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The Tribal Energy Program in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in the Department of Energy received enacted FY 2008 appropriations of $5,946,400, including $492,000 for the Council of Energy Resources Tribes and $984,000 for the White Earth Wind energy Project. On March 31 the Senate approved an amendment (S. Con Res. 90) sponsored by Committee on Indian Affairs Chairman, Senator Byron Dorgan (D, ND), adding $1 million to the FY 2009 budget of the Indian Health Service. Reconciliation with the House budget resolution (H. Con. Res. 312) was still necessary. With considerable effort from the National Indian Education Association, working with the National Indian Head Start Directors Association, after several years of level Head Start funding, the final FY 2008 legislation included a 27% increase totaling $5 million for Indian Head Start, as part of a planned continued expansion over the next few years. A funding bill signed by President Bush Dec. 20 includes $1.8 million for tribal participation in the Pacific Salmon Treaty. Including monies from other sources, funding for tribal participation totals $4.1 million. The funding is shared by tribes in western Washington and along the Columbia River, as well as the Metlakatla Indian community in Southeast Alaska. In addition, $1.7 million is budgeted for tribal participation in the Timber Fish Wildlife agreement. With $2.5 million in state funding, the tribes will have near-status quo funding of $4.2 million in 2008.
In the Courts The U.S. Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court, November 26, rejected petitions, without comment, from the Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians and the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, to hear an appeal of a panel ruling by 1st Circuit Court of Appeals issued last spring, which effectively terminated the two bands'sovereign rights to self-government and control over how they conduct day-to-day business on their lands. The case arose from non-tribal members filing employment discrimination complaints with a Maine state agency against the Micmacs. The band asked the state to dismiss the complaints, arguing that it had no jurisdiction over the band on internal tribal matters and that it was protected from the complaints by its inherent tribal sovereignty and sovereign immunity. The 1st Circuit majority decision ruled that the federal Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980 and the Aroostook Band of Micmac Settlement Act of 1991 subjected the band to total state civil and criminal jurisdiction, including how tribes handle employment in their businesses on their lands. The two judges then applied their decision to the Maliseets. The Supreme Court agreed, at the end of February, to hear Carcieri v. Kempthorne, 497 F .3d 15 (1st Cir. 207) involving a state challenge to the taking into trust, in 1998, of 31 acres of land, part of its aboriginal territory, purchased by the Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island in 1991, upon which to build elders housing. The tribe became federally recognized in 1983. The first issue the Court will consider is whether IRA trust acquisition is only authorized by the act to tribes that were federally recognized at the time of its passage, June 18, 1934. The second issue is whether the Rhode Island Settlement Act extinguishing the Narragansett's Title to land outside the 1800 acres it received in the settlement codified in the act, prevented the Secretary of the Interior from putting into trust additional land that the tribe might later acquire. The State lost on both issues in the First Circuit.
Lower Federal Courts
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, December 26, that a lawsuit by the Osage Nation can proceed against individual members of the Oklahoma Tax Commission, in which the tribe is arguing that tribal members who live and work in Osage County are exempt from state income taxes. Under current law, tribal members who work for the tribe and live in Indian country are exempt from state taxes. The Pawhuska-based Osage Nation is arguing that the Osage Reservation was never formally disestablished by Congress and that the entire county is considered Indian country. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, December 3, that the State of Arizona is not entitled to receive 100% reimbersement for services provided American Indian/Alaska Native beneficiaries when the services are provided by a non-HIS provider pursuant to a Contract Health Service referral from an HIS or tribal facility, in Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System v. McClellan (No. 05-16386 - 9th Cir., 2007). The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decided, December 7, in Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Vaughn (No, 05-16755 - 9th Cir., 2007), that Tribal Sovereignty does not prevent the railroad from suing a Hualapai tribal official in federal court to prevent enforcement of the tribe's use tax on a right of way through the tribe's reservation. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, March 19, issued a modified decision in Marceau v. Blackfoot Housing Authority, brought by tribal members who had purchased or leased homes built by the authority under HUD's Mutual Help and Homeownership Program between 1979 and 1980. The plaintiffs alleged that over their and the housing authority's objection, HUD required construction of the homes to be with pressure treated wood, rather than concrete, which became vulnerable to moisture accumulation from groundwater and septic flooding, making houses uninhabitable because of resulting toxic mold, dried sewage residues and structural instability. The district court dismissed the suite, and in its initial decision the 9th Circuit upheld the lower court as to the suite against HUD, but reversed the dismissal against the housing authority, on grounds of tribal immunity, holding that the “sue or be sued” language in the tribal ordinance establishing the authority was a clear waive of tribal immunity (despite contrary decisions on the same language by the 2nd and 8th circuits). On rehearing, the court, held to its previous decision on language, while reversing its decision on the dismissal of the suite against HUD, reinstating the suite, holding that HUD had violated the trust responsibility and that the plaintiffs APA claim was legitimate. The 10th Circuit Court, May 8, overturned a district court decision dismissing charges against a Northern Arapaho man who shot a bald eagle for use in his tribe's Sun Dance, on the grounds that federal government procedures were inadequate, in practice. The appeals court reinstated the charges and returned the case to the lower court for prosecution. The Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin decided, March 28, that the Village of Hobart, WI could tax and condemn land held in fee simple by the Oneida tribe of Indians of Wisconsin, within the boundaries of is reservation, finding that the Oneida lands in question lost their federal protection - including from state taxation and condemnation - when they were allotted and then patented in fee simple in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and would not regain their exemption from state laws until they were placed into trust by the federal government. Arguments were presented, May 11, before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in a suite, brought by the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, claiming that, in granting uranium mining licenses near the Navajo communities of Church Rock, NM and Crownpoint, NM, the Nuclear Regulatory commission had violated federal policies and its own regulations. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in September, interpreting the amended U.S. statute governing tribal contracts (25 U.S.C. § 81), found that a management contract that gave complete operational control over an on reservation business did not 'encumber Indian lands' and thus did not require approval of the Secretary of the Interior to be in force, in a 2001 suite involving Nambe Pueblo and GasPlus (GasPluss, LLC vs. U.S Department of the Interior). The U.S. district Court for the Western District of Oklahoma ruled in Vintage Petroleum, Inc. V. Roundtree (No. civ-94=51 [W.D. Okla.]), February 19, 2008, that the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma possesses jurisdiction to impose a severance tax on oil and gas production from individual Kickapoo trust allotments by a non-Indian oil and gas producer. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge James Robertson, May 14, granted a request from Interior Department Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and other defendants in the ongoing Cobell trust litigation to reconnect Internet systems in several offices in the Department of Interior, including the BIA, Office of the Special Trustee, the Office of Historical Trust Accounting, the Office of Hearing and Appeals and the Office of the Solicitor. Robertson's decision vacated a Dec. 17, 2001, order that effectively pulled the BIA offline for almost seven years, because of issues of the security of Indian trust accounts. The U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico decided, October 18, that even though the Indian Health Services had wrongfully declined the Southern Ute Tribe's proposal under the Indian Self determination and Education Assistance Act, IHS will not have to provide any contract support costs when the contract is finally awarded. The tribe had refused to wave its rights to receiving such costs in applying for the contract, for which reason HIS had denied the contract, a decision which was later determined illegal in federal court. The current case decided that the first decision did not give the tribe the right to receive those funds. A similar pair of results were reached by the same court concerning the school board of the Ramah Chapter of the Navajo Nation in Ramah Navajo School Leavitt (Civ. No, 07-289 MV/ACY [D.N.M.], February 6, 2008). The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, in Susanville Indian Rancheria v. Leavitt (No. 2:07-cv-00259-GEB-DAD, 2008), in which last spring had granted a temporary restraining order against IHS, ruled, January 2, that the IHS could not deny a contract under The Indian Self-Determination and Educational Assistance Act, Title V, where IHS had done so, saying it could not approve a contract with a pharmacy co-pay, which the tribe had established for pharmacy service, but exempted eligible people from paying who lived in its service area and whose annual income was less than 125% of the poverty line established by DHHS. The court held that the reason for contract denial by IHS was not one of those stated in the statute. Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, delivered partial summary judgment, March 31, that Indian-preference hiring at the Interior Department must be the rule for all positions there that pertain ''directly and primarily to providing services to Indians.'' He based his ruling on the Indian Reorganization Act and a canon of statutory construction that interprets law '''liberally' in favor of the Indians, with ambiguous provisions interpreted to their benefit.'' At issue was the phrase ''Indian Office'' in the IRA, interpreted by Interior since 1988 to limit Indian preference hiring to only the BIA within Interior. Interior at large is responsible for many Indian- and Native-specific services beyond the province of the BIA. The motion for summary judgment came from the plaintiff in the case, Indian Educators Federation Local 4524 of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol of Sioux Falls, SD, December 19, sided with the Yankton Sioux tribe and the U.S. government in ruling against claims by the State of South Dakota and Charles Mix County, who have long argued that the reservation was disestablished, or terminated, in the late 1800s, holding that the tribe's reservation covers about 37,585 acres, or 59 square miles, which is mostly land the government holds in trust for the tribe and individual tribal members. An undetermined amount of land privately owned by American Indians also is included in the reservation, he said. The Judge stated that these issues have been settled in prior court rulings that found the reservation has been diminished but not disestablished. A federal judge, in early April, blocked the British company Vane Minerals from continuing exploratory uranium mining near the Grand Canyon. Federal District Court in Brooklyn, Judge Carol Bagley Amon, dismissed almost all of a lawsuit filed last year against the Unkechaug Indian Nation and the Shinnecock Tribe, by John A. Catsimatidi's more than 50 Gristedes supermarkets in New York City, Westchester County and Long Island, who claimed that tax-free cigarette sales by two state-recognized Long Island tribes undermined profits at his supermarket empire. Amon dismissed the claim that the non-taxed cigarette sales ''created, fostered and nourished a thriving black market in illegally discounted cigarette sales'' and dismissed all RICO charges of corrupt business dealings and unfair competition. Catsimatidis had asked the court to force Indian retailers to buy cigarettes from wholesalers at the taxed price and sought $20 million in damages from the tribes, the amount he claimed he has lost. Amon did find that advertisements calling the cigarettes ''tax-free'' were misleading because cigarette sales are not actually tax-free under state law - in the case of untaxed cigarettes sold on tribal land, the customer is by law responsible for paying the taxes. The U.S. District Court, Southern District of California's ruling, in April, in Rincon Band v. Schwarzenegger, et al held that California's present compact negotiation requirement of ''net revenues'' paid into the state's general fund in exchange for additional gaming devices to be illegal, saying there must exist a ''nexus'' between the demand for a portion of a tribe's net revenues and the purposes of the IGRA to pass legal muster. Some commentators stated that the court held that the payments into the general fund in compacts with tribes, used by the Arnold Schwarzenegger administration to help the state balance its budget, are in essence an illegal tax on the tribes, and thus a breach of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act's provision against tribal taxation. In holding for Rincon, the magistrate found the state's offering of ''exclusivity'' in exchange for extra devices was not only transparent, but of no significant value to the tribe, because exclusivity was previously conferred under Proposition 1A. Two pending cases, one also involving the Rincon tribe and the other the Cachil Dehe Band of Wintun Indians, concern the legitimacy of the state's means of determining the total number and allocation of slot machine gaming device licenses available to tribes under the 1999 tribal-state compact. These cases, which were dismissed by the court on a technicality, are pending before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. They also involve the legitimacy of attempt to impose the National Indian Gaming Commission's minimum internal control standards on tribes, which the tribes claim is improper, because the 1999 compact does not include a MICS provision and requires the consent of the tribal-state association prior to the imposition of any post-compact gaming regulation. Two Makah tribal members, Wayne Johnson and Andy Noel, who led a hunt for gray whales, have been convicted of federal misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act and unlawfully taking a marine mammal, by U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Kelley Arnold, April 7, after the defendants waived their right to a jury trial and admitted their roles in the hunt. Defense attorneys say they want to get on with appealing some of the rulings made in the case, including one in which Arnold determined the September hunt was not protected under the First Amendment right to religious freedom. Three other tribal members had earlier pleaded guilty. The city of Kivalina, AK and a federally recognized tribe, the Alaska Native village of Kivalina, brought suit in federal court, in March, against Exxon Mobil Corp., BP PLC, and seven other oil companies, 14 power companies and one coal company, claiming that the large amounts of greenhouse gases they emit contribute to global warming that threatens the community's existence by greatly increasing costal erosion by the Arctic Ocean. Klamath Riverkeeper filed a lawsuit in federal court, in December, against PacifiCorp, Inc., a subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire-Hathaway, alleging that the corporation is endangering human health and the environment in the Klamath River. The complaint charges that annual blooms of the toxic algae microcystis aeruginosa and its by-product the toxin microcystin, generated by the Copco and Iron Gate Dams, are discharged to reservoirs and the Klamath River. This discharge has serious consequences for both the environment and human health. The toxin is not present upstream of PacifiCorpís Copco and Iron Gate dams and reservoirs, but has been found downstream at levels nearly 4,000 times what is considered safe for recreational contact by the World Heath Organization. This year the algal toxin led water quality officials to post warnings the length of the river during the peak salmon fishing season. For more information go to: http://www.klamathriver.org/, http://www.salmonforsavings.com, or http://www.ferc.gov. Attorney William Burgess filed a federal lawsuit, as a taxpayer, in early April, attempting, again, to shut down Native Hawaiian programs on the grounds that they' re racially discriminatory. The suit seeks to have $450 million in land and other assets controlled by Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) distributed to other state agencies, and it demands that the office be dismantled. The action is the latest in a long series of challenges to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA), which argues the state has a responsibility written into the law to improve conditions for Native Hawaiians. The lawsuit also tries to stop the Hawaiian agency from spending money supporting federal recognition or advertising on Kau Inoa, a Native Hawaiian registration project that could lead to a Hawaiian government, if it eventually is approved. This legal challenge was filed after U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway dismissed a similar lawsuit in April 2007 that sought to stop the state from funding the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Mollway decided that taxpayers who challenged the constitutionality of the funding had no standing to bring their claims after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that taxpayers don' t have the right to sue over how the government spends their money. For more go to the OHA web site: http://oha.org/. Alabama Attorney General Troy King brought suit in federal court in Mobile, AL April 7, seeking to block the Department of the Interior from negotiating with the Poarch Creek Band of Indians to have new types of gaming. The Cherokee County, KS Commission filed suite in the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, February 25, against the Interior Department to block construction of the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma's casino, in Kansas, just across the border from Oklahoma, near the only Kansas exit for Interstate 44, alleging that in taking the land into trust and allowing construction of a casino upon it, the Interior Department violated its own rules. The commission backs a competing proposal by Penn National Gaming Inc. to build a $295 million resort casino. Penn National is reimbursing the county for its expenses in the suite. The Ysleta Pueblo del Sur, known as the Tiguas, in late January, was considering bringing suite against the state of Texas, on the basis of a new federal study supporting their long-held claims that the state stole 36 square miles of tribal territory in El Paso. The 172-page report, completed last year, was obtained by the San Antonio Express-News under a Freedom of Information Act request. It supports the Tiugas claim that the Texas legislature illegally took the land from the tribe in 1871, when the Texas Legislature used it to incorporate the town of Ysleta, now home to tens of thousands of homes and businesses. The Tiguas maintain that the Texas Legislature's seizure of the tribe's land violates the Indian Nonintercourse Act passed by Congress many years earlier. The legislation invalidated any sale of Indian land by individuals or states not sanctioned ''at some public treaty, held under the authority of the United States.'' The tribe said it does not plan to evict anyone, or to use the report as leverage to resolve their conflict with the state of Texas over the reopening of the tribe's Speaking Rock Casino.
State and Local Courts
In Massachusetts, a state curt decided that state-licensed casinos in Massachusetts must abide by state law bans smoking in all workplaces, including casinos bars and restaurants. Under state law Native American tribes may apply for a license in the state if they agree to waive any and all rights under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which includes abiding by the terms of the smoking ban. A Rhode Island court convicted the chief of the Narragansett tribe and two other members, April 4, of misdemeanor charges related to a 2003 raid on a tribal smoke shop by police, in which tribal members resisted the police seizure of items in the shop. The case involved the tribe's refusal to pay state taxes on tobacco sold at its shop. Four other tribal members were cleared of charges. The trial of three Native activists who protested the Denver Columbus Day parade, October 6, ended in Denver County Court, Jan. 22 with mixed verdicts. They were charged with misdemeanor offenses that included blocking the street, interfering with a parade and, for one defendant, resisting arrest. Not guilty verdicts were delivered on some charges, but the defendants were found guilty on others, sentenced to pay finds ranging from $50 to $200. More than 80 people were arrested, October 6, in downtown Denver. The convictions were the first in nearly 20 years of opposition to the parade in Colorado, birthplace of the Columbus Day state holiday, and they occurred under an ordinance passed in 2007 by the Denver City Council. A tentative settlement (pending approval by the Maine Board of Environmental Protection, as well as the state attorney general's office) was reached, at the beginning of January, between the State of Maine and the Katahdin Paper of Millinocket, under which the firm has agreed to pay a fine of more than $100,000 for wastewater discharges that state officials say triggered a massive algae bloom in the Penobscot River last summer. Under the terms of a proposed settlement agreement, Katahdin Paper will pay a total of $106,000 to the state, the Penobscot Nation and several pollution prevention and detection projects. Katahdin Paper has also agreed to abide by lower, temporary pollution discharge levels, although company officials said the mill no longer discharges the phosphorus at the root of the algae bloom.
Tribal Courts
The Rosebud Sioux Tribal Court has dismissed at least 217 criminal cases, as of early April, because tribal police officers were not properly certified, going back about nine years. Tribal Council member James Henry said the number of overturned convictions are “probably going to triple”, University of Colorado Law School students have taking on complex court cases aimed at protecting the well-being of American Indian children and are succeeding in the state's highest courts, through participating in the school's American Indian Law Clinic, in December, handling trial work and preparing legal briefs in an adoption case heard before the Colorado Supreme Court. The case involved a 10-year-old American Indian boy who has been living under various guardianships since he was an infant.
States, Localities, and Indian Nations
Representatives of state governments, tribes and other stakeholder interests in the Missouri River Basin have reached agreement, after eight months of talks, in an ongoing effort to recover threatened and endangered species dependent on the river, at a meeting in Omaha, NE, January 24, when the 40 members of the Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee Drafting Team announced consensus on a recommended charter for a standing Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee, or ''MR RIC.'' The Drafting Team sent its recommended charter for MR RIC to the Secretary of the Army, who was expected to act on the recommendations by June. If the secretary adopts the proposed charter, MR RIC, after considering the diverse interests of water users in the basin, it would provide: Recommendations on a planned Missouri River and tributary study of ways to reduce aquatic and terrestrial habitat loss. Input on steps to recover species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act and ongoing efforts to restore the ecosystem to prevent further species decline. Guidance on research, implementation and coordination of the existing Missouri River mitigation/recovery plan. The Missouri River Basin encompasses all or parts of 10 states and the reservations of 28 Indian tribes. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began navigation improvements on America's longest river in the 1800s. Beginning in the 1990s, tensions heightened among basin users as the result of drought, competing claims for water, and the listing of two bird species (least tern and piping plover) and one fish (pallid sturgeon) as threatened or endangered under the ESA - all while the Corps was attempting to rewrite its Master Manual of reservoir operations to address these changing circumstances. In 2003, river-related litigation was so extensive that the federal courts invoked special rules to consolidate the many pending lawsuits before one judge in St. Paul, Minn. With most litigation resolved by 2005, the Corps, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and other federal agencies turned attention to their responsibilities under the ESA and the new Master Manual to recover the listed species. Seeking to avoid past conflicts, the federal agencies involved the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution (Tucson), created by Congress to advance conflict-resolution in environmental disputes involving federal agencies. A ''situation assessment'' by the U.S. Institute recommended the formation of a broadly based stakeholder group to draft a proposed Charter to structure a permanent species recovery committee, authorized recently enacted federal Water Resources Development Act. In early 2007, the federal agencies and the U.S. Institute formed a drafting team to write the proposed charter, with six states, 15 tribes and representatives of a variety of other interests accepting invitations to join the drafting team. A 19-member review panel was also created to provide independent feedback to the drafting team on its work. In announcing the proposed charter. The recommended Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee Charter continues the broadly based membership that has characterized the drafting team itself. The proposed charter provides for representatives from eight basin states, 28 federally recognized Indian tribes and 16 stakeholder categories. As required by WRDA, federal representation is also incorporated into the committee, principally through Corps and USFWS representatives. The text of the proposed charter and the membership of the drafting team and review committee may be accessed at http://missouririver.ecr.gov. South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds proposed a plan, in mid-December, to protect the sacred ceremonial site of Beat Butte, on the northern edge of the Black Hills, by setting up a fund of more than $1 million to buy a perpetual easement that would prevent commercial and residential development of some land on the western side of Bear Butte. This would prevent developers from putting biker bars and other noisy businesses on ranch land near the mountain that would disturb vision quests and other ceremonies regularly held at the Butte. In February, the South Dakota legislature voted not to pass HB1309, which would have prohibited alcoholic beverage sales within one mile of the peak. All 11 Wisconsin tribes with reservations, the eight tribal police departments, and state and local law enforcement, and social services are collaborating in a new multifaceted program to reduce gang activity and drug use. One aspect of the program is a policy of removing children from homes where drugs are used, sold or manufactured. The Wisconsin Department of Justice's Department of Criminal Investigation and NADGI are helping tribes profile 'gang activities on each reservation. Tribal elders and schools are increasing programs that concentrate on heritage and bringing back the culture, and sports programs for kids are being developed. The New Mexico Department of Transportation and Navajo Nation officials recently reached a compromise over disputes over taxation, easement rights and how much the tribe would pay toward the work on widening U.S. 491, so that construction could begin as early this spring to widen the 70-mile corridor of that deadly highway across the Navajo Nation. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson was publicly sworn in for a second term by Governor Joe Garcia of Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, on January 1, in the chamber of the House of Representatives in the state Capitol. It was the first time a New Mexico governor has been sworn in by an American Indian governor. The Arizona Department of Economic Security and the Navajo Nation concluded an agreement, in December, that will ensure that Navajo children needing foster care will be raised and cared for by their relatives, and providing that the nation will be reimbursed hundreds of thousands of dollars in foster care for Navajo children. It also calls for training and licensing families related to the foster children to enable them to be raised in a home environment with relatives. The Colorado Legislature passed resolutions in both the House and Senate, in April, that apologized for and remembered the deaths of millions of American Indians after colonization. The resolutions state that Europeans, in some cases intentionally, caused many American Indian deaths, and that early American settlers often treated Indians with ''cruelty and inhumanity.'' The resolutions also recognize that ''American Indians have made many sacrifices in the history of this great nation.'' Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano recently appointed the first Native American to the Arizona Board of Regents, LuAnn Leonard a member of the Hopi Nation, and Executive Director of the Hopi Education Endowment Fund. She's also a descendent of the Tohono O' Odham Nation. New Mexico law enforcement officers massed, February 27, near a bingo parlor on a 30-acre site along Interstate 10 in Akela, west of Las Cruces, built by the Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Oklahoma, to prevent it from opening, The New Mexico governor's office says bingo or any other gambling there would be illegal, and that the tribe had agreed not to conduct such operations there when the land was taken into federal trust in 2002. The National Indian Gaming Commission told Fort Sill Apache Chairman Jeff Houser that it will shut down the casino if it is opened even for a few hours. The Wisconsin Senate Committee on Education held a public hearing, October 17, to take testimony regarding a proposed bill (Senate Bill 132) that would improve the process by which an American Indian family could obtain Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) evaluation of a school board's race-based nickname policy. The two and a half hours of testimony at the Hearing is available for viewing and/or listening at: http://www.wisconsineye.org/wisEye_programming/ARCHIVES-committees.html#sencomedu. The Penobscot River Restoration Project (PRRP) of the Penobscot Indian Nation, the Penobscot River Restoration Trust and the PPL Corp., an energy company that generates electricity and owns dams on the river, was presented with a Cooperative Conservation Award, April 21, in Washington, DC, by Interior Department Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, for the projects outstanding work restoring endangered wild Atlantic salmon and other native migratory sea-run fish, while balancing the need for hydroelectric power on the river. The PRRP is a collaboration among tribal, federal and state governments, and industry and conservation groups in an alliance to restore the damaged river. In February, The Penobscot Indian Nation and its public and private partners announced that they had raised $25 million for the first phase of the Penobscot River Restoration Project. The Penobscot Indian Nation of Maine severed relations with the state, after Maine Governor John Baldacci successfully thwarted a bill approved with a supermajority in both chambers of the legislature that would have allowed the tribe to operate 100 slot machines at its high-stakes bingo facility on Indian Island. Wabanaki tribes of Maine, this spring, were objecting to a proposed amendment put forth by Maine's newspapers and powerful paper lobby try to quash a proposal that would exempt the tribes from the state's Freedom of Access Act, as part of proposed bill Legislative Document 2221 - that would change a few provisions of the Maine Implementing Act, the legislation that enacted the federal 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act. Tribal leaders say that the exemption allowing access to tribal records by nonmembers would violate their sovereignty, holding that the tribal governments need to be transparent to their members, but not to outsiders. The Washington Department of Natural Resources, in developing a plan for management of an aquatic reserve within the traditional territory of the Samish Indian Nation, cooperated with the Samish Nation, who hosted a public meeting, November 7, on the Fidalgo Bay Aquatic Reserve management plan in its conference center at Fidalgo Bay Resort. The state of Michigan reached a settlement of a long-running dispute, March 21, with the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, over the portion of gaming revenues paid to the state. The new deal will add millions of dollars into funds used to boost economic development in the state. The tribes, based in the northwest part of Michigan's Lower Peninsula, contended that the Michigan Lottery's Club Keno game violated an exclusivity clause in their 1998 compacts with the state, bringing them to withheld revenue sharing payments to the state, beginning in 2004. Prior to the disagreement, the tribes paid 8% of their electronic gaming profits to the state. The new agreement drops the rate to 6%, in most instances. The tribes had built up $52 million in escrow accounts while the dispute over where the slot revenues were stalled in court. Under the agreement, half of that money will go to the state and half will go to the tribes. The nations agreed to some modifications that are expected to make the revenue payments more stable in future years. Exclusivity rights will no longer be defined on a statewide basis, but rather on a more limited regional basis. Lottery and similar state-sponsored gaming will not be considered new commercial gaming unless it involves large-scale use of electronic machines. New commercial gaming within a tribal casino's market no longer will result in a permanent end to the revenue sharing payments. Instead, payments could be suspended and then resumed later at a lower rate if the tribe's casino revenues continue to grow. The deal should give Michigan more money to use toward generating jobs at a time its unemployment rate is the highest in the nation. The State of Idaho, which had lost previous attempts to tax fuel sold on Indian reservations, last year passed legislation, over tribal objections, to impose the state's gas tax unilaterally on reservation fuel sales with an exemption for any tribe that signed a negotiated agreement with the governor by December 1. The three Idaho tribes that operate gas stations - the Coeur d'Alene, Nez Perce and Shoshone-Bannock tribes - and the Kootenai Tribe, which might enter the fuel business, signed compacts with Governor Butch' Otter, prior to the December deadline. The compacts require each tribe to keep its fuel tax in line with the state tax, and to spend fuel tax revenues on transportation needs, on and off the reservation, in partnership with other entities, including federal and state agencies, counties, cities and highway districts. In January, the Governor sent the fuel tax agreements to the state legislature for approval, despite questions over whether the agreements need legislative consent. In the agreement, reached in December, between the State of Washington and the Yakama nation, Yakama would incrementally increase its cigarette sales tax over eight years - from $16.20 to $17.75 per carton - to narrow the gap between the tax charged by tribal and non-tribal retailers. The state charges $20.25 in tax per carton. The agreement would replace a 2004 agreement that required a closing of the tax gap within a shorter time period. The state Department of Revenue terminated that agreement after finding that, in violation of the agreement cigarettes continued to be sold on the reservation without valid Yakama Nation tax stamps. The cigarette tax increase would raise additional revenue for Yakama; with the exception of a federal tax of 39 cents per pack, all tax revenues are used for tribal services such as burials and energy assistance programs. The state benefits from Yakama's cigarette products carrying a tax stamp, and the Yakama would provide the state with information about the transport of cigarettes and sales to off-reservation customers within Washington State. Yakama would also allow the state access to on-reservation tobacco retailers for monitoring of pricing and stamps. The tax stamps and sharing of information will help the state enforce laws against the transport of unstamped cigarettes in Washington without violating Yakama's treaty right to ''transport goods to market without restriction.'' The agreement was sent to the legislature for approval. A proposed bill in the Connecticut state legislature, Senate Bill 419, that would ban smoking at Indian casinos on tribal land, failed to pass a day before Connecticut's legislative session ended at midnight, May 7. Three Vermont Abenaki bands - the St. Francis/Sokoki of Missisquoi, the Nulhegan and the Koasek - as well as the El-Nu Abenaki Tribe, known also as the El-Nu Koasek Traditional Band of the Abenaki Nation - have joined forces to oppose Vermont Senate Bill 369, which would grant them conditional state recognition through the Legislature for the purposes of labeling products under the federal Indian Arts and Crafts Act. The problem for the bands is that the conditional recognition imposes a short timeline, ending next January, in which the bands would have to submit extensive documentation and seek further approval from the attorney general and the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs. The bands are concerned that the process could terminate their identity as indigenous people. The president of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, Robert Chicks, gave the State of the Tribes speech before a joint meeting of the Senate and Assembly, as well as representatives of Wisconsin's 11 American Indian tribes, February 26. Calling for more than ''ceremonial regard for one another's role in government,'' Chicks urged the Legislature to pass a joint resolution recognizing tribal governments, which would not confer any new rights, but would help bolster greater cooperation between the tribes and state government. He stated that increased cooperation between tribal and state government leaders could help address health care concerns and improve economic development in Wisconsin. Under a 2004 New Mexico program to help tribes and pueblos navigate government paperwork, required to take advantage of legislative grants, Pueblo communities in northern Santa Fe were tentatively slated, in February, to receive more than $1.4 million in projects funded by this year's legislature. Construction projects legislators authorized to use revenues from a state oil-and-gas severance tax include work at the Pueblo of Pojoaque Wellness Center and a traditional ceremonial facility in Pojoaque. Those two projects are in line for $250,000 and $200,000, respectively. Other area funding in the Legislature's capital outlay bill includes $250,000 for a law enforcement training center in Tesuque; $200,000 for affordable housing in San Ildefonso; and $150,000 for a multipurpose building in Nambe. The New Mexico legislature, in February, passed HB 236 authorizing an Off-Reservation Native American Health commission in Bernalillo County to work to improve Indian health and healthcare for the 50,000 American Indians in the Albuquerque area. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed the five members of the California Native American Heritage Commission, in November, and proclaimed November 2007 as Native American Heritage Month in California to honor the significant contributions and centuries-old traditions of the Native American heritage and culture. California state senators rebuked the University of California - Berkeley, in February, for refusing to return to Indian nations thousands of Native human remains held in storage, calling the actions of university officials discriminatory. On Super Tuesday, February 5, California voters approved Propositions 94 and 95, authorizing the largest casino expansion since tribal gaming was legalized eight years ago. Under these measures, the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians and the Morongo Band of Mission Indians may add as many as 7,500 slot machines at their casinos - up from 2,000 per the 1999 compact. As of early June many of the new slots were in place. Five members of the Indiana Native American Indian Affairs Commission resigned, in April, charging that Republican Governor Mitch Daniels and his administration ''have broken many, many promises to us'' and ''have intentionally blocked our efforts to help Indiana's Native people, and on specific occasions have disparaged us and lied to us.'' The principle complaints concern the administration's failure to fill all the vacancies on the 15 voting member commission. As Daniels only appointed 14 people, the commission deadlocked on some occasions. The North Carolina' Commission of Indian Affairs has taken preliminary steps to partner with Clear Channel Communications, the owner of a controversial radio station in the state that recently aired racist comments about American Indians. According to leaders on the commission, the partnership calls for Clear Channel to air public service announcements and initiate staff sensitivity training on Indian issues, as well as refraining from airing derogatory remarks about Native people. Commission members were expected to vote June 6 on whether to ratify the agreement. Washington governor Christine Gregoire, in April, directed her Office of Indian Affairs and the state's Department of Revenue to conduct a series of half-day workshops across the state to improve business relationships between the tribes and local businesses and governments. The workshops, called ''Uncovering the Mystery of Tribal Sovereignty,'' are meant to give non-Indians a better understanding of tribal sovereignty, explain the reach and limits of tribal laws, and dispel myths or prejudices that sometimes hinder credit and business services to Indians. An approximate $45,000 Louisiana state grant to help preserve an American Indian mound in Dulac, LA may be on hold over a legal requirement. To use the state government's money as part of the funding to purchase the land, appraised at $25,000, the property has to be open to the public and remain under the parish government's ownership. But a private conservation nonprofit offering to help buy the site and put it under the United Houma Nation's stewardship requires the land be kept private. The Illinois Pollution Control Board, December 6, rejected environmentalists' claims that a planned landfill could desecrate possible nearby burial grounds near the ruins of a once-thriving prehistoric city at the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. The board ruled that the Illinois Sierra Club and American Bottom Conservancy failed to show that the municipality of Madison's approval process for a landfill near the site was 'fundamentally unfair.' The St. Louis suburb, which approved the landfill in February, would get roughly $1 million a year in fees from Houston-based Waste Management Inc., the nation's largest garbage hauler. Tribal chairs from the California Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians, Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians, and Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians announced, April 15, the formation of the Four Winds Coalition, a first-ever tribal organization focused solely on working closely with local governments of the eastern Coachella Valley and the county of Riverside, CA on a wide range of common issues. The coalition plans to address a number of key issues, including establishing a process by which to work proactively with local governments and Riverside County to create an entertainment zone to draw more residents and visitors to the tribes' respective gaming operations. The Snohomish County, WA Sheriff's Office and the Tulalip tribal police signed a cross-deputation agreement for their officers, in April. Stockton Springe, ME, almost a year after a formal complaint to the Maine Human Rights Commission, October 18, removed the offensive word ''squaw'' from the name of a road, a point of coastal land and an island, and replace it with ''Defense'' in memory of an historic American ship that was scuttled by the Americans in the town's harbor during the Penobscot Expedition of 1779 to prevent the British from seizing it.
Tribal Developments
450, mostly Indigenous, scholars attended the first meeting of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, (NAISA), April 11, at the University of Georgia - Athens. The purpose of NAISA is ''to promote Native American and Indigenous studies through the encouragement of academic freedom, research, teaching, publication, the strengthening of relations among persons and institutions devoted to such studies, and the broadening of knowledge among the general public about Native American and Indigenous studies in all its diversity and complexity.'' It's not an Indian organization. It's a Native studies organization that values the presence of anyone who does that work. That said, because of our numbers, it's mostly Native-led. NAISA was the brainchild of a small group of Native academics from different nations, regions and disciplines. Robert Warrior, Osage, first came up with the idea and started discussing it with Jace Weaver, Cherokee, and Jean O'Brien, Ojibwe. Eventually, they formed a steering committee with Tsianina Lomawaima, Creek; Ines Hernandez-Avila, Nez Perce; and Kehaulani Kauanui, Native Hawaiian. This committee of six decided to hold a test conference at the University of Oklahoma in 2007 to gauge public interest. For more information, go to: http://www.instituteofnativeamericanstudies.com/NAIS-2008/NAISindex.html. Adding to the long and growing list of tribal members removed from membership. The Snoqualmie Tribe of Washington, in late April, banished former Chairman Bill T. Sweet and several of his family members, among other supporters, in banishing nine tribal members, while purging 43 individuals from the tribal rolls for failing to meet the blood quantum requirement for membership. The action appears to have been taken over issues of tribal politics. A comprehensive report assessing the needs of Native people with disabilities living within the Four Corners region, released by the Native American Disability Law Center, in March, finds that many American Indians with disabilities still face significant discrimination and are poorly understood by their communities. Community-based services, including personal care attendants, mental health and services for individuals with developmental disabilities are largely unavailable for many disabled Indigenous people, while a considerable number find the application process overwhelming and too complex. Key findings of the study include: 48%of the people with physical disabilities become homeless at least once. 59% of people with mental illness do not have enough food to meet their basic needs. 60% of people with mental illness are treated unfairly because of their disability. 47% of people with physical disabilities cannot get into a building because it is not accessible. More than 50% of people with disabilities cannot make ends meet and pay for essential utilities. More than 7% of individuals with mental illness get ''the run around'' from agencies and do not know about services for people with disabilities or how to apply for them. Concerning how American Indians feel about their place in the community, many say that they are not listened to by government leaders or service providers. ''Many people in need of services stop trying to get them because of frustration and the lack of help. More than anything, we hope that this report will show the community that people with disabilities are here - even when they are unseen - and have needs - even when they are unmet. The law center is working with our community partners to improve both access and quality of services,''said Therese Yanan, executive director of the law center. For more information on the 2007 Needs Assessment of Native Americans with disabilities or the services of the Native American Disability Law Center, contact Therese Yanan at (505) 215-3653 or (800) 862-7271. A report, made public in April, commissioned by International Relief and Development (http://www.ird.or.id), a food and welfare advocacy organization, finds that while overall American Indian health continues to improve, it remains well below that of all other groups and poverty clusters in the United States, with some particular problems of concern, including that malnutrition on some reservations is comparable to levels seen in vastly underdeveloped countries. Thoric Cederstrom, director of IRD's sustainable food and agriculture program, notes that, ''American Indian/Alaska Native populations are facing a number of serious challenges, including poverty and health-related issues.'' ''Many of these problems have, at their root cause, a lack of sufficient and consistent access to nutritious foods.'' The report notes that in many cases Indians living on reservations do not have sufficient funds to buy nutritious foods, while food subsidy programs often do not provide incentives to help people purchase healthy foods, which tend to be more expensive than junk food. Recent studies indicate that 23% of American Indian households report being food insecure, compared to 11% of all U.S. households, and is much higher fro some tribal populations. A 2002 study of high-needs groups of Northern Cheyenne tribal members found that up to 70% of the population experienced food insecurity and 35% experienced persistent hunger. Poverty also contributes to obesity, sometimes relating to overeating and sedentary lifestyles, but also, according to Cederstrom, because ''Some Indian people are not getting enough of the right kinds of food, and too many Indian people are over consuming the wrong sort of nutrients, like refined carbohydrates and fats.'' According to Michele Companion, a researcher with the University of Colorado who wrote the report, unhealthy food choices have become a part of the collective taste buds of many Indian cultures. She believes the historical process of colonization, assimilation and acculturation all played into this contemporary effect. One project Companion highlighted in her report that promotes healthy eating originates in a partnership between Tohono O'odham Community College and the Tohono O'odham Community Action grass-roots organization to rekindle traditional food production systems and reincorporate elements of traditional diet to address nutrition-related illnesses. ''To make these foods more easily and readily available, they established a traditional agriculture project in 2002 as a learning laboratory and training area for traditional practices.'' The groups have established community gardens in locations across the Tohono O'odham reservation that serve as learning and teaching centers for youth and elders. They also organize numerous trips to collect wild foods, which not only provide exercise, but also encourage healthier diets and provide opportunities for cultural revitalization and knowledge transfer. The Seattle-based Urban Indian Health Institute announced the findings of one of the first studies of urban Indians, now the majority of the U.S. Native population, March 5, in ''Urban Indian America finding that rich or poor, American Indians in cities across the country are facing great health challenges unlike those of any other urban population, according to examination of federal data. Researchers found that in urban areas across the country, even as American Indians move up the income ladder, rates of binge drinking and tobacco use in the community are staying the same - or sometimes even increasing, which is not the case for any other measured group. According to the report, overall, fewer Indian respondents reported drinking than people of other races. But among those who did drink, more American Indians reported an episode of binge drinking - or consuming five or more drinks in one go - at least once in the previous month. Of higher-income respondents - defined as those earning more than $38,700 for a family of four - 46% of American Indians reported one episode of binge drinking in the previous month, compared with 25.3%t for people of other ethnic backgrounds The study also found that diabetes and obesity rates were about the same for urban Indians, whether they were rich or poor. Among other races, people with higher incomes tend to have fewer of those health problems than poorer people. Maile Taualii, scientific director at the Urban Indian Health Institute, stated, ''There seems to be a sense of hopelessness, a sense that diabetes, alcoholism and other health problems are inevitable in the community.'' Researchers also concluded that, unlike the population generally, rates of diabetes, obesity and smoking remained about the same among low-income and wealthy urban Indians. Those results - and data showing that Native people in some cities reported having more difficulty getting health care than urbanites of other backgrounds - show special attention must be paid to the health disparities for urban Indians, Taualii said. Newman Washington, who runs drug and alcohol programs at a government-funded Indian clinic in Wichita, Kan., said tight finances already make it difficult to meet the needs of patients from the Kickapoo, Potawatomi and other nearby tribes. Clients trying to detox from alcohol often have to wait two months to be admitted to a hospital bed, or travel 75 miles to Ponca City, Okla., to be seen in an inpatient facility, Washington said. He stated, ''People go away and get an education, but then they come back home and have a really hard time changing their behavior, Whenever you start looking at the core, there's some shame and guilt that people are carrying around from past generations.'' One difficulty is that in many urban areas it is difficult for Native people to find culturally competent health care. The report also showed that more data is needed to quantify the special needs of urban Indians, and more united action between urban Natives and tribes is needed ''to achieve a better future for all Native people.'' The study found that, ''There is a critical lack of research on the issues facing Native families residing in urban areas,'' and that ''to make sure that the needs of reservation-based and urban Native people are not a cause for division but instead for united action.'' The report is available at: http://www.uihi.org/. According to CDC studies, the fetal alcohol rate among American Indians is 30 times higher than the rate among whites. The syndrome affects 40,000 infants in the U.S. each year. At the 64th Annual Conference of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), November 14, the Partnership for a Drug- Free America and NCAI previewed a new communications campaign designed to raise awareness and reduce use of the highly addictive drug methamphetamine in Native communities. The research-based campaign, which includes public service messages for radio and print, as well as posters, is the first national meth prevention initiative developed specifically for Indian Country. The ads, currently in production and slated for distribution through early 2008, drive audiences to http://www.ncai.org/ for more information and a how-to guide of tips and advice for fighting meth in Native communities. Public service messages will be distributed on a pro-bono basis by NCAI, the Partnership and various community groups. Initial distribution focuses on Alaska, Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming, However, public service messages are available to all interested communities by contacting Jackson Brossy at 202.466.7767 or jbrossy@ncai.org. See also: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,224180.shtml. An epidemiological study undertaken in 2005-06, authored by IHS epidemiologist Christine Dubray, conducted at two Indian Health Service (IHS) clinics in Montana, uncovered a hepatitis C infection rate among women who went to the clinics for prenatal care that is 6 times higher than is found in the general population. The finding surprised tribal and state health officials, who responded by creating an educational brochure that targets young American Indians. American Indians and Alaska Natives with Cancer, published in April, by the Intercultural Cancer Council (available at: http://iccnetwork.org/), noted that cancer is the second leading cause of death among American Indians and Alaska Natives over the age of 45, and that American Indians with cancer are largely ''invisible'' to policymakers, making it difficult for many Native people to receive quality treatment and prevention assistance. Lovell Jones, co-founder of ICC, stated that because American Indians as a group tend to be younger than other racial populations in the U.S., traditional research has previously suggested that cancer is less common in Native communities. However, Jones indicated that better health data collection in Indian country now shows that such research is not correct. ''Cancer rates were previously reported to be lower in American Indians,'' Lovell said, ''but they have actually been increasing over the past 20 years.'' Compared to other racial groups, Indians have the poorest survival rate for all cancers, and there are many cancers that disproportionately affect Indian populations. Lung cancer was found to be the most common type of cancer death in eight of the nine IHS areas. Incidence and death rates from kidney cancer among Natives were also found to be higher than any other racial or ethnic groups. Poverty, discrepancies between rural and urban health care, and a lack of access to prevention strategies, like screening tests, are all contributors to the alarming trends, according to IHS officials. A study released Oct. 15, by the American Cancer Society, found the cancer death rate has declined by almost twice the previous rate in the general U.S. population, while cancer incidence among all races and both sexes declined slightly. A special section of the report examined the most full and accurate cancer data ever compiled for American Indians and Alaska Natives, and the key finding here was that cancer incidence varies regionally and by cancer type. Although Native cancer incidence rates were higher for cancers of the stomach, liver, kidney, gallbladder and cervix, the incidence rate for all cancers is lower than for non-Hispanic whites from 1999 to 2004. Judith Salmon Kaur, a professor of oncology and director of Native American programs at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota stated that Nationally, and for Native people, ''I think the nugget is that screening really can make a difference. ... I'd rather prevent cancer than have people coming to me for radiation, chemotherapy, operations. ... We're not there yet, but we can be doing a lot more to prevent cancer.'' The variety in regional rates - with lung and kidney cancer showing a higher incidence in the northern and southern Plains, Alaska and urban areas than in the Southwest, where cigarette smoking is more constrained - in effect targets the higher-incidence regions for anti-smoking intervention, she said. The same holds true for many of the cancers that vary in regional incidence. Research conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Arctic Investigations Program in conjunction with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, reported in the Mukluk Telegraph, Vol. 11, Issue 2, April - June 2008, available at: http://www.anthc.org, found that a lack of running water in the home is linked to severe respiratory infections and lung and skin infections among Alaska Natives. Infants who live in villages with the lowest numbers of in-home water service have a five times higher rate of hospitalizations for lower respiratory tract infections and respiratory syncytial virus than infants who live in homes with water service. Compared to the overall U.S. population, they experience an 11 times higher rate of hospitalization for pneumonia. These findings may help explain why the rates of respiratory illness among Alaska Native infants are extremely high. 75% of all hospitalizations among Alaska Native and American Indian children in the state are due to respiratory problems. It was also found that elders age 65 and older living in lower water service areas were twice as likely to be hospitalized for pneumonia or influenza. For all age groups, skin infections were significantly higher in areas with lower water service rates. Alaska Natives without in-home water have no easy way to take a shower, wash their clothes, or even go to the bathroom. Families in rural areas regularly make lengthy treks via snowmobile to fill up five-gallon buckets of water to bring home, heat up, and use to wash their dishes. Troy Ritter, a senior environmental health consultant for ANTHC who helped conduct the study, notes that people who have to haul water in a bucket from a remote point use about 1.8 gallons of water per person each day. The average American uses between 80 and 100 gallons of water each day. According to U.S. Census data, 99.4% of all American homes have complete sanitation service in 2000. In Alaska, 93.7% of homes have complete sanitation, and the proportion of homes without such services was much higher in rural Alaskan villages. The state ranks last in the proportion of homes with in-home water service. Between 40 and 50 Native communities throughout Alaska still lack modern sanitation facilities, including running water, bathrooms and flush toilets. The estimated cost for bringing running water to all Native homes in the state currently is at least of $600 million. The price has been falling as more houses have plumbing installed and technology costs decrease. Water projects costing between $60 million and $70 million are currently under way in rural areas. Emergency services - police, medical and rescue - are absent from most Native communities in the immensity of rural Alaska, so that assistance can take a long time - sometime several days - to arrive, especially in the winter. A state task force has examined the problem, recommending expansion of the safety officer program from 51 to 111 officers, and pay from $16,55 to $21 an hour, so that every village over 150 people could have a safety officer. Montana State University announced in November that it has received a five-year, $6.5 million grant to develop the Center for Native Health Partnerships to address health disparities in Montana's Indian communities. The center's pilot projects will include research into men's health disparities on the Crow Reservation, water and food contamination on the Crow and Fort Belknap reservations, indoor environmental asthma for children on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and prevention of Type II diabetes in Crow and Blackfeet women. Montana's Blackfeet, Crow, Northern Cheyenne, Fort Peck and Fort Belknap, and Wyoming's Wind River Indian populations began a collaboration, in December, to apply the ''Planting Seeds of Hope'' (PSOH) suicide intervention program. The Montana chapter of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Number, Voices of Hope, has been going directly to reservations with PSOH to help gain a greater understanding of American Indian culture. For more information go to: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416258. The National Indian Child Welfare Association and the national, nonpartisan Kids Are Waiting campaign, a project of The Pew Charitable Trusts, issued a report, ''Time for Reform: A Matter of Justice for American Indian and Alaska Native Children,'' November 20, at the NCAI convention, detailing how Congress created the mechanisms for foster care funding that excluded Indian children who are receiving case management from tribal social services. States receive about $7 billion from the Title IV-E fund in 2006, which accounts for 50 percent of the federal child welfare funds provided to state-administrated foster care. David Simmons, NICWA director of government affairs and advocacy, spoke at the event at which the report was released, saying that state governments can access up to seven different federal programs to provide foster care programs. Tribal governments, who carry approximately 15,000 foster child caseloads every year, can only access up to five federal programs and are excluded from directly accessing the largest source of federal child welfare funding in meeting the needs of the children and families in their care, while American Indian children are overrepresented in the nation's foster care system at more than 1.6 times the expected level, In response to testimony and reports by child welfare advocates, both Indian and non-Indian, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) has introduced the Tribal Foster Care and Adoption Act of 2007. The bill has bipartisan support and would allow tribes direct access to federal foster care and adoption funds, and would create accountability measures to ensure that tribes meet the needs of the children in their care. The report is available at the NICWA site: www.nicwa.org and Kids Are Waiting site: www.kidsarewaiting.org. A new study, made public in December, has found improvements in prenatal care patterns among American Indian women in Oklahoma, indicating a considerable reduction in the disparity between American Indian and white pregnant women in terms of access to and usage of early prenatal care, found in a 1994 Oklahoma State Department of Health report, According to the study: American Indian women were now as likely to confirm their pregnancy in the first trimester (95.7%) as white women (97%). American Indian women were as likely as white women to receive first trimester prenatal care (76.7% vs.78.8%), an improvement from the 1994 report. More American Indian women smoked before pregnancy (38.7% vs. 31.8%), however, they were more likely to quit during pregnancy, when compared to white women. The new study found disparities still exist in other areas of pregnancy and infant health for Oklahoma's American Indian women, who were more likely to have their first baby before the age of 18, compared to white women (24.5% vs. 14.%). The study also found that American Indian women were more likely to have unintended pregnancies and were more likely to be unmarried at the birth of their child when compared to white women. As the IHS enters the last year of congressionally authorized funding for its Special Diabetes Program for Indians, data shows an ongoing reduction of diabetes and its complications among Indians and Alaska Natives, indicting that the program is making significant progress. In part to parry the costs of diabetes, the IHS Indian Health Best Practices Workgroup has developed a systems-of-care approach to diabetes. Many of the Special Diabetes Program for Indians projects, supported by IHS funding, respond to the systems-of-care approach, which involves exercise, diet, education, lifestyle management and other preventive health measures to lower blood glucose levels among American Indians and Alaska Natives. The IHS Des Moines region, for instance, recently earned an award from the Iowa Health System for collecting and using data to improve care for diabetics served by the state's IHS hospitals. Although the rate is still extremely high, recent data indicates a major drop in the use of meth by Indian high school students in Monana. In 2007 Montana's American Indian high school students report using the drug methamphetamine at more than twice the rate reported by all Montana high school students - almost 11% of reservation and 10.4% of urban Indian students reporting using the drug at least once in their lives, compared to 4.6% for white high school students, This is an improvement on findings for 1999, when more than 25% of reservation and 24% of urban Indian high school students reported to have used meth a least once. A contributing factor in the reduction is likely information and training provided to Native and other young people in school and on reservation with the Montana Meth Project campaign. A grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Orientated Policing to Lamar Associates is providing six anti-methamphetamine training and technical assistance workshops this year for geographic locations throughout the United States. Following the National Congress of American Indians announcing a renewed anti-methamphetamine initiative, at a November 2007 meeting, a number of tribal anti-Meth training and prevention sessions were initiated in Oklahoma over the last few months. David Melmer, “Statistics show prosecution in Indian country is lacking,” Indian Country Today, Posted: November 30, 2007, http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=109641621, reports that “Federal prosecutors are more likely to decline a case that involves crime in Indian country than to prosecute, according to statistics. Further, 76 percent of all potential cases are declined by U.S. attorneys who have jurisdictions in Indian country; and they are declined for a variety of reasons, notwithstanding an incomplete investigation. This rate of declinations has created frustration and anger, but there may be explanations as to why this problem occurs on such a regular basis - lack of resources for law enforcement agencies on tribal lands. Funding is almost always the first word used by any tribal leader or law enforcement officer when speaking of the issue.” “Prosecution of crimes that occur in Indian country is a concern for tribal officials. U.S. attorneys' declination rate means that in most cases it means that perpetrators are usually left free to continue criminal activity because tribes and tribal courts have no authority over non-Indians or over the type of crime.” Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian affairs has been seeking tribal input into legislation to improve the situation. In discussions of law enforcement issues at the e NCAI general assembly, in November, Diane Enos, president of the Salt River Pima Maricopa community, commented that the Department of Justice should be educated about how people live and how officers cover large areas, saying, ''Intergovernmental relations need to be approved. To get meth off the street it must be done with interagency cooperation,'' Gretchen Shappert, U.S. attorney for the western district in North Carolina and chair of the Native American Issues Subcommittee in the DoJ, agreed that a better dialogue needs to be established. She reflected, ''On Attorney General [Alberto] Gonzales' last day, the day he turned in his resignation, we sat down with NCAI and others. It's too bad that had not been done before. We heard the complaints about the declination rates and we all recognize that a better job of keeping data is necessary. 'Declination does not factor in what a U.S. attorney means; they may want it to go to tribal or state court.''she added that law enforcement must do a better job of markup on a case. Melmer reported that is the heart of the problem, “Most law enforcement officers said they don't have time to do a full markup, and in some cases they get to the scene after it has been contaminated. Resources are at the root of the problem, officers argue. Law Enforcement officers claim it may take up to 18 months to get a set of finger prints back from a federal lab, and since there is no crime lab to specifically serve Indian country anymore, evidence waits for months before processing.” As Enos stated, that means, ''There is no way to process evidence, therefore no prosecution.'' Enos said. Troy Eid, U.S. attorney for the District of Colorado, suggested that the current approach of federalism to Indian law enforcement needs revision, particularly modifying or rescinding the Major Crimes Act and the Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe decision. In addition to providing more funding, Eid asks, ''Where is the local accountability for tribes? Keep it local and elect your own district attorneys. The most important part of sovereignty is law enforcement,'' Pat Ragsdale, deputy director for the office of Justice Services, said that officers deserved more resources, including from local communities, “We need community support to stop bad behavior.' Law enforcement can't do it on it's own to make sure our children are safe.'' David Melmer, “Ideas may change law enforcement in Indian country,” Indian Country Today, http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416213, Posted: November 30, 2007, reported that meetings with tribal leaders, law enforcement officials, sheriff's associations and prosecutors by Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Chairman Senator Byron Dorgan and his staff and three hearings yielded many suggestions for law enforcement improvement in Indian country, including the following: Mandate federal officials to file and maintain data on declination reports. Create an office of Indian Country Crime within the Criminal Division and authorize the Department of Justice to appoint tribal prosecutors as special assistants to U.S. Attorneys. Elevate and define the role of the Office of Tribal Justice as a resource for tribal leaders. Define the role of tribal liaisons at appropriate U.S. attorney's offices. Require the DoJ to consult with tribes on the administration of tribal programs. Require U.S. attorneys' evaluations to include credit for all Indian country prosecutions, including misdemeanors. Enhance coordination between BIA and the Office of Justice Services and tribal law enforcement agencies. Clarify that the federal government retains concurrent authority over all Public Law 280 jurisdictions. Authorize tribes to adopt resolutions to retrocede jurisdiction back to the federal and tribal governments when states refuse to provide public safety. Set minimum resource (funding and personnel) requirements for states that wish to continue to exercise authority over reservation crimes. If states cannot meet the requirements, then authority over reservation crimes should retrocede back to the federal and tribal governments. Establish programs that provide incentives to tribes and states to coordinate law enforcement strategies and criminal information. Expand on programs to grant special commissions that enable tribal police officers to make arrests for all crimes committed on Indian lands. Authorize tribal law enforcement to access national criminal databases. Provide greater flexibility for training of tribal law enforcement officers. Establish a federally chartered tribal law enforcement foundation to support the mission of tribal police departments. Reauthorize and amend the Indian Alcohol and Substance Abuse Act. Reauthorize the Indian Tribal Justice Support and Technical and Legal Assistance Acts. Reauthorize and amend the Tribal Community Oriented Policing Services program within the DoJ to provide for long-term funding. Reauthorize and expand on the DoJ Tribal Jails program. Authorize the construction of regional detention centers for long-term incarceration where deemed appropriate by a consortium of tribes. Authorize the transfer of prisoners convicted of violent crimes in tribal court to federal prisons with placement assurances. Authorize and expand on the Native American Probation Office Liaison program. Require the BIA, FBI and U.S. attorneys to track crimes committed in Indian country by adding an Indian country category to the Uniform Crime Reports; require the Bureau of Justice Statistics to report to Congress annually. Require the BIA, FBI and the BJS to help establish tribal data collection systems. Establish or enhance existing DoJ data collection programs for tribes. Establish a Congressional Indian Crime Commission to review the tribal criminal justice system and make recommendations for needed reforms. Establish a pilot program to enhance tribal court jurisdiction over all domestic and sexual violence crimes committed on Indian lands, regardless of the race of the offender. Enhance family violence training for tribal and federal law enforcement. Through the Indian Innocence Project, law schools and students, lawyers, investigators and other volunteers provide pro-bono research and investigative assistance to 'native' individuals throughout the U.S. who have been arrested, tried, found guilty, and imprisoned for crimes the Project believes they did not commit. The project works in states with the country's highest native incarceration rates. For more information contact: Emma Enriquez, Esq., Director, Indian Innocence Project, P.O. Box 326, Banning, CA 92220, Fax: (760) 406-4234, enriquez@nativebiz.com, www.nativebiz.com/innocence. The Red Lake Reservation in Minnesota, collaborating with a number of organizations sponsored “Listening to One Another,” a Drug and Gang Summit at the Red Lake Humanities Center - with programs also going on in the schools - February 14 and 15, with more than 12 presenters and facilitators and nearly 200 registered participants. The summit's mission was to educate and mobilize tribal agencies, professionals, schools and community members in efforts against illegal drugs and crimes on the Red Lake Reservation. The goal was to produce committees that would advise communities on how to effectively address issues of crime, drugs and violence while working closely with district representatives and the Red Lake Tribal Council. Activities included presentations and discussions on gang awareness, strategic planning, addiction from a psychological perspective, and information on drugs including methamphetamines, crack/cocaine, marijuana and alcohol. San Diego County, CA Indian reservations suffered devastating damage to their communities as a result of the Poomacha, Witch Creek and Harris Fires, in October, which over all, burned 50,000 acres of Indian land, while, over all, one of the most destructive series of firestorms in recent California history, scorched 517,450 acres, destroying 3,087 structures and killing seven people, in seven counties, according to the state's Office of Emergency Services. At the Rincon and La Jolla Reservations, just northeast of Escondido, the fire burned about 20,000 acres, with La Jolla being hit the hardest, as 92% of the reservation was destroyed and 60 homes were lost. There was also considerable loss at the Pauma reservation. Without gaming revenue, La Jolla had few resources to recover. At Rincon the local church was one of the buildings destroyed, along with 58 homes. There were no major injuries from the fire on either reservation. Others affected reservation included the Barona, Inaja-Cosmit, Mesa Grande, Pala, Pauma-Yuima, San Pasqual, Santa Ysabel and Viejas. A considerable number of tribal volunteers, many of them untrained, along with at least 10 reservation volunteer firemen, joined in the fight to control the wild fires. 211 BIA fire fighters were also brought in. The California tribes assisted each other with recovery, with those who suffered the least helping everyone else, including taking in evacuees and providing them with food, shelter and clothing. A Red Cross shelter was set up in the Harrah's Rincon Resort and Casino, and the hotel was closed to house 350 evacuees, firefighters and law enforcement officers. On the first days of the fire, tribes across southern California formed a web of aid stretching from the Morongo reservation 40 miles east of Los Angeles down to the southeastern Viejas reservation. ''It's unfortunate that reservations are usually the last to receive relief,''said Rose Salgado, a Soboba tribal councilman. ''Because that's a known fact, tribes immediately rally together to provide for other tribes in time of need.'' Tribal leaders met with FEMA, IHS and BIA staff at Rincon, a week after the fires, to update one another on damage and to begin recovery. That soon included an erosion team assessing prevention strategies and housing agencies working to provide modular homes from Texas and Arkansas. City and county agencies were working on water and sewage issues. In is initial response, the BIA provided $578,000 in general assistance funds for individuals and was prepared to provide more. Following the fires, area tribal leaders told state and local government officials, that they want to be included in planning for future fire control, and are happy to contribute their resources to collaborative efforts. At the time of the fires, tribal leaders expressed frustration at the lack of communication with outside agencies. To help build future collaboration, Due to their remoteness, tribal lands are often the first and hardest hit by wildfires. California Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries, (R-Murrieta) brought the Rural Fire Protection and Prevention Working Group, a legislative advisory body, to meet with tribal and local officials at the Pala Resort & Casino to consider planning for future fire fighting and prevention, while members from all the tribal councils affected met with representatives from FEMA. Discussion at the Pala Resort and Casino noted that tribes with gaming, have used their casino income to build and staff fire departments, while most of those who do not have gaming, still rely on volunteer departments and assistance from outside agencies. Tribal fire chiefs say there is more to be done to improve fire service in rural areas, Viejas fire Chief Don Butz said that communication among fire departments has improved since the 2003 wildfires, but legal and government-to-government obstacles remain. The Viejas Band of Mission Indians, which owns a casino near Alpine, has a Fire Department that includes 18 full-time staff, three fire trucks, an ambulance and other resources. But state laws make it difficult for a tribal government to enter into agreements with local agencies, Butz said. Other tribal firefighters said they are often left out of policy discussions. "It's frustrating when offering to help is met with opposition," said San Manuel fire Chief Mike Smith. "We're a new duck, and they don't know how we quack." In addition, fire officials have sought cooperative agreements with the military in the wake of the recent wildfires. Marine Corps helicopters aided in the October firestorms, but the lack of an operating agreement with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection limited their role. Marine Corps and state fire officials have since meet to establish the terms under which service helicopters will aid in fire fighting. San Diego County also is working on a long-debated idea of merging rural fire agencies. The merger plan would stock 28 backcountry fire stations with three-person crews at all times to cover 1.4 million acres, stretching east from Fallbrook, Valley Center and Ramona, where many of the county's 18 Indian reservations are located, but as of December, they were not part of the plan. Butz said there are different ways of working with the county depending on each tribe's needs. Tribes that don't have a fire department could contract for fire services, he said. Tribes that have casinos and fire departments could provide services to the county in exchange for credit when negotiating agreements to offset problems caused by their casinos. Assemblyman Jeffries, who serves as chairman of the Rural Fire Protection and Prevention Working Group, said making use of tribal fire departments is a good way to increase fire protection without increasing costs to the state. "When you have a resource that's available to help, why not say 'Come on in," Jeffries said. The 2008 Chickasaw Listening Conference, held Feb. 19-22, brought together more than 300 tribal members who live outside the Chickasaw Nation in south-central Oklahoma. The conference was convened by Chickasaw Gov. Bill Anoatubby to acknowledge the importance and influence of the two-thirds of tribal members who live outside the 13-county boundaries of the Chickasaw Nation as established by treaty in 1856. A long-running governance dispute within the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe between the three-chief government and the constitutional government expressed itself, November 29, with the constitutional government filing an appeal of a BIA determination to conduct government-to-government relations with the three chiefs. As of January, about 350 residents on the Navajo reservation were able to rent a renewable energy, solar power unit from the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, at the cost of about $80 per month, in a program to expand the availability of having electricity across the reservation. The 110-mile bicycle Rancheria Ride, sponsored by California Rancherias, was held May 3 - 4, to raise funds for the Indigenous Permaculture projects on the Pine Ridge Reservation and in Sonsonate, El Salvador and to promote awareness of American Indian nations in California. For more information, e-mail David Jaber at djaber@california.com, visit www.indigenous-permaculture.org, or write to Ecology Center/Indigenous Permaculture, 3288 21st St., No. 192, San Francisco, CA 94110. The Puyallup nation of Washington completed the first of 20 homes for elders, built using energy-efficient, environmentally friendly and sustainable construction methods, in late March. Roman Bitsuie, executive director of the Navajo-Hopi Land Commission, said that he and his staff reached a resolution in mid-January to tap $11.9 million that has accrued in an account held by the Interior Department Office of the Special Trustee for the past 40 years, the duration of the Bennett Freeze. The funds must be split evenly between the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe, per the November 2006 intergovernmental compact that lifted the freeze. The resolution was then to go to the Navajo Division of Finance; and once approved, Interior can release those funds under the supervision of the BIA, said Omar Bradley, regional director of the BIA's Navajo Regional Office in Gallup, N.M. ''We want to make sure a proper distribution is being done,'' he said. The money is badly needed. In some extreme cases, residents there are missing parts of their roofs, have broken windows, and have no electricity or running water. And many rely on a wood stove as their sole source of heat, while others cook over an open fire. Leaders and representatives of central California Indian nations that are state recognized or seeking federal acknowledgement met in a conference at the state Department of Transportation district offices in Manchester Center, in Fresno, April 5, to discuss ways to expand and improve the services they provide. Of the 23.7 million veterans in the U.S., nearly 169,000 are American Indian and Alaska Native veterans, or .7%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Native Americans serve in the military at the highest rates per capita of any racial or ethnic group. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names voted April 10 to officially change the name of a prominent Phoenix mountain to Piestewa Peak, to honor the first American Indian woman, Hopi Lori Piestewa (py-ES' -tuh-wah) to die in combat while serving in the U.S. military. The North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs, in April, demanded that the hosts and producer of a local morning radio show be fired for what the agency termed ''racially charged comments'' made on the air, showing, “insensitivity, gross ignorance, and blatant bigotry against American Indians across this great nation.'' The commission also called for the Federal Communications Commission to investigate WDCG-FM owner Clear Channel Communications Corp., concerning the company's ''history, tolerance, and promotion of this type of inflammatory and reprehensible programming.'' Following complaints about allegedly racist and insensitive statements made on the air on April 1, WDCG general manager Dick Harlow released a statement on the station's Web site April 4. ''WDCG apologizes to any listener that may have found remarks or recordings played Tuesday, April 1, 2008, during 'Bob and the Showgram' to be offensive, derogatory or insensitive. WDCG does not condone inappropriate behavior, language or insensitive remarks.'' Gregory Richardson, executive director of the commission, called the apology a start, but he also said he doubted the apology would be sufficient for everyone. The Narragansett Indians were preparing, this winter, to request the Interior Department to remove the tribe's 1,800 acres of settlement land from trust as a first step toward seeking reservation status and tribal jurisdiction on their land. The tribe was preparing a package of documents justifying the request, showing undue political influence and tampering by the state and town of Charlestown when the land was taken into trust in 1978 and afterwards, tribal council member John Brown stated. ''There are flaws in the existing trust; there are issues and errors that have haunted us since 1978. There's been so much tampering by the state, and there's been at least 15 cases dealing with our trust land. So we're asking the Interior Department, and whoever else we have to go to, to remove the settlement land from trust, deed it back to the tribe under restricted status, and give us leave to put in a new trust package [application].'' The issues include such things as a survey that was never completed; rights of way; water and development issues that have never been addressed; parcels of land that were supposed to be turned over to the tribe; and land titles that were never validated, according to Brown. ''So, we have serious questions. And of course the biggest issue is the Rhode Island Land Claims Settlement Act, which has become our biggest hurdle,'' he added. The Hoh Indian Nation of Washington has acquired 160 acres of former school trust land for $740,000, boosting its land area from 443 to 603 acres, just short of a square mile. The American Anthropological Association board of directors approved the establishment of indigenous section of its membership, December 5.
Economic Developments
The National Labor Relations Board, in late October, ordered a union election at Foxwoods Resort Casino of the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, which has been targeted by the United Auto Workers in a drive to organize 3,000 dealers. On November 24, the UAW won the vote to have a union and be the workers' representative. On April 1, the Mohegan Tribe and the New Long-Norwich Building and Construction Trades Council signed a project labor agreement for the tribe's $925 million expansion project, guaranteeing only union labor will be used in exchange for a promise of no strikes. More than 100 Alaska Native village corporations have banded together for the first time in the Alaska Native Village Corporation Association, to stimulate their economic growth. The Native corporations, formed by Congress under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971, range from some of the biggest businesses in the state to tiny firms that make little or no money for their shareholders. The association is encouraging the larger companies to coach the smaller ones, according to Maver Carey, chief executive of The Kuskokwim Corporation, a leader in the effort to unite the village corporations. The association also aims to promote land management and development policies, lobby the government and organizing group purchasing to save money on corporate expenses. The American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association, or AIANTA, hired its first director, in September, to oversee tribal tourism operations. In December, Ron Erdmann, Travel and Tourism Industries deputy director of research in the U.S. Commerce Department stated that Native tourism markets are expected to grow as international visitors return to the United States after the greatest travel decline in U.S. history. International travelers -- including those from Canada and Mexico -- set a record in 2007, with 53.6 million visitors. Overseas travelers are expected to set an all-time record in 2010, with about 26.2 million people boarding ships and airplanes bound for the United States. These projections, however, do not take into account the peaking of oil production and the beginning of significant inflation as fuel prices rise much more than we have already seen, which will reduce long range tourism. Unlike the mainstream U.S. housing market, which operates under different conditions, the Indian housing market continues to increase the percentage of Native families who are secure in their own homes, according to Rodger Boyd, the Navajo deputy assistant secretary for Native American Programs in the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Public and Indian Housing. However, the bad business practices of some mainstream mortgage lenders have lead to some mortgage providers to cease making loans in Indian country, and elsewhere. Meanwhile, in March, Fannie Mae added staff to its American Indian outreach and also initiated two new Native lending programs. However, The federal government's 2006 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act numbers (released in 2007) show a steep year-to-year decline in lending to American Indians and Alaska Natives, with $22.1 billion in lending in 2006, down from $27 billion in 2005, a drop approaching 20% in a year. And at about a .6% share of a total of $3.8 trillion, that's well below Indian representation in the population. American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians in the states with the largest percentages of Native populations received proportionally much less mortgage credit in those states last year. New Mexico and Oklahoma Natives fared the worst of the four states with more than 10% Native populations, according to Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data for 2006. While both states registered about 11% Native in their 2000 censuses, financial institutions based in New Mexico made just 1.7% of their mortgages to Indians last year, while Oklahoma came in just a bit higher at 2.9%. For the two states above or near 20% Native population, Alaska and Hawaii, Alaska Natives saw just 3.5% of their state-based lender mortgage share, and Native Hawaiians 7.9%, the data showed. Philip N. Hogen, Chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC), announced, June 18, that net revenues from Indian in 2007 increasing 5% over 2006, generating $26 billion in revenues. NIGC Region V, which includes Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, had the largest percentage increase in revenues. The region generated revenues of $2.6 billion in 2007, a 20% increase from the $2.1 billion generated in 2006. The region has experienced active growth, more than doubling revenues in the three-year period from 2004 to 2007, climbing from 83 operations generating $1.3 billion in 2004 to 100 operations generating $2.6 billion in 2007. Region II, consisting of California and northern Nevada, had only a 1.6% increase in revenue but still saw the biggest revenues of NIGC's six regions, increasing to $7.8 billion in 2007 from $7.7 billion in 2006. The Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut Tribal Council voted, in April, to return more than half a million dollars in federal grants to the BIA to be redistributed to tribes with greater needs, particularly other members of the United South and Eastern Tribes. Mohegan Sun casino of the Mohegan tribe has purchased the Pautipaug Country Club in Sprague, CT and its 18-hole golf course, for $4.4 million, as part of ongoing efforts to expand its range of resort entertainment. Foxwoods Development Co., affiliated with Foxwoods Resort Casino, owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, and Harcourt Developments (Bahamas) Ltd., a major international developer, will renovate and reopen the former Royal Oasis Resort in Grand Bahama Island, Bahamas. The Royal Oasis is a classic Caribbean resort, hotel and casino located 70 miles from Florida's east coast. The second-largest resort on the island, the Royal Oasis, closed in September 2004 after being severely damaged by hurricanes Frances and Jeanne. With the national Problem Gambling Awareness Week occurring March 9 - 15, Foxwoods Resort Casino launched two initiatives to help address problem gambling among young people and women: production of a 30-minute docudrama called ''21'', in partnership with the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling, distributed to public and university libraries in Connecticut; and publication of a pamphlet created by the Connecticut Women's Problem Gambling Project, a program of the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, made available throughout Foxwoods, directing patrons to locations where treatment is available. The Seminole Tribe of Florida and Governor Charlie Crist signed a 25-year gaming compact, November 14, that gives the tribe the exclusive right to operate Las Vegas-style slot machines on tribal lands in Florida, and will allow the nation to add 7,000 slot machines to the area, with the potential for hundreds of jobs for qualified maintenance and repair technicians. The Seminole nation is headquartered in Hollywood, FL, with most of its 3,300 members living on or near the tribe's 100,000 acres of reservation land. The tribe offers eco-tours of the Everglades, a Native village that features deep water alligator wrestling and a wildlife presentation, the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki (''a place to learn'') Museum, an RV resort, campgrounds and hunting adventures. Most of its revenues come from its seven casinos on its six noncontiguous reservations, including two Hard Rock casinos in Miami and Tampa. The seven casinos, restricted to Class II gaming, plus the Miccosukee Resort and Gaming, owned by Florida's other indigenous tribe, earned $1.56 billion last year, a 21.5% increase over the previous year's earnings, according to the annual Indian Gaming Industry Report by Los Angeles-based economist Alan Meister. The Seminoles employed more than 2,000 non-Indians, purchase more than $24 million a year in goods and services from more than 850 Florida vendors, and pay $3.5 million in federal payroll taxes, as of last year, according to the tribe's Web site, www.seminoletribe.com. The Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise, in April, announced its selection of a construction management company to oversee construction and risk management for the Church Rock Chapter casino project, which will be the nation's first casino. Joint venture partners The Killian Group of Companies and Kennedy Wendel LLC will provide construction management and general contractor services to the Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise, overseeing the construction of the casino. In February, The Navajo Nation, which has no casinos in Arizona, but under a compact with the state, has the right to slot-machine revenue, has auctioned off its unused slot machine rights to other Arizona tribes, until the Nation's plans for a casino resort near Leupp are realized. Lynda V. Mapes, “Tribes are state's new high rollers - in business,” Seattle Times, Posted: February 25, 2008 by McClatchy Tribune Business News, reports that American Indian Casinos in Washington have been a major factor in the movements of the states tribes “in just a dozen years risen from poverty to enjoying comforts many others take for granted, from high-quality medical facilities to decent housing.” The Muckleshoot nation, for example, just outside Auburn, with a population about 2,100, bought the landmark Salish Lodge near Snoqualmie for $62.5 million. The tribe has invested in a hotel-condo project in downtown Seattle. And it is moving beyond entertainment and hospitality, with a $3 million investment in a California manufactured-home company. Last year, the Muckleshoots paid $3 million for the majority interest in Forma Home Systems in Danville, CA, and secured the option to build the company's next factory in the Seattle area. The tribe has also invested in the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences in downtown Seattle. The Muckleshoots are seeking a partnership with other tribes to buy 70 acres on the end of the Las Vegas Strip for that city's first Native-owned casino property. Possibilities include the Mashantucket Pequots of Connecticut, who run the world's largest casino; or the Seminoles of Florida, who recently bought the Hard Rock Cafe chain. The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of Fort Hall, Idaho, already have signed on. The resort complex is envisioned as a modernist fantasyland with an indoor ski park, a Rodeo-Drive-style shopping mall with air-conditioning under a clear plastic roof, and a 30,000-seat stadium with retractable roof. It might even hold a plastic-surgery clinic. The project would have a sizable American Indian museum and a Native healing and spiritual center. Partnership with other tribes provides much more than capital to swing the Las Vegas deal. It would give the tribal partners access to each other's customer lists and other opportunities to build customer traffic to and from their own casinos and the Las Vegas venture. It's also seen as a major training opportunity for tribal members. The Muckleshoots envision a job-training facility with 40 apartments. And they're thinking about including a recording studio, where employees from the Muckleshoots' White River Amphitheatre or casinos could learn tricks of the trade. All of the tribe's business ventures are considered not just for potential profit, but also for the training potential, Wellman said. The Tulalip Tribes in northern Snohomish County are turning prime land into retail and commercial success. The Puyallups, outside Tacoma, are planning a deep-water seaport with a world leader in container shipping, with SSA Marin, on Tacoma's East Blair Waterway. The $300 million project will be the largest recent private investment in Tacoma, creating jobs when it opens in 2012. It will pump up shipping volumes on Commencement Bay with four new berths for ships from Asia and 180 acres of other facilities. The $300 million project will be the largest recent private investment in Tacoma, creating jobs when it opens in 2012. It will pump up shipping volumes on Commencement Bay with four new berths for ships from Asia and 180 acres of other facilities. SSA would manage it for the first 50 years and then the tribe would take over. The tribe's casino, the Emerald Queen, has allowed full college scholarships and other social services for members, while all 3,500 tribal members get $2,000 checks each month. The much smaller Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe, of the Olympic Peninsula, is buying into a medical-supply company in California and taking over an 18-hole golf course. A state-funded study, published in the latest issue of Montana Business Quarterly, finds the tribes in Montana contribute about $1 billion toward the state's economy. According to the study, the Flathead Reservation had the greatest share of economic activities among the reservations at $317 million. Fort Belknap had the least at $76 million, or about 7.4%t. The landless Little Shell Tribe had economic activities of about $204,600. Afognak Native Corp. and its family of companies is a burgeoning enterprise generating millions of dollars under a nationwide umbrella of companies, resulting in large payouts to shareholders and benefits that are having a widening social and cultural impact in Alaska and Kodiak. Latest financial data shows Afognak with a consolidated revenue of $537.9 million, a net income of $18.8 million and individual dividends of $21,688 paid to approximately 700 shareholders per year, totaling $11.1 million. Native owned, Native Green Energy, of Seattle, WA undertook its first renewable energy project, in April, in Maine, where it has been working with the Passamaquoddy tribe to install two 100-kilowatt turbines that would power 50 homes on a private grid and allow the tribe to sell back additional energy to private utilities. The company has already gained support from some state legislatures and plans next to launch a 2.2-megawatt turbine for a Michigan gaming tribe. Red Lake Nation Foods, on the Red Lake Reservation in Minnesota has had its annual internet sales of wild rice and other products increase in four years from around $10,000 the first year, to more than $250,000 in 2007, with its products being purchased worldwide, with the heaviest sales in Canada, Germany and the U.K. The falling price of lumber, which dropped nationally from its peak of $475 per thousand board feet in 2004 to $250 per thousand board feet in 2007, has caused layoffs at the Warm Springs Forest Products mill of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, this winter and spring, which is already suffering 30% official unemployment (and actually closer to 50% counting adults who have given up trying to find work), and which may have to close the mill if falling timber prices continue to undercut its business. Indian owned banks had mixed success in 2007. The Borrego Springs, CA Bank, owned by the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, lost $801,000 during 2007, according to a call report it filed with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The Bank saw a sharp drop in income. The bank earned $5 million for 2006 but lost $801,000 for 2007. But 2006 saw an extraordinary item that added $5.8 million to its revenues. Assets also fell at the bank, from $86 million to $81.3 million. Deposits were flat at $67 million, while equity decreased from $13.3 million to $12.4 million, according to its call reports. Bank2, Oklahoma City, OK, owned by the Chickasaw Nation, showed a small gain in earnings last year, going to $316,000 in profits from $210,000 in 2006. Bank2 grew in asset size, reporting $86.5 million in assets on its books at the end of last year to the government, up from $82.9 million as of Dec. 31, 2006. Deposits were at $77 million at Dec. 31, 2007, up from $72.8 million a year earlier. And equity grew modestly as well, to $8.8 million from $8.2 million. Canyon Bancorp, Palm Springs, CA, posted a healthy profit of $3.6 million for 2007. Its Canyon National Bank, said it earned $421,000 during the fourth quarter, down from $1.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2006, but it enjoys a 15% increase assets increased during the year, to $289 million. Net loans were up 22.5% to $248 million. Deposits increased slightly, from $226.4 million to $230.6 million as of Dec. 31, 2007. Shareholder equity, also known as net worth, rose by 17% at the bank during 2007, to $28.6 million. The bank, owned by the Agua Caliente tribe, saw a decrease from 2006 profits of more than $4 million. Woodlands National Bank, Hinckley, MN, owned by the Mille Lacs Band, also made more than $1 million in 2007 ($1.3 million) but was down from 2006 ($1.8 million). It reported $114.2 million in assets to FDIC at the end of last year. That was down from $119.6 million in assets on its books the year before. Deposits also fell, from $99 million at the end of 2006 to $94 million at the end of 2007. Equity, however, increased during that time, from $15.5 million to $16.6 million. While Bay Bank, Green Bay, WI, owned by the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin, saw a small increase in its earnings year to year. It made $836,000 for 2007, versus $700,000 for 2006. The bank also noted it has bought a parcel of land in Indio, CA, to develop its fifth branch in the Palm Springs area. The Oneidas' Bay Bank managed a small increase in assets, according to its call reports. Assets increased from $99.6 million at the end of 2006 to $102.4 million at the end of last year. It had $78.6 million in deposits at the end of 2007, down from $83.2 million at Dec. 31, 2006. Equity stood at $11.1 million at the end of 2007, up a little from $10.8 million at the end of the previous year. The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa reservation in North Dakota had a privately owned, partly by Native Americans, bank open on its reservation, early this year, the Turtle Mountain State Bank. The First American Capital Corporation, Inc. (FACC), a subsidiary of the American Indian Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin (AICCW), in mid June, 2007, was about to receive access to $500,000 in new capital from the U.S. Small Business Administration to loan to American Indian businesses. AYCCW received a $15,000 grant, in November, from the Helen Bader Foundation to increase its capacity to offer loan services and capital to Wisconsin's American Indian entrepreneurs. For more information visit http://facc.aiccw.org/index.php. The National Council of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma voted, in April, to allow the tribe to begin negotiating to lease the Fountainhead Golf Course north of Eufaula, OK, with the course's owner, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to prevent the golf course from closing. The Utah Native American Chamber of Commerce was launched, April 22, to help business-minded Indians in the state network and make their voices heard. The primary goal of the chamber is to advocate for self-reliance and self-sufficiency for Indians who live both on and off reservations. A first step, organizers said, is to connect Native business people with each other. The Chamber will create a database of Indian-owned businesses to be accessible from its web site, currently under construction. The Indiana Native American Business Association is back in operation, including having held a seminar with the small Business administration, April 5. For information contact Rebecca Martin: rebeccabearcreek@sbcglobal.net. . The Yurok Alliance for Northern California Housing, in late December, hosted an investment seminar in Klamath, CA to provide different options and strategies for tribal members who wish to invest their share of the $92 million Hoopa-Yurok Settlement Fund, of approximately $15,500 each. The Pacific Northwest's largest American Indian business conference: ONABEN's sixth annual Trading at the River Conference & Tradeshow in Portland, OR, April 15 and 16, co-hosted by the Oregon Native American Chamber, brought American Indian entrepreneurs, business experts, tribal leaders and others interested in Native economic development to consider such topics as: Trading Up: Ways to Get What You Need Without Spending a Cent, Finding the Feminine Side of Business in Indian Country, Food from Source to Table: Old Ways and New Opportunities, Culture and Conflict in Business Development, and Creating a Comprehensive Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Strategy for Tribes and Native Organizations. For more information, call (800)854-8289 or visit www.onaben.org. First Nations Oweesta Corp., which has worked to spur programs that encourage entrepreneurship by providing capital, credit and financial education resources to Natives living on reservations for more than 20 years, began offering the Native Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Development training program providing intensive three-day training to promote entrepreneurship, and provide technical assistance after the training program, both online and onsite. For information contact Oweesta at: www.oweesta.org. The National Center for American Indian Enterprise and Development's Reservation Economic Summit and American Indian Business Trade Fair at the Las Vegas Hilton March 3 - 6 focused on diversifying tribal enterprises outside of gaming. For more information, call (800) 4NCAIED or visit www.ncaied.org.
Educational and Cultural Developments
The National Center for Education Statistics has released part one of the 2007 National Indian Education Study, in early June, showing modest gains in mathematics by Native students in grades 4-8 since 2005, while reading scores, over all, remained essentially the same. Average reading scores for Native students were not significantly different from the scores for black or Hispanic students, but were lower than the scores for white and Asian students. Native fourth-graders attending city schools scored higher than their black and Hispanic peers, and Native eighth-graders attending rural schools scored lower than their Hispanic peers. When compared to the scores for all Native students in the nation, average reading scores for Native fourth-graders in Oklahoma and eighth-graders in Oklahoma and Oregon were higher in 2007. Scores for Native fourth- and eighth-graders in Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico and South Dakota were lower than the average scores of all Native students nationwide. Part two of the study, expected to be released in June, will focus on cultural issues facing Indian children in the education arena. A federal grant is funding an effort to recruit, educate and place more American Indians as administrators in schools that have larger numbers of Native students. The Indian Leadership Education and Development program, called I LEAD, is a partnership of the U.S. Department of Education and Montana State University in Bozeman. Knowledge River, at the University of Arizona's School of Information Resources and Library Science (SIRLS), is concerned with the special information interests and needs of Hispanics and Native Americans. Knowledge River offers students the opportunity to attain a Master's Degree in Information Resources and Library Science and develop special areas of expertise, enhanced by its unique multicultural learning community. For information contact: kriver@mail.sbs.arizona.edu, (520)621-3958, http://knowledgeriver.arizona.edu. The University of New Mexico's Department of Native American Studies is partnering with Walatowa High Charter School in Jemez Pueblo and the Seattle-based Center for Native Education to develop dual enrollment opportunities for Native students. Funded in part by a $12 million, eight-year Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant, with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Lumina Foundation for Education, early college high schools aim to increase the number of Native students who graduate and go on to college. Partnerships between tribal, high school and college stakeholders allow early college students the opportunity to earn up to two years of college credit while still in high school. Kirk Johnson, “On the Reservation and Off, Schools See a Changing Tide,” The New York Times, May 25, 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/education/25hardin.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Change+Winds+Through+Off-Reservation+Schools&st=nyt&oref=slogin), reports that many families on poorer reservations are deciding that off-reservation public schools provide a better choice than schools on the reservation, and to gain additional funding, off reservation schools are working to provide more appropriate education and after school programs for Native students. This is good for the students, but it creates difficulties for reservation schools that loose enrollment. For example, Hardin High School, in Hardin, MT is now 70% American Indian, up from 55% in 2000. On the nearby Crow reservation, at Lodge Grass High School, enrollment has dropped by almost a-third, since 2000. The United Auburn Indian Community, in California, opened its first school this year, offering a culture-based curriculum and with noted Sicangu Lakota educator, Roger Bordeaux, the school's principal. The school, built at a cost of $30 million generated by Thunder Valley Casino - has an enrollment of almost 60 students in grades kindergarten through 12, and conducts an adult education program. The school is one effort of the new future being built by the Maidu and Miwok peoples, who lost federal recognition during the termination era. They regained recognition in 1994. United Auburn also acquired 1,100 acres for a new community of 110 single-family homes, an administrative center, community center, day care center, health care services, open space, and the school. The First Nations' Futures Program, a joint effort between Kamehameha Schools of Hawai' i and the Maori of New Zealand, aims to "develop well balanced" Indigenous leaders in their communities and public or professional roles. The First Nations web site states, "Fellows will be part of an international leadership network and will be expected to apply their experiences for the betterment of their people." Kamehameha Schools developed the program and works in a partnership with Te Runaga o Ngai Tahu, an organization that manages the collective assets of the Ngai Tahu, who are the Maori people of the southern islands of New Zealand. The values-based program involves an academic consortium with Stanford University and the University of Hawaii-Manoa. The curriculum opens at First Nations' Futures Institute at Stanford, followed by a series of problem-based learning experiences in Hawaii and New Zealand through community projects of Kamehameha Schools and Te Runaga o Ngai Tahu. There will also be an international leadership case study and presentation to incoming fellows for next year. The criteria for selection included a bachelor's degree and a minimum of five years of practical experience or a minimum of eight years of work experience in the fields of natural resource management, urban and regional planning, Hawaiian studies, public administration, business administration, law, science, geography, social work or education. A demonstrable track record of service and leadership within the Native Hawaiian community was also considered. For more go to: http://www.mauinews.com/community/2007/10/24/02Nati1024.html. RAIN or Recruiting American Indian Nurses, in its 17th year, works to bring better health care to Indian people and reservations, is an American Indian program located at the University of North Dakota, Currently, more than 90% of the RAIN nurses work on reservations in the Dakotas, Montana, Minnesota and other states in the region. Fond du Lac Tribal & Community College in Minnesota has announced the creation of an Associate in Fine Arts degree program, beginning this summer. San Diego State University will be offering a new Bachelor of Arts degree program in American Indian studies, starting in the fall 2008 semester. Bay Mills Community College, founded in 1984 by the Bay Mills Indian Community to address the postsecondary education needs of American Indians throughout Michigan, authorized 37 charter schools over the past eight years with more than 15,000 students enrolled as of this year. The growth follows a decision in 2000 by Michigan lawmakers to allow tribally controlled colleges to authorize charter schools. University presidents from New Mexico State University, Dine' College and Navajo Technical College, on February 12, signed a memorandum of agreement in support of Tribal Extension programs before members of the Navajo Nation Council during a Santa Fe luncheon hosted by state Senator Lynda Lovejoy, D-McKinley County. The U.S. Department of Education's Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative, in collaboration with Office of Indian Education has launched the Digital Teacher Workshops for Teachers of Native American students, designed to provide professional development opportunities for teachers of American Indians and Alaska Natives in all grade levels and content areas. The workshops support mastery of academic content and application by modeling strong teaching methods that have been successful in the classroom and providing a classroom application component, and additional resources. These workshops are available with no charge on the Internet at: https://www.t2tweb.us/NativeAmerican. --==+==-- A list of indigenous Language Conferences is kept at the Teaching Indigenous Languages web site at Northern Arizona University: http://www2.nau.edu/jar/Conf.html. Volunteers at the University of California-Davis are working to decipher nearly a million pages of notes left by linguist John Peabody Harrington, from conversations with Native Californians across the state in the early 1900s, reviving more than 100 languages from the distant past. Their effort to organize a database of Harrington's vast material will build a Rosetta Stone for these languages and their dialects, creating dictionaries of words, phrases and tribal tales and customs that otherwise would largely be lost. The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor Program in Ojibwe Language and Literature, one of the largest of its kind in the nation, is seeking to teach and preserve the native language spoken by about 10,000 in more than 200 communities across the Great Lakes region - but 80% of them are older than 60. The Myaamia Project supported by the Maiami tribe of Oklahoma and Miami University is helping the tribe reclaim and keep its language and culture alive, with many tribal members no longer speaking the language. Harbor Springs High School, of Harbor Springs, MI, in collaboration with the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, began offering a course in - Anishinaabemowin, the native language of Odawa Indians, last September. Navajo Language Renaissance, a nonprofit organization based in Cornville, AZ. Has begun a collaboration with language-learning software producer, Rosetta Stone Ltd., of Harrisonburg, Va., to develop new Navajo language learning software. The "advance unedited version" and the final version of the report of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Expert Group Meeting on Indigenous languages is available on the UNPFII website: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/EGM_IL.html. The National Center for Great Lakes Native American Culture, Inc (NCGLNAC) is dedicated to preserving Great Lakes Native American Indian art, handcrafts, and history through a variety of in-house and outreach programs. Since it was founded in May 2001, NCGLNAC has organized regular events to preserve and promote Native culture through workshops and other activities. NCGLNAC puts on a variety of culture events, including culture art classes, cultural lectures, culture field trips, concerts and pow-wows, and produces a quarterly web newsletter. For details contact NCGLNAC, P.O. Box 1063, Portland, IN 47371, www.ncglnac.org, or Kay Neumayr, Board Chair, (765)426-3022, kay.neumayr@ncglnac.com.
International Indigenous Developments
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, at the end of March, affirmed in its recently released ''Concluding Observations'' that the human rights of indigenous peoples have not been sufficiently promoted, protected or respected in the United States. It recommended substantial improvements to processes currently used by the government to meet its international legal obligations. The committee monitors implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by the 173 member states that have voluntarily ratified the convention. The United States did so in 1994, making its provisions legally binding obligations of the government. All state parties to ICERD are required to periodically report to CERD regarding the measures they have taken to implement the provisions of the convention, particularly within their own country. The United States submitted its periodic report in 2007 and this report was considered by CERD in February 2008. Members of minority groups and organizations working to eliminate racial discrimination, as well as indigenous organizations and nations, can submit additional information in what are called ''shadow reports.'' These critical reports amplify or contradict information submitted by the government. CERD then considers the entire body of information and makes ''concluding observations'' to the state, noting progress or lack of progress, and recommending steps for improvement. CERD noted in its 2008 observations that there is ''no independent national human rights institution'' to evaluate claims of human rights abuses in the United States, and recommended that the ''state party consider the establishment'' of one. CERD also observed that the very definition of racial discrimination in the United States is not always ''in line'' with the convention, which ''prohibits racial discrimination in all its forms, including practices and legislation that may not be discriminatory in purpose, but in effect.'' These observations are critical for indigenous people within the boundaries of the United States. Legislation authorizing the sale of Indian land - that is not for sale, without appraisal, without full and effective participation by the peoples whose rights are being affected, and without regard for due process - is discriminatory in effect, if not in purpose. Practices allowing a department of government to collect and distribute royalties on behalf of Indian nations and individuals - without providing standard accounting - are discriminatory in effect, if not in purpose. The lack of effective ''mechanisms to ensure a coordinated approach'' for the implementation of the convention by all levels of government can create human rights violations. It is unclear whether all levels of government are even aware of ICERD, much less the obligation of the United States to uphold it. In one area, in its response to committee questions, the United States cited protections it has established ''to ensure that the cultural and spiritual significance Indians accord to their lands and activities are taken into consideration in decision-making.'' It further claimed that the American Indian Religious Freedom Act requires ''federal agencies to evaluate their policies and procedures ... to determine appropriate changes necessary to protect and preserve native religious cultural rights and practices.'' According to the Consolidated Indigenous Shadow Report, such protections are frequently contradicted in areas of cultural and spiritual importance to Indian peoples. For example, private development on spiritual areas has rendered some lands ''unfit for spiritual practice, destroying the sanctity of the place.'' It adds that ''many if not most of these Sacred Lands are 'owned' by the United States and administered through the Bureau of Land Management, the National Parks Service, or the Forest Service.'' The BLM controls the vast majority of the lands within the boundaries of the ancestral lands of the Western Shoshone Nation. Current plans to drain aquifers, store nuclear waste and ''move forward with the sale of Western Shoshone ancestral lands for [open-pit gold] mining expansion plans and oil and gas leasing,'' as detailed in its shadow report, ''can only be characterized as showing a complete disregard of Western Shoshone culture and health.'' The Shadow report also found that the National Park Service has ''made culturally, spiritually, physically inappropriate concrete additions'' to the sacred Caguana Ceremonial Center - a place sacred to the Taino. The Consolidated Report cites maintenance practices, ''such as weed trimmers and tractors hurling pebbles and debris at the fragile, ancient stones [petroglyphs],'' as evidence of a lack of protection and respect. In the Southwest, a court ruled that putting treated sewage effluent on lands sacred to more than a dozen Indian tribal nations violates their ability to practice their religious beliefs. It further ruled that a ski resort owner's business expansion plan did not justify the desecration of a sacred place. Yet the Department of Justice, on behalf of the Forest Service, has joined the resort owner to appeal the court's decision. In its shadow report, the Cherokee Nation specifically addressed two aspects of an uncoordinated government process. In regard to the Cherokee Nation, a legislative process included no opportunity ''for full and effective participation by legitimate representatives'' of the nation. This, as CERD had stated in 2001, is required under Article 5(c) of the convention. The report also asked that elected or appointed government officials be ''fully apprised of their obligations under CERD.'' It noted that in a recent congressional floor debate regarding proposed funding to Indian nations, ''[m]embers of Congress seemed completely unaware of any obligation in this regard.'' Had these human rights obligations been known and respected, the egregious errors and omissions in this pending legislation could have been refuted in advance with facts. In response to these shadow reports and many others, CERD upheld ''consultation with indigenous peoples concerned and their representatives chosen in accordance with their own procedures'' and ''the right of Native Americans to participate in decisions affecting them.'' Of particular importance, CERD recommended that the United States use the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples ''as a guide to interpret the state party's obligations under the convention relating to indigenous peoples,'' thereby establishing a significant link between the declaration and the legally binding obligations of all state parties to ICERD. Article 19 of the declaration provides, ''States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.'' Regarding government officials who seemed to be unaware of their obligations under the convention, CERD recommended that the U.S. ''step up its efforts to make government officials, the judiciary, federal and state law enforcement officials, teachers, social workers and the public in general aware about the responsibilities of the state party under the Convention.'' Notably, CERD requested follow-up information on this initiative, the Western Shoshone situation, and three other recommendations within a year. HIV/AIDS is spreading among tribal peoples due to increased contact with outsiders and dramatic social change, according to a Survival International report, issued November 14, Progress can kill. West Papua has a rate of HIV/AIDS at least 15 times the rate in Indonesia as a whole. The province is home to 312 tribes who have suffered extreme oppression and violence since the Indonesian occupation in the 1960s. Many tribes people even believe that the Indonesian military is introducing HIV/AIDS deliberately in order to wipe them out. HIV/AIDS was virtually unknown among the Bushmen of the Central Kalahari in Botswana before the government evicted them from their land. But in New Xade resettlement camp in 2002, at least 40% of Bushman deaths were due to AIDS. Yanomami Indians in Brazil report that soldiers stationed on their land have brought gonorrhoea and syphilis to their communities through sexual exploitation of tribal women, and fear that the soldiers will also transmit HIV/AIDS. Survival's director Stephen Corry stated, “Tribal people die because their land is invaded and taken and because they succumb to outside diseases they never knew before. Increasingly now we can add HIV/AIDS to the list of killers. It is striking the most vulnerable peoples of all: those who have no grasp of the risks of unprotected sex; no access to condoms; no appropriate treatment; and whose numbers are already small. The first solution is the simplest - governments must ensure tribal lands are properly protected.” The report also highlighted the catastrophic impact of diabetes on tribal people who have been removed from their land. The problem is so serious that Professor Paul Zimmet of the International Diabetes Institute has said,” Without urgent action there certainly is a real risk of a major wipe-out [due to diabetes] of indigenous communities, if not total extinction, within this century.” The report details the horrific rise in diabetes amongst tribal people who have been forced off their land and into a sedentary lifestyle. The Pima Indians of Arizona are a striking example: more than half of the Pima over the age of 35 have the disease. In Australia, Aborigines are 22 times more likely to die from diabetes than other Australians. When tribal peoples are separated from their land, the resulting change of diet from high-protein to high-fat food often leads to diabetes. The disease can lead to blindness, kidney failure, strokes, heart disease and amputations. Survival's director Stephen Corry said, “Diabetes is a stark example of how forcing Western ideas of 'development' on tribal people leads to the breakdown of their health. Diabetes amongst tribal people living on their own land is extremely rare, but for those forced off their land in the name of 'progress', it is one of the biggest threats to their survival.” For more information contact Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734, mr@survival-international.org, http://www.survival-international.org/campaigns/progresscankill. It was reported in December, that US banned pesticides are poisoning Indigenous (and other) Peoples worldwide. Pesticides banned in the United States are still being exported by U.S. corporations to agricultural fields surrounding Indigenous Peoples' communities, including those of Yaquis in Sonora, Mexico, resulting in illnesses and deaths. Yaqui youths exposed to these pesticides and chemicals have died, while young mothers have given birth to 'jelly babies,' babies born without bones. In American Indian villages in Alaska, banned pesticides are carried by the wind and water and accumulate in the food chain and bodies of humans. For more information go to: http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2007/12/18/155222/54/ The Seventh annual Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, meeting in April and May at the UN in New York, issued several recommendations on climate change, as some 3,000 indigenous representatives and other attendees participated in Forum discussions and side sessions. President Evo Morales of Bolivia, gave the first-ever address to the Forum by a Head of State, at the opening of the session. The Forum urged States, the World Bank, and other multilateral and bilateral financial institutions to consider alternative systems beyond the perpetuation of highly-centralized fossil-fuel-based energy supplies and large-scale bioenergy and hydropower dams. The Forum called for an increase support for renewable, low-carbon and decentralized systems, taking into account the recommendations of the World Commission on Dams, and recommended that States abandon old, centralized electricity grids, which are not suitable for the challenges of climate change. Delegates told the Forum that indigenous peoples must have a say in decision making processes on how to combat global climate change because solutions currently being implemented are often further violations of indigenous rights. Indigenous peoples are seeking more active participation in the work on climate change issues, leading to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen next year and beyond, The Forum made a number of recommendations on the Millennium Development Goals and human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples among other issues. It also examined the implementation of its previous recommendations, Delegates also examined the value of increased collaboration of the Forum with the Human Rights Council and its various mechanisms, including its universal review mechanism and called for indigenous rights to be prominently addressed at those reviews. Delegates from various indigenous organizations expressed their profound concerns about serious violations of human rights. Forum Chairperson Victoria Talui-Corpuz noted that such cases pose a particular challenge to the Forum and highlighted the case of the Guarani people in the Chaco region of Latin America, who have been described as living in slave-like conditions, as representative of “the kind of situations that indigenous peoples are facing”. Following a meeting it held in Siberia in July last year, the Permanent Forum also decided to appoint Special Rapporteurs among its members to study the impact of corporations on indigenous peoples and promote indigenous peoples' rights within this context. During the session, forum members heard from delegates on the multiple ways in which their respective countries needed to take measures to implement the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and discussed how the body could be more effective in encouraging implementation. The Forum has decided to take a leading role on the promotion of the implementation of the Declaration, and an international expert group meeting will take place before the eighth session to formulate concrete proposals. It was also, recommended that the Declaration be included as a normative basis for the Human Rights Council's universal periodic review. States were recommended to include representatives of indigenous peoples in the national consultation process for the preparation of national reports to be submitted to the Human Rights Council for universal periodic review. The Permanent Forum further recommended that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research and other relevant United Nations agencies and offices provide necessary training on the universal periodic review process for and with indigenous peoples. The Permanent Forum suggested the Economic and Social Council authorize a three-day international expert group meeting on the implementation of article 42 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Forum dedicated a half-day discussion to the Pacific region, which is comprised largely of small island states, the traditional lands of many indigenous peoples, and noted that the very existence of many of these territories is under threat due to rising sea levels caused by climate change. The Forum issued a recommendation that an expert seminar be held and invites the participation of the Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination and the Special Committee on Decolonization to examine the impact of the UN decolonization processes on indigenous peoples on the UN list of Non Self-Governing Territories, and invited the Special Rapporteur on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples to examine and report on the situation of the human rights of indigenous peoples in those Territories. It also called on the World Bank to activate its 2005 Extractive Industries Review in order to address the impact and legacy of extractive industries on indigenous lands, territories and resources in the region. The discussion of indigenous languages, led to recommendations intended to raise the prestige of indigenous languages through supporting efforts towards standardization, by establishing indigenous universities and by promoting the use of indigenous languages in public administration. It urged States, UN agencies, donors, research institutions, the media and NGOs to ensure the proper and correct identification of the names of indigenous languages and their protection and development. The Forum called for immediate and effective measures were necessary to prevent the “impending irretrievable loss” of linguistic and cultural diversity and traditional indigenous knowledge caused by such language extinction. To that end, the text called on States to immediately support indigenous peoples' language revitalization efforts, highlighting the processes developed by the Nordic Saami Convention as an example of “good practice” and encouraging Nordic States to adopt those processes. It also invited the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to call jointly for a world conference on linguistic diversity, indigenous languages, identity and education. Concerning implementation of the Millennium Development Goals and on targets for economic and social development, environment, health, education, culture and human rights (E/C.19/2008/L.4), the Forum reconfirmed the right to water as a part of fundamental human rights and called for the development of international standards for water's use, management and regulation. That text also urged the private sector and its regulators to incorporate the rights recognized in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into their plans for economic development in indigenous territories. To that end, Governments and business should, in preparing for new ventures, take account of the stakeholder rights of indigenous peoples -- particularly their land rights and broader human rights -- by observing the principle of free, prior and informed consent. The Forum also urged the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to strengthen its institutional capacity on indigenous peoples' issues by establishing a task force to serve as a liaison mechanism between Headquarters and focal points on indigenous issues at the country level. It also urged all parts of the United Nations system, with the support of Member States and donor agencies, to implement a platform for indigenous local-local cooperation and establish a network of indigenous local governments for information exchange and capacity-building before the convening of its next session. Expressing profound concern about the report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education regarding the extensive child-labor practices in many States involving indigenous children, the Forum said this was a “grave violation of their human rights, including their right to education”. The Permanent Forum welcomed the recent adoption of the United Nations Development Group Guidelines for Indigenous Peoples' Issues, which would bring the United Nations normative framework on indigenous peoples to the field level and contribute to the implementation of the goals and objectives of the Second Decade of the World's Indigenous People. It also appointed three of its members to conduct a study on indigenous peoples and corporations and submit a report to the Forum at its eighth session. It decided to hold a half-day region-specific discussion on North America and a half-day discussion on indigenous peoples and forests at its ninth session in 2010. The forum was asked by a team of indigenous advocates from five Latin American countries to propose that the United Nations to help draft laws protecting the rights of Native people to own media and for the prosecution of those who kill or persecute their journalists, following the murders of five Native broadcasters in Oaxaca, Mexico, this spring. The action would be taken under Article 16 of the U.N.'s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, stating that indigenous peoples have the right to ''establish their own media,” with Uruguay's newly passed Community Radio Broadcast Law, as a model for future legislation. Topics to be discussed at the 2009 UNPFII meeting are slated to include examination of six UN agencies in depth as a new method of work, issues and developments concerning economic and social development, indigenous women, the Second International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples and the Artic. Additional information about the forum and its seventh session can be found at: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/session_seventh.html. The closing session of the forum brought to the fore frustrations and tensions between the role of UNPFII as a recommending organization with indigenous and state appointed members in an organization dominated by states, and Indigenous organizations and people who legitimately desire the organization, and the world, to move further and faster on issues that impact Indigenous peoples. As the Forum moved to take up its last text, a report endorsing a World Bank plan for a carbon offsetting program, that the indigenous participants opposed, protesters disrupted the start of the meeting, demanding to take the floor and saying “we are the real people of Mother Earth” and “we are your business”. After briefly suspending the meeting during which forum members conferred with Indigenous leaders (and security coming into the room), the Chair gave the floor to the Caucus Indigenous de Abya Yala, represented by Florina Lopez. Ms. Lopez said that, despite the oral amendments to document E/C.19/2008/L.2 as read by the Forum Rapporteur, the text did not reflect her organization's concerns about emissions and deforestation. The list of recommendations it contained would bring about new challenges to indigenous peoples and reflected the opinions of experts and not the positions of indigenous peoples. Clean development initiatives should be examples of good practice, but none of the Caucus's members supported those so-called “good practices”. She reaffirmed her organization's call for the elimination of paragraphs 5 and 37 of document E/C.19/2008/L.2, saying that Caucus' recommendations had generally not been reflected in any of the Forum's final documents. She said that the Forum should have based its recommendations on principles of the Declaration supporting the right of indigenous peoples to live in a healthy environment. After a second brief suspension, Ms. Tauli-Corpuz explained that the Forum had spent several hours negotiating this controversial text, which had to do with climate change, to reflect the reservations of indigenous peoples. The Rapporteur then reread the oral amendments, including the last sentence which the Forum believed responded to the concerns of the dissenting participants, saying the choice of those who opted not to participate in reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation or in the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility and other carbon funds should be respected and noted that the current framework for the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) was not supported by most indigenous peoples. As such, the Forum said new proposals for avoiding deforestation or reducing emissions from deforestation must be guided by the Declaration. Ms. Tauli-Corpuz stated, “I think we stated very clearly that this kind of mechanism is not acceptable to most indigenous peoples, and there was a need to redesign the whole mechanism with the participation of indigenous peoples, so that the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was the deciding principle,” This was not sufficient for some of the Indigenous groups. The Forum's reports and recommendations, and other information are available at: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/session_seventh.html. After the meeting a number of observers commented on the tensions. ''I observed the frustration of the indigenous representatives from global south and north making comments that they felt were not reflected,''said Tom Goldtooth, of the Indigenous Environmental Network. ''Some of the frustrations I saw was the feeling that intergovernmental organizations, states and independent experts are given more weight than indigenous people.'' The last session, with its demonstration and the calling in of security, which was then restrained is available at: http://youtube.com/watch?v =UtORVi7GybY. The Forums amendments to proposals concerning the World Bank carbon trading plan did not go far enough for many Native activists in attendance, who agreed with the statement to the meeting by Florina Lopez of Caucus Indigenas de Abya Yala, when calling for the elimination of the paragraphs supporting the World Bank plan, ''We recognize that the current government policies are to exploit indigenous territories. We have listened attentively. Indigenous organizations and nations are not represented.'' Part of the complaint is that when the World Bank held a meeting in Latin America on the plan, that was supposed to include, consultation with Indigenous people, Indigenous people were excluded from the meeting. Tauli-Corpuz had written to the effect that the Permanent Forum is not an indigenous forum, nor is it a government one; It is a forum of U.N.-appointed indigenous experts, such as herself and Gonnella Frichner. These experts stand alone, making recommendations to the U.N., determining in closed-door meetings how they will render a balanced opinion for the U.N. about the predictably competing needs of indigenous peoples and economic powers. In contrast, Kara Briggs, co-director of the American Indian Policy and Media Initiative (at briggskm@gmail.com), stated, “There must be transparency. Tauli-Corpuz must give a public explanation for these events, and what appears to be the silencing of indigenous opposition to the World Bank plan. American Indian leaders in the U.S. need to use their powerful voices to call for explanations. The promise of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues depends on it.” A critique of the functioning of the forum and its reports is contained in “Permanent Forum: Unprofessional and gets personal,” Indigenous Rights Quarterly, Vo. I, No. 3, July - September 2007 (http://www.aitpn.org/IRQ/vol-II/Issue-03/story08.html). The largest concern is that, “So long indigenous peoples'statements are not included in the Annual Reports to the ECOSOC, indigenous peoples will increasingly fail to relate to the Forum. The Forum will eventually lose its relevance to the activists. The proposed new mechanism of the Human Rights Council may indeed hasten the process of the Permanent Forum's ultimate irrelevance.” Economic and social development, indigenous women and the Second International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, and the Arctic region will be the focus of next year's session, while implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will be a permanent item on the Forum's agenda. For more information on the seventh session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, please go to: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/session_seventh.html. * * * The 6th Session of the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution (A/HRC/6/L.35), in October, requesting the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to convene an informal meeting in Geneva for a day and a half open to the participation of states, Indigenous peoples and other stakeholders preceding the resumed December session of the Council to exchange views on the most appropriate mechanisms to continue the work of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations. OHCHR has posted a link concerning this process http://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/indigenous/docs/informal/form.doc. Following UN Human Rights Council resolution 6/36 of December 14, an expert mechanism on the rights of indigenous peoples is being established to provide the Council with thematic expertise on the rights of indigenous peoples. Indigenous leaders and supporters from Ecuador and several other nations met in Quito, the capital city of Ecuador, December 16 - 18, to begin developing strategies to help all Native peoples turn the United Nations' declaration on indigenous rights into law across the hemisphere. The meting was organized by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), the Native-based School of Government and Public Policy, the Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany and the Esquel Foundation. The conference addressed the issue through five ''work tables'': democracy, politics and autonomies; territories and natural resources; administration of justice; economics and development; and identity, culture and patrimony (which included intellectual, spiritual and cultural aspects). The Canadian Parliament endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in April. Also that month, in the U.S., Maine's General Assembly passed a resolution supporting the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the City Council of New York City, subsequently did the same. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/06/11/aboriginal-apology.html. An Indigenous Portal is being created on the web, at www.indigenousportal.com with one general site and regional sub-sites in eight regions of the world: North America, South America, Central American and the Caribbean, Artic, Africa, Asia, Pacific and Russia. These regional sites will run the language most suitable to the Indigenous Peoples in their region. The initial plan is to have one Indigenous Portal Project Manager to create and oversee the development of the portal and regional managers to maintain the portal for their particular region. The project is funded through Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), initially facilitated by INCOMINDIOS, a Swiss based NGO and carried by the IITF: the Indigenous ICT Task Force. The project is currently co-managed and the entire management will gradually be passed to the Permanent Portal Board consisting of Indigenous representatives from eight regions of the world and the IITF as the carrying organization. By the end of the project the Permanent Board and the IITF will be the sole entities managing and carrying the project. The IITF was created during the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis in 2005 by Indigenous representatives who want to implement the Plan of Action of that process. The IITF is a non-profit organization of Indigenous individuals who are involved in the Information Society. They include educators, editors, website managers, community activists and others who have an interest is closing the digital divide between Indigenous Peoples and the rest of the world. The Indigenous Portal Board Members can be reached at: indigenousportal@gmail.com., or go to: http://iictf.blogspot.com/2006/04/interim-portal-board-meets-in-geneva.html. The inaugural World Indigenous Television Broadcasting Conference - WITBC 08 took place at The Edge in Auckland, Aotearoa-New Zealand, March 26-28, 2008, with the theme of 'reclaiming the future' of our indigenous languages, cultures and identities. Host broadcaster Maori Television is committed to the development of the industry by supporting New Zealand tertiary students who are studying in broadcasting related fields with a particular emphasis on indigenous culture and language. For more information go to: http://witbc.org/STUDENTS/. The Indigenous representatives walked out of the Protected Areas Meeting, currently organized under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Rome, protesting the Nigerian Chair, Ositadinma Anaedu, refusing to include indigenous requests unless they were backed by a party. In the past indigenous peoples have been able to independently table proposals. There have been CBD resolutions calling for increased indigenous participation, but stopping short of setting out clear rules of procedure. The walkout lead to a meeting on the question, at which the right of Indigenous people to speak was upheld, but the Indigenous delegates did not return to reengage in the session. Several NGOs also objected to procedural constraints imposed at the meeting. For more information go to: http://www.iisd.ca/biodiv/wgpa2/ (particularly click on the web coverage for Thursday). There is also an indigenous blogspot: http://www.indigenousstatement.blogspot.com/. When the International Year of Languages began, January 1, more than half of the world's 6700 spoken languages were threatened with extinction, with about one stopping being spoken a week. Most of the threatened languages are Indigenous. ~¡~ Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a public apology, June 11, to Canadian Indians who decades ago were taken from their families and forced to attend state-funded Christian schools aimed at stripping them of their aboriginal culture, and who were often subjected to abuse. At least 250 former boarding school students were present in Parliament for the apology, and television screens were set up at locations across Canada so that the apology could be watched live. For more information go to: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/06/11/aboriginal-apology.html. Tribal police from the Kahnawake, Kanesatake and Akwesasne communities in Quebec, Ontario and New York partnered with U.S. and Canadian federal law enforcement agents and provincial police in cross-border raids, March 26, arresting 30 people and confiscating drugs, cash and weapons, in a multi-jurisdictional operation involving 300 law enforcement agents, including Mohawk Peacekeepers from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; and provincial police in Quebec and Ontario. Canada, which was one of four nations voting against implementation of the UN Declaration of Indigenous Rights, for some time was blocking its implementation, reported Chair of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, at the meeting of the UNPFII. In April, Canada stated at a meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) that the Declaration could not be the framework upon which the OAS declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples could be shaped. However, in early April, the Canadian Parliament endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The life expectancy for First Nation males is 7.4 years below the Canadian population of 68.9 years and for First nation females 5.2 years below the Canadian population for females at 76.6 years. Motor vehicle collisions were a leading cause of death over all First Nations age groups. Suicide and self-injury were the leading causes of death for youth and adults up to 44 years. In 2000, suicide accounted for 22% of all deaths in youth aged 10 to 19 years (From: www.hc-as.gc.ca/fnih-spni/pubs/gen/stats_profil-e.html). A memorandum of understanding was signed, in May, between the Ontario government and Grassy Narrows First Nation (Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek) binding the parties to ''good faith negotiations'' to develop a short-term agreement that would include a pilot project integrating forestry with traditional uses in a site, still to be selected, of 185,250 to 284,050 acres of the Whiskey Jack Forest. The details and timeframes were expected to take three to six months to work out. Establishing committees and completing activities to be undertaken as part of the talks were expected to take four years. The results of this work will then be used as the basis for negotiating a long-term agreement for the protection, management and use of the forest. Among the concerns of the first nation are clear cutting by AbitibiBowater Inc., which holds the license for the 2.47-million-acre Whiskey Jack Forest Management Unit, three-quarters of which is Grassy Narrows' traditional territory. Demonstrations and a logging road blockade have been carried out since December, by Grassy Narrows activists, and it remains to be seen if the agreement can result in a process that resolves the issues satisfactorily. In March, addressing longstanding concerns raised by northwest Ontario's Grassy Narrows First Nation, Rainforest Action Network and a coalition of allies, Boise Inc. notified logging company AbitibiBowater that it will cease purchasing wood fiber logged from Grassy Narrows' traditional territory in the Whiskey Jack Forest without the indigenous community's consent. In the face of findings by several United Nations committees and the recommendations of a special U.N. envoy, who visited the Lubicon First Nation in 2007, calling on the government of Canada to return to the negotiating table with the band, which has never signed a treaty with Canada, and on the provincial government to halt extraction activities in the Lubicon region until settlement is reached, the process to approve a massive natural gas pipeline across the unceeded territory of the small Cree nation in Alberta is beginning without any adjustment to address aboriginal concerns. The TransCanada Pipelines has so far refused to recognize the tribes land rights and deal with their concerns about impacts on the environment and traditional uses before seeking regulatory approval of its $1 billion project. The Alberta Utilities Commission says Lubicon has not demonstrated that it has a right to participate in the hearing to be held later this year on the pipeline. Alberta Aboriginal Relations Minister Gene Zwozdesky considers the Lubicon territory to be provincial Crown (public) land, transferred to the province by the federal government in 1930, and the Lubicons to be ''legally landless'' until they reach a settlement with Canada. The Canadian government has yet to name a negotiator to start talks with the Lubicons, despite a promise to do so by former federal Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice. In a letter to current Minister Chuck Strahl, February 6, Lubicon Chief Bernard Ominayak said he is willing to meet with whomever the government appoints. The Lubicons continue to live in abject poverty, their water contaminated, their subsistence economy eliminated, and subject to a multitude of medical problems including tuberculosis, asthma, skin rashes, cancer and stillbirths. The nation has been working since the 1930s to achieve a settlement with Canada after being left out of Treaty 8 in 1899. The Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (CANDO), in Kamloops, B.C., November 1, graduated 20 members of the Atlantic Aboriginal Economic Developers Network who had completed the three-year professional certification program in community economic development. The program was coordinated by the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs, with funding for the three-year initiative provided through ACOA's Business Development Program. The goal of the program is to have a professionally certified economic development officer working in every First Nations community in Atlantic Canada. Schools for Chiapas reports, that on June 4, about 200 Mexican troops and police engaged in aggressive actions against Zapatistas in the Patiwitz Canyon of the Lacandon Jungle, entering the corn and banana fields surrounding Zapatista communities, threatening the communities' only food supplies, and provoking a desperate response by the Mayan residents. John Gibler, “Counterinsurgency in Chiapas,” In these Times, February 2008, reports that since early 2007, Zapatista communities across southern Chiapas have been “facing almost daily attacks, land invasions and death threats.” The Mexican government released 149 political prisoners in the first two weeks of April, including 37 hunger strikers, almost all of whom were indigenous people from Chiapas who had been alleging they were the victims of torture, false imprisonment for political reasons, and other abuses. Another 20 prisoners are still incarcerated in Chiapas and Tabasco, whom activists are working to have released, as further abuses in and outside the prisons are coming to light. Mexico's Congress passed legislation overhauling the justice system, in March, which includes a presumption of innocence until proven guilty and the establishing of public trials at which lawyers will orally argue cases before judges, and trials are now to be sped up, aimed at ending having defendants languish in jail for years without being tried, when a prosecutor has decided the defendant is guilty. The police were given the power to investigate crimes, where previously only prosecutors had that power. The justice system has been plagued by wide spread corruption, which while not directly reversed by the reforms, will be harder to carry out if the new rules are followed. Human Rights Watch reported, in mid-February, that the Mexican Human Rights Commissions findings are rarely acted on at all, or investigations are merely begun and forgotten, by police and prosecutors, and the commission rarely follows up to find out what has been done to act on its findings. Nine hundred men, women and children of the Huichol community of Santa Catarina in Jalisco, Mexico, staged a peaceful blockade for two weeks, in February, to protest a proposed highway into their remote Sierra territory. In early March, the Mexican government temporarily suspended work on the proposed highway north of Guadalajara. But with pressure from local government and commercial interests to open up their territory, the Huichol community remains challenged. Indigenous Mixtecs from the Mexican southern state of Oaxaca, living just South of the U.S. boarder in Mexicali, have had their livelihood seriously reduced after eight years of selling merchandise to U.S.-bound travelers waiting in line to cross the border by Mexican, as a result of Mexican officials ousting them from the Mexican customs compound. After the Mixtecs attended a council meeting to protest the federal government's treatment, Mexicali municipal officials agreed to allow them to sell on the city limits near the federal compound. However, the municipal officials issued only a few, and expensive, permits, while issuing a numerous permits to other non-Mixtec vendors. The changes have brought many Mixtecs to resent the government, claiming they are targets of discrimination in a nation that still sees indigenous groups under a colonial eye and where they are ranked at the bottom of the social hierarchy. In the face of inflating food prices from rising fuel prices (from world oil production peaking, and speculation), rising population increasing demand and agricultural land being switched from food to energy production, plus food hording and speculation, the Mexican government froze food prices in mid-June. Elisabeth Maulkin, “Ways of Ancient Mexico: Reviving Barren Lands,” The New York Times, May 13, 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/world/americas/13oaxaca.html), reports that in the Mixteca highlands in the state of Oaxaca, people “are burdened with some of the most barren earth in Mexico, the work of more than five centuries of erosion that began even before the arrival of the Spanish colonizers, their goats and their cattle. The scuffed hillsides look as though some ancient giant had hacked at them, opening gashes in the white and yellow rock.” Over the past two decades Mixteca “farmers have worked to reforest and reclaim this parched land, hoping to find a way for people to stay and work their farms instead of leaving for jobs in cities and in the United States.” This includes traditional farming, which currently is not commercially viable, but contributes to being able to survive in the homeland. “Panama Dam Construction Steps Up the Pace,” Cultural Survival Quarterly, Issue 32.1, April 1, 2008 (http://www.cs.org/publications/csq/csq-article.cfm?id=1986) reports that with homes being dynamited, “the Ngöbe people of Panama are facing imminent destruction of their homeland as a result of a hydroelectric dam.” “Just before Christmas, the people of Charco la Pava, alarmed by the action and encouraged by international support of their rights, staged a peaceful protest with a banner across the road to the dam. That protest seemed to work for a time, and over the Christmas holiday, construction on the dam site stopped. But on January 3, the company [AES-Changuinola] and the government brought in a squadron of police in riot gear who attacked the protestors with clubs. They broke the nose of a nine-year-old boy and injured his sister's arm. They knocked down and sexually humiliated a woman carrying a three-year-old child on her back, and knocked down a sixty-year-old man, grinding his face into the dirt with a boot. They arrested 54 people, including 13 children and 2 infants, taking them to a jail in the city of Changuinola. The police who remained in the area conducted a house-to-house search for the communities' leaders they held responsible for the protest. They used a helicopter to chase three of the leaders into the forest, where they hid for three days. After this incident, the police set up a cordon around the area, blocking the entry of any outsider who sought to meet with the Ngöbe. Within the cordon, the construction moved to a much higher level of activity.” has extended the road further into Ngöbe territory, onto lands where they had convinced landowners to sign an agreement for studies on their land. When the company didn' t pay the agreed-upon fees for the studies and the people retracted their permission, the company simply bulldozed the road across their lands. Meanwhile, instead of protecting the Ngöbe, the police have established a permanent base camp to support their 24-hour-a-day security cordon. Lucía Lasso, who works for the Alliance for Conservation and Development, Cultural Survival's Panamanian partner organization, says that the government has offered no justification for sealing off the Ngöbe lands.” “The Center for Biological Diversity has challenged the two Danish companies that are doing the actual construction work under contract with AES for their participation in the illegal destruction of Ngöbe lands, hoping to convince them to stop. But the one firm that responded said they had a 'contractual obligation to complete the project,' which releases them from any legal liabilities. They also claim that they are under no obligation to understand Panamanian law, which requires development projects to consult with indigenous communities before beginning the project.” Cultural Survival has been working, increasingly, to support the Ngobe, noting, “This is only the first of 47 dams planned by the Panamanian government on indigenous lands. Stopping this dam now will have a ripple effect, slowing down all the others until indigenous peoples can be brought into the process and their rights respected.” For more information go to: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001NUpTnSzwdUAvURs7Zkru_UOrNGpxTrj8IWJpQI2zS5VIq1ozAfS1gTJGps3N4_GKQnO-uF3IVIZIMTczlBJBvAWDWWvsDjShIErj9jzcWDIT4Af5EyOr0I4C6yF2cayzP41i6CDj70-RWr7ffK0kpA, or contact Cultural Survival, 215 Prospect St, Cambridge, MA 02139. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Saramaka People vs. Suriname, November 28, invoked the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to settle a logging case, in favor of the Saramaka, In Columbia, Indigenous people, attempting to remain neutral in the extended civil war, have long been caught in the middle, suffering assaults from both pro-government paramilitary forces and rebel troops. Survival International reported, March 12, that the Nukak, one of the Amazon's last nomadic tribes, has become caught up in the aftermath of the recent hostage deal negotiated in Colombia between the government and left-wing FARC guerrillas. The Nukak have been bombed by the Colombian army in its battle against guerrillas, who have violently taken control of much of the Nukak territory. Many Nukak fled their territory to a local town, in early March, and many more are expected to follow. “The bombings come after the recent assassination of a Nukak man called Monikaro by Battalion 44 of the FARC. Monikaro had fled Nukak land in 2004 after conflict between the army, guerrillas and paramilitaries fighting for control of the lucrative coca crop, the raw material for cocaine. The remoteness of the Nukak territory makes it an ideal location for growing coca. The Nukak's land is also being eyed up as a potential site for palm oil plantations for biofuel, and for its known petroleum reserves…. The latest violence comes just months after many Nukak had started the long journey home, hoping that the fighting which has wracked their remote rainforest had died down. In more recent incidents, in April, FARC rebels shot at Nukak Indians and forcibly displaced seven families from their homes after a Nukak man was used by the Colombian army to locate a rebel settlement. All sides are fighting for control of the lucrative coca crop, the raw material for cocaine. For more information contact Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or email mr@survival-international.org, http://www.survival-international.org/news/3130. In Columbia, the village of Tabaco of the indigenous Wayuu people and mestizo peasants and Afro-Colombians in Colombia's remote Guajira peninsula, was forcibly razed, in August of 2001, by Cerrejón Zona Norte, the largest open-pit coal mine in the world. Currently, about 100 former residents of Tabaco remain organized as Tabaco in Resistance. They' ve lost their homes and mostly live with relatives or in inadequate quarters in the nearby town of Albania. They refuse to settle with the company because their key demand has not been met: to be recognized as a community. They are asking for collective negotiations, collective relocation, and reparations for the years, the families, and the community that they have lost. For details, see: By Avi Chomsky and Cindy Forster “Extraction: In Colombia, a Mine Takes Much More from the Land than Coal,” Cultural Survival Quarterly, Issue 30.4, December 15, 2006, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/csq/index.cfm?id=30.4. In June, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez changed policy, urging the FARC, Columbia's largest rebel group, to end their 40-year insurgency. In November, Peru's President Garcia questioned the existence of uncontacted tribes living in the remote Peruvian rainforest, just six weeks after 21 uncontacted Indians were photographed in southeast Peru, a sighting that made world headlines. The comments were made in an article written by President Garcia in one of Peru's major national newspapers, El Comercio. The article argues that Peru must exploit more of its natural resources, citing the Amazon as the 'number one resource', but acknowledging his point of view is not shared by all. " 'In opposition to oil, [environmentalists] have created the figure of an 'unconnected' Amazon native; that's to say, unknown but presumed to exist,'' the president wrote. '' As a result, millions of hectares should not be explored, and Peruvian oil should be left underground while the cost of a barrel on the world market is $90.'' In total, there are an estimated 15 uncontacted tribes in Peru and a vast amount of evidence of their existence has been collected by Survival and other organizations over the years. Although any form of contact with them can be fatal, the Peruvian government is actively permitting and promoting oil exploration in areas they inhabit. President Garcia's comments follow statements made earlier this year by the chairman of Perupetro, Peru's state oil company, that it is 'absurd to say there are uncontacted peoples', while another Perupetro spokesperson compared the tribes to the Loch Ness monster. To read President Garcia's article in El Comercio (in Spanish), visit http://www.elcomercio.com.pe/edicionimpresa/html/2007-10-28/presidente_alan_garcia_julio.html. In February, unconfirmed reports indicate that a team prospecting for oil deep in the Peruvian Amazon has encountered a village belonging to previously-uncontacted Indians, where they allegedly came across houses, paths and utensils. If the reports are true, the Indians are members of the Cacataibo tribe. Two groups of Cacataibo Indians remain uncontacted, although their territory is cut in two by a major highway, and it has also been opened up for oil exploration by the government. Both the Indians and the oil workers would be at grave risk from such an encounter; the Indians from catching potentially fatal diseases such as influenza, and the workers from the very real danger of retaliation by the Indians, who would see their presence as a threat. Local Indian organizations, Survival International and many others have warned oil companies operating in the Peruvian Amazon to keep out of the territories of uncontacted Indians. There are at least 15 groups of isolated Indians in Peru alone. Survival's Director Stephen Corry said today, 'If these reports are true, it's very worrying indeed. Whether true or not, this land belongs to the Indians; the UN says so, international law says so, Peruvian law agrees. The fact that the Indians are uncontacted does not lessen their rights. The company is invading Cacataibo land, and it will be responsible for the consequences.'' By May, Peru's government had dropped plans to open up uncontacted Indians' reserves to oil exploration. The latest round of oil exploration and extraction concessions, announced in early May, do not include any of the uncontacted Indians‚ reserves. The move appears to be in response to considerable criticism from Survival and Indian organizations in Peru. The decision represents a U-turn for Perupetro, the state body responsible for negotiating exploration rights. Perupetro spokespeople had previously suggested the uncontacted Indians did not exist, and that exploration in their reserves would be permitted. According to reports, a Perupetro spokesperson stated this week that none of the new areas include reserves for uncontacted tribes in order to avoid confrontation with local communities and environmental organizations. However, part of one of the new concessions, although not a reserve, is inhabited by uncontacted Indians, and elsewhere in Peru oil and gas exploration remains a huge threat. French company Perenco has recently acquired the rights to work in the northern Peruvian Amazon where at least two uncontacted tribes live, and companies Repsol-YPF, Petrolifera and a consortium led by Pluspetrol all work in areas inhabited by the Indians. For more information contact Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or email mr@survival-international.org. or visit http://mcsv.net/cgi-bin/redir?MCid=ostc8v7ZVQCqQTrZoCrQ. On Nov. 7, President Evo Morales of Bolivia announced the passage of National Law 3760 or the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, legislation that exactly makes the United Nation's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Bolivian law. In line with a promise to return land to Indigenous people, on January 28, President Evo Morales delivered 923,318 acres of land to Guarani people living in Bolivia. As of June, political conflict was continuing in Bolivia, between the Morales administration and opposition leaders from the wealthy half-moon regions of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija, but especially the Santa Cruz faction, as local voters went to the polls May 4 to decide on ''autonomy'' for the region and whose results are another source of conflict. Following the May 12 passage of a referendum measure, Bolivian President Evo Morales is preparing for a national yes or no vote on whether he, his administration and the governors of all the regions are to keep their jobs until the end of their terms. All Bolivians will vote up or down, August 10, on his administration and the other leaders. For Morales and Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera, that means they would need at least 53.7 percent of the vote, or 1.54 million votes, to be able to stay in office. If they fail to reach that percentage - which was the margin that elected them last time - they would have six months to arrange another general election before leaving office. There is the same requirement for the governors, but if they fail to win their prior election margin, they will be required to leave office the next day, and the president would appoint interim governors until the elections were held. Opposition governors are ignoring the referendum legislation and pushing on with setting up autonomous governments. Morales had arranged for meetings, in mid-May, with all of the governors, but the half-moon delegation refused the offer (insisting that they would only cooperate if leaders of the Catholic Church were present). In effect, the opposition bloc is calling the results a mandate for autonomy and Morales, along with allies in five Latin American governments and the Organization of American States, is calling the results unconstitutional and a victory for Morales, with the pro-Morales side warning that the partition of Bolivia ''will not be accepted.'' International support for further dialogue and for Morales was growing through May. At the beginning of the month the OAS passed a declaration, that listing seven points regarding the conflict. Points 2 and 4 allude to the institutions position on secession: ''2. To welcome the expressions of respect for the constitutional order and the territorial integrity of the Republic of Bolivia, and to reject any attempt to disrupt them. ... 4. To make a vigorous appeal to all actors to ensure that their actions are governed by respect for the rule of law, refraining from any action that may lead to a breakdown of the peace and/or constitutional order and affect coexistence between Bolivians.'' A number of intellectuals and other leaders from the U.S., Latin America and Europe sent a letter to Morales that was delivered in mid-May, stating their support for his government and their concern about the nature of the opposition. ''Also, we have noted the belligerent, intransigent and illegal attitude of the powerful sectors that hide behind a shield of 'autonomy efforts' - far away from the just and inclusive autonomy of the indigenous peoples and from the proper departments and regions formed in the new constitution - to shatter the process of justice initiated by the popular government that you lead,'' the letter stated. Among the 300 signatories were writers, human rights activists along with indigenous leaders from 20 countries. Several of the letter's signers were from Brazil, where May 13 that country's foreign minister, Celso Amorim stated, ''I don't think we'll see separatism. Even because South America would never accept it. ''Brazil is not against autonomy wishes as long as constitutional principles are respected and that is the will of the Bolivian people.'' In the meantime, 34 indigenous peoples from the Oriente, Chaco and Amazonia regions are refusing to recognize the Santa Cruz autonomy movement, and have announced their support for the Aug. 10 referendum. In a press statement issued May 12, the group also ''resolved to declare themselves to be in a state of emergency and permanent mobilization at the national level until the conclusion of the constituent process with the approval of the new Magna Carta and the implementation of indigenous autonomies.'' Therehave been discussions of possible dialogues between the Morales administration and the opposition continue, but as of early June, no fixed dates or places had been arranged. The International Crisis Group (ICG), “Bolivia: Rescuing the New Constitution and Democratic Stability,” June 19 (http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5499&l=1), reported that, “The confrontation between the Morales administration and the political and regional opposition centered in the eastern lowlands over Bolivia's new, still provisional constitution and departmental autonomy is approaching a climax that may well lead to violence unless both sides commit to dialogue and compromise. On 22 June, Tarija department is expected to join its three neighbors (Santa Cruz, Beni and Pando) in adopting an autonomy statute in a referendum the central government does not recognize.” “President Evo Morales's efforts to consolidate sweeping reforms on the basis of a controversial new constitution have steered Bolivia into a cul-de-sac. On 8 December 2007, his supporters in the Constituent Assembly provisionally passed the text by running roughshod over procedures and virtually excluding opposition delegates. Feeble attempts to bridge the deepening divide have failed, increasing potential for a violent confrontation all concerned still seem to wish to avoid.” Frédéric Massé, Crisis Group Senior Analyst, stated, “Bolivia needs both democratic stability and socio-economic progress. It is essential to move away from dueling referendums‚ and zero-sum strategies aimed at subduing the other side.” “With the Constitutional Court inoperative, unable to serve as an impartial arbiter, government and opposition must resume a meaningful dialogue. Basic consensus is needed regarding: the compatibility between departmental autonomy and the several further layers of autonomy, including for indigenous peoples, contained in the new constitution; use and distribution among the nine departments and between them and the central government of revenues from the Direct Hydrocarbon Tax (IDH); and the city of Sucre‚s status as the constitutional capital but not seat of government. The government should provisionally stop taking IDH money away from the departments for its new pension fund, and discussions about Sucre's status should be put off to a later stage. But the autonomy question is top priority. It needs to be tackled immediately, and final adoption of the constitution should be postponed until a compromise is found. Markus Schultze-Kraft, Crisis Group's Latin America Program Director commented, “Bolivia's break-up does not appear imminent. but if mutual intransigence persists, the stand-off between the Morales government and the opposition over departmental autonomy and the new constitution threatens serious further destabilization.” The Huaorani Nationality Organization of Ecuador reported that as many as 15 Huaoranis were killed by gunmen, in mid February, in Yasuni National Park. The largest indigenous gathering in the Brazilian Amazon in nearly twenty years took place, May 19 to 23, in the town of Altamira, Pará, to protest against a series of huge hydroelectric dams being planned for the Xingu River. Over a thousand Indians from the Kayapó, Ikpeng and other tribes, along with riverbank dwellers and small farmers, gathered to oppose the project. The Xingu is one the Amazon's main tributaries. The Kayapó say that damming it will destroy their way of life, kill the animals and fish they rely on, and profoundly affect their health. In 1989, at an historic gathering in Altamira, the Kayapó and other tribes from the Xingu basin rejected the Brazilian government's plans for a series of six hydroelectric dams on the river. As a result, the World Bank cancelled a loan for the dams, and plans to dam the Xingu were suspended for more than a decade. The 1989 meeting was attended by pop star Sting, and Body Shop founder Anita Roddick. In recent years, Brazil's energy planners have once again focused on damming the rivers of the Amazon, including building what would be the world's third largest dam, Belo Monte (11,181 MW installed capacity), on the Xingu. In all, 70 large dams are being planned for the Amazon Basin by the year 2030. Elsewhere in Brazil, the remote Enawene Nawe tribe of Mato Grosso state are also resisting plans to build hydroelectric dams on the Juruena River, upstream from their land. The 420 Enawene Nawe, who eat no red meat, say that if the dams are built, the fish they rely on will no longer be able to reach their spawning grounds. Survival's director Stephen Corry said, “Big dams like those planned for the Xingu have long been discredited because of their disastrous effects on local people and the environment, as well as their inefficiency. The Brazilian government must listen to the voices of the Kayapó and the other tribes of the Xingu, and drop these plans immediately.” For more information contact Miriam Ross, (+44) (0)20 7687 8734, mr@survival-international.org, www.survival-international.org, or visit the International Rivers webpage on Xingu: http://mcsv.net/cgi-bin/redir?MCid=SMIWE9q1ZICqQTrZoCrQ, Indigenous contacts in Brazil include: Sheila Juruna of the Juruna tribe, (+55) 93 9139 4388 or (+55) 93 9171 5409 (Portuguese only). NGO contacts in Brazil: Glenn Switkes, International Rivers, (+55) 35 33326809 or (+55) 11 8460 9513 (speaks English), Portuguese only: Antonia Melo e Antonia Martins - Fundação Viver Produzir e Preservar (FVPP), Altamira, (+55) 93 3515 2406 or 9904 8680 or 9951 4030, Dom Erwin Krautler, bishop of the Xingu and president of the Indigenist Missionary Council (CIMI), Altamira, (+55) 93 9976 1046, José Cleanton Curioso Ribeiro, CIMI Altamira, (+55) 93 3515 2312 or 9952 0740. Raul Telles do Valle, Instituto Socioambiental (ISA ˆ Socio Environmental Institute), (+55) 61 3035 5114. Tarcisio Feitosa, CPT (Pastoral Land Commission) and Goldman Prize winner, (+55) 91 9191 5633. David Martins Castro, a representative of the U.N. High Commission for Human Rights, and four other officials, including A federal prosecutor were blocked from leaving the Cinta Larga reservation in Brazil, in December, after meeting with tribal leaders to discuss their battle to protect diamond resources, until the Brazilian government agreed to create a task force to look into the Cinta Larga's needs and guaranteed a meeting with Brazilian Justice Minister Tarso Genro in the capital of Brasilia, next year, said Marcio Meira, president of Brazil's Federal Indian Bureau. The government also will work closely with the Indians for better health care, education and jobs, Meira said. “The Indians released everybody after they realized that the government will take the necessary measures to try to solve their problems,” he said. Castro and the other hostages were treated well and even received souvenirs from the Indians before being released, said Meira, who arrived at the reservation to negotiate. Amazon Indian groups often take hostages for brief periods to force attention to their demands. The Cinta Larga also wanted prosecutors to drop charges against 28 members of the tribe accused of killing 29 trespassing diamond miners in 2004 - a massacre that largely halted a rush by outside miners lured by diamond reserves, believed to be the largest in South America. But Meira said that charges in the massacre were up to the justice system. “These problems (over diamonds) are structural, long-term problems. The only long-term solution will come when mining on Indian reservation is regulated,” Meira said. Brazilian law bans mining of any kind on Indian reservations, but in recent years, federal authorities made exceptions for Cinta Larga to sell their diamonds. Brazilian legislators are considering changing the law to allow mining by Indians on reservations. But the move is opposed by some Indian rights group that fear the easy money will destroy indigenous culture. The Brazilian Mines and Energy Ministry estimates some $2 billion worth of diamonds have been smuggled off the reservation in the past few years. In December, Guajajara Indian Chief Joaquim Guajajara was shot to death on in the Arariboia reservation in northeastern Brazil, where settlers are contending with locals for land and lumber, the government reported. Federal police were called in to investigate, but the national Indian bureau, Funai, said the killing was likely linked to a dispute with settlers over land and natural resources, especially lumber. Since early November, some 200 agents have patrolled the area to combat illegal logging, arson and clandestine marijuana plantations on Indian land, the agency said. Funai reported that 64 Guajajara have been killed in the past 16 years in illegal labor operations or in confrontations with settlers, where agents seized and burned 10,000 marijuana plants and closed 12 clandestine lumber mills. “The situation is difficult and will get tenser after this death,” he told Agencia Brasil. Survival International reported, March 17, that a group of armed men walked into an Enawene Nawe fishing camp in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, and threatened the Indians with reprisals unless they left. When the Indians asked who they were, two said they were policemen. The others identified themselves as landowners from the area. Lalowalohiene, one of the Enawene Nawe present, said, “We heard the sounds of gunshots. They fired lots of shots. I asked, why do you have revolvers? We are not bandits. We Enawene are just fishing on the river for our ritual that's all.” The fishing camp is in an area known as Rio Preto. The Enawene Nawe have been lobbying the Brazilian government to recognize their ownership of this area, which is of huge economic and ritual importance to them because it is rich in fish, nuts and genipapo fruit. However, a group of landowners, who are progressively invading and logging the area, obtained a court injunction last year preventing the Enawene Nawe from building their fishing camps there. A judge is due to rule on the legality of the injunction. A group of Enawene Nawe has traveled to the state capital Cuiabá to meet with public prosecutors and the government's Indian Affairs department, FUNAI, to ask them to take action against the landowners and to uphold their right to fish on the rivers. The Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR) and Survival International released a film, June 20, showing an attack by hired gunmen on a Makuxi Indian village in Brazil, firing assault rifles and throwing homemade bombs at an unarmed group of Makuxi. Ten Makuxi were wounded in the attack, six of them children. The gunmen are believed to be working for Paulo César Quartiero, who is the mayor of a nearby town. Mr. Quartiero was arrested but has since been released. Police found a large cache of arms on his farm. Although the Makuxi live in an officially recognized reserve, several powerful farmers are illegally occupying the territory and refusing to move. Gunmen hired by these farmers regularly attack the Indians. The state government has petitioned Brazil's Supreme Court asking it to allow these farmers to remain on Indian land. It is expected to rule before the end of July. For more information go to: http://list-manage.com/track/click?u=b14580b05b832fb959c4ee444&id=36f269a98d&e=CqQTrZoCrQ. The incoming Government of Paraguay committed to help end the enslavement of the Guaraní, from the Chaco region, after learning about the practice from indigenous communications. Those reports had been corroborated by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Following a court decision settling a land dispute in September, the U.S.-based Seaboard Corp. returned about 128 acres of land. April 9, to a Guarani community in northern Argentina, after three years of litigation, during which time the traditional crops of 60 families were replaced by sugar cane, as resisting Guarani suffered house burnings and beatings. The Guarani's victory followed another judgment in their favor, last August, when a regional judge ordered El Tabacal to stop felling trees on 5,000 acres of contested land called La Loma. “A critical analysis of 'Consultation Draft of the Safeguard Policy Statement' of Asian Development Bank,” Indigenous Rights Quarterly, October - December, 2007 (http://www.aitpn.org/IRQ/vol-II/Issue-04/story08.html) states, “In October 2007, Asian Development Bank released its 'Consultation Draft of the Safeguard Policy Statement' and held 'Indigenous Peoples' Consultation' in Manila, Philippines on 27 November 2007. ADB's Consultation Draft of the Safeguard Policy Statement in general and its 'Safeguard Requirements for Borrowers/Clients on Indigenous Peoples' (hereinafter referred as 'Indigenous Peoples Safeguards' ) in particular are deeply flawed. A cursory reading of the Indigenous Peoples Safeguards shows that the ADB places excessive trust on the borrowers/clients at the cost of the fundamental rights of the indigenous peoples.” Turkey has made a number of incursions and aerial attacks into Iraqi Kurdistan (with acquiescence of the U.S., who also supplied intelligence - but against the will of the Iraqi government), in pursuit of violent Turkish Kurdish separatists and their supporters. There are reports of Iran, which also has a Kurdish minority, of firing artillery into Iraqi Kurdistan. However, Turkey announced a new development policy, in March, to develop better relations with Kurds through a broad series of investments of up to $12 billion, to create jobs in the poor Kurdish southwest of Turkey, and draw young people away from militancy. The government will also fulfill a long time Kurdish wish in dedicating a television station to Kurdish language. Reversing a policy of severely restricting use of Kurdish language, the Turkish government will now honor it and Kurdish culture. Turkey is also moving to improve relations with Iraq, including opening a consulate in the southern city of Basra. “Thailand: New constitution and indigenous peoples,” Indigenous Rights Quarterly, Vo. I, No. 3, July - September, 2007 (http://www.aitpn.org/IRQ/vol-II/Issue-03/story08.html), finds that the new constitution of Thailand contains some improvements, “For example, Article 4 of 2007 Constitution guarantees protection of “human dignity, rights, liberty, and equality of the people” in accordance with the Constitution of Thailand and “international obligations, which Thailand has endorsed”. The 1997 Constitution did not recognize Thailand's international obligations. Under Article 79(6) and Article 65 of the new Constitution, the rights of the “traditional communities” have also been recognized. But, the new Constitution has once again failed to address the age-old problems of the indigenous peoples.” “Hmong refugees: Refoulement decided,” Indigenous Rights Quarterly, Vo. I, No. 3, July - September, 2007 (http://www.aitpn.org/IRQ/vol-II/Issue-03/story02.html), reports, “On 20 September 2007, the military government of Thailand signed an agreement with the Laotian authorities to deport over 7,700 ethnic Hmong refugees from Ban Huay Nam Khao refugee camp in Phetchabun province of Thailand to Laos before the end of 2008. The report is concerned that, “There is no mechanism to verify the status of the Hmong refugees to be repatriated from Thailand to Laos before the end of December 2008. Without verification mechanisms, the returnee refugees will face persecution.” The Mongolian government has established a reindeer herders support program for the indigenous nomadic Dukha reindeer herders, whose herds and living are increasingly threatened by climate change. Cultural Survival's Totem Project has been supporting the Dukha herding and efforts to gain government support. For more, see “Mongolia Establishes Support Program for Reindeer Herders,” Cultural Survival Quarterly, Issue 32.1. April 1, 2008 (http://www.cs.org/publications/csq/csq-article.cfm?id=1987). A headman from the Penan tribe of Sarawak, Malaysia, has gone missing and his community fear he may have been murdered. Kelesau Naan was last seen on 23 October when he left on a hunting trip. After two months of searching for their leader, the Penan have reported his disappearance to the police. The Penan have spent twenty years trying to keep logging companies off their land. Their plight deeply moved BBC presenter Bruce Parry, when he visited them for his hit TV show Tribe. The Penan fear that Kelesau Naan may have been murdered for his resistance to the logging. His community lies within a logging concession granted to Malaysian company Samling, and he was a leader in the Penan's struggle against the devastation of their land. Before his disappearance Kelesau said, 'Defiance has proven its worth. We are glad that we didn't allow ourselves to be bought by the logging companies.' Tensions between the logging companies and the Penan have intensified in recent months. In April and in August, last year, security forces were called in to help dismantle Penan road blockades. In the late 1990s when Samling was advancing on Kelesau's community, the Penan blocked the logging road, making human barricades in front of the company's bulldozers. The Malaysian army ended the blockade with force, injuring 14 and arresting four Penan. But the Penan kept up their opposition, and Samling moved on to log other areas. To stop the company returning, Kelesau and others initiated a major Penan land rights claim, which has been awaiting trial since 1998. For more information contact Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or email mr@survival-international, http://www.survival-international.org/news/2870 The International Crisis Group, “Indonesia: Communal Tensions in Papua,” June 16, http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5485&l=1, warns that conflict between Muslim and Christian communities in Papua could erupt unless rising tensions are effectively managed, and this likely would also impact Indigenous people. The report notes that continuing Muslim migration to Papua from elsewhere in Indonesia; the emergence of new, exclusivist groups in both Christian and Muslim religious communities; the lasting impact of the Maluku conflict; and the impact of developments outside Papua are raising the likelihood of violence. “The potential for communal conflict is high in Papua because both sides consider themselves aggrieved‰, stated Sidney Jones, Crisis Grou's Senior Adviser. “Indigenous Christians feel threatened by ongoing Muslim migration and a sense that the government is endorsing Islamic orthodoxy at the expense of non-Muslim minorities; Muslim migrants feel democracy may be leading to a tyranny of the majority, where in the long term they will face discrimination or even expulsion.” Tensions are most acute along Papua‚s west coast ˆ violence was narrowly averted in Manokwari and Kaimana districts in 2007. The Manokwari drama started in 2005, when Christians mobilized to prevent an Islamic centre and mosque from being built on a site they considered holy, and intensified in 2007 when a draft of a local government ordinance on 'spiritual guidance' appeared that would have discriminated against non-Christians. A new draft, much milder but still likely to face opposition from the Muslim community, appeared in May 2008. Changes in demographics are part of the problem, but even if migration from outside Papua were to stop tomorrow, communal polarization would probably continue because of other developments. Papua‚s Christians are only too well aware of attacks on churches elsewhere in Indonesia and fear what they see as 'Islamisation' . Muslims from outside Papua are easily mobilized to defend what they see as slights to a beleaguered community. Indigenous Papuan Muslims are divided, too, as more study Islam abroad and come home with ideas that are at odds with traditional practices. Christian Pentecostals and charistmatics are gaining ground at the same time as hardline Islamic groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir, exacerbating the problem. Government officials at all levels - central, provincial and district - should avoid support for exclusivist religious groups, and ensure that funding for all religious activities is fully transparent.” Crisis Group's South East Asia Project Director, John Virgoe, commented, “Government officials should work with donors to identify areas of high tension, where conflict might be defused by non-religious projects that would involve cooperation across communities.” “India: No democracy for those living on the margins” [Contribution of IWGIA and AITPN under the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council], Indigenous Rights Quarterly, October - December, 2007 (http://www.aitpn.org/IRQ/vol-II/Issue-04/story02.html) reports, “Human rights situation of the indigenous and tribal peoples in India remain grim, its future bleak. Since independence indigenous peoples were rightly seen as victims of development and encroachments by non-tribals. The pauperization of the tribals continued unabated and unchecked. The affirmative action programmers could not simply keep the pace with the marginalization of the indigenous and tribal peoples. Presently, the situation of the tribals fits into a classical left wing extremism. According to the figures of the Ministry of Home Affairs 21 out of 28 States are afflicted by armed conflict and majority of these States are afflicted by the Naxalite conflicts, the extreme left wing armed opposition groups. The Naxals (Maoists) are active mainly in the tribal belts in mainland India. Neither the Naxal movement is led by the tribals, nor do the demands of the Naxalites relate to the tribals. The tribal simply fit into their class-war of the Naxalites. They are victims as well as perpetrators, and the pawns of the conflict. The government continues with its knee-jerk reactions. The Forest Rights Act, 2006 was adopted in December 2006 but it is yet to be implemented. The Relief and Rehabilitation Policy has been revised twice since 2003, the latest one was made public in November 2007. A National Tribal Policy has been in the pipeline since 2004. Now, the government has proposed to set up a Land Commission. All the measures are up in the air. As the conflict intensifies, the tribals will get further brutalized.” In addition, “The constitutional safeguards as provided in the 5th Schedule and 6th Schedule to the Constitution of India and various other State level laws which among others prohibit transfer of the lands of the tribal people have failed to prevent widespread land alienation of the tribals.“ Moreover,“ non-tribals have also illegally occupied hundreds of thousands of acres of land belonging to tribals by force.” “Indigenous/tribal peoples who constituted 8% of the total population of India as per 1991 census also constituted 55.1% of the total development project-induced displaced persons up to 1990.” Hundreds of members of the remote Dongria Kondh tribe held a protest in India, May 7, against the British FTSE 100 company VEDANTA, owned by London-based Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal, which plans to mine their sacred mountain. The Dongria Kondh marched through Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa state, and staged a sit-down protest on Mahatma Gandhi Street, which leads to the state assembly. Jitu Jakasika, a young Dongria Kondh man, told the Indian Telegraph newspaper, that if the mining project is allowed, it will destroy the area's ecosystem, drying up two major rivers and 36 streams, while destroying the livelihoods of 10,000 tribals and the religious sanctity of the beloved Niyamgiri. A Dongria Kondh delegation met, in mid-May, with Rahul Gandhi, general secretary of India's ruling Congress Party and son of Sonia Gandhi, who has been outspoken in his criticism of the proposed mine. On May 15, Dongria Kondh spokesman Jitu Jakesika gave a message today to Vedanta's shareholders:” You are destroying so much. Mining only makes profit for the rich. We will become beggars if the company destroys our mountain and our forest so that they can make money”. Vedanta claim that they are investing in tribal development, but Mr. Jakesika said, “We don' t want any money from this company, we don't want anything from them. We cannot give them our mountain, it is our life”‚ FTSE 100 mining company, Vedanta announced record profits on May 15. India‚s Supreme Court is deciding whether to permit Vedanta's subsidiary, Sterlite, to mine bauxite, the raw material for aluminum, on the summit of the Dongria Kondh's sacred mountain, Niyamgiri, having held a mid May hearing that could bring the case to an end after more than three years. On May28, Survival International launched a campaign targeting Vedanta, and is urging shareholders, including major British companies Coutts Bank, Standard Life, Barclays Bank, Abbey National and HSBC, as well as Middlesbrough and Wolverhampton Councils, to disinvest, unless Vedanta abandons its plans. The Norwegian government has already sold its shares in Vedanta, and other investors should follow suit, or face boycotts over their human rights record. Survival is holding peaceful vigils outside the offices of Vedanta's PR company FINSBURY, on May 28, and outside Vedanta shareholder COUTTS's offices on June 10 to coincide with their launch party for London Jeweler Week‚ For more information contact Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or email mr@survival-international.org. “Brus: Repression of indigenous peoples by indigenous peoples,” Indigenous Rights Quarterly, October - December, 2007 (http://www.aitpn.org/IRQ/vol-II/Issue-04/story05.html) states, that since thousands of Indigenous Brus fled from the Indian state of Mizoram to neighboring Tripura state, following attacks by some majority Indigenous Mizo organizations, beginning in October, 1997, the state government of Mizoram has been refusing to repatriate the Brus on the ground that not all of them were genuine residents of Mizoram. The state's refusal is supported by opposition to repatriation from the influential Mizo NGOs. The refugee Brus have been housed in six relief camps under the Kanchanpur Sub-Division of Tripura. Under a law passed by India in 2005, giving Indigenous forest people living in the Nagarhole National Park a preserve for vanishing tigers, but allowing the government to move forest people from areas demarcated as environmentally 'incompatible with human uses' to homes it provided outside the park, with permission of the concerned village, the government has been relocating forest people as part of its effort to protect the tigers. “Indonesia: Transmigration, human rights violations and impunity,” [Contribution under the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council by AITPN] Indigenous Rights Quarterly, October - December, 2007 (http://www.aitpn.org/IRQ/vol-II/Issue-04/story03.html) reports, “Despite establishment of democracy, the Indonesian military (TNI) plays the central role in law enforcement and therefore, law enforcement remains militaristic. Impunity to the security forces continues to encourage widespread human rights violations. Even the highest judiciary has been acting as the agent of the government by delivering anti-rights judgments. The Asian Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Network has been receiving consistent reports of serious human rights violations including involuntary disappearances and torture of indigenous AlifUrus in Maluku, Indonesia, saying, “The situation in Malukus calls for immediaton intervention of the Indonesian and international human rights community.” For details see, “Violations in Maluku,” Indigenous Rights Quarterly, October - December, 2007 (http://www.aitpn.org/IRQ/vol-II/Issue-04/story07.html). The e-Bario Knowledge Fair, a multi-disciplinary conference, took place, December 6-8, 2007, incorporating the UNDP Workshop on E-inclusion and Media for Asia's Indigenous Peoples, in the remote village of Bario, in the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak, one of the states of East Malaysia on the island of Borneo. Bario is the traditional home of the Kelabit people, one of Malaysia's smallest indigenous ethnic minority groups, and the home of the multi-award winning e-Bario project that introduced computers, telephones and the internet to the isolated community. Teanau Tuiono, a member of the IITF and manager of its project www.indigenousportal.com (see above) participated in the conference, which provided a unique opportunity to "share the progress of the Portal to a range of Indigenous ICT and Non-indigenous academics." For more go to: http://iictf.blogspot.com/2008/01/e-bario-and-e-inclusion-workshop-held.html. “Nepal: Promise for a National Institution on Indigenous Janjatis,” Indigenous Rights Quarterly, Vo. I, No. 3, July - September, 2007 (http://www.aitpn.org/IRQ/vol-II/Issue-03/story03.html), stated, the “Asian Indigenous Tribal Peoples Network (AITPN) in cooperation with Kirat Welfare Society organized a “National Seminar on Transition in Nepal and the Role of National Institutions on Indigenous Peoples” in Kathmandu, Nepal on 2-3 May 2007. The national seminar highlighted the failure of the National Foundation for Development of Indigenous Nationalities (NFDIN) and all the participants recommended the need for establishment of a National Commission on Indigenous Janjatis. In fact, a model law on the National Commission for the Adivasi Janjatis was adopted. The establishment of a National Commission on the Janjatis was included as one of the main demands by the Indigenous Nationalities Joint Struggle Committee (INJSC) which has been spearheading the movement of the indigenous nationalities for ensuring their rights in the transition period.” Ellen L. Lutz, “Standing Up for Burma,Cultural Survival Quarterly, April 1, 2008, Issue 32,1 (http://www.cs.org/publications/csq/csq-article.cfm?id=1985) finds that, “Burma is one of those human rights disasters that attracts far too little attention… But those who suffer most are Burma's indigenous minorities, which make up around one-third of the country's total population of 50 million. Most reside along the country's mountainous frontiers. For generations they have struggled for recognition, autonomy, and dignity. Instead they have been met with scorched-earth policies that have left uncounted thousands dead, 600,000 internally displaced, and another 150,000 as refugees in Thailand.” This spring the government of Burma greatly increased the death toll and suffering from the huge cyclone which inflicted massive destruction over an extremely wide, mostly rural area, as the military junta prevented aid from reaching most people, allowing in only a small amount of aid, and almost no international aid workers, for the most part, insisting that only the government distribute aid, and that aid has to be labeled as being provided by the government. Even private Burmese citizens have been prevented from distributing aid. The government has been using the aid situation, not only to take credit for what aid is distributed, but more important, to deny aid to those it opposes, including Indigenous groups, and those connected to them (or who just happen to be in the wrong location). At least 130,000 people have died from the storm and the government limitation on assistance (though more people in the ravaged areas turned out to have survived, because of their traditional knowledge and ability to cope, than international experts had initially estimated).After decades of repression under Chinese rule, the Tibetan people's frustrations burst onto the streets of Lassa and other cities, and spread to Tibetan populations in neighboring provinces of China, in mid-March, in protests and riots, which the Chinese put down violently, with at least 100 deaths reported unofficially. Chinese security forces went house to house, after the street demonstrations, searching for suspected demonstrators. Repression and demonstrations have continued. The Dalai Lama has called for restraint by China and Tibetan-China dialogue. Many Tibetans now want to push harder for independence. Numerous groups and governments around the world have criticized Chinese repression of Tibetans and are calling for the Chinese government to begin a more respectful policy toward Tibetans. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on both Chinese forces and demonstrators in Tibet to show restraint after days of rioting, urging a peaceful resolution (for more go to: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7301912.stm). International protest has been exceptionally strong, including interruptions, beginning in Europe, and then in San Francisco of the carrying of the Olympic torch to the site of this summer's Olympic Games, in Beijing. The Presidents of France and Germany, and the British Prime Minister have said that they will not attend the games official opening ceremony, and there are calls for President Bush to do the same, unless China changes its policy. Some say the same should be done to force China to put pressure on Sudan, where it extracts oil, to change policy on Darfur. There are indications, which China publicly denies, that international pressure has caused China to begin to press Sudan to cease its ethnic cleansing in Darfur. Later in the Spring China began preliminary negotiations with some of the Dalai Lama's representatives, but it is unclear what the results of these negotiations will be. A group of prominent Bangladeshis stated their 'grave concern', in February, for the Jumma tribal peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts after a fact finding trip to the region. The group, which includes Bangladeshi academics, writers, journalists, development workers, political leaders and activists, said that an increase in repression has caused 'fresh fear' among the Jummas. Arrests and torture of Jummas have escalated since emergency rule was declared in Bangladesh in January 2007. The team found evidence of torture, political repression and religious persecution, and received numerous reports of intimidation and eviction of Jummas from their land by Bengali settlers, often with the assistance of the authorities. The report calls on the government to stop settling Bengalis in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and to meet the commitments it made in a peace accord with the Jummas in 1997. For more information contact Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or email mr@survival-international.org. To read this press release online visit http://www.survival-international.org/news/3078. “Philippines: All Promises, No implementation,” [Contribution under the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council by AITPN] Indigenous Rights Quarterly, October - December, 2007 (http://www.aitpn.org/IRQ/vol-II/Issue-04/story04.html) finds, “The Philippines despite having overthrown Ferdinand Marcos' regime over two decades ago still remain military oriented in its law enforcement. The armed conflicts with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and New Peoples' Army (NPA) in the post September 11th period give the excuse for politically motivated executions of the human rights defenders including indigenous rights activists and journalists. Even the judges were not spared!” “CERD Committee: An early warning for the Philippines,” Indigenous Rights Quarterly, Vo. I, No. 3, July - September, 2007 (http://www.aitpn.org/IRQ/vol-II/Issue-03/story10.html), Reports, “The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination at the 71st session held from 30 July to 17 August 2007 considered the situation of the Subanon indigenous peoples of Mount Canatuan ,Siocon ,Zambonga del Norteo, the Philippines under its early warning and urgent action procedure, and issued notice to the government of the Philippines. The CERD Committee was acting on a complaint filed by some non-governmental organizations. Philippines is the second country from Asia to have been considered under the Early Warning Procedure of the CERD Committee. In 2003, the CERD Committee issued similar notice to Laos. The Committee expressed concern over a number of issues concerning the Subanon indigenous peoples including non-implementation of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997 which provides for the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous communities before implementation of any development project on their ancestral lands; imposition of restrictions on the provision of free, prior and informed consent of indigenous communities by the amendments introduced in 2002 and 2006 to the Implementing Rules and Regulations of 1998; failure of the National Commission of the Indigenous Peoples of Philippines to register the Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title of the Subanon, although the Subanons have been demanding recognition of their land rights since 1987; grant of mining concessions to the Canadian mining company - PVI Pacific' by the Siocon Council of Elders to conduct mining operations at Mount Canatuan, a sacred site of the Subanons without the prior consent of the Subanon indigenous community; and alleged human rights violations against the Subanon community including physical attacks, attacks on their property, sacred sites and institutions, and increased racial discrimination against them. The Committee also asked the government of the Philippines to respond to the above allegations and to provide information on the measures adopted by it to protect members of the Subanon community against acts of hatred and violence.” In spite of a Botswana High court decision. allowing the Bushman to return to their home land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), where diamonds are being mined, the Botswana government, with close ties to diamond mining, refuses to allow the Bushman a to reopen a disused water borehole inside the reserve, ever since the government dismantled it during the evictions of 2002. The Bushmen say they will seek their own funding to pump water. But the government has refused, on the grounds that the borehole is government property. Meanwhile, on April 21, Survival International reported, Tourist lodges requiring huge amounts of water are to be built on the land of the Kalahari Bushmen - but the Bushmen are not allowed to pump water from their single borehole. The government has invited companies to tender for concessions to run tourist lodges at three sites in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR). One of the sites is very close to the Bushman community of Molapo. The companies Afro Ventures Botswana and the Safari Adventure Company have been asked to bid for this concession.” The post election violence, over the rigged Presidential election, in Kenya involved mostly interethnic - in this case intertribal - violence including ethnic cleansing. A settlement has been reached and a government of national unity is now functioning, bringing an end to the major conflict. The violence spread to people who are still living Indigenously. For example, leaders of the honey-hunting Ogiek tribe reported, in January, that they were being targeted by police. An Ogiek leader stated, “We the Ogiek people have suffered police shooting, intimidations and threats…. Currently five of our youth have been shot and injured as hundreds of families fled their homes…. We cannot access food, shelter or medicines.” There have been allegations of rape of Ogiek women by police, and Ogiek houses have been burned down. The Ogiek are one of the few remaining hunter-gatherer peoples in East Africa. They live in the Mau mountain forest, overlooking the Rift Valley. They gather honey from beehives, which they make from hollow logs and place in the high branches of the forest trees. The Ogiek have been struggling for many years to resist eviction from their forest, and to protect it from settlers, loggers and tea plantations. For more information contact Miriam Ross (+44) (0)20 7687 8734, mr@survival-international.org. The full press release on the Ogiek is at: http://www.survival-international.org/news/3057. In late June, Royal Shell ceased oil drilling operation in the Delta area of Nigeria, after attacks by Nigerian rebels. The oil extraction has created conflict in Nigeria because initially virtually all of the oil companies payments to Nigeria for the extraction went to the central government (where most of it was stolen), so that local people, who often suffered from environmental damage from the oil operations, received no benefit. Later, when limited oil money was put into some local development, it was undertaken in only some local places, without broad participation in the area concerning what the projects would be, and who would benefit, resulting in further conflict. In the largest New Zealand land claims settlement to date, The government of New Zealand (Aoteaoa). in late June, agreed to transfer 435,000 acres of plantation forests and forest rents in the central North Island, valued at $319 million, from the central government to seven Maori tribes, with populations totaling more than 100,000 members, The newly-elected Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a formal apology to the country's indigenous people, in February, for the historic injustices they have suffered. The apology was the first business of the new Parliament, after an opening ceremony that for the first time included Aboriginal participation. Many Aboriginal organizations had called for a formal acknowledgement of the wrongs committed against them, in particular the policy of removing Aboriginal children from their families and placing them in white foster homes. The apology did not call for any government action, but could be a first step toward policies fostering Aboriginal renewal. The text of the apology was, ”Today we honor the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history. We reflect on their past mistreatment. We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were stolen generations - this blemished chapter in our nation's history. The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future. We apologize for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians. We apologize especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country. For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry. We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation. For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written. We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians. A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again. A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity. A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed. A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility. A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.” Australia's 460,000 Aborigines make up 2% of the population and are the most disadvantaged group. They have higher rates of infant mortality, drug abuse, alcoholism and unemployment than the rest of the population. A few days after issuing the apology, the government of Australia changed the policy of its predecessor - approving UN Declaration of Indigenous Rights. The Australian Labor government's commitment, in November, to get rid of the 17 year indigenous life expectancy gap and halve the gap in mortality rates between indigenous and non-indigenous children within a decade have led to high hopes for improvements in Aboriginal health, and together with the apology, have raised hopes among Aboriginals and their supporters of assistance to the Indigenous community in ending alcohol problems and sexual abuse of children, in humane ways, while ending the repressive actions, irrelevant for that purpose, in the previous government's interventions in the Northern Territory. Shortly after the apology, Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said she did not mind benchmarks because otherwise it was difficult to get anything done. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma stated that he is adamant that the life expectancy gaps can be closed. It will require substantial funding around $460 million a year and attacking social issues such as poor housing and education. Despite its serious problems, the Northern Territory intervention has led to information being collected on housing and health, a good start towards developing programs to meet those needs, he said. Not all expectations will be met. Labor has not promised compensation to the Stolen Generations and Mr. Rudd told 3AW, in November, that the apology was unlikely to lead to compensation claims. While the Government has promised to review the five-year takeovers of communities, there is no guarantee communities will go back into indigenous hands. Also, as of May, no concrete steps had been take to begin doing actual Aboriginal relief policies. =======<<<<<<<<[[[[[[[[[*]]]]]]]]]>>>>>>>>=======
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