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Headline Archives 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007

Tuesday, December 31, 2002

We take a look at some of the top storied that gained headlines in Indian Country for the year 2002.

1. Tribal Task Force members met throughout the year. In January, tribes offered numerous alternatives to Secretary Norton’s unpopular proposal for a Bureau of Indian Trust Assets Management known as BITAM. And, The Navajo Nation walked away in September.

2. The Interior Department dropped BITAM from the reorganization plan, gaining approval from Congress, but not the Task Force.

3. Some tribes gained and lost Federal Recognition from the government. Among the winners and losers, include the Chinook Tribe, the Cowlitz tribe, the Schaghticoke, and the the controversial Eastern Pequot tribes.

4. In the Cobell Indian Trust lawsuit, the contempt trial against Interior Secretary Gail Norton and Assistant Secretary Neal McCaleb finished in February.

5. Mother Nature wrecked havoc in Indian Country, among the disasters are a freak summer snowstorm in Montana and a huge earthquake that rocked Alaska. Other disasters include the Rodeo-Chedeski fire in Arizona.

6. Pope John Paul, II canonized the Catholic Church’s first Indian Saint, Juan Diego in July.

7. Whale hunters in the Northwest continued to face opposition. Inupiaq whale hunters were granted an acceptable quota by the International Whaling Commission. And the Makah Nation were forbidden to continue with their hunting of Gray Whales.

8. The 2002 Election year proved to shoe the significance of the Indian Vote in Indian Country.

9. This year also showed huge gains for Indians in films. “The Business of Fancy Dancing”, “Skins”, “Atanarjuat- The Fast Runner”, and “Windtalkers” hit the big screen nationwide.

10. The East Coast tribes held the spotlight for gaming this year.

11. This was a year of leadership turnover at the Department of Interior. Neal McCaleb stepped down from the top spot at the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Monday, December 30, 2002

• The Federal Emergency Management Agency is giving 1.6 million dollars of federal aid to repair damages caused by the Denali earthquake that hit interior Alaska last month. An additional $40 million dollars will come from the Federal Highway Administration to fix major road that provide access for Athabascan villages in Interior Alaska.

• A Lakota tribal member, James White Calf is demanding an apology from the federal government for massacres incurred on Native Americans. The petition being circulated in South Dakota, is calling for a formal apology from the United States for the massacres of Indian people dating back to the American Revolution.

• The Native American vote is getting more attention following the November elections. Indian voters are being credited with helping South Dakota’s Democrat incumbent Senator Tim Johnson, defeat Republican challenger John Thune. Although Native Americans usually vote for Democrats, neither party is taking that for granted in the upcoming 2004 election.

• Buffalo, New York will be the next host site of the North American Indigenous Games in 2005. It’s the second time they’ve been held in the U.S.

Friday, December 27, 2002

• The U.S. Forest Service has extended through March, the comment period on a plan to ban climbers from Cave Rock, a place considered sacred to Nevada’s Washoe tribe.

• Members of South Dakota’s Rapid City community have formed a group they hope will become the equivalent of a Native American NAACP. SANI-T, the Society for the Advancement of Native Interests Today was founded to address the reports of racism by Indians in South Dakota and elsewhere.

• A new novel by an Osage tribal member has hit the stands. First time novelist, Charles Red Corn weaves a story about his tribe during the 1920’s in Pawhuska, Oklahoma.

 Thursday, December 26, 2002

• A federal judge in the Cobell class action lawsuit issued an order on Tuesday, prohibiting the Department of Interior from communicating with the plaintiffs about the litigation, without the Court’s permission. This order prevents the Department from finishing the mailing of eight thousand historical accounting statements to trust beneficiaries, begun in October.

• An Indiana tribe petitioning for federal recognition is concerned that it’s being confused with an Oklahoma tribe. Officials with the Miami Nation of Indiana say the public and some politicians have misunderstood media reports concerning the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma.

• The Internal Revenue Service is investigating the spending practices of a Florida tribe, after an embezzlement trial held earlier this month.

Wednesday, December 25, 2002

• Eighth-grader Conway Thompson of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe is developing a reputation as a powwow dancer. The 14-year-old Timber Lake student has been on the powwow circuit for four years. But what makes him stand out isn’t just what he does, but how he does it.

• Native Americans are respected for their oral traditions. Storytelling was used not only to teach morals and society structure, but was also entertainment during the dark winter months. For some tribes, storytelling only takes place during the winter. One storyteller of Cherokee and Comanche heritage, who uses the Internet as his medium.

Tuesday, December 24, 2002

• A qualifying race for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race has been canceled due to poor conditions. The Klondike 300 Sled Dog Race is usually held in mid-January at Big Lake, about 60 miles from Anchorage. Race secretary Bob Spears says a warm winter has prevented organizers from putting in a trail. Alaska is experiencing a warmer than usual winter, with little snowfall.

• Nineteen years ago Patti White Bull, of Santa Fe, went into a comatose state, after suffering complications from delivering her fourth child. For years she lived in an Albuquerque nursing home, unable to walk, talk, or feed herself. But at Christmastime in 1999, Patti awakened. Some say it was due to a flu drug she received, others say it was a miracle.

• Law students attending Arizona State University Law School will get to tap the mind of former Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover. Gover, who headed up the BIA during the Clinton administration, is leaving the law firm of Steptoe and Johnson to teach Indian law courses at ASU.

Thursday, December 19, 2002

• Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced this afternoon that the Department has received the go-ahead to begin reorganizing the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ trust operations. The Senate approved the funding for the new trust plan in a letter dated yesterday. The House had approved it a week ago.

• Canada is still reeling from anti-Semitic remarks made by an Indigenous First Nations leader. David Ahenakew, a former Assembly of First Nations president, apologized to Canada’s Jewish community and has resigned from all of his political positions. Ahenakew was also suspended as a board member of the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College in Regina. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are investigating whether Ahenakew has committed a hate crime when he said Adolf Hitler was right to – in his word – “fry” – six million Jews during World War II.

• South Dakota's Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe has a new chairman for the first time in twelve years. Former Vice Chairman Harold Frazier was sworn in as chairman on December 7, replacing Gregg Bourland who held the office for three consecutive terms.

Wednesday, December 18, 2002

• Tribal leaders will be asking Congress to freeze funding for a Bureau of Indian Affairs reorganization plan, which the Department of Interior released two weeks ago. The National Congress of American Indians and the Trust Reform Task Force are preparing a letter to the House and Senate appropriations committees, asking for clarifications to the proposal.

• The Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma has relocated two tribal representatives to Cayuga County, New York, to facilitate the construction of a high stakes bingo hall in that state. But the tribe is facing opposition by local residents.

• A forestry official for the White Mountain Apache Tribe in Arizona agrees with the Bush administration moving to streamline the process to thin timber and reduce fire hazards in the nation’s forests. But he says there are economic problems to consider.

Tuesday, December 17, 2002

• A federal judge today dismissed all charges against three Seminole tribal officials who had been accused of embezzling millions of dollars from the Florida tribe. U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas said prosecutors hadn’t proved that any crime had been committed. Fraud and embezzlement charges were dropped against Tim Cox, Dan Wisher and Michael Crumpton.

• Leonard Gregg, the White Mountain Apache contract firefighter accused of starting part of last summer’s devastating Rodeo-Chediski fire, has been declared mentally incompetent to stand trial.

• The final meeting of the Indian trust reform taskforce was held yesterday in Washington, D.C. Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb and Interior Department executives tried to flesh out the details of the Bureau of Indian Affair's reorganization plan, which will be submitted to the judge in the Cobell Indian trust lawsuit on January 6.

Monday, December 16, 2002

• The Assembly of First Nations in Canada is condemning anti-Semitic remarks made by one of its former leaders. Saskatchewan officials are asking the federal government to press hate crime charges against Saskatchewan Indian Nation Senator David Ahenakew. Ahenakew reportedly made the remarks following a meeting of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations.

• The Geneva session on the Draft United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples ended Friday, with no declaration articles being passed. Since the effort began eight years ago, only two of 45 have passed. Lakota delegates attending the work group session blame the United States for creating obstacles.

• The Native American Journalists Association has announced a new executive team, that’ll head up NAJA’s new offices in Vermillion, South Dakota. Past Board President Mary Annette Pember will serve as interim executive director and radio reporter Ron Walters will serve as associate executive director.

Friday, December 13, 2002

• South Dakota’s attorney general says charges have been filed against a Flandreau woman for alleged violations of state election laws, in relation to a voter registration drive that targeted the state’s Indian reservations. Mark Barnett says Becky Red Earth-Villeda has until the end of working hours today to turn herself in. She’s accused of falsifying voter registrations and absentee ballot applications.

• Author Dee Brown has died at the age of 94 in an Arkansas hospice. Brown is best remembered for his 1971 book, “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” which examined atrocities against Native Americans.

• Uncared for and unwanted dogs are a big problem on many reservations. The Navajo Nation has created a unique puppy adoption program that offers unwanted reservation dogs a second chance. The tribe is also sponsoring Humane Society First Strike conferences on animal abuse.

Thursday, December 12, 2002

• A North Dakota federal appeals court denied Leonard Peltier's appeal to reduce the two consecutive life sentences imposed on him in 1977. He’s serving time at Leavenworth federal prison in Kansas for the murders of two FBI agents. In today’s ruling, the Court found that the allowable time period for Peltier's motion for a reduction of sentence expired more than 22 years ago.

• Seven California tribes last week pulled out of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association, known as CNIGA. The group has been a leading voice for California’s $5 billion Indian gaming industry for the past 14 years. The seven tribes submitted their resignations at the CNIGA annual convention.

• The Northern Cheyenne Tribe hosted a tribal justice forum in Lame Deer, Montana last weekend. One important issue for tribes today is how to apply traditional law, rather than federal law, when tribal members commit major crimes. Speakers at the forum say this is an international human rights issue.

Wednesday, December 11, 2002

• Interior Secretary Gale Norton swore in three new members for the National Indian Gaming Commission this afternoon in Washington, D.C. Philip Hogen of South Dakota, an Oglala Sioux tribal member, was sworn in as Chairman. Cloyce Choney of Oklahoma, a member of the Comanche Nation, and Nelson Westrin, who served as the first executive director of the Michigan Gaming Control Board, were sworn in as associate commissioners.

• Large countries, like the U.S., are making continuous attempts, at the U.N. working group session in Geneva, Switzerland, to change wording to the Draft United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The latest debate is over the word “individual” – a concept considered foreign by many tribal people. One positive development coming out of the meetings is that Native people will soon have their own embassy.

• The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma has filed a fourth lawsuit against the Department of Interior in connection with the tribe’s fight to build a casino in northeastern Kansas.
  

Tuesday, December 10, 2002

• A delegation from northern Arizona’s Coconino National Forest traveled to the Navajo and Hopi reservations on Monday, where they heard public comments on a proposal for upgrades for the Arizona Snowbowl, to include making artificial snow. The 65-year-old ski area is situated on a sacred mountain. The development plan was met with resistance on the Hopi Reservation.

• Oklahoma’s Absentee Shawnee tribe is still going ahead with plans to open its new casino in the city of Tecumseh, even though the City council is denying the tribe utility services. The tribe says it has alternate plans for utilities, but says the city is losing out on not trying to work with the tribe.

• South Dakota’s senatorial contest will be just one of the case examples being reviewed in an upcoming national report that examines the significance of the Native American vote. The report is called “The Emerging Role of Native Americans in the American electoral Process,” and will be released December 31.

Monday, December 9, 2002

• The Interior Department filed a brief on Friday appealing the contempt ruling in the Cobell Indian trust lawsuit, issued by a federal judge last September against Secretary Gale Norton and Assistant Secretary Neal McCaleb. Justice Department lawyers argue that Judge Royce Lamberth personalized his contempt ruling inaccurately and inappropriately.

• The Alaska Native Education Summit began today in Anchorage. The No Child Left Behind Act is the center of discussion, especially in light of some Alaska Native village schools falling below education standards and the state considering moving affected students to schools in other communities.

• The Navajo Nation has signed an agreement with a Virginia company to develop a 470-mile high-voltage power line that would provide electricity to Phoenix, Las Vegas and southern California and open up more coal development for the tribe. The transmission line would go from the Four Corners region of New Mexico to near Las Vegas, Nevada.

Friday, December 6, 2002

• Representatives of Indigenous populations from around the world continue to meet in Geneva, Switzerland for the 8th session of the Working Group on the Draft United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Norway wants changes made to the current draft that would weaken Indigenous self-determination. The U.S. is also unhappy with the current language.

• Today was the fifth day of a federal trial against three former executives of Florida’s Seminole Tribe. Tim Cox, Dan Wisher and Michael Crumpton are facing criminal charges of stealing almost $3 million to set up an internet casino operation on a Caribbean island. Government prosecutors claim that the men, working with former Chairman James Billie, stole from the tribe, taking funds from the tribe’s investment account and funneling it through a phony corporation called Virtual Data, which was owned and operated by the three defendants.

• A drive to recruit Girl Scouts on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Sioux reservations is part of a larger plan to increase literacy among South Dakota’s Native American population.

Thursday, December 5, 2002

• The Interior Department denied the Schaghticoke Tribe of Kent, Connecticut, a preliminary finding of federal recognition this afternoon. The tribe filed a petition for recognition in 1994, and has been recently seeking financial backing to open a casino. Up until receiving today’s negative decision, Schaghticoke Chief Richard Velky had been confident that the tribe’s petition would be approved.

• The top tribal representative on the disbanded Indian trust reform taskforce says the plan unveiled yesterday by Assistant Secretary Neal McCaleb on reorganizing the Bureau of Indian Affairs is not acceptable. Tex Hall, Chairman of North Dakota’s Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, says the reorganization plan does not change the current use of multiple management systems.

• Outgoing Arizona Governor Jane Hull signed new gambling agreements with ten of the state’s tribes yesterday. The new compacts will expand gaming on reservations and increase the state’s share of the revenues.

Wednesday, December 4, 2002

• Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb this afternoon announced a reorganization plan for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of Special Trustee. This is intended to be partial fulfillment of a court order by federal Judge Royce Lamberth on Indian trust management reform. McCaleb says there are two separate plans – one to reform the BIA and one to better integrate the Office of the Special Trustee into the Department of Interior.

• A study of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and its occurrence among Native Americans was released yesterday. The findings are published in the December issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The Aberdeen Area Infant Mortality Study found numerous causes or risks for SIDS, with alcohol use being the most common factor.

• The city council for Bridgeport, Connecticut passed a resolution on Monday to start negotiating possible casino locations for the Golden Hill Paugusett Tribe.

Monday, December 2, 2002

• The Supreme Court heard arguments in two cases today that could determine how far the U.S. government's trust responsibility extends to tribes. In the first case, the White Mountain Apache Tribe is asking for $14 million for breach of trust for the federal government failing to maintain and repair property put in trust for the tribe. In the second case, the Navajo Nation is asking for $600 million in damages after the tribe accepted a lower coal lease rate than what the Interior Department had initially approved.

• Astronaut John Herrington, a member of the Chickasaw Nation, completed a third and final spacewalk Saturday. Now, the Endeavor crew prepares to come home.

• Outgoing Alaska Governor Tony Knowles on Friday donated $10,000 from the governor’s contingency fund to get cleanup started on plane wreckage that has been ignored by authorities for more than five years. A cargo plane, on contract with the Indian Health Service, crashed in 1997 on a gravel bar in the Chandalar River, just outside the Athabascan village of Venetie.

 Thursday, November 28, 2002

• The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation is hosting a feast today for the public at the tribe’s longhouse in Mission, Oregon. Turkey and dressing, potatoes and pies are part of the fare. Umatilla Chief Bill Burke points out that the dinner is not a celebration of the Thanksgiving Day of post-colonial times. He says his tribe is using the holiday as a time for tribal members to gather and be reminded that – quote – “We are not human beings here on Earth having spiritual experiences, but spiritual beings here to have human experiences.”

• While Native Americans are probably also giving thanks today, it may be for Native people surviving the onslaught of colonization. Indian comedian Drew LaCapa, of the White Mountain Apache and Hopi tribes, believes humor has played a big part in Native people’s survival. He says it’s still a crucial part of a Native way of life, especially in coping with today’s misfortunes.

Wednesday, November 27, 2002

• Alaska Governor Tony Knowles signed a 30-year renewal right-of-way lease for the TransAlaska Pipeline System. The approval covers 344 miles of state land that the pipeline crosses. Alaska Native tribal leaders were invited to join state and oil industry officials to witness yesterday’s signing. But tribal leaders say it was nothing to celebrate.

• Washington’s Muckleshoot Tribe is hoping to expand its business ventures with the purchase of a racetrack. The tribe – with the state’s most profitable Indian casino, a major bingo hall and a planned a $30 million amphitheater – has become the entertainment leader of the Pacific Northwest.

• One southern California tribe is giving away more than 2500 turkeys with all the fixings. This year’s Thanksgiving gift to the needy is the largest for the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, which began the tradition 17 years ago.

Tuesday, November 26, 2002

• Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb says the Bureau of Indian Affairs recognizes the new council of the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas as the legitimate provisional governing body. McCaleb says he examined numerous documents relating to last month’s “Vote of Conscience” when tribal members took a public vote on new leadership and ousted Chairman Raul Garza. McCaleb, however, urges tribal members to quickly hold a special election, in accordance with the tribe’s constitution.

• Four federal reserve banks sponsored their first ever conference on banking opportunities for Indian reservations. Lenders and loan applicants attended last week’s gathering in Scottsdale, Arizona.

• Work on Walt Disney Pictures’ Hidalgo wrapped in Hot Springs, South Dakota last Friday. The film employed hundreds of people from the area as extras and in bit parts. Hidalgo is based on the true story of Frank T. Hopkins, a mixed-blood Lakota cowboy and U.S. Cavalry dispatch rider who was known as the greatest endurance rider in the American West.

Monday, November 25, 2002

• After delays for nearly a month, the space shuttle Endeavor lifted off Saturday evening with astronaut John Herrington on board. Herrington is the first tribally-enrolled Native American to go into outer space. Herrington is a member of the Chickasaw Nation. NASA says Herrington’s maternal great grandmother was of Chickasaw descent.

• BIA head Neal McCaleb’s sudden resignation last Thursday caught many tribal leaders off guard. Many are wondering what the future will bring. Ron Allen is chairman of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe and a former president of the National Congress of American Indians. He praises McCaleb for a good job and suggests to the Bush administration that someone as knowledgeable as McCaleb be appointed to fill the vacancy. Allen recommends the executive director of the united south and eastern tribes, Tim Martin, for the job.

• One of the Senate’s last actions was to pass legislation to compensate two tribes for land lost more than forty years ago because of damming on the Missouri River.

Friday, November 22, 2002

• Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb is resigning from his post at the end of December. McCaleb submitted his resignation late yesterday and it was accepted by Interior Secretary Gale Norton. McCaleb says he is unable to carry out the goals he set as head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs because of the constraints imposed by the Cobell Indian trust lawsuit. McCaleb says, “Unfortunately, the litigation has taken first priority in too many activities, thus distracting attention from the other important goals that could provide more long-term benefits for Indian Country.” McCaleb’s unexpected resignation puts into question the contempt ruling against him.

• The Senate, in one of its last actions before adjourning, passed a bill to increase funding and extend the completion date for South Dakota’s Mni Wiconi Water Project. The project will bring water from the Missouri River to western parts of the state that include the Lower Brule, Rosebud and Pine Ridge Reservations.

Wednesday, November 20, 2002

• The media attention on the Oglala Sioux Tribe’s presidential race can be attributed to the candidacy of Russell Means. His revolutionary rhetoric contrasted with incumbent John Yellow Bird Steele’s realist approach to issues. And it appears that tribal members have decided to keep their current leader. Unofficial results from yesterday’s tribal election have Steele getting 500 more votes than those for Means.

• A reservation bordertown restaurant being sued by the federal government for not allowing its employees to speak Navajo is receiving help from a group working to make English the official language of the United States.

• An Inupiaq Eskimo dog musher is hoping to win next year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in March 2003. But John Baker has to cope with weather conditions not conducive to dog mushing. Usually much of Alaska has several inches of snow on the ground by this time. But for baker, who lives in Kotzebue, just north of the Arctic Circle, he’s resorted to having his dog team pull an all-terrain vehicle around instead of a sled.

Tuesday, November 19, 2002

• The Department of Interior will appeal the contempt ruling that was issued against Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Assistant Secretary Neal McCaleb in the Cobell Indian trust lawsuit. Federal Judge Royce Lamberth issued the ruling last September. The Interior Department filed a notice to appeal just shortly before last night’s midnight deadline.

• The White Mountain Apache Tribe held the first of two sales today of timber burned by the devastating Rodeo-Chediski Fire. The fire burned 466 million board feet of timber on the Fort Apache Reservation, worth an estimated $150 million before the fire.

• Environmental groups are criticizing a draft Lake Coeur d’Alene management plan as being less than adequate. The Idaho lake is included in the Environmental Protection Agency’s designated area for clean up of mining waste. The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe are working on the plan, which is intended to meet requirements for delisting the Lake Coeur d’Alene as a Superfund site.
  

Monday, November 18, 2002

• The South Dakota Board of Nursing is intervening with the administration of a nursing program at the Sisseton-Wahpeton Tribal College because students have consistently scored low on state exams. The nursing board is directing the school to stagger its’ two-year nursing degree program.

• In the closing weeks before Election Day, allegations of voter registration fraud emerged in regard to efforts in and around South Dakota’s Indian reservations. But such claims have quieted down as state officials have officially canvassed the results. State officials have verified that no wrongdoing took place at the ballot box, although two separate cases involving forgery were reported weeks earlier.

• The remains of an ancestor of Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell have been returned to the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. The repatriated remains of the warrior Black Horse, who fought with Crazy Horse at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, were buried in a ceremony on Sunday at the Lame Deer Cemetery on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana.

Friday, November 15, 2002

• U.S. Senator and Alaska Governor-elect Frank Murkowski, who is vacating his senate seat to assume the governorship in January, is considering an Inupiaq Eskimo leader among more than two dozen people to fill his senate seat. Oliver Leavitt, board chairman for Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, is a proponent for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

• South Dakota Senators Tom Daschle and Tim Johnson say reforming Indian trust assets management and overhauling the Bureau of Indian Affair's federal recognition process need to be tribally led.

• Non-Indian residents of Tecumseh, Oklahoma are trying to stop the Absentee Shawnee Tribe from opening a casino in their neighborhood by appealing to the Tecumseh City Council. But the casino, the tribe's second, is located on tribal trust land.

• A federal judge in Billings, Montana has dismissed charges against a former car dealer in a fraud case involving the Crow Tribe.

Thursday, November 14, 2002

• A Michigan Appeals Court ruled this week that the Michigan Legislature did not violate the state constitution when it approved four Indian gaming compacts in 1998. The court's decision supports tribal sovereignty, ruling that the state has no authority to regulate tribes. The Taxpayers of Michigan Against Casinos had filed the lawsuit.

• AT&T Wireless has agreed to refund the investment to bid on cell phone licenses made by three Native corporations in Alaska Native Wireless. The licenses are tied up in litigation, pending a U.S. Supreme Court decision on whether the Federal Communications Commission is permitted to re-auction the licenses, which were formerly held by Next Wave Telecom.

• The Morongo Band of Mission Indians in Southern California is launching a Rez Readers program this evening, to encourage tribal members to read. Gordon Johnson, author of Rez Dogs Eat Beans, is the first in a series of Native American writers invited to read from their works.

Wednesday, November 13, 2002

• President Bush signed into law the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act, or NAHASDA, reauthorizing the federal program for tribes through 200.

• The National Congress of American Indians is holding its annual convention in San Diego this week. Tribal leaders are reviewing what the trust reform taskforce accomplished this year. Now that the taskforce is defunct, tribes are considering how to approach future trust reform negotiations with the Department of Interior.

• A new leader for Montana’s Crow Tribe was sworn in on Tuesday. Carl Venne was declared the new tribal chairman after a special election last Saturday. Venne was running against current Vice Chairman Vincent Goes Ahead, Jr.

• The South Dakota Humanities Council sponsored a forum last Saturday at Rapid City’s Dahl Museum to explore the historical impact of Christianity on Native people. It was intended as an academic examination of the period from 1865 to 1910, but instead turned into an emotional outpouring.

Tuesday, November 12, 2002

• The Seneca Nation is getting an $80 million loan to build its new casino in Niagara Falls. An Asian businessman is lending the money with an unusually high interest rate, claiming the investment is high risk.

• Native Americans in Bennet County, South Dakota, demonstrated their clout in dealing with local problems through the polls last week. In the recent general election, two Rosebud Sioux tribal members were voted into office – Gerald Bettelyoun to the county commission and Charlie Cummings to the sheriff’s post.

• Athabascan children from the village of Kaltag, on the lower Yukon River in Alaska, got a bit of Christmas joy early this year. The Alaska National Guard kicked off Operation Santa Claus earlier this month when it visited Kaltag. Operation Santa Claus flies Santa and books, clothing and toys to Alaska Native villages. This year Santa and his elves will visit nearly 20 communities across Alaska.

Monday, November 11, 2002

• The launch of the space shuttle Endeavor was postponed late last night, which means the country’s first Native American astronaut, Navy Commander John Herrington, will have to wait a week or more to make history. NASA says a new launch date would be rescheduled no earlier than November 18.

• This year is the 20th anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. As part of commemorating the anniversary date on November 8th, Rosebud Sioux tribal member Francis Whitebird performed a traditional Lakota centering ceremony that helps one be at peace.

• The Veterans Administration in South Dakota is making an effort to get a better cultural understanding of the Lakota clients for whom it provides health care services. The VA says it’s a way to become true partners in health care.

• Two Navajo Nation charter schools are using a $700,000 Department of Education grant to help Native Hawaiian charter schools develop a science program that will use elders as teachers.

Friday, November 8, 2002

• South Dakota officials and the American Civil Liberties Union have settled a lawsuit that accuses the State of ignoring the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The federal law is intended to protect minorities from voting discrimination.

• The Intertribal Bison Cooperative is celebrating its 10th anniversary at its fourth national conference in Denver. It runs through Saturday. Over the past ten years, ITBC has grown to include 52 tribes from the Yakama Nation in the Northwest to Wisconsin’s Oneida Tribe.

• PBS is featuring several Native-produced works this month in celebration of Native American Heritage Month. One tells the story of the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II, “True Whispers.” Another introduces viewers to a forgotten Comanche hero, runner Andy Payne, who won a 1928 race from Los Angeles to New York.

Thursday, November 7, 2002

• The results of the second primary for Oglala Sioux tribal president are the same as the first, whose results were thrown out by the tribe’s election board. Tribal radio station KILI reports that Russell Means was again the top vote getter. Incumbent President John Yellowbird Steele came in a close second, trailing by only 109 votes.

• In Idaho, tribal officials are celebrating the victory of the Indian gaming proposition that was before state voters on Tuesday. It legalizes the electronic gambling machines in use at the state’s Indian casinos.

• Alaska Governor Tony Knowles yesterday declared several Athabascan villages disaster areas as a result of Sunday’s 7.9 magnitude earthquake that shook Interior Alaska. And the Trans-Alaska Pipeline started operating again yesterday morning after temporary supports were put in place.

• The president of the Indigenous Language Institute says immersion is the best way to learn a language. Native language preservation is being discussed at the group’s conference.

Wednesday, November 6, 2002

• One of the tightest U.S. senate races ended in victory for Democrat incumbent Tim Johnson of South Dakota. Johnson scored a narrow margin of victory over Republican challenger John Thune. It’s believed that Indian Country gave Johnson the needed votes.

• Tex Hall won a second term yesterday as chairman of North Dakota’s Three Affiliated Tribes. Hall, who is president of the National Congress of American Indians, doesn’t think Native American issues will be adversely affected by Republican control of the House and Senate.

• Arizona’s Native Americans had a lot at stake in Tuesday’s election, including the future of Indian gaming and who would represent a new congressional district that has a significant Indian constituency.

• Oklahoma Democrat Congressman Brad Carson, a member of the Cherokee Nation, easily won reelection, defeating Republican challenger Kent Pharaoh. And Oklahoma is sending another Native American to the U.S. House with the win by Republican Tom Cole.

Tuesday, November 5, 2002

• The federal judge in the Cobell Indian trust lawsuit is holding an emergency hearing this evening concerning Special Master-Monitor Joseph Kieffer's involvement in the discovery process. Plaintiffs' lead attorney Dennis Gingold asked for the hearing after running into problems this morning while deposing Interior Associate Deputy Secretary James Cason.

• The Alaska Earthquake Information Center says moderate aftershocks continue to shake Interior Alaska. A 5.1 quake occurred around 8:20 A.M. Alaska Time this morning.

• Voters on the Pine Ridge Reservation thought they would be casting votes for a new tribal president today. Instead, they’re voting in another primary. The tribe’s election board decided just days ago to throw out the results of the October 1st primary.

• The head of the Cherokee Nation has filed a complaint with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission because two state corporation commissioners became involved in the politics of the Five Nations Land Reform Act.

Monday, November 4, 2002

• The 7.9 magnitude earthquake that shook Interior Alaska yesterday has caused extensive damage to at least one Athabascan village. Mentasta, a village in the Alaska Range, is about 100 miles from the epicenter. Reports today indicate that sewer and water lines are severed. The K-12 school has cracked beams and the floor is buckled. The village church is tilted. And the road that connects Mentasta to one of Alaska’s three major highways has been cut off.

• Hundreds of Navajo coalminers across the reservation are represented by four local chapters of the United Mine Workers of America. Their endorsements tend to carry a lot of weight in tribal elections. But this year, they’re split.

• Tonight’s Monday Night Football game between the Green Bay Packers and the Miami Dolphins will be showcasing Packer team history during halftime. A powwow group from the Oneida Nation will perform for a very special reason.

Friday, November 1, 2002

• The federal judge in the Cobell Indian trust lawsuit heard testimony today from the federal government about its reasons for mailing historical accounting statements to White Mountain Apache tribal members without getting the court’s approval.

• Historical accounts from a Lakota elder mixed with traditional interpretive music are featured on the new CD, “Ben Black Elk Speaks.” When Oglala Sioux tribal member Warfield Moose, Jr. was going through his father’s belongings, he never imagined that he would find recordings of the late Ben Black Elk recounting Lakota knowledge and stories to school children.

• Comanche tribal members protested the unveiling of a sculpture celebrating the centennial of Lawton, Oklahoma last Sunday. The artwork, called "Auction of Lawton Townsite Lots," was created by Creek tribal member Paul Moore for the Museum of the Great Plains. Moore is also working on a sculpture that will celebrate the Oklahoma land rush of 1899, which opened Indian lands to settlement.

Thursday, October 31, 2002

• The Lucky Eagle Casino on the Traditional Kickapoo Tribe’s reservation in southern Texas is now being occupied by the tribal members who have taken over the tribal government. A federal judge has issued an injunction to evict the protesters and will order U.S. marshals to remove them from the casino if necessary.

• A Flandreau (FLAN’-droo), South Dakota woman suspected of voter registration fraud has shared her story with federal and state investigators. Becky Red Earth-Villeda spent six hours yesterday with FBI agents and state criminal investigators in a private session in Sioux Falls. In a letter, Red Earth-Villeda admits that she did sign other people’s names to documents requesting absentee ballots. She says that was to make sure the ballots were sent to the right address.

• The Department of Interior has taken no action on a gaming compact between the Seneca Nation and New York State, which means the compact is approved by default. But critics see a deeper meaning.

• The Intertribal Agriculture Council is concluding its 16th annual symposium in Tucson, Arizona. The council was formed in 1987 to provide a unified voice for agriculture in Indian Country.

Wednesday, October 30, 2002

• The Bureau of Indian Affairs says it doesn’t recognize the coup d'état of the Kickapoo tribal council that took place Monday on the reservation of the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas. The BIA says the hand vote taken during a protest rally doesn’t adhere to the tribe’s constitution.

• The California Fair Political Practices Commission yesterday asked a state court to include an additional charge in its lawsuit against the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, for not reporting state campaign contributions per the state’s requirements. The FPPC says the tribe did not disclose a $125,000 contribution made last March on behalf of Proposition 51. The proposition, which will be voted on next week, would fund the building of several light rail lines, including one from downtown Los Angeles to the tribe’s casinos in Indio.

• One of the most competitive and closely watched races for the U.S. House is in Arizona’s new District One, where Indian voters are expected to play an important role. The new district is huge – at 60,000 square miles it’s the size of Illinois. Five reservations lie within its borders, including those of the Navajo Nation and the White Mountain and San Carlos Apache tribes.

Tuesday, October 29, 2002

• About 200 Kickapoo tribal members took a hand vote to oust the entire council of the Texas tribe in a protest in the tribal casino parking lot yesterday. They also immediately elected a new council. The protesters defended their action by saying they were excising traditional law. Longtime chairman, Raul Garza, says the action is illegal.

• Michigan Governor John Engler yesterday signed a landmark agreement with ten of the state’s twelve federally recognized tribes at Michigan's second annual state-tribal summit. The accord is intended to strengthen the relationship between the State and tribal governments. It also reestablishes the sovereignty of Michigan tribes.

• Alaska Senator Ted Stevens is proposing that the federal funding of Alaska tribes be streamlined so that regional hubs or a statewide entity be the clearinghouse for funding, rather than each of the state’s 229 tribes applying directly for federal money. The Republican senator’s proposal has drawn a lot of heat from Native leaders, who see it as at attempt to erode tribal sovereignty and self-determination. Stevens has already put his concept into action when he secured major federal funding for a statewide Native organization but little of that money has made its way to individual tribes.

Monday, October 28, 2002

• The Interior Board of Indian Appeals has agreed to hear an appeal by Connecticut that disputes the federal recognition given to the Eastern Pequot Tribe. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal claims that the Interior Department erred in combining the recognition petitions of the Eastern Pequots and the Paucatuck Eastern Pequots to make one Eastern Pequot Tribe.

• The preliminary report on race disparities in the South Dakota criminal justice system has been posted on the official State website. In one table, it shows that Native Americans are more likely to be convicted, less likely to be acquitted, and less likely to have their case either dismissed or suspended than Whites in South Dakota. However, Researcher Rich Braunstein says while disparities were expected, the point of the research is to explain why they exist and those results are still being worked on. Braunstein cautions people about drawing early conclusions.

• Indian educators from across the country were in Washington, D.C. last week to attend a Department of Education conference. The topic was "Opportunities for Native American Students Under the No Child Left Behind Act." Officials from Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico shared their experience about the challenge of creating a charter school for their community.

Friday, October 25, 2002

• Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota died this afternoon in a plane crash. His wife, daughter, three campaign staffers and two pilots also died when the private plane they were in crashed while landing in snow and rain in northern Minnesota. The 58-year-old Wellstone had been a leading liberal Democrat senator for 12 years. He was a long-time member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

• Republican Senator Ted Stevens addressed delegates attending the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention in Anchorage this morning. He spent his time defending his proposal to consolidate or regionalize Alaska's 229 tribes and eliminate the government-to-government relationship of the tribes when applying for federal money. Stevens says because of the federal budget deficit, partly due to the war on terrorism, the federal government can no longer afford to fund individual Alaska tribes. National Congress of American Indians President Tex Hall counters that Stevens' argument is not good enough and his proposed legislation would be unconstitutional.

• Tribal representatives from across the nation have wrapped up a four-day conference in San Francisco dealing with information technology issues. The Chickasaw Nation and the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe co-sponsored this year's TribalNet Conference.

Thursday, October 24, 2002

• The chairman of California's Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians was released and cleared of murder and attempted murder charges after a hearing yesterday in San Diego Superior Court. Tribal Chairman Steven TeSam was arrested last weekend, along with his nephew, Hank Banegas, in connection with the stabbing death of one man and the injuring of a second man at a rap concert. Deputy District Attorney Jeff Dusek told the court that charges would not be brought against TeSam because of insufficient evidence.

• The president of the Alaska Federation of Natives promised delegates attending the organization's annual convention, which began today in Anchorage, that AFN would fight efforts by Alaska Senator Ted Stevens to diminish the self-determination and self-governance of Alaska's 229 federally recognized tribes. The Republican senator says he intends to introduce legislation that would force the tribes to consolidate into regional areas and that the regional areas or a state committee be the only bodies to apply for federal funds on behalf of the tribes. A spokeswoman for Stevens admitted that the senator has not consulted with any individual tribe on his proposal.

• The tribal council for the Saginaw Chippewa tribe in central Michigan has voted unanimously to oust Sub Chief David Otto. Otto denies allegations that he used his position to benefit family members.

Wednesday, October 23, 2002

• The FBI and the South Dakota Attorney General's Office are looking into two incidents of voter fraud in or near the state's Indian reservations. Currently, auditors from ten counties have gathered 400 questionable documents for investigators. One person accused of falsifying voter documents says the scandal is all part of a ploy to keep Native Americans from the ballot box. But the Commissioner of the South Dakota Tribal Government Relations Office hopes Native voters put the controversy aside and act on their constitutional rights.

• The Samish Tribe of Washington filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Claims last week seeking compensation for the 27 years in which the tribe was not considered federally recognized due to a clerical error. According to Samish Tribal Attorney Craig Dorsay, the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1969 started compiling a list of tribes that it worked with, as there was not a formal list of federally recognized tribes. Dorsay says the BIA at the same time also decided to put together a second list - comprised of Indian Reorganization Act tribes that had constitutions and by-laws formally approved by the Department of Interior. The Samish is not an IRA tribe and was left off the second list. After the lists were completed, the BIA inadvertently started using the second list as the official list of federally recognized tribes.

Tuesday, October 22, 2002

• The final meeting of the Tribal Task Force on Trust Reform was to have been in Billings, Montana tomorrow, but the Task Force has come to a standstill. However, BIA officials will take advantage of the scheduled travel by holding a consultation meeting with area tribes. BIA Spokeswoman Nedra Darling says the Task Force stalled because the Navajo Nation walked out on the negotiation effort.

• Five-thousand Alaska Natives are expected to be in Anchorage this week for the annual convention of the Alaska Federation of Natives. Activities started Monday with the 3-day Elder and Youth Conference. The official AFN Convention begins on Thursday and runs through Saturday. Numerous hot issues, many of them that for years have never been resolved, are discussed yearly at the AFN Convention. One of those issues, subsistence, has drawn a wedge between Native people and White-majority urban residents.

• Subsistence is not just an issue within Alaska. It's also being debated within the International Whaling Commission. Three countries, Japan, Iceland and Norway, are pushing to eliminate the category "Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling." At last week's IWC Cambridge, England meeting, the IWC commissioner from Norway, Olgander Skagenstadt, says having a subsistence category is illogical, impractical and morally wrong.

Monday, October 21, 2002

• The chairman of California's Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians has been arrested for murder and attempted murder. Authorities say Steven Tesam and his nephew Hank Banegas allegedly stabbed a fan at a rap concert on Friday night. The man died the next day from his wounds. Police also charged Tesam and Banegas with attempted murder for stabbing and wounding a second man. A 16-year-old juvenile is also in custody and is charged with conspiracy.

• The first payments of performance royalty copyright fees charged to Internet radio webcasters were due yesterday. The federal regulation, which became effective last summer, is opposed by small webcasters. Legislation which would have given the smaller webcasters a break stalled in the Senate, which has adjourned until after election day.

• The South Dakota governor's office last year commissioned a report to see if Native Americans are treated any differently than Whites in the state's criminal justice system. Now one of the primary researchers says findings will be released by next summer. It's hoped that, for one, the results of the study will be useful to the South Dakota Indian Affairs Committee, which has been concerned over how Native Americans are treated by the prison system.

Friday, October 18, 2002

• As South Dakota officials investigate voter registration fraud across the state, particularly those from Indian reservations, a Flandreau woman says she’s innocent of falsifying voter records. Becky Red Earth-Villeda says the probe is simply a scheme to discourage Native Americans from voting.

• The State of New Mexico yesterday dropped felony charges for stealing livestock and unlawful branding against Navajo Nation Council Delegate J.C. Begay. District Attorney Greg Tucker says the State lacks jurisdiction because his office discovered that the alleged incidents occurred on reservation land.

• The Senate Indian Affairs Committee heard testimony last week on a land claim settlement agreed to by the Bay Mills Indian Community and the Governor of Michigan. The tribe would swap its claim to Charlotte Beach land, for a casino in Port Huron, along the U.S.-Canada border and 250 miles from the Bay Mills Reservation. But the Sault Ste. Marie Chippewa Tribe and the Bureau of Indian Affairs object to the deal.

• The nonprofit Navajo Sheep Project is celebrating its 25th anniversary this weekend by giving away more than 300 Navajo-Churro sheep to Navajo families. This particular breed is a distinct genotype bred by Navajo sheepherders over the centuries. Churro sheep were the first domesticated breed of sheep on this continent, introduced by the Spanish in the 1500s.

Thursday, October 17, 2002

• The House approved last minute housing legislation before recessing for the November elections last night. The Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996, known as NAHASDA, was reauthorized by unanimous consent of the house. The reauthorization guarantees funding of Indian housing programs through 2007. The bill was passed by the Senate two weeks ago and now goes to President Bush for his signature.

• A member of the Navajo Nation Council has been charged by the State of New Mexico with stealing livestock and unlawful branding. But the Council delegate can't be arrested by New Mexico authorities unless the Navajo Nation extradites him. J.C. Begay was arrested by tribal police on an extradition warrant on October 1. A date hasn't been set for the extradition hearing but the location has been moved from Shiprock to Crownpoint.

• The Nez Perce Tribe of north central Idaho has opened a $16 million fish hatchery that is designed to mimic natural conditions and double salmon survival rates. The facility was built by the tribe and funded by the Bonneville Power Administration.

Wednesday, October 9, 2002:

• The controversy over water for a coal slurry operation in Arizona may determine the fate of an area coal mine and the power plant it supplies. The Hopi Tribe is considering not renewing its lease to the Peabody Coal Mine unless a new source of water can be found. And the California Public Utilities Commission is holding a hearing Thursday in Tuba City on the future of the Mohave Generating Station.

• Several New Mexico Pueblos have recently reached settlement agreements on land claims. The San Ildefonso Pueblo will buy more than 7,000 acres in the Santa Fe National Forest with the money it will receive as compensation. Pueblo Governor John Gonzales, says the land they will buy, near the western edge of the reservation, has religious significance.

• Grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services totaling more than $1.5 million dollars have been given to twelve Native American libraries across the United States. The library on the Rosebud Sioux reservation will use the money to help library patrons make better use of the internet. The library serves about 30,000 people, and is the only library within a radius of 100 miles.

Tuesday, October 8, 2002:

• The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments today in a dispute over FCC wireless licenses auctioned almost 2 years ago. The licenses were auctioned to Alaska Native Wireless and other telecommunications companies after the original winning bidder, NextWave Communications, declared bankruptcy. NextWave says the FCC reclaimed the licenses solely for financial reasons, which is forbidden by bankruptcy laws.

• The former chairman of the Crow Tribe of Montana appeared in court last Friday to answer federal charges. Clifford Birdinground resigned as early last month. The tribe is now preparing to elect a new chairperson. Thirteen candidates have filed to run in the primary election on October 19th.

• Two South Dakota tribal organizations are receiving funds from the Department of Justice to combat domestic violence. The funds will benefit the Rosebud Sioux and the Cheyenne River Sioux tribes.

• The Senate passed two items effecting Native communities last week. The Native American Housing Assistance and Self- Determination Reauthorization Act of 2002 was passed on Friday and is now under consideration in the House.The Senate also passed unanimously a resolution calling for a National Minority Health and Health Disparities Month.

Monday, October 7, 2002:

• A federal investigation has begun into the Interior Department's decision to approve a mining operation in California. The mining operation would effect land sacred to the Quechan tribe. The investigation has been initiated in response to a letter from California Senator Barbara Boxer. Boxer sent the letter to Inspector General Earl Devaney Friday claiming that Secretary Gail Norton, Deputy Secretary J. Steven Griles and two other senior Interior officials may have conflicts of interest.

• The coast to coast run for tribal sovereignty was completed in Washington D.C. this morning. The run began September 11th on the Quinault reservation in Washington State and ended today to coincide with the opening of the Supreme Court's new term. The run ended with a rally for sovereignty on the front steps of the high court.

• At reservation schools in northern Arizona, there are very few music programs. But this year, fourteen Hopi and Navajo students received a crash course in music composition from a nationally renowned composer.

Friday, October 4, 2002:

• The Bureau of Land Management this morning auctioned 232 head of cattle seized last month from Western Shoshone tribal members Mary and Carrie Dann. The Dann sisters had been grazing their cattle on BLM land they say is owned by the tribe. Earlier this week a Senate panel approved a plan to compensate Western Shoshone tribal members for land seizures dating back to the 1860's. That bill now goes to the Senate.

• A restaurant in Page, Arizona is being sued by the federal government for prohibiting Navajo employees from speaking in Navajo on the job. The restaurant owner says some employees complained that they were being insulted in the Navajo language.

• The Native American Journalists Association is making a transition into its new location. NAJA President Patty Talahongva says she's excited about the move and sees many benefits for the organization.

• The Chairwoman of the Fort Sill Chirichua Apache Tribe of Oklahoma passed away this week in Chicago at the age of 76. Ruey Haozous Darrow was also the first Native American medical technologist and sister of renowned artist Alan Houser.

Thursday, October 3, 2002:

• Bureau of Indian Affairs head Neal McCaleb is releasing a plan to improve the federal recognition process. The new plan has been developed in response to a General Accounting Office report last year. The report called for transparent guidelines for petitioners, and an assessment of the Bureau of Acknowledgment and Research's workload for future budget considerations.

• Scores of Mayan Indian villages in Mexico are still under water, following the destruction left by Hurricane Isadore. Indian leaders say food and medical supplies are scarce. There are fears that diseases will follow the devastation of the hurricane.

• The House approved a bill this week that would settle a 40-year-old lands claim made by three Oklahoma tribes. The bill would compensate the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations $40 million for thousands of acres of land along the Arkansas River.

• Auditions begin around the country this weekend for the second annual Four Directions Talent Search. Sponsored by the Oneida Nation and NBC, the project's goal is to boost the Native presence in show business.

Wednesday, October 2, 2002:

• South Dakota Senators Tom Daschle and Tim Johnson have written Interior Secretary Gale Norton, asking the Department to come up with meaningful trust reform legislation.

• The House passed a bill yesterday evening giving the Yankton and Santee Sioux tribes a total of $28 million for trust lands flooded by federal dam projects. But at the last minute, an amendment, approving the sale of federal land in Wyoming to the Mormon Church, was attached. The amendment now threatens final passage of the Sioux compensation bill.

• California Governor Gray Davis vetoed a bill on Monday that would have given tribes the ability to delay and perhaps derail development projects that disturb sacred sites. The Sacred Sites bill was intended to help the Quechan Nation in its fight against a mine proposed by the Glamis Gold Corporation.

• The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology kicks off the McGillycuddy Speaker Series today. Doctor Valentine T. McGillycuddy is a past president of the school but was also the Indian agent in the 1880s for what is now the Pine Ridge Reservation.

• The Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota recently received a half-million dollar grant from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to help in the construction of an environmentally friendly oil refinery on the Fort Berthold Reservation.

Tuesday, October 1, 2002:

• The Department of Interior has failed in its attempt to dispute the fees of Court Monitor Joseph Kieffer in the Cobell Indian trust lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth yesterday ruled that the Interior must pay Kieffer $54,000, noting that the Court was satisfied that Kieffer's fees were reasonable.

• A Tlingit tribe in southeast Alaska is demanding that the Bureau of Indian Affairs review the decisions that led up to the Douglas Indian Village being purposely burned down in 1962. Officials from the Douglas Indian Association, a federally recognized tribe, publicly released a report by the Indian Law Resource Center that examines how the City of Douglas condemned and destroyed by burning the Douglas Indian Village so that the city could build a harbor. In the early 1960s, the City of Douglas claimed that the Douglas Indian Village was on city land, even though the tribe had continuously occupied the village site since the 1880s.

• Officials from the Colville Confederated Tribes in northeast Washington want to know if mining waste in the upper Columbia River, behind Grand Coulee Dam, poses any health threats. And the tribes don't understand why their neighbors are not concerned.

Monday, September 30, 2002:

• The family of Sergeant Alan Two Crow is asking for a second autopsy on the former military policeman's remains, found at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York on September 21. The attorney for the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe says the family wasn't given the opportunity to take part in the first autopsy and questions the Army's preliminary finding for cause of death.

• Water released Saturday morning at midnight by the Bureau of Reclamation into Upper Klamath Lake in southern Oregon is expected to reach the Klamath River today through tomorrow. The action is an attempt by federal authorities to stop the dying of fish in the Klamath River. Tribes in Oregon and northern California and environmentalists are shocked that as many as 30,000 spawning salmon have died.

• The Bureau of Indian Affairs still refuses to recognize the elected chief of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma because of a federal court ruling last week. And the ruling has left former Principal Chief Jerry Haney believing he's the one in power.

• A U.S. Census Bureau report released today reveals that Native Americans are the least likely of all race groups to have health insurance.

Friday, September 27, 2002:

• While some tribal leaders were praising BIA head Neal McCaleb and the Interior Department's efforts toward trust reform, the Navajo Nation made a dramatic exit from Thursday's Trust Reform Taskforce meeting. Reading from a prepared statement, the Navajo Nation president claimed tribes are making more and more concessions in order to accommodate the wishes of the federal government.

• At a House Resources Committee hearing on Wednesday, the Bureau of Indian Affairs testified against a bill to grant federal recognition to six Virginia tribes. Virginia Representative Jim Moran, who is sponsoring the bill, spoke in favor of the tribes' desires to have federal recognition. Virginia tribes signed treaties with the King of England in 1677, but the U.S. government has never recognized them as tribes.

• An Alaska school district claims that the No Child Left Behind Act is putting Native language programs in jeopardy. The North Slope Borough School Board, that represents a district predominately Inupiaq Eskimo, passed a resolution earlier this week, saying the new law needs to be changed to comply with the Native American Languages Act. The Native American Languages Act requires that the federal government must preserve, protect and promote the rights and freedoms of Native Americans to use and teach their own languages.

Thursday, September 26, 2002:

• Tribal taskforce members met in Washington, D.C. today as part of a series of meetings taking place across the country to reform Indian trust management. It seems that tribal leaders are expressing a new enthusiasm toward BIA head Neal McCaleb, in spite of the recent contempt ruling in the Indian trust lawsuit.

• The presence of native artifacts, well over one thousand years old, has derailed plans for a new high school on the Illinois border near St. Louis. But it comes as no surprise that the area is rich in artifacts from early Indian people who lived in the Mississippi Valley.

• The movie Skins, directed by Chris Eyre of Cheyenne-Arapaho heritage, premieres this weekend in seven major cities. The movie that deals with the problems of alcoholism has been previewed by native audiences the last few weeks as a part of the Rollin' Rez Tour. One health professional, who saw the movie in Denver, feels that the movie is accurate in portraying how alcoholism can start.

Wednesday, September 25, 2002:

• The Senate Indian Affairs committee heard testimony yesterday from two former Special Trustees in the Cobell Indian trust lawsuit. Paul Homan became the Department of Interior's first Special Trustee in 1995; he resigned in frustration three years later. Thomas Slonaker was forced to resign by the Bush administration in July because he was highly critical of the Department's efforts at trust reform.

• The U.S. Census Bureau reports an increase in the nation's poverty rate. This marks a change from fours straight years when the poverty rate declined. Native Americans have a poverty rate of almost 25 percent, taken from a three-year average from 1999 through 2001. The Census Bureau says 800,000 Native Americans live in poverty.

• White Bison Incorporated, dedicated to having sober communities, is holding its third in a series of four conferences called Circles of Recovery. This third conference - Strengthening of Communities - starts tomorrow in Billings, Montana. White Bison founder Don Coyhis says the healing plan being used for the conferences is one based on the four directions and the four aspects of life - the individual, the family, the community and the tribe.

Tuesday, September 24, 2002:

• The U.S. Army has identified remains found Saturday as being those of Sergeant Alan Two Crow, a military policeman missing since July 14th. Authorities believe Two Crow's death was accidental due to a broken neck from a fall. Volunteer searchers found Two Crow's remains in a remote wooded area near the West Point campus, where he was stationed. The military is investigating Two Crow's death.

• The Senate yesterday overwhelmingly voted to kill an amendment to the Interior appropriations bill that would have placed a moratorium on the federal recognition process for tribes. Democrat Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut was the sponsor of the amendment.

• A youth drug prevention program aimed at elementary and middle schools in New Mexico is making steady progress since its inception seventeen years ago. The National Indian Youth Leadership Program, based in Gallup, recently received national recognition for excellence in drug prevention.

• Black Mesa Trust sponsored a Water Fair on the Hopi Reservation last Friday to help people understand the importance of and need for conserving water. The organization's president, Leonard Selestewa, says water shouldn't be taken for granted.

Monday, September 23, 2002:

Friday, September 20, 2002:

• Arizona tribes won a legal victory yesterday in their quest for new gaming compacts. In a lawsuit brought by Arizona's racetracks last July, a federal judge struck down a state law that allowed the governor to negotiate gaming compacts. A federal appeals court overturned that decision yesterday, ruling that Arizona tribes should have been a party to the original lawsuit by the racetracks. The ruling throws into question the three competing gaming initiatives that are on the November ballot.

• Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb says it's unfair that the Judge in the Cobell Indian trust lawsuit failed to take into consideration the progress the Bush administration is making in trying to correct Indian trust management. McCaleb and Interior Secretary Gale Norton were found in contempt by Judge Royce Lamberth on Tuesday.

• The Alaska Inupiaq Eskimo village of Barrow is on high polar bear alert as wildlife officials estimate 60 bears are in the area. And now, this morning, the first bear has been shot and killed. The bear was killed near the middle school at around 6:30 A.M., before students arrived for school.

• More than 1500 tribal leaders and representatives from the government and private industry attended the Bureau of Indian Affairs' National Summit on Emerging Tribal Economies in Phoenix.

Thursday, September 19, 2002:

• The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs heard testimony from Connecticut politicians this week about a proposed moratorium on granting new tribal federal recognition, until reforms are made to the Interior Department's petition process. Senator Chris Dodd introduced the freeze as an Amendment to the Interior appropriations bill.

• Whaling officials from the U.S. and Japan met for preliminary negotiations earlier this week in Washington, D.C. to work toward reinstituting a bowhead whale quota for Alaska Eskimos. U.S. officials are confident that the International Whaling Commission will now approve a quota at next month's IWC meeting as, according to the NOAA official who coordinates U.S. whaling efforts, Japan acknowledges that it will not oppose a subsistence quota. And the U.S. claims it has the backing of other member countries of the IWC.

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