Wotanging Ikche--nanews07.020

Gary Night Owl (gars@netcom.com)
Tue, 11 May 1999 19:42:10 -0700 (PDT)

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_ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ O
' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) O o O
/ / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ O o O
(_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' O o o o o O
____ _ , ___ _ , ___ VOLUME 07, ISSUE 020 O o O
/ ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' May 15, 1999 O o O
/ /-< / /--/ /-- Yuchi mulberry ripening moon O
__/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, Lakota moon when the ponies shed
KANOHEDA ANIYVWIYA Ha-Sah-Sliltha Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin Un Chota
Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min Aunchemokauhettittea
Ximopanolti tehuatzin, inin Mexika tlahtolli
( N A T I V E A M E R I C A N N E W S )
This issue contains articles from Big Mountain, Paths-L, Innu-L & Nat-Film
Lists; Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty; UUCP email;
Newsgroups: alt.native,soc.culture.native

Articles appearing have been previously posted for public dissemination
and/or permission for inclusion has been secured.
Letters of authorization are on file. A list of those granting permission
to repost their words in this issue are listed at the end of part A.
I thank each of you for allowing your words to be shared with the people.

IMPORTANT!!
-----------
To all who send copywrite protected articles, make very sure you have
permission from the copywrite holder (a newspaper, the AP, a magazine, an
author) because a new law is now in effect that says you can be prosecuted
even if there is no monetary gain. Just because a newspaper has a website
where it posts some or all of its editions does not grant permission for
their redistribution. Be careful and be sure you pass on the items you do
with full permission.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, all material appearing in
this newsletter is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a
prior interest in receiving this information for educational purposes.
<----<<<< >>>>---->
This newsletter is a way of keeping the brothers and sisters who share our
Spirit informed about current events within the lives of those who walk the
Red Road.
++ It may be subscribed to via email by sending a request from your own
internet addressable account to gars@netcom.com
++ It is archived at http://www.nanews.org
++ There is also a hyperlinked version of the Current Issue at
http://bearvisions.com/NativeNews/NEWS.html

Borries Demeler advises AISESnet doesn't exist anymore, instead there is now
NativeNet where people can search for archives of Wotanging Ikche issues:
_ All past AISESnet archives (1992-1998) can now be found in:
http://aises.uthscsa.edu/discussion/
_ All new messages will be archived in:
http://nativenet.uthscsa.edu/archive/nn-dialogue/archive.html
The mailing address for AISESnet/NativeNet the lists have changed.
Please make a note of the new address.
The old address aisesnet_discussion@listserv.umt.edu should *NOT*
be used any longer. Instead please use:
nn-dialogue@nativenet.uthscsa.edu

Downloading Wotanging Ikche on AOL From: MAANG1419@aol.com <Valentina>
Just thought I would share some info. I could not download on to a .txt
because I kept getting the message (when I tried to retrieve it) that the
text editor could not handle the volume. This time I downloaded it on to
a .doc and when I retrieved it out of file manager, IT WORKED.

"I cannot think that we are useless or
God would not have created us."
__ Goyathlay (Geronimo), Chiricahua

O'siyo Brothers and Sisters!

One criteria I have always insisted on when articles are submitted is
that they be truthful. It is absolutely essential that what you read in
this newsletter can be trusted and carried to others.

I know Bob Dorman has the same dedication to this insistence on truth.
It will serve no purpose for him or the Peoples on Big Mountain for news
he distributes to be tarnished with lies or half truths. However, Bob
distributed an article with mistaken facts that was included in the last
issue of this newsletter. It was a sensational, emotion raising article,
so that makes its distribution even worse.

Neither the BIA nor Hopi Rangers were responsible for the shooting death
of Pauline Whitsinger's horse, as was reported last week. In fact, a
neighbor shot her horse to prevent its continued problem causing with their
horses.

Bob has apologized in an article in this issue for this misinformation.
To all readers of Wotanging Ikche, I also apologize. I am a human being,
and I made a mistake by including a harmful untruth.

I ask your forgiveness.

Peace! Night Owl
, , Gary Night Owl gars@netcom.com
(*,*) P. O. Box 672168 gars@nanews.org
(`-') Marietta, GA 30207, U.S.A. gars@igc.apc.org
===w=w== Fax: 770-528-9643

----------- News of the people featured in this issue ----------
- Services for Edward Red Eagle - Cherokee Medal of Honor Awards
- South Dakota Wildlife - Marcos Emerges from Mexico Jungle
Restoration Act - Constitutional Conflict
- Save the Salmon & Save the World at San Carlos
- Ho-Chunk Blocked - BC to Spray Insecticide
from Munitions Board on Cowichan Band
- Ho-Chunk Plan to Buy Dog Track - Help Mendota Now
- Roberta Blackgoat's Message - Crushing a Culture
- Pauline Whitesinger's Horse - Victory for Indian
Shot by Neighbor Religious Freedom
- Cree Grapple with Future - Violation of Prisoner Rights
- Tribes Cultivate Trade - Canadian News re Leonard
Opportunities Overseas - Anne McLellan makes
- Elder Couple's Home Statement on Peltier
- Grassroots Help Needed - Native Prisoner
for Yellowstone Buffalo - Saturday Flea Market
- Tribal Agency Offers Youths - A Hundred Years Ago
Summer Jobs - Poem: Squirrel Hunting
- Tribal Vote Picks Pawnee Leaders - Poem: Squirrel Hunting
- Alaskan Tribes Halt Beluga Hunts - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days
- Open Letter Regarding - Upcoming Events
the Recent Tornados - Native America Calling

--------- "RE: Services for Edward Red Eagle" ---------

Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 08:23:53 -0500
From: berryj@okstate.edu
Subj: (FWD)Indian News 05-05-99
Roger Iron Cloud
FirstNations Listserv
202.358.3252
rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov

Services slated for Edward Red Eagle
c. Tulsa World
5/4/99
PAWHUSKA -- Edward Red Eagle Sr., a three-term assistant chief of the
Osage Tribal Council, died Sunday. He was 80.
A rosary is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Wakon Iron Community
Building, and a funeral Mass is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday at the
Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, both under the direction of
Johnson Funeral Home.
A Pawhuska native, Red Eagle graduated from Pawhuska High School and
Wichita Business College in Wichita, Kan. He was a staff sergeant in the
U.S. Army during World War II, serving in the Philippines and Japan.
Red Eagle spent nearly 40 years on the Osage Tribal Council and served
three terms as assistant chief. He was an elder of the Osage Tribe for
many years.
Red Eagle was a roadman of the Native American Church, an Osage Gourd
Dancer, a committee member of the Osage Ceremonial Dances and a member of
the Kiowa Gourd Clan and the Pawhuska Rotary Club.
He is survived by three sons, Edward Red Eagle Jr. of Barnsdall and John
Red Eagle and Myron Red Eagle, both of Tulsa; five grandchildren; and 11
great-grandchildren.

--------- "RE: South Dakota Wildlife Restoration Act" ---------

Date: Fri, 07 May 1999 10:08:54 GMT
From: "Thiseagle seestruth" <eagleseestruth@hotmail.com>
Subj: South Dakota Wildlife Restoration Act

...We are running out of time, - this gets passed in July, - and this is
going to desperately affect the lives of so many, - in the face of treaties
that have been made three times with the Sioux people,...
Please, please help,... all you need to do is sign your name at the bottom
in place of mine, + email: administrator@campbell.senate.gov
Please send a copy of this letter - to absolutely everyone who will listen,
- we need this help,... as I said - we are running out of time, and the more
pressure and awareness of what's going on this man feels is coming from the
people - from everywhere, - the more chance there is - that he's actually
going to demand a hearing on this illegal activity!
..Thank you for your time,.. - Ray Clouds-in-the-Sky Stark.

Alternative means of contact are :
Tel: (001) 202-224-5852
Fax: (001) 202-224-1933
Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell,
Chairman, US Senate Committee on Indian Affairs,
828 Hart Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC
20510 attn.: Patricia Zell

Dear Sir

I am writing in response to information on how the actions of Senate
Minority Leader Tom Daschle, together with South Dakota Governor William
Janklow conflict, not only with U.S. supreme court rulings, but also with
the direct recommendation of President Clinton.

As you may know, - Senator Daschle attached a rider to the budget
reconciliation bill in the last minutes of the 105th Congress.
Attaching the rider without any discussion of it was the only way Senator
Daschle could get this legislation through Congress, - as it had previously
been defeated in the House of Representatives.
This rider, called the the "Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Lower Brule Sioux
Tribe and state of South Dakota Wildlife Restoration Act", was passed as
Title VI of the 1999 Omnibus Appropriations Act. This legislation gives
200,000 acres to the state of South Dakota to be used for hydro-electric
power, wildlife protection and recreational development.

Besides Daschle's maneuvering in Congress, the Act was drafted and passed
without proper consultation with all of the tribal leaders or bands of the
Great Sioux Nation. The Fort Laramie Treaty states that 3/4 of all males in
the Great Sioux Nation must agree to any changes in the Treaty.
More recently, in the early 1980s, the United States Supreme Court decided
that the Treaty of 1868 is still valid, and still reserves land to the Great
Sioux Nation. In addition, - a 1994 Executive Order by President Clinton
requires consultation to be made with the different tribes before the
passage of such legislation.

Thus, the legality of Congressional action here in giving this land to South
Dakota is certainly in question, and is happening before large numbers of
people who are aware, and becoming increasingly concerned about these
illegal actions. We request you please, most urgently, - to hold hearings on
this matter, and put an end to this abuse of Native American people, in the
face of Presidential and Supreme Court rulings.

In sincerity and respect, awaiting your response in this matter,
Raymond Stark.

--------- "RE: Save the Salmon & Save the World" ---------

Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 08:06:58 -0700
From: John Wm Sloniker <johnwms@SERV.NET>
Subj: Save the Salmon & Save the World

To the Editor,
I keep seeing the phrase "Save the Salmon", but I've yet to see anyone
cover adequately what that means. In addition to cleaning up the small
streams around Seattle and removing the dams on the Snake River, there
is much more involved. To truly work to save the salmon involves save
the world, or put another way, "Restore the World."
In the past three years I've seen many news stories that cover what is
needed, but no one has connected them to the salmon as part of what is
needed to complete the effort of saving the salmon.
In fact, in the past three decades there has been some effort to help
improve the life of the salmon, but no one has connected it to them.
For example, we must get rid of the Model T and the '54 Packard, along
with the "Leaf Blower" and smelter waste in fertilizer.
And that is just a small start to do the job.
I think most know that the Model T and 54 Packard depend on leaded gas
which is bad for the environment, but I haven't seen anyone mention it
in conjunction with the leaf blower before. Well I'm saying it's part
of the problem that needs attention.
A couple years ago I was on Interurban Ave. in the Tukwila area by the
Foster golf course, next to Fort Dent Park. Both are beside the Green
River, which is salmon habitat. There was a stiff breeze at the time.
This is what I saw. Leaded gas was still being sold at the time and a
fellow was cleaning up around his gas station, where gas gets spilled.
His method was to use a leaf blower, to clear the dirt and dust off of
his station lot on the west side of Interurban Ave. into the street. A
gust often carried the dust across the street, onto the Foster course,
and Fort Dent park as well. I'm not sure if any of the dust reached as
far as the Green River at that time, but it was closer than before.
Since then I've noticed that many people use those leaf blowers as the
method for cleaning parking lots and street gutters. They're spreading
the contamination further each time they do that, because those street
gutters are connect to, and empty into, Puget Sound, a salmon habitat.
Their defense? "It's only a leaf blower."
John

--------- "RE: Ho-Chunk Blocked from Munitions Board" ---------

Date: Sat, 8 May 1999 19:08:14 -0700
To: Paths-L Mailing List <paths-l@YvwiiUsdinvnohii.net>
Subj: Ho-Chunk Blocked From Key Badger Munitions Board

Mailing List: Paths-L <paths-l@YvwiiUsdinvnohii.net>

Laura Olah, Executive Director
Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger
E12629 Weigand's Bay South
Merrimac, Wisconsin 53561
email: olah@speagle.com
Phone: (608)643-3124 - FAX: (608)643-0005
Website URL: http://www.speagle.com/cswab

Please circulate
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Saturday, May 8, 1999

For more information contact:
William Boulware, Ho-Chunk Department of Justice, (715) 284-3325
Laura Olah, Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger, (608) 643-3124

HO-CHUNK BLOCKED FROM KEY BADGER MUNITIONS BOARD
SAUK CITY, WI -- A majority vote blocked a motion to allow the Ho-Chunk
Nation to become a voting member of the Badger Environmental Board of
Advisors (BEBA), a federally-funded Restoration Advisory Board (RAB)
formed in 1993 by the U.S. Army at Badger Army Ammunition Plant,
prompting one board member to suspend her membership. Badger Army
Ammunition Plant was one of the first bases in the country to establish a
Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) receiving more than $80,000 of support

>from the Army.
A motion to change the BEBA by-laws, allowing the Ho-Chunk Nation a
seat on the BEBA, failed in a five (5) to three (3) vote at a special
meeting on Monday evening, May 3, 1999. Opposing votes included Town
of Sumpter supervisor Kenneth Meier and Sauk County Board representative
Darlene Hill. Hill cited disagreements between Sauk County and the
Nation on other issues as a reason she opposed their participation as a
voting member. "We were all born as citizens of this country; no one
government should have more power than another," she said.
Other board members explained that the Nation has a vested interest in
the cleanup at Badger as it is a stakeholder and may eventually own part
of the property. The Ho-Chunk Nation has requested the transfer of a
portion of the BAAP land in trust for restoration as prairie and bison
habitat and for the preservation of historic and cultural sites. The
land comprising the Badger plant lies within the territory that the
United States recognized historically held by the Ho-Chunk Nation.
Ho-Chunk has patiently waited since June 1998 for a vote on its petition
for membership on the Badger RAB.
The Department of Defense informed the Ho-Chunk Nation at the DOD
Defense Environmental Restoration Task Force (DERTF) Meeting in
February 1999 that the Tribe's participation is required under the RAB
protocols and DOD guidance on consultation with tribal governments. The
BEBA was originally formed according to the recommendations of the
Federal Facilities Environmental Dialogue Committee (FFERDC), a federal
advisory committee formed by the EPA in 1992. The stated goal of the
FFERDC was to improve the process by which federal facility environmental
restoration decisions are made, such that these decisions reflect the
priorities and concerns of all stakeholders, including tribal governments.
It is unclear whether BEBA is organized under the Federal Advisory
Committee Act. Yet the 1996 Final Report of the FFERDC recommended
maintaining balanced membership, open meetings and public notice.
BEBA is to serve as the site-specific board of advisors for environmental
restoration at Badger Army Ammunition Plant. RABs are intended to focus
on the protection of human health, cleanup, waste management and
technology development issues and should reflect the full diversity of
views, ethnicity, race and income in the affected community and be
composed primarily of people who are directly affected. According to
FFERDC, tribal governments have standing as stakeholders in federal
facility environmental restoration activities in instances where tribes
are affected. FFERDC specifies "tribes and tribal members have interests
that are equivalent to those of any other affected stakeholder."
Assist Secretary of Defense Environmental Security, Sherri Goodman,
was advised of Ho-Chunk's petition for membership in July 1998 at the
Skokie, IL DERTF meeting by William Boulware, Ho-Chunk Nation Attorney.
Mr. Boulware provided testimony at the DERTF meeting in San Francisco in
February 1999 and received a letter from Deputy Assistant Secretary of
the Army, Raymond J. Fatz recognizing the potential impact clean-up would
have on the cultural resources and the Ho-Chunk Nation's interest as a
stakeholder. Now, the BEBA and Ho-Chunk are faced with the dilemma. An
Indian tribe and stakeholder has been affirmatively denied the opportunity
to participate in light of the Presidential Executive Orders on
Environmental Justice and the RAB regulations.
Boulware stated that "This was supposed to be an opportunity for
people to be unified behind cleaning up contamination left by the Army
and Olin Corporation. Now, this vote distracts from the real issues and
the real work, i.e. protecting the land and our health. People sometimes
forget, that it is not "us and them" or "you people," it is genuinely we,
as a collective working improve our lives in a community that owes its
existence to the ceding of lands by the Ho-Chunk Nation to the
United States. The Nation is not asking to be the sole decision maker,
it petitioned BEBA in order to be a part of the process."
Following the failed motion, Laura Olah, Executive Director of Citizens
for Safe Water Around Badger (CSWAB) immediately stepped down from
the board. "CSWAB's board voted unanimously to suspend our participation
in the BEBA until this is resolved; continuing to participate is completely
contrary to CSWAB's by-laws and our environmental justice principles."
WDNR representative Mike Degen emphasized the important contribution
the Ho-Chunk Nation has made to environmental cleanup and funding
issues related to Badger over the past year but was noncommittal on
whether or not the Nation's participation should be approved. "I don't
have strong feelings one way or another," Degen said. The Army reported
EPA representative Robert Egan, absent at the Monday meeting, was also
neutral on the issue saying the BEBA "should decide membership issues
themselves."
After Olah took her seat in the audience, all remaining board members
but one voted to offer the Ho-Chunk Nation a non-voting seat on the
board. Mary Carol Solum, an at-large member of the BEBA, dissented.
"The Nation is government entity -- as is the Town of Sumpter, Town of
Merrimac, Village of Prairie du Sac, and Sauk County. They have standing
as a sovereign nation and therefore should be a voting member as a
governing unit."
The board has 18 voting members, seven representing local government,
labor, and community organizations. The remaining ten (10) voting members
are area residents. The Army, regulatory agencies (WDNR and EPA), and
Sauk County Environmental Health Department representatives are
non-voting members of the BEBA board.

>The following is from CSWAB:
Letters may be sent to:
Ms. Sherri Wasserman Goodman
Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Environmental Security
3400 Defense Pentagon, Rm. 3E792
Washington, DC 20301-3400
Courtesy copies to:
William Boulware, Jr.
Ho-Chunk Nation Department of Justice
P.O. Box 667
Black River Falls, WI 54615
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--------- "RE: Ho-Chunk Plan to Buy Dog Track" ---------

Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 08:23:53 -0500
From: berryj@okstate.edu
Subj: (FWD)Indian News 05-05-99
Roger Iron Cloud
FirstNations Listserv
202.358.3252
rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov

Ho-Chunk plan to buy dog track at Delavan
c. ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 27, 1999
DELAVAN, WIS. - Plans by an Indian tribe to acquire a parimutuel race track
are viewed as a business investment against competition from another tribe's
proposed casino.
The Ho-Chunk Nation says it has an agreement in principle to acquire the
Geneva Lakes Greyhound Track and Simulcast Center.
The Delavan track in southern Wisconsin is about 40 miles west of the
Dairyland Greyhound Park track in Kenosha where Menominee Indians want to
build a casino annex.
"If Dairyland was ever to become a casino, the Ho-Chunk could not afford
not to also do it," Geneva Lakes owner Robert D. Glick said.
The Ho-Chunk Nation, the official name for the Wisconsin Winnebago tribe,
operates casinos near Wisconsin Dells, Nekoosa and Black River Falls.
In its announcement Saturday about acquiring the 330-employee Delavan
track, the tribe did not disclose a purchase price and said it had no plans
to add slot machines or other casino equipment.
While there are "no plans to make any changes in the operation," a casino
in Kenosha "could have an influence," Ho-Chunk Nation legislative counsel
Jeff DeCora said.
The Delavan parimutuel track is one of three in Wisconsin. Dairyland is
the only one that makes a profit. The other track is in Hudson.
Geneva Lakes reported a net loss in 1998 of nearly $3 million.
However, its figures indicate profits are ahead after investment expenses
are paid off. Discounting interest and depreciation, it earned $1.3 million
last year, Glick said.
Its handle was $41 million in 1998, up 17.8 percent from 1997, state
records say.
The Delavan purchase is subject to approval by the state Division of
Gaming.
A casino needs the approval of the state. Gov. Tommy Thompson says he
opposes a new casino anywhere in Wisconsin unless it has the approval of the
local community and unless the new casino is offset by the closing of an
existing casino.
Besides the Ho-Chunk Nation and the Menominee, the Lac du Flambeau band of
Chippewa is thinking of commercial gambling in southeastern Wisconsin.
It is talking with officials in Waukesha County about opening a 500-room
hotel casino near I-94 west of Milwaukee.
The region's only casino is in downtown Milwaukee, operated by Potawatomi
Indians.
Sen. Margaret Farrow, R-Pewaukee, who opposes the Lac du Flambeau plan,
cites 1996 statistics of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute that say
crime in the 14 counties that have Indian casinos increased 6.7 percent in
the three years after voters approved gambling.
Lac du Flambeau spokesman Richard Matty said other statistics show crime
has decreased in Vilas County where the band has a casino.

--------- "RE: Roberta Blackgoat's Message" ---------

Date: Fri, 07 May 1999 08:52:01 -0800
From: Robert Dorman <redorman@theofficenet.com>
Subj: Roberta Blackgoat's Message

Mailing List: Big Mountain List <bigmtlist@hotmail.com>

First, a brief message: The charges against Swaneagle have been dropped.
If you will remember, she was arrested for sitting in at the relocation
office.

Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 14:30:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: SWANEAGLE <swanea04@elwha.evergreen.edu>
To: BIGMTLIST <redorman@theofficenet.com>
Subject: Re: Swaneagle's Letter to Judge Lamb

Blessings Bob
I wanted to let you know that charges have been dropped due to improper
jurisdiction. Hopefully, it won't be brought up again. I am thankful.
Swaneagle
============================================
I have not had the time to confirm the authenticity of this. However, its
contents appear to me to be in line with other similar messages from other
elders, so I have no reason to doubt it. There is nothing especially
controversial here--just a warm, loving message from the heart of a
wonderful, compassionate person who cares deeply for the earth and its
peoples.

Date: Thu, 06 May 1999 17:29:49 -0700
From: "Craig L. SQUIRES" <mongo@user1.channel1.com>
To: Robert Dorman <redorman@theofficenet.com>
Subject: Message from Roberta Blackgoat

Mr. Dorman,
Here is a letter given to me by Roberta Blackgoat at her place Monday,
April 26, 1999.
Craig Squires
+++++++++++++++++++
Statement by Roberta Blackgoat, Dine Elder, Big Mountain, Arizona
April 14th 1999
My name is Roberta Blackgoat, I am speaking to you from Thin Rock Mesa,
the place where I live, the place where I've been born, and raised,
and been taught how to live in this area. For twenty-five years I've
been dealing with the government trying to move me off my ancestral
lands. My great, great ancestors have been born here, and they've been
buried in this area,.... around here there is a lot of my ancestors
graveyard sites.
My grandfather had taught me how to care for life on the land in the
sacred ways, with the sacred prayers and the sacred songs, and he
told me how in the very beginning the world was created and how the
Great Spirit has surveyed it for the Dine people in this
area, between the Sacred Mountains, Mount Blanca in Colorado, Mount
Taylor in New Mexico, San Francisco peaks in Arizona, and Mount
Hesperus in Colorado. Between these four Sacred Mountains is a room
for the Dine people, where it has been made like a church, and way
out on the west side, by the San Francisco Peaks, inside the room is
our altar.
And this is the main point, ... that we are being told to move off the
land. This is our altar that we can't give up. We can't sell it, we
can't buy it, we just have to take care of it and have people live in
this area. And now we're being told to move off from our altar.
This is why I really need it to be understood. ... That the government
.. what they want this land for is what the Mother earth is living on.
She is supposed to have a liver, and lungs, and a heart, and all these
things are what we are sitting on. Just like our bodies, the Mother
Earth has internal organs, ... these are the precious and valuable
minerals that she needs, and so, all the equipment and things we make,
all our food, even ourselves is made out of the Mother Earth,... and
even money is a part of her body that has been turned into money. And
now the greed is always working against our Mother Earth, and Mother
Earth is suffering.
We've been hearing a lot about tornadoes, ... and earthquakes, ... a
lot of these warnings have been going on, ... That's Her breath,
because She is suffering and her breath is giving us warnings.
These are the main things that we need to have understood. ... That
the people need to be allowed to live in the way that they have been
all their lives.
PLEASE, I am wanting to have this understood ... by writing letters
to the Congressional leaders, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and all
these people to know we have a pain feeling for our Mother Earth. She's
getting more surgery, and no patch to it. It's just when a human being
has surgery, and something is patched, but I don't believe Mother earth
has any patches, they just keep on killing her more and more. I believe
more understanding is needed in this way. I am just needing for this to
be heard. I am not begging for money or anything, but I'm really
hanging on to the world for my Dine people and every living
thing.
There is a great loss on the mountains, ... the wildlife people
are living there, and the people that fly, they live on the trees, and
they all are losing their homes and, and the food of the wildlife
four-legged people, ... And even the water, ... the people that live
in the water are struggling with all the pollution, and the sickness in
the spirit of the water, and also all the human beings, ... us Indians,
.. all the different tribes, ... they are all facing the same
struggles with their land and their food,... they are suffering also,
not just the Navajos are suffering, it's all Indians living in this
Indian Country are suffering. I do hope to be having a great help from
all you people who are aware, by having you write to President Clinton,
and Also Senator McLain (McCain), and Bruce Babbitt. Please let
them have their hearts to be touched.
I have heard of the Whiteman's story, ... how the Creator made the
first man, ... and He saw that he was lonely and so He created a woman
for him, ... and He told them that all the things they could see were
for them, BUT they must not eat the apple on the tree, ... so it is for
us Dine people, ... the Creator has told us we MUST look after the land
in between the four sacred mountains, so write to the politicians and
tell them that if they want us Dine people to move off our sacred land
they should SUE THE CREATOR. I think this will be all. Thank you.
For more information please communicate directly with the people on the
land ...
Roberta Blackgoat
PO Box 349
Kykotsmovi
AZ 86039
------------------------------------------
This message was sent to you by
Name: Robert Dorman
Email Address: redorman@theofficenet.com
IP Address: office20.theofficenet.com

--------- "RE: Pauline Whitesinger's Horse Shot by Neighbor" ---------

Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 10:05:18 -0800
From: BIGMTLIST <redorman@theofficenet.com>
Subj: Pauline Whitesinger's Horse shot by neighbor, Not BIA

Mailing List: Big Mountain List <bigmtlist@hotmail.com>

After receiving the first message below, I attempted to get some
confirmation, which came as the second message.

Date: Mon, 03 May 1999 13:24:02 -0600
From: peter kalberer <peterkal@ix.netcom.com>
To: redorman@theofficenet.com
Subject: RE: Shooting of Pauline Whitesinger's Horse

Regarding the shooting of Pauline Whitesinger's horse: I talked two days
ago to her son in law and he said that it was likely more a case of some
distant neighbors doing it because the horse was off for some time
bothering their horses.
Peter Kalberer Albuquerque
--------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 9 May 1999 16:28:13 -0700 (PDT)
From: SWANEAGLE <swanea04@elwha.evergreen.edu>
Subject: RE: Shooting of Pauline Whitesinger's Horse

I received confirmation that it indeed was a neighbor who shot Pauline's
horse. So i have to submit an apology to the BIA Keams Canyon because
I did call them about the incident. It makes it particularly urgent to
keep information accurate as we have enough problems as it is. I am
hoping that with adequate support, witnesses and documentation equipment
that we could avoid further misinformation. I am asking any who can to
help with cameras, camcorders, tape recorders, film, cell phones and lap
tops to keep those of us out there able to document all that we
encounter. Many of those who do go to the land, forfeit any living wage
in order to be of service to the elders. Also tents, camping equipment,
tools, water barrels and heavy duty trucks are needed for the Witness
Camp and to pass on to resisters when the camp is over.
In peaceful struggle,
Swaneagle
Bob, I know Peter to be a good friend of Bob and Bonnie. S
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
You are on the BIGMTLIST, a moderated mailing list of Big Mountain
relocation resistance information (not discussion or debate). To
unsubscribe, email redorman@theofficenet.com with "unsubscribe" in the
subject header. For non-list members receiving this post as a forwarded
message, you may subscribe by emailing redorman@theofficenet.com with the
word "subscribe" in the subject header. For Big Mountain and other
activist internet resources, visit "The Activist Page" at
http://www.theofficenet.com/~redorman/welcome.html
Also, for great internet tools please visit:
http://www.msw.com.au/cgi-bin/msw/entry?id=1271

--------- "RE: Cree Grapple with Future" ---------

Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 22:37:13 -0400
From: Larry Innes <innuenv@web.net>
Subj: News: Cree grapple with future

Mailing List: Innu People Forum list <INNU-L@YORKU.CA>

Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 17:27:21 -0800
From: patrick@irn.org (Patrick McCully)

Crees grapple with future: Truce with Hydro-Quebec leads to new challenges

ERIC SIBLIN, Montreal Gazette
Friday 19 March 1999
With the Great Whale hydro-electric scheme now a distant megaproject memory
and one time arch-enemy Hydro-Quebec acting conciliatory, the Crees of
northern Quebec find themselves facing a new kind of political question:
what do they want?
Masters in the art of opposition, the province's 12,000 Crees have made it
abundantly clear what they do not want, and are not used to framing the
question in positive terms.
But deciding what sort of society they want to build is the main challenge
ahead, says Romeo Saganash, of the Grand Council of the Cree. And that
means wrestling with some philosophical dilemmas which cut to the heart of
Cree identity.
"The problem, finally, is that after so many years of conflict we have
always known what we do not want, but have never really reflected on what
we want for our future," Saganash said in a speech yesterday to Quebec's
electricity industry association. " `What do the Cree want?' will be our
next question."
The need for a constructive position, Saganash said, has been helped by
what he termed a "truce in the conflict" with the Crees' longtime nemesis,
Hydro-Quebec.
Relations between the two parties reached a low ebb when the Crees mounted
an extremely effective, media-savvy campaign against Hydro's ambitious
Great Whale megaproject. The $13.3-billion scheme was ultimately shelved in
1994 by the Quebec government in response to energetic Cree pressure and a
slackening demand in export markets.
Since then, a thaw has taken place between the two combatants. In
Hydro-Quebec's five-year plan unveiled last year, the giant utility said
that for any new project to go ahead, three conditions would have to be
met: economic viability, environmental acceptability and approval from
local communities.
That approach, associated with new Hydro president Andre Caille, has been
lauded by the Cree leadership.
"It's a change of direction in terms of attitude and mentality that we've
seen from Hydro-Quebec in the past. First of all, most projects, if not all
projects, in the territory were undertaken without the consent of the Crees
beforehand," said Saganash, the Cree council's director of relations with
Quebec. "That consent element in the new approach is something that is
worthwhile for us. It is definitely new. And it forces us to take some time
to reflect on what we can do with this new situation."
Part of the new Cree situation involves an influx of 500 young people
entering the job market every year for the next decade, Saganash said.
Whether new jobs will come from tourism, forestry or Hydro-Quebec projects
involving Cree partnership are all options that desperately need to be
worked out in a society where about 30 per cent of people still make a
living from hunting, fishing and trapping.
After delivering a speech to 200 members of the Association de l'Industrie
Electrique du Quebec, Saganash cited economic development in Waswanipi,
where construction of a sawmill two years ago created 75 jobs in a
community of 1,000 people.
"I think more and more we will be seeing that type of development
initiatives taking place in Cree communities. We have no choice."
Yet despite the new climate of relative trust, Cree skepticism will not
dissolve overnight. "Crees and other aboriginal peoples will always be
suspicious, given the historical relations we've had with Hydro-Quebec,"
Saganash said.
"That will still remain for some time."

--------- "RE: Tribes Cultivate Trade Opportunities Overseas" ---------

Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 16:23:08 GMT
From: Randy Ww <lotanna@my-dejanews.com>
Subj: Tribes cultivate trade opportunities overseas

Newsgroup: alt.native

from the Arizona Republic @ http://www.azcentral.com/news/0510mission.shtml
By Betty Beard
The Arizona Republic
May 10, 1999
When Judy Chavarria-Ferreira , a San Carlos Apache, was attending a 1995
international forestry conference in Canada, she repeatedly posed for
pictures for German, French and Japanese delegates.
Foreigners were fascinated by her Native American heritage.
"They're from half a world away, and they heard a lot about us. It makes
you feel good. A lot of people there know a lot about Indians, perhaps
more than in the United States," she said.
Now American Indians are hoping to translate that mystique into profits.
The Intertribal Agricultural Council of Billings, Mont., which
represents 52 tribes, has begun promoting Native American products at
international agricultural trade shows, beginning with one last October in
Paris and another last month in Tokyo.
"We have been incredibly surprised at the interest overseas," said Greg
Smitman, executive director of the council.
"There's a great deal of interest in the whole concept of Indians and
the fact that they are original growers of staples like corn, beans and
potatoes. We sell on that basis.
"Some of the richest agricultural history is in Arizona, with the Pimas
and Tohono O'odhams growing crops for thousands of years. If we can make
that point clear overseas, it will help with the marketing."
The world-famous Pima Indian cotton, for example, was developed in 1908
on the Gila River Reservation as a desert-hardy version of Egyptian cotton.
. Today it's used to make expensive, silky fabrics.
Ardell Ruiz, assistant community manager for the Gila River Indian
Community south of Phoenix, traveled on European trade missions to promote
Gila River products and saw for himself how marketable being an American
Indian can be.
"They're curious. They'd say, 'You really are real.' It seems to add to
the product," he said.
A board member of the Intertribal Agricultural Council, Ruiz said Europe
and Japan could provide renewed markets for tribes struggling to make a
business out of agriculture.
"There's more interest abroad than in the United States," said Ruiz,
although no major sales contracts have yet been signed by foreign
companies.
For example, some tribes that raise durum wheat for pasta are able to
get premium prices abroad, Ruiz said. In the United States, they face
stiff competition from Midwestern farmers.
Chavarria-Ferreira, who is the council's Southwestern outreach
specialist, visits about 100 tribes in the Southwest. What she sees is a
mixture of progressive tribes selling through organized agricultural co-
ops and those lacking phones, computers or even paved roads.
"Many times they don't have push or incentive. They don't know how to
get from A to B," she said.
A big part of the Agricultural Council's work is teaching Native
Americans that their products have value and how to market them better,
especially overseas.
"Most tribes don't market. They just sell. Indians tend to be isolated,"
Smitman said. <Picture: Photo of Gila River Farms Olive Oil>
"We're trying to open new market avenues to increase the value . . . We
hope we'll get more successful at marketing, which is a new thing to us."
In 1995, the council developed a patented logo and two trademarks, "Made
by American Indians" and "Produced in Indian Country." Qualified tribal
businesses use both for free.
Part of the marketing campaign also is to get the word out that American
Indians produce a number of premium products, such as white corn, beans,
wild rice, olives and cotton.
The Gila River tribe grows an especially sweet Valencia orange on land
with well-drained sandy soil with high sodium content and perfect
temperatures.
"Because of the unique climate and methods to grow them, we believe they
can achieve a higher price if they sell to Europe or Japan," Smitman said.
The community also raises olives. At the trade missions, he said
visitors dipped bread into the olive oil to taste it and seemed to like
its distinct flavor.
"I was surprised because Spain produces so much olive oil. They had big
containers. But ours tastes totally different from those of other
countries," Ruiz said.
Arizona's Ak-Chin Indian Community produces pecans that could be sold
abroad, said Leona Kakar, tribal chairwoman. "That would be something we
could market. It's not a perishable that will spoil sitting somewhere."
Exporting agricultural products, of course, is not easy. It's
complicated by regulations, trade wars and the expense of transportation.
The Navajo Agricultural Products Industry in Farmington, N.M., exports
alfalfa, beans and potatoes grown on the Navajo Reservation to Mexico, but
it took a while to learn about fees, regulations, contracts and the need
for trust, said LoRenzo Bates, general manager.
Before NAPI considers exporting to Europe, he wants to make sure the
revenue compensates for shipping costs.
"Right now we have a market in the U.S. We have no problem moving it. If
we are convinced we can make more money in exporting, then we would
definitely do it. But it all comes down to the almighty dollar."
The council also is working to make sure American Indians aren't selling
their products too cheaply.
For example, the Chippewas in Minnesota gather wild rice to sell locally
for about 50 cents a bag, which Smitman estimates is about one-twentieth
the value. Choctaws and other Oklahoma tribes sell beans in bags at local
stands, and Oneidas in Wisconsin sell specialty white corns locally.
"They're not getting the value added with packaging and labels," Smitman
said.
Some products face bigger hurdles than marketing, however. The San
Carlos Apaches raise registered cattle and horses that draw buyers from as
far away as Montana.
Europeans, though, are very nervous about buying American cattle because
of fears of the hormones, antibiotics and steroids used to make the
livestock grow faster and keep them healthy.
But Smitman said this provides American Indians the opportunity to raise
chemical-free beef. Tribes in Oklahoma, for example, have enough land to
let cattle graze and grow naturally instead of being stuffed into feed
lots and pumped with steroids.
"We are not land poor. We don't need 10,000 cows on 40 acres," he said.
Now American Indians are turning to Europe for the respect they've often
been denied in their own country, a move Chavarria-Ferreira considers
ironic.
A Yakima man told her that, as he looked down from an airplane while
flying to Europe, he remembered that it was Europe that produced many of
the early pilgrims to America.
"They came here to find a better way of life, and now we're going there
to improve our lives," she said.
+++
Betty Beard can be reached at betty.beard@pni.com via e-mail or at
1-602-444-7982.

--------- "RE: Elder Couple's Home" ---------

Date: Wed, 05 May 1999 06:56:11 PDT
From: "Lisa LaRue Tennison" <tsiskwa@excite.com>
Subj: Important message...

'Siyo
Could you please post this message on your board???
I appreciate it very, very much
Hedola!
Lisa
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Yesterday was a wonderful day, as several Cherokee gathered and began work
on an Elder Couple's home. The couple is clearly excited, happy and beyond
belief that "someone cares enough to come help us." This is a real
home.....the man was born here 79 years ago and knows no other home. It was
his momma's home.
The house is in need of extreme repair, consisting of major reconstruction
in several rooms. The woman told me she 'was scared when it rain. It rain
inside. It will fall." Sure enough, any more water damage to this house
could be the last rain it will survive. Yesterday, we feel that we were able
to stop any further water damage temporarily.
The reconstruction HAS to be organized and planned out. This is not
building from ground up...it is dealing with a structure that is unsafe and
unstable, and each move has to be done in consideration of other moves.
OUR GREATEST NEED RIGHT NOW: is donations. Not merely monetary, but of
MATERIALS and SUPPLIES.
2 x 4's
4 x 4's
Plywood (lots.....roof AND floors need replaced)
Shingles and felting
Nails
Electrical wire
Insulation
Sheetrock
Paint
Paneling
Used windows (need at least two)
Front Door
(at present, the couple cannot even shut their door)

If you have any of these supplies, or can get them for us, please e-mail.
If you are far away and wish to donate money, please e-mail, too
(daves@intellex.com) and we can work out a way that you feel comfortable
contributing. We will keep all of you who are helping advised of the
progress throughout the summer.
Thank you all for your consideration.

--------- "RE: Grassroots Help Needed for Yellowstone Buffalo" ---------

Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 08:49:31 -0600
From: S. L. Gregerson <susang@wildrockies.org>
Subj: Grassroots effort needs help getting press release out: please
fax/email to appropriate press...Thanks! For Immediate Release: Citizens
join voices to speak out for last wild buffalo

For Immediate Release: May 3rd, 1999
Press Contacts: buffpetition@wildrockies.org
Dave Henderson; Native Youth Alliance; 703.256.4346
Darrel Geist; Cold Mountains, Cold Rivers; 406.728.0867
Jim Coefield; Wild Rockies Information Network; 406.728.5733
Thousands of people from around the nation have declared their disgust
regarding the State of Montana's management of the last wild buffalo herd.
The petition originated on the World Wide Web at
http://www.wildrockies.org/buffpet and received over 400 signatures a day
from around the world. The petition demands that the federal government
remove subsidized cattle grazing allotments on lands outside Yellowstone
Park to make room for the last wild free roaming bison left in the United
States.
Since the mid-1980's more than 3,000 buffalo have been killed by the
State of Montana as they wander onto public lands that cattle graze graze
for only 3 summer months. Recently, Montana's Governor Marc Racicot secured
$500,000 of federal tax monies to carry out their zero-tolerance policy for
buffalo.
"Instead of wasting taxpayers monies, we should look at the real
ecological and economic costs of Montana's buffalo slaughters," is the
message of the petition.
As an example, the petitioners point to Horse Butte just outside of West
Yellowstone, Montana. Horse Butte contains only three cow/calf public
grazing allotments which return less than $800 to the U.S. Treasury. Horse
Butte is prime winter and spring calving habitat for migrating buffalo and
critical for the buffalo's long-term survival.. The DOL may try to press
it's zero tolerance buffalo policy, but the buffalo knows where it wants to
go and they will go there.
"Forest Service lands that have been designated by law for wildlife should
be used for wild buffalo. Public lands were intended for for wildlife and
people- not livestock. Buffalo are wild creatures." said John Waters.
An alliance of citizens, native americans, animal rights, taxpayer and
environmental groups will present the first batch of signatures to Chief of
the Forest Service Mike Dombeck, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt
and President Clinton in front of the Forest Service Building in Washington
DC on May 5th at 11:11 AM.
"It's amazing to see the public outcry from around the country about the
abuse of the power from Montana's Governor Racicot and his speciest
policies," said webmaster Jim Coefield.
The buffalo are not only an important part of traditional cultures and
the ecological stability of the ecosystem, but a heritage for future
generations.
The Press is invited to attend the presentation ceremony. Look for the
teepee outside the Holocaust Museum. The presentation is planned for 11
o'clock on May 5th (Cinqo de Mayo) at the auditors bldg (next to the
holocaust museum) at 201 14th Street, S.W. at Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20024. All are welcome.
___________________________________________________________
Please sign the Buffalo Petition at
http://www.wildrockies.org/buffpet
Together our voices will be heard!
for the buffalo!
---------------------
Pass this on to 96more folks in honor of the 96 buffalo that were
slaughtered this year!
(see death count at http://www.wildrockies.org/buffalo )
There are also addresses of the people responsible for this slaughter on
the "what you can do " page at this site if you would like to write
subsequent letters or faxes.
Video clips and photos and field updates are also at this site.
s l gregerson
post office box 4784
missoula montana 59806

--------- "RE: Tribal Agency Offers Youths Summer Jobs" ---------

Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 08:08:54 -0500
From: berryj@okstate.edu
Subj: (FWD)Indian News 05-07-99
Roger Iron Cloud
FirstNations Listserv
202.358.3252
rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov

Tribal agency offers youths summer jobs and training
c. Tulsa World
5/6/99
The Tulsa-based Oklahoma Tribal Assistance Program has summer jobs and
educational training available for American Indian youths ages 14 to 21.
The qualifying job participants ages 18 to 21 will be paid $7 an hour and
will be eligible to work from June 1 through Aug. 13.
Clerical and landscaping positions are available, as well as new openings,
such as one with the Tulsa Fire Department.
Indian youths ages 14 to 17 will be attending Platt College for six weeks
and Bacone College in Muskogee for one week.
The youths will receive a stipend of $5 an hour for the hours they are in
school.
Part of the school program is designed to help with reading and math
skills. Students also will be able to explore several careers.
Medical assistance, drafting, tourism, commercial art, dental assistants
and CPR classes are available. Summer tuition assistance also is available.
Applicants must have blood certificate cards, proof of residency in the
Tulsa city limits, proof of family income for the last six months and Social
Security cards.
Youths under age 18 also must have a parent or guardian with them at the
time of application.
The agency is located at 2626 S. Sheridan Road. For further information,
call 834-6622 .

--------- "RE: Tribal Vote Picks Pawnee Leaders" ---------

Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 08:08:54 -0500
From: berryj@okstate.edu
Subj: (FWD)Indian News 05-07-99
Roger Iron Cloud
FirstNations Listserv
202.358.3252
rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov

Tribal Vote Picks Pawnee Leaders
By Michael McNutt
c. The Oklahoman
05/04/99

PAWNEE -- Members of the Pawnee tribe, able to choose their officers for
the first time, turned to a former chief to serve the next four years as
their president.
Robert Chapman won a four-year term in a close, three-way race Saturday.
Only 22 votes separated the three candidates.
He succeeds Grover Marshall, who did not seek another term on the council.
Tribal members also voted for the four top administrative officers of the
tribal council. Previously, tribal members voted for council representatives
who picked the tribe's president, vice president, secretary and treasurer.
Election results were posted Sunday at tribal headquarters in Pawnee.
In the race for president, Chapman received 161 votes (36.3 percent),
Elizabeth Blackowl got 144 votes (32.4 percent) and Henry Stoneroad Sr.
received 139 votes (31.3 percent).
Other results were:
- Vice president: Duane Pratt, 255 (57.6 percent); Myron Echohawk, 188
(42.4 percent).
- Secretary: Geraldine Howell, 255 (57.8 percent), Lillie Real Rider
Cummings, 186 (42.2 percent).
- Treasurer: Rebecca Eppler, 244 (55.8 percent); Martha Only A Chief, 193
(44.2 percent).
- 1st Council Seat: Kathleen Salmon Daniels, 238 (54.5 percent), Vance
Horsechief, 199, (45.5 percent).
- 2nd Council Seat: Merton Moore, 248 (56.2 percent); Morris Boscoe Wade,
193 (43.8 percent).
- 3rd Council Seat: Gerrie Marie Echohawk, 235 (53.8 percent); Muriel
Howell Robedeaux, 202 (46.2 percent).
- 4th Council Seat: Ronald J. Rice, 293, (66.9 percent); Wilbur Johnson,
145 (33.1 percent).
The president, vice president, treasurer, 1st council and 2nd council terms
are for four years. The rest are two-year terms.
Protests or recount petitions may be filed until Friday with the Pawnee
tribal election commission.

--------- "RE: Alaskan Tribes Halt Beluga Hunts" ---------

Date: Wed, 05 May 1999 12:59:15 -0400
From: Carol <radred@ix.netcom.com>
Subj: Alaskan Tribes Halt Beluga Hunts To Preserve Their Culture

Alaskan tribes halt beluga hunts to preserve their culture
by Lynda Mapes
Seattle Times staff reporter

While the Makah people in Neah Bay continue to press their hunt of
California gray whales, Alaskan Native whale hunters are banding together
to stand down from hunting beluga whales in Cook Inlet.
At issue in each case is a passionate desire to hold onto a whaling
tradition.
The Makahs say they want to hunt gray whales to renew an ancient tradition
guaranteed by treaty. Some Alaskan Native tribes are refraining from a hunt
of the ghostly white belugas this season for fear of depleting the rapidly
dwindling population.
If the belugas go extinct, the right to hunt them will become meaningless,
Native hunters say.
The beluga population in Cook Inlet has declined 47 percent from 653
animals in 1994 to just 347 today, according to National Marine Fisheries
Service estimates.
Pressures ranging from oil development to boat traffic in the inlet to
sewage from the city of Anchorage are taking their toll on the belugas. But
intense hunting is the most pressing threat.
While Alaskan Native hunters, the only people allowed to kill the whales,
used to take only what they needed to feed their families, commercial
hunters are shooting as many as 25 whales each.
During the past five years, Native people have been moving from their
villages to Anchorage. If they have trouble finding work, they do what they
know in order to provide for their families: They hunt.
Harvest levels have reached 50 to 70 animals a year, said Barbara Mahoney,
biologist in the Anchorage office of the National Marine Fisheries Service.
"That is unsustainable," she said.

Beluga meat, $6 a pound
At least one market near Anchorage sells vacuum-packed beluga for $6 a
pound. It's a big seller with customers seeking the pink muktuk, or
blubber, still attached to its gray and white skin. But no beluga may be
for sale this year.
The hunting season gets under way in May when the belugas return to the
inlet. Hunters use motorboats to corral the whales and then chase them into
the shallows. They are shot with a harpoon attached to a float and then
killed with a gun.
Inexperienced hunters have a tough time aiming from a skiff bouncing over
the water at 25 miles an hour. For every whale harvested, another is often
shot and lost in the silty water.

No rules to the hunt
Until now, the hunt has been unregulated. But the hunters want to change
that. Many Native hunters already have vowed not to take any belugas this
year. Like any voluntary agreement, it's unclear whether all those hunting
commercially will comply.
And the tribes are pursuing new restrictions on several fronts.
One, called the "legislative fix," would outlaw beluga hunting by any
Native except by registration with a Native hunting organization. That
organization, in turn, would set quotas for the number of animals to be
taken in a co-management agreement with the National Marine Fisheries
Service.
Under the agreement, hunters registered with the Native hunting
organization would draw from a hat to determine who gets to harvest a whale
this year.
Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska is putting together legislation on
the restrictions. It could go into effect as soon as this hunting season,
at the request of the hunters.
As part of a slower fix, environmental groups and the state of Alaska have
petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to list Cook Inlet belugas
as endangered.
A listing could be a year away. And even it would be unlikely to stop
hunting. It would only provide a means for the federal government to impose
restrictions on the hunt.
Bowhead whales were listed as endangered in 1972, but the traditional hunt
by the Inupiat people has continued.
Many Native hunters who depend on the beluga want protection as soon as
possible.
"Everyone wants to shut it down," said Joel Blatchford, who is leading a
group of Native hunters to help write the co-management agreement.
"Right now, we would usually be hunting, but we have agreed to stand down.
We will stand down the whole year. That's how much the Eskimos believe in
preserving their food."
The Tyonek people at the northern end of the inlet may be the only Natives
to hunt, possibly as early as next week. But Blatchford hopes to talk them
out of it. He is racing to raise enough money to conduct an aerial survey
of the inlet to show them just how low the whale population is.
Blatchford said he has refrained from hunting since 1994. "I knew what was
going to happen. But no one was listening."

`Big part of our diet'
The whales are 13 to 15 feet long and weigh about 3,000 pounds. They
return to Cook Inlet in late April and stay through the summer. In the
winter they leave, but no one knows for sure where they go.
Ross Schaeffer, who directs a statewide beluga whale organization from
Kotzebue, is working hard to restrict this season's hunt. "I've been
working for three years to bring people together.
"Hunting pressure is stronger and stronger. Some people are making money
off the muktuk they sell. It makes me sad to see people who are not hunting
in the right way," he said.
"There are no controls for Alaska Native subsistence hunting. That is no
problem if you are hunting just for what you need. But people are not
hunting for subsistence. They are hunting commercially, and there's a big
difference."
Schaeffer also gave up hunting beluga years ago to help conserve the
species. "I miss it. It's a big part of our diet."
At most, Schaeffer believes 2 percent of the entire beluga population, or
seven whales, could be taken from the inlet in 1999.

Not like the Makahs
While conservation organizations have proposed an endangered-species
listing for the beluga, the annual kill has not drawn the attention heaped
on the Makahs' proposed hunt.
The Makahs said last year they planned to hunt a California gray whale,
but have yet to do so. Hundreds of stories and dozens of protests later, no
actual hunt is planned.
The Makah whalers continue to train, but no hunt is imminent, said Keith
Johnson, who leads the tribal whaling commission.

Unlike the beluga, gray-whale populations are healthy and growing.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will be sending one of its ships to
Neah Bay this weekend to try to stop any hunt, but as of now has no plans
to stand guard over belugas.
"We are opposed to the beluga hunt. But the Makah are the test case," said
Lisa Distefano of the Sea Shepherd protest group, which is convinced a
Makah hunt will open the doors to commercial whaling worldwide.
Lynda Mapes' phone: 206-464-2736.
Copyright c. 1999 Seattle Times Company
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This material came from the Institute for Global Communications (IGC), a
non-profit, unionized, politically progressive Internet services provider.
For more information, send a message to igc-info@igc.org (you will get
back an automatic reply), or visit their web site at http://www.igc.org/ .
IGC is a project of the Tides Center, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

--------- "RE: Open Letter Regarding the Recent Tornados" ---------

Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 08:07:05 -0500
From: berryj@okstate.edu
Subj: Indian News 05-10-99
Roger Iron Cloud
FirstNations Listserv
202.358.3252
rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov

An from Western Delaware President,
Larry Snake regarding the recent tornadoes.
Special
5/9/99
We, my family and myself made it through the storms OK... I was in Tulsa,
Oklahoma, 130 miles NE of Oklahoma City, attending a conference at the time
of the tornado's beginning and subsequent damage... I spent a good portion
of the night inside the main ballroom of the hotel (Hotel's storm shelter)
because of the storm... I had received a calls from my family to let me know
that they all were all right and not to worry... Their houses were not
damaged by the hail nor the tornadoes...
The tornado's came within a mile of my parents and my brothers homes in
Midwest City, Oklahoma... The tornado's originated about six mile south of
Anadarko, Ok., which is eight miles south of the Delaware Tribal Complex...
They then moved in a East, Northeasterly direction toward Oklahoma City...
Del City, Midwest City are suburbs on the East side of Oklahoma City and
were the hardest hit.
This was the most destructive storm that I have ever seen... The tornado
varied in width from a quarter mile wide to just over three miles wide, with
winds estimated over three hundred miles per hour... It looked like a giant
brushhog had went through the countryside... The devastation is just unreal,
unbelievable.... I saw a lot of the damage on the television but, when I saw
some of the damage in person it put a whole different perspective on the
awesome power of the storm...
Cars were twisted and smashed into the size of large coffee tables... The
grass and trees were sucked out of the ground to where the ground looked
similar to a plucked chicken... Pieces of homes were no larger than a foot
and a half long... There are vehicles in trees, inside of building and
homes, wrapped around trees and poles... Tractor trailers overturned, malls
and motels with only side walls standing, no roofs or upper stories...
Everything looked like it had been through a blender... Trash everywhere...
There are people who lost everything, home, car, clothes, furniture,
outbuildings, everything... Approximately 1500 homes were leveled in the OKC
area alone... Some of the foundations were ripped out the ground also... The
small town of Mulhall, North of OKC about 40 miles, population 260, was
totally wiped out... Only two partial house structures standing... What a
mess!!! It will be a long time before the towns are back to where they were,
if ever...
We are trying to find some tribal members who live in the affected areas..
We have set up a drop off point for clothes, batteries, diapers, pet food,
baby food, non-perishable foods, blankets, pillows, toys, furniture, etc..
for the people who are without. The Tribe and our Gaming facility has given
$2500.00 and have asked that the other Tribes and/or Indian gaming
establishments match or exceed what we are able to give... It is amazing the
turn-out of people who are willing to give and to help... People are coming
from California, Arizona, and other states to help with the high voltage
power lines and with the natural gas lines that are all tore up...
e-mail address is: chief@westerndelaware.nsn.us
Larry Snake

--------- "RE: Cherokee Medal of Honor Awards" ---------

Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 08:07:05 -0500
From: berryj@okstate.edu
Subj: Indian News 05-10-99
Roger Iron Cloud
FirstNations Listserv
202.358.3252
rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov

Cherokee awards salute eclectic group of recipients
By JOHN WOOLEY
c. Tulsa World
5/9/99
The Cherokee Medal of Honor awards presentation may be brand-new, but
it's already got one of its recipients pretty excited.
"Of all the awards I've received, this one probably means the most,
because I'm Cherokee," says Tulsan Jim Halsey, the much-decorated
impresario and music-business veteran. "My mother was Cherokee, and I
know that she would be proud. And the fact that this comes from my
heritage is important to me."
Halsey will join an eclectic group of honorees that includes such
well-known entertainment figures as singer-songwriter Rita Coolidge,
actor Wes Studie and songwriter John D. Loudermilk, as well as arts
patron Alice Timmons and Cherokee National Historical Society founder
Marty Hagerstrand.
"People all across the United States are involved in this," says the
Cherokee Honor Society's Debbie Duvall. "The purpose of it is to
recognize individuals who have brought esteem and prestige to the
Cherokee people. These Cherokee celebrities we're honoring were
available to be with us at this point, and we are also honoring some
Cherokee people who've made their marks locally. All of them make great
role models for our youth."
The other recipients of this inaugural round of awards are
sculptor-artist Bill Glass Jr., opera sing er Barbara McAlister,
actress-producer Valerie Redhorse and actor Tom Allard.
"We've also been in contact with Mr. James Earl Jones," Duvall notes.
"He tried hard to be here, but he couldn't because of a scheduling
conflict. We hope he'll be able to participate at a future date."
The awards ceremony is scheduled for 5 p.m., following the opening of
the Trail of Tears Art Show at the Cherokee Heritage Center at 1 p.m.
and the awards ceremony for the art-show winners at 3 p.m. After the
awards are presented, a barbecue dinner will be served on the grounds.
With well-known musical names like Coolidge, Loudermilk and McAlister
taking part in the event, the question arises: Will any of them be
performing?
"Of course, the honorees will have the opportunity to perform if they
want to, but we're certainly not going to ask them," says Duvall. "We do
know that Barbara is going to be singing the National Anthem and,
probably, `America the Beautiful.' But she volunteered. We didn't ask
her."
They did, however, ask a passel of Red Dirt musicians to play throughout
the day. (The "Red Dirt" designation refers to a loosely knit group of
Oklahoma performers whose roots lie not only in the 1970's Texas
singer-songwriter tradition but run all the way back to Woody Guthrie.)
"A lot of the Red Dirt people are part-Cherokee, and they all write
about living in Oklahoma," Duvall says. "Some of their songs go clear
back to Indian Territory. We felt that they would work well for this."

--------- "RE: Marcos Emerges from Mexico Jungle" ---------

Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 08:07:05 -0500
From: berryj@okstate.edu
Subj: Indian News 05-10-99
Roger Iron Cloud
FirstNations Listserv
202.358.3252
rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov

Marcos emerges from Mexico jungle after 28 months
By Jesus Ramirez
c. Reuters
May 9, 1999
LA REALIDAD, Mexico, - Enigmatic Zapatista leader Subcommander Marcos has
emerged from the Mexican jungle for the first time in more than two years
to denounce what he said was the government's desire for conflict and not
peace in Chiapas.
Smoking his trademark pipe and wearing a black ski mask, the head of an
uprising five years ago to demand Indian rights opened a meeting on
Saturday night in the rebel village of La Realidad.
The government "decided to make war and abandoned all real commitment to
dialogue and a peaceful solution to the conflict," Marcos told around 1,
200 Zapatistas, unionists, teachers, students and human rights activists
gathered in the highlands of the poor, southern state.
The surprise appearance of the commander of the bloody revolt on New
Year's Day 1994 was the first since January 1997, and dispelled rumours he
had died or fled Mexico.
Marcos and his Zapatista rebels have been holed up in the Mexican jungle
on the border with Guatemala since 10 days of bitter fighting in January
1994.
The meeting in La Realidad, 125 miles (200 km) from the Chiapas city of
San Cristobal, was the second such encounter since November and was called
to discuss a non-binding plebiscite on Indian rights held by the
Zapatistas in March.
The government had decided to let the encounter go ahead so long as no
foreigners or armed rebels took part.
On the road to La Realidad, the military set up at least four roadblocks.
. Every car passing through was searched. Soldiers video-taped and
photographed their occupants and jotted down license plate numbers and
names.
In his appearance, Marcos said some 2.85 million people of a nation of
96 million voted in the rebels' nationwide referendum and overwhelmingly
endorsed giving Mexico's 10 million Indians special constitutional rights.
They also agreed the government should respect a peace deal struck with
the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) in February 1996 in the town
of San Andres Larrainzar.
Marcos, who was cheered and flanked by commanders Moises and Tacho, read
a document called "The Zapatistas and Newton's Apple."
In it, he blasted the government, opposition parties and financial
markets for pursuing the "rotten apple of power" as the 2000 presidential
elections approaches.
President Ernesto Zedillo, Marcos said, was "the chief of the ridiculous,
" while the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which has held
unbroken power since 1929, was "a band of criminals."
He said the conservative opposition National Action Party was "trapped
in pragmatism," divided between those who sought deals with the government
and those who wanted to oppose it.
As for the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Marcos said
it moaned it was "a victim of conspiracy but forgets its most painful
blows come from within."
The EZLN military commander noted the Mexican economy was doing well,
boosted by strong inflows of foreign capital into its stock market, which
has risen some 40 percent this year.
"The rapacious and migratory birds of international financial capital
have come back to roost in Mexican lands. but it will only be for a moment,
" he said.
"The economic bubble, which is filling the Mexican financial rats with
such enthusiasm, is inflated by money that expects to multiply itself,
with no regard for the debris its profits will leave behind tomorrow."
After his appearance, Marcos vanished back into the Chiapas jungle.

--------- "RE: Constitutional Conflict at San Carlos" ---------

Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 08:07:33 -0400
From: "Native Americas Journal" <bfw2@cornell.edu>
Subj: Broken Government: Constitutional Conflict at San Carlos

Newsgroup: soc.culture.native

The following article is provided from the Spring 1999 issue of Native
Americas Magazine at http://nativeamericas.aip.cornell.edu
_____________________________________________________________
BROKEN GOVERNMENT
Constitutional Inadequacy Spawns Conflict at San Carlos
By Ian Wilson Record
On election night, they gathered at the front steps of the tribal
administration building in the town of San Carlos, Ariz. From the
districts of Seven Mile, Gilson Wash, Peridot and Bylas they met. Huddling
anxiously as they prepared to praise victory or lament defeat.
The San Carlos Apache perform this ritual convergence every four years,
but last November's gathering bore an especially dire sense of urgency.
Many in attendance held up signs reading "No more corruption," while
others blared slogans of "We've got the power" over a choir of bullhorns.
All were there to cast an exclamation point on what has been the most
difficult period in recent memory for the more than 10,000 Apache who call
the San Carlos reservation home.
This past year, some residents of the San Carlos Apache reservation felt
their home had been transformed into a police state by a tribal government
attempting to maintain the status quo amid allegations of fraud,
embezzlement and harassment. The escalating crisis found the tribal
council struggling to retain control, allegedly overriding constitutional
dictates and due process, targeting anyone who questioned their authority.
These acts revived the deep-seated mistrust many San Carlos Apache have
for the structure, power and reach of tribal government. It also has
prompted an increasing number of people on the reservation to openly
demand a comprehensive overhaul of the tribe's constitution to prevent the
all-too-familiar scene from happening again in the future.
The unrest began in January 1998 after reports surfaced that the tribe
was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, with a budget deficit of more
than $8 million. Despite warnings from tribal chairman Raymond Stanley and
others for immediate action to avoid insolvency, the San Carlos Apache
Tribal Council, standing behind tribal vice chairman Marvin Mull Jr.,
offered no alternatives, vowing the tribe was not going broke.
The council set off a powder keg weeks later when it dismissed a cost-
cutting budget proposal and relieved tribal general manager Jim Burns, the
plan's author, of his duties. The Call To Action committee, formed by
concerned residents seeking government accountability for the tribe's
financial predicament, took over the tribal administration building for a
week, and petitioned for the removal of Mull and all nine council members.
The council responded by ordering the removal of Stanley and several of
the chairman's allies from their tribal positions.
With Stanley politically immobilized, the council, supported by the
tribal police department and a private security force, moved to quash the
Call To Action movement, ordering the repeated arrests of dozens of the
group's supporters on a wide range of criminal charges. When the people
overwhelmingly affirmed Stanley's position in a July recall election, the
council refused to return his administrative authority. Finally, in August,
, the council indefinitely suspended two tribal court judges, selecting
its own replacements instead. The removed judges had drawn the council's
ire for releasing jailed Call To Action members on bail and appointing a
White Mountain Apache judge who restored full executive powers to Stanley.
Stanley's landslide victory over Mull, along with the electoral defeat
of four sitting council members in November's election, seemingly has
caused this latest chapter of civil conflict to at least subside. The
campaign for constitutional reform at San Carlos was building momentum.
There was mounting sentiment that the people of San Carlos could no longer
afford to live under the current system of government, especially
considering the recent troubles and the reservation's long history of
structural instability.
more, http://nativeamericas.aip.cornell.edu
_____________________________________________________________
Reminder: Help us with our "Native Americas in Your Library" campaign.
Please request that your local libraries subscribe to Native Americas.

--------- "RE: BC to Spray Insecticide on Cowichan Band" ---------

Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 21:44:01 -0500
From: sisis@envirolink.org (S.I.S.I.S.)
Subj: BC Plans to spray insecticide on Cowichan Band

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
COWICHAN BAND THREATENS LEGAL ACTION OVER SPRAY
Victoria Times Colonist, May 8, 1999 by Jeff Bell
The Cowichan native band says it will take legal action if this weekend's
aerial spraying of BtK goes ahead as scheduled over its reserve land.
"We're prepared to talk about it, but the starting point is no aerial
spraying," said Vancouver lawyer Robert Bottrell of Ratcliff and Company,
the Vancouver based law firm representing the band in its dealings with the
Forests Ministry.
The band takes the position that the provincial government does not have
the jurisdiction to aerial spray the insecticide BtK over reserve land,
Bottrell said. "We do not approve of the spraying of BtK on our reserve
lands or within our traditional territory," Cowichan Chief Lydia Hwitsum
said in a letter sent to NDP Forests Minister David Zirnhelt earlier this
week. "Pesticide use impacts our health, traditional activities and
environment, and we wish to be involved in any decision to use pesticides
within our traditional territory."
John Ward of the Environment Ministry, which is also involved in the spray
program, said all native groups were offered meetings with program
planners. No one answered a letter sent to the Cowichan band Feb. 11
offering a meeting, he said.
In correspondence with Zirnhelt outlining the band's case, Bottrell said
that the Constitution Act gives the federal government exclusive
jurisdiction to legislate with respect to natives and native land. Bottrell
said the band considers the spraying of BtK from planes "a trespass to its
reserves that is not permitted under the Constitution."
[S.I.S.I.S. note - BtK is a pesticide used to kill the Gypsy moth which
attacks timber]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SOVEREIGNTY IS THE ANSWER - CANADA IS THE PROBLEM
BC NDP Premier Glen Clark : premier@gov.bc.ca
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
S.I.S.I.S. Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty
P.O. Box 8673, Victoria, "B.C." "Canada" V8X 3S2
EMAIL : <sisis@envirolink.org>
WWW: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/SISmain.html

--------- "RE: Help Mendota Now" ---------

Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 21:00:45 -0500
From: JRP <jrp05@GNOFN.ORG>
Subj: HELP MENDOTA NOW! (fwd)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 16:18:00 EDT
Subj: HELP MENDOTA NOW!

Mailing List: Minnesota Indian Affairs <MINN-IND@tc.umn.edu>

Dear Friends,
Yesterday the Amendment was brought to the floor of the Senate, it was to
be attached to Senate bill 1672, there was some argument as whether this
amendment was germane to the bill and it was ruled that it was. Senator
Laidig and Senator Anderson spoke very eloquently about this issue.
Unfortunately the amendment was voted down. We have always known that our
support in the Senate was limited, and the fight now must be switched to
the House of Representatives. The bill which we will try to attach this
amendment to is 1551 in the House, and this bill may be presented any time
from today until the beginning part of next week. We need to switch our
focus to all the Representatives in the house. We need phone calls, emails
ASAP asking for their support Of this amendment which is designed to
protect Coldwater Spring. We feels that we have more support in the House
so hearing from as many people as possible, especially from the people of
Minnesota is very important. We want STATE LAWS TO PROTECT THIS SPRING!,
not just assurances!
The report that was done by the MNDOT consultant Lewis Berger &
Associates, has been submitted to the Minnesota Historical Society, they
how have 30 days starting from last Friday April 30th,to assess and
respond to the report. We also have an opportunity to submit our
materials and research and we are trying to gather this together in a
report from our point of view. You must remember that MNDOT's report only
focused on the four Marker Trees and not on the Sacredness of the whole
area. This was the main focus of our research, written testimony, and oral
testimony. We as a people cannot separate the whole and pick one small
area and say this is not sacred and the rest of it is. All of the land
involved in this area is held by the City of Minneapolis, the State of
Minnesota and the Federal Government, there are no private lands involved
in this fight. This is a unique opportunity for these Governments to
respond to Native American concerns and act with honor and integrity
towards this issue.
Letters of support on our position are requested and can be sent to Mr.
Dennis Gimmestad or Ms. Nina Achabal, State Historic Preservation Office,
Minnesota Historical Society, 345 Kellogg Blvd. West, Staint Paul, MN
55102-1906.
The Coldwater Spring area maybe the last of it's kind in the Twin
Cities, Many Native Americans have left their reservations, like many
rural Americans,because of the lack of opportunity for jobs, housing, and
education and have relocated to the cities. Tp protect this area as it is
would enable all Native Americans, but most importantly our children, who
need to learn to take pride in who they are and where they came from if
they are to be saved from living their lives in poverty, or gangs who
commit crimes, to come together easily for ceremonies, celebrations, and
worship at the Sacred Spring and Trees. These are our cathedrals, and to
relearn the ways which were forcibly taken from us. Finally to heal. We
would like this area preserved as a place of remembrance, and for the
cultural renaissance of our people.
In talking with our lawyers, the only way to continue this fight in the
court systems, would involved deposing,under oath,the people involved in
these assessments,We all think there are many ways to create doubts about
their findings and to show this is a totally biased report. Unfortunately
this could cost between 3000 and 5000 dollars. This would cover the cost
of a court reporter, time and travel expenses, etc. We have a short
period of time to try to raise this money. We are humbly asking for any
help available in raising some of this money.
We will continue this fight, we have not given up! Please remember us
in your prayers and we thank you for your continued support.
Pidamaya,
Love Linda

--------- "RE: Crushing a Culture" ---------

Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 16:06:43 -0500
From: berryj@okstate.edu
Subj: (FWD)Crushing a Culture: US Indian boarding schools

Sunday, April 25, 1999
Crushing a Culture
Through beatings and military discipline, Indian boarding schools once
worked toward a goal: destroying all that was Indian

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
From
http://www.abqjournal.com:80/news/3news04-25.htm
Students listen during a U.S. history class at Circle of Nations School in
Wahpeton, N.D. About 10,000 Native American children are enrolled in
Indian boarding schools today.

By Matt Kelley
The Associated Press
WAHPETON, N.D. -- It was the beating she didn't get that still haunts
Joyce Burr. She and several friends were hiding from a dormitory matron
in the coat room of the Wahpeton Indian School. They peeked from behind
the coats as the enraged matron, herself an Indian, caught up with an
older Chippewa girl named Judy Karvonen.
"That's the worst beating I've ever seen. That woman used coat hangers
and everything on her," said Burr, a Turtle Mountain Chippewa/Oglala Sioux.
"You can imagine not trying to move, trying not to make a sound, when
you're seeing that."
Burr was one of thousands of American Indian children sent to boarding
schools run by the government or by Christian denominations. The coat room
beating was one of thousands administered in the name of keeping order, of
crushing Indian identity, of immersing Indian children in white American
society. Today, about 10,000 Indian children are enrolled in the schools,
though their school mission has changed.
Burr suffered through plenty of thrashings at Wahpeton, where she lived
from 1952 to 1959. Dormitory workers beat her for climbing trees or for
not making her bed quickly enough.
Karvonen became Burr's mentor and protector after Burr's mother died
during her first year away from home. Burr and her friends also were like
sisters to Karvonen, who spent five years at Wahpeton without seeing her
family on the Turtle Mountain reservation. So she never told the matron
where her friends were hiding and never again mentioned the coat-room
beating to her classmates.
"I just withheld everything inside me and wouldn't cry for nobody or
nothing," Karvonen said.
The worst abuse, Burr said nearly 45 years later, came from Indian
dormitory workers who had attended boarding schools themselves.
"They personally took great glee in beating you. Some of them were very
sadistic," Burr said. "... I suppose the same thing happened to them, so
they turned around and did the same thing to us." Tales of misery
For more than a century, tens of thousands of American Indians
surrendered their childhoods at boarding schools like Wahpeton, a prairie
outpost 45 miles south of Fargo.
The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs began opening boarding schools in
the 1870s, joining a parallel system of schools for Indians run by
Christian missionaries.
Federal boarding school enrollments swelled from 6,200 at 60 schools in
1885 to more than 17,000 in 153 schools at the turn of the century. By
1931, nearly one-third of Indian children were in boarding schools, a
total of about 24,000. Enrollments have declined to less than half that
number at 52 federal boarding schools today.
At government and mission schools, the goal was the same: obliterating
all that was Indian.
Former students and boarding school historians say the methods were
often violent and humiliating -- forcing children to eat lye soap for
speaking their tribal languages, cropping their long hair, paddling them
for having Indian medicine bundles.
"We were never going to be like the white man, no matter how hard we
tried, but they forced us to try to be like the white man," said Jo Anna
Meninick, a Yakama. She attended the government-run Chemawa Indian School
in Salem, Ore., in the 1950s.
"They stripped us of our language. They stripped us of our religious
beliefs. They stripped us of our family life, our family values," Meninick
said. "They stripped us from our culture."
Some former boarding school workers say much of the abuse stemmed from
ignorance and overwork. Sister Miriam Shindelar was a dorm attendant from
1967 to 1970 at the Marty Indian School, a Roman Catholic institution on
the Yankton Sioux reservation in South Dakota.
"That first year, I was in charge of 91 high school girls," said
Shindelar, who also taught at the school from 1974 to 1984. "You didn't
have the kinds of time that a family would have. You ended up being
largely a disciplinarian."
Not every school worker was abusive, said Esther Horne, 89, a Shoshone
who taught at Wahpeton from 1930 to 1965.
"There were some people who were harsh on the children, but there were
also a great many others who were very solicitous, creating a happy
environment in the dormitory," she said.
Other boarding school officials approved of the beatings. Phoenix Indian
School Superintendent John B. Brown objected in 1928 when his bosses in
Washington ordered a halt to corporal punishment.
"We deal with a primitive race, with persons who often lack appreciation
of the reasons for good behavior," Brown wrote.
Still, the boarding school story is not just a tale of misery. Some
former students saw the schools as a refuge from poverty, abuse or
abandonment at home. Many say they gained the education and self-control
needed to be successful.
One is Ernie Stensgar, chairman of the Coeur d'Alene tribe in northern
Idaho. He attended the Chilocco Indian School in north-central Oklahoma in
1963-64. "When I went into boot camp in the military, it wasn't too hard
for me, because I had already in a sense been to boot camp," said Stensgar,
who was wounded in Vietnam. Killing the Indian
"Kill the Indian, save the man." That was the motto of Gen. Richard
Pratt, the former commander of an Indian POW camp who founded the first
off-reservation federal boarding school in 1879.
The government bureaucrats and Christian missionaries who molded the
boarding school system had the same idea. Indians must be forced to follow
"the superior methods of the white man," Wellington Rich, the first
superintendent of the Phoenix Indian School, said in 1890.
At the very least, U.S. Indian Commissioner Thomas Morgan said that year,
it was "cheaper to educate Indians than to kill them." A predecessor, Carl
Schurz, had done the math, calculating in 1882 that it cost nearly $1
million to kill an Indian in battle but $1,200 for eight years of
schooling.
So students marched with military-style discipline. They exchanged their
buckskins or calico dresses for neck-to-toe uniforms.
Government boarding schools were particularly harsh, former students say
and government records show. The schools required students to attend
Christian religious services on Sundays and renounce their tribal
religions. Many children were sent into surrounding communities to work
for white families -- the girls as domestic servants, the boys as
farmhands.
In the late 1920s, federal boarding schools fed students thin gruel,
moldy molasses and weak coffee for 11 cents a day, the equivalent of $1
today. Government inspectors in the 1930s cited the Haskell Institute, a
federal boarding school in Lawrence, Kan., for having bathrooms that were
nothing more than a row of chamber pots lined up in a closet.
Classroom instruction took up half the day or less at most federal
schools, with the rest devoted to hard labor. Students kept the schools
running by doing everything from building the buildings to raising
livestock and harvesting crops.
Former students tell of being forced to kneel on bare wooden floors for
hours when they misunderstood commands barked in the unfamiliar English
language. They remember beatings for crying out of homesickness. They
speak of being chained in makeshift jails if they tried to run away.
"We didn't like ourselves because we were Indian," said Meninick, now a
cultural resource officer with the Yakama Nation in south-central
Washington. "We were bad. We were no good. We were uneducated, illiterate.
We were not going to amount to anything."
Some schools banned parents from visiting, lest they infect their
children with tribal culture. Being separated from their families for
months or years meant that many boarding school students never learned how
to be good parents.
"They were very strict. They were very stern. They were very cold," said
Ida Amiotte, 77, an Oglala Sioux. She attended a Roman Catholic boarding
school in Pine Ridge, S.D., in the 1920s and 1930s. "My children always
asked me, 'Why are you so cold? Why don't you hug us?' I said, 'I never
learned how.' "
Boarding school staff also forced students to beat their classmates.
Some schools used the "hotline," in which the offending student was forced
to walk a gantlet of classmates wielding belts or sticks or hairbrushes.
"The girls had to walk the (gantlet) and get the backs of their legs
switched, and if the switcher was too light on the switch, they had to do
it hard.
These girls had legs that were swollen three times their size," said Vi
Hilbert, who attended boarding schools in Washington and Oregon in the
1920s and '30s. Hilbert is a member of the Upper Skagit tribe.
Students died by the hundreds from epidemics, farm accidents and other
causes, said Cleveland State University professor David Adams, an expert
on the boarding school system. Firm numbers are unavailable because many
schools sent seriously ill children home or never recorded student deaths,
he said.
The cemetery at Haskell alone has 102 student graves. Government
documents show at least 500 more students died and were buried elsewhere,
said Charles Haines, a biology professor at what is now Haskell Indian
Nations University.
Some students killed themselves. A graduate of the Marty Indian School,
Glenn Holiday, became a dormitory supervisor there before killing himself
in 1978 in his early 20s, Shindelar said.
"He left a message saying, 'I don't know which world I belong in. Some
of my best friends are white,' " Shindelar said. "He said he was accused
by his friends of being an apple -- red on the outside, white on the
inside. And the struggle was too much for him." 'A national tragedy'
Boarding school conditions improved as government and church policy
gradually shifted away from forced assimilation and enrollments declined.
"It is beautiful, civilized human life we are chopping to pieces at
sizable cost to the taxpayer," reformer John Collier wrote about boarding
schools in 1923. A decade later, Franklin Delano Roosevelt picked Collier
to head the BIA, and Collier tried to ban beatings and improve conditions
at the schools. Later, Indians began running the BIA.
Military discipline at boarding schools was mostly gone by the 1950s.
Schools abandoned most of their hard labor programs by the 1960s. After a
1969 congressional report declared Indian education "a national tragedy,"
tribes got more say in their schools and began introducing aspects of
tribal culture into the classrooms.
Now 35 of the 52 government boarding schools are on the vast Navajo
reservation, an area the size of West Virginia that includes parts of New
Mexico, Arizona and Utah. Nine schools are on other reservations in South
Dakota, Arizona, Washington and Mississippi.
Santa Fe Indian School and seven other federal off-reservation boarding
schools remain: in Wahpeton; Pierre and Flandreau, S.D.; Talequah and
Anadarko, Okla.; Salem, Ore.; and Riverside, Calif.
The off-reservation schools have largely evolved into specialized
treatment centers for troubled Indian youths. Wahpeton is now called
Circle of Nations and is overseen by a tribal school board.
Joyce Burr has returned as superintendent of the school. Karen Gillis,
an Arikara friend who hid with Burr in the coat room, is assistant
superintendent. "We know how it was and how it can be, so we try to do it
right for the kids this time around," Gillis said.
When Burr became superintendent in 1995, she looked up Judy Karvonen and
hired her to oversee the girls' dormitory.
"They (students) seem to bond with you better, since you've been to a
school like this that was more crude and harsh than this is," Karvonen
said. They are among many boarding school survivors working to heal the
hurts. Shindelar led a religious service last year at which Indians and
whites prayed and sang at school sites where abuses occurred. Burr has
enacted strict protections for her students at Wahpeton. "You even
verbally abuse these kids, you're out of here," she said. She dreams of
organizing a conference of healing for adults who were abused in the
Indian boarding schools.
"I guess that hurt never goes away," she said. "I'm 52, and I still feel
it."
Alumni Voices
Reflections of former students at American Indian boarding schools:
ABUSE
"There was one fella (a dorm attendant) that was having mental health
problems, and they sent him to the school to get him out of the way.
Anyway, he would have these psychotic episodes and hear voices, and he
would just come out of his room in the middle of the night and randomly
pick people out and whip them severely for no reason."
-- Peter Campbell, Colville/Coeur d'Alene, who attended two Roman
Catholic boarding schools in Washington and Idaho in the 1950s.
"Our (dorm) matron, she would spank us real hard on the rear -- put us
over this old-fashioned laundry tub and just spank the hell out of us. It
got to the point where it didn't bother us, so she would use her high heels.
She would start slapping your face, hitting us until we cried. We learned
to start crying so she would stop."
-- Ethel Sales, Navajo, who attended a Christian Reformed mission school
in Rehoboth.
"I loved it. I would cry when I had to go home. They were very good to
us." -- Leola Johnston, Choctaw, who attended St. Agnes Academy, a Roman
Catholic boarding school in Oklahoma.
LANGUAGE
"There's an expression in Ojibwe, pronounced hai'. It's like 'too bad,'
showing sympathy. As I was getting off the bus for the first time, I said
that to someone who tripped. I got slapped by the matron, who said, 'You
don't use that language here.' "
-- Jim Northrup, Fond du Lac Chippewa, who attended the Pipestone Indian
Training School in Pipestone, Minn., in the 1940s and 1950s.
"I had a few friends whose family spoke the same language that I did, but
the language had been discouraged for so many years that truly nobody was
speaking it. When we were speaking about something confidential, then we'd
go in a corner and talk the language ..."
-- Vi Hilbert, Upper Skagit, who attended boarding schools in Washington
and Oregon in the 1920s and 1930s and is now a tribal language-preservation
activist.
RELIGION
"I used religion as a way to ask God to help me. They said if you ask God
for anything, he'll help you, so I'd want to talk to God. ... But God never
came. The government won."
-- Jo Anna Meninick, Yakama, who attended the Chemawa Indian School in
Salem, Ore., in the 1950s.
"My mother and father explained to me that I was going into a strange
world. They prepared me very well for the occasion with religion. As I left
home, my mother gave me a pouch of corn pollen. She said, 'Keep this. This
is like your Bible. Someone is going to try to take it away from you, but
this is yours. You keep it, this is your church, your belief.' I kept it.
No one ever took it away from me."
-- Peterson Zah, a former president of the Navajo Nation who graduated
from the Phoenix Indian School in 1958

--------- "RE: Victory for Indian Religious Freedom" ---------

Date: Saturday, May 8, 1999
From: "Joe Bryan" <jbryan@indianlaw.org>
Subj: Devil's Tower Victory

INDIAN LAW RESOURCE CENTER
601 E Street, Southeast, Washington, D.C. 20003
(202) 547-2800 Fax (202) 547-2803

For Immediate Release Contact: Steven J. Gunn (617) 423-0648
-=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=-
VICTORY FOR INDIAN RELIGIOUS FREEDOM:
COURT DISMISSES SUIT CHALLENGING RELIGIOUS
ACCOMMODATIONS AT DEVILS TOWER NATIONAL MONUMENT

Distributed by the
"Indian Law Resource Center"
April 29, 1999
DENVER, CO - In a ruling issued Monday, the United States Court
of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld the National Park Service's
accommodations of American Indian religious practices at Devils Tower
National Monument. Devils Tower, a majestic, 600- foot-tall butte in
northeast Wyoming, is a sacred religious site for American Indians from
over twenty tribes in the Great Plains. It is also a popular location
for technical rock climbing. Since 1995, the National Park Service has
asked rock climbers to voluntarily not scale the tower during June, a
month when Indians travel there to perform sacred religious ceremonies.
The Court of Appeals upheld dismissal of a lawsuit filed by several
rock climbers who argued that the Park Service's actions violate the
Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S Constitution.
This clause prohibits the government from sponsoring, supporting, or
becoming entangled in religious affairs.
The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and four prominent spiritual leaders
intervened in the case as Defendants, represented by the Indian Law
Resource Center, an indigenous rights law firm representing tribes in
North, Central and South America, and attorneys in the Tribe's Legal
Department. Amicus briefs from three American Indian tribes, three
national Indian rights organizations and twelve prominent religious
organizations were filed in support of the Park Service and its
accommodation of Indian religious practices.
The court ruled that the rock climbers did not have standing to challenge
the regulations since they had not shown how they were injured by the
regulations.
"This is an important legal victory for the hundreds and thousands of
Indian people who worship at Devils Tower every year", says Steven
Gunn, an attorney with the Indian Law Resource Center. The Court of
Appeals affirmed the April 2, 1998, ruling of the U.S. District Court
in Wyoming, which also upheld the Park Service's regulations. The
district court had ruled that the regulations are constitutional since
"the purposes underlying [them] are really to remove barriers to
religious worship occasioned by public ownership of the Tower. The
government is merely enabling Native Americans to worship in a more
peaceful setting. In doing so, the government has no involvement in
the manner of worship that takes place, but only provides an atmosphere
more conducive to worship."

Regulations Balance Competing Interests
The Park Service implemented its climbing management regulations
in 1995, after nearly two years of consultation with American Indians,
rock climbers, environmentalists, and others. It did so to balance the
competing interests of Indians and rock climbers, and to encourage
tolerance and respect for Indian religious practices. Most rock climbers
have shown respect for the Indian religious practitioners and have
supported the Park Service's program. The Access Fund, a national
climbing organization, has officially endorsed the program and the Park
Service reports that since 1995, rock climbing at Devils Tower during
June has fallen by over 80%.

Devils Tower Is Vital to Indian Religion and Culture
For Arvol Looking Horse, a member and spiritual leader of the Cheyenne
River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, this ruling is a significant victory.
"Once again, we can worship in our traditional way and practice our
traditional culture without interference at this sacred site."
Devils Tower is a sacred site and a vital cultural resource for Indians
>from over twenty Plains tribes. For centuries, Indians have performed
religious and cultural ceremonies there, including the Sun Dance,
sweat lodge rites, vision quests, and prayer offerings. These ceremonies
continue today. However, in recent years, growing numbers of visitors
and rock climbers have disrupted the ceremonies. According to Looking
Horse, "Climbers make lots of noise and come near our people when they
are praying. By doing this, they disturb our efforts to obtain spiritual
guidance. When climbers hammer objects into the butte, it is like they
are pounding stakes into our bodies."

Ruling Upholds American Tradition of Religious Tolerance
"There is a long and principled tradition in this country of accommodating
religious practices on government lands," says Gunn. In many national
parks, the National Park Service owns or leases churches and other
religious properties. The government permits groups to conduct religious
services on these properties, and it prohibits recreational or other
activities that would conflict with the religious services. "Time and
again, the Supreme Court has said that the government 'follows the
best of our traditions' when it 'respects the religious nature of our
people and accommodates . . . their spiritual needs,'" says Gunn.
"These American traditions must be upheld for our country's first
Americans, too."
-=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=-
For More Information, contact Steven J. Gunn, an attorney with the
Indian Law Resource Center. He can be reached at (617) 423- 0648,
extension 134, or (617) 730-4351. Additional information including the
text of the decision is also available. URL: http://www.indianlaw.org
Distributed by the Indian Law Resource Center
email: mt@indianlaw.org URL: http://www.indianlaw.org

--------- "RE: Violation of Prisoner Rights" ---------

Date: Sat, 08 May 1999 18:56:27 +0400
From: valerie@emirates.net.ae
Subj: Violation of Prisoner Rights

Greetings Gary,
Would you please post the following which concerns an earlier request for
help by American Indian prisoners at Wasco State Prison in California.
Their original message was posted in the 8 April edition of Wotanging Ikche,
by Frank Blazquez.
In response to the above posting, I wrote to Joe Gallagher, the
spokesperson for the group, requesting that he outline exactly how his/their
religous rights are being violated, so potential supporters would have a
clearer picture of what was going on in this facility. With Joe's
permission, I'm forwarding excerpts from his letter, which readers may find
interesting. Hopefully, people on the outside will query the warden on his
actions and force some kind of accountability.
(Apologies for length.)
Valerie

EXCERPTS FROM JOE GALLAGHER'S LETTER:
...First of all, I'll start with a list of what the prison is doing to not
allow my religious material as well as people of many different faiths.
1. We aren't allowed to receive in the mail, religious books, literature,
or publications. I've even been denied legal publications (Prison Legal
News).
2. I've been denied access to write to 'prison pen-pal' programs.
3. My appeal "rights" are being taken for appeal "abuse". The prison
claims I've filed too many appeals. (How can this be?)
4. We're not allowed religious medallions, book catalogs or political
literature.
5. No appeals have been answered in a positive way - merely sent back
unanswered.
6. No access to law library. No access to current phone books (for
lawyers' addresses) or D.O.M.
7. No access to legal materials.
8. Requests for interviews unanswered.
9. Not allowed 15 days to appeal mail rejections. (Were allowed 15 days to
appeal, but instead our mail is sent back the next day and not reviewed
by captain.)
10. Not allowed religious ceremonial tools.
11. I've been placed in a housing unit where all privileges are taken,
because "I'm disruptive to the group" for standing up for our religious
rights.
12. My cell is searched, sometimes twice a day.
13. Warden refuses to see me.
14. Confidential legal mail is opened without me present.
15. Not allowed to practice my religion, for I don't have proper ceremonial
tools or books.
16. Since I've bought most of my material through the mail, I'm losing money
and stamps daily.
17. I'm not allowed anything without approval, and I've yet to have anything
approved. (Letter from warden provided.) ...

... My concern is that if the prison can do this to me, what is next? I'm
doing all I can to get into court. I've got the following two civil cases
going:

1. CU 99-03842 (case number)
US District Court, Central District of California

2. HC 006614 (case number)
Kern County Superior Court of California

... All I want is my constitutional rights. I'm making a serious effort to
obtain any and all help for those of us of "non-mainstream" religions. All
prisoners here are supportive and hope to get our rights to practice any and
all religions. All faiths are being denied certain rights. I am grateful
that you are on our side, and would appreciate people contacting the warden
concerning the violations going on here.

R.L. Candelaria
P.O. Box 8800
Wasco, CA 93280
Phone: (661)758-8400

... It's so important to understand that our constitutional rights should be
upheld. If prisoners' rights are not honored, "free" people are subject to
the same restrictions and violations. It's only a matter of time before
Uncle Sam takes citizens' rights. ...

... You can purchase certain subscriptions only to have them never arrive.
Try to speak out on issues and they will take your appeal rights. I've
filed numerous appeals, only to be told I was abusing the appeal process -
told I could only appeal once a week. Yet the form says "inmates can appeal
any action that has an adverse affect on us". Then I get told I could
appeal no more! How do you exhaust your remedies if you're not allowed to
appeal staff actions? ...

... The law "librarian" screens ALL evidence, reads ALL legal work, and
approves or disapproves legal evidence to be copied or not. She tried to
read my CASE. She read all my evidence and refused to let me make legal
copies at my own expense. Legal work is supposed to be confidential. So
then she called her boss and told him to come "screen" my evidence - tipping
my "hand". ...

... I'm in prison for violating the law, yet my captors continue to violate
the law they are employed to uphold. Their own rules are violated. I ask
no special treatment - only fairness to worship my Gods and learn. ...

For those interested in helping, Joe can be contacted at the following
address:
Joe Gallgher #H-59705
F-A-4-124U
P.O. Box 4400, W.S.P.
Wasco, CA 93280

--------- "RE: Canadian News re Leonard" ---------

Date: Thu, 06 May 1999 18:25:12 -0400
From: not@inthe.game (justanoldman)
Subj: Canadian news re Leonard.. finally!

Newsgroup: alt.native

d'laan'te'...
Our battle to get the government of Canada to do the right thing by
Leonard Peltier has finally drawn first blood!!! (ref article in addendum)
The war is far from won though, so please..! Re-double your efforts to get
the Canadian end of the horror inflicted on Leonard Peltier exposed!
Together we can lift the rock & expose the slime that perpetrated this
atrocity & those who continue to cover it up.. Truth will prevail!!
Call/fax/email/visit the nearest Canadian embassy, consulate, trade
mission or other representative branch.. Tell them that the report on
Leonard Peltier's illegal extradition from Canada is STILL not made public
& let 'em know how you feel, not just what you think of such cover-up!
Please do it soon, & as often as you can afford the time-etc..
Leonard has given over 23 years of his life for a commitment for your
rights... I ask that you consider committing a few minutes of yours for
his rights in the spirit of all our relations...
The Minister of Justice now seems to have some vague idea about who
Leonard Peltier is now, although it took all tens of thousands of msgs
flicking her switch to get the bulb to flicker. (Ann McLellan is not known
for being fast on her feet.. a couple of bricks short of a full load, know
what I mean..?)
So here she finally admits that there is a report.. Wow! Almost 1 year to
the day since she was asked about it. (ref Hansard, 11 May 1998) And now
someone's read it & made the blunder of reporting what's in it. And what's
in it, after that "thorough analysis" by the Minister's "diligent
professional advisors"..., is exactly what the govt of the USA submitted
in their "Respondent's Factum" (verbatim!) as submitted to the Supreme
Court of Canada on 12 June, 1989. ALL of the "other proof" is, & always
have been, demonstrably false & inadmissible. All of it. There IS no
"other evidence".
In short, those "diligent professional analysts" demonstrated a complete
analytical incompetence that comes suspiciously close to gross negligence
in the performance of their duty, made especially horrific in this case,
where the freedom of a wrongfully incarcerated human being is concerned.
[Hmm.. couldn't be that they're just a tad, er, "ethnically biased", could
it? Or is that "ethically challenged"? Probably just plain lazy.. ]
As well, there is the matter that this is a Liberal Party government in
power. The same gang that were in when Leonard was busted & illegally
extradited. And it has recently come to my attention that the infamous
"Poor Bear Affadavits" fabricated by the FBI & then fraudulently submitted
to a Canadian court to secure Leonard's extradition were written, in whole
or in part, by a lawyer working for the Minister of Justice of Canada one
fine February day of 1976 at the FBI office at Rapid City SD. This
lawyer's name is Paul Halprin.
An official of a Liberal Party govt Minister, an officer of The Crown,
fabricating evidence, then fraudulently submitting that false evidence to
a Canadian court.... Hmmm...?
So yes, Madame Minister McLellan! Bring on that report! Give the world
the targets we've been after, what we need to show your
somewhat-less-than-brilliant cover-up, & that of your "senior professional
analysts" with this fine example of their "astute skills of analytical
review"!!
What a great demonstration of how insidious racism is. Were Leonard
Peltier the scion of the "right sort of people", he'd never have been
allowed to suffer a day, let alone over 23 years... Some review.. Some
Minister..
So let's celebrate this small victory folks, but the war is far from
over, while Leonard remains far from home. Please act NOW!

masi:cho...
jaom/e'ne'thekwe'
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
No evidence of lies in Peltier case - minister
STEPHEN THORNE
OTTAWA (CP) - There is no evidence anyone lied in hearings supporting
the extradition of native activist Leonard Peltier on charges he murdered
two FBI agents in North Dakota, Justice Minister Anne McLellan said
Wednesday.
And even without the controversial testimony, McLellan told the justice
committee other evidence overwhelmingly supports a decision to send
Peltier back to the United States, where he is serving two consecutive life
terms.
"The review . . . does conclude that there is no evidence of any fraud in
the extradition process," said McLellan, who promised to soon release the
review conducted by her predecessor, Allan Rock.
"I want to make it absolutely plain here today that the review further
concludes that without the (controversial) affidavits there was sufficient
evidence to justify extradition."
Peltier, one time head of the American Indian Movement, was convicted of
first-degree murder in the 1975 shooting deaths of two FBI agents.
The pair were initially wounded as they searched for a robbery suspect on
the Pine Ridge Indian Reserve near the legendary Wounded Knee, then shot
dead. Peltier has consistently denied he killed the men.
Peltier's case has become an international cause celebre, garnering
support from the likes of former South African Bishop Desmond Tutu, actor
Robert Redford and a host of other celebrities.
Peltier fled to Alberta after the murders. He was extradited a year later.
U.S. officials have acknowledged that some evidence used to win Peltier's
extradition was tainted, particularly an affidavit given by a woman, Myrtle
Poorbear, who said she saw him pull the trigger. She later recanted.
"Leonard Peltier was not extradited on the basis of an alleged fraudulent
affidavit," McLellan told B.C. Reformer John Reynolds on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court of Canada refused leave to appeal the case. Since then,
a witness known only as Mr. X told author Peter Mathiesson he killed the
agents in self-defence.
Rock ordered a review of Peltier's extradition in 1995. The project was
completed in 1996 but the content of the document was protected under
laws prohibiting release of communications between governments.
McLellan said the United States government gave Canada permission to
release the mat