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.
"There is no longer any need to shoot down Indians in order to take away
their rights and lands. Legislation and the combination of three
forces, our own attorneys, the Indian Claims Commission and the Indian
Bureau, does the trick legally."
__ Mrs. Josephine Mills, Shoshone
+- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+
| Indian Pledge of Allegiance | The Indian Pledge of Alleg-
| | iance was first presented
| I pledge allegiance to my Tribe,| on 2 December '93 during the
| to the democratic principles | opening address of the Nat-
| of the Republic | ional Congress of American
| and to the individual freedoms | Indian Tribal-States Relat-
| borrowed from the Iroquois and | ions Panel in Reno, NV. NCAI
| Choctaw Confederacies, | plans distribution of the
| as incorporated in the United | Indian Pledge to all Indian
| States Constitution, | Nations.
| so that my forefathers |
| shall not have died in vain | Walk in Beauty! Night Owl
+- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+
+- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+
| Journey | In the summer and early fall
| The Bloodline | of 1998 the Treaty Unity Riders
| | rode a thousand miles on horse-
| For all that live and live by law | back, carrying a staff and
| We Stand, we Call, We Ride | praying each step of the way.
| For All that fear and fear by sight |
| We Hear, we Listen, we Ride | These prayers were offered for
| For all that pray and pray by strength| each of us, and that the Unity
| We Feel, we Move, we Ride | of all Peoples might happen.
| For all that die and die by greed |
| We Hurt, we Cry, we Ride | Tatanka Cante forwarded this
| For all that birth and birth by right | poem on behalf of all the Unity
| We Smile, we Hold, we Ride | Riders that we might stop and
| For all that need and need by heart | ask if the next words we say, the
| We Came, we Went, we Rode. | next act we make is for the good
| | of the People or is it from ego
| Treaty Unity Riders | for self.
+- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+
O'siyo Brothers and Sisters!
Only a handful of weeks ago people from the four directions walked 507
miles for the buffalo of Yellowstone National Park. What many of you
may or may not know there has since been a court decision about the Montana
Department of Livestock's buffalo slaughter policy.
Those who hoped to stop Montana's policy lost their case in the Circuit
Court of Appeals. That ended the whole issue legally. Montana can shoot
them, it's legal. However, it is summer. The buffalo no longer have a
need to wander out of the park and onto trust lands for survival. The
DOL will stop the killing as it has each summer since the slaughter began.
People will forget until next Winter.
Many elders from many nations tell us the People and the Buffalo are
so closely linked as to be one. This week I received a letter from a man
I trust absolutely who tells me some who have painted themselves as
protectors of the buffalo prevented a friend and him from feeding the herd,
saying that feeding them would "domesticate" them! They weren't domesticated
when these same men fed them last year! They were then warned that if they
persisted they themselves would be shot.
Remember this. The prophecies tell us of this greater division of the
First Nations, but warn that we must come together for all of mankind.
Set aside personal agendas. Seeking wealth at the expense of your
neighbor, drawing attention to your deeds, setting yourself above others,
failing to help others less fortunate because it inconveniences you, are
all agendas.
The signs seem so clear, it's hard to understand how anyone who knows
the prophecies could miss them. It's harder to understand how anyone
who knows what those prophecies foretell could possibly dare put their
own immediate gratification ahead of the People. But some of us will.
Only you can know if your path follows the red road or the blue one.
Peace! Night Owl
, , Gary Night Owl gars@netcom.com
(*,*) P. O. Box 672168 gars@nanews.org
(`-') Marietta, GA 30217, U.S.A. gars@igc.apc.org
===w=w== Fax: 770-528-9643
----------- News of the people featured in this issue ----------
- Our Land Is Our Future - NA Tree of Life
- First Nation Bands - Ramsey Muniz Defense
and Corporate Cooperation Committee News
- Religious Intolerance in the U.S. - Navajo Nation and Means
- Hopi Medicine Man - Justice and Freedom
- San Carlos Tribe Files Lawsuit for Leonard Peltier
- Amoco/Southern Utes Unite - Atlanta Benefit Concert/
- BIA Trust Cleanup is Promised Book Release for Leonard
- Ex-Choctaw Chief - Native Prisoner
Wants Case Reversed - Pieces of Pottery
- For Native Americans - A Hundred Years Ago
a Louder Voice - Poem: Our Temples Now Lost
- Cherokee Tribal Stability - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days
Tied to Vote - Flint River Cleanup
- Indian Schools Battle Problems - Sheep is Life
- Teacher Files Suit in Mexico - Upcoming Events
- A Pox on Both Their Houses - Native America Calling
--------- "RE: Our Land Is Our Future" ---------
Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 17:26:12 -0700
From: "S.I.S.I.S." <SISIS@envirolink.org>
Subj: UBCIC on FTA/WTO: "Our Land Is Our Future"
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
NOTE: Please send any comments or inquiries about this post to the original
sender, <mstrand@citizen.org>, *not* S.I.S.I.S.
------Forwarded message------
Date: Sun, 9 May 1999 13:08:32 -0400 (EDT)
From: Margrete Strand-Rangnes <mstrand@citizen.org>
Here is the presentation that the Union of BC Indian Chiefs made
to the federal Standing Committee on the WTO and the FTAA.
OUR LAND IS OUR FUTURE
UNION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA INDIAN CHIEFS
FOUNDING HEAD OFFICE
VANCOUVER OFFICE
335 Yellowhead Highway
5th Floor,
342 Water Street
Kamloops. B.C. V2H 1HI
Vancouver. B.C. V6B 1B6
Tel: (250) 828-9746
Tel: (604) 684-0231
Fax: (250) 828-0319
Fax: (604) 684-5726
Email: ubcic@bc.sympatico.ca
UNION OF B.C. INDIAN CHIEFS
PRESENTATION TO THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE
BY CHIEF STEWART PHILLIP, PRESIDENT
Vancouver: April 26, 1999
"Our unsurrendered Aboriginal Title is a barrier to trade; our
unsurrendered right of Self Determination is a barrier to trade.
Any initiatives which are designed to exploit or further
commercialize our lands and resources require our full and
informed consent both at International law, and in domestic
Canadian law. Until Canada obtains this consent, it is not in a
position to enter into any international trade agreements."
Introduction:
Indigenous Peoples are paying the price for the regionalization,
nationalization and internationalization of our Lands and
Resources. The consequences of the current international trade
initiatives on Indigenous Peoples will be severe.
Our People tell stories of enduring horrific conditions of
poverty within their communities as they helplessly watch as the
wealth and richness of the land flows out of our territories.
More money flows out of our territories in one load of logs,
harvested without our consent, than a family of four relying upon
social assistance receives in one year.
Loads of timber; rivers and lakes dammed to produce
hydro-electric power; tons of salmon and other marine resources
being sent to foreign markets. As Indigenous Peoples we are the
original owners of the Land and Resources, but you would never
know it to see the poverty that our people live in.
"The Land is the People, and the People are the Land":
All issues concerning Aboriginal Title territories, including
Lands, Waters and Resources are crucially important to Indigenous
People. Our philosophy tells us: "The Land is the People, and the
People are the Land". Since time immemorial our Peoples have been
intimately connected to the Land. Our Cultures, Languages,
Political Organizations and Spiritual and Economic well-being all
flow from our relationship to the Land. Without our strong
connection to, and responsibility for, the Land, our Peoples
would cease to exist. This connection to the Land is our
Aboriginal Title.
It is our Aboriginal Title, and therefore the very survival of
our Peoples, which is threatened by the international trade
initiatives that Canada is considering.
For the membership of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, who have
not signed any treaties nor sold our Aboriginal Title territories
to Canada, our Aboriginal Title and Jurisdiction remains. Until
we voluntarily sell or cede our interest in our Aboriginal Title
Lands to the federal Crown, Canada does not have the jurisdiction
or legal right to purport to grant any interests in our Lands to
any third party (including individuals or foreign corporations).
Current International Trade Initiatives:
Canada is contemplating entering into international trade
agreements and protocols which will ensure that foreign investors
have guaranteed access to our Lands and Resources. It is the
view of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs that Canada will use
international trade agreements and protocols to condone the
legalized theft of our Lands and Resources, and denial of our
Right of Self Determination.
Canada, in practice, has not recognized the Aboriginal Title of
the original inhabitants of this land, and does not recognize the
Nation to Nation relationship which exists between Indigenous
Peoples and the Crown. Canada has never honoured
- our inherent right of Self Determination;
- our Aboriginal Title to the lands, waters and resources which
comprise our traditional territories; nor,
- our international status as peoples.
Canada has proceeded as thought it has the unilateral authority
to enter into these trade agreements without the consent of
Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous Peoples have not been informed
nor consulted about these international trade initiatives.
Aboriginal Title has been treated as though it were invisible, as
though it does not exist.
The Supreme Court of Canada, in the Delgamuukw decision (December
11, 1997), made it abundantly clear that our legal interest and
title to the lands and resources exists and is on par with Crown
title. This means that Canada has no unilateral power to grant or
vest any interest in our Aboriginal Title lands without our full
participation and consent.
The International trade initiatives may override Section 35 of
the Constitution Act, 1982 which constitutionally protects
Aboriginal Title and Rights. By granting an automatic interest in
our lands and resources to foreign companies and interests, these
international trade initiatives will recognize more rights to a
C.E.O. sitting in a foreign metropolis than to Indigenous Peoples
who are intimately connected with and depend upon the Land and
its resources. A major focus of the current initiatives being
considered by the Standing Committee on International Trade is to
eliminate the "barriers to trade" at an International level. Our
unsurrendered Aboriginal Title is a barrier to trade; our
unsurrendered right of Self Determination is a barrier to trade.
Any initiatives which are designed to exploit or further
commercialize our lands and resources require our full and
informed consent both at International law, and in domestic
Canadian law. Until Canada obtains this consent, it is not in a
position to enter into any international trade agreements.
Current Canadian and B.C, Trade Policies and Practices:
Under the current trade laws which Canada and the provinces
operate under our Aboriginal Title and Rights have been under
attack. Within British Columbia, to use one example, the
provincial government has increasingly off-loaded and granted
interests in our lands and resources to third party developers
without our consent. Initiatives such as the permitting of
nontimber forest products and marine resources, and the
streamlining of Crown lands acquisitions policies, all have the
impact of minimizing our interests in our title territories.
Provisions of the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement
(FTAA) would give corporations the power to sue national
governments where domestic legislation restricts trade. At
present, Canada's domestic laws do not go far enough in
protecting Lands and Resources, and are entirely silent about
protecting Aboriginal Title, Rights and Jurisdiction..
Through the FTAA, Canada might be placed in the position of
compensating foreign investors where Canadian environmental
legislation or other policies (perhaps the recognition of
Aboriginal Title or Rights) limit investment opportunities.
Despite years of unauthorized taking of our Lands and Resources
Canada has not once compensated Indigenous Peoples for the
infringement of our Lands and Resources.
Canada has still not recognized our Aboriginal Title. Will this
recognition be precluded under the new investment and trade
agreements? The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs believe that foreign
companies could sue Canada for recognizing our Title and Rights
to specific Lands and Resources. Certainly, recognition of the
Jurisdiction of Indigenous Peoples would leave Canada open to
liability where international companies feel this interferes with
their free and easy access to Resources.
The result of the international trade agreements will be to
restrict and limit Canada's current recognition of Aboriginal
Title and Rights, and to, in effect, "tie Canada's hands" towards
any future broader recognition of our Right of Self Determination
and Aboriginal Title.
For practical purposes, the international trade agreements will
give Canada a means of side-stepping our Aboriginal Title and
Rights by recognizing economic interests of foreign interests
before and above our Constitutionally protected Aboriginal Title
and Rights.
These trade policies will only serve to further disconnect our
Peoples from the Land and Resources by granting an interest in
the Waters, Lands, Forests, Minerals, Plants, Fish and Animals
which sustain us, to Companies and investors who have never set
foot upon our soil, who have never sustained and taken care of
the Land, who have no interest in the Land aside from the money
it can provide to them. The only way that these foreign entities
can acquire an interest in our Lands and Resources is if Canada
sells out our People and negates its fiduciary responsibilities
by entering into these international trade agreements. As the
Standing Committee on International Trade you have the power to
prevent this.
International Law:
The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs is very concerned about the
blatant hypocrisy which Canada has displayed in the International
arena. There are international covenants in place which recognize
the right of Self Determination for Indigenous Peoples, and
recognize that the theft of land equals genocide for Indigenous
peoples who are closely connected to the Land. Canada has fought
recognition of Indigenous Nations as "Peoples" Internationally,
and has not implemented or honoured the rights of Indigenous
Peoples at International law; And yet, Canada seeks to use
international agreements in an attempt to further their claims
against our Lands and Resources:
Special Rapporteur, Miguel Alfonso Martinet, in his Study on
treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements between
States and indigenous populations' to the United Nations called
this "a process of retrogression" through which Indigenous
peoples have been deprived of (or saw greatly reduced) three of
the four essential attributes on which their original status as
sovereign nations was grounded, namely their territory, their
recognized capacity to enter into international agreements, and
their specific forms of government. Not to mention the
substantial reduction of their respective populations in many
countries around the world, due to a number of factors including,
assimilationist policies. (at 22)
The Special Rapporteur lists the ways that colonizing powers,
including Canada, undermine Indigenous Nations by divesting
Indigenous Peoples of their "sovereign attributes, especially
jurisdiction over their lands, recognition of their forms of
societal organisation, and their status as subjects of
international law." (at 23)
Until Canada honours and fully implements International covenants
recognizing the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Canada is not in a
position to enter into any international agreements on trade
concerning our Lands and Resources.
Summary:
Without surrender, without consent, Indigenous Peoples will never
support any international trade initiatives which grant interests
in our Lands and Resources to foreign entities. If Canada's goal
is to increase certainty and economic prosperity for Canadians
entering into these agreements without the consent of each and
every Indigenous Nation whose title territories will be affected
is not the way to achieve this.
No matter how many international agreements or protocols Canada
signs, the resources will still have to be taken out of our
backyards and we will not allow this to happen. Our people are
prepared to take a stand to prevent any further destruction and
degradation of our territories. Canada is not acting honestly
within the international community if it pretends that it has the
jurisdiction and legal authority to unilaterally enter into trade
agreements concerning our lands and resources without our
consent.
Recommendations:
1. Until the Land Question is fully resolved to the
satisfaction of Indigenous Peoples, Canada is not in a position
to enter any International Trade Agreements concerning the
unceded Aboriginal Title territories and Resources within British
Columbia.
2. Any trade agreements or protocols that Canada enters into
must be made explicitly subject to the Aboriginal Title and
Rights of Indigenous Peoples who hold Title, Rights and
Jurisdiction to the Lands and Resources.
3. Indigenous Peoples are Nations in an international sense
and no agreements or protocols that Canada enters into absent our
consent can over-ride our Nationhood and right of Self-Determination.
4. All Land use and Resource extraction initiatives require
the full and informed consent of the Indigenous Peoples whose
territories are involved before proceeding. All development must
proceed in concert with Indigenous Peoples' own laws and
traditions relating to the protection of the Land, Waters and
Resources.
5. Any international trade agreements must contain provisions
for the explicit recognition of the Jurisdiction of Indigenous
Peoples, and that Indigenous Peoples' own laws cannot be
overridden by any international trade agreements that Canada
enters into, and foreign companies must agree to the application
of Indigenous Peoples' laws as a precondition to any developments
on our territories.
6. All international trade agreements must contain provisions
which recognize the right of Indigenous Peoples to benefit
culturally, as well as economically, from any developments on our
Title territories.
7. The United Nations, or other international bodies, be invited
to send permanent representative to Canada to ensure that the
Title and Rights of all Indigenous Peoples are respected and
honoured despite any international trade agreements that Canada
is currently party to, or may enter into in the future.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes.
Margrete Strand Rangnes
MAI Project Coordinator
Public Citizen Global Trade Watch
215 Pennsylvania Ave, SE
Washington DC, 20003 USA
mstrand@citizen.org
202-546 4996, ext. 306
202-547 7392 (fax)
To subscribe to the MAI Listserv send an e-mail to
mstrand@citizen.org, or subscribe directly by going to our
website, www.tradewatch.org (Please indicate organizational
affiliation if any, and also where you found out about this
listserv)
Search the MAI-NOT & MAI-INTL archives at
http://lists.essential.org/
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
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: First Nation Bands and Corporate Cooperation" ---------
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 15:30:16 -0500
From: sisis@envirolink.org (S.I.S.I.S.)
Subj: Band council/corporate cooperation in forestry
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
FIRST NATION BANDS TO WORK WITH LOUISIANA-PACIFIC
Canadian Press, May 5, 1999
[S.I.S.I.S. note: The following mainstream news article may contain biased
or distorted information and may be missing pertinent facts and/or context.
It is provided for reference only.]
FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. (CP) -- Local aboriginal bands say they will work
hand-in-hand with Louisiana-Pacific to manage the four new forestry
licences acquired by the company. An agreement between the company and the
bands will promote First Nations participation in environmentally
sustainable forestry practices that will take into account treaty and
aboriginal rights, the Treaty 8 Tribal Association said in a news release.
"This 20 year agreement proves once and for all that forestry companies
and First Nations can work together to maintain multiple uses of our forest
resources," said Saulteau First Nations Chief Stewart Cameron. "Not only
does the L-P agreement provide over 500 new employment opportunities for
all the residents in the Peace, but for the first time it gives a
meaningful opportunity for First Nations to give their input at every stage
in forest management and development planning."
Many bands are concerned about forestry companies drawing up five-year
plans without consulting with bands. The agreement with Louisiana-Pacific
and Treaty 8 bands intends to involve aboriginal communities from the
start.
Liza Wolf, chief of the Dene Tsaa Tse at Prophet River, said she hopes
other forestry companies will follow Louisiana-Pacific's example. "We have
skills and valuable traditional knowledge to contribute."
The Doig River First Nation is also involved in the agreement.
(Alaska Highway News)
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
SOVEREIGNTY IS THE ANSWER - CANADA IS THE PROBLEM
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed
a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only.
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
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: Religious Intolerance in the U.S." ---------
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 22:50:06 -0800
From: BIGMTLIST <redorman@theofficenet.com>
Subj: Dineh (Navajo) in the News
Mailing List: Big Mountain List <bigmtlist@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 23:00:15 EDT
From: DINETAH29@aol.com
Dear Big Mountain Supporters,
This article appeared on the front page of the Navajo-Hopi Observer on
May 5, 1999. The Navajo-Hopi Observer is a weekly paper.
Posted by,
Marsha Monestersky
Consultant to Sovereign Dineh Nation
Navajo -Hopi Observer
Wednesday, May 5, 1999
"Religious Intolerance in the U.S."
NEW YORK, (New York)-Peggy Francis Scott, Leonard Bennally and Kee
Watchman were among those who presented oral statements on indigenous people
and religious intolerance in the United States before delegates of the 55th
Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva,
Switzerland last month.
Abdelfattah Amor, a UN Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance who
visited Black Mesa in February of 1998, presented the commission with a
report linking human rights violations and religious intolerance in the
United States, China, Pakistan, Iran, Greece, Sudan, Australia and Germany.
During this visit to Arizona, Amor investigated charges of religious and
human rights violations by the United States government against the Dine'
people in Black Mesa, located in northeastern Arizona. The special
rapporteur is an independent expert who reports only to the Commission
and the UN General Assembly.
The complaint, filed by several traditional Dine' people to the UN Human
Rights Commission, accused the United States of destroying 4,000 ancient
Anasazi ruins and sacred burial sites. Additionally, the complaint charged
that U.S. federal laws have denied the people access to water, legalized
the confiscation of their livestock, prevented the gathering of firewood to
heat their homes, and prohibited any housing improvements.
During his visit to Black Mesa, Amor took testimony from residents.
Several NGO (non-governmental organization) representatives were invited by
the traditional Dine' to witness Amor's visit. In his report, Amor observed
that the U.S. Supreme Court's jurisprudence points to "no enforceable
safeguards for worship at sacred sites."
Peggy Francis Scott gave oral testimony before the commission on April 13:
"Dine' sacred sites intermingle with our homes, livestock, and farms.
Today, more than 12,000 Dine' have been relocated from their homes, plucked
away from their livelihood and their sacred ritual and burial sites. Our
religion binds us inseparably to our land, which we believe is saved. Coal
mining violates the integrity of our land and therefore tears apart every
fabric of our religious identity.
The Navajo relocation program instituted by the U.S. government deprives
our people of ancestral lands and their inherent property rights. It also
severs our sacred tie to our land and denies us the venue to practice our
religious ceremonies.
The unsustainable environmental practices of runaway mutli-national mining
corporations inflict environmental racism upon us. Current U.S. governmental
laws such as the Native American Grave Protect and Repatriation Act and
the Antiquities Act remain to be enforced.
The U.S. government must recognize that no territorial settlement should
ever deprive Indigenous Peoples of their right to remain on their
traditional land or to practice their religion thereupon. Our land is
sacred and we do not believe it should be expropriated form us. The U.S.
government cannot and must not subordinate our survival as a people to
economic interests whose dividends we do not partake from. The tribal
councils operate on behalf of these economic interests more than in support
of Indigenous Peoples' interests."
Leonard Bennally gave oral testimony on April 19.
"In 1996, he said, "the U.S. Congress passed a law requiring our final
eviction (from the Hopi Partition Land) by February 1, 2000. Some of our
people were offered leases that allowed us to remain as tenants upon our
own ancestral land with no civil rights and without a means of survival.
Those who refused to sign, and the thousands of us that the government does
not count, face forced eviction in the next 10 months.
...Resistance to impoundments is met severely. The current campaign is
for the permanent elimination of our herds and the ultimate removal of our
people....
It is time the United States focused attention on its own marginalized
peoples living in conditions not unlike many Third World countries. For
over three decades, the U.S. has forbidden us to make any repairs on our
homes, even to repair broken windows. Water sources are fenced, capped off
and dismantled. Firewood is confiscated in winter and law enforcement
officials harass and threaten us with eviction and jail sentences. there
are many of us who are targeted for attacks who are over the age of 65,
some are even 90.
We live in terror, not knowing our fate the next morning.
Over the past 25 years, some 14,000 Dine' were forcibly relocated in what
the former director of the Navajo Hopi Indian Relocation Commission, Leon
Berger called 'a tragedy of genocide and injustice that will be a blot on
the conscience of this country for many generations.' The current and sole
site identified for our relocation is the New Lands, an area near Chambers.
This land is contaminated by radioactive waste, the largest spill in U.S.
history.
The thousands moved into cities, for which Dine' lack survival skills, are
thrust into a circle of homelessness, illegal drug use, alcoholism and
suicide."
In his written report, Amor concluded that legal protections for the
practice of religion by Native Americans in this country were insufficient.
"As far as legislation is concerned, while noting advances in recent years
in the instruments emerging from the legislature and the executive which are
designed to protect Native Americans' religion...the special rapporteur
identified weaknesses and gaps which diminish the effectiveness and hinder
the application of these legal standards."
"Because of economic and religious conflicts affecting in particular
sacred sites, the special rapporteur wishes to point out that the freedom of
belief, in this case that of the Native Americans, is a fundamental matter
and requires still greater protection."
He further recommended Native Americans' cultural values be taken into
account when laws were written. "In the legal sphere Native Americans'
system of values and traditions should be fully recognized, particularly
as regards the concept of collective property rights, inalienability of
sacred sites and secrecy with regard to their location.
And about Black Mesa in particular, the special rapporteur "calls for\
the observance of international law on freedom of religion and its
manifestations."
Kee Watchman gave this statement before the Commission on Human Rights:
"I am the spokesperson for the traditional Dine' (Navajo) of Cactus
Valley/Red Willow Springs Sovereign communities at Big Mountain, Arizona.
"I am also a plaintiff in the case of Jenny Manybeads v. The United States
of American, et al., pending in the U.S. court since 1988, which concerns
our forced relocation under a law the U.S. Congress passed without our
consent, resulting in violations of our traditional Dine' Indigenous
religion.
We presented testimony about these violations to Mr. Amor when he visited
our community. The special rapporteur verified in his report that United
States law and its court system including the Supreme Court remains blind to
our international human right to practice our religion. It gives more
importance to the economic interests of big business than to the religious
freedom of Indigenous Peoples.
"Today, the coal mining at Black Mesa continues to desecrate our sacred
places, including burial sites. We are experiencing impoundments of our
livestock animals, which are sacred to us and the basis for our survival
and subsistence. People are being arrested for trying to prevent the
harassment of our elders who only want to continue their sacred way of life.
"The dine' demand our right to practice our traditional religion as we
have since time immemorial, as we were instructed by the Creator, and to
protect our sacred places from desecration."
Amor's report on religious intolerance in the United States can be found
on the United Nations website at www.un.org. The document number is
E/CN.4/1999/58/Add.1.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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: Hopi Medicine Man" ---------
From: "April Mondragon-Abbott" <1dragon@laplaza.org>
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 10:44:00 +0000
Subj: Hopi Medicine Man : Frederick Koruh
I am God Daughter to Hopi Medicine Man, DAWA-HONG-VA - "Standing Sun"
of the Hopi Tribe, Spider Clan, Child of the Sun Clan. I am concerned
with the health of our Nations from a Medicine perspective. I see
that many of our Children do not want to be called to the Traditional
Medicine Ways anymore...why is this?, when Traditional Medicine has
everything to do with healing what is out of balance first with
ourselves, so that we can become Strong to return to living in
Balance with All that is Great Mystery and Great Mystery's Creations.
I see that even within the Nations there are unkind words that feed
separation among the Ways of the Medicine by means of fostering
beliefs that one in better than another, that it is "witchcraft and
black magic"or the denying some access to the Medicine Ways because
of mixed race, and off reservation, it is sometimes worse, by
those who call upon the services of the Medicine People and deny them
even the barest means of transportation (gas), food and/or adequate
lodging.
I see that while Oriental Medicine, Massage, Chiropractic,
Naturopathy, Herbal, Midwifery, Homeopathic have all over the years
become "legitimized" by means of institutionalizing their teachings
and certification practices, I would like to be referred to whom is
addressing the matter of our Traditional Medicine Ways as being no
less "credible or legitimate" than the above mentioned or begin a
dialogue with me as to the future of our Medicine Ways, so that we
can preserve and protect our Medicine Ways and Medicine People for
the future generations and whom would like to Counsel with us
regarding my God Father and my newly formed non profit, for the
preservation and education of our Medicine Ways.
So I ask that the People of the Nations please hear my God
Father's and Family's prayers and words and if they are moved to
action, please contact me with any help possible.
Here are the letters:
Dear God Daughter April,
It was nice of you to come see me last week (Sandoval County
Detention Center) and most generous of your to accept my phone calls
(they will only let him call collect, and will not let us send him
calling cards), and a Blessing to have a God Daughter like you, that
is so concerned of me and my present ordeal, and still taking good
care of the People. I am proud you have learned well.
I thank you with all my heart, for what you are doing for me, and I
know what you are doing is from your Heart, so you are not hindering
me, nor my family.
I strongly feel this is the best and the only remedy I have left as a
legal whip. I am not seeking revenge, but only to cleanse, because
there are actual cases and aspects of my cases that never made it to
the Federal level.
I know that my Brother is aware, but I feel, every day, every hour,
every minute is important in a legal and Anglo Way. My Brother has me
at heart in a Spiritual Way, and I am grateful that he is praying
through the Kachina Spirits and all the other Spirits that most don't
pray to.
Let us not have our prayers be wasted energy. So please, Daughter,
continue to seek the right Attorney that will take this case pro-bono,
because the Appeal Attorney's job is to look through the trial to see
if he could find any mistakes or objections that he could make a case
from....and a Civil rights Attorney will investigate on how the
officer investigated me and the whole nine yards....combined together,
with both attorneys... I have a greater chance of proving my Innocence
and proving that this was not about the molestation, but about my Hopi
Medicine Practice, prejudice and discrimination.
My wife Corrine has all the proof of where, when, how and the
witnesses that can be talked to.
My God Daughter, April, I am very grateful and appreciate you
getting my voice out to those that will hear. Although these times are
trying for myself and family, these matters also affect the health and
well being of the Hopi People, the Medicine People of all Nations and
the People and all our Children should they go unchecked.
My Prayers and Blessings to you All,
Frederick Koruh, Sr.
Please forward my letter to whomever you feel is appropriate, thank
you.
Dear God Daughter, April
I appreciate you getting my Voice out to those that will hear.
Although these are trying times for myself and my Family, these
matters also affect the health and well being of the Hopi People, the
Medicine People of all Nations, the People of all Nations and all of
our Children should they go unchecked.
I am DAWA-HONG-VA - "Standing Sun" of the Hopi tribe. I am Spider
Clan, and Child of the Sun Clan. I am a Hopi Medicine Man. How we come
into the Medicine Practice we do not talk about, it is simply a Gift.
Presently I am seeking legal help from a brother or sister that
knows Legal Medicine.
As with my God Daughter's April and Sandra, and my two God Son's
Harlan and Clay, I have also helped People from All over the World. I
have consistently given my time and energy to Healing People from all
walks of Life, going to wherever I am needed to go. Unfortunately, I
am not in Federal Prison under false accusations of molestation to my
wife's niece, and witchcraft. How did this come about? There is some
history to this, and I know all the things that have transpired.
I am married to a Zuni Tribal Woman. My wife's brother-in-law, works
for the Social Services Department and his wife works for the
Children's Court. Our differences began in the year of 1992, a couple
of years after my family moved from Albuquerque (to Zuni). As a
Medicine People, we have an ability to know the darkest secrets and
illnesses of People, and often know to much.
Several years back, there was no date, year, time, place, I was
accused of molesting my wife's nieces. My wife spoke with my nieces
and her Sister, and my wife's Sister denied that it was me, but rather
that it was another Uncle, who already had at that time a history of
other charges for the offense of molestation.
The differences between myself and my wife's brother-in-law, began
when his parents were still living. His parents when they were living,
talked Highly of me, and they asked if I wanted to farm some of their
Land, which I did, and I grew alot of Corn and other Vegetables. In
return for the use of the Land, I gave and shared alot of Corn, Corn
is our Way of Life. After they passed on (deceased), I noticed alot of
jealousy from my wife's brother-in-law. Then in 1992, the
brother-in-law's Sister, came to seek help for her daughter that she
had not seen for some years. We prayed for the daughter with all our
strength, that she would call home or come home. With good results,
she called and wanted to come home. That is when I got the heat.
The daughter came home with her Children, that are part Spanish...in
Zuni Myth, if you adopt or have children from any other than Zuni, it
is bad, (and believed) that your own family will die off. So my wife's
brother-in-law came to me when I was at the Village Post Office and
said his sister was "old sheep that can't have her own children and
was adopting children that aren't Zuni, and this is why (their) family
is dyeing off" and that I shouldn't have helped his Sister. But I knew
that it is to do with Alcoholism, that the family has lost some of the
family members. The brother-in-laws father, was intoxicated when he
got into an accident and killed 2 grandsons and a horse, and the
brother-in-law's other sister came to me for help and was angry with
her brother because he works for Social Services and did not do
anything for the lose of her son. My wife's brother -in-law hates me
for this, I did not do anything. People come to relieve themselves by
telling the truth.
All was calm for 6+ years, until Corrine (my wife) and I bought land
in the Lasiloo Subdivision and started to build a foundation for our
home. Then in Feb of 1998, I saw Harry Gasper, an investigator for the
Zuni tribe, make a Cocaine deal. I was with Calvin and Shawn Bobelu.
Since then, Harry Gasper, has been asking who sold us the land, and
that we were on the right of way...soon after there was desecration to
my Sacred Purification Bath Site at Zuni, then allegations that I am a
dope dealer and once again the molestation charge, stalking, Black
Magic and witchcraft. Officer Harry Gasper, did not want his bosses to
know of his cocaine deal, and went straight to the F.B.I., so I was
never called into the Zuni Tribal Courts.
If I was doing something so bad, why was I not taken to the Zuni
Tribal Courts?
I was taken to the Federal Courts in Albuquerque. I asked for a jury
trial, to have the truth come out, but it did not happen that way.
I had five counts against me, the government dropped one for some odd
reason, two other counts were acquitted, and two convicted. The Judge
Mr. Conway didn't think I was a threat to society and let me go for 68
days before sentencing.
During this time my wife's brother-in-law and Harry Gasper were very
upset that the judge didn't imprison me and started to do everything
in their power to make me look bad. My wife's brother-in-law went to
the Tribal Counsel to try and remove me from Zuni Village, but the
Tribal Counsel did not want to take any action, so the brother-in-law
raised hell at the Tribal Hall, then went to the Zuni Medicine
Society, but they know how the brother-in-law can play dirty, and the
Zuni Medicine Men did not want to help him except for one Medicine
Man who he paid much money to him to buy his words to say that I was
using my Medicine work in a direct way on them.
These kinds of things are what we are up against. While Harry
Gasper along with Prudencia Quam are out of the jurisdiction on the
Hopi Land, they went to the Hopi Police Department and asked the Chief
of Police, and the investigator, if I was a Hopi Medicine Man, then
went as far as going from Village to Village, house to house, asking
if I am a Medicine Man.
My ex-wife Ruby's family and my wife's brother-in-laws family wrote
with no proof, about themselves in such ways, to convince the Federal
Judge that I was an evil person, which I am not.
I love People, and will continue to help People, but first I have to
go through another rebirth again. In the mean time I feel I was
misrepresented, I did not understand why things were not objected to
or cross examined, and why the jury was not of my peers, but solely of
hispanic and anglos, why my pretrial officer Regina Begage was not
there...why was I and all my witnesses called " racists and liars" by
the prosecuting attorney, Samuel Winder and this not objected to.
I did not see any truth in that court room, I only saw those who
cried the loudest, lied the best and those who were the most
convincing, without proof of the accusations.
I know at Heart that I did not do what they are accusing me of, my
family also knows that these accusations are not true and stand behind
me 100%. I was so happy that they gave so much care to come up with
$7,500 for my appeal, but there are extra costs, and my wife Corrine
has to make payments on another $2,500 dollars.
I have been incarcerated since March 31st, 1999. My herbs were taken
from me and I was hospitalized for double pneumonia. I am at present
doing much better. I have little knowledge of my Civil Rights
Violations.
Due to financial drain on my family and friends, I ask you for any
support you can offer in the way of:
1. Helping me find the best attorney possible, as soon as possible,
that knows Civil Rights/Indian Law, who would possibly be willing to
handle my case pro-bono.
2. Any donations for attorney fees, and support for my wife and four
children as Corrine is the sole provider now.
3. Any donations for travel expenses so that my family can visit me.
Prayers and Blessings to you All,
Sincerely,
Mr. Frederick Koruh, Sr.
5/13/99 As per my conversation with Fred, last night, the Social
Services office is now under investigation.
-------
April Mondragon-Abbott 505-751-1962
Finest Salves for the Soul
--------- "RE: San Carlos Tribe Files Lawsuit" ---------
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 16:10:22 GMT
From: Randy Ww <lotanna@my-dejanews.com>
Subj: San Carlos tribe files lawsuit to save lake
Newsgroup: alt.native
from the Arizona Republic @ http://www.azcentral.com/news/0512sancarlos.shtml
By Barry Burkhart
The Arizona Republic
May 12, 1999
SAN CARLOS - Most of the San Carlos Apache Tribal Council was having a
picnic Tuesday at a ramada overlooking what's left of San Carlos Lake.
It was a funeral for perhaps the best bass and crappie fishing lake in
Arizona, now at only 5 to 6 percent of capacity because of drought. The lake
also is home to the bald eagle, the peregrine falcon and the razorback
sucker, a native fish.
But even as it dries up, the remaining water is being released downstream
to users as part of a historic water-rights agreement. Fulfilling the
agreement would kill the lake and trigger an environmental nightmare of dead
fish, the tribe says.
Last Friday, the tribe filed suit in federal court in Tucson and requested
an injunction against the United States and two Indian tribes downstream who
own water rights from the lake.
The injunction asks that the dam gates be closed and seeks $1.5 million to
$2.5 million to purchase Central Arizona Project water for users downstream
from San Carlos, according to Velasquez Sneezy Sr., vice chairman of the
Tribal Council.
The suit is a first step to reverse a naturally occurring disaster that
affects the reservation's economy and quality of life. The goal is to avoid
releasing water to downstream users to keep up the health of the lake, which
also went dry in 1976.
"But the action now will have nothing to do with the lake's low level
now," said Paul Nosie, reservation director of wildlife.
"Litigation will take too long. This lake is going to dry up by the end
of June. If the weather gets really hot, it will happen before that."
Currently, discharge from San Carlos is 228 to 250 cubic feet a second to
provide water for downstream users. Intake from both the Gila and San Carlos
rivers totals 29 cfs.
As the sinking water level begins to stress fish, the lake will become a
stinking mess. Based on a survey of fish lost in 1976-77, this dry-up will
claim more than 4 million pounds of fish.
Decaying fish could create a health problem downstream after they pass
through the dam's generating turbines, Sneezy said.
"Bacteria from the dead fish could include salmonella and hepatitis
germs," he said.
Nosie said it would take four to five years to re-establish the good
fishing at San Carlos, and that's if water were plentiful.
"The water quality is good right now," he said. "Heat will take that away
(by causing stress in fish and also by robbing the water of oxygen). The
depth of the water at the dam is only 34 feet. Usually, it's more than
three times that much."
Nosie said that in 1996, just as drought began, the tribe sold 869,000
fishing permits. In 1997, as the lake dropped drastically, sales decreased
to 561,000 permits. Last year, it fell to 378,568. During the first four
months this year, sales stand at 902.
Sneezy said the lack of anglers at San Carlos causes workers to be laid
off, lower revenue at the casino and lower sales on the lake.
He said the issue also goes beyond economics.
"It's also a sacred burial area (throughout the lake area), and the eagle
is very sacred to us," he said. "Federal and state officials don't have
interest in recognizing the authority of the tribe. We hope this suit will
cause everyone to sit down and compromise. We need our share of the water."
+++
Barry Burkhart can be reached at (602) 444-8454 or at barry.burkhart@pni.com.
--------- "RE: Amoco/Southern Utes Unite" ---------
Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 11:01:47 EDT
From: MarthaET@aol.com
Subj: Amoco, Southern Utes unite
Mailing List: TRIBALLAW (triballaw@thecity.sfsu.edu)
>From Victor's pechanganet
Amoco, Southern Utes unite
By Electa Draper
Denver Post Staff Writer
May 14 - Amoco Production Co. and the Southern Ute Tribe announced
Thursday a final agreement to partner up, with the company continuing to
produce natural gas from tribal coal beds but giving 32 percent of
revenues to the tribe.
The partnership agreement, retroactive to Jan. 1, was first struck
tentatively and secretly, under federal District Court seal, in late
January. The settlement largely resolves the tribe's eight year lawsuit
against Amoco and other gas companies. The tribe claimed full ownership
of the billion-dollar energy resource. The agreement, still pending
court approval, allows Amoco and other gas operators to retain all the
production revenue they earned on coal-bed methane for more than a
decade, up to and including 1998.
The tribe's 32 percent interest will fall off La Plata County's property
tax rolls because the tribe is a sovereign nation and tax exempt.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments from Amoco and the tribe April 19
to determine who actually owns natural gas extracted from tribal coal
deposits underlying 200,000 acres of land owned privately in southern La
Plata County. These land and mineral owners had leased gas rights to
Amoco and 20 other companies, and in turn received a percentage of the
revenues as a royalty.
The Southern Ute Tribe also has offered the roughly 3,000 royalty owners
involved in the case a 50-50 split of disputed royalties. Tribal
attorney Thomas Shipps said Thursday that the tribe anticipates about
200 royalty owners will accept the settlement by the deadline, Monday,
and that many of those settling are large institutional investors with a
disproportionate share of the millions of dollars at stake.
In spite of the tribe's settlement with Amoco, the other gas companies
and some royalty owners, the Supreme Court will still rule on ownership
of coal-bed methane. The decision will affect the status of royalty
owners who didn't settle as well as tribal severance taxes. It will also
determine whether coal-bed methane is an integral part of coal
formations or simply natural gas. The ruling will affect millions of
acres in Western states where gas is extracted by private companies from
federally owned coal beds.
A high-court decision is expected in late June, BP Amoco spokesman
Andrew Van Chau said Thursday.
Copyright 1999 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.
http://www.denverpost.com/business/biz0514e.htm
--------- "RE: BIA Trust Cleanup is Promised" ---------
Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 09:08:50 -0500
From: berryj@okstate.edu
Subj: (FWD)Indian News 05-16-99
Roger Iron Cloud
FirstNations Listserv
202.358.3252
rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov
BIA trust cleanup is promised
By JIM MYERS
World Washington Bureau
5/15/99
The head of the federal Indian affairs agency says the days when critics
could take a free shot at his agency are over.
WASHINGTON -- Key Clinton administration officials vowed Friday to correct
the historic chaos surrounding Indian trust accounts that are worth billions
before they leave office, and they lashed out at critics of a new system that
is scheduled to be put in place over the next year.
They also accused their critics, even though some of them are Indian
themselves, of picking up where those who designed anti- tribes programs in
the last century left off.
U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt termed as "deep condescension" the
tendency by some to blame the Bureau of Indian Affairs and push it out of
the way.
Kevin Gover, Babbitt's assistant secretary and head of the BIA, made it
clear that the days when critics could take a free shot at his agency are
over.
Gover is a member of the Pawnee Tribe of Oklahoma.
More than 90 percent of BIA employees are Indian, he said, and those who
say the trust fund account issue is too big for the agency to fix must keep
that in mind.
"This in no way reflects the Bureau of Indian Affairs today," Gover said
in remarks recorded for BIA employees across the nation to hear, "but there
are still those who promote the concept, for their own selfish reasons, that
the BIA today is still in business of persecuting Indians.
"Even more dangerous are the jaded and callous attempts by some to
continue to portray us as the continuation of the shameful legacy of the
past.
"I find it offensive and sickening that hard-working American Indian
people of this bureau are being cast in this light."
Gover said the tactics used by critics of the BIA are no less offensive
than the "ethnocentric statement of the non-Indian attackers in the past."
Problems with trust accounts, he said, are rooted in the way the system
was first set up in 1887.
Babbitt agreed, adding he believes that the system was set up that way to
open Indian assets to non-Indians.
Gover said: "We did not break this system, but we are going to fix it."
While expressing confidence that his agency can correct the problems,
Babbitt also stressed that Indians with trust accounts must not count on
large reimbursements.
"There is not a windfall out there," he said.
Gover once again said he would resign if the Clinton administration ever
refused to give him the necessary tools to clean up the problem.
Critics of the federal government kept up their attack and once again
accused it of a "campaign of misinformation," specifically on whether it
will be taxpayer funds that will be used to reimburse Indians with
mismanaged trust accounts.
Jim McCarthy, a spokesman for the legal team that is suing over the BIA's
handling of the accounts, said any money given to Indians will be money that
their assets earned.
Account records, he said, are in such bad condition, with some of them
found in barns and even wells, that there is no way the new system can
succeed.
He predicted that the trial judge will throw out the new system and force
the BIA to adopt another one.
The lawsuit represents 500,000 Indians, and McCarthy said many of them
are living in poverty.
--------- "RE: Ex-Choctaw Chief Wants Case Reversed" ---------
Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 09:08:50 -0500
From: berryj@okstate.edu
Subj: (FWD)Indian News 05-16-99
Roger Iron Cloud
FirstNations Listserv
202.358.3252
rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov
Ex-Choctaw chief wants case reversed
By AP Wire Service
5/15/99
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- The former chief of the Choctaw Nation wants an
appeals court to throw out his conviction on sexual abuse charges because
he says the tribal headquarters in Durant isn't Indian property.
Hollis Roberts was convicted in 1997 on three counts of sexually attacking
female employees while he was chief. He was sentenced to 11 years and three
months in prison. The attacks on two women occurred at the tribal offices.
Roberts says he should have been tried in state court instead of federal
court.
His attorneys argued the case Thursday before a panel of the 10th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
The headquarters is on land the Durant Chamber of Commerce deeded the
federal government to be held in trust for the tribe.
"This trust property is the functional equivalent of a reservation,"
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheldon Sperling argued.
--------- "RE: For Native Americans a Louder Voice" ---------
Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 09:08:50 -0500
From: berryj@okstate.edu
Subj: (FWD)Indian News 05-16-99
Roger Iron Cloud
FirstNations Listserv
202.358.3252
rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov
For Native Americans, a louder voice
By Gregory Wright
c. Gannett News Service
5/14/99
WASHINGTON - Medical care is so bad on his reservation, Montana Blackfoot
George Horse Capture Jr. says, that a friend had to wait three years to
find out his constant stomach pains were caused by cancer. By the time his
friend went to a doctor outside the reservation for the diagnosis, the
cancer was terminal, Horse Capture says.
Horse Capture and more than 400 other Native Americans traveled from
around the nation to the west steps of the Capitol this week to protest
what they say is continued poor federal spending on medical care,
education and law enforcement on tribal lands. Native Americans are also
angered that legislation has popped up in Congress that could erode the
ability of tribes to govern their own reservations and make money through
ventures such as gambling.
Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., the only Native American serving
in Congress, says the National Congress of American Indians rally shows
that once-marginalized Indians are now flexing political muscle. Gambling
and other economic activities on Indian lands have also given some tribes
the money to get involved in politics, he says.
After the rally, group members planned to pace the halls of Congress,
urging lawmakers to turn back legislation that may harm the interests of
Native Americans. They are asking lawmakers to honor Native American
treaties - many of which date back more than a century - that promise the
government will respect Native American rights.
"The corporate boardrooms and the law degrees are the new way for us to
protect ourselves," Campbell said at the rally.
The nation's Native Americans make up less than 1% of the U.S.
population. But unemployment on some reservations hovers well above the
national average at almost 50% and social problems such as alcoholism and
high infant mortality are rampant.
But Native Americans are also becoming more concerned by legislation in
Congress and state governments that may erode their sovereignty rights.
Perry Beaver, principal chief of the Muscogee Creek Nation near Okmulgee,
Okla., accuses his state of trying to get the power to administer wills on
tribal lands, something that is now handled by tribal governments.
Oklahoma officials maintain the change is needed because tribal
governments have not been quick and efficient in settling wills.
Although federal and state lawmakers have said legislation targeted at
Native Americans is designed to make positive changes on reservations,
Indian officials are suspicious. They accuse Congress and states of trying
to steal their rights just at a time when Indians are trying to wield real
political and economic power.
According to National Congress of American Indians officials:
+ Legislation is included in the fiscal 1999 supplemental spending
bill that will likely make it more difficult for American Indian tribes to
settle disputes with states over gambling issues. The National Gambling
Impact Study Commission next month is also scheduled to give a report to
Congress that Native American officials said may be biased against gambling
on American Indian reservations, opening the way for restrictive
legislation, the group claimed.
+ There have been calls in Congress to levy federal taxes on the
revenue of tribal governments, which could hamper the ability of tribes to
provide much-needed services to their members.
+ Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., this year will introduce legislation to
allow state government officials to go on tribal land to collect taxes owed
on cigarette and fuel sales to nontribe members. Indian tribes have said
this legislation would violate their sovereignty.
"They are not looking for a handout."
--------- "RE: Cherokee Tribal Stability Tied to Vote" ---------
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 08:31:50 -0500
From: berryj@okstate.edu
Subj: (FWD)Indian News 04-27-99
Roger Iron Cloud
FirstNations Listserv
202.358.3252
rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov
Tribal stability tied to vote
By MICHAEL OVERALL
c. Tulsa World
4/26/99
Cherokee election is considered key.
Nothing less than the "survival of the Cherokee Nation as we know it"
depends on the outcome of this tribal election, candidates for chief said
Sunday. During a three-hour debate at Tulsa's Central Library, the
candidates tried to talk about other issues -- like health care, housing,
education and economic development.
But every time, every other issue eventually came back around to the issue
facing the Cherokee Nation: How to restore stability to tribal government
after years in a constitutional crisis.
The turmoil began in February 1997 when tribal marshals carried out a
search warrant against Chief Joe Byrd's office, looking for evidence of
alleged misuse of funds.
Byrd claimed the raid was an attempted coup d'etat, fired the entire
marshals office and had the Tribal Council start impeachment proceedings
against the tribal Supreme Court.
To stop the impeachment, anti- Byrd members of the Tribal Council have
been boycotting council meetings, preventing a quorum and bringing tribal
government to a virtual standstill.
Like one candidate for chief, Maxie Thompson, put it: "It's been a
bitter, hate-filled struggle that threatens the survival of the Cherokee
Nation as we know it."
And every other candidate present at the forum agreed -- the tribe's
independence won't endure for long unless the next chief restores confidence
in tribal government.
Six of the nine chief candidates attended Sunday's forum, sponsored by the
Cherokee Community Organization.
Chief Byrd, running for re-election, skipped the debate, as did candidates
Meredeth Frailey and Haskell Murphy. More than 100 tribal members sat in the
audience.
"Stability will come to the Cherokee Nation," said candidate Dwight
Birdwell, "when our elected officials obey the laws of the Cherokee Nation
and the constitution of the Cherokee Nation."
As a justice of the Cherokee supreme court, Birdwell has been a central
character in the tribal crisis.
So has candidate Pat Ragsdale, the former head of the tribal marshal
service who was fired by Byrd.
Many of the tribe's other problems -- like a housing shortage, lack of
health-care coverage and unemployment -- could be alleviated, Ragsdale said,
by electing officials who won't let tribal funds "simply vanish."
He called for a tribal "Open Records Act," similar to the state of
Oklahoma's, to allow the public to scrutinize how tribal funds are managed.
"This (Byrd) administration tries to work in secrecy," Ragsdale told the
audience. "But where is the money? This is your money and you have a right
to see how it is being spent."
Candidate Chad Smith also became a major player in the tribal crisis when
he was arrested for protesting on the grounds of the tribal courthouse after
Byrd locked the Supreme Court out of the building.
"This is the time for us to gain everything back or lose everything
forever," Smith said.
"Everything," he said, means "our cultural identity, economic
self-reliance and strong tribal government."
The tribe must a elect a chief "who will follow the law," Smith said,
"so we still will be a tribe in 10, 50, 100 years."
Garland Eagle, currently the tribe's deputy chief and now running for the
top post, offered himself as a sort of compromise candidate.
Like the other challengers, Eagle said he could restore confidence in
tribal government.
But like an incumbent, Eagle could step into the chief's office with
minimal disruption of current policies.
"I could lead without stopping and looking back," he said. "Things could
just change hands and go right along."
Regardless of who wins the May 22 election, the tribe has a long struggle
ahead of it, said candidate Virginia Stroud, a Tahlequah artist.
"We're going to have to work hard on healing our divisions," Stroud said.
"It's not going to be easy."
--------- "RE: Indian Schools Battle Problems" ---------
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 08:31:50 -0500
From: berryj@okstate.edu
Subj: (FWD)Indian News 04-27-99
Roger Iron Cloud
FirstNations Listserv
202.358.3252
rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov
Indian Schools Battle Problems
.c The Associated Press
By MATT KELLEY
4/24/99
SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Two monuments sit on a grassy knoll at the Chemawa
Indian School.
One carries the names of two former students who died in an alcohol-
related car crash in 1996. The other, a granite marker, memorializes four
former students who died in the 1997 crash of a stolen pickup truck.
Other areas of the campus are marred by the scrawls of graffiti, but the
monuments are clean. Scattered around them are the offerings of grieving
students. A few votive candles, forlorn in the Oregon mist. Some grimy
coins. A handful of withering wildflowers. Several purple plastic packages
of Jolly Rancher jellybeans.
For those who work here, it's a reminder of what happens to the students
the cash-strapped Indian boarding school cannot reach.
"We're on the front lines of life and death here," says the school's
principal, Larry Byers, a Cherokee. "The destructive behavior we see
makes me wonder, if they go home, are they going to be alive in five
years?"
Chemawa is the end of the line, the last hope before jail, reform school
or life as a dropout for hundreds of deeply troubled American Indian teen-
agers. And at nearly 120 years old, it's the oldest continually operated
federal boarding school in the United States.
The boarding school system of years past tried to forcibly assimilate
American Indians into white culture. Now, Chemawa and the other seven off-
reservation boarding schools are primarily dedicated to giving their
students tools to cope with their problems and a measure of pride in who
they are.
"In the early years, there was an attempt to change students, to take
the Indian out of them," said Superintendent Louis King, an Oklahoma
Seminole. "Today's boarding schools are much more in tune with cultural
issues and trying to protect them."
That task can be daunting. About 400 students begin each school year at
Chemawa. More than two dozen are homeless. More than 90 percent will be
required to get some form of alcohol or drug treatment during their stay.
Some are as many as three years behind on their classwork.
Only about 200 remain at the end of the school year, with around 50
graduating. Some students return to school or enroll in treatment programs
back home, but many more fall through the cracks. Chemawa sent surveys to
the more than 200 students who left last year but only about 25 responded.
Chemawa and other federal boarding schools got $3,067 per student for
their educational programs last year. That's $600 lower than the lowest
statewide average spending by public school systems for the 1996-97 school
year. The national average per-pupil spending that year was $5,661,
according to the National Education Association.
The school's facilities and maintenance budget has been cut every year
for the eight years King has been Chemawa's superintendent.
Chemawa's agricultural program, once the pride of the school, now runs
only through donations from the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Carpet hasn't been replaced in some dorms and academic areas since the
buildings opened in 1980 -- before most students were born.
"When these cuts build up year after year, things will eventually come
crashing down on you," King said.
--------- "RE: Teacher Files Suit in Mexico" ---------
Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 11:03:19 -0700
From: mexicopeace <mexicopeace@igc.org>
Subj: Teacher files suit in Mexico
Press Conference at Mexican Consulate
San Diego teacher Peter Brown will file legal suit to return to MEXICO;
calls on President Zedillo to renounce deportations in Chiapas and allow
the return to Mexico of the five Californians deported from Chiapas.
Tuesday, May 18, 1999, 11 am
Mexican Consulate, 1947 India Street, San Diego
On Tuesday morning, May 18, 1999 San Diego teacher Peter Brown will file
legal documents (amparo) with local representatives of the Mexican
government following a press briefing in front of the Mexican consulate
which is located at 1947 India Street in downtown San Diego, CA, USA. Mr.
Brown's unique legal case seeks redress through the Mexican judicial system
for his 1998 detention, sequestration, and permanent expulsion from Mexico
which his legal team describes as "arbitrary and unconstitutional".
However he hopes President Zedillo will avoid this judicial challenge and
use his trip to California and San Diego to make a gesture for peace in
Chiapas by welcoming the return to Mexico of the five Californians expelled
for supporting indigenous communities in Chiapas.
"I long for President Zedillo to use his trip to California to allow the
return of the five Californians deported from Mexico for helping in
Chiapas," commented Brown. "We are three humanitarian aide workers, one
Catholic priest, and one teacher; we are all of friends of Mexico and we
all celebrate the improved relations with Mexico that his trip to
California represents. I especially want to acknowledge Governor Davis and
San Diego Rep. Denise Duchany for building these new bridges of dialogue
and trust. Perhaps President Zedillo will make one small gesture for peace
in Chiapas while he visits California and let these five friends of Mexico
return."
Peter Brown, a public school teacher with San Diego City Schools, was
detained by federal troops last summer in the Chiapan highlands
municipality of San Andres Sachamch'en de los Pobres and deported for
supporting the Maya peoples' efforts to provide schools for their children.
Today indigenous communities in Chiapas continue to build autonomous
schools using donations from non-negotiable "School Bonds for Chiapas"
being sold throughout Mexico and world. Mr. Brown, who is represented by
the internationally known "Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion
of Human Rights" headed by Ms. Marie Claire Acosta, is still raising funds
to support Maya run schools in Chiapas.
Brown continued, "President Zedillo, I respectfully urge you to accept the
requests of Mexican citizens in Chiapas and throughout Mexico that the five
deported Californians be allowed to once again meet our professional
colleagues and friends in Chiapas. Schools and portable water systems for
Indian communities in Chiapas cannot be bad for Mexico - please let us come
back and continue to help." After a brief statement to the press at the
doors of the consulate, Mr. Brown will enter the Mexican consulate to
formally present this legal case to the officials inside.
For additional information:
Marie Claire Acosta (525) 564-2582 / 2592
Comision Mexicana de Defensa y Promocion de los Derechos Humanos A.C., DF,
MEXICO
Elizabeth Ackermann (619) 238-4708
Schools for Chiapas, San Diego, CA, USA
http://www.igc.org/mexicopeace/
-- mexicopeace@igc.org http://www.igc.org/mexicopeace--------- "RE: A Pox on Both Their Houses" ---------
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 00:30:07 -0400 From: not@inthe.game (justanoldman) Subj: "A pox on both their houses!"
Newsgroup: alt.native
d'laan'te'.. The title for this article come to me as I was thinking of that great De'ne' story-teller of long, long ago.., my great-great-great uncle-twice-removed, Shaking-his-Spear.. (whom the invaders to this land shamelessly expropriated & re-named "Sakespeare", as if that would fool anyone.) I just heard some folks in the restaurant talking about the news.. So I was thinking of a couple of the inhuman, genocidal regimes they were talking about when Great-Uncle's words came to me.. "A pox on both their houses!" The people in that restaurant were talking about reports that made me glad I shot my TV years ago.. Horrors almost beyond imagining, yet all too real. They spoke of a land where death rained down on innocent people who had nothing to do with 'politics' or 'ideologies', simple, loving families like yours & mine, just trying to survive & grow healthy, happy children. They spoke about mass massacres of unarmed people, the obliteration of entire villages, the women defiled & raped, the men killed, the children orphaned & starving save for those few 'fortunates' taken in by strangers to be brought up without knowledge or pride in their roots, their languages & customs outlawed.. Stolen lands & stolen birthright... Genocide... The most revolting crime known to humanity. Only trouble with no TV is that without any dates to the stories, I had difficulty figuring out whether those reports those people were describing were in reference to what the Serbs are doing in Kosovo in 1999 or what the government of the USA, (& the USA's puppet govts in Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, El Salvador, etc, etc) has been doing throughout the Americas for the past 506 years.., (and still counting). Strange the way the language changed too.. A while ago it was called "Manifest Destiny" & "civilizing the untamed frontier" & the colonizing/butchering powers were bragging about how efficient they were/are at it.. Now exactly the same damn thing is called "ethnic cleansing" & these same colonizing/butchering powers are condemning some people called Serbs for doing the same thing that is the very foundation of their own "legitimacy"!! "Same t'ing all again.." Great-Uncle would've said, "Same mad dog.., new fleas." I'm with you on this one, Shaking-his-Spear... "A pox on both their houses!" jaom/e'ne'thekwe'
--------- "RE: NA Tree of Life" ---------
Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 07:28:48 -0800 From: John Wm Sloniker <johnwms@SERV.NET> Subj: NA Tree of Life
Seattle Times Lifestyles : Sunday, February 21, 1999 Old-growth cedar: In a few secret groves, the natives' 'tree of life' survives by William Dietrich Special to The Seattle Times THERE ARE CHURCHES in the Northwest that have no walls, no pulpit and no pew. They are older than Notre Dame, as lofty as St. Peter's and as boundless as faith. Their choir is running water. Their candle a green, filtered sunlight. Their prayer the creak and sigh of branches rocking in rhythm to a winter wind. And their locations are secret, guarded by Native American tribes and a single employee of the U.S. Forest Service named Jan Hollenbeck. She is caretaker of a map kept only so that the sacred sites are not mistakenly destroyed. So many are already gone, you see - diminishing because of logging, lamented Ernie DeCoteau, cultural resources director of Darrington's Sauk-Suiattle Tribe. What's important to the tribes - important to their ancient religions - is old growth, Hollenbeck explained. What's important is what has almost been lost. Western red cedar is the magic tree of the Pacific Northwest. One of the names of its northern white cedar cousin is arbor vitae, or "tree of life," because Indians cured members of the 16th-century Jacques Cartier expedition of scurvy with a cedar extract. No tree was, and is, more important. There is spirit power in dark groves of trees so old that a few date back to the Roman Empire, Indians will confide. Natives still fast and bathe and seek visions there. "You can receive that power," Lummi Indian Sam Cagey once assured, pointing to trees he said gave gifts, indicating a supernatural place that restores spirit and mind. "You can experience it yourself." ORDINARY CEDAR? It seems improbable to modern eyes. The tree is not as tall as Douglas fir, not as numerous as hemlock, not as strong as spruce. Hilary Stewart, in her book, "Cedar: Tree of Life to Northwest Indians," calls its drooping look "weepy and woebegone ... the lackadaisical giant with the softer heart." But though not the biggest, cedar was the most sacred and useful of all Northwest trees in aboriginal times, as central to the first inhabitants as salmon. Dismissed as structurally useless by early loggers, its increasing rarity has today turned it into red gold. Its price has doubled in the past 10 years to a dollar a board foot at the mill, and more than that at the lumber store. People sneak onto our national forests and risk fines and jail to cut blocks for making shakes from old stumps because a cord that fills a pickup can bring $800. Steal a tight-grained, old-growth entire cedar, and you've almost enough to buy a luxury automobile - if you can find the cedar. In Darrington, there's a Forest Service evidence locker with tagged blocks of recovered wood. Cedar wasn't always so prized. In modern society, species fall in and out of favor like Hollywood celebrities, depending on their glamour and utility at the moment. Whales, wolves and owls are famous examples. In aboriginal times, however, cedar was the central constant. The trees were hardware store, lumber yard and clothing source. Cedar was used to make diapers, canoes, fishing nets, masks, houses, rope and tools. Nothing else was so easily split, shed water so well, or resisted rot so reliably. "Cedar was the Kmart store for the Indians because it had everything in it," said Peter Selvig, forestry tech-supervisor at the Darrington ranger district. He uses wood seized from cedar thieves to repair historic Forest Service buildings. Cedar bark was stripped and pounded to make capes, hats, skirts, baskets, sails and cord for fishing nets. Its thin, wiry withes, or small branches, were braided to make rope or cable. Its trunk wood could be hollowed and stretched to make canoes: At the turn of the century one man sailed a 38-foot cedar canoe around the world. It was bent to make boxes, shaped as beams and totem poles, split into planks for long houses, or carved as masks, bowls or spoons. Archaeologists have found buried cedar artifacts older than Troy. Tribes were training cedar specialists - men who excelled at working with the wood - when the carpenter Jesus walked the earth. For primitive craftsmen with stone tools, cedar had several advantages. Its soft wood was easier to chop than Douglas fir, meaning it was feasible for Native Americans to actually cut one down. It could still take three men up to three days to fell a tree, sometimes laboriously chiseling away like beavers and sometimes setting fire to the easily burned base while protecting the upper tree from the flames with a barrier of wet clay. When they could, the natives also seized cedar drift logs or trees carried down by rivers. Cedar was light, making it easier to drag and lift. With wedges, a log could be split into planks, making transport even easier. Cedar's cell structure allowed it to break along even planes; its splinters could be polished smooth with sandstone or dogfish skin. Because the tree grows in boggy places, cedar contains a natural, aromatic fungicide to resist rot and insects. Properly cared for, cedar siding can last as long as the city of Seattle has been in existence, a century and a half. Cedar canoes were more easily hollowed, lighter to beach and paddle, and more resistant to decay than those of any other wood. Bark clothing may strike us as odd, but it is no more odd than using cotton to make shirts or paper to make towels. Cedar cloaks were superior to furs in shedding rain, dried quickly, could be oiled with bear grease and insulated with duck down. Captain Cook called the cedar hats he found on Vancouver Island the best headgear he'd ever seen. Women stripped cedar bark from young trees when the sap was running in spring and summer by making a horizontal slit a few inches across and then pulling upward. Strips up to 10 feet long would taper to a point and break off. It was the inner bark that was pounded into products ranging from towels to tourniquets. Gnarled cedar roots were cut to make tools, fish hooks and baskets. Burls on the trunk became bowls. Some pioneers made homes by putting a roof on rotted-out cedar stumps. Modern society uses cedar primarily for siding, shakes, shingles, posts, decking, trim and window frames. Old-growth cedar is a beautifully perfumed wood, the color of honey and amber, that without adornment suggests a rustic richness. When Lindal Cedar Homes moved to Seattle from Canada in 1962, the wood was still so plentiful that the company's house walls were made of solid cedar, remembers chairman Robert Lindal. Today it's so dear in price that cedar is usually limited to siding and decorative trim, some of that from smaller second-growth trees artfully machined and joined to make bigger pieces of lumber. Old-growth cedar is still being cut in British Columbia, which supplies 80 percent of global cedar production, but Washington and Oregon are down to mostly second-growth. The Canadian province supplies two-thirds of the cedar sold in the U.S. OUR CEDAR IS NOT a true cedar at all. The famed "cedars of Lebanon" mentioned in the Bible don't grow here. And though our cedar's scientific name, Thuja plicata, means "false cypress folded in plaits," it's not really a cypress, either. Our Western red cedar is its own thing, thank you, a unique and noble tree with the longevity to surpass a Methuselah. One almost- 2,000-year-old specimen at British Columbia's Cheewhat Lake was recorded at 62 feet in circumference and 194 feet high. (That's tall - but the tallest Douglas fir on record was twice as high.) One study says there are cedars claimed to be 3,000 years old. Washington is home to several cedars that vie for the world championship. Because the American Forest Association gives 12 times as many points to circumference as height, the current title-holder is the Quinault Lake cedar on the north shore of Lake Quinault on the <B>Olympic</B> Peninsula, measuring 63.5 feet around and 159 feet high. Arguably bigger is the Nolan Creek cedar near Forks, 61 feet around and 178 feet high. A cedar on the Ohanepecosh River in Mount Rainier National <B>Park</B> is considerably taller at 234 feet, but only 20 feet around. The Kalaloch cedar at Sixth Beach is the fattest, at 64 feet around, but only 123 feet high. All have multiple tops because of tendency for cedar tops to break off and regrow. The smaller Alaskan, or yellow cedar, can be found at elevations above about 2,500 feet in Western Washington and has been prized as a boat-building wood. A larger near-relative of that species is Port Orford cedar in southwest Oregon.
CEDAR IS A VERY RESILIENT tree. Each conifer has a different strategy for survival. Douglas fir sprouts best in full sunlight, and often dominates after forest fires or clear-cuts. Hemlock grows in the shade of fir, eventually succeeding it. Cedar prefers dappled shade and wet places and only rarely grows in groves of its own kind. Rather, it's a mixer, opportunistically poking its way into the forest here and there, taking over from other conifers that don't want to get their feet wet. There is no cedar forest, but lots of cedar trees. When most abundant, about one-quarter of the trees in a coastal forest can be cedar, but it represents just 12 percent of the conifers in coastal British Columbia as a whole and about 9 percent of Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in Washington's Cascades. It is a beautiful tree, but falls short of the nobility of fir or redwood or sequoia. Cedar's easily identified bark of papery strips looks a bit untidy, as if the tree needs some hair gel to lay down properly. Its needles are flat, its branches don't have the perky bristle of fir, and the whole tree seems to sag slightly, as if burdened with age and wisdom. So well do the branches shed water that some Indians call it shabalup, or "dry underneath." Channels in the wood for nutrients and water leave cedar with a microscopic pattern of air spaces that make it light and a good insulator, sort of a natural foam board. While shallow-rooted, it will entwine its roots with those of neighboring trees to resist the push of storm winds. Reproduction normally occurs through cross-pollination with other cedars. But a cedar is also capable of selfing - not a bizarre practice but a botanical term for self-pollination, meaning a cedar can fertilize itself if necessary. Scientists theorize this evolved as a survival strategy in the Ice Ages, allowing isolated cedars to reproduce. Most conifers avoid selfing by having their female cones higher than their male, so that pollen won't reach, or by having the two types of cones mature at different times. Males cones on a cedar, however, release a flood of yellow pollen that can be received by females on the same tree, which in turn produce a prolific release of seed in the fall. Cedar cones are no bigger than a fingernail and their seeds are so tiny that they average about 400,000 to the pound. An acre of mixed trees can produce 60 million cedar seeds per year, only a few of which will ever germinate. So fecund are Northwest forests with pollen and seed, floating hither and yon, that it might stimulate one's interest in forestry to think of our mountain sides as one gigantic X-rated movie - though not as lively, perhaps, as late-night cable. Cedar can live for millennia, and even after falling their rot- resistant logs can persist for centuries more. Yet the grandest cedars have become museum pieces, scattered and isolated. The Nolan Creek giant is in the middle of a clear-cut, its last live root accidentally cut by an interpretive path to give access to its trunk. Tribes seeking cedar trees suitable for canoes, long houses or totem poles must look long and hard. The wood's usefulness and rising price recently have prompted interest in the tree's survival. "Cedar is now being replanted aggressively," said Paul Mackie of the Western Red Cedar Lumber Association, a trade organization that each year hosts a week-long school in Vancouver to introduce retailers and builders to the advantages of this remarkable wood. "There is sufficient cedar being regrown to keep us in business indefinitely," said Lindal, whose company gets its cedar from Canada.
HAVING CEDAR FOR THE AGES is a good thing, too. "Cedar is very important to our lifestyle," said Linda Day, cultural resources coordinator for the Swinomish Tribe near La Conner. When the Forest Service helped the tribe obtain cedar to rebuild its long house in 1992, she reported, "Some of the old songs returned to our elders." Classes are held to teach cedar basket-making and this summer the tribe hopes to build its first new cedar canoes. We could not replicate Native American life today: Neither the cedar nor the salmon are still there in sufficient numbers. Cedar was once so abundant and worthless, says the Darrington ranger district's Selvig, that loggers would cut stronger firs so they fell into and splintered a cedar, thereby avoiding having to pay stumpage prices on the trees. Structurally weak, cedar was junk wood, good for shingles and kindling but too fast-burning to even make good firewood. The original inhabitants knew better, of course. They prized cedar for the bounty it offered and the secrets it contained. In 1981, in response to congressional legislation guaranteeing Indian religious freedom, the Forest Service began to collect information on cedar the tribes used for both bark and spiritual retreats. Spiritually, each surviving grove is a sacred place as venerable as a gothic cathedral. Some 33 sites of undisclosed size were identified in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, which stretches from Mount Rainier to the Canadian border. Most cedar groves are only a few acres, and the ones most frequently used are near roads to make access practical. Spirit-seekers usually repair to these woods alone when meditating; bark-collecting is done in groups. While tribes prefer to keep details of religious practices private, they often include fasting and ritual bathing in clear, cold mountain streams. We'll continue to use cedar industrially, as the Indians did: It's too useful a tree to neglect. But we shouldn't forget cedar is also magical - almost spooky in the sense of presence it gives off when you spend time with the trees. Cedar is one of the spiritual cores of our Northwest. Enjoy its mystery.
Cedars on the Web At their Web site the Forks Chamber of Commerce provides maps for finding the Nolan Road and Kalaloch cedars plus other visitor information for the western Olympic Peninsula: http://www.forkswa.com E-mail Comments to Editor : Opinion@seatimes.com Seattle Times: Table of Content http://www.seattletimes.com/news/ The Seattle Times: Search Archive http://www.seattletimes.com/extra/search.html The Seattle Times: Browse by date http://www.seattletimes.com/todaysnews/browse.html Seattle Times: Special Reports http://www.seattletimes.com/news/special/ Permission requests and information http://www/seatimes.com/general/info.html Copyright (c) 1999 The Seattle Times Company http://www.seattletimes.com/news/general/copyright.html
--------- "RE: Ramsey Muniz Defense Committee News" ---------
Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 01:04:51 -0700 From: "S.I.S.I.S." <SISIS@envirolink.org> Subj: Ramsey Muniz Defense Committee News
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty-:-:-:-:-:-:-: NOTE: Please send all inquiries/comments about this post to the original sender, <aou@earthlink.net>, *not* S.I.S.I.S. -------Forwarded message----- Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 16:31:19 -0500 From: "Irma L. Muniz" <aou@earthlink.net>
Please distribute widely. STATUS OF RAMSEY MUNIZ Ramsey Muniz, a political prisoner from Corpus Christi, Texas, remains in solitary confinement in Leavenworth, Kansas. He and other Mexicanos have been kept in torturous conditions since December 10, 1998. When we ask the Bureau of Prisons for a reason, they merely say that it is due to an ongoing investigation. NEW FLYER Enclosed is a new flyer regarding the case of Ramsey Muniz. The information includes the complete story of a false scenario created in 1994 by DEA agents in Dallas, Texas, in order to capture Ramsey again. Captured in 1994 Ramsey Muniz, a leader during the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, is a political prisoner serving a life sentence on false charges. In March of 1994, Muniz was on business trips in Houston and Dallas. He worked as a legal assistant and was meeting potential clients for different attorneys. Muniz did not drive long distances alone, due to health reasons. On this trip he traveled with Juan Gonzales of Mathis, Texas. One of the clients that Muniz met with was Donacio Medina, of Durango, Mexico. Medina needed the help of an attorney to transfer two incarcerated brothers to prisons in Mexico. On March 11, 1994, Medina asked Juan Gonzales and Ramsey Muniz for a ride to the airport. On their way there, he asked Muniz to move his car to another motel, where he planned to retrieve it later. Muniz did not have a vehicle, so he agreed to help move Medina's car - - a vehicle which he had never been in before. As Muniz was parking Medina's car, he realized that he was being followed by the law. He parked the car then quickly walked, searching for a telephone to call an attorney. As he walked, a police car whisked past him, as in pursuit. At this point Muniz nervously attempted to disassociate himself from the car he had just been asked to move. Walking toward a telephone, he placed the car keys in his sock, to avoid giving them to the law enforcement. He never made it to the telephone. He was surrounded by police and DEA agents, even though they had no legal reason to have stopped him. They searched him, and found the car keys. Later, they searched the car and found what they already knew was there. DEA agent Kimberly Elliott of Dallas, Texas, signed an affidavit which stated the reasons why they went after Muniz. The affidavit contained false statements. Elliott stated that motel employees had contacted the DEA because of suspicious behavior on the part of Ramsey Muniz. This behavior consisted of his making phone calls from the lobby when he could have used his room instead. Elliott further stated that Muniz used a false name when he checked into the motel. The three motel employees were brought in to testify at the trial, and their testimony was consistent. None of them had contacted the DEA, none had said that Muniz had acted suspiciously, and it was proven that Muniz had used his own name when he checked into the motel. We later discovered that the government was actually in pursuit of Donacio Medina, because he (and NOT Muniz) had made an illegal drug deal with them. They kept this information from the jury, however. The government did not want for the jury to know about Donacio Medina so that they could instead blame Ramsey Muniz. The DEA's wrongdoing is further compounded by the fact that they let Donacio Medina go free, even though he was the one they had been pursuing. Muniz's fingerprints were nowhere to be found on the car that Medina had asked him to move. The government would not reveal whose fingerprints were on the contraband. We later learned that Juan Gonzales was the one who had rented the car for Donacio Medina. Gonzales, the co-defendant, did not take the witness stand. Ramsey Muniz, Juan Gonzales, and Donacio Medina had met at an Owens Restaurant, to discuss legal assistance for Medina's brothers. DEA agent Eli Chavez claims to have heard a phrase during this meeting - the only phrase that he could hear during a 30-minute conversation. He claims that Medina said, "No los conozco muy bien, pero vamos hacer un trato a las diez." This one statement, not even made by Muniz, was the only evidence that the government produced to indict Muniz. They claimed that Medina made this statement, yet Medina was allowed him to go free! The only evidence, which could have shown that Medina was staying in a different motel from Muniz, was not allowed in the trial. The custodian of records was properly subpoenaed for this information, but he refused to show. The defense asked the judge to enforce the subpoena. The judge refused, saying that it might confuse the jury. The prosecutors withheld information until the last part of the trial, making it too late for the defense to make use of it. They made no apologies for this misconduct.
Persecuted from the Beginning At the heart of his political career in 1976, Ramsey Muniz was indicted on drug conspiracy charges. Knowing that the establishment was out to get him, he left for Mexico only to be caught, tortured, and returned to the U. S. for prosecution. Houston Attorney Dick DeGuerin stated, "The evidence was either non-existent or from a very unreliable source. There were a couple of people who were given immunity in order to testify, and it was just an effort to get Ramsey!" Muniz pleaded guilty to federal drug charges, and disassociated himself >from members of the Raza Unida Party, knowing that they were also government targets. Muniz was indicted in Corpus Christi and San Antonio for the same crime, making it count twice. Muniz's sentence was far greater than sentences normally given. He served his time in the harshest prisons throughout the country. He was later released to face continuing stalking and persecution by the DEA. In Houston, Muniz was followed by the DEA, and accused of drug possession for contraband found not in his possession, but in a client's apartment. The charges were dropped due to an illegal search, and a parole violation was given.
Status of the Case The trial was in Sherman, Texas, which is in the Eastern District. It was lost, appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and to the Supreme Court. All courts denied the appeal. A -2255 was filed in October of 1997, and it was denied by the Eastern District. It was forwarded to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and we await their response. All appellate work has been filed Pro Se.
How You Can Help + Organize a Ramsey Muniz Defense Committee in your area. Contact us for additional information. + Write or telephone senators and congressmen. Ask that they call for a congressional investigation. Solomon P. Ortiz United States Congressman 3649 Leopard Street Corpus Christi, TX 78408 (361) 883-5868 fax: 884-9201
Kay Bailey Hutchison United States Senator 10440 N. Central Expwy. Ste.1160 Dallas, TX 75231 (214) 767-0577 fax:(202)224-0776 senator@hutchison.senate.gov
Edward Kennedy United States Senator 2400 J.F.K. Federal Building Boston, MA 02203 (617) 565-3170 fax:(617)565-3183 senator@kennedy.senate.gov
+ Send donations: Advocates of Justice 5403 Everhart Rd. #216 Corpus Christi, TX 78411-4895 (361) 992-4488
"Even though I'm caged and confined in the underground dungeons of this oppressor, my soul is free. The more I read, study and examine our ancient sacred spiritual historia, the more I'm totally convinced that we, the Mexikas, will never be defeated again." Ramsey R. Muniz - Tezcatlipoca http://home.earthlink.net/~aou ++++FREE RAMSEY MUNIZ++++ :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: 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: Navajo Nation and Means" ---------
Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 02:33:33 GMT From: m_cata_iii@hotmail.com Subj: Navajo Nation and Means
Newsgroup: alt.native
Good news! In accordance with the 1868 Treaty, ICRA, the Duro fix, and the general interests of the Navajo Nation, the Navajo Supreme Court has maintained the Navajo Nation holds criminal misdemeanor jurisdiction over Russell Means.
In sum, by James Zion, Solicitor to the Courts of the Navajo Nation: The decision holds that Rusell Means is subject to the criminal jurisdiction of the Navajo Nation. The Court based its ruling on three principles: (1) The "set apart for the use and occupation" and "bad men" language of the United States-Navajo Nation Treaty of 1868 recognizes criminal jurisdiction over nonmember Indians by the Navajo Nation. (2) Russell Means gave his consent to criminal jurisdiction by "assuming tribal relations" with Navajos by becoming a hadane or "in-law." (3) The assertion of criminal jurisdiction over a nonmember Indian does not violate equal protection of the law, because any person can become an in-law and there is a Navajo Nation governmental interest in maintaining peace and order.
>From the AP: Navajos Claim Sweeping Jurisdiction .c The Associated Press By MICHELLE RUSHLO PHOENIX (AP) -- In a case that could test the legitimacy of tribal courts throughout the country, the Navajo Supreme Court ruled it has criminal jurisdiction over all Indians on the reservation regardless of whether they are Navajo. The case has drawn national attention for the legal questions it raises about tribal sovereignty and because it involves Russell Means, the former leader of the American Indian Movement who led a 1973 uprising at Wounded Knee, S.D. "Every tribe is going to take a careful look at this," said Robert Williams, professor of law and American Indian studies at the University of Arizona. "The stakes are very big." Means was charged in a Navajo court in December 1997 with beating his father-in-law. Means, an Oglala Sioux, said he should not be prosecuted by another tribe and challenged the 1991 federal law passed authorizing tribal courts to try Indians from other tribes. In a 3-0 ruling Tuesday, the Navajo Supreme Court cited a 1977 U.S. Supreme Court decision that defined "Indian" as a political rather than a racial category. The court also pointed out that Means married a Navajo woman, lived on the reservation and conducted business there -- all evidence, it said, that he should be subject to the Navajo judicial system. Means contended that the 1991 law is discriminatory because it says non-Indian defendants are not subject to tribal courts, but does not make a distinction for Indians who aren't members of the ruling tribe. "I haven't any rights on any reservation in America except my own, so I want to be treated like any other American," Means said Thursday from his home in Santa Fe, N.M. Means, 59, who has appeared in such films as "Natural Born Killers" and "The Last of the Mohicans," plans to appeal the Navajo court's decision in federal court. Navajo prosecutor Donovan D. Brown was traveling on Thursday and didn't immediately return a call seeking comment. AP-NY-05-13-99 2131EDT Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press. mC.
-- http://members.xoom.com/AntiSPEW http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Rampart/8798/over.html--------- "RE: Justice and Freedom for Leonard Peltier" ---------
Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 14:40:12 -0700 From: Nancy Thomas <nlthomas@YvwiiUsdinvnohii.net> Subj: LPDC Canada - Canadian Labour Stand Solidarity "Justice and Freedom for Leonard Peltier"
Mailing List: Paths-L <paths-l@YvwiiUsdinvnohii.net>
Canadian Labour Stands Overwhelmingly in Solidarity "For Justice and Freedom for Leonard Peltier" Preliminary release, May 13, 1999 from the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee Canada Email: mailto:lpdccfd@web.net At the 22nd annual convention of the Canadian Labour Congress, a historic resolution in support of justice and freedom for North American political prisoner Leonard Peltier was endorsed in a unanimous vote by an estimated 2,000 labour delegates who converged from across the country. The CLC represents 2.5 million unionized workers in Canada. The event at the Metro Toronto Convention Center from May 3 to 7, 1999 brought together representatives from the auto workers' union; steel workers and hospital workers; public employees of both provincial and federal governments; from teachers, postal workers and fisherman's unions to labour boards representing districts from all Canadian provinces and territories. The final ratifying of the resolution was preceded by months of lobby by representatives of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee Canada, both in Ottawa and Toronto, who engaged in numerous public speaking forums and awareness sessions with union locals and at provincial and national executive council meetings. A final priority and emergency resolution was submitted before the convention floor that combined three resolutions in support of urgent action for proper medical treatment for Peltier; focussed on the Canadian lobby and Canada's responsibility to remedy the injustice of the false extradition as well as support clemency and Peltier's unconditional release. Unions in British Columbia, Ottawa and Hamilton, Ontario had submitted the resolutions. Anne and Frank Dreaver, of LPDC Canada spoke at the CLC human rights forum which kicked off the convention and was attended by an estimated 300 peoples. Greg Keelor of Blue Rodeo, who collaborated with Dreaver on the Pine Ridge: An Open Letter to Allan Rock, Songs for Leonard Peltier album (released through Warner Music Canada in October 1996) sang his Pine Ridge song, offering a chronology of Peltier's struggle to music. The audience was moved, inspired and many peoples gave their personal commitment to lobby within their union structure. An information booth with a post card campaign to Canadian government officials was available to delegates the full week of the convention. _________________________________________________________ [**Note: Photo Not attached.] In the picture taken May 6 on the convention floor, from left to right: Ethel Lavalley of the Ontario Federation of Labour; LPDC Canada's Anne Dreaver; Bob White, CLC president; Nancy Riche, CLC Exec VP; and Frank Dreaver, Int'l spokesperson & LPDC Canada founder. For more information contact LPDC Canada by phone. (416) 439-1893 _________________________________________________________ To subscribe to the "Paths-L" mailing list send a message to Majordomo@YvwiiUsdinvnohii.net In the body of the message type: subscribe paths-l To unsubscribe type: unsubscribe paths-l (no subject is necessary for the message). ---------------------------------------- To subscribe to the "Leonard Peltier" mailing list send a message to Majordomo@YvwiiUsdinvnohii.net In the body of the message type: subscribe LeonardPeltier To unsubscribe type: unsubscribe LeonardPeltier (no subject is necessary for the message). ------------------------------------------ To subscribe to the "Campaign for Medical Treatment" email list send a blank message to peltier-fast-request@iww.org with just the word subscribe in the subject line. ------------------------------------------ To subscribe to the "Leonard Peltier Defense Committee" email list, send a blank message to lpdc-on@mail-list.com To unsubscribe, send a blank message to lpdc-off@mail-list.com
--------- "RE: Atlanta Benefit Concert/Book Release for Leonard" ---------
Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 10:49:09 EDT From: JTRoad@aol.com Subj: Fwd: press release
For release to Atlanta; May 12, 1999 Contact: Reid Jenkins 404-525-4360, freejoye@mindspring.com Leonard Peltier Support Group, Atlanta
LEONARD PELTIER BENEFIT CONCERT & BOOK RELEASE JUNE 12 - UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CONGREGATION A benefit concert at 7 p.m., June 12 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 1911 Cliff Valley Way in Atlanta, will celebrate the release of Native American political prisoner Leonard Peltier's autobiography, "Prison Writings: My Life is My Sundance," by St. Martin Press. Harvey Arden, the book's editor, will speak and read from "Prison Writings." Arden, a former writer for National Geographic, is the author of books on Indian culture including "Wisdom Keepers" and "Travels in a Stone Canoe." Musical performers will include the popular Atlanta singer-songwriter Elise Witt; Veronika Jackson, a singer-songwriter who recently moved to Atlanta from Florida after 15 years on the folk music circuit there; and members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), who will perform the "Peltier Honor Song" and other Native American songs. Buffalo chili, fry bread and books will be on sale. Tickets are $12 in advance - $14 at the door. For more information, contact the Leonard Peltier Support Group, Atlanta at 404-525-4360 or freejoye@mindspring.com Proceeds from the event will benefit the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, which funds efforts to obtain Peltier's release after 23 years of incarceration for a crime he insists he did not commit. Peltier is serving two consecutive life sentences for the deaths of two F.B.I. agents in a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge, South Dakota Indian reservation. He and other AIM members were on the reservation at the invitation of tribal elders to protect Indians who were protesting the strip-mining of their land when a shootout occurred, leaving two FBI agents and one Indian dead. There were many murders and beatings of Indian people at that time which have since been documented and attributed to the corrupt tribal government. Since his trial in 1977 the U. S. government has admitted to coercing witnesses, fabricating evidence and withholding evidence, and even admits that they do not know who killed the two agents or what part Peltier played in the shootout. His supporters believe that he is a scapegoat, serving time to cover up actions of the U.S. government and the U.S. government- backed tribal council, including a secret transfer of uranium-rich tribal land. "There are many sad chapters in the book of relations between our government and Indian people," says Reid Jenkins, coordinator of the Leonard Peltier Support Group, Atlanta. "Leonard's story is just one of many. There's nothing we can do for countless other martyrs in this struggle, but we certainly should do all that we can to help this one." Peltier is currently suffering from a botched operation performed by a prison doctor in 1996 to treat a problem he has had since he stepped on a nail as a child and contracted lockjaw. The operation aggravated his condition and now he can no longer close his mouth completely or open it more than a quarter of an inch. Officials at the Bureau of Prisons facility where Leonard was treated have stated that they cannot do anything further to relieve the pain, but a doctor at the Mayo Clinic believes that he can help and has volunteered to perform corrective surgery. The prison has refused a medical transfer. "Peltier was on the Pine Ridge reservation in 1975 in an effort to help his people," says Jenkins. "He made a commitment as a teenager to dedicate his life to helping his people, and he has not forgotten that commitment. Even in prison he uses his position as America's best known political prisoner to help organize food drives, clothing drives and Christmas present drives for Indian people." Peltier works with Food Not Bombs and the National Commission for Democracy in Mexico to help the indigenous people of war-torn Chiapas. He has worked on economic and health care reform for reservations, as well as programs for addiction counseling. Proceeds from the sales of his paintings have been used to set up a scholarship fund to send Indian people to law school. He's received Spain's Human Rights Award, the Frederick Douglass Award, the Humanist of the Year Award and the Sacco and Vanzetti Award, and he's been nominated for the U.N. Human Rights Award and the Nobel Peace Prize. "My dream is to rejoin the people and build Native American community centers offering after-school activities and counseling. I want to work with specialists from around the world to help prevent and treat alcoholism. I want to help create jobs and job training for Indian people. It's so frustrating to hear over and over again about teen suicide, drug abuse, unemployment, and seemingly eternal poverty among my people. I ask myself, what has my sacrifice been for?" Leonard Peltier, "Prison Writings" For excerpts from "Prison Writings: My Life is My Sundance," go to: http://www.wisdomkeepers.com/peltier.htm
--------- "RE: Native Prisoner" ---------
Date: Sun, 16 May 99 0817:10 GMT From: Janet Smith (evestar@juno.com) Subj: Contacting those in the Ironhouse
UUCP email
Tell a Native American Prisoner someone cares! The following is a portion of the list of Native American Prisoners incarcerated in prisons throughout the United States. The full list is found at the Native Prisoners Pen Pal list the following web site: http://www.brooks.simplenet.com/penpal.html. The list is compiled from contributions by Wotanging Ikche readers, other friends and from Laura Brooks' research on Native American Spiritual Freedom in Prison. If you know of a Native prisoner who would like to be included here, please e-mail Janet Smith at jans@atlcom.net. My thanks to Laura Brooks for giving this list a home on the web.
Poole, Mary Laverne Prince Mahdi Lemuel Prinkey, Robert Lee #36550 Holmes BV-3474 1479 Collins Ave. #88698 Box A Marysville, OH 43040 Turngy Center Anex Bellefonte, PA 16823 Date of Birth: 1/7/62 Route One Only, TN Date of Birth: 6/25/62 Ancestry: Cherokee 37140-9709 Ancestry: Idaho Indian?
Quarry, James Lee Ramage, Marvin Rednour, Eddie Dean #298-683 #R149-677 #196-745 PO Box 5500 PO Box 740/J-C PO Box 511 Chillicothe, OH 45601 London, OH 43140-0740 Columbus, OH 43216 Date of Birth: 8/25/72 Date of Birth: 9/7/59 Date of Birth: 10/28/55 Ancestry: Cherokee Ancestry: Cherokee Ancestry: Cherokee
Reynolds, Randy Riches, Russell Dean Rivers, Ricky D. #257-644 #A289-296 #122-582 NCI 15708 SR 78 W PO Box 4501 PO Box 1812 Caldwell, OH 43724 Lima, OH 45802 Marion, OH 43301 Date of Birth: 7/10/50 Date of Birth: 7/21/61 Ancestry: Southern Ancestry: Cherokee Arapaho
Robison, Earl Henry Rosner, J. Toumak Rust, Jr., Paul #A181-257 #91-B-04111 CU-3171 D/B 12 PO Box 5500 135 State St., Box 618 10745 Rt. 18 Chillicothe, OH 45601 Auburn, NY 13021 Albion, PA 16475-0002 Date of Birth: 8/25/48 Date of Birth: 4/13/57 Date of Birth: 4/12/73 Ancestry: Ojibwe / Ancestry: Tuscara Cherokee/Choctaw
Reminder and Caution: It is common for prisoners to be moved abruptly. If your correspondent suddenly quits writing, don't assume it's by choice. Inquire about his location and situation -- often the prison chaplain can help you with this. If you know a prisoner on our list has been moved, please let me know. If your correspondent requests that you send him anything, particularly ceremonial items, check the prison to ensure the requested items are not contraband. Sometimes items of religious significance that are ordinarily banned may be given to the prisoner by the chaplain. --------------------------------- Please especially remember - this is the "Year of Leonard". Leonard Peltier #89637-132, Box 1000, Leavenworth, KS 66048
--------- "RE: Pieces of Pottery" ---------
Date: Sun, 07 Mar 1999 16:35:03 GMT From: "rustywire" <nfcambridge@hotmail.com> Subj: pieces of pottery....
Newsgroup: alt.native
Newcomb, New Mexico, I don't know if any of you have been there it is more or less a wide spot on the road from Shiprock to Gallup, it lies just above Sheepsprings. Most people don't notice it because it is pretty flat, dry barren sort of place but there is a trading post, a couple of schools, teacher housing and a headstart building, a very small community. There was a time when the school bus from Toadlena used to get there by the old bumpy road that goes from there to Two Grey Hills and then to Toadlena. A small short yello school bus used to drop us off there and we would wait for the bus from Naschitti and get on that one to go to school. It was the same coming from Shiprock, we would get dropped off there. Sometimes it was on time sometimes it would be late. If it was late we used to walk to the trading post, The trading post is white, and is next to a wash, you don't notice it because there is not much water in there and the bridge crosses and people just want to get by there to get where they are going. Anyway the wash is on the north side of the trading post. The trading post is built next to a hill and on top of the hill is a water tank. When we waited for the bus we used to walk to the water tank and just sort of look around. Sometimes the bus would be really late and you just get bored and so we used to sit up there and watch for it. As time went by we used to go up there every once in while and we would see the small pieces of pottery, pottery shards that lay broken like small pieces of a broken bottle on the ground. We used to make a game sort of looking at them because there were a bunch of different designs laying there, some black & white, others with indentations and they were all over the top of the hill. Up the wash a little ways were the remains of an old pueblo which was crumbling and falling into the wash because the stream bank had eroded it away. The site used to lie west of the trading post about a couple of hundred yards facing the north. I sat down one day watching for the late bus and looked at the old pu