak intellectuals, 424 of whom were later killed by Ethiopian soldiers during an attack on Gambella. Thousands more Anuak fled the region and now live in exile in Sudan and Kenya. "They [Anuak Leaders] believe this man is capable of the unthinkable," the AJC said, and "that he could use the defense forces for a genocide of worse proportions than the one of December 13, 2003." According to a report by Genocide Watch, Ethiopian forces have killed as many as 2,500 Anuak since the massacre of 2003. For more information, contact Cultural Survival, 215 Prospect Street Cambridge, MA, 02139 (617)441.5400, culturalsurvival@cs.org, http://209.200.101.189/publications/win/. Following an attack by Indonesian soldiers, in July, members of the Lani tribe in Papua fled their village to hide in the jungle. One man was tortured and another two men were shot during the raid. Earlier this year, the army and police killed a tribal leader, a child, and an elder in the village of Nggweyage. They also burned down houses and churches. An estimated six and a half thousand people fled their villages. Too afraid to leave their hiding places, at least fifty died from starvation and disease. New Zealand’s ruling Labor Party, in early October, after considerable struggle to put together a loose coalition with minority parties to rule for a third term, having won a plurality, but not a majority, as it narrowly exceeded the National Party in votes and parliamentary seats in the September 17 general election, while the National Party was also seeking to put together a coalition. The final outcome is critical, as National Party Leader Don Brash stated, in September, that if his party won, that it would abolish the seven Maori seats in Parliament and end Maori specific programs, that he decries as race-based. As of October 12 no coalition had yet been formed, but it appeared that if National were to form a coalition, it would have to include the Maori representatives, who would block anti-Maori legislation. With Labor having put together a majority coalition of 61 of the 120 members of the parliament, the possibility of an anti-Maori National government has been avoided, for the time being. XX |
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