INDIAN AND INDIGENOUS DEVELOPMENTS

 

 

U.S. Developments

  The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe received a Bureau of Indian Affairs preliminary finding that the tribe has met all seven criteria required for federal recognition of a tribe, at the end of March. The decision is being followed by a 210-day public comment period. According to a court-supervised settlement agreement, the tribe will receive a final determination by March 31, 2007. In November, the BIA gave a preliminary finding that the Abenaki nation of Vermont had failed to show that it was a tribe, and was provisionally being denied recognition. More information is available at: www.atg.state.vt.us.

  The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs voted, March 29, to send Senate bill 2078, amending the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, to the full Senate, a move long resisted by many tribes because it opens IGRA to further unforeseen amendments on the Senate floor. The scope of the proposed bill was narrowed in response to concerns that requirements for NIGC to oversee all gaming related contracts could prove cumbersome to the conduct of daily business. As amended, 2078 would have NIGC oversee Class III gaming (where the majority of casino profits are found). Many tribes consider the provisions an incursion on tribal sovereignty. The bill would close the door on far-flung off-reservation gaming initiatives, while establishing a process for landless and recently recognized tribes to acquire land for gaming purposes in their ancestral areas. The process would include a consideration of gaming impact-mitigation measures, most probably meaning tribal payments to local communities. The committee failed to add an amendment by Sen. Daniel Inouye, (D-HI), that would have permitted tribes to sue states that refuse to negotiate with tribes on a gaming compact, as required by IGRA. Two other amendments won the committee's approval: one requiring tribes to inform tribal citizens of casino profits and the other extending to mid-April the deadline for gaming-lands applications under the about to be retired Interior Department's two-part determination test. The Interior test, requiring Interior findings that tribes will benefit from an off-reservation casino without detriment to the surrounding community, has come under withering criticism in Congress as an inducement to ''reservation shopping,'' the practice of searching far and wide for off-reservation casino lands that are more lucrative than reservation-based sites.

  A Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing, March 15, addressed amendments to the Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act, but much of the committee's questioning focused on the Indian Health Service (IHS)'s failure to apply provisions of the original legislation. In reply to questions about IHS disregarding provisions calling for an IHS-specific national registry of child abusers and regional family health centers, IHS Director, McSwain answered that ''in lieu of'' the registry, the IHS has become aggressive in its background checks of potential employees, and did not develop either a directory or the regional centers because of insufficient funding. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) stated that 40% of Indian health needs are unmet because Congress is burdening the IHS with unfunded mandates. Dorgan later added that health needs are increasing in Indian country, where child abuse is on the rise. Committee Chair, John McCain (R-AZ) linked the increase to methamphetamine use, which has become an epidemic in Indian country and much of rural America. A BIA official testified that the ''crystal meth'' crisis was one of the factors contributing to forms of child neglect on reservations that cannot always be prosecuted as a federal felony, as he urged the committee to add child neglect within Indian country to the list of federal offenses under the Major Crimes Act. James Burrus Jr., acting assistant director of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division, told the committee that Indian child physical abuse cases represented approximately one-third of all FBI investigations within Indian country between fiscal years 2003 and 2006. The vast majority of the 1658 physical abuse investigations involved Indian child sexual abuse. The research of Paul Steele, director of the Center for Justice Studies at Morehead State University, indicates that Indian child sexual abuse rates mirror the national pattern. In the overall field of child protection in Indian country, said Terry Cross, executive director of the National Indian Child Welfare Association, ''there is a fundamental problem with resources.'' Senate Bill 1899 seeks to remove barriers to the reduction of Indian child abuse, eliminate the ''system-induced trauma'' to children of abuse investigation procedures, and provide timely ''telemed,'' minimally invasive examinations of abuse victims. Steele testified in writing that, ''many concerns about child welfare are not with the [original] law as written, but with its implementation (or lack thereof).''

  In testimony in Congress, in April, Indian Health Service Deputy Director Robert McSwain stated that use of Meth on Indian reservations has grown steadily since 2000, with 1.7% using meth in 2004. McSwain said that reservation meth use is now a crisis that requires increased funding to overcome.

  In December, Congress passed, and the President signed, legislation extending the time limit for a tribal government to file a settlement claim to receive trust money owed it by the federal government by one year, to Dec. 31, 2006, before the statute of limitations runs out again. The funds, which are not government funds, are monies owed the tribes for lease, royalty, land sale and taken-land payments which were not properly paid because of alleged mismanagement by the Department of Interior over the past 100 years. For more information contact, e-mail info@gfomedia.com.

  An attempt by first-term Louisiana Republican Senator, David Vitter, to attach an Indian-specific amendment to national lobbying reform legislation has failed, for the time being, when on March 10, the bill's Republican-appointed floor manager, Trent Lott, declined to recognize him. On February 28, an amendment by Senator. Daniel Inouye, (D-Hawai), accepted by the Senate Rules Committee, had removed earlier Indian specific provisions from a lobbying reform bill. Inoyue’s probing in the Senate Indian Affairs Committee had shown that there were no Indian abuses of lobbying.

  The Senate, in late May, passed a bill making English the official national language, directing the government to "preserve and enhance" the role of English, without altering current laws that require some government documents and services be provided in other languages. Opponents, however, said it could negate executive orders, regulations, civil service guidances and other multilingual ordinances not officially sanctioned by acts of Congress.

  Reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (IHCIA), which would modernize health treatment and services available to Native Americans, was introduced in the House as H.R. 5312, in May 10 and is S. 1057 in the Senate. The revised IHCIA would enable Indian health care systems to catch, up with changes that have taken place in the health delivery system in the rest of the country, including providing home health and hospice care services. It would also shift the emphasis of health care in Indian Country from acute care to chronic care and prevention and would give greater attention to such problems as suicide and methamphetamine addiction, which require comprehensive behavioral change programs.

 
  Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) introduced a bill aimed at reducing Indian youth suicide, in March, the Youth Telemental Health Demonstration Project Act of 2006, which would establish a demonstration project with the use of telecommunications to assist in psychotherapy, provide education and counseling for individuals. The demonstration project would allow five tribal programs or organizations to apply for grants that would assist tribes in the fight against suicide among American Indian youth.

  The House Resources Committee passed a nonbinding resolution, Oct. 19, urging the Bush administration to uphold whaling rights guaranteed to the Makah Tribe under an 1855 treaty with the federal government.

  The Chiracahua Apaches have petitioned Congress to investigate the Skull and Bones Society at Yale University and return the remains of Chiricahua Apache warrior Geronimo for reburial. The online petition describes the desecration of Geronimo's grave in 1918 by members of the society, including President George W. Bush's grandfather, Sen. Prescott Bush.

  On Dec. 17, Congress sent President Bush an extension of the Violence Against Women Act that would increase funding for the landmark act. The President signed the bill. The Violence Against Women Act is aimed at curtailing domestic violence through funding for women’s shelters and law-enforcement training. The extension includes new provisions focused on health care, early intervention and outreach to American Indian women, among other areas.

 Hawaii Senator Daniel Akaka introduced the Native American Language Amendments Act, in April, to help ensure that Native families are never forced to relinquish their language or culture. Under his bill, the Secretary of Education would provide funds for the establishment of Native American language nests and language survival school programs. A nest is a language immersion program for the youngest members of a native population. The bill would also provide nests and survival schools with alternative methods of achieving national education standards. In October, Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and John McCain (R-AZ), introduced a bill to reauthorize the 1990 Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act, that would: Provide additional safeguards for the privacy of information about a child; Provide more involvement by the FBI and the Attorney General in documenting incidents of child abuse; Direct a study to identify ways to reduce child abuse in Indian Country, as well as require data collection and annual reporting to Congress on child abuse in Indian Country; And authorize the Indian Health Service (IHS) to use telemedicine in connection with examinations of abused Indian children; addresses the high rate of suicide among teens living on Indian reservations., by allowing professionals trained in suicide prevention and treatment to be included on the staff of Indian Child Resource and Family Services Centers, which the bill establishes in each BIA region.

  Proposed is House Resolution 76, "Recognizing and honoring the achievements and contributions of Native Americans of the United States and urging the establishment and observation of a paid legal public holiday in honor of Native Americans".

  A bi-partisan group of U.S Senators and Representatives, on May 2, introduced the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 (VRARA), which would the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for 40 years. Key provisions of the Act will expire in 2007, unless Congress votes to reauthorize them. Hearings on the act have begun in both the House and Senate. The act has been used to overturn districting found to be prejudicial to American Indians, including in recent decisions in South Dakota. For more information go to: http://www.naleo.org.

  BIA officials held hearings in Connecticut, on March 30, on proposed regulations to establish standards for lands to be taken into trust and used for gaming. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act states that lands acquired after the act was passed in 1988 generally cannot be used for gaming, with four exceptions for: newly recognized tribes, restored tribes, tribes located in Oklahoma with former reservations and tribes with land claim settlements. Each of the exceptions contains a number of further requirements. The BIA has about 13 applications pending for land into trust for gaming, some of which have been pending for more than six years, Indeed, only three tribes have completed the process since 1988. Participants at the consultation had various perspectives, but a proposal to require that more than 50 percent of a tribe's members live within 50 miles of an initial reservation was opposed by all the nations testifying.

  The Interior Board of Indian Appeals, in January, declined to accept an appeal filed by the Eastern Pequots in an attempt to reclaim their federal acknowledgement. The appeal was rejected on jurisdictional grounds, that the tribe is out of the BIA system.

  The ninth report of the Good Neighbor Environmental Board, a federal advisory body which includes Ned Norris, vice chairman of the Tohono O'odham Nation, on protection of places considered sacred by tribes living near the U.S./Mexico border, urged more consultation and funding to protect sacred places. The board found that ''The combined effect has sobering implications for efforts to maintain tribal cultural traditions.'' Currently threatened sacred places include Tecate Peak of the Kumeyaay along the California/Mexico border and the Baboquivari Mountains of the Tohono O'odham along the Arizona border. Foot traffic in the region is also damaging desert plants used in traditional basketry, including devil's claw and yucca. A proposed border fence creates additional threats to sacred places. Earlier, a congressional rider in a defense appropriations bill exempted the border fence from federal environmental laws in the Kumeyaay region. The board reported that the fence ''will destroy or cover an ancient La Jolla period archeological site, and will affect several endangered plant species,'' that Kumeyaay rely upon for medicine, clothing, basketry and food. Undocumented migrant traffic on the Tohono O'odham Nation in Arizona has destroyed sacred areas, burial grounds and interfered with traditional practices, including harm to the Baboquivari Mountains, home of the sacred being I'itoi. ''The increased number of undocumented migrants crossing border tribal lands, coupled with the increased border security efforts by the federal government, has resulted in greater violation of tribal sacred sites, burial grounds, and changes in traditional lifestyles,'' according to the board. Moreover, transportation emissions continue to damage air quality, increasing environmental concerns for the water and air along the border, including the region of the Kickapoo in Texas.

  The Environmental Protection Agency, recognizing the need for binational efforts along the U.S./Mexico border, awarded the University of Arizona in Tucson a $1.7 million grant for a project designed to build Mexico's academic capacity to protect borderland citizens and address health risks associated with arsenic and other metals from mining. EPA announced that research was being undertaken into the relationship of arsenic to diabetes and breast cancer, in this region, where Tohono O'odham experience the highest incidence of adult onset diabetes in the world. The EPA is also examining the long-term effects of heavy metals on children's health, landfill leachate plumes and mine tailings, as, ''Border communities, particularly children, have a higher incidence of health problems,'' said Wayne Nastri, EPA's regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest region. ''This program will increase U.S./Mexico collaboration so that each nation is better prepared to solve environmental and human health risks in the border region.'' The EPA awarded the university a $1.5 million grant to fund the U.S.-Mexico Binational Center for Environmental Science and Toxicology, which the state of Arizona is also funding with an additional $449,185. Training fellowships for Mexican doctoral students of environmental science, engineering and toxicology are planned, and the center is developing Spanish-language textbooks and information on environmental legislation, environmental engineering and science and environmental toxicology. The program will work directly with 10 Mexican universities to establish six doctoral programs and three post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Arizona. The university agreed to coordinate with the EPA and Mexico's environmental agency, SEMARNAT, to ensure that the center's workshops and educational materials meet Border 2012 cleanup goals. The U.S./Mexico Border 2012 program is a binational 10-year cooperative plan aimed at protecting public health and the environment along the 2,000-mile border region, where almost 12 million citizens of both countries live. The program focuses on decreasing air, water, waste and soil pollution, and lowering the risks of exposure to pesticides and other chemicals.

  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, at its eighth annual Environmental Awards ceremony, in May, honored for environmental excellence, American Indian tribes in the West, along the border and in Hawaii. The EPA also honored Sandi Tripp and Susan Corum of the Karuk Tribe of California, Department of Natural Resources, in Orleans, CA for coordinating the Karuk Tribe's role in discovering and providing a timely response to toxic algae blooms in the Klamath River, resulting in a comprehensive monitoring program. For more details go to: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=96412876.

  The U.S. Census Bureau is taking steps to make sure that in the 2010 count, American Indians are not substantially undercounted, as in past censuses. In March, the Census Bureau began a test project on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation, in South Dakota, testing new counting methods for use on reservations. The improved methods for Indians include an emphasis on door-to-door visits by enumerators, most of whom are reservation residents, rather than the mail form sent to most Americans. Tribal officials are encouraging residents to cooperate, because an accurate count ensures that each tribe gets all the federal aid it is entitled to receive for a number of programs.

  President Bush nominated Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne as Secretary of the Interior, and the Senate Approved the nomination in May. Kempthorne's leading political donors have been energy, mining and timber corporations, and during Kempthorne's first years as governor of Idaho, the Knight-Ridder news agency reported, toxic emissions in the state increased measurably at the same time they declined by close to 10% nationwide. Environmental inspections were minimal as he repeatedly cut the state's environmental budget, and he threatened to evict officials of the Environmental Protection Agency from Idaho altogether. Tribes in Idaho gave him mixed reviews in his dealings with them.

  A roundtable report released, in December, by the Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center, charges that the Indian Health Service (IHS)'s failure to properly train staff and provide enough forensic evidence to halt rapists from striking again is indirectly responsible for the high number of rapes in Indian country.

  A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, in February, found that available data from 2000 indicated that only 69% of American Indian households on tribal lands in the continental United States have telephones, and 87% in Alaskan native villages, far below the national average of 97.6%. No new data has been collected on the subject since, and there is no information about how many subscribe to the Internet. "Without current subscribership data, it is difficult to assess progress or the impact of federal programs to improve telecommunications on tribal lands." GAO investigators identified the Federal Communications Commission as the "best positioned" organization to determine what additional telecommunication services data needs to be collected, and urged Congress to give the FCC the authority to collect the data. FCC officials, responding to the report, agreed that more information is needed, but stated that other agencies are better suited to determine those economic and demographic data needs. Meanwhile, the Census Bureau is working on a new survey to provide more frequent data, but it will take time to produce findings and will not be available until 2010. The bureau does not collect information on the rate of Internet subscribership and has not included such a question in the new survey because it is not mandated by law. The report stated that tribes have been increasing phone and internet service by tapping into various federal grant programs, loans and other types of assistance, conducting long-range planning and establishing private-sector partnerships. To improve service, tribes must overcome several obstacles, including the "rural, rugged terrain," which can increase the cost of implementing telecommunications infrastructure, the report states, limited financial means, a shortage of technical expertise among members and difficulty obtaining rights-of-way to deploy telecommunications equipment across their lands. On the latter issue, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which approves actions including rights-of-way on Indian lands, was planning to issue an updated "Rights-of-Way Handbook," in March, to include advanced telecommunications infrastructure, according to the GAO report. Several tribes are also trying to streamline the process. The report also calls for Congress to consider amending the Communications Act of 1934 to allow tribal libraries to be eligible for federal funds so they can obtain Internet access.

  A GAO report, released in September, found that many government-funded Indian Health Service (IHS) facilities do not provide adequate behavioral health or specialty dental care. The agency also falls short in providing care for non-urgent conditions such as arthritis, allergies and chronic pain. "Most of the facilities we visited lacked the equipment necessary for certain ancillary services and had few medical specialists on site." The report stated that many American Indians and Native Alaskans do not have means of transportation and are not able to travel long distances to IHS facilities. Long wait times between the scheduling of an appointment and delivery of service are also cited as a problem. IHS service provides health care for American Indians and Alaska Natives in 35 states. Its annual budget is about $2.6 billion. Indian health care facilities "have varied in the health care services they provide for Native Americans, and in some cases this has adversely affected the ability of Native Americans to obtain needed services." GAO noted that Native Americans living in areas served by the IHS have shorter life spans than the U.S. population as a whole, and that diseases such as diabetes, as well as homicide and suicide, are also more prevalent among American Indians.

  The Lac du Flambeau Band of Chippewa of northern Wisconsin has again applied to the federal government for authority to set its own standards for keeping reservation waters free of pollution, which would allow the nation to set stricter clean water standards than under state laws.

  In early November, the Internal Revenue Service released previously suppressed portions of an internal IRS memo about its audits of tribal bonds that have resulted in charges that the IRS has treated tribal bonds in an arbitrary and prejudiced manner. A memo from the IRS Office of General Counsel to a field service team warned that it faced ''litigation hazards'' in its first tribal government bond review, an opinion indicating that the IRS team was likely to lose its case if it were taken to court, in an attempt to deny tax-exempt status for bonds issued to finance a tribal golf course. The controversy involves interpretation of ambiguous language in two bills from the 1980s meant to give tribes access to the tax-exempt bond market, which is a major source of state and local government financing. The statutes subjected tribes to restrictions not placed on other governments, limiting their bonds to the most part to ''essential government functions.'' But Congress failed to define these functions, saying only that the test should be what was ''customarily'' done by states and localities. The funding of golf courses has long been undertaken by local governments, including through the issue of municipal bonds, and more than 2600 state and local governments own golf courses. The IRS began an ''initiative'' to audit Indian nation bond issues in 2001, and 12 reviews of such bond issues were in progress in November. The IRS audit team has focused on two types of bonds, traditional tax-exempt issues for tribal economic development and ''conduit financing'' routed through neighboring non-Indian economic development agencies. Last fall, the IRS forced the Seminole Tribe of Florida to issue $750 million in taxable bonds to retire several series of tax-exempt bonds dating from 2002. It is still investigating the earlier bonds, which were issued on behalf of the tribe by a local development body, the Capital Trust Agency, created by two small Florida Panhandle towns. The IRS is auditing tribal bonds issued by the Cabazon Band of Cahuilla Indians to build a hotel and convention center. According to press reports, about 10 other tribes are under audit, half for conduit bonds and half for direct issues. None of the tribal tax audits has yet proceeded to the IRS appeals level (which is the last stage before going to court). It may be hard for the tribes to bring suit, since the burden of the IRS rulings technically falls on the bond holders, not the issuer. The publicity over the memo and an article in the Bond Buyer has intensified an on-going effort to replace the ''rule of thumb'' of the field team with a formal rule-making at senior levels of the IRS and the Treasury Department. This effort has included a letter from Representative J. D. Hayworth, (R-AZ) and a number of congressmen to Treasury Secretary John Snow. Indian tribes and groups are seeking IRS rule-making this year. Last year, a tribal coalition sought an amendment of federal law to put tribes on equal footing with states and localities. They succeeded in getting their language in an omnibus tax bill passed by the Senate, but opposition from Ways and Means Committee Chairman, William Thomas, (R-CA), led to its being deleted at the last minute.

 The Long-Term Growth and Debt Reduction subcommittee of Senate Finance Committee, on May 23, heard testimony about the tribal bond issue. Subcommittee chairman, Senator. Gordon Smith, (R-OR) promised to sponsor legislation that would put tribal governments on an equal bonding basis with state and local governments.

  The IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service, an internal review unit, charged, in a January report to Congress, that some 1.6 million poor people, including a large number of Native Americans, over the past five years were subjected to what it called an unfair and possibly illegal freeze on their refunds without receiving notice. Furthermore, said the report, the computer program that triggered the freeze also flagged the tax returns for future freezes, even though the majority of the claims turned out to be legitimate. The IRS action involved tax payers claiming earned income credit.

  The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in an ''Early Warning and Urgent Action Procedure'' has called for to the United States to halt what it finds to be the illegal seizure of Western Shoshone lands, finding that, ''The Committee has received credible information alleging that the Western Shoshone indigenous peoples are being denied their traditional rights to land, and that measures taken and even accelerated lately by the State party in relation to the status, use and occupation of these lands may cumulatively lead to irreparable harm to these communities,'' Western Shoshone National Council Chief Raymond Yowell praised a U.N. committee for intervening to halt the United States' seizure of Western Shoshone lands for nuclear underground testing, nuclear dumping and gold mining, while criticizing the United States for manipulating federal laws as it claims to champion international human rights.

  A report of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Alaska Native corporation contracting, released April 28, identified numerous lapses in the U.S. Small Business Administration's 8(a) contracting program for minority-owned and disadvantaged small businesses, as program growth has out grown oversight. Total 8(a) contract awards from federal agencies to Alaska Native corporations have grown from $265 million in fiscal year 2000 to $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2004, and SBA oversight of contract officers and acquisition specialists has not kept pace. Few of the GAO's numerous findings fault Alaska Native corporations. The vast majority of the 8(a) contracts were ''sole source'' awards from federal agencies, like NASA and the departments of Energy, Interior and Homeland Security.

  A GAO report, issued in April, stated that irrigation projects run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs need as much as $850 million for repairs, including $20 million for the Pine River Irrigation project serving the Southern Ute Tribe. The GAO report says many of the projects are badly managed. “In many cases, BIA officials with oversight authority lack expertise, while those with expertise lack authority,” The tribes have no part in the management of the 16 projects, which were begun in the 1880s to help bring Indians into the mainstream population.

  A group of 62 Democratic warned, in a May 1 letter to Representative Ralph Regula (R-OH), chairman of the education-related subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations in the House of Representatives, that an irrelevant Performance Assessment Rating Tool review judged the Even Start Family Literacy Program ineffective, causing the literacy program for low-income families funding on 20 reservations to lose funding. Under the PART review, put in place by the Bush Administration to evaluate federal programs, Even Start was judged by the number of participants who achieved general equivalency degrees (similar to high school diplomas), reciving a ''Results Not Demonstrated'' PART rating (along with 40 other Department of Education programs). But that measure has nothing to do with the program’s mission, which is to boost adult reading abilities. Lawmakers from the Congressional Native American Caucus are asking for restored funding of $225 million in fiscal year 2007 to the nationwide Even Start program. PART has been implemented under President George W. Bush as a means of measuring the effectiveness of federal programs. It consists of 30 uniform questions that are not designed around the laws that guide the programs PART measures. In the case of Even Start, the questions simply do not align with the underlying statute.

 The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has selected the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City center to undertake a four year study aimed at improving cancer screening and treatment for Utah's rural American Indians. The institute will focus on American Indians living in eleven tribal locations throughout Utah, and three tribal locations in north-central Montana, in an effort to overcome barriers to diagnosis and care. For information, Contact Carey Hamilton at chamilton@sltrib.com or 257-8605.

  The Indian Health Service signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Harvard Medical School, in March, to identify areas of collaboration to improve the health and wellness of American Indian and Alaska Native people and communities.

  Oregon Senator Smith hosted Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, for a summit with Oregon's tribal leaders, in October, to address issues of concern to Oregon's tribes and Indian organizations.

  In April, the BIA was holding hearings around the U.S. for comment on proposed rules it recently made public to put into effect the 2004 American Indian Probate Reform Act. The rules are scheduled to be finalized June 20. With the rules so complex that a book of them ways 2.7 pounds, many tribal leaders are complaining that they have not been given sufficient time to consider them and comment intelligently on regulations that will effect Native American inheritance from now on. For more information go to: http://tinyurl.com/fwycg

  U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced, during a late March visit to the Yakima Indian Reservation, that federal authorities plan to take reopen cold criminal cases in Indian country to see if new investigative tools or forensic evidence might solve them.

  At the end of April, Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) suggested as many as 20,000 unused Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers, purchased to meet Hurricane Katrina, but never used, be moved to Indian country for housing and school buildings.

 The Michigan Education Association, representing 33 of the schools teachers, the first to be represented by a union on a reservation, has filed complaints of unfair labor practices with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) against the award-winning Joseph K. Lumsden Bahweting Anishnabe Public School Academy, owned by the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians on their reservation. The Sault Tribe considers the union a threat to tribal sovereignty. On September 30, the tribe's board of directors unanimously passed a motion prohibiting the use of tribal dollars to support any unionized entity and discontinuing the lease on tribal properties where unionization occurs. The union's charges stem from the school administration's statements that the Board will never negotiate with the union, as well as threats to close the school, and allegations that the school illegally changed the teachers' long-standing working conditions, in retaliation for their recent vote to join MEA. In New Mexico, 22 Native American tribes employ staff in schools represented by unions.

  The Indigenous Democratic Network, INDN's List, celebrated its first anniversary, in Washington, DC, in March,, with more than 100 people in attendance, including elected tribal officials, labor union leaders, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean (D-VT) and DNC Vice Chairman and Representative Mike Honda (D-CA). Meanwhile, at least since December, the Democratic Party has been considering a change in the presidential primary schedule that could give greater weight to states with large Indian populations, according to the report of a special commission on presidential nominations, issued Dec. 10, calling for one or two additional early primaries to introduce more diversity into the first round of the Presidential campaign. Relevant to this, the recent Democratic National Committee’s fall meeting adopted a strong resolution supporting tribal sovereignty. DNC Chairman Howard Dean, who enjoyed strong Native American support in his run for the Presidential nomination in 2004, stated, ''We are serious about electing Indian candidates, empowering the people and changing the country. The DNC stands in solidarity with Indian Nations and reaffirms their tribal sovereignty.'' At its semi-annual meeting, December 3, the DNC passed a resolution written by executive committee member Frank LaMere (Winnebago) reflecting that Indians had delivered 85 percent of their votes to Democrats in the last four elections and secured ''several House and Senate seats for Democrats whose elections hinged on the Native American vote.'' ''Be it therefore resolved that the Democratic National Committee stands in solidarity with the Indian Nations and reaffirms [its] support for the exercise of tribal sovereignty and for tribal efforts to be self-sufficient.''
In addition, ''that federal laws, executive orders and regulations in this regard be honored and that the DNC continue to fight for the rights of Native people..."

  In March, the New Mexico Democratic Party Central Committee amended its bylaws, allowing the formation of an American Indian Caucus.

  In South Dakota, Bruce Whalen of Pine Ridge, Chairman of the Shannon County Republican Party, announced, in February, he was seeking the Republican nomination for the state's one U.S. House seat, to run against incumbent Democrat Stephanie Herseth. Former Arizona state representative Jack Jackson, Navajo, is seeking to be the Democratic candidate for Congress in Arizona's first Congressional District. In Minnesota, Irene Folstrom, a Leach Lake Ojibwe, is attempting to become the first Indian women elected to her state's legislature. The South Dakota June 6 primary election, for the first time, finds ten American Indian candidates vying for seats in the state Legislature. Two incumbents, state Senator Theresa Two Bulls, Oglala, and state Representative Thomas Van Norman, Cheyenne River Sioux, are unopposed. In the 2006 election, two Indian candidates are running for the Oklahoma House of Representatives: Chuck Hoskin, Cherokee, Democrat from Vinita, in District 6; and Scott Big Horse, Osage/Cherokee, Democrat from Pawhuska, in District 36. Patricia Lenzi (St. Regis Mohawk), a democrat, is running for district attorney of Yolo County, CA, where she serves as deputy district attorney.

  The Abramoff lobbying scandal is having some negative impact on public perceptions of Indian tribes with gaming. In November, the Alameda County, CA Community Food Bank turned away $3,000 from the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians, operators of the Casino San Pablo, several days after the food bank had broadcast a televised plea for donations. Lobbying by Wisconsin gaming nations has increased in recent years, with Democratic Governor Jim Doyle receiving most of the money over the last four years: $1.3 million, and some money going to other Democrats.

  The Yurok, Karuk, Hupa and Klamath tribes of California won a key victory, early this spring, in their battle over dams that have blocked salmon getting up a major river in California for decades, when the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service and other national wildlife agencies demanded that six dams on the Klamath river, in northern California, be demolished or have fish ladders put in place. The demands were presented during negotiations for PacifiCorp's application to renew its operating license for the dams. At the beginning of May, PacifiCorp filed an appeal to the Federal Agencies' mandate to construct ladders on the Klamath Dams, seeking instead to trap fall-run Chinook salmon at Iron Gate dam and drive them 80 miles to Klamath Falls, OR. With very weak salmon returns on the Klamath River, the filing has been made amid fisheries closures that will cost Oregon and California millions in economic losses. The PacifiCorp proposal does not include passage for coho and steelhead - put on the endangered species list as a result of plummeting salmon stocks - or lamprey eels, and many critics say that it will not be nearly as effective in transporting salmon as fish ladders. A federal energy commission will rule on the license to operate the dams next year, after ongoing talks with the tribes, farmers and Pacificorp are concluded.

  The Grand Ronde and Siletz Tribes entered into an economic partnership, in October, for the development of former BIA property near the Keizer, OR exit off of I-5. Technical requirements of the land transfer from the BIA may hinder the development, and Senator Smith plans on introducing legislation in the near future to allow the development to move forward unimpeded.

 

 

Federal Indian Budgets

  Having created a huge federal budget deficit (in the view of some critics, as a club to cut domestic spending), the Bush Administration's proposed FY2007 budget made heavy cuts in non-military programs, including for Native Americans, calling for elimination of 141 programs. Urban Indian health care was cut from the Indian Health Service (IHS) budget, by the White House. A number of Senators and Congressman of both parties made an effort to restore that funding. The President’s budget eliminated funding for 34 urban Indian nonprofit organizations providing health care services at 41 sites in the nation, serving 430,000 eligible Indian users. The White House said that it was proposing the urban Indian health cuts to preserve, and in some cases, increase reservation health funding.

  Indian Education funding was so seriously reduced by the White House that many reservation schools would be unable to operate, if Congress does not put back at least a significant portion of the reductions. The Bush administration eliminated the $16.4 million Johnson-O'Malley grant program, which reimburses public schools for teaching students who are members of federally recognized tribes. Covering about 500,000, or 93% of Indian students who attend public schools in 23 states, the Johnson O'Malley program directly helps Native students supporting schools with a commitment to meet Indian students' educational needs, including education in Indian culture and history, remedial instruction and retention programs, Indian students' summer-school classes, scholarships, college-admission test, and on line courses as well as personal needs such as books, eyeglasses and graduating Indian public school seniors' caps and gowns. The BIA $50 million school construction budget was targeted for elimination by the White House. Elementary, secondary and post-secondary education were reduced $16.3 million. Tribal Welfare assistance was slashed by $11 million. Indian Child Welfare funding was reduced by $742,000. Community Economic development was cut by $12.6 million. Also eliminated in the Bush 2007 budget were the Environmental Protection Agency $19 million Alaska Native Village Program and the $47 million for the Denali Commission.

  The Bush budget called for a number of Indian increases over FY2006, including: an additional $19 million to fully fund indirect costs in BIA-Tribal self-determination contracts at $151.7 million; increase of $124.5 million for the Indian Health Service, bringing it to $4 billion; and a raise of $25.4 million for land consolidation. The BIA Office of Education programs were increased by $9.1 million. The Office of Special Trustee was raised $21.7 million to $244.5 million.

  Overall, the BIA budget was reduced by $52.4 million by the Bush administration. One program remaining the same, despite steep increases in costs, was the Low Income energy Assistance Program. All Indian programs were cut by Bush in '07 compared to '06 by $65 million,

  In May, the House Appropriations Committee voted to restore the $33 million in funding for urban Indian health clinics, and the Johnson O'Malley Program funds for Fiscal Year 2007 at the $16.4 FY2006 level.. On May 18, The House passed the FY2007 Interior Budget, in late May, not only restoring the urban health cuts, but including additional IHS funding, particularly for expanding development of health facilities and for expansion of telehealth, which is especially important in rural areas where health services must cover large geographical areas, as on large reservations and in Alaska. There, the House added $19 million, brining the total for facilities construction to $36.7 million. By a 293-128 vote, the House passed Interior's fiscal year 2007 measure funding Indian programs at a total of $5.9 billion, $204 million above FY2006 levels and $62 million above the amount the White House requested. This included fully restoring $16.3 million to Johnson O'Malley reimbursement. The Bush administration had zeroed out the budgets for United Tribes Technical College in North Dakota and Crownpoint Institute in New Mexico. The House restored funding to both institutions of higher learning.

  For the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the House bill includes nearly $2 billion for the operation of Indian programs, an increase of $11.2 million increase over 2006 and $6.8 million above the Bush administration's request. The House commended the BIA for presenting its budget in a better format, but directed the agency to submit a report by December 31, explaining how money is being used at the central office in Washington, D.C., and at the regional offices. "The committee however, remains concerned about the amount of carryover monies in many of the accounts and about complaints from tribes that there was inadequate consultation with Tribes and tribal leaders during preparation of this year's budget," the report states. "The committee is also concerned that the process of making budgetary data available to tribes is inadequate." The Office of Special Trustee (OST), whose budget has grown considerably since the start of the Bush administration, is funded at $150 million. This represents a cut of $35 million to cut back historical accounting projects of individual Indian and tribal trust funds. The House again criticized the administration's decision to take money away from the BIA and spend it at OST. "The committee believes that these funds would have been better used to fund greatly needed health, law enforcement and education programs in Indian country," the report states.

  The Interior budget now goes to the Senate, which in recent years has shifted some Indian money from one program to another, but has not cut the total amount of Native American funding proposed by the House.

 

 

 

In the Courts

The U.S. Supreme Court

  On May 15, The U.S. Supreme court, with out comment, refused to here an appeal from the 2^nd Circuit that struck down the Cayuga Nation’s lad claim against the State of New York. Numerous experts on Indian law were surprised, as they considered the lower court opinion to contain many errors.

  The U.S. Supreme Court, December 5, refused to consider an appeal by Utah to restore a set of laws blocking a nuclear waste repository at the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals nullified the laws last year, saying Utah did not have authority to regulate nuclear waste.

  The Supreme Court, in Gonzales v. O. Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal, in February, upheld a lower court injunction against U.S. customs agents who had seized a shipment of a hallucinogenic tea, hosaca, brewed only from plants in the Amazon rain forest, destined for ceremonial use by members of a Brazilian Indian religious group. In writing his first indigenous freedom of religion opinion, Chief Justice Roberts stated that the Religious Freedom Restoration act of 1993 required the government to use the least restrictive means to further its interest in controlling the controlled substance.

  In November, the Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to tribal gaming in New York and to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

 

 

 

Lower Federal Courts

  On January 12, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on upheld a U.S. Forest Service order permitting the expansion of the Arizona Snowbowl ski area on the San Francisco Peaks, using recycled water to produce artificial snow, over the objection of the Navajo Nation and several other Arizona tribes who consider the mountain a major sacred site.

  The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a district court decision, ruling that the town of Martin, S.D., did in fact violate the Voting Rights Act by diluting voting districts that left American Indian voters without political power. The case was remanded to the district court to work out a redistricting plan.

  The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, on March 3, affirmed a district court ruling that it lacked jurisdiction to decide whether a 2003 election of the Meskwaki tribe, of Tama IA, that put a new council in power, was flawed, refusing to hear arguments that the tribe is being headed by an illegitimate government.

  A three judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in April that the Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma may reopen its Casino in downtown Kansas City, despite state objections, holding that the lower court, in ordering an injunction, had failed to give adequate notice to the nation and had misread an earlier decision by the appeals court. The Court also upheld a separate injunction preventing the Kansas government from enforcing its gaming laws on the Shriner Tract, location of the Wyandotte Casino, as this would violate tribal sovereignty. The status of that land, and the future of the Casino, remain undecided.

  The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled "en banc," in January, overturning a three judge circuit court panel, in August 2004, that a Montana Federal District Court judge was correct in deciding that the Flathead Indian Reservation had jurisdiction in a lawsuit bought by a non-tribal member claiming injury in an auto accident on the reservation.

  A three judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of appeals ruled, in November, that the Shivwits Band of Paiute have the right to place billboards on tribal land along a Utah highway, despite state objections that the signs violate the federal Highway Beautification Act, as the state failed to show sufficient interest in asserting its objection.

  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, January 6, upheld a district court decison throwing out a law suit that had delayed the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi from commencing development of the Four Winds Casino in New Buffalo, MI.

  On November 15, the U.S, Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sided with the government in one aspect of the Cobell Case, the Indian Trust Fund Case, ruling that it was unreasonable to require an historical accounting of the Indian Trust Funds, as it would likely take 2000 years, would likely cost $13 million and would still be incomplete.

  U.S. District Court judge Royce Lamberth, in February, ordered the Department of the Interior to pay attorneys' fees and expenses totaling more than $7 million, that have accumulated in the ongoing Cobell v. Norton trust fund case. The money will come out of BIA and Interior accounts, and will affect tribal programs. In April, the Justice Department asked the Circuit Court for the District of Columbia to remove District Court judge Royce Lamberth from the trust fund case, alleging that his decisions in the 10 year old case indicate bias.

  U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Platt bypassed the BIA's recognition process, administered by the Office of Federal Acknowledgment, and rejected opposition from the state of New York, several state agencies and the town of Southampton, in ruling that the state-recognized Shinnecock Indian Nation is a legitimate tribe in the eyes of federal courts. The decision, reflecting widespread judicial impatience with the long delays at the BIA, raised the hopes of two Connecticut tribes whose previous recognitions were recently reversed by the Interior Department. The decision also removes a possible barrier to the Shinnecock Nation’s land right suits. The tribe has filed one suit to reclaim land it said was illegally sold to a number of corporate entities around Southampton and has been contemplating an even broader suit against the town of Southampton.

 U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Charles Lettow, in December, denied a U.S. Justice Department motion to reconsider his earlier ruling that gave the descendants of the Loyalist Mdewakanton rights to land in Minnesota. The court also ruled that the federal government breached its trust obligations to the Loyalist Mdewakantons and their descendants when in a 1980 congressional act it put the land into trust for three federally recognized Dakota communities - Prairie Island, Shakopee and Lower Sioux. That act violated an 1886 contract signed by Mdewakanton leader John Bluestone, which gave that land to the Mdewakanton who were descendants of those who pledged loyalty to the United States in 1862. Previously the land was either assigned to individual loyalists or leased, with the proceeds from the lease paid to the loyalists. The loyalists seek to have the land and Mdewakanton tribal membership, with full political power, restored. Lease revenues that were given to groups other than the loyalist's lineal descendants constitutes a breach of the contractual agreement by the federal government, the plaintiffs argued. Today's lineal descendants want compensation for the lost revenues. The decision calls for those claims to be honored.

  U.S. District Court Judge Tena Campbell, in January, ordered the State of Utah to examine 50 years of records for the Navajo Trust Fund, to find $35 million in unaccounted for funds and interest. The fund was created by Congress in 1933, mandating that 37.5% of royalties from oil and gas exploration on the Navajo reservation be held by the state for Dine health, education and general welfare. If the state cannot find the money, it will have to pay the tribe.

  U.S. District Judge Jim Larry Hendren decided, in February, that federal prisoner Billy Joe Wolfe Jr. (Cherokee) had a right to have access to an Eagle feather for religious purposes, accepting most of a magistrates' report that said that the jail’s denying use of the feather was not reasonably related to the goal of jail security. The report noted that inmates were allowed toothbrushes and other items that could be used as weapons.

  A federal class action lawsuit was filed, in April, against the Department of Health and Human Services and the IHS, charging that the federal government breached its fiduciary duty and trust responsibility by failing to appropriately provide health care to the estimated 39,000 American Indians who live in the Detroit area. Although the suit is specific to the Detroit area, it will have significant impact on the populations of all urban areas

  The Saginaw Chippewa of Michigan brought suite in federal court, in December, against state officials, seeking sovereignty over about 200 square miles of central Michigan’s Isabella County, based on treaties from 1855 and 1864.

  A group of casino opponents brought suit in federal court, in January, against Interior Secretary Gale Norton and other federal officials, during January, to try to stop a nine-acre parcel in Buffalo, NY from becoming a Seneca casino. The suit contends Norton and other Interior Department and Gaming Commission officials evaded or misapplied laws governing the locating of Indian casinos, the environment and historic preservation when they approved casino plans negotiated by Gov. George Pataki and the New York tribe.

  44 Mohawks residing on the Akwesasne reservation straddling the U.S.-Canada border in northern New York State filed a class action suit in federal court, in late November, against General Motors Corp. and Alcoa Inc., contending that for years the firms have dumped polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, into the river that flows through their territory.

  In April, the chief of the Osage Nation of Oklahoma stated that the nation would bring suite to overturn an emergency rule signed by Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry intending to stop tribally licensed stores from selling cigarettes with the cheapest tax stamp, on the grounds that the orde violates the tribes compact with the state.

  The Western Shoshone Nation brought suite, in January, against the Union Pacific Railroad and eight other land holders, claiming the railroads stole the several million acres, granted as a right of way to the railroad, in violation of an 1860s treaty, with the U.S. government.

  A tribe of Western Shoshone has joined with non-Indian plaintiffs from Utah and filed suit in federal court in Las Vegas to stop the United States from detonating 700 tons of explosives at the Nevada Test Site, which is on ancestral Western Shoshone land. Western Shoshone and ''downwinders'' from Utah are seeking an immediate restraining order to prevent the planned ''Divine Strike'' explosion, which would release radioactive dust from previous nuclear tests into the environment.

  The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho nations and the federal government settled a law suit over federal mismanagement of the tribes’ mineral estates for failing to collect proper royalties from October 1973 – December 2000. The agreement led to a $10.5 million payout to tribal members, in April. The two nations sill hope to collect reimbursement for federal royalty mismanagement from 1916-1973.

 

 

 

State and Local Courts

  The Alaska Supreme Court ruled, in Adam v. Baker, in January, that a 2001 state Superior Court decision affirming the state's right to determine child support in a custody dispute involving the Native village of Northway was rightly decided.

  The California Court of Appeals for the 3rd District ruled unanimously, in March, in an Indian Child Welfare Act case that, federal law requires that. "all tribes, regardless of their Public Law 280 status, be able to accept transfer jurisdiction of ICWA cases from state courts," and the Karuk Tribe's request to transfer a child welfare case to its court must be honored over Siskiyou County's objection that the tribal court had not been "approved" by the Interior Department. For more details go to: http://www.indianz.com/News/2006/012914.asp.

  A three judge panel of the Idaho court of Appeals ruled, in November, that state authorities cannot prosecute a tribal member for possessing drugs on tribal land, even though the accused was arrested on a state highway within the reservation for possession after being stopped for a traffic violation.

  A Maine court ruled, in January, that the Passamaquoddy Tribal Council is not violating state law by holding closed-door negotiations with an Oklahoma-based company that hopes to build a liquefied natural gas terminal on tribal land in Washington County, because in making a business contract the Pleasant Point Reservation is acting as a corporation and not a municipality. Thus the tribal council is not violating the Maine Freedom of Access Act by keeping tribal members and the press out the meetings. The Bangor Daily News and The Quoddy Tides newspapers sued seeking access to tribal council meetings when the LNG facility was being discussed.

  The South Carolina Supreme Court, in April, upheld a lower court’s ruling that the Catawba Nation must pay the Rock Hill school district back fees for educating the tribe’s students. In 1993, the Catawba agreed to pay out-of-district fees to the school system instead of property taxes to compensate for money lost from the tax exempt status of the land. That deal also ended a dispute over 144,000 acres in York, Chester and Lancaster counties. A trial judge awarded the district $422,000 after it sued in 1999 to recover fees the tribe agreed to pay the district. A South Carolina state judge, in December, ordered the Catawba Nation to turn over financial records to a group of its members who claim the tribe’s leaders have misused money. The members who sued to get access to the records complained that Chief Gilbert Blue and the tribe’s executive committee have not held regular elections and hold office illegally. The group also says leaders have misused money from the 1993 settlement. Master-in-equity Judge Jack Kimball ordered that the tribe turn over records on $45 million of the $50 million received in the settlement, several federal grants and revenue from the Catawba Bingo operation in Rock Hill, which opened in 1997. In January, a South Carolina judge upheld his earlier ruling allowing the Catawba Nation to operate video poker on their reservation despite a state wide ban on such games.

  The American Dental Association has brought suit in Alaska Superior court to stop eight dental therapists, who trained in New Zealand, from cleaning, drilling, filling and pulling teeth in Rural Alaska, including in Alaska Native villages, on the grounds that they are not qualified dentists. The Alaska Tribal Health Consortium asserts that it is providing the best dental care possible by hiring dental therapists, as it is virtually impossible to find dentists or oral hygienists in rural Alaska, where the dental decay rate is 2.5 times the national average.

 

 

 

Tribal Courts

  The Cherokee Supreme Court, in March, recognized descendents of Black freedman who joined the nation as tribal members, partially overturning a 1992 tribal council enactment limiting citizenship to those who are "Cherokee by Blood." Later in March, a Creek Nation Tribal Court ruled that two descendents of freedmen had been denied due process in having their applications for tribal membership refused, 20 years ago. The decision could lead to some freedmen descendents becoming tribal members, if they had applied for membership before Creek (Muscogee) membership rules were changed in 2001.

  Cherokee citizens Kathy Reynolds and Dawn McKinley, a lesbian couple won a round in tribal court in a fight to have their same-sex union recognized by the Cherokee Nation, in January, when the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court ruled that a group of tribal councilors lacked standing to bring a case against them.

  Three fired female Standing Rock Sioux judges are suing the tribal chairman and Tribal Council, alleging sex discrimination, wrongful discharge, contract interference, conspiracy, breach of contract and violation of a tribal court order.
Lorrie Miner, Lola Agard and Leslie Temple-Gipp had been told weeks earlier, in a memo signed by Tribal Chairman Ron His Horse Is Thunder, that they did not have authorized contracts and would not be paid after March 17.

 

 

 

States, Localities, and Indian Nations

  The Regional Council of the Southern California Association (SCAG) of Governments proposed an amendment to its bylaws, March 2, that invite the 17 federally-recognized tribal governments in the SCAG region to participate in the organization at various planning and policy-making levels. The proposed amendments are to be considered by the SCAG General Assembly at its May meeting. The proposal calls for a new Tribal Government Regional Planning Board to be created by the region’s federally recognized tribal governments, which would select tribal council members to sit on SCAG's policy committees and would elect one voting representative to the SCAG Regional Council and Administration Committee. Tribal governments would also participate in the SCAG General Assembly as advisory members. California Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 59, proposed in November, recognized the month of November 2005 as California Native American Indian History Month.

  The New Mexico Legislature has passed, unanimously, Senate Bill 579, sponsored by Sen. Leonard Tsosie, D-Crown Point, a to fast track state-funded improvement projects in Navajo chapters within the state. The measure allows the state to bypass the Navajo tribal government and work directly with chapters to fund capital outlay projects such as water and power service, roads and other bricks-and-mortar improvements. The streamlined process is intended to prevent the continued loss of millions of dollars a year allocated for Navajo chapter projects, because lengthy bureaucratic processes were often unable to spend money within required time limits.

  A report, released in March, by the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee on implementation of the New Mexico Indian Education Act of 2003 to address what are considered unique educational needs of Indian children, stated that little headway has been made because that the task of improving Indian education is too great compared to the money and personnel dedicated to that effort. The central purposes of the legislation were to provide culturally relevant learning environments, improve the maintenance of the children's native languages and to attract and retain more Indian teachers. The report found: There is no blueprint detailing how the department intends to fulfill the act's goals; School districts with large numbers of Indian students have a disproportionately high number of less experienced, less qualified teachers. A $500,000 request for a comprehensive study of Indian education was reduced to $250,000 during the recent legislative session.

  Legislation passed by Hawaii, in February, would allow Native Hawaiian and other families to take home Placenta for burial after birth, following ancient tradition.

  The Indiana Native Affairs Commission, after three years of being dormant, finally had all of its members appointed by Governor Daniels and held is first meeting, March 30. Where the old commission was part of the Department of Natural Resources, the new commission is designed to work on a broader range of issues, including employment and education. The inaugural Chairperson is Miami Nation of Indiana chief Brian Buchanan.

  The University of Colorado Committee investigating allegations of alleged academic misconduct on the part of Ethnic Studies Professor Ward Churchill reported, in May, that it found him to have been guilty of several acts of academic misconduct, but divided on the action appropriate to be taken against him, with three committee members finding the misconduct sufficiently serious to warrant revocation of tenure and dismissal from the faculty, and two committee members not finding the misconduct to be that serious. Complete and summary versions of the report are available at: http://tinyurl.com/q7jku.

  The Wyoming Senate unanimously approved a proposed constitutional amendment, Feb. 21 that would allow the Legislature to directly appropriate money to the state's American Indian tribes, and the measure advanced to the House. State money to tribal programs would no longer have to go through state agencies.

 An Arkansas Legislature Committee, in October, voted against state recognition of tribes, fearing that doing so could be a step toward Indian gaming, which the panel opposed.

  The Chippewa Cree Tribe of Montana, in December, signed a 10 year agreement with the state to increase the tax on a pack of cigarettes by about $1.15, bringing it in line with the state’s rate. The state will collect the tax from the wholesale distributor and return it to the tribe once every three months. The money is to be used to repay the Rocky Boy Reservation’s deficit to Contract Health Services, a program that covers the off-reservation cost of medical care for tribal members. Rocky Boy gave control of the program back to the federal government after accumulating a $3.7 million deficit. Under a previous agreement, the tribe was allotted 18,000 cartons of cigarettes without paying state tax. The tribe raised its tobacco tax from 5 cents a pack to 55 cents in January, at the same time the state’s tax increased from $1 to $1.70.

  Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal announced, in April, that the state and the Eastern Shoshone Tribe have entered into a gaming compact that would allow the tribe to operate a casino on the Wind River Reservation, which could have slot machines, black jack, craps, roulette, wagering games and electronic versions of any game of chance are all allowed under the compact. The agreement grants the Shoshone the same authority over gaming on the reservation as the Northern Arapaho Tribe, which went through a lengthy legal fight with the state to gain the authority.

  The Coeur d'Alene tribal council and Kootenai County, WA commissioners, with a long history of intergovernmental cooperation, including cross deputation of police, met in January to discuss public safety and how to mitigate the ongoing problem of inadequate correctional facilities. In planning for the next three to five years, one of the decisions concluded was that the tribe should build a new justice center with a correctional facility, as its current one is quite old and the tribe has no jail, and the northern part of the reservation is in Kootenai County, whose jail is so overcrowded that some prisoners also have to be transported to other facilities. It was agreed that the Coeur d'Alene Tribe would submit an appropriations request to Senators Mike Crapo and Larry Craig, and Congressman Mike Simpson for $25 million for the new facility, that would take in inmates from overcrowded jurisdictions who have already gone through the trial process and been sentenced. This will cut down the costs of transporting them to hearings and trials. The nation plans to work with the federal Bureau of Justice to make sure each part of the plans is up to federal standards In December, T\the Coeur d'Alene Tribe presented two vehicles to the Shoshone County Sheriff's Department, as a gesture to establish good relations between the two law enforcement agencies. On, Jauary. 13, the Colville Confederated Tribes, of Washington, opening of a new correctional facility, marking the first time in many years that the tribe has had its own facility.

  Three Affiliated Tribes Chairman Tex Hall says the tribes and western North Dakota generally are being overlooked in plans, approved by the State Water Commission, to pipe Missouri River water to the Red River Valley in times of drought. Hall stated, ''Nobody's talked to us [about the Red River plan], so we don't know how much water would be diverted.''

  The Southern Ute Indian Tribal Information Services Department, building upon inter-agency cooperation and coordination begun under the Design Program, in 2000, called a meeting of Southern Ute and La Plata County, CO social service agencies, in February, to renew and expand a 2003 memorandum of understanding, including bringing in the Mental Health Center as a collaborator. The meeting focused on working together as a consistent policy, the need to create a service directory, and the desire of non-tribal entities to increase tribal awareness of efforts to create a La Plata County Health District.

  The Oklahoma Supreme Court, in cooperation with the Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission, Sovereignty Symposium Inc., and the Oklahoma Arts Council put on the 19th annual Sovereignty Symposium, May 31-June 1, in Oklahoma City, OK. For information go to http://www.oscn.net.

 The City of Oneida, in March, accepted a $5 million payment from the Oneida Indian Nation to cover delinquent taxes and end the city’s efforts to take title to nation land. Mayor Leo Matzke and Oneida Representative Ray Halbritter said the payment covers city taxes since 1986 and will be shared among the city, county and three school districts. In addition, the nation has agreed to pay future taxes at a frozen assessment rate. The Common Council has approved the agreement. The money was deposited it in the city’s general fund. “This agreement demonstrates that all of these issues can be resolved if people want to resolve them. The City of Oneida has shown that leadership is not just about choosing sides. It is about bringing sides together,” the tribe stated. The nation has offered $20 million to settle with Madison and Oneida counties, but county officials said the offer is $14 million short of what they are owed in taxes, penalties and interest.

  County police from the Suffolk Sheriff New York’s Department set up a police blockade on Dec. 8, warning purchasers of cigarettes from four Long Island reservation smoke shops that they faced arrest upon leaving the 55 acre reservation on the end of Long Island. Chief Harry Wallace called the police presence harassment and an assault on tribal sovereignty over one of the main sources of income for the small tribe. Wallace also questioned the role of county police officers rather than state authorities. “We have always negotiated these issues directly with New York officials in the past,” said Wallace, who noted that officers were continuing to travel in groups on reservation roads and pass out flyers he said contained false information about the purchase of tobacco products from the Poospatuck Reservation stores.

  Race relations between the city of Farmington and Native Americans have improved significantly over the past three decades, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission said, according to "The Farmington Report: Civil Rights for Native Americans 30 Years Later," in January. The commission credited Farmington leaders, particularly Farmington Mayor Bill Standley, for “promoting positive relationships with Native Americans and the Navajo Nation.” Farmington City Manager Bob Hudson said the city has continued to strive to improve its relations with the Indian community, reaching out to Native Americans and working with business leaders in the city to change attitudes. He stated that the work has not been easy and the city still has a ways to go before it will be able to change the image that some older Native Americans have about the Farmington. During the 1970s, Farmington was known for the worst race relations of any community bordering the Navajo Nation. Many Navajos refused to shop there, saying they could feel the hatred of white businessmen who didn’t want them there. Duane “Chili” Yazzie, Shiprock Chapter president, who was among the young Navajos who participated in demonstrations and marches in Farmington during that period, says attitudes among city leaders and the Farmington business community have “generally” changed, saying, “Racism is alive in every culture in the world,” but Farmington has made gains in removing some of the more obvious forms of discrimination that were present in the 1970s.The Civil Rights Commission report also acknowledged the work that San Juan College has done to improve relations. The Commission indicated several areas in which Farmington needs to make further efforts. For example, there still is no Native American on the city council, although Native Americans now make up close to 20% of the population. A part of this is that Many Indians in the city are not registered to vote, and without those votes Native American candidates have not fared well when they do run – suggesting that white residents still are not ready to vote for a Native American candidate. In addition, the commission report said relations between the Native American community and the Farmington Police Department also need attention. The arrest rate for Native Americans continues to be far higher than for non-Indians. City manager Hudson said that the problem there is not skin color but alcohol. “Alcohol abuse is tied to crime,” he said. “We have taken a very proactive stance in urging alternatives to arrest and detention if they have an alcohol problem.” Where an offense is not violent, he said that the city prefers to work with alcoholics through its social welfare programs, rather than jailing them. Consumer discrimination led the commission’s list of other issues needing attention, including predatory lending practices, payday loans, excessive interest rates and other deceptive sales practices. The New Mexico Legislature and Attorney General Patricia Madrid have been discussing regulations that would cap interest rates, which now surpass 400% year on payday loans. Hudson said Farmington supports these efforts and added that if the state doesn’t do anything, the city is looking at adopting its own regulations to control loan sharks. In other areas, consumer discrimination against Indians is down and employment opportunities are up for Native Americans in Farmington,

  The Blackfeet Nation or Montana put on a conference on racism in reservation boarder towns in the state, in Missoula, MT in April.

  A commission formed two years ago by the South Dakota Supreme Court to investigate equal justice issues released its final report with recommendations for the state's judiciary, law enforcement and other agencies. Testimony from individuals who perceived unfair treatment of American Indians and other minorities made up the bulk of the report, which concluded that, ''Perceptions we heard from many minority people have an undeniable basis in reality.'' Minority individuals have long held that they are charged with crimes where non-minorities are not, and that as minority people, they are treated unfairly in the system, while many court personnel claimed in testimony before the commission that minorities are fairly treated. Some perceptions cannot be proven by data, as the state collects very little data. Thus, the report recommended that data be collected to document the racial makeup of everyone stopped by law enforcement officers and the reasons why they were stopped. In prior years, bills addressing this issue have been proposed in the state Legislature, but were either altered to minimize their impact or killed in committee. The report found that, ''Further research is required to fully understand the impact of minority status at each step in the criminal justice process, including arrest, charging, bail, appointment of counsel, plea negotiation, and sentencing,'' though it is already known that American Indians are over-represented in South Dakota's prisons. The commission pointed out that South Dakota, although low in numbers of non-American Indian minority groups, is becoming more diversified. The report noted that the courts, are the most visible societal example of racial and ethnic fairness, ''or lack thereof, in the state.'' ''An impartial system of justice should be as diverse as the people it serves.'' The report stated that minorities are underrepresented among employees at every level of the judicial system and within the Department of Corrections, including lawyers, law enforcement officers, social service workers, mental health workers, among others. Moreover, many attorneys in the state lack cross-cultural training and are perceived by minorities as being ignorant of most cultures. Therefore, it was recommended that a question about Indian law be placed on the state bar exam and that some cultural competency training be included for those within the judicial system. The report found that attorneys, especially in rural areas, provide inadequate legal service to minority clients. The report proposed that a minimum of two to three credit hours in American Indian culture and history be taught in the state colleges and universities as a requirement toward graduation. The commission also found that grand and petit juries in South Dakota rarely reflect the makeup of the community with a lack of minority participants. Some cultural beliefs do not allow a person to serve, the report noted. In the American Indian community, ''family'' is defined differently than in the non-Indian, or white, community. For example, when a potential juror is asked if a defendant or plaintiff is a relative, most likely the answer would be yes - even though that person may be a very distant relative, several times removed, by non-Indian definition. The person is then excused from the jury panel. The report also stated that American Indians perceive that they are stopped more frequently while driving than any other group, that they are more frequently charged with criminal activity and are more often coerced or encouraged to plea-bargain, even when innocent. The commission stated, ''Without thorough understanding and appreciation of cultural differences and how those differences shape encounters with the judicial system, there will continue to be mistrust and negative perceptions among the minority people our judicial system serves.''

  Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal met separately with Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone leaders, December 2, to improve tribal-state relations. It was agreed to improve communication, during a cordial but candid discussion. Among the topics discussed were gambling, severance taxes and sovereignty.

  The Southern Ute Tribe of Colorado, in March, sent a letter to the Water Quality control Division of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment requesting that it issue a cease and desist order on all new construction and issuance of building permits in the town of Bayfield, adjacent to the reservation, until the town has expanded it water treatment plant or build a new one. The nation states that the Bayfield water treatment plant has reached or exceeded its capacity and is releasing pollutants into the Los Pinios River 1.2 miles above the intake pipe for the tribes water supply.

  The leader of the Gila River Indian Community said, in December, that tribal members remain opposed to putting the South Mountain Freeway on its reservation because of the noise, pollution and distrust. Governor. Richard Narcia cited cases in which the Phoenix, AZ Department of Transportation and other entities have broken agreements or treated the community disrespectfully or failed to consult the nation before making decisions that impact it. He stated that a string of broken promises is one reason the community passed a 2001 resolution opposing any freeway on the reservation. In the 1980s, the community had tried to get a freeway but was turned down by the state.

  Supporters of an effort to declare the Lost Cherokee of Arkansas a state-recognized Indian tribe lost a second try to get their measure on November’s ballot, in February, when Arkansas Attorney General Mike Beebe rejected the language of the group’s revised proposal, saying it still does not get around the fact that neither the U.S. nor the Arkansas constitution gives the state’s voters the power to recognize an Indian tribe.

  The city of Santa Fe, NM and Tesuque Pueblo have reached a compromise that will allow the city to move ahead to build a new convention center. Under the deal announced Dec. 15, any remains and artifacts unearthed will be reburied on the site. The underground parking garage also will have 88 fewer spaces so that fewer human remains will be excavated.

  A Zogby poll indicates that New York voters oppose New York State Attorney General Elliot Spittzer’s attempt to collect sales taxes on Indian reservations. The survey, released March 1, found that 79% of respondents overall backed Gov. Pataki's tax delay. A roughly equal number, 78%, agreed that the Legislature should suspend enforcement. The survey question contained a qualifying phrase that the purpose of the delay was ''to give a federally recognized Indian nation time to file a federal suit,'' but other responses indicated more general support for the tribes. An overall 65% disagreed that the state should ''begin to attempt to collect sales taxes on items sold on Indian reservations.'' To the contrary, 78% agreed that state and federal governments should honor the 1842 treaty with the Seneca Nation that guarantees freedom of Seneca lands from all taxes.

  The Prairie Island Sioux Community continues its search for a location to dump nuclear waste that has been sitting in dry casks just yards from the community, where they were first placed on a dock at the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant (then owned by Northern States Power Co.).The community has objected, gone to court and eventually worked out compromises with the state Legislature and NSP, but the dry casks remain there, a threat to thousands of lives.

  The Wisconsin superintendent of education sent a letter to all school administrators in the state, in January, urging them to begin a process with their communities that he hoped would lead to dropping American Indian mascots.

  The Southwest Region of PeaceWeb (based in Tucson, AZ) partnered with the Tohono O'odham Nation Justice Center, in March, to put on a 3-day Peacemaking Circles Training for Arizona Tribal Court System, in Tucson, in March, under a mini-grant from the Victim Offender Mediation Association (VOMA). The trainers for this program, Terry Anfinson and Stephanie Autumn, both have extensive experience working with and for Native American tribes in Minnesota and in using indigenous-based restorative justice practices, including sentencing circles and family group conferences. The training is intended to facilitate tribal courts in Arizona to design and implement Peacemaking Circles within their justice systems. For more information contact: Genevieve Porter, Tohono O'odham Justice Center (520)383-6318 or Ann Yellott, PeaceWeb Southwest, (520)670-1541, azyellott@aol.com.

  Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa court director Dale W. Brien has developed a courts record data base system for improving the work of tribal justice systems. Simply by reorganizing paper work, including removing already closed cases from open files, he was able to reduce the tribes backlog of cases from an official 1200 to an actual 200, making it much easier to plan and undertake work.

  Following the death of an Indian man in police custody in Duluth Minnesota, in October, tribal community members and others have been calling for a police community review board, to insure proper operations and build trust in the municipality.

  In late May, New Mexico and Navajo Nation were finalizing an agreement legalizing Navajo home sites on state land in the checkerboard area of the reservation, opening the way for them to receive running water, electricity and other utilities and services.

  The Arizona Department of Commerce met with leaders of the state's Indian nations, in February, for a work session on planning the state's economic development, including the 'moving Arizona Forward Strategies for Success' initiative.

  South Carolina recognized three additional tribes early this year: Pee Dee Indians of South Carolina, The Beaver Creek Indians and the Santee Indian Organization.

  The California State Historic Resources Commission meet, May 5, to consider the Nomination of Rattlesnake Island, the most sacred place of the Elem Indian Colony, to the National Register of Historic Places. For more information go to the Elem Indian Colony website: www.elemnation.com (click on Rattlesnake Island).

  California Assembly Committee on Education Chair, Jackie Goldberg, has introduced two bills on American Indian education, AB 2665 would establish the American Indian Education Commission comprised of both tribal and state stakeholders. The commission is intended to provide a platform to identify needs in American Indian education based on empirical data and, subsequently, develop comprehensive American Indian education policy. Goldberg says, "American Indians currently do not have a seat at the table relative to state education and this would provide several". AB 2666 provides that a higher education student who can demonstrate membership in a tribal entity would be entitled to resident classification for purposes of fees. Goldberg comments, "Peer support networks for American Indians on university campuses are suffering because of record lows in Indian enrollment, thus retention programs cannot meet their goals. The nonresident fee waiver seeks to partially build-up campus Indian communities so that California Indian students, and non-California Indian students will have a peer support network to help them navigate their way through our universities".

  When the state of South Dakota passed HB1215, banning all abortions in the state with no exceptions for rape or incest, virtually shutting down the only Planned Parenthood clinic in South Dakota, Oglala Sioux Chairwoman Cecelia Fire Thunder suggested that one be located on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation which would not be subject to the laws of the state of South Dakota.

  California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been attempting to improve relations with the state’s Indian nations and people, having angered the tribes during his election campaign, by calling them special interests, accusing them of ripping off the state and pressuring them into signing new compacts. The governor made personal phone calls to the leaders of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, in May, Schwarzenegger is planning to meet with the California Nations Indian Gaming Association (CNIGA), the state's largest inter-tribal organization, and the Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations. CNIGA members have opposed many of Schwarzenegger's policies.

 

 

Tribal Developments

  Banishment of tribal members, in various forms, including disenrolment, is growing across the U.S. for various causes, but by far the largest reason continues to be economic, while voicing opposition to political leaders is a leading cause, in many instances where there are either no tribal courts, or courts are not independent. In March, the Pechanga tribe's ejected about 90 descendents of Paulina Hunter, bringing the number of banished tribal members to more than 220. In February, about a dozen dissenting members of the Meskwaki Tribal Council, on the losing side in a dispute that shut down the nation's Tama, IA gaming facility in 2003, said that they were being denied their share of gaming profits ($2000 a month per capita payments) and feared banishment. In March, the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribal Council voted to banish members convicted of a second (temporary banishment) or third (permanent banishment) serious criminal offense. The Narragansett Tribe of Rhode Island banished the Champlain family, supposedly for failing to provide documents proving membership, family members say weeks after one of them raised questions of how the tribe had spent $1 million it received from Harrah’s entertainment.

  As of July 2005, at least a dozen Indian nations were using drug courts, as alternatives to taking drug case to the regular courts, and 30 more tribes were planning to begin the program supported by the Drug Courts Program Office (DCPO) in the U.S. Department of Justice. Tribal drug courts function consistently with culture of the particular nation, allowing the offender to confront his/her substance abuse problem and undergo appropriate rehabilitation in an intensely supervised setting. The program is described in the DCPO booklet, "Healing to Wellness Courts: A Preliminary Overview of the Tribal Drug Courts" (and reported in Beth Sandvestian, "Southern Ute ‘Tuncai’ Court a Success Story," Southern Ute Drum, July 8, 2005).

  In December, more than 100 Indian Tribes across the U.S. coordinated two weeks of DWI sweeps, reaffirming their seriousness about curbing alcohol abuse. More than 1000 Native Americans died in traffic accidents in 2004, 80% of which involved alcohol. The end of a federal law enforcement grant caused the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota to let go half of its police officers.

  Results from the National Health Interview Survey show that American Indians and Alaska Natives have the highest age-adjusted rate of diabetes of any ethnic group in the world. In 2000 this rate was 18.8%, with non-Hispanic blacks at 15.0%, Hispanics at 13.6% and non-Hispanic whites at 7.4%. The Pima tribe has a staggering 50% of their Tribal members afflicted with diabetes. For more information go to: www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis.htm or http://www.diabetes.org/home.jsp.

  The Census bureau released its annual report of Indian conditions, In November, saying that, on average from 2001 to 2004, 24% of American Indians and Alaska Natives lived in poverty, 29% had no heath insurance, 24% above 16 years of age work in management, 76% 25 years of age and older have high school diplomas and 14% college degrees, while 60%, owned homes (10% below the national average). Native entrepreneurship continues to rise, with 206,000 native owned businesses identified as of 2002, 186,000 of which had only a single employee. Native businesses grossed $26.4 billion in 2002, with the 25,000 firms with more than one employee gaining $21.2 billion, or $85,000 per firm. In order of rank, as of July 2004, California's Native population was 687,400, Oklahoma's 398,200, Arizona's 322,200, adding the most Natives over the prior year: 6,400. Florida added the second most: 5,300 followed by Texas: 4,500. Los Angeles County continued to have the most indigenous people: 153,000, while Maricopa County, AZ (including Phoenix) had the most Native growth: 3,000. Alaska has the highest percentage of its population Native: almost 20%, followed by Oklahoma and New Mexico, each around 11%.

  The Federal Reserve Board reported, in October, that Native Americans were overcharged on home mortgages at twice the rate for Americans generally, in 2004, but at half as often as African Americans. The amount of overcharge appears to have been about the same for all groups.

  The American Psychological Association (APA) has called for the immediate retirement of American Indian Sports Mascots, because the mascots promote inaccurate images and stereotypes and negatively affect the self esteem of young Native Americans.

  The Seattle University School of Law has commenced the Institute for Indian Estate Planning and Probate to assist Indian nations and people in making informed decisions about their property and providing free and reduced cost estate planning services; providing estate planning and probate training to tribes, government officials and the legal community; and serve as a clearinghouse for Indian estate planning information. The Institute can be accessed at: http://www.law.seattleu.edu/indianinstitute?mode=standard. The institute may be helpful to nations in meeting the problems some experts report in the in the American Indian Probate Reform Act of 2004. It is recommended by some that it is important for tribes to pass their own probate codes to avoid the potential difficulties. For more, see David Melmer, "New probate law will create new problems," pp. 1 and 4, and "Creation of specific tribal code imperative,” 4. Indian Country Today. December 21, 2005.

  Voters on the Colville reservation, in Washington, decisively voted against having molybdenum mining on reservation, in a late March referendum. Voters essentially turned down the possibility of huge financial gains in favor of protecting the environment and cultural values. 

  The Three Affiliated Tribes plan to bring a proposed new tribal constitution to voters before the September primary election on the Fort Berthold Reservation. A committee has been at work on the new document for more than two years, and the proposal has been discussed at 25 public meetings across the reservation. The new constitution would change the name of the tribe to the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. It also would include numerous other changes, from giving tribal members more individual rights to changing the government structure to one that mirrors the state and federal system.

  The Coeur d'Alene Tribe of Idaho is improving navigation on St. Joe River, whose submerged banks and hazards has proven challenging for some of the 45,000 boaters a year.

  The Northwest Area Foundation partnered with the Cheyenne River Sioux in South Dakota, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota and the Lummi Nation in Washington state to help alleviate economic conditions and reduce their poverty levels with a nearly $30 million grant award, in February. Each tribe will receive from $6 million to $10 million over a 10-year grant period to assist in the implementation of strategic plans to improve economic development, housing, infrastructure and self-sufficiency.

  The Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations in South Dakota, by July, followed by Fort Berthold in North Dakota, will begin air ambulance service that will eventually spread to 50 reservations nation wide, under a program of the Inter-Tribal Economic Alliance, organized by the of the Inter-Tribal Economic Alliance. The goal is to reduce the time it takes to get a patient to a hospital that can provide a level of care not available in rural areas. Funding for the flights will come from the federal programs under which the patients are covered: Medicare, Medicaid, IHS and the Veterans Administration.

  The Standing Rock Sioux reservation opened its first homeless shelter, in November, in Mclaughlin, SD.

  With the aid of a $100,000 anonymous gift, the Mid-America All Indian Center in Wichita has repaid its entire $175,000 loan from the city, stabilized operations, and reclaimed, free and clear, their collection of artifacts held as security. The center is meeting performance criteria set up for its operations in the reorganization.

  The Yankton Sioux Indian Health Service Emergency Room in Wagner, SD was threatened with shut down, no longer operating over night and being transformed into an urgent care clinic, at the end of January, for lack of funding. Four Northwest Indian health programs were awarded grants to improve women's breast health, by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer foundation: at Lower Elwha Klallam, Positive Womn's Network, "for Women Only," in Skagit, Snohomish and Whatcom, WA Counties, and two programs at the South Puget Intertribal Planning Agency.

  A study by Harvard University affiliated McLean Hospital, in Boston, released in November, concluded that frequent religious use of Peyote caused no brain damage or psychological problems.

  The BIA returned 18 acres of traditional land, formerly part of closed Norton Air Force Base, to the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians of California, in November. The land will be used for a development project that will include an international airport.

  The Chippewa-Cree Business Committee on the Rocky Boy Reservation in Montana adopted a plan, in January, to reduce use of methamphetamine and treat those who become addicted. The anti drug effort is led by a newly created tribal meth advisory committee tasked with curbing meth's spread across the reservation, using a combination of prevention, intervention, treatment and increased law enforcement. The panel also is working to forge alliances with other area tribes and existing anti-meth groups. The Cherokee Nation of North Carolina has had one of the most effective anti-meth programs in its region by involving the community in its efforts, including community awareness education and a drug hotline, as well as passing a stricter law than North Carolina in regulating cold medicine containing ephederine and pseudophederin (used in producing meth) and improving substance abuse rehabilitation. The Meskwaki Tribe of Tama, Iowa launched its own six officer police force in February.

  San Juan Pueblo in New Mexico has returned to its original name, Ohkay Owingeh.

  The Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, in Nevada, had a forest fire burn 3,000 acres of reservation land, destroying a home and 16 sheds, while burning up winter firewood, pasture land for horses, tools, equipment and other belongings, at the same times Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast. The tribe has criticized the way the U.S. Forest Service dealt with the fire.

  KUYI-FM, Hopi-owned community radio, and the Institute for Health Professions Education have teamed up to expand the scope of the successful program, "House Calls," a weekly, live call-in show that provides answers for Native elders living in remote areas on the Hopi and Navajo reservations. In 2005, the program engaged Elders as cultural experts as well as recipients of health information, and offered opportunities to learn, teach and enhance their daily lives. The project includes. 4 live broadcasts and production of PSAs. For more information go to: http://www.soundpartners.org. The University of North Dakota is planning to study the health care needs of Native military veterans. Researchers from UND’s Rural Health Center will survey veterans on four reservations and one tribal service area in the state over the next year.

  Chowan College, in Murfreesboro, North Carolina, will drop its Native American nickname and mascot to comply with an NCAA ruling that bans “hostile or abusive” imagery. The Davis City Council voted unanimously, in January, to remove California pioneer John Augustus Sutter 's name from a city street because of concerns about his treatment of American Indians in the 19th century, changing the name of Sutter Place to David Risling Jr. Court after a prominent American Indian activist.

 The Cayuga Nation of New York — essentially landless for two centuries —bought a 70-acre farm in Cayuga County to begin to create a new homeland, in the town of Springport falls, in December, squarely in the 64,000-acre area that the Cayugas have been trying to reclaim through the courts for 25 years, and its location has historic significance. The farm is next to the Great Gully, where Cayugas hid when the 1779 Sullivan-Clinton Campaign attempted to wipe out the Iroquois nations that had sided with the British in the Revolutionary War. Representatives of the New York Cayugas said they would continue to conduct organic farming on the property and hope to build a longhouse — a ceremonial gathering place for traditional Iroquois people — and a language education center.

  The Minnesota Chippewa tribe's legislative committee has been considering a proposal that would open tribal membership to all people with Chippewa-Ojibwe heritage, including those in Manitoba, Ontario, Michigan and Wisconsin. If approved by the full tribal executive committee, the measure will go to a special election of all Minnesota Chippewa tribe members, as early as this fall.

  Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr., in March, urged Navajos living in cities to form their own urban chapters.

  An issue of Science, last summer, shows that geologists studying historic earthquakes, and other major earth changing events, have begun to use native stories in developing their research, as long advocated by Native leaders and scholars, such as the late Vine Deloria.

 

 

Economic Developments

  Officials of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) stated, in December, that they were contemplating another large increase in electrical rates, three months after putting into effect the largest increase in rates in its history. The reason is the closing of the Peabody Coal Company’s Black Mesa Mine, December 31, will cost NTUA about $7.5 million in gross revenues annually. However, as of January, the Peabody Coal Co. was intending to reopen the mine and the power plant. The Natural Resources Defense Council reported, in March, that extensive groundwater pumping by the operator of the Black Mesa coal mine in northeastern Arizona threatens the water supply for the Navajo and Hopi tribes more than the government admits and a new federal permit should be denied. The reported stated that Peabody Western Coal Co. is asking for permission to greatly increase the amount of water it pumps from the aquifer. In December, the Navajo Nation Tax Commission approved a tax agreement with co-developer Dixie Power authority for a proposed $2.2 billion, 1,500 megawatt coal burning power plant that could be built in San Juan County. The proposal was approved by the Navajo Nation Council in a special session, May 12.

  The Three Affiliated Tribes, of Montana, have begun operating the first wind turbine on the Fort Berthold Reservation, and plan eventually to offset the entire reservation’s electrical usage with wind power. The current turbine generates enough power to light up 45 homes, or about one-third of 4 Bears Casino. The Chippewa Cree Rocky Boy council wants to form an energy company to drill for natural gas on the Montana Reservation in an effort to earn more money than they do by leasing the land to gas companies and charging royalties.

  The Northern Ute Tribe, in May, formed an integrated energy company, Ute Energy, to develop resources on its Uintah-Ouray Reservation in eastern Utah. Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho officials, in Wyoming, are considering forming their own minerals development company hoping to bring in more money than from contracts negotiated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs for resource development on the Wind River.

  The Native Renewables Energy Summit - Solutions for Tribes & Cities, took place November 15-17 in Denver, CO. The meeting worked to help solidify a coalition for Native renewable energy development on Native lands. For information, contact or questions about conference content, please contact Jim Hurt: (802)291-0237, nativerenewables@dciamerica.com, or DCI American at: (800)888-1027.

  The Goshute Tribe was granted a license by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in March, for construction of 4,000 above-ground storage casks capable of holding 40,000 metric tons of radioactive waste from various nuclear power plants across the U.S for up to 40 years at its reservation at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

  The National Indian Gaming Commission has approved a license for the landless Cowlitz Tribe, with offices in Longview, WA, to open a casino on I5, 25 miles north of Portland, OR.

  The effort to create the Advanced Electronics Rosebud Integration Center, on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, received a major boost of $1.8 million, December 30, with President Bush’s signing of the defense spending bill, funding the making and testing of circuit boards for the Defense Department.

  The Makah Tribe of Washington has been buying back land ceded to the U.S. government in 1855 for hunting and fishing rights, between its main reservation at the tip of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula and the Ozette Indian Reservation to the south, potentially doubling its yearly timber revenue. Makah Forestry Enterprises recently completed a more than $6 million land deal with Cascade Timberlands LLC, which will return to the tribe 3,811 acres of timber land, expanding its land base by 11%.

  First Security Bank has been rolling its mobile "Badlands Express" bank across the Pine Ridge Reservation since 1997, to provide banking services across the large reservation in South Dakota.

  The National Society for American Indian Elderly, in November, began assisting AT&T in distributing computers to tribal elderly programs, with up to 10 computers available to each tribe. For information, contact Gaylene Spolarich at: spoly@frontiernet.net.

  Last year, Buffalo producers at Jemez Pueblo, in New Mexico, almost doubled the market price of steers by grazing and managing them collectively at the Valles Caldera National Preserve. With drought conditions on the Navajo Reservation worsening, in June, tribal officials were preparing to push ranchers on the reservation to reduce herds as much as possible. This is not the first time that the tribe has called for a voluntary stock reduction, but conditions are expected to deteriorate to the point that chapter leaders as well will join the push to reduce animal numbers.

  The First Nations Development Institute (FNDI), a Native American advocacy nonprofit group, has moved its headquarters from Virginia to 703 Third Ave. in the Denver area city of Longmont, CO. The headquarters also includes the group's grant-making operation. First Nations has an annual operating budget of roughly $1 million and awards about the same amount a year in grants. First Nations retains a field office at its former home base in Fredericksburg, Va., for most of its Native Assets Research Center functions. Only the center's Strengthening Native Philanthropy (SNAP) program relocated to Colorado. FNDI works to restore control of Native American assets, from land to cultural heritage -- to native peoples through education, advocacy and capitalization.

 

 

 

Educational and Cultural Developments

  The National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, for the first time focused a substantial portion of its annual meeting on American Indian student recruitment and retention, and highlighted the formation of the Indigenous Knowledge Community, a nationwide network sharing best practices for serving Indian students, and raising awareness of and appreciation for issues unique to Indigenous professionals and students in higher education.

  The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville are working toward an agreement that would allow tribal members to attend that university with an in-state tuition rate. After the UT agreement is done, the tribe will seek similar agreements with other Tennessee state schools as well as with public schools in Georgia and South Carolina.

  The Institute of American Indian Arts, hosted a conference, in April, focusing on first-year retention for American Indian students in major universities and tribal colleges, at Hotel Santa Fe, in Santa Fe, NM. Yale University in New Haven, CT is offering Graduate Horizons, in July, a four-day 'crash course' for Native college students, master's students or alumni to help prepare them for graduate school (master's, Ph.D. or professional school), with faculty, admission officers and deans representing hundreds of graduate disciplines and over 30 graduate and professional schools assisting participants. Similar 5 days 'College Horizons' workshops for Native Students anticipating entering undergraduate education are being offered, in June, at Rice University, Houston, TX and at University of Pudget Sound, Tacoma, WA. For information contact: Christine Suina, student coordinator, P.O. Box 1262, Pena Blanca, NM 87041 (505)401-3854, collegehorizons@aol.com, www.collegehorizons.com.

  The U.S. Department of Education has awarded the Arizona Department of Education, in partnership with the White Mountain Apache Tribe and the San Carlos Apache Tribe, a $1.8 million grant for the Arizona Native American Dropout Prevention Initiative, one of four grants to states for reducing state dropout rates. The Arizona Native American Dropout Initiative will be a first-time model of comprehensive community collaboration in partnership with schools to reduce dropout rates in Native American reservation communities, which been disproportionately higher in American Indian communities, in Arizona and nationally.

  The preliminary report from the National Indian Education Association (NIEA), made public in October, on the impact of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 on American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students, based on eleven hearings, found the implementation of the act to be extremely harmful to most Native students, to the point where it is causing more American Indian students to give up and drop out than it is helping. Excerpts from the introduction and the overview section of the hearings expound upon this finding. "There is an over all sense from the testimony that profound changes are underfoot in Native education and that the Native education community has only just begun to sense the impacts and dangers incumbent in both the intended and unintended consequences of the No Child Left Behind Statute upon the future of Native education. It is clear from the testimony that these changes to date have not included the Native voice". "Many witness identified what could generally be labeled the unintended consequences of the statute that has resulted in major disruptions to the education systems, that may fundamentally alter the education potential of schools, while significantly and coincidentally narrowing the broad public purposes of schools. This later concern is most directly related to the impacts of the statute upon culturally based education including the use of culturally appropriate pedagogy and curriculum that is connected to the social, cultural, and linguistic heritage of the children, the role of Tribal governments and Native communities and parents in determining the education purposes of schools and the role of teachers, parents and community members in the education lives of Native students. . . . The focus on testing and accountability combined with insufficient funding has in the opinion of witnesses eliminated the ability of schools to focus on the broader public purposes of education." The NIEA preliminary report is available at: http://tinyurl.com/kxyze. Thus at its October meeting, NIEA expressed the growing, serious dissatisfaction of Indian educators about the damaging impediments from the No Child Left Behind legislation in launching a critical broadside at the federal education act, including charging that the Bush administration is reorienting a federal formula program traditionally focused on culturally relevant instruction for Indian children so that it emphasizes straightforward assistance in reading and math, in effect turning Title VII Indian education programs into mere adjuncts to Title I. NIEA pointed out that Indian educators are extremely concerned that the emphasis on testing and reading and math achievement in NCLB diminishes the desire and opportunity to create comprehensive culture-based education programs with Title VII formula money, and this tendency is reinforced by policy pronouncements at the federal level. For a fuller discussion go to: http://www.civilrights.org/issues/indigenous/Indian_ed.pdf.

  A a 2005 Mississippi State University study, released in November, showed Native American students in Idaho and Montana are lagging behind their peers in English proficiency tests required by the federal No Child Left Behind law. The report found that "rural American Indian and Alaska Native children were the least likely of major ethnic sub-groups in rural America to be proficient at letter recognition upon kindergarten entry." A major factor in the results is that English is a second language to many Indian students. Where most Native students begin school with an average vocabulary of 3,000 words, many of their white peers start school with a vocabulary of 15,000. Moreover, many Indian students speak a different dialect of English, with native words interspersed with English words. Numerous schools in Idaho and Montana with a predominant number of Native American students could be forced to take radical steps required under the NCLB law, if the schools can not close the achievement gap, including moving students to higher-performing schools or wholesale reorganizations. In Idaho, at least two schools are already facing such sanctions. A complicating problem is that unless Indian students are taught in culturally and linguistically appropriate ways, a great many of them will be less successful. Thus, the operation of NCLB is directly countering its goals. In Idaho and Montana, the achievement gap is often quite wide, with some schools reporting 22% English proficiency rates for Native students, compared with 75% proficiency rates for white students. Both Montana and Idaho have programs in place to help students with limited English skills. In Idaho, there are 592 students in the state's $8 million "Limited English Proficiency" program. Montana's Native American students come from 17 different Indian language backgrounds, and account for 11% of the public school population, and 90% of the state's 6,952 LEP students. But such programs cannot overcome the effect that poverty has on Native American students' scores. Experts agree that poverty is the number one underlying cause for the achievement gap. Unemployment on Idaho's Fort Hall reservation hovers around 37%, and averages at about 70% on Montana's reservations. An additional problem is that computers, books and other reading materials are often in short supply in homes in Indian Country

  The announcement by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings that the federal government was launching a pilot program to allow some states to monitor how students progress over time may give Indian schools some breathing room and avoid No Child Left Behind Sanctions.

  Despite earlier, predictions to the contrary, this spring, most Navajo reservation high school seniors in line to graduate passed the new Arizona achievement test, the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS), and were able to graduate.

 An innovative effort to improve high school and college graduation rates of Native American students is underway in Washington State. Three secondary schools, Ferndale High School, Medicine Wheel Academy, and Tulalip Heritage use programs that eliminate remediation options for Indian students, instead, increasing their expectations and academic rigor. This includes early college classes taught by college faculty, in an integrated high school-college program aimed at having students graduate at 18 or 19 to enter as juniors at four-year colleges to complete their baccalaureate degrees. The programs at the three schools are part of a national Early College High School Initiative sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Antioch University Seattle, based on its work establishing reservation-based degree programs, was selected as the partner for developing Washington Indian programs. Plans are to develop eight Early College schools throughout Washington to serve approximately 1900 Native young people. The pilot Early Colleges are small, personalized secondary schools where 150 to 400 students earn an associate’s degree concurrently with their high school diplomas. Early College students are low-income youth, first generation college-goers, English language learners, and minority students, who have been underrepresented in higher education. Grounded in the belief that adolescents are capable of college level work, Early Colleges immerse students in stimulating and supportive collegiate environments. The Early College High Schools also reduce financial barriers to increase the likelihood that larger numbers of young people will be able to earn college degrees. The approach includes integration of local culture into each school's curriculum; the offering of college courses in the schools Native students attend; academic, guidance, and mentor advising to strengthen skills and personalize support for each student; a meaningful year-round model of schooling that respects local traditions and provides sustained and cohesive educational experiences; and extensive family and community engagement with schools. For more information contact New Horizons for Learning, P O Box 31876, Seattle WA 98103, http://www.newhorizons.org.

  The Chief Leschi Elementary School in Puyallup, WA has become a leading BIA school in kindergarten to third grade reading achievement as a result of increased teacher training and individualizing instruction to work with students at their own level. Families are involved in the education which uses a Reading First program. Students are more engaged, achieve more with higher expectations and have fewer behavioral problems then prior to the program. Reading test scores are above BIA and national averages.

  Willow Crest Elementary and Romig Middle School began a pilot program, in November, for the Anchorage, AK School District to make education more inviting and suited for Alaska Natives, including training staff members to be more sensitive to Native student needs.

  Increasing numbers of Arizona American Indian high school dropouts have been signing up for National Guard funded voluntary residential school program, Project Challenge, because of on reservation recruiting. In the program's third year, the July to December 2005 session graduated 91 of 152 enrollees.

  Claire Richard (Choctaw), a high school student in Oklahoma City, has developed an anti domestic violence program, Project Falummichechi ("to reclaim", in Choctaw) that has completed its second year, having expanded to 10 schools. The program involves teaching high school students to spread the word among elementary school children that "hitting is not cool,"

  The Seventh Generation Fund offered the first in a series of three trainings, June 2-3, to Native Communities in California who are interested in utilizing digital media technology to create their own culturally appropriate educational materials. The goal is to encourage an intergenerational learning environment which will empower youth, elders and community leaders to document their own unique tribal histories, cultural traditions, languages and critical contemporary issues. Participants received training to engineer interview sessions and produce multi-media presentations for their tribal community, public school teachers/educators, Native education centers, charter schools, museums, libraries and other appropriate groups. For more information contact Mo at (707)825-7640, Mo7g@pacbell.net.

  Chelsea House recently began work on a new book series on Landmark Events in Native American History for middle to high school students. They have released a series called Contemporary Native American Issues as well as an update of their longstanding series on individual Native American nations. A number of the volumes are currently being written or are in production. Others may be in the planning stage. For details, contact the series editor, Paul C. Rosier, Department of History, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, PA 19085 (610)519-4677, http://www91.homepage.villanova.edu/paul.rosier/.

  Members of 40 California nations met with linguists at the 7th biannual symposium sponsored by the Advocates for Indigenous Language Survival (www.aicls.org), in late April, to discuss the challenges of saving their endangered languages. More than half of the over one hundred native California tongues have disappeared, and the rest are threatened. The 13th Annual Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Symposium was held May 18-21, at Buffalo State College, State University of New York in Buffalo. For more information, contact Dr. Lori Quigley: quiglelv@buffalostate.edu. According to Michael Krauss of the Alaska Native Language Center, there are 210 different indigenous languages still spoken by American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States and Canada out of the over 300 spoken before the arrival of Columbus, however only 35 of these remaining languages are still being spoken by children. The Sisseton-Whappeton Nation has created a Dakota Scrabble game and tournament, with the support of Scrabble maker Hasbro.

 

 

International Indigenous Developments

  The eleventh year of negotiations on the U.N. Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples ended February. 3 with almost two-thirds of the provisions agreed upon by the member states of the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Only 4 of the rights had been agreed upon previously. Articles relating to indigenous peoples' right of self-determination and to lands and natural resources continued to be difficult to resolve between indigenous delegates and several nation states. The United States, Australia and New Zealand, among others, sought changes in the articles on self-determination for indigenous peoples. Some indigenous participants sought rights to all the lands and territories that they had ever traditionally owned. Working Group Chairman Luis Enrique Chavez, of Peru, then prepared his version of a text that includes the agreed-upon provisions and his recommendation for the remaining articles that he believes are most likely to achieve consensus among the member-states of the Human Rights Council, for discussions which began in March. The March session produced consensus on most of the remaining issues, with the Chairman working out compromises on the final few provisions, so that a completed document was sent to the new UN Human Rights Council for consideration. The Complete text and the Chairman's summary can be accessed by going to: http://tinyurl.com/ecy6k.

  The American Indian Law Alliance (AILA) (http://www.ailanyc.org/) has analyzed the text of the draft Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and while not finding it perfect, concludes that it "stands as a progressive statement of the human rights of indigenous peoples that states should now respect." Therefore, AILA proposed that the Human Rights Council accept the text as is, with only two friendly amendments, and forward it to the General Assembly for consideration. Several knowledgeable commentators have stated that with the new Human Rights Council's busy agenda, international pressure to finalize the declaration, and the eleven years of deliberation that it took to develop it, it is unlikely that the document will be sent back to the Working Group for further drafting (as the U.S., Australia and New Zealand have stated they favor), and that if not too many changes are proposed, the document will likely be acted upon quickly and sent forward. If there are many changes proposed, the declaration could be tabled for a short or longer time. It was also stated by some that the climate is now relatively good for having the declaration adopted by the UN General assembly.

  UNESCO adopted the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of Cultural Contents Artistic Expression, in October, setting policies and measures to protect cultural expression, particularly for minorities, stemming from the 2001 UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity.

  The Fifth Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, with numerous side sessions and “satellite meetings” put on by Non-Governmental Organizations, took place in New York May 15 – 26, with more than 1200 attendees from around the world. The Forum Secretariat believes that, "now that the Forum has triggered considerable activity in the inter-governmental system, the ultimate challenge is to make a real difference in the lives of indigenous peoples. Monitoring is an important step. Strategic papers prepared by Forum members, Mr. Tamang, Ms. Tauli-Corpuz and Mr. Littlechild provide very good ideas in that direction." The session  highlighted the deficiencies in social and economic development, and called for more sophisticated, researched development programs for indigenous societies. The absence of information and data regarding a growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in indigenous communities is an increasing concern, that the meeting called upon to be addressed, with inclusion of traditional knowledge and full participation of indigenous peoples in decisions that impact their lives, based on the principle of free, prior and informed consent. With the end of the Second UN Indigenous Decade in 2015 coinciding with the year benchmarked for the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals, the Permanent Forum focused on key developmental concerns through this year’s theme “Millennium Development Goals and indigenous peoples: redefining the goals”. The session demanded the inclusion of indigenous peoples in all evaluation, and stricter monitoring processes on the progress on the Millennium Development Goals. Estimates point to more than 370 million indigenous peoples in some 70 countries worldwide. While they are from diverse geographical and cultural backgrounds, they share common difficulties: lack of basic health care, limited access to education, loss of control over land, abject poverty, displacement, human rights violations, and economic and social marginalization.

  On the closing day of its Fifth Session, members of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues “strongly recommended the adoption of the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at the General Assembly during its sixty-first session in September 2006”. For the first time in the Forum’s history, a half-day segment of the meeting was dedicated to one specific region - Africa. Attention was drawn to the continuing challenges faced by African indigenous peoples, who receive almost no governmental recognition outside of South Africa, and the Forum made a number of recommendations regarding health, capacity-building, education and related issues. It should be noted that observers from indigenous groups from Vietnam stated in side sessions that they continue to be denied any recognition by the country’s government, that represses even the suspicion of promotion of indigenous rights. In its recommendations, the Forum members also highlighted the situation of peoples living in voluntary isolation, such as the Jarawa, Onges and North Sentinel of Andaman and Nicobar Islands in South Asia; and the Ayureo, Taromenane, Tagaeri, Awa-Guaja, Cacataibo and others of the Grand Chaco and Amazon regions of South America. They asked governments and civil society to ensure that indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation are protected against encroachment, aggression, forcible assimilation and acts of genocide. Human rights mechanisms of the United Nations should examine the plight of indigenous peoples from French Polynesia, Guam and Marshall Islands, who have been victims of nuclear testing in the Pacific.

  In addition, the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues called on Pope Benedict XVI to revoke and renounce those Papal bulls that formed the ''doctrine of discovery'' - a philosophy that sanctified the massacre of millions of indigenous people and continues to influence U.S. Supreme Court decisions today. The papal bulls include a Jan. 8, 1455, edict by Pope Nicholas V that grants the ''right of conquest'' to Alfonso, king of Portugal, and authorizes him ''to invade, search out, capture, vanquish and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed, and the kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions and all movable and immovable goods whatever held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.'' The ''movable and immovable goods'' were to be used for the benefit and profit of Alfonso and his heirs forever. The term ''Saracens'' was used by medieval Europeans to mean Arabs and Muslims in general. Portugal and Spain were rivals in the conquest game, and by 1493, a new pope - Alexander V - issued another papal bull urging King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to ''seek out and discover certain islands and mainlands remote and unknown and not hitherto discovered by others'' so that the ''barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the [Roman Catholic] faith itself.''

  The 6th Session of the Permanent Forum is proposed to be held in Bangkok in May 2007 and will focus on the theme of “Territories, Lands and Natural resources.”

  UN Rapporteur on Human Rights, Rudolfo Stavenhagen, reported, this spring, that some states are using anti-terrorist legislation to dismantle legitimate groups demanding the rights of indigenous people. There is also some indication that the U.S. may declare some Latin American indigenous groups and movements as terrorists.

  The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances visited Columbia, in July, investigating the disappearances of indigenous residents of the southern province of Norino.

  UNESCO’s Endangered Language Program has begun a “register of Good Practices in Language Preservation,” to be posted on the internet. The UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations held its 23^rd session in Geneva, in July, focusing upon international and domestic protection of indigenous knowledge.

  The Canadian – U.S. International Indigenous Cross-Border Security Summit, on March 17 and 18, heard the concerns of officials of Indian nations straddling the boarder and government officials from both countries, relating to security, crime, terrorism and identification cards. Meanwhile, the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, which has long battled the problems of smuggling in its border community, received a BIA Office of Law Enforcement Services award to the tribe's police department of $263,000 to fight drug use, violent crime, and drug and human smuggling.

  The prime minister of Canada, and premiers from the 10 provinces and three territories announced, at a November meeting with First Nation leaders focusing on aboriginal issues, that Canada’s governments will provide more than $5 billion over the next five years to close the gap between aboriginal peoples and other Canadians in education, health, housing and economic opportunities. Prime Minister Paul Martin stated, ''Our plan is built on a foundation of respect, accountability and shared responsibility.'' ''With this plan, we have made an important step forward in honoring our commitment to close the gap in the quality of life that now exists between aboriginal peoples and other Canadians,'' he said before outlining five-year targets within the 10-year plan to ensure actions remain focused and accountable. Anishnabek Grand Chief John Beaucage from the Union of Ontario Indians commented, ''The prime minister and premiers recognize there is much despair in our communities.'' ''Problems in housing, health, education and other social indicators aren't the fault of First Nations; they're directly linked to old government policies based on assimilation”. ''I'm really pleased with the results of this meeting. It was much better than we had anticipated.'' $1.2 billion was agreed upon specifically for aboriginal housing, including over 60,000 new housing starts in the next 10 years. The new Conservative government in Ottawa, on first coming to office, did nothing to honor the "Kelowna" agreement, but upon the urgings of B.C. Premier Campbell, the Canadian Prime Minister asserted, in May, that the new government was committed to the principles of the agreement, and looked forward to working out details. That will likely involve a new meeting, and a new name that the Conservative government can take credit for.

  The housing strategy of the Kelowna agreement includes the development of a capital fund, a market-based housing approach, addressing the continued need for social housing, but also maintaining the status quo for those First Nations that cannot support or take advantage of these developments. First Nations will also make a significant 10-year proposal to administer the housing programs themselves. The ministers and national aboriginal leaders agreed that broad indicators will be used to assess the progress of the Plan. In addition, more specific measures and targets will be developed at regional and sub-regional levels. Martin acknowledged the Assembly of First Nations for taking the important step of proposing the establishment of a First Nations auditor general and an ombudsman. ''We all need to make an ongoing commitment to openness, transparency and good governance,'' he said. ''The targets we set today must be tracked and measured constantly so that everyone involved in this process is accountable.'' Currently, on-reserve, the estimated housing shortage is 20,000 - 35,000 units and growing by 2,200 units per year. Off-reserve, the core housing need is 76% higher among aboriginal households than non-aboriginal households. In the North, housing needs are 130% higher among aboriginal households than non-aboriginal households.

  In education, Canada committed to investing $1.8 billion over the next five years in initiatives at the early childhood, kindergarten - 12 and post-secondary levels. The aim is to achieve graduation rate for aboriginal students on par with other Canadians by 2016, with $1.6 billion going to on reserve programs, including assistance to establish a network of First Nations school systems, with regional school authorities administered under First Nations jurisdictions and enhancements for First Nations basic education services; and $150 million over the next five years for off-reserve initiatives within the public school system, including $50 million to improve education in the North. In post-secondary education, the Canadian government said it would invest $500 million over the next five years, including post-secondary education bursaries, scholarships and apprenticeships. Canada will also undertake a review to identify more initiatives that will help to close the overall post-secondary education gap. In 2001, 23% percent of First Nation people18-29 reported having completed their post-secondary education, compared to 43 percent in the rest of Canada.

   The Canadian government is committed to investing $1.3 billion over the next five years to stabilize the First Nation and Inuit Health Branch, promote transformation and to build capacity. Currently, infant mortality is almost 20% higher for aboriginal people than in the rest of Canada. Aboriginal people are three times more likely to have Type 2 diabetes. Suicide rates can be anywhere from three to 11 times higher, particularly among Inuit.

  In terms of economic opportunity, Canada agreed to work to increase aboriginal employment levels by 30% over the next five years and by 50% within 10 years, while investing $200 million over the next five years supporting commercial and industrial activities, and Economic Development Framework initiatives. Today, the unemployment rate among aboriginal peoples is 19.1%, while the national rate is 7.4%. On reserves, the unemployment rate is about 29%, four times the Canadian unemployment rate. The median employment income for aboriginal Canadians is $16,000, while the average for non-aboriginal Canadians is $25,000.

  In establishing the First Nation gap closing initiatives, the Canadian government stated the importance of respecting the differences among First Nations, Inuit and Metis and of including each group as appropriate in policy. Canada stated it would invest $170 million over the next five years to national and regional aboriginal organizations to assist them in enhancing capacity, policy development and development of indicators and accountability. The new funding builds on previous investments by the Canadian government in areas of urgent need for aboriginal Canadians, including more than $1.4 billion confirmed in the 2005 budget, and more than $2.5 billion from recent announcements including $2.2 billion in compensation for former students of Indian residential schools.

  The Canadian federal government Auditor General, Sheila Fraser, in May, delivered a report stating that the federal government has failed to act on recommendations aimed at helping natives, including cleaning up mould in homes, analyzing patterns of drug deaths and implementing land agreements. Fraser gave government departments and agencies an unsatisfactory grade on 15 of 37 of her recommendations dating back to 2000 and 2003, in meeting obligations to natives set out in treaties, government policies, the Indian Act and other laws. "These are generally the recommendations that are most important to the lives and well-being of First Nations people." "Overall, we found unsatisfactory progress in addressing our recommendations." "In some key areas, little has been done." "Past audits have found the government falls short of meeting these obligations." Reported examples of significant failures include that Health Canada has not been doing enough to measure the services it provides to First Nations and how they improve health. Nor is it doing enough to amass data on deaths tied to prescription drug use. Indian Affairs fell short on land claims. And Indian Affairs and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. have not produced a plan to deal with mould on reserve houses. Moreover, on the 22 recommendations where the government got a satisfactory grade, "in most cases, implementation is not yet complete." The report emphasized that successful implementation of reforms depends on sustained attention from government managers, co-ordination of programs, consultation with native groups and consideration of what can be conflicting roles within the Indian Affairs Department. In responding to Fraser's concerns, the government pledged that it would heed future recommendations, citing the example of the Kelowna First Ministers meeting last fall, which it said pointed the way to better co-operation among federal, provincial and territorial governments and native organizations.

  Manitoba aboriginal leaders, said in May, that in the a $1.9-billion settlement to compensate former students for abuse suffered at native residential schools their communities could become engulfed in chaos as the federal government releases lump sum compensation money of $10,000 each, plus $3,000 for each year spent in the schools, to former residential-school students, unless recipients receive training in handling the money. One report stated that the government had turned down a proposal to do that, which would have cost very little. Loan companies have already been showing up on reserves offering loans in advance of government payment, and people need to understand how to avoid being taken advantage of, such as unknowingly being hit with high interest payments. Recipients with substance abuse problems may suffer serious binges and lose a great deal of money if they do not have ways to manage it wisely.

  Thomas R. Berger' Berger's final conciliator's report on the stalled negotiations aimed at producing a new contract to implement the Nunavut land claims agreement for the period between 2003 and 2013, focused on fixing Nunavut's education and training systems to implement Article 23, leaked in April to Nunatsiaq News (http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/berger_final_report.pdf), calls for an extra $20 million a year from Ottawa to repair the territory's failed training system and recruit more young Inuit into Government of Nunavut jobs and many additional millions to create a fully bilingual program from kindergarten to Grade 12, with the costs negotiated between Nunavut and Ottawa. Berger states that only a massive overhaul of Nunavut's school system, combined with large annual injections of new cash from the Canadian government will provide large numbers of Inuit a chance to qualify for Nunavut government jobs. Currently, Inuit employment at the GN is stalled at 45%, with few Inuit qualified for executive, management and professional jobs, while only about 25% of Inuit children graduate from high school. Approximately 75% of Nunavut Inuit speak Inuktitut as their first language, and about 15% have no other language. Inuit in Nunavut lose about $72 million a year in lost wages and benefits because of the failure to carry out Article 23.

  In October, British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell furthered his "new relationship" with B.C. First Nation groups, admitting a history of failure and mistakes. "For too long, and I acknowledge this, we did follow a path of denial [toward aboriginal people]," Mr. Campbell told a meeting of native treaty negotiators. "There was a denial of rights, of culture, of opportunity and equality. . . The first nations and aboriginal people of Canada have been failed, and we must move forward to rectify that." He stated that his government has an unwavering commitment to build a new relationship with the province’s aboriginal people, characterized by the sharing of resources and "respect for and recognition of aboriginal rights and title." Campbell promised to review all legal positions taken by the province in numerous ongoing court cases involving native rights. "We understand that litigation strategies in the past have been offensive [to natives]. In the future, we will argue in a way that is respectful." The Premier was responding to sharp criticism from Grand Chief Edward John of the First Nations Summit, who had said that in case after case, the province took a position that, legally speaking, "aboriginal people do not exist. The Haida people do not exist. The Nuu-chah-nulth people do not exist.... We think it is fundamentally wrong for Crown lawyers to file these sorts of arguments." Campbell had entered the meeting, greeted by complete silence, but his words brought considerable praise from native leader Dave Porter, of the Kaska Nation. "He spoke words that no premier in the history of British Columbia has ever said before, with respect to the rights of aboriginal people, No premier has ever recognized that we continue to have aboriginal rights, and I think we heard you say that you denounce 150 years of mistrust, denial and neglect." Initially, Mr. Campbell had continued the old approach, but he began to change his policy late in his first term. Last spring, he and B.C.'s three major native organizations approved a landmark document advocating a "government-to-government relationship based on respect, recognition and accommodation of aboriginal title and lands," entitled A New Relationship.

  In April, police, supported by federal troops, invaded the Mohawk, Six Nations Reserve in the Area of Caledonia, Ontario, after Six Nations tribal members sat in to prevent a contractor from beginning construction work on land that the Nation claims. Several protestors were arrested. Demonstrations supporting Six Nations took place across Canada, including protesters blocking rail lines for several hours, delaying trains. The Six Nations Council, agreeing that the construction is an illegal violation of the Nation’s treaty sovereignty, has told the Canadian government to negotiate directly with the group Clan Mothers of the Confederacy, leading protests. The dispute, involving a 100-acre plot, has its roots in a 1784 agreement in which Britain granted a large strip of land in what is today southwestern Ontario to Natives in gratitude for their support against the American colonial rebels. The Six Nations surrendered the land in 1841, but Native activists filed a lawsuit in 1995 claiming that the agreement was made under duress, that this was not a sale but a lease, and that in any case the authorities had failed to meet their commitments. On April 22, representatives from the Six Nations and the federal and Ontario governments signed an agreement to talk about setting the land claim issues, with each of the three parties appointing a "principal representative" to negotiate, within two weeks. As negotiations were proceeding in late May, a group of local people, the Caledonia Citizens' Alliance, was seeking representation in the talks. Some commentators agreed that local citizens should be represented, but felt they already had a place at the table through the province. The For Further information contact Chief Terrance Nelson (204)782-4827.

  Representatives of the Nunavut Hudson Bay Inter-Agency Working Group (NTK) testified before a committee reviewing the proposed EM1A-Rupert Diversion project, a hydro-electric development planned for northern Quebec may interfere with traditional Inuit lifestyles by pumping increased fresh water into the north part of James Bay, changing salt concentrations in the bay and disrupting ice patterns. Inuit from Nunavut and Nunavik fear that could damage hunting grounds, and fish and wildlife stocks. They are also worried about mercury and other contaminants in their food. Working Group members said they wanted the committee reviewing the project to make sure the impacts are minimized, and recommended that money be set aside to monitor changes to the currents, ice, and sea life in Hudson Bay. The official project web site is: http://www.hydroquebec.com/eastmain1a/en/index.html.

  The Canadian Federal Task Force on Aboriginal Cultures and Language, in September, released a 142-page report, calling on the Canadian government to immediately begin funding Aboriginal language projects before it's too late. 30% or 52 First Nations had endangered languages (less than 50% of the adult population were reported speaking the language and there were few if any young speakers or, although over 80% of the older population spoke the language, there were no identified speakers under 45 years old). American Indian people able to speak a First Nation language well enough to conduct a conversation fell from 20% in 1996 to 16% in 2001, while those speaking it in the home declined from 13 percent to 8%.

  In September, Anishinabek Grand Council Chief John Beuacage called on the Ontario provincial government to broaden and increase the amount of First Nations curriculum in the province's primary and secondary schools. "Our history and culture has been excluded from Canada's education system for far too long," said Beaucage. "We've always been simply a token unit in social studies and Canadian history classes. Even that limited curriculum was developed by nonnative historians and lacked the perspectives of the First Nations people themselves." And he says the province's recent announcement that First Nations culture and history would be taught in all classrooms across Ontario with the introduction of an improved curriculum, while progressive, doesn't go far enough. "We want to see the province take this a step further," said Beaucage. "An expanded First Nations studies curriculum should include a significant focus on cultural awareness, treaties and treaty rights, the history of residential schools and mandatory Native language instruction for our own children in public schools. First Nations educators must continue to play a lead role in the development of curriculum and teaching these lessons in our schools. I would recommend that the government continue to revise and expand on these developments by ensuring adequate resources to this curriculum development initiative and include further involvement by Anishinabek, Mushkegowuk (Cree), Haudenasaunee (Iroquois), and Métis teachers."

  The US, Mexican and Canadian governments, pushed by major economic interests, are working to expand NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) into NAFTA Plus by a series of signed intergovernmental regulations, not subject to citizen review, and that do not have to be approved by Congress. In many respects, NAFTA Plus would create a single North American nation with extremely porous boarders for products and services, and for labor between the U.S. and Canada, but not Mexico. The first steps in developing NAFTA Plus have already been taken, with a trinational security perimeter already consolidated. Future steps include the construction of a new economic space, beginning with a customs union, then a common market, followed by a monetary and economic union. Miguel Pickard is an economist and researcher, co-founder of CIEPAC(Centro de Investigaciones Económicas y Políticas de Acción Comunitaria www.ciepac.org) in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico and an analyst with the IRC Americas Program (http://www.americaspolicy.org), states in "Trinational Elites Map North American Future in 'Nafta Plus'” (available online at: http://americas.irc-online.org/am/386): "Costs would be enormous in terms of sovereignty and identity for the lesser partners. Deep integration would mean foregoing an independent future. For Mexico it would forever cancel the Bolivarist dream of a united Latin America, with Mexico spurning its historic relationship with the rest of Latin America. Advantages for the U.S. will include the right to decide on crucial matters such as “pushing out” its borders in response to regional security concerns, and access to strategic natural resources, particularly oil, gas and fresh water. For the trade, manufacturing and financial elites of Mexico and Canada, NAFTA plus will likely mean a 'porous' border for its products and services, and virtually unrestricted access to the United States, still the largest consumer market in the world".

  The push by transnational corporations to privatize water distribution and resources in Latin America is continuing with efforts to take control of the region's hydrological resources--rivers, aquifers, wells, and aqueduct systems, despite setbacks in places like Puerto Rico, Bolivia, and Uruguay. In April, over 400 participants gathered in Mexico City from countries throughout the hemisphere for the First People's Workshop in Defense of Water. Participants included indigenous peoples, small farmers, labor union representatives, members of urban movements, researchers, students, and civil society groups. Who discussed concerns and issues, and shared experiences with privatized water services and attempts to transfer water management to transnational companies. Participants considered possible ways of collaborating in furthering the defense of access to water as a human right, managed in a sustainable, democratic, and responsible manner. For more details see Carmelo Ruiz-Marrer, “Water Privatization in Latin America” at: http://americas.irc-online.org/am/2885.

  Ecologist Gretchen Daily has been a spokesperson for an approach to ecological preservation that is gaining support: considering farms and forests as ecological assets that must not be squandered (See, "Investing in Green," Newsweek, June 6, 2005). Examples of this approach include Costa Rica establishing a system of payments for watershed services, such as drinking water quality, maintaining sediment-free water to hydro-electric dams; Pierre Vitel in France paying farmers to maintain water quality and for supplying the farmers. Another example is a proposal to reclaim the Gulf of Mexico dead zone by subsidizing the planting of strips of trees along open waterways which would remove excess nitrogen form the water.

  In January, the Zapatista National Liberation Army of Chiapas began a 31-state "Other Campaign" across Mexico, parallel to the country’s presidential campaigning. The Zapatistas “Other Campaign” has as the purpose of listening to indigenous, working class and otherwise marginalized Mexicans, some of whom have never spoken out in public. Details of the campaign are available from Global Exchange: http://tinyurl.com/gq93v

  Yaqui Indians in Sonora, Mexico, are suffering an increase in birth defects, while young people are dying from cancer after working without protective clothing with pesticides in agricultural fields near their villages. Most of these pesticides and chemical fertilizers are banned in the United States, Canada and Europe, while the government of Mexico is allowing them to be imported and used in Mexico without warnings.

  An indigenous delegation in Venezuela for the World Social Forum, investigated the country’s new indigenous health care initiatives, meet with Amazonia's indigenous governor and began discussions for new models of village health care in the jungle. ''Venezuela is serving as a model of respect for indigenous peoples and their right to culture, land and sovereignty,'' said Robert Free Galvan, Indian activist and organizer of the delegation aimed at creating new social and economic bonds between indigenous in the Americas. The indigenous delegation of Galvan; Alex Louie, Okanagan from British Columbia; Sarah James, Gwich'in from Alaska; and Casey Camp, Ponca from Oklahoma visited a training camp for Mission Guaicaipuro in the mountains near Caracas. Galvan stated that, ''Mission Guaicaipuro is in charge of implementing indigenous rights that are in the constitution of Venezuela now,'' It is one of numerous missions that include improving education, health care, housing and services. For more information on future delegations, contact robtfree@earthlink.net.

  In Bolivia, Evo Morales, who is indigenous, won the presidential election by a wide margin. His policy approach is similar to that of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. Morales plans to reverse U.S. anti-cocaine efforts in his country by expanding the legality of coca cultivation. Faced with protests, visits to executives homes, barrages of e-mails and years of unfavorable press, Bechtel corporation gave up its $50 million law suite against Bolivia at a secrete international trade court run by the World Bank, to recover claimed damages from cancellation of its water privatization contract at Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2000.

 In late March, thousands of Indigenous Ecuadorians were blockading roads and highways, threatening to overthrow President Alfredo Palacio’s government if he signed a free-trade pact with the United States. They were also demanding that Palacio expel the US oil company Occidental from the country (For more information go to: http://www.globalexchange.org). In 2005, indigenous complaints that the Ecuadorian Water Agencies had given Water rights to wealthy landlords and powerful urban interests at the expense of small land holders led to the organization a water rights defense center, Interjuntas, which has been lobbying, organizing mass demonstrations and sponsoring candidates for public office.

  Columbia's annual National Peace Prize was awarded in 2005 to the Diocese of Quibido in Chaco Province for nonviolent defense work to safeguard indigenous and Afro-Columbian people. Meanwhile, the reclusive Nukak tribe is caught between the Government, left wing guerilla and right wing paramilitary forces in the long civil war in Columbia. The Nukak are one of the Amazon's few nomadic tribes. Since they first came into close contact with non-Indians in 1988, over half their number have died, mainly from flu and malaria transmitted by outsiders. Now the fighting is threatening to wipe the tribe out. Half of the remaining 400 tribal members have been displaced. The army is spraying coca plantations, grown by colonists on the Nukak's land, with herbicide from the air, doing direct harm to the Nukak. Colombia's main left-wing guerilla army, the FARC, and the right-wing paramilitary army, the AUC, have large numbers of forces in Nukak territory contending for control of the coca crop. Survival and Colombia's national Indian organization ONIC are urging all sides to call a ceasefire and withdraw from Nukak territory, and to send urgently needed medical teams in to treat the Indians. The organizations have been requesting letter writing and other political support. For more information go to: http://www.survival-international.org. In November, hundreds of Indians seized 14 farms in Southwestern Columbia, on what the Caloto tribe considers its ancestral land, in the face of police violence to remove them, demanding that the government provide more arable land to the tribe and implement land reform to make more land available to poor farmers. Colombian authorities, this spring, forced some 1,000 Guambiano Indians off of a private ranch the group had been occupying illegally in an effort to reclaim ancestral lands. A spokesperson for the Guambianos, who spoke to the AP by telephone but refused to be identified for fear of retribution from authorities, said the tribe is planning more such occupations. The Guambianos have come upon hard times in recent years as rapid population growth on a 16,000 hectare (40,000 acre) reservation has fueled family quarrels over land, which in turn has brought unsafe farming practices. Malnutrition is also a problem, as the tribe’s diet is often nothing more than potatoes and rice. Indigenous groups successfully used forced occupations in the 1980s and 1990s to increase their land holdings, especially in southern Colombia where they argued more land was needed to feed their growing populations. But in recent years the government has cracked down on these efforts. There are 94 legally recognized Indigenous tribes in Colombia, totaling 800,000 people or about 2 percent of the population. Hundreds of thousands of hectares (acres) have been designated as reserve land for the Indians.

  In Brazil, the pristine rivers and forest of one of the Amazon's most unusual tribes are being destroyed by the continuing advance of Brazil's 'soya frontier'. Vast areas of the Indians' forest are being cleared to make way for great expanses of soya interspersed with equally huge cattle ranches. For more information go to: http://survival-international.org/tribes.php?tribe_id=194. In Northern Brazil, in February, members of four Indian tribes took four employees of the worlds largest mining company, Companhia Vale de Rio Doce SA, hostage, after blocking the company rail line, in an effort to get Brazil's National Indian Foundation to improve health care in their communities. In December, Brazilian Police in Mato Groso State began evicting squatters and loggers from the Amazon area to protet the very isolated tribe known as the Rio Pardo, Over a hundred Brazilian federal police evicted the Guarani-Kaiowa Indians of Ñanderú Marangatú, Mato Grosso do Sul, from their land, in December, forcing them into a 30-hectare corner of Ñanderú Marangatú, too small to hold the 400 tribal members, so that many had to build shelters along the side of the road. Ñanderú Marangatú was officially recognized as the land of the Guarani-Kaiowa last March, but ranchers are contesting the recognition in Brazil's supreme court. In the meantime, The Guinari are prevented from harvesting the crops that they spent much of the year raising on their 9,300 hectare legally recognized reservation, facing them with starvation. One of the evicted Guarani men told Survival International, 'Helicopters flew very low over the area. Children were screaming and crying. Three people fainted and were taken to hospital. Everyone was crying and standing on the side of the road with nothing in the baking sun. We have nothing to eat. The ranchers when the police weren't there burned all our food, our clothes and documents. They burned fifteen houses. The only things we have left are the clothes on our bodies. 'This was terrible. It was not peaceful like the Brazilian press says. This was the worst thing. Everyone is traumatized. I was there. I saw it. People are saying they will commit suicide.' During the eviction, two journalists from Netherlands state television were arrested. For more information contact Miriam Ross at Survival International: (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or email mr@survival-international.org, http://survival-international.org/news.php?id=1268.

  Loggers operating illegally in the Purús National Park in Peru are causing large numbers of uncontacted Indians to flee from their traditional territory. The nomadic Piro Indians have been forced across the border into Brazil, bringing them into conflict with other isolated Indians whose territory they are now occupying. Indigenous people and local farmers have been fighting the expansion and ongoing operation of Newmont Mining Corporation’s Yanacocha gold mine, near Apalina Peru, which is poisoning the water with cyanide in the sacred mountains that supply much of the region with water.

  In Sri Lanka, in October, One hundred Wanniyala-Aetto tribespeople returned to their land, more than twenty years after they were forced to move to government resettlement areas when their last forest refuge was turned into the Maduru Oya National Park in 1983. For more information go to: http://www.survival-international.org/news.php?id=1100

  The isolated Jarawa tribe of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean is suffering a measles epidemic, the second since contact with outsiders in 1988, which could wipe out the 270 member tribe. Seven Jarawa children had been admitted to hospital in early May. That number has since grown, and by May 10 16% of the tribe was reported infected.

  First People of the Kalahari were awarded the Right Livelihood Award, known as the alternative Nobel prize, in October, in recognition of their 'resolute resistance against eviction from their ancestral lands, and for upholding the right to their traditional way of life'. The award was presented in the Swedish parliament, in December. For more information go to: http://www.survival-international.org/appeal.php?id=40. Reports from Survival International over the past months indicate continuing torture, deaths and removal of Bushman from their home land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana at the hands of the government, intent on assisting DeBeers in establishing a huge diamond mine. Members of Bushman organizations and their international supporters have been harassed. The persecution, arrest and torture of Bushman hunters in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve has been going on for about two decades, and has intensified in recent years. Botswana's President Mogae was greeted by protestors wearing 'Botswana police shoot Bushmen' T-shirts when he gave a talk at the Oxford Union, in Brittan. Twenty-five protestors were bundled out of the Union by burly security guards for 'wearing offensive t-shirts' and 'asking offensive questions.' All were members of the Union or their guests. For details information contact Survival, phone: +44 7815 300 664, mr@survival-international.org, http://www.survival-international.org/news.php?id=1401.

 The New Zealand Ministry of Justice noted in its annual report, in October, that though Maori form just 14.5% of New Zealand's population, 50% of the prison population and 45% of offenders serving community-based sentences identify themselves as Maori. The ministry said it was working with communities and iwi on initiatives to reduce Maori law breaking.

 Dr Clive Aspin, an Auckland University researcher, reported, in October, that changes in the HIV epidemic in New Zealand may be placing Maori at increased risk. Maori rates of AIDS diagnosis are around 15% to 20%, above the 14% population threshold. A warning sign is that the proportion of Maori women diagnosed with HIV has increased.

  The Maori Party in Aotearoa (New Zealand) has concerns about the long functioning claims settlement process, which since 1992, alone, has settled nearly twenty claims of about $735 million. The Party says that these concerns have come from nearly all claimants and their lawyers, from all parts of the country. "Because of the seriousness and the breadth of those concerns...the Maori Party is considering a call: That all Treaty settlements be suspended until there has been a full review of the Treaty Settlement process". The major complaint is that while the settlement process should be agreed to by both parties, the Crown has set all terms of settlement. First, the Crown established the Waitangi Tribunal to consider Treaty claims, but the Crown often refuses to be bound by the long and costly Tribunal hearings, leading claimant groups to be pressured into direct negotiations with the Crown. While the 2005 New Zealand government budget listed a surplus of $7 billion, the Crown says that it can only afford $1.3 billion for treaty settlements, far below the level of claims. Indeed, the Crown has been settling for only about 2% of the real values of claims, Second, the Party objects to the Crown insisting on approving who can represent claimants. Third, "The Crown is insisting on dealing with 'large natural groupings'. Smaller hapu and iwi claims are being denied due process. Those in a collective are not told what the value of their settlement will be". Fourth, "The Crown is insisting on settlement entities which suit Crown plans, even when those entities do not reflect traditional structures, and even when hapu and iwi are left out of those entities. Questionable processes have also been used to put entities in place". Fifth, by insisting that all settlements be 'full and final', the Crown is attempting to prevent future review of unfair settlements. Thus the Maori Party is asking all concerned to rethink the process and discuss improvements.

  In mid-May it was announced that the government of New Zealand is very close to an agreement with the Tainui tribe to return the Waikato River, the longest in the country, to the tribe. The Maori claim includes the banks of the river, its tributaries and associated flood plains and west coast harbors, It is beleived that the Tainui will have at least a co-management role in the river, a major economic resource in the region and the source of some of Auckland's drinking water. The dollar value of the settlement is not yet determined, but a 2004 settlement for the return of 13 of Rotorua's 14 lakes included a $10 million package for Te Arawa. The settlement is also likely to set a precedent for long-standing claims against the Crown from the Whanganui iwi over the Whanganui River, and Taupo-based Tuwharetoa.

  Australia’s first Indigenous children’s court, the Children’s Koori Court, began operation last fall, including the participation of two Koori elders and family members, in an attempt to overcome the over representation of aboriginal youth in the Australian justice system.

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