Associated Press
WINFIELD, W.Va. (AP) - The skeletal remains of about 600 American Indians stored at Ohio State University for more than 40 years will be returned to West Virginia for reburial.
Putnam County commissioners signed an agreement with Ohio State Tuesday to have the remains returned to the county.
Several groups in West Virginia have worked for about 10 years to bring the remains back.
The remains were sent to the university after they were found in Buffalo in the early 1960s.
Putnam County Commissioner Joe Haynes says no tribe ever reclaimed the remains.
Federal officials couldn't link the remains to any specific tribe, whichcleared the way for the commission to claim them for reburial.
Haynes says a site for the reburial hasn't yet been chosen.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Tradition important to aboriginal mining company
By: Stacey O'Brien
When the buffalo were scarce in the past, a legend tells of a Blackfoot woman going out and looking for guidance about how to feed and clothe the tribe.
“She came along and found one of the ammonite that she thought was a beautiful rock. She took it back to the tribe and, within a short time, the buffalo came back,” said Beth Day Chief, one of the owners of the Buffalo Rock Mining Company.
The story inspired the name of Day Chief and her husband Tracy Day Chief’s company, Buffalo Rock Mining Company. Day Chief said it’s the first aboriginally owned mining company mining for ammonite and she is appreciative of Blood Tribe chief and council and Indian Affairs for giving them the opportunity to start the company on the Blood Reserve.
The mining began six short weeks ago, but Day Chief and her husband started looking into doing the mining five years ago and incorporated their company more than two years ago, with shareholders and marketers Cathy and Todd Spencer coming on board. They eventually hope to employ 25 people from the Blood Tribe.
The company has taken special precautions with the site, 10 kilometres southwest of the Lethbridge County Airport, close to the St. Mary River. They’ve had Fisheries and Oceans Canada come in and elder Bruce Wolf Child examine the site because it’s close to the river and a buffalo jump.
A past campsite with teepee rings and a couple of gravesites are also nearby, so the company is told where they are able to mine and where they cannot.
“Once we’re done two acres, we have to reclaim the site to make it look exactly like it was before we started. So that is really important to the tribe that we do not disturb the land,” Day Chief said.
She said they expect to be on the current site for the next three years and, besides the elasmosaur, they have already uncovered about 40 recycling bins of ammonite, which they hope to eventually sell not just locally, but internationally. A large fully intact ammonite fossil can be worth $15,000.
“It’s really exciting to get to this point,” Day Chief said. “It’s been a long hard road to get here, but it is worth it.
When the buffalo were scarce in the past, a legend tells of a Blackfoot woman going out and looking for guidance about how to feed and clothe the tribe.
“She came along and found one of the ammonite that she thought was a beautiful rock. She took it back to the tribe and, within a short time, the buffalo came back,” said Beth Day Chief, one of the owners of the Buffalo Rock Mining Company.
The story inspired the name of Day Chief and her husband Tracy Day Chief’s company, Buffalo Rock Mining Company. Day Chief said it’s the first aboriginally owned mining company mining for ammonite and she is appreciative of Blood Tribe chief and council and Indian Affairs for giving them the opportunity to start the company on the Blood Reserve.
The mining began six short weeks ago, but Day Chief and her husband started looking into doing the mining five years ago and incorporated their company more than two years ago, with shareholders and marketers Cathy and Todd Spencer coming on board. They eventually hope to employ 25 people from the Blood Tribe.
The company has taken special precautions with the site, 10 kilometres southwest of the Lethbridge County Airport, close to the St. Mary River. They’ve had Fisheries and Oceans Canada come in and elder Bruce Wolf Child examine the site because it’s close to the river and a buffalo jump.
A past campsite with teepee rings and a couple of gravesites are also nearby, so the company is told where they are able to mine and where they cannot.
“Once we’re done two acres, we have to reclaim the site to make it look exactly like it was before we started. So that is really important to the tribe that we do not disturb the land,” Day Chief said.
She said they expect to be on the current site for the next three years and, besides the elasmosaur, they have already uncovered about 40 recycling bins of ammonite, which they hope to eventually sell not just locally, but internationally. A large fully intact ammonite fossil can be worth $15,000.
“It’s really exciting to get to this point,” Day Chief said. “It’s been a long hard road to get here, but it is worth it.
Family of missing Six Nations woman appeals for clues
CBC News
The family of a pregnant woman from the Six Nations reserve who has been missing for nine weeks has made an appeal to the public for clues to her whereabouts.
Tashina General, 21, was reported missing to Six Nations Police on Jan. 23 in her hometown of Ohsweken, a village on the Six Nations reserve southeast of Brantford, Ont.
Members of her family held a press conference at Grand River Polytechnic in Ohsweken Thursday, making a tearful request for information on her disappearance.
"If she's out there and she can see what's going on, please call home. Everyone's really concerned about her. We just hope that she'll make it home safely," her best friend, Chloe Dennis, told CBC News.
Dennis, 18, said it was very out of character for General to disappear without contacting her family. She said she spoke to General the day before she went missing but didn't notice anything suspicious about her friend's behaviour.
"She seemed her happy self, because she is really outgoing," Dennis said.
Get the whole story and a photo of her here: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/03/27/missing-woman.html
The family of a pregnant woman from the Six Nations reserve who has been missing for nine weeks has made an appeal to the public for clues to her whereabouts.
Tashina General, 21, was reported missing to Six Nations Police on Jan. 23 in her hometown of Ohsweken, a village on the Six Nations reserve southeast of Brantford, Ont.
Members of her family held a press conference at Grand River Polytechnic in Ohsweken Thursday, making a tearful request for information on her disappearance.
"If she's out there and she can see what's going on, please call home. Everyone's really concerned about her. We just hope that she'll make it home safely," her best friend, Chloe Dennis, told CBC News.
Dennis, 18, said it was very out of character for General to disappear without contacting her family. She said she spoke to General the day before she went missing but didn't notice anything suspicious about her friend's behaviour.
"She seemed her happy self, because she is really outgoing," Dennis said.
Get the whole story and a photo of her here: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/03/27/missing-woman.html
Navajos set to tap power of the wind
By: Dennis Wagner and Ryan Randazzo
Hundreds of windmills reaching nearly 400 feet into the sky could begin sprouting on the Navajo Reservation north of Flagstaff under a new agreement to harness wind energy for electrical use.
The Navajo Nation announced Thursday that it will partner with a Boston company to capitalize on the blustery conditions prevailing on the high mesas of northern Arizona. The Diné Wind Project, which would be the first commercial wind farm in the state, calls for Citizens Energy Corp. to invest millions of dollars to build the energy-collecting towers.The enterprise was sealed this month by Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., other key tribal officials and Citizens Energy Chairman Joseph P. Kennedy II, a former congressman and son of the late U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy. The agreement comes after nearly two years of pre-development work and marks another step in the Navajo Nation's move to exploit renewable-power sources for so-called clean energy.
In a news release Thursday, Shirley said the wind-gathering effort will "bring prosperity for the Navajo people and build our energy independence while providing jobs and other benefits for the Navajo Nation.
"The operation is planned in the Gray Mountain area west of U.S. 89, about 50 miles north of Flagstaff.
The tribe and its Diné Power Authority become partners in a joint enterprise known as Citizens Enterprise Corp., a subsidiary of Citizens Energy. Deswood Tome, a Navajo Nation spokesman, said the project is expected to generate 500 megawatts of electricity, enough to serve an estimated 100,000 households. As many as 300 turbine towers would be erected in several locations between Flagstaff and Tuba City, with first-phase completion in about three years.
There's more to the story here: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0328navajo-wind0328.html
Hundreds of windmills reaching nearly 400 feet into the sky could begin sprouting on the Navajo Reservation north of Flagstaff under a new agreement to harness wind energy for electrical use.
The Navajo Nation announced Thursday that it will partner with a Boston company to capitalize on the blustery conditions prevailing on the high mesas of northern Arizona. The Diné Wind Project, which would be the first commercial wind farm in the state, calls for Citizens Energy Corp. to invest millions of dollars to build the energy-collecting towers.The enterprise was sealed this month by Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., other key tribal officials and Citizens Energy Chairman Joseph P. Kennedy II, a former congressman and son of the late U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy. The agreement comes after nearly two years of pre-development work and marks another step in the Navajo Nation's move to exploit renewable-power sources for so-called clean energy.
In a news release Thursday, Shirley said the wind-gathering effort will "bring prosperity for the Navajo people and build our energy independence while providing jobs and other benefits for the Navajo Nation.
"The operation is planned in the Gray Mountain area west of U.S. 89, about 50 miles north of Flagstaff.
The tribe and its Diné Power Authority become partners in a joint enterprise known as Citizens Enterprise Corp., a subsidiary of Citizens Energy. Deswood Tome, a Navajo Nation spokesman, said the project is expected to generate 500 megawatts of electricity, enough to serve an estimated 100,000 households. As many as 300 turbine towers would be erected in several locations between Flagstaff and Tuba City, with first-phase completion in about three years.
There's more to the story here: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0328navajo-wind0328.html
Friday, March 28, 2008
Hundreds expected at tribe's memorial for teen who drowned in car crash last year
By: Jim Casey
PORT ANGELES — The Lower Elwha Klallam on Saturday will host an event the like of which hasn't been on their reservation for decades.
Between 500 and 1,000 people — many from Puget Sound and Vancouver Island — will celebrate the life of the late Vanna Francis.
The public will be welcome at the event at the Lower Elwha tribal center, 2851 Lower Elwha Road, near Port Angeles.
The celebration will start at 10 a.m. in the tribal center's gym with a ceremonial sweeping of its floor with cedar boughs.
That will be followed by dedication of a memorial bench fashioned by Lummi carver Jewell Praying Wolf James.
The rest of the day after lunch will be given over to songs, prayers and dances by the dozen tribes and Canadian First Nations who will attend, dinner and giving gifts to participants.
The event will be over when every group has finished, sometime Saturday night or even early Sunday morning.
End of spirit's journey -
"It's a celebration of Vanna for her going to her ancestors," he said."The journey takes one year."
Want to know more? Click here: http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20080327/NEWS/803270302
PORT ANGELES — The Lower Elwha Klallam on Saturday will host an event the like of which hasn't been on their reservation for decades.
Between 500 and 1,000 people — many from Puget Sound and Vancouver Island — will celebrate the life of the late Vanna Francis.
The public will be welcome at the event at the Lower Elwha tribal center, 2851 Lower Elwha Road, near Port Angeles.
The celebration will start at 10 a.m. in the tribal center's gym with a ceremonial sweeping of its floor with cedar boughs.
That will be followed by dedication of a memorial bench fashioned by Lummi carver Jewell Praying Wolf James.
The rest of the day after lunch will be given over to songs, prayers and dances by the dozen tribes and Canadian First Nations who will attend, dinner and giving gifts to participants.
The event will be over when every group has finished, sometime Saturday night or even early Sunday morning.
End of spirit's journey -
"It's a celebration of Vanna for her going to her ancestors," he said."The journey takes one year."
Want to know more? Click here: http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20080327/NEWS/803270302
State-tribal agreement could transform reservation
Great Falls Tribune Online - author not posted
Central and northern Montana make way for more wind mills; developers keep a sharp eye on the possibility of building ethanol plants; coal is dug in southeastern Montana and burned there and in many other states; and natural gas heats homes and spins turbines.
These are just some of the major movements occurring in Montana related to energy development.
Beneath the radar of most folks in central and western Montana — but not folks in the east and in Helena where tax revenue is tallied — is an oil boom in northeast Montana and North Dakota.
Up to now, there's been a kind of doughnut hole in a map that development — more of a trapezoid, actually — delineated by the borders of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.
Although experts say the rez sits on the oil-rich Bakken Formation, at present just two wells are producing there.
That, however, is about to change.
There's more here: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080327/OPINION01/803270305
Central and northern Montana make way for more wind mills; developers keep a sharp eye on the possibility of building ethanol plants; coal is dug in southeastern Montana and burned there and in many other states; and natural gas heats homes and spins turbines.
These are just some of the major movements occurring in Montana related to energy development.
Beneath the radar of most folks in central and western Montana — but not folks in the east and in Helena where tax revenue is tallied — is an oil boom in northeast Montana and North Dakota.
Up to now, there's been a kind of doughnut hole in a map that development — more of a trapezoid, actually — delineated by the borders of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.
Although experts say the rez sits on the oil-rich Bakken Formation, at present just two wells are producing there.
That, however, is about to change.
There's more here: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080327/OPINION01/803270305
Mohegans Again Returning Funds To Government
By: Heather Allen
Uncasville — The Mohegan Tribe is giving back more than a half million dollars in federal funding to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, with the intention of helping tribes that have demonstrated great financial need, according to a release issued by the tribe.
The tribe made the announcement Wednesday, stating it will send back $105,680, which it was awarded through a contract between the tribe and the BIA as part of the Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. The tribe also plans to send back another $518,440 that it has yet to receive from the same contract.
Tribal Chairman Bruce “Two Dogs” Bozsum asked that the funds be redistributed to tribes who do not receive more than 10 percent of their revenue from gaming or who have substantial gaming projects under development and who “have demonstrated the greatest need and suffer from current or previous year shortfalls in funding,” according to the release.
The practice of sending federal funds back to be redistributed is not unusual, said Nedra Darling, a spokeswoman for the BIA.
“In the past they have returned the money, and other tribes have as well,” Darling said. They've done it a few times in the past.”
Get the rest of the story here: http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=10e4f964-45c9-4750-b675-634f44c2c254
Uncasville — The Mohegan Tribe is giving back more than a half million dollars in federal funding to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, with the intention of helping tribes that have demonstrated great financial need, according to a release issued by the tribe.
The tribe made the announcement Wednesday, stating it will send back $105,680, which it was awarded through a contract between the tribe and the BIA as part of the Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. The tribe also plans to send back another $518,440 that it has yet to receive from the same contract.
Tribal Chairman Bruce “Two Dogs” Bozsum asked that the funds be redistributed to tribes who do not receive more than 10 percent of their revenue from gaming or who have substantial gaming projects under development and who “have demonstrated the greatest need and suffer from current or previous year shortfalls in funding,” according to the release.
The practice of sending federal funds back to be redistributed is not unusual, said Nedra Darling, a spokeswoman for the BIA.
“In the past they have returned the money, and other tribes have as well,” Darling said. They've done it a few times in the past.”
Get the rest of the story here: http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=10e4f964-45c9-4750-b675-634f44c2c254
Lummi youngsters thank veterans
By: John Stark
LUMMI NATION — Tribal youngsters gathered Wednesday at the tribal veterans’ hall on the Stommish Grounds to thank the veterans for agreeing to share their building with a new after-school cultural education program.
Kids and veterans in Veterans of Foreign Wars caps sat together for a traditional salmon dinner, and the young people presented the veterans with pillows and necklaces they made under the direction of certified teacher Doralee Sanchez. She is the director of the Cultural Learning Center that will operate in the veterans’ hall every school day from 3 to 6 p.m.
Sanchez said the youngsters who participate in the program will learn traditional handcrafts such as drummaking and the weaving of baskets and cedar hats, among other things.
“My job description is prevention,” Sanchez said. “I’m here to give people healthy alternatives.”
Cheryl Sanders, Lummi Indian Business Council member and the tribe’s youth wellness coordinator, said she was excited to see the new program up and running.
“It’s a great opportunity for our children to learn about our culture, from making baskets to listening to stories,” Sanders said.
At the closing of the gathering, veterans and the rest of the group “retired the colors.” They honored the U.S. flag with drumming, a tribal farewell song and “God Bless America” before the color guard left the building.
U.S. Marine Corps veteran Richard Hillaire said the decision to share the veterans’ building with the young people was an easy one to make.
“We like to see this culture continue on through the younger generation,” Hillaire said.
LUMMI NATION — Tribal youngsters gathered Wednesday at the tribal veterans’ hall on the Stommish Grounds to thank the veterans for agreeing to share their building with a new after-school cultural education program.
Kids and veterans in Veterans of Foreign Wars caps sat together for a traditional salmon dinner, and the young people presented the veterans with pillows and necklaces they made under the direction of certified teacher Doralee Sanchez. She is the director of the Cultural Learning Center that will operate in the veterans’ hall every school day from 3 to 6 p.m.
Sanchez said the youngsters who participate in the program will learn traditional handcrafts such as drummaking and the weaving of baskets and cedar hats, among other things.
“My job description is prevention,” Sanchez said. “I’m here to give people healthy alternatives.”
Cheryl Sanders, Lummi Indian Business Council member and the tribe’s youth wellness coordinator, said she was excited to see the new program up and running.
“It’s a great opportunity for our children to learn about our culture, from making baskets to listening to stories,” Sanders said.
At the closing of the gathering, veterans and the rest of the group “retired the colors.” They honored the U.S. flag with drumming, a tribal farewell song and “God Bless America” before the color guard left the building.
U.S. Marine Corps veteran Richard Hillaire said the decision to share the veterans’ building with the young people was an easy one to make.
“We like to see this culture continue on through the younger generation,” Hillaire said.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Quotes
"All we ask is full citizenship. Why not? We offered our services and our money in this war, and more in proportion to our number and means than any other race or class of the population." -
Charles Eastman, Santee Sioux
Charles Eastman, Santee Sioux
Historical fact...
March 25 1971, William John Gobert, a Blackfoot man, was named the “Outstanding Handicapped Worker of the Year” by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The award was presented to him by President Richard Nixon’s wife, Pat Nixon. Gobert worked for the Indian Health Service in Arizona.
Cahuillas honor the Blue Frog with new exhibit
By: Judith Salkin
Long before the first settlers ever set foot in the Coachella Valley, the First People called it home.
The Panik (paa-nick) people lived in the area of Palm Springs now called Andreas Canyon, while the Kauisik (ka-we-sek) people lived by the hot springs that would eventually become the heart of the city.
In 1876, the two communities merged to form the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians.
According to Cahuilla tradition, the hot springs was the dwelling place of the Mukatem - sacred beings who taught the shamans of the tribe how to use the mineral waters to heal others.
The Blue Frog was one of these sacred beings.
The Agua Caliente Cultural Museum's new exhibit, "The Dream of the Blue Frog (Wahaatukicnikic Tetaya)," uses Cahuilla legends like these to remind us of the importance of the ancient hot springs. It also offers a history of the famous site and how it interrelates to the development of Palm Springs.
The exhibit - featuring photographs, diagrams and the words of the Cahuilla people and early settlers - opens Wednesday with a free reception at the museum.
"The museum has always wanted to do a history of the hot springs," museum archivist Jon Fletcher said. "No one knows the whole story of the shared history."
The idea was to present an exhibit that would tell the story from "the First People to the present," Fletcher said.
Today, the original hot spring is covered, and through some elaborate plumbing, now feeds the soaking baths and spa at the Spa Hotel at the corner of Indian Canyon Drive and Tahquitz Canyon Way.
"It's right in the middle of downtown," Fletcher said.
"It has historical prominence and people have been drawn to the area because of the hot spring."
Long before the first settlers ever set foot in the Coachella Valley, the First People called it home.
The Panik (paa-nick) people lived in the area of Palm Springs now called Andreas Canyon, while the Kauisik (ka-we-sek) people lived by the hot springs that would eventually become the heart of the city.
In 1876, the two communities merged to form the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians.
According to Cahuilla tradition, the hot springs was the dwelling place of the Mukatem - sacred beings who taught the shamans of the tribe how to use the mineral waters to heal others.
The Blue Frog was one of these sacred beings.
The Agua Caliente Cultural Museum's new exhibit, "The Dream of the Blue Frog (Wahaatukicnikic Tetaya)," uses Cahuilla legends like these to remind us of the importance of the ancient hot springs. It also offers a history of the famous site and how it interrelates to the development of Palm Springs.
The exhibit - featuring photographs, diagrams and the words of the Cahuilla people and early settlers - opens Wednesday with a free reception at the museum.
"The museum has always wanted to do a history of the hot springs," museum archivist Jon Fletcher said. "No one knows the whole story of the shared history."
The idea was to present an exhibit that would tell the story from "the First People to the present," Fletcher said.
Today, the original hot spring is covered, and through some elaborate plumbing, now feeds the soaking baths and spa at the Spa Hotel at the corner of Indian Canyon Drive and Tahquitz Canyon Way.
"It's right in the middle of downtown," Fletcher said.
"It has historical prominence and people have been drawn to the area because of the hot spring."
Tribe wins grant for Cottonwood deer refuge
By: Thacher Schmid
Cottonwood Island will be preserved and put off limits to long-sought industrial development as a result of a Cowlitz Indian plan to establish a population of endangered deer.
The tribe Monday was awarded its first-ever Tribal Wildlife Conservation grant by the U.S. Department of Interior to protect the endangered Columbian white-tailed deer, whose local population has shrunk to 400.
Tribal officials will use the $200,000 grant to relocate deer from other parts of the lower Columbia region to Cottonwood Island, which is jointly owned by six Columbia River ports.
A 62-acre portion of the 650-acre island will continue to be used for the dumping of Columbia River dredge spoils, said Dianne Perry, manager for the channel- deepening project at the Port of Portland.
A succession of private owners have long wanted to develop the island, which is located just upstream of where the Cowlitz River enters the mightier Columbia River.
But a lack of utilities and access - there's no bridge - as well as environmental concerns have made all development plans non-starters. So the sandy island, much of which is covered by cottonwoods that glow golden yellow in the fall, will remain undeveloped, though subject to vegetation management for the benefit of the deer.
The federal grant was the first to be awarded to the Cowlitz tribe, whose proposal was among 38 chosen from 110 applications nationwide.
Get the whole story here: http://www.tdn.com/articles/2008/03/25/area_news/10172809.txt
Cottonwood Island will be preserved and put off limits to long-sought industrial development as a result of a Cowlitz Indian plan to establish a population of endangered deer.
The tribe Monday was awarded its first-ever Tribal Wildlife Conservation grant by the U.S. Department of Interior to protect the endangered Columbian white-tailed deer, whose local population has shrunk to 400.
Tribal officials will use the $200,000 grant to relocate deer from other parts of the lower Columbia region to Cottonwood Island, which is jointly owned by six Columbia River ports.
A 62-acre portion of the 650-acre island will continue to be used for the dumping of Columbia River dredge spoils, said Dianne Perry, manager for the channel- deepening project at the Port of Portland.
A succession of private owners have long wanted to develop the island, which is located just upstream of where the Cowlitz River enters the mightier Columbia River.
But a lack of utilities and access - there's no bridge - as well as environmental concerns have made all development plans non-starters. So the sandy island, much of which is covered by cottonwoods that glow golden yellow in the fall, will remain undeveloped, though subject to vegetation management for the benefit of the deer.
The federal grant was the first to be awarded to the Cowlitz tribe, whose proposal was among 38 chosen from 110 applications nationwide.
Get the whole story here: http://www.tdn.com/articles/2008/03/25/area_news/10172809.txt
Monday, March 24, 2008
Do you know...
Squanto (1585?-1622), Native American of the Wampanoag tribe of what is now Massachusetts. Also known as Tisquantum, he proved an invaluable friend to white settlers in New England in the early 17th century. Early in his life he was captured and sold as a slave in Spain but eventually escaped and went to England. When he returned to New England in 1619 as pilot for an English sea captain, he escaped and discovered that his people had been destroyed by a plague. Two years later he helped the starving Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony to survive by teaching them both fishing and the planting of corn. He developed a friendship with the Massachusetts settlers and acted as interpreter at the Treaty of Plymouth, signed in 1621 between the Native American chief Massasoit and Governor William Bradford.
Squanto acted as a guide and interpreter for European settlers in what is now Massachusetts, helping them explore and survive in the new territories in North America. He first aided the starving Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony in 1621, teaching them rudimentary fishing and agriculture. A year later, Squanto became ill and died while guiding members of the new Massachusetts government around Cape Cod.
He is also listed in 100 Native Americans Who Shaped American History.
Squanto acted as a guide and interpreter for European settlers in what is now Massachusetts, helping them explore and survive in the new territories in North America. He first aided the starving Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony in 1621, teaching them rudimentary fishing and agriculture. A year later, Squanto became ill and died while guiding members of the new Massachusetts government around Cape Cod.
He is also listed in 100 Native Americans Who Shaped American History.
Sold for $69,000: Alcatraz Flag
By: Michelle Locke
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A flag believed to have flown when a group of American Indians occupied Alcatraz nearly 40 years ago sold for $69,000 at an auction Thursday.
The flag was sold to an unidentified private collector, said Bruce MacMakin, senior vice president of PBA Galleries in San Francisco where the flag was sold.
It wasn't clear how big a role the flag had in the 1969 protest. Some participants of the occupation said they didn't recall the flag and were dismayed at the idea of it being sold for profit.
"I think that's a stretch, to call that historic," said Adam Fortunate Eagle Nordwall, one of the organizers of the 19-month occupation. "When I look at the picture of that flag, it really doesn't do anything to me as an artist, or as a Native American. It really is not symbolic of the Indian cause."
But MacMakin said the seller provided detailed documentation, including a 1970 photograph from the San Francisco Chronicle that showed it flying on Alcatraz and a snapshot of the woman who designed the flag handing it over to be raised.
"It was just fascinating," MacMakin said.
Get the full article here: http://www.reznetnews.org/article/american-indian-movement/sold-%2469%2C000%3A-alcatraz-flag
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A flag believed to have flown when a group of American Indians occupied Alcatraz nearly 40 years ago sold for $69,000 at an auction Thursday.
The flag was sold to an unidentified private collector, said Bruce MacMakin, senior vice president of PBA Galleries in San Francisco where the flag was sold.
It wasn't clear how big a role the flag had in the 1969 protest. Some participants of the occupation said they didn't recall the flag and were dismayed at the idea of it being sold for profit.
"I think that's a stretch, to call that historic," said Adam Fortunate Eagle Nordwall, one of the organizers of the 19-month occupation. "When I look at the picture of that flag, it really doesn't do anything to me as an artist, or as a Native American. It really is not symbolic of the Indian cause."
But MacMakin said the seller provided detailed documentation, including a 1970 photograph from the San Francisco Chronicle that showed it flying on Alcatraz and a snapshot of the woman who designed the flag handing it over to be raised.
"It was just fascinating," MacMakin said.
Get the full article here: http://www.reznetnews.org/article/american-indian-movement/sold-%2469%2C000%3A-alcatraz-flag
Seeking the Water Jackpot
By: Matt Jenkins
GALLUP, NEW MEXICO
In early February, a series of fierce storms racked the Navajo Nation, which sprawls across more than 27,000 square miles of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. At dawn, the highways were burnished to an icy sheen that sent cars pinballing into ditches. As each day warmed, the misery took on a new quality: The dirt roads that crisscross the reservation melted into hash glish di’tsidi liba’, a goopy gray gumbo that sucked pickup trucks into a death grip. By late afternoon, on the cusp of the next storm, many Navajos, still stuck up to their axles in mud, were simultaneously sandblasted with wind-driven grit.
The tribe’s woes don’t end with the weather. Half the Navajos on the reservation are unemployed, and that number may actually be as high as 67 percent - no one can say for sure. More than 70 percent of those who do have jobs work for government agencies. The closure of a coal mine later this year, on top of another mine shutdown two years ago, will likely reduce tribal revenues by a third. Per capita income on the reservation is a little more than $8,000 a year.
Navajos often speak of the cosmic geography of the Four Sacred Mountains, which mark the boundaries of their ancestral homeland. But the lives of many people here are shaped by a more pragmatic geography, centered on a coin-op water dispenser in a muddy turnaround behind a city maintenance building in downtown Gallup, N.M. A water pipe with a piece of yellow fire hose hanging off the end sticks out the back of the building. Navajos load water tanks and blue plastic 55-gallon drums into the beds of their pickups and come here for drinking water. On weekends, the line can stretch around the block.
Want to know more? Click here: http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=17573
GALLUP, NEW MEXICO
In early February, a series of fierce storms racked the Navajo Nation, which sprawls across more than 27,000 square miles of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. At dawn, the highways were burnished to an icy sheen that sent cars pinballing into ditches. As each day warmed, the misery took on a new quality: The dirt roads that crisscross the reservation melted into hash glish di’tsidi liba’, a goopy gray gumbo that sucked pickup trucks into a death grip. By late afternoon, on the cusp of the next storm, many Navajos, still stuck up to their axles in mud, were simultaneously sandblasted with wind-driven grit.
The tribe’s woes don’t end with the weather. Half the Navajos on the reservation are unemployed, and that number may actually be as high as 67 percent - no one can say for sure. More than 70 percent of those who do have jobs work for government agencies. The closure of a coal mine later this year, on top of another mine shutdown two years ago, will likely reduce tribal revenues by a third. Per capita income on the reservation is a little more than $8,000 a year.
Navajos often speak of the cosmic geography of the Four Sacred Mountains, which mark the boundaries of their ancestral homeland. But the lives of many people here are shaped by a more pragmatic geography, centered on a coin-op water dispenser in a muddy turnaround behind a city maintenance building in downtown Gallup, N.M. A water pipe with a piece of yellow fire hose hanging off the end sticks out the back of the building. Navajos load water tanks and blue plastic 55-gallon drums into the beds of their pickups and come here for drinking water. On weekends, the line can stretch around the block.
Want to know more? Click here: http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=17573
Tribal leaders arrested on contempt charges
By: Kate Harries
KINGSTON, Ontario - The Ontario government is facing a storm of protest over the jailing of seven aboriginal leaders in a dispute over its licensing of mining exploration.
Six leaders from Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, or Big Trout Lake First Nation - Chief Donny Morris, Deputy Chief Jack MacKay, and councilors Samuel Mckay, Bruce Sakakeep, Darryl Sainnawap and Cecelia Begg - were imprisoned March 17 after Justice George Smith imposed a six-month jail sentence for contempt of court.
In February, Ardoch Algonquin First Nation leader Bob Lovelace was given the same term for the same offense. Justice Douglas Cunningham also imposed fines totaling $50,000 on Lovelace, Ardoch Algonquin Chief Paula Sherman and the non-status First Nation.
Smith refrained from fining KI because the community has been virtually bankrupted by $600,000 in legal fees. The dispute in both cases centers on Ontario's archaic Mining Act, which fails to provide for constitutionally mandated consultation on aboriginal interests.
On both cases, peaceful protests against exploration resulted in injunctions prohibiting interference with drilling.
''It's quite appalling,'' said an angry Chris Reid, the lawyer who represents both First Nations. Speaking to reporters on the steps of the Kingston courthouse the day after the KI sentencing and just before appearing on Lovelace's behalf, Reid accused the government of Ontario of being ''in the pockets of the mining industry.''
Referring to claims by Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant that he has been trying to negotiate an end to the dispute, Reid said: ''The government of Ontario is lying to people, telling them that they're trying to resolve this situation.''
Bryant put no substantive proposal to the KI leadership, Reid said, and didn't even contact the Ardoch Algonquins until a month after Lovelace was imprisoned with ''a vague unspecified proposal to meet; and the response was, well, that will be tough to do since Ardoch's chief negotiator is in jail.''
There's more to the story here: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416887
KINGSTON, Ontario - The Ontario government is facing a storm of protest over the jailing of seven aboriginal leaders in a dispute over its licensing of mining exploration.
Six leaders from Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, or Big Trout Lake First Nation - Chief Donny Morris, Deputy Chief Jack MacKay, and councilors Samuel Mckay, Bruce Sakakeep, Darryl Sainnawap and Cecelia Begg - were imprisoned March 17 after Justice George Smith imposed a six-month jail sentence for contempt of court.
In February, Ardoch Algonquin First Nation leader Bob Lovelace was given the same term for the same offense. Justice Douglas Cunningham also imposed fines totaling $50,000 on Lovelace, Ardoch Algonquin Chief Paula Sherman and the non-status First Nation.
Smith refrained from fining KI because the community has been virtually bankrupted by $600,000 in legal fees. The dispute in both cases centers on Ontario's archaic Mining Act, which fails to provide for constitutionally mandated consultation on aboriginal interests.
On both cases, peaceful protests against exploration resulted in injunctions prohibiting interference with drilling.
''It's quite appalling,'' said an angry Chris Reid, the lawyer who represents both First Nations. Speaking to reporters on the steps of the Kingston courthouse the day after the KI sentencing and just before appearing on Lovelace's behalf, Reid accused the government of Ontario of being ''in the pockets of the mining industry.''
Referring to claims by Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant that he has been trying to negotiate an end to the dispute, Reid said: ''The government of Ontario is lying to people, telling them that they're trying to resolve this situation.''
Bryant put no substantive proposal to the KI leadership, Reid said, and didn't even contact the Ardoch Algonquins until a month after Lovelace was imprisoned with ''a vague unspecified proposal to meet; and the response was, well, that will be tough to do since Ardoch's chief negotiator is in jail.''
There's more to the story here: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416887
Friday, March 21, 2008
Historical fact
March 20, 2008
On this day in 1909, the Navajo National Monument was established. Three intact cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloan people are preserved at the site in Arizona. Various groups of people have lived in the Four Corners region for thousands of years. Most of the remains date between 700 and 1500 years ago.
Want to visit? Get more information here: http://www.desertusa.com/nav/
On this day in 1909, the Navajo National Monument was established. Three intact cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloan people are preserved at the site in Arizona. Various groups of people have lived in the Four Corners region for thousands of years. Most of the remains date between 700 and 1500 years ago.
Want to visit? Get more information here: http://www.desertusa.com/nav/
Family Remembers Iraq War's First Female Casualty
Associated Press
The room is jammed full of symbolic keepsakes, including a green Miss Junior High Indian Princess crown, mounted caribou antlers sent from Alaska, three woven ``burden baskets'' from the Apache people and a big brown stuffed Teddy bear.
The memorial room in the home of Terry and Priscilla ``Percy'' Piestewa is kept locked and no photography is allowed. In this sanctuary, the Piestewas and their two grandchildren, Brandon, 9, and Carla, 8, pay tribute to the memory of Lori, the daughter and mother they loved so well.
Army Spc. Lori Ann Piestewa, 23, was killed March 23 during an ambush in Nasiriyah in the first days of the invasion of Iraq by U.S. forces and their allies.
``Papa'' and ``Grandma,'' as the children call them, have been caring for Brandon and Carla since the death of their mother.
``They'll be times when they'll miss their mother,'' said Terry, 64, who is Hopi and was born in Winslow. ``Percy takes them into the memorial room. She'll talk to them about their mother, and they'll feel better about their mother. It's kind of like a healing place to us.''
Lori, a member of the Hopi tribe, was the first American Indian woman to die in combat while serving in the U.S. military.
There's more to this story and her connection to Jessica Lynch. Click here: http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=768710&r=1
The room is jammed full of symbolic keepsakes, including a green Miss Junior High Indian Princess crown, mounted caribou antlers sent from Alaska, three woven ``burden baskets'' from the Apache people and a big brown stuffed Teddy bear.
The memorial room in the home of Terry and Priscilla ``Percy'' Piestewa is kept locked and no photography is allowed. In this sanctuary, the Piestewas and their two grandchildren, Brandon, 9, and Carla, 8, pay tribute to the memory of Lori, the daughter and mother they loved so well.
Army Spc. Lori Ann Piestewa, 23, was killed March 23 during an ambush in Nasiriyah in the first days of the invasion of Iraq by U.S. forces and their allies.
``Papa'' and ``Grandma,'' as the children call them, have been caring for Brandon and Carla since the death of their mother.
``They'll be times when they'll miss their mother,'' said Terry, 64, who is Hopi and was born in Winslow. ``Percy takes them into the memorial room. She'll talk to them about their mother, and they'll feel better about their mother. It's kind of like a healing place to us.''
Lori, a member of the Hopi tribe, was the first American Indian woman to die in combat while serving in the U.S. military.
There's more to this story and her connection to Jessica Lynch. Click here: http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=768710&r=1
Crow legend in line for national honor
By: Becky Shay
Joe Medicine Crow missed fighting the Plains Indians' wars. Born in 1913, he arrived decades after the battles his people, the Crow Indians, fought.
Medicine Crow still became a warrior and chief - honored not only by his tribe but also possibly soon as a recipient of one of America's most prestigious honors, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Medicine Crow was schooled in the ways of the chief by his grandfather, Yellowtail. As a child near Lodge Grass, Medicine Crow was trained by running, swimming, riding horses and walking barefoot in the snow. When he was called to be a warrior, those demanding lessons were part of Medicine Crow's nature.
"All that came in handy during World War II," the Army veteran said.
Considered a warrior chief by his tribe and the oldest living Crow Indian veteran, Medicine Crow has been nominated for the Medal of Freedom by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. The medal is the highest civil award an American can receive.
Medicine Crow, 94, is recognized as a warrior chief by his tribe for completing all four actions of counting coups while in battle as an Army soldier in World War II. The first member of the Crow Tribe to earn a master's degree, Medicine Crow is a noted tribal historian and the author of several books on Crow culture.
There's more here: http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/03/20/news/local/26-medal.txt
Joe Medicine Crow missed fighting the Plains Indians' wars. Born in 1913, he arrived decades after the battles his people, the Crow Indians, fought.
Medicine Crow still became a warrior and chief - honored not only by his tribe but also possibly soon as a recipient of one of America's most prestigious honors, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Medicine Crow was schooled in the ways of the chief by his grandfather, Yellowtail. As a child near Lodge Grass, Medicine Crow was trained by running, swimming, riding horses and walking barefoot in the snow. When he was called to be a warrior, those demanding lessons were part of Medicine Crow's nature.
"All that came in handy during World War II," the Army veteran said.
Considered a warrior chief by his tribe and the oldest living Crow Indian veteran, Medicine Crow has been nominated for the Medal of Freedom by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. The medal is the highest civil award an American can receive.
Medicine Crow, 94, is recognized as a warrior chief by his tribe for completing all four actions of counting coups while in battle as an Army soldier in World War II. The first member of the Crow Tribe to earn a master's degree, Medicine Crow is a noted tribal historian and the author of several books on Crow culture.
There's more here: http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/03/20/news/local/26-medal.txt
As U.S. border fence rises, a tribe tightens ties
By: Tim Gaynor
CAMPO, California (Reuters) - As U.S. authorities tighten security on the porous Mexico border in this election year, some communities have been caught off guard by government plans to build miles of fencing and barriers.
But members of one Native American tribe whose scattered settlements stud the rocky highlands of southern California and northwest Mexico, saw the build-up coming years ago and have turned something they dreaded to their advantage.
"There was a sense among a lot of people that something needed to be done to prevent us from losing touch ... and so that's what we did," said Mike Connolly, a councilman with the Campo Band of the Kumeyaay nation.
Expecting the wall to come crashing down on their community, the tribes have deepened ties, from cultural exchanges to visa regimens that ensure families can easily cross the U.S.-Mexico divide.
For centuries the Kumeyaay thrived as farmers and hunter gatherers in the borderlands, where there are now 13 Kumeyaay reservations, or "bands," dispersed across the rugged highland corner of San Diego County and four further settlements in Baja California, Mexico.
Their dispersed traditional settlements gave names to many of the cities and towns on both sides of the international line, including Tecuan, which became Tijuana, now the largest city on the border, and Otay, an area of trade parks in southern California.
Members of different settlements in Mexico and California used to cross informally back and forth over the line to visit their kin for decades, often bypassing checkpoints and simply hopping over a cattle fence in the oak-studded highlands east of San Diego.
But as a crackdown on illegal immigration from Mexico placed more border police and taller steel barriers along the line near San Diego in the 1990s, the members of the fragmented tribe realized that they needed to take decisive action if they were to stay together.
"The Kumeyaay were like a broken vase, and we needed the pieces back together again," said Louie Guassac, executive director of the Kumeyaay Border Task Force.
Get the whole article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/19/AR2008031903086.html
CAMPO, California (Reuters) - As U.S. authorities tighten security on the porous Mexico border in this election year, some communities have been caught off guard by government plans to build miles of fencing and barriers.
But members of one Native American tribe whose scattered settlements stud the rocky highlands of southern California and northwest Mexico, saw the build-up coming years ago and have turned something they dreaded to their advantage.
"There was a sense among a lot of people that something needed to be done to prevent us from losing touch ... and so that's what we did," said Mike Connolly, a councilman with the Campo Band of the Kumeyaay nation.
Expecting the wall to come crashing down on their community, the tribes have deepened ties, from cultural exchanges to visa regimens that ensure families can easily cross the U.S.-Mexico divide.
For centuries the Kumeyaay thrived as farmers and hunter gatherers in the borderlands, where there are now 13 Kumeyaay reservations, or "bands," dispersed across the rugged highland corner of San Diego County and four further settlements in Baja California, Mexico.
Their dispersed traditional settlements gave names to many of the cities and towns on both sides of the international line, including Tecuan, which became Tijuana, now the largest city on the border, and Otay, an area of trade parks in southern California.
Members of different settlements in Mexico and California used to cross informally back and forth over the line to visit their kin for decades, often bypassing checkpoints and simply hopping over a cattle fence in the oak-studded highlands east of San Diego.
But as a crackdown on illegal immigration from Mexico placed more border police and taller steel barriers along the line near San Diego in the 1990s, the members of the fragmented tribe realized that they needed to take decisive action if they were to stay together.
"The Kumeyaay were like a broken vase, and we needed the pieces back together again," said Louie Guassac, executive director of the Kumeyaay Border Task Force.
Get the whole article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/19/AR2008031903086.html
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Quotes
"Many proposals have been made to us to adopt your laws, your religion, your manners and your customs. We would be better pleased with beholding the good effects of these doctrines in your own practices, than with hearing you talk about them". -
Old Tassel - Cherokee
Old Tassel - Cherokee
Featured Tribe - Bannock
Bannock ( from Panátǐ, their own name). A Shoshonean tribe whose habitat previous to being gathered on reservations can not be definitely Outlined. There were two geographic divisions, but references to the Bannock do not always note this distinction. The home of the chief division appears to have been south east Idaho, whence they ranged into west Wyoming. The country actually claimed by the chief of this southern division, which seems to have been recognized by the treaty of Ft Bridger, July 3, 1868, lay between lat. 42° and 45°, and between long. 113° and the main chain of the Rocky Mountains. It separated the Wihinasht Shoshoni of west Idaho from the so-called Washaki band of Shoshoni of west Wyoming. They were found in this region in 1859, and they asserted that this had been their home in the past. Bridger (Ind. Aft. Rep., 363, 1859) had known them in this region as early as 1829. Bonneville found them in 1833 on Portneuf River, immediately north of the present Ft Hall reservation. Many of this division affiliated with the Washaki Shoshoni, and by 1859 had extensively intermarried with them.
Ft. Hall reservation was set apart by Executive order in 1869, and 600 Bannock, in addition to a large number of Shoshoni, consented to remain upon it. Most of them soon wandered away, however, and as late as 1874 an appropriation was made to enable the Bannock and Shoshoni scattered in south east Idaho to be moved to the reservation. The Bannock at Ft Hall were said to number 422 in 1885. The northern division was found by Gov. Stevens in 1853 (Pac. R. R. Rep., f, 329, 1855) living on Salmon River in east Idaho. Lewis and Clark, who passed through the country of this northern division in 1805, may have included them under the general term Shoshone, unless, as is most likely, these are the Broken Moccasin Indians they mention (Expel., Coues ed., ]r, 523, 1893). In all probability these Salmon River Bannock had recently crossed the mountains from the eastward owing to pressure of the Siksika, since they claimed as their territory south west Montana, including the rich areas in which are situated Virginia City, Bozeman, and other towns (Ind. Aff. Rep., 289, 1869). Stevens (1853) states that they had been more than decimated by the ravages of smallpox and the inroads of the Siksika. It is probable that at no distant time in the past, perhaps before they had acquired horses, the various groups of the entire Bannock tribe were united in one locality in south east Idaho, inhere they were neighbors of the Shoshoni proper, but their language is divergent front the latter.
The Bannock were a widely roving tribe, a characteristic which favored their dispersal and separation into groups. Both the men and the women are well developed; and although Shoshonean in language, in physical characters the Bannock resemble more closely the Shahaptian Nez Percé than other Shoshonean Indians. Kroeber reports that the language of the Fort hall Bannock connects them closer with the Ute than with any other Shoshonean tribe. At the same time Powell and Mooney report that the tribes of west Nevada consider the Bannock very nearly related to themselves.
The loss of hunting lands, the diminution of the bison herds, and the failure of the Government to render timely relief led to a Bannock outbreak in 1878, the trouble having been of long standing. During the exciting times of the Nez Percé war the Bannock mere forced to remain on their inhospitable reservation, to face the continued encroachment of the whites, and to subsist on goods provided from an appropriation amounting to 2½ cents per capita per diem. During the summer a drunken Indian of the tribe shot and wounded two teamsters; the excitement and hitter feeling caused by his arrest, Nov. 23, 1877, resulted in the killing of an agency employee. Troops were called for, and the murderer was pursued, captured, tried, and executed. This episode so increased the excitement of the Indians that, fearing what was assumed to be threatening demonstrations, the troops surrounded and captured two Bannock camps in Jan., 1878; but most of the Indians were afterward released. On account of insufficient food the Bannock left the reservation in the spring and went to Camas prairie, where they killed several settlers. A vigorous campaign under Gen. Howard resulted in the capture of about 1,000 of them in August, and the outbreak came to all end after a fight on Sept. 5, at Clark's ford, where 20 Bannock lodges were attacked and all the women and children killed.Bridger states that when he first knew them (about 1829) the southern Bannock numbered 1,200 lodges, indicating a population of about 8,000.
Ft. Hall reservation was set apart by Executive order in 1869, and 600 Bannock, in addition to a large number of Shoshoni, consented to remain upon it. Most of them soon wandered away, however, and as late as 1874 an appropriation was made to enable the Bannock and Shoshoni scattered in south east Idaho to be moved to the reservation. The Bannock at Ft Hall were said to number 422 in 1885. The northern division was found by Gov. Stevens in 1853 (Pac. R. R. Rep., f, 329, 1855) living on Salmon River in east Idaho. Lewis and Clark, who passed through the country of this northern division in 1805, may have included them under the general term Shoshone, unless, as is most likely, these are the Broken Moccasin Indians they mention (Expel., Coues ed., ]r, 523, 1893). In all probability these Salmon River Bannock had recently crossed the mountains from the eastward owing to pressure of the Siksika, since they claimed as their territory south west Montana, including the rich areas in which are situated Virginia City, Bozeman, and other towns (Ind. Aff. Rep., 289, 1869). Stevens (1853) states that they had been more than decimated by the ravages of smallpox and the inroads of the Siksika. It is probable that at no distant time in the past, perhaps before they had acquired horses, the various groups of the entire Bannock tribe were united in one locality in south east Idaho, inhere they were neighbors of the Shoshoni proper, but their language is divergent front the latter.
The Bannock were a widely roving tribe, a characteristic which favored their dispersal and separation into groups. Both the men and the women are well developed; and although Shoshonean in language, in physical characters the Bannock resemble more closely the Shahaptian Nez Percé than other Shoshonean Indians. Kroeber reports that the language of the Fort hall Bannock connects them closer with the Ute than with any other Shoshonean tribe. At the same time Powell and Mooney report that the tribes of west Nevada consider the Bannock very nearly related to themselves.
The loss of hunting lands, the diminution of the bison herds, and the failure of the Government to render timely relief led to a Bannock outbreak in 1878, the trouble having been of long standing. During the exciting times of the Nez Percé war the Bannock mere forced to remain on their inhospitable reservation, to face the continued encroachment of the whites, and to subsist on goods provided from an appropriation amounting to 2½ cents per capita per diem. During the summer a drunken Indian of the tribe shot and wounded two teamsters; the excitement and hitter feeling caused by his arrest, Nov. 23, 1877, resulted in the killing of an agency employee. Troops were called for, and the murderer was pursued, captured, tried, and executed. This episode so increased the excitement of the Indians that, fearing what was assumed to be threatening demonstrations, the troops surrounded and captured two Bannock camps in Jan., 1878; but most of the Indians were afterward released. On account of insufficient food the Bannock left the reservation in the spring and went to Camas prairie, where they killed several settlers. A vigorous campaign under Gen. Howard resulted in the capture of about 1,000 of them in August, and the outbreak came to all end after a fight on Sept. 5, at Clark's ford, where 20 Bannock lodges were attacked and all the women and children killed.Bridger states that when he first knew them (about 1829) the southern Bannock numbered 1,200 lodges, indicating a population of about 8,000.
Hunter and the Dakwa
Cherokee legend...
In the old days there was a great fish called the Dakwa which lived in the Tennessee River near the mouth of Toco Creek. This fish was so large that it could easily swallow a man. One day several hunters were travelling in a canoe along the Tennessee when the Dakwa suddenly rose up under the canoe and threw them all into the air. As the men came down, the fish swallowed one with a single snap of its jaws, and dived with him to the bottom of the river.
This man was one of the bravest hunters in the tribe, and as soon as he discovered where he was he began thinking of some way to overcome the Dakwa and escape from its stomach. Except for a few scratches and bruises, the hunter had not been hurt, but it was so hot and airless inside the big fish that he feared he would soon smother.
As he groped around in the darkness, his hands found some musselshells which the Dakwa had swallowed. These shells had very sharp edges. Using one of them as a knife, the hunter began cutting away at the fish's stomach. Soon the Dakwa grew uneasy at the scraping inside his stomach and came up to the surface of the river for air. The man kept on cutting with the shell until the fish was in such pain that it swam wildly back and forth across the river, thrashing the water into foam with its tail.
At last the hunter cut through the Dakwa's side. Water flowed in, almost drowning the man, but the big fish was so weary by this time that it came to a stop. The hunter looked out of the hole and saw that the Dakwa was now resting in shallow water near the riverbank.
Reaching up, the man pulled himself through the hole in the fish, moving very carefully so as not to disturb the Dakwa. He then waded ashore and returned to his village, where his friends were mourning his death because they were sure he had been eaten by the great fish. Now they named him a hero and held a celebration in his honour. Although the brave hunter escaped with his life, the juices in the stomach of the Dakwa had scalded all the hair from his head, and he was bald forever after.
In the old days there was a great fish called the Dakwa which lived in the Tennessee River near the mouth of Toco Creek. This fish was so large that it could easily swallow a man. One day several hunters were travelling in a canoe along the Tennessee when the Dakwa suddenly rose up under the canoe and threw them all into the air. As the men came down, the fish swallowed one with a single snap of its jaws, and dived with him to the bottom of the river.
This man was one of the bravest hunters in the tribe, and as soon as he discovered where he was he began thinking of some way to overcome the Dakwa and escape from its stomach. Except for a few scratches and bruises, the hunter had not been hurt, but it was so hot and airless inside the big fish that he feared he would soon smother.
As he groped around in the darkness, his hands found some musselshells which the Dakwa had swallowed. These shells had very sharp edges. Using one of them as a knife, the hunter began cutting away at the fish's stomach. Soon the Dakwa grew uneasy at the scraping inside his stomach and came up to the surface of the river for air. The man kept on cutting with the shell until the fish was in such pain that it swam wildly back and forth across the river, thrashing the water into foam with its tail.
At last the hunter cut through the Dakwa's side. Water flowed in, almost drowning the man, but the big fish was so weary by this time that it came to a stop. The hunter looked out of the hole and saw that the Dakwa was now resting in shallow water near the riverbank.
Reaching up, the man pulled himself through the hole in the fish, moving very carefully so as not to disturb the Dakwa. He then waded ashore and returned to his village, where his friends were mourning his death because they were sure he had been eaten by the great fish. Now they named him a hero and held a celebration in his honour. Although the brave hunter escaped with his life, the juices in the stomach of the Dakwa had scalded all the hair from his head, and he was bald forever after.
Monument Valley Film Festival
The 2nd Annual Monument Valley Film Festival is making a call for entries to all Native American film makers for this year’s 2008 festival. This year’s festival will be held July 4-6, 2008 here on the Navajo Nation in Kayenta, Arizona. Like the previous year, the festival will be focusing on original films directed, produced or written by Native Americans.
The festival was started last year by Shonie and Andee De La Rosa of Sheephead Films. Well over 500 people and film makers attended the film festival last year to watch over 40 Native American films from all over North America. This years festival will once again be held in conjunction with the 4th of July Celebration here in Kayenta, AZ which is one of the biggest rodeos and pow-wows held on the Navajo Nation.
With the 4th of July Celebration going on and the thousands of tourist passing through Kayenta on their way to Monument Valley and the Four Corners area attractions, we expect attendance to be quite high.
All Native film makers are encouraged to submit their original works to this year’s film festival. First time and youth film makers are strongly encouraged to submit their works. All entries will be considered for screening after review. There is not an entry fee and admission to the film festival will be free to the public.
Submission guidelines are simple. All entries must be written, produced or directed by a Native American. Subject matter in films submitted must be tasteful. Remember, the festival is free to the public. This includes children. Films promoting drugs, alcohol, gangs, sex, etc will not be considered for public screening. Explicit language or violence in a film does not exclude it from possible selection for the festival. Use common sense when submitting a film(s). All submissions must be on DVD or MiniDV. Please, when submitting DVD, make sure it works by testing it on different DVD players before you send it to us. Please fill out all submission forms completely and clearly for each film submitted.
The Official Monument Valley Film Festival web site is available for more information and you will also be able to download this years submission forms for the film festival. Deadline for submissions is June 1, 2007.
The festival was started last year by Shonie and Andee De La Rosa of Sheephead Films. Well over 500 people and film makers attended the film festival last year to watch over 40 Native American films from all over North America. This years festival will once again be held in conjunction with the 4th of July Celebration here in Kayenta, AZ which is one of the biggest rodeos and pow-wows held on the Navajo Nation.
With the 4th of July Celebration going on and the thousands of tourist passing through Kayenta on their way to Monument Valley and the Four Corners area attractions, we expect attendance to be quite high.
All Native film makers are encouraged to submit their original works to this year’s film festival. First time and youth film makers are strongly encouraged to submit their works. All entries will be considered for screening after review. There is not an entry fee and admission to the film festival will be free to the public.
Submission guidelines are simple. All entries must be written, produced or directed by a Native American. Subject matter in films submitted must be tasteful. Remember, the festival is free to the public. This includes children. Films promoting drugs, alcohol, gangs, sex, etc will not be considered for public screening. Explicit language or violence in a film does not exclude it from possible selection for the festival. Use common sense when submitting a film(s). All submissions must be on DVD or MiniDV. Please, when submitting DVD, make sure it works by testing it on different DVD players before you send it to us. Please fill out all submission forms completely and clearly for each film submitted.
The Official Monument Valley Film Festival web site is available for more information and you will also be able to download this years submission forms for the film festival. Deadline for submissions is June 1, 2007.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Art applications available for 2008 Red Earth Festival
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Red Earth, Inc. is accepting applications for artists wishing to participate in the 2007 Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival juried art market scheduled June 6-8, 2008 at the Cox Convention Center in downtown Oklahoma City. Applications are due no later than March 21, 2007.
Throughout its 21-year history the Red Earth Festival has garnered numerous awards including recognition as one of North America’s Top 100 Events by the American Bus Association, Oklahoma’s Outstanding Event by the Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department, and Central Oklahoma’s Outstanding Event by Frontier Country Marketing Association.
Nearly 300 juried artists from throughout the U.S. are expected to participate in the art market at the 2008 Red Earth Festival. Art applicants must submit their artwork for jury into the show, and are required to provide a tribal membership card, Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood, official document certifying Indian artisan, or Federal, State, or Tribal document establishing Indian lineage.
The Red Earth Festival features competition and exhibitor divisions and categories including Cultural Items (personal ornamentation, basketry, utilitarian, diversified); Painting, Drawing, Graphics & Photography; Jewelry (traditional, contemporary); Pottery (traditional, contemporary); Sculpture (metal, wood, stone) and Clothing, Textiles & Weaving.
Red Earth will award more than $32,000 to the winners of the juried art competition during an Artist Reception & Awards Ceremony scheduled Thursday, June 5 at the Cox Convention Center. The Grand Award, Red Earth’s highest art award, will be presented during the ceremony along with the President’s Award, Kathleen Everett Upshaw Award, Best of Division Awards, and first through third place in 18 categories.
Red Earth Festival art applications and guidelines can be obtained from the Red Earth website at www.redearth.org or by calling (405) 427-5228.
Throughout its 21-year history the Red Earth Festival has garnered numerous awards including recognition as one of North America’s Top 100 Events by the American Bus Association, Oklahoma’s Outstanding Event by the Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department, and Central Oklahoma’s Outstanding Event by Frontier Country Marketing Association.
Nearly 300 juried artists from throughout the U.S. are expected to participate in the art market at the 2008 Red Earth Festival. Art applicants must submit their artwork for jury into the show, and are required to provide a tribal membership card, Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood, official document certifying Indian artisan, or Federal, State, or Tribal document establishing Indian lineage.
The Red Earth Festival features competition and exhibitor divisions and categories including Cultural Items (personal ornamentation, basketry, utilitarian, diversified); Painting, Drawing, Graphics & Photography; Jewelry (traditional, contemporary); Pottery (traditional, contemporary); Sculpture (metal, wood, stone) and Clothing, Textiles & Weaving.
Red Earth will award more than $32,000 to the winners of the juried art competition during an Artist Reception & Awards Ceremony scheduled Thursday, June 5 at the Cox Convention Center. The Grand Award, Red Earth’s highest art award, will be presented during the ceremony along with the President’s Award, Kathleen Everett Upshaw Award, Best of Division Awards, and first through third place in 18 categories.
Red Earth Festival art applications and guidelines can be obtained from the Red Earth website at www.redearth.org or by calling (405) 427-5228.
Dems reach out to Native Americans
By: Francisco Tharp
Women and African-Americans aren’t the only demographics receiving extra attention from Democrats this year. The party has also been reaching out to Native Americans.
“In the past, Native American voters have been ignored, or thought of in the last minute,” says Laura Harris of the Comanche Tribe. “What (Democratic National Committee Chairman) Howard Dean has done is incorporate us into the process, not just for our vote, but for our participation and economic support, too. It’s an exciting time to be a Native American and take our place in the political process of the U.S.”
Harris, who serves as the executive director of the nonprofit Americans for Indian Opportunity, is one of an “unprecedented” six Native Americans appointed to the Democratic National Convention’s standing committees. She’s just one example of how the Democratic Party is recognizing Native American issues and courting Indian voters.
When Dean took his seat as chairman of the Democratic Party in February 2005, he initiated the party’s “50 State Plan,” in order to “not write off voters who we didn’t expect to win, and not take for granted voters we thought we already had,” according to Democratic National Committee spokesman Damien LaVera.
The national party is working with state parties to hire full-time staff to reach out at a state level, rather than engaging only voters in key demographics or during election years. Every state, says LaVera, now has at least three full-time party employees. And four states – Arizona, Oklahoma, Alaska and New Mexico -- have full-time Native American party organizers.
Read more here: http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=17590
Women and African-Americans aren’t the only demographics receiving extra attention from Democrats this year. The party has also been reaching out to Native Americans.
“In the past, Native American voters have been ignored, or thought of in the last minute,” says Laura Harris of the Comanche Tribe. “What (Democratic National Committee Chairman) Howard Dean has done is incorporate us into the process, not just for our vote, but for our participation and economic support, too. It’s an exciting time to be a Native American and take our place in the political process of the U.S.”
Harris, who serves as the executive director of the nonprofit Americans for Indian Opportunity, is one of an “unprecedented” six Native Americans appointed to the Democratic National Convention’s standing committees. She’s just one example of how the Democratic Party is recognizing Native American issues and courting Indian voters.
When Dean took his seat as chairman of the Democratic Party in February 2005, he initiated the party’s “50 State Plan,” in order to “not write off voters who we didn’t expect to win, and not take for granted voters we thought we already had,” according to Democratic National Committee spokesman Damien LaVera.
The national party is working with state parties to hire full-time staff to reach out at a state level, rather than engaging only voters in key demographics or during election years. Every state, says LaVera, now has at least three full-time party employees. And four states – Arizona, Oklahoma, Alaska and New Mexico -- have full-time Native American party organizers.
Read more here: http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=17590
State says it can't stop destruction on Schaghticoke land
By: Gale Courey Toensing
KENT, Conn. - When Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell testified at a Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing in May 2005, she claimed that there were no tribal reservations left in the state.
''We have few expanses of open or undeveloped land. Historical reservation lands no longer exist. They're now cities and towns filled with family homes, churches and schools,'' Rell said at the hearing, which is available at http://indian.senate.gov.
Now the state says it can't stop a non-Schaghticoke man from cutting down trees and excavating land on the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation's 400-acre reservation in Kent.
Tribal council member Joseph Velky, who is a nephew of STN Chief Richard Velky and a member of the nation's Environmental Committee, said he asked the Department of Environmental Protection Nov. 19 to intervene to stop the destruction. The DEP holds the land in trust for the tribe.
''Officials there and at the state police and the state's attorney's office said they couldn't intervene because they don't know who owns the land or who the leader of the Schaghticoke is,'' Joseph Velky said.
Get the rest of the story here: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416754
KENT, Conn. - When Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell testified at a Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing in May 2005, she claimed that there were no tribal reservations left in the state.
''We have few expanses of open or undeveloped land. Historical reservation lands no longer exist. They're now cities and towns filled with family homes, churches and schools,'' Rell said at the hearing, which is available at http://indian.senate.gov.
Now the state says it can't stop a non-Schaghticoke man from cutting down trees and excavating land on the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation's 400-acre reservation in Kent.
Tribal council member Joseph Velky, who is a nephew of STN Chief Richard Velky and a member of the nation's Environmental Committee, said he asked the Department of Environmental Protection Nov. 19 to intervene to stop the destruction. The DEP holds the land in trust for the tribe.
''Officials there and at the state police and the state's attorney's office said they couldn't intervene because they don't know who owns the land or who the leader of the Schaghticoke is,'' Joseph Velky said.
Get the rest of the story here: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416754
'Spirited Encounters: American Indians Protest Museum Policies and Practices,' by Karen Coody Cooper
Book review - by Dale Carson
Everyone with an interest in anything ''American Indian'' or ''Native American,'' or in museums in general, and has a heart, must read this book.
I am usually cautious of being asked to review a book by someone I know thinking that just because I like them, I'll be tempted to say nothing but good things.
I do know the author of ''Spirited Encounters,'' a fun-loving, upbeat, kind, intelligent person, always with a great smile on her face, never ''down'' or negative.
I've known Karen Coody Cooper since the early '80s in many of her various capacities as an educator, historian, curator and friend.
When I started reading this book, I said to myself, ''Wow, I had no idea she was such a good writer, and so incredibly organized.'' My head hurt from nodding in agreement every other page or so, or thinking, ''Really? I didn't know that!''
She covers every Native experience with regard to museums and institutions and manages to explain protests, cover-ups and mistakes, and progress toward understanding in a straightforward way that keeps you right there, interested.
Every important aspect of the subject is covered and explored. The politics involved in the display of sacred objects, human remains, art, Columbus, Thanksgiving, and the effect protests have had on these and other subjects are carefully and clearly explained in a flowing, concerned manner without finger-pointing malice. Here are the facts presented in an interesting way that makes you want to understand the hows and whys of Native actions past and present. I couldn't be more honest or blunt when I say, ''Run, don't walk, to the nearest bookshop and get this book.''
Everyone with an interest in anything ''American Indian'' or ''Native American,'' or in museums in general, and has a heart, must read this book.
I am usually cautious of being asked to review a book by someone I know thinking that just because I like them, I'll be tempted to say nothing but good things.
I do know the author of ''Spirited Encounters,'' a fun-loving, upbeat, kind, intelligent person, always with a great smile on her face, never ''down'' or negative.
I've known Karen Coody Cooper since the early '80s in many of her various capacities as an educator, historian, curator and friend.
When I started reading this book, I said to myself, ''Wow, I had no idea she was such a good writer, and so incredibly organized.'' My head hurt from nodding in agreement every other page or so, or thinking, ''Really? I didn't know that!''
She covers every Native experience with regard to museums and institutions and manages to explain protests, cover-ups and mistakes, and progress toward understanding in a straightforward way that keeps you right there, interested.
Every important aspect of the subject is covered and explored. The politics involved in the display of sacred objects, human remains, art, Columbus, Thanksgiving, and the effect protests have had on these and other subjects are carefully and clearly explained in a flowing, concerned manner without finger-pointing malice. Here are the facts presented in an interesting way that makes you want to understand the hows and whys of Native actions past and present. I couldn't be more honest or blunt when I say, ''Run, don't walk, to the nearest bookshop and get this book.''
Friday, March 14, 2008
Do you know...
Dekanawida, a semilegendary Native American leader, is credited with helping unite the five Iroquois tribes of northern New York in the late 1500s. According to legend, Dekanawida (whose name means "two rivers flowing together") a Huron prophet, was born near present-day Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Because of warnings that he would bring ruin to his people, his mother tried to drown him several times. However, on each occasion, he miraculously survived and reappeared the next morning lying next to her.
As an adult, Dekanawida left the Hurons and went south, where he met another legendary Indian figure, Hiawatha. Together with Hiawatha, he is credited with founding the Great League of the Iroquois, joining in a confederacy the Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, Onondagas, and Senecas. Considered the theoretician of the two leaders, he was also one of the first of the Pine Tree Chiefs, chosen by merit rather than by heredity. The two men developed a plan for uniting the five Iroquois nations into a single confederacy. According to legend, Dekanawida came up with the idea but was a poor speaker, so Hiawatha became the spokesperson. The Iroquois Confederacy later served as a model for founders of the government of the United States.
He is also listed in 100 Native Americans Who Shaped American History.
As an adult, Dekanawida left the Hurons and went south, where he met another legendary Indian figure, Hiawatha. Together with Hiawatha, he is credited with founding the Great League of the Iroquois, joining in a confederacy the Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, Onondagas, and Senecas. Considered the theoretician of the two leaders, he was also one of the first of the Pine Tree Chiefs, chosen by merit rather than by heredity. The two men developed a plan for uniting the five Iroquois nations into a single confederacy. According to legend, Dekanawida came up with the idea but was a poor speaker, so Hiawatha became the spokesperson. The Iroquois Confederacy later served as a model for founders of the government of the United States.
He is also listed in 100 Native Americans Who Shaped American History.
North Dakota hosts American Indian event
By: Amy Dalrymple
About 1,200 students, faculty and administrators involved in American Indian higher education across the country will gather in North Dakota next week.
The 27th annual American Indian Higher Education Consortium Student Conference is Monday through March 20 in Bismarck.
One of the main attractions is a knowledge bowl competition for students from the nation’s 36 tribal colleges.
The event also features workshops from American Indian education professionals.
Speakers include Cecilia Fire Thunder, who served as the first woman tribal president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, and Dale Brown, who coached Shaquille O’Neil at Louisiana State University.
For more information, visithttp://aihec.sittingbull.edu.
About 1,200 students, faculty and administrators involved in American Indian higher education across the country will gather in North Dakota next week.
The 27th annual American Indian Higher Education Consortium Student Conference is Monday through March 20 in Bismarck.
One of the main attractions is a knowledge bowl competition for students from the nation’s 36 tribal colleges.
The event also features workshops from American Indian education professionals.
Speakers include Cecilia Fire Thunder, who served as the first woman tribal president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, and Dale Brown, who coached Shaquille O’Neil at Louisiana State University.
For more information, visithttp://aihec.sittingbull.edu.
Indian DNA Links to 6 'Founding Mothers'
By: Malcolm Ritter
NEW YORK -- Nearly all of today's Native Americans in North, Central and South America can trace part of their ancestry to six women whose descendants immigrated around 20,000 years ago, a DNA study suggests.
Those women left a particular DNA legacy that persists to today in about about 95 percent of Native Americans, researchers said.
The finding does not mean that only these six women gave rise to the migrants who crossed into North America from Asia in the initial populating of the continent, said study co-author Ugo Perego.
The women lived between 18,000 and 21,000 years ago, though not necessarily at exactly the same time, he said.
The work was published this week by the journal PLoS One. Perego is from the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation in Salt Lake City and the University of Pavia in Italy.
The work confirms previous indications of the six maternal lineages, he said. But an expert unconnected with the study said the findings left some questions unanswered.
Perego and his colleagues traced the history of a particular kind of DNA that represents just a tiny fraction of the human genetic material, and reflects only a piece of a person's ancestry.
Want to know more? Click here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/13/AR2008031301096.html
NEW YORK -- Nearly all of today's Native Americans in North, Central and South America can trace part of their ancestry to six women whose descendants immigrated around 20,000 years ago, a DNA study suggests.
Those women left a particular DNA legacy that persists to today in about about 95 percent of Native Americans, researchers said.
The finding does not mean that only these six women gave rise to the migrants who crossed into North America from Asia in the initial populating of the continent, said study co-author Ugo Perego.
The women lived between 18,000 and 21,000 years ago, though not necessarily at exactly the same time, he said.
The work was published this week by the journal PLoS One. Perego is from the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation in Salt Lake City and the University of Pavia in Italy.
The work confirms previous indications of the six maternal lineages, he said. But an expert unconnected with the study said the findings left some questions unanswered.
Perego and his colleagues traced the history of a particular kind of DNA that represents just a tiny fraction of the human genetic material, and reflects only a piece of a person's ancestry.
Want to know more? Click here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/13/AR2008031301096.html
Should tribes consider ditching blood requirements?
By: Jodi Rave
PHILADELPHIA - Some of the greatest legal scholars of our time recently sat in judgment of a hypothetical court case, asked to determine the fairness of a futuristic race-based affirmative action program.
As I listened from the audience, the scenario - set four years into the future - seemed too familiar. The lawyers, professors and judges made arguments and fired questions about a university admissions test that relied on DNA testing as proof of students' connection to a cultural heritage.
The case: Should a male student who grew up in an African-American community be given more or less consideration for adding diversity to a university campus, compared to a female student adopted by whites and raised in a white-and-wealthy neighborhood?
What if a DNA lab report showed the first student's genetic makeup as 24 percent black versus the female student, whose report showed she was genetically 26 percent Asian and black?
A Peter Jennings Project journalism fellowship recently led me to the National Constitution Center, where I had the chance to meet and listen to legal experts like Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan and Stanford Law School professor Kathleen Sullivan.
Sullivan argued the moot case before a panel of judges. She represented the young man who grew up in a 95 percent black neighborhood, while professor Charles Ogletree of Harvard Law School defended the woman who recently discovered her black-Asian genetic makeup.
The argument central to this case asked whether the mechanics of a blood test should trump diversity acquired through living in a culturally ethnic community.
As the mock hearing neared its end, it was clear which lawyer would claim victory.
Read more here: http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/03/14/jodirave/rave15.txt
PHILADELPHIA - Some of the greatest legal scholars of our time recently sat in judgment of a hypothetical court case, asked to determine the fairness of a futuristic race-based affirmative action program.
As I listened from the audience, the scenario - set four years into the future - seemed too familiar. The lawyers, professors and judges made arguments and fired questions about a university admissions test that relied on DNA testing as proof of students' connection to a cultural heritage.
The case: Should a male student who grew up in an African-American community be given more or less consideration for adding diversity to a university campus, compared to a female student adopted by whites and raised in a white-and-wealthy neighborhood?
What if a DNA lab report showed the first student's genetic makeup as 24 percent black versus the female student, whose report showed she was genetically 26 percent Asian and black?
A Peter Jennings Project journalism fellowship recently led me to the National Constitution Center, where I had the chance to meet and listen to legal experts like Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan and Stanford Law School professor Kathleen Sullivan.
Sullivan argued the moot case before a panel of judges. She represented the young man who grew up in a 95 percent black neighborhood, while professor Charles Ogletree of Harvard Law School defended the woman who recently discovered her black-Asian genetic makeup.
The argument central to this case asked whether the mechanics of a blood test should trump diversity acquired through living in a culturally ethnic community.
As the mock hearing neared its end, it was clear which lawyer would claim victory.
Read more here: http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/03/14/jodirave/rave15.txt
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Noteworthy
Noteworthy
By: Pamela Waterbird Davison
Copyright 2007
Sometimes
I think about
being
somebody,
and it’s dissatisfying
to know
I’ll always be
just me.
Then I remember
my beloved mother
crying with courage,
no stranger
to fear,
but doing
her best
to live well.
Deep shadows
consume
first impressions
where heroism
was born
and I walk
with daring
taught long and hard.
There,
anyone can see
the classified
statement
I am today…
quite content
to aim at living
like I mean it.
No darkness can hide
a definite woman.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Quotes
"Among the Indians there have been no written laws. Customs handed down from generation to generation have been the only laws to guide them. Every one might act different from what was considered right did he choose to do so, but such acts would bring upon him the censure of the Nation.... This fear of the Nation's censure acted as a mighty band, binding all in one social, honorable compact." -
George Copway - Ojibwa
George Copway - Ojibwa
Federal judge says tribal courts can supervise child adoptions
By: Tom Kizzia
A federal judge has ordered the state to allow Alaska tribal courts to supervise adoptions and other child-welfare matters involving their own tribal members. The court decision -- and possible appeal -- poses a fork-in-the-road challenge to Gov. Sarah Palin regarding her administration's stance toward Alaska's many village-based tribal governments.
The Feb. 22 decision by U.S. District Judge Timothy Burgess, along with a similar recent decision in state court, would return the state to a more cooperative tribal policy established under former Gov. Tony Knowles. The Knowles administration approved birth certificates and other state records for several hundred children adopted by order of village tribes.
That policy was reversed under Knowles' successor, Gov. Frank Murkowski. His attorney general, Gregg Renkes, issued an opinion in October 2004 withdrawing state approval for tribal adoptions unless tribal courts apply for special permission, which few have done.
Since then, about 50 tribal adoptions per year have been left in limbo, said Natalie Landreth, a lawyer with the Native American Rights Fund in Anchorage. Burgess ruled in a case involving the Yukon River village of Kaltag.
There's more to this issue of sovereignty here: http://www.adn.com/front/story/341307.html
A federal judge has ordered the state to allow Alaska tribal courts to supervise adoptions and other child-welfare matters involving their own tribal members. The court decision -- and possible appeal -- poses a fork-in-the-road challenge to Gov. Sarah Palin regarding her administration's stance toward Alaska's many village-based tribal governments.
The Feb. 22 decision by U.S. District Judge Timothy Burgess, along with a similar recent decision in state court, would return the state to a more cooperative tribal policy established under former Gov. Tony Knowles. The Knowles administration approved birth certificates and other state records for several hundred children adopted by order of village tribes.
That policy was reversed under Knowles' successor, Gov. Frank Murkowski. His attorney general, Gregg Renkes, issued an opinion in October 2004 withdrawing state approval for tribal adoptions unless tribal courts apply for special permission, which few have done.
Since then, about 50 tribal adoptions per year have been left in limbo, said Natalie Landreth, a lawyer with the Native American Rights Fund in Anchorage. Burgess ruled in a case involving the Yukon River village of Kaltag.
There's more to this issue of sovereignty here: http://www.adn.com/front/story/341307.html
For American Indians, a Chance to Tell Their Own Story
New York Times
It isn’t often that curators will bless a museum exhibition before it opens.
But the people behind the “Our Peoples” show at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian are not your usual curators. They are American Indians, enlisted by the museum to help plan the ongoing exhibition, which focuses on the last 500 years of native history.
The museum calls them “community curators” — members of various tribes who work closely with the staff curators on which artifacts to include and how to display them.
“Our philosophy is to give voice to the native community, to give them an opportunity to tell their story,” said Kevin Gover, director of the museum and a Pawnee. “In the mind of Indian people, they’ve never been able to tell their story. Their story is told by others.”
The tribal members say that helping to shape these shows has been profoundly meaningful. “It’s really been a spiritual encounter for me to be able to let the general public know what we are all about, that we are not savages, that we have a high intelligence of life and know how to utilize our natural surroundings,” said Jackie Parsons, 73, the chief appeals court justice for the Blackfeet Nation. “I felt very honored to be able to participate.”
Get the whole story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/arts/artsspecial/12indian.html?ex=1363060800&en=54c056d6f7d28351&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
It isn’t often that curators will bless a museum exhibition before it opens.
But the people behind the “Our Peoples” show at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian are not your usual curators. They are American Indians, enlisted by the museum to help plan the ongoing exhibition, which focuses on the last 500 years of native history.
The museum calls them “community curators” — members of various tribes who work closely with the staff curators on which artifacts to include and how to display them.
“Our philosophy is to give voice to the native community, to give them an opportunity to tell their story,” said Kevin Gover, director of the museum and a Pawnee. “In the mind of Indian people, they’ve never been able to tell their story. Their story is told by others.”
The tribal members say that helping to shape these shows has been profoundly meaningful. “It’s really been a spiritual encounter for me to be able to let the general public know what we are all about, that we are not savages, that we have a high intelligence of life and know how to utilize our natural surroundings,” said Jackie Parsons, 73, the chief appeals court justice for the Blackfeet Nation. “I felt very honored to be able to participate.”
Get the whole story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/arts/artsspecial/12indian.html?ex=1363060800&en=54c056d6f7d28351&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
Narragansetts seek reservation status and sovereignty on their settlement lands
By: Gale Courey Toensing
CHARLESTOWN, R.I. - In its ongoing struggle for self-determination, the Narragansett Indians will ask the Interior Department to remove the tribe's 1,800 acres of settlement land from trust as a first step toward seeking reservation status and tribal jurisdiction on their land.
The tribal council approved the action Feb. 27. The tribe is preparing a package of documents that will justify the request, showing undue political influence and tampering by the state and town of Charlestown when the land was taken into trust in 1978 and afterwards, tribal council member John Brown said.
''There are flaws in the existing trust; there are issues and errors that have haunted us since 1978. There's been so much tampering by the state, and there's been at least 15 cases dealing with our trust land. So we're asking the Interior Department, and whoever else we have to go to, to remove the settlement land from trust, deed it back to the tribe under restricted status, and give us leave to put in a new trust package [application].''
The issues include such things as a survey that was never completed; rights of way; water and development issues that have never been addressed; parcels of land that were supposed to be turned over to the tribe; and land titles that were never validated, according to Brown.
''So, we have serious questions. And of course the biggest issue is the Rhode Island Land Claims Settlement Act, which has become our biggest hurdle,'' he added.
Want to know more? Click here: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416770
CHARLESTOWN, R.I. - In its ongoing struggle for self-determination, the Narragansett Indians will ask the Interior Department to remove the tribe's 1,800 acres of settlement land from trust as a first step toward seeking reservation status and tribal jurisdiction on their land.
The tribal council approved the action Feb. 27. The tribe is preparing a package of documents that will justify the request, showing undue political influence and tampering by the state and town of Charlestown when the land was taken into trust in 1978 and afterwards, tribal council member John Brown said.
''There are flaws in the existing trust; there are issues and errors that have haunted us since 1978. There's been so much tampering by the state, and there's been at least 15 cases dealing with our trust land. So we're asking the Interior Department, and whoever else we have to go to, to remove the settlement land from trust, deed it back to the tribe under restricted status, and give us leave to put in a new trust package [application].''
The issues include such things as a survey that was never completed; rights of way; water and development issues that have never been addressed; parcels of land that were supposed to be turned over to the tribe; and land titles that were never validated, according to Brown.
''So, we have serious questions. And of course the biggest issue is the Rhode Island Land Claims Settlement Act, which has become our biggest hurdle,'' he added.
Want to know more? Click here: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416770
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Identity of Sovereignty
Idenitity of Sovereignty
by: Pamela Waterbird Davison
Copyright 2008
It’s 2008 and I hear a lot of talk about sovereignty. I can understand what all the fuss is about. We live in a complicated world, a world of our own making, and history is demanding we study past mistakes or we’re doomed to repeat them.
Sovereignty is quite astonishing. It means we have dominion or power over our own destiny. We own our independence and demand it be respected, just as people before us have. Yet, sovereignty denied leaves a people without control of their very existence and threatens to extinguish us. If you don’t believe autonomy is powerful enough to dictate historical events just take a closer look at the Trail of Tears or The Long Walk. If you have an open mind, I think you’ll find there’s much more to be learned from history than “just the facts”.
Let me see if I can lay it down straight.
When my ancestors first came into contact with Europeans, they were curious, but polite. Just like many of us today, they welcomed immigrants, showed the strangers what they knew, accepted their unusual ways, and learned. It didn’t take long, though, before they realized the danger posed to their way of life as they knew it. They found themselves bound by force to fight for home and family, and when they refused to give up their language, religion, and family, they knew they were on the verge of nothing left to sovereignty.
When I look back upon the stories my family has passed down regarding those times when all we had was tradition and the only thing offered to us was worthless pieces of paper and eradication of everything we held dear, I recognize the truth in today’s society. The only difference is what is considered to be sacred.
So we can either choose to abide the sovereignty of all Nations, including our own, or we will repeat the same wars of our ancestors. If we choose to be conquered and relinquish those things which define us as a culture, we have no one to blame but ourselves. If we become so assimilated that we no longer remember where we came from we are sure to find our borders beyond reach.
To me sovereignty is not just a word. It’s an ongoing battle that has lasted for more than five hundred years. For those who’ve never measured the worth of self-government outside of political issues I implore you to take notice.
There is nothing as sad as a people who don’t know their identity.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Wampum – Currency, or Sacred Ceremonial Council Beads?
Wampum – Currency, or Sacred Ceremonial Council Beads?
by: David Pike aka Spirit Eagle
Indigenous people of the Northeast have long histories of using Wampum beads primarily for traditional ceremonial purposes. They were used less frequently for trade among the Native populations. These beautiful shell beads were in use for thousands of years, long before the arrival of European settlers. They continue to be used today as jewelry, or as traditional pendants and belts with significant spiritual meaning.
The original term “Wampum” is the Narragansett tribe word for “white shell beads”, which is derived from the root word “Wompi”, come from Whelk shells which were abundant in the Atlantic Ocean. Most of theses beads, in various sizes and shapes, are indeed pure white. They were very difficult to drill and shape with primitive tools. A more prized shell, of white blended with areas of deep purple to nearly black color originated from the Quahog shell. Often, when people today bake or eat these clams raw, they can observe the beautiful colors deeply imbedded in these shells.
Wampum beads were often woven into belts that signified important events among the many local tribes in the pre-European invasion era. They were used to call a council, speak in turn, select, or even depose a chief. They could symbolize spiritual or social events, such as rites of passage, sacrifice, maturity, marriage, or even peace treaties among warring tribes. One particular belt memorialized the Haudaunosee, League of the Pine Tree or Great Peace, of the 5 original Iroquois Nations, who became the 6 Nations after accepting the Tuscarora into their League. This has also been referred to as the “Hiawatha Belt”. In the oral legend of the acceptance of this treaty, all of the participants cast their clubs and tomahawks into a large pit under the Great Pine Tree’s roots, which gave birth to the well known expression, “bury the hatchet”, still used today. The Wampum belt recorded the event in a symbolic pattern. This event, which created a lasting peace among these tribes, also later influenced the events which led to the writing of the Constitution of the fledgling United States of America.
Unfortunately, early European traders exploited Native people by using Wampum as barter for goods or land. They quickly realized that European currency had little value, so they began heavy production of wampum beads to use as currency to further their grip on the new world at the expense of the unsuspecting natives. They were woven into long strands, which were soon developed into specific lengths of value, or “fathoms” called “wampumpeage”, or simply “peage”. These were carried further inland as the settlers advanced into the “new world”. Wampum factories sprung up in New York and New England. Colonists began to use wampum among themselves as currency.
As the settlers continued their exploitation of the indigenous people with wampum, disregarding treaties and agreements, driving them from their homes and ultimately exterminating many, the use of wampum declined among these demoralized people. Wampum became the symbol of how they were “bought out” of their natural inheritance. Only relatively recently has Wampum become revived and used again as it was once intended, as sacred, symbolic beads.
Perhaps this revitalization of Wampum to it’s original stature as symbolic, ceremonial, and meaningful beads may come to symbolize the ascension of Native Peoples back to their rightful inheritance.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Important dates in March
March 6, 1864: 8,000 Navajos begin the “Long Walk”, a 350 mile forced relocation to Bosque Redondo. During their four year imprisonment over 25% perish.
March 10, 1999: Crayola says goodbye to the color “Indian Red”.
March 22, 1622: Powhatan rebellion takes place in Virginia.
March 10, 1999: Crayola says goodbye to the color “Indian Red”.
March 22, 1622: Powhatan rebellion takes place in Virginia.
March 6, 1864: 8,000 Navajos begin the “Long Walk”, a 350 mile forced relocation to Bosque Redondo.
In 1863, the United States government inaugurated efforts toward the forcible removal of a large percentage of the Navajo Nation from their homeland on the Colorado Plateau to a reservation along the Pecos River in eastern New Mexico. This reservation, known as Ft. Sumner or Hwéeldi, was originally envisioned as a permanent home for the Navajo.
This policy, and the events linked to it, is rooted in the tenor of the times. It reflects not only attitudes toward American Indians in general, and Navajos specifically, but was also part and parcel of what has come to be called "manifest destiny." In brief, manifest destiny was an Anglo-European attitude that lands occupied by American Indians could be put to more productive uses by white settlers. This however, required that Indian groups be pacified or physically removed from their homelands, thereby freeing up these lands for white settlement. The instigator of this policy, General James H. Carleton, was involved in a wide variety of non-military activities that presupposed removal of Indians from their homelands. In particular, he was a strong advocate of Eastern capitalists who were interested in establishing mining operations on Indian lands.
In addition, throughout history there had been raids by Navajo on New Mexican settlements that were, in turn, reciprocated with a vengeance by settlers upon the Navajo Nation. This pattern of reciprocal raiding reached in crescendo in the mid-nineteenth century as Navajo found themselves subject to raids not only from New Mexican settlers, but Utes, Paiutes, Hopis, Comanches, and myriad other semi-nomadic tribes of the Southwest. In an effort to replenish their lost livestock and other goods, the Navajo turned with increasing frequency to raids on Rio Grande settlements. The result was formation of volunteer units by New Mexican authorities to "punish" the Navajo and calls for their subjugation, if not extermination.
One of the less-recognized factors contributing to policies culminating in the Long Walk was Anglo enthusiasm for and interest in potential mineral wealth. As will be shown, General James H. Carleton was involved in a series of questionable activities regarding mining, the cumulative effect of which appears to have contributed to his decision to remove Navajos from their homeland (Acrey 1994:38).
This interest was prompted by gold discoveries such as the ones at Old and New Placers in the 1830s. In 1850, placer gold was discovered in the Jicarilla Mountains - certainly one of New Mexico's remoter corners (Christiansen 1974:30, 39). Finally, the first major lead and gold deposits were found in the southern part of New Mexico near Organ and Piños Altos in 1858 and 1859, respectively (Anderson 1957:5, Christiansen 1974:28-29). Yet, perhaps the biggest factor contributing to mining fever was the discovery, in 1863, of the first major silver lodes near Magdalena, New Mexico, followed in 1864 by the discovery of substantial high-grade silver deposits near Silver City, NM (Anderson 1957:5, Christiansen 1974:40). These ore discoveries, coinciding as they did with large influxes of Anglos in the years following 1848, further fanned mine fever.
Indeed, General James H. Carleton's Indian policy of the 1860s, which included removing over 8,000 Navajos and a smaller number of Mescalero Apache to Bosque Redondo, may have been prompted, at least in part, by the lure of potential mineral riches. Carleton actively encouraged his soldiers to prospect for precious metals and send in reports of likely mineral areas. In 1854, for example, Kit Carson reported that "In regard to the new Silver Leads I am not sufficiently posted yet to say much about them but will advise you of the first favorable opportunity I hear of" (NARA, RG 98, Letters Received, Carson to Carleton 4/12/65). Similarly, one of Carleton's subordinates was notified by a trooper that: "There is a report here that gold has been found in large quantities on Little Red River. I hope that it is true. When the command returns I suppose that we shall learn all about it" (NARA, RG 98, Letters Received, Need to Cutler, 29 September 1863).
Want to know more? Click here: http://members.tripod.com/~bloodhound/longwalk.htm
This policy, and the events linked to it, is rooted in the tenor of the times. It reflects not only attitudes toward American Indians in general, and Navajos specifically, but was also part and parcel of what has come to be called "manifest destiny." In brief, manifest destiny was an Anglo-European attitude that lands occupied by American Indians could be put to more productive uses by white settlers. This however, required that Indian groups be pacified or physically removed from their homelands, thereby freeing up these lands for white settlement. The instigator of this policy, General James H. Carleton, was involved in a wide variety of non-military activities that presupposed removal of Indians from their homelands. In particular, he was a strong advocate of Eastern capitalists who were interested in establishing mining operations on Indian lands.
In addition, throughout history there had been raids by Navajo on New Mexican settlements that were, in turn, reciprocated with a vengeance by settlers upon the Navajo Nation. This pattern of reciprocal raiding reached in crescendo in the mid-nineteenth century as Navajo found themselves subject to raids not only from New Mexican settlers, but Utes, Paiutes, Hopis, Comanches, and myriad other semi-nomadic tribes of the Southwest. In an effort to replenish their lost livestock and other goods, the Navajo turned with increasing frequency to raids on Rio Grande settlements. The result was formation of volunteer units by New Mexican authorities to "punish" the Navajo and calls for their subjugation, if not extermination.
One of the less-recognized factors contributing to policies culminating in the Long Walk was Anglo enthusiasm for and interest in potential mineral wealth. As will be shown, General James H. Carleton was involved in a series of questionable activities regarding mining, the cumulative effect of which appears to have contributed to his decision to remove Navajos from their homeland (Acrey 1994:38).
This interest was prompted by gold discoveries such as the ones at Old and New Placers in the 1830s. In 1850, placer gold was discovered in the Jicarilla Mountains - certainly one of New Mexico's remoter corners (Christiansen 1974:30, 39). Finally, the first major lead and gold deposits were found in the southern part of New Mexico near Organ and Piños Altos in 1858 and 1859, respectively (Anderson 1957:5, Christiansen 1974:28-29). Yet, perhaps the biggest factor contributing to mining fever was the discovery, in 1863, of the first major silver lodes near Magdalena, New Mexico, followed in 1864 by the discovery of substantial high-grade silver deposits near Silver City, NM (Anderson 1957:5, Christiansen 1974:40). These ore discoveries, coinciding as they did with large influxes of Anglos in the years following 1848, further fanned mine fever.
Indeed, General James H. Carleton's Indian policy of the 1860s, which included removing over 8,000 Navajos and a smaller number of Mescalero Apache to Bosque Redondo, may have been prompted, at least in part, by the lure of potential mineral riches. Carleton actively encouraged his soldiers to prospect for precious metals and send in reports of likely mineral areas. In 1854, for example, Kit Carson reported that "In regard to the new Silver Leads I am not sufficiently posted yet to say much about them but will advise you of the first favorable opportunity I hear of" (NARA, RG 98, Letters Received, Carson to Carleton 4/12/65). Similarly, one of Carleton's subordinates was notified by a trooper that: "There is a report here that gold has been found in large quantities on Little Red River. I hope that it is true. When the command returns I suppose that we shall learn all about it" (NARA, RG 98, Letters Received, Need to Cutler, 29 September 1863).
Want to know more? Click here: http://members.tripod.com/~bloodhound/longwalk.htm
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
.JPG)
