Articles appearing have been previously posted for public dissemination
and/or permission for inclusion has been secured.
Letters of authorization are on file. A list of those granting permission
to repost their words in this issue are listed at the end of part A.
I thank each of you for allowing your words to be shared with the people.
IMPORTANT!!
-----------
To all who send copywrite protected articles, make very sure you have
permission from the copywrite holder (a newspaper, the AP, a magazine, an
author) because a new law is now in effect that says you can be prosecuted
even if there is no monetary gain. Just because a newspaper has a website
where it posts some or all of its editions does not grant permission for
their redistribution. Be careful and be sure you pass on the items you do
with full permission.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, all material appearing in
this newsletter is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a
prior interest in receiving this information for educational purposes.
<----<<<< >>>>---->
This newsletter is a way of keeping the brothers and sisters who share our
Spirit informed about current events within the lives of those who walk the
Red Road.
++ It may be subscribed to via email by sending a request from your own
internet addressable account to gars@netcom.com
++ It is archived at http://www.nanews.org
++ There is also a hyperlinked version of the Current Issue at
http://bearvisions.com/NativeNews/NEWS.html
Borries Demeler advises AISESnet doesn't exist anymore, instead there is now
NativeNet where people can search for archives of Wotanging Ikche issues:
_ All past AISESnet archives (1992-1998) can now be found in:
http://aises.uthscsa.edu/discussion/
_ All new messages will be archived in:
http://nativenet.uthscsa.edu/archive/nn-dialogue/archive.html
The mailing address for AISESnet/NativeNet the lists have changed.
Please make a note of the new address.
The old address aisesnet_discussion@listserv.umt.edu should *NOT*
be used any longer. Instead please use:
nn-dialogue@nativenet.uthscsa.edu
Downloading Wotanging Ikche on AOL From: MAANG1419@aol.com <Valentina>
Just thought I would share some info. I could not download on to a .txt
because I kept getting the message (when I tried to retrieve it) that the
text editor could not handle the volume. This time I downloaded it on to
a .doc and when I retrieved it out of file manager, IT WORKED.
"I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from
them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and
the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves."
__ John Wayne (Marion Morris), film actor
"What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man
would die from great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to
the beasts also happens to man. All things are connected. Whatever
befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth."
__ Chief Seathl (Seattle)
+- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+
| 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!
I am a mixed-blood. I have never pretended to be otherwise. This means
more to some than others, and I accept that. Understanding what the
invaders from Europe did to (and continue to do) to First Peoples, I
actually often wonder that I am accepted at all by my fuller blooded
relatives. I am, and for that I am grateful.
Again, this past week, I was asked why the tone of "my newsletter" is
so caustic toward "whites".
I explained, as I have many times, the newsletter is not mine - it is the
Peoples'. I was given the honor of distributing it. I write very little
of it, but make a conscious decision to include each article. In a society
where the dominant culture makes arbitrary and capricious decisions about
the very lives of the People whose lands they occupy, where children were
taken from their homes and forced to wear the uniforms of, speak the
language of and even the names of those who had just slaughtered their own
relatives... where the women on reservations were involuntarily sterilized
in IHS hospitals until the mid 1980's (yes, there are documents to prove
this)... where every single treaty has been violated by the occupation
forces who insisted on their signing... where my family could not testify
against a "white" in Georgia, Tennessee and other states until those
arrogant laws were stricken down during Jimmy Carter's administration...
where the highest medal a military person can be awarded was granted to
almost the entire 7th Calvary for attacking and killing women and children
at dawn... where Leonard Peltier remains a political prisoner who can't
even receive urgent medical attention is being kept incarcerated in spite
of the open admission by his prosecutor there was not one shred of hard
evidence to support his conviction... where citizens who wouldn't dare keep
a "Jim Crow" statue on their lawn still insist on Hollywood chants and
keeping our People as mascots... and a hundred other grievances ....
I think the tone of this newsletter is awfully damn understanding. Read
this newsletter and grow with the truth.
Peace! Night Owl
, , Gary Night Owl gars@netcom.com
(*,*) P. O. Box 672168 gars@nanews.org
(`-') Marietta, GA 30317, U.S.A. gars@igc.apc.org
===w=w== Fax: 770-528-9643
----------- News of the people featured in this issue ----------
- Paul Bloom's Sundance Report - Fishing Conservation
- City Apologizes to Gila River - Plan to Restore Creek for Salmon
- Burial Site Removed in Arkansas - Highway 55 Protest
- Leonard Cozad, Sr. Honored - Camp Justice/Pine Ridge
- President Names - Are Murder and Indian
Tribal College Appointees Incompatible in the Media
- Hail a New Chief for the CNO - Wall of Silence around Peltier
- Choctaws Re-elect Pyle - Native Prisoner
in Landslide - La...la...la...loving you
- Indian Plaintiffs Plead to Judge - Book Review: Newspaper Indian
- Canada/US Indians - A Hundred Years Ago
Seek Closer Ties - NA Penpal Program for Youth
- Honoring Nations - Poem: Racist
Finalists Announced - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days
- Wolf News - Upcoming Events
- Managing Northwest Public lands - Stage Review: Mohican Soup
- Salmon; A Species in Peril - Native America Calling
--------- "RE: Paul Bloom's Sundance Report" ---------
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 11:49:48 -0800
From: BIGMTLIST <redorman@theofficenet.com>
Subj: Paul Bloom's Sundance Report
Mailing List: Big Mountain List <bigmtlist@onelist.com>
First, an administrative note. BIGMTLIST is now going to be serviced
through Onelist. Present subscribers will automatically be subscribed.
Future subscriptions can be added through the link in the signature below.
More details will follow in a later post. The following report is also on
my Big Mountain web page.
------- FORWARD, Original message follows -------
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 11:46:13 -0700
From: Diane <dmw98@jps.net>
Subj: Paul Bloom's Sundance Report
I'm using a friend's email to send this in Word document and text document
format. Perhaps you'll post it on your web site. Thanks, Paul
"Never in this country will you go to church and see policemen outside
taking your license numbers and your pictures." Joe Chasing Horse, Sundance
leader
Sunday, July 18, saw the end of a four year cycle of Sundances at Camp
Ana Mae on Big Mountain, Arizona, one of two Sundance ceremonies brought
by the Lakota people to the Dineh (Navajo) threatened with imminent removal
from their lands by the U.S. government.
Named for murdered American Indian Movement activist Ana Mae Aquash, Camp
Ana Mae designates an area of high desert land inhabited for centuries
by people who suddenly found themselves on the wrong side of a line drawn
in 1974 by an ignorant Congress heavily lobbied by Peabody Coal Co.
Besides its religious significance, this year's Sundance inadvertently
became a massive demonstration of peaceful civil disobedience by all in
attendance, residents, dancers, and supporters, who defied threats of fines
and prosecution by the U.S. created Hopi Tribal council in order to attend.
As many as six cars of Hopi Rangers, Bureau of Indian Affairs police, and
sheriffs of Navajo County maintained an around the clock vigil at the
entrance of the camp. FBI and ATF agents reportedly visited the site as
well. At the beginning of the 25 mile dirt road from Highway 264 another
crew of Hopi Rangers stopped, questioned, I.D.-checked, and threatened
people with fines and jail if they went to the Sundance. Some local
residents were flatly turned away from the road. No one knows how many
stayed home to avoid the roadblocks, or how many were arrested on warrant
checks or for other reasons. Notices designating Camp Ana Mae as a closed
area were posted along the road.
In addition, "technicians" or "monitors" from the Hopi Land Team strutted
aggressively around the Sundance area, ostensibly to ensure safe fires
and sanitary conditions, harassing people in the kitchen and at the camps
in arrogant displays of authority. These are the same thugs who accompany
Hopi Rangers and heavily armed BIA police on recurrent raids to confiscate
livestock of resisters.
Synchronized with these efforts was a campaign of misinformation,
including false news reports planted on local radio of shots fired on the
land, and radio spots on at least one commercial Flagstaff station warning
people not to attend the Sundance because of threats of violence.
With the Sundance purification rites set to begin on 14 July, Hopi Tribal
Council Chairman Wayne Taylor, Jr. issued an executive order dated 2 July
declaring a drought emergency and extreme fire danger, and forbidding open
fires within residential areas, and overnight camping on "undeveloped (sic)
areas outside of Village areas."
On 9 July the chairman issued another executive order declaring a
Hantavirus alert, proscribing camping in "underdeveloped (sic) areas" and
asserting that no entrance would be permitted into "restricted (closed)
areas."
In a letter the same day to Ruth Benally, sponsor and host of the Sundance
and longtime resister, Chairman Taylor, Jr. asserted that "the entire Hopi
Reservation is closed to all access, except as authorized by the Hopi Tribe.
All individuals entering and remaining on Hopi land without authorization
of the Hopi Tribe will be subject to exclusion, assessment of penalties,
and prosecution under the laws of the Tribe."
The Sundance is a religious ceremony of sacrifice and purification in
which dancers abstain from food and water for four days, dancing from
sunrise to sunset while drummers sing ancient prayers and families and
friends watch (and dance) from the arbor. It's an experience of
indescribable power and emotion. This was the twelfth year of the Sundance
at the Joe and Alice Benally Memorial Sundance Grounds at Camp Ana Mae,
the end of the third four year cycle.
On 14 July the Navajo Hopi Observer, an independent paper, published a
front page article by the Hopi Tribe Land Team depicting the Sundance
ceremony as a "well-orchestrated effort to bait the Hopi Tribe into a
hostile media situation."
Nevertheless, more than 500 people from dozens of Indian nations and
tribes plus non-Indian supporters from all over the world, including Japan,
Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, and Mexico, voted with their feet to
refute the Hopi Tribal Council's desperate efforts to squash the Sundance
ceremony. This was a triumphant rebuke to an orchestrated campaign of
lies and intimidation.
The original Hopi Tribal Council had been imposed by manipulation and
deceit on the Hopi (the name means "peaceful") under the 1934 Indian
Reorganization Act. By 1943 it had dissolved for lack of support. It was
revived in the early 1950's by John Boyden, Peabody company lawyer and
bishop of the Mormon Church. Over the protests of traditional Hopi, with
the help of wealthy Mormon Hopi cattle ranchers, he convened a more
durable tribal government.
The Indian Placement Service represents one of the Mormon Church's most
successful and controversial programs. From 1949 to 1976 over 20,000 Indian
children were taken into white families to live during the school year,
going back to their reservation homes during the summer, and often returning
to the same "foster" families each year. From its inception, the Hopi Tribal
Council has been dominated by Mormons and alumni of this program.
The Mormon Church, extremely secretive about its assets, holds enormous
investments in public utilities, including Arizona Public Service, and
is reported to have been a majority shareholder in Peabody Coal Co.
Traditional Hopi still voice their opposition to the powerful Tribal
Council, which has been maneuvering to assert its possession of the Hopi
Partitioned Lands since the 1986 deadline originally mandated by Public
Law 93-531 under the false premise of resolving a land dispute. They take
strong exception to the assault on their Navajo neighbors with whom they
have shared land, traded, intermarried, and disputed for centuries, as
neighboring peoples have done since the dawn of human society.
On the second day of the Sundance, at the same time as egregious
violations of basic respect and religious freedom were being perpetrated
by the Hopi Land Team and various police agencies, five members of the Hopi
Tribal Council travelled to the Sundance arbor to share the sacred pipe
with several of the dancers in full view of everyone in the arbor.
Does this augur a change of heart? Are lines being drawn between those
in the Hopi tribal government who perceive the humanitarian disaster
entailed by the policy of relocation, and those ideologues who are devoting
themselves to waging low intensity warfare in a campaign of ethnic
cleansing?
The engine of law doesn't pause to consider these and other questions.
As they did at Waco, at meetings in Washington D.C. and closer to the land,
law enforcement agencies are preparing plans for removal of the remaining
resisters, now scheduled for February 2000.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
You are on the BIGMTLIST, a moderated mailing list of Big Mountain
relocation resistance information (not discussion or debate).
For non-list members receiving this post as a forwarded message, you
may subscribe by following this link:
http://www.onelist.com/subscribe/BIGMTLIST. 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: City Apologizes to Gila River" ---------
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 13:17:38 -0700 (MST)
From: chris@U.ARIZONA.edu
Subj: City apologizes to Gila River over parkway plan: Failed to notify
reservation before plans went public (fwd)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 02:26:04 -0700
Subj: City apologizes to Gila River over parkway plan: Failed to notify
reservation before plans went public
http://www.azcentral.com/news/0720parkway.shtml
City apologizes to Gila River over parkway plan
Failed to notify reservation before plans went public
By Betty Beard
The Arizona Republic
July 20, 1999
The Phoenix city manager apologized Monday to the Gila River Indian
Community's governor for the city's failure to notify the community before
circulating a plan to put a stretch of the proposed South Mountain Parkway
on the reservation.
Gov. Mary Thomas, the community's leader, complained in a letter to
Mayor Skip Rimsza that the community was caught off guard two weeks ago
when city planners began distributing preliminary plans for the 22-mile
parkway.
"We were taken aback that this came out in this fashion and that we were
not notified," Thomas said Monday.
City planners apparently caught a number of people by surprise by
circulating the plans for a parkway to link west Phoenix to Ahwatukee
Foothills.
Those surprised included Ahwatukee Foothills residents and the Phoenix
mayor and city manager.
"I did not know and I know the mayor didn't know that the planning
department was working on this draft plan. I got it the same time it went
public," City Manager Frank Fairbanks said.
Phoenix Councilman Sal DiCiccio, who represents Ahwatukee Foothills, was
incensed.
"You don't draft a plan and then say "OK, here's our plan and what do
you think of it?' Discussions should occur before the planning occurs," he
said.
However, Phoenix planning director Dave Richert said many apparently
forgot that the parkway has been planned for four years.
Most of the parkway would be on Phoenix land except for about a mile
that planners penciled in on the Gila River Indian Community to avoid the
expense and environmental damage of cutting into South Mountain.
Fairbanks said the proposal had so many details that it led people to
believe it's the only route being proposed. Richert, however, said that
was never the intention and that the proposal was always meant to be a
"work in progress document."
The roadway would give Ahwatukee Foothills its first exit to the west
and would give west Phoenix residents a quicker route to Tucson.
The plan has already been approved by three west-side village planning
committees and was scheduled to go before the Ahwatukee Foothills
committee for its recommendation next Monday.
Phoenix planners also scheduled public hearings Aug. 30 and 31 and
planned to take the proposal to the Planning and Zoning Commission Sept.
22 and the City Council on Oct. 20.
If approved, city and state officials would have to find funding and
negotiate with the Gila River community for a right-of-way.
But Fairbanks wants to start the planning all over. He wants the city to
consult with Ahwatukee Foothills and Gila River residents as well as to
consider the idea of not building a road at all.
Thomas said the Pima and Maricopa Native American community does not
want South Mountain cut either.
"There's a religious significance to that mountain," she said.
She said the community doesn't see any obvious benefits to having the
road on its land, but said the community is open for discussion in the
future. "We need to discuss it formally and then take it to the council."
Betty Beard can be reached at (602) 444-7982 or at
betty.beard@pni.com via e-mail.
Copyright 1999, Arizona Central
--------- "RE: Burial Site Removed in Arkansas" ---------
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 1999 09:14:11 -0500
From: Tusweca <tusweca@TWLakes.Net>
Subj: Burial site removed in Arkansas
Tribe reburies bodies uncovered in field
KENNETH HEARD ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
PARKIN -- When farm machinery unearthed a human skeleton in James
Meador's field in northern St. Francis County last month, Meador's son,
Jimmy, first thought he may have discovered a murder victim. When the
remains of two more bodies were found, he realized he stumbled across a
tribal burial site.
"I was shocked," Jimmy Meador, 42, said. "When we found that first one
-- well, you never know. But when we saw two or three more, I was pretty
confident it was an American Indian burial ground."
Archaeologists eventually found the remains of more than 50 bodies
buried under 2 dusty acres just north of Interstate 40 and just west of
Arkansas 75. Jeff Mitchem, an archaeologist with the Arkansas
Archaeological Survey in Parkin, said the remains could be up to 1,200
years old.
The Meadors were leveling the former wheat and soybean field to
prepare it for rice next season when they found the remains under about
18 inches of topsoil.
Friday, members of the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma and Carrie Wilson, a
representative of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation
Act, conducted a private burial ritual. The remains were reburied in an
unmarked 6-foot deep pit across Blevins Bayou from where they were
found.
...
Wilson said Meador was honored because the Quapaw Tribe appreciated his
interest in the remains.
" Owners of private use land can do anything they want to," Wilson said.
"It's important to report these sites. This case was a model of how it
should be done. Meador contacted the authorities, who called the
[Arkansas Archaeological] Survey and it put the wheels in motion."
Wilson said thousands of sites in Arkansas are destroyed through
agriculture, land leveling, road building and other construction. She
said she hopes Meador's case will encourage other land owners to report
such finds.
"There's sometimes a fear and distrust shown by both parties," Wilson
said. "The land owners think the tribes will take away the land."
http://www.ardemgaz.com/today/ark/bestdig17.html
--------- "RE: Leonard Cozad, Sr. Honored" ---------
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 18:48:45 -0500
From: Liz Pollard <lpollard@SMOKESIG.COM>
Subj: Leonard Cozad, Sr. Honored
PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PRESS RELEASE
LEONARD COZAD, SR. NAMED INDIAN OF THE YEAR, 1999
ANADARKO, OK -- The Board of Directors for the 68th American
Indian Exposition has named Lenoard Cozad, Sr., Kiowa, Indian
of the Year for 1999. Cozad, a much honored World War II
veteran who served in France and Germany, was born near Anadarko,
OK on March 4, 1916. He was drafted in 1943 and served in the
United States Army.
Cozad was present at the liberation of Paris during his Army service,
and while serving at the front in Germany, he managed to extricate
many in his unit from a near hopeless situation when they were cut
off. He earned two purple hearts and oak leaf clusters for these deeds.
He is also recorded in military history as one of three Kiowa men who
exchanged strategic messages in their native language, foiling enemy
troops in doing so.
Cozad has worked tirelessly throughout his life to help preserve the
culture of his people. The teachings of his grandfather instilled in
him a love of the Native American Church, which he has shared with
many others in his tribe in adulthood. His own musical talent for
singing and composing has made him an ambassador for his people and
his tribe throughout Indian country.
The honor to be given him by the American Indian Exposition is only one
of many in his life. Earlier awards and recognition include being
honored by the Kiowa Victory Club, for which he wrote the club song,
as early as 1942, and a Singer/Composer award from the 1985 American
Indian Exposition. Since then he has been honored by the Oklahoma City
Pow-Wow Club and, in 1994, he won the Buddy Jo Bo Jack Nationwide
Humanitarian Award. That same year and again in 1995 he received the
Southern Challenge Singing Championship in Albuquerque, NM.
Many other awards have been given Cozad for his singing and composing,
and he has been honored by many tribes as well. He received presentations
of Peace Pipes, from the Sioux Nation and the Northern Arapaho Nation;
an Eagle Staff from the Chippewa-Cree Nation; and an Eagle Whistle from
the Pawnee Nation.
Leonard has passed on his pride and love of his Kiowa culture to many
children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren.
Nearly every weekend, somewhere in Indian country, Cozads may be found
around a drum, sharing the music of Leonard Cozad, Sr. and the culture
of the Kiowa people.
FOR FURTHER INFO:
Liz Pollard * Smoke Signals Enterprises
505 W. Louisiana Ave., Anadarko, OK 73005
VOICE: (405)247-2251 FAX: (405)247-3384
Email: lpollard@smokesig.com
On the Web: http://www.smokesig.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Elizabeth "Liz" Pollard * Smoke Signals Enterprises
Email: lpollard@smokesig.com * On the Web: http://www.smokesig.com
Web sites designed and developed include:
American Indian Exposition: http://www.indianexpo.org
Moccasin Telegraph: http://www.indianexpo.org/moccasin.html
Housing Authority of the Apache Tribe: http://www.apachehousing.org
Wichita & Affiliated Tribes http://www.wichita.nsn.us
Soil and Plant Laboratory, Inc. http://www.soilandplantlaboratory.com
--------- "RE: President Names Tribal College Appointees" ---------
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 14:10:25 -0500
From: "PPhillips" <ldef007@earthlink.net>
Subj: PRESIDENT NAMES TRIBAL COLLEGE APPOINTEES
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release July 20, 1999
PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES MEMBERS OF THE
BOARD OF ADVISORS ON TRIBAL COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
The President today announced his intent to appoint Alison R.
Bernstein, Dr. Lionel Bordeaux, Dr. Tom Colonnese, Dr. Verna Fowler, Dr.
Tommy Lewis, Jr., Dr. Joe McDonald, Dr. Joseph Martin, Dr. Gerald
"Carty" Monette, Debra Norris, Janine Pease-Pretty on Top, Anne C.
Petersen, Faith Ruth Roessel, Dr. Karl Stauber, Richard Trudell, and
Patrick Williams as Members of the Board of Advisors on Tribal Colleges
and Universities.
Dr. Alison R. Bernstein, of New York, New York, is the Vice
President for the Education, Media, Arts, and Culture Program for the
Ford Foundation. From 1990 to 1992, she was the Associate Dean of the
Faculty at Princeton University. From 1982 to 1990, she was a program
officer at the Ford Foundation. Her research has focused on 20th
Century American Indian history. Dr. Bernstein received a B.A. degree
from Vassar College, an M.A. degree and Ph.D. from Columbia University.
Dr. Lionel Bordeaux, of Rosebud, South Dakota, has served as
President of Sinte Gleska University since 1973, leading the development
of the institution from a two-year college to a four-year, multi-program
and graduate university. A fluent Lakota speaker, he was elected for
six terms (12 years) as a member of the Rosebud Tribal Council. He was
the 1988 Outstanding Indian Educator of the Year of the National Indian
Education Association, the 1989 recipient of the Phelps-Stokes Fund's
J.E.K. Aggrey Medal, and the co-chair of the 1992 White House Conference
on Indian Education. President Carter appointed Dr. Bordeaux as a
member of the National Advisory Council on Indian Education. He has
served as the President of the American Indian Higher Education
Consortium (AIHEC) and as President of the National Indian Education
Association. Dr. Bordeaux completed coursework for his Ph.D. and A.B.D.
in 1974 at the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Tom Colonnese, of Seattle, Washington, is the Assistant Vice
President for the Office of Minority Affairs at the University of
Washington. He also serves as an associate professor of American Indian
Studies at the University. Previously, he was Assistant Dean of
Minority Program Development at Northern Arizona University. Dr.
Colonnese received B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Northern
Iowa, and a Ph.D. from Arizona State University.
Dr. Verna Fowler, of Keshena, Wisconsin, is the President and
founder of the College of Menominee Nation (CMN), her affiliated tribe.
She came to the CMN after a career working in Catholic schools and as an
activist in the Menominee community. Dr. Fowler earned an Associate
degree from the Milwaukee Institute of Technology, a B.A. degree from
Holy Family College, and M.Ed and Ph.D. degrees from the University of
North Dakota.
Dr. Tommy Lewis, Jr., of Tsaille, Arizona, is the President of Dine
College, the largest and oldest of the 31 Tribal Colleges in the United
States. Prior to serving as president of Dine College, he was on the
faculty for the Center for Excellence in Education at Northern Arizona
University. He received B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from Northern
Arizona University.
Dr. Joseph McDonald, of Ronan, Montana, has served as the President
of Salish Kootenai College since 1978. He also serves on the Board of
Directors of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, the
American Indian College Fund, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Commission
for the Future of State Land Grant Colleges and Universities. In 1989,
he was named the National Indian Education Association's Indian Educator
of the Year. Dr. McDonald received an Associates degree and teaching
certificate from Western Montana College, and B.S., M.S. and Ph.D.
degrees from the University of Montana.
Dr. Joseph Martin, of Flagstaff, Arizona, is an Associate Professor
of Educational Leadership at Northern Arizona University. In 1996,
while serving as Superintendent of Schools for Kayenta, Arizona's
Unified School District Number 27, he was selected as Educator of the
Year, a national award, by the North Central Association of Colleges and
Schools. Dr. Martin received a B.S. degree from Arizona State
University and an ED.D. degree from the University of Northern Colorado.
Dr. Gerald "Carty" Monette, of Belcourt, North Dakota, is one of
the founding fathers of the Tribal College movement and of the
25-year-old American Indian Higher Education Consortium. He is the
President of Turtle Mountain Community College. He serves as a member
of the National Advisory Group to the Institute of Higher Education's
New Millennium Project, a member of the National Agriculture Research,
Extension, and Economics Advisory Board, and a member of the North
Dakota Information Technology Council. Dr. Monette received a B.A.
degree from Mayville State College, and M.A. and Ed.D. degrees from the
University of North Dakota.
Ms. Debora Norris, of Sells, Arizona, is one of the first two
Native American women to serve in the Arizona House of Representatives
and is its youngest member, currently age 27. In the Arizona
legislature, she is a member of the Commerce, Transportation, and
Veterans Affairs committees. Ms. Norris, a Navajo, lives on the second
largest Indian reservation in the United States. She received a B.A.
degree in history from Stanford University in 1993.
Ms. Janine Pease-Pretty on Top, of Crow Agency, Montana, is the
President of Little Big Horn College. She began her education career in
the 1970's as a counselor for Navajo Community College and as Director
of the Crow Adult and Vocational Programs. She later served as director
of Indian Career Services at Eastern Montana College. Beginning in
1982, she worked to move Little Big Horn College toward accreditation.
She was named Indian Educator of the Year by the National Indians
Education Association in 1990 and received a MacArthur Foundation
"genius" grant in 1994. Dr. Pease-Pretty on Top received an Ed.D.
degree from Montana State University in 1994 and is the first Crow woman
to earn a doctorate.
Dr. Anne C. Petersen, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, is the Senior Vice
President for programs at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. She is
responsible for the overall leadership of programming, human and
financial resources. From 1994-1996, she was the Deputy Director of the
National Science Foundation. Dr. Petersen chairs a Board of the
National Academy of Sciences (NAS), and serves on a NAS/Institute of
Medicine Forum. She is a founding member of the Society for Research on
Adolescence, and was its president and council member. Dr. Petersen
received B.S., B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago.
Ms. Faith Ruth Roessel, of Bethesda, Maryland, is a member of the
Navajo Nation and is a native of Round Rock, Arizona on the Navajo
reservation. Appointed by Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, she
is the chair of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the Department of
the Interior. She served as Special Assistant to Secretary Babbitt from
1995-1997, and previously was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian
Affairs. She has served as Director of the Navajo Nation's Washington,
DC office, as a senior staff attorney at the Native American Rights
Fund, and as a legislative assistant to Senator Jeff Bingaman. She
serves on several national boards, including the Child Welfare League of
America, Americans for Indian Opportunity, and is a former board member
of the American Bar Association's Commission on Opportunities for
Minorities in the Profession, during which time she also chaired the
Multicultural Women Attorneys Network. Ms. Roessel received a B.A.
degree from Fort Lewis College and a J.D. degree from the University of
New Mexico Law School.
Dr. Karl Stauber, of St. Paul, Minnesota, is the President of the
Northwest Area Foundation, where he is responsible for long-range
program development, administrative and financial management, and
community relations. Prior to his appointment as president, Dr. Stauber
served as a senior appointee in the Clinton Administration at the United
States Department of Agriculture. He was the first Senate-confirmed,
Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics. Previously, he
was Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development at USDA. He received a
B.A. from the University of North Carolina, a certificate from the
Program for Management Development at Harvard Business School, and a
Ph.D. from the Union Institute in Cincinnati.
Mr. Richard Trudell, of Oakland, California, is the Executive
Director and principal founder of the American Indian Lawyer Training
Program, Inc (AILTP), and its American Indian Resources Institute
(AIRI). He has served as a special advisor to the Mashantucket Pequot
Tribal Nation. In 1993, he served as chairman of the search committee
for the Director of the Indian Health Service, a branch of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. Mr. Trudell received a B.S.
degree from San Jose State University in 1969 and a J.D. degree from
Catholic University in 1972.
Congressman Patrick Williams, of Missoula, Montana, is Senior
Fellow at the Center of the Rocky Mountain West and teaches at the
University of Montana. Congressman Williams represented Montana in the
United States House of Representatives from 1979-1997, including
positions as Deputy Whip and chairman of the Committee on Post Secondary
Education. At present he is a member of the Board of the National
Association of Job Corps and a member of the Association of Governing
Boards of Higher Education.
Under Executive Order 13021, the Board of Advisors on Tribal
Colleges and Universities provides advice regarding the progress made by
Federal agencies to improve access to Federal resources and programs for
tribal colleges and universities. It seeks increased recognition of
Tribal Colleges and Universities, access to opportunities afforded other
institutions, and Federal resources committed to them on a continuing
basis. It promotes access to high-quality education for economically
disadvantaged students as well as the preservation and revitalization of
American Indian and Alaska Native languages and cultural traditions.
The Board also explores innovative approaches for linking tribal
colleges with early childhood, elementary, and secondary education
programs.
--------- "RE: Hail a New Chief for the CNO" ---------
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 08:27:44 -0400
From: "Janet" <evestar1@email.msn.com>
Subj: from tulsa world
Hail a new chief
By ROB MARTINDALEWorld Senior Writer
7/25/99
Attorney Chad Smith ousted Joe Byrd by a landslide Saturday to become the
Cherokee Nation's new chief.
TAHLEQUAH -- Sapulpa attorney Chad Smith on Saturday scored a landslide
victory over Cherokee Nation Chief Joe Byrd, whose administration has been
raked by controversy.
In unofficial returns with absentee ballots and votes from all 32
precincts recorded, Smith had 7,197 or 56.5 percent of the vote, compared
to 5,550 or 43.5 percent for Byrd.
The Smith campaign got a big boost from the absentee balloting, where he
led Byrd by a margin of 3,388 to 1,590.
In the race for deputy chief, Hastings Shade, Smith's running mate, also
won going away. He had 7,735 votes, compared to 4,951 for Bill John Baker, a
member of the tribal council who was running on the Byrd ticket.
In races for the tribal council, incum bent Harold Dee Moss defeated James
Hammett, 383-349, and Don Garvin defeated Teasie McCrary Jr., 690-539.
Swearing-in ceremonies will be held in August.
Smith said he won the election in part because of the dedication of his
volunteers. He said the Byrd campaign had paid professionals.
Cherokee voters, Smith said, "wanted a change. They wanted something
positive."
Byrd defended his four-year administration.
"I feel very good about where the tribe is," Byrd said. "I got it out
of debt and on solid financial ground."
Byrd, a former tribal council member and a former school counselor, said
he would continue to support the tribe.
Byrd had led the tribe's May primary race for chief in a field of nine
candidates when he had 32 percent of the vote, compared to 19 percent for
Smith. Around 13,000 of the tribe's 26,000 registered voters cast ballots
in the primary.
Smith said he had expected to win the runoff if 13,000 returned to vote
and to lose if a lower number turned out.
The election was monitored by an 11- person team from the Atlanta-based
Carter Center, which also had an observation team in Tahlequah for the May
primary.
With 200,000 members, the Cherokee Nation is the second largest Indian
tribe in America behind the Navajo Nation.
Former chiefs Wilma Mankiller and Ross Swimmer were among those supporting
Smith's candidacy.
The race pitted two of the leading figures in a constitutional controversy
which has dominated the tribe for 2-1/2 years.
In February 1997, tribal marshals raided Byrd's headquarters in search of
evidence of allegations of misuse of funds.
Byrd, 45, fired the marshals, who had a search warrant signed by a tribal
supreme court justice, and the action forged a split between the
administrative, judicial and legislative branches of the tribe.
Byrd refused to follow court directives to rehire the marshals.
Smith, 48, was arrested by county, state and federal officials in June
1997 when he led an effort to prevent Byrd's administration from closing
the tribe's courthouse.
He was charged in Cherokee County District Court, accused of assault and
trespassing. Two years after the incident, those charges are still pending.
Rob Martindale, World senior writer, can be reached at 581-8367 or via
e-mail at rob.martindale@tulsaworld.com.
Subscribe to the Tulsa World; Report a Missing Newspaper;
Place an Ad in the Tulsa World; Email the Newsroom; or the Webmaster.
Copyright c. 1999, World Publishing Co. All rights reserved.
--------- "RE: Choctaws Re-elect Pyle in Landslide" ---------
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 09:15:44 -0500
From: berryj@okstate.edu
Subj: (FWD)Indian News 07-25-99
Roger Iron Cloud
FirstNations Listserv
202.358.3252
rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov
Choctaws re-elect Pyle in landslide victory
By ROB MARTINDALE
c. Tulsa World
7/11/99
Early, unofficial election results showed Chief Gregory Pyle won with
about 80 percent of the vote Saturday.
DURANT -- The Choctaw tribe re-elected Chief Gregory Pyle on Saturday in
a landslide victory that also yielded the Choctaw nation's highest voter
turnout ever.
Early, unofficial election results showed Pyle won the election with
about 80 percent of the vote, with all but one precinct reporting.
About 22,000 of the tribe's more than 54,000 registered voters cast
their ballots in the election. Choctaw officials were expecting a record
turnout from the 114,000-member tribe.
The tribe's last election attracted 16,000 voters, most of whom cast
absentee ballots.
A runoff will not be likely or necessary, considering that not one of
Pyle's opponents was able to gather more than 10 percent of the vote.
Glenn Johnson, 35, received the second- highest number of votes -- about
1,905, close to 9 percent. He campaigned for expanded economic development
in the tribe and is a member of the tribal council.
Douglas Dry, 45, a Wilburton attorney who ran unsuccessfully against
former Chief Hollis Roberts four years ago, received about 6 percent of
the vote -- about 1,360 ballots.
Larry Finch, 37, who headed the housing program under Roberts and called
for term limits for the chief's office, only gathered about 5 percent of
the vote -- about 1,048 ballots.
Pyle's opponents said the election was tilted in Pyle's favor because of
his access to voter registration lists and control of the tribe's 2,500
employees.
All of these results were from early, unofficial numbers from the
Choctaw Nation Election Board.
The results will not be official until Monday morning, Election Board
representatives said.
Pyle, 49, the tribe's former deputy chief, became chief two years ago
following the resignation of Roberts, who was convicted in 1997 of sexual
abuse of female employees.
Roberts is serving an 11-year sentence in the federal prison system. He
was chief of the tribe for 19 years, and Pyle was his deputy chief for 14
years.
--------- "RE: Indian Plaintiffs Plead to Judge" ---------
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 08:30:08 -0500
From: berryj@okstate.edu
Subj: (FWD)Indian News 07-25-99
Roger Iron Cloud
FirstNations Listserv
202.358.3252
rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov
Indian Plaintiffs Plead to Judge
.c The Associated Press
By PHILIP BRASHER
7/24/99
WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge is deciding whether to take charge of
$500 million in Indian trust funds that the government mismanaged for
decades.
Lawyers for account holders who are suing the government asked U.S.
District Judge Royce Lamberth on Friday to appoint a special master to
supervise the cleanup of the 300,000 accounts.
"The overall supervision of this trust reform effort is, as we see it,
absolutely necessary," Thaddeus Holt, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said
during closing arguments in the case.
Lamberth is expected to issue a decision in late August or September.
He hinted strongly Friday that he would get involved in some way but
said he hasn't decided what to do. "Any court has to be concerned about
doing such a thing in the least intrusive way to get the job done," he
said.
Earlier this year, the judge held Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and
then-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin in contempt for their delay in
producing account records sought by the lawsuit's lead plaintiffs.
The government has acknowledged mismanaging the trust funds, which
distribute money owed individual Indians based on land holdings. But
Babbitt argued in testimony during the six-week trial that the accounting
system is being fixed and the records cleaned up.
While Babbitt wouldn't object to reporting to Lamberth periodically,
greater court supervision could slow down the job, Justice Department
lawyer Tom Clark told the judge on Friday.
Administration officials are determined to correct the problems, and
they already have congressional committees looking over their shoulders in
addition to the judge, Clark said. "There is supervision out there," he
said.
Lamberth turned away criticism of a new computer system that the
government is installing for managing the trust accounts and records.
The General Accounting Office has criticized the system, and lawyers for
the account holders said the department was being too hasty in putting in
place since it hadn't finished cleaning up the records yet.
"I can tell you that I'm not going to criticize the department for going
too fast," the judge said.
The trust records are scattered in more than 100 Bureau of Indian
Affairs offices, and many of the accounts are worth only a few cents
because of the way ownership of Indian land has splintered through
inheritances.
Kevin Gover, a Pawnee who is the Interior Department's assistant
secretary for Indian affairs, told the judge during the trial that it
would destroy the BIA - and by extension the government's special
relationship with tribes - to lose control of the accounts.
--------- "RE: Canada/US Indians Seek Closer Ties" ---------
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 08:30:08 -0500
From: berryj@okstate.edu
Subj: (FWD)Indian News 07-25-99
Roger Iron Cloud
FirstNations Listserv
202.358.3252
rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov
Canada, US Indians Seek Closer Ties
.c The Associated Press
By DAVID CRARY
7/21/99
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - Evoking a 200-year-old vision of unity,
Indian leaders from the United States and Canada are holding an
unprecedented meeting to expand cooperation across a border drawn by white
men through their homelands.
The four-day conference, which ends Friday, has attracted more than 4,
000 participants - the largest gathering ever of U.S. and Canadian Indian
leaders. The last time chiefs from the two countries met to forge common
policy was in 1939, at a much smaller meeting in Toronto.
The biggest Indian organizations in each country - Canada's Assembly of
First Nations and the Washington-based National Congress of American
Indians - scheduled separate working sessions Wednesday and Thursday,
before a joint meeting Friday to adopt a "declaration of kinship and
cooperation."
Leaders envision the agreement as a first step toward increased
political, cultural and economic ties, including more trade. They also
have suggested an exchange of ambassadors between the two organizations
and want greater freedom of movement for Indians across the U.S.-Canada
border, which divides some tribes.
"We are divided by locality, but not by destiny," said Phil Fontaine,
grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations, as he addressed Tuesday's
opening session in a tall, feathered headdress.
The conference's official theme is "Uniting First Nations: Tecumseh's
Vision."
That is a tribute to the great Shawnee chief born in what is now Ohio in
1768. Convinced that white settlers' expansion would destroy the
traditional Indian way of life, Tecumseh dreamed of uniting all Indian
tribes in a powerful confederation.
His alliance was shattered in the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811 and he
moved to Canada, becoming an ally of the British against the Americans in
the War of 1812. He was killed in battle in 1813.
Documents distributed at the convention quote Tecumseh as saying: "Let
us form one body, one heart, and defend to the last warrior our country,
our homes, our liberty, and the graves of our fathers."
The convention opened Tuesday with drumming, singing and dancing by
members of local tribes, then a series of welcoming speeches by chiefs who
repeatedly hailed Tecumseh.
"It amazes me - the strength, the determination, the willpower of our
people - that we gather here to try to realize Tecumseh's dream," said
Ernie Campbell, chief of the Vancouver-area Musqueam tribe.
"With all the obstacles - attempts at assimilation, wars, in some cases
genocide to stop us from being who we are - we're not going anywhere."
The president of the National Congress of American Indians, Ron Allen of
Washington state's Jamestown S'Klallam tribe, said increased cross-border
unity could generate more effective pressure on both federal governments
to address such common concerns as poverty and land claims.
"We have common struggles and face common threats," Allen said. "We have
survived a 500-year onslaught. We are growing stronger politically and in
numbers."
There are an estimated 2.2 million Indians in the United States, less
than 1 percent of the population and including many who are not full-
blooded. Canada has more Indians per capita - about 800,000 out of a
population of 30 million.
The U.S.-Canadian border runs through the traditional homelands of
several Indian peoples, from the Micmac of Maine and the Maritime
provinces, to the Cree of the Great Plains and the Salish of the far west.
The Mohawks' Akwesasne Reservation - a frequent locale for cigarette and
liquor smuggling - straddles the border with territory in northern New
York, Quebec and Ontario.
American delegate Richard Sangrey, a Chippewa who is chief of staff at
the Rocky Boys reservation in Montana, said he hoped the conference would
lead to easier border-crossing for Indians traveling tween Canada and the
United States for religious and cultural ceremonies. Often Indians are
subjected to time-consuming searches, Sangrey said.
Fontaine and Allen view the joint gathering as part of a broader effort
to promote cooperation among indigenous people worldwide. Representatives
of indigenous peoples in New Zealand, Asia and Latin America are attending,
as are observers from the United Nations and the Organization of American
States.
--------- "RE: Honoring Nations Finalists Announced" ---------
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 08:30:08 -0500
From: berryj@okstate.edu
Subj: (FWD)Indian News 07-25-99
Roger Iron Cloud
FirstNations Listserv
202.358.3252
rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov
Honoring Nations Finalists Announced in Harvard's
Tribal Governance Awards Program
Contact: Miranda Daniloff, 617-495-9379 or Andrew Lee, 617-496-6632
CAMBRIDGE -- A judicial system that encourages tribal judges to use
traditional common law in deciding cases, a tribal initiative that has
dramatically increased the number of licensed Indian foster parents, and a
comprehensive tribal sanitation program that avoids the need for
reservation landfills are among sixteen finalists in the Honoring
Contributions in the Governance of American Indians ("Honoring Nations")
awards program.
Administered by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic
Development at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Honoring Nations
identifies, celebrates and shares information about outstanding examples
of tribal governance among the 550-plus Indian nations in the United
States.
Funded by the Ford Foundation and modeled after similar government best
practices programs in Brazil, the Philippines, the U.S., and South Africa,
Honoring Nations is the Harvard Project's newest program. Established in
1986, the Harvard Project's goal is to understand the conditions under
which sustained, self-determined socio-economic development is achieved on
American Indian reservations.
Harvard Project co-director Dr. Manley Begay says, "Honoring Nations was
created to spotlight ideas that work in tribal self-governance. All
across Native America, tribal governments are doing exciting things to
strengthen their respective nations, and Honoring Nations will celebrate
some of these success stories and make them available to decision makers
everywhere."
Sixty applications were submitted for the inaugural year of Honoring
Nations. According to Andrew Lee, the program's executive director, "the
quality of the applications is extremely impressive, and we are very
pleased by the excitement this first-of-its-kind program is generating
throughout Indian Country."
At each stage of the selection process, applications are evaluated on
effectiveness, significance, transferability, creativity, and
sustainability. On October 6, the sixteen Honoring Nations finalists will
make presentations to the Honoring Nations Advisory Board -- made up of
distinguished leaders from the academic, government, non-profit, legal,
and business sectors -- which will select eight "high honors" for national
recognition. The October event, to take place in Palm Springs, CA in
conjunction with the 56th Annual convention of the National Congress of
American Indians, will also include a public honoring ceremony.
In addition, the Harvard Project will prepare reports, case studies and
instructional materials based on the honorees? accomplishments. These
will be disseminated throughout Indian Country to allow other nations to
learn from the successes of the honorees.
The sixteen finalists for 1999 are:
Cherokee Tribal Sanitation Program
Cherokee Tribal Utilities, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (Cherokee, NC)
Choctaw Health Center
Choctaw Health Center, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians (Philadelphia,MS)
Idaho Gray Wolf Recovery
Nez Perce Tribe Wildlife Management Program, Nez Perce Tribe (Lapwai, ID)
Institutionalized Quality Improvement Program
Puyallup Tribal Health Authority, Puyallup Tribe of Indians (Tacoma, WA)
Land Claims Distribution Trust Fund
Tribal Chairman?s Office, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians
(Suttons Bay, MI)
Minnesota 1837 Ceded Territory Conservation Code
Mille Lacs Band Department of Natural Resources, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe
(Onamia, MN)
Navajo Studies Department
Rough Rock Community School, Navajo Nation (Chinle, AZ)
New Law and Old Law Together: The Judicial Philosophy of the Navajo Nation
Judicial Branch, Navajo Nation (Window Rock, AZ)
Off-Reservation Indian Foster Care
Fond du Lac Human Services Division, Fond du Lac Lake Superior Band of
Chippewa
(Cloquet, MN)
Ojibwe Language Program
Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Department of Education, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe
(Onamia, MN)
Pte Hca Ka, Inc.
Pte Hca Ka, Inc., Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (Gettysburg, SD)
Rosebud Sioux Tribal Education Department and Code
Rosebud Sioux Tribe Education Department, Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Rosebud, SD)
Tax Initiative Economic Development
Kayenta Township Commission, Navajo Nation (Kayenta, AZ)
Tribal Court of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians
Tribal Chairman?s Office, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians
(Suttons Bay, MI)
Water Quality Standards
Environment Department, Pueblo of Sandia (Bernalillo, NM)
Wildlife and Fisheries Management Program
Jicarilla Game and Fish Department, Jicarilla Apache Tribe (Dulce, NM)
--------- "RE: Wolf News" ---------
From: Wanige@aol.com
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 13:08:11 EDT
Subj: Fwd: NAWA NEWS 7.21.99 (Re: Removing wolves from endangered lists)
-----Original Message-----
From: whitewolfgs@webtv.net <whitewolfgs@webtv.net>
Walk in Peace and Harmony;
White Wolf Guardian Spirit
--------------------
NAWA NEWS - http://www.nawa.org
Greetings!
Pat Morris sent the following - and I don't mind telling you I read it
with great satisfaction. The wolves in Yellowstone are thriving. Thanks
Pat!
+++++++++++++++++++++
Wolves make the recovery
By Jeff Gibson, Montana-Standard Opinion Page Editor
The wolves in the Yellowstone Park region are clearly thriving, and
federal wildlife officials say it's time to remove them from the
endangered species list. It's a sensible recommendation, based on common
sense and observed reproduction rates that have been little short of
amazing. It's also a sign of good faith. The federal wildlife people said
at the beginning that the wolves would not be federally protected forever.
While there was cause at the start of the reintroduction program to be
skeptical about that, it looks
like they meant it.
Doug Smith, a project leader with the park's wolf recovery team, noted
at a conference of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition that the wolves are
beginning to leave the park and "they're going to be all over the place"
soon. Park-area wolves are numerous and breeding rapidly, Smith said, and
it's time to take them off the endangered list.
For reasons that aren't quite clear, but probably have something to do
with keeping busy, environmentalists said they might sue if the government
de-lists the wolves. A representative for an activist law firm, this one
called Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, said that "if we don't believe the
assessment of the biologists that wolves are not threatened, we will
definitely sue."
Removing wolves from the endangered list would give state agencies more
responsibility for managing the animals. In Montana, state officials might
have mixed feelings about that. So far, the park wolves have been Uncle
Sam's responsibility, and some state agencies might be just as happy that
they don't have to deal with the wolves. Last week, the feds killed three
wolves in northwest Montana after the animals killed a dozen sheep and a
calf on nearby ranches. The helpless wolves were shot down from the air by
a helicopter-borne gunman. State agency heads can't be looking forward to
the day when they have to read about themselves in a sentence like that.
But as Smith said, wolves are leaving the park in increasing numbers. At
least one has been tracked on a lightning-fast trip clear to the east edge
of the Crazy Mountains and back. It's not uncommon for wolves to travel
hundreds of miles. Most of the time, they prey on wildlife. But they can
and do kill livestock. Like dogs, they may occasionally slaughter sheep
for the fun of it.
It's time, therefore, to give state agencies a role in managing the
wolves. It's unlikely that the state will adopt punitive wolf policies.
State officials know that's a good way to get the wolves listed again, and
to be excluded again from wolf management by the federal government.
Historically, the federal government is reluctant to de-list species once
they are declared endangered. A recommendation to de-list wolves, only a
decade or so after they were reintroduced, is a sign that the government
is confident of the success of the wolf program.
http://www.mtstandard.com/opinion/990719_opinion2.html
http://wolfseeker.com
http://www.InsideTheWeb.com/mbs.cgi/mb629759
+++++++++++++++++++
I NEED YOUR HELP
Some of you are aware that in late April of this year, we traveled to the
mountains of New Mexico to perform one of the most complicated and
dramatic rescues we've ever done.
The result of our effort is that the lives of an alpha pair and 7 of the
most beautiful wolf puppies imaginable have been saved. The entire pack
has been safely transported to our wolf preserve in Conroe, Texas, where
we hope to allow them to live out their lives together - they are a family.
Being together was the Creator's intent.
Keeping them together is our intent.
For us to do that, we need to build an enclosure large enough to
accommodate 9 adult wolves - and we'll need to do it immediately. These
pups are now in a "rapid growth stage" They're 14 weeks old, the females
weigh in from 40 to 46 lbs. and the males range from 49 to a whopping 53
lbs. Knowing that they go through this stage is one thing... witnessing
it, is something else altogether - and I can tell you, it is a sobering
experience.
We do not have time to write for a grant, get on an agenda 6 months from
now, or make a presentation to a board of directors that won't meet again
till September. We need to build that enclosure - and we need to do it now.
So, we're asking everyone we know - and even some folks we don't know -
to send us $10.00 - anything above that will be graciously accepted and
appreciated from the depths of our spirit.
Many of you on this list have written to us asking what you could do to
help - well, this is it. Your participation in this campaign is crucial.
If we cannot raise the $15,000 it will cost to build that enclosure these
pups will have to be separated.
Saving their lives was only half the miracle - please help us make it
complete. We cannot do this without you.
++++++++++++++++++++++
The rescue of intact packs is almost unheard of. The rarity of this
situation presented me with an incredible gift... of witnessing an
extraordinary drama played out within this pack - a drama that lifted my
heart and part of the veil that has shrouded these elusive creatures for
centuries. The privilege of being able to observe uninhibited pack
behavior and activities on an hourly/daily/weekly basis, has served to be
an enlightening - almost ethereal experience. The full impact of exactly
why it is imperative that we move heaven and earth to keep this pack
together, was profoundly penetrating. I'd like to share some of that
experience with you.
A short while ago, I wrote the story and put it up on our site.
This is a heart-felt invitation for you to come by and read about the
rescue of these precious souls and their parents, then follow along on a
remarkable journey filled with uncommon courage, unbelievable
determination, steadfast loyalty =3D85and the unbreakable bond of the pack.
When you finish, you'll understand why they absolutely ~must~ stay
together.
Please see "Yana Usdi's Story", it will warm your heart and make your day
(we promise)
http://www.nawa.org
Thank You... for hearing me out, and most of all=3D85 for caring.
For the Wolves,
Rae Evening Earth Ott
Director
+++++++++++++++++++
Please take a few moments to sit down and write out a check now, for $10
to help keep these pups together, and send to the address below - you'll
go to sleep tonight and know in your heart, that it was the best $10
you've ever spent in your life.
North American Wolf Association
23214 Tree Bright Lane
Spring, Texas 77373
(281) 821-4884
http://www.nawa.org
_______________________
Work like you don't need the money
Love like you've never been hurt
Dance like nobody's watching
- Lawrence Sampson
--------- "RE: Managing Northwest Public lands" ---------
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 1999 15:54:35 -0500
From: berryj@okstate.edu
Subj: (FWD)Indian News 06-30-99
Roger Iron Cloud
FirstNations Listserv
202.358.3252
rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov
Native Americans are taking a more prominent role in managing Northwest
public lands and resources
by Courtenay Thompson
c. Newhouse News Service
June 27, 1999
PORTLAND, Ore. - A deal that could enable the Grand Ronde Tribe to manage
nearly 11,000 acres of public forest near its reservation is the first of
its kind in the nation, federal officials say. It signals not only the
growing stature of the Western Oregon tribe, but also the rising influence
of Native American tribes nationwide over how public lands and resources
are managed.
"This is a pioneering effort," said Charles Wilkinson, an expert in
federal and tribal natural-resource law at the University of Colorado in
Boulder. "At the same time, the general field of cooperative agreements
between tribes and governments is growing rapidly."
With growing expertise and savvy, tribes around the country are
increasingly exerting influence over lands and resources that once were in
tribal hands. They range from agreements with the National Park Service
over sacred sites in Northern California to the Columbia River tribes'
involvement in salmon management and the Nez Perce Tribe's management of
wolf reintroduction in Idaho.
In Oregon, examples are diverse. The Warm Springs Tribe works with the
neighboring Mount Hood National Forest to help restore and preserve wild
huckleberries, a sacred tribal food. Two years ago, the Nez Perce Tribe
acquired 10,300 acres in northeastern Oregon as part of a federal deal to
compensate the tribe for wildlife lost to a federal dam project. And just
last month, the Klamath Tribes signed an agreement with the U.S. Forest
Service that gives them a voice in what happens on 1.2 million acres of
former reservation land in south-central Oregon.
Jeff Mitchell, Klamath tribal chairman, said the Grand Ronde agreement,
though markedly different from the Klamaths', is a sign of the increasing
willingness of federal and state agencies to work with tribes on natural-
resource issues.
"To have a tribe manage a significant piece of property for the benefit
of the community and the region, that's a big change," Mitchell said, "and
a significant one."
The agreement between the Grand Ronde and the U.S. Forest Service
contracts with the tribe to write a 10-year plan to manage 6,600 acres of
the Siuslaw National Forest upstream from the tribe's reservation,
tallying endangered species such as the northern spotted owl, evaluating
water quality and assessing forest health.
U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials say they expect to sign a
similar agreement in coming weeks with the tribe for 4,200 acres of BLM
land also in the South Yamhill River watershed. The agreements may lead to
an experiment in "stewardship," giving the Grand Ronde - best known for
its multimillion-dollar casino - authority after two years to carry out
the projects for fish, wildlife, streams and forests.
The Grand Ronde also is writing a 10-year management plan for its 10,
052-acre reservation, a forested chunk of the Coast Range 60 miles
southwest of Portland.
Officials say the agreements will give the tribe a greater say in what
happens on former reservation lands, while coordinating efforts to
establish a healthy forest and watershed across tribal and federal
jurisdictions. "It's a significant, precedent-setting event," said Warren
Tausch, a BLM official who worked on both agreements.
Wilkinson, the tribal-law expert, said agreements such as the Grand
Ronde's have accelerated nationwide in the past four to five years. Many
tribes have developed substantial natural-resource staffs. In Puget Sound,
for example, as many fish biologists work for tribes as for state and
federal agencies, Wilkinson said.
At the same time, he said, federal and state agencies have become
increasingly aware of the sovereign status of tribes, and of the federal
government's responsibility to protect resources, such as fish and
wildlife, often protected by treaty.
Prodded by federal-court decisions and executive orders issued by
President Clinton and governors such as Oregon's John Kitzhaber, federal
and state agencies have been more willing to work with tribes as
governmental entities with legitimate interests.
The trend is here to stay, Wilkinson said.
"I think almost inevitably it will be more comprehensive and more common
each year as you go along," he said.
Jeff Mitchell, chairman of the Klamath Tribes, said the Forest Service
has agreed to consult with the tribe on a range of issues - from big game
to cultural sites - before taking action on more than 1.2 million acres of
former reservation land on and near the Fremont and Winema national
forests. "It's a real milestone to the tribes," he said, because it
institutionalizes the tribe's role in the forest's management. The tribe
retains treaty rights to hunt and fish on the former reservation, as well
as water rights throughout the basin.
"I think generally there has been a change and a shift in the
recognition of tribes' treaties, and treaty rights and treaty resources,"
Mitchell said, pointing to Kitzhaber's order that state agencies work
directly with the state's nine tribes. "That provided a framework for
tribes to sit down with the state of Oregon and work through issues,
whereas 10 years before, the only recourse would have been to go to court.
"So we're seeing a shift not only on the federal level, but the state
level as well."
The Grand Ronde agreements with the Forest Service and BLM were two
years in the making. Tausch, the BLM official who helped craft the deals,
said the negotiated agreements are part of the government's attempt under
the Northwest Forest Plan to develop collaborative, inclusive approaches
to forest management.
The land is a part of a so-called "adaptive management area" under the
Northwest plan, meaning the government is encouraged to enter into
partnerships and seek innovative ideas for management.
The Forest Service land also is targeted for fostering old-growth forest
characteristics, such as snags for wildlife and large, mature trees. The
Grand Ronde Tribe will, in effect, act as a consultant to the federal
agencies, outlining specific projects to achieve goals set by the federal
policies.
The tribe will be paid $55,000 in the first year of the Forest Service
contract and is expected to be paid $35,000 for the first year of the BLM
contract.
After the plan is written, the agreement calls for the tribe - with its
staff of more than 12 biologists, forest scientists, water-quality
specialists and others - to contract with the agency to carry out the
management plan. That could include arranging for timber sales to thin
crowded stands, installing fish-friendly culverts or recommending removal
of roads.
Don Gonzalez, Hebo District ranger for the Siuslaw National Forest, said
the final authority would continue to rest with the federal agency. But
the agreement has raised concern among some local community members, who
were upset that they were told of the plan just two days before the Forest
Service agreement was signed.
U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., last week sent Forest Service chief Mike
Dombeck a letter protesting the lack of public involvement. Gonzalez, who
helped craft the deal, said he apologized to local officials and tried to
dispel fears that the tribe was somehow taking control of Forest Service
land.
"People say, `That's our national forest,' and that's right," Gonzalez
said. "We're looking at ways to manage it more effectively and efficiently
and better."
--------- "RE: Salmon; A Species in Peril" ---------
Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 08:19:23 -0700
From: John Wm Sloniker <johnwms@SERV.NET>
Subj: Salmon; A Species in Peril
HeraldNet - SPECIES IN PERIL
Salmon home
http://www.heraldnet.com/fishy.htm
A fall run chinook salmon fights its way upstream. Dwindling numbers
in the Puget Sound area are pushing the fish closer to endangered
status, a decision that would have broad economic effects.
Protection for chinook salmon could have impact on economy
By JANICE PODSADA
Herald Writer
Sunday, February 15, 1998
Consider the canary in the coal mine -- as long as it sings, the
air is safe to breathe. Consider the wild salmon -- while she still
spawns, the river runs clean and cool.
You may not fish for salmon, or eat salmon. But salmon share the
same need for clean water as you do, making it in one sense a
harbinger of the health of our environment.
"What's good for salmon is good for people," said Brian Gorman,
spokesman with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle.
But what's good for the chinook salmon, the largest of Puget
Sound's five species of salmon, could also prove a hardship for
the local economy.
On February 26, the fisheries service is expected to propose that
Puget Sound runs of chinook salmon be listed under the Endangered
Species Act.
The announcement gives state officials up to 18 months to make
a case against the proposed listing, Gorman said.
Let the listing go into effect, some local officials say, and
economic growth could be as effectively stopped as a fish trying
to scale a dam without a ladder. Everything from backyard garden
practices and housing costs to the price of computer software
potentially could be affected.
Come up with a plan to recover the wild chinook and Washington
may be able to accommodate both development and salmon recovery, and
avoid strict federal regulations that could dampen economic growth.
So what's the problem?
Unlike the canary in the coal mine, the chinook cannot be spared
by removing it from the environment. It begins and ends its life in
an open stream. And its progeny are dying.
"The salmon is telling us about where we live -- long range," said
Gorman of the National Marine Fisheries Service. "No one wants this
area to become what Pittsburgh or Cleveland became in the 1970s, a
place so choked with refuse that no one wanted to live there."
http://www.heraldnet.com/fishy2.htm
It's the water: http://www.heraldnet.com/fishwate.htm
Chinook protection timeline: http://www.heraldnet.com/timeline.htm
Guide to salmon: http://www.heraldnet.com/guide.htm
Salmon links: http://kingfish.ssp.nmfs.gov//salmon/salmon.html
Comments: <newmedia@heraldnet.com>
The Daily Herald
http://www.heraldnet.com
Copyright (c) 1998 The Daily Herald Co., Everett, Wash.
http://www.heraldnet.com/about/legal.htm
--------- "RE: Fishing Conservation" ---------
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 11:33:39 GMT
From: frosty@frostys.qc.ca
Subj: Fishing conservation
Newsgroup: alt.native
June 18, 1999
Anderson says he'll 'stay the course' on conservation
VANCOUVER (CP) -- Strict conservation measures for the West Coast
salmon fishery remain in effect this year and will likely stay for
many years to come, says federal Fisheries Minister David Anderson.
"In 1999, we are staying the course on salmon conservation and
long-term rebuilding of weak stocks, particularly coho," Anderson said
Friday in releasing the 1999 Salmon Management Plan.
The once-lucrative salmon fishery has been in decline for several
years from overfishing, too many fishing vessels and changes in ocean
survival rates.
Last year, the federal Fisheries Department introduced restrictive
fishing zones and fewer fishing openings while strongly pushing the
idea of selective fishing.
Anderson made it clear the strict management regime is here to stay
for some time.
The prized coho salmon, endangered in British Columbia, will be
strictly protected, the minister said.
"We will maintain the objective of zero fishing mortality on upper
Thompson and upper Skeena coho stocks," he said.
Earlier this month, the U.S. and Canada signed new catch provisions
in the 1985 Pacific Salmon Treaty after six years of acrimony.
Anderson said the 1999 conservation goals are enhanced by the treaty
agreement.
"The new abundance-based management regimes will contribute to
improved conservation of Canadian sockeye and chinook stocks which are
expected to return at lower abundance in 1999."
Measures adopted last year to assist coho salmon in the southern part
of the coast will also continue, he said.
In addition to red and yellow zones introduced last year to help
guide fisheries management of endangered salmon, the minister said
special management zones will be introduced this year where coho
cannot be caught at all, said Anderson.
"Fisheries will only be permitted in locations and during times when
upper Skeena and other salmon stocks of concern can be avoided or
released alive and unharmed."
A grim-faced Lloyd Webb, executive-director of the Fishing Vessel
Owners Assoc. of B.C., attended Anderson's announcement.
"It looks like it's tougher than ever for us this year," said Webb.
"In the south coast there's no comfort for seiners at all with some
possible comfort for trollers and river gillnetters.
"The north looks bleak," he said bluntly. "So it's not very good for
the commercial sector."
Anderson emphasized that selective fishing appears to be the wave of
the future.
Selective fishing means fishermen are allowed to take only a
specified stock when there is an opening and other species must be
returned.
"If there is one thing I can say for certain about Pacific fisheries
in the future, it is that they will be led by those who have
demonstrated their ability to fish selectively," said Anderson.
Fishery managers will be guided by priority assigned to First Nations
for food, social and ceremonial purposes.
First Nations will also have priority in catching coho if there are
sufficient stocks.
While the commercial fishery faces severe coho restrictions, the
sports fishery will face daily bag limits of one to two coho a day.
Tom Bird of the Sport Fishing Institute was disappointed.
"It's encouraging that the conservation efforts are paying off," said
Bird.
But he said a Fisheries document in April led people involved in the
multi-million-dollar recreational fishery to believe their daily
limits would be larger.
"The spring paper talked about coho limits for sports fishery of
between two and four a day that have now been reduced to one and two,"
said Bird.
"It's unfortunate that that document came out and nothing technically
has changed (to warrant the reduction)."
Anderson said the renewed salmon treaty would usher in "a new era of
effective conservation" after years of acrimony.
He said the treaty would give Canada more fish and the agreement also
provided that the U.S. would provide $209 million to a conservation
fund to help rebuild stocks and habitat on both sides of the border.
The deal will be in effect for 10 years everywhere except the Fraser
River where it will last 12 years.
The agreement also limits fishermen to catching fish based on the
health of fish stocks.
That's a change from the past when the treaty was based on a quota
that fishermen went after whether stocks could sustain it or not.
--------- "RE: Plan to Restore Creek for Salmon" ---------
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 03:10:39 -0700
From: John Wm Sloniker <johnwms@SERV.NET>
Subj: Plan to restore creek for salmon
Olympic, local leaders announce plan to restore creek for salmon habitat
http://www.seattletimes.com/news/local/html98/what_19990623.html
by Jim Brunner <jbrunner@seattletimes.com>
Seattle Times Snohomish County bureau
BELLINGHAM - Salmon that left Whatcom Creek for the ocean years
ago will be returning soon as adults, but officials aren't sure the
stream devastated by a pipeline fire will be ready for them.
Olympic Pipe Line officials and local leaders yesterday announced
an emergency-restoration plan designed to prepare the creek for the
chinook and chum salmon expected at the end of August.
"The salmon will be coming back, but whether there is a habitat
for them is questionable," said Clare Fogelsong, superintendent of
environmental resources for Bellingham.
The June 10 fire ignited after up to 277,000 gallons of gasoline
leaked into Whatcom Falls State Park, scorching a 50-yard-wide,
1 1/2-mile-long stretch of forested creek bed, killing thousands of
fish and jeopardizing the spawning grounds for salmon. The accident
also destroyed one home and killed two 10-year-old boys and an
18-year-old man.
The emergency plan announced yesterday also is aimed at preventing
further damage to the creek, said Michael Macrander, an ecologist
with Equilon Enterprises who helped to develop the plan. Houston-
based Equilon is the primary owner of Olympic.
The plan, which awaits final approval by federal and state
officials, calls for:
-- Digging up and cleaning polluted soil at the site of the
pipeline rupture, which is near a city water-treatment plant.
Crews also will continue to mop up gasoline floating in the water
and clean up polluted stream sediments.
-- Stabilizing scorched stream banks and hillsides now in danger
of erosion. New vegetation will be planted along the creek, and
woody debris will be added to help keep water cool and provide
sheltering pools for fish.
-- Reopening portions of Whatcom Falls State Park for
recreational use. Officials yesterday did not say when the
park might be reopened.
Fogelsong said biologists will monitor the progress of the creek
restoration. If the creek is not ready for salmon, the fish will be
trapped and relocated to other area streams, he said.
Olympic will pay for the cleanup. Spokeswoman Joann Hamick
said the company has already spent $2.5 million on pipeline and
environmental experts, as well as repairs to homes and businesses
damaged by the fire.
A longer-term habitat-restoration effort also will be bankrolled
by Olympic and developed with the help of local volunteers.
Before the gasoline leak and fire, Whatcom Creek had been the
focus of painstaking efforts by community groups to restore the
region's salmon runs.
The effort was starting to pay off. Residents said last year's
returning run of chum was like none they had seen. "It looked like
the stories you read about in school, where you could walk across
the backs of the fish returning to spawn," said Bellingham Mayor
Mark Asmundson.
Asmundson called the pipeline fire "a huge blow," but said local
volunteers are "ready to start in again" to repair the damage.
Jim Brunner's phone-message number is 425-745-7808.
Posted at 07:31 a.m. PDT; Wednesday, June 23, 1999
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: Highway 55 Protest" ---------
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 20:24:32 EDT
Subj: Hwy 55 protest Minnesota..local news coverage
From: PejiWi@aol.com
HREF="http://www.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisSlug=hwy27">
Twenty-nine arrested in second day of Hwy. 55 protest
Mark Brunswick and Laurie Blake / Star Tribune
Another 29 people were arrested Tuesday while construction work continued
on the rerouting of Hwy. 55.
The protesters, who blocked morning rush-hour traffic by sitting in the
road, were arrested on charges of failing to obey a lawful order, said
Kent Barnard, a spokesman with the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
Two men perched in a cottonwood tree just west of the road with a
protest banner. The tree wasn't scheduled to be brought down for a while,
Barnard said.
On Monday, nine protesters were arrested as they tried to stop crews
from cutting down about 30 trees in the way of the next phase of the Hwy.
55 construction in Minneapolis. One laid in front of a police cruiser and
another tried to use a bike lock to attach himself to a front-end loader
before police knocked him to the ground and dragged him away.
The trees in the southwest corner of the intersection of Hwy. 55 and
Minnehaha Parkway are in the path of a temporary bypass that will carry
traffic on the west side of the existing Hiawatha Avenue while a 700-foot
tunnel is built to carry the new road underground at Minnehaha Park.
The protest was the most significant confrontation since demonstrators
and more than 600 police clashed in a Dec. 20 raid at an encampment near
Camp Coldwater, about 1½ miles south of Monday's protest. The December
raid was the biggest police action in state history and resulted in 37
arrests.
With about 50 protesters and about 60 law enforcement personnel watching
in the mid-day heat Monday, it took the three-man crew less than two hours
to fell about 30 trees. Amid drum pounding, bullhorn shouting and
shrieking, members of the loosely organized protest movement reacted
angrily, some sobbing, as one by one, the trees were knocked down. One
man stood for minutes with tears flowing.
"They [the trees] are living things. They may not be like us in the
living sense, but they drink the same water," said Paul Cowgill, a
musician visiting from New Orleans.
"Should they be destroyed so people from the suburbs who fled the city
20 years ago can be able to get back quicker to the city to loot it?"
Cowgill asked.
Transportation Commissioner Elwyn Tinklenberg said Monday that the
department plans to move ahead even though there is continuing opposition
to the project from people who believe it will mar the natural and
historic character of the area.
"We respect many of the concerns that have been raised about this
project," he said. "We have attempted to ensure that the best possible
information is available in guiding our work in this corridor. And we
continue to be open to on-going discussion of a sincere and thoughtful
nature but we will move forward," Tinklenberg said.
The controversy of the massive project is likely to continue. Although
the protests have been nonviolent, surveying and construction crews are
expected to receive continued police protection, with off-duty law
enforcement paid for by the Department of Transportation.
Bypass construction is expected to begin next week. The tunnel will
support a grassy, land bridge over the highway in the park. When work
begins on the bypass, Minnehaha Parkway will be closed at Hwy. 55 and
traffic will be detoured along 34th Avenue S. to E. 46th Street.
Awaiting the outcome of several court challenges already has resulted in
a two-month construction delay.
Tinklenberg said that pushing ahead with construction is "part of this
administration's commitment to . . . moving beyond just studying projects
and debating projects ad infinitum. The people who live along the corridor
who have been subjected to the uncertainty and disruption this project has
entailed deserve closure."
Confrontation and arrests
The nine protesters arrested on Monday were booked on charges that
included criminal trespass, failure to obey a lawful order and obstruction
of legal process. One protester, identified by her family as 17-year-old
Madeline Gardner, of St. Paul, was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul
after suffering a possible leg injury.
Her mother, Karen Gardner, was critical of the police after watching her
daughter being loaded onto a stretcher and then into an ambulance.
"They said she hurt her leg running into a tree," Karen Gardner said. "I
don't buy that for a minute."
She said three of her daughters have supported the protest against the
reroute.
"We're proud of her," Karen Gardner said. "She's doing the right thing.
When we heard this was happening, we thought she would be part of it."
Police said there were no other significant injuries, although a number
of protesters complained that police were being too rough on their
colleagues as they were being led away to vans.
Minneapolis Lt. Ron Snobeck denied that police were rough, saying that
such allegations are a "standard line" among protesters who are being
arrested.
One man broke through police lines shortly after a front-end loader
arrived, and he tried to attach himself to the machine with a bicycle lock.
He was wrestled to the ground and subdued. Another man tried to climb into
the cab of the front-end loader just as a tree was about to fall. He was
tackled by police.
Another lay down in front of a police cruiser and was dragged away.
Several others refused to move when ordered back by police and were taken
into custody. At one point, several protesters jumped into Minnehaha Creek
in an attempt to elude authorities.
The removal of about 30 trees on Monday angered Minneapolis Park Board
Member Dean Zimmerman, who arrived shortly after work began. The Park
Board agreed to a land-swap earlier this year that gave the Transportation
Department access to the bypass site. But he said the Transportation
Department assured the board that only two trees would be taken.
"What can be done now? It's just another example of trying to go up
against MnDot's bullying and lies," said Zimmerman, who has opposed the
reroute. "You find a way to stop them, let me know."
Department of Transportation spokesman Kent Barnard said the department
has made it clear that trees would be removed. Of 237 trees in the reroute
area, 137 are scheduled to be taken.
"There were no lies. We have been very clear about what we need to do,"
Barnard said.
The grand plan
To accommodate growing traffic volume, Hwy. 55 was designed in 1966 as a
six-lane freeway, but community opposition scaled back and reshaped it
into a four-lane parkway and the transformation of the aging Hiawatha
Avenue into a parkway began in 1988.
In the past few years, a new generation of opponents has objected to the
path the highway will take south of E. 54th Street. At that point the new
road will separate from the existing Hiawatha Avenue alignment and veer
east closer to Minnehaha Park and closer to the bluff overlooking the
Mississippi River.
Environmentalists and some American Indians object to the loss of large
oak trees and to the infringement of the road near historic Camp Coldwater,
which Indians accept as a sacred site.
The entire project, including a new interchange at Hwy. 55 and Crosstown
Hwy. 62 is not scheduled to be finished until the fall of 2001. The first
segment of the road, between E. 32nd Street and E. 46th Street was opened
in 1990.
c. Copyright 1999 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
--------- "RE: Camp Justice/Pine Ridge" ---------
From: PejiWi@aol.com
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 22:34:30 EDT
Subj: CAMP JUSTICE - PINERIDGE INDIAN RESERVATION, SOUTH DAKOTA
This is another that I received from Mick Wicks that you may be interested
in reading or using on your web page....Peji
CAMP JUSTICE - PINERIDGE INDIAN RESERVATION, SOUTH DAKOTA:
Once again, the Oglala Lakota have made history. In an unprecedented move,
representatives from the United States Government, as well as the Governor
of Nebraska, met with the TRADITIONAL people of the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation.
On July 13, 1999, United States Attorney Tom Monaghan, Nebraska Governor
Mike Johanns, and other Federal and state official met with the Oglala
Lakota people at CAMP JUSTICE on the South Dakota/Nebraska border.
Although the Governor had originally agreed to a closed meeting, he was
received at the unincorporated, lawless village of White Clay, NE by over
150 Oglala Lakota people. While aides feared for his safety, the
Governor agreed to an open forum meeting at the peace camp.
Representatives for CAMP JUSTICE provided the Federal and state
officials with the following list of demands for justice:
Demand a full and complete investigation on all human and civil rights
violations which have occurred in Sheridan County, NE since the legalized
hanging of Lakota people ceased, to the present day murders of Martin Bull
Bear, Ron Hard Heart, Wally Back Elk, Little John Means, and many others.
Immediate closure of all alcohol establishments in White Clay until a
license is issued by the Secretary of the Interior or his representative.
See 1904 Presidential Executive Order.
Return of original designated Pine Ridge Agency lands (which includes
White Clay, NE) as noted in the 1868 Treaty with the U. S. Government.
Creation of a permanent Civil Rights Office in Sheridan County, NE to
address human and civil rights violations against indigenous Lakota
people.
Immediate removal of Sheridan County Sheriff Terry Robbins for cover-up
of Deputy Randy Metcalf's criminal activities against indigenous Lakota
people.
Establish a law requiring data collection on all traffic stops to
include state, county, and municipal law enforcement to record the race of
every motorist they stop. See North Carolina Law.
Importantly, on July 10, 1999, eviction notices were posted on four
alcohol establishments and 1 grocery store in the controversial village of
White Clay, NE. At the July 13, 1999 meeting with the Governor, the
Oglala Lakota people informed him that there were 28 days left on the
eviction notices and that it is their intent to enforce those notices if
the business owners do not comply. The Governor stated that he would
meet with his aides to develop task forces to investigate the issues at
hand. State/Federal representatives have requested the Oglala Lakota
stop their weekly "WALK FOR JUSTICE" to White Clay until they can set up
the task forces.
The Oglala Lakota people responded by saying they will continue their
"WALK FOR JUSTICE" until justice is served! They are also calling for an
economic boycott of all Nebraska retailers. The next march is
scheduled for July 17, 1999. Rally at 10:00 a.m., followed by a peaceful
march at 12:00 p.m.
For more information, contact Dale Looks Twice (media coordinator) or
Floyd Hand at (605) 867-5762.
CAMP JUSTICE internet/email Liason
Mike Wicks Mike.Wicks@mindspring.com American Indian Cultural Support
There are none so blind P. O. Box 1783
as those who will not see Lutz, FL 33548-1783
Mike.Wicks@mindspring.com
http://www.aics.org/index.html
http://www.mindspring.com/~mike.wicks/index.html
--------- "RE: Are Murder and Indian Incompatible in the Media" ---------
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 01:21:56 EDT
From: PejiWi@aol.com
Subj: Are Murder and Indian Incompatible in the Media? 7/23/99
Please take the time to read this: and send out.....
To: <kolahq@skynet.be>
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 15:01:27 -0500
From: "David Rider" <dprider@concentric.net>[Unable to display image]
Subj: Are Murder and Indian Incompatible in the Media?
I am sending this to Kola, as per their request, and to a few
bcc recipients in the hope that some of you may help to get
word out on the staggering rates of violent crimes committed
against Indians by non-Indians, and the media's continual
neglect of the subject. The article that follows is posted at
the Minority's Job Bank under the History and the Law section
of their Native Village. They hold temporary copyright on the
article but have given me permission to circulate the article
as widely as possible. If any of you care to help, please do.
Thank you for your trouble,
dave
Racially motivated murders in the United States generally receive
considerable national media attention. All the national TV news networks
and a host of major newspapers covered the recent murders of Ricky Byrdsong
and Won-Joon Yoon by a white supremacist from Chicago, Benjamin Smith.
Reporters noted that Smith also targeted Jews in addition to African
Americans and Asians. The nation also paid attention last year when James
Byrd, Jr. was tied to a pickup truck and dragged to his death near Jasper,
Texas.
America pays attention when the victims of racially motivated violence
are African Americans, Asians, or Jews. But when Wilson Black Elk, Jr., and
Ronald Hard Heart were murdered, hardly anyone noticed. Black Elk and Hard
Heart were bludgeoned to death, their bodies dumped along the road that runs
between the town of Whiteclay, Nebraska, and the Pine Ridge Reservation in
South Dakota. The reservation is the homeland of the Oglala Lakota or
"Sioux" Nation.
Black Elk's niece, Rayette Black Elk, was with her uncle in Whiteclay a
few weeks before the murders. Their vehicle was pulled over by the owner of
a tavern in Whiteclay. The white tavern owner warned that if Black Elk did
not pay his bar tab of $90 by the end of the day, he would have "the sheriff
or his boys handle it." Sheriff Terry Robbins denied that he or his
deputies killed Black Elk and Hard Heart, but suspicions remain high in
Indian Country because of the pattern of violence by white men, including
law enforcement officers, against Indians over many years.
Whiteclay, just two miles down the road from Pine Ridge, has a population
of 22. This tiny village is home to one grocery store, several fast-food
outlets, and four taverns. The taverns together sell between three and four
million dollars worth of alcohol each year, almost all of it to Indians from
the nearby reservation. When Indians walk or drive to Whiteclay, they are
often met by whites who verbally or physically abuse the Natives. The same
scene is played out in countless small towns near reservations throughout
America.
The United States Department of Justice recently released a report on
violent crime in America during the years 1992 to 1996. Roughly five
percent of Americans were victimized by violent crime in a given year. The
rate of violent crimes against Indians, by contrast, was more than twice as
high: 12.4 percent of American Indians were victimized by violent crime each
year.
The Justice report also noted that most violent crimes committed against
whites are also committed by whites: 69 percent. Likewise, most violent
crimes committed against African Americans are also committed by African
Americans: 81 percent. In sharp contrast to these figures, Indians commit
only 29 per cent of the violent crimes committed against Indians.
Non-Indians are responsible for a full 71 percent of the violent crimes
committed against Indians.
The disparity in crime rates against Indians and others persists at all
income levels. Indians with an annual income of $10,000 or less are victims
of violent crime at an annual rate of 18.4 percent, by far the highest rate
of any racial group at any income level.
These statistics on crime in Indian Country are only the tip of the
iceberg. Per capita income in the United States is $35,225, according to the
most recent reports by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Indian
Affairs. Per capital income of Indians is barely more than half of that:
$21,619.
Further, the most valuable commodity on Indian reservations is the land.
But since much of that land is held "In Trust" by the United States, it
cannot be used by Indians as collateral for loans to build or buy homes.
The National American Indian Housing Council released a report in July 1999,
which notes that half of American Indians who applied for conventional
mortgages were rejected. That rejection rate is twice as high as that for
the rest of America.
Housing among Indians is the poorest of any ethnic group in the United
States. For those living on or near reservations, 59% of American Indians
live in substandard homes. 29% are homeless. The remainder, only 14%, have
homes that meet minimum federal housing standards. Americans take modern
conveniences like telephones and indoor plumbing for granted. Yet fewer
than half of American Indians even have a telephone; 20 per cent of
reservation homes lack indoor plumbing.
Americans have prospered in recent years as the national economy has
brought unemployment to the neighborhood of 4 percent and below in many
regions. Yet half of all Indians are unemployed. Only 18 per cent of
American children, ages 6 to 11, live in poverty. But 38 per cent of
American Indian children live in poverty.
It is even worse on the Pine Ridge reservation. Shannon County, South
Dakota, has been the poorest county in America for the past 30 years.
Unemployment on the reservation now stands at 73 percent.
The staggering rates of violent crime committed by non-Indians against
Indians is heaped on top of these depressing statistics on poverty,
unemployment, and housing. But they come as no surprise to anyone
acquainted with American history. The Great Plains have been a veritable
killing field for Indians since the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 permitted
white travelers to pass through the region on their way to the Oregon and
California Territories. Depredations against Indians in the 1850's and
1860's were so frequent that traditional Indian leaders called for
abrogation of the 1851 Treaty. The last straw came in 1864 when John
Milton Chivington, an ordained minister in the Methodist Church, led 600
volunteers into the Cheyenne and Arapaho town of Sand Creek and slaughtered
more than 200 unarmed men, women, and children.
The war that ensued between the United States and an alliance of Cheyenne,
Arapaho, and Lakota Nations ended in 1868 when the United States sued for
peace. The resulting Treaty of 1868 acknowledged that all land west of the
Missouri river and east of the Oregon Territory was sovereign Indian
Territory. The Treaty forbade whites from even passing through the
Territory without permission from Indians. Those treaty provisions were
never enforced.
When gold was discovered in the Black Hills in the 1870's, a flood of
fortune seekers literally invaded the land, despite explicit prohibitions
by United States federal law. Depredations against Indians accelerated. Two
of the Lakota Nation's most respected leaders, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull,
were both murder victims.
Border towns near the reservations in South Dakota remain a killing ground
today. In Rapid City, South Dakota, during just the past year, Ben Long
Wolf, George Hatton, Allen Hough, Royce Yellow Hawk, Randell Two Crow, and
Lauren Two Bulls have died violent deaths. A spokesman for the Rapid City
Police Department maintains the standard position that there is no hate
crime involvement in these murders; they are merely accidents in a town
where murder of white people is virtually nonexistent.
President Clinton paid a visit to the Pine Ridge Reservation on July 7,
1999. The week before his visit, the body of Timothy Bull Bear Sr. was
found in Rapid Creek, which runs through Rapid City. The day after
Clinton's visit, another dead body was found in Rapid Creek. Captain Bill
Armstrong said it is being treated as yet another homicide. The national
media continue to ignore the murder of Indians.
ine Ridge has many heroes. Their Oglala ancestors include Crazy Horse,
Man Afraid of His Horses, Red Cloud and others who inspire their descendants
even today. Despite the poverty, lack of adequate housing, and enormous
crime rates inflicted against them by non-Indians, Oglalas today are
fighting for justice. Tom Poor Bear, half-brother of the murdered Black
Elk, and Floyd Hand have established Camp Justice at the Nebraska-South
Dakota State line. A village of two tipis and several tents, the Camp is
intended to draw the attention of the national media to concerns among the
Oglala and other Indian people. Dale Looks Twice and Russell Means are also
among the leaders at Camp Justice.
They want police to step up the investigation into the murders of Black
Elk and Hard Heart. They want to bring attention to the numerous unsolved
murders of Indians in recent years. They note that the town of Whiteclay is
situated among ridges lined by pine trees, all of which belongs to the
Lakota Nation, as outlined in the Treaty of 1868. And they want the taverns
in Whiteclay to close.
What can we in do to help? The good people at Camp Justice need
food and supplies to keep themselves and the volunteers there from going
hungry. To support their stand against violence and against alcohol, we can
send money orders to Camp Justice, c/o Tom Poor Bear, P.O. Box 823, Pine
Ridge, South Dakota 57770.
David P. Rider, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Xavier University of Louisiana
--------- "RE: Wall of Silence around Peltier" ---------
Date: 24 Jul 1999 06:25:52 GMT
From: jtroad@aol.com (JT Road)
Subj: WALL OF SILENCE around PELTIER
Newsgroup: alt.native
To: isco@efn.org (Beth)
Beth--
I'm on AIROS "Different Drums" tonight (4AM), 5 PM Sat, 4am Sun, 5 p
Sun....double check these...they're Eastern Time (ET) Click on AIROS
Are you sending off that message of mine into cyberspace? Thanks for all
your help, Beth. There's still almost no media coverage of Leonard's book,
I'm sorry to say. Not a single metro daily--to my knowledge--has reviewed
or even mentioned it. They're building a WALL OF SILENCE around it. I see
now, that's their strategy: keep the book away from the American public at
large; see that it's sold only at the fringes and periphery.
Ask people--how can we tear down that WALL OF SILENCE--as political and
evil, to my mind, as the BERLIN WALL. I believe the Internet's the place
to do it...as well as the streets where the books are sold. Why is the
Washington POST not being picketed? Their silence for years on Peltier
SCREAMS for a public outcry. One thing's for sure, to use a slight wrinkle
on the Washington POST's own slogan,
"IF YOU GET IT (the Washington POST), YOU DON'T GET IT (the REAL news of
Leonard Peltier and what's really going on in the country.)
The major papers and media outlets of this country are apparently all
complicit in this spineless silence. Leonard's poem "The Message," from his
book PRISON WRITINGS, reads almost prophetically:
Silence, they say, is the voice of complicity.
But silence is impossible.
Silence screams.
Silence is a message,
just as doing nothing is an act.
Beth, any way you can help break through or down or leap over or tunnel
under this WALL OF SILENCE, please do--and encourage EVERYBODY to do the
same! We must each be an Army of One in Leonard's behalf until they come to
their senses, end this ongoing "ethnic-cleansing" against Indian People, and
give our brother back to us--and by "us" I mean the whole of humanity.
I see the media's silence on Peltier and many other crucial issues as "A
CONSPIRACY OF IGNORANCE"--nobody's TELLING them not to publish; they're just
afraid if they publish the truth somebody WILL give them a hard time. It's
my belief the FBI, DOI etc would just as soon let Leonard quietly out;
politically they can't say so, can only mouth the old lies, but they of all
people know what REALLY happened and they know LEONARD was framed and
kangarooed in a manner worthy of the KGB. Louis Freeh and the others would
just as soon put this travesty behind them. Millions have demanded they do
so. Why drag this baggage from the darkest days of the Cold War into a new
Millennium? The time to free Leonard is NOW!!! I'm putting my prayers on
the FBI doing the right thing and whispering to Bill, even as you read this,
to sign Leonard's executive clemency appeal.
It will be the noblest moment in any of their lives!
/Harvey Arden
--------- "RE: Native Prisoner" ---------
Date: Sun, 25 July 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.
Daniels, Larry Darnell, Perry Wayne
#189777 Boyd Unit
H. U. 4-86 J.C.C.C. Rt. 2 Box 500
PO Box 900 Teague, TX 75860
Jefferson City, MO 65102 Ancestry: Kiowa/Tonkawa
Doolin, Timothy Allieun DuBry, Lloyde S.
#502716 #42142 K-202
18701 Old Hwy 66 LCF PO Box 2
Pacific, MO 63069 Lansing, KS 66043
Date of Birth: 9/14/72 Date of Birth: 3/20/60
Ancestry: Cherokee Ancestry: Sioux/Blackfoot
Davis, Dale Nelson
#217-638
PO Box 740
London, OH 43140-0740
Ancestry: Blackfoot
Laura Brook's website is being updated and old pages moved to a mirror site
temporarily. The current address for Laura Brooke's Native American
Prisoner pen pal archive list is:
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/9118/penpal.html. I'll try to keep an
eye on the page to see where it finally ends up and let readers know
immediately.
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: La...la...la...loving you" ---------
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 23:54:08 GMT
From: "rustywire" <rustywire@yahoomail.com>
Subj: La...la...la...loving you...
Newsgroup: alt.native
I can hear the music now as the song starts. I think we all know that
certain songs when we hear them take us back through time as it were to
a better place. A time of innocence, yearning and love, all in a moment
once you hear it...
The strings of a violin start slowly and I hear the words..."Guys come
to you with lines that aren't true and you pass them by..."
I am standing in our old wooden house just finishing washing my face
and hands from the wash basin, and my hair is combed. I favored wearing
a simple shirts and clean blue levis. A mirror hanging up on the wall
above the wash basin brought out the best in me. I remember thinking I
looked pretty good for a rez boy from this out of the way place,
Toadlena. KWYK radio out of Farmington was playing on the transistor
radio...
"I don't wear a diamond ring...I don't even know a song to sing...."
I was in our old house, I closed my eyes and danced slowly around the
wooden floor and I was out past the screen door. The old sheep dog
laying there by the door watched me cooly as I danced across the yard
and easily jumped the fence and headed through the juniper trees.
"let me try, I don't even wear a diamond ring...la,la, la, loving
you...."
She was back from the Mormon placement program, she looked polished, a
black long haired beauty who got off the bus from Brigham City, she
lived down the road....she was fair and she struck me when I first saw
her...so she is from here...mmmm, time to get to know this one....what
was her name...
"listen to me....la la la la loving you....come on and take my
hand...."
We got to know each other from checking the mail, she walked up there
to the trading post for her parents and I just happened to be standing
there each time she came up. We started to talk. She was here just for
the summer and I was a plain rez boy, but this was my time and my
place. I had helped her family with hauling hay and water, and her
mother invited me to eat with them.
"You will see the things I said are true....the way I am say them to
you...listen to me...la..la..la..la..la..loving you"
Their place was simple, they had no electricity or running water...we
were simple people...and I knew her family. Some would call them poor,
but we were all that way there. I had nothing to offer but myself and
it was good enough. I knew where she came from and though I was not
like the white boys she had known from Utah....she was a Navajo
Girl...she gave me life and brought some things I had never known to
this out of the way place. Her roots were from this land, this home,
the hogan, and sagebrush and though she tried to forget it, in time
these things returned and she was mine...
"All I know these things are true....I love you...I never saw a girl I
needed in this world...you are the one for me, let me hold you in my
arms.."
This was the time when we stood next to each other, and with a knowing
look, she came close to me...there was an aura about her, and I was a
part of it...we stood there on a dusty plain, in sand, with sagebrush
moving softly in the breeze and danced to this song...there was nothing
like it...she was my everything....taking my breath and life and my
heart forever, so it is with such things...
The song ends and I am back driving down the highway, my mirror shows
my face a little older and far from that time and place. It was a short
journey, a sense of life and feelings remembered for a time and so I go
on down the road....wishing her well where ever she maybe...
<A REF="http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Nook/1574/">Navajo Spaceships</A>
--------- "RE: Book Review: Newspaper Indian" ---------
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 09:15:44 -0500
From: berryj@okstate.edu
Subj: (FWD)Indian News 07-25-99
Roger Iron Cloud
FirstNations Listserv
202.358.3252
rironcloud@acf.dhhs.gov
Journalism 101: Creation of stereotypes examined in Coward's `Newspaper
Indian'
By JUDY RANDLE
c. Tulsa World
7/11/99
A story of perseverance and luck surrounds Tulsan John Coward's first
book, "The Newspaper Indian."
A timely look at newspapers and their reporting practices during
America's westward expansion in the 19th century, the book documents, for
the first time, events that shaped this country's conflicting impressions
of American Indians -- stereotypes that remain to this day.
The book's appearance this spring was fortuitous. The role of newspapers
and news media is under intense public scrutiny and Native Americans and
other minorities are clamoring to be heard in their own voices as they
struggle to overcome the impressions of their world interpreted through
the lens of white social norms.
The unassuming communications department faculty chairman and professor
at the University of Tulsa, happily acknowledges the positive reception
his work is receiving.
Coward's soft accent and slow pace reflect his Tennessee roots, but the
words tumble out as he talks about his years of research and work.
He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of
Tennessee in Knoxville and at East Tennessee State University. Those years
were interspersed with a tour of duty as a Navy officer during the Vietnam
conflict, and a 3- year stint working for a newspaper.
After teaching for three years at Emory & Henry University in southwest
Virginia, Coward moved to the University of Texas in Austin to begin work
on his doctoral dissertation, slowly backing into his book.
As he searched for a topic he first had to decide between two angles:
media law, which includes areas such as libel law and First Amendment
issues, or the history of journ