INDIAN AND INDIGENOUS DEVELOPMENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Environmental Developments

James Kanter, “One in 4 Mammals Threatened With Extinction, Group Finds,” The New York Times, October 7, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/science/earth/07mammal.html?scp=1&sq=One%20in%204%20Mammals%20Threatened%20With%20Extinction,%20Group%20finds&st=cse, informs that the environmental group Dot Earth released a report, presented at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, finding that a world wide, “‘extinction crisis’ is under way, with one in four mammals in danger of disappearing because of habitat loss, hunting and climate change.” Julia Marton-Lefèvre, the Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or I.U.C.N., a network of campaign groups, governments, scientists and other experts, commented. “Within our lifetime, hundreds of species could be lost as a result of our own actions.” Jan Schipper, the director of the global mammal assessment for the I.U.C.N. and for Conservation International, while noting that it was hard to draw a direct comparison with the last detailed survey on mammals, in 1996, as new species have been identified and discovered, and the criteria used to assess species have been made more broadly applicable across all animals and plants, it is clear that the current outlook is grim. “Although 5 percent of mammals are recovering, what we observe are rates of habitat loss and hunting in Southeast Asia, Central Africa and Central and South America that are so serious that the overall rate of decline has steadily increased during the past decade.” The continued loss of species has both specific negative consequences for humanity and poses a general threat of destabilizing the world wide, regional and area environments. Indigenous people point out that a sizable portion of the loss can be stemmed by protecting encroachment on Native people and there lands, especially where the losses are particularly great because of deforestation and development, which is also contributing significantly to global warming. The Global Carbon Project reported. at the end of September, that heat trapping carbon dioxide emissions from burning and cement production world wide increased 3.5% each year from 2000 – 20007, for times the growth rate in the 1990s, with the rise being driven primarily by economic growth in developing countries. The rise in CO₂ production has been exceeding the ability of oceans, forests (being reduced by continuing deforestation) and other carbon sinks to absorb the green house gas. The report is available at: globalcarbonproject.org.

earthpeoples@earthpeoples.org reported, September 27, that on the third day of the General Assembly's 63rd Session, in September, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Prime Minister of Norway launched the United Nations Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) program, a collaboration of FAO, UNDP, UNEP and the World Bank. On page 4 and 5 it states that the program could "deprive communities of their legitimate land-development aspirations, that hard-fought gains in forest management practices might be wasted, that it could cause the lock-up of forests by decoupling conservation from development, or erode culturally rooted not-for-profit conservation values." It is further highlighted that "REDD benefits in some circumstances may have to be traded off against other social, economic or environmental benefits." “In carefully phrased UN language, the document further acknowledges that REDD could cause severe human rights violations and be disastrous for the poor because it could ‘marginalize the landless and those with. communal use-rights’. This is tantamount to the UN recognizing that REDD could undermine indigenous peoples and local communities rights to the usage and +ownership of their lands.” The inclusion of forests in the carbon market, or REDD has been controversial since it was created at the f climate change negotiations in Bali and funded by the World Bank. An estimated 60 million indigenous peoples are completely dependent on forests and are considered the most threatened by REDD. To read UN-REDD Framework Document go to: http://www.undp.org/mdtf/UN-REDD/docs/Annex-A-Framework-Document.pdf. Discussion of the UN and other carbon trading programs, and what would be a legitimate carbon trading program are in the last sprint 2008 issue of IPJ.

Elizabeth Rosenthal, “U.N. Says Biofuel Subsidies Raise Food Bill and Hunger,” The New York times, October 7, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/world/europe/08italy.html?scp=1&sq=UN%20Says%20Biofuel%20Subsidies%20Raise%20food%20Bill%20and%20Hunger&st=cse, notifies that United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization issued a report, October 6, calling for a review of biofuel subsidies and policies, reflecting that they had contributed significantly to rising food prices and the hunger in poor countries, saying, “current policies should be “urgently reviewed in order to preserve the goal of world food security, protect poor farmers, promote broad-based rural development and ensure environmental sustainability.” In releasing the report, the United Nations joined a number of environmental groups and prominent international specialists who have called for an end to — or at least an overhaul of — subsidies for biofuels. The Food and Agriculture Organization stopped short of proposing that the world end biofuel subsidies, saying, instead, that they should be revised to direct the benefits to developing nations. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found, last summer, that government support of biofuel production in member countries was very expensive, “had a limited impact on reducing greenhouse gases and improving energy security,” but had “a significant impact on world crop prices” by contributing to raising them. OECD proposed that, “National governments should cease to create new mandates for biofuels and investigate ways to phase them out.” During the past eight years, as oil prices and concerns about carbon emissions have increased, a number of countries, including the United States, and the European Union have initiated subsidies and incentives (amounting to more than $10 billion in 2006) to boost the new biofuel industry, helping accelerate biofuel crop production, by more than threefold from 2000 to 2007, on lands that could also produce food. The rapid move to biofuels has combined with population expansion and climate change to bring serious food cost and security problems (including riots, demonstrations and strikes in many countries), serious deforestation and other environmental damage, and stealing of land from poor and indigenous people, while actually increasing global warming because of the relatively large amount of energy needed for biofuel production. The O.E.C.D.’s report said only two food-based fuels were clearly environmentally better than fossil fuels when considering the entire “life cycle” of their production: used cooking oil and sugar cane from Brazil. Sugar cane is far easier to convert to biofuel than most other crops. The European Union has begun to reajust its biofuel policy, stepping back from its target of having 10% of Europe’s fuel for transportation come from biofuel or other renewable fuels by 2020. In September, the European Parliament suggested that only 5% come from renewable sources by 2015, and that 20 percent come from new alternatives “that do not compete with food production.”

Mark Cherrington, Cultural Survival Quarterly, |Issue 32.2, August 1, 2008, among other matters, finds, “One of the global climate change mitigation programs that appears most promising is, in fact, likely to further impoverish indigenous communities: a new program from the World Bank that will pay governments for not cutting down their forests, which act as a carbon reservoir. Since the majority of existing forest tracts (and 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity) are on indigenous territories, and since indigenous peoples have long managed their forests as a sustainable natural resource, they should be the principal beneficiaries of such a plan. But the bank set up the program without substantial consultation with indigenous peoples, and they structured it to be a government-to-government system, so the money will go to indigenous communities only if their government decides to pay them for their ecological services, an unlikely scenario. Instead, the money will likely be paid to logging companies to keep them from logging. Moreover, the system counts tree plantations as forest, reinforcing the oil palm plantations that are already displacing indigenous peoples and natural forests.”

In the same issue of CSQ, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz and Aqqaluk Lynge, “Guardians,” report that the world can learn much about stopping large scale farming from contributing significantly to global warming. “About 45% of the earth’s land mass is devoted to agriculture, and agricultural practices account for 13.5% of all greenhouse gas emissions. The majority of these emissions stem from poor agrobusiness practices. Indigenous practices, such as rotational farming, pastoralism, hunting and gathering, trapping, and the production of basic goods and services, often use environmentally friendly, renewable and/or recyclable resources. For example, the Igorot of the Philippines; the Karen of Myanmar and Thailand; and the Achiks of India continue to practice traditional, rotational agriculture. This practice increases the overall health of forest and jungle ecosystems, which are critical to the mitigation of global warming.” They point out that the same is true concerning destruction of forests. “Deforestation and forest degradation account for approximately 17.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 25% of global CO₂ emissions. This makes deforestation the third largest source of greenhouse gas emissions after energy and industry-related emissions. As of 2005, global forest cover was about 15 million square miles (about 4 times the size of the United States). Between 2000 and 2005, an estimated 7.3% of world forest cover was lost. The proposal to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation, if done the right way, might be an opportunity to stop deforestation and reward indigenous peoples and other forest dwellers for conserving their forests. Indigenous agroforestry practices are generally sustainable, environmentally friendly, and carbon-neutral. When the World Bank launched its Forest Carbon Partnership Facility in Bali, it received a lot of criticism from indigenous peoples, who had been excluded from the conceptualization process in spite of the fact that they are the main stakeholders where tropical and subtropical forests are concerned. To remedy this weakness, the World Bank plans to hold consultations with indigenous peoples from Asia, Latin America, and Africa.” The authors state that collaboration with Indigenous peoples is vital to reducing climate change, pointing out several successful cooperative projects. “In the northern tropics of Colombia, for example, the indigenous peoples of San Andrés de Sotavento are partners in a project with the Environmental Corporation of the Sinu and San Jorge Rivers, the Colombian National Agricultural Research Organization, and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture. This clean-development project aims to regenerate 6,500 acres of degraded tropical savanna by reforesting and establishing silvopastoral systems, which combine forestry and animal grazing in a way that reinforces both. This will yield increased income for landowners and a healthier ecosystem. In northern Australia, Aboriginal landowners, indigenous representative organizations, and Darwin Liquefied Natural Gas are partners in the Western Arnhem Fire Management Agreement. This partnership aims to implement strategic fire management practices across 11,000 square miles of Western Arnhem, thereby reducing fire-generated greenhouse gases and offsetting some of the emissions from the liquefied natural gas plant at Wickham Point in Darwin Harbor. (The problem is significant: wildfires in northern Australia release an estimated 240 million tons of CO₂ each year, representing 38.5% of the Northern Territory’s total greenhouse gas emissions.)”

Also in the August issue of CSQ, Cameron M. Smith, “Of Ice and Men,” reports that Arctic Inuit, with centuries of experience with, and considerable continuing observation of polar bears, oppose their being listed as an endangered spices, on the grounds that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Data is incomplete and wrong, that the bears are not declining, but adopting as they have in past warmings. Andrew C. Revkin, “Arctic Ocean Ice Retreats Less Than Last Year,” The New York Times, September 16, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/science/earth/17ice.html, reports that this summer, The annual retreat of the sea ice cloaking the Arctic Ocean not quite reached last year’s extraordinary recession. Never-the-less, scientists, at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., said that the ice in the Arctic this summer was 33% below the average extent tracked since satellites started monitoring the region in 1979 and that the trend continued toward an ice-free Arctic Ocean within a few decades, as scientists confirmed that two fabled shipping routes, the Northwest Passage over Canada and the Northern Sea Route over Russia, were briefly open simultaneously. Federal biologists have said that this long-term ice retreat is the main reason they had concluded that polar bears, which hunt seals from the ice, deserved protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Bush administration listed the species in May as threatened with extinction. Arctic specialists conclude that the main reason for the melting of Arctic ice is global warming, but many say natural variations in Arctic winds and cloud cover probably had a role in shaping the particularly large ice losses in the past two summers. However, small variations from one year to the next were less significant than the long-term trajectory, which remained toward progressively more open water.

Austin Blair and Casey Beck, “Inundation” also in the August 1, issue of Cultural Survival Quarterly, report that a number of Paciric Islands with Indigenous populations, such as Kuria Island, southern Maiana and South Tarawa South Tarawa are already feeling the effects of rising sea levels, dying coral reefs and stronger and more frequent storms, with water overflowing sea walls, and higher seas fouling the only sources of fresh water.

Dean Suagee / Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker, LLP, reported May 9, in the United States, “Each home's contribution to global warming is slight, but in the aggregate, energy consumption in residential buildings accounts for about 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. If you add the energy consumption associated with commercial and industrial buildings, buildings account for nearly half of GHG emissions in the U.S. The good news is that we know how to build homes and other buildings so that they use very little energy, including the use of passive solar design techniques such as heating, ventilation, daylighting and shading. Although we know how to do this, it is apparently going to take us some time to make it the standard practice. One organization, Architecture 2030, calls for all new buildings to be carbon-neutral by 2030. This means that not only would all new buildings not consume fossil fuels for heating and cooling, they would get their electricity from renewable sources. Bringing about the transition to zero-net energy buildings - making this the standard practice for new construction - will require regulatory measures, financial assistance programs, and government support for voluntary efforts. The basic regulatory tool is a building code. Since about 1992, the federal government has had a program to help states and local governments incorporate energy efficiency requirements into their building codes. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 added statutory authorization for ''incentive funding'' to states that achieve and document a 90 percent rate of compliance with building codes that meet or exceed the 2004 edition of the accepted standards for residential and commercial buildings. The act authorizes appropriation of $25 million per year for this program, including $500,000 for training state and local government officials. This pattern of federal assistance has overlooked the fact that, for buildings on lands within their jurisdiction, it is tribal governments that have the authority to enact and implement building codes. Tribal governments have simply been left out of this federal assistance program.“

A large and growing number of Indian Nations, particularly in Alaska and throughout the western U.S. states have been initiating alternative electric generation, particularly wind farms, but also solar voltaic cells. But so far this development, while extremely promising for providing tribes own power needs and as a major economic development device slow to grow, for a combination of reasons: difficulty obtaining capital and large scale power development expertise; the need to build working relationships with distant firms with different cultural backgrounds; a shortage of wind turbines, world wide, as demand grows; slowness in federal bureaucracy – particularly the BIA – to approve development plans; and the distance of many reservations from much of the power grid, requiring extensive and extensive infrastructure creation. Some of this is covered in the last few issues of IPJ. More is added by Felicity Barrenger, “Indian Tribes See Profit in Harnessing the Wind for Power,” The New York Times, October 10, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/us/10wind.html?_r=2&ref=environment&oref=slogin&oref=slogin, detailing “In 2003, after erecting a 750-kilowatt turbine that powers the Rosebud Casino near the Nebraska border, the Rosebud Sioux tribal council set its sights on building the Owl Feather War Bonnet wind farm, a 30-megawatt project that could power about 12,000 homes, each about 1,200 square feet. After five years of negotiations with a non-Indian developer, Distributed Generation Systems Inc. of Colorado, the tribal council president, Rodney M. Bordeaux, said Thursday that he expected to sign a construction deal that would bring in some $5 million to the tribe over 20 years. The total is about $1.7 million less than the developer’s original offer because of an acrimonious last-minute dispute with the tribe.” “The Energy Department has invested nearly $450,000 in the development of the Owl Feather War Bonnet wind farm, to be built on 50 acres in the western part of the Rosebud reservation. The department also recommended Distributed Generation Systems and its president, Dale Osborn, a seasoned hand in the wind-energy industry who has built small-scale projects in Colorado, Spain and China. But it took the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs 18 months to sign off on the original deal, approved by the tribal council in 2006, under which the tribe would receive $280,000 in royalties the first year of the wind farm’s operation. The amount would have grown each year, with the 20-year total topping $7 million.” While many tribes are in the process of developing wind power, so far only one major wind farm currently is operating on Indian land, the 50-megawatt project on the Campo reservation near San Diego. Some smaller alternative energy developments are also important, however. The Navajo nation bringing electricity to isolated individual homes scattered across its vast reservation, with their own solar voltaic cells, previously reported in these pages, is an important aspect of tribal development.

An update on the development of wind energy by Northern Plains Tribes is provided by Megan Gray, “Windfall,” in the August issue of CSQ, discussing the rise of wind power by the Rosebud Sioux, Mandan, Hidatsa nations, and Arikara Nations, as well the efforts of the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy (COUP), a consortium of northern Plains tribes, in promoting tribal wind across some twenty Great Plains reservations which are all connected to the federal hydropower grid, and on land owned by the nonprofit Alaska Village Electric Cooperative in Kasigluk, AK. (Not included in the article is the building of renewable energy, including wind power, by other nations in areas outside the northern plains).

The Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation’s Natchez Elementary School in Wadsworth, NV received a solar electric system, May 30, built with donated labor from Black Rock Solar, a non-profit project supported by the annual Burning Man counterculture festival on the northern Nevada desert.

Dean Suagee (Cherokee), Of Counsel to Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker LLP, Washington, D.C., dsuagee@hsdwdc.com, commenting about energy and energy conservation measures passed and under consideration by Congress, notes that while ''Indian Energy'' title of the 2005 act includes authorization for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to ''promote energy conservation'' in federally assisted Indian housing, and also amends the Native American Housing and Self-Determination Act to make ''improvement to achieve greater energy efficiency'' an allowable expenditure for tribally designated housing entities, these measures provide far less than the federal assistance programs for writing energy efficiency into building codes. However, concerning tribal governments, Congress has only begun to provide significant energy assistance. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 is a good indication that tribal governments have been largely left out of such provisions in the past. Title IV of EISA, for example, captioned ''Energy Savings in Buildings and Industry,'' which comprises some 59 pages of statutory text, includes no references at all to Indian tribal governments. In addition to a number of programs promoting energy efficiency in buildings, Section 494 of EISA mandates the creation of a ''Green Building Advisory Committee,'' which would include representation of state and local government green building programs, but no tribal representation. EISA did not specifically deal with the federal assistance program to help states and local governments improve the energy efficiency standards in their building codes. That subject is addressed in climate change legislation currently under consideration in the Senate. The climate change bill that is receiving the most consideration, Senate Bill 2191 (Lieberman-Warner), would seek to reduce GHG emissions with a ''cap and trade'' system, an elaborate market-based system for buying and selling GHG allowances. The bill includes a separate title that focuses on energy efficiency. Section 5201 (of the bill, as reported out of committee on Dec. 5, 2007) would enhance the financial and technical assistance programs for state and local governments to raise the energy efficiency requirements in their building codes. The bill would also direct the secretary of the Department of Energy to support the periodic updating of the national model building codes with a target of reducing energy consumption in new buildings by 2020 to half of standards in the current model codes (a target that Architecture 2030 calls for achieving by 2010). However, the 11 pages of language on building energy efficiency, of Section 5201, does not mention tribal governments at all. (some legislation considered or passed since early summer, does have some provisions to aid tribal energy conservation, discussed in U.S. Developpments below) Suagee states, that the March/April issue of Solar Today, the magazine of the American Solar Energy Association, “in an article in about the efforts of Fort Collins, Colo., to reduce its carbon footprint, Dan Bihn, a member of the citizen advisory panel, writes, 'Climate change is a whole-community problem, and we'll need to get the whole community involved. A proven way to do that is to give each stakeholder group meaningful, near-term benefits that they can get excited about.'’ Some of the easiest and cheapest ways to get benefits to people and reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the process is to make homes more energy efficient. A cap and trade system may well work over the long run to ratchet down emissions from major sources. The market for allowances may be designed so that there will be funding for various stakeholder groups to carry out programs to reduce emissions and to adapt to climate change. Whether tribal governments and the people who live in Indian country and Native Alaska will receive a fair share is an open question. In any event, those benefits would be realized some time in the future, several years or decades from now. For benefits in the near-term, I suggest we focus on energy efficiency in homes and commercial buildings, especially in new construction. We need to correct the omission of tribal governments from the federal assistance programs to adopt and implement building codes with energy efficiency standards that meet or exceed the national models. The rest of America is beginning to move toward the widespread adoption of zero net energy homes, and this is a movement in which Indian country and Native Alaska really ought to be included.”

Rena Delbridge,“Alaska rivers seen as potential energy solution,” News from Indian Country, August 2008, http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4403&Itemid=1, reports that there is strong interest in generating electricity in Alaska’s powerful river currents using small underwater turbines, called hydrokinetic power, often anchored in river beds or suspended from barges and linked by underwater cables to onshore structures that transfer electricity to larger grids. Proponents say river-generated electricity reduces costs and environmental risks associated with burning diesel fuel. The technology potentially would be very beneficial for rural villages, including Native communities that would no longer have to transport expensive and highly polluting fuel to generate electricity. So far, the technology is relatively unproven, and tests are being undertaken to see how well it works, and what its environmental impact might be. “A small turbine is being tested now in the Yukon River at Ruby, while the Denali Commission is funding a trial project at Eagle next spring. Meanwhile, a Texas company installing its first commercial turbine in a Minnesota river this fall, holds federal permits to place river turbines at about 9 Alaska sites. Meanwhile, the Denali Commission and Alaska Energy Authority are helping Alaska communities – including Native villages – cut food costs by awarding alternative energy grants, with state and federal funds. In June, the groups awarded $5 million to 33 projects around Alaska. For details see, Alex Demarban “Rural communities chase cheaper fuel,” News from Indian Country,” July 2008, http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3987&Itemid=1. Meanwhile, Dylan Darling, “Hatchet Ridge project foes file appeals,” Redding Searchlight, October 8, 2008, http://www.redding.com/news/2008/oct/08/hatchet-ridge-project-foes-file-appeals/, reports that the Pit River Tribe is joining others in asking the The Shasta County Board of Supervisors to reconsider a planned wind turbine project on Hatchet Ridge, overlooking Burney, CA, h contending that the turbines would be built on sacred ground.

Terri C. Hansen, “Hurricane Gustav leaves Louisiana tribes with severe damage,” News from Indian Country, September 25, 2008, http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4418&Itemid=1 reports that Hurricane Gustav inflicted severe damage on the costal tribes of Louisiana, who have been progressively losing land to the Gulf, as oceans rise, major storms increase in occurrence and intensity, and diking of the Mississippi River has prevented silt carried by the river from renewing the Delta. Reports of extensive property loses have come from the United Houma Nation communities southwest of New Orleans, and the Chitimacha Tribe, which suffered roof damage, but no flooding. Most residents evacuated, and returned shortly after the storm passed inland. However, the non-federally recognized Houma tribal communities in Terrebonne received the brunt of the storm with high winds, tornado activity, and flooding, leading to a “major disaster,” being declared, allowing eligible residents to apply for federal funding for housing and recovery from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Following the Indonesian government announcing plans to expand palm oil, bioguel plantations, in West Papua, a group of NGOs, based in West Papua's largest town Jayapura, urged the Indonesian government not to permit any more oil palm plantations in West Papua. Developing the plantations has been destroying rainforest bringing disastrous consequences for Papuan communities many of which are Indigenous, said the group of NGOs' Executive Secretary, Septer Manufandu, Moe information is available at: http://list-manage.com/track/click?u=b14580b05b832fb959c4ee444&id=094935750e&e=CqQTrZoCrQ.

Kenneth Chang, “Sunspots Are Fewest Since 1954, but Significance Is Unclear,” The New York Times, October 2, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/science/space/03sun.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Sunspots%20Are%20Fewest%20Since%201954,%20but%20Significance%20Is%20Unclear&st=cse&oref=slogin, and Andrew C. Revkin, “Climate and the Spotless Sun, The New York Times,” October 3, 2008, http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/climate-and-the-spotless-sun/?ref=space, discuss an event that may signify nothing, in terms of global warming and climate change, may have a small significance, or might have a major impact on the world’s temperature. No one knows yet, but the phenomena needs to be watched if it continues. As of the beginning of October, the sun had gone 205 days without any sunspots, and a reduced solar wind. The sun has not had such a long sunspot free period since 1954, when it was spotless for 241 day, while the rush of charged particles continually flowing from the sun at a million miles an hour, known as the solar wind, has diminished to its lowest level in 50 years. This means that less energy is being put out by the sun, causing the earth to cool (or warm more slowly). There are two questions that only the future can answer. First, how long will the phenomenon continue? It will only be significant if it is long term. Second, How great will the reduction in heating be? It could be of small importance, or, as some solar experts speculate, we could have another Little Ice Age, as occurred from the middle of the 17th century to the early 18th, a period when the sun’s out put was at what is known as the Maunder Minimum. The current level of reduction is nowhere near what that level is estimated to be, though (not in the Times articles), at least one solar scientist calculates that the sun is overdue in going to another Maunder Minimum. It would be helpful to have some slowing of global warming, and thus some aspects of climate change, from a temporary lessoning of solar radiation. But, first, there is no way of knowing that anything like that may occur. Second, even if warming slows from a drop in solar output, the increase in greenhouse gas production that is continuing, has other environmental impacts. For example, the increased carbon dioxide in the air is making the ocean more acid, which is harmful to many ocean species. There is strong evidence that the ongoing destruction of most of the world’s coral is mostly a result of increasing seawater acidity.

 

 

U.S. Developments

U.S. District court Judge James Robertson, in the Indian trust case, Cobell v. Kempthorne, et al. (No. 1:96CV01285 (D.D.C.), September 4, issued a memorandum and order awarding $455.6 million to the plaintiffs, 500,000 individual Indian trust account holders, and certified opinions for immediate interlocutory appeal to try to speed a conclusion of the case by having several issues settled by the DC Court of Appeals. If the dollar amount stands, there are still questions remaining as to how the money is to be distributed. The plaintiffs originally brought suite against the U.S. government for more than $100 billion (at one point $176 billion), but were willing to settle for $57 billion last spring. For up to the date and past details, go to, for plaintiffs: http://www.indiantrust.com, for government filings: http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/cases/cobell.

The House and Senate, July 15, overrode the Presidents veto of HR 6331, a bill blocking the impending 10.6% reduction in Medicare physicians fees and extending the Special Diabetes Program for Indians at the current $150 million a year, an entitlement program not subject to the appropriation process. (Note, much of the information on congressional legislation in these pages comes from reports from Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker LLP, 2120 L Street, NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037, (202)822-8282, djohnson@hsdwdc.com, provided by Americans for Indian Opportunity).

As of mid September, with the session of Congress moving toward closing, tentatively September 26 (though with some possibility of the date being later, and there even being some chance of a lame duck session after the election), passing additional Indian legislation is difficult. The bills most strongly being pushed for completion are the Indian health care and housing bills. There appears a good chance that general child welfare legislation will pass, with provision for direct tribal administration of the federal entitlement program for foster care and adoption assistance. The major Indian related bills that do not pass are likely to be brought up again in the next Congress.

Congress approved and sent to the President, September 27, the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination (NAHASDA) Act (HR 2786), expanding the self-determination aspects of the original 1996 legislation. The bill reauthorizes NAHASDA through 2013; Expands the definition of eligible affordable housing to encompass operation and maintenance of units built with NAHASDA funds as well as the development and rehabilitation of infrastructure and mold remediation (a major need on many reservations); allows tribal housing entities (TDHE's) to use a portion of their Indian Housing Grant for administration and planning of affordable housing activities; Allows carryover of grant money from one year to the next; provides an exception to the HUD competitive procurement requirements for purchases under $5000; New Subtitle B (Self-Determined Housing Activities for Tribal Communities) sets up five year demonstration project allowing tribes/TDHES to experiment with a model of service delivery similar to that of the Indian Self-Determination Education Act, relating only to construction, acquisition and rehabilitation of housing and infrastructure, with no more than the lesser of 20% of a tribe's TDHE funding or $2 million; Clarifies some classifying and counting; Requires a GAO study to determine the effectiveness of NAHSDA; and reauthorizes the Title VI loan guarantee program, adding a new demonstration program for funding community and economic development activities. The Native Hawaiian housing program is not included in this bill. The bill modifies previous language on the issue of Cherokee Freedmen, allowing the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma to continue to receive IHBG funds as long as the temporary restraining order in the current lawsuit over this issue remains in place, or if "there is a settlement agreement which affects the end of litigation among the adverse parties."

The Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians Settlement Act, PL 110-297 (HR 4841) was signed by the President, July 31, resolving a pending lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in California, Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians v. Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, seeking damages and injunctive relief for continuing drainage of water from the tribe's reservation into the Metropolitan Water District's San Jacinto Tunnel, constructed in 1932. The act authorizes $21 million for two funds: the San Jacinto Restoration Fund and the Soboba Band Water development Fund. The President signed the SAFETEA-LU Technical Corrections Act, PL 110-244 (HR 1195), June 6, with provisions impacting Indians: reducing the Indian Reservation Roads (IRR) Program funding authorization as a result of shifting funding in the Public Lands Highway account, of which IRR is a part. Another provision allows tribes to nominate a road as an All-american Road or as one of America's Byways, if the road is not managed by a non-BIA federal agency, or is under the jurisdiction or managed by a state or one of its political subdivisions. May 8, the President signed the Consolidated Natural Resources Planning Act, PL 110-229 (S 2739), section 31 of which authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to enter into cooperative agreements with tribes and other entities to protect natural resources of the National Park system, both inside and outside of park units. The Mashantucket Pequot (Western) Lease Extension Act, PL 110-128 (S 3457, H.Rept 110-611), signed by the President May 8, allows extension of certain leases by the tribe, with an option to renew, and a prohibition of gambling on those leases. The President signed the Second Chance Act, PL 110-199 (HR 1593), April 29, authorizing funds to help former prisoners with housing, employment, education and health care, and help prepare them to re-enter a community, making tribes eligible for various related grant programs, including a 5% tribal allocation under the Family Substance Abuse Treatment Program. The Extension of Minting Certain $1 Coins (including the Sacagawea design and those honoring Native American contributions) Act (PL 110-192, HR 5478), authorizing continued minting and distribution of those coins, was signed by the President, February 29.

The House, September 29, approved S. 3128, the White Mountain Apache Tribe Rural Water System Loan Authorization Act, authorizing a federal loan to the White Mountain Apache Tribe for the planning and engineering of a dam and reservoir to provide clean drinking water for the tribe. The bill had passed the Senate a few days earlier, and was sent to the President.

The House passed the following bills, not yet passed by the Senate. The Family Smoking Prevention and Cigarette Control Act, HR 1108, July 30, whose provision allowing the Secretay of HHS to contract with states to carry out inspections of tobacco produce retailers, cannot apply on Indian lands without the express permission of the tribe. Personnel Reimbursement of Intelligence Cooperation and Enhancement (PRICE) of Homeland security, HR 6098, July 29, expanding use of grants to state and local governments requires state and local governments to take into account the homeland security plans of tribes in their respective areas. The Preserve America and Save America's Treasure's Act, HR 3981, July 8, to support historic preservation. Indian tribes and their preservation offices could apply for grants including for relevant research, surveys, interpretation, planning and professional development. Tribal areas would be eligible to be designated a Preserve America Community. A Senate Companion Bill, S 2262, was passed by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, June 16. Legislation Amending Various Laws Relating to Native Americans, HR 5680, June 18, relating to 1) the Colorado River Indian Tribes (tribal energy department); 2) the Gila River Indian Community (binding arbitration for construction contracts); 3) Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Michigan (land transfer and fee status); 4 Morengo Band of Mission Indians (extend land leases to 50 years); 5) Cow Creek Band of Umqua Tribe of Indians (lease trust land for up to 99 years); 6) ANSCA Corporations (new Settlement Common Stock with possible limitations on voting rights or transfer by gift); and 7) the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida (land into trust consistent with provisions of the national Environmental Protection Act). 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities, HR 3021, June 5, providing funding authorization for "green school" construction, reconstruction and renovation, sets aside 1% of the allocation for assistance to Indian schools and the outlying areas. The National

The House Defeated the Bay Mills and Sault Ste. Marie Settlements, HR 3176, June 25, that would have approved the tribes' land claim settlements.

The Senate, July 16, approved an amendment to an international HIV/AIDS bill (S 2731) that would authorize $2 billion in funding over five years for various Indian programs, in the Department of Justice (for detention facility construction, replacement and rehabilitation; for prosecution of crimes in Indian country; for the DOJ's Office of Justice Program for Indian and Native Alaska Programs; and for cross-deputization and other agreements between tribal, state an local governments and the Alaska Village Public Safety Officers Program), The Department of Interior (Tribal water settlement agreements approved by Congress; and the BIA's Public Safety and Justice account for tribal police and courts), and the Department of Health and Human Services (for health care to be divided by the Indian Health Service (IHS) among contract health services, construction and rehabilitation of health facilities, and sanitation facilities programs). A version of this bill had already passed the house without this amendment, the differences to be worked out in Senate-House Conference. The amendment merely authorizes spending categories for which Congress could authorize funding. The Senate passed the National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day Resolution, S.Res.479, March 11, designating March 20 a the Second Annual National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, citing data showing the prevalence and threat of the disease to Naive Americans, and encouraging tribes and tribal organizations, health care [providers and all levels of government to coordinate efforts in HIV/AIDS prevention and testing.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, S 3155, July 31, that would reauthorize and amend the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, last reauthorized in 2002 - the major source of federal funding for state, local and tribal government juvenile justice system improvement. The amendments include increases in funding authorization. The bill includes provisions to improve strategies to identify and reduce racial and ethnic disparities among youth who come into contact with the juvenile justice system, without using quotas. The Senate Indian Affairs committee approved an amended Tribal Specific Lease Extensions bill, S 3192, July 31, to extend the 25 year limit of trust land leases to 99 years for the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians, The Coquill Indian Tribe, and the Confederated Tribes of Silez Indians of Oregon; and to 50 years for the Morengo Band of Mission Indians. The Indian Affairs committee, July 31, approved the Morris K. Udall Native Nations Institute Amendments, adding to the Morris K. Udall Scholarship on Excellence in National Environmental and Native American Policy Act of 1992, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act definition of a tribe, permanently establish the Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management and Policy (NNI), and authorize annual increases in appropriations. The Senate committee on Indian Affairs voted out the Crow Tribe Land Restoration Act, S 1080, June 19, that would direct the Secretary of the Interior to establish a loan program to assist the Crow Tribe in purchasing from eligible individuals land and interests in land within the Crow Reservation, to be held in trust for the tribe, and allow it to assume management of the land and interests in land. The Indian Affairs Committee, June 19, approved the Indian Arts and Crafts Amendment Act, S 1255, amending the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990, authorizing any federal law enforcement office to investigate an offense involving misrepresentation that any good is Indian made, in a sale. Currently, only the FBI has such jurisdiction. The Senate committee on Indian Affairs voted out the Oglala Sioux Tribe Angostura Irrigation Project Modernization and Development Act, S 2489, June 19, that would establish a Tribal Development Trust fund o $92.5 million for the tribe, and direct the Bureau of Land Reclamation to direct more water down the Cheyenne River for the Oglala Sioux Reservation. The bill also prohibits per capita payments. The House version, introduced in February, is HR 883. The Committee on Indian Affairs approved the Spokane Tribe of the Spokane Reservation Grand Coulee Dam Equitable Compensation Settlement, S 2494, June 19, that would provide "fair and equitable" compensation to the tribe for the use of land associated with the dam project, with $99.5 million to be authorized for a fund for the tribe over five years, $5 million of which would be for building and maintaining a Cultural Repository and Interpretive Center. The tribe's claim for a portion of the dam's revenue would also be settled. The Bureau of Land Reclamation (BOR) would also transfer BOR lands within the tribe's boundaries to the Spokane Tribe. The Committee on Indian Affairs approved the Bennett Freeze Repeal, S 531, June 19, that would end the prohibition of Navajo Nation constructing or repairing homes in the land that the Hopi and Navajo nations had disputed, now that the dispute has been resolved. A companion measure was introduced in the House, H 956,in February. The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, June 16, approved an amended version of the Owyhee Public Land Management Act of 2008, S 2833, that would provide for the management of certain public lands in Owyhee County, ID, directing the Secretary of the Interior to coordinate and seek agreements with the Shoshone Paiute Tribe of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in implementation of the tribe's Cultural Resource Protection Plan to protect cultural sites and resources. The Senate Indian Affaires Committee approved the Albuquerque Indian School Act, S 1193, April 24, that would direct the Secretary of the Interior to take into trust two tracts of federal land, historically part of the Albuquerque Indian School, for the benefit of the 19 Pueblos in New Mexico, who would use the land for educational, health, cultural, business and economic development. The Senate Committee on on Indian affairs approved the Native American Heritage Resolution, S Rpt. 110-435, H.J. Res. 62, April 24, that would establish the Friday after Thanksgiving as "Native American Heritage Day," not as an official holiday, but as an encouragement for all governments in the U.S. to observe the day with appropriate programs, ceremonies and activities. The senate version does not include the House-passed (November 2007) provision that encourages educational institutions to develop curricula that emphasize the contributions of Native Americans; their historical constitutional status; their cultures, traditions and languages, and their "rich cultural legacy." The Committee on Indian Affairs voted out the Lumbee Recognition Act, HR 65, S. Rpt. 110-409, April 24, that would provide federal recognition to the Lumbee tribe, providing its members all services and benefits provided to Indians. It would require the Secretaries of Interior and Health and Human Services to each submit a statement of the tribes needs and budget. Lumbee lands taken into trust can not be used for gaming, which the tribe agreed to in order to have the bill move forward. A related bill, HR 2022 was introduced in the House in April 2007, but no action had been taken on it as of late September. The Indian Affairs Committee, April 24, approved an amended Tribal Health Promotion and Tribal Colleges and Universities Advancement Act, S 1779, to increase health resources for tribal communities through tribal colleges. The bill would authorize a cooperative agreement with the American Indian Higher Education Consortium and programs for community based health fairs and wellness centers, plus a an array of programs for tribal colleges to expand public health degree and health research programs, and to work with tribes on health promotion and disease prevention capacity. A Tribal College and University Rural Health Fund would be authorized to be used by TCUs to endow a health professions work force development program, and the Native Prosperity Program, focused on economic development in Native communities. Removed from the bill were authorization for wellness center construction and the Native American Language Vitalization program. The Senate Judiciary Committee, March 6, sent forward The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Reauthorization and Improvement Act, S 2304/HR 3992, with amendments, increasing services and funding authorization. Tribes and Tribal organizations would be eligible for funding. The bill was later included in the Advancing America's Priorities Act, S 3297, which has been delayed by a hold by Senator Coburn (R-OK).

The Tribal Law and Order Act of 2008 (S 3320) (House version: HR 6583) was introduced in the Senate by Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), July 23, after five hearings and over a year of development. The bill envisions a comprehensive reorganization of federal agency law enforcement responsibilities in Indian country, and would increase tribal access to law enforcement resources, while enhancing tribal and Federal jurisdictional authority in Indian country. The changes proposed are quite substantial. Title I would substantially reorganize the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of the Interior (DOI) offices relating to crime prevention and prosecution in Indian Country. It would: Require the Attorney General to make the DOJ's Office of Tribal Justice a permanent division of the DOJ; create an Office of Indian Country Crime (OICC) within the DOJ's Criminal Division to develop, enforce, and administer the Federal criminal laws applicable to Indian Country; and coordinate with US Attorneys to prosecute Federal crimes. Require each US Attorney whose district includes Indian Country to appoint at least one Assistant US Attorney to serve as a tribal liaison for the district, and allow for the appointment of qualified tribal prosecutors and other qualified attorneys to aid in prosecuting Federal offenses committed in Indian Country. Establish a nine-member Indian Law and Order Commission to conduct a comprehensive study of law enforcement and criminal justice in tribal communities and recommend changes to Federal, state and tribal justice systems. The Commission would appoint a Tribal Advisory Committee to assist in its work. Create an Office of Indian Alcohol and Substance Abuse within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to coordinate with, and monitor the performance of, other federal agencies on efforts to combat alcohol and substance abuse in tribal communities. Require the DOJ to report annually data regarding crimes in Indian Country. Require any Federal law enforcement official or employee who declines or terminates an investigation of an alleged violation of Federal law in Indian Country to file a report with tribal officials and submit data to the OICC. Similarly, US Attorneys who decline or terminate prosecution of a case would be required to coordinate and communicate with tribal officials, and provide reasonable details to permit a tribal prosecutor to pursue the case in tribal court. Title VI includes the following requirements: The BIA Division of Law Enforcement Service would be required to provide training in how to interview victims of domestic and sexual violence and to collect, preserve, and present evidence to Federal and tribal prosecutors. The Secretary, the Attorney General and the Indian Health Service (IHS) would develop services for domestic violence and sexual assault victims and advocate training programs. The IHS, in consultation with tribes, would develop standardized sexual assault policies and protocols similar to those used by the DOJ. Notices are to be provided to tribal law enforcement officials when prisoners are released and relocated to areas under tribal jurisdiction. Titles III, IV, and V would increase tribal access to resources for crime prevention, data collection and incarceration of convicted tribal offenders. Title III would allow tribal and BIA law enforcement agencies and officials to access and enter information into Federal criminal information databases without the limitations on subject matter in existing law which focuses on crimes against women. It would also allow tribes to enter into agreements with the US Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to transfer tribal offenders convicted of violent crimes, crimes involving sexual abuse and serious drug offenses, to BOP facilities. Title IV would require the Attorney General to reserve $35 million annually for grants to construct and maintain tribal jails; enter into contracts for the construction of tribal facilities; provide alternatives to incarceration; increase Federal funding for alcohol and substance abuse emergency shelters; extend the COPS program to allow tribal governments receiving direct law enforcement services from the BIA to access the program on the Federal government's behalf; and authorize the Attorney General to waive the COPS matching funds requirement and expand the sources of funds that may be used to meet the match requirement for tribes. The bill would also authorize the Attorney General to extend the project period of a grant to tribes to the time necessary to carry out the project purpose. Title V would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to provide grants to improve tribal data collection systems. Jurisdiction Some of the most important jurisdictional provisions are: Increase tribal court sentencing authority to three years and/or a fine of $15,000. In exercising the enhanced sentencing authority, a tribal court must provide defense counsel for indigent defendants and tribal court judges must be licensed to practice law. The Federal government, at a tribe's request, could assume concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute Federal crimes. The DOJ would be authorized to provide grants and technical assistance to states, tribes and local governments who wish to enter into cooperative agreements to improve law enforcement services and reduce crime in Indian Country and neighboring communities. The bill would enhance the Secretary's authority to enter into agreements with Federal, tribal and state agencies to aid in law enforcement efforts in Indian Country; require the Secretary and the Attorney General to develop a plan to "enhance the certification and provision of special law enforcement commissions to tribal, state and local law enforcement officials;" require the Secretary to consult with tribes to develop minimum requirements for special law enforcement commissions; and prohibit the use of non-Federal law enforcement personnel if the tribe objects to their use. While the Findings in the Tribal Law and Order Act legislation recognizes as a problem that "tribal courts have no criminal jurisdiction over non-Indian persons," the bill would not extend tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians as urged by many tribal representatives. Information on S 3320 and HR 6583 is from Hobs, Straus, Dean and Walker, LLP, http://www.hobbsstraus.com/, General Memorandum08-095, August 5, 2008.

The Government Accounting Office (GAO) testified before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, July 31 (following a July 21 report), that the Indian Health Service (IHS) has lost at least $15.8 million worth of equipment between the 2004 and 2007 budget years, and later falsified documents to cover up some of those losses. Among 5000 pieces of lost or stolen equipment, about a third were information technology items, many from the IHS headquarters in Rockville, MD, but also including a computer containing more than 800 Social Security numbers and sensitive health information, missing from an IHS hospital in New Mexico. Among the other missing items were trucks, tractors, and all-terrain vehicles. The report also stated that the agency has not properly acted to safeguard its equipment, citing the example of $700,000 in equipment having to be disposed of because it was “infested with bat dung.” GAO investigators blamed mismanagement at the top of the agency, for the losses, saying “IHS management has failed to establish a strong ‘tone at the top,’ allowing property management problems to continue for more than a decade with little or no improvement or accountability for lost and stolen property and compromise of sensitive personal data,” The report reprimanded the agency for wasteful spending. According to the GAO, there are three computers for every one employee at IHS headquarters. The investigation also found that computers and other technology equipment were often assigned to vacant offices. HIS officials responded, acknowledging many of the loses and recommendations for improving property regulations and oversight, but disagreed with some allegations, claiming inaccuracies in investigators descriptions. IHS officials commented that the study failed to appreciate that IHS has a unique property management system compared to other agencies because of the collaboration with Indian tribes. Testimony followed the GAO issuing the report was requested by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.V., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, after a whistleblower – identified in the report as a “cognizant property official” – called the GAO’s fraud hotline. To access the Senate Indian Affairs Committee testimony, go to: http://www.gao.gov/htext/d081069t.html and http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-1069T. For more information, contact Gregory Kutz at (202)512-6722 or kutzg@gao.gov. For a longer news report, see Mary Clare Jalonick, “GAO: Indian health agency lost millions in goods,” News from Indian Country, July, 2008, http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4148&Itemid=1.

In July, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) followed up on decisions announced in May, publishing a rule generally limiting the location of Indian gaming facilities to be within 25 miles of the owning tribe’s reservation. The exceptions to the limitation are discussed in the U.S. Developments section of the Spring 2008 issue of IPJ.

The first meeting of the Violence Against Women in Indian Country Task Force, appointed under the Violence Against Women in Indian Country Act Amendments of 2005, took place, August 20-21 in Washington, DC. The meeting focused on setting up a research agenda, and reviewing existing research, on violence against Indian and Native Alaska women and evaluation of response to such crimes. The meeting was open to the public and included a period of public commentary.

The National Park Service, which has been co-managing the South Unit of the Badlands National Park, which lies within the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, in South Dakota, with the Oglala Sioux Tribe, has been considering turning full management of the South Unit over to the tribe. For more see, Carson Walker, “Part of S.D. Badlands management could go to tribe,” News from Indian Country, July 2008, http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4012&Itemid=1.

The BIA and the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association have settled a three year dispute over funding for certain cultural heritage activities, leading to the return of funding to the Alaskan tribal organization, including for the past two years.

The National Indian Gaming Commission published two final rules for Class II gaming and withdrew two others in notices in the Federal Register (http://www.indianz.com/FederalRegister/), October 10. The agency published a final rule for Minimum Internal Control Standards and final rule for Technical Standards. The notices state that the rules do not seek to distinguish between Class II games like bingo and Class III games like slot machines. NICG withdrew two rules that would have distinguished between the two classes. The rule for Classification Standards and the rule for Definition for Electronic or Electromechanical Facsimile were opposed by tribes and gaming manufacturers. This is consistent with NIGA’s proposed regulation and comments reported in the last issue of IPJ. For more go to: http://www.indianz.com/IndianGaming/2008/011336.asp.

The Bonneville Power Administration, of the Department of Energy, entered into an agreement, in early April, with the Umatilla, Warm Springs, Yakama and Colville nations of Oregon and Washington to manage fish hatcheries on the Columbia and Snake Rivers for 10 years and a payment of $900,000, with the provision that the tribes stop participating in law suits against the federal government concerning to fish related policy. The Nez Perce nation decided not to participate. The pact places a wedge between the tribes and environmentalists who have been collaborating in opposing federal fish related policy in the Northwest.

Just Foreign Policy reported, in August, that “A recent Newsweek article reports that Chevron is lobbying the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to withhold U.S. trade preferences from Ecuador, to pressure the Government of Ecuador to interfere against a lawsuit brought by peasants in Ecuador seeking redress for the dumping of toxic oil waste in the Amazon. Incredibly, USTR has confirmed that it is considering Chevron's request. Oregon Representative Peter DeFazio has initiated a Congressional letter to USTR, urging USTR to reject Chevron's request, and to affirm that access to the U.S. market will not be used as leverage to interfere in Ecuador's legal process.” For more information go to: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/ecuador_ustr.html.

The GoLearn.gov Learning Center provides government employees and military personnel with Web-based learning and development courses, including ongoing access of the training course, "Working Effectively with Tribal Governments," helping participants develop an understanding of tribal issues and concerns, and how the unique status of Indian tribes and their historical relationship with the federal government affects government programs, responsibilities, and initiatives. For information contact golearn-info@opm.gov. http://www.golearn.gov/MaestroC/.

Makah tribal member Jim Woods joined EPA Region 10, in June, as a Senior Advisor for Tribal Policy.

As of late September, in New Mexico, the Navajo Nation and several Southwest councils, including the All Indian Pueblo Council and the Mescalero Apache, endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, after meeting with him, joining some 100 other national tribal leaders who support the Democratic ticket, despite John McCain's long history of working with tribal leaders while he sat on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs. There have been a number of Indian meetings with Obama. In July, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Chair of the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee Debbie Stabenow convened a meeting in Washington, DC with Native American leaders to discuss issues important to Indian Country. Senator Obama stated that, if elected, he would usher in a new era of honest federal dealings with Indian tribes, on May 19, during a rally on the Crow reservation in Montana. The candidate stated he would honor long-ignored treaty obligations and revamp health care and education on reservations across the United States, which have long suffered due to inadequate funding, saying “Few have been ignored by Washington for as long as Native Americans, the first Americans,” Obama said. “That will change when I am president of the United States.” Obama, some of whose Irish and Scottish ancestors on his mother’s side have been in what is now the United states at least since the 1700s, states that he believes he has some Native, likely Cherokee, ancestry (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/76976). Senator Obama's Presidential campaign has a First American vote director, Wizilan Garriot, of the Rosebud Sioux nation. Native Vote Washington is one of a number of state wide efforts aimed at getting out the Indian vote in the November election, while the Cherokee Nation put out a voter’s guide as part of its Cherokee Vote Counts Campaign (http://www.indianz.com/News/2008/011261.asp).

There has been mixed reaction among Native people in Alaska to Sarah Palin as a vice presidential candidate. Lloyd Miller and Heather Kendall Miller, “Sarah Palin's hostile record on Tribal issues in Alaska,” News From Indian Country, September, 2008, http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4505&Itemid=1, states, “Perhaps no issue is of greater importance to Alaska Native peoples as the right to hunt and fish according to ancient customary and traditional practices, and to carry on the subsistence way of life for future generations. These rights are not just a matter of custom, they are a matter of necessity in a State where Native villages are spread across a largely roadless area covering 375 million acres, and where subsistence foods are still fully 60% of the local diet. But Governor Sarah Palin has consistently opposed those essential and fundamental rights.” “In her short tenure, Palin has also tried to overturn critical federal protections for Alaska Native customary and traditional uses of game, again simply to enhance sport hunting. Palin's attack here has targeted (among others) the Ahtna Indian people in Chistochina, and although the federal court last year rejected this challenge, too, Palin has refused to lay down her arms. The battle has thus moved on to the appellate courts.“ “At the very same time that she has challenged federal subsistence rights, she has waged a second battle against tribal sovereignty. While Palin pays lip service to the fact that Alaska Tribes are federally recognized, it is an empty statement because she insists they have no authority whatsoever to act as sovereigns despite that recognition-unless, she argues, the State first permits a Tribe to take some particular action. So unyielding is Palin on tribal sovereignty issues that she has sought to block Alaska Tribes from even exercising authority over the welfare of Native children - again, unless the State through its courts first authorizes a Tribe to act. It is a position that is so extreme that, not only have the federal courts rejected it, but even her own state courts have rejected it.” “A third prong in her assault on Native peoples has been Palin's refusal to accord proper respect to Alaska Native languages and Alaska Native voters, by denying language assistance to Yup'ik-speaking voters. As a result, this July Palin was ordered by a special three-judge panel of federal judges to provide various forms of voter assistance to Yup'ik voters residing in southwest Alaska.”

Benny Shendo Jr. (Jemez Pueblo), former New Mexico secretary of Indian affairs under Governor Bill Richardson, ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for Congress in New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District, a seat left open by Rep. Tom Udall, who is running for the Senate. There currently is only one Indian in Congress: Oklahoma Republican Tom Cole, a member of the Chickasaw Nation.

 

 

Federal Indian Budgets

As President Bush has promised to Veto any budget that exceeds his requested level, the Democratic Congressional leadership decided not to engage in veto fights and to have the government function by way of continuing resolutions from the beginning of the FY2009 fiscal year, October 1, until passing and the President signing FY2009 appropriation bills during the new Congress, which begins in January.

 

 

In The Courts

The U.S. Supreme Courts

The Supreme Court, in the first Indian law case with its current membership, decided 5-4 (Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito in the majority), Plains Commerce Bank v. Long Family Land & Cattle Co, in July, overturning the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in finding that the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Court lacked jurisdiction to hear a racial discrimination claim brought by two tribal members and their corporation against their non-Indian bank for its on reservation activities. The court, in reaching this conclusion, strictly construed the first "Montana Exception" to the rule that, "A tribe may regulate through taxation, licensing, or other means, the activities on nonmembers who enter consensual relationships with the tribe or its members, through commercial dealing, contracts, leases or other arrangements." Speaking for the majority, Chief Justice Roberts stated that the action of the bank in the case did not constitute the type of "conduct of non-Indians on fee land" to which the exception applied. Roberts held that such conduct would include "a business enterprise employing tribal members" or "commercial development" that "intrude on the internal relations of the tribe or threaten tribal-self rule. To the extent that they do, such activities or land use may be regulated." However, the bank's sale of land it owned in fee simple did not constitute such conduct, with out its prior agreement that it would be so regulated, according to the opinion.

The Supreme Court refused, without comment, at the beginning of October, to hear the case of the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe, turned down by the lower court, in attempting to get the state to negotiate with it to expand its Eagle Pass casino, which offers bingo and poker, to include Las Vegas-style gambling.

 

 

Lower Federal Courts

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeal ruled, August 8, in Navajo Nation v. U.S. Forest Service, that a plan to spread treated sewage water for snow making at a ski area on the San Francisco Peaks, which are sacred to 13 indigenous nations, can go forward. The panel overturned a previous 9th Circuit decision, that found unanimously that the doing so violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, holding that the government action in the San Francisco peaks case did not constitute ‘a substantial burden on the exercise of religion’ – which would be necessary to bar the state action.

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Held, May 30, that the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida immune from suit by tribal employees for allegedly violating the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by failing to pay overtime wages, in Lobo v. Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, No. 07-16073. The FLSA establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and child employment standards for full-time and part-time workers in the private sector and in Federal, state, and local governments. The FLSA does not mention whether or to what extent it applies to Indian tribes, but two Circuit Courts of Appeal have assumed that the FLSA does apply to tribes. In Reich v. Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission, 4 F.3d 490 (7th Cir. 1993), and Snyder v. Navajo Nation, 382 F.3d 892 (9th Cir. 2004), the Seventh and Ninth Circuits assumed that the FLSA pay-for-overtime provisions implicitly applied to tribes, but that the express exclusion in those provisions for law enforcement officers implicitly applied too, so that the tribal law enforcement employees could not sue the Commission (a tribal consortium) or the Tribe for overtime pay. Tribal immunity was not mentioned in either case. In the Miccosukee case, the Eleventh Circuit Court said that even though an Act of general applicability (such as the FLSA) may apply to Indian tribes, there is no indication in the FLSA that Congress intended to waive tribal sovereign immunity from suit.

The U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia issued an order, July 29, in Vann vs Kemporne, telling the District Court that the suit by the Black Cherokees alleging that they were unlawfully excluded from two 2003 Cherokee Nation elections, can proceed against the leaders of the Cherokee Nation - who do not have sovereign immunity - while the Nation itself has such immunity, in this case, and cannot be directly sued. The federal parties also remained as part of the suit.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in July, affirmed the February 2007 decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull in Billings, MT, upholding a Montana regulation that bans non-Indians from big game hunting within American Indian reservations in the state, even if the land is privately owned. The appeals court rejected an argument that the ban constituted racial discrimination, saying it was based upon tribal membership, and thus was political.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, October 7, rejected the effort by the Snoqualmie Tribe of Washington to take away Puget Sound Energy's license to operate a hydroelectric plant at Snoqualmie Falls, on the grounds that diverting water deprived the tribal members of their religious experiences at the falls. The court upheld the license issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, saying that the Snoqualmies still have access to the falls for religious ceremonies.

In a ruling dated June 25, and first circulated July 10, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly denied the law suite by a group of American Indians to require the Washington, DC NFL football team to cease using the name “Redskins,” on the grounds that it is offensive or racist, ruling, that the youngest of the seven Native American plaintiffs waited too long after turning 18 to file the lawsuit. The lead plaintiff, Suzan Shown Harjo, said July 11, that the group will appeal.

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, September 23, issued a preliminary injunction, preserving the effect of a previously issued temporary restraining order mandating the U.S. Army to cease construction activities on a warehouse at Fort Sill, OK in the vicinity of Medicine Bluffs, a geological feature with great cultural and religious significance to the Comanche nation and other plains tribes, in Comanche Nation vs. U.S., No. CIV-08-849-D. The court issued the injunction to prevent damage to the site while it considers the merits of the case, saying that there is a substantial likelihood that the Comanche nation will prevail in its claim under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Historic Preservation Act (the site has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1974).

The 9^th Circuit Court of appeals has given the Rincon, Colusa and San Pasqual nations victories, in separate cases initially decided over the summer and on October 6, in their disagreement with the State of California as to how many slot machines their casinos are allowed under compacts signed in 1999. The three tribes want to operate hundreds more slot machines than they do now without renegotiating a deal with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Circuit Court said judges can rule on that question without hearing from the 60 or so other tribes that signed similar agreements, even if it affects the profitability of those other gambling halls. The State is asking the Circuit Court to reconsider the decisions.

Nine banished members of the Snoqualmie tribe, including the tribal chairman, several council members and a minister of the Indian Shaker Church, filed suit against the tribe, May 29, in U.S. District Court in Seattle, claiming violation of their civil rights for stripping them of their tribal identity; barring them from tribal lands, and cutting them off from any tribal benefits, including health-care services, in a continuing struggle for leadership of the tribe.

A District Court judge in Wisconsin, in October, effectively eliminated the St. Croix and Bad River Chippewa Beloit, WI Casino project, denying claims made by the tribe that an Interior Department rule limiting the distance a tribal casino can be from a reservation does not apply to them. Under that rule the reservation is too far away from the proposed site in Beloit.

The Jamul Indian Village filed a lawsuit, in early October, against the California Department of Transportation, contending that the agency has no legal right to apply and enforce land use and environmental laws on the reservation, in Jamul, east of San Diego. The tribe wants to build a driveway providing access from state Route 94 to the gambling hall. Caltrans officials say the driveway would be dangerous if used for a large casino, and have asked the tribe to go through an environmental review process that takes the casino plan into account before they can grant a permit to widen the highway.

 

 

State and Local Courts

Suffolk, MA Superior Court Judge Robert Cosgrove, in July, accepted arguments by the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe that the state court has no jurisdiction over a sovereign Indian tribe, in dismissing a suit for reinstatement by two members of the Mashpee Wampanoag who were been shunned by the tribe, barring them from tribal activities and benefits for seven years, after they sued the tribe for access to tribe finances in 2006.

The South Dakota Supreme Court, in late June, has reinstated a lawsuit filed by some former students who allege they were sexually abused decades ago at an Indian boarding school in Marty on the Yankton Sioux Reservation, while finding that two former students at an Indian boarding school in St. Francis on the Rosebud Sioux reservation cannot proceed with their lawsuit because they waited too long to file it. Both cases involve a South Dakota statute requiring a lawsuit seeking damages for childhood sexual abuse to be filed within three years of the alleged abuse, or within three years of the time the victim discovered, or should have discovered, that an injury was caused by the abuse.

 

States, Localities, and Indian Nations

The 28^th annual Arizona Indian Town Hall, held at the Carefree Resort, hosted by the Arizona Commission on Indian Affairs, and sponsored by the First Nations Development Institute, this year focused on the impact of growth on Arizona’s reservations, with the theme of “Protecting Our Natural Resources: Land and Water.” The Arizona Commission on Indian Affairs will issue a report on this year’s Town Hall to help tribes prepare for growth, but provided this initial summary” “Tribes, in order to deal with the challenges of growth, need to communicate, improve state laws, growth, education, preserve sacred sites, preserve water and use renewable energy, create legal infrastructure, address encroachment, address resistance to change and reduce dependency on the BIA. To address growth, tribes have the following resources in varying degrees: land, financial resources, sovereignty, community planning, education including tribal colleges, cultural appropriate solutions and skill building. Tribes can proactively deal with oncoming growth by developing, preparing and implementing tribal policies; preparing legal positions; educating non-Indians on culturally sensitive issues; developing plans; partnering with other tribes and organizations; assuring tribal representation at all external levels such as county, state and federal; identifying federally funded sources; emphasizing youth programs; and maintaining culture in all decisions.” (from Stan Bindell “Arizona Indian Town Hall focuses on reservation growth, “ News From Indian Country, August 2008, http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4260&Itemid=1).

The Indiana Native American Affairs Commission, which operates on a minimal budget, has created the Indiana Native American Indian Affairs Department of Workforce Development Website to allow public access to all commission business and provide communication from and to the Indiana American Indian community, The commission has set up a number of committees including a State Recognition Committee to make recommendations to the governor and legislature on tribal recognition; committees to advise Indiana museums on Indian issues related to displays, the department of corrections on Native American spiritual matters, the Native Anerican Business Directory committee to identify and research Native owned businesses in the state, a NAGPRA/Repatriation Committee to report on applicable federal laws from the state’s viewpoint, and committees on housing, education and health assistance.

    The New York State Assembly was considering a bill, A-11834, in September, that would require all cigarettes sold to Indian reservations for resale by retailers to have tax stamps on them. Since tribal members are exempt from paying taxes on items purchased on tribal land, the retailers would have to file affidavits to the state each month, requesting a refund of the taxes on cigarettes sold to tribal members. The state would determine which refund requests were “reasonable” and when the refunds, if any, would be made.

The Meade County (SD) Commission, voted 3-2, July 1, to provide liquor and beer licenses to the Broken Spoke Campground, with a bar and concert area within earshot of the sacred site of Bear Butte, where vision quests and other ceremonies regularly take place, despite objections that activities at the campground disrupt the serenity of Bear Butte.

New Mexico announced, October 8, that it intends to refund American Indian veterans, who resided on reservations, for state personal income taxes mistakenly withheld from their paychecks while they were on active duty between 1977 and 2004. Pojoaque Pueblo, in September, asked the State of New Mexico for funding to help the nation purchase a $1 million fire truck, needed because its casino is to tall for the tribe’s current fire fighting equipment.

North Dakota’s Board of Higher Education stated, October 8, that it intends to follow a lawsuit settlement, and will not reinstitute the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux nickname and mascot, despite some support for doing so. For more information for to: http://www.pechanga.net/NativeNews.html.

The Southern Ute Tribe and the State of Colorado reached agreement, in September, on wild life management and law enforcement in the Brunot Area, adjacent to the tribe’s reservation, under which the state will continue to manage wildlife and hunting by non-Utes, while the tribe will apply tribal hunting regulations to its members hunting in the area (“Agreement on ‘Brunot Area’ Hunting By Southern Ute Tribal Members,” Southern Ute Drum, September 26, 2008).

Riverside County California sheriff’s deputies and leaders of the Soboba Band of Luseno Indians have been involved in a serious dispute for at least several months. Tribal leaders complain that deputies have been heavy handed in dealing with tribal members. In May three tribal members were killed in shootouts with deputies. The Sheriff’s Office complains that tribal members have shot at deputies in patrol cars and in helicopters. In July, the tribe began requiring sheriff’s deputies coming on to the reservation to check in at a security gate and travel on reservation with a tribal escort. Riverside County California Sheriff’ Sniff states that the restrictions are illegal, and has asked the National Indian Gaming Commission to close the tribe’s casino as being unsafe (Rebecca Cathcart, “Clash With Tribe Spurs efforts to Shut Casino,” The New York Times, Septemeer 2, 2008).

 

 

Tribal Developments

The largest water-rights settlement ever in Indian country, has water is flowing back into the territory of the Akimel O’odham (Pima) Indians of Arizona, allowing the tribe to reestablish farming with the refilling of the community’s complex irrigation systems, which ran dry when the river was diverted by settlers in the late nineteenth century, throwing the people into terrible poverty and forcing many Akimel O’odham to depend on government rations. These rations were based, primarily, on white flour, lard and sugar, alien to their traditional diet, bringing about health disaster, including causing the tribe to have one of the highest rates of diabetes in the world, with more than half the population over the age of 35 having type 2 diabetes. Obesity is now a major problem, as are high rates of heart attacks and stress, largely stemming from eating an American diet. The return of water is an opportunity for economic, cultural and health renewal. Efforts are underway to grow traditional foods, such as beans, which regulate the highs and lows of sugar, and okra, which has health benefits. To renew the culture, community farms are being established and school children are being involved in the projects, which includes education, beginning with youth, but extending through elders.

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux tribe has restored to pre-contact condition a 30-acre field in suburban Minneapolis, where corn and soybeans had recently grown, to return being home to Canada wild rye, big bluestem, Golden Alexander and compass plant.

The American Heart Association published, online Sept. 22, 2008, a study titled “Incidence and Risk Factors for Stroke in American Indians. The Strong Heart Study,” concluding, “Compared with US white and black populations, American Indians have a higher incidence of stroke. The case-fatality rate for first stroke is also higher in American Indians than in the US white or black population in the same age range. Our findings suggest that blood pressure and glucose control and smoking avoidance may be important avenues for stroke prevention in this population.” The article is available at: http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/CIRCULATIONAHA.108.772285v1.

ProMED-mail, a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases (http://www.isid.org), sourcing the Anchorage Daily News, August 9, http://www.adn.com/life/story/488403.html, reports that rural Alaskan, particularly Native people, continue to experience a high rate of food-borne infections, including botulism, with 10 cases of botulism, one fatal, reported in Alaska in 2007. All but one of the botulism cases occurred in Southwest Alaska, according to the state epidemiology section. Each case was traced to traditionally prepared Alaska Native foods, including specific problems with fermented beluga, fermented beaver tail, fermented seal flipper, seal blubber, whale blubber and fermented fish heads. Foodborne botulism is caused by eating foods that contain the botulism toxin. Foodborne botulism can be especially dangerous because many people can be poisoned by eating a contaminated food. Foodborne botulism has often been from home-canned foods with low acid content, such as asparagus, green beans, beets and corn. However, outbreaks of botulism also occur from sources such as chopped garlic in oil, chile peppers, tomatoes, carrot juice, improperly handled baked potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil, and home-canned or fermented fish. Persons who do home canning should follow strict hygienic procedures to reduce contamination of foods. Lack of refrigeration is often a major factor in foodborne botulism.

On the Rosebud Sioux reservation, per capita income for the 29,000 tribal members, now, is about $7,700, less than a third the national average (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/us/10wind.html?_r=2&ref=environment&oref=slogin&oref=slogin).

The national non-profit Trust for Public Land announced the hiring of Carol Craig, an enrolled Yakama tribal member in Washington State, as the Northwest Rocky Mountain Region Tribal and Native Lands Program Coordinator. TPL’s Tribal and Native Lands program works with Tribes and Native communities to reconstitute a viable land base that will safeguard natural resources and provide opportunities to continue spiritual practices and maintain traditional economies. As part of her duties, Craig will travel to various reservations working with tribes on land issues. For more information, visit TPL on the web at www.tpl.org.

On the Navajo Nation, as of this fall, 18,000 homes do not have electric power. In 2002, a federal program called the federal Navajo Electrification Demonstration Project was supposed to provide $85 million, or $15 million a year for five years, but as with other federal programs for Navajo, congressional appropriations were less than what was authorized for the program. Sending the tribe about $10.8 million, which went to providing electric hookups for 1,172 families. For more details see, Kathy Helm, “18,000 Navajo homes still lack electrical access,” News From Indian Country, June, 2008, http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3833&Itemid=1.

On Sept. 26, 257 acres of land, including the sacred Pawnee ground known as Pahaku or Pahuk Hill, situated on a high bluff along the Platte River south of Fremont, Nebraska was put into permanent preservation. The land, owned by Pat and Nancy Shanahan, who have long protected it, and who donated a substantial portion of the land’s value, was put under protection from development through a conservation easement. The land will be protected permanently from development, as the Nebraska Land Trust purchased development rights to the land. However, the Shanahans can still farm it and pass it down to their descendants, said Dave Sands. The Natural Resources and Conservation Service provided 50% of the easement’s value and the Nebraska Environmental Trust provided a $77,280 grant. For more information go to: http://nativetimes.bizweb5.tulsaconnect.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=350&Itemid=1.

Edward Sifuentes , “REGION: San Pasqual tribe to meet on enrollment split: Tribal leaders, feds to gather Sunday to discuss membership dispute,” North County Times, October 9, 2008, http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/10/09/news/sandiego/z8c1b52622373fefe882574dd007034d3.txt, tells us that, “Talks between warring factions of the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians are at a stalemate, which has led to a crucial meeting this weekend [October 11] between tribal leaders and federal officials at the North County reservation. A dispute on whether 80 people belong in the tribe has split the tribe's governing council, putting the tribe's Valley View Casino at risk of closing its doors, a Bureau of Indian Affairs official said Thursday.” The question is whether 80 people are properly members of the California tribe. or should be disenrolled.

A number of grassroots organizations and networks, involving students from the STAR School, located just off the Navajo Reservation near Leupp, Ariz., and residents of the Village of Hotevilla on the Hopi Reservation, have joined together in an effort to heal the rift caused by the Navajo-Hopi land dispute, which while legally settled, has left some hard feelings. Some of the projects include bringing elders and young people together, some times to help elders, in other instances to make gardens flourish, or for similar collaborative development, often part of the Learn and Serve Arizona. For more information see, S.J. Wilson, “Innovative programs unite generations Arizona,” News From Indian Country, May 2008, http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3552&Itemid=1.

The Coquille Tribe of the southern Oregon coast has adopted a law recognizing same-sex marriage, and its first such wedding is set for next spring.

 

 

Economic Developments

Rob Capriccioso, “Wall Street crisis clouds rez road,” Indian Country Today, Oct 10, 2008, http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/30803129.html, sets forth some of the impacts that the just beginning U.S-world financial crisis is starting to have on Indian country. “With major bank closings and mergers taking Wall Street by storm, American Indian-focused investment programs and individual Indians who work in the finance sector have already ended up on the cutting block. Financial experts say the developments will likely add to problems already facing credit-crunched and economically ailing tribes. ‘“We’ve certainly seen some Native-focused banking teams take a hit,” said Bill Lomax, president of the Native American Finance Officers Association. “At least two or three firms have cut back on their Native American banking groups.’” In March, for example, after Bear Stearns, formerly one of the world’s largest investment banks, was purchased by JP Morgan Chase for $2 a share, officials with JP Morgan decided to shut down the company’s Native-focused bond and investment banking crew. Meanwhile, a Native American vice president Derrick Watchman, Navajo, continues to leads the Native American Banking Group, which is part of the commercial banking activities of the firm. At the same time, some firms, such as Merrill Lynch, are continuing to reach out to tribes. Merrill Lynch retains Frank King as managing director of tribal banking for the firm, whose team has raised more than $6 billion in the capital markets from a broad range of investors for tribal governments and their enterprises. Bank of America is also known to be one of the largest lenders to Indian country on a large scale, and has developed relationships with several tribes. It is not yet clear what the impact of the merger between Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, will be. The two firms were competitors for Indian business. “But one thing is for sure as a result of the merger: there will be less competition for tribal dollars. And less competition usually means higher rates for borrowing”. (see also the impact on Indian gaming, including the Quechen Nation bond devaluation, below).

Jason Begay, “Hold steady on investments, advisors say,” The Navajo Times, October 2, 2008, http://www.navajotimes.com/business/index.php, reports “Navajo Nation officials have seen $120 million of the government's investments go down the drain in one swoop during Monday's huge 777.68-point drop. Stocks have since bounced back as investors hope the feds in DC pass a bill that could bail them out.” Since then, the market has continued to drop. On September 4, The Navajo Times, (Jim Snyder “Wall Street woes drive trust fund below $1 billion,” http://www.navajotimes.com/business/0908/090408trustfund.php) reported, that even before the October crash, "The slumping stock market has taken a substantial toll on the Navajo Nation's Permanent Trust Fund - dropping the fund's overall value from $1.330 billion in December to $1.272 billion in March. By the end of June, it had declined further to $982 million, according to Navajo leaders in contact with the tribe's Wall Street financial manager, RV Kuhns and Associates Inc. of New York. The trust fund's 26% decline - on paper - was due to the combination of recessionary factors affecting global markets including the housing-bubble burst, record-high oil prices, economic stagnation, and the shrinking value of the U.S. dollar overseas."

Very unexpectedly, sockeye salmon, listed as endangered in the Snake River in Idaho, and for years running at very low levels in the Columbia River, have been returning to the Columbia River in numbers that haven’t been seen since the mid-1950s, and both tribal and non-tribal commercial fishermen are being allowed to fish them. Sportsmen get to keep two sockeye each a day during the open season, while tribal scaffold fishing has no daily limits and is open year-round.

The Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Tribe of northern Wisconsin is beginning to receive good returns on its investment in modernization and refurbishing The Landing, on the Chippewa River, which for more than 100 years has been a stopping place for tourists. For more information see, Paul DeMain, “Lac Courte Oreilles entry into tourism starting to pay off,” News From Indian Country,” June, 2008, http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3829&Itemid=1.

The Squaxin Island tribe, of Washington, which became the first in the West to manufacture its own tobacco products in 2005, is set to expand this business across the U.S. by the end of the year. The Seneca-Cayugas in Oklahoma previously have sold their cigarettes in numerous states since 1999. Individual tribal members at other tribes, including the Yakamas in Eastern Washington, also manufacture their own cigarettes for sale. For the 1,000-member Squaxin Island tribe, expanding its tobacco industry outside of the state of Washington is an important step to diversify its economy beyond gambling.

Denise A. Raymo, “St. Regis Mohawks move closer to municipal power,” Press Republican of Northeastern New York State, http://www.pressrepublican.com/0100_news/local_story_282214536.html, October 8, 2008, informs that “The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe is closer to forming its own municipal-power system by finalizing a new franchise agreement with National Grid.”

The Navajo Nation, Nahata Dziil Chapter broke ground, September 17, on a new Shopping Center, just off Interstate 40 in Arizona.

The Indian gaming industry grew by 5% in 2007, bringing in around $26 billion, however as the economy has worsened and gas prices have risen, starting early this year, tribal gaming revenue growth began to slow down, and in some cases drop, across the U.S. For example both of the Connecticut tribal casinos have seen sizeable reductions in their slot revenues over this year. On Sept. 22, the Mohegan Tribe announced that it is postponing the final phase of its $925 million expansion project at Mohegan Sun for at least a year. On Sept. 30, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, owner of Foxwoods Resort Casino, announced it would lay off approximately 700 0f 11,000 employees in the coming weeks. The workers let go received two weeks severance pay for each year they were employed, up to 13 years, and health benefits, The Casino has suggested that rather than wait for layoffs, employees might seek other employment, and resign voluntarily, with some severance, reducing the number of employees the casino would need to fire. A week later, the nation’s tribal council announced it has eliminated the position of CEO responsible for oversight over its business operations. The United Auto Workers and the Mashantucket Pequot Gaming Enterprise announced… that they have agreed to "enter into discussions for 30 days to determine if an agreement can be reached to bargain under tribal law without either party waiving any of their rights or legal positions under the National Labor Relations Act.. As a whole, the Nevada gambling industry could be headed for its worst year in revenue declines, with a 6.6% percent decrease through July, according to the state Gaming Control Board reported. However, Florida's gambling industry remains strong despite the national economic crisis, Jim Allen, chief executive of gaming operations for the Seminole Tribe of Florida, said Jim Allen, chief executive of gaming operations for the Seminole Tribe of Florida, in early October. "The Florida gaming market has been showing double-digit growth all year," For details go to: http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=5bc3d676-7e80-4881-99d4-8fe6ccca0989, http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=4ad5ed0a-0519-4281-82cb-e2e99e30fc81, http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/living/artsandentertainment/30801209.html, http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3960&Itemid=1, and http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/oct/10/na-floridas-casinos-flourishing/.

The U.S.-world financial crisis hit the Quechen Nation, in October, when the $155 million in bonds funding the Quechan Indian Tribe's new casino resort in the California Imperial Valley, west of Yuma, were downgraded to junk bond status, and officials for a financial ratings company say the tribe faces the possibility of default if it cannot secure $25 million in private funding for the $214 million project. (http://www.yumasun.com/news/danger_44903___article.html/default_loan.html and http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20081006-1853-bn06tribe.html). The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, who have put $47 million, in the past 10 months, into the Greek Town Casino in Detroit, MI, in which they are the largest stakeholder, are attempting to sell the financially troubled gaming operation, which is going through bankruptcy (http://www.freep.com/article/20081008/BUSINESS06/81008068/1002/BUSINESS).

The National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) sent a letter to the Seminole tribe, at the beginning of October, asking it to explain its position with regard to class III gaming following the Florida Supreme Court's ruling that Governor Charlie Crist did not have the authority to agree a compact with the tribe to run both Class III slots and tables games at its six casino operations within the state. The Seminole may have to drop class III gaming.

The Quapaw Nation of Oklahoma opened a new casino, July 4, in Ottawa County, on the Kansas boarder with its construction completed ahead of schedule and under budget. The 70,000-square-foot casino, which includes an adjoining 12-story hotel, five restaurants and a sports bar, cost $301 million to build and went up in just under 11 months. It has 2,000 slot machines and initially will employ about 1,100 workers. The 12-story hotel, which will have 222 guest rooms, a spa and a conference center, will open in November, and 200 more workers are expected to be hired before then. Plans also call for a second hotel tower and a convention center to be built, while a 7,500-seat outdoor concert venue was also underway, and the casino hoped to bring in a national recording act for the first show. Two 18-hole golf courses, one of which is now closed for renovations, are located across a highway from the casino. Tribal officials said they expect about 2 million people to visit the casino each year, but a falling economy and rising gas prices may cut into that number. With other revenue from the casino, the tribe wants to increase its health care and scholarship offerings, casino spokesman Sean Harrison stated. Through a 6% percent “exclusivity fee” from the casino’s profits, the 3,500-member Quapaw Nation plans to produce at least $1.5 million annually for Oklahoma’s public education system. For more, see, Quapaws open new casino in Oklahoma,” News From Indian Country, July 2008, http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4016&Itemid=75.

The Four Winds Casino Resort of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, the first casino in Southwestern Michigan’s is transforming an area long considered just a gas and rest stop for out-of-state tourists into a vacation destination. The rapid success of the casino resort has had an expansive effect on the life and economy of the New Buffalo area near Lake Michigan, where the region’s ten mile stretch along the lake now includes many shops, restaurants, and places to stay, including bed and breakfasts. For the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, the Dowagiac-based tribe that owns the casino, business has been strong strong enough for the Nation to begin planning an expansion that likely will add more lodging, restaurants and parking spaces. For more information see, James Prichard, “New casino boosts tourism in Michigan’s southwestern corner,” News From Indian Country, May 2008, http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3563&Itemid=75; or Four Winds Casino Resort: http://www.fourwindscasino.com/, Lakes Entertainment Inc.: http://www.lakesentertainment.com/, or Harbor Country Chamber of Commerce: http://www.harborcountry.org/. The extent to which the economic downturn will reduce business for the casino, and the area, or increase it as a closer travel alternative for Chicago area people, remains to be seen.

Lisa Waukau, Chair of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, on October 8, released the following statement regarding a new analysis by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs, analyzing the economic and cultural devastation that termination by the federal government from 1954-1973 continues to have on the Tribe, and how much-needed revenue from the proposed Kenosha casino will help the Menominee begin to reverse those harmful effects. “As the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs evaluate our Kenosha application, they must answer an important question – does the Menominee Tribe need the Kenosha project? The La Follette School’s study is proof that the Menominee absolutely need the Kenosha project.

“Those of us who have lived through termination and its aftermath know first-hand the dreadful toll it has taken on the Menominee Tribe. The La Follette School confirms the devastation and the need for the federal government to address it. As a result of the government’s actions, what was once one of the country’s most self-sufficient tribes is now one of the country’s poorest. The Menominee Tribe is largely dependent on ever-dwindling federal funding to provide its people with fewer and fewer basic services every year.

“While the Menominee have been able to do some good things, the lack of resources and opportunity linked to termination has held us back as we work to succeed. The La Follette School research confirms the Kenosha project is the best chance Menominee has to rebuild our Reservation, create jobs and train our members to do them. It will help us educate our children, care for our elders, provide health care and housing for our nearly 8,500 members and more. The La Follette study outlines how the Kenosha project would restore the Menominee people to self-sufficiency and provide a path out of the most devastating period in our Tribe’s history.

“The La Follette School is one of the most respected public policy institutions in the United States, and we appreciate the time, close scrutiny and careful thought Professor Dresang and his team put into their research. Our hope is that as the federal government once again holds the future of the Menominee people in its hands, it will give the La Follette study the same time, careful thought and consideration. If that happens, the Department of the Interior and the BIA will realize that the only answer to the Kenosha casino question is yes.” As reported by, Lisa Loring, “UW report highlights importance of Kenosha casino as Menominee struggle to rise above termination's…,” The Daily Kenoshan, October 8, 2008, http://dailykenoshan.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6908&Itemid=110.

The Navajo Nation's first casino, Fire Rock Casino in Church Rock, NM, was set to open November 15, one month later than originally planned.

The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes in southeastern Idaho broke ground on a new casino, May 15. on the Fort Hall Reservation, which is scheduled to be completed this fall. A second new gaming facility, near an existing tribal casino, is slated to be launched next year. The Shoshone-Bannock gaming expansion is in process to take advantage of the fact that Idaho is one of the fastest-growing states, with tourism growing in southeast Idaho. The Northern Arapaho opened its new Wind River Casino, in Wyoming, on April 29, with the full. grand opening in June.

The Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake, in California, will be able to operate a casino on 11 acres of land being taken into trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in October. For more details go to IndianZ.com, at: http://64.62.196.98/IndianGaming/2008/011243.asp.

The National Indian Gaming Commission’s general counsel, at the beginning of October, withdraw his legal opinion concluding that the Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Oklahoma could not legally open a casino on trust land east of Deming, NM. It is not clear when the NIGC might issue a new opinion. For more go to: http://www.fox23.com/news/state/story.aspx?content_id=dce00561-25b0-4de7-9706-8bc06e931504.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida announced, in October, that it is making a $300,000 donation to the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling for treatment of problem gamblers.

 

 

Educational and Cultural Developments

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has granted $5 million to seven tribal colleges and universities for student housing, college buildings and property acquisitions, as well as other economic development and culture issues.

At the end of its partnership with the thirteen Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) universities in June 2008, the Newberry Library inaugurated a new Consortium in American Indian Studies. NCAIS began accepting members earlier this summer and will begin programs in July 2009, drawing on the Newberry Library’s collections and the resources of the McNickle Center to offer a series of annual workshops, institutes, symposiums, conferences and fellowships to graduate students and faculty at member institutions. Membership in the new Newberry Consortium will be limited to 18 institutions and is currently being offered to universities in the United States and Canada.  For information contact (312)255-3666, research@newberry.org, http://www.newberry.org/. .

The Lenape (Deleware) nation hosted a conference on saving endangered Native languages, with representatives of many Indian tribes attending, at the University of Pennsylvania’s Native American Studies language conference in early May. For more details see, Christine Graef, “Lenape host Native Languages in Crisis conference,” News from Indian Country, June 2008, http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3615&Itemid=1.

 

International Indigenous Developments

The UN Human Rights Council's Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples concluded its first session, October 3, in Geneva where more than 300, mostly Indigenous, participants attended the inaugural meeting. The Expert Mechanism began to identify and suggest proposals to the Council for its consideration in 2009. The group also adopted their agenda and program of work. The Experts recommended that the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, next year, should acknowledge that the right of self-determination and the principle of free, prior and informed consent are now universally recognized through the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In addition, the experts began work on preparing a study on lessons learned and challenges to achieve the implementation of the right of indigenous peoples to education to be concluded in 2009. In another proposal, the Expert Mechanism invited the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of Indigenous peoples and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to contribute to the study and requested the Human Rights Council to authorize a two-day technical workshop/review to finalize the study. In addition, the Expert Mechanism requested the Human Rights Council to suggest to the General Assembly to broaden the mandate of the United Nations Voluntary Fund to support the indigenous peoples to participate in the session of the Human Rights Council and the Treaty Bodies. An additional recommendation proposed that the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Expert Mechanism, or a designated member of the Expert Mechanism, participate in the session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and invite all relevant mandate holders, in particular the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples, to be present during sessions of the Expert Mechanism. The Expert Mechanism will hold its second session in 2009, the date to be decided at the 10th regular session of the Human Rights Council in March. For more information about the Expert Mechanism go to: www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/indigenous/expertmechanism/index.htm.

“First Nations negotiate new forest deal with Ontario,” News from Indian Country, September 2008, http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4440&Itemid=1, states that “First Nations in Ontario are embarking on a new process to build their economies by negotiating a new forestry deal with the Government of Ontario. Recently the Anishinabek Nation announced the establishment of Forestry Framework Agreement negotiations with the Ministry of Natural Resources that will enable their 42 member First Nations to have better access to forest allocations as well as stronger involvement in forest management planning, opportunities for economic development and capacity building.” “The concept of a Forestry Framework Agreement was the brainchild of the recently established Anishinabek Forestry Commission, which was mandated to provide recommendations to the Grand Council Chief and the 42 First Nation Chiefs of the Anishinabek Nation on all matters related to forestry policy, forest management and economic matters related to the industry. The Commission consists of First Nation representatives from each of the four regions of the Anishinabek Nation territory.” For more information contact Marci Becking, Communications Officer, Union of Ontario Indians, (705)497-9127 ext. 2290, becmar@anishinabek.

The Mohawk Council of Akwesasne and Ontario Power Generation, after 15 years of negotiations, reached a settlement, in June, over the tribe’s claim for damages to the St. Lawrence River during the past 50 years as well as a formal apology from OPG to “acknowledge its regret for the disregard of the Mohawks of Akwesasne,” finalized by the approval of voters at the MCA Akwesasne government. The settlement calls for Ontario Power to pay $46 million to MCA over 10 years, and returns Adams, Toussaint, Presquile and Sheek islands which were partially flooded, to the tribe, as well as an arrangement for shared environmental stewardship, employment opportunities and contracting services that bring a representation of Mohawks to the work force in the Saunders Generating Station. The proposal provides opportunities for the nation to work with OPG on future energy alternatives, such as submersible turbines and other energy initiatives.  For more information see Christine Graef, “Mohawk Council of Akwesasne settles St. Lawrence River claim with Ontario Power Generation,” News from Indin Countrym July 2008, http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4071&Itemid=1.

Barriere Lake Community (Marylynn Poucachiche, Barriere Lake spokesperson: (819)435-2171), “Police attack Algonquin children, peaceful protesters,” Censored News, October 8, 2008, http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/, states that “The Conservative government and Quebec used riot police, tear gas, and "pain compliance" techniques to end a peaceful blockade erected by Algonquin families from Barriere Lake, rather than negotiate, as requested by the community.” Nearly 100 members of the community, of all ages, blockaded highway 117, October 6, “promising to remain until Canada's Conservative government and Quebec honored signed agreements and Barriere Lake's leadership customs.” “Barriere Lake community members had promised to maintain the blockade until the Government of Canada honored the 1991 Trilateral agreement, a landmark sustainable development and resource co-management agreement praised by the United Nations and the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. To end federal interference in their leadership customs, they wanted the Government of Canada to appoint observers to witness a leadership reselection according to their codified customary selection code, respect its outcome, and then cease interfering in their internal governance.” "We will not tolerate these brutal violations of our rights," stated Norman Matchewan. "Forestry operations will not be allowed on our Trilateral agreement territory, and we will be doing more non-violent direct action." For more information contact: Barriere Lake spokespersons: Michel Thusky, (819)435-2171; Norman Matchewan, (514)831-6902; Collectif de Solidarité Lac Barrière: (514)398-7432, barrierelakesolidarity@gmail.com, www.solidaritelacbarriere.blogspot.com.

There has been some concern among First Nation people that a Canadian federal government bureaucrat who is not aboriginal was chosen, in October, to be the new executive director of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission. For more go to: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2008/10/08/aboriginal-commission.html.

The government of Saskatchewan moved, October 7, to prop up the financially pressed First Nations University in Regina with a one-time $2 million grant of cash. For more for go to: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2008/10/07/fnuc-money.html.

Schools for Chiapas Reported, September 4, “On August 29 and 30, 2008 Zapatista small farming families once again faced a serious escalation in the disturbing pattern of violence which has swept Chiapas in recent months. The latest attack by armed paramilitary forces occurred in the autonomous municipality of Olga Isabel and resulted in the wounding of 43 year old peasant Mariano Pérez Guzmán.” The Spanish language denunciation published by Zapatista officials in the caracol of Morelia is available at: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001ntNLSH44PWlvR0PYCKG_Je6pH6zBa3sArRh8RIjt7dMX-zckrdMbfxBFUaymgE4EiHPse-BZJlnn5HJtnue25Ya0vaaopZ33sgSWKbUolisuHJA0VnU5FIkQ_6yCS-IBtzlYq0dRmJRkNjA1BuxXHZuGeLKXVExc.

Laura Carlsen, “Flooding the Future,” Foreign Policy In Focus, July 3, 2008, www.fpif.org, reports, “When peasant farmers in Cacahuatepec set out to work in their fields in January 2003 they found heavy equipment bulldozing down the corn, fruit trees, and fences they depend on for survival. The indigenous Nahuatl communities of this region in the mountains above Acapulco demanded an explanation from Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission and for months received no answers. ‘They weren’t doing studies. They were already digging, they already had helicopter ports, offices, warehouses with dynamite,’ affirms Rodolfo Chavez, a member of the Council of Communal Farms and Communities Opposed to the La Parota Dam Project (CECOP). ‘All this with no permission from the Agrarian Reform office or the communities.’ When the government engineers returned from their weekend in Acapulco the morning of July 28, 2003, they met residents from three villages planted firmly in the middle of the road to block entry. The peasant farmers demanded answers to why their homes and lands were being destroyed. The response was worse than they could ever have imagined. Chavez says the villagers were told that the government was building a dam ‘in the public interest” that would cover their communities in hundreds of feet of water. Moreover, since it was a federal project, they had no right to interfere. The farmers, who work plots collectively owned as indigenous communal lands under Mexican law, replied something along the lines of “over my dead body.’” A struggle has followed, in which four people were killed, as construction began on the La Parota dam, which would flood of 42,000 acres of fields and forests, covering 21 communities, displacing 25,000 residents, and so much animal and plant life that the National Biodiversity Commission lists it as a conservation priority. Roadblocks have been continually established against the project while a legal battle unfolds. A temporary suspension of the project has been attained while the case is being argued in court. With the developed world increasingly hungry for energy, there is great pressure from international and major Mexican businesses for this and similar projects in Plan Mexico to go forward. Across Mexico and elsewhere in Lain America. Members of CECOP met, June 20, in the Mexican town of Temacapulin with 300 people affected by dams and other development megaprojects in Latin America. Temacapulin, is a small colonial village in the highlands of Jalisco that is threatened to be inundated by a $400 million-dollar mega-dam project called El Zapotillo. The neoliberal globalizing world economy “needs global power sources. It requires borderless access to water, electricity, oil, land, and transportation routes. As the developed countries have used up or contaminated these resources, they increasingly look to developing countries to fulfill their seemingly insatiable needs. Latin America is seeing a surge in infrastructure projects. These projects form the backbone of plans to re-map the region. They are transforming traditional land use, cultures, and local populations into conduits for the production and flow of goods envisioned by corporate globalization….National governments, dazzled by nine-digit foreign investment figures, are laying the groundwork for this mega-business, and the international finance institutions provide yet more poor-country debt.” Counter efforts are coming from local communities grassroots organizations of those displaced, environmental groups, and researchers. “Local opposition to dam-building began to grow in the 1980s as residents fought relocation and scientists questioned the value of the dams.”

In 2000 the World Bank and the World Conservation Union established the World Commission on Dams (WCD) to review the impact of large dams. The commission published a report in 2000 showing that in almost every case, the dams did not live up to the economic claims made for their initiation, the majority failing to provide the promised amounts of electricity and irrigation, while greatly harming people and the environment, displacing 40-80 million people, world wide, most of whom have not been fully compensated, and whose livelihoods have been severely reduced by relocation. Overall, the report found, that while these dams have contributed to development, “in too many cases, an unacceptable and often unnecessary price has been paid to secure those benefits.” The report noted that the mega projects have disproportionately affected indigenous peoples, even though they theoretically have additional rights and considerations under Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization and some national indigenous rights laws. The Commission created basic guidelines for proceeding with dam projects, including: determine development needs and objectives in an open and participatory process; assess all options for water and energy resource development; give social and environmental aspects the same weight as technical, economic, and financial factors; increase the effectiveness and sustainability of existing water, irrigation, and energy systems first; develop comprehensive national policies; and monitor the impact of existing dams. So far, the report has not slowed the push for major dam construction. The World Bank began a new wave of funding for huge dam projects in 2003, and without any attempt to implement the commission guidelines in this development. The 2007 portfolio includes $814 million in loans, guarantees and carbon finance for nine dam projects. Various studies show that that many of these projects are not sound, displacing the poor and Indigenous, creating little employment, while greatly damaging the environment. The preliminary results of a study of four dams in the Changuinola-Teribe watershed in Panama, by the Conservation Strategy Fund, indicated, that while the complex as a whole would generate approximately $92 million in net profits for the operating company, predicted and uncounted costs would fall unfairly on the Naso and Ngobe indigenous peoples, while the project would have negative impacts on the Amistad National Park, an important biological corridor. Other research has shown that the Belo Monte dam project in the Brazilian Amazon would dry out 100 kilometers of the Xingu river bed and displace 16,000 mostly indigenous peoples. The Brazilian government’s long-range energy plan includes the construction of 60-70 new dams in the rainforest over the next two decades. A dam project on the Baker River in the Chilean Patagonia would destroy one of the world’s most pristine river systems and threaten endangered species. Most of the recent Latin American dam construction is associated with Plan Puebla-Panama (PPP), renamed the Mesoamerican Project for Development and Economic Integration, and the Initiative for Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America. Both are part of the thinking for linking up markets under the North American and Central American Free Trade Agreements (NAFTA and CAFTA) and granting access to natural resources for transnational investors and business. The PPP now includes two major systems: a trans-continental highway system and construction of transmission lines to form an interlocking electrical grid across Central America. This sets the stage for major advances in the privatization and import and export of energy, including, as of 2005, 381 hydroelectric projects planned for in Mesoamerica. Two $600 million dams slated for the Usumacinta Basin that spans Chiapas and Guatemala are of particular concern because they affect the Mayan jungle and large indigenous populations. The building of the dams is bringing secondary serious ill effects, as largely environmentally unregulated factories spring up to take advantage of the new electric power. For example, residents and environmental groups from Jalisco submitted a citizens’ petition to the CEC claiming that the Mexican government had failed to carry out its responsibilities in distribution of water, carrying out inspections, and revoking concessions, citing the authorization of the Arcediano Dam; pollution of the Santiago River; corruption in water-use deals; permits for water-intensive golf courses, soccer fields, and tree plantations in the nearly dried-up Lake Chapala basin, and a lack of citizen participation. On January 26, an 8-year-old boy fell into the Santiago River and quickly died from what was reported as arsenic poisoning. Neighbors have reported hundreds of cases of illnesses possibly related to pollution of the river. A study of the State Environmental Commission shows discharges from at least 80 plants, including U.S. chemical and electronic firms that operate in upstream industrial parks. The proposed Arcediano dam would pool waters from the Santiago to send to urban areas for drinking water. On May 30, the CEC agreed to conduct a fact-finding study of the Arcediano Dam area. For more on the problems of neoliberal economic development, see Laura Carlsen, “A Primer on Plan Mexico,” Foreign Policy In Focus, http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5204, which contends, “To begin a public debate on the dangers inherent in Plan Mexico, first it is important to understand what Plan Mexico is. On Oct. 22, 2007 President Bush announced the $1.4 billion dollar "Merida Initiative," security aid package to Mexico. While mandating a huge increase in aid to Mexico, it includes no funds to finally address the poverty gap and development needs of our southern neighbor. To avoid the pitfalls of this policy, a more effective binational plan would address root causes, develop mechanisms of binational coordination, and assume U.S. responsibilities and obligations.”

14 Indigenous men in the Mexican State of Guerero, in June, were to be compensated with, $3400 each for forced vasectomies by state health workers in 1998, because they each had more than four children. The settlement follows a report, last year, by the Mexican National Human Rights Commission.

Grassroots International reported, in July, Grassroots International reported that, in July, Rafael Alegría, a member of the International Coordinating Committee for the Via Campesina, that recently has led peasants in Honduras in the Struggle for Land, began receiving death threats from landholders and members of the Honduran national police. Grassrroots complains that “in spite of these threats, the Honduran Government has not acted to protect the safety of Rafael and other peasant leaders. This is especially appalling since two peasant leaders - Irene Ramirez and Jose Arnulfo Guevara - were assassinated in June, and the government has not investigated or prosecuted those murders.” The peasant leadership of Honduras has made it clear that they are interested in resolving all agrarian conflicts in a non-violent way, and have demanded that the government, through the National Agrarian Institute, resolve all agrarian conflicts in the country, including the one that led to the threats against Alegría. For further information contact Nikhil Aziz, Executive Director, Grassroots International, 179 Boylston Street, 4th floor, Boston MA 02130, naziz@grassrootsonline.org, http://www.grassrootsonline.org or http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=TfTUneE08XxsuFVebK4usMpzwzdiWiWg.

United Nations Special Rapporteur, James Anaya, on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples, released a statement, August 8, denouncing the abuses of the rights of indigenous Ngöbe people of Charco la Pava, Panama, in connection with the building of a hydroelectric dam on their lands. Anaya reports that the Ngöbe are suffering mistreatment "such as arbitrary displacement from their lands, loss of housing and destruction of agricultural crops, and other abuses such as the excessive use of force and detaining of members of the community that have opposed the construction of the hydroelectric project, including women and children. Likewise, I express profound concern that the situation is apparently deteriorating and, given the presence of an armed police force in the area, the situation could worsen and place the lives and physical integrity of the members of the Charco la Pava community at risk. Also, I have received information that the company is moving forward without the control or supervision of government authorities." Anaya calls on the government of Panama and the energy company building the dam, AES, to take action to protect the Ngöbe, in accordance with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has agreed to hear the petition submitted by Cultural Survival to stop the dam. The government of Panama sent the commission its response to the petition, followed by Cultural survival submitting a second document, pointing out what it assets are omissions and correcting the inaccuracies in the governments response. In the meantime, dam construction continues unabated, and the government of Panama has yet to answer Anaya's letter of concern. For more information, and the text of the Anaya statement, go to: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001TXIxvz3mf1TMwfkktouvDRiadGOzB69CxlN6r3dHOg8MCg1jMVvTbaMUixVx-ixK_9rM7P2ecr20kp_bowklnnsW4ehqVq31C-VaWsMMgW2z8LuCiP0ddoM4qd3-c__sekCnnQf78tgE6tXalZVvmtPTgEsgJUkx.

The Permanent People’s Tribunal (PTT), which investigates and tries human rights violations around the world, has found that the Nukak, Colombia’s last nomadic hunter-gatherer tribe, is in ‘imminent danger of physical and cultural extinction’. The Nukak were listed as being endangered by the PTT along with another 27 indigenous groups in Colombia, many of whom have less than 100 members. The tribunal identified a “fundamental lack of recognition of indigenous peoples’ identity and, as a result, the violation of all their rights, ultimately culminating in their right to exist as distinct peoples, with their own ways of living, their own customs, traditions and cosmovision.” “Their disappearance from the face of the earth would constitute, in the 21st century, not only a disgrace for the Colombian state and for humanity as a whole, but genocide and a crime against humanity because of action or failure to act by the institutions of the state.” The PTT is an international non-governmental organization established in 1979 to carry on the work of the Russell Tribunal, which investigated war crimes in Vietnam, and human rights violations committed during dictatorships in Latin America. For more information go to: http://www.survival-international.org/news/3595.

A senior Columbian defense official charged, October 6, that Mexican drug gangs are buying cocaine directly from the main Columbian rebel group, FARC.

Margarita Mbywangi, an Aché Indian woman, was named Minister for Indigenous Affairs, in late August, by Paraguay’s new president. She is the first indigenous person to be appointed Minister for Indigenous Affairs. She has said that land rights for Paraguay’s Indians are a priority. One of her main concerns will be for the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode, some of whom live without contact with the outside world, and whose land is rapidly being destroyed, especially by cattle ranchers.

Ecuador’s president, the leftist Rafael Correa, won easy approval from voters of a new Constitution, 43% - 29% (according to early returns), September 28, enhancing his power while introducing a range of other measures, including raising pension payments for the poor and prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. The new constitution allows a president to remain in office for a longer period, if reelected, a president may now serve up to three four-year terms. On the economy, there are provisions increasing presidential power, shifting monetary policy making to the executive from the central bank, and while private property is protected, the government gains more expropriation powers. This change occurs against the background of foreign investment falling off more than 30% in 2007, giving Ecuador the lowest level in Latin America after Venezuela. This decline has added to fears that the ambitious programs Mr. Correa laid out in the new Constitution could fail to alleviate poverty if revenue from oil, an important export, sharply declined. The Constitution also contains a ban on foreign military bases that effectively expels the American military from the coastal city of Manta, where it keeps a fleet of anti-drug surveillance aircraft. Mr. Correa faced less resistance to constitutional changes than leftist leaders have elsewhere in Latin America, in part because his measures were considered less radical than fundamental law revisions in Venezuela, where voters rejected its president’s initiative, in December, and Bolivia, where the opposition is chafing at a proposed charter. In addition, Correa, while cultivating a good relationship with Venezuela, has also kept some distance from its President, refraining from taking large infusions of Venezuelan aid, while showing an independent streak that has put him at odds with the hemisphere’s largest countries, the United States and Brazil. The strong vote of approval of the new constitution, in what has been an unstable country, with 8 presidents in the decade before Mr. Correa came to office, reflects festering resentment against Ecuador’s traditional political class, and hopes that Mr. Correa, an American-educated economist, can broaden the reach of antipoverty programs. Repeated economic crises in Ecuador have prompted more than 10% of the population to emigrate. For more information see, Simon Romero, “President Wins Support for Charter in Ecuador,” The New York Times, September 28, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/world/americas/29ecuador.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=President%20Wins%20Support%20for%20Charter%20in%20Ecuador&st=cse&oref=slogin.

Simon Romero, “Rain Forest Tribe’s Charge of Neglect Is Shrouded by Religion and Politics,“ The New York Times, October 6, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/world/americas/07venez.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Rain%20Forest%20Tribe's%20Charge%20of%20Neglect%20Is%20Shrouded%20by%20Religion%20and%20Politics&st=cse&oref=slogin, states. “Three years after President Hugo Chávez expelled American missionaries from the Venezuelan Amazon, accusing them of using proselytism of remote tribes as a cover for espionage, resentment is festering here over what some tribal leaders say was official negligence that led to the deaths of dozens of indigenous children and adults. Some leaders of the Yanomami, one of South America’s largest forest-dwelling tribes, say that 50 people in their communities in the southern rain forest have died since the expulsion of the missionaries in 2005 because of recurring shortages of medicine and fuel, and unreliable transportation out of the jungle to medical facilities. Mr. Chávez’s government disputes the claims and points to more spending than ever on social welfare programs for the Yanomami. The spending is part of a broader plan to assert greater military and social control over expanses of rain forest that are viewed as essential for Venezuela’s sovereignty.” Tribal leaders say thee is a difference between officially stated policy, and what actually is carried out in the field. Other indigenous groups in Venezuela have expressed similar complaints about the weakness of indigenous health care, particularly “after a scandal erupted in August over a tepid official response to a mystery disease that killed 38 Warao Indians in the country’s northeast.”

The crisis in Bolivia between the central government of President Evo Morales, representing the nation’s Indigenous and poor people, and the authorities in the tropical lowlands, led by their wealthy constituents, has deepened. At the core of dispute is resistance in the Eastern departments, which produce most of Bolivia’s gas and food, to Mr. Morales’s attempts to redistribute petroleum royalties and to overhaul the Constitution to speed land reform and create a separate legal system for Bolivia’s indigenous majority. The polarization of the country intensified, in August, after Mr. Morales won 67% approval in a nationwide referendum on his continuing in office, and moving ahead with his policies, reflecting intense support for him in the rural highlands and in large cities such as La Paz and Cochabamba. But governors in the eastern departments who urge greater political and economic autonomy from Mr. Morales’s government were reaffirmed in their posts with similar margins. During the weekend of September 13, violent clashes in the northern Department of Pando, in which farmers supporting the President were attacked, left 15 dead. Relative calm returned to the department after Mr. Morales declared martial law there, and troops dispatched from La Paz seized the airport and other facilities in Cobija, the departmental capital. The department governor, Leopoldo Fernández, was arrested, charged with fomenting was a massacre carried out partly by “Peruvian and Brazilian mercenaries” hired by the governor. Mr. Fernández denied the accusation, asserting that the deaths resulted from clashes between antigovernment protesters and the president’s supporters. Meanwhile, threat of unrest persisted in other parts of Bolivia, and political leaders in the tropical lowlands bordering on Brazil said they would resume protests if killings in Pando continued. Elsewhere, in mid-September, Antigovernment sentiment festered in the lowlands, while regional leaders demanded that control of federal office buildings, ransacked and looted in Santa Cruz by protesters the week before the deadly Pando clashes, be returned to the central government. For example, the headquarters of the federal land reform office remained shut, its windows shattered. Municipal guards stood in front of the building, next to graffiti reading, “Evo murderer.” Morales supporters in Plan 3000, a Santa Cruz slum, vowed to retaliate if the buildings were not quickly returned to the federal government. “We’re prepared to take back those buildings with rocks, machetes, clubs, any weapon at our disposal,” said Eduardo Rodríguez Puma, who leads youth brigades in Plan 3000. In this situation, President Morales called for discussions with the opposition governors. Previous attempts at negotiation have not been fruitful. Mario Cossío, the governor of Tarija Province, came alone, representing three other governors opposed to the president’s socialist reforms and who want a bigger share of energy resources for their regions. Mr. Morales stated, afterwards, that the meeting was a good beginning toward working out a resolution to the conflict.

Heinz Dieterich, a Mexico-based political analyst who writes about leftist movements in Latin America, commented “You have a conflict between a constitutional national power and a de facto regional power that can only be resolved by constitutional force. If Evo does not use the judiciary and the military, there is no way he can govern.” In this kind of crisis, there is always the question of how loyal the Bolivian military would be. In September, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Mr. Morales’s leading international ally, warned that Venezuela could intervene militarily in Bolivia if Mr. Morales were toppled. Shortly thereafter, Chavez said that the Bolivian military seemed to be on strike, allowing instability to continue in some areas. But Mr. Chávez said he hoped a then pending meeting of South American leaders in Santiago, Chile could alleviate the tension. Bolivia’s neighbors have become increasingly concerned by the conflict in Bolivia, looking to Brazil to mediate between Mr. Morales and his regional opponents, even though leaders in the eastern lowlands are irked by the Brazilian president’s support for Mr. Morales. Shipments of Bolivian natural gas to Brazil were interrupted last week after saboteurs caused a pipeline explosion in the southern department of Tarija.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, James Anaya, on September 18, condemned the recent wave of violence in the Departments of Beni, Pando, Santa Cruz and Tarija, in Bolivia, which has placed indigenous communities and individuals, and the institutions that work in their defense, at risk. Saying that he was concerned that these attacks are occurring in the context of a systematic policy adopted by officials from the mentioned regional Departments to counter initiatives carried out by the Government of Bolivia to guarantee the rights of indigenous peoples, resulting in dozens of deaths, hundreds of injured, and in an undetermined number of disappeared. "I am particularly concerned about the assassinations committed on 11 September 2008 in Porvenir, Department of Pando, when paramilitary groups ambushed and killed members of the Rural Workers Union of Pando (Federación Sindical Única de Trabajadores Campesinos de Pando) and students at the Filadelphia Teachers Training College (Normal de Maestros de Filadelfia), the majority of whom are indigenous". The Special Rapporteur also expressed concern that this series of attacks has also resulted in the occupation and destruction of a number of the offices of the Indigenous Peoples Confederation of Bolivia (Confederación del Pueblos Indígenas de Bolivia), the Coordinator of Ethnic Communities of Santa Cruz (Coordinadora de Pueblos Étnicos de Santa Cruz), the Center of Juridical Studies and Social Investigations (Centro de Estudios Jurídicos e Investigaciones Sociales), and the Center of the Investigation and Promotion of the Rural Farmer (Centro de Investigación y Promoción del Campesinado). A number of Government-run and independent broadcasting stations were also destroyed. The Special Rapporteur issued an urgent call for an end to the violence and urged State authorities to take all necessary measures, in accordance with international human rights standards, to protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the affected indigenous and rural groups. Additionally, he urged the State to investigate these human rights violations and bring those responsible to justice, while ensuring that similar acts are not repeated. The Special Rapporteur also called upon all actors involved to engage in a dialogue based on tolerance and respect for human rights. The previous Special Rapporteur on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, Professor Rodolfo Stavenhagen, joined the current Special Rapporteur, in expressing concern about discriminatory and racist acts against the indigenous peoples of Bolivia in press statements April 10, and June 2, 2008. For more information contact: indigenous@ohchr.org. The Rapporteur's September 18 statement was supported by U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues President Victoria Talu-Corpuz, and form members Carlos Mamani and Margaret Lokaua, noting. "that volance and racism have been unleashed against indigenous peoples of the departments of Santa Cruz. Tarija, Beni and Pando with the purpose of ensuring and increasing control over lands and resources by a small minority and perpetuating the existence of captive Indigenous communities in the Amazon an the Chaco. This represents a gross violation of human rights." The complete statement is at: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/index.html.

In the midst of the Bolivian crisis, relations between it and the United States have also deteriorated. In mid-September, President Morales expelled the American Ambassador, Philip S. Goldberg, accusing him of supporting groups seeking greater political autonomy in the lowlands, charging that antidrug projects financed by United States Agency for International Development had been used to foment rebellion. Usaid, claiming to help wide variety of economic interests in Bolivia, does give financing to some opposition groups. The charge has veracity, given the long history of U.S. involvement in Latin American internal politics, including recent support to groups attempting oust Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Chavez acted in solidarity with Morales, expelling the American ambassador to Venezuela, while Honduras declined to approve the arriving American ambassador. Meanwhile, stating concern over the safety of American citizens in Bolivia, as violence rises, the Peace Corps suspended its operations in Bolivia, evacuating 113 volunteers there to Peru, while the U.S. Embassy in La Paz authorized the departure of nonessential personnel. In addition, the Bush administration determined that the country, a major producer of coca, the raw ingredient of cocaine, was no longer cooperating in antidrug efforts, which could jeopardize about $30 million a year in American counter narcotics aid to Bolivia. Felipe Cáceres, a coca grower in charge of Bolivia’s antidrug operations, stated that Bolivia might secure new antidrug money from Russia, adding that the Russian embassy had broached the possibility of offering equipment like helicopters to help interdiction efforts. At the same time, Mr. Morales has fortified ties with Venezuela, Iran and Cuba. Moreover, South American leaders excluded the United States from talks in Chile, to try to solve the Bolivian crisis. For more information see the following New York Times articles (among others), Simon Romero, “A Crisis Highlights Divisions in Bolivia,“ The New York Times, September 14, 200, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/world/americas/15bolivia.html?scp=4&sq=&st=nyt, and Simon Romero, “Bolivian Troops Arrest Governor of Rebellious Region,” September 16, 2008, , http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/world/americas/17bolivia.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Bolivian%20Troops%20Arrest%20Governor%20of%20Rebellious&st=cse&oref=slogin, and Reuters, “Bolivian Leader and Rival Talk in Wake of Violence,” September 13, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/world/americas/14bolivia.html?scp=5&sq=&st=nyt,

Eight Indian organizations in Paraguay were lobbying Paraguian President, ex-Bishop, Fernando Lugo, in October, to protect the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode, the only uncontacted Indians in South America outside the Amazon, after the worldwide publication of satellite photos revealing how huge new areas of the Totobiegosode's territory have been devastated in the last six months alone. The forest is being bulldozed by Brazilian companies who want the land to graze cattle. A statement from the Indian organizations urges President Lugo to halt the destruction of the Totobiegosode's forest, protect the Indians, and recognize their ownership rights to their land. A number of Totobiegosode have already been contacted, but many of them have relatives who are still uncontacted. Several other organizations in Paraguay, including the United Nations' Development Program, are also asking President Lugo to protect the Totobiegosode. The Indians depend entirely on the forest for their homes, livelihood and survival, and are exceedingly vulnerable to any form of contact with outsiders because of their lack of immunity to disease. To download the statement (in Spanish) from the eight Indian organizations to Paraguay's president, go to: http://www.survival-international.org/files/news/nota_al_presidente.pdf, To see the most recent satellite photos of the Totobiegosode's territory visit http://www.survival-international.org/lib/img/gallery/User_Galleries/ayoreo_deforest/ayoreo2.jpg, To see satellite photos of the Totobiogosode's territory taken earlier this year visit http://www.survival-international.org/lib/img/gallery/User_Galleries/ayoreo_deforest/ayoreo1.jpg, For more information contact Miriam Ross at Survival International (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504 543 367 or email mr@survival-international.org, t http://www.survival-international.org/news/3809.

The International Indigenous Committee for the Protection of Uncontacted Tribes and those in Initial Contact in Amazonia, the Chaco and Eastern Paraguay (CIPIACI), in early June, demanded that Peru’s government respect the rights and lives of uncontacted Indians living in the remote Peruvian rainforest, following reports of the movement of isolated tribes into Brazil, apparently, as the result of the constant aggression and threats they have been facing on their land in Peru, CIPIACI’s statement reads, “Effectively, this kind of displacement has been going on for the last few years because of the invasion of their territories, mainly by loggers or missionaries who follow them and want to contact and evangelize them. “We demand that the Peruvian government meets its responsibility to guarantee respect for the rights of uncontacted tribes by the legal recognition of their ancestral land, the removal and sanctioning of outsiders who have invaded their land and threaten their lives, and the adoption of effective measures to guarantee their physical, social and cultural integrity.” There estimated fifteen uncontacted tribes in Peru, all of whom are threatened with extinction, primarily from illegal logging and oil exploration. They are exceedingly vulnerable to any form of contact because they have no immunity to many diseases carried by outsiders. Survival’s director Stephen Corry said June 4, ‘Peru’s uncontacted tribes could be the first people in the 21st century to be made extinct if the Peruvian government doesn’t act immediately. It needs to stop all the logging on the their land and ensure there is none in the future.” Aerial photos of uncontacted tribes, widely reported in the world press late last spring, brought the Peruvian government to send an investigating team to the scene and promise, in June, to issue a report on the condition of intentionally isolated Native people. As of early September, the report had not been issued. José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Júnior, a Brazilian government expert on uncontacted tribes, who was in the plane from which the photos were taken, commented, “What is happening in this region [of Peru] is a monumental crime against the environment, the tribes, the fauna and is further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the ‘civilised’ ones, treat the world.” Peru’s President Garcia publicly suggested uncontacted tribes have been ‘invented’ by ‘environmentalists’ opposed to oil exploration in the Amazon, while another spokesperson compared them to the Loch Ness monster. The President has backed off, somewhat, away from these comments, but it remains to be seen if public and international pressure will change the situation. Meanwhile, in July, CIPIACI, an organization of South American indigenous people set up to defend uncontacted tribes reported that Uncontacted Indians in Peru are being killed and having their houses burned to the ground by illegal loggers, according to a pan-South American indigenous group, who have invaded a reserve set aside for uncontacted Indians and built an illegal network of roads to transport the wood. CIPIACI’s statement says the loggers are “committing grave violations against the uncontacted peoples’ rights, including persecution, murder, setting fire to their houses. . . . These crimes are being committed with total impunity,” and are forcing uncontacted Indians to seek refuge across the border in Brazil, where there is no logging. CIPIACI states that, the Peruvian government is already aware that the loggers have invaded the uncontacted Indians’ land, and that recent comments from government spokespeople about the ‘supposed peace and tranquillity’ in the region ‘do not correspond at all with what is actually happening.’ CIPIACI is urging the government to remove the loggers from uncontacted Indians’ land and to protect it effectively, as well as provide greater legal protection for it. Survival submitted a report about the threats to the Indians to the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), due to meet with representatives of the Peruvian government, on August 6. Survival’s report states that “The Peruvian government is permitting oil and gas exploration in regions inhabited by (uncontacted) tribes, and standing by while other regions inhabited by them are invaded by illegal loggers. The government is failing to uphold the tribes’ rights, and this could lead to the extinction of many of them.” The report urges CERD to “raise these issues with the government of Peru and ask for a concerted effort to recognise the uncontacted tribes’ rights and protect their territory.” Survival’s report to the UN. is available as a pdf file at: http://www.survival-international.org/news/3571.

Concerning related issues, the Pereuvian Congress was pressured, this summer, by demonstrations carried out, over 10 days, by 14 thousand of indigenous Peruvians opposing new laws that they say make it easier for outsiders to seize control of their territories, resulting in the repeal of two laws. The repealed laws, Legislative Decrees 1015 and 1073, must be approved by Peru’s Executive. For more information about the Indigenous situation in the Amazon, contact Miriam Ross at Survival International, 6 Charterhouse Buildings, London EC1M 7ET, UK, (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504 543 367, or (+44) (0)20 7687 8700, mr@survival-international.org, www.survival-international.org.

Matt Finer, Clinton N. Jenkins, Stuart L. Pimm, Brian Keane, Carl Ross, published. “Oil and Gas Projects in the Western Amazon: Threats to Wilderness, Biodiversity, and Indigenous Peoples,” in the peer reviewed journal, PLoS ONE, August 12, 2008, http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0002932, finding, “The western Amazon is the most biologically rich part of the Amazon basin and is home to a great diversity of indigenous ethnic groups, including some of the world's last uncontacted peoples living in voluntary isolation. Unlike the eastern Brazilian Amazon, it is still a largely intact ecosystem. Underlying this landscape are large reserves of oil and gas, many yet untapped. The growing global demand is leading to unprecedented exploration and development in the region.” “There are now ~180 oil and gas blocks covering ~688,000 km2 of forest in the western Amazon. At least 35 multinational oil and gas companies operate these blocks, which overlap the most species-rich part of the Amazon for amphibians, birds, and mammals. Oil and gas projects affect the forest of all western Amazonian nations, but to varying degrees. For example, in both Ecuador and Peru blocks now cover more than two-thirds of the Amazon, while in Colombia that fraction is less than one-tenth. In Bolivia and western Brazil, historical impacts are minimal, but the area open to oil and gas exploration is increasing rapidly. In 2003, Peru reduced royalties to promote investment, sparking a new exploration boom. There are now 48 active blocks under contract with multinational companies in the Peruvian Amazon. The government has leased all but eight in just the past four years. At least 16 more blocks are likely to be signed in 2008. These 64 blocks cover 72% of the Peruvian Amazon (490,000 km2). The only areas fully protected from oil and gas activities are national parks and national and historic sanctuaries, which cover ~12% of the total Peruvian Amazon. However, 20 blocks overlap 11 less strictly protected areas, such as Communal Reserves and Reserved Zones. At least 58 of the 64 blocks overlay lands titled to indigenous peoples. Further, 17 blocks overlap areas that have proposed or created reserves for indigenous groups in voluntary isolation….” “While the history of oil and gas extraction in the western Amazon is one of massive ecological and social disruption, the future need not repeat the past. Roadless extraction would greatly reduce environmental and social impacts. Proper attention to the rights of indigenous peoples and the outright protection of lands of peoples living in voluntary isolation, who, by definition cannot give informed consent, would bring exploration within widely accepted international norms of social justice. Disinterested, regional scale strategic environmental assessments would prevent piecemeal damage across large areas. Finally, the international community can play a role in widening the options available to the region's nations and its indigenous peoples.”

Pope Benedict XVI met with two Brazilian Indians of Raposa Serra do Sol at the Vatican, July 2, and pledged his support for their struggle to defend their Amazon home, saying “We will do everything possible to help protect your land.” The tribes of Raposa Serra do Sol are under attack from Brazilian farmers who have shot and wounded ten people, burned bridges and thrown a bomb into an Indian community. Video footage shows the moment gunmen hired by the farmers attacked an Indian village in May. The Brazilian government officially recognized the indigenous territory of Raposa Serra do Sol (‘Land of the Fox and Mountains of the Sun’) in 2005, after a long campaign supported by the previous pope, John Paul II. However powerful farmers and the government of Roraima state are trying to get the legal recognition overturned, so that the farmers takeover a large piece of the Indians’ land. The two Indians, Jacir José de Souza and Pierlangela Nascimento da Cunha from the Makuxi and Wapixana tribes respectively, organized an emergency tour of Europe to seek support for their campaign to defend their land. By July, they had visited Spain, the UK, Belgium, France and Italy, in the UK meeting with British MPs and peers, and in France talking with Danielle Mitterand, wife of the late President François Mitterand and founder of the human rights organization France Libertés. For more information contact: Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734, mr@survival-international.org,: http://list-manage.com/track/click?u=b14580b05b832fb959c4ee444&id=664c3333cf&e=CqQTrZoCrQ.

In a critical decision, August 27, one of Brazil’s Supreme Court Judges, Minister Ayres Britto, voted in favor of maintaining Raposa Serra do Sol (RSS) as a continuous indigenous land, although the other judges on the Court still needed to vote on the matter. Judge Brito refuted the legal arguments of the growers, adding that the rice-growers’ activities constituted “unmasked plunder”, and questioned why they should retain the best lands in RSS, and indigenous peoples be driven away. RSS is the traditional home of some 19,000 Ingaricó, Macuxi, Patamona, Taurepang and Wapichana people in Northern Brazil, on the boundary of Guyana and Venezuela, in over 6,000 square miles of mountains, savannahs, and forests. In April 2005, President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva ratified RSS as an indigenous land, recognizing over 30 years of struggle of the indigenous peoples of the area. The decree stipulates that all non-indigenous occupants should have been removed from RSS within a year. A handful of powerful rice-growers refused to leave however, and vowed to use force in order to remain. In March 2008, the Federal Government finally began a process of removing the remaining occupants. They resisted, burning bridges and attacking community centers, and instigating violence that culminated in the shooting of ten indigenous people on May 5th. By then, the State Government had filed an injunction asking for the removal process to be stopped, and questioning the demarcation of RSS as a whole. The Supreme Court suspended the removals, and set August 27 as the date it would rule on the demarcation. The Supreme Court’s decision is expected to have an enormous impact on the indigenous peoples of RSS, and will also be used as a precedent for over a hundred similar cases currently before the Court. However, should the court rule against maintaining RSS as a continuous area, it could affect indigenous lands throughout the country. Eleven judges, or ministers, sit on the Brazilian Supreme Court. For each case, one of them is appointed as the rapporteur; he or she then studies the case at hand, and issues a decision. The rest then vote to go along with that decision, or against. In this instance, another Minister asked to review the case, meaning it is on hold until he has been able to do so and another session is scheduled. This will likely take place before the end of the year, and the rest of the Ministers on the Supreme Court will then cast their votes. Meanwhile, renowned Brazilian lawyer and constitutional expert José Afonso da Silva has declared that reducing indigenous land by dividing it into islands is unconstitutional, and his opinion was presented to all ministers of Brazil’s Supreme Court, prior to the preliminary decision, August 27. The case also marks the first time an Indian has addressed the Supreme Court’s eleven judges, Indigenous lawyer Joênia Batista de Carvalho from the Wapixana. For more information contact Rainforest Foundation, http://www.rainforestfoundation.org/?q=en/node/167. While tle legal process goes forward, violence by the growers ahs continued. Survival reports that leaders of Barro community in the indigenous territory of Raposa-Serra do Sol in Brazil denounced destruction of their property by farmer Paulo César Quartieiro, on September 3, accusing him of invading their sports centre, and destroying property and a plaque that identifies the demarcation of Raposa-Serra do Sol. Quartieiro, who is also the mayor of the nearby town of Pacaraima, declared publicly his intention to build houses for non-indigenous people inside the reserve, contravening a ruling by Brazil’s Supreme Court. The Indians alerted the Federal Police and urged them to take measures against Quartieiro. A formal accusation was sent to the authorities with a document signed by 72 indigenous leaders.

Indians from the 500 member Enawene Nawe tribe in the Brazilian Amazon occupied and shut down the site of a huge hydroelectric dam, October 12, destroying equipment, in an attempt to save the river that runs through their land. The Enawene Nawe say the 77 dams to be built on the River Juruena will pollute the water and stop the fish reaching their spawning grounds. Fish is crucial to the Enawene Nawe’s diet and plays a vital part in their rituals. Companies led by the world’s largest soya producers, the Maggi family, are pushing for the construction of the dams. Soya baron Blairo Maggi is also the governor of Mato Grosso state. For more information contact Miriam Ross at Survival International (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504 543 367 or email mr@survival-international.org, http://www.survival-international.org.

  In late August, Professor James Anaya, recently appointed United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, visited Brazil, spending time with and around Indigenous people in various parts of Brazil. His report is expected shortly. For more, go to: http://www.survival-international.org/news/3616.

“Brazil: Amazon Logging Accelerates,” The New York Times, September 30, 2008, reported that in August, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon took place at 228% the rate of August 2007. This is despite efforts of the government to protect the forests, by sizing live stock (fro example, see Andrew Downie, “Brazil Seizes Livestock to Protect Rain Forest,” The New York Times, June 25, 2008) and stepped up policing of logging (reported in the spring 2008 issue of IPJ).

The film Birdwatchers, by Chilean/Italian director Marco Bechis, that premiered at the Venice Film Festival, in early September, stars Guarani-Kaiowá Indians in their acting debut, and highlights the plight of the tribe, whose lands are being destroyed to produce biofuels. For more on the film go to: http://www.birdwatchersfilm.com/. Survival International has opened a fund, in association with ‘Birdwatchers’, to support the Guarani. All donations will go towards helping them defend their rights, lands and futures.

In recent months, violent conflict between Indigenous and other local people in the Nigerian Delta, demanding a fair share of oil revenues, has escalated, reducing, and sometimes stopping, the country’s oil export. In September, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Nigerian Delta declared a ceasefire, unless attacked, citing urging from elders (“Nigerian Rebels Declare Cease-Fire in Oil Region,” The New York Times, September 22, 2008).

The World Bank, in early September, ended its efforts to reduce poverty in Chad, because the country had failed to meet stipulations in the agreement to help finance a 4.2 billion oil pipeline. (See Lydia Polgreen, World Bank Ends Effors to Help Chad Ease Poverty,” The New York Times, September 22, 2008.

The Ainu people have finally been recognized by Japan's government, after centuries of discrimination and forced assimilation. A contributing factor in the attainment of recognition was a report that Cultural Survival submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council. The council has instituted a policy of reviewing each country's human rights record every four years, and as part of that process Cultural Survival has been producing reports on each country's treatment of its indigenous populations. One of those reports was on the Ainu, to accompany Japan's review in May. Cultural survival asked the council to call upon Japan to take further steps to ensure that the Ainu peoples' rights are respected. The council asked Japan to review the land and other rights of the Ainu population and harmonize them with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The following month, Japan's bicameral Diet (parliament) adopted a resolution acknowledging that the Ainu are an indigenous people with rights to their language, culture, and religion. The Diet also officially recognized the Ainu's suffering as a result of discrimination and poverty. For more information go to: www.cs.org.

The Subanen Tribe in the Philippines, whose name means ‘people of the river’, and who live in the forested mountains of Mindanao island, have invoked their traditional justice authority, the ‘Gukom’, and found the Canadian mining company TVI Pacific guilty of crimes against the Subanen and their land in the Philippines, in July. The Gukom has ordered TVI to leave the area and pay financial restitution. The Gukom found TVI’s open pit gold mine operation on their territory guilty of violence against Subanen individuals, violation of their customary laws, abuse of the dignity of Subanen leaders and damage to the environment. The Gukom invited TVI to the hearing, but the company refused to attend. The Subanen applied their traditional system of justice after the Philippine national legal system failed to take any action on their behalf, despite the destruction of their sacred mountain and many years of human rights violations, allegedly at the hands of the company’s security forces, and the fact that under Philippine law it is illegal for anyone to enter the Subanen's land without their permission, and the tribe has long objected vehemently to the incursion by the mining company, for years. The Subanen live scattered across the mountains of the Zamboanga peninsula, in small agricultural communities and practice shifting cultivation. Over the last century much of the Subanen’s land has been settled by outsiders; more recently, there has been a further invasion of logging and mining companies. The Subanen's protests have been brutally suppressed by the Philippine army, and many Subanen have been forced to leave their homes. In February, 100 Sbanen and Visayan (who have come into the area in recent years) families were threatened with eviction from their homes by TVI, Subanen justice is based on the maintenance of peace and harmony, and the idea of restoring balance. The Subanen hope that TVI will respond to the verdict and use it as an opportunity to right the wrongs committed against them. In May, in response to criticisms of TVI’s gold mine on the land of the Subanen tribe, the Philippines' Environment Minister threatened local and foreign campaigners with arrest if they continue to 'agitate communities'.

Survival International reported, July 17, that a secret document accidentally posted on the internet, setting forth a presentation by the managing director of the company Sarawak Energy Berhad, reveals plans to build a series of 12 massive hydroelectric dams by 2020 in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, submerging the homes of at least a thousand Penan, Kelabit and Kenyah tribal people. One dam would also submerge part of a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Mulu National Park. The Penan have been fighting for twenty years to prevent logging companies, including the Malaysian timber giant Samling, from cutting down their forests. But the companies, with the backing of the Malaysian government, have devastated much of the tribe’s land. The Penan are nomadic hunter-gatherers. Many have now been settled, but continue to rely very much on the forest for their existence. About 300 still live a completely nomadic life. The Sarawak Energy Berhad presentation was posted on a Chinese website and has now been removed. To download the presentation and a map of the proposed dam sites from Survival’s website, visit http://list-manage.com/track/click?u=b14580b05b832fb959c4ee444&id=1eb1403010&e=CqQTrZoCrQ, For further information please contact Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504 543 367 or email mr@survival-international.org

On August 8, the Indian Supreme Court gave approval to British FTSE 100 company Vedanta to mine bauxite from Niyamgiri mountain in Orissa, in the face of vehement objection by the Dongria Kondh tribe who hold the mountain sacred. The tribe says the mine will destroy its way of life forever. When India’s Supreme Court handed down its decision, some 40 Dongrias used tree trunks to block a road leading into their hills, and held banners reading, ‘We are Dongria Kondh. Vedanta can not take our mountain.’ On October 8, About 150 people had blocked the road in Orissa state after hearing that Vedanta intended to start survey work for the planned aluminum mine. Vedanta employees visited the blockade repeatedly, threatening the protestors. On October 10, the villagers gave in and took down the barricade, but about 100 were still at the side of the road, blocking traffic when Vedanta vehicles approached. By October 13, Dongria Kondh from all over Niyamgiri, the hill range that would be decimated by Vedanta’s mine, were making arrows and preparing their axes to stop Vedanta reaching their sacred mountain. One Dongria man said today ‘Now our people are very angry. We have to show the Dongria Kondh power to Vedanta.’ The mountain that Vedanta wants to mine is not only the Dongria Kondh’s most sacred site, it is also integral to the entire ecosystem of the hills, enabling the numerous streams and lush forests which sustain the Dongrias to continue to thrive. For more, see the Survival International discussion in International Activities, above.

India passed a law, in 2008, granting formal land rights to people, including Indigenous persons, who since 2005 have lived inside the boundaries of the Nagarhole National Forest, a major preserve, particularly for endangered tigers. A controversial aspect of the law allows the removal of residents, with their permission, from “critical wildlife habitats.” For more see, Somini Sengupta, “At Indian Peserve, Tigers Remain King as Natives Are Coaxed Out.”

Violence between members of the Bodo tribe and Muslim immigrants from Bangladeshi, attempting to settle in the area, of northeast India, killed at least 33 people and left thousands homeless, at the beginning of October, according to police and hospital authorities. The fighting began in Rowta in the Udalguri district of Assam State, about 60 miles north of Dispur, the state capital, and then spread to neighboring districts. The deaths included eight people shot by the police, who opened fire on rioters, October 5. Villagers from the two groups fought with guns, bows and arrows, machetes and spears. More than 100 were wounded, and 50,000 fled their homes to take refuge in makeshift camps set up by the police. Authorities called in army and paramilitary forces to try to restore order. For more see Reuters, “33 Killed in Northeast India Fighting,” The New York Times, October 5, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/world/asia/06india.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=33%20Killed%20in%20Northeast%20India%20fighting&st=cse&oref=slogin&oref=slogin.

In Bangladesh, in late August, a Jumma tribal member. Ladu Moni Chakma was hacked to death by a group of Bengali settlers at his home in the Sajek area of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, while his wife, Shanti Bala Chakma, was also attacked, and taken to hospital. Local people believe that the attack was made because he had given information to members of the recently reformed Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Commission about settlers stealing land from the 11 indigenous tribes of the area. Hundreds of thousands of settlers have been moved into the Hill Tracts over the last sixty years, displacing the Jumma people and subjecting them to violent repression. Survival reports that the Bangladesh army has recently intensified its program to settle Bengalis in the area. In April, settlers, with the support of the military, burnt seven Jumma villages in the Sajek region after disputes over land thefts. Jumma villagers, including women and children, were beaten in the attack. In 1997 the government and the Jummas signed a peace accord that committed the government to removing military camps from the region and to ending the theft of Jumma land by settlers and the army. The accord offered hope, but military camps remain in the Hill Tracts and violence and land grabbing continue. Abuses have escalated since the declaration of emergency rule in Bangladesh in January 2007. The international Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission (CHTC), formed in 1990, was instrumental in informing the world of the gross human rights violations taking place in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. It operated until 2001. Now, the CHTC has reformed and, in early August, began a preliminary investigation in the Hill Tracts. The co-chairs include Vice Chair of the UK Parliamentary Human Rights Group, Lord Avebury, and the eminent Bangladeshi human rights activist, Ms. Sultana Kamal. The commission has called on the government to speed up the implementation of the 1997 peace accord. For additional information go to: http://www.survival-international.org/news/3627.

Survival Intentional reported in September that the Norwegian government has sold its shares in British company Rio Tinto, whose Grasberg mine, in West Papua, Indonesia, has devastated the land of the Amungme and Kamoro tribes. Norway sold its almost £500 million shares in Rio Tinto following recommendations from its Council on Ethics to exclude the company from its government pension fund. The Council made its recommendation due to ‘a risk of contributing to severe environmental damage’ through Rio Tinto’s participation in the Grasberg copper and gold mine. Rio Tinto, financially a leading British firm, is a joint venture partner with the U.S. company Freeport McMoRan in the Grasberg mine. The Norwegian ministry of finance excluded Freeport from the government pension fund in 2006 on similar grounds. Grasberg is the biggest gold mine in the world. It discharges approximately 230,000 tons of waste directly into the Akywa river every day, risking lasting ground and water contamination from acid rock drainage. The waste also smothers vegetation, killing trees and sago palms, the staple food of the Kamoro tribe. Before the mining began, the Kamoro used the river for drinking water, fishing and washing, and the forest, which is also being polluted, for hunting. In 1996 Rio Tinto (then RTZ) formed a joint venture with PT Freeport Indonesia. At the time, Freeport was the subject of a very public campaign by Survival and others over the killings and torture of tribal people by soldiers paid by Freeport to protect the mine. Despite Freeport’s record, Rio Tinto invested in the mine, financing its expansion. In 2002 Freeport paid a total of US $5.6 million for ‘support costs for government–provided security’. Survival believes that Indonesia’s armed forces treat the Papuans worse than tribal people are treated anywhere else in the world. Support for this conclusion was provided, in late August, with the removal of Indonesian West Papua military commander, Colonel Burhanuddin Siagian, facing two indictments for crimes against humanity in the UN-backed courts in East Timor, for crimes committed in 1999. The international police organization Interpol also issued an international warrant for his arrest in 2003. In May 2007, Siagian issued death threats against anyone who demonstrated in support of independence for West Papua, saying he would ‘destroy’ them. Survival joined organizations in West Papua and around the world in calling for the Colonel’s removal from West Papua and for him to be tried for his crimes. In Mid-August, Indonesia's National Commission on Human RIghts was investigating human rights violations and atrocities in West Papua committed between 1963 and 2002, with the intent of presenting a report before the end of September. The Attorney-General's Office (AGO) in Jakarta, has been objecting to the commissions investigation. On August 9, Indonesian police fired into a crowd of 20,000 West Papuans during a peaceful rally at Wamena in the Papuan highlands, killing one man, and wounding another, while a third was beaten by police. At the Wamena rally, the banned West Papuan flag was raised. Six West Papuans were charged with ‘subversion’ after peacefully raising the banned West Papuan Morning Star flag at a protest in the town of Fakfak, July 19th. The police attacked demonstrators, beating and kicking them. Forty-one people were arrested, including those who had not taken part in the protest. The men in the group were forced to strip to their underwear before being taken to the police station. Two women were also arrested. Survival fears the arrests indicate a crackdown in West Papua, and follow detentions during similar peaceful protests in the towns of Timika, Manokwari and Jayapura, since December last year. West Papua has been occupied by Indonesia since 1963, and the Indonesian army has a long history of human rights violations against the Papuan tribal peoples. Paula Makabory from the Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights has called for the detainees to be released, saying, ‘It is not credible for the Indonesian police to charge these people on that basis of ‘subversion’. Performing a flag raising ceremony and protesting against Indonesian authority is not an act which could overthrow the government. The demonstration was peaceful and such political expression should be a democratic right in West Papua and Indonesia. For more information go to: http://www.survival-international.org/news/3700.

In early July, Indonesia’s foreign minister defended his government’s policy of restricting access by foreign journalists and human rights monitors to the troubled province of Papua, on New Guinea. Survival responds that, “The people of West Papua have been the victims of human rights atrocities at the hands of the Indonesian military and police for 45 years. They are denied the right to protest against this brutality, and those who stand up for their rights are regularly tortured and killed. Conservative estimates put the total number of Papuans killed by Indonesian soldiers since 1963 at 100,000.” For more go to: http://www.survival-international.org/news/3412.

Survival International stated in July, “Doctors fear that the number of Papuans living with HIV/AIDS far exceeds the government’s figures. These figures already place West Papua as the region with the highest number of cases in Indonesia, with infection rates 15 times the national average. A recent survey has estimated that 4,200 people in the Punkak Jaya region alone live with the disease; doctors expect the number to rise by 200% in the next five years. Sixteen people have died from AIDS at Mulia hospital in Puncak Jaya regency, including a number of teenagers and a child of three. Information about the disease is desperately lacking in the remote areas, and none of those admitted to the hospital were aware that they were infected when they arrived. Papua has been occupied by Indonesia since 1963, and the Indonesian army has a long history of human rights violations against the Papuan tribal peoples. The Indonesian government is exploiting Papua’s natural resources at great profit, without regard for the lives of the Papuan people. Logging and other businesses, often supported by the military, have brought prostitutes into West Papua, fueling the spread of the disease. Such is the mistrust felt by the Papuans, that many believe that the Indonesian army is deliberately introducing HIV as a tool of genocide.” Survival stated, July 2, “Fears are growing about the spread of cholera amongst tribal people in West Papua, Indonesia. Human rights and church workers report that in the last three months, 85 people have died from the disease. The Indonesian authorities’ response has been shamefully inadequate, and they claim that the death toll is much lower.” “West Papua is closed to the international media and human rights observers, which allows the government and military to act with impunity. Little of Papua's health budget finds its way to the indigenous population.” “Paula Makabory from the West Papuan human rights organization, Elsham, says, ‘West Papua must be opened up to the world so the basic human rights, including the right to adequate health of indigenous West Papuans, can be promoted’.” In addition, a major cholera epidemic has struck West Papua, killing two hundred and ninety one Papuan tribal people from April to mid September, according to local church officials, sparking fears of a broader epidemic. In 1961, a global cholera pandemic began in Indonesia, spreading rapidly to other countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and finally, in 1991, to Latin America. There were nearly 400,000 cases and over 4,000 deaths from cholera in the Americas that year. Churches and human rights organizations in West Papua are calling for urgent help – they have written to the Indonesian government and to the World Heath Organization (WHO), but have not yet received any response. Survival has also called on the Indonesian government and the WHO to take immediate action.

The New Zealand government, at the beginning of July, signed the largest single land settlement to date with Maori tribes, transferring 435,000 acres (176,000 hectares) of forest in the central North Island to seven Maori tribes. The agreement was signed in the New Zealand parliament with hundreds of Maori observing. Maori paramount chief Tumu Te HeuHeu said the objective was to provide tribes with ‘a strong, durable and sustainable economic future’.

The Australian High Court, at the beginning of August, recognized Aboriginal ownership rights to a huge stretch of the northern Australian coast, ruling that Aborigines from Blue Mud Bay in the state of Northern Territory have freehold title to both the seabed to the low water mark and the waters above it. This gives the Aborigines unprecedented control of commercial and recreational fishing in the area. The landmark decision may lead to further legal claims in other parts of the country.   

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