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.
Monday, March 24, 2008
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
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