Cool Six Nations Title Holders Serve Notice Of Seizure

Submitted by the Western Shoshone Defense Project

The following is a "Notice of Seizure" of the 50 windmills illegally built by Canadian Hydro Developers on Haldimand Tract land of the Six Nations. Those Women Title Holders are cool and cheeky, eh?

From: Women Title Holders of the Kanion’ke:haka Nation
%17A Mill Street
Hornings Mills, Ontario L0N 1J0
Thahokehoteh@mohawknationnews.com
519-925-9695

REGISTERED MAIL
July 28, 2006.

To: Canadian Hydro Developers Inc.
Suite 500, 1324-17th Ave. SW
Calgary, Alberta T7T 5S8

Attention: Ms. Ann Hughes, Executive Vice-President & Kent Brown, Chief Financial Officer

Notice of Seizure by Six Nations Women Title Holders of “Melancthon Wind Farm” illegally built on “Haldimand Tract” at the source of the Grand River (Ontario Canada)

Dear Sirs:

According to Wampum 44 of our constitution, the Kaianereh’ko:wa/Great Law, the women are the title holders of our land. Title to our land is vested in the people through the women. We sent Canadian Hydro Developers Inc. a notice on February 6, 2006, objecting to your violation of our constitutional jurisdiction on our land known as the “Haldimand Tract”. Your company built 50 windmills on our land to create energy for the non-native market. Your incursion is also a violation of international law.

Canadian Hydro Developers never consulted us nor asked us, the title holders, for our consent to enter our land and develop your wind mill project on Kanion’ke:haka territory. You were put on notice in November 2005 to discuss this project with the land owners even before you started construction. It is not only unsurrendered land, but according to our constitution it cannot be sold.

The windmills on our land are now attached to the soil. According to law they become part of the land. They cannot be removed. As the owners of the land we are now the owners of the windmills.

We would be glad to meet with you to discuss the full transfer of the project over to us since we now own it. We wish to explain the interests of the Six Nations people on the Indigenous territory in question so that you will fully understand our position. Also, we would like to inform you on the protocols and procedures required to deal with us on a nation-to-nation basis in the future.

Yours truly,

Kahentinetha /s/ ________________

Katenies /s/ ____________________

Cc: All media; Dalton McGuinty, Premier, Ontario, Queen’s Park, Toronto Ontario M7A 1A1; Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister, Government of Canada, Ottawa, Canada; Toronto Stock Exchange; Montreal Stock Exchange; New York Stock Exchange; Tokyo Stock Exchange; London Stock Exchange; Hong Kong Stock Exchange; Zurich Stock Exchange; Six Nations Confederacy Chiefs; and so on...

INDN's List Celebrates OKLA Primary Victories
July 26, 2006

INDN’s List candidates Scott BigHorse, Chuck Hoskin and Al McAffrey swept their Oklahoma primaries today. INDN’s List’s fourth endorsed candidate in Oklahoma, John Sparks, advanced to a run-off to represent the 16th District in the Oklahoma State Senate.

“These are more than victories for INDN’s List. These are victories for Oklahomans that lack healthcare and work for wages below poverty level. These are victories for our children in failing public schools. These are victories for our small farms and businesses that struggle to compete with large out-of-state corporations. Today, from Vinita to Pawhuska to Oklahoma City, the voters resoundingly said that they have had enough of regressive policies in the Oklahoma State House, and that they are ready for change,” INDN’s List president Kalyn Free said.

BigHorse, Osage candidate for Oklahoma House District 36, is a social worker who has worked with troubled youth of rural Oklahoma for the past five years. “At my job and while living in rural Oklahoma, I’ve seen a lot of problems with our education, rural emergency and health care systems,” BigHorse stated. “I’m glad the voters have confidence that I can translate these experiences into change.”

Hoskin, Cherokee candidate for Oklahoma House District 6, is retired from the U.S. Navy and the public school system. He currently serves on the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council. “This is a critical time at the Oklahoma State Capitol,” Hoskin said. “Education and Medicaid were attacked by Republican House members this year. Small businesses are being ignored. It’s time for a change in Oklahoma City and I’m ready to work to make sure that those without a voice, those in rural Oklahoma, have a fighter at the Capitol who will stand up for all of rural Oklahoma.”

McAffrey, a member of the Choctaw Nation and now the Oklahoma House Representative for District 88 due to the fact that there is no general election challenger, said “We celebrate our victory tonight in large part due to the help of INDN’s List. I thank all of you who have supported INDN’s List and hope you will renew your commitment to INDN’s List by donating today to give Chuck Hoskin and Scott BigHorse the resources they need to win their general elections in November. I need Chuck and Scott to join me and the other three Indian Democrats in the State House to bring our Democratic and Native American values to the Oklahoma State Legislature.”

Sparks, a member of the Cherokee Nation, who owns a business dedicated to improving access to medical care for children, senior citizens and those recovering from mental illness, will now advance to a run-off election for the Oklahoma State Senate. “I know, and a lot of voters know,” Sparks said, “that Oklahoma needs to be in a place that it is not. We need to improve our economy and increase the minimum wage. We need to move up from our place at 48th in the nation for teacher pay to attract new teachers. We need to move down from our place at 5th in the nation for hav ing the highest uninsured population. I am determined to work with my Senate colleagues to ensure that Oklahoma moves forward.”

Thanks to all of your support, we are changing the faces and color of political power in Oklahoma.

National Governors Association Convention
Submitted by the Western Shoshone Defense Project

CALL TO ACTION!

This weekend, while United States governors are milling around in luxuriant hotels and admiring old slave plantations, residents in the coalfield regions of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, are experiencing firsthand the dire effects of mountaintop removal coal mining. Because of the indifference and complicity of the governors of these states, over 500 square miles of forested mountains have been leveled in southern Appalachia, lost forever to the greed of politicians and businessmen.

So while America’s state leaders are patting each other on the back and rubbing shoulders with obscenely wealthy corporate executives, let’s get out there and let them know that we’re not going to sit idly by while they reduce the natural world to coal dust and capital returns!

Come to Charleston, South Carolina, August 4th-6th! Join coalfield citizens and community activists as we confront the injustices perpetrated by a government driven by profit. With creative irreverence and insightful confrontation, we will hold our supposed representatives accountable -to their peers and to the public- for their insatiable appetite for industrial expansion, and the havoc it wrecks on the land and people of Appalachia!

For more information & details of the weekend’s actions:

Email: MTNcommunityinfo@riseup.net
Call: 843-723-5203

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.

Energy Department Plans Reorganization - A Questionable Move

Submitted by the Western Shoshone Defense Project

By Nancy Zuckerbrod - Associated Press Writer – July 21st

Washington – The Energy Department is moving forward with a plan to revamp an office focused on environmental issues and the health and safety of the agency’s workers despite criticism that it should remain independent.

Under the plan, the Office of Environment, Safety and Health would be combined with an office that focuses on security, though some of its functions would go to other divisions within the department.

Energy spokeswoman, Megan Barnett, said the change would bring more focus and attention to issues that are critical to the agency.

“Integrating health, safety and security policy and oversight into one organization will be better enable the department to accomplish its mission safely, security and effectively”, she said.

New Mexico Governor, Bill Richardson who was energy secretary in the Clinton administration, recently sent a letter Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman criticizing the proposal saying the office in charge of setting health and safety rules for employees and for issuing environmental impact statements ought to remain independent.

Republican Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky and Democratic Senator Edward M. Kennedy also have raised concerns.

“Sen. Bunning has serious concerns over the Department of Energy’s proposal to move the Office of Environment, Safety and Health, and he will take a very close look at the draft released today,” Bunning spokesman, Mike Reynard said.

“This office is vital to making sure workers at DOE facilities who suffered illnesses as a result of their service to our nation during the Cold War receive just compensation, and he does not want them lost in the shuffle,” Reynard added.


THE RULES OF HOLLYWOOD
'If You Want a Mobster Role, You Need to Go to Temple – All Indian Roles are taken by Italians'

By Howard Mann
Howard Mann is an actor and stand-up comedian.
July 23, 2006

Nobody who works in the industry endures more rejections than an actor. I should know. I've been an actor and comic for more than 40 years and have probably been turned down more times than a blanket. But as bad as these rejections have been, they don't compare to what an ethnic actor goes through.

Years ago, I had an actor friend, John, who happened to be a Native American. We were having lunch one day when he said: "Howie, things are OK with me now. But when I first came out here back in the '40s, I couldn't get a job. I went over to Republic studios. They were doing hundreds of westerns then. I figured I'm a cinch to get an Indian part.

"Sorry," the casting director tells me. "You don't look Indian enough."

"I don't look Indian enough? I happen to be a full-blooded Sioux!"

"So what? You still don't look Indian enough."

"So if I don't look Indian enough, who does?"

"Italians."

"What?"

"You heard me. We only use Italians for Indian parts. They look more Indian than the Indians."

"Well, if Italians are doing Indian parts, maybe I could play an Italian.""No, we use other people for the Italian parts."

"Who?"

"Jews. They play all Italian gangsters. Paul Muni, Edward G. Robinson, John Garfield. All Jewish."

John told the guy he didn't understand.

"Look," the Republic guy said, "Jews look more Italian than Italians. I was in Rome last summer. I didn't see one Italian who looked how an Italian is supposed to look. They had blond hair, fair skin, high cheekbones."

John said, "Howie, I asked the guy, 'If Italians play Indians and Jews play Italians, then who plays Jews'?"

He said, "WASPs. Who played David? Gregory Peck. Who played Charlton Heston's mother in "Ben-Hur"? Martha Scott."

John pounded the guy's desk and told him: "OK, Italians play Indians, Jews play Italians, WASPs play Jews. Let me play an Oriental. After all, Indians came over from Asia."

He said the guy apologized. "White guys play Orientals. Who played Charlie Chan? Warner Oland. Who played Mr. Moto? Peter Lorre. Who played Chinese dames for years? Myrna Loy."

Johnny seemed exhausted. The waiter came with the check. I paid. It was the least I could do. I asked him how he managed to stay in the business.

"I got the idea that if Italians are grabbing all the Indian parts, I would become Italian. I changed my name from John to Giovanni. I learned to think like them, dress like them, walk like them. I was ready. I went up for a part in the movie 'Little Big Man,' starring Dustin Hoffman".

"The casting guy asked me my name. I told him I was Giovanni and could play any Indian part he had. The guy gets up from his chair. 'I'm sorry,' he says. 'Things have changed. We only use authentic Native Americans today . . . people like Iron Eyes Cody, Graham Greene, Chief Dan George. Now if you were a genuine Indian, I'd hire you on the spot'."

John said he couldn't take it. "I screamed at the guy, "But I'm a full-blooded Sioux. I am an authentic Indian. I am the realest Indian you'll ever find."

He said the casting guy laughed in his face. "You actors," he said. "You'll say anything to get a part."

I found this piece on Indianz and thought this bit of ethnic humor might be appropriate for those who remember the early days of Hollywood, like I do. I used to get so angry when I would see Italian actors riding bareback in a Western.

It's also dedicated to Native actor, Mark Reed - Bobbie.

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.

Bear Butte Update

PLEASE Get this message to Bear Butte (WHITE PLUMES),

Riders from Standing Rock from the Hunkpapa Lakota nation are coming. They passed through Martin yesterday morning. They have been riding at night time to. They passed through Martin SD yesterday morning and left towards west on highway 18. Their plan is to reach Bear Butte by the 1st. Please get this to the White Plumes and other horse riders who may want to escort them too to Bear Butte.

I tried to contact Debra White Plume but all her mailboxes for messages are full. I will be there in a few days also. Mitakuye Oyasin
Jeanne Bedell
http://www.geocities.com/mashkikinabinais

BBIA wrote:
A MEASURING WALK FOR FREEDOM is to take place this Sunday, July 30 at 5 PM. starting at the Rosebud Sioux Tribal campground at the base of Bear Butte.

Announcement reads: Come join us as we walk from Bear Butte to Jay Allen’s new business (the largest biker bar in the world), measuring with our steps the distance between this sacred mountain and the mega-party venue.

We are asking for a no-development four-mile buffer zone to ensure that Native Americans can continue to use the mountain for sacred purposes as they have since time immemorial.

Six PM-Return to camp for a Community Dinner!This makes two great consecutive Sunday events, first the Bear Butt Solidarity Dinner last Sunday and this upcoming event.

Do come join the walk, there is a lot of misinformation put out by developers regarding the distances and noise impacts onto the sacred mountain, Mato Paha.

Here is a short photo walk on the stretch of highway 79 between Coyote Lane and Jay Allen’s Sturgis County Line south border. (See ourweb page, this update includes thumbnail photos posted to our websiteat www.matopaha.org ).

The asphalt has been laid, raising the temperature on a parched prairie. Allen’s neighbors just across highway 79 from the holding tank, where hauled water is to be stored, have a picture window view of emergency vehicles. Remember the July 8 work crew fire.

It is good to see the Northern Cheyenne greeting and tipi. REMEMBER YOUR NEIGHBOR ALLEN!

Please Help- Bring water, food, your lawn chairs and any tipis or even tipi poles. There are a few tipis that do not have poles. This is a peaceful camp so remember this was started with a prayer! - Jeanne

Bush Signs Voting Rights Act Extension
Submitted by Daniel Levitas, Atlanta GA, ACLU

President George Bush signed the Voting Rights Act 25-year extension into law yesterday, July
27th.

To read a brief summary of events related to the signing containing links to the text of the bill, the White House transcript of Bush's remarks and links to other news reports analyzing passage of H.R. 9, see:

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/07/bush-signs-bill-extending-voting.php

To read the ACLU's statement on the signing of H.R. 9, visit the following link:

http://www.aclu.org/votingrights/gen/26259prs20060727.html

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.

No, Pebble Mine Isn't My Neighbor, BUT

Proposed project would benefit Outside interests to the detriment of Native people.
Submitted by the Western Shoshone Defense Project
By Frances A. Nelson

The Pebble Mine project is a controversial proposal, an initiative of Northern Dynasty Mines Inc, to build a very large open pit mine in Southwestern Alaska near Lake Iliamna.

Is the proposed Pebble Mine my neighbor? No, my neighbors are NewStuyahok, Ekwok, Portage Creek and other surrounding villages. I have alot of respect for my neighbors - my neighbors respect me. We respect each other's traditional and ancestral land-use rights. These lands are primarily used for subsistence by me and my neighbors. Isn't theproposed Pebble Mine on traditional and ancestral lands?

When Northern Dynasty responds to public comment, it responds by saying that people are basing their decisions on information that is not accurate or not correct. We all can't have incorrect and inaccurate information.

Too many times I've seen Native Americans removed from their traditional and ancestral lands so others can develop the land. I've also seen lands developed near or on lands occupied by Native Americans. How do NativeAmericans benefit from the development of their traditional and ancestral lands? They don't. Isn't Northern Dynasty a Canadian company?If the proposed Pebble Mine was developed, who would receive the big dividends?

Developers promise to contribute to the local economy, public organizations, educational and health institutions, and they always promise big bucks. I believe they employ a few local residents and donate to a few local organizations and institutions. When the resources have dwindled to almost nothing, they leave.

Now, Northern Dynasty is saying that we do not want development in our region. Who will benefit, who will profit the most from "development" in our region? In the case of the Pebble Mine, the beneficiaries would be the Canadians. So, of course, Northern Dynasty will continue to try and persuade people to support the mine and it will continue to try and persuade us that what it's doing is environmentally safe and our"renewable resources" will be protected.

What are residents left with after "development" such as open-pit mining? My concern is for the land, water, wildlife, plants and, most importantly, people.

When developers leave, there is a high rate of unemployment. In some communities, water is contaminated and people buy their water at the grocery store. People can no longer subsist off the land and water, because the land and water is polluted and the wildlife, fish and plants are no longer safe to eat. There are high rates of sickness, such as cancer. There is a high rate of death and a high rate of drug and alcohol abuse. What I am most afraid of is a high rate of suicide among the youth.

We will risk so much, so others (Canadians) can benefit.

So many Native Americans have given up their traditional and ancestral land-use rights or their rights have been taken from them. I cannot sitback and allow this to happen here.

I am a part of a federally recognized tribe, which has the right to self-determination. We have the right to self-government. We have th right to determine our own relations with other nations and other peoples. We have the right to preserve our culture, language and spirituality.

I believe that our tribal government is doing OK here in Koliganek. Our families and elders have worked hard to protect us and our way of life.They have also provided for our needs and taught us our culture.

We, as a Native people, have lived in harmony with the land, fish and wildlife. We are the traditional stewards and caretakers of this land. Our connection to the land, fish and wildlife is an important part of our identity as Yup'ik people. For us to remain on this land, we need subsistence.

Some people might not think that we, as Native people, are not advancing fast enough. I believe we are. People from Koliganek are doing very well. Some are teachers, administrators, fisherman, accountants, retail workers and more. There are some who serve or who have successfully completed service with the U.S. Armed Forces.

We are educating ourselves, we are working, and we are contributing to our economy, our state and our country. We are not a suffering and impoverished people as some people think of us as. We are thriving!

*Frances A. Nelson is a resident of Koliganek.

INDN's List Announces Endorsements In MT & OK

We at INDN’s List are proud to announce our endorsement of Norma Bixby for Montana State House, Carol Juneau for Montana State Senate and John Sparks for Oklahoma State Senate. INDN’s List is the only national organization dedicated to recruiting, training and electing Democratic Indians to public office.

“These are key races in Montana and Oklahoma and Norma, Carol and John are well-qualified candidates” Kalyn Free, president of INDN’s List, said. “They, along with our other endorsed candidates, represent the values and vision of INDN’s List and I am proud to place the full support of INDN’s List behind these candidates.”

During her past three terms in the Montana legislature, Norma Bixby, a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, has taken on issues from which other legislators shied away. She has stood up to the Republican House leadership on issues ranging from water quality to public-assistance programs that affect Montanans’ daily lives. She holds an associate’s degree in early childhood education, a bachelor’s degree in elementary administration from Montana State University at Billings, and a m aster’s degree in administration from New Mexico State University. She served as a school board chairwoman and worked for the Dull Knife Memorial College. She is currently director of the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Education Department.

Carol Juneau views her job in the legislature much like she has viewed her other positions, as one of an educator, teaching people what is wrong and what needs to be done about it. Juneau created Browning school system’s “Stay in School” program to save at-risk teens that are in danger of dropping out of school. She proposed legislation that would allow students to stay in high school longer and offer a GED in the classroom. She played a critical role in the passage of the “Indian Education for All” Act, which requires Montana schools to teach Indian culture and heritage in state class rooms.

After focusing on healthcare as a lawyer with two Oklahoma law firms, John Sparks founded Corner Post to make medical care accessible to the most vulnerable among us: children, senior citizens, and those recovering from mental illness. His work brings him into close contact with the needs of other ordinary Oklahomans. Seeing the challenges faced by working families, Sparks has endorsed raising the minimum wage in Oklahoma. Sparks has built a lifetime of service from small town Sulphur, Oklahoma to Washington, D.C. and back. The experiences he has gained make him the ideal representative for the residents of District 16. Already a valuable asset to so many Oklahomans, electing Sparks will bring his commitment and initiative to the halls of the state capitol where they are so needed.

With your support, Sparks can translate his experience working in health care into legislation to help all Oklahomans!

These candidates have a proven record of standing up for our values and helping the least fortunate among us. Their records speak for themselves, but your continued support is necessary to ensure that we get their stories out to the voters and send these three fine candidates to the Oklahoma and Montana legislatures.

ACLU Voting Rights Act Renewal Update
Submitted by Daniel Levitas
ACLU, Atlanta, GA
July 26, 2007

President George Bush will sign H.R. 9, "The Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006" into law tomorrow morning, Thursday, July 27.

The bill signing follows the unanimous passage (on a vote of 98-0) on July 20 in the U.S. Senate of H.R. 9. The measure had previously passed out of the House of Representatives (on a vote of 390-33) on July 13, 2006.

The bill signing caps a two-year effort by the ACLU and an array of civil rights and voting rights advocates to renew the expiring provisions of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA).

Despite the efforts of a small group of dissident Southern Republicans to gut the VRA, voting rights advocates and their bi-partisan allies in Congress succeeded in defeating all the weakening amendments that had been proposed to H.R. 9.

Among other things these proposed amendments would have: gutted enforcement of Section 5, by severely limiting the number of covered jurisdictions; stripped the law of Section 203, the language assistance provisions of the act; permitted the automatic “bailout” of hundreds of covered jurisdictions, thereby further weakening Section 5; and shortened the time frame for VRA renewal from 25 years to 10.

Instead, the expiring provisions of the VRA have not only been renewed for another 25 years, but also strengthened to counter the effects of several U.S. Supreme Court decisions that undermined the effectiveness of the VRA and ran counter to the original legislative intent of Congress.

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.

Summit Of Indigenous Nations -

August 1-4, 2006 at Mato Paha: Bear Butte

Hosted by the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council
(the lakota, dakota, nakota people known historically as the Great Sioux Nation
of the 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty Territory)

A Gathering from the Four Directions to Protect our Collective Destiny as Spiritual, Sovereign Indigenous Peoples’ of the Sacred Red Earth

Sacred Land Desecration & Protection Work by NGO’s:
· Bear Butte: Intertribal Coalition to Defend Bear Butte, Lakota Action Network, Bear Butte International Alliance
· Western Shoshone Defense Project: Ruby Valley Treaty Land Struggle & Divine Strake
· Save the Peaks: Sacred Mountains of the Southwest
· Black Mesa Water Coalition: Sacred Water
· Bring Back the Way: Crying Earth Rise Up! Contaminated Water on the Pine Ridge
· Tona Tierra: Protecting Sacred Lands/Ways of Life
· Ecuador Indigenous Peoples
· Snow Bowl in Canada: Sacred Mountain Desecration
· Buffalo Field Campaign
· Six Nations: Sovereign Land Protection
· Human Rights & Sacred Sites: American Indian Law Alliance & Owe Aku
· Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Indian Law Resource Center
(more delegations are being confirmed daily)
Indigenous Issues: Ancient Way of Life Protection Work
· Papal Bull Doctrine of Discovery
· Principles of Agreement: International Covenant
· Indigenous Peoples’ Trade Agreement
· Treaty Making and Treaty Reaffirmations
· International Trade & Borders Between Indigenous Nations

GOALS of the SUMMIT
· Collective Decision to Work Together: Principles of Agreement Covenant, International Diplomacy
· Collective Action to Protect Sacred Land & Ways of Life*
· Treaty Councils: International Treaty of Peace and Friendship
· Tribal Government Action to Support the Goals of the Summit

East of Sturgis, SD on Highway 79: two miles north of the bear butte state park entrance, primitive campground at the rosebud sioux tribal lodge. bring your tipi, sleeping bag, chair. meals provided. Vendors Welcome. Security provided by Bring Back the Way.

Summit of Nations At Bear Butte – August 1st-4th
For more info – contact lakota1@gwtc.net

July 4th Gathering of Nations To Defend Bear Butte
Opening Ceremonies
by Debra White Plume writing from Bear Butte

Six men entered the arbor, each carrying a staff that represented a Sun DanceSociety, the Brave Heart Society, the Intertribal Coalition to DefendBear Butte, the Kit Fox Society, Viet Nam Veterans, and a Dream Staff.

The pounding of the drum and the words to an ancient prayer song led the men into the circle at Mato Paha, Bear Butte, for the Opening Ceremonies of the Gathering of Nationsto Defend Bear Butte.

The Fourth of July activities were a celebration of the survival of our way of life, and provided the opportunity for everyone to begin the dialogue of working collectively to protect our sacred lands, and thus, our ways of life.

Chief Oliver Red Cloud spoke to the hundreds of people gathered there in the hot, blinding sun that was made even hotter by the blowing winds that rarely cease swirling around Mato Paha. He reminded all that this land is 1851 and 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty Land, retained by our ancestors and our Cheyenne and Arapaho allies for us and our generations.

A noted historian in the West, Rex Allan Smith, told stories of his young manhood when he knew and spoke with our Grandfathers when they were middle-aged men telling of their war stories: Battle of the Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn), Wagon Box Fight, Battle of 100 Dead.

He also spoke of how it is important for not only Indians but the SD and US citizens to protect bear Butte from the continuing encroachment. Smith spoke of the dignity of the Lakota people and urged all to continue that dignity in spite of the oppression facing thepeople and the land today.

Many speakers shared their wisdom, courage, and respect that day. Rosalie Little Thunder, Lakota leader and activist, spoke of how we learn humanity from this Mountain. Attorneys Tom Van Norman and Bruce Ellison addressed the crowd regarding their lawsuit seeking a referendum vote in Meade County for liquor/malt beverage licenses.

Nick Tilsen on the Lakota Action Network spoke of how many tribal nations and traditional people came together to fight the beer and liquor licenses for the Broken Spoke Saloon owner Jay Allen, the Glencoe Campground expansion of owner Gary Lippold, and how the Meade County Commissioners voted unanimously to approve those applications in the face of opposition of not only tribal nations, but many Meade County residents as well.

He said he was traveling that day to the Indigenous Environmental Network conference as Cass Lake, Minnesota and would word of the Gathering of Nations to Defend Bear Butte to allies over there.
Families from many tribal nations, traditional societies, spiritual societies, and many American environmentalist groups and individuals had been at Mato Paha for days, some for weeks, preparing the campground for the Gathering's OpeningCeremonies.

Many will stay for the Summit of Nations on August 1-4, some will leave to return home, and be back again as time permits. Some traveled for days only to stay and pray for a day or two. All came with the strongest weapon of all – love for the land and ancient way of life.

There was a Making of Relatives ceremony, Bucky Means from the Cheyenne RiverSioux Tribe took Alex White Plume, Oglala Lakota, from Pine Ridge, as his Uncle,to fill the vacancy in his life, he said, from the deaths of his Uncles.

Amid the many tents, tipis, and RV's, people talked and laughed awaiting thesupper meal of buffalo soup and fry bread. Following the meal, the evening hours were devoted to the young people at camp. There were many songs shared by Jenny Ghost Bear, a young Mayan couple from Mexico, James Roy, Misun Bowker, and speeches by Wani Loud Hawk, TJ Afraid of Hawk, Vic Camp, Russell Blacksmith and many others.

The older folks sat under the arbor or by their nearby camps, watching the brilliant, beautiful Star Nation move slowly across the sky.

TJ Afraid of Hawk spoke of a day when she was faced with folks on her "rez" whowere casting doubt on the organizing work she was doing around the issue ofstopping the desecration of Bear Butte. She said her daughter was holding a rose,and she pointed the rose at her mothers' heart and said, "this is yourheart, you pray with your heart; this is your head, you think with your brain; useyour heart and your brain, and never give up".

Unknown to TJ and her young daughter, many grandmothers in camp shed quiet tears, their hearts strengthened by this young girl who encouraged her mother, and us all, with her words of wisdom.

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.

Virginia Tribes Seek Place In U.S. History Through Trip To England

Submitted by the Western Shoshone Defense Project
By Brigid Schulte
Washington Post Staff Writer
July 13, 2006

In the history books, there is the story of Pocahontas, the lovely Indian maiden who became a Christian, married an Englishman in Virginia and sailed away with him to England. Beyond that, there is little mention of the Virginia Indians who greeted the first settlers.

It is as if an entire Indian nation that had lived here for thousands of years had simply vanished.

And so it was with a measure of astonishment to some onlookers that the chiefs of Virginia's eight remaining tribes and many of their members gathered yesterday at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington in a "departure ceremony" to bless their trip to England -- the first major delegation to make the trip since that day, centuries ago, when Pocahontas sailed.

"I thought these people were annihilated, that they'd died of smallpox or were moved," said Kimberly Harris, expressing a common sentiment, as she watched a parade of dancers in fringed buckskin, turkey feathers, porcupine headdresses, beaded bolo ties, breastplates of bone and necklaces of cowry shells and seeds. One wore a beaded Miss Chickahominy crown. The dancers stepped rhythmically to the pound of drums and chants as they symbolically spread corn, a welcoming gesture, in their dance.

Harris, 50, grew up in the District. Other than the legend of Pocahontas, she had learned little else about local tribes. "To see all these chiefs here in their traditional dress -- to see that these people are still here -- it's thrilling," she said.

Virginia's Native Americans are still here, though in greatly diminished numbers than the 40 tribes that were around in 1607 when settlers established the first permanent English colony at Jamestown. And if awareness of the Virginia Indians is all that comes of this historic trip to England as part of Jamestown's 400th anniversary festivities, to Stephen Adkins, chief of the Chickahominy tribe, the trip will have been a success.

"People like to say that post-mid-17th century, there were no Virginia Indians," Adkins said. "We're going to dispel that notion. We've been kind of the best-kept secret in Virginia for 400 years."

The idea for the trip, as well as its funding, came from the British foundation involved in the Jamestown anniversary planning.

Although the English are interested in promoting ties and tourism between Virginia and Kent County, where the Jamestown settlers sailed from, organizer Alex King sees the same opportunity for self-definition that Adkins does. "It's about carving an identity, isn't it," he said. "And presenting themselves to the world in a way that certainly they haven't done for, what, more than 200 years."

The Virginia tribes have been so invisible, Adkins said, that although they were the first tribes the colonists encountered four centuries ago, they have yet to be officially recognized by the federal government -- unlike 562 other tribes, primarily in the West, that are considered sovereign nations. Those tribes are offered federal health, education and housing benefits.

Six of the eight Virginia tribes are lobbying Congress for that federal recognition. Their motto: "First to welcome. Last to be recognized."

Indeed, not only were they neglected in history books, but in 1924 a "racial integrity policy" virtually erased Virginia Indians. That policy, born of the eugenics movement, declared that Virginia had two races only, white and black. The policy was not overturned until a 1967 Supreme Court decision.

Adkins has been criticized for agreeing to participate in the trip to England."I get asked all the time, mostly by other Indians, 'How can you participate in something that heralded the demise of 90 percent of your people by the end of the century?' " Adkins said yesterday.

Many Native American leaders, in Virginia and elsewhere, also encouraged Virginia Indians to boycott all Jamestown 400th anniversary activities to protest their lack of recognition.
As a result of their protest, officials changed the name of the anniversary events from "celebration" to "commemoration."

Adkins, who is on the federal commission planning the anniversary, vehemently disagreed. And yesterday's ceremony -- an elaborate news conference really -- was the reason. For the first time since the victors began writing the history books, TV cameras, radio microphones and photographers swarmed around Virginia's Native Americans, capturing their stories and letting all the world know they're still here.

"This is a chance to tell the world who we are," Adkins said.

It is time, Adkins said, to take the story back from the historians and Hollywood directors who have portrayed his people alternatively as ignorant savages or idyllic dwellers in a simple Garden of Eden. It is time to tell the truth of Chief Wahunsunacock, whom the English called Powhatan, and his daughter Matoaka, who was nicknamed Pocahontas, or "frolicsome child," and say a prayer over her grave at Gravesend, where she died in England at age 22.

It is time to acknowledge that without the Chickahominy and other Virginia tribes, the early settlers at Jamestown would surely have died of starvation.
"We consider Jamestown the cradle of American democracy," said Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), who, along with Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), attended the ceremony yesterday. "And that cradle was tended to by Virginia Indians."
Allen and Moran are sponsoring federal recognition bills in Congress to, they said, right an old wrong.

"It is time not to rewrite history but to set it straight," Adkins said.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company

First Peoples Human Rights Coalition (First Peoples Rights) contributes to a growing understanding that the inherent and inalienable rights of Indigenous peoples are human rights and need to be respected as such. The urgent on-the-ground challenges confronting us today require that more people, more of the time, be more familiar with the rights we do have.
firstpeoplesrights@earthlink.net


Voting Rights Act Passed By Congress
Submitted by Daniel Levitas.
Atlanta ACLU

After a full day of debate, the U.S. Senate voted 98 to 0 with no amendments to approve H.R. 9/S. 2703, the Voting Rights Act reauthorization legislation that civil rights advocates have been working on since last year. Both bills were formally introduced in Congress on May 2, 2006. H.R. 9 was voted out of the House of Representatives 390 to 33 on July 13, 2006,and the Senate Judiciary Committee passed S. 2703 yesterday 18 to 0, bringing the bill to the floor for today’s vote.

A more detailed analysis of the legislation and its impact will be forthcoming. This is a tremendous victory for civil rights advocates and all Americans.
Daniel Levitas

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.

To The Defenders Of Bear Butte: KNOW YOUR ADVERSARY!

Indianz.Com. In Print.
URL: http://www.indianz.com/News/2006/014935.asp

Man Plans Topless Contests At Bar Near Bear Butte
Friday, July 14, 2006
In addition to serving beer, a Bisbee, Arizona man is planning to hold topless contests at his biker bar near sacred Bear Butte in South Dakota.

Jay Allen bought the land near Bear Butte for $1 million. He's going to spend $3 million creating the bar and concert venue for the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally in August.

The plan has brought together an unusual coalition of Native activists, ranchers and Christians. Worried that the noise and crowds will disrupt ceremonies at Bear Butte, they are fighting the Meade County Commission over beer and liquor licenses issued for Allen's bar and another biker venue nearby.

But Allen isn't worried. "I'm not doing anything to degrade a mountain," he tells The Wall Street Journal. "I'm not backing down."

The Adventures And Misadventures of Jay Allen
as told to
Marni L. Kramer

“I want to be a Barnum and Bailey. I want to go to Europe, Asia and Japan to throw them a party like they’ve never seen,” exclaims Jay Allen, owner of the world-famous Broken Spoke Saloon. This is but one demonstration of Jay’s ambitious nature and his drive to make the Broken Spoke the most entertaining and comprehensive venue the biker world has ever seen. And it all stems from Jay’s passion for motorcycles.

Jay’s love affair with motorcycles began when he bought his first bike, a Suzuki 50. He paid a mere $8.00 for it and had it running within a matter of hours.

Jay, a lively and independent youth, often rode his bike unsupervised. Unfortunately, tragedy struck one day when he was hit by a car, breaking his femur in half. He was put in a body cast, was unable to walk for a year and had to be home-schooled. He was only thirteen years old.

But this incident did not squelch his zeal for the sport. When Jay could walk again, he used what little settlement money he received to buy a new bike, this time a 1959 Sportster. Because his mother would worry if she knew, Jay stored it at a friend’s house. Jay was now completely hooked and knew he’d be a rider for the rest of his life.

At the tender age of sixteen, Jay moved out of the house. By this time, he was working at the 7-11 and doing some movie work. This work involved riding horses for some “Lassie” flicks and learning the trade of a blacksmith. But he soon realized that shoeing horses for a living would not be good on his back and quit his apprenticeship.

Because Jay was thoroughly distracted with partying and motorcycling, he ended up bouncing around from Redding, CA, where he attended college, to New Orleans, LA, where he was a garbage man and then sold hotdogs on Bourbon Street. He finally ended up back in Los Angeles where he became a high-class male escort. By now, Jay was a person of the streets, living on his wits. But he didn’t want to live like that anymore. He knew he had to change his life, so he decided to move to Hawaii.

At the airport, Jay was robbed of all his money. He was scared, but this unfortunate incident was actually a turning point for him. “I really think that was God’s way of saying, ‘Jay, you’re gonna start again, you’re gonna start anew, and you’re starting with nothing. And this time, you’re gonna do it right—you’re gonna do it with integrity and honesty’,” Jay muses.

Jay arrived in Hawaii and hitchhiked to “The Pioneer” hotel where he met a kind lady named Ardelle. He told her of his plight and she put him up for the night. She even gave him a job bussing tables in her restaurant. Ardelle also informed him of a job opening for head banquet waiter at the Sheraton hotel. Since Jay had experience in this area, he was able to get the job. Here, he developed a knack for throwing parties and acquired a professional work ethic and the leadership abilities of a good boss. Jay had no idea at the time how these skills would come in handy one day.

Eventually, Jay decided to go to Alaska to work on the pipeline, and he bounced back and forth between the two states for a while. But in the end, he returned to the mainland.

While in Hawaii, Jay had been yearning to ride cycle, and a couple of guys in Maui had old Panheads. By the time he returned to California, the Redwood Run was in full swing. Jay vowed to never go without a bike again when he saw a couple thousand cycles gassing up to head north.

Jay went to the run where he met a young Arlen Ness, who would later become one of the gods of motorcycling. Ness had one of the baddest bikes Jay had ever seen, far beyond any stock Harley. Jay was now more determined than ever to get himself a hog.

This was remedied one day as Jay was driving down the street in his pick-up. He was listening to a show on the radio that was selling used appliances, when suddenly they announced that a ’62 Harley Davidson Panhead was for sale. Jay made a beeline to the nearest phone booth and dialed the number. He told the woman who answered that he was calling from a booth at the 76 gas station on State Street. Ironically, the woman discovered that she could see him from her apartment window. She told him to just drive behind the 76 because the bike was right there. Jay bought it on the spot and was able to join the run the following year.

It was pure fate to find a motorcycle at this point, and Jay used it to its advantage: he learned what it means to be a biker. He never missed a run and soon became a proficient rider, winning many rodeos and contests.

After a while, Jay and his wife, Claudia, started a willow furniture business and began working the craft show circuit as vendors. He met up with an old buddy of his, Peter Cline, who asked him if he’d ever been to Sturgis. Jay had heard of it, but had never been there. Cline suggested that Jay go to Sturgis, but warned him that he couldn’t sell furniture. So with the help of a man who made deerskin gloves, Jay designed a special riding glove that he sold at the rally. Jay fell in love with Sturgis and the Broken Spoke, which he patronized as often as possible.

In the meantime, Jay also bought and sold used motorcycles from around the country. This was a lucrative venture until others saw his good fortune and began doing the same. As a result, he was slowly choked out of business. However, a new opportunity arose: a chance to buy the Broken Spoke.

Initially, Jay heard out in San Diego that the Spoke was for sale. He contacted Dave Iverson, the original owner, thinking that maybe he could sell it for him. Jay could always sell something he truly believed in, and Dave and he soon arranged to meet.

When Dave learned that Jay was a motorcycle enthusiast and had his own collection of bikes, he offered to sell him the bar. Although Dave already had a prospective buyer out of Texas, he felt that Jay was the right person to take over the business he had spent so long in developing. He believed Jay would do well because he understood the lifestyle and would do it for the right reasons. This key ingredient is a major factor in the success the B.S.S. enjoys today. Jay says as much himself. “We are the biggest biker bar on the face of the planet earth, and we’re not only the biggest, but I really believe we’re the best because we do it for all the right reasons,” he declares.

So fate was fulfilled and Jay bought the Broken Spoke Saloon.

“The timing couldn’t have been more perfect—I swear, the Guy Upstairs kind of said, ‘This adventure is over and here’s your new adventure’,” Jay comments.

Because Jay had worked in banquets, was an experienced vendor and also a rider, he was well prepared to take over the Spoke. Jay began his ownership by giving his customers all those things he himself would want as a rider and customer: good customer service, stimulating conversation, ice-cold beer and top-notch entertainment.

Over the years, Jay has waxed philosophical about the business. “It’s not about the dollars and cents, it’s not about the beer sales,” he asserts. “It’s truly about making the memories. And I hope that I go down as one of the baddest-ass motherf**ker memory-makers on the face of the planet earth.”

In fact, when all is said and done, he wants to be remembered as a man who has contributed to the history of motorcycling, the evolution of the trend, and the love and the passion for the lifestyle. Jay wants to have made a difference in people’s lives and to have made his mark on the motorcycle world. And through the Broken Spoke Saloon, Jay has done just that.

Broken Spoke Saloons are in:
Sturgis, South Dakota
Dayton, Florida
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Laconia, New Hampshire

ALEX WHITE PLUME - PRESS RELEASE

On Thursday July 20, 2006 at 10am at the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Bear Butte Lodge there will be a Press Conference called by Alex White Plume, President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Floyd Hand, Delegate of the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council, Carter Camp, one of the Coordinators of the Intertribal Coalition to Defend Bear Butte, and Chief Oliver Red Cloud of the Oglala Band of the Lakota Nation.

The Press Conference is held in order for President White Plume to announce that his office is calling for a Congressional Hearing regarding the development occurring near Bear Butte, a National Historic Site that is also a South Dakota State Park as well as considered as a sacred mountain to the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) people of his tribe as well as many other Indian Nations. President White Plume’s office has received many requests from other Tribe’s who are also involved in work to protect what they consider to be sacred land, and who will be attending the Summit of Indigenous Nations scheduled for August 1-4 at Bear Butte.

Carter Camp of the Intertribal Coalition to Defend Bear Butte, Floyd Hand, Buffalo Chief Spiritual Leader, and Chief Oliver Red Cloud will announce the Summit of Indigenous Nations which will gather activists and Tribal Leaders from across North America who are involved in working to protect what they consider to be sacred land, and which in many cases, is territory identified in Treaties with the United States.

The Intertribal Coalition to Defend Bear Butte has received many notices from grassroots environmental groups as well as social justice organizations that are inquiring about working collectively to call for Senate Hearings in the State of South Dakota. This will be discussed at the Press Conference as well, on Thursday July 20, 2006 at 10am at the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Lodge are Bear Butte, right off Highway 79, two miles past the entrance to the Bear Butte State Park entrance.

Currently the Gathering of Nations to Defend Bear Butte is encamped at the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Bear Butte Lodge conducting spiritual ceremonies with the tribal members encamped there, who are also in preparation for the Summit of Indigenous Nations. There are approximately 150 tribal members at camp, with several local and national environmentalist groups, and Christian groups, including the Christian Peacemaker Team, encamped as well.

Please call 605-867-4021 for Joe Red Cloud, Assistant to President White Plume, if you have questions or comments.

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 Bemidji Statement On Seventh Generation Guardianship

Part 2
Submitted by the Western Shoshone Defense Project
"The first mandate.... is to ensure that our decision-making is guided by consideration of the welfare and well being of the seventh generation to come."

Indigenous Peoples have learned over thousands of years to live in harmony with the land and the waters. It is our intent to survive and thrive on this planet for this and many generations to come. This survival depends on a living web of relationships in our communities and lands, among humans, and others. The many Indigenous Peoples and cultures from throughout the world are threatened by the disruption of these relationships.

The exploitation and industrialization of the land and water have altered the relationships that have sustained our Indigenous communities. These changes have accelerated in recent years. We are now experiencing the consequences of these actions with increased cancer and asthma rates, suicides, and reproductive disorders in humans, as well as increased hardships of hunting and of whaling. Places that we hold to be sacred have been repeatedly disturbed and destroyed. In animals and in nature we see changing migratory patterns, diseased fish, climate change, extinction of species, and much more.

Government agencies and others in charge of protecting the relationships between our people, the land, air, and water have repeatedly broken treaties and promises. In doing so, they have failed in their duty to uphold the tribal and the public trust. The many changes in these relationships have been well documented, but science remains inadequate for fully understanding their origins and essence. This scientific uncertainty has been misused to carry out economic, cultural, and political exploitation of the land and resources. Failure to recognize the complexity of these relationships will further impair the future health of our people and function of the environment.

We value our culture, knowledge, and skills. They are valuable and irreplaceable assets to all of humanity, and help to safe guard the world. The health and well being of our grandchildren are worth more than all the wealth that can be taken from these lands.

By returning to the collective empowerment and decision making that is part of our history, we are able to envision a future that will restore and protect the inheritance of this, and future generations. Therefore, we will designate Guardians for the Seventh Generation.

Who guards this web of life that nurtures and sustains us all?
Who watches out for the land, the sky, the fire, and the water?
Who watches out for our relatives that swim, fly, walk, or crawl?
Who watches out for the plants that are rooted in our Mother Earth?
Who watches out for the life-giving spirits that reside in theunderworld?
Who tends the languages of the people and the land?
Who tends the children and the families?
Who tends the peacekeepers in our communities?

*******
We tend the relationships.
We work to prevent harm.
We create the conditions for health and wholeness.
We teach the culture and we tell the stories.

We have the sacred right and obligation to protect the common wealth of our lands and the common health of our people and all our relations for this generation and seven generations to come. We are the Guardians for the Seventh Generation.

*******
"As guardians of the wards over which they were appointed, the manitous [spirits] could withhold from hunters permission or opportunity to kill." --Basil Johnston, The Manitous.

Contacts:Shawna Larson, Environmental Justice Coordinator,
IEN/Alaska Community Action on Toxics, Anchorage, AK 99503 USA,
Tel: 907.222.1714
Email: shawna@akaction.org,
Web: http://www.akaction.org/ and
http://www.ienearth.org/toxins_enviro_health.html

Bob Shimek, Mining Campaign Organizer,
Indigenous Environmental Network,
PO Box 485, Bemidji, Minnesota 56619 USA,
Tel: 218.751.4867,
E-mail: ienmining@igc.org
Web: http://www.ienearth.org/ J

Jamie KneenCommunications & Outreach Coordinator ofc.
(613) 569-3439
MiningWatch Canada cell: (613) 761-2273
250 City Centre Ave., Suite 508
fax: (613) 569-5138
Ottawa, Ontario K1R 6K7
E-mail:jamie@miningwatch.ca
Canada
http://www.miningwatch.ca

NAJA Convention Set For Aug 9-12 In Tulsa
The Native American Journalists Association will hold its 22nd annual convention in celebration of the continuation of Native journalism after the first tribal paper, The Cherokee Phoenix, was published on Feb. 21, 1828. With the help of the Sequoyah NAJA Chapter, the Cherokee Nation and local community leaders, NAJA plans to honor the successes of Native journalists and tribal media Aug. 9-12 in Tulsa, Okla.

Highlights include: A plenary session, "Mascots and Stereotypes: Solutions," with Bernard Franklin, senior vice president for NCAA Governance and Membership; Louis Gray, president of the Tulsa Indian Council Against Racism; and Suzan Shown Harjo, president of the Morning Star Institute

A luncheon panel, "Free Press in Indian Country," with Jane Kirtley, former executive director of the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press, and director of the University of Minnesota's Sihla Media Ethics and Law at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication; and Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chad Smith, who drafted the Cherokee Free Press Act approved by the tribal council in 2000

Student Banquet keynote speaker Wilma Mankiller, former principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.

More Highlights:
A broadcast track.
A student and beginning journalist track.
A free, half-day business boot camp by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism.
A guide to FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) laws sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Also included will be:
Advanced editing, writing, photography, ethics, reporting and television production seminars by the Poynter Institute, Native American Public Telecommunications, National Public Radio, Society of News Design, The Tulsa Word, The Oklahoman and the University of Oklahoma's journalism department.
A golf tournament.
An ecology tour of Tar Creek, a once active lead and zinc mining area now home to the neighboring Miami, Modoc, Ottawa, Peoria, Quapaw, Seneca-Cayuga, Shawnee and Wyandotte tribes.
Entertainment by comedy duo James and Ernie.
A special screening of "Indian Country Diaries," a two-part PBS series exploring how new-found casino wealth has changed the fortunes of Native Americans.

For more information, go to
http://www.naja.com/programs/convention/.

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 Bemidji Statement On Seventh Generation Guardianship

Part 1
Submitted by Western Shoshone Defense Project

This important document is being published for the first time. The Bemidji Statement on Seventh Generation Guardianship was released July 6 during the 14th Protecting Mother Earth Conference, convened by the Indigenous Environmental Network in Bemidji, Minnesota.

The Bemidji Statement combines the ancient wisdom of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) -- "The first mandate.... is to ensure that our decision- making is guided by consideration of the welfare and well being of the seventh generation to come." -- with the precautionary principle.

The Statement calls for new guardians and new guardian institutions to protect the future of us all. The Statement evolved from a conversation that began in Alaska in December 2005 between Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT), the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), and the Science and Environmental Health Network (SEHN).

Here is an introduction to the Bemidji Statement provided by the Indigenous Environmental Network:

During the winter months of 2005-2006, several handfuls of people from numerous places throughout North America came together at two different locations to create The Bemidji Statement on Seventh Generation Guardianship (Bemidji Statement). While much has been written in the past about the Seventh Generation Principle, the Bemidji Statement is different in a couple of ways.

First, it accommodates some elements from the protection of the Commons and the Precautionary Principle.

Second, it goes beyond most other principles by explicitly assigning guardianship and responsibility for protecting the Seventh Generation of humanity that is yet to be born. But equally important, it assigns the same guardianship and responsibility to the current generations to protect and restore the intricate web of life that sustains us all, for the Seventh Generation to come.

The Statement is written with the intent of being able to adopt it at all levels of our society. It is also written to change the way we think about our future. From the family unit, through community, and institutions on community, the Statement can be adopted and applied. It is intended for individuals or small groups of individuals to take guardianship responsibility for one piece of the web of life and protect or restore that one piece for this and future generations.

Examples of these web pieces could be as broad as the water or the birds or as specific as a certain pond or a certain type of fish. A family may choose to assume guardianship for the area immediately their home, a community may watch over a much larger area, a government or institution may stand guard over all within their jurisdiction.

The important thing is that guardians who assume this responsibility learn everything they can about that which they have chosen, they assess and monitor the chosen piece of the web of life, restore it when necessary, and report the status of their responsibilities to other guardians.

From the smallest unit of society to the largest unit of government, we can protect, enhance, and restore the inheritance of the Seventh Generation to come. Consider becoming a Guardian in your community.

Contacts:
Shawna Larson, Environmental Justice Coordinator,
IEN/Alaska Community Action on Toxics,
Anchorage, AK 99503 USA, Tel: 907.222.1714,
Email: shawna@akaction.org, Web: http://www.akaction.org/ and http://www.ienearth.org/toxins_enviro_health.html

Bob Shimek, Mining Campaign Organizer,
Indigenous Environmental Network,
PO Box 485, Bemidji, Minnesota 56619 USA,
Tel: 218.751.4867,
Email: ienmining@igc.org Web: http://www.ienearth.org--

Jamie Kneen, Communications & Outreach Coordinator ofc.
(613) 569-3439
MiningWatch Canada cell: (613) 761-2273
250 City Centre Ave., Suite 508
fax: (613) 569-5138
Ottawa, Ontario K1R 6K7
e-mail:jamie@miningwatch.ca
Canada http://www.miningwatch.ca

Part 2 of The Bemidji Statement will be posted on Sunday, July 16.

Voting Rights Renewal Bill Passes By Overwhelming Margin
Submitted by Daniel Levitas, Atlanta ACLU

In an overwhelming victory for civil rights advocates, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 390-33, to approve H.R. 9, the “Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006, defeating all four weakening amendments that were proposed.” For more details of the 390-33 vote (with nine members not voting) go here or click on the following link: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll374.xml

The legislation contained all the measures sought by voting rights advocates to strengthen the VRA by ensuring that the original intent of Congress was preserved in the renewed statute.

Action now moves to the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Arlen Specter (R-PA), whose Committee commenced markup on S. 2703 on Thursday July 13 to be completed by July 20. A total of 52 Senators are now official co-sponsors of S. 2703. For the most current list, visit:

http://renewthevra.civilrights.org/062906BillSponsors.pdf

Voting Rights advocates urge people to contact their U.S. Senator to urge swift consideration of S.2703 by the Judiciary Committee and the full Senate before the August recess.

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.

Include Natives In Tax Break Incentives!

The following petition comes from Lauren Alvarez, Care 2 Human Rights Alerts. It is a petition to include Native American communities in tax breaks for renewable energy such as wind power on reservation land.

I may be wrong on this, but I firmly believe this exclusion of American Indians from the Energy Policy Act was NOT meant to be an act of DISCRIMINATION. What is even WORSE – Apparently, Native Americans were not even thought of or recognized as a group by Congress when it crafted the Energy Policy Act. You are the ”Invisible Americans”.

This should come as a “wake up call “ to get your act together. Stop tribal bickering and unite. When Congress can’t remember you as a people, who else will?

Anyway, please sign the petition to get this show on the road! - Bobbie

Hi Bobbie,
Stop the discrimination!

Include Native American communities in tax breaks for renewable energy.

When Congress adopted a production tax credit as part of the Energy Policy Act, they gave tax breaks to producers of wind power and renewable energy. Ironically, Native Americans, one of the poorest communities that could most benefit from this act, were excluded from the tax break incentives.

Join the Grand Canyon Trust in calling on Congress to include Natie Americans in tax breaks for renewable energy production!

Impoverished rural tribal communities would benefit significantly from development of renewable energy, such as wind power, on their land. Numerous studies have shown that the most successful path to tribal economic development is to have Tribes be full and active partners in development on their reservations.

Wind power would be particularly beneficial because unlike fossil fuel development, a wind project can bring in a 25 year revenue stream and new jobs for the local community, without leaving behind degraded air, polluted water, flooded lands, or gaping holes in the ground. This is a win-win situation for Native Americans, for our economy, and for our environment.

Don't let Native Americans be excluded from incentives to develop clean energy! Sign the petition to join the Grand Canyon Trust in supporting renewable energy, like wind power, in tribal communities: http://go.care2.com/e/l7g/Np/Qzkt

Thanks for your help today.
Lauren Alvarez,Care2 and ThePetitionSite Team


Three Oklahoma INDN Candidates Need Your Help, Today!

July 9, 2006
We have less than 20 days before Oklahoma INDN’s List candidates Al McAffrey, Chuck Hoskin and Scott BigHorse face their primary challengers on the ballot. Your support is critical during these final days. From donating some of your time to knock on doors or some of your money to keep campaign operations at full-force, there are many ways in which you can help secure victories for these candidates:

Chuck Hoskin’s experience serving in the U.S. Navy, on the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council and in the public school system as a teacher and principal, has provided him with first-hand insight to the needs of Oklahoma’s public schools and health care. In the state legislature, Chuck will be a strong voice for working families and the needs of all Oklahomans. Ensure that Chuck is able to utilize his knowledge and expertise to help build a better Oklahoma by making a contribution to his campaign today.

Friends of Chuck Hoskin 2006
PO Box 941
Vinita, OK 74301

Scott BigHorse, an Osage candidate for Oklahoma House District 36, embodies rural America’s values. He has worked with troubled youth of rural Oklahoma for five years and understands the importance of education in improving the lives of these children. He knows the basic needs of rural Oklahomans such as accessible emergency services, fiscal responsibility, decent wages and health care. Help Scott fight for rural Oklahoma by making a contribution to his campa ign today.

The Committee to Elect Scott BigHorse
PO Box 166
Pawhuska, OK 74056

Al McAffrey, a member of the Choctaw Nation, began his public service career in the U.S. Navy. After retirement from the service, he served as an Oklahoma City Police Officer before opening a small business. He knows how important education, health care, the environment, secure jobs and private businesses are to a thriving economy. You can help send Al to the Oklahoma House by making a contribution to his campaign today.

Al McAffrey For Representative
720 NW 16th
Oklahoma City, OK 73108
Click here to contribute to Al online.

With less than three weeks to go until these very important elections, we’re doing everything we can to help Chuck, Scott and Al win their races. Apart from financial contributions to one or all of the campaigns, if you live in Oklahoma, you can help INDN’s List help these candidates by volunteering to knock doors and distribute literature, or make phone calls on behalf of your chosen candidate.

We are currently organizing groups of volunteers to knock doors for each campaign on Saturday, July 22nd. If you want to help, send Rebecca an email at rebecca@indnslist.org to find out how you can volunteer some of your time helping these very worthy candidates. You can also call Rebecca at 918.583.6100.

Thank you for all you do in helping INDN's List change the faces and color of political power in America.

Paid for by INDN's List - 406 S Boulder, Mezzanine Ste 200, Tulsa, OK 74103.

Voting Rights Act Renewal Update

Dear Friend,
Your toll-free phone call is needed right now. Tomorrow, the House of Representatives will vote on whether it should renew and restore the Voting Rights Act (VRA), the landmark law that has protected the right to vote for millions of Americans.

Unfortunately, a small group of extremist lawmakers from states with the worst records of voter discrimination are trying to add amendments that would gut the Voting Rights Act and make it easier to discriminate against minority voters.

Whether or not you have emailed your representative on the VRA before, your phone call today is vitally important.Your representative will cast a key swing vote so you have a special opportunity to make a real difference on this issue. We have provided a special toll-free number you can call that will connect you to the Capitol Switchboard. They can transfer you to your representative's office.

Call (866) 808-0065 right now and ask for your representative. Tell him or her:* Support the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 (H.R. 9), and oppose any attempts to add weakening amendments.*

The right to vote is the foundation of our democracy, and an essential protection of this right is the Voting Rights Act because it ensures fairness and an equal opportunity for all citizens, regardless of color, to participate in the political process.* H.R. 9 has solid bipartisan support.
Congress must not allow a small group of legislators to turn back the clock on 40 years of progress. We can't let these extremists destroy 40 years of progress!

Please call your representative toll-free at (866) 808-0065 and tell him or her to support H.R. 9 and oppose any weakening amendments.

Sincerely,
Caroline Fredrickson Director,
Washington Legislative Office American Civil Liberties Union

Daniel Levitas
Public Policy Fellow
ACLU Voting Rights Project
dlevitas@aclu.org
www.votingrights.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.

Small Utah Tribe Bitterly Divided Over Storage Of Radioactive Waste

By H. JOSEF HEBERT
Sunday, June 25. 2006
The Associated Press

This is a “must read” story submitted by Eleanore Fanire of the Mohave Downwinders. How would you feel if your tribe is placed in a similar situation – facing a choice between guaranteed prosperity and a possible threat to human lives and the environment?

With the increasing build up of nuclear waste, Western tribes on sprawling reservation are becoming the target of “ those people” looking for a place to bury their poison.

Would you trust “them” and their guarantee of a safe storage facility? Is the promise of affluence worth the risk? Is greed too strong a word to use, here?

This “garbage” has got to be dumped someplace, but where? The pressure is on!!! Is this, also, a question of personal ethics and morality? Not in my backyard, but how about yours?

How about storing it in the moon? WOW - What a dilemma!!! - Bobbie

SKULL VALLEY, Utah — Leon Bear, a stocky man in T-shirt and jeans, peers across the sagebrush-pocked valley where his ancestors once chased Pony Express riders and sees the future for his dwindling tribe.

Nuclear waste.

Just west of the gun-barrel straight, two-lane road that darts through the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation, Bear wants to store 4,000 steel and concrete canisters of highly radioactive used fuel from nuclear power plants.

The American Indian tribe would reap tens of millions of dollars in rent in the next 40 years.

“I’ve been shown there’s no problem. The way they plan to handle it, it’s safe,” the 46-year-old tribal leader insists, escorting a visitor around the reservation in a glistening new pickup truck.

The truck is an example of the largess the tribe already has received from a consortium of eight electric utilities. Nine years ago, the companies signed a lease with the tribe to put 40,000 tons of reactor waste on the reservation.

It is the kind of deal that other tribes have rejected, that most communities would oppose, that spells “not in my backyard” in the brightest of colors. Utah’s establishment in Salt Lake City, the capital 45 miles away, is enraged.

Critics, including some within the tribe, call it environmental racism at its rawest.

Bear says it is the way to riches that will mean new homes, new jobs and better health care for the 118 members of his tribe. Only about two dozen — including children — still live on the 18,000-acre reservation, but this project will bring many of the others back, he predicts.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs approved the lease in 1997. The deal is yet to be consummated amid lawsuits, regulatory hurdles and bitter opposition. It’s close, though.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a license for the dump in February. The agency rejected arguments that the dump’s location is unsafe because hundreds of F-16 jet fighters fly over the reservation on the way to bombing runs over nearby government land. The chance of a crash that could result in the release of radiation is one in a million, an adequate risk, the NRC said.

Private Fuel Storage LLC of Wisconsin, the consortium that would build and run the dump, has begun looking for nuclear power plant owners to sign up for waste shipments.

“We have to store this stuff somewhere,” says the group’s chairman, John Parkyn. The utilities “were promised this material would be collected and removed to a central location, and now we have one.”

If Bear and Parkyn get their way, the project will mark a watershed in addressing the thorniest problem facing the nuclear industry: where to put nearly 60,000 tons of highly radioactive reactor waste now stored at power plants in 31 states, and the additional 2,000 tons being generated each year.

The government promised to take the waste beginning in 1998. But a planned federal site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada is years behind schedule. Some people say it may never be built.

The PFS consortium has spent more than $20 million so far, including licensing costs and payments to the Skull Valley tribe under its 1997 lease.

Not a single utility has committed to send waste to Utah, and four of the companies that helped finance the project have said they will not commit any more money as long as Yucca Mountain moves forward.

If Yucca Mountain encounters more hurdles and delays, utilities will turn to Skull Valley, Parkyn predicted in an interview.
———
The consortium has spent more than $20 million. Neither Bear nor the utilities will say how much of that the tribe has received or will get over the next 40 years if the deal goes through. Speculation is that the total could be as much as $100 million for the tribe.

Still, it’s hard to find people in Utah who favor the dump.

“You’re batting in the 85 percent range of people who don’t want this project to go forward. As conservative as the state is, you don’t even see those kind of percentages in things like gay marriage,” says Jason Groenewold, director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, which opposes the project.

The state has tried all manner of maneuvers to stop the project, with little success so far. The Legislature imposed steep taxes on anyone doing business with the consortium and banned local governments from providing electricity and other services. The laws were declared unconstitutional by a federal court.

Utah’s senators have lobbied the Bush administration. So far, administration officials have said only that they remain committed to opening Yucca Mountain — 350 miles south of Skull Valley — and that the tribal project is not part of the government’s nuclear waste plan.

Dump opponents do have one significant victory. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, got Congress to create a 100,000-acre wilderness near the Goshute reservation with a finger of protected land crossing — and essentially blocking — a proposed right of way for a rail spur to bring the waste to the dump. Parkyn says he will just bring the waste the last 26 miles by truck.
———
Once, more than 20,000 Goshutes roamed Utah and Nevada. Now there are only about 500, including the 118 belonging to the Skull Valley Band, according to Bear.

Fewer than two dozen, including children, still live in the cluster of homes and trailers a few hundreds yards off the single highway that cuts through the reservation. Most of the households are below the national poverty level.

At the tribe’s only commercial building, the “Pony Express Store” and gas station, the sign is missing several letters. The clerk talks on the phone with little suggestion any customers will be arriving soon.

Some of the economic benefits from the proposed dump already are visible. Amid the old, dilapidated houses are a half-dozen new modular homes — some still waiting to be put on foundations — thanks to money from the utilities. Bear lives in one; a second belongs to his brother; a third belongs to the vice chair of the tribe’s executive council, also a strong supporter of the waste dump.

Two of Bear’s neighbors and sharpest critics — Margene Bullcreek and Sammie Blackbear — have not been offered new homes, says a lawyer representing Bullcreek. Blackbear lives in a small trailer just across the road from the new homes.

“It’s entirely environmental racism,” says Bullcreek, a 59-year-old grandmother. “You have large corporations wanting to put the nuclear waste that nobody wants in their back yards on our land.”

Bullcreek and other critics of the project contend that tribal members never formally approved the dump and that the majority oppose it. But Bear maintains that the tribe approved the waste project in 1996, before the BIA approved it in March 1997 in a decision that itself has been questioned by dump opponents. A local BIA superintendent, David Allison, approved the lease only three days after receiving the final document.
Allison, now retired, defends his decision and says there were months of discussions as the lease was being developed. “Unquestionably it’s to the benefit of the tribe,” he said in a telephone interview.

He acknowledged the issue is “a very political hot potato” and added, “I’ve even been threatened over this thing.”

Anger over the waste dump has spilled over to a bitter dispute over tribal leadership. Bear’s chairmanship expired in 2004, but Bullcreek says he has skirted new elections by repeatedly claiming the lack of a quorum before everyone has arrived at meetings.

A suit challenging Bear’s leadership and the BIA lease approval was dismissed by a federal court in Salt Lake City.

Three years ago, Blackbear and two other nuclear dump opponents assumed leadership of the tribal council and began using its funds. The BIA never recognized them and they were arrested for theft and received probation.

Last year Bear faced embezzlement charges and agreed to return $31,500 to the tribe. He also pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion. “We don’t believe the (tribal) chairmanship is a job,” he said, explaining why he did not pay taxes on his income as tribal leader. “Apparently the feds don’t feel that way.”
———
The radioactive spent fuel rods are now kept in pools of water or in concrete containers at power plants. At Skull Valley, they will be kept in steel canisters inside concrete enclosures resting atop a concrete slab.

A private security force will be at the site with double fences cordoning off the inner 100 acres where the waste will be kept. Consortium officials say the facility will comply fully with NRC security requirements.

Tooele County, Utah, which surrounds the reservation, is anything but pristine.

A few miles to the east, over the Stansbury Mountain range, the government is storing and burning nerve gas and other chemical agents. To the south is the Dugway Proving Ground, where the government uses chemical and biological agents in tests. Toward the northwest are private landfills holding hazardous, toxic and low-level radioactive waste. Not far away, on the Great Salt Lake, is a magnesium plant once ranked by the Environmental Protection Agency as the nation’s No. 1 toxic polluter.

Skull Valley itself has long been viewed as a bit foreboding. In the late 19th century, the state located its only leper colony there.

Bullcreek, nonetheless, argues that becoming the country’s storehouse for nuclear waste — “This poison,” she calls it — is contrary to Goshute tradition. “It will destroy the harmony we have, the tranquility that we have in our valley.”
Bear scoffs at the dissent.

“We’ve got to live today,” he says. “We can’t go back and live like the old days. You can’t feed your children, you can’t feed your family that way.”

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

Diverse Voices : American Indians Want Place At Table

Mark Reed looks like a leading man, talks like a politician and feels utterly invisible.

In the world of acting, where looks come first, American Indians come last in being cast for roles, says Reed, chairman of American Indians in Film & TV and a member of the Screen Actors Guild. When it comes to writing, directing, producing and other jobs behind the camera, the situation is much the same.

"When you hear the words `American Indian,' what image comes into your mind?" asks Reed, sitting in a Studio City cafe. "Most people think of a strong man with long black hair in buckskin leather."

What's wrong with the romantic image of a noble warrior standing against the white settler invading his land? Nothing. Unless that's the only role you ever see an American Indian playing.

"A producer once told me, `American Indians will start getting work when we bring back Westerns,"' Reed says. "He thought he was being funny, but his attitude shows that we're not in the contemporary scene at all. Who's going to cast an American Indian character in an `ER' or `CSI' if all the mind sees is a half-breed in a war bonnet with long black braids?"

Reed grew up on Hollywood sets, tagging along after two cinematographers-his grandfather, Hans Koenakamp ("The Stunt Man"), and uncle, Fred Koenakamp ("Patton," "The Towering Inferno"), winner of the 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Cinematographers.

The acting bug took hold, and Reed became a stuntman, doing horse stunts and hand-to-hand combat, then got small roles on "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," "The Magnificent Seven" and projects overseas.

"As an actor, I believe it's all about self-responsibility for the direction of your career," says Reed, who has organized workshops and gatherings between the networks and his organization. "Being an activist for diversity, I see it's also about lack of opportunity. The networks will say you're talented, but they won't hire you."

Reed represents one of the four groups in The Grand Coalition, a grand name for a great idea that's lost its way since its inception in 1999. That year, leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition and American Indians in Film & TV protested a nearly all-white schedule of new network series, which led to agreements by the broadcasters to improve their diversity performance.

Now, the four coalition members have largely splintered to the point where the African American contingent stands apart, and the other three groups meet once a year at a press conference to issue separate report cards on network diversity progress.

"We don't meet as a coalition, and we don't discuss strategies," Reed says. "The networks successfully divided and conquered by giving a deal to one group here or there, and each organization started looking out only for its own people."

With the creation of diversity programs for minority writers, actors, directors, et al., has diversity improved in the television industry?

"All the networks are trying hard, but the placement of talent is the question, and for that, I gave them all an F for not hiring a single American Indian last year," Reed says. "It's still a good old boys club that's prevalent in the diversity programs. It's all about who you know."

Reed says history has taught American Indians to be quiet, blend in and not arouse the wrath of the federal government (i.e., white people), so there are few activist role models to emulate. As he talks about the problems facing American Indians, the political rhetoric is clearly polished and automatic. There, perhaps, is the problem.

We can present intellectual arguments, countering facts with figures ad nauseam, but changes in behavior don't happen because our head knows it's the right thing to do. We change when our gut is so tied up in knots we can't stomach the status quo anymore. We change when our hearts are touched by emotional truth that we cannot avoid feeling.

In an industry that values ratings and buying power, it's easy to forget that the most valuable asset for any business is human capital, and that whatever we do comes back to us. If we help someone, aid will come when we need it. If we take what is not ours, life will take it back from us somewhere else.

If lack of opportunity for American Indians (or any group) is the problem, what's the solution? There are many possible answers, but Reed put his finger on one that makes economic sense.

"I have hope that casino money from different [Indian] nations will bring us together and give us the tools to change our image," Reed says. "In the next 10 years, I hope to see us create our own network channel and programming, because the talent is there. I'd like to get casino owners in the room with network executives, so that advertising dollars clearly go to the companies that do more than lip service to diversity."

It'll take that kind of thinking to transform political rhetoric into visible changes.

Dinah Eng is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer who writes a syndicated column for Gannett News Service.

Bear Butte - The Spirit Of Our Relatives
Submitted by Jeanne Bedell Mashkikinabinais

I returned home today, the day after the rest of American celebrated their Fourth of July. I guess I should start from here to say I have been living with conflict in two worlds as a Native American. I am a veteran; however I did offer myself to protect the United States in case of times of war. Although at the time I was devoted to my mission, I was still wrestling with the idea of identity and who I am as a Native American. I was reminded too in basic training that I was Indian and so the others after learning I was a Native person expected me to be some how the super human warrior and I became Pocahontas to the rest of the platoon.

Well, now 30 years later I can say I am not the same Indian I use to be, which was mostly embarrassed to mention to others I was an Indian… an Ojibwe or Anishinabeg Indian...and oh yes part of the Tantanka -Iyotanka tiwahe!

As I sat there yesterday morning with the big Bear Mountain looming overhead, I was aware that my relatives had something to do with this mountain too. After all, they had met here when they decided on the strategy for the Little Big Horn. Still, after all these years, the mountain stood steadfast amongst controversy and failed attempts in Federal and State court for the protection of Bear Butte as a prayer site, historical site or even an environmental significant site. Thinking back to the day before, when I had climbed the mountain with rattle snakes hidden in the grass on the paha, I could see I could se the huge amphitheater in construction just les then a mile away!.

Many things I learned as my inquisitive mind began to decipher what environmental, historical, law significance this had over the years. I found Bear Butte is actually a rare and geological formation from underground magma chambers pushing this mountain up through the earth. It is here that precious rare minerals can only be found here on Bear Butte which makes this unique from the other mountainous ranges within the Paha Sapa. This and the fact there are endangered species that may reside in this area and still migrate here yearly is an important environmental concern.

The Lakota call this mountain Mato Paha. If the people of Sturgis and the world could see the importance of this historical religious site and what it means for not only the Indians but the surrounding areas, maybe others could wake up, understand, and value this site. This site, amongst the Sturgis rally, a money maker for greedy entrepreneurs is at its peak for controversy with many groups within South Dakota. We need advocates for environmental strategies willing to share their time to research this mountain and its uniqueness that not only involves an environmental significance, but a religious and historical value for all the people involved and who value this mountain.

The people of Sturgis, the grassroots people, do not want this area to be turned into a place where people come to drink party and exhibit enormous loud motorcycle pollution which destroys peacefulness around the Bear Butte area. Our Lakota nations need to gather for the summit on August 1-4 and declare and demand that the management for this mountain be turned back over to the tribes for management and reinforcement of protection from outsiders who are not historically connected to this mountain, and implement a buffer zone around Bear Butte.

To organize an environmental research group, please call 441-8383 or email jeannesdbedell@yahoo.com. We need those with resources and skills who can be volunteer their time. Jeanne (mashkikinabinais)

Other links-
http://www.matopaha.org/wp/

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.