Native Issues & Info

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="0ee20a43.jpg"> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#CC9966" TEXT="#080000" background="3e147a03.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Native Spirit</B></FONT>    |<B>     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Native Spirit"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Native Links"><U><B>Native Links</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Native Musicians"><U><B>Native Musicians</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="NATIVE AMERICAN ARTISTS"><U><B>NATIVE AMERICAN ARTISTS</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id31.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Gathering of Nations"><U><B>Gathering of Nations</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Special Events"><U><B>Special 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COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lalique" ><B> <A NAME="support_renewable_energy_on_native_american_land_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></FONT></div> <div> <B> <IMG SRC="151481e0.gif" border=0 width="72" height="30" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Petition</B></div> <div> <A HREF="#native_hawaiian_recognition_up_for_senate_debate" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>Native Hawaiian recognition</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="#native_hawaiian_recognition_up_for_senate_debate" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B> up for Senate debate</B></U></A><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="#native_hawaiian_recognition_up_for_senate_debate" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B> </B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <A HREF="#native_hawaiian_recognition_up_for_senate_debate" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>Wednesday, May 17, 2006 </B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>                       </B><A HREF="#choctaw_marine_from_oklahoma_killed_in_iraq" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B> Choctaw Marine from Oklahoma killed in Iraq</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="#choctaw_marine_from_oklahoma_killed_in_iraq" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B> Yellow Bird: Death is our greatest unknown</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="#choctaw_marine_from_oklahoma_killed_in_iraq" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>  Seneca-Cayuga Tribe seeks to restore land rights</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="#choctaw_marine_from_oklahoma_killed_in_iraq" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B> NCAA rejects use of William & Mary 'Tribe' logo</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>                                     </B><A HREF="#yup_ik_man_finishes_university_of_alaska_with_honors" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B> Yup'ik man finishes University of Alaska with honors</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="#yup_ik_man_finishes_university_of_alaska_with_honors" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>  The Black Crowes and The Sag Chips</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="#yup_ik_man_finishes_university_of_alaska_with_honors" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B> Ross Swimmer v Tex Hall, Round Two</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="#yup_ik_man_finishes_university_of_alaska_with_honors" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>Indianz.Com launches Casino Stalker to track casinos</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="#yup_ik_man_finishes_university_of_alaska_with_honors" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B> State releases report on discovery of village</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>                                  </B><A HREF="#the_new_york_oneidas_a_business_called_a_nation" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>  The New York Oneidas: A Business Called a Nation</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>                         </B><A HREF="#native_americans_urged_to_rally_in_washington_for_trust_case_" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B> NATIVE AMERICANS URGED TO RALLY </B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="#native_americans_urged_to_rally_in_washington_for_trust_case_" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B> IN WASHINGTON FOR TRUST CASE</B></U></A><B> </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>                  </B><A HREF="#the_tribe_wants_its_heritage_known__nanticoke_leni_lenape_" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>The tribe wants its heritage known</B></U></A><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="#the_tribe_wants_its_heritage_known__nanticoke_leni_lenape_" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B> </B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <A HREF="#the_tribe_wants_its_heritage_known__nanticoke_leni_lenape_" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>( Nanticoke Leni-Lenape)</B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Native Hawaiian recognition up for Senate debate </B><B> <A NAME="native_hawaiian_recognition_up_for_senate_debate_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>Wednesday, May 17, 2006 </B></div> <div> <B>A new report from the U.S. Civil Rights Commission is galvanizing supporters and opponents of Native Hawaiian recognition as a bill to extend the self-governance policy to the island's indigenous people heads for a vote. </B></div> <div> <B>Earlier this month, the panel issued a briefing that called for the rejection of S.174, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act. The Republican-dominated commission said the measure discriminates on the basis of race and divides Americans into different classes with "varying degrees of privilege." </B></div> <div> <B>"This runs counter to the basic American value that the government should not prefer one race over another," said Gerald A. Reynolds, the chairman of the commission and a Republican who was appointed by President Bush. </B></div> <div> <B>But not all members of the panel agreed with the assessment. Arlan Melendez, the chairman of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony in Nevada who was appointed by Congress and identifies himself as a Democrat, voted against the report. </B></div> <div> <B>So did Michael Yaki, another Democrat and Congressional appointee to the commission. Melendez and Yaki, an attorney, are expected to file dissents to the report that are due by tomorrow. </B></div> <div> <B>Yet another member, Peter Kirsanow, a Republican lawyer who was appointed by President Bush, abstained from voting. Kirsanow currently serves on the National Labor Relations Board, a federal entity that is engaged in battles with tribes over sovereignty. </B></div> <div> <B>The disagreement highlights the controversial nature of the Native Hawaiian recognition bill. Conservative Republicans have launched a campaign to ensure its defeat, arguing that a Native Hawaiian government is illegal because they say it would be based on race. </B></div> <div> <B>"Ours is a nation based not upon race, not upon ethnicity, not upon national origin, but upon our shared values, enshrined in our founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, upon our history as a nation, and upon our shared language, English," said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee) in a speech on the Senate floor the day the report was released. </B></div> <div> <B>With the bill headed for debate next month, Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), the sponsor of S.174, has embarked on his own campaign to dispel what he says are myths and misconceptions about Native Hawaiian recognition. He called the commission's report biased and inadequate because it was based on inaccurate information. </B></div> <div> <B>"The commission never contacted its Hawaii Advisory Committee, which includes members who are experts in Hawaii's history and Indian law," Akaka said on the Senate floor. "Not once was the advisory committee informed of the briefing or allowed to contribute to the commission's report." </B></div> <div> <B>The commission held a session on January 20, 2006, on Native Hawaiian recognition. People on both sides of the issue were equally represented although the majority of comments received from the public were in opposition to the bill. </B></div> <div> <B>Despite the diverse views, the commission's report fails to explain a key legal and political question: whether Native Hawaiian recognition differs from recognition of American Indians and Alaska Natives. The report discusses the arguments on both sides of this particular question but doesn't provide a justification for excluding Native Hawaiians from self-determination and self-governance. </B></div> <div> <B>The disconnect posed problems for Melendez, whose questions during the January meeting underscored the possibility that opponents of Native Hawaiians would turn their sights on tribes and Alaska Natives and argue that their governments are illegal as well. </B></div> <div> <B>"I think that [Native Hawaiians aren't] asking for anything different than what Native American tribes in the United States have been granted," Melendez said, according to the minutes of the meeting. "And I don't see a lot of differences in the way that they've been treated." </B></div> <div> <B>H. Christopher Bartolomucci, a law professor at Georgetown University who testified at the meeting, pointed out that the federal government in the past terminated its relationship with tribes and Alaska Natives. But he said the tribes and Alaska Natives never lost their sovereignty and argued that Native Hawaiians haven't either. </B></div> <div> <B>"I find this somewhat ironic that it's okay to treat as Indian tribes, those tribes that we pushed off their lands and put into reservations," he said. "But if we went even further and we took away their sovereignty, if we overthrew a monarchy, if we did even more then we can't treat them as a tribe, we can't give fairness to that kind of group?" </B></div> <div> <B>Those kinds of issues are likely to arise on the Senate floor. This past Friday, Akaka said the bill will be debated during the first week of June. </B></div> <div> <B>"This is about establishing parity for Hawaii's indigenous peoples in federal policies," he said. "This is about clarifying the existing political and legal relationship between Native Hawaiians and the United States." </B></div> <div> <B>Civil Rights Commission Report:</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>The Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2005 (May 2006) </B></div> <div> <B>Civil Rights Commission Transcript:</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>January 20, 2006 Meeting </B></div> <div> <B>School Admission Policy Decision:</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Doe v. Kamehameha Schools (August 2, 2005) </B></div> <div> <B>Office of Hawaiian Affairs Decision:</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Arakaki v. Lingle (August 31, 2005) </B></div> <div> <B>Native Hawaiian Recognition Bill:</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2005 (S.147) </B></div> <div> <B>Rice v. Cayetano Resources:</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Abstract, Audio and More </B></div> <div> <B>Rice v. Cayetano Election Rights Decision:</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Syllabus | Opinion | Concurrence Dissent (Stevens) | Dissent (Ginsburg)</B><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B> </B></U></A><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Lalique" ><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>Top</B></U></A></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing </B><B> <A NAME="senate_indian_affairs_committee_hearing_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>Wednesday, May 17, 2006 </B></div> <div> <B>The Senate Indian Affairs Committee held a hearing this morning on Indian youth suicide. </B></div> <div> <B>The hearing was the third on the subject. In June 2005, the committee held a hearing in Washington. In May 2005, the committee held a field hearing in North Dakota. </B></div> <div> <B>The committee took a short recess after the first panel to vote. The hearing resumed shortly after. </B></div> <div> <B>You can listen to audio files of the hearing. All are in MP3 format. </B></div> <div> <B>• Introduction - 10:11 - 2.3MB </B></div> <div> <B>Panel 1</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>• Testimony - 20:59 - 4.8MB | Q&A - 23:34 - 5.4MB</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>MR. JERRY GIDNER </B></div> <div> <B>Deputy Director for Tribal Services, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior </B></div> <div> <B>Accompanied by: </B></div> <div> <B>MR. CHET EAGLEMAN, Acting Chief, Division of Human Services; </B></div> <div> <B>MR. KEVIN SKENANDORE, Acting Director, Office of Indian Education Programs; and</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>MR. PETER MAYBEE, Assistant to the Deputy Bureau Director, Law Enforcement Services </B></div> <div> <B>DR. CHARLES W. GRIM </B></div> <div> <B>Director, Indian Health Service, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services </B></div> <div> <B>Accompanied by: </B></div> <div> <B>MR. JON PEREZ, Director, Indian Health Service Division of Behavior Health, Rockville, Maryland </B></div> <div> <B>MR. CHARLES G. CURIE M.A., </B></div> <div> <B>A.C.S.W., Administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration </B></div> <div> <B>Panel 2</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>• Testimony - 26:26 - 6.0MB | Q&A - 10:54 - 2.5MB</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>MS. DONNA VIGIL </B></div> <div> <B>Director, Division of Health Programs, White Mountain Apache Tribe </B></div> <div> <B>Accompanied by: </B></div> <div> <B>DR. NORINE ASHLEY, PsyD, Director, Apache Behavioral Health Services, White Mountain Apache Tribe, Whiteriver, Arizona</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>MR. FREDERICK L. HUBBARD, Associate Director, Community Relations, White Mountain Apache Tribe, Whiteriver, Arizona </B></div> <div> <B>MR. WILLIAM E. MARTIN </B></div> <div> <B>Chairman, Alaska State Suicide Prevention Council, and 1st Vice President, Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Tribes of Alaska </B></div> <div> <B>DR. R. DALE WALKER </B></div> <div> <B>Director, One Sky Center, Oregon Health and Sciences University </B></div> <div> <B>MS. JO ANN KAUFFMAN </B></div> <div> <B>Project Director, Native Aspirations Project </B></div> <div> <B>The hearing starts at 9:30am. It should be broadcast </B><B> </B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#00FFFF" FACE="Lalique" ><A HREF="http://indian.senate.gov/public. " TARGET="_blank" TITLE="http://indian.senate.gov/public. "><U><I><B>online</B></I></U></A></FONT><B> </B><B> at </B></div> <div> <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>TOP</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>State releases report on discovery of village </B><B> <A NAME="state_releases_report_on_discovery_of_village_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>Wednesday, May 17, 2006 </B></div> <div> <B>The Washington Department of Transportation released a 200-plus page report on Tuesday detailing the events of a construction project that led to the discovery of a major tribal village. </B></div> <div> <B>As part of a $280 million bridge project, the state began building a dry dock in Port Angeles. Workers soon uncovered a 2,000-year-old Elwha village that had been occupied as recently as the early 1900s. </B></div> <div> <B>The find was heralded as highly significant by archaeologists. The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe began participating in excavation of the site but found it difficult to proceed as more than 300 ancestors and thousands of artifacts were uncovered. </B></div> <div> <B>After months of negotiations, the state agreed to halt work at the village. The future of the site, however, is in question. Both sides are continuing talks. </B></div> <div> <B>Get the Story:</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Dry-dock attempt cost $87M (The Seattle Times 5/17)</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>State graving yard report looks back at what went wrong (The Peninsula Daily News 5/17)</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>'Everyone Bears A Measure Of Responsibility' (KOMO 5/16)</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Press Release: Graving Dock Report Offers Detailed Project Review (WSDOT 5/16) </B></div> <div> <B>Report:</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Hood Canal Bridge Graving Dock (May 2006) </B></div> <div> <B>Relevant Links:</B></div> <div> <A HREF=" http://tse-whit-zen.elwha.nsn.us" TARGET="_blank" TITLE=" http://tse-whit-zen.elwha.nsn.us"><U><I><B>Tse-Whit-Zen Village News </B></I></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF=" http://www.elwha.org " TARGET="_blank" TITLE=" http://www.elwha.org "><U><I><B>Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe </B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.wsdot.wa.gov" TARGET="_blank" TITLE="http://www.wsdot.wa.gov"><U><I><B>Washington State Department of Transportation</B></I></U></A><I><B> - </B></I></div> <div> <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>TOP</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>Choctaw Marine from Oklahoma killed in Iraq </B><B> <A NAME="choctaw_marine_from_oklahoma_killed_in_iraq_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>Wednesday, May 17, 2006 </B></div> <div> <B>Marine Lance Cpl. Hatak Yearby, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, was killed in Iraq over the weekend. </B></div> <div> <B>Yearby, 21, died when a vehicle he was riding in hit a mine. He was in the Al Anbar province battling insurgents, The Native American Times reported. </B></div> <div> <B>Yearby was a traditional fancy dancer who frequently participated in powwows. He had always worn his hair long but cut it to join the military. </B></div> <div> <B>Yearby had just gotten married in February. He went to Iraq in March. </B></div> <div> <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>TOP</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>Yellow Bird: Death is our greatest unknown </B><B> <A NAME="yellow_bird_death_is_our_greatest_unknown_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>Tuesday, May 16, 2006 </B></div> <div> <B>"Death is the worst unknown we can grapple with. In my lifetime, I have seen it come - sometimes quietly, sometimes unjustly, sometimes too soon, but always with great power. There's no saying, "Just wait a minute" or "Give me five more minutes." </B></div> <div> <B>The recent deaths of my mother and aunt seemed different. My mother seemed to know it was her time. With her children around her and her life being in order, her illness and difficulty with her body made the transition seem easy for her. </B></div> <div> <B>My aunt, for her part, struggled and smiled and held us around her. When she finally left us, I could feel her around me as if she was just out of sight. </B></div> <div> <B>On the walk of the Red Road, the image of death is put there as something you must face. A spiritual leader I knew once told me he wasn't afraid to die, because he'd been to the other world and it was quiet pleasant. He predicted his death, and he recorded that prediction to be heard sometime later." </B></div> <div> <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>TOP</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>Seneca-Cayuga Tribe seeks to restore land rights </B><B> <A NAME="seneca_cayuga_tribe_seeks_to_restore_land_rights_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>Wednesday, May 17, 2006 </B></div> <div> <B>The Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma is asking the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm its governmental rights in New York. </B></div> <div> <B>The tribe has purchased 229 acres of ancestral territory. The tribe wants to engage in gaming and other forms of governmental activity. </B></div> <div> <B>Previously, a judge ruled that the tribe did have a right land in New York but the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently threw out the Cayuga land claim altogether. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Supreme Court Briefs:</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Cayuga Indian Nation of New York v. Pataki </B></div> <div> <B>Cayuga Land Claim Decision:</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Cayuga Nation v. New York (June 28, 2005) </B></div> <div> <B>Sherrill v. Oneida Nation Decision:</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Syllabus | Opinion [Ginsburg] | Concurrence [Souter] | Dissent [Stevens] </B></div> <div> <B>Relevant Links:</B></div> <div> <B>NARF-NCAI Tribal Supreme Court Project</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Indian Nation Fee-to-Trust Land Acquisition Applications in New York State </B></div> <div> <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>TOP</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>NCAA rejects use of William & Mary 'Tribe' logo </B><B> <A NAME="ncaa_rejects_use_of_william___mary__tribe__logo_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>Wednesday, May 17, 2006 </B></div> <div> <B>The NCAA rejected the College of William and Mary's logo but said the school's "Tribe" nickname was acceptable. </B></div> <div> <B>The W&M logo features two feathers. The NCAA said the use of the logo creates "an environment over which an institution may not have full control. Fans, opponents, and others can and will exhibit behaviors that indeed are hostile or abusive to Native Americans," according to news reports. </B></div> <div> <B>In the past, the school had an Indian mascot, went by the "Indians" nickname and used other Indian imagery. </B></div> <div> <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>TOP</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>Yup'ik man finishes University of Alaska with honors </B><B> <A NAME="yup_ik_man_finishes_university_of_alaska_with_honors_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>Wednesday, May 17, 2006 </B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>A Yupi'k man who felt too white in his Native village and too Native in the big city graduated with honors from the University of Alaska Anchorage. </B></div> <div> <B>Quentin Simeon grew up doing drugs and getting into trouble. After he moved to Anchorage, he had some trouble with the law but turned his life around after getting married and after winning the 2002 Native Oratory Society contest, his first of four wins. </B></div> <div> <B>Simeon was chosen by fellow graduates as their commencement speaker. "If I had given up on myself, I would not be a father, a husband, a graduate, or even alive," he said, The Anchorage Daily News reported</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>TOP</B></U></A><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B> </B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <B>. </B></div> <div> <B>April 28, 2006 </B></div> <div> <B>Ross Swimmer v Tex Hall, Round Two </B><B> <A NAME="ross_swimmer_v_tex_hall_round_two_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>It must suck being Ross Swimmer. Reviled by most of Indian Country for his Reagan-era reign of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, foiled in his attempt to run BITAM and passed over for the job of Interior Secretary, he now gets to toil in supremacy as head of the Office of Special Trustee, charged with ensuring that the interests of individual Indians are protected. </B></div> <div> <B>But not if you are dead! In that case, he can spill all the dirty details of your Individual Indian Money (IIM) account to anyone who's willing to listen. This time, it's Jerry Reynolds of Indian Country Today, who publishes a write-up of Swimmer's latest vile action since he joined the Bush administration under a dark cloud back in November 2001. </B></div> <div> <B>According to article, Swimmer has been SUPER busy carrying out trust reform. But he took enough time out of his schedule to dispute Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Chairman Tex Hall, who recently recounted the story of a tribal member who died waiting for action on her trust account. </B></div> <div> <B>Incredulous! the special trustee responds. The woman only had $13.65 in her IIM account, and had "no pending mineral payments or other forms of trust income,'' Swimmer wrote in an e-mail to subordinates. That means Hall is wrong to say that the woman needed the money to pay for a $1,500 hydraulic life she needed to get around because we all know OST's records are in tip-top shape. [The woman was waiting on a grazing payment, Hall said in court testimony in February 2002.] </B></div> <div> <B>Furthermore, Hall is to blame for even talking about this! ''Whether it's appropriate to discuss a deceased person's account - well, Tex brought this up,'' Swimmer says when asked to defend his decision to talk about dead Indians and their non-existent trust funds. So it's fair game then. </B></div> <div> <B>This isn't the first time Swimmer has gone head-to-head with Hall. Back in May 2003, he said Hall's testimony to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee was not true even while admitting that yes, it was. </B></div> <div> <B>But look at the bright side of things: If you want OST to come clean about your trust account, just go ahead and die. Then wait around a few decades while your probate is resolved. By that time, Swimmer will definitely have EVERYTHING under control! </B></div> <div> <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>TOP</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>March 31, 2006 </B></div> <div> <B>The Black Crowes and The Sag Chips </B><B> <A NAME="the_black_crowes_and_the_sag_chips_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>In the best music news to hit Indian Country since the reunion of Motley Crue, The Black Crowes have just announced they are headed to the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort, owned by the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan, on May 19! </B></div> <div> <B>We only hope this means a tour of tribal casinos is in the works. Suggested stops: Turning Stone Resort and Casino (Oneida Nation); Key Club Morongo (Morongo Band of Mission Indians) and Sandia Pueblo's lovely amphitheater right outside Albuquerque, New Mexico. Anything to keep David Crosby away. </B></div> <div> <B>We don't know when tickets go on sale but it will likely be soon. So mark your calendars. And check Amorica, the official Black Crowes Message Board for updates. </B></div> <div> <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>TOP</B></U></A><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B> </B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <B>Indianz.Com launches Casino Stalker to track casinos </B><B> <A NAME="indianz_com_launches_casino_stalker_to_track_casinos_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>Monday, May 15, 2006 </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Indianz.Com Casino Stalker</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Tracking casino proposals across Indian Country.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Note: Map appears to load faster in Firefox.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Note: Due to high web site traffic, Casino Stalker may take a minute or two to load. We recommend Firefox. </B></div> <div> <B>Indianz.Com is happy to introduce our latest feature: Casino Stalker! </B></div> <div> <B>Built on Google Maps technology, Casino Stalker is an ongoing project that will track casino proposals, gaming land acquisitions and other gaming projects in Indian Country. </B></div> <div> <B>Casino Stalker is getting off the ground with listings for proposed casinos in California, New Mexico, Wisconsin and New York. More sites will be added in the future. Additions, corrections and other information are welcome. </B></div> <div> <B>According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, more than 40 tribes are seeking to acquire land for gaming purposes. Some applications have been pending for several years as controversy over off-reservation casinos has festered. </B></div> <div> <B>The Senate and the House are now considering legislation that would make it harder to acquire land for casinos. The Senate's version imposes an April 15 cut-off date on certain types of acquisitions, prompting more than a dozen tribes to submit applications. </B></div> <div> <B>So far, only one of the new applications -- the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is seeking land more than 200 miles from its reservation -- is posted on Casino Stalker. Others are being added as accurate information comes in. </B></div> <div> <B>To be included in Casino Stalker, the proposal should have been submitted to the BIA through the land-into-trust process. Each listing will provide as much information -- such as the location of the acquisition, the date of the application, the availability of environmental impact statements -- as possible. </B></div> <div> <B>Land determinations that are under review or have been reviewed by the National Indian Gaming Commission will also be accepted. </B></div> <div> <B>Proposals where tribes have not submitted formal applications or where gaming is only rumored will not be posted on Casino Stalker. </B></div> <div> <B>Legislation will be considered if the proposal affects the tribe's gaming rights. The Lytton Band bill, for example, was the first added due to the history of the tribe's site in the Bay Area. </B></div> <div> <B>Land acquisitions that failed, such as the Lower Lake Rancheria Koi Nation's casino near the Oakland International Airport, are included only if the tribe actually started the process. </B></div> <div> <B>Most on-reservation acquisitions won't be included unless they raise legal issues or require some form of federal action. The Las Vegas Paiute Tribe of Nevada was posted because the BIA is preparing an environmental impact statement for the tribe's proposed casino. </B></div> <div> <B>To submit a site for inclusion on Casino Stalker, include as much information as possible. At the minimum, the location of the acquisition and evidence of a formal application is required. </B></div> <div> <B>Evidence of a formal application can include statements made by the tribe about its proposal. </B></div> <div> <B>For those experienced with Google Maps, an exact location -- either in the form of a street address or latitude/longitude coordinates --will be appreciated. </B></div> <div> <B>Indianz.Com expects that some of the information posted on Casino Stalker may need to be updated or changed. Send an e-mail to indianz at indianz.com with your updates, suggestions and more</B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.indianz.com/maps/casinostalker/" TARGET="_blank" TITLE="http://www.indianz.com/maps/casinostalke"><U><I><B>CASINO STALKER  </B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>TOP</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>The New York Oneidas: </B></div> <div> <B>A Business Called a Nation </B><B> <A NAME="the_new_york_oneidas_a_business_called_a_nation_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>Professor Bruce E. Johansen </B></div> <div> <B>Introduction </B></div> <div> <B>One of the most important -- and, often, most vexing -- questions in Indian Country today concerns the creation of reservation economic bases which produce necessary cash income while being culturally appropriate and sustainable. Casinos, the reservation cash cow du jour, sometimes produce mountains of money as they transform parts of reservations into annexes of the non-Indian economy, with all of their imported artifices and vices. </B></div> <div> <B>Thirty years ago, the New York Oneidas’ landholdings were down to 32 acres east of Syracuse, with almost no economic infrastructure. Three decades later, the New York Oneidas own a large casino, the Turning Stone, which has incubated a number of other business ventures. Many of the roughly 1,000 Oneidas who reside in the area have received substantial material benefits. </B></div> <div> <B>Amidst the prosperity, however, a substantial dissident movement exists among Oneidas who assert that Ray Halbritter, "nation representative" of the New York Oneidas, was never voted into such an office. This group, centered in the Shenandoah family (which includes the notable singer Joanne Shenandoah and her husband Doug George-Kanentiio) believe that the New York Oneidas under Halbritter have established a busin ess, called it a nation, and acquired the requisite approvals from New York State and the United States federal government to use this status to open the Turning Stone. The dissidents’ tribal benefits were eliminated after they took part in a “march for democracy.” To regain their benefits, those who had “lost their voice” were told that they would have to sign papers agreeing not to criticize Halbritter’s government, not to speak to the press, and pledge allegiance to Halbritter and his men’s council. </B></div> <div> <B>The New York Oneidas have appointed a “men’s council,” (a body unheard of in traditional matrilineal Iroquois law or tradition) which issued a zoning code to “beautify” the Oneida Nation. This code enabled his 54-member police force (patrolling a 32-acre reservation) to "legally" evict from their homes Oneidas who opposed his role as leader of the New York Oneidas, which was solidified by the acquisition of a number of other businesses, a phalanx of public-relations spin-doctors, several-dozen lawyers, and ownership of Indian Country Today, a national Native American newspaper. </B></div> <div> <B>The story of the New York Oneidas is a particularly raw example of conflicts that beset many Native American nations that have attempted to address problems of persistent poverty and economic marginalization by opening casinos. Supporters of the casinos see them as “the new buffalo,” while opponents look at them as a form of internal colonization, an imposition of European-descended economic institutions and values upon Native American peoples. </B></div> <div> <B>In few areas is the conflict as sharp as among the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy, where New York state governor George Pataki recently announced plans to open as many as six new Native-sponsored casinos in an attempt to jump-start a state economy badly damaged by the attacks of September 11, 2001. On various Internet sites and chat rooms, supporters of Halbritter accuse the Shenandoah family of supporting anti-treaty groups, while opponents of the Oneidas’ corporate structure routinely call Halbritter “the king” and “the despot.” </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The recent experience of the Oneidas of New York raises several significant questions for Indian Country as a whole. Is the Oneida model of an economic powerhouse key to defining the future of Native American sovereignty in the opening years of the twenty-first century, as many of its supporters believe? Materially, the New York Oneidas have gained a great deal in a quarter century, including repurchase of 16,000 acres of land by the end of 2002. Have these gains been offset by an atmosphere of stifling totalitarianism and a devastating loss of traditional bearings, as many Oneida dissidents attest? This conflict also has an important bearing on the pending solution of an Oneida land claim that is more than two centuries old. </B></div> <div> <B>Oneida Historical Context </B></div> <div> <B>By the time European-Americans encountered the Oneidas and other Iroquois, this confederacy was a major economic and political power among Native American peoples of eastern North America. The Oneidas enjoyed a commanding position astride the only relatively flat passage between the Hudson River and the Great Lakes; in the nineteenth century, this country would be traversed by the Erie Canal, a major economic lifeline between the East Coast and interior before the spread of railroads a few decades later (Campisi and Hauptman, 1988; Richards, 1974) </B></div> <div> <B>“Oneida” is probably an anglicization of this people’s own name for themselves, Ona yote ka o no, meaning Granite People or People of the Standing Stone. The Oneida, one of the five original nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (with the Mohawks, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas) occupied an area in Upstate New York near present-day Syracuse, adjacent to the Mohawks on their east and the Onondagas on the west. </B></div> <div> <B>The first European to visit Oneida country who left an historical record was a Dutch surgeon, Harmen Meyndersten van den Bogaert, who traveled westward from Fort Orange (Albany) in 1634 and 1635. The Oneidas sheltered the Dutchman during the winter, and fed him venison, salmon, bear meat, cornbread baked with beans, baked squash, and beaver meat. The fact that the Oneidas could bring such a feast out of winter storage spoke volumes about the abundance of their economy at the time. Van den Bogaert described storehouses of beans and maize; he estimated that one of these contained 300 bushels of corn stored for the winter. </B></div> <div> <B>During the early 1660s, continuing into the 1690s, Oneida and other Iroquois populations were sharply reduced by a series of epidemics, principally smallpox. By the late 1660s, according to estimates by French observers (which may have been inflated), two-thirds of the Oneida population was comprised of adopted Wyandot (Huron) and Algonquian captives. (Richards, 1974, 25) Alcohol beverages already were taking a toll on the Oneidas as well. At about the same time, the European religious frontier reached Oneida, as the Jesuits arrived. By 1690, the new English government at Albany was approving purchases of native land in Iroquois country. Oneida population and economic base continued a protracted decline, mitigated somewhat by continued adoption of war captives. </B></div> <div> <B>The Oneidas, unlike a majority of other Iroquois, supported the patriots during the American Revolution. The Oneidas’ corn surplus, an asset in peace-time trade, was put to use in 1777 feeding General George Washington’s hungry troops during their desperate winter at Valley Forge. An Oneida, Polly Cooper (who also was called Polly Cook), served as Washington’s cook for much of the war, at his specific request. Washington asked his staff to employ a Native American cook because of the commander’s fondness for meals made from corn. </B></div> <div> <B>During the mid-eighteenth century, the Oneidas lived on roughly 5.3 million acres in central New York. Despite their aid in the American Revolution, New York Oneida lands were steadily eroded after United States independence was formalized in the Treaty of Paris (1783). During the mid-nineteenth century, within less than twenty years, Oneida land holdings were reduced from several hundred thousand to about 60,000 acres. (Johansen and Mann, 2000, 226) </B></div> <div> <B>Several land purchases around 1800 sharply reduced the Oneida territory. These treaties were written to the advantage of several land companies with the assistance of New York state, lacking federal approval required by several federal “Non-intercourse acts” passed during and after 1790. Facing disenfranchisement in New York State, during the 1820s and 1830s, about 700 Oneidas emigrated to the present-day state of Wisconsin, settling on land purchased from the Winnebagos and Menominees. (Johnson, 1995, 19) </B></div> <div> <B>By 1930, New York Oneida landholdings were down to about 1,000 acres. Various land dealings continued to erode even that amount of land. By the late twentieth century, the Oneida reservation in New York was down to 32 acres east of Syracuse. Some investment capital was provided in 1974, with a $1.2 million award (including accrued interest) from the Indian Claims Commission. Economic stimulus also was provided late in the 1980s by construction of casinos in both New York and Wisconsin. By the late 1990s, Oneida landholdings in New York State had been increased by about 4,000 acres, largely through investment of casino profits. (Kates, 1997, 25) </B></div> <div> <B>On January 21, 1974, the U.S., Supreme Court sustained the Oneidas’ position that the Non-intercourse acts applied to takings of their lands by New York State. This decision opened the way for other New England tribes, most notably the Passamoquoddy and Penobscot of Maine, to sue for recovery of lands lost in violation of the Non-intercourse acts, passed between 1790 and 1834, which required that all sales of Native American lands be approved by the federal government. </B></div> <div> <B>The New York Oneidas’ present surge of economic development began during the early 1990s. The Turning Stone Casino, twenty-five miles east of Syracuse, produced 1,900 jobs and has become, according Halbritter, the fifth most popular tourist attraction in New York state. By 1997, the casino and other Oneida businesses were employing 2,600 people, making the Oneida Nation the second largest employer in Central New York. By the late 1990s, 2.5 million people were visiting the Turning Stone annually. </B></div> <div> <B>In addition to land purchases, the Oneida Nation has used some of its gambling profits to start other businesses, such as the Oneida Textile Printing Facility in Canastota, the New York Oneidas’ first effort at diversification outside of gambling. Oneida Textile, located in a renovated 6,000-foot structure, prints and markets T-shirts, sweatshirts, and other items of clothing. A 285-room luxury hotel was opened in September, 1997, adding 450 jobs. Casino profits also have been used to build a council house, a health-services center, a cultural center and museum, a recreational center (with a swimming pool, a gymnasium, and lacrosse box, et al.), scholarship programs, medical, dental, and optical facilities, job training, legal assistance, Oneida language and music classes, meals for elders, and day care. (Kates, 1997, 22) </B></div> <div> <B>Dissent Among the New York Oneidas </B></div> <div> <B>The burgeoning business climate has been attended by some controversy from Oneidas who assert that the New York Oneidas have built a business empire on an illegitimate claim to a political base that does not exist in treaty, law, or Iroquois custom. Two reporters writing for the New York Times characterized the situation in Oneida: “The root of the Oneida story is a bitter dispute between the traditionalist aunt who resuscitated the Oneidas and her modernist nephew who built the casino.” (Chen and LeDuff, 2001, A-29). The Times’ first error in this piece was its charactrerization of the conflict as a family squabble. It’s more than that. Factually, the Times did worse in this piece; before a correction was published, its report placed the Onondagas’ reservation “near Buffalo,” when it is south of Syracuse, New York, roughly 150 miles away. (Chen and LeDuff, 2001, A-29) </B></div> <div> <B>The family conflict is a single, albeit superficial, dimension of the Oneidas’ story. Maisie Shenandoah, a Wolf Clan mother among the Oneidas, has certainly spoken out against her nephew Ray Halbritter. She called Halbritter “an overfed despot with a taste for Italian suits, ruling from a white palace near the New York State Thruway” – an office at the Turning Stone casino that overlooks the championship-caliber Shenandoah Golf Course. "He's a petty tyrant," she said. (Chen and LeDuff, 2001, A-29; Schenandoah, 2001) </B></div> <div> <B>Halbritter, who attended Harvard, does not apologize for having helped to create an economic juggernaut that has helped to build housing, a health clinic and other programs, as well as per capita payments for individual Oneidas (from which Maisie Shenandoah and others who oppose his methods have been excluded). According to Christiansen Capital Advisors, a Manhattan consulting company that maintains a database of gambling statistics, the Turning Stone Casino Resort in Verona takes in an estimated $167 million in annual revenue, with a profit margin as high as 50 percent. (Chen and LeDuff, 2001, A-29). From these profits, each enrolled Oneida member (except the dissidents) was receiving a quarterly check of $1,100 late in the year 2001. </B></div> <div> <B>Halbritter, who first moved from the Syracuse suburbs to the trailers of the “32 acres” with his mother, Gloria (one of Maisie Shenandoah's older sisters) believes that his aunt Maisie remains chained to a past that may be rich with tradition, but little else. "Sometimes, people are sort of imprisoned in poverty so long that they begin to believe that the bars are there for their own protection," he said. (Chen and LeDuff, 2001, A-29). Late in the 1990s, most of Halbritter’s most vocal opponents still lived on “the 32 acres” when the Oneida Nation government enacted a new housing code meant to evict them from their trailer homes. </B></div> <div> <B>According to the New York Times account, “After a decade-long power struggle marked by occasional violence, [Ray Halbritter] ultimately prevailed, and in 1987 was endorsed by Maisie Shenandoah as Wolf Clan representative. By the early 1990's, the Oneida leaders representing the two other clans had died, leaving Halbritter as the sole representative. In 1993, he signed a casino compact with Gov. Mario M. Cuomo without formal consent from his people. By then, he and his aunt had had a falling out.” (Chen and LeDuff, 2001, A-29). The falling-out soon hardened along familiar lines in Indian Country: assimilationist vs. traditionalist. "Our nation is run like a corporation," said Vicky Shenandoah, one of Mrs. Shenandoah's daughters. "But I would not trade my Indianness for money wealth. That won't be here tomorrow." (Chen and LeDuff, 2001, A-29) </B></div> <div> <B>Many Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) traditionalists believe that Halbritter is operating under self-assumed authority, in defiant opposition to the structure of the thousand-year-old confederacy, as well as the 200-year old beliefs of the Seneca prophet Handsome Lake, who abhorred four things that he said would doom his people: whiskey, the Bible, the fiddle, and gambling. (Schenandoah, 2001) Rick Hill Sr., a Tuscarora leader, has warned that gambling has translated into the three G's -- greed, guns and grief. From Seneca promoters of new casinos, cut-rate cigarettes and gasoline without off-reservation taxes to Mohawks who “buttleg” untaxed smokes across the border with Canada, Hill has said that young Iroquois are being seduced. "They all want to be the next Halbritter," he said derisively. (Chen and LeDuff, 2001, A-29) </B></div> <div> <B>In the meantime, Halbritter seems to regard the confederacy mainly as a toothless (and largely moneyless) debating society. "Our revenue has enabled us to take control of our own destiny more than any political or theoretical speech can make," he has said. "While people meet and make speeches, we're actually doing things." (Chen and LeDuff, 2001, A-29) </B></div> <div> <B>Who Governs the New York Oneidas? </B></div> <div> <B>In May, 1993 the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) Grand Council at Onondaga refused to recognize Halbritter’s authority as a representative of the New York Oneidas. Halbritter earlier had been selected by the Grand Council as a message carrier or “eyes and ears” from the Oneidas to the Grand Council, to serve alongside Lyman Johns and Richard Chris-john, a position which, according to Diane Schenandoah, a faith-keeper of the Oneida Wolf Clan (and daughter of Maisie) “did not carry any legislative or administrative authority but did secure for the Oneidas a presence at the Grand Council.” (Schenandoah, 2001) </B></div> <div> <B>As Barbara A. Gray, who is Mohawk (and a Ph.D. candidate in Justice Studies at Arizona State University) points out, “Halbritter was appointed by Wolf Clan Mother Maisie Shenandoah to be a sub-chief. By Haudenosaunee traditional law, a sub-chief is to be the eyes and ears of the Nation. In effect, he is a bench-warmer keeping the spot filled, until such time that he is removed or condoled. Halbritter was never condoled, i.e., officially raised to be a full chief, which takes agreement and ceremonial procedures from the Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.” (Gray, 2002, 13) </B></div> <div> <B>The Onondaga Grand Council’s decision was affirmed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in August, 1993, only to be reversed 24 hours later when a New York congressman, Sherwood Boehlert, an avid supporter of commercial gambling, persuaded Bill Clinton’s White House to reinstate Halbritter’s federal recognition. To those who assert special-interest politics, Halbritter’s supporters replied that the reversal was obtained with affidavits supporting the action from a majority of New York Oneidas. </B></div> <div> <B>Following the deaths of the other two men, and without further consultation with the matrilineal Oneidas’ clan mothers, Halbritter created a body calling itself the “Men’s Council,” whose members served at his pleasure, much like a corporation’s board of directors. Halbritter then created a corporate body that he and the Men’s Council called “The Oneida Indian Nation of New York.” This government disregarded the traditional clan-based leadership structure of the Oneidas, which is unincorporated and unrecognized by New York State. In a belated effort to express a modicum of support for a tradition in which women make many key decisions, Halbritter later attempted to balance his Men’s Council by selecting a number of elderly women to act as “clan mothers” in his governance structure. None of the “clan mothers” so selected were chosen according to traditional criteria, under which such a position is hereditary, not elective. They were not clan mothers by tradition or custom, but a female counterpart of the Men’s Council. </B></div> <div> <B>According to Diane Schenandoah “If we were to honor our obligations as Onyota'a:ka, [Oneida people] and as Haudenosaunee, we had to seek a replacement for Halbritter while fulfilling a long-standing Confederate request to appoint rotiiane [leaders] and clanmothers in accordance with the Great Law.” (Schenandoah, 2001) To do so placed traditional Oneidas in a bind, because by exercising their freedom of expression they risked their standing as Oneidas, and stood to lose all tribal benefits, placing their homes and livelihoods in serious jeopardy. During May, 1995, the traditional people held a "March for Democracy". Many Oneidas lost all tribal benefits, including health insurance, tribal stipends, access to all tribal buildings and events, as well as their tribal jobs, for expressing their opposition to Halbritter openly by taking part in this march. (Patterson, 2002) </B></div> <div> <B>As a severe critic of the Haudenosaunee Grand Council, Halbritter labeled traditional Oneidas as “dissidents” who have lost their voices. Wrote Schenandoah: “Without a trial or hearing we have been found to be guilty by the ‘men’s council’ of conspiring with the Confederacy, meeting with Wisconsin-based Oneidas and being in the company of unnamed, but apparently dangerous, ‘Canadians.’ Halbritter has taken away our benefits while denying us, at risk of arrest, access to our Oneida facilities, including the Longhouse. He has punished Oneidas for speaking to the press, enacted ordinances which are unknown to residents and passed laws which he can change on a whim.” (Schenandoah, 2001; Patterson, 2002)) </B></div> <div> <B>On March 20, 1995,according to the traditionalists, members of the Oneida Wolf Clan gathered to meet at their Longhouse, only to find that the locks had been changed. The police officers were instructed to arrest anyone trying to enter. (Patterson, 2002)) The Men’s Council also raised the ire of the traditionalists by holding meetings in the Longhouse, a place heretofore devoted to the Handsome Lake religion, which is strenuously anti-gambling. (Patterson, 2002) </B></div> <div> <B>According to Schenandoah, the Men’s Council then created an Oneida Nation Court over which Halbritter had veto power. She said that Halbritter and the Men’s Council held themselves above the verdicts of the court, and that they enforce its decisions with “one of the largest ‘Indian’ police agencies in the United States, now estimated to consist of over 50 officers not one of whom is Native or has any training in Iroquois laws or customs.” (Schenandoah, 2001) </B></div> <div> <B>The Price of Opposition </B></div> <div> <B>By the year 2000, the Men’s Council had enacted a housing code, and then began using its provisions to evict from their homes several of the corporate structure’s most severe critics. Most of them lived in trailer homes on the “32 acres.” The housing code and bulldozing of homes was presented not as an attempt to silence his opponents, but as a way to “beautify” the reservation. The evicted people were told to apply for newly constructed “Oneida homes.” Schenandoah, speaking for the traditionlists, commented: </B></div> <div> <B>Yet we, the traditional Oneidas, did not qualify for the proposed homes since our membership was suspended. We suspect the housing plans are a way to remove us from our homes on the only undisputed land retained by the Oneidas: the 32 acres south of the city of Oneida. (Schenandoah, 2001) </B></div> <div> <B>Most of the 22 families who were living on the 32-acre territory in the spring of 2000 agreed to inspections. Every home entered by the Oneida Nation Police was condemned and subsequently bulldozed. By the fall of 2001, only seven families remained. (Schenandoah, 2001) Many of the homes previously demolished were in excellent condition, according to theirowners. (Oneida Nation Clanmother, 2001) According to Schenandoah, “When we tried using our own resources to improve our homes we were threatened with arrest by the Oneida Nation Police for violation of ordinances unknown to us.” (Schenandoah, 2001) </B></div> <div> <B>One of the traditionalists, Danielle Schenandoah Patterson, a single mother of three children who was 31 years of age in 2002, flatly refused to move. Faced with an Oneida Nation condemnation order, Patterson had been trying to repair her home on her meager income, doing beadwork. The Oneida Nation had refused to comply with a 1998 Madison court order to garnish the paycheck of her ex-husband, who was an Oneida Nation employee, because of Patterson’s political views. Patterson is among the Oneidas who were stripped of their “rights” as Oneidas because they opposed Halbritter’s management of the Oneida Nation. (Oneida Nation Clanmother, 2001) </B></div> <div> <B>Traditionalist observers said that Arthur Pierce, Oneida Nation public-safety commissioner, threatened to take away Patterson’s children (Jolene, 8; Clairese, 10, and Preston, 12, as of 2002) because the home had no central heating, then wrote a letter to Stoneleigh Housing, ordering workers there not to deliver a furnace that Patterson had obtained until after the Oneida Nation Police carried out their inspection. </B></div> <div> <B>Traditionalist observers then watched Oneida Nation Police cars patrol the “32 acres” 24 hours a day to prevent delivery of the furnace. (Oneida Nation Clanmother, 2001) In the meantime, Mark Emery, an Oneida Nation public-relations spokesman, said that the mobile home's condemnation was necessary "for the sake of the children" (aged 7, 8,and 10 at the time) who lived there with Patterson (Murphy, 2001b) </B></div> <div> <B>On November 16, 2001, Patterson was confronted by Oneida Nation Police at the entrance to her residence after she refused them entry to conduct an inspection that she believed was an excuse to bulldoze her home. Patterson feared that if she allowed the inspection, her home would face the fate of 11 others on the Oneida Indian Territory that previously had been inspected, condemned, and immediately demolished. Several of the traditionalists gathered at Patterson’s home. Patterson's sister, Diane Schenandoah, said, "Physically, if they come in with bulldozers, they're going to have to flatten a few of us," she said. "They're going to have to run over us." (Murphy, 2001b) </B></div> <div> <B>Joe Hernandez, a general contractor from Sparta, N.J., helped make some repairs to the home. Hernandez gave reporters a quick tour of the mobile home. "This trailer's insulated pretty well," Hernandez said. "It's a darn good trailer." Hernandez said he saw nothing to merit condemnation. "I mean, it does need a couple repairs, but it's a sound house," said Hernandez, who carries a wallet full of cards certifying him to work in various construction fields. "Everything that I've seen so far is reparable and can be repaired in a reasonable amount of time." (Murphy, 2001b) </B></div> <div> <B>Accounts of Patterson's arrest on November 16 varied widely, according to press reports. Patterson said she was driving away from her home Friday evening with her mother, Maisie Shenandoah, and her daughter Jolene, 7, when she saw about 20 cars head toward her home, carrying about 30 police. Patterson said that she turned her vehicle around and returned to the mobile home, only to find the cars, which included Oneida Nation Police cars and unmarked vehicles, blocking her driveway. One report said that “She said Arthur Pierce, the nation's public safety commissioner, approached her carrying a long, metal wrecking bar and a piece of paper” from the Onedia Tribal Court granting legal permission to enter her home.” (Murphy, 2001a) After Patterson told the intruders to leave, according her account, “Pierce and four other officers then grabbed her arms and jacket and pulled her away from her door.” (Murphy, 2001a) For confronting the officers on her doorstep, Patterson was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer, offenses for which conviction could cost her much as a year in prison. </B></div> <div> <B>Emery said that the Oneida Nation had obtained an emergency inspection order from Stewart Hancock, a nation tribal judge. Emery said Patterson refused to allow police inside. Police attempted to arrest her for defying the court order, and she attacked them, Emery said. Nation police charged Patterson with second-degree criminal contempt and resisting arrest, according to Emery. (Murphy, 2001a) According to a report in the Syracuse Post-Standard,” During the inspection, Patterson was arrested on accusations of refusing to allow officers inside and kicking a police officer during a scuffle on her porch.” (Coin, 2001) Patterson also was injured in the scuffle. </B></div> <div> <B>According to traditionalist eyewitnesses, five to seven officers slammed Patterson against the door of her home. They yanked Maisie Shenandoah, who was 69 years of age, off the porch. Eyewitnesses said the police grabbed Patterson from all sides, forced her off her porch, and pulled out chunks of her hair. According to the same eyewitnesses, as one of the officers announced that Patterson was being taken into custody for resisting arrest, her glasses were broken and a heavy silver bracelet she was wearing was bent out of shape as she was handcuffed. When Patterson screamed that they were hurting her and that she was not provoking them, one of the officers threatened her by shoving a can of mace in her face before she was hustled into one of the police cars. </B></div> <div> <B>The traditionalists said that once Patterson was removed, one of the police officers pried open the door of the house with a crowbar, breaking it beyond repair, as several police swarmed into the home. During the inspection, according to the same witnesses, police ripped open her bedroom drawers, throwing her clothes all over the floor, broke a lamp, dismantled her kitchen pipes and ripped out a triangular door in the bathroom. (Oneida Nation Clanmother, 2001) </B></div> <div> <B>Patterson said that her children were traumatized because of constant harassment by the Oneida Nation Police. The children had been living with Patterson’s sister since Pierce’s threat to remove them. One of the children, 7-year old Jolene, fully witnessed the November 16 police “inspection.” (Oneida Nation Clanmother, 2001) </B></div> <div> <B>Following her confrontation with Oneida police November 16, hospital reports said that Patterson was treated for "multiple contusions" at Oneida Health Care Center. According to another report, Patterson went to the Oneida City Emergency Room and was treated for severe bruising, neck and back injuries, as well as emotional trauma resulting from the arrest. (Oneida Nation Clanmother, 2001) Patterson suffered serious bruises and emotional trauma following a scuffle with several of the police. </B></div> <div> <B>The same day, Patterson was interrogated for several hours by an Oneida Nation judge and police during which, according to one account, she was told she faced three weeks in jail without legal representation. “I was sitting there with blood on my face, big chunks of hair falling from where they [had] pulled hair out of my head. And the judge told me to get a good lawyer and he laughed.” (Steinberger, 2002) </B></div> <div> <B>Speaking for the Oneida Nation, Emery said that “Patterson attacked nation police, not the other way around, and that her mobile home was treated respectfully.” (Murphy, 2001a) Oneida City Police Chief David Meeker, who was present at the arrest, “said Patterson resisted arrest and that he did not see nation officers use excessive force in subduing her.” (Murphy, 2001a)</B></div> <div> <I><B> </B></I><A HREF="http://www.oneidasfordemocracy.org " TARGET="_blank" TITLE="http://www.oneidasfordemocracy.org "><U><I><B>For more information</B></I></U></A><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lalique" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Wednesday April 5, 2006 </B></div> <div> <B>NATIVE AMERICANS URGED TO RALLY IN WASHINGTON FOR TRUST CASE </B><B> <A NAME="native_americans_urged_to_rally_in_washington_for_trust_case__1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>WASHINGTON, April 5 -- Native drummers will summon American Indians from across the nation to </B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#00FFFF" FACE="Lalique" ><B>Washington April 11</B></FONT><B> for</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>a crucial court hearing and a rally over the government's mismanagement of their trust accounts. </B></div> <div> <B>Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff in the historic Cobell versus Norton lawsuit over the government's admittedly broken trust program,</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>has urged that Native people join her for a hearing over the government's effort to remove the judge who has presided over the lawsuit for the past 10 years. </B></div> <div> <B>Members of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will also be considering an injunction that was issued over the lack security around the </B></div> <div> <B>Interior Department's computer systems which hold trust data. </B></div> <div> <B>"These two oral arguments are critical," Ms. Cobell said. "The government's basic idea is that since District Judge Royce C. Lamberth is holding them accountable</B></div> <div> <B>for what the Court of Appeals has recognized as 'unconscionable' actions and 'malfeasance,' the judge should be ousted.</B></div> <div> <B>The fact is that Judge Lamberth has patiently and impartially presided over our lawsuit." </B></div> <div> <B>The hearing begins at 9:30 a.m. </B></div> <div> <B>After the court hearing concludes, drummers from Montana's Blackfeet Nation and other tribes will lead a procession from the courthouse</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>to the front of the Museum of the American Indian. There Ms. Cobell, attorney Keith Harper of the Native American Rights Fund,</B></div> <div> <B>Chairman Tex Hall of the Mandan, Hidatsa & Arikara Nation and co-chairman of the Trust Reform and Cobell Settlement Workgroup,</B></div> <div> <B>Chief Jim Gray of the Intertribal Monitoring Association and Mary Johnson, a Navajo woman, will speak. </B></div> <div> <B>Ms. Johnson has a remarkable story to tell. She lives on the Navajo Reservation in southern Utah on land where oil wells have been </B></div> <div> <B>pumping non-stop for decades. Yet, as she has testified in the Cobell lawsuit, she has received very little money under the government-administered oil leases for her lands. </B></div> <div> <B>At 3 p.m. former Senate leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota will join with the Native leaders for a discussion of the Cobell litigation at the Center for American Progress, 1333 H St. NW, 10th floor. </B></div> <div> <B>The event is open to the public. </B></div> <div> <B>Individuals who wish to attend the CAP event are requested to </B><B> </B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#00FFFF" FACE="Lalique" ><A HREF="http://www.americanprogress.org/cobellrsvp " TARGET="_blank" TITLE="http://www.americanprogress.org/cobellrs"><U><I><B>RSVP</B></I></U></A></FONT><B> </B></div> <div> <B>"We have planned a number of events around the court hearing because so many Indians have asked for an opportunity to show the importance </B></div> <div> <B>of our court fight and to oppose the government's continuing efforts to roll back the court victories that we have won," Ms. Cobell said. </B></div> <div> <B>contact: Bill McAllister 703 385-6996</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>COBELL V NORTON</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>THE PLAINTIFF'S BROCHURE</B></div> <div> <B>THE INDIAN TRUST WEBSITE</B></div> <div> <B>TOP</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Posted on Sun, Mar. 13, 2005 </B></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Lalique" ><B>The tribe wants its heritage known( Nanticoke Leni-Lenape)</B></FONT><B> </B><B> <A NAME="the_tribe_wants_its_heritage_known__nanticoke_leni_lenape__1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lalique" ><B>.</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Nanticoke Leni-Lenape reclaim their identity</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>By Jacqueline L. Urgo</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Inquirer Staff Writer</B></div> <div> <B>BRIDGETON, N.J. - From the time she was a child, Tina Pierce Fragoso was told to keep the family secret.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>That her parents and grandparents and their ancestors had carried on the traditions of the Nanticoke Leni-Lenape - believed to be the original inhabitants of what is now New Jersey, Delaware, and parts of Pennsylvania - was something that needed to remain hidden.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Afraid of racial discrimination and decades of what they perceived as government tactics to disperse American Indians, the Nanticokes closely guarded the secret of their heritage.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Until now.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Pierce Fragoso, her tribal elders, and other members of the Nanticoke tribe have begun, for the first time in their 10,000-year history, a push to raise public awareness about the Nanticoke Leni-Lenape, an offshoot of the Delaware tribal nation.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Members are now making dozens of appearances in schools throughout the state each year to lecture about the Nanticoke Leni-Lenape. And the tribe has mounted a drive to raise about $1.5 million through special events and private donations to build a cultural and educational center on 28 acres it owns in nearby Fairton, Cumberland County.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>The 3,000-member Nanticoke tribe is part of pending legislation being cosponsored by Assembly members Bonnie Watson Coleman (D., Mercer) and Douglas Fisher (D., Cumberland). The legislation also involves the Powhatan Renape Nation in Burlington County and the Ramapough Mountain People in Bergen County.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Although the tribes were officially recognized in an informal joint resolution of the state Legislature in 1980, the new bill would formally recognize them and thereby allow them to market their handcrafts under an "authentic Indian" label.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>The legislation could also lead to federal recognition of the tribes, making them eligible for government loans and grants for education, health care and housing.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Fisher said the Nanticoke Leni-Lenape have added much to the cultural fabric of the region.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>"These are families that have been here for generations, for hundreds and hundreds of years," he said. "They are a group that in recent times had lost their identity, but through the foresight of their elders are now taking opportunities to regain that identity."</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Opponents of the bill, including State Sen. William Gormley (R., Atlantic), say the legislation could open the door to American Indian casino gaming in New Jersey.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Pierce Fragoso, 32, said the Nanticokes are focused on preserving their culture and do not want to build a casino. They want to erect a three-story structure that would take on the symbolic shape of a turtle - their revered symbol of "mother" - to house a museum and library.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>The building would also provide an outreach location for health care and other assistance, which have been administered to tribe members from a small storefront on Commerce Street for the last 25 years.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Pierce Fragoso said the center provides food, medical care, and social-service referrals and operates on a shoestring budget of less than $40,000 a year. It also houses a small gift shop where members sell their works, such as native pottery, dolls and clothing.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>"We have a lot that we need to preserve and share, and now is that time that it needs to be done before our heritage slips away and is lost forever," said Pierce Fragoso, a cultural anthropologist with a bachelor's degree from Princeton University and a master's degree from Stanford University.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Pierce Fragoso, who worked briefly in anthropological consulting before returning to Cumberland County to coordinate the tribe's nonprofit corporation and administer its outreach programs, says the tribe previously hid its heritage as a means of preserving it.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>"To deny who we were, to just not let it become an issue, was the only way we knew how to survive," said Mark Gould, 66, the tribe's chief.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Seared deep into the memories of the tribe's elders were images of their brethren, as recently as 1924, being stripped of their lands by the government and loaded into railcars in Salem by government agents to be shipped off to a reservation in Oklahoma, Gould said.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>And it wasn't until 1978, when Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, that it became legal to practice their sacred rites.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>If no one knew they were Nanticoke Leni-Lenape, then they would not be rounded up and carted off or arrested, reasoned Lew Pierce, Pierce Fragoso's father, who is the tribe's spiritual leader and conducts many of the Leni-Lenape religious ceremonies.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>"You were told [by your parents] to keep your mouth shut and not talk about who you were," Pierce said. "If someone thought you were black or Hispanic, you just went along with it. Indians come in all shades, so it was easy to hide. It wasn't the time to make a stand."</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>So Pierce Fragoso was told by her parents to just "blend in" with the crowd at school or with friends.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>And she was to ignore the small-town chatter and racial slurs that linked her to a tiny settlement just over the city limits called Gouldtown, where "all the high yellows" supposedly lived.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>"But I couldn't keep my mouth shut much of the time, and I wanted to correct the wrongs that people were saying," Pierce Fragoso said. "Sometimes teachers listened, sometimes they just told me to sit down and be quiet."</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Historically, Gouldtown was an "Indian town," where many residents could trace their lineage back more than a dozen generations to the Nanticokes, Pierce said.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>In federal census data from the 1800s through the 20th century, many of those living in Gouldtown described themselves as "mulatto."</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>And their worship centered on a little white church on Fordville Road called St. John's United Methodist Church.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>With a congregation still largely made up of Nanticoke descendants, regular Methodist worship takes place on four Sundays each month. But in months with five Sundays, traditional American Indian ceremonies are held. Until 1978, these ceremonies were held in secret.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>But things have changed over the last decade. Although some curriculums haven't quite caught up, the tribe gets more than 300 requests a year to travel to schools throughout the region to talk about Nanticoke Leni-Lenape heritage.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>"I've never let the negative comments impact how I see myself or my people," Pierce Fragoso said.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Instead, she decided to arm herself with credentials that can help her play a vital role in preserving the tribe's heritage.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>"When you look at the pieces of our people scattered about, it doesn't look like we have much," Pierce Fragoso said. "But put together, we have a lot. We have a story to tell."</B></div> <div> <B>Leni-Lenape Facts</B><B> </B></div> <div> <B>The Leni-Lenape are believed to be the original inhabitants of the Mid-Atlantic region, including what is now New Jersey and Delaware, and parts of New York and Pennsylvania.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>American Indians were not officially granted U.S. citizenship until 1924. Until 1978, they were banned by law from publicly holding traditional religious ceremonies.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Traditionally, the Nanticoke Leni-Lenape were split into three clans: the turtle, the turkey and the wolf. Each is connected with various stories revolving around native life.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>The language spoken by the Leni-Lenape is called Lenape Delaware, or Unami, and is an Algonquian language. It was once common in New Jersey and Delaware, but the nuances of the language have been lost to the ages because no fluent speakers of it remain. A recent resurgence in interest about Unami is helping to revive the language among younger tribe members.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>The Leni-Lenape historically were a farming people, with the women of the tribe doing most of the harvesting of corn, squash and beans. Nanticoke foods include corn bread and succotash.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>SOURCE:</B><B> </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lalique" ><B>The Nanticoke Leni-Lenape Indians of New Jersey</B><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>TOP</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>Support Renewable Energy on Native American Land </B><B> <A NAME="support_renewable_energy_on_native_american_land_02_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee; House Resources Committee; Senate Finance Committee; House Ways & Means Committee</B></div> <div> <B>In 1992 Congress adopted a production tax credit as part of the Energy Policy Act, giving tax breaks to producers of wind power and renewable energy. </B></div> <div> <B>Ironically Native Americans, one of the poorest communities that could most benefit from this act, were excluded from its incentives.</B></div> <div> <B>Now we're calling on Congress to include Native Americans in tax breaks for renewable energy production, like wind power. </B></div> <div> <B>The export of rural wind power can provide the basis for a sustainable reservation economy that brings revenue and</B></div> <div> <B>employment to impoverished rural tribal communities. And unlike fossil fuel development, a wind project can bring in a 25 year revenue stream </B></div> <div> <B>from the sale of energy, green tags, and other incentives, without leaving behind degraded air, polluted water, flooded lands, or </B></div> <div> <B>gaping holes in the ground. </B></div> <div> <B>This is a win-win situation for Native Americans, for our economy, and for our environment. </B></div> <div> <B>As Congress now debates the Production Tax Credit, call on them to extend its terms to create long-term incentives for </B></div> <div> <B>ALL producers of renewable energy in the U.S. -- including Native Americans!</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Papyrus" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Please Sign this Petition</B></div> <div> <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><B>Return</B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Native Issues Info"><U><I> <img src="HTMLobj-547/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="100" height="62"> 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