'Taint Easy Erasing 'Squaw' From Our History!

Especially in Oregon where the U.S. Geological Names Board has more rivers, buttes, meadows, mountains and gulches named “squaw” than any state in the Union.

Oregon has at least 170 natural features named squaw and there some 893 nationwide. While tribal and government officials throughout the country agree the word is offensive and needs to go, efforts to eradicate it from the U.S. map have met with obstacles. Major delays arise from tribal disagreements on what the new name should be.

Roger Paine, executive secretary of the U.S. Geographic Names Board states there is really no one word everyone can agree upon to replace “squaw”. He cites a survey of American Indian tribes conducted by the Board showed that although the majority wanted the squaw name to go, few were in favor of changing the name to a single pronounceable English alternative. Instead each tribe wanted a word from their specific language to preserve their cultural heritage. In Linn County, Oregon Squaw Butte and Squaw Creek are now Kwiskwis Butte and Latiwi Creek – words from the Molalla Tribe.

The board thinks tribes or another community group need to propose one word and stick with it throughout the renaming process. One area in Maine appears to have changed its “squaw” names all at once. In Piscataquis County where moose are said to outnumber people, commissioners voted to satisfactorily go from “squaw” to “moose”.

In many other quarters of the country, tribes have agreed to a suitable name change only to be met with strong opposition. Arizona is a prime example of this type of resistance when Governor Janet Napolitano changed the name Squaw Peak to Lori Piestewa Peak, in honor of the young Hopi woman who was the first Native female ever killed during military action while she was on active duty in Iraq.

Elsewhere, things have gone more smoothly. In Colorado, the endangered squaw fish is now the Colorado pike minnow. In Glacier National Park, Squaw Mountain is now Dancing Lady Mountain and the Old Squaw has been replaced with Stands Alone Woman Peak.

The controversy began with a TV appearance in 1992 by Susan Shown Harjo, writer, Native activist, and current “frybread” opponent when she said the slur comes from a Mohawk word for female genitalia. Linguists maintain the two words sound similar but they are not related. ”Squaw” is a Massachusetts word meaning “woman” and was used as early as 1663 in a translation of the bible to mean just that – woman - according to Smithsonian linguist, Ives Goddard.

Native women in Oregon have begun to refer to their surrounding land forms using just the first initial – so Squaw River is the “S” River. Preferably the “S” River over the “B” River – the current derogatory replacement word for “woman”.

This story has been edited for content and length from a February 19th AP article in The Arizona Republic bylined Rukmini Callimachi.

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Native Activist 'Blasts' Frybread!

Submitted by Marinell deGraffenreid
from the Feb. 25th edition of the Arizona Daily Star

By Leslie Linthicum
Albuquerque Journal

ALBUQUERQUE - The president of a national Indian-rights organization has fired a hot, greasy little dough ball into the heart of Indian Country. In an essay in a national Indian newspaper, Suzan Shown Harjo urges other American Indians to join her in an abstinence pledge - vowing to never again eat the puffy, fried dough discs sold across the country at powwows, fairs and Indian rodeos.

Harjo says fry bread has replaced "firewater" in stereotypical portrayals of Indians as "simple-minded people who salute the little grease bread and get misty-eyed about it." She knocks the reservation staple as unhealthy and a prime contributor to the growing obesity and diabetes epidemics among Indians.

Harjo is Cheyenne and Muskogee and works in Washington, D.C., as president and executive director of The Morningstar Institute. She also writes a weekly column for Indian Country Today, and she said she has received more response to the fry-bread essay than she has to any others.

At the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, fry bread was cooking up hot and brown in the Pueblo Harvest Cafe kitchen, and nobody was regarding it as anything but tasty.

"I love fry bread," said Paulene Shebala, half Navajo and half Zuni and the 2003 Miss Indian New Mexico. Shebala's platform as she traveled around the states during her reign was diabetes education. It's not the fry bread that's the problem, she said; it's cars, easy chairs and remote controls.

Richard Johnson, a fitness specialist at the Tohono O'odham Nation near Tucson, acknowledged that fry bread may be a contributing factor to the prevalence of diabetes on the reservation, but certainly not the only one.

Through the Department of Human Services' division of health promotions in Sells, Johnson said, he encourages people to use vegetable oil instead of lard in fry bread and to eat smaller portions. He doubts that Harjo's assault on fry bread will lead to its disappearance, though. "It's a really big thing out here," he said. "The food vendors serve it every day at lunchtime."

Danny Lopez, an instructor at Tohono O'odham Community College, said he couldn't go without fry bread. "I've got to have it at least once in a while," he said, adding that his health-conscious family enjoys fry bread at home just once or twice a month. His wife, Florence, makes it with vegetable oil instead of lard.

Josie Ramon, a Tohono O'odham, said fry bread, like anything else, should be consumed in moderation. "It's very delicious, and something I don't eat all the time," she said.

But, it never existed in American Indian history. Fry bread began its life as a cobbled-together food from U.S. government rations, a way to keep from starving when government occupation kept tribal members from consuming their native foods - elk, buffalo, corn, beans and squash.

In New Mexico, Harjo says, it was born on the banks of the Pecos River in Fort Sumner at what was essentially a concentration camp for Navajos and Apaches forced from their homelands by U.S. raids. The imprisoned Indians were given rations they had never seen before: sacks of white flour, salt and iron pots.

The women did their best with the alien flour and formed dough balls they patted flat and cooked in boiling animal fat over fires. What is now called Navajo fry bread had been born. When Navajos returned to the reservation that had been carved out for them, fry bread came, too.

Indian fry bread does not stand alone. Nearly every culture has some form of sweet fried dough in its gustatory history: New Mexican sopaipillas, New Orleans beignets and old-fashioned American doughnuts, to name a few.

Fry bread is not the sole cause of the rise of Type 2 diabetes among Indians. Navajo Nation Division of Health workers warn against other unhealthful foods that are popular on reservations: sugary sodas, fried chips and fast food.

This story has been edited for length and content. BHO

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Native Casino Revenues Soared Last Year!

Indian gaming pulled in $18.5 billion in 2004 nearly double the take for Nevada’s gambling industry according to an Associated Press news release.

There are now 411 Indian casinos in the U.S. operated by 223 tribes in 28 states. More then half of the 341 federally recognized Indian tribes in the country operate casinos.

Because tribes are sovereign nations, they don’t have
to pay state or local taxes and are exempt from most zoning and other laws, a special status that can cause conflict with neighbors. Tribal casinos have encountered opposition from some local communities that don’t want the traffic or strain on resources.

To head off opposition, tribal leaders have grown more aggressive about asserting benefits. National Indian Gaming
Officials said that tribal gaming has created 553,000 jobs, mostly for non-Indians and that it generated $5.5 billion in federal taxes in 2004.

Tribal leaders say gambling has allowed them to lift their reservations out of poverty.

“We had to overcome insurmountable odds to turn our economy around,” said, Dee Pigsley, chairwoman of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz which has a casino in Oregon. “No other development could return the kind of profits that a casino could offer.”

“We are creating economic activity that benefits our communities and surrounding communities,’ said Mark Van Norman, executive director of the National Gaming Association.

Tribal officials maintain the biggest growth areas are in California and New York. California’s Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has sought to tap tribal casinos revenue to close the state’s budget deficit. While on the other side of the country, Gov. George Pataki wants to bring five Indian casinos to the Catskills as part of a deal to settle tribal land claims.

Nevada officials have expressed concerns that tribal casinos could eat into their profits, but Nevada casinos are also generating record returns.

NOT ONE DAMN DIME DAY - NUMBER 2

Dear Friend,
Not One Damn Dime Day came. Not One Damn Dime Day went. With your participation - and that of millions of other Americans - it was a huge success.

Millions of Americans enthusiastically joined in the effort. Studies from the survey posted at NotOneDamnDime.com indicate the original email reached more than 40 million inboxes, and that radio, television, newspaper and magazine coverage generated an additional 30 million exposures for Not One Damn Dime Day.

While it's impossible to measure the effect of the boycott itself, Not One Damn Dime Day helped Washington and the corporate media begin to understand that a grassroots movement full of every day people can send a powerful message to our elected leaders.

Thanks to your efforts, red and blue, young and old, liberal and conservative, independents and partisans joined together for a day of political action. We tapped deep into the nation-wide discontent with the Bush Administration's policies. We showed our political muscle in the face of government's efforts to suppress our voices and the corporate media's deliberate under-reporting of the scope and scale of dissent to our government's policies in Iraq.

Let's do it again.

On April 15th, please join us in an effort to stop the growing national debt that threatens our country's future and security on national and international levels.

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

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Wanted - Stories On Northern Tribes

By Jean bedell-Mashkikinabinais

Aneen,

I live among the Oglala Sioux Oyate and I am also a historian, and educator. I am tracing footsteps of the Hunkpapa and the Si hasapa people of the Great Sioux Nation. I am enrolled at Gnoozhekaaning in northern Michigan, (Ojibwe), and am related to the Hunkpapa and Si hasapa of the Lakota nation distantly.

Hardly are there stories of the past or current life of the tribes in North Dakota, Minnesota, and Michigan. There were travel routes of the north tribes long ago and there are many stories and rich history to discover for Native writers and historians.

There has in the past, been a lot of sensationalizing of Wounded Knee but what happened to the people of those tribes after the Little Big Horn and Wounded Knee? Although Donovin Arleigh Sprague recently published "Images of America; The Standing Rock Sioux", what about those peoples lives and their descendants and what are they doing today?

Although images are important we also need to know the peoples stories that go along with those images. Just a thought and idea for future writers who want to preserve our past for the future generations. Maybe some Native people have historical photographs about their relatives and maybe a location for archival images could be created somewhere.

However, we do have to be careful with those who wish to exploit our stories just for entertainment purposes. We must show accurate history and change old stereotypical views of who we are as Native people.
Baamaapii Jeanne Bedell

http://www.geocities.com/mashkikiabinais

EDITORIAL INQUIRY – When the Bush Administration campaigned for “Family Values” and against “Gay Marriage”, why did it cater to a pseudo-journalist Jeff Gannon (James Guckert) who as a reporter and a contributor to such Internet sites as Hotmilitarystuds.com, Militaryescorts.com, MilitaryescortsM4M, and allegedly pose for a gay escort website get to regularly question the President of the United States at White House Press Conferences?

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Life On The 'Rez' And Boarding School

Submitted by Marinell deGraffen

Bonnie Henry, a columnist for the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, draws the profile of a spritely octogenarian, Ednah New Rider Weber, who has written a book - “Rattlesnake Mesa” - about her life growing up on the Navajo Reservation and the years spent at Phoenix Indian School.

Weber was born in 1918 into the Skidi Band of the Pawnee Nation who went to live with her grandmother on the Pawnee Reservation in Oklahoma following the death of her mother when she was just six months old.

In her grandmother’s teepee, Weber learned to do intricate beadwork by watching her grandmother. When her sons took up ceremonial dancing, Weber started beading their costumes. Her beadwork has been showcased across the country and in national publications.

Her grandmother died when Weber was seven and her father, a
cross country trucker, took her up to the Navajo Reservation in northwester New Mexico. In 1925, Weber, with her friends Naneh and Little Fat, roamed Rattlesnake Mesa exploring caves and “running wild”.

That fall Weber’s father decided she should board at Phoenix Indian School as he had done. She was scrubbed, deloused and issued a blue-denim dress uniform to begin the school year in Company K, which housed 24 young girls her age. Her life was dictated by U.S. Cavalry style bugles calling her for classes, work in the kitchen and laundry, lunch, supper and evening activities.

Every summer Ednah would return to the reservation and in the fall back to Phoenix. In 1937 she left the boarding school to work at a trading post, eventually married and raised a family. Weber held beading workshops for years until her eyesight was no longer able to handle the complicated beadwork.

She served as a consultant to the Hallmark Hall of Fame miniseries, “Dreamkeeper”, had a speaking role in the film ”Hidalgo” and founded the Ednah New Rider Weber Scholarship Fund at Pima Community College. She is currently working on a sequel to Rattlesnake Mesa.

Her book, suitable for readers of all ages, is available at Lee and Low Books, multicultural literature for children, www.leeandlow.com.

EDITORIAL INQUIRY - Had the Bush Administration eradicated al-Qaida and bin Laden before going after Saddam Hussein, would there be terrorists in Iraq today recruting insurgents?

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

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Colorado Professor Speaks Out!

Submitted by Jean bedell-mashkikinabinais
Dear Bobbie – Ward has been a defender against colonization but now is getting a bad rap. Can you print the article?

By Erin Gartner, U.S. National - Associated Press

Boulder, Colo. – An embattled University of Colorado professor who likened Sept.11 victims to Nazis got a standing ovation when he told a campus audience of more than 1,000 people that “I’m not backing up an inch.”

Ward Churchill, who had filed a lawsuit after the state-funded university threatened to cancel his address, was interrupted several times by thunderous applause.

Churchill has resigned as chairman of the university ethnic studies department. Gov. Bill Owens has called for Churchill to be fired, and the university
Board of Regents is investigating whether the tenured professor can be removed.

In an essay, Churchill wrote that workers in the World Trade Center were the equivalent of “little Eichmanns”, a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who ensured the smooth running of the Nazi system. Churchill also spoke of the “gallant sacrifices” of the “combat teams” that struck America.

The ethnic studies professor said Tuesday, his essay was referring to “technocrats” who participate in what he calls repressive American policies around the world.

A longtime American Indian Movement activist, he said he is also culpable because his efforts to change the system haven’t succeeded. “I could do more. I’m complicit. I’m not innocent,” he said.

The Boulder Faculty Assembly, which represents professors at the Boulder campus, has said Churchill’s comments were “controversial, offensive and odious” but supports his right to say them based on the principle of academic freedom.

During his 35 minute speech, Churchill said the essay was not referring to children, firefighters, janitors or people passing by the World Trade Center who were killed during the attacks.

The ACLU issued a statement defending Churchill’s right to speak out and called upon regents, legislators and the governor “to stop threatening Mr.Churchill’s job because of the content of his opinions.”

David Horowitz, a champion of conservative causes who has long accused American universities of overstocking their facilities with leftists, has said firing Churchill would violate his First Amendment Rights and set a bad precedent.

He called instead for an inquiry into the university’s hiring and promotion procedures to see how Churchill managed to rise to the chairmanship of the school’s ethnic studies department.
-30-

Dear Jean – I agree with you and just about everyone else who has become involved with this controversy that Churchill was expressing his First Amendment Rights and had every right to do so.

But, I’m not buying the part about the “gallant sacrifices” of the “combat teams” who destroyed the World Trade Centers on Sept 11. Those guys must have been tired of living the rigid, fanatical, fundamentalist life and couldn’t wait to meet the 70 virgins and enjoy all the earthly pleasures that had been denied them until they passed through the Pearly Gates. Anyone for ribs and a cold one?

My dear activist, I cannot see you in a burka, barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. - bobbie

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

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Healing Pathways for Native Americans with Breast Cancer.
Prevention Treatment and Recovery on March 25th and 26th at the Radisson City Center - Tucson, 181 W. Broadway, Tucson, AZ 85701.
For more info. or to attend, contact Russ Johnson, Native Solutions - (520)887-4343 for an application form.

Native Tribe’s Political Donations Missing!

This story is being edited for length and content from a copyrighted article bylined Jon Kamman which appeared in the February 6th edition of The Arizona Republic. Native Unity is primarily interested in the portion of the article pertaining to Native Tribes and their donations.

When Jack Abramoff, widely recognized as one of the top lobbyists on Capitol Hill and his secret partner, public relations operative Michael Scanlon offered their services to the Tigua Indians, an El Paso, Texas tribe, the tribe agreed to pay $4.2 million for PACs, primarily designated to GOP officeholders. But, the tribe was unaware the pair had been instrumental in behind-the–scenes efforts to shut down their Speaking Rock Casino which closed in 2002.

The Casino, which had been in operation for 10 years, had been closed by a federal count ruling that gambling, except for the lottery, was illegal in Texas. So, it is ironic that part of the money deal from the Tigua tribe instructed Abramoff and Scanlon to muster support for legislation that would allow the tribe to reopen their casino.

There are other tribes involved in payments for lobbying and public relations to Abramoff and Scanlon:

Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, Palm Springs - $7.2
million – Casinos at Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, California.

Pueblo Sandia Tribe of New Mexico, Albuquerque - $2.8 million – Sandia Casino.

Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, Kinder - $26.4 million –
Grand Casino Coushatta.

Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Philadelphia – $15.9 million – Pearl River Resort, hotels and casinos.

Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan, Mt. Pleasnat - $10 million – Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort.

The Tigua tribe’s list of political contributions was not made public but a copy obtained by The Republic names 79 political committees and specifies the amounts that were sent. The Republic’s scrutiny of thousands of pages of records found no accounting for at least 26 donations ranging from #1,000 to $25,000. Some 49 other contributions listed by the Tiguas were documented as received. The facts for the remaining four are could not be documented.

The missing contributions are now part of an investigation spearheaded by John McCain,(R)AZ, Senate Indian Affairs Committee on what became of the $82 million paid by six North American Indian tribes in lobbying and public relations fees over the past several years.

Some 22 office holders (Senate and House) are listed as receiving contributions from the Tigua Tribe that were never received including - Trent Lott, Republican Senator Majority Leader of Mississippi; House Majority Whip, Roy Blount from Missouri; Senator Jon Kyl and Rep. John Shadegg from Arizona.

According to Senator McCain, Abramoff and Scanlon ‘connived’ to collect huge fees from six Indian tribes with casino interests. His predecessor on the Committee, Republican Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Colorado, a Native American, labeled the activities of the alleged scammers “a story of greed run amok".

This story should send out a warning signal to tribes with casinos – BEWARE, the “con men” are after your money.

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

For news and information on Native American and First Nations actors, go to Annie's site at www.NativeCelebs.com and follow the threads.

Healing Pathways for Native Americans with Breast Cancer.
Prevention Treatment and Recovery on March 25th and 26th at the Radisson City Center - Tucson, 181 W. Broadway, Tucson, AZ 85701.
For more info. or to attend, contact Russ Johnson, Native Solutions - (520)887-4343 for an application form.

Tex Hall - 'America, You Have to Do Better At Home!'

American Indians continued to make economic and political progress last year, but huge challenges remain according to Tex Hall, the president of the National Congress of American Indians in his annual State of Indians address which was presented on February 3rd at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Hall implored Congress not to back away from its contractual and funding responsibility for the country’s more than 562 tribal governments. As tribes diverse needs increase, many federal funds are decreasing. “The United States can’t do good around the world unless we first do good at home.”

He added, “That means tribal citizens must be afforded the opportunity to attend safe schools, drink clean water, receive quality health care and live and work in a safe community. In other words, the social crisis is not just an Indian problem, it is a world problem. America, you have to do better at home. "

Joni Ramos, president of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community which has about 8,000 enrolled members said she was shaken by one portion of Hall’s report when he stated federal statistics show that one-third of Native women will be raped in their lifetime and that nine out of the Indian victims of rape and assault are attacked by non-Indians. “We need laws that will prosecute these offenders.”, stressed Ramos.

“Tribes don’t have jurisdiction over non-Indian violent offenders,” Hall said, calling on Congress to pass legislation giving tribes the legal tools to address mistreatment of women.

Other requests include:

1. Creating fair rules for tax exempt-bond financing in Indian country so tribes can raise funds as other government entities do for schools, raids, h\jails, and other infrastructure.

2. Improved telecommunications on reservations, whose remoteness and lack of basic infrastructure hurt many tribes economically.

3. Passage of the Tribal Homeland Security Act to fund tribal homeland security as other states receive.

4. Better funding for education, health and housing.

5. Better management of tribal and individual trust accounts, the responsibility of the Department of the Interior.

Despite those economic needs, Hall stressed gains in the Indian income and a lowering of
poverty that was reported by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

According to Hall, the most fascinating thing about the economic gains is that there is very little difference between those tribes with gambling operations and those tribes with no gaming.

Hall lauded the opening of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian last year and the strong voter registration and turnout among Native Americans for the general election with special recognition to the Tohono O’odham Community for registering 1,300 voters.

He concluded with ”We have faced the worst that could be thrown at us and survived and we will ensure that future tribal governments will become stronger.”

This story has been edited for length and content from an Arizona Republic report bylined John Stearns.

From Roscoe Pond:

The Second Annual Native American LA Film and TV Awards will be held Tuesday, February 15th t the Holiday Inn, Burbank Media- Center from 2 to 4 p.m. located at 150 E. Angeleno in Burbank.

For more information, contact Roscoe at 1-213-387-5772.
Business attire is requested.
www.nativeroscoe.com

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

For news and information on Native American and First Nations actors, go to Annie's site at www.NativeCelebs.com and follow the threads.

Healing Pathways for Native Americans with Breast Cancer.
Prevention Treatment and Recovery on March 25th and 26th at the Radisson City Center - Tucson, 181 W. Broadway, Tucson, AZ 85701.
For more info. or to attend, contact Russ Johnson, Native Solutions - (520)887-4343 for an application form.

Who Was Sacajawea? What Was Her Role In History?

By Ken Hughes

I think it's fair to say there are some incontrovertible facts in the part Sacajawea played in history.

She was born a Lemhi Shoshone Indian, who at the age of 12 or 13 was captured by a party of Hidatsa Indians [Mandan's] and taken to their range in NorthDakota. At around 15 or 16 she was sold to a FrenchTrapper along with another captive woman.

Most of the history of the exploits of Sacajawea are taken either from the journals of Lewis or Clark or from stories told by other members of the expedition upon their return, most likely told in the waterfront “cantinas”along the Mississippi River.

In order to understand the part Sacajawea played in the Lewis and Clark expedition we need to re-examineIndians culture of the times. Indians lived in harmonywith the environment. Their university was nature and their professors where often the animals, birds and fish they encountered.

The Indian could tell much by watching an Eagle soar high above them. The animal trails were their streets and highways. The width and depth of these trails told of their value. The howling of a coyote at night acted as an early warning system. Observing the foods animals ate served as a warning and a welcome to theIndian.

At age 16, Sacajawea would have learned much of the ways of the Indian. She most likely would have been fluent in Shoshone, Mandan, and French. Her language skills, alone, would have made her valuable to the Lewis and Clark expedition. Sacajawea would have known the trails and the landmarks from Fort Mandan to the Salmon River in Idaho.

No two trails and no two mountains look alike to the Native American. The grass and the sagebrush, the trees and the rocks all tell a story if you're Indian. Indians would have had a verbal [Rand McNally] style Atlas extending from the East Coast to the PacificOcean. It wasn't unusual for Indians to speak severaldifferent dialects making it easy to pass informationfrom one tribe to the next and beyond.

Contrary to the popular belief of the White-man, Indian women's rights were never suppressed. They were simply defined. Indians paid close attention to everyone who spoke, even the children. It was a matterof security and self-preservation. Indians could not afford to disregard any warnings. Every member of the tribe could speak and be heard.

Sacajawea, her infant son and husband made the journey from Ft. Mandan to the Pacific Ocean and back to StLouis. The story of Sacajawea begins to fade at this point. It's believed she left her son with Capt Clark and returned to Ft. Mandan were she died a few years later.

What we do know is Sacajawea was a heroic symbol in American History. Sacajawea, perhaps the most celebrated Native woman in American history, is not alone in service to her country. .
Native American women have been serving in the military as nurses and other capacities since the Spanish American War. They receive little or no credit. Maybe it time to give them
the recognition they deserve. .

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

For news and information on Native American and First Nations actors, go to Annie's site at www.NativeCelebs.com and follow the threads.

Healing Pathways for Native Americans with Breast Cancer.
Prevention Treatment and Recovery on March 25th and 26th at the Radisson City Center - Tucson, 181 W. Broadway, Tucson, AZ 85701.
For more info. or to attend, contact Russ Johnson, Native Solutions - (520)887-4343 for an application form.

Third Annual State Of Indian Nations Address

Submitted by Alyssa Macy

The Third Annual State of Indian Nations Address to be delivered by the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) on Feb. 3rd in Washington, D.C.

Tex G. Hall, President of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) - the nation's oldest, largest, and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native organization - will deliver the third annual State of Indian Nations Address on February 3rd at Noon at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. (In case you forget, and I do all the time, when it is noon in D.C. its is 9 a.m. in L.A.
)
The address will take stock of the state of American Indian and Alaska Native nations in the U.S., relaying to the President, Congress, and the general public a comprehensive, contemporary picture of the challenges and opportunities before today's American Indian and Alaska Native nations.

The 2005 State of Indian Nations Address will focus on a theme of promoting strong tribal self-governance and developing healthy economies for tribal communities.

These remarks will advance concrete examples of the impacts of tribal governance on key areas of economic development, education, health care, infrastructure, homeland security, law enforcement, and offer solutions for addressing the core quality of life issues tribes are facing in their communities today.

Hall said self-governance is the key to continuing the economic strides made by tribal governments in the last ten years. A recent report from the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at the Kennedy School of Government shows a decade of positive change in Indian Country, from better income wages to better housing, but Hall said, "There are still huge strides to make in order to bridge the socio-economic gap with mainstream America. With the proper tools and resources, we can truly raise the standard of living for our tribal nations."

The 2005 State of Indian Nations address can also be heard live from the NCAI website -- www.ncai.org.

Founded in 1944, NCAI advocates for more than 250 tribal governments with the federal government and Congress, promoting strong tribal-federal "government-to-government" policies and promoting a better understanding among the general public regarding American Indian and Alaska Native people and their governments.

For more information about NCAI, visit www.ncai.org.
Contact: Jason McCarty (202) 466-7767

Alyssa Macy Political Development & Policy DirectorCenter for Civic Participation
2105 First Avenue SouthMinneapolis, MN 55404
Direct: 612-879-7510
Fax: 612-870-4846

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

For news and information on Native American and First Nations actors, go to Annie's site at www.NativeCelebs.com and follow the threads.

Healing Pathways for Native Americans with Breast Cancer.
Prevention Treatment and Recovery on March 25th and 26th at the Radisson City Center - Tucson, 181 W. Broadway, Tucson, AZ 85701.
For more info. or to attend, contact Russ Johnson, Native Solutions - (520)887-4343 for an application form.