Indigenous People See Themselves In 'Avatar' - SMSC Gets Minnesota 'Eagle Award'

Avatar - The Cartoon Film That Is Reality For Millions
OPINION
by Monica Davis
Many indigenous people, after looking at the new blockbuster, Avatar, see themselves in the story. They see the storyline of land and human exploitation as being their story, their history, their pain. The rape and pillage of land and resources has been the bane of native peoples since Columbus got lost and ‘discovered’ America.

For millions, 500 years after Columbus and subsequent European "explorers"washed up on these shores, the cycle of resource exploitation, native annihilation and land piracy continues to playout. Precious metals, timber, energy resource exploitation, along with environmental degradation, poisoning of water supplies and air remain major problems for Native People in North and South America, and around the world.

They say Avatar is truth.The Huffington Post noted that the people in Avatar share a great deal with aboriginal people in South and Central America, as well as Africa. Just makes me wonder what the writer thinks about the uranium mines of the Southwest, the dumping of radioactive wastes on supposedly independent lands, AKA reservations.

Nevertheless, Avatar presents a fictional rendition of an ongoing atrocity.

Avatar is real: Pandora exists in our planet and it's located in Southand Central America, and Africa. The Na'vi peoples, the Indigenous peoples in those regions are being displaced and killed right now, in order to extract the natural resources laying underground. The names of places and peoples may be different in the movie, but the facts of reality are almost the same. (Huffington Post)

All of the superficial apologies will not change the fact that tens of millions of native people died horrible deaths in the 400 years of exploitation, and hundreds of thousands today continue to live in substandard housing, and face terrorism on their own lands. One state government is mandating that all state high schools with native names as mascots, change their mascot names. And the US Mint is manufacturing another coin to commemorate Native Americans.

Now, that is all well and good, but what about real money? What about compensation for stolen resources—and we don’t have to go all the wayback to ground zero. Tribes are not receiving their legally prescribed payments for rents and leases. Invaders continue to trespass on native lands, without compensating the tribes, and NativeAmericans continue to die from radiation poisoning, polluted water and poisoned land.

Generations still suffer the effects of educide, where Native children were divested of their native culture in residential torture schools and returned to their homelands confused, angry, and often mentally ill. Walk the lands of the Rez, look at the result of homegrown terrorism, see a people whose heritage was emasculated, whose children were the victim of a multi-generational eradication/mind controlatrocity, practiced by religious and government run "residential schools".

Children were murdered, saw their classmates tortured, beaten, killed and driven to madness. The religious institutions and churches who perpetrated this atrocity continue to deny, obfuscate and hide their evil deeds, as the victims of their evil turn to drugs and alcohol to drive the monsters at bay. Even as they run toothless "reconciliationcommissions", discredit activists and set up stalking horses as diversions, the truth continues to come out.

Avatar, using cartoon media and a suspension of reality tells the story of millions of real indigenous victims, but the question is: Will we ignore the message? Will mainstream media and their sleepwalking audiences fail to connect the reality of today with a movie plot? Will we feel sorry for people for a tiny moment, then go back to acceptance and exploitation as usual?
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Monica Davis is an Indiana-based author, activist, columnist and public speaker. She specialises in economics, history and public policy issues and has written articles on land loss, Native American residential schools, bank failure, environmental justice and alternative energy. She is published in Great Britain, the US and India and home schoolers in New Zealand have used her articles as teaching tools.

Ms. Davis has given presentations on land lynching and the farm catastrophe at churches, museums and universities. Her articles been read into the Congressional Record and used as the basis for interviews by other reporters. She is available for speaking engagements. Her author web site is:
http://www.lulu.com/davis4000_2000______

Dakotah! Ice Center Honored With Prestigious Award
by Tessa Lehto
Communications Specialist
tessa.lehto@shakopeedakota.org

Prior Lake, MN – Dakotah! Ice Center was honored with a Minnesota Eagle Award by the Associated Builders and Contractors' Excellence in Construction Awards program on January 14, 2010. The Award was presented at the Metropolitan Ballroom in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Dakotah! Ice Center is owned and operated by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, a federally recognized Indian tribe.

HTG Architects (Eden Prairie, Minnesota) designed the facility which was built by general contractor Shingobee (Loretto, Minnesota). Accepting the award on behalf of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community were members of the design team Jim Schuweiler, Senior Project Manager and Bob Mueller, Project Superintendent, both of Shingobee and Tom Moorse, Partner/Project Architect, and Rob Brandwick, Project Manager, both of HTG Architects.

“With a long standing philosophy of being good stewards of the natural landscape, we also sought to create a facility that would set the bar high for sustainable, energy-efficient construction,” said SMSC Chairman Stanley R. Crooks.

The new facility, which went into service in November 2008, is one in which SMSC and the entire community takes great pride. Serving as a model for Green construction, and serving the needs of the larger community, the Dakotah! Ice center exemplifies what a state-of-the-art ice arena should be, according to the design team.

The new Dakotah! Ice Center is a 63,223 square foot addition to the existing Dakotah! Sport and Fitness. The SMSC chose to construct the new ice arena in order to meet the increasing demands for ice time in the area.

The new arena, with an NHL-sized sheet of ice and seating capacity for up to 1,200, contains numerous energy efficient, environmentally friendly, and state-of-the-art components. Amenities include two mezzanine levels, an elevator, seven locker rooms, a new concession area, conference rooms, and a concourse viewing and seating area. The rink features a supportless curved glass dasher board system that provides clear viewing and faster play.

The building’s Green Initiatives include a 32,648 square foot vegetated or “green” roof that treats storm water and improves energy efficiency; skylights coupled with daylight harvesting sensors; and sixteen solar panels that heat water for use in the ice resurfacing equipment.

A compressor system and heat exchanger take the waste heat from the ice resurfacing equipment and redirect it through the bleachers to heat the concrete floor of the seating area. Landscaping included recycled, permeable pavers and a rain garden. Many recycled and energy-efficient materials were utilized throughout the building, including arena seating made from recycled materials.

At the event ABC’s finest contractors, subcontractors, and specialty contractors were honored for the merits of their projects with the most unique and challenging designs. The Minnesota Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors is part of a national association representing more than 23,000 merit shop construction and construction-related firms in 81 chapters across the United States.

ABC's awards program is designed to recognize publicly the quality and innovation of merit shop construction and to honor all the members of the construction team, including the contractor, the owner, and the design team responsible for the project. The winning projects were selected from entries submitted from across the state and were judged on complexity, attractiveness, unusual challenges, completion time, workmanship, innovation, safety, and budget.

To download photos of the Dakotah! Ice Center, go to www.shakopeedakota.org/newsroom and click on Photo Gallery.

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Tom Rodgers, Native American Hero, GOT Abramoff!

The Man Who Blew The Whistle On Jack Abramoff Tells The Story Of How He did It
THE HILL
By Susan Crabtree - 01/26/2010

He was instrumental in shining the light on one of Washington’s biggest scandals. He made Jack Abramoff a household name. But few know who he is.

Tom Rodgers preferred to operate strategically behind the scenes as he played a leading role in taking down the most notorious lobbyist on K Street. But now, in an interview with The Hill, he has decided to go public with his story.

“We watched this all unfold and we remained quiet,” he said. “At that time, we were stereotyped as ignorant and greedy Indians. But we knew different … we knew the time to tell this story wasn’t then.”

For years, speculation about the Abramoff whistleblower has focused on the supposed revenge of a former fiancee of Michael Scanlon, Abramoff’s right-hand man. Others suspected Republican lobbyists jealous of the enormous fees Abramoff collected from Indian tribes.

But some of the very tribes Abramoff deceived and defrauded turned on him and worked to destroy him — with the help of Rodgers, a trusted fellow Native American familiar with the ways of Washington.

For nearly eight years Rodgers has remained cloaked in anonymity as the Justice Department pursued its case. He watched and quietly celebrated with the tribal leaders who helped provide the inside information as the impact of the scandal spiraled.

It landed Abramoff and former Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) in prison, helped force then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) from office and played a key role in Democrats taking back the majority in the House and Senate in 2006. In the aftermath, Congress passed the most sweeping new ethics rules since Watergate.

Now Rodgers is speaking out. With only a handful of remaining Abramoff associates facing trial or sentencing, Rodgers’s role was featured in a new documentary, “Casino Jack and the United States of Money,” which premiered at Sundance last Saturday. The film will be shown in Washington, D.C. later this year.

In early January 2003 Rodgers was up past midnight, watching a recap of his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers playoff win when he got a fateful call that both startled and intrigued him.

“Tom, I was told I could trust you,” the voice on the phone said.

Rodgers listened intently as Bernie Sprague, the subchief of the Saginaw Chippewa of Mount Pleasant, Mich., told him about his tribe’s disturbing interactions with Abramoff.

“Tom, we’re being threatened by our lobbyist,” Rodgers was told.
Rodgers responded, “What do you mean, threatened?”

Sprague informed Rodgers that Abramoff was going to sue him because he was questioning the invoices and what he was doing to justify the millions of dollars in fees.
Sprague needed to know if Rodgers could help him.

Rodgers, a former Democratic staffer, faced a difficult choice of whether to meddle in the business of one of the most powerful Republican lobbyists. Abramoff had many friends in the GOP-controlled administration and Congress. Detractors kept their mouths shut or risked paying a heavy political and sometimes personal price.

Now 49, Rodgers is not your typical pinstriped, backslapping denizen of K Street with good Italian shoes.

He didn’t hang out in Abramoff’s elite GOP power circles, so the two never met even though they both represented tribal clients.

Abramoff, however, was familiar with Rodgers’s reputation for operating above board. In an e-mail to Scanlon that came out during the investigation, he even called Rodgers a “moron” for doing so.

At the time, Rodgers didn’t know about Abramoff’s interest in him. Now he finds it amusing.
Rodgers wanted to help out the tribal leaders who contacted him but was well-aware of the danger in doing so. He gathered a small group of his trusted friends together, all of whom worked on Capitol Hill, and told them what he was about to do.

One cautioned him to be extremely careful and another explicitly warned him not to get involved.

“He said, ‘Tommy, are you prepared to lose everything you have, everything you ever accumulated?’ ”

But after hearing some of the details about Abramoff’s schemes, threats and deception, Rodgers couldn’t turn away.

To him, the abuse evoked a dark period in the 1850s when unscrupulous Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) agents stationed on reservations to provide tribes with food and healthcare stirred hostilities.

“We wanted to do something that would better our democracy and help Native Americans,” Rodgers stated. “We were facing people who were not Yankee bluecoats but arrived in double-breasted, custom suits.”

With the warnings in mind, Rodgers told only his friends and his family about what he planned to do and decided to hire a respected lawyer. Houston attorney Philip Hilder had represented Sharon Watkins, the whistleblower in the Enron case. Hilder cautioned Rodgers to lay low — or face the consequences.

“I judged him to be quite credible, but I also know the realities of Washington — that if he would have reared his head, it would have been decapitated,” Hilder says.

By the time Sprague contacted him, Rodgers was already tracking Abramoff’s colorful exploits through a running newspaper clip file that expanded in unpredictable ways.

Rodgers monitored Abramoff’s work for Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi and the South African apartheid government, his foray into Hollywood with an anti-communist film, “Red Scorpion,” and his purchase of a fleet of casino boats in Florida and the subsequent gangland Mafia murder of its former owner. (Abramoff was convicted in 2006 for fraud and conspiracy in the purchase of the SunCruz fleet.)

“My grandfather, who was also French Indian, had a great saying … there’s too much s—t in that barn for there not to be a horse in there,” he said.
Rodgers’s early suspicions about Abramoff compounded after talking to Sprague and others, and his initial anger quickly turned to rage.

In the fall of 2002, Rodgers got a call from Monica Quigley, a longtime friend and former attorney for the Saginaw Chippewa tribe.

She told Rodgers she had been fired from that position after questioning Abramoff’s invoices and legislative activities. She then put Sprague in touch with Rodgers.

The Saginaw Chippewa had been sending $2 million checks to Scanlon’s public-relations group, Capitol Campaign Strategies, at 611 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Suite 375.

When Sprague told him Capitol Campaign Strategies’ address, Rodgers was immediately suspicious.

“I said there’s nothing up there but gas stations, bars and nail salons,” Rodgers recalled telling Sprague.

He drove to the address to take a photo of the place to send to Sprague. What he found was a Mailboxes Etc.

“Suite 375 was seven inches high and 11 inches deep,” he said.

In the months and years that followed these exchanges, Rodgers worked with members of the Saginaw Chippewa tribe, the Alabama Coushatta and their cousins the Coushatta tribe of Louisiana to gather internal invoices and documents and slowly and strategically leak them to the media after first contacting the BIA.

“We were told [by the BIA] that it was an internal affair,” Rodgers recalled. “I turned to [Vice Chairman of the Louisiana Coushatta tribe David Sickey and Sprague] on a conference call one night and said, ‘Now we need to go another way. We’ve accumulated the data; we have all the information we need. We need to leak it.’ ”

Aware that the national media tended to give scant attention to Native American issues, Rodgers first advised Sprague and Sickey to contact their local press, the Mt. Pleasant Morning News, the Lake Charles American Press and the Alexandria Town Talk.

After these initial local articles appeared, Rodgers said he sent 14 manila folders with a one-inch packet of the articles, invoices and other documents to several good-government groups, as well as the National Journal and The Washington Post’s Susan Schmidt, who would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize for her series on the Abramoff scandal.

He chose to contact Schmidt specifically because of a 1997 article she wrote about Democratic lobbyists overcharging Native American clients.

His ability to keep his identity secret for so many years is a testament to the insular world of Native Americans; Rodgers isn’t afraid to stand out in a crowd.

Usually clad in an all-black matching shirt and sport coat, his unusual combination of high cheekbones and deep-set green eyes illustrates his mixed Blackfoot Indian and Irish heritage.
His firm’s website is a virtual bulletin board for favorite inspirational quotes and poetry from leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Thomas Paine.

He sprinkles his conversation with some of these lofty, idealistic quotes, but can lighten the mood with a joke, accompanied with his high-pitched laugh.

Following years of silence, Rodgers seems relieved to finally be getting the experience off his chest. During an hourlong interview, he often talked for 15 minutes straight without prompting and at one point teared up when talking about how he grew up in the small town of Glasgow, Mont., spending summers on the Blackfoot reservation.

“My parents barely finished high school, but they instilled in us an incredible work ethic and a concern for others,” he said. “We all went to graduate school and we truly escaped — and I use that word purposefully, escaped — the poverty of the Blackfoot reservation.”

Rodgers received his J.D. and master’s in taxation law at the University of Denver School of Law and then moved to Washington, working as a congressional staffer for Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) before starting a lobbying firm of his own and taking on such clients as the Alabama Coushatta of Texas and the Tule River Tribe of California.

He recalls a rocky relationship with his father, who died from cancer two months ago. The two didn’t speak for 10 years after his father asked him to sign a document that contained a lie. Rodgers refused; his father complained that he cared too much about his reputation.
Rodgers says the altercation only made him more concerned about his reputation and even motivated him to take a stand when confronted by Abramoff’s abuses.

“The Cree words are my father’s unintended life lesson to me,” Rodgers wrote in an e-mail. “O-tee-paym-soo-wuk: a person who owns himself.”

Rodgers is well-aware that critics will accuse him of taking Abramoff down in order to steal his clients or benefit Democrats, but he says his reasons are far more complex and deeply personal. He was simply outraged over the abuse of Native Americans whose heritage he shares.
He insists that he would have spoken up if all the players were Democrats, and he never received a cent from the Louisiana Coushatta or the Saginaw Chippewa for his work — and has not taken them on as clients since.

“We did it when it mattered and we didn’t do it for money or for fame, and the records bear that out,” he said.

“I did offer [to pay him] on separate occasions, and he has just said that he wants the best for the Coushattas and always makes the point that it’s a labor of love,” Sickey said.
Shortly after the first Post stories appeared, Philip Hilder contacted the Justice Department’s public integrity unit and provided the same packet of material Rodgers had sent to media outlets.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), then the chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, quickly announced wide-ranging hearings to investigate Abramoff’s activities.

Rodgers called up Pablo Carillo, the lead staffer on the committee’s investigation.
“How can I help you?” Rodgers remembers Carillo saying as he picked up the phone that day.
“Actually, I believe I can help you,” Rodgers responded, telling him about the invoices and documents he had amassed.

“How soon can you be here?” Rodgers said Carillo responded.

During his initial work and the years that followed, Rodgers was silently amused by the mistaken attempts to unmask the Deep Throat of the Abramoff scandal.

“What’s important is that the tribes that were defrauded and cheated and abused did something about it, and we did it when it mattered,” he said.

He faults some Washington players who later write books about misdeeds they knew were going on at the time: “Well, then why didn’t you do something then?”

The tribal leaders say they couldn’t have drawn blood without Rodgers’s quiet but lethal under-the-radar strategy.

“We sustained our course and moved on it consistently, and that had a lot to do with Rodgers being the quarterback,” Sickey said.

“If Tom hadn’t been willing to help, I truthfully don’t think anything would have come of it,” Quigley added.

Emily Miller, Scanlon’s former fiancee, who for years was mistakenly blamed for being the original whistleblower, said she suspected that the real source was another lobbyist.

“I’m surprised but thrilled to know that the moral outrage of a fellow Native American was Abramoff’s real downfall,” she said. “Good for him.”

Rodgers decided it is the right time to reveal his role because the Abramoff scandal appears to be coming to a close. Abramoff has served nearly four years, with two more to go.

He hopes the scandal will have a lasting impact but admits he has real concerns that something similar could happen again if Washington doesn’t enforce the ethics laws it spawned.

“One of my favorite lines is from the movie ‘Wall Street,’ ” Rodgers recalls, “when Hal Holbrook walks up to Charlie Sheen and says, ‘Bud, money makes you do things you don’t want to do.’ ”

Source: http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/77951-man-who-blew-the-whistle-on-abramoff-tells-his-story

The contents of this site are © 2010 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsisiary of News Communications, Inc.

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Downwinders Honor Eleanore Fanire - Shiprock Unit's 'World Cafe' Approach To Uranium Contamination

Eleanore Fanire Memorial
A celebration for Eleanore Fanire Lindquist begins at 4 pm, Wednesday January 27th on Downwinder's Day at the Kathryn Heidenreich Adult Center, 1776 Air Way Ave, Kingman, AZ.

The public is asked to come and share memories. Refreshments will be served. For more information, call Denille Stevens at (928) 765-2242

When the news of her death spread, the people of Kingman made it known that it didn't matter who we were, only that we were family of Eleanore and they didn't waste a minute to provide help, comfort, their homes for us to stay at before her funeral (special Thank you to Lee Ann Bowden) and much needed prayers . How the people of Kingman went into action is an inspiration.

My hope is that they pull together and continue to fight for the Downwinders and for what Eleanore spent much of her life defending. Please encourage everyone to attend.
Diane Dehl Olvera - Eleanore's Niece

IHS Begins Uranium Health Screening Information
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

CHURCHROCK, N.M. – Indian Health Service, one of five federal agencies charged with dealing with uranium contamination on the Navajo Nation, has begun gathering information from affected communities on what they want the health screening program to look like.

Lisa Allee and other members of Indian Health Service's Shiprock Unit hosted a “World Cafe” Dec. 13 at Churchrock Chapter House with residents of Red Water Pond Road Community Association and nearby communities.

The World Cafe approach basically amounts to sitting around the dining table, doodling on large pieces of paper and enjoying snacks and conversation. But rather than playful banter, this informal conversation is geared to what health issues community members are concerned about and what they think needs to happen in the future related to those issues.

In 2007, IHS and four other federal agencies were asked by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to address the legacy of Cold War uranium mining on Navajo. In addition to supporting a university-led Navajo Uranium Assessment and Kidney Health Project, IHS is reviewing existing databases to develop plans for improved cancer case surveillance.

The agency also must review water contamination data for potential future health studies, and develop plans to assess the prevalence of cancer and other health conditions for populations living near abandoned uranium mines and inactive mill sites.

Allee said this IHS program, unlike the Radiation Exposure Screening & Education Program for miners, is not a compensation program. “This program is about health screenings and health care.”

The original plan was to work the health screening and health care into existing clinics, using existing providers. “This has come to be seen as probably not the best way to go about it,” she said, given the already heavy caseload at IHS clinics. “So we're regrouping and looking at centralizing this, and then going out to the communities to provide services.”

Residents were asked to get to know those at their table and to jot down their health concerns on the large sheets of paper in front of them, for further discussion by the group.

“Sometimes you think you're the only person this is happening to, but someone at the table right next to you might be going through the same thing,” said Tina Tso, one of the facilitators.

“My concern is about the people that are living out in Red (Water) Pond,” said Henry Tso, vice president of Coyote Canyon Chapter. “What do our people need? How can we help them? What do we need to do from the chapter area? These are some of the concerns that I have from my people.

“It's not Churchrock's problem. There are other chapters that are also facing the same problem because a lot of our water is contaminated now, and all that dust that's blowing down that way, it's not affecting just us humans, it's affecting the vegetation and the animals,” he said.

On Friday, the Navajo Nation Commission on Emergency Management declared a public health emergency for residents living in the Black Falls area near Flagstaff, where preliminary assessments have identified approximately 100 individuals with health problems believed linked to drinking water contaminated with uranium and arsenic.

Thomy Thompson of Mariano Lake said he and his family used to live about a mile from Blackjack Mine. “There used to be truck drivers coming in, and a lot of dust. They were hauling uranium. At that time, we didn't know about it. We were probably breathing a whole bunch.

“I used to herd sheep and on a hot day I would go over there (to the mine area). There used to be a pond with a fence around it. In some places it was down, and a 2-inch pipe was sticking out and at the end there was water coming out. I used to climb on that and drink a bunch of water and put some water in the water jug and use it later, then go underneath and get wet, cool off.”

Now, physically, he's not sure what's going on. “I have a problem inside. I don't gain weight. I have breathing problems, I don't feel like eating.”

Larry King said he has concerns about the Puerco Wash, where untreated mine water was pumped and released for approximately 20 years.

“I brought that up at many meetings. So far, it hasn't been discussed. But that perennial stream that was created for more than 20 years flowed through several communities – Churchrock, through downtown Gallup, on the west side of Gallup, the Manuelito community, Lupton and Houk communities.”

In October 2003, the Churchrock Uranium Monitoring Project conducted air, water and soil sampling in the wash along with Navajo Environmental Protection Agency. “We didn't pick up anything at all,” he said.

But a few years ago, a waterline was being extended to his house and they were digging down about 14 feet below the surface of the wash, he said. “There was that familiar smell that came up and it kind of took me back years ago when I was a kid, when that water was going through the Puerco Wash. It smelled like sulfur, rotten eggs.”

He also noticed a streak of yellow about 10 to 12 feet below surface. “The same yellow substance used to accumulate along the wash. That combination of the sulfur smell and that yellow band made me believe that the contamination is no longer on the surface. It's migrated downward. From what I know now, uranium is a heavy metal. It goes down,” he said, adding that the same thing was found down toward the United Nuclear Corp. mill site.

Scotty Begay, a former miner, said sulfuric acid, which has a “rotten egg” odor, was used in the uranium leaching process.

“An extensive health survey has never been done for the community all along the Puerco Wash,” King said. “When families have ceremonies, these families donate their sheep to other families. There needs to be surveys on the livestock as well.”

“I've heard that Indian Health Service is to start screening these people that live near mine sites. It seems like they need to do that right away. They need to get the CHRs out there contacting the people, because I'm pretty sure a lot of these uneducated families that are living in the area don't know that they could take part in the survey.”

Tony Hood, who lives near Northeast Churchrock Mine, said, “I think if we're going to address this problem we need to share facts and data.” He displayed a form used by Public Health Service. It has no mention of uranium, he said.

“We need to include if people have been exposed to uranium. I'm sure there are people that are exposed to uranium in different ways. We can start sharing information with Indian Health Service.”
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Coal Mining Will Continue Under Existing Permits - SMSC On 7 Top Business Lists - NAPT Job Opportunities

OSM Director: Black Mesa Desision Came As A Surprise
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

KYKOTSMOVI, Ariz. – An administrative law judge’s Jan. 5 decision regarding permits at the Black Mesa Complex “kind of came as a surprise” Joseph Pizarchik, director of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, said Monday.

Pizarchik, who visited the Hopi Reservation to meet with tribal leaders and residents, said he had not had a chance to read the decision by Administrative Law Judge Robert G. Holt but had not expected a decision for several months.

Holt ruled that OSM failed to comply with federal environmental policy when it did not prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement in connection with an application for mine permit revisions sought by Peabody Coal Co. at the Black Mesa Complex on the Hopi and Navajo reservations.

“The decision raises some questions,” said Pizarchik, who was appointed to the job in November by President Obama. “We need to take the appropriate steps to re-examine if there were errors in the permitting process.”

“We do not intend to rush into an appeal,” he added. “We need to analyze the decision and discuss it” with the Hopi Tribe and the Navajo Nation. “We need to decide on a course of action. If we agree to do a supplemental EIS, that is what we’ll do. What we do will come down to the facts and be in accordance with the law.”

Putting together the supplemental environmental information could take 12 to 18 months. During that time, coal mining will continue under existing permits.

“In my view, coal is here for the foreseeable future,” he said, adding that itl provides about half the country’s electricity, and to stop using it cold turkey would have “devastating effects.”

He also acknowledged that burning coal contributes to greenhouse gases and global warming and that it is important to also look at newer technologies, such as carbon sequestration – capturing carbon dioxide and storing it away from the atmosphere – as well as alternative forms of energy, including wind, solar and geothermal.

The Hopi Tribe is working on carbon sequestration and is seeking Department of Energy funds for a pilot program to determine whether the process is viable for Hopi coal. DOE recently denied an application for a carbon capture project at the Desert Rock coal-fired plant proposed by Navajo near the Four Corners area.

Hopi also has tried for a number of years to develop a wind energy project, and is looking into solar energy and “clean” coal, a key provision of Obama’s energy plan.

Last January, the Forgotten People and three chapters – Tonalea, Coalmine and Leupp joined Californians for Renewable Energy, Hopi's Kendall Nutumya, Victor Masayesva Jr., and Black Mesa Water Coalition to oppose Peabody's controversial life-of-mine permit. The Nutumya plaintiffs pointed out OSM's violations of the National Environmental Policy Act.

“All these years our people suffered from adverse health effects and pollution of the environment. I am speechless, at a loss for words about what Forgotten People and the other groups are doing against a big company while all the Navajo Nation has done for decades is think about money and forget about the people's health and the environment,” said Chester Claw, Tonalea Chapter president. “This is David versus Goliath, and David prevailed.”

He said they now need to focus on Salt River Project and Navajo Generating Station “so they get a transportation permit to carry Peabody's Kayenta coal like they do at all other mines to ensure safety. SRP and NGS must install warning lights and barrier arms so no more people and livestock die at the railroad crossings.”

Don Yellowman, president of Forgotten People, said, “What SRP and NGS are doing with an unpermitted railroad is equivalent to an unsafe semi-truck driving on a highway without warning lights and improperly functioning brakes. Are they doing this because the lives of our people and livestock are less important?”

Minneapolis/St.Paul Business Journal Lists Shakopee Mdewakanton On Seven Top Lists For 2009
By Tessa Lehto,
Communications Specialist
tessa.lehto@shakopeedakota.org

Prior Lake, MN – SMSC entities made seven different top lists compiled by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal in 2009. Covering everything from employment to grants to golf courses, the lists appeared throughout the year in weekly editions of the publication which has a circulation of 15,149. These lists were then compiled in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal Book of Lists released in December 2009. The Book of Lists provides listings of hundreds of the top area companies in their fields, by ranking.

Eleven different enterprises are owned and operated by the Shakopee Mdewakanton on the reservation south of the Twin Cities. An additional enterprise is found at the Mall of America.
SMSC enterprises include the SMSC Gaming Enterprise (Mystic Lake Casino Hotel, Little Six Casino, and numerous restaurants), The Meadows at Mystic Lake, Dakotah Meadows RV Park, Playworks, Dakotah! Sport and Fitness, Dakotah! Ice Center, Dakotah Meadows Mini Storage, the Shakopee Dakota Convenience Stores, Playworks LINK Event Center, the Dakota Mall, and the Mystic Lake Store at the Mall of America. The SMSC also sponsored South Metro Federal Credit Union with a capital contribution in 1993.

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community ranked as #9 in grants paid out of the top 25 grantmakers in the state. This was up from #12 the previous year. The increase is attributable to a $12.5 million grant to the University of Minnesota for scholarships and for TCF Bank Stadium during the year surveyed. (List originally published December 11, 2009.)

The SMSC ranked #42 out of the top 50 largest employer with 4,348 employees. The SMSC is the largest employer in Scott County. (List published March 6, 2009.)

The Meadows at Mystic Lake ranked as the #15 golf course by course rating and slope rating. The Meadows has a course rating of 74.6 and a slope rating of 146. (List published May 29, 2009.)

Mystic Lake Casino Hotel ranked as #2 on the list of hotel rooms available with 576. It also ranked as #22 out of 25 on banquet and meeting space available with 25,000 square feet. Hotel amenities include room service, a spa, numerous restaurants, a Bingo Hall, The Showroom, a swimming pool, and guest access at Dakotah! Sport and Fitness. Mystic Lake has 16 meeting rooms, and its largest room capacity is 2,100. (List published August 21, 2009.)

Mystic Lake Casino Hotel ranked as #1 out of 16 casinos in Minnesota and western Wisconsin with 4,100 total games: 4,000 electronic games and 100 table games. These numbers reflect both Mystic Lake Casino Hotel and Little Six Casino combined. (List published May 29, 2009.)

South Metro Federal Credit Union ranked #23 out of 25 by total assets. On the list, South Metro had total assets of $58,461,000. South Metro was founded with an initial capital contribution by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in 1993. For the period surveyed South Metro had 2,584 members who live, work, worship, or attend school in Scott County. (List originally published June 5, 2009.)

On two other lists, companies affiliated with the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community were recognized.
HTG Architects, designer of the new Dakotah! Ice Center, South Metro Federal Credit Union, and other SMSC buildings, ranked as #21 out of 25 metro area firms ranked by architectural billings with $4,854,000. HTG has 10 architects and a staff of 25. (List published December 4, 2009.)

General contractor PCL Construction Services of Burnsville, Minnesota, which has been building on the reservation since 1995 ranked #10 by revenue. PCL, founded in 1978, has 235 employees. (List originally published February 6, 2009.)

Business Journals are one of the leading sources of comprehensive business news and in-depth analysis focusing on local businesses. American City Business Journals, the nation's largest publisher of metropolitan business newspapers, owns and operates 40 print Business Journals in the United States with a total national circulation of 472,087 and 8.2 million monthly unique visitors to bizjournals.com.

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Public Health Emergency Declared Due To Uranium Contamination - Tim Giago: Support For Oglala Sioux President

Historic Public Health Emegency Declared For Black Falls Area
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

WINDOW ROCK – A historic and long-awaited declaration of a public health state of emergency due to uranium contamination was signed Friday by Herman Shorty, chairman of the Navajo Commission on Emergency Management. It now moves to Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. for his signature.

The declaration affects Navajo residents living in isolated and remote locations of northwestern Leupp and southeastern Cameron who have been exposed to uranium-contaminated drinking water and are now suffering from chronic health problems.

It is expected that the declaration will open doors to tribal, state and federal funding to provide safe drinking water to residents' homes.

Rolanda Tohannie, 46, of Box Spring – who has survived thyroid and esophagus cancer – was one of several local residents at the Navajo Nation Museum Friday morning to see the declaration signed.

“I'm very, very ecstatic about them finally getting something done. I never knew the water was contaminated,” she said, until about two years ago when Forgotten People held a meeting in Black Falls at the home of Katherine Peshlakai.

“The way I got invited was to bring something to eat. I sat around there and waited and found out they were talking about the water down at Box Spring and other places. I said, I''m still drinking the water.'”

Not much has changed since then. The only time her family has safe drinking water is when somebody brings it. “We don't have a ride and that's the closest we can get. There's no means for transportation. Whenever I get a chance, I get water. But what good is it, you know?”

Tohannie said her liver is now failing. “I don't want my children living with contaminated water, so that's why I'm out here,” she said.

Elderly citizens and adult community members have been diagnosed with cancer, leukemia, thyroid deficiencies, kidney disease, stomach ailments and other diseases, and are losing hope, according to the commission.

Community residents travel rough, washboard roads to haul drinking water from great distances. The high cost of fuel and repairs to their vehicles complicates the issue. Even on the way to attend Friday's 9 a.m. meeting, residents were a little late because they had to stop to repair a blown-out tire.

Johnny Johnson of the Department of Emergency Management said Black Falls residents, through their own initiatives, came to realize they were drinking contaminated water and that it had resulted in many health issues. “They were already in the Bennett Freeze area, so they were compounded by multiple crises.” There are approximately 100 people affected.

With the declaration and a package of health assessments conducted by members of Forgotten People, Emergency Management now will go back and re-evaluate the situation. They have identified some resources from their agency, Navajo Environmental Protection Agency, the Division of Health, Division of Social Services, Navajo Division of Transportation, Natural Resources, and Navajo Tribal Utility Authority.

“NDOT has already mobilized their equipment and at the same time is doing assessments to make some road improvements. Water Resource Management is already out there doing their assessment of how they're going to pursue providing potable drinking water. They're also looking to secure funds and I think they had identified some funds that we need to secure through the declaration. That's the key document that we need to get those outside resources,” he said.

Stephen B. Etsitty, executive director of Navajo EPA, said his agency has been involved with the issues at Black Falls for more than 10 years. But that area is “just the tip of the iceberg.”

“I understand that the people in Black Falls area and Box Canyon have suffered and are continuing to suffer, but I know that there are, unfortunately, other people that are suffering as well. Outside of the 35 approximate abandoned uranium mines at Black Falls, there are 485 others.

“In our initial attempt to prioritize which sites should be assessed and begin a cleanup, we've only identified three so far. We are working on our number one site, which is the Northeast Churchrock Mine site.”

Another is Section 17 in Churchrock and a third site, Skyline Mine, is in the Oljato Chapter. “We've raised this to the highest (federal) level ... and we still have yet to see a significant input of resources,” he said.

Don Yellowman, president of Forgotten People, told the commission that though the group was designed to deal primarily with Bennett Freeze issues, people from Black Falls came to one of their meetings and asked for help.

“We felt strongly about how long can we stand aside and allow our people to drink contaminated water, especially now that we know it's contaminated. The people that told us that in our meeting, they didn't know for all these years. If the community leaders, the chapters, the Council, the people that live in the community now know, then what's next? Do we just ignore that and just allow the people to drink the water?”

He pointed to Tohannie. “Rolanda lives by Box Spring. I can see from across the room where I'm sitting the scar on her neck that's from her thyroid cancer. Also, she had to miss a couple meetings this year because she had to have a 10-pound cyst removed. Also, Faye Willie – grandma here – she was basically on her deathbed from cancer.”

Though the original group of Forgotten People felt they had it tough after 43 years of Bennett Freeze, “being around these people here, we felt like their situation was more urgent than ours. That's why we had no problem committing ourselves. ... It's been a real team effort,” he said.

Marsha Monestersky, program director for Forgotten People, told the commission, “It has become a very personal experience doing this work, because you have never seen so much cancer and organ failure. It gets very personal.

“Rolanda Tohannie came to us and said, 'Now we know we're drinking contaminated water, what do we do?' We weren't in a position to say, 'Wait a year and when we get some money we'll figure it all out.' It takes a lot of strength for somebody to know you're drinking contaminated water, to keep drinking it because you don't have a choice because you don't have a vehicle.”

Cora Maxx-Phillips, director of the Division of Social Services, said the declaration “is a historic occasion for the folks coming here and the folks that remain back home. ... They say that it takes approximately 10 years-plus for these diseases to evolve, and we have yet to see the ramifications in the children.”

The unborn generations will be wrestling with the same issues, she said. “I delivered testimony before congressmen, and to date there is no comprehensive health study that has been done within Indian Country. We have seen the devastation. We have this horrific legacy that we have to deal with. The activities go back to 1940, and even today as the price of uranium goes up, they're still wanting to come back and mine uranium once again, all in the name of money.

“You have made this a historic and momentous occasion. Everyone has a right to safe and sanitary drinking water. It is a basic fundamental human right. Thank you for helping us to endorse that concept.”

Tim Giago: Support For Oglala Sioux President Two Bulls
Opinion
There are those who choose to take jobs that almost immediately make them unpopular, at least unpopular to those factions that are always on the opposing side.

Theresa “Huck” Two Bulls chose to run for the presidency of the Oglala Sioux Tribe knowing full well that it would probably be the most difficult job she has ever undertaken. Politics on the Pine Ridge Reservation can be vicious. There are no opposing political parties because Democrats or Republicans do not figure into the political spectrum. The politicians are homegrown and they come with all of the passion and ferocity that was a part of their personal trials.

Two Bulls, like all of her predecessors, inherited a tribal government deep in debt. She inherited all of the problems that have plagued Pine Ridge for 100 years. All of the problems can be measured as extreme. There is perpetual poverty, crumbling schools; a law enforcement system short on manpower and funds. She inherited a dominion where gangs one would expect to find in Chicago are now growing their form of crime and violence on her turf.

She inherited a housing problem one can only describe as disastrous. Her housing director, Paul Iron Cloud, an honest and dedicated civil servant, has struggled, pleaded and begged the Housing and Urban Development Administration to step in and provide the financial assistance needed to construct new homes and repair those that are in such bad disrepair that they would be condemned as uninhabitable in any community outside of the reservation. You will find homes in horrible condition that are housing two and even three families. The shortage of homes is a disaster.

Two Bulls inherited an administration that faces an unemployment rate that hovers at nearly 80 percent. There are more than 20,000 residents of Pine Ridge and most of the available jobs are with the tribal government, the schools, or the Bureau of Indian Affairs. There are small businesses scattered throughout the reservations nine districts, but none that employ the reservation’s residents in large numbers. The 1980 U. S. Census named Shannon County, the heart of the Pine Ridge Reservation, as the single poorest county in America.

She inherited a health care system through the Indian Health Service that barely survives each year because of inadequate funding. Thus the rampant, epidemic diseases of diabetes and heart conditions that have helped to reduce the life expectancy on the reservation the lowest in America and the equivalent of the worst Third World countries. The death of newborns and the number of stillborns are so high that at one time in 2009 as many eight per month were reported. If this was happening in any other community in America there would be a horrendous outcry.

Two Bulls is the second woman to ever serve as President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Her predecessor, Cecilia Fire Thunder, was impeached because of her pro-stance on abortion .There are those who still believe that she was impeached because she was a woman.

Four months into her administration Two Bulls faced rumors of impeachment that never materialized. It is still a factor that lurks in the shadows in her political life, but she is determined not to let it color her ability to make sound decisions for the people.

When an epidemic of teen suicides erupted on the reservation, she declared a state of emergency to address and, hopefully, solve the recurring problem. When a severe blizzard struck last week

Two Bulls set emergency measures in motion in order to get propane, wood and food, to the many residents stranded in their homes far out on the reservation.

When Native American veterans of the Korean War were honored recently in Rapid City, Theresa Two Bulls was the only tribal president to show up and to walk down the row of veterans shaking their hands and placing a kiss on the cheek of all 41 veterans being honored. Many of the veterans felt privileged that she would take the time out of her busy schedule to honor them.

Two Bulls still has a tall hill to climb. The myriad of problems on Pine Ridge would appear to be insurmountable, but she chose to run for the office of the president and she won. Having served as vice president a few years ago, she knew exactly what she was getting into and said after the election, “Every day I have people come to my office because my door is always open and they are the young and the elderly and many people in the middle, and the tell me over and over that they are praying for me and it scared me at first, but now I accept it and it really helps me.”

She has said she did not win this job in order to be in a popularity contest, but instead she took the job in order to; in the best of her ability, improve the lives of the people of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and therein lays her motivation. Anyone wishing to let Two Bulls know how they feel can reach her at theresatb@oglala.org.

She deserves and needs the support of everyone.

Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, is the publisher of Native Sun News. He was the founder and first president of the Native American Journalists Association, the 1985 recipient of the H. L. Mencken Award, and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard with the Class of 1991. Giago was inducted into the South Dakota Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2008.

He can be reached at editor@nsweekly.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.

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Pauline Lefthand, One of the 'Forgotten People' In Box Spring - New Year Opinion: Tim Giago

Woman's Condition Worsens While Leaders Debate Box Spring Emergency
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent
WINDOW ROCK – When Pauline Lefthand met Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. at a Dec. 5 meeting of the Forgotten People in Box Spring, she told him her dream is to have a home with running water on the reservation near her parents. Now, she wonders if she will live long enough to see it.

Lefthand, 40, grew up in Box Spring, drinking from local water sources from the time she was born until she went away to school at age 9. When she came home on break, she continued to drink the water. Now she and other residents have learned it is contaminated with uranium and arsenic. Lefthand doesn't know whether it has contributed to her health problems.

During a meeting Monday at Leupp Chapter, Marsha Monestersky of Forgotten People rolled Lefthand's wheelchair to the front of the room, where she pleaded with members of Shirley's staff for help and told them what she had been through since she last saw the president.

Lefthand suffered kidney failure in 2004 and had to have dialysis three times a week, 3-1/3 hours each day.

“There were times when I just wanted to take my life, because it was so hard. But yet as the years went by, I got used to it. In 2007 my adopted daughter gave me her kidney. From there, I thought that things were going to turn around for me. But things just got worse,” she said.

She suffers from hypertension, diabetes, migraines, seizures, rheumatoid arthritis, and neuropathy of the feet. She started losing feeling in different parts of her body. “It got to the point where I could hardly walk. I was afraid to walk,” she said.

Last month, on Dec. 11 – less than a week after meeting Shirley – she went to see her doctor, hoping for some good news.

“I was really excited for the holidays. I had just barely gotten a grand-baby and I was really, really happy. The doctor said we have to rush you; we have to get you on the helicopter to Flagstaff – your kidney's failing, your liver's failing. You've got something growing on your pancreas – it looks like a tumor or maybe a cyst.” In addition, fluid was gathering around her heart.

“That really put me down. I asked my doctor, 'Can I make it to Christmas? Can I just stay with my family through Christmas and the holidays and then I will go in?' He said, 'No, if you do that, you will only last about two days, so I suggest you get going right now.'

“So I did. I cried myself to sleep that night, wondering what else is going to happen to me. I wondered how much can I take. I have done all of the above – I have gone to church, I have been raised by good people, I have done everything that people told me to do. I had a good job, I have a beautiful family, I still have my mom and my dad. Why is it so hard for me like this?”

She ended up falling out of bed while in the hospital and broke her hip. Once again, she was rushed to surgery. “You never know what's going to happen. Just when things start looking up, something else happens,” she said. “The one dream that I have is being close to my mom and my dad.”

Chief of Staff Patrick Sandoval told Lefthand that she has not been forgotten. “Both Social Services and Division of Health will take a look at what we have to do to try to accommodate certain things with regard to the attentions that you need.”

At the same time, they also have to look at the global picture – the community. “And you fit into it, Pauline. Your request to the president has not fallen on deaf ears, and we will do as much as we can,” Sandoval said.

Herman Shorty, executive director of the Office of Environmental Health and chair of the Commission on Emergency Management, said the commission approved a declaration of emergency on Sept. 4 by a vote of 5-0. However, four months later, it is still in the hands of the Office of Legislative Counsel. At issue are the words “natural cause,” he said.

If the contamination is naturally occurring, it puts a different twist on things, Shorty said, such as whether it is an actual “emergency.” However, if there is sufficient evidence, another option would be to declare a public health emergency.

Najam Tariq of Navajo Division of Water Resources, told the group, “All aquifers in the area are contaminated.”

Jim Store of Leupp, who works with the president's office, said there is no doubt Box Spring has a problem. “The water has something in it and people are suffering from it. They need help. The condition of Box Spring needs to be resolved.”

Health Services Administrator Madan Poudel, Ph.D., from the Navajo Division of Health, was selected team leader to help put together the proof necessary to get a declaration of emergency.

“Once you declare the emergency, that will allow a lot of the agencies – federal and state – to contribute. The main, important thing is to declare the emergency,” he said.

Forgotten People collected nearly 100 health assessments in the Box Spring/Black Falls/Grand Falls area, complete with GPS data, at the request of Emergency Management's Jimson Joe, however, Sandoval said, “If it's not data that's been certified by a particular agency, then they deem it non-reimbursable and we end up incurring all of the cost (for the emergency).” One task of the work group will be make sure the data is acceptable.

Sandoval said that either his staff or the president's staff will meet Tuesday with the “team” to begin addressing the declaration. Members include Poudel, Store, Cora Maxx-Phillips of Social Services, Johnny Johnson of Emergency Management, Tariq, Tom Platero of the Navajo Department of Transportation, and Shorty.

Tim Giago: Addressing Misconceptions About Indians
It is always something special to start a new column in a new year. Many of us just assume that the New Year will be better than the old year. It is that hope eternal that has sustained mankind since the beginning of time.

It is probably that feeling of tossing out the old and bringing in the new that stimulates our mood in this transition. We resolve to change things in our lives that will make us healthier, better persons and optimists. If we are smokers, we vow to quit. If we are more than social drinkers, we vow to stop. But above all, we vow to change the things that held us back and diminished our capabilities.

I try to make it a point every New Year to explode some of the myths and misconceptions that Native Americans have had to live with since that first ship landed on the shores of the Western Hemisphere.

First off, not all Native Americans live on reservations with gaming casinos spouting an endless stream of money. Many reservations out in the west are isolated from the mainstream and their casinos are barely surviving. Their main challenge is to supply the jobs that are so vital and yet so scarce and still keep their doors open.

Native Americans do not get a monthly check from the government unless it is a welfare check, social security check or a retirement check. And it is wrong for so many Americans to think that Indians do not pay taxes. Every paycheck issued to a Native American has all of the usual taxes taken from it. Every time they pull into a gas station, grocery store or department store, they pay a sales tax. If they purchase these items off of the reservation the taxes they pay goes to the community that serves them. Not one penny comes back to the reservation.

There is no free ride for Indians seeking a higher education. Like all Americans, Natives struggle to get the few scholarships available to them. The best kept secret in America are the more than 30 Indian colleges scattered throughout the reservations providing an opportunity for the residents to get a higher degree while still living with their families.

Colleges like Sinte Gleska University on the Rosebud Reservation and Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Reservation continue to provide educational opportunities for so many that would not have earned a degree without them. A new generation of teachers, nurses, accountants and entrepreneurs are marching through the arches of these Native American owned and controlled colleges.

And finally, the money the federal government provides to the different Indian nations for education, hospitals, homes, law enforcement, court houses, and government is not charity. It is payment for the millions acres of taken by the United States, land written into treaties between sovereign nations. Every time a non-Native walks out of the door of their home, goes to a shopping mall, or just sits on the banks of a shining lake, they must never forget that they are on the land that once belonged to an Indian nation, land that was sometimes purchased, but mostly was taken by force, stolen by phony treaties, or taken by other illegal means. When they see the industries booming that made America great, never forget that a people sacrificed their all in order to make it happen.

Native Americans gave up millions of acres of land so that America could become great and they were given certain guarantees through their treaties with America to have the few and oftentimes meager benefits in exchange. When America provides the funds to make it possible for Native Americans to secure and manage the benefits provided by the treaties, it is not a charity, it is an obligation.

So when I read comments by white people demeaning Native Americans based on ignorance, an ignorance that will not go away but continues to grow, I am appalled and angered. America has never learned to appreciate or understand the Native people or the Native Nations that contributed so much to its success.

So, at the beginning of this new decade I hope all Americans make an effort to understand that every nation is judged by how it treats its indigenous people. Native Americans survived the cultural and physical holocaust for more than 500 years and now it is time for America to stand up and honor the treaties it signed with them in order to gain the foothold that made this country one of the best and the greatest.

Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, is the publisher of Native Sun News. He was the founder and first president of the Native American Journalists Association, the 1985 recipient of the H. L. Mencken Award, and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard with the Class of 1991. Giago was inducted into the South Dakota Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2008.

He can be reached at editor@nsweekly.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.

ATT: NEW - News Blog - American Indian Report - AIR BLOG
http://falmouth-air.blogspot.com

THE BUFFALO POST - Missoulian Montana's Native News Blog about Native People And The World We Live In.
http://buffalopost.net/

Check Out NATIVE PRIDE- It's a great site!
http://letstalknativepride.blogspot.com

PATHOLOGY.ORG - Up-to-date informmational database on general health and disease information, medical schools and medical resources.
http://www.Pathology.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.

Green Energy Technology - NAPT News

This is a request for contact information:
From A Green Products Industry
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power plants to get first hand results.

The Attachments Did Not Reproduce so anyone interested is asked to directly contact Les at his e-mail address listed below.
(I have attached a 3rd party report on why paper filters cost us more money than they are worth. The article also provides advice on the type of filter that is needed to protect injectors and injector pumps. They are describing our filter.

I will also attach pictures of the filters. You will see the quality of the product, stainless steel mesh screen that filters a 1000X better than paper throw aways.)

I hope that will catch your interest, enough to help me contact the proper people. By the way, our products are working in several remote power plants in Alaska. Currently, because of this technology, Kipnuk Power plant has not had to order in engine oil filters or fuel filters since November of 08. They also have not had the disposal issue that all remote power plants have.

We are also close to a release of a system that will convert all used oil to diesel fuel.

I appreciate your reply and direction.
Best Regards,
Les Roe

aiasinfo@yahoo.com
http://www.aiasgreenproducts.com/

AIAS
585 SW 6th Street Ste 4
Redmond OR 97756
877/770-7076 541/923-5471
Fax 877/770-7175 541/923-5478

NAPT Joins NAJA At Annual Convention
Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT) is partnering this year with the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) to expand the focus of NAJA's annual convention.

"Because of the convergence of the many forms of media, NNMC will offer something for everyone engaged in the media. From multi-media reporting, utilizing the Internet and social media tools, graphic design, marketing, creative writing, public relations, art and photography, radio, TV and film, we're hoping that Native media professionals and students will attend to learn skills and meet each other," NAPT Executive Director Shirley K. Sneve said.

"In times of scarce resources, it becomes more important for Tribal people to reach out to each other for support and partnerships." Click here to read the entire article>>Click here to view a video clip of the conference>>

NAPT Hires Kinser And Parker
Please welcome to the NAPT family, Jessica Kinser and Princella Parker. Jessica has accepted the position of Marketing Director and Princella has accepted the position of Project Coordinator.

Jessica will serve as the liaison between producers, vendors and the organization. She will manage the details of each marketing project, ensuring that deadlines, budgets and technical specifications are met while projects move from concept to completion.

A graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Jessica is ready to hit the ground running. Formerly employed by Swanson Russell, she will bring an abundance of marketing knowledge to her position. She also serves as Vice President of the Prism Awards on the board of the American Marketing Association-Lincoln, NE Chapter.

Princella Parker will work to enhance the educational value of NAPT's programs for educators, students and the general public. Last fall, Parker came to Lincoln to work with UNL students on a documentary film set on the Omaha reservation.

She also aided in the revisions of the NAPT Producer's Handbook and worked for NET Television on a documentary about Chief Standing Bear (Ponca). She is a member of the Nebraska Native American Leadership Group and has a bachelor's in broadcast theatre from Creighton University.

NAPT's Executive Director To Attend PBS Content Summit And Sundance Film Festival
NAPT's Executive Director, Shirley Sneve, will be in Washington, DC, January 18-22 for the PBS Content Summit and meetings with the National Minority Consortia executive directors.

Shirley will be at the Filmmaker's Lodge on Thursday, January 29 from 10 a.m. to noon to answer questions about NAPT programs and funding, as part of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Producer Profile: Milt Lee
(Cheyenne River Sioux)
Lee is an award winning multimedia producer of 35 years, and is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

In Video Letters from Prison, Lee personally follows three young Lakota girls from the Pine Ridge Reservation as they establish communication with their incarcerated father via a series of video letters
Read the article.

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.

ATT: NEW - News Blog - American Indian Report - AIR BLOG
http://falmouth-air.blogspot.com

THE BUFFALO POST - Missoulian Montana's Native News Blog about Native People And The World We Live In.
http://buffalopost.net/

Check Out NATIVE PRIDE- It's a great site!
http://letstalknativepride.blogspot.com

PATHOLOGY.ORG - Up-to-date informmational database on general health and disease information, medical schools and medical resources.
http://www.Pathology.org

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Haiti Earthquake Relief - Navajo VP Throws 'Lifeline' to Evicted Churchrock Families - NAPT Opportunities

Haiti Earthquake Appeal Issued by PADF
PanAmericanRelief.org is a secure method to help
Submitted by Michael Zamba

Washington, D.C., January 12, 2010 – After the devastating 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti, the non-profit Pan American Development Foundation is encouraging people to donate through its special website http://mlist.orchidsuites.net/lists/lt.php?id=KkoGBg5VUAhUBx4AAV1USgUABFZTDQ%3D%3D

“This is a critical time for Haiti and our neighbors need our help,” says Amy Coughenour, Deputy Executive Director of PADF. “PADF will be working with civil protection authorities, the private sector and community organizations to provide immediate and long-term assistance.”

PADF – the natural disaster relief arm of the Organization of American States (OAS) – set up the safe and secure http://mlist.orchidsuites.net/lists/lt.php?id=KkoGBg5VUAhUBx4AAV1USgUABFZTDQ%3D%3D so individuals may find out information and make donations.

At the same time, the non-profit organization is also working with major corporations to coordinate their response. Most recently, PADF’s corporate partners like DIAGEO, Chevron, Royal Caribbean International Ltd., Citi and Federal Express provided relief to El Salvador after Hurricane Ike and in Guatemala to help after the worst drought in three decades.
PADF has more than 150 people throughout Haiti working on a number of projects, including community driven development, disaster mitigation and protecting human rights.

About PADF-
PADF is an independent, non-profit organization that creates public-private partnerships to assist the least advantaged people in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Through these partnerships and as a unique affiliate of the Organization of American States, PADF creates economic opportunities, strengthens communities and prepares for and responds to natural disasters.

Having worked in every country in the region, PADF engages community-based groups, governments and the private sector in the process of implementing appropriate solutions for sustainable development.

In the past year, more than 5 million people in 18 countries benefited from PADF and its programs. http://mlist.orchidsuites.net/lists/lt.php?id=KkoGBg5VUAhUBh4AAV1USgUABFZTDQ%3D%3D

Vice President Shelly Met with Evicted Residents
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent
CHURCHROCK – Navajo Nation Vice President Ben Shelly and members of his staff met Monday evening, January 4th with Churchrock family members evicted from their homes three days after Christmas, and threw out a lifeline.

Residents had until January 5th to file either a motion for an extension or a motion for reconsideration of the Dec. 16 Navajo Nation Supreme Court decision that removed them from their homes for nonpayment of rent. “They only give you so many days to respond,” Shelly told them, and today is the deadline.

Shelly said his office had the Navajo Nation Department of Justice review the decision and make recommendations.

Ten families were evicted Dec. 28 from the units formerly managed by Fort Defiance Housing Corp., a non-profit, which declared bankruptcy in 2005. The corporation then was reorganized under new management, known as Sandstone Housing Corp. Residents said they were given a rent-to-own contract with Fort Defiance Housing, but that the terms were changed to “rent only” when Sandstone took over.

DOJ suggested the vice president facilitate a meeting between tenants and Sandstone to try to come up with a payment plan or means for the residents to pay the debt.

Shelly said he also spoke with Mike Halona of Navajo Land Department and had him check into the status of the land where the homes were built.

Apparently it once was part of Fort Wingate, but when the military no longer had a use for it, it reverted to Navajo Nation trust land, Shelly said. “If it's on trust land, the Navajo Nation should have been asked it they could pay the bill. The Navajo Nation was never asked to take over that mortgage. I am very curious to meet with this new company.”

Shelly said another issue they are researching is the taking of land. “When you're taking land from somebody – eminent domain – Navajo Nation law is that you compensate that person. Some of those processes were overlooked.”

Navajo Nation Council Delegate Leonard Tsosie, who also attended the meeting, told residents, “The question that I have is, was the lease transfer from Fort Defiance Housing Corp. to Sandstone properly done. It sounds like Sandstone is the new owner, and so if that was never properly done – because these are trust lands that we're talking about – then that transfer may be invalid. Sandstone may be trespassing.

“I think we need to seriously look at this before they throw more people out,” he said, adding that he would write a letter today to the attorney general about the matter and also would send letters to all of the delegates asking for help for the families.

A man from Rio Puerco Acres in Fort Defiance said he and other residents are concerned that they might end up in the same situation. Shelly agreed that Churchrock is not the only place where evictions could happen. “This is a big problem.”

Sherrick Roanhorse, a member of Shelly's staff, said the vice president has talked with Gallup Mayor Henry Mendoza. “The mayor has extended his hand to assist Churchrock residents and the Nation as much as he can,” Roanhorse said.

Shelly will meet today with members of Navajo Housing Authority to get an overview of how the project was funded. “There are many things we want to understand and we're doing as much as we can to research the issue. We're learning new things every day,” Roanhorse said. The vice president also will be touching base with Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan's staff.

Lake Valley Chapter President Tony Padilla Jr. drew a big round of applause with a check for $1,000, donated by his chapter to help Churchrock Chapter pay the motel bill for the families.

“I feel sorry for people here. I hope we get something together and you guys have your home back,” he said.

Johnny Johnson of Emergency Management told residents his agency had tried to come up with funding for residents' lodging but they were told that it was not considered an emergency. So instead, they provided food to those in need and offered to set up counseling.

Toby Charley of Navajo Social Services said families may be eligible for $400 in financial aid, which is based on income. Of the four families which have submitted applications, three have been approved, he said.

Linda Hall of New Mexico Human Services Department offered to help with food stamp or Medicaid enrollment. Gertrude Lee from U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan's office was taking notes to update the congressman, who is monitoring the issue; and Tim Shorty from Navajo Housing Authority in Crownpoint told officials that, looking at several chapters, NHA probably could only come up with two houses due to the critical housing shortage across the reservation.

Public Safety Executive Director Samson Cowboy explained law enforcement's role in the evictions. “The police did their job based on the court order. They have to act. Don't think it was their doing -- it was a court order. If they didn't do their job, they could have been held in contempt.”

Johnnie Henry, Churchrock Chapter president, told the group, “I haven't slept well since this happened. The homes should be for the people here. ... This should never have taken place, especially in the holidays. People were emotionally damaged. Why did they put people out in the middle of winter?”

He said the chapter is looking into the matter. One of the documents from the days when Fort Defiance Housing Corp. first proposed the units lists a number of benefits to the chapter. No. 1 on the list: “The existing families will receive a new home and will not be displaced.”

Kelly Robinson, chapter vice president, told the families they have two days left in the motel and that they need to find a place to go. “The chapter will not be able to assist after two days,” he said. “What we're doing with the chapter house is a Band-aid. We're assisting as much as we can.”

Roanhorse said there are eight to 10 families looking for places to live. “That's about 50 people including elders and children – 52 percent of those affected are children, 2 percent are elders – and the rest are adults. A lot of these that are affected come from low-income families. We understand what they're going through and we're doing as much as we can to help them.”

Information: Churchrock Chapter, (505) 905-5949

Grants For Community News Start-Ups Available
Deadline March 1
Washington D.C. - American University's J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism is calling for a new round of grant proposals to fund community news start-ups around the country. Nine projects will each receive up to $25,000 in grants over two years.

Projects can produce news and information for a geographic area, such as a town or county, or they can serve a community of interest.

For more information: www.knightfoundation.org

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.

ATT: NEW - News Blog - American Indian Report - AIR BLOG
http://falmouth-air.blogspot.com

THE BUFFALO POST - Missoulian Montana's Native News Blog about Native People And The World We Live In.
http://buffalopost.net/

Check Out NATIVE PRIDE- It's a great site!
http://letstalknativepride.blogspot.com

PATHOLOGY.ORG - Up-to-date informmational database on general health and disease information, medical schools and medical resources.
http://www.Pathology.org

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Indian Gaming Industry Report - NAPT Opportunities

Indian Gaming Weathers Economic Storm
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent
WINDOW ROCK – The 2009-2010 “Indian Gaming Industry Report,” which analyzes the recent performance of Indian gaming, shows that the industry did manage a slight increase in revenue despite the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

The eighth edition report, authored by Alan Meister, an economist with Nathan Associates Inc. of Irvine, Calif., analyzes data for calendar year 2008, the most recent available, and also assesses the contribution of Indian gaming to the U.S. economy.

Nationally, Indian gaming experienced its slowest annual growth in its reported history during 2008. Revenue grew by 1.5 percent, with $26.8 billion generated, compared with $26.4 billion in 2007. Non-gaming revenue at Indian casinos increased to $3.2 billion – up 3 percent from the $3.1 billion generated in 2007.

Meister said the slowdown can be attributed in part to the general downturn in the U.S. economy, but that public policies designed to restrict the supply of Indian gaming, including tribal-state gaming compacts, also have contributed.

In calendar year 2008, there were 442 gaming facilities operated by 237 tribes in 28 states. California still led the nation in terms of revenue generated.

“Indian gaming continued to gain ground and may overtake the commercial casino segment in the near future,” Meister said. In 2008, it generated 43 percent of all U.S. casino gaming revenue, though commercial casinos still led the way.

Among the 22 Class III gaming facilities in New Mexico, there was an 18 percent increase in the number of slot machines – from 13,460 in 2007 to 15,819 in 2008 – and an 11 percent increase in the number of table games, from 284 to 314. The increase in supply of games came largely from newly opened facilities.

Revenue for New Mexico increased slightly, by 1 percent, to approximately $799 million in 2008. Meister said the slight growth came despite the declining performance of the Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort & Casino, owned by the Mescalero Apache Tribe, which defaulted on its bond payments in 2009.

He cited several developments that may lead to future growth, including the opening of the Navajo Nation's Fire Rock Casino in November 2008 and its expansion in March 2009; the expansion of Pueblo of Laguna's Route 66 Casino in January 2008; the expansion of Isleta Casino & Resort in July 2008; and the August 2008 opening of Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino in Santa Fe by the Pueblo of Pojoaque.

Meister's study mentions that in New Mexico, Navajo is planning a Class II gaming facility in Shiprock and a Class III gaming facility with a hotel near Farmington.

“We have had the opportunity to select locations that are unique and I think the locations we have selected on behalf of the Navajo Nation have the potential to meet the expectations that we believe are possible, Bob Winter, CEO of Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise, said Wednesday.

“We base those on financial feasibility studies. Some were done two years ago, but to reassure ourselves, we had recent studies done again on those locations and they were done by a separate company to make sure that we have objectivity. They confirmed the potential success of the locations that we selected. We're trying to get appropriate funding for the locations.”

In Arizona, gaming revenue declined 6 percent from $2 billion in 2007 to $1.9 billion in 2008 – down from the 5 percent growth in 2007 and 13 percent growth in 2006.

However, there have been several new developments in Arizona that could have a potential positive impact, according to Meister. Under existing compacts, most tribes became eligible to increase the total number of games they can operate.

In addition, there are several new gaming developments on the table. The Navajo Nation has plans for casinos in Leupp and Navajo, Ariz.; the San Juan Southen Paiute has a pending application before the Bureau of Indian Affairs to place land in Bellmont into trust for gaming purposes; and the Tohono O'odham Nation has a pending application with BIA to place land in Maricopa County into trust for a 1.2 million-square-foot resort casino complex.

In the short term, Indian gaming growth is expected to be minimal due to the state of the economy, but is expected to pick up in the mid-term, Meister said. While future market conditions look good, the long-term outlook is uncertain due to potential market and non-market factors, including legal challenges, legislation and regulations aimed at limiting Indian gaming expansion.

Winter said he believes 2010 will be a good year for Navajo. “Of course you don't have a crystal ball, but we're assuming that the economy either stays as it is or hopefully gets better. We're also making sure that we're not going to overbuild.

“Many of the mistakes that are made, not only in Indian Country but in commercial markets, have been overbuilding – building to expectations that due to the economy were not real. We have the advantage of coming in at a time when we make sure that what we build, we can pay for,” he said.

It is estimated that Indian gaming generated 712,000 jobs, $10.8 billion in federal, state and local tax revenue, and $1.6 billion in direct payments to federal, state and local governments.

Information: http://www.casinocitypress.com/
or Alan P. Meister, ameister@nathaninc.com

NAPT Job Opportunities
- Member Services Assistant - Santa Cruz, CA
- Help Desk Specialist - Washington D.C.
- Director of Development & Major Gifts - Amherst, Massachusetts
- News Manager - Salt Lake City, Utah
- Jefferson Exchange Producer - Ashland, Oregon
- News Director - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

More grant, conference and film festival listings are available at our opportunities website.

The Sundance Institute - Ford Foundation Film Fellowship
Deadline February 1
The Sundance Institute's Native Program has created a fellowship with support from the Ford Foundation to provide direct support to emerging Native American/Native Hawaiian/Alaska Native film artists working in the U.S.

The Fellowship is a two-stage development opportunity for filmmakers with feature film scripts, documentary projects, short film scripts, and webisode series outlines/scripts. The first stage of development is an intensive five-day workshop to be held May 24-28, 2010.

The workshop is designed to support filmmakers in strengthening their craft, developing their voice as writers, and advancing their current projects closer towards production. During the workshop, Fellows receive feedback on their projects from established screenwriters and filmmakers who serve as Creative Advisors.

The workshop is structured to support filmmakers who are still creatively engaged in the early stages of a project and are at the point where they would welcome and benefit from feedback and discussion about their work. Filmmakers are accepted into the program to work on the specific project with which they apply.

For more information:
http://www.sundance.org/pdf/10_fellowship_application.pdf

Truly CA: Our State Stories
Deadline February 10
Truly CA: Our State, Our Stories reaches out to the independent film community throughout the state to find completed or nearly completed feature-length documentaries. Truly CA films must be about California in some way -- not just taking place in California.

The films must also be primarily shot in California, and preferably made by California's talented, independent, documentary filmmakers. We look for well-crafted stories featuring compelling characters -stories that are provocative, passionate, and unforgettable.

Not only do we want well-told stories, we're interested in well-made films, works that are both thought-provoking and eye-opening.
For more information: http://www.kqed.org/

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.

News Blog - American Indian Report - AIR BLOG
http://falmouth-air.blogspot.com

THE BUFFALO POST - Missoulian Montana's Native News Blog about Native People And The World We Live In.
http://buffalopost.net/

Check Out NATIVE PRIDE- It's a great site!
http://letstalknativepride.blogspot.com

PATHOLOGY.ORG - Up-to-date informmational database on general health and disease information, medical schools and medical resources.
http://www.Pathology.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.