Desert Rock Funding From Interior Subcommittee - Tim Giago: Look Into Veteran Discrimination

DPA REQUESTS FEDERAL HELP WITH DESERT ROCK
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

WINDOW ROCK – Dine Power Authority has turned to the U.S. House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee to request funding that would allow key federal agencies to complete permitting of the Desert Rock Energy Project and provide $1 million for renewable energy and transmission planning studies.

Steven Begay, DPA general manager, was among nearly 20 tribal representatives presenting oral and written testimony Tuesday during the subcommittee hearing on Native American issues. Navajo Nation Council Delegate Tim Goodluck also attended.

“I only had four minutes because there was like 20 of us, and then they fell behind schedule for about an hour,” Begay said Tuesday evening. He asked for adequate funding to assist U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Bureau of Indian Affairs in completing the permitting process.

“They don't have the resources to complete what they need to do,” Begay said, adding that he requested the subcommittee's support “because we're not getting a fair shake.”

Begay told the committee that federal agencies have “moved at a glacial pace” on the Desert Rock permitting process. The project received its air permit from EPA in July 2008, but it was withdrawn in spring 2009, citing the need to consider a number of factors, including the project's carbon emissions.

“It is notable that coal projects in Illinois and Colorado, which were at the same stage of permitting in 2004, are now under construction. Why is this project, located on Indian lands, put at such an incredible regulatory disadvantage to other projects?” he asked.

“The Navajo Nation is similarly frustrated by continued delays in the federal Environmental Impact Statement process, which has dragged on for years,” and is actively engaged with EPA and the Interior in an effort to bring the regulatory processes to closure in a reasonable time frame, he said.

DPA urged the committee to include in the FY 2011 Interior appropriations bill sufficient funds to ensure that the agencies can complete the regulatory process for Desert Rock “and report language tasking them with moving these processes forward on a expedited basis.”

DPA is working on a broad portfolio of renewable energy projects, but critical studies need to be completed, such as for the Navajo Transmission Project, a 469-mile high-voltage transmission line connecting the Four Corners region with Arizona, Nevada and California. The Navajo enterprise is in the process of working with the federal agencies to update the 1997 Record of Decision approving the project.

Begay requested $1 million to conduct planning and analysis work on projects such as the Grey Mountain and Black Mesa wind energy study; the eastern terminus study of the NTP, the proposed 200-megawatt Paragon Ranch solar project, a 20-megawatt solar project at New Lands, evaluation of the proposed Big Boquillas Ranch large-scale solar project and others.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005, crafted by retired U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, specifically authorized funding to DPA for activities associated with development of the transmission line and power generation opportunities.

“After a total of nearly $60 million, DPA and its private partners are close to commencing construction on nearly $4 billion worth of energy development projects,” Begay said. “However, timely federal support and involvement remains vitally important to this effort.”


TIM GIAGO: LOOK INTO VETERAN DISCRIMINATION CLAIMS
Opinion
There is a credo lamented daily in the waiting rooms of the Veterans Administration Hospitals scattered across America. It goes, “First you apply, then they deny and hope you will die.” This has a special meaning to Native American veterans.

For too many Indian veterans it strikes close to the bone. They are so entangled in bureaucratic red tape they are all but suffocating. Many have been reduced to living lives well below the poverty level set by the very government they fought for and nearly died defending.

Several months ago I wrote about one such veteran named Andres Torres, an Oglala Lakota, living in Rapid City. What has happened to this veteran since then?

“I was told to open a new claim called Unemployability which means I have not been able to work since the second operation they performed on me at Fort Meade VA Hospital in 1989. I filed the claim in February and I have not heard from the VA since. As far as I know it is still sitting on somebody’s desk in Sioux Falls or Washington, D. C.,” Torres said.

Torres said that since I wrote about his plight in 2009 he got a call from Governor Mike Rounds (R-SD) and was told that his office was interested in helping him and other veterans in similar situations.

Torres was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in 2005. “There are just too many Native American veterans falling through the cracks for it to be a coincidence because I see them every week at the VA Hospital and they all tell me to keep fighting because it may end up helping them,” he said.

“I took the article you wrote in the Native Sun News to the offices of Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD), John Thune (R-SD) and Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD) and either they are unable to help or they don’t care,” Torres said.

Most of the problems Torres is now facing began in 1989 when he had a knee operation at the Fort Meade Veterans Hospital in South Dakota. The operation was botched according to Torres and he has not been able to work since then. He was scraping by on Social Security and his wife of 40 years, Rosie, was working at the Mother Butler Center part time to supplement his Social Security income. But, after a gallant fight against cancer, Rosie died earlier this year not only leaving a hole in his life, but also taking away a portion of the income that kept them afloat.

His stroke of bad luck began when he was serving with the South Dakota National Guard after his Army service. He was working as a journeyman electrician at different construction sites around South Dakota when he fell from a ladder badly injuring his leg. He was within one year of completing his 20 years of service that would have given him a pension. The National Guard refused to let him finish up that last year and so after serving for 19 years he was drummed out of the Guard and lost any chance of getting a pension. The injury also led him to Fort Meade for the operation that nearly crippled him.

Former Army Sergeant Andres “Buzzy” Torres has been fighting the VA for 21 years. Several times he has thrown his hands in the air ready to give up the fight, but fellow veterans like former Green Beret Sgt., Sam DeCory, and a highly decorated Lakota now deceased, told him to keep fighting because a lot of the Lakota veterans were counting on him to put their fight with the VA on the map. Indian veterans are much more likely to be turned down for benefits than non-Indians in South Dakota. They know it, but it seems to be a well-kept secret to the Veterans Administration.

“I am so proud to have served my country in the regular United States Army and in the South Dakota National Guard and no one can take that away from me, but sometimes I am so ashamed of the Veteran’s Administration for what they have done to me and to thousands of my fellow veterans,” Torres said in my office last week.

Sitting with his hands in his lap and his head down, Torres said, “Losing Rosie has just about taken all of the fight out of me and I don’t think I can carry on this battle with the VA much longer, but even though I lost her and I am about to lose all of the things Rosie and I built over 40 years of marriage, I just have to keep on if not for me, at least for the other Native American veterans that are going through this with me.”

Does the S.D. VA discriminate against Indians? It is well-documented and our elected officials should at least check it out.

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.

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Blackstone Energy Group: From Coal To Gas - SMSC New Media Sites

SITHE ABANDONS PLANS FOR NEVADA COAL PLANT; SWITCHES TO NATURAL GAS/SOLAR
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent
WINDOW ROCK – The Blackstone Group, through its energy-offering company, Sithe Global Power, will invest $1.4 billion to build a 700 megawatt natural gas-fired electrical generation plant combined with a 100 megawatt solar-powered plant near the Toquop Indian Reservation in Nevada.

In a joint announcement Monday, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, Mesquite Mayor Susan Holecheck, and Blackstone President and Chief Operating Officer Tony James said Sithe has abandoned the idea of building a 750-megawatt supercritical pulverized coal plant at the Toquop site. Instead, it has returned to its original plan to build a natural gas plant.

Sithe is co-developer with Dine Power Authority of a 1,500 megawatt coal plant known as the Desert Rock Energy Project, proposed on the Navajo Nation near Farmington. Desert Rock would consist of two 750-megawatt supercritical pulverized coal-burning units.

Despite a push by grassroots groups on the Navajo Nation to convince Blackstone that its money would be better invested in a renewable energy project at the Desert Rock site, Dirk Straussfeld, Sithe executive vice president, said Monday that plans are for Desert Rock to proceed as a coal-fired plant.

“At the moment we're not changing anything,” he said.

The Toquop plant originally was proposed in 2003 as an 1,100 megawatt natural gas plant, but due to rising prices of natural gas, it was re-proposed as a coal plant. Sithe had hoped to begin construction in 2007 and have it on-line by 2011, but as with Desert Rock, the company encountered problems.

In a conference call with media, Reid said his top priority for Nevada is creating jobs and diversifying the economy. “Clean air is really a wonderful way to accomplish both these goals. Natural gas is the bridge.”

Blackstone's James said the Toquop Project will be “one of the cleanest and most environmental friendly ways to produce power that Nevada needs to grow and to upgrade its aging generation base.” About 1,000 jobs will be created during the three years of construction.

“We hope that it will provide both short-term boosts to the economy by putting people back to work and a longer-term boost to the economy by providing cheap, clean, effective power to the state of Nevada,” he said.

Reid added that he and Mayor Holecheck worked together to make sure they have jobs in Mesquite that will be good for the community. “A coal plant would have hurt Mesquite; this will help Mesquite,” he said.

Blackstone expects the solar portion of the project to come on-line first and be fully operational by 2012. Construction of the gas plant is anticipated to begin in 2011, with the plant in commercial operation by 2015.

“In addition to being far more efficient in terms of its CO2 (carbon dioxide) footprint, the new plant uses 60 to 70 percent less water than the original plan, which is obviously of critical importance to a state like Nevada,” Jame said.

Holecheck commended Sithe and Blackstone officials for their switch to natural gas and their willingness to compromise.

“I know this must have been a costly consideration, but I know that Sen. Reid and I can probably say we really feel that the reward of looking to the future wellness of our people and our environment carries larger benefits for all,” she said.

With Nevada's population surpassing 2 million people and with millions of visitors each year, the state's electricity demand is expected to grow by at least 40 percent over the next decade, she added. “So having Sithe Global return to its original intent as to natural gas, as Sen. Reid said, it addresses not only this electricity demand but the focus now is Nevada's need for jobs. So we welcome this.”

The difference in the two plants is significant, Reid said, adding that the fossil fuel in coal is about 60 percent more polluting than natural gas. While coal for the plant would have been brought in by rail, there is a natural gas pipeline near the site of the gas plant. “Just the transportation alone is a huge savings,” Reid said.

The company's original thought was that coal probably would be cheaper, James added, but with Reid's encouragement, they went back to the drawing board and came up with a plan that is “competitive in cost and much, much more friendly to the environment and water usage.”

The company is in discussions with utilities on purchasing power from the project. A plan has been submitted to the Bureau of Land management for the gas plant and an amended application will be submitted for the solar project.

SHAKOPEE MDEWAKANTON UNVEILS NEW MEDIA SITES
by Tessa Lehto
Communications Specialist
tessa.lehto@shakopeedakota.org

Prior Lake, MN – In recent weeks, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community has joined the more than 3,000,000 active pages on Facebook by introducing several social media sites. As of February 2010, more than 400,000,000 users were signed up on Facebook, using 65 different languages in more than 170 countries.

Facebook pages for Dakotah! Sport and Fitness, Playworks, The Meadows at Mystic Lake, and the Shakopee Dakota Convenience Stores all have gone live with photos and a live feed containing up to the minute news, promotions, and updates. A Wacipi Facebook page is planned for the coming months.

“We’re excited to embrace this social media networking to bring our enterprises and guests together,” said SMSC Tribal Administrator Bill Rudnicki. “It’s a constantly evolving medium and we want to keep up as much as possible.”

The SMSC began posting YouTube videos in the fall of 2009 with footage from a special “Honoring Our Veterans” Ceremony at the Mall of America. That was quickly followed by the Wacipi 2009, the dedication of the Minnesota Tribal Nations Plaza at the University of Minnesota TCF Bank Stadium, the assembly of the wind turbine, the “Dakotah! Sport and Fitness Ice Skating Exhibition,” and a “Building History 2009” of the SMSC. Altogether the SMSC has posted 17 different YouTube videos.

On the SMSC Facebook pages, fans can sign up for exclusive offers and invitations, view hours, photos, basic information, and holiday closures. Polls are conducted, videos posted, and updated information about specials provided.

Dakotah!’s site was the first introduced at the beginning of the new year. “We found the Facebook Fan Page to be helpful during icy weather conditions when we needed to cancel a few classes,” said DSF Director Tad Dunsworth. “We have also had several interesting discussions started by our members using the site.”

Playworks Director Amy Donaldson is using the site to communicate with families of Playworks children. “We put things like fun snack ideas for kids to create at home with their families,” she said. Daily lunch specials from P.W.’s Grill are also posted as well as a YouTube birthday party video.

The Shakopee Dakota Convenience Stores used their fan page to announce the arrival of new DVD kiosks with New Releases and longtime favorites on March 11, 2010. “We also post statistics and trivia along with questions for our customers,” said Retail Director Michelle Watson.

The newest site, The Meadows at Mystic Lake, was introduced Friday, March 12, 2010. Complete with a blog from Golf Pro Al Pehrson, The Meadows site is expected to have a lot of interactivity. “It is integrated with Twitter so if we are having a slow afternoon, for example, we can put out a news feed offering a special promotion for the afternoon and bring in business while getting our golfers out on the course more often,” said SMSC Director of Golf Greg McKush.

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community Annual Wacipi (Pow Wow) is the largest one in the Midwest and one of the largest in the country. Its Facebook Fan Page will be used to give updates on drum groups, events at the Wacipi, and could be used in a weather emergency as occurred in recent years when the location was changed due to inclement weather.

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Cobell Suit: 'Many Unknowns' - Christine Yazzie 'Entertainment'

COBELL ATTORNEYS: SETTLEMENT 'NOT FAIR' BUT MAY BE THE BEST CLIENTS CAN GET
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Indepndent

CHURCHROCK – For many holders of Individual Indian Money Accounts, it costs the federal government more to mail the check than the check itself is actually worth – as in the case of Jimmy Bitsuie of Window Rock who receives 25 cents every four months, or Larry King of Churchrock whose family received a check for 2 cents.

The Obama administration recently announced a proposed agreement to settle a 14-year-old class action lawsuit filed in 1996 by Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Nation, and other Native Americans against the federal government over alleged mismanagement of individual Indian trust accounts.

Geoffrey Rempel and Justin Guilder, members of the plaintiffs' litigation team that helped negotiate the settlement, were at Churchrock Chapter House Thursday and the Farmington area on Friday to share information about the $3.4 billion agreement, which must be approved by Congress and the courts.

Members of the historical accounting class – those that had an IIM account that was open at any point in time between Oct. 25, 1994, and Sept. 30, 2009 – will receive a $1,000 payment, according to Rempel.

“The reason those dates were selected was because that's the only time period the government recognized it had an obligation of any historical accounting. If your account was open between those two dates, even if only 1 cent was collected into that account, you're going to receive a $1,000 payment,” he said.

A second group, those who owned trust land on Sept. 30, 2009, or had an IIM account that was opened anytime between 1985 and September 2009 will receive a baseline payment of $500. “If you have very little money deposited into your IIM account, you're going to receive $500 and maybe a little bit more – from a few cents to $1,” he said.

It is not known, at this point, how many people will get $1,000. And though it is a small amount, Guilder said he believes class members should support the settlement “because I do think it's the fairest settlement under the legal rules and the legal rulings that occurred in this case.”

“To be sure, this isn't fair. Nothing that has happened in the last 123 years is fair, and I would be lying to everybody in this room and you wouldn't believe a word I said, if I said it is fair. ... But to get justice takes the court, and the court rulings limit what can be obtained.”

To put it in perspective, he said, “It's more than three times the total amount that's ever been paid from the government” to anyone. Documents will be sent to class members notifying them of the opportunity to opt out of the settlement and the deadline for doing so. Notifications also will be printed in newspapers and aired on the radio.

Rempel and Guilder, both Washington attorneys, painted a grim picture of the litigation history leading up to the settlement. “Talking about what happened in both the district court and the appeals court helps us kind of understand why we settled this case,” Guilder said.

In 1887 the government passed the Dawes Act and broke up reservations. In many parts of the country, the reservations contain checkerboard areas, much like the Navajo Nation.

“The individual lands that everybody was given at that time were held in trust by the federal government and the government managed all the lands. They executed all the leases, they collected all the money, and they were supposed to turn all the money back – but we know they didn't,” he said.

In 1996, Cobell and four other individual Indian land owners decided enough was enough. It was time for the government to account for what had been done. Where was the money? What had happened to the individual Indian trusts? What leases were executed on the lands? Where were the lands? How much money had they collected and how much had been paid out?

The first trial in 1999 was to establish what the government's duty is to class members, Rempel said. “The most important thing that happened in that trial is the government was ordered by the district court in D.C., to account for your assets, it was ordered to account for your land, it was ordered to account for your funds.”

It also was established that the government has an obligation to report its trust business. “It's got to have adequate standards to make sure people can do these jobs, and they've got to maintain records and be able to produce to you when you ask for them,” he said.

“But the government appealed this. The government said, 'We don't have the trust obligation to do this. We don't have an obligation to provide this information to you. We don't recognize that we have a trust relationship. What we can do is we can take your money and we can do whatever we want with it.'”

The court of appeals disagreed in 2001 and ordered the government to file quarterly reports to update plaintiffs and the court about how they were going to comply with the court's orders. “The government didn't do anything,” Rempel said.

“In court, when a party violates court orders, you can hold them in contempt. We went through a trial in 2001 and the district court held Gale Norton, the sitting Secretary of the Interior, in contempt with five counts of fraud for misleading the court and for failing to produce plans in violation of court order.”

The government appealed again. “They said we don't recognize the trust relationship, and if it's not a trust relationship we didn't have to comply with your orders, and you can't hold a sitting secretary in contempt of court.” The court of appeals agreed, he said, and gave Norton a “get-out-of-jail-free card.”

There were significant victories where the government was told they had to account for every person and every item of the trust, Guilder said. “But then the judge asked us, how much is that going to cost, and how long would it take the government to do?

“Well, it turned out that it would probably take the government 200 years and $13 billion to do everything. ... Nobody can wait 200 years for an accounting. So he ruled it was impossible as a matter of law, for the government to ever account for everything that ever happened.”

Attorneys then argued that plaintiffs were entitled to every dollar that was collected that the government couldn't prove they had paid out to the correct beneficiary. A second trial was held in 2008 to decide how much money the government collected and how much they had not paid out.

“Both sides started with how much was collected. The government said $14.3 billion since 1987 through 2008 had been collected through the trust.” Plaintiffs' attorneys calculated it was about $15 billion. Because there are so many “unknowns,” they felt it was a good starting point. “We said, 'OK, government, prove that you paid it. Where are the checks?' They couldn't do it and they didn't even try to do it.

“They came up with a technique which nobody with a straight face could say it is an honest technique ... they looked at their system and if they had gaps of information, they filled it in with what looks like it would fit there because of what happened in other years or other regions. They just guessed at their holes,” Guilder said.

At the end of the day, attorneys said plaintiffs were owed $46 billion. “The government was at $45 million,” he said.

Information: http://cobellsettlement.com/class/ask_elouise.php

CHRISTINE YAZZIE REPORTS:
In Concert
Casper and the Mighty 602 Band

Quese IMC
are among the performers at the contemporary NDN concert. It will held on Saturday, March 27, 2010. From 12 PM to 5 PM. Venue: Los Angeles State Historic Park, 1245 North Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90012

Come on out!

Last remaining performances for Tales of an Urban Indian starring actor/writer Darrell Dennis (Shuswap). Venue: Autry National Center of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles, CA 90027. See the premiere photos online.

Native count website
http://www.nativecount.com/

Christine Yazzie
Arts advocacy | E: krystyn_media@yahoo.com
krystynmedia.blogspot.com | facebook.com/krystynmedia

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Navajo Human Rights 'Listening Session' - SMSC Donates $150,000 To Local Organizations

U.S.ASKED TO SUPPORT INDIGENOUS HUMAN RIGHTS
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

WINDOW ROCK – Navajo Nation Council Delegate Rex Lee Jim – who is also a medicine man – did a house blessing the other day at a new home in Monument Valley. “The reason was because the other house was contaminated with uranium,” he told members of the U.S. Department of State during their visit Wednesday to the Navajo Nation capital.

The owner of the new home has health problems believed to be related to radiation exposure. “We're doing the best we can with what we have. We ask for your help,” Jim said as he welcomed federal representatives to the Navajo Nation.

Environmental issues, sacred sites, relocation, racism, and unsolved deaths were just a few of the topics discussed as the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission hosted a federal government “listening session” to discuss the federal government's record on human rights in preparation for the Universal Periodic Review in November.

The United States has not endorsed the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, passed in September 2007 by the U.N. General Assembly. The commission is strongly advocating for ratification of the declaration to protect the Dine way of life.

Representatives of the Nation's three-branch government were on hand to express concerns, however, President Joe Shirley Jr. was unable to attend due to another obligation. However, he and First Lady Vicki Shirley did meet later with Jodi A. Gillette, Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Shirley requested her assistance in arranging a meeting with President Obama.

Harrison Tsosie of Navajo Department of Justice appeared at the session on behalf of Shirley to raise the issue of the federal government's failure to acknowledge land ownership.

“It denies Navajo people economic opportunities, progress and other benefits as enjoyed by citizens who hold fee title to their own land,” he said. “I think it's time the United States address this issue.”

Council Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan said the Navajo people have been subjected to abuses for many years, with deaths and beatings being common acts of violence in border towns.

“These acts were mostly done by non-Native people,” he said, citing an example of two Navajos killed in Gallup in the 1970s. “They told the court that they thought they were jackrabbits – and the court bought that,” Morgan said.

Chief Justice Herb Yazzie said it was 142 years ago that the federal government entered into a treaty with the Navajo Nation. “We were at a concentration camp (Bosque Redondo), but a treaty was entered, promises were made, and today I want to impress upon you that that promise, that treaty, guaranteed self-determination.

“We are here to express several concerns about racism, about legal issues, about environmental concerns. I would submit to you that these concerns came to exist because the United States government has not lived up to that promise, this law that they entered into that is supposed to be the supreme law of the land,” he said.

Howard Shanker, an attorney from Flagstaff who has represented the Navajo Nation and other tribes in litigation to protect Dook'o'oosliid, or the sacred San Francisco Peaks, told the delegation there really is no law that substantively protects these sacred sites.

“For decades we have been fighting the U.S. government and we've been fighting the Justice Department,” he said, but the U.S. Supreme Court, in Lyng vs. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association, “essentially held that Native Americans have no First Amendment rights when it comes to government land use.”

Though sacred to 13 Arizona tribes, when it came to protecting the San Francisco Peaks from what the tribes perceived as desecration through the use of reclaimed sewer water to make artificial snow for the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort, the court ruled against them.

“President Shirley, on the stand, said this is like making me watch you rape my mother,” Shanker told them.

Arista La Russo, originally from Sand Springs, said her father resided in the Joint Use Area., but he and her family were relocated in the 1970s. “My parents were advised they had to move because it was the law and that if they did not, they would be forcibly removed by the military,” she said.

Thousands of Navajos and hundreds of Hopis were relocated, resulting in their children and grandchildren being disenfranchised.

There is no federal policy addressing the children of the relocatees who are displaced, she said. “The incompetent planning by the federal government was with no regard to the children of relocatees.” As a result, many turned to drugs, alcohol and violence. “Many children of relocatees do not have a home to come home to,” she said.

Marie Gladeau who lives on Hopi Partitioned Land, said the Accommodation Agreement of 1987 gives legal jurisdiction to the Hopi tribal government and responsibility for services to the Navajo Nation. In doing so, it greatly limits their freedom, she said.

“Things got fast-tracked to get the AA signed into law. The law has created conflict over who has exclusive rights to the home sites, cornfields, and livestock. ... The law is based on Colonial tactics with the outcome being to divide and conquer what was once a shared and equal right to land use,” she said.

Perry Charley, director of Dine Environmental Institute at Shiprock Dine College, said the Navajo Nation faces many challenges in the coming years due to climate changes, including depletion of non-renewable natural resources and water.

Though the federal government instituted the National Environmental Policy Act, CERCLA, or Superfund, and other laws designed to guarantee a safe living environment “oftentimes, these laws fail to recognize Native American cultures and traditions,” Charley said.

Federal policies and regulations also fail to recognize Native American sovereignty issues, as exemplified by the March 8 decision by the 10th Circuit Court which upheld the license for Hydro Resource Inc. to mine uranium in Churchrock, despite the Navajo Nation's ban on uranium mining and processing.

Wahleah Johns of Black Mesa Water Coalition told the delegation, “Water is life, and a basic human right. We don't look at it as a resource, but a sacred element that sustains all life. Without water, life cannot grow.”

Johns told them there is physical evidence of damage to the Navajo aquifer from Peabody Western Coal Co.'s use of it to mine coal. She asked the State Department to look into the “shifting of the water.”

Office of Intergovernmental Affairs' Gillette said the Obama Administration is committed to strengthening the nation-to-nation relationship.

“I know that a lot of you are coming to us with information that you said before in the past. It's been a long time that you've been saying these things and it feels like nobody's listening; but I'm here to tell you that we are listening, I'm listening with an open heart and an open mind. All of us are going to go back and do our best.”

Duane H. “Chili” Yazzie, chair of the Navajo Human Rights Commission, said they will look for a sign within 90 days that the United States has heard them.

“One signal that we will look for is some word from a very contemporary tragedy that continues -- the illegal imprisonment of my brother Leonard Peltier. Show us! Give us a signal that says, 'Yes, these United States of America will sign on to this declaration.'

“It's not something that we should have to ask for. It's not something that we should have to beg for. It's not something that we want to demand. It's something that we should expect from the greatest democracy on this face of the earth.”

SHAKOPEE MDEWAKANTON SIOUX DONATE MORE THAN $150,000 TO LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS
By Tessa Lehto
tessa.lehto@shakopeedakota.org

Prior Lake, MN – The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community announces $153,000 in charitable grants to support 13 Twin Cities’ organizations.

A grant for $30,000 went to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International of Bloomington, Minnesota, for general research and for sponsorship of the Walk to Cure Diabetes. JDRF is committed to finding a cure for the disease that afflicts more than 22 million men, women, and children, killing one American every three minutes. Each year over 500,000 people walk for a cure at 200 JDRF Walk locations in over a dozen countries. The local event will be held February 27, 2010, at the Mall of America.

An internship program in conjunction with the Thaw collection, a visiting Indian art collection, will be funded by a grant for $25,000 to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The curatorial internship program will provide hands on experience working with collections, exhibitions, and research techniques for Native Americans.

The exhibition consists of 110 of the most outstanding works of art drawn from the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of North American Indian Art, which comprises more than 800 masterpieces of Native American art from across North America spanning more than 2,000 years. The Thaw Collection, organized by the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York, will debut in the fall of 2010 at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in Minneapolis.

Emergency relief efforts will be funded through $20,000 in grants to the American Red Cross. Relief efforts for the island Haiti were funded with a $10,000 grant in response to the devastating earthquake which recently killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions of residents. An additional $10,000 grant funded local emergency services in the Twin Cities area. Services provided locally include helping residents in the immediate aftermaths of fires, floods, and other emergencies.

A grant for $10,000 went to the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life event in Shakopee, Minnesota. The event, which is held annually at the Shakopee High School track, raises funds to support programs of the American Cancer Society and research. It also commemorates victims and survivors of cancer.

The American Diabetes Association of Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a $10,000 grant for their annual fundraiser to support education to target Native Americans in Minnesota and research. Diabetes is one of the leading causes of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. Together these diseases represent some of the most critical health concerns among American Indians.

Memorial Blood Centers of Saint Paul, Minnesota, will use their grant to help purchase a new bloodmobile. Memorial Blood Centers have co-sponsored blood drives at the SMSC for more than 20 years. The new bloodmobile will have more donor beds and interview rooms and will replace an older model at the end of its service life. Memorial Blood Centers has served the Twin Cities and surrounding region for more than 60 years.

A $10,000 grant to the Hennepin County Medical Center of Minneapolis, Minnesota, will pay for a portion of salary for an American Indian Advocate who helps patients and their family members with emergency social service during medical treatment.

A project to raise funds for Parkinson’s Foundation of Minnesota (Golden Valley, Minnesota) and the National Parkinson Foundation of Miami, Florida, was awarded a $10,000 grant. Prior Lake resident Kevin Burkart will complete 200 skydives in one day to raise money and awareness for Parkinson’s disease on June 16, 2010. The unique fundraiser will take place at Skydive Twin Cities in Baldwin, Wisconsin. Burkart did a similar effort in 2008 in which he completed 100 jumps in one day. (For more info go to www.perfectjumps.com.)

A grant for $8,000 to the Ramsey County Historical Society (RCHS) allowed for the purchase of all current copies and future publishing rights to the books Dakotah: Life and Legends of the Sioux and Painting the Dakota: Seth Eastman at Fort Snelling.

Both books were originally published by the Afton Historical Society Press. The RCHS plans to use these unique publications to enhance the learning of low-income children who participate in their Subsidized Dakota Tour program at the Gibbs Museum or their Dakota Outreach programs to hundreds of schools in Minnesota.

Grants of $5,000 each to went to Project Turnabout for their Appetite for Life fundraiser; the National Kidney Foundation for the Kidney Early Evaluation Program; the National Eagle Center for a capital campaign; and the Minnesota Planetarium for a new planetarium atop the Minneapolis Public Library.

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

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NATIVE AMERICA, DISCOVERED AND CONQUERED
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PATHOLOGY.ORG - Up-to-date informmational database on general health and disease information, medical schools and medical resources.
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Support Georgina Lightning - Uranium Mining In Grand Canyon And Churchrock

SUPPORT GEORGINA AND HER FILM,'OLDER THAN AMERICA'
Please help support native actor, writer, and director Georgina Lightning and her film "Older Than America", in her efforts to win the Whitehouse Project EPIC “Emerging Artist” Award. By passing this information to your contacts you can help her win!

Vote here! http://www.thewhitehouseproject.org/epic/emerging_artist.php

Hi Bobbie,

Apologies that our instructions weren’t clear enough! To vote:

Click on this link here: http://www.thewhitehouseproject.org/epic/emerging_artist.php

A page should come up in your browser with the main content looking like this:
On the column on the right side of the video that automatically plays in the center, there is a list of the Nominated films and corresponding directors - Georgina’s should be the second from the bottom.

Click the circle on the left side of her name, it should show a little grey dot when it’s selected properly

Click vote at the bottom, and it should notify you that you’ve voted!

Please don’t hesitate to contact me again if you still have problems, and thank you for posting our information on your website – we greatly appreciate it!

Jacquelyn Cardinal

We have until this Sunday at 11:59 pm EST to reach our goal of 10,000 votes!

Lightning’s contemporary, multiple award-winning drama "Older than America" is the story of a woman’s haunting vision revealing a priest’s plot to silence her mother from speaking about the atrocities that occurred at her Native American boarding school. It is a groundbreaking film that is ultimately about the triumph of the human spirit, and the true resiliency of a people.

Winning the “Emerging Artist” Award is the opportunity to have Lightning’s work recognized for the achievement that it is, and will make history by making her the first Native American as well as the first woman honored with this award.

Thank you for your support!

CANADIAN URANIUM COMPANY MINES GRAND CANYON'S NORTH RIM
Arizona Daily Sun
In defiance of legal challenges and a U.S. Government moratorium, Canadian company Denison Mines has started mining uranium on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. According to the Arizona Daily Sun the mine has been operating since December 2009. Denison plans on extracting 335 tons of uranium ore per day out of the “Arizona 1 Mine”, which is set to operate four days per week.

The hazardous ore will be hauled by truck more than 300 miles through towns and communities to the company’s White Mesa mill located near Blanding, Utah. After being pressured by environmental groups, U.S. Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar initially called for a two-year moratorium on new mining claims in a buffer zone of 1million acres around Grand Canyon National Park, but the moratorium doesn’t include existing claims such as Denison’s.

The moratorium also doesn’t address mining claims outside of the buffer zone. Obama Approves New Nuclear Reactors and Increased Need for Uranium Currently there are 104 nuclear reactors in the United States which supply 20% of the U.S.’s electricity. In January the Obama administration approved a $54 billion dollar taxpayer loan in a guarantee program for new nuclear reactor construction, three times what Bush previously promised in 2005.

The Colorado River, Water & Uranium's Deadly Legacy Uranium is a known cause of cancers, organ damage, miscarriages & birth defects. Drilling for the radioactive material has been found to contaminate underground aquifers that drain into the Colorado River, and sacred springs that have sustained Indigenous Peoples in the region. In addition, surface water can flow into drill holes and mine shafts which can also poison underground water sources.

Emerging in the Rocky Mountains in North Central Colorado and winding 1,450 miles to the Gulf of California, the Colorado River is held sacred by more than 34 Indigenous Nations. The Colorado also provides drinking water for up to 27 million people in seven states throughout the Southwest.

JUDGE: NATURAL OR NOT, RADIATION WILL EXCEED HEALTH STANDARD
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

CHURCHROCK – For 30 years, United Nuclear Corp. mined Section 17 in Churchrock. When it abandoned the mine, it failed to undertake a basic responsibility: cleaning up after itself, according to 10th Circuit Court Judge Carlos F. Lucero.

Now, with approval from the Court of Appeals in Denver, Uranium Resources Inc., through its subsidiary Hydro Resources Inc., plans to mine the same property using in situ leach mining. The court issued a 2-1 opinion Monday, upholding the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's licensing of the project, with Lucero dissenting.

“UNC left behind mining spoil that continuously emits gamma radiation and radon. ... HRI plans to mine the site, which will result in total radiation levels nine to 15 times the permitted regulatory limit,” he said.

In granting the license the NRC considered only potential radiation “directly linked to licensed activity,” and the majority opinion of the court concurred. They did not include radiation being emitted from the existing waste, in combination with radiation to be emitted in the future from HRI's operations. Lucero believes this is a mistake.

Chris Shuey of Southwest Research Information Center of Albuquerque, plaintiff in the case along with Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining and two local residents, also disagreed with the NRC's interpretation.

“When the regulations say you have to limit doses to people outside your fence line to less than 100 millirems per year, and you've got material on the outside of that fence line that already exceeds that dose, you have one of two choices: You either can't give them a license, or you make them clean it up.”

In addition, there is dispute with federal regulators over what is considered “background radiation.” The regulations state that background is “naturally occurring radioactive material,” or “NORM.”

Neither the NRC nor the Atomic Energy Act define NORM, Lucero said, yet in this case, the NRC concluded that “naturally occurring” includes radioactive material that had been “technologically enhanced.” When a term is not defined by the relevant statute or regulation, it is interpreted based on its common meaning, he said, and turned to Webster's Dictionary.

“Naturally” means “according to or by the operation of the laws of nature,” Lucero wrote. “Thus, 'naturally occurring radioactive material' is radioactive material that occurs according to or by the operation of the laws of nature. It does not include radioactive materials that are no longer in their natural state as a result of human activities.”

Because the NRC granted HRI’s license using interpretations of its regulations that are inconsistent with the regulations themselves, he said, the licensing of HRI should be remanded to the NRC for reconsideration.

“They're talking about material that's on Section 17 that's NORM material,” said Rick Van Horn, senior vice president of operations for URI. “NRC doesn't have anything to do with NORM material. It's not part of the NRC licensing process.”

Shuey said HRI acquired the surface estate from UNC, “knowing full-well what was there and made representation they were going to clean it up – and then they rely upon NRC to make a misinterpretation of its own regulations.”

“It's not background because humans put it there!” he said. “At what point can anybody on Navajo have any faith in the federal government that is supposed to be their trustee?”

Rita Capitan, co-founder of Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining, expressed disappointment at the majority decision.

“I can't believe that the three judges in Denver, who seemed to take our plea to heart when we were there for oral arguments in May 2008, decided after waiting for nearly two years that there was nothing wrong with the proposed mining. How can one judge debate and dissent when the other two said, in essence, 'It is OK, nothing is wrong'?! They obviously forgot all information given to them.”

ENDAUM is the first community group ever to challenge a NRC source materials license for an ISL uranium mine.

Larry King, a member of ENDAUM who lives near Section 17, expressed frustration.

“We have people that are sick and dying. There was another community member that was buried last week. She died of cancer. How many more people have to go and die like that before the legacy is addressed?

“These people that are advocating for new uranium mining, they need to look at these people that are suffering from cancer. It's not a pretty sight.”

King said they plan to appeal the decision because the uranium legacy waste has to be addressed. “It's a mess out there. You've got to clean up the mess before you can even think about doing other matters again. The community of Churchrock, we don't support uranium mining. We're advocating to get this legacy addressed first, get some comprehensive health studies.”

For NRC and the majority to say the waste is natural background is “mind-boggling,” he said. “It's not natural background and we have the data to prove that.”

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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NATIVE AMERICA, DISCOVERED AND CONQUERED
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

PATHOLOGY.ORG - Up-to-date informmational database on general health and disease information, medical schools and medical resources.
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Navajo Nation Museum - Census Information

MUSEUM DIRECTOR HOPES TO CREATE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

WINDOW ROCK – As a young boy, Manuelito Wheeler used to hang out with his friends in the area where the present day Navajo Nation Museum is located.

“I used to ride my bike and make jumps over there. Now I'm working down there, representing the Navajo people and our culture,” he said Friday.

But the museum, like Wheeler and the Navajo Nation itself, has grown. A central place of understanding where people can come and learn what it means to be Dine – an ethnobotanical garden – is needed to help retain this wisdom before it is lost, according to Wheeler. He hopes to expand on what has been created and turn his vision of a cultural landscape into a reality.

But just as the Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu, once said, “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” For Wheeler, that first step was getting the Resources Committee to approve amending the museum's plan of operation.

“They would like to proceed to be acknowledged as a department within the Division of Natural Resources. Presently, the program is under Historic Preservation,” Chairman George Arthur, sponsor of the legislation, told the committee.

By becoming its own department, officials would have more freedom in decisions about the museum's future.

“It just takes off that other layer, meaning Historic Preservation department,” Wheeler said. “I'm thankful that they took us under their wing, but as any institution, we've grown and we're ready for this.”

Though the Navajo Nation is the largest tribe in the United States, the museum does not reflect that when compared with other tribes throughout the country, he said. “When you guys travel, I'm sure you visit with various Indian nations and they have recently come into funding, primarily from casinos; so when you go to them and you see their museum, they are a step up above from our Navajo Nation Museum.”

Since Wheeler became director in January 2008, the museum has made some major improvements and has brought in exhibitions that are very beneficial to the Nation and the Navajo people, Arthur said.

Prior to coming to Window Rock, Wheeler spent more than 10 years working at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. “I saw how professional museums are organized and how they are run,” he said. He wants to take Navajo's museum to that level.

“Within two years, I think all of you have been there and have seen what I can do. And that's using the exact same budget that the previous director had. I didn't get an increase in budget, I didn't get an increase in help. We were able to make huge improvements, and I want to make even bigger improvements,” he said.

A four-color booklet outlining plans to cultivate the museum landscape “into a place where our connection to the land can be shared with our people, as well as with those who visit us,” was given to the committee.

Wheeler said he receives comments such as: What happened to grass that was growing there? How come all the plants are dying?

“It's just a dustbowl. That's not acceptable for us, as the Navajo people, to have,” he said. “The landscape plan calls for all plants and materials that are related to the reservation – medicinal plants, plants that are used for dying and rugs, etcetera.

“The Navajo Nation Museum is like an incubator for our culture. Our Navajo culture is growing and going in many directions right now as modern people, so we need to have an area that we can keep our traditions alive. I hope you have the same vision as I do to make this a reality,” he said.

The cultural landscape plan carries a price tag of $3.34 million and would use local work force to do as much of the work as possible.

According to the booklet, an entry rock sculpture will display boulders from the four sacred mountains. A peaceful park environment with rock benches where visitors can relax and enjoy the outdoors will be created amid landscape elements displaying Navajo craftsmanship and ingenuity. Male and female hogans, a corral, fire pit and sweat lodges will introduce visitors to the Dine ceremonial life.

An amphitheater located among gardens of native plants will provide a gathering place for outdoor performances of traditional and contemporary music, dance and theater. Shelters similar to the traditional chaha'oh (brush arbor or shade house) will provide gathering places for picnickers.

Rainwater will be collected from the roof of the museum and filtered back into the ground to support native wetland vegetation. A sculpture garden will showcase Navajo art.

Wheeler said improvements already have been made to the snack bar area, using existing budget.

“It's available as a rental space. It's a moderate revenue generator when we rent it out, but it will be much more of a revenue-generating mechanism for the museum when it's opened officially,” he said.

The committee approved the resolution 7-0. It now moves to the Government Services Committee.

SPREADSHIRT AND NCAI ENCOURAGE NATIVE AMERICANS TO PARTICIPATE IN THE U.S. CENSUS
Submitted by Holly Jobbagy
Hi there -

With the U.S. Census survey date just a few days away, there is a lot of buzz about participation. While participating in the survey is very important, so is participation in making others aware of diversity and how important the cause is. Spreadshirt, a leading online platform for creating, buying and selling “me-shirts”—stylish conversation starters that people love to wear—is working with the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) to help encourage the importance of filling out the upcoming Census. Together they are promoting the U.S. Census survey to ensure an accurate count of American Indians and Alaska Natives in the 2010 Census.

The NCAI (National Congress of American Indians) has its own partner shop on Spreadshirt. The shirts in the NCAI shop feature unique and meaningful sayings such as “I’m Tulalip and I count” and “I’m Navajo and I count”. The NCAI is one of the oldest, largest and most representative national Indian organizations serving the interests of tribal government.


Spreadshirt is proud to partner with the NCAI in offering a FREE customized tee to the first 1,000 to pledge to participate in the U.S. Census Survey. It is quick and easy. Please share with your readers that they can pledge to participate at the Indian County Counts website. By pledging to participate, your readers can get a free customized tee from Spreadshirt that says, “"I'm [your tribe] and I Count".

In addition, the commission that the NCAI receives from shirt orders from their shop will all be donated to their organization to further help and serve the American Indians and Alaska Natives.

While there is a lot of buzz around the U.S. Census, it is important to feature stories about specific sectors who have been working to serve their nationality for a long time. The NCAI has been serving since 1944. Please share this wonderful news with your readers. They, too, can team up with the NCAI and Spreadshirt and get more people to pledge!
Thank you!
-Holly

CENSUS NEWS FROM CHRISTINE YAZZIE
Los Angeles

Hi! I wanted to update you on what I am doing at this time. I am part of
the American Indian/Alaska Natives team recruited by the U.S. Census
Bureau. The 2010 Census is underway across the nation. Next week,
you will be receiving the official form. BE COUNTED. I'm excited to be
part of this service directed to the American Indian, Alaska Natives
communities. You will be seeing me and/or my coworkers at various events
throughout Southern California. Come on by and say Hi.

You are invited to the American Indian Music Festival that is slated for
Saturday, March 27 from 12 PM to 5 PM. It's family-friendly.
Other websites: Native Biz http://www.nativebiz.com/content/view/4415/508/
U.S. Census Bureau http://www.census.gov/

Thank you,
Native count website
http://www.nativecount.com/

Christine Yazzie
Arts advocacy | E: krystyn_media@yahoo.com
krystynmedia.blogspot.com | facebook.com/krystynmedia

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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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

NATIVE AMERICA, DISCOVERED AND CONQUERED
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

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.

Denver Appeals Court Jeopardizes Navajos? - 1st Native Veterans Affairs Ass't Sec'y Sworn In

10TH CIRCUIT COURT UPHOLDS LICENSING OF URI PROJECTS; DISSENTING JUDGE SAYS DECISION PUTS NAVAJOS AT RISK
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

CHURCHROCK – The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver has upheld a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license issued to Uranium Resources Inc. in 1998, which would allow its subsidiary, Hydro Resources Inc., to mine uranium in Churchrock and Crownpoint.

However, Judge Carlos F. Lucero, in a stinging dissent, disagreed with the majority’s decision that HRI did not have to comply with federal limits on radiation releases from existing mine waste at the Churchrock Section 17 proposed in-situ leach mine site.

“Because the majority’s decision in this case will unnecessarily and unjustifiably compromise the health and safety
of the people who currently live within and immediately downwind from Section 17, I must respectfully dissent,” Lucero wrote in the 2-1 opinion.

“The NRC’s erroneous decision and the majority’s endorsement of that decision will expose families [living near Section 17] to levels of radiation beyond those deemed safe by the NRC’s own regulations, jeopardizing their health and safety.”

The license allows for the production of up to 1 million pounds of uranium per year from Churchrock until the company successfully demonstrates that it can return the groundwater to pre-mining conditions, after which mining on other properties can begin and production can be increased to 3 million pounds per year.

“This ruling is a major breakthrough for URI and upholds the NRC license that took us 10 years to obtain and as many to address in supplemental reviews and litigation,” said Don Ewigleben, president and CEO of Uranium Resources.

New Mexico Environmental Law Center of Santa Fe represented petitioners, Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining – a Navajo community organization – and Southwest Research and Information Center, a non-profit environmental education organization. DNA-People’s Legal Services of Window Rock represented local residents Marilyn Morris and Grace Sam. The Navajo Nation is an intervenor in the case.

Petitioners claim the NRC, in issuing HRI's license, violated the Atomic Energy Act, which sets forth specific requirements an applicant must meet before obtaining a license, and the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires an agency give a “hard look” at the environmental impact of the proposed action.

HRI applied for a license in 1988 to conduct in situ, or ISL, mining at four locations in McKinley County. Two of the sites, Sections 8 and 17, are adjacent to each other in Churchrock. Two other sites are located in Crownpoint.

Eric Jantz, lead attorney on the appeal, said petitioners are “very disappointed” in the court’s decision. “The majority passed up the opportunity to protect the health and safety of the people of Crownpoint and Church Rock – because the NRC won’t.”

Jantz noted that though the license authorizes ISL mining at all four sites, the panel’s ruling on groundwater restoration and financial assurance mentioned only the Churchrock Section 8 site, while its ruling on radioactive air emissions applied only to Churchrock Section 17.

David Taylor of Navajo Department of Justice, said the Navajo Nation is “disappointed by the decision of the panel, gratified by Judge Lucero's dissenting opinion, and look forward to discussing the matter with the petitioners' attorneys.”

The company still needs an underground injection control permit before development can begin at the Churchrock project. The question of who has jurisdiction to issue the permit also is under appeal.

Oral arguments on the jurisdictional issue were presented Jan. 12 in an en banc, or full court, review of the April 17, 2009, ruling by a three-judge panel that jurisdiction to issue the permit rested with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency because HRI’s Section 8 land is in Indian Country.

“We believe that a resolution to this matter will be positive,” URI's Ewigleben said. “We intend to continue our discussions with all stakeholders in order to find a means for all to benefit and that further litigation can be avoided. We are beginning to see progress in this area and continue to believe uranium mining will be part of the state’s future”

Jantz noted that at least 850 people live within 5 miles of the two proposed Churchrock ISL sites – a concern Lucero also raised in his dissent.

“I have never really read – and I certainly haven't been a party to – a case where the dissenting judge has been really so blunt about the majority's opinion. Judge Lucero says right out that the NRC is not doing its job to protect the health and safety of the folks in Churchrock and the majority opinion allows that injustice to continue. It's pretty amazing,” Jantz said.

“We remain concerned that HRI seeks to mine uranium within one-half mile of two of Crownpoint’s municipal water supply wells, a proposal that is unprecedented in the ISL industry in the U.S.”

Rick Van Horn, senior vice president of operations for URI, said the company has done extensive studies that support the NRC's decision. The company does not agree with the dissenting opinion.

“We believe the NRC's take on the impact of background radiation is correct. There's always a dissenting opinion, but we are pleased we got this ruling that upholds our NRC license. We thought that the NRC license was issued properly, and what the court has done is they have verified that.”

URI has done studies on Section 17 that haven't been released yet, but that also back up the NRC license decision, Van Horn said. “At the national level we seem to be pursuing nuclear power. The thing we need to do is connect the dots so everybody understands that a nuclear power plant doesn't work unless you have uranium to burn in it.”

Chris Shuey of SRIC said plaintiffs are still discussing whether to live with the decision or petition the full court to review the case. “The decision just came out so we haven't made that decision. That's going to be the next decision on our part.”

Jantz said his clients' commitment to resisting any new uranium mining hasn't changed. “This case is one of many opportunities to stop HRI. I've talked to all of the Law Center's clients and they have said they are going to take every opportunity to stop this.”

In his dissent, Lucero said petitioners should be able to rely on the NRC to properly interpret statutes and agency regulations designed to protect the public’s health and safety. “Instead, the NRC has abandoned its statutory commitment ... and has rendered this community vulnerable to the ill effects of dangerous radiation,” he said.

“My respected colleagues compound the NRC’s error by failing to adequately review the agency’s action,” he added, noting the NRC issued HRI’s license at Section 17 using an interpretation of law that is inconsistent with the text of the regulation.

Lucero said the court should remand the NRC decision to the agency to reconsider its licensure of HRI. “Because the majority’s decision compounds past injustice by committing legal error, I respectfully dissent.”

FIRST ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR NATIVE AMERICAN VETERANS AFFAIRS SWORN IN
Submitted by Monica Davis
SACRAMENTO — A group from the Tule River Reservation took a trip to Sacramento last week to play a major role in the swearing-in of Pedro Molina, the first Assistant Secretary for Native American Veterans Affairs in the nation.

At the ceremony, Curly Santos, Emo Alvarado, Adam Christman and Koda Bell of the Painted Rock Singers performed the flag song.

The Tule River Native Veterans Post 1987 conducted the presentation of colors in conjunction with the Pacific Region of the Nation American Indian Veterans.

The following 11 members of Post 1987 participated in the ceremonial presentation: Commander Stan Santos, Joe Martinez, Nick Encinas, Treasurer Matt Carabay, Louie Espinoza, Henry Balangue, Lieutenant Clay Garfield, Paul Lara, Danny Franco, Albert Quintero and Frank Silvas.

Also prior to Molina’s appointment was a performance by traditional cultural dancers, a blessing, a prayer, a veteran’s warrior song and the welcome by Roger Brautigan, Secretary of the California Department of Native American Affairs.

Molina, appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, has served the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as American Indian program manager and marketing and community relations representative since 1998.

He previous held the positions of minority veteran program manager from 1995 to 1997 and Hispanic program manger from 1975 to 1995.

Molina, who served in the U.S. Army from 1970 to 1973, is a member of the Yaqui Nation from Tuscon, AZ.

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John McCain As An 'Avatar' - SMSC Spring Blood Drive

McCAIN, HAYWORTH BICKER OVER MEANING OF 'OSCAR' ATTACK AD
Submitted by Monica Davis
A campaign attack ad that depicts Sen. John McCain as an "Avatar" has
the Arizona Republican crying foul over what he sees as a slap to
Native Americans. But his primary opponent, J.D. Hayworth, may well be
wondering what planet he's on.

This much we know for sure: J.D. Hayworth thinks John McCain is not
really, truly a conservative. He makes that clear in an online
campaign ad that depicts the Arizona senator as "Nominee for Best
Conservative Actor."

The ad clearly an Academy Awards sendoff, portrays McCain bursting out of a gold Hollywood star, with a statuette and an envelope ...

And blue war paint splashed across his face.

That's the part that has riled McCain, who is accusing his Republican
primary opponent of insulting Native Americans.

But it's also the part that may have Hayworth wondering what planet
McCain is on -- since the ad appears to be a sendoff of the
blockbuster film Avatar, in which case the blue warpaint is a
reference to the fictional, blue-skinned Na'vi people on the distant
world of Pandora.

Regardless, McCain is demanding that Hayworth apologize.

"Ex-Congressman J.D. Hayworth should immediately apologize and take
down his latest online ad, which is an outrageous offense to John
McCain's lifetime of honorable service to our state and nation, and
insulting to Native Americans here in Arizona and across America,"
McCain campaign manager Shiree Verdone said Thursday in a written
statement.

"Mr. Hayworth is welcome to debate the challenges facing our state and
nation, but this kind of character assassination has no place in the
Republican Party, and Mr. Hayworth should be ashamed of his campaign
for running it," she wrote.

The Hayworth campaign refused to apologize; it said the ad will remain
up and, in fact, it expects that the controversy will increase its
visibility.

"We would encourage him to get a sense of humor," Hayworth campaign
spokesman Jason Rose told FoxNews.com. "And the reality is John McCain
has been attacking J.D. Hayworth viciously for three straight months
and if he can't take a joke, or take the heat, it might be time for
him to get out of the Senate."

Rose said he thought the ad was nicely timed with the Academy Awards
to convey a core message of Hayworth's campaign.

"And that is every six years McCain promises to be a conservative, and
then after he's elected he goes back to poking Republicans in the
eye," he said, noting McCain's moderate positions on immigration
reform and climate change.

Rose said he didn't understand the link the McCain campaign made
between the ad and Native Americans.

"This shows you how insulated he is," he said, suggesting that McCain
has not seen the record-grossing film.

The McCain campaign did not return a message seeking comment.

A spokesman for a Native American tribe said McCain's criticism seemed
to miss the mark.

"This whole thing is a joke," said Tony Phillippe, the public
administrator for the Kaibab-Pauite Tribe, who burst into laughter
when told about the ad.

"People do anything to get their points across. It's funny," he said,
adding that he's not offended. "I think the whole concept is
ludicrous."

Phillippe noted that he's white with no Native American blood.

But the president of the Navajo Nation, part of the largest tribe in
the U.S., said despite his Master's degree, he can't figure out what
Hayworth is trying to say, according to a Nation spokesman who spoke
with FoxNews.com after the ad was e-mailed to the tribe.

"Several staff assistants in the president's office (who are Navajo)
took a look and agreed that, at best, whatever message is trying to be
conveyed is muddled and, at worst, some native people will find it
offensive," spokesman George Hardeen said in an e-mail message.

"No other ethnic group is so frequently publically maligned in this
very fashion, and here we have a candidate for U.S. Senate succumbing
to the temptation of using images of race to bait an opponent," he
said.

Hardeen noted that McCain has been an active supporter of Native
American issues and has typically been endorsed by all Arizona tribes
when seeking re-election.

"I'm certain he'll get Navajo support again in November," he said,
adding that the ad "may very well change some minds against Mr.
Hayworth."

SMSC TO HOLD SPRING BLOOD DRIVE
By Tessa Lehto
Communivcations Specialist
tessa.lehtp@shakopeedakota.org

Prior Lake, MN – The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community will hold a spring blood drive on Tuesday, March 16, 2010, from noon to 7:00 p.m. at Dakotah! Sport and Fitness. A second blood drive will be held March 24, 2010, for SMSC Gaming Enterprise team members only at Mystic Lake Casino Hotel from noon to 5:00 p.m.

If you would like to make an appointment to give blood during the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community's spring blood drive, call SMSC Wellness Coordinators Angela Mostrom or Stacy McNabb at 952-233-2965. A limited number of walk-ins will also be able to donate blood at these blood drives.

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, as an active participant in the local community, holds several blood drives each year to help save lives. The SMSC has sponsored blood drives for more than 22 years.

Basic requirements to donate include:
- You must feel well for at least three days after a cold or flu
- You must be off antibiotics for at least 24 hours before giving
- You must weigh at least 110 pounds
- Eat a meal in the 6 hours before you donate
- Get a good night's sleep the night before you donate
- Wait at least 56 days from your last donation
- Bring a valid photo ID to your appointment

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Desert Rock Is Still A 'Go' - Awaiting EPA To Establish Standards for 'Greenhouse Gas Emissions'

DESPITE RUMORS, DESERT ROCK MOVING FORWARD
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent
WINDOW ROCK – The proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant may not be getting off the ground as quickly as the Navajo Nation had hoped in today's pro-nuclear, anti-coal political climate, but it is still moving forward, despite rumors to the contrary, according to Steven Begay, general manager of Dine Power Authority.

Elouise Brown, president of Dooda (No) Desert Rock, sent a letter Monday to Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., stating she had heard a rumor from a source inside DPA that Sithe Global Power, co-developer of the plant along with DPA, had withdrawn its support and sponsorship of the proposed 1,500 megawatt plant.

Brown challenged the president to “run the rumor down for yourself” and tell the Navajo people whether it is true. She said she would take the president's silence “as an admission of truth.”

George Hardeen, communications director for the Office of the President/Vice President, said, “If Ms. Brown is not starting rumors she’s perpetuating them, beginning with Dooda’s allegation that the DPA had killed and skinned a Navajo sheepdog and drowned some livestock, which never occurred, but which Ms. Brown never clarified.

“She has cultivated a reputation as a ranting political flamethrower with little credibility. I’m surprised that the Gallup Independent is using this nonsense as the basis of a story rather than checking out the rumor itself and then discarding it when it doesn’t check out. That’s what a pro would do,” he said.

Begay originally was scheduled to report to the Resources Committee on Feb. 8, but discussion on a legislation took up two hours of the morning and he had to leave for Phoenix, before giving the report, to meet with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and others involved in the permitting process. He was rescheduled to present on Feb. 11 but was unable to make it back in time.

“I think we're to the point where things are clear what we need to do going forward, and we need to work on some things to get the air permit back,” Begay said Monday.

EPA filed a motion last April with its Environmental Appeals Board for a voluntary remand of the air permit issued in July 2008. President Shirley said at the time that it was not the change he had hoped for from the Obama administration.

“This isn’t just about energy. This is about sovereignty. This is about saving self. This is about the Navajo Nation regaining its independence by developing the financial wherewithal to take care of its own problems,” Shirley said, adding that Desert Rock, which will bring more than $50 million annually to Navajo, is the Nation’s best hope to break the cycle of dependency on the federal government.

Begay said DPA has started work again with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and BHP Billiton on the Environmental Impact Statement and the biological assessment. “We're in informal consultation with the federal agencies to do that. Things are still moving forward.”

Dirk Straussfeld, executive vice president of Sithe Global, said Tuesday that Sithe is in “very active discussions” with government agencies and non-governmental organizations about the project.

“We had a meeting and we had a follow-up discussion with the same agencies and these agencies are clearly moving forward. To my knowledge, we have not abandoned the project. We have so much effort in it and so much money, we would not just walk,” he said.

Navajo was handed a setback last March when the record of decision on the Navajo Transmission Project was remanded. Approvals of the project were based on environmental studies completed in 1997, before Desert Rock was part of the picture.

“I think once we get a little movement on the air permit and the EIS -- the transmission is also a part of the Desert Rock project -- we'll address the transmission as well. We might have to spend another two years on federal processes for the permitting, which is just another prolonged process that we have to work through, but I think things are a lot clearer now. We know what to work on.

“It's kind of hard to work on CO2 when it's a global issue,” Begay said. Developers had applied for funding from the U.S. Department of Energy for a carbon capture/sequestration project at Desert Rock, but it was not funded. However, Begay said they might try another funding request in round four.

“It's a good project. We need to continue. Coal is already being used for almost half of the electricity in the United States. It's a struggle to try to get federal support and to continue the federal processes, but we're not giving up,” he said.

In addition to environmental concerns, Begay said one also has to look at economics. “With Navajo unemployment at 50 percent and a third of the homes don't have electricity or running water, we're really like a Third World country in the United States. We need to figure out a way to keep moving forward.

“There are still coal projects that are being built,” he said, one in Illinois and another in Colorado. “They don't have as good of an emissions performance as Desert Rock, but they're being built. We're being held to a higher standard than a lot of permitted plants. We're willing to operate at a higher standard. I think Desert Rock can meet those standards,” he said.

Independent reporter Karen Francis contributed to this story.

LACK OF STANDARDS CREATES DELAYS FOR COAL PROJECTS
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent
WINDOW ROCK – The answer is NO. Sithe Global Power LLC has not canceled the Desert Rock power plant on the Navajo Nation or the River Hill coal-waste plant in Karthaus, Pa.

But as developers wait on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish standards for greenhouse gas emissions for stationary sources, trying to get a coal project off the ground these days is a whole lot like trying to open a bar without knowing whether you have a liquor license, according to some.

This week, the Independent received reports that the 1,500 megawatt Desert Rock project, now estimated at $4 billion, was on its death bed and that the $600 million waste-coal plant being developed in Clearfield County, Pa., by River Hill Power Co. – a wholly owned subsidiary of Sithe – had been canceled due to financing difficulties.

Dirk Straussfeld, Sithe executive vice president, said Thursday that the River Hill project currently is being delayed. “We have not canceled the project. We are in the process of determining how to move the development forward because of the same considerations we have with Desert Rock – coal and permitting in this environment, as well as selling the power from the coal plant.”

Tom DeLeo, Sithe chief operating officer, said the company is “evaluating options” because of the economics of the 300-megawatt River Hill project.

“Given where the costs are today, we're taking a very close look, and we're in a position where there's not a great deal of activity on the project, but it's not being abandoned; it's not being canceled. And certainly not Desert Rock. It's a great project and we're continuing to work with the Navajo Nation on that,” DeLeo said. The 750-megawatt Toquop plant in southeast Nevada is still alive as well.

“I think one of the biggest issues is with the recession. We have a temporary reduction in load. Without being able to sell the power, we have a problem,” Straussfeld said.

The River Hill project, which has the support of the governor, would use 70 percent waste-coal blended with 30 percent market-based coal to fuel the plant. According to the company, it would remove over 100 years of waste left by previous mining operations. Straussfeld added that burning the waste coal would get rid of old coal piles that create a lot of groundwater problems.

But a timeline for construction and completion of either project is anyone's guess. “It's hard to give a timeline because we have to take in all the factors,” DeLeo said, “and if the factors were there to go full-speed ahead, we would be doing it right now.”

Eight senators – including Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Jay Rockefeller and Robert Byrd of West Virginia, and Max Baucus of Montana – sent a letter Feb. 19 to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson expressing “serious economic and energy security concerns” relating to the potential regulation of greenhouse gases, or GHGs, from stationary sources under the Clean Air Act.

Large electric generators using domestically produced coal and natural gas are uncertain about potential “Best Available Control Technology standards for carbon dioxide, they said. “What does EPA expect coal and natural gas operators to do if there is no standard?”

Jackson responded Feb. 22, saying that she expects to take action by April to ensure that no stationary source will be required to get a Clean Air Act permit to cover its greenhouse gas emissions in calendar year 2010. Instead, “I expect that EPA will phase-in permit requirements and regulation of greenhouse gases for large stationary sources beginning in calendar year 2011.”

As a developer, Straussfeld said, “I think what's important is the permitting environment is very unclear. With EPA or Congress essentially proposing legislation that nobody knows how it looks, it makes it hard for a developer to develop a project, but also makes it hard for a utility to buy the electricity because they don't know how much the CO2 (carbon dioxide) credits are going to cost.

“For them it's very hard to make a decision because they don't know if this is the best option for their portfolio. What the developer needs is certainty for the permitting and policy environment. Then you can make a decision and find the best option.”

He said EPA initially planned to regulate CO2 March 30. “This creates at least another year of limbo for the developer because we don't know what's going to happen. So this, again, prohibits investment and job creation,” he added.

Carbon dioxide would have to be addressed in the PSD, or prevention of significant deterioration permit. But that's going to be challenging, Straussfeld said, because nobody really would know how to address it in the PSD permit until the final rules are out.

The senators said the 2007 Supreme Court decision in “Massachusetts vs. EPA” determined that greenhouse gases may endanger public health and welfare. The “endangerment finding,” as it is known, is the first step in the rulemaking process for regulating greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles.

While the senators said they support moving forward with a single national standard for that purpose, they are concerned about possible impacts on American workers and businesses as EPA moves to implement regulations to curtail GHG pollution from stationary sources.

There are legislative efforts in the House and Senate seeking to disallow further EPA action based on the endangerment finding, the senators said.

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Connection: American Indians And Australian Aborigines - SMSC Sponsors Jazz Festival

AMERICAN INDIANS AND AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES TRAVEL A SIMILAR PATH
Opinion
By Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji)
© 2010 Native Sun News

There is a colonization connection the indigenous people of Australia
and America share.

Both were driven to the brink of annihilation by invaders. Both had
their children ripped from their arms and placed into institutional
boarding schools intent upon acculturation by whatever means (See the
movie Rabbit Proof Fence).

Aborigines make up two percent of Australia's population of 22 million
and, like their American Indian counterparts; they are their country's
poorest, unhealthiest and most disadvantaged of all minorities.

Both governments have spent millions of dollars on housing, hospitals,
community programs, and educational reforms and worthless experiments
over the past decades, but the living conditions of most Aboriginal
and Native American people remain abysmal. Why is that? Try asking an
Aborigine or a Native American instead of a government official.

Both have severe traumatic problems with alcohol and child abuse. Many
indigenous educators believe this can be traced back to the cruelty
and abuse they suffered as children at the nation's boarding schools.

As I have written many times, you cannot take innocent children, place
them in an isolated institution, and abuse them emotionally,
physically and sexually, and not expect that when they become adults,
they will not become the abusers. And that is happening right now in
many American Indian and Aborigine reservations and communities.

The government of Australia established a program imposing radical
restrictions on Aborigines in a crack down on child abuse. James
Anaya, a United Nations rapporteur on indigenous human rights was very
concerned about this controversial initiative known as "the
intervention."

According to the Washington Post, "The program forced a series of
tough rules on Aborigines in the Northern Territory, including bans on
alcohol and hard-core pornography, in response to an investigation
that found rampant child sex abuse in remote indigenous communities."

Anaya said, "The measures are incompatible with Australia's
international human rights obligations, including the U. N. Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination."

Indigenous Affairs Minister (Sound like the Bureau of Indian Affairs?)
Jenny Macklin responded, "The most important human right that I feel
as minister I have to confront is the need to protect the rights of
the most vulnerable, particularly children, and for them to have a
happy and safe life."

Many of the strict measures taken by the Australian government were
implemented without consulting the Aboriginal people. Many of the
rules, regulations and laws that have restricted and disrupted the
growth of Native American people and communities have also been
enacted and enforced with little or no input from the Indian people.
The Australian and American governments have acted in common when they
tell their indigenous people to go sit in the corner "because we know
what is good for you."

The crackdown by the Australian government was enacted without
providing Anaya or the indigenous people actual numbers. The
government had to suspend its own anti-discrimination law, the Racial
Discrimination Act, so it could ban alcohol and hard-core pornography
in the Aboriginal communities and regulate how the Aborigines spend
their welfare checks. What is worse, the restrictions do not apply to
Australians of other races.

News stories I have read on this issue have one thing in common,
including the article I quoted from the Washington Post: not a single
Aborigine was asked for his or her opinion.

I would have loved to hear comments by the Aboriginal people. A law
that assumes they are guilty without sound evidence places them in the
position of having to prove they are innocent.

Those Native Americans actively involved in addressing and seeking
solutions to this problem unanimously agree that it can be traced to
the era of Catholic mission boarding schools.

Following a huge cove-up, American bishops concluded that there were
credible accusations against nearly 5,000 priests involving the abuse
of about 12,000 children and adolescents since 1950. The Indian
mission boarding school era began in the 1800s.

Several dioceses, including Tucson, Arizona and San Diego, California,
had to seek bankruptcy protection when they were unable to pay the
financial settlements ordered by the court on hundreds of claims that
had been filed. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles alone was ordered to
pay more than $660 million in damages, which represented a substantial
share of the more than $2 billion paid out by the U.S. Catholic Church
as a whole. To date the Native American children of the United States
have not received one farthing.

A series of sex scandals also shook Ireland, where a commission
concluded that about 35,000 children were beaten and abused in
Catholic children's homes and orphanages between 1914 and 2000. Will
there ever be a similar report on the abuse of Aborigine and American
Indian children? Or will the answer always be, "Who gives a damn?"

The Australian and American governments should take a hard look at
what happened in this country, Ireland and Germany and then compare
notes. And then they should appropriate the funds to allow the
Aborigine and Native American people to solve their own problem,
because, ironically, no one else does give a damn.

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)

SHAKOPEE MDEWAKANTON AND MYSTIC LAKE TO SPONSOR FIRST LAKEFRONT JAZZ AND BLUES FESTIVAL
By Tessa Lehto
Communications Specialist
tessa.lehto@shakopeedakota.org

Prior Lake, MN – Local, national, and international performers are expected to delight audiences for one special day in July as the City of Prior Lake hosts the first Lakefront Jazz and Blues Festival Presented by Mystic Lake Casino.

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community and Mystic Lake Casino will collaborate with the Prior Lake Rotary Club, the event organizer, to present the event which will be held for the first time July 10, 2010, at Lakefront Park in the City of Prior Lake.

The Lakefront Jazz and Blues Festival Presented by Mystic Lake Casino is being billed as a free, family-friendly music event and one of the largest music venues in the south metro area of the Twin Cities. The event is expected to draw between 5,000 and 10,000 people.

Mystic Lake Casino is planning to hold a jazz weekend in conjunction with this event with special entertainers and packages for guests.

SMSC Vice-Chairman Glynn A. Crooks presented a sponsorship check for $50,000 on January 20, 2010, to the Prior Lake Rotary Club at a breakfast event at The Wilds in Prior Lake, Minnesota.

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NATIVE AMERICA, DISCOVERED AND CONQUERED
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