Native Leader To Be Honored

NEW YORK, Oct. 28-- Native American Leader Elouise C. Cobell, who has led the fight for a full accounting of trust funds held by the federal government for thousands of American Indians, is one of four women who will be honored Nov. 14 by the Women's Leadership Exchange.

Ms. Cobell, a member of Montana's Blackfeet Tribe and executive director of the Native American Community Development Corp., will be presented with the exchange's Compass Award during a conference in New York. Lesley Visser, a CBS-TV Sport analyst, Dr. Kathy Magliato, a heart transplant surgeon from Los Angeles andRenetta McCann, chief executive of Starcom North America, a Chicago-based advertising agency will also be cited by the group.

"I am honored to be in the company of these women," said Ms Cobell. "And I am happy to accept this honor, not for myself, but for the thousands of American Indian women who have contributed so much to the welfare of their tribes and native people for so many years."

"I hope that with this award I can call attention to our continuing, seven-year fight with the federal government for the full and complete accounting of monies that the government has held in Individual Indian money accounts for decades," she said. "Despite repeated court orders, it is shameful that the government still has to yet to provide a complete accounting of the first Indian account."

Ms. Cobell, who lives in Browning, Mt., is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit that has secured court rulings that the Interior Department breached its trust responsibilities to American Indians by its incompetent handling of the Indians' trust accounts. The accounts were established in 1887 to handle the proceeds from government-arranged leases of Indian lands in the West.

Unfortunately, language inserted in an Interior Department spending bill, on the day the above story was released, may force lawmakers to choose between urgently needed funds to battle wildfires and delaying a federal court-ordered accounting of billions of trust fund dollars that American Indians say have been misplaced.

“This is a cynical and shocking development to Native people," Miss Cobell said. But opponents of such an accounting have pointed in part to studies showing it would cost taxpayers an extra nine to 12 billion dollars to retrace and verify all the transactions for every account.

It is against this backdrop and the backdrop of catastrophic wildfires this year in California and Arizona that a Senate-house conference committee quietly inserted the Language into the Interior Department bill delaying the court--ordered accounting by a year, to December 31st, 2004.

Government officials have conceded that many of the records needed to reconcile the accounts have been lost and it will take years for them to discover of how much money should be in the accounts.

To view the latest information concerning this case, go to
www.indiantrust.com

BIA Report On Tribal Lands In Path Of Fires

The following is a report from the Southern California BIA on the situation with Indian Reservations in the path of the fires and numbers that were current on Monday, October 27th. The situations and numbers have changed but this will give you an idea of the devastating impact of the fires on the 15 reservations that are listed.

Rincon, San Diego county 3000+ acres, 20+ homes lost, evacuations.

San Pasqual San Diego County all 1380 Reservation acres burned, two fatalities confirmed, 67 homes and several out buildings lost, evacuations.

Barona San Diego County all 5900 Reservation acres burned, four fatalities confirmed, 40 homes, daycare center and other outbuildings lost.

Inaja San Diego County all 852 Reservation acres burned, three homes possibly lost.

La Jolla San Diego County 2000+ acres, 16 homes threatened, evacuations.

Viejas San Diego County North half approx. 800 acres burned, currently threatening rest of Reservation.

Capitan Grande San Diego County, no homes or members live on this Reservation but all 15,527 acres burned.

San Manual Riverside County, all 700 acres burned, two homes damaged on the Reservation.

The following tribes are threatened, but as of Monday have not had fire on their Reservations:

Mesa Grande San Diego County 920 acres
Santa Ysabel San Diego County 15,527 acres
Sycuan San Diego County 640 acres
Jamul San Diego County six acres
Pechanga Riverside County 4396 acres

Pechanga resort has 160 rooms in their hotel for evacuated persons from Rincon.

La Jolla Pala resort is also offering rooms to evacuated Reservation residents.

Sacagawea, A New Presence In Washington

A statue of Sacagawea was unveiled in the nation’s Capitol a few weeks ago as the sounds of Native Indian drums and chanted songs peeled off the curved sandstone walls of the curved rotunda.

“Today, Sacagawea’s 200 mile journey has finally come to an
end,” said Tex Hall, chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara nation during the unveiling ceremony.

As a Hidatsa teenager, Sacagawea joined the Merriwether Lewis and William Clark expedition near what is now the North Dakota city of Mandan. She, her husband and infant son joined the expedition after her husband was hired to serve as an interpreter while the team explored the Northwest Territory acquired as a part of the Louisiana Purchase from the French in 1803.

Her contributions were tremendous to the success of the exploratory party and the mission would not have been successful without her, according to Hall. “A woman carrying a child with a party of men is a token to peace,” wrote Clark in an 1805 journal entry.

The eleven foot statue, a replica of the one erected in 1910 on the grounds of the state capitol at Bismarck, where Sacagawea is depicted striding forward while carrying her son, Jean Baptiste, on her back. She is the first Native American woman ever placed in the Statuary Hall collection. Although North Dakota and the Hidatsa spell her name Sakakawea, including the U.S government which features her on a $1 coin, the name Sacagawea is stamped the base of the statue.

The dedication ceremony combined the formality of Congress. Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert officially accepted the work into the Statuary Hall collection.

Hall wore a large war bonnet during the ceremony and traditional dancers bobbed and weaved beneath the 180 foot dome of the Rotunda while performing the flag song of the Three Affiliated Tribes. Tribal elder, Gail Baker, blessed the end of the ceremony by fanning smoke from burning sweet grass with a fan of eagle feather.

Private donors gave more than $230,00 to create the statue.

This story has been edited from an AP story bylined Jack Sullivan.

Indian Health Grabs Spotlight At Meeting!

Although medical care and public health efforts such as mass vaccinations and sanitation facilities have increased over the past several years, the Native American Indian population still faces higher rates of cardiovascular disease, alcoholism, oral diseases which are aided and abetted by poverty, inadequate education, cultural, language barriers and geographic distances. These are the inequalities in health care faced by the Indian population the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights was told earlier this month at a meeting in Albuquerque.

"The distressing part if that those diseases are preventable", said Jon Perez, director of the Indian Health Service's Division of Behavioral Health. The per capita health expenditure for all Americans will be
estimated at $5,775 but the Indian Health Service only spends about $1,600 per person and on the Navajo Reservation that amount is less than $800 per person.

According to Charles Grim, Indian Health Service director,
Indian health care facilities lack funding and adequate staff. Indian health care can be improved through recruitment and programs for medical professionals as well as cultural training for health care providers. Scholarships, loan repayments and other incentives would help to keep specialists on the job.

After tribal leaders told the commission that the Indian Health Service does not provide specialized treatment or sufficient services and the facilities are under funded and over crowded, Commission Chairwoman Mary Frances Berry said, "I have high hopes that as a result of trying to put the spotlight on the issues Congress can benefit from the discussions that have taken place here as they pass legislation to ultimately benefit these programs."

The hearing came as lawmakers look to review and expand the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. The current Act, which expires this year, is a guide to federal health and education spending for Native American tribes.

This article has been edited from an AP news story bylined Patricia L. Garcia, datelined Albuquerque.

Ricardo Sneezy, Apache DJ

When Ricardo Sneezy, took over the “Indian Trails” show on KRXS, a Globe, Arizona radio station, about a year ago it quickly changed from “a show of Native American music to a show of music Native Americans like”.

He mixes requests from traditional powwow music with tribal drums and chants and switches to Fats Domino, the Rolling Stones, Buck Owens, Louis Armstrong, Bob Marley and Creedence Clearwater but the dialogue is mostly in Apache with a few necessary words in English for commercials and special requests.

Request calls are usually from the San Carlos Apache Tribe near Globe, where Sneezy was born, raised and currently lives, but the show also draws listeners from the White Mountain Apache Tribe at Pinetop, The Gila River Indian community outside of Scottsdale and Florence State Prison so the station is heard throughout Central Arizona including most of the Phoenix area.

He uses a down-to-earth approach to his audience. He leans forward into the mike and softly asks in Apache if the parents out there have hugged their children today told them they love them. In English he says, “I see a lot of people with this cloud over their heads from long ago injustices or some current squabbles within the community and I’m trying to put good thoughts into people’s minds.”

Sneezy grew up with classic rock, the golden oldies and listens to Anne Murray and jazz to mellow out after his job as director of surveillance at the Apache Gold casino.
His radio show runs from 7 to 9 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and is so popular the station is considering a third hour.

This story, another example of a positive approach to Native Unity, has been edited from recent article by Richard Ruelas in “The Arizona Republic”.

George Carlin - 'On Indians'

A bit of whimsy from one of America's great humorists.

Now, the Indians. I call them Indians because that's what they are. They're Indians. There's nothing wrong with the word Indian. "First of all, it's important to know that the word Indian does not derive from Columbus mistakenly believing he had reached India. India was not even called by that name in 1492, it was known as Hindustan.

"More likely, the word Indian comes from Columbus's
description of the people he found here. He was an
Italian, and did not speak or write very good Spanish, so in his written accounts he called the Indians, 'Una gente in Dios.' A people in God. In God. In Dios. Indians. It's a perfectly noble and respectable word.

"As far as calling them 'Americans' is concerned, do I even
have to point out what an insult this is? ----- We steal their hemisphere, kill twenty or so million of them, destroy five hundred separate cultures, herd the survivors onto the worst land we can find, and now we want to name them after ourselves? It's appalling. Haven't we done enough damage? Do we have to further degrade them by tagging them with this repulsive name?

"You know, you'd think it would be a fairly simple hing to come over to this continent, commit genocide, eliminate the forests, dam up the rivers, build our malls and massage parlors, sell our lenders and whoopee cushions, poison ourselves with chemicals, and let it go at that. But no. We have to compound the insult.

“I’m glad the Indians have gambling casinos now. It makes me happy that people are losing their rent money to the Indians. Maybe the Indians will get lucky and win their
country back. Probably they wouldn't want it. Look at what we did to it."

This was submitted by my good friend Melody Little Wolf.

Schwarzenegger - Tribes May Thaw Out Relations

By Chet Barfield STAFF WRITER and James P. Sweeney
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
October 9, 2003

SACRAMENTO - Arnold Schwarzenegger and California's Indian tribes continued to circle each other yesterday, although there were signs that each may be looking to cool the heated rhetoric they traded during the recall campaign.

Schwarzenegger said during his first post election news conference that he wants to meet with tribes as soon as possible. "Many are still smarting at the governor-elect's use of Indian gambling as a foil to help him win Tuesday's election. " During the campaign,
Schwarzenegger declined an invitation to meet with the state's powerful gaming tribes. He then unleashed a television ad that portrayed them as a special-interest group that doesn't pay its "fair share" to the state.

Tribes dumped more than $12 million on the recall campaign, largely on behalf of Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock of Thousand Oaks. The tribes also fired back with an anti-Schwarzenegger ad of their own.

"As soon as I get into office ... I will sit down with the Indian gaming tribes and start working together with them so we can figure out ways of getting additional funds and for them to participate and help work out good compacts," Schwarzenegger said yesterday during a packed news conference at the Century Plaza
Hotel in Los Angeles. "We are in a financial crisis now, and I want them to participate."

The state's 53 Indian casinos have quickly become a political and economic force. They are believed to be making more than $5 billion a year and have enabled tribes to become aggressive political players. Over the past five years, they have pumped more than $135 million into campaigns.

Davis enraged the tribes when, without warning, he asked them for an additional $1.5 billion a year to help close the state's $38 billion budget deficit. He later reduced his request to $680 million, but most tribes say "that is still unrealistic."

California tribes now pay about $140 million a year into two separate state funds. Most of the money - nearly $100 million - was redistributed this year to small-and non-gaming reservations.

Schwarzenegger has said he would like for tribes to pay 25 percent of their net win But he conceded late in the campaign that any new revenue-sharing arrangement will have to be negotiated.

Senate President Pro Tempore John Burton, a San Francisco Democrat and tribal ally, said Schwarzenegger will have a difficult time getting much more from Indian casinos. "After attacking them and using them as one of the key issues (in the recall), I think it's going to be tough to ask them for more money," Burton said.

Some local Indian leaders are leery of what the future holds under the new governor. "He came out and basically threw the gauntlet on the table and
told us what he was going to do to us," said San Pasqual tribal Chairman Allen Lawson. "I have no idea how to work with Mr. Schwarzenegger.

"We would hope that what he put in the paper is not his true attitude, because if it is, we're headed for a bumpy road."

Lawson and other tribal leaders noted that most of their compacts are good for 17 more years. Although some tribes want more slot machines, none is compelled to strike a new deal with the incoming governor.

"His commercials make it sound like tribes are giving nothing, and it's not true," said Brandie Taylor, vice chairwoman of North County's Santa Ysabel band. Her tribe signed one of the new compacts with Davis last month.

Taylor said Schwarzenegger needs "to be educated on issues such as sovereignty and tribal government . . . because he seems to feel like we're just businesses and corporations."

Individual tribal members pay income taxes, but Indian tribes are governments, and no government can tax
another.

"We're sovereign nations just like the state of California," Pala tribal Chairman Robert Smith said. "He needs to be educated about how tribes came to be, and (that) they were here before anybody else."

Many tribal leaders are wary of Schwarzenegger because one of his key advisers is former Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican who battled to restrict Indian gaming in the state throughout most of the 1990s.

La Jolla tribal Chairwoman Wendy Schlater, whose North County tribe operates the state's smallest casino - a 30-machine slot arcade - said Schwarzenegger need not be an adversary.

Sycuan tribal Chairman Danny Tucker said casinos, taxes and sovereignty aren't the only Indian issues the new governor needs to understand. He will have to learn about the state's criminal jurisdiction on reservations, and other aspects of complex federal laws and legal rulings concerning the status of tribes.

Georgina Lightning Sounds Off!

This country and it's patriots are such a joke to me. They are pathetic! Ole Arnie isn't even from this country in the first place English isn't even his first language .Tell me, what's wrong with this picture because I don't see how that is allowed to be? Were right back where we were 500 years ago.

The white guy comes over on the boat and wants to conquer the Indians and rule the country. First take away our land, then our ceremony's, then our right to use our medicine, then our buffalo which had been our staple food since we began, then our language, then our songs, then our children to the government. boarding schools for brainwashing or should we call it white washing, then our pride and dignity in exchange for a number from the BIA deeming us wards of the government, kept dependent on them for low quality
commodity food, contaminated water, and vaccinations to keep us from dying from all the diseases they brought here for us, like the thousands of lives we already lost from sickness, then they relocate and take our land again for our gold and oil and if that's not enough they almost succeeded in taking our souls which put our people in a long period of darkness.

Now, we've finally found a way to start digging our way out of that darkness, with the new economic good fortune of gaming. It started with little bingo games which grew into big bingo games and some years after
lead to what we see today in our casinos. We were a sovereign nation when we were all dirt poor and we must remain a sovereign nation now that there is money involved. It used to be we had no economic ability to challenge the government or BIA. for our basic
rights as human beings, let alone any equal opportunity to gain economic independence.

Those days are over !! We've brought back an old custom called "gaming" which has generated a new-found economic independence. The healing has begun and there must be no stopping us now. No one especially, a first generation immigrant who can barely speak English, should be allowed to take that right from under us. How dare he think he can just walk in the back door and make demands for our people to pay for their government’s financial problems. We were not involved with the stupid decisions they made in running this state nor did we benefit from them, so why should we be held financially accountable. We have our own government and people to take care of.

You wanna play ball, well as long as I can remember there are rules to the game. We are now better equipped to play fair and square and come out winning. With our peoples new financial independence, we have been able to utilize some of the proceeds towards creating the ability and opportunity to participate in the same political arena as our oppressors, and we've only just begun.

It's just like a white guy to rattle off ridiculous
demands and make decisions without thinking about the damage it could result in, in the not too far future. Haven't they learned that yet?? There are always consequences. I can't wait to experience the day we are controlling who gets elected and who doesn't. That's where we're headed Jack Ass!! There complete
ignorance in seeing makes me laugh. How could any one take him seriously? Please people WAKE UP. and just to set the records straight;

We DID NOT take a white mans business to profit ourselves. Gambling was something we had generated centuries ago. There were nights when people would sit up all night long until the morning hours playing hand games. There were even specific songs sung only for these nights of gambling. It was a night They could
challenge our opponents with help from the spirits they called upon for good luck and fortune. Gamblers took it very seriously. They would fast and pray to the spirits for the right songs to make them win the various hand games. This was going on decades before that idiot Columbus smashed his boat into our country thinking he just arrived in India.

Just needed to vent a little!
Georgina Lightning

Ms. Lightning is an actress with 13 years experience in the film industry in LA and has credits for 45 films filed in her resume.

Georgina is the owner and executive producer of Tribal Alliance Productions which is in post production of a film entitled “Older Than America” with cast members Adam Beach, Gary Farmer, John Trudell, and Udo Kier..

Her oldest daughter, Crystle, has just returned from Texas where she worked on the film “Saving Jessica Lynch”. Crystle has the role of Lori Piestewa , the Hopi mother of two from Tuba City, Arizona. Lori, the first Native American woman to die in battle, was seriously injured in the jeep she was driving when it overturned and wrecked culminating in the capture of Lori, Jessica and the rest of their troop by Iraqi soldiers.. . .

To Save A Dying Language

A kindergarten teacher in Lost City, Oklahoma speaks to her ten student class in Cherokee telling the children to pull out their mats for naptime. She tells “Yona” or Bear to place his mat away from “A-wi” or Deer while soft Cherokee music lulls them to sleep.

These youngsters parents were mocked for speaking Cherokee while their grandparents were punished, but Cherokee is the only language these children will speak in their public school classroom.

It is a modest start for these kindergarteners in their
classroom but the Cherokee language will continue throughout their school years. According to this AP report,
it is hoped by immersing the children in the language of their ancestors, tribal leaders are hoping to save one of the many endangered American Indian languages.

Annette Millard, the non-Cherokee superintendent of the Lost City School, about 50 miles east of Tulsa, realizes the language is going to be gone “if we don’t do something to save it and the best people to learn it are kids in the developmental stage of kindergarten.” There are about 100 students in the school with two thirds of them from the tribe.

While many tribes are trying to revive their language, it is difficult for Oklahoma Indians where the people generally do not live on reservations and attend public schools. Millard heard the plea about saving the language from the chief of the Cherokee Nation. She started learning the language, herself, along with her staff. BY THE WAY, the Cherokee Nation is paying the salaries of the teacher and an assistant.

Tribal leaders hope the program begun in Lost City will help to save their dying language.

Is Casino Gambling The 'New Buffalo'?

I plucked this catchy title from “games/gaming.html and the lead from “Midwest Today, January 1995. Tim Giago, Publisher and Editor-in-chief of the “Indian Country Today” newspaper in Rapid City, S.D. Dated, but still timely!

“Many years ago,“ Giago said, “when I worked as a ‘keyman’ at Harrah’s Casino in Reno, Nev., while attending school there, I never dreamed that huge Reno-like casinos would eventually become a part of the landscape on Indian reservations. It is almost scary to see this culture invading the quiet peaceful lands of the Indian reservations.”

The Navajos are the latest tribe to hop on the buffalo’s back. AP writes “After years of reluctance, the Navajo nation took a major step toward casino gambling when President Joe Shirley, Jr. signed New Mexico’s gambling compact Friday”

Here is the catch – it only applies to a small Navajo community called “To’hajiilee” west of Albuquerque close to the Indian pueblos of Acoma and Laguna which already have casinos. Twelve tribes have casinos in New Mexico.

Shirley opposes gambling on the Navajo “Motherland” but To’hajiilee is separated from the main reservation by some 100 miles. The tribe voted twice in ’94 and ’97 against permitting a casino to be built at To’hajiilee, but the To’hajaiileeans passed the measure at both elections.

On August 29th of this year, the Tribal Council narrowly passed a resolution approving a gambling compact with New Mexico, but the Council made it very clear that it did not want any casinos anywhere other than at To’hajiilee.

Revenue from the new casino will benefit the entire 27,000 square mile reservation with its population of 180,000 which covers parts of Arizona and Utah as well as New Mexico.

Congratulations to the new gambling community of To’hajiilee and welcome to the wonderful world of The Indian Regulatory and Gaming Act, implemented in 1988.

Don't Judge One Race By Actions Of A Few!

The following by Liaison, Eric Schweig's spokesperson, is being reprinted with her permission. It is in response to a statement on the Adam Beach Fan Forum pertaining to "Native Unity" and other racial issues in relationship to the film "J.J. Harper", a release of "The Film Works For The Aboriginal Peoples Network" of Canada.

The film documents the March 8th, 1988 shooting death of Native activist J.J. Harper by Winnepeg police and stars Adam Beach (Ojibway) and Eric Schweig (Inuit and Chippewa).

No Offense Taken But Do Remember ....

Liaison:

"I am not trying to add any more fuel onto the fire that burns between many native and non-native people, nor do I want to point the finger, but seeing how similar these cases were with that of the JJ Harper one, I thought some would be interested to hear them"

Response From Liaison:

Hey there,

No offense taken by anyone I am sure, but we all need to remember that no one race can be judged by what wrongdoings are done by some of that race. That would be way too broad and general of a thought process for me to conceive.

I would not want to believe that any white person, or any other person for that matter, could or would sit by and condone such acts of hatred and hostility as shown to so many First Nations, NA or Aboriginal people. But such hate crimes are not exclusive to just those above. Look at all the hatred spewed upon Black people, Jews, Muslim people, etc. Obviously though, if you are a member of one of the above, it is the hate crimes and injustices against your own people that one is most likely to focus upon. It is so very important for us all to stand behind one another when we do see blatant injustices done to anyone anywhere.

I also have to say that we must remember that not all of any sect of people can or should be judged by what a few do incorrectly. That's like throwing the baby out with the dirty bath water! The same holds true for police around the world. While there are some dirty cops or those who break the laws they are entrusted to help uphold, not all are this way. There are too many good cops out there who do put their lives on the line daily to protect everyone, including FN, NA and Aboriginal people.

I know it is difficult and that hundreds of years of distrust and of being victimized has occured. It was not easy in the 60's in the US when Martin Luther King stood up against bigotry and hate against blacks. Sacrifices, even the ultimate sacrifices were realized. It is never easy and most times may seem futile, however, if people don't stand up and fight then the alternative is to forever be the victim. There is, however, a way to stand and fight for the rights of people without destroying relations with everyone else. This is a small world and we all need each other. What we must do, in my opinion, is to find a way to reform and punish the wrong doers without destroying the chance for building stronger relations with one another. United we stand, divided we fall. The latter is exactly what the most bigoted people always hope for unfortunately.

What we need to do as one world is to continue to educate and speak out against injustice without spreading hatred, bigotry or anti-semitism. If we spread it, then it makes none of us any better than those we accuse of such crimes. We also need to get more elected officials, police officers and those in power from each of the groups mentioned above. Only then can ALL the people of the world truly have a voice to fight against all hate crimes and injustices against all people.

Just my thoughts and opinions on the subject!

Liaison

Words From The Wise

“Going from tribe to tribe over the years, I’ve found that it’s just a matter of being respectful of other people’s rituals and ceremonies. That’s more or less expected of you because that’s what you, yourself, would want to see from other Indians.”
Wes Studi

Ft. McDOWELL YAVAPAI CELEBRATE 100TH ANNIVERSARY

On September 15th, 1903 President Teddy Roosevelt created by, executive order, the 40 square mile Ft. McDowell Yapapai Indian Reservation along the banks of Verde River of Arizona. It represents only a small portion of the ancestral territory of the Yavapai who once roamed the Mogollon rim.

Prior to the creation of the reservation, they lived a nomadic life moving northward toward Payson in the summer then back to the northeast valley of the now Greater Phoenix area during the wintertime..

For most of the past century the 600 tribal members lived without electricity or running water but all that changed some ten years ago with the advent of the Ft. McDowell Casino. The first year the casino was in operation, the net profits totaled nearly $50 million. The tribe has since built some 90 homes and the new medical clinic with state of the art emergency services.

Every family, now, has a computer at home. Money management classes are mandatory for children, who will collect more than $500,000 when they turn 18 years of age provided they graduate from high school.

Tribal leaders have forged ahead with economic goals. Five years ago the tribe planted 60,000 pecan and 25,000 citrus trees with the idea of opening at food market at a busy intersection near the reservation.

The biggest project, of course, is their casino expansion with more gaming machines to be added and the construction of a 300 room hotel which will begin early nest year.

Tribal elders carry on the their heritage by teaching Native traditions to the younger generation with the language of the past generations, but they also understand the value of a modern education to prepare them for jobs in the market place of the future.

“The peaceful landscape of this riverside reservations belies the bloody history, but the positive outlook and improved lifestyle of tribal members speak volumes about where the Ft. McDowell Yavapai Reservation is headed.” Laura Dobbins, The Arizona Republic.

California Tribes On Move For October 7th Election.

The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission Indians is supporting Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante’s with $1.5 million in contributions for his ad campaign telling voters via the state’s TV screens TO SUPPORT Proposition 53, a ballot measure that would set aside a percentage of the state budget for infrastructure such as bridges and sewer plants.

The last tribal-funded round of TV exposure came from telling voters TO REJECT Proposition 54, the proposed racial privacy initiative.

Although TV viewers have seen no ads where Bustamante is actively campaigning for governor, the subtle message is there which critics are calling call a ploy to get around limits in campaign fund raising.

The Santa Ynez Band of Mission Indians is lashing out against Schwarzeneger with Tribal Chairman, Vincent Armenta stating that as a Republican, Arnie “doesn’t have a clue as to what he’s talking about.” See the September 27th Native Unity blog, ‘Tribe Urges Members to Vote Against Schwarzenegger’.

Folks, “All’s fair in love and war” and politics is certainly a “war game”!

Tohono O'odhams vs Themselves and Illegal Immigrants

The summer of 2003 is over and it has been a hot one with temperatures more than one hundred degrees in the shade and up to 130 degrees on the harsh Southern Arizona desert floor.

It has also been a devastating summer for thousands of illegal immigrants crossing the Tohono O’odham lands from Mexico into the United States. Some 148 illegals from Mexico and Central America have died on those lands from dehydration and heat exhaustion in the past two years.

Tribal member, Mike Wilson, a former Presbyterian minister who lives in Sells, Arizona declares he will keep supplying water jugs for immigrants who travel across his lands as long as the temperature stays hot.

Tribal officials maintain that placing water jugs only encourages more migrants to cross their lands and the council passed a resolution last year prohibiting anyone from leaving water out for the immigrants.

“They are breaking into our homes and stealing our food and water.” Maintains Ronald Venture, chairman of the Baboquivari District Council, “Some tribal members
have been threatened for food and water.”

Over the objection of tribal officials, Wilson began placing water in the desert in the summer of 2002 in response to the soaring number of deaths along the Baboquivari Trail, cattle paths on the Reservation.
The Papago United Presbyterian church passed a resolution similar to the tribal one prompting the resignation of Wilson as lay pastor.

The flood of undocumented immigrants. some 1500 a day, has created an economic and social crisis not only for the United States but especially for the Tohono O’odham Indian Nation.

Formerly known as the Papagos, the Tohono O’odhans are struggling to overcome high unemployment, poverty, chronic alcoholism, drug abuse and one of the highest rates of diabetes in the country. Adding to their problems are the tribal youth being recruited by the smuggler or “coyotes” in their illegal immigrant and drug operations.

The reservation, the size of the state of Connecticut, comprises 2.7 million acres stretching across 90 miles of Southern Arizona and has a population of some 24,000 people. Tribal leaders say that money which should be used to build roads, schools and improve health care and housing conditions on the reservation is being spent on illegals crossing their lands.

Incidents that range from investigating immigrant deaths to towing away abandoned vehicles left by the coyotes have cost the Indian Nation between $6.5 and 7 million dollars last year. Besides millions for drug interdiction and assisting the Border Patrol with apprehension of the aliens, $500,000 was spent in treating undocumented immigrants at the Sells Indian Hospital plus $265,000 to conduct autopsies for illegals found dead on tribal lands.

Tribal leaders maintain the increase in the number of immigrants crossing Reservation land is a direct response to the shift in U.S. border policy which is channeling immigrant traffic from the urban areas of Texas and California to Arizona’s desert.

Tribal members have asked federal, state and county governments to get involved with the trash cleanup which amounts to some the 5 million pounds of trash a year - liquor and beer bottles, plastic water jugs, articles of clothing shed by the immigrants as the day gets hotter under the broiling Arizona sun, soiled diapers and human excrement.

So far, there has been no indication the government agencies indicate they will help the tribe with trash removal either economically or to provide the manpower as the human parade continues its march across the southern Arizona desert leaving a trail of empty water jugs, destruction to the fragile environment and dissent among the People of the Tohono O’odham Nation.