Voting Rights Hearing And Conference

MEMO:

TO: Tribal LeadersTribal Voter Election Network

FROM: John R. LewisExecutive Director

RE: Voting Rights Act Conference & Hearings

On April 6 & 7, 2005 ASU (Arizona State University – Tempe) Barrett Honors College will host a conference and hearings on the Voting Rights Act (VRA) that has several components set to expire on August 6, 2007.

The first day will focus on Section 203 of the Act, which extends voting protection to minority groups including American Indians and Alaskan Natives. Section 203 was enacted in response to substantial evidence that the covered groups were prevented from participating in the political process by language barriers andsystemic discrimination.

Congress adopted the language minority provisions of the Voting Rights Act in 1975 for a period of ten years, extended them in 1982 for ten year and in 1992 for fifteen years.

The second day of the event shall be a public hearing by the National Commission on the Voting Rights Act. The privately organized Commission is holding a series of regional hearings across the country to gather testimony and evidence that will be used to create a comprehensive record on the degree of racial discrimination in voting and the impact of the VRA since 1982.

Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act (“VRA”) in August 1965 to protect the right of all citizens to exercise their fundamental right to vote and have equal access to the political process.

This conference and hearing will gather evidence that Congress will need in deciding whether to reauthorize expiring provisions of theVRA and if so, what changes are necessary to make the legislation more effective.

Please make every effort to send a Tribal official or representative to this event and voice your concerns and recommendations.

Attachments: Conference Agenda & Registration

Goals of the National Commission on the VRA
Many Nations, Many Voices: Native American Language Assistance

This panel will focus on the barriers to Native Americans participating in non-tribal elections. What are the particular language issues affecting Native Americans? Who needs assistance? What is the most effective way of providing it?

How do you increase Native American participation (addressing issues such as registration barriers, tribal sovereignty, transportation problems, polling place locations, and voter apathy)?

What sorts of grass roots efforts have been successful? How do you work with local elections officials? This panel focuses more on a “nuts and bolts” discussion of the unique problems affecting Native American voters.

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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.

How Tribes Regained Self-Rule

The Native Unity column is taking a different path. It was originally created to try to solidify tribes to make a positive impact on American society. I notice as the number of daily visitors increase the majority of the viewers are not Native Americans but people researching Native Americans. That’s fine because I also stress the column is a place for non-natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

Today’s column written by Charles Wilkinson, a Moses Lasky professor of law at the University of Colorado, explains how the tribes regained self-rule after years of forced control by the U.S. government.

When Ronnie Lupe became chairman of the White Mountain Apache Tribe in 1966 his tribe like all of the tribes in the nation had hit rock bottom. American Indians faced the deepest poverty in the country. Alcoholism was rampant, infant mortality was high, adult life expectancy was low and few got past an eighth grade education.

Despite the treaties recognizing tribal authority outside interests ran the reservations. Peabody Coal strip-mined sacred Black Mesa in northeastern Arizona through unfair leases with the Hopis and Navajos.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs broke up families through the “assimilation process”, trashed tribal forests with high yield and unsustainable logging. Took their water rights from them.

Lupe recalls, “We couldn’t even open our mail. It all went into the BIA’s hands.” The words of John Marshall, the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, when he described Indian tribes as “nations” had turned to dust.

Against all odds, tribal leaders came together more than 20 years ago and decided to fight back and succeeded in taking back their reservations. The move can be compared to the civil rights, environmental and women’s movements of the 60s.

Leaders like Lupe and Peterson Zah of the Navajos planned congressional initiatives and litigation offensives. The Supreme Court upheld treaties. Congress supported tribal self-determination and affirmed tribal court jurisdiction over adoptions.

Tribal leaders took those national laws and put them to work in Indian country making tribes into full service governments employing their own people. Since the 1960s some 7.5 million acres have been added to the tribal land base.

On the Tohono O’odham Reservation in Southern Arizona cases are now heard in a new justice complex with five court rooms and many counselors specializing in juvenile justice. The Navajo courts using traditional “peacemaking” practices are national leaders in dispute resolution. Tribes operate 34 colleges, more than 100 elementary and secondary schools.

Much still must be accomplished. The Red Lake Reservation tragedy exposed an area where drug and alcohol abuse, high suicide rates, joblessness and poverty still remain. Health problems, notably diabetes, are still prevalent in Indian country but gaming is a positive force throughout tribal lands because a good share of the money goes to programs in the best way to meet Indian needs through medical clinics, housing and schools.

Tribal leaders have had a long struggle to make tribal sovereignty a reality. It took 20 years for the Apache to wrench control of their lands from the BIA but now trees are harvested by the tribe on a conservative sustained yield basis. The logs are milled at a tribal mill by tribal employees.

The Gila River Tribes and the O’dham have their water rights back and are turning the desert back to the agricultural ways of their ancestors. They are growing cash crops such as Pima cotton, citrus, alfalfa and durum wheat mostly shipped to Italy for pasta. Native crops are harvested as well to combat diabetes – tepary beans, pumpkin, squash, watermelon, sunflowers and Indian corn.

There is a continued fight to save their sacred lands like “Iolkam” in Southern Arizona’s Santa Rita mountains which the O’Odham revere as one of the tribes most sacred places for spiritual ceremonies. They have just filed a suit in federal court to halt a $13 million construction project designed to add four telescopes to the Kitt Peak project.

These changes, right or wrong, reflect the tribes’ determination to govern their homelands on their own terms and make room for them to be able to pursue the American dream yet still retain their Indian identity, culture and traditions.

This story has been edited for length and content from
several editions of the Arizona Republic.

FOUND - On Tucson's East Side - Pouch with ceremonial pipe - pati.stein@pointsource.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.

Natives And Yellowstone Park

Before going into today's topic, I would like to point out I was dead wrong in one part of the op/ed piece I did on ‘Tragedy At Red lake’. Cody Thunder, 15, reached out and tried to befriend Jeff Weise and almost paid for it with his life.

On the day of the shootings, Cody sat in his usual spot in biology at the front row for a quick exit when the bell rang. “There was Jeff outside in the hallway, visible through a glass partition, armed with a pistol. He was aiming at me.” An instant later, a bullet crashed through the glass into Cody’s hip”.

Also, going through Goggle News last night I came across an extensive article about young Weise being under medical treatment for depression with Prozac and according to several sources he had attempted suicide on several occasions in the past. I went through the roster this morning and the story has been deleted.

Life will never be the same on the Red Lake Reservation because of the school shootings. World news is being focused on Native Disunity and the wretched living conditions existing on a tribal reservation in the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world at a time when the Bush administration is trying to spread our brand of democracy throughout the world.

Hopefully, something positive for the tribe can emerge from this tragic event.

On to ‘Natives and Yellowstone’:

The following excerpt is from Michael Crichton’s latest novel “State Of Fear” which is generating a lot of buzz as Crichton takes on Global Warming and the Environmentalists.

Anti-environmentalist John Kenner is telling “tree hugging” film star Ted Bradley about the history of Yellowstone Park: The first national park and its involvement with Native Americans.

Yellowstone Park, Kenner explained, was the first wilderness to be set aside as a natural preserve anywhere in the world. The region around the Yellowstone River in Wyoming had been recognized for its wondrous scenic beauty. The new Northern Pacific Railroad wanted a scenic attraction to draw tourists to the West, so in 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant set aside two million acres and created Yellowstone Park.

There was only one problem. No one had any experience trying to preserve a wilderness. There had never been a need to do it and it was assumed it would be much easier to do than it proved to be.

When President Theodore Roosevelt visted the park in 1903, he saw a landscape teeming with game. There were thousands of elk, buffalo, black bear, deer, mountain lions, grizzlies, coyotes, wolves and bighorn sheep.

Yet, within ten years the teeming landscape Roosevelt had seen was gone. The park managers had taken a series of bad turns they thought were in the best interests of preserving the park.

Early park managers mistakenly believed the elk population was about to become extinct so they shot and poisoned the wolves in the park and prohibited Indians from looking for game in an area which had been their traditional hunting grounds.

Protected from predators, the existing elk population exploded and ate so much of the natural vegetation the ecology of the area began to change. The elk ate the trees the beavers used for dam building so the beavers disappeared. Beaver dams were vital to the overall water management of the area.

When the beavers disappeared, the meadows dried up, the trout and otter vanished and the park ecology changed,
By the 1920’s there were too many elk so the rangers began to shoot them, but the change in the plant ecology was permanent and the mix of old tree and plants never returned.

It also became increasingly clear the Indian hunters of old knew what they were doing. They exerted a valuable ecological influence on the area by keeping down the number of elk, moose and bison. They were credited with shaping the “untouched wilderness” the white man saw when they first came to the New World

But the narrator added, “The ‘untouched wilderness’ was nothing of the sort. ”The natives living on the American continent had been controlling their environment for thousands of years before the white man ever came here. They burned plains grasses, modified forests, thinned animal populations and hunted others to extinction. The “untouched wilderness” concept was a myth!

In his novel, Crichton makes many points against “global warming” but you will have to read the book to judge those points for yourself.

I was a geology major for a few semesters before I later turned to journalism, but one thing for sure - global warming was never mentioned in the 1940s.

In “State Of Fear”, Crichton goes to great lengths to stress the fact the Antarctic continent is not warming but never mentions the changes in climate in the Arctic regions that are drastically affecting its inhabitants – both man and animals.

Then again, there are not many people living on the Antarctic continent. Maybe that is the answer to global warming – too many people in the wrong places! Anyone for a move to Patagonia?

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.

Tragedy At Red Lake - WHY?

Floyd Jourdain Jr., chairman of the Red Lake Ojibwa/Chippewa Indian Council called the tragedy ”the darkest day in the history of our tribe”. It obviously is.

Another shocked elder, a member of the American Indian Movement, stated these things only happen at white schools like Columbine not here on the reservation. Why sir, because Indians are different? They don’t do these things!

The signs of the impending massacre were there for everyone to see. The swastikas he was always drawing. The macabre comic books he created - people shooting one another, skeletons and death.

There are only 5,000 people living on the Red Lake Reservation and about 300 students in the school. So, how come no one could see what was coming? According to Reuters News service, “A 17 year old boy (Jeff Weise) who killed nine people and himself on a Minnesota Indian reservation identified himself as an ‘angel of death’ and a ‘Native Nazi’ on Internet postings.”

He was described as a “weird” loner who wore Gothic black, black eyeliner and was often teased by his classmates. His father had committed suicide some four years before. His mother was in a nursing home with apparent brain damage from an automobile accident. Jeff must have been living with relatives and had been placed in a home tutoring program for having violated school rules.

Here is the profile of young man plagued by personal misfortunes with a serious “attitude” problem and an outspoken admiration for Adolph Hitler and his ideals. He also claimed to have been questioned by police in 2004 about an alleged plot to shoot up the school on the anniversary of Hitler’s birthday.

Jeff Weise was “a ticking time bomb” and no one did anything about it. But, what was one supposed to do? Where is the law that says people cannot wear black and spout out admiration for Adolph Hitler? What about their civil rights?

For starters, we all can begin to recognize no one – red, white, black, brown or yellow - is immune to depression and its effects. No one likes to be ridiculed or “put down”.

Young people can be terribly cruel and insensitive. They are dominated by peer pressure and want to be a part of the “in crowd” so if a leader of the pack starts to pick on one individual the rest of them follow suit.

Situations like this are becoming all too common. It takes a certain degree of intelligence, commitment and compassion for a student to have the guts to break away from the pack and acknowledge someone like Jeff Weise. Even a simple "Hi" might have been a start.

School counselors and teachers should be trained to recognize students with problems and be able to spot the first signs of harassment by others toward the individual and immediately stop it. This disturbed young man was obviously very intelligent. He had made the honor roll several times at the school. Where was the teacher who could have stepped in to channel his creative talents to a more positive direction, say, through nature and Native ways? The possibilities are endless.

If torment is allowed to fester in a disturbed young mind, defense mechanisms are triggered and the end result is usually a desire for revenge unless someone steps forward. No one stepped in to help Jeff Weise so he not only got mad, he got even.

When you see someone like Jeff put yourself in his moccasins, so to speak. Try to figure out what makes him tick and how he must feel about himself and others. Then, treat him the way you would want others to treat you under the same circumstances.

This approach might save some lives. Maybe even yours!

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.

Navajo Physician In Tucson - A Rarity!

Submitted by Marinell deGraffen

Story by Levi J. Long
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

For Nazhone Yazzie, the path to medical school started with a dirt road on the Navajo Reservation.

As a child growing up in Oak Springs, a rural community in Northern Arizona, Yazzie's days were spent mostly with the books and with the goats next to his parents' cornfield.

But always looming in the distance was the dream of becoming a doctor.

On Thursday, Yazzie, 27, took a big step toward that goal and potentially becoming the fourth Navajo surgeon in the United States.

"This is a signifying moment," Yazzie said, after receiving a letter from the University of Arizona College of Medicine, revealing to him where he will spend the next several years as a resident physician.

The college held its annual "Match Day" Thursday at DuVal Auditorium, where 92 graduates from the class of 2005 learned where they'll be completing their residencies as practicing physicians. Most from the class of 47 women and 45 men are expected to remain in Arizona for their residencies.

Several medical schools around the country held similar "Match Day" ceremonies.

Medical students listed their top choices for where they'd like to complete their residencies and handed those lists in earlier this year to the National Residency Matching Program.

Officials from the the medical schools did the same, listing in order of preference the graduates they would most like to enroll in their residency programs.

Yazzie will now spend at least five more years at University Medical Center in Tucson specializing in general surgery.

Yazzie said his decision to pursue medicine was influenced by the high prevalence of Type 2 diabetes among American Indians around the country.

"It's rampant on the reservation," he said. "Navajos and Indians in general are having trouble with their hearts, having more triple and quadruple bypasses."

Yazzie hopes to specialize in cardiovascular surgery and wants to return to the Navajo Reservation in the future.

Yazzie was the only American Indian fourth-year student participating in "Match Day."

The UA is home to eight Navajo medical students, ranging from first-year to fourth-year students, the largest contingent in the country, said Jean Spinelli, a spokeswoman from the UA Health Sciences Center. The tribe is also the largest in the state with more than 298,000 enrolled members, according to 2000 Census figures.

The UA also has one of the largest groups of Indian students at the medical school with 12 American Indian and/or Alaskan Native students, said Nancy Huff, assistant registrar at the UA College of Medicine student records office.

The UA has one of the largest American Indian student populations in the country, according to the Association of American Indian Physicians, a national group based in Oklahoma City. Comparative numbers for other colleges, however, were not immediately available Thursday.

But American Indians are still one of the scarcest ethnic groups represented in the medical profession, said Alan Galindo, executive director of the Association of American Indian Physicians.

In 2002, fewer than 200 Indians were in medical school, reports the study on diversity in the health care work force "Missing Persons: Minorities in the Health Professions" by the Sullivan Commission in 2004.

The number of American Indian students interested in going to medical school is increasing, Galindo said.

In 2004, there were 106 students applying to first-year medical programs around the United States, Galindo said, citing a 2004 study from the Association of American Medical Colleges. The report said there were 71 students applying in 2002, he said.

The association runs several nationwide mentoring programs and a popular pre-admission workshop held at several universities around the country for potential medical school students. Stronger support for training programs was a factor in getting more students interested in medicine, he said.

Betty and Paul Yazzie, parents of Nazhone, said they were "super-proud," of their third-born son, whose name means "In Beauty or Handsome" in Navajo.

Betty Yazzie said she'd like to think she had a role in getting her son interested in medicine.

While Nazhone was a teenager, there was a goat that had a large gash on the side of its belly. The mother and son went to mend the ailing goat and stitched the wound using Betty's quilting know-how.

"I'd like to think that being exposed to goats at a young age led me to an interest in medicine," Yazzie said. "That exposure led to an appreciation of culture and of anatomy."


● Contact reporter Levi J. Long at 807-8414 or llong @azstarnet.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.

Native Tribes Create A GOP Split?

Indian tribes with casino interests may be creating a situation that Democrats never could have pulled off in a million years – a possible split between business lobbyists of the Republican Party and the party’s conservative faction who strongly oppose the spread of tribal casino gambling.

This article was edited from a column by Washington Post Writers Group member E.J. Dionne appearing in the March 16th issue of The Arizona Republic.

The Republic has been exposing the business dealings of Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff and several Indian tribes with casinos which has already involved the Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton and her creation of CREA, Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy which claims tax exemption.

Now, Tom DeLay the controversial House Majority leader is on the griddle because of a golfing trip he took to Scotland in 2000 that was allegedly financed by two of Abramoff’s clients – the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and eLottery Inc.

According to Republic articles, tribes currently involved with missing political donations to lobbyist Abramoff and his public relations associate Michael Scanlon are: The Tigua Tribe of El Paso Texas; Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in Palm Springs, California; Pueblo Sandia Tribe of New Mexico. Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana; Mississippi Band of Choctaw; Louisiana Jena Tribe of Choctaws; and the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan.

Traditionally, it was the tribe’s Democratic allies that furthered the cause of casino gambling creating a new industry for the previously impoverished tribes. Abramoff’s innovation and the source of his profits lay in his ability to convince casino tribal leaders they needed Republican and conservative allies now that the Republicans were in control of the White House and Congress.

At one time, Abramoff was working both sides of the fence by taking money from the Tiguas to help reinstate their casino in Texas when he had been instrumental in having their casino closed in the first place.

One of the casino tribe’s strongest opponents is Rep. Frank Wolf, R-VA whose opposition to the spread of gambling has been his most central cause. Last year Wolf specifically urged the Justice Department to investigate whether the Indians were victims of fraud, but it has taken Senate Indian Affairs Committee chaired by Arizona’s John McCain to bring the issues into the open.

“Tom DeLay’s ethics troubles now threaten more than his own political future. They have the potential to create a much wider scandal over lobbying on Indian gambling and to open a rift among socially conservative Republicans.”

This puts the White House smack in the middle of the controversy as the administration has voiced its support for the House Majority Leader. It also should send the message to tribal councils with casino interests to beware of “silver-tongued” lobbyists.

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.

'Lost Kickapoo Tribe' Seeks Arizona Status

This story from the desk of The Arizona Republic’s Judy Nichols is the stuff today’s screen writer, producer, director types grab up to recreate the classic, historic, “western” featuring the American Indian vs the U.S. Cavalry.

One time wanderers who crossed state and national borders looking for a safe homeland away from the White man but along the way they disappeared. They are the “Lost Kickapoos”, a small band of 150 Indians who have lived on Arizona’s border with Mexico for more than 100 years and are finally reconnecting to their roots. Their aim is to become Arizona’s 23rd tribe.

The group, until recently, had almost no contact with its parent tribe in Oklahoma and their presence in Arizona has gone largely noticed by other tribal leaders in the state. Last year with help from the Oklahoma tribe, the Arizona Kickapoos purchased a building in Douglas just north of the Mexican border to serve as a tribal field office where they plan to seek “trust status” for the building, a process that may take several years.

If successful, the tribal land holding would make the Kickapoo Tribe the 23rd official tribe in Arizona and could make them eligible to participate in state gambling compacts. At this time the tribe has no plans to build a casino.

Historically, the Kickapoos are a Woodlands Indian group originally from the Great lakes area. As the white settlements encroached on their territory, they moved many times and ended up in Mexico near what is now Eagle Pass in Texas. Because their raiding parties went north of the border, the U.S. Calvary crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico killing most of the group and taking the survivors back to Oklahoma where a reservation was established in 1883.

In 1891 the federal government wanted some of the land back and proposed giving each member an 80 acre allotment. Two-thirds of the tribe refused their allotments and were called the “Kicking Kickapoos”. Some returned to Mexico south of Texas wnile others moved into Tamichopa, Sonora south of Arizona.

In 1910, facing famine, most tribal members went back to Oklahoma. Those who remained in Mexico were forgotten and then became known as the “Lost Kickapoos.”

Half of the current tribe live in the Douglas and Wilcox in Arizona while the other half still remains across the border in Tamichopa.

Jack Jackson Jr., a Navajo who heads the Arizona Council of Indian Affairs, said he never heard of Kickapoos in Arizona. John Lewis, executive director of the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, said he first heard of their existence a few years ago.

“I know they’ve been around for quite some time in Texas and Mexico,” Lewis said. “One of the interesting things about them around here is they go back and forth across the border and are considered to be U.S. citizens.”

Licelda Mahtapene, 30, head of the Douglas field office said the Arizona group descended from three men – two brothers named Mahtapene and a man named Okema who changed his name to Oscar. She is married to Jose Mahtapene who is half Kickapoo.

Tribal members from Oklahoma have begun to visit their Arizona and Mexican relatives on holidays to bring traditional foods and clothing as many of them have forgotten their own language and traditions.

Jesus Oscar Chanez, 63, proudly displays his Kickapoo ID. He and his daughter traveled to Oklahoma two months ago with a group of Arizona tribal members. It was the first time any of them had seen the reservation. They saw the traditional bark houses and met cousins.

“I thought it was beautiful.” Chanez said in Spanish.

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.

Words Of Wisdom From Two Talented Native Americans!

Second Time Around - First published in Native Unity, Sept. 7th, 2003

One, old and well established in Hollywood. The other, a beautiful, young female who is making waves in Tinsel Town’s Native community.

Who can deny that Floyd Westerman is, truly, the “First Native” of American film. Natalie Noel is the talented columnist for the “The Glitter Report” in NEWS FROM INDIAN COUNTRY. Their words of wisdom. which appeared in Natalie’s New Year’s column of this year, are well worth repeating.

“When I first arrived on the sunny shores of LaLa land, Floyd said something to me that I will never forget. I paraphrase.

“Natalie,” he said to me. ”In 50 years there will be no more Indians!”

“Why Floyd, what do you mean?”

“We will do to ourselves what the white Europeans have never been able to do. We will annihilate ourselves with backbiting, finger pointing, blood quantum demands. We, not the white man, will bring about the end of the Indian”

“That was nearly five years ago and I had no idea what he meant,” wrote Natalie. “But I listened closely, as one always does with Floyd, and I remember his words. Now, I understand.

“There are so precious few of us, in Hollywood, in the US, in Canada, in the world. Why do we insist on slamming each other, hurting each other, slandering each other? You’re not Indian because you have no card, because your tribe is only State recognized, because you don’t have black hair, you’re not from the ‘rez’, you have blue eyes, your Mother or Father wasn’t Indian, you don’t look/seem/act/Indian.

“What are we doing? Not just to each other but to ourselves as a family, a community, a people? Are we really, out of ignorance, jealousy or just plain meanness going to toll the death knell for ourselves? We must consider this quietly in our hearts, with our Maker and within our own conscience. Where are we going?

“Let’s use the power of our words and creative energies for the good. Let us better our lot in this world on this troubled planet in this time of need. Let us not waste our precious gifts of breath and time on slander, attacks and ugliness. It is beneath us and there is no point. Unless we wish to end all that we’ve inherited, all our ancestors died for, unless we wish to end ourselves, right here and now.

”Words of wisdom from two very talented, astute NativeAmericans. Words that must be heeded and implemented in the lives of those adhering to the mission of “Native Unity”.

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.

The Purpose Of Native Unity

Submitted by Yonasda Muhammad

Peace,
Let me introduce myself my name is Yo'Nas Da LoneWolf McCall-Muhammad, my sacred name is Wacipi Ola Wan Win "Star Song Woman". I am a proud Lakota and Black woman. My mother was the late revolutionary and motivational speaker Wauneta LoneWolf and my adopted grandfather is Min. Louis Farrakhan-the leader of the Nation of Islam.

I am writing you because at the end of all your articles you state: 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.

I am a FIGHTER for unifying and making people have a better understanding of our ways and our values. Being Black and Native American I have been prejudged and criticized by both races. But my mother told me no matter what race you are, you have to educate the ignorance.

I am humbly coming to you for aid to help me on successfully showing the world that our Native people are here, we are visible, we have a voice, and to come to the 10 Million Man March on October 15-17 at the Washington Monument in Washington D.C.

I was the only girl born during the Longest Walk. One of the most significent Civil Rights Movements by the American Indian Movement. When I was in Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota last summer, our youth have the warrior like instincts like our ancestors but with no direction, there will be more gangs, drugs, murder rising on our communities if we don't give them direction.

I am currently residing in Maryland. When I went to the opening of the American Indian Museum you should have seen how many people were shocked to see 10,000 Native Americans in "the big city", a lot of them thought we were extinct. Well, I am anticipating the look of the world when they see over a million tribal members with over a million black people and over a million Hispanic people joining for one cause, one voice and that is equality and justice and truth.

Please feel free to respond back to me, if you want to help me and get all the tribes to join and make this possible.

Mitake Oyasin "We Are All Related"

Yo'Nas Da Lonewolf McCall-Muhammad

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.

Illegal Entry Into The U.S.

As my computer is on the “fritz” and I’m unable to research my articles, I’m going to digress from the usual “Native Unity” themes and write about a topic that is close to home and should be of concern to everyone in our country.

The headline from the March 9th edition of The Arizona Republic reads, ‘People from al-Quaida-tied nations in U.S. illegally’.

“FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress on Tuesday that people from countries with al-Quaida ties have crossed into the United States from Mexico. ‘We are concerned. Homeland Security is concerned about special-interest aliens entering the United States'."

Mueller said he was aware of one route that takes people from Brazil where they assume false identities and then on to Mexico before crossing the U.S. border. He also said in some instances people with Middle Eastern Names have adopted Hispanic last names before trying to get into the United States.

Last August I wrote an article for Useless Knowledge Magazine entitled – ‘You Win One Million Euros’. I had received an e-mail telling me my e-mail address had been entered in an INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY. I had bet they were after my bank account or credit card numbers so I followed through with the instructions. I WAS WRONG!!!

“In accordance to your claim, you are therefore advised to IMMEDIATELY forward to us a scanned copy of your International Passport or driver’s license for a conformation and proof of identification etc.”

They wanted my identity!!!

For what – I wondered. Is this some sort of scheme for a terrorist to use my identity to get into this country? Come on O’Neill, get your act together. Don't be so paranoid. But, I have written several articles with a great deal of concern about the thousands of illegal aliens crossing the border on the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation, not far from where I live, trashing the area along the way, but this is not the same.

These guys do not have to sneak over the border after nightfall and face the dangers of the desert. They can doctor a passport or driver’s license and walk or drive across the border like everyone else does particularly during the “snowbird” season when hundreds of thousands of people go to Mexico (from California to Texas) to buy their medications.

That notification was just the first announcement telling me I had won one million Euros. I received many more emanating from different European countries over the next several months. I sent my first copy to the local FBI and ignored the rest of them.

How many people did not ignore them and followed through by sending their identification thinking they were going to win a million euros. Years ago, a famous personage once said – think it was P.T Barnum, the circus tycoon – “There’s a sucker born every minute!”

If you did follow though, just maybe an al-Qaida operative got into our country pretending he/she was you. Scary huh??? I do wish President Bush would pay more attention to our borders than to privatization of Social Security. Both issues can affect our future but only one can bring about another 9/11.

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.

Preserving Native Cultures -

Through Language, Education and Institutions

Danny Lopez a tribal-language teacher is a living history book. A story teller, singer and cultural expert, Danny, a Tohono O’odhan, has spent the past 30 of his 68 years teaching key aspects of the “O’odham Himdag” – the Desert People’s Lifeways - to hundreds of his tribe’s youth, adults and elders.

He recently received the Phoenix Heard Museum’s first “Spirit of the Heard Award” to honor a living member of a Southwest tribe who has demonstrated personal excellence or community leadership in a chosen field.

Lopez teaches the Tohono O’odham language and culture at the Tribe’s Community College in Sells, Arizona and has taught hundreds of students in the middle and primary schools in the area. He has also taught his language to paramedics so they can communicate with the elders when responding to calls on the reservation.

With an extensive educational background starting at St. Johns Indian Mission then on to Pima Community College, the University of Arizona and Prescott College, Lopez has achieved a bachelor and masters degree in Education focusing on the Tohono O’odham language.

He began to worry about the loss of his native language. “Everywhere people were using more English. I was concerned about the future. The elders are not going to last forever.”

Lopez has not forgotten that for 100 years there was a concerted effort by the BIA and federal government to wipe out native languages in the Indian schools and then public schools as part of their assimilation program.
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Farther west in Winterhaven, California, students at San Pasqual High School on the Quechan Reservation, gathered in the gym to watch traditional dances and hear music and songs that was featured at the Strong Heart Native Society’s 25th annual Pow-Wow this weekend.

One of the participants, 17 year old Derek Clements, said this presentation gives him the opportunity to teach his culture to other students so they can carry it on to future generations. He is teaching them through song “where they come from and to be proud of who they are”.

San Pasqual High School Princess, Jennifer Daniel explained the colors in her traditional dress – “Blue stands for water, red the blood of our father warriors and white the purity of our tribe.”

Stella Iron Cloud has been learning and teaching the steps of the Bird Dance for 12 of her 16 years. It is a part of the Quechan culture she learned from her parents which she intends to pass on to her own children.

Faron Owl is the faculty adviser to the Strong Heart Society student group. Owl was featured in a Native Unity column, December 14th, 2003 on his role in AVID – a program offered at San Pasqual designed to increase enrollment of disadvantaged students in two and four year colleges.
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In the heart of their ancestral farm land the Gila River Indian community has built a museum for Native American artifacts to ensure the traditions of the Akimel O’odham and the Pee Posh Indians and their ancestors will endure.

The Huhugam Heritage Center, which opened a year ago, is joint effort of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and other tribes to provide a resting place for pieces of the past unearthed during the construction of the Central Arizona (Canal) Project.

Reclamation turned over more than 2 million items from the CAP dig. About 37,000 artifacts from Snaketown, excavated in 1935 and 1964 are being returned to the Gila Community from the Arizona State Museum in Tucson.

The Center’s architectural beauty offers lessons from the past. In the middle of the complex is an outdoor ball court fashioned after the one excavated in Snaketown, believed to be used from 700 to 1200 AD.

The main gallery is a stylized replica of Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, with tile patterns on the floor duplicating where the walls would be in the ruin.

The Gila River Museum may be small in comparison to the Heard in Phoenix, but it is an enduring path to the cultural history of the area’s past.
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It is time to put aside the 100 years of attempted assimilation and step into the future by preserving Native American language, culture and tradition.

This story has been edited for content and length from the pages of The Arizona Republic and Yuma Sun bylined Judy Nichols and Paige Loren Deiner.

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.

Plot Thickens In Missing Tribal Contributions!

Gale Norton, the Bush Administration’s Secretary of the Interior is now involved in the missing tribal contributions scandal centered on lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his partner, public relations operative, Michael Scanlon.

As of today, March 3rd, the Arizona Republic reports Interior Department officials are investigating whether the outgrowth of a Republican environmental group founded by Norton has been using its influence to help Abramoff sway the agency’s decisions on environmental issues.

In 1997 Norton, then Colorado’s attorney general, created CREA – Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy – which describes itself as a group committed to preserving the environment in the conservative Republican tradition of Teddy Roosevelt.

Through Abramoff/Scanlon the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana is said to have issued checks to CREA for $50,000 in 2001 and $100,000 in 2002 and the Tigua Indians whose Ysleta del Sur Pueblo adjoins El Paso stated they issued a $25,000 check to CREA in 2002.

A tribal spokesman for the Coushattas noted a change in tribal leadership made it unclear as to why an earlier administration had agreed to contribute to CREA in the first place.

The Tigua contributions were aimed at support for legislation that would allow the tribe to reopen its casino which was closed in 2002. while unbeknownst to them, Abramoff was initially instrumental in getting their casino closed.

The money, which the tribes say they contributed to CREA is now under federal investigation, as unaccounted for in public records where federal regulators say it should be listed.

Other tribes involved in payments to Abramoff and Scanlon include the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in Palm Springs; Pueblo Sandia Tribe of New Mexico; Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan.

A grand jury is reportedly looking into Abramoff/Scanlon dealings with the six tribes that paid them some $82 million over a several year period.

A CREA critic, also a GOP partisan, maintains “CREA is a front group for the chemical, petroleum development, mining and all other extractive industries that want to use our public lands for their own profit.”

Thank you Martha Marks, president of the Republicans for Environmental Protection for the above statement. Since the re-election of President Bush, I maintain the only people who can rein in and tackle Bush Administration policies, now, are the people who supported and voted for him in the last election. I didn’t!

Norton, a strong Bush supporter, joined his Cabinet in 2001.

An added note of interest – The head of the BIA – Bureau of Indian Affairs, aka in some circles as “The Big tit to the Indian world”, left his office on February 12, after one year of service as the Assistant Secretary.

David Anderson, an enrolled member of Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians with a family history with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, was the founder of the casino management company for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, in central Minnesota. In my opinion, a distinct conflict of interest with his position as head of the BIA.

In a letter to his boss Gale Norton, Anderson wrote, “I have concluded that I can have the greatest impact to improve the future of Indian country not by managing the day-to-day operations of BIA programs but by focusing my time on developing private sector for economic opportunities for Indian entrepreneurs.”

So far, I have not read or heard of a replacement for his position.

In the early years of our nation, Indian affairs were governed by the Continental Congress, which in 1775 created a Committee on Indian Affairs headed By Benjamin Franklin. Fifty years later the BIA was established under the War Department and eventually was moved to the Interior Department in 1949.

Since its inception March 11th 1824, the Bureau of Indian Affairs has been a witness to and principle player in the history of federal-tribal relations. Once an instrument of
federal policies to subjugate and assimilate American Indian tribes and their peoples, the BIA has changed dramatically as have those policies over the past 181 years.

The passage of landmark legislation such as the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 and The tribal Self-Governance Act of 1994 has fundamentally changed how the BIA and its constituency do business with the tribes, now.

Is it time to cut ties with the 562 tribal nations and Alaska villages? Is the BIA headed for retirement from the federal system?

This story has been edited for content and length from an February 27th article in The Arizona Republic, bylined Jon Kamman and Billy House; February 1st AP story bylined Frederic J. Frommer and an Internet article, “Bureau of Indian Affairs”.

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.