"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
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
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
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