Welcome to News from Native American Netroots, a Sunday evening series focused on indigenous tribes primarily in the United States and Canada but inclusive of international peoples also.
A special thanks to our team for contributing the links that have been compiled here. Please provide your news links in the comments below.
Senseless Hazing of Yellowstone Bison from GYC on Vimeo. |
What’s happening: As the days warm and grasses push up through the snow, it means bison are on the move – and the Montana Department of Livestock is, too. The DOL began hazing Yellowstone bison back into the park on May 4 and May 6. Sloppy weather prevented further hazing, but the week of May 10-14 the DOL again plans its unnecessary annual rite of hazing bison off Horse Butte west of Yellowstone. A flicker of good news: The DOL says it doesn’t plan to round up any of the bison for slaughter. Meanwhile, about 80 miles north of Horse Butte, the 88 quarantined Yellowstone bison moved to one of Ted Turner’s ranches are tentatively scheduled for release on 3,000 acres of grass on May 21. It’s just one step closer to our vision of wild, free roaming bison, which moved closer to reality in January when Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks announced it was looking to find new ways of managing the iconic creature. A key component of the effort is to find appropriate places in Montana – such as wildlife refuges and tribal lands – where disease-free Yellowstone bison that leave the park in winter can be relocated. Though moving the bison to private lands wasn’t ideal, if Turner’s proposal hadn’t been accepted it is likely the bison would have been shipped to slaughter after spending five disease-free years in quarantine.
Take Action: Tell Montana’s Governor Schweitzer to stop hazing Yellowstone bison!
Update from navajo:
Recently appointed as the National Park Service’s First Assistant Director of American Indian Relations, Gerard Baker may be able to help.
Please email him:
Gerard_Baker@nps.gov
Mr. Baker is a full-blood Mandan-Hidatsa and was formerly the superintendent of Mount Rushmore National Memorial.
Debra White Plume: Military Helicopters at Wounded Knee? Traditional Lakota Elders Say ‘NO WAY!’
Military helicopters approaching from the North could be seen by a crowd of 60 or so Lakota people, gathered at the base of the hill where victims of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre lay buried in a mass grave. As the three black helicopters passed overhead and started to turn around, “Block the helicopters!” could be heard faintly, drowned out by the sound of thumping chopper blades and the harsh wind, words shouted by a grandmother. The people began to run toward the helicopters, which were nearing the mass grave.
Young men reached the hilltop first, carrying staffs adorned with eagle feathers and colored ribbon. Dozens of young children ran in groups up the hill, holding hands, some were carrying sage. The elders brought up the rear, escorted by several young men. The first helicopter landed a few feet from the mass grave. The Lakota men ran up to it, holding their staffs, yelling at the military to leave Wounded Knee, the elders did not want them there. As the other two helicopters began to descend, four women ran to get under the choppers, waving red banners and a United Nations flag. The helicopters came lower, the women did not budge. They yelled at the soldiers hanging out of the helicopters, “Leave, you are not wanted at Wounded Knee.” The three black helicopters flew away.
SUICIDE, BLUES and SUBSTANCE ABUSE!
SKYLAR WOLF (DEVILS SON), “Multi- Native American Award Winning Artist” sheds his gift of Music across the U.S. Reaching our Native Teenagers and Children. BUT, there is a Catch! enlight of his talent, he shares his life story about “SUBSTANCE ABUSE” and living as a” SUICIDAL VICTIM” with suicidal tendencies.
Mr. Wolf will reach out to graduating students on what life is like after High School and what life may offer, if they decide to go to college. Mr. Skylar Wolf says, ” I cant just sit and watch our children walk out into todays world”. “I need to do some thing, Some kids may never make it to college, or find employment with the way
the economy crisis is today”. Wolf also says,” if you think drugs, alcohol and suicide is a problem in youth life, wait until they find out what life is really like for their parents in the U.S today. Especially, for our Native People, just trying to make ends meet.” “Some Native Teens, are parents even before they graduate. Where are they going to live?, How are they going to live? These are just a few questions we should ask ourselves when we leave our children behind into the next life.” “Our Nation can not shelter our future, (our Children). Now, WE must find new ways to protect our families to come.” Wolf, says.
DREAM Act Students: Protest at Senator McCain’s office Tucson
DREAM Act Students!
Documented and undocumented stage rally outside Arizona Senator John McCain’s office at 407 W Congress Street Ste 103 Tucson, AZ 85701.
Tucson, Arizona. On May 17, 2010, on the anniversary of Brown vs Board of Education, landmark civil rights case, students from around the nation will join local youth in protest of Senator McCain’s lack of support for the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors), a bill allowing undocumented youth access to higher education and legal status.
As the oil leak at the floor of the Gulf of Mexico continues to gush, at the rate of about 210,000 gallons a day, Alaska Native groups are demanding the halt of oil drilling in the Chukchi Sea and Camden Bay in the Beaufort Sea, which is supposed to begin this summer, until the federal government knows what caused the spill in the Gulf and can guarantee that kind of accident does not occur in the waters off Alaska.
In a call to action sent out this week, the Native Village of Point Hope, located on the coast of the Chukchi Sea, has created a sample letter asking Ken Salazar, Secretary of Interior, to stop Shell Oil’s exploratory drilling in the Arctic.
The letter states: “The impacts of a major spill in the Arctic would be widespread, long-lasting and disastrous. At risk are endangered whales, polar bears, seals, walruses, birds, fish and the Inupiat people’s subsistence culture.”
Seneca to Obama: ‘You betrayed our trust’
BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Seneca Nation of Indians welcomed President Barack Obama to Buffalo with protesters in the street and a full page ad in the local newspaper saying he broke his promise to honor treaties when he signed a law that will devastate the Indian tobacco trade and put thousands of people out of work in Western New York.
The ad was in the form of an open letter.
“Dear Mr. President, Last fall you invited Native American leaders to Washington, D.C. and promised to listen to our concerns and respect our treaty rights. You pledged meaningful consultation and dialogue before any changes in federal policies impacting Indian Country.
“Your words instilled confidence and hope in the hearts of the Seneca people. We believed your pledge to make tribes full partners in the economy and give Indian children a shot at the American Dream. But, Mr. President, you failed to keep your word,” the ad said
Treasured teacher embodies 100 reasons to learn Oneida
Maria Hinton, who turns 100 in June, has just put the finishing touches on a spoken dictionary of her language
When Maria Hinton was born nearly 100 years ago, every Oneida family spoke the language of their ancestors. Now a great-great-grandmother, Hinton may be one of the few first language Oneida speakers left in Wisconsin, but she is determined not to be the last.
Hinton recently put the finishing touches on an exhaustive recording of the Oneida dictionary. Taking five years of almost daily work, she recorded 12,000 audio files, including tens of thousands of Oneida words, and told stories she first heard in her mother tongue.
‘Avatar’ filmmaker promises to help indigenous
NEW YORK – Filmmaker-turned-activist James Cameron said he will continue to help the global indigenous struggle and carry the message of his epic blockbuster 3D movie “Avatar” that “time is running out” for the dominant society to change its ways and stop destroying the environment.
Cameron spoke to a audience of around 400 indigenous peoples at a special screening of “Avatar” at the Directors Guild of America Theater in New York April 24. The event took place during the annual meeting of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues from April 19 – 30.
“It’s a tremendous honor for me to be here and to have the members of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues here tonight. It’s such important work that you’re doing and I applaud what you’re doing. It’s so critical given how many indigenous cultures are under threat throughout the world. I think time is running out for our civilization to shift its set of values. That’s what I was trying to say with ‘Avatar.’”
Dem. Scott Heidepriem Believes He Has a Good Chance in South Dakota Governor’s Race
It has been more than 30 years since a Democrat sat in the seat of the governor of South Dakota.
A Democrat who fashions his campaign on the past actions of former Senator George McGovern, a Harvard man named Scott Heidepriem, hopes to open that door again.
“When McGovern decided to run for the South Dakota senate, 102 of the 105 state legislators were Republican,” Heidepriem said. “McGovern started to go to all of the communities in the state, large and small, and found ways to get on the platform at Kiwanis meetings, hardware stores and other community meetings reminding the audience that honest competition has always been a hallmark of South Dakota politics and by the time he was done talking, a lot of heads were bobbing up and down.”
Indigenous Alliance Without Borders: ‘We are now living in a No Brown Zone’
By Indigenous Alliance without Borders/Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras
Indigenous Peoples and immigrants have much in common, in particular the alienation and oppression we experience in U.S. society.
The U.S. Government fails to protect the Rights of Indigenous Peoples — A roll of the United States Supreme Court throughout history in the protection of the rights of minorities.
The Supreme Court has moved away from from the guideline principles called ‘canons of construction.’ Under those guidelines, the court would interpret treaties and Indian statues in favor of the tribes when they were unclear or uncertain. It is one area of law that has always been useful for tribes. Now, with the creation of Homeland Security, War Against the Poor, War Against Drugs, War Against Terrorism and Now, with the War Against Minorities in Arizona, Indigenous peoples will continue to be profoundly affected!
The Haskell Wetlands: A fight for the Land
The city of Lawrence, Kansas wants to build a trafficway through an area of wetlands south of the Haskell Indian Nations University campus.
The students of Haskell have filed a lawsuit temporarily blocking the trafficway, but the state is still looking for ways to get around it. The area is considered historic to the school and to alumni and students.
This fight is not new though as many tribes are fighting state, local and federal governments to keep lands they consider sacred from being developed.
In 500 A.D., the powerful Tiwanaku civilization was growing on the shores of Lake Titicaca in what is now Bolivia. University of Chicago anthropologist Alan Kolata’s research in Bolivia shows that the principal food nourishing that society was quinoa, which was heavily farmed through raised-field agriculture. After the Spanish conquest of Bolivia quinoa took a backseat to potatoes and corn, but now the same food that nourished the Tiwanaku Empire is coming back.
Quinoa is a species of goosefoot. Despite appearances, it is not a grain – it is instead related to spinach and beets. Today, these small seeds with a light, nutty taste are quickly catching on as a health food across the United States and Europe. In fact, quinoa imports to the United States rose from 7.4 million pounds in 2007 to 18.6 million pounds in 2009, according to statistics from the U.S. Customs Service. This dramatic increase in demand has changed the lives of Bolivia’s indigenous quinoa farmers who, like their ancestors, sow and harvest the plant.
New trial date set for ’75 SD reservation slaying
RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) – A new trial date has been set for two suspects in the 1975 death of an American Indian Movement activist in western South Dakota.
John Graham and Thelma Rios will be tried together on state charges on Nov. 29, the state attorney general’s office announced Friday. Previous trial dates were set for March and July.
Graham, who is from Canada’s Yukon territory and belongs to the Southern Tutchone tribe, faces one count each of felony murder in relation to kidnapping, felony murder in relation to rape, and premeditated murder in the slaying of Annie Mae Aquash in December 1975.
I’ll be away from the computer for a few days but wanted to send some ideas for Oke’s next digest. Have a good week everyone.
“$3.4B tribal land plan stuck after OK
Congress yet to sign off on pact”
“Chamberlain tries to broaden racial awareness after ‘White Pride’ T-shirts”
“Schools handle issue of Native garb at graduation differently”
“American Indian must wear cap, gown at graduation”
Read more:
“Quebec says it will endorse aboriginal rights declaration”
Read more:
“Environmentalists join ranchers in opposing Keystone XL oil pipeline”
“Reliance on Oil Sands Grows Despite Environmental Risks” including:
One big question is whether TransCanada should get waivers to use thinner pipes on Keystone XL than is normally required in the United States…TransCanada says the thinner pipes have been allowed in Canada for decades and pose no extra risk. But Cesar de Leon… who is now an independent pipeline safety engineer, said the thinner standard is appropriate only if pipelines are being aggressively monitored for deterioration… In a report in March on the agency’s broader permitting practices, the Transportation Department’s inspector general found that, in many cases, the agency had failed to check the safety records of permit applicants and had not checked to verify that permit terms were being followed.
“ENGOs Do Not Speak for CSTC”
“Denver Art Museum’s “Real” Indians exhibit nearing closure”
“Turner Classic Movies to Look at NATIVE AMERICAN IMAGES ON FILM, Latest Edition of Network’s Acclaimed RACE AND HOLLYWOOD Professor Hanay Geiogamah, Director of UCLA American Indian Studies Center, To Co-Host May Festival”
for what’s left of May –
“Worst beat: Gamblers remain angered over denied jackpot”