And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Anderson, Peggy. "9th Circuit Panel Hears Challenge to Montana Redistricting
Opinion,"
http://www.ap.org/
SEATTLE -- A three-judge appeals-court panel heard arguments Monday on a challenge to
a federal ruling last year that concluded a redrawing of Montana's legislative
districts did not discriminate against Indian voters. The 1992 redistricting, based on
the 1990 census, created one new Indian-majority district, for a total of six. The
American Civil Liberties Union, which sued on behalf of members of the Blackfeet and
Flathead tribes, contended three new Indian-majority districts should have been
created. ACLU attorney Laughlin McDonald told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
panel that while some white candidates supported by Indians had won election in the
two contested districts, Indian candidates were consistently defeated. Assistant
Montana Attorney General Sarah Bond countered that those results occurred in elections
where nearly one-third of Indian voters - and more than one-third of white voters -
crossed over to vote with the "other" side. That does not suggest white!
!
-blo
c voting that undermines Indian candidates or issues, Bond said. Other factors, such
as low voter turnout, also come into play, she said. The commission did not undermine
any existing Indian-majority districts, and in fact enhanced the voting strength of
the Indian voting-age population, she said. McDonald stressed that there is no magic
threshold figure for the percentage of white-bloc votes that can be considered to
undermine minority voting rights. The judges - William C. Canby, Melvin Brunetti and
Diarmuid O'Scannlain - took the appeal under advisement. Brunetti called it a "very
interesting and very difficult case."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Archaeologist Hopes For Better Understanding,"
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/
SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- Archaeologists interpret history through artifacts
dug from the earth, while American Indians often rely on stories passed down
through generations. If both groups worked together, suggests archaeologist
Larry Zimmerman, "both would have a much wider perspective on how the past
happened." Zimmerman, chairman of the American Indian and Native Studies
Program at the University of Iowa, invited 13 archaeology students from
across the country to learn about the tribal perspective this summer at the
Loess Hills of western Iowa . . . Zimmerman had wanted to organize a field
school for years . . . "I think this is something that people should have
done years ago," said Dawn Makes Strong Move, an official with the Ho-Chunk
Nation in Wisconsin . . . Zimmerman understands. "Archaeology was part of
American colonialism, pure and simple," he said. "It was just used as
another way to get their land from them." For too long, he said, researchers
uncovered and examined American Indian artifacts without regard to tribal
customs or oral histories. "The minute you start seeing Indian people as
part of the contemporary world, you start changing how you see archaeology."
Zimmerman said he hopes the coursework in western Iowa will open dialogue.
"I'm trying to get the students to understand that Indian people want to
control their past," he said. "They've almost had their past forced down
their throats."" SEE ALSO: Fuson, Ken. "Archeologist Digs for
Understanding[;] A U of I Archeologist Wants to Improve Relations Between
Native Americans and Those In His Field,"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Editorials: Casino Offers Poor Odds; Education and Job Training Help From
The State Would Provide Better Solutions for Hancock County,"
http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/
So Gov. Roy Barnes won't offer any active resistance to an American Indian
tribe's proposal to build a casino-resort in Middle Georgia. That's a
letdown. To be sure, the governor says he still is personally opposed to
casino gambling and will speak out against it if asked to comment during any
official approval process, which is under the authority of the federal
government. Just the same, he needs to send a stronger signal than merely
holding his nose. Georgia is surrounded by states that either aspire to
emulate our state's success with its lottery and/or have even more
high-stakes games of chance as revenue producers. Isn't the region becoming
saturated with Indian and non-Indian casinos, video poker parlors and
parimutuel tracks? Isn't it time for someone in authority to stand up and
shout enough?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Greenberg, Brigitte. "Group Revels in Small Triumph as Fight Continues,"
http://www.ap.org/
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A Connecticut Indian tribe hoping to emulate the
casino-fueled successes of two other tribes is celebrating a victory in its
continuing struggle with the state. The grand prize for the Golden Hill
Paugussetts would be federal recognition, an imprimatur that would lend
greater legitimacy to the small band and clear the way for them to open a
casino. The Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos in eastern Connecticut generate
millions of dollars a year for the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes.
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is opposing the Paugussetts' effort, on
behalf of the state. In a July 30 decision, two administrative law judges
with the U.S. Department of the Interior rejected Blumenthal's attempt to
block full-blown reconsideration of the Paugussetts' request for
recognition. That request was originally denied in 1996, when the Bureau of
Indian Affairs ruled that there was a 50-year gap in the tribe's history and
that they had failed to show that forebear William Sherman was Paugussett or
Indian. But the BIA this year agreed to reconsider the application and new
information from the tribe - the move which Blumenthal had sought to block.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gugliotta, Guy. "Saying the Words That Save a Culture; Tribe's Race to Teach
Its Mother Tongue Reflects Global Erosion of Languages,"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
SAPULPA, Okla. --The old man sat with his arms folded while Katy, 15,
Renee, 13, and Eleanor, 9, huddled to figure out how to say "bring the
shovel," a tough question in a quiz game the community had dubbed "Yuchi
Jeopardy!" The girls whispered among themselves, then turned to the old man
and recited loudly and in unison: "Saa-show-yaa haa-ah-nee kuhn-gunh" --
"the shovel, bring it!" Henry Washburn beamed: "That's good, that's good.
Say it over again, so you'll know how to say it better." And they did. The
game is deadly serious. Washburn, 74, is one of perhaps 10 living native
speakers of Yuchi, the language of a small portion of the Creek Nation in
northeast Oklahoma. He is trying to pass the mother tongue to the children
of the community in a race against time. "In a few more years," Washburn
said, "there won't be anybody left to teach it." . . . There are about
6,700 languages worldwide today, and many linguists agree that at least one
disappears every two weeks . . . [and] agree that language endangerment is
as pervasive in the United States as in any region on Earth . . . Yuchi is
the language of 2,400 descendants of a people who were "removed" from
ancestral lands in Alabama and Georgia and sent to Oklahoma in the winter of
1838-39 along the "Trail of Tears" that other tribes traveled as well. "When
they tell about it in English, they leave out the real story," said Mose
Cahwee, 82, another of the teaching elders who learned Yuchi history and
folkways from his grandmother. "I kept it all this time, and then I saw that
we needed to let these teenagers know what I know. It wasn't doing anyone
any good for me to keep it in."" . . . The prototype in the United States is
<Bill> Wilson's Hawaiian schools <Wilson is the non-Hawaiian founder of the
islands' language restoration program>, which started in 1984 with 12
preschoolers and followed them through high school, adding to the curriculum
a year at a time. The first 11 seniors graduated in June, and the system now
has 1,857 students, including 200 preschoolers and 500 in kindergarten: "At
one point you had 3- and 4-year-olds conversing with people in their
seventies," Wilson recalled. "It's better now, but we still have a long way
to go."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Indian Boy's Custody Case is Sent to UN,"
http://www.montrealgazette.com/
WINNIPEG -- A tug-of-war over a 4-year-old boy caught between two
cultures, two countries and two sets of relatives may not be over, now that
the United Nations has been asked to intervene, says a Manitoba legislator.
Eric Robinson, the NDP member for Rupertsland, said the Assembly of First
Nations has asked a United Nations subcommittee to investigate. The
aboriginal toddler was living on the Sagkeeng First Nation with his
biological grandfather when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in February
the boy was to be returned to his white, adoptive grandparents in
Connecticut. The U.S. couple had adopted the boy's Indian mother in 1980
when she was a girl, then raised her son for the first eight months of his
life. The biological grandfather, who lives in Vancouver, originally won
custody of the child after the British Columbia Court of Appeal ruled it was
in the boy's best interest to live with his blood relatives instead of his
adoptive family. But the Canadian Supreme Court allowed an appeal from the
child's adoptive grandparents.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
McAdam, Pat. "The Lunatic Louis Riel: Was the Controversial Metis Leader a
Madman or a Father of Confederation?" The Ottawa Citizen, August 9, 1999, A13.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
Louis Riel -- a posthumous pardon? A statue on Parliament Hill?
Designation as a Father of Confederation? Prime Minister Alexander
Mackenzie's words in an 1874 letter may yet have the stuff of prophecy: ''I
suppose when he dies he will be canonized,'' Mackenzie mused. The
beatification process seems to be well under way and canonization could
follow unless there is a cooling-off period of sober second thought. Louis
Riel was hanged for high treason in Regina in November, 1885. He was 41
years old. The self-styled leader of the Metis nation barely qualified to
call himself a Metis; he was seven-eighths French-Canadian and one-eighth
Indian. Archbishop Alexandre Tache called him a ''madman and a lunatic.''
Dr. Francois Roy testified at Riel's trial that he was ''more or less''
cured of the mental illness for which his family had him committed for 23
months between 1876 and 1878. Following his discharge, Riel wrote: ''I was
treated there as charitably as any lunatic could be.'' . . . Might the
campaign to elevate Louis Riel to sainthood result in a reopening of the
wounds that divide French and English, Catholic and Protestant and East and
West? Might it not be sufficient to grant a posthumous pardon for putting a
''mad man'' and ''lunatic'' on trial for his life, finding him guilty and
hanging him? Sainthood, a statue on Parliament Hill and Father of
Confederation status would be revisionist history of the very worst kind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Narragansett Indian Claims His Tribe Owes Him Money for Failed Housing
Project,"
http://www.ap.org/
CHARLESTOWN, R.I. -- A Narragansett Indian has gone to Boston's First
Circuit Court of Appeals with a claim that the Narragansett Indian tribe
failed to pay him for work he did on a failed housing project. Thomas Reels
Sr., owner of Ninigret Development Corp., is appealing a U.S. District Court
decision that rejected his claim that he was not paid for the work he did,
reports The Westerly Sun. U.S. District Court Judge Ronald R. Lagueux ruled
the dispute should be heard in tribal court because of the tribe's sovereign
immunity. A tribe is like its own country, and not covered by the laws of
the state or nation. The judge said although the Narragansetts don't have a
tribal court, the tribal council serves in that capacity. Reels said the
tribal council hears both the case and the appeal, making the process
unfair. Reels and others in the tribe question the validity of the tribal
court, for this and other reasons.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
O'Marcaigh, Fiachra. "Indigenous Identities Online: Today is the
International Day of the World's Indigenous People. Sarah Marriott Examines
How indigenous Groups are Using the Internet to Preserve Their Cultures,
Share Knowledge and Save Their Lands,"
http://www.ireland.com/
[Note: Paula Giese died over two years ago, her most excellent website, however, still
exists through the auspices of her family and friends who continue to support her work
on line...Ish]
An indigenous South American woman in brightly coloured clothes stares out
from Telecom Eireann's advertising poster. "Hello, world" is the slogan -
"How will you be using us today?" The spread of information and
communications technology means the woman in the poster could be on her way
to a telecentre in her mountain town to email relatives in the US, to
exchange health advice with other women via a bulletin board, or to campaign
against an environmental threat to a nearby river. Many of the world's
indigenous tribal people have survived despite enormous social, political,
environmental and economic pressures, and now many are utilising the
Internet to continue their struggles. Although the majority are in developed
countries such as the Native Americans in the US and the Inuit in Nunavut,
Canada, groups in developing countries are also fighting to overcome digital
isolation to join the "global village". Native American nations have a
strong online presence and, despite problems of access by tribes in remote
locations, generally view the Internet as a positive force. The first to
claim territory in cyberspace was the New York State tribe, the Oneida
Indian nation, with a website which receives over 4,500 hits a day. "The
web-page. . . has been invaluable to save parts of our history," believes
Dale Rood, special projects technician, and representative of the Turtle
Clan. "To be able to tell the history that one can't readily get in any
schoolbook or in any other written documentation - we are able to tell our
own story . . . We are not only preserving our culture for the current
generation, but also for future generations to come." "Since many nations
and tribes are involved in a whole variety of efforts, from legal land claim
struggles to attempting to create better educational systems for their youth
to economic developments, this is a real opportunity," enthuses Paula Giese,
a member of the Native American Ojibwe tribe . . . However, what could be
termed cyber-colonisation is taking place, as non-indigenous mediators, such
as academics, missionaries, governments and commercial enterprises set up
web-sites on indigenous issues. Paula Giese is concerned about the
credentials of those launching web-sites on tribal matters. Although they
may be put up by people with a lifelong interest in Native Americans, or by
children studying a particular tribe, she believes: "they tend to weaken the
idea of nationhood and national sovereignty"
Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine
of international copyright law.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE
http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/
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