Storm Damages Homestake Uranium Tailings Pile - SMSC Farmer's Market

Residents Don't Know If They Have Been Impacted. Sampling Needed!
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent


MILAN – Homestake Mining Co. is in the process of repairing the south slope of its small tailings pile and berms damaged Sunday during heavy rains, and an official from New Mexico Environment Department is headed to the former uranium mill site Wednesday to take gamma radiation readings below the tailings pile.

Homestake's Milan Mill, now undergoing reclamation, was added to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund National Priorities List in 1983. The site consists of a large tailings pile 100 feet high, covering 200 acres, and a small impoundment, 25 feet high, covering 40 acres. Four subdivisions are located from ½ to 2 miles from the tailings piles, with the nearest residence 3,000 feet away, according to EPA.

Candace Head-Dylla of Bluewater Valley Downstream Alliance said Tuesday that nearby Murray Acres, located less than a mile southwest of the site, received approximately 2 inches of rain in about two hours Sunday. Portions of the subdivision were flooded, with Sundowner, Malapais and Thunderbird roads the hardest hit.

Floodwaters reached the back step on Mike Gregory's trailer, she said. “The kids were out there playing in it. We didn't know that some of this was coming from the tailings pile because it was dark, and then the next morning my brother said, 'Something's caved in on the side of that small tailings pile.'”

Head-Dylla notified Jerry Schoeppner at the Environment Department on Monday. “He had not heard anything about it,” she said.

Homestake usually has water spraying on top of the tailings pile as part of its reclamation effort. Head-Dylla fears that any potential contaminants on top of the tailings pile were washed down and into the yards of residents three streets away.

“Where Mike Gregory, Val and Josie Lopez, and Shannon Montano live, it just poured into that area,” she said.

At this point residents don't know whether they might have been impacted. “We have convinced NMED to come out tomorrow and do some sampling,” Head-Dylla said. “They're going to come and check any gamma and see if there's anything higher than background.”

According to Schoeppner, the small tailings pile did not fail and the evaporation pond did not suffer any breach or over-topping. Homestake is in process of repairing the cuts created by erosion and installing additional pipe to drain the top crest berm area down to the toe of the pile.

There is a berm located around portions of the pile to control top runoff from going over the side walls during storms and to convey the water to the drainage pipes, Schoeppner said, “but the storm of this magnitude was too large for the drainage pipes to manage.”

Head-Dylla said residents have a lot of questions.

“We want to know when there is an event like this, why don't they notify the community? Why aren't they telling us exactly what happened? Why are we the ones that have to notify NMED and why do we have to beg to get them to come out and sample?”

After the rain, the field in front of the tailings pile looked like a big lake, she said. “Like we told them before, we've got pictures of a boat that was floating in front of my mom's yard. This was like back in the '60s, so it's not like we've never had floods in this area. We keep telling people and they look at us like we're crazy.”


One of her family's greatest fears is a 50 year or 100 year flood event. If that were to occur, she said, “We don't know what's going to happen to that tailings pile because it blocks what used to be a floodplain.


SMSC Farmer's Market Now Open
By Tessa Lehto
Prior Lake, MN – The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community is operating two Farmer’s Markets on the reservation to sell produce from Mdewakanton Wozupi, the Community’s organic garden. Cucumbers, carrots, zucchini, green beans, potatoes, onions, greens, sweet corn, red and golden beets, turnips, eggplant, peppers, herbs, sunflowers, and more are available for sale twice a week on the reservation. Tomatoes will be available soon. Look for fall harvest of broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, and other cool weather vegetables in autumn.

-On Tuesdays from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. produce is available for sale in the parking lot of the Dakotah! Ice Center at the corner of County Road 82 and Mystic Lake Boulevard.

-On Fridays from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. next to the SMSC Community Center West Wing (across the parking lot from Little Six Casino).

Mdewakanton Wozupi was planted in the spring of 2010 as a project of the SMSC Health and Wellness Department and the Department of Land and Natural Resources. It is planted and maintained by staff, Community members, and volunteers.

The Farmer’s Market will continue throughout summer and into the fall. A related project, a natural foods store to feature locally produced, natural, and organic foods, is underway and scheduled to be open by November 2010.

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Uranium Corporation 'Bucks' Navajos To Begin Project - NAOPS

URI Debates Next Step In Churchrock
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

WINDOW ROCK – Uranium Resources Inc. will meet with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission next week in Rockville, Md., to discuss a plan of action for advancing its Churchrock uranium project.

Don Ewigleben, URI president and CEO, said the recent U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals' determination that its Section 8 property is not Indian Country allows the company to take the actions necessary to advance the Churchrock property toward production.

The 10th Circuit decision is still subject to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Navajo Nation. The entities have until Sept. 15 to file an appeal.

Ewigleben said the underground injection control permit for URI's subsidiary, Hydro Resources Inc., from the New Mexico Environment Department and the Source Materials License from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are both in “timely renewal status.”

URI officials will be meeting with the appropriate state and federal agencies over the next several weeks to discuss next steps.

“URI’s objective is to be in a position to begin uranium production in New Mexico by the first half of 2013, assuming the renewal processes move forward in a timely manner, a recovery in uranium prices, and the availability of financing for the necessary capital expenditures to build the infrastructure,” he said.

“Our project will be a major contributor to addressing the need for domestic uranium production to supply U.S. nuclear power plant needs.”

URI's license will allow the company to produce 1 million pounds of uranium per year for the initial project in Churchrock, after which the company will have to demonstrate to the NRC certain restoration parameters before it can move forward with production of up to 3 million pounds per year.

URI has 183,000 acres of mineral holdings in New Mexico and 101.4 million pounds of in-place mineralized uranium material. The NRC Source Materials License would allow URI to produce 33.9 million pounds. Section 8 has an estimated 6.5 million pounds.

“After we have completed preliminary discussions with the appropriate staff of both the NRC and NMED, we plan on submitting the materials that they may need to renew our Source Materials License and discharge plan. These meetings will help to determine the scope of the submittals and staff expectations,” Ewigleben said.

At the same time, the company is updating its project feasibility study and reviewing the project engineering, including facility design and cost estimates.

“We will continue to demonstrate how in situ recovery mining is safe and environmentally friendly, while also showing that modern safety protocols have advanced significantly from the last mining cycle,” Ewigleben said.

“Bringing uranium mining back to New Mexico will have a strong economic impact on the state by creating jobs in the communities of Cibola and McKinley counties where we will operate.”

On July 16, members of the Churchrock community held a prayer walk to mark the 31st anniversary of the Churchrock uranium mill tailings spill. The 1979 accident occurred when an earthen tailings dam at the United Nuclear Corp. mill failed, spilling an estimated 1,100 tons of radioactive mill waste and 95 million gallons of radioactive wastewater down Pipeline Arroyo and into the north fork of the Puerco River.

Nadine Padilla of the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, a coalition of grassroots organizations, said, “We're opposed to any new uranium mining and we're in it for the long haul.”

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Discrimination: Outside Navajo Nation Borders -Tax Increase To Improve Physical and Financial Health Of Navajo Nation

Human Rights Commission Reports On Border Town Abuses
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

WINDOW ROCK – It is very evident from testimony presented during a series of public hearings that there are a variety of acts of discrimination occurring in border towns surrounding the Navajo Nation, according to representatives of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission.

Duane “Chili” Yazzie and Leonard Gorman presented the commission's findings Monday to the Navajo Nation Council.

From December 2008 through September 2009, the commission held 25 public hearings at various locations near border towns, starting with Holbrook and working clockwise around the Navajo Nation, ending in Phoenix. The hearings were attended by 447 people, of which 158 presented testimony.

“The most vulnerable Navajo is generally the older, little or no English education, physically challenged, on fixed income, indigent, and without adequate transportation. That seems to be the most that is discriminated against,” Gorman said. “The second area of finding is that Navajos are outcasts due to our distinguishing culture, beliefs and values.”

A Navajo youth in the Phoenix metropolitan area wore his hair long because his parents hold Navajo traditional values, Gorman said. “Their child has been teased and has been pushed around because of the way he wore his hair – and that is one of the unique features of the Navajo society.”

In addition, a significant number of Hopi Partitioned Land relocatees' children have been informed that they are foreigners to the communities where their parents are relocated, he said, and there is an indication that Navajos are judged by their looks and the type of clothing worn.

Navajo citizens hesitate to report these kinds of activities due to a several factors, one being fear of retaliation or some kind of embarrassment, Gorman said. Or they are unaware of their civil and human rights or available resources such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Despite reported abuses, a substantial amount of Navajo money ends up in the border towns. Gorman said a 2005 study by the Division of Economic Development showed that Navajos spent $1.1 billion out of pocket in the border towns. From October 2008 to June 2010, the Navajo Nation government spent $99 million, with Gallup getting $61.6 million; Flagstaff, $13.6 million; and Farmington, $7.3 million.

“These numbers come from the Office of the Controller,” from documents processed through the FMIS system, Gorman said.

Institutional racism in academic institutions where Navajos go to school also is an issue, with mainstream religions activities allowed to take place over Native American religions and cultural practices. Use of mascots and slogans that are culturally insensitive to indigenous peoples, and teachers making derogatory statements about indigenous peoples such as “load them up and take them back to the reservation,” also were noted.

Gorman said indigenous peoples do not receive the same services as non-Indians in the border towns. Navajo inmates are denied appropriate medical services because they are labeled as flight risks.

“Predatory businesses target Navajos when pawning goods, when we do our loan applications through those fast loans, for example, in the city of Gallup, and filing income taxes. Also there was indication that restaurants don't serve equally Navajos and indigenous peoples in the areas,” he said.

Many Navajos are hired as “at will” employees off the Navajo Nation and have no recourse to grieve their terminations, while Navajos who take proactive stances at work often face retaliatory treatment such as losing their jobs. Oftentimes, non-skilled non-Navajo employees are hired who are paid substantially higher than skilled Navajo employees, according to the commission.

Findings also include the need to preserve and protect the sacred sites and sacred activities by the Navajo people to ensure the continued practice of the Dine Life Way; the need to preserve and protect the environment through smoke-free public places, eliminating illegal dumping, and protection against desecration of the San Francisco Peaks.

“Forced relocation is one of the biggest issues that was brought up in the public hearings, in which Navajos want to move back to the Navajo Nation but can't find a place to live,” Gorman said. Other concerns were unresolved border issues in the Utah portion of the Navajo Nation, particularly in the Bluff area, and Navajos being subjected to outlandish sentencing.

“A Navajo person was sentenced to 15 years in prison for injuring a police office, but a Catholic bishop was sentenced to four years probation for killing a Navajo,” he said.

“There's a need for serious dialog between us and the border town municipalities. We have made the effort to try to go ahead and negotiate MOAs with them. We're in the process of doing that at the present time.”

Delegate Ben Curley told commissioners, “There's two issues that I didn't hear. One is that discrimination happens right here in Navajo. I also didn't hear anything about Navajo Nation veterans.

“Even within the Navajo Nation I believe a lot of our veterans, particularly those that are returning from Afghanistan, are discriminated against. Right now there are a number of them seeking employment but they're being told that there are no jobs,” he said.

The commission's Yazzie agreed with Curley. “Within the interior of the Nation, there is Navajo against Navajo,” he said.

Delegate Jonathan Nez proposed educating off-reservation businesses on the culture and traditions of the Navajo people, and then certifying those businesses that are “Navajo friendly.”

“Those that are not on the list, we shouldn't buy there. Maybe that way, they will look at us in a different light,” he said.

Larry Anderson's problem was not so much with the findings as with establishment of the Human Rights Commission. “How are you going to enforce these situations of discrimination and also, are you going to prosecute these individuals before the Human Rights Commission?”

Speaking from past experience, Anderson said, when they have asked the state, the counties, or nations to intervene into mistreatments of indigenous people, they find that nothing is ever done. “There's no prosecution or there's nobody being arrested or incarcerated for mistreatment of these people. There's no enforcement. There's only a gathering of mountains and mountains of information.

“Sometimes I feel that it's just a bureaucratic system again, where we cannot do anything about it because who is going to enforce it. Who is the policeman out there for the Human Rights Commission? ... There certainly is a lot of work that needs to be done,” he said.

Navajo Nation Leaders Have Opportunity to Save More Lives, Raise Additional Revenue By Choosing $1.50 Tax increase Over 60-Cent Proposal

Rapid City, South Dakota (July 21, 2010) –
Navajo Nation leaders have an important opportunity this week to significantly improve the physical and financial health of the Nation if they approve a $1.50 per pack cigarette tax increase over a competing 60-cent increase proposal. When compared to a 60-cent increase, a $1.50 tax increase would generate more than $500,000 in additional new revenue per year and prevent about 600 more youth from becoming smokers.

Health advocates are urging members of the Navajo Nation Council to support legislation #0361-10 with an amendment that would increase the current 40-cent per pack cigarette tax by $1.50 – bringing the new Navajo Nation cigarette tax rate to $1.90 per pack. “This legislation is more than about increasing revenues for our tribe” says Dr. Patricia Nez Henderson, a Navajo tribal member and Vice President of the Black Hills Center for American Indian Health. “It is about saving lives of our people, especially our Navajo youth.”

Increasing the cigarette tax is one of the most effective ways to reduce smoking, especially among kids. Studies show that every 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes reduces youth smoking by about seven percent and overall cigarette consumption by about four percent.

According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the Navajo Nation can expect a $1.50 cigarette tax increase to:
· Generate $890,000 in new revenue to help fund tobacco prevention and other vital health programs.
· Prevent more than 1,000 Navajo Nation kids from becoming smokers.
· Produce more than $21.3 million in long-term health care savings.
· Save more than 400 Navajo people from premature, smoking-caused deaths.
· Spur more than 400 current adult smokers to quit for good.

“Increasing the cigarette tax by $1.50 is a win-win solution that will deliver significant health and revenue benefits for the Navajo Nation,” said Matthew L. Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “We urge the Navajo Nation’s leaders to support this worthwhile legislation, which will prevent kids from smoking, improve health, and reduce smoking-caused health care costs.”

While smoking rates have been declining within the U.S. general population, Navajos are experiencing increasing rates of smoking. Studies have shown that smoking prevalence among the Navajo tribe has risen dramatically over the past 20 years, with rates as high as 38 percent in some communities.

Patricia Nez Henderson, MD, MPH
Vice President
Black Hills Center for American Indian Health
701 St. Joseph Street, Suite 204
Rapid City, SD 57701
(605) 348-6100 phone
(605) 348-6990 fax
pnhenderson@bhcaih.org
http://www.bhcaih.org/

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Churchrock Uranium Tailings Spill Remembered - NAPT: Choctaw Code Talkers

1100 Tons Of Radioactive Mill Waste
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

CHURCHROCK – Approximately 60 people joined members of the Red Water Pond Road Community Association Friday in an intimate prayer walk to remember those affected 31 years ago by the Churchrock uranium mill tailings spill.

In 1979 an earthen tailings dam at the United Nuclear Corp. mill failed, spilling 1,100 tons of radioactive mill waste and an estimated 95 million gallons of radioactive wastewater down Pipeline Arroyo and into the north fork of the Puerco River – more radiation than was released in the Three Mile Island reactor accident four months earlier.

Nadine Padilla of the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, a coalition of grassroots organizations, said the spill traveled through approximately nine Navajo Nation chapters and was the world's second-worst nuclear accident, topped only by the 1986 Chernobyl reactor meltdown.

“It's an issue that's still affecting the communities today. After the spill there was an increase in cancers in this area, and also after the spill there were a lot of stories about people's livestock and sheep being affected,” Padilla said. “There were sheep that were born with no hair at all, or the insides of the sheep were damaged. The children also were affected.

“So we have this event today to remember those that have been affected and to support the local community here in their struggle as they try to get reclamation of these areas.”
The day started with a prayer around the tepee grounds at the home of Teddy Nez, president of the community association, followed by a walk along New Mexico Route 566 to the site of the spill, and lunch and speeches at the Nez residence.

“Last year we had a larger event and we had a lot more people, but this year the community decided that they wanted to have a smaller, more intimate event, and that's what we did today,” Padilla said.

They also wanted to send a message: “We're opposed to any new uranium mining and we're in it for the long haul,” she said.

Coyote Canyon Chapter Vice President Henry Tso said, “Way back when gas was only 80 cents a gallon and a soda pop was only a nickel, I can remember that my brother and I had some relatives that worked here with United Nuclear and Kerr-McGee. During that time we didn't know that this uranium would be devastating to the community.

“Our Navajo government didn't really understand the effects of what uranium was at that time. We're seeing the effects of what it did to our people, our young ones.”

Tso said he received a telephone call from a young woman last week seeking information on whether there was any compensation available for her daughter who has had to have a series of facial surgeries because she was “born with some kind of disease.”

“It's only through harmony, only through prayers that we can start the healing. We need to come together as a family and pray with each other,” he said.

Tony Hood of the community association said the elders talk about the Creation stories and how the Navajos came to be in the present world.

“They came from the black world, yellow, white, blue. And each time they had to rethink those worlds because of some mischievous person, being the coyote, who was the perpetrator. Finally, we made it up here to the Glittering World. We still have these perpetrators running around in this government. What are we going to do if this world is contaminated? Where are we going to go?” he said.

“We're not only doing this for ourselves, we're doing it for our children and grandchildren. One of my grandsons was born with a birth defect. These corporations, they don't take that into consideration. Their bottom line is profit. They compromise people's health, Mother Earth. They think life is expendable, but life is sacred.”

John Boomer of MASE told those gathered that they need to “gradually come together like tributaries of a stream” and strengthen their numbers so the politicians will listen. Now, he said, “I don't think they listen at all. They know what they want and they're determined to get it; and we've got to be just as determined to stop their abuses and stop these practices.”

The uranium industry says mining is safe, he said. “That's what BP said too. They said offshore drilling was safe and they had new techniques, and a few months after they lifted those bans, look what happened. Hopi prophecy talks about how we're going to hear about the ocean turning black. When I saw that recently on YouTube, it gave me chills, because I thought, 'How did they know?'”

New Mexico Sen. Lynda Lovejoy said the Navajo people are going to have to work harder to stop the uranium beast. “The number of people who are going to really continue to fight uranium and fight for legacy cleanup, that number is going to keep diminishing until we're just a small number, but it's going to be strong,” she said.

“You know me to stand with you. I've always been very clear on one thing when it comes to mining – that I am against uranium development here in Churchrock and in Crownpoint. I never flip-flop on that whatsoever.”

She said she was extremely proud of Padilla, who along with Eric Jantz of New Mexico Environmental Law Center testified last week before the state Radioactive and Hazardous Waste Committee.

“She is just a little tiny petite young woman but she is stronger than Goliath. The legislators, the white leaders, they grilled her. Anyone else would have gotten so emotional and just cried and put their head down. She sat there with her head high. She answered their questions.”

Padilla said she and Jantz presented concerns about the uranium legacy and going forward with new mining when there is a big problem that still needs to be dealt with.

“The committee members didn't seem particularly receptive to our message and they grilled us pretty hard for about two hours. They used a lot of personal attacks against Eric and I. They were asking me – 'Did you go to school? What are your degrees in?' -- trying to discredit what my message was. And they were also asking Eric, 'Who do you work for? You must be getting paid a lot to be throwing those type of lies around.'

“It felt like we weren't really able to discuss the issues so much as just trying to defend our own personal characters and our organizations,” she said.

Lovejoy said the battle at the state level is “very frustrating, because you have your own leaders that are not going to back you up.” Some are getting their campaign money “from the very industry that we're doing battle with,” she said, and encouraged the audience to look it up on the Internet.

The federal government used Navajo people as guinea pigs, she said. “They knew that we couldn't speak up. They knew that our people were uneducated. They took advantage of our people. You are brave when you step up and say no. You are brave when you step up and say, 'Wait a minute, what about our water? What about the air? What about our health risks?'”

She said she has told fellow leaders, “You can't even spend a few thousand dollars to do a comprehensive study. You dispute everything. You have never accepted the data. Just put up a few dollars and let's do a comprehensive study.” But still today, nothing. “That's what we're up against. That's the truth,” she said.

Nez said the time for talk is over. It's time for action. The community group wants a time line for cleanup and health studies.

“We want U.S. EPA Region 9 to fulfill their responsibility, and then we want U.S. EPA Region 6 to take the responsibility and do their thing, and then we want the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to do their thing within that time line instead of just playing ping-pong and blaming each other. What we want to hear is 'I can do it.'”

Choctaw Code Talkers - WWI War Heros
Jessica Kinser
(402) 472-8607
kinser2@unl.edu

Choctaw Code Talkers, a compelling documentary about America's World War I heroes, comes to public television in Fall 2010

Native American Public Telecommunications, Inc. (NAPT) proudly announces the release of a new documentary that examines the pivotal role that Choctaw soldiers played in helping shape an earlier end of World War I.

In 1918, not yet citizens of the United States, Choctaw members of the American Expeditionary Forces were asked by the government to use their Native language as a powerful tool against the German Forces in World War I, setting a precedent for code talking as an effective military weapon and establishing them as America's Original Code Talkers.

Co-produced by Red-Horse Native Productions, Inc., Valhalla Motion Pictures and Native American Public Telecommunications, Inc. (NAPT), Choctaw Code Talkers will transport viewers back to World War I for an intimate and engaging look into the lives of these brave men, their families, their dreams and their patriotism to a country who would remember them as heroes, but not until after their death.

"The government had sworn them to secrecy about what they did," said Evangeline Wilson, relative of Code Talkers Mitchell Bobb and James Edwards, Sr.

Choctaw Code Talkers is a follow-up to the award-winning documentary True Whispers: The Story of the Navajo Code Talkers, a PBS nationally broadcast documentary produced by Valerie Red-Horse, President, of Red-Horse Native Productions, Inc. with Gale Anne Hurd, CEO, of Valhalla Motion Pictures.

"By launching the original concept of code talking for secure military communications, these brave Choctaw men laid the foundation for all other battlefield code talkers, including the Navajo, who were so instrumental in World War II. Even though it is overdue, nearly 100 years since their service, I am honored to be a part of bringing this important American story to the screen," Red-Horse said.

In World War I, by 1918, the German Forces had deciphered the Allied Forces' radio codes, tapped into their phone lines and captured messenger runners in order to anticipate the Allied strategies. The Allied Forces were desperate to attain secure communications and requested Choctaw soldiers to use their language to transmit messages in the field and from the trenches.

"If you don't have secure communications, it will end in stalemate or defeat," stated Matt Reed, Curator of the American Indian and Military History Collections at the Oklahoma Museum of History.

"This is an important story of heroic men whose wartime contributions helped to change the course of world history. Their Code was created while the men risked their lives fighting in Northern France during the fiercest and bloodiest battles of World War I.

The Choctaw American Indian soldiers outwitted their German opponents, turning the tide of the War and ensuring the Allied victory," said Hurd.

Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT) shares Native stories with the world through support of the creation, promotion and distribution of Native media. Founded in 1977, through various media-public television, public radio and the Internet-NAPT brings awareness of Indian and Alaska Native issues.

NAPT operates the AIROS Native Network, a 24/7 Internet radio station that features music, news, interviews, documentaries and audio theater. AIROS also features downloadable podcasts with Native filmmakers, musicians and Tribal leaders. VisionMaker Video is the premier source for quality Native American educational and home videos. All aspects of our programs encourage the involvement of young people to learn more about careers in the media-to be the next generation of storytellers.

NAPT is located at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. NAPT offers student employment, internships and fellowships. Reaching the general public and the global market is the ultimate goal for the dissemination of Native-produced media.

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The Ute Paradox: Billion-Dollar Business - Best RV Park In Minnesota

A Small Colorado Tribe Takes Control of its Energy And Becomes A Billion-Dollar Business- BUT Has It Gone Too Far?
By Jonathan Thompson
From the July 09, 2010 issue of High Country News

Then-Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne flashed a big grin as he opened the Minerals Management Service's Lease Sale 206 in the Louisiana Superdome on March 19, 2008. Eighty-five oil companies were vying for the chance to drill in the Gulf of Mexico. With oil selling for over $100 per barrel, the Superdome hadn't seen such a frenzy since Beyoncé kicked off her tour here a year earlier.

High bids totaled more than $3.5 billion, a new record, for access to more than 28 million acres of sea-bottom. BP, the international energy giant, paid $34 million for the 5,760 acres known as Mississippi Canyon block 252 -- a disastrous purchase in retrospect, since the well that was eventually drilled there was the one that exploded and caused the current mess in the Gulf.

Also bidding for block 252 was Red Willow Offshore, LLC, with a $14 million offer that came up short. The company has made a splash in the Gulf of Mexico in recent years, typically partnering with others on deepwater endeavors. But Red Willow Offshore is not your average international oil company. It is the wholly owned subsidiary of a small American Indian nation -- the Southern Ute Tribe in southwestern Colorado.

Less than a century ago, the Southern Utes were barely hanging on, squeezed onto an unremarkable sliver of reservation land, a new and foreign way of life thrust upon them. Even as late as the 1950s, many had no running water or noticeable income. But today, as the bidding at the Superdome showed, the once-impoverished tribe is a financial powerhouse. With tribal businesses in 14 states, ranging from Gulf crude to upscale San Diego real estate, the 1,400 or so tribal members are, collectively, worth billions.

They didn't strike it rich on casino gambling. Instead, the Southern Utes built their empire slowly, over decades, primarily by taking control of the vast coalbed methane and natural gas deposits that lie under their land. They've achieved cultural, environmental and economic self-determination through energy self-determination -- a feat rarely accomplished, whether by Indians or non-Indians.

"The Southern Ute Indian Tribe is unique," one tribal Web site says matter-of-factly -- a statement few would argue with.

In the process, however, the Southern Utes have gone far beyond self-determination. These days, the tribe's oil and gas operations extend to other reservations as well as to private land, sometimes to places whose own residents oppose it. The tribe's influence reaches to Washington, D.C., affecting federal energy policy. And some observers can't help wondering: Where does the tribe stop and the corporate giant begin?

At least seven bands of Utes roamed a huge expanse of present-day Colorado and parts of Utah and New Mexico as far back as eight or nine centuries ago. They held off the Spanish colonizers that swept north from Mexico in the late 1500s, but had less success against the U.S. onslaught in the late 1800s. In 1895, members of the Mouache and Capote bands finally accepted allotments -- essentially Indian homesteads -- on the slice of high desert called the "Ute Strip."

The rest of the strip was opened up to white homesteaders, laying the foundation for today's Southern Ute Reservation: a 75-mile-long by 15-mile-wide checkerboard on which whites still own roughly half the land, bordered on the south by New Mexico and on the west by the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation, where those who refused allotments ultimately settled.
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Writer Jonathan Thompson lived his first 40 years within the original Ute territory. His maternal ancestors homesteaded in land taken from the Utes by the Brunot Treaty. And his paternal ancestors homesteaded on the Ute Strip, within today's reservation boundaries. He owned and ran newspapers in Silverton, Colo., and was High Country News editor-in-chief from November 2007 to April 2010. He recently moved with his family to Berlin.

Dakotah Meadows Selected Best RV Park In Minnesota
By Tessa Kehto
Communications Specialist
tessa.lehto@shakopeedakota.org

Prior Lake, MN – Dakotah Meadows RV Park has been selected as the Best RV Park in Minnesota by the readers of Midwest Gaming & Travel magazine. The results appeared in the July 2010 issue. Readers of the magazine voted last April for their favorite Midwest Native American casinos in a number of categories based on personal experience within the past twelve months.

This is the ninth year the magazine, based in Waseca, Minnesota, has done the surveys. Midwest Gaming & Travel, with a circulation of 50,000, is a glossy, monthly consumer magazine with a nine-state primary coverage area, extending from Missouri to Minnesota to Pennsylvania.

"We are very pleased at being selected for this honor," said Dakotah Meadows Manager Lester Morris. "It's great that casino guests in the Midwest like our RV Park the best."

Dakotah Meadows RV Park, with its natural setting, including a pond, trees, and occasional wildlife, has 122 paved, back-in and pull-through RV sites with electric, water, and sewer hook ups. Dakotah Meadows also has six tipis painted with Native Dakota designs available for overnight rental. Each tipi accommodates up to 10 people. The campground also features showers, laundry facilities, a pavilion for group gatherings, picnic tables, barbeque grills, free shuttle service to Mystic Lake Casino Hotel, a fuel center, and a Super Self-Serve RV Wash.

Dakotah Meadows is an enterprise of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, a federally recognized Indian Tribe in Minnesota. Other Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community enterprises which won Reader's Choice Awards in Midwest Gaming & Travel are Mystic Lake Casino Hotel and The Meadows at Mystic Lake.

Dakotah Meadows RV Park is adjacent to Mystic Lake Casino Hotel in Prior Lake, Minnesota. To register to stay at Dakotah Meadows call 1-800-653-CAMP or 952-445-8800 or visit their website at www. dakotahmeadows.com.

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

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'79 Uranium Mill Tailings Spill Remembered With Prayer Walk - New Orleans Museum Display Of Native American Art To Open July 24th

Churchrock Spill Prayer Walk Set For July 16th
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

WINDOW ROCK – The Multicultural Alliance For A Safe Environment and residents of Red Water Pond Road will gather July 16 to host a prayer walk on state Highway 566 in remembrance of communities affected by the July 16, 1979, Churchrock uranium mill tailings spill.

Invited speakers include New Mexico Sen. Lynda Lovejoy, Navajo Nation Council Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan and Resources Committee Chairman George Arthur, who sponsored the Dine Natural Resources Protection Act of 2005 to ban uranium mining and processing within Navajo Indian Country.

Statements of solidarity by representatives of MASE core groups such as Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining and Bluewater Valley Downstream Alliance also are on the agenda to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the spill.

An opening prayer at 7 a.m. will kick off the event at the residence of Teddy Nez, 29E Red Water Pond Road, next to the Northeast Churchrock Mine. Participants will begin the walk at 7:30 a.m., and arrive at the south end of the UNC uranium mill tailings impoundment around 9 a.m., where there will be prayers for health and remarks from community members.

Participants then can walk or take a shuttle van back to the Nez residence, where a luncheon is scheduled at noon, along with a reading of the proclamation reaffirming the Navajo Nation’s uranium mining ban, signed last July 16 by President Joe Shirley Jr.

The 1979 spill occurred when an earthen tailings dam at the UNC mill failed, sending 1,100 tons of radioactive mill waste and an estimated 95 million gallons of mine process effluent down Pipeline Arroyo and into the north fork of the Puerco River.

The spill ranks second only to the 1986 Chernobyl reactor meltdown in the amount of radiation released.

July 16 also is a historic day in New Mexico because it was the day in 1945 when the first atomic bomb was detonated at the Trinity Test Site at Alamogordo, N.M.

To mark the event, the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium and Las Mujeres Hablan will hold a statewide gathering in Tularosa in support and remembrance of those who were exposed to the radiation. A candlelight vigil is scheduled 8-10 p.m., in Tularosa for those who have lost loved ones to cancer or who are cancer survivors.

On July 17, the Consortium and Las Mujeres Hablan will hold an all day community gathering, beginning at 9 a.m., at the Tularosa Community Center.

Participants will have the opportunity to share their memories of the Trinity test and also to learn about the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act amendments proposed by U.S. Sen. Tom Udall and a bipartisan group of congressmen. The amendments would cover New Mexico downwinders exposed to radiation from the Trinity Test Site.

Information: Churchrock walk, Teddy Nez, (505) 879-2910; Tularosa vigil, Tina Cordova, (505) 897-6838

ANCESTORS AND DESCENDANTS:
Ancient Southwestern America at the Dawn of the 20th Century on display at NOMA from July 24 - October 24

A little known American Indian archive will be unveiled at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) from July 24 until October 24, 2010. Ancestors and Descendants: Ancient Southwestern America at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century will be the first comprehensive exhibition of nineteenth century photography, southwestern artifacts and archival research from the George Hubbard Pepper Native American Archive at Tulane University.

In collaboration with Tulane’s Middle American Research Institute (MARI) and Latin American Library (LAL), the exhibition offers a special glimpse of the Tulane archive featuring over 150 objects from Pepper’s personal Native American art collection as well as over 140 photographic images Pepper, a museum ethnologist and scholar, used as visual complements to his lectures.

Many of the images and the objects in Ancestors and Descendents, including textiles, pottery, baskets, and other Pueblo and Navajo paraphernalia, have never been published or seen by the general public since 1924.

“There has never been an opportunity to bring together this many items from the Pepper archive,” said Paul Tarver, curator of Ancestors and Descendants. “Even in his lifetime, Pepper could only display a handful of objects with a few dozen images he projected through a magic lantern. This is the first time the breadth of the archive has been researched and displayed.”

The objects and images selected for the NOMA exhibition document the relationship between American Indians and the scientists, photographers and tourists who traveled to New Mexico and Arizona at the turn of the twentieth century. MARI and LAL archives include Pepper’s original excavation journals, personal diaries, sketch books, lectures and photographs that illustrate everyday interactions between Pepper and his subjects.

The exhibition will utilize excerpts from these materials and bring the time period to life through Pepper’s words.

The exhibition at NOMA will display the wide variety of art forms Pepper collected from the Southwest as well as drawings and original handwritten journals from his Bonito excavation. Ancestors and Descendents presents a rare opportunity to see a collection that was put together over one hundred years ago by a museum ethnologist and early collector and scholar of Native American art.

Ancestors and Descendents: Ancient Southwestern America at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century is curated by Paul J. Tarver NOMA’s Curator of Pre-Columbian and Native American Art and co-curated by Cristin J. Nunez. The exhibition is generously funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, and the Cudd Foundation.

NOMA Admission
Wednesdays are FREE for all Museum visitors. Louisiana residents with valid photo identification: Adults, $8; Seniors (65 and up), $7; Children 3-17, $4; Children under 3, free. Out-of-state visitors: Adults, $10; Seniors (65 and up), $9; Children 3-17, $5; Children under 3, free. Free Wednesdays and discounted admission for Louisiana residents is made possible through the generosity of The Helis Foundation.

About NOMA And The Besthoff Sculpture Garden
The New Orleans Museum of Art, founded in 1910 by Isaac Delgado, houses more than 30,000 art objects encompassing 4,000 years of world art. Works from the permanent collection, along with continuously changing temporary exhibitions, are on view in the Museum’s 46 galleries Wednesdays from noon to 8 p.m. and Thursdays to Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Admission to the adjacent Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, featuring work by 61 artists, is always free. The Sculpture Garden is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. except for Wednesdays, when it’s open until dusk.

The New Orleans Museum of Art and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden are fully accessible to handicapped visitors and wheelchairs are available from the front desk.

For More Information:
Call (504) 658-4100 or visit http://www.noma.org/.
Grace WilsonDirector of Communications & MarketingNew Orleans Museum of Art
Desk: (504) 658-4106Cell: (504) 729-0887Fax: (504) 658-4199
Press Room: http://www.noma.org/pressroom/index.html

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The Man: Uranium Mill Cleanup - 'Fat Paycheck' - Renal Cell Carcinoma

Cleanup Of Shiprock Uranium Mill Takes Its Toll On former NECA Worker
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

GALLUP – Twenty-five years ago Phillip James Lee Jr. of Shiprock went to work with Navajo Engineering Construction Authority, lured by a fat paycheck.

Now, 25 years later, he is paying the price, Lee told a group of former uranium workers last week at a Post '71 Uranium Workers Committee meeting in Gallup.

Lee, who turned 51Sunday, said he worked for NECA in Shiprock from June 1985 to around September 1986, operating a scraper during cleanup of the former Kerr-McGee mill, hauling contaminated fill. He helped gather all the materials for disposal in the Department of Energy uranium mill tailings site now located behind NECA.

“We went down about 20 feet and the bosses would be up there watching us. All the big old timber that was used to support the mine were going into our scrapers. It was like purple and pink – real fine sand. They even made a road down to the river for us. We went down there and they used a Geiger counter, and we'd load that up until there was no more contamination.

“There was quite a few of us at the peak of it, but there were only so many of us that really went down into that big mine area that drove the scrapers. Sometimes our machines would get contaminated. We'd park it and they'd spray it down, and supposedly that would get rid of the contamination. We'd jump back on and take off again,” he said.

The workers were given paper filters to cover their mouths and what he believes was a Geiger-counter was used to check their hands and clothes before they went to lunch or left work. “A lot of people didn't do that. They didn't even think about it.”

But he was careful. His wife would bring soapy water and he would wash off really well, he said.

“I was lured by big money back then -- $14 an hour was a lot. They gave me a $500 check every Friday. I was satisfied. Two and a half years, they said, you're going to do this job. They would tell us it was not that dangerous. We'd get a 30 minute break and go back to work. They'd push us – 'Get this many loads a day.' We were getting close to 100 loads a day.

“We worked ourselves out of a job. We did it in less than a year and a half. Congratulations, you made NECA money! They were all happy. All we got was a lousy hat,” he said.

Lee worked at NECA another five years from 2000 to 2005 as a guard. “The fine dust would blow from the piling side and from that lagoon with the contaminated water. I wouldn't really want to eat my lunch at the guard shack. I would try to get in the unit and park out there and eat.”

Last August, Lee thought he had a hernia. Instead, he was diagnosed with cancer – renal cell carcinoma. “That cancer was 10 centimeters. They took my left kidney out,” he said. His medical papers described it as “grossly unrecognizable.”

But he was still having pain. In February his doctor did another CAT scan and found a spot on his pancreas – 2.3 centimeters. “He said, 'We can find out now if it's cancerous. Go to San Juan Regional, they'll stick a long needle in your abdomen, but it might cause more problems. Or you can opt to wait two months for another CAT scan.'

“I said, 'I'll do the CAT scan.' In April, I went back. That thing had grown from 2.3 to 3.2 centimeters, and it showed other things – a spot on my lung, on my other kidney, my pancreas.”

The doctor referred him to an oncologist, and on June 23 he went in for a PET scan. “It's similar to a CAT scan but it checks specifically for cancer. It's going to light up all the areas that the cancer has spread,” he said.

He was told that if the cancer was just on his pancreas they could re-cut him in the same place and take off part of the pancreas, “but if the PET scan shows it's spread all the way across, I'm going to have to start chemotherapy,” he said.

Monday, Lee received relatively good news from his doctor.

“They said they are going to cut the tail of my pancreas off. So there goes part of another organ, but at least it didn't spread. That's what I was really worried about,” he said Tuesday. “They're going to do another PET scan in six months to see that it hasn't spread. Hopefully it won't come back after they do cut it out.”

In 1983, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Navajo Nation entered an agreement for cleanup of the Shiprock mill site. Lee said he has tried to get medical help from the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program, or EEOICPA, administered by the U.S. Department of Labor.

The program is supposed to provide lump-sum compensation and health benefits to eligible Department of Energy nuclear weapons workers – including employees, former employees, contractors and subcontractors.

“I checked there and they gave me the runaround,” he said. He also checked out the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act program. “They gave me the same thing. I'm really going through a lot and they keep telling me, 'You're not eligible for anything.' It's hard dealing with it.”

A plume containing about 1.2 million cubic yards of contaminated groundwater is now present beneath the former mill site. The plume extends beyond the former mill site boundaries to cover an area about 1.6 miles long by nearly a mile wide. The San Juan River lies about 600 feet away from the disposal cell, separated by a 50 to 60 foot steep slope.

In 1961 a test hole was drilled 1,850 feet deep on the terrace northwest of the disposal cell. Artesian flow from this hole, which was not capped, has continued for the past 49 years, sending about 64 gallons per minute across the terrace into Bob Lee Wash, which eventually drains to the San Juan River.

Contaminated groundwater has been found in the alluvial aquifer as well as the Bob Lee and Many Devils washes. The extracted groundwater is piped to an 11-acre evaporation pond on the terrace. The site is monitored by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Legacy Management, which anticipates that natural flushing from the artesian well could clean the floodplain aquifer within 75 years.

“The whole groundwater in Shiprock is contaminated,” Lee said. “I showed my grandchildren what got me sick about a month ago, and that lagoon (evaporation pond) was almost completely full of contaminated water – and it's oozing across.”

Another Lee family, not related to Phillip Lee, grew up in the mill area. The Bob Lee Wash is named for their father, Jimmy Bob Lee, who died of stomach cancer.

Lee's daughter, Annie King, said the family hogan is still there and the artesian well is on their grazing area. The family is in dispute with the Navajo Nation about the adjacent Shiprock Fairground site. “That fairground is contaminated,” said King. “That's why we want no fair going on there. It's not safe.”

Her brother, Raymond Lee, 49, said he and his siblings played throughout the mill site when they were young. “It was like, torn down, but we didn't know any better. They had kind of wastewater that used to come out from the Bob Lee Wash. I used to stand up there and we used to jump off and swim in it. It was fun in the summertime,” he said. They also used to drink the water.

“There was like pits down on the bottom and there was rafts in there and we used to just move around the rafts – like making a movie, how they have those boats – we were just having a fun time. We didn't know all those were just uranium pits. They had like yellow-brown caked around the edges of them. We didn't know what it was when we were small. I don't know, maybe after a while I might be glowing,” he said.

The family said Kerr-McGee also would put monitors inside their houses. “They used to tell us – everybody that was here that lived there – to move up on top of the hill because they wanted to have this smoke, or whatever, come through, and then we could go back down.

King used to watch the monitor. “Sometimes the needle would go all the way over,” she said.

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
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

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Robert Bracamontes: 'Preserve Our land, Parks And Sacred Sites'

"America's Great Outdoors"
Wednesday, July 7th
Whittier Narrows Recreation Center, CA

Addressing Secretary Ken Salazar, Department of the Interior; Nancy Sutley, White House Council on Environmental Quality; Lisa Jackson, Environmental Protection Agency

Thank you all for attending, and thank you to those who made all of this possible.
In the end, all of us here today are talking about our relationship to the land. And for the Indigenous People it is very different. The most important message here is that we are on Tongva land. They are the people who should be making the decisions about their land and the sacred sites on it. This should include both non-federally recognized and recognized tribes.

I do not live far from here and so I am lucky. You see, I have spent time here at Whittier Narrows – fishing across the street with my children when they were young, rode their bikes up and down all these paths while my wife jogged. I remember Spicer, my dog, dragging me into the Lake chasing the ducks and geese. So, as a local resident, I appreciate my green open space. This is where I grew up and raised a family.

I really don’t know of a human being who hates to smell a rose or sit in the shade of a tree on a warm day. I can’t imagine anyone who would be against parks, beaches, and trails in the San Gabriel Mountains. I have hiked the Santa Anita Creek to see the waterfall. My elders have the fondest memories of Marrano Beach just up the road. I support a National Recreation Area that includes indigenous input every step of the way.

But deeper into my heart and soul lays the essence of who I am and where most Indigenous People find themselves today. We live in the conquered space, but we are attached forever to the sacred places of our Ancestors.

You see, I am from the Acjachemen Nation. We, the Juanenos from the Acjachemen Nation, have loved Mother Earth for more than 10,000 years. And our attachment goes beyond just all the pretty little plants, flowers, the trees and the shade they provide. Our culture and very existence are connected to the earth.

Preservation of our land is a matter of life and death. Our religious practices are attached to the land. One of our sacred sites, Panhe, is under attack by road makers, corporations, and pollution. And we need all of you in this room to help us protect it and San Onofre State Beach. All of you.

I would not ask you to tear down a church, mosque, temple or synagogue for the sake of “progress.” Please meet with us to save Panhe.

I believe we are here to dignify ourselves by sharing truth and honesty, so I am compelled to ask officials to assist us. I have filed an Administrative Complaint with the Department of Interior and EPA to save California’s state parks for all. The New York Times says federal intervention may be needed to save endangered state parks. I agree.

Many Sacred Sites are in state parks. I am working with Robert Garcia and The City Project. Yet the complaint we filed has yet to be investigated after 10 months, far beyond the 20 day dead line. Please help us.

I was reading an article on the San Francisco Peaks in Arizona, where 13 tribes are trying to save sacred land from desecration. A writer wrote “considered sacred.” I thought I better look up consider, it means to think carefully about or ponder on (a problem, decision, etc); contemplate.
But Indigenous history is often forgotten and distorted by famous professors, prestigious universities, governments and even well meaning people, so I am not surprised. We are questioned and judged, even about our religious practices. Please save San Francisco Peaks.

The bankers and financial corporations have been saved. Now it is time to save the people and their land.

Please end the wars and bring our troops home.
PEACE

Robert Bracamontes is a second generation trucker, published poet, journalist and blogger. He is a member of the Native American Acjachemen Nation, Juaneno Tribe and publishes his blog at www.onlinewithbob.com.

Bob was a columnist for Our Times, a section of the Los Angeles Times. His column focused on the local neighborhoods of Pico Rivera, Montebello, East LA, Downey, City of Commerce, and Whittier. Bob's writing turned into more than just a weekly column, it became a way for him to connect with community members. Bob’s articles have been published on other political websites and used in University lectures.

Bob and his wife, Patricia, were married in 1977 and currently reside a few blocks from where they grew up. They have raised five children who have graduated from Harvard, Stanford and UC Berkeley Law School.

The Acjachemen / Juaneno people have lived in the area of the Sacred Site of Panhe for over 9,000 years. In 1769, the Portola expedition came across the 350 residents of Panhe. This is where the first baptism in California was performed, the site now marked with a large white cross. The Acjachemen / Juaneno people built the San Juan Capistrano Mission. They are fighting to save Panhe at San Onofre State Beach, www.savepanhe.org.

Robert (Bob) Bracamontes
Yu-va'-tal 'A'lla-mal
(Black Crow)
Acjachemen Nation,
Juaneno Tribe
www.onlinewithbob.com

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

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Navajo's Proposed Cigarette Tax Increase Could Have Backlash

By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent
WINDOW ROCK – A resolution to increase the Navajo Nation's tax on cigarettes from 60 cents to $1 a pack could have some unintended consequences, including undercutting New Mexico's 75-cent tax increase that went effect July 1, and luring more cigarette customers to Navajo.

The Budget and Finance Committee unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday sponsored by Delegate Orlando Smith-Hodge which would increase the tax rate on all tobacco products sold on the Nation. It also would eliminate the licensing provision of the Tobacco Products Tax and Licensing Act and allow the Office of the Tax Commission to better incorporate taxes in the future.

“This change will make this tax similar to the other six Navajo Nation taxes and will make it more efficient to administer,” she said.

Legislative Counsel Frank Seanez said the Nation has an agreement with the state of New Mexico relative to tobacco taxes and the rate of taxation the Nation gets. “The effort is to have the Navajo Nation tobacco tax rate match the state tax rate so that the benefits of the additional tax revenue to the Navajo Nation would remain in place,” he said.

However, the agreement expired July 1, “so the sooner the tobacco tax resolution can be passed, the sooner the Navajo Nation will resume receiving those tax revenues,” Seanez said.

Marcelino Gomez of the Navajo Nation Department of Justice said that if Navajo increases its rate to $1, that will be credited against the state tax and the Nation will receive virtually all the tobacco tax on sales of cigarettes on the Navajo Nation. If Navajo doesn't increase the rate, then the state will keep the dollar.

Budget and Finance Chairman Lorenzo Bates pointed out that the Nation's legislation would increase the tax on a pack of cigarettes 60 cents, compared to New Mexico's 75-cent increase. “Are we losing out on 15 cents?” he asked.

“If I'm a smoker, I'm going to go to Navajo because I don't have to pay that much” for a pack of cigarettes, he said. “If part of the intent is to generate revenue and also deter tobacco use, now you've got more people coming to Navajo.”

Martin Ashley from the Navajo Tax Commission said the Navajo resolution was approved by the Tax Commission in February, before New Mexico actually passed legislation increasing its tobacco tax. “The tax in the Navajo Nation was 40 cents and we're increasing that to $1,” Ashley said.

“We were bringing our taxes up to the same level as Arizona -- that's what we were trying to do initially. Subsequent to that, New Mexico approved theirs at the higher rate. We weren't intending to undercut New Mexico,” he said, but added, “I guess if I were a smoker, yes, I would go to where the tax is lower.”

According to the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, New Mexico passed a 75-cent tobacco tax increase late in the evening on March 4 and sent it to Gov. Bill Richardson’s desk for his signature – pushing the state cigarette tax to $1.66 per pack.

The Utah legislature passed a $1.005 increase March 5 bringing the state’s cigarette tax to $1.70. That increase also went into effect July 1. Both state taxes are now well above the current national average of $1.34 per pack. In Utah, the legislature also passed a 51 percent increase on other tobacco products and a $1.08 per ounce increase in the moist snuff tax.

Arizona increased its cigarette tax 82 cents in December 2006 to the current rate of $2 while Colorado increased its tax in January 2005 by 64 cents to the current rate of 84 cents, according to Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network is working on campaigns to increase tobacco taxes in many states across the country. Since 2002, 46 states, the District of Columbia and several U.S. territories have raised their cigarette tax in 97 separate instances, including 14 states and the District of Columbia in 2009 alone.

Once the increases in New Mexico and Utah go into effect, the average state cigarette tax will be $1.38 per pack, with taxes ranging from a low of 7 cents in South Carolina to a high of $3.46 in Rhode Island. New Mexico and Utah are the first states to significantly increase their tobacco taxes in 2010.

“Raising tobacco taxes protects public health by reducing smoking and helps to boost the economy by generating revenue and long-term health savings. We encourage more states to follow New Mexico and Utah’s lead,” said John R. Seffrin, Ph.D., of the Cancer Action Network

“There have been Supreme Court cases on this where tribes have come in selling tobacco products and undercutting states, and the states have sued,” said Budget and Finance member Lorenzo Curley.

Gomez, referring to cases in New York, said case law in that area has gone in the state's favor.

“The states have the ability to enforce taxes on tobacco products sold in Indian Country. The first Navajo tobacco products tax came about as a result of what Arizona was doing. It followed the Supreme Court decisions in the case in New York, which allowed states to impose tax.”

Last October, the Navajo Nation Council voted down the Commercial Tobacco-Free act of 2009, sponsored by Thomas Walker Jr., which would have prohibited the use of commercial tobacco products in public places and workplaces on the Navajo Nation.

Budget and Finance's Jonathan Nez said he is looking at trying to prevent people from using tobacco. If Navajo's lower tax rate might bring more people to the Nation to buy cigarettes, he said, “we need to look at that.”

The committee's Ralph Bennett directed that before presenters come to Council, they put together a matrix chart that shows all of the tobacco products along with their prices in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Smith-Hodge's resolution passed 7-0 with Bennett's directive.

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Navajo Nation 'Grand Canyon Helicopter Tours' Still Under Discussion

Executive Session Held On Papillion Air Tours
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Indepemdemt

WINDOW ROCK – The Resources Committee met Thursday in executive session to discuss the outcome of Tuesday's meeting with Papillion Airways Inc. in Las Vegas regarding helicopter tours of Little Colorado River Gorge/Grand Canyon area.

Resources voted Monday to approve travel for committee members Norman John II and Phil Harrison Jr., following a June 16 meeting with Navajo Department of Parks and Recreation and Papillion representatives in Albuquerque.

“We're not concluded on the negotiations yet,” Ray Russell, director of Parks and Recreation, said after Thursday's meeting.

Russell said the Nation is negotiating with both Papillion and Maverick Airstar Helicopters, based on a directive that the Resources Committee issued to the program, and that negotiations with Maverick are almost complete.

“It doesn't matter who gets it (contract). The issue from the Resources Committee is we want those services being conducted out there,” Russell said.

The Navajo Nation made a request for proposals in 2006, he added. “There are only two big companies out there and these are the two companies.” A determination is expected within the next three months, he said.

Papillion proposes to develop two operational landing sites along the East Rim of the Grand Canyon overlooking the confluence of the Little Colorado and to build two landing pads along U.S. Highway 89 at Cameron, according to a press release from the Office of the Speaker.

Operations would begin initially with two tours from the South Rim. It is expected that the tours would generate an estimated $8 million over three to five years.

During the Albuquerque meeting, Resources member Harry Williams raised concerns regarding the affected chapters of Cameron and Bodaway/Gap. The Cameron Chapter has been working on its helicopter route for more than six years and has chosen to work with Maverick, which reportedly has already completed environmental and archaeological clearances.

“The Council is going to ask what are the two chapters saying, as well as the land users. We do not want to get hung up on that issue – those things need to be addressed,” Williams said.

Resources Chairman George Arthur told the committee, however, that the project can move along without chapter involvement and Council approval.

“About two years ago, we said we were going to go through with this project. The mistake we made was that we gave the project to the wrong person within the Navajo Nation government. The only way this will happen is if we do it ourselves and move the initiatives forward,” he said.

The National Park Service and the Federal Aviation Administration are poised to announce their preferred alternative of final flight routes for Grand Canyon air tour overflights. It is critical that the Navajo Nation assert its rights to have tour routes established that can be the basis for future development, Lamar Whitmer of the Fulcrum Group of Scottsdale told the committee in May.

Whitmer worked with the Hualapai Tribe to get its exception into the Grand Canyon airspace as well as development of the Skywalk. He said the Navajo Nation should insist on equal consideration, as was given to the Hualapai Tribe, and demand an exemption to the cap on the total number of tour flights established by the park service 10 years ago.

Vice President Ben Shelly requested a tribal consultation meeting this month with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's office, the National Park Service, and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Cameron has the potential to become the eastern hub into the South Rim for airplane and helicopter air tours, as well as bus tours. Bodaway/Gap has “tremendous long-term potential” through the development of an airport, retail, hotels and restaurants centered around a tram to the canyon floor overlooking the Colorado River, according to Whitmer.

The Resources Committee is authorized by Navajo Nation Code to “set aside and withdraw areas of Navajo land for use as parks, monuments and recreation sites, upon recommendation of the Parks Commission and the Parks and Recreation Department, after proper clearance from the Navajo Land Department and the local chapter.”

Thus, Papillion and Parks and Rec do not need chapter approval to proceed with development because chapters consented to the withdrawal of lands for the Little Colorado River Tribal Park by resolution in 1962, according to the Speaker's Office. The resolution set aside 360,000-plus in the Western Navajo Agency for the beneficial use of Navajo people.

In a Feb. 24 letter to Brian Brusa of Maverick, Russell said they received a copy of Maverick's tour permit application and supporting documents but did not have the original application, which he said “supposedly was dropped off” with former Resources Division Director Arvin Trujillo and himself several weeks prior.

Russell said the department would review and evaluate Maverick's “original” permit application and respond accordingly. He also requested that any future communication in the matter “be held in the strictest confidence directly between the applicant (Maverick) and regulatory authority (Navajo Parks and Recreation Department) without third party involvement.”

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Navajo/Hopi At Odds Over Arizona Water Rights - Bracamontes To Speak At Outdoors Event

Resolution To Restrict NTUA Fails
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

WINDOW ROCK – A resolution which would restrict Navajo Tribal Utility Authority from providing services such as water and natural gas to off-Navajo Nation enterprises failed to gain approval of the Resources Committee last week.

Sponsor Bobby Robbins and To' Nanees' Dizi Chapter Vice President Robert Yazzie presented concerns Thursday regarding NTUA possibly selling water to the Hopi Tribe, stating that the chapter objects to NTUA entering into a contract with the Moenkopi Hopi Economic Development Corp. to provide water and natural gas to the $13 million hotel and conference center just across U.S. Highway 160 from Tuba City.

Presenters cited the Navajo Nation's pending water rights settlement in Arizona, drought conditions and lack of water for Navajo residents in the Cameron, Tuba City, and Grand Canyon area as major factors.

“In Tuba City, how severe is the water shortage,” Vice Chairman Curran Hannon asked. Robbins said that when the water is low, NTUA shuts it down. The water shortage is such that many residents suffer on a daily basis from not having ready access to adequate, clean water, they said.

“Until the NTUA can adequately provide for the basic needs of our people, we will continue to strongly oppose the NTUA plan to pipe water out of our communities to support commercial development in the Hopi Village of Moenkopi,” the resolution states.

It further directs the NTUA management board and general manager to operate within the enterprise's established purposes and authority and to abide by the terms of the water permits issued pursuant to the Navajo Nation Water Code. The code restricts the use of Navajo water to the territorial jurisdiction of the Nation unless off-Navajo use is authorized by the Navajo Nation Council.

“Why do we have to divert the water to somewhere else when we don't have enough to support our own people,” asked To' Nanees' Dizi Delegate Harry Williams, who is a member of the Resources Committee.

Phil Harrison and Cecil Eriacho asked what NTUA had to say about the matter. Eriacho indicated that in NTUA's last report to the committee, representatives stated that they on longer have a water project in the Moenkopi area, just a gas line.

Rex Kontz, NTUA deputy general manager, said there is no connection of water from NTUA to Moenkopi.

“There was a project discussed, but nothing happened. Hopi came back and said they would have paid for drilling a well, but before we could proceed, there was a cease and desist from the chapter,” he said.

Regarding the issue of selling natural gas to Hopi, Kontz said the gas is purchased off the Navajo Nation. Daniel Wauneka, construction manager, said the gas line was within the Hopi Reservation so they didn't have to get Navajo permission to run the line.

Kontz reiterated several points he made in February regarding a similar discussion. NTUA receives federal funding and doesn't want to jeopardize it by discriminating. In addition, the Resources Committee and other standing committees authorized NTUA to sell energy to outside entities.

The strategy behind the gas line is to get as many commercial customers as possible hooked up first because they generate larger revenue, which will enable NTUA to expand its system to serve more residential customers. NTUA serves a number of off-reservation customers in Tse Bonito and on the San Juan Southern Paiute Reservation outside Tuba City.

He said NTUA does have concerns about drought situations and has secured funding from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish watering points in some areas.

“We need water,” said Cameron Delegate Jack Colorado. “I understand there were watering points on Hopi Partitioned Land that our people used, but those have been capped and they cannot use them anymore.”

Resources Chairman George Arthur asked where Tuba City gets its water from currently. Kontz said it comes from groundwater wells.

“What is Tuba City's position going to be if Moenkopi decides to drill a well?” Arthur questioned. “The reason I ask is, Tuba City and Moenkopi share the same groundwater. So where do you say no? I understand what your concerns are, but if you were to make this an issue and it went to court, you probably would lose.

“If Hopi develops additional water and says, 'I'm going to give some to my neighbor,' would you say no?”

The Navajo Nation's water rights in Arizona have not been settled, according to Colorado. “Before the water rights are agreed to and settled, we need to establish an MOU,” he said, similar to a memorandum of understanding established between the Navajo Nation and the city of Gallup with the Navajo-Gallup pipeline.

Members of the Navajo Nation Water Rights Commission gave a presentation on the Arizona water rights negotiations later in the afternoon, however, those discussions were in executive session.

“We had the opportunity to accept water coming from Leupp at no cost to the Navajo Nation,” said Resources' Norman John II, referring to the Black Mesa Project and a proposal by Peabody Energy to tap into the Coconino Aquifer in the Leupp/Grand Falls area and run a pipeline to Black Mesa.

“I really don't agree with this legislation,” he added. “There was the same issue back in 1991-1992. We were quoted in the Albuquerque Journal, 'Tell the Hopis to dance more.'”

Resources' Harry Clark told the committee that though the water shortage is a concern, “There's no proposal at this time to move water to Moenkopi. I think the issue has been resolved.”

NTUA, in a written statement to the committee urging it to vote against the resolution, stated that the utility is not under an agreement to provide Navajo Nation water to the Moenkopi corporation and has not applied for any water permits for that purpose.

However, it must be allowed to keep down the costs of gas and water service for Navajo residents. Preventing NTUA from providing utility service to non-Navajo entities will force Navajo residents to assume the full burden of those services, it said.

The committee voted 3-3 on the resolution, with Arthur casting the tie-breaking vote. “Based on the information that's been presented, I would oppose it,” he said. The resolution failed, 3-4, but moves on to Government Services Committee. It was approved 4-2 on June 9 by the Economic Development Committee.

Bracamontes At America's Great Outdoors Event
Robert Bracamontes will be speaking at the America's Great Outdoors event on Wednsday July 6th at Whittier Narrows Recreation Center.

Six PM Reception - 7 PM discussion - Open to the public. C-Span covered the first two.

His topic is what can we do to preserve our land, parks and sacred sites.

"I hope to see some familiar faces."

Peace,
Robert (Bob) Bracamontes
Yu-va'-tal 'A'lla-mal(Black Crow)
Acjachemen Nation,
Juaneno Tribe
www.onlinewithbob.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.

Native Unity Digest stories are now appearing on the BeforeIt'sNews.com site under the Native American News category. Check them out!!!!

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/

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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