Indigenous Policy Journal

Upcoming Events (Summer 2012)

2012-07-24T09:09:00+00:00

ISN PROGRAM AT APSA 2012

The Indigenous Studies Network plans to put on two panels and hold a business meeting/networking session at the 2012 American Political Science Association (APSA) Meeting August 30 - September 2, 2012, in New Orleans, LA. For more information from ISN Program Coordinators: Laura Evans, evansle@u.washington.edu (University of Washington) and Sheryl Lightfoot (University of British Columbia): sheryl.lightfoot@ubc.ca. More information about the APSA meeting, and by June 2012 including the preliminary conference program, can be found at: http://www.apsanet.org/. People registered for the meeting can find locations of sessions at the meeting on line, which are also listed in the printed program available at on site registration for the meeting.

Indigenous Studies Network Panel 1 - Co-sponsored by 32 Race, Ethnicity, and Politics-3 “Indigenous Politics in US and Comparative Relief”, Friday, Aug 31, 2012, 4:15 PM-6:00 PM

Chair: Geoffrey Peterson, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, petersgd@uwec.edu

Papers:

Tribal "Treatment as State": the Potential and Fluidity of Tribes Within Intergovernmental Relationships

Paula Mohan

Native American Voter Turnout: An Assessment of Past and Current Trends

Samantha Eldridge, University of Utah, samantha.eldridge@utah.edu

Indigenous Citizenship in Oaxacalifornia: Political Community Across National Borders

Gilda M Rodriguez, University of California, Los Angeles, gildar@ucla.edu

American Indian Adaptive Incorporation in the Forced Federalism Era

Richard C. Witmer, Creighton University, witmer@creighton.edu

The Strategic Use of Ethnic Shaming: Explaining Indigenous Movement Success in Bolivia

Katie Kuhn, George Washington University, katiekuhn.kk@gmail.com

Discussant: Thaddieus W. Conner, Boise State University: tadconner@boisestate.edu

Indigenous Studies Network Panel 2 Indigenous Political Mobilization and Representation in International Perspective - Co-sponsored by 32 Race, Ethnicity, and Politics-27, Thursday, Aug 30, 2012, 10:15 AM-12:00 PM

Chair: Richard C. Witmer, Creighton University, witmer@creighton.edu

Papers:

Institutionalizing Ethnic Cleavages in Latin America: Organizational Density, Framing Processes, and Party Formation in Colombian Ethnic Movements

Jean Paul Crissien, Arizona State University, Jcrisn@hotmail.com

Indigenous Demands and Market-Led Agrarian Reform in Chile

Kelly Bauer, George Washington University, kbauer2@gwu.edu

Representation and Tribes: A Case Study of Kalinganagar Tribal Movement in Orissa

Biswajit Mohanty, Deshbandhu College Delhi University, mohantyagastya@gmail.com

Tribal Elites: Representing, Leading or Both?

Elizabeth Arbuckle Wabindato, University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, ewabinda@uwsp.edu

Discussant: Laura E. Evans, University of Washington, evansle@uw.edu

ISN Business Meeting and Networking session: see on line program for date and time.

Other Indigenous Papers at APSA

32-14 Race and Representation, Friday, Aug 31, 8:00 AM

Exploring Congressional Behavior on American Indian Legislation in the United States Congress

Thaddieus W. Conner, Boise State University: tadconner@boisestate.edu

3-7 Rawls and Race Revisited, Saturday, Sep 1, 10:15 AM

Mills, Rawls, and Constructing Reparative Justice for Indigenous Peoples

Timothy P. Waligore, McGill University, tpw2001@gmail.com

11-44 Comparative Obstacles to the Election of Women, Sunday, Sep 2, 10:15 AM

Ethnic Identity or Obstruction of the Candidate Pipeline? Explaining Failures to Elect Women in Indigenous Southern Mexico

Todd A. Eisenstadt, American University, eisensta@american.edu

Jennifer Yelle, American University, jennifer.yelle@gmail.com

Michael S. Danielson, American University, mike.danielson@american.edu

12-36 Colonialism and Its Legacies, Saturday, Sep 1, 8:00 AM

Colonial or Indigenous Rule?: An Experiment from Kerala

Ajay Verghese, George Washington University, ajay@gwmail.gwu.edu

32-7 Intersections of Gender and Race in Politics, Saturday, Sep 1, 4:15 PM

Falling through the Cracks? Electoral Quotas and Indigenous Women’s Political Participation in Taiwan

Chang-Ling Huang, National Taiwan University, changling@ntu.edu.tw

Other Indigenous panels, papers, posters and business meetings may be taking place at APSA 2012 which will be listed in the on line program, occasionally updated, at: http://www.apsanet.org/.

WSSA 2013 AMERICAN INDIAN STUDIES SECTION PROGRAM, April 10 – 13, 2013

The American Indian Studies Section of the Western Social Science Association, at its 55^th meeting, expects to again have a full program of panels at the association's meeting at the 2013 conference in Denver, CO, April 10-13, 2013, at the Grand Hyatt,  1750 Welton Street,  Denver, n. Paper/panel proposals for the American Indian Studies Section can either be submitted on line by going to: http://wssa.asu.edu/, or by sending them (preferably by E-mail) to AIS section coordinator Karen Jarratt-Snider: Karen.Jarratt-Snider@nau.edu. Deadline for proposals, including abstracts, is December 1, 2012. Information, which will eventually include the preliminary program, can be accessed on line at: http://wssa.asu.edu.

A list of Indigenous Language Conferences is kept at the Teaching Indigenous Languages web site at Northern Arizona University: http://www2.nau.edu/jar/Conf.html.

The D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the Newberry Library, in Chicago, has an on going Newberry Library Seminar in American Indian Studies on many Thursdays, 5:30-6:30 pm, as well as other occasional events. All papers are pre-circulated electronically to those who plan to attend the seminar. E-mail mcnickle@newberry.org or call (312)255-3564 to receive a copy of the paper. For more on this and other events at the Newberry Library go to: http://www.newberry.org/mcnickle/AISSeminar.html.

4^th International 3L Summer School: Endangered Languages: From Documentation to Revitalization is in Lyon, France, July 1-13, 2012. For details visit: http://www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/colloques/3l_2012/index.asp?Langues=EN&Page.

The United National Indian Tribal Youth (UNITY) Conference is July 6-10, 2012, at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel, in Phoenix, AZ. For information go to: http://www.unityinc.org.

Language Endangerment: Methodologies and New Challenges is July 6, 2012 at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CRASSH), University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England. For details go to: www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/1688. Language Endangerment: Methodologies and New Challenges. Abstracts (200 words maximum) are due by Thursday 15 March 2012 and should be sent to the conference organizers, Mari Jones: mailto:mcj11@cam.ac.uk, and Christopher Connolly: mailto:cpc37@cam.ac.uk. Note that the Cambridge Endangered Languages and Cultures Group meets Alternate Wednesdays, 17.15 - 19.00 during term-time 2011-12. It is a cross-disciplinary initiative to bring together Cambridge scholars from different backgrounds who work on issues related to language and culture endangerment. For details of the programmed for visit: http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/page/1043/programme-2011-12.htm.

Northwest Indian Language Summer Institutes are at the University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, July 9-20 and 21-27, 2013. For information go to: http://pages.uoregon.edu/nwili/summer-institute.

The Seventh Annual Vine Deloria, Jr. Indigenous Studies Symposium is at Northwest Indian College, July 12-14, 2012. For details and reservations contact Steve Pavlik, Co-coordinator, Native American Studies, Northwest Indian College, 2533 Kwina Rd., Bellingham, WA 98226 (360)392-4307, spavlik@nwic.edu, www.nwic.edu.

3^rd American Indian Teacher Education Conference: Honoring Our Heritage is at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, July 13-14, 2012. For Information visit: http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/AIE/conf.html.

UCLA/STARTALK Heritage Language Teacher Workshop is July 16-20, 2012. For details visit: http://nhlrc.ucla.edu/.

The Northwest Indian Language Institute Summer 2012, "Reclaiming Daily Conversations," is July 9-20, and  July 21-27, 2012, at the University of Oregon – Eugene, Oregon, at the University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. For details go to: http://pages.uoregon.edu/nwili/summer-institute.

The National Indian Gaming Conference (NIGC) Summer Legislative Summit Meetings are in Washington, DC, July 24-25, 2012. For more information visit: http://www.indiangaming.org/events/legislative/index.shtml.

The 47th International Conference on Salish & Neighboring Languages probably will be held at Cranbrook, BC, Canada, hosted by the Ktunaxa Nation, likely in July or August 2012. Information may become available at: http://sites.google.com/site/icsnl45/icsnl46. For more information contact Henry Davis, henryd@interchange.ubc.ca.

The 18th commemoration of the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples will be held on Thursday, August 9, 2012 at the UN Headquarters in New York, organized by the Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues DSPD/DESA, the United Nations Department of Public Information, and the NGO Committee on the Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. For details go to: www.un.org/indigenous.

Athabascan/Dene Language Conference is August 15-17, 2012. Details are, in Bellingham, WA at: http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/alc/.

The Eastern Regional Conference of the National Association of Native American Studies will be held September 20-23, 2012 on Orlando, FL. For information contact: Dr. Lemuel Berry, Jr., Executive Director, NANAS, P.O. Box 325, Biddeford, ME 04005-0325 (207}839-8004, Fax: 207/839-3776, naaasconference@earthlink.net, www.NAAAS.org.

The National Indian Education association 43^rd Annual Conference: Native Education: Maintaining Traditions in a Digital Era is October 18-21, 2012, in Oklahoma City, OK. For details visit: http://www.niea.org/Membership/Convention.aspx.

4^th International Immersion Conference Immersion 2012: Bridging Contexts for a Multilingual World is in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, October 18-20, 2012. For details go to: http://www.carla.umn.edu/about/carla_email_imm2012.html.

The Indigenous Leadership Development Institute, Inc. (ILDI) is holding the  2012 World Indigenous Business Forum in Sydney, Australia, October 22-26, 2012. For details visit: http://wibf.ca/.

Language Death, Endangerment, Documentation & Revitalization 27^th is probably at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Linguistics Symposium Milwaukee, WI, in October 2012. For details go to: http://www4.uwm.edu/letsci/conferences/linguistics2012/.

The Symposium on Teaching Learning Indigenous Languages of Latin America: STILLA-2011 may be at the  University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame IN, in, October or November 2012 For information visit: http://www2.nau.edu/jar/Conf.html or contact stlilla@nd.edu

The NCAI 69th Annual Convention will be October 21-26, 2012 in Sacramento, CA. For details go to: http://www.ncai.org/Conferences-Events.7.0.html.

The Western Regional Conference of the National Association of Native American Studies will be held October 25-27, 2012 at Universidad Autonoma de Coahuila, Saltillo, Mexico. For information contact: Dr. Lemuel Berry, Jr., Executive Director, NANAS, P.O. Box 325, Biddeford, ME 04005-0325 (207}839-8004, Fax: 207/839-3776, naaasconference@earthlink.net, www.NAAAS.org

The Third Conference on Ethnicity, Race, and Indigenous Peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean might possibly be in November, 2012, or in a later year. For information go to: http://cilas.ucsd.edu/erip/index.html, or contact: eripconference2011@ucsd.edu, or cearley@ucsd.edu.

The 17^th La Cosecha Annual Dual Language Conference is in Santa Fe, November 7-10, 2012. For information visit: http://dlenm.org/lacosecha/.

The 5th Lakota, Dakota, Nakota Language Summit is likely in Rapid City, SD, USA, likely in November 2012. For details go to: http://www.tuswecatiospaye.org/node/175.

Global Day Of Action: International Demonstrations on Climate Change is December 1, 2013, and earlier, at the time of the United Nations Talks on climate change (COP18/MOP 8) in Qatar, November 26th to December 7th 2012. Plans for intend synchronized demonstrations around the world are being publicized and promoted at: http://www.globalclimatecampaign.org/, or contact: info@globalclimatecampaign.org.

Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA) 2012-13 annual winter meeting may be in January 2013. For information go to: http://linguistlist.org/ssila/AnnualMeeting/AnnualMeeting.cfm.

The Ninth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability will be held in Hiroshima, Japan, January 23-25, 2013. The Conference will work in a multidisciplinary way across the various fields and perspectives through which we can address the fundamental and related questions of sustainability. For details go to: http://www.SustainabilityConference.com.

42^nd National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) http://www.nabe.org/conference.html Conference is in Orlando, FL, USA, February 7-9, 2013. For information visit: http://www.nabe.org/conference.html.

Native/Indigenous Studies Area of the 2013 Southwest/Texas Popular Culture/American Culture Association's 30th annual meeting will be February 13-16, 2013 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel & Conference Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Deadline is December 15 for proposals of up to 250 words for Panels and Individual Papers, to the appropriate area chair: Richard Allen, American Indians Today, Cherokee Nation, PO Box 948, Tahlequah OK 74465, Richard-Allen@cherokee.org; M. Elise Marubbio, American Indian/Indigenous Film, Augsburg College, American Indian Studies, CB 115, 2211 Riverside Avenue, Minneapolis MN 55454, marubbio@augsbur; Citlalin Xochime, Co-Chair, Native American/Indigenous Studies, New Mexico State University, Dept. of English, PO Box 30001, MSC 3E, Las Cruces NM 88003, citlalin@att.net, or L. Rain Cranford-Gomez, Co-Chair, Native American/Indigenous Studies, Cornelia Connelly School, American Literature and Language Arts, 2323 West Broadway, Anaheim CA 92801, ohoyocreole@gmail.com.. Further details regarding the conference (listing of all areas, hotel, registration, tours, etc.) can be found at: http://swtxpca.org/https://mail.msu.edu/cgi-bin/webmail?timestamp=1187041691&md5=r%2B8zeYT8m2RajaxaGpmkeQ%3D%3D&redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.swtexaspca.org%2F.

The 2013 Conference of the National Association of Native American Studies will be held February 11-16, 2013 in Baton Rouge, LA. For information contact: Dr. Lemuel Berry, Jr., Executive Director, NANAS, P.O. Box 325, Biddeford, ME 04005-0325 (207}839-8004, Fax: 207/839-3776, naaasconference@earthlink.net, www.NAAAS.org.

The Forth International Conference on Heritage/Community Languages may be at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in February 2013. For details go to: http://www.international.ucla.edu/languages/nhlrc/conference/.

The 16^th Annual National Indian Education Association (NIEA) Legislative Summit is likely in February 2013, in Washington, D.C. For information go to: http://www.niea.org/Membership/Legislative-Summit.aspx.

National Association for Bilingual Education 42^st Annual Conference, is in Orlando, FL February 7-9, 2013 . For information go to: http://www.nabe.org/conference.html.

3^rd International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (ICLDC) is a biannual event, so the next conference will be at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, in February 28-March 3, 2013. For details go to: http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ICLDC/2011/.

The 36^th Annual California Conference on American Indian Education may be in March 2013 at Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA. For more information contact: Achel McBride: (530)895-4212 x 110, Irma Amaro: (707)464-3512, or Judy Delgado at 916-319-0506, judelgado@cde.ca.gov, or go to: http://www.aisc.ucla.edu/admin/gcal.shtml.

National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA) Indian Gaming 2013, is March 24-27 2013 at the Phoenix Convention Center, Phoenix, AZ. For details go to: http://www.indiangaming.org/events/tradeshow/index.shtml.

The Western Political Science Association (WPSA) 2013 Annual Meeting is March 28 – 30, 2013, Renaissance Hotel,  Hollywood, California. Section 21: Race, Ethnicity and Politics Section is open to again having panels or papers on Indigenous politics. Send proposals to the Chair: Stella Manrique Rouse University of Maryland, srouse@gvpt.umd.edu. For details go to: http://wpsa.research.pdx.edu/.

The University of Idaho College of Law Seventh annual conference to look at issues involving Indian country may be in March 2013. For information contact Angelique EagleWoman: eaglewoman@uidaho.edu, or visit: http://www.uidaho.edu/law/newsandevents/nativeamericanlawconference.

The 9^th Annual Conference on Endangered Languages and Cultures of the Americas may be at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, in March 2013, put on by the Center for American Indian Languages, at the University of Utah, which also runs a series of workshops. For details go to: http://www.cail.utah.edu, or contact Jennifer Mitchell: cail.utah@gmail.com.

The NCAI Executive Council Winter Session is at L’Enfant Plaza Hotel , March 4 - 7, 2013, in Washington, DC. For details go to: http://www.ncai.org/Conferences-Events.7.0.html.

American Indian Cultures and Literatures area of the PCA/ACA (Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association) National Conference 2013 is in Washington, DC, March 27-30, 2013. For details. Visit: http://www.pcaaca.org/conference/national.php.

Newberry Consortium in American Indian Studies is holding a colloquium, “Why You Can’t Teach U.S. History without American Indians,” at Newberry Library, Ruggles Hall, March 29-30, 2013. Proposals are due by July 15, 2012. For details go to:

http://www.newberry.org/03292013-why-you-can-t-teach-us-history-without-american-indians.

The Ninth Annual Southeast Indian Studies Conference may be in April 2013, at the University Center Annex, The University of North Carolina at Pembroke. For information contact Alesia Cummings at American Indian Studies PO Box 1510 Pembroke, NC 28372-1510. alesia.cummings@uncp.edu, or Dr. Mary Ann Jacobs (910)521-6266, mary.jacobs@uncp.edu, http://www.uncp.edu/ais/news/sisc/index.htm.

The National Association for Ethnic Studies 41st Annual Conference may be in 2013. For details contact National Association for Ethnic Studies (NAES), Department of Ethnic Studies, Colorado State University, 1790 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523-179, www.ethnicstudies.org.

15^th Annual Workshop on American Indigenous Languages may be in April 2013. For details visit: http://orgs.sa.ucsb.edu/nailsg/.

FIBEA 2013 may be in April 2013. For information visit: http://fibeamanaus.mgt.unm.edu/defaultENG.asp.

20th Annual Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Symposium may be in at Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, in May 2013. Information is available at: http://www.tru.ca/sils.html.

Native American Student Advocacy Institute may be putting on the Sixth, Strengthening Connections for Access and Equity in Education, May be in May 2013 . The meeting is concerned about developing an effective program for supporting American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Students. For more information go to: http://www.collegeboard.com/nasai/index.html, or email: nasai@collegeboard.org.

The Twelfth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues will be May 20-31, 2013 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. Further information is available at: http://www.un.org/indigenous.

The 5 ^th Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) Annual Conference may be in, June 2013. For details go to: http://naisa.org/sites/naisa.org/files/NAISA.CFP%20New%20England.2012_0.pdf or http://naisa.org/.

The Society of American Indian Government Employees (SAIGE) is a national non-profit organization that advocates for American Indian and Alaska Native federal employees. SAIGE will host its 10th annual national joint training conference with the American Indian Alaska Native Employees Association (AIANEA), likely in June 2013. Information will become available from the Society of American Indian Government Employees, P.O. Box 7715, Washington, D.C. 20044, www.saige.org.

The 2013 International Conference of Indigenous Archives, Libraries, and Museums in Albuquerque, New Mexico, June 10-13, 2013 outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico at the Santa Ana Pueblo-owned Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa.. For information, to view past conference programs and/or submit a proposal before the November 15 deadline, visit: http://www.atalm.org. Please direct questions to atalminfo@gmail.com.

Seventh Heritage Language Research Institute: From Overhearers to High Proficiency Speakers: Advancing Heritage Learners' Skills may be in June 2013, at the  University of California, Los Angeles. For details go to: http://nhlrc.ucla.edu/.

Conferences of the International Society for Language Studies are being held on a two-year cycle (every other year) with publication of the annual volume series Readings in Language Studies to be of primary focus during the intervening year. The 2013 biennial conference may well be in June, 2013. For information contact International Society for Language Studies, c/o OSBORN, Graduate School of Education, Fordham University, 113 W. 60th Street, Room 1102, New York, NY 10023, conf2009@isls-inc.org, http://www.isls-inc.org/conference/conference.html.

The Indigenous Leadership Development Institute, Inc. (ILDI) is holding the 2013 World Indigenous Business Forum in Windhoek, Namibia, October 14-18, 2013. For details visit: http://wibf.ca/.

The NCAI 2013 Mid Year Conference is  June, 2013, in Reno, NV, For details go to: http://www.ncai.org/Conferences-Events.7.0.html.

The NCAI 70th Annual Convention is  October 13 - 18, 2013, in Tulsa, OK. For details go to: http://www.ncai.org/Conferences-Events.7.0.html.

Tenth Native American Symposium and Film Festival is likely in November 2013, possibly at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, Oklahoma. For details visit www.se.edu/nas/, or contact Dr. Mark B. Spencer, Department of English, Humanities, and Languages, Box 4121, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, OK 74701-0609, mspencer@se.edu.

The NCAI 2014 Executive Council Winter Session is at L’Enfant Plaza Hotel, Washington, DC, March 3-6, 2014. For details go to: http://www.ncai.org/Conferences-Events.7.0.html.

The NCAI 2014 Mid Year Conference is  June 8-11, 2014 in Anchorage, AK. For details go to: http://www.ncai.org/Conferences-Events.7.0.html.

The NCAI 71st Annual Convention will be in October or November, 2014. For details go to: http://www.ncai.org/Conferences-Events.7.0.html.

The NCAI 2015 Executive Council Winter Session is in March, 2015 at the  L’Enfant Plaza Hotel, Washington, DC. For details go to: http://www.ncai.org/Conferences-Events.7.0.html.

The NCAI 3015 Mid Year Conference is in June, 2015.  For details go to: http://www.ncai.org/Conferences-Events.7.0.html.

Environmental Activities (Summer 2012)

2012-07-24T09:07:00+00:00

Global Exchange, in advance of the Rio+20 Summit in Brazil next in mid-June was very concerned about the meeting and the condition of the Earth, noting, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) had released a 525-page report on the health of the planet (http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=myjRfds8f8ZYSPyitQ7Hz6QkGqZs7HFY), stating, “Several critical global, regional and local thresholds are close or have been exceeded ... Abrupt and possibly irreversible changes to the life-support functions of the planet are likely to occur." Global Exchange comments, It was a very different time at the first UN Earth Summit in 1992. Global awareness that human activity was causing the destruction gave rise to the idea that nations could come together and put forward global solutions to solve the emerging crisis. This year, inside the formal negotiations, member states are being driven towards adopting a paradigm, deceptively called the “Green Economy.” The UNEP is promoting the idea that we can only “save” nature by putting a price on what nature “does” for humans. Global Exchange doesn’t believe putting a price on nature is the path to protecting nature, and we’ll be there to confront what we’re against. While in Rio, we'll be unveiling our new report, Rights of Nature: Planting Seeds of Real Change (http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=JgSGIny7c2JQLtEx3YNAbqQkGqZs7HFY which includes articles from leading activists such as former UN Ambassador to Bolivia Pablo Solón, Vandana Shiva, Maude Barlow, Alberto Acosta, and many more.” Global Exchange on going report of Rio+20 is at: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=wothy5K0nrPBGoP3DLFTIf0%2B96B7thok.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe rallied in Rapid City, SD against the Keystone XL Pipeline, February 11, 2012, joining a number of Native Nations and environmentalists in the U.S. and Canada opposing the extremely polluting and environmentally – and human –damaging multi-billion-dollar tar-sands crude extraction in Alberta and the moving of that dirty oil by pipeline. Representatives of First Nations and the Navajo Nation, which is the largest U.S. Indian reservation, were on the Feb. 11 rally agenda, as organizers vowed they would keep building alliances until they get their way. (Talli Nauman, “Native Wisdom Guides Movement to Close Keystone Pipeline Route,” AmericasProgram, February 13, 2012, http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/6385).

Meanwhile, Canadian First Nations continue to object to of Enbridge Corp.’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline from the Alberta oil sands to the British Columbia coast for pickup in Kitimat by mega-tankers, and in January, Aboriginal leaders from around Canada protested Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver’s statements of support for the extremely environmentally damaging project, noting the tar sands mining has been directly harmful to people (“ Aboriginal Leaders Angered by Outright Government Support of Northern Gateway Pipeline,” Indian Country Today, January 13, 2012, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/01/13/aboriginal-leaders-angered-by-outright-government-support-of-northern-gateway-pipeline-72312).

The Center for Biological Diversity, in April 2012, was engaged in a campaign because of its concern that, “ Oil-shale and tar-sands development are two of the filthiest ways to produce energy, and the Bureau of Land Management is considering converting millions of acres of public land in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming to this destructive use. if approved, this move would undermine efforts to reduce atmospheric CO2 levels to below 350 parts per million -- the level we need to return to soon to stabilize Earth's climate.   Oil-shale and tar-sands development would also destroy species habitat, waste enormous volumes of water and pollute our land, water and air. It's so wasteful it won't even be commercially viable until 2022. ” For more information visit: http://action.biologicaldiversity.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=10276.

“Moapa Paiute March 50 Miles in Anti-Coal Protest,” Indian Country Today, April 27, 2012, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/04/27/moapa-paiute-march-50-miles-in-anti-coal-protest-110450, reports, “On Earth Day, Moapa Paiute Indians arrived in Las Vegas where they were joined by Sierra Club members and others protesting the Reid Gardner Power Plant. The Tribal members were completing a three-day, 50-mile ‘Cultural Healing Walk,’ some of which had taken place in temperatures that topped 100 degrees. The Reid Gardner facility, operated by NV Energy, is located in Moapa, Nevada, on land that abuts the Moapa River Indian Reservation. Reservation residents say the plant is ruining their health and has been for years. William Anderson, Moapa Band Chairman, summarized the problem in a statement: ‘The ‘. That would help determine what needs to be do for our people’s health. We also need more stringent storage conditions for coal ash and a study to be conducted to show the health risks associated with breathing in coal ash.’”

Oceana (1350 Connecticut Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20036, wavemaker@oceana.org, http://oceana.org/?akid=2393.365103.eGgCpd&t=1), in April, was concerned about reports that “Dolphins in Louisiana are dying. Recent testing on dolphins near the Deepwater Horizon oil spill have shown that they’re suffering from illnesses ranging from anemia to liver disease. And an unprecedented amount of dolphins are washing up dead in the Gulf.” “The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill has affected the local waters in countless ways. From sick dolphins to deformed shrimp to dying coral, the Gulf will be feeling the effects for years to come. Yet some members of Congress want to place even more drills in the Gulf, this time off the coast of Florida. The waters off of West Florida are home to bottlenose dolphins, sea turtles and manatees. All of these animals will be in severe danger if one of these proposed drills causes a spill. We’ve already seen what oil does to dolphins — how can we put even more animals at risk?” Thus Oceana is opposing a bill in Congress to allow more drilling in the Gulf.

Earth Justice (https://secure.earthjustice.org) was concerned, in June, and involved in a counter campaign, because “The Canadian government actually is trying to rollback the country's major environmental protections. What's worse, the executive branch is out in front, leading the anti-environment charge. Ultimately, with the blessings of Big Oil, they plan to quash citizen participation in environmental decisions, attack the status of environmental groups, and clear any impediment to wholesale exploitation of Canada's dirty energy resources.”

Members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of Montana have been working to block a silver and cooper mining being developed by Revett Minerals, Inc, beneath their sacred mountain, Chicago Peak, in Cabinet Mountain Wilderness. The nations have been working to have the site recognized under the historical preservation act as a traditional cultural property (“Tribes aim to stop mine beneath Montana Wilderness,” News From Indian Country, April 2012).

Alfredo Acedo, “Mexican Farmers Block New Law to Privatize Plants,” Americas Updater, May 22, 2012, http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/6840, reports, “Progressive small farmer organizations in Mexico scored a victory over transnational corporations that seek to monopolize seed and food patents. When the corporations pushed their bill to modify the Federal Law on Plant Varieties through the Committee on Agriculture and Livestock of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies on March 14, organizations of farmers from across the country sounded the alarm. By organizing quickly, they joined together to pressure legislators and achieved an agreement with the legislative committee to remove the bill from the floor.”

U.S. Activities (Summer 2012)

2012-07-24T09:07:00+00:00

The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) has revamped its website. “NCAI.org aims to provide the rich base of information, resources, and history that have defined NCAI online, along with improved navigation, dynamically updated content, and expanded new media capabilities.” NCAI issued its initial analysis of the FY 2013 Budget as proposed by the Obama Administration, February 15, 2012. The report details proposed investments and reductions in Indian Country priorities and programs. “The inclusion of a number of tribal priorities reflects – in part – increased tribal consultation to identify Indian Country’s top priorities. The analysis also indicates the budget proposal is a good step toward meeting bipartisan goals for Indian Country - government efficiency, more program flexibility for tribes, and no-cost solutions for strengthening tribal and rural economies. The report underscores the fact that these are important steps on a long journey and sustained investments are necessary to ensure tribes fully contribute to a robust recovery.“ Jefferson Keel, President of NCAI, stated, “Indian Country understands the federal government is constrained, that’s why we’ve called for increased flexibility for tribal programs and have identified no-cost provisions that strengthen tribal economies. We know what will work for our nations and we call on Congress to include Indian Country in finalizing a budget plan that grows tribal economies and meets the federal government’s trust responsibility.”   ”Many tribal programs fall into the category of discretionary domestic funding. In preparation for the President’s budget, some agencies have consulted with tribes about programs in the budget. NCAI produced a report in January 2012 that outlined the consultation efforts of all federal agencies.   In the budget analysis, NCAI highlights the no-cost solution included in the budget proposal for restoring lands to tribal governments impacted by the Carcieri Supreme Court decision. NCAI’s review also emphasizes the importance of sustained funding for tribal self-determination, critical to the economic foundation of Indian Country and the benefits tribes offer to surrounding rural and regional economies. Recommendations from Indian Country that were included in the FY 2013 proposal include increases for contract support costs, some natural resource and environmental protection programs, public safety initiatives, and contract health services. While the Administration’s budget proposal maintains support for critical programs, there were some cuts that represent major setbacks to progress in Indian Country. One example is in funding for Bureau of Indian Education construction, where proposed cuts reduce funding to $52.8 million, down from $140.5 million in FY 2011 and $70.8 million in FY 2012. These cuts would directly impact economic growth and job creation in communities hit hardest by the economic downturn.” The full analysis is available at: http://www.ncai.org/resources/ncai-publications/indian-country-budget-request.

The National Congress of the American Indian (NCAI), March 23, 2012, released the report, Moving Indian Country Forward: Health Care Reform One Year Later, highlighting improved coordination of health care services such as cancer screenings and dialysis treatment, increased resources for tribal, urban, and Indian Health Service (IHS) facilities, authorized development of long term care programs, and expanded workforce initiatives in tribal communities. The report, co-authored by NCAI, the National Indian Health Board, and the National Council of Urban Indian Health, reviews implementation of both pieces of legislation, ongoing tribal consultation, outreach and education efforts, and FY 2012 budget requests related to health. Cathy Abramson, Chairwoman of the National Indian Health Board, said "The journey to bring improved health care to tribal nations has only just begun, and now tribes are able to reach our people that need it most: young adults previously without health insurance, children with pre-existing conditions, and elders seeking more efficient prescription solutions. Vital provisions in these bills reach tribal communities where it counts, no matter where tribal citizens live, whether in villages, tribal lands, or in off-reservation communities," said Dr. Patrick Rock, President of the National Council of Urban Indian Health. The full report is available at: http://www.ncai.org/news/articles/2012/03/23/health-care-reform-moves-indian-country-forward.

Jefferson Keel, president of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) presented the 2012 State of Indian Nations address held January 26, 2012 at the Museum in Washington, DC, saying the state of Indian nations is “strong,” but in order to be stronger, they need the federal government to be flexible. “Tribal nations have proven our capacity. We don’t need the government involved in all our business decisions, we need flexibility. And by creating it, we will remove the barriers that cost us jobs and opportunity. This is a goal I think we can all agree on, across the political spectrum, and it is something we can achieve with a change in policy, not an increase in spending.” Keel said a flexible federal government would “put decision-making power back in the hands of the people who live in Indian country – the people who know best because these are our homelands, these are our people.” “That is the kind of solution Washington is crying out for, and we in Indian country are eager to answer the call,” Keel stated. “This message comes directly from tribal leaders,” the NCAI leader added. “We need freedom at the local level to best use our limited resources. We know what’s best because we live in Indian country. We know where the needs are, and we know what works for our people. No one understands Indian life better than the Indian nations themselves. Give us flexibility.” Keel gave the example of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, which opened a 65,000 square foot health facility in 2007 and was able to utilize the bond financing incentives offered under the Recovery Act in 2009. “Tribes were denied full access to this source of financing until the Recovery Act created a limited bond offering,” Keel explained. “Based on that experience, the Treasury released a report in December recommending they have the same access to bond financing available to our governmental peers. This will bring huge economic benefits to tribes and surrounding regional economies.” Moving to other issues, Keel made several calls for action to Obama and the U.S. Congress, urging Obama to send a special message to Congress on the importance of the nation-to-nation relationship and calling on the President to fully implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which the president signaled support for in 2010. Keel asserted, “We specifically call for a review of all existing federal law to ensure they are in alignment with the Declaration” Keel next called for an annual nation-to-nation summit between tribes and the federal government, as well as ongoing high-level meetings, saying “This would institutionalize the current [White House] Tribal Nations Summit, a meaningful commitment to our nation-to-nation relationship that must be upheld by all future presidents.” In addition, Keel asked that Native people be elevated in the federal government, including appointments to the federal bench, as well as for the creation of an office for Native American programs at Office of Management Budget. In this way, a federal commitment to Indian affairs would be institutionalized. Keel also addressed the individuals currently running for President of the United States, inviting each candidate to visit Indian country to outline their policy positions, adding, “We also urge the campaigns to make sure tribal nations are part of the discussion at the presidential debates.” Keel pointed to opportunities for immediate congressional action on Native affairs, specifically on a Carcieri fix, the HEARTH Act, the Native CLASS Act, public safety legislation, and the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization, as well as the SAVE Native Women Act. Keel then highlighted NCAI’s suggested budget for Indian country. “It will create reliable, safe domestic energy; it will build a 21st century education system; it will modernize our infrastructure; and, it will fund implementation of critical legislation like the Tribal Law & Order Act and the Indian Health Care Improvement Act,” he summarized. Keel noted the importance of the Indian budget in context of the current Budget Control Act, which requires Congress to cap discretionary spending for the next 10 years. “Much of the funding that fulfills the federal trust responsibility is categorized – wrongly, in our view – as domestic discretionary spending,” Keel reflected. “The trust responsibility is not a discretionary choice. It is not a line item. It is a solemn agreement that has been sustained over hundreds of years. He pointed out that, “Unless Congress acts to hold tribal programs harmless, then starting in 2013 we are facing 10% to 15% cuts across the board for the next decade – cuts that will threaten essential services and affect millions of Native citizens throughout vast regions of rural America.” Concerning consultation, Keel said the federal government must advance, “legally enforceable consultation.” “Without the power of legislation and accountability, ‘free, prior, and informed consent,’ are just some nice words on a page,” he said in referencing the UNDRIP and the commitment called for therein to Indigenous Peoples. “Enforceable consultation means we must talk about another idea – tribal consent,” Keel added. “There would be a public outcry if the federal government tried to impose policy on a state without its consent. But the concerns of tribal nations are routinely overlooked, even when more than a dozen tribes are larger than some northeastern states. This must not stand.” In return for the action Keel requested from the president and Congress, he said that Indians will do their part to be good American citizens, noting that Native get-out-the-vote programs are gearing up for this year’s elections. “Our America is a place where all candidates know that we matter, and America sees it at the ballot box,” he said. “It’s a place where each and every president honors our unique nation-to-nation relationship, where Indian country is always at the table – not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s the smart thing to do. Our America is home to a Congress that works across party lines to free our economies. Our America is a place where governments keep their promises.” Jacqueline Pata, executive director of the NCAI, said in a question-and-answer session following the speech, commented, “With a little added flexibility, our programs will be more efficient”. She said that NCAI officials have already shared thoughts with the Obama administration on specific areas that could be fine-tuned. Whether the current Congress and the Obama administration can rearrange the formula to the liking of 566 federally recognized tribes remains to be seen, especially in a political climate that has stalled many bipartisan compromises on non-Indian issues. a political climate that has stalled many bipartisan compromises on non-Indian issues. Tribal leaders assembled for the speech, and watching and listening to it on the radio and online throughout the country, have long said that the federal government needs to do a better job at focusing its resources on Indian country. Some see ways that current programs could be adjusted to better serve tribes, such as bonding authority first granted under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009. Tribal leaders are also well aware of the current budget crunch in Washington, so they hope that instead of cutting Indian-focused programs, legislators will look at ways to spend the money more effectively (Rob Capriccioso, “NCAI’s State of Indian Nations: Looking for Federal ‘Flexibility’,” Indian Country Today, January 26, 2012, target="_blank">http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/01/26/state-of-indian-nations-looking-for-federal-flexibility-75059).

Mark Trahant, “State of the Union, Part 2: A Call for Votes and Resources From America’s First Nations,” Indian Country Today, January 27, 2012, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ict_sbc/state-of-the-union-part-2-a-call-for-votes-and-resources-from-america’s-first-nations, commented, “The National Congress of American Indians every year releases its ‘State of Indian Nations,’ an alternative prospect for the Congress reported during the week of the State of the Union. This has become an important exercise for many reasons. As NCAI President Jefferson Keel says, ‘Tribal nations are its first governments—one of three sovereigns recognized in the United States Constitution. And our America is a place where each member of the American family of governments contributes to a prosperous future.’” One of Keels ideas in the address “is lofty: Turn out Native American voters in record-breaking numbers. ‘We know it can be done,’ Keel said. ‘For instance, on the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana, turnout rates are regularly over 80%. A survey of seniors at UCLA showed that Native young people participate at rates higher than any other group of students. This is especially important because almost half a million Native youth will be eligible to vote for the first time in the next four years.’ There is a record of success to build on here. The upset election of Sen. Lisa Murkowski in Alaska was because of Alaska Native organization, money—and votes. Keel also called on Congress to make it easier for tribal governments to be successful, removing obstacles to success. This is a message that ought to make sense to all. Indeed, NCAI’s top legislative priority is fixing the confusing Carcieri decision by the Supreme Court. But the broader issue is what Keel described as ‘the old way of doing things.’ He said, “the Swinomish Tribe, in Washington state, saw this first hand. The tribe had worked out a deal with Wal-Mart for a big new store on the reservation. This was a great deal—a million dollars a year in lease revenue for the Tribe, and new jobs for tribal members and people throughout the community. As with every lease on Indian lands, the federal government needed to approve it. The process took more than a year and by the time it was approved economic conditions had changed and Wal-Mart had made other plans.” On the critical budget issues, “Keel said, ‘the Budget Control Act poses great risks. The act requires Congress to cap discretionary spending for the next 10 years. Much of the funding that fulfills the federal trust responsibility is categorized—wrongly, in our view—as domestic discretionary spending. The trust responsibility is not a discretionary choice. It is not a line item. It is a solemn agreement that has been sustained over hundreds of years.’” “It seems to me there ought to ways to move some revenue designed for American Indians and Alaska Natives off of regular budget lines and into larger programs such as Medicaid. One way to do this is to treat Indian Country as a 51st state. Medicaid is expensive because of the complexity of managing 50 different systems (it’s a state-federal partnership), but Indian health programs are paid for by the federal government, but the benefit rules are set by states. That makes no sense. The federal budget may dominate the discourse from Washington these days, but constraints do not need to limit creativity.”

The annual observance and ceremonies to protect sacred sites in the Unites States took place June 16-24 at numerous sacred places in the U.S. including, Antelope Hills, Apache Leap, Badger Two Medicine, Badlands, Bear Butte, Bear Lake, Bear Medicine Lodge, Black Hills, Black Mesa, Blue Lake, Boboquivari Mountain, Bunchgrass Mountain, Cave Rock, Chief Cliff, Coastal Chumash Sacred Lands in the Gaviota Coast, Cocopah Burial and Ceremonial Grounds, Coldwater Springs, Colorado River, Columbia River, Deer Medicine Rocks, Dzil Nchaa Si An (Mount Graham), Eagle Rock, Everglades, Fajada Butte, Ganondagan, Great Mound (Mound Bottom), Gulf of Mexico, Haleakala Crater, Hatchet Mountain, Hickory Ground, Holy Mountain, Hualapai Nation landforms in Truxton and Crozier Canyons, Indian Pass, Kaho’olawe, Kasha-Katuwe, Katuktu, Kituwah, Klamath River, Kumeyaay Bands Burial and Ceremonial Grounds, Lake Superior, Luiseno Ancestral Origin Landscape, Mauna Kea, Maze, Medicine Bluff, Medicine Hole, Medicine Lake Highlands, Medicine Wheels, Migi zii wa sin (Eagle Rock), Mokuhinia, Moku’ula, Mount Shasta, Mount Taylor, Mount Tenabo, Nine Mile Canyon, Ocmulgee Old Fields and National Monument, Onondaga Lake, Palo Duro Canyon, Petroglyphs National Monument, Pipestone National Monument, Puget Sound, Puvungna, Pyramid Lake Stone Mother, Quechan Burial and Ceremonial Grounds, Rainbow Bridge, Rattlesnake Island, Rio Grande River, San Francisco Peaks, Serpent Mound, Snoqualmie Falls, Sweetgrass Hills, Sutter Buttes, Tse Whit Zen Village, Tsi-litch Semiahmah Village, Valley of Chiefs, Valmont Butte, Wakarusa Wetlands, Walking Woman Place, Woodruff Butte, Wolf River, Yucca Mountain, Zuni Salt Lake, Sacred places of all removed Native Nations, all waters and wetlands (“National Sacred Places Prayer Days Starts June 16,” Indian Country Today, June 15, 2012, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/06/15/national-sacred-places-prayer-days-starts-tomorrow-118666).

A small group of Indians and allies held their annual protest against the Cleveland Indians baseball team’s nickname and mascot, Chief Wahoo, outside Progressive Field in Cleveland, April 5, 2012. a protest that has been taking place for the past three decades (“Rite of Spring: The Annual Protest Against the Cleveland Indians’ Shameful Mascot, Chief Wahoo,” Indian Country Today,” April 7, 2012, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/04/07/rite-of-spring-the-annual-protest-against-the-cleveland-indians-shameful-mascot-chief-wahoo-107027).

Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO) convened a group of network weavers, in October 2011, to collaborate with AIO in building a network of Native American organizations to create positive change for Native working families, beginning by creating a website to increase interorganizational communication. Participating in the first meeting with AIO were the Hopi Foundation, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, Tewa Women United, and the National Urban Indian Family Coalition. AIO continued providing Indian 101 sessions: at the Reservation Economic Summit Conference, in March, for representative of major U.S. corporations seeking to do business wit Indian nations; and for New Mexico new TFA teachers, helping them prepare to teach Indian students around the state in two meetings, the second employing the participatory Indigenous Leaders Interactive System (ILIS) to assist the teachers to identify a collective vision of how best to meet th needs of Indigenous students. AIO has been continuing its partnership (since 2006) with Native American Community Academy (NACA), a charter school, which has adapted the model of AIO’s Ambassadors Program leadership model for students, including the design of annual 8^th grade trips to Washington, DC, and in 2012 a student journey to New Zealand to meet with students at Nga Taiatea Wharekura, a Maori language immersion school. During AIO’s second annual participation in the American Indian Day program, November 2, 2011, at California University of Pennsylvania, Cal U. announced the launching of the LaDonna Harris Indigenous Peoples Institute to promote scholarly exploration and dialogue about international Indigenous topics. AIO sent a public statement of support, in January 2012, as the Ainu formed their own political party—a historic moment for the Indigenous peoples in Japan. (“AIO Notebook,” The Ambassador, Winter 2011; and www.aio.org).

Marc Dadigan, “Grassroots River Closure, Coordinated Boater Harassment Highlight Winnemem Wintu’s War Dance,” Indian Country Today, May 31, 2012, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/05/31/grassroots-river-closure-coordinated-boater-harassment-highlight-winnemem-wintus-war-dance-115777, reports, “Spangled with duct-tape lettering and weighed down by milk jugs filled with water, the banner reading “River Closed” was strung across the McCloud River on May 26 far higher than any boat and cast against mountains that were veiled in cloud shadow.” “Since 2005, the Winnemem Wintu, a deeply traditional tribe of 125, have struggled with the U.S. Forest Service to implement a mandatory closure of 400 yards of the McCloud Arm of Shasta Lake, a tiny corner of nearly 370 miles of shoreline for their young women’s Coming of Age ceremonies. The Forest Service can only close the river for a federally recognized tribe, according to federal law, and the Winnemem lost their recognition due to a bureaucratic error in led the mid-1980s.” Attempts at ‘Voluntary closures’ in ceremonies of 2006 and 2010 resulted by the participants being harassed by recreational boaters. Deciding they had run out of options to get the river closure, the Winnemem Wintu held a War Dance May 24 – 27, 2012 at the Coming of Age Ceremony site where tribal activists, environmental justice activists and Occupy movement members helped the tribe enforce their own closure. However, just as the tribe was about to complete their final dance of the ceremony, a fleet of seven motor boats and three jet skies motored back and forth through the ceremony site at speeds greater than the 5 mph speed limit, flipped off tribal members, stared down young women holding infants and did doughnuts near the tribe’s sacred sites. Tribal member, Doug Scholfield had previous talked to the boaters about avoiding the ceremony area, so he, like the rest of the tribe, believed it was clearly an organized, pre-meditated act, he said. It was reported that about 10 Forest Service law enforcement officers and a leashed K-9 were quick to descend on the ceremony when they raised the banner, but were nowhere to be found when the boaters aggressively invaded their ceremony space. A volunteer crew aboard a Coast Guard auxiliary boat also instructed recreational boaters to ignore the closure and proceed through the ceremony, tribal members said. This was this sort of aggression the tribe has long sought to avoid as seen by the tribe’s picketed efforts at the local U.S. Forest Services office in Vallejo, California on April 16. Due to the lack of a response from that day, the tribe decided to hold it’s first War Dance since 2004 – that dance protested the proposal to raise the Shasta Dam, bringing the rising lake to flood the traditional Women’s Coming of Age ceremonial site. According to John Heil, Pacific Southwest Region Press Officer for the U.S. Forest Services, Regional Forester Randy Moore’s office is looking into possible solutions, but would not venture into detail of any of them, stating the tribe would be contacted once Moore made a decision.

Cry of the Native Refugee web site, http://cryofthenativerefugee.com, is dedicated to “The True Native American History.” “Our goals are to the let world know, the Native American people have not forgotten the pain and suffering of their ancestors. We welcome people to share their own real life stories as refugees from their homelands. Numerous men and women are filled with passion and a dream of restoring the peace and lost freedom of the Native American people. Cry of the Native Refugee is dedicated to such endeavors, and if you are interested in participating in assisting with any area legal assistance, information, donations, or other form of support, you are certainly welcomed.”

The Miahewal Wappo Indians of California, whose federal recognition was terminated in the termination era, are seeking to regain recognition and a reservation in their traditional territory along river Banks and in valleys of Napa and Sonoma County. County officials and local grape growers are opposing the tribal effort (Peter Fimrite, “Tribe fights to reclaim recognition, territory,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 18, 2012).

The Hawai’i People’s Fund is celebrating its 40^th year building the capacity for social change in the islands. For more information go to: www.hawaiipeoplesfund.org.

International Developments (Summer 2012)

2012-07-24T09:06:00+00:00

Canadian aboriginal groups, in February, were lobbying Chinese authorities, ahead of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit to Beijing, seeking to halt a project under discussion for a pipeline that would carry tar sands oil from the province of Alberta west to the British Columbian port of Kitimat. Tribal leaders sent an open letter to President Hu Jintao of China, a major investor in the project, warning that they could seek to block the deal if their views were ignored. Tribal leaders say they are aware that China has serious problems in its own minority areas. One reason for their activities, they say, is that they do not want Chinese companies to bring over their own workers — as they have in many other projects around the world and in China’s own minority regions — leaving little economic benefit for locals (Ian Johnson and Michael Wines, “As Canadians Talk Business, China’s Longtime Stance of Noninterference Is Tested,” The New York Times, February 10, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/11/world/americas/talks-with-canadians-test-chinas-policy-of-noninterference.html?ref=todayspaper).

Aviva Chomsky, “Demanding Free, Prior and Informed Consent Across Borders: Making Rights Real in Colombia,” CSQ Issue: 36-1 (Spring 2012) Sacred Places, Sacred Lifeways, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/demanding-free-prior-and-informed-consent-across-borders reported, “In the summer of 2011, another group of [Witness for Peace] (WfP) delegates to La Guajira [Columbia] were shocked and distressed to see an enormous regional push to expand mining operations, including the diversion of 26.5 miles of the Ranchería River, the main water source in the arid peninsula. Dozens of Indigenous, Afro-Colombian, and campesino communities stand in the path of these increased operations. Colombia is a signatory to ILO 169, so the mining companies have been carrying out their own consultations. According to community activists, ‘The company has been carrying out what it calls ‘consultation’ but this is really just informing the communities, showing them the pretty face of mining and never telling them about its negative consequences. These kind of consultations only gather together some of the community authorities. They do not take into account the rest of the community. If the cabildos [councils] do not accept or sign the document that the mining officials have prepared, they are subject to pressure, and even threats. The mining company then takes the document to the Ministry of the Interior, and presents it as a prior consultation with the communities.’ Several organizations that have worked in solidarity in both Guatemala and Colombia were angry to see the exploitation of the process of FPIC. Not being experts on the process ourselves, we spoke with our Guatemalan and Colombian allies and came up with the idea of organizing a workshop to bring two Guatemalans active in the Consejo de Pueblos de Oriente, which has been a driving force behind the community consultation process, to share their experiences with the Colombians who had thus far only seen these consultations as a company tactic. The workshop was held on November 18–20, 2011, in the Indigenous reserve of Provincial in La Guajira, with fundraising efforts organized by U.S. based organizations and thanks to a grant from the Social Justice Fund of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. The Guatemalans were impressed with the Colombians’ ability to bring people together— more than 100 delegates from 41 different Wayúu communities attended, as well as youth and children. “Initially the representatives who participated did not want to discuss consultations, because the mining company is carrying out a campaign to manipulate the consultation process in order to continue its expansion,” the Guatemalans reported. “We had to explain that community consultation is something different, it is a process completely in the hands of the communities, it is a democratic and legitimate process recognized by international actors.” The Guatemalan delegates emphasized two issues in the workshops that they led: the concept of defense of territory, and the need for communities to take ownership of the concept of FPIC and to arrange their own community consultations, rather than allowing the mining companies to “consult” them. Both of these resonated strongly with the Wayúu participants. A formal document signed by all of the attendees concluded: ‘During these three days, as pueblos and communities, we listened and analyzed from different positions the social, environmental, cultural, and economic impacts that the mine has had in our territories. We also recalled how we lived in our territories before the mine arrived, and we examined the rights and guarantees that we are due and the extent to which these have been violated or protected by the companies and by the state during all of these years.’ A three-day series of events centered on the defense of territory emerged from the meeting. Members of the Wayúu communities reported, “This mobilization was held in the municipality of Barrancas and was a big success. After marching, we held a press conference in the municipal government offices in Barrancas with the media of La Guajira attending. We also made presentations of our traditional foods as a strategy to defend the right to food sovereignty, emphasizing the need for arable lands. We held traditional dances in each community to strengthen our culture.’” “The workshop’s final declaration called upon the Colombian government to nullify the results of the manipulative “consultations” carried out thus far. Participants vowed to carry out a massive education process to lay the groundwork for true community consultations, and to refuse to participate in any more company-organized ‘consultations.’ The final declaration stated: ‘We have the right to give, or withhold, Free, Prior and Informed consent. This consent cannot be obtained under pressure from the companies. Representatives of these companies are contacting our Indigenous brothers and have arbitrarily entered our Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. They are dividing families, ignoring our customs, traditions, community authorities, and ways of life, and the autonomy of small-holders. They are They are holding meetings, signing agreements with individuals, ignoring the fact that the land belongs to all of the members of the communities, and that 100% of the members should participate. Thus we declare, based on ILO 169, ratified by Law 21 of 1991, the Colombian Constitution and national and international law, that the companies should not be promoting consultations nor going into our territories without our consent and the permission of our community assemblies which are the highest level of governance in our communities.’”

Colin Firth helped Survival International to launch a major new campaign to save the uncontacted Awá in Brazil, April 25, 2012, with the opening of a new Survival Film as part of a campaign to get Brazil's Minister of Justice: to send in the federal police to catch illegal loggers and settlers, and keep them out for good. To see the film and for more information go to: http://survival-international.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b14580b05b832fb959c4ee444&id=ef555c0aca&e=CqQTrZoCrQ, or contact Survival International USA, 2325 3rd Street, Suite 413, San Francisco, CA 94107 (415)503-1254, or Survival International, 6 Charterhouse Buildings, LONDON, UK, EC1M 7ET, T +44(0)20 7687 8700, www.survivalinternational.org.

Survival International, in February, was urging the UN to bring an end to human safaris in the lands of the Jarawa tribe in the Andaman Islands, by speaking out for a second time, five years after the UN first called on India to close the Andaman Trunk Road (ATR), that the Indian Supreme Court ordered the government to close in 2002. Survival’s actions follows a series of articles by a British newspaper putting the issue under international scrutiny, and bringing international and national pressure on Indian and Andaman officials. The open road into Jarawa territory threatens the tribal members with disease, which can be fatal, especially from the tourist safaris, that also have been causing tribal members to suffer demeaning actions by tour leaders (for more see International Developments, below) (“Survival urges UN to end Andamans scandal,” February 16, 2012, http://survival-international.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b14580b05b832fb959c4ee444&id=bc58a8ff64&e=CqQTrZoCrQ).

“Clampdown on sacred ritual as Vedanta mine appeal approaches,” Survival International, February, 24 2012, http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/8125, reports that local police attempted to repress a Dongria religious festival, in February, on their sacred mountain, in opposition to the UK company Vedanta Resources imminent attempt to have the decision reversed blocking its proposed massive mining project on the mountain, which would have made the Dongria homeland unlivable. Survival received reports of arrests and beatings, with police shutting down six Dongria meetings where food supplies were being organized for the festival, during the week preceding it. Giridhari Patra from the Niyamgiri Protection Committee said, “Intimidating and threatening the Dongria before one of their most important festivals is unforgivable. The mountain is the seat of their god and the basis of their identity. We will never give it up to Vedanta.” India’s highest court was to hear arguments, April 9,, 2012, of an appeal by the mining company of the court’s 2010 decision to block the open pit mining project. On April 9, 2012, Dongria Kondh and Niyamgiri supporters held their own ‘public hearing’ in Orissa state, where they restated their resolve not to allow mining on their sacred mountain, coinciding with the Supreme Court appeal in Delhi. However, the appeal was adjourned before it began, without India’s Supreme Court announcing a new date for the hearing (Indian tribe stands firm as Vedanta mine appeal adjourned,” Survival International, April 9, 2012, http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/8253).

Survival International began a new international campaign, in March 2012, against the racist depiction of tribal people on TV, beginning by targeting an Australian TV report which branded an Amazon tribe as child murderers; a ‘suicide cult’ from the ‘Stone Age’; and the ‘worst human rights violators in the world’. Survival’s ‘Freakshow TV’ campaign aims to challenge the depiction of tribal people on TV as primitive, backward savages. The broadcast on Australia's Channel 7 Sunday Night show featured ‘adventurer’ Paul Raffaele and reporter Tim Noonan visiting Brazil’s Suruwaha tribe. The Suruwaha have already been targeted by fundamentalist missionaries, who falsely say they regularly kill newborn babies. The missionaries have lobbied Brazil’s Congress to pass a law allowing Indian children to be removed from their families. The Indians allowed the Channel 7 team into their territory after Mr. Raffaele said he wanted to film a ‘positive report’. But their report has generated a firestorm of protests, with Survival International’s Director denouncing it as ‘one of the most biased, misleading and disgusting reports we’ve ever seen’. The report portrays the Suruwaha as a true suicide cult'; a 'Stone Age' people; and 'lost in time'. The tribe is said to 'encourage the murder of disabled children…in the most gruesome way possible'; take 'poor little innocent babes into the jungle to be eaten alive by wild beasts'; and to be responsible for 'one of the worst human rights violations in the world'. The report’s website is also openly fundraising for an evangelical organization associated with the anti-Indian campaign. Survival wrote to Channel 7 outlining the many errors and distortions in the report, but the Channel has rejected all the accusations. Australia’s broadcasting regulator ACMA has now opened a formal investigation. Survival reports that Raffaele, previously a writer for Smithsonian Magazine, has been in trouble before – for a very similar Channel 9 report in 2006, in which he claimed a Papuan boy was in danger of being eaten by his tribe, who Raffaele described as ‘Stone Age cannibals’. The broadcast was widely attacked by experts, with Mr. Raffaele reportedly admitting later that he had even misidentified the boy’s tribe. In addition, Survival has written to Yahoo! urging them to remove the report from their website, but had received no reply as of March 7. Survival International’s Director Stephen Corry said, March 7, 2012, ‘It’s freakshow TV at its very worst. The Indians are made out to be cruel and inhuman monsters, in the spirit of 19th century colonialist scorn for ‘primitive savages’. It’s clearly designed to have the same effect – to suggest that they don’t deserve any rights. The idea that such nonsense is supposed to help tribal children is breathtaking.’ Survival International has written a set of ethical guidelines to help filmmakers work responsibly with tribal peoples. It is also using its Stamp it Out campaign to challenge racist depictions, however unwitting, in the media (“Outrage at ‘Freakshow TV’ as reporter brands Amazon tribe child murderers,” Survival International, March 7, 2012, http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/8145).

Tribes from four continents, in May, were urging Britain to ratify ILO 169, the only legally binding international law designed to protect tribal peoples’ rights, in the first instance of a group of tribal representatives making such a direct appeal, in Survival’s view, reflecting the urgent need for the law’s global endorsement. Currently 22 nations have signed the Convention, that gives tribal peoples the right to own the land they live on, make decisions about projects that affect them, and ensures their freedom and equality. Ratifying the law was official policy of the Liberal Democrat party, part of the governing coalition (“Tribes urge UK to sign law to ‘guarantee’ their survival,“ Survival International, May 29, 2012, http://www.survivalinternational.org/news8359).

In Australia, January 25, 27, 2012, aboriginal protestors held a protest for Indigenous rights in the capital, including more than 200 of them marching on the Nation’s Parliament House and proceeded to burn the Australian flag. The day before the marchers surrounded a Canberra restaurant where Prime Minister Julia Gillard was dining, creating a situation where Gillard had to be led away by her bodyguards. Among aboriginal activists, the view on the protests have been split. Some leaders disagree with the protests, such as Mick Gooda, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner, and former ALP national president Warren Mundine, as some aborigine leaders felt the protests have jeopardized the efforts to reconcile indigenous Australians in the broader society. On the other side of the debate, and in support of the protests is Paul Coe, an activist leader who felt the concerns were nothing and said Australians should recognize the place of indigenous people in Australia (“Aboriginal Protesters Burn Flag at Australian Parliament,” Indian Country Today, January 28, 2012, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/01/28/aboriginal-protesters-burn-flag-at-australian-parliament-79956).

Advocate Frank Lamere Talks about Battles Shaping Indian Child Welfare

2012-07-24T09:03:00+00:00

Stephanie Woodard

Republished with permission from Indian Country Today Media Nework, February 14, 2012

The Sioux City Human Rights Commission honored LaMere in December.

The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) has been in the news lately. A National Public Radio (NPR) series exposed horrific child-welfare injustices in South Dakota, while two CNN stories—one on the return of an infant boy to the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and another on the return of a baby girl to her Cherokee father—criticized the law, and then-CNN anchor Campbell Brown added some scathing commentary. We went to Frank LaMere, member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska and executive director of the Four Directions Community Center, in Sioux City, Iowa, for a reading on how perceptions of ICWA are changing and what still needs to happen to ensure state social-services departments and courts nationwide understand and fulfill its requirements. LaMere is a longtime advocate for Indian child welfare who works on a daily basis with Native families.

Has recent coverage of ICWA adversely affected the attitude toward Indian child welfare?

LaMere: The exposure brought attention to the plight of our children, and I am glad of that. As a result of the NPR coverage, members of Congress were inspired to ask for an investigation of South Dakota. I wrote to the legislators involved and told them, “Don’t stop there.” South Dakota has problems, but so does the rest of the country. They should investigate every jurisdiction in every state. Here in Iowa, the social services department of Woodbury County [surrounding Sioux City] has made progress, but it’s just one of our 99 counties. Many in Iowa would still do an end run around ICWA.

What did you think of CNN’s take on ICWA?

CNN and Campbell Brown need a reality check! Brown, as a mother, said she could not imagine the hurt a white family felt when their Indian child was returned to his people. Why could she not also imagine the hurt thousands of Native families feel right now, knowing their children will cry themselves to sleep tonight because someone did an end run of ICWA and stole their children under the “color of law”? Over the generations, hundreds of thousands of Indian families have endured this pain. That’s the grim reality. We must engage and educate ICWA detractors, and we must remind them that the Indian Child Welfare Act is the law of the land—whether they like it or not. And we must applaud the tribes and parents in these recent cases for persevering and those in the courts for reuniting them with the children.

Why do even states that seem to comply with ICWA—or at least seem to try—still have relatively high numbers of Native children in foster care?

We in Iowa are trying to better understand those numbers. Native families were not identified as such in the past, and perhaps now that we’ve drawn attention to them and are identifying them as such, the numbers are rising for that reason. Additional data I want is tracking of individual social workers’ records of pulling our families apart—or keeping them together. Once we have these numbers, we need to ask what their agencies are going to do about it. This needs to happen everywhere, and it needs to happen now.

How does a Native parent fare in child-custody matters when facing a non-Native parent?

Generally, not well. Right now, I’m dealing with the worst case I’ve ever seen and the best example of how the system can fail our families. Two severely disabled Native children were taken from their white father, a founded—that is, proven—child-abuser. After a crisis, during which one child ended up in the hospital, the court gave the youngsters temporarily to their Native mother. Now the state of Iowa has decided to reunite the children with the father, and the mother fears for her children’s lives. This is about old attitudes that make it tough for our Native families to get justice and to convince courts that ICWA, a federal statute, must be heeded.

Can you give some examples of what Native parents face?

I sit in on many meetings to determine the fate of Native families—along with the judges, lawyers, social workers and others involved—and I observe that they do not apply objective standards. If one standard were applied to all, Native children would go home more often than not. Time after time in these meetings, the Native parent has solved the issue—typically alcohol or drugs—that caused the children to be taken away. The parent proudly announces, “I’ve been sober for 22 months,” or what have you. We all congratulate them on their new wellness, then when that conversation dies down, a social worker inevitably says, “Well, yes, but… ” and raises a new issue. He or she may bring up a long-resolved problem from 20 years before, or something new. At a recent meeting, a social worker announced she’d found dirty dishes in the sink during her last visit to the mother’s home, so the mother shouldn’t get her kids back. I became unglued. I stressed that the mother didn’t lose her children over dirty dishes, and they couldn’t be kept from her for this reason. I deal with this kind of thing every week.

Do states have a financial incentive to ignore ICWA?

It’s a conspiracy of silence. Everyone knows our children feed the child-welfare system. They have for a long time and will continue to do so, because the funding is set up that way [with more children generating greater funding]. But those who work for the system won’t speak up. Beyond that, many social workers and courts nationwide feel they know better than we do about what’s good for our children. It remains for Native people to speak up. We must keep blowing the whistle on the child-welfare system, to local, state and national lawmakers. Only then will we have a chance to keep our families intact.

Is this what Four Directions does?

We at Four Directions Community Center routinely make people in the child-welfare system uncomfortable. Nothing changes until someone feels uncomfortable. That includes us. It is hard to confront those who control the systems that control our lives, but we must. Our children and their futures are in jeopardy. We have a long way to go, but we will prevail.

Funding for this story was provided by the George Polk Program for Investigative Reporting.

Treasury Calls Congress to Action on Tribal Capital

2012-07-24T09:02:00+00:00

Dante Desiderio

Republished with author’s permission from Indian Country Today Media Network, February 21, 2012, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ict_sbc/treasury-calls-congress-to-action-on-tribal-capital

Congress all but guaranteed tribal finance to be a clear winner in the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act. Included in the Act were two provisions that held the promise of jumpstarting local tribal economies (or at the very least, providing relief) and leveling the public financing playing field that, for more than two decades, was clearly tilted heavily in the favor of any and every other local government or authority. Good intentions from Congress, however, ran squarely into harsh economic realities, past influences coming home to roost, and a steep learning curve that is trending in the right direction, but taking more time to work through.

The first provision in the Act was the substantial allocation of $2 billion in typically lower-cost tax-exempt bonding authority made available to tribal governments for economic development purposes. The intent was to spark economic development with open access to the same tax-exempt financing as state and local governments. Included in the authorized use of the allocation was the ability to refinance existing taxable debt. Economic development in this case meant everything except the direct financing of gaming facilities. The allocation was divided into two $1 billion pools and allocated over time.

According to the IRS, up to a stunning 95 percent or more of the initial allocation is still up for grabs and will be allocated this year under new guidelines for accessing the debt. New guidelines may be useful, but they don’t fully explain why tribes have been able to use only 5 percent in three years of what other governments call an essential financing tool. Why has such a small percentage been used to date? There is no one answer to the question and to make the allocation work, a number of factors need to be addressed.

An irony that can’t be overlooked is that the federal government finally leveled the playing field for tribes by opening up the bonding authority for tribes at the worst possible time. Granted, interest rates are historically low; however, the authority was granted during what turned out to be one of the deepest and longest economic downturns in our nation’s history. Adding to the irony is an extensive credit disaster that left banks and investment firms unwilling or unable to lend. Trying to secure debt in this environment is difficult enough; still, tribes had other difficulties to navigate.

The $1 billion pools of newly available capital were over-subscribed. The Department of Treasury responded by trying to accommodate all requests regardless of a tribe’s ability to secure credit or use the allocation any time soon. As a result, the most a tribe could utilize was about $30 million. This imposed cap added expense and legal obstacles for tribes needing more capital or wishing to finance multiple projects. This forced tribes to navigate different lenders or types of financing.

Finally, because of past actions by the IRS, the capital markets have largely stopped funding tribal economic development projects. The perceived risk and inconsistent private letter ruling on what constituted an essential government function made the market unattractive.

The good news from all of this is threefold. First, Treasury and IRS have been willing to fix some of the issues that have hindered access. New guidelines due out shortly should make it easier for tribes to access the capital and use it in a timely manner.

Second, the $2 billion in allocation does not expire, which means tribes will have access to the debt while the economy and credit markets heal.

Third, and probably most significant, is that the second provision in the Act offers the possibility of permanent relief beyond the $2 billion limited authorization for tax-exempt economic development bonds. The Department of Treasury has issued a report, as required in the Act, which strongly recommends that Congress get rid of the unfair essential government function test. This would be a noteworthy advance for tribes in itself, but Treasury has gone further in the report by challenging Congress to address the inability of tribes to access affordable capital and make the purchase of tribal bonds attractive enough to incent the tax-exempt debt market to come into Indian Country.

With the Department of Treasury challenging Congress to find solutions, it becomes incumbent upon us in the tribal community to make sure Congress gets it right. Getting it right means challenging Congress to use lessons learned by the tribes and agencies, ensuring existing barriers are removed in the law, and providing the right incentives to attract the public capital markets to tribal governments. After all, tribal governments rely on revenue from economic development more than most other governments.

Dante Desiderio currently serves as the Executive Director of the Native American Finance Officers Association (NAFOA), http://www.nafoa.org/. Established 30 years ago, NAFOA is a national non-profit organization providing leadership and resources needed for tribal leaders to direct economic growth and change. Prior to joining NAFOA, he served as the Director of Economic Policy for the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI). Dante is a member of the Sappony where he serves in an advisory capacity on issues related to community and economic development. He holds a Certified Financial Planner designation and a B.A. in political science and economics from the University of Maryland.

To End Racism, State [of Oregon] Should Mandate Teaching Oregon Tribal History

2012-07-24T09:01:00+00:00

Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde

Republished from Indian Country Today, June 12, 2012, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/06/12/to-end-racism-state-should-mandate-teaching-oregon-tribal-history-117989

The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, along with representatives from some of the other nine federally recognized Tribes in Oregon, does not support the recent Oregon Board of Education decision to ban Native mascots used by some high schools.

As a sovereign nation, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde has worked diligently to build positive government-to-government relationships across all levels of government. We have done so on federal, state and local levels, including with our local school districts.

We are proud of the strides that we have made over the years, and are equally proud of the state of Oregon and its efforts to build and maintain these relationships. They benefit citizens in communities throughout Oregon, and bring with them opportunities to increase awareness of Oregon’s unique and diverse sovereign Tribal governments.

We remain convinced that the native mascot issue is best resolved with efforts from Tribal governments working with their local communities. Grand Ronde has worked with our own local school districts to ensure they accurately and respectfully portraying native culture. We have been able to deal with these situations at the local level, with respect and sensitivity to our Tribal students, all students, our Tribal citizens and all citizens within our shared communities.

High school mascots are supposed to be inspirational. High schools do not adopt “losers” or “slugs” as their mascots; they adopt admirable and inspirational figures. The banned names—Indians, Braves and Chiefs—are inspirational Native images and we do not view their use as de facto derogatory.

The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, along with other Oregon Tribes, preferred a solution that would allow schools to keep their Native mascots if they collaborated with a representative Tribe on positive portrayals or integrated cultural studies to combat stereotypes.

That being said, we are more disturbed by the state Board of Education’s disregard for our sovereignty and their consistent foot-dragging regarding one of our constant requests—to end racism against Oregon’s Native people, mandate that schools in Oregon teach our history.

The Grand Ronde Tribe has a long-standing request in to the state Department of Education to fund an Indian Education Specialist, as well as mandate that all Oregon schools teach Oregon Tribal history.

There are nine federally recognized Tribes in Oregon. The history of our peoples who have lived in Oregon since time immemorial covers the breadth of the state, and is either ignored or briefly mentioned in our schools. Most Oregon students learn more about the Sioux and Apaches than they do about the Umpqua, Rogue River and Kalapuya.

As our Tribe’s vice chairman, Reyn Leno, often asks, “Why are our children going to school and teaching their teachers about our history?”

Rather than handing down an unfunded mandate on mascots, if the state Board of Education truly wants to take a giant step toward reduction or elimination of racism toward Oregon’s Native peoples, then put us in your history books—fund an Indian education specialist and mandate that schools teach the history of the peoples who have lived on this land since long before explorers, fur traders and settlers started arriving in the early 1800s.

The history of Oregon did not start with the arrival of Lewis & Clark. It was occurring for thousands of years before they set foot on our land, and many of those Indians, Braves and Chiefs are worthy of being honored as high school mascots.

Let’s work on something that truly makes a difference for the benefit of Tribes and all Oregonians. Let’s take a long and serious look at teaching all of Oregon’s students about the history and culture of Oregon’s nine unique sovereign governments.

If more Oregonians were educated about Tribal history, society and culture, it would do much more to solve the problems attributed to Indian mascots than simply outlawing the practice.

Rethinking Columbus: Book Banning in Tucson

2012-07-24T08:59:00+00:00

Suzan Shown Harjo

Reprinted with permission of the author from Indian Country Today Media Network, January 24, 2012, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ict_sbc/rethinking-columbus-book-banning-in-tucson

I learned about the banning of Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years from Dr. Debbie Reese (Nambe Pueblo), who blogs at American Indians in Children’s Literature. She wrote on January 15 that my interview in the book “is no longer available in Tucson high schools due to the shut down of Mexican [American] Studies courses. Rethinking Columbus was boxed up and taken out of the classroom.”

Co-editor Bill Bigelow posted on Rethinking Schools Blog that the publisher “learned today that for the first time in its more-than-20-year history, our book Rethinking Columbus was banned by a school district.… What’s to fear? Rethinking Columbus offers teaching strategies and readings that teachers can use to help students consider perspectives that are too often silenced in the traditional curriculum.”

But, wait! Could it be that the book wasn’t banned? That’s what Tucson Unified School District claimed in a January 17 release: “TUSD has not banned any books as has been widely and incorrectly reported.”

Whew! So, no books are banned? Not exactly, as TUSD explained: “Seven books that were used as supporting materials for curriculum in Mexican American Studies classes have been moved to the district storage facility because the classes have been suspended as per the ruling by Arizona Superintendent for Public Instruction John Huppenthal that the classes were in violation of state law ARS 15-112.”

That law prohibits a school district or charter school in Arizona from including courses or classes that: “(1) Promote overthrowing the U.S. government; (2) Promote resentment towards a race or class of people; (3) Are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic race; and (4) Advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”

Without proving that MAS did any of those four things, Huppenthal ordered TUSD to bring MAS into compliance, warning, “Failure to do so shall result in the withholding of 10 percent (or $14 million) of state funds.” An administrative law judge upheld his ruling on December 27, 2011, and TUSD jettisoned MAS and books.

TUSD says these seven books are “boxed and stored”: Critical Race Theory, 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures, Message to AZTLAN, Chicano!, The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement, Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Rethinking Columbus.

Dozens of other books listed in an audit are widely assumed to be banned. Not so, says TUSD: “Teachers may continue to use materials in their classrooms as appropriate for the course curriculum. The Tempest and other books approved for curriculum are still viable options for instructors.” The problem is that pesky word “approved.” Huppenthal found that the approving authority, TUSD’s board, hasn’t approved books: “No evidence was found to support [that the board] has reviewed any of the texts or supplemental materials used in many of the [MAS] courses.”

Huppenthal maintains that The Tempest (yes, as in Shakespeare’s) may be used, but teachers and materials can’t say that the “discovered” and enslaved Natives on the bard’s island are oppressed or that the foreign slavers are oppressors. Huppenthal is sensitive about words related to oppressor, which he oddly claims comes from The Communist Manifesto (oppressor is Middle English, deriving from Old French and Latin; in Karl Marx’s German, it’s unterdrucker).

Because words are important, let’s just call all the stored books banned, until they’re back in the classroom and the teachers are free to use them again.

The banned book I know most about is Rethinking Columbus. First published in 1991, much of its content had been developed or shaped by The 1992 Alliance, which began in 1990 to promote Native voices for 1992, the Year of Indigenous Peoples and the Columbus Quincentenary. I was national coordinator of the Alliance and the historic gathering at Taos Pueblo, Our Visions: The Next 500 Years.

The introduction to the 1998 banned version of Rethinking Columbus begins with my quote: “We have no reason to celebrate an invasion that caused the demise of so many of our people and is still causing destruction today.” Part of my interview in the book came from my 1991 column in Newsweek, “I Won’t Be Celebrating Columbus Day”—I don’t know if that’s now banned in Arizona.

I am honored to stand with the MAS teachers, students and writers. If Rethinking Columbus were not banned, I would have wanted to do what playwright/poet Bertolt Brecht’s banished writer did in “The burning of the books,” upon learning his books were not on the bonfire: “Burn me! he wrote with a flying pen, burn me! Haven’t my books Always reported the truth? And here you are Treating me like a liar! I command you Burn me!”

Suzan Shown Harjo, Cheyenne/Hodulgee Muscogee, is an award-winning columnist, poet, writer, curator and policy advocate, who has helped Native peoples to protect sacred places and recover more than 1 million acres of land. President of the Morning Star Institute in Washington, D.C., she is a founding trustee of the National Museum of the American Indian, former executive director of the National Congress of American Indians and past news director of the American Indian Press Association.

Shaking Up The World Bank

2012-07-24T08:58:00+00:00

Gregg Gonsalves, April 14, 2012
Republished from Foreign Policy in Focus.

Lant Pritchett—a professor of the practice of international development at the Harvard Kennedy School—has been leading a campaign against the election of Jim Kim to the World Bank presidency. Although he isn’t the only critic of Kim’s nomination, he is among the most vocal and prominent. Many of his criticisms have been amplified and echoed by other leading development economists like William Easterly at New York University and several people associated with the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC.

Over the past few weeks, Pritchett has questioned Kim’s qualifications, saying a lack of training in economics and experience in world finance should disqualify him from consideration for the post. He has further suggested that the nomination is about the arrogance of U.S. power and hegemony over the institution and that he should step aside for a merit-based election in which the Nigerian candidate for the post, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a World Bank, Harvard and MIT alum and finance minister of Nigeria would sweep to victory.

A few days ago, Pritchett wrote an article in The New Republic (TNR), which finally comes clean about the real reasons for the escalating campaign of opposition to Jim Kim. The piece for TNR is called “Why Obama’s World Bank Pick Is Proving So Controversial.” The title again is an overreach: it should really read “Why Obama's World Bank Pick Is Proving So Controversial to Me and My Friends.” Jim Kim has extensive support around the world for his candidacy, but Pritchett’s objections to Kim all really boil down to an understanding of "development."

Two Kinds of Development

Pritchett in the TNR posits two kinds of development: national development and humane development. National development "would involve the natural replication of the four-fold historical transformation of the developed nation-states: Economies would become more productive and hence support broad-based prosperity, polities would become more fully responsive to their citizens, administration would become more capable, and societies would become more equal as birth-based distinctions (such as class and caste) and divisive identities (of kith and clan) faded in favor of modern social relationships. Note that each of these was something that would happen not just to individuals but to a country."

Pritchett goes on to define humane development as a kind of philanthropy, where people step into the breach when national development has failed, when “these idealists and the organizations they run have helped to mitigate famines, pandemics, poverty, violence, and lawlessness in some of the poorest areas in the world.” Jim Kim is a humane development type in Pritchett's eyes, not fit to run the Bank, which should focus on national development alone, an approach that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a card-carrying economist would bring to Washington, DC.

A leader in the field of modern national development, Pritchett is deeply myopic. First, although economic growth has lifted many people out of poverty over the past century, inequity is pervasive, leading to the creation of a new transnational economic elite or rich people without borders. Class-based distinctions are rapidly replacing the birth-based distinctions and divisive identities that Pritchett rightly decries. A focus on growth in the aggregate often overlooks the little people.

Second, political responsiveness and accountability as well as better governance and administration have been integral to work on health and other issues that are not directly about economic growth. Achieving the aims of national development can come through work on things other than economics and democratization in the abstract.

The fight against AIDS has been transformative in this regard. As the South African journalist Jonny Steinberg has said in his book Three Letter Plague: “The idea of demanding that a drug be put on a shelf, or that a doctor arrive at his appointed time, is without precedent. The social movement to which AIDS medicine has given birth is utterly novel in this part of the world, the relationship between its members and state institutions previously unheard of.” Pritchett has vociferously complained about the provision of Anti-Retroviral Therapy in the developing world as a prime example of palliative humane development and misguided philanthropy. But in fact, this approach to AIDS treatment and prevention has all been about key aspects of national development, about "polity, administration, and society," as Pritchett himself terms it.

For Pritchett and his peers, Jim Kim is a crazed, leftist charity worker who pushed pills on Africa--this is why they dislike him so. They refuse, again and again, to see what Kim did, what we all did, as critical to their own self-professed goals around democratization. The push for AIDS treatment was not charity or mitigation. It has been about what governments should do for their citizens; it has been about redefining citizenship and state responsibility.

Redefining the State

Over the past several decades those working at the highest levels of economic and social policy around the world have sought to redefine state responsibilities downward. The historian Tony Judt described this well in his book Ill Fares the Land. The post-World War Two social contract enshrined a system of social protections around the world, in Europe, Canada, and Australia and even in the United States, which offered a safety net for the poor and the sick as a core responsibility of the state.

This social contract has increasingly been under attack. From Clinton's "welfare reform" in the 1990s to the current, slow dismantling of the national health service in the UK by David Cameron and Nick Clegg, states are getting out of the business of helping the poor and the sick. These political choices derive from larger intellectual frameworks constructed largely by economists who do not consider things like healthcare to be a "public good” and believe that states should only invest in broad based benefits, key among them economic growth and defense.

Lant Pritchett and a generation of development economists like him, all heirs to the economist Thomas Malthus, promote growth and democratization, even if it creates a new caste system based on inequities in wealth within countries or a new-class of have-nots, as in have-not healthcare or have-not education. ''AIDS is a catastrophe,'' Pritchett told The New York Times several years ago. ''And it's not fair, if treatments exist, not to give them to all these people who are dying. But it's also not fair that more than a third of children in Africa are malnourished. It's not fair that maybe 140 babies in every 1,000 will die before the age of 1, and more than a third will never learn to read. All of it is unfair. Unfairness is not the test for action.'' For Pritchett, the test for action is about economic growth. AIDS drugs or better schools will come along like manna from heaven only as a result of growth and democratization.

Jim Kim’s work in AIDS, tuberculosis, and the like has been about transforming the world for the better. It has not been out of some charitable impulse but derives instead from a vision about what the world should look like, about what governments should and should not do for their people, about the delivery of public services, and about our role as active citizens.

Challenging Economics

Economists have gotten a bad rap lately. So many have been so spectacularly wrong about the origins of the current worldwide economic crisis and its aftermath. Some of this in the end is about the status of economics as a science, about protecting a discipline that is deeply political but strives to cloak itself with objectivity. Jim Kim, trained in the biomedical sciences to rely on hard endpoints, is a threat in a more fundamental sense. He doesn't take the laws of economics as equivalent to the law of gravity or the germ theory of disease.

To be fair, some economists are raising serious questions about the rigor of their assumptions, an over-reliance on models, and the need for a far better quality of evidence, far beyond the sub-specialty of global development. Jim Kim would bring such fresh voices and thinking to the Bank. Trained as an anthropologist as well, Kim knows there a variety of tools with which to see the world as long as you know their limitations. Pritchett and his colleagues don't have this humility.

In the end, Jim Kim represents a national development perspective, but a critical one. For Pritchett, national development is about economy, polity, administration, and society. Kim’s work has certainly centered around the last three of these, and he will bring a critical eye to the first. I am sure Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is brilliant. I am not quite sure that she represents much more than a reinforcing of traditional ideas about development or offers a sufficient critique of the system. She is the establishment’s choice, even if she hails from Africa. As others have said, including economists like John Bates Clark medal winner Daron Acemoglu from MIT, the opposition to Kim all seems like a strange defense of business as usual from people who have been critics of the Bank in the past.

Don’t Let The Jarawa Become Another Onge

2012-07-24T08:56:00+00:00

Stefan Kirschner, oritk2@yahoo.com

As the recent controversy over “human safaris” in the Andaman Islands has come to light we need to analyze exactly the situation and not be deterred by sensationalist claims from various groups and individuals. The Great Trunk Road currently cuts through Jarawa territory and groups have called for it to be shut down completely. Safaris have taken place where tourists pay guides to take them on the road and see the Jarawa who will line up alongside in order to get food and trinkets. Tourists have made them dance in order to get food and otherwise behaved towards them in a condescending manner.

A little background: the Andamanese consist of 4 groups: The Great Andamanese, which is the general name given to the ten northern tribes of the islands, who numbered about 5,000 when the British arrived. They have been reduced to 41 individuals mostly due to diseases such as pneumonia, measles and influenza to which they had no immunity. Other members of the tribes intermarried and assimilated into the general Indian culture. Regrettably, in 2010, Bo Sr, the last member of the Aka-Bo tribe died, bringing that group to an end. (Additionally a separate group called the Jangil seems to have gone extinct by 1907.) The second main group is the Onge who inhabit the southernmost island of Little Andaman and number about 100 members. Since their resettlement by the Indian government into permanent Indian dwellings in small parts of their island in the 1970’s, their prognosis looks bleak. The Jarawa are the third group. They have not been settled by the government and live in the jungles on the west side of South Andaman. They have been very independent until lately. They number about 250-300. The last group is the Sentinelese who live on North Sentinel Island and number about 50. They are one of the most isolated people on earth and are hostile to anyone who approaches the island. The North Sentinelese are in a different situation due to them being on a remote island that the Indian government has decided to deal with in a “hands off” approach. The Sentinelese, in the meantime, have resisted all approaches by the outside world. Government workers had approached their island in boats and were often targeted with arrows by the Sentinelese. In the 1990’s, however, they had accepted gifts of coconuts from the government workers. In 1998 the government of India declared there would be no more visits by anybody to the Sentinelese for fear of them catching diseases and so they could be left alone. In December 2004 the tsunami hit this area of the Indian Ocean and it was feared the Sentinelese had perished as had thousands of other non-native Andaman Islanders. A helicopter was sent to the island to check and while it was still in the air it came under fire by arrows and stones. It seems like they received their answer.

So why are the Jarawa coming out of the forest at this point? The Jarawa only started to appear from the forest in 1998 and since then there have been incidents of encroachment on farmer land and property. “The Jarawa, without any warning or negotiations, came out of their jungle hideouts and wandered - stark naked as is their wont - through Indian villages (where nudity is an absolute taboo). Wherever they went, the Jarawa (mostly young men) helped themselves to everything that took their fancy. They had no concept of money and were used to getting free "friendship gifts" from the authorities.”

In 1998 a Jarawa boy broke his leg in a skirmish and for the first time a Jarawa was treated in an Indian hospital. Indians came from all around to see him because most had never actually seen one before. When he healed, he was released into the forest with many gifts. What then happened was a drastic change in Jarawa-Indian relations. He came back with friends demanding more gifts. This event was to begin a process that had more and more Jarawa coming out of the jungle to encounter outsiders face to face. Each time they returned to the jungle with new items made out of glass, plastic, and other unfamiliar materials. They also became sick. 10% of the Jarawa population perished from a measles epidemic in 1999. The biggest issue right now for the Jarawa is the Andaman Trunk Road. It is a road built in the 1980’s which is used for bus transport and logging and which cuts right through the forest of the Jarawa reserve. Jarawa regularly come on the road and beg for food from every vehicle. In May 2002 the Indian government ordered the closure of the road, the removal of the settlers there, and a ban on logging. As of now this has not been carried out and the situation continues as before.

The goal of groups like Survival International is to keep the Jarawa isolated and in so called “pristine condition”. They claim that settling them will kill them. They also claim that the indigenous group itself has to decide what it wants to do and no outsider has the right to dictate to them what to do. But as Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar says “But how can they make an informed choice without knowing what the alternatives are? Just explaining the alternatives properly will entail considerable contact between them and the mainstream.” Have Survival International spoken with Jarawa leaders? Have Jarawa leaders told them they want the road closed with no more interaction from outsiders?

Does Survival even speak Jarawa?

It seems however, that there is an inevitable, inexorable process that is underway with the Jarawa and the Sentinelese, the last remaining groups that have until now avoided civilization. The Jarawa are not isolated on an island like the Sentinelese and therefore have a different set of problems but the process of meeting outsiders has been initiated by the Jarawa themselves. From their actions we see that they are willing to come into contact with civilization. This modernization process however, must be done in a smart and very careful way so that the Jarawa will neither end up like the Onge or the Great Andamanese. This could include possible eco-tourism, employment of the Jarawa which could take into account their lifestyles, etc. As Aiyar says “Giving Jarawas education, healthcare and other facilities will not mean depriving them of their culture or traditions. India has many ethnic groups thriving with their different cultures even as they join the mainstream. Tribal identity can definitely co-exist with national identity.”

As for transference of disease and the lack of immunity of the Jarawa, they are such a small community that immunizing them should not be a problem. Massive changes for any people in such a small amount of time will definitely be difficult but with hindsight and by learning from mistakes with other peoples, there should be one last chance to help the Jarawa before it is too late. Those that wish to remain in the reserve should be given the right to do so and if they then want the road closed so be it. The will of the Jarawa themselves must be gauged and not just outside NGOs or the government. In the end the Jarawa themselves must be able to articulate what their wishes are.

Read Survival International's Response here.