Expanding The Body Politic

TULSA WORLD POSTS FREE’S VIEWS –
‘EXPANDING THE BODY POLITIC’

For Immediate Release
April 26, 2006

Tribes plan for increased representation – April 23, 2006
By Kalyn Free

The sentiment that “Indians matter” is familiar to many Tulsans, yet for millions of Americans it is not. Most Americans encounter Indian culture and Indian communities on a limited basis -- maybe once a year during Thanksgiving holiday or when glancing at the latest headlines about tribal gaming. But the same issues that affect non-Indians are what American Indian people both on and off reservations struggle with on a daily basis – quality education for youth, affordable housing and health care for families, honoring war veterans, and sustaining economic growth.

However, American Indians confront a myriad of challenges today that are rooted in history and specific only to tribal communities: preserving tribal self-determination and sovereignty as recognized in the U.S. Constitution, overseeing the federal government-to-government trust relationship between tribes and the federal government, and fulfilling the needs of tribal communities and citizens with grossly underfunded federal dollars. These are unique issues specific to tribal citizens.

But many times these challenges are not heard by mainstream America and largely ignored by the majority of media outlets. I founded the Indigenous Democratic Network, INDN’s List, on the principle that Indians will only be heard when they have a voice: the first Americans should not be the last Americans to be represented.

Barriers strewn along the path to democratic representation have historically denied American Indians our voting rights and limited our political opportunity. Governments at every level have worked to dilute the efficacy of Indian voting in schemes that made it impossible to elect Native Americans even where they should have constituted a significant voting bloc. It took fifty-four years after the 15th Amendment, which guaranteed the vote to all citizens regardless of race or color, for Indians to gain citizenship and the right to vote.

As with the experience of African Americans, however, the “right to vote” proved to be in name only until the 1965 passage of the Voting Rights Act. Indian people have fought and died for this nation, as Indian people have fought in every U.S. war since the Revolution and today still serve the U.S. armed forces at a higher per capita percentage than any other racial group. Patriotism is nothing new, but we must take our seat at the political table and have a voice in the discourse that shapes our country going forward. Too much is at stake for our communities not to be represented. Our tribal voters have delivered politicians to office in close elections time and time again. Indian voters secured victories in races all across America – Arizona, Minnesota, South Dakota, Washington and right here in Oklahoma.

Indians have made great progress against those that seek to deny us the vote. Between 2002 and 2005, reports Indian Country Today, electoral participation among Indians has increased 130 percent. Congress, meanwhile, is beginning to recognize the needs of Indians. The Congressional Native American Caucus, for instance, boasts 110 members. Yet still there is not one US Senator that is an Indian, only one in the House of Representatives, and no Indian governor.

As the recent Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal has shown, Indians need honest advocates and real representation in government. They don’t need corrupt Republican lobbyists and politicians greedily seeking the highest bidder and sustaining a culture of corruption. The values of the Democratic Party – justice, fairness, equality, and community – are the values of American Indian people. That’s why INDN’s List will elect Indians as Democrats and that’s where the voice of our first Americans will be heard most faithfully. Our work will benefit Democrats up and down the ballot by building a constituency that knows it will be heard and by building support for Democratic values in communities across the country.

Indian people need support and champions at all levels of government, but more importantly we need the tools to support ourselves. The federal government must address the poverty, violence, destitution, and illness that plague so many first Americans, but Indians must both vote and be represented at all levels of government to truly end the historical marginalization of Native America. INDN’s List promotes advocacy for Indian development by going to the source: we will recruit, train, and elect Indians for public office at every level around the United States. American Indians need a voice; INDN’s List seeks to give us our own voice in the circles of power throughout this nation.

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

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.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

Divine Strake Has Hatch Upset

Concerns grow over possible dispersal of old radioactive material in Nevada
By Robert Gehrke
The Salt Lake Tribune

WASHINGTON - Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has joined a group of Congress members voicing concerns about "Divine Strake," a massive explosion planned this summer at the Nevada Test Site that critics say could have nuclear implications.

Hatch sent a letter Friday to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, seeking assurances that the test would not disperse any radioactive material left over from past nuclear weapons tests at the Nevada site.

"The more I look into this, the more upset I become," Hatch said in a statement. "The good people who live downwind from this test site have already been through enough, and I've given them my word that I'll never allow any nuclear testing that could harm them again. I have directed my staff to check into this very closely, and if I'm not satisfied that this will be safe, I'm going to do everything I can to put a stop to it."

The agency has said that its environmental assessment determined there was no radioactive material at the site. But Hatch's interest was piqued when the environmental assessment first listed the blast site as being 2.5 miles from any prior radioactive testing, but in another location listed it as being 1.5 miles. Then in response to an inquiry, the actual location was determined to be 1.1 miles from prior testing.

That prompted Hatch to ask the defense agency to review its data and provide assurances the test could be safe.

Michelle Thomas, who is a Downwinder - a group of people suffering illnesses as a result of their exposure to radioactive fallout from Cold War nuclear tests - said Hatch did not express his concern during a sometimes heated public meeting with other downwinders last week. Thomas said she confronted the senator about the test safety and he defended the need for it.

"I can't even believe they're doing it," said Thomas, who has suffered a number of ailments, primarily an immune deficiency, as a result of her radiation exposure. "I vacillate between rage and tears. I really did not dream they'd try one of these above-ground [tests]."

At that Downwinders' event, according to The Spectrum in St. George, Hatch reportedly said he saw no reason to stop the test, but would put the brakes on if he thought it was unsafe.

In his letter, Hatch said there are over 1,400 hardened bunkers and underground targets in such places as North Korea, China, Iran and Libya, and he understands the need to be able to penetrate them.

The test itself, known as Divine Strake, involves detonating 700 tons of explosives on the Nevada Test Site. Pentagon budget documents say the test is intended to help war planners pick the smallest nuclear device needed to destroy hardened targets, like underground bunkers.
That prompted concern from anti-proliferation groups and Downwinders that the test would lead to development of new, low-yield tactical nuclear weapons.

The Defense Department has since said that the inclusion of "nuclear" in the budget document was an oversight, and the test is meant to gather data on ground-shaking for computer modeling.

The explosives in the test are like those used in the Oklahoma City bombing, only 280 times stronger. The blast will be 50 times larger than that from the largest U.S.. conventional weapon.

The Western Shoshone Indian tribe and two Utah Downwinders have filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop the test, arguing that the blast would stir up radioactive remnants from past tests.
The plume from the explosion is expected to reach several thousand feet above the ground. Air monitors would be set up to track the debris.

Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) also sent a letter to the agency, seeking assurances that there will not be any radioactive material dispersed, and inquiring if the test is truly designed to help develop new, low-yield nuclear weapons.

Nevada Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Shelley Berkley were briefed on the planned test and said it could be conducted safely. However, the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection has demanded additional air quality data and computer models for the test. Until they get those, the division said it will not grant a permit for the test to proceed.

A Pentagon spokeswoman said it would provide the requested data and plans to stick to the June 2 test date. Hatch and Matheson will be sending staff to a special congressional briefing at the Nevada Test Site on Wednesday.

Indians Left Out Of Anti-Meth Bill
By Michael Coleman
Albuqurque Journal - Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON— A new federal grant program to fight methamphetamine abuse inadvertently excluded Native American communities from the list of eligible applicants.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said Tuesday he is working to fix the mistake.

President Bush recently signed the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005 into law, but tribes and pueblos were unintentionally left out as eligible applicants under two Department of Justice initiatives the new law created: the COPS Hot Spots program and the Drug-Endangered Children program.

Bingaman said his bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., and introduced Tuesday, would simply add Native American governments to the list of eligible grant recipients. Most of the other recipients are state governments, according to Bingaman's office.

"We must correct the law to ensure that Indian Country has access to all the tools needed to fight this terrible problem," Bingaman said.

Joe Garcia, president of the National Congress of American Indians and governor of Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo in northern New Mexico, said in February that meth addiction is "killing our people and devastating our communities." The Indian Health Service estimates that 30 percent of Indian youth have experimented with the drug, Garcia said.

If adopted, Bingaman's legislation would allow Native American communities to apply for $99 million in funding for the COPS Hot Spots Grant Program, which helps local law enforcement agencies fight the production, distribution, and use of meth. The money also can be used to clean up toxic meth labs.

The Bingaman bill also would make Native American communities eligible for part of a $20 million Drug-Endangered Children Grant Program that helps pay for services for children who live in a home where meth has been used, manufactured, or sold.
E-MAIL writer Michael Coleman

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

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.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

Congress Needs To Settle Indian Account Lawsuit

Elouise Cobell sounds off in the April 20th edition of the Billings Montana Gazette

Some members of Congress are getting upset over how the new Iraqi government is handling its money. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., complained the other day that it looks as if $10 billion is missing over there.

Emanuel thinks Congress ought to investigate what happened to the money, given the billions that the United States is pouring into the country.

To anyone in Indian Country, that's hardly surprising news. We've been complaining about missing billions for decades. And not one cent of it was U.S. money sent overseas. It was money that the U.S. government promised to hold in trust accounts for individual Indians, some of the poorest people in our country.

The trouble is few people in Congress or the Bush administration seem to care about what's been happening to these forgotten Americans. In fact, numerous studies confirm that the Interior Department did a horrible job running the trust programs.

Now the department seems determined to suggest that the Indians' money really didn't disappear at all. It was just sloppy bookkeeping by the clerks out in Indian Country, they say.

Concern In Congress
For Indians, the good news about this is that some lawmakers in Washington are beginning to care about what happened to both the money in Iraq and the money that was supposed to be held in trust by the U.S. government for the benefit of some 500,000 Native Americans.

Given the yawns that some lawmakers are expressing about the missing $10 billion in Iraq, the cost of settling the Indian dispute seems like pocket change for Uncle Sam. Indeed, it would be a great bargain for taxpayers.

Although we Indians have argued that we could be due as much as $170 billion for the money the government failed to place in our accounts, the leaders of Indian Country have offered to settle the dispute for $27.5 billion. That assumes that the government could prove it made 80 percent of the required payments to Indians on time and to the proper trust accounts.

Bargain-Basement Deal
Given the massive number of trust documents that are missing and the time and billions it would cost the government to attempt a reconstruction of the records, the price tag the Indians have set seems like a bargain-basement deal. It would end the 10-year-old court fight over Individual Indian Trust accounts, and it would stop bleeding taxpayers for costly repairs to the admittedly broken trust program. If left undeterred, government bureaucrats are planning to spend $12 billion trying to re-create the long-lost trust records.

That would be yet another huge waste of government funds, one that Congress can stop now. It needs to heed the calls of a growing number of lawmakers who want to settle the dispute with the nation's first Americans.

Senate Indian Affairs Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., and his vice chairman, Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., as well as House Resources Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., and ranking member Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., are seeking to put trust back into the much-maligned Indian Trust Program.

It will cost billions of dollars to solve this disappearing-money problem. But, unlike the money disappearing in the Middle East, this money will go to needy Americans, helpless people who were robbed by their own government.

Regardless of what you think of our involvement in Iraq, solving the government's admitted decades of abuse of Indian trust beneficiaries makes sense for all Americans. And compared with Iraq, this solution is dirt cheap. A settlement by Congress will end this fighting.

Elouise Cobell, a Blackfeet tribal member from Browning, is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit filed in 1996 on behalf of 500,000 Native Americans.

Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.

The Vote By Mail Project - A Most Interesting Concept
Submitted by Alyssa Macy
Alyssa@ccp.org

For the last five years all of Oregon's elections have been conducted entirely by mail. In the 2004 general election, Oregon had the nation's third highest turn out - 70% - trailing only Minnesota and Wisconsin, both of which have Election Day registration.

In addition to increasing turnout, Vote by Mail has enthusiastic support from elections officials and voters alike and has reduced the cost of elections in Oregon to 30% of what it costs to run elections at the polling place.

The trend is growing! Counties in California and Colorado are considering adopting Vote by Mail programs and Arizona may have the issue on the ballot in the 2006 general election.

Is this emerging trend a possible solution to the current problems with voting machines? How does it work? What do county elections officials and elections administrators think of the mechanics? What are the potential pitfalls? How does Vote by Mail impact traditionally disenfranchised communities? Could this work in other states? How is the integrity of the election safeguarded?

Please join us at a Vote by Mail panel discussion featuring
• Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury
• Denver City Council President Rosemary Rodriguez
• James K. Galbraith, University of Texas
* Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations
• Fred Taylor, AZ State Director, Your Right to Vote

Monday, May 1st - 10am - noon
National Education Association 1201 16th Street,
NW, Washington,
DCRSVP to Travis Long at 202-467-2345 or tlong@pfaw.org

Co-Sponsored by:
People For the American Way
Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under LawNational
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
National Association of Letter Carriers
National Education Association
Service Employees International Union
The Vote By Mail Project

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

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.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

'Stop Divine Strake Coalition' Calls For International Day Of Action

Submitted by Ursula Powers Sindlinger

The U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) plans to detonate a 700-ton ammonium nitrate and fuel oil explosive on June 2, 2006 at the Nevada Test Site (NTS), a federal facility 65 miles north of Las Vegas. They are calling this test “Divine Strake.”

While this test is not nuclear in composition, its purpose, according to DTRA documents, is to “simulate a low-yield nuclear weapon.” Given that previous nuclear tests have occurred only a few miles away from where Divine Strake will occur, this test raises the specter of kicking up previous radioactive contamination and sending it downwind. We have been told too many half-truths and outright lies to believe in the “safety” of this test. Furthermore, no full environmental impact statement has been done to verify that there is no radioactive contamination at the particular site.

It must be stressed that the presence of the United States military on Western Shoshone land is uninvited. In fact, the Western Shoshone have been fighting for sovereignty over their ancestral and treaty-recognized lands, and to shut down the NTS for years. Most recently, their efforts brought them to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) which found the United States in violation of recognized fundamental human rights standards and international law, and ordered the United States to “freeze”, “desist” and “stop” their activities on Western Shoshone land. All this while the DTRA was preparing for the “Divine Strake” test

As tensions increase with Iran, speculation has increased in the media and elsewhere that this test, in conjunction with other military projects, is building up to an imminent attack on the peoples of Iran, possibly in the form of nuclear bombardment. This test is seemingly a “war game” to initiate a U.S. led invasion of Iran. Many media articles about Divine Strake and its possible role in the escalation of tension with Iran may be found on www.shundahai.org/divine_strake.htm and http://www.disarmamentactivist.org/

Because our goal is to stop the test, and to not expose anyone to undue health risks from the actual blast, our focus will be an International Day of Action on Sunday May 28, 2006 (Memorial Day Weekend) at the Nevada Test Site Peace Camp, located across Highway 95 from the Test Site. We are looking for allied organizations to join our coalition, and either join us at the Nevada Test Site on the 28th, or stage actions in their own communities throughout the following week.

Shoshone National Council
Please contact us if you would like to join our coalition. We will then proceed with detailed plans based on the coalition’s collective abilities.
http://www.treatycouncil.org
www.wsdp.org wsdp@igc.org
www.ienearth.org rshimek@ienearth.org ien@igc.org
www.shundahai.org eileen_mccabe_olsen@yahoo.com
pete@shundahai.org
www.nevadadesertexperience.org
www.citizenalert.org pmjl@citizenalert.org
tonyg@citizenalert.org

Western Shoshones File Suit to Stop Military Blast
Associated Press, April 21st, 2006

Four members of the Winnemucca Indian Colony in Nevada have filed suit to stop the Pentagon's plan to blow up more than 700 tons of explosives at the Nevada Test Site.

The four members, along with two residents of Utah, say the blast will stir up radioactive fallout left from nuclear weapons tests conducted from 1951 to 1992.

"This is a worst nightmare come true for downwinders," attorney Robert Hager told the Associated Press.

The lawsuit claims the blast will harm Western Shoshone lands that were never ceded to the United States.

According to Hager, the two “downwinder” plaintiffs, Peter Lister and Stephen Erickson, are from Salt Lake City. Thomas and Sharon Wasson, two of the four members of the Winnemucca Indian Colony of Northern Nevada live in Susanville, California. Plaintiff Judy Rojo is from Winnemucca and Elverine Castro lives in Los Angeles.

Oglala Sioux Vet Runs For Congress
Submitted by Lee Breard
Campagn Manager for Bruce Whalen

Bruce Whalen is the Republican Candidate for South Dakota’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Bruce is a supportive husband to Carol, his wife of 6 years, and father to Kyle, Jeremiah, and Elizabeth. He stands strong for South Dakota’s unique family values and is an active member of Gospel Fellowship Church in his home town of Pine Ridge.

Bruce was the coordinator of the Oglala Sioux Tribe’s Judiciary Committee, committed to improving the justice system on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He was instrumental in the initial formation of the reservation’s first Department of Justice, pending the approval of the tribal council.

Bruce served in the Army National guard for nearly ten years. He worked as a Combat Systems Operator, Field Artillery Surveyor, and Combat Signaler. He was presented with numerous awards during his service and received an Honorable Discharge from the Department of Defense.

Bruce established the first organized Republican Party in Shannon County, and is its first Chairman. He also served as the Native American Outreach Coordinator for the South Dakota Republican Party during the 2004 election cycle. Through his leadership the Native American support of Republican Candidates increased nearly 10 percent. He also served on the party’s platform committee and helped to revise the Republican Vision for South Dakota.

Bruce previously served as a Drug and Alcohol Councilor for the Oglala Sioux Tribe and reservation based Christian Ministries. During this time he was also a gang prevention coordinator for the local boys and girls club.

Bruce graduated from Oglala Lakota College with a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Services. He was awarded the Caroline M. Reyer award for earning the highest GPA and his service to the student body. Bruce focused on chemical dependency counseling throughout his education.

Bruce’s diverse educational and professional background is evident through his leadership and service to this great state. He is humble, grounded, and a man of the people. Bruce will be a true reflection of South Dakota’s culture in Washington.

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

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.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

McCain Turns On Tribes

Someone has to take the blame for Jack Abramoff’s indiscretions so why not put it on the shoulders of the Indian tribes who were clients of the disgraced lobbyist. Not many voices were raised when Abramoff took money from the poorest minority group in the nation, the American Indian, to establish a religious boy’s school for one of the wealthiest, the Orthodox Jew.

Now, in the wake of the Abramoff scandal some former Indian friends have become foes. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is one of them. He has introduced legislation to take control of Indian gaming away from tribal governments and put it into the hands of the National Indian Gaming Commission.

When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed in 1988, no one envisioned the phenomenal success Indian gaming would achieve. The relatively small bingo parlors have become highly sophisticated casinos in rural America accompanied by hotel and resort communities rivaling those in Vegas and Atlantic City. This has upset many white Americans and they feel it is time rein in those “uppity” Indian tribes and put them on a leash. McCain’s Senate Bill 2078 is designed to do just that.

S.B. 2078 would transfer authority for contract approvals from tribal governments to the NIGC, on the premise that unscrupulous developers or vendors might defraud or take advantage of tribes.

S. B. 2078 would transfer authority for budget allocations from tribal governments to the NIGC, on the premise that tribes are incapable of making responsible choices about revenue allocations.

S. B. 2078 would take regulatory authority over Indian gaming away from tribes and give it to the NIGC, despite Congress' intent that tribes would be the primary regulators of their own gaming operations.

S.B. 2078 would eliminate the two-part process for transferring land into trust for gaming purposes, forever denying landless tribes the opportunity to develop gaming programs on lands they might acquire in the future.

There is a great irony in the debate over S. B. 2078. In the 1987 Supreme Court California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians decision, the court acknowledged the retained right of tribes as sovereign nations to engage in gaming without state interference as long as gaming in some form was legal in that state. State governors and attorneys general demanded that Congress limit this right so they would have more control over Indian gaming within their boundaries. Congress acceded to those demands and IGRA was born. The whole point of the compact process was to give state governments at least limited authority over tribal gaming.

Now S.B. 2078 proposes to hand over regulatory authority to the NIGC, potentially rendering toothless many of the existing tribal/state compacts. If the federal government is going to control Indian gaming so completely, why bother with the compact process at all?

Having introduced S.B. 2078, McCain now may find himself lost in the land of unintended consequences. He has alienated Indian tribes, his former friends and political allies. He has squeezed state governments out of the tribal gaming regulatory process. He has become the poster boy and fearless leader for all those Indian-haters who prefer their Indians poor, dependent and subjugated. He has taken his first step on the 2008 campaign trail by stepping on the necks of Indian people. Maybe he didn't mean to, but if S.B. 2078 passes, what he meant to do won't matter.

It is time to let your senator know you oppose S.B. 2078. Your vote DOES count!!!

This column has been edited for length and content from an April 14th article in Indian Country Today bylined John McCarthy, executive director of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association.


Save The Internet!!!!

This is for real!!!!

Congress is now pushing through a law that would give control of the Internet to giant companies who want to charge big bucks for things that are currently free or low-cost---everything from posting a web page to being able to use audio, video, and photos online.

This would ruin the Internet for nearly everyone: nonprofits, online activists, Google users, Ipod listeners, small businesses, economic innovators, and others.

Politicians don't think we are paying attention to this issue. Many of them take campaign checks from big telecom companies and are on the verge of letting companies like AT&T and Verizon destroy the Internet for the little guy.

We need to act now. Can you sign this petition to your member of Congress asking him or her not to ruin the Internet? Click here:
http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet

A great article on this is located here: http://www.newyorker.com/printables/talk/060320ta_talk_surowiecki

North Carolina Cherokee Pass Free Press Clause
NAJA Congratulates Tribe on Act

VERMILLION, S.D. The Native American Journalists Association congratulates the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians as the most recent Native sovereign nation to protect the freedom of the press and the autonomy of its tribal newspaper, The Cherokee One Feather.

Last week, the Eastern Band council passed the Free Press Act of 2006, reaffirming the tribe's commitment to the free press provisions of the federal Indian Civil Rights Act and ensuring that the tribally owned press is "independent from any undue influence and free of any particular political interest. It is the duty of the press to report without bias the activities of the tribe, the tribal government, and any and all news of interest to have informed citizens." The law also sets up an editorial board to oversee publication of the One Feather.

"This act is courageous - a tremendous effort by (council member) Teresa McCoy and the council to ensure the press is free and open," NAJA President Mike Kellogg (Navajo) said. "With a free press, the Eastern Band of Cherokee will be able to truly exercise its sovereignty, and tribal citizens will be able to hold their leaders accountable."

Throughout Indian Country, many newspapers, radio and television operations and Web sites are tribally owned; although the Indian Civil Rights Act protects freedom of the press, the law offers little protection when the tribal government also owns and finances a media outlet. That's one reason that NAJA has worked to support those tribes that have found ways to protect press freedom while maintaining support of their tribal media.

"For the media to be truly free, it requires private ownership and funding. In the absence of such media in Cherokee, Tribal Council is to be commended for taking this step to separate the community's only newspaper - a tribally owned paper - from the politics that surround the Council chambers and executive offices," said Joe Martin, One Feather editor and a NAJA member. "I wish to thank the council and hope to further the spirit of sunshine legislation through strengthening open-meetings and freedom-of-information laws."

Since its founding in 1984, one of NAJA's primary goals has been to support freedom of the press in Indian Country.

NAJA Accepting Submissions For Spring/Summer Newsletter

NAJA is accepting submissions for its next newsletter and is looking for articles about our industry or recent moves or promotions for the Members on the Move section. Send submissions to info@naja.com and place "Newsletter" in subject line. Deadline is May 12.

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

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.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

Montana's 'Gritty' Meth Ads Turn Heads!

Project Financed by Billionaire Aims to Keep Teens From Trying the Drug

By JONANN BRADY
ABC News Internet Ventures

March 30, 2006 — - The ads most often seen in Montana these days are graphic and more than a little disturbing.

In one TV spot, you see a close-up of a teenager plucking her eyebrow with tweezers. The camera pans back and you see that she's completely tweezed off the other eyebrow, leaving angry red welts on her face. A voice-over says: "It's amazing what you can accomplish on meth."

The gritty, hard-hitting ads, created by the Montana Meth Project, all share the same message aimed at teenagers: Don't try meth, not even once. Click here for more on the Montana Meth Project.

Thomas Siebel, a software billionaire who lives part time in Montana, donated $5.6 million to help launch the ad campaign. Since the project kicked off in September, it has become the biggest advertiser in the state, with anti-meth messages popping up on billboards, television, radio and newspapers.

Siebel told "Nightline" that the ads simply reflect the dangers of methamphetamine, the stimulant that has ravaged many communities across the country, especially in the Midwest and West.

"The ads are disturbing. They're gripping. They're attention getting," Siebel said. "This is a disturbing subject ... This is difficult to sugarcoat, OK, this is about disease and degradation."

According to the Montana Meth Project, methamphetamine use by young people in Montana is dramatically higher than the national average, and its focus is solely on prevention -- to keep teens from even trying the drug.

Siebel and others say the graphic ads are realistic and reach teens in a way that other anti-drug campaigns have not.

"I think they weren't credible, they didn't reach us," Siebel said of the This Is Your Brain on Drugs campaign. "I think those were adults talking to adults, and in the meth project ... our message is young people talking to young people."

While the ads have stirred up some controversy, they have also gotten high marks from law enforcement and health officials in the state. And even more important to the project, they do seem to be getting kids' attention.

The radio ads feature real recovering meth addicts telling their stories, and the Montana Meth Project's Web site features personal accounts of several other former users.

Caitlin is one of the volunteers with the project who tells her story in a radio spot. She says she tried meth at 15 and from that point on she "had a problem." In the ad, she talks about how she was hanging out with "disgusting people" who were able to control her because of drugs.

She says in the ad that one of her worst moments was sitting in her room after doing a bunch of meth. "I felt like if I even moved one inch I would have a heart attack, my heart was beating so fast."

Caitlin is now clean, and the Montana Meth Project organizers hope stories like hers will reach other young people. But Siebel says that it will take time to measure the real success of the project.

"The approach that we're taking, it's not a short-term solution, it is not a quick fix," he said. "We're focusing on changing attitudes and behavior, but I don't think this is something that takes place over months. I think it's something that takes place over years, and possible decades."

Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures

Headline for the April 17th edition of The Arizona Republic:
‘Montana Campaign Could Be Foundation for Arizona Fight Against The Deadly Drug’

Update On Shoshone Resistance To Detonation At Nevada Test Site
Submitted by Ursula Powers Sindlinger

One avenue we are considering is injunctive legal action to stop the Divine Strake test set for June 2nd (large scale open air detonation - 700 tons of explosives to be used) from taking place at the Nevada Test Site (on Western Shoshone land).

If you want to get involved - We're looking for people who oppose this detonation in the following counties in Utah, Nevada or Arizona:

Those counties are:
UTAH - Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane, Millard, Piute, San Juan, Sevier, Washington and Wayne. NEVADA- Eureka, Lander, White Pine.
ARIZONA - Apache, Coconino, Gila, Navajo, Yavapai, and the part of Arizona north of the Grand Canyon.

Julie Fishel
Western Shoshone Defense Project
http://www.wsdp.orgwsdp@igc.org
wsdp@igc.org

Congressman Jim Matheson (D-Utah) expressed his concerns in an April 7th letter to James Tegnelia, Director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency at Ft. Belvoir, VA.

“I have long supported efforts to enhance conventional weaponry, instead of nuclear options. However, I am understandably worried that this demonstration is publicly being billed as a conventional demonstration when its actual intent it to further the pursuit of a new nuclear weapon.”

To read Congressman Matheson’s letter e-mail me – bobbieo@digitaldune.net

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

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.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

U.S. Won't Take Seat On UN Human Rights Council

Submitted by Ursula Powers Sindlinger

April 7, 2006. Crescent Valley, NV (Newe Sogobia). The United States recently announced it will not seek election to the newly formed UN Human Rights Council (see US Press Statement below). The announcement was made in the wake of yet another UN treaty body formally taking up the issue of U.S. Federal Indian Law and Policy and ongoing violations of indigenous rights. Attached is the recently released Human Rights Committee’s list of issues it will raise when it reviews the U.S.’ Periodic Reports in July 2006.

The question of human rights violations of Native Americans is first on the list under Articles 1 and 27. The specific inclusion of the indigenous rights issue by the Human Rights Committee comes just weeks after another UN treaty body, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) rendered a full decision under its Urgent Action/Early Warning Procedure against the United States and called for immediate action with regard to the Western Shoshone peoples of the Western Shoshone Nation. For a copy of a report submitted to the Human Rights Committee on the situation of indigenous peoples go to http://www.wsdp.org/.

The Human Rights Committee monitors state parties’ compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. CERD is set up under the International Covenant on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination. The United States is a ratified party to both UN Treaties.

The full review of the U.S. Periodic Reports is scheduled to take place before the Human Rights Committee in Geneva in July. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination will meet for its 69th Session in the first three weeks of August with review of the U.S.’s response or non response to CERD’s recent Decision on the Western Shoshone.

*********

Press Statement Regarding US Decision Not to Seek Election to UN Human Rights Council
From the US Bush Administration:
Press Statement
Sean McCormack, Spokesman
Washington, DC
April 6, 2006

The United States Will Not Seek Election To The UN Human Rights Council

The United States will not run for a United Nations Human Rights Council seat in the Council's first election, scheduled for May 9, 2006. There are strong candidates in our regional group, with long records of support for human rights, that voted in favor of the resolution creating the Council. They should have the opportunity to run.

Since the drafting of the United Nations Charter, the United States has led the effort to promote human rights at the UN. From Eleanor Roosevelt's championing of the cause of human rights to the present day, our nation has led and must continue to lead at the UN and around the world. We will continue to do so.

As we said when voting on the Human Rights Council resolution March 15, the United States will work cooperatively with other Member States to make the Council as strong and effective as possible. We will support the Council and we will continue to fund it. We will work closely with partners in the international community to encourage the Council to address serious cases of human rights abuse in countries such as Iran, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Burma, Sudan, and North Korea.

Since the credibility of the Council depends on its membership, the United States will actively campaign on behalf of candidates genuinely committed to the promotion and protection of human rights, and which will act as responsible members of this new body. We will also actively campaign against states that systematically abuse human rights.

With a strong collective effort in the coming months to make the new Council effective, the United States will likely run for the Council next year.


Free Business Writing Journalism Workshop

The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business will sponsor a free one-day business journalism workshop on May 1 at the Al Neuharth Media Center in Vermillion, S.D.

The "Craft of Business Writing" is open to journalists who wish to improve their writing skills in the field of business. Seminar participants will learn how to better explain financial terms, use a compelling narrative style, develop story ideas and write effective profiles of companies and executives.

Presenters include Dick Weiss, former writing coach and assistant metropolitan editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Chris Roush, a business journalism professor at the University of North Carolina and former business journalist with Business Week, Bloomberg News and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Registration for the workshop is available online at www.businessjournalism.org/content/7230.cfm.
For questions, contact Lori Tait, project manager, at 703-715-3332 or LTait@americanpressinstitute.org.
More information about the Reynolds Center at the American Press Institute in Reston, Va., is available at www.BusinessJournalism.org.

Seeking Oklahoma Media Managers For Leaderhip Training

The Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education is seeking two Oklahoma media managers to participate in the Maynard Institute's management program June 24 to July 22 at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Ill.

The program will offer advanced training for middle managers at news organizations and help prepare people of color for top leadership roles at their media companies.

The institute is also seeking two Oklahoma journalists for fellowships to the Maynard Institute's Editing Program, which will be held this summer at the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada-Reno.

Since 1979, the editing program has trained journalists of color to become copy editors and Web site editors, helped assignment editors improve their copy-editing skills and prepared news professionals for supervisory roles.

For more information, call 510-891-9202 or go to the institute's Web site at http://www.maynardije.org/--

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

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.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

INDN's List 'Okays' Two OK Candidates

Tulsa, OK – INDN’s List, the only national political organization dedicated to recruiting, training, and electing Democratic Native American candidates to public office, has announced its endorsement of two candidates for the Oklahoma House of Representatives. Chuck Hoskin, a Cherokee Democrat of Vinita, and Scott BigHorse, an Osage and Cherokee Democrat of Pawhuska, are running to represent District 6 and 36, respectively.

A lifelong resident of District 6, Chuck Hoskin has worked since 1985 as a teacher and principal to improve the lives of the children of Northeastern Oklahoma. He recognizes the central role schools play in rural communities and the value of a great education for Oklahoma’s future. A happily married father of two, Hoskin is a former small business owner and union man that understands the needs of both workers and entrepreneurs as they seek to raise families and build communities.

“Beyond his commitment to the children and families of northeastern Oklahoma,” Free said of his service in the US Navy and as a tribal councilman, “INDN’s List endorses Chuck beca use he is a true public servant and endorses his vision because he shares the values of Oklahomans.”

With more than five years spent turning around the lives of troubled youth in Osage County, Scott BigHorse values the future of Oklahoma communities and is committed to providing our children the positive environment they need to make Oklahoma great.

BigHorse’s experience managing public detention facilities and programs has shown him the value of commonsense policies that prioritize spending and values improving the lives of Oklahoma’s residents in practical ways: better wages, competitive pay for state employees, more affordable healthcare, and tools for first-responders to make Oklahomans safer. “Scott’s practical approach to government combined with the values he shares with the residents of District 36 made him stand out as the type of leader INDN’s List seeks,” remarked Free.

INDN's List Announces Endorsement of Pat Lenzi
for District Attorney of Yolo County, California

Tulsa, OK – INDN’s List today announced its endorsement of Pat Lenzi in her bid for the office of District Attorney of Yolo County, California.

“We are excited and honored to endorse Democratic candidate Pat Lenzi for District Attorney. At a time when Americans need leaders to protect them and fight for their values, Pat Lenzi offers a fresh approach combined with a proven record of success,” said Kalyn Free, president of INDN’s List, the only national political organization dedicated to recruiting, training, and electing Democratic Native American candidates to public office.

Lenzi, a member of the St. Regis Mohawk tribe, has pledged to be the “community’s voice and prosecutor in law enforcement and an advocate for those who cannot protect themselves, for those who need help.”

Since 1994, Lenzi has dedicated her life to fighting for the rights of the most vulnerable victims of crime: women, children, and the elderly. As Assistant District Attorney of Sacramento then Yolo County she has fought tirelessly for the rights of victims while ensuring violent criminals are properly punished.

Free said INDN’s List “is making Pat Lenzi’s campaign a priority because she is a bold new leader with innovative ideas and she has the ability to provide good governance to the people of Yolo County.”

For more information regarding Pat Lenzi’s campaign, contact her campaign at (530) 662-8500. You can contact INDN's List at 918.583.6100 or http://www.indnslist.org/.

NAJA/Navajo Times Summer Tribal Internship

Native American Journalists Association is partnering with The Navajo Times to offer a 10-week internship for a NAJA student June 5-Aug. 11, 2006. Applicants must submit the following to the Times by the May 5th deadline:
* Current resume
* 5-8 newspaper clips or writing samples
* Documentation verifying NAJA membership
* Two letters of reference
* A cover letter on how the internship will benefit your career and will assist you in your plans to graduate from college.

Internship applicants must be current NAJA student members in good standing. Special consideration will be given to those student applicants who have participated in past NAJA training programs, such as workshops held during the annual convention, Project Phoenix or the college Student Projects. Students who have also completed the Freedom Forum's American Indian Journalism Institute program will also be given special consideration.

Interns will receive $540 a week, and will be responsible for their own housing and transportation expenses and arrangements.

The application deadline is May 5. All applicants and selected intern(s) will be notified by May 12.

For more information, please call Navajo Times publisher Tom Arviso Jr. at 928-871-6641 or email tarviso@navajotimes.com.

Send complete packets to:
Navajo Times/NAJA 2006 Summer Internship Program
ATTN: Tom Arviso Jr.P.O.
Box 310
Window Rock, AZ 86515

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

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.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

American Indians Still Face Voter Discrimination!

Submitted by Alyssa Macy, Political Director
Center For Civic Participation
Alyssa@ccp.org

MARY CLARE JALONICK
Associated Press
LAKE ANDES, S.D. - When Charon Asetoyer went to vote a few years ago, she was met with unfriendly words and an offensive gesture. A white man, apparently unhappy with the idea of an American Indian walking into the polls, asked her in vulgar terms what she was doing there.

She told him she was there because she had a right to vote and went back to her car to wait for him to leave. Only when he sped away did she walk inside.

Discrimination against Indians is commonplace here, she says. And nowhere is that more evident than in the polling booth.

Asetoyer, an American Indian who lives on the Yankton Sioux IndianReservation in the quiet flatlands of southeastern South Dakota, compares her home to the South in the 1960s. "It's outright racism," she says.

Many on this reservation say that kind of behavior is normal in Charles MixCounty, a poor, rural section of South Dakota farm country where AmericanIndians make up around one-third of the population. Asetoyer, a quietly determined activist who moved here from California years ago, calls it a land-based struggle, where many of the conflicts are "border issues."

The problem is not limited to South Dakota. As Congress looks to reauthorize parts of the Voting Rights Act, many American Indians say they aren't satisfied with federal and state protections of their voting rights. While the landmark law has brought them a long way from the day when some stat governments required they be "civilized" to cast ballots, they say they still suffer from intimidation, restrictive voting requirements and long distances to polling places.

"There's no question that there still is some subtle discouragement," says former Republican Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a member of Colorado's Northern Cheyenne Tribe. "We've come a long way but we have a long way to go."

A year away from reauthorization - parts of the Voting Rights Act are set to expire in 2007 - members of Congress are keeping quiet about possible changes to the law. But tribes expect changes, and they worry that could reverse a growing electoral clout among many Indian nations in their states.

Recent successes for American Indian voters include the 2002 Senate election in South Dakota, when Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson barely won re-election with 524 votes and a huge increase in turnout on reservations. In WashingtonState, a surge of Indian votes had a major effect on Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell's narrow win in 2000. In Arizona, reservations helped seat Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano in 2002.

Despite these achievements, tribes point to restrictive voting laws around the country. South Dakota's new voter identification law - passed after Johnson's election - requires residents to show photo identification at the polls, a problem for many on the reservations who don't have IDs. The law permits those without identification to sign an affidavit, but opponent argue there is confusion about what is allowed. The American Civil Liberties Union has challenged other voter identification statutes seen as restrictive to Indians in Albuquerque, N.M. and Minnesota.

"The tribes are still very concerned about the targeted efforts to disenfranchise their vote," says Jacqueline Johnson, executive director ofthe National Congress of American Indians. "We are having to change a mind-set that exists."

Others imply the problems are exaggerated. Chris Nelson, South Dakota's Republican secretary of state, focuses on the positive - a huge differential in American Indian turnout between 2000 and 2004, after two major Senate races - and says he has seen little evidence of voter intimidation.

Nelson says he is even willing to support removing some federal protections on South Dakota's reservations. Shannon and Todd Counties - historically home to the state's largest population of American Indians - are included in Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, meaning that any major changes in election policy there must be federally approved.

Nelson says that thousands of local decisions have gone through the Justice Department without being rejected. The state is working to ensure that the Indian vote is protected, he says, lessening the need for federal help. "Has the preclearance requirement done anything to improve the ability of Indians to vote in those counties? The answer is no," Nelson says.

He says the increase in turnout has nothing to do with federal law, but with interest in particular elections and strong get-out-the-vote efforts in the state.

Former Sen. Campbell disagrees . "If those federal protections weren't there, Indians wouldn't have a chance at voting," he says. "The law probably ought to go farther."

American Indians in Washington and on the reservations are reluctant to say what exactly they would like to change about the Voting Rights Act, as there isn't much consensus on the issue yet. Some suggest adding counties with increased federal protections, instead of removing them, and expanding a section of the law that allows bilingual assistance in polling stations. Other suggest a larger number of polling places, more American Indian pollwatchers and more general oversight on Election Day.

One thing they all agree on is that current protections need to be retained. "There are going to be some changes and we really need to watch what those changes are," said Robert Cournoyer, chairman of the Yankton Sioux.

South Dakota Sen. Johnson says that Congress will have to maintain some protections to keep American Indians' trust in the system - and voting levels high.

"There's still a lack of trust and confidence between Native Americans and state institutions, and keeping some federal oversight is something that Native Americans want to have," he said. "Its presence contributes to ahigher confidence level."

If current trends continue, say some on the Yankton reservation, AmericanIndians could start to have more of a say about what happens in Washington. As their numbers have swelled at the ballot box, Indian activists say the age-old perception that votes don't count on reservations is slowly dissipating.

Oliver Semans, an American Indian who has organized several South Dakota get-out-the-vote campaigns, says he has tried to boost participation by equating low voting levels with high poverty levels. This has worked to some extent, he says."You give us 20 years, we'll have our country back," says Semans.

American Indians in Charles Mix County appear slightly less confident, as tensions have escalated in recent years.

The county received national attention during the 2004 election, when the state ousted Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle in favor of Republican Sen. John Thune. The night before Election Day, Daschle's campaign asked for a temporary restraining order against Republican poll watchers who were allegedly intimidating Indian voters. A judge granted the order for CharlesMix County, a ruling Republicans charge was purely politics.

This year, a group of people in the county are quietly circulating a petition to divide the county, separating the reservation from the whiter areas. Petition sponsors have not publicly identified themselves, but Asetoyer and others speculate it's intended to keep American Indians off the county commission.

Sharon Drapeau, a native of the Yankton reservation who narrowly lost a race for the county commission, says it may get worse for Indian country before it gets better as tensions rise. "You have to get that scab off and let it bleed to clean it," she said.

C 2006 AP Wire and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.aberdeennews.com

NAJA Encourages Free Press At Fort Peck

For Immediate ReleaseMarch 30, 2006
VERMILLION, S.D. _The Native American Journalists Association expresses grave concerns about the dismissal this week of Bonnie Red Elk, the editor of Wotanin Wowapi, the tribally owned newspaper on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.

John Morales, the chairman of the Fort Peck tribes in Montana, has said he's unhappy with some of the coverage in the newspaper. But reservation newspapers need the freedom to cover issues important to their community, regardless of whether those papers are tribally owned and operated, NAJA President Mike Kellogg (Navajo) said.

"Despite the claims by some tribal governments, free press protection should apply to all," Kellogg said. "A free and open press benefits all, including tribal governments. In fact, the more topics are debated and leaders questioned, more progress will be made. In the end, the abuse of the press by government officials indicates there is something to report."

Created in 1984, NAJA works to support a free press throughout Indian Country. NAJA encourages Fort Peck officials to reconsider the issue in a way that protects the freedom of the press and preserves the integrity of tribal media.

Although Red Elk (Sioux/Assiniboine) said she was surprised by the firing, she has decided to start an independent newspaper on the reservation, the Fort Peck Journal.

"We've always talked about this but now we're being forced into," she said. "But it's time for Fort Peck to get a new independent voice and not tied to the tribe in anyway."Red Elk said volunteers have already started working on the Journal, which will published soon.

Contact:
Mike Kellogg, NAJA Board President
publisher@stwnewspress.com
Kim Baca, Interm Executive Director
kim@naja.com

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

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.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

Western Shoshone Call To Halt Planned Detonation at Nevada Test Site

Submitted by Ursala Powers Sindlinger

Speaking with media last week, US military spokesman James Tegnelia confirmed U.S. plans to detonate a 700 ton explosion at the Nevada Test Site on June 2, 2006 in a test called “Divine Strake.” The location of this test would be on Western Shoshone land, and would be in direct violation of a recent decision by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

In its decision, made public March 10, 2006, the CERD Committee urged the United States to “freeze”, “desist” and “stop” actions being taken, or threatened to be taken, against the Western Shoshone Peoples of the Western Shoshone Nation. In its decision, CERD stressed the “nature and urgency” of the Shoshone situation informing the U.S. that it goes “well beyond” the normal reporting process and warrants immediate attention under the Committee’s Early Warning and Urgent Action Procedure.

The CERD decision explicitly cited ongoing weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site as well as efforts to build an unprecedented high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, NV.

James Tegnelia of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency was quoted by Agence France Presse as saying, "I don't want to sound glib here but it is the first time in Nevada that you'll see a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas since we stopped testing nuclear weapons", and notes further that this is the “largest single explosive that we could imagine.” The Department of Defense announced in late October 2005 that the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrating (RNEP) weapon project was being dropped in favor of a more conventional methodology.

The detonation plan also runs contrary to earlier public statements made in late March to the Las Vegas Review-Journal by Linton F. Brooks, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration. In his statement, Mr. Brooks announced that the Bush administration had no plans to start detonating warheads at the Nevada Test Site. "We have absolutely no evidence that we're going to need to test. ... We don't see any specific reason now that leads us to believe we'll need a test", Mr. Brooks said. "On the other hand", he said, "we don't know everything about the future."

According to Raymond Yowell, Chief of the Western Shoshone National Council, “We’re opposed to any further military testing on Shoshone lands. This is a direct violation of the CERD finding and an affront to our religious belief - Mother Earth is sacred and should not be harmed. All people who are opposed to these actions by the U.S. should step forward and make their opposition known.”

Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone grandmother and Executive Director of the Western Shoshone Defense Project, “The U.S. has named this 700 ton explosive ‘Divine Strake’. It’s a mystery why they use ‘divine.’ Isn’t ‘divine’ used for your deity, God, Your sacredness? Why don’t they call it ‘Hell Strake?’ I believe when you are working testing weaponry of destruction of life, you should not associate it with ‘divine.’ We want this insanity to stop – no more bombs and no more testing.”

Eileen McCabe-Olsen, Associate Director of Shundahai Network noted, “This test, besides being an egregious violation of Western Shoshone sovereignty, is an escalation that should outrage anyone concerned with peace, justice and care of our environment.”

Pete Litster, Executive Director of Shundahai Network said “Ongoing weapons tests at the Nevada Test Site violate international law. They violate the standing treaty between the U.S. Government and the Western Shoshone people. They also violate the spirit of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The Test Site is located on Western Shoshone territory, and must not continue to be misused in bold violation of standing agreements between the U.S. government and the Western Shoshone nation.”

Although approval for the test was sought and obtained from the state of Nevada in January 2006, the test detonation can be cancelled. The Western Shoshone National Council, the Western Shoshone Defense Project, and Shundahai Network call for the United States Government to do so immediately. Concerned citizens can call or write to express their opinions:

President George W. Bush comments@whitehouse.gov 202-456-1111
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
http://www.dod.gov/faq/comment.html
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000

James Tegnelia dtra.publicaffairs@dtra.mil
(800) 701-5096
Defense Threat Reduction Agency
Attn: James Tegnelia
8725 John J Kingman RD Stop 6201
Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-6201

CONTACTS:
Julie Fishel, Western Shoshone Defense Project
(1) 775-468-0230 wsdp@igc.org
Pete Litster, Shundahai Network
(1) 801-637-1500 pete@shundahai.org

The Western Shoshone Defense Project's ( http://www.wsdp.org/ ) mission is to affirm Newe (Western Shoshone) jurisdiction over Newe Sogobia (Western Shoshone homelands) by protecting, preserving, and restoring Newe rights and lands for present and future generations based on cultural and spiritual traditions. The W.S.D.P. was established in 1991 by the Western Shoshone National Council to provide support to Mary and Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone grandmothers who were facing the confiscation of the livestock that they graze on Western Shoshone lands.

Shundahai Network ( http://www.shundahai.org/ ) is dedicated to breaking the nuclear chain by building alliances with indigenous communities and environmental, peace and human rights movements. We seek to abolish all nuclear weapons and an end to nuclear testing. We advocate phasing out nuclear energy and ending the transportation and dumping of nuclear waste. We promote the principles of Environmental Justice and strive to insure that indigenous voices are heard in the movement to influence U.S. nuclear and environmental policies. All of our campaigns and events incorporate the values of community building, education, spiritual ceremonies and nonviolent direct action.

Western Shoshone Defense Project
P.O. Box 211308
Crescent Valley, NV 89821
(1) 775-468-0230
(1) 775-468-0237 (fax)
http://www.wsdp.org
wsdp@igc.org

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

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.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

The Bikers Are Coming! The Bikers Are Coming!

This is the latest battle cry from the 60 indigenous tribes of the Plains Indians who travel to Bear Butte from the United States and Canada on the Northeastern edge of the Black Hills to fast and pray at their most sacred mountain. People from all over the world also come to Bear Butte to pray, meditate, to try to experience some of the spiritual connection that has been here from the beginning of time.

The tribes want to stem plans to build enormous biker bars and campsites all around the sacred mountain in anticipation of the 66th Annual Black Hills Sturgis Bike Rally which is set for August 7th through the 13th 2006. This is when the small town of Sturgis, South Dakota with some 6,000 inhabitants is inundated with more than 600,000 bikers from all over the world who spend a week indulging in wild drinking parties and tearing up the landscape.

April 04, 2006
Andy Harvey, News Reporter
KELOLAND TV
501 S. Phillips Avenue
Sioux Falls, SD, 57104

NATIVE AMERICANS PROTEST BAR PLANS
It's a sacred spot to Native Americans, but Bear Butte will soon be home to a bar. An Arizona man wants to build an entertainment complex near the base of the hill, just north of Sturgis. Jay Allen asked Meade County commissioners for a liquor license and today, all five unanimously approved it. But that didn't stop hundreds who oppose the bar from protesting the decision.

Native Americans chanted and carried signs to show their dismay for their sacred land being turned into a spot to sell and drink alcohol.

Protestor Nita Bald Eagle said, "It makes me angry because a lot of people go up there to pray and they go there to be closer to their spirituality."

They took their message to the Meade County Courthouse over the planned "Sturgis County Line Bar." Inside, county commissioners listened to both sides concerning Allen's proposed bar.

Floyd Licks The Buffalo Hand said, "Would you put a tavern by a church you go to everyday?"

But despite the protests, Allen has his supporters.

Sasha Mullins said, "His intentions are in the right place. For everything that he does, he cares very much about his neighbors."

Allen wants to build a venue just north of Bear Butte. His plans include a bar, campgrounds, and a concert area that could seat up to 30,000 people.

Jay Allen said, "You know I feel just as strongly as these people and I respect them very much, but I have the right to do what I am doing."

In the end, the commissioner unanimously granted Allen his liquor license.

Allen said, "You know what I'm embarrassed that this ever happened. I feel totally justified in what I'm doing and I'm very proud of it."

Judy Drapeaux, who’s against the vote, said, "Disappointed, angry and I feel bad for our people."

The Native American protestors say despite today's decision, they aren't giving up their fight against the bar. Meantime, Allen hopes to open the entertainment venue in time for this year's Sturgis Rally.

Rapid City Journal, SD editorial, April 6th, 2006:
Preserving Bear Butte
By The Journal Editorial Board

The Meade County Commission unanimously approved a beer license for a proposed Sturgis rally bar and campground near Bear Butte on Tuesday. In doing so, commissioners ignored hundreds of demonstrators who marched outside the Meade County Courthouse, urging the commission to preserve the sanctity of Bear Butte, which is considered sacred ground by about 60 American Indian tribes.

Tuesday's outcome was predictable. The commission had no reason to deny Allen a beer license because it has approved other license applications under similar circumstances.

Allen bought the land north of Bear Butte with the intention of developing it into a destination for rally goers. Meade County zoning laws allow Allen to build his proposed Sturgis County Line bar, campground and concert stage about two and one-half miles north of Bear Butte despite the fact that many Indian tribes consider the mountain to be a sacred site.

Dean Wink was the only commissioner who spoke at Tuesday's meeting. He said he didn't think Meade County needed another biker bar, but "I have a problem deviating from the standards we've set down."

The Bear Butte International Alliance opposes Allen's plans because it is too close to Bear Butte and has called on Meade County to refuse beer and liquor licenses within seven miles of Bear Butte.

One way to preserve Bear Butte as a sacred site is to buy nearby land with the intention of keeping it as open space. Individuals and groups who want to preserve the area surrounding Bear Butte State Park from encroaching development can raise money and buy the land adjacent to the park, including Allen's property.

It's not so far-fetched an idea. Conservation groups such as Nature Conservancy buy land to prevent development. And just last month the Northern Cheyenne tribe purchased 36 acres west of Bear Butte to preserve it. The tribe, in fact, has been purchasing land around Bear Butte and now owns more than 750 acres surrounding the park.

Encroachment on Bear Butte will continue to be an issue in the future. Based on the hundreds of people who peacefully demonstrated against Allen's license application, Meade County officials ought to consider enacting zoning that would limit commercial development near the state park and respect the sanctity of Bear Butte.

There is plenty of land near Sturgis for biker bars, campgrounds and concert venues that won't encroach on Bear Butte. However, Allen has a right to use his land in a manner consistent with existing zoning laws, and the county commission had no legal basis to deny Allen a beer license. If groups want to protect Bear Butte from Allen's proposed Sturgis County Line bar, they can raise money and make Allen an offer he won't refuse.

Additional words - From Jean bedell-maskikinabinais:
My great grandfather Sitting Bull said: "Let us put our minds together to see what we can do!" and he also said" My grandchildren’s grandchildren will know who I am". Time has not changed for the Indian and the fight against the whiteman to just let us live as we have always wanted to do.

The Oceti Sakowin needs to come together and use the tools he has to protect what little we have left which includes the lands, water, and mostly the future generations. Are we not the endangered species now of human? We have access to those pleasures of the whiteman so lets use them.

We can network for support in the east and congressman and other private foundations and corporations. Maybe we can get together and strategize how we can seek congressional support to protect Bear Butte!! Anyone? Akicita?? give us your opinion.. Please pass this on,
Jeanne (third generation of iyoyanka tanka {Sitting Bull} tiwahe)

Contacts:
Carter Camp
Inter-Tribal Coalition to Defend Bear Butte
www.defendbearbutte.org
605–455-2508

Nick Tilsen – ntilsen@lakotaaction.net
Carter Camp – cartercamp@yahoo.com
Alex White Plume – alexwp@gwtc.net

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

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.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

Red Lake - One Year Later

Grand Forks Herald.com
EXCLUSIVE: The Red Lake Nation

Tribal Chairman Floyd "Buck" Jourdain talks about the year that's passed since a horrific school shooting dropped his people into the national spotlight

By Dorreen Yellow Bird
April 3rd, 2006
Herald staff writer

Red Lake Tribal Chairman Floyd "Buck" Jourdain Jr. invited Herald columnist Dorreen Yellow Bird to sit down with him recently and talk at length about the March 21, 2005, school shooting and its impact on the Red Lake Indian Reservation. Their hours-long discussion represents what we believe to be the most in-depth media interview with Jourdain since the shooting.

March 21, 2005, what some are calling the worst day in the history of the Ojibwe people in Red Lake, Minn., a young gunman killed nine people and then took his own life. Floyd "Buck" Jourdain Jr., chairman, was at the helm of the tribal government as the tragic events unfolded. He tells, for the first time, his story.

Jourdain lived most of his life in the Little Rock community, one of four districts on the 806,000-acre Red Lake reservation. The reservation is settled among the white birch bark aspen and sweet maple trees that crowd the shores of one of the largest lakes in the region. Misk wagami-wazaga-iganing, or Red Lake, named for its scenic sunsets, lazes quietly under a coat of melting ice waiting for the summer sun to peel back the cold white and expose hungry walleye.

Near the edge of the big lake stands an old building that houses the tribal government and the post office. Jourdain was born 42 years ago in that very building when it was an Indian Health service hospital. When you leave the humble tribal headquarters and turn left, the modern Red Lake High School stands just across a short area of bare ground from the headquarters, providing an easy view of students coming and going from the high school.

It was at that school in the middle of Red Lake that 16-year-old Jeff Weise, a Red Lake member and student at the high school, came with guns in hand and hate in his heart. In that instant, the Ojibwe people were catapulted into national and world headlines. They would hold a place in history as the school with the second-largest number of students killed in a shooting.

"There was no way anyone could foresee the March 21 shootings," the tribal chairman said. The school was as well-prepared as any school in the state. They had uniformed security guards, cameras and a system for emergencies. Even though they weren't armed, two security guards did their jobs above and beyond what was expected. One was killed, and the other was able to alert the rest of the people in the building, he said. "They did everything they possibly could to avoid trouble at the school."

Tribal Resources
Even before March 21, and early in the Jourdain administration, the Tribal Council had begun a two-year assessment of social issues, never anticipating that this evaluation might include the magnitude of a tragedy that was to come. The assessment emphasized tribal programs, education, law enforcement, courts and tribal finances.

Jourdain, who was involved in youth programs prior to his election as tribal chairman, talked about the role of tribal leadership in nurturing young leaders. Tribes, he said, are in an era of gaming chairmen and corporate councils that place a lot of emphasis on building a bigger and better casino and creating more jobs, yet they are "cutting kids down from rafter" and drug dealers are running rampant. If you look at the entire spectrum, there were areas in which the reservation was lagging, he said. He wanted to change that.

"The shootings were the worst nightmare the tribe could imagine," the chairman said. Unfortunately, a lot of that evaluation and restructuring was put on the back burner as a result of the shooting.

"We went into crisis mode. We had the world's eye on us, and we were trying to see past a backdrop of 10 people losing their lives," he said. That deadly March 21 marker changed their focus to the needs, safety and mental health of the Red Lake community, Jourdain said.

The community was in mourning. In a closed community such as Red Lake, which guards its sovereignty jealously, tribal members know everyone on the reservation or they are related to each other. They needed privacy to mourn their looses, the chairman said.

Unfortunately, the tribe was overwhelmed by the hundreds of reporters and journalists who came to the reservation. The media, he said, didn't respect tribal boundaries, and few understood the meaning of sovereignty or what it meant to be a closed reservation.

The media essentially said, "Who in the hell are you to tell us where we can or cannot go?" They pressed hard for access to the homes and families of the victims some slipped into funerals and wrote of the tears and pain. The passport they wielded was their right of a free press, Jourdain said.

Holly Cook, a tribal member and lobbyist in Washington, D.C., came home to assist with the media. The tribe needed a strategy to deal with this army of huge transmitter trucks and media descending on the reservation. They needed a strategy to help the Red Lake community maintain its privacy while they tended to their families and prepared for funerals.

It was going to be a very disruptive and chaotic time, he knew. The tribe tried to make it as painless as possible for the people, Jourdain said, but it was painful to even look into the next day and it was unbearable to think about what laid ahead. The media and the tribe didn't see eye to eye.

During the crisis, Jourdain said he was told a Red Lake woman was having a particularly difficult time with the deaths. So, the chairman drove to her house to comfort her. It was like other times when tribal relatives and friends gather around those who are hurt or mourning, he said. As he visited with the woman and her family, he could hear the whomp, whomp, whomp of a helicopter. People standing outside or standing beside their cars looked up and saw the giant machine over the tops of the trees near the house.

Someone yelled, "It's the media." Everyone started running. Some jumped in their cars and drove off. Others ran for cover in the house. He couldn't help but smile at the commotion the media caused.

The media became an enemy.

Guilt And Blame
As the council tried to maintain the business of the government, the magnitude of the shootings overwhelmed some of them. One councilman grieved, "Have we failed our kids? Where did we go wrong? All of the things we have here, yet we still failed our kids."

"Money and things aren't always the answer," Jourdain said. "You can't throw money at a problem. There are so many things and programs that you can apply for right now. The council just talked about a healthy-marriage grant program. I guess it teaches people how to be married. I wonder, he mused, what the next grant would be: How to properly get divorced? You can apply for money for everything under the sun."

A mother in the community came to him during that time. She told him, "We've failed our kids. We have our own agenda, our jobs, casinos and all the things we do as adults and all the things we do for ourselves, but somewhere along the line we've forgotten to save time for our children. Now look at what happened."

"I am a younger chairman," Jourdain said. "I have a series of advisers and people I rely on. I would turn to one of those people and see them in tears and weeping. Some were the strongest oaks I knew and they were just devastated and stunned. I would see in their eyes they were in shambles and seemed to be saying, 'Buck, help us.'"

It was a time, Jourdain said, when they did a lot of self-blaming and felt guilty because of the shootings. "We have very well-funded communities. We have prevention and treatment programs for drugs and alcohol, the schools have special education programs, psychologists, 'schools within a school,' so why did this happen? Those are the questions the tribe will grapple with for years to come," the chairman said.

Son Charged
Unfortunately, the crisis mode would only grow more intense as Jourdain himself was touched. His son, Louis, was charged in connection with the shootings less than a week later, on March 27. That left the chairman in a precarious position. He needed to be on top of what was happening. He was responsible to the community, yet he had a responsibility to his family.

Jourdain recused himself from any investigative process or any reports about the shootings because of the charges against his son. "I basically stepped aside and said I'm going to maintain the powers of the office, but I cannot be involved in anyway, shape or form in the investigations or anything that it entails unless of course, the council needs me, and then they will call me," he said.

It is evident that Jourdain is close with his family and his son, Louis. So, the following days would be particularly difficult for him. One of the frustrations the chairman experienced was Louis' image in the media. He was demonized, he said.

It was a federal government case against a juvenile. There are certain rights that all juveniles enjoy in the judicial system, and the federal government enforces them, Jourdain said. The same rules of law apply to any juvenile charged on a federal Indian reservation. "There was no privilege granted to my son," he said.

"It was implied," he thought, "that because he was the chairman's son, there was a special deal and special considerations. There wasn't."

The entire family was devastated by the arrest of Louis. "We were a normal family on the reservation. The kids went to school. They weren't in trouble. We worked and obeyed the laws. Now, our whole world was turned upside-down, broken and displaced," he said.

One day, Louis was a kid playing video games, and the next day, he's potentially going to prison for the rest of his life. He was extracted from the reservation without an opportunity for closure or an opportunity to attend funerals of loved ones and family members, and he was held in an adult holding facility, Jourdain said.

He said there was no way he could abandon his son because he said he knew he wasn't responsible for what happened at the Red Lake school.

"I know my son didn't use the Internet any more than any other kid and he used it as a form of entertainment, a chance to talk with friends, download music, go to sites and play games. He wasn't sitting at the computer talking about horrible crimes all the time. It was unfortunate that he had an enormous amount of discussion on the Internet and a very small amount actually was about anything of a violent nature, but that's the piece that was focused on.

"They said, 'Look at this. This is horrible. We need to charge this kid.' Later on, I think the government realized maybe we should have gone another route. We are finding all kinds of kids do this," Jourdain said in defense of his son.

Louis' brother and mother experienced a great deal of stress and depression as a result of the shootings and subsequent arrest of their son and brother. Louis' mother has migraine headaches, and one child is withdrawn.

Jourdain added his name to the candidates running for tribal chairman in May. It's going to be tough, an uphill battle, he said, but he owes it to his son, Louis. He needs people to know he believes in Louis.

Surviving The Year
How did Jourdain get through the year?

First and foremost, his strength came from the support and prayers of family and friends. Standing beside his desk in the tribal chairman's office, Jourdain took off his suitcoat and slipped into a black velvet beaded vest with symbolic richly colored flower designs covering the front. This vest was a token of appreciation from the Warrior Society and Veterans after March 21. About the same time, he went to Canada and the chief's from Long Plains First Nation reserve presented him with a Woodlands Ojibwe traditional chiefs headdress. He said other tribes around the nation have supported him, too.

Culture plays a strong role in the direction Jourdain has taken in life. He uses his Indian name Bezhig Nii Gaa Nii Gaabow (One standing in front) with pride. The Ojibwe culture has provided him an alternative. The culture has given him a purpose in life. It provides clan structure and a blueprint for the duties he would carry on throughout his life, he said.

Although he has not gone through the Midawin (Grand Medicine Society), he follows the teachings of its society. He also is a Sacred Pipe carrier and dances traditionally.

For him, being a pipe carrier means a responsibility to bear the burden of the people. It means communicating with the spirit world to ask for strength and good things for the people.

Jourdain was given his pipe by an elder of the community who was an elder and knew he would be passing on soon. The elder said "someday, you are going to need this pipe. It will help you if you burn and offer tobacco. This pipe will help you help your people."
Jourdain said he doesn't take the pipe out in public, but keeps it in the family.

Of the pipe, he said, there is a strict code of conduct and responsibilities for keeping it. That's why some people shy away from it. Some think they are not deserving of this sacred object. It's a huge responsibility.

Shooting Anniversary
On March 21 this year, the tribe wanted a quiet day without speakers, outsiders and especially the media. They closed offices and opened the school so people could come and visit each other. They provided food. The day was sunny, just like that day in 2005. This day was somber and quiet, but there were smiles and hugs, too.

It was a sad day because it marked the anniversary of the death of their loved ones and it was time to let them go.

"We are being tested, and we will be stronger for it," Jourdain said. "There are better days ahead, regardless of who is here in the leadership role. We can't go backwards because we've been there and suffered the worst possible fate of any tribe."

Reach Yellow Bird at (701) 780-1228,
(800) 477-6572, ext. 228;
or dyellowbird@gfherald.com.

TO submit an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

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.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

Meth On The 'Rez' - Part 2

Like a high desert wildfire, methamphetamine is sweeping through Indian country wasting lives and tearing families apart.

From the Gila River community south of Phoenix to the Navajo nation in northern Arizona, the drug known as “glass” has become public enemy number 1 on many reservations fueled by severe poverty, alcoholism, and the sheer boredom that afflicts most of the nation’s 571 federally recognized tribes.

“Status quo is a life six years shorter than any other American group,” said Kathy Kitcheyan, San Carlos Chairwoman who spoke before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs during a February hearing.

“Indians are 318 percent more likely to die from diabetes, and 670 percent more likely to die from alcoholism. It’s 63 babies born in my tribe last year addicted to methamphetamine and that is just one tribe. Nationally, Indian country is under attack from crystal meth.”


“It’s probably almost reached epidemic proportions,” agrees Joe Garcia, president of the National Congress of American Indians and governor of New Mexico’s Ohkay Owingeh, “It’s crisis mode. Not just our crisis. It’s a crisis in the nation.”

On the Navajo Reservation this past week, an 81 year-old medicine woman was arrested on suspicion of dealing meth with her daughter and granddaughter. Ninety-four percent of the tribal members who responded to a recent poll described the drug as a severe problem.

At the Gila River Indian Community, tradition counselors oversee “talking circles” where addicts pass an eagle feather and sing native songs as part of spiritual therapy. The tribes also conduct anti-drug powwows and are building a $13 million residential center for modern treatment.

In New Mexico, the Ohkay Owingeh trive is reviving the ancient practice of banishment to remove meth dealers.

In North Carolina, the Eastern Band of Cherokees has a hotline to report dealers and to announce regular anti-drug rallies.

At Wyoming’s Wind River Reservation, 25 tribal members were busted last May in connection with a drug ring.

Young Shoshones and Arapahos were viewed as a fresh market by drug cartels, said Jeffrey Sweetin, regional special agent in charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“We had an organization headed by Mexican drug traffickers who specifically targeted the Wind River Reservation. Young kids get free drugs, and after a very few times they’ll grow into a user population. There’s an entire generation of Native Americans who are vanishing.”

As a result, even tribal leaders who might otherwise distrust outsiders are seeking help. In Arizona, DEA agents work with reservation police. Indian health care officials clamor for funding to pay for meth babies and stabbing victims. Social service directors plead for treatment programs.

On the San Carlos Reservation drug babies are now common, said Social Services Director Terry Ross. The most recent infant was born without feet to a 14 year old. “We just don’t have the resources“, he added as he helplessly shrugged his shoulders.

Native American officials nationwide report a meth-induced surge of violence, juvenile sex and drug babies. Federal authorities say foreign narcotics cartels are now targeting tribal lands as distribution beachheads.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Committee chairman, has scheduled a hearing on the meth epidemic for this coming week before the Indian Affairs Committee.

This column was edited for content and length from an article in the March 31st edition of The Arizona Republic bylined Dennis Wagner.

On A Personal Note - The meth-addicted baby born on the San Carlos Reservation without feet brings back the horror stories of the thalidomide epidemic of the early 1960s. At the time, drug experts were unaware of the birth defects caused by the popular sleeping pill which was also used to treat morning sickness in pregnant women.

Mothers who had taken thalidomide during the first trimester had children with a wide range of deformities including babies with no arms, flippers coming out of the baby’s shoulders, limbless trunks with toes extending from their hips, and babies with just a head and torso.

I am sincerely praying to God the Creator the San Carlos baby is a fluke and an exception to the rule among meth-addicted babies who are currently being born and going to be conceived during this current era of rampant drug abuse.

But if the drug does cause serious birth defects in pregnant addicts, its use sends up another “red flag” that the current epidemic has to be brought under control as quickly as possible. This has become a national emergency equal to the terrorism threat - b.

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.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.