Environmentalists Allege Gov't Collusion - Record Polar Ice Levels

Forest Service & BLM Targeted!
Submitted by Western Shoshone Defense Project
By Kristen Moulton The Salt Lake Tribune

A regional environmental group accused the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management on Thursday of colluding with phosphate-mining companies in southern Idaho to cover up decades of serious pollution.

The result, said Marv Hoyt, the Idaho director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, is that mining continues to leach selenium into streams and the aquifer - while 17 Superfund sites from past mining go untouched.

Lynn Ballard, spokesman for the Caribou-Targhee National Forest and BLM, denied there was any collusion with the mining industry to cover up the pollution.

"We've never operated that way," he said.

Mining for phosphate exposes rocks rich in selenium, which, once exposed to rain and snow, flows into streams and underground aquifers. It can build up in plants, reaching high concentrations that can kill livestock and wildlife and harm the people who eat them.

The Greater Yellowstone Coalition and Caribou Clean Water Partnership released a report written by a retired federal hydrologist, who pored over thousands of documents obtained from federal agencies through the Freedom of Information Act.

Edgar Imhoff, the hydrologist, during a press conference via telephone Thursday, said he was astounded by the toxic levels of selenium found as long as two decades ago in streams near phosphate mines north and east of Soda Springs.

"Given the dangers, the mining company and federal agencies had to be aware they had a serious problem on their hands," Imhoff said, referring to the owner of one of three active phosphate mines, Boise-based The J.R. Simplot Co.

Hoyt said the documents showed the federal agencies didn't just fumble their jobs. "This was something a lot more deliberate that just dropping the ball," he said.

The documents did not reveal secret deals, but rather a pattern of downplaying or obscuring the gravity of the pollution, Imhoff said.

He gave examples. Imhoff said in his report that data collected by the Forest Service's Intermountain Research Station in Logan in 1990 - it showed extremely high concentrations of selenium in surface water downstream from a mine - was not shared with the Environmental Protection Agency until 1997.

It was only after animals began dying that mining companies and federal agencies began acknowledging the pollution, casting it as a newly discovered problem, Hoyt said. "People actually did know about this long before they say they did."

The Forest Service's Ballard said 1996 horse deaths prompted the Forest Service to "focus resources on a full investigation [of] what was causing the selenium impacts." The agency also has required and received yearly water reports from Simplot, which opened the Smoky Canyon mine in the early 1980s.

He could not say whether the Forest Service considered selenium levels reported in those yearly documents as acceptable.

A Simplot spokesman could not be reached for comment. The new report is aimed at preventing Simplot from expanding the Smoky Canyon mine near the Idaho-Wyoming state line.

A final environmental impact statement is due out within 30 to 45 days and is expected to endorse mining under certain conditions. "There are mitigations placed in there that Simplot would have to do," Ballard said.

The environmental coalition also wants to light a fire under government agencies to force the owners of the 17 Superfund sites - including Simplot, whose Smoky Canyon mine has been declared a Superfund site - to clean up past messes.

Polar Ice Levels Lowest On Record
Submitted by Ann VanWert

CHRIS WINDEYER - NUNATSIAQ NEWS
Ice cover on the Arctic Ocean reached its lowest level on record this summer and climate experts say an ice-free North Pole within the next 20 to 30 years is all but inevitable.

Satellite images show ice over the Arctic Ocean melted to such an extent this summer that the Northwest Passage is nearly ice-free. And a huge swath of sea stretching from Alaska to central Russia is completely free of ice.

Tom Agnew, a research meteorologist with Environment Canada in Toronto, said this year's ice cap is smaller than the previous record low set in 2005.

"This year, it's now about 20 per cent below what it was at the record low in 2005 and it's still going down," he said. "So this is a collapse of the ice cover essentially.

"What's more, Agnew said even the best efforts to rein in the emissions of greenhouse gases that are causing climate change are unlikely to stop the melting.

"It doesn't matter what we do right now," he said. "We're committed to this warming."The rapidly shrinking ice pack raises a host of potential complications for everyone from Inuit hunters to military planners.

Thawing ice shortens hunting seasons and makes traveling on sea ice more risky. Species adapted to the frigid Arctic climate will struggle, while southern species could gradually flood north.

"Traditional lifestyles which require hunting and fishing off the ice will become more and more difficult and more and more dangerous," Agnew said.

Meanwhile, the potential opening of the Northwest Passage presents a nightmare scenario for the federal government in Ottawa, which has been trying desperately to assert Canadian sovereignty over the passage, which it claims as internal waters.

But almost no other country recognizes that claim and Canada faces the possibility of increased shipping traffic through the vast and sparsely populated Arctic archipelago. Such traffic would be difficult to police, and threats like oil spills and smugglers would be difficult to contain.

But Christopher Wright, a consultant to the ports and shipping industry based in Digby, Nova Scotia, said it's unlikely the Northwest Passage, ice or no ice, will become a major highway for shipping traffic.

Wright said the traditional Northwest Passage route that runs from the eastern mouth of the Parry Channel, heads south through Peel Sound then runs south of Victoria Island, can only be traversed by ships that sit less than 10 metres deep in the water. A northern route over Banks Island that can handle larger ships is still locked in ice for most of the summer.

An ice-free Northwest Passage "will make sense for selected cargoes and selected routes, but it's very unlikely to start a free-for-all with shipping," Wright said.

Captain Stéphane Julien of the Canadian Coast Guard ship Amundsen, currently on an 15-month, 50,000-kilometre scientific mission that will take the boat from Labrador to Inuvik and from Sanikiluaq to 81 degrees north off the coast of Ellesmere Island, said sea ice thickness in the Arctic varies from year to year.

Julien said ice in the Foxe Basin this year appears to be average, while the waters of the Northwest Passage and the western Arctic are "easier and easier to sail every year.

"The Amundsen is capable of crashing through ice up to 15 feet thick, and with more than 20 years experience Julien said he can feel the difference with summer ice these days. It feels rotten, he said, like melting ice in springtime. "It seems like it's less hard," he said.

Wright said the melting Northwest Passage might be easier to navigate for smaller vessels, like cruise ships and boats hauling cargo to and from Arctic mine sites. But bulk shippers need reliable routes and would likely choose the Northeast Passage over Russia, which features deeper water and a shorter distance between Eastern Europe and Asia.

And as satellite pictures show, that passage is now completely ice-free during summer. .

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE, OPINION PIECE, COMMENTS 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.

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Lewis & Clark Law School
10015 SW Terwilliger Blvd.
Portland, OR 97219
503.768.6821

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FOR NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

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

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The Impossible Dream - Reclaiming Stolen Land

By Monica Davis

Everybody knows dead men can't lie, right? After all, they're dead and have long since passed from this realm. Their actions or deeds stop when they die.

The reality is that while dead men may no longer be able to lie, con artists and crooks have become well versed in how to use identity theft, probate court and a host of other tactics to hide an ocean full of crooked land deals, theft, financial chicanery and highway robbery.

When it comes to land theft, it's all about paper and sometimes the paper isn't worth being written on–ask any Native American about how valuable some of those "treaties" are. The very thing on which this nation stands, the sanctity of land ownership, has been threatened since the very inception of the nation.

So what, you have a deed. The thieves have document forgers and even judges and county land office clerks in their pockets.

In one Arkansas case, at least half a million dollars in farm land has "disappeared" into a dead man's probate, hidden from title searches, effectively stolen from the man who inherited the property. Land thieves often hide their fraud in dusty probate records—some of which are further hidden by their cohorts in county land record offices.

There are the "public" files, and then there are the "private" files, notwithstanding the fact that, by law, all land records are PUBLIC FILES. Along with the hidden files, there is an underlying atmosphere of fear, on the part of those who are intelligent enough to know something is wrong, and wind up hiring attorneys who delve into legal records, only to find that their attorneys are either bought off or scared off the case.

Heirs to untold millions of dollars of land are often ignorant of the wealth they own. Many have fought over land for so long that it winds up being partitioned and sold out of the family forever—while the"heirs" receive a fraction of its worth from "sales", if they get anything at all.

As the result of misuse of nunc pro tunc as a legal dodge to hold off scrutiny of actions and bury the deed in probate court, one farmer in Arkansas was cheated out of more than a hundred thousand dollars of prime farm land. According to an internet based legal dictionary: Nunc pro tunc literally means "now for then." And, here's the way it works according to one definition:

Occasionally, a court or party to a divorce forgets to file the papers necessary to obtain the final decree (after the interlocutory judgment has been granted), and the result is that the divorce never becomes final. If the oversight presents a problem (for example, one party has already remarried, or there is a tax advantage to being divorced earlier), the court may agree to issue a nunc pro tunc order, which grants the final divorce retroactive to the earlier date.

This phrase is used to express that a thing is done at one time which ought to have been performed at another. Leave of court must be obtained to do things nunc pro tunc, and this is granted to answer the purposes of justice, but never to do injustice. A judgment nunc pro tunc can be entered only when the delay has arisen from the act of the court. http://www.lectlaw.com/def2/n083.htm

And so we have land thieves, plying their cross-generational trade, using the law as a tool to mask the theft of millions dollars of farm real estate, plying real estate piracy tactics with the ease of a child playing with a spinning toy. Using these tactics, modern land thieves manipulate probate cases of dead men, men who have been dead for generations, in a massive fraud to hide ongoing theft and fraud in county courthouse records.

Often, their victims know something is going on, but most are too intimidated by the legal machinery and bureaucracy to put it all together. And, although some of these victims of land theft are aware of what is going on, they are often too frightened to do anything but angrily whisper of the theft to other family members.

Many "know granddaddy had some land somewhere", but they often don't know where, and, if they do, they have no idea how to search county land records, and are totally unprepared to fight back when crooked county clerks put obstacles in their way. Despite the existence of state and federal Open Records laws, government officials often throw roadblocks in the way of citizens who seek information.

In several national investigations by the Associated Press, reporters uncovered widespread non-compliance with state and federal open records laws. County officials reportedly ignored the law, put obstacles in the paths of people wanting access to public records and even "ran background checks" on several individuals who sought information, demanded identification and "reasons why you want these records.

"Records, which are supposed to be public and available to the public, are often anything but, particularly in small communities where clerks, politicians and bureaucrats treat their offices as a divine right, rather than as a service to the public, which pays their salaries. Hence, the scope of the land theft isn't really known because the victims often are either clueless to their own victimhood, or are so accustomed to being victimized that they view their situation as unchangeable.

Unfortunately, millions of acres in prime real estate, the inheritance of tens of thousands of heirs and families, lies hidden beneath a vast web of crooked land deals, doctored documents and intimidation. Even today, with the full power and authority of civil rights laws, open records legislation and land rights activists, the problem continues, often unchecked.

In an article called "Legal Land Theft", one author analyses the effect of private business use of eminent domain to take land from individuals. He argues that, If property can be taken away from the people for private economic development, then that means the government is giving preferential treatment to private forces.

Those private forces would be correctly labeled an aristocracy. The Supreme Court has been prostituted out to the Power Elite for the purpose of transforming the Republic into anoligarchy. (Paul Collins September 13, 2005, NewsWithViews.com)

Essentially, county government entities are giving preferential treatment to land thieves when they willfully obstruct justice and assist real estate thieves to steal land from private owners. When judges, county clerks, county recorders and other government officials conspire with real estate developers to defraud citizens of their land and inheritances, they forfeit the respect of those who elected them and put them in office.

Unfortunately, most of the dirty dealings are hidden from the public. And, even when a landowner has inkling that something "just isn't right", it is often beyond his or her ability to chase all of the facts down and "put it all together."

As the nation continues to feed urban sprawl, farmland becomes prime land for development, often appreciating to unheard of prices. Elderly and minority farmers are often more vulnerable to land theft because they often have neither the education, nor the financial resources to protect themselves.

In one of the greatest swindles in American history, second only to the violation of Native American treaties in the 19th century, landowners are being pushed off of land by people who twist both law and real estate principles to their own crooked ends.Their victims are often left holding the bag after having signed documents without understanding what they are signing, or being presented with forged documents that they don't have the resources to dispute.

Corporate land squatters and encroaching real estate developers are illegally acquiring billions of dollars in farm property today, because no one is coming to the aid of the farmers and landholders who are being victimized.

In this land of the free and the home of the brave, many of our farmers and landowners continue to be victimized by crooked local politicians and thieving real estate developers, who are stealing land their families have held for generations right out from under them.

Katrina may have stomped on New Orleans and parts of Mississippi to the tune of billions of dollars, but the hidden damage that crooked clerks, unscrupulous land speculators, amoral real estate developers and complicit judges aren't doing too shabby, either.

Cross-generational efforts of land pirates and real estate thieves, together with their cohorts in many of the courts and county courthouses of the nation, continue to terrorize vulnerable landowners nationwide. With pen, paper and a briefcase of bogus documents, they're stealing more money than most bank robbers ever dreamed of.

The problem is nationwide, and covers residential and agricultural property, in a massive illegal transfer of properties. Even the"simple thefts" that don't involve complex manipulation of probate courts can result in devastating financial loss.

A California couple claims they are the victim of a land theft in Wisconsin:
Land in Wisconsin has been stolen and the remaining acreage has been rendered effectively worthless. We have been denied due process while living in the State of California. Misrepresentation, interstate wire-fraud, forgery, conspiracy, obstruction and RICO violations have been committed by executives of XXX Title Insurance Company based in Santa Ana, in concert with other public and private parties.

Karen Dorrough's name was forged to a fraudulent land transfer return by Vice President XXXXXX while co-owner Michael Dorrough was never even consulted about a highly destructive alteration to a valid title to land.
(http://www.wisclean.org/Letter%20To%
20Attorney%20General%20Brown%20072307.pdf.)

They and others continue to seek redress and remedy, but, as many victims of land fraud have discovered, it isn't easy or cheap. Some victims are so discouraged that they think it's downright impossible.

About Me:
I'm a news director and columnist in southern Indiana and have written4 books and enough articles to wallpaper an outhouse.

Check out "Red, Black, Brown & Green: Ethnic People and the Move to EconomicSelf-Sufficiency" by MONICA DAVIS, editor (Bobbie O'Neill contributor)

The only real power on this planet is green power. That is true on several levels: access to money and markets, and control over your own finances and food supply.

Around the world, ethnic people in the 21stCentury have many of the same problems as their ancestors: inadequate power to control their own agriculture, businesses and finances.

Authors from around the world examine the effect of interplay between money, power and the move to self-sufficiency on people of color.
Author website:http://www.lulu.com/davis4000_2000

A frog at the bottom of the world, only sees part of the sky.Only by opening our minds can we truly accept the gift of being human

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE, OPINION PIECE, COMMENTS 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.

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Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/
Lewis & Clark Law School
10015 SW Terwilliger Blvd.
Portland, OR 97219
503.768.6821

AIROS NATIVE NETWORK plays music, news and other great programs from Indian Country - www.airos.org

FOR NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

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

NATIVE BIZ LEARNING CENTER - www.learn.nativebiz.com was developed for tribal education specialists serving tribal communities. Any tribal community can register at NO COST.

SUPPORTING NATIVE AMERICAN/FIRST PEOPLE - ARTISTS, FILM MAKERS, ENTERTAINERS, ETC. http://www.krystynmedia.blogspot.com.

Navajos Face Uphill Battle For RECA Compensation - Doubts Cast On Canadian Seaport

By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

WINDOW ROCK ­- Fifteen years ago this past Sunday, the last underground nuclear weapons test took place at Nevada Test Site. The Sept. 23, 1992, blast was one of 928 known nuclear tests conducted by the United States beginning in 1951.

In the years between 1951 and 1963, more than 100 above-ground tests were conducted. The resultant mushroom clouds became a tourist attraction at Las Vegas hotels 63 miles away, and the clouds of radioactive fallout that permeated the atmosphere drifted across the country, creating “hot spots” of radioactivity stretching all the way to New England.

But Vegas wasn’t the only place from which the shots were visible. Navajos as far away as Cameron, Ariz., have reported seeing a fiery glow in the sky that could not be attributed to the noonday sun or one of Arizona's brilliant sunsets.

Many Navajos are believed to have been exposed to radioactive fallout, which is presumed to have produced an increased incidence of certain serious diseases, including various types of cancer. But proving that exposure has been nearly impossible, according to Navajo Nation Council Delegate Phil Harrison.

Harrison, the son of a deceased uranium miner, has dedicated much of his life to helping radiation exposure victims and their survivors collect compensation under the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

“We have people that were born and raised here and never went anywhere, and they can't come up with anything so they can't get compensated,” Harrison said.

“Residency is a big issue. It’s very frustrating. There’s nothing that they can find that says they lived there. I mean, these people were not brought in from Japan!

“Their hogan is there, their sheep corral is there, their relatives are there. They were not relocated. They were born and raised there, and yet we have to come up with an original document to tie them in to a certain designated county,” he said.

In 2000 amendments, Congress added certain counties downwind of NevadaTest Site to its list of geographic areas covered under RECA, making Navajo downwinders in Apache, Coconino and Navajo counties in Arizona and San JuanCounty, Utah, potentially eligible for compensation. Still, it’s an uphill battle.

“They don't have birth certificates, a lot of them don't have marriage certificates; a lot of them don't have immunization records. Navajos never heard of these things until probably the ‘70s,” Harrison said.

“And then there's no such thing as keeping accurate, precise vitalrecords on these people because they were born at home ­ so we’ve got really nothing to fall back on. They've just made it so hard.”

The Department of Justice established the Radiation Exposure Compensation Program in 1992 to begin processing claims. From April 1992 through June 2007, RECP authorized payments totaling $1.2 billion for 18,110 claims. Almost half of the $1.2 billion was paid to downwinders.

The 18,110 claims represented about two-thirds of the 26,550 claims filed since RECP began in April 1992. The remaining one-third, or 7,539 claims, was denied because RECA's eligibility criteria were not satisfied, and 901 were pending adjudicationas of June 30, according to a Sept. 7 report from the U.S. GovernmentAccountability Office.

In about 40 percent (2,916) of the claims denied, claimants continued to pursue a compensation award while 1,856 refiled their claims at least once; and 1,048 pursued an administrative appeal.

Harrison said one woman in Western Agency has had her claim rejected twice. Because of the “three strikes, you're out” policy, she is now waiting for a new round of RECA amendments currently being worked on before filing the third time.

In a 1997 report, the National Cancer Institute determined that 90 atmospheric tests at Nevada Test Site deposited high levels of radioactive iodine-131 across a large portion of the United States, especially during1952, 1953, 1955, and 1957. The doses were large enough to produce up to 75,000 cases of thyroid cancer, the report said.

On the Navajo Nation, according to Harrison, “We’re coming across a lot of thyroid disorders.” Also notable are the incidences of thyroid cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, and stomach cancer. ”There’s very few lymphoma, very few multiple myeloma, very few leukemia,” he said.

The incidence of cancers related to the reproductive system, which are not covered under RECA, are of concern as well. “Besides the 20 that’s listed, some of these are very questionable. It seems to me that they also should be included ­ for the men, prostate cancer; and for women, uterine cancer,” he said.

“I just don’t know what to say to these people when they say, 'Our body is all exposed. Why are they pinpointing down to a certain primary cancer'?”

On June 3, 2005, Larry Martinez of the Office of Navajo Uranium Workers reported to the Navajo Nation Council that 176 Navajos and approximately 20 Hopis had been approved to receive RECA compensation for downwinders as ofApril 20, 2005.

Martinez said the New Mexico Tumor Registry had recorded more than 2,000 Navajos and more than 250 Hopis born before July 1, 1962, with documented RECA-compensable cancers who might be eligible for benefits under the downwinder provisions.

Consultant Doubtful About Iqaluit Seaport
Submitted by Ann VanWert
By CHRIS WINDEYER - Nunatsiaq News
A consultant who helped the Government of Nunavut create its transportation strategy is skeptical the City of Iqaluit can secure private-sector funding to build a port.

Christopher Wright, who runs the Mariport Group consulting firm in Digby, N.S., chuckled at the notion Iqaluit might find investors willing to cough up some of their own money for a port locked in ice eight months of the year.

"I think with the current turmoil in the financial markets, I think it's most unlikely anybody's going to pony up money for that," he said, referring to the sub-prime mortgage meltdown that has spooked investors. "The big problem is that it's a very expensive dock and it would be enormously costly to pay for the finance and operate it based on the amount of cargo going into Iqaluit.

"The city, stung by an August decision by the federal government to upgrade an existing port at Nanisivik for the military, is looking for private investors to help fund a container port, which could cost as much as $100 million. The city has also struck a committee, including the Qikiqtaaluk Corporation, the territorial department of economic development and transportation, and Qulliq Energy Corporation to try to figure out ways to get a port built.

Anne Crawford, president of QEC, said one solution might be to piggyback the construction of a port onto the utility's proposed hydroelectric dam that would provide power for Iqaluit. She said Qulliq wouldn't invest directly in the project but might be able to share costs. QEC also backs the project because "we have large sealifts," Crawford said.

But she said Qulliq views a port as a potential business opportunity.

"Ports take a lot of energy," Crawford said. "When a boat pulls up to the dock they want to shut down their engines and connect to a land-based system ... It would be a significant customer for us.

"QEC is mulling Jayne's Inlet as a possible site for the hydro dam. Located on the south shore of the lower reaches of Frobisher Bay, Crawford said the inlet is located below a chain of islands that run through the middle of the bay and keep the lower part of the bay free of ice for most of the winter.

"If you built on the other side of those islands you would have eight or nine ice-free months," she said.

Crawford said it's also a logical site because the company needs a landing site to build a dam. But it would also require a long, and costly, road connection running around the head of Frobisher Bay.

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE, OPINION PIECE, COMMENTS 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.

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/
Lewis & Clark Law School
10015 SW Terwilliger Blvd.
Portland, OR 97219
503.768.6821

AIROS NATIVE NETWORK plays music, news and other great programs from Indian Country - www.airos.org

FOR NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

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

NATIVE BIZ LEARNING CENTER - www.learn.nativebiz.com was developed for tribal education specialists serving tribal communities. Any tribal community can register at NO COST.

SUPPORTING NATIVE AMERICAN/FIRST PEOPLE - ARTISTS, FILM MAKERS, ENTERTAINERS, ETC. http://www.krystynmedia.blogspot.com.

NAJA Receives Funding - SUWA Wins Off-Road Vehicle Battle - Inuit Artist Dies - 'Indigenous Rights' Maybe Not So Great

NAJA Receives Funding From Journalism Foundation
(Norman, Oklahoma) --- The Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) receives funding from Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.

Robert J. Ross, President and CEO of the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation announced recently the distribution of $1.59 million in grants to 35 journalism organizations nationwide.

The Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation was established in 1982, by Edith Kinney Gaylord to support local and national efforts to improve the quality of journalism practices among various media. The Foundation provides funding for projects that promote excellence and instill high ethical standards in journalism.

Known as Oklahoma's quiet philanthropist, Ms. Gaylord often made anonymous donations to help those in need. After a lifetime of giving, she formally created two foundations that allowed her contributions to do the most good, for the most people. In doing so, Ms. Gaylord created foundations that would stand the test of time and continue giving long after her death in 2001.

The Native American Journalists Association and Unity Journalists of Color Inc. were awarded grants from Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation in the amount of:. $50,000 to Native American Journalists Association which recently moved from South Dakota to the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma.

And, $50,000 to UNITY Journalists of Color Inc. for Student Campus Boot Camp, a week-long program for college-age students leading up to the 2008 UNITY Quadrennial Convention in Chicago July 23-27, 2008.

For additional information contact Jeff Harjo, NAJA Executive Director at 405 325-9008.

Utah BLM Closes Recapture Wash To Off-Road Vehicles
Submitted by Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance
Dear Native Unity,
This week, we have some long-overdue but welcome news to report from the front lines of the battle against off-road vehicle destruction in southeast Utah.

After dragging its feet for nearly two years, the Monticello Bureau of Land Management has temporarily closed Recapture Wash in southeast Utah to off-road vehicles, due to the damage to cultural resources resulting from ORV use. The effect of the closure, however, remains to be seen.

After an illegally constructed ORV route was discovered in the canyon two years ago, conservation groups and concerned local residents requested that BLM close the route and take action to protect the cultural resources in the canyon, including a diverse array of dwellings and artifacts spanning a vast period of habitation.

All of the surveyed sites in the canyon are eligible for listing on the National Register of Historical Places. Eventually, in January of ’07, BLM’s own contract archeologist reported that several archaeological sites were being directly impacted by the illegally constructed route in the canyon, and that other sites were at risk of damage due to the illegal route.

Jerry Spangler, Executive Director, Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance, has documented the connection between looting of archaeological sites and ORV access. “Any time you open up areas for motorized access, you open up areas for mischief” Spangler says, “Archaeological sites become more vulnerable from illegal and inappropriate activities associated with ORVs, whether intentional or inadvertent.”

This closure is a very positive step for the BLM, and thanks is due to the Monticello BLM for taking action, even if it was a little slow in coming. The Interim Closure is, however, just a first step toward protection of this priceless national resource, and we will continue to keep a close eye on the situation. Serious enforcement and meaningful penalties are the only things that will make this closure "stick", and we hope the BLM is prepared to provide them.

Please send an email to Nick Sandberg, Acting Manager, Monticello BLM and Selma Sierra, Utah State BLM Director thanking BLM for making the decision to close Recapture Canyon to protect the unique cultural resources from further damage from off-road vehicle use, as the agency is receiving pressure from the county and ORV-activists to re- open part or all of the canyon to ORV use.

You can send your emails to: Nick_Sandberg@blm.gov and Selma_Sierra@blm.gov
To find out more, visit http://www.suwa.org/site/R?i=s8SqiSsj6hWLh7EBcQpVYA... And while you’re there, please join SUWA, and help protect Utah's spectacular redrock wilderness for current and future generations.

425 East 100 South, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84111 801-486-3161 http://www.suwa.org/site/R?i=iI5RODNmMe0ICh30DfgJSg..

Alootook Ipellie: Inuit Writer, Illustrator Has Died
Submitted by Ann Van Wert
By JOHN THOMPSON
September 21st, 2007
Alootook Ipellie, an accomplished illustrator, writer, and most of all, a dreamer, died of a heart attack outside his Ottawa apartment Sept. 8. He was 56

He dreamed of becoming a famous artist. It's a dream he chased most his life, ever since he was mesmerized by Superman comics as a young boy growing up in Frobisher Bay.

Through fits and spasms of work, he seemed to be slowly gaining recognition. Several years ago he toured Germany and Australia to showcase his older work. And after more than a decade of artistic silence in Canada, he unveiled an exhibit of new drawings in Ottawa earlier this year, which the Ottawa Citizen described as "superb."

"His technical skills are unbeatable," wrote Paul Gessell. "His content ranges from playfully innocent to devilishly searing. The pen-and-ink images, although often minimal, carry a wallop."

Friends remember Ipellie as shy, quiet and thoughtful. He was small, about five foot four, with long hair and a wispy beard. He sometimes joked about his appearance by calling himself "an Eskimo Dr. David Suzuki." He dressed plainly, often wearing a black t-shirt and black jeans.

He was born in an outpost camp in 1951, and moved to Frobisher Bay shortly afterwards. He later moved to Ottawa to complete high school, and for much of his life, he remained there, but his thoughts often drifted north.

Ipellie often attended Inuit gatherings, such as country food feasts put on by Tungasuvvingat Inuit. Recently, he announced plans to move back to Iqaluit next summer.

"He said he had enough of southern living," said his cousin, Koomook McLister, who spoke with Ipellie regularly. "He wanted to go home." At the family's request, he was to be buried in Iqaluit.
Ipellie sometimes lamented how he spent too much time dreaming, rather than working on making his fantasies come true. He dropped out of a lithography course at the famous West Baffin Eskimo Co-Op in 1972, and shortly afterwards, took a job as a typist and translator for Inuit Today, a magazine published by Inuit Tapirisat of Canada.

To fill space in the magazine, he drew one-box cartoons. His drawings, which often commented on social issues, soon found a following among Inuit readers who shared his wry humour. One drawing, titled "The idiot box is here," marked the introduction of television to the Eastern Arctic with rows of igloos outfitted with antennas.

Besides becoming a noted cartoonist, Ipellie went on to be a writer, designer, photographer, and eventually editor of the publication.

Ipellie is survived by his daughter, Taina.

UN Declaration On Indigenous Rights, Great - But!
Native Issues Blog
September 24th, 2007
The recent adoption by the UN of its Declaration on Indigenous Rights is a nice step forward. But it’s good to see the Declaration in its full light.

IPSnews reports: While governments and the representatives of international agencies celebrated the approval of the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples after more than two decades of negotiations, some native leaders and experts in Latin America were less enthusiastic.

In their criticism of the document, indigenous leaders Manuel Castro of Ecuador and Luis Andrade of Colombia, as well as the former director of the Inter-American Indigenous Institute, José del Val, pointed out to IPS that it is non-binding, and that parts of it were negotiated with little participation by the representatives of its presumptive beneficiaries.

A slightly different stance was taken by the spokesman for the Rigoberto Menchú Foundation, Elmer Erazo, who said the Declaration could be considered a stride forward “to the extent that indigenous people make use of it.” But, he told IPS, “it’s nothing to jump up and down about.”

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE, OPINION PIECE, COMMENTS 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.

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Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/
Lewis & Clark Law School
10015 SW Terwilliger Blvd.
Portland, OR 97219
503.768.6821

AIROS NATIVE NETWORK plays music, news and other great programs from Indian Country - www.airos.org

FOR NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

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

NATIVE BIZ LEARNING CENTER - www.learn.nativebiz.com was developed for tribal education specialists serving tribal communities. Any tribal community can register at NO COST.

SUPPORTING NATIVE AMERICAN/FIRST PEOPLE - ARTISTS, FILM MAKERS, ENTERTAINERS, ETC. http://www.krystynmedia.blogspot.com.

Nuclear Attack In Kingman, Arizona - Part 4 of 4 - Meeting Set To Discuss 'New Uranium Recovery Facilities'

By Jana Bommersbach
Feature Story Phoenix Magazine
November 2004
Submitted by Eleanore Fanire

"I was hoping maybe 25 people would show up," Fanire remembers from that inaugural meeting of the Down-winders. "But 100 people showed up. Nobody could believe how many had already passed - we couldn't believe the people who came who had cancer."

In their shared astonishment and their shared grief, these people - most of whom had grown up together and remembered the "Bulldogs" as their high school team - began the slow process of dealing with the hand their government had dealt them.

They immediately appealed to their Congressional leaders, and expected to get some results, considering that by then, both Arizona senators were powerful Republicans in Congress. But initially, neither John McCain nor Jon Kyl did much. ("They didn't acknowledge it until we made some noise," Stephens says, surmising that it took so long because "it didn't affect them personally.")

As a backup, they appealed to state lawmakers - again, getting a tepid response until they proved they wouldn't go away and the information they'd amassed was too horrible to ignore.

These days, you can see the Downwinders coming by the thick three-ring binders they carry, filled with government re-ports and terrifying maps of exposure - Fanire has so much information, she hauls it around in a suitcase on wheels.

Early on they'd discovered that knowledge is power and facts are strength, and they'll go almost anywhere to tell their sad stories. To date, they've testified at hearings in St. George, Utah, and Window Rock, Arizona - going there because no one's ever come to Kingman to hold a hearing on this issue.

In addition, they have addressed the Senate Health Committee. "In memory of the victims of radiation fallout who have died of cancer, please wear our Black Hat," said Downwinder Gloria Richhart as she put on the hat she's covered with the names of the dead. "For the victims whose cancer is in remission, please come walk in our boots," she added, as she put a pair of children's cowboy boots on the podium.

She remembers the senators sitting there, "shaking their heads" in disbelief as she laid out what had been done to American civilians by the atomic tests.

"We believe that we as radiation fallout victims, or the families of victims, are not only entitled to recognition and compensation, but also to unqualified appreciation, gratitude and support for our sacrifices, bra-very and courage," she said.

To date, the Mohave County Downwinders display 164 black hats in memory and 36 boots in hope. About 120 people are actively involved in the year-old group, and Fanire estimates that from 2,000 to 4,000 people in their county were sickened by the nuclear tests.

A volunteer named Johnny Sean created the group's website, explaining, "I am angry about the names in Hats and Boots. Those are not simply names on a list. They are people I have known, worked with, partied with, cried with and loved."

"Even if we get the money, it won't give us another Christmas," Fanire explains. "It won't give us another anniversary, it won't give us a fourth-generation picture, it won't give us what's missing in our hearts."

Really, it's not a very big payment, and $50,000 gets even smaller when you consider how costly cancer can get. "The people who died in the Twin Towers on September 11 suffered a few moments and the government paid their families $1.8 million," Fanire says. "Our people have suffered 40 to 50 years - some have lost their homes because of this, some have been ruined - and if they get the money it's not even $1,000 a year."

Stephens says it isn't the money that's important, it's the principle - the acknowledgement that this devastation was visited upon the good people of her county. "It's the right thing," she says.

And so the people of Mohave County keep on fighting, in big ways and small.

Lately, they've been handing out packets of seeds, hoping concern and understanding will grow and nobody will ever forget what has happened to them and what was done to them.

The packets show a field of blue and yellow flowers, and the name offers a haunting message: Forget-Me-Not.

Jana Bommersbach © 2003 - 2007 Email: jana@janabommersbach.com :

NRC Public Meeting Set For Sept. 27th In Gallup
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

WINDOW ROCK ­ Members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will conduct a public meeting Sept. 27 in Gallup to obtain public comments on a “generic environmental impact statement” designed to expedite licensing for new uranium recovery facilities and conventional mills.

The NRC says it is expecting numerous applications for new in-situ uranium recovery operations in the next two to three years and plans to lump together common issues associated with environmental reviews to aid in a more efficient environmental review for each separate license application

Opponents, however, say it is just another attempt by the NRC to circumvent the National Environmental Policy Act and shortchange the public.

George Hardeen, communications director for the Navajo Nation Office of the President and Vice President, said, “If people want to mine uranium, they can do it as long as it's not on the Navajo Nation,” which in 2005 approved a ban on uranium mining and milling operations throughout Navajo Indian Country.

“If it’s in Navajo Indian Country, the Natural Resources Protection Act applies,” he said. Attempts to get around that act then become a challenge to Navajo Nation sovereignty.

“If a uranium company wants to mine on Navajo land and disregard Navajo law, they can expect some trouble. The governors of all of the states surrounding the Navajo Nation, every congressman that President (Joe) Shirley has visited with, tell him that indeed, they will stand behind the Navajo Nation and its sovereignty.

“So it doesn’t matter what the uranium companies say. The Navajo Nation just doesn¹t want anything to do with it. It¹s not good for the Navajo people,” he said. An EIS already has been completed for Hydro Resources Inc.’s operations in McKinley County so the GEIS would not have a direct bearing on these projects, according to Mark Pelizza of HRI.

“In this process, NRC will evaluate the historic in situ recovery uranium operations and reclamation in the western United States and will review the successes and failures of such operations,” Pelizza said.

Using information obtained through the GEIS, NRC will analyze future uranium recovery operations and determine the potential impacts associated with such proposed operations, he said.

“More importantly, NRC will use this information to implement requirements for new uranium recovery operations that will mitigate or eliminate potential impacts that may have been posed by historic uranium recovery operations.

“From my perspective, I can see no downside to the creation and use of this type of intensive study of the broad and regional aspects of uranium recovery operations.

“They do not preclude the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from examining the site-specific aspects of each and every new proposed uranium recovery project in a manner consistent with federal law and their regulations.

“I am puzzled as to why some people would oppose this study when it does not eliminate the requirement for site-specific analysis,” Pelizza said. “Could it be that some people simply do not want to be confused with the facts?”

Eric Jantz, staff attorney with New Mexico Environmental Law Center in Santa Fe, which has represented Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining in its efforts to stop the start-up of HRI's in-situ leach mining facilities in Church Rock and Crownpoint, views the GEIS differently.

“The NRC is bending over backward to accommodate the uranium mining industry. Rather than requiring a rigorous environmental analysis for each and every proposed ISL mine site, the NRC is instead proposing a GEIS that will require less site-specific environmental analysis.

“The GEIS will also dramatically reduce opportunities for public participation in the environmental analysis process, and could virtually eliminate environmental justice analyses. And the NRC is proposing this because it feels it is not processing ISL mining applications quickly enough,” Jantz said.

Chris Shuey of Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque also is opposed to the NRC's plan. “The GEIS represents NRC's continued efforts to streamline the uranium licensing process, long an objective of the uranium industry.

“It's another attempt to limit public review of ISL operations and to avoid evaluating the ISL industry¹s systematic failure to restore groundwater to pre-mining conditions. If NRC won¹t drop this bad idea, Congress should do it for them,” Shuey said.

Steve Cone of “electors Concerned about Animas Water,” or CAW, in Farmington, in comments to the NRC, said, “We are sick and tired of government agencies such as the NRC acting as lapdogs for corporate interests to sanction and accelerate a culture of environmental degradation which threatens to transform the Southwestern United States into a National Energy Sacrifice Area.”

Cone said fast-tracking the GEIS process is “a gross miscarriage of environmental justice for indigenous populations and their neighbors, who refuse to see their homes and health sacrificed to increase the profits of a government-favored special interest group.”

“Reverse course now, adopt the no-action alternative, and get the hell out of dodge, or prepare to be tarred and feathered by those you seek to marginalize ­ described on your website as the ‘lower population density’ in ‘the western states’.”

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE, OPINION PIECE, COMMENTS 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.

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/
Lewis & Clark Law School
10015 SW Terwilliger Blvd.
Portland, OR 97219
503.768.6821

AIROS NATIVE NETWORK plays music, news and other great programs from Indian Country - www.airos.org

FOR NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

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

NATIVE BIZ LEARNING CENTER - www.learn.nativebiz.com was developed for tribal education specialists serving tribal communities. Any tribal community can register at NO COST.

SUPPORTING NATIVE AMERICAN/FIRST PEOPLE - ARTISTS, FILM MAKERS, ENTERTAINERS, ETC. http://www.krystynmedia.blogspot.com.

Nuclear Attack In Kingman, Arizona - Part 3 of 4 Articles

By Jana Bommersbach
Feature Story - Phoenix Magazine
November 2004
Submitted by Eleanore Fanire

Preface: In 1945, the U.S. military dropped atomic bombs on Japan, killing tens of thousands of Japanese civilians. Seven years later, it start-ed dropping bombs in Nevada, indirectly killing untold numbers of American civilians. No one knows for sure how many Arizonans have died from the fallout, but in Kingman, they're still counting, and survivors Worry the numbers will increase if the government follows through on its plan for another round of nuclear tests.

State Senator Linda Binder admits to being flabbergasted when she finally took the time to listen to the Mohave Downwinders and realized their problem. She'd originally blown them off, seeing their plight as a "federal issue," but they kept bombarding her with information. "I was horrified," she remembers. "There were lots of cancers… there was a high incident of breast cancer in men… so many had died."

She ended up championing their cause in the Legislature, getting a "postcard to Congress" passed and signed by the governor that decries the omission of Mohave County from the compensation act.

Meanwhile, with her attention focused on the effects of 50-year-old nuclear tests, she was even more astonished to learn from Downwinders that the government intended to do it all over again - this time with underground testing.

"The Bush Administration is counting on the fact that nobody can believe the U.S. would do this to our own people - it boggles the mind," she declares.

As chair of the state Senate Natural Resources & Environment Committee, Binder started asking questions. Lots of questions. And she kept getting the same answers: Nobody knew anything about new tests, and if they did, they assured her, "Don't worry about it."

And then on May 25 of this year, the Associated Press released a short story saying that an underground nuclear test was being conducted by the government that particular day at the Nevada Test Site.

So Binder called a press conference to decry the test. "All the boys [in the capital press corps] came, but nobody wrote about it," she says.

Binder then found out that nobody in state government had any idea this was happening, either - not the Homeland Security folks, not the Health Department, not the water resources people, not the environmental departments.

"This should not be done in secrecy," she says. "There should be an open debate so we know what is happening. But we should never, ever test in the United States and subject our citizens to fallout."Of course, it will come as no surprise that the Downwinders oppose the new tests, too.
"They can't take care of the people from the last 50 years, how can they take care of the new people who will be affected?" Fanire asks. And if they must test, she has a suggestion: "Why doesn't Bush put it in his back yard?"

More surprising, however, is that the conservative Mohave County Board of Supervisors is adamantly opposed to the new tests. The Board even passed a resolution declaring their position last May - they called the planned nuclear tests a "threat to life, health, tourism and the economy of Mohave County."

The Arizona Public Health Association is also on record as opposing the new tests: "By developing new weapons, resuming testing of nuclear devices and breaking the test-ban treaty, the U.S. would fuel a new cycle of global nuclear weapons proliferation that could lead to a public health catastrophe."

And The New York Times, one of the few media voices in the country to speak out on the tests, editorialized in June: "The only research involving nuclear weapons should involve finding ways to discourage their spread. It's mind-boggling that the administration seems more interested in finding new uses for them."

Kingman's Mountain View Cemetery isn't a pretty place. It was way out in the boonies when it was first established a century ago, but now it sits along a busy four-lane road, and it's easy to miss as you whiz by, like everyone else, breaking the 35 mph speed limit.

Over the years, the city leaders planted plenty of trees, but, to save money, they eliminated the grass, and today, the sand and gravel looks too harsh for the headstones and plastic flowers that mark the graves of loved ones.

Still, almost all of the surviving Downwinders have family there. Danielle Stephens has so many relatives buried at this spot, she can spend a good part of a morning visiting all the graves. Same goes for Fanire, who scattered some of her brother's ashes there in 2002, so William E. Logas could be with his parents.

"Billy was a hero in his hometown," Fanire says with sisterly pride, and she's not just bragging, as evidenced by the 500 people who came to a party his family threw for him five months before he died. "It was all potluck, and there was so much food we fed five fire and police stations and the children's shelter with what was left over."

"Billy" Logas died after battling glioblastoma - an incurable brain cancer - for 19 months. He was 58 years old, and a husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, great-uncle, great-great-uncle and friend. He'd begun life in 1944 as the first baby born at the Kingman Army Airport housing project, where his dad, "Buster," and mom, Hanna, were stationed during World War II.

He was a mechanic, putting in 20 years for the city of Kingman, where he was shop maintenance foreman. His obituary noted that Billy's heart was in his patriotism: "Billy's love for his country went way beyond the call for duty, as he joined the Arizona National Guard in 1964. He served as an active member for 38 years." At the time of his death, he was chief warrant officer for the 1404 Transportation Co., which is stationed at the Navajo Army Depot in Flagstaff.

Despite Billy's many accomplishments, Fanire knows her brother died too young, and isn't sure she'll ever get over the bitterness of his death. "I feel it is so strange that the country he loved so much… that same country killed him with radiation fallout from the mushroom clouds of the Nevada Test Site."

Danielle Stephens never made the connection between those nuclear tests and her family's sad history of early death until very recently. One day she sat down with a cup of coffee and a small tablet she had bought at the grocery store, and started making a list. "I started with my dad, and then thought, 'Oh, my grandpa, and my uncle, and my cousin… and my husband's family had so many, too,' and I thought, 'This is significant.'"

Her list now includes 31 family members who have gotten cancer - 26 of them have died. Most had funerals in the old Methodist Church in downtown Kingman - the same church where Stephens was married 44 years ago - a graceful, elegant building that now houses county offices. After the final ceremony at the cemetery, her family and their friends would gather at the Elks Club or a family home for a bite to eat and a chance to reminisce.

She lost her maternal grandfather to stomach cancer, her mother-in-law to breast and lung cancer, an uncle to throat cancer, and the list goes on, through first and second cousins, through aunts and uncles.

Her mother, Jennielee Bishop, has been diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband, Frank, with prostate cancer. She has a brother fighting prostate cancer, too, and a cousin with bladder cancer.

And while she and her son are cancer-free, she can't help but wonder if her exposure didn't contribute to her only daughter's mysterious illness. "We took her to UCLA and the Mayo Clinic and everywhere we could go, and nobody could name it - it was an orphan disease." Marilee was only 36 when she died in 2001, leaving behind a husband and a daughter and a mother who doesn't ordinarily swear, but will admit to being "pretty damn mad when my daughter died."

Despite all of the deaths, Stephens still thought it was just happenstance - bad luck in a family that didn't deserve such a lousy hand. And then she saw the flier that appeared in the summer of 2003: "Radiation Fallout," the large red letters on the flier read. "Have you had cancer? Do you know anyone that has had cancer? Know someone who has lost their cancer battle?" It announced a gathering at an adult center and invited all to attend.

When Stephens walked into that meeting, she remembers, "It was like a class re-union for me." There were so many from her Mohave County Union High School Class of 1957. All of a sudden, the dots started connecting, and Stephens realized that the childhood memory of sitting on her pony on that mountaintop was actually the first scene of a real-life horror movie.

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE, OPINION PIECE, COMMENTS 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.

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/
Lewis & Clark Law School
10015 SW Terwilliger Blvd.
Portland, OR 97219
503.768.6821

AIROS NATIVE NETWORK plays music, news and other great programs from Indian Country - www.airos.org

FOR NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

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

NATIVE BIZ LEARNING CENTER - www.learn.nativebiz.com was developed for tribal education specialists serving tribal communities. Any tribal community can register at NO COST.

SUPPORTING NATIVE AMERICAN/FIRST PEOPLE - ARTISTS, FILM MAKERS, ENTERTAINERS, ETC. http://www.krystynmedia.blogspot.com.

History Made On September 13th For Indigenous Peoples At UN!

Submitted by Alyssa Macy
Treaty Rights, Land Rights and Self-determination of Indigenous Peoples are recognized internationally with the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the UN General Assembly on September 13th 2007

On September 13, 2007 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. One hundred forty-four states ("countries") voted in support (Montenegro registered their vote after the fact). 4 voted against and 11 abstained.

The United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand voted against the adoption, stating that in their view it "goes too far" in recognizing the rights of Indigenous Peoples. A burst of spontaneous applause from states, Indigenous Peoples and United Nations officials broke out when the final vote was posted on a huge electronic tally sheet at the front of the General Assembly hall.

This vote is of special significance for the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC), which was founded in 1974 with a mandate to bring Treaty rights and Treaty violations to the United Nations (UN). With the adoption of the Declaration, for the first time, the UN officially recognizes that the rights affirmed in Treaties are "matters of international concern, interest, responsibility and character" and that states are obligated to uphold and honor them.

The vote marks a historic day for the world's Indigenous Peoples. This is the first time that Indigenous Peoples have been recognized as "Peoples" without qualification in an international instrument.

The Declaration also recognizes Indigenous Peoples' inherent rights to self-determination, traditional lands, territories and natural resources, cultures and sacred sites, means of subsistence, languages, identities as well as their traditional life ways and concepts of development based on free, prior and informed consent, among others.

Many Indigenous delegates, states and UN representatives present at the proceedings noted that this was the first time that a UN human rights instrument had been developed with the direct and active participation of the "beneficiaries" of the rights, in this case the Indigenous Peoples of the world.

Even though a UN Declaration is not considered to be legally binding upon states, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has political and moral force and delineates states' obligations to uphold these rights throughout its provisions. Indigenous Peoples around the world will be able to use the Declaration to redefine their relationships with states, address their grass-roots human rights issues and struggles, and call upon states to put the rights it recognizes into practice.

This vote culminates a decades-long struggle by Indigenous Peoples for recognition of their rights and dignity at the UN. Andrea Carmen, Yaqui Nation and IITC's Executive Director, witnessed the historic vote from the floor of the General Assembly with other regional co-coordinators of the Indigenous Peoples' Global Caucus, as well as Indigenous dignitaries and chiefs.

She stated that IITC will now focus attention on implementation of the rights affirmed in the Declaration. "We finally have an internationally-recognized standard and framework that can be utilized by Indigenous Peoples to hold states and the UN system accountable for upholding their human rights" she said after the vote.

Andrea also pointed out that 3 of the 4 states voting against the Declaration (US, Canada and New Zealand) are the very states that have the most Treaties with Indigenous Peoples and Nations, Treaties which they continue to violate to this day.
Canada and US Are Cop-Outs On this Declaration!

Canada's Reasons For Opposing Indigenous Rights
Native Issues Blog
By Professor Robert J. Miller
Lewis and Clark Law School
September 16th, 2007

On September 12, Canada released a statement as to why it would vote no on Sept. 13 for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. Here is the statement I received:

September 12, 2007 22:43 - Statement by Canada’s New Government regarding the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples OTTAWA, Sept. 12 /CNW Telbec/ -
The Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians, and the Honourable Maxime Bernier, Minister of Foreign Affairs, issued the following statement today regarding the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The General Assembly will vote tomorrow on whether or not to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Canada will vote against adoption of the current text because it is fundamentally flawed and lacks clear, practical guidance for implementation, and contains provisions that are fundamentally incompatible with Canada’s constitutional framework. It also does not recognize Canada’s need to balance indigenous rights to lands and resources with the rights of others.

Since taking office in 2006, Canada’s New Government has acted on many fronts to improve quality of life and promote a prosperous future for all Aboriginal peoples. This agenda is practical, focuses on real results, and has led to tangible progress in a range of areas including land claims, education, housing, child and family services, safe drinking water and the extension of human rights protection to First Nations on reserve.

We are also pushing to have Section 67 of the Canadian Human Rights Act repealed. This would ensure the protection of fundamental human rights for all Aboriginal people, including Aboriginal women who are often the most vulnerable.

Canada supports the spirit and intent of a United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. But further negotiations are necessary in order to achieve a text worthy of Canadian support that will truly address the interests of indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in Canada and around the world.

We have not stood alone during this process. The U.S., Australia and New Zealand have all voiced concerns with the text as it now stands.

Canada’s position has remained consistent and principled. We have stated publicly that we have significant concerns with the wording of provisions of the Declaration such as those on: lands, territories and resources; free, prior and informed consent when used as a veto; self-government without recognition of the importance of negotiations; intellectual property; militaryissues; and the need to achieve an appropriate balance between the rights and obligations of indigenous peoples, member States and third parties.

For example, in Article 26, the document states: “Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired.” This could be used by Aboriginal groups to challenge and re-open historic and present day treaties and to support claims that have already been dealt with.

Similarly, some of the provisions dealing with the concept of free, prior and informed consent are too restrictive. Provisions such as Article 19 imply that the State cannot act without the consent of indigenous peoples even when such actions are matters of general policy affecting both indigenous and non-indigenous peoples.

Despite Canada joining efforts with like-minded States that have a large indigenous population, our concerns with the current text were not addressed.

Canada will continue to be active internationally in the field ofindigenous rights, and will continue with our practical and meaningful agenda on priorities here at home.

For further information: Philippe Mailhot, Press Secretary, Office of the Honourable Chuck Strahl, (819) 997-0002; Foreign Affairs Media Relations Office, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, (613) 995-1874

United Nations: Native Declaration
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
At the United Nations, the world has solemnly committed itself to better treatment of native populations. Well, most of the world, except for some of those that have the most responsibility for relating to indigenous populations.

Yup. The Bush administration and three other diehard governments -- Canada, New Zealand and Australia -- couldn't bring themselves to support the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Far be it from us to ponder thoughts of any special ethnocentrism in largely English-speaking lands; Britain, Ireland, Jamaica and other countries didn't oppose the statement. Appropriately, the four no voters squirmed, straining to explain concerns about technicalities, language and possible conflicts with their own laws, even though the declaration generally wouldn't be binding.

It took more than 20 years for the declaration to receive Thursday's approval from the U.N. General Assembly. You would think that, even under the Bush administration, this country, with one of the largest native populations, would have found a way to be a part of the progress and celebration.

U.S. delegate Robert Hagen did put the administration on record as committed to respect for tribal governments and their rights. "My government will continue its vigorous efforts to promote indigenous rights domestically," he said.

But with a new world standard, even federal, state and local authorities will have to do better as they deal with tribal rights. The U.N. declaration is a step toward greater mutual respect and progress on behalf of all.

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE, OPINION PIECE, COMMENTS 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.

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/
Lewis & Clark Law School
10015 SW Terwilliger Blvd.
Portland, OR 97219
503.768.6821

AIROS NATIVE NETWORK plays music, news and other great programs from Indian Country - www.airos.org

FOR NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

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

NATIVE BIZ LEARNING CENTER - www.learn.nativebiz.com was developed for tribal education specialists serving tribal communities. Any tribal community can register at NO COST.

SUPPORTING NATIVE AMERICAN/FIRST PEOPLE - ARTISTS, FILM MAKERS, ENTERTAINERS, ETC. http://www.krystynmedia.blogspot.com.

NAJA Holds 'Open House' - Indian-Non-Indian Study - New TV Network - Sherman Alexie Book - Monica Davis

The Native American Journalists Association is pleased to announce that an Open House will be held at the University of Oklahoma (Norman Campus), in Copeland Hall room 225 from 2 to 4 p.m. on Thursday September 20, 2007. All NAJA members and friends are encouraged to attend.

Earlier this same day, the NAJA Board will meet in Gaylord Hall from 8:30 am to 12 noon. The Native American Journalists Association recently moved from the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, SD to the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma.

A Study On How Indians And Non-Indians Think About Each Other
Native America, Discovered and Conquered
Professor Robert J. Miller
September 15th, 2007

Public Agenda is a nonpartisan opinion research and civic engagement organization that helps Americans explore and understand critical issues.

It has just issued a study entitled Walking a Mile: A First Step Toward Mutual Understanding: A Qualitative Study Exploring How Indians and Non-Indians Think About Each Other.
Go To Native America, Dscovered and Conquered - Click the link and then go to Download the complete report.

Aboriginal Peoples Television Network Launches Digitaldrum.Ca
The network made a bold move targeted at Aboriginal youth in Canada. -
Kudos.

Its objectives are:
- to increase online and real-world interactivity for youth and Elders
- to link Aboriginal Elders to youth by creating a vehicle for Aboriginal youth to reconnect to their culture and facilitate stronger relationships with Elders.

It will support a learning environment among Aboriginal teaching communities; to provide opportunities for multilingual interaction through cultural vignettes and Elders media; to increase user visits to website(s) containing APTN content aimed at Aboriginal youth.

Check it out! This is Our Beat -
www.Digitaldrum.ca

Best,
Christine Yazzie ~ Los Angeles, CA USA
Email: krystyn_media@yahoo.com
Web: http://www.krystynmedia.blogspot.com

Rave Reviews For Sherman Alexie's Latest Book
Native America, Discovered And Conquered
Professor Robert J. Miller
September 17th, 2007

The LA Times and the Minneapolis Star Tribune love Alexie’s latest book.

For example, the Times said: “Few writers are more masterful than Sherman Alexie, the prolific Native American author who, a decade ago, burst on to the literary landscape with a fierce prose informed by his experiences growing up poor on an Indian reservation near Spokane, Wash.

“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” Alexie’s first novel for young-adult readers, draws on those experiences through a time-focused lens — a single year in the life of 14-year-old Arnold Spirit.”

From Monica Davis To Native Unity
Check this out: we be in the strangest places . I just found out that one of my articles on grave desecration of Native American grave sites in Western Kentucky is being used by home schoolers in Australia and elsewhere.

Put the word out for me, please: I have an ongoing research project on "minority" farmers. Am seeking anecdotal or documentary evidence of farm loan, student loan and home loan bias, document deception, forgery from loan officers. I need the info yesterday--as always,

Just goes to show the power of the written word. I think that article may have come from Bobbie O'Neill's Native American E-zine----so, thanks Bobbie. You're being read all over the world.
Monica

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE, OPINION PIECE, COMMENTS 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.

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/
Lewis & Clark Law School
10015 SW Terwilliger Blvd.
Portland, OR 97219
503.768.6821

AIROS NATIVE NETWORK plays music, news and other great programs from Indian Country - www.airos.org

FOR NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

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

NATIVE BIZ LEARNING CENTER - www.learn.nativebiz.com was developed for tribal education specialists serving tribal communities. Any tribal community can register at NO COST.

SUPPORTING NATIVE AMERICAN/FIRST PEOPLE - ARTISTS, FILM MAKERS, ENTERTAINERS, ETC. http://www.krystynmedia.blogspot.com.

Nuclear Attack In Kingman, Arizona - Part 2 of 4 Articles

By Jana Bommersbach
Feature Story Phoenix Magazine
November 2004
Submitted by Eleanore Fanire

A magazine in Spain recently ran a feature story on the Downwinders. They called it "America's Chernobyl." So, in Spain, they know, but here in the U.S., most people are clueless about the Downwinders - or that there were catastrophic side effects of the government's aggressive nuclear-testing program after World War II.

Back then, national newsmagazines printed pictures of people sitting on lawn chairs at the test site, their eyes covered with dark glasses, watching the show. Back then, newspapers would reassure the public with pronouncements from the Atomic Energy Commission that the nuclear tests were harmless.

"'Baby' A-Blast May Provide Facts on Defense Against Atomic Attack," the Las Vegas Sun waxed eloquent before a test in March 1955. A few days later, it noted that "fallout on Las Vegas and vicinity following this morning's detonation was very low and without any effects on health."

It would be easy to surmise that the government just didn't know the danger of an atomic bomb, but this country had already used similar bombs in Japan. And even though the public knew very little about the horrors of those bombs - relieved instead that they led to Japan's surrender - those inside the government were well aware of what radiation did to human beings.

Cancer researcher Dr. Alan R. Cantwell Jr. put it this way in a recent magazine article: "In the nuclear arms race, government doctors and scientists brainwashed the public into believing low-dose radiation was not harmful. Some officials even tried to convince people that 'a little radiation is good for you.' But totally ignored was the knowledge that the radiation from nuclear fallout could lead to an increased risk of cancer, heart disease, neurological disorders, immune system diseases, reproductive abnormalities, sterility, birth defects and genetic mutations…. The full extent of this radiation damage to the American public during the Cold War years will never be known."

The test site sat in the middle of federal land - in an area without a dense population - and records show that tests were timed so the winds would carry radiation away from Los Angeles. Records also reveal one contemptuous bureaucrat surmising that the site was an area containing "a low-use segment of the population."

Although no one knows for sure, some believe the tests even led to the death of an American icon - John Wayne. His death from lung cancer was attributed to his smoking, but historians have noted that he and 90 other people on the Utah set of The Conqueror in 1954 developed various types of cancer.

Fourteen years ago, the federal government owned up to what it had done, thanks in large part to the work of former Utah Senator Orrin Hatch and Congressman Wayne Owens. Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which was signed by the first President Bush. In addition to the Downwinders, it compensates workers at the Nevada Test Site and uranium miners.

The legislation states in part: "Congress recognizes that the lives and health of uranium miners and of innocent individuals who lived downwind from the Nevada tests were involuntarily subjected to in-creased risk of injury and disease to serve the national security interest of the United States…. The Congress apologizes on be-half of the Nation to the individuals… and their families for the hardships they have endured."

To date, nearly $660 million has been distributed to almost 16,000 victims and their families. However, not a penny has gone to the Mohave County victims, and it appears they've been left out by an unimaginable mistake - a typo.

Someone back in Washington, D.C., misspelled "Mohave" County, which in Arizona is spelled with an "h." Instead of "Mo-have," it was spelled "Mojave," with a "j," as it is in California. But that California county isn't downwind of the tests, so, therefore…. Although it would seem an easy fix, the typo has become vexing.

"The Department of Justice and President Bush could rectify this," Fanire says with certainty, befuddled why this mistake hasn't been fixed. "I want to tell President Bush he's made an unjust decision."

Prescott Attorney Laura Taylor, who's helped many individuals in other counties file for benefits, says it could be years be-fore Congress revisits those boundaries. She notes that a panel from the National Academy of Science has been holding open forums for the past 18 months with the prospect of expanding the list of covered cancers. As it is written, the compensation act acknowledges leukemia, lung cancer, multiple myeloma and lymphomas, but so many other cancers have shown up with frightening frequency.

For instance, the act now covers ovarian, but not uterine cancer; colon, but not prostate cancer.

The academy is supposed to present its findings to Congress by the end of this year, but Taylor is convinced nothing will change in the compensation program until Congress deals with these new recommendations. No one needs additional statistics to acknowledge what is happening, she argues, and Mohave County needs help now. "To fail to do so," she says, "denies the obvious and gives no hope to those suffering in the greatest numbers.”

NATION HAS COMPENSATED DOWNWINDERS WITH 561 Million
By Thomas Burr
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 09/08/2007

WASHINGTON - The federal government has paid downwinders $561 million since implementing a program in 1992 to compensate residents affected by nuclear tests in the Nevada desert, a new report says.

But the applications for compensation are declining from residents in southern Utah, Nevada and Arizona claiming the tests caused their cancers and other diseases, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Friday. So are the payouts, says the GAO.

About $248 million more will be needed to pay the approved claimants for the life of the program, which ends in 2022, the GAO said. The number of claims the Justice Department predicts to receive will decline steadily from about 1,200 a year in 2007 to fewer than 100 by 2022.

The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) has so far paid out more than $1 billion to downwinders, uranium workers and test site employees.

A shrinking number of claims will decrease future funding needs for the Justice Department's administration of the program, according to the report.

Another reason for declining funding needs is a change in the law requiring the Labor Department to pay the claims of uranium miners, millers and ore haulers.

Those people are entitled under the law to larger payments than downwinders.

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, who represents nearly all of the areas in Utah enrolled in the program, said it is "all well and good" that RECA ifunctioning "adequately."

But he says the program still may need to be expanded. He joined other lawmakers signing a letter in May asking for the House Judiciary Committee to hold hearings on allowing all of Utah and other parts of the West to get coverage under the act.

"The more urgent issues are should RECA eligibility be expanded and have we learned the lesson about why we should never again go down the path of nuclear weapons testing," Matheson said in response to the GAO report. "Those are my concerns, and they remain my focus."

About 24,000 people have claimed money under the law, the report says, and about 18,000 have been approved for payment.

The report doesn't detail how many are from Utah.
tburr@sltrib.com

DOWNWINDER HISTORY
About 100 open-air nuclear tests were conducted at the Nevada Test Site by the U.S. government from 1951-1962, exposing thousands of residents in Nevada, southern Utah and northern Arizona to fallout from the tests. The Limited Test Ban Treaty drove testing underground in 1962. Those tests ceased in 1992 when the United States entered into a moratorium on nuclear weapons testing which continues to the present.
Source: Globalsecurity.org

NUCLEAR TEST PAYOUTS
*$1.2 billion total
*$561 million to downwinders
*$455 million to uranium miners
*$100 million to uranium millers
*$80 million to Nevada Test Site participants
Source: Department of Justice, Civil Division

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE, OPINION PIECE, COMMENTS 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.

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/
Lewis & Clark Law School
10015 SW Terwilliger Blvd.
Portland, OR 97219
503.768.6821

AIROS NATIVE NETWORK plays music, news and other great programs from Indian Country - www.airos.org

FOR NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

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

NATIVE BIZ LEARNING CENTER - www.learn.nativebiz.com was developed for tribal education specialists serving tribal communities. Any tribal community can register at NO COST.

SUPPORTING NATIVE AMERICAN/FIRST PEOPLE - ARTISTS, FILM MAKERS, ENTERTAINERS, ETC. http://www.krystynmedia.blogspot.com.

Foundation Being Laid For 'Radiation Exposure Compensation Act' Reform

By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent
Thursday, September 13th,’07

WINDOW ROCK: When the Navajo Nation approved a ban in 2005 on uranium
mining and processing within Navajo Indian County, it was done with the
realization that the Nation would be losing out on millions of dollars in
fees and royalties.

But as Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. and numerous council
delegates have said, “The lives of the people are more important than the
money to be obtained, and there is no answer to the illnesses that have
resulted from uranium mining,” according to presidential spokesman George
Hardeen.

“We still have people today who are sick and are dying as a result of
past uranium mining. The president has said countless times, ‘Show us the
cure to this before we reconsider allowing uranium mining to come back on
Navajoland.’

“At the time there was uranium mining, it was known to be dangerous.
However, it was known to everyone except the Navajos who were mining. That
has been well-documented. And that’s perpetrating a fraud on the Navajo
people to get access to a potentially hazardous ore. This is the reason that
the Navajo Nation passed its law,” Hardeen said.

But the Navajo people were not the only ones kept in the dark. While they
were laboring in underground mines in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado
drinking the cool water that trickled down the walls and breathing the
dust that permeated the mine shafts as they blasted their way deeper into
the earth people across the United States also were being exposed to
radiation.

From 1945 through 1962, the United States conducted a series of
above-ground atomic weapons tests which spewed radioactive fallout from test
sites in Nevada and New Mexico.

That exposure “is presumed to have produced an increased incidence of
certain serious diseases, including various types of cancer,” according to
the Government Accountability Office, which last Friday released a status
report on the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA.

On July 16, 1945, at Alamogordo, N.M., the world¹s first atomic
explosion, “Trinity”, shot radioactive debris 7 miles high and sunk
plutonium 13 inches deep into the ground around the site. By autumn, film
inspectors at Eastman Kodak in Rochester, N.Y., detected footprints of the
blast.

The mysterious, tiny white dots that appeared on Eastman¹s film, ruining
it, were determined to have been caused by radioactive cerium-141. The
particles traveled across the United States from New Mexico and rained down
in Rochester.

As J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, watched the
detonation of Trinity, he is reported to have been reminded of a passage
from the Hindu Bhagavad Gita: “I am become Death, shatterer of worlds.”

That afternoon, the Albuquerque Tribune reported: ”An ammunition
magazine, containing high-explosives and pyrotechnics, exploded early today
in a remote area of the Alamogordo air base reservation, producing a
brilliant flash and blast which were reported to have been observed as far
away as Gallup, 235 miles to the north.”

Richard L. Miller, author of “Under the Cloud,” reported that Los Alamos
scientists found that Herefords in the immediate vicinity of the Trinity
site lost their hair. “When it grew back, it came in white.”

To date, New Mexico downwinders are not covered under RECA, established
in 1990 to compensate the survivors of radiation exposure.

According to GAO,(Government Accounting Office) the Radiation Exposure Compensation Program, or RECP,has authorized payments totaling $1.2 billion for 18,110 claims since RECPbegan processing claims in April 1992. Almost half of the $1.2 billion was
paid to claimants who lived downwind of the Nevada Test Site.

The 18,110 claims represent about two-thirds of the 26,550 claims filed
since 1992. The remaining one-third of the claims was denied, because RECA¹s
eligibility criteria were not satisfied.

The RECA Amendments of 2000 broadened the scope of eligibility for
benefits and added uranium mill workers and ore transporters to the
categories of beneficiaries. Congress also added San Juan County, Utah, and
Coconino, Yavapai, Navajo, Apache, and Gila, Ariz., to the list of
”downwinder” counties, making those residents potentially eligible for
compensation.

This past May, Utah Rep. Jim Matheson and Rep. Mike Simpson sent a letter
to the House Judiciary Committee requesting a hearing on the expansion of
RECA, stating, “As you know, over the course of more than two decades, the
United States carried out more than 1,000 nuclear weapons tests.

“The radioactive debris from these tests entered our nation’s atmosphere
and was later deposited, in the form of radioactive fallout, all across our
nation S For decades, individuals living within the fallout areas have lived
with adverse health effects caused by radiation exposure.

“Eligibility for compensation, however, is limited to certain counties in
just a few states. These geographic boundaries are, quite frankly, arbitrary
boundaries that do not account for the fact that radioactive fallout does
not abide by lines on a map. Some of the counties experiencing the largest
concentration of fallout in the entire nation are not included in the
current RECA program.”

The congressmen said they do not believe RECA has received serious review
by Congress in the last seven years and that the time for review is now
appropriate.

Last month, bipartisan legislation was introduced in the Senate (S. 1917)
to amend RECA to include downwinders in Idaho and Montana.

U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said Wednesday, "Over time it¹s become clear
that Congress should begin the process of revising the Radiation Exposure
act. I am eager to start working to reform and expand this program and am
currently working with the Navajo Nation and other members of Congress from
the Four Corners region to begin laying the foundation for such reform.

“The first step is for Congress to fully evaluate RECA through our
oversight mechanisms. In order to make the substantive and necessary reform
we need, the Congress must fully evaluate the program and find out the
successes and downfalls individuals have experienced with the act since its
inception.

“In the coming months, along with the Navajo Nation and other members of
Congress, I will be one of the hosts of a roundtable on the issue at which
time we will discuss uranium mine issues and the steps we can take to move
forward on remedying a difficult situation,” Udall said.

In August, following introduction of the legislation, Jude McCartin of
U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman¹s office, said, “Sen. Bingaman is studying the
legislation.” He has not yet said whether he will support it, or propose
inclusion of New Mexico as a downwinder state.

Staffers for U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, a proponent of “clean nuclear
energy,” have not responded to questions from the Independent regarding
whether Domenici will support the legislation.

Media representatives for New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a presidential
candidate and former U.S. Energy Secretary, also have not responded as to
whether the governor might push for New Mexico to be included under RECA.

Regarding Navajo and the revival of the nuclear age, Hardeen, said, ³The
companies make an argument that their method of mining uranium now is safe.
But there are still people who have been hurt by uranium mining. These are
the elderly people and people who were uranium miners.

“What about them? They have struggled to get the compensation that the
federal government said they deserved. The Navajo Nation had to hire a law
firm, Killian & Associates in Grand Junction, to help these miners get the
compensation that the federal law was set up to allow them to have. It’s
still a struggle.

“As a result, the Navajo Nation has said ‘No more.’ It doesn¹t need to
put itself into that situation again. These people are still hurt, and it
affects entire families.

“President Shirley has said it has cost the Navajo Nation its own culture
because these elders who are dying from various types of illnesses and
cancers, they are the repositories of Navajo culture. They have the songs,
the ceremonies, the teachings; and we are losing them and losing that. The
cost is just tremendous, measured in that way,” Hardeen said.

NAVAJO OFFICIAL TO NRC: MINE URANIUM, BUT NOT ON NAVAJO LAND!
September 8, 2007

INFO BOX:
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a public meeting Sept. 27 at the Best Western Inn and Suites, 3009 W. Hwy. 66 in Gallup to listen to public comments on the Generic Environmental Impact Statement for licensing in-situ leach recovery and conventional milling facilities.
The public meeting is set for 7-9:30 p.m., with an informal open house to be held 6-7 p.m.
Information about the GEIS was published in the Federal Register on July 24 and Aug. 31. The agency is accepting written comments on the scope of the GEIS through Oct. 8. Comments should be addressed to Chief, Rules Review and Directives Branch, Mail Stop T-6D59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C., 20555-0001; or by electronic mail to URLGeis@nrc.gov.

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE, OPINION PIECE, COMMENTS 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.

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/
Lewis & Clark Law School
10015 SW Terwilliger Blvd.
Portland, OR 97219
503.768.6821

AIROS NATIVE NETWORK plays music, news and other great programs from Indian Country - www.airos.org

FOR NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

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

NATIVE BIZ LEARNING CENTER - www.learn.nativebiz.com was developed for tribal education specialists serving tribal communities. Any tribal community can register at NO COST.

SUPPORTING NATIVE AMERICAN/FIRST PEOPLE - ARTISTS, FILM MAKERS, ENTERTAINERS, ETC. http://www.krystynmedia.blogspot.com.