NATIVE AMERICAN POLICY

NETWORK JOURNAL OF THE NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION (NASA)

Vol.  XIV, No. 2                          SOON TO BECOME INDIGENOUS POLICY                              Fall, 2003

On The Web at: http://facstaff.uww.edu/mohanp/NAPNNL_F03.html

Back issues available at: 

Native American Policy Network News- Spring 2002
Native American Policy Network News- Winter 2002
Native American Policy Network News- Fall 2002

ThePeopleWhoStayedFinal.htm

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     Native American Policy publishes articles, commentary, reviews, news, and announcements concerning Native American and international indigenous affairs, issues, events, nations. groups and media. We invite commentary and dialogue in and between issues.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

NASA info: p. 1;  Report of the NASA Business Meeting at APSA & Current E-mail Voting: p. 2.

Upcoming Events: p. 3.

Ongoing Activities: p. 4;  (International Activities. p. 8).

Indian & Indigenous Developments: p. 10; (International Developments: p. 33).

Dialoguing:

    From Gabe Morales, On Native American Gang Members, p. 40. 

Articles:

   Suzan Shown Harjo,  "American Indian Religious Freedom Act at 25," p. 42.

   Jennifer Robinson, "American Indian Voting Rights Litigation," p. 43.

   Steve Sachs, "Protecting Sacred Sites," p. 46.

   Michael W. Posluns, In Canada: "First Nations Governance Act Dies: Will a New Government

      Do Any Better?" p. 53.

 Media Notes: p. 56.

Announcements p. 63.

Steve Sachs, Co-Editor                Anne McCulloch, Co-Editor             Paula Mohan

(Political Science, IUPUI)           Columbia College                             305 Salisbury Hall

Home: 4820 N. Broadway St.     1301 Columbia College Dr.              Political Science Department

Indianapolis, IN 46205                Columbia, SC 29203                        University of Wisconsin, Whitewater

Phone/Fax: (317)924-5965         (803)786-3628 Fax: 786-3393         Whitewater, WI 53190

ssachs@earthlink.net                   amcculloch@colacoll.edu                 (262)472-5772 (o), (608)233-2812 (h)

                                                                                                             mohanp@uww.edu

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DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR THE NEXT ISSUE IS MAY 8

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NATIVE AMERICAN POLICY PLANS FOR 2003-04 - WE INVITE YOUR HELP AND INPUT

        We hope that you are having a fine fall. This newsletter is now available on the web with via e-mail notification of new issues at no charge. Native American Policy puts out two regular issues a year (Spring and Fall) with Steve Sachs, Paula Mohan and Anne McCulloch as Coeditors. Our many thanks and considerable appreciation to Jeff Corntassel, who formatted the last few issues and put them on line, while acquiring articles and information for this Journal. We are seeking additional editors, columnists and commentators for regular issues, and editors or editorial groups for special issues, and short articles for each issue.

     Jeff Corntassel and colleagues put together a special winter 2002 issue with a focus on "federal recognition and Indian Sovereignty at the turn of the century," and we hope to have additional special issues in the future.  We invite short articles, reports, announcements and reviews of meetings, media and media, programs and events, and short reports of news, commentary and exchange of views, as well as willingness to put together special issues.

     Send us your thoughts and queries about issues and interests and replies can be printed in the next issue and/or made by e-mail. In addition, we will carry NASA news and business so that these pages can be a source of NASA communication and dialoguing as well as circular letters and annual meetings at APSA. This issue carries a continuing series of columns by Michael Posluns of York University, on Canadian First Nations developments. In addition to being the newsletter/journal of the Native American Studies Association, we collaborate with the Native American Studies Section of the Western Social Science Association (WSSA) and provide a dialoguing vehicle for all our readers. This is your newsletter. Please let us know if you would like to see more, additional, different, or less coverage of certain topics, or a different approach or format.

      Our process is for submissions to go to Steve Sachs, who drafts each regular issue. Unsigned items are by Steve. Anne McCulloch and Paula Mohan then make editing suggestions to Steve. Paula puts this Journal on the web, along with recent back issues, at http://www.majbill.vt.edu/polisci/corntassel/.

NASA 2002-03 COORDINATING COUNCIL:

Randy Akee, akee@fas.harvard.edu

Gerald "Taiaiake" Alfred, taiaiake@uvic.ca, (250)721-6440, PROGRAM CO- COORDINATOR

Marie-Claire Antoine, marieclaire.antoine@taylorandfrancis.com

Barbara Bixby, bixby@email.arizona.edu

Michael Brintnal, brintnal@naspaa.org

Dave Colnic, colnic@u.arizona.edu

Jeff Corntassel, ctassel@uvic.ca (250)721-6440, APSA MINORITY SCHOLARSHIP COM, PROGRAM CO

Renee Cramer, rgc8396@nyu.edu, (718)720-3321

Stephanie. Di alto, sdialto@uci.edu

Susan Grogan, segrogan@smcm.edu, (240)895-4205

Luke Jones, jones.luke@epa.gov, (202)285-3199

Anne McCulloch, amcculloch@colacoll.edu, (803)786-362 COEDITOR

Paula Mohan, mohanp@mail.uww.edu, (262)472-1120, CO-EDITOR, PROGRAM CO- COORDINATOR

Maggi Murdock, (307)268-2713

Sharon O'Brien, obrien@eagle.cc.ukans.edu, (785)864-2661

Jeff Peterson, petersgd@uwec.edu

Stephen Sachs, ssachs@earthlink.net (317)924-5965, COORDINATOR, COORDINATING EDITOR

Christine Sneller, csneller@sneller.co

Carol Tebben, carol.tebben@uwp.edu (262)595-2067

Darlene Williams, williamsd018@hawaii.rr.com

Franke Wilmer, upofh@gemini.oscs.montanta.edu, (406)994-5246.

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AMERICAN INDIAN WEB PAGE ON RACE ETHNICITY & POLITICS SECTION LINK

     Paula Mohan has constructed the American Indian webpage on the Race and Ethnic Politics link to the APSA website at http://facstaff.uww.edu/mohanp/nasa.html. She is actively soliciting material for NASA's webpage in the areas of syllabi, directory of scholars, graduate and undergraduate programs, new publications, resources and related areas. Contact her at mohanp@mail.uww.edu.

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REPORT OF THE NASA BUSINESS MEETING AT THE APSA MEETINGS

AND CURRENT E-MAIL/SNAIL MAIL VOTING

     The Native American Studies Association decided to continue Steve Sachs as Coordinator and Coordinating Editor of its Journal/Newsletter. Paula Mohan replaced Jeff Corntassel as editor responsible for posting issues on the web, while Anne McCulloch remains an editor. Taiaiake Alfred and Jeff Corntassel are working with Paula Mohan to take over as program coordinators from her, especially responsible for NASA's program at APSA. Jeff Corntassel is continuing as liaison to NASA on its Native American scholarships.

     Following up on last year's meeting and E-mail/snail mail decisions to change our name from the Native American Studies Association, in part by substituting "indigenous" for "Native American", the meeting proposed to the membership, for ratification by E-mail/snail mail ballot that the new name be The Indigenous Studies Network. This will change the name of this publication to "Indigenous Policy"

PLEASE E-MAIL STEVE SACHS AT: ssachs@earhlink.net, to vote on whether you approve the name of this organization to become: The INDIGENOUS STUDIES NETWORK.

     NASA put on one indigenous panel of its own, cosponsored by the Ecological and Transformational Politics Section, and there were a number of Indian/Indigenous papers on Race, Ethnicity and Politics Section panels. Other native/indigenous papers were on Theme Panels, and panels of the sections on: Foundations of Political Theory, Comparative Politics of Developing areas, and Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations. There were also two posters under "Ethnic Politics" and "Bureaucracy and regulation". These, and any other indigenous papers we may have missed, are available on line in the APSA 2003 proceedings at: http://apsanet.org/. Once there click "Meetings," then "2003 Meeting Paper Proceedings."

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UPCOMING EVENTS

     NASA'S PROGRAM AT THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION (APSA) MEETING, in Chicago, September 2-5, headquartered at the Chicago Hilton hotel, will consist of at least one, and possibly more, panels, plus a business meeting and networking session to share interests and concerns. Preference will be given to panel and paper proposals received by November 14. Please send proposals to NASA's Program CO-Coordinators: Gerald "Taiaiake" Alfred and Jeff Corntassel, Indigenous Governance Programs, University of Victoria, P.O. Box 1700 STN, Victoria, BC, V8W 2Y2, Canada (250) 721-6440, Fax: 472-4724,  iprc@uvic.ca, or ctassel@uvic.ca, www.uvic.ca/igov, and Paula Mohan, 305 Salisbury Hall, Political Science Department, University of Whitewater, Wisconsin, Whitewater, WI 53190 (262)472-5772 (o), (608)233-2812 (h), mohanp@mail.uww.edu).

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                     WSSA 2004 AMERICAN INDIAN STUDIES SECTION PROGRAM

     The American Indian Studies Section of the Western Social Science Association expects to again have a full program of panels at the association's meeting in Salt Lake City, UT April 21-24, 2004 at the Sheraton City Center. The American Indian Studies Section Coordinator for the meeting is Jeff Corntassel,   WSSA@uvic.ca (250)721-6440. Deadline for proposals, including abstracts, tentatively, is  November 17 . Information, which will eventually include the preliminary program, can be accessed on line at http://www.asu.edu/copp/wssa/index.html.

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     The National Association of Native American Studies (NANAS) will hold it's 2004 Annual Conference jointly with the National Associations of African American and Latino Studies and at the International Association of Asian Studies, in Atlanta, GA, November 11-14, 2004. To receive information, contact Dr. Lemuel Bery, Jr., Executive Director, NAAAS & Affiliates, P.O. Box 865, Morehead, KY 40351 (207)282-1925, Fax: 606/784-1037 E-mail: naaasgrp@webcom.com www.NAAAS.org.

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The Indian Land Working Group is putting on the 13th Annual Indian Land Consolidation Symposium, be hosted by the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes (CS & KT) the week of September 29 - October 3, in Polson, MT, at the KwaTaqNuk Resort, owned and operated by the CS& KT. For details contact Marlena Johnson or Theresa Carmody at the ILWG offices: (505)247-9561; (505)668-9013. or tcarmody@qwest.net, www.ilwg.net.

The 18th California Indian Conference and Gathering, "Gathering the Past, Weaving the Future!" will be October 10-12 held in the Monterey Bay region. It is an annual event for the exchange of views and information among academics, educators, California Indians, students, tribal nations, native organizations and community members. Any topic focusing on California Natives is welcome. Anyone interested in giving a paper, presentation, or organizing a session, panel, or presentation should send an abstract of 150 words to Rob Edwards (Anthropology Department, Cabrillo College, 6500 Soquel Drive, Aptos, CA 95003 (831) 479-6294, redwards@cabrillo.edu), by August 1. Abstracts after that date will be considered only if space is available on the program. Please be sure to include an e-mail address, phone number and mailing address. Please state if you are available to present on any of the 3 days or only particular days. Vendors specializing in California native arts and crafts and/or materials, please contact us. Inquiries are welcome. For information, go to: http://www.californiaindianconference.org, http://bss.sfsu.edu/calstudies/cic/.

The 2003 History Conference at the Pequot Museum, "Indian Country In the New Millennium: A 50-Year Retrospective," at Mashantucket, CT, sponsored in part by the Barona Tribe of Lakewood, CA and the Chickasaw Nation of Ada, OK is October 17-18. The conference this year centers on the relationship between American Indian Tribes and the United States government. For information contact Dr. Kevin McBride, (860)396-6814, kmcbride@mptn-nsn.gov.

American Indian Leaders of Today and Tomorrow Conference, sponsored by the California State University at Long Beach, American Indian Student Council, American Indian Studies Department and the CSULB American Indian Alumni Chapter are pleased to announce the upcoming " is scheduled for Friday, October 31, 2003. For more information, please contact: Ms. Anna Nazarian-Peters, Coordinator, Student Life and Development, American Indian Student Services, CSU Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., USU-205, Long Beach CA 90840-0604 (562)589-8528, anzarian@csulb.edu.

Ending Violence Against Native Women Training Institute is in Seattle, WA, November 10-14. For details call Sacred Circle at 1-877-RED-ROAD (733-7623).

The American Society for Legal History conference in Washington in November will include a panel on the recognition of First Nations law and its relation to the common law.

The 15th Annual conference for American Indian Women: "Strengthening Our Spirits" is at the Hilton Sacramento Arden West, Sacramento, CA, November 30 - December 3, 2003. For details contact: American Indian Training Instiyue, Inc., 4221 Northgate Blvd., Suite 2, Sacramento, CA 95834, Contact Deborah Kawkeka: 916-920-0731, DJKawkeka@aol.com.

American Indian Graduate Student Association 2nd Annual Conference: "New Voices in Indigenous Research" is at UC Berkeley, April 1-2. For details contact: dornason@uclink

The Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN) 2004 conference will be April 23-24. For details go to: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/ASEN/conference.htm.

The Eleventh Annual Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Conference will be held at the University of California at Berkeley on June 11-15, 2004. More information will follow in early spring regarding registration and a call for papers. Also, Nurturing Native Languages with papers from the 8th, 9th, and 10th Stabilizing

Indigenous Languages conferences is now available on-line at: http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/NNL/.

Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) 2004 convention at, "UNITY 2004 Conference: A Powerful Alliance; A Force for Change" is at Washington, DC, August 4-8. NAJA is one of four associations that make up UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc.  NAJA has long supported other minority organizations in their efforts toward increasing people of color in the newsrooms, in particular Native Americans. For details, go to the UNITY homepage at:  http://www.unityjournalists.org/, or contact Native American Journalists Association, 555 N. Dakota St., Al Neuharth Media Center, Vermillion, SD 57069.

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ON GOING ACTIVITIES

           Steve Sachs

Activities in the U.S.

     National Congress of American Indians President Tex Hall and Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., in June, called tribes to work together to develop a tribal energy title of the comprehensive energy policy bill everyone can agree on, after debate in the Senate turned along party lines. Hall stated, "We want to make sure that the tribes are crafting this legislation. It's our land, it's our resources." Some tribes, including the Navajo Nation, object to provisions that limit the Department of Interior's role in development projects, fearing it will weaken the federal government's trust obligations. Senators. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) introduced an amendment to strip the bill of the contested portions. "The underlying bill," Bingaman said on the floor, "has in it real clear language that essentially lets the Secretary of Interior off the hook. It eliminates responsibilities the Secretary would otherwise have." Republicans argued against the change and said it would defeat the bill's main purpose: to reduce bureaucratic hurdles and speed up development of Indian lands, where it is estimated that at least 10 percent of the nation's untapped energy resources lie. Environmental groups and several state attorneys general of both parties have also raised objections to the Indian title of S.14, believing that the elimination of Interior's involvement will skirt environmental laws and allow development without considering the impacts on the public. The Council of Energy Resource Tribes, the Chickasaw Nation, five Pueblo tribes in New Mexico and the United South and Eastern Tribes have said they support the bill. But there is disagreement on a provision to allow public comment on tribal energy projects. More and updated information is available at: Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee: http://energy.senate.gov; National Congress of American Indians: http://www.ncai.org; Navajo Nation:  http://www.navajo.org; and Council of Energy Resource Tribes: http://www.certredearth.com.

     The Native American Tribal Leaders Summit, with 40 tribes attending, was held, in mid June,  at the Gila River Indian Community to encourage tribes to speak to federal authorities with one voice and improve government-to-government relations. Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. stated, "Out in Indian country, we were kind of doing it on our own. There was never really a movement to come together with one voice. I think that happened." The federal government shortchanges tribes on law enforcement, health care and social services issues, Shirley said. Indian leaders want the government to better observe the unique relationship that's supposed to exist between tribes and federal authorities, said Tex Hall, president of the National Congress of American Indians. Tribes, for instance, won't likely get as much homeland security money as they need because the federal government doesn't provide the money directly to tribes, Hall said. "We want to reaffirm that it needs to come to the tribes."

     Tribal Leaders Forum: "Sovereignty in Crisis," Organized By: American Indian Resources Institute, was held in San Francisco June 30 to July 1. The forum provided an opportunity for Indian leaders to meet and discuss current and emerging challenges to tribal governing and jurisdictional authority in Indian Country. For information, contact the American Indian Resources Institute at  (510)834-9333, FAX: 9510)834-3836.

 

     In July, Native American Rights Fund (NARF) executive director John Echohawk announced that the president of the National Academy of Sciences has affirmed his support for the National Research Council (NRC) Interim Report on Klamath Basin, that is "blatantly discriminatory against Native American people." Echohawk urged withdrawal of the Interim Report, citing socioeconomic bias and sloppy science. He stated that that the committee had applied standards inconsistent with the NRC’s extensive guidance on species protection under the Endangered Species Act. Specifically, the committee considered the "economic stakes" involved in the agency decisions, even though the NRC has instructed that such decisions must be based only on scientific aspects of species protection. Moreover, the "economic stakes" considered by the panel were only those of non-Indians, and equivalent Indian interests were ignored. Recent articles in Science and Fisheries magazines reported that the hastily organized NRC Committee on Endangered and Threatened Fishes in the Klamath River Basin employed flawed logic in its evaluation and preparation of the report. Copies of a "Klamath Tribes’ Water Rights" and "The Case for Klamath Tribal Lands Restoration" are available from Monica Shovlin at 541-434-7028 or mshovlin@ulum.com. The Native American Rights Fund has been presented with the "Silver Award" for excellence in the development of the organization's 2002 Annual Report by the League of American Communications Professionals (LACP). More than 900 entries were received by LACP in the annual report competition that was held last spring. In late July, several hundred Yurok Indians, who hold the Klamath River sacred to their way of life, and supporters protested against government water policies they say favor upstream farmers and threaten endangered salmon.

     The annual Governors' Interstate Indian Council hosted by the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, in August, brought together some of the 36 states that have created councils to serve as a liaison between tribal and state governments. Justice Department assistant U.S. attorney Jan Morley reported that "Methamphetamine has become an epidemic in our Indian Country. We're losing our children to this drug war, and we need to take our children back." "We need to start pooling our state, federal and tribal resources," Morley said. "We need to make (drugs) our war." She stated that another major issue is homeland security, with some tribes not having the funds to police their borders with Canada or Mexico. Nationally, there was a significant jump in major crime in Indian country in 1999-2000, and a slight increase in the years since then, said Keith Hanzell, FBI special agent based out of Bemidji in north-central Minnesota. The FBI opened 1,887 new cases in Indian country in 2001, including 615 cases of sexual abuse of children and 433 assaults. It also included 184 death investigations. Hanzell said 73 percent of the FBI money spent in Indian country for 2003 went to training, primarily for tribal law enforcement. He said that although the relationship between police on and off reservations is growing stronger, there continue to be gray areas with jurisdiction, especially involving tribal courts. There are more than 280 tribal justice systems in the United States, including Alaska, but they're not seen as equal to state court systems, said Vince Knight, executive director of the National Tribal Justice Resource Center. The Interstate Indian Council was created in 1949 by state governors to improve relationships with Indians and provide a liaison in creating public policy with lawmakers, with the federal termination policy expected to develop. The Council has continued to play a liaison role with changes in federal Indian policy. This year's conference included representatives from Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Virginia.

     Americans For Indian Opportunity (AIO) facilitated an inclusive, participatory Indigenous Leadership Interactive system Forum for the United Nations of All Tribes Foundation conference, "Strengthening Children and Families: Networking Urban Indian Centers in the U.S.," in Seattle, May 8-9. AIO's Ambassadors Program of leadership training and networking is in its tenth year. AIO founder and President, LaDonna Harris. received the New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women's Governor's Award in May. AIO's international activities are discussed below.

     The Alliance Against Racial Mascots (ALLARM) has been working for the passage of California Assembly Bill 858 to ban the use of Native mascots in public schools in the state. ALLARM has put on several Action Days, on May 28th in Sacramento and around the state. Collaborating with ALLARM are the Coyote Valley Tribal Council, Hoopa Valley Tribe, California Nations Indian Gaming Association (CNIGA), Juaneno Band of Mission Indians, Los Angeles County/City Native American Indian Commission, Tribal Law & Policy Institute, the UCLA Native Nations Law and Policy Center, the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), National Conference for Community and Justice, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), California Teachers Association (CTA), California School Employees Association and the California Labor Federation. For more information call (213) 250-8787 or go to www.allarm.org. Find Another Name, an organization committed to the elimination of American Indian mascots and symbols by sports teams, schools and corporations, led a protest against the continued use of "redskins" by Washington's National Football League team at its annual "Welcome Home" Luncheon in August 27. For more information contact Find Another Name, (888)368-7991, Cell:(703)973-0755, UnfairName@aol.com, FindAnotherName.com.

     The Native Youth and Culture Fund, an initiative of the First Nations Development Institute, focuses on preserving, strengthening, or renewing Native culture and tradition among Native youth. The Fund believes that by investing in youth and giving them a sense of community and tradition, a community insures that it will have future leaders. The Fund invites proposals from rural or reservation-based Native nonprofits, Native communities, tribes, and tribal enterprises. For more contact Kay A. Strawder, J.D., M.S.W., Regional Women's Health Coordinator  Region IX Office on Women's Health, 50 United Nations Plaza, Room 327, San Francisco, CA 94102 (415)437.8119, kstrawder@osophs.dhhs.gov, www.4woman.gov or www.4girls.gov, or go to: http://www.firstnations.org/.

     The United Indian Development Association, which was founded in 1969, has worked with more than 300 tribes since its inception, providing everything from training courses to assistance in obtaining government contracts. The UIDA has a business services subsidiary serving the Eastern United States from an office in Marietta, Ga. In September, UIDA put on a Native American Business Conference and Trade Show at the Coronado Springs, FL Resort at Walt Disney World to keep momentum going on tribal business development. The gathering was a venue for American Indians as well as other small-business people to network and get together with representatives of large companies and government agencies. For information go to:  www.uida.org.

     First Nations Development Institute hosted its third Wisdom of the Giveaway Conference on September 8-10, in Milwaukee, WI, to promote asset-building and formalized giving in Native American communities, with the co-sponsorship of the Forest County Potawatomi Community Foundation, a charitable giving program of the Forest County Potawatomi Tribe. The conference series brings together representatives from tribes, foundations, regional nonprofits, and governments to share their experience, knowledge, and networks about formalized philanthropic giving. It is designed to: Facilitate the creation of sovereign Native American philanthropic funds and foundations; Inform tribes and tribal members of the tax benefits in formalized giving; Inform tribes, inter-tribal organizations, and mainstream foundations on the myriad sovereign legal structures that support asset-building in a way unique to tribes as they create nonprofit and philanthropic structures; Strengthen the Native American nonprofit sector as a whole; Bring philanthropies together to share knowledge and expertise. Build partnerships to strengthen Native American philanthropy for the benefit of both Native and non-Native communities; Leverage national education, research, networking, and policy activities with regional knowledge, networks, and hands-on philanthropic activities to strengthen Native philanthropy on a regional basis; Increase the capacities of tribes, inter-tribal organizations, and other Native entities to control, manage, leverage, and increase philanthropic assets. For additional information contact Megan Hunter, (540)371-5615, mhunter@firstnations.org, or check the First Nations' website at www.firstnations.org.

     The National Tribal Environmental Council (NTEC) participated in World Water Monitoring Day, October 18, to draw the attention of tribal leaders to the necessity of preventing pollution and the spread of toxin's on reservations. NTEC worked to provide 60 tribes with water sampling kits so that they could add their data to the world wide educational event. NETC aims at enhancing tribal capacity to protect, preserve and promote the wise management of air, land and water for the benefit of present and future generations.. For information on the event, go to: www.worldwatermoniteringday.org.

     Kim White Bear Woman Nahgahnub (Fond du Lac) is forming the Minnesota Tribal Guardian ad Litem Program, with the goal of having a trained American Indian advocate for every Indian child who comes to a Minnesota district or tribal court in cases of suspected abuse or neglect. American Indian children in Minnesota are taken from their homes by the courts at a rate five times greater than their proportion of the population. The aim to reduce that rate by eliminating cultural misunderstandings that can sway a judge's decision.

     The International Indian Treaty Council held its 29th Treaty Conference, October 3-6, at the Sac & Fox Nation Tribal Grounds, Stroud, OK, as a Campout conference, with free registration, campsites and meals provided. Sessions were held on the environment, sacred sites, oil & gas development, treaties, sovereignty, health, Indigenous work at the UN. Youth workshops. For more Information contact: (405)303-2330 or http://www.treatycouncil.org/contact.html.

     As usual this October, there have been numerous alternative activities honoring native peoples and demonstrations against Columbus Day. One action is a petition for Native American National Holiday, which can be found at: http://www.petitiononline.com/indian/petition.html. Also, there are numerous activities in many places for Native American Month in November.

    Amnesty International (AI) has been putting on a series of hearings concerning racial profiling across the United States. A number of American Indians, along with African and Muslim Americans, testified at the Tulsa hearings, in October, concerning their experiences with racist actions by police officers. In June, AI issued a report on violations of human rights of indigenous peoples of the Americas. The report, following up on the December 2002 OAS report citing the U.S. for violation of the rights of the Western Shoshone in forcing settlement payments on them for land taken, stated that recent government seizures of livestock owned by Western Shoshone on that land are escalations of those human rights abuses.

     Oyate Books is a Native organization working to see that Indian lives and histories "are portrayed honestly, and so that all people will know our stories belong to us. For Native children, it is as important as it has ever been for them to know who they are and what they come from. It is a matter of survival. For all children, it is time to learn the truth of history. Only in this way will they come to have the understanding and respect for each other that now, more than ever, will be necessary for life to continue". Oyate's work includes evaluation of texts, resource materials and fiction by and about Native peoples; conducting of teacher workshops, in which participants learn to evaluate children's material for anti-Indian biases; administration of a small resource center and library; and distribution of children's, young adult, and teacher books and materials, with an emphasis on writing and illustration by Native people. For more information contact Oyate Books, 2702 Mathews St., Berkeley, CA 94702 (510)848-6700, oyate@oyate.org, http://www.oyate.org/.

     The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) has been working to get Congress to protect tribal sovereignty and to live up to its trust responsibilities. For details contact FCNL, 245 2 St., Washington, DC 20002 (202_547-6000, fcnl@fcnl.org, www.fcnl.org.

     The National Congress of American Indians has a project called Native Vote 2004 and is mounting an extensive voter mobilization in collaboration with regional organizations, local tribal governments, centers serving the Indian populations of urban centers, and non-governmental organizations whose focus is on democracy initiatives. One of their efforts includes a listserv for Natives engaged in voter work. For more visit:

http://www.ncai.org/main/pages/issues/other_issues/nativevote.asp. Chief Rufus Davis, Addai Caddo of Nachitoches, LA has formed the American Indian Voters Association, (AIVA) to get more Indians registered and to the poles, which he feels will become more important with the rise of an organized anti-tribal sovereignty opposition in groups like One Nation.

     The Eagle and Condor Indigenous People's Alliance, in Oklahoma, headed by JoKay Dowell, held a demonstration against the Oklahoma Farm Bureau at the bureau’s annual membership meeting on Oct. 21 at the Tahlequah Community Building. The Farm Bureau is a founding member of One Nation, a privately-funded organization that wants to "push back against the massive expansion of tribal authority," according to their Web site. One Nation, an Oklahoma-based group dedicated to opposing tribal sovereignty, apparently has spawned allies in Montana and New York that have virtually identical opinions on tribal issues. The Citizens Equal Rights Foundation (CERF) is based in Ronan, Montana. In New York, Upstate Citizens for Equality (UCE} "was formed in August 1997 to give the landowners facing the Oneida Land Claim a voice in what will determine their future." Their web sites can be found on One Nation's: http://www.onenationok.com. A spoof of it is at www.onenationok.com.

International Activities

     Council of Indigenous Organizations and Nations of the Continent - Consejo de Organizaciones y Naciones Indigenas del Continente (CONIC) supports the rise of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and seeks to role back colonization, including neocolonialism by multinational corporations, declaring it a crime against humanity, a violation of the international law of nation states. "We have arrived at the moment in history of the world where a dialogue among civilizations and world views is necessary at the global level. Only so will the hope for Peace and Dignity with justice for our human society survive, established through a sustainable ecological relationship to the Mother Earth itself as foundation. This is the Mandate of the Indigenous Peoples; it supersedes that of the United Nations system; it is an expression of the jurisprudence of indigenous international law: it is the path of Tradition and Liberation. For details contact: Tupac Enrique Acosta, TONATIERRA, P.O. Box 24009. Phoenix AZ 85076.

     Conciliation Resources (CR) is an international service for conflict prevention and resolution. "CR's organizational objective is to provide practical and sustained assistance to people and groups in areas of armed conflict or potential violence. We specifically work with those working at community or national levels to prevent violence or transform conflict into opportunities for social, economic and political development based on more just relationships. Where mechanisms for effective participation are non-existent or weak, sustained conflict transformation support implies providing opportunities locally, nationally and sometimes regionally, to build or strengthen civic capabilities for dialogue and problem-solving.... In striving to attain our objective, CR: assists local organizations in the development of indigenously-rooted, innovative solutions to short and long-term social, economic and political problems related to armed conflict or communal strife; involves previously marginalized or excluded groups in community and national peacebuilding processes; helps build or strengthen civic capabilities for dialogue, problem-solving and constructive action, locally, nationally and sometimes regionally, when existing mechanisms for effective participation are either weak or lacking; promotes organizational transparency and accountability, as well as inclusive and participative decision-making; participates as fully as possible in the local and international development and dissemination of conflict transformation practice and theory; enters into partnerships and collaborative arrangements with other organizations and participates in networks such as the Committee for Conflict Transformation Support (CCTS), the UK Conflict and Development Network (CODEP) and the European Platform for Conflict Prevention and Transformation; draws on a pool of skilled staff, programme associates and consultants to apply a wide range of expertise in addressing armed conflict or the threat of large-scale violence." A major effort of CR has been to promote peace in the troubled Manu River Countries of West Africa: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Because troubles in any of these nations spill over into the others, CR has been engaged, since 2001 in facilitating dialoguing among NGO's in the three nations, assisting them in developing a deep understanding of the conflicts and their causes, and enhancing the NGO's ability to take peace promoting action. Related to this, CR has been working with the Sulima Fishing Community Development Project and the Bo Peace and Reconciliation Movement (BPRM) in Sierra Leone. The Sulima project involves an indigenous peace monitering system between two tribes that promotes peacebuilding, development and access to justice. BPRM is a coalition of 11 communities engaged in peacebuilding and reconciliation. Recognizing that how media cover events and topics relating to on going or potential conflicts often has inflaming or calming effects,CR's Media and Conflict Program helps African journalists provide more balanced and constructive coverage of conflicts, particularly in Uganda, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. In the Caucuses, CR has been active in conflict transformation and civil society capacity building work relating to the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict for five years, and has been working with the media to promote more peace enhancing coverage. In Northern Uganda, CR has been helping Kacoke Madit, formed by Acholi communities, to improve its communications in efforts to find alternative ways of building peace in the region. In Angola, CR has partnered with Action for Rural Development and Environment in a civic and human rights education effort. In Fiji, CR has been working with the Citizens Constitutional Forum (www.ccf.org) to facilitate the rebuilding of democracy by enhancing civil society development. In addition, CR's Accord program of on line and in print publications documents peace building work, providing a record and analysis of what does and does not work in what circumstances. Current accord projects being developed involve Columbia and Angola.  For more information see the latest CR's latest Annual Report, which can be downloaded as a PDF file at: http://www.c-r.org/pubs/annreps/annreps.shtml, or contact Conciliation Resources, 173 Upper Street, Islington, London N1 1RG, UK, Tel. +44 (0)20 73597728, communications@c-r.org. 

     Cultural Survival launched its Law Initiative in May to contribute to the international movement to recognize and respect the rights of indigenous people in international law and practice. The initiative is assisting in the development and passage of a UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and an Organization of American States Resolution on the Rights of Indigenous People, in addition to assisting indigenous rights efforts in particular nations and developments. For information, contact: Cultural Survival, 215 Prospect St., Cambridge, MA 02139, or call Miriam Ross: (+44) (0)20 7687 8734, mr@survival-international.org, http://www.survival-international.org

     In June, a group from Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO) had a joint meeting in New Zealand with Advancement of Maori Opportunity (AMO) to support development of AMO's Ambassador Program of leadership development and networking, which is now in its second year, and to enhance international collaboration in developing Advancement of Indigenous Opportunity International (AIO International) as a networking vehicle for international indigenous cooperation for improving the globalization process for the benefit of all peoples. To enhance their collaboration and enrich both organizations, AIO and AMO arranged to each have members of their partner organization on their own board. AIO International held its first board meeting in Crete, in July, in conjunction with AIO and AMO participation in the "Agoras of the Global Village" Annual Conference of the International Society for Systems Sciences, which included AIO and AMO facilitating the indigenous "Wisdom of the People Forum." For more information contact Americans for Indian Opportunity, 681 Juniper Hill Rd., Bernalillo, NM 87004 (505)867-0278, aiomail@unm.edu, www.aio.org, or AMO, Level 2, 153 Victoria Street, Hamilton, New Zealand, P.O. Box 4397, Hamilton East,  Hamilton, New Zealand,  Phone: +64 7 838 3030, sperls@ihug.co.nz, www.amo.co.nz.

     The Chiapas Media Project (CMP), a bi-national partnership that provides video and computer equipment and training to indigenous and campesino communities in Southern Mexico, now makes its award winning videos available for purchased on-line at: www.promedios.org or with check or money order: Chiapas Media Project, 4834 N. Springfield, Chicago, IL 60625. For more information please contact: (773)583-7728 or: cmp@chiapasmediaproject.org. The Indigenous People's Human Rights Project in Minneapolis supported the efforts of young indigenous activists to document on film antiglobalization protests at the WTO meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in September, and to collect stories of how neoliberal globalization has been injuring indigenous peoples. For information, contact Amalia Anderson: chapona_us@yahoo.com.

     Cultural Survival carried an article, "Manuscripts for Peace in Mali", by Larry Childs and Issa Mohamed, in its Spring issue, stating that, "Malian democracy now has the potential to lead West Africa, and even all of Africa, in the creation of the pluri-ethnic state. In Mali, cultural diversity is celebrated as an asset rather than opposed as a threat to monolithic national identity. Government officials, traditional leaders and NGOs hold a strong conviction the historic Timbuktu manuscripts from the 12th through 19th centuries could further cultivate a distinctive Malian development paradigm-one rooted in this ancient culture of rapprochement. Scholars during this period, commonly referred to as Ambassadors of Peace, used the written word extensively to guide leaders of Malian empires that once spanned vast areas of West Africa. The writings, influenced by traditional African thought and the Islamic faith, are written in Arabic and languages indigenous to the region. They are relevant today for their treatises on tolerance and peaceful means to resolve conflicts."

     The World Summit Of Indigenous Entrepreneurs: A New Mechanism for Shared Prosperity (WSIE) took place in Toronto, Canada, August 18th-20th, as a program of the World Trade University in Honor of the United Nations Decade of the World’s Indigenous People. The Goals of the Summit are to:1) Develop a dialogue with fellow indigenous entrepreneurs; 2) Initiate a flow of ideas and information across all boundaries and borders; 3) A potential formation of joint ventures and development of organizations to promote indigenous products; 4) Possibly establish an institute for indigenous knowledge; 5) Discuss issues of greatest importance to Indigenous entrepreneurs; 6) Provide networking opportunities between entrepreneurs and venture capital organizations. The World Summit of Indigenous Entrepreneurs (WSIE) was designed to provide a global forum for indigenous entrepreneurs from a variety of industries in countries around the world, as well as other entrepreneurs who wish to do business with indigenous people. For more information contact Phillip Trip (Karuk), (415)283.4757, dla1@aol.com, or Co-Chair of the Summit and Global Coordinator Sujit Chowdhury wsie@wtuglobal.org, or go to: http://wsie.wtuglobal.org.

     The Assembly of First Nations in Canada (AFN) is a national aboriginal lobby group that represents over 630 First Nations communities on matters affecting their lives, including treaty rights, land claims, culture, economic and human development, education, and governance issues amongst many others. The AFN is lead by its elected National Chief who serves a three-year term. The current national Chief is Matthew Coon Come, a former Grand Chief of the Grand Council of the Crees and a highly regarded advocate for preserving aboriginal human rights in and out of Indian country.

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INDIAN AND INDIGENOUS DEVELOPMENTS

                 Steve Sachs, IUPUI

U.S. Developments

     In the trust account case, on September 2, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth required the Interior Department to fix the trust accounting system and provide a full accounting of all 300,000 American Indian individual trust accounts, going back to 1887, by 2007, but expressed little confidence the department will act effectively to do so. In giving the order, Lamberth rejected the Interior Department's proposal to limit the accounting to the last nine years. In addition to setting the accounting deadlines, Lamberth appointed a new judicial monitor to keep tabs on the accounting progress, conduct investigations if necessary, and report to the court. The Interior Department has said it would take five years and cost $335 million to account for the Indian money. In June, Judge Lamberth temporarily shut down many of the Interior Department's computers, for a second time, after Interior refused to allow a court appointed special master to test the measures set up to protect Indian money from hackers.

     Congress, in passing the Interior appropriations bill, in early November, has put off settling the trust fund case by 15 months, ostensibly to have enough money for fire fighting in California and elsewhere. The delay provision is reported to have been a White House initiative. In June, Indian leaders including members of National Congress of American Indians testified before the Senate committee on Indian Affairs proposing mediation as the best method to bring the long suit to end reasonably quickly and fairly. Senators Campbell and Inouye initially agreed, but Campbell has more recently introduced the Indian Money Account Claims Satisfaction Act of 2003 that would appropriate $40 million over four years to pay Indian account holders, in order to make the money available to Indians quickly. The act would establish the Indian Money Account Task Force, composed of nine experts in forensic accounting, Indian law, commercial trust, mineral resources, economic modeling and civil litigation to determine the balances of individual accounts. An account holder could accept the balance determined by the Task Force, challenge it before a new Indian Money Claims Tribunal, chosen by the Attorney General, or remain a part of the current class action law suite.

     If a settlement is not reached soon on the Indian trust case, Congress may well step in and settle it in a manner that will not be as costly as rectifying each account back to the beginning, to the extent that corrupted records would allow. Several plans have been drafted, any on of which, or variants of them, may resurface high on the legislative agenda. In June, for example, the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee approved a legislative rider to the FY2004 Interior Appropriations bill that would have given the Secretary of the Interior the authority to unilaterally settle any claim relating to the accounting or the balance of any individual Indian money account (IIM account). The Secretary would have been given four years to perform a "statistical sampling evaluation" in a manner she deems "feasible and appropriate given the availability of records" to achieve a 98% confidence level in the rate of past accounting error. The Secretary would then have had the power to adjust the balances in IIM accounts by applying the error rate to the transactions in an IIM account, with judicial oversight of the secretary's settlement of any account limited to reviewing the method for conducting the statistical sampling. The legislation would have removed jurisdiction from the federal courts to hear any other claims by IIM account holders for accounting or account balances. The measure would also have called for settlement only of accounts that were open as of Oct. 25, 1994. NCAI has been supportive of developing a reasonable settlement, but opposed this proposal as lacking any objective methodology and giving the IIM account holders no choice in determining whether or not to accept the settlement.

     A three member panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in July, overturned Secretary of Interior Gale Norton's contempt citation by judge Lamberth, last year, for hiding failures to comply with his orders in the trust fund accounting. The appeals court stated that she cannot be held accountable for her predecessors mismanagement. A contempt citation against Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb was also overturned, on the grounds that it did not specify an act or omission. Lawyers for a group of Indians have asked the nine active judges who sit on DC Court of Appeals to reinstate the civil contempt citations against Norton and McCaleb.

      In a 39 page report, in August, to U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, who is hearing the Trust Fund case, Special Master Balaran found that Interior Secretary Gale Norton has violated federal law and breached her trust duties to the Indians by allowing contracts that grossly undervalue individual Navajo trust lands, as much as 20 to 200 times below comparable lands owned by non-Indians and tribes. This allowed the gas companies to run pipelines to California at a fraction of real market costs. Balaran said that Interior had conveniently "erased" all relevant information that had been stored in its computer systems and has destroyed or lost all hardcopy trust records, in violation of federal law, court orders, Interior Department rules and regulations in a clear breach of trust. Balaran did not estimate total losses sustained by the Navajo trust beneficiaries as a result of the Interior Secretary's failure, but noted that losses are at least $170 to $550 per rod. "It is doubtful, as a result whether Navajo allottees are receiving 'fair market value' for  leases encumbering their land." The losses to Navajo Nation may be in the tens of millions of dollars. Balaran's findings are as a result of his March 6, 2003 site visit to BIA offices in Window Rock, Ariz., and Gallup, N.M. The complete report is available at www.indiantrust.com. Kevin Gambrell, who had been head of the BIA's Farmington, NM Indian Minerals Office, and says he had complained to superiors to no effect for six years that the Navajo were not receiving fair compensation for use of their land, was fired by the BIA after he spoke to Balaran about the compensation problem.

     The Department of the Interior's (DOI) held its Tribal Self-Governance Fall Conference in Palm Springs, California, in early October 7. The meeting included election of tribal representatives to serve on the DOI Self-Governance Advisory Committee. The twenty-four member Self-Governance Advisory Committee deals with self-governance issues for tribes nationwide and gives tribal governments the opportunity to implement their sovereignty with limited federal involvement while allowing the federal government to carry out its trust responsibilities in a government-to-government manner. President Bush has nominated Dave Anderson (Ojibwa and Choctaw), a businessman who has run Famous Dave's Restaurants, to head the BIA as Assistant Secretary of Interior for Indian Affairs. The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs approved the nomination in October. Anderson has said he would seek advice from Indian leaders and do everything he could to protect tribal sovereignty. He has stated that his primary interests are in helping American Indian youth overcome adversity and working with tribes to create economic development opportunities. In October, BIA officials were engaged in a series of consultations around the country that began during the summer concerning proposed restructuring of the agency, that Principal Deputy Director Aurene Martin said, "will lead to better overall management, better tribal management and better cooperation with other agencies. Several services would be consolidated and a new position created: Deputy Director of Trust Services, for the first time separating trust and tribal services. About 100 customer service representatives are to be added to help tribal members keep track of trust funds. There has been much skepticism among Indian people about the reorganization and there have been complaints that there was no consultation in developing the reorganization plan, according to reports in Native American Times on July 1 and October 1.

     The Bush administration began moving forward, in Junes, with plans to elevate Indian issues within the Department of Education. Acting on a long-standing tribal request, Secretary Rod Paige will elevate the department's Office of Indian Education, to report to Undersecretary Eugene Hickok rather than an assistant secretary. The change is part of Secretaty Paige's focus on improving options for Indian students and their parents. The Department hopes that the research component of the No Child Left Behind Reform Act can help turn around the current situation in which 80%-90% of Indian students lack proficiency in math, science and reading. Indian nations and their education departments can share their success stories not just among themselves, but also with federal officials. The announcement of the changes was made at a day long summit hosted by the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), which looked for ways to advocate for Indian education on a tribal, state and national level. Attendees stressed the need for greater funding and more input into decisions that impact their students. Attendees included representatives of the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) and the National Indian Education Association (NIEA). The 2004 budget request for the Office of Indian Education is $122.4 million. Of the amount, $97.1 million will be used to help public schools develop programs to address the unique educational and cultural needs of Indian students. Also, $20 million is to be used for a preschool program and an Indian teacher initiative, and $5 million for research.   For more and related  information go to:  Office of Indian Education, Department of Education: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/oie/index.html; and National Indian Education Association: http://www.niea.org.

     The Department of Education has informed Senator Ted Stevens that several Alaskan groups and schools will benefit from $14.5 million he secured to implement the Alaska Native Education Equity Act, an amendment to the No Child Left Behind Act, passed in December of 2001. Local programs receiving grants under the act are: $520,000 to the Southeast Regional Resource Center for ANSWER Camps which will provide a series of two-week summer retreats to meet the critical need for culturally relevant reading, writing, science, and math enrichment activities for seventh and eight grade students in rural Alaska; $497,613 to the Juneau School District for the K-3 Tlingit Culture and Language Program which aims to improve the education and academic performance of Alaska Native students in  Juneau; $269,128 to the Hoonah City School District for Parents are Teachers (PAT) which offers services delivered by local parent educators who  live permanently within the community. The goal of PAT is to enable all parents to be the first educators of their children. $353,168 is awarded to the Craig City School District for the CANCAT project which will make available a mathematics resource teacher throughout the instructional day for academically at-risk children and young people and their adult caregivers, so they can work together more effectively on mathematics skills and to provide parenting education, childcare, and transportation to increase adult  caregivers' effectiveness as one-on-one mathematics coaches; $455,806 to the Juneau School District for a summer camp, school year support network, and a  series of after school activities; $590,000 to the Chugach School District for the Voyage to Excellence Program which aims to prepare students for transitions to the world of work through career awareness and job-shadowing opportunities, service learning, hands-on entrepreneurial experience, and  the incorporation of work-related situations across the academic curriculum; $520,648 to the University of Alaska Fairbanks for the Rural Educator Preparation Partnership Program to increase the number of Alaska Native  Teachers; $430,000 to the University of Alaska for the Alaska Teacher Placement Program in partnership with the Alaska Federation of Natives and three rural school districts; $119,472 for the University of Alaska  Anchorage for Project Success which will prepare over 70 rural Alaska Native  educators to work with Alaska Native children, particularly those with disabilities, by increasing access to and success in well-established,  distance delivered Associate Degree programs; $412,500 to the Central Council Tlingit and Haida Tribes for Creating Cultural Foundations, a  home-based preschool service which uses new technologies to share Native and  other traditions, skills, and strategies in supporting Head Start staff to provide appropriate services for children and families in Southeast Alaska; $467,772 to the Sealaska Heritage Institute to develop curricula, lesson  plans, and teaching materials for Haida language immersion classes tailored to kindergarten, and the first and second grades; and $318,371 to the University of Fairbanks for the Kitsuuit Program which provides culturally relevant education in early childhood development to allow Native students, who are also the Head Start teachers, to remain in their community while  taking courses.

     The Bush Administration wants to overhaul the Aquatic Conservation Strategy (ACS), a scientifically-based framework for ensuring that logging will not damage salmon watersheds, by abolishing the core requirement of the Strategy-that logging, road construction, and other activities must improve or at least not harm endangered fish habitat and water quality. Meeting the Strategy's objectives and heeding watershed analysis findings would become optional. These rollbacks of the salmon and water quality protections will unleash a frenzy of destructive logging held back by the courts.

     In 2003, the Bush administration, effectively delayed completion of the decade long Mni Wiconi project, to pipe treated water from the Missouri River to the arid Pine Ridge Reservation. The project would have brought water to what long has been America's most economically depressed county. Many of the 35,000 people on Pine Ridge do not have running water and many of the wells on the reservation are polluted by septic system percolation or contaminated by nitrates. Many Lakota People on Pine Ridge obtain their water by truck or transported in jugs. The close to completed project was halted after Pine Ridge Voters turned out in large numbers to play a significant role in reelecting Democratic Senator Tim Johnson, in a close race with Republican John Thune, strongly supported by President Bush. Within months of the election, the Bush administration, breaking previous promises, cut funding that stopped work on the project just as it was reaching the borders of Pine Ridge. Without access to a dependable supply of fresh water, Pine Ridge has little hope of economic development. However, in September, the Senate increased funding for completion and operation of the project in the 2004 Budget by adding $5 to the amount requested by the White House.

     HUD put on a two-day conference, ''Pathways to Home Ownership,'' in Pablo and Polson on the Flathead Reservation in Montana showcasing the success of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in overcoming many of the barriers that in the past severely limited on reservation home ownership. Only 91 conventional mortgages were made on Indian land between 1992 and 1997, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and title searches required by the BIA for most mortgages in Indian Country are backlogged so far that it will take 113 "staff years'' to eliminate the backlog, according to a recent General Accounting Office report. Indians have waited as long as six years to get a title report that most other Americans could get in a couple of days, according to the National American Indian Housing Council. The barriers include widespread poverty and unemployment, making credit hard to get; high population growth, creating high demand but little, if any, supply of affordable housing; few banks or other credit institutions on reservations to finance housing for Indians; a "land-tenure system" unfamiliar to off-reservation lenders; legal barriers within some tribes because tribal councils still have failed to enact foreclosure ordinances to protect lenders; and the glacially slow Bureau of Indian Affairs bureaucracy, which must be consulted for chain-of-title records in virtually every property, which may take two years or longer. Because the U.S. government holds much of the land in Indian Country in trust for the benefit of a particular tribe or tribal member, the BIA must research who or what entity has the rights to a build on the property. In addition, there are few, if any, real estate agents or brokers on reservations, for lack of business. This is especially a problem when buyers and sellers do not have knowledge of financing, title issues, contractor requirements and the numerous other technical details needed to consummate a real estate transaction. A further difficulty, even should financing be obtained, is lack of qualified housing contractors and even access to building materials, where reservations are in isolated areas.  A number of steps have been taken toward overcoming the barriers. HUD has been promoting housing opportunities aggressively with subsidized, Indian-only programs, bringing a substantial increase in the rate of providing housing, but with only 800 HUD-sponsored home-mortgage transactions in all of Indian Country since 1995, this is small in comparison with the need. In addition, HUD is putting energy into marketing section 184 Indian Home Loan Guarantee Program for homeownership, targeting Indians who have sufficient income to buy their own home, but have not because they have not developed a credit history. An increasing number of Indian nations have been working though the Tribal Point housing Partnership to increase home ownership. The partnership works through T-point plus, HUD Section 184, and the USDA Rural Housing Program. Tribal Point information is available at (866)818-3798. The BIA has formed the Land Title Status Commission to recommend changes in rules and procedures. Recommendations are being developed to deal with ''provider'' problems, lack of contracts, real estate, professionals, and especially for recommend changes in rules and procedures for title searches and recording mortgages, which the National Indian Housing Council has stated that this is ''the most serious impediment to producing adequate housing on American Indian reservations today.'' The Clinton administration promoted "one stop" mortgage centers, to make the process more efficient and convenient for potential home buyers. This had promise, but has largely fallen by the wayside under the Bush administration. Tribal governments can assist by passing ordinances protecting lenders in case of default, and by forming "nonprofit housing entities" on each reservation, as exemplified by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Housing Authority on the Flathead Reservation. For more information on the conference contact reporter John Stromnes: (800)366-7816, jstromnes@missoulian.com.

     Developments concerning protection of sacred land are discussed in the article below: Protecting Sacred Sites.

     The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stated in October that it is undertaking negotiations with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes about their having a share in the management of the National Bison Range in Montana. The Timbisha Shoshone and Duckwater Shoshone Tribes, because of their proximity to Yucca Mountain, filed a petition with the Department of the Interior, in the summer of 2002, requesting designation as an effected Indian Tribe that, like other Nevada communities around the nuclear waste site with similar designations, would have a voice in the operation of the project and funding for independent over sight of it. Last November, the Congress of American Indians (NCAI) passed a resolution supporting the tribe's petition. As of the beginning of September, the Interior Department had yet to act on the request.

     In July, Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-NM, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-NM. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-NM, and Rep. Tom Udall, D-NM, introduced the Southwest Native American Language Revitalization Act of 2003. The bill would encourage the development of American Language to help reduce the impact of past discrimination against Indian language speakers. In June, Congressman Wally Herger, R-Marysville, CA, saying the Klamath Fishery Management Council overstepped its bounds by writing two letters to government leaders warning them that the death of 33,000 salmon last year was linked to farming operations upstream, introduced a spending bill provision that would eliminate the council's funding next year. The amendment passed an appropriations committee and was sent to the full House of Representatives. Herger's action has outraged river advocates, including American Indians, commercial fishermen and recreationists. For more information contact Reporter Alex Breitler at 225-8344, abreitler@redding.com. In July, the U.S. House of Representatives began to consider an amendment to the Interior Appropriations Bill that would reform management of the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges and help endangered salmon, bald eagles, and migratory birds that rely on the refuges and the nearby Klamath River in California and Oregon to help protect fish and wildlife in the Klamath Basin of Oregon and California. The measure was sponsored by Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Mike Thompson (D-CA), and Chris Shays (R-CT). Supporters say that the Blumenauer-Thompson-Shays Amendment would take an important step towards balance in the Klamath Basin, phase out those crops grown on the Basin's National Wildlife Refuges that consume the most water, use the most pesticides and provide little, if any, benefit to wildlife. Specifically, new farming lease agreements on the national wildlife refuges that replace leases that expire next year would not allow growing of onions, potatoes, horseradish, or alfalfa. For more information, visit www.klamathbasin.info, www.waterwatch.org, or www.onrc.org.

     Senator Ben Nighthourse Campbell said, in July, that his version of the Indian Energy Development and Self Determination Act, introduced as an amendment, would allow qualifying tribes to negotiate an arrangement with the Secretary of the interior that would cut though red tape in speeding the leasing mineral development process for tribes, but, " Energy development would remain subject to federal environmental laws such as the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act, and the Endangered Species Act, and the public would have notice of and opportunity to comment on proposed development. Importantly, the process would be greatly streamlined so that tribes can compete with private holders of energy reserves." The Energy Policy Act of 2003, which passed the House as HR. 6, and was introduced in the Senate as S. 14, as originally written would terminate some federal trust responsibilities, and contains exemptions from federal environmental regulation, that Campbell's amendment was aimed at changing. Tribal governments would be able to receive general approval from the Department of Interior for energy related agreements, and then be free of Interior review for what ever subsequent energy related agreements they made. Once the Secretary has determined that a tribe is capable of regulating its own energy related development and has an environmental review process in place that can examine all relevant impacts, there is no requirement that what a tribe does be consistent with federal environmental standards. The Secretary's trust responsibility would be limited to cases in which a third party, such as a utility company, violated an agreement with a tribe, and the U.S, government would have no responsibility for any loss or injury sustained by any party to any tribal energy related agreement. Critics see this as beneficial to large energy companies, but dangerous for tribes and the general populace. Viewed as more positive for Indian nations, are provisions that establish a Department of Indian Energy Departments and Programs to promote Indian self-determination by promoting tribal energy development, including providing grants of up to $20 million a year until 2007 related to energy development by a tribe or by a consortium that included a tribe, and by up to $2 billion in energy loans to tribes that would be 90% guaranteed.

       Congress has been considering the proposed Tribal Government Tax-Exempt Bond Fairness Act of 2003, which would allow Indian tribes to issue tax exempt government bonds to finance construction projects other than class II gaming facilities. To date, in only two cases tribes have been able to use bonding under state law. In August, the California Statewide Community Development Authority cooperated with the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians to issue $145 million in municipal bonds to finance a 12 storey hotel and convention center, part of a larger tribal development plan. In September, Senator Tom Daschle. complaining that the U.S. spends only $1914 per person on health a year for Indians, compared to $3803 for prisoners, failed in an attempt to add $292 million to the Indian Health Service budget.

     On July 9, Indian leaders testifying before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs complained that with states gaining as much as 25% of tribal gaming incomes, as occurred with the Mashantuck Pequot in Connecticut, states were using compact negotiations unfairly to take money needed for tribal purposes in order to bail out cash strapped states. Pojoaque Pueblo Governor Jacob Viarrial stated, "Compact Negotiations have become a smoke screen for extortion," asking the committee for protective legislation. Committee members agreed that something needed to be done to insure that widely fluctuating compacts do not divert money from important tribal services.

     The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs was expected to decide in late October whether to forward a bill to the Senate that would grant federal recognition to the Lumbees. Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole submitted the Lumbee Acknowledgement Bill in February. Dole has said that granting recognition to the tribe would correct a problem created by Congress in 1956. That is when Congress recognized the tribe through the Lumbee Act, but the law denied the tribe benefits and privileges given to other federally recognized tribes. The Osage Nation of Oklahoma has been petitioning Congress to amend the 1906 law which makes it the only tribe that can not decide on its own requirements for membership, and which might cause its recognition to end when the last of the currently five remaining members on the rolls, that were closed in 1907, dies. In Mid October Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas introduced a bill to answer the Osage petition. For details contact the Osage Nation at: (800)320-8742, www.osagetribe.com. The BIA has acted to give long-sought recognition to the Seminole Nation Freedmen, descendants of freed black slaves, some of whom have played important historical leadership roles for the Seminole Nation. The Freedmen have long been citizens of the tribe, but were denied the benefits afforded other members, and in were denied the right to vote in tribal affairs. They now have regained equal standing with other tribal members. Meanwhile, after the BIA reversed policy, no longer insisting that Freedmen members of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma had the right to vote, six Cherokee Freedmen filed suite in federal court against the BIA asserting that their not being allowed to vote in a recent tribal election violated their rights.

     A report made public, in late July, by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights says that the U.S. government is failing to provide adequate health care, law enforcement and education to American Indians. The commission said American Indians rank near the bottom of almost every social, health and economic indicator. They have more than twice the average poverty rate and unemployment rate and lag in high school and college graduation rates. In addition, they have the shortest life expectancy and suffer from more diseases. "Native Americans have suffered too long from inattention and halfhearted efforts, and the crisis in Indian country must be addressed with the urgency it demands,'' the report said. "The federal government must take immediate steps to resolve the disparate living conditions that plague Indian country.'' The report recommends immediate creation of a task force to study the problem and recommend solutions in time for next year's budget process. It also suggests agencies that provide services to American Indians should do annual assessments of unmet needs and should focus its efforts on building roads, water services, electrical grids and communications systems in Indian country. In a letter to the commission, Jacqueline Johnson, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, the nation's largest Indian group, called the report the most comprehensive analysis of the needs in Indian country in a decade. ``Without adequate funding for vital programs, empowerment of tribal institutions, and a genuine commitment on the part of the federal government to the policy of self-determination, tribal governments are ill-equipped to provide for their citizens, and their citizens, in turn, are denied equal access to resources most other citizens enjoy,'' Johnson commented. For details of the report check with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights: http://www.usccr.gov/.

     The Western Shoshone Claims Distribution Act Unanimously Passed the Senate in mid October, distributing more than $128.8 million from a federal trust fund to over 6,000 members of the Western Shoshone Tribe. In addition, over $1.27 million dollars will be placed in an educational trust fund to be distributed to future generations of the tribe. Under the legislation, the entire per capita distribution would be tax-exempt, and no one would lose eligibility for Federal or federally-assisted programs, such as financial aid for college, because of this distribution. The legislation was originally introduced three years ago after tribal members voted overwhelmingly to accept distribution as settlement of their land claim. A second referendum held last year reached the same result.. The bill passed the Senate last year, but did not pass the House. Congressman Gibbons has also reintroduced similar legislation this year, which is now pending. The claims settlement stems from the work of the Indian Lands Claim Commission, which was established in1946 to compensate Indians for lands ceded to the United States. The commission determined that the Western Shoshone homeland had been taken through "gradual encroachment" during the settlement of the West, and awarded the tribe over $26 million in compensation, which with accrued interest and have grown to over $130 million. Some Western Shoshone tribal members continue not to accept the settlement and have been in conflict with the Bureau of Land Management, which claims that they have no right to graze live stock on land that these Western Shoshone hold is still theirs.

     As of September, the crafting of a bill (HR 1261) to reauthorize the WIA, job training program, act has moved away from requiring common performance measures for all parts of the program, so that performance indicators for the Indian WIA program could be appropriate for the real needs of Indian recipients.

     As of October 1, California Indian nations were the largest contributor in the recall election for the state's governor, having contributed more than $11 million with more expected in the last week. Indian money accounts for one of every six dollars of the $66 million contributed to candidates or spent by independent committees so far on the recall effort. The tribes have also given $2.5 million in support to conservative Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock, who has been a longtime backer of the Indians. Some analysts say the contributions may have been intended to help undermine the GOP front-runner, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has made comments critical of Indian casinos, stating that they should pay more to the state. Schwarzenegger's victory nay also make it more difficult on the legislative front, where there is a good chance he will not sign legislation likely to emerge from the state legislature to protect sacred sites, that Governor Gray Davis said he would sign, and that Lieutenant Governor, Democrat Cruz Bustamante almost surely would have signed if he had been elected governor (see the article on sacred sites below, for details). Bustamante has been favorable to California Indian nations, one of whom gave him $2 million. His use and transfer of Indian money among his various political campaign accounts was held illegal by a California Court. His problems have been compounded by the fact that his lead campaign strategist, Richie Ross, also works for the tribes. So does his younger brother, Andrew Bustamante, who is the general manager of the casino near Fresno owned by the Big Sandy Rancheria of Mono Indians. As Bustamante was attacked by other candidates for his use of Indian money, California tribes launched their own counter campaign of TV commercials. In the past five years, Californaia tribes have spent $120 million on state politics. Most of the money was used to persuade voters to pass a pair of ballot initiatives to legalize slot machines, pai gow poker and blackjack on reservation land. In recent years, as their profits have grown, the tribes have expanded political spending from ballot initiatives, to politicians sympathetic to their causes. They have also punished their enemies. In the 2001 Los Angeles mayor's race, two tribes spent more than $300,000 on radio ads and mailers, accusing candidate and former Assembly speaker Antoni Villaraigosa, who opposed casinos, of being soft on sex crimes and child pornography, and of supporting clemency for a convicted cocaine trafficker. Tribal casinos pay about $130 million annually into two state funds, one of which is used to cover public costs (for roads, sewers, firefighting) associated with the casinos, many of which are in isolated areas. The other fund gives money to tribes that do not operate casinos. The gaming nations would like to expand the number of slot machines they are allowed, which requires renegotiating their "compacts" with the governor. A number of tribal leaders have expressed concern that the tribes are in danger of a backlash from voters and politicians because of their growing revenue and political donations.

     In June, Republican congressional leaders sent a letter to Interior Secretary Gail
Norton stating that Congress did not intend tribes to go reservation shopping, and that the Secretary should "consider the consequences of allowing tribes to construct gaming facilities in areas where they have no historical connection," on the occasion of the Jena Band of Choctaw in Louisiana, who have no reservation, seeking a site for a casino, The tribe was recognized in 1995 and is seeking land for a reservation.

     The Republican Party received a $100,000 donation from the Agua Caliente Tribe of California when the tribe was seeking a meeting with the Secretary of the Interior. Sometime after making the donation, a lobbyist representing the tribe met with the Secretary. This is reminiscent of the donation for access, including with Indian nations, in the Clinton Administration, which the GOP criticized.

     Mary Ann Andreas, former chairwoman of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, has announced plans to run for the California Assembly seat now held by Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City. If elected, it is believed that Andreas, a Democrat, would be the first American Indian to serve in the California Legislature. David Laughing Horse Robinson ran for Governor of California as a Democrat in the recall election. He has been the chairman of the unrecognized Kawaiisu Tribe since 1997. Six months after a Lakota, Charles Cummings, was elected sheriff of its county, because of a heavy Indian vote, Martin, SD announced plans to launch its own police department. Cummings resigned as Sheriff in August.

In the Courts

The U.S. Supreme Court

 

     In March, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the White Mountain Apaches had the right to sue the U.S. government for millions of dollars for failing to properly maintain Fort Apache, which sits on tribal land, and which the government has been operating since 1969. Once the fort is refurbished, the tribe wants to turn it into a tourist attraction, augmenting an Indian cultural museum at the fort. In mid-July, in ruling in Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Association v. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in Oakland, CA. U.S. District Court Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong said the agency must rewrite its 10-year plan for providing water to the Lower Klamath River and protecting threatened salmon there, but she stopped short of ordering the Bureau to change its policy this year and send more water to the river  immediately. Information on the Klamath Indian nation's position and supporting data relating to the case are available from Monica Shovlin, (541)434-7028, mshovlin@ulum.com. The Supreme Court, in October, refused to hear an appeal, and thus let stand, a 2002 unanimous Montana Supreme Court decision upholding a Flathead tribal regulation allowing only tribal members to hunt on the reservation. In October, the high court refused to hear an appeal by publisher and Casino owner Larry Flint claiming unsuccessfully that California could not authorize a type gambling in Indian Casinos that is not permitted to non-Indian businesses.

Lower Federal Courts

     A Federal Circuit Court of appeals ruled, in July, that the Indian Health Services (IHS) owes the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma $8 million for breach of contract, for the nation's expenses involved in operating health centers in the mid 1990's that IHS had authorized but never paid its share of. The Cayuga Nation of New York and the Senaca-Cayuga Nation of Oklahoma argued their appeal of lands claims awards received in 2000 and 2001, in July, arguing that the nations should be awarded $1.7 billion, rather than the $248 million awarded, and that the lower court erred in barring eviction of current owners and returning land to the tribes as part of the remedy. The State of New York also appealed the early awards and is seeking a reduction, in the case involving 64,000 acres of land taken from the tribes in the Eighteenth Century. In late May, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Seneca-Cayuga Tribe vs. National Indian Gaming Commission (reported at: http://www.kscourts.org/ca10/cases/2003/04/01-5066.htm) that the Northern Arapaho Tribe of Wyoming and the Seneca-Cayuga and Fort Sill apache tribes of Oklahoma that an electronic version of a scratch and win pull-tab game is a class II gaming device, and not a class III slot machine, as contended by the commission, allowing the games to be used under the laws and compacts applicable to the casinos in question. On November 7, the 10th Circuit Court of appeals denied a petition for Leonard Peltier for a parole hearing, rejecting his attorneys' claim that the Parole Commission erred by putting off a new hearing until 2008. For more information go to: www.haveyouthought.com. The 10th Circuit ruled, in September, that the district court was correct in throwing out a suit by Black Seminoles against the BIA for services the tribe denied them, saying they should have sued the tribe. However, tribal sovereignty prevents them suing the Seminole Nation in federal court. Arguments were heard before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in the "Kennwick Man" case, involving a supposedly 9300 year old skeleton found near Kennwick, WA. Arguments focused on the definition of Native American in the statute, as a key issue in whether scientists could have the remains for study or must turn them over to a local tribe for reburial.

     In a late July ruling on stream flows on the Klamath River in California, District Judge Saundra B. Armstrong denied  motions by the Hoopa Valley and Yurok tribes to blame the fish kill on the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for  not putting more water down the river. But, she said, arguments on both sides of the dispute over  whether higher flows would have helped the fish are strong enough to warrant a trial. Representatives from the Hoopa Valley Tribe said in October that they would give no further consideration to a proposal from the Westlands Water District for settlement of the Trinity River litigation, stating that there are too many unsupported hypotheses in the proposal for it to be a valid plan, which contains no new science, for protection of the Trinity River fishery. Moreover, the plan leaves less water in the river most years.  The tribe's position is that the Record of Decision signed by Secretary Bruce Babbitt after 20 years of study provides the necessary water volumes and times of release to protect and restore the Trinity fishery. The tribe's trustees, the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) told the tribe they would give the Westlands settlement proposal no further consideration. Hoopa tribal Councilman Joe Jarnaghan said the Hoopa Valley Tribe would pursue Congressional legislation to implement the Trinity River Record of Decision (ROD). "This protracted litigation has brought the river's fish population to dangerously low levels.  We are asking Congress to keep its word about leaving us enough water for a healthy river..." for more information contact Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall (530)625-4211, Councilman Joe Jarnaghan  (530)625-4211, Mike Orcutt  (530)625-4267 ext. 13, or Tod Bedrosian    (916)421-5121. As of October, the Aamodt Case, involving the water rights of the Pojoaque, Tesuque Nambe and Ildefonso Pueblos, 51 acequias and 2825 individual claimants, appears to be approaching a settlement after three years of negotiations since the case came to federal court, and forty years of dispute.

     A federal district court in Washington, DC held, in October that a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office 1999 cancellation of the Washington Redskins' trade mark, in response to a complaint by several Native activists, on the grounds the Redskins logo was demeaning, was based on insufficient evidence, and overturned the agency decision. The judge stated that he case, Pro Football, Inc. v. Harjo, No. 99-1385, does not address whether the name redskins is actually insulting to Indians. A Federal District Court in Kansas, in August, ruled that the Prairie Band Potawatomi has the right to issue its own license plates for vehicles owned by the nation and tribal members living on its reservation. In Pierre, SD, the U.S. District Court has dismissed a request for a court order to prevent prosecution on claims of First Amendment rights of association by Rebecca Red Earth-Villeda, accused by South Dakota of voter fraud by forging signatures on absentee ballot applications during last year's congressional election, allowing state prosecution to proceed. Opposing suits by the Narragansett Tribe and the State of Rhode Island went to federal court in July concerning whether the tribe has a right to sell tobacco free of state taxes. The case arose from a July 14 raid by state police of a tribal smoke shop in Charleston, RI, in which police and tribal members struggled. The Governor of Rhode Island has appointed an NCAI representative to the panel reviewing the raid. The U.S. court of claims, in June, recommended that Congress award the Alabama-Coushatta of East Texas $270.6 million for loss of ancestral land and resources.

      The Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians filed suite in federal court, in July, to stop the transfer of the 43-acre former Coos Head Air National Guard Base near Charleston, WA to another party. Legally, the tribe had the right of first refusal on the property, but the BIA missed a deadline in filing for tribal ownership with the General Services Administration, apparently because of an administrative error by bureau staff. The Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma and the U.S. government are engaged in suite concerning the tribe's claim to the former Sun Flower Ammunition Plant near De Soto, KS. A group of Western Shoshone objecting to the land settlement, payment for which was recently authorized by congress, filed suite in the Federal District court for the District of Columbia against the federal government, in September, claiming 60 million acres in four western states and royalties for mining on much of that land. Six members of the Lakota Sioux Nation filed a class action suite against the federal government in U.S. court of Claims in Washington, DC, in July, on behalf of thousands of former Indian boarding school students, claiming $25 million in damages for abuse. The lead attorney for the plaintiffs, Jeff Herman of Hollywood, FL, said that other suits are being planned to be filed in several states against the religious organizations that ran the boarding schools. Tom Poor Bear, an Oglala Sioux from Pine Ridge, SD filed suit against the state of Nebraska, in July, alleging violation of his rights, as part of a pattern of discrimination, when he was arrested while part of a demonstration walk complaining of liquor sales in White Clay, NE. The suite also asserts that White Clay should be part of the Pine Ridge reservation, where liquor sales are illegal. A website chronicling White clay protest events, known as "camp justice," is at: http://www.aics.org/justice/camp.html. A group of 14 native prison inmates filed suite, in late May, against the Main State Prison in federal court, claiming that the prison denied there freedom of religion, applying a smoking band to them for three years, denying them right to build a sweat lodge, seizing religious items, and temporarily confiscating the bowl the use to smudge with burned sweetgrass. In June, the Yakama Nation of Washington gave the federal government notice that it was preparing to sue the Department of Energy for allegedly failing to protect the Columbia River from pollution from the Hanford nuclear reservation. The Attorney General of Kansas filed suite in district court, in September, asking the court to order the Department of Interior and the National Indian Gaming Commission to suspend gambling at the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma's casino in downtown Kansas City, next to the nation's historic Huron Cemetery, alleging that the two agencies had failed to act properly to protect a national historic site, in allowing the gaming.

     New York State and the Oneida Nation reached a tentative agreement, in February, that would have the state and the federal government jointly pay $500 million to the tribe in return for its dropping a claim to 250,000 acres in Oneida and Madison counties. However, the federal negotiators sent a letter to the negotiations mediator, in August, stating that the federal government had no intention of paying that amount. In October, the area's Congressman, Sherwood Boehlert, remained optimistic that the national government would come up with enough money to make a settlement viable. American Indian Inmates and Montana state prison officials concluded an agreement, over the summer, settling a law suit claiming religious discrimination by prison officials, under which the prison would apply new policies including allowing Indian prisoners to undertake smudging purification rituals.

State and Local Courts

     A Massachussetts superior court judge ruled in June that the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) cannot be sued because of sovereign immunity, despite language in the 1983 tribal-state land claims settlement agreement and state and federal legislation that all contain explicit language noting that the land conveyed to the tribe is subject to state and local laws. "Consent by a tribe to . . . . [the] laws of the state is not the equivalent of consent to a waiver of sovereign immunity," Judge Connon wrote in a 19-page decision. The case concerns a zoning dispute that began when the tribe built a small shed and pier at the tribal shellfish hatchery, on land conveyed from the town to the tribe, in March of 2001 without obtaining a building permit. The town went to court to compel the tribe to comply with zoning rules. July 21, 2003.

     The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled unanimously, in late July, that state-recognized tribes have legal standing to bring actions in Connecticut's courts despite lacking federal recognition, clearing the way for the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, a Kent-based tribe with a pending federal recognition application, to pursue a lawsuit against a rival Schaghticoke faction in a case arising from a 2001 dispute between Schaghticoke Tribal Nation Chief Richard Velky and Ronald Harrison, who leads the rival Schaghticoke Indian Tribe. Both groups claim to control the Schaghticoke Indians.

     A New York lower court upheld the validity of legislation authorizing the building of six Indian casinos in New York State, including the now operating Seneca Casino at Niagara Falls, in July. The decision is being appealed. Meanwhile, New York Governor Pataki has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court a New York Court of Appeals (the highest New York court) June 12 ruling that the 1993 gaming compact that former Governor Cuomo made with the Mohawk Nation was invalid because it was not acted on by the state legislature. The court appeared to indicate that the legislature can approve the compact, involving the Casino on the Mohawk reservation, at any time, to legitimize it. So far, the state is allowing the Mohawk casino to remain open while judicial consideration continues.

     The Alaska Supreme Court struck down a North Slope Borough ordinance giving Native Americans preference for borough jobs as being in violation of the Alaska Constitution, stating that the borough lacked a legitimate governmental interest to enact a hiring preference favoring one class of citizens over another. The borough has appealed the decision to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of appeals. Yakama County Superior Court, ruling that it has no jurisdiction in the case, in June, let stand a 3% tax laid by the Yakama on electric power lines of two utilities that run across the reservation. The tax has been passed on to utility users, including non-Indians living within the borders of the reservation. The Washington Attorney General's Office has asked the state Utility and Transportation Commission to hold a hearing on the tax. The utilities were negotiating with the nation over franchise contracts.

     In Alaska, Ketchikan Indian Community (KIC) and the Ketchikan Gateway Borough have settled the Tongass Avenue property tax issues, following Alaska Supreme Court determination that the space, vacant and not considered to be part of any particular program, was not exempt from tax because it was not being used for the governmental purposes under KIC's self-governance compact.  KIC has received an undisputed tax exemption from the tax year 2003 and forward since KIC uses the entire building for governmental purposes under its self-governance compacts.

Tribal Courts

     The highest court of the Eastern Band of Cherokees, in early October, upheld the election of the principal chief and overturned a decision by the tribe's Board of Elections holding tribal councilman Bob Blankenship ineligible for office. The Lumbee Supreme Court struck down a tribal ordinance that prohibited convicted felons from serving on the tribal council.

States, Localities and Indian Nations

     On June 5, the California Assembly voted 37 to 31 in favor of a bill that would have barred schools from using redskins, Indians, braves, chiefs, papooses, or any Indian tribal name as a nickname or mascot unless they had an agreement with a nearby tribe to use the name. It also would prohibit schools from using warriors or sentinels if those names were accompanied by Indian imagery. With 12 abstentions, the measure fell four votes shy of the majority needed to pass. The voting split largely along party lines with every Republican against the bill. In late June, the Michigan State Board of Education approved a resolution recommending that the use of American Indian mascots, logos and fight songs be eliminated by all Michigan schools. See the complete scoop: http://www.lsj.com/news/local/p_030626webupdate_nicknames.html. More than two dozen institutions of higher education in Mississippi were having their use of Indian mascots scrutinized by the NCAA, as of July.

      It was reported on the May 13 by Indian Country Today that there has been a growing backlash against California tribal casinos. In a number of cases there has been local objection to the building or expanding of Indian gaming facilities. On May 5, the first protest ever staged by casino opponents took place with one hundred protesters picketing the San Manuel operated casino in San Bernardino, tying up traffic for hours as they marched in objection to a proposed casino expansion that would add a large parking garage and entertainment center as well as more than 300,000 square feet to the existing facility. Other incidents have occurred in various parts of the state, with tribes have encountering hostile reactions from neighboring groups and local governments. In the Sierra foothills, El Dorado County has filed a lawsuit against the BIA, United States Department of Interior; and the National Indian Gaming Commission, alleging negligence on the part of the federal government in regard to environmental impacts by a casino and five-story hotel complex proposed by the Shingle Springs Rancheria. This follows a similar suit filed against the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) in 2002 over a proposed tribally funded exit off ramp and overpass that the county contended violated environmental laws. In Sonoma, County Supervisor Valerie Brown spoke to a packed town hall meeting addressing the potential impacts of a proposed casino by the Federated Indians of the Graton Rancheria and their Las Vegas backers, Station Casino, Inc. Local residents expressed concern that the proposed casino would tie up traffic on Highway 37, a narrow two-lane road that traverses the salt marshes of San Pablo Bay and is considered one of the most dangerous roads in the state. In 2000, Graton Rancheria chairman, noted author Greg Sarris, told Indian Country Today, during the tribe's re-recognition bid, that gaming would never be an option for the tribe. At the other end of Sonoma County, the Dry Creek Band of Pomo have been criticized by county officials over disputes arising from fire safety code concerns. The casino was a target of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors who claimed that the tribe never once sought to work with them over issues of increased traffic, law enforcement and building safety. The local concerns were echoed by the state, when the tribe opened a temporary scaled don version of its Sonoma Casino in a tent, in September, over the objection of the Governor's office, which sited the county government complaints, despite the Pomo leaders insisting they had done everything properly. The California Attorney General has initiated "a meet and confer" provision of the compact regulations and negotiations were ongoing in October. These and similar incidents are reflections of a problem with roots deep in California history. On one hand, tribes who faced near annihilation and two centuries of prejudice and political and financial impotency are finally finding a route to economic prosperity and political clout. These tribes never had a say as they saw their lands turned into strip malls and parking lots. On the other hand, neighboring governments and non-tribal members contend that the tribes have overstepped their boundaries and have violated the original intent of Propositions 5 and 1A, which they say was only to bring economic opportunity and relief to existing casinos. These opponents say that they did not want to create a Nevada-like atmosphere in California, with towering garish urban casinos and hotels with local governments having no recourse to address their concerns. At the root of these disputes is a difference in how tribes and local governments view their scope of authority. The Indian nations insist that they are working with local governments and that their gaming operations inject money into the local economies by providing hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of extra jobs and voluntary donations to the local communities. Jill Eaton, director of tribal communications for San Manuel says that she does not understand why the protestors from the Belvedere Neighborhood Association decided to picket San Manuel and says she does not understand the backlash. She points out that the tribe held public meetings on April 14 and 29 to address neighbor concerns. She says that the tribe will be meeting with local officials from the city council and has the support of the mayor. Eaton's assertions were echoed by several other tribes, all claiming that they had gone through the proper channels of communication with local governments and homeowners associations. Dry Creek tribal chairwoman Elizabeth Elgin DeRouen says that the reason that problems are escalating is a matter of protocol. DeRouen claims that the tribe has tried time and again to work with the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors and had even agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding. She says, however, that the county Board of Supervisors abruptly cut off talks and began to dictate rather than negotiate with the tribe. This, DeRouen believes, is at the heart of most of the disputes between tribes and local governments. "The problem, in our case and in many others, are that the local governments do not understand tribal sovereignty, and (they) are not willing to work with tribes as sovereign governments, but rather as subordinates," says DeRouen. In fact, Sonoma County Supervisor Valerie Brown says that the tribe does not have sovereign powers because of the fact that California is a Public Law 280 state that permits the states to have police jurisdiction over Indian tribes. Brown contends that much of the disagreement over sovereignty stems from vaguely written and broadly interpreted state and federal policy regarding tribal sovereignty. She predicts that there will be much litigation surrounding sovereignty and many of the issues might not be resolved until the laws are clearer. Brown also feels that it is not the supervisors but the tribe that are creating an adversarial relationship and points to the Cloverdale Band of Pomo Indians, who are proposing a casino only about 10 miles from the Dry Creek facility. She says that is in favor of the Cloverdale facility because the tribe has shown a willingness to work with the county and has submitted the proper studies and impact reports, which she claims Dry Creek has failed to do. Victor Rocha, the proprietor of Pechanga.net says that Brown's interpretation of sovereignty is the problem. He feels that her lack of understanding as to how to approach tribes in the proper manner is creating much of the problem and accuses Brown of "fanning the flames" by using "a bossy demeanor" when dealing with tribes. Rocha admits that local governments and non-Indian neighbors often have legitimate issues but he says that problems only occur when the local governments do not deal with tribes on a government-to-government basis. Rocha says that most tribes have gone above and beyond the state standards, pointing to successes such as the Barona tribal casino's use of recycled water on their property and the energy-efficient state-of-the-art facility used by the Morongo tribe. "Until local governments can grasp the notion of tribal sovereignty and learn the proper method of communication with the tribes and not just seek to impose their will, there are going to be problems."

     The Klamath Tribes (Klamouth, Modoc and Yahooskin Band of snake Indians) of the Klamath basin of California and Oregon have shifted from year's of conflict with area ranchers, to negotiating with them and federal officials over getting back a thousand square mile reservation, lost when the Tribes were terminated in 1954, with a water settlement taking into account the interests of all parties, rooted in the 1864 treaty with the tribes. The land to be returned comes from the Winema and Fremont National Forests. Environmentalists oppose the return of national forest land, which would then be open to expanded logging, preferring the purchase of private land and cash compensation as the means for restoring tribal rights.

     The Davis administration said on October 20 that it has agreed to allow the Fort Mojave Indian tribe to open a San Bernardino County, CA casino in what could be the first of several such compacts reached between Gov. Gray Davis and California tribes before Republican Governor elect Arnold Schwarzenegger takes office in the next three weeks. After that, gaming contracts will have to be approved by Schwarzenegger, who seems unlikely to do so, or who only might do so if the state received significantly more revenue from gaming, according to the governor elect's previous statements. The BIA has approved a compact between the State of Wisconsin and the Oneida nation to allow the tribe to have the casino open 24-7 and offer more games in return for payments to the state of $40 million for two years and annual amounts after that based upon gaming revenues. The BIA also approved a modified compact between Wisconsin and the Ho Chunk Nation, removing a provision that off reservation casinos built near Ho Chunk would have to negotiate a payment to the tribe for the loss of revenue, and reinstating an earlier clause that the state would negotiate a reduction of fees with the Ho Chunk for the loss of revenue in such a case. The Navajo Nation, in September, signed a gaming compact with the state of New Mexico that applies only to To'hajiilee, near Albuquerque, the only place Navajo law allows for gambling.

     Alaska state troopers raided a pulltab operation in the Native Village of Barrow. The village and the state are at odds as to whether it can run a gaming operation without a state gaming permit. The State of New York obtained an injunction from state court, in July, to prevent the state, but not federally, recognized Shinnecock Nation from opening a casino near the gateway to the Hamptons, on Long Island. State-tribal taxing issues (in addition to federal court cases above) are resurgent in this time of tight state and local budgets. In October, New York State was planning to tax sales of cigarettes sold by New York tribes hoping to gain some of the $895 million a study by the Alliance for the Fair Application of Cigarette Taxes claims the state missed by not collecting taxes on cigarettes sold by Indian nations, on the internet and by bootleggers. The Onondaga say that if the state tries to tax their cigarette sales, they will put a toll both on Interstate 81, where it crosses their reservation. Maine officials are in conflict with the Aroostook Band of Micmacs setting up a state tax free smoke shop on tribal land in Presque Isle. The BIA supports the right of the Micmac to do so.

     In July, the Inter-Tribal Council of California, Inc. & the California Attorney Generals Office of Native American Affairs put on the 5th Annual Statewide American Indian Conference on Family & Domestic Violence, providing a forum for presenting the best of practice and policy promoting family/domestic violence prevention services and programs, economic development, child care, and emergency management. For more information contact: Manuel at: (916-973-9581.

     The Governor of Indiana, Frank O'Bannon, has signed an executive order creating The Native American Indian Affairs Commission to make policy recommendations to the governor. The governor issued the order, which allows Indian members of the commission to be members of federally recognized tribes and of tribes located in Indian that have demonstrated a historical recognition (such as the Miami Nation of Indiana), after vetoing an otherwise identical bill that only allowed for Indian members of the Commission to be members of federally recognized tribes. Other, nonvoting, members of the commission include heads of state executive departments or agencies or their designees and a member of each house of the state legislature. The commission is authorized to "study issues common to Native American Indian residents of Indiana in the areas of employment, education, civil rights, health, and housing," and to make recommendations to federal, state, and local governmental agencies concerning: Health issues affecting Native American Indian communities; Cooperation and understanding between the Native American Indian communities and other communities throughout Indiana; Cultural barriers to the educational system; Inaccurate information and stereotypes concerning Native Americans; Measures to stimulate job skill training and related workforce development, including initiatives to assist employers to overcome communication and cultural differences; Programs to encourage the growth and support of Indian owned businesses; Public awareness of issues affecting the Native

American Indian communities; Issues concerning preservation and excavation of Native American historical and archeology sites; and Measures that could facilitate easier access to state and local government services by American Indians. "The commission may not study or make recommendations regarding negotiations between a tribe and the state or federal government concerning tribal sovereignty or gaming on tribal land."  If a Native American Indian burial ground is discovered in Indiana, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) shall as soon as possible provide notice to the Commission. If Native American Indian human remains are removed from a burial ground, the department shall provide to the Commission any written findings or reports that result from the analysis and study of the human remains and written notice that the analysis and study of the human remains are complete. The Commission shall make recommendations to the department regarding the final disposition of the Native American Indian human remains. Executive Order 97-24, which created the Native American Council that previously operated within the DNR was revoked.

     After a year that witnessed a number of tensions between Wisconsin Republican lawmakers and the State's Indian Nations, on such issues as budget cuts and the legality of newly negotiated gaming compacts signed by Democratic Governor Jim Doyle, the Wisconsin legislature, with the assistance of a special study committee on state-tribal relations, is working toward the passage of three measures that, if passed, promise to bring more collaborative relations. The first, a symbolic statement of respect, is a resolution affirming the sovereign status of federally recognized tribes, which underwent an Assembly committee hearing in Mid October. Supporters say the resolution would not change state law, but would help policy-makers gain awareness of the legal status and rights of Indian nations and their governments The other proposals, introduced as bills, would create a special state-tribe council and require impact statements showing how certain bills would affect tribes differently than other governments.

     The State of New Mexico hosted a summit, on July 31, to address barriers to tribal economic development. Details are available at: http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2003/07/14/story6.html.

     A commission of the city if Anchorage, AK, in June, formed a new committee to tackle diversity in the municipality as part of the steps the city has been taking to improve relations among its citizens, including creating a team of individuals committed to change who are ready and willing to take on some tough challenges. The effort began two years ago after a well publicized home video showing Alaska Natives being shot at with paint balls brought racial tensions clearly into the public view. The City of Tulsa, OK announced in July that it will build an Indian Art Museum and Monument on 40 acres along the Arkansas river, with construction set to be completed by 2007. The Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut has given $10,000 to the city of Norwich for restoration of a downtown historic building. In June, the Oklahoma Supreme Court put on its annual Sovereignty Symposium with tribal and state leaders, this year including in the occassion discussion of new gambling and cigarette revenue sharing compacts. Research presented to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, in September, indicated that reforms limiting the discretion of South Dakota parole board members, in 1996, ended the experience of American Indians serving a longer percentage of their terms than whites, by 46$-41% on average,

     The Governor of Maryland, Robert Ehrlich, in September, rejected the Piscataway Conoy Tribe's petition to become the first tribe recognized by the state.

     Under an agreement between the Yakama Indian Nation and the State of Washington, the Klickitat Salmon Hatchery and Fishways at Lyle Falls and Castille Falls in the Klickitat River could be transferred from state ownership to the Yakama as early as October 2004, as part of a multi-faceted tribal effort to boost fish runs in the watershed. Workers at the hatchery will remain state employees, with none being forced to relocate in the near future, and the current hatchery manager continuing in that role, although he will report to the Yakamas. The transfer still must be approved by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission, the state attorney general, the governor and the Yakama Tribal Council. This is a continuation of the 1994 agreement between the state and the tribe to restore and increase natural production of salmon and steelhead in the Yakima and Klickitat rivers. The tribe is currently in the final stages of improving fish passage at Castille Falls, which are to be further improved with the building of two rearing ponds. The Yakamas also are interested in improving rearing spots in the lower Klickitat watershed. Yakama officials believe that, over time, the nation can put more effort into Klickitat River wild and hatchery fish production than the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Oregon Senate Bill 882 would allow Jefferson County judges to transfer petty criminal cases involving young tribal offenders to Warm Springs Tribal Court. On May 5, The Shoshone-Bannock Tribe announced that it had reached agreement with Power County on a number of law enforcement jurisdictional issues, including extending the 2002 agreement to have traffic citations of tribal members handled in tribal court.

Tribal Developments

     Federal agencies have awarded a series of funding grants to Alaska groups and communities. The Department of Education awarded $296,580 to the Juneau School District under the Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Program to support counseling programs in elementary schools in order to focus on prevention and early intervention services for elementary school students; $202,030 to the Lower Kuskowkwim School District under the Native American Program to support the Language Collaboration Project; $300,000 was awarded to the Southwest Region  School District - Indian Education Program to plan, expand, coordinate and  evaluate the implementation of a strong oral development literacy model; and  $252,582 to the Yukon-Koyukuk School District under the Native American  Program for the collaborative partnership to improve English language skills and the Native Athabascan language. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded the Karluk IRA Tribal Council $28,977 under the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996, which can be used for a variety of eligible affordable housing activities including modernization and operating assistance. The Department of Hawaiian Homelands is receiving an additional $9.6 million for Native Hawaiian home ownership programs from HUD, under a 2000 amendment adding Native Hawaiians to the coverage of the 1996 Native American Housing and Self-Determination Act. The Department of Health and Human Services granted $500,383 to the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium for chronic disease prevention and health promotion programs.  $888,000 has been awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services to 238 Native American communities, including 55 in Alaska, for improvement of library services. The Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Office awarded the Nez Perce and Coeur d'Alene tribal police over $1.2 million for officer pay, equipment and training.

     The White Earth Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota received, and had put into trust, the final parcel of 800 acres of the 10,000 acres promised them by Congress and the state legislature 1n 1986. The Washoe Nation has received 24 acres of land from the federal government, that will remain undeveloped, returning the nation to its traditional territory on the shore of Lake Tahoe.

    In May, the Lummi tribe of Washington introduced the traditional punishment of banishment for those convicted of being drug dealers, in order to combat serious drug problems.

     The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports that American Indians and Alaska Natives comprise .6% of new HIV cases while they represent .7% of the population. Since 1999, Federal and Washington State Law have required collaboration with tribes to access traditional and cultural mental health services for enrolled American Indians and Alaska Natives in addition to, or in place of, standard mental health services. An example of such collaboration is North West Mental Health Administration, a network of eight tribes in the Pacific Northwest Sound region. The use of traditional approaches to mental health is aimed at improving the situation reported in 2001 Indian Health Service statistics indicating. that while more than one-third of the requests for service at tribal health facilities involve mental illness and social service related concerns, Native Americans and Alaska Natives "tend to underutilize services, experience higher therapy drop-out rates, are less likely to respond to treatment, and have negative opinions to non-Indian providers." In June, The Veterans Administration opened the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Residential Rehabilitation Outreach Clinic and Transitional Residence on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

    The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Tribe of Arizona has allocated $5 million to a partnership with a genetics research facility, Transitional Genomics Research Institute, to seek new medical treatments and a possible cure for diabetes, which disproportionately affects Native Americans. The Ho Chunk Nation in Wisconsin made the first of 5 $200,000 contributions to Black River Falls Memorial Hospital, used by tribal members. The Hopi Health Care Center has teamed up with the reservation's radio station KUYI to broadcast wellness messages.

     Changing conditions on many Indian reservations have lead to the development of serious gang problems. In the past, despite poverty conditions that usually have fostered youth gangs in the wider society, tribal children traditionally were shielded from gang activity by the presence of a cohesive, tribal culture providing participation and identity, even for troubled youth; and rural isolation that made it difficult for teenagers to find drugs, cars, weapons, and populated places to commit crime. The recent surge in gang activity reflects both an increasing loss of culture and community, and a growing exposure to urban environments as more Indian people live and spend time off reservation, and as mass media brings aspects of the wider society into Indian communities. This was shown by the 1995 Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention(OJJDP) study "Finding and Knowing the Gang Nayee on the Navajo Nation," which reported that Navajo gang members were likely not to speak Dinee, exhibited severe problems in school; come from urbanized poor, and generally dysfunctional families; and lacked contact with clan members and tribal ceremonies. Thus they were isolated from family support and the community, as were their non-Indian peers.

      Arturo Hernandez, "Youth Gangs in Indian Country? One Tribe's Approach" (ERIC clearinghouse, EDO-RC-02-12) reported in December, 2002 on the Pima-Maricopa way of working with at risk youth. The nation had experienced the destruction of its traditional farming, bringing extensive poverty and further disruption of traditional culture, including loss of language, with children sent to BIA Boarding schools. After the close of the BIA schools, the Pima-Maricopa were required to bus their children into the Phoenix metropolitan area to attend school. With phone service unavailable to reservation homes and almost no available transportation, little interaction occurred between school and family. Indian students rarely finished high school, with the majority dropping out much earlier. This milleaux led to a severe gang problem. In response, the  Pima-Maricopa built their own high school, an alternative school for students with a significant history of delinquency, and a juvenile detention facility with a special education program. Students at the alternative school have access to all extracurricular activities at the high school, jailed students have a rich and therapeutic curriculum, and the three programs work as a unit to develop personalized long-term plans and joint accountability for individual students. Cultural components, individualized counseling and mentoring help troubled youth overcome inappropriate behavior patterns while gaining self-esteem and a sense of tribal identity. For more information see: Arturo Hernandez, "Youth Gangs in Indian Country? One Tribe's Approach" ERIC clearinghouse, EDO-RC-02-12, December 2002 at: PO Box 1348, Charleston, WV 25325-1348, www.ael.org/eric.

     On November 18, in Albuquerque, NM, The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development will present the 2003 awards Honoring Contributions in the Governance of American Indian Nations. This years honorees are: the Assuring Self-Determination Through Effective Law Enforcement Program of the Gila River Police Department, Gila River Indian Community in Arizona; Cherokee National Youth Choir, Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma; Choctaw Community Injury Prevention Program, Choctaw Health Center, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians; Chuka Chukmasi Loan Program, Chickasaw Nation Division of Housing, Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma; Cultural Resources Protection Program, Department of Natural Resources, Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon; Family Violence and Victim's Services, Department of Family and community Services, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians; Gila River Telecommunications, Inc, Gila River Indian Community of Arizona; Honoring Our Ancestors Chippewa Flowage Joint Agency Managing Plan, Lac Courte Orilles Band of Chippewa of Lake Superior Chippewa in Wisconsin; Kake Circle Peacemaking, Realty and Trust Office/Tribal Court, Organized Village of Kake, AK; Menominee Community Center of Chicago, Tribal Administration, Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin; Na'Nizhoozi Center, Inc., Office of the President and Vice President of Navajo Nation, in Arizona, in collaboration with the Zuni Pueblo, City of Gallop, McKinley County, Indian Health Services and the State of New Mexico; Navajo Corrections Project, Department of Behavioral Health services, Navaho Nation in Arizona; Northwest Intertribal Court System, Chehalis Tribal Court, Confederated Tribes of Chehalis Reservation of Washington; Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, a collaboration of 43 Northwest Indian nations, Portland, OR; Quil Ceda Village, Government Affairs, Tulalip Tribe, in Washington; and Trust Resource Management, Office of Support Services; Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of Montana. For details, contact The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 79 JFK St., Cambridge, MA 02138, www.ksg.harvard.edu/hpaied. Jodi Rave, a member of the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes who covers Native American issues for Lee Newspapers, is one of 13 American and 12 international journalists named by Harvard University to the 66th class of Nieman Fellows in May. Rave works from the Journal Star in Lincoln, Neb., and can be reached at 473-7240 or jrave@journalstar.com.

     The Yurok Tribe, Located on either side of the Klamath River in Northern California, received funding during the summer from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development High Energy Cost Program. toward connecting many of its reservation residents to phones and electricity, and also hooking up a grade school, Head Start facility, community center, water systems, two fire stations and a community technology center. In June, the Coeeur d'Alene Tribe of Idaho received a $2.8 million grant and the S'Kallam Tribe of Washington a $500,000 grant, while other Washington tribes also received funding, from the Department of Agriculture to bring broadband connections for high speed computer service to its reservation facilities and residents. The Muckleshoot Tribe of Washington used casino profits to provide a computer for every tribal household this summer. The Citizen Potawatomi Nation of Oklahoma opened its FireLakeWellness Center, adjacent to the Tribal health clinic near Shawnee. OK, in October. For information, call the fitness center at: (918)395-9304. The U.S. Department of Education has given a $240,000 grant to the Porcupine, SD Health Clinic, on Pine Ridge, to expand health services, while giving $125,000 to South Dakota State University, which has a high student retention rate, for multicultural scholarships for Indian students. The Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma broke ground, in August, on its Ada West Family Fun Center. Because the Delaware River had stopped flowing through its reservation, the BIA approved a $186,000 emergency grant to fund the hauling of water from Sabetha, KS to the Kickapoo tribe's water treatment plant and distribution system for three months. The Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma has received $267.766 from the BIA in late fees and interest in settlement for late payments for the BIA's share of costs for tribal road building in 2001. Negotiations continue on a similar claim for 2000.

     On July 12, 70 people from the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk and Tuscarora took part in the first gathering of the Six Nations in over 50 years, at Cattaraugus, in New York, to discuss ways to preserve their traditions. A topic of particular concern was the impact of tribal gaming. The Tribal Council of the Turtle Mountain Band Chippewa of North Dakota has sent a revision of the proposed constitution that failed to pass a referendum last year, to the tribal members to be voted on this fall. On June 23, Edmund Kelii Silva, Jr, stating that he is Ali'l Nui Nou Ke Akua Ke Aupuni O' Hawai'i. direct descendent of King Kamehameha of Hawaii, declared Hawaii to be a sovereign and independent nation, which is beyond "Native American Status" under U.S. law.

   The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is opening September 2004 in Washington, DC with a 6-day opening ceremony.

      The Southern Ute Tribe has launched an Apprenticeship Trainee Program for some tribal jobs for educationally qualified tribal members to help provide career advancement and jobs to tribal members while maintaining a high quality workforce. After considerable debate, the Mashantucket Pequot tribal council has decided not to use DNA tests in determining tribal membership, which includes a share in the profits from Foxwoods Resort Casino.

     Tribal, fishing, and conservation groups are asking Scottish-owned utility, PacifiCorp, to consider an alternative that addresses fish passage or dam removal, on its seven Klamath River power dams in California, whose license renewal is pending before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The dams have changed the timing of Chinook salmon runs dramatically, significantly reducing their numbers. The California Energy Commission, which was asked by the state Resources Agency to assess energy issues associated with the PacifiCorp facilities, wrote in an April report that the state will ask FERC to consider decommissioning some or all of the dams in the name of salmon restoration. PacificCorp is resisting decommissioning. But, in separate relicensing proceedings, it has agreed to remove the 125-foot-high Condit Dam near Mount Adams, Washington. The company has released a 3,500-page draft FERC application to the public, that does not propose the decommissioning. The documents are available at its website www.pacificorp.com, by clicking "about us," then "Power Generation," then "Hydro Relicensing" and finally "Klamath River." The whole thing is available on CD-ROM from Tod Olson at PacifiCorp, 825 NE Multnomah, Suite 1500, Portland OR 97232 (503)813-6657, Todd.Olson@Pacificorp.com and refer to "Klamath Hydroelectric Project FERC No. 2082". It is also in the National Environmental Center (NEC) library. For more information on the whole set of issues from NEC, contact Tim McKay, executive director, Northcoast Environmental Center, 575 H Street, Arcata CA 95521, W:(707)822-6918, H:677-3172, www.yournec.org. Meanwhile, on the Columbia River, increasing numbers of chinook salmon have brought about the second largest fish harvest since 1960 for the Warm Springs, Nez Perce, Yakama and Umatilla nations, bringing the first summer commercial fish sale by the tribes in 38 years, following spring fish sales the last three years. The Navajo Nation Council passed a resolution, in July, supporting efforts to stop the Peabody Coal Co. from pumping water from the N-aquifer for coal slurry at Black Mesa. A report by researchers at the University of Minnesota found, in July, that the Superfund site of the former St. Regis Paper company wood treatment plant at Cass Lake on the Leach Lake Chippewa Reservation has not been adequately cleaned up and remains an environmental and health threat.

     As tribal members continue to move from many reservations to urban areas, the Indian population in Maricopa County, encompassing Phoenix, AZ now exceeds 50,000 from 80 tribes.

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Economic, Educational and Cultural Developments

     The National Indian Gaming Commission reports that 330 tribal casinos in the United States generated $14.4 billion in revenues last year, an 11% increase over 2001. Merrill Lynch estimates that this year will see an increase of 36% to $15 billion. That revenue is being dedicated at a growing rate to investment and development of non-gaming businesses. In California, tribal non-gaming economic development has included RV parks and mobile home development at Chemehuevi and Pechanga; retail stores and gas stations at Morongo and Pechanga; energy recovery and recycling programs at Cabazon; and banking ventures by the Agua Caliente and the Viejas tribe. Other tribes operate agri-businesses including alfalfa, citrus, avocado farming; fisheries and forestry operations; sand and gravel businesses; golf courses and real estate investments. On August 12, California Governor Gray Davis signed legislation that shifts more money from California gambling tribes to the fund for non-gambling nations, so that it will pay about the $1.1 million a year originally anticipated to the 75 recognized nongaming tribes. The fund had only provided about $410,000 annually. The Analysis group reported in July that 221 tribes in 30 states now operate 348 casinos. In, Arizona tribal gaming grossed about $1 billion, and is Arizona's biggest growth industry, according to estimates by gaming consultant Ken Adams.

     Morongo Band of Mission Indians of Californaia Tribal Chairman Maurice Lyons reported in the E-mail Digest of Indigenous News (from Andre Cramblit: andrekar@ncidc.org) that, "With the advent of tribal gaming, the Morongo tribe made an important strategic decision to utilize gaming revenue as a catalyst to establish a diversified tribal economy." " Morongo’s 32,000-acre reservation is one of the largest in California. We have used the land for fruit farming and cattle ranching. In later years, land was leased for sand and gravel mining operations or to various utilities, water districts and rail lines. But it was never enough to fully support our tribal community." Morongo is located in one of the fastest growing counties in the United States, with developable land is located on both sides of a major transportation route with excellent freeway visibility and access to population centers. "With gaming revenue we moved to diversify. In 1997, Morongo opened one of the largest Shell gasoline stations in the country." In 1999, it was joined by an A&W drive-in restaurant nearly twice the size of the national prototype, and is one of the most successful A&W franchises. Also, that year, Morongo opened the first Coco's restaurant owned by an American Indian tribe. The tribe then acquired Hadley Fruit Orchards' three retail stores and mail order operations. This year, the nation opened a $26 million Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water bottling plant. The tribe has become the largest private sector employer in the Pass Area, with almost 2000 employees, and is a major contributor to the regional economy, with an annual payroll that exceeds $25 million, while generating millions more in payroll taxes, unemployment benefits, employee benefits and health programs. A recent economic impact analysis conducted by economist Dr. John Husing estimated that jobs directly or indirectly attributable to all of the economic operations of Morongo will rise from approximately 1,726 jobs in 2002 to approximately 5,800 in 2008. Total economic impact brought to the Inland Empire area during this period will be $2.8 billion including the creation of more than 4,000 new jobs and $1.4 billion in new goods and services purchased. The band contributes to the fact that nearly 2/3 of the jobs created by tribal governments in California are held by residents of nearby communities. In addition, Morongo spends an estimated $20 million per year for goods and services purchased from about 1,200 outside vendors, about 25 percent of which are minority-owned and operated. This does not include the sale of goods and services generated by patrons visiting the area or services and merchandise purchased by tribal employees. The U.S. Department of Commerce research estimates that 42 jobs are created for every one million spent on goods and services. Meanwhile, "Morongo is exploring how to provide clean, reliable and low cost energy to its businesses, tenants and tribal members. The tribe's goal is to become energy self-sufficient, create yet another income stream and to maintain its traditional role as a steward of the environment."

     Investments of casino profits by Elk Valley Rancheria in Crescent City is reviving one of California's poorest counties. The town's dingy bowling alley experienced a $2-million face lift, while the local golf course received shiny new carts and clubs. The tribe has just opened an adjacent sports bar and grill, and been operating Harborside Internet, the only Internet service provider serving the southern coast of Oregon, since purchasing it in 1999. Planning is underway to improve 205 oceanfront acres with a four-story hotel, a performing arts center and expanding the existing nine hole golf course into an Arnold Palmer-designed 18-hole facility that local officials hope will finally land remote Del Norte County on the lucrative tourist circuit. Tapping into the county's natural beauty, the tribe also hopes to offer guided expeditions for whale watching, white-water rafting and tide-pool exploration. The tribe is the county's largest private employer with 250 workers on its payroll and 200 more anticipated with the planned oceanfront resort near the Oregon boarder. In addition to creating jobs, tribal investment has increased the wages and income of community members. A bill winding its way through the state legislature would allow the tribe to partner with the city and county to finance a greatly needed $35-million wastewater treatment plant. For the tribe, however, the casino was a clear path out of poverty. None of the 100 Rancheria members remain on government assistance, and a college fund is putting 13 students through school. The Rancheria is hoping to increase business by moving its casino from a residential street to the major north-south highway. The Tribe has petitioned the BIA to put its newly acquired land in trust, while making an agreement with the county to more than make up for the $2800 in property taxes that it would lose by pledging the neighboring government a share of bed taxes from the resort that could bring the county as much as $250,000 a year. The Elk Valley nation helps fund what is billed as the largest July 4 fireworks display between San Francisco and Portland. It has loaned money, interest-free, to the county fair board. It is taking the reins of the community's only Head Start program, which serves 60 mostly non-tribal children. And it recently hosted two Native American motivational speakers at the local high school.

     A study by the University of South Dakota, made public in July, indicated that tribal casinos increased economic growth on the state's reservations through the 1990's, but will not be sufficient to sustain future growth. Casinos have caused a rise of reservation employment, but to only 40% (compared to 95.6% for all of South Dakota). At Crow Creek, the 1993 opening of the Lode star casino increased employment from 470 workers to 610, rising to 687 by 2000. The Yankton Sioux Tribe applied profit from its Fort Randall Casino to build a travel plaza that recently commenced selling propane. The creation of the casino and the two spin off business have reduced Crow Creek unemployment to 12.2%, but that still approaches three times the south Dakota jobless rate. Thus considerable outside investment is still required to provide an economic base for reservation life. That study found that one bar to investment on the largely isolated Indian lands where, in any case, it is to attract capital, is the unstableness of the culturally inappropriate forms of tribal government imposed on South Dakota tribes by the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) in the 1930's.

     The Eastern Band of Cherokee have taken more control of their Harrah's Cherokee Casino with promotion of former tribal officials to top management posts, as the nation moves closer to being able to take over full management of the gaming operation from Harrah. The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians has made an agreement with MGM Mirage to help the nation in opening a casino in downtown Palm springs, CA, but the firm will not be a manager, only a consultant to the tribe's gaming management. The Mescalero Apache in New Mexico have opened a $6 million travel center with a mini casino. The United Auburn Indian Community opened a $215 million Thunder Valley Casino, in June, in Lincoln, CA. In May the Los Coyoytes Tribe announced plans to build a Casino off I15 near Barstow, CA. The Osage Tribe is planning to open three additional casinos in Oklahoma, in Sand Springs, North Tulsa and Bartlesville. The Kickapoo Traditional Tribe in Texas is hoping to open a new 100,000 square foot casino and event hall by the end of the year, making it possible to begin to recover from financial difficulties. The Interior Department, in May, announced approval of new gaming contracts, allowing for additional games including craps, roulette and poker, between the Potawatomi Tribe and the state of Wisconsin, leaving open the question of whether the compact is consistent with the Wisconsin constitution, The Delaware Tribe of Oklahoma got over one of many hurdles it must cross if it is to open a casino in Kansas City, KS when it obtained a three year option on land for the proposed gaming facility from the unified county-city government. An agreement between Wyandotte County, KS and the Sac and Fox and Kickapoo Tribes to provide tribal services to a $170 million casino proposed for the Kansas city Speedway area in return for tribal contributions equivalent to property taxes and a share of casino income, set the stage for a possible gaming operation. Park Place Entertainment, the world's largest casino company, has reached an agreement with the Pauma-Yuima Band of mission Indians to open a $250 million casino-500 room hotel near Temecula, CA, northeast of San Diego. The 540 member Snoqualmie Tribe of Washington received BIA approval, in September, to build a casino off Interstate 90 in Snoqualmie, WA, that would employ 700 people and include three restaurants, gift shops and a multipurpose room for live entertainment and conferences. The Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota hopes to break ground this fall on an $18 million Prarie Wind Casino expansion. The Lac Vieux Desert Band of Chippewa are reported to be near a settlement with two groups wanting to build casinos in Detroit. The gambling establishment development has been on hold for six years since the tribe brought suit in federal court, claiming that the Motor City violated the nation's constitutional rights by giving preference to the developers. It appears that the tribe is likely to receive about $35 million over 25 years in the settlement, completion of which would allow casino construction to begin. In July, the Rhode Island legislature was considering a measure that would put on the ballot the question of whether the voters wanted a single casino in the state, and if so, set up a process for choosing the location, including allowing local communities to say whether they wanted a casino. Maine voters voted down a proposal by the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes to build a Los Vegas style resort casino near Sanford in Southern Maine, while Colorado voters voted "no" on a proposal to expand casino gambling to five race tracks. Wasuau, WI had a ballot measure on whether the town should purse a Ho-Chunk Nation Plan for an in town casino. .The closing, in June, of the Meskwaki Casino, until tribal government can be reorganized, caused the Tama county, IA unemployment rate to increase 14% above its pre closing level of 3.3%.

     In the last decade, according to the U.S. Commerce Department's Census Bureau, the number of American Indian-owned businesses increased 93% from 52,980 in 1987 to 102,234 in 1992. Receipts for these businesses increased by 115% from $3.7 to $8.1 billion. A year ago, the National Summit for Emerging Tribal Economies, announced its goal of creating 100,000 jobs in Indian Country by 2008 and establishing new sustainable, market-driven tribal economies by 2020 in a wide range of industries such as fossil and renewable energy, manufacturing, agriculture, utilities and telecommunications, hospitality and tourism, aerospace, health care, construction, media and finance. According to the Virginia-based Falmouth Institute, "Native American businesses are emerging - from oyster farmers in the Northwest to Everglades tour operators in Florida. Lodging has seen a boom, particularly in the Southwest." Alaska Regional Corporations Chenga and Konig, according to Alaska Business Monthly, each came close to tripling their income from 2001 to 2002 to move up in the 49ers list of top earning Alaska firms. Chenga jumped from 24th to 12th as its earnings rose from $43.4 million to $117 million, while Konig rose to 18th with an increase in revenue from $30.9 million to $70.7 million. Both firms credited their enlarged success to increased government contracting. Over all, Alaska's 12 regional corporations have been increasing income with gross revenues of $2 billion in 1999, $2.3 billion in 2000 and $2,7 billion in 2001. Artic Slope Regional Corp and Cook Inlet Region Inc. typically bring in more than half the revenue. Alaska Native owned Sealaska Timber Corporation has received the Governor's Exporter of the Year Award. Since its creation in 1979 the firm has marketed over 3.5 billion board feet of wood world wide. Seven Fires Marketing and Management, owned by majority Indian Mandan and Kranzler Kingsly, opened in Bismarck, ND, in September, to serve Indian owned businesses in the Dakotas.

     An excellent example of tribal economic diversification is the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, which owns and operates a broad portfolio of manufacturing, service, retail and tourism enterprises throughout Mississippi, the Southeast and into Mexico. The Choctaw provide more than 8,000 permanent, full-time jobs, 65% of which are held by non-Indians. With an annual payroll of more than $123.7 million, the Choctaw Nation is one of the 10 largest employers in Mississippi. In addition, tribal revenues have helped the Choctaw to reinvest more than $210 million in economic development projects in Mississippi. The Choctaw have opened a second casino and a Hard Rock Beach Club this year and are planning a second hotel. Gross income at the band's Pearl River Resort rose from $63 million in 2001 to $75.7 million last year, while the investment cost opening of a second hotel and casino caused net income to drop from $31.4 million to $13.9 million.

     A number of Indian nations are making increasing economic gains from energy. Recent developments include a $100-million oil refinery being planned on the Three Affiliated Tribes reservation in North Dakota; The Tulalip Tribe in Washington state considering building a plant that would produce electricity from cattle waste; And the Southern Ute tribe in Colorado paying each tribal elder $55,000 this year, largely from the money it makes from gas drilling, while they and neighboring Ute Mountain Utes are initiating coal bed methane development, as are the Osage in Oklahoma and the Crow in Montana. The Fort Mohave Tribe in Arizona and California are leasing land to California based Calpine corporation for the construction of a natural gas electric generating plant. The Citizen Potawatomi Nation and Fort Sill Apache Tribe, in Oklahoma, have received grants from the U.S. Department of Energy, for the former to develop a strategic energy plan for developing energy resources and energy efficiency, and for the latter to create an energy department in its government. The Seneca Nation in New York is developing a long term energy plan for its Cattaraugus and Allegany Territories. For information, visit its web site: http://www.sni.org On the Navajo Reservation, houses distant from power lines are beginning to receive electricity from photovoltaic cell systems built by Native American Photovoltaics. As of September, 44 oft these solar systems had been installed around Winslow and Dilcon. Plans are to build them across the Navaho reservation and on other reservations. For information, call: (928)657-3520 or (718)-237-2786. Some of the energy development plans have raised concerns from tribal members. At Fort Berthold, for example, an opposition to building an on reservation refinery has developed over questions about pollution and related health issues. Similarly, coal mining on the Navajo and/or Hopi reservation would need to be expanded if a new coal fired electric generating plant is to be built on the reservation in New Mexico. The Navajo Nation's council has recently passed a resolution against continuing to take water from the N Aquifer, necessary for slurrying coal from the mine to users or distant transportation centers. The transition to wind power and other renewable forms of energy now expanding on a number of reservations (discussed in previous issues) do not raise these issues. A growing number of tribes have entered the wind power generation business including the Blackfoot Nation, the Spirit Lake Sioux and the Turtle Mountain Chippewa who have been doing so since the mid '90;s. The Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota dedicated its first wind turbine on May 1, as part of the Great Plains Inter Tribal Utility Policy.

     The Native American Bank (NAB) now offers internet banking. NAB provides services intended to aid Indian communities, and to keep Indian money in Indian Country, particularly by investing in Indian business ventures. For details call: (800)307-9199.

      At this writing, the Southern California fires have terribly impacted area tribes. Pechanga and the Pala Band of Mission Indians have opened their hotels to those tribal members, and others, that lost homes from Rincon, where 3,000 acres burned engulfing 20 houses; La Jolla, threatened by fire as of October 28; and San Pasqual, where the entire reservation burned, destroying 67 of 68 houses and killing at least two people. The casino is still in tact. At San Manuel, 98% of the vegetation burned, and two homes were damaged. Because San Manuel is located on a hillside they are suffering erosion problems. At Inaja there is an unconfirmed report that three houses were destroyed. At Barona, 40 homes and several out buildings were lost. The entire Capitan Grande reservation burned, but it contained no homes or structures. At Viejas, half the reservation burned, but no structures were lost. Jamul, Sycun, Santa Ysabel, and Mesa Grande were all under fire threat. More recent news is available at: http://www.kumeyaay.com/news/news_detail.html?id=434. A disaster relief fund has been established for California tribes and tribal members victimized by the devastating fires throughout Southern California. The fund is being established at the Borrego Springs Bank in La Mesa by the California Nations Indian Gaming Association. The fund is being established to provide immediate assistance to tribes directly impacted by the fires. It will be a permanent fund for future disasters. Indian people and nations around the U.S. have been contributing. To contribute or for information contact: The Disaster Relief Fund for Tribes, Borrego Springs Bank, ATTN: Joanne McBride, 7777 Alvarado Road, Suite 114, La Mesa, CA 91941. Tribal leaders have met with fire and federal officials at the Pechanga Indian Reservation to gather information on emergency and reconstruction assistance. Among the agencies that were represented were the California Department of Forestry, the American Red Cross, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and California Indian Legal Services. On November 3, federal emergency officials begin touring local reservations to survey the damage. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has made available $2,000 in emergency assistance money to each Indian family displaced by the fire, while the Indian Health Council has set up a mobile clinic at the Pechanga casino facilities for health and counseling services. The SanManuel Band of Mission Indians has provided bottled water to firefighters and is donating $1 million in disaster relief to various organizations and victims of the fires in San Bernardino. Volunteers from the Morongo Band of Mission Indians have been delivering thousands of hot turkey dinners to evacuees at one of the largest American Red Cross shelters in the region and the tribe has contributed $1 million to the Red Cross for its disaster relief efforts on behalf of the residents of Riverside County.

     The increase in extremely damaging forest fires in Montana in the last three years has provided significant employment and income to tribal members on the State's seven Indian reservations, where unemployment rates around 80% are typical. By the beginning of September, for example 625 Blackfeet firefighters, the largest number from any Montana reservation, and support staff had earned more than $3 million, already surpassing the season totals for  both 2001 and 2002. Fort Belknap, which has more than 200 firefighters, had earned more than $1.4 million. The state's smallest reservation, Rocky Boy's, has only roughly 150 firefighters and crewmembers. While the total of this year's earnings by Montana Indian firefighters isn't available, in 2000, firefighters dispatched through the Montana Indian Firefighters program took home $13.5 million. Firefighting paychecks boost reservation businesses, and the money flows into enterprises in nearby communities, as most tribal member shopping is off reservation. The Fort Apache reservation, in Arizona, which lost about a third of its timber in the 450,000 Rodeo-Chediski forest fire last year, lost another 20,000 wooded acres to the Kinishba blaze, this summer. While this summer's fire further cut into the tribe's logging resources, it has not injured hunting.

     The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde’ of Oregon has made an offer to build a $350-million baseball stadium in Portland. The stadium proposal is part of a larger effort by tribal officials to diversify its economy through real estate and small businesses. The tribe has undertaken four major non-reservation developments, including an upscale $37-million, 148-unit mixed-use condominium project in Portland's upscale Pearl District, called The Gregory Loft, and Russellville Commons, a $19 million 287-unit mixed-used condominium project also in Portland. For more information contact Shawna Rorem at (503) 399-6737.

      The federal Economic Development Administration (EDA) has approved a $701,000 grant to the Metlakatla Indian Community in Alaska to help improve their seafood industry, the Annette Island Packing Company. EDA estimates that the investment should help create 146 new jobs in the community and also preserve 100 predominately fishing jobs on the island. The Department of agriculture, in July, awarded a $750,000 grant to the Joint Arapahoe-Shoshone council on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming to establish a revolving loan fund and provide technical assistance to businesses in order to create jobs in the surrounding communities. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, following up on the building of a kill center and a food processing facility designed to establish a retail meat business with local producers, has presented a $136,454 grant to Si Tanka College at Eagle Butte, SD, on the Pine Ridge reservation, to help finance a beef and bison producing plant as part of the Lakota Beef/Bison Value Added program.

     The Muckleshoot Tribe completed eight years of planning and construction, opening its $30 million, 20,000-seat White River Amphitheatre, in June, with the Seattle rock group, Heart, with sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson. The Chickasaw Nation opened its Texoma, OK Travel Plaza, with a restaurant, a tobacco shop, entertainment area and a convenience store, in July. In North Dakota, the Three Affiliated Tribes' MHA Systems, a technology company, has gained a $3.4 million Defense Department contract to transfer military instruction manuals from paper to computer disks.

     The spring issue of Tribal College Journal addresses cultural resilience, focusing upon a strengths-based approach that taps students' natural resilience to help them graduate and succeed. This issue features articles by some of the country's most prominent American Indian and non-Indian scholars in the field. Iris HeavyRunner (Blackfeet/Crow) and Kathy Marshall explain why it is important to shift from seeing individuals and families as "damaged" to understanding how they can survive and regenerate despite overwhelming stress. For more information contact: (970)533-9170, www.tribalcollegejournal.org.

America's 58 tribal colleges are these days drawing more students than ever before, While nearly doubling their student enrollment during the past decade, Created in the late 1960s to provide poverty-ridden reservation Indians with skills for the U.S. job market, the colleges are now educating more than 30,000 full- and part-time students each semester, with most of the campuses located in the Great Plains states and the Southwest. Most of these specialized community colleges award two-year associate degrees. They have triggered a surge of interest among students in courses dealing with Native American culture, language and art. Seven of the reservation-linked schools have expanded into four-year degree-granting colleges in recent years and several offer master's degrees. In addition, tribal colleges are helping the country's 1.5 million reservation-area Indians cope with poverty and unemployment, which is now estimated at 49 percent in many communities. An American Indian Higher Education Consortium survey found that only 10 percent of Native Americans who enter mainstream, four-year colleges and universities directly from high school earn a degree, whereas the graduation rate jumps to more than 90 percent for those who have first attended a two-year tribal college. United Colleges Technical College in North Dakota, concerned the Bush Administration seeks to eliminate its funding, released a report, in June, showing that the school contributes $44 million a year to the economy of Bismarck, and $54 million annual to the state and national economies. After a two year delay from lack of funding, construction of a new $40 million dollar Dine College Campus has resumed at Shiprock, NM. Sitting Bull College at Fort Yates, ND, serving the Standing Rock Reservation, has raised $10 million of $40 million that it is seeking for a new campus, and has built a cultural center and ten homes for students and faculty.

     The University of Arizona announced a fellowship program, in October, aimed at increasing the number of Native American master's and Ph.D.s recipients in science, engineering and agriculture. The program is designed to produce a cadre of highly trained Native Americans who can help spur economic development in their reservations and communities and occupy leadership positions in academia, government and the corporate world. A minimum of 12 master's and 3 Ph.D. fellowships will be awarded each year to newly admitted Native American students in one of 62 graduate programs offered by UA in science, engineering, agricultural science, and mathematics. Sloan Fellowships carry a total stipend of $30,000 for master's and $36,000 for Ph.D. students and carry in-state and out-of-state tuition waivers and individual health insurance for each year in the program. Students can supplement these funds through tribal and other scholarships as well as research and teaching assistantships offered by their graduate programs. Tutoring, social and cultural programs, and limited travel funds for family emergencies and ceremonial events are available, as well as the use of the American Indian Graduate Center. For further information and application materials, contact Maria Teresa Velez, Ph.D., Associate Dean, Graduate College, Administration #322, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, (520) 621-7814, mvelez@u.arizona.edu.

     The Law School Admissions Council has given $40,000 grants, each, to expand Native American pre-law and outreach programs in 2003-04, to Washington State University, the University of Tulsa, The University of Montana, the University of South Dakota, the University of North Dakota and the University of Wyoming. The Northern Arapahoe Business Council, and the Eastern Shoshone Tribe have signed agreements with the University of Wyoming to enhance educational opportunities for American Indians. The University of Idaho philosophy department has received a $411,446 grant from the National Science Foundation to create an electronic database of legal information for Indian tribes throughout the U.S.

     The Second Annual Indian Studies Conference of the Big Ten and University of Chicago's Consortium on Institutional Cooperation was held at the Newberry Library in Chicago, in September.

     The National Charter School Clearing House declared the American Indian Charter School a model public charter school, in May. The school moved in two years from being on the brink of closure in 2000 to achieve an Academic Performance Index (API) increase that outpaces any middle school in California and is the fourth highest overall in the state. Where two years ago none of the school's seventh graders met the average in math language or reading, by the end of Spring 2002 in math and language almost half of American Indian's seventh graders were on par with the national average. These accomplishments were made among a student population where 96% of students qualified for free/reduced lunch and 5-20% of students were homeless, The school credits its turn around to dynamic and dedicated staff and families as well as supportive community partners. After a reprieve by the Oakland School Board in August 2000, the school reorganized, focusing itself on creating a safe community for students while making demanding academic expectations.  Attendance, moved from the low 80% range to 99% for the school's 137 students. One class had 31 consecutive days without a single absence. The Star School, Tolani Lake Elementary Academy and Little Singer Community School are three Arizona Navajo charter schools using culturally appropriate place based education techniques to meet federal and state standards for contemporary education while helping students gain a firm foundation in their own culture. The Del Norte County Office of Education in partnership with the Northern California Indian Development Council established the Native American Magnet School, an alternative educational program for students residing in Del Norte County, California. The Native American Magnet School incorporates local tribal cultures and traditions, while expecting students to meet high academic standards in a curriculum designed to meet or exceed California's performance standards. For more information E-mail: magnetschool2000@yahoo.com. This fall the Southern Ute Academy, in collaboration with personnel from tribal services, is offering a Parenting Circle, for local parents to share parenting concerns and experiences, to consider alternative parenting methods, and to help improve parenting. The Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania is working with 31 teachers from seven eastern States, under a $200,000 National Endowment for the Humanities Grant, to create an educational program concerning the role of woodland Indians in the French an Indian War, on the 250th anniversary of that conflict. To meet the shortage of Oklahoma teachers fluent in Cherokee, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma has received a $260,000 grant from the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a curriculum for a bachelor's degree for Cherokee language teachers. Native American Advanced Education Fund works to fill weak spots in education for Native Americans, including the need for mentoring and apprenticeship programs that offer hands on and on the job training. Their initial program in Medford, OR training Native American youth to be top mechanics for cars and bikes, and in drag racing. For more information contact Native American Advanced Education Fund. (877)485-3673 or (541)494-4001.

     Indian Uprising is a one-half hour Public Affairs & Cultural program, for, by and about American Indian people.  The program is broadcast each Sunday at 4:00 p.m. over KFAI Fresh Air Radio, 90.3 FM Minneapolis and 106.7 FM St. Paul. For more information call (612)341-3144. Nick News Special Edition (on cable network Nickelodeon) is currently producing a half hour television program about children who live on Indian Reservations. This special will show viewers the diversity of Native American cultures. The producers feel that telling the stories of children living on different Reservations throughout the United States, will teach viewers about Native American life today. As much as possible, these stories will be told from the point of view of the children themselves and in their own words. For details Contact: Raven Miller National American Indian Housing Council: (202)789-1754. "American Indian Airwaves" can be heard every Wednesday from 3pm to 4pm on KPFK FM 90.7 in Los Angeles, FM 98.7 in Santa Barbara, and streaming via the Internet with Real Media Player. For information contact Larry Smith (Lumbee Nation), American Indian Airwaves Co-host, KPFK, 3729 Cahuenga Blvd.West, North Hollywood, CA 91604.

     The Native American Times, published in Tulsa, OK, has began publishing a semi-monthly New Mexico edition, in Albuquerque, in September. For details, contact co-publisher Jim Spaulding (505)286-4368,  www.NativetimesNM.com.

     During the week of September 5-13, The American Indian Film Institute brought it's Tribal Touring Program to the Hoopa Valley Indians. The program uses digital filmmaking to help Native American youth positively express their ideas in the hope of building positive leaders and future filmmakers. The program begins by placing the tools of cutting-edge media technology in the hands of native youth through on-site digital video workshops. These workshops are intended to bridge the gap between the film industry and Native American communities. The Tribal Touring Program also takes Native films and filmmakers on the road participating in a community based film festival. The program concluded with the Hoopa Community Film Festival featuring films written, directed, shot, acted and edited by Hoopa youth. For more information contact Pamela Risling (530)625-4040, http://www.hoopa-nsn.gov/.

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International Indigenous Developments

     The second meeting of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York, in May, had a special focus on indigenous children and youth and included daily meetings of the Indigenous youth caucus. "The members of the Permanent Forum had chosen this theme in order to focus attention on the survival of indigenous peoples. That it is the physical and mental health of indigenous children who will ensure the survival growth and prosperity of the peoples from whom they come. Without ensuring that they are appropriately educated in their indigenous languages, cultures and values with indigenous pedagogy as the basis of their learning, indigenous peoples and their unique and precious cultures will not survive in this globalized world. Essentially, if that is not fostered and nurtured all existing cultures and peoples loose something precious." The Forum recommended that United Nations bodies address issues related to the trafficking and sexual exploitation of indigenous girls, and urged states to create rehabilitation programs. In view of the massive exodus of indigenous youth to alien cities worldwide, it also recommended that the World Bank, the International Labor Organization (ILO), and UNICEF carry out an in-depth comparative study of legal frameworks and social programs for indigenous youth in selected countries. The Forum also recommended that governments and United Nations bodies prepare specific policies and implement programs for indigenous children and youth to promote their human rights, strengthen, recover and conserve their languages, promote their culture and education, reaffirm their traditional knowledge, and contribute to their self-esteem. In addition, considering the large number of incarcerated indigenous children and youth, it recommended that ECOSOC urge governments to ensure greater protection and humane treatment for those imprisoned individuals, and take steps to rehabilitate them. With respect to health, the Forum urged the relevant UN bodies to incorporate indigenous healers and cultural perspectives on health and illness into their policies, and to undertake regional consultations with indigenous peoples on those issues. It also urged States to expand their national health systems to provide holistic health programs for indigenous children. In addition, states should address malnutrition in indigenous children by adopting special measures to ensure and protect the cultivation of traditional food crops. The Forum also recommended that the World Health Organization (WHO) undertake a study on the prevalence and causes of suicide among indigenous youth. In the area of the environment (document E/C.19/2003/L.14), the Forum requested the United Nations system organize a workshop on resource extraction and indigenous peoples to further dialogue on corporate accountability and the rehabilitation of mined-out areas, polluted water bodies, compensation of adversely affected communities, and sustainable development and land rights, with a view to developing a mechanism to address those issues. The Forum also recommended that an international ethical code on bio-prospecting be set up to avoid bio-piracy and ensure the respect for indigenous cultural and intellectual heritage. Regarding education (document E/C.19/2003/L.18), the Forum recommended creating academic institutions to train indigenous leaders, and urged public and private universities to develop curriculum on indigenous peoples.  It also recommended that States reduce illiteracy rates, truancy, and drop-out rates, and promote primary education in States where indigenous people lived.  In addition, the Forum should rescue, foster and divulge the history and culture of indigenous peoples in education systems to strengthen their identity In the area of culture (document E/C.19/2003/L.17), the Forum recommended that governments introduce indigenous languages in public administration in indigenous territories wherever possible, and that governments and United Nations bodies support indigenous media and promote the engagement of indigenous youth in indigenous programmes.  It also called for the increased participation of indigenous representatives in World Intellectual Property Organization sessions. For more information go to: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/pfii/.

     The Twenty First session of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Peoples (WGIP), in Geneva, Switzerland in July, made progress on developing Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Movement was accomplished on issues such as protecting the cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and expression and genetic resources of indigenous people. Finding alternatives to current globalization which protect diversity and protect indigenous social, political and economic institutions and processes, was discussed, as was preventing and ameliorating ecological disasters, particularly those that impact indigenous people, including the threat of rising oceans from global warming to island and costal peoples. At the WGIP session, the World Bank announced that it will give $600,000 a year for three years to establish a grants facility for indigenous people, which would grant directly to non governmental and indigenous peoples organizations. The granting organization's board will have a majoprity of indigenous people, elected by indigenous peoples' representative caucuses.

     Talks have recently begun at the United Nations on a convention on cultural diversity to protect 'native cultures' from international homogenization. It would take cultural goods, such as films, plays books and music out of the realm of trade negotiations and free trade rules, allowing governments to protect and support their cultural industries. Depending if it passes, and how it is drawn up and applied, and how national governments act in cultural areas, it could benefit native peoples.

     A new Inuit territory nearly as big as South Carolina would be established in northeastern Canada under an agreement announced August 29, completing decades of government negotiations with the people commonly known as Eskimos. Labrador's Inuit would govern a 29,000-square-mile territory to be called Nunatsiavut, which means "our beautiful land" in the Inuktitut language, under the agreement, which still requires ratification by the 5,000-member Labrador Inuit Association. In August, the Canadian Government signed an agreement with the Dogrib First Nation for the 3,000 member nation to assume control of over 15,210 square miles in the Northwest Territory, including both of Canada's diamond mines. The four Dogib communities will elect councilors and chiefs, certain of whom will comprise the Tli Cho government of the territory. The Tli Cho will control hunting, fishing and industrial development, with current land ownership continuing. The First nation government will share in revenues from extensive developments along the McKezie River and will receive all royalties from resources on its own lands. The federal government will continue to control criminal law, while the Northwest Territories government will remain running health, education and other services. The agreement must be ratified by Parliament, and will likely go into effect in the spring. In September, The Caldwell First Nation, in Ontario, in August, voted down ratification of its negotiated treaty with Canada, which would have given the nation $23.4 million to buy back up to 1,800 hectares of land within 25 years. However, the vote has been challenged for irregularities concerning mail in ballots. The Canadian government has decided that the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation are correct that they were never properly compensated for the land on which the city of Toronto now stands, and is negotiating a settlement with the tribe.

     Canada's first aboriginal-run university, The First Nations University of Canada opened in July. As of June, 80% of Canada's First Nation schools were connected to the Internet, with the First Nations School Net Program (FNSP) working to increase the hookups while visiting schools to help students work on line. FNSP is part of the broader initiative led by Industry Canada in conjunction with the Assembly of First nations, telecommunications firms, and aboriginal communities.

     The Aboriginal Forum on Water Treatment, in June, expressed virtual unanimity that the federal government needs to do more to ensure reserves across the country have safe drinking water, following a federal survey finding 75 per cent of drinking water systems on reserves in need critical repairs or upgrades. The federal government recently committed $600 million for water treatment and has been implementing mitigation measures with a focus on high and medium-risk water and wastewater systems, but some First Nation and other commentators believe more is necessary with First Nations very underdeveloped in infrastructure. Forum chairman Robin Wortman suggested that smaller municipalities team up with First Nations on water treatment. Responsibility for providing water and wastewater services to First Nations is shared among band councils, Health Canada, and the Indian and Northern Affairs Department. Morgan Green's (Six Nations) Onkwehonwene Anishinabek Sustainable Integrated Systems (OASAIS) consulting company has been advising First Nations on environmentally friendly community development, including the building of energy efficient environment friendly houses.

     The Battlefords Tribal Council of Saskatchewan, with the help of a $350,000 contribution from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada has purchased one of the most well known communication firms in western Canada, MGM Communications. The money for the INAC contribution was part of the Opportunities Fund established to help provide matching equity capital to assist First Nations and Inuit businesses in obtaining conventional loan financing to start-up, purchase or expand a business.

     The Canadian Supreme Court, in September, ruled that Metis (mixed blood descendants of French settlers and Indians) who can show a direct link to their historical community have the same hunting rights as so called full status Indians, giving at least some of Canada's 300,000 Metis legal status as a Native group for the first time. Tax immunity for almost 30,000 aboriginal people who live off-reserve across western Canada is in question after the federal Court of Appeal, in June, struck down a lower court decision of March 2002 holding that more than 100 years an oral agreement had been made oficial and gave members of the Treaty 8 Tribal Council total tax freedom, even if they live off reserve. About half the people covered by Treaty 8 live off-reserve in Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories. The Indian Act says that status Indians don't have to pay income and sales taxes if they live on reserve. Native leaders, disappointed with the decision and concerned that it could be a setback for other treaty rights and negotiations say they will appeal the issue to the Supreme Court. A Canadian appeals court in New Brunswick ruled in August that a Mi'Kmaq logger had a right to harvest logs on government land historically occupied by his people. The emphasis in the decision was "in assuring that the Mi'Kmaq have equitable access to identified resources for purposes of earning a moderate living." The case will likely be appealed to Canada's Supreme Court. The Mi'kmak of Newfoundland were preparing to file a class action suite against Canada, in July, on behalf of about 20,000 of their potential members, claiming that they deserved recognition. Earlier, the Royal Commission on Renewing and Strengthening Our Place in Canada had found that aboriginal people, including the Mi'kmak, and the Inuit and Innu of Labrador, were left out of the terms of union and not given status under the Indian Act when Newfoundland became a province in 1949. In June, the Ti'azt First Nation of British Columbia was preparing to sue the Canadian government for serious health problems, allegedly resulting from mercury pollution of drinking from a World War II era mine.

     Survival International the worldwide organization supporting tribal peoples, marked August 9, UN Day for Indigenous People, by naming the three tribes currently facing the greatest danger to their survival. The AYoreo-totobiegodode of western Paraguay are the last uncontacted Indians south of the Amazon basin. Over the last century, most of their land has been taken by loggers and cattle ranchers. Illegal incursions onto their land are increasing, and the Indians' last refuge is being squeezed from all sides. Survival International reported, in late July, that, Illegal incursions into the territory of uncontacted Ayoreo-Totobiegosode Indians in Paraguay are continuing. Landowners are erecting fences along tracks bulldozed illegally into the forest, in the first step to clearing the forest and introducing cattle. Bulldozers illegally invaded the land of the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode tribe of the Chaco region at the end of September. The Gana and Gwi 'Bushmen' and their neighbours the Bakgalagadi were evicted from their ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana in 2002. The government claims this is to 'develop'  them - but since the evictions, their land has been carved up for diamond exploration by companies including De Beers and BHP Billiton. Meanwhile, the Bushmen are forced to live in grim government camps where their way of life is falling apart, and they are desperate to return home. In August, A motion was signed by 32 British MPs, calling on Parliament to support the Bushmen's right to their ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, The Jarawa tribe, who number only 250-300 and live in the rainforests of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean, hunting with bows and arrows, have resisted contact with settlers from mainland India for 150 years. Now, they are at risk of exploitation, and diseases to which they have no immunity, due to a road bulldozed through their land. An unknown number have already died in a measles epidemic. Survival's director Stephen Corry said, 'The Ayoreo-Totobiegosode, the Bushmen and the Jarawa live in totally contrasting environments across three continents, yet the racism and the threats they face are startlingly similar. Unless these tribes are allowed to live on their own land in peace, they will not survive.' For more information contact Miriam Ross: (+44) (0)20 7687 8734, email mr@survival-international.org, http://www.survival-international.org.

     Raramuri (Tarahumara) Indians in the Mountains of Northern Mexico have long been involved in a conflict to stop clear cut logging (as opposed to sustainable selective cutting) in their area. For a number of years, beginning in the mid1980's, a number of the Raramuri anti logging activists were murdered. Earlier this year, several of them were arrested on what they claim are trumped up charges, after a successful road blockade brought an end to logging by a non-Indian community.

     The Phenix Group of Florida is planning to build an oil pipeline from coast to coast across Nicaragua, which threatens to be disastrous to the Monkey Point Indigenous community, which is protesting the use of its land for the oil transfer project. The Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Honduras (COPINH) staged a major demonstration early this fall, in front of Government House in Tegucigalapa, in which 18 demonstrators hung themselves on crosses, protesting the social ills caused, or not addressed, by government policies, which fail to provide adequate services in the nation's 18 departments for the country's poorest communities, while fostering globalization that is destructive to people in the countryside.

     The Fourth Appeals Court, in Guatemala, in May, overturned the conviction of Col. Juan Valencia for planning the murder of anthropologist Myrna Mack, in 1990. Mack had exposed Army human rights abuses against Indians during the civil war. Many commentators complain that since the end of the civil war, the military has continued to exert undue influence in the Guatemalan courts. A case against the Guatemalan government for failing to provide justice in the Mack case is pending before the Inter-American Court. Thus the human rights of all citizens, and especially of indigenous people, remain threatened. This fall, General Efrain Rios Montt, who seized power in 1982 and whose brutal policies caused about almost 20,000 deaths in the next year and a half, has intimidated his way into being a major candidate for President. He is currently president of the National Congress. In July he called for a demonstration in support of his candidacy just before the Constitutional Court was to decide on his eligibility. About 5,000 masked supporters armed with machetes and clubs invaded the capital, shut down the U.S. embassy, terrorized workers at several human rights organizations and chased journalists (one of whom was beaten, while a second died of a heart attack) while neither the police or the army intervened. The court then stated that the constitutional ban on those who had seized power serving as President was not retroactive, and thus did not apply to Montt. Among those running against Montt for President, is Queme Chay, Guatemala's first indigenous mayor, Chay focus is primarily on assisting poor Guatemalans, many of whom are indigenous, developing a strong and appropriate economy. He sees education as a more important vehicle of development than land reform. Chay would fully implement the peace accords that were agreed upon to end Guatemala's civil war, and would fight against organized crime and corruption, which he sees as permeating the current administration. Meanwhile, the Political Association of Maya Women (Moloj), in Guatemala, with assistance from the Soros Foundation, has developed an education program to empower and encourage indigenous people to participate effectively in the political process.

     In Colombia, 118 Indians have been killed in the first half of 2003, as the civil war has become more intense. Many of these murders took place in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, where a group of tourists, including one Briton, is currently held captive by left-wing guerrillas. In July hundreds of members of the Paez tribe forced the release of a Swiss man working to assist indigenous people, after he was kidnapped by leftest fighters of FARC. The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is home to three unique, related Indian tribes: the Kogi, Arhuaco and Arsario, who have been at the forefront of the movement for Indian rights in Colombia. Despite the Indians' peaceful nature, for several decades the Sierra Nevada has been a battleground between the army, left-wing guerrillas and paramilitary armies that has seen the Indians caught in the crossfire. Dozens of Indians have been killed in the quasi-civil war raging on their land, and the lower slopes of the mountain have been colonized by settlers, many of them growing coca and heroin poppies for the drug trade. In February this year an Arsario village was bombarded for several days by the Colombian army, forcing the inhabitants to flee. For more information and photos, please contact Miriam Ross of Survival International, (+44) (0)20 7687 8734, http://www.survival-international.org/. The last nomadic tribe in Columbia, Nukak-Maku Indians who roam the jungles of southeast Colombia, are facing extinction as contact with outsiders has brought disease and the combination of the pressures of the civil war and encroaching civilization impact their way of life. It is estimated that their numbers have dropped from about 1200, several years ago, to about 380 people, today. Humanitarian assistance for those who can no longer hunt and gather, while needed, has brought some disease, from change of diet, and is creating problems of dependence.

     In July, Four elderly Pehuenche Indian women were blocking completion of a $570 million hydroelectric dam at Ralc, in southern Chile, saying it would flood sacred land and destroy their way of life. For six years the women have rejected offers of up to $1.1 million, and land in exchange for their 103 acres on the banks of the Bio Bio River that Chile's Endesa power company needs to finish its giant power station project. 89 of the 93 Pehuenche families affected by Ralco have already accepted compensation and agreed to move to new properties up to 37 miles away. The Chilean government and Endesa, which is controlled by Spain's Endesa, say the 540-megawatt dam, which is almost 90 percent complete, is crucial to meet Chile's energy needs and help economic growth. However, Indians and environmentalists have fought the project in court, saying it would destroy unique forests and endangered wildlife as well as ancient cemeteries, religious ceremonial grounds and Pehuenche communities. Endesa insists the country's 1982 Electricity Law allows expropriation of private property to provide energy for the public good regardless of whether it is indigenous land. However, the 1993 Indigenous Law states land owned by native peoples cannot be sold without the owners' consent. A pending court ruling may settle the question. If the court were to rule against Endesa, the firm may have to tear apart everything it has built so far of the dam. Mapuche International (www.mapuche-nation.org) and Project Underground are working to stop Canadian Noranda corporation from expanding its aluminum smelter operation into the alsen region of Pategonia, disrupting and polluting the ecology of the third least contaminated region in the world,

     A massive popular mobilization of indigenous and other people in Bolivia, blocking all highways into the capital city and besieging the presidential palace, forced the resignation of the President, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, in mid October, when the President lost key political support while the security apparatus was unwilling to stage a massive and bloody crackdown a-la Pinochet in Chile. The mobilization arose out of a non-violent movement primarily involving Aymara peasants, an indigenous group making up about a quarter of Bolivia's population, based in El Alto, an Aymara city of some 700,000, but now extending, to the hillside neighborhoods of Upper Miraflores, Munaypata, Villa Victoria, Villa del C‡rmen, Villa F‡tima and the Cemetery of La Paz.  The movement's demands include the formation of a new Constituent Assembly, a repeal of the privatization and foreign investment laws, and a cessation of the government's plan for a $5.2 billion dollar natural gas pipeline project, controlled by a consortium of multinational energy companies to export Bolivia's natural gas to the United States, via Chile. The President had agreed to put the export plan up for a national referendum, but this was not enough to satisfy those demanding his resignation. The movement does not oppose gas exports by Bolivia, only the terms under which it was to be undertaken in the governments plan, which would have benefited only the elite, and not average Bolivians. How Bolivia's huge reserves of gas are to be exploited, and who the benefits will accrue to, are heated political issues in Bolivia. Previous export cycles of non-renewable commodity exports of silver through the 19th century, guano and rubber later that century and tin in the 20th century have never laid the basis for a prosperous, productive and just society. On the contrary, Bolivia is one of the least prosperous and most unjust societies in Latin America. The question Bolivians are rightly asking is, 'how will this next round of non-renewable commodity exports be turned into real development?' The movement succeeded in ousting the President, despite terrible repression. There was a massacre in late September, and dozens more were killed by police and security forces during the siege of La Paz. The current conflict is a continuation of a mass mobilization that occurred in January-February of 2003.  At that time, a movement of campesinos demanded the suspension of coca eradication, the repudiation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and re-nationalization and an end to privatization. The security apparatus nearly divided, but in the end remained with the government and repressed the movement, with over 20 killed and many more injured. The elections of June 2002 set Bolivia on the road to the current crisis as well.  In those elections, a new party, the Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS) led by Evo Morales, a representative of the coca growers of the Chapare region, came very close to winning the election. MAS is a coalition of social movements, including peasants and worker's unions, with a strong stance against privatizations and corporate globalization.  The Vice President, Carlos Mesa, a former journalist, not previously a politician, put on the ticket to make de Lozada's candidacy more viable, and who distanced himself from the President during the siege, has become the new president, saying that he would serve as a nonpartisan caretaker until early elections can be held. More information is available from ZNet's Bolivia Watch: http://www.zmag.org. Other sources include:  http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com, http://www.essential.org, http://www.fpif.org, and http://www.consortiumnews.com.

     In May, leaders of the Secoya Tribe in the Bolivian Amazon visited Chevron Texaco's home town of San Ramon, CA, to demand that the oil company clean up serious pollution it has caused, and to ask local residents to pressure the firm to do so, after the tribe filed suite against the energy firm in Bolivia, claiming that Chevron Texaco has pumped contaminated water into open pits, contaminating the tribe's drinking water, and causing a variety of serious health problems including cancer.

      Survival states that that there is an Urgent need for the President of Brazil to protect Indian territory. Twelve thousand Indians are at serious risk because of the government's delay in ratifying the boundaries of Raposa Serra da Sol, their homeland in northern Brazil. The Indians are members of the Makuxi, Wapixana, IngarikÛ, Taurepang and Patamona tribes. Miners and cattle ranchers have invaded their territory illegally. In Brazil, in violation of an agreement, Furnas, the electricity company whose hydropower dam flooded the land of the Av· Canoeiro, has stopped its compensation payments to the tribe. On September 22, a ten-year-old Brazilian Indian became the twenty-first Indian murdered, mostly in conflicts over land, since Luiz In·cio 'Lula' da Silva, generally pro-Indian, became President in January 2003.

     Throughout the Americas Native People and groups and their supporters have again been seeking an ending to celebration of Columbus Day or substitution of an alternative indigenous solidarity or honoring event, this October. Among them is Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who urged Latin Americans not to celebrate Columbus Day, saying the 1492 discovery of the Americas triggered a 500-year "genocide" of native Indians by foreign conquerors who behaved "worse than Hitler."

      The European Parliament adopted strong new resolutions supporting indigenous peoples' rights in Africa, in mid September. The parliament announced it 'strongly' supports the demands of the Pygmies, 'Bushmen' ('Basarwa') and others to be recognized as indigenous peoples. Indigenous and tribal peoples' right to communal ownership of their land is guaranteed under international law, but many African countries fail to recognize this. The parliament also resolved that its agreements must contain 'specific clauses and mechanisms to assess respect for and the protection of the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples, who are all too often the victims of extremely serious and systematic violations'. Meanwhile, a member of the European Parliament, Richard Howitt, has asked that 'European Union funding of the Wildlife Conservation and Management  Programme in Botswana should be made dependent on the proper recognition of Bushman land rights in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and on Bushmen being allowed to return freely to their land within the Central Kalahari Game Reserve'.

     In Botswana, police have been physically preventing Gana and Gwi 'Bushmen' and Bakgalagadi returning to their homes or visiting relatives in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, their ancestral land. Botswana's government has driven almost all the Bushmen out of the reserve, which is now almost entirely covered in diamond exploration concessions. Survival International, which has been building international support for the Bushman, has recently been labeled a 'terrorist' organization by a senior figure in both Debswana, De Beers's Botswana diamond mining subsidiary, and the government. SHRO-Cairo reported, in April, that the Sudan Government's Arab Militia had assassinated Reverend Saleh Dakoro, the Shaikh of the Massaleit, one of the peoples of DarFur displaced by the government from their traditional lands. The parliament announced it 'strongly' supports the demands of the Pygmies, 'Bushmen' and others to be recognized as indigenous peoples. Bushmen attending a conference on 'San development' organized in September by the University of Botswana called for their land rights to be recognized and denounced their recent relocation from their ancestral land, and 'government efforts to end their culture and assimilate them into the mainstream'.

     On October 14, the Constitutional Court of South Africa ruled that an indigenous people, the Richtersveld people who live in Northern Cape Province, had both communal land ownership and mineral rights over their territory. Laws which tried to dispossess them were 'racial discrimination'. The 3,000 Richtersveld people who live in Northern Cape Province are from the Nama subgroup of Khoikhoi peoples, and have always lived in the area called Richtersveld until they were evicted in the 1950s to make way for a diamond mine, now owned by the South African government. Five years ago, the people took both the government and the mining company to court, claiming ownership rights over both 85,000 hectares of land and the minerals it contains. They lost the case, but then appealed, and the appeal court ruled in their favor. Then the mining company appealed. Yesterday's judgment, from the Constitutional Court, is final. The decision is that indigenous people who own land under their own, unwritten, law have the right to have this upheld in spite of other legal systems which are subsequently imposed by the state. This has important implications for countries like Botswana, which also operate under the same 'Roman-Dutch' legal system, and where indigenous 'Bushmen' tribes - long discriminated against by the dominant Tswana tribes - are now being forcibly evicted from their reserve in the central Kalahari to make way for diamond mining in the future. If the South African ruling is applied, then the Bushmen own their ancestral land (as they do under the international law which is not recognized in Botswana), and the diamond companies, like De Beers, should not be there at all. In March, the San Council, the elected representatives of the San Peoples of South Africa, and the South African Government's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, jointly announced their agreement to share the benefits of what could be a very lucrative diet pill, developed in large part from traditional San knowledge of plants and their uses.

     The Tanzanian government announced in august that it will remove more than 200 Maasai families from the Ngorongoro Crater, one of the country's most profitable tourist sites. The Maasai fear this is just the beginning of a plan to evict all of them who live in the region of the Crater. Survival International is backing their protests.

     In Cameroon, after years of pressure from the Mbororo and Survival International supporters, an official commission has started to investigate charges that a prominent politician and rancher has been persecuting the Mbororo cattle herders of northwest Cameroon.

     The September edition of environmental magazine The Ecologist includes an in-depth investigation into the eviction of the Gana and Gwi 'Bushmen' in Botswana. It reveals that since 1997 the government of Botswana has been uprooting the Bushmen from their ancestral lands and moving them to resettlement camps. Cultural Survival carried an article, "Manuscripts for Peace in Mali", by Larry Childs and Issa Mohamed, in its Spring issue, stating that, "Malian democracy now has the potential to lead West Africa, and even all of Africa, in the creation of the pluri-ethnic state. In Mali, cultural diversity is celebrated as an asset rather than opposed as a threat to monolithic national identity. Government officials, traditional leaders and NGOs hold a strong conviction the historic Timbuktu manuscripts from the 12th through 19th centuries could further cultivate a distinctive Malian development paradigm-one rooted in this ancient culture of rapprochement. Scholars during this period, commonly referred to as Ambassadors of Peace, used the written word extensively to guide leaders of Malian empires that once spanned vast areas of West Africa. The writings, influenced by traditional African thought and the Islamic faith, are written in Arabic and languages indigenous to the region. They are relevant today for their treatises on tolerance and peaceful means to resolve conflicts."

     In Afghanistan, the Welfare Association for the Development of Afghanistan have and other groups been working with traditional tribal democracy in the meetings of village elders (maliks) in an attempt to form a basis for Twenty-First Century democracy for the nation. So far the bringing of current national issues and simpler modern technologies (e.g. markers and newsprint) into inclusive local meetings is at the pilot project stage, but the number of such meetings is increasing. By June, the plan is to have trained 450 maliks in 9 districts.

     The administration in India's Andaman Islands is defying a Supreme Court order to close a road running through the reserve of the isolated Jarawa tribe. Until the road is closed, the Jarawa  are at great risk of catching fatal diseases. Morover, the government has been relocating Jarwa people away from their home territory to places where they can no longer live self-sufficiently, pursuing their traditional culture. The recently-contacted Jarawa were given new hope in 2002 when the Supreme Court issued an order protecting its rights. The ruling ordered the removal of all settlers from Jarawa land and the closure of the road running through their reserve. Most of the settlers moved out following the decision. The Jarawa are nomadic hunter-gatherers, who have resisted contact with settlers on the Andaman Islands for nearly 150 years. They live in the rainforest, hunting with bows and arrows, and remained hostile to outsiders until very recently. Since 1948, thousands of Indian settlers have invaded the Jarawa reserve. The 'Andaman Trunk Road' was built illegally through their land in the 1970s, increasing unwanted contact with outsiders, who poach the tribe's vital forest resources and bring diseases to which they have no immunity. An unknown number of Jarawa died in the forest during a measles epidemic in 1999. Survival International has launched a letter-writing campaign urging the authorities to protect the Jarawa.

     The Truku tribe of Hualin County has become the 12th recognized indigenous people by the Government of Taiwan, after a decade of struggle to achieve that status.

     After talks at saving the peace, agreed to in December, but violated by both sides, broke down, the Indonesian military began a massive assault in Aceh. Rebels say they insist on independence. The government says it will offer internal autonomy. The International Crisis Group stated in May that, as has happened in the past, the geography of the area, and the primitive state of Indonesia's military, allow the rebels to slip off easily into the mountainous jungles. The casualties caught in the crossfire are mostly Aceh's hapless civilians. The slaughter is making Jakarta's rule even shakier than it has been up to now, so alienating the local population, that, in July, the International Crises Group found that independence may turn out to be the only option. Survival International reports that seven low-ranking members of the Indonesian special forces were convicted, in May, of causing the death of Papuan tribal leader, Theys Eluay, in November 2001. But the soldiers, three of whom remain in the army, have been given jail terms of only two to three and a half years, angering Papua's tribal peoples. Reports of torture and murder by the military continue. A Papuan tribesman was killed on July 7th when Indonesian police opened fire at a ceremony in a town in central Papua. Four were arrested; two of them had also been shot. The heavy military presence in Papua continues. In January, UN prosecutors indicted 31 Indonesian militiamen and soldiers for human rights violations in East Timor.

     The Government of New Zealand stated, in June, that it intended to pass a law that would prevent indigenous Maori from holding exclusive ownership to the nations coastline or sea bed. The government says that the Maori could own use rights to those areas, but could not prevent others from using them. Costal areas are major tourist attractions in New Zealand. Maori leaders objected to the proposal. In June, an independent commission appointed by the government found that the Mauri had some ownership rights to the nation's gas and oil resources and recommended that the indigenous peoples share in revenues produced from their development.

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DIALOGUING

Native American Gang Members: http://www.angelfire.com/biz4/stopvarriowar/nativegangs.html

                    Gabe Morales, gcmorales@lycos.com (Reprinted from Digest for IndigenousNewsNetwork@topica.com, issue 144)

      I created this page after seeing that there were very few websites out there dealing with this subject and also seeing that there was very little current research on this phenomenon. One of the biggest things happening on the reservations and in urban centers where there are large Native American populations is the "gang problem. I've spoken to some tribal elders who want to downplay the problem (denial). What I have personally seen in my work is that the tribes have tried hard to instill cultural pride and teach the traditions to the youth. Many Native youth are no different than other youth in that they may rebel against the older generation. They may engage in self-destructive behaviors through street gangs. Many of these youth were exposed to gangs in big U.S. cities, thus have borrowed heavily from major groups, Sur13, Crips, Bloods, Folks, etc.

     Many of the tribes have tried to bring youth back to the reservations as well as provide jobs through the growth of Indian gaming. This has been successful in many respects, but the gang affiliated youth may see a jackpot and use their money for criminal acts. Native American street gang members will visit rural communities to recruit members. There is evidence that some Native gangs are working with outlaw Biker gangs.

     The person who I consider one of the best "experts" on Native-American gangs in the world is my friend and colleague Captain Christopher M. Grant. He is a 27-year law enforcement officer with the Rapid City (SD) Police Department. To contact him click here: cmgrcpd@hotmail.com

Recent Gang Research

     One recent study that has been done by the Center for Delinquency and Crime Policy Studies at Sac State University notes the lack of such research. "The ongoing failure to mention Native American youth gangs may simply be symptomatic of the usual oversight by researchers to incorporate any discussion of Indian justice issues into the national dialogue on crime and delinquency or may speak to the relative newness and novelty of this emerging problem."

      Several past surveys are noted that had limited scope and depth. The FBI survey "Gangs on Indian Reservations" (Conway 1999) which gave a brief on 40 different reservations and the BIA Survey (Juneau 1999). 75 tribes have noted gang activities. The Navajo Gang Study conducted in 1995 states that gangs began appearing on the Rez in the early 1990Ìs. The study found that gang members were drawn from a highly troubled segment of youth on the reservation, often came from dysfunctional families, had lost contact with much of the native culture, were heavily involved in the use of alcohol and drugs, experienced severe problems in school, and were engaged in drug trafficking and violence on a selective basis. New CDCPS research is being looked at. For more info contact: mendenhall@csus.edu.

Statistics Released on Urban Native Youth, by Vanessa White of the New Voices News

     Two out of five American Indian youth ages 13-17 in South Minneapolis are not sure they will live to be 25 years old. This is just one of the startling statistics that reveal how gangs and violence are affecting urban Native youth today. Other statistics reveal: 54% of 91-0 yr. olds 74% of 11-12 yr. olds and 79% of 13-17 yr. olds have had a family member shot or stabbed! 68% of 9-10 yr. olds 53% of 11-12 yr. olds and 47% of 13-17 are

worried about getting shot or stabbed! 34% of 9-10 yr. olds 63% of 11-12 yr. olds and 75% of 13-17 yr. olds don't feel they can count on the police for help. For more information contact Mike Goze at Healthy Nations (612)879-1743.

Articles on Native American Gangs

     There is an increasing number of gangs appearing in many reservations in the U.S. and even in Canada. Some of these gangs have members who when incarcerated have joined prison gangs like the Manitoba Warriors and Warrior's Society and street gangs like "Ruthless Duece" and "Native Gangster Bloods". Many prisons do have sweat lodges and Indian Clubs which may be positive in nature or may be subject for attempts by Security Threat Groups for criminal activities. See News articles below:

"Welcome for Winnepeg Gangs" February 15, 1999 The Edmonton Journal Last June, an officer with a joint RCMP-city police unit warned that aboriginal gangs were targeting wealthy Alberta reserves to recruit new members and set up drug trafficking and prostitution operationsŠ

Abstracted From AP 11/21/94, Tulsa, OK  "American Indian Youngsters Increasingly Joining Gangs"

     Law enforcement officers and social workers say the picture is changing regarding Native American youth and involvement w/ street gangs. Max Benson, guidance counselor at Lloyd Raider Center in Sand Springs, OK, said when he first started working with youth at the juvenile detention center, "maybe three out of all the number of young people we had were Indian." "Now we have Indian kids in every unit," said Benson, a Pawnee tribal member. Police in Tulsa are also alarmed by the apparent increase in gang activity among Indian Youth. "Three years ago we didn't know of a Native American gang," said Cpl. Al Wilson, Tulsa Police. "We had Native Americans in gangs, but now we have more than one gang that is strictly Native American." Wilson says Indian gangs are similar to gangs in Los Angeles and other urban areas where membership falls along racial lines. Gang members often commit crimes in urban areas and flee to tribal land to hide, something Tribal leaders would like to see stopped. The Pawnee tribe created a gang intervention unit last spring, believed to be the first in the nation geared towards Indian gangs. The "Tribes of Oklahoma Gang Task Force", was created for educational purposes, Benson is a member. The group will speak to tribes, schools, educators; do problem assessments and help tribal police develop strategies to ID gangs. An Indian law enforcement officer, who wished to remain anonymous said 15 Indian gangs have been Identified in Oklahoma. For more info contact Steve Juneau at steve_juneau@bia.gov.

Additional Sources

Christian Science Monitor article on Indian gangs in Arizona: http://search.csmonitor.com/durable/1998/07/09/p4s1.htm.

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Websites on Native Gangs or Gang Prevention, Native American Youth Prevention: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/americannative/conferences.htm.

Intervention Links-Chariot: http://www.chariotdist.com/.

Return to Gang Prevention Services: http://www.angelfire.com/biz4/stopvarriowar/.

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ARTICLES

AMERICAN INDIAN RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ACT AT 25

                   Suzan Shown Harjo, President of the Morning Star Institute,

                    611 Pennsylvania Avenue, S.E., #377. Washington, DC 20003. (202) 547-5531

Reprinted, with permission of the author, from the web site of Indian Country Today http://www.indiancountry.com/ Posted: August 01, 2003

     The American Indian Religious Freedom Act turns 25 on Aug. 11, and there is every reason to both celebrate it and complete its unfinished agenda. AIRFA articulates the policy of the United States to "protect and preserve for American Indians their inherent right of freedom to believe, express, and exercise the traditional religions of the American Indian, Eskimo, Aleut, and Native Hawaiians."

     After generations of traditional Native religions being federally driven underground or to extinction, it was a needed and welcome policy. AIRFA laid the groundwork for federal museums returning Native human remains and sacred objects, and led to the repatriation laws in 1989 and 1990. During the religious freedom law's initial implementation, the ceremonial use of peyote was recognized as a traditional Native religious practice and Congress amended AIRFA in 1993 to codify protections for its use by Native American Church members.

     Over the quarter-century life of AIRFA, numerous traditional and customary areas have been returned or protected through co-management agreements. During the same time, however, other sacred places have been damaged or destroyed, and far too many are under attack today.

     Native traditional religious leaders and practitioners started the movement for the religious freedom law in 1967 after ceremonies at Bear Butte in South Dakota. As the group expanded, its annual regional meetings increased to seasonal ones held in various parts of Indian country and Hawaii.

     Participants in these meetings were happy about achieving land returns, access agreements and protections for the use of feathers and other sacred objects. At the same time, each meeting was followed by the death of one participant. People joked about who the sacrifice person would be, but adhered ever more closely to traditional admonitions to greet and leave others as if it were the last chance to do so. Those meetings and that phenomenon would continue through the enactment of the repatriation and the peyote laws.

     The Agriculture, Interior and Justice departments in the Nixon and Ford administrations opposed religious freedom legislation. Candidate Jimmy Carter made a campaign promise to Indian leaders the week before the election that he would sign religious freedom legislation.

     Among AIRFA's original co-sponsors were the most conservative and most liberal senators - Barry Goldwater, Republican of Arizona, and Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts. The measure moved along at a rapid clip until it hit the House floor. The Forest Service successfully lobbied Agriculture Committee Chair Thomas S. Foley, Democrat of Washington, to neuter AIRFA on sacred lands or kill it. AIRFA's House champion, Morris K. Udall, Democrat of Arizona, had to do the dirty work and say that the bill was a fine policy statement but had no teeth to protect sacred sites. We'll go back and pick up the cause of action later, he said.

     President Carter kept his word and signed AIRFA. His top political advisors said that the administration would ask Congress for the sacred sites cause of action during the second Carter term. There was no second term, of course. Foley went on to House leadership positions, the Supreme Court ruled that AIRFA carried no cause of action and Udall retired without being able to amend AIRFA to add the needed door to the courthouse.

Indian traditional and tribal leaders tried to get a legislative cause of action during the Clinton administration, but Interior politicos and natural resources lawyers in Justice and the pollsters in the White House opposed it.

     Native leaders negotiated a substantive executive order on sacred sites, but it was changed unilaterally to a mere shadow of AIRFA. Now comes a shadow of that shadow in the form of a bill in the House that purports to "codify" that executive order. Sadly, the main thing it would do is make mischief. It would disenfranchise the traditional religious leaders and practitioners, who are the ones who hold these places sacred. It would put the tribal governments in charge with nothing to guarantee that they won't turn a sacred place into a casino or a mine.

     For those Indian nations that are theocracies, it makes sense for their traditional governments to have sole standing. For the other 99 percent of the tribes that are not theocracies, it is nonsensical and backward to recognize the secular entities to the exclusion of the traditional religious entities and practitioners. While the bill in the House includes even those tribes that have no traditional religions, it excludes those non-federally-recognized tribes and Native Hawaiians who do have traditional sacred places to protect.

     The House bill contains a virtually unusable cause of action. It sets the bar at the lowest possible standard - arbitrary and capricious - which means that a federal agency would have to laugh in your face and at the law, and all in writing, with witnesses, before you could take it to court. It has a clumsy definition of sacred site that demonstrates the danger in attempting to define the sacred. It would do much harm by leaving out whole categories of sacred places and forcing proof that others are included. No other people in America have to define the sacred. Native Americans should not have to do so.

     Proponents of the bill use the known sacred places that are under attack now - including Bear Butte and burial grounds and ceremonial areas along the Missouri River - to justify the need for their bill. Sadly, it would do nothing about any of those places. The bill's boosters also seem to be making it a Democrat bill, a strategy destined to fail at a time when both Houses of Congress and the White House are under Republican leadership.

     What is needed is a bill with a substantive cause of action to defend sacred places in court and to serve as incentive for serious negotiations for the return, co-management or protected status of sacred places - one that does not try to define or limit the sacred. Not nine months ago, traditional and tribal leaders, practitioners and advocates who are among the most knowledgeable on these issues developed clear, concise lists of essential elements and objectionable elements for any public policy on Native sacred places. Those lists are being turned into draft legislation that includes all segments of Native America with traditional and customary sacred places to protect, leaving out no category of sacred places and respecting traditional religious tenets and tribal law regarding non-disclosure of confidential and private information about the sacred. Following those guidelines would not only keep faith with the people who reached consensus on these sacred places matters last year, but would honor AIRFA and the myriad people who sacrificed to achieve it and its follow-on laws. This is a good thing to do in AIRFA's 25th anniversary year.

Suzan Shown Harjo, Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee, is president of the Morning Star Institute in Washington, D.C., and a columnist for Indian Country Today.

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AMERICAN INDIAN VOTING RIGHTS ACT LITIGATION

            Jennifer Robinson

              American West Center, University of Utah, robinson@amwest.utah.edu

     Native Americans have historically struggled to participate in American politics, in large part to due to the complex relationship with the federal government. Recent litigation surrounding voting discrimination claims are a continuation of the struggle to be full and equal participants in the political system. With the passage of the 1975 amendments to the Voting Rights Act to protect language minorities, Native Americans gained a new legal basis from which to pursue enforcement of voting rights. Between 1975 and 2003, 35 cases have been filed on behalf of American Indians claiming various forms of discrimination including denial of candidacy, the right to vote, and more recently vote dilution.

     American Indian voting rights history is plagued with denials of the right to be full participants. The question of voting and participation is intricately linked with their position as citizens of the United States. As late as 1924 only two-thirds of American Indians were citizens, which excluded a large number of Indians from American politics (McCool, p. 107).  With the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act (1924), citizenship was granted to all American Indians, yet the right to vote remained illusive for many.  Poll taxes, literacy tests, unwillingness of registers to enroll Indians, inconvenient registration and polling locations, and malapportionment diminished Indian votes (Phelps, p. 67-68).   Several arguments were used to justify the denial of the ballot even after passage of the Citizenship Act: 1) failure to sever tribal ties; 2) Indians are not taxed; 3) Indians are under guardianship; 4) Indians who reside on the reservation are not residents; 5) tribal sovereignty precludes participation (Wolfley, p. 182). These justifications precluded most opportunities for American Indians to gain equal access to the polls.

     Passage of the Voting Rights Act (1965) was in direct response to the difficulties of ending disenfranchisement of America's minorities.  Litigation based upon claims of equal protection and Fifteenth Amendment violations proceeded on a case-by-case basis, which proved time consuming and expensive with limited results (USCCR, 1965, p. 1, p. 8; USCCR, 1975, p. 3; www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/intro/intro_b.htm). The passage of the Act in 1965 certainly increased opportunities for minorities to have a meaningful vote. The Act provided federal examiners to register voters and observe elections, it ended the poll tax, and suspended literacy tests. Perhaps the most influential provision of the Act is Section 5, which requires preclearance of any changes in voting laws or procedures in covered jurisdictions (Senate Report 97-417, p. 114). This section seeks to "break the cycle of substitution of new discriminatory laws and procedures when old ones were struck down" (USCCR, 1975,  p. 25). Section 5 is the only remaining temporary provision of the Voting Rights Act.

     The passage of the Act improved enfranchisement for African Americans, but initially the Voting Rights Act had limited effect in Indian country. Through the "efforts of Indian rights activists Congress became informed about barriers to Indian voting that were every bit as oppressive as those endured by Blacks" (Phelps, p. 68).  The US Commission of Civil Rights found in 1975 that "there is still hostility and resistance to the free and effective political participation" of America's minorities. Barriers included inconvenient polling locations, under-representation of minorities as poll workers, unavailable or inadequate assistance for illiterate voters, lack of bilingual materials and ballots. Lingering memories of past discourtesies compounded the problems facing Indians in gaining access to the polls (USCCR, 1975,pp. 97-130).  One of the more serious concerns was the difficulty facing language minorities.  The US Commission on Civil Rights illustrated this problem in its report Voting Rights Act: Ten Years After. It noted that purging of registration lists in Arizona eliminated large numbers of Indian voters from the rolls in Coconino and Apache Counties. The counties notified affected voters of the purging via mail, but many Navajos, unable to read English, discarded the notices without understanding the impact of doing so  (USCCR, 1975, p. 85-85) Congress responded to the lobbying on behalf of American Indians and provided a language amendment to protect Native Americans, along with other language minorities. Language minorities covered include American Indians, Asian Americans, Alaskan natives, and persons of Spanish heritage (Senate Report 97-417, pp.117-118). With this new provision, the act finally reached "into every corner of the United States" and offered relief to all citizens wishing to be full participants in the American political system (USCCR, 1975, p.15).

     Despite strong legislative action to discourage discriminatory electoral rules and structures, American Indians continue to be disenfranchised through various methods. Since 1975, 35 voting rights cases have been filed.  This figure maybe incomplete in part due to the difficulty of accessing unpublished cases. The majority of the cases revolve around vote dilution methods such as at-large elections and malapportionment. The second most common cases are pre-clearance claims. In addition to theses cases, there have been occasional suites using equal protection and Fifteenth Amendment claims, including challenging a lack of bilingual elections and inconvenient polling locations. The most striking feature of these cases is the degree of success for Indian plaintiffs. Of the thirty-five cases identified, there has only been one out-right loss. Although several cases have not been finalized, voting rights cases have been tremendously successful for American Indians.

     Vote dilution cases comprise the majority of voting rights litigation. Typically cases are a mixture of Equal Protection claims under the Fourteenth Amendment, Fifteenth Amendment, and Section two of the Voting Rights Act. Twenty-four vote dilution cases have been identified. Two types of dilution typically occur, manipulating district boundaries and at-large elections. Manipulation of district boundaries to reduce or diminish votes occur either through "cracking" or "packing" techniques. Cracking involves breaking up concentrations of minorities voters into different districts. Packing takes places by isolating voters into a district separating them from the remaining non-minority voters. Both are effective methods to dilute minority voters.    At-large districting, electing members of a government bodies at large rather than by district, is another tactic that can dilute minority votes.  This method may be "utilized by whites seeking to maintain their political control.  Many local governments such as city councils, school boards, and county commissions elect multi- member bodies.  When those representatives are chose at large, the white majority within a community can utilize racial bloc voting to elect all of the members of the board.  Insulated minorities can be frozen out" (Phelps, p. 77).

     In deciding vote dilution cases the courts rely predominately upon the Gingles test, derived from the Supreme Court ruling in Thronburg v. Gingles.  The three components of the test are:

            1. The minority population must be "sufficiently large and geographically compact."

            2. The minority population must be "politically cohesive."

            3. The majority population must vote as a block to defeat the minority's preferred candidate.

     Unless the minority population is large enough and compact, they lack the potential to elect representatives even in the absence of the challenged structure or practice.  If this is the case, they cannot claim voting discrimination.  Likewise, if the minority population is not politically cohesive, meaning they vote alike, then a claim of discrimination lacks validity (Thornburg v. Gingles, 1986).

     While the Gingles Test is necessary to establish a vote dilution claim, is is not sufficient alone (Cuthair v. Montezuma, 1998, citing Johnson v. De Grandy, 1994). The courts also rely upon the "totality of circumstances" as outlined in the legislative history of the 1982 amendment to the Voting Rights Act (Buckanaga, 1986, Windy Boy, 1986, Cuthair, 1998).  As sated in the Senate Judiciary Committee Report (1982 U.S. Code Cong. & Ad. News 177, at 206- 207), other circumstances taken into account are: 

            1. The extent of any history of official discrimination the state or political subdivision that touched the right of the members of the minority group to register, to vote, or otherwise to participate in the democratic process.

            2. The extent to which voting in the elections of the state of political subdivision is racially polarized.

           3. The extent to which the state or political subdivision has use unusually large election districts, majority vote requirements, anti-single shot provisions, or other voting practices or procedures that may enhance the opportunity for discrimination against the minority groups.

            4. If there is a candidate slating process, whether the members of the minority

group have been denied access to that process.

            5. The extent to which the members of the minority group in the state or political subdivision bear the effects of discrimination in such areas as education, employment, and health, which hinders their ability to participate effectively in the political process.

            6. Whether the political campaigns have been characterized by overt or subtle racial appeals.

            7. The extent to which members of a minority group has been elected to public office in the jurisdiction.

            8. Whether there is a significant lack of responsiveness on the part of election officials to the particularized needs of the member of the minority group.

            9. Whether the policy underlying the state of political subdivision's use of such voting qualifications, prerequisites for voting, standards, practice or procedure is tenuous.

     In addition to vote dilution cases, Section 5 cases comprise six of the thirty-five cases. Section 5 requires preclearance of voting procedures or structures in communities where the minority population comprises more than 5% of the population and less than 50% of the voting age citizens were registered to vote or voted in the 1972 election. Without Congressional action to extend Section 5, the preclearance provision was set to expire in 1982.   After eighteen days of Congressional hearings "[a]ll seven members of the subcommittee, Republicans and Democrats alike, were dismayed" at the level of discrimination still occurring (Edwards in Foster, pp. 6-7).  Section 5 was extended for 25 years. The remaining cases revolve around Equal Protection and Fifteenth Amendment claims including the right to vote and run for poltiical office. Clearly based upon the results of these cases, the courts have taken a strong stand in favor of the right of American Indians to be full and equal participant in American politics.

     Despite passage of the Voting Rights Act and subsequent amendments, American Indians continue to face overt and subtle acts that dilute their voting strength, and thus their political power. Presumably, equal access to the electoral process leads to representation, and representation leads to political power and resources. Yet access, although a necessary condition to political power, is insufficient by itself. Additional research is necessary to examine whether reducing barriers to electoral participation increases political empowerment for American Indians.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Foster, Lorn S., ed.  1985.  The Voting Rights Act: Consequences and Implications. New York: Prager Publishers.

McCool, Daniel.  1985.  "Indian Voting," pp. 105-133 in Vine Deloria, Jr. (ed), American Indian Policy in the Twentieth Century.  Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Phelps, Glenn A. 1991.  "Mr. Gerry Goes to Arizona: Electoral Geography and Voting Rights in Navajo Country." 15 American Indian Culture and Research Journal 62-92.

US Commission on Civil Rights.  1965.  The Voting RIghts Act...the first months. Washington, DC.

US Commission on Civil Rights.  1975.  The Voting Rights Act: Ten Years After. Washington, DC.

US Congress, Senate.  1982.  Report of the Committee on the Judiciary on S. 1992 with Additional, Minority, and Supplemental Views.  Report No. 97-417. Washington, DC.

Wolfley, Jeanette.  1990.  "Jim Crow, Indian Style: Disenfranchisement of Native            Americans." American Indian Law Review.  16: 167-202.

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PROTECTING SACRED SITES

     Steve Sachs, IUPUI

          Protection of sites sacred to native people is a major issue in the United States, and in many places in the world, because mainstream western thought does not appreciate the importance of place and its relation to the sacred in indigenous cultures. Currently there is a great deal of work in progress by many people and organizations to protect numerous sacred places around the U.S. In a major undertaking coinciding with this year's Summer Solstice, the National Sacred Places Protection Coalition began prayer vigils by large groups of Indians and nom-Indians, prior to sunrise until noon on June 20, in the National Day of Prayer on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol and at least ten other locations throughout the United States including Sacramento, CA, Albuquerque, NM, Boulder, CO (at the headquarters of the Native American Rights Fund1), Green Bay, WI (at the Native American Journalists Association Annual Convention2), Lawrence, KS (conducted at Haskell-Baker Wetlands, to call attention to the wetlands and ceremonial site and burial ground there that are being threatened by a highway development project3) and New York City (at the American Indian Community House, 708 Broadway4),  in Phoenix, AZ,5 In Sacramento, CA, (at the south side of the State Capitol Building6), and Tulsa, OK (at the Tulsa Creek Indian Community Field Arbor Community Garden Site, 8601 S. Union Ave7). Observances also took place on tribal lands. Activities were carried out at threatened sites along the Missouri River, including the Yankton Sioux Tribe's annual Walking in Memory of the Ancestors Observances,8 and at other sacred places on the Missouri River, which the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) listed, in 2002, as one of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, were coordinated by Pemina Yellow Bird a Cultural Rights Specialist for the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation in North Dakota.9.Joining the circle on the Capitol Grounds were representatives from Capitol Hill, from the National Museum of the American Indian, the Inter Faith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, the River Road Unitarian Church, the United Methodist Church Global Board for Church and Society and other churches and religious organizations in the Washington area.

     Guy Lopez (Crow Creek Sioux), Coordinator of the Association on American Indian Affairs (AAIA) Sacred Lands Protection Program, commented at the vigil at the U.S. Capital, "We're gathering to greet the sun and pray in honor of the life and spirit of this great land and the sacred places of Native peoples. One could say that the protection of Native Sacred places is an Indian country 'faith-based initiative.'" He stated that a large number of those places sacred to traditional Native religions, utilized for ancient ceremonies and important to Native cultures, are located on land owned by non-Natives, including the federal government. Yet, while federal and other land managers routinely take into account the needs of developers and recreational users in making land management decisions, they are often not so diligent in taking into account the often profound effect of their undertakings upon sacred and ceremonial places that are critical to Native American populations, tribes and cultures. AAIA has worked closely with Indian tribes to protect sacred places for many years, including such sites as the Bighorn Medicine Wheel and Medicine Mountain in Wyoming.10 Similar testimony was given two days earlier concerning many sacred places in need of protection by numerous Native and other witnesses testifying at the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Oversight Hearings on Native American Sacred Places.11

     The Sacred Places Protection Coalition is sponsoring the Tribal/Federal Summit on the Protection of Sacred Places, November 14 - 16, at the Hotel Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM 87501, with Tribal leaders, traditional practitioners, and Indian activists working on sacred lands issues along with federal agency employees who work with or have authority over sacred lands issues. The Summit is intended to enhance understanding of issues involving sacred places and to expand federal-tribal cooperation in respecting sacred sites.12

     Meanwhile, a large number of sacred places events and actions have been in progress this fall, including the following. On September 18, The Black Hills Are Sacred Rally was held at Memorial Park in Rapid City, SD, with a focus is upon the repeal of the "Daschle Rider," with guest speakers Winona LaDuke and Julia "Butterfly" Hill. That evening a benefit Film Screening of "In the Light of Reverence" took place for the Bear Butte Legal Defense, sponsored by Sacred Land Film Project of Earth Island, National Forest Protection Alliance ,Native Ecosystems Council, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Defenders of the Black Hills.13 Two days later, proceeding the fall equinox, the 11th Annual Prayer Vigil for the Earth began at Sunrise in West Potomac Park in Washington, DC.14 On Sunday, September 21, the Amnesty International Human Rights Film Festival, Salt Lake City, UT included concerns about sacred places in closing the event by showing, A Seat at the Table: Struggling For American Indian Religious Freedom, followed by a reception at the Indian Walk-In Center. The film documents a special symposium held at the 1999 Parliament of the World's Religions entitled, America's Shadow Struggle, in which eight American Indian leaders and activists, including Walter Echo-Hawk (Pawnee) of the Native American Rights Fund, Boulder, CO, and Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabe) of Honor The Earth of Minnesota, participated in dialogs with Huston Smith concerning issues of native religious freedom such as sacred sites protection, effects of the destruction of native languages, and the rights of native.15

     On September 30, the National Trust for Historic Preservation put on a Legal Workshop: Protecting Native American Historic Places on Public Lands. Denver, CO, with faculty including Elizabeth Merritt, Deputy General Counsel of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Jack Trope, Exec. Director of Association on American Indian Affairs.16 The Trust organized a Native American Sacred Lands Seminar - Protection of Sacred Lands at its National Trust for Historic Preservation Conference in Denver, October 3. The event featured Vine Deloria, Jr., Anita Canovas, the Trust's Asst. General Counsel, Chris Peters, Exec. Director of the 7th Generation Fund, Vernon Masayesva, Executive Director of the Black Mesa Trust, Caleen Sisk-Franco, Keeper of the Ceremonies of the Winnemum Wintu Nation; and Chris McLeod, Producer/Director of award winning PBS Documentary film In Light of Reverence. At its October 3 - 6, 29th Anniversary Treaty Conference, The International Indian Treaty Council at the Sac and Fox Powwow grounds near Stroud, Oklahoma, protection of Sacred sites was among the main issues discussed.17 Continuing sacred sites activities this fall include, a Sacred Sites Conference/ Strategy Session, Nov. 4 -7, in Rapid city, SD put on by the Defenders of the Black Hills, coinciding with the Bear Butte Protection Case being heard at the Federal Court House in Rapid City.18

     Recently some significant gains have been made in protecting sacred places. This summer, lobbying by members of the Washo Tribe in Nevada and California, and their allies, lead to the U.S. Forest Service banning rock climbing at the Washo holy place of Cave Rock at Lake Tahoe, in Nevada.19 In early August, SRP dropped its plan for Fence Lake Coal strip mine in western New Mexico, as the result of significant pressure created by the Zuni Salt Lake Coalition, composed of many Indian organizations and people. The proposed 18,000-acre mine threatened the sacred Zuni Salt Lake, home to Salt Woman, a central deity to the Zuni People. The ZSLC includes the Pueblo of Zuni, Center for Biological Diversity, Citizens Coal Council, Sierra Club, Water Information Network, Tonatierra, Seventh Generation Fund, and others, and with assistance from the All-Indian Pueblo Council, National Congress of American Indians, and the New Mexico Council of Churches. In addition, the New Mexico Congressional delegation had sent a letter to Secretary of Interior Gale Norton asking her to stop the mining permit until pump tests on groundwater near the Zuni Salt Lake could be completed. "It has been a long 20 year struggle with a lot of mental anguish and frustration for our people, but we have had our voices heard," said Pueblo of Zuni head councilman Carlton Albert. The ZSLC will be pursuing having the Sanctuary Zone declared "unsuitable for coal mining" under provisions of federal mining laws.20

     In October, plans by the City of Sturgis, SD to build a shooting range four miles north of Bear Butte South Dakota under an $800,000 HUD grant were halted when the State of South Dakota returned $500,000 of the grant after a finding by a Department of Housing and Urban Development investigation that the project was not eligible for HUD funding. Bear Butte is sacred to three tribes, listed as a Traditional Cultural District by the National Register of Historic Places. Vision quests, sweat lodges and other ceremonies are regularly held there, and the noise from a nearby shooting range would interfere with those spiritual activities. The HUD investigation was triggered by the filing of two federal law suits and a direct complaint to HUD on behalf of Indians by Jim Leach. In February, the Northern Cheyenne filed Northern Cheyenne v. Martinez, asserting that the proposed shooting range would be in violation of the National Historic Preservation Act, The National Environmental Policy Act and the Religious Land Use Act, particularly because the federal government failed to consult with any of the concerned tribes about the project, nor did it examine the environmental effects of the planned shooting range; and, moreover, the range would interfere with religious expression. In April, Leach filed against HUD and the city of Sturgis (with the lead defendant later changed to the State of South Dakota), in Ironhawk v. Martinez, questioning the legality of the HUD grant to the city. Meanwhile, in October, the south Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Commission proposed a ban on hunting at Bear Butte and most of the state park that surrounds it, with a final decision scheduled for November 6-7. 21

     An attempt to stop the destruction of Native American sacred sites on federal lands, through federal legislation was initiated in June with Congressman Nick Rahall introducing the Native American Sacred Lands Act, HR 2419. The bill would give tribes the legal opportunity to halt proposed mining, logging and other activities which would desecrate sites that are held sacred for religious purposes. It is not likely that this measure will pass this year.22

     A decision is pending in a case before the 10th U.S. District Court in Sacramento, CA on whether leases allowing full geothermal development of the Medicine Lake Highlands, in the Modoc National Forest 30 miles northeast of Mount Shasta, CA, were illegally awarded and extended, following plaintiffs' claims that the federal government abused its discretion at the time of lease renewal in 1998, when it was known that the project would significantly disturb the sacred site at the lake and would cause environmental harm violating federal regulations. For Indian nations throughout the Western United States, the Highlands are sacred and for healing. This is a place where Indian people come to pray and gather medicinal herbs and learn the secrets of the Earth's creation. Environmentalists assert the proposed development threatens potential contamination of a huge underground aquifer, one that feeds nearby rivers and streams, with mercury, arsenic and other toxic chemicals dredged up during geothermal extraction from the  underground brine pools. The court hearing culminated on September 10, when Judge David Levi heard final statements from attorneys from the plaintiffs: the Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center, the Pit River Tribe, and Native Coalition for Medicine Lake Highlands Defense, and respondents: who represented the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service and Calpine Corporation. The case primarily concerns the proposed 50-megawatt Fourmile Hill geothermal project, but also involves other potential developments including another 50-megawatt plant proposed at Telephone Flat in the heart of the Medicine Lake Caldera, which has been designated as a Traditional Cultural District by the National Register of Historic Places. An additional potential for 500-1000 megawatts has been stated since the early 1980's when the leases were awarded, and recently repeated by Calpine to the California Energy Commission and before congressional energy committees. Plaintiffs claim that even one power plant and its extensive well-fields, pipelines, steam plumes, hydrogen sulfide emissions and night lighting would introduce industrial elements that are out of character with the area's spiritual and natural significance, and that the cumulative effects of ten or twenty such industrial complexes would have a devastating effect on the natural beauty and cultural qualities that people value. It is normal for a decision in such a case to come three months after it has been heard.

     A side note to the Medicine Lake Highlands geothermal case is that development had earlier been planned for the slopes of Mt. Shasta, including a proposed ski resort with a golf course, condos and an RV park. However a campaign by environmentalists and Indians, focusing on the traditional respect for the area as sacred, brought about a July 28, 1998 decision by the U.S. Forest Service that the upper reaches of the mountain were off-limits to development because they were  "nationally significant historic sites, worthy of stewardship for the inspiration and benefit of current and future generations." The Forest Service then began collaborating with local Indian nations, including undertaking a joint program to restore traditional Native American plants on the slopes of Mount Shasta. These developments seemed to signal that the U.S. government would not permit the Medicine Lake Highlands undertakings. However, the coming of the Bush administration, which has an anti-regulation of private business, pro development, and especially pro energy development, mind set provided a favorable climate for permitting the project to go ahead, leading to the current law suit.23

     In South Dakota, a three judge panel of the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals found in favor of sacred site protection, on October 2, in holding that the
Surface Transportation Board's approval of the expansion of the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad (DM&E) proposing construction or rebuilding of close to 900 mi of track for the hauling of coal from Wyoming's Powder river Basin across Wyoming, South Dakota and Minnesota to points east failed to take account of the impact of the project on historic sites, including Native cultural sites, stating plans to protect those locations, along the route, in addition to which the proposal did not adequately examine the effect that the noise and vibration from dozens of long coal trains each day would have on houses in Rochester, MN in terms of air quality, noise and vibration. If DM&E wishes to go ahead with the expansion, it must file amended plans with the board. A number of Indian tribes and organizations had joined several communities, land owners, environmental groups and the Mayo Clinic in bringing the suite.24

     In mid September, the California Senate fell eight votes short of passing a state law which would give Indians unprecedented power to halt developments near sacred tribal land, ending the necessity to fight encroachments on a piecemeal basis. The bill, SB 18, would give the Native American Heritage Commission, a nine-member body established in 1976 and appointed by the governor which advises on development, power to veto or alter public and private building projects. Under SB 18, state and local agencies carrying out environmental reviews of projects would be required to consult with the commission as to whether "traditional tribal cultural sites" would be significantly affected. If the commission concluded that the site would be harmed, the project would have to be turned down or altered, unless the state or local agency could show there was an overriding public interest in building it. Just what constitutes a "traditional tribal cultural site" would be determined by the commission within a year. Current Commission executive Secretary Larry Myers (Pomo) has stated that the definition might include burial grounds, rock formations, lakes and other locations considered sacred by Indians. The commission has compiled a list of 1,500 possible sites. However, Myers said he would be inclined to add others without heavily questioning their authenticity, because he it should be up to each tribe or band to judge what they believe sacred. Once a site is approved by the commission as being a "traditional tribal cultural site," It might be difficult to challenge that finding. State law currently requires many Indian sites to be kept secret to discourage vandals and looters. Under the proposed legislation, anyone disclosing information about the spots would be subject to criminal penalties of up to a year in jail and a $10,000 fine.

     SB 18 has solid support from Indian nations and groups, who are concerned that the relatively few sacred sites remaining are being encroached upon and/or are disappearing, making the bill critical to the preservation of Native religious rights. Builders and developers oppose the measure because they fear it will impede needed development, while they believe that delays from the process could drive up construction costs by millions of dollars a year. Indian supporters dispute that, saying that ten months of discussion was undertaken to balance the need to preserve particular sites and the interests of property owners and developers. Governor Davis, who had vetoed an earlier version of the bill in 1992, said he would sign the current draft because it had overcome the shortcomings of the original measure, and made the '93 bill part of his legislative agenda. Last minute negotiations leading to some amendments to the bill led the Western States Petroleum Association, representing much of the oil industry, to drop its opposition. Some county and municipal governments expressed concern that their oversight of development could be partially usurped by the commission. Moreover, they believe that the secrecy provisions would make it difficult for citizens and government to adequately and effectively discuss zoning and development issues. In that regard, some say that the criminal penalties for discussing matters in public is a violation of freedom of speech under the First amendment, with the California First Amendment Coalition calling the bill "the most wide-ranging incursion into settled law protecting open government, open court proceedings and free speech that CFAC has encountered in a single piece of legislation.''

     Indian tribes and organizations were shocked by the failure of SR18 to pass and intend to make a third attempt to attain the legislation next year. They have considerable power in the legislature, as major contributors to political campaigns. Since both Gray Davis and Cruz Bustamante were recipients of large tribal campaign donations (Davis receiving over $1 million from Indian nations for his reelection and Bustamante more that $2 million in his campaign to be Davis' replacement in the recall election), had the Democrats been successful, either in defeating the recall or in electing Lieutenant Governor Bustamante as the new California governor, Indians would have strong support for the protection bill from the state house. But with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was strongly anti-Indian in his campaign, the new governor, achieving a strong sacred site protection law in California over the next three years is likely to be a more difficult undertaking.25

     In Albuquerque, NM, a fifteen year struggle by the Sage Council and others to stop a proposed commuter highway from being built through Petroglyph National Monument, a Native American sacred site still in use for religious practice, has been at an important juncture this fall, as the city's Street Bond proposal, on the October 28 ballot, contains an authorization for funding the road.26 Should the bond proposition pass, the city council can still, vote to prevent the construction, although Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez, who as a Congressman worked for the creation of the Petroglyph National Monument to protect the site, favors building the road.

     There are a considerable number of additional places that are sacred to American Indians around the United States that are endangered. For example, in the traditional homeland of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation is the Ocmulgee Old Fields in Georgia, a ceremonial and burial ground, which is threatened by a state highway project. The Ocmulgee Old Fields is listed on the NTHP’s 2003 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a traditional cultural property. The following endangered sacred places were among those identified in San Diego, CA at a November  8-9, 2002 gathering to protect sacred places and at the National Congress of American Indians November 10-15, 2002 annual convention.: Indian Pass, which was named on the 2002 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, is a sacred place in the California Desert area that is threatened by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)'s decision permitting Glamis Gold, Ltd., to undertake what the Quechan Indian Tribe calls a "massive, open-pit cyanide heap-leach gold mine on 1,600 acres;" Coastal Chumash lands in the Gaviota Coastal region in southern California: Yurok Nation’s salmon fisheries in the Klamath River affected by the Interior Department’s waterflow decreases; Berry Creek, Moore Town and Enterprise Rancherias’ lands impacted by the California Water Project's fluctuation zone at the Oroville Dam Reservoir; The sacred Puvungna of the Tongva and Acjachemen Peoples; The sacred Katuktu (Morro Hill) of the San Luis Rey Band of Mission Indians.²⁷

     Sacred locations named for protection in the Southwest included: In Arizona: Apache holy land, Mount Graham, from the Forest Service and the University of Arizona's development of a massive telescope project; Hualapai Nation landforms in Truxton and Crozier Canyons from private extraction of boulders for decorative landscaping; Hopi and Navajo lands and the Navajo aquifer from slurry coal mining by Peabody Coal Company; the San Francisco Peaks from Forest Service and private expansion of the Arizona Snow Bowl; and the Boboquivari Mountain of the Tohono O'Odham Nation. In New Mexico: the micaceous clay-gathering place of the Picuris Pueblo from mica mining by Oglebay Norton Specialty Minerals; and Zuni Salt Lake, also on the 2003 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, from coal strip mining by the Salt River Project; In Texas: Carrizo/Comecrudo lands flooded by Amistad Lake and Falcon Dam.

     Other U.S. sacred places identified as under attack now, include the following: Badlands, Black Hills, Medicine Wheel and Missouri River in the Plains; Semiahmah Village burial ground and Snoqualmie Falls in Washington; Pipestone National Monument and Cold Water Springs in Minnesota; Hickory Ground ceremonial and burial ground in Alabama; and Taino Caguana ceremonial site in Puerto Rico.

     The problem of protecting traditionally revered locations is as much an international as it is a domestic U.S. issue. Thus the Yaqui, who are equally in Mexico and the United States are concerned about threats to Yaqui Zona Indigena in Sonora, Mexico, while in that same area, the Tohono O'Odham and Pima Nations are concerned about development at Baboquivari Mountain. Meanwhile, to our north, members of the Pilalt tribe on the Cheam  reserve, located one and a half hours east of Vancouver, sent out an invitation in early October to "any supporter who is willing to help build and maintain a retreat on this sacred mountain to prevent any further clear cutting and the planned development of a ski resort amidst the rare old growth rainforest on Elk Mountain, which is being clear cut by Cattermole Timber to prepare the area for a ski resort to be operated by Resorts West."28

     Thus it is that the Seventh Generation Fund, on May 15, 2003 requested the Second Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to act in protection of sacred sites "because the situation of environmental injustice and the assaults on sacred places has worsened at an alarming rate. These places of prayer, vision quest, song, and ceremony are vital for the continuation of an Indigenous Earth-based paradigm, a

worldview that affirms life everlasting. Many sacred places possess vast natural gifts - resources that are targeted for exploitation by nation state agencies, regional and multi-national corporate entities. Considering that environmental injustice is the perpetration of environmental destruction upon communities that do not have the economic or political power to resist such attacks, Indigenous territories are particularly vulnerable for this type of devastation.... Like doorways to the spiritual realm, sacred places are tangible points of metaphysical transcendence, holding concentrations of power and divine understanding for us, as they did for our ancestors. Taking shape in mountains, waterfalls, and wetlands; in volcanoes, canyons and lakes, sacred places link together the vital strands of Indigenous existence. Through an infinite web of stories, songs, memories, and revelations, Indigenous peoples' worldviews - our unique consciousness - weave together with the Earth and our ongoing relationships with sacred places. This creates a template, a pattern for our cultural vitality and holds the seeds of our continuing life as distinct peoples, and for the well being of all our relations. Such is the promise, the sacred birthright, of the seventh generation to come."29

Foot Notes

1. For more information on Denver activities, contact Rose Brave Cuny (Oglala Lakota), NARF Office Manager, at (303)447-8760.

2. For additional information on activities associated with the NAJA convention, contact Montoya A.  Whiteman (Cheyenne), Development & Public Relations Administrator for the Native American Rights Fund, at (303)447-8760.

3. For more information about undertakings at Haskell-Baker Wetlands, contact Michael Caron (785-842-6293) and Dayna Carlton (785-865-2861), with Save the Wetlands.

4. For more information, contact Rosemary Richmond (Mohawk), AICH  Executive Director, at (212) 598-0100 or akwesasne@aol. com.

5. For information about Arizona activity, contact Cal Seciwa (Zuni), Director of the American Indian Institute at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, at (480) 965-8044 or Calbert. Seciwa@asu. edu.

6. For information about the Prayer Day activities in Sacramento and about endangered sacred places in California, contact Mark LeBeau (916)929-9761 or lebeau@mail. his. gov, Mickey Gemmill (530)242-4510 or Radley Davis (530)275-1650 or radleyad@aol. com of the Pitt River Nation; and Phillip Hunter (Yokuts), Vice Chairperson of the Tule River Tribal Government (559)781-4271.

7. For additional information about concerns in Oklahoma, contact The Tulsa Indian Coalition Against Racism, TICAR49@MSN.

8. For additional information concerning sacred sites protection along the Missouri by the Yankton Sioux contact Faith Spotted Eagle (Ihanktonwan Dakota/Nakota) of the Tribal White Swan/North Point Negotiating Team and The Braveheart Society, Yankton Sioux Tribe, Lake Andes, South Dakota, at (605) 840-2700, eagletrax@hotmail. com, or Sharon Drapeau (605)487-7871 or (605)491-0233), or Kenny Honomichle (605)384-3621).

9. Pemina Yellow Bird (Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara), can be reached at (701)477-9412, Pemina@hotmail. com. Additional information about Missouri River sacred sites can be obtained Scott Jones (Lower Brule Sioux), Public Relations Director for the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, Lower Brule, South Dakota, at (605)730-0515, socky@wcenet.com or  Jamie R. Ducheneaux (Cheyenne River Lakota), Tribal Historic Preservation Office of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, at (605)964-7554, (605)964-7553, crpreserv@sat.net.

10. For more information of AAIA's sacred place protection activities, contact Guy Lopez at (240)314-7157, gl.aaia@verizon. net, or contact the Morning Star Institute, 611 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, Washington, DC 20003 (202)547-5531 fax: 546-6724.

11. For a PDF article on these events E-mail Andre Cramblit: andre.p.cramblit.86@alum.dartmouth.org.

12. For more info regarding the Tribal/Federal Summit, contact Lisa at the Association on American Indian Affairs at (240)314-7155, lw.aaia@verizon.net.

13. For information about Black Hills issues and events contact: Nancy Kile (605)720-0282.

14. For information about the Annual Prayer Vigil for the Earth, contact Suzanne Clarke, (202)244-3407,: sjclarke@mindspring.com, or in the Washington, DC area (703)620-2577, oneprayer4@aol.com, www.oneprayer.org. In California, call: (510)777-0807.

15. For more information on the AI showing of A Seat at the Table, contact Gary Rhine at rhino@kifaru.com, (310)457-1617, www.kifaru.com or www.dreamcatchers.org.

16. For more information on the Denver Legal workshop or other sacred sites activity of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, contact, Patrick Lang or Ethan Yankowitz, legal assistants (202)588-6035, www.nthp.org.

17. For information about  the29th Anniversary Treaty Conference, Contact Jackie Warledo and the conference organizing committee at (405)303-2330, fax (405) 303-2599, or go to IITC's web page: www.treatycouncil.org, or  E-mail: iitcak@ak.net.

18. For Bear Butte and Black Hills information, Contact Charmaine White Face, Coordinator of the Defenders of the Black Hills, (605)343-5387, www.defendblackhills.org.

19. See "Forest Service bans climbing at Tahoe's Cave Rock," News From Indian Country, July 28. 2003. p. 3A. For details on efforts to protect Washo sacred sites contact Barbara James Snyder, (914)793-7316, imagesofpeace@hotmail.com, or contact John Maher, U.S. forest service Heritage Resources Program Manager of the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit: (530)543-2671.

20. For more information on Zuni salt Lake action, contact Cal Seciwa (602}510-6983 or Brian Lalio (505)782-4403.

21. For more information on the Bear Butte shooting range see, Jim Kent, "HUD investigation cites S.,D. community block grant irregularities: state returns $500,000 for Bear Butte shooting range," News From Indian Country," October 20, 2003, p. 9A, or contact Jamie R. Ducheneaux (Cheyenne River Lakota), Tribal Historic Preservation Office of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, (605)964-7554, (605) 964-7553crpreserv@sat.net. The proposed hunting Bam is discussed in, "Commission proposes hunting ban at Bear Butte," News from Indian Country, October 20, p. 2A.

22.  For more about the Native American Sacred Lands Act, go to: http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2993/2003-06-12-09.asp#anchor1, or see Jim Kent, "Rahall introduces Sacred Lands Protection Legislation", News From Indian Country, June 30, 2003, p. 9A.

23. For more information on Medicine Lake Highlands developments, contact: gin@nycap.rr.com, and see Robin Carneen, "Medicine Lake Target for Cal Pine geothermal projects," News from Indian Country. October 20, 2003, p. 10A.

24. See Jim Kent, "8th Circuit Court sends DM&E Railroad 'back down the line'," News from Indian Country, October 20, 2003, p. 9a.

25. For more information on SR18 contact Steve Johnson at (408) 920-5043.

26. For more information about the Petroglyph struggle go to www.sagecouncil.org or www.stoptaxwaste.com.

27. See Ryan Pearson, "Tribes Plan Protection of sacred Sites," News From Indian Country, Mid December 2002, pp. 1A and 5A.

28. For More Information contact June Quipp: 9604)794-5715 or check: www.phong.com/elkcreek for current updates and information, Elk Creek Conservation Coalition: www.elkcreekrainforest.org, West Coast Wilderness Committee: www.wildernesscommittee.org, Resorts West Plans: www.elpmedia.com/offline/resorts.

29. Spoken by Tia Oros Peters (Zuni). The Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development was supported in its proposal to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (Agenda item #4),  by the Pueblo of Zuni-Zuni Tribal Council, the American Indian Law Alliance, the Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council, the Tonatierra Community Development Institute, the MoÌo Guk Amjedkam, the SAGE Council, the Buffalo River Dene Nation, and the Beaver Lake Cree Nation.

>>>><><<<<

In Canada:

FIRST NATIONS GOVERNANCE Act DIES:

WILL A NEW GOVERNMENT DO ANY BETTER?

               Michael W. Posluns, Ph.D.,

                       The Still Waters Group, First Nations Relations & Public Policy. MPosluns@accglobal.net

     On Friday, April 10, Canadian Indian Affairs Minister Bob Nault acknowledged that his First Nations Governance Act (FNGA) was effectively dead. Nault said that the FNGA, the centerpiece of the so-called legislative suite by which he proposed to overhaul the political institutions throughout Indian Country in Canada and, thus, make his mark in history would "not pass" before the changeover, the transition, between Jean ChrÈtien stepping down as Prime Minister and Paul Martin, his heir apparent taking over.

     Nault's failure and the corresponding success of the First Nations at blocking this bill and the impending change of leadership of the Canadian federal government both make this a good time to re-assess the state of Canada-First Nations relations. Nault had first announced that he would bring in a large legislative package to re-write Canadian Indian law in April 2001. That he chose to make this announcement to an audience of high school students and not to the Assembly of First Nations set the tone for the events that have unfolded over the past two years. (The gist of Nault's proposals was what I wrote about for the Native American Policy Network Newsletter in August 2002). 

     While the Liberal government has been persuading the mainstream media that their legislation will "make First Nations more accountable and democratic and give individuals more power" First Nations leaders have been saying that the overall effect of his legislation is to tighten federal control over First Nations and to renew colonialism in Canada.

     Nault's bills fly in the face of the recommendations of the 1996 Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, a 1983 Report of a Commons Committee on Indian Self-Government and a 2000 Senate Committee report entitled Forging New Relationships. Nault's bills were developed by the Indian Affairs bureaucracy without consultation with elected First Nations leaders.

     When First Nations chiefs refused to cooperate with the minister in his determination to restructure Indian political institutions in his own image he declared that if the present chiefs would not cooperate with him he would find others who would.

     Nault has made good on his promise to find other chiefs who would cooperate with him. During the past year he has placed a series of First Nations communities (Indian bands) under "third party managers" (typically accountants close to the reigning Liberal Party but distant from the reserve they are to govern). Nault has used this authority to put First Nations communities into receivership to make his case that First Nations leaders are irresponsible and need to be made more accountable. In December 2002, in Pikangikum v. The Queen, the Federal Court found that the Minister had exceeded his authority in placing Pikangikum FN under receivership without specifying what financial issues needed to be rectified and without allowing time for remedial action to be taken. When M'chigeeng FN revised adopted a traditional election procedure, Nault placed M'chigeeng under third party management claiming it had defied a recent Supreme Court ruling about the participation of off-reserve members. 

     The political use of third party management was one major strategy in the Indian Affairs Branch campaign to discredit First Nations communities and their leaders. Repeated demands for "increased accountability" generally failed to ask whether the Indian leadership was to be accountable to their own electorate or to the Minister and his bureaucrats. It also failed to notice that the Auditor General of Canada, in her 2002 Report to Parliament, was highly critical of the burdensome reporting requirements already imposed on First Nations. "A study of federal reporting requirements found that First Nations have to submit a total of 168 reports a year to four main funding organizations and most of the information is never used." Similar observations in the Auditor General's 1980 Report were quoted in the 1983 Report on Indian Self Government.

     During the past year, since the FNGA was re-introduced in the House of Commons, the minister and his officials have drastically cut back funding for local communities, tribal councils, grand councils and for the Canada-wide Assembly of First Nations. First Nations leaders and advisors were put on notice that funding would be dependent upon support for the minister's bills. This extreme financial pressure reached its extreme during the recent campaign for the election of National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations when it became well understood that funding might well be vastly increased if the then National Chief, Matthew Coon Come, were replaced by Phil Fontaine.  Fontaine has already had several face-to-face meetings with Nault and recently presented the minister with proposals for $1.7 billion for developments under his AFN administration.

     By the time the FNGA hearings before the Commons Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, Northern Development and Natural Resources were winding down in April 2003, 191 witnesses, primarily from First Nations communities and organizations had testified against the bill while 10, including the Minister, his officials and three private persons had testified in favour of the bill.

     The conduct of the Commons Committee throughout its hearings across the country was a model of the political environment in which the conflict between the Indian Affairs bureaucracy (which had been promoting similar legislation through successive ministers for the past 20 years) and First Nations across Canada. The FNGA had been referred to committee before second reading, the stage at which a bill is "approved in principle", supposedly so that the Committee might take an open ended approach that was often described, in departmental propaganda, as a "further consultation". The reality that ensued was quite another story: 

     The Chair, Ray Bonin, and other Liberal MPs asked witness after witness, in defiance of their opening statements, to focus on specific amendments that might make the bill more acceptable; Elders who attempted to explain the view of the treaty relationship between their First Nation and Canada were treated with disrespect and contempt by the Chair;

     Liberal MPs insisted that there had been comprehensive consultations between departmental officials and First Nations despite voluminous testimony about manipulated agendas and departmentally prepared summaries of "consultation" meetings that were so filled with egregious errors as to be better understood as fictions than as authentic minutes;

     Having postponed the start of the hearings until late fall of 2002, the Chair announced that there was great urgency to complete the cross-Canada hearings and submit a report to the House by Easter; Membership on the Committee was in a constant flux so that local MPs could be included in their party's roster as the parliamentary circus rolled from coast to coast.

     The best case that might be made that the Committee was not discriminating in its indifference to successive First Nations witnesses' insistence that the bill was beyond redemption was that it was equally willing to ignore testimony of academics. When the Barreau du QuÈbec criticized the bill's abolition of the office of chief on the ground that abolishing the right "to choose one's leadersŠ poses a particularly crucial problem" they, too, were ignored.

     The clause-by-clause review of the bill under the direction of Ray Bonin, the Committee Chair was so shameful that Joe Clark, the former Conservative Prime Minister, supported by Pat Martin the New Democratic Party MP on the Aboriginal Affairs Committee asked the Speaker of the House of Commons (a judicial and non-partisan office) to allow amendments to be made in the House that should ordinarily have been made in committee because "the standing committee was conducted as a disorderly proceeding."

      Now that the Minister has said that the First Nations Governance Act is dead there remain two important questions: (1) the likely fate of the FNGA's two companion bills and (2) what is this campaign against First Nations really all about?

     The fate of the FNGA's two companion bills, The First Nations Fiscal and Statistical Management Act and the Specific Claims Resolution Act remain uncertain. While the Commons Committee was pretending to hold thorough hearings on the FNGA, the Specific Claims Resolution Bill was rammed through the House including its committee with only token study. Logically, these are companion pieces that, as the minister explained in introducing them, complete the restructuring of First Nations institutions begun in the FNGA. These bills should, then, receive no further consideration. Sadly, reason plays much the same role in the Canadian Indian Affairs Branch (IAB) as it does in the U.S. B.I.A. 

     Aboriginal members of the Canadian Senate, including both Inuit and First Nations Senators broke with the Liberal Government in a series of efforts to have the Specific Claims Resolution Bill reconsidered by the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee. The likelihood is that the Liberal majority will fall in behind the Government Leader's motion to impose closure when debate resumes on October 20th. 

     A brief look at the Specific Claims Resolution Bill and the near-unanimous opposition to it by First Nations will make clear what the Government's agenda is really all about. This bill supposedly sets up a procedure for resolving "specific clams", i.e., claims regarding broken treaties and violations of other federal undertakings to First Nations. The procedure it sets up, however, is not one that would meet the most minimal standards of fairness: 

  The tribunal has none of the attributes of an independent quasi-judicial body.

  The tribunal is appointed by the minister with no guaranteed participation by any First Nation institution;

  There is a cap on the size of any claim that the tribunal can consider of $7 million (Canadian). Claims of $93 million are not unheard of;

  First Nations witnesses before the Senate Committee have emphasized that there is nothing in this bill that is likely to motivate the Government to negotiate more seriously than they have done in the past;

  First Nations are expected to accept the outcome of a tribunal proceeding but the decision to implement a tribunal decision on the government's side remains with Cabinet.

  There is no likelihood that the tremendous log jam of cases heading toward the courts will be broken because the Resolution Act does not, on balance, offer a procedure that is more efficient than the courts;

  Neither does it create institutions in which it is likely that justice will be seen to be done.

     What is fundamentally at issue here is a struggle between the First Nations and the Government of Canada over whether or not the Aboriginal and treaty rights recognized and affirmed in the Constitution Act, 1982 are to be given the force and meaning. The Supreme Court has described section 35 as "a solemn promise" by Parliament to the First Nations. The Court has also said that Aboriginal title is a real property right. And that all the treaties entered into by Britain before Canadian Confederation were inherited by Canada at Confederation.

     The Government, with scripts written by officials in the Privy Council office and the Indian Affairs Branch, have declared that this "rights based agenda" stands in opposition to their program for developing the political and economic infrastructure of First Nations communities as they wish it to become. This "needs based agenda" is the Canadian counterpart to the Henry Dawes' program for termination. It is an attempt to revive the officially moribund White Paper on Indian Policy presented to the Commons by the present Prime Minister when he was Pierre Trudeau's Minister of Indian Affairs in 1969. 

     The Government's program is aimed at rolling back the rights that First Nations have succeeded in having recognized by the courts since the passage of the 1982 Constitution Act: 

     The Government's "trust-like" fiduciary duty to First Nations would be radically curtailed; Canada would cease to be liable for pre-Confederation treaties so that Canada will enjoy the assets acquired by those treaties while being unhindered by the liabilities that commonly accompany both solemn undertakings and long term relationships;

     Indian bands would not gain recognition as First Nations communities but would be increasingly held accountable through the Minister of Indian Affairs to the Canadian Parliament.

     In his testimony before the Senate Committee holding hearings on the Specific Claims Resolution Bill, Nault said that the First Nations which oppose his legislation are ones which are pressing for sovereignty. The reason that the First Nations are unwilling to work with him is not because he is unreasonable but because they are making an outrageous demand of sovereignty outside of Confederation. The lack of inclusion of First Nations in developing First Nations legislation was not from any lack of desire on his part, the Minister assured the Senate Committee but because the demands of the First Nations were so far-fetched.

 

     This was such a model of The Great Lie Theory that not one senator seriously challenged Nault's outrageous statement. The recurring theme of First Nations leaders in their testimony before parliamentary committees since 1970 has stressed a desire to have "their inherent right to self-government" recognized both in the written Canadian Constitution and in practical "nation-to-nation relations" between First Nations and Canada in keeping with the treaties, to form a "third order of government within Confederation" and to be able to take their proper place at the table of Confederation.  

     What the Minister was doing in his statement to the Senators was "playing the secession card." Canada has so long been threatened by secession by QuÈbec independentist that a bald faced accusation that sounds like secession is likely to incite Canadian parliamentarians in a way that may even get them to cross party lines. The themes, that run throughout the testimony of First Nations leaders for the past 30 years do not sound like demands for that kind of sovereignty. It is tantamount to playing the race card before a California jury. 

     This is not to say that the Senators who fell in behind the Minister are blameless. They enjoy pretensions of being the senior statespersons of Confederation, the Chamber of sober second thought. That no one other than the handful of Aboriginal (Indian and Inuit) Senators had either the caring to challenge the minister or the wit to take apart the analysis presented on his behalf by departmental officials represents a kind of acquiescence in the Minister's Great Lie.

     Likewise, the willingness of the media to constantly repeat the handouts distributed by the bloated "communications program" of the Indian Affairs Branch while giving little or no attention to the testimony of independent legal analysts reduces the coverage from reporting to cheerleading.

     The FNGA slowed to a crawl when it was criticized by Paul Martin, the heir apparent to Jean ChrÈtien who left Cabinet a year ago so that he could devote his full energies to campaigning for the Liberal leadership that he now has completely secured. Martin's opposition to ChrÈtien's program should not be a source of great optimism. When Jean ChrÈtien was the Leader of the Opposition he made a wide range of promises to First Nations: ChrÈtien has variously supported tax emption for on-reserve income, Indian control of Indian education and respect for Aboriginal and treaty rights. But only while he has been out of office. 

     When Chretien became Prime Minister and the government continued to prosecute Indians who claimed an exemption for on-reserve income, Paul Martin was his Minister of Finance. ChrÈtien's Government and Bob Nault's Ministry of Indian Affairs has carried on (what I have elsewhere called) "the discourse of prevarication" that has been a most frequent characteristic of Canadian Indian policy since Confederation. If Paul Martin is prepared for a more genuine dialogue the burden lies with him to demonstrate the good faith that has been in rare supply throughout Canadian history. And a "nation-to-nation" relationship requires that Martin enter into a genuine dialogue as Prime Minister of Canada, i.e., he needs to maintain the confidence of the Canadian electorate, the same fine folks who have long acquiesced in the discourse of prevarication, in the Great Lie of Bob Nault and many ministers before him.

_______________

2. My 2002 doctoral dissertation reviewed in detail the testimony of First Nations leaders on self-government before parliamentary committees during the decade of the 1970s.  I have kept in reasonable close touch with subsequent testimony.

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MEDIA NOTES

Among the offerings from the University of Arizona Press are: Maureen Trudelle Schwarz, Blood and Voice: Navajo Women Ceremonial Practices ($186 pp. for $24,95 paper, $50 cloth); Paul Pasquaretta, Gambling and Survival in Native North America (220 pp. for $40 cloth); Saleem H. Ali, Mining the Environment and Indigenous Development Conflicts (270 pp. for $50 cloth); Robert H. Keeler and Michael F. Turek, American Indians and National Parks (219 pp. for $19.95 paper); Carter Jones Meyer and Diana Royer, Eds., Selling the Indian: Commercializing and Appropriating American Indian Culture (279 pp. for $22.95 paper, $45.00 cloth); Melissa Jayne Fawcett, Medicine Trail: The Life and Lessons of Gladys Tantaquidgeon (192 pp. for $20.95 paper); Patrick D. Lyons, Ancestral Hopi Migrations, Anthropological Papers No. 66 (142 pp. for$16.95); P. David Seaman, Ed., Born a Chief: The Nineteenth Century Hopi Boyhood of Edmund Nequatewa, as told by Alfred E. Whiting (193 pp. for $19.95 paper); Frances Manuel and Deborah Neff, The Desert Indian Women: Stories and Dreams (229 pp, for $17.95 paper) Donald Bahr, Ed., O'odham Cration and Related Events, As Told by Ruth Benedict in 1927 in Prose, Oratory and Song (227 pp. for $45 cloth; and Thomas R. McGuire, Politics and Ethnicity on the Rio Yaqui (186 pp. for $22 cloth), all plus $3 for first item, $2 for each additional, shipping, from University of Arizona Press, 355 Euclid Ave. S., Suite 103 Tuscon, AZ  85719 (800)426-3797, www.uapress.arizona.edu.

The offerings from the University of Nebraska Press include: Colin Galloway, One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West Before Lewis and Clark (640 pp. for $39.95 cloth) Esther Black Elk, Olivia Black Elk,Pourier, Aaron DeSersa, jr., and Clifton DeDera; Hilda Neihardt and Lori Hunt Utecht, Eds., Black Elk Lives: Conversations with the Black Elk Family (174 pp. for $12.95 paper); Susan Bordeaux Bettleyoun and Josephine Waggoner, Smily Levine, Ed., With My Own Eyes: A Lakota Woman Tells Her People's History (199 pp. for $16.95 paper, $55 cloth); Jeffrey D. Anderson, One Hundred Years of Old Man Sage: An Arapaho Life (168 pp. for $35 cloth); Phenocia Baurle, Ed.; Henry Old Coyote and Barney Old Coyote, Translators, The Way of the Warrior: Stories of the Crow People (133 pp. for $24.95 cloth); Larl Kroeber and Clinton Kroeber, Eds., Ishi in Three Centuries (416 pp. for $49.95 cloth); Clare V. McKanna, Jr., The Trial of "Indian Joe:" Race and Justice in the Nineteenth Century West ( $135 pp. for $35 cloth); Joseph Medicine Crow, From the Heart of Crow Country: The Crow Indians Own Stories (138 pp. for $10 paper); Devon Abbott Miheshuah, Indigenous American Women: Decolonization, Empowerment, Activism (246 pp. paper, $50 cloth); Gerald Mohatt and Joseph Eagle Elk, The Price of a Gift: A Lakota Healer's Story (230 pp. for $14.95 paper); Zitkala-Sa, American Indian Stories, New Edition (196 pp. for $12.95 paper); Elvira Pulitano, Toward a Native Amerrican Critical Theory (260 pp. for $60 cloth); Bruce Granville Miller, Invisible Indigenes: The Politics of Nonrecognition (320 pp. for $49.95 cloth); Jose Antonio Brandao, Nation Iroquoise: a Seventeenth-Century Ethnography of the Iroquois (128 pp. for $40 cloth); James Taylor Carson, Searching for the Bright Path: The Mississippi Choctaws from Prehistory to Removal (204 pp. for $29.95); and Daniel H. Usner, Jr., American Indians of the Lower Mississippi Valley: Social and Economic Histories (234 pp. for $29.95 paper), all, plus $5 for the first item and $4.50 for each additional, from: University of Nebraska Press, 233 N. 8 St., Lincoln, NE 68588 (800)755-1105, pressmail@unl.edu, www.nebraskapress.unl.edu., www.bisonbooks.com.

Offerings from the University of Oklahoma Press include: Roger L. Nichols, American Indians in U.S. History (288 pp. for $29.95 cloth); Robert S. McPherson, Navajo Land, Navajo Culture: The Utah Experience in the Twentieth Century (272 pp. for $19.95 paper); Mark St. Pierre, Of Uncommon Birth: Dakota sons in Vietnam (320 pp. for $27.95 cloth); Lillian A. Ackerman, A Necessary Balance: Gender and Balance Among Indians of the Columbia Plateau (296 pp. for $42.95 cloth); Laura F. Klein and Lillian A. Ackerman, Eds., Women and Power in Native North America ($17.95 paper); Siobhan Senier, Voices of Americna Indian Assimilation and Resistance: Helen Hunt Jackson, Sarah Winnemucca, and Victoria Howard (272 pp. for $17.95 paper); and Amalia Pallares, From Peasant Struggle to Indian resistance: The Ecuadorian Andes in the Late Twentieth Century (288 pp. for $44.95) , all plus $4.50 first item, $1.50 for each additional, from University of Colorado Press, c/o University of Oklahoma Press, 4100 28 Ave., NW, Norman, OK 73069 (800)627-7377, www.oupress.com.

Included in the offerings from the University of Colorado Press are: Donald L Fixaco, The Invasion of Indian Country in the Twentieth Century: American Capitalism and Tribal Natural Resources ($24.95, paper); James J. Lopach, Margery Hunter Brown and Richmond L. Claw, Tribal Government Today, Revised Edition ($34.95 cloth); Richmond L. Cl;aw and Imre Sutton, Eds., Trusteeship and Change: toward Tribal Autonomy in Resource Management ($24.95 paper, $59.95 cloth); and Virginia McConnell Simmons, The Ute Indians of Utah, Colorado and New Mexico ($23.95 paper, all plus $4.50 first item, $1.50 for each additional, from University of Colorado Press, c/o University of Oklahoma Press, 4100 28 Ave., NW, Norman, OK 73069 (800)627-7377. www.upvolorado.com.

Vine Deloria, Jr., Evolution, Creationism and Other Modern Myths, is available for $24.95 from Folcrum Publishing, 16100 Table Mountain Parkway, Suite 300, Golden, CO 80403. Carier Jones Meyer and Diana Royer, are the editors of Selling the Indian; Commercializing and Appropriating American Indian Cultures.

Pamela Martin, The Globalization of Contentious Politics: The Amazonian Indigenous Rights Movement (176 pp. for $52 cloth); and Maria Teresa Vequez Castilo, Land Privatization in Mexico: Urbanization, Formation of regions and Globalization of Eijdos (256 pp. for $40 cloth), both at these 20% discounts until end of 2003, plus $4 for first item and $1 for each additional, from Routledge, 10650 Toebben Dr., Independence, KY 41051 (800)634-7064, www.routledge-ny.com. Anthony J. Hall, The American Empire and the Fourth World: The Bowl With One Spoon, looks to indigenous views for appropriate alternatives to current globalization. The 640 pp. cloth volume is $27.95, plus $5 for the first item, $1 for each additional shipping, from Direct Mail Manager, McGill-Queen's University Press, 3430 McTavish St,. Montreal, QC H3A 1X9, Canada, FAX: (514)398-5443, http://www.mqup.ca.

American Indian/Alaska Native Children in the Child Welfare Services Program: Report Period Calendar Year 2000 focuses better understanding the American Indian/Alaska Native children in the child welfare services program, documenting the characteristics of child abuse referral and child welfare services caseload information relating to American Indian/Alaska Native children. The report is available at: http://www.dss.cahwnet.gov/research/res/PDF/AmIndianYr2000.PDF.

Jon Reyhner, Joseph Martin, Louise Lockard, and W. Sakiestewa Gilbert, Eds., Learn in Beauty: Indigenous Education for a New Century is available in print or as a pdf file from Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ. Karen Gayton Swisher and John W. Tippeconnic III, Eds., Next Steps: Research and Practice to Advance Indian Education is 331 pp. for $24 paper, from ERIC: http://www.ael.org/eric/aibooks.htm.

Walter C. Fleming (Kickapoo), The Complete Idiots Guide to Native American History, Second Edition is published by Alpha Books, a division of Penguin. Eva Marie Garroutte, Real Indians: Identity and the Survival of Native America is 233 pp. from Universityof california Press.

Herman J. Viola, Ben Nighthorse Campbell: An American Warrior is published by Johnson Books, boulder, CO.

Harvey Arden, Have You Thought of Leonard Peltier Lately is a documentary book on the author's tumultuous years working for the freedom of Leonard Peltier.  The 200+ page book is $23 +$5 shipping from, Have You Thought, 1410 Blalock Road, #420, Houston, TX 77055, george@HaveYouThought or harvey@HaveYouThought.com, http://www.HaveYouThought.com, or for this and other publications or information on Leonard Peltier go to www.dreamkeepers.net.

Potawatomi Trail of Death - Indiana to Kansas, is being published by Fulton County Historical Society's Indian Awareness Center. The 448 p. book is available for $40 (plus $6 shipping) from FCHS Indian Awareness Center, 37 E 375 N, Rochester IN 46975.

Our Sacred Identity: The Book of American Indian Names and Their Meanings is available at: www.thenativeexperience.com.

~ ~ ~

Resources on Indian troubled youth and gang violence and methods of prevention and rehabilitation from Arturo Hernandez, "Youth Gangs in Indian Country? One Tribe's Approach" (ERIC clearinghouse, EDO-RC-02-12) reported in December, 2002:

   American Indian Relief Council. (n.d.). Reservation profiles: Pine Ridge reservation. Rapid City, SD: http://www.airc.org/reservations/pineridge.html.

   Arrillaga, P. (2001, April 15). "Stuck between two worlds: Tribal youth ravaged by violence, drug abuse, depression". Los Angeles, CA: The Los Angeles Times, pp. B1.

   Campbell, B. N. (1997, Sept. 17). Statement of Chairman Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Joint Oversight Hearing on Criminal Gang Activity Within Indian Country, from: http://indian.senate.gov/hearings/917_bnc.htm.

   Conway, M. K. (1999). SIAU Intelligence Report: Gangs on Indian reservations. Washington, DC: Federal Bureau of Investigation.

   Devitt, S. (2002, June 6). "Deadly silence: Gang problem a silent scourge on Navajo Nation". Farmington, NM: The Daily Times.

   Donnermeyer, J. F., Edwards, R. W., Chavez, E. L., & Beauvais, F. (1996). "Involvement of American Indian Youth in Gangs". Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology, 24(2), 167-174.

   Hailer, J. A. (1998). A Loss of Traditions: The Emergence of American Indian Youth Gangs. Masters thesis. San Jose, CA: San Jose State University, Administration of Justice Department.

   Hailer, J. A., & Hart, C.B. (1999). "A New Breed of Warrior: The Emergence of American Indian Youth Gangs. Journal of Gang Research, 7(1), 23-33.

   Juneau, S. K. (1998). 1998 Annual Report: Gangs in Indian Country. Artesia, NM: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Police Academy.

   O'Connell, J. C. (Ed.). (1987). A Study of the Special Problems and Needs of American Indians with Handicaps both on and off the Reservation. Volume II: Individual reports. Volume III: Appendices.

   U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). (1995). Field Initiated Gang Research: Finding and Knowing the Gang Nayee in the Navajo Nation. Washington, DC: Author.

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Alvin White has shared the following partial, "Revised References on American Indian Mascots" via Andre Cramblit's most useful Digest for IndigenousNewsNetwork@topica.com, Mon, 27 Oct 2003. from: andrekar@ncidc.org:

   Clarkson, G. (2003). Racial Imagery and Native Americans:  A first Look at the Empirical Evidence Behind the Indian Mascot Conttroversy. Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law. v. 11 no. 2 (Summer 2003) p. 393-408.

   DelaCruz,  E. M.  (2003). Racism American Style and Resistance to Change: Art Education's Role in the Indian Mascot Issue. Art Education v. 56 no. 3 (May 2003) p. 13-20.

   Dolley, J. (2003). The Four R's: Use of Indian Mascots in Educational Facilities. Journal of Law & Education. v.32 no. 1 (January 2003) p. 21-39.

   Briggs, K. Arviso, T.,  McAuliffe,  D.,  Edmo-Suppah,  L. (2002). The Reading Red Report. Native American Journalist Association, Minneapolis, MN.

   Carvell,  M. (2002). Who will tell my brother? New York:  Hyperion Books for Children.

   Davis, L.R. (2002). The Problems with Native American Mascots. Multicultural Education, v. 9 (4), (Summer 2002), 11-14.

   King, C.R., Defensive dialogues: Native American mascots, anti-Indianism, and educational institutions.  Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education. Volume 2, Issue 1 (February 2002).

   King, C. R., Staurowsky, E. J., Baca, L., Davis, L. R., & Pewewardy, C.  (2002). Of polls and race prejudice: Sports Illustrated's errant 'Indian Wars,' Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 26 (4), 381-402.

   Pewewardy, C.D. (2002). I'm Not Your Indian Mascot Anymore:  Countering the assault of Indian mascots in schools. Red Ink, 9.2/10.1, 58-62.

   Rose, C. (2002). The Tears of Strangers are Only Water: The Refusal of America to Understand the Mascot Issue. Virginia Sports and Entertainment Law Journal, v. 1:1, (Spring 2002).

   Taylor,   K.R. (2002). What's in a name? Principal Leadership (Middle School Ed.). v. 3 no. 1 (September 2002) p. 74-7.

   King, C.R., & Springwood, C.F. (2001). Team spirits: The Native American mascots controversy. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.

   King, C.R., & Springwood, C.F. (2001). Beyond the cheers:  Race as spectacle in college sport. Albany, NY:  State University of New York Press.

   Powers-Beck,  J. (2001). "Chief": The American Indian Integration of Baseball, 1897-1945. American Indian Quarterly, v. 25 no. 4 (Fall 2001) p. 508-38.

   Riede,  P. (2001) More than a mascot. School Administrator v. 58 no. 8 (September 2001). p. 27-33.

   Staurowsky, EJ. (2001) Reflections of a Former Methacton Warrior, ????????

   Staurowsky, EJ., & Wilson, S. (2001) Much Ado about Mascots. Athletic Management, 13.5, August/September 2001.

   Behrendt, K.E., (2000). Cancellation of the Washington Redskins' federal trademark registrations: should sports team names, mascots and logos contain Native American symbolism? Seton Hall Journal of Sport Law. v. 10 no. 2 (2000) p. 389-414.

     Connolly, M.R. (2000). What's in a name? The Journal of Higher Education (Columbus, Ohio). v. 71 no. 5 (September/October) p. 515-47).

   Hatfield, D.L. (2000). The Stereotyping of Native Americans. Humanist, September 2000.

   King, C.R. (2000). Fighting spirits:  The racial politics of sports mascots. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 24 (3),282-304.

   Pewewardy, C.D. (2000). Why Educators Should Not Ignore Indian Mascots. Multicultural Perspectives, 2 (1), 3-7.

   Spindel, C. (2000). Dancing at halftime: Sports and the controversy over American Indian mascots. New York:  New York University Press.

   Cummings, A.D.P.1 (1999). "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my" or "Redskins and Braves and Indians, oh why": ruminations on McBride v. Utah State Tax Commission, 977 P.2d 467 (Utah 1999). California Western Law Review. v. 36 (Fall, 1999) no. p. 11-37.

   King, C. R., Springwood, C.F., (1999). "Playing Indian," power, and racial identity in American sport: Gerald R. Gems'"The construction, negotiation, and transformation of racial identity in American football". American Indian Culture and Research Journal. v. 23 no. 2 p. 127-131.

   Pewewardy, C. D. (1999). From Enemy to Mascot:  The Deculturation of Indian Mascots. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 23 (2), 176-189.

Pewewardy,  C.D. (1999, Summer). The Deculturalization of Indigenous Mascots in U.S. Sports. Culture.  Educational Forum, 63 (4), 342-347.

   Pewewardy,  C. D.  (1999, Spring). From La Bella Sauvage to the Noble Savage: The Deculturalization of Indian Mascots in American Culture. Multicultural Education, 6 (3), 6-11.

   King, C.R. (1998). Spectacles, sport, and stereotypes:  Dis/Playing Chief Illiniwek. In C. Richard King (Ed),  Colonial discourses, collective memories, and the exhibition of Native American

cultures and histories in the contemporary United States. (pp. 41-58). New York:  Garland Publishing, Inc.

   Pewewardy, C.D. (1998, Spring). Beyond the Wild West. Teaching Tolerance, 15, 42.

   Rodriquez, R. (1998). Plotting the assassination of Little Red Sambo: Psychologists join war against racist campus mascots. Black Issues in Higher Education, 15 (8), 20-24.

   Sigelman, L. (1998). Hail to the Redskins?: Public Reactions to a racially insensitive team name. Sociology of Sport Journal, 15, 317-325.

   Staurowsky, E J. (1998). An act of honor or exploitation?:  The Cleveland Indians' use of the Louis Francis Sockalexis story. Sociology of Sport Journal, 15, 299-316.

   Frazier, J. (1997). Tomahawkin' the Redskins; 'Indian' Images in Sports and Commerce. American Indian Studies:  An Interdisciplinary Approach to Contemporary Issues, 337-346.

   Pewewardy, C.D. (1997). Commercial and Intellectual Exploitation of Native Peoples. Twin Light Trail, 14, 14-15.

   Pewewardy, C.D. (1994). Native American Mascots, Nicknames, Imagery, and the Tomahawk Chop as Cultural Violence. Multicultural Review, 3 (3), 104-106.

   Pewewardy, C.D. (1993, Fall). The Tomahawk Chop:  The Continuous Struggle of Unlearning Indian Stereotypes. Multicultural Education, 1 (2), 14-15.

   Pewewardy, C.D. (1993). The Tomahawk Chop:  The Continuous Struggle of Unlearning Indian Stereotypes. Twin Light Trail, 6, 22-23.

   Slowikowski, S.S. (1993). Cultural performance and sport mascots. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 17 (1), 23-33.

   Pewewardy, C.D. (1991). Native American mascots and imagery: The struggle of unlearning Indian stereotypes. Journal of Navajo Education, 9 (1), 19-23.

   Oxendine, J.B. (1988). American Indian sports heritage. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.

   Franks, R. (1982). What's in a nickname?:  Exploring the jungle of college athletic mascots. Amarillo, TX:  R. Franks Pub Ranch.

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The Journal of American Indian Education is available from: Center for Indian Education, Arizona State University, Box 871311, Tempe, AZ 85287, http://jaie.asu.edu/.

British Medical Journal 23 August 2003 focuses on the health of indigenous peoples. See the following editorials and related links: http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/327/7412/0-f; http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/327/7412/403; http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/327/7412/404; http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/327/7412/406; http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/327/7412/407; http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/327/7412/408

Let the Healing Begin: The 4th Annual Oglala Commemoration, a 52 min. film produced by Free Speech TV profiles the Lakota people of the Pine Ridge reservation as they work to heal decades of conflict in their community and focuses on the 4th annual Oglala Commemoration, organized to mark the 28th anniversary of the shootout between FBI agents and the American Indian Movement and the continuing struggle for Leonard Peltier's freedom. The film will be available for approximately $15, including shipping. For more information or to order, email: oglala_commemoration@yahoo.com.

Ismana Carney of Scotts Valley, California has produced a video on the Blackfeet Firefighters, The Chief Mountain Hotshots, Firefighters of the Blackfeet Nation. The film is available from Carney: (831)438-1336, pendragon2@earthlink.net, http://www.pendragonunlimited.com/PetroGlyph.html.

The Chiapas Media Project (CMP), now has the following films available: WTO: A Threat to Humanity (Spanish with English subtitles, 54:00,2003, co-produced with CIEPAC) WTO, provides an in-depth look at the history and current policies of the World Trade Organization. It is an indigenous/non-indigenous co-production, originally made for indigenous and campesino communities in Mexico and Central America. Individual Price: $35 University/Institutional Price: $95. Xulum'Chon: Weavers in Resistance from the Highlands (Tzotzil with Spanish subtitles, 15:30, 2003) portrays an indigenous Tzoltzil women's collective in the Highlands of Chiapas, struggling in their work as weavers to receive a just price for their work. Price: $20 University/Institutional Price: $70. To order, adding $5 shipping for the first tape and $1.50 for each additional tape, contact: Chiapas Media Project, 4834 N. Springfield, Chicago, IL 60625 (773)583-7728, cmp@chiapasmediaproject.org.

Useful Web Sites

Digest for IndigenousNewsNetwork@topica.com sends out regular E-mail newsletters of Native events, news and thoughts (which are very helpful in compiling material for Native American Policy) by Andre Cramblit: andrekar@ncidc.org.

Native Americans and Indigenous Peoples Link, listing many native indigenous and related web sites: http://www.neravt.com/left/directory/subjects/native.htm.

Some Indian Education Related locations:

ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural and Small Schools on American Indian/AlaskaNative Education http://www.ael.org/eric/indians.html.

American Indian Issues: An Introductory and Curricular Guide for Educators (AICP) is at: http://sorrel.humboldt.edu/~go1/kellogg/intro.html. The primary goal of the AICP was to provide educators with the tools to educate secondary students - Indian and non-native alike - about the historical and contemporary political, economic, and social characteristics of sovereign tribal nations throughout the United States.

Native Peoples Magazine Media Concepts Group, Inc. 5333 North Seventh Street, Suite C-224 Phoenix, AZ 85014 http://www.nativepeoples.com/.

A Critical Bibliography on North American Indians (K-12), compiled by the Anthropology Outreach Office of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History: http://nmnhwww.si.edu/anthro/outreach/Indbibl/bibliogr.html.

The Cambridge Library provides an overview of on-line sources of information for kids concerning Native Peoples of North America at: http://www.ci.cambridge.ma.us/~CPL/kids/nativepeoples.html.

The Close Up Foundation offers special publications on American Indian Tribal Sovereignty issues and education activities in the area of Civics education, at: Close Up Foundation 44 Canal Center Plaza Alexandria, VA 22314 (800)256-7387), http://www.closeup.org/.

William G. Demmert, Jr., Improving Academic Performance among Native American Students A Review of

the Research Literature, examines research-based information on educational approaches and programs associated with improving the academic performance of Native American students, at: http://www.ael.org/eric/demmert.htm.

Native Americans in Basic Reading Texts: Are There Enough? http://jaie.asu.edu/v26/V26S1nat.htm.

Classroom Learning Environments: http://jaie.asu.edu/v26/V26S1cla.htm.

Native American Education: http://jupiter.lang.osaka-u.ac.jp/~krkvls/edu.html.

Cradleboard Teaching's Partnering Program includes a partnership between an indigenous class and a non-indigenous class of the same age. Together, the children learn about themselves and their partner class, while also studying Nihewan core curriculum in Science, History, Music, Geography and Social Studies, from an indigenous perspective. http://www.cradleboard.org/.

American Indian Education History and Facts offers a concise review of the history of American Indian Education: American Indian Education Foundation, P.O. Box 27491 Albuquerque, NM 87125 (800)881-8694, http://www.aiefprograms.org/history_facts/index.html.

American Indian Content Standards, developed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs through their Goals 2000

effort to help schools in the development of local standards with an emphasis on American Indian/Alaska Native learners,  which can also be used to help non-Indian learners and schools understand thecontributions of American Indians and Alaska Natives in the Americas, are available at: http://www.ldoe.org/cetia/aics.htm.

The Center for Educational Technology in Indian America, building on the foundation of the Four Directions project, represents a consortium of schools, agencies, universities, professional associations, museums and private sector organizations committed to improving learning opportunities for American Indian students through the use of technology, at:  http://www.ldoe.org/cetia/resource.htm.

Andre Cramblit, andrekar@ncidc.org, reports that a good site on language preservation is: http://www.in-forum.com/specials/DyingTongues/, and a site on Tribal Tourism is: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/custom/tourism/orl-cfbtoursty15091503sep15.story.

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The indigenous youth chapter of 'Highly Affected, Rarely Considered':

http://www.iyp.oxfam.org/campaign/documents/youth_commission_report/Indigenous_Youth.pdf.

The United Nations Guide for Indigenous People, designed to provide indigenous peoples with practical information on theoperations and procedures of the United Nations (UN)and its various agencies related to human rights and development: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/racism/00-indigenousguide.html.

The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, created with a broad mandateto deal with six main areas in relation to indigenous peoples: economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/pfii/.

World Conference Against Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance, held in South Africa from the 31 August - 7 September 2001, includes information on racism against Indigenous people, trafficking of women and children, migration and discrimination, gender and racial discrimination, and protection of minority rights: http://www.un.org/WCAR/.

International Decade of the World's Indigenous People 1995-2004: .http://www.un.org/rights/indigenous/mediaadv.html.

Indigenous Peoples Group in the World Bank Provides information on the relationship between the World Bank and indigenous peoples - particularly outlining current policies, projects, and events: http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/ESSD/sdvext.nsf/63ByDocName/IndigenousPeoples.

Tebtebba (Indigenous Peoples' International Centre for Policy Research and Education), an indigenous peoples' organization born out of the need for heightened advocacy to have the rights of indigenous peoples recognized, respected and protected worldwide, web site gives an overview of indigenous concerns and issues of the day, while supplying access to and information on the Indigenous Peoples' Global Research and Education Network (IPGREN) and various other programs: http://www.tebtebba.org/. It has a page profiling the International Indigenous Youth Conference, held in the Philippines in April 2002, attended by Indigenous youth from Burma, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Bolivia, Ecuador, Panama, Finland, Norway, Russia, Australia, Fiji Islands, New Zealand/Aotearoa, Solomon Islands, Canada and the United States: http://www.tebtebba.org/tebtebba_files/ipr/iiyc.html.

Native Web provides resources for Indigenous cultures around the world: http://www.nativeweb.org/.

reznet, the online student newspaper for Native America and winner of NAJA's 2003 Native Media Award for Best Internet News Site, is at: (http://www.reznetnews.org), reznet is a project of The University of Montana School ofJournalism and the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.

The Centre for World Indigenous Studies (CWIS), an independent research and education organisation dedicated to wider understanding and appreciation of the ideas and knowledge of indigenous peoples and the social, economic and political realities of indigenous nations: http://www.cwis.org/.

Aboriginal Connections has links to many indigenous web sites on a wide variety of topics, from law to media to history and culture: http://www.aboriginalconnections.com/.

International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, an independent international membership organization involved in such activities involve activities such as documentation and publication, human rights, political lobbying and collaborating on projects with other indigenous organizations: http://www.iwgia.org/sw617.asp.

The Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources, created for the purpose of establishing and implementing environmental capacity-building initiatives for first nations: http://www.cier.ca/index2.html.

The newsletter of the International Youth Parliament, with members from over 2000 organizations and individuals in more than 150 countries, can be subscribed to by going to: http://www.iyp.oxfam.org/involved/index.asp.

For Native American events and links go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ncanativeeventsandnews/cal. To read the news or join this mailing list, visit its home page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ncanativeeventsandnews/. To send in news or events e-mail (Warning, your items will post to the site exactly as they appear in the e-mail. Your e-mail subject will be the post title): ncanativeeventsandnews@yahoogroups.com. If you have any questions e-mail me: harvest95546@yahoo.com

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

INDIGENOUS WOMEN: THE STATE OF OUR NATIONS

Submissions are invited for an upcoming special issue of Atlantis, an interdisciplinary journal devoted to critical and creative writing in English or French on the topic of women. Submissions are welcome from Indigenous women in the Americas and around the globe. Submissions may be scholarly articles, poetry, creative writing, visual art, interviews, book reviews, and other relevant forms. For this issue, contributions from Aboriginal women are being sought that explore the issues, both external and internal, which affect our survival as nations, as well as writing which empowers us and re-envisions our futures. Atlantis is particularly interested in the following topics: Indigenous sovereignty and nation-rebuilding Community efforts to revitalize and protect Indigenous languages, Urban self-government, Economic sovereignty, Bridging the gulf between Metis communities and First Nations, On-Reserve/Off Reserve commonalities and differences, Northern realities/Northern community concerns, Lands Lost/Lands Regained: Resisting Encroachment, Environmental activism, Aboriginal communities and disability, Reclaiming traditions around Two-Spiritedness, Examining the Effects of "The Traditional" on Women Child Welfare Issues: Theoretical work and testimonies, Aboriginal communities and the law. Other issues of importance to Aboriginal women and communities will be welcome. Contributions should be accessible to audiences from many different backgrounds interested in the empowerment of Aboriginal women and their communities. Atlantis articles are peer-reviewed. They contribute to a publication that strives to meet the expectations of both the academic and Aboriginal communities. Information regarding the contributors guidelines may be found in a recent copy of the journal, at the web site www.msvu.ca/atlantis, or by contacting the Atlantis office. Submission Deadline is February 1, 2004. Please send submissions addressed to: Guest Editors: Bonita Lawrence and Kim Anderson, Atlantis: A Women's Studies Journal/Revue d'etudes sur les femmes, Institute for the Study of Women, Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax NS B3M 2J6, Canada.

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The Frances C. Allen Fellowships for women of Native American heritage has an application deadline of February 15, 2004. While candidates for this award may be working in any graduate or pre-professional field, the particular goal of the Allen Fellowship is to encourage Native American women in their studies of the humanities and social sciences.  Financial support varies according to need and may include travel expenses. Allen Fellows are expected to spend a significant part of their tenure in residence at the Newberry's D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History. The tenure of the fellowship is from one month to one year; the fellowship provides up to $8,000 in approved expenses. Please note: applicants for the Allen Fellowship must fill out a supplementary form in addition to the cover sheet for special awards and fellowships. The Frances C. Allen Fellowship is under the "Special Awards and Fellowships" on the web page for fellowships in the Humanities: http://www.newberry.org/nl/research/L3rfellowships.html.

Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis  (IUPUI) is seeking an anthropologically trained faculty member at an open rank to be a "Public Scholar of Native American Representation," the first of four "Public Scholars of Civic Engagement" to be appointed jointly in the Museum Studies Program and other units on campus.  This faculty member will have a joint appointment in the Anthropology Department, the Museum Studies Program, and at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. The faculty member will develop collaborative projects between the Museum and the University that engage students, contribute to the Museum Studies and Anthropology curricula, and further the mission of the museum.  For full information, contact Elizabeth Kryder-Reid, Chair, Search Committee, Department of Anthropology, CA 419, IUPUI, 425 University Blvd. Indianapolis, IN, 46202, (317)274-8207, ekryderr@iupui.edu.