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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.