3,000 Dancers Pack Gathering's Grand Entry - B.C. Bans Uranium Exploration - 3 New Anti-Meth Posters - First People's Radio - BYU Offers Workshop

By Jim Snyder
For the Gallup Independent
ALBUQUERQUE — The beating of drum groups, which surrounded the dancers — along with chanting — nearly took the PIT’s roof off during Friday’s Grand Entry at the University of New Mexico.

More than 3,000 dancers from tribes and pueblos from throughout the U.S., as well as First Nations dancers from tribes in Canada, danced as one spirit Friday during the 25th annual Gathering of Nations powwow. Royalty, such as Miss Navajo Nation Jonathea D. Tso, of Cove, Ariz., walked with the dancers.

And today’s Grand Entries, scheduled at noon and at 6 p.m., promise to be just as loud. The PIT and the neighboring Indian Traders Market is expected to be packed even further today, as attendance historically jumps on Saturday.

Keith Nahanee of the Squamish Nation from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, dances during the Gathering of Nations’ Grand Entry Friday at the University of New Mexico’s PIT in Albuquerque. More than 3,000 dancers were on the floor. Nahanee, who is half Hawaiian and half Squamish, made his Northern Traditional outfit using feathers from a dead eagle a friend found. He’s been coming to the Gathering with his wife for 16 years.

“This is one of our most favorite places to come in North America, not only of the feeling here but the city itself,” said Nahanee. “Every time we go to a powwow like this, you can feel the spirit of the Indian people. When the powwow is over and everybody is gone you can feel a big emptiness.”

Nahanee’s Northern Traditional outfit includes real eagle feathers. He said a man from a wildlife foundation in British Columbia found a dead eagle and brought it to him.

“It was caught up in a tree and it had no head,” Nahanee said. “I took it apart and I washed it and it came back to life. The old people would say I pitied this bird and this spirit is now going to help me all the time I dance.”

It didn’t take long for Nahanee to see other Squamish Nation members as well as friends from other Native American and First Nations tribes, since they frequent major powwows throughout Canada and the U.S.

“We run into each other. We’re never alone and our children are never alone because of the people we know from all over,” he said.

Many of the Grand Entry dancers brought their traditional outfits in small suitcases and put them on in the stands just prior to the event.

Sheldon Johnson, of Chinle, Ariz., found himself shortly before noon on Friday cramped into the PIT’s metal bench seats about halfway to the PIT floor. He was preparing Fancy War Dance outfits for his two young sons, 3-year-old daughter and himself. They were going to dance in the Grand Entry together.

“I’ve gotta get their stuff ready first before I do mine,” he said, adding he did not mind having to work fast in tight quarters while watching three children at the same time.

“Anywhere is all right, as long as you have a good seat,” he said, explaining his wife had to work in Chinle on Friday but would be joining them later.

Canadian Province Bans Uranium Exploration
Submitted by WSDP
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - British Columbia shut the door on exploring for radioactive minerals on Thursday, saying companies cannot claim rights to them even if the discovery is by accident.

The western Canadian province does not have uranium mines, but several companies have been doing exploration work and the mineral can be found when looking for other resources. The country's only active uranium mines are in the Prairie province of Saskatchewan.

British Columbia said has revised its mining rules to prohibit companies from staking claims for uranium and thorium even when it is discovered as part of a broader project.

The province has already prohibited the building of nuclear power plants.
(Reporting Allan Dowd, editing by Rob Wilson)
From: REUTERS Canada
Thomson Reuters

Three New Anti-Meth Posters From:
Lynn'Sota'Hart
Yankton/Dakota Sioux
USMC Veteran
Expeditionary Forces In Readiness
P.O Box 42
Flandreau, SD 57028
noxcusesnone@hotmail.com
605-491-4598
http://www.noxcusesnone.com/


First People's Radio
NAMAPAHH First People's Radio
Skagit Valley College-KSVR 91.7 FM
2405 East College Way
Mount Vernon, WA 98273

email: robin.carneen@gmail.com
or: Media Producer:
Joseph McGuire: Joseph.McGuire@skagit.edu
General Manager:
Rip Robbins: rip.robbins@skagit.edu
GM's phone #: (360) 416-7711

If you are a member of Pacifica Radio, 5 segments are now available at http://www.audioport.com/and will also be available at http://www.prx.org/

These are FREE programs- due to grant funds from the CPB & WETTIP program...enjoy! We just ask that you let us know when & where you are airing them.

NAMAPAHH First People's RadioHost/Producer Robin Carneen
Thurs 7-8:30pm Sun 4-5pm
PSTWays to hear our show online:
http://www.ksvr.org/
Or shorter segments via MYSPACE!
http://www.myspace.com/namapahh
Main myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/nativeradio4all
email: robin.carneen@gmail.com

BYU Offers 4-Day Workshop In Visual Storytelling
May 12th-15th, 2008
The Brigham Young University of Hawaii is offering a 4-day workshop in Visual Storytelling on May 12th-15th and May 27th-29th (follow-up).

The workshop is inspired by the animated film, "The Turtle and the Shark," a traditionally-stylized short based on the Samoan legend of the same name.
Day 1: Story, Research and Philosophy, Sketchbook
Day 2: Character Design, Environment Design, StoryBoarding
Day 3: Animation and Production Basics, Animation Techniques and Software
Day 4: Individual Mentoring

The workshop will be lead by Ryan Woodward and instructed by Jason Knapp, Jared Greenleaf, Chris Welch and Taylor Krahenbuhl.

For details contact Shane Seggar via email: sseggar@piccom.org or phone: 591-0059 ext. 12, or visit theturtleandtheshark.blogspot.com for updated information.

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.

'MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY' By Joe Perez
http://www.mtwsfh.blogspot.com

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

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

FOR ANNIE'S NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

CATCH COLORADAN PETER JONES AT:
http://indigenousissuestoday.blogspot.com

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

Canadian School Grave Sites Identified - Where Is The Media? - Canada's UN Statement - Meet The Resistance!

28 CANADIAN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL GRAVE SITES IDENTIFIED – WHERE IS THE MEDIA?
Submitted by Monica Davis
Group of 1,500+ members question media silence on report of mass grave locations

On April 10, 2008, the Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared held a press conference and public ceremony in which they released a list of twenty-eight reported mass graves across Canada – the graves of aboriginal children who died while in Indian Residential Schools.

Traditional media sources have ignored this heartbreaking and important story. A Facebook group "Mass Graves of Residential School Children Identified – Where Is the Media?" was started on April 18, and in less than a week had over 1,000 members. That number is now at 1,500 and still climbing. The group was formed to encourage members to contact the media to demand investigation into these reported grave sites.

The many abuses that First Nations children suffered at the hands of the church-operated, government funded Residential Schools are no longer secret. We know that aboriginal children were torn from their homes and families. Many were subjected to or witnesses of physical and/or sexual abuse. They died of diseases like tuberculosis at alarming rates, as reported last April by the Globe and Mail. An estimated 50,000 Residential school students are missing, their fate a mystery.

Now, from eyewitness accounts, documents, survey data and physical evidence, a list of 28 grave sites has been compiled and released, where allegedly the bodies of Residential school students were unceremoniously interred. Their deaths went unreported to their families. The devastating generational legacy of the Residential schools is tragedy enough. The insulting, degrading burial of the First Nations children who died while in church and government care warrants investigation and attention.

And yet, the traditional media remains largely mute about this important piece of Canadian history.

It is our right to know our heritage and our past, even if it fills us with sadness and shame. The only way to address this is to ensure that this story sees the light of day under public scrutiny, and that there is a full investigation is to make it become part of the public knowledge and consideration.

Please consider covering this topic in the very near future. It is in the public interest, and we must finally have the truth. List of the grave sites can be found here:http://hiddenfromhistory.org/RecentUpdatesampArticles/ Apr102008LocationofMassGravesRevealed/tabid/71/Default.aspx

Contact:
pale.cold@gmail.com
proleatacr@gmail.com
Facebook Group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11679618549&ref=mf

Aboriginal Peoples Declare Canada's UN Statement Grave Disappointment On Climate Change
UNITED NATIONS, NY, April 23rd - The statement delivered by the Canadian government yesterday to the United Nations Permanent Forum (UNPFII) on Indigenous Issues was a grave disappointment to the Indigenous representatives attending the UNPFII's special session on climate change because "it does not address Indigenous Peoples' rights, needs and priorities in real climate change solutions," according to Indigenous Environmental Network director Tom Goldtooth.

Other groups represented include the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nations, the International Indian Treaty Council, the Indigenous Network on the Environment and Trade, the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) and the British Colombia First Nations Leadership Council.

"What the statement shows is how little the government cares to deal with climate change's effects or stopping climate change. They announced their plan to reduce 2006 greenhouse gas levels by 20% in 2020, but this is too little too late, and will only mean further devastation to our peoples," said Ben Powless (Mohawk) of the Indigenous Environmental Network.

Current impacts on First Nations communities were also left out. Grand Chief Edward John (Carrier Sekani) of the BC First Nations Leadership Council stated, "Canada is ignoring the devastating impacts of the mountain pine beetle on the lands, territories and resources of First Nations in BC." "Canada has stated that it is committed with us on climate change, so we call upon Canada to ensure the full participation of Indigenous Peoples in all domestic and international climate change discussions, initiatives and negotiations," concurred AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine.

Also evident was Canada's unilateral approach of dealing with Indigenous Peoples after they begin to have problems. "Canada is happy to pour more and more money into studying us and how we adapt to climate change, but not with addressing environmental issues at their source," stated Beverley Jacobs, President, NWAC. "They are now telling us they take traditional knowledge seriously, but that they would never consider implementing it themselves. These continued, seriously misguided federal policies are going to be the death of us," warned Arthur Manuel (Secwepmc) of the Indigenous Network on the Environment and Trade.

This comes after dramatic action was called for by Indigenous participants attending the forum. A representative of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug Nation made a presentation to the forum attesting to the fact that her community's elected leadership had been jailed for opposition to destructive mining in their community. Elected representatives of Aboriginal communities surrounding the Tar Sands were also attending to detest the destructive practices upsetting their homelands.

For more information please contact:
Gina Cosentino, AFN: (613) 241 6789 x356
Grand Chief Edward John (778) 772 8218
Arthur Manuel: (250) 319-0688
-30-
The Permanent Forum is meeting from April 21 to May 2, 2008 at the UN in New York. This is its 7th session since starting in 2002. This year the forum was opened by Bolivian President Evo Morales. For more information please see http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/index.html

Meet The Resistance: A Speaking Tour of Affected Indigenous Communities
Submitted by Western Shoshone Defense Project
Over 3,000 people are attending the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) in New York, including Indigenous Nations, UN bodies, Governments and NGO's. Three Indigenous communities present at the forum are voicing their concern against the worlds largest gold mining company, Canadian owned Barrick Gold.

As side events to the UNPFII, Wiradjuri (Australia), Ipili (Papua New Guinea) and Western Shoshone (Nevada, USA) will be talking about the desecration and destruction of their lands by Barrick Gold. Please show your support by coming to the following events to hear about Barrick's exploitative and unsustainable practices on these communities lands, culture and life.

These events have been supported by Friends of the Earth Australia, ProtestBarrick.net, Western Shoshone Defence Project, Mineral Policy Institute, Save Lake Cowal and Akali Tange Association.

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.

'MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY' By Joe Perez
http://www.mtwsfh.blogspot.com

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

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

FOR ANNIE'S NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

CATCH COLORADAN PETER JONES AT:
http://indigenousissuestoday.blogspot.com

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

Medicine Dream - A Band That Combines Rock, PowWow Music

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The baby in diapers hanging on to the edge of the stage is mesmerized by the handsome Choctaw Indian pounding on the powwow drum.

As the baby stares, Medicine Dream’s Buz Daney raises his head and his strong voice joins Paul Pike’s, an Indian from Newfoundland’s Mi’kmaq Nation. Pike prances around the stage, flipping his head and sending his long hair flying as he stomps his foot as the band breaks into a traditionally-inspired chant.

This is Medicine Dream, an intertribal band that mixes rock with powwow music to send a powerful message of hope and pride to Alaska Natives and American Indians.

“The basic idea was to compose music that was going to tell our story and be enlightening,” Pike said. “We want Native people to feel good about themselves and see there is more to life than drugs and alcohol.”

Band members come from a wide variety of tribal backgrounds — Athabascan, Apache, Choctaw, Inupiaq, Aleut, Mi’kmaq, Yaqui and Yup’ik. Two members are non-Native.

Pike, the lead vocalist who also plays Native American flute and guitar, said the band wants to help Alaska Natives and American Indians find their true identities. That means making music that can help pull American Indians and Alaska Natives away from drugs and alcohol, and provide hope when suicide seems like a reasonable way out.

Pike said it is important for indigenous people to know where they came from and understand that history. American Indians and Alaska Natives were so busy trying to survive, they didn’t have time to grieve over the deaths that came from famine, forced relocations and diseases introduced by whites. Then, there was the slow cultural death as what it meant to be an American Indian or Alaska Native was erased.

Alcohol and drug abuse is a way to avoid the grief, Pike said.“There is generational grief, historical trauma,” he said. “There are a lot of people who have been separated from their value systems for generations.”

Medicine Dream, through its music, is trying to help Alaska Natives and American Indians become culturally awake so that they no longer feel like strangers in their homeland, Pike said.

“This hopelessness and despair is where this disease addiction really survives. We have generations of people going through that who are disconnected from their culture,” he said.

Pike arrived in Alaska in 1990 and was blown away. The state’s population is nearly 20 percent Alaska Native or American Indian, the highest percentage in the country.“Anchorage has a really big Native urban population. It was real inspirational,” Pike said.

He started playing with Daney in an intertribal drum group. Then, a good friend, K.C. LaFever of the northern Cheyenne Nation, committed suicide in 1995 after a struggle with drugs and alcohol.

The band’s mission was galvanized.

“I had no idea really how bad things were for him, his battle of addiction,” Pike said. “Out of our grief, it inspired these songs for the purpose to turn out grief into hope for others.”

George Newton was invited to join the following year. He said everyone in the band has a similar story to tell.

“I think for all of us in the band in one form or another have had someone we’ve lost to alcohol or drugs,” he said.

Medicine Dream is not a full-time gig. All the band members have jobs apart from the band. Pike is a substance abuse counselor. Steven Alvarez is an education director at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. Newton works in respite care, and Daney is the manager of the traditional healing clinic at the Alaska Native Medical Center.

The band plays at intertribal gatherings, festivals, schools, community events, concert halls, theaters, state fairs — just about anywhere that does not serve alcohol.

Pike said the band decided to boycott venues that sell alcohol to pay tribute to the people who are struggling.

“Their music basically hits the spot when it comes to Native issues and Native life,” said Cody Blackbird, a 19-year-old Dakota Cherokee from Rapid City, S.D., who sports three long braids nearly to his waist. “I have never touched drugs or alcohol, probably in part because of their positive music.”

Medicine Dream reminds its audience that solace can be found in the natural world.

“Did you ever find yourself in a stressful time of life?” Pike asks the audience. “The lake is so calm it is like a mirror. There is nothing but the sounds of the eagles and swans... And you have all this gratitude. This is called ’Take my breath away,’“’ he says, as the band begins to play.

Blackbird said he can appreciate the message given the struggle Native people have had just to survive.

“There is not a single day that goes by that we take for granted because we know what it is to cherish life because we know how quickly it can be gone,” he said.

While Medicine Dream’s message brings tribes together, the music is not reserved for Natives and American Indians, said Robert Deer of Anchorage, a 26-year-old Creek Indian from Oklahoma.

“It shows we are all one people,” he said.

That message resonates with Newton, pointing to his mixed heritage of Alaska Native, Russian, Danish and Irish.

“I am like the melting pot of America. I am a mutt. I am proud of all of them,” he said.

Medicine Dream has released three albums, two of them on Canyon Records. The band wanted more creative freedom and released “Learning to Fly” independently last July.

The band’s music is unabashedly upbeat.

Alvarez said there’s a reason for that.

“What are we if we don’t have hope in our lives? What are we if we don’t have the ability to right wrongs?” he said.

“Regardless of the past, the trauma, the turmoil, everything Native people have gone through, we still have the power to hope. We still have the power to change our lives. We still have the warrior spirit that allowed us to survive.”

On the Net:
www.medicinedream.com

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.

'MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY' By Joe Perez
http://www.mtwsfh.blogspot.com

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

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

FOR ANNIE'S NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

CATCH COLORADAN PETER JONES AT:
http://indigenousissuestoday.blogspot.com

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

Joe Kennedy Tells Navajo He Sees Money In Wind - Sun

Proposes Green Energy Production For Navajo
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
WINDOW ROCK - Joseph Patrick Kennedy II and representatives of Citizens Energy Corp. blew into Window Rock Wednesday like a breath of fresh air, promising economic development and profit for the nation’s largest tribe from its most abundant resources - wind and sun.

The trademark Kennedy charisma and impassioned speech brought the Navajo Nation Council to its feet as the eldest son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy spoke of the poverty of Indian nations and prejudice in Congress against Native Americans.

But just as the 1960s was a time of revolution, this election year promises to be a time of great change, Kennedy said, with the same opportunity for changing the direction that this country takes over the course of the next eight years.

He reminded Council that their ancestors understood the importance of living in balance with nature, “that human beings aren’t all-powerful, that we don’t have some God-given right to just dig up and develop anything and everything that we see to the detriment of local communities as long as some people can get rich.”

Kennedy, 55, served 12 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and started Citizens, a non-profit energy company, about 30 years ago.

“We all remember the OPEC oil embargo of the 1970s and how there were enormous gas lines, the price of oil was skyrocketing, oil companies were making profits that were really astounding, and the poor were being left behind.”

Beginning in 1979 with oil-trading ventures in Latin America and Africa, Citizens has used revenues from commercial enterprises to channel millions of dollars into charitable programs in the United States and abroad.

”We sold solar farms, we sold wind farms, we created all sorts of businesses to go out and try to make a profit. With the profit we make, we try to help the poor. And that is what I’m here to talk with you about today,” he said.

Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. announced Monday during his State of the Nation address that the Nation entered into an agreement in principle with Citizens on March 12 to explore wind energy development.

“We hope to develop the largest renewable energy project on Native American lands,” Shirley said.

The venture is expected to create up to 150 construction jobs, 10 to 20 permanent jobs, and provide about $3 million in annual tax and royalty revenues with an option for the Nation to acquire majority ownership in the future.

“You know much better than I will ever be able to tell you, the poverty rates of most Indian people in this country is a scourge on the reputation of the United States of America,” Kennedy said to rousing applause.

“Twelve percent of all Americans live in poverty. By comparison, 27 percent of Native Americans live in poverty; 43 percent of Navajos live in poverty.

“In the greatest depression that this country ever went through, 25 percent of the people of this country were unemployed. The unemployment rate among Native Americans today is twice what it was for all Americans in the Great Depression, and nobody says a word about it.”

He recalled coming to the Navajo Nation as a young boy with his father.

“There was a big press conference, and you know, the devastation that we saw as the result of drug and alcohol abuse on this reservation is something that I will never forget.” That trip, and the impression it made, has a lot to do with the direction his life has taken today.

“I worked for the federal government. I worked for the federal Anti-Poverty, and very, very quickly after I started working there, I began to think, “This isn’t an agency designed to help the poor get out of poverty. This is an agency that is designed to maintain the poor in poverty. And if you ask me, that’s what we’ve seen the BIA do for the last ...” His words were drowned out by applause.

“As a congressman of the United States, I saw first-hand the cover-up of what happened to the Indian Trust Fund. I saw what would happen when I chaired the Housing Committee, what would happen to Native American housing when it would get on the House floor.

“I’m telling you, you think there isn”t prejudice in this country against Native Americans, you go to the Congress of the United States and you wonder why the only way you have to make money is through gambling.

“The reason why Native Americans have gambling today is because the Congress of the United States didn’t have the guts to stand up and write the check that was necessary to provide for the housing ... “Again, his words were lost amid applause and whistles.

“I understand what it means to have to go in and fight for the poor ... to fight for people on the outside of political and economic power,” he said.

It’s time for a change, and time for a new kind of company, according to Kennedy. He is hopeful that Navajo and Citizens “will go out and start to develop the natural renewable resources that this tribe has been blessed by our Lord with.”

Kennedy said the last half hour of the plane ride into Window Rock was “a very bumpy little ride.” Though that tends to frighten some, “When Pete Smith, Roger Freeman and I start bumping around in an airplane, we love it“ and you know why? Because that means it’s windy as hell out there!

“So, guess what? You live in a windy place. There may not be a lot of oil and coal and gas left out there, but one thing you’ve got is wind; and you’ve got sun ... and with that we can make money.

“All of us at Citizens Energy are dedicated to try our best to lift the poor out of poverty, not by giving out a hand-out but giving a hand-up,” he said, adding that he believes the Navajo/Citizens partnership could be the envy of Indian people and all people that have energy development on their land.

Resources Committee Chairman George Arthur said Citizens, like other companies coming to Navajo, is interested in wind energy development in the Gray Mountain area.

“There is criteria that goes from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most quality type wind. I understand that the Gray Mountain area is in the upper 8, so I know that there’s a lot of interest there.

“I was just telling him (Kennedy) that my concern is a lot of these people come in and we don’t know their primary interest, other than making money off us, and we’re no longer interested in that kind of arrangement.”

Kennedy said Citizens is looking at Gray Mountain and a number of other sites.

“There are power lines, there’s a lot of the infrastructure that’s necessary to actually get this power developed. ... This is, I hope, the kind of initiative that would be welcomed.”

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.

'MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY' By Joe Perez
http://www.mtwsfh.blogspot.com

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

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

FOR ANNIE'S NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

CATCH COLORADAN PETER JONES AT:
http://indigenousissuestoday.blogspot.com

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

Agencies Draft 5-Year Cleanup Plan For Navajoland

By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
WINDOW ROCK – Following an October 2007 hearing before U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, five federal agencies were asked to develop a draft plan for cleaning up legacy waste from past uranium mining on the Navajo Nation.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, and Indian Health Service have identified the following objectives for the five- year period from 2008 to 2012:

• Assess and remediate contaminated structures: In conjunction with the Navajo Nation, EPA will assess up to 500 structures on the Navajo Nation that are likely to contain elevated levels of radiation. The estimated cost for assessing 110 structures in 2008 is $650,000, and the estimated cost for remediation, or cleanup, is $50,000-$100,000 per structure.

• Assess potentially contaminated water sources and assist affected residents: This spring, EPA will test 70 rural Navajo water sources such as livestock wells and windmills to determine if they contain “safe levels” of radiation or radionuclides. EPA estimates the cost of assessment at $250,000 in 2008 and $150,000 in 2009. IHS has estimated the cost of providing alternative water supplies from 41 potentially contaminated sources to be up to $65 million, which is not accounted for in the IHS budget.

• Assess and require cleanup of abandoned uranium mines: EPA and Navajo will conduct a tiered assessment of abandoned mines, followed by more detailed assessments of problem sites. In 2007, EPA completed a risk-ranking of 520 known mines. It will use that list this year to identify the highest-priority 200-250 mines for further evaluation. EPA expects to conduct screening-level assessments at 40-50 mine sites per year through 2012 at an estimated cost of $200,000 in 2008 and $150,000 in 2009.

• Cleanup of highest-priority mine site: The Northeast Church Rock Mine near Gallup is the highest priority cleanup on EPA’s Abandoned Uranium Mines ranking list. EPA will determine the soil remedy this year and plans to require United Nuclear Corp., to perform a comprehensive Superfund removal action for soil cleanup, which could take up to three years. Costs are expected to be provided by the responsible party.

• Remediate groundwater at inactive uranium milling sites: DOE will continue maintenance of existing groundwater treatment activities at the three inactive uranium ore processing sites and long-term surveillance and maintenance at fourinactive milling sites. Site surveillance and maintenance is estimated at $4,940,000 in 2008 and $3,178,000 in 2009.

• Characterize Highway 160 Site: DOE will work with BIA, USGS, EPA, the Navajo Nation, and El Paso Natural Gas to understand the best approach for characterization and any required cleanup. Courses of action include: EPA cleanup of the site as a Superfund removal action; continued action by El Paso; and a combination of the two. Based on existing site knowledge, DOE estimates it would take several years to complete the work.

• Assess and cleanup of Tuba City Dump: The agencies will work with Navajo and Hopi tribes to assess whether interim actions are needed prior to selection of a final remedy for the site. By July, BIA will complete an assessment of the need and feasibility of conducting an interim measure to prevent contamination of nearby Hopi water supplies. For 2008, $747,000 has been identified to perform additional studies.

• Assess and treat health conditions: IHS will continue to diagnose and treat known health conditions in eligible Indians, and also support a university-led Navajo Uranium Assessment and Kidney Health Project in 2008. IHS will review existing databases to develop plans for improved cancer case surveillance, review water contamination data for potential future health studies, and develop plans to assess the prevalence of cancer and other health conditions in populations near AUM and inactive mill sites. Cost estimates are unavailable.

• Summary of NRC actions: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will continue to consult with the Navajo Nation on new uranium recovery facility license applications that have potential cultural and resource impacts on Navajo lands. NRC also will continue to work with Navajo and federal agencies on issues related to the cleanup of the Northeast Church Rock site and Tuba City contaminated properties

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.

'MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY' By Joe Perez
http://www.mtwsfh.blogspot.com

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

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

FOR ANNIE'S NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

CATCH COLORADAN PETER JONES AT:
http://indigenousissuestoday.blogspot.com

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

Indian Health Care - A National Tragedy

by Tim Giago

Mycole James Ferguson and Leah Page will never grow up to find their potential in life. Both infants were stillborn one week apart on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

Sadly, this is not an uncommon occurrence on this vast Indian reservation. It is to the shame of America that its indigenous populations are at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to adequate prenatal health care.

The families of Mycole and Leah are still suffering from the loss of their children. And yet week after week, month after month and year after year, the names of stillborn Native American infants will be listed on the obituary pages of local newspapers.

Sharon Begley wrote in Newsweek Magazine that, "In international comparisons of health care, the infant mortality rate is a crucial indicator of a nation's standing, and the United States' position at No. 28, with seven per 1,000 live births -- worse than Portugal, Greece, the Czech Republic, Northern Ireland and 23 other nations not exactly known for cutting-edge medical science -- is a tragedy and an embarrassment."

Most Americans believe that the United States has the best medical care in the world, but that is clearly not the case. One has to wonder that if America rates number 28 in the world in infant mortality rates, how do the poor and uninsured rate or the Native Americans on the Indian reservations rate? There is a gap so wide that it might as well separate the poor and the Native Americans from the rest of America by an ocean's width.

In a letter last week to the Senate and House Budget Committee, Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) wrote, "The Contract Health Services Program of the Indian Health Service has an unmet need of over $1 billion dollars. This program allows for medical care and urgent health care services to be purchased when the Indian Health Service or tribal health facilities are not able to provide it. This is the program that has given rise in Indian country to the saying, "Don't get sick after June," because it is common for the Indian Health Service to run out of funding for Contract Health Services after June."

Sen. Johnson said, "I have worked with my colleagues to correct President Bush's budget proposal for the Indian Health Service which grossly neglects the needs of Indian country." Sen. Johnson is a member of the Indian Affairs Committee.

Among the very poor Indian tribes in America there is a crisis in health care and let me be very clear about that. Diabetes, Type 2, is epidemic. The infant mortality rate is staggering. The average life expectancy is lower on Indian reservations than in any other area of America. On many reservations from the Navajo Nation to the Pine Ridge Reservation, deaths by cancer are starting to reach epidemic proportions. Death by heart disease has never been higher and it is still climbing.

And we were considered wards of the United States government? I think we were better off when we were considered the enemies because we at least had the opportunity of taking care of our own health problems. The benevolent eye of big brother looking over our shoulders has been more of a curse than a blessing.

The hardworking doctors and nurses of the Indian Health Service are not to blame. They can do only so much with the money they are allocated each year. And it seems that every year senators like Tim Johnson and Congress women like Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD) have to fight tooth and nail to squeeze out every single dollar. And oftentimes it is a losing battle for them, but the real losers are the Indian people. Earmarks? Why not?

Indian nations gave up millions of acres of land in exchange for the right to an education and adequate health care. These two provisions are a part of nearly every treaty signed between the United States of America and the Indian nations. It is not welfare the US is providing, but an obligation in fulfillment of treaty rights.

Dr. Leroy Clark is one of the doctors at the Sioux San Indian Hospital in Rapid City, SD. He is Native American and he talked about some of the things the hospital and staff is trying to do for their patients with little money, but with a lot of enthusiasm. And there is no finer bunch of people than you will find staffing any hospital in any city. Most of the staff at the Sioux San is Native American and they are kind, gentle and genuinely concerned for their patients and that is a big plus when one is in poor health.

If America can spend $1 billion dollars a day fighting a war in Iraq, surely it can find the compassion to spend an equal amount so that babies like Mycole and Leah will have a chance to be born into this world. Prenatal care on the Indian reservations should not be so strapped for money that babies are dying because of it.

Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, was born, raised and educated on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard in the Class of 1991. He can be reached at najournalist@msn.com

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.

'MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY' By Joe Perez
http://www.mtwsfh.blogspot.com

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

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

FOR ANNIE'S NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

CATCH COLORADAN PETER JONES AT:
http://indigenousissuestoday.blogspot.com

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

Tim Writes To 'Those Who Love To Be Mascots' - American Indians Are Not Mascots

News Brief - Adam Beach To Leave Hit TV Show
Submitted by Roscoe Pond
Adam Beach is leaving the hit TV show “Law & Order: SVU”. The actor - who plays Detective Chester Lake in the show - decided not to exercise the second-year option on his contract.

He says, "I very much enjoyed my year on (the show). Now I'm looking forward to new adventures."

Catering To That 10 % That love To Be Mascots
by Tim Giago
Posted January 2, 2008 11:56 AM (EST)Huffington Post
Read More: College Mascots, Native American Mascots, Native Americans, Sioux Mascot, Sports Mascots, Breaking Entertainment News

The mainstream media and common ignorance has convinced some Native Americans that being a mascot for American sporting teams is OK; that it is all right to be ridiculed, mimicked and degraded for the sake of satisfying white and black sports fans.

Mascots usually consist of lions, tigers and bears, oh my. They are bison, bulldogs, and horses either led out on the field on leashes or ridden by outrageously painted Indians or Trojans. Or they are Vikings, figments of history, with no connection to today's reality. Or they are Fighting Irish with a fictitious leprechaun mascot dancing around the sidelines.

They are cowboys, steelers, packers, or boilermakers that some nincompoops mistake for an ethnic minority. If the fans of these teams choose to honor these symbols for their sports teams, so be it. But when they take real life American Indians and turn them into cartoon caricatures and then mimic them by painting their faces, donning feathers, and doing the tomahawk chop, they cross that thin line called racism.

The University of North Dakota is fighting to retain a mascot they call the Fighting Sioux. The people they are aping no longer call themselves Sioux, but instead call themselves by their traditional names. Sioux was a bastardization of French and Ojibwe which could be interpreted as "Little Snake."

And even if UND alumni wanted to retain this apparently erroneous name, it is what they do in presenting that image I find reprehensible. One year when UND played its main rival, the North Dakota State Bison, a cartoon image made the rounds of an Indian warrior sexually mounting a buffalo with the appropriate language attached. Another time in the city of Bismarck just before a renewal of this instate rivalry, some fans of North Dakota State were calling their UND rivals "The F---ing Sioux." They used the "F" word to not only insult the fans of UND, but collaterally insulted all Native Americans in the state.

If one happened to be in Champaign/Urbana, Illinois before a big sporting event, in order to laud their mascot, Chief Illiniwek, a white boy dressed up in Native attire, one could see images of bleary-eyed, drunken Indians painted on the windows of the downtown bars. On sale in the local markets and drugstores, one could purchase rolls of toilet paper with images of Indians imprinted on every sheet.

One year, before a big football game between the Minnesota Gophers and the University of Illinois Fighting Illini, stuffed Indian dummies could be seen with ropes around their necks hanging from buildings and trees on the Minnesota campus.

Now any Indian or white that finds the things I have written above as "honoring" American Indians holds a very different view of what the word "honor" holds for the majority of Native Americans.

I cannot end this piece without referring to the Sunday a few years ago when the fans of the Washington professional football team (I will not use the "R" word here), painted a pig red, placed a feathered bonnet on its head, and then chased it around the football field at halftime. If they had painted a pig black and placed an Afro wig on its head and chased it around the football field at halftime, how many African Americans would have considered that an "honor?"

Let it suffice to say the 90 percent of all Native Americans in this country consider their use as mascots for America's fun and games an insult. In the U.S. Navy we used to have a saying that went, "There is that 10 percent that never gets the word." And yes, you will find that 10 percent standing proudly while 90 percent of their brethren are being insulted.The mainstream media has, for 200 years or more, published articles about Native Americans that they considered quaint or humorous. Or they have published articles without ever checking the facts.

There have been too many to list here, but a good example is the one last week that gushed about the Lakota Sioux (a misnomer) withdrawing from the United States of America. The MSM never bothered to check the authenticity of this article by talking to the legally elected presidents of any tribe in South Dakota. They never considered that treaties are made between nations and not individuals.

But that is just one example of how the media has never understood why most Indians detest their use as mascots. Only Oprah Winfrey used her television show to invite Native Americans to discuss their feelings about this topic, but that was 15 years ago.

Ten percent does not make up a majority, so please stop catering to that 10 percent.

Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, was born, raised and educated on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard in the Class of 1991. He can be reached at najournalist@msn.com

Sincerely,Kim Lyman
WHRO Public Television
5200 Hampton Blvd
Norfolk Va 23508
757-889-9459
kimberly.lyman@whro.org

American Indians Are NOT Mascots!
Target: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi & Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
Sponsored by:
Tim Giago and Kimberley Lyman

To most American Indians it is absolutely abhorrent for a professional football team to use the color of their skin as their team mascot. As a matter of fact, we oftentimes refer to the mascot of the Washington professional football team as the R word because to us it is as hideous as the N word is to African Americans.

The use of an Indian name in and of itself for mascots is not offensive, but it is what the fans (short for fanatic) do with it that is reprehensible. When they paint their faces, stick turkey feathers in their hair, and do those awful Hollywood chants, it then starts to become insulting and racist to Native Americans.

Imagine if you will a team with a mascot called the Zulus. Would African Americans be offended if the white fans painted their faces black and put afro wigs on their heads . . . .

View and sign the petition!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/3/american-indians-are-not-mascots

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.

'MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY' By Joe Perez
http://www.mtwsfh.blogspot.com

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

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

FOR ANNIE'S NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

CATCH COLORADAN PETER JONES AT:
http://indigenousissuestoday.blogspot.com

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

Canadian Indigenous Leaders Jailed - Take Action

Submitted by the Western Shoshone Defense Project

Canadian Indigenous Leaders Jailed For Standing Strong To Protect Their Homelands From Mining...
On March 18th, 2008 five community leaders, including Chief Donny Morris from Kitchenumahkoosib Inninuwug (KI) were jailed for six months for contempt of a court injunction which prohibits them from interfering with a mineral exploration program by Canadian-owned Platinex Inc. The community is gravely concerned about the possible impact to their land and water where they have lived in the Boreal forest for over 5,000 years.

It has been over a month and these leaders (one of whom is a grandmother) have still not been released.

Please do what you can – sign the online petition and send an email to the Canadian Premier. http://www.freeki6.ca/

From Friends Of The Lubicon –
Please write your letter to jailed indigenous leaders in Canada today…

Friends of the Lubicon
P.O. Box 444, Stn. D,
Etobicoke, ON
Canada, M9A 4X4
Tel: 416-763-7500
Email: fol@tao.ca
Web: www.lubicon.ca

April 17, 2008

Yesterday Lubicon Chief Bernard Ominayak wrote to the Chief and Council of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation at the prison in which they are being held. His letter is reproduced below.

On March 17, 2008, an Ontario Superior Court judge sentenced 6 Aboriginal protesters to six months of jail for peacefully defying a court order that would allow Platinex, a mining-exploration company, to drill for minerals on their traditional lands in northern Ontario, Canada. The Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation fears that mining activity will jeopardize hunting and burial grounds and argues that the Ontario government awarded the mining permits without consulting and accommodating their people, a violation of aboriginal rights and Canadian law.

The individuals jailed include the Chief and four Councilors of the (KI) First Nation.
KI First Nation continues to recognize its Chief and Councilors as leaders in exile and as prisoners of conscience. It has also declared that a 2001 community declared moratorium on exploration and development will continue to be enforced in KI traditional territory, pending resolution of a treaty land entitlement claim and fulfillment of the Government of Ontario’s legal obligation to consult and accommodate.
We are encouraging Lubicon supporters to also lend their support to the KI First Nation and its leaders. More information on how you can help is included below Chief Ominayak’s letter.
* * * * * *
April 16, 2008

Chief Donny Morris Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation
C/O Thunder Bay Correctional CentreHighway 61 SouthPO Box 1900Thunder Bay ONP7C 4Y4

Dear Chief Morris;

We have been following closely the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation’s efforts to protect your land from the onset of mineral exploitation, both in the courts and on the ground.

When Platinex took your Nation to Court for opposing their proposed exploratory drilling project, we asked our supporters to join in protesting this attempt to use the courts to silence your leaders and lay claim to your lands, because we saw parallels with our own peoples’ struggle to survive and the attempted use of the courts to keep us quiet while they stole everything of value from our lands.

When the Court told Platinex to meet with your Nation to determine how mineral exploration should be allowed to proceed, lawyers across the country trumpeted the decision as a victory for aboriginal rights because it demonstrated that consultation is a requirement under Canadian law. We knew, as I’m sure you did too, that this was not a real victory for our people, because we knew from our own hard experience that having the right to be consulted is not the same as having the right to say no. And we knew from our own hard experience that without the right to refuse a project that will destroy our lands and damage our communities, we will be unable to meet our responsibility to protect our lands and people.

When the company later returned to Court – aided and abetted by the provincial government and its lawyers – to argue that it should be allowed to proceed because it had already met the “duty to consult”, it was no surprise to us or to you that the Courts agreed, and instructed your people to stay out of their way.

When you and your Council stood in the way of Platinex regardless of what the Courts and the provincial government said, we took heart that there are leaders like yourselves who are willing to stand up and demonstrate that we, as aboriginal people, will not sit idly by while outside governments and companies destroy everything we value – the land, the air, the water, and our way of life.

When you were offered the chance to apologize and accept the exploitation of your lands in exchange for your freedom, we took heart that, as real leaders, you and your Council refused. And now this letter finds you in jail, where they hope to destroy your spirit and that of your community by taking you away from your people and your land, and threatening others that they will face the same fate if they don’t allow Platinex to proceed.

If there were any way to turn back the clock and stop the very first oil and gas companies from entering our lands – before the hundreds that followed made it all but impossible to reverse the environmental destruction they brought to our lands – I believe our people would gladly do so. For that reason, I’m sending this message now to encourage you and express our support for the principled stand you are taking, so that the lands of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation don’t have to suffer the same fate our lands suffered after the first resource exploitation companies opened the door for the many that followed.

We hope you keep close to your families, your people and your lands in spirit, despite being taken away to a remote jail, and that you continue the struggle from inside with the same devotion and courage you have shown so far. There may be many forces allied against us as aboriginal people, and those who want to take everything from the land have a great deal of power and influence, but there are some things they can never take away from us. One of those is our spirit, our courage, and our determination to carry out our responsibility to protect the lands the Creator gave to us.

Sincerely,
Bernard Ominayak
Chief, Lubicon Lake Indian Nation

cc
Deputy Chief Jack McKay
Councillor Samuel McKay
Councillor Darryl Sainnawap
Bruce Sakakeep, Lands & Environment Director
Head Councillor Cecilia Begg
* * * * * * *
Take Action
Please write to the Premier of Ontario, demanding the release of the jailed First Nation Chief and Councilors and a halt to mining exploration in KI First Nation lands.

Write letters to the Premier of Ontario:
Dalton McGuinty, Premier
Legislative Building
Queen's Park
Toronto ON
M7A 1A1
dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

Sample Letter
Dear Premier McGuinty;
I am writing regarding the incarceration of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation Chief Donny Morris, Council members Samuel McKay, Jack McKay, Darryl Sainnawap Cecilia Begg, and community member Bruce Sakakeep.

They have recently been convicted of civil contempt charges and jailed for 6 months for peacefully opposing mineral exploration on their traditional territory.

I understand that Ontario continues to grant exploration permits to mining companies without fulfilling its legal obligation to consult with and accommodate Aboriginal peoples. It is disgraceful that these six people are serving time for upholding their community’s rights while Ontario continues to flout the law.

I ask that the Province change its antiquated Mining Act to ensure real consultation and accommodation of aboriginal rights before granting mineral leases. I also ask that the Ontario Government take action to release the six KI First Nation prisoners of conscience currently being punished for protecting their lands and community.

Sincerely,

Please also write letters of support to the jailed leaders
Here are the names and addresses where you can send individual letters of solidarity and encouragement:
Chief Donny Morris
Deputy Chief Jack McKay
Councillor Samuel McKay
Councillor Darryl Sainnawap
Bruce Sakakeep, Lands & Environment Director

C/O Thunder Bay Correctional Centre
Highway 61 South
PO Box 1900
Thunder Bay ON P7C 4Y4

Head Councillor Cecilia Begg
c/o Kenora Jail
1430 River St.
Kenora ON P9N 1K5

More information
http://kitchenuhmaykoosib.com/

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.

'MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY' By Joe Perez
http://www.mtwsfh.blogspot.com

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

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

FOR ANNIE'S NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

CATCH COLORADAN PETER JONES AT:
http://indigenousissuestoday.blogspot.com

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

Message From Dennis Banks - Lummi Nation, Dalai Lama Share Vision Of Peace

Message from Dennis Banks On ‘Longest Walk’
Submitted by the Western Shoshone Defense Project
By Dennis Banks
This is Dennis Banks - 30 years ago our first Longest Walk was in progress across Kansas. It was beginning to get hot and our walkers were getting thin and trim. Once again we take to the roads of America to cross this Continent in search of sacred sites needing to be protected and secured for the next generation - in fact for the next Seven Generations. We walk this land to listen to the people and hear their concerns about this Planet we call mother Earth. We walk to remind America that this is still Indian Land, that we are very concerned about the mistreatment and contamination of the Air, the Water and the Soil.

When the Great Spirit asked us to care for the land we accepted this task and duty. It is a committed duty with many responsibilities; within these duties are found the many Spiritual ceremonies that govern our way of life. These ceremonies are conducted daily, weekly, monthly, seasonly, and yearly. In preparation we look for Medicinal plants, herbs, and roots that accompany our ceremonies and songs. Now with this climate change we fear many of the herbs, roots and plants will be lost because of the warming of Mother Earth and of mankind's destructive policies.

In California, we have walked this land thru Rumsey Band of the Wintun Tribe, Yokuts, Santa Rosa Rancheria and the Mojave People at Fort Mohave. In Arizona, we walked through the Haulapai, Havasupai, Yavapai-Apache and Diné Territories. In New Mexico, we walked through the pueblo lands of the Ohkay Owingeh and are about to enter the Taos pueblo territory. Community after community the people welcomed us and fed us. they opened up their homes and shared many tribal stories with us. They showed us family pictures of son and daughters graduating from schools. We saw many photos of men and women in uniform. We became extended families to each other. Then they began to tell us of environmental concerns - what we heard is very troubling.

At this hour we are compiling a "Manifesto for Change." This Work will reflect our findings, suggestions, and Articles for change to members of the United States Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. As we progress on this Document we realize that many Tribal Nations have not had an opportunity share with us their concerns.

We now wish to invite all tribal members and nations from Turtle Island to send, write, email any concerns of the environment in your area or of any outstanding congressional action which may have deprived you of ancestral lands, water or human rights. We shall include them in our Manifesto.

We will walk into Washington, D.C. united with the Northern Route, Michigan running team, many delegations from the Southwest will join us as we walk into D.C. on July 11, 2008. Please note we have less than 90 days before we reach D.C. We are planning the "Cultural Survival Summit" for July 8, 9 and 10, 2008. Should you wish to participate in this historic event, please register online at our website - you will be contacted by the Cultural Survival Summit planning committee. Cultural Survival Summit details will be posted on our website in the coming days.-

We invite Indigenous leaders from around the world to bring a delegation to join us at the Summit and walk into DC with us;
- We invite Indigenous musicians, drum groups, dancers, singers, and performers to join us;- We invite the Youth of our Nations to join us;
- We invite the Elders of our Nations to join us;
- We invite Native organizations to join us;
- We invite Tribal delegations to join us;
- We invite brothers and sisters from all cultural backgrounds to join us.

As we walk these final 90 days, I will make every attempt to update you at least once a week from this day forward. 30 years ago we did make some changes by walking across this country - now let's make more changes. This country still owes the first nations people a great deal and we shall not abandon what is rightfully ours.
Respectfully,
Dennis J. Banks
- from The Longest Walk in Albuquerque, New Mexico

Lummi Nation, Dalai Lama Share Vision Of Peace
Lummi Nation, Dalai Lama share vison of peace
Posted by: "Eulynda Toledo-Benalli" mailto:toledobenalli@yahoo.com

Tribe presents Tibetan leader with traditional hat, sash, necklace
April 13, 2008
JOHN STARK, SEATTLE — The Dalai Lama donned a Lummi Nation cedarbark hat Sunday as he urged a small audience of Native Americans to safeguard their culture. A Lummi delegation presented him with the hat as well as a sash and necklace during a brief meeting that followed his main address to a gathering of about 50,000 people inside the stadium. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibetans and head of that land’s government-in-exile. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

The setting for his meeting with the native groups was a bit incongruous: the FSN Lounge inside Qwest Field, beneath larger-than-life portraits of Cortez Kennedy, Jim Zorn and other members of the Seattle Seahawks’ Ring of Honor. But the drums and chants of the Lummi, Tulalip and other tribes transformed a sports fan’s watering hole into a place of ceremony.

“There was a lot of good feeling in the room,” said Darrell Hillaire, a former Lummi chairman who serves on the organizing committee for the five-day Seeds of Compassion
event that brought the Dalai Lama to Seattle. The gifts the Dalai Lama wore as he departed had been crafted at Lummi Nation’s Cultural Learning Center under the direction of Doralee Sanchez.

“I’m honored that he went out wearing what we’d made at our cultural center,” Sanchez said.
“It kind of brought tears to my eyes to see him with the hat, the sash, the necklace.”

Sanchez said the youngsters who learn Lummi crafts at the center worked for weeks on the gifts for the Dalai Lama and his entourage. She said the Tibetan leader had expressed interest in learning how native Americans preserve their cultures after being displaced from their ancestral lands, as he himself has been displaced since his exile to India in 1959 after the Chinese government in Beijing tightened its grip on Tibet. “We wanted to show him how we do it through our youth,” Sanchez said. “I think he really did get an up-close look at who we are and what we do.”

She added that the Dalai Lama’s message of compassion is a natural fit with traditional Lummi ways. “You have very little but you share what you have,” Sanchez said. “That’s how we were raised.” Other people from Whatcom County also went to Seattle for the event. “It’s been one of my lifelong dreams to get a blessing from the Dalai Lama,” said Bellingham resident Shelley Muzzy.“It was fabulous.”

Before the Dalai Lama spoke to the stadium throngs earlier in the day, the Lummis joined a colorful procession of cultures marching into the stadium on the first warm and sunny day of the year to greet the spiritual leader. Among the marchers were Cambodian, Indian, Vietnamese, Iranian and Chinese contingents.

James and Lutie Hillaire of Lummi were among the small delegation of dignitaries who joined the Dalai Lama on the rostrum, along with Gov. Chris Gregoire. James Hillaire, wearing a feathered headdress, also addressed the crowd, thanking the Duwamish tribe for allowing the gathering to take place on their ancestral lands. “We are always honored when we receive guests from so far away, from different lands,” Hillaire said. He got enthusiastic applause when he added, “We have been taught that we are all brothers, we are all sisters. It doesn’t matter the color of our skin or our culture.”

The Dalai Lama opened with words of humility. “Some people come to listen with great expectations,” he said. “That’s a mistake. … I am just one human being.” Consulting occasionally with an interpreter at his side, he sat in a red upholstered armchair to tell his audience that a more peaceful world must begin with them.

“Many of the problems are essentially man-made problems,” he said, adding, with a mischievous grin, “Women may be less troublemakers. Sometimes, in the home, in the family, women are the top troublemakers.” But at the global level, he said, men are causing most of the trouble. Later, as an obviously appreciative Gregoire clasped his hand, he mused that female leaders may help the world become more compassionate.

“Women may have a greater, important role,” he said. “Females, I think, should take a more important role in this age.” Observing that the 20th century had been marked by bloodshed, he urged his audience to make the 21st century “the century of dialogue.”

“If you use force in order to solve one problem, it often creates unexpected side effects,” he said. “The concept of war is outdated.” While he agreed that world leaders need to consider nuclear disarmament, he also observed that laying down weapons is not enough. “We need inner disarmament,” he said, calling on his listeners to root out suspicion and fear from their hearts. By taking care of the needs of others, we make it more likely that others will meet our needs, he said. “Selfish should be wise-selfish rather than foolish-selfish,” he said.

After his address, he answered questions that organizers had selected from hundreds submitted in writing. One questioner wanted to know what compassionate people could do to get their leaders to move away from use of force. “The real answer for that question? I don’t know,” he replied. But he also said he saw small signs of hope, small signs of gradual change in the way world leaders address problems.

He suggested that world leaders and their families should get together for a week or two to get to know one another without discussing any weighty matters. Then, he said, when weighty matters must be discussed, they will be more likely to see one another as fellow human beings. “If each individual makes the effort, without losing hope, I think this century will be a better century, a happier century,” he said.

Reach John Stark at 715-2274
or john.stark@bellinghamherald.com.

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.

'MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY' By Joe Perez
http://www.mtwsfh.blogspot.com

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

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

FOR ANNIE'S NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

CATCH COLORADAN PETER JONES AT:
http://indigenousissuestoday.blogspot.com

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

'Shundahai Network' Is Re-Opening!!!

Submitted by Eleanore Fanire

Hi everybody-
I'm Guin. I have just moved to Las Vegas to reopen the Shundahai Network office. For those who don't know me, I am a co-founder of the Shundahai Network. I am also a co-founder of Seeds of Peace, have worked over the last 20 years or so with American Peace Test, Proposition One, Save Ward Valley, and a number of other groups. I was also the Executive Director of the HomelessAdvocacy Project here in Las Vegas.

And now I am here to get Shundahai up and running again. And I would love your help.

I believe that this is an important time for us. They are looking to open up a number of new nuclear power plants in this country, as well as across the globe.

I am planning to post a lot of news articles on my blog at MySpace (I am under Guinstigator) in the near future. I am also hoping to get the web page and the Shundahai MySpace page up again to put out information for everyone to read.

The government is also planning to open a new building to produce plutonium pits for triggers for nuclear weapons. Considering that there are a number of treaties in effect calling for them to dismantle such weapons, and to work toward a nuclear weapons free future, it is not merely immoral to do this, but also illegal. We must work hard, especially now when there is a presidential election coming up, to make our objections heard.

We are also working on the issue of Indigenous rights and environmental justice. To accomplish this, we need your assistance. In order to monitor the Department of Energy and the Military Industrial Complex, it takes money, time, volunteers and equipment.

We have a woman working to raise funds in the private sector. We will also look into grants in the near future. But to help us get moving strongly right now, we need money. Please help us by making a donation today.

I would like to help and can donate:__ $10__ $25__ $50 _ $100__ $250__ $500 __ $1,000__ Other.

__ Please send me more information
Name -
Address Phone -
Email -

Shundahai Network
6328 W Dayton Ave.
Las Vegas, NV 89107-2597

You can make checks out to Shundahai Network. If you need a tax write off, make them out to Center for Energy Research, and put Shundahai Network in the memo space.

Shundahai Network
A Project of The Center for Energy Research
104 Commercial St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
http://www.shundahai.orghttp://www.shundahai.org

If you are a Myspace user, you can now add us!
http://www.Myspace.com/shundahai

Over a Decade of Resistance Dedicated to Breaking the Nuclear Chain Shundahai is a Newe (Western Shoshone) word meaning "Peace and Harmony with all Creation"

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.

'MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY' By Joe Perez
http://www.mtwsfh.blogspot.com

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

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

FOR ANNIE'S NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

CATCH COLORADAN PETER JONES AT:
http://indigenousissuestoday.blogspot.com

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

Six South Dakota Tribal Leaders Tell Why They Endorse Obama

Six Tribal Leaders In South Dakota Explain Their Endorsement of Senator Obama For President
Submitted by Monica Davis
This presidential election season has generated considerable excitement around the nation. And there is a reason for it.

It may well be the most important election of our lifetime. America faces grave challenges - a war, climate change, the economy, the lack of access to health care, to name a few - that cry out for solution. And, we also have a unique opportunity to change the direction of the country in a fundamental and transformative way.

Those of us in Indian country have a stake in the outcome of this presidential election at this critical time in the nation's politics. We have been following the campaign of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for the past year with special interest and have been impressed that Native Americans have always figured prominently in his campaign of inclusion.

In his major speech on race, Sen. Obama included Native Americans once again in his call for unity to address the challenges of the new century.

He said,''This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children o America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.''

Indian country certainly has a right to be skeptical about national politicians. We know from personal experience that all too often promises made on the campaign trail fade in the act of governance.

But we have come to believe that Sen. Obama offers a different kind of leadership and presents an opportunity for Native peoples that we have not seen before. He has shown that he appreciates the unique history and challenges of our communities. And he understands that we can only realize our common dreams if we are equal partners in the national dialogue.

Sen. Obama began his career as a community organizer on the streets of Chicago. He has said that this experience showed him that change comes from empowering communities and reinforced his respect for tribal sovereignty. He dismisses what he calls one-size-fits-all solutions from Washington and says that empowering tribal communities to address their own problems will be an important goal of his presidency. That message resonates with Native peoples because Indian country is confident that we have the answer to our challenges but need an administration that will be a partner with us

Sen. Obama throughout this campaign has demonstrated his desire to listen to and work with Nativ communities by meeting with Native American tribal leaders all across the country and by assembling an impressive group of Native American advisers.

His commitment to addressing our priorities is evident in the agenda he laid out for Indian country, ''Principles for Stronger Tribal Communities,'' which emphasizes his support for tribal sovereignty and his commitment to improve the government-to-government relationship between the tribes and the federal government. His plan also calls for greater federa lresources to help tribes address shortfalls in healthcare, education, law enforcement and energy assistance, and to support regulated Indian gaming as a tribal resource.

But what is most far-reaching, innovative and exciting about Sen. Obama's well-crafted agenda is that he has pledged to take unprecedented steps as president to bring Native Americans into the conversation and into partnership in defining and prioritizing a policy agenda for tribal communities. He will communicate directly with Native American leaders and include them in important policy decisions that impact Indiancountry.

His plan includes a promise to appoint an American Indian policy adviser on his senior White House staff so that Indian country has a clear voice at the highest levels of the Obama administration. He also pledges to call an annual meeting with Native American leaders to develop and implement a national Indian policy agenda. These are the type of ideas and this is the kind of leadership that will bring the fundamental change we so desperately need.

Sen. Obama understands our unique challenges and will work to solve them. But he also believes that ''we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together - unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction - towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.''

At the dawn of the 21st century, when the United States overall has greater income disparity than we've seen since the first year of the Great Depression, when some CEOs are making more in a day than the average worker makes in a year, when wages are flat, jobs are moving overseas and the cost of health care, energy and college are rising, and when one in eight Americans now lives in abject poverty, Obama is issuing a call for unity so that we can make real change for all Americans that will restore balance in our economy and put us all on a path to prosperity.

As he said in last week's speech, to do that ''requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not hav to come at the expense of my dreams,'' and that ''the children of America are not these kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy.''

Nowhere do these words reverberate and find a home more than in Indian country. A 2003 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report found that American Indians suffer from a ''quiet crisis'' of poverty, unemployment and discrimination. As Native Americans, we know what that means in the daily lives of our people.

In endorsing Sen. Obama for president, The Native American Times wrote: ''Perhaps more than anything, Obama inspires us to want and dream of more. Indian country has been waiting for someone like Barack for a long time. Now is the time for positive change and now is the time to vote Barack Obama."

Day by day, as the 2008 campaign unfolds, it becomes more and more clear that Sen. Obama is the right choice for NativeAmericans and all Americans.

John Yellowbird Steele, president, Oglala Sioux Tribe; William ''Shorty'' Brewer, vice president, Oglala Sioux Tribe; Michael Jandreau, chairman, Lower Brule Sioux Tribe; Rodney Bordeaux, president, Rosebud SiouxTribe; Robert Moore, councilman, Rosebud Sioux Tribe; and Joseph Brings Plenty, chairman, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, are members of Sen. Barack Obama's Tribal Leaders Steering Committee.

http://www.indianz.com/News/2008/008137.asp

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.

'MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY' By Joe Perez
http://www.mtwsfh.blogspot.com

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

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

FOR ANNIE'S NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

CATCH COLORADAN PETER JONES AT:
http://indigenousissuestoday.blogspot.com

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

Holocaust Memorial Day - LIst Of Mass Graves At Residential Schools Has Been Issued - Navajos Begin Amber Alert System

4th Annual Aboriginal Holocaust Memorial Day
Hi everyone,
I want you to know that we are holding a funeral procession here in Vancouver outside church and government offices Sunday April 13, and on Tuesday, April 15, as part of the 4th Annual Aboriginal Holocaust Memorial Day events.

This procession is following up on our April 10 release to the media of a list of mass graves at former Indian Residential Schools across Canada.

We have not waited for the government's bogus "truth and reconciliation commission" to whitewash itself and the churches for the murder of untold numbers of our children.We have identified where they are buried, and now we're going to bring those responsible to justice.

This funeral procession will be to honour the missing children and to launch our own independent inquiry. Please build small coffins, place on them the names of the disappeared and/or the list of mass graves (which you can find on the recent posting on our website under "Updates"), and bring them to the doorsteps of your local Catholic, Anglican and United churches tomorrow, on April 15, and on all the Sundays in April and May.

Please consider bringing the coffins into the church itself and making a statement in a non-confrontational and peaceful manner to the churchgoers.

Please send us feedback and let's keep building our movement, in memory of the missing children, then and now,
Kevin Eagle Strong Voice
website:http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/
1-888-265-1007

Read and Hear the truth of Genocide in Canada, past and present, at this website: http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/

List Of Mass Graves At Residential Schools Have Been Issued
A comprehensive list of mass graves of children at dozens of former Indian Residential Schools across Canada was released to the media and the public this Thursday, April 10 at 10:00 am at a special ceremony at the Indian Affairs office at 1138 Melville Street in downtown Vancouver .

At the same event, an independent, non-governmental inquiry into crimes in Indian residential schools was formally launched by aboriginal elders, including Squamish Hereditary Chief Kiapilano and Chief RedJacket.

The event was sponsored by The Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared (FRD). For more information:
FRD spokesperson Rev. Kevin Annett
pager: 1-888-265-1007
http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/

"Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race." - Martin Luther King Jr.

Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust
The untold story of the genocide of Aboriginal peoples in Canada.
http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/

Sign the petition against Aboriginal genocide in Canada:
http://www.petitiononline.com/watergod/petition-sign.html

Navajo Initiating Amber Alert System
INFOBOX
Four Categories of Missing
Non-family abductions, 58,200 per year, most dangerous
Family abductions, 203,900 per year, custody disputes
Runaways/throwaways, 1,682,900 per year, voluntary, deserted, abandoned
Lost, injured, or otherwise missing, 579,200 per year, whereabouts are unknown--

Source: U.S. Department of Justice
By Kathy HelmsDine Bureau
WINDOW ROCK – An estimated 1.3 million children go missing each year nationwide, yet only 797,500 of those typically are reported to law enforcement agencies. According to Navajo Nation Capt. Robert Platero of Criminal Investigations, 200 case studies show that children kidnapped by sexual predators are killed within the first three hours.

On the Navajo Nation, from 1997 through 2007, 492 children were reported missing – 93 of those in 2007.

Enter AMBER Alert. The U.S. Department of Justice announced its AMBER Alert in Indian Country Initiative last September and selected 10 tribal sites to serve as demonstration sites for other Native American communities to help expand the AMBER Alert program into Indian County and bridge the gap between tribal communities and state and regional programs across the country.

The Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, Acoma, Laguna and Zuni Pueblo communities were among those chosen to participate in the initiative. AMBER – America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response – Alerts are emergency messages broadcast when a law enforcement agency determines that a child has been abducted and is in imminent danger.

The broadcasts include information about the child and the abductor, including physical descriptions as well as information about the abductor's vehicle, which could lead to the child's recovery. According to DOJ, more than 90 percent of the 360 recoveries of abducted children have occurred since AMBER Alert became a nationally coordinated effort.

The AMBER Alert program began in Texas in 1996 when Dallas-Fort Worth broadcasters teamed up with local police to develop an early warning system to help find abducted children, in memory of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman of Arlington, Texas, who was abducted while riding her bicycle and later found murdered.

The large sign extending across U.S. Highway 264 in Tse Bonito is part of the Emergency Alert System, according to Platero, who said AMBER Alert broadcast announcements are made every 15 minutes for three hours, and then reduced to every half hour, to ensure the public is notified.

In a presentation Monday to the Public Safety Committee, Platero said that in 2006, 18 children were abducted and later returned home following AMBER Alerts. When the captors were asked why they brought the children back, they said, “I got scared. I saw my name – I saw pictures of my car everywhere.”

Platero said the Navajo Nation is working in coordination with the AMBER Alert Program, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the Sentencing, Monitoring, Arrest, Recording and Tracking program, as well as KTNN-Radio locally.

“We want to be able to have the ability to share with the public, to broadcast to the public most importantly, a reported missing child and to reconstruct and assist in any way in returning that child safely home.”Platero doesn't anticipate that the program will require much funding to get it off the ground. “After we get it up and running, I think the majority of the cost is going to be in training. The more we are trained, the better we will be under stress and be able to accurately document and reconstruct the events that contributed to an incident.

“We're developing legislation now to officially recognize the AMBER Alert program on the Navajo Nation and to give us the authority and the ability of developing policies and procedures and to coordinate our resources to put it in place,” he said.

Delegate Hope MacDonald- LoneTree has agreed to sponsor the legislation.

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.

'MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY' By Joe Perez
http://www.mtwsfh.blogspot.com

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

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

FOR ANNIE'S NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

CATCH COLORADAN PETER JONES AT:
http://indigenousissuestoday.blogspot.com

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

Tribes Take Issue With Uranium Clean-Up Plan!

Navajo, Hopi Take Issue With Uranium Clean-Up Plan!
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
WINDOW ROCK – One thing seldom mentioned in the feds' argument for “clean nuclear power” is what to do with the mountains of not-so- clean radioactive wastes that must be stored in some community's back yard and monitored for generations lest it contaminate nearby soils or water supplies.

The Navajo Nation is still trying to get the feds to clean up radioactive wastes from the nearly 4 million tons of uranium ore extracted by mining companies from 1944 to 1986 under lease agreements with the Nation.

So, the concept of “clean nuclear power” and a new era of uranium mining doesn't wash with a legacy of more than 500 abandoned uranium mines, four inactive uranium milling sites, a former dump site, contaminated groundwater, structures that may contain elevated levels of radiation, and environmental and public health concerns.

The Navajo Nation gave testimony Oct. 23, 2007, before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and was asked to respond to comments on a draft federal agency five-year action plan compiled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, and Indian Health Service.

The Hopi Tribe, whose water sources are threatened by their close proximity to the Tuba City Dump site, also was asked to comment.

Last week, on March 24, David Taylor from Navajo Department of Justice, sent the Nation's comments to the House committee, pointing out that though Navajo made a number of specific requests regarding cleanup, there is no recognition of those in the draft plan.

“It is unfortunate that the agencies have shown no appreciation for, or recognition of the Navajo Nation’s own analysis of what is needed to start addressing this national tragedy. Every time an agency indicates its willingness to work with, consult with or support the Navajo Nation in its uranium-related efforts, the promise is hallow unless it is backed up with a commitment to obtain the necessary personnel and funding,” Taylor wrote.

At the close of the October hearing, Committee Chairman Henry Waxman specifically asked the federal agencies to think about and tell the committee: “What authority and what funding do you need in order to clean up the uranium contamination of the Navajo Nation and to address the health problems resulting from contamination?”

Taylor said there is no clear response to that question in the draft plan. “The Chairman was not asking for a laundry list of what has been done in the past. He was asking the agencies to indicate what additional funding and authority is needed in the future.”

Hopi Tribal Chairman Benjamin Nuvamsa, in March 27 comments to BIA's Jerry Gidner, said the plan falls far short of adequately addressing the many environmental and public health concerns and gives no real indication of when those concerns will be completely addressed or the cost of doing so.

He urged that the plan emphasize the critical need to rapidly implement groundwater corrective action and complete final closure of the Tuba City Dump.

Nuvamsa said investigations at the site have indicated “the presence of an imminent and substantial threat to human health and the environment – the plume of contaminated groundwater is migrating towards and is closely approaching Hopi drinking water supply wells and drinking water and irrigation springs.”

The Hopi Tribe has installed 32 groundwater monitoring wells and the results “clearly demonstrate the need for groundwater corrective action,” he said, adding that contaminants in the closest monitoring well downgradient from the site are nine times greater than the federal maximum contaminant level for drinking water.

“The Hopi Tribe is deeply disappointed by the agencies' refusal to recognize that an imminent threat to Hopi water supplies currently exists,” Nuvamsa said.The Hopi Tribe believes the plan should recognize the importance of groundwater as the sole source of drinking water and irrigation supplies in the villages of Lower Moencopi and Upper Moenkopi. The groundwater comes from the N-aquifer, which is 10 to 20 feet below surface in the vicinity of Tuba City Dump.

Lower Moencopi obtains its drinking water from two springs, one of which feeds a small community water system with four outdoor taps in the village. Upper Moenkopi obtains its water supply from three wells, ranging from 135 to 280 feet deep. Several springs also are used for irrigation in areas downgradient from the plume.

Nuvamsa said the contaminant plume has migrated 4,000 feet away from the Tuba City Dump to within 2,500 feet of both the springs and supply wells that provide the only drinking water source.

“The contaminated groundwater plume emanating from the Tuba City Dump threatens the villagers' source water wells and springs. Yet, there is no mention of the Hopi villages' contaminated drinking water aquifer in this section of the Five-Year Plan,” he said.

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.

'MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY' By Joe Perez
http://www.mtwsfh.blogspot.com

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

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

FOR ANNIE'S NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

CATCH COLORADAN PETER JONES AT:
http://indigenousissuestoday.blogspot.com

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