And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: http://www.indiancountry.com/Headline.html SECTION A Road in, culture out in Minnesota MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - After more than a year of protests to save what is claimed as a sacred site, 30 years of planning took precedence and expansion of a highway in southeast Minneapolis will proceed. Mitigation repeal effort a surprise WASHINGTON, D.C. - Opponents of the "mitigation bill" that would transfer Sioux treaty lands to the state of South Dakota and two South Dakota tribes are celebrating a surprise move that could repeal the bill. With grace and humor Potawatomi move forward In Jackson County Kansas, 20 miles north of the state capital in Topeka, the Prairie Band Potawatomi are realizing the "American Dream" of economic success and the ability to improve life on their reservation. SECTION B Coming of Age Ceremony revived on the Yankton Sioux Reservation For only the second time in 100 years, a late June public Ishna Ti Awica Dowan (coming of age) ceremony was conducted on the Yankton Reservation at Greenwood, S.D., on the Yankton Sioux Reservation. Eagle spirits soar over massacre site A Ghost Dance shirt, probably stripped from the body of one of at least 300 Lakota slain in the massacre of Big Foot's (Spotted Elk) Band at Wounded Knee Dec. 29, 1890, finally has made its way home. Racist postcard shocks Blackfeet legislator BROWNING, Mont. - Rep. Carol Juneau was shocked this spring when she got a racist and vulgar postcard protesting her bill to have the word "squaw" removed from the state's placenames. BROWNING, Mont. - Rep. Carol Juneau was shocked this spring when she got a racist and vulgar postcard protesting her bill to have the word "squaw" removed from the state's placenames. The unsigned card had a Missoula, Mont. postmark, but no return address. Juneau, a Democratic state legislator from the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, says the correspondence still bothers her today, even though her bill was signed by Republican Gov. Marc Racicot, and squaw - a name offensive to many Native Americans - is already being stripped off maps, mileposts and mountains. "I'd never received anything like that before," she said during a recent interview in her Browning home. "It was just pure hate. To get something like that just knocks you down and reminds you that there are people out there you need to be aware of." Along with a cruel immersion into the racial politics of Montana, Juneau, 54, said she learned many other things during her first session in the Legislature, and she wants to run for office again. "It confirmed my belief that Indian people need to get more involved in all levels," she said of her time in the state's halls of power. Juneau is a Mandan-Hidatsa and a member of the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. She was born in Elbowoods, N.D., and grew up in the border community of Parshall, an experience that had broad impacts on the way she views the often disparate world of Indians and non-Indians.>>>> ...................... Juneau sponsored a flurry of bills aimed at improving educational opportunities on the state's seven reservations, boosting tribal economies, and closing other socioeconomic and cultural gaps that routinely exist between Indians and non-Indians. One of her most hotly contested proposals was to encourage schools on and near reservations to hire more Indian teachers, in part so tribal students would have role models as they moved through the educational system. Rep. David Ewer, a Helena Democrat who testified in favor of the proposal, noted that of the nearly 11,000 teachers now working in Montana, only about 2 percent are Indian. In contrast, the total number of Indians in Montana is estimated to be nearly 7 percent of the total population, he said. The bill, however, was attacked by conservatives as being an improper affirmative-action measure and died a rather bitter death on the House floor. On the bright side, five other bills sponsored by Juneau were approved by lawmakers, including one creating a committee to study whether a new commission on state-tribal affairs is needed in Montana. Juneau, soft-spoken but determined, was asked by the GOP leadership to serve on that panel. Juneau's biggest success, however, was passage of the so-called "squaw bill," which requires state agencies to remove the name from all "geographic features and places" within their jurisdiction. Some federal agencies in Montana, such as the National Park Service, have also taken the cue and are voluntarily removing the name, as well. "Would you like to have a place you look up to and respect be called vagina?": Juneau said while fighting for the proposal."Montana needs to take action on that." While opponents argued that the name changes were unnecessary and the bill was insubstantial "feel-good" legislation, broad majorities in both houses supported it, as they did most other tribally related proposals that were broached this year. "I'm pleased with what happened this session with the bills I was able to get through," Juneau said while issuing praise for fellow Democrats and Republicans alike for working together. "There seemed to be an atmosphere in the Legislature that helped support my bills. I wasn't too afraid of speaking up." Along with her legislative duties, Juneau said she's working to help Native Americans recognize the need to run for school board seats, town and city council slots, county commission posts and state-level elected offices. She also wants to do what she can to improve relations between tribal governments and the state, as well as relations between Indians and non-Indians in general. >>>>>>> Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
